BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
So I’ve been at this writing gig for ten years now, how about that? What started as a fun little pastime eventually became a huge part of my life. For a decade, I’ve covered the latest news from the watch industry, met brilliant people (and interviewed some of them), toured press shows and factories alike and, most importantly, got my hands on a lot of watches. Not bad, I think, considering this all started from an advert in a Facebook group. Doing something like this for a while means that even if you don’t actively work on improving or developing a part of yourself, the exposure will mean you will pick it up anyway by osmosis or something. I wish I paid more attention in science class.
Anyway, what I mean is that while some of the things I’ve picked up over the years I did have to work on quite a bit, some of them just come naturally with time. So, I guess, if you are worried about a new job or even a career change, just remember that some of it will only come with practice and patience. On that note, here are three things I’ve learned over my time at WristReview.
1 – Authorship for published media
When people think of authors I’d bet that, at first, they think of story authors, people whose books usually end up being turned into movies or end up on best-selling lists somewhere. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that news outlets also have authors who have to think about deadlines and word counts and so on as well, although their work is typically nowhere near as long as even the shortest novella.
Yet, I think there is an art to making things make sense concisely while also adding personal flair. For some people, their flair might be known to them already, they might write in a positive manner, while others might use sarcasm and dry humour to get their point across. Others will find out what their flair is over time. Most will also change their tone depending on what they’re writing about, even in watches, and we haven’t even gotten to the parts where we attempt to explain what’s happening inside the movements yet. Distilling years of complex work by skilled artisans into something easily digestible is quite tricky, I don’t think I’m particularly good at it most of the time, but that’s what the comments section is for, right folks? Right?
Oh, and this isn’t a plug or an advert of any kind, but if you’re new to written published media or looking to get into it, I’d strongly recommend you get yourself some software that checks spelling, punctuation, grammar, and more. The amount that software can do, compared to when I started, is immense. I bought a premium subscription from Grammarly for my university studies, and I still use it today because of the amount it can do. Having said that, Microsoft Word can also do a hell of a lot of writing style recommendations and adjustments but most of it you have to switch on first (Options > Proofing > Writing Style: Grammar & Refinements > Settings [choose the things you want]). Also, don’t forget to proofread your work!
2 – Macro photography
Unlike the authorship point, where those skills come in mostly by repetitive working, this one I had to go out of my way to learn more about, and I know I have a long way to go on it yet. For a long time I was using an older digital camera my dad let me borrow. It took some decent shots with the right lighting and settings, but it was quite awkward to use sometimes, even the extra lights and the little light tent I bought made little difference. Eventually, I saved and bought myself a Canon Eos R and a new lens and what a difference that made even without diving into the settings.
Taking pictures was so much easier and quicker, and the newer lenses were crystal clear. I also got hold of a larger light tent, I think dad bought that as well, which is not only extremely bright (perfect for macro work) but also had lots of room for props, decals and space to give my photos more depth. It’s now at the point where I feel I can comfortably take a fair number of pictures in at least half the time it used to take me, so that’s an improvement.
I’ve also been able to take some of what I picked up on the road with me. If you’ve been following WristReview for a while now, you’ll know that last year and this year have been my first attendances at Watches & Wonders Geneva. My “mobile setup” now consists of the camera and a few spare batteries and SD cards, one lens and one light source. The light source made a big difference this year as some of the brands have a helpful photo “studio” in their booths while others have the worst photo lighting imaginable. Apart from the camera and lenses and the software and stuff, I’d recommend a good light source and also some lens brushes to remove dust particles from the watches, as a macro camera picks up a lot more than your eyes do!
3 – How to interact in a (mostly) professional environment
This one encompasses many different areas, but I’ll narrow it down to your conduct and language skills, speaking to (and interviewing) people, and other social skills. If you’ve little experience of these things outside your regular life, then it can be quite daunting to deal with so many other people, especially when you start going to the big shows like Watches & Wonders. Keeping level-headed when it seems like the world is piling on top of you is difficult especially if you don’t fully understand what’s happening. Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re outside of “the circle”, and that’s probably because you are, but it’s okay.
I learned to keep to my principles but also moderate internally what I say and when depending on where I was or who I was nearby. I don’t really know how to describe it other than that, it’s challenging to make sure that you’re honest with yourself while being considerate of those around you. If you look at most internet chat forums and social media websites, you’ll see that most of that subtlety has gone out the window, even I’m guilty of it. I also still haven’t mastered getting over social awkwardness, especially when I’m around people I don’t know. Sometimes, I’m able to rely on Jovan, who’s well-connected and probably knows the people at the table anyway, but is also a great icebreaker. I have yet to do that, but I’m working on it. I think this is another thing that you only pick up by doing it, I guess we could call it a form of “exposure therapy”, where you learn by throwing yourself in the deep end. It seems like a lot of people could do with this to help them improve.
Oh, and I also need to work on remembering faces and names. I wonder if Napoleon wrote down any of his tricks.
So, those are just three of the things I learned over my time here at WristReview, although there are definitely others, and there’s work to be done with some of them. I’ve also listed my ten favourite articles, one from each year of WristReview, with links if you’d like to check them out. Mind you, I don’t promise that any of my older articles are any good, but some of them are here because they were a first for us, others because I put a lot of work into them and I’m proud of that, and others were just fun to write. Is this a little self-congratulatory? Perhaps, but darn it, I’ve earned this one.
2014 – 2015: Parmigiani Fleurier Bugatti Mythe Piece Unique
There were a couple of articles I had in mind for this year. We did our first-ever Top 5 article in 2014. I wrote about Fabergé watches before they became cool again, and I did my very first hands-on review of a watch which was an old Enicar that my dad bought from eBay for me. The watch has definitely been refinished during its lifetime, but I like it; it’s somewhere around the house, waiting to be serviced and brought back to life once more. The very first article I did for WristReview was on a Parmigiani Fleurier piece, one of their one-offs in partnership with Bugatti back when that was a thing. This piece was one of those ones where the dial is visible most when on your wrist in the driving position, you know, the one that Jeremy Clarkson once described on Top Gear as “absolutely hideous”. I don’t think the watch is. It’s actually quite beautiful, and the horology is awesome, but Bugatti’s current watchmaking partner is certainly giving ugly designs its best shot.
2015 – 2016: A.Lange & Söhne – WristReview goes to Glashütte
The highlight from this year for me came right at the year’s end with our trip to A.Lange & Söhne’s factory in Glashütte. It was my first ever solo trip abroad, my first trip to a watchmaker and the very first time Jovan and I met up. I flew to him in Sweden, and then we made our way to Dresden and met up with fellow journalists from Norway, the UK and other areas. The article came out more like a story of random things that happened rather than specific details of the manufacture as one would know and expect. I also didn’t think to take a notebook, so keeping track of what we saw was quite difficult. That didn’t stop me from going round a second time in 2019. Still, was still a great time and a great article, and I’m proud to say that we still collaborate regularly with great folks at A.Lange & Söhne, and Jovan and I still laugh about sprinting across Frankfurt airport with our luggage only for our flight to be delayed at the last minute. Good times.
2016 – 2017: WristReview’s watch buyer’s guide for Holidays 2016
I don’t think this was our first buyer’s guide for the Holiday season, but I think it was one of the first ones I did. These guides are usually tricky to write; it’s challenging to keep track of everything we’ve seen and even harder to advise people on what to buy when luxury watches are just so expensive. As I write this, I think we are past the cost of living crisis that a lot of us have had to bear, so perhaps we should do another buyer’s guide in this style at the end of the year and include some lower-budget pieces as well. Also, I think with this one, I’d left it to the last minute, as I usually do, and ended up having to stay awake overnight and into the morning to get it done and meet the publishing time. Nothing motivates you quite like a deadline!
2017 – 2018: Officine Panerai – WristReview goes to Neuchâtel
Whereas my first trip to a watchmaking factory was a disaster from a detail point of view, and our visit to Chopard’s factories was fun but perhaps not much better in terms of details, I feel that I really narrowed in on the production methods and other details used by Panerai in this article. The reason I think this way? The humble notebook. Yes, it seems daft, but when you’re quite excitable about watches and someone asks “would you like to go where they’re made?” your rational brain tends to go out the window somewhat when packing for the trip. Or, well, mine does. Anyway. Thanks to some swift writing, I was able to give a more precise writeup about the journey a Panerai watch makes around their main manufacturer in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It also gave me more insight into the way Panerai is run, in that it’s a bit like a family. I went into the London boutique sometime after the visit, I don’t remember when, and the salesman there got really excited and said I was virtually family to them. I know it’s a sales tactic, but it very nearly worked!
2018 – 2019: The Statement of Horological Position – A good start to 2019 mired by summertime blues
Without wishing to turn this into the list of article ideas that I should pick up on, I think I’ve got one here. This piece is the first in a short set of articles called The Statement of Horological Position. Although they take their name from the statement of financial position (that’s a balance sheet to you overseas readers) you’d find in accountancy handbooks and reports, the articles focused more on the news from around the industry and used data issued by the Fédération de l’industrie horlogère Suisse FH which they issue every six months. Essentially, it’s a bi-annual snapshot of how the Swiss watch industry is looking. This was one of the first times we’d looked into the statistics side of things more; as I’m sure you know, we usually focus on news related to watch releases, and I learned how many resources the Swiss had pooled into things like this. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, horology is their thing now, but you never know what you’ll find until you start wading through things. I think the Covid-19 Pandemic stress of things stopped me from going further with the Statement articles at the time, as the last one was published at the beginning of January 2021. Perhaps 2025 will see a return of these Statement articles?
2019 – 2020: 10 Great British Horologists
If you’d asked me two or three years ago which article I’m most proud of I’d have told you that it’s this one, although I really liked the long-term review of the Rolex GMT-Master II 126710BLNR. Even today this might well be the article I’m most proud of writing. It’s funny; one doesn’t naturally associate the UK with horology, which is most likely because British horology reached its peak before the mid-19th century, which is when history seems to get a bit fuzzy. Back in those days, British and French horology were considered the world’s best, while the Swiss toiled away making cheap copy watches during the winter months when they needed something to do while they froze to death. Okay, that might be a bit far, but that’s essentially what happened. Nowadays, as you know, the Swiss lead the world in the art of horology, but they only did that by standing on the shoulders of giants. Also, figuring out dates and historical points (and finding photos to use) for this article was a nightmare, but perseverance paid off!
2020 – 2021: Giveaway & Audience Survey 2020
Okay, this one is less of an article to be proud of and more of the work that we did. Sorting out an audience giveaway isn’t an easy thing to do if the thing you’re giving away is a luxury wristwatch. Sure, if we were a watch dealer it would be a lot easier to do that, but we aren’t. Why would we run a giveaway anyway? Well, to be honest, the main reason is to encourage people to fill in our audience survey which we need to get extra analytics information. Of course, we get statistics from other places such as our internet service provider and whatnot, but only audience surveys give us that extra level that we can use to make WristReview a website people want to advertise their brands on. I think we might have to work quite a bit to get a Rolex or something of that level in, but perhaps we can do something like this again soon!
2021 – 2022: WristReview’s Top 5 Unusual Watch Collaborations
We’d done a lot of Top 5 articles by this point, and I mean a lot, so coming up with interesting ideas isn’t particularly easy. You could say that this is part of the reason we’ve slowed down on them a bit recently, and I won’t disagree there. This one was a good one, I feel, as I remember having to think outside of the box in order to get it done. You see, watch brands often create partnerships with other brands. Luxurious and exotic car brands are the most common as people who can drop a quarter-million quid on a watch will have all sorts of fancy wheels. But fashion brand tie-ins are popular too, and it seems TAG Heuer’s been making serious moves to overtake Rolex when it comes to Formula One advertising, although that’s not necessarily unusual. Perhaps the strangest pairing from the Top 5 list is Zenith and Cohiba (Cuban cigars). As it turns out, they’ve been partners for decades, but you never hear about these watches in the press. It’s probably to avoid advertising smoking as a luxurious experience, but Cuban cigars are just that, and everyone knows it. We did a follow-up to this one in late 2022, and I’d say the G-Shock Gravitymaster watch for the Honda Jet is the most unusual from that list, if anyone’s wondering.
2022 – 2023: Interview: Jacky Ickx, racing legend and brand ambassador for Chopard
One of the highest points in this period, for me, has got to be meeting and interviewing Jacky Ickx. The man is a living legend, someone who’s been into racing all of his life and was a part of it at its most dangerous. Jacky goes to Watches & Wonders Geneva as one of Chopard’s brand ambassadors and a friend of the Schuefele family, who runs it, but to be honest, we spent very little time talking about watches. That wasn’t out of rudeness towards Chopard, more so that with a man of his calibre (no pun intended) present, it’s hard not to talk about the thing he devoted his life to and is undoubtedly most famous for. His devotion to motorsports seems as powerful as it was back when he was racing, although now there’s definitely a love for watches too. Jacky Ickx, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, and so many more have been inspirations for so many who came after them, it was a really powerful experience.
2023 – 2024: A Fortnight Review: A.Lange & Söhne’s Lange 31 Watch
The last entrant onto this list has to be the two-week review I did of the Lange 31, although I am also very proud of the recent interview we published with Czapek Genève’s CEO, Xavier de Roquemaurel. The reason I’m most proud of this one is because the Lange 31 is one of my grail watches, the other being Breguet’s Classique Complications Double Tourbillon. I have worn that one; my parents took me down Bond Street in London for my 18th birthday, and the Breguet boutique had one at the time. I will one day get to do a Fortnight Review of a Double Tourbillon, but in the meantime we covered the beast that is the Lange 31. This watch hasn’t been updated much, and the model I tried on was released years ago, but nobody really cares about that. I’m also particularly proud of the photos in this article. It’s taken a long time to get the hang of macro photography, particularly as I don’t practice it often, and I think the photos came out well here. The backdrop for most of these photos is one of the many floor tiles I gave for these types of things, and I think the bunch of flowers I bought cost about £5, but they went a long way and contrasted nicely with the austere appearance of the Lange 31.
So, there we have it—a decade of work set out in one article. I’m not entirely surprised to say that most of my work here has been articles about new watches, although there’s plenty of other stuff in there, too. Doing this has also given me some great ideas for things to publish, so make sure to subscribe to our notifications and emails so you don’t miss out when we upload new content.
Once again, thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey so far, I look forward to continuing this and seeing all of the new innovations from the watch industry. As always, see you in the comments!
