FRIDAY WIND DOWN: Nick Kenyon says farewell, a new Zenith collection and making Sydney’s lockdown bearable
Nick KenyonAfter two of the most enjoyable years of my working life, today is my last day at Time+Tide. It’s a bittersweet feeling: bitter because of how I’ll miss the T+T team, but sweet with the knowledge that Time+Tide is in such a strong position as I say goodbye. I’m off to write about a wider range of topics (don’t worry, I still love watches more than the air I breathe), but I want to take this Friday Wind Down as an opportunity to reflect on a few of the “pinch myself” moments that I’ve had over the last couple of years.
Prior to working at Time+Tide I was working in a sales business, which was a lot of fun, but wasn’t something I was particularly passionate about. I found myself spending more and more time reading about watches, something which frustrated my managers (sorry, Lia and Brett) and led me to ask myself the question: “What if I could do this as a job?” Within a year I found myself at the first moment I needed to pinch myself, as I saw my first-ever article live on the Time+Tide website.
It’s difficult to describe the elation of seeing your first piece of writing published. I tried writing my first story when I was six years old (naturally, about how annoying I found my two-year-old brother) and was about 15 when I first started to think that maybe I’d like to write for a living.
The second moment was landing in the middle of the desert for Dubai Watch Week, where I not only met the rest of the watch-loving world (Australia isn’t exactly the centre of the horological universe) but also saw some of the most important watches I’ve ever been in the same room as.
The last one I’ll talk about was visiting Andrew’s house just before the end of last year when he gifted me the Bamford London x Time+Tide GMT1 Limited Edition for Christmas. As someone who’d spent dozens of hours reading Time+Tide while avoiding the work I was supposed to be doing in my sales job, it was a really special moment to be a part of the T+T team that I had admired so much from afar when the first T+T collaboration watch came to life.
Finally, there are a lot of thanks I want to give. Obviously first to Andrew and Luke for bringing me into the team and giving me the chance to think about, talk about and write about watches all day. Also to the rest of the team for making work during a global pandemic enjoyable, specifically to Matt, Luke Benedictus, Sean, Thor, Zach and Mike (not forgetting Emma, Felix, James and Khando who have all been part of the team at different points). I also want to thank the amazing people at the watch brands who make sure we have exciting watches in our hands every week, but mostly I want to thank you, the Time+Tide reader. It’s a true privilege to be able to write about watches for you and I hope you’ve enjoyed my work over the last couple of years.
Bye for now and have a great weekend,
Nick Kenyon
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