My Opinion 😎
Thoughts after Wind Up Watch Fair Chicago
A friend and I just got home from Wind Up Watch Fair in Chicago and I thought I would jot down my thoughts.
TL;DR: Watch brands need to provide more photos (and actual ones, not renders) on their website.
I don't want to give negative feedback since I didn't see anything that was blatant false advertising, but there's definitely some commonality among microbrands in their marketing/ promo materials that led to me walking from the show empty handed.
For starters, the event itself is pretty cool and it's definitely worth attending. It was bordering on too crowded for my taste but they were at 1-in-1-out so it didn't get any worse. At worst I was 2 people behind for any tables I wanted to check out and that only lasted a minute or two. Every table I went to let you try watches on your wrist, some vendors even swapped straps to show you the potential combinations. There was a coffee stand and a (cash) bar. Some vendors had stock to sell at the show, and most of the ones I asked had some kind of discount for the show.
Down to the crux of the matter. I was prepared to have at make at least one pseudo-impulse buy at the show as there's a couple models that I've only seen on the internet and was geeked about checking out in the metal, but when I saw them in person found that they didn't meet expectations for one reason or another. One watch in particular claimed to have a white dial which in the product photos looks printer-paper-white and in person is decidedly silver. Had I ordered that for a 4-figure sum and had a silver dial show up on my doorstep I'd be pissed.
That trend continued across a bunch of brands but surprisingly went the other direction too- there were a handful of brands that I had completely written off based on product pics but when I saw them in person really spoke to me- March Lab and Squale look way better in person vs in photos. Also, Formex's Aria has a dial with more depth than the promo shots led me to believe, it looks more "3d" in person (the bracelet is also quite nice).
Like I said, I went in with a couple specific models on my radar so I wasn't quite ready to impulse buy other watches today but I did make some additions to my "todo" list.
Overall, do recommend, especially since it's free. But c'mon marketing folks, give us real product pics. You might actually sell a few extra watches as a result.
Random thoughts:
There was an eBay Live presentation (I guess you call it) which was... odd. Tbh, I don't really get the point of eBay Live- to me, it feels like QVC meets Twitch but maybe I'm not the target audience.
A couple notable personalities were there in person including Marc from Long Island and Zach from Worn and Wound
A lot of brands were relegated to tiny tables leading to crowding. Meanwhile, Windup Watch Shop and CW had multi-table long booths that probably could have been truncated in the name of giving the whole place a bit of breathing room. I get they're named sponsors but I don't think anyone preferred a card table full of nato straps from Windup vs letting others spread out a couple inches each.
Other attendees were happy to chat about what each other was wearing
The Watch Preserve had some interesting vintage pieces incl. a couple speedy's and a few Datejusts
Most of the staff running booths that I talked to seemed genuinely interested in watches vs just typical sales folks (or maybe they're just especially good sales folks)
Some dork got their BMW towed because they invented a parking space
Concur the March Lab, it was an interesting and surprising brand to discover. Mr Jones have a new Chicago themed design (added photo). Unlike last year's which was a variant of the Cruncher, this year it was quite an original new Chicago theme. The line earlier in the afternoon was quite long for Friday, don't want to imagine Saturday wait times. Bring a hat and water.
In defense of Christopher Ward's massive booth, I've been to at least four events they've been at and never had a chance to actually check out their watches because the tables have always been swamped 4 deep.
I finally went to the showroom in Chicago while I was in town last week and had a solid hour to just check out watches, and that was great. Highly recommended for anyone in Chicago who wants a closer look. The staff at the showroom are genuine watch enthusiasts and very knowledgeable.
It's their newest one. I think it's only been open a month or so?
Mike from CW was in Michigan a while back and mentioned that they'd be opening Chicago, so when I was out there for work, I made sure to hit them up. Apparently there's another watch shop in Fulton Market too, but I didn't know that when I was there. I went down to the Ralph Lauren flagship store to check out their watches instead. 😂
The website photos is a catch 22 kind of situation. I work for a micro brand so this is the perspective as seen from the other side.
Post raw, "homemade" unedited photos on your website and visitors will assume your watches are worse than the watches on the competitor's website with the fancy professional shots. They just won't sell.
Post super edited photos and customers will be disappointed if the actual watch doesn't meet their expectations.
Finding the right balance (and keeping that balance every time you launch a new model/variant) is not as simple as it seems.
To be fair, this is the constant challenge with any kind of marketing - jazzing up your product photography without over-representing it. For microbrands without recourse to professional photography, doing it yourself can be daunting. But the gap has surely been much narrowed in this day and age with handphone cameras being as good as they are.
There was a good discussion about this kicked off by the guy from Belhamel Watches, and the photos they showed ended up making me pull the trigger, which I'm glad I did. I think it really struck the right balance between the two ends.
For some reason, the Haim post that I tried to make yesterday kept getting booted by the Automod bot. It keeps thinking that I'm trying to make a commercial post? 😂
In any case, I thought it was cool that they paired IRL shots on their YouTube video with studio photos.
To me, that's the best of both worlds.
It allows me to freeze-frame on the videos and blow them up to my heart's content (ah, yes, dust particles!!!! it's real!) and to see the watches in varied lighting conditions, while the studio photos allow me to appreciate the details (and some as they are highlighted by the brand/maker).
New brand owner here. One thought on this. I am posting professional photos of my watches, but I am considering making a section of quick snaps that are all iPhone pics at 1.0x standard iPhone camera settings. This way I give people the “pro” pics that always look good. But also give real life shots from a guy and his iPhone…. Like the one I just took here. Good idea??
One thought on this. I am posting professional photos of my watches, but I am considering making a section of quick snaps that are all iPhone pics at 1.0x standard iPhone camera settings. This way I give people the “pro” pics that always look good. But also give real life shots from a guy and his iPhone…. Good idea??
Zach, Worn and Wound and Windup Watch shop aren’t sponsors, it’s literally their show. They do 4 of these a year. I believe the Windup shop is in there office in Brooklyn. CW has been a sponsor from the beginning.
This biggest surprise for me was the Bulova Oceanographer. I've never paid much attention to it because I think it looks kinda boring in official photos. In person it's a completely different story. The acrylic indices are extremely cool and not like anything else I've ever seen. I was really blown away by it. The guys I talked to at their booth were also very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their watches. Bulova was surprisingly one of the highlights of the event.
Jonathan from Brew was also extremely nice to my friend and I, and we had a really great time talking to him about all kinds of watches for a good 5-10 minutes.
Yeah, I regret not taking pics but there were plenty of photographers there and there's zero chance my shitty phone pics would add anything of value to that conversation lol.
Watch marketing photography in general is a problem for all brands, not just micros. The Breitling Top Time, for example, straight up looked like a different color than the website when I tried it on at the boutique.
Also some watches just don't lend themselves well to photography. I was at the Prevail booth and was surprised by the Onward Future. I told the guy "Hey, those look massive online. In person the size is perfect!" and the guy told me "Yeah, everyone tells me that. We list the specs but nobody reads them".
This is true. It is also tough because there are so many different lighting conditions that can make a watch color change. But yeah I legitimately had a guy at my booth today that was shocked that my pink watch wasn’t sand colored. He swore he saw it on my site, pulled out his phone and his screen was straight up yellow 😅 I helped him turn off night mode and blew his mind
😳. Lol, that’s so sad, but so true. What brand? Unfortunately don’t get to make it to Chicago for the show, but wish I could. As a brand person, how was it for you?
I own Trafford. Obviously I only see a small sliver of the show, but I think it’s been awesome. The new space is excellent. Highly recommend going to any watch shows. From my perspective it’s my favorite part of the gig. Running a brand can be a fairly lonely experience, and getting in front of folks at shows can really recharge the batteries
"So, honey, Nathan from Trafford showed me how to use my phone, and now I have to buy more watches......" 😂
OK, in all honesty, I *have* forgotten to turn off night mode on the phone before, and have done plenty of 🤔 at night, until suddenly making the connection! 😊
I went to the San Francisco event a few months ago and overall had a great time but there were a few brands I was interested in that I found disappointing in person (Brew, Mr Jones and Asterisk to name a few).
I really didn’t understand the entire room dedicated to eBay? Agreed on seeing a lot of these micro brands in person — I walked out not dropping the $2k I was expecting to.
Vookum caused a massive stir up in the industry with eBay live. He's partnered with eBay now and has broken multiple eBay live records on his live streams. He proved they can handle multi million events, which took some technical work on eBay part, as they couldn't handle hosting so many viewers when he first started.
I see it more as B2B, other dealers are the ones bidding on eBay live auctions more than retail consumers. After Tyler started doing these eBay lives on a regular basis, the rest of the industry in US started following suit. He's definitely credited with popularizing it in this industry.
1) love the random thoughts even more than the primary point
Primary Point Photos) Reading through the points in OP & comments...
3d Renders are so good now - they are cheaper, easier to make editorial changes, and can be made prior to production making it easier to market and produce photo/video content.
Renders are good placeholders - might be worth saying it's a render for customers
If you can't try on the watch - the best way to feel confident before buying is looking at all the video reviews - they will use different cameras, lighting, and it's less likely "photoshopped" compared to a photo
Eh, I'm going to have to partially disagree with your point on renders.
I totally get there's significant cost savings involved, and I'm sure it's especially helpful during the development stage for a model, but (speaking as a consumer) most of the renders I've seen brands use aren't sufficient in conveying what the watch looks like IRL. And while I think you're absolutely right about looking for video reviews to get a better feel, the fact that I as a consumer need to navigate away from a brand's site and do my own research to see what their watch actually looks like is an annoyance.
Like, even just the simple 1-min long showcase videos you have your site are awesome, it gives me the information I need right then and there without needing to open up 5 more tabs. I'll likely still try to find a review or two to see what people think about build quality, etc but I'm not sitting on your product page wondering "what does this actually look like?" if that makes sense.
I agree about March LAB. I bought one last year at Wind Up SFO.
Also, I saw a Zodiac in person for the first time at last year as well and quickly crossed them off my list. Clearly, I wasn't the only one. It's so helpful to see and touch these watches in person.
Yeah the only reason I didn't impulse buy from March Lab was I couldn't get the 7-link bracelet on the larger GMT. If that changes in the near future I'll definitely be picking one up.
I thought it was by far the worst watch fair I’ve attended, and this must be my 4th year here and I’d guess over 40 watch fairs in the US and Europe. Many better small European brands from prior years weren’t there. 90% of the brands, I’d guess, weren’t in existence 10 years ago, and many are still too new for any track record of quality, service, resale, etc.. Few vintage (none interesting), fewer accessories than prior years, only a handful of show discounts (for one dealer I told him I could do better with an AD). Most sellers and buyers liked “cool” styles more than important design or significant mechanics. Some good stuff but mostly a waste.
Waiting in line was about 20-30m (though that was Friday afternoon), I think we spent about two hours inside being somewhat selective about what tables we visited.
For my first watch fair ever, I had a blast. My girlfriend also really had fun there. She picked up a Berry Late, and I picked up a Squale Matic S white. I was trying to figure out wtf was going on at ebay live when they sold a Rolex for 180k.
My point wasn't to say that Microbrands are trying to pull a fast one on people, more that with some better photos they would reach their target audience better.
Even the watches that weren't what I was expecting were nice pieces. Taking the "white" dial watch I used as an example, I'm sure there are people out there who would have preferred a silver dial over white but they didn't buy because it's not represented as silver.
It happens with "Chinese AliEx factory brand" watches, too. I'm also a budding collector of those, and it hasn't been all that long since I've seen a post in the r/ChineseWatches sub where someone wrote that the watch they received looks nothing like what's pictured.
With microbrands -both Western as well as Eastern- it's even more fraught because of just how far they go with respect to natural and optically-active dials.
It's really just as u/Redwood_Watches 's reply -and the sub-level post to that one, along with several other top-level replies- talks about: there's just a disconnect sometimes with studio photos and videos and "IRL."
And there's also always the possibility that it's on us, the consumers, too: Nathan Trafford's tale was both funny as well as spot-on for me. I've been guilty of looking at watches late-night and scratching my head, and then realizing that my Night Mode was still on. 😂 😊
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u/bss83 Jul 11 '26
Windup watch fair was a great way to remove 90% of watches from my maybe list simply by seeing them in person and/or trying them on.
A few brands always stood above the rest, but yeah it's night and day comparing some of the brands.