Letter from the founder: The Time+Tide New York Discovery Studio launch was the dawn after the darkest four month build imaginable
Andrew McUtchen“It is always darkest before the dawn.” I love The Dark Knight, but I loathe cliches. The thing is, as I get older, I can see why they exist. And why they persist.
They contain truths that can be expressed in no other way. So, forgive me for opening this letter with one from a movie that seems to improve every time I watch it.
Now that it’s over, I’ll admit it. The New York build-out nearly killed us.
But it didn’t.
And when we stood back and drank in the first two launch events at 460 Broome Street, SoHo, it was like rubbing your eyes in disbelief as a particularly dramatic sunrise begins to light the horizon.
It was, to quote Homer, the rosiest-fingered dawn I have ever seen for this business.
A dawn of a new era for New York watch culture.
A dawn of a brand new day for the brands we proudly carry, as they become accessible seven days a week to the people of America.
A dawn of a bright future for Time+Tide as we adjust to the reality that we now have three incredible studios, staffed with three elite enthusiast teams ready to serve you watch discovery in three of the most important cities on earth.
The first launch, on Thursday last week, was with Toledano & Chan, as they unveiled the B1.3/r. It’s no secret that I see a lot in this brand. It’s rare for me, so inundated in watches, to get breathlessly excited about a design. An idea. An on-wrist experience. But that’s what happened when I put the B1 on the wrist for the first time in Geneva a few years ago. A dinner with Mr Toledano quickly followed. And an absolutely unavoidable friendship formed. I cherish this cheeky geezer. Any day that some kind of sass, usually in the shape of a meme, or an utterly nonsensical statement that I must get to the bottom of, arrives in my WhatsApp inbox care of Phil is a good day.
On the watch front, I stand by the fact that his work with partner in crime and design, Alfred Chan, remains some of the most significant and intentional happenings in the scene today. Considering that he sold 300 pieces of this new model online in mere hours in a post-boom, mid-bust period, is testament to the fact that I am not alone. That same breathless excitement (that compelled me to acquire the B1 MOP as well) is not going anywhere.
At the event, Phil and I took the stage for the first time ever at Time+Tide NYC, and in typical Mister Enthusiast fashion, he summed up the situation that had befallen us to get to that point: “Everything in New York takes twice as long, and costs twice as much.” It’s yet another cliche. A pithy one-liner. We’d heard it plenty of times, and we were sure we’d continue to be the lucky Aussies for whom it does not apply.
Oh, but it did. Almost to the dollar.
I won’t take this glorious sunrise moment to talk of these cloudy skies. They are for another day. Maybe a podcast episode somewhere. Let me just say to any future contenders, or to any wondering why other media geezers didn’t make it to opening their doors… I get it now.
Whether it’s a global pandemic, brutal tariffs, or the biggest-in-a-decade blizzards, or New York builders, the minute you declare your intentions to make it big in New York, the city will come at you like a fucking wild animal that hasn’t eaten in days. “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere” – yet another well-worn phrase that checked out. Ol blue eyes knew it, too.
It was a night of dreams. Miles of smiles before us from that very first sermon on the mount. Phil in fantastic form. A brace of new B1 owners unable to take their eyes off their wrists, now host to a little angular cube containing rippled 18k gold. For those that missed it, fear not, we have a decent back-of-house supply of the B1.3r that we are going to drip out as slowly as possible until the next Toledano & Chan release. We are the only place you can buy them in New York City, and the only place you can get them on your wrist 7 days a week. This is what we’re offering the brand, and in return they’re generously allocating us stock of each model.
The second event was the other end of the watch spectrum, with an important commonality: the now-established habit of selling out everything they do, whether it’s a pocket watch, an avocado, or an aperitif. Studio. Effing. Underd0g. Man.
Rich and I started to drip out the dreaded/delightful (depending on whether you’re in a Reddit forum, or on social media where the camps march under very different flags, it seems!) notion that we might go back to the stone oven for more pizza watches. The inspiration for the reprisal? New York itself. The slice culture of the city. The weirdly personal connection everyone has to their favourite pizza joint. The curiously inexhaustible interest New Yorkers have in the most boring and basic of all pizzas, the classic cheese.
We knew something was there, we just didn’t know what. There are videos that tell the whole story, so you can check them out for all the cheesy details, but needless to say, we found our perfect one/two pizza punch in the Burnt Pepper0ni and the Classic Cheese, with a slice missing.
At the event, we leaned away from Italy, and drenched the space in New York punk everything, from the CBGB playlist, to the blacked out dress code, to the black and burnt orange colour scheme.
It was a Time Machine that took all 120 of the attendees, many of whom had queued from an hour before the event to get in (thinking it would be first-come, first-served, which it was not!), back to the ‘70s and the birth of the Ramones and many of the pizza places still frequented today.
As for catering, we went contemporary, ordering from the “unofficial watch hang in New York City”, Scarrs. Even ignoring the notes of hype, it was damned delicious. Would recommend. The formalities kicked off with Zach Blass (US Editor, Time+Tide) and Tayla Lewis (Associate General Manager US, Time+Tide) taking to the stage to welcome America to its new home of watch culture.
“I was Time+Tide’s first American employee nearly six years ago,” Zach said (a speech I recorded on my phone in a proud Dad moment), “and it’s so good to finally have a squad.” Tayla then called out our people one by one, each getting a rousing cheer from the crowd, many of whom had already met and bought from them in the five business days we’d been open before the event!
The next part was pretty spontaneous. I knew that Fred Savage was coming. I wanted to get him on stage to admit that he of little faith needed to see we did it. About an hour before he arrived, I said to Tayla, “Fred should moderate the chat with Rich and me.” She called him without telling me, and by the time he arrived, it was organised.
He was sensational in the role, naturally, and extracted answers from Rich that I’d never heard before. Talk of Rich’s enduring love and rare access to the ST19 Seagull movement. Talk of the D0ghouse, and Rich’s plan for an immersive Underd0g experience in Brighton, UK, opening May.
And a little speech from me on exactly why I’ve put myself, and my resilient team (with a special shoutout to our Global GM Scott, and our construction manager and interiors designer Curtis) through this build from hell. “To help you all here get these incredible brands on your wrist in the metal,” was my answer in summary. It really is that simple. There’s nowhere else to try them. Now, there’s Time+Tide.
After that, the Aperol Spritz and an endless supply of plates piled with pizza followed. Rich and I signed boxes. The team stayed late, dancing while we cleaned it all up. We did it, I thought over and over. We made it.
New York, we’re here. We can’t wait to see you.
– Andrew