Still Dialing Through at Twenty-two (November 2015)

 

Wearing my Movado at Gaudi's
Park Guell, Barcelona Spain.

It's been twenty-two months since I started posting content.  It's time again to reflect on my experiences blogging, with the focus this time on the watch-related content I've created. So I thought it would be fun to see if I could identify twelve themes that I've explored and illustrate them with accompanying posts. Some postings have been informational, others fanciful.  I've given each theme a signifying hour. And yes, you'll find thematic overlaps across the dial. 

12 o'clock: Celebrities 

Sight to Last a Lifetime: Omega Watches and Orbis International's Teddy Bear Campaign 

Be Bond Sure It's Shaken, not Stirred: Omega's New Seamaster 300 Spectre Limited Edition 

Taking Time Into Space: NASA and OMEGA’s Speedmaster Anniversaries

Ad Venture Begets Luxurity

A Time To Pause: Michael Korda and Marking Time

 

1:00 o'clock: Sports Relationships

Hublot’s Vivacious Contender: Viva Italia! 

The Colors to Watch: Brazilian Yellow and Green

Ad Venture Begets Luxurity

Riding on the Wings of Post Time: Longines and the Belmont Stakes

OMEGA: Longstanding Olympian

   

2:00 o'clock: Complications

App-Surdity: Using Time to Remember Your Room

Beautifying Complications: Roger Dubuis Excalibur Creative Skeleton Brocéliande

September 8 (2014): A Great Date for the Harvest Moon and Harry Winston’s Midnight Moon Phase

The Sky Above, the Auction Below: Henry Graves Jr.’s Supercomplication

Face It -- It's Complicated!

 

3:00 o'clock: Historical Reach Back

Taking Time Into Space: NASA and OMEGA’s Speedmaster Anniversaries

Off-Road But Still On Time (PART ONE)

Off-Road But Still On Time (PART TWO)

The Sons of August: World War I Trench Watches and a Modern Day Tribute to the Fallen 

The Sons of August: Nine Months On

A Masterful Throwback: Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Grande Reverso Ultra-thin Wristwatch

Quartz Crystal Watches – The Revolution of “Good Vibrations”

4:00 o'clock: Botanical Motifs

Botanical Companions: J.G. Ballard and Chaumet

Coco’s Camellia: A Floral Tourbillon that Needs No Fragrance

Petals Extraordinaire: Richard Mille's 19-02 Tourbillon Fleur

Promoting Time for Pollinators: Chaumet’s Attrape-moi si tu m’aimes Watch Collection

5:00 o'clock: Charity Associations

Sight to Last a Lifetime: Omega Watches and Orbis International's Teddy Bear Campaign

6:00 o'clock: Historical and Contemporary Culture (Literature, Art, Music, Film)

Beautifying Complications: Roger Dubuis Excalibur Creative Skeleton Brocéliande

Passing Time with Malevich

Ulee's Gold, Time Transfigured: Franck Muller's Double Mystery Collection

“All in One”: Tomi Ungerer and His Time-Anchored Family

 

7:00 o'clock: Sentimental Journeys

Remembering Everlasting Times: Isabel Marant's "A Hand in My Hand" Wristwatch

From Drive Time to Watch Time: SHINOLA Detroit

Timex: Time Spent on Durability

Yuletide Timings: Meet Me at the Met

8:00 o'clock:  Blogging about Watches

Taking Stock at Six O’Clock: Beginning My Blogging Career (August 2014)

Be Watching Midnight: Taking Stock Twelve Months On (February 2015)

Wristwatch Writings: Descriptive Elements for Friendly Conversations

9:00 o'clock: Ethical Materials Sourcing/Use

 Dials Too Can Get the Blues 

Remembering Everlasting Times: Isabel Marant's "A Hand in My Hand" Wristwatch

10:00 o'clock: Métiers d’art 

Two Exquisite Repeaters: Foreign and Domestic

11:00 o'clock: Advertising Time

Advertising Time: What Brands Catch Your Eye and Why?

Saddle Up: Ralph Lauren’s SWISS MADE Stirrups

Ad Venture Begets Luxurity 

L'Limbs of Time: L’Instant Chanel

The Whole World is Watching

 

12:00 o'clock:  Coming Full Dial to Post Again

My next update will be in April 2016.       

Wearing my Bulova Accutron in Sitges, Spain.

If you've identified other themes I've missed, let me know. If there are other themes you'd like to see in my next series of posts, send your suggestions to me.

In the meantime, read my page updates to Poetic Time and a new page, Virtual Book Case.

       


   

BeWatching Midnight: Taking Stock Twelve Months On (February 2015)

In August 2014, I posted, “Taking Stock at Six O’Clock:  Beginning My Blogging Career.” I’m now twelve months into the writing and it’s again time to reflect on my experiences. 

From September 2014 until this posting, I’ve written twelve pieces. You could call them my “Midnight Twelve”—not a large number but quantity is not as important to me at this juncture as is continuing to learn more about watches, explore new topics and improve on my singular writing style.   I have many posts in progress  still waiting for their hour hands to strike and be published. 

Thankfully, my ideational flow hasn’t subsided.  At times it seems overwhelming.   I still find my post inspirations coming from movies (Ulee’s Gold); art and exhibitions (Malevich/Tate Museum, Tomi Ungerer/The Drawing Center); advertisements (Jaeger-LeCoultre/The New Yorker); and current events (Je Suis Charlie).

Since my blog’s inception, I’ve had over 6,400 page views as of February 28^th. That’s compared to 3,500 at the end of August 2014. Over 50% of my all-time audience has come from the United States; followed by readers in Israel, the Ukraine, Russia and China. But for me, it’s not about stats but about enjoyment and creativity.

One of most important things I’ve realized during the last six months is how important it is to arduously continue expanding my knowledge of both the technical and artistic design aspects of wristwatches.  For example, describing a particular model or collection of watches often takes provocative word flair to be successful.  My Versace posting is an example of this.

  

I am just now cultivating this expressive approach, but it’s a slow process to concatenate words in a descriptive sequence that provides clarity and evocative punch. This is the reason I introduced a new page to my blog, Poetic Time in January 2015.   On this page you'll find a selection of poems and other prose fragments, some my own—some from others, with time as an important thematic element.

I have been taking advantage of webinars during the last six months.  Two of the most helpful were s “8 Success Factors that Determine Your Blog’s Future” and “Get Your Blog Ready for a Big 2015."  Both of these webinars were offered to Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger Community.  Even if you are not a ProBlogger Community member, Rowse’s blog is a repeated must visit for aspiring and seasoned bloggers.

I also have had the opportunity to use my blogging knowledge to set-up a publications’ site for my husband, James J. Raciti.  This served as a technical refresher for me as it involved a collaborative effort to select and  register another domain name, establish a template, make layout decisions, and add content that promotes his novels, non-fiction and poetry works.

I am expanding my knowledge of digital branding, both from a personal point of view as an emerging blogger and the way wristwatch firms appear to use it in creating consumer awareness of their brands through marketing campaigns. Daniel Rowles' book, Digital Branding: A CompleteStep-by-Step Guide to Strategy, Tactics and Measurement (Kogan Page, 2014) is a terrific, basic introduction to this exploding field.  I’d also recommend Rowles’ Target Internet site which offers free educational content on digital marketing including blog posts and podcasts. 

So what are my intentions for the next six months, now that I’m one blogging year old? I want to refine my focus, research and write postings about:

• Specific wristwatch innovations and designs, specifically those coming from haute jouilliare houses such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier.
• Specific wristwatch elements such as bezels, crowns, hands, dial adornments, cases etc.
• Specific fashion brand wristwatches that have surprising features.

Specificity frames my agenda.  Much to do before the clock strikes 6 o’clock again next August. 

Taking Stock at Six O’Clock: Beginning My Blogging Career (August 2014)

A number of my friends who are also my readers have asked me questions about my experiences since I started blogging in February 2014. They want to know:

•  How did I get started? 
•  What were some of my key decision points?
•   Where do I get my ideas?
•   How long does it take for me to write a post?   
•   What have been some of my most thrilling moments? 
•   How do I keep on doing it?

So I decided that about every six months, i.e. Six O’Clock by my blog dial, I’ll do a highlights report on my time as a self-styled, independent blogger.

  

Starting Out/Key Decision Points:

Three of the biggest decision points as I was starting out were:
  
1.) focusing on a topical area and refining its scope, i.e. for me--wristwatches;  2.) selecting a blog name then getting it registered; 
3.) choosing a content publishing platform.  

I’ve described my blog scope and name choice in my About Me page.

Thanks to the book, Blogging Made Simple: Powerful Techniques for Blogging Success by Michael  H. Fleischner and Justin Freid which I read in January 2014, I selected Google’s Blogger as the platform for publishing my content.  It was free, easy to navigate and understand for me, a blogging novice. I then registered Wristwatchredux.net as my domain name through GoDaddy. 

Another key decision point was to join Darren Rowse’s online blogging community, ProBlogger  in March.  This has given me access to other emerging and seasoned bloggers around the world and real-time as well as archived webinars.  One ProBlogger webinar I highly recommend is Crafting Content for Your Blog.  It aired just this month.

Getting Ideas:

I mainly get my ideas from what is happening around me at the time, magazines and books I’m reading, other watch/jewelry blog sites I especially like and images that strike me as making a unique, time-related statement.  

For example, my second post, OMEGA: Longstanding Olympian was triggered by the excitement and media coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Likewise I couldn’t escape FIFA World Cup soccer fever and ended up writing about Hublot and GaGà MILANO brands.  Longines’ advertisements featuring Kate Winslett and Simon Baker  in Time Magazine, a Ralph Lauren ad in WSJ, and a Chanel video on YouTube all led to postings.  A  J. G. Ballard short story, The Garden of Time served as the literary equivalent of Chaumet’s Hortensia tourbillon timepiece.

And my most recent post, The Sons of August began with the desire to connect e World War I’s 100^th anniversary with trench watches and an art installation at the Tower of London.

My favorite watch/jewelry blogs include WorldTempus, WatchTime, nawcc/watchnews, and The JewelleryEditor.

Writing Posts:

I work on several posts at a time, although I won't publish all of them. Generally, it takes me up to three weeks, working off and on to research and write what I consider ready-for-prime-time material.  Heavy editing and proofreading take their toll on my initial drafts. And yes, I keep a postings ideas book, consisting mainly of working titles and back-up jottings.

Most Thrilling Moments:

Reaching my 10^th posting on April 6^th — Art Sourcing Time. 

Receiving very positive feedback on two particular posts, Hublot’s Vivacious Contender and  Discovering Timeless Beauty Unexpectedly from watch brands' GaGà MILANO and RSW corporate marketing officials.

 Surpassing 3,500 all-time page views on August 29th.

 Realizing that I had an international readership that goes beyond the U.S. and includes the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, China, the Ukraine and Russia.

AND the ultimate rush, finishing a post and hitting the PUBLISH button.

Sustaining the Writing:

How do I sustain my enthusiasm to keep blogging?  That’s simple.  There is so much to discover, explore, and say about time at hand.  There’s even more satisfaction in having the tools and technology available to share it with others instantaneously around the world.

Let me know if any of my comments on my own blogging start-up experiences are similar to yours.

 What you are thinking/how you are doing as a blogger or blog reader?