I thought my hypebeast days were over… until the Timex x MM6 Maison Margiela collab dropped last night
Jamie WeissNormally, I’m the sort of person to really agonise over purchase decisions, especially watches. I can’t tell you the number of watch auctions I’ve pestered my Time+Tide colleagues about: “hey Zach, hey Borna, what do you think of this one?”, and never bit the bullet. But last night, when the Timex x MM6 Maison Margiela collection was set to drop, I devolved back into a younger version of myself.
There I was, late at night, hunched over my laptop, rapidly refreshing the Timex homepage, poised to add to my cart and checkout as soon as the T80 Ring Watch went on sale. It’s something I haven’t done since I was a teenager when I went through an only mildly embarrassing hypebeast phase: camping out for sneaker releases, entering raffles, and waking up in the middle of the night to try and cop something online. I thought I’d grown out of all that… But it seems old habits die hard. I really wanted that ring watch!
Sadly, it was not to be. As soon as that Timex alert email came through and I refreshed the page, the ring watch in my size had sold out. I mashed the F5 key in vain, hoping that I hadn’t missed out, but nope – too late. The bots and the hypebeasts were too quick. To be clear, I have no proof that the Timex x MM6 collab was the focus of botters – that is, people using sophisticated software to purchase limited availability stock at a speed faster than a human shopper – it’s entirely possible that there were just hundreds of genuine customers who were able to check out quicker than me (I blame my slow internet). But it seems likely.
Widespread botting isn’t something the watch industry has largely had to contend with yet – perhaps because most watches are significantly more expensive than most sneakers or clothes, for instance, and because many watchmakers have traditionally been slow to embrace e-commerce. But it does happen occasionally, especially at the more affordable end like what might have happened here with Timex. It’s a topic I plan to explore in greater depth in a future article, so stay tuned. (Can you tell that I’m a bit salty?)
Anyway, hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Jamie and the Time+Tide Team
Watch meme of the week: steamed Cubitus
View this post on Instagram
It turns out our Meme of the Week last week – which poked fun at the backlash around the new Patek Philippe Cubitus – actually came true in real life! In a candid interview last Saturday, Patek Philippe’s president Thierry Stern hit back, claiming “the haters are mostly people who have never had a Patek and never will”. This only incensed watch enthusiasts further and led to heaps of people sending us memes in our DMs after we reported on Stern’s comments. This one is the pick of the bunch.
Wrist shot of the week: a classy date watch
View this post on Instagram
And now for something completely different. English actor Andrew Garfield wore an extremely understated yet classy Omega De Ville Trésor for his much-anticipated appearance on Chicken Shop Date, a celebrity interview show on YouTube hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg. While many people were commenting on the romantic tension between the two stars, we watch nerds missed the point as usual and focused on Garfield’s watch. Admittedly, it’s a very nice watch.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Hamilton Khaki Field Titanium x Engineered Garments
From one affordable fashion brand collaboration to another: thankfully, we’ve still got (some) stock left of Hamilton’s collab with Japanese-American workwear brand Engineered Garments, which takes the form of a utilitarian but extremely on-brand Khaki Field Titanium. Featuring minimal branding, an ultra-legible display, a 36mm case and an 80-hour power reserve, this field watch has style credibility and practicality in spades. Get in quick, though – this is likely to sell out soon too.
Discover the Hamilton Khaki Field Titanium x Engineered Garments in the Time+Tide Shop, either online or in our Melbourne Discovery Studio. Price: A$1,850 (~US$1,252)
Our favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
7 of the spookiest watches for Halloween 2024
Halloween might not traditionally be the kind of holiday where you’d celebrate with a gift – but watch fans rarely need much of an excuse to pick up something new. So, here are seven watches you should consider as a Halloween treat for 2024, as compiled by Time+Tide’s resident goth Buffy.
Nicholas Biebuyck, Heritage Director of TAG Heuer, believes “consumer interest is improving in quartz”
Zach was at Dubai Watch Week’s Hong Kong edition this week, which boasted a variety of insightful panel discussions and masterclasses on all things watchmaking and beyond. One panel he found particularly interesting was Is the Age of Mechanical Innovation Over? – which discussed how quartz watchmaking might be due for a revival of sorts. In particular, TAG Heuer Heritage Director Nicholas Biebuyck had some interesting thoughts about quartz’s role in the modern watch industry, which Zach elaborates on here.
Andrew & Zach pick the best watches at Windup Watch Fair New York – we need your vote for the winner!
This past Windup Watch Fair New York hosted over 130 brands – effectively twice the number of exhibitors than Watches and Wonders Geneva! With so much to explore, Andrew and Zach raced through Center415, weaving in and out of a sea of exhibitors and guests, to have a head-to-head battle to pick the best dive watch, dress watch, field watch, and do-it-all GADA watch at the fair. Watch above (or read here) and let us know which of their picks get your vote in the YouTube comments section.