In a recent discussion after one of the watch talks I have been doing, we got onto the subject of how much of time and the telling of time is really about trust.

Which is, to be honest, the way it is for most things.

Early clocks were sold with no name on them, so you trusted the person you bought them from. If you go to many clock collections in maritime museums, including the mother of them all in Greenwich England, you will see the names of shopkeepers, of the ship’s chandlers that would be the dockside stores that ship captains would go to for supplies. This was also the place they would go to sell their wares. It would often be the case that when a new sail was seen on the horizon, townspeople would go to the port to see what new things were to be had. Food, clothing, materials. Even the news came this way.

So did clocks.

The ship captains had the need to have the best, most consistent possible timekeepers because this was how they would fix their location when away from recognizable land. So the clocks they would buy, and they would often buy them, were often a leap of faith.

In a recent discussion after one of the watch talks I have been doing, we got onto the subject of how much of time and the telling of time is really about trust.

Which is, to be honest, the way it is for most things.

Early clocks were sold with no name on them, so you trusted the person you bought them from. If you go to many clock collections in maritime museums, including the mother of them all in Greenwich England, you will see the names of shopkeepers, of the ship’s chandlers that would be the dockside stores that ship captains would go to for supplies. This was also the place they would go to sell their wares. It would often be the case that when a new sail was seen on the horizon, townspeople would go to the port to see what new things were to be had. Food, clothing, materials. Even the news came this way.

So did clocks.

The ship captains had the need to have the best, most consistent possible timekeepers because this was how they would fix their location when away from recognizable land. So the clocks they would buy, and they would often buy them, were often a leap of faith.

Of trust.

Pull this all into the modern world, and think about brand names. Many companies made their names more by the way their products actually consistently worked than by how beautiful they were or how desirable they became. Rolex, as an example, wasn’t the first timekeeper or watchmaker by far, but what they did was make the telling of time consistent, the mechanisms tough enough and reliable enough that people would trust them. The fact that there are Rolex Service Centers around the world is testament to the fact that there is value in trust. It is very well argued that the reason the brand with the crown is so strong is more about what happens after the sale than before it.

One of the big challenges of modern watchmaking is that all the new movements and mechanisms and complications are harder than ever to keep going or handle if they go wrong. In the past, the only people that would buy hugely complicated pieces were those that knew their horological stuff. Who understood that these were works of art meant to be cared for, not commodities to be traded. That is, rightly or wrongly, kind of out the window because people are throwing money at things they don’t understand past a price tag or a reference number or a sound bite.

The buying side of the world has changed drastically, yet the watch industry is actually very slow to change. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. They wouldn’t release pieces before unless the support systems were in place, for example. They were constantly training, teaching, learning. Some may joke about the wording of watch magazine advertisements, but I guarantee you that the thinking in many of these Maisons is indeed generational. And that is as it should be.

So please, look past the latest buy or the latest trend. Have good long conversations with people who won’t echo what you think. If you are leaders, surround yourself with people who think, not those who just follow. If you are artists, broaden your horizons while honing your craft.

The world is changing drastically in many ways, but the core truths are still there. If they aren’t around you, find them. Create them. Share them. Inspire them.

Trust me.