Sick and tired (yelling at clouds)

Watch content has been a circlejerk for a while now, we all know that. I grew tired of hearing about the latest and greatest best value Miyota- or Seiko-powered micro brand “disrupting the industry” many, many moons ago. I’ve been tired of hearing about people whining about Seiko QC and questionable moves like killing the Seiko 5. Seiko sales are surely up, so the marketing eggheads probably don’t know nothing. “Seiko is so stupid for discontinuing the old Seiko 5, but look at my shiny new Seiko 5 Sports and Alpinist.” Sure, buddy, they are stupid…

The Rolex bubble burst, or it didn’t; I haven’t been bothered to look at prices, because I’d only ever consider buying a vintage Air-King or Oysterquartz Datejust which aren’t really hype pieces. What the prices do doesn’t concern me; I’ll be a student for the next four or five years so why waste my time and energy?

WatchCrunch used to be an excellent platform, but it’s been in the toilet for a while now. It’s as bland as bland can be. My posts haven’t performed well since late last year, and with interaction with the community being my only motivation to post in the first place, I’d rather not type out well-thought-out posts if my only audience is myself.

I’m a student now and the first semester is almost over. I’m writing exams. My course is more draining than a bullet hole in a catheter bag. I still love watches and think about them on the daily, but I find more enjoyment in an hour of drinking and forcing nicotine into my system than an hour of browsing watch internet. Not to sound all high and mighty, but TER is the last bastion of hope for people like myself and my fellow writers. I want to discuss movements, not just high-horology ultra-thin super complicated movements that serve as the centrepiece for a watch, but basic vintage movements. I want to know about the history of that vintage watch you just bought at the flea market; aren’t you curious to find out if some long-defunct department store stocked them? If no one was curious or discerning, we wouldn’t know that Sears stocked Heuer chronographs for a time.

One of my good friends, let’s call him K, is, like myself, a big car enthusiast. Whenever we talk, engines will come up. We don’t just talk about Ferrari V12s and twin-turbocharged BMW straight sixes, we often discuss the engines in our cars or other normal cars. The 1.4-litre Ford Sigma engine powering my faithful chariot, while basic and common, is interesting. I can mention the aluminium block, the “racing” pedigree, Yamaha’s involvement in the design, and the not half bad sound for a stock eleven-year-old econobox. The same applies to watch movements. Tell me about the German ebauche in a 60s Stowa; show me pictures. “Mechanical, hand-wound” isn’t enough. I could describe my car’s engine as a 1.4l four cylinder. That tells you nothing of the aforementioned fun facts. Did I mention that Caterham and the SCCA Spec-Racers used tuned versions of the 1.6l variant? K drives a Chery Tiggo 4, which uses a common Chinese 1.5l turbo four cylinder. That’s uninteresting. What’s interesting is that when you open the bonnet, you see that basically every component has a Bosch logo on it and that Austrian company AVL had a hand in its development. These engines or watches are only as bland as you dare not research.

I get it. Not everyone wants to do deep research and find out neat bits of trivia. For most people, 1.4l four cylinder is enough. 1.4l DOHC 16V starts to sound like Greek.

That’s how we ended up in the perpetual cycle of “look at this watch.” No more information given, nothing to chew on, digest and dissolve. I provide my readers with movement history and specifications to chew on. My fellow writers also go deeper than surface level and provide something engaging. After I read something here, it feels like I’ve read something, as opposed to many other platforms where my brain isn’t enriched and my curiosity not whetted after reading. I can use Greg’s posts as excellent examples. I didn’t know anything about the history of Charleston, but by integrating watch content and simply being engaging, it’s now a place I’d love to visit one day.

I have opened WatchCrunch when taking breaks from studying hoping to find something interesting to refresh my brain after jamming theorems of probability or differentiation rules in my noggin. This post is just an extension of the rage and frustration I feel whenever I open the app, or head over to Reddit and find nothing of substance.

All I can say is that your new Seiko looks lovely and I’m sorry you have to sell your Rolex. I don’t know what makes them special to you or any interesting connections. I doubt you do either.