Rebuilding in 2024: What I’ve Learned About Watches and Media
What works – and doesn’t – in today’s media, and the case for durability (and FUN) in 2025.
It was a weird, busy, exhausting year. Let me start this 2024 reflection by briefly telling you about 2020.
I. 2020
It was the pandemic and I was bored and started regularly writing a weekly newsletter. Soon, the Mothership wrote one of its “open letters” to the community, inviting submissions for Watchville (RIP), the old watch news aggregator.
I emailed Eneuri and Russell and a few long months later, Rescapement (RIP) was added to the Watchville feed, next to first-gen blogs like Fratello and Worn & Wound.
For a little part-time blogger (still an attorney), being included in Watchville felt like a big deal and probably helped sell a few ads. I even took a screenshot when I had the second most-viewed article that first week:
It felt fitting. They were announcing a new (ecommerce!) CEO, while I was writing some think piece about the Crash. Out with the old, in with the new – or so my main character syndrome told me.
II. 2022
Irony of ironies, I joined Hodinkee as an editor in September 2022. It was a turbulent couple of years, but a good decision — and I lasted slightly longer than that CEO. Now, I’m a guy writing newsletters again.
In the meantime, I’d noticed those Watchville views weren’t really translating to subscribers. It’s a lesson many had learned. In the 2010s, dozens of media companies took big investments and chased page views to compete with Google and Facebook. Page views, not people – that’s what mattered.
But that’s a losing game.
No one, not my little watch blog or the Chicago Tribune or Buzzfeed, could compete. Some shifted to selling watches, with varying success. In the meantime, influencers and eyeballs moved to social media.
Eventually, Watchville shut down, the end of an era.1 We’d moved from forums to blogs (that became real publications) to social media creators.
Now, creators drive the conversation. It’s Revolution covering a “trend” that one guy with an iPhone created, not the other way around (sorry Felix).
III. 2024
I’m stuck somewhere between these last two eras, while we all try to figure out what’s next. I started blogging because it was fun and this was never supposed to be a job. Then I started doing videos and podcasts for Hodinkee.
I’m not crazy about the shift towards creators and influencers. It often lacks substance and can feel very transactional. Turns out, brands can buy a slot in all those “12 Best Bronze Watches” guides. Even I struggle to tell what’s genuine vs. sponsored – and I do this for a living.2
Just as frustrating, editors at traditional outlets have legacy access but often no opinion to offer.
Ben Thompson of Stratechery often says, “It doesn’t matter how you feel about technology.” It’s inevitable – adapt. So I worked on my social media on the side and doubled my following in a few months of making short videos. I may not love social media, but I also loved to complain that, for most of my time at the Mothership, it didn’t have a dedicated social media manager.
Today, everyone has to be everywhere, whether you’re a new-age creator or old-school journalist. The article is important, but the article needs to be a TikTok needs to be a podcast and vice versa, with the presentation optimized for every platform.
Successful independent brands, creators, and dealers have adapted to the internet, where anyone can talk their sh*t and build an authentic, direct connection with an audience. Not everyone can pull that off, but to the extent I can, I want to do it for myself, not others.
This year affirmed that if readers aren’t following you, and you specifically, media is a scary business. This hit home with every round of layoffs, hit piece or WSJ article, or acquisition (related to my company or others).
It’s made me think about the power of brands vs. individuals. Except for the most important brands (New York Times, Rolex, Apple), we connect with individuals, especially in a hobby like watches.3
At their best, watches provide an outlet for relationships – often parasocial – but it’s pretty easy to connect with your favorite dealer, collector, watchmaker, or media personality (hi!).
It’s also harder than ever to make a living on “content,” at least the old way. Most titles have been scooped up by retailers or built their own retail operations. More dealers, hobbyists, and enthusiasts than ever are also creating content, and the industry realizes this.4
This newsletter is just me (though I have plans to bring in new voices soon). There’s no need for SCALE. It might not reach everyone, but it doesn’t need to. Everything’s a niche, a subculture, a subreddit.
IV. Something Worth Paying For
Since leaving Hodinkee, I've gained about 1,300 new subscribers while rebuilding this newsletter over the past two months. A few are here to win a LEGO watch – fair enough.
But I hope some of you stick around.
In New York Magazine’s annual media issue, one headline read, “The Media’s Most Promising New Business Idea? Make Something Worth Paying For.”
Somewhere in the chase for views and likes, we lost sight of what matters: delivering value to the audience, to the collector.
Every media outlet has incentives. Sometimes, they even conflict: Selling watches, advertising, engaging readers, serving brands.
As a subscription-first newsletter, the goal will be simple: Make something worth paying for. I don’t think it’s inherently better than any other way of making money, but it feels like the right way to (re)start a sustainable media operation in 2025.
V. 2025
The challenge for 2025 is building on this momentum in a crowded, noisy space.
For now, I’m focused on delivering authentic, insidery, and – most of all – fun newsletters for collectors every week. As it grows, I hope to invest in contributors, audio/video, small community events, and more. Social media is important, but not central.
I’ve been thinking about the unifying theme for this newsletter’s relaunch and how to make it worth paying for. Here’s the rough tagline:
Collector’s notes on watches that last, including recs on what to buy (and what not to).
I tried “timeless” a few weeks ago, but that’s corny and cliché. Sorry, I’ll do better.
Instead, I think I was aiming for durability – not just in the quality of the watches, but in their resistance to trends and ability to adapt as you change.5
Durability is what can set watches as objects apart. We’ll celebrate those that achieve it, and call out those that don’t (maybe the Cartier Tank Solar Beat?; Bremont). Hopefully, you'll find value in the original stories, scoops, and vintage watch recommendations.
Thanks for reading these past two months – I’m excited for 2025.
I’ll be back with a short 2025 predictions post this weekend.
LEGO Watch Giveaway
The random winner of the LEGO watch will be emailed separately today. Keep an eye on your email, including spam. If the winner doesn’t respond in 24 hours, we’ll pick a new one (every subscriber was entered for a chance to win).
A Few Favorite Articles from 2024
After last week’s Jealousy List, here are a few of my favorite articles from 2024:
In-Depth: More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About the Watch Crystal
Buying, Selling, Collecting: The Rolex Bubbleback and Why it Still Matters (+ this feature on Ken Jacobs)
📻 And a few Hodinkee Radio episodes: Max Büsser; Justin Gruenberg and Eric Ku of Loupe This; Fred Savage; Eric Wind; Everything You Need To Know About Stone Dials; Sebastien Chaulmontet of Sellita.
📩 And finally, favorite newsletters:
ROUNDUP
🇨🇳 Chinese watches have fans, but can they rival the Swiss? Newsletter Why Is This Interesting? on the growing appeal of Chinese watchmaking. Cool to see Qin Gan and Atelier Wen get some love — I also covered both for Hodinkee in 2024.
🔨 Sotheby’s reverses course on fee structure announced in February after challenging 2024. More on this next week.
🥘 The Wirecutter Podcast on kitchen tools that last a lifetime. Or, an ode to the humble cast iron pan.
⌚ Predictions for the 2024 lifestyle from 1987 (the watch comes at about 40 seconds).
📃 The new rules of media. 20 lessons for digital media’s present and future.
Finally, I’ll be at the Miami Beach Antique Show on January 10–11, moderating a panel on Saturday 1/11 at 2pm. Let me know if you’ll be around South Florida, and hope to see some of you there!
Thanks for reading and Happy New Year,
Tony
Yes, this can be the case with traditional publications too, but influencers seem more openly transactional.
Scott Galloway also recently wrote that “people are the new brands,” basically positing that we’re all so, so lonely we form parasocial relationships with podcasters, creators, anyone – a complicated idea for another day.
More “trade shows” are catering to professionals and clients. Geneva Watch Days is already a mix of professionals and clients, and Watches & Wonders is targeting clients with VIP passes in 2025.
The case against “timelessness” and for durability deserves a newsletter.
Great post! Looking forward to your focus on durability as it is perhaps the key attribute, imho. Rolex history and success can largely be understood in terms of material and stylistic durability. All the best for the new year!
Loved following you since 2020 Tony. This article was great. This line in particular hit me (as I’m in this space for a living as well):
“Turns out, brands can buy a slot in all those “12 Best Bronze Watches” guides. Even I struggle to tell what’s genuine vs. sponsored – and I do this for a living.”
I wished more people realized this. Real, raw, unbiased takes are what the community wants. Not ad placement shills.