Wristwatch connoisseurs and teenage brothers Brandon and Zach Hoglund are growing an online media empire with their popular YouTube channel WatchesOnYou, which highlights reviews of luxe timepieces. Since debuting nearly a year ago, the channel’s combined video views clocks in at an impressive 1.3 million.
Luxury publications like Artful Living and the Robb Report originally exposed the brothers to the watch world. “We initially read these magazines due to our interest in cars, but we soon became more intrigued with the world of high-end watchmaking,” says Brandon. They realized that filmography was a great way to further explore this passion and created a YouTube channel to share their content.
The Hoglunds regularly post videos, each highlighting a different timepiece and showcasing its specifications, style, price and history. They recently reviewed a particularly unique watch, the Laco Luftwaffe B-Uhr. “The Laco is rather interesting as it was made toward the end of World War II for the Luftwaffe aerial warfare branch,” explains Brandon. “Even though it is very old, it is still new in the box.” This timepiece is currently for sale at JB Hudson Jewelers.
What sets WatchesOnYou apart from the competition is the channel’s fresh content. “A key problem that wristwatch YouTube channels face is how to provide new content to their viewers without having to actually purchase the watches they review,” says Brandon. The duo found a way around this issue by partnering with such Twin Cities retailers as Continental Diamond, JB Hudson Jewelers and Wixon Jewelers. By working directly with these jewelers, the Hoglunds are granted access to thousands of new and used timepieces.
“We mainly film reviews at JB Hudson due to its large pre-owned inventory, which allows for a constant flux of interesting watches on our channel,” says Brandon. “All of the jewelers we have worked with have been very open to letting us review any of the watches they are selling.” High-end watchmakers such as H. Moser & Cie and Nomos Glashütte have also started sending timepieces directly to the brothers for review.
