Did TAG Heuer x Kith get it wrong? Zach and RedBar founder Adam Craniotes talk watch collabs

Zach Blass

“These days, everyone and their grandma are making limited edition watch collabs,” Adam Craniotes, founder of RedBar, explains in our latest Time+Tide Tribe video. Adam and I, each armed with a Zodiac glass filled with a double of whisky in honour of RedBar’s recent collaboration with Zodiac watches, dig into the topic. What makes a strong limited edition collaboration watch? What is the role of watch media when collaborating with a watch brand on a limited edition release?

One key point that I make is the idea that our role as a watch publication is to nudge the brand towards a creation that has a rich backstory and inspiration with an execution that speaks to the tastes of our audience and the watch community in particular. But in order for us to have these opportunities, and with the least amount of red tape and design barriers, the brands need to be in a comfortable position. This is why we need to be more understanding when brands do things that are contentious within our niche community, yet desired by the more mainstream audience. Adam aptly notes: “If big watch brands tailored their collections just for the watch community, they would be out of business in five minutes.”

We then touch base on the recent TAG Heuer x Kith collaboration and some of the pushback it received – a persistent sort of inner-community vitriol I have dubbed “horological hooliganism.” As I have observed on the live comedy show Kill Tony, where the crowd routinely prefers to see comedians bomb so they can jeer at them, I often find that the watch community gets more excited by taking down watch brands and that we are seeing less measured feedback brands would feasibly be able to act upon.

To get the full insight, you will have to watch the video, which despite or a credit to full glasses of booze, brings our perspective to what is needed for brands and their collaborative partners to create strong limited edition offerings.