SDC Weekly; History of watch advertising; Cocaine Hippos and more #1
Trying out a weekly newsletter with some fun topics beyond watches
Uh-oh, another newsletter… fml
I’ve been experimenting with stories, free posts, paid posts and layouts… One of my key observations was ‘good material’ can’t be forced. All the “good” posts I have ever written, were products of passion about a subject, and significant time spent learning about that subject - this formula doesn’t really lend itself to guaranteed weekly posts - at least not at the level of quality I would expect of myself.
I usually have at least 3-5 posts in ‘drafts’, and I tend to post them when they feel ready. The thing is, I wanted to get into a routine of posting with regular frequency, and in light of the aforementioned constraint, I decided to take a small selection of what I do post weekly on IG stories, and put it into a ‘weekly digest’.
Given my upcoming travel plans, I have not decided on the best day to post every week. I posted this today as I didn’t want to delay the first edition… figured there is no time like the present, to kick things off. The Fourth Wheel posts every Friday, so I will try and avoid Fridays and stay off Chris’s turf haha! If you have a preference, let me know in the comments.
These weekly posts are not going to be as in-depth as the usual ones, so don’t expect them to take up too much of your time. I’ll cover a wide range of subjects in addition to watches - probably will include technology, nature, geopolitics, energy economics, parenting, history and anything else which seems interesting at the time of posting - if nothing else, it serves as an opportunity to opine on any relevant events in the week.
I’ll say this: most of the stuff will be, at the very least, educational or entertaining. Please feel free to provide feedback - good or bad. I think all feedback is a gift, as there is always room for improvement.
So, without further adieu, here’s the very first edition of “SDC Weekly” … yes, very original, I know.
A History of watch advertising
Marco Strazzi is the author of a two-volume work on 20th century watch advertising, and he’s put together a really entertaining compendium of images and commentary entitled “A History of Watch Advertising” where you will find gems like these:
The Dark Reality Behind the Watch Industry
Following the recent Phillips auction fraud with a vintage Omega, this podcast is pretty topical - Listen to this old episode of The Dialed In Podcast (~90 mins) featuring Jose Pereztroika who shines light on the dirty underground within the watch industry and shares an inside view on the fraudulent fvckery going unpunished. It is quite entertaining how Aurel Bacs evades accountability… I do wonder how long that can last?
Links of interest
🤲 This paper disputes claims that, prior to the 19th century, around 90% of the human population lived in extreme poverty.
🦛 Colombia’s ‘cocaine hippos’ are all descendants of three females and one male illegally imported by drug-cartel leader Pablo Escobar - and they are frisky AF!
🗞️ Turns out, Finland has an epic solution to combat the future of fake news: Start training fact-checkers from kindergarten!
💸 In my recent post about AI I talked about the possibility of Universal Basic Income being the chosen direction for governments when job loss becomes a problem… Is this Universal Basic Income trial in England the writing on the wall?!
🐤 I’m no ornithologist… but this app is pretty cool - it identifies birds you see and even acts like Shazam for bird sounds!
😂 This is hilarious: Frodrick gets a home makeover
End note
I debated discussing the new Rolex Daytona Le Mans release… but I think this has been covered sufficiently. It was amusing to hear the accusations about Rolex ‘copying’ Artisans de Geneve - I understand the sentiment, but do not share it.
I mentioned earlier that I have some upcoming travel plans, but not before an exciting week ahead, where I plan to attend the world’s largest offshore wind conference and record a Dialed In podcast episode with Tim bender at Fog City Vintage.
Since this is a new format, I would really appreciate all feedback - even if you never comment, please make an exception this time! Is this worth your time? Anything missing that you’d like to see? Anything here which you thought was not worth including? Let me know, and thanks in advance!
Oh, and please share it. Getting subscribers is my own form of dopamine, so help a brother out lol!
Until next time!
F
Actually intrested in a small review on the daytona if you may, value you're insight and opinion.
Really like the idea of a few short snippet reads alongside indepeth articles, easy coffee break material.
Been a lot made of the cocaine bear here, but the root of the problem may be the cocaine hippos