3-Watch Thursday #31
No W&W here...actually maybe a little
Morning morning morning team,
Hope everyone is having a good one and isn’t fully ‘watched out’ given the slew of releases that have hit your feed.
No comments will be made on the actual releases, given I’m yet to see anything in person (if anyone wants to sponsor me to go next year though my DMs are most definitely open lol), but a number of excellent memes have been made in honour of the event.
It started on Friday in my email inbox at 10:10 GMT when Chris Hall wrote a tongue-in-cheek segment on the tropes of being watch press at an event like W&W. To an extent it made me have second thoughts about my wishes to attend.
Then I remembered the perspective on all of this and breathing pure filtered Swiss air for 16 hours a day is an entirely first-world problem.
Next, there was the Influencers Guide to W&W which can be found here.
‘It’s not who you know, it’s who you imply you know #watchesandwonders2023’
In case you can’t tell I like a good watch meme.
Other sources of excellent watch memes can be found over @brodinkee @watch.memes and @hodinkeedinkee all on Instagram.
Megan Young: ‘People ask why watch servicing is so expensive’
Apologies for recommending a paywall article, but I spotted this over on The Watch Atelier’s Instagram story telling the story of how Young took over the Xupes watch servicing side when the sale side was sold to Chrono24.
I knew something had happened, but didn’t know what exactly. This was a short article detailing the operation and I wish them all the best.
You can read the FT article here.
NOBSWATCHMAKER Watch Restoration
One thing that’s never really taken off in my opinion is watch TikTok.
Maybe until recently.
You’ve probably seen the negotiations in the Manhattan diamond district that seem absurd and the seemingly impossible watch restorations with watches covered in obscene amounts of rust.
I’d say it’s pretty well known that the negotiations are staged to the max. Heck just watch one then go negotiate with a dealer. Never going to happen like that.
But that’s because it’s a win-win for the creator and the dealer. If people are entertained they’re more likely to engage more with the creator and buy watches.
This same logic doesn’t really hold for watch restoration videos.
NOBSWATCHMAKER on Instagram has taken it upon themselves to call them out for being fake though. The video is here and I just wanted to share because I found it interesting.
This isn’t to take away from those restorers doing good, such as Wristwatch Revival on YouTube, by introducing people to how watches work in a clear and simple way as they work on restoring timepieces.
That’s all.
Macron’s Watch
I’m genuinely baffled as to how this story wasn’t picked up by more of the watch media I engage with.
This was the talk of the town last weekend. I even overheard people talking about it on the train. Heck, my mum asked me about it before I’d even knew anything!
Maybe it was an acutely European kind of story not picked up by most major watch publications as they’re based outside Europe. That’s beside the point though.
To get you up to speed, French President Macron was spotted in a meeting taking his watch off of his wrist during a meeting. This was misidentified by much of the mainstream news media as an expensive luxury watch worth $20k+.
It was then correctly identified as the Bell & Ross above.
I’m not about to get into politics but on an objective level looking at the watches of world leaders, this is in the middle and on the lower end of luxury watches.
I quite liked this image from @secondeseconde with the Hide & Seek for the Bell and Ross logo and the macron_watch_gate.
I’m just surprised this saga didn’t cause more of a stir in the watch industry.
That’s all for this week.
Hope you enjoyed and any thoughts feel free to share them below.
See you next week.
Owen