🍎 A few words from me....
The older I get, the more unapologetically excited about gem set watches I become. Is that normal? Am I finally leaving behind my "middle age dad" phase and entering my Liberace era? I think so.
"why can't men wear sparkly things" I say to my friends, colleagues and general passers by. Wearing precious stones has always been something the status seekers or the district (diamond) dwellers do. This is all changing.
Krayon has just released a Sapphire set version of their wonderful Anywhere, the Parhelion. Inspired founders Fei and Remy's trip to Greenland, the coloured stones reference Sun Dogs, a rare atmospheric optical phenomina that can occur in cold and snowy environments.
I don't have a full story on this watch yet but I will soon, I've even messaged Fei for some insider info, so stay tuned! In the mean time, this watch will now be the poster-child for my campaign for world gem-settification. Are you with me?
Enjoy the rest of the newsletter! xx
Print Media Is Hard, But Not Doing It Is Even Harder.
I want to keep you updated on the progress of the ambitious and slightly unrealistic project that is SmallSeconds in print for two reasons.
- To get you excited about it! and..
- To keep myself accountable.
So here's an update on where we are at with SmallSeconds in print.
Design and content.
For me, this is the easy part. I'm working with some local and international writers to help with the actual content and I'm being very specific about the voice and tone of the stories. I'll be writing a big chunk of it but to be honest I've been really enjoying sharing ideas and communicating with other creative people. There's going to be contributors from both inside and outside the watch industry. On the design front I'm working with my old friend and fellow dad Tj Hancock and his creative studio Homefree. There's no better man for the job.
Business and Strategy.
This is a business, and as such, there has to be money involved. Obviously. The tricky part is that I want the print edition to be accessible, but also valued in terms of the readers and the brands that are a part of it. So on the one hand I can maximise distribution and shoot them out of a cannon at everyone with even a slight interest in watches, or I can be selective and only distribute to those that are truly invested. From an environmental, economic and business standpoint, I think the latter is the way to go. Heavy focus on quality, slightly higher cost, lower but more satisfied readership. From talking to brands about it over the last few months, this is what they are looking for and this is what we will do.
Ok, thats it for this update. If SmallSeconds in print sounds interesting to you, you can click the button below and be added to the waitlist. I'll be sending out some waitlist only content that dives deeper into the process soon! Click now and don't miss out!
From The Archive: Talking Pragma With Christopher Wegener
Transparency isn’t a word I associate with the luxury watch industry.
In fact, the opposite is true. One of luxury’s defining characteristics is that it’s opaque, it would lose its allure if it wasn’t. 'Transparent luxury' is as paradoxical as telling someone to 'act natural'. It makes sense on the surface, but when you dig a little deeper its complete nonsense.
If you're acting, you're not natural.
In this industry, desirability is often created by hiding the truth, or part of it, from the buying public. Leaving us to fill in the gaps with visions of craft and lore from marketing and social media departments. If that all sounds like a conspiracy theory, it's because it is. I can assure you, however, when talking of transparency in luxury watches, there’s no ‘theory’ involved.
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It started with traceability and transparency. In watchmaking, most brands rely on subcontractors for cases, movements, or components, even the biggest names. Yet they still claim “everything is in-house.” That always bothered me.
— Christopher Wagener
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Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great strategy. We don’t know what’s happening inside these swiss manufactures, the doors to Rolex might as well be welded shut, yet we hand over our money like they’re an ice cream truck on a hot day. Perhaps if we saw that it was more robots than flesh and blood doing the watchmaking, we wouldn’t be as enamoured with it. I’m not saying it’s robots doing the watchmaking, Rolex, please don’t kidnap me.
It makes me wonder, however, does anyone actually care about transparency? Or do we all just want a cool watch to brag to our friends about? Does this opacity add to, or take from the experience of owning a luxury watch?
I want to say more transparency can only be a good thing, but to be honest, I’m not so sure. Maybe a magic trick is only fun if we can’t see how it’s done.
I recently spoke with Christopher Wegener, the Co-Founder and watchmaker at Pragma to try and get some answers and to be honest, this cynical old watch writer has a new-found enthusiasm for open doors and translucent manufacturing. Interview incoming.