Horolonomics

In 1946, economists Arthur Burns and Wesley Mitchell provided a formal definition of business cycles. I asked AI to create an image in the style of Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory featuring the letters "RHT" and this is what I got. Their conceptualization is extensive but one of the most important elements is the idea that cycles are "recurrent but not periodic." In other words, fluctuations happen over and over again, but they do not follow a regular pattern. In the world of horology, recurrent but non-periodic processes are familiar and a great challenge when it comes to tracking the passage of months and years (as well as other events like Easter). The end of a month recurs twelve times each year, but the length of a month is not always the same (and leap years mean that February has an extra day every four years, I'd rather not even begin to talk about leap seconds). The past two years provide compelling evidence that the watch industry als...

Philanthropic activity is sometimes overlooked when it comes to the watch industry. Satellite view of the Pont Hans Wilsdorf. There are certainly marketing campaigns which publicize watch industry support of the arts and the environment, for example. But some activity is less well-known but no less important. For example, consider a certain bit of road in Switzerland. Geneva's Pont Hans-Wilsdorf, or Hans Wilsdorf Bridge in English, is architecturally very unique, with an organically designed superstructure reminiscent of the work by famed architect Antoni Gaudí (well, reminiscent to me at least). The bridge spans the Arve River and allows pedestrians, bikes and cars to move between the neighborhoods of Les Vernets and Plainpalais. I've heard some lore about this bridge, mostly due to the fact that the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, the non-profit owner of Rolex, paid for its construction. Generally, infrastructure like this would be funded out of public coffers. The bridge wa...

I recently learned that the CEO of Audemars Piguet Americas (APA), Ginny Wright, was departing the legendary watch brand. A tabletop model of the AP "Starwheel," photo taken at AP House NYC. The new CEO of AP Americaa will be Louis-Gabriel Fichet, who joined AP in 2020. I learned about this development from an online watch publication whose editor opined on the matter . I feel obliged to respond to that piece because I think it reveals some concerning biases in watch industry coverage, biases which will only diminish if we talk about them openly and honestly. There were three critiques of Ms. Wright's time at the helm of APA that jumped out to me. First was the allegation that Ms. Wright suffered a "sudden removal." Subsequent to this critique, Ms. Wright posted on her Instagram account that she is "returning to the world of prestige beauty and stepping into a global CEO role." Moving from a regional executive position to a global one is not ind...