This week’s newsletter is a stream-of-consciouness list of my reactions, hot takes and first attempts at analysis. Over the coming weeks I’m sure more will follow as I start to digest it all. On Tuesday, the podcast will be dedicated to the ten watches that most impressed me from W&W and its surroundings, and next Friday’s newsletter will be an AMA - the twentieth! - so please, send me your questions.

Also - 200 issues! I’ll figure out how to celebrate it another time…

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

Watches & Wonders: what I liked, learned and loathed

1. My phrase of the week was “people-pleasing”. More than ever, I sat in presentations to be happily told that ‘finally, we have listened to the fans’ (I paraphrase slightly). This could be adding a micro-adjustment clasp, a 37mm model, slimming down a staple, or producing precise combinations that have been absent and much requested on social media. Certainly I don’t think that’s actually how most brands run their product development, but it was a telling narrative: against a challenging economic and commercial backdrop, the subliminal message seemed to be “we are making what people want”.

2. Equally and just as importantly, there seemed to be fewer really disagreable pieces.2 I saw plenty I wouldn’t buy with my own money, but far fewer pieces for which I couldn’t see a market at all.

3. Patek Philippe did not bungle the 50th anniversary of the Nautilus. A lot has changed in the last decade. It doesn’t matter one bit that AP put ‘50th’ on the automatic rotor already - big deal. Coming out with two sizes was a good move.

4. Rolex, by contrast, normally the safer pair of hands, didn’t quite get it right for 100 years of the Oyster. I think the two-tone OP with ‘100 Years’ replacing Swiss Made is good evidence that the previous policy of not really marking anniversaries was the right one.
   
   Sticking with Rolex…

5. The furore over the ‘Grand Feu’ enamel dial has been my favourite storm in a teacup this week. If you’re not up to speed, the new Daytona has an enamel dial that comprises enamel fired onto ceramic, which is then glued to brass dial plates. It’s described as grand feu by Rolex but technically shouldn’t be, as the definition is traditionally reserved for the act of enamelling on metal. I read ’s latest with interest but did wonder: do we define ‘grand feu’ as enamelling on metal because when these definitions arose, enamelling on a ceramic disc wasn’t really an option? In any case, I agree with the sentiment that Rolex has dispensed with a large part of what makes enamelling sought-after, which is the craft. But it exposes a beautifully irrational aspect of watch collecting: Rolex has by any reasonable measure improved the process of enamelling, coming up with a solution that drastically reduces failure rates yet delivers the same ‘experience’ to the wearer, and the response of the community has been to disparage it for using the wrong terminology rather than applaud its commitment to technical advancement. I totally understand why we prize real grand feu enamel work - the difficulty is the point, to an extent - and of course watch collecting is not rational, but this whole thing is kind of amusing.

   

6. My main point of interest with Rolex was the announcement of improvements to the Superlative Chronometer standard. Or should I say ‘partial announcement’, because although Rolex now says the standard includes more stringent levels of magnetic resistance, sustainability and reliability, but does not say what these levels are or how they are measured. I pushed Rolex for answers and was only told that the standards were sufficient for everyday life. I am also told - this might be news! - that Rolex intends to take all its testing in-house by 2030, moving away from COSC. Aside from the fact that that might actually torpedo COSC in terms of revenue, Rolex being its biggest client by far, I can’t really understand how this will work if Rolex wants to continue referring to its watches as chronometers at all, superlative or otherwise. There was also mention of working with another independent body - not METAS, though3 - so really, the whole thing is clear as mud, but something is happening. I feel like it is tying itself in knots to avoid direct comparisons with Omega, or Tudor, but as Velociphile and others have noted with regards to JLC, coming up with fancy standards but not explaining how they work is pretty much par for the course these days.

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What I’m going to do for you is this. There will be a newsletter at the end of Watches & Wonders - probably on the Saturday morning, as I’ll still be in Geneva on Friday. I’ll put my most immediate reactions on Instagram, but I’m going to revive the somewhat dormant Substack chat for more detailed conversation around new launches. Then there will be a special Ask Me Anything for Issue 201, where I will answer all your W&W related questions - and anything else besides, but I expect our minds will be focussed on what’s new. If I get time, there might be a podcast, but looking at my calendar I would have to record it in the middle of the night at this rate.

If you will be in Geneva next week, send me a message. I can’t promise anything - right now I’m seeing more than 60 brands in five days across a stupid number of locations - but I’m always up for saying hello. Until I become too self-conscious, I’ll probably be wearing one of my delightful baseball caps, so you can flag me down :-)

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

The Renaud Formula

Last week, before Corum’s relaunch - see Issue 198 - and a short visit to Greubel Forsey for the announcement of Naissance d’un Montre 4 / Bonniksen - see News of the Week this week, link below - I went to visit Dominique Renaud.

The visit was arranged a while ago, and unbeknownst to me the timing was auspicious, as a couple of weeks before I arrived, news broke of a new brand - or set of brands, or corporate structure - all geared around Dominique himself. I talked about this on the podcast at the time, and couldn’t really make head or tail of it. You’ve got something called DR Group, a new entity called HHDR (Haute Horlogerie Dominique Renaud) and on an actual brand level, both Dominique Renaud and Renaud Tixier. To confuse things further, DR Group also revealed that it holds a minority stake in Niton, the indie brand launched earlier in the year by Leopoldo Celi (who also works for DR Group, and was my host last week). From now on I’ll refer to Dominique Renaud the brand as DR, Renaud Tixier as RT, just for simplicity.

Edit: About an hour before publication, a new press release announced “the creation of HHDR Group” so from now on I think that is the parent company, not DR Group.

What exactly that was all about is something I got to grips with after sitting down for nearly an hour with HHDR Group CEO Michel Nieto, and I’ll come back to it presently. It does actually make sense, and furthermore might actually be something a lot of other indie brands could learn from.

That news was all quite rightly overshadowed by the announcement of the Pulse60, the first - well, not really, but again we will come to that - watch from DR (the brand). It’s another time-only indie watch with a vaguely contemporary appearance that costs around fifty grand - so why should we pay attention?

To answer that, we are going to end up talking about some quite technical aspects of watchmaking, but it’s worth starting with a bit of context about who Dominique Renaud is - because although the Pulse60 would be impressive regardless, a sizeable percentage of interest in it stems from its maker’s reputation; equally, not everyone could have come up with it in the first place - and what kind of setup he is operating these days.

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The first is some newly-announced rule changes to the GPHG. I was, as ever, pointed in my remarks when I wrote about the awards last week, so in the interest of giving credit where it’s due, I wanted to applaud these (small) steps towards addressing some long-standing criticisms of the ceremony. There is also one significant rule change that wasn’t mentioned in the press release, and it could really help smaller watch brands. You’ll have to listen to find out!

Second, we could hardly overlook the return of Universal Geneve; as I say on the podcast, this is how you do a brand launch properly. Three years, countless millions and plenty of warm-up marketing set the stage, and with expectations high, my view is that UG has surpassed them. The breadth of the debut collections is impressive, but more importantly so is the ambition and bravery on show within them. I think they have correctly identified a lack of bold personality in mainstream watchmaking between £10,000 and £50,000 and have at least a couple of models that deserve to steal market share.

Thirdly, I wanted to talk about the RRCHF, but acknowledge that in one news round-up, without having seen the watch, I can’t dive as deep as I’d like. Next week I’ll see the watch in person and I’ll be sure to share some thoughts and insights as a result. Also, because I’m an inveterate party-pooper I also sound a note of caution about hailing everything Rexhep does as industry-defining. It’s a lovely watch; it does not re-make the horological universe from the ground up.

Last but not least I was thrilled to be able to revive the New Indie Watch Brand of the Week feature, and with a story of substance to boot. Bonniksen, a storied Danish name long since consigned to the history books, has been revived with care and reverence by two young guns named Jason Chevrolat and Maximin Chapuis, and their debut watch will be the Naissance d’un Montre 4. That is what’s known as doing things the hard way.

This Friday I will have a report from my visit to Dominique Renaud’s atelier, and an exclusive interview with CEO Michel Nieto. Equal parts hardcore geekery and brand strategy, there’s plenty to learn from this one. And Lego, too. That will hit your inboxes at 10:10 UK time - paying subscribers get the full story. What are you waiting for?

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Links discussed in today’s episode:

• The new GPHG rules

• Universal Geneve

• The RRCHF

• Ben Clymer’s write-up

• Bonniksen

• Naissance d’un Montre 4

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next time for more.

Chris

My action-packed week took me first to Dominique Renaud, where I spent a few hours touring the brand new atelier, sitting down with CEO Michel Nieto and hearing directly from Dominique and his colleagues exactly how the Pulse60 works. That, you will read about next week — aside from the ingenuity of the watch itself, they have a fascinating vision for the future of independent brands.

As there was no podcast, I’ve included a couple of shorter items - okay, rants - before the paywall. Behind it, you can hear all about Corum’s re-launch, its new products and my analysis on where the brand will sit in today’s market. I also spoke to advisor Vincent Perriard on the financial outlook for the brand. Paying subs get the whole scoop.

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

Jury Duties

Conflict of interest! In the watch industry?! In the GPHG?? I won’t hear it. News that Wei Koh was to be appointed jury president for the awards — the least surprising news since Rolex’s last price increase — has been met with much hand-wringing over what it could mean for the integrity and credibility of these cherished and significant prizes.

I can’t argue with the factual breakdown of the various conflicts that exist between operating a media business, a retail business and if rumour is to be believed, one day soon a watchmaking business, and being a part of a ceremony in which some of the same brands are up for awards. It’s all pretty black and white; you either have conflicts of interest or you don’t, and in this industry we all have them. As others have pointed out, even collectors want allocations.

I’m not here to argue that it doesn’t matter at all, or that Koh’s appointment represents the sudden pollution of a previously pristine pool. Controversially perhaps, I am minded to wait until the awards have actually happened before exploding with righteous scorn. Which is not to say that pointing out the existence of conflicts is wrong. I do think however that across social media in particular, we have as a community shown a firm a desire to have it both ways.

We want to proclaim that the awards don’t matter and vent our spleen that they are so manifestly compromised. We are so animated that Koh has multiple avenues of conflict operating in parallel, yet fail to consider that surely, the more conflicts of interest you have — perversely enough — the less influential any of them could possibly be. If Revolution takes advertising from a pool of ~50 brands, Grail Watch has a dozen collaborative partners past, present or future, and his TV show accounts for another dozen or so… it seems perfectly likely that there could be categories at the awards populated entirely with brands that have a connection to the jury president. What then? We want an expert jury — never mind the president, we have to think of the whole panel — but we don’t want that expertise to have come hand-in-hand with any manner of industry connections. It might be tempting to think the answer is a greater amount of public participation; more votes would dilute any individual’s influence, but then you are asking people to vote on something they haven’t seen and maybe don’t fully understand1. I would like the academy’s votes to be weighted a bit higher, and the gender balance on the jury has never even approached parity, but these are tweaks to a flawed model, not a rejection of the model outright.

Fundamentally, we want an awards show (or do we? I guess that’s a reasonable question at this point, although certainly we the media get plenty of mileage out of engaging with it) and we want to reserve the right to complain that awards shows are flawed. They always are, everywhere.

That said, it would be perfectly possible to set up a truly independent awards ceremony for watches. I just don’t think anybody would pay attention. As I’ve said many times before I think the GPHG should be better, but at this stage I’m not sure it actually can be reformed without losing its establishment status. The irony is that it wouldn’t have the position it does without everyone’s buy-in; if everyone who complained about it stayed away, it wouldn’t exist2, and if every media outlet that lamented its failings ignored it - here I’m as guilty as anyone else - it would be irrelevant. But it has the legitimacy of budget, and spectacle, and longevity. Quality is usually recognised at the end, but the process has become a marketing jamboree. In this sense, the awards feel like a pretty fair reflection of the industry.

What A Bunch Of (April) Fools

I may be in a minority here, and it may not help that I had taken four flights in three days, but I found April 1st a terminally painful day to be on watch Instagram. Like most humans, I enjoy humour3 although there is absolutely no way to write that down without sounding like a maniac psychopath who doesn’t at all. I am surely not alone in finding corporate humour forced and being able to see cynical engagement-farming for what it is, though...

Bremont pioneered the April Fool’s prank press release, and my god was it getting stale by the time they stopped. Yesterday’s barrage of bullshit made them look funnier than Ricky Gervais4. Allow me to provide - a week late, clearly, but please hold onto it for next year - a few pointers to brands, media or influencers looking to unlock their inner joker.

• Don’t acknowledge that what you’re doing is an April Fool. The point is to fool people. Clue’s in the name.

• Don’t do mad shit on April 1st that isn’t a joke.

• Don’t come out with stuff that could very easily be real, isn’t funny and is actually your own personal wish-fulfilment/engagement farming slop. Saying “Breguet made a green Fifty Fathoms haha PSYCH no they didn’t!” is not an April Fool.

• If you are never funny the rest of the year, have a really good think about whether you’re funny now. At least Studio Underd0g has that side of its brand personality to fall back on.

• Quite a lot of real-life watches are ridiculous to begin with. Saying “wouldn’t it be funny if we made a totally useless watch whose functions aren’t practical and make you look stupid” is… close to home. And no, I don’t think anybody who posted this kind of thing did it with the tone of voice that suggested this was the joke.

• Understand that the real humour comes in the comments. Shout out to Anoma, which did at least raise a smile, approached the whole thing with a self-deprecating tone and engaged well below the line. The Thomas Crapper thing was ok as well, if only because it gave new context to a spiral dial pattern.

Great Wisdom From Montblanc

The powers that be at Richemont have clearly been listening to The Watch Enquiry, because after many years of speculation (and our highly speculative chat) we finally have a line of watches with Minerva as the sole brand name on the dial5. It’s the first of our ideas to actually come true, as it seems that at least for now, Jaeger-LeCoultre isn’t declaring independence after all.

I really like the look of this. The Unveiled Crownless - ok, it sounds like the high priest in some kind of arcane ritual, but it’s a handsome one. Measures 41.5mm by 12mm, runs on a 2.5 Hz hand-wound movement (no press pics but Monochrome has hands-on here) and costs - phew - €39,000.

You can read all about the time I visited Minerva’s manufacture here. It’s great: real watchmaking and real passion.

Corum Call

It was snowing in La Chaux de Fonds — not an unusual situation in itself, even on the first of April. Around three dozen European journalists had assembled for a press conference to announce Corum’s return to business. Commendably, nobody asked if it was a joke. (This is, after all, the industry in which brands never really die - although it’s not looking good for Christophe Claret right now. Rumour has it the liquidators handling the company’s assets after it went bankrupt in 2023 have been completely unable to find a buyer. But I digress.)

Corum’s return has been both a long time coming and surprisingly rapid. In the collective imagination, it ceased to be relevant or interesting about eight or nine years ago; to my knowledge it has not exhibited at a watch fair since Baselworld shut down, and I could not have told you the last time I saw a press release, social media post or item of media coverage, much less an actual watch. Previously owned by Severin Wundermann, of Gucci Watches fame, Corum had been bought in 2013 by a company called China Haidan - a Hong Kong company that later rebranded as Citychamp Watches & Jewellery Group - for a reported $86m. Citychamp also owned Eterna6 and Dreyfuss and according to Andy Hoffman at Hodinkee, writing last year when the management buyout was announced, the trio of brands posted an $11.5m loss on revenues of around $20m in 2024.

Rapid, because the new CEO Haso Mehmedovic and his backers - two unnamed investors, both Swiss, one from the watchmaking world and one financial - only wrested control of the brand a year ago. The CEO, quite possibly the industry’s youngest at 34, is the majority shareholder and according to Vincent Perriard, the entrepreneur and one-time HYT CEO who is advising Corum’s leadership team during its revival, he raised the funds for his share of the buyout on his own.

Corum’s premises are fairly substantial; two 20th century brick buildings and one four storey steel and glass block. It is pretty close to the centre of La Chaux de Fonds and sits right next door to a dialmaker, Montremo SA. The press conference took place on the lower level of the modern building, and as you enter the space you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the headquarters of a higher-end Swatch Group brand, or a company like Girard-Perregaux. A couple of rooms were given over to displays of historic watches - more on that shortly. The size of the HQ is pertinent: it is a facility suited to a company that once made 20,000-30,000 watches a year. Mehmedovic says that in its first year under his leadership, Corum will produce around 1,500 watches, and he told me after the press conference that it would look to grow that, eventually, to around 4,500-5,000 watches a year (which is coincidentally roughly on a par with the brand’s annual production before he took over).

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For reasons that will become clear in due course I have been deeply immersed in Omega history of late, so the announcement of a new Constellation came at a good time. I have purposefully avoided reading too many hot takes before publishing this; part of me suspects that it will incite the usual remarks about size and price - and fair’s fair, those aren’t aspects I felt able to ignore either - but I also thought there was scope to say something a bit more considered about how it fits into the Great Dress Watch Renaissance we’ve been experiencing, and what that even really looks like. I hope you enjoy it.

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

A galaxy full of stars

Omega’s new Observatory Constellation, which launched yesterday, March 26th, posed a few interesting questions for me.

If you aren’t yet aware, the key point — aside from the return of the Constellation’s 1950s design language which is significant in itself — was the introduction of a new testing system which allowed a two-hand watch to be certified as a Master Chronometer.

Previously, the METAS testing processes relied on photography of the watch’s second hand to assess its daily rate variation, or accuracy for short. That is evidently impossible with a two-hand dress watch, but Omega doesn’t want to release anything that doesn’t meet METAS standards if it can help it, least of all a watch descended from (or at least named in honour of) a celebrated observatory champion. So it developed an acoustic testing system that listens to the oscillation of a watch throughout its entire 25-day testing period, and calculates not only the existence and scale of any deviation but its precise occurrence. This already seems like a significant improvement in the methodology - perhaps analogous with having an echocardiogram (ECG) and being on continuous heart-rate monitoring.

The new system raises a few other tangential questions — I have asked Omega how it works and what its limitations might be, for example with regard to background noise and what volume of watches can be tested in parallel, as well as whether it intends to introduce this standard for all METAS testing, not just on these watches — but for now it gave me the following broader musings:

How many other brands are combining dress watchmaking with precision? How does Omega’s effort to deliver both style and substance stack up - on both counts? And perhaps the most fundamental question of all: does anyone care about having an accurate dress watch?

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The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

Hot hat hits horological heads

It has been fantastic to see subscribers enjoying their official Fourth Wheel baseball caps - and there is still time for you to join them. Here’s the shop link - just let me remind you of some of the many uses for this simple piece of headgear.

• Hailing a taxi

• Thanking strangers

• Deflecting light rain, drizzle and minor snow flurries

• Emergency frisbee

• Shooing wasps off a picnic (no guarantee of permanent results; swat at your own risk)

• Charades prompt holder

• Poker face shield

Buy this hat

Mirror, mirror, on my wrist

This is my first time wearing a Ming outside of a press presentation; I have had the watch for around a week, and it has been very satisfying to finally get hands-on with a watch from a brand that I’ve covered extensively over the last few years. I’ve interviewed founder Ming Thein a few times, I’ve watched with interest as the company has shrugged off the ‘microbrand’ label, matured, developed international partnerships in the form of the Alternative Horological Alliance and become something of a senior figure in a sector awash with start-ups. It has broken records, explored new ground in terms of engineering and materials science, and perhaps most impressively of all, carved out an aesthetic identity that is coherent, flexible and recognisable without feeling like a one-hit wonder or a pastiche. Alongside a few other potential candidates, I think of Ming as one of the most fully-formed examples of what it means to create a contemporary watch brand that is not totally indebted to the Great Swiss Watchmaking Tradition. It’s important to note that Ming uses Swiss movements and has a Swiss assembly partner, but culturally and conceptually its roots are elsewhere.

All of which is to say, there are many reasons why I’m excited to be writing about Ming, and we will get to them in due course, but reviewing this watch will also be about the nuts and bolts of the thing, so to speak, and with that in mind the most pressing item on the agenda is the bracelet. There was a time when reviewing a watch by starting with its bracelet felt rather like judging a painting by its frame, but for at least ten years now we have lived in the era of the integrated bracelet; the mania has certainly subsided from its peak, but as Ming itself says in its description of the Starfield, “Much ink has been spilled out of love for and frustration about integrated bracelets. We find ourselves in agreement with some of the frustration, yet there remains a strong appeal to the smooth continuity of a form that flows from dial to wrist and back.”

Retailers and sports watch brands have known for a lot longer than a decade that a good bracelet can make or break a watch - indeed, in the course of writing this I had half a mind to put together some kind of all-industry bracelet league table. I still might, to be honest; there are some shockers out there, and some unsung heroes. But back to the Starfield. Let’s spill some more ink.

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The main item today is the news of Dominique Renaud’s new watch, the one hertz Pulse60, which also heralds the arrival of a new brand, a new umbrella company and a number of mildly confusing acronyms. At the heart of it, however, is a real genius doing some really complicated and fundamental things with escapement architecture and other such heartland geek-fodder. The Pulse60 launches in three variants, and I promised I would provide some pictures, so here you go:

I also talk about Greubel Forsey’s final chapter for the sports-adjacent Balancier Convexe S2 - and what might replace it. There are new watches from Rado, Sarpaneva, Girard-Perregaux and Kollokium that are absolutely worthy of your time but which I sadly ran out of room to cover in any detail whatsoever - links below - and last but not least I give a minute to the worrying - if only in a fairly niche capacity - news that historical observatory trials data, the calculations by which chonometry prizes were awarded in Neuchatel and Geneva in the mid 20th century could be… completely wrong. This is ’s scoop and I urge you to read the full story on his Substack.

This Friday I will be reviewing the Ming Starfield, a watch with many talking points, but none more obvious or divisive than the design of its bracelet. You’ll find that in your inboxes as usual at 10:10 UK time. Until then!

Links discussed in today’s episode:

• Rado True Round Les Couleurs x Le Corbusier

• Kollokium Projekt 02 B

• Greubel Forsey Convexe

• Sarpaneva Firehorse

• Pointless Complication

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

Attention watch brand owners!

I know quite a few of you read The Fourth Wheel: this is a heads-up that the Independent Watchmaking Report will be returning this year and I will be distributing the survey next week. Watch your inboxes and tell your friends. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, last year I created the world’s first international analysis of indie watch brands and published it as a report. I’ll be doing the same this May - but bigger and better in every way - and it all starts with the survey. So if you work at an independent brand, I will be in touch very soon. Drop me a message if you want to know more.

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

So you want to be a watch writer?

I am asked surprisingly frequently for advice on becoming a watch writer. Sometimes by people who have already given it a bit of a go, sometimes by people who are just starting out, and I say surprisingly because if you have been reading The Fourth Wheel for long enough, or follow me on LinkedIn, you’ll know I don’t shy away from the fact that it’s not an easy way to make a living. But everyone has a different set of circumstances, and many people, I think, like the idea of doing a bit of writing on the side and getting paid for it rather than actually being reckless enough to try and make it their entire livelihood.

Getting paid is in fact a key distinction; I said I am asked for advice on becoming a writer, but what people really tend to be asking is ‘how can I find work as a writer’. The devil on my shoulder will always whisper something along the lines of ‘piss off, this is my patch,’ but I haven’t listened to him yet.

This is a slightly different thing, because although I don’t think you should be able to find professional writing gigs if your prose is horrible, it will be clear to all of us that you don’t have to be the next Hemingway or Fitzgerald to rattle off a few watch articles. By and large, people are generally not looking for a fine critique of their writing style - which is a shame, because they often need it. What is an even greater shame is that they will probably find someone to publish their work who isn’t interested in helping them improve as a writer as long as they deliver a trickle of page views. What follows is a beginners’ guide to achieving something more - the art of acquiring information, perceiving the compelling narrative within and delivering it to people in a form that they enjoy and find useful. That’s the idea, anyway.

It’s not enough just to like watches

If you are asking for advice on writing about watches I would hope you do like them, but having the beginnings of a collection - or who knows, perhaps a world-class one - and some strongly-held opinions about what Omega or Tudor should do next is not going to get you that far. It is far more important to be a good writer with an enquiring mind than to be a watch geek with time to spare.

You need a good editor

Knowing full well the irony of what I am about to say, having spent years now writing exactly what I want to whatever length I please right here on Substack, every good writer needs a good editor. I have worked with many, and whatever laments I may raise about freelancing in the mainstream media, one positive effect on my work is that it helps to retain some sense of discipline - by which I mean sticking to a word count, removing redundant material and staying on brief. Although as many commissioning editors would tell you, I stretch those limits all the bloody time; this is a liberty that you can occasionally take when you have developed a good relationship with a publication but objectively, is not great advice to follow. Do as I say, not as I do.

Anyway, a lot of enthusiast-led websites - and I think a fair few print magazines as well - lack the time, budget and dare I say it, journalistic grounding to know how to properly edit copy1. This isn’t the case at the biggest and best watch titles, but it is true of many places where an aspiring writer might get a start, especially retailers’ websites. With a few exceptions - Teddy Baldasarre might be one, although I can’t speak from personal experience, and Mr Porter when I worked there certainly was another - retail platforms don’t invest in editorially-trained staff. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that you may well find places willing to take a chance on a new writer, and by all means you should take them, because any experience is better than none, but pretty quickly you will probably realise that they don’t provide the level of feedback you need to improve as a writer.

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With that in mind, I share a few reflections on what I liked at BWD, and spend rather more time talking about the one thing that I really saw as a missed opportunity. As I say on the tape, the event was very good, but could have had a truly special headline act.

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Elsewhere, it is a tale of two idiosyncratic Japanese watches: the well-intentioned convertible dive watch from Kurono Tokyo, and the fascinating Otsuka Lotec No. 8. One attempts to offer a practical solution to fans unable or unwilling to choose between a retro daily wearer and a conventional dive watch, and the other is deliberately esoteric to the point of hipsterism. No prizes for guessing which I think is actually the better resolved and more appealing.

Back next week for more, when I truly hope there will in fact be more to talk about. Enjoy!

Links discussed in today’s episode:

• Vertex M36 “Desert Edition”

• Anoma

• Schofield Skeptiko

• Pinion Pure Origins

• Vulcain Skin Diver

• Junghans Aquaris

• Kurono Tokyo Diver’s Watch

• Otsuka Lotec No. 8

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

If you have been a free subscriber for a while, let me make one of my intermittent impassioned pleas: this really is the kind of thing you will not read elsewhere. Why not click that ‘upgrade’ button and find out what you’ve been missing?

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If you are reading this on Friday, I will be at British Watchmakers’ Day tomorrow. Come and say hi - I’ll be the one wearing the branded baseball cap, of course. You can still buy the official TFW hat, and I might just pop a few in my bag for anyone who wants to save on shipping. Otherwise it’d just be nice to say hello!

Buy The Hat

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

NOS

In the right place, those three letters can mean a huge amount to a collector - but even if you are a real veteran it might not be obvious just how much mystery, frustration, patience and sheer luck is concealed behind them.

New-old-stock is one of those phrases that, once you are sufficiently far down the horological rabbit hole, simply trips off the tongue without much interrogation. It will crop up in press releases a few times a year, at least, and while I’m not saying its primary meaning is overlooked - people generally understand what is literally meant - I think it has become a commodified concept, a badge of horological respectability that isn’t as well understood as it could be.

I don’t think anyone’s really at fault here, and I really don’t mean that brands use NOS cynically. As you’ll read, it’s actually one of the few areas of watchmaking in which I think it would be really difficult to cut corners. I just mean that that polite little term, when encountered alongside all the other specifications and poetic descriptions of a new watch, is something that can just glide serenely right through our brains, leaving behind nothing more than a general sense of heritage. Sometimes brands want to talk about the movement, in which case you are usually treated to a few paragraphs about the wonderful attributes of a Valjoux 88 or a Landeron 248 - but often, there are other narratives in the mix, the (accurate) perception being that even with a small-batch limited edition, the movement history might not be the prevailing source of interest for every buyer, and you don’t want to make it sound like they’re actually buying a vintage watch.

What is new-old-stock?

Whenever NOS is discussed in any detail, it is usually very simply framed in terms of the glory bestowed upon a modern brand by working with some of the great movements of watchmaking history. Without a doubt, that is the big draw of using a new-old-stock movement, but there is so much more to the process than the end result. I wanted to understand a bit more about how NOS movements appear in modern watches, so I spoke to four companies that all have recent experience in the area: Andersen Geneve, Fears, Massena Lab and Struthers. What I learned actually led me to respect the practice far more than I ever had, and I think it should be more widely appreciated. The next time you see a vintage movement in a modern watch, you’ll know that at some point along the line, its creator probably went through a huge amount of heartache to get it there1.

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Anyway, yes: I could not allow the moment to pass without having my two cents on Morgan Stanley vs Swatch Group, the most corporate of beefs we’re likely to see in 2026. I also report on the watch world’s arrival on the prediction market scene, courtesy of a partnership between pre-owned marketplace and analytics platform Bezel and specialists Kalshi.

Prediction markets interest me for how closely they are skirting the definition of gambling - in the USA they are regulated like financial instruments, by the CFTC, but in the UK the Gambling Commission has said that although it is not for them to comment on the legality in other jurisdictions, “if a prediction market operator was to launch in Great Britain we do not believe they would be able to classify themselves as non-gambling products.” Diplomatically put. But I bet you’ve all been eagerly awaiting the chance to spice up the pre-Watches & Wonders Rolex speculation with a little flutter - you can now gamble on whether we’ll get a new GMT, or if the Pepsi will be discontinued. Interesting times.

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The lead news is a new chronograph from Ming, a non-limited leftie monopusher with a muted palette and that lovely Polymesh bracelet. I also run the rule over three very different new watches: IWC’s blacked-out Portugieser Chronograph, Norqain’s Adventure and the Raymond Weil Millesime Tuxedo.

This week also brings an ignominious end to my unbroken run of ‘new indie watch brand launches’, as I couldn’t find news of a new indie that had launched in the last seven days. Ignominious because I also have to admit last week’s was a bogus entry - Annalise Dunselman launched her brand last year and I totally missed it. We regret the error, as the newspapers say. I’m sure I’ll be able to make up for it in the next few weeks.

Links discussed in today’s episode:

• Kalshi x Bezel: Watch Prediction Markets

• Swatch Group’s Open Letter to Morgan Stanley/LuxeConsult

• Ming’s 57.04 Phoenix

• IWC Portugieser Chronograph

• Norqain Adventure

• Raymond Weil Millesime Tuxedo

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

This kind of writing is closer to what I think of as traditional magazine fare - the kind of thing I’d submit to Esquire or the like. Let me know if you’d like to see more of it here.

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

But First, An Announcement: Hats

That’s right. It is a momentous day for headgear aficionados the world over, for I have finally launched into the nigh-on desolate marketplace that is the branded baseball cap. “You’ve got your own merch!” shrieked one of my highly respected journalistic colleagues, with thinly-disguised glee at my embrace of the least British of all behaviours: self-promotion.

I said to myself that 2026 would be the year I try as many new things for TFW as possible. I’ve thought about it for far too long, but here it is: a hat. Very little extra information is needed, really - it’s cotton, it’s grey, you put it on your head - but I hope some of you like it otherwise my friends and family are all getting some really predictable Christmas presents this year (and next year, and the year after that).

You can buy it HERE.

Full disclosure: this is my first time venturing into this world, and while I have spent a long time on Shopify trying to work everything out, I am slightly worried that in today’s landscape of tariffs and duties and so on, I will have made some kind of elementary mistake. If anything looks amiss, please let me know and I will make it right.

One more thing! Paying subscribers are entitled to a ten percent discount - you’ll find a code behind the paywall. And new Founder Members will receive a free hat, while stocks last.

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This week I pick over news that Breitling’s private equity owners had to downgrade the value of their investment, and what that might mean for the company - including a speculative thought or two about their eventual exit - and reflect on how this news arrives hot on the back of two corporate reports hailing the general ill-health of Breitling’s core market segment.

I persist in describing watches in a purely audio medium with my summary of Habring2’s Chrono-Felix ‘Medicus’, a limited edition collaboration with SJX and a watch I approve of very much. Ditto Citizen’s already-sold-out collab with Seconde/Seconde/; not so much Mido’s boring copy-paste of a Girard-Perregaux.

I recommend, as a ‘one you might have missed’, SJX’s insanely complicated piece on the science of resonance, by David Ichim. It’s mostly beyond me, and I’m ok admitting that, but I still think it should be as widely read as possible.

Lastly, in the Indie Brand Launch Of The Week slot I take a look at the Black Tulip, which sounds like a great title for a novel or an arthouse movie but is in fact the debut watch from Dutch watchmaker Annalise Dunselman. We may not need any more three-hand, manually-wound indie watches for nearly fifty grand, but too bad, we’ve got ‘em: at least it looks great.

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

The Centre Cannot Hold

First things first: this week saw the release of the annual Morgan Stanley/LuxeConsult watch industry report, narrowly losing out to Pancake Day in the rankings of “most important annual event this week in the Hall household”.

The usual caveats: the numbers are disputed by brands - actually, let’s be honest, they are disputed by brands who come off badly in the report. Jacob & Co actually put out a press release celebrating its status as the fastest-growing brand in the top 50, without once actually confirming that the figures are accurate. It’s have-cake-and-eat-it stuff.

Except the bottom line is that there really isn’t much cake to go round, and what there is is being consumed by four or five greedy greedy customers. Yes, the headline news is that Rolex, AP, Patek and Richard Mille are dominating; Cartier is bucking the group-brand trend, and Omega has slipped significantly (by its standards).

Before I go any further, I’m going to do something I would never expect in traditional media. If you want to read a really good analysis of this year’s report, seek out this week’s SDC Weekly by and if you want even more, take a look at Pointless Complication by . They both come to similar conclusions - it’s hard not to, given the data, which is why I’m not going to spend 2,000 words doing the exact same - but Velociphile builds in some extra context around employment data and brand strategy that means it’s worth reading both.

I will say just a few things about the report and the analyses above.

• If you think the market share dominance of the new ‘Big Four’ is crazy, at 51 per cent, their share of the profit pool - a ridiculous 76 per cent - is one of the most jaw-dropping stats in the report. The thought that every other watchmaker in the country is competing for a quarter of the potential reward is wild.

• You might be confused to see Breguet continuing to decline even after a bumper year of great press coverage, the big GPHG win and plenty of well-received watches. Well don’t be: nearly all the watches that got everyone salivating are seriously low volume even by Breguet’s standards, so even allowing for the premiumisation1 trend, the brand still needs to sell more ‘core product’. Secondly, I wouldn’t be surprised if a great deal of the anniversary watches are still in the production pipeline - if Breguet is lucky it’ll see a delayed bump in 2026 figures.

• This looks like the year we will start to get real about what has been happening at Panerai, if a claimed decline of 31 per cent in volume and turnover is accurate.

• I keep seeing some chumps on Instagram with ten times my social clout and beaming enthusiasm banging on about Vacheron Constantin being the most underrated watch brand. It sells nearly a billion francs’ worth of watches a year. Sure, it’s not as loud as AP, but there are music festivals that aren’t as loud as AP. Stop pushing this banal excuse for ‘insight’ into my feed.

• The really interesting thing to me now that we all know and understand exactly how much trouble the mid-market luxury brands are in (Omega, Breitling, TAG Heuer, IWC, Panerai and so on) is this: we have all spent a lot of time thinking and writing about what the brands have done wrong (lazy design, aggressive price hikes, corners cut, mixed messaging, take your pick) but what about the demand-side factors at work? By which I mean obviously the above list is more than enough to deter customers from buying, but are there other reasons why the former buyer of £5,000-£10,000 watches isn’t there any more? They can’t all be buying Rolexes and most indie alternatives are priced higher or lower. Is it the rise of pre-owned? Squeezed middle classes in economically flatlining Western nations? Turning away from watches altogether? Love to know your thoughts.

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• Given the consensus (which has been building for a while and isn’t news to anyone) I actually think this week’s main topic (which I will confess I decided to do because it has been a nightmare week and I needed to be a bit faster than usual) is germane. Velociphile says the bellwether sector of the market is the 5,000-15,000 bracket, so I am shopping at the low end of that, but he also says quite rightly that one of the biggest flaws with the industry’s current trajectory is that it neglects the pipeline of future customers, so I think looking at the low end could be the smart place to look.

Let’s go shopping: how to spend £5,000 on a watch in today’s market

I wanted to get back to basics this week and talk about what it’s really like to be out there with money in your pocket and watches on your mind. For once, it’s nice not to be focussing on the shortcomings of watch media, or the sillier elements of brand strategy.

It’s also - as I mentioned above - vaguely pertinent. We have come to accept that this is a problematic market segment, so what’s it like actually being in the mind of a potential customer?

For the purposes of this exercise, I’m imagining a very specific scenario that gives us what I have long considered “first really proper luxury watch” territory. Maybe I’ve inherited it, maybe it was a bonus, maybe I had a good night at the blackjack table, but I’ve got £5,000 that I hadn’t anticipated. Let’s say I’m not averse to putting some of it in the bank just in case, but that on the other hand, if I find my dream watch at £5,500 I can go the extra ten percent without worry. So I’m searching between £4,000 and £5,500. Let’s see what that gets us.

Scenario A: Buying New

First stop, the big multi-brand stores (because, I don’t know, I’m unimaginative but want to see a range). Can we take a moment to acknowledge how unintuitive it is to browse all brands, by the way, on the likes of Bucherer and WoS? Providing this kind of cross-brand comparison is meant to be your USP guys, but online, it’s all about directing traffic into particular brands. Good luck discovering anything you didn’t already know…

Behind the paywall: my comprehensive expert guide to the only watches even worth considering at retail price, followed by a load of frankly excellent pre-owned and vintage finds, all of which make the new propositions look a bit silly. There really is something for everyone.

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I have unfortunately been laid low with a chest infection, and being in no fit state to record a round-up of the week’s news (or spend hours at my desk writing one), I am instead bringing you the latest episode of The Watch Enquiry, the podcast I co-host with Tim Barber. So at least you have something to listen to!

The Watch Enquiry is on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, but I’ve included it here too - partly as a bit of an experiment. Episode 7 is titled “What Would We Do If We Were CEO For A Day?” and sees us take the hypothetical reins at four beloved brands.

This was a bit of an unusual episode. We almost didn’t release it at all - as some of you may know, we record TWE when it suits us and aim to tell stories that don’t go out of date. This episode was recorded in the summer of 2025, and due to some unforeseen delays to our production schedule (read: life getting in the way, as it does), we left it on the shelf a bit too long. Then the world shifted, and our conversation suddenly became relevant again.

You see, the point of this episode was to put some weight behind the common retort of ‘do you think you could do any better?’. As journalists we love to criticise, so this was our attempt at considering life from the other side of the desk. Although I will say, our thoughts are entirely speculative, knowingly ignorant of practicalities and pragmatic considerations and in at least some cases, totally far-fetched.

Or at least, so we thought. We live in interesting times, and although it hasn’t been confirmed - and maybe won’t be - the reported story that Richemont is even considering allowing Jaeger-LeCoultre to exit via a management buyout was too remarkable to ignore.

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That’s one brand we took it upon ourselves to run - for a day, anyway - so how about the others? Grand Seiko, Blancpain and Montblanc. Three companies with big reputations but that aren’t necessarily making the most of everything they have at their disposal. Like I said, we recorded this before Blancpain released the Grande Double Sonnerie; that watch would definitely have changed our impressions, but perhaps not as much as its coverage elsewhere would imply. Phenomenal creation: now we need to see interesting ideas further down the range.

But I’ve said too much - and my eyes are giving up - so without further ado, enjoy the episode. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal next week.

Thanks,

Chris

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The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

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Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

Cabin crew, all hands ready for landing

It has taken me a while to have this epiphany, but I think the concept of a pilot’s watch is in big trouble. All the gauges are spinning round, the altimeter is descending rapidly, red lights are flashing and at least two people in the cockpit are searching for the solitary parachute.

Before we go any further I need to make it clear: I am not expressing my surprise that people who buy pilot’s watches aren’t real pilots. That would be stating the bloody obvious; dive watches rarely get wet, chronographs are used for timing steaks and eggs if you’re lucky… we all know that luxury tool watches stopped being real tools a long time ago and that even though they are mostly still built well enough that you could use them for their theoretical purpose, they are the expression of an idea, a fashion statement for people who pretend not to understand fashion. I know this, you know this, I will not waste your time with anything so obvious.

My point is that even the idea of a pilot’s watch is fading into irrelevance. Traditionally when you engage with a modern tool watch, you do so with some level of recognition that although you, a regional manager for a perfectly successful retail conglomerate, will not literally go diving with your Submariner, you have nevertheless probably understood that this is a 300m rated device, that it engages with a proud history of dive watches, and perhaps you are vaguely aware that its appearance and design have been informed by greater physical demands than the Monday morning team meeting1.

At this point some of you might be up in arms. Maybe you love aviation in all its forms, go to air shows, enjoy plane-spotting, model-making and military history or just think fighters jets look freaking cool. Don’t worry. I love a lot of that stuff too. But you can’t just sell pilot’s watches to plane geeks. I’m talking about the mainstream presence of a major genre of watches and how they are expected to resonate with people who don’t know a Typhoon from a Tornado - and actually, I think if you are an aviation super-geek, you’ll probably have already reached the conclusion that I have, which is that the concept of a pilot’s watch today is about as relevant as Spitfires and Hurricanes are to modern warfare.

Specifically, I feel like recent developments from some of the biggest names in aviation watchmaking show that the threads connecting the watches with the concept of flight are wearing very thin indeed. I would contend that we have reached a point where it is practically impossible to sell a collection of watches based on aviation links, and even more far-fetched to call yourself an aviation watch brand.

You are probably not convinced. There are a great many pilot-themed watches in the market, many of which are celebrated stars of the horological firmament. I am not saying they have ceased to be appealing to customers - prima facie that is not the case, although I am saying that the way they appeal to customers these days has precious little to do with flight - and nor am I suggesting that they have somehow ceased to be good designs. There is more than one aviation archetype in watchmaking, and the best ones have survived because they are clean, purposeful designs, but in this case, design without meaning behind it is nothing. Pilot’s watches depend on their backstory to give meaning to the design, and while I’m not suggesting history is being erased, I do think it is being smudged into the background. I think there is a good chance we are diluting and corrupting the idea of a pilot’s watch to such an extent that this meaningful connection is being stripped away. It is the actions of brands, on one side, and bigger changes in society on another, that lead me to say that the pilot’s watch is, if not dead, then at serious risk of crash-landing.

Let me lay out my case.

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Thankfully it was a slightly quieter news week. The biggest story isn’t a confirmed news item at all but a tantalisingly exciting prospect: as reported by Miss Tweed, the idea that talks are ongoing that could see Jaeger-LeCoultre exit Richemont as part of a management buyout. That would be huge. When I spoke to CEO Jerome Lambert last year he spoke eloquently about his desire to recapture the dynamism that the brand showed under his first leadership stint (2002-2013). Maybe this is how he gets that done. But maybe not! As yet there is no comment from Richemont and no corroboration from other outlets either.

Breitling’s partnership with Aston Martin is newsworthy yet fundamentally very simple: however, it has helped crystallise a thought that has been forming over the last couple of years, and I’ll be devoting Friday’s newsletter to some analysis of what exactly the pilot’s watch is for in today’s world.

Meanwhile, a few words on Studio Underd0g’s takeover of its former assembly partner Horologium - now rebranded, of course, as The D0ghouse.

Naturally there were plenty of new launches, but the two I think are worthy of your time and attention are both space-themed bracelet watches from indie brands, Ming and Sarpaneva. And finally, our independent brand launch of the week is Niton, which has landed right in the centre of the bullseye in terms of hitting the jump-hour trend - with a watch that’s more than it first appears.

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

…

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This week saw Audemars Piguet launch what would a decade ago have counted as an impressive selection of references for an entire year, including an entirely new Art Deco style jumping-hour dress watch and a super pocket watch that comes with a petite jab at Vacheron Constantin. It will doubtless only be the opening salvo of launches. There are so many top tier launches that I lacked the time to talk about new releases from Moser, Angelus, Hermes or Studio Underd0g, to name just a few.

Instead I did my best to cling onto the rollercoaster of intrigue, with boardroom drama at Greubel Forsey. I’ve spoken to CEO Michel Nydegger and ousted co-founder Stephen Forsey (who, lest I raise your expectations in too much of a clickbait fashion, is not commenting at this time. Sorry.)

Elsewhere in this episode, I give a few thoughts on the oddity of Patek Philippe’s decision to lower prices in the USA, the continued chaos that is the gold market, and I speculate wildly about whether Tudor’s new-found love of motorsport will eventually deliver unto us the Big Block revival that is so patiently awaited.

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Thanks for listening. I’ll see you back here next week for more.

Chris

On that note, actually: are you a serious Omega collector and/or super geek? I’d like to talk. Nothing weird I promise :-)

As this is Issue 189, next week will be another Ask Me Anything. Every ten issues I throw it open to you and you have never let me down yet. What do you want to know? Ask and ye shall be answered.

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Thank you to everyone who has got on board with the new podcast: if you’re not aware, every Tuesday I publish a 20 minute audio bulletin summarising the week’s news. You can listen on Spotify as well as right here on Substack. Here’s this week’s episode.

The Fourth Wheel is a reader-supported publication with no advertising, sponsorship or commercial partnerships to influence its content. It is made possible by the generous support of its readers: if you think watch journalism could do with a voice that exists outside of the usual media dynamic, please consider taking out a paid subscription. You can start with a free trial!

Subscribe now

Here’s a little taste of what you might have missed recently:

In Brief

A couple of snippets that I didn’t want to leave until next Tuesday…

Back in November, in his unexpectedly awkward1 speech at Dubai Watch Week, Francois-Henry Bennahmias said that we could expect his new luxury conglomerate, The Honourable Merchants Group, to announce its first acquisitions in the watch world at the start of 2026. Word on the grapevine was that an announcement was scheduled for the first week of February.

This week, however, an email went out from THMG dashing cold water on those expectations. In a note from the CEO himself, it says “If we’ve been a little quieter than usual lately, it isn’t for lack of news, but because our focus has shifted entirely toward a decisive chapter: our funding.” Describing this period as a stage that “demands a level of presence and intensity that explains our relative silence,” the email says that although an announcement had been imminent, for the time being there is no news - “some stories are better told only once the ink has dried” - and signing off with “the best is yet to be built”.

Back in 2025 I wrote about the potential acquisitions that THMG might have in its sights, from the likes of Sowind’s Girard-Perregaux and Ulysse Nardin to the hotly-anticipated De Bethune or unlikely prospects like Minerva.

Even this lack of news is intriguing: when THMG was announced (and in fact long before), the one thing everyone seemed to be sure of was that it came with a huge war chest. However, when he spoke to The Luxury Society Podcast last year, Bennahmias said that “a really dear friend is basically financing the whole beginning of the entire venture”, but that plenty of other willing funders were waiting in the wings. “We have people calling… it’s never going to be an issue of finding the money; I don’t just want money, I want smart money. I want people who can bring access, distribution, R&D, things we don’t know about. We have to open the doors slowly, because right now my friend and I are financing everything.”

I believe there are moves afoot; I can also easily believe they aren’t progressing as quickly as expected. The very faint whispers on the grapevine are that some of the names I’ve mentioned might be right, but until THMG can put pen to paper and make it real, I also know there are sceptics in the industry who say F-H B talks a big game. He doesn’t have much to prove, is my take, but I hope we see some action this side of W&W.

Speaking of our annual Springtime pilgrimage to the lakeside, there is a new satellite event to be aware of. Called Chronopolis, it’s going to take place in downtown Geneva from April 14-18th, in the Halles de l’Ile, an event and exhibition space on a tiny pedestrianised island in the mouth of the Rhone, a stone’s throw from the Mandarin Oriental and Four Seasons hotels. It’s being organised by ApresDemain, the creative agency that also owns cult magazine Heist Out, and will host 20 independent brands (key names include Atelier Wen, Awake, Dennison, Baltic, Furlan Marri, Studio Underd0g, Serica, Nivada and Spaceone).

Crucially, it’s free to visit, promises to be laid-back, hands-on and transactional; sounds like some of the Time+Tide / BWD / WindUp playbook is finally gaining traction in the motherland. To me, it sounds a lot easier than trying to find your way around the Beau Rivage suites. If you’re mulling whether to visit W&W as a punter, this might be worth considering - although the flip side, for me, is that this is more or less the same set of brands that are every regional watch fair. If you live somewhere that’s not (yet) served by a decent watch event, maybe it’s worth it; if you know these brands already you may decide to catch them in a city that doesn’t cost quite as much as Geneva to visit.

Time to Split

I first came across Split Watches last summer, when the brand made its public debut. I sat down for a long introductory chat with founder Ed Margulies, and to tell you the truth, the only reason I didn’t write anything about Split back then is because others got there first and did a great job.

Now Split is back with an addition to its launch collection and a little tease about what’s coming next - but more importantly, with six months’ perspective. This week I met up with Margulies again, and discussed progress so far. Here at TFW you’ll probably know that one of the subjects closest to my heart is what it takes to successfully launch a new brand. The watch industry has no shortage of optimistic entrepreneurs (to say nothing of the investors and executives who think they can triumph where others have failed - Favre Leuba, Corum, Baume & Mercier, Breva… but that’s another story) and I think Split is an interesting case study.

For one thing, you could never accuse Margulies of lacking industry experience. “I’ve literally been born into this industry,” he says when I ask how he drew on his past experiences to create his own brand. His father is Marcus Margulies, one of the most influential businessmen in the watch industry of the last half-century - through Time Products, the owner of Sekonda and Accurist; as the former owner of the eponymous boutique Marcus, one of the driving forces behind high-end independent watch retail in London, and as a distributor operating across the UK and Europe, intrinsically linked to the fortunes of brands including Girard-Perregaux, Blancpain, Audemars Piguet, Hublot, Greubel Forsey and others.

Ed’s training in the family business began during his school holidays, but his exposure to the industry goes beyond the commercial. As a young man he trained as a watchmaker, learning the ropes at Longines in St Imier before working for both Vacheron Constantin and Piaget. His CV includes Watches of Switzerland, Aspreys and even “a couple of weeks at Ratners before that all came crashing down.”

Joining Time Products in the early 1990s, he had a front row seat for the industry’s rebirth, as Switzerland’s most prestigious brands laid the foundations on which today’s luxury giants are built.

“We got a call from Jean-Claude Biver, who had just taken on Blancpain, literally within weeks. We went over to Switzerland to meet him and it was just him and a suitcase. He had six watches in the suitcase: his master complications and I think before he even opened the suitcase, we wanted to take the brand on. I was entrusted with bringing it into the UK and managing the brand.”

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