3-Watch Thursday #10
Double-digits!!!
Hello team!
Welcome to 3-Watch Thursday #10.
We’ve made it to double digits and are still going strong.
I’d like to thank everyone who has so far subbed to this weekly newsletter and encourage you to continue to share it if you like the content.
Unfortunately not tooooo much to share this week, so it’ll be a short one.
That said, thanks once again and let’s dive straight in!
IWC Roadshow
Last weekend while in London I visited the IWC Roadshow in Covent Garden with @edinburghtimepieces
Aside from it being Covent Garden on a Saturday (RIP), it was a really great experience and a chance to see this year’s novelties.
For those unaware, IWC have a Big Pilot Roadshow where they pop up in shipping containers for a few days and display their watches. No booking is required and you’re able to have a coffee and chat with the team.
Personally, I think it’s a great idea and I really enjoyed it. If you’re interested in other IWC marketing adventures, CEO Chris Grainger-Herr is on Instagram and is always sharing what they’re up to.
Admittedly, following Chris keeps me interested in IWC as he is constantly sharing new and cool things that the company is up to all over the world.
Here are some pictures from the roadshow below:
Disciplines That Influenced Watchmaking
Another banger from ACM that I found this week.
A longer read on the things that have happened in the world and their influence on horological and watch design.
The section that particularly piqued my interest was the materials towards the end (as a materials science student this was probably expected).
It seems I am blissfully unaware of the origins of exotic materials in watchmaking, but this story clears some of that up.
I’d also like to take the chance to praise the writers at ACM for their dedication to properly researching before writing their pieces. A number of alloys and materials properties are mentioned in the story and referred to in the correct manner.
I sometimes get a bit frustrated reading articles where if the writer had researched the field properly before writing about it they would know the correct nomenclature and grammar surrounding the subject.
Rant over.
It’s a great article and you should go read it.
Hodinkee 10/10 Day, Thingy, Whatever It Was
You probably saw the Hodinkee 10/10 earlier this week on Monday.
Conceptually an excellent idea, like Prime Day but for watches, I applaud this and hope to see it back next year.
No doubt it drew customers to the site who bought watches.
There is a small caveat with respect to the one modern Rolex dropped every hour for ten hours at RRP. Thousands of people must’ve been watching so no doubt it sold very quickly.
I wasn’t bothered by this.
It was the statement about anti-botting that was advertised.
It read:
“We'll have protection against bots, so the sale really will go to whoever has the fastest fingers.“
Did anyone really believe that?
In the times that I was online and the counter clicked zero, not once did I hit refresh and see the watch on sale for that hour. Sold in a second or so.
I’m curious as to what anti-bot protection was used in all honesty.
So curious, that I’ve now started to research how to make my own sneaker bot.
To be clear I have no real interest in sneakers or scalping, it’s just a really cool exercise in learning more about software engineering projects and maybe I’ll get something that works.
Who knows?
Thanks for reading this week!
I’ve gotten to the end and realised it’s a bit ranty so apologies.
Hopefully, next week will be very cheery and back to normal.
Have a good weekend soon!
Owen