A Watch Fan Wears Timepieces on His Wrist, and Elsewhere

Anybody who usually scrolls by watch content material on-line most likely has seen him, the dark-haired man carrying a jacket lined in wristwatches.

He additionally frequents occasions just like the annual commerce present Watches and Wonders Geneva. Final yr, he stole among the highlight there with movies that includes the likes of Laurent Perves, chief industrial officer at Vacheron Constantin, and the younger collector Amandine doing the Drop Problem, a TikTok sensation that concerned squatting, slowly, to Beyoncé’s 2013 hit “Partition.”

He’s Danar Widanarto, 41. “I like to entertain the watch group,” he mentioned. “And it makes me completely satisfied to make them completely satisfied. They’ve been having a worrying day on the honest, and I’m a stress reliever.”

Often known as Chronondo — “It stands for chronograph and Indonesia,” Mr. Widanarto mentioned, as he was born within the village of Delanggu, in Central Java — he now has 127,000 followers on Instagram and almost 200,000 on TikTok (the web site WorldTempus chosen him as one among that platform’s six finest watch accounts in 2022).

“I began my Instagram account almost 9 years in the past,” he mentioned in a video name from his dwelling in Cologne, Germany. “My colleagues inspired me as a result of they mentioned I used to be properly dressed and trendy. My intention was to mix watches and trend.”

Mr. Widanarto posts humorous content material each day, however in December the tone shifted abruptly when he introduced that his condo had been damaged into and that his signature inexperienced jacket, which had 160 purposeful watches hooked up to it, was gone. He additionally misplaced a Cartier Tank Sq. Incurvé, three Furlan Marri timepieces and a Nomos Membership.

“A lot of the watches on the jacket had been trend watches; they had been not likely costly,” he mentioned. “However the recollections, no person may give me again the recollections. That inexperienced jacket was my favourite as a result of it had been in all places.” He had 5 different jackets within the condo, however every one sported just a few watches and, for some purpose, they had been left behind. (The police mentioned Mr. Widanarto had not been focused; about 130 burglaries had been reported in his neighborhood that evening.)

He reluctantly put out a name on social media in January, asking for watches to adorn a substitute. “I believed, ‘That’s not cool to beg folks for watches, I might by no means do this,’” he mentioned. “Then some folks wrote me: ‘Danar, do it. You’ve been entertaining us over time, you made us snigger and it’s our time to present again.’”

By early February, to his shock, he had obtained about 300 messages of assist — and 40 packages with watches from followers all over the world and types equivalent to Milus, Héron and Fortis.

One package deal was from Martin Wingenbach, who posts on Instagram as fusselwingenbach, and he had included greater than 20 cheap, colourful Chinese language watches. “Not notably helpful, however they add numerous bling bling,” Mr. Wingenbach wrote in an e mail. “It was vital to me that he was completely satisfied about it and acquired his new coat filled with watches in a short time.”

Mr. Wingenbach additionally wrote that Chronondo had been an asset to observe lovers: “He enriches everybody’s day. However he additionally means it critically, and he usually reviews on new merchandise and creates a connection between the producers and the followers. He’s all the time pleasant, has an open ear and treats everybody very respectfully.”

A gaggle of 12 watch followers related to the German watch podcast UhrTalk even pooled their cash to purchase Mr. Widanarto a brand new Furlan Marri Nero Sabbia (555 Swiss francs, or $630). However that was solely proper, Christian Schmidt, one of many followers, wrote in an e mail, as a result of when his watch assortment was stolen in 2022, Mr. Widanarto had given him a MoonSwatch.

“That is one thing that offers me goose bumps, to be liked like this,” Mr. Widanarto mentioned, “as a result of a few of them I’ve by no means met earlier than, they’ve simply been following me on Instagram. However I heard issues like, ‘Your content material makes me smile’ and ‘Your method is totally different, it’s distinctive, it’s out of the field.’”

That was Mr. Widanarto’s intention from the beginning. He moved to Germany 21 years in the past to study the language. As he grew to become accustomed to his new dwelling, he started to note the watches that his mates had been carrying after which discovered his curiosity in horology rising.

He went to the Baselworld watch honest in Switzerland a number of occasions, however the occasion catered to the trade fairly than the general public, so “in 2017 and 2018, I wasn’t in a position to attempt any watches on,” he mentioned.

Earlier than the 2019 honest — Baselworld’s last version — he determined to stitch some watches he owned to a jacket that he had purchased, in hopes of attracting discover. It was, he mentioned, a nod to the watch sellers on the seashores in Bali, who open their jackets to showcase picks of (typically pretend) watches hooked up to the linings.

And it labored: On the honest, he mentioned, “the eye was loopy.”

Now, underneath his watch-covered jacket, he normally wears conventional Bavarian clothes, full with lederhosen, and he typically accessorizes with a conical solar hat, lined in 88 watches.

“Manufacturers truly search me out now, asking me to make movies,” he mentioned, noting that a few of his hottest content material entails his paternal grandmother, Yoso, 93. Throughout his annual visits to Indonesia, he typically data video of her whereas she is attempting to pronounce the names of Swiss watch manufacturers or choosing her favorites from among the many nominees for the annual Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève trade awards. “Individuals love her,” Mr. Widanarto mentioned. “They all the time inform me I ought to carry her alongside to festivals.”

Mr. Widanarto nonetheless has a day job as a concierge at Excelsior Lodge Ernst, a luxurious lodge in central Cologne. Generally, he mentioned, company acknowledge him and ask, “Are you Mr. Watches?”

For the subsequent few weeks, he might be busy utilizing a big needle and thick thread to stitch watches onto his new jacket. He thought of three appears to be like, and his followers helped him select a inexperienced army model with gold-color buttons and braid, created by the Cologne designer Maria Lucas. Now he simply needs to make sure that it will likely be prepared for the April 9 opening of Watches and Wonders.

“I need to proceed to entertain them,” he mentioned of watch lovers. “That is one thing I put in my coronary heart.”