Who Won The 2021 Independent Watchmaking Fantasy Draft?¶
Published on Mon, 21 Jun 2021 10:00:00 +0000
Plus, insights into our favorite new releases. And a collaboration from Timex.
Synopsis¶
This episode of Hodinkee Radio is a three-part show covering various aspects of watch collecting and independent watchmaking. In the first segment, hosts Stephen Pulvirent, James Stacey, and Danny Milton discuss five recent watch releases that caught their attention, including the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari, Tudor Black Bay Ceramic, Cartier Tank Must collection in new colors, Breguet Type 21 titanium chronographs, and the Grand Seiko SBGW259. They analyze the design choices, materials, and market positioning of each piece in a rapid-fire format.
The second segment features Stephen's conversation with designer Blaine Halverson about the Timex x MadeWorn American Documents watch collaboration. Halverson explains the extensive hand-finishing process that makes each watch unique, including heat treatments, patina development, and leather aging techniques. He emphasizes the project's commitment to American manufacturing and craftsmanship, drawing inspiration from military watches and traditional American art forms like tattoo work and gun engraving.
The final segment reveals the results of the independent watch fantasy draft from a previous episode. Cole Pennington wins with 38.2% of the vote, followed by Danny Milton in second place with 24.5%, John Buse in third with 18.8%, and host Stephen Pulvirent in fourth with 18.5%. The group discusses notable omissions from the draft, including brands like Ming, Oris, and watchmakers like Philippe Dufour and Kari Voutilainen, and they share which watches from others' collections they would most want to own.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Stephen Pulvirent | You know, we're not talking about the difference between a uh a sub and a speedmaster here. We're talking about the difference between, you know, a Baltic GMT and a FP Jorn mono pusher chronograph. Like these these are like wildly different watches. Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. This week we've got a classic Watch Nerd episode. It's a three-parter. To kick things off, James, Danny, and I are gonna sit down to talk about five new releases, or four new releases and one new ish release, uh, that really caught our attention on the site this week. It's gonna be a little bit of a rapid fire format and you're gonna get everything you need to know about these new pieces from the likes of Burguet and Grand Seiko and Tudor. After that, there's a segment we did in partnership with Timex. I sat down to talk with designer Blaine Halverson, who along with his company Maid Warn, just designed a new watch with Timex as part of their American documents series. So we're gonna get into all of the really incredible uh artisanal elements of this watch, what makes each piece unique, and how he thinks about the future of American watchmaking. It's a super fascinating perspective and one you do not want to miss. And then after that, uh you'll get the results of the independent watch fantasy draft from a few weeks back, uh our producer Gray joins us for the rare on-mic appearance, counts us down from fourth place to first place, and then we do a little bit of kind of a thought experiment, talking about watches we would have taken, brands we think that should have been better represented. So if you listen to that episode and you want to know the results, as well as a few more thoughts on independent watchmaking, that's a nice way to take us home. So we got a lot to cover this week. So without further ado, let's do this. This week's episode is presented by Timex and the new Timex X Madeworn American Documents Watch. Stick around later in the episode for my conversation Blaine Halverson, the LA-based designer who created the watch, and be sure to visit Timex.com for more. Hey guys, how you doing? Hey Steven. Hey, not too bad. Yourself? I'm I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. I get to talk to the two of you guys about watches. So you know, mornings mornings can be worse. For sure. Danny is delightful. Danny is delightful. Oh, thanks, guys. You guys too. Um Delightful's not something people typically call me. I get called a lot of things. Delightful is not one of them. James James is shaking his head too. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. James, James and me are team not delightful. What I thought we'd do here this morning, there's been a ton going on. We've been super busy as usual, but we're getting kind of the last burst of new watches before everybody takes their summer holidays in Switzerland, despite having just been shut down for a pandemic, is gonna shut down for summer holidays, I'm sure. So I think things are gonna get a little a little bit boring in the uh new watch world. But uh I thought we'd we'd come and chat about maybe like five new releases. We'll do it in 15 minutes. Each watch gets three minutes. I'm not gonna like hit a buzzer and and cut you off or anything, but uh we'll do a little rapid fire of some new new releases. That sounds good. Sounds good to me. Absolutely. All right. Um, let's kick things off here with one that that you know, when I got this press release, I was like, oh, oh shit. Um, which is the Zenith Chronomaster Revival Safari. You know, James, maybe you wanna you wanna give us a little context here about safari in quotes as like a thing here |
| James Stacey | ? Uh yeah. I mean, I guess it's it's partly due to the color, but also it's become a thing in the automotive world to safari a car. Most recently, the big one is like um Lee Keen, who's a very talented uh Porsche factory driver and endurance race car driver and also video host and the rest of it, he started this uh the Keen project where they take older 911s and put them on bigger suspension with bigger knobbly tires and drive them off road. And the term for that is kind of to safari. It it calls back to um to some stuff from the late seventies and early eighties. And I maybe that's what they're pulling at with this one. You know, Danny covered this watch. Maybe it's just that it's green and when you're on Safari you see green stuff. Or maybe it's a little bit of all of that. Because then it does like to dip into the car world in terms, you know, the Land Rover stuff and and all that kind of thing. So maybe maybe it is a little bit of the just the use of a popular term and a very popular color. I will say it is a very good looking watch. Yeah, it's |
| Stephen Pulvirent | it's really good looking. And the other connection here, and they even Zenith even uses it in the imagery they provided to to the press is is the Leica connection, right? Like the Leica Safari cameras with their the kind of matte green color. Right on. So I think between the automotive and the Leica connection, the customer they're going for here, the sort of like quote unquote like cool guy customer is kind of primed and ready for this kind of thing. Yeah, I think it was a color mixed with like to to e evoke sort of that imagery. I think that's what I got out of it when I was when I was reading it. I will say, just to pat myself on the back, I did coin the term crocodile uh with this one. Uh I I wrote in the piece. Woof. Oh man. I wrote it. It's in there. It's it's in print and it had legs on social. It had some legs. People were going with it. They were on board. There we go. You know what? I'm I'm just glad that Zenith gave you the opportunity to do that. They they threw you a uh you know hanging slider right over the plate and you knocked it way over the uh the outfield fence. You had panda dial. Now we have crocodile. And what else do you need? The other thing here is this is this is based on the Chronomaster Revival like quote unquote platform. I can't believe I'm saying that. It's not something I expected, but Zenith's kind of turned this case shape and this El Primero style into a thing over the last year or two. You know, we got the Liberty Edition, we got the Shadow Edition. I don't know about you guys. I I think this K-shaped rocks. I love it. And I think this is a really cool kind of like base for Zenith to build on. I think it's incredible. I was hands-on with the Liberty last year. Uh, when I wore that. I was surprised at how small that it wears. And to be honest, it reminds me so much of like wearing like a vintage date just or something in terms of its size, uh, which is like not something you ever find in modern watches, but especially not in modern chronograph watches. And for them to have gone like so headstrong and so forward with this like conservative sizing with an incredible chronograph movement is something that I wish other brands took note of. And in titanium. Yeah. Right. All right, guys. So so let's let's move to the next watch here. We're gonna keep this thing moving. We'll go with another sort of fun take on a sport watch, which is the Tudor Black Bay ceramic. We've gotten various levels of blacked-out tutors to give Tutor a little bit of a hard time. We've got the Black Bay Black, the Black Bay Dark, and now the Black Bay Ceramic. Am I am I getting that right? Those are the three kind of like blacked out black bays. There's a black bay chrono for the all blacks as well. Oh yeah, you're right. Good call. All right. So Tudor likes the color black. We we've we've established that. This watch looks pretty cool. Uh, this is one I think personally I'd need to see in the metal to like fully appreciate. But w what did you guys think? I mean, I want to throw to James a question first. Is it a dive watch without |
| James Stacey | a loom pip on the bezel? Uh it's not ISO, no. Uh I believe I believe under I and they did they recently changed this. It's something that I I would like to do a more holistic story on. They're they're evolving sixty four twenty five. But no, without without a luminous Which is the ISO spec for for a dive watch, right? Correct. Yeah. And then there's a German DIN spec as well. Uh maybe two of them. And then there's the EAN specs. Uh it's kind of a fun topic, but it's not really fun unless I have a lot of clear clarity on what they've changed. So I won't dig into it too much. I'm still kind of reading up on it. But uh under the typical explanation of a dive watch, you would need the pip at twelve to be luminous. So yeah, in in some ways it it doesn't necessarily hit that mark. Um maybe maybe it's kind of like uh, you know, you have a dive watch for a while and you just lose that pip. That happens as well. So you know, as far as I'm concerned, I I think this is a an incredible watch. I I think they've been doing some really interesting stuff with adding novelties to the Black Bay line, whether it be silver or gold or the new chronographs, I think are really quite lovely. And then now you have the a format that's been around for the better part of a decade in one form or another, just rendered in a very modern material. And what kind of gets me is that you know the you remember that trend in watches, the kind of phantom where it was all black, even the hands and the markers? And the so it's hard to read. Yeah. They did that, but then it's just the hands and markers that got the loom. So you really get the kind of a middle ground between that sort of phantomy look where you kind of gonna have to turn the watch against the light to see the engraving and the bezel and the rest of it. I like it. It's real shadowy. I think it's kind of cool that it says black bay on the dial, especially for one that is so very dark in its coloring. And then of course who's who's gonna argue with um with tutor pursuing meta certification for their watches? That's fantastic. Good value. For me, |
| Stephen Pulvirent | I was surprised when I learned it was not a 58 that they are continuing to push on the original Black Bay. Insane because the Black Bay, the chunky Black Bay, the 41mm Black Bay, it's it's its own thing at this point. I look at those original watches and I wouldn't really want them to be smaller. Um I feel like they really just kind of do well on their own and I'm glad that they didn't just cut that line off. I totally agree with James. From the meta certification to actually putting Black Bay on the dial, that seems like a small thing to do, but it actually gives a better identity to the watch, where before it felt like it was the name, but more these were supposed to be these heritage pieces that were looking backward and not really concerned with what they were in the present. And finally branding them, you know, properly, I think really situates them, especially since this is such a modern feeling, you know, watch anyway. Yeah, I totally agree. Last thing I'm gonna say before we move on is uh this watch also has an open case back, but the movement has like a weird, kind of cool, tone-on-tone finishing. You should definitely go click the link in the show notes and go check that out on the site. Um, I thought Tutor really made good use of the open case back here. It's maybe the first time I think we've seen from a modern tutor where there's an open case back, and I think it's it's the right move. I think it's it's worthwhile. You really get something out of it. Yeah, it's a cool view for sure. All right. Let's let's go to something totally different here. Let's break things up. Danny, you wrote a really great story for the site about the new tank musts from Cartier. Love the headline. One Cartier, two Cartier, red Cartier, Blue Cartier, and then the deck and green Cartier. So we've got three colors here, uh, red, blue, and green. Uh, these watches are so cool. I've always loved the vintage ones. What should we know about the new ones? I haven't seen these in the metal yet. I mean what's to know is they've revitalized the idea of being able to buy a Cartier tank at a pretty affordable price and to have fun with it. You know, it still has a quartz movement inside, but with the red, the blue, and the green, it's just the absolute just pinnacle of fun. From a brand that can sometimes seem like a bit, you know, unapproachable. They feel at times for some people to be like dress watch only. And this breaks that up to me. On the one hand, I didn't write this too much into my piece. In terms of like the big brands, this feels like a bit of a fashion watch play in some degree, but I think that also has a lot to do with what we talked about a few weeks ago with with casebacks is like some of these things are a way to bring in a broader audience and to bring in new people into the watch world and to take a name like Cartier, which has a name as big as as you know a Rolex, as that same kind of weight or as an omega, to allow that to be more accessible both in price, look and feel, these just are firing on all cylinders to me in that regard. Yeah. And I mean pricing, these are a hair under three grand, right? They're like twenty seven hundred dollars. Right |
| James Stacey | . Twenty seven hundred, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I love them. I I would very much like to have one. I hope that they kind of expand on this. I would love to see the same colors or maybe similar colors, but in a gold tone case, I think would be pretty special. Yeah. Like imagine if it was a gray dial with a little bit of a shimmer to it on a gold case and then just a nice brown sort of strap with a subtle stitch. I think that would be that's a lot of watch for three grand, especially because I think Cardi is really starting to see this pop in popularity as the whole world around steel sports watches, vintage or otherwise, has become like elevated to the point where it's it's it's become very difficult for people to experience these things without spending a a huge amount of money. Yeah. Um so it's it's it's exciting to see a different sort of watch become kind of eminently stylish. And at a price point that's, just a fraction of what you would spend to uh you know to put a uh Rolex on your |
| Stephen Pulvirent | wrist. Yeah, totally. I guess you know, which Danny kind of wraps up the story by saying like you couldn't pick a color, would it be too weird to get all three? I'm gonna go no, it wouldn't be too weird. But if you had to start with one, James, which color would you would you add? Uh blue. I just wouldn't wear it on the blue strap. I think a tan strap would look great. Danny? I definitely lean toward blue when I was writing it. When I it's the one that I looked at the most was the blue one. I mean, obviously, like that's kind of a cop out because the red and the green are the louder picks, but to me, they they definitely fall in the if you had all three, then since you're you know you're cycling through them, then you wear the red and the green. But if I if I had one, it'd be the blue. Yeah, I think the blue would be the practical one, but I think the green for me is the standout. I think the green is the kind of like most exceptional of the three, especially because depending on the light, like that dial can almost look black, but when it catches the light, it's like wow, that's really, really something special. All right, let's keep this rolling. Let's go to another big classic name here. Let's go to Brigade. This is the most recently released watches of this bunch, just came out this week. And these are some new type 21 chronographs. It's a pair of titanium limited editions, 250 of each one with either uh green loom or orange loom. They're split seconds. These to me are just like, I I don't know. I think the brigade military chronographs are some of the most underrated watches of all time, maybe. The vintage ones are just unbelievable. The modern ones over the years have gone up and down. But what what do you guys think about this watch? I I think it's great. Personally, I'll take I'll take any watch that goes full force on preserving vintage feeling typography in terms of like both the overall aesthetic and the numerals. And this one just like, yeah, is in your face. Like from the super thin bezel uh to the the massive you know loom numerals on the dial to even like the date aperture, you feel uh simultaneously like you're wearing like a robust modern watch, but you get all that character and all that flavor. And like the type twenty is the classic military brigade. And um there'd be no scenario where I wouldn't like a watch like this. That skinny bez |
| James Stacey | el is so hot. Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm inclined to agree. I did I didn't catch the pricing for these, but forty-two millimeters, all titanium, you know, uh a quality flyback chronograph movement with a decent power reserve, nicely made. I think they look very distinctive with the coloring. The orange definitely speaks to me, but it could be the kind of thing where the green in person would be different than in the render. Green's such a tough thing to judge, whereas orange is kind of feels kind of safe to tell |
| Stephen Pulvirent | from a photo. Green to me with like throwback watches, it always to me feels like a like poorly reloomed vintage watch, uh, which like is my own bias, but uh I I'm with you. I think I'd go orange on this one |
| James Stacey | . Well yeah, as a as a huge fan of the the Brightling Avi 765, I don't see how you could also not like this. It's it's the same same sort of treatment in many ways, just w in this case uh to borrow uh the tiredest of cliches, a pop of col |
| Stephen Pulvirent | or. I also think what what people don't appreciate about these watches is the movements. Like they're not the ornately finished movement you might find in a, you know, a brigade dress watch or one of their turbillons. But with Brigade and with their, you know, sister brand Blanc Pon, like when you buy these these sport chronographs, whether it's this or like a 50-fathoms chronograph or a Bathiscaf chronograph or whatever, like you're getting a real serious high-end chronograph movement in these watches. And it's cool to see it in a sporty-style titanium case so that you can get that kind of like badass high end automatic chronograph without having to buy a dress watch, you know? Yeah, I also like how like the aesthetic in both the green or the orange feels in no way. And we talked about how it might feel like superluminovas burned into the dial, but neither of them feel like they're going for some kind of vintage aesthetic. It's just color. It's color for the sake of color. Yeah. Which is interesting on a watch that's so clearly, you know, calls back to an that era, but those colors are working against that in such an interesting way. The contrast is very cool. I totally agree. Alright, last watch up. I kind of cheated here. This watch isn't new. It's like new-ish last year or two. But it's a watch that when I saw it on the site, uh Jack wrote a story about it. I was like, oh damn, I forgot how good this watch is. So uh that's the Grand Seiko SBGW 259. It's one of the quote unquote like first reissues. Grand Saco's done this over the last couple years. They've released these kind of re-releases of the Grand Siko first. They're usually limited editions, different sizes, precious metals, blah blah blah. They released finally a a trio of them into the main collection and instead of doing one in steel with like a white or a silver dial, they did one in high polished titanium with a blue dial. I have not seen this watch in the metal. You know, it looks plenty handsome from the the other photos I've seen, but these photos that Tiffany took this week or a couple weeks ago for the story this week, I feel like I need this watch. Like my life will not be complete until I have this watch at this point. I don't have much more to say than that, but like damn, the idea of a slim kind of vintage throwback titanium Grand Seiko that's hand wound, like sign me up like every day of the week. And that pulls off the uh the open case back beautifully. I mean, this is like when the open case back is totally worth it and is is work really working here. You know, just to go back to that conversation again. It's just like everything about this is minimal, meaning not in the like the sense of the word minimalism, but just to the point where like there's nothing on here that doesn't need to be here. Yeah. Which I think is so very on brand anyway. But it's just it just shows uh how classic design persists and sometimes we don't need to make all the changes we make when we' |
| James Stacey | re designing new watches anyway. Yeah, but I don't disagree. You know, the the thing that stands out to me is uh probably easily my favorite Grand Seiko is you know the 2017 re-edition of the 3180, the 252. Yeah. This is now my second. I think I would want the yellow gold with that, you know, beautiful dial and that if it if it if it came down to just raw choice. But I mean, it's really beautiful. I love I love that that it has that um the chronometra blue thing where you can tell that it's not steel. Right? And that's what made that the journalist tantalum, of course and not titanium, but nevertheless, um to to to get titanium to the point where you can polish it is an art on its own, as day button, as now G Shock with their I can't remember what they call that. It's a fancy type of titanium they're using on a on a couple models now that they can polish. It's a beast to uh to complete and and and be able to polish a watch like this and to do it at a at a level where the guys at Grand Saca were like, yeah, this this supports everything else that we do, not undercuts our finishing, then it's yeah, I'm I g I would assume in person this thing wears beautifully. Yeah. Great size too, these watches, the 38 mils totally agree. |
| Stephen Pulvirent | Because they're all d all dial. Yeah. They also nailed the details. And like that's a big thing, James, right? Like it's all dial, and so everything has to be spot on. And like the logo treatment, the way the hands are faceted, the dial furniture, even like the crown, like it has that like old school Seikoekus Shah, like little S crown is awesome. And my single favorite thing, maybe to go back to Danny's comments about the case back. No weird ghosted out logos engraved on the underside of the case back, which is maybe my least favorite thing that Grand Seiko does. Like either solid case back in an engraving or transparent case back. Don't don't do the middle thing. Like just don't do it. It's it's like you get the worst of both worlds. This is perfect. Like it's exactly what I would want. So yeah, the watch isn't brand new, but you know, when I again I saw it on the site this week and was just like, oh, oh, okay. Uh and thought we should, we should talk about it. All right, guys. I think we got five good watches here from five big brands. And uh we'll link up in the notes if you're you know listening to this and you're interested in learning more. We've got tons of good coverage of these watches and similar watches. Uh you can kind of go down a rabbit hole as as deep as you want to go. And uh hopefully we'll be back to talk about a couple more new releases before everything calms down for the the final holidays and then we kick off and it'll be fall before we know it. Can't wait. Cool. Great to chat with you both. Thanks, guys. Up next, we've got my conversation with Blaine Halverson about the Timex Maidworn American Documents Watch. Hey Blaine, how's it going? Good to have you here. Good. How you doing? Thanks for having me. Yeah, no, I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about your new collaboration with Timex. Can you maybe just to get us going, uh tell us like kind of what the project is and how you first got involved? They had met me through a |
| Blaine Halverson | process I was doing where I was carving watches and so forth. So they reached out and asked if I'd be interested in potentially doing an American made watch with them. And being someone who's been a fan and has been making stuff in America for the last 23 years, it was definitely appealing to see what we could do and see how far we could sort of push the boundaries of American manufacturing and really just getting an understanding of what is still being done here and and what that looked like. So, you know, Timex obviously having a a long history here in the past as well. It was just that it seemed like a really nice sort of marriage of something to do and something that I hadn't done. So it was that made it appealing |
| Stephen Pulvirent | also. Yeah. And the Maiden America component of this is really foundational to the project, right? It's not like something you guys kind of arrived at later. Yeah, I mean I would that was the that was the only reason I would have done this. You |
| Blaine Halverson | know, it was very that's been important to me. You know, everything I do at Made Warren is made in America. That's it's it's just been the ethos of what it is. I I like being able to be a part and you know everything that we do is very hands-on. So it for me, it was, I needed to be where I could touch and feel and and work with everything. And this project gave us the opportunity to really actually be able to make unique one-off pieces, which that was that was everything to me. You know, I didn't want it to feel like we just here's some idea, put my put a name on it. So we played a big role in this, |
| Stephen Pulvirent | which was what made it exciting. Yeah, and you touched on the fact that each watch in this collection is unique. So this is the the Timex made worn, which is part of the American Document series. But these these watches, each one is is kind of like touched by human hands and has its own feel. So I I wonder how did you think about, you know, in the early stages of this project, what you could kind of do to make each piece unique? So |
| Blaine Halverson | they well, they sent me some Amer Americicanan just some document watches, which was great. You know, we started kind of like how we do, I you know, I threw some in a like an actual campfire through burning. We, you know, we put them through acid bass, we did all kinds of things just to kind of test the steel, test the faces, to see what how far we could push the materials and what we could do and really just trying to build patinas and so forth. So it was a lot of how we did like a chemistry experiment, which was fun as hell. And you know, we we got to a lot of different processes and, you know, that watch that we threw in the hot coals, you know, we left that in there about eight hours and we learned a lot. You know, it handled heat incredible and for all intents and purposes, basically still a working watch. So, you know, when you're talking about something going hot ash, that's uh that was pretty |
| Stephen Pulvirent | impressive. So yeah, that's super cool. How did you then like,, through all of this experimentation, you arrived at a handful of processes that ended up being used on these final pieces? Can you walk us through maybe like you know the case, the dial, the hands, and kind of explain what you you're doing to each component along the way to make these watches unique? |
| Blaine Halverson | I took a lot of inspiration on these from some of the early like military watches and so forth, the sort of the aging and finishing that that happened just from the day-to-day wear on those the night and day sort of two-tone face of the watch was super appealing to me. This idea of sort of you know time never stopping, you know, that you've got creative minds that work best at night and, creative minds that work best in the daytime, and just sort of playing around with that idea. So just trying to figure out how we could get those patinas and those finishes to look right from you know the platings to getting it to wear so you're seeing some of the brass coming through and then the straps as well you know being done and here being able to sort of manipulate the leather, you know, we soaked the leather we, we put them through a lot of different treatments as well, just to make them obviously much softer and get the folds and bends and the sorts of things that make it look like it's a keepsake. I mean, my first watch from my grandfather was a Timex. You know, that was that was it back in the day. So that you know, that idea was was was cool. |
| Stephen Pulvirent | That's great. Yeah. And I I like this idea that they are aged to look like they've lived a life, but then the kind of the wearer has to put their own spin on it, right? Like the wearer has to make it a part of their life. Yeah. And then they you know, and then they get to |
| Blaine Halverson | age even more and and they get their sort of marks and scars on it as well. So I think that's that's what makes it uh yeah, that's great. Makes it beautiful. Yeah. I mean it was every every ounce of this watch was touched by hand. No two faces are the same. So and then the the case backs are also special, right? Case backs are all all hand stamped also. So again, you know, a lot of companies are heavily based on manufacturing, obviously, and being able to see how we could add the human, the American human hand into it was awesome, you know, and to me, that's bringing back some of that romantic romanticism of what we saw back from you know in the 50s in Detroit from cars coming off the line. You know, that was we we don't get to see a lot of that anymore in America. And I think opportunities like this are great because we can we show that we still have the capabilities of actually making beautiful things if |
| Stephen Pulvirent | we want to. Yeah. And I know you're you're also inspired by a lot of sort of like traditional American art forms and and craft forms, you know, things like tattoos, gun engraving, leather working. How did you think about kind of incorporating those things to kind of like mesh with with Timex's own history? Well, listen, you know, I I love the whole idea |
| Blaine Halverson | of takes a lick and keeps on ticking, you know. So we were like, let's, let's, let's really test that out. Let's see how much we can beat this thing up and keep it still in its beauty. So that was really the premise of it. I really wanted to sort of push all boundaries. I wanted to push manufacturing boundaries as far as we could to make this thing as unique and as sort of special in this era. You know, it's like to have a fully, you know manufactured watch that's like every ounce of it has been worked on by hand is is a lot, you know. Yeah, yeah, there's no corners cut, that's for sure. Yeah, it definitely definitely doesn't look like it. And being, you know, it was like, you know, my team being able to work on so much of this, you know, it was like stuff was being sent to us. We would we would do all of our patina and finishing work on it too, it would go, you know, back to Timex. And then Timex's team would also do their working on it and so it was just fun to watch. You know, obviously I watched a tremendous amount of precision, like things can't warp and so forth. So we work a lot with heat. So it was it was you know it was just interesting watching and seeing how all that stuff works together and and fortunately, and we're able to, you know, I think make a really |
| Stephen Pulvirent | a beautiful piece. Yeah. You mentioned heat, and I know the the actual box that the watch comes in is pretty special. Can you walk us through that box? Yeah, so we |
| Blaine Halverson | did uh we had a wood box that came to us that the watch actually comes in. Each watch box probably an hour worth of torching. You know, we got a lot of help from Ben's Matic, which is the great flame company. You know, they sent us a bunch of torches to work with. And it was basically trying to bring, you know, all the beautiful sort of aging that fire does, you know, charring of the boxes and all the beautiful lines and and things that come from that into each of these box |
| Stephen Pulvirent | es. Yeah, and you you mentioned earlier the the day-night dial, which is something that beyond it being hand finished and having this unique patina, I think is a really interesting concept. I mean, you talked about creativity and you know, I've also seen you talk about, you know, the idea of yesterday versus tomorrow and kind of living in the moment. And I'd love to hear a little bit more about that. Yeah, I mean I think, you know, if anything, this |
| Blaine Halverson | last year gave us, you know, what are you going to do with your time? So, you know, for me, from the creative side, you know, your brain's sort of going 24 hours a day. You know, I wake up every night, two, three o'clock in the morning doesn't matter sort of when I go to sleep and you know that so called witching hour from three to six is really when a lot of the stuff that I end up doing comes from. People have documented when their creative times are and and and how that worked. I I just think that it's incredibly unique to everybody. And I mean that like I said, the time's not stopping for you. So you it's sort of your choice on what you're going to use with it because that thing just keeps on ticking until it stop |
| Stephen Pulvirent | s. So of all of the little details on this watch, is there one that stands out to you that's just your personal favorite? Like the one little thing that if you just had to tell somebody one thing about this watch, you'd want them to take a closer look at? I mean the face, listen it the the |
| Blaine Halverson | unfortunate part is is that you know you're just getting one watch for me the beauty was being able to see all of the faces laid out at once and being able to see truly how unique and different each one was. Because it's one thing, obviously, to make foe you know, you can kind of faux anything at this point, you know, watch company and be like, we like this one patina, now let's mass produce that same patina a million times. You know, in this case, like every single one of them is uniquely different. Some of them more than others. And that was the beauty. You know, a lot of what we did, you just natural world takes over, you know, a second longer under this, second longer under that. You would get spots in certain places and on one and and differ spots in a different place on something else. And to me, that was the most beautiful thing is actually really that's what we wanted from the beginning. |
| Stephen Pulvirent | Great. Well thanks so much for sharing this with us. Uh we're gonna have links in the show notes so people can go check the watches out and learn a little bit more. But uh I really enjoyed this conversation and I uh I personally can't wait to see one of these in the metal. They're pr pretty incredible looking. And finally today, we've got the results of the independent watch fantasy draft for 2021. Uh, if you remember a few weeks ago we did our independent watchmaking fantasy draft, and today we're gonna bring you the results of that draft and do a quick little uh recap of uh of the independent watchmakers. So uh we've got our producer, Mr. Gray Corhonan on a rare uh on mic appearance here. What's going on, Gray? Yes, indeed. Thanks for having me, Steven. Good to be here. Uh and we've got John, we've got Danny, and we've got Cole here. Uh, cause Gray's gonna give us the results live on air. Uh none of us know uh what the results are and we'll see we'll see what happens. I'm d I'm a little nervous guys. I'm pretty scared. I I gotta be honest, John. I'm uh I'm a little nervous here too. I'm not I'm not feeling super confident. Well I think both |
| Cole Pennington | of your instincts are right. Because I think Danny is Danny is probably gonna win this one. Just saying. It would be she |
| Stephen Pulvirent | er luck. Trust me. Uh Gray, you wanna you wanna just dive into it? Give us the results, maybe a little like four to one countdown, and then we'll uh we'll do a little recap after that. All right, I will hold you guys in suspense no longer. Let's get straight into it. After all the votes have been tallied, we have in fourth place with a meager 18.5% of the vote. Our host with the most, Mr. Stephen Pulverant. Ouch. Wow. Ooh. The host. I I gotta be honest, I didn't think I won this one. I didn't think I was gonna come in fourth place. That's uh I'm I'm gonna have to take this one on the chin. All right. Okay. Mr. Independent though. This is this is surprising. I don't know. I'm gonna get that on my business card, John. Stephen Pulver and ODG, Mr. Independent. Mr. Independent. Um all right. Okay. Uh it is what it is. Let's go, let's go number three. All right, moving right along to third place, edging out Steven by the slimmest of margins is Mr. John Buse with eighteen point eight percent of the vote. Third place, Mr. John Buse. Ah not good. Not good. John, I think we're getting I think we're getting drinks at lunch. I think we need to. It's just us, Cole. Just you and me, boy. I think |
| Cole Pennington | someone must have tampered with the results here because I mean there's some hanging chads or something. Something's gone on. Are you are you outing yourself, Cole? Was it you? It wasn't me. It definitely wasn't me. I mean, I yeah. I'd appreciate if you guys wouldn't cast aspersions |
| Stephen Pulvirent | on the validity of this vote. The votes are real and the results are final. With that said, we've arrived at the moment we've all been waiting for. We have Danny and Cole remaining in second place with a healthy 24.5% of the vote is Mr. Danny Milton, which means in first place we have Cole Pennington, champion, with a whopping thirty-eight point two percent of the vote. Congratulations. Congratulations, Cole. Mr. Hanging Chat hims |
| Cole Pennington | elf, number one. This is the first hodinky thing I've ever won. I mean, this has never happened before to me, like winning a hodinky uh bracket, whatever. And speech. Speech. It's it's in an area that I'm not like uh super, super confident and familiar with. So this is great news. So thank you to all the good men and women that voted for me. And uh I promised to make it Cole's already |
| Stephen Pulvirent | stumping for the next car round here. You gotta deliver on your campaign prompt promises for the first one. Congratulations to Mr. Cole Pennington. Thank you all for playing. I leave you guys to dissect the results. Well, this is great news. So so thank you. And congratulations to everyone. That that this this is interesting. I mean, I think uh this draft more than any other that we've done so far had the possibility to go a bunch of different directions. And and part of that is that these watches are so idiosyncratic. Like most of the watches we picked are pretty like uh directional sh,all we say? Like they they appeal to a particular audience. They kind of uh speak loudly, like they're not you know, we're not talking about the difference between a uh a sub and a speedmaster here. We're talking about the difference between you know a Baltic GMT and a FP Jorn mono pusher chronograph like these these are like wildly different watches um and even within individual collections, you know, I'll speak for myself, like having a Roger Smith next to an MB and F, like that's that's a lot, you know? And and I think uh I I would love to know and maybe people let us know in the comments. Like I'd love to know if people were voting on whole collection. Were people voting on one favorite watch? Were people voting on the interactions between watches within a collection? It it could have gone a lot of different ways here. And so uh honestly, no, no result really would have surprised me too much. These are four good interesting collections. I'm still surprised. Just for the record. Let's let's do a couple things here. I I wanna first, you know, when we when we finished this draft, you know, the moment the mics kind of cut and and and we were all chatting about it, there were a bunch of brands and a bunch of watchmakers who got left off this list. And that was kind of inevitable. You know, we're we're picking it 16 watches here. Uh we weren't going to be able to pick everyone. But I thought it might be interesting to go around and and see who everybody thought was the watchmaker that they were kind of like most disappointed got left off the list. Um, you know, maybe maybe we'll start with Cole. We'll start with uh the the champion here. Uh Cole, who who were you surprised didn't make make it into one of these collections or who who were you disappointed didn't make it into one of these collections |
| Cole Pennington | ? I tend not to get disappointed about stuff like this. You know, don't don't cry over spilled milk. However, I will say I was surprised not to see Ming mentioned by anybody, given how much they dominate the narrative around indie watches right now. So it's kind of yeah, overall are, they in the the pantheon of great indie watchmakers? I don't know if they're there yet. I don't think so. But comments sections, Instagram, kind of the conversation now, you'll be hard pressed not to see Ming brought up at least once or twice in in most conversations. So yeah, I was kind of surprised not to see them uh make |
| Stephen Pulvirent | an appearance. Yeah, I I would agree. I I really thought that would be uh that would be someone's choice. I mean I will say um they come in just above the budget limit that we set for the uh budget pick, uh which I think is where maybe they would have fallen, but a lot of their watches end up falling like, you know, a hundred dollars too high. Uh so I wonder if that was a factor. But um Danny, how how about you? Yeah, I mean uh I was g I was assuming that Cole was gonna pick Oris at some point when we did this. Um that was one that I think I saw in the comments people were surprised didn't make it and I would have picked one. I think I'll save this for later in the conversation, but it was a brand that definitely felt missing. I think part of the reason might be uh in our circles it it's very prevalent and maybe doesn't strike us like fully in the same way as an independent, but it's you know in normal non, you know, insider watch circles. You know, Oris isn't super well known and it is very much still an independent in the watch world. That's fair. Yeah, that's a good that's a really good point. Uh I had an Aurus or two on my short list. Did anybody else have have any kind of waiting on their short list? I did. Same for the Pro Pilot X was on my my list too. Ah yeah. Yeah. Um all right. That's that's interesting. Uh John, how about you? Well, I mean, I |
| James Stacey | think uh for me it was a crivia. I was really surprised not to see that brand pop up uh on our list. And I think somebody somebody even mentioned them uh that they were not going to pick them and go for something else first. Stephen. Uh yeah, Steven, I think yeah, you mentioned them and then I I was after that happened, after you like broached the topic, I thought for sure someone would would jump in and and scoop you on it, but um it didn't happen. And um that it somehow to me the the list of watches that we all put together feels like it missed a major kind of moment in w uh independent watch making over the last uh you know five or six years by not including anything from Acrivia |
| Stephen Pulvirent | . That's why Steven lost. That''ss what what that did it. Honestly it might be. Alright, I I'm gonna I'm gonna go with two. Um I'm gonna go with kind of the opposite of John. You know, John John went here with kind of the new comer to the high high end uh independent watchmaking. I'm gonna go with two standbys, uh Philippe Dufour. Oh yeah wow uh and car and Kari Vutilinen. Yeah. Um I'm I'm kinda shocked that neither Kari nor uh Philippe made it made it onto this list. You know, again, we we only could pick 16 watches here and only four of those were you know high-end dress watches. Um so I get it. But uh yeah aga,in just, a little bit surprised there. Um to to drill a little bit more down into the specifics, we've touched on on our short lists, uh, but I want to know, and you you don't need to provide too much of an explanation, but a little bit would be nice. Um let's go in the same order. And and if you could add one more watch to your collection. Just a fifth watch, it doesn't need any it doesn't need to meet any category requirements or anything like that. You just get a fifth watch. What is that watch going to be |
| Cole Pennington | ? The you know the limited edition Grunfeld we did for Hodinky? That watch, but you also know that watch that Eric who has that says made exclusively for Eriku on the dial? Yeah, the uh Kikuchi uh Nakakan. Exactly. So what I would like to do is a Gronfeld in the spirit of the Hodinki Ellie, which would be uh covering the remote. Say with made for Cole Pennington on the dial somewhere, very subtly. I think that would just be a little over the top, but why not? We're adding another this is a fantasy draft, right? So the watch the watch cold once is a true fant |
| Stephen Pulvirent | asy. It's a it's a watch that doesn't exist. Exactly. Okay. All right. I'm gonna balance things to go from high to low, uh just just to keep things uh even. Uh and since I said since Horus was my pick of what I felt was left off, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick an Oris just because what I ended up doing in mine w for the sport watch category was going for Moser, which in theory, at the price point, doesn't exactly jive with the category. So to sort of balance that out, um, I would have picked the the Aurus Diver 65. I think Cole actually has this watch. The 42mm version with the uh that recycled plastic strap which is an awesome it's such a cool such a cool watch. Um the yellow and blue strap with the blue dial on the watch just looks amazing. I've always wanted it and maybe I'll get it one day. Uh but I I uh would have picked that. Probably in the sport watch category. Good choice. That's a great choice. John, how about you? |
| James Stacey | Um I mean if I if I could add one more watch, uh I probably would have done something from Philippe Dufour. Um now that you mention it actually. Could I have a simplicity? Does the fact that that's done? Does that kind of Yeah, you can you can take a simplicity. Uh the rules forbid it. It doesn't really um you know it's it's gonna be |
| Stephen Pulvirent | very hard to get one of those anyway. But um uh yeah, I'd probably add that. I'll I'll keep things easier. I'm gonna go with the Chronomet Contemporan from Acribia. Um you know, I I struggled. I could only take that or Roger Smith and I went with Roger, but uh I would add to add something from Reget to the to the collection here. Um maybe if I could the one from Only Watch, the one with that kind of like frosted blue dial. It's a hot, hot, hot watch. Alright, well to wrap things up here, uh, let's go back to the draft collections. And I want to know which watch from someone else's collection are you most jealous of? And it doesn't have to be a one-to-one swap for your watch, just like of all the you know, watches drafted that weren't yours, the 12 other watches, uh, which watch would you most want? Um this time around let's just go in the same order to keep things simple. Uh Cole, uh what would you pick from the other watches |
| Cole Pennington | ? I think I actually hinted at this during the draft. And do you know which one it is, Susan? I don't think that's based on this watch. |
| Stephen Pulvirent | I do know what you're taking. I do know what you're taking. You're gonna take the SUF one eighty field watch from my company. That's right. That |
| Cole Pennington | 's the one I'm taking because that's one I would happily wear. Like, and I I actually went through the mental exercise of hey, should I buy this watch? Or is it a little too redundant given that I have another field watch? But is it really cool to have a field watch that's an indie? Yes. And I'm picking it from your collection. And I did vote for you. I'm just saying. Thank you, sir. To no avail, my friend |
| Stephen Pulvirent | . So there we go. Danny? Yeah, Stephen, I'm coming for your collection also. I think I had like an audible reaction when you picked this one 'cause it was it was my choice at the category, but it was the Nomos Club Campus. Um, it's just such a at the price and what it represents, it's the kind of watch that I would recommend to to anyone getting into watches, which is part of the reason why I picked it. And it being an independent just makes it so much cooler for what it is. Um and yeah. When you when you said it, I was just gutted. I forget what I picked to replace it, but you crushed my soul. Sorry, sorry, Danny. Again, to no avail. Let's be clear Yeah, we're all we're all picking the losing collection is actually somewhat hilarious. We're we're we're we're having a little uh little loser party here. It's uh I I appreciate it, but uh you you guys are not helping your cases here. Uh I'm gonna continue the um I'm gonna continu |
| James Stacey | e the tradition of g coming after Steven's watches by selecting his his Roger Smith Series one because I mean come on. I mean the there are many, many uh great watches that we all picked in this collection. I could pick something from from Danny's or from Cole's as well. However, the the Roger Smith series one, I mean, you can have that watch, you kind of like if the opportunity presents itself and you can afford it, I feel like it's something that you kind of like have to do. Um, and so if we're playing a fantasy game where I where I get to pick any of these, you know, uh 16 watches, that's that's the one that I'm gonna take. Um I mean just the level of craftsmanship is like beyond. Um the fact that Roger Smith has been doing this for as long as he has and he still hasn't even made a watch for himself yet. I mean it's just the story behind it |
| Stephen Pulvirent | is um is really something else. Alright, I I got a kind of hard choice here. Uh you know what I'm gonna take? I'm gonna take a watch from John's collection. Uh I'm gonna take the Jorne chronograph monopoussoir Ratrepant. Um mostly because it is just so damn weird and I love it. Um I think I wrote a story after this watch came out about how if you had told me that my favorite watch of S-I-H-H A wouldn't be from the show and B would be a 44mm platinum chronograph with a purple dial. Uh, I would have laughed you out of the room, but the year this watch came out, that was the case. Um it's a completely insane watch. It's so over the top. Uh, but every little bit of it is executed just like to the nines. It's it's a truly, truly exceptional piece of watchmaking. And it's the kind of watch that like only an independent would make. Like none of the big brands would ever make a watch like this. It would get it would have gotten focus grouped out and whatever, market researched out. Uh but when you're an independent making small quantities for dedicated collectors, you can do stuff like this. So that's that's gonna be my pick. It's a good pick. Um Well, thanks for doing this, guys. Congrats to Cole. Uh so weird. Whatever the opposite of congrats is to me, shame. Am I like not allowed do I get like relegated? Am I not allowed to participate in the next draft? I I don't know. So that's all right, yeah. All right. Yeah. It's it's okay. And the three of us just picked your pick, so that's gotta be worth something. Yeah. That's definitely worth something. I'm I'm gonna take that one with me. Um and then you know, John and I will go get a cocktail at lunch and commiserate. But um uh thanks for doing this guys and uh looking forward to the next draft. Thanks, Stephen.. Awesome Talk soon. |