THE JOURNAL
It can be easy to think the world of watches is all about money and hype. Which celeb has been spotted with a Tiffany Nautilus? How much – how much? – did that Rolex fetch at auction? A world of waiting lists and cold, quiet boutiques can feel intimidating for outsiders and depressing to those operating on a real-world budget, but spend any time with watch enthusiasts in real life or on social media and you soon realise the reality is very different. A shared interest in watches is the foundation for a real sense of community, and a much more egalitarian and charitable approach than you might at first expect from the world of luxury goods.
Collecting, or simply taking an interest in, anything is fundamentally a social activity. We don’t accumulate knowledge, and watches, just for ourselves – we want to share what we’ve found. That’s the premise behind the RedBar collector network, a global operation of localised watch-focused social clubs, named for the New York bar where it all began. Today there are RedBar chapters across the world, with more than 8,500 members.
Ms Kathleen McGivney, CEO of the RedBar Group, credits its success with the simplicity of the premise – a shared passion for watches, and an open attitude to welcome newcomers. “We started out with a no-snobs mindset, and have actually made it a rule for our members and local chapters,” she says. “A Swatch is just as welcome as an MB&F. In fact, the first time I attended RedBar, I brought the Swatch collection that I shared with my then spouse, mainly to test [founder] Mr Adam Craniotes’ assertion that there were no snobs allowed. When I saw people delightedly removing their Rolexes and Patek Philippes to try on my Swatches, I knew I was in the right place.”
It’s a view shared by Mr Chris Mann. He founded the UK-based Time 4A Pint get-together “as a way to get people out from behind their keyboards… and into the pub,” he says. “You can show up with a shoe box filled with vintage Seikos that cost you £1,000 in total, or a £100,000 Patek Philippe and you’ll be met with the same level of enthusiastic interest.”
It’s a world in which what you own is less important than why you own it, or how you found it. “I think the ability to tie stories and emotions to watches plays a huge part in their success as a collectors’ item,” Mann says. “When you have a group of watch collectors in a room, barely a second has passed before the stories start rolling. I’ve not witnessed this behaviour in quite the same way among other collector groups. Except maybe cars, but then it’s so much easier to collect watches, from a space perspective if nothing else.”
“It’s a world in which what you own is less important than why you own it, or how you found it”
Mann may have wanted to get watch fans out from behind their screens, but agrees that social media – Instagram, primarily – has fuelled the rise of in-person watch clubs. “Digital platforms have made it much easier for like-minded people to meet, talk and become friends over a love for devices that tell the time,” he says. “I’ve made lots of online collector friends that I’ve never met, and I probably exchange messages with 30 to 40 of them every day.”
For RedBar, it was the Instagram boom that propelled it from an informal social gathering to a global company. “The real tipping point for us was Instagram’s growth in popularity among the watch community,” McGivney says. “We were a local group in New York City, and then Adam Craniotes began posting photos from our get-togethers on Instagram. Not long after that, people in other locations reached out about starting a chapter in their local area, and it grew from there. We also saw another growth spurt during the pandemic – we brought on nearly a dozen new chapters during the various lockdowns.”
The idea of collectors hanging out, however down-to-earth, isn’t particularly groundbreaking. What has been notable, however, is the power of these self-founded communities to tap into their members’ better natures. We’re surrounded by fundraising campaigns, which even the most compassionate among us begin to tune out eventually. But when charity comes hand in hand with your favourite hobby, it cuts through.
“Digital platforms have made it much easier for like-minded people to meet, talk and become friends over a love for devices that tell the time”
When war broke out in Ukraine, influencers and manufacturers including MR PORTER Style Council member Mr Justin Hast swiftly banded together to start selling straps, watches and other items to profit the Red Cross and other organisations, raising tens of thousands of pounds within days. And RedBar leveraged its industry connections to pull together an auction, as 50 brands, CEOs and collectors donated watches of their own to sell, with all profits donated to World Central Kitchen. Held on Loupe This, the auction site recently founded by another Style Council member, Mr Eric Ku, the sale raised just shy of $250,000 to be donated.
Mann, for his part, has raised more than £45,000 for Movember since 2011, usually through ticketed giveaways of watches, either from his own collection or donated by others. “There are three motivators,” he says. “You might win something cool, you’re supporting a good cause and you’re supporting a friend. It gives people a more human connection to the cause.”