If you’re like me, every waking moment of your life is spent thinking about watches. Every free minute in your day is spent reading about watches. People look at you funny when you stop on the street and start taking pictures of your wrist, spinning around and lifting and lowering your arm to get just the right light. You now ENJOY going to the mall just so you can stop into every jewelry store to look at watches. You carry a cleaning cloth in your back pocket to make sure your watch always looks its best, and you have shelves full of books about…well…watches. God help you if you’re like me!
But what you’re still missing are like-minded individuals to SHARE your love of watches with. Fear not, for Redbar is there for you. What’s Redbar you ask? It all began several years ago in New York City when Adam Craniotes and Dr. Jeffrey Jacque began meeting at a local watering hole to share watches and stories. Pretty soon the regular meet-up had grown to dozens of collectors, spreading to other cities throughout the country, and then throughout the world.
After years of wondering I finally decided it was time to check out this phenomenon for myself, so I tracked down my local group on Instagram and my watch-collecting wife and I attended a GTG (that’s Get-Together) in El Dorado Hills, California, a fast growing tech worker community east of Sacramento.
You know how it can be uncomfortable attending a party or gathering where you’re surrounded by strangers? You’re not sure what to say because you don’t want to offend anyone. You have no idea what the backgrounds of these people are. You nod and smile with one hand jammed into the deepest crevices of a pant pocket and the other clutching your drink. There was exactly none of that at this gathering. We all just fell into a great rhythm discussing the latest watch news and new watch releases, joking and laughing, and just generally having a great time. My wife and I of course each wore a watch, and then brought along a couple of others in a watch role to share. The group leader had just recently purchased his own personal grail, a Ressence Type 1 Squared that got passed around the table and sufficiently drooled on, and we were even joined by local micro brand founder Michael Seals of Seals Watch Co. and got a chance to check out one of his upcoming releases.
Before we knew it we had literally shut the place down and were quite graciously shown the door. Three hours had flown by faster than I ever could have imagined, and I was finding myself disappointed that the night was over. Luckily I can now look forward to the next monthly GTG where more stories will be shared, more crowns will be turned, more bezels will be clicked, and more friendships will be made.
To learn more about Redbar head on over to their website at redbargroup.com. You can email them directly using their contact form to get additional information and ask about your local chapter, or like I did, just head on over to any of your social media channels and do a quick search. If you’re local to the Sacramento area, follow @redbarsac on Instagram. You won’t regret it!
