We’re back! Physically, from St Tropez, that is — because you know of course we were metaphorically with you all the time, creating the videos, articles and social media posts that you saw last week. In that sense, you might say that no matter where we are on this planet, WorldTempus never really leaves your side. A special note to everyone who sent messages to us on Instagram, showing us your special summer memories and spontaneous snaps of the watches you were wearing. Sharing vacation photos is an essential tradition for families everywhere and the WorldTempus family is no different.
Some of you had beach vacations, while others had city getaways. The mountain escapes were pretty popular this year (good idea, with the heatwave overcoming Europe at the moment), and countless airplane wristshots on the way to beautiful exotic locations. There is no one-size-fits-all vacation, just like watches.
Speaking of one-size-fits-all watches, we had a blast bringing you all those Team Test reviews from St Tropez. It’s always nice to spend some real time with a new or unfamiliar watch, but doing it from our desks in the Geneva office somehow isn’t quite as thrilling as wearing a DOXA dive watch in the Mediterranean or driving along the coast with a Montblanc 1858 Iced Sea.
Once I was asked about the utility of these Team Test articles, where everyone in our larger GMT Publishing group — from our founder Brice Lechevalier and Fine Watch Club secretary general Jean-Christophe Teigner to GMT editor Marie de Pimodan and WorldTempus contributor Caitlyn Fish — gives their perspective on one specific watch. Someone asked me, “What’s the point of having a woman’s take on a men’s timepiece and vice versa?”
You needn’t fear for this person’s life, by the way, I was extremely reasonable and almost gentle in my reply. I said, “That is the point. To show that there’s something for everyone. And to show that even a watch that you thought was so rigidly masculine (or feminine) might reveal a different side of itself from another person’s point of view.”
Trying on and reviewing watches isn’t an arduous task by any means, not even if it’s a watch that wasn’t designed with someone like me in mind. I’ll tell you the one thing that does slightly get on my nerves from time to time. (Just between us, don’t tell anyone else, obviously.)
Enormous watch bracelets. Who decided that the default bracelet that comes with new watches should be based on the circumference of the average adult elephant leg? There was one year at BaselWorld (a long time ago) that I was at a presentation of new watches, and the brand representative encouraged me in energetic tones to try on the watch he’d just shown me. Without unbuckling the clasp, I slid the watch over my hand, up and over my forearm and elbow, almost up to my shoulder. Zero words were exchanged until we both simultaneously burst into laughter. Now, I know I have a small wrist. But bracelets that large are ridiculous. There were well over 100,000 visitors to the fair that year, and I’m pretty sure that bracelet would have fit less than 1 percent of people there.
If you know that your watch is going to be seen, tried on, and photographed a few hundred times a day, why wouldn’t you put them on bracelets that conform better to the average wrist? I’ve been sent watches before that could fit around my leg. This meant that the watch was, for all intents and purposes, unwearable. It was also unphotographable. Stuffing fabric between the bracelet and your wrist only works if you shoot the watch from a very specific angle. If a fashion house sent XXL-sized clothes to be photographed on an XS-sized model, those clothes would either not be worn, or they would look terrible.
I don’t know if anyone is reading this who takes care of bracelets at a watch brand. But I’d love to hear what a brand’s perspective on this is. Drop me a line! I’ll be here.
