Fantasy Watch Draft 2024¶
Published on Wed, 28 Feb 2024 17:55:00 +0000
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Synopsis¶
In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, host Tony Traina brings back the popular fantasy watch draft format with colleagues Danny Milton (Managing Editor), James Stacey (Lead Editor), and Mark Kauzlarich (Editor). The four participants engage in a snake draft to build their ideal five-watch collections across specific categories: sport, dress, complication, indie, and budget (under $1,000). Once a model is selected by any participant, all variations of that model become unavailable to others.
The draft produces diverse and considered selections. James Stacey opens with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Mil-Spec for Hodinkee and rounds out his collection with a Grand Seiko SBGW252, Patek Philippe 5935A World Time flyback chronograph, Haldimann H1 flying central tourbillon, and Arken Alterum. Danny Milton predictably selects Rolex's Le Mans Daytona but surprises with choices including a Lange & Söhne Saxonia Automatic, Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto, Hamilton Murph 38mm, and Zenith El Primero Triple Calendar. Mark Kauzlarich builds a collection featuring the Rexhep Rexhepi CC2, Patek Philippe 5004A and Calatrava reference 565, Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, and Seiko SPB153 Green Willard. Tony's selections include the titanium Rolex Yacht-Master, vintage Cartier Tank Cintrée, Lange Datograph, Berneron, and Tissot PRX 35mm in gold.
Notable omissions from the draft include the Omega Speedmaster, any Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, and most Omega models entirely. The hosts conclude by encouraging listeners to vote for their favorite collection on Hodinkee.com and suggest ideas for future drafts, including potential vintage-only or brand-restriction formats. The episode showcases the depth of horological knowledge among the team while revealing their personal tastes and collecting philosophies.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Tony Traina | This episode of Hodinki Radio is brought to you by Accutron in the new DNA Casino collection. With 100 pieces made in four vibrant colors, the Accutron DNA Casino perfectly fuses futuristic watchmaking and bold design. Stay tuned later in the show for more on the brand's new collection, or visit AcutronWatch.com for all the details. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Hodinki Radio. This week we're going to bring back an old school format we love. The fantasy watch draft. It's like fantasy football but for watch nerds. For the draft I've got four of my esteemed colleagues with me, starting uh most senior I suppose, Danny Milton, our managing editor. Mr. Milton, how are you doing today? Doing better now that I'm here, Tony. Glad to be back on Hodinky Radio. Oh likewise, likewise. Any fantasy I have starts with Mr. Milton. Next up we've got James Stacy, our lead editor. Is that your title, James? I can't even keep track nowadays. It is, yeah. It changed once |
| James Stacey | . Yeah, lead editor though. James Stacey. Happy to be here, of course. Uh and and I love a draft. |
| Danny Milton | I want to interrupt this intro just just to say on that point. Somebody earlier today said, James Stacey, World Traveler, where's that guy been? I was like only one place that I'm aware of so far this year, but but sure, why not |
| Tony Traina | ? That's right. And and finally we've got another editor and colleague of mine, Mark Hauslerich. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. Happy to be here. So here's what's gonna happen, guys. I've got these three colleagues with me. We're all going to be building a five-watch collection in each of the following categories. Sport, dress, complication, indie, and budget, budget being under a thousand dollars. Uh the other one that I think is is tough to define for some is indie. I know the definition is a little bit nebulous, but I think we're trying to think of it in a little bit of traditional terms. So Danny, keep your Rolex out of my indie can't category, keep your APs, your paddocks out of the indie category. We're talking true independent watchmaking. And I will say, I will say, well, lowercase I perhaps, but if you want to use your indie pick on something like a Baltic or Brew, I'm I would also allow that. All right. Completely ruined Danny's picks. I have to like start over. I'm scraping. |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Rework the big board. It' |
| James Stacey | s hard. It's hard to it is hard to bend Rolex to fit all five categories to be fair. Yeah. Well, I mean budget was gonna be the tough one for Danny, but I was expecting |
| Mark Kauzlarich | that. The case, the case of a flooded bubble back |
| Danny Milton | . Danny, budget. OP. You know, I'm I'm here with everything, guys. I got |
| Tony Traina | it. So before we get started with the draft guys, we're gonna do uh everyone's favorite segment on the new hodinky radio. Something cool on our desk. Uh you know, why don't we start once again with with Mr. Milton? Um I hope you're not gonna show us a typewriter today, but show us something cool on your desk |
| Danny Milton | . My my single typewriter. No, I I think I I just want to the audience to know that I invented this segment and I think I also used this object in in that segment on a different platform, but it is a uh a 1980s Patek Philippe like catalog, which I love because if you if you see the way it's catching the light, it's like uh what do you call this? This kind of texturing when like the uh scratch raised yeah, scratch and sniff.ell Sms like leather, feels like leather. Uh, and it's got you know everything you want in a catalog. Uh if you I think it's like 1983, 84. So we got some good, some good stuff in here. It's well printed. Give me the price. I think you were just on a Nautilus page there, Danny. Give me the price of a Nautilus. Let's see if it lists the Nautilus price on here. It doesn't, but I have a pricing guide elsewhere. Oh my goodness. It looks like the dog got to the scratch and sniff portion of that catalog. Yeah, the dog. Um for sure, not me. Uh there's no pricing, because of course, why would there be? But there's all these like fun little pull-out fold out uh segments to this that um just endlessly fun for the kids. Pop-up protect Philippe catal |
| Tony Traina | og. Uh that's great. That's great. James, hard to top that, but I imagine you'll you'll do your best to try. What's something cool you've got around your desk? U |
| James Stacey | h my pick today is gonna smell a little bit less like old money. Uh but it is a a great uh new magazine slash magazine's kind of a tough thing to call it because it's pretty impressive, maybe more like a coffee table magazine, if you will. It's the uh driver's journal from Mobile One. Shout out to Matt from the team. I met them at Ice Race and they put out uh this really impressive. It's almost exclusively photos. This one issue two is almost exclusively Porsche uh through the years and it's simply fantastic. The quality's great. The uh product, the like the final product in your hand is lovely, and of course the work inside is great. So that's that's what I was flipping through uh a little earlier today before I started, you know, just to kind of get myself in the mindset of a guy who's got five really incredible, like amazing, amazing watches, and while also, you know, trying to keep on the on the the you know keep the speed up to keep ahead of you guys. So driver's journal for mobile one. It's n |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ice. Great pick. Mark. Mark, what do you have for us? So this is something that I didn't actually know existed until yesterday. Um, picked it up yesterday. You might be able to see, catch the light here. This is a bound, a hard bound copy of Hodinki magazine volume one, which I was not apparently cool enough or important enough to know that this existed when the original one came out, but um I took it out of the wrapping for the first time just now just to be able to show you guys so there wasn't a reflection, but pretty cool. I mean, I've I've had all the issues in the magazine. I'm not here to necessarily promote the magazine, but I just thought it was super cool because I didn't know it existed until twenty four hours |
| James Stacey | ago. Well that's a tough to be clear, Mark is just hanging out at the office, so he's got office stuff on his desk, which includes it. This is this is actually this |
| Mark Kauzlarich | is actually mine. Granted, yes, I'm using I think fourteen or fifteen copies of the Hodinki magazine to hold my microphone up at my height. So uh there you go. But this one is mine. Nobody can take it a |
| Tony Traina | way. Well, listen, you got a 24, yeah, it's a 24-hour head start on me. I had no idea that existed until well, right now. Uh, you know, I listen, we're such a well-read group today. I had to bring a book as well. It's my Kindle. Um, but I I recently pickeded up this book call Get the Picture. I'm going to give you guys the subtitle real quick as well because it tells you pretty much everything you need to know. A mind-bending journey among the inspired artists and obsessive art fiends who taught me how to see. It's this Bloomberg journalist who kind of takes a year to basically infiltrate the art world, uh, the auction market and all these types of things. Uh it's it's fun, it's kind of adjacent to the watch auction world in a way, and it it kind of makes me think about how someone should a complete newbie nick kind of should do the exact same thing for watches. I think it'd just be a lot of fun to have sort of an outsider's perspective again and um, you know, observe the the various happenings of of our crazy world. Uh but anyway. Can we get a title? Can we get the title one more time on that? It's called Get the Picture. The author's name is Bianca Bianca Bosker. Fantastic. I'll send you an Amazon. I'll send you an Amazon affiliate l linkater, James. Affiliate. Thank you for that. I think we're going to start the draft now, guys. Uh you know, we kind of talked about the mechanics of it, but we're gonna do a snake draft. I think we need to figure out a way to sort of randomly assign who is going to go first, second, third, and fourth. And we'll do a snake draft until everyone's filled up their team of five people. The last thing I would say is that once a model is drafted, it's gone. So for example, if someone picks uh let's just say an Omega C master, all Omega C masters, vintage and modern, are are gone. Uh anything with C Master on the dial. And I would say, since that's like basically the only restriction on this draft, I'll be kind of liberal in how we define a model. So any C master eliminates the entire thing. C Master 300, C Master 1948, all the C masters are gone. Okay, if that makes sense. Uh I think we should just do the draft. This isn't totally random, but perhaps uh in order of seniority. So if we go, I guess it would be James, Danny, |
| Danny Milton | Mark, Tony. Does that make sense? That's what your spreadsheet says. And I was I was banking on that as I'm undoing and redoing my entire list, Tony. So let's not shake this up any further |
| Tony Traina | . Oh, that's funny. I don't think I intentionally put it in that order. Uh, but but now we have it. So James has has one one. And I would also ask, I'll be keeping track, guys, and for those at home, but just kind of give the category out as you're making your pick. And then that way it'll be easier for everyone at home to follow along. And then obviously kind of explain a little bit as to the sure the pick. All right. James, have I bought you enough time as to what your your first overall pick is going to be |
| James Stacey | ? Yeah, I I think so. I think so. Um, you know, being a serpentine draft, that's puts me in the hot corner in uh in about eight picks, seven picks, so that that's good. I can stack up some there, but I'm gonna come out pretty hot. I'm gonna go sport for my first pick. And this is tough, but I wanted to make a really concerted effort to not pick watches that I've selected for sports or for these sorts of drafts or for other stuff like that in the past. I'm not gonna pick the watches that are currently floating over my shoulders. For example, if you're watching this on YouTube, and I am gonna go with the Blanc Pon 50 Fhomats Mill spec for Hodenke. Possibly my favorite modern dive watch in existence. They're not easy to come by in the time that I've been tracking it since we sold that watch out in just a few minutes. I think two or three have hit like you know chrono twenty four or whatever in the past few years. Someday I hope that uh maybe one could be mine. But I think they're just about perfect as far as a dive watch goes. And and if you're gonna go a no budget draft, it's hard |
| Tony Traina | I'll be honest, I thought given some of the other folks on this draft, I thought you're going in another direction, partially to to troll some of the folks in this draft. That's what I that's what I was expecting. I I love it. I love Blanc Pon going one-one. I love all of the limited edition 40 millimeter cases they've done, but listen, we're a little bit biased here, but the Odinky one is is probably the best one |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . I I'm feeling good right now going into Danny, but I still I know I'm gonna get one of my two picks, but I I I had a feeling that you guys were gonna block me on my my number one and number two. So we'll see which which one |
| James Stacey | Danny's gonna pick that I would have picked. It was exceptionally difficult to not pick what I believe Danny will pick for his fo |
| Tony Traina | ur first sport choice. Alright Danny, do you think I just say it for you or would you like to would you like to tell everyone what your pick we all know the first five letters. You definitely |
| Danny Milton | know the first five letters, but I don't think e any of you know the watchman to choose. And if you do, you be honest that you Full of surprises, Danny. What's your pick? All right. So for my sports watch pick, I am going with the crown, Rolex, I'm going at Lamon Daytona. Okay. I would have had five bucks on a solid gold GMT two. I thought about that. I thought about it, but I'm I'm I'm gonna be going gold in other areas of this draft. I need to diversify my five watch collection a little bit. And I mean yellow gold, because obviously this this Le Monde Tona is white gold. Stealth gold. I picked it because it's really hard to pinpoint a surprising moment quite like what happened last summer when the Le Monde Tona came out. And so just looking at it, you know know, we some folks who have one, uh, some folks who might work with us here at Hodinky and it is just like some folks who let me wear theirs today. Did he really now? See, and it's like it is about as hot a sport watch as as it comes. It's uh I I it's it's taken up a lot of real estate in my head. So as much as I am the Rolex obsessive here, that's not the route I normally take, and it says a lot about what that watch is. I I think it's fantastic |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . It it's disappointing to me because my plan was to take that and then take a watch from another category and see if I could bow out of the rest of the the uh draft because I was pretty sure I could make the ultimate two-watch collection with that watch, but we got the gentleman himself over my shoulder by the way watching he uh you can't see him on the screen but he's he's flexing on us right now let's see if he can come on in and say hello Danny Melton just picked a watch that I believe you're wearing for oh cameo good choice hey there it is there it is the met |
| Tony Traina | al there it is that guy uh Ben climber in the metal everyone uh looking looking handsome as ever well listen, that takes daytona' offs the board. Not super surprising. If I was if I was had had the first overall pick, it was Lamon Daytona as well. Uh that brings us to the third pick |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . Mark, what do we have? You know what? I'll have another chance at this. I don't know that Tony might snipe this other watch for me, but just in case I'm gonna switch it up, I'm gonna go to Indie first and pick the the watch that was gonna form the other part of my two-watch collection that Danny took for me. I'm going indie with the Rechep Rechepi CC2. It's a good call. Big pick. Honestly, I I do think like had I gotten the Lamont Daytona, you can just check out at those two watches. It's it's just a fantastic watch. I've joked a lot of times that I'm on the list for the CC17 when I can get it. Um, because the list is gonna be a long, long time. But um honestly, I think maybe the best indie watch on the market right now. That is a great pick, Mark |
| Tony Traina | . It's a great pick. And I think it's it's a worthy first indie choice for sure as well. I I stutter because I'm looking at my big board right now. I'm making some calculations. I'm spoiled for choice, honestly. I'm running, I'm rerun |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ning the numbers. I mean, let's be I don't know that you would have picked that, so I don't know that it was urgent but uh if you're gonna go with what the heart wants I feel like that's that's the the number one for me |
| Tony Traina | . No listen so I've got the next two picks here in the hot corner as James called it uh always always one for the sports metaphors. And it's hard, it's like I don't think any of my choices are about to get picked, to be honest with you, because you guys just took some sports watches that while great uh were not necessarily on my list. I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna take a Cartier tank just because I think there's a good chance that someone's gonna take that with their dressed watch. Uh I'm I'm I've got a a few options as to which one I I want to take. I just want like a vintage Cartier Tank Centray from London and Platinum. The centrae is the tank to have to me. And I'm concerned that tanks will not make it all the way back to me again. So that's my my dress watch. Strap or bracelet? You know, listen, ideally I would have a bracelet. Uh and I guess I don't have to speak in idealized terms because this is a fantasy watch draft. So so yeah, you know, I found one with a great bracelet and it was it was great for me. So that would be my first choice. And my second choice is going to be uh this is a tough one, guys. I'm going to go ahead and take a sports watch. It's going to be a Rolex, of course it's going to be a modern Rolex. It's going to be the Titanium Yachtmaster, guys. Because this watch is basically mythical at this point. I'm not sure I've seen more than one or two come up on the secondary market. I've never seen one since we had those beautiful few minutes with it at Watches and Wonders last year, but but man, if that's not a fun watch. And I'm not sure I had a ton of competition for it, but um it's a it's a great modern sports watch and it's the first you know commercially produced titanium watch from Rolex. So so why not? You know |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ? What's a fun one? Great pick. It was on my list like way down. I I like the pick a lot. Um way down. W I wouldn't say well, okay. I've got some other things on the sports, but uh it it was definitely in there if if you guys took the other took the other option. So I I totally I totally respect that |
| Danny Milton | . Tony, is that is that super crazy deep deep scene was that not like a commercially produced model? Is that more like on the on the fringes? Which you also had the exclusive on that one. So I wanted to get your |
| Tony Traina | your take on it. Uh okay so, commercially produced. Uh I you know, I used I used that a little bit incorrectly. I suppose I meant more commercial, like aimed at a general commercial audience. Like someone would someone with regular wrists and wearable. Uh you know what I'm talking about, Danny. It's not a fifty millimeter watch. You get it, man. If anyone has seen |
| Danny Milton | that watch in a in a boutique window, which I have, it's like it's it's way bigger than you think. Like a wall clock. Yeah, |
| Tony Traina | yeah. Uh well that sends us back to Mark for his next pick |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . Man, um okay, so I've got my pick for sports watch then. Everybody else has gone that route, so I don't have to worry about that right now, which means with the centrae gone, I think I've got some options for dress. I'm gonna go with complication. Uh this might be maybe a little obvious, but I'm gonna take the the Patek 5004. Probably number one Grail watch on my list. Honestly, you can probably put me down for any variation of that watch, and I wouldn't be upset, but I'm gonna do 5004A last commercial run of the 5004 in steel. Not my favorite dial. I like some other dials that they've done for PC Uniques, but we're I think we're avoiding PC Unique watches. So 5004A steel doesn't get much better than split second perpetual calendar Patek |
| Tony Traina | . I was worried you'd take that because I had you know 5970, 3970 on my list. And I'm going to say sort of using the broad interpretation of of what a watch family is, 5004 kind of crosses that out as an option for anyone thinking about that as a complication, but still plenty of options out there. But I was concerned that that would be taken. So an excellent pick. That sends us over to Danny, right? Am I getting lost in the snake yet? I don't think so. I think that's that's accurate. Ser |
| Danny Milton | pentine. I'm going to follow suit with Tony and go dress watch. Not that I necessarily think someone's gonna take it, but I'm thinking about my picks as if I were going to own these things. And I'm gonna go with the Longa Saxonia automatic. Just a straight classic rose gold 38 and a half millimeters of just like pure dress watch. I think it's like end it's like your entry level Langa, but I like that about it because it's it's about as clean and no nonsense as you get from like a dial presentation, but you have everything about longa that you could love on the inside, just the general construction. Um so yeah, I really don't you know, I'm just thinking about w use cases for me and what kind of watch I want and yeah, that's what that's how I'm feeling. That' |
| James Stacey | s a good one. Nice watch. It's a nice and you prefer the the the standard over ultra thin? Yeah, I do. I I like a little a little bit of uh a |
| Danny Milton | little bit of uh thickness, not too much. A little heft |
| Tony Traina | . Little heft, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Well James, we're back to you. The hot corner. Hot corner. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I'm gonna I'll I'll fill in my dress here. Uh it's actually a watch that I would very much like to own for uh myself one day. It's uh Grand Seiko, it's the SBGW252 LE from 2017, yellow gold. It's like a fairly faithful recreation of one of the brand's like original dress watches. Uh I've had the opportunity over the years to have this on my wrist, you know, a half dozen times. And it just it's the way it fits more than the name brand, which is incredible, more than the styling, which I think is perfect kind of end tale of mid-century, um, in terms of its reference and it it it really just comes down to like the sizing and the way the light hits it. You put it on a nice kind of uh dress it down on like a suede style strap. And I would just wear that all the time. I had a lot of trouble with the the dress watch one. There are several options here all of them basically look loosely like the same watch and this one kind of feels the most like an outlier from an aesthetic standpoint and uh and I I just I really really have a a a softball for these uh pieces and and |
| Tony Traina | would love to have one. It's a great pick. Actually, believe it or not, I had the not those ones, but the hundred and thirtieth anniversary limited editions, which were basically the same thing just from you know five or six years prior whatever it would have been that were 36 instead of I think the one you chose is 38 millimeters, right? Correct. Yeah. Yeah. The 36 is probably super sweet. Yeah. For for a guy like me, that's kind of why I went with the would have went with the 130th anniversary ones if I had to, but a brilliant choice. A brilliant choice, James. What are you doing with your other your other choice |
| James Stacey | ? All right. I'll go complication. We can kind of keep Indian budget as the developing spot here. Um for complication, this is also kind of a tough one. I mean, there's a certain certain two-time zone watch that's still on the board. Um, but I'm I'm gonna go with probably my my favorite modern Patek of the last couple years, the 5935A1 World Time flyback chronograph. So steel uh world time, which is very much in my zone, uh, you get the sort of rosy salmony sort of copper dial with uh the black dial furniture and then throw on top of that a flyback chronograph uh you know one that i've i've only very briefly seen in person uh like for minutes and just really, really loved it. I think that it's as far as a modern protect goes, I think it's like it's one I could see myself wearing um right in there with you know the the really lovely Calatrava, the sporty Calatrava stuff we've seen over the last few years. Um so that was kind of there's a few picks in there, but this is the one that lands. I like that it's still steel and uh and and I think it's still a little bit of a rare bird to see out in the world, even among the kind of uh Patek uh groups |
| Tony Traina | . Really, really considered choices, James. We love to see it. That brings us back to Danny for his next pick |
| Danny Milton | . All right, I'm moving into the indie category for my next pick. I think that tastes will vary. I'm looking specifically at Mark Koserich when I say that here, but I'm gonna go with the Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto Blue Dial for my indie choice here. I have not tried it on, which may be maybe my fault, but I've seen it on other people's wrists. And the stealth nature of the titanium, sort of that dark hue of the bracelet, and just like the very I don't know, it's got a pure aesthetic to it that um I'm just really into the Matt dial, the you know, everything about what an indie is sort of feels like it's encapsulated in this watch in a way that really uh gets me excited. We meet with them every year. It'll watches and wonders. I think it's a great brand. And I'm uh, you know, excited to potentially try that watch on my own wrist at some point. But uh yeah, had that as my number one indie slot. So glad it was still there. Did you name check Mark real quick just because he's not a huge fan of that watch? I can't. But I think he's not maybe not a buyer. If if he had what I consider to be it's a little more expensive than I think it should be. So I'm gonna be uh on the joining mark by saying that where it's price, which is around 50K, is like it's too much. Um but yeah, uh that's the only reason why I name checked |
| Mark Kauzlarich | you Mark it's a no, it's I mean it's a tough price point I think for anybody. It's there's a lot of options at that range. I think it's pretty great. I also think knowing that you went with a precious metal sport watch, like that is actually a good, you know, uh way to supplement that. You know, you have like a sports watch that you can maybe wear and in other sporty situations. So I think that's a good choice. I like it. |
| Danny Milton | Thank you. I got a lot of sporty situations in my life. Also my my my budget is just shot here. I'm going I'm I'm I'm going high on price guys. Uh why don't we keep it with Mark |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ? Mark, let's keep it with you for your next next pick. Well I I appreciate that seeing as I am next on the list here, so than thanksks for for the opportunity. Um I think I'm gonna I'm gonna go with dress watch and let somebody sort of force my hand on the sport watch uh eventually. I have three vintage protects on the list and, I think I'm going to go sort of furthest out in left field. I'm going to take a 565 brigade dial Cala Travo with the Luminous Hands. It's dressy, it's sporty, it's got brigade indices, and I think like honestly, you could do a lot worse. I've looked at that watch probably a hundred times over the last two, three years now |
| Tony Traina | . Beautiful watch. Another considered choice. You're really building up a nice paddock collection over there. Pairs nice yeah steel 500 |
| Mark Kauzlarich | 4 honestly like that was that was sort of my my thought here is do i want to go too too deep in one one brand if we're if we're if we're playing to the audience, think I they're gonna want to see some variety if they're gonna vote on who did the best. So I'm sorry for those of you that think that I took too much protect, but it's it's really hard to beat that brand sometimes. Well that brings it next |
| Tony Traina | to me for two more picks, I believe, and then I won't have another pick until the last pick of the draft, if I if I remember how snake drafts work, which I'm not sure I do. Uh okay, so I have a complication, I have an indie, and I have a budget watch. So I'm gonna do a couple of things here. First of all, I'm gonna take a complication. I'm gonna do the original data graph. So platinum, black dial, the 403.035. You know, like Danny, I really wanted a longa in my collection and I thought about doing dress watch, but I thought doing complication instead was a creative way to do it and to get something from that era of longa when they really set the watchmaking world on fire with their first in-house chronograph is is a fun way to do it. It's a little bit big for my wrist, but but we'll make it work. The next thing I'm gonna do is I might as well just do my indie pick. I'm gonna I'm gonna do something interesting. I'm gonna take the the burner on. I don't know if you guys even remember this watch. I wrote about it for Hodinky a few months ago. It's kind of a a mashup of a Cartier Crash meets like a sector dial paddock 96. I, you know, I was first introduced to a prototype when I met Sylvan Bernerone. He's the the guy behind the brand back at Watches and Wonders. And it was kind of so refreshing just to see that watch after a few days of Watches and Wonders, something so so different. Clearly inspired inspired by a lot of the vintage watches I love, but but totally different and stands on its own merits. So that'll be my indie pick. And it's kind of one of these, it's it's true indie watchmaking to me. It's one of these things I've seen developed just during my time in the watch industry. So I like it for that reason as well. So that leaves me with with a budget pick under a thousand dollars for my last pick, but I'm not super concerned. I there's so many choices in that area. I'm not concerned that I'll have something great to pick. We're excited that Hodinky Radio is back, and our return is thanks in part to this week's sponsor, Accutron, and its new DNA Casino collection. Driven by the world's first electrostatic The new Acutron DNA Casino Collection fuses vibrant colors with futuristic design. The four bold new colors, each limited to 100 pieces, are inspired by the bright lights of Las Vegas. The DNA is an update of Acutron's original icon, the Space View, the watch known for its revolutionary tuning fork movement. The DNA updates the Acutron's Space View for the modern era with a 45mm stainless steel case and integrated rubber strap. Since introducing the world's first fully electronic watch in 1960, Accutron has continued to push the boundaries of timekeeping. The Acutron DNA Casino Collection synthesizes bold colors, innovative technology, and a retrofuturistic design to make a bold statement. Accutron, it's not a timepiece, it's a conversation piece. Check out the new DNA Casino collection on AccutronWatch.com or the new citizen A big thanks to Accutron for its support and now back to the show |
| James Stacey | . The datagraph is a solid pick, it must be said before we move on. Definitely was on was on my list uh for both complication and I figure you could have slotted it into dress in some ways. Um and I I just think they're such uh such kind of special things, even to the extent that they've been around for a while, if you're lucky enough to have kind of played around with one and have a lot of presence, I guess is the word, you know, especially in a precious metal, which you know they they are. And uh and then I r you know recently got a chance to see one on a bracelet, which was ludicrous, just so much fun uh on the bracelet, but they're a a great time and it's good yeah, you can't really do like a dream watch draft without having a handful of longas at least pop up uh i in the pre-list, let alone on the on the select, so that makes sense |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . Well, moving right along, Mark, what's your next pick gonna be? You know, I just I've said this whole thing about letting somebody else force my hand, but I realize that you guys are um all out of sport, so it doesn't really matter that much. Um it's gonna be a toss-up and I think since I have two pateks already I'm not gonna go any deeper on that, but I am gonna go back to for those people on watching on video, sport. I'm gonna wear my GMT Master 2 Pepsi bezel. It's literally like I I wear this watch probably 90% of the time nowadays anyway. So I'd be kind of sad if I didn't have one in the collection, I think |
| Tony Traina | . Honestly, I didn't G thinkMT Master would last this long in the draft. So good on you for being able to snag it towards the end here. Ye |
| James Stacey | ah. Yeah. Solid pick and a watch that I definitely like. When I see it, I think like, oh, that's you know, that's a mark watch for sure |
| Tony Traina | . Speaking of GMT Masters, Danny, what's your next p |
| Danny Milton | ick? All right. I am going to go budget. I'm gonna be first the inaugural budget inaugural budget watch choice here. And like you said, Tony, this is a tough category to choose from because a under a thousand was our was was our like sort of guiding star here, right |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ? Prices have gone up, it feels like. W Ihen was searching for budget picks, it feels like there's a lot of stuff that's creeped above a thousand. Now I'm gonna make sure my choice. I mean that brings up a question so I can prepare from when I have to make my pick. If I can find it new on eBay for less than the retail price, does that count |
| Tony Traina | ? If it's new, I would say to stay with the retail price. Unless it's a, listen, unless it's like a brand with a well-known, I'm thinking of Seiko perhaps where the street price is like well known to to be below their suggested retail price uh I would say go with the retail price to so that we're not fudging things |
| Danny Milton | . All right. I'm on I'm on good footing here. I'm gonna go uh with a brand that I think represents a ton of value across the board, sub one thousand dollars, which is Hamilton, and I'm going to choose uh as sort of the resident movie guy here, the thirty eight millimeter Murph watch. That came out late 2022. It's a watch nobody asked for really. I mean they did sort of like in side complaints and comments when the original Murph was made a production watch at 42mm and just felt like a watch nobody could really wear with that aesthetic and 38 just feels like the best landing spot for that watch. I have one. It's just so much detail and fun at $895. I've I've held watches that cost like fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars that feel markedly worse than the way that watch does. I mean it has a solid unit of watch, which is always the case with Hamilton, between four hundred and a thousand dollars, they just knock it out of the ballpark in that price segment. And so if you want something that feels thoughtfully vintage inspired because it has like a really unique backstory behind its design and it's just a great size, you really can't go wrong with that Hamilton Murph 38mm |
| Tony Traina | . It's a ton of watch for the money. Yep. Yeah. Hamilton just kind of owns this category in a way. So I'm glad we got one Hamilton on the board at least. Uh that's going to bring us to James for his last two picks, his indie and his budget picks. |
| James Stacey | All right. Uh I'll I'll follow Danny's lead and we'll we'll crack into the budget here and then I'll close out on an indie pick 'cause I I genuinely haven't decided from my my uh private list here. But uh budget I only put one down. Uh this is one where I'm I'm holding true to my own moves in the world as this is a watch I will own when I can. Uh I have I have an order in and uh when when they're made and I can get one, I'll get one. And that's the uh Arkin Altarum. So this is a uh a British-made travel watch with a very clever sort of solution for tracking essentially a dual time with AMPM Kenneth Lamb, who started the company I met last year at Watches and Wonders after uh hanging out with Zinn and kind of got to know Kenneth a little bit and uh and check out the watches that he's made. And the Alterum is sort of the second watch uh from their from their run. They started with the titanium dive watch and this is a titanium travel watch. I really think that if you have no clue what I'm talking about, hit the show notes and check it out because the watches are rad. They're very much in demand by a certain sort of niche appreciator of of these sorts of watches of which I absolutely am part of and I I I'm very pumped for it. So one one of my kind of favorite budget things in in the space these days. And and like you guys said that there's a a ton of amazing watches under a grand right now, uh, which is really fun to see. And especially if you want to get into travel watches, those numbers just keep getting better uh for us. And there were definitely some some competition for the Ark and But as soon as I kind of saw the sub thousand, I figured I'd throw it in there. It's six hundred pounds, um, which I think is about seven hundred fifty US. So we'll call it eight hundred once it shipped and it hits your door. I think it's I you know, I've I saw a a pre-production sample and it it felt like a great watch at that price point. So I'm pumped to have one uh to call my own |
| Tony Traina | . James Stacy at his James Stacyist, I would say. Great pick. Great pick. And let's hear it. You you've bought yourself enough time to debate on what your indie choice is going to be. So what what is it? |
| James Stacey | Man, this is a little tough. Um I wanted uh you know, I really wanted to go y if you look at the the collection so far, we have the Blanc Pon, the Grand Seiko, the Patek, and now the Arkhan. It it I mean the Arkhan is unconventional, but within a certain guise of of and you know sort of a micro brand. The other three are fairly conventional choices. I wanted to go as unconventional as possible. Um but I'm gonna dial that back a little bit from the absolute edge that I did find in the indie world from from memory. And uh it's a watch I've always been the one I'm gonna go with is a watch I've always been very curious about. I don't believe I've ever seen one in person, but I do see them in photos with some frequency and uh they just look like it would be a real left field play for me, but something that looks like fun and I think the sizing would fit really nicely and that's the Haldeman H1 flying central turbion. Uh I think these are like very, very cool watches. Uh I love the idea of taking a fairly subtle case and most of the dial and then having this, you know, highly animated, raised up sort of view of the of the central turbion. I'm not typically a turbion guy, but I like the idea of getting a little bit out of my comfort zone for a draft. And I think a central turbion, I like the balance. I like the the sort of centralness of the design and and the way that it aligns with the the movement architecture and that sort of thing. And every time I see one of these I do kind of pause and go like, it's pretty cool. 39 millimeters. Uh this uh the the example that I found uh from a collected man was in white gold and just really, really pretty. Uh I don't I can't say that I I like like I said, I I have never had one on my wrist or in hand, but uh maybe someday. How do you guys feel about the uh H1? |
| Tony Traina | I'm speechless. I d I don't even know what to say about the watch or about James Stacy choosing the watch, but I I love it. Mark, please, hopefully you can add something more substantive than that. That |
| Mark Kauzlarich | yeah, that was out of left field, but yet s similarly James Stacy across the board. I mean, what can you say? |
| James Stacey | It's a white dial, you know, it's you know it's got some things that kind of align with it. I told I I said from the top that I was gonna try and go with stuff like like it wasn't gonna be a a sixteen five seventy and a and a seiko dive watch and like my normal so I'm yeah I'm I'm I'm you know trying to and and I think look I I can now be as the first one to finish my five resolve my my entire five-piece collection, I think I've got a pretty cool collection here. There's a little something for everyone, me. And I do think that if especially if you were going to take it down to something as sort of core as a vote, it's an obvious choice at this point, as I'm the |
| Tony Traina | only person who's delivered. You know, listen, we're not we're not to the campaigning point yet. Some of us are still on the campaign trail here. So I'm gonna cut you off right there. And Danny's going to make his last choice for complication |
| Danny Milton | . Yes, I am. And I've done some soul searching while simultaneously listening to all of you make your choices. I had a weird a weird pick, an out there pick that I'm gonna I'm gonna dial it back a little bit. I'm not gonna cause James Stacey, you gotta own that corner now. So I'm gonna go I'm gonna be a normal guy. I'm gonna pick I'm gonna pick the uh I'm gonna move the chains and I'm gonna pick the the game of defense. I'm it's a game of defense, you know, balls in the air. Yep. I'm going with the Zenith El Primero Triple Calendar. Recency bias for sure, but I was thinking about it a little bit. And if this is my collection, consider this in the white dial variation to be my stainless steel alternative to my Lamon Daytona. But I also appreciate the triple calendar chronograph moon phase situation happening here. Um, it's a complication that is based on a prototype Zenith El Primero. It allows the watch to remain like remarkably thin for what it what is it, 38 millimeters again, Tony |
| Tony Traina | ? Is that right? 36. And it's the same thickness as the traditional Al Primero, which is crazy. It's really |
| Danny Milton | nice and also the triple calendar requires like a lot of manual use on the part of the owner, you know, to sort of like maintain and and keep it going. So I kind of like that interaction with the watch and I like that the choice to go with that keeps the price relatively low relative to competition. But I also think that the form factor is like far exceeds the competition. So the Zenith El Primero triple calendar is my choice |
| Tony Traina | . Yeah, it's a great pivot. Listen, it's only February, mid-February, late February, but it's my favorite release of the year probably. So I'm not sure how much that's saying, but I love it. It's just uh representative of a lot of the good things Zenith has done over the past few years, drawn on their heritage, but but bringing it forward. So I fully endorse the pick for you, Danny. I I love to see it. Th |
| Mark Kauzlarich | anks. Where were you gonna go, Danny, with with that? |
| Danny Milton | I was gonna go for a watch that I think is like half a million dollar uh list 50 I think exist it was the Reg Louis Vuitton uh sonry chronograph so just the this the concept of a sonary for every minute of a chronograph function was interesting enough to me plus the like entirely bespoke nature of each individual case by hand but that just felt it felt wrong. It felt wrong to put |
| Tony Traina | a museum piece in my collection in a way. It wasn't 50 pieces, Danny. It was only 10, so even even more difficult to find. Great. Good good for me. Well Mark, that brings it to you for your budget pick and then I'll have my budget pick to close out the fantasy draft twenty twenty four. Yeah. |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Um I gave myself sort of four options. I didn't know what people were going to go for. I should have assumed that that uh I wouldn't be going head to head with James because James always has something that I've never heard of that's super cool so didn't have to worry about that as much. Um I'm gonna go with something that I can really wear and beat up as much as possible. Um and if you'll permit me, uh as you mentioned, Seiko, you can often find below retail price. So if you'll permit me a little bit of a a fudge here, I went on eBay, I found a lot of them for sale. Um, I was gonna do the Seiko SPB 153 green willard on a rubber choice. Love this choice. That's a ton of choice. This is uh yeah, I'm I'm finding them on eBay around eight fifty to nine hundred uh list price. Yes, it's a little over. It's eleven hundred dollars. Um but I picked up diving last year. I figured five watch collection, it would be a bummer not to have a dive watch in there. I think this is probably gonna be my second most worn watch out of everything on the list, and frankly, I can go home happy with with these five |
| Danny Milton | watches. I love that watch. Mark, I also recall our old pal Cole Pennington doing like an insanely cool diving story with specifically that watch with some of the coolest photography. Um that I can rec underwater photography we've had on the site. It's just a great choice, serious |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ly yeah and I I'll say I saw Cole actually uh a little over a week ago in Geneva we had we had uh dinner and drinks and and I actually mentioned this watch to him I said you know there's there's a watch that's still kind of kicking around in the back of my mind, which is the Green Willard. I one of the first times I hung out with Cole a couple of years back, he had that watch in for a review and it's it's stuck with me ever since. So I'm I'm happy to sneak sneak by with that that one there. |
| Tony Traina | Nice. Good pick. Gotta have a Seiko dive watch. Yeah, 100%. I'm glad we got Seiko on the list in the budget category, no less. So that's that's great to hear. Just a true dive watch. That brings me to my budget pick, the last pick of the draft. And I'm gonna keep it simple. It's actually the watch I'm wearing. It's the Tissot PRX 35mm. I'm going with the gold-coated one. I got this recently from our friends at the Hodinky shop, actually. Uh, so bit of a shameless self-promotion or plug there. But I don't have a true like integrated bracelet sports watch in my little collection here. It's not really my vibe anyway. So all I need to do is spend, you know, this amount of money. I think it's a little bit over 800 retail. And it's really everything I need in this type of sports watch. So I'm I'm glad to add this to the fantasy collection and to the real collection. Um I've been wearing it a ton since I got it a month or two ago. So so that's the PRX and I'm I'm glad to have it on the D the Damian Lillard special edition. The Damien Listen, I like someone was joking with me when I get so someone was joking with me. They were like, you should buy just a stainless steel version and swap out the a black dial because the black dial would look sick on the gold, uh the gold case. And you know, Dame Time came through and did it for us. He did. He did. The the dollar sign might be uh corny as hell on the second hand, but other than that, like it's kind of cool. I'm a huge Lillard fan. You know? I'm just uh st I'm actually I'm actually upset you don't have that watch. Sure. Well, listen, Danny and I are going to hang on after this to talk about how to fix the all-star game for those who want to uh tune into that. Maybe that'll be after hours. But that kind of recaps our fantasy watch draft. We're going to take a few minutes here. I think everyone just list off your collection for us. For my sport, I have the new titanium Rolex Yacht Master. For my dress, I have a Cartier Tanks and Tray, preferably a vintage one in platinum from Cartier London. For my complication, I have a Longa datagraph, the original one. For my indie, I have burnerone. For my budget, I have the TSO PRX 35mm in gold. We'll we'll reverse it from there. Mark, can you summarize your collection for us real quick |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ? Yeah, so for sport, I have my Rolex GMT Master 2, Pepsi Bezil, of course. Um I went with a Patek Cala Trava reference 565 with a brigade dial and luminous hands for my dress watch. Complication, I stuck with Patek. I took a 5004A um stainless steel split second perpetual calendar. Indie, Rechep Rechepi, CC two. And then finally for a budget pick, sake SPB one five three, the green willard. It's okay. It's okay |
| James Stacey | . Yeah, yeah. Listen, someone's gotta be around. That's a sol |
| Mark Kauzlarich | id five watches. I'm not gonna talk any of you guys up. I'm I'm staying quiet. You asked for what my picks were. I |
| Tony Traina | gave you my picks. That's it. I'm out |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . All right. Danny, give us your f |
| Tony Traina | ive watch collection. All |
| Danny Milton | right. Sports watch. I went with the Laman Rolex Daytona dress watch, the Longa Saxonia Automatic in rose gold. For my indie, I went the Laurent Ferrier Sport Auto with the blue dial. For my budget pick, I went the Hamilton Murph thirty-eight millimeters. And for my complication, I went with the Zenith El Primero Triple Calendar. Alright, and finally, Mr. Sta |
| James Stacey | cy, your five watches, please. Yeah, the five watches that make up the you know sort of the collection that you should be voting for imminently at this point is the uh Mark already read them. Uh for sport I went with the Blanc Pont 50 Fathoms Mill spec for Hodinky, one of my favorite all time LEs out of the program. Uh in and definitely had some competition, but that's what I settled on as it is kind of a fantasy draft, no budget. It was great. James, you're just listing you're just listing the watches, dude. You're just listing them. You know, you're not no editorial notes, please. You see, the problem is if you don't let me get to the second one, it's never gonna be a list. For just watch SBGW two five two from Grand Seiko complications, the Patek 5935A world time flyback chronograph. For indie, I went with the Haldeman H1 flying turbine and for budget the Arcon Altarum. Hopefully that was enough of a list for the uh overlords here on Zoom. I can hang up so quickly. He will too. He's not kidding. Do it. Danny' |
| Tony Traina | s seen me do it in meetings. Oh man, don't hang up on our audience, James. Okay. So guys, first of all, how does everyone feel about how their collection came together? Do are we having regrets? Things we missed out on? Do you feel as though they're coming together nicely? I'm I'm happy with mine. I'm I'm really I really have a regret-free sort of existence right now. And I wish I could live anxiety-free like that, |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Dan. How you how you feeling, Mark? Yeah, I feel pretty good. I think the only thing that I wish I would have maybe gone for earlier was the the Centrain Platinum. Um not to talk up your pick, but I just now I'm thinking maybe a little one note with the the Patek uh two selections. But honestly like if you're gonna take two great watches, you can't really complain about that. Uh feel feel pretty good about it. I mean, look, if I don't win the vote, I'm okay with that. I'm still with the best collection and I know it. |
| Tony Traina | So are there things we miss, guys? I there's a few obvious ones I've kind of got notated here. Uh wait, no one took a speed master. No AP is notable. No speedmaster is notable. No |
| Mark Kauzlarich | one took a royal oak. That's crazy. No AP. Yeah, I looked at RD RD two and RD three as royal Oak complication possibilities, uh I think honestly like very sort of under the radar despite how popular Royal Oaks are, like how great those watches are for complication picks. So that kind of surprised me. I also had the I had the data graph on my my list, but I picked a lumen. So I'm surprised that you sort of went with the first the first series. And then also just like been talked about a lot, but for me the other one that stood out is the simplicity, the fact that that wasn't apparently in the running for for anybody for indie kind of surprised me as well. |
| Danny Milton | Yeah, also Tony's like example of what we can't do in the rules was was using Omega several times. I don't think anyone picked a single Omega in this entire draft |
| James Stacey | . Like I I just assumed that a a Royal Oak of some sort would be along the line. Um, you know, looking back, I could d I could trade the fifty nine thirty five for uh two triple five four, like a c a Royal oak Q P from the eighties, uh, which would be rad and and you know mark and I have a uh quite a fondness for those so I'm surprised it didn't end up on either of our list. The Indy one I had like I went wilder than the Haldeman. I I very nearly picked a VNE halter antiqua, uh which, is like one of the first truly wild watches I ever bought a magazine because it was on the cover of, or like a, you know, a the rest time annual uh one year had had one of those on the cover. And for whatever reason, as you've watched, you know, so many really interesting brands with really wild sort of aesthetic perspectives flourish in the last several years, every time I see something genuinely wild, it always brings me back to either the Vannie Halter stuff or like uh the Harry Winston opus series. And uh those are all all you know very interesting stuff to me. I don't know how you could pick just one opus, but I guess it'd be the eleven. But uh yeah, I mean there's there's tons. Uh there's a handful of other great watches in sport. Uh sixteen five seventy would have been an easy one. If I need to be realistic, it would have been that long jeans spirit Zulu time limited edition. I wear it constantly. It's basically a arguably a perfect everyday travel watch from a great brand with a solid movement and great functionality and titanium and all that kind of stuff. Um what else is kind of a standout? Uh it was r I you know, I I I was also like really fought back and forth on the idea of like not putting a dive watch elsewhere in in the collection, like if I wanted to free up the sport watch and and then in Indiego with like a Resence Type 5, which is a watch I've just been like loosely in love with since it came out. Sure, it's 46 millimeters and would I take it diving? Absolutely. But yeah, there's there's all those sorts of things. I I love doing these drafts. I just have such a fun time with the hypothetical. I toyed with the idea of going bul |
| Danny Milton | gary octo for a second from for perpetual calendar purposes just because I think it's so cool how thin any of their complicated watches are and honestly non-complicated. I mean five it's tight. You're and and when when you're when you're boxed in, you gotta make a choice.. |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Yeah For sure. I think a flex pick I could have done a lot with, but the other one that jumped out at me before we go is is MB and F. I I had a number of MB and F's on the indie list. I also had them on complications as well. And I think that's another one that they've really grown into a brand that you can use in a lot of different ways in a draft like this. And so that sort of surprised me that we didn't see that. But I don't know. Maybe I was the only one with MBNF on my list. |
| Tony Traina | No, MBNF was one of the listen, we could end up listing indies all day long, I think. Because there's just so many. I think we've named a lot of a lot of things. Yeah, yeah. I think that's the natural, the natural conclusion here, James. Uh we could keep listing them all day long. I realize kind of what I did. The ones I prioritized were younger guys that I've kind of grown up with in the industry in a way. That's just like kind of how I romanticize indies instead of the DeFors and people like that that have been around since before I was born, honestly. I I kind of romanticized the the indie point of it. And I ended up choosing someone who I've known since he was, you know, the watch that's now being produced is was was just an idea in his brain. But anyway, that's just one way to approach the indie thing. And then I will say, generally speaking, we had a few sort of out-of-production watches, vintage watches, but we skewed in general towards modern releases, uh, which I think is probably the natural thing to do when you're thinking about these things. Uh and listen, we probably could do a vintage draft as well or an out-of-production watches draft, but I thought it was fun just for the first time bringing this back to just leave it almost as broad as possible, right? Giving us five general categories broadly defined and bringing it home that way |
| James Stacey | . I also think like the plan would be to do these with some frequency. So if you're in there, obviously you're you're in the comments on the story voting for my collection. And when you get done with that stage, leave a little comment if you've got like a great idea, some weird slice of watches that would lead to a fun draft. I think obviously an indies draft would be great. I would love to do a draft kind of in the same format as this, but where once a brand is picked, that brand can't be picked from anymore. Um, which I think would would you know, you'd isolate and and end up with a a slightly wider, wider broadcast ofs of uh of brands. But yeah, I I I just love doing this. These are always fun. And the other thing along with the people voting for my collection, which I think is a great idea and and naturally uh many of you will do that, I think it it when you get into the comments, let us know what five you would have picked. I'd love to see what other people's thinking was uh and and kind of what they what you would how you would go about five where only one has a budget, which is really, you know, kind of dream, super dream fantasy sort of wor |
| Tony Traina | ld. Yeah, the reason I kind of went with five is I've seen a lot of people kind of just put like five watch collection has been kind of a thing that's been going around the sort of watch community on Instagram and elsewhere lately. So I wanted to kind of limit it to five, but uh man, so many different ways to build a collection and you know exciting for us, so many different ways to to do these drafts based on categories, restrictions, and whatever else. But for now, we're going to leave it at that. Uh jump over to hodingkey.com and we'll have the post and we'll have a poll in there where you can go ahead and vote for. Listen, I'm not going to try to I'm just gonna I'm just gonna run a get out the vote campaign. Just vote. Uh some people are on here campaigning. I'm not gonna say whether or not that's on tour, but as long as you vote, I'm happy at the end of the day. Uh, get out and vote, and we'll let you know in a couple of weeks, I suppose, who won and maybe we'll have more of a recap. And then listen, watches and wonders is only a couple of weeks or a couple of months away I should say that's the next natural time for us to do some sort of fantasy draft but until then guys thank you again to our editor Vic Otomanelli for all of their help with this episode and editing the audio and and the video we'll see you again next week for more hodinky radio |