Hodinkee Radio: Watches & Wonders 2024 | Day 2: Cartier, TAG Heuer, Grand Seiko, IWC, And More¶
Published on Wed, 10 Apr 2024 23:23:58 +0000
Check out the full story here: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/watches-and-wonders-2024-daily-episodes-live-from-geneva
Synopsis¶
This episode of Hodinkee Radio is recorded live from Geneva during Watches and Wonders, day two of coverage. Host Tony Traina is joined by James Stacy, Mark Kauzlarich, and Danny Milton to discuss the watches they've seen at various brand appointments throughout the day. The episode is sponsored by Lucid Motors and recorded in their Geneva studio.
The team covers several major brands in depth. Cartier dominates the early discussion with their new Tortue monopusher chronograph, which features a movement specially shaped to fit the case and calls back to 1920s vintage designs. They also discuss the Santos Dumont Rewind with its reversed dial, new Tank Louise Mini and Tank Americaine Mini models, and the Santos Dual Time. From Tag Heuer, the standout is the Monaco Rattrapante split-seconds chronograph developed with Valjoux, priced at 135,000 Swiss francs with only 40 pieces being made. The team also examines Tag's new Carrera bracelet option and discusses the controversial rose gold Skipper.
Grand Seiko presentations included the spectacular Kodo constant-force tourbillon priced at $345,000, along with new manually-wound high-beat movements in the SLGW002 and 003 models. IWC showcased updates to their Portugieser line and the remarkable Eternal Calendar, accurate until the year 3999 with a moon phase accurate to 45 million years. The episode concludes with discussion of Vacheron Constantin's new Berkeley Grand Complication, now the world's most complicated watch with 63 complications and 2,877 parts, including Chinese traditional and agricultural perpetual calendars. The watch weighs 2.1 pounds and was commissioned by collector William Berkeley, who also owns the previous record holder.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Tony Traina | This episode of Hodinky Radio is brought to you by Lucid Motors, pioneers in luxury electric vehicles. Experience the fusion of high end technology and sustainability with Lucid. Dive into the world of EVs and design with us recorded live from the Lucid Studios here in Geneva. Ladies and gentlemen, it's day two of the Hodinky Radio Podcast, straight out of Geneva. I've got another cast of characters with me today. Some you might recognize, some might you not from yesterday. First of all, we've got James Stacy who's been holding in a lot of hot takes from yesterday. James, how you doing? Hi Tony, I'm really good. It's really nice to see you, and it's a pleasure to be on the show. Thanks for watching me. I watched yesterday from behind the camera. It was a really good episode. You contributed from behind the camera, which I think says a lot about your prowess as an editor nowadays. Next to you, we've got Mark Kalslerich. Mark, how are you doing? Feeling great. Happy to be here. And finally, you may recognize him from yesterday's show. That's right. We saw the comments, so we brought him back again. Danny Milton. How are we doing today? The corduroy kid. The corduroy kid. Not getting any sleep. Really glad |
| Danny Milton | to be here. No, why would you? Danny, quickly, what's the best thing you saw today? Ooh, Tony. Well, the best thing I saw today to take a page out of Ben Climber's book is something I can't talk about. But something I can talk about, I will say the best thing I saw today was a watch I talked about yesterday. The Zenith DeFi Revival Diver. The orange G thing. You know, it's this uh 37 millimeters. I don't mark if you knew it was a 37mm diver. Appreciate the reminder. Yeah, for sure. Um, it is a one-to-one effective uh recreation of a nineteen sixty-nine dive watch. Was in the meeting with James today where he also really enjoyed the DeFi Extreme Diver. I hope I don't know if that's your choice or not, but it was not okay. Great watch though. Great watch for sure. But that |
| Tony Traina | that'd be my that'd be my pick tone. Okay, let's start here before we get into it a little bit more. I want to talk about this because you went to Zenith. So we're gonna talk about a number of brands today. We're gonna talk about Cartier, Tag Hoyer, Grand Seiko, IWC, Longa. Uh we're gonna sprinkle in a little bit of complicated Vacheron at the end for for your viewing or listening pleasure, courtesy of Mark, of course. Um the the new most complicated watch in the world, I think. So so hang on for that one until the end for sure. Um so that's the reason we're focusing on these brands today. These are the things we've seen in person. This is why we focused on Rolex, Tutor, and Paddock yesterday. That's what we saw yesterday. So if if we still haven't covered your your favorite brand, hang on tight because we still got two more days of appointments, two more days of shows. Things like Chopard. Who else are we going to be seeing the rest of the week? Moser. Moser. I'm popping off site tomorrow for a couple of appointments with FP Jorn. FP Jorn. A lot of us are going to be making our way out of the Palexpo at some point tomorrow to see things off-site, uh, more boutique, independent watchmakers, which should be exp James, what's the best thing you saw today |
| James Stacy | ? Be the uh the ultra from Bulgri. Yes. Uh uh you know, super, super, super high end watchmaking can be difficult sometimes to understand what makes it so special? This is not a watch that needs much of an explanation. It is it's like somebody handed you a magic trick. Yep. Is the best way I can describe it. It doesn't weigh anything. It's impossibly thin. I don't understand how it doesn't fall apart. I'm holding it like it's made out of um uh ice on a hot day, thin blades of ice, and the the the gentleman who designed it and presented it to us was kind of tossing it around the table and showing us how good the bracelet uh,, like how articulating the bracelet is, as this beautiful, really clever clasp. I mean, this is a watch like I highly recommend that if you're watching this, feel free to pause, open another tab. Please don't leave. That would be mean. Pause, open another tab, and go check this out because the watch is impossibly thin really i think quite beautiful like in an industrial sense but like a beautiful design and like it's so thin that like Danny holding it at profile for me to take a photo my camera had trouble deciding |
| Danny Milton | Do you know the number? How thin it is? It's one point seven millimeters thin. So is that to be clear, this is the thinnest watch in the world? |
| James Stacy | Yeah, and and because the case is an integral part of the actual movements uh construction, uh that C O S C element, the chronometer element is done fully uh with a fully cased watch, which isn't that |
| Danny Milton | yeah, the movements the You can't take the movement out of the case. The case is the main plate. And so they were able to to to get the certification fully cased. |
| Mark Kauzlarich | That watch is crazy. I also just think it's really cool that we've we have the record back in a watch that is representative of the other watches that they're doing, like from form and design and everything like that. Like the resharp meal, I never saw it in person when it was briefly the thinnest watch in the world, but like you had to have a key to wind it. It didn't look like any other resharp meal. It was weird like this is bulgary it's just from the moment that you have an octo yeah it's fin |
| James Stacy | ished just as you'd expect fits right in the lineup and like it's he the again the the presentation we got he showed us like this entire walk It's cool stuff. It's worth checking out even if you're James. The best meetings are at nine AM. I mean I can't uh you want this on record? Okay. Mark, best thing you saw today. Tony keeping me off the anger train. Keeping me off the anger train early |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . Honestly, um man, it was a it was a full day. I think we ended on a high note. We saw the Grand Seiko Koto at the end, which is I wasn't I I wasn't in the industry when the first Kodo came out really, so I never got to see it. I didn't know when it would come through New York on tour or whatever, but this is a constant force turbion, um, super intricately skeletonized. I will say, like it does doesn't necessarily remind me of any other Grand Seiko that I've ever se And in this case, that's actually kind of a cool little thing for them to pull out. But man, I spent a lot of time photographing that in a meeting, and every time I'd hand it off to somebody, I'd look at my pictures and be like, Oh, can can you you hand it back? 'Cause I need to take another photo of this thing that I just discovered was a part of this watch and it was super |
| James Stacy | cool. I I only just I I missed the Koto when it first came out a couple years ago and I only just got a chance to see the original one weeks ago in New York, uh, at a Grand Seco meeting. And then they launched this new version, which is the daybreak. So there'll be 20 of these. There's 20 of the of the previous, which had more of a darker finish for the movement. You know, the mix of platinum and titanium in the case is fast fascinating. In my mind, it doesn't, it very much feels like a Grand Seco, it just doesn't feel like there are other watches. It's not like it builds upon an active line, kind of like the Octofenissimo would. But I think that it's almost like the brand kind of saw what Groove Forcey was up to and was like, Oh, we can we can do that too. And the watch is stunning. I mean, it has a stunning price tag, but it's not without merit, it's quite a thing. It's what three hundred. Three hundred forty five, I think. But yeah, I mean, you know, uh give or tak |
| Tony Traina | e. Twenty between friends. Yeah. Tony, what's your what was the best thing you saw today? Thanks for asking. Danny, it's gonna be a natural transition into the first brand we're gonna dig a little bit deeper into today, Cartier. Seamless Transitions, the professional I am Danny. Interestingly, that was an afternoon meeting. And it went pretty well. It did, it went well. I agree. Cartier is always one of the best meetings of the year because there's always some stuff that they don't send you in press releases. That's kind of this weird one-off stuff, or just these kind of quiet releases that they'll only end up making for a year or two that are sort of commercial watches that people are going to buy and you'll see them out there, but they just kind of sneak them up, sneak them onto the tray, and then you say, Hey, wait, what was that? But for me, the headliner from Cartier is the Tour 2, it's the year of the Tour 2. Uh I I talked about it yesterday. I said I wasn't so sure about it, but guys, after seeing it, I really like it for a number of reasons. Number one, they shaped the movement to make it kind of the tono shaped tortoise shaped case, which is really impressive to rework the original sort of movement like that to make it shaped to the case. It's something that not a lot of brands are doing. And then the thing they did with the design that I really like is it it to me calls to mind more of these 20s or 30s vintage tortoise. Um the the m mon originalono pushers from from way, way back in the day, long before Danny was born. And it's it's more like those than the CPCP ones from the 90s, which I the aesthetic is a little more uh uh not my style, let's say. So I like that they called back to those a little bit more. You know, the those CPCP tor |
| Mark Kauzlarich | uh tortu mono pushers like have gotten kind of hot lately and and I don't know why they've slowly grown on me, but the more weird ones that don't try to be the original ones, like are confidently their own things, like the one with the big twelve, really cool. But this one you look at it and it's like, oh, this is what Cartier would have been doing in the in the twenties. And I think I talked to someone recently. There's from those 20s era mono pushers that they were drawing off of. I think there's seven known in yellow gold, one in platinum. And to think that a hundred years later, that inspired Cartier to completely redesign a movement, put it into a case, do something cool is like |
| Tony Traina | is is pretty awesome. And it's also cool if you go into the booth, they've got some of the heritage pieces there so you can see the old twenties or teens tortu however old it is and you can see the inspiration right there obviously it's a tenth of the size or something compared to the new one but uh it it's quite cool to see and it was one of my favorite things of the day. But that's not all we saw from Cartier. There are hours and minutes tortoise as well. Nice watches, nice additions to the purvey lineup. I like those quite a bit. You like them? Really good on wrist. Yeah. They're quite nice on wrist. Nice short lug to lug mostly dial just wears nicely legible nice straps even I like that they bring they won't call them brigade numer brigade hands they'll call them apple style hands I think is coming in lexicon hands yeah, exactly. Uh but I like that they put the hands in those. Uh they could have been blued I think in the in the hours and minutes ones I think would have been a nice design choice. They they can kind of blend in with the dial a little bit, but but just nice classic Cartier dress watches. Uh the price is a bit punchy. It's around thirty thousand dollars uh for for the the yellow gold and for the platinum. So it's a little bit punchy, but this is what you expect from a limited edition privé watch. Um, we saw the same thing with the normal last year. So I also |
| Mark Kauzlarich | think that like Cartier has a tendency, and we talked you well, you guys talked about it on the podcast yesterday, to do the thing that a lot of brands do, which is not give you exactly what you want, but to put their own twist on things. So you say like blued hands. Same last year with the normal. Like would have been great if the platinum one didn't have a completely illegible silver dial. But this is, I think, a good place for them to start with something that's gonna be very limited and understand that like it's a platform for the future and they will either take special orders or whatever that will get closer to the original and maybe closer to kind of things that we would have put together if we were in charge of the brand |
| Tony Traina | . Yeah, that's a good point. The monopusher, to me, the perfect monopusher would have been the platinum one with the yellow gold dial that you see, which has uh dark Roman numerals, more contrast, more legible, just a better looking dial to me. But uh they didn't do that. They gave us a a little bit of both in each each watch. But Danny, we saw more than just turtles at Cartier. Anything uh anything else you want to mention that you liked or didn't like from Cartier |
| Danny Milton | ? I think there's a watch I really did like from Cartier this year. Not not that there's not watches I like from Cartier every year, but it always seems to be a Santos Dumont of some kind. And this year it was the rewind. Tell me about this watch, Danny. I would love to. First of all, it harkens back to a watch that was designed long before I was born. Um and did you like that one? I did snugck that in there, huh? You really did tone. The the Santos Dumont Rewind it has a red carnelian dial matching cabochon platinum case. But if you look closely at the dial, you'll notice that the Roman numerals, the applied markers are moving counterclockwise. Twelve the applied numerals are moving? Not moving. If you if your eyes move counterclockwise, they will go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. So it tell and the movement's inverted, so it tells the time in reverse. Okay. Um so technically speaking, it's telling time backwards, even though it's still technically telling time forwards. But to me that is a that is I need another beer before we that is the the |
| James Stacy | layout of the time is reversed. Was that confusing? You made it more complicated. I'm not confused. I mean your |
| Danny Milton | explanation was deeply confusing. The watch isn't let's start over but leave this in the pod. Is effectively inverted and the numerals on the dial are reversed. So in essence, it's telling the time quote unquote backwards, but it just means that if it's 10-10, you know, the the 11 is where the one would be, the ones where the 11 would be, and so on and so forth. So you're just telling the time in a fun, sort of quirky way. For me, it's Cartier having a little bit of fun with a watch in a way that I don't think it normally does. It has this year the same Santos Dumont lacquer releases that it's had every year in some form or another, and where that would be the brand having fun. I think actually uh changing the mechanics of a watch to make it harder to tell the time is truly uh a much more um unexpected way for Cartier to behave almost it's it's not quite as crazy as Rolex doing a pu |
| Tony Traina | zzle dial. I was uh literally about to make this analogy and I was gonna ask if I was crazy for making the analogy |
| Danny Milton | . It it's it's close because that watch still told time, but the the complications on that watch didn't do anything. Right. What day is it? Smiley face. Exactly. Smiley face day and love no smiley face love day and smiley face date, you know, or whatever it is. Um, but this one I it's it's cool. I mean, it's the kind of watch that you get to I think could get someone very interested in the idea of mechanical watchmaking because it's a it's a riff on something that's like effectively straightforward, but you're tweak |
| Tony Traina | ing it and just having a bit more fun. Yeah, and you could get quite existential about oh, what is time and all of these types of things. We'll save that for the late night show, but it it does provoke one to ask such questions, which I think James was about to say something |
| James Stacy | . A as someone who's owned and and worn a couple twenty-four hour watches, glycine, aeronautic, that kind of thing, it takes a day or two for me to adjust to twenty-four hour time being displayed. So if you like think about it literally, the hour hand doesn't make two revolutions for twenty four hours, it makes one, so noon is at six, etcetera. Uh going full backwards, I think if I was like fully adrenalized, like this would be fine. At a glance, I'm not gonna my whole life will fall apart. But I think for everything. Or early. I don't know |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . But in some ways, like Cartier is the perfect place to do something like this. I mean you I I actually thought the other day, like, what would happen if Rolex did a backwards time display? Everybody would lose their minds, probably absolutely hate it, think like ever like everybody at Rolex was pulling a joke. And like here it's oh yeah, this is Cartier just having fun with something. And I think like it's just shows that different brands do different things. I think it it's |
| Danny Milton | also it's similar to what they do with the must to Cartier line. Like in some respects, like having no markers whatsoever on a dial makes it extremely difficult to tell the time. Time is is almost secondary with Cartier in some respects. It's always been design forward. It's always been statement make forward. Yeah |
| James Stacy | , and it leans in a little bit into the existence of like watches as jewelry, watches as an accessory. Exactly. The fact that we're surrounded by clocks and time. Otherwise, like you were not like, don't get me wrong, we we all sit here and we love watches, mechanical watches. It's all great. I like to tell time with a watch on my wrist, but a huge portion of the population doesn't. And you definitely occasionally even meet people. I met someone yesterday who like had not set the time or date on their watch. They put on a watch they really liked to go to a watch show where they had their phone in their hand all day and they went, you know, around that. So I like I kind of understand a certain philosophy towards appreciating the mechanics and the fact that it's a Cartier and and the look of the Santos and everything, but then having an entirely different uh sort of outlook on on how necessary the time might be when you're wearing the watch. Was that me? It was not. Okay |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . Can I go from esoteric to adorable for a second with Cartier real quick? Please. Um the the the watch that had the biggest impact for me was actually the smallest watch in the room. Oh yeah. I absolutely love the fact that the Tank Louie Mini was it. I don't know we we came up with so many silly names for that watch in the meeting that I actually don't know what I saw, but it was one of these ultra small tank Louise. I saw one at a Southeast jewelry auction last fall and tried to pick it up and it didn't I didn't end up with it. But they're so so tiny. And it also is something that I thought like, oh brands would never bring that b back. Even if you have movements that do that, which they do, and jewelry watches, but to just be like, we're I don't what was the measurements on that? Do you remember? No. Okay. Well, I mean |
| Tony Traina | anecdotally it was like the size of a bead on a beaded bracelet. Yeah. Looking around trying to find something, you know, it's it's not big. Check the show notes. Yeah. Check the show notes. That'll be a a plug to the show notes that that we work so diligently on. But they also had a mini tank American. This is this one I like quite a bit. It's cool. You're more of an Americ |
| James Stacy | an guy, huh? I don't know. I think in the in some ways maybe I haven't found my the my natural place. Yeah, exactly. There's no Canadion. Um th I mean, free idea. Uh but yeah, I I like the American. I love the way that it fits. They had a larger model in solid gold that was like genuinely lovely on wrists. And like it's just not a watch that I cross paths with that often. Uh, but it's a treat to see them. And I thought the smaller one, especially on some of the smaller wrists in the room, was like small with a statement but not small to the point of being less of a less watch for |
| Mark Kauzlarich | your wrist that sort of thing. It was cool. It was great to see Ben put on that tiny tank Louie and just like I think Malaya has a photo of that. It was great. But also pretty easily place the entire watch within the confines of a postage stamp. Oh yeah. And also somebody had the idea of like a great dual time setup. Like Oh, just wear two. Just wear two of them and it'd be different time. Smaller than any GMT that you own. Yeah. Um |
| Tony Traina | I think James took it. Well, to your point about the strap, you know, uh there may not be a Canadian, but you just throw w throw it on one of those paddock denim straps and you might be able Canadian, those are Canadian straps. That's what they're called. You uh not by Pite Tech. You might be cooking with something. You got the makings of a Canadian for sure. He |
| James Stacy | y, what do you think of the dual time? The Santos dual time. Did that do anything for you? This is a watch I was pretty excited to see. Obviously, I'm a complete knucklehead when it comes to GMTs, travel, complications, that sort of thing. It's kind of a long-standing fascination for me. It's also in in my mind when you think Cartier and dual-time or or multiple time zone watches, it's their multiple movement like stacked watches, which I I still I would love to own something like that one day. What an exciting, cool, neat way to go about two time zones is two watches, put two watches in one case. I love it. I absolutely adore the idea. This on the other hand is a much more conventional. Uh, it's a brand new movement for uh for the brand. I don't remember the reference number of the movement, but it's fitted to a full-size steel uh Santos uh Descardier, and I I really like it. It's a little shinier than I expected in person. It's also being a full size Santos, quite large. It's 40 millimeters in you know both directions. It's big, it's got a lot of bracelet. I think um I think it with the bracelet fitted, I don't think it would be too big because of the shape of the Santos case and that kind of thing. But it, you know, the Santos has a lot of different sizes, and the large one, because of the prominence of the middle sizes, the large one feels quite large. And the way they've basically done the dual time is it's uh all based in the crown, so no buttons or any of that kind of thing and you just have a second um hour display at six o'clock that has an itty bitty uh a m pm indicator that just goes between black and white at the six o'clock. And it's uh I I like that I put it on. I mean I'd love to try it sized and and wear it around for a little while. It's very like all gray being steel with a gray dial and luminous hands. I I think it's cool. It's about uh it's a little over nine grand, um, which you know puts it into a kind of a competitive space for multiple time zone or dual time zone watches. But it's it's neat to see the brand move in that direction and I always love just being able to add a new multiple time zone movement into my cause now I think of all the watches that could go in at Cartier. Yep. That would be so co |
| Tony Traina | ol. Yeah, it's a watch that I would if you did a hands more in depth hands on review of it, I would certainly, certainly read it because you're just the the you're GMT guy, not only at Hodinky, but just worldwide. James GMT. Mr. Worldwide. They've been calling me that for years. They have been. Nobody else has that nickname. They have been. I think Cardia, they kind of played the hits this year, I th I'm kind of just gonna wrap up Cartier, guys. I think we covered it all right. I think you're right. Yeah, I think they kinda feel free. Feel free to wrap. Thanks, guys. Thanks. Uh they kind of played the hits in a way. We kind of know what's gonna come from from Cartier, a lot of times. They're gonna do a purvey. It's a riff on one of their classic shapes. They're gonna do it in a few different metals, and it's gonna be limited. They added the the complication this year with the mono pusher, so that's a little something different, which is fun. The banoir had a lot of success last year, the bangalore Banoir, so it's cool to see them expand the sort of mini side of things uh in a really fun and well-executed way. And then some of the stuff like the Santos Dual Time and all these things, they they're digging it into the archives in a way, but also doing it in a new way that I think is is really well executed. So that'll wrap up discussion of Cartier. Before we head on to the tag warrior discussion, I want to talk about our sponsor for this week's episode. As you guys know, we're sitting in the Lucid Motors Studio here in Geneva because this episode of Hodinky Radio is brought to you by Lucid Motors. Step into the future with Lucid Air, where extraordinary performance meets exquisite craftsmanship. At Lucid Motors we're redefining the luxury electric vehicle, combining exceptional range with sophisticated excellence, all while prioritizing sustainability. Every lucid air reflects our passion for excellence from its serene cabin made with eco friendly materials to its aerodynamic, elegant exterior. Feel the difference with Lucid Motors. Learn more at Lucid Motors dot com. Or like us, come by the Geneva Studio Guys, where we've got a Lucid Air Danny let's talk about Tag Hoyer next. So Danny and I went to Tag Hoyer where you while you guys were at Gran Seiko. So wait in line, you'll get your turn. We're gonna talk about Gran Seiko a little bit, but Danny and I are going to riff on Tag Hoyer for just a second. Danny, the hero product, as far as I'm concerned, is the new Monaco Retropot split seconds. Um just tell me a little bit about that wat |
| Danny Milton | ch. Well look, I I wrote the intro post for that one, Tony. These stories they they write themselves. And basically this is the the Halo product for Tag Warrior this year. I think we talked about this yesterday a little bit. Um this takes the Monaco from an engineering perspective, does something very similar to what Tacoir did with the Carrera Glass Box last year, which is take a classic watch and redesign it basically from the ground up and bring it sort of into the modern context where the glass box didn't really shift from a price perspective, the Monaco did in a big way. Um just get it out of the way. How much does this thing it's a hundred and thirty five thousand Swiss francs, so do the math. And they're making forty of them? Yeah. Okay. This very, very, very limited production of these, but but we've I've seen this watch several times at this point. So we saw it today, I saw it a few days ago, and I saw it uh couple months ago back during L VMH watch week. Um and in talking to the brand we know that this was a passion project in a lot of ways. A way for the brand to take the Monaco and really sort of like show what it can do and lead from what they're referring to as like an innovation perspective instead of like cost conscious. So the entire project I mean that's silly, but it also is true. Like cost was not what they were trying to control. And I think that if you look at a watch like this and you see what hap what you know, what was gonna be coming at OnlyWatch, which has now been delayed quite Mark, what when is OnlyWatch now? May 10th, I |
| Mark Kauzlarich | believe. Um they've announced it and I think twenty-five percent of the brands have pulled up, but uh but Tack Warriors still still there's still there. And the |
| Danny Milton | the Rocher Pont is is there and and that's that's sort of the first one that we saw which kind of played spoiler to this this watch. And uh you know it's it's uh really to me um it's a powerful statement of a watch. I think that Taghoir knows it's gonna be able to find the clients to buy these for sure. Um just like it did with the plasma. Um and it's just it's an impressive piece of engineering from a brand that most would consider to be quite industri |
| Tony Traina | al. Yeah, so they partnered with Valche, kind of the famed movement manufacturer, to build this thing from the ground up. A brand that also or a manufacturer that also helps make movements for for RMs and those types of watches. So it's in a way it's an RM in a Monaco case. Uh and it's it's a wild thing to see. I think for me, it's the avant-garde type of stuff that I like from tag. The plasma that they did last year and that they've continued to do doesn't do as much for me. It's just not like rooted in the heritage of of Tag Hoyer and the brand in the way that a rotropont or a split seconds Monaco is the racing heritage, the chronographs, all these types of things. The the story writes itself, right? So this does something for me in a way that uh I didn't expect, I suppose. Um that said a hundred and thirty thousand dollar Monaco I I think you have to |
| Danny Milton | look at it on two levels though. Like on on one hand, I think it represents the next generation iteration of Monaco because it's not just the split seconds, you know, complication. It's also a complete refresh and redesign of the watch, full stop. And I don't know this for a fact. I can just like assume that this will be the standard from which future Monacos you know work from. And who knows whether if they decide that this is just a breeding ground for highly complicated chronographs, fine. Um, but it is it would be nice to see the Monaco in this form sort of slim down and refreshed and feel at once modern and playing on the heritage the same way the glass box is. And that's what gets me excited about it. In every way that I love the fact that it's a rocher pot. It also feels like just a a really nice evolution of the watch. |
| Tony Traina | Yeah, this is true. I mean let's be honest, the Monaco, the shape, is kind of a ridiculous proposition by its nature, right? It's this big square thing um that doesn't fit a lot of people's wrists super well. It's a statement piece. I mean, that's how people were wearing it in the 70s. That's how people continue to wear this thing. It's a it's a big watch. There's no way around it. So I think it's perfe act home for tag to do these types of crazy feats of of watch making. Um what do you think of the size of this one though? Forty one millimeter it's no the case that you mentioned it's sort of redesigned, slimmed down and all these things. So in the same way that they redesigned the Carrera last year with the new generation of the glass box, I'm excited to see them making their way through the historical catalog and modernizing it in a way that feels feels really cool and true to like what the Monaco is and what it is. Let's do a segue. That was a good segue. Let's do it. To the Carrera. There we go. Yes. Thank you. I didn't even mean to set myself up, but the Carrera, which is is much nearer and dearer to my heart in the Tag Hoyer catalog than the Monaco, if we're being honest. Um they introduced a new Carrera. Basically, it's a panda dial, sort of a two-register glass box Carrera. It's a cool watch, it plays off of the 7753 SN Vintage Carrera 2 registers from the 60s or the 70s. It's a cool watch. It's a cool addition to the to the catalog. The the sort of bigger note about it though is that they've added a bracelet to the Carrera chronograph for the first time. So this is something that I uh thinking back I did a week on the wrist with the black dial Carrera that they introduced last year. One of the notes that I wish I had made, not a criticism, but just a a desire, is that I wish they could have would have added a bracelet to the watch and now they have it. I mean a lot of these beautiful vintage Carreras have these great old GF bracelets, and I'm glad that they have a bracelet that that makes it a true competitor to chronographs you get from from other brands like like Tutor, Brightling, whoever whoever you you can go on down the list. And now if you're a bracelet guy or a bracelet gal, you've you've got that option from from tag as well we saw it only on this new seven foot seven five three reverse panda kind of play but I'm excited to see what it looks like on the black dial the blue dial that we've already seen um anything you you want to say about the new bracelet? |
| Danny Milton | No, I mean I've I've been told that it's it's now sort of on display at Taghoyer boutiques and probably authorized retailers on the blue and the black as well. So they're prominently sort of pushing this new bracelet option on these watches and I agree with you. I think it's a really it's a really good and good option, you know, especially considering the fact that last year you could basically only get it two ways. If you're going to get the blue watch, you're getting a blue leather strap. If you're getting the the reverse panda, you're getting sort of that racing style strap and of course like you can you can strap to your heart's content with other options but from an om perspective it's it's cool to be able to have a a bracelet out there. Um and I like it, especially on this new one, because you have that c high contrast. The uh internal tachyometer scale is done in black this time, which I think in all the two other iterations it was color match to the dial. So it's the first time you have sort of that second secondary level of contr |
| Tony Traina | ast. Yeah, it it helps too. I think the whole scooped look of the dial is kind of a it takes some getting used to, and I think adding the contrast on the outer ring like that uh helps kind of offset the it can be a jarring thing to look at the first time. So I think that helps a little bit. Speaking of jarring things to look at, I |
| Danny Milton | think the last one I want to touch on please is just anything is a transition now. Speaking of jarring. Speaking of jarring things. The rose gold skipper. Okay. When I saw this in press images, I was like, I was jarred. I think that the skipper is so iconic in its steel state that to see just the case material changed while preserving the same exact color scheme on the dial feels especially in rose gold, a little weird to me. A little wrong. A little |
| Mark Kauzlarich | wrong. |
| Danny Milton | And and then when I saw it in person, like it's it's bet obviously like most watches it they tend to be better in person. But I still feel like if if I had been, you know, if if my opinion meant anything, I think White Gold would have been cool just as a stunt piece. Don't worry, it doesn't. Just bec I know that it doesn't. But just to maintain like the spirit of the watch, I think I think white gold would have been why not platinum, Danny? Why not? More platinum. Hey |
| Tony Traina | , Tone. Let's get crazy. Yeah, I agree. On the other hand, I saw the yellow gold Carrera for the first time, the sort of play on the let's just call them the Ferrari watches, basically. I think Mark wrote it up on the site a while ago when it was released. Love that watch. As much as I love that watch, I am equally unsure, like you, of the Rose Gold Skipperera. And I think we can leave it at that for now. I think I think that covers Tag Hoyer tone. Okay, so while Danny and I were at Tag Hoyer, you all were across the Palexpo at Grand Seiko, an appointment that I sadly was not able to go to. So I'm gonna need your help a little bit walking me through some of the watches. We talked about the Kodo at the top. Uh in addition to the lineup, but but a great a great a hell of a watch, I must say. Uh another watch that is more just Grand Seiko being Grand Seiko is the SLGW002 and Zero Zero Three, kind of these new hand wound watches from from the brand. Mark, can you can you explain these a little bit more to me? |
| Mark Kauzlarich | So I've been thinking for a while that I don't really have something that fits the sort of traditional dress watch mold from the from a modern lineup and and when I saw these watches in person I, actually got to see them just a little bit before Watches and Wonders and photograph them. I immediately thought this the SLGW zero zero three, the brilliant hard titanium version, was potentially going to be like my next new watch. Um, really great high beat movements manually wound. It's something that Grand Seiko hasn't done in a very long time, the manually wound high beat movement. Um it's the 94 S A, I believe, or something like that. Um nine A uh I don't know, but uh I check the show notes. Show notes will have it. Uh but they they basically redesign for nine S A four. Nine S A four. I had the mix somewhere in the I don't know. I don't I looked on your story. Well I appreciate it. Somebody had to have read that. Uh you once knew it. Yeah one at one point but now they've taken sort of a base movement that they had before in an automatic, and they didn't just take the automatic components out. They apparently redesigned 40% of the movement to turn it in this really tactile, really like audibly satisfying, manually wound movement. Like it's one of those watches you just wind and it's like super satisfying. It wears really well. Um the the titanium case super high polish doesn't look like the dark titanium that you often get. There is the the gold version of the watch that's limited of two eighty pieces, I believe, and it's around forty five thousand dollars, the zero zero two and uh I kind of just put that out of my mind that's not exactly where I'd be be shopping at the moment but actually Ben was in the um meeting and he seemed to keep going back to that one over and over and seemed to like it. I mean |
| James Stacy | he likes to a hand watch begin with. This is a little bit more refined, a little thinner, you know, movement's just barely over four point one millimeters, whole whole watch is under a centimeter uh in terms of thickness. I I was impressed by these. I was impressed by by a handful of them. OM the spring drive chronographs. So this is the I'm going to read it on my phone. The SBGC275. Uh chronograph GMT. Yeah. With the GMT. Is that the red dial? It's red sometimes. What is it the other times? Well, it has a special dial treatment that, at least according to GS, has certainly hasn't been used on any of their watches, but isn't known to have been used on another watch. And it's a sort of a directional uh treatment to the metal of the dial where depending on the angle of the light it changes color. And it's like I've I've heard, you know, you sometimes, you know, we brought up in the meeting like midnight purple, you know, Nissan G T Rs that kinda change color depending on the light, but this like the entire dial basically shimmers from one tone of red to orange to brown. It's it's magenta's it's pretty cool. There's a lot of yeah, a lot of purple in there as well. I I haven't seen it like done before, and while I find uh these chronograph GMTs to be quite large watches for my wrist, to take that concept, that coloring, that treatment of of this kind of fire that you get in the in the dial and put it into say like a 37.5mm SBGW, I think would be pretty cool kind of compelling take on a you know, especially that line and how many dials we've seen lately into it |
| Tony Traina | . Guys, let's get complicated for just a second. So Mark, I'm gonna tee you up to talk about Longa. Let me get the full name of the watch or at least try, and you can tell me wrong, and then talk and tell us whatever you want about seeing this watch, photographing it, being able to handle it because I haven't been able to see it yet. So Longa, it's their 30th anniversary this year. In celebration of it, here they have released the Honey Gold, Datagraph, Perpetual Calendar, Torbillon, and if that's not enough, it's also a lumen. So a lot of the big keywords for big time logic collectors in this watch, what'd |
| Mark Kauzlarich | you think? Uh well, first of all, if you are in Geneva and you're going to stop by the Longa booth, come around the top of the hour and get there a couple minutes before and they've got a display of the giant mock-up of the watch that's actually a functioning chronograph this time and it the entire booth dims and the watch lights up like a lumen and the chronograph hand goes around and then it slowly lights back up as the as the minute elapses. Cool display for a really cool watch. I mean this is sort of the pinnacle of twenty-five years of d of the datagraph for Longa, which you know they started with the Longa one, but for me the datagraph is kind of where they finally like hit their stride and said like look at this incredible thing that we can do. Uh yeah, perpetual calendar, turbion, datagraph, big data at the top. It's all the things that you would want. It is incredibly expensive. Every time I've asked people what they thought it was, we had to keep bumping up by hundreds of thousands of dollars and increments. Like half a million dollars. It is six hundred and twenty thousand dollars with fifty percent down required. Um and they're already getting a decent number of orders for this watch. There's only fifty being made. Fifty is actually honestly a lot for a watch of that complexity and of that price. But if it's out of your reach, um there's also a limited edition white gold uh up-down data graph, the more traditional, more simple but still gorgeous datagraph with a blue dial. Um that I wasn't sure how I would feel in pictures. It it just didn't do much for me. If you've ever seen a datagraph or any Longa in person with a black dial, the AR coating on the dial actually kind of can trend that black dial blue at certain angles. So it's like, oh, it's a white metal case with a dial that looks like it could be black and it's just photographed poorly or something. But in person it actually is really punchy. That one found out today is $131,000, which is quite a lot. Limited to uh one hundred and twenty five pieces, I believe. Um but it's uh it's a big moment for Langa. It's a big year, like you said, thirtieth anniversary and twenty fifth for the datagraph. And originally I thought, oh, maybe they'll do a brand new movement for the datagraph. Like that seems like the appropriate way to do the 25th anniversary. But then if you remember that the datagraph perpetual turbion is the pinnacle of what that collection could be. This makes perfect sense. Technically, they did do a new movement for that pinnacle watch. They uh did a bunch of things like remove the power reserve indicator on the front of the dial, and that's not as easy as just removing a dial part. You have to I think there's 45 less parts or something like that. So um really really impressive accomplishment really impressive watch really big watch really thick watch really a watch with a lot of presents, but something that'll definitely stick with me. And I I spent 45 minutes on Sunday trying to get good loom shots of this. I mean, it's not easy, so I was very lucky to have some time and get to spend some extra time with this watch. James, you haven't seen the longest stuff, have you? I haven't, |
| James Stacy | no. I wrote up the updown L E. Okay, so no additional thoughts then. Nope. I think I think Mark Coverdy, he saw it. I think uh even just for Mark's photos alone, both of those stories are worth it. And uh I'm sure we'll have more in the future. But I think both like just ridiculously awesome watches, not what I would call commercial product, right? Uh also to be fair, not really what Longa does. This is kind of what has become a huge hallmark for the brand are these like very special, very expensive, very difficult to buy sort of pieces and it seems to be working for them. I'm I'm my guess is they're not having a lot of trouble finding, you know, applicants. |
| Tony Traina | Yeah, and I think 30th anniversary, like we said, I don't think this will be the last time we hear from Longa in a big way uh throughout the rest of the year. I have no inside information on that though, Danny. Uh I'm a mere podcast host. It's not the only complicated watches we saw, Danny. We went to IWC together and it was a big year for the Portugueseers, so they often kind of focus on one model, uh, updating it or expanding the lineup. So we saw some Portuguese er they updated just the time only, uh, some aesthetic updates, some case updates, as well as updating and adding some dials to the perpetual calendar, and then I guess the eternal calendar is also in the Portuguese or family, is that right |
| Danny Milton | ? That's right, Tony. I think this year what we saw was a lot of um upgrades, updates, and then one again sort of hero piece. And across the board, I think what we saw was a uniformity in a in a trio of colors. I believe it was obsidian, dune, and dawn. I think the blue was the dawn and the obsidian was the black and the dune was the sort of like I gotta say man, these color style color days it could have been daybreak for the blue if I'm not mistaken |
| Mark Kauzlarich | . You know what? I honestly I should know because I I photographed I think I edited maybe 90 photos from a like a little preview that I got of it's a lot of SKUs. It's a lot of updates for one brand to do to one line and it is but it |
| Danny Milton | 's it's it's a lot of updates with within a trio of of yeah dial colors and a a host of metals. Um so obviously another call out to the show notes. That will all be very clear to you there. Um, but Mark, I want to throw to you briefly about the eternal calendar. Um, because that's just sort of a a crazy, crazy watch. And just a hodinky alum Logan Baker is walking by the lucid stage |
| Mark Kauzlarich | Speaking speaking of people that are really good at understanding incredibly complicated watches, uh Logan Baker. Uh the Eternal Calendar. Okay, so IWC now joins a small group of individuals that have or individuals or brands who have accomplished one of the most complicated things to do in a watch, which is build a secular perpetual calendar, a perpetual calendar that uh can adjust to the fact that every hundred years we skip a leap year, except if it's a year divisible evenly by four hundred, in which we have the leap year. Um it's a calendar that is smart enough to do all that and apparently is accurate until the year what was it? I think it's the year thirty-nine ninety-nine. Um yep, that sounds right. Thirty-nine ninety-nine. Fact checked. That's correct. James at the live fact. Thank you. Appreciate it. What would I do without you? Uh you would have been in this c |
| James Stacy | ase you would have been right. Okay, I would have been right with It would have been fine. Um what do you know? But but you |
| Mark Kauzlarich | can leave now. I got a dinner to get to fellas. I'll catch you later. It's been great. I I do wanna say, like, to IWC's credit here, the reason it's only accurate to that point is apparently the governing bodies that decide how calendars should work don't know what to do with the year four thousand. They haven't gotten that far ahead, so very well could be accurate much wide. Yeah, Y four K. I'm not gonna be here for it, so it's not my problem. Um the elevators won't work. And uh but the other crazy thing about this watch is that well, two parts. One, the moon phase is accurate to 45 million years, which is just again completely unnecessary. And I I think there's a lot of really cool things going on that like brands are doing. Fact check. That was a fact. Fact check. Also a remarkable number, IWC. I mean, like, come on. But I I like the next nearest accurate moon phase was two million years and that was just done as a flex and now they're at forty five million and just it's a whole different thing. Who is it? Can we say Andreas Schruler, I believe. Oh, okay, sure. So um and then the last thing I'll say that was really cool is same case size as the normal perpetual calendar, which is that's remarkable. It is remarkable. I it's price on requests, so I don't know how much price has to get how much price you have to spend to get a watch into a case size like that. But it is a really, really cool watch. Um really great feat for them. I think there's only five other companies that have done this befor |
| Tony Traina | e. So it's amazing. Yeah, engineering like this is very much in the not to use a cliche, but the DNA of IWC going back to the Kurt Class days and all these types of things. So it's cool to see them continuing to do that type of stuff. We've got to talk briefly about one more complicated watch, guys. Very, very complicated. Slightly, slightly complicated. The world's most complicated watch now, is this corre |
| Mark Kauzlarich | ct? Yeah. Vashron Constantan just announced uh yesterday that they have created again, beating their own record, the world's most complicated watch. It's called the Berkeley Grand Comp. 63 complications, beating their last record, which was 57 complications. For some reason, the number that sticks in my head is 2877 parts. Took one year to build the watch after they had completely designed it, which that took ten years before that. That also means that they were designing this watch before they had even finished the last most complicated watch, which is just like if I was the watchmaker, I would be kind of disappointed knowing that like my record was already going to be broken eventually. Like that that watch didn't even get to really live in the moment, but I can barely write two watch stories at the |
| James Stacy | same time. Like I yeah two watch stories at the same time? Probably not. Oh okay. I keep keep one going and then go to another one and come |
| Mark Kauzlarich | back to it. The the watchmaker told me that the last three months of that construction he didn't sleep super well because if you make one mistake, you wreck a main plate, you set back four or five months worth of work. Um, but kudos to them for pulling it off. The main achievement here, the last watch, the 57260, had a Judaic or a Hebraic uh perpetual calendar, runs off of moon cycles. This ups the ante with a Chinese traditional perpetual calendar, even more complicated. You've got zodiac signs, yin and yang. On the back side of the watch, you also have a Chinese agricultural perpetual calendar, which is similar to what we hear about for the seasons in uh Japan where they break it down into smaller seasons. So there's like a date that is the day that insects wake up and come out of the ground is and that's on the back. I mean it's absolutely wild the bug day. Bug day. Um the watch is uh little over ninety millimeters in diameter. It is 50 millimeters thick. It weighs 2.1 pounds. It is absolutely wild. You can barely comprehend what's going on with that watch. And I also think like it's a watch that you really can't comprehend unless you live with it. Which only one guy, William Berkeley, who lives on the East Coast in the United States, he owns now. He was commissioned the 57260, he commissioned this watch. He has the two most complicated watches in the world. And I think he's really the only person that will ever get to fully experience what this watch can do. Good for him |
| Tony Traina | . Congratulations, Mr. Berkeley. Yeah. Guys, we're leaving it there today for real now. Uh I want to give one quick shout out and thank you to our video and audio editor. That's right. I'm looking at you, Joe Wyatt. Not only are you killing it on the ones and twos, for everyone at home, threes and fours going as well. The threes and the fours. Joe walked over to the swatch store today. He bought himself a Blanc Pond fifty fathoms swatch. Um Joe, which one did you get for the people at home? The new black one. He got the new black one. I'm so glad to hear you made the right choice, Joe. Uh congratulations to your excellent work. There to go, Joe. Thank you all for listening. And like I said, we've got another full slate of appointments tomorrow. We'll talk about everything we saw tomorrow at the Palexpo and off-site Wchesat and Wonders. So please stay tuned and thank you again to our sponsor, Lucid Motors, for sponsoring this week's episode of Hoodie Key Radio. Thanks, Tone. Thank you, Tony. Thank you. |