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Hodinkee Radio: Watches & Wonders 2024 | Day 4: The Editors Debrief After The Week In Geneva

Published on Fri, 12 Apr 2024 23:03:12 +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 was recorded live from the Lucid Studio in Geneva on the final day of Watches and Wonders. Host Tony Traina is joined by Malaika Crawford, Benjamin Clymer, Danny Milton, James Stacy, Mark Kauzlarich, and first-time podcast guest Jonathan McWater to recap the week's highlights.

The panel discusses their favorite watches from the show, with the Bulgari Octofinissimo Ultra emerging as a standout piece that impressed multiple panelists with its extreme thinness and innovative presentation box. The group debates the merits of ultra-thin watchmaking, comparing Bulgari's achievement to Piaget's thinnest tourbillon. They also explore the under-$10,000 category, highlighting pieces from brands like Zenith, Nomos, and Tudor, noting the increasing diversity of designs beyond traditional dive watches in this price range.

Several panelists express surprise at the relatively quiet year from major brands like Rolex, with Jonathan noting his disappointment that Rolex released only one stainless steel model. Benjamin Clymer's biggest surprise was the Cartier Mini Tank, both that it exists and that he liked it so much. The discussion turns to "spicy takes," with Danny Milton expressing skepticism about the new Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT, and Malaika maintaining her stance against the current trend of green dials. The episode concludes with a fantasy wish list where panelists choose watches money-no-object, ranging from independent pieces like the Berneron Mirage to high complications like the Lange Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Lumen. The team also takes time to recognize their behind-the-scenes crew members Joe Wyatt and Jonathan McWater with special gifts, acknowledging their essential contributions to the week's coverage.

Transcript

Speaker
Tony Traina This episode of Hodinki 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 Studio here in Geneva. Ladies and gentlemen, we're live from Lucid Studios here in Geneva for one last podcast from Watches and Wonders. Thanks for listening to us all week long. I've got a cast of seven characters. I'm gonna run down the it is seven, right? It's six. No, it's seven. I'm counting myself. Including himself. Okay. Seven people. I'm just gonna run two for the record. I'm gonna run down the list just real quickly here. Next to me, of course meleica crawford benjamin climber danny milton james stacy mark kauslerich and our senior video producer jonathan mcwater first time on the podcast thank you for joining us we're gonna get some first-timer perspective I think from you in the show, but thank you for joining us. Guys, it's the last day, so this is a real summary show before we all catch flights tomorrow. We're gonna keep it quick and snappy, 30 minutes. But we're just gonna run through a few things. We're gonna talk about favorite watches, favorite watches under $10,000. Biggest surprises, spiciest takes from the show. Then we gotta start with you. Best thing you saw all week. Uh it might be like a recency bias because I just saw it, but the bulgery ultra slim thing is incredible. That's a technical name for it too. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm a professional. Uh I know you guys already talked about it, but it it is really, it's it's a joke. I mean, it's like mind-blowing. Um the box. The box? It's crazy. Sean's giving me a nod. The box is the box sets the watch for you and it knows where you are, like by time zone. It winds the watch for you. There's some lights going on on the out
Mark Kauzlarich side. Nobody's really mentioned the box. I Erwerk did that with their like atomic clock box thing and it was like now it's not just like something that looks like a bomb apparently. Right. Right. That's really cool
Tony Traina . This is a functional box. And also I I mean look I gotta say the the price for what it is is not bad. I think it's about 550,000 euros. The Bulgarie was was probably my my highlight of the week. I have one question for I don't know, everyone. Probably for Danny, because I know you like that Bulgari as well, actually. Uh Malaika and I went to Piaget today. We saw the world's thinnest Torbion, two millimeters. More impressed by the thinnest Torbillon in the world or the thinnest watch in the world? I think I'm still more impressed by the thinnest watch in the world, but also I didn't see the Altiplano, I only saw the Bulgari Octofenissimo Ultra, so I can't really say, but the Piaget is quite beautiful. Um but it's still what point three millimeters thicker than the than the I'm not even sure the human eye can perceive point three millimeters. I don't think so. I think we talked about this earlier. I think we gotta get them both in one room. I actually think that the design language of the bulgry is just a bit cooler. No, for sure. And it's cool that the thinnest watch in the world is a finissimo again instead of something different. Listen, I have I have not seen that in person. Yeah. Have you? I have seen the RM. Uh that's like a two million dollar watch. So when you consider that, this is a fourth the price. I think the R value that Wolgory is better looking than the RM in my my opinion. Anyway, here we go. I want to get one more best of the week before we go to best under ten thousand dollars. James, best thing you saw all week
James Stacy . Yeah, I mean the Ultra's definitely high on that list. It uh as I considered, I I got a chance very briefly yesterday to swing by Longa and see the another impressive price tag for a watch uh with the uh the Lumen uh Honey Gold Datagraph Perpetual Turbon. Uh and I th the first thing that kinda hit me was like it it was um on the CEO's uh wrist and it just fit so nicely. Like sometimes you see these watches that have a ton of complications, they make a bunch of compromises for the thickness, maybe the case size, maybe brands that normally stick to a certain size, suddenly they're fine going four, five, six millimeters bigger to make it work out. And you just see the long and you're like, oh, you guys are just like putting it all in one place. It was really cool
Tony Traina . You know, Watches and wonders seems to really be a time to release these five hundred thousand dollar mega watches, which is why I wanted to bring another category to this podcast, which is our favorite watch that we saw under ten thousand dollars. Uh any number of brands you could choose from, Danny, Tutor, Oris. I know you guys went off site a little bit today to see some other things at at some of these other shows. Danny, anything under ten thousand dollars stick out to you? I mean a few things for sure. James and I saw some of the stuff that um Nevada Grention was doing. I think Ben you saw some of that as well. There's some really cool stuff happening there with the to the F seventy seven. Very cool watch. Um you know, very Royal Oak inspired seventies integrated bracelet design, um, which is way under ten thousand dollars. But I think if I had to pick my favorite from the show is a watch I've talked about, I think on three of the episodes of the pod, is still that Xenophy revival dive watch that Meleica loves. Danny, how big is the case? Uh How big is the case? Oh the th thirty seven millimeters. Okay, thank you. Um I still think that's a great uh it's it's a little the price is a bit punchy for the watch. It's like seven or eight K, which I think is it's a lot, uh to be honest with you in in the in the set of the price category or in the in the category but I think um by the rules of your question still my favorite thing I saw under 10K not a fan of that watch maleca not convinced mark favorite thing you saw under ten
Mark Kauzlarich thousand dollars? Uh I stopped by Nomos this afternoon. Um they have what is it thirty-one favorite things? Thirty-one of their watches you saw. Excellent. I uh I picked up and actually did a wrist shot with the chili, which I was explained was what you would want to wear if you were feeling like a hot girl or a hot guy. Now imagine that in a German accent and that's how the watch was presented to me. No, I just they they were they were explaining like the different moods that you could you could match with all of their different watches, which are all very colorful. Some of them are mixes of color that you wouldn't uh normally expect uh to have together, but this chili watch is very bold, very bright, like pinks and different hues of pinks. And uh and when we were presented the watch they were like this is if you're feeling like you're a a hot girl or a hot guy, you know, and you wanted to feel hot. I was like, I I I like that vibe. I actually like that vibe. The Miami's I'm not gonna get into the the details of that. I I no, I mean I think like they that's actually a callback to a a set of watches that they did early in their history where they did a set of thirty watches and I wrote about it in a in a previous story, but I think it's fun that they just decided to release so many different watches for so many different people and it Nomo sold out of ten sets of these watches the online in their online shop. I don't know if we have any left, but it sounds like everybody's loving it and I was
Tony Traina really loving all the options too. Yeah, saw a number of other cool things under in the affordable category, Raymond Weil, Furlin Mari, etc. a lot of cool things coming. I think the the it's a really vibrant category. More designs. It's not just dive watches anymore in that category. So really exciting to see some of the stuff that brands are working on. But moving on from the budget category, guys. Jonathan, since you're our first timer on the panel here today, I want to ask you the next question. The biggest surprise for you at your first Watches and Wonders. It could be a larger takeaway or product specific, but I want to get your perspective. Uh my biggest surprise is also kind of a spicy take uh in that Rolex didn't really impress me like I thought they would. Um they've got a big hunk of gold and a icy blue platinum watch, but I don't know
Mark Kauzlarich I'll back that up by saying like I think a lot of us had heard from different brands going in that this was gonna be like a quieter year for some of the big brands. Like this wasn't necessarily a surprise. Um I think there was a surprise in the Rolex thing for me, which is one stainless steel model for the year from Rolex, which is just like kind of unheard of for them. Um so that definitely was was surprising that everybody kind of dialed it back for a little bit. I have heard from uh those same people that next year is hopefully gonna be pretty crazy for almost all the brands. So um I will say like no things like nomos come out more, like they pop out more when the bigger brands kind of take a step back for the year and let everybody else have their moment
Tony Traina . Ben, you know you're a veteran of these trade shows. I want to see if anything surprised you this year. And you can say you could say no if you want and we could just move on. Mini tank. Surprise you that it exists or that you liked it? Both. Okay. Did we already talk about it? No, no, no. We talked about it a little bit. Did we? Um I you weren't on the show, Ben. You won't do another thing. Does it even count
James Stacy ? We don't actually publish the episodes Ben's not on. They're just so we can have a good time
Tony Traina . It's for you. Good time with a microphone.. Yeah, exactly No, the mini tank, the A that they made it, and B that I liked it as much as I did. Yeah. Okay. Hey, Ben, can I stay with you for just a second? Spiciest take? Uh I don't really I don't really have one. I mean it was c and that's not a cop-out. Like it was just such a such a blase year. And maybe that's the take that like nobody really did anything. If somebody usually there there's a watch that I order or you know, express interest in from the show. Uh there was one this year. I've already mentioned it. Uh but like nothing that I really am gonna like save up for or dying to get uh like there was in years past. After last year's I can tell you I asked for the platinum Daytona, the new one. I changed that that request quickly when the Le Mon came out and got got that instead. The year before that, I'm sure there was something there's usually one thing that I'm like genuinely jazzed about and there was just nothing here with the exception of mini tank uh that I really think is like something I like really need or even want to to own. So maybe that's the take that it was just it's just a year of uh status quo and delivery. You sure you don't want to get the deep sea? It looked great on you. I actually felt it did kind of look okay. It didn't have giving
James Stacy the Asking for the mic for the did it though
Tony Traina . That's a boss move. Uh no, I'm I'm better on that. I'm better on that one. Let's go. Danny, spicy takes. I mean I think everyone here knows I'm not on the Black Bay GMT, Black Bay 58 GMT train this year. It just is i I like the cut the idea of it. Execution wasn't for me, and I think it's not really spicy, but it just seems like every year everyone jumps on the same watch and feels the same exact way about it. And um I look forward to seeing other iterations of that watch would be my my quote unquote spicy stick. It's not just didn't it didn't get me a little excited, Tony. James, anything you wanna say about the GMT? I mean I know you wrote it up today. Anything you wanna add?
James Stacy Well done that he's being an idiot? I don't really have that much to add when it comes to like a a consideration of the watch as it's in in the hands on. Check it out on the site if you're keen. Um, you know, I I think it uh you know I certainly like to make a a certain mm you know sort of mental effort to try and predict and plan and see where tutor's going with stuff because they you know there's a pattern to to the way that they typically operate. I think it's a good watch. I think that it it underlines what has happened at the show this year, especially in the contrast of last year, where this year really feels like uh you know the the market isn't necessarily in the same place and the response to that is maybe we sold all of a certain type of watch to a certain type of buyer last year, and the patient buyers are getting slightly more refined, slightly different colorways, like maybe a more um like maybe more commercial and less hype driven cycle for for the product, which I think Tudor's part of, but certainly not alone. I think we saw this from most brands. M
Tony Traina elica, anything you want to say that's particularly spicy? What do you think? Probably This is why I
Malaika Crawford had you on the show, Melica. Come on. Sorry. I may need to be controversial. I I didn't have a spicy take. Uh except for the fact that I still don't understand green dials We talked about the green dials yesterday. We're not we're
Tony Traina double checking on the green dials. Sorry. That's it. Uh listen, before we get to our next and perhaps our last category, everyone, I want to talk a little bit about Lucid Motors Studio, uh, because that's where we're recording here in Geneva. You can step into the future with Lucid Air, where extraordinary performance meets exquisite craftsmanship. At Lucid Motors, we're redefining the electric vehicle, combining exceptional range with sophisticated design, 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 atid Luorsc Mot dot com or come on by the Lucid Studio here in Geneva as we've been doing all week. And everyone, we've got one more category. We're gonna go right on down the line. Ben, this great idea was pitched to me by someone. And I thought it'd be a great idea to ask everyone. One watch that they could buy from the show. Money is no object, limited edition is no object, accessibility is no object. Uh pick one watch. I've got mine in mind. It doesn't have to be a watches and wonders, by the way. I think it can be just globally anything you saw in Geneva this week. Um I've got mine if if you all want a second to think. Yeah, you should leave some. Yeah, yesterday I took some time to go to the Beau Rivage. One of the folks I met with was Sylvain Berneron, who is making the Bernaron Mirage. It's something I wrote up last year. He's a he's an independent designer. He worked for Brightling for a long time, but he's doing his own watch now. And it's kind of this beautiful mashup of a of a paddock Calatrava with a sector dial and kind of a Cartier Crash, but it feels totally unique. It's a shaped movement, which we made a big deal about the Tortues shaped chronograph movement. It's the exact same thing here. It's 2.3 millimeters, and it's it's a gold movement. It's just absolutely beautiful, and he's starting to deliver them in about a month. So I've been following his journey for I don't know, like two years now. It was cool to see a working prototype in person. Going down the line, Malaika
Malaika Crawford ? Um I would say I really enjoyed the Sheipod appointment today. Really enjoyed it. And I enjoyed the variety because it was like, oh, cool open work, titanium, alpine eagle, but also here are some diamonds. Which just works perfectly for me. I think I would do this this is such a ridiculous watch. It's a high jewellery shepard set in like crazy sapphires and diamonds that's price upon request. I
Tony Traina would take that. Yeah, in a cruel twist of fate, I went to Frank Miller this afternoon instead of being able to attend the show part appointment. I could I could take an entire episode to talk about Frank Mueller because it was an amazing experience and I would love to go back again and visit Watchland. All this to say, Ben, what's your pick? Wait, hold on. Is it the Alpine Eagle that you that you saw with it with that was fully uh with a no
Malaika Crawford high jewelry watch. That was a sorry, this is getting quite hot, isn't it? Um it was a um high jewelry wheel. Yeah. Okay
Tony Traina . Ben? So I mean the the obvious answer would be yellow gold almond, which I still have not seen for the record. But that's a little bit too easy and just like not that fun. So weirdly it's also a show part. They got to show us some stuff that I don't know is like officially out there in any way. But for I think their 25th anniversary of LUC or something, they made 10 yellow gold 36 millimeter flying turbulence with a yellow gold dial. Uh with an officer case back with the old style where you have to kind of like dig your nail in to pop it out. It doesn't release with the crown. That I'd never seen before, never even heard of it. They made 10 of them. I think there's one or two left. Um that was a really neat thing just to see a 36mm dress watch with a flying turbine. That was I would I would take that home, you know, money be damned for sure. But yellow gold Lamon would be cool. Still need to see that. Any of you guys buy that watch, give me a shout. I need to see it. Danny. It's the bulgary for me. The bulgary Octofinissimo Ultra. Seriously. It's like if the prompt is all the money in the world, that's not a small amount of money, and that's what that's what I was spending. I think that was just such a the the reason I say this is because I said this on the pod earlier, but we were we we James and I were shown just how sort of tough and wearable that watch actually is. Like someone handled that watch in a way we never would just to show us that you could and so I'd feel the sense of security that my you know half million plus dollars is uh is gonna have a watch that I could actually wear every day. Actually the Langa, the datagrap perpetual lumen too. I would I would buy that if I could afford that. Oh you'd like to I'd also buy stealing my picks. The rose gold the rose gold daydate that I've talked about are also on the pot. Yeah yeah. J
James Stacy ames Well, you know, I was also considering Chopar on this list and the Ultra, so I'm gonna move on. Uh I actually had a lot of favorites when it comes to like fairly expensive watches that I'll never own. Uh the other one that really stood out for me, especially, you know, I'm maybe it's a a cultural thing with the strap but the fifty three thirty uh world timer I really like. I I cultural thing. It took a second to land there. For those of if I whiffed that joke for some of you, it's on a denim strap, I'm Canadian. Um That's the joke. I uh I you know I I think I still have like a f pretty strong preference towards the uh fifty nine thirty-five that came out a little while ago, steel with the chronograph, very cool. But I just have such a an endearing kind of endless fondness for Patek world times. And you know, this isn't a Cautier style world timer, um, but it does have this very clever kind of solution, a mechanical solution for factoring for the dateline of uh you know the local time displayed on the watch, which if you've you know had your hands on a few world timers, that can be an issue if you're traveling a ton. And uh I just think it's a really, really cool piece. I was happy to see it. I like I like a light blue dial. Um, you know, there's uh I feel like this list could be very long. Uh just the the tenor of this show is a lot of, you know, commercial product that we spoke about and then these really big sort of uh banner releases and a lot of them have these giant giant kind of uh price tags. Mark, your
Mark Kauzlarich turn. Uh yeah, I mean I started the week early Sunday morning with uh Rechep Rochepi with the C C two with the Ruby set dial and rose gold. It um I feel like that's kind of a cop out because you can't really get that the list is years and years and years and years of people. Um so I think I was gonna pick the data graph perpetual turbion lumen and honey gold and uh yelled at Ben for for stealing that one. But then I thought about it more and I will say the salmon dial p uh Patek inline per perpetual tur or perpetual calendar um was really, really cool. Fifty two thirty six P um really cool. Spent some time photographing that yesterday I've seen a couple of their original pocket watches in person, and I think like that's a really great callback and something that maybe people had tried to do, but I don't think anybody really thought super hard about it. And Patek was like, Well, we've done it before, we'll do it again and we're gonna make it great. So I would take that, no problem. Jonathan, close us out. Here we
Tony Traina go. The joys of going last. I've amended my list about six or seven times. Um so normally my MO, and especially of lately, has been old and gold, old old watches, gold watches. That's really been on my mind. So first came to mind was not anything from Cartier, but most anything from Cartier. They had the Panther, like the large size Panthere, and then the very very small uh tank um but if money's no object honestly is a year old maybe two years old now that I saw the uh Grunfeld chronograph this morning for the first time and watching it work and watching the movement and the way the chronograph after it's running and when you reset it it slowly goes back to zero. Uh that watchmaking was so impressive and something I'd never ex experienced before in person and really kind of blew me away. That type of watch like high watchmaking making like that has not really been my thing ' Icause've never experienced it like this before. Um but now I've got a little taste of it and there's a whole new world as they say. Yeah, that's funny. I said something very similar on the show last year after I I saw the chronograph for the first time. I think we've got to get Jonathan on the pod more. Yeah, seriously. I agree. Second second. Yeah. That was beautiful. Thank you so much. Beautifully said. Well, guys, that's gonna kinda wrap up the watch discussion. But James and Danny, I think people have been seeing a lot of us in front of the camera on the site on social throughout the entire week, but that's not that's not the entire team here at here at Hodinky this week, so I think you guys wanted to to do one more thing to close out the show. Yeah, Tone, that's right. Uh you might see uh behind the camera, you can't see them actually, but we have um Joe Wyatt who's been filming all these podcasts and he edits them and gets them up the same day for your listening and viewing pleasure, and then Jonathan McWerder here on the end, as Tony put it earlier or James put it, is doing thirty to fifty other media things that you've seen across Hodinky during the show. And so we wanted to sort of celebrate these two guys by giving them a little something special. So just want to uh thank Joe and Jonathan. Joe, this is for you. I don't know if you can get up from the from the seat and come grab it, but um thank you guys just for everything. These are moon Swatch Mission to the Moon Phase, the Black Snoopy Moon Swatch. That is sick. Yes,
James Stacy you do. Yeah. Just uh round of applause for you. Last time I'll be corrected. You guys absolutely deserve it, and we just as a whole team wanted to say that we're exceptionally proud of both of you. And uh you made this week not just better, but possible. So a big thank you. Hell yeah, Joe, we did it
Tony Traina . Well everyone, that's gonna wrap up the show. Thanks to Joe. Thanks to Jonathan. Thanks to all seven of our panelists, and thanks to you all for listening all week long. And we'll be back again soon, but thank you for enjoying all of our coverage from Geneva. Thanks, Tom.