FEB 22, 2026

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Hello, and welcome back to About Time.

This week we’re talking to the writer behind ScrewDownCrown, and highlighting a particularly lovely Breguet perpetual calendar up for grabs.

Hearing Kingflum’s voice on the phone is a surprise – not because it’s unfamiliar, but because I’ve already spent hours with a version of it in my ear.

Over Christmas, I’d been using Substack’s text-to-speech option on his newsletter, ScrewDownCrown, letting the essays run as spoken-word pieces while I listened.

That newsletter-as-podcast conversion makes sense once you know SDC.

His posts live in serious deep-dive territory, each one flagged with an estimated reading-time badge – 30, 40, even 70 minutes isn’t uncommon. At that length, the audio button earns its keep.

So hearing him properly on the end of the line is briefly disorientating.

He writes anonymously, and while plenty in the watch world know who he is, online he prefers his alias.

Kingflum’s essays sit somewhere between industry analysis, philosophy seminar and group therapy for watch enthusiasts. The Substack’s thumbnail is Sigmund Freud, and the references range accordingly – Nietzsche and Kierkegaard appear as readily as lume or lug width, alongside figures as varied as Dutch ethologist and Nobel laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen, productivity author Laura Vanderkam, Harvard social psychologist Daniel Wegner and, from time to time, Leo Tolstoy.

Watches remain the anchor, but the writing often shifts into the psychology and culture around them – collecting etiquette, taste, the neuroscience behind “Swiss Made”, status, envy, hubris and kindness.

You do not need to be deep into horology to find plenty to enjoy here.

One recent “Links Of Interest” end-section pointed readers to a year-long attempt to perfectly replicate Coca-Cola, the language bias that turned left-handedness into a flaw, and a detailed look inside the $5-billion fortune of private-equity billionaire Leon Black. Lately, the parallels between watch collecting and parenting have become a recurring thread.

Sounds like a lot? Don't worry, he's also fond of emojis 😵 and memes.

ScrewDownCrown’s roots go back to 2011, though the modern weekly format – SDC Weekly – launched in 2023 and now lands with clockwork regularity alongside additional essays and long-form digressions.

The conversational style is no accident: as Flum explains later, many pieces begin life dictated aloud before being edited into shape.

Among insiders, the newsletter has developed cult status.

As collector and industry figure Justin Hast tells me: “SDC represents the shift happening in the watch landscape – towards transparency, putting collectors at the heart of the conversation, and tackling subjects others are anxious about. He’s hugely intelligent and endlessly curious. I honestly don’t know how he produces so many words every week while managing a family and working in a completely different industry. I’m endlessly excited to read it, and impressed by what he’s doing. And he’s a collector himself – you always feel he has the best interests of the industry in mind.”

Over half-term, I traded questions with Flum over email before finally speaking on the phone – I was, glamorously enough, sitting in a lay-by off the A11.

In true ScrewDownCrown fashion, the full transcript ran to an insane length.

What follows is edited for length and clarity, to use the parlance, covering independence, collecting psychology, why the watch industry makes him optimistic and worried in equal measure, and his new community-first event, The Escapement, launching in Abu Dhabi later this year.

Much more of what he told me about that last point is off the record for now. But if even half of it makes it into reality, it sounds like a benchmark event we’ll be talking about from day one.

If you already know SDC, you’ll recognise the voice below.

If you don’t, consider this an introduction to the second-best watch newsletter you’ll read this week.

Right now I have 79 drafts

About Time: What is ScrewDownCrown, really?

Kingflum: It’s about watches but it’s really about why we do the things we do, and how we can do them better. It’s horology in general: watches, but also clocks, technical movement stuff, brand strategy, corporate strategy. It’s not just about branding but also about the running of businesses. I’ve done a few on, for example, Parmigiani – how their production works and all the things they do.

Then there’s also journalism. I see myself – and others agree with this part – as hyper-principled. If something’s not known to be true, I won’t promote it as true, or I’ll clarify that it’s my opinion. If something’s false and I’ve misstated it, then I’ll correct it. I try my very best to keep to those strict principles.

Your posts include forensic data analysis, heavy-lift reporting and multiple sourced conversations – you spoke to seven dealers for the recent ‘What Your Watch Is Actually Worth’, for example. What does the research process look like before you hit publish?

Man, there is no single answer that applies across the board. Right now I have 79 drafts (I just checked) which vary in length and completion. Some are ready to publish – I save those for when I am travelling or too busy – and others are skeleton ideas with notes on what needs researching.

Then there are book summaries. I use those legal tab stickers to mark key pages, plus notes on my iPhone. When I have time, I go back and work the final draft, drawing on the book and my notes.

Then there is “the rest” – things that come up organically, like the passing of Seddiqi’s co-owner [Dubai watch retailer Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons], or a conversation in the comments that sparks a train of thought and turns into a post.

For first drafts I often use voice-to-text – I speak out what I want to say, then I go back and manually edit. I write how I speak because it is, literally, me speaking first.

More broadly, there’s my information-ingestion habits: I watch YouTube and listen to podcasts at 2× speed, because I am focused on extracting key points and parsing them into my overall thoughts for an essay. I also subscribe to consistent sources I find useful – Ted Gioia, Seth Godin, Rory Sutherland – and I regularly search for journal articles on psychology to keep up with behavioural findings.

You’ve said posts can take anywhere from 16 to 48 hours to write. That’s a lot of writing for someone with a day job. When do you sleep?

To me, the journey is the destination. I like to consume and parse information, and part of my process – even before SDC – was to write it down, because that is how I learn. The sharing was just a by-product of doing what I would have done anyway.

So it is not really a “pace” I sustain – it is just what I do.

I am also lucky: my day job is not too onerous, so I can read and write in between commitments. It does mean I probably will not race up the corporate ladder, because I do not put my hand up for extra work – but I am happy where I am.

Sleep-wise: I usually get six to seven hours. I wake up between 3–5am – a habit I got from my mum, who wakes up at 3am daily and has done for as long as I can remember.

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The "tolerance bottle" is a way of framing patience 

You write a lot about the psychology of collecting. Where did that fascination come from?

I became interested in psychology early on, when I read a children’s book called The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald. It is about a kid who uses his intelligence to make money from a very young age – based on a true story – set in Utah in the 18-somethings, just after the early Mormon pioneers settled there.

I am not sure why it stuck with me, but I did not formally study psychology until Covid came along and I quit my job to spend some quality time at home. That is when I started studying psychology via online universities. The coursework resonated with the watch hobby immensely, and I began posting long-text Instagram stories – and eventually started blogging about it.

You’ve talked about the idea of “enough” in collecting, and what you call the “tolerance bottle”. Has that changed the way you buy watches?

“Enough” and the “tolerance bottle” are worth separating. The tolerance bottle is just another way of framing and managing patience.

But I think your question is focused on “enough”, and the answer is: for sure.

I have stumbled into something that works for me: buying one watch each year around my birthday, and wearing it as exclusively as possible for as long as possible. I want to understand how it performs as an “only watch” and learn its ins and outs under all conditions.

For example, I got a Journe CB a couple of years ago on my birthday, and the serial number is my birthday – but I found it uncomfortable in summer months. The watch that has come closest to perfect for me is Romain Gauthier’s C – with one complaint: it would be better if it were 1–2mm smaller.

By repeatedly writing about “enough”, I seem to have improved my ability to appreciate without needing to own.

I think that is an outcome of cognitive dissonance: we do not like holding conflicting beliefs. If I keep writing about finding “enough”, I have to practise what I preach, otherwise I feel like a fraud. So to prevent that inconsistency, I have to actually find my “enough”.

Brands would rather negative commentary simply doesn't exist

You’ve taken positions that aren’t always popular with watch brands. Has that honesty ever had consequences?

Newton’s third law applies here: every action has a reaction.

That is true whether someone is independent or not. Independence is not as binary as people make it out to be – it’s really about incentives.

One big weakness in watches is how punitive brands can be towards media when anything negative is said about their products.

In automotive or fashion, brands are generally more comfortable with criticism. You see CEOs listening, engaging, taking feedback on board. I often mention Marques Brownlee – MKBHD – who has openly criticised Apple’s design and usability decisions, yet the company still respects him enough to sit down with him. They recognise he is giving useful feedback on behalf of the consumer community.

In watches, it often feels like the opposite end of the spectrum.

Brands would rather negative commentary simply didn’t exist. If someone thinks a new release is lazy, they do not want that on the front page of Hodinkee. But if Hodinkee never says it, then Hodinkee becomes less valuable to the audience the brands want to reach. You cannot really blame the media for avoiding negativity – their incentives push them that way.

The issue, in my view, is that brands are short-sighted about how media works and how to preserve the value of the voices they rely on.

As for real-world consequences – sure, I suspect the CEO of Lange [eg. A. Lange & Söhne] hates me, which is unfortunate. But beyond that, not really.

Most brands and independents eventually realise I am not out here with a vendetta. I genuinely love this industry, and part of what I enjoy doing is bringing a lighter, more humorous perspective to it.

Collectors seem to respond strongly to what you write. Why do you think that is?

Do they like what I say? I hope so. There’s only one way to gauge that: continued growth. It’s slow growth – not meteoric – but it’s a certain kind of person that reads and digests, and then decides to comment.

I do it anyway. If I got shut down and I was unable to post on Substack, I’d do it anyway. I’d do it on Microsoft Word and share it with my mates. Because I enjoy doing it.

So: is it because they like it, or because they think it’s speaking truth to power, or whatever? I don’t know. I think it depends. A lot of people like the deep-dive history stuff. Every time there’s something about, say, John Harrison – going back in time – people like that.

I’m doing one now, which I’m in the middle of – on Audemars Piguet’s first ultra-thin automatic tourbillon, which sits in an interesting corner of horological history. They like that sort of thing.

But they don’t like the gold-price stuff. It’s more like: “What happened? I signed up to this because I like watches, not one massive rant about gold.” So what’s funny is I learned from this. When I wrote about gold the first time it was when it hit $4,000. Then the second time in a big way it was probably $5,000 – within five months or so.

The second time around, I moved it to the very end. I framed it like an addendum. I was like, “Listen, I’m now going to talk about gold. If you don’t like gold, then just fuck off.”

Don’t complain to me about how “this isn’t why I signed up”. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. Why complain openly? Some people do like it; some don’t. I write about what I like. Whoever sticks around is welcome, because there’s overlap. And if it becomes too much or too little overlap, then by all means: kindly fuck off. I don’t care. I don’t need this. I do it because it’s enjoyable.

And the people you meet along the way are epic. I’ve met so many in real life, having only discovered one another from writing about watches.

One thing leads to another – you email, you meet up. London’s convenient for that: people pass through and we hang out.

Because by the time I agree to meet them, I know for sure they’re not going to be pricks.

I don’t come here for macroeconomics

If some topics land better than others, does that influence what you write?

I don’t actually look at the open rates, I swear to you.

It’s available, but I don’t want it to become user-driven. What I do read are comments. That’s why when I say, “Let me know in the comments,” it’s not because I’m trying to gain engagement – I don’t think Substack even works that way – it’s genuinely because I want to hear what people have to say.

So if people comment, “This gold thing is boring,” or, “What the hell, I don’t come here for macroeconomics,” I’ll read it. It’s not that I’ll stop doing gold – I absolutely won’t – and I know people will be pissed off. But I’m cool with that.

In terms of measuring stuff, I don’t know. The one signal I do have is when people unsubscribe: I get notified. And what’s hilarious now is how often I send out a post and free subscribers unsubscribe. Every time that happens, I celebrate. I’m like, “Perfect. These are the people I really don’t want.”

“I don’t lose readers, I’m refining the customer base!”

Funny story. One thing I wanted to do – and I still hadn’t figured out how – was stop people signing up annually. Not in an aggressive way, just because I worried I’d get too busy to do it properly. Substack doesn’t let you switch annual subscriptions off. You get monthly and annual – that’s it. So I thought: I’ll just set the annual price to something ridiculous. I kept tapping until it looked absurd: £88,888. I figured no one would ever sign up.

Then I get an email: new paid subscriber. I’m like, what the fuck is this? This wasn’t meant to be serious. I emailed him straight away: I think there’s been a mistake – I don’t want to keep your money if so.

He replied: oh yeah, that was a mistake.

Then it got complicated.

Substack takes 10 per cent, Stripe takes a couple more, and because the payment came through in dollars and was converted back to pounds, the exchange rate moved in between. Long story short, the refund ended up costing me about £7,000.

This guy's, like, Forbes 100 rich. He goes, “Don’t worry, I’ll sort you out.” Someone from his family office called, I showed them the transaction and the fees, and they paid me the exact amount back.

So I gave him a lifetime subscription. It’s the least I could do.

Is the watch industry in an OK place right now?

Haha. I have no idea, but I lean towards no. I think a lot of people in the industry know this too, but are reluctant to say it plainly for fear of sounding negative or unmotivated.

Rolex keeps gaining market share while most other brands are stuck in an upward price spiral and a downward volume spiral. Swiss watch exports are falling, and if everything keeps moving upmarket while microbrands launch every other day, is that really healthy?

Governments are raising taxes, people have less disposable income, and watch prices keep rising. That doesn’t sound like a great place to be.

I tend to see things as cyclical, but assuming we don’t get another pandemic-style surge in disposable income, the industry feels in need of a reset. Brands need to revise forecasts, reset production and rebalance supply and demand instead of discounting into the grey market and eroding brand equity.

The real challenge for anyone outside Rolex is persuading people to buy despite the immediate drop in value once they leave the boutique.

That’s an emotional problem as much as a financial one, and I still don’t see many brands addressing it properly.

Another thing I talk about is the great bifurcation. The industry is splitting into two camps – ultra-premium brands (Rolex, Patek, AP, top independents) and accessible entry points like Tissot PRX territory. Everything in between is getting squeezed.

Mid-tier brands need to ask what they actually mean to people. Rolex signals achievement; Patek signals legacy; Richard Mille signals extreme wealth. But what does a brand like Oris or IWC say? When money is tight, that lack of clarity becomes a problem.

There’s also a supply-chain issue. [Chopard co-president] Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and [Audemars Piguet CEO] Ilaria Resta both spoke about having to acquire suppliers to keep them alive; Studio Underd0g did something similar with Horologium [its UK-based movement-assembly partner]. If specialist suppliers disappear, you can’t replace that expertise quickly, and the bottlenecks will last for years.

I know this sounds bleak, but I don’t want to end there. I love this industry, and it has survived world wars, recessions and the quartz crisis. It will survive this too. New markets – India, the Middle East, South-East Asia – are helping offset slower regions.

So overall: the industry is going through a much-needed correction. It’s painful and not over yet.

The top end is fine, entry-level looks fine, and the middle is struggling – and probably will for a while.

It’s survivable, but serious, and anyone telling you otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.

The opportunity to find like-minded people

What’s the idea behind The Escapement?

The Escapement is being built as a purely consumer-focused show. We’re not trying to change all events to be like ours – there’s room for many types, and all my co-founders still enjoy attending the existing ones – but we wanted to create one that is centred on collectors.

Typically, you go to watch events and, well, let’s start with the main one – Watches and Wonders. It’s not even for collectors, right? It’s for VIPs, media and industry people. And if you’re not a VIP, you don’t get to see or touch the new Pateks or the new Rolexes – you’ve basically got no hope. You can see them in the window, but that’s about it. Even famous YouTubers only get a small slot where they can squeeze in, have a look, and then move on. That’s just how it is.

Dubai Watch Week is much better for actually seeing the watches. It’s like one big boutique – everyone comes together in one location and you can walk around and see 100 different brands in a day. Although, frankly, you can’t get round the whole thing in one day – I tried. But it’s still far better from a consumer perspective.

What’s missing from almost all events is storytelling. Brands rely on watch media to tell their stories, but they rarely have the opportunity to tell those stories directly to consumers. The exception for me was Audemars Piguet’s exhibition in Dubai. You walked through their history, their complications, the basics of watchmaking. I found that amazing. That’s an inkling of what we want to do.

Our show is designed completely differently. We have a central stage that becomes the centrepiece of the experience. Brands will have a stand and a stage presence. Friday is VIP, media and industry; Saturday and Sunday are ticketed and open to everyone. In the evenings, everyone shares the same headline entertainment.

The goal this year is simple: make it epic, create something the community deserves, and of course, prove the concept!

If it wasn’t watches, do you think ScrewDownCrown would exist in another form?

I think there are certain aspects of this hobby – particularly the community-building side of it – that really matter. I’ve always felt that watches are about the people. Not exclusively, of course, but in the end I do think they’re more about the people than the watches themselves. I believe that quite firmly.

In that sense, if it wasn’t watches, I think it would be something very similar. It would just need to offer the same opportunity to find like-minded people – people I can connect with about more than just the subject matter that brought us together in the first place.

Whether that’s collecting cards, art, whisky, rum – there are all sorts of collectors. What I’ve enjoyed most is doing things with other people.

Watches also combine a few different interests.

There’s the engineering side – the micro-mechanics, the slightly fidgety, gadget-like nature of them – which appeals to my own predispositions. If I were more artistically inclined and less drawn to mechanics, it might have been art. It might have been wine.

That’s a roundabout way of saying: probably, yes.

 BREGUET REF. 3050

This 1990 Breguet perpetual calendar brings together the core codes of classical watchmaking in a pleasing 36mm yellow-gold case – moonphase and full calendar display, enamel dial, Breguet hands and the brand’s signature coin-edge profile. Elegant and properly technical, it speaks to the late-20th-century return to traditional Swiss complications.

Offered by Somlo London – the respected London specialist in vintage and collectible watches, particularly Omega – it’s POA, but our guestimate puts it north of £14k.

Meanwhile, on Esquire.co.uk...

Illustrations: Laura Sheppard. Photos: Getty; Somlo; Tudor

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