Evolution of Social Media Watch Photographs Part 3: Storytelling, Collaboration, and a Bunch of Boobs

Credits: Article and images by Ian Skellern @ Quill & Pad. See the original article here - https://quillandpad.com/2024/08/28/evolution-of-social-media-watch-photographs-part-3-storytelling-collaboration-and-a-bunch-of-boobs-2/

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TAG Heuer Monaco Chronograph, ahora en rosa Las Vegas

Hublot sirve un as

Collaboration, served several ways

In my time in Silicon Valley, one of the things I’ve learned about the success model used here is that it is based less on proprietary ownership of ideas than on the open sharing of concepts based on the principle that rapid improvement of a promising idea, not careful hoarding of a static trade secret, is the surest path to success.

Number 7 of 30: @deletrium shows us one of multiple perspectives on a Bovet Virtuoso Tourbillon

As the population of young watch enthusiasts – including many from the tech world – grows rapidly, this idea of openness has now found its way into how we see watches shown online.

In my most recent article in this series, I highlighted Wanyu Lee (@deletrium), who was among the first I noticed offering behind-the-scenes tutorials of her shooting setups as part of her Instagram posts. She has now extended that idea into a series she calls “One Watch 30 Ways,” which is exactly what it claims to be: 30 different views of a single watch (currently a Bovet timepiece) published over one-month period with liberal sharing of the secret sauce behind each shot.

The story shot, and the story behind the shot, by @enjoythewatches

And she’s not alone. Lydia Winters (@enjoythewatches), whose actual job title at Minecraft is chief storyteller, now has a how-to shot accompanying each of her Instagram posts. And designer and photographer Verne Ho (@watchstudies) posts a tutorial each Sunday on a different aspect of watch photography, complementing his ongoing stream of high-quality studio photos of watches.

For tutorial, see link in (his) bio: @watchstudies shares the magic every Sunday

If I have a beef with some of the members of this new wave of shooters, it is an apparent tendency to believe that the history of watch photography began pretty much when they picked up a camera and started to click away. There’s no shortage of posts, for instance, full of self-congratulation at discovering things like depth of field and simple use of light.

As long as the more skilled practitioners are letting me in on their tricks, though, I’ll tolerate the occasional precious prose from the others and focus on accelerating my own improvement.

Collaboration, type 1: wrist check chain entry in Instagram Stories at @the.next.exit.watch

Another form of collaboration that has mushroomed over the past months involves using Instagram Stories and cross-tagging to build online renown and stature. As a moderate Instagram addict, I’ll generally scroll down my feed of fresh posts a couple of times a day and then check out the first several Stories in the queue before moving on to other things.

Lately, what I’m seeing is a flood of cross-tagged Stories that in “olden” times we would have called a wrist check: “@thewatchywatch asked what I was wearing today . . . ” accompanied by a wristshot of said watch and three to five tags of others asking them to continue the chain.

I suppose it’s good for visibility and may contribute to one’s standing on the IG algorithm, but for me it’s already gotten old. Same goes for long strings of Stories where every nugget of praise for a given post is reposted by the original photographer, then back by the praise giver, and so on – although in the spirit of full disclosure I will confess that I occasionally do this myself. Although I’m too lazy to make it the life’s work it seems to be for some.

Collaboration, type 2: oddball challenge themes and you at @lapetitewrist

Another collaboration-related trend is the expansion, seemingly in violation of the laws of online physics, in the number and variety of “days” and “challenges” for posting.

I mean, Speedy Tuesday was fine, and Blue Watch Monday, Macro Monday, Caseback Fridays, Tourbillon Tuesday, and so on have been bearable. But now it’s just getting silly.

And while there have been suggested themes such as “nature” or “water” for photo postings going back to Fridays on the PuristS in the early 2000s and more recently associated with various competitions, over the past months a seemingly random flood of challenges with themes such as “flexed biceps while wearing a red shirt” and “leg day” has been filling the airwaves.