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FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Brace yourself for virtual Baselworld, and get your mojo back with Navy SEAL Jocko Willinck’s inspirational watch FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Brace yourself for virtual Baselworld, and get your mojo back with Navy SEAL Jocko Willinck’s inspirational watch

FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Brace yourself for virtual Baselworld, and get your mojo back with Navy SEAL Jocko Willinck’s inspirational watch

Andrew McUtchen

OK, this legit feels like a Friday. It’s 3:30, and as we say in Australia, I’m absolutely stinging for a tin. Translation: a cold beer would be very pleasant if you happen to have one? I’m back in the house, out of my pimped-up pool shed that I now call home during the week while lockdown drags on and on. Why? Because it’s being properly renovated. If life throws you lockdown, pimp your pool shed is my new motto.

A quick Australian COVID-19 update: we are still required to work from home, and business can be penalised if they breach the order. So, Steve McQueen on the garage door of our once-was-a-motorbike-shop HQ is lonely and grumpy, and I am – like the rest of the team – still contending with remote working. We’re still managing to do our thing, though, and it was another pretty memorable week for story twists and turns.

The story I’ll never forget … We really agonised over it in the editorial meeting. Should we publish it? Was it off-topic for Time+Tide? It was about ‘the most inspirational watch in the world’. Which was Luke’s clever take on Jocko Willink’s digital watch face, which daily gets posted to his 1.5m followers with a time very close to 4:30am on it. Why? That’s when Jocko gets into his pre-laid out gym clothes, and staggers in the direction of his home gym in the garage. We soon had our answer as to whether you’d find it interesting. Inspiring even. It is on track to be the biggest story of the year, and at this rate, all-time. If you haven’t read it, we can strongly recommend it. Especially for those lacking motivation during lockdown.

Friday wind down 29 05 20

A few weeks ago, we published a video called the ‘Home Delivery Watch Fair’ to celebrate the first watch fair of the year (once SIHH, now Watches & Wonders). Of course, this fair, like just about everything else in life over the last few months, had been cancelled. So in this video, we aimed to arrive on your doorstep next to your Pad Thai and pappadums with a presentation of a fair that was more immersive than usual. Lots of footage of actually being there. The venue. The booths. The sushi at lunchtime. The vibe, man.

Why? Well, in my own experience, this lockdown situation has broken the ‘shell’ of our lives, if you’ll allow me to get momentarily Khalil Gibran on you. What we took for granted as an everyday experience – going to a watch fair in Switzerland and doing the whole dance – was, for most of you reading and watching, not everyday. And it was something you’d never actually ‘seen’ in a broader 3D sense. We were guilty of assuming way too much, being pretty stuck in our – now I can appreciate, quite surreal! – lives as watch journalists.  

The first episode was two things: our longest and most positively received video in six years. And the comments were heartwarming. Viewers appreciated the new point of view, that lifted the camera from the wrist to the world around it. They stuck with it, with 20 per cent still watching at the 55min mark. And they felt through it a connection that was positive during a difficult and strange era in history. 

RISE AND JOCKO!

Friday wind down 29 05 20
Image: Success Magazine

There’s a watch out there that could genuinely change your life. It could make you happier, healthier and more successful. It could help you regain a sense of control in these messed-up times and add some much-needed pep to your step. The watch in question is a Timex Ironman T66801 and it belongs to Jocko Willink, the man that Tim Ferriss famously dubbed “the scariest Navy SEAL imaginable”. Click here to get seriously inspired.

DEEP DIVING IN KHAKI GREEN

Friday wind down 29 05 20

Longines’ new HydroConquest has well and truly muddied the waters of the dive watch market. But is this new amphibious all show and zero go, or is Longines onto a winner with their latest diver? Click here to find out.

READER, READER ON THE INTERNET, WHICH GRAND SEIKO DIAL IS BEST?

Friday wind down 29 05 20

Battle Royale is a relatively new segment where someone in the team nominates a collection or, in this case, a category – Grand Seiko dials – and we figuratively fight to the death for our favourite from said group until there is only one opinion left. Hit this link to enter the argument arena.

STAND TO ATTENTION

Friday wind down 29 05 20

We’ve got four ace new watch stands available at the Time+Tide online store right now. Hit this link to see just what you could be perching your watches on.