{"id":37723,"date":"2026-10-25T11:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=37723"},"modified":"2026-10-25T11:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T18:30:07","slug":"i-get-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=37723","title":{"rendered":"I Get Links"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friends and family, along with people who know me only through my blog and social media posts, are aware of my wristwatch fetish. So when they see articles and news stories about watches, they send me the links. This morning a friend alerted me to a story in The Spectator about the growing popularity of watch fairs and expos<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(sorry, it’s paywalled, but you can get the gist from the little bit you can read for free)<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0801\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I enjoyed the article. I probably couldn’t handle the crowds, so it’s not likely I’ll ever go to a watch fair, but I’m sure it would be fun. Anyway, here’s the message I sent back to my friend.<\/p>\n

Watch industry conventions & expos go back at least to the 1800s, but watch fairs and shows like the ones discussed in the article are new, and what’s new about them is that they’re open to the public. There have always been watch enthusiasts and collectors, but my impression is the hobby, if that\u2019s the right word or it, really started to boom in the last two or three years. Most of the social media watch content creators I know of got their start just two years ago, and new ones (like me) pop up on YouTube & TikTok every week. I\u2019ve worn wristwatches since I was a boy, but only ever owned more than two at a time until five years ago, when I bought a new Seiko and suddenly had three, which led to four \u2014 and now more than 30. Something must have been in the air when I bought that new Seiko, and I picked up on it \u2014 I don\u2019t think of myself as a trendoid, but the casual observer might easily take me for one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The watches in the photo, by the way, are part of my collection. I take lots of photos of my watches. But you probably knew that.<\/p>\n

Speaking of photos, here’s one I took at sunrise today, braving the morning chill in sweatpants and a t-shirt. The light had just hit the Santa Catalina Mountains. It would be another fifteen minutes before it got down to our level.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0818\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Donna and I are hitting the road Thursday morning, driving to Las Vegas to spend the weekend with our son Gregory and daughter-in-law Beth. With luck we’ll see our grandson Quentin and granddaughter Taylor too. I’ll report in on social media, hashtag #OTR (on the road), but might not get back to the blog until we’re home again.<\/p>\n

Hope everyone has a great Halloween.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends and family, along with people who know me only through my blog and social media posts, are aware of my wristwatch fetish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4432,18,555,2,1601],"tags":[4958,4957,4959,4955,4956],"class_list":["post-37723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-seiko","category-consumerism","category-local-color","category-personal","category-photoblogging","tag-bydawnsearlylight","tag-linkapalooza","tag-otr","tag-trendoidsrus","tag-watchfairs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37723"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37731,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37723\/revisions\/37731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}