THE BIG INTERVIEW: Ariel Adams, founder and owner of aBlogtoWatch

There are myriad stories of passionate watch lovers starting their own blog in their bedrooms, but only Hodinkee and aBlogtoWatch have turned into substantial successful businesses. As part of our research into a report into the most influential players in the American watch market, we spoke to Ariel Adams, founder and owner of aBlogtoWatch, to get his views on the state of the media and the wider watch market.

WATCHPRO: What do have been your biggest professional achievements in the past 12 months?

ARIEL ADAMS: I am exceptionally proud of the agile organization that I have built which has been able to withstand multiple watch industry financial crashes as well as shifts in media consumption habits and technology.

This is thanks to the core mission of aBlogtoWatch as well as a team of people who are output-oriented and work together to accomplish mutual goals. Being able to survive through the pandemic without any staff losses was an achievement and today we are in growth mode again.

I’m further extremely proud of the academic and business consulting I have provided to the watch industry – which for over a decade has correctly identified challenges and opportunities for companies and professionals in the global watch industry space.

WATCHPRO: What has been the toughest challenge you’ve faced in the past year, and how did you overcome it?

ARIEL ADAMS: Compared to a few years ago aBlogtoWatch has a greater roster of clients, but that each have less budget to invest.

That means my organization has had to make more clients happy while experiencing lower profit margins per project.

Being able to maintain business operations while having to vastly invest more time and effort into revenue generation projects has been a natural outcome of the pandemic, but a challenge that the entire aBlogtoWatch team has pulled together to handle.

Moving forward we are taking the lessons learned in being able to quickly and effectively offer lasting value to our clients – and building that into a more profitable strategy that allows watch brands to grow with us as we educate the community about their fine products and services.

WATCHPRO: What do you hope to achieve in the year to come?

ARIEL ADAMS: A more well-funded watch media landscape translates into to more coverage of more watches to more people around the world.

That’s a core message I strive to educate the large watch industry on when explaining to them the larger ROI of supporting high-quality watch media companies like aBlogtowatch.

Today a lot of companies still believe is courting consumers directly and handing their marketing like a vertically integrated company.

I see this as a losing proposition for most companies because they end up spending more money for less return than if they simply used those same resources to help support a small but strong number of watch media titles around the world.

I will continue to advocate for effective, honest, affordable, and long-term marketing/advertising/communication solutions for the brands which produce the products I love.

Over the last few years the majority of my “colleagues” have transformed their business from blogs to retailers – out of frustration in not being able to secure reasonable marketing budgets from watch brands.

That’s a shameful trend that hurts the watch industry in serious ways. My goal is to help educate major stakeholders in the watch industry that supporting independent watch media (even if they sometimes say disagreeable things) directly acts to grow and support a global base of watch consumers – far and away more powerful and large in volume than if every watch brand seeks to make their own media and court their own consumers.

Like many lessons I attempt to teach it is an uphill battle because watch executives are prone to following trends versus logic, and also tend to work on arbitrarily narrow time frames.

In any event, I will continue to advocate for effective, honest, affordable, and long-term marketing/advertising/communication solutions for the brands which produce the products I love.

WATCHPRO: What one piece of advice would you offer to someone who would like to follow in your footsteps?

ARIEL ADAMS: Years ago I thought that for sure by now someone would have come along and do what I do better than me. It actually hasn’t happened yet despite the presence of people with more money, more time, and lots of incentive.

The reality is no publication of social media platform has replicated the honest, helpful, and curated approach to celebrating being a wrist watch enthusiast like aBlogtoWatch.

What can people learn from that?

First is that you need to use your own moral compass to set and follow rules.

The media landscape is more or less the wild west with risks at all angles.

Only the diligent, careful, enterprising, creative, and relentless will ever have a chance for success. More so, you need to have passion.

If it was not for a deep and genuine interest in wrist watches, I would have never been able to make it past week four of this entrepreneurial experiment.

No one makes it fun or profitable for me. Those are things I have had to carve out for myself – applying what one previous interviewer call “grit.”

People who want to work in the watch industry shouldn’t look for jobs.

Rather, they should look for ways to apply their talents and make money in the context of wrist watches.

The biggest question to answer in the American watch industry right now is who is supposed to invest in its growth.

This is such a personality-driven industry because there simply aren’t real norms or paths that you can predictably follow for success.

It is a dream of many people to work in the luxury leisure space, but doing so is anything but a direct route.

Hopefully the way you find into the industry is one that has a long-term approach associated with it. Too many people enter the watch industry space only to burn out after a few years.

Finally, I’d recommend that this is not an industry for people who don’t enjoy constantly learning new things or applying new skills.

The number of personalities, places, and products one needs to work with are simply too varied with too many nuances for this industry to be compatible with the simple-minded.

Accordingly, you see that people at the top (be they saints or villains) all have rich mental faculties. Approach them with respect and caution for best results.

WATCHPRO: What do you think the biggest challenges and opportunities are for the American watch industry right now?

ARIEL ADAMS: The biggest question to answer in the American watch industry right now is who is supposed to invest in its growth.

This is a serious and perilous question. The context is also important to discuss. That context is that the watch industry in America is both historic but incredibly under-developed in its current form.

At the same time, it is once again the larger watch market in the world. Everything from retail distribution to after-sale services are fragmented and disconnected.

There are no strong industry bodies or distribution frameworks that anyone relies on anymore.

The watch industry in American is more like heaps of developed territory ruled by warlords contrasted with heaps of undeveloped territory with consumers who mostly know nothing about luxury timepieces.

The issue is the age-old war between watch brands and watch retailers.

At this time most watch retailers are loathe to invest beyond their physical store and sometimes light online retail or marketing experiences.

That means watch brands are almost entirely responsible for creating demand and thus pushing consumers into retailer doors.

Watch retailers would like to invest in marketing and supporting key brands they carry, but they don’t out of fear that watch brands will not respect their investments and just drop the retailers when it suits them if they become popular enough and want to absorb more profit margin.

Sharing profits with professionals in the United States is truly the only way for foreign-owned luxury watch brands to create a real network of supportive businesses and professionals in the United States to ensure long-term success and market enthusiasm.

Watch brands at the same time are loathe to give free-reign to watch retailers who in the past have engaged in brand-damaging activity such as deleterious discounting and other practices which have a harmful effect on global markets.

Distrust and disdain between many watch brands and watch retailers is a huge problem in the American watch industry that can only be resolved by entirely reworking their business agreements.

Contracts which are clear and concise when it comes to the mutual responsibilities and duties of watch brand and retailer will help improve things once companies are able to agree on the business relationship structures which exist as the foundation for any relationships.

When it comes to retailers in America – they will be forced to modernize and expand their investments in marketing and advertising or other activities meant to actively court new consumers.

On the watch brand side, they will be forced to adopt a better perspective on the concept of sharing profits.

They cannot be seen as so greedy or cold to long-term partners when it looks like they can earn a few extra percentage points.

Sharing profits with professionals in the United States is truly the only way for foreign-owned luxury watch brands to create a real network of supportive businesses and professionals in the United States to ensure long-term success and market enthusiasm.

WATCHPRO: Give us a brief history of yourself: for example, where you grew up, where you live now, how you got into the watch industry, what your day-to-day job is like, etc.  

ARIEL ADAMS: I was born in 1982 in Los Angeles and was raised in the San Fernando valley. My formal education ended with a law degree and I am a California licensed attorney.

I started aBlogtoWatch in 2007 as a hobby shortly after finishing law school when I was 25 years old while living in San Francisco.

In 2009 I made the dramatic decision to dedicate myself full time to aBlogtoWatch, and it has been my primary professional focus since. Today I live back in Los Angeles with my family.

I got into the watch industry out of a desire to talk about my hobby online. I was fortunate to bring the right voice and coverage approach to the world of internet media at an early time.

aBlogtoWatch is a staunchly pro-consumer publication which has endured so long due to our focus on quality, honesty & integrity, and working for the interest of the watch enthusiast community as opposed to pure commercial interests.

Today I manage a full team of people at aBlogtoWatch while also actively traveling to meet with brands, producing content, working on marketing campaigns for our advertisers, consulting for clients, and increasingly focused on creative work such as product design.

WATCHPRO: Outside of work, what do you like to do? Do you have any passions or hobbies?

ARIEL ADAMS: With watches I turned a major hobby of mine into a career. I spend most of my time staying active be it through exercise and physical activity or seeking new educational experiences.

My work takes me all over the world so I’ve become a seasoned traveler who has been able to see the best of many major cultures as well as accumulate what I have learned into my business model.

I consider learning new things to be a hobby and I voraciously read or listen to audio books and other media content prepared by established experts and academics. I’m very much an information snob – and am happy to disregard what media I feel is beneath me as “junk food for the brain.”

I have a background in art and communication. The accumulated gist of my professional experience has more or less made me a very good critic.

No one likes a critic at first, but I offer people important tools for critical thinking and analysis. I also help people discover the best, but process of elimination by removing “the worst.”

I spend a lot of time in nature, enjoy raising my young son, and take in culture and the refined fruits of our civilization as often as a busy professional can afford to.