I love… hair? The relationship between watches and body hair…
Hairy arms are a recent phenomenon that seems to have conquered visual watchmaking information. Who has not at least once taken a picture of their watch on their wrist? Yuk!
By Joel Grandjean
Editor-in-Chief
I am well aware that I could soon be looking for a new job because of this humorous article. Indeed, I work for two publishers who are staunch supporters of what I am critisizing here. Will I be able to convince them to keep their photographic impulses focused on the superb photoshoots they are so good at organizing with sublime decors and enthusiastic creativity? I highly doubt it as every time they fall for a model, their first reflex is to do exactly that about which I am remonstrating. This article focuses on a practice that is a never-ending subject of debate in the industry and which tends to make my hackles rise.
A tendency that comes with a price
Did I say hair? Yes, more specifically, body hair –which grows naturally here and there on the wrists of most men (fortunately, mostly just men’s wrists). Over the last few years, a new approach to using pictures seems to have made its way into watchmaking: some enthusiasts enjoy taking pictures with their smartphones of watches buckled onto their wrist.
The underlying claim of this trend seems to be "I was there", "I held it in my hands" and hence "I want everybody to know it". In a way, it is horology's very own version of selfies. The problem is (I would argue) that those who do it so often don’t seem to have considered signing a sponsoring agreement with a brand of hair removal products. Insiders will certainly know what I am talking about, famous blogger and founder of the website "aBlogToWatch.com", Ariel Adams, is known to shave this particular area so that his body hair does not appear within the range of his camera lens.
The hairy brushed-polished
As I was saying, in every other case, there is an ill-timed hairy interruption etched into every picture. It’s a very unattractive and an almost unsettling phenomenon.
Not only does it not give any added value to the piece but it hinders the focus on the timepiece and even distorts it and kills the image’s emotional touch. But what’s most surprising –judging by people’s reaction when they find a hair in their food –is that no one seems to care!
Indeed, as it turns out it seems that there’s no fighting this 'bushy' invasion of the pictures' main message, which is meant to be the watches. To think that the latter has been meticulously crafted by experts and immortalized in all their angles by the best Canon or Olympus cameras to enliven the pages of catalogues or press releases!
There are innumerable blogs and social network pages that are particularly fond of these pictures and they keep growing every day. This novel approach to watch photography is spreading and gaining ground even to the extent that even the print media or even the truly professional online magazines sometimes adopt it. That includes Watchonista, your favorite watches network! Just imagine our editorial meetings: we have so much fun trying to guess who's arm it is that appears in the picture. Sometimes it gets really difficult to guess though, as it is no easy task to guess whose arm it is without seeing their face and as women are excluded de facto.
A photo album in response to my criticism
I am sure that one of these days, a rebellious structure will form within watchmaking, a resistance body by a name along the lines of “Ethical Committee Against the Proliferation of Hairs (ECAPH)”. Until then, who knows? My two editors who are incidentally behind the famous Facebook group 'Wristshots', which features the most beautiful shots of this kind –may decide to get rid of their arm hair in an identifiable and definite way. For the time being, in response to my criticism and in a futile attempt to make me change my mind, all they have done is show me a selection of their best 'hairy' pictures. In particular those taken in the crazy halls of Baselworld 2016. The album contains their favorite watches and whilst replete with body ingredients, it proves their undeniable horological fandom. It certainly contains pieces that will no doubt be the coinage of the immediate future and perhaps even the discoveries of tomorrow.
