It was a big year here at RESCAPEMENT, if only because it was our first year. Since our official launch in October, we’ve published over 50 articles, from the latest business and industry news to the hottest watch drops of the season. However, we’re most proud of the in-depth histories and guides we wrote, intended to help our readers navigate the vast world of horology and make informed purchases. It seems like you all agreed, so let’s start with our five most-viewed articles of the year.
Top 5 Articles of 2018
One-Watch Collection: The Best Everyday Watches 2018: Far and away our most popular article of the year. Here, we pondered the nostalgic notion of wearing the same watch, every damn day. Could you do it? And if so, which watch would you choose? There were no real requirements around the task presented, except that it be a watch that looks as at-home with a jeans and t-shirt as it does with a suit and tie. On the journey, we highlight some of the most popular watches of 2018.
Kanye Wearing a Cartier Watch in New York: Headline grabbing artist, headline grabbing watch. Put them both together, and you get our second-most popular article of the year. And, this happened just a week ago, which shows you how much interest there was in the Cartier Crash Kanye wore. We also attribute the popularity to the fact that no one else posted about Kanye’s Cartier Crash, even after the producer-rapper-design-artist-mogul posted a close up of it on Twitter.
Watch Holiday Gift Guide 2018: From $5 to $200,000, our Gift Guide had something for everyone. Books, travel cases, and grail-worthy watches all featured on our list that can serve as a buyer’s guide for all times of year, not just the holiday season.
Universal Geneve: What Happened to the Beloved Watch Brand?: Perhaps our favorite in a number of in-depth brand-specific guides, this article focused on the rise and fall of Universal Geneve. We also discovered that the brand is still active, leaving hope for a potential comeback in years to come (hey, if Tudor can do it…)
Watches and the Rise of “Affordable Luxury”: In the same way we’re proud of our in-depth guides, we’re also proud of our analysis and opinion pieces, so we’re glad our readers kept clicking on this piece, an extension of an opinion piece in Stylezeitgeist. The Stylezeitgeist article laments that the fashion industry has fallen into a state of settling for “premium mediocre” goods that have oxy-moronically branded themselves as “affordable luxury.” We wonder: has the same happened in the watch industry?
In-Depth Brand and Buying Guides
In addition to our One-Watch Collection guide and Universal Geneve history, we posted a number of other brand and buying guides to help our readers navigate the vast and changing world of watches. Here are a few of our favorites:
Lil Uzi Vert and the Timeless Appeal of Patek Phillipe: Of course, the first in-depth piece we ever published had to be about Patek Phillipe. We launched right when Lil Uzi Vert’s single “New Patek” was blaring across airwaves everywhere, so the time was ripe to explore the appeal of Patek for musicians, from Eric Clapton to Uzi.
Rolex Air-King History and Rolex Explorer History: In the first two installations of what will eventually be a look at all of Rolex’s models, we went in-depth into the history of two of Rolex’s lesser admired models, the Rolex Air-King and Rolex Explorer. Highlighted by two of Rolex’s longest running reference numbers (the Air-King 5500 and the Explorer 1016), these histories help us understand the Rolex of past, present, and future.
The Microbrand Watches You Need to Know: When we started RESCAPEMENT, we didn’t want to just write about the Pateks and Rolexes of the world. This article was our first guide into the flourishing microbrand ecosystem. Our favorite brands, watches, and the stories behind them.
Brand Guide: Which Companies Own What Brands: Really, this isn’t so much an article as a fun graphic we created. In a world dominated by luxury conglomerates with brand portfolios the size of a Panerai Radiomir, it can be hard to keep track of who owns what. So, we created a graphic for ourselves to remember, and we thought our readers might like it too.
To our readers: Thank you for beginning this journey with us. We started RESCAPEMENT because we’ve become frustrated with the media coverage of a hobby we love so much. Publications are driven by brands and hype, not by you, the reader or consumer. We’re hoping to change that, one article at a time. For more on why we started RESCAPEMENT, read our introductory post.
So thanks again, and know that we’re just getting started. We can’t wait for what 2019 has in store!