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Our Top Five 'Watching Movies' (And Who Won The Hype Watch Fantasy Draft)

Published on Mon, 16 Aug 2021 10:00:00 +0000

We've got iced-out Rolexes on the big screen and impossible-to-find Journes on the wrist.

Synopsis

This episode of Hodinkee Radio is Stephen Pulvirent's final episode as host, as he announces his departure from Hodinkee to pursue new challenges. The show features two main segments: first, a conversation with Danny Milton about his "Watching Movies" column, which explores watches featured in films and the stories behind how they ended up on screen. Danny discusses his five favorite columns to date, including films like "Three Days of the Condor," "Nightcrawler," "First Man," and "Uncut Gems," revealing fascinating insights about how watches are selected for movies—from brand partnerships to production designers working directly with watchmakers for period accuracy.

The second segment reveals the results of the "hype watch fantasy draft" from a previous episode, where Stephen, Danny, Cole Pennington, and James Stacey each assembled collections of highly sought-after watches across four categories: Gerald Genta-style watches, waitlist Rolexes, major collaborations, and independent watchmakers. James Stacey won decisively with 61.9% of the vote, having selected an AP Royal Oak QP in titanium with salmon dial, a yellow gold Daytona on Oysterflex, an RM Nadal, and a Grönefeld Signature 1. The group discusses what went wrong with their picks and explores broader themes about hype watches, including the absurdity of waitlists, the sustainability of current market conditions, and how brands like Omega might benefit from Rolex's scarcity. They conclude by sharing which hype watches they're most bought into (Cartier's recent rise, Royal Oak perpetual calendars) and which they don't understand (the Nautilus garnered multiple mentions, along with the Daytona's impossible availability despite the Speedmaster being equally compelling and readily available).

Transcript

Speaker
Danny Milton It's upsetting too a little bit 'cause I remember being like a normal watch enthusiast, kinda before I like dove headfirst into all this and to have the kind of I hate to call it naive expectation that you can walk walk into a store and like buy one of these the day that you're ready, because I've been there. It sucks. It's a really unfortunate thing. Imag
Cole Pennington ine going to the store to buy a G Shock and then the salesman going like get out of town. We don't we haven't had any of those for years. You gotta be kidding me, kid. You have to buy a ton of time
Danny Milton x to have enough uh buying cred in here to to buy this Cassiok
Stephen Pulvirent . Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. This week we've got a fun two-parter for you. First up, I've got Danny on the show to talk about his column Watching Movies, where he talks about watch spottings in movies and the story behind how those watches ended up on screen. We're gonna talk about his five favorite columns, some big picture things he's learned about the movie industry, and how some new commercial dynamics may actually be transforming things for the better. After that, you're gonna hear the results of the hype watch fantasy draft from a few weeks back. Uh, the results were a little bit lopsided, and uh I'm not gonna tell you who won right now, you're gonna have to listen through for that, but we'll also do a little recap of the draft, talk about some things we each think we maybe could have done to assemble an even better collection, and just a little bit about the nature of hype watches in general. Now, before we get into the show, I've got a little bit of bittersweet news to share. This is gonna be my last time hosting Hodinki Radio. I'm actually leaving Hodinky uh to try some new challenges, and I'm excited but also it's sad it's the end of an era and uh I just want to take a moment to thank all of you for making this show what it is. Without an audience, an engaged audience, it doesn't work. It doesn't, it doesn't exist. So to everyone who listens to the show, to everyone who's ever commented, to everyone who's ever voted in a fantasy draft, I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. This this started as an out of left field idea that Gray and I had one day, and it's grown into something I think we're both really, really proud of. So um yeah, I'm kind of at a loss for words, but thank you so much. I've met so many incredible people, both the guests on the show and listeners, and uh I hope we'll all see each other down the trail somewhere soon. Uh the show is gonna take a break for a little while. It'll be back soon enough, and I'm sure it's gonna be exciting, so please watch this space. But for now, for one last time, let's do this. Hey Danny, how's it going? Hey Steven, it's going well. How about you? I'm doing good. I'm doing good. It's a nice, uh, sunny, beautiful day here in Santa Monica, California. Can't really complain
Danny Milton . It is. I'm actually in DC again for a little bit and it is steamy and humid and gross, but I am jealous of you.
Stephen Pulvirent Come on out here, man. Go have lunch on the beach. I uh waiting for you. I'd love to. I would love to. Any anytime, my friend. Well, we're here to talk about your column. We're here to talk about watching movies, which has has been something that you brought to the site what, a couple months ago now. And uh it's just been a runaway success. People seem to
Danny Milton love it. Yeah, it was uh it was something that I didn't actually think would would do as well as it's doing, but I think I've you know I am a known movie lover, I think on the site at this point and um I'm learning that a lot of the readers are too. Yeah, I mean I I I wonder
Stephen Pulvirent what was the what was the idea that kicked this column off? Like like when did you say like okay this isn't just like random watch spottings, but like we can go a step deeper here? How how did that kind of come
Danny Milton You know, it would actually came about in a in a a different kind of way. I was working on a piece to sort of give people what to watch this weekend. And I was gonna compile a list of a bunch of different movies that I liked that I thought had interesting watches in them and I would point out what the watch was and where to look for it, et cetera, et cetera. And uh in talking to to Nick Marino a bit, we we thought, you know what? Why waste all of these on a weekend when we can kind of fold this into the mix and and kind of focus it on a movie every week. And it's tough to plan out a column, you know, to have something that's that's recurring, but there's really no shortage of of movies out there, plus it gives me an excuse to watch movies. Never ever a bad thing. Never a bad thing. And and it gives me an excuse to rewatch movies that I love. But what I'm trying to do is is on occasion, you know, try to find a timely hook for why to watch the movie this weekend, whether it's an event that's going on, something to do with the actor in the film, maybe they're appearing in a new movie that's out in theaters. Um, but really just give like, you know, as as timely and interesting uh and make sure that the movie's interesting and the watch is interesting. Sometimes those don't always, you know, come when I'm not talking like pure cinema every time. It might be a blockbuster, but you know, give all different kinds of movies a chance.
Stephen Pulvirent Nice. Yeah, I like that. I I really like that. And I I I love you said appearing in movies in theaters, which is a fun idea. I didn't even realize what I said. I am yet to go back to a theater, but God, I can't wait. I love going to the movies. That was like sensory memory. I was like, Yeah, yeah, theaters. Yeah. I love it. Oh God. I listening to the folks over I mean, we talk all the time on the show. Uh people know that you and I are huge fans of the ringer, but uh hearing, you know, Fennessey and Chris Ryan talk about going to see stuff in theaters just it has my like my heart racing at this point
Danny Milton . The only movie I saw in the last, you know, in the pandemic years was with our own Cole Pennington. He and I went to see tenet together in a completely empty theater. It was just the two of us. It was the most wild experience ever
Stephen Pulvirent . I really hope you guys did like a cute like rom com thing where you sat like twenty seats apart from each other like in the center row. You're like throwing popcorn. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Good. I'm I'm just gonna keep that in my mind's eye uh ever every time now I think about that movie. It was it was lovely. You're a big movie guy, and and you've said that and it's known, you know, certainly your colleagues know it, but uh I think you're right, the the listeners and readers know it too. But you know, diving into this, like what what are some of the most interesting things you learned kind of big picture about movies or about watches in movies as you as you started doing these watching
Danny Milton movie stories? Well, you know, I like many cinephiles or movie fans had like a romantic uh connection to the making of movies. I'm I'm the kind of person that like back in when we used to buy you know DVDs would watch the special features first. Danny Danny director commentary over here. Director commentary, making of featurettes, making of features, you know, the whole thing. Like I love how movies are made. Um, it's my favorite part about them. There's just like a certain kind of magic to it that I really continue to appreciate no matter what happens. And that's watches are like one of the ultimate behind the scenes kind of things. You know, they're they're props, obviously, but we write about watches on Hodinky every day. There's stories behind every single watch. The sheer fact that a watch is in a movie is a story. Yeah. But oftentimes there's a story behind that story. And learning that those that those really do exist, obviously there's like certain situations where you get deflated when you find out, you know, oh, that, you know, there's either a replica watch or, you know, a certain, you know, member of the the props team has no idea why they picked the watch. It was just there. Those kind of things definitely uh, you know, I don't get too happy about when I find those things out. But for the most part, there's a lot of passionate people in the industry I've learned. And, you know, whether it's an indie movie or a Marvel television series to find out that there are watch stories present in those things is really, really, really cool. Yeah. I
Stephen Pulvirent love that. Let's get into your top five here. I I you've written, you know, at this point when we're recording this, you've written what, 15 of these? That's right. And so, you know, we're not calling from a huge, huge list here. We're not taking, you know, top five of a hundred, but I think it's worth recapping some of the best ones. But uh before we do that, I got one quick question for you. Hit me. What's your favorite DVD? If people are going out and buying a DVD with all those extras, what's your favorite DVD all time? Oh man, this is tough. My favorite DVD. For the record, I
Danny Milton did not prep you for this question at all. That's fine. My favorite DVD is there will be blood. Great answer. Because and first of all, uh for the ringer fans out there, I think there's a uh 2007 movie draft coming up uh on the big picture podcast, which is sick. It's a killer movie year, so There Will Be Blood came out in 2007. There's some special features on there that give you this like really weird inside look, like a like an old black and white documentary at early Gilded Age America, Oil Barren America, that is not necessarily like your standard fair special feature, but it's almost like a thematic accompaniment to the movie. So you can like saturate yourself in the era before putting the film on. And it's like one of the weirdest special features I've ever seen, but it makes the viewing experience like that much better. Because that movie is probably a top five movie for me all time. Yeah, I would agree. It's it's just like one of those things where a DVD special feature heightens the viewing experience in a way that like you would never ex
Stephen Pulvirent pect. There will be blood is a top five all-time movie for me. It's not even my favorite movie from two thousand seven. Right. I mean am I gonna am I gonna go ahead No Country for Old Man's your favorite movie from two thousand seven? No, actually. No country's probably like a top 15 or top 20. Uh Zodiac is my favorite movie from 2007. Oh
Danny Milton yes. And and interestingly enough, Zodiac like the most underrated 2007 movie to come out that year. It was nominated for like, I'm pretty sure zero Oscars, which is criminal. Because it might
Stephen Pulvirent even be David Fincher's best movie. I personally I think it is David Fincher's best movie. I also think it's Jake Gyllenhaal's best movie. I also think it's maybe the best watch movie of that decade. There's the scene where they're interviewing who they believe to be the killer and he has a zodiac watch on and they take his watch off and look at it and they have this like moment of recognition where they recognize that the symbol that the serial killer is putting on the letters is the same as the logo for the watch company, and they just can't get charges to stick to charge this guy with the murders. It's like an integral, integral plot point in the movie. It's amazing. I love that movie. 2007, also super bad. 2007. It's a good, good movie year. I love it. Really, really good movie year. Yes. It's a great movie. Michael Clayt
Danny Milton on, I forgot. Michael Clayton. Another another good one. Uh there's a good there's Wes Anderson put one out that year. No, no. Zodiac is um it's a I think it's over three hours or just at three hours, and it's one of those movies where it I mean it's like it's honestly that good. I watch I watch that movie at least once a year. I absolutely absolutely brought that one up because it goes to your question. Like that's the kind of movie where there's a watch in it, like a like a good watch with a good story behind it that connects to the the title of the movie, the pseudonym of the serial killer. But the movie also touches on like classic Hollywood. Yeah. Agreed. You know, one of the one of the one of the suspects was um I think he was either a poster designer or worked in a movie theater. You know, the guy who had that creepy basement. So the movie touches on like hard journalism, good watches, classic Hollywood, and it's just like a great a great movie. So
Stephen Pulvirent that's that's awesome. It's kind of a perfect uh SJP movie too. I'm uh it's it's like it's like all my favorite things. It's so good. All right. Before we make this just the 2007 uh draft pod before we we scoop fantasy and co on this uh let's do your top five watching movies columns. So let's let's count them down five five to one. What is up
Danny Milton at number five? So number five was actually the first one that I did. Um okay it was uh the the film was Three Days of the Condor, which is awesome, a Robert Redford movie from the mid-70s. And I learned through my time at Hodinky in sort of interacting with watch enthusiasts on Instagram and talking to a lot of collectors that some of these movies that I thought were obvious that I'd watched a bunch of times no one had ever seen, and Three Days of the Condor was one of them. And it's a great movie, just period. It's one of a an early Sydney Pollock directed film, and Redford wears like a massive bun strap. So it's like you you can't miss like his wrist and on it is a doxa shark hunter. Sick. Which it's like it's it's perfect because it we're we're in the 70s, like the height of Doxa, and he's wearing it. Like oftentimes we we like assume these watches were popular, but most of the time they were kind of esoteric and like we've made them popular now. Yep. But it's amazing to see like in the moment, you know, a big, thick, bulky dive watch. Yeah. Just like and he works for the CIA. So you know it's one of these like we he's like um I think his job in the film is they basically like they have to read there like a high amount of books and like documents in order to like find out if there are any like codes hidden inside of them. So he's like a back office guy wearing this like massive dive watch on a bun strap. Incre
Stephen Pulvirent dible. Yeah it's a fantastic movie and and the watch, like you said is like maybe should have been nominated for like best supporting actor it's it's a pretty pretty killer prominent uh feature there for sure all
Danny Milton right what's what's up at number four so number four was what the reason I put it on here, it's not a great movie. It's Lucy in the Sky. Um, it's like a little known Natalie Portman movie from 2019. That's interesting for a couple reasons. I think the director Noah Hawley was is known for a lot of the FX shows that he's done. So like notably like Fargo and Legion. Um which are like big shows. He I think there's like a huge um, you know, fan base for the Fargo television series, the anthology series. But the movie has a twenty one percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which I love. I love that though. Because I I I vehemently disagree with I I don't know exactly how the Rotten Tomatoes algorithm works, but it's it's broken for sure. So whenever I see these, I'm like, I'm gonna watch this. Full disclosure movie wasn't great. It wasn't 21% bad, but it wasn't great. But the reason that I picked it is because Natalie Portman wears an Omega X33. Okay. Um, she plays an astronaut, an astronaut in the film, but you very I was gonna say if you're if you're wearing an X33, you basically have to be an astronaut. Exactly. And it it was the classic X thirty three, and you very rarely like see, honestly, and this is like a Hollywood problem, women in films wearing like notable watches. Like it's not like they're not wearing watches, but this is like a this is like a a heavy hitter, and one that like we barely see in movies generally. And she's in the movie with John Ham who wears like a classic speedy. So this one just felt like an obvious choice, and nice the watch appears all over the movie. She literally never takes it off. So it's just cool. I love that in the movies. When like when it feels like the watch is part of the character because they wear it like to sleep
Stephen Pulvirent , it's super cool. Agreed. Yeah. Also, like Natalie Portman, John Ham, isn't Dan Stevens in that movie too? He is. He plays her husband. Yeah, like that's a that's a good good trio, you know? I'll buckle up and spend it's got a great cast, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'll spend like two hours with that that trio of people. For sure. Um all right, what's what's at number three? So number three, we've got I think a movie you like as well, Nightcrawler. Yes. This is a great movie. God, I love this movie. I think I texted you over the winter. I rewatched this movie for the first time in a while. And I think I texted you at some obscene hour because I forgot that we are on a three hour time difference now. Right. Uh, and was like, Holy shit, the watch at the beginning of Nightcrawler. Uh and you were like, I'm sleeping, it's two thirty in the morning. Stop texting me. But thanks, thanks so much. Bye
Danny Milton . But it's true. I mean, like this, I I remember when I saw the movie again, theater reference in theaters, like at the beginning of the movie, he like beats a security guard, I think to death and steals his Brightling, like right off his wrist. Yeah. And it doesn't fit at all. It's like eight links too big. Yep. And he just wears this watch dangling off his like malnourished wrist. Because in this movie, Jake Gyllenhaal is extremely thin. Yeah. Like alarmingly thin. But he plays this like deranged cameraman. Like he's out there freelancing for local news stations, getting like the most gruesome footage possible. Um, but he also takes things like way too far and starts dressing, you know, accident scenes and murder scenes to get a better shot, you know, for for those videos. But the whole time he's got this brightling on, and most of the time you see him with it, you can see the clasp on the top of his wrist because the watch fits so poorly. But it's a great movie and a and you you know, you don't see Brightlings that often and this is just cool to see
Stephen Pulvirent . Yeah. This is in my my top pantheon of of Jillian Hall movies it's one of those movies that like if if people are into like weird movies, this is one of the movies I always recommend people. I I love this movie, and like I said, it it had never struck me as a watch movie until the last time I saw it, and it jumped out at me immediately. It's awesome. Highly recommended. Perfect. All right. Let's go. Number two. We're getting close to the the top of the pyramid here. What is at number two for
Danny Milton you? So number two for me is another what I consider to be another underrated Oscar snubbed kind of film. So maybe First Man. So First Man was from 2018. Yeah. It's a it's um it's Damien Chazelle who directed Whiplash and La La Land, which are both great movies as well. Great movies. This is one of those movies I think is gonna age really well. I think movies like this tend to have like a longer tail. Yeah. It's shot in such an interesting manner, so depending on the scenarios, it'll be shot on eight millimeter film, sixteen millimeter film, thirty-five millimeter film, and I think IMAX in some ways, but it's given that kind of grainy effect. So the whole movie is meant to make you feel like you're in the 1960s and sure what it would feel like to be in a rickety old rocket ship. Yeah. So like a lot of these movies make it seem like seamless and smooth and liftoff is like this like beautiful thing, but really inside like they don't make they don't make them like they used to for a reason. Yeah. And this movie like lets you know. So it's this it's like a sensory overload. So you know, make sure your speakers are properly tuned before putting it on. But it's also an omega showcase. I mean, obviously. We're talking uh 1960s. This is when the Moonwatch came to prominence. But at the same time you see Gosling who plays Neil Armstrong wearing an old you know 34 millimeter Omega CK 2605? Yep. Which many have mistaken for C Master, which it's not, but it's just like an old standard Omega wristwatch. Yep. It's about as standard as you get. And then you see all manner of of speedies. You have the Ed White, you have like the classic moon watch, and every person on screen is wearing one because they were issued. Yeah. And in my understanding about this movie, and which is why I put it so high on the list, is that the production designer on the film worked with Omega, and this is a guy by the name of Nathan Crowley who I spoke to back when I did an article on the movie Tenet, because he's also the production designer on that film. But they worked with Omega to make sure they had like the actual references and the extracts and the real and so they put a lot of thought into making sure this was period correct. And I think that's to me, that's important
Stephen Pulvirent . Yeah, I I totally agree. And it it shows. I mean, it's it's really like you said, a showcase for period Omega Watches. And I mean, to your point about speakers, uh, real quick, this is definitely a see it in theaters kind of movie, but if you're gonna watch this at home, the only time I've rewatched this, I did it with giant headphones on, like big cans, cranked a little bit too loud to where I was like slightly uncomfortable. I think that's the move. If you're gonna watch this movie at home, I think that's I think this is a headphones movie. Absolutely. Also, it has a really, really, really nice score. Like the musical score to this movie is is is Yeah, it does quite beautiful. Has a really good score. All right. What is at the top here? What is the number one your personal favorite watching movies so far? So my personal favorite for a few re
Danny Milton asons is Uncut Gems. Yes. It's just perfect. It's just a cool. First of all, an unnervingly good movie. Like if you have any kind of anxiety, it's gonna play on all the anxieties you have at once, and yet it's still a great example of how filmmaking in the conventional sense is still very much alive. Um it's an awesome Adam Sandler performance, but the reason I picked this is because I got a chance to to speak to the prop master for the film, um, Catherine Miller. And the stories behind the watches are as cool as just seeing them in the film. Yeah. She went through such lengths to make sure that she was getting period correct watches that would fit the sort of diamond district aesthetic in the film. So she was going down there in New York City to the Diamond District to find these kind of like iced out Rolexes and and Adam Sandler's character in the movie wears a few watches, but the the most popular one he wears is this kind of smoke dial, red dial day date with diamonds everywhere. Yeah. I mean bracelet, bezel, numerals. It is like the pinnacle of like what you can do aftermarket to a Rolex. Yeah. And she had a few options. So what what I well, if you go read that piece, you'll see these behind-the-scenes pictures that she gave us of like, maybe I want a black dial version, maybe I want one with just diamonds on the bezel, maybe I want just a standard day date. And and in speaking to her, Sandler had a say in these things. So, like the directors, herself and Adam Sandler were huddled around a table with watches on it, and he was giving his opinions on which ones he thought would fit the character best. And I just love that. I think that's the absolute coolest thing ever when everybody kind of has a say and the watches feel that much more personal. But the w the movie's great because there's basically a watch for every act of the film. Yep. And each time he has one, some form of a loan shark takes it away from him. Yeah. Because
Stephen Pulvirent he has not paid a debt. And I love it. Yeah, I I totally agree. And I love that that that Rolex is pretty prominently featured in the movie poster too. It's like front and center. Uh like you can identify the watch just from the movie poster. You don't need to watch and a second of the film. Don't give away my secret, Steven. It it c it kind of tells you what the film is gonna be though in a cool way. Like I I uh to your point, like each act of this movie, the the watch kind of fits what's going on and like is again it's like a character in the in the film uh which I I love. That's right. I mean also to your point, like I don't think I've ever been so close to having a panic attack while also having fun as I was while I was watching this movie. Like at the end of it, I legitimately went for a walk around the block. Like I was still living in New York at the time and like I watched it at home with my wife. And like afterwards it was like you know 11 30 at night and I was like I gotta I gotta go for a walk I'll be back in 20 minutes like I I just like I was so well I was wound so tight right it's great I I love it and would say, like, you know, if you're listening to this and you haven't seen the movie, all five of the films Danny's just mentioned are great. I've seen all five of them, except actually, I take that back. I've seen four out of the five of them. Uh I have not seen Lucy in the Sky. But uh this is the one you gotta you gotta go check out immediately. All right. Well those are your top five. Are are there any any films or any like watches in films that you love that as you've considered this column just like didn't fit but you want to shout out here any just favorite like watch appearances that maybe aren't watching movies? Well
Danny Milton , not necessarily, but I th when I was thinking about this, I I thought about another another article that I wrote for the column, which was Kramer versus Kramer. And it put my it put my watch spotting skills to the test because there was really no definitive answer on what the watch was. And if you know any movie from the seventies, you're not gonna get high level imagery to be able to zoom in and try to find out. Right. And much to to your comment about uncut gems, all of the promotional images for the film, like posters, promo shots, show Dustin Hoffman wearing his own personal Rolex GMT master, yeah, Pepsi. I think it was a six sixteen seventy-five. And that's not in the movie. They did that just to mess with you, Danny. This was this was a long con. Exactly. Well, it it's it goes to what you were saying. Like, if you were to look at those, you could go on some, you know, forum and be like, yeah, Dustin Hoffman wears a GMT master. And then you would totally sell yourself out as never having seen the film. I mean, it's a great trick because what what he does wear in the film is an absolutely totally obscure PvD coded chronograph of on one those old they're rubber straps that look like links. So they're like they're like bracelet-like. So even if like if for half the time I think it's a bracelet until like I see an underside of his wrist. And it turns out it's this old watch called a Legoure chronograph. And it's this design style that actually was you know seen in a whole list of different kinds of watch brands. Hoyer had one very similar. A brand called Wackman had one that was similar. There were a whole host of them. And so, like, if you went online and tried to find it, most people would just say, Oh, it's a Hoyer. But it wasn't, and it took such a long time and so much effort to finally land on what it actually was. And it just goes to show you like I enjoy this column so much that I really want to try to offer some level of a definitive answer on stuff that's hard to find. Yeah. And just know. And my wife will tell you, I'm really doing this. I'm pausing movies and hitting the space bar on my computer so fast to get the perfect screen grab, you know, like frame by frame. Yeah. And it it's tough. And it it sounds stupid, but it it's it's um it's it's fun, honestly. That's awesome
Stephen Pulvirent . Well the the last thing I want to I want to talk about is is kind of a bigger picture thing. And what made me think of it is the Wolf of Wall Street column. And the fact that like the very nature of watches and movies has has changed. 70s, like you could get Dustin Hoffman wearing his own watch on the movie poster and then a totally different, just like random whatever thing that a prop master found uh in a film. Now, you know, depending on the actors, maybe someone's a brand ambassador, maybe somebody's, you know, contributing some production dollars to the film to have their watches featured, just like we see with all kinds of consumer products and brands. It's really kind of changed the game, right? So
Danny Milton for sure, like you very rarely see actors wearing their own watches on screen, but interestingly enough, this very recent watching movies column I just did on Marriage Story with Adam Driver was one of the few that I ever come across. So he was wearing his own personal Rolex OP39, the blue dial with the green uh markers on it in the movie. Um, I think part of that has to do with it being a somewhat of an independent type feature, but still, like when you find that out, the watch takes on a different kind of character. But for the most part, you either have some kind of a brand partnership or a product placement that is involved in this on screen. And one of the places that really uh bore itself out most obviously was in the Wolf of Wall Street. Yeah. I think famously a lot of people, going back to that Dustin Hoffman example, would look at that movie, see a gold watch on his wrist with a black bezel and a black dial and go, That's a submariner. Period. Yeah. Like I know what that is. I don't need to look any closer. What else would it be? We're in the late 80s, early 90s, or whatever, you know, that's clearly what that watch is, but it's not. And when you when you look closer at it, you discover it's a tag hoyer and it's not even actually gold, it's gold plated, and it it raises a a a bunch of different questions, like why why is that watch in that movie? And you know, part of what I try to do in this column is is get other voices mixed into the mix to try to get some background on it. And I and I spoke to the prop master of that movie and, the answer is like fairly obvious. Leo DiCaprio was a tag hoyer ambassador. Period. I mean, that's that's really what it what it boils down to. And on the first day of filming, he showed up and they were talking about not the first day of filming, but the first day of probably pre-production production, they were talking about the watches they would wear. And Leo was like, Look, I have this partnership with tag, I can easily have watches dropped off. It's really not a problem. I'll have them bring some watches over, I'll give them the error that we're working with, and we can pick 'em from there. And that's why you see uh tag hoyer so prominently featured in the movie. And you know, I wrote in the story that it it's fitting for somebody uh like Jordan Belfort to wear a a gold plated watch because he's pretty much a gold plated person. You know? I thought that was you know Exactly. It it's it it fits for
Stephen Pulvirent sure. Yeah. It's super cool. And I I I'm kind of like hopeful that maybe we'll see more stuff like that and it'll get, you know, kind of like with with First Man, right? Where like when you're working with a brand, you can get access to cool archival stuff and and you know it can act despite the fact that there's there's obviously a commercial angle to it, you can sometimes get better, cooler, more interesting watches. It doesn't it doesn't have to be purely just like product placement
Danny Milton . I agree. I think that's how and and many people are quick to say, you know, about brands like Hamilton and things like that. It's like there's a good amount of thought that goes into these. Like like like Steve, you're saying Stephen, just because you're working with a brand doesn't mean you're phoning it in. It doesn't mean you're that the there are conversations that take place where a brand can be way more helpful to you in terms of being period correct on a film than it would be to just try to go and find something from a vintage shop somewhere. Totally. And you don't know what you're getting. And a lot of times with a brand, you you know that it's coming from a museum or from their archives and you know it's legit. And uh and and the actors again have input in this. I mean, Leo could have picked a brand new tag and it could have been totally period incorrect because the brand wanted him to show off a certain model, but it's very clear that wasn't the case in this movie. And there are movies out there there where are serious goofs when it comes to watches being period incorrect. Um, so I want to give credit to, you know, to that situation in this movie because it could have gone completely different. And to that point, there's in that movie, Jonah Hill wears a Rolex Daytona and it's not real. Right. Right. Which it which which I want, you know, there there's some conjecture in the movie industry right now about whether or not um you're even allowed to do that anymore. In fact, I think there are rules being implemented where you cannot pass a watch off as something that it's not. And I think this came out before that was instituted. But again, these guys are like the worst of humankind. And the fact that they're simultaneously wearing a fake gold Daytona and a gold plated watch, it's it's it's awesome. Yeah. I agree
Stephen Pulvirent . Well, dude, thanks for doing this. This is awesome. I can't wait to see some of the movies coming next. I mean, you know, peek behind the curtain here. Like, I have no insight into what Danny's gonna publish on this every week. So I I wait for Friday like everybody else. And uh yeah, thanks for giving us the insight here and uh look forward. Look forward to future watching movies, Danny. Appreciate it, Steven. Thanks a lot. Awesome. Thanks, ma'am. Up next, we've got the results of the hype watch fantasy draft. Hey, good to see everybody. How are you guys doing? Hey Steven. Good, good. Pleasure to be here. Hey, Stevie. Good to hear your voice, Steven. Thanks, man. We got uh we got Gray on the mic today. That's that's big news. Exciting stuff. Oh yeah. Pumped to be here. Those dulcet tones, my friend. Yes, indeed. Did all my vocal exercises, I'm ready to go. Perfect. Total pro. Gray being here means we've got fantasy draft results, right? Yes, indeed. Yes,
Danny Milton indeed. The results have been tabulated, and I have a lovely spreadsheet and pie chart in front of me. I will say it's it's's there one color that is a dominant presence in this year
Stephen Pulvirent pie chart. Oh boy. That that makes me nervous right off the bat. I don't I don't like any of that. Who is the hype watch king? Hypist. The uh the the beauty of radio is you can't see gray uh with his his eyes to the ceiling shaking his head. That is not a good look for me. I'm um I am not feeling confident now. But uh yeah, so we we got the results of the hype watch fantasy draft from a couple weeks back. I've got Cole, Danny and James and myself. We each put together a collection that included a Gerald Genta or Gerald Genta style watch, a waitlist Rolex, a big name collaboration, and some sort of high-end independent or exciting independent. And now we'll find out whose collection reigns supreme. Gray, you want to uh maybe count us down from four to one and let us know who uh won in this landslide. Four to one. That is the custom. We'll begin at the fo
Danny Milton ur spot drum roll, please. With thirteen point five percent of the vote, we have Mr. Cole Pennington coming in. Oh my god.
Cole Pennington I won I won the last one though. So it's fine. I won the last one, so it's fine.
Danny Milton Okay. It's not how that works. It's not how that works. Yeah. Okay. What was the percentage? Danny
James Stacey , the uh percentage was thirteen point five. That's a lot left on the table. There's a lot of uh percentages left. There sure are. Yeah, that's that's a lot of points le
Danny Milton ft. Oh boy. Well, that brings us to number three. So at number three, at a uh jump of two tenths of a percentage point, we have at 13.7 our host with the
Stephen Pulvirent most, Mr. Steven Tulverant. Oh wow. All right, guys. The draft is canceled. That's it. It's off. We're done. I'm I'm calling it. We're done. It's been nice knowing you. I'm I'm out. Sorry Stephen. Well, Steven, you sho
Danny Milton uldn't feel too bad because then another point two percentage points higher sitting at second place is Danny, meaning that with whopping uh point nine percent of the vote, the far away winner. Eight point nine. James Stacey, our champ
Stephen Pulvirent ion. The most hype. All right. Congrats, all right, James. Congrats. Oh my god. The TGN army is real. It's true. That that must be it. Your boy can pick a watch every now and then. I've done a few of these. So let's let's real quick. I'm just gonna recap your collection here, James. You got for your Genta style watch, you've got the APE Royal Oak QP, the titanium one with the salmon dial that everybody somehow forgot about or didn't know about. You've got a yellow gold Daytona on Oyster Flex for your Rolex, you've got an RM Nadal for your collab, and you've got the Grobeforzi signature one for your Indy. Yep. Stand by I gotta say, looking at it now, this this seems like an obvious win for you. Yeah. I mean uh the people spoken. What what can I say? Math checks out. I'm no I'm no at math actu
James Stacey ally spoken, what can I say
Stephen Pulvirent ? Yeah
James Stacey , that rounds up to a hundred if you if you really move the
Cole Pennington decimal points around. It's really, really a three-way tie and then James. It's not there, it's not even four through first. It's a three-way tie and then James out there. I think that's right. Yeah. U
Stephen Pulvirent h wow. Okay. So uh I guess the real question is Cole and Danny uh and myself, what went wrong? What the hell could yeah, exactly. What the hell could we have done differently? We we uh we kind of blew it on this one. Can
Danny Milton I just say the guy in last place was trying to argue that it should be a three way tie
Cole Pennington No, actually I'm totally I know I'm out of my my zone with this one. And and to answer Steven's question, I think what I could have done differently is play to common taste rather than my own taste. So I would have to, you know, adapt a little bit of a different strategy. These are actually watches given the parameters that I would like, not what the people would like. But the people have spoken. So
Stephen Pulvirent there it is. I like all four of mine. Yeah. I uh I like all four of mine. I think I might have overthought this. I think I might have like gotten too smart by half here. Like I uh I tried to like make interesting picks and tried to like shake it up a little bit. I think like not taking the Nautilus when I had the chance, probably stupid. Not taking a Daytona when I had a chance, probably stupid. Like do I want the Tiffany blue OP more than uh steel Daytona? Sure, but like most people don't. You know, like that's that's a weird thing. So yeah, I think that that I probably probably outsmarted myself here.
Danny Milton Just too smart for your own good. Yeah, I think you could you you you you could throw the milgauss into the mix for that one too. Hundred percent a similar situation
James Stacey . I gotta say that the milgouse is a strange choice. Because I don't think there is a lot of hype. That's a great watch and I like it and and I I actually like it better than the Rolex I picked, but it doesn't feel like a hype watch to me. It it there's a hype behind that watch, but it's just because of that watch. Not because of Rolex, not because of the whole steel watch thing. Like it's been a thing f since they put the green cry
Danny Milton stal on it. Agreed. There was a there was a rule Steven put in that was like I might I might have misinterpreted it, but we could have engineered hype through the draft. Do we think it should be or whatever? And I I think I may have gone that route a couple times on my choices to my detriment. You know? What watch do I think should be a hype watch as opposed to what watch is a hy
Stephen Pulvirent pe watch? I think it's where I lost. Interesting. I mean, I think just looking at James's collection, right? Like we've got Royal Oak, Daytona, R
James Stacey M, Groboforzi. It's kinda hard I I think I only missed one of the of what's up there, but it'll come up in the other questions. Yeah. There's another brand that's like real hype right now that we didn't hit. Yeah, and and we'
Stephen Pulvirent ll talk about that in a second, but I I think like you're you're talking about especially like maybe we set Groble aside, but like AP Rolex and RM, like that's that's the trifecta. Like that's what everybody that's what everybody wants. That's what everybody can't buy. That's what is on, you know, all the famous wrists. That's what's getting watch spotted. Like those those are the watches. And I I think it's it's cool that I think, James, you put together a collection here that hit on all those things, but not necessarily in the most expected way. Like it's not a jumbo with a blue dial. It's not even the white gold jumbo with the salmon dial, it's the titanium QP with the salmon dial. It's not steel daytona black dial or steel daytona white dial or even Daytona meteorite dial. It's yellow gold oyster flexed, which I think I think is cool. Like I think you kinda like played the hits, but you played them your own way, which I I both respect and enjo
James Stacey y. Yeah, I think I think in my mind there's I like I wanted to pick four watches that were well, three, I guess. Again, I I don't know how how hype the Google four Z really is. I don't think there's actually much hype in that at all. It's just a good watch and it kind of rounded out something where like if you didn't like the RM, you might have liked my Google Four Z, so I might have kept your vote on that play. The the hype thing is cool, but if you're actually gonna buy it, do you really want the the the like poster of the hype or do you want like a a slight tweak that makes it kind of more personal and maybe speaks to you your level of taste or something like that? So again, yeah, I think the a weird titanium QP versus a solid gold or a steel or something like that. And the same with the Rolex, it's not even my favorite of the Daytonas. I just think it's the most kind of it's leaning in the hardest to the idea that this is a hy
Stephen Pulvirent pe model. No, I I completely agree. I completely agree. So what was what was in indulge us here, what was the brand that you think we missed that you you would add that you think is missing from your collection and from the the draft more generally
James Stacey ? So I think I could have maybe even squeaked out a few more percent from you guys by not going with RM and instead going with Jorn. Yeah. Yeah. I agreed. I think RM RM's a very divisive thing, whereas Jorne, nobody's really out there. Like I'm sure there's people out there that don't like don't want it or don't get it or don't care. And all of those are those are three fine ideas. But like the the the market is really speaking to the fact that Jorne's time has come. Yeah. And there's so much heat behind, you know, that the subscription one, which will go up this fall, you know, with all five. Um, and and there's just a lot of like attention behind them. And and they still you know you could say the same sort of thing about Cardi but of course Cardi is not even close to an indie they're the uh almost the opposite they are they are the the cathedral in the middle of watchmaking in some ways or or you know an old the old building that that no one's ever gonna tear down and and likes to visit and take pictures of. But yeah, I think it'd be probably Jorn versus RM. And that was the the struggle for me is like, do you drop the GF and get an R uh get a get a Jorne or you know instead of going uh
Stephen Pulvirent with uh with the RM go with something else. Yeah I mean I'll I'll admit that for my indie category I had a list of like five different Jorns and like maybe one or two other things as like out of left field backups, but like I was pretty set before the draft even started that I was taking some kind of Jorn in my indie category. I mean a lot of lot of good it did me. But uh it's uh I I stand by that pick, you know. I think a I I think you're totally right. I think if we're talking about rising stars of of hype right now, I think like Jorn is on a pretty steep upward trajectory and I don't I can't see the plateau yet. Uh like I can't see over the top of the hill yet
James Stacey . And I and I re I think the reason we can't like it's hard to predict where they're going with shorn or how hot it could get is because I don't know that it is that much hype. I think it's just a brand that's get now starting to get its recognition outside of this small, kind of central European-based set of collectors that were helping keep that brand alive and moving them into the next generation. And now there's a momentum. They have pieces, there's so much, there's enough, not so much. There's enough in the market that it's starting to trade hands with people that aren't part of these kind of closed circles. Uh so you you're starting to see them more often. They and they speak to a wider range of prices now, you know, from the chronometric blue all all the way up. Yeah
Stephen Pulvirent , well well I I think I agree with you that the like definition of hype maybe does Jorn a disservice here. I wonder how much we think the current prices are sustainable or gonna continue to go up. Like do we do we think that chronometer blues are six figure watches in reality? Do we think that Jorn Turbions are half a million dollars and up, or do we think that's kind of like a blip on the way to somewhere between what they were selling for and what they're selling for now? Bli
James Stacey p. I think people people right now, what they want to do is if you own one of these watches or if you own a certain set of car or something like that, you want to assume that the last you know year to two years is good case study for a new law that uh GTR is worth three hundred fifty thousand dollars. Get out of here. Or or or that a Nautilus is worth four hundred grand or or that uh a Jorn is worth you know five, six, seven times what it might have sold for just a few years ago when it was made. And I think that that will take some time to correct. There is a there is a uh an inherent value in what Jorn is creating in that it's still actively being made. He's still alive, he's still working, he's still making things that people really like. And that means you're buying into the middle of a legacy rather than the end or something that like that's happened before. Yeah. It's the difference between, you know, if you were imagine if you could trade stocks on film directors,. you You know'd probably pay less for uh Denny Villeneuve than you would a Spielberg and even less there than you might for a Scorsese. But a over time there's gonna be this balancing act between the three as their careers are at different positions. That's just like the normal stock market in companies. Hype. Yes. Hype
Stephen Pulvirent . Yeah. If you guys had to add one category, like if we were to make this a five-watch collection instead of a four-watch collection. I'm curious what each of you would would add had you had you been given the option. Uh maybe Danny, you wanna kick us off here
Danny Milton ? I would have done budget hype, like something like um like like budget friendly hype watch and what comes to mind is like the Cassiok um like something that like uh it's obvious why the hype exists the price is not like you they're totally you know affordable in in every metric of watch buying, um, but they're really hard to get and there is a secondary market that's been created for those watches. That is the kind of thing that I'm not really into. You know, I'm not gonna spend six hundred dollars to buy a watch that costs way less than half that. So it would have been interesting to see um how many of those we could have come up with on a budget level. Yeah. I I think
Cole Pennington I would have added hype watches of the past. Kind of like how the early two thousands was filled with the big ass panor eyes and or even going before that the uh you blow fusion watches that were hyped up and huge like the things growing up like even in the micro like Danny's talking about budget, like the dreadnought. James will know about this, you know. The dreadnought was a hype micro back in the day, and now it's like forgotten. So I would look at hype watches of the past that are just
Stephen Pulvirent totally forgotten about now. That's a great category. I would never have thought of that. That is that is a brilliant idea.
James Stacey Yeah. I agree. And I I would agree with Cole and with Danny. Like I I think what what might have been need is to try and find the corner of this where the same thing is happening but at a more accessible price point, where you still get this ridiculous amount of interest over a relatively limited supply of something, but it doesn't have to cost $100,000 or $500,000 or whatever. And you know, for me, uh, I think the Cassiok's a great example, but before that, and pretty much anything from Halios, there's four or five brands now that the minute they even start taking the pre-order, it sells out. And and part of that is because there's demand, but also there could be a thousand or two thousand people of the similar mindset that will buy these things because they've owned two or three of the previous ones. And they don't even need to see the new one. And because it's a small company, and when I mean a small company, I don't mean like I mean, it's literally one person ordering stuff online and having it assembled and then doing QC, you know, out of an office somewhere. And because it's a small business, like a traditional small business, they just there's no scaling. If they decided, if they decided they had the cash run for 200 units, that's how many there's going to be until they have more cash. And then on top of that, again, I don't want to sound like a broken record, but we have a pandemic thing where stock is very difficult to get. So if you originally wanted to do a thousand of your watch, maybe that's now five hundred and it takes eight months longer than expected. Yeah. So it is kind of a time where we're seeing compressed availability for many different reasons. And I think it would have been cool to to attempt to highlight some of that in the um in a sort of accessible price point element
Stephen Pulvirent of the draft. Yeah. I mean budget is is immediately where my brain went. And to be honest, when we, you know, Gray and I put these categories together, we thought about it and decided to kind of hold it to four categories. And I I think it's telling that we've all kind of touched on that in some way. I think it's it's interesting that whether you're buying at the Jorn Turbillon RM level or whether you're buying like timex qs and Cassioaks and Micro brands and whatever, like there's you can be spending $200 or $200,000 and actually run into like the same problem um or the same challenges in trying to acquire the watch you want. And I think that's fascinating and kind of telling about where watch collecting is at, that the taste is so um kind of like hyper focused no matter what part of the the industry you're look
Danny Milton ing at. It's upsetting too a little bit because I remember being like a normal watch enthusiast kind of before I like dove headfirst into all this and to have the kind of I hate to call it naive expectation that you can walk walk into a store and like buy one of these the day that you're ready, because I've been there, and to sort of be looked in the face, whether it's a Casio or a Rolex or whatever, to be like I mean I don't know what you're asking me. Like that kind of look that you're getting it sucks. It's a really unfortunate thing. Imagine
Cole Pennington going to the store to buy a G Shack and then the salesman going like get out of town. We don't we haven't had any of those for years. You gotta be kidding me, kid. You have to buy a ton of time
Stephen Pulvirent X to have enough uh buying cred in here to buy this Casio. Brutal. I will say in the days when we could travel together pre-pandemic, uh, it had become kind of like a running joke amongst the members of our team. You know, there's a peek behind the curtain for the listeners to like when we would travel somewhere, whether it's Tokyo or Geneva or London or you know, LA or wherever, to like if we walked by a Rolex or an A P boutique to like go in and just like ask for a Daytona or a Jumbo and just see what the response is. And like often they like they don't I mean most folks in in boutiques wouldn't know like that we work in the industry or that we're like a part of this at all. And watching like, you know, goading Ben or Enery or Will or one of you guys into like going into a Rolex boutique and being like, hi, I'd love a um black dial Daytona, please. Here's my here's my credit card. Uh, and having them just like not know how to handle it, you know, like, oh sir, uh uh it's so fun. Like honestly, it's absolutely hilarious. And like I'm sorry to the salespeople, but like this is it, it's absurd that that is what the watch buying experience is like nowadays. Uh and I can't imagine if I like didn't work in this industry, how insane it would it would seem. I mean, I I don't know about you guys. It's a question I get asked all the time. Is people are just like, is this real? Like is this, is this like a fake thing? Are people messing with me? Like, is is like, are any of these watchmaking companies like is this a joke? Are they like purposefully w what's going on here? Like people just don't get it. I don't see how it's sustain
James Stacey able, which is what which is where I've my questions really lie. Yeah, I mean fair. I don't get it. It'll go on as long as it
Stephen Pulvirent can, but I just don't think it can go on forever. Yeah, I agree with you. And and I think, you know, we've had versions of this conversation before, all of us, sometimes maybe even on this on this show, but like the concern for me is is that if you're like a young person, if you're like a 20, early 20 something, mid 20 something, late 20-something person, you start making a little bit of money, you walk into a watch boutique and you're like, I'm gonna buy my first watch, uh, or even if it's it's later, 30s, 40s, and you go in, you're like, I'm gonna buy a nice watch, and you go into the boutique and you ask for one and they're like, Are you kidding me? Like you can't get watches here. It's gonna be a years-long wait list. Or like you walk into a boutique and you're like, I would like an $8,000 steel sport watch. And they're like, Cool, you can have it if you buy a $40,000 gold dress watch. Also, those people then just never buy watches. Like those people don't go buy a different watch, they go buy a car or they go on a vacation or they buy a piece of art or they invest in furniture. And then you've taken like a young, affluent person who could be a lifelong watch lover and you've like turned the tap off at the beginning. I think I think some of them do bu
James Stacey y watches and I think they all buy speed masters. And like and like I'm not laughing like Speedmaster is not an incredible watch because that's exactly what it is. They are great watches. That's a great way to spend your money if if you if that's like it suits your wrists and everything. But like I genuinely believe that's what's happening. I've talked to people who are like, oh well, yeah, I really I started out thinking I was getting a sub or a explore two or something like that. And then finally got so tired of the runaround, I just walked into an omega boutique and they're like, Yeah, we'll have one in like four or five days probably. We'll just give you a phone call. And like they had a lovely experience. Maybe it wasn't immediate. Maybe they waited a little while, but like a reasonable amount to wait for retail, uh, for a uh, you know, uh a kind of fastidiously made product. Yeah, I I I think that oh I I hope brands like Omega are seeing an option here where they can just clean up. Yeah, same. The way I
Cole Pennington have always th thought about this is like what if Shell or Marathon Oil or something stopped giving gas to gas stations? What would the stock price of marathon be? Or, you know, what if Wonder Bread stopped delivering bread to your local supermarket and all of a sudden, like, what do you think about Wonder Bread now? So this is just an interesting exercise. What happens when you do not deliver the product that you are known to deliver? It's the toilet paper dilemma. The pandemic toilet paper dilemma. But is it is it the brands or the consumers? Are we all buying the watches or are they just not delivering the toilet paper to the stores? The toilet paper in's the stores. It's cust
James Stacey omers who are causing the problem there. I mean, the the only thing I would raise, and and this is a topic for a different discussion that would take longer, is we you can't compare toilet paper and gas to a Veblen good. Exactly. Yeah, sure. Of course the market the market is artificial to a cer
Cole Pennington tain extent, and whereas it isn't for gas. Right, but the young watch buyer that we're talking about wouldn't it would take them a little while to arrive to that conclusion.
Stephen Pulvirent Sure. For sure. I guess I, guess to finish things off, I I want to know I'm I'm gonna ask each of you to give me two two watches here to finish things off. The hype watch that you are most bought in on, where you think the hype is fully justified, and the hype watch that you just don't get. And it's not not that you dislike the watch, but where you're just like, all right, not for me. Like not, I'm cool. I'm gonna sit this one out. So maybe let's start with the watch you'll sit out on and then we'll go around again and do uh the watch we like most to to wrap up. Uh Danny you wanna you wanna kick us off here?
Danny Milton So I picked this watch. If you listen to the original original recording, I didn't want to pick the watch. Uh and it's the Nautilus. I I don't dislike the watch at all. I just don't buy into the level of hype that surrounds the watch. So by definition of the question, this is that watch for me. And there's a uh you know, a lot of reasons for it. But when it comes to the market around the stainless steel sport watch integrated bracelet watches in general, um, but specifically where the Nautilus has gone in terms of pricing, availability, what the secondary market looks like, et cetera, et cetera. That auction price that we saw, I I just can't wrap my head around that. Nice.
Cole Pennington Cole, how about you? Sure. I would say the Nautilus too, but I won't double up on that. I'll I'll actually say the Royal Look, 'cause I think they're kind of the same the same buyer, the same watch. The reason I don't get it or for me personally is uh if I want a sports watch, I want to do sporting things and I'm not gonna buy like to me highrology is best represented in a dress watch. Not why why take a brand that is so has such prowess in in the realm of highrology and then make a sports watch when you can't really do sporting things with it. You know? So I just don't get that part of it. And it turns it into a fashion watch, which is like incongruent. What is it? Is it a fashion? Not fashion like a fashion watch like, we use the term, but I mean a watch that looks quote unquote dope. You know? That
James Stacey 's why. Okay. Fair. Uh yeah, I mean, mine is uh mine's the Nautilus, I I will I will double up because I think it's like I I think that watch is great for its price point. I understand why people enjoy it. I I for me it it it is both historically and in my mind a second step from the Royal Oak. I think the Royal Oak, you know, being being that first play from Genta. And then the other thing that gets me the Nautilus is like I like the Aquanaut better. Fair. And and it could just be that I'm uh uh or I'm gonna I'm gonna put this out there, it's not it's getting less true by the day, but just like a younger b a younger man, where I was maybe when I first fell in love with the Aquanaut, right? Yeah. It's not as true as it once was, but ten years ago, I I would have been considered kind of and and I think that's what they I think that's what they um that that's what they made the the aquanaut for was kind of a a uh you know a a more sporty something more like I like like Cole said I'm kind of agreeing with both these guys now but with Cole like I like that the there's something about the um the aquanaut that is actually kind of sporty and I like that obviously that the travel time is a dream watch. So that one I was seeing seeing the four hundred thousand dollars or whatever for a Nautilus and I think like oh you could buy like a good down payment on a house in a good city, uh plus an aquanut and a car. Yeah
Stephen Pulvirent . Yeah, right. You can get a whole lot for that, yeah. Yeah, I think for me, I'm gonna go I'm gonna go Daytona. Daytona's a great watch. I get it. It's a classic. It's awesome. It's a good pick, yeah. I I don't understand why it's like still how many years after it came out the current steel Daytona is still like impossible like one of the hardest watches to get on the planet. I just don't get it. And like to James's earlier point about the Speedmaster, like I might like the Speedmaster better. It's at least close, you know, I think those two watches are neck and neck. And the fact that you can walk in, get a speedy at retail with little fanfare, and a Daytona gets you laughed out of a store. To me, is just like I I just don't get it. I think it's it's kind of a mess. Speedy's also a lot easier to read on wrist. Just saying. True story. Oh, and it also went to space
Cole Pennington . Yeah, it also little thing Cole. Uh it did in fact go to space. No way. Actually, no. Which space though? It went to the moon. Not
Stephen Pulvirent even into space. It went to the moon. So don't forget that. Alright, I'm gonna do the one the, watch that I'm excited about, and then we'll go back around and and wrap things up here. The hype watch that I'm most bought in on, it was it was a close race for me. I'm ultimately gonna go Royal of Perpetual Calendars. Thought about going Jorn. I really believe in Jorne, but I'm gonna go Royal Oak QPs. I think the Royal Oak is such an icon. It's such like a hot thing right now, but also you get the like real serious complicated watchmaking from AP, which I think is is core to what they do and sometimes gets forgotten or lost in the mix. And to me, this is the best combo. You get Genta's iconic design and you get APs like totally unassailable top tier watch making in one package. I prefer the old 39 millimeter ones uh in the jumbo case to the current 41s, but like whatever. Uh Royal O QP. I I think think the hype is real there and I'm I'm bought in. Which one though? Uh hmm. I mean, honestly now, probably the titanium and salmon one that James picked. It's gotta be that or the BA. Maybe black ceramic is close. But yeah, that would be my pick. Agreed. James, you wanna take it? Let's go uh James Cole Danny
James Stacey . Sure. Uh yeah, mine is one that we actually didn't chat that much about on the on the actual draft, but if we're talking about s like something what that I I get and and it speaks to me, it's the it's this progressive, you know, last two, three year like meteoric rise of Cartier interest. The hype is legit there. Like it and I'm sure that it'll be something of a bubble or or a peak that comes back down. But I think that this is a brand that's been, you know, wasn't well equipped to do battle in the steel obsessed sport watch focus of the last decade, but now as like a respite or a a dessert or or whatever you'd like to use, I like I think that it it speaks to all the things that we like about a vintage submariner, but doesn't do the steel dive watch stuff as well. So it's it's this entirely different wrist presence that doesn't lack in any way for charm or traditional value or watchmaking acumen or brand name or even just that that ability to see a tank from 30 feet away and go like it's a
Cole Pennington tank. Nice. Good pick. Really good pick. For me, I'm gonna say the watch that that there's a ton of hyper that I totally get and don't get at the same time, but we'll get into that. Uh is is the GMT Master 2. It is. It's a great watch. Uh I've had one for a year now and I love it every day and I actually could get I I won't for sentimental reasons, but I could get rid of everything else and just wear this watch for the rest of my life. No problem. I think it's gone horribly soft, and unfortunately the people who want them now, which are causing the hype, are not the same people who would have worn them back when the watch was not popular in the sixties, seventies, so forth. Yeah. But I still I'm still sticking to it. I think uh I having personal experience, totally get the hype. Would buy one again. Wouldn't buy a Batman, would only buy a Pepsi, but would buy one again. I see Danny shaking his head there, but so that's
Stephen Pulvirent it. Nice call. Whatever, whatever, man. Whatever
Danny Milton . All right, Danny, take us home, my friend. Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna disagree with you, SGP. I'm gonna go Daytona is the one that I do get. Oh, okay. But I'm gonna go black I'm gonna go I'm gonna go black dial instead of white dial, even though they're both equally hard to get. I just connect with that one a lot more for some for whatever reason. Completely agree with James' point about legibility. It's a tough one to read. Like, period
James Stacey . It's not a glanceable sport watch. It's fine. You can look, you just have to take a split second longer. But if you're used to a spe
Danny Milton edy, it's different, for example. There's a lot going on on the dial, too. I mean, just like period. It's not the most elegant version of that watch historically, but something about the black dial with the with the ceramic back black bezel does it for me. Even even the uh the older ones um with the steel bezel I'm I'm into but but in terms of hype if I could ever get my hands on one of those I'd probably go for it. Nice. Well
Stephen Pulvirent , I'd say to everyone listening, hit the site and let us know which watches you're in on and out on. Uh, let us know in the comments on the post. I'm super curious what kind of answers we're gonna get from people because I think this is a pretty divisive divisive topic, as you can tell based on the fact that, you know, we had two instances of of disagreement here in this last little bit. But uh yeah, I'm really curious what the listeners and and readers think. So hit us up in the comments, hit us up on social and uh let us know. But thanks for doing this draft guys. This was a super fun one. Really appreciate it. And uh more more drafts. Just more drafts all the time. And congrats to James. And to the sixty percent of voters voted with their heart. I love that you're rounding up there, James. You're you're rubbing it in our faces even more. All right. Okay. It officially makes it a three-way tie at the bottom
Cole Pennington at that point. Come on, uh. Come on. A light rounding up. Yeah. Thank you, James. Thank you. Gotta win one every round. Thanks, guys. See ya. See ya. Bye.