Lion tamer, Professor of Superior Arithmetic, Alaskan crab fisherman… Fact be informed there are lots of jobs that I’d be actually, actually dangerous at. However one other career the place I’d additionally fail abysmally can be working as a purchaser for a multi-brand watch retailer.
The explanation I’m conscious of this extra shortcoming is because of my expertise as a journalist at watch festivals. Whether or not it was at Baselworld or Watches & Wonders, through the course of any given day at a good, I’d go to so many appointments and see so many watches that, after some time, they’d all develop into a hazy blur. If I used to be instantly requested if I’ve seen something notable that day, the identical factor invariably occurred. My thoughts would go fully clean and the one watches I might keep in mind had been the actually bizarre ones – loopy colors, oddball designs and different examples of horological insanity.
I point out this as a result of the organisers of Watches & Watches have simply been understandably crowing in regards to the success of the current occasion and extra particularly, the honest’s social media attain. Apparently, they declare, 1.8 million posts talked about #watchesandwonders, leading to an estimated attain of greater than 600 million individuals.
Now when you occur to be a watch nerd who additionally takes the odd look at Instagram, this information gained’t have come as an ideal shock. Throughout W&W, your Insta feed would have been deluged by an avalanche of watches with extra arms and faces than there are in the entire of mainland China. However right here’s the factor: I believe that in the course of any given day, when you had been requested to decide on one memorable launch, you’d have been similar to me at a watch honest. Till you’d sat down and methodically reviewed the choices, your thoughts would begin dithering and also you’d mutter one thing in regards to the Oris ProPilot x Kermit Version or one thing equally wacky.
Understandably, manufacturers care about Instagram. It’s the best approach to attain a great deal of individuals for minimal outlay. How then do they reduce by means of the muddle with the intention to stand out on social media? By releasing a batshit-crazy watch.
Take the Rolex Day-Date 36 that mixes a jigsaw of enamel dial colors with mad sapphire indices and a date wheel that ditches the numerals for 31 emojis. Days of the week? Boring! As a substitute they’re changed by a bunch of “positive-vibe” phrases: Love, Peace, Gratitude and Eternity. This isn’t a watch that actually sits with Rolex’s common picture is it? The Crown, in spite of everything, is famend for making gradual incremental modifications to their time-honoured classics in a sober and methodical method. Whereas this is sort of a very complicated acid journey the place you possibly can’t keep in mind what’s develop into of your trousers.
Why did Rolex determine to go louder, bolder and extra demented? To win the Instagram eyeballs and dominate the social media dialog. Since you’re actually not going to get that response with one other Cellini.
I believe that the rise and rise of colored dials is essentially pushed by social media, too. Again in my days as {a magazine} editor, when confronted with a bunch of watches for a photoshoot, you’d all the time lean in direction of the brighter hues to enliven the pages. For those who ran six or seven white-dialled costume watches, it will make for a much less attention-grabbing unfold. Everybody knew that was how issues labored, too. “That piece can be nice for editorial,” some publicist would say whereas passing you a watch with a dial so loud that it’d provide you with tinnitus. However you’d most likely stick it within the magazine. And the identical precept holds doubly true for social media.
I’m not saying any of that is essentially a nasty factor. Certainly, it’s most likely impressed a welcome burst of refreshingly unhinged creativity. But it surely’s additionally price being conscious of those ulterior motives earlier than you make an impulse purchase. Don’t neglect, there was an excellent purpose why Miss Piggy finally gave Kermit the elbow.
