Frequently Asked Questions

About the Collection

How many watches are in your collection?

Over 100 watches at last count, spanning more than 70 different brands. The collection leans toward dress watches and chronographs but includes everything from entry-level microbrands to haute horlogerie pieces. I don’t keep a rigid number. Watches come and go as my taste evolves. I will say that I've been culling the collection from it's high, with the idea that I now know what I like, and have been focused on fewer rather than many.

What’s your most-posted brand?

Seiko, by a significant margin. 28 single-watch posts in the last year, followed by Omega (24), Grand Seiko (22), Credor (15), and Zenith (13). The brands I post most aren’t necessarily the ones that resonate most with my audience, though. Studio Underd0g, which I’ve only featured in 8 dedicated posts, outperforms everything else on engagement.

What countries are represented in your collection?

The collection spans at least 12 countries of origin. By post count: Swiss (107 posts), Japanese (65), British (33), French (22), German (22), American (20), Netherlands (8), Hong Kong (6), Swedish (5), and a few others. Japanese watchmaking is particularly important to me. Credor, Grand Seiko, and Seiko’s higher-end lines are a core part of the collection.

What’s the most expensive watch in your collection?

I don’t publicly discuss specific values, but the collection includes pieces across the full spectrum, from entry-tier microbrands under $500 to haute horlogerie from makers like Parmigiani Fleurier and Laurent Ferrier. The tier breakdown of what I post is roughly: luxury (48%), mid-tier (40%), entry (7%), and haute horlogerie (5%). I don’t believe price determines quality or interest.

Do you collect vintage watches?

I post mostly modern pieces (about 86% of my feed), but I have a meaningful vintage collection (around 30 posts) and a growing neo-vintage collection (around 12 posts). Neo-vintage pieces, meaning modern watches with a vintage aesthetic, actually generate 22% higher engagement than my modern pieces. That tells me my audience appreciates heritage design language even in new watches.

What’s your favorite watch category?

I lean heavily toward dress watches. They make up 45% of my single-watch posts. But the data shows that field watches actually resonate most with my audience, at 44% above baseline engagement on just 8 posts. Chronographs are my second-most-posted category at 25%. I think of myself as a dress-watch collector whose audience secretly wants more tool watches.

What dial colors dominate your collection?

Black (55 posts), navy blue (34), silver (24), white (23), and gold (20) are my most-posted dial colors. Navy blue outperforms black on engagement by about 12% despite being posted less frequently. My audience seems to prefer considered color choices over the safe default of black.

About the Photography

What camera and lens do you shoot with?

Sony a6700 with a Sigma 56mm f/1.4 lens for the vast majority of my shots. The 56mm on APS-C gives an 84mm equivalent, close to the portrait focal length. It works well for watch photography because it compresses perspective slightly and creates pleasing bokeh without extreme distortion.

What’s your most common shot type?

Wrist shots (37% of posts), followed by flat-lays (30%), in-hand shots (9%), and on-stand/display (13%). Macro shots are only 5% of my feed but they generate the highest engagement, about 21% above baseline. I should probably shoot more of them.

Do you use natural light or studio lighting?

Mostly natural daylight and soft studio lighting. Those two account for the majority of my posts. I’ve experimented with dramatic side-lighting and low-light/moody setups. The data shows natural daylight slightly outperforms studio setups on engagement. I’m drawn to a single-light-source aesthetic that creates depth through shadows.

Do you edit your photos heavily?

Most of my posts are either untouched or have minimal warm/cool grading. I don’t use heavy filters, HDR processing, or dramatic color grading. The audience on my feed responds to clean, honest photography more than to stylized treatment. The data bears this out clearly.

Do you pair watches with specific straps for photos?

Yes. Strap pairing is a big part of what I do. I work frequently with @handdn.craftsman (tagged in 29 posts, more than any other account) and Atelier Kai for bespoke leather straps. My most common strap types are smooth leather (29%), other bracelets (17%), and integrated bracelets (13%). I believe a well-chosen strap can completely transform how a watch reads in a photograph and on the wrist. I also have bespoke straps from Delugs, Molequin, Jean Rousseau, and Veblenist.

About the Account

How often do you post photos?

Almost exactly once per day. Over the last year (362 days), I’ve published 348 posts, a 96% daily posting rate. I’ve also run several multi-day series like “State of the Collection” and “Watch Box Unveiling” that feature multi-watch group shots. About 15% of my posts are these multi-watch scenes rather than single-watch features.

What’s your biggest post ever?

A Holthinrichs Signature Delft Blue that reached nearly 98,000 accounts, about 140 times my median post reach. My second-biggest was a Grand Seiko Moonlit Birch (SLGW007) at 27,000, and third was a Zenith El Primero Chronomaster Lapis Lazuli at 21,000. None of the top three is a mainstream hype watch. They’re all collector pieces with strong design stories.

What does your audience actually engage with most?

By engagement rate, my top-performing brand is Studio Underd0g (35% above baseline), followed by Heuer, Omega, Seiko, and Credor. By save rate, which I consider the true collector-intent signal, Zenith dominates at nearly 3x my baseline. Laurent Ferrier follows at 2.3x and Grand Seiko at 1.5x. The people who bookmark my posts are making considered collector decisions, not casual scrolling ones.

When do you typically post?

I post in the early morning EST, usually between 6am and 10am. My analysis shows this window happens to be the only part of the day where my US East Coast audience (morning), European audience (lunch break), and Asian audience (evening) are all simultaneously active. Saturday mornings perform particularly well on save rate, nearly 1.7x my baseline, likely because weekend browsing is more intentional across all timezones.

What’s your posting philosophy?

I buy watches I love and then photograph them honestly. I’ve never purchased a watch because I thought it would do well on Instagram, and I’ve never changed what I collect based on engagement metrics. The data analysis I’ve done has influenced how I present my collection (spending more time on underrepresented pieces, leaning into vintage and neo-vintage stories) but not what I collect.

Do hashtags matter on your feed?

Barely. My analysis shows that most caption-side levers (length, questions, emojis, mentions, sentiment) have essentially zero correlation with engagement on my feed. The one real finding: posts with 4 to 8 niche hashtags have a 54% higher save rate than baseline, while posts with 9 or more actually perform worse. The photography matters far more than the caption.

About Taste and Philosophy

What draws you to a watch?

Character over pedigree. The brands that perform best on my feed (Studio Underd0g, Heuer, Zenith, Grand Seiko) share one quality: they each have a clear, unmistakable point of view about what a watch should look like. I’m less drawn to watches that feel like they were designed by committee, regardless of how prestigious the brand name is. I also love stories behind the watch. For instance, my Tudor 7016 is signed by a Venezuelan Oil Company. I love a good story like that.

Swiss or Japanese?

Both, but the data says my audience leans slightly Japanese. Japanese watches outperform Swiss by about 5% on engagement across my feed. Not a huge margin, but consistent across 65 and 107 posts respectively. I think this reflects a collector audience that appreciates Japanese watchmaking as its own tradition, not as a budget alternative to Swiss. I’ve been a Credor enthusiast for a decade, and Grand Seiko’s finishing at its price point is genuinely world-class.

What’s your view on microbrands?

I’m a strong believer as a former entrepreneur. Microbrands are where risk lives in watchmaking. It’s where designers try new things, experiment with materials, and zig where the heritage brands zag. My collection includes pieces from Studio Underd0g, Baltic, Fears, Farer, Halios, Selten, Trafford Watch Co, Imperial Watch Co, Awake, and others. Some of them are my best-performing posts.

Do you flip watches?

Watches do leave the collection, but I don’t think of myself as a flipper. I buy what I want, wear it, photograph it, and sometimes realize it’s not getting the wrist time it deserves. When that happens, I let it go to make room for something else. The collection is always evolving.

What’s an “IYKYK” watch to you?

A watch that doesn’t announce itself to the average person but immediately catches the eye of someone who knows. Credor is the quintessential IYKYK brand. It sits above Grand Seiko in Seiko’s hierarchy, produces some of the finest finishing in the world, and is virtually unknown outside of serious collector circles. Laurent Ferrier, Holthinrichs, and D. Dornblüth & Sohn are similar in spirit.

What’s your dream watch?

The Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon Silver (LCF039.R5.G3N). I think about this watch constantly. It would be my holy grail everyday watch. Almost nobody knows what Laurent Ferrier is, which is part of the appeal. It’s the ultimate IYKYK piece. The design is restrained and confident, the finishing is impeccable, and the moon phase complication adds just enough to make it feel complete without being busy. If I could only wear one watch for the rest of my life, this would probably be it.

Another watch that I happen to love is the Holthinrichs Ornament Nouveau. I'd love to own this watch. Monochrome had a nice writeup of this beauty. As of writing this, I do not own a skeleton watch and this would be my first.

Last, I'd love to own the Andersen Geneve Rising Sun Jump Hour. The timepiece features a platinum case with a rose gold dial. It's exquisite.

How did you analyze your own collection?

I ran a full data analytics project on a year of my posts. I exported all 348 posts from Instagram, pulled engagement metrics (reach, saves, shares) via the Graph API, and ran every image through Claude’s vision model to extract 30+ features per photo: brand, model, dial color, strap type, shot composition, lighting, mood, and more. Then I enriched each unique watch with reference specs (country, tier, movement type) via web search, joined everything into one dataset, and built an interactive analytics dashboard. The whole project cost about $13 in AI API credits. I wrote about the findings and the methodology on this site.