Introducing
@thewatchboxdiaries
Men have been so deliberate in making it so they dominate most things in life that women, generally speaking, need their support in order to free themselves from their institutions and rules. If women didn’t lean on them—not by choice but by necessity—then their struggle would be much more difficult. Most, if not all, industries, hobbies, and careers continue to be men’s worlds, and even though we, as a global species, have made some progress in terms of gender equality we nevertheless have a very long way to go. And the world would be closer to perfection—and in its more natural state—if women knew that, naturally, they have the authority to speak about any topic, anywhere, and at any moment; to exert as much authority and earn equal amounts of respect as men do.
And yes, there is a connection between the above and horology as we’ve begun to see in this series of articles on female watch enthusiasts, collectors, and brand owners. Things being as they are, thus far women have gotten into horology thanks to—or because of—men. Not that they weren’t interested in watches before, but the situation is such that men, more often than not, have a role to play in getting women into the hobby—their hobby. More specifically, and since watches are within the realm of guys, it seems to me that they somehow give their blessing and have to take action in order to both, at last, make women comfortable in our community and to signal to the others that women are an integral part of it.
The story of Lucy a.k.a. @thewatchboxdiaries perfectly exemplifies the liminal state of the horological world and its subsequent community as it is currently more common to see women occupy their rightful space in it whilst making it possible for other women to see that they naturally belong to it. By having a strong presence on Instagram and YouTube, Lucy has helped bring more women into watches and to normalize seeing women buy, wear, and talk about timekeeping devices. So, let’s talk about Lucy, her path into horology, and the numerous contributions she has already made to the community to promote the female voice.
There Was a Man and a Rolex Datejust
But let’s first set the stage: Lucy is a citizen of the country which my country saw as a foe for too many centuries—England. For many years she worked as a production foreman (forewoman perhaps) for a company manufacturing plastic parts and goods. She liked what she did but she didn’t have the same passion for it as she now does for what she is known for: horology. She didn’t say so but I imagine that her previous career didn’t come with many opportunities to be artistically creative. Because she was an artist and a creative before, as she studied dance and stage performance in University. So watches were at first a hobby she fell into by way of her step-dad some seven years ago (I’m writing this article in September of 2024) who owned a beautifully lived Rolex Datejust with a champagne dial and jubilee bracelet. The quintessential Rolex? Perhaps.
Her step-dad loaned Lucy the watch for two weeks—a period of roughly 14 days which changed her life for the better—as it is how she “got into it.” Lucy was fascinated by the beauty and history of the watch, and in particular the plethora of signs of wear and tear that were immortalized on each facet of the Datejust. She also liked its size (36mm) and the fact that it mostly flew under the radar although it wasn’t an ordinary watch. From what I understand, Lucy liked both of these elements and this model created the basis for the beginning of her watch collecting career. Indeed, at first she mostly bought vintage watches out of eBay for sums ranging $60-$100. Finding watches for this little amount of money made it possible for Lucy to explore her own taste in watches before discovering other brands and models.
As is usually the case for newcomers to the hobby, Lucy came across popular horological media such as Hodinkee and Chrono24, through which she started learning more about watches and brands. As it is often the case for us watch hobbyists, her interest in horology quickly morphed into passion and within the first year as a watch collector, she had already constituted a 10-watch collection. It should be noted that the first mechanical watch she bought herself was a Roamer from the 1950s which was endowed with the best (or worst, depending on how you see things) of patina. This watch had had such an intense life that Lucy could tell, by the number of scratches present on the lugs, that the— or one of—the previous owners really struggled with the process of swapping straps.
The Evolution of Lucy's Watch Collecting
Lucy finds herself in the best or worst of situations: her partner is also a watch nerd. This means that they tend to encourage each other instead of dissuading each other from buying watches. (And no, Lucy was into watches before she met him contrary to what many men would like to think.) Before she joined our wonderful community, however, Lucy would only occasionally wear watches, such as Casio’s, as timekeeping devices were more of an accessory than a passion. She indicated that she could just as easily say “I’m wearing a watch” as “I’m wearing a bracelet” and that both statements held equal meaning. Therefore, Lucy wore watches sometimes but not for the same reasons as she does now. So she came a long way to know where she feels naked if she doesn’t wear a watch at work or when going about her daily life.
Given that her and her partner share the same love and passion for horology, watches have become an integral part of her life. So much so, as she shared, that she would feel lost without them, not only because she cherishes their historical and aesthetic qualities, but also because of what watches mean to her. Indeed, Lucy rightfully pointed to the fact that we live in a world that is more and more invaded by technology. The latter has changed the way we communicate, travel, work, and socialize. On the opposite side of the spectrum watches are, historically, made by hand and require the highest levels of craftsmanship. Watches are old school and remind her of a time when things were made by hand. So buying watches has become her own way of supporting an industry that she believes should continue to thrive.
As we already know, Lucy started her path into horology by collecting smaller, vintage watches. If you look at her Instagram account, you will notice that her collection now houses contemporary and larger pieces. And today she most likely wears watches with diameters of 36 to 40mm. She does so because she prefers larger watches as they command more of a wrist presence and make for a bigger statement. Furthermore, Lucy likes the larger and sportier watches because of their inherent robustness and practicality, and also, as we saw, because they set the example as to how men and women should perceive female watch collectors.
Getting Deeper Into Her Watch Collecting
We each have our own “why’s” and “how’s” of collecting things including watches. When collecting vintage watches, Lucy’s goal was to purchase vintage timekeeping devices from each decade of the 20th century. Her oldest to date is a 1920’s Longines (see a few photos above) and thus far she has covered many of the crucial 10-year increments of watch design and innovation. From a 1945 Longines to an early iteration of the Omega Seamaster from the 1960s. While she hasn’t abandoned this project, Lucy has put it on the back burner as she is now more reserved with her watch purchasing decisions and that she feels she must be reasonable as servicing a great many vintage mechanical watches quickly adds up. Same is true of contemporary high-end watches such as her blue dial Rolex Oyster Perpetual.
Alongside a variety of microbrand watches, one her favorite being Zelos Swordfish with a bronze case and blue dial—her ultimate holiday watch—, exists the watch she described as being “the love of my life”: a Grand Seiko Cherry Blossom aptly nicknamed “Cherry.” The latter was purchased by her partner on the occasion of her 30th birthday, a watch she was herself saving up for. (That’s how badly she wanted it!) As I’m sure many of you can relate, Lucy had only seen renders of the GS before getting it in her hands, though they were enough to create the “love at first sight” effect we generally attribute to our feelings toward other human beings. Lucy’s mechanical soulmate is so much so that the honeymoon is still going very strong after three years of ownership! (At which point she could simply describe it as being a relationship.)
The Beginning of @thewatchboxdiaries
Have you been in this situation before: your partner mocks you for doing something you enjoy for him or her to end up doing it as well? That’s how Lucy felt of her other half when he would take photos of his watches for Instagram. She used to call him a nerd and felt it was lame to stop what he was doing to take a photo of a timekeeping device. (I feel that nowadays it has become a common thing to see humans photograph or videograph themselves doing all sorts of things either holding a camera pointed at their face while walking or standing in silence in front of a tripod.) But as you may have guessed, the COVID pandemic rocked the world and like billions of other people, Lucy found herself housebound for several weeks. Being a watch person already—though one who didn’t photograph watches—she started connecting with fellow enthusiasts on The Gram.
Quickly, she realized that all of these folks who would share photos of their watches and talk about them in length were not nerds but normal people who had formed a cohesive and supportive community. So she started chatting with other watch enthusiasts by way of Instagram which immediately, and surprisingly so, felt natural. (Natural in the sense that we grow up being told to watch out when talking to strangers on the internet.) However, being as it may, Lucy met wonderful people who would have a profound impact on her. Folks such as Britt Pearce, one of the rare female watch enthusiasts and content creators who was around when Lucy got her start. Indeed, she emphasized that being a female watch nerd was a novelty when she first started and unlike other women watch enthusiasts, she has mostly received positive feedback on her IG account (and now on her YouTube channel as well.)
There was a crucial period at the start of @thewatchboxdiaries to which I would attribute Lucy having had a better reception than most other female watch nerds have. At the beginning, Lucy was invited to partake in a few podcasts with Scottish Watches, a popular outlet for English speaking members of our community, which could have contributed to her having been better accepted than most of her female colleagues. This is only my theory as it is indeed rare—as Lucy pointed out herself too—for a woman to be so readily and positively welcomed into one of men’s numerous playgrounds. With that said, it is through these podcasts that Lucy met other female watch enthusiasts such as @time.on.her.hands and @samandherwatchbox with whom she ended up creating the “Time of the Week” podcast.
From Instagram and Podcasts to YouTube
Everything in life is bound to change and evolve. Whether it is how we feel about people and places, what we like to do and why, or how our passion for certain things goes through one or multiple metamorphosis to become yet another beautiful thing. Lucy has gone through many changes already —from making fun of her partner for taking photos of his watches and creating a dedicated Instagram account during the pandemic to partaking in watch podcasts and creating her own—and yet she’s just at the beginning of her horological career. Running her own podcast with her female watch enthusiast friends prompted her to want more, and with a push from her partner (again), Lucy ended up creating her YouTube channel. At this stage, she had reached the point of no-return and indeed she did, as we will see in a little while.
I wanted to write about Lucy because 1) I’ve been a big fan of her work for the better part of the past three years and 2) because she’s authentically human and transparent. At no point during our conversation did she try to reframe something she went through or adapt her thought processes to appear different than who she is—what many would thrive to do to come across as being subjectively “better.” Whether it was discussing how she first thought of her partner for shooting watches or the steps she’s taken to become an integral part of the watch community and a spokesperson for women watch enthusiasts and content creators. Being profoundly human, at first Lucy modestly compared herself to the big names of the watch YouTube sphere—people such as Adrian Barker and Jenni Elle. Two personalities who always come across, as Lucy puts it, as being professional and knowledgeable.
These were the benchmarks Lucy started from when she created her own Youtube channel. She’s being doing videos for a while now and she still at times becomes nervous that her content won’t make the proverbial cut with her audience. In other words (and maybe I’m extrapolating a little too much here,) since creating content around watches has been, first and foremost, a passion and not a job, she put as much time and energy into it as she could unlike someone who does it for a living. Working a full-time job meant that she could only reserve a few hours on the weekends and at the end of the work day to shoot video and photos. Lucy told me—and she isn’t the first one to do so— that creating videos is intensely time consuming, between writing the scripts, shooting and editing the video, and of course publishing it.
That’s a lot of work to juggle with the work that pays for her bills.
I for one I’m in awe with how far Lucy has come with her Instagram and YouTube accounts, becoming one of the few go-to female watch enthusiasts and content creators of today. At the time of writing this article, Lucy has 10.6K followers on Instagram and 5.27K on YouTube. She has therefore managed to assemble a large and dedicated audience which I hope is—or will be soon—equally composed of male and female enthusiasts. (The latter would indicate that she has succeeded in bringing in more women to the hobby and community.) The other point of interest in Lucy’s story is the fact that her authenticity, consistency, and hard work paid off in a major and rare way as we will see below.
When Her Life Took on a New Path
While I’m writing this profile story on the ninth month of the year 2024, I interviewed Lucy on the sixth month of the same year (June,) barely four weeks after that she started a new career. Not too long ago, in a country not so far away, Lucy was invited to partake in a workshop viewing organized by anOrdain so that humans could see the brand’s famous dial enameling process. During her visit, anOrdain’s team shared their enthusiasm for Lucy’s work on Instagram and YouTube and praised her for her authentic voice and approachable personality. So they casually mentioned that they would love for her to work for them. Wait, what? The latter invitation and testimony to Lucy’s hard work was 100% unexpected (and utterly flattering of course,) and suddenly changed her professional path.
Lucy is now the new Communication Officer for Paulin, anOrdain’s sister brand, and is responsible for promoting its collections and philosophy with the wonderful world of horological journalists and watch enthusiasts. (Lucy, am I allowed to say that I am positively envious of you?) This is huge and true (wonder if anyone will get the reference) as it shows that with a lot of hard work, discipline, and a healthy dose of madness, Lucy was able to make her passion into a career whilst being able to continue working on her Instagram and YouTube channel. That is in itself a rarity as we, content creators and journalists, are generally required to drop everything we love to do in order to work for just one commercial entity—something that is already required of men so imagine being Lucy, a rare phenomenon who has now become a role model.
Understand: Lucy got herself into this situation because she was determined to keep working on her own thing and in her own way. Something that most people, regardless of their industry, do not have the courage of doing.
What is amazing about Lucy’s story is that now she’s able to dedicate more time—and I would add, scheduled time—to create her own content. Indeed, she works four days a week for anOrdain/Paulin which means she can now dedicate a full day of the traditional work week to do her own thing. This matters because it means that Lucy is one of the few people, and one of the rare women, to have been able to transform a hobby into a career and to find more balance in her life. Because if you’ve ever attempted to do what she does, you know damn well that it ain’t easy to balance “real life” with a hobby, as something generally always has to give. Today, Lucy doesn’t have to sacrifice as much as she used to and I applaud her for making it thus far.
Conclusion: Looking Ahead
In 2020, Lucy started a dedicated Instagram account about watches. Then she joined a podcast and shortly after, she created one alongside two of her horological friends. Now she’s the Communication Manager for a popular and well regarded independent watch brand whilst continuing to create her own content. In all of what she has been doing in the past four years, Lucy has always been loyal to her own determination to give the female voice the space it so deserves, to show men watch nerds that women are an integral part of the horological community, and to inspire other women to partake in it. Lucy, therefore, is one of the few examples of what she and others hope to see more of in the watch world in the coming years. She earned that job and reputation.
Given her new situation, Lucy now has the bandwidth to think more critically as to what kind of content she wants to produce for her YouTube channel and Instagram account. Not only does she want to diversify her content, but she now finds herself in a position where she can do more to promote the female voice and to make it more common for men to see women talk about watches on YouTube and hold critical professional positions in the industry. As mentioned earlier, Lucy is a rare phenomenon and I hope that she will continue to inspire other women to come out as being watch nerds and promote their unique and critical take on our hobby. I therefore strongly suggest that you take a look at both Lucy's Instagram account and YouTube channel to better understand what @thewatchboxdiaries is all about.
Thanks for reading.