FRIDAY WIND DOWN: 16th March, 2017
Felix Scholz
Schedules are printed. Bags are packed. Passports located. We. Are. Ready. For. Baselworld. Next time we Wind Down, it’ll be over a frosty Feldschlössen (our Basel beer of choice) and there’ll be pretzel crumbs all over the place.
What happened
Horological marketing departments are a fairly conservative bunch on the whole, because luxury watches are, apparently, a serious business. It seems that Corum are the exception that proves the rule. This video for their 2017 collection is, hands down the best watch ad we’ve seen in a long time. Corum marketing team, we salute you, completely laughable (watch the video) Bubble Earth/Sun/Eye watch, we kind of want you.
Last Friday we posted a picture of a Seiko on FB and asked, innocently enough, if there was any love out there for Seiko dive watches? Eighty-one comments, 1200-odd likes and god only knows how many shared photos later, we’re pretty sure that there is. Aside from that usual roster of Turtles and SKX models, we were particularly impressed to see half a dozen or so Blue Lagoons. Clearly the hot Seiko this season.
What really mattered
Well, TAG Heuer made a convincing argument for the future of the Swiss smart watch, in the shape of the Connected Modular 45. Given that you’re reading this here, chances are your views on the device lean more towards the horological rather than the technological. So to get a fully rounded perspective we thought we’d see what the major tech news sites thought of it. Broadly speaking most of them are impressed by the modular concept, but still a little leery on the cost. Here’s a few of the best:
Wired pulls no punches, particularly in regards to the pricing, but they recognise the importance of TAG Heuer pushing to evolve the sector:
“it’s… encouraging to see watchmakers thinking about how to evolve the notion of time. The first job of a smartwatch is to tell you the time; the second should be telling you what to do about it.”
CNET likes the looks of the Connected Modular 45, and (rightly) notes that if you’re in the market for one of these, functionality isn’t your main concern.
Ars Technica is impressed by the modularity, and the fact TAG Heuer has made a real attempt to combat obsolescence. On the technical front they go so far as to say the “guts of the Modular 45 aren’t bad at all”, and that they’re impressed that TAG and Intel are working together on a time management experience.
Finally, our intercontinental intern, Elise, prepared a document for us. You see, when she’s not getting too much Australian sun, Elise lives in Basel. She was shocked (and appalled) to learn that even though we’ve been to her home town many times, we’ve barely ventured beyond the Messe Platz. Enter Elise’s guide to Basel, an exhaustive (and somewhat stern) document full of instructions on what do (Rathaus and Tinguely Museum) and fun facts (Basel is home to the tallest building in Switzerland). She even included an extensive guide on where to eat (who knew Basel had a Japanese restaurant?). If anyone reading this is heading to Baselworld and needs an insider’s guide, let us know and we’ll send it your way.
The week in numbers
2: Smart watches released this week
2000: (Roughly) regular watches that will be released next week
1: Members of Team T+T clocking off for maternity leave today. Goodbye Ceri!
2: … if you count her unborn child, who’s been work shadowing for the past nine months
10: Seconds + /- the Longines Conquest VHP will lose. IN A YEAR. That’s some high performance quartz at work.
1: Border Collie Kelpie Cross dogs in a Time+Tide video this week. His name is Baxter.