What's The Point Of That Tiny Front Pocket On Your Jeans?

You know that tiny little pocket on the front of your jeans that you may or may not stock with Tic Tacs? Yeah, turns out that little patch of denim was originally a place to store your watch.

According to a thread in an online forum where the pocket's purpose is being debated, back in the 1800s, cowboys wore their watches on chains and stuck them in those little pant pouches.

Denim maker Levi Strauss confirmed it in a blog post. It said the first-ever pair of blue jeans were made with four pockets including the tiny one for a watch.

OK, so most of us probably don't put a tiny watch in there, but that doesn't mean we don't use it. Levi admits the extra pouch has taken on a variety of functions including the "frontier pocket, condom pocket, coin pocket, match pocket and ticket pocket."

But if you need to store something a little bigger than a ticket, you could always stick to that regular pocket.

This video includes images from Getty Images and liz west / CC BY 2.0, halfrain / CC BY SA 2.0 and JD Hancock / CC BY 2.0.