👋 Welcome to ScrewDownCrown!

This page has evolved from being a blog about generally interesting topics, to a blog about watches and watch collecting. One of the primary goals of this site is to help watch collectors make sense of their past decisions, and ensure they make better decisions in the future.

In June 2023, I also started a weekly newsletter (SDC Weekly) which lives in a separate section to the freeform posts. Sign up below to receive new posts directly via email. Take a look at the older editions here.

Beyond just watch collecting, I talk about psychology, marketing, philosophy, and the dynamics of an industry which is rising in popularity over time. How do you decide what watch to buy? What is the relevance of your gut feeling, when it comes to watches? Does a watch collector need a mentor? These are some examples of the topics you can expect to read about here.

Thanks for stopping by :)

❓ Who writes this stuff?

I’m @kingflum - this is my Instagram username. The origins of this username are downright absurd, and the story is so silly, I refuse to document it in writing.

That said, writing a blog was never about plaudits, money or marketing… This blog isn’t about me at all… but I will share some background for anyone interested.

Many people say this nowadays, so I will hop on to that bandwagon: I have been into watches since I was a child! In my case, to be more precise, it began around the time I started primary school, so around the age of 7.

At that time, it was just an obsession with the watch as a gadget more than a device to tell time – this coincided with the rise of Casio’s calculator watches, fuelling my desire for even cooler gadgets. I then discovered Timex and their ‘indiglo’ backlight – loved that, and my love for lume continues to this day. To bridge the gap between the quartz/mechanical watch transition, I have an old story about my father and his Patek Philippe, but I will save that for a full post someday.

Having lived in Africa until 2010 – I didn’t ever consider the wider watch community on the internet, and I just sort of ‘collected’ on my own… the concept of a Redbar-style watch meet-up in a place like Johannesburg is nothing short of insane, due to the security risk.

In 2018, a YouTube video about attending Redbar in London fortuitously came up in my feed… and I have since spent countless hours engaged in banter with the online watch family, or ‘watchfam’ on Instagram.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I started ‘formally’ studying psychology and philosophy through online universities; until that point is was a general interest of mine, but the pandemic freed up some time to actually pursue it seriously. As it turns out, this was a very useful lens with which to analyse the watch collecting hobby… and since I had a casual blog already, it was easy to rename it and carry on posting while we were all locked down…

Now, many posts later, it seems like many fellow watch collectors agree!

🤔Why should I subscribe?

Well, if you’ve landed on this page, there’s a chance you have more than just a passing interest in watches. I do not know of any other publication which analyses the hobby the way I do, so frankly, you’d be foolish not to.

I appreciate you being here - If you have already subscribed, thank you for your support. It really does mean a lot!

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💰 Paywalled Posts

If you want to read a paywalled post but can’t afford a subscription, please email me or send me a DM on Instagram. I will give you free access to the post - No questions asked!

If you have any suggestions, comments or queries… or simply want to have a chat, feel free to contact me at any time - you can reply to the emailed posts, use the subscriber chat on Substack, or send me a DM on Instagram.