A Spouse Determined Her Husband’s Rolex Was Extra Interesting
For greater than 20 years, Yeana Ahn, a co-founder of a life-style publicity firm in New York Metropolis, has worn the identical watch each day: a 36-millimeter Rolex Datejust in stainless-steel and 14-karat gold with an Oyster bracelet.
Strictly talking, nevertheless, it isn’t her watch. It belongs to her husband, James Ahn, who acquired it as an engagement present from her dad and mom a couple of 12 months earlier than their wedding ceremony in 2000.
Ms. Ahn, 50, admitted that she “commandeered his watch.”
“I don’t suppose I actually requested permission,” she mentioned. “I simply form of took it” — regardless that she had acquired her personal horological engagement current: a 30-millimeter model of the identical Rolex from his dad and mom.
“At first I liked the women’ watch,” she mentioned. “It appeared simply my fashion, however then progressively, the extra I noticed my husband’s watch, I noticed rapidly that that one is for me.”
The gadgets have been a twist on the Korean custom of items positioned in a particular field referred to as a hahm, from a groom to his bride. The follow symbolizes the person’s readiness to tackle the accountability of marriage, in accordance with Emma Whitmyer, a program officer who specializes within the Korean Peninsula on the Asia Society Coverage Institute, a nonprofit group in New York Metropolis.
However the ceremony has developed in each South Korea and the Korean immigrant communities in america.
“Within the final 30 or so years, the custom of gifting a watch has develop into extra well-liked from the bride household to the groom,” Ms. Whitmyer mentioned. “Nonetheless, over time, that’s modified to incorporate items from either side — so the in-laws of each households — they usually’re normally given earlier than the marriage.”
Each of the Ahns’ watches have been bought at a jewellery retailer only a brief drive from the Cleveland suburb the place Ms. Ahn’s dad and mom lived on the time. The engaged couple wished the three-link Oyster bracelets moderately than the five-link Jubilee bracelets proven on the shop’s show fashions, so it was a particular order that took about 9 months to reach. However as a result of their engagement lasted two years — partially to permit Mr. Ahn, who was in regulation faculty on the time, to concentrate on his research — the watches have been delivered nicely earlier than their June 2000 wedding ceremony.
On the rehearsal dinner, there was a picket hahm, with inside compartments that held items for the bride similar to pearl jewellery and a crocodile purse. However by that time, the groom’s giant Rolex was already a mainstay on her wrist.
Mr. Ahn, for his half, mentioned he had not minded dropping custody of the timepiece: “I’m more than pleased to see her glad carrying the watch and it getting good use.”
On his wrist on the time was the watch he typically wears: a Casio G-Shock. “I’m much more snug carrying it,” he mentioned, including that “it’s simply very, very about perform and far, a lot much less about kind. It’s like ‘Does it inform the time? There you go,’ and it gained’t break and it’ll final for years.”
The smaller Rolex is saved in a winder field on high of a dresser within the couple’s house, which they share with their two teenage youngsters. “It’s a part of the furnishings there,” Ms. Ahn mentioned.
However, as her husband famous: “Fashions change and issues are cyclical, so who is aware of? Sometime the smaller watch would possibly come again into vogue and we’ll have it proper there, wound up and able to go.”
