Anti-fingerprint coating, how presumptuous! The Watch Journalist, me, feeling third person pompous, no journalistic education and a made-up title, remembering the press release. Surely this is a tool watch, to be bashed about for effs sake, not lovingly fondled? Like a minimal Sinn with too few indices, looking uncomfortably alien after my last Schofield, the sadly missed polished steel Signalman GMT. Sold (wife’s gun to my head) to another Zine contributor, damn you, Nudds! 

So why the slippery surfaces, and the look, like a dark short-horned version of a mermaid’s purse on a wide strap with a big, rather lovely buckle. And this is what the ship’s captain  Ellis could come up with after 15 years of considering a new shape? I don’t even like grey PVD, yet the magic box of delights, sent from England promises compact wearability.

Confounded! Good thing I didn’t write up article intro without the all-wrong PVD on my wrist with the too-large buckle. I am fondling it, and get the anti-fingerprint presumptuousness. Sure it is a tool watch and will surely be used as one, but it throws me. Just like 14 years ago with Ellis’ firstborn, the 500m depth-rated Signalman GMT with its smooth case sans dive bezel. Slippery surfaces have traveled through Sussex’s watch generations, spiked with tech-feasting carbon fibre and gilt Treasure. 

Yet the juxtaposition maketh a Schofield watch, and it is being handled by me, the PVD-darkness annoyingly just right. It took ages to get the strap clicked in, slippery delights of soft curves stopping me. Just like the curve ball Ellis has whacked out of the grounds with The Light. A name that feels odd(ly fascinating) yet fits like a soft glove of India Rubber. Of which The Watch Journalist had never heard, thinking it was supple leather and has now learnt that you would not want a glove made from India Rubber…

Don’t even get me started on the eternal calculus of the GMT hand and the elated feeling when sussing it out. Humans don’t read operating instructions anymore, at least not stuck-up Watch Journalists. But the most annoying thing is how it all fits, and is softly comfortable despite its straight lugs, feeling somehow home. Leica-like in its slippery anti-fingerprint monochrome, avec the Watch Journalist’s cliché of ‘a pop of red’ - two pops even, damn you Ellis!

E01/A04/THOR SVABOE

Sometimes I’ll take the gamble, it’s fun, gambling, I do it with the internet every day, for everything new and untrusted. I even gamble buying perfume based solely on the poetry of the descriptions. I do it with new suppliers too, sometimes when the stakes are higher; like a square metre of ballistic nylon being the wrong grey. It is informed faith, some like to call it judgement. If it goes wrong then it's on you, the decision maker - it was poor judgement.

Perhaps you were misled with poor descriptions, inaccurate renders and whatever else the charlatans can pull from the bottomless hat of scams. We can counter the risk - buying more hoping that a spray effect will hit the target.



Couple gambling with an eye so keenly trained to spot flaws that receiving new stuff through the post is generally disappointing. This is me - most times, utterly underwhelmed by others efforts. My plea - do better!

The antidote is simple, go out and meet the people who would otherwise be selling blind. Doors open through conversation, this is something I learnt a long time ago and preach often. But I, like you, don’t take my own advice kindly. The reluctance to move from your comfort zone is because it is a bubble containing a sofa, tv, devices and ice-cream. The skin of that bubble is made from fear. You have to pass through the fear to find the magic, for most experiences outside of the comfort zone is indeed magic.

So, yesterday I drove to see a supplier of special leathers 40 miles from the Sugar Free shop. I went for something drab but came away with leathers that looked like Quality Street wrappers. These will make the prettiest straps and that was well worth the effort of not listening to my inner protests.



And then, this morning, I received by post, and quite by surprise, a box of tweed fabric with a note: 'Found in my wife’s, grandmother’s, mother’s attic, who once made dresses with it. Maybe you can make use of it, give it away if not'. The sender had remembered a conversation we had years prior, where I mentioned I am always on the lookout for new materials. It was a conversation had in a situation where I was well out of my comfort zone but pushed through the fear anyway. We make a strap from this tweed called 'Purple One' AKA 'Some Bloke’s Tweed' and it is a very special Sugar with memories of bravery, fun times and generosity.

E01/A02/GILES ELLIS

Why we buy expensive things.

A recent research paper*, discussed the "double-edged" sword of luxury consumption, identifying a tension between self-authenticity and self-enhancement that can lead to a psychological cost for consumers. In a time of increased authenticity and keeping it real, they discovered that luxury purchases often led to feelings of inauthenticity, feelings at odds with the supposed status benefits of luxury goods. However, they also discovered that individuals with chronically high psychological entitlement** were inoculated against this inauthenticity - not sharing the general perception of luxury as undue privilege but rather as their privilege. This may come as no surprise to users of Instagram, a platform built to prey on feelings of inauthenticity and magnify psychological entitlement. Luxury consumption may therefore be the most nihilistic of vices, ever reducing our self-worth through a series of large purchases. Or, perhaps, we're just worth it. 

*The Impostor Syndrome from Luxury Consumption (Gore, et al. 2019)

**i.e., an inflated self-view stemming from an innate feeling of being special and superior (Campbell et al. 2004)

E01/A03/MAT CRADDOCK