Exploring WatchTok with Ben Cook, Creator of Ben’s Watches

More than ever, being engaged in the watch community on social media means logging hours on TikTok. For years, the watch world has been building an impressive social infrastructure on Instagram, with collectors, brands, and dealers of all kinds finding a home on what is inarguably a platform that has reached maturity (even if not all of its users have). TikTok, by comparison, is a toddler, and to some of us who are dyed in the wool IG users, it’s every bit as inscrutable. But there’s no denying that the watch community, particularly new and younger watch collectors, are finding their way through the hobby on TikTok in much the same way that an older generation was educated on Instagram. 

Something that the two platforms have in common is that both are personality driven, and if you let the algorithm on each app do its thing, eventually you’re going to come across creators who you personally identify with and gravitate towards. Ben Cook, a 26 year old New York City based TikTok and Instagram creator has been growing his audience for nearly two years and in a relatively short period of time has already established a niche as an authentic voice and a supporter of affordable and approachable watches. 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ben’s Watches (@benswatches)

“I’m an entrepreneur at the end of the day,” Ben told me in a recent interview. He started making watch focused TikTok content in May of 2022 at the suggestion of coworkers, and the account has taken off from there. But he’s also a watch lover from the time he was a kid, who seems to have a genuine curiosity about the hobby, and has been discovering it in real time on TikTok with roughly 160,000 followers. 

He’s been interested in watches for years, even before fully plunging into the enthusiast world, and remembers his first notable timepiece from his teenage years. “I was in 7th grade and G-SHOCKs were massive at my school,” he told me. He still has the white G-SHOCK that sparked his interest, although regrettably it no longer works and doesn’t see any wear as a result. As with many of us, photos from childhood could have predicted an interest in watches as an adult. “I was always interested in wearing things on my wrist,” he told me, and photographic evidence of a young Ben clad in what appears to be dozens of colorful bracelets bears this out. 

After graduating college, Ben bought himself a Christopher Ward C60 Sapphire to celebrate, and like anyone with a collector’s mentality, he spent a considerable amount of time agonizing over the decision. “I spent weeks researching” the purchase, he said, knowing that he wanted this celebratory watch to last forever. Part of the reason he landed on Christopher Ward was that it felt like a tribute to his own British heritage.

Talking to Ben, it became clear just how quickly his TikTok took off in relation not just to when he started making watch content, but to when he started getting more serious about the hobby. He graduated college in 2020 (the year he picked up that Christopher Ward), was dabbling in watch content two years later, and now has a real presence in the watch community on social media on multiple platforms. Ben clearly has a talent for what he does (there are plenty of less compelling TikTok personalities that haven’t caught on the way he has), but it also speaks to how quickly things move in the TikTok landscape, particularly in the period directly following the pandemic when using TikTok became necessary if you had any desire to stay up to date with social media trends. 

That period of dabbling didn’t last long. Ben left his day job in the fall of 2022, finding that he was able to support himself through his TikTok content. He attributes this mainly to luck and being in the right place at the right time. “I was just messing around,” he said about his early TikTok videos, which were mostly shaky hand held clips of him talking about watches walking to and from work. A key moment for Ben came early on when he reached out to pre-owned watch retailer Bezel about a collaboration, and they gave him the opportunity to essentially run their TikTok feed. This entrepreneurial spirit, looking for angles and ways to grow, feels key to what Ben is all about. 

Over time, Ben’s TikTok videos have zeroed in on a particular style and aesthetic that works well for him. They have a hastily put together vibe to them which is very much intentional and not at all reflective of the actual work that goes into each edit. “Even though it doesn’t seem perfect, it’s almost designed like that,” he told me when I asked him about his overarching style and strategy for his content. There’s a lot of planning involved, “every video has to have a hook,” he said. 

But even more important than the specific topic of a given video or an editing style made to lure a viewer in and keep watching is the tone Ben sets. It relates to how he wants to be perceived in the community, and who he is, generally speaking. “One of the big things I’ve learned is that authenticity matters,” he told me. From watching other creators’ videos, he knows what it’s like to see a clip and understand that the person speaking to the camera is a social media creation, and not “real” in a meaningful way. It’s important to Ben that when watch enthusiasts watch his videos, they don’t get the same feeling. “I try to keep it as real as possible,” he told me. “If there’s something I don’t like, I have to be able to say that.” 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ben’s Watches (@benswatches)

That said, in chatting with Ben and seeing how his videos have evolved over time, he doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would relish taking a brand or a watch down a peg – there’s a positive, relaxed vibe to his videos that is immediately welcoming and one would imagine that’s a reason his account has gained steam. Of all the personalities on WatchTok, as the TikTok watch community is colloquially known, Ben strikes me as the most in tune with the enthusiast community that are into watches as watches and reject hype and trends. When I asked Ben about brands he’s interested in, he rattled off half a dozen Windup Watch Fair staples, including Formex and Studio Underd0g. And when I asked him about what he thinks is next in the watch space, or where he might go if TikTok falls apart (as any elder-Millennial knows, even the mightiest social media platforms can all but disappear into the thin air as trends change), he told me that he still sees an opportunity to build out the culture of watch meetups. 

“There’s nothing like a watch enthusiast meetup,” he said, and added that groups like RedBar and Complecto are doing a great job of bringing collectors together in New York City. But he hinted that he still sees an opportunity to bring younger and new collectors together in-person. Most of Ben’s content these days is centered around this type of watch enthusiast, with videos that act as guides to watches under a certain price point, or with a hot dial color. This is balanced with videos that dip into celebrity watch spotting (“Comedians and their Watches”) and commentary on watch news of the moment (a speculative video about a not yet announced “Snoopy” MoonSwatch). 

What you won’t really see is Ben lean toward the crazy high end stuff, which is what makes his videos feel very different from the ever present Diamond District haggling clips that have dominated WatchTok over the past few years. The closest Ben got to this type of content was an abandoned series from the early days of his account that saw him trying to score a new Rolex GMT-Master II from the list of New York City ADs. “It wasn’t what I’m about,” he said, reflecting on content centered around hype watches or confrontation. His new series, “What’s On Your Wrist?”, takes a formula made popular by other creators but adds Ben’s own spin, featuring watches and collectors that are notably more approachable than the stealth wealth favored elsewhere. He also takes it a step further, going beyond man-on-the-street interviews and digging into an entire collection.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Ben’s Watches (@benswatches)

The variety present in Ben’s growing library of content mirrors his interest and enthusiasm for watches of all kinds. His sensibility when it comes to trying new things on TikTok reminds me of my own attitude toward watch collecting in general. “I have a habit of starting a series and then being like ‘oh i could do something better,’” he explained. “It’s all part of the learning process.” What watch collector can’t relate to that?