What Happens When Watch Bloggers Stop Being Polite, and Start Getting “Real”
If you’ve skimmed even one of my pieces, you’ll know that, thanks to the freedom offered by my own web page, I tend to indulge myself by writing quite-to-very long pieces on whatever I’m thinking about at a given time.
The length of each article meant that while I managed to sit down to write frequently towards the end of last year, I never reached any kind of publication frequency, and that frequency dropped to practically nil at the end of 2022.
Kind of…
You wouldn’t know it from visiting just this site, but I’ve picked up the pace dramatically, and that’s what I want to focus on here.
New Year, New Me
Even though I do get a lot of personal enjoyment from writing, of course I’ve always wanted to reach as broad an audience as possible; the broader the audience, the greater the feedback and the more ideas you have to work with for subsequent pieces.
At the start of 2022, after posting some of my early texts on message boards and receiving positive feedback, I became comfortable enough to start contacting established writers directly. Much like I’m sure you are, they’re busy people, with perhaps many other people “cold-pitching” them as well, so I never got any significant response back.
That changed in early January, when I was going through my podcasts and a show came up that I’d never heard of, hosted by two gentlemen whom I’d definitely heard of.
If you’ve been in the watch hobby for even a short length of time, you’ve probably come across Fratello’s podcast, on which up until recently you’d have heard Rob Nudds, and occasionally Alon Ben Joseph (based in Amsterdam, also the HQ of Fratello) would drop by to share his deep insights learned from decades of retail experience.
It turns out that prior to Fratello, Rob was with Nomos in a sales capacity, and in that capacity had worked with Alon. The two leveraged that friendship to start their own watch podcast, called “The Real Time Show”.
I was curious about the content of episode 11, the latest at the time, which was based on a Q&A format. The hosts were open about the audience contacting them, and they seemed to share some of the ideas I’d put in writing, so I thought to myself:
“Why not drop them a line on Instagram”?
Long-story-short, even though Rob and Alon are also very busy people, they, out of everyone I’d contacted, were kind enough not only to read my work, but after some in-depth exchanges they also extended me an invitation to help build The Real Time Show!
If you didn’t get the reference in the title, no worries, I just happen to be really old.
Nevertheless, that perhaps obscure sentence was the first thing that popped into my head as I was sitting down to write this article on what I’ve been up to lately, not only because of the “Real” in the title, but also because of the guiding principles of the podcast.
I’ve had several “big picture” conversations with Rob and Alon, and I think I can summarize their vision for The Real Time Show in just three points:
Deliver nothing less than “Absolute Quality”
Establish unmatched interactivity with the audience
Provide to the audience the watch industry’s most insightful content
Though I went about it differently from Rob and Alon prior to us first speaking, those were always three values I chased with my own writing, and ultimately, that alignment is why I’m so happy to be a part of this team.
What now?
The watch industry is now several years into a hype cycle which has brought many new collectors and, more relevantly to this piece, more content creators than ever before.
You don’t need me to tell you that quantity does not always imply quality, so if you’re looking for something different, please do give The Real Time Show a listen (or two!). If you take the time to do that, I can almost guarantee that you will learn something, and you might even find yourself refreshed by the honest, open thoughts that Alon and Rob share with each other, as well as the candor with which their guests speak.
As for me, I’m contributing content mostly behind-the-scenes (for now) as part of what we’re calling “Audio Articles”, or “Audicles” for short. The idea with these pieces - and everything The Real Time Show publishes, actually - is to deliver content that takes a definite stance, and invites the audience to continue the conversation afterwards.
In short, we want to be, well, Real, with you!
For a different kind of watch podcast, please do check out The Real Time Show (clicking on the pic will take you there)!
Thanks to Rob and Alon’s editorial input, I’ve built up a good pace of content delivery and look forward to sharing more with you in that format down the line.
And, since we like to challenge each other as much as the industry at large, the plan is that after each Audicle, I’ll also sit down for round-tables where Rob and Alon will share their own thoughts and provide more context on the topic. The first round-table covered the Tiffany x Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711, and you can listen to that here.
Despite my focus on helping build The Real Time Show, I hope to publish more pieces on style and Everyday Carry via this website, as well as update the Shop section when the inspiration strikes me and/or the right products come my way; I’ll publicize those updates via my Instagram page.
Thanks as always for visiting here, and I look forward to hearing from you soon on The Real Time Show!