The occasion of our 20th anniversary has given me pause to think about what Revolution should represent. Two decades ago, it was created to bring watches out of the doldrums of insular hobbyism — from the so-called Nerds’ table in the high school cafeteria to the Cool Kids’ table — while still retaining all their horological authenticity and technical veracity. Now I want to bring us back to the Nerds’ table.

Why? Because in the past 20 years, we’ve had a rapid rise in watch lifestyle journalism. Watches have now become so entrenched in popular culture that there is not a single red-carpet, sporting or musical event that takes place without watches attracting attention as statement accessories. In just three years, Swiss watch exports to the United States grew from 3 billion Swiss francs to an impressive 4.4 billion Swiss francs — a demonstration of the commercial rise in significance of the luxury watch industry.

While I like to think Revolution has played a small role in popularizing watch collecting, it’s time for us to return to our roots and leave the lifestyle and opinion-based journalism to the army of newly minted watch influencers, reproducing on every social media channel across the globe.

The Expérimentale No. 1, full of Breguet’s latest innovations.

For the last year, we’ve refocused on what we love most, which is haute horlogerie. How would I define this? I’ll quote my friend François Paul Journe, who says, “Watchmaking is a long continuous wall and each person that works in horology is responsible for adding one more brick to the story.” A contribution, then, is meant to meaningfully add to the story of watchmaking and its ongoing evolution. Amazing examples of authentic watchmaking, to me, include Rolex’s Land-Dweller with its extraordinary new high frequency escapement, which is the first all-new Swiss escapement design to be industrialized since 1999, when Omega introduced George Daniel’s Co-Axial Escapement.

Rolex Land-Dweller in Oystersteel in 950 platinum with ice blue dial

Haute horlogerie means to push the very boundaries of watchmaking at the highest and most expressive level, and there are few brands that have done this better over the last decade than Vacheron Constantin.

They did it in 2015 with the Ref. 57260, at the time the world’s most complicated watch that reconciled the Gregorian and Hebraic calendars; they followed that with the Berkley last year, which took the record from the 57260 and reconciled the seemingly irreconcilable Gregorian and Chinese calendars. They continued this year with the extraordinary Solaria Ultra Grand Complication, the world’s most complicated wristwatch with an incredible split seconds chronograph used to predict when a celestial object will appear in the night sky — and with the Quest of Time, a singular object of art with a human figurine automaton that tells the time. These extraordinary and, I would say, Herculean efforts put forth by Vacheron Constantin deserve immense applause because they’ve contributed immensely to the wonderful, ongoing and ever-evolving story of watchmaking.

On its 260th anniversary in 2015, Vacheron Constantin introduced the Reference 57260 equipped with 57 complications, 2,826 individual components, and 10 patents

Vacheron Constantin Les Cabinotiers Solaria Ultra Grand Complication (©Revolution)

So has Audemars Piguet with 2023’s fantastic RD#4 — the first ultra-complication with grande and petite sonnerie, split seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar — which is completely foolproof to use. They continued that amazing work with the Caliber 7138, a perpetual calendar that is similarly effortless, intuitive and bombproof. And they contributed to watchmaking’s ongoing story with the wonderful RD#5, which is a complete redesign of the chronograph, harnessing the movement’s own power to fuel the reset mechanism. You might say that the RD#5 represents a lot of work just to harness the energy normally lost to a parasitical spring jumper in order to reset all the hands of a chronograph, but I would argue that is precisely what makes it so interesting.

Amazingly, a mainland Chinese brand-named Fam Al Hut ended up being another star in the reel of high watchmaking with its amazing bi-axial tourbillon in the smallest most wearable size imaginable, bringing the first true new original voice to haute horlogerie in ages.

Fam Al Hut Möbius Mark Nebula Limited Edition (©Revolution)

Accordingly, the most recent issue of Revolution is fittingly dedicated to haute horlogerie, which has come back to the forefront of watchmaking in a huge way, replacing the asinine hype that was the by-product of a massive speculative secondary market in the past years. The world is now reconnecting with knowledge-based watch collecting, and that is a wonderful thing because it empowers true collectors to embrace all those timepieces that are truly meaningful in their effort to contribute to watchmaking’s story.

Another remarkable example of haute horlogerie in 2025, the Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie.

Is it easy to write and talk about haute horlogerie? Honestly, it’s really hard, which is exactly why we like it. Because there, in that threshold where watches are perhaps hardest to understand, is the magic where human beings, through their imagination and courage, are creating the most meaningful work in watchmaking — and at Revolution, we exist to bring it to you with passion, entertainment and a true love for horology. So far, our doubling down on long-format, truly well-researched, technical and illustrative video content — and our deliberate move away from lifestyle journalism — has seen us surpass the 210,000-subscriber mark on YouTube, demonstrating that the Nerds’ table has become a powerful place indeed. And so, maybe in the context of a hobby where knowledge is king, it was the Cool Kids’ table all along.