Ben Clymer Presents: Ep. 02 – Ten Years Of Talking Watches¶
Published on Wed, 18 Oct 2023 17:00:00 +0000
Recorded at a live screening of Talking Watches with Ed Sheeran, Danny joins Ben to chat about a decade of Talking Watches and to take questions live from the audience.
Synopsis¶
This podcast captures a live Q&A session following the premiere of a Talking Watches episode featuring Ed Sheeran, hosted by musician John Mayer. The event, held at a Manhattan movie theater, marks the 10th anniversary of Hodinkee's Talking Watches series. Ben Clymer, founder of Hodinkee, is joined by colleague Danny to reflect on the franchise's evolution since its 2013 debut with John Mayer as the first guest.
Clymer discusses how Talking Watches became Hodinkee's signature content by featuring passionate collectors sharing their personal watch stories in an accessible, authentic way. The conversation covers the origins of the G-Shock collaboration series with John Mayer and announces an upcoming Ed Sheeran G-Shock as part of a new "Legends" series. Clymer emphasizes that all Talking Watches guests participate purely out of passion, never for payment, making the series genuine and relatable even when featuring expensive timepieces.
The Q&A portion addresses various topics including the homogenization of collecting around a few popular brands, IWC's evolution since John Mayer's open letter to the company, and the criteria for selecting Talking Watches guests. Clymer explains that episodes typically emerge organically through personal connections rather than formal booking processes, and that the team prioritizes guests who genuinely love watches over those seeking promotional opportunities. He also addresses questions about John Mayer's ongoing involvement with Hodinkee and the possibility of Clymer himself appearing as a Talking Watches guest, which he describes as "non-zero" but unlikely in the near term due to his preference for facilitating rather than being the focus.
The event celebrates not just the milestone anniversary but also the community that has formed around watch enthusiasm, with Clymer emphasizing Hodinkee's mission to introduce younger audiences to horology while maintaining authenticity and passion at the core of everything they produce.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | If you play a really great show in one of these watches, do you ever get superstitious and continue to wear the same watch hoping the the run continues. So you're like a baseball player hitting home runs. Does one watch lock and you go, I can't take it off now. I'm playing great chess. U |
| John Mayer | h I don't know. I don't change watches that that part of me likes the idea of like a stage outfit. I put on the same thing for every gig. I love I love Coldplay and I love that Chris Martin always looks the same at every gig. It's got he's got a stage outfit he goes on. He's Chris Martin. And I like wearing the uh ceramic. I mean the I'm gonna flip between the white and the black ceramic for the rest of the tour, but I like being like that's the stage watch. Um because I used to you know I've I've worn the twenty four ninety nine on stage I've worn the that's I don't think anyone's worn a twenty four ninety nine on sta |
| Ben Clymer | ge So Ben uh we are back for another episode of Ben Climber Presents. I'm honored honored to be here. Yeah, Danny. This this is fun. So this is uh an episode that we're recording live from a movie theater on West 57th Street in Manhattan, after we just premiered Talking Watches with Ed Sheeran, hosted by not me, nor you, definitely by Mr. JC Mayer. That's right. And this was honestly one of the most exciting evenings I've experienced from any Honiki community event ever to be in like a dark theater, everyone's got popcorn and soda or whatever it is you're drinking and just uh enjoying one of the most entertaining and officially the longest episode of Tkaling Watches ever. Indeed. And in fact, you know, the title of this episode will be Ten Years of Talking Watches. This is actually the the episode that that marks 10 years of myself and that man right there, Will Holloway, producing these things together. Uh so it's kind of an amazing way to mark a decade of shooting, talking, watching. Yeah, and speaking of Will, and I know that for the camera looking at us and for this podcast, no one will see this, but there are a few people that we should definitely shout out that took that made this talking watches happen. So Will Holloway, please, you know, stand up for sure. Sort of the father of talking watches in many ways. And then the man who edited this absolutely epic episode, Mr. Joe Wyatt. We all clapped when his name came up on the screen. There's also a couple of um my own colleagues, uh Honiki editors. We have Mark Koslerich right up here in the front row. Please come say hi to him after the screening. If anybody wants their wrist on Hodinky whenever we run this, talk to talk to Mark right here. Yeah. We also have Melika Crawford somewhere in the crowd back there. We got Enerya Costa over there in the house. And we have our CEO, Jeff Fowler. So if you you guys find our crew in here, uh He doesn't matter, trust me. He's not that important. I think he's pretty cool. I think he's pretty cool, but he does pay me to say that. So that that that's for sure. Uh but 10 years of talking launches. And you know what's what's interesting that this is this marks 10 years is because it all began with John. It did. It began with John. We ran it in late September of 2013. And and to be clear, we we we didn't really plan that this would be the episode that marked 10 years, but I'm really happy it is it is that episode. But you know, the the story of that first episode I've shared a few times, but I'm I'm delighted to share it again, which was uh, you know, John and I had become friends through through watches some years before. And he basically texted me one day and he was like, Hey, like I'm in town to do letterman or something like that. I've got a bag full of watches. Should we shoot something? So Will and I were at an office on Barrack Street, and you know, it was, you know, probably an a office a size of, you know, I don't know, I would say from that column to that column or or smaller. And we're like, all right, let's just go do this. And so we ran over there. Will shot it himself with one camera. Um and you know, it it was really like internet magic in a bottle, and needless to say it, it kind of launched this whole franchise, which is for sure, you know, the most popular and most kind of like well-regarded thing we do. And in many ways kind of defines us as a brand and a business, which is just like sharing the love of these things, these watches in a way that is we we hope really um really digestible, but also really like welcoming. And I think, you know, the the John video, the first one, I think it was like, hey, you know, he had been seriously collecting and and you know for for many years. And to be clear, like a lot of the watches that show that were shown in Talking Watches 2, he had owned five years before when we shot Talking Watches 1. But as I said, it wasn't premeditated at all. So there was really like no thought given to what was there. Like he happened to have the 5970 G, which is probably the second most worn watch. Like the the P is the one that I think of when I think of him. So it probably should have been that. There was a 6263 with a service dial in in that video. It was just like the watch. Actually he had lent me. That was the first Daytona I ever got to wear was he lent me a 6263. So number two, we went to his house in LA and he was like, all right, I'm just gonna fucking do it, you know, and like show showed like you know multi-million dollar day. It's the flex episode for exactly. And that that was that was just super fun. Yeah. I'm assuming that it's completely inadvertent that basically every five years, John sort of marks the passage of time for talking watches because there have been so many episodes that happen in between, so many amazing episodes, and I know what it's like to be a fan of Hodinky, a reader of Hodinky. I I feel what it feels like to be in this room when we're watching an episode, but what do you sort of quantify to be the secret sauce of Talking Watches and why it has been sort of so I don't want to say successful because it's no way to measure that, but just what is that secret sauce? Yeah I just think I mean I just want you guys to know and I I don't know if this is assumed or not, but like we've never paid anybody ever to be on talking watches at all, right? And like to be clear, Ed Ed Sheeran, as you said, in 2017 was the most successful musician on the planet. So like he clearly doesn't need to be doing this, nor does John, nor do really any of our guests. And so I think it like it just comes from pure passion, as ridiculous and kind of like trite as that sounds, like it really is real. And these guys are taking time out of their day, away from their family in Ed's case, to record. And like that recording took all in probably three or four hours of Ed's time. And he's on tour, you know, he he has two young daughters. Um so it's really it's about finding people that want to do it, A. And then finding people that like are are engaged enough in a way that can tell the story in a way that feels good. And I think, you know, when you're talking about really expensive things that to be clear, most of our audience, most of our staff can't afford, it's difficult to do that in a way that that doesn't, that doesn't make people feel more distant from the product than than before seeing the video. And I and I think I think this video is great. And you know, the 5208 is a million dollar watch, right? And you know, but like when it says, look, like I, you know, I wouldn't do this any year, but the year that I became the number one recording artist on the planet, it made sense. And like it it does make sense in that context to some degree. I mean it's still a million dollar watch, which is crazy. But um and I think you know he it it allows people to s to celebrate their success in a way that that feels earnest, I would say. I think that's a good segue to the part of this relationship with John uh Tuhodinky that produced the original John Mayer G Shock because if anything, that is the most accessible watch there is and it brings the sensibility of collecting to a different place. Um how did something like that materialize? The original G Shock. Um you know, John is, you know, John was born in Fair Fairfield, Connecticut, you know, which is just kind of like a middle class town, you know, not too far from here, with normal parents, et cetera. And you know, the the that middle class mindset that he has, that I certainly have, I was born in upstate New York, you know, I think never really leaves you. Uh, if you're born into a world that protect Philippe's and Porsche's, like it's hard to go back, you know. And so the idea of doing something that was insanely collectible, insanely fun, and and kind of like a a a great way to demark between watch geyser gals and not was just always something that John and I wanted to do together. Uh, you know, Hodinki had been doing swatches for for for many years and those, you know, were were really successful as well. But we wanted to do something that was really personal with John. So obviously the first one was based on the keyboard that he had. Yeah, and we saw three of them. I think they've become collector's items in their own right. Um and it really ties in because if you if any of you were walking around the the lobby when we were having drinks before this, you may have seen a yellow G Shock floating around uh around there and then you saw it up here on the screen. I think it's and you might actually see it on my wrist up here as well. Extra spoiler alert. But I mean, Ben, it's it's honestly like just working here sometimes. You have to kind of pinch yourself. It's it's actually honestly very cool that we've been able to do something, not just with John, but then that extension sort of the fact that they even mentioned it in the video, like John wanted to bring his friends in on this. Yeah, yeah. And I I think, you know, John is really a very caring person, truly, and and also a creative one at that. And I think, you know, having done three editions of of the G Shock um was plenty you know and we didn't ask to do any more than that it was always it was always our idea to do three and then kind of you know keep going or not and like you know the the the the last one that we did, the the kind of baby blue one sol,d out the fastest. Yeah. And that told us that there really was a lot of momentum left in this idea. And so we came up with this idea of Hodinky G Shock's legends, basically. Um and so Ed's watch, which which you're wearing right there, um, which was designed by him and one of his friends, you know, after one of his albums, is it'll it'll the teaser will go out for the watch tomorrow. It'll go live on the site in a week. You know, we expect this to just be, you know, lightning in a bottle again. I mean, it's just such a cool product. Ed has is continues to have such a moment and is like universally loved. I mean, Ed is truly one of the kindest, most kind of like normal people you could ever imagine, considering that he sells out football stadiums every weekend. Yep. Um and so this this idea of just doing something again that will touch a whole new audience. And I think, you know, in many ways, like a lot of us, or at least I did, grew up with John Mayer. Like he was around. His music, I should say, was around. He was not around. I didn't much later. Uh his music was around when I was in high school and college. And like we we this generation knows him. And Ed is a different generation. He's a considerably younger than John. And he represents a whole new audience. And I think if there's one thing that Hodinki has done well from day one and continues to do well is is get younger people, new people into watches. And I really believe that you know the the the the Ed Sheran G shock which you're wearing will get thousands and thousands of people into this space in a really organic way. And guess what? Like if some people buy the watch and they don't get into watches, that's okay. They only spend a few hundred bucks on it. You know, it's it's not life or death here. Uh and either way we think they'll have a really collectible fun thing no matter what. I don't want to give away too much, but it's not all that we For those in the crowd, keep your keep your eyes on Hodinky, you know, through the end of the year. Yeah. 'Cause there'll be some some fun to be had. Yeah, th there'll be a a lot of a lot of fun things to come, potentially more in the Casio realm. But you know, it's we we want to do stuff that that connects these people organically, these people being the collaborators in John's kind of legacy series here, uh, to their own lives and to the community. Um so you know, first comes first first, first things, the EdWatch comes out next week. Yep. You know, we expect it to be a runaway hit for sure. We're going to open this up for a Q |
| Adam Moore | . Hi, uh Adam Moore here. How you doing? I'm good, Adam. How are you? Hey Adam. Nice to see you. Thanks for having us. Uh I just wanted to uh point out that in the talking watches that we just watched, there was a lot of focus on the uh brand called Toy Watch. Yes. And I wanted to ask you guys what your toy watch was. In other words, before you know, Ben obviously the Omega uh Speedmaster that your grandfather had was a big inspiration for you, but before you got into watches, before you even knew what watches were, what was your toy watch? Because I had a red toy watch and I forgot that I had it until I watched this because it was be |
| Ben Clymer | fore I was into watches. So it's amazing you say that because I actually also had a toy watch that I forgot that I had uh until I saw the the clip of this video and until we recorded. But that was that was much later. My my kind of toy watch was there were really a few. I had a I had a bunch of Cassios, and I mean that sincerely. I had a remote-controlled Casio watch, which I still have. My father actually brought it to my 40th birthday party, so I could see that. I had a Nautica, I was really into Nautica back in the day, a Nautica collaboration with Timex actually that had Indiglow. I wore that watch every day for years and I had a Swiss Army Victorinox almost tank style watch that and all of which I still have, to be clear. I don't wear a ton, but still have them. Um those were the th would be the three for me. First of all, hey Adam, thank you for the question. Uh yeah, for me there's two. One was a watch that when I look back at basically any photo of myself from ages I don't know, six to ten. It was a shark freestyle watch, you know, with the Velcro strap on it in in black, because you know, I guess I just like didn't want to go too crazy as a seven-year-old. Um, and then and then my first uh like semi-serious kids watch was um oddly enough, a swatch collaboration with with the golfer Sergio Garcia, uh way back in I think the year 2001. I think I picked I got that watch. It's a weird choice. It's very strange. It's very, but you know what it looked, it was like a blue diver style watch It was the crate like a navy blue bracelet. Crazy watch, but that's uh you you don't get to to choose them. Uh ha what your taste is when you're 10. Thanks very much. You're welcome |
| Unknown | . Hey Ben, uh glad you mentioned John's open letter to IWC, which I guess was maybe around eight, nine years ago at this point. Have you spoken to him at all about how IWC has changed since he's written that letter, you know, the direction it's gone in, or his thoughts, or even your thoughts on IWC today |
| Ben Clymer | ? Uh we haven't spoken about it recently. I mean when that letter came out, that created like a whole shitstorm for me. I can tell you that. And and sooner or later I'll tell that stor But that was like a real problem for me for for a while there. Look, IWC ha has has course corrected in many ways, and we did a collaboration with them, you know, a few years later, probably four or five years later. That remains one of my favorite limited editions all the time. Both John and Ed both both own them and you can see them wearing it all the time. I think there's a lot of great stuff in IWC now. I think you know they're they're a brand that I think in many ways like has been what I I always think about like when I used to work at UBS. I used to work at a bank, you know, now 16, 17 years ago. And IWC, the Portuguese in particular, the you know, the eight-day, was kind of the anti-Rolex. And so when you made your first whatever, $3,000 bonus as an associate at UBS, like you'd either buy a Samariner, which you could just walk in the store and buy, or the Portuguese. I know that the brand is doing well, um, but it it it hasn't kind of kind of taken off the same way that that a lot of other brands around it has. And I think a lot of it is just the sheer power of of Rolex, which is their direct competitor in their price category, obviously. And then Omega has done very well as well, being kind of like the anti-Rolex now. So there's there's still a long way to go for IWC. And I'm in many ways, and I I say this realizing that probably 50% of this audience is wearing a Rolex, like I am more excited to see people wearing an IWC than a Rolex. You know, it's just it's just because I I see I'm exposed to so many washes and such a huge percentage R Rolex. Um so I think I think there's a long way to go. Um but I I still think they're they're doing pretty well. I love the ceramic stuff. Uh I really like the tribute to 3705. I bought that. I just bought it online, paid retail for it. Like I think it's a great watch. I still have a 3705, the original. Um the ceramic stuff in particular is is really neat. You know, ceramic in general, I mean AP, we saw Ed with the the piece unique white ceramic. Um that's some cool stuff. And I I think IWC was early to that. We we know they were early to that with the 3705. Um and I I think there's a real history there that they should continue to explore. Cool. Thank you very much. Sure |
| Alexis | . Hello. Hi. Hi, my name is Alexis. So first of all, I think it's the first time I had the chance to see the team at Hodinky and the founding members. So thank you for everything. Thank you for Hodinki in general, the event, talking watches, uh honestly it's great and it's part of the watchmaking journey now. Thank you. A bit more on the question now. Uh first on the episode, I think that um not only I watched I had the chance of watching a talking watch episode, it's also I felt like I was part of a dinner conversation just randomly between John and Ed, which I think is a great transition for the format in general. And on the questions, um so I from my understanding, uh John had a lot of fun doing this and had a lot of fun designing the G Shark Collab. Um he's part of the pool of investors that took on Horinki. From conversation with him, is he getting more invested into Hodinki in general? Does he want to be part more of the episodes and of the creative direction? And the second question is on talking watches in general. Here you celebrated an anniversary, you put John and Ed at the same time. Yeah. I guess it's a great asset for Hodinki to have talking watches, but it's also a responsibility. How do you treat rarity of episodes? Who's going to present what? Uh, at what point do you allow a certain person to go on to talk and wat |
| Ben Clymer | ches? It would be great to have an insight. Sure. In in in terms of John's involvement with with Hodinky, I mean I think it will remain kind of status quo for the foreseeable future, which is like he's around all the time. But you know, he you know he lives in Los Angeles, we're in New York, he he has a a career and a meaningful one at that. So I I don't, you know, I this is not and I'm being you know obviously very sincere here, like this is not the the beginning of him appearing monthly on Hodinky or anything like that. You know, I I got to know Ed through John. I've known Ed for six or seven years, and I think in fact the very first story he wrote for us, which mentioned a lot of the watches that we had on there, he said, Hey, you know, I'll see you for a talk, I'll see you for talking watches in in some amount of time, but I think, you know, when I met Ed, he was probably early twenties, right? I mean, album two, album three, something like that, you know, really quite young, and his fans tended to be even younger. And so the idea of him going on camera and saying, hey, here's a you know, here's a meaningful amount of money invested in watches, just like didn't really sit well with him or his audience. You know, John has been very famous for a very long time. And so it's it's just really different in terms of like the digestibility of of John versus Ed in the public sphere. Um and so when when we did when we thought about doing the the the Ed episode, I mean I easily could have hosted it for sure. Um but I I think it it just seemed to make sense um that that John step in to to host this one because he kinda brought Ed into my life and he brought Ed into the the watch world in so many ways. I mean you saw that like he gave him a daytona for Christmas and he bought a Ed bought a 5970 because they saw each other backstage at the Grammys, you know, six or seven years ago. So it just made sense for John to host that one. So his role within the company, you know, won't change in any kind of meaningful way. And then talking watches as a as a as a product within Hodinky, all of our editors are completely entitled to host them whenever we kind of think it makes sense. I certainly do not have some sort of domain over that. Like it's it's really whatever kind of makes the most sense. Sometimes people request certain editors and we're happy to oblige. Sometimes people just, you know, the schedules don't align. As you wouldn't be surprised to learn, getting uh getting everybody into a room, John and Ed in this case in in New York City was pretty fucking challenging. You know, just getting people together. Uh the schedules, you know, working, booking out a studio. We actually had another studio booked, and then somebody took that time. I'm not gonna tell you who, but it was somebody very famous. I mean, just you know, crazy stuff that like like just life gets in the way where like hey like maybe you know Danny was gonna host X, Y, and Z and then he had to go travel because of something. It just it just happens. But you know, we we are not that precious with talking watches in the sense that like all of our editors are entitled. You'll see episodes hosted by you know some of the editors here very soon. But you know we we are more precious with the guests that appear on them than with our own edits. You know, if if we if we think enough of any editor to hire them full time then they're more than than um welcome those to an episode but we are really thoughtful with who we put on uh on on on one of these episodes there's only like there's only one or two I'd like to take back after 10 years. Uh there are one or two, you can guess who. But uh you know it it happens. That that's life, you know. Thank you |
| John Picchetto | . Hey uh John Picchetto. Um as a person who came to the site because of you, Ben, I'm wondering what the likelihood is or the possibility that we get a John Mayer hosted Ben Clymer guest episode of Talking Watch. Yeah. |
| Ben Clymer | Uh I mean it's it's non-zero. Um but I think like here here here's the thing. Like, you know, I I might be like, you know, like microfamous in like the watch community. Like I'm not a famous guy. I don't have security at my house like these guys do. You know, it's it's just a really different thing for me. And like granted, I am hyperexposed on the internet, on Instagram and and whatever. But like, you know, I don't I it's just it's just like I, you know, I'm a pretty understated kind of like shy guy, and so exposing I was about to say exposing myself, but exposing my collection in in that way is just not something that I'm like super anxious to do. And like I think if you know, James and I did a little episode zero of my podcast, like I view my role as the guy that kind of like facilitates. I use the word lubricate on the podcast. He's like, don't use that word. Uh, that that facilitates people to get out there and share stuff more so than the guy that that shares. I think that's what I'm best at. Uh look, I've had a bunch of watches, I still have quite a few. And there there might be some version of me sharing my collection in in the, you know, I'm not going to say near term, but uh at some point before the this this uh ride ends, whenever that ends. Um but again, it it's just it's it's not in my nature to share that much. I mean, like people think that I talk about watches, my own watches on the site all the time. I really don't. Like I almost have never said, hey, I bought the new G Shock or whatever, here's why. I in fact I've probably done that two or three times in the course of the past 15 years. Uh people understand what I own because of Instagram and because of like little interviews I give, et cetera. But it's it's not something I'm I'm dying to do. But again, I'm not like I'm not vehemently opposed to it. It just has to make sense. And I think it has to make sense in the broader scope of what Hudinky's up to, what I'm up to in my own life. Um but yeah, again, it's non-zero, but um, you know, I I can tell you honestly, it won't happen in the next six to twelve months. It might happen after that. Um, but but open to it for sure. Hi. Hey. Um |
| Unknown | I guess one of the questions that I have is you've had this series for like a decade and later in the years, what's the line, because it's a fine line that you like have to face or just deal with with the diversification diversification of guests that you get. I say that because I come from a hip-hop background. I grew up more in Tim's, I grew up listening to hip-hop music. And a lot of the stuff that became popular in terms of I guess to the public is because of these songs. So how do you walk that line of person that's like really in inside baseball into these watches but also balancing this mainstream like phenomena because you seem very like, you know, into the like the origin of this stuff, but at the same time it's getting so |
| Ben Clymer | fast where like you said, it's the IG effect and everything else. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's a great question. I mean I, think for us, we look for people that A, like, you know, really just love it. And I think like that that's paramount to everything else. Like guys and gals that really just want to talk about it and share it. And yeah, the the sad truth of of most of it is like sometimes people come to us via their agent or manager and those conversations just like just don't go that well, honestly. Because like, okay, well how much do we get? Or like, you know, what watch do we get to pick out of the out of the hodinky safe or whatever to do this? Uh and that that's really challenging, and that happens like more than you would think. Uh so the the the talking watches that that you've seen, I mean almost all of them have come from like a personal introduction to myself, to Will, to Danny, to to somebody else. So it's like somebody that we know or you know, as a a friend of friend and all of a sudden like that person just becomes kind of part part of the universe. Um seldom do we go out to people. In fact, I don't know that we've ever really gone out to anybody. Will any No? sh Shakakeing his head, no. Um that's about as much you'll get from Will Holloway in and I by the way. Um but um you know so in many cases it it's pretty organic. It's just like okay, like we met, you know, I I met Ed through John. Um and it just feels like okay, like it's it's frankly like a multi-year conversation. I mean, in in in Ed's case, it's probably five to six years. In John's case, I mean I met him in 2010, we did it. So three plus years, and John and I were super close back then. We talked every day. Um, you know, it it is like it's not um it's not like it's not like being booked on the tonight show or something like that, where it's like, hey, like I've got a book to promote, let's do talk and watches. It's more of like people that like just kind of in in the orbit. Um but the the goal is to be, you know, as kind of like arms open and welcoming as as possible for sure. Uh well thank you guys so much for ha uh for joining us tonight. Um again thank you. Um thank you guys shout out to everybody that made tonight uh possible there are so many hodinky uh folks in the house tonight that that really made it happen and thank you for for reading hodinky |