FRIDAY WIND DOWN: 17th July, 2015
Felix Scholz
Here’s what happens when you tell people you write about watches for a living. “You mean, like watches?” The person says, quizzically, usually pointing to their wrist. “Yes, watches.” Then there’s a whole lot of talk about – Oh really, like full time? There’s enough to write about? (More confused looks) What about the Apple Watch, doesn’t that mean watches are finished! Etc
But it’s the damnedest thing. There’s now three of us full time in the Time+Tide office and we all do stuff, all week, about watches. This week there’s been excitement. Because next Wednesday, we take them on the beaches! And by ‘them’, we mean the delivery of SIHH’s biggest buzz brand’s new range, and by buzz brand we mean the new contenders in the watch world, Montblanc. By beaches, we’re talking real, photogenic beaches, because it’s our first Sydney event, too. And it’s 60 people. Applications are now closed, thank you all for your huge response.
What Happened?
We learned that Daniel Wellington, everybody’s favourite watch brand, is projected to sell THREE MILLION watches this year, three times more than last year, which is – conservatively – the total unit sales of Rolex, TAG Heuer and Omega put together. The wristwatch may not be dead after all but good taste is seriously ill.
TAG Heuer released renders of their game changing Carrera Heuer 02 tourbillon which is set to retail for under 20k. You can imagine how well received this concept has been by the industry. Making tourbillons “accessible” will completely disrupt the world of haute horlogerie.
What really mattered?
The Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (AKA the Oscars of watches). This week the GPHG released it’s long list of 2015 contenders, which will soon be whittled down to a much more manageable short list. It’s still a good snapshot of trends and the best watches released this year.
The whole office decided on their UFC Walkout Song. What relevance does this have to watches, or to you. NONE AT ALL. But seriously, ask yourself, if you had to choose a UFC Walkout Song to sum you up, what would it be?
The week in numbers
1: Number of (partly restored) Louis Vuitton trunks now adorning the Time+Tide office.
2,167: The amount of love the blue dialled Hublot Classic Fusion got on insta, making it our most liked Instagram post ever.
90%: How much Apple Watch sales have plunged in three short months. #schadenfreude #seeabove
30: The number of seconds we seriously considered putting together a Time+Tide syndicate to buy Maurice Lacroix off DKSH. It took us slightly less time to put together a concept for our first limited edition!
37: The number of timezones on the awesome Vacheron Constantin Traditionelle World Time Excellence Platine, coming soon to a Wish Magazine near you.