I was able to attend District Time this past Sunday, and the following are my admittedly-scattered thoughts on the experience. For context, I met up with a few fellow members of the DMV Watch Club - if you live in the DC area, and want to connect with a non-pretentious crowd of nice watch enthusiasts, let me know and I'm happy to connect you. [Not meaning this to be an advert, just want to be inclusive with the group, knowing how many great folks there are in this forum.]
My primary enduring sentiment following the show is that it makes a huge difference to see watches, and meet the brand owners and reps, in person, particularly for microbrands that exist largely online. From pictures alone, something like E. Stohlman's The Earl (
https://estohlman.com/products/copy-of-product-title-1) would not appeal to me, but in the metal, I could better see the deep artistry of the case design, MoP dial, and applied silver numerals. It doesn't hurt that Eugene Stohlman, the owner of the eponymous brand and Maryland Watch Works, is a great human being to speak with. The same held true for Lorier, a brand I knew much more about going into the show, but had yet to experience watches from in the metal. In this case, the delicacy of the watches' designs, especially when worn on my wrist, didn't click for me - nonetheless, the beauty of the show's experience is that I could figure that out without incurring any cost. Following a theme here, Lauren and Lorenzo (Lorier''s owners) are incredibly sweet people whose passion for their designs is readily evident when conversing with them.
Traska, a brand that I own a watch from, was a real standout of the show for me. Jon is a cool guy, and indulged the half hour or longer discussion I politely hooked him into. He spoke to how he feels that the current Traska lineup is, in his view, settled. While he may iterate through colorways, he noted that the designs and execution of each model Traksa offers is where he envisioned they'd be when he started the company. In comparing the new Freediver to my V2 iteration, that maturation is stark - where the V2 is visually and physically heavy, the newest version is slim through the case and bracelet, with refined curved shaping to the case flanks that evokes late 50's to early 60's car design, all gracefully flowing arcs and smooth finishing. Going into the show, I appreciated the Venturer (Traska's only GMT), but didn''t love it. I've completely changed my tune now, having worn it and marveled at the fine detailing of the printing, polishing on the hands, and the depth and sheen of the lacquered dials. While 'only' 38.5mm, the wide dial opening relative to the case size makes the watch appear larger on wrist, which I loved. I had the same experience with the Summiteer, which will soon be available in one of the best shades of yellow I've ever seen grace a watch dial.
Other highlights include Formex, whose green and gilt Reef GM, mounted to their incredibly designed and built mesh bracelet, is possibly my favorite overall single watch from the show. Everything they had on display, including the Leggera-case Essence models, are shockingly well made; how they manage to offer their watches at the prices they do is mystifying. Bremoir's Lexington is beautiful, and has one of the more interesting cases I've seen in a while - Pat, the brand's founder, is also the best dressed human I've met in some time, and showed some designs he is playing with for their second watch. Tsao Baltimore offers excellently produced watches with designs that are not heavily referential. In their new pilot lineup, you can see influenced from IWC (dial) and Bremont (case profile), but Alan Tsao adds enough of his own tweaks to make the overall design unique to his brand. The final standout that I can recall at the moment is Circula. From Instagram and blog reviews, I've found their watches to be nice, if a bit anodyne. The in-person experience was vastly different for me, as their field watch, in particular, has a very dynamic case design that I would place in a category with Boldr's Expedition 2 for its balanced mixture of soft angled surfaces interspersed with a few hard lines. My favorite of the watches they had on hand was the black-cased version of their field watch, which the brand's owner informed me is not PVD coated, but has the color applied through a carbon-bonding process done by an automotive manufacturer in Pforzheim, where Ciircula is based. As the color is bonded into the steel mixture for the cases, if the watch scratches, it won't reveal a stainless steel underlayer as PVD or DLC would - the color is cast through the case's metal.
As for the vibe of the show, while it got a bit crowded toward the end of the show on Sunday, it never felt packed to the point that I wasn't able to access the brands' displays. A few brand owners mentioned that Saturday was busier, which might've made for a less engaging experience. This was my first watch show, so I don't have personal experience to compare it to, but I felt very welcomed in the space. Given how many brands were in attendance, it is a show worth travelling to, at least in a local relative context. I'm sure it doesn't compete with the scale of WindUp, but for anyone in the Mid-Atlantic, or someone looking to visit DC and see watches, I highly suggest checking out District Tiime next year.