What's Next?

Thinking through the future of I&M

It’s been months since I updated this newsletter and with good reason: I’ve been dealing with health scares, work changes, exhaustion, and a lack of time, if not desire, to dive back into the world of watches.

In the meantime, the day job has been… interesting. AI dominates every waking second of my day now and more than once, friends have suggested I put my AI chops to use here and just have it generate articles for me.

I… no. Just… no. Not gonna happen. I love writing and I prefer to have humans write for humans.

So yeah, this isn’t gonna be some weirdo justification to allow AI writing slop to take over I&M. Let’s put that to rest right now.

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Okay, so no AI slop. So what’s next?

It kind of goes without saying that focusing on watches is something that one could absolutely spend a lifetime doing when it comes to an editorial project like this. I am no less passionate about watches today than I was a few years ago when I first started this newsletter. What I found though, is that the passion that I had for watches very quickly narrowed into a passion for independent and microbrand watches. That passion came first and was followed by a desire to start this newsletter.

The funny thing about being passionate about something like watches is that you find yourself in a curious place where that passion almost sort of leaks into other things. It’s the inverse of the aforementioned narrowing and in my case, my passion for this incredible analog form of wearable art leaked into other incredible analog forms of everyday art.

This is the Esterbrook Estie Nouveau Blue. It’s a fountain pen in the “palladium” trim and I picked one up at the San Francisco Pen Show in September of last year.

This is the Fruttiroeu boot from Vellasca. I picked it up a few years ago on a trip to Rome.

This is my Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter. It’s a simple leather folio with an ingenious mechanism to hold three notebooks. In it are a couple of notebooks, including my current favorite, a larger softcover notebook from Graphillo, all of which I snagged at the San Francisco Stationery Fest.

In each of the cases above, these are well-crafted, intentional everyday goods. By “intentional”, I mean they are not just trend-chasing cash grabs, but are thoughtfully-designed items where the makers made deliberate choices about materials, construction, and aesthetics. They’re made with care and attention to detail.

That’s the common thread for me that ties these things to watches. They are meant for use, not display. And they are made by independent or microbrand companies, just like the watches I love.

So, let me tie all of this together. What does my love for these beautiful analog everyday goods have to do with the future of I&M?

Here’s what still gets me nerding out: discovery. I love new things. I love unearthing finds. Vellasca today is becoming a very well known brand but four years ago, I just happened to stumble upon their boutique in Rome down a small side street around the corner from the Pantheon. It was a surprise find and I walked away with a pair of boots that have since been to Florence, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, New York, and Dallas. This May I’ll take them and my Roterfaden and Estie back to Rome and Florence as I go digging for fresh new finds in one of my favorite countries in the world.

As I pondered the future of I&M, that’s what struck me. THAT is what I want to do: to help people discover independent and microbrands that make the well-crafted, well designed, intentional, everyday goods. Things that I use and wear, things that actually bring me joy and let me appreciate the wonderful, beautiful, real, analog things at a time that the world feels increasingly artificial.

So that’s the direction I’m going to take I&M in. On the eve of the Windup Watch Fair San Francisco, I’m sending this newsletter out there to… well, more to announce to myself that this is what I want to do, and am going to do. I’ll spend the next three days immersed in watches and doing so with a different intent: not to review or to pass judgement, but to help discover.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be unveiling a number of things I’ve been building for some time now and I’m finally happy with. I hope you’ll like it and I hope it’ll help you find and enjoy the brands and products I’m finding and enjoying.

If you’re in San Francisco and are attending Windup, look for the big brown dude walking with a cane and carrying a bag WAY too heavy for him. Come say hi ;-)

Cheers,
Sohail

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