1975 words
Over the last couple of years, I have had the opportunity to speak to many other writers and content creators within the horology industry and those who cover other topics. I even interviewed some of them for articles. There were a few commonalities amongst all of the people whom I spoke to, which were disconcerting.
Even though they contributed to the space through writing, photography, hosting podcasts, or even running a business that brought products to the market, none of them actively read for pleasure or to improve. Most distressingly, none of the writers I spoke to read to work on and improve their craft. Writers I spoke to and interviewed all admitted that they spend most of their time on social media. Those who owned a watch brand openly admitted to not reading watch reviews. Most stated that they found them and all other articles to be boring lists and that they had nothing to offer. They applied this to all articles, thereby giving them the intellectual high ground and permission to not read anything. And when I say anything, I mean everything.
In interviews and more dense conversations, I always asked other writers who their favourite authors and writers are, and what lessons they directly apply to their own aptitude and competencies. To my disappointment, a long silence followed this line of questioning before a couple of vague examples were given. These examples were always citing a writer and one work that they read in their formative years decades ago. Nothing recent. Troubling.
Other writers and content creators openly admitted to me that they didn’t read articles by their peers, and on more than one occasion, I caught them lying about doing so. This was particularly awkward on one occasion, while the small lie was caught during the recording of a podcast. In the example of the podcast, the bare minimum was put forward, and it resulted in the audience losing trust in the hosts throughout the entire episode.
The issue at hand is simple and far-reaching. The problem is rooted in a systemic issue the human species now suffers from in its contemporary setting, where, before, in its pre-industrial phases, reaching all the way back to before our agricultural boom and back to our hunter-gatherer days, we benefited from them. This is the over-reliance on templates in all fields. Templates are a set of items organized in a structure that abide by simple rules and are easy to recognize. Templates which endure are ones that can be identified at a glance – this gives them the evolutionary advantage over others.
In newspapers, magazines, and blogs, the templates which almost all articles use utilize the thesis paragraph template, which provides the reader a roadmap for the entire article. This helps the reader maintain their focus as they read along. The reader is essentially checking off a list in their head as they are reading. This explains why so many people feel as if they are reading lists when reading articles from many platforms. It also aids their ability to read at a quicker pace, skimming over sentences and phrases which may not seem important when referencing the thesis paragraph. Consequently, nuance is directly avoided and discarded. In schools, this template is taught mainly because it is what works in the real world, but also because it is much easier to grade. They are easier to grade because the general thesis template, in short, is a drawn-out list.
The typical Thesis paragraph template:
The argument is true because of a, b, and c, and here, the concluding paragraph, is my conclusion summarizing the above.
The typical Thesis paragraph template when applied to watch reviews:
This watch and its brand are either worthy or unworthy of your attention because of its case, movement, strap, a personal observation, and a concluding paragraph reinforcing the above.
This creates an assertive armada of issues that are far more complex and consequential beyond the realm of reading out of habit and reading comprehension. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have had to structure my answers to complex questions in real-time through the traditional thesis template. If I did not, the person asking me the question would not be able to follow the datasets, trails of evidence and examples which supported the answer they asked for. Nevertheless, in every instance, I would watch their gaze soften after the second sentence, as their mind began to retreat into a comfortable resting state. There are a few people whom I speak to who read long-form materials for work and for pleasure, and not a single one of them ever has trouble following a complex explanation on a matter. They are able to keep incoming information stored without losing any ground on what is to come. Reading endurance and comprehension skills directly impact our ability to understand complex topics as they are unfolding before us in person, and this has direct consequences in our lives and how our societies are shaped. Yes, this problem extends to how an electorate votes.
As someone who writes, amongst many other things, product reviews, I have also witnessed the endurance of readers and those listening in person practice a common tactic which is directly related to the overly simplified templates that they are reliant on. If they are given a piece of information that is substantiated by a primary source with multiple sets of data points that is in direct conflict with what they believed beforehand, they will use this point to jettison themselves from reading or having to listen further. If either a, b or c is not supporting their own personal beliefs, never mind the thesis, they can clearly identify this as an off-ramp towards entering an intellectual resting state. This is a shortcoming of template systems, for they also offer humans an easy mechanism for confirmation bias, before they read on to find out why their held belief or opinion is untrue.
The disheartening consequence of having to follow, rely, and only be exposed to thesis templates, or similar templates in other fields, such as photography, has been that writers, photographers, content creators, and business owners gradually fade away from the field that they once loved so dearly. Boredom not only sets in, but resentment starts permeating every pore related to the field that they are covering.
Before moving on to matters of higher consequence, there is one more highly relevant matter that needs to be visited, which covers the watch industry. The products that are on offer themselves are following the same design templates that have been around for decades. I myself have not bought a timepiece from Omega, a brand which I love, which was designed, or re-designed, after the year 2015. Like many other large incumbent brands in the industry, they are simply re-releasing existing models with slight refinements along the way. When a brand like Audemars Piguet takes a chance, like they did in 2019 with their Code 11.59 release, they face nothing but criticism and vitriol from narrow-minded consumers and writers who have not seen the product in person. And yet, they have the nerve to complain about the brand reverting to releasing yet another Royal Oak, which is the mainstay of their catalogue. Since then, AP has introduced more models in the 11.59 lineup, arguably making it more generic and unrecognizable at a glance from other timepieces from other brands. Consumers and writers also tend to criticize brands for simply releasing a new dial colour or small refinements on top of not buying any new designs.
This is a bigger issue for smaller brands, often referred to as microbrands, for they are mostly copying the tested designs from the incumbent brands. A perfect example of this is the Seamaster 300 by Omega, and the many brands which simply copy its design elements. Unfortunately, microbrands have another disadvantage, which is rarely talked about. They are overly reliant on their manufacturers overseas, and in most cases, the design firms attached to the manufacturers. Most microbrands do not design their own watches. They hand over a brief and, through a series of going back and forth, the watch is designed for them. This results in several brands using the same watch cases, bracelets, and packaging. In the case of the Héron Marinor I reviewed, it had the exact same bracelet extension mechanism used by Christopher Ward. The product is not being guided by what would serve the consumer best, but rather by what can be produced and sold at the very moment with minimal effort.
For writers, this creates a sense of frustration, for they seem to be writing the exact same article on multiple occasions. This creates the perpetual cycle where they also stop reading materials in their own field and for pleasure in general. Unfortunately, dedicated consumers and collectors end up leaving the field after half a decade due to poor product offerings and poor literature on the topic. I have evaded this sense of frustration by writing articles that adhere to the industry thesis standard, and articles which do not. An example of a thesis template standard review is this review of the Hamilton Khaki Navy dive watch. An example of a non-standard review is this article about my beloved Omega Trésor, which was a review in all but name.
Proven templates endure, for they are profitable. When it comes to design, photography, and writing, it is a daunting ask to deviate from these templates, since very few people will bother to read the article or click the like button on any number of platforms.
The answer is to write articles like this one, that only a handful of people will read, and to write product reviews that do not apply to the strict templates, which again, few will read. A recent and very extensive study by The American Time Use Survey found that an alarmingly decreasing amount of the population reads for pleasure, at 16% as of 2023. While those who do read for pleasure are doing so at increased rates, those who do not or have not growing up tend not to. This includes children. So, articles like these will essentially be akin to preaching to the choir, but there is a chance that someone new to reading will grasp its arguments and be positively impacted going forward. This has happened to me on multiple occasions when new readers reached out to me, expressing their gratitude for an article that actually was enjoyable to read.
As mentioned above, this has very direct consequences on the population, as they lack the competency to follow explanations and arguments that have any nuance or density. This results in voting patterns which mirror the horrible choices made time and again, and a population that is not capable of understanding why. The rise in anti-liberal movements, populism, and governments enacting authoritarian policies has not been a surprise to the small percentage of the population which bothers to read not only for pleasure, but to continually better themselves. Almost all humans stop reading about history once they have met their course requirements in the highest level of education they can muster.
The exact same templates used by authoritarian, fascist, and totalitarian regimes from 90 years ago are being recycled by current administrations. The targeting of academic institutions, media outlets, and the constant placement of blame on perceived groups which fall outside of the desired norm that are at play today are the same as those in countries which directly caused the Great Wars of the last century.
This is a call to all writers to write better articles which do not strictly adhere to thesis templates and structures which are used within your field. Articles like this are only more difficult to follow because the reader is not accustomed to and not willing to put in the work to get to the end. As recent studies have shown, the audience which doesn’t read cannot be reached in the first place. We should be cognizant of catering to a diminishing and unreachable audience while making our existing one less intelligent and less cognitively resilient. We are directly to blame for their diminishing capacity. Exposing all audiences to nothing but overly simplistic templates makes the audience incapable of reading more complex articles, and even worse, they fail to grasp complex arguments and datasets. Critical thinking, the once heralded goal of every post-secondary education, is now under constant attack. Their reading endurance is not tested, and like any muscle when it is not used, it atrophies. This is a disservice to our audience and to ourselves.
Time of writing: 08/29/25