Where once glossy magazines and flash window displays were the only places the world’s major watch brands wanted their timepieces to be seen, now the digital world is beginning to gain traction.
Blogs, Instagram accounts and online retail stores are becoming increasingly important in terms of customer engagement, a fact no one understands better than Anish Bhatt.
A former pharmacology student and fashion industry businessman, British born Bhatt gave up his job in 2011 to found the Tumblr blog watch-anish.com — a glittering stream of super-saturated iPhone shots featuring the world’s most exclusive timepieces.
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The blog spawned the Instagram feed @watchanish in 2012, and it’s this account that has quickly transformed Bhatt from unknown bedroom blogger into watch industry mainstay.
Today Bhatt’s account boasts some 1.5 million followers and a long list of watch brands clamouring to be featured.
Bhatt’s personal watch collection is unsurprisingly vast. “I own around 50 or 60 [watches] but it chops and changes,” he tells me.
“I add to my collection every so often. Some months I might buy two watches; some months I buy none, so it depends. [My collection] is made up of a lot of vintage Rolexes and Patek Philippes but I also have many modern pieces from independent brands.”
Anish Blatt's watch wardrobe