When Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was overthrown at the beginning of December 2024, ending some five decades of rule by the Assad regime, I was—along with the rest of the world—genuinely surprised by the speed with which the events transpired. With extensive experience living, working, and traveling throughout the Middle East, including to Syria, I would have expected the Assad family to maintain its totalitarian stranglehold over its 25 million citizens all but indefinitely. So how could this have happened? And where do watches fit into the picture?