Ian Skellern had the honor to be interviewed by Rikki Daman for the Scottish Watch Podcast. If you are interested in how Ian came to be a watch journalist and how he convinced Aldis Hodge to feature in the Making Time documentary, check this out.
Before Ken Gargett smoked a Diplomaticos 30th Anniversary PCC Cigars, he asked for some thoughts. The responses ran the gauntlet from seriously good to stunning.
One of the best things about Dubai Watch Week are the presentations, debates, and talks in the Horology Forum. These cover a very wide range of topic and are usually 45-minutes long with time for audience questions at the end. Here are five that Ian Skellern particularly enjoyed that will hopefully both entertain and educate, as well as give you an idea of the types of diverse topics covered.
Once in a while on the collector forums, a question is posed: is there anyone in the collector community who has never, ever, owned a Rolex? As a general rule, respondents to these queries tend to express disbelief that such a creature could possibly exist given the quality and ubiquity of the brand’s watches. Well, folks, GaryG is here to tell you that such people do exist, and that he is one of them. How could it be? And then what happened?
What if you were given £10,000/$13,00 to spend on creating a new collection? With a hypothetical wish list, what would you buy? Raman Kalra shares his suggestions and why.
Depth matters. And as experienced divers often like to go deep for as long as possible, decompression is a serious issue. The problem with mechanical depth gauges on watches is that they are usually either precise at depth (but not in the 12-meter decompression zone) or in the decompression zone (but not at depth). Dietmar Fuchs takes a deep dive into mechanical depth gauge watches and shares his thoughts and experiences here.
Warren Buffett’s oft-repeated mantra is “I only invest in what I understand”. If you are a watch collector or simply interested in watches (and if you are reading this, you probably are), you probably have a better understanding of the historical and technical aspects of watchmaking than anyone – even Warren Buffett.
GaryG had the opportunity to borrow a Rolex GMT-Master II BLRO Meteorite from a long-time friend to photograph and wear. This watch’s main event is the dial, a thin slice of metallic meteorite whose crystalline structure reflects the slow cooling process that took place as the meteor hurtled through space. Here he tries a variety of photographic techniques to learn which works best on the dial’s unique structures. Which are your favorites?
The 2023 Dubai Watch Week (DWW) has drawn to a close and what a fair it was: simply sensational. Here is Part 2 of Ian Skellern’s DWW 2023 photofest. Enjoy!
I estimate I’ve seen – and have personally moderated 10 Dubai Watch Week Horological Forums talks – around 80 of these ‘events’, and many have been very, very, good: either. But at the 2023 fair I saw one that just blew me away (and I’m a jaded old industry veteran). Don’t miss this!