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The 2021 Hype Watch Fantasy Draft

Published on Mon, 2 Aug 2021 10:00:00 +0000

Which drops, collabs, and wait-listers rule them all?

Synopsis

In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host Stephen Pulvirent is joined by Danny Milton, James Stacey, and Cole Pennington for a "2021 Hype Watch Fantasy Draft." The concept centers around drafting the most hyped watch collections across four categories: Genta-designed or Genta-inspired watches, waitlist Rolex models, big-name collaborations, and high-value independent watchmakers. The episode was recorded shortly after a green dial Patek Philippe Nautilus sold at auction for over $400,000, which the hosts acknowledge as emblematic of the current "hype train" in watch collecting.

Using a serpentine draft format with a randomly generated order, the hosts make their selections. Danny leads off by choosing the Rolex Milgauss with black dial, reasoning it may be discontinued soon. James selects the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar in titanium with salmon dial, immediately taking the Royal Oak off the board. Cole goes with the A. Lange & Söhne Odysseus in stainless steel, while Stephen picks the Bulgari Octofinissimo and the Oyster Perpetual with Tiffany blue dial. Notable selections include Danny's controversial pick of the green dial Nautilus 5711 (though he emphasizes "at list price only, without plastic"), James's gold Daytona on Oyster Flex and Richard Mille Nadal collaboration, Cole's Casio G-Shock x Budweiser collab and Max Büsser Mad 1, and Stephen's Hodinkee x John Mayer G-Shock and F.P. Journe Tourbillon Souverain Vertical.

Throughout the draft, the hosts display both enthusiasm and skepticism about hype culture in watches. Stephen openly criticizes the $400,000 Nautilus result as "stupid" and "making watch collecting way less fun," while others debate whether certain picks truly deserve their hype status. The conversation balances genuine appreciation for watchmaking excellence (particularly around Greubel Forsey and F.P. Journe) with humorous acknowledgment of the absurdity of some market valuations. The episode concludes with listeners invited to vote on which collection best captures the essence of 2021's most hyped watches.

Transcript

Speaker
Stephen Pulvirent I have used a random number generator to generate our draft order. And I've got the horn. I'm at number four. Wow. Guy that runs the podcast gets a hot corner. That's interesting. Interesting. Random number generator. Yeah, very. interesting Hot corner. Yet again doesn't go to me. Guys, I promise it was random. I swear it was random. Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Pullveran and this is Hodinky Radio. This week we're back with another fantasy draft. I know you guys love when we do these things. And this time we thought we'd we'd get a little goofy here. We are going to do the 2021 Hype Watch Fantasy Draft. We're recording this about a week after uh that green dial Nautilus sold for over 400$00,0. It seems like the hype train is real when it comes to these certain categories of popular watches. So we thought we'd lead into it. Why, why fight it? And uh, I've got Danny, James, and Cole with me this week, and we are gonna draft our most hype collections. So it's four categories. We've got Genta watches, we've got Rolexes, we've got Collabs, we've got Independence. You're gonna hear a lot of watch names you're probably expecting and a handful that you definitely won't be expecting. And we've put together four collections here. So as usual you can vote on the winner. Uh check out the show notes and there will be links to go do that online and may the most hype watch collection win. So without further ado, let's do this. Hey guys, what's going on? Good afternoon. I wasn't sure what time it was. Hello, Steven. Ahoy. Yeah it's just barely afternoon. Well played. I thought I thought you were gonna go full good morning Vietnam on me there, and I was like, okay, that's that's a mood. I was doing a full where's it where's the clock? Where's my watch? It's bo still morning for Steven. Yeah, it is still morning for me here. I've got I've got a nice uh cup of tea here. Oh, and cool. It's ten ten AM here. Yeah. Oh you're on mountain time. Okay. We're we're rocking three time zones here. Three time zones, two countries. What time zone is Cole in? That's the question every time we record a podcast. Mountain time, baby. Canadian Central Standard Time for me. There you go. Perfect. Alright, so technically we got four time zones. That's not a real thing. Alright, we're here. We're here to do a draft. It's that time again. Uh I know it's a time the three of you guys love as much as I do. Talking watches, talking shit, getting competitive. This week we're gonna do we're gonna do a fun one. This this one's a little goofy. Uh we're gonna do the hype watch fantasy draft. Anyone who's been paying attention is saw probably, I hope, that insane Nautilus auction result about a week ago when we're recording this. $400,000 for a green dial Nautilus. I'll just come flat out and say, like, that's that's so stupid. God, that's stupid. Yeah. Uh yeah. Someone geez. Come on, it's factory sealed. Come on, guys. Wild and out real
Cole Pennington hard. Come on. And and the backstory is even better, too. So you should go look at the backstory to that whole thing. Yeah. It is
Stephen Pulvirent . It's hilarious actually. I can think of few things that are less cool in the watch world than paying four hundred thousand dollars for a factory sealed steel sport watch from paddock, in my not so humble opinion. I can think of one person who disagrees with you demonstrably? Probably I arguably, you know, with my very extensive knowledge of auctions, I would say at least two people. That's true, actually. I think that's that's technically true. Yeah, we don't have to go too much into that and why I think that's just like ludicrous and makes watch collecting way less fun. But what we're gonna do is we're gonna lean into the hype. We're gonna go full hype beast here and we're gonna draft the most hype watch collections we can draft here. So I've got four categories for you today. And the four categories are Genta or Genta inspired, Weightlist Rolex, big name collab, and high value indie. So Genta or Genta inspired, pretty self-explanatory. You gotta pick a Gerald Genta design sport watch or something sort of adjacent, like integrated bracelet, kind of geometric. You know, we'll we'll we'll leave the names for later, but you know, something Royaloke or Nautilus-esque. And the rule here for all of these watches is they need to be currently available or currently-ish available. Like last year or two, we're not picking you know stuff from the 70s. We're not picking stuff that sold out five, six, seven years ago. So still lots to pick from in the GENTI category. Weightlist Rolex, that one has to be a watch that is currently available. You have to be able to walk into a Rolex boutique and get laughed at when you ask for it. That's that's the rule. I was waiting for where that sentence was going to finish and I'm glad where it did. I I could see all of your eyes got a little wide, like is does Steven think you can buy Daytonas? Is he like what has Steven been smoking? Maybe Steven can. Whoa, don't say the pics. Yeah. Uh yeah, sorry. Ooh, spoilers. Um Yeah, people might not have prepared that one. So uh wait list Rolex. Big name collab. Uh it's gotta be a watchmaker and at least one other person. There have actually been some cool three-way and four-way collaborations out there over the last couple years. But this needs to be somebody from outside the watch world needed to have a hand in the creation of this watch, and their name needs to be on it. And then the last one is high value indie. Uh, we've seen especially auction prices for independent watches going crazy over the last year. This needs to be a watch from an independent watchmaker that you think is going to deliver some return, you know, and and we don't need to get too much into the financials of, you know, how much you think it's going to deliver or whatever, but it needs to be an independent that you think like if you bought it today and you decided to sell it at auction a year or two from now, you you think you'd get a big a big number. And I'll I'll clarify one last thing. By independent here, I mean that in the spirit of the law, not the letter of the law. So Rolex technically independent, but tech technically independent. Even like Richard Meal, like technically independent, but like I don't know if I consider RM an indie. We we can adjudicate that if it comes to it. But what? Yeah. Thanks, James. I'm gonna just let me just scrap this whole list. Yeah, J James just full letterman style threw his list over his shoulder. Yeah, does that does that sound good to you guys? Does this all mak senesse? Have I have I like way overthought this? No. You haven't. I'm okay with it. All right. Perfect. I'm okay. I'm good. I'm great. Great. I love cold just coming in hot. Just like, nah, you're good. It's fine. It's gonna be serpentine style, like we usually do. Yep. We're gonna do the usual serpentine-style draft. Uh, and then we will let the audience vote on the winner. So uh we'll have this on hodinky.com. Uh we'll link it up in the show notes if you're listening to this on your pod player of choice where you can go vote. You'll have a little over a week to vote. Same, same usual, uh usual thing we do. Um one thing to note is in a given category, once a watch has been picked, it is not on the table for others. And we always do that, but there's always some little bit of variance depending on the kind of draft. Here I'm gonna say in in the genta category, you know, one Royal Oak, one Nautilus, one, you know, whatever the model line is, only one person can pick it. Within Rolex, once somebody picks, again, a model line, whether that's a sub, a GMT, a Daytona, whatever. That's it. We're not somebody's not doing the two-tone as somebody doing the steel. You know, we're not gonna get into that. Same spirit in in collab and indie. You know, with within independent, we can all pick the same brand. We just can't all pick the same watch. So keep that in mind as as this goes along. You can pick in any order. You don't have to pick your categories in order. And um, because our producer gray couldn't be with us today on on this recording, Gray is on set shooting an awesome video today. I have used a random number generator to generate our draft order. Uh, if anyone has any objections? Uh no, don't tell me. Just keep keep keep your objections to yourselves. We're drafting in this order. This is what we're doing. I promised this was fair. And uh I I generated this randomly. So with the number one overall pick, we've got our man Danny. Whoa. Drafting second, we've got James. Woof. I know. Sorry, man. Cole, Mr. Chili P is number three. Okay. And I've got the horn. I'm at number four. Wow. Guy that runs the podcast gets a hot corner. That's interesting. Interesting. Random number generator. Yeah, very interesting. Hot corner. Yet again, doesn't go to me. Guys, I promise it was random. I swear it was random. Also swear that I have been getting my ass kicked the last couple of drafts. So I have a funny feeling it's not gonna help me at all. The listeners have to put up with my uh voice every week. So I think that's probably a disadvantage in the end. But all right, let's let's get into this. Every everybody ready to start draft
Cole Pennington ing watches? Who's gonna hype it up? We got it someone we got to get a hype man on the show to start hyping everything up. Let''ss let let's get get some some hy
Stephen Pulvirent pe hype music in here, all right? Let's uh We need the air horn. Where's the air horn? Yeah, let's get some air horns in here. Let's get some fun fills going. Dirty milty. Doo doo doo doo doo. Just a crowd cheering after every pick. All right. So on the clock with the first overall pick in the twenty twenty one hype watch fantasy draft, Mr. Danny Milton. Let's go. Let's go. All right. So I'm gonna do this, and I'm going to kick myself for doing it because I really do like this watch and I have a feeling this might make it even more difficult to get. So I'm going to go with the Rolex category, and my choice will be the Rolex Milgauss with the black dial. Potentially, quote unquote, one of the easier to get in the world of uh stainless steel Rolex. That being said, still entirely impossible. Um, but I'm picking it because um you know I have a strange feeling the time is nigh for this piece. It's been in production for a very, very, very long time. Over a decade now. Um we're talking Rolex and the way that they kind of go through models. Um, you know, and we're talking hype. I think if you were going to try to get yourself on a list for this watch, this would be the time to do it. Um, I think it's the most fun watch Rolex makes, full stop. It's got their kind of version of a gray-black matte type dial, multiple colors of loom, uh, lightning bolt seconds hand, uh, and a green crystal. I mean, it's just all of those statements individually are just wild and they're all on a Rolex watch. I don't know why. When I got my GMT Master Batman, it was between the Milgaus and that, and this was something like six, five or six years ago. I regret sometimes not picking this up uh when you still could. And uh yeah, so if uh that's gonna be my first choice for the draft. Good pick, Danny. Good pick. Solid pick. Yeah, I think that's a strong pick. I'll I'll admit, not what I expected. No. But I think a a strong pick with a good good reason. I'm all about surprise here. Love it. James, how about you? Let's go uh second pick. I'm going for hype on this one. We're going Royal Oak, QP, titanium, salmon dial. What category? Geraldenta. Yeah, of course. All right. Just making sure. James, when is the salmon QP from? Right now. Current collection. Yeah, it's not new. It's not new. I checked. Two six six one five TL. It's new enough. It's new enough. It counts. Oh, you're right. Totally forgot about that. Yeah. Amazing. That's an awesome pick. That's a good one. Yeah.. Yeah Yeah. Yeah. As much as uh like if if this had been like one that wasn't limited to the last couple years, like a 2554 BA, like an original first year, second year Mark I dial, that probably would do it. But if you're picking from the modern collection, which means you're now up to forty one millimeters, I want the titanium. I think the salmon has a nice connection to back to the fifteen two oh two B C they're making right now. And yeah, it's just like a killer mix of that weird color for titanium and this kind of off goldy sort of color for the dial. So and and it it hits the gent away in a big way and just just obliterates Royal Oak off the board for the rest of you. So I think I think the QP Royal Oak Good Genta. I like it. I think the QP is one of the only Royal Oaks that to me feels just as authentic as the original. Like I think you can add other complications. I think like the chronographs look perfectly nice, like all that stuff. But for sure. To me they all feel like variations. Whereas I don't know, for me the QP feels like kind of like core to the Royal Oak. Yeah. I also think that there's something there's something about the original spirit of the Royal Oak being a a steel version of a luxury watch where the QP version of that kind of extends even deeper into the idea of deep luxury, but in this kind of steel format. And then I think in titanium it's like kind of the most true to the ethos of the original as possible. Um maybe short of going with a a fifteen two oh two. I thought you were gonna go
Cole Pennington uh Corey Richards overseas is what I really thought you were gonna go actually. I don't know why you keep saying picks. Well because Because no one else is gonna pick I doubt Steven's gonna pick that one. You don't know. I doubt Danny's gonna pick that one
Stephen Pulvirent . You don't know. Well it's also one of one and not available for sale in any metric. Okay, there you go. Off the table. I would have I would have vetoed that's fair. But I will say I'm surprised you didn't 15202 BC. That I really thought was going to be the royal oak that somebody would take. Yeah, stop what stop saying pigs. That makes it out. Keep the things extended. I mean it's it's cool. It's off the board, man. It's off the board now. It's off the board, baby. All right. You can say all the royal oaks you want. I already killed it. Yeah. Salmon dial row. Yep. That's a pick that I I expected and that I'm I'm really glad somebody took
Cole Pennington . Cole, you're up. Your first pick. I'll follow on Genta and let's see if you veto this or not. I think it is in the family. Uh I'm gonna say stainless steel Longa Odysseus. I'll allow it in the family. I'll allow it. All right. Thank you, Steven. Thank you. Why? Because and this is hugely controversial, but I just I can't spiritually connect with the Nautilus of the Royal Oak. Whereas the Odysseus, I might be able to get there. And I really wanted to pick pole router, but your damn rules are just getting in the way. And uh so yeah, the Odysseus, it's fine watch. It's uh it's a cool one. I love Langa, it's probably the only like, you know, high end horology brand that I really, really connect with. And I didn't think anyone else is gonna pick this just because there is major hype around as we can see by these auction results, there's major hype around the other watches. And I just wanted to leave some for you guys too, you know? Like the one that I think is going to be picked next by you, Steven. So on to you
Stephen Pulvirent . Interesting. That's very kind of you, Cole. I uh I I appreciate that. I gotta I gotta say, I think the Langa fits and and I think it counts. To me, it's kind of like the outlier in this category, right? Because it's like it's kind of got one foot in this category and one foot out of this category. Like it may be if we really want to be sticklers, isn't this kind of watch, but it's a watch meant to compete with this kind of watch? Is that is that fair? Am I making that up
Cole Pennington ? I think so. I think it's a challenger to it's obviously it's yeah, it's Germany's answer to this sort of Swiss soiree of stainless steel integrated sports watches that have been pushed to the forefront of the hype train recently. And I mean, here's the other interesting thing that I think about the Odysseus. Lanya typically, typically doesn't go for more than retail on the secondary market. A lot of them, right? 95% of the model range. The Odysseus does. So is it the category that's hyped, or is it the watch that typed? Question for you, Cole. An interesting thought exercise. Yes, sir. Is the Odysseus less than four hundred thousand dollars? It is, yeah. It's significantly
Stephen Pulvirent . Yeah. Not too bad. Yeah. So there you go. Value. Good value proposition. All right. Good. I like that framing, James. I think that's how we should frame frame most watch purchases these days. It's incredible baseline for forever on Hodinky. It's the baseline. Less than what you might spend on something else. All right. So I'm in I'm in a tough spot here. So I got I got two picks, which is great. I'm not complaining, but I I mean I kind of have to take a Nautilus, don't I? Yeah, that's exactly what I was getting at. I kind of have to. And I don't want to. I I don't think this is cool. Uh you know what? You know, I'm not gonna take the Nautilus. I'm not gonna do it. I I think Oh god. It's a cool watch. Don't do it to me. No, take it. I don't want to take it. I'm making you take it, Danny. I'm making you take it. Handing it to you. Here you go, Danny. I don't want it. All right, so maybe don't pick it. And everybody tells us we did a terrible job. That doesn't matter what we pick. That's true. Yeah, that's probably right. You know what? All right. I'm I'm not I'm not gonna take the Nautilus. Uh I just don't want to play the $400,000 flip game. I mean, let's be honest, if I scored one of these at retail, I would sell it and put a down payment on a house. That is what I would do. I would not wear this watch. I would not tell anyone I had had this watch. It would be purely a financial asset, which to me is like kind of beside the point. You know, I can call my financial advisor and have that done, you know, not in watches. So I'm gonna go octofinissimo. I knew it. I'm gonna go the same blasted titanium, just the basic, no nonsense. Thought about going to Dow Ondo, but that's that's an LE. That's what I thought. That's an L E. We'll we'll avoid that. I'm just gonna go with the basic titanium bracelet Octofenesimo from Bulgary. That watch is awesome, and uh in my opinion, it's the only one of the watches of this style, you know, since we've we've decided that the Odysseus is kind of its own thing. To me, it's the only like real hardcore challenger to this category to come along in the last couple of years that I think really stands up. I think it is just as good as the Royal Oak and the Nautilus. And I think 30, 40, 50 years from now, it's going to be kind of lumped into that same category. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put the chips down early here and and say Samblasted titanium octofenicimo for my my first pick for fourth overall. I'm sorry Danny. It's a good it's a it's a good pick. It's a good pick. That takes today'ando off the table for collabs, right? Uh it doesn't. Wait, wait. No, no. Cross category is cool, right? If we can if we can justify it. That would be fine, except I would say today's a little old if you want to pick there's two there's two you could pick the newer one that's true which by the way I saw in the wild the other day uh all right so I got I got another pick to make here you know I'm gonna go Rolex because I think by the time I pick again, they're all going to be, they're all going to be long, long, long, long gone. I could pick one of the many picks that Cole has already said, or one of the many picks that I have already said out loud, but I'm going to go off the board for that. I'm going to go with the Oyster Perpetual with the Tiffany blue dial. That's very you. You jerk. For my wait list role actually. Interesting dial choice. Interesting. It's a super hot watch. You can't get them. They're selling way over retail for crazy money. I've actually looked into it. For me, I'd get the 36 size. If I had to put a size on this, I'd probably pick the 41. I think that's like the more popular size with most most people. But yeah, I just think this is a case where like Rolex to Danny's point, like Rolex does really good watches. They don't always make really fun watches. And for I think some similar reasons, Danny, to why you like the millgouse, like it's a little quirky. I like that this is a tough to get, highly desirable steel Rolex, but like it's not so serious. It's not a professional. It's like, it's like a fun, like hang out, sitting out in the sunshine, having a cocktail, like chatting with friends kind of watch. Uh, and I really, really like that about it. So we'll go Tiffany Blue, uh, OP. I like that choice. I like that choice a lot. Great pick. Yeah, it's okay. Uh my wife has the uh the silver dial thirty-six and in the new one, and it's just a just a great watch in general. I really like the dial. I mean, sh should I actually buy this watch? I think maybe I should. I mean, you won't find anybody here to stop you. I'd love a yellow one. Yeah, James, I actually, to your point, the yellow was my other choice. The yellow is the one I might buy for myself ahead of the Tiffany blue. The Tiffany blue might actually be like too hype for me personally. But yeah, these colored OPs are just awesome. Yeah. All right, let's go back. Uh Cole, you are up next. We're going back the other way on the s
Cole Pennington nake. Oh, interesting. Okay. That is the way these serpentine drafts work, and I should know this by now. That is exactly how these serpentine drafts work. Like like a snake. Yeah, exactly. Well, alright, so the I did Genta. I have yet to do Rolex, Collab, or high end indie. So I'm gonna go high end indie. Hype Indie. And I you might veto this one and I might have a backup plan, but I'm just gonna throw it out there. Let's see. I'm gonna go the Mad One by MBNF. You're allowed. Are you gonna veto it or no? Okay, great. That's fine. That's it. Why would I veto that? Because I well, because I don't know if you can really buy it per
Stephen Pulvirent se. I I'll I'll allow it. You're you're right. You can't really buy this watch, but I'll uh I think for sake of argument here we can allow it. You cannot, I
Cole Pennington think. All right, great. Yeah, I I think that's just the coolest thing ever. I I I would love to see more like instead of a hundred thousand dollars, it's one thousand or two thousand dollars. I think actually you can buy it. There was a retail price on this watch. So I think it was somewhere like two thousand something dollars.
Stephen Pulvirent So one point of contention from the Canadian delegate. Uh it's not an MBF watch to be fair. It's Max Busher watch. True. So that MBF should still be on the board is the point I'm actually
Cole Pennington trying to make. Yes. All right. So I guess I just love the philosophy of this this watch, yeah. And and yeah, it's here's the thing. I could pick, you know, some million dollar I'm not gonna say the the brands, but you all know what they are. And I but I just think this is so cool. And it's maybe the dawning of a new era where high horology brands can get into something that the every man can buy. And I just think that is very, very cool. The aesthetics of the Wild Chia they're wild. They're very Max Busser, which is awesome in its own right, but even cooler that hey, maybe I can own one one day. You know, maybe I can own a watch by Maxwester. And that's cool to me
Stephen Pulvirent . Agreed. So that's the one I'm taking. I take that pick. That's not one that I I had on my like long list or my like board, but I think that's a strong pick. I think it's a super fun watch. And uh I'm kind of heartened to hear that we we're probably gonna be seeing some more stuff from Max like this in the uh in the not too distant future. It was certainly hype in the Hodinky Slack when um when it dropp
Cole Pennington ed. So it's a hype watch. Definitely now it's I can think it's it's live the ultimate hype watch actually. Yeah. And just cool too. Like usually I don't like hype watches. I do like this one. So really cool. All right. So that means Danny's up, I think, right
Stephen Pulvirent ? No, James. James is picking. Not skipping James. All right, James. Your second pick. 'Cause this is ridiculous. Um, all right, I'm I'm going Rolex and if we're going hype Rolex or going Daytona, but I want to flex on all the guys that spent thirty K on their steel and I'm going with the modern John Player special, solid gold, oyster flex, champagne dial, black sub-dials. Blood it. I think it's like one of my favorite modern Rolexes, and it's definitely the most fun. Super fun, almost silly. I love the idea that you can get a Daytona that wears that well on uh on that uh rubber strap. So as much as I would have liked the uh yellow OP, uh, I'm happy enough with a solid gold Daytona. So easy to please as, they say. I think weirdly the coolest part of that watch is the bracelet. I love the Oyster Flex. I love that Rolex made a rubber strap and managed to over-engineer it to like the nth degree. You know? It's like, and they insist it's a bracelet, not a strap, which I think is is hilarious and amazing, but also like kind of true, you know. I d I dig it for sure. Yeah. It also makes that watch, James, like way more wearable. Like I feel like that watch with the oyster flex you can wear every day.as Where I feel like a gold Daytona on a gold bracelet can get a little it's a little bit of a chonker uh sometimes. Yeah, I would agree. Accurate, yeah. Next up we've got uh Danny in the hot corner. Danny, back to back, baby. I got painted into a hot corner. You did. I'm going I'm going to just because I feel it would it would just be disrespectful not to, I'm gonna rip the plastic off. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna take it out of the plastic. Yeah, baby. Okay. Do it. And I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go I'm gonna go list list price on the green dial 5711. Alright. There we go. For my gentle pick. Can we talk about the fact that that watch slipped to ETH pick in this draft? That's that's pretty buck wild, I gotta I gotta be honest. Someone had to. I'm gonna tell you where I can I tell you what I would have picked had you picked it? Because I was trying to get creative in this thing. Sure. I was gonna go out or wait. Has has everybody picked yeah everybody's picked up Genta's close. Yeah. I was gonna go showpard go for it. Alpine Eagle. Oh okay I just think that's like uh if we're gonna go hype, I think um you might be able to still get those right now. That's not hype then though. No, no, but but I read these instructions that they if it could be, if we think it has potential to be, we could bring it up. So I was gonna go from that angle. And I think that the Alpine Eagle is kinda like a sleeping uh sleeper hit. Waiting, waiting to kind of take off a little bit. It's got enough like uh enough uh cachet behind it and also they like have this crazy steel that they milled themselves, it's like recycled steel for the bracelet that's supposedly very cool. Nice. But anyway, Nautilus. That's the actual pick. Green dial, fifty seven eleven. That's my pick, and I um sticking to it. But only at list price, right? Only at list and without plastic. There's no plastic involved in this. No plastic. Yeah. If your watch has plastic on it or is above list, do not call Danny Milton. Those are Danny is straight out of that. Those are the rules. All right. Let's uh let's start the next round. Let's let's go. Round three. Danny, first, first pick. Let's take us take us to the back half of the draft. Round three, I'm gonna go collab and I'm gonna do one a watch that I saw in person just because I think it adds a little bit of something something to the pick. Oh boy. So I'm going the AP concept Black Panther. Yeah, you are, baby. With the uh the miniature sculpture of the Black Panther on the dial. And the reason I'm going with it is because I think I can tell this story now that the watch is out. When I was contacted about this release, I was not told what this release was. I had no idea. There is a watch. You need to come see it, and we can't tell you what it is. So I literally opened a box at APHQ in New York and had no idea what I was opening when I saw this. And it to say it was shocking would be an understatement. I had no reference point. This is like probably three and a half weeks before the watch came out. So I had no like nobody could could make me feel a certain way about the watch from reading about it somewhere else. I just literally had my own opinion about it. And no joke. I thought this sculpture was very well made. That was my first observation about the watch. It's a wild, crazy thing. I think it underscores what the release actually is, which is a more wearable uh 42mm AP concept, which if they had released that watch on its own, would have been its own hit because it's like a very wearable, modern, cool, innovative watch. But it also happens to have a Marvel character like front and center on the dial with a turbion interestingly uh positioned on it. I'll let everyone else look at the pictures to see what I'm talking about. Yeah we'll uh we'll link that up we'll link that up in the show notes. People can uh infer infer what you mean there by themselves. Uh but yeah. Um I think that's o of of shocking collabs as the guy who wrote fifty stories on Space Jam, um, this was still the surprise one uh for me this year. I think that's a strong pick. Good pick. Yeah. Yeah, that's a hype watch. I mean, this is exactly what you should think. Shrugging aggressively, maybe? Is that the right word, James? Uh exuberantly, yeah. I think so. Exuberantly. I don't uh yeah.ing Br it, James. I'm we're I'm wearing a purple hat to support the pick. For the team for the draft. I think that's uh that's that's the space where this watch makes a lot of sense. All right. James, what's uh what's your pick then? You're you're up next on the clock. All right, let's see. Man, it's tough. Because I think I'm I think I'm clean on my picks. I don't think anyone's gonna take any of these. So I'm gonna do collab. Okay. I'm gonna have to go for hype. That was gray with the gray textile strap would be the ideal, but I mean that one that came out earlier this year with the lattice kind of tennis racket style suspension system for the movement. I wouldn't kick that out of bed either. Uh yeah y.es, U uhh sweet stuff. I I mean I love I love Richard Mill. They have a handful of interesting collaborations and um I I think for hype they they are a hype brand. Like e even if even if they weren't connected to people like Nadal, you see a watch like that and it feels like hype. Like there's such a special, weird, cool corner of the of the watch world. Awesome. Great choice. I didn't even think about the athlete collabs here. It's funny. Like I was looking totally elsewhere. I think I'm I'm kind of like desensitized to the the like athlete sponsorship watches. But I think like the Nadal is maybe like the collaboration watch of of the decade. You know, it's so cool. They've kept iterating on it. And to your point, James, like they've done it in a bunch of configurations, and and you know, I like some more than others, but like they're all pretty damn awesome. They're cool. They're not, I wouldn't say they're all pretty, um, but they're all cool. And the old I think the first two at least without a strap floated in water. That's cool. Which is just like I remember the first time the first time I picked one up, I laughed. Oh yeah. Like I couldn't control it. Like it was like a physiological response because it's it's like too light. Like your brain, yeah. Your brain sees how large the object is and can't understand that it's not that massive. And it's like there's a weird disconnect. Yeah, I remember the I've never I've not had a chance to see any of the Nadal stuff in person over the years, but I remember I I got a chance to see the the one of the first McLaren uh special editions they did, and it w had um like a NATO that was sewn in, essentially like a piece of elastic was all the strap was. And it weighed not like nothing is is the right term. It weighed a little bit, but like I've I've held a handful of change from my pocket that that had more heft. Really, really fantastic things. Next up we've got Mr. Cole again. Cole.
Cole Pennington So I have Rolex and Collab to go. Um I'll go collab because James just went collab and I think everyone else picked Rolex already, so I'm in the clear. I went with something kind of like a this is gonna be interesting, but there's a collab of the people. There's one what what would you say is the beer of the people? I know I know where you're going. I know where you're going to. You're talking about like the like a tall boy? Uh yeah, it could be. Like a Budweiser? Yep. Budweiser. Budweiser is the beer of the people, and I want it to kind of like appeal to the people to to a degree. And that would mean the Budweiser G Shock collab. And I is that why not? That's a great choice. That's a really honest collaboration for sure. I like it a lot. Exactly. Like, and the thing is, I was thinking, like, do you get a six-pack or something if you buy the watch? No, you don't. But like, who would buy this watch? I don't know. But they're sold out. They're actually hard to get. And and honestly, like, I don't know. I just think it's an very interesting collab, you know. W
Stephen Pulvirent hy not? Budwiser G Shock, you know? I mean it's not as it's not as crazy as uh Domino's Rolex. You know, those are beyond the age uh that we're allowed to pick for the draft. But that's that when I saw the the beer Casio uh that's what I thought of. I was like, oh that's that's like kind of in the same vein as like a Domino's Rolex. I know I think the Domino's Rolex were gifts and stuff, not not commercially sold things. But uh I think that's a really fun pick for sure. Why not? You know? It's definitely a collab and it's a good one. So yeah. I think it's a great pick goal. Thanks, sir. All right. I'm gonna make my last two picks as we enter the final round. I will go with my collab first, and this was a close one for me, but I'm also gonna go with a G Shock, but I'm gonna go with the John Mayor, Hodinky, G Shock. I knew it. This is a watch that I I love seeing them places. Like it makes me so happy to just see them all over Instagram and stuff and to see that they've they've really become kind of like, I don't know, a part of like modern watch culture in a in a funny way. It's an awesome watch. It's a great story. John is like one of the OG kind of like celebrity watch collectors. I know that he like really actually designed this, you know, or had a hand in designing this. This isn't just something he put his name on. That's not how he he tends to do things. And yeah, I just think it's an an awesome piece, and I wanted to make sure I got something into my into my collection that was a little a little more accessibly priced. I will say a close second and a watch that I'm I'm sure no one's gonna pick, so I'm I'm okay uh calling it out here is the Bamford Arsham King Nerd Frank Mueller. They came out, which is like a ridiculous quartet of people to have worked on a watch. But uh, I mean, Frank Muller didn't really work on this watch, but they're they're taken from old uh Frank Muller Casablancas. But I just think it's like a perfect example of just like a bunch of people getting together and being like, you know what, let's do something weird and you know creative and shake things up. Uh, you know, a sea foam green Frank Müller Casablanca is like not necessarily in my like aesthetic wheelhouse, but uh but I I like the idea of that collapse. So that's that's a that's a sort of honorable mention for me, but uh I'm gonna have to ultimately go with the the John Mayer Hodinky G Shock the, 6900. Nice. Great choice. Yeah. Great watch. Yeah. All right. I'll bring us home. Let's let's go into the final round of the draft for my independent, which uh it feels like most of us have left here to the end. I'm going with no surprise an FP Jorn. I'm going to go with the new, new-ish vertical turbion, and specifically the black label version of the vertical turbion. So those are watches that are platinum with black dial. They're boutique only. They're kind of like for Jorn collectors, like the Creme de la Creme. Uh they're tough to get if you're not a good client, a longtime client, you have to go through the boutiques. And, you know, we've seen that Jorne turbions are bringing big results. Everything from the original subscription ones up to, you know, unique dial executions and more unusual ones that have been popping up at auction. The vertical turbion isn't necessarily my favorite Jordan Turbion, but it's the one that's in current production. And I think, you know, as he continues to innovate on that platform, I think, you know, 10 years from now, rare Jorn turbillons from this era are going to be almost as collectible as the ones from the early days. So that's my pick. And I think if you're going to go with Jorne, I think, you know, there are other Jorns I won't mention we'll leave them on the board uh that are more personally my taste but I think if you want a hype collectible Jorn I I think a turbillon's the only way to go I didn't even think about putting Jorn on because I figured you had it covered. So just to save myself from the anguish. Same. Well, you can still you can still pick Jorn, you just can't pick the Jorn Derby on. But uh yeah, it was kind of a no-brainer for me. I'll be honest. I I have a short list here of like five or six picks and only one of them is not an FP Jordan. Uh I just think right now if we're talking about hype independent brands, they're they're kind of in a league of their own. Chili P back on the plop. Cole. What is your last pick, my friend? Hold hold up. Hold up. That's your boy James. Oh, we're coming down the other side. No, no, that is Cole. That's that's on me. That's on
Cole Pennington me. I had the wrong arrow. James, um, this is a serpentine draft. It's a serpentine draft. The snake is mutated
Stephen Pulvirent . I ha I was looking at the wrong part of the snake. It's a mutant snake. This is a long, it's a long snake. It all comes back around, my friend. Like a what are the
Cole Pennington the s snake eating its tail? What's that called? An Uruboros. Yes, exactly. It's just like that. Go
Stephen Pulvirent od, good uh pull there, Stephen. Nice. Thanks, man. That was like instantaneous. That was that's because I paid too much money for a liberal arts degrees. That's why uh that's why I have that at hand. That's funny. Um all right. So it's Rolex
Cole Pennington . Yeah, Rolex, your last pick. The interesting thing about this category is I mean there there are just not that many Rolex watches. And I will stay true to myself rather than pander, although Daytona was already taken by James. I was reaching for a joke. Um and I would say I'm a GMT master fan boy, not a Rolex fanboy. Like it's it's the you don't have to love everything the brand does. I think in general, like with watch collecting, you can love certain models, right? Yeah. I am a huge fan of the GMT Master 2, and that's what I would pick. I would pick it in Pepsi, simply for the connection to aviation, exploration, kind of like mid-century, proper tool watch. And I love that. And I think, yes, the watch is gone soft recently, sure. It's been positioned as like the cosmopolitan watch as opposed to a true adventurer's watch. However, I don't care. I'm I'm gonna bring that br I'm gonna bring that, you know, back to how I wanna wear it, which is the way I see the watches. Yeah, this is a this is one of the few like hype watches that actually to me deserves the hype because it is that cool, because it has such a great backstory. So that's the the the brillex I'm taking. Here we go, baby. Are you we
Stephen Pulvirent aring it right now? It's right here. Danny's making sure his is hitting the screen as well. James, we missed we missed the boat here, my friend. So that's that's I mean, you have great taste, Danny, I will say. So do you, Cole. All right. And I had a 1675 that I sold. So I guess we're we're kind of all in the club. Maybe Forever Ride or Die 16710. I'm just feeling left out now. That's really what's going on here. Yeah. All right. Great pick. James, second to last pick in the draft. Oh, now. Now it's my turn because it is a serpentine draft. There we go. Um, all right, I'm gonna go with my high-end indie. This is actually kind of an easy one for me. There's only a couple, but there's one that I've liked and has really kind of never left my mind, and it is still part of their early uh their current collection. It is on their website. I'm gonna take that as t a tacit endorsement that a uh a wealthy enough individual, uh i.e. not me, could place an order and eventually get a Gerbal Forzy SIG one. I absolutely adore this watch. I think that uh Forzy doesn't commonly as a brand, they don't commonly do reserved watchmaking. A lot of it, it's all incredibly gorgeous and beautiful and super high-end, but it's often a little bit on the larger size on wrists. It's usually pretty thick. There's a lot of complication. I really like um where they went with SIG One. I I still remember getting a chance to see it uh at SIHH several years ago. And at least according to their website, it is still part of the uh current collection. So I don't think I'm playing out of field. Uh if so, I have a backup, but I'll leave it to the judges. I think that's a great pick. You're you're gonna get no pushback from uh the commish here. That's uh that's a hell of a pick. Yeah, I love that watch. Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, I told you there was there was one uh high-end independent not a Jorn on my list, and it was a Gruble Forzy. It was a different Gruble Forzy, but it was it was I I think what they're doing is just astounding. No one does it like them. Yeah. Agreed. Totally agree. Uh and I think we've all kind of gotten like desensitized to it a little bit, those of us in the industry, because we see it. And I I think uh this is a good excuse to like pause for a minute and be like, oh oh no, what they're doing is truly special and like really worth taking the time. So I don't know. I'd say if you're listening to this and you haven't gone and like looked at a Group of Forcey in a while, just go Google. Just go pull up, pull up some photos, go on Hodinky, just find some pictures. It's gonna blow up blow your mind. Yeah, and if you can if you ever get a chance to see one in person and let's say you're at a boutique or a shop that's carrying it, ask to borrow a magnifying glass or a loop because they are the absolute or at least among the absolute pinnacle when it comes to find hand finishing. I remember editing photos, I'm sure I've told this story before, but I remember editing photos of the Sig one back when I shot it, and I kept finding these weird black circles, and I thought there was something wrong, and it's just the polishing on all the champ fers was so fine that it was picking up the black polish on the top of the screw heads next to it. And it took me a minute to kind of put all that together because I had never seen mirror foot finishing on on these tiny, tiny little edges on on the movement of the watch. Really, really beautiful thing. Fantastic pick, James. I know. Danny, you're closing it out. Last pick of the draft, and yours is your independent, right? All right. A lot of pressure here. It is my independent, and I'm gonna go with what I think is the definition of hype based on what you said at the top, and I'm gonna go with the Ming 2702. I think that Ming, if we're going to talk about a watch that uh we might see at auction, you know, really blowing up, especially at the price point that the watches are offered at, and this one in particular, because it's the last of the 27 uh range. I think it was something like five thousand dollars. Which is a pretty amazing such a cool thing. It's really a cool thing. And most of their watches, I think when they started, they were sub $1,000 watches, like as a brand. And when they release, I think when they released the Messina lab collab, like broke the watch internet momentarily too. I mean, like, there's legitimate, like the definition of hype is behind Ming. And I just think that's amazing. I think that it's amazing that a lot a lot like the Mad One that Cole brought up before, really interesting modern design being introduced at a price point that is super accessible and kind of like represents what um modern watchmaking without you know leaning so hard into heritage and history and all of that, which a lot of brands rely pretty heavily on, is very cool to me. I agree. All right gu,ys. I mean, that's I think we got four good collections here. Let's just run through them quickly for people at the end and then we'll we'll let people go here, but um and and let people vote. But let's just do a rundown. Uh Danny, you want to just give me through your your collection? You can do them in whatever order you want. I'll do it in selection order. I started off with Rolex. I did the the Milgauss with the black dial, uh which with the famous green crystal, etc. etc. Steven backed me into a corner and I went with the Nautilus 5711 for my Genta pick in green sans plastic. For my collab, I went with the AP Black Panther because Turbion and Black Panther. And then to round everything out, I went with the Ming uh 2702. Awesome. James, how about you? I started up with uh the Genta Pick as the Titanium Royal Oak QP, uh the current edition, kind of salmony dial, 41 millimeters. Then I went to my Rolex pick, the gold Daytona on the Oyster Flex, the kind of modern day uh John Player special. After that, I did my uh collaboration, which would be an RM Nadal, probably one of the current ones with the sort of tennis racket lattice effect. But if I could find my way into one of the older ones, that one would be fine too. And uh finally I rounded out my high end indie with the Groble 4Z signature one. Awesome.
Cole Pennington Coal? For my Genta pick, I went with the A Lange Unzona Odysseus in stainless steel with a blue dial. As opposed to the white gold version. Then for the Rolex pick, I went with the GMT Master 2 uh ceramic bezel in Pepsi configuration. For the uh collaboration, I went with the Casio G Shock Times Budweiser collaboration and then I went with the Max Busser Mad One for the uh high-end indie col
Stephen Pulvirent labor uh pick. Awesome. And I'll wrap things up here. For my Genta pick I went with the Bulgari uh Octofenissimo, the basic one in brushed or sandblasted titanium. For my Rolex pick I went with the Oyster Perpetual with the Tiffany blue dial. For the collab, I'm going with the Hodinky G-Shock John Mayer uh 6900. And for my high-end independent, I'm going to go with the FP Jorn vertical turbion, specifically the black label version with the black dial in the platinum case. Alright, so those are our four collections. Again, there will be a link in the show notes. We really want you to go vote. Figure you've got like a little over a week to get your vote in. And then in a couple weeks, we'll be back to do a kind of wrap-up show letting you know who the winners are and kind of dissecting our picks, what we wish we could have changed, you know, the usual uh post post mortem on this draft. But uh thank you guys for doing this. This is super fun and uh may the most hype collection win my do, do, do, do thank you. I'm feeling pretty good about mine, so thanks, Steven. Not not to hype myself up. It's a it's a hype draft. Love it, Danny. I love I love the smug the smug confidence. Love it. Alright, guys. Thanks so much. Thank you, Sue. Bye-bye, guys.