Watch Dandy

I don’t know how many times I’ve introduced a new segment, column or series on Time+Tide over the last six years. But I’d be prepared to bet that at least half the time, I’ve opened the post about it with these words: “Sorry, this took a long while to get to you. Good things take time.” Good things take time, and also the time for that thing has to be right. Time+Tide has primarily dealt with well-established brands as our daily remit. But little by little — and with two editions of NOW Magazine under our belt, with both bursting at the seams with smaller brands — our eyes have been opened to the creativity, the ingenuity and the excitement building in the independent and microbrand space. If there’s such a thing as a punk rock attitude in watchmaking, it lives here. And, it turns out, punk music is pretty damned popular. This was proved beyond any doubt with our recent ‘Watch & Act!’ World Watch Auction in aid of the Australian bushfire crisis. We had microbrands like Baltic, Farer, Bausele, Lebois & Co and our very own Nicholas Hacko pulling winning bids that were two, three, six-and-a-half times their RRP. It…

The post MICRO MONDAYS: Introducing a new weekly series starring the world’s best microbrands, kicking off with William Wood Watches! appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

A crisis can often prove the catalyst for change. Amid the chaos, we’re forced to rethink how we do things — often with positive results. The First World War, for example, had a radical impact in redefining civil liberties, race relations and women’s rights. It’s way too early to untangle the full impact of the coronavirus on the watch industry. But there are signs the pandemic could push certain brands to reconsider their stiff resistance to e-commerce. Watch brands have always maintained a heavy reliance on selling through bricks and mortar stores. Morgan Stanley analysts estimate that third-party retailers account for some 90 per cent of Swiss watch sales. Direct online sales offer the alternative approach. Yet while some watch groups — notably Richemont and LVMH — have embraced online retail, most have only taken tentative steps into the virtual world.  A report last year from the online marketing consultancy Digital Luxury Group found that only 40 per cent of luxury watch brands are presently offering direct-to-consumer e-commerce. In fact, online sales of luxury watches account for less than 5 per cent of all sales, according to The Mercury Project, a data-driven consulting company focused on the watch and jewellery industry.  Three conspicuous…

The post As of today, you can buy Patek Philippe online. Will COVID-19 force more brands into e-commerce?  appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Media and watch collaborations: in theory, they should be a match made in heaven … and, let’s be honest, they almost always are. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, though, considering the people behind these industry hybrids are writing, reviewing and critiquing myriad watches every single day. We should know what’s best. And it turns out, we often do. Trouble is, though, there’s been more than a few released in the last couple of years, so narrowing down which ones are best can be hard. But that’s exactly what we’ve done. The crew at T+T, after an exhaustive conference call that lasted far longer than it should, have whittled down all the media/watch collaborations in recent memory, and chosen our favourites. Enjoy. Andrew McUtchen – TAG Heuer Limited Edition Carrera Skipper For HODINKEE What an atomic drop this was, and one of the few times a watch has been significantly bulked without blowing it. The original ‘Skipperera’ from ’67 — so named for its Carrera case — was only 35mm, and the Dink version clocked a more modern 39mm, with a domed sapphire crystal instead of the plexi on the original. The tri-colour layout of the regatta countdown sub-dial is where it’s…

The post Do media make good watches? We say yes (of course we do), these are our four favourites appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.