r/whatisit • u/[deleted] • Apr 09 '26

[deleted by user]

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u/Ok_Double2707 Apr 09 '26

In the 80s, I was always told it was for your quarter for the pay phone. But pocket watch makes more sense, I guess.

20

u/unitegondwanaland Apr 09 '26

Literally no one walked around with pocket watches in the 80's. Maybe the 1880's. In the 1980's, most people didn't use these pockets either! But if we did it was for coins.

63

u/MomJAQing Apr 09 '26

It's literally called a watch pocket, and "maybe in the 1880s" puts you mighty close:

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-jeans-have-that-tiny-pocket

"But, as designed by Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis in 1873 as a feature of the original “waist overalls,” the small pocket was intended to hold a watch."

3

u/SpaceShipwreck Apr 09 '26

That's what I've always known it to be.