Piling on the Bandwagon

The Minnesota Nice version of watch world pet peeves

(Photo: Panerai)

These days, it seems like everywhere you turn there’s an article about a writer’s gripes and pet peeves about the state of the watch industry, or about watches themselves. Ben Clymer did it on Hodinkee, Chris Hall did it on his Fourth Wheel Substack, and Ross Povey did it for WatchPro. Is this a general trend across consumer, or product, journalism? I get it, the world is a contentious and polarized place these days, and maybe it’s trickled down to watch journalism, so that we expect negativity even when it’s about our escapist hobbies.

Though I’ve not dabbled too much in hard-nosed critical watch writing, I have dipped a toe in it before, albeit in a milder, “Minnesota Nice” sort of way, with stories about dive watch myths and an old opinion piece on helium release valves (a view I have since softened). But by and large, I don’t find too much to complain about in the rarified and arcane world of luxury watch collecting (and watch making, selling, or writing about). There’s simply too much else that’s more important in the world to concern myself with than whether a chronograph has screw-down pushers. But in the spirit of camaraderie, and perhaps sniffing out a trend and hopping on the bandwagon, I thought I could offer a couple of grumpy tidbits of my own.