Horolonomics

Watches and Wonders, the annual industry trade show in Geneva, is now squarely in the rearview mirror. AI Generated image. As is so often the case in the modern era, though, it leaves behind a lot of digital "breadcrumbs," such as Google Local Guide Benjamin Spiegel's relatively glowing review of the convention space. One particular trail of Watches and Wonders breadcrumbs serves as a barometer of enthusiasm for watches and watch collecting. That's what this post is all about. Through its Trends service, Google provides a window into search activity on its platform. I've used Google Trends data as applied to the watch industry for a few articles in the past (on this blog and for a piece in Time and Tide, for example). Out of curiosity, I pulled the data on "Watches and Wonders - Topic" from Google Trends and I think there are some interesting patterns in the data. Let's begin with the raw data. The first Watches and Wonders took place in 2...

We're certainly not suffering from a shortage of coverage when it comes to Rolex's recent launch of an entirely new product line: the Land-Dweller reference 127334 (steel, there are also precious metal versions). I've read much of this coverage and I will do my best not to repeat it here. Instead, I hope to share a few takes that you may not have seen elsewhere, including evidence that the watch's design heritage extends in directions that are overlooked. So let's get into it. To begin, the Land-Dweller is undoubtedly attributable to the leadership of CEO Jean-Frédéric Dufour, who took the reigns of the brand in the summer of 2015. According to an expose by Bloomberg (more on that later), development of the Land-Dweller began roughly five years ago, a handful of years after Dufour took over. There have been many, equally significant releases by Rolex of late. For example, 2023's "emoji" Day-Date was arguably a bigger "mic drop" than the Lan...