Watches and Time — A Decade of Horology, Technology and Craft
From mechanical movements to wrist-worn computers — what we wear on our wrists and why it matters.
Twenty-four posts spanning eight years. What began with strapping an Apple Watch to one wrist and a mechanical watch to the other became a broader inquiry into time, craft, and the objects we choose to carry.
Willem's writing about watches started from a question most people never think to ask: in an age when every device tells the time, why would anyone strap a mechanical movement to their wrist?
The answer, it turns out, has almost nothing to do with telling time.
The Mechanical Side
The centrepiece is a three-year daily-wear review of the Tudor Black Bay 36 — not a first-impressions piece but a long-term companion study, written after the watch had earned every scratch on its case. From there, the thread extends to the Rolex Datejust 36, a Grand Seiko, and a vintage piece found at a flea market that needed cleaning and restoration by hand.
The Digital Side
In parallel, Willem has been a long-time Apple Watch wearer — not for notifications, but as a health sensor. The posts explore heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, the limitations of optical sensors, and the radical experiment of using an Apple Watch as a phone replacement: no iPhone, just the watch on cellular.
Where Both Worlds Meet
The most distinctive thread is where mechanical and digital collide. The post on wearing two watches — one analogue, one digital — is a meditation on what each gives you that the other cannot. The essay on patina argues that a smartwatch's disposability is its greatest weakness. And the ambitious project of designing his own watch from scratch brings both worlds together.
Measuring the Body
Watches led to wearables, which led to a deeper inquiry into what we can learn from the data our bodies produce. The Whoop Strap review, the Biostrap experiments, the optical vs chest strap comparison, and the philosophical piece "Data versus Feeling" all grew from the same root: the wrist as an interface between self and information.
Also explore
wearable sensors · designing and making · long-term reviews · sport and the body
The Full Collection
Every post Willem has written about watches, wearables, and the things we strap to our wrists — in chronological order.
