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Stephanie Bednarek (Commercial Space Professional)

Published on Mon, 3 Dec 2018 18:09:00 +0000

Stephanie Bednarek is both a space professional and a watch nerd. Her passion for space started early and she has worked in the business of space in quite a few capacities, both for government organizations and private companies. She realized she loved watches through a funny set of circumstances but has developed a diverse taste in watches that goes way beyond the models you're probably expecting (though she does still love a good Speedmaster). She also has a lot of thoughts about what the watch industry could do to get more women interested in the hobby and she’s not afraid to let them know.

Synopsis

In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host Stephen Pulvirent is joined by editor-in-chief Jack Forster and special guest Stephanie Bidnaric. Stephanie is both a space industry professional and passionate watch collector who brings a unique perspective to the intersection of horology and aerospace. Working in the business development and outreach side of the space industry, she discusses her lifelong passion for space exploration, which was influenced by her parents' connection to the Apollo program and the space industry. She shares insights into the modern commercial space industry, the recent NASA InSight Mars landing, and the binary nature of space missions where things either work perfectly or fail completely.

The conversation explores Stephanie's journey into watch collecting, which began when she wanted to buy a watch for her fiancé and discovered her own passion for mechanical timepieces. Despite initially wanting an Omega Speedmaster—the iconic moon watch—she found it too large for her wrist, leading her to purchase a Cartier Tank instead. This sparked a deeper dive into horology, eventually building a collection that includes Nomos watches (particularly the Tetra and Club Campus), a Seiko SKX013, and ultimately achieving her grail of an Explorer One. Throughout the discussion, Stephanie offers thoughtful perspectives on the watch industry's approach to marketing watches to women, advocating for mechanically interesting pieces in appropriate sizes rather than simply adding diamonds to smaller versions of men's watches. The episode concludes with discussions about grail watches, travel recommendations, and the emotional experience of witnessing rocket launches in person.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Space exploration and watches have always had an undeniable connection. It obviously started from a very utilitarian place. I mean, if you're heading into orbit in a big metal tube, you probably want to be able to accurately measure time. But it's grown into much more than that. Space travel represents a particular kind of romanticism and striving that most of us can identify with, and it blends technology, emotion, and human achievement in a way that speak very much the same language as mechanical watchmaking. Today's guest is Stephanie Bidnaric, and she's both a space professional and a total watch nerd. Her passion for space started early and she's worked in the business of space in many different capacities over the course of her career. Her watch collecting got started in a sort of roundabout way, but she has diverse taste in watches that extends far beyond the usual suspects. She also has a lot of thoughts about what the watch industry could do to get more women interested in the hobby, and she's not afraid to let them know. Stephanie frequently shuttles back and forth between Washington, D.C. and New York City for work, and we were able to catch her before she hopped a train back home for the weekend to talk about watches, space, and a whole lot more. I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. This week's episode is brought to you by Tag Hoyer. Stay tuned later in the episode to learn more about a new Hoyer Octavia. You can also visit taghoyer.com to learn more. All right, thanks so much for joining us, Stephanie. It's good to have you here. Thanks for having me. I'm pretty excited about it. And we also have our uh esteemed editor-in-chief Jack Forrester here. Hi everybody, glad to be back. And uh Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us today. We're quite excited to have you on the show. So we actually got in touch through you and Jack had a conversation, right? Uh
Unknown to be perfectly honest, I had a glass of wine, um read a few too many hodinky articles. And uh uh wrote you wrote you an email um that was just interested in seeing some more coverage of of women's watches and we got talking back and forth and appreciate the invitation to to come here.
Unknown Yeah, a hundred percent. Um yeah, so basically what happened was uh uh you know on our side, uh you know we heard from Stephanie out of the blue and uh making again a very fair uh point that we've uh heard about a lot and thought about a lot uh about the sort of underrepresentation of uh uh women watch collectors, women's perspectives. And you know, the very fact that there is such a thing as a sort of dialogue about women's perspectives on watches and watch making as a kind of like, you know, specific area of discourse is uh it's a little weird. Um maybe that'
Unknown s Employer. We can't we can't say who your employer is, but um you work for a space company. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means to work in space
Unknown ? Um sure. I guess just by way of a little bit of an introduction, I'm I'm a lifelong space geek um through and through. I think you're in good. I mean rockets and satellites are just are just inherently cool. But um my dad worked in the space industry, my mom lived in Florida and saw every single Apollo launch growing up as a kid. So it's it's a little bit in my blood. Um, but it was it was a no-brainer that I would um go and get a degree in aerospace engineering. I wanted to learn about rockets, I wanted to learn about satellites and all things space. And so that that naturally transitioned into a career in the space industry. And I I think it's it's a blast. I work with really smart people. Uh yeah. No pun intended. I really didn't mean that one. That took that took one like two minutes. Yeah, let's see what other ones we can do um before the end of this. But um no, it it it's a fascinating industry. They're really interesting people that I work with and um at you know at the end of the day, a lot of what I do is talking about rockets, getting people excited about space. I get to to travel around the world and uh and and tell people about the things we're doing and it's it's it's really fascinating.
Unknown Cool. There's been such an interesting transition in um you know sort of I think how people perceive space exploration nowadays. I mean, you know, when I was a kid, I'm old enough to remember uh seeing uh Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on live TV and uh you know that's that was obviously a life changing experience. Um but it's become um I think much more in I mean, you know, back then uh doing any kind of a launch was a major national initiative. You know, it was something that only uh extremely ambitious and generally antagonistic nation states got into. And now it's uh you know it's a day-to-day commercial enterprise. I mean I actually don't I have no idea how many launches per year there are. I'm sure it varies. Um but it's n it's become something that's much more a part of our daily lives d despite the fact that we haven't been back to the moon in quite a you know quite a number of years. Uh we're still going to space in general quite a lot more often than when I was a kid. And I I you know I'm I'm sorry we don't have any moon bases yet. Um but the fact that it has become so much a part of daily life is uh it's a such a huge change from uh you know, if it's thirty, forty years ago. Aaron Pow
Unknown ell No, no, absolutely. I mean space is is part of everybody's daily life. Um we launch I mean in the industry you launch uh GPS satellites, communication satellites, so much of our of our day-to-day life relies on the commercial side of of space exploration. And then there's the really exciting piece of commercial human space transportation, whether that's to low Earth orbit or to other destinations. And there's still a big focus on it in in on the government side as well. But but the biggest um space event when I was growing up was actually the the Columbia disaster. That was the disaster that made headlines. And so um for a a lot of people in my engineering class um around around my age, that's that's the headline. And that's horrible if that's what's inspiring a next generation. Not Challenger. Yeah. I'm a little just a little after Challenger. Um but but Columbia was was in high school and very memorable and very seared into my brain. And so the idea that you have a social responsibility to be a really good engineer and protect people's lives and get these important assets into space, I it's it's uh it it's it's a bit daunting, but I think it's it's a fascinating challenge. And then just recently this week, um the NASA Insight lander went to Mars. It was successful. And if you get a chance to see a clip of the of the engineers high-fiving each other when it lands. It's it's really neat. I mean anything that has seven minutes of terror and then suddenly there's a success which which looks like a a piece of data of telemetry that pops up on screen. It's not some real-time amazing video. It's it's just uh it's it's exciting. There's not a camera there ahead of time because if there were, you would have already had another spacecraft landing successfully haven't. Exactly. And generally just I was mentioning earlier, but the the the space industry is just it's so binary. Things either work or they don't, and it's um that's what makes it exciting, but that's that's also what makes it challenging. Um but it's happy to be a part of it
Unknown . I I like this idea that the the exciting event isn't like a big beautiful live stream or some like crazy thing that pops up on screen. It's like it's a data point. Right. And that must be how so much of working in space is, right? It's like it's these big grandiose ideas that could impact all of human civilization and possibly more. Sure. But it's all about these like tiny little data points and like it's it's minutiae essentially that actually ends up making the difference, right? Right. I mean
Unknown there certainly are these very visible things, but um, you know, payload separating from a second stage. That's not something you necessarily see from the ground. Um make or break of a multi-hundreds of millions of dollars program. Or um, you know, just like just like the landing that that we saw. So um or if you talk to astronomers who are getting streams of data and analyzing it after years, it's not just a pretty picture that they see. It's it's getting all this this data in and analyzing it and suddenly you've made some huge discovery
Unknown . Yeah. And so you I mean there are obviously people who who are doing that work who are are the engineers and the scientists, but y you sort of work on the business side of space, right
Unknown ? I I do. So I'm an engineer by training, but I'm much more on the the business development outreach side of the industry. And I think a lot of people don't realize that there's a lot more to working in the space industry than just being an astronaut or being an engineer. Though we love engineers. More engineers are better, I'd like to encourage everyone who's who's considering what to do in school to go be an engineer. There's so much you can do with it, but um within the industry you have lawyers, you have lobbyists, you have salespeople, you have marketing reps, and and and I'd encourage people that if you're interested in in this industry, just just go for it. Even if you don't have a technical background, there's um there's so much you can you can do it in and and and it's really fun. Um just to be I mean, to be around rockets and space stuff. It'
Unknown s uh in college who was a a a you know a drama major, a theater major, and ended up working at uh JPL doing public education programs. Oh my gosh. Which was I mean you can kind of see the similarity in in retrospect between those two um you know sort of activities but you would never think to yourself you know as a drama major in college yeah someday I'm gonna work a chip for culture and laboratory that's amazing. Ye
Unknown ah that's great. So what do you see you know being kind of immersed in in this everyday, what do you see as the next sort of big challenges? You know, Jack Jack mentioned, you know, seeing Neil Armstrong on the moon as this like life changing event. What do you think are the next kind of milestones in space that are going to be those moments for the next generation of people.
Unknown Sure. I I think in in in space generally people talk about having Sputnik moments. So when Sputnik launched it sparked this this entire space race and um billions of dollars were poured into a brand new industry and and that was that was very much more driven by national security concerns. Um but but it sparked a generation of new engineers and rocket scientists and and people excited and motivated to wanting to have this industry grow. And so what is that next Sputnik moment? Yes, there was Neil Armstrong on the moon, of course. you know, I I I don't know what's next. Maybe it's something in the commercial space area. Um of course uh a long term goal is to get people to Mars. I think that's that's really important and really exciting and um something the industry together is working toward and it's going to be an international effort too. So
Unknown when you first got in touch with us, I I mean I'm having a really great time talking about all of this stuff. Um you know, one of the things that we talked about by email before you um so kindly agreed to come and come and be on the show with us is uh the sort of parallel experience that you have um between uh being a woman in an industry that was traditionally sort of thought to be male dominated, aerospace engineering specifically, and what it's like to be as an enthusiast in uh uh in an area that is al almost reflexively thought to be um, you know, um by default without any question, male dominated, which is an interest in watches, an interest in horology, an interest in timekeeping, which, you know, as we all know is deeply, deeply woven into the fabric of uh uh the aerospace uh aerospace industry historically as well. Um and I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about uh you know maybe like continue the conversation here a little bit that you and I started by email, you know, where we talked about exactly what you've sort of what that paral parallel experience is like
Unknown . Yeah, I mean it it's I'm not uncomfortable being um working in a male dominated industry, um participating in hobbies that are more male dominated. I I like cars a lot too. That's that's something that mostly has has been in it. But um I I work with a bunch of nerds, right? I mean it's I it's I know a bunch of engineers. Stephen has no idea what that's like. No, none. But it's um i it's a really interesting um group of people that all like to be around machines and talk about machines and want to understand how things work. And here's here's one that you can wear, right? And so definitely having the the space, the space interest and the watch interest go go hand in hand together. But um I've never had a negative experience working in the space industry, which is it which is definitely male dominated and really I've seen over the past ten years in my career that that totally changing. It's um while when I initially started it wasn't uncommon for me to be the only woman in the room um and that has totally changed. It's it's it's a much better split now. It's great and I think you're you're this the industry is benefiting from different perspectives. Universities are graduating more and more female engineers these days and I think that's great and we need we need more women in the industry to um to to to to start off their careers in in space companies and grow up with it and it's just gonna get better. Um I you know, not to to go back to the Mars um insight landing, if you if you watch that clip you'll see a bunch of young female engineers Yeah for fr on front console and like that's so great. That's so exciting. Um and I I'm I'm really proud to be working with some young women who are coming up in the industry at a variety of different companies and organizations. And it's just great to see them to grow and they they just excel in this industry. It's it's fantastic. Um on the watch side, we still need a little bit of work. Um we still need work on the space side, but um but on the watch side that that's certainly the case. And you know, I got it I got interested in watches and I quickly delved into the research hole of the internet that is so easily able to do
Unknown . I mean, you know, for me it was I got intra- I picked up a broken pocket watch at a flea market you know, twenty years ago and I got curious about how they worked, uh just from looking at the mechanism. And like that was sort of my sputnik moment in in the world of watching. Uh, sounds like you do this professional. I'm really curious. Did you have an experience like that where you just you picked a mechanical watch in particular that you picked up and said,
Unknown you know, what the hell's going on inside this thing? To be honest, um when I got engaged and I got a really nice diamond ring from my fiance. I thought it was not really fair that I got diamonds and he got nothing. Yeah. And so I really wanted to get him a watch and that's what started this whole um research um spir But as I got to learn about movements um and the history of watches and some really iconic watches, I instantly wanted a speedmaster, right? I work in the space industry. The speedmaster is the watch to have, that was great. And so I I went and tried one on and it was giant on me and it just it just doesn't fit. I tried it with a strap, I tried it on a bracelet, and my thought at the time was I'm gonna buy one watch. This is a watch I'm gonna wear every day. Right, right. Um and it it was it's it's too big on me. And I was so disappointed and I was trying to look at are there other are there other space watches that might be of interest and they're just they're really weren't. Um they were trying to get me into some of the ladies models of Speedmasters. It's like, no, they have diamonds and they're they're all sparkly. Um no, I really want the
Unknown classic. From an engineering purism standpoint, like if you are in the air you're working in the aerospace industry, you're a rocketry geek, you're a space exploration geek, you don't want like anything other than the watch that you know was and still is, you know, currently certified for manned space flight. You want you you want the moon watch. I want the
Unknown moon watch. No, I I absolutely wanted the moon watch. Yeah. I couldn't get the moon watch. Um and uh you know, that was a big huge purchase for me to to want to be able to do that. And I just I I couldn't do it. So it was really disappointed. Um then I went on the other side of the spectrum and decided to research women's watches. What's the most classic women's watch that you could get within a reasonable budget? And I settled on the Cartier tank, thinking that if Jackie O can wear it, maybe I can wear it too. That would be fine. Yeah. And it's um and I love it. I still wear it all the time. It's it's a great watch, but it's an amazing watch. Prob
Unknown ably I I would say one of the top two or three most imitated You know, like classic watch uh models, they're kind of like superheroes. They all come along with like these amazing origin stories that no one can actually verify. Uh but the story with the tank is that it's actually based on what a uh there was a World War I general named Pershing, and uh the idea was uh and th there was a tank named after him. So the uh I think the th oh no I'm sorry. Um it wasn't wasn't Pershing tank, that was a World War Two tank. Uh it was b based on uh the way um the the first uh Renault tank looked. If uh made that mistake too And something that not a whole lot this is uh something you might be interested in hearing as an owner. Um it's it was a watch that for most of its history, Cartier didn't they didn't make that many of them. I mean the year that Rudolph Valentino uh bought his, uh they made three of them. Aaron Powell Really? I did not know that history. And most years up until like up about 1970 or so, most years they made less than a hundred and sometimes a lot less than a hundred. So, you know, it's it's it's a actually well, it's a watch that for most of its history was an extremely exclusive watch to own. You have to be a known Cartier client. And you there were three places in the world that you could go and ask if you could have one. You know, the Cartier boutique in Paris, the one in London, or the one in New York. And a lot of the time the answer would simply be no, because they just weren't making that many. Wow. So you you had if you could if you could get a tank from Cartier in the nineteen twenties, thirties, forties, you had most favored nation status with Cartier. Now that story did not pop up in the forums. That's that's gre
Unknown at. And so when did you
Unknown kinda like take the plunge and get this tank? That was about six years ago, um, five years ago. And then it just spiraled from there very quickly. Um it's a great gateway watch. It it is. And the whole point of it was to buy a watch that I could wear forever and it was just gonna be a classic. Um something I was proud to wear. Um I got it for my my thirtieth birthday. That was gonna be the watch the watch that I wore. Um but no, that just that just
Unknown window. It's interesting though that you went from really wanting a speedmaster Moonwatch uh to uh to buying a Cartier tank because they're both in their own way absolute classics in their perspective. No,
Unknown I do still want a speedmaster. I'm really thinking about a first Omega in space. I think that's close enough to the the original. Um it's a gorgeous watch. It is good and it's and it's it's beautiful and it's smaller and it looks great on the producer Gray happens to
Unknown have one here with him that we can pass across the end. So beautiful. You and I need to talk. Yeah. Oh, this is great. Yeah
Unknown . Yeah. The raised logo. They really nailed it. These are amazing. It's one of those alternative speedmaster models that even a a a sort of a moon watch purist can fall in love with the great watch. Ye
Unknown ah, we'll link up to uh our story about that watch in the in the show notes. I'm gonna try it on. Yeah you should it matches the strap. mat It does. Iched my outfit. This is great. This was meant to
Unknown be. Yeah. Um I do actually I I often match my watches to outfits, and frank, frankly, I bought this ridiculously neon orange pink shirt a few weeks ago just because it matches a second hand on the Nomos Club campus that I bought. Um so you know, reason enough to to do that. This fits me perfectly. I'm just trying on as for some mega space. Great. Gray might be leaving without a lot. Yeah, that that could happen. Um one time when I was trying on a Speedmaster in a Torneau store in the in the DC area, um I ran into an astronaut who I work with on a regular basis. He spent some time on the International Space Station and we just got to talking about watches and um I was like, you know, what are you looking at? What's what's your next watch? Right? You can always bond with somebody over talking about that. He's like, oh no, I'm just picking up my watch. I'm like, what watch are you picking up? Oh my speed master. It's like you mean a speed master or your speedmaster you flew with? He's like, the speedmaster I flew with. And I was like, these guys have no idea that this watch has been on space station and It's actually a really good question. I think they mostly I don't know if they're issued or if it's what they fly with, but I think they um fly with X thirty three now. I think that's the one that I've seen some of the astronauts that I I occasionally get to interact with. That seems to be what they're wearing. Okay. Um I would love to know what women astronauts have worn. That would be really interesting. Is it not the same watch? I i it probably is. Um, but like what did Sally Ride wear? Um or what did like the the first Russian in space, Valentina Tereshkova, what did what watch was she wearing? That would be fascinating. A few years
Unknown ago reading that was we uh we we published a story about a year and a half ago, I think, on uh you know, sort of like what you know what what watches have people worn uh you know historically, and it was mostly focused on the Speedmaster when we found all this great ar archival shots of you know they were wearing them on Skylab Okay. And I don't know if that information is still current, but it was at the time of publication. And I didn't know that. We actually we published the story and a uh an astronaut actually wrote it and he was like, I don't know if you guys know this, but like that's they're they're still up there to this day. Interesting. So I thought that was super cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it is
Unknown the people at the NASA history office if you want um need to find out more. We will definitely be taking it in with that. Yeah
Unknown . And now a message from this week's sponsor
Unknown . Hi everybody, I'm Hodinki editor-in-chief Jack Forster. Taghoire's history in motorsports is as deep as it gets. And it's not just the fact that their watches, chronographs, and stopwatches were and are owned and used by countless racing professionals and enthusiasts. At one point, the firm even financed the development of an engine for use in Formula One in the 1980s as a championship-winning power plant for McLaren. Today that heritage is alive in the latest version of the Hoyer Ottavia, which features elements of the iconic reference 1163 from 1972, including its signature red dial markers. Order early, and you'll receive a copy of the book Inside Track, authored by the legendary Phil Hill, the first American ever to win the Formula One Drivers Championship. For more information, you can visit taghoyer.com. And now we're back to the show. You know, another really cool uh sort of aerospace watch that is not made anymore, um but that is it but that has a very small, very avid collector community as the bullet Accutron. And you know, as you probably know, the Accutron was it was the issue watch for the guys who flew uh Project Oxcart for the CIA, the YF 12A. I don't think that they continued to use them when they transitioned over to the SR seventy one, but for for for Oxcart uh it was uh it was the standard issue watch. And the X fifteen pilots all wore it. Oh really? Yep. Huh. Is that the one that that they they call the moon watch, the below event moon watch or Different. The one that they call the bull of a moon moon watch was a it was originally a a mechanical model, wasn't it? A mechanical bull of a car. Uh that was taken uh I mean I I I have to look all this stuff up increasingly as I get older, but uh I don't think Apollo Gemini or um Mercury Atlas guys were supposed to like take anything extra with them at all. Uh but the Apollo guys could bring a few keepsakes with them. Um and s of several of them chose to bring their personal wrist watches as well as their issue speedmasters. Um oh gosh, what's his name on 13? Uh brought his GMT master with him. Um and this particular uh on this particular mission. No no no level. Um gosh, I'm so upset with myself that I'm spacing his name. We'll figure it out and we'll link that mission. Commit the command module. Whoever the command module pilot was, but uh he w he wears a GMT Master, Pepsi Bezel GMT Master. Well maybe that's what I need. Well, yeah, it's another very good choice.
Unknown It's a fantastic, fantastic watch. And you know, the reason I asked uh about whether these watches are personal or not is because from that era, when the watches were government issue, when you came back down, the watch was taken back and like all the other equipment it was cleaned up and spec'd back and and made usable for another flight. And for that reason these watches aren't out there. Like most of the early uh early watches, mostly Speedmasters, um just don't exist. And there's one flown Speedmaster that came out auction a while. There was one a little while, and there's also one. So apparently after they were reconditioned, they would be put in these sort of sealed, like vacuum-sealed bags that said like ready for flight on them. And there's one somebody told me that there was one
Unknown Well it's not like he runs around in his blue flight suit, you know, without his dash shot. What if he did though? That would be amazing. That would be pretty awesome. I've never even seen a flown speedmaster
Unknown . I think they get to keep the X thirty three's that they have now, right? Because I've seen them wearing them and I don't I don't I'm not sure that maybe they bought them back from NASA. I would love to know how that process works.. Yeah But the Apollo eleven um speedmasters, this is probably a well known story, but Basaldrins got stolen on the way to um to the Air and Space Museum. And then I think and that was in the seventies and I I think after that, um the other astronauts, Neil Armstrong had to had to turn his back in. I think that's the story I
Unknown 've heard. But it's one of those lost watches. It's kind of like the Ark of the Covenant. You hear rumors every once in a while that it might be out there somewhere. Someone knows
Unknown . The only thing is if it ever popped up it would quickly, quickly, quickly end up back in the Smith zone. Yeah, it would not. Ye
Unknown ah. All right, so we we we you went from you went from the speedmaster to the tank.
Unknown I went to the tank, which doesn't seem like you know, going from a speedmaster to tank, but I'm working my way back to a speedmaster probably. Um you stopped at Gnomos. I stopped and then I went to to Gnomos. Um I just was starting to research the brand and I loved it. Um and so I I bought the Tetra. Um after going to the tank, actually have it. I think I brought it with me. Um having the um The Tetra's actually my favorite nomos. I I just love it. And I had to get this the clean, the green color because it has the power reserve. Um but after research researching the tank, I love square watches and then to see that and I got to try it on in um Frankfurt and saw it and had to buy it. That was a very good idea it's a good souvenir. And and I brought my one of my colleagues with me. He was he was on a trip with me and um I I first got into Gnomos because I was interested in the um the world time one that they have and it's like, oh I travel a bunch, it'd be great to have the the world time, tried it on too big. Um got him to try it on and then he ended up buying that one and I bought this one and we didn't
Unknown get we didn't have to be amount of time you've spent on airplanes do you think maybe
Unknown I would love a world timer or a GMT. Um and actually that's just a question I have back for you is for a space geek, that you know, thirty seven millimeters, 38, probably about as big as I really want to go. Um I would I would love a GMT or world time. Patek is a beautiful one, but that's a little out of the budget
Unknown . So any recommendations would be great Yeah, I would have to agree there.
Unknown Actually our good friend and former Hodinki radio uh guest Gary Steingart, shout out to shout out to Gary. Uh Gary has a GMT master that I believe was owned by a NASA Ash. Oh really? Uh NASA engineer, not Nashville. I'll have to double check that and fact check that somewhere. But uh yeah, that's definitely I think the Swaggerdon thirteen, that's the good idea. Oh, okay with his interesting
Unknown . Um he flew with that and also with uh with a speedmaster. And of course one of the things that people love to argue about is uh you know there was uh that sort of famous situation where they couldn't use uh the instrument panel in the command module because they had to save every uh tiny tiny erg of battery power that they could possibly save. So he famously used one of his watches to time the famous mid-course correction burn. And um you know I've I've actually read the NASA uh you know, ground earth logs of the conversation and I mean he used the Speedmaster, but you know t pe people don't really the like the strong Rolex advocates are like, No, it was the GMT master and you know the Speedmaster people are like, Yeah, you know the attention. But if you're that's good, if if you if you're looking for a two time zone watch that uh you know is really strongly, strongly associated and of course there's the Pan Am time as well, and I mean a ton of pilots have worn and used that watch
Unknown . So what else is in that little bag? Um yeah, so I brought some watch with me which are fun. Um a couple of these are your fault. Um yeah, just for fun I got ruining wallets everywhere. This was I think Carr wrote an article about the rose gold Marlin and I just bought that quickly and put it on a fun rose gold Milanese mesh. But this is just this is just a blast to wear when I want to wear a rose gold watch and a little bit more interesting than some of the rose gold fashion watches you see out there. Um I also um I like to buy watches for occasions or mark to mark particular moments. Um and I bought the um SKX013 um before I went to um a big vacation in the Seychelles. I wanted a dive watch. We were gonna be you know snorkeling in in the water a bunch and so this was great and I can't believe how much I love it and what bang free buck free get. And um It's one of those watches you kind of like buy almost as an afterthought and then you realize that you like you love it and you're just spending all the time. I ride horses, that's kind of another hobby that I have and this is actually a perfect watch to ride horses with because I can time things with the with the dive bezel. I know how long I've been riding. It's super rugged.
Unknown I have to say honestly for sort of like day-to-day timing uh needs, I often find a dive watch bezel just more convenient than a than a chronograph. Yeah. And certainly a lot less uh you know complex mechan
Unknown ically. And I'm super interested right now in the um the the newer 36mm longings um that came out, the the Heritage Diver. Yeah. Um and they they downsized it and I think there's still the standard black one, but they've also done the mother of pearl, which is beautiful. I haven't seen one in person yet. Theher of Mot Pearl is really nice. Is it cool? It's really, really nice. They did a good job.
Unknown Those are a reasonable price point too. I think they're not. They did a good job too keeping the proportions. Often when you downsize a watch like that, you end up with this problem where it like something has to give and it just ends up like not quite feeling the same. Whereas this they did a really good job making it feel right
Unknown . Oh, you were saying before we started recording, by the way, that um uh you and your husband had managed to get down to uh the new watches of Switzer It's a fantastic boutique. And you were able to
Unknown see you were able to see Grand Seiko in person. I was. So I I live in DC and I don't think there's anywhere that sells Grand Seiko, or maybe I'm just I'm just missing out. But um they have a a Grand Seiko set up in the on that lower level and it's beautiful, it's stunning. I got to try some of their watches on and I I wasn't really a Grand Seiko fanatic or particularly interested in them but neat to see while you're there and seeing them in person in the metal just completely changes it. Um and they had I guess it was a release that's just for the US, this light blue dial. Yeah, yeah. Um and to see that in person it's like getting lost in this
Unknown Yeah, yeah. I saw the uh the first prototypes that they had in the US in Vegas earlier this year and boy oh boy it's a beautiful watch. And you know, those are very, very difficult watches to kind of if you're if you're see if you're skeptical about Grand Seiko, it's very hard to sell yourself on those on the basis of pictures. I think it's you really
Unknown have you had other experiences like that with watches where you kind of you saw something and you were like, ah, I don't know if this is for me and then you saw it in the middle and you were like, whoa. Yeah, so actually the second
Unknown gnomos, um, I was in Europe for work and I wanted to again, I wanted to get a watch for my husband. Um I feel like if I buy a watch for him, then it gives me an excuse to buy a watch for me to even things out. Like maybe that makes it okay. And so I actually I think I saw a review about the Nomos Club campus. Um and I was like well let me check that out. He was interested in it, but I wasn't particularly interested, really. And then I saw it in the metal. It was great. It was beautiful. The hand wine felt great. Um, it wore super well. So I bought him the larger, um, darker dial one. I can't remember what they call it. And then I also bought myself the um smaller 36 millimeter with the with the white dial. And I love that watch. I I wear it all the time. I also put it on a um on a a
Unknown mesh bracelet just to make it a little bit. It's beautiful. It's beauti
Unknown ful. But well a little too big for me. Um but yeah. I think I think the world of gnomos and to see those are just are fantastic.
Unknown So you know when you go to I mean I it's starting to happen and it's funny that we're having this conversation now and that you're you're a guest on the podcast now because one of the things that I think we've all noticed happening more and more is we are actually starting to see more uh women's voices in this little hobby, this crazy little hobby of ours. And you know, one of the exciting things to me about r people sometimes ask me, how can you possibly write about watches, you're you know, you're you're an adult for God's sake, you know, when you're gonna get a real job. Um, but y one of the great things about it is uh is that it you do get a chance to meet people from so many different backgrounds with so many different interests. I mean I'm a hundred percent sure that if I wasn't doing what I was doing for a living we wouldn't be having this conversation right now. Probably not.
Unknown you know what I do in work is I talk to a ton of different people from you know all all all over the place. Most tend to be engineers or technically minded. And so when I see someone with a watch that's at all remotely interesting to be able to talk to them instantly about it and hear the stories and they're there they there is always a story that somebody has about their watch. People don't just put it on like I don't whatever, I don't care about this. You don't you don't ever get that um and to instantly be able to connect with someone and kind of break through that initial barrier and tell a story about their watch and ask what their next watch is. I I love that. I think it's I I think it's it's really, really fun. And I often um get questioned and probably nerd out a little bit too much early in those conversations where I was like, oh it's just the you know one six seven one zero or the one one six seven. And go into reference numbers and you see their eyes glaze over and it's like oh sorry let me let me take it take it back and pop the brains. Yeah. Um and I think they're not also probably not used to having running into women who know a lot about watches. But um now it's great because I I like to help friends pick out what watches to get. Um you know, um guy friends also often ask me what they should get their you know, girlfriends or wives as as gifts, and I love being able to do that because if I can watch shop for somebody else, that's that's the perfect situation. You get all the fun of the hunt with that. I really do. And I you know I'm I'm a little bit on a personal mission to try to get um all my girlfriends into mechanically interesting watches. Um my friend just got a Cartier and it's great.
Unknown Uh uh I think the stereotype maybe that a lot of people would have about people with uh you know, a STEM background And let's face it, the problem of accurate mechanical timekeeping, you know, uh in a miniature you know machine that sits on your wrist, which is not the greatest place to keep a high precision measurement instrument. Sure, sure. You know, it's a
Unknown really interesting engineering challenge. Aaron Powell it is. I mean you have a lot of potential energy in here that is being released at a very particular um precise rate and that's just something that's that's cool and and interesting. And it's bringing in particularly these um exhibition backs to just stare at it and get lost in it and um
Unknown I I sometimes uh hear people voice as a criticism of less expensive mechanical watches. Oh, why would you put a display back on it? There's nothing terribly interesting to look at. And my feeling is always like, come on, this there's something really interesting. Yeah
Unknown . Sure. And it's and it's uh it'
Unknown s intellectually and emotionally interesting. No, I know absolutely. I think it's I think it's really fun. And actually um I think a good way to um when you're talking to new engineers and getting them comfortable explaining technology it's always good to ask a question of can you explain to me how something works and a watch is a great example of you know go go learn for a second and really think about how a watch works and explain it back to me um from the ground up and that's you know it's it's a great first thing to really try to do that
Unknown . But uh it they work in a way that is not intuitive to us anymore. I don't I don't know if it ever was intuitive to us. So it actually requires a and if you can get to the point where you have uh you know a sort of aha moment. Um there's something really satisfying about understanding how a mechanical oscill
Unknown ator works.. It's great And then just I mean to be wearing a machine on your wrist and really thinking about it and winding it up on the mornings you need to wind it up. I just it's it's it's great. And that tactile iteration is so much a part of it. I love it. So I'm I've slowly converted a bunch of friends, which is which is good. You know we love to be a good one. One at a time. I have a friend who is recently elected to office and she wants to get a watch to mark the occasion. So that's a good thing that's next week's task of figuring figuring that out. Um but it's you know it it's a great
Unknown hobby. So if we look at the watches that are in front of you on the table. Yes. None of those are watches that I think most people would call like in sort of like scare quotes like ladies watches. And do you think that the way that the watch industry markets products as men's products and women's products is in any way helpful? Or is it something that you think is is sort of like artificially laid on top of these things? Yeah,
Unknown I I I I um don't know. I would love to see Omega market a spacewatch to women for the space watch aspect of it, not because it's shiny and has diamonds all over it and is a piece of jewelry. And and I I think I I I don't think I'm alone. You know, I think there are lots of of women out there who see watches different from other types of jewelry. Um but I I would like to see more marketing of simple, smaller watches that are mechanically interesting, that are beautiful, um, but more uh finished really, really well, but not necessarily done with diamonds and sparkles and and and shiny things. Um I want something that tells the time. I want something that can um get beat up. I would love a GMT um or some complications that are that are more useful. But I don't I don't want to travel with with diamonds and and so it's just not my not my aesthetic either and and um most of the women that I'm friends with and and work with they don't not not necessarily now that being said um a vintage Bulgari serpente with diamonds and jewels all over it would be would
Unknown be just fine. I think Jack would also we
Unknown ar one of those. Honestly I have to say I'm I
Unknown 'm I'm a huge fan and more than once I've thought to myself when I have to go to a formal occasion and you know I have to break the top of the thing. Boy would I love to wear it. We should crowdfund that. That would be amazing. Yeah.
Unknown But boy, would that be fun. It would be really fun. But I I think back to your question of, you know, some of these like um I mean IWC has done a pretty good job of this of of marketing some of their their more simple almost unisex watches towards women. I think that's great. Um but i rather than just downsizing men's watches and um and making them look more feminine. I it would be interesting to see brands really start with a women's watch of what somebody today really wants um and and and go from there. And I'd like to see movements that are particularly crafted just for women's watches. Like what would that look like? I don't know. I mean just just from a pure interest standpoint, I love the um Diego La Cultura, the one oh one that they I mean that is just sure beautiful and stunning and to see something that that's um that intricate and so small and so delicate well done is is beautiful. I'm reasonably convin
Unknown ced that uh on a little bit Oh I can't wait to hear what comes next. I can see that. It's incredibly difficult to service. Aaron Powell No, they're just I think they're I think they're really beautiful. I mean, you know, if you have something like a 2892, um you've long since you know gotten into economies of scale and recovered recovered development cost. If you want to make a uh a shaped movement uh with uh you know sort of interesting technical aspects that doesn't have a lot of commonality with with whatever is w whatever else is out there. You're talking a three to five year development process and an investment of anywhere from ten to fifteen million francs. Last I checked. And you know it's just people I think people people tend to do the easy things because they're easy, they're less expensive, and the production lines are already in place. You know, the reason that so many um, you know, sort of watches that are marketed as women's watches basically look like men's watches that have been left in the dryer too long and then had butter sprinkled on them. You know
Unknown , it's just it's just the easy thing to do when it sells. Yeah. You know who's done a really good job of not doing that though is Chanel. That's true. That's true. The boyfriend uh the skeleton version of those watches are those are cool. Those are really, really cool. Essentially they're movements designed by Roman Gautier. Like they're there's serious watchmaking going on there. Yeah, and they kind of like it's Chanel. They could totally take the easy way out and just like slap a logo and some diamonds on something and sell them all day. But they've done the the hard thing and it's it's vaccinated. It's getting a lot of people. And that's what that won this year, right? It did win this year. Yeah. It did. I'm allowed to ask you if you voted for that, am I? I'm not allowed to say if I did. Oh, interesting. Okay. Um The Leaf does a really good job too. They also won a bunch of the planetarium. The latest planetarium. Oh my god. Why didn't we did not ask
Unknown about that yet? I know. I mean that's another one of
Unknown those watches. I mean, you know, I really don't care who they think uh they need to market it towards. And it's beau
Unknown tiful and really super stunning. It's also one of those pieces, and there are watches like this, I think, at all different kind of like price points and styles. It's one of those watches you show that to somebody and they have a million questions. They just want to know everything. And they don't need to know anything going into it. Right. And it's the same thing like with the Gnomos. Gnomos is a great brand for you know, somebody says, Oh, nice watch, and you take it off your wrist and you show them. Right. They're like, oh, oh my god, I didn't what is what's going on here? And yeah, I think Van Cleef has done a really good job there creating things that are of sort of like genuine interest even if you're not kind of predisposed to be given to watches.
Unknown You s you still I mean just given your background that you're probably probably aware of astronomical watches as a general category and I mean there's something so fascinating about if you if you uh if you have a sort of you know classic astronomical watch that shows all of visible um Newtonian planets Galilean planets, excuse me. Um, out to Jupiter, you've got uh you know at the heart of this you've got something that's beating uh you know four or five times a second and you've got a gear train and something you know small enough to put in the bottom of a coffee cup uh that produces a period of eight and a half years, which is the orbital period of Jupiter. You know, and my I mean the thought that you can kind of encode all that in a mechanical form in something small enough to fit on the wrist, that's pretty cool. I also love that you have the orbital period of Jup
Unknown iter just stored up there. It's ready to go. That's noisy up there.
Unknown That's good. This this is Jack. This is this is what happens. Yeah.
Unknown It's kinda weird that I'm not surprised by the fact that you know that. I but this is one of the reasons I was so excited about having you on the show. I mean, you know, this this the sort of ability to combine um you know a high level of engineering knowledge with uh you know with actual experience in uh um uh you know in the aerospace industry. I mean you know like people like you ever since my childhood are you know have been have been you know the the folks that are really making some of the most exciting things that human beings have ever done
Unknown . It's really, really fun. So I got one more watch question. Okay. You mentioned that the planetarium kind of has to be your grail, which I would agree. Um any other grails out there? Anything you're just like dying to get?
Unknown Um That's a really good question. Well it this was my initial grail, actually. When I first got into watches, I um you know shortly after the tank, I really wanted the Explorer One. That was just something that I I I really, really wanted. Um which is what you came in wearing. It is, yeah. And I wear it every day and sometimes I feel bad that my other watches are getting ignored. But um who also ignores his other watches. Yeah. It's it's like I look at everything, you know, I I do like to wear different watches, but on a day to day basis I I tend to pick that out. So that was my first grail. I never thought it was a watch I'd be able to get and to to now have it is just I I I love No, no, it's great. And at thirty six millimeters I think it fits me great. Um I love the new ones where the loom goes all the way through the through the numbers, but um this this one one fits. I'd love to have a 1016 one day. That'd be great
Unknown , but we'll we'll work our way there. So yeah. There's always there's always more to want, which is the joy and the curse of the Sobby. H
Unknown ow many times have all of us heard someone say after they've bought a watch they've wanted That's it. That's it. And you know, three days later. I've never heard you say that, Jack. Uh I try I try to keep my uh
Unknown suffering to myself. Okay. Okay, good. I've heard the phrase like this is this is I've heard this in the car world and and other worlds too, but the correct number of watches to have is n minus one, n being the number at which your significant other leaves you, right? That's that's like that's the appropriate number of watches to have of when it when it gets out of control. But um but yeah it I don't know. I mean things like the the Van Cleave Planetarium, that's certainly a grail, but not something I would ever actually in real life expect to own. But um I can appreciate it from an artistic mechanical standpoint. I think it's beautiful. Um I think to have a historically significant watch that had been to space would be incredible. Um you know, I'd I'd like I I don't I love the Snoopy Speedmaster. I think that's a good idea and really really quick
Unknown . I know I should. That would be great
Unknown . I have no I have no sense of like how hard that would be. Like we we deal with some pretty strange circumstances in this line of work, but like if you wanna like how hard is it to get something to space in back? I would imagine
Unknown really hard, right? It is yeah, I I I I think it is. I mean we'll see as as commercial space activities happen more. I'm sure that's gonna be a part of it. But I guess the question back to you is if you were going to space, if you had the opportunity to go into low Earth orbit, what watch would you wear and bring back with you? Oh
Unknown gosh. The one that's on my wrist for sure. Yeah. Absolutely. An explorer that's been to space. Like it doesn't to me it doesn't get oh jeez. Uh to me it doesn't get any better than that as I you know, knock my p
Unknown hone off the table. I mean my my you know, my answer is gonna be a really obvious one. It would be my speedmaster. Um when I y you know, I I remember being you know six, seven years old and seeing ads for, you know, Speedmasters in National Geographic magazine. Um and you know, it was the astronauts watch. Uh there were Speedmaster ads in National Geographic. Oh my gosh, yeah. That's awesome. Oh, absolutely. That's awesome. Um and uh you know, I mean I I knew growing up that it was the astronauts watch. I knew it was what the Apollo guys were wearing. Um and uh, you know, when I finally got out of graduate school and uh you know had you know money to spend on something other than you know peanut butter and dried beans. Um the first watch that I the first good Swiss watch that I bought for myself was a speed master. You know, and it was like a long slow burn before I could you know before I got there but we still have and still wear all the time And you know, I mean the idea of of actually personally going to space at some point uh is the single most exciting thing that I can think of. Um should we go? Do it
Unknown . You wanna go? I'd I go. In the name of journalism? I would love to I actually can't think of anyone I'd rather go to space with
Unknown than you. Yeah. I mean it's it's I mean every kid my uh you know my, age uh you know, uh wanted to be an astronaut you know at some point.
Unknown So I gotta turn the question around.
Unknown You know, I shouldn't have asked that question and not had um
Unknown had an answer. We're doing journalism. I know. I know. Um asking the hard questions. Yeah. What watch would you wear to space? My dad wore a Nava timer, and I think that would be really really neat to wear his watch and and take it to space and back
Unknown There had been a handful of Navatimers that had made it to space. I believe he had a cosmonaut
Unknown . Okay. But uh uh one of one of the Gemini guys wore a uh was it No no no it was Mercury Atlas. Um and it was a modified it was a modified Navitimer uh with a twenty four hour dial. What the what has come to be called the cosmonaut model. Which is ironic given that it was an American astronaut, not a cosmonaut award, but you know, what are you gonna
Unknown do? Tough tough crowd, right? Um cool. So we tend to wrap things up with a little bit of a lightning round. So I've got a couple questions for you that are, you know, some watch related, some not. Um so you can answer them with short answers. You can go a little longer if you want, but uh we'll do these and then we'll we'll wrap things up. Okay. Um what's a wat
Unknown ch that's caught your eye recently? Um You know, honestly just going on and trying on that Grand Seiko, the the American Limited Edition one with that light blue dial, uh that's suddenly at the the top of list and wasn't really expecting that. So yeah. That's not hard to do. Yeah. Uh what's the best place you've traveled in the last year? I get to go to a lot of interesting places. Uh I went to Bellagio with a group of friends on Lake Como and it was just beautiful and um the food was fantastic. I was introduced to Aperol Spritzes and being on the water was great and um not that ridiculous of a place to go actually. We got an Airbnb. It was just really relaxing and beautiful. I highly recommend going and staying for a week and the rocket business. I was kind
Unknown of hoping that you would say, well, I can't tell you where it is, but I visited a trillionaire's hollowed out volcano recently
Unknown . No such luck. Instead Lake Como. Which is I wasn't. I think that's like a that's a hodinky favorite I would say is is Lake coma. Yeah. It's very on brand for for us. All right, all right, good. Um what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who gave it to you? Best piece of advice. Yes. Um
Unknown to say my first boss gave me the piece of advice to ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Um, and I I think that's great of just generally trying to take some risks in what you do and be confident in the decisions that you're making and um it may not always go exactly as planned, but I think I think you learn more from putting yourself out there and trying and maybe failing than you do from um So it's a little, you know, cliche, but I think that'
Unknown s How's that going for you? Yeah. So far so good, I think. Yeah. What's your guilty pleasure
Unknown ? It has to be my car. Um I have a air cooled nine eleven, um, a nine nine three. So on brand man. Oh, I know. I feel like a a watch bro, but um again I have an air cool 911. It was my dad's, but that's that's where I spend my my time and money on that car. I like to do autocross. That takes a lot of time and just go on country drives in Virginia. It's it's beautiful, I love it. It's yeah, it's my baby. You do any rallying at all? Um, no. That'd be that'd be fun. I'd love to go on a rally. Be a co driver.
Unknown I'd be a terrible co-driver. And uh to wrap things up, we always do a cultural recommendation. So what is something you've seen or a place you visited or something you just want to tell everybody to go check out when they're done with the show. You told me to think about this and
Unknown then I came fully. Oh I know. I've recently finished the series on Netflix, Bojack Horseman. You've seen it. It's kind of this ridiculous cartoon. The artist, she's fantastic too. Lisa Hannewald. But this anthropomorphic horse that has a washed-up 90s TV show, it's great. Voiced by Will Arnett. Yes, who's fantastic. But um it's hilarious. It's sentimental. Um you could need to watch a couple of episodes a few times over to catch everything in the background. But um I love that show. Uh it's amazing. Download it on your next plane and just watch watch a bunch of episodes. Jack, how about
Unknown you? Yeah. So speaking of airplanes, um, I feel like um Speaking of Aeroplanes. The last uh the last couple of times uh that Stephen's had me on the podcast, I've um rather self-consciously recommended like super elevated stuff like you know, like a piece of Hungarian metafiction written in the nineteen fifty. So I saw the Meg recently. Um on an airplane and I'm like you. Yes, and I'm like I'm really kind of a sucker for like really really, cheesy, uh completely uh factually implausible science fiction movies. If the special effects are good enough and they come frequently enough and everything looks cool enough. And the mega it's the most ridiculous movie. But for anyone who doesn't know what it it is, it's a giant shark. It's a giant shark. It's a super big shark. So Megashort for Megashort for Megalodon, it was a uh Which is short for super big sharks. Which is short s yeah. So it's shark that as far as we can tell went extinct about six sixty million years ago, I want to say. Uh but you know, it was the size of a locomotive and it had a mouth big enough to swallow you know a couple of things accuracy with which you're describing this completely ridiculous thing. Of them has survived at the bottom of the Mariana trench underneath a thermocline of hypersaline water, and it's like it that's the kind of thing that sounds good when you say it, but it makes no sense. I love it. Um, you know, scientifically at all. But it's it's you know, an hour and a half of guys in minisubs shooting torp
Unknown I might actually have to go watch this now. You may have convinced me. The Meg 2. We should option that right now. Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna do the kind of cheesy thing here and recommend if you have not watched a commercial rocket launch, you should do that next time there's a launch, which we can figure out and put a link to uh in the notes. But it's so awesome. I try to watch them anytime I can. There's something you know, we're used to kinda like the news cycle being all bad news most of the time these days. Um there's something so uplifting about watching a rocket launch into space. Even if it's carrying up, yeah. We started with a pun, we're ending with a pun, it's uh full circle around. Uh yeah, there's something so kind of optimistic and great about it. Even if it's it's totally commercial, it's carrying things for businesses, like there's no sort of like exploration in quotes going on. It's nice that puns at the beginning and the end have been sort of the general thrust of this. Oh Jack. Oh man. All right. This is the last time
Unknown you guys are going to be hearing from me. I'm out. You should you should absolutely come to a launch though. I think people don't realize that it's it's a very emotional experience. You you feel it. It's not just visual, but it's loud, um, it it vibrates through your chest. It's it's incredible.
Unknown Um we can we can talk after. We can see what we can do. Yeah. Jack and I we Jack we can't go to space, but we can go watch something go to space. That's a good place to start. That's starting. It's a um launch pad. Yeah, it is. It is, it is. Th Thank youank you.. Thank you again to Stephanie and Jack for joining us. This week's episode was recorded in Miritone Studio Please remember to subscribe and rate the show, it really does make a difference. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next week.