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Ben Clymer Presents:  Episode 0 – A Preview Of A New Podcast from Hodinkee

Published on Tue, 10 Oct 2023 17:00:00 +0000

A special new video podcast series for in-depth discussions with experts from watches and beyond.

Synopsis

In this inaugural episode zero of Hodinkee Podcasts' new video format, James Stacey and Hodinkee founder Ben Clymer introduce their revamped podcasting strategy. After taking a break from regular podcasting, they've developed a more intentional approach with multiple show formats under the Hodinkee Podcasts umbrella. The main announcement is "Ben Clymer Presents," a new 10-episode series featuring in-depth conversations with subject matter experts, primarily focused on watches but potentially covering adjacent topics like cars and architecture.

Ben explains that this new format responds to audience demand for deeper, more academic content from people who intimately know their subjects, going beyond press releases and surface-level discussions. Unlike the highly-produced "Talking Watches" series, "Ben Clymer Presents" will be more conversational, raw, and free-form—essentially a traditional podcast now enhanced with video. The first episode will feature Jean Arnault and Rexhep Rexhepi, two influential figures in high-end independent watchmaking, discussing their collaboration and perspectives on the industry.

The hosts also reveal that Hodinkee Radio will return after the 10-week run of "Ben Clymer Presents," featuring multiple editors discussing weekly watch news with video capability. They tease upcoming major content releases and commercial events for Hodinkee, calling it potentially their best work in over 15 years. The episode concludes with an invitation for audience questions via email for potential Q&A segments in future episodes, emphasizing Ben's role as a liaison between the watch community and industry.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to something kind of brand new for Hodinki Podcasts. Uh obviously, that starts off with the fact that you can see us, uh, which is a special treat. But for those of you who aren't aware, my name is James Stacey, lead editor with Hodinky, and I'm joined today by Hodinki's founder and uh good pal of mine, Ben Klimmer. And Ben, we've got kind of a fun announcement because we took a long break from podcasting. We did. To try and develop a plan of what we actually wanted to do rather like to be a little bit more intentional about it. Not not what we told each other to do, but like what we wanted to do. Exactly. Right. Yep. And we so we've been bouncing back and forth. And I this is kind of well, like like the title says, this is episode zero of your new show. Yeah. Ben Clamor presents. Yeah. And they're going to be sort of with in-depth conversations with interesting people that are kind of subject matter experts or, you know, cut from the same
Ben Clymer cloth as a given topic. Yeah, I I think I think that that's exactly it, James. I think like, you know, I I read every comment on the site and on Instagram, but you know, I I really do pay attention to what you are asking for. And I think the one thing that that has been so crystal clear over the past will say year or however long it's been since we stopped doing Hodinky Radio, is you guys have been kind of yearning for really in-depth content from people who really know what they're talking about. So this idea of Ben Climber Presents is me kind of hosting a real subject matter expert in something. It'll obviously mostly be about watches, but it might include a car company or something like that potentially. Um, but it's this idea of like really speaking to people who know a subject so intimately that like the conversation is just so far more interesting than what you get at a uh you know from a press release or anything like that. Um so it'll be we're gonna we're gonna do about 10 episodes, we're gonna do one a week for the next 10 weeks uh or thereabouts. Uh they'll all be hosted by me. We'll have some some great guests, you know, many of which are already lined up. And it it should be fun. I mean, it's a whole new style of content for us at Hudinky. Um, you know, audio, video, et cetera. Um, we think it
James Stacey 'll be it'll be really well received. I hope. Yeah, definitely hoping. Uh as as as we said, this is episode zero. So it's sort of a preview of what we have planned for the sort of season ahead. And I think the the part that needs to be explained maybe a little bit is your show is not replacing Hodinki Radio. It's actually just the first wave. Yeah. So Hodinki Radio, if you're subscribed to it now, you may have noticed it now is just called Hodinki Podcasts. And the goal being that we could develop shows, some that'll only be a few episodes, some that could run for longer. And then we'll have our standard show, which is Hodinki Radio will return uh the week after uh Ben Climber presents wraps. Uh and that'll be back with um video and multiple editor in-depth discussions about weekly news. So I'm super pumped for that. I've really missed having Hoodinky Radio as you know something on my workload. Obviously a huge podcast nerd and really like making these sorts of things. Um I I I think that with your show now starting, I mean the first episode comes out tomorrow. So the teaser is literally we're trying to tease very lightly. Yep. 24 hours you get a full episode. Yeah, we got a big week next week. This week I should crazy week. Uh there's stuff that when we're recording this, we definitely can't talk about it. When it goes live, we still can't talk about it. But if you're gonna pay attention to Hodinki for a given three, four, five days in a row, this would be a great we
Ben Clymer ek for the year. Indeed. I mean, I I can confidently say that after over 15 years, a decade and a half of doing this, we're about to launch for sure the best piece of content we we've ever produced. Potentially the most interesting commercial events as well. Uh 1010, coming at you live, uh coming back for the second year. Um some cool limited editions coming very, very soon. You know, really stuff that I think we're really gonna be able to hang our head on and say we are like incredibly proud of these things after
James Stacey 15 years of doing this. Yep, absolutely. And podcasting really wraps up into that. So we'll have hoodinky podcasts. We're kicking off with your show. We're following up with a kind of brand new take on what Hodinky Radio will be. And kind of the cornerstone for all of this is video. Yeah. And I I think an interesting question for you because it's one that I asked kind of early on in our planning for all this is how is Ben Klammer Presents going to be different than say uh Collector's Edition or a Talking W
Ben Clymer atches, right? Yeah, I mean talking watches is is is you know I would say what we're arguably best known for in the world of of content. But it it's it's highly produced, it's highly edited by by the guy behind the camera over there. Hey Will. And it it's it's wonderful. I mean in in many ways, it's not, if I may say it's not really a conversation. It's more of me giving prompts and then allowing the guests to kind of speak and say, hey, I bought this, you know, unimatic because so and so. Um, I think this is going to be much more dynamic, much more almost academic uh in the way that we explore stuff. I think if you look at all the talking watches, which I'm incredibly proud of and we will continue to do, it's really like, hey, here's the thing. I bought this watch because it means something to me or or not, you know. Um, but we don't go that into detail about each particular watch, each particular thing, because simply like we like our goal for talking watches is to be about 20 minutes long max. There will be one major exception to that. Um, but you know, we we want to produce really digestible content for people that are just getting into watches. And I think that's what talking watches has been best at at scale, you know, for the whole industry, really. I think what we want to do with Ben Climber presents is more of an exhaustive look at one very particular thing. And it could be a watch brand, it could be a car, it could be you know a particular style of architecture, as a shout out to Stevie P. Um, you know, this idea of going really deep on stuff, which is frankly how Hodinky kind of cut its teeth in the early days when I was doing a lot of the writing. I think we want to bring back around, but again, like you know i i want i don't want to be the voice that that that tells the story i want to be the voice that kind of helps lubricate the story facilitate yeah facilitate that's a much better word than lubricate i can tell you lubricate's a tough word yeah it is but still still makes sense that's it checks out um but But um so that's the idea. Again, like you know, we are now very blessed to know some incredibly talented, thoughtful people in watchmaking and and and elsewhere. And it just feels like the time to kind of you know use this platform to get them to tell their own story to the Hodinky universe in their own word
James Stacey s. Yep. And the format is very much a podcast. This is what it looks like when we would record a podcast. The only thing we're changing is we've got a couple of cameras, we've got a guy running the cameras and uh and we're going to put it on YouTube. So if you don't want to do a podcast feed, if you don't want to load up the story on your browser and play it, you know, while you're at work, you can sit and leave this in the bottom corner of your monitor and watch us chit-chat for a little while. You've got some incredible guests. Please don't expect uh the the caliber of guests to be equal to to what's going on here. We're starting low, we're putting the bar low with me, and we've got some really special stuff coming. I want you to know that. So this is true. Yeah. Yeah. Physically the bar is high. Yeah. Um but uh I mean I the I think episode one's gonna be uh an absolute banger. I'm really excited to see it. Yeah so e
Ben Clymer pisode one drops tomorrow by the time this airs uh and it'll be with none other than Jean Arnaud and Rechep Rechepi, right? I mean, like two of the guys that I would say are most influential in terms of shaping what real high-end watchmaking is today in 2023. I mean Rechep as arguably the hottest independent watchmaker alive, right? And Jean Arnaud, obviously, you know, kind of a member of the Arnaud family, one of the most powerful families in the world. But beyond that, one of the most thoughtful leaders of the renaissance of independent watchmaking, high-end independent watchmaking. And it's interesting and I I might be challenged and maybe fairly so on the idea of calling what he's doing independent watchmaking because LV is a huge company. Exactly. But he is supporting independence with uh the foundation, the LV Foundation. And th this new watch which just came out with with Red Chap, you know, they'll be selling ten pieces and and you know, a good chunk of the the money sold for this, you know, or made from this watch will go towards this foundation, which will then support other independent watchmakers. So you have Jean, who's behind uh LV watchmaking, which is we've seen a great renaissance there with the new tambor. Uh Daniel Roth, Serion will see very soon, or really have seen, but we'll see kind of in the middle very soon, and of course Gerald Gentham, right? I mean, these are Gerald Genta and Daniel Roth are two names that like mean so much to people that really know watches and are now coming back to life with the help of Jean Arnaud himself, right? Uh and then Retchap, of course. Like, you know, they, these two guys that are both very very, young collaborating together. They both live in Geneva. Um, is is going to be amazing. And I think like, you know, those two guys collaborating, like, there's kind of like no no end in sight for what those guys could do together
James Stacey . Yeah, and and from from my perspective, you know, as someone who who enjoys, you know, absorbing watch media and culture as as much as I do being part of it, uh, I I don't think that you'd necessarily always get the opportunity to have those guys sit down and talk at length in a kind of unedited scenario. Right. The goal with Ben Climber Presents, especially if you compare it to something like a collector's edition, is this is a little bit more raw, a little bit more free form, a little bit closer to old school podcasting, we're just adding in the camera. Yeah. And and the goal is to go like you said, kind of deep, nerdy, specific. Yeah. With the people who can talk to th
Ben Clymer ose points. I think so. And I think it in in many ways, like that is what people are yearning for now more than ever. Like people just want like, you know, I happen to know Jean and Recha, you know, not super well, but relatively well. Like they're I I WhatsApp with them both, you know. But I think like at the end of the day, people are just people. And I think like that is what will be so kind of interesting about this. Like this is not going to be a highly processed, highly edited, um, you know, hyper professional, polished, you know, video that that we also do on Hodinky. This will be more of a conversation between three people that love watchers. And I think, you know, there um, you know you,'ll see kind of the the true takes on on everything. You know, I intend to ask like what watches they love, what watches they hate from themselves and and elsewhere, you know. Uh and I think, you know, what what you can expect from from Rechap and and Jean are um it's just utter candidness, you know. And I think like both these guys are, you know, frankly legends in the making um in their respective fields. And I think you know, to have uh their perspective on things as they continue to ascend, uh, you know, Retchup is nowhere near done, nor Jean. Um, I think will be really neat. And I think, you know, a lot of the stuff they they'll say in the episode we can then kind of look back on in five years, 10 years, really 20, 30 years, right? Like these are young guys, and say, wow, like they made good on this, or they didn't. And I think like that, that's the the ambition with this podcast and everything that I do is to somebody put it very, very concisely in their comments recently. It's like, I want to be able to call balls and strikes i want to say like yeah like that's that that's a little out of balance like okay like this is this is not necessarily what you know the community had in mind or maybe this is right up the center and it it's exactly what people had in mind um and i think, you know, if if there's one job that I take most seriously beyond my actual job here at Hodinky, it's like kind of playing the liaison uh between the community and the industry in some ways. Um and I think uh this format will allow us to do that. Yeah,
James Stacey it's fantastic. I don't uh I don't disagree at all. I'm excited to see that the way that it goes. And you know, I I think at this point would the teaser has been teased. Uh come back in somewhat less than twenty-four hours. We'll have episode one for you. Yeah. It should be super excited. Uh I would like to point out that if you have questions that we might be able to answer in a QA show later in the series or maybe as a segment at the end of a show later on, um we will have an email address instead of saying it out and you'll have to listen to me spell it. It's just in the description while you're down there because we're getting better at YouTube by the minute. Uh give us a like, maybe subscribe if you're not already. That's probably a good call. Um but the email address is down there if you have a question for Ben, um especially now that we know, you know, kind of uh the tone of what of what we're working with, uh send it in. We'll pick a couple and and get them on, uh get some answers from the people who can. Yeah, and I would say anything
Ben Clymer goes. You know, and if there's any questions about me or current state Hodinky or future Hodinki or past even, you know, I'm happy to answer them for sure. Um, you know, I think this this will give a direct line into into me and and you know, kind of the leadership of this company and and this company, as well as hopefully, you know, what's happening out outside the indust
James Stacey ry as well. All right. Well, fantastic. Thanks so much for tuning in to episode zero. Episode one's tomorrow. It's Ben Climber Presents. And following that, we'll have Hodinky Radio. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll catch you soon.