A Smaller Murph, A Value Flyer, Bond's 60th, And Rolex That Never Was¶
Published on Sun, 27 Nov 2022 14:00:00 +0000
Digging into some exciting new watches and some that never existed (but could have?)
Synopsis¶
In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, hosts James Stacy and Danny Milton discuss several exciting new watch releases while recording the day before Thanksgiving. The conversation covers four main topics: the new 38mm Hamilton Murph field watch, a downsized version of the popular Interstellar-inspired timepiece that addresses customer requests for a smaller case size; the Mido Ocean Star GMT limited edition created in collaboration with Hodinkee, featuring a proper flyer GMT movement in a 40.5mm case at an accessible price point under $1,400; and Omega's 60th anniversary James Bond Seamaster Diver 300M, which features an aluminum dial with micro-waves, a lollipop hand, and a unique "60" marker on the bezel rendered in green luminescent material.
The episode takes a creative turn when Danny presents his latest story: a Photoshop project imagining vintage predecessors to modern Rolex watches that have no historical antecedents, including a Crown Guard-equipped Air King based on the Explorer 1016, a vintage "Batman" GMT, a left-handed "Sprite" GMT, a 36mm Skydweller, and a transitional Explorer II. The hosts close with significant news: Hodinkee Radio is going on hiatus to rethink the podcast's format and better represent voices from the watch community, though special episodes may appear in the future.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| James Stacy | This episode of Hodinky Radio is proudly brought to you by Movado, their heritage of Swiss made craftsmanship and the Alta collection, which captures the brand's most elevated designs through progress, innovation, and quality. Be sure to stay tuned for more details later in the show. Hey it's me, James Stacy, and this week I've got Danny on Zoom to chat about a handful of new watches that have us rather excited. From a downsized Murph to our attempt at making a great GMT and even a birthday surprise from James Bond, it's gonna be a fun one. Danny, how you doing? And are you ready to chat about some new wat |
| Danny Milton | ches? I am doing great, James. I can't wait. There's been a ton of stuff, like almost too much stuff. I don't know if we can get to all of |
| James Stacy | it. It it might be tough to kind of pack it all into an episode, plus you dropped something of of a uh a a figurative bomb uh at the end of this, which I'm actually pretty excited about. I I hadn't looked at this and didn't know it existed, a story that will be out. So we're actually recording this the day before Thanksgiving. I feel like Danny, you and I recorded an episode the day before Thanksgiving last year. That is it that's either it was either Thanksgiving or Christmas. It was one of them. I'm pretty sure it was Thanksgiving. Because everybody on the call was about to leave for their prospective train or plane. And of course, as a as a a non-American Canadian uh contingent for Hodinky, I had uh I'd uh gotten that homework done a month earlier here in Canada as far as Thanksgiving goes. But uh I hope you I I wish you a happy Thanksgiving and of course to everyone who is in the space of American Thanksgiving, the same to you in the audience. Then I wish you another belated, you know, Canadian Thanksgiving. Thank you kindly. The truth is Americans do it a lot better. It's a it's a much bigger deal, which is fun. Sure. You know, it's great. Uh we'll we'll try not to argue with the family too much this year. You know how it goes. Hey, I mean, forum rules apply. Try and be helpful, considerate, and always always entertaining. Always entertaining. Always entertaining for sure. For sure. All right. So I didn't really have a topic for this show two, three days ago. And now we have three watches that I think are like legitimately interesting to a wide swath of our audience. You want to kick it off with this hand Yeah, and it just goes to show you how much |
| Danny Milton | that the Swiss wash industry doesn't care about Thanksgiving to release all of these. All power to them, right? Yeah. So but I feel bad for their American counterparts who are like, wait, what? We should have seen this coming. This is a a commerce-based industry. I mean, it all is, you know, it it's it's good timing in the sense of people wanting to buy watches, bad timing for those having to write about them, but I digress. For sure. No, one that I'm I'm pretty excited about that I think others, judging by the comments section, are equally excited about, is the new Hamilton Murph watch. Yeah. This was pretty random, uh, as a lot of these new releases are. We saw um a teaser from Hamilton where there was a narrator that seemed to be narrating what amounted to like a fan letter, basically saying something to the effect of Dear Hamilton, we love the Murph. We love Interstellar. We just wish it was 38mm. And then it just had like a date, you know, like 1122. And lo and behold, on the 22nd of November, a 38mm Hamilton Murph comes out. I would say this is one of the more interesting parts of the modern watch sort of industry, in the sense that I think this is a direct result of people asking for that size. And I'm actually getting one today in for review for a hands-on at a later date, which I'm super excited about because the one thing about the Murph that always kinda irked me was the wingspan. The lug to lug was something like 52 millimeters or some. That's pretty long. A little long, yeah. Little long. And and and that's the you know, we talk about case diameter all the time. The true number really is lug to lug, because if the lug to lug is compact, the watch sits on your wrist, it doesn't overhang. This one is something like forty four point seven millimeters. Lug to lug. Okay. It's great. Um |
| James Stacy | and um thirty eight millimeters wide, eleven point one thick, steel, and the otherwise it's just a merch. Exactly. When Hamilton does a forty-two millimeter watch, it's a big 42. Other brands do small 42s, right? Like it the khaki field automatics, the khaki field hand wounds, even like some of the khaki king stuff, the smaller ones that there's a proportion that just makes them look just right |
| Danny Milton | . Yeah, for some reason, I'm not looking at them right now, but I think the larger ones, they even they make the bezel even thinner so that it's all dial so it they just appear larger anyway. For those who don't know what we're talking about just in general, the Murph them because we're just assuming a lot of information, but the Murph is a Hamilton model that originated in the film Interstellar in 2014. It was a watch specifically designed for the film. It serves a really neat plot function if you haven't seen it. Um, but it was not a production model for Hamilton, but it was immensely popular. And I think it led to a resurgence in Hamilton's popularity, if I can be honest. But that movie did come out in 2014, and I think it wasn't until 2019 that Hamilton finally produced the Murph uh in regular production form. It wasn't a limited model. I think the first runs had a limited uh presentation box, which was designed by the film's costume designer, and it added something really neat to the watch itself. So on the second's hand of the 42mm Murph, there's um Morse code in a luminescent sort of painting on the second's hand that signifies a plot point from the film, but the new 38mm Murph does not have that on the second's hand. So the only the only sort of visual difference between the two watches is the lack of Morse code on the second's hand. Now, in the comments for my introducing post, some people were pretty upset about that it was missing. They think it was a miss for Hamilton to have forgotten to add it to the new piece. I happen to think that the thirty-eight millimeter watch now tracks better with the watch from the actual film because that watch doesn't have morse code in lum |
| James Stacy | inescent material on the second. It's also funny, like this is a watch that feels like a Hamilton that's been around since the thirties or whatever. Like just a really long time. It it you know it's in that same vein as that early field watch with the cathedral style hands and that sort of stuff. Yep. But it actually is from a movie. Yep. And and people wanted it enough that it came out and now people apparently wanted a smaller one, which I totally get. This is also what nine hundred dollars, eight hundred ninety five bucks with the H ten movement. It's crazy. It's good value. I I don't know what I don't know how else to call it. Like uh I'm I'm I don't know yet if it's something we're gonna have in the shop or not. That's that's not why we're necessarily talking about this. We just picked watches we're pumped about. But uh at nine hundred dollars and then you get it into Hamilton places you get a discount every now and then. Yeah. Oh yeah. Depending on where you're buying it. Uh that's a that's a lot of watch for the money and and it's the right size at the same time, right |
| Danny Milton | ? I I was struggling to think. I mean, obviously there's plenty of good value watches out there, but this sort of paired with its quote unquote legacy makes it a really compelling watch. I I I've I struggle to think of a watch that was born out of pop culture quite the way that this one was. I mean, obviously there are the James Bond examples, but those have almost always been released in conjunction with a film. It wasn't like they existed. Yeah, and and are based on a previously existing thing. Right. This was just designed by, if I remember correctly, Christopher Nolan, the prop master Richie Kramer, and Hamilton all sort of sat down and drew out sort of an ideal watch to spec for the film. So it's film spec, which is kind of like a cool thing. We don't really ever |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I mean and the movie I I enjoyed the movie. I like it quite a bit. I was never like crazy about the watch because of the size. Yeah. Me too. And also I don't have a I don't have a deep and unabiding love for field watches. I like a watch with a bezel or another hand or or this doesn't even have the date, which I think these are all good things, and especially if what you want is you know Hamilton's 1016 for lack of a better way of looking at it. Maybe the movie part doesn't even matter. My my guess is there'll be a lot of people who just see this as an attractive, straightforward watch with a solid movement and a great name on the dial. I mean Hamilton still, in my mind, has one of the best mind shares for a brand that operates under a thousand dollars in the whole wor |
| Danny Milton | ld. I think the best, and I also w we think you're you're a hundred percent right because none of the marketing material for this watch includes the film in almost any way. There's reference to it in the copy, but they're going for um a reimagination, a reinvention of this watch as the Murph as its own thing. It's now just sort of adopted its own colloquial name and they're running with it without having to rely on the |
| James Stacy | the IP, which I think is great. Yeah, I would say it's something, you know, that like I'm not going to run out and buy and and I'm thrilled that you're the one reviewing it because I think that's the right the right spot for it. But I am also, it is something that I'm sure is going to come up over the next couple years as just good product, like the khaki field mechanical i is a go-to recommendation when people want a certain watch. And I bet you this on a different strap, I'm really not crazy about the strap they have in the photos. Something a little bit more chill, I think would really bring the some warmth uh into the watch and and suit it a little bit better than this sort of gatory sewn strap kind of bright link style strap. I agree. It is it is movie accurate, quote unquote scarecrow. However, yeah, cool. I like that. Speaking of things that I like, this next one is actually one of kind of hand and hot on including because I don't know if we've ever sat down and chit-chatted about one of our own limited editions on a hodinky radio. True. If you don't like that we're gonna talk about the new Mito Ocean Star GMT, blame it on the host, me, because I saw this watch months ago. I've been waiting for it. I've been waiting to have my own on my wrist. It's on my wrists as we're recording. I'm genuinely pumped about this watch. We may or may not still have any left in the shop when this episode comes out. That's not my concern at the moment. I just want to talk about something I'm pumped about, which is a forty point five millimeter steel flyer GMT that's under fourteen hundred bucks. Uh the fact that we made it kind of only makes me more proud about it than anything. Uh it's limited to 999 pieces. It's made by Mito, of course. It's a new case, no crown guards. It's a 47 millimeters lug to lug, 13.4 millimeters thick. So it's almost the exact same dimensions of an SPB one four three. But it's this really warm vintage inspired look. It it kind of calls back to some of their like multi-center chronos from their past. It has a this very delicate red second time zone hand and then it uses an Ed a C0 six. So in a similar family to what's in the Murph, uh so you're getting the big power reserve and in this case you get a proper flyer GMT where you're able to jump set the main hour hand to a new time zone and it does the date forwards and backwards as well. To say I'm thrilled would be like a little bit of an understatement because this is a kind of a functionality that either exists in larger watches. L Mikeito has this in the forty-four millimeter OceanStar GMT, which is a great looking watch. It's a bit big for my taste. Otherwise, you have to go to like a BBGMT or something even more costly. And I remember being so pumped when the BBGMT came out because suddenly we had this functionality in a watch that didn't cost as much as an Explorer or a GMT Master 2. Um, and now I feel like we've got another cut down. It's it's a it's it's another great great value watch in my mind. I'm sure we'll start to see this movement in a bunch of watches, but I'm pumped that it's in this one. It looks great |
| Danny Milton | . Yeah, it's it's pretty amazing. I mean, you would look at the price and you'd immediately think it wasn't a flyer GMT. Um that is really the one of the calling cards of what makes this watch so cool. And again, like it is like one of those things where I feel like we don't ever get a forum to talk about some of how cool some of our LEs are. Um and this one, what I you know, we you and I are friends with a lot of the the folks on the LE team that spend a lot of time working with brands, coming up with the designs, coming up with, you know, the inspiration for watches like these. This one is really interesting because it's bat it's balancing a vintage inspiration from a Mito chronograph with a lot of inventiveness on the typography side to create a watch that I think kind of functions in the modern context really well. Like I don't know how it looks on your wrist because you're wearing it, but how how how faux is the faux Tina? |
| James Stacy | So the loom is white. There's no faux to it at all. Okay. The actual only faux ness, uh to further bend that poor word is the it's a twenty four hour bezel, bi directional, nice weight, um very quiet. I actually don't think I could make you listen to the click. It's this kind of heavy, quiet click for it. And the only sort of tan faux coloring is in the numerals on the bezel. Okay. Which aren't so much gold or gilt, if I can be very specific as I've edited several photos of the watch. You know that color that silver turns, which is a little bit of a brownish goldy shimmer. Yeah. It's that. And other than that, it's we're talking white and black and red. Oh, it comes with three straps. You get a mesh bracelet, a leather strap, and uh like a striped black and silvery white NATO. Uh two-piece NATO. So not a real NATO, but like a two-piece, and they're all quick quick change, which is nice because the watch has 21 millimeter lugs, which is something we're all having to contend with these days between the new sub, the Pelagos 39, SP 300 is 21 millimeters, and now this one as well. So I really like the look and the feel of it. If you want to see some photos, swing by my Instagram. Uh obviously that we've got tons of stuff on uh the Hodenkee shop, assuming they're still available. If not and you listen to this and you want one, uh I apologize that you had five or six days, I guess, to uh to take a peek |
| Danny Milton | . You're notoriously not really a bracelet guy, but did you try out try out the mesh bracelet and and does it h how how is it? Like how's the um is it what's the clasp situation on |
| James Stacy | on it? Uh it's w it's the the sliding foot style. Oh great. So you can adjust it to a pinpoint and then it's the you hook it in and click it down. So it's nice and sure footed. I like a a mesh just fine uh because they're light and I like it suits the watch really well. Uh currently I have it on a 20 millimeter NATO. And sure there's an itty bitty tiny gap. That's not going to bother me so much. On a NATO it's it's just right. And I actually think this is the sort of watch where, especially now that we're into the colder months, I'll find just the right kind of vintagey style leather strap, whether it's the one it came with or something a little bit more in the green graype tau color space, and then that's what it'll live on. That would look great. Yeah. So uh again, I apologize if if you didn't come to Hodinki Radio to listen to a chat about Hodinki's LEs, but I'm so pumped about this one. And uh I'm I'm thrilled that we we were like one of the first ones to put the CO six in like a case size that uh will suit more risk than than we've seen from some of the others. 'Cause the movement's seemingly quite nice, but is more commonly seen in stuff in the mid-40s. All right. Next up we have I another kind of exciting one that I didn't really expect because you texted me this morning about it. Speaking of mesh mesh bracelets. Yeah, exactly. And that's this brand new 60th anniversary bond SP 300. Uh, we didn't know if it would be titanium or steel. And then not only is it steel, it's also aluminum once you f |
| Danny Milton | ill them in. Again, kind of similar to the Murph thing, it's just watch news is just sort of entering the ether and and sitting there and, all of a sudden you you're on the same day cycle of of learning about a new watch. And that's what the uh this was. We we were aware, keenly aware this was the sixtieth anniversary of the Bond film franchise this year. We covered that in October with Dr. No and watching movies. And I think, you know, I wrote this in my piece, but going around sort of the forums, I think people thought that it had come and gone from the Omega standpoint, given the fact that it's no longer October. It is a riff on the No Time to Die Seamaster Diver 300M and simultaneously a callback to the Pierce Brosnan GoldenEye Bond Seamaster proper with the wave dial, an aluminum dial, and an aluminum bezel. The aluminum bezel part of things, you know, is a carryover from the no time to die watch. I can't remember if the no time to die had a matte aluminum dial before. I don't know if anybody spoke of that, but this was it was overtly, you know, noted that this was a laser engraved aluminum dial on the new the new model, which is neat. It's not quite matte in some of the the videos I've seen. It has a bit of a a a sheen to it, you know, depending on how you hold it in the light as aluminum would, you know, much like you would get on an aluminum bezel. Um but yeah, this is a a stainless steel uh blue Bond Seamaster, the way that you'd want a a a Bond Seamaster to look. And I think the m much the way we've we've kind of wanted a return to that watch to look like because it's that blue. It's the blue you want. Um in mini waves. It's that blue, there's no red accent. Exact |
| James Stacy | ly. It's got a lollipop hand. It's no date. Yep. And it's the mini waves. So if you or microwaves, whatever people want to call it. So if you look back at yeah, microwaves, if you look back at the golden I 007 was a quartz one, the 2541. Yeah, the 254180 on on the bond bracelet. And it is this deep blue with not a lot of other coloring, a matching blue bezel? It feels like a watch that existed that a bond would use. Like it makes sense. And then with the with the new one, because the dial's aluminum and not ceramic, it has these little waves, which is similar to the original version versus the larger waves that are common to the ceramic ones. We're really getting into the weeds here. I think you I think you have to. You have to get it in the wheel kind of thing of the the other thing that's going to make this stand out immediately to people is the changes to the bezel. Yes. So there's no longer a zero triangle with a pip. It goes to sixty for the anniversary. It's kind of a neat little nod. And at first I was kinda like, but wait, it's dive watch, and now you don't have a pip, what's going on? And of course, it on a lot of seamasters and planet oceans, the minute hand has green loom, whereas the other hand uh hand and markers have blue loom, and on this new version, the 60 in the bezel is green to match up with the middle. Oh cool. It's functioning as a pip as a numeral. It's great. It's up to ISO if that's something that you really matter, if that counts as as uh as a the same thing as a pip. For me it would do exactly the same thing and then once every several years where I might be diving in the dark and need to check it, that's one problem. This would delight me every time I saw I noticed the loom just coming inside from a a bright scenario or checking the time at night or whatever. I think it's cool. I think it's good. That the case back is insane. |
| Danny Milton | It's uh I mean we should talk about the case back for a second because in in in pictures you would rightly I think be put off by it. But it's one of those one of those things where you might still be put off by it. But if you appreciated what what Omega did with the silver Snoopy, the one where Snoopy goes around the moon and the running seconds is operating the Earth, I think, on that watch, and it's just constantly sort of in motion. The second's hand on this watch is simultaneously creating a moray effect on the reverse end of the watch where it's spiraling and much like Bond appears in the opening credits of every Bond film, he's sort of appearing and disappearing |
| James Stacy | . Right. So the whole back of the watch has like an engraving and a design that's meant to look like the rifling of a weapon, of a of a the barrel of gun. And if you've seen any bond, you've seen this. It it usually it does this. It usually collapses into a circle and you have the rifling to kind of imagine you're looking directly down the barrel. This is such an insane thing to describe. And then Bond steps into frame, turns, and fires, uh thematically beating the person holding the gun to the to the trigger. And uh and they've basically put that on the back of a watch. In in my mind, it's a little goofy. Totally. Totally goofy. Watch that Bond could wear in a movie because all of that's on the case back. Exactly. It's just a little nod to whoever buys the watch and and the sixty years of Bond and the rest of it. I'm a big Bond nerd, so maybe I'm more apt to be okay with it than some other folks, but uh what I appreciate is that the from the front, it's just a really nice blue Seamaster on a cool bracelet, and it looks great, and and I dig it. And then the back can be something special and wild, and that's what it is. Okay, it's time for our ad break, and we're thrilled to have Movato supporting this episode of Hodinky Radio. In Esperanto, a language meant to unify the world, Movato means always in motion, and the brand has been innovating ever since being founded by a 19-year-old entrepreneur in 1881. Having settled in Le Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, the craftspeople at Mavato got to the job of making great watches for a worldwide audience, including the Akvatic of 1936, the brand's first watertight watch, their first automatic, the Tempomatic in 1945, the Super Sub C Dive Watch of the 1960s, and of course the brand's iconic work with Zenith in producing the legendary El Primero Automatic Chronograph movement back in 1969. And that's not Movado's only icon either, as their enduring museum dial, which was designed in the 1960s by Nathan George Horwit, would quickly become the first watch ever accepted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of their permanent design collection. Today, all of this Swiss born heritage culminates in Mavato's Alta collection. Alta means peak in Esperanto, and the Alta collection represents Movado's pinnacle work in the world of luxurious automatic watches. Currently featuring a quartet of vintage inspired chronographs that have been reimagined from the history of Movado's rich archives, the Alta Collection displays both the heritage and the Swiss made craftsmanship at the core of every Movado watch. A big thanks to Movado for their continued support, and you can learn more in the show notes or by visiting mavato.com. And now back to the show. You you do run the risk with the non-movie-tied bond watches that they don't have a footing. Right? That they don't, they don't apply to something that like you remember band wearing on the screen or like sometimes stuff comes out and like I remember the you know like the Spectre edition of the 300 with the lollipop hand and the twelve hour bezel. And I I remember thinking that was awesome and it's featured in the movie, right? But then you know, they did that officers edition a couple years back. And I don't know that that I could be wrong, but I don't believe that was worn in any of the movies. I don't go like is this just because it had been too long since you made a bond watch? And the answer is probably yes. Yeah. Um, but we don't get a bond movie this year, despite it being sixty years. But we do get a new Bond watch. And I actually I really like it. It's a what what is the premium? About two grand over a a steel Seamaster on a rubber? Yes. |
| Danny Milton | I think maybe a little bit more, twenty two hundred. I think yeah, it's about twenty two hundred and it comes in about equally less than the no time to die because you know we're we're operating in steel and not titanium, which is also great. |
| James Stacy | So I guess it would be up to you if this is that much better than the standard blue version, which is already really nice watch in the ceramic. It is. I I this might be like the aluminum and the look of it and the rest of it might be enough to to convince like if I was in the market for such a watch to think like, well, I need to I need to adjust my list of options. The green one I think is still awesome. You know, I try to |
| Danny Milton | I this is a stupid thing to do, but I try to guess where brands are heading when when they do sort of one off things like this. And Omega's been doing some interesting things, whether it's the the three eighty thirty eight sixty one Speedmaster with the new bracelet that tapers or it's a good bracelet. It's a great bracelet. And then you have this situation where they're they're making yet another watch with an aluminum bezel and now a a much more a paired down laser engraved dial, proving that they can do this. And I you need to look only at the um the C Master Diver 300M Necton edition, which is the one with the It's really cool, the relief bezel amazing, and and a matte laser engraved dial with that'd be good on the on the mesh. Right. And so I wonder as we approach I think another anniversary year for the Seamaster coming up or in the next five years, if we start to see things change a bit. You know, styles, tastes are definitely this feels to me like the great balance of we've gone a little too far on the vintage-inspired end of the spectrum, I think. And a watch like this kind of pulls it back to the middle. Yeah. Well we didn't |
| James Stacy | we didn't call out the fact that there's no Fotina on Exactly. Exactly. So the the the bezel in daylight looks white or silver for the markings and then the hands and markers on the on the dial themselves are white. Which I think is perfect. Yep. This isn't the only one though. They did this one, which I think is the one that most people are going to connect to, but they did another version in canopis gold that refers to Jamaica and Goldeneye and and it has this wild dial and then the dial's like you almost don't notice it because it's surrounded by a gem set bezel in kind of green to yellow. I mean, outside of Green Bay Packers fan, well heeled Green Bay Packers fans, who do you think this is |
| Danny Milton | for? I mean, you should we mention the price point is somewhere in the realm of $140 something thousand dollars. Oh wow, I I thought I was expecting half that. Okay. So I missed that part. Really really affects the answer to that question. Um there's also the idea that both of these watches are limited in production uh because of that crazy case back animation. This one even more so, I think, because of the gem setting. One would assume. And the fact that there's a silicon dial that is unique to each watch. Um so y you got me on that one. I I I honestly couldn't I mean I I think it's a gorgeous watch. It just comes down to a resources issue in terms of like how how uh how full your wallet is that |
| James Stacy | day. Right. And this isn't the only sort of thing that that Omega does to this tone or other brands that operate in this space. I mean they they have competitors that that would make this watch and not not even put it in the press release. It would go to a few retailers here there, go to the people who actually would be in the zone. I think it's a wild thing. I would love to see one in person between this sort of |
| Danny Milton | you the dial's made out of silicon, you said? Yeah, it's a it's a natural gray silicon and the patterns are unique to each specific watch. Yeah. All right |
| James Stacy | . I mean I I'm not against the dial at all. It's again with a white luminous treatment. And then the bezel's something else. Like I said, it's this green that fades to It's a nutty thing for sure. I had no idea it was quite that much money. But hey, cool. Maybe you get to see one in person someday. I agree. I just No, they're they're not. But I |
| Danny Milton | I also want to throw back to you what your thoughts are on the fact that Omega could be doing this anyway. If you look at this watch head-on without looking at the case back, you really doesn't need to have the golden eye connection for the gem set colors and nope. It would still catch our attention, it would still merit conversation. And I think that the Seamaster, the Steel one, would would stand on its own any day of the week. I'm just curious what your thoughts are on why Omega feels the necessity to to release these kind of killer watches on a platform of something else, on the back of something el |
| James Stacy | se. In my mind it's a two tier thing. First, this is this I think this speaks to just how important Bond is to Omega. Yeah. And Bond is at a transitionary phase, right? I don't I don't I'm not privy to whatever contract Omega has with the Bond franchise. But it would be bad, much like if they lost the Olympics, if they didn't have Bond anymore, right? Right, right. And I think this is a a bit of a tribute to Bond sixty year, but also Omega's connection to Bond and how it import how important it is to them. And then the other side of it, I would say is think about how can you name offhand how many SP 300 SKUs there are? Because I can't, but it's going to be upwards of 50. Yeah, you're right. So when a brand makes that many, if they just kind of dropped this one, it would almost have to replace something else. And they don't really do replace. It's an additive process in many ways. So I I think that it it this gives it a home, this gives it kind of a special position and it also gives them a nice test to see how many people would want an aluminum dialed, aluminum bezeled under the guise of of bond and then it I imagine it's just nice data for them to have. I think that's right. That's how I see it anyways. Is it they probably I'm not saying that they're doing something to ingratiate themselves to keep the Bond thing alive, but like we don't get a Bond movie this year. Of course, the last one was heavily delayed due to COVID. So the schedule is all kind of messed up. For all you know, this connected to a movie, right? Yeah. Just can't come out now. I would love to for them to hold to hold this and still put it in a movie. It would look it would look fantastic. Oh, I really hope that this either shows up. I'm sure that they'll make one for the next movie. Yeah. But I really hope what happens is when they announce whomever the next bond is that this is what's on his wrist. Yeah, press conference. We'll be watching for sure. Yeah, for sure. They're always nutty, kind of big events in London uh when a new bond is announced. And uh I think it'd be really cool to see this. And I just think like especially discounting the back and and the collector angle and the rest of it, and certainly the the canopice version, but I think this blue one on the mesh or on a NATO, like actually would look right on a special forces character. Yep. Right? Totally. The no date really is starting the more I stare at it, the the balance of the dial is really nice. And I love the blue one Cool stuff. Uh I like it. I don't I don't know it yet to be seen if the price ends up being something that like scares some people off. I don't know that it slowed down the NTTD at all. |
| Danny Milton | I feel like the fact that it's less than the no time to die is gonna do it a whole lot of favors. I feel like you're gonna be cross-comparing against that price more than you're gonna be looking at how much it cost |
| James Stacy | s more than the standard SP. So yeah, cool stuff. Looking forward to see that one in person as well, not unlike the Murph. And then finally to close out the show, we've got uh a storytelling that you worked on that you just shared with me before we started recording. So I've got a grin on my face because it's a it's a silly idea, but it's the kind of silly idea I would have come up with. I figured you'd like it. Yeah. So what we've got is a whole story about well, you know what, Danny, you you you explained. This is this is your baby and uh and it you've got some you've got some |
| Danny Milton | some weird offspring in here for sure. I I mean every now and again we get the creative freedom and license to just kind of run with something absolutely uh just my bread and butter goofy. Uh and this is uh this is my my my goofy story of the year. Um I think James will know this more than anyone. I I have some fun on the old Photoshop every now and again. And sometimes I like to test the limits of my rudimentary Photoshopping skills. And what I what I came up with was this was this thought exercise. Uh and and it came to me when we were at Watches and Wonders in March and we saw the new Air King with Crown Guards and we saw a lefty GMT. And both of those watches have no historical predecessor. They are they are entirely modern watches. Obviously, the Air King exists, the GMT Masterline exists, but there's no, you know, green black bezel from the 1970s. There's no, you know, uh serially produced left left side crown GMT. There's also the Air King was a 34mm, you know, OP with it with a different brand branding on it. Thinking taking that into into my mind, I thought what what if they did have sort of a vintage predicate the to which they were based? What would those watches have looked like and could I make them real on the computer. That was basically the idea I pitched to Nick Marino, half as a joke with one proof of concept um design and he just approved it and then I was left to have to make a bunch more of them. Uh which |
| James Stacy | I Yeah, yeah. So all these are all like Photoshops in kind of grainy images that feel a little bit old. Uh it makes me giggle because some of them do look like something that could have existed and, some of them really don't. And we'll start with the one that really feels like it shouldn't have existed, and that's this air king. Why don't you walk us through the uh the a vintage air king? |
| Danny Milton | Yeah, so I took uh when I when I look at the air king, I think the one thing that stands out to me in the modern context is the 369, which is clearly just a design pullover from the explorer, uh, the modern explorer. And uh, Rolex is nothing if not economical, um, nothing if not consistent. So why mess with a good thing? If you already have three, six, and nine numerals on one watch, use them on another. The rest of the watch is sort of uh aviation inspired in terms of its layout, and then you know the the the the part that we all notice the most is the the green and the yellow coloration. So when I was thinking what would a vintage modern Air King look like, I immediately focused on the 369 and was said, well, it would have to be based on an explorer of the era. So then I thought 1061 Explorer. Right. But then you have to put Crown Guards on that 1016 Explorer, don't you? In order to really make this work. Because in my fictional universe that I created here, this year's release of the Crown Guards Air King is a return to tradition to my to my vision is history for air king. To my invented Crown Guard, you know, air king. I got it. Yeah. I I didn't come up with a reference number for it, but I guess we could call it like, you know, the 1020, who knows? Uh but it uh yes, what I did was I I I took sort of the base of a of a 1016 matte dial uh three six nine layout. And uh basically worked from there. I had to find, just so you know, I was very thoughtful about numerals that I needed to adore in the dial with, aside from the 369, needed to come from previous Rolex references. So I searched for a long time to find a Rolex model with a that had painted Arabic numerals on it and then had to create, you know, double digit markings out of them. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | At first glance you think like, oh, this is just the new air the current Air King's dial sandwiched into but it isn't. You've you've built something here, something terrible and terrifying. Something really terrifying. It's definitely like Frankenstein to full eff |
| Danny Milton | ect for sure. I tried to make it, you know, like my the the the artistic intention behind this was to make it ridiculous, but also make it feel like you're looking at an actual photograph. That was that was the idea here |
| James Stacy | . Yeahah, ye. No, I don't I don't like or dislike this any more than the current Air King for sure. I I think the smaller size is kind of cool. I like the way it looks on wrist. Um, you know, there's a there's a lot happening in the smaller dial without the case around it with all the numbers. Uh so that's fun. And then after that, uh we we got something that I it I had to look at two or three times to be like, Well, is it just a blueberry? 'Cause the blue and then I was like, Oh wait, it's a Batman. So the sixteen seven five Batman. Yeah, there's the sixteen seven five B L N R to be ex |
| Danny Milton | Fantastic. This I think actually looks pretty hot. It does, doesn't it? I've I I uh I I set this one free on in you know, and it it works. I I've looked at this photo a few times. It's believable. Uh, you know, I I've had some distance from some of these designs in a mat for a matter of weeks and I've gotten to return to them. And yeah, I mean there's no reason why this I I've repeated this in many stories. The blue-black GMT is the most logical color breakdown to me of the GMT. And I just love how this how this looks uh in the in the vintage presentation. I'm wearing the modern one on my wr |
| James Stacy | ist. It's so goofy and fun. Yeah, no, it works though. The coloring came out really nicely. And then uh next up we have a an even more like modern bending of the time machine that that you've and this is so a sixteen seven five but in the left hand the green black. |
| Danny Milton | Yeah this is a truly deranged design. Also not to get too in the weeds about how difficult some of this can be, but moving the date to the left is is more difficult to do than you might think, especially having to balance lighting, you know, and things of that nature. Uh but um nicely done. Yeah, it's again if if Rolex is gonna make these now and and and and if a Pepsi can exist in the modern context, then they all should be re be be able to reverse engineered. You know, there should be no reason why they can't be. Any color to any left right. Yeah. I mean I didn't like for example the the black dial that's been discontinued, which I think the lefty kind of took its place this year when it got re-released. But I feel like, you know, there were black dial with red hand GMTs and you know you can easily just swap it out for a green one. |
| James Stacy | For sure. No, I like that. Super fun. Definitely worth checking it out in the story. I think the of the photos, this one feel has the the vintage feel really locked in, which I I like quite a bit. So that was good. And then we get to my favorite. Mine too. Which I think this is just like it works so well and it fits and it looks like a real watch. And this would be essentially a thirty six millimeter skydweller. So a skydweller in what like a sixteen oh one case. Exactly. Exactly. I like it. No no no quick set date either. So I'm a big Skydeller fan, but obviously these are 40 millimeter watches. And uh and it it's really cool to see it in this case because it it just it just feels so at home to blend to have blended the two? |
| Danny Milton | This was the hardest one to make by a huge margin. First of all, the idea to put uh the most complicated Rolex watch into a 36mm case is is nuts. And the and the only the place that that came from was the fact that a lot of vintage watches are high complication in in sometimes as small as like 34 millimeter, 33 millimeter cases. So I was like, you know what? They figured it out. You know, somehow they were able to do it, you know, let's say in 1972, uh whenever this watch was made. But um yeah, I I figure that the the general layout of that watch is is sort of based on the the the blueprint of the fluted bezel date us design, you know? And so I just thought why not? And again, this is where some of the like the in the weed stuff is the Rolex has its sort of own style, like numerical styling today which I didn't want to use. So what I did for the the 24 hour dial was I just took the text, the f the f the typeface from a GMT bezel from like a 1675 and and put it on. Wow. It's intense. Isn't that intense? It's a lot. I also took a few liberties here. Like I moved the Skydweller branding, I believe, and some of that stuff is like lower on the dial. Like I move things around to imagine where they would have been had it been this size. And to be honest, making those um the perpetual calendar part of it, the month indicator. Yep. And making them appear as though there's some depth to them. This is not easy stuff, James |
| James Stacy | . And and honestly, if you hadn't like talked about on this, like whoever listens to this and and goes like they can appreciate it by zooming in on these images and stuff. But I think otherwise most people would totally gloss over the fact that there is a red marker at the crown at twelve and that there is some depth depending on the angle of the of the photo for these. No. I I think it works really well. I think it looks really good in the blue with the steel, presumably steel. Maybe it's uh maybe it's a gold case. Oh it's steel, baby. It's steel. Steel. There you go. So yeah, I I dig this. Uh I think if if um if anybody from Role Links was let's say listening, reading this and like w looking for some actual inspiration, I think this is probably the one that that could be made. A smaller skydweller would be really rad. So speaking of rad or uh lack thereof, we get to the last one. Yep. There's some uncanny valley happening with this last one for me. And you know you know the you know the theory behind Un Uncanny Valley? Oh sure. Yeah. So like that sometime in the history of humanity something looked so much like us, but not quite right, and we've learned to fear that, like an imposter. There's some great theories about what in what Uncanny Valley actually means, like why you find it uncomfortable when CG is close to photoreal but isn't. And there's some evolutionary theory tied to that. I find it really fascinating. There's some great stuff uh in the science fiction world that deals with it, but this is a an explorer to sort of, but then the more I look at it, the more uncomfortable I become. Like I'm looking at something that that's trying to pass itself off as an exploration |
| Danny Milton | parts here? What why isn't this working for my eyes? This is in my deranged brain either a transitional a transitional explorer to or a prototype explorer to you can be the judge what this would have been uh in this invented universe, but it is it is basically what has become of the explorer two today uh in some fashion, dial furniture only with the bezel of of a of a vintage explorer too. Well, it's |
| James Stacy | vintage sixteen fifty five. Exactly. From the bezel case, that kind of thing. But then you have, yeah, like um what looks like a modernly proportioned like maxi style dial. It's like a sea dweller dial of |
| Danny Milton | of the era but I was I was careful and and was and was conscious of the fact that Explorer six uh sixteen fifty-five and the ten sixteen Explorer ones had a very different Rolex typography to just the word mark Rolex and even the crowns back then. I don't know what it was. So I made maintained that sort of weird, weird design element, paired it with uh like a maxi dial, sea dweller dial. But then I I put the ghosted hands that are on the modern, the blacked out, you know, you know, of the modern black dial. I guess the last generation, because they got rid of that in the in the most recent iteration, but there's so much happening here. Yeah, there is. It's a lot. It's a lot. |
| James Stacy | But it it is like if they went from a sixteen fifty five to a six uh six digit. Exactly, exactly. Um in in kind of this was the branch between the two. Definitely forgets the sixteen five fifty and sixteen five seventy in in some metric. That's uh it's a weird thing, but it does make me somewhat uncomfortable for sure. |
| Danny Milton | Oh, for sure. That was sort of the intention. The thing I'm realizing as we're talking about this is I really botched a good April Fool's Day opportunity with this story, but at the same time, it's like when you're bloated and laying on the couch after eating too much turkey, like this is the exact kind of story you should be reading. Ye |
| James Stacy | ah. I mean this is this is just this is just good old fashioned fun. Why out why does Photoshop exist otherwise? Like, this is this is why. This is why I hope if you're listening, you dig into this post. It comes out a few days before this uh this uh episode of the podcast will come out. And Danny, look, I think that's an episode. We did uh the new Murph now in thirty eight millimeters, pretty hot. The Mito Ocean Star GMT L E that we did with Mito, uh which I love and is on my wrist and super thrilled to finally have it uh in the wild. And then this 60th anniversary bond uh in steel with the mesh in the full blue. Good stuff. And then finally we finish on really the opposite direction, old watches, but ones that never existed. Literally, not new watches that just came out, but old watches that never came out. That never came out. Uh so yeah, you your dream of Rolexes that never happened. It really does feel like something that would have required a big dose of turkey to come up with, but uh I you know, I I feel you you did you did it in advance for everyone else. I just I mustered. I mustered that kind of energy. Mustered the mindset. All right, man. Well thanks so much for being on the episode and of course happy Thanksgiving. Thanks, James. Appreciate it. Okay, and to close this week's episode, I have some news for everybody in the Hodinky Radio audience, and that is that we are taking a break to rethink what a Hodinky podcast should be, how it could represent more voices from within the watch community, and how we best reflect what you, listeners, all want from a great watch podcast. We're not shutting it down entirely, it's not a goodbye, but we are hitting pause to focus on what comes next. Consider it a hiatus, so don't expect weekly chats about watches for a while, but keep us in your feed if you're keen on some special presentations and episodes that we have in the works for the future. We think it's time for a change and we want to focus on bringing you content that is actually special. for listening over the years for the comments the shares support and the likes and we'll be back before too long |