The Fifth Pocket On Your Jeans
Written by Sneh Chaudhry on May 12, 2022
You may have noticed that a lot of denim jeans come with a tiny extra pocket on the side known as the fifth pocket.
While millions of people have found thousands of different uses for it, from storing folded up cash to tucking away a stick of lip balm, this small pocket was actually designed with a very specific item in mind; the pocket watch.
Jeans were the pants of choice for gold miners in California in the mid-1800s, and one of the most important items they kept on them was their pocket watch, which was generally delicate and spendy.
The fifth pocket was designed to protect their expensive pocket watches by keeping them snugly and safely tucked into place.