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SIHH 2019 Round-Up, Day 1

Published on Mon, 14 Jan 2019 19:50:00 +0000

As the first day of the show winds down, our editors recap their favorite watches and biggest surprises.

Synopsis

This podcast captures the final day reflections of the Hodinkee team at SIHH 2019 in Geneva. The group, consisting of Stephen Pulvirent, Joe Thompson, John Goldberger, Jack Forster, and James Stacey, gathers with beers to discuss their experiences covering the watch industry's major trade show. Joe Thompson, Hodinkee's business reporter, provides crucial insights into the show's overall mood, describing widespread uncertainty among industry insiders. He reports that retailers and CEOs are expressing concerns about geopolitical instability, including the US government shutdown, Brexit uncertainty, French protests, and economic volatility in China and global stock markets. The sentiment ranges from "cautiously optimistic" to "bearish," with many industry veterans unable to predict 2019's trajectory. Thompson also highlights growing tensions between Richemont's omnichannel strategy and traditional retailers, who increasingly feel they're competing with rather than partnering with the brands they carry.

The team then shifts to product discussions, identifying emerging trends including salmon and salmon-adjacent dial colors (appearing on watches from Longines, Audemars Piguet, and Montblanc), blue dials across multiple brands, and cathedral hands as vintage styling cues. They note a significant push toward more accessible, consumer-friendly products in the \(4,000-\)10,000 range from brands like Cartier, IWC, and Panerai. The group discusses Panerai's innovative approach of packaging limited editions with experiential travel opportunities with brand ambassadors. They conclude with personal highlights: favorite watches including various Cartier Tonneau models and the Lange Zeitwerk, impressive booth designs (particularly Hermes's space-themed installation), and memorable moments from the show. The podcast captures both the business realities and creative excitement of the contemporary luxury watch industry.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Well gentlemen, here we are. It's uh day three of SIHH. It's I guess what it's about five o'clock. We've uh just finished up our last appointments and I think we've I think we've done it. I think we're uh we're almost here. We got some beers here. We'll do a little uh little cheers uh as we record our uh closing closing podcast for SIHH 2019. It was a it was an interesting show to say the least. You know, we're uh we've got what we've got John, we've got Joe, we've got Jack, we've got James, and we've got one guy whose name does not start with a J. Um and yeah we're middle initial though. Yeah, it is middle initial, that's true. Um yeah, so we thought you changed it to J Stephen Pulverin. Okay. I'll tell my I'll t you tell my mom that. Um shout out to mom. Uh so uh let's get right into it. It's our it's our last day. We've now basically seen everyone who's exhibiting here. I think of the thirty-six or thirty-seven exhibitors, I think we saw like thirty-one of them. Um so let's get into it. But I I think one of the things we wanna do to start off is talk to Mr. Joe Thompson uh about the general tone of the show. It's something we get asked about all the time. It's something if you're just walking around the show that people tend to to kind of like chat about, like you run into somebody and you're like, Oh, how's the show going for you? Oh, how's it how's it seem this year? You know? Um but Joe's the person who actually knows because people tell Joe things that they would not tell me or Jack or John or James. They might tell James because he's very nice. But they definitely tell Joe. So Joe, I wonder like what is the vibe of the show this year or what was the show like for you? Can you just tell us about your your SIHH experience
Unknown ? Yes, sure. Ste Stephen, as you say, I'm kind of the business reporter at Hodinky and while you guys are running around, you know, just going like crazy, uh digging deep into the watches, I'm strolling the halls, talking to friends, talking to some CEOs, having a drink with uh retailer X and jeweler Y and watch buyer Z and CEO D. Almost all of the comments I get are off the record. I want that, I want them to be honest. And so yeah, after three days of this I've talked to literally dozens of uh people in the watch industry. And I would say this this the the if there was one word to characterize the show, it's uncertainty. Interesting. There's a tremendous amount, in my view, in their view, of uncertainty as we speak. As we speak, the US government is shut down. The British government may fall this evening. Eyver weekend in France, the Yellowvests demonstrate they ruined Christmas uh for a lot of the retailers there. And looking ahead, um there's a fair amount of uncertainty about the economy in China, about the economy in the United States, about the stock markets which were royaled uh in December. Uh you know, they dropped twenty two percent in forty five days. All of this led to uh a really sort of kind of just uncertain mood here. And whether you're talking globally or whether you're talking domestic USA, that's the mood. So that's number one. And an example of this, and looking forward, asking for a forecast about 2019, I had one Reichmann CEO to me say, Joe, I have no clue about 2019. And many other the best I could get out of anybody about 2019 was cautiously optimistic. And from the US retailers I got bearish, challenging, difficult. And this is all because of the geopolitical situation that we all know, and that's all and the economic situation that we all know. There are fears of recession. The cycle has been for all the strengths of the U.S. economy. Um there is there is a fear that it you know, it's a 10-year cycle and we're getting close. So that was one major theme for me at the show. The the second one is sort of the theme of partnership with Richmond. Um it's a certain peculiarity of this show that in the main hall of SIHH there are eighteen brands, ten of which are Richemont group brands. And so um the tensions that are created by the fact that Richmond has shifted its sort of strategy to an omnichannel strategy, uh, is creating um sort of uh disgruntlement, has for a long time, but now it's really getting, it seems to me, uh almost to the breaking point. People are speaking openly. They will say, oh, ten years ago, you know, I I just felt that the Rishman had my back. Joe, can you uh um n not not to interrupt, but can you just sort of clarify for people who aren't familiar with the term what omnichannel means? Omnichannel. Omnichannel means the Rishmond uh is is is in terms of going to market, it will use every channel. It will use wholesale the wholesale its own wholesale retail network. It will use its own boutique network and then it will also use the e-commerce network through either their own boutiques or through um their uh their neta porte uh acquisition which uh uh so so now the feeling is that the that th th we're we're we're no longer c collaborating, we're competing with each other. And so if you're a retailer, you know, and you have a boutique, you you're competing against this, the brands you carry, have boutiques in your town. That's but that's been the truth for a long time. But now it you know, and it and then there's the throw into the mix pre-owned. The pre-owned business is getting larger and larger, more organized. And so if you're a retailer who has, you know, or thinking about pre-owned, certified pre-owned, um, or uh or actually has one, Richmond with the acquisition of Watchfinder is now in in that space too. So um the the saying sees that uh in these meetings I just I no longer feel that that these are my partners. I feel more like these are my competitors. And I think the tensions of of of of of the the fourth quarter, what we had in the U.S. this year, just to back up a bit, a year ago, the everybody I talked to was literally euphoric. And we did a video and we reported that and there were some comments like, yo, calm down, calm down. But in fact it ended up being a pretty good year for most of them. Um and the first half was terrific because it we're and we will the market U.S in terms of uh exports into the market will be up this year for the first time in three years and up significantly. It'll be up around seven percent. But then came the fourth quarter and the the market went south for most retailers and then when the uh y j just for all the geopolitical stuff that we're talking about and the economic stuff. So though I'll stop there, but but that was kind of the move. People were a bit cranky, a bit disgruntled. Not to say there weren't there weren't h high high points of the year. There were you know, people who had Rolex did really well. And there were as as always. Yes, there and but but they they were told what their allocation was. Their allocation was probably lower than they had the year before, so it was harder to make your numbers. And of course in the US uh uh Rolex, Potec, Ottenmore Piguay, and Cartier were hot brands, two of them were here, of course. Just to round it off, if you were looking among the other eight brands that are in the main hall, both Audemar Piguet and Richard Meal are also going direct and cutting their retailers. So that affected people's businesses this year. Those high end A P sales you used to have, those very high end Richard Meal sales you used to have, you didn't have 'em this year as much and you're not gonna have them next year at all
Unknown . Yeah, it's so interesting to hear that after we've spent, you know, three days in mostly product focused appointments, right? Like we're we're seeing what stuff is coming. We don't hear about sales numbers. We don't hear about allocations. We're not talking to the retailers. We're talking to the people designing and making and marketing the products. So we're getting sort of a much rosier and and more I I guess a view with a slightly different focus. I mean John, did did you did you get any sense of this kind of thing from from appointments this this week?
Unknown No, n certainly not from appointments. From a a couple of just candid conversations with people who I know uh who work in the business and who work in retail, I did hear th things kind of along that line, uh but on only on a couple of occasions. Yeah. Um I mean Jack, how how about
Unknown you? Did you did you get a sense of this from this week? You know, uh I'd actually like to throw a question out to you guys, um, you know, to Joe but to everybody else. There has been talk, you know, since uh you know uh I mean, none of us have been in the business nearly as long as Joe, but uh um you know we've we've all been in the watch covering the watch industry for a while and uh every time there's a significant downturn as we had during the financial crisis, all everybody uh who's a savant strokes their beard and says, now there shall be a winnowing out and you know, or weeding out. And there hasn't been one thus far, at least not to the degree that everyone feared. But do you guys think that given the what seems like a virtual guarantee of ongoing uncertainty globally, both politically and economically, uh and the fact that the Chinese market is saturated and the fact that people are deacquisitioning into the pre owned market and the fact that uh vintage is a hotter and co uholer than ever before and doesn't show any signs of seeming more valid uh than buying new are we looking at a perfect storm? Is there gonna be a winnowing out? What do you guys think
Unknown ? Yeah, I mean I think uh I think it's still up in the air. I think like you said, like that's traditionally what we've what we've seen and that's traditionally been kind of the received knowledge, I would say, but it's not nothing's nothing's surefire. I mean that's that's the kind of the nature of the market, right? Like if we could guess on that and we could all short some stock and be uh very, very wealthy men, but I think, you know, we'll see how it plays out. And I I think I mean Joe, uh judging by the relative strength of the market, the first three quarters of I don't think anybody expected the downturn in the fourth quarter. And nobody really, from what you've said, seems to have any idea what Q one twenty nineteen is gonna look like, let alone Q four twenty nineteen, right?
Unknown No, that that's that is that is correct. I mean you know the other view is that well we we've had a you know w uh in terms of the the American economy has been strong and has not necessarily been strong for luxury swiss Swiss watches because we had f for vario varusious reasons for that. Um but the winnowing that that you're asking about Jack, yeah the the expectation is that yes it it it will come. It's already really started in at retail in terms of the the wholesale network. There's a winnowing certainly that the brands are making. And as they winnow, winnow, and and the people we're talking to here, these are the guys who made the cut, Richmond. Understand. These are the age rulers that we are talking about. But there will be further winnowing. We're seeing that, the the going direct. And and e-commerce makes it the thrust is to go to the end consumer directly. This is a this is a this is a a retail trend bigger than the industry. And this is not to make a judgment about this. It it's understandable that and there are going to be winners and losers uh in this retail revolution, as there were winners and losers losers in the media revolution that we just went through. Uh and before that even uh in the uh um a revolution uh in in product, when the Swatch group said it wasn't gonna supply movements anymore, and then people had and then she suddenly everybody's a manufacturer, et cetera, et cetera. And there were winners and losers in that. And that's kind of where we are, that kind of and this insight, by the way, did not come from me, it came from one of my sources, I guess Claude Greisler, uh at Armand Strom, who was uh Joe, you named a source. Yeah, well yeah he's this is fine. He's on the record with it and we tr we made sure of that. But that he he that's what he sees. He says this is a retail revolution that's occurring everywhere. Some and and and retailers will adjust. Some some will adjust and be successful. Others won't. And that's what happens in revolutions. Jack, was your the winning w winnowing
Unknown app that you referred to, were you referring specifically to retailers? Or were you also perhaps talking about brands? Brands. Well I mean I think I would never I don't think that we should look at for example a brand's departure from Basel World with no announcement of any plan to show watches elsewhere as a sign of their demise. I think that would be hasty to make that um presumption. But in some cases it it probably was the case. There are some brands, probably smaller ones, ones that kind of have existed on the fringes for years that will not be in Basel and I don't know where they're going to go to sell their watches or if they will. I guess time will tell.
Unknown Yeah. I mean I think then and we won't get too much into this, but the the next question is like is that is that a good thing, right? Like if if there's not a market for these products and if people aren't buying these products and if these products aren't successful, then like is it is it probably a good thing that these that we don't continue to have people investing time and m money and their careers and their lives into essentially creating things that people don't want. Oh my god, Stephen, you are the Prince of Darkness
Unknown . First you're like, let's let's short these guys and make a buck. And then then your your next take is they probably deserve it anyway. Yeah.
Unknown I mean it's that's that's what you make consumer goods. Like in a in a certain way, yeah, we like to think, you know, watches are are mechanical art and they're these artisan goods and they are those things in a lot of ways. They're also widgets. They're consumer goods. Like people have to buy them, you know? It's it's uh with money. With money. Like this isn't like a patronage system. There's no Medici keeping the the watch industry rolling. Like people have to buy these things or they don't they don't exist anymore. And you know, I think there's we've seen a a crowded marketplace over the last number of years. And as interest in watches has exploded, we've seen a lot more watch brands. People want to start watch brands. And that's exciting. That's great. And some of those people are successful. There's you know a number of American mic-based micro brands that have done really well. They're small businesses, but they they do well at their scale. Uh and then there's people who have tried to launch huge companies that have done well and huge companies that have not done well and you know, I think we'll we'll see it shake out.
Unknown But just one point on that. I mean there are es it's an estimated that there are more than five hundred Swiss watch brands. You probably don't need five hundred to six hundred Swiss Squatch brands. And in fact, the Great Recession was supposed to do the winnowing. Down twenty-two percent in two thousand nine in terms of exports. This was supposed to get rid of everybody. China rescued, up twenty-two percent in two thousand ten. So we can blame China for the fact that we did not have the winnowing. Maybe it comes to the case.
Unknown It's your fault. But now the winnowing shall come the winnowing. Um yeah, so Joe, I I just wonder as we as we kinda close out this this discussion, is there is there anything else you kinda want to leave people with from from the show? Kind of if you you had to sum up like one thing to watch maybe going forward, uh one thing to look out for. What what would you kinda tell people to to keep their eye on? Well that's a good question, Step
Unknown hen. Uh well just just just one by well that's your job. That's right. That's why that's what you're good at. Um one is that uh the as one retailer put it to me, uh certified pre owned and pre owned is the elephant in the room. And that is gonna be a huge force going forward. And uh I would say all of us should start paying attention to that. Cool. Well
Unknown I I wanna move to something else uh a little bit different. Hop hopefully maybe a little a little happier, a little more sunshine in our lives. Uh as we no, come on, as as we ponder the potential demise of uh our our careers. Um yeah, well uh nice nice end to the show everybody. No, but Steve, you're fine. You're gonna short everybody. Exactly. Um sure. Um Yeah, so what what I want to talk about are are trends, things we've noticed um more on the product side of things or on the collector side of things. Um and I want to kick this off with Mr. James Stacey who uh who is sitting to my right here and and ask, James, is there something you've noticed uh in the product that that you think is going to be a big trend heading into twenty nineteen. This is kind of our first chance to see what brands are releasing this year. So what's uh what do you think is gonna be hot
Unknown ? Uh you know what I I I th think that what we saw at SIHH was a handful of kind of salmon or salmon adjacent dials. I maybe sold that from Johnny's nodding at me. Like if Longa does it, they're like that's a brand that moves slowly, doesn't use color that often, like is very reserved. So if they're doing it then I think it it's something. And then of course we have A P on the other side of the line. I would say that's not a salmon dial. Montblanc as well. And Montblanc, thank you. I didn't see those in person. Did you? They're still, really nice. Oh yeah. Well I mean Montblanc's also, I would say very stylish, obviously, with uh you know given their leadership. And uh and so I think that's kind of three edges of of Reachmont right there, uh of of of what you that's kinda three edges of SIHH right there with Mont Blanc, A P and Longa, all in the same space. I would say that the the jumbo isn't salmon. I made that I made that case in a piece that I wrote Yeah we'll link that. Um but I would say it's more more gold tone, but I think it's in that it's in the the space. It's sal
Unknown mon adjacent. That's like how pan tone comes out with like the color of the year every year. I think we should issue the dial color of the year 2019 is salmon ad
Unknown jacent. Yeah, I mean like and we're also seeing like I i I think we're you could also make the case that green is coming, but I think green came maybe two years ago, and we're just seeing it now kind of coming into more of a sweet spot. IWC's leveraging it, I would say, as good as anyone right now. And uh and and I would say yeah, it's it's kind of dial colors that aren't black, silver, that sort of thing. Sweet. Let's skip around. Let's go to John. Sure. You know, uh sorry John if I stole yours. No, no, it's I'm gonna stay in the vein of uh dial colors. And perhaps the industry is feeling blue, fearing their own winnowing winnowing out because Boom. Sorry. Dots connected winnowing puns. Um perhaps perhaps they're feeling blue. Uh or maybe they're just feeling stylish. If I I was on our uh Wow. Oh God. Here we go. I'm on our own homepage and I'm looking at our SIHH twenty nineteen page package where where we we can're grouping together for your convenience all of our coverage of SIHH. And I'm counting like uh upwards of 10 brands with uh with blue dials in the uh uh you know uh uh in the hero images corresponding to the articles we've written about them. And so like we have them from JLC, uh Hermes with their uh Lar Delune, uh Panorai had some nice um blue accents on their uh on several of their dials. Uh Girard Perrigo with their earth to sky line had kind of a a faded um uh blue to black uh look on many of their dials. So blue was all over the place. And uh those are just a few of them that I uh that I was able to think of um looking at this page
Unknown . Where are you now? I was. I was. And I bethought to myself, Jack, I bet we're going to see a lot more cathedral hands uh moving forward. And and then I said to myself in this internal dialogue, Jack, why do you think we're going to see more cathedral hands moving forward? And my reply to myself was because they're vintage. It's a way of flagging a watch as vintage and as connected to the past of watchmaking that's relatively straightforward. And I think that one of the things that we're going to see is the use of uh much more vintage cues, and some of them are gonna work, uh, and some of them are not gonna work. Uh, you know, because vintage is now becoming not so much a connection with the past as a style cue. And um I had a conversation with someone quite highly placed in the industry from a design standpoint today. And this this person said made this observation to me, and I'm going to pass it on to you guys. Uh vintage when vintage becomes uh a style cue and it becomes uh uh something that is drained of any specific reference and any real connection to a past, then it simply uh it loses it loses meaning. And I think that we're probably going to see a lot of relatively deracinated uh examples of uh quote vintage unquote watch design. Good use of deracinated. Thank you. Um so you know I think one of the worst things that can happen to a pilot's watch is when uh a manufacturer says themselves, let's make it look as if it's sitting uh let's make it look as if it's a dial instrument. Uh you know, because then what you get is you get an illustration of a pilot's watch rather than a pilot's watch. And I think what we're going to see a lot of uh moving forward uh is illustrations of vintage watches uh rather than vintage watches and illustrations of vintage watches that don't have any real uh organic connection with the past. And I think that's going to start to b in in a in in ways that they might not be able to explicitly articulate uh to themselves, I think that's gonna start to bother the watch buying public and it's gonna start to lose its effect
Unknown . Nice. Yeah, Joe, was was there anything you noticed just walking around the show? Anything you happened to see that you thought were were kind of trends emerging? Uh from a product standpoint. Yeah. Yeah. Well as you
Unknown know, it wasn't uh my focus, but I I just wondered about uh actually two things. I I I did see some product. I wondered about uh Beaumont Mercier's production think. You you can buy the JLC for twenty
Unknown . You can get a Master Ultra thin. Yeah, Montblanc has one for si uh fifteen or sixteen thousand as well. Frederic Constance is said nine in steel. Is it nine in steel? Wow
Unknown . Yeah. I think the bomb is nice. We'd all buy the J
Unknown LC, right? Yeah, I'd go for the JLC. Yeah, a hundred percent. Uh Master Ultra Thin is around twenty thousand, yeah. When it launched it was nineteen seven. I was at the launch several years ago. It's probably gone up a little bit, but it's under probably under twenty two. Yeah, I think it's twenty one in change, yeah. So
Unknown that's where that high comp lives now? Yeah. Price wise. Okay. I think for a modular you know I mean JLC's is different, but I think you know this this push towards having these like modular high comps that you can get for a more accessible price is my favorite gold Casio. Boom. Uh yeah, I guess I you know kind of in that direction, uh think one of the big pushes this year was toward more consumer-friendly product, and maybe that's a symptom, Joe, of what you you were talking about with you know, people trying to find things that more people can buy and more people can afford. Thinking about what we saw this week, the stuff that stands out most to me was not stuff at the high end, it was stuff at the relatively, I'm putting in scare quotes low end. You know, watches in the four to ten thousand dollar range. You know, Cartier, lots of great stuff under $10,000. IWC, amazing new pilot's watches, almost all of which are under 10. I think all but one of which are under $15,000. Um Bauman Mercier, uh tons of stuff. You know, they're always kind of the more accessibly priced. You know, we're really seeing Panorai didn't focus on huge, crazy complications this year. It's more consumer-friendly product. And I think that always excites me. I think it's it's tempting for some of these brands to put a ton of money into the R D to develop really exciting products to keep their highest spending collectors spending. Um, but I always like to see them put that same amount of effort and energy
Unknown Steven, speaking of Panorai, um and I'm throwing this out to all you guys again, uh they they uh are doing stuff that is uh you know, I think clarifies um, you know, they broke out submersible as a separate line. I think that's a great piece that's a great piece of communication because it says to the consumer, these are our tool watches. Other watches might function more as a connection to our history or as reflections of our style language that are stylish everyday watches to wear. But in terms of um, you know, what we saw that we thought was uh you know an interesting move from a communications standpoint, the limited edition watches that they were doing, they'd come packaged with an experience. You know, the whole idea of creating a r uh an expensive but a really, really vivid experience for the luxury customer. Are we going to see more of that? I mean a lot of it is happening beh behind the scenes just in terms of you know, if you're a major luxury watch brand, you're investing heavily in client experiences anyway, but directly connecting them to a particular product, directly connecting a particular product to a particular ambassador, generating an experience aro
Unknown und And it's a neat idea because y I mean like the idea the concept of a forty seven millimeter carbon, you know, submersible from Panorai is already sort of a niche watch and it's one that kind of flaunts the fact that watches are slowly becoming more towards forty millimeters after Panorai has enjoyed a decade of huge watches being kind of popular at a consumer level. But with these ones they're they're you know, they're it's interesting to to to go that route with a limited edition where you're not just offering a watch that's genuinely limited, you're offering kind of a colorway of a watch that they're gonna continue to produce that's connected with somebody that's working with the brand. It's a it's like another level of ambassador. And my guess is that if I was them, so it's it's it's more of an assumption, but if you know if I was them, you'd be producing all sorts of content surrounding this experience. You know, there's opportunities for all sorts of social media uh that that can live beyond thirteen people going with, you know, one of these ambassadors to some crazy uh crazy experience on the globe. I th I I think it's interesting. I I wonder you know they doubled it doubles the price of the watch. So you weren't really only now marketing to a subset of the submersible buyer. Is it that hard to find uh uh a submersible buyer that has forty grand and wants to go hang out with my horn for a week on a boat versus someone who has nineteen nine and doesn't? I don't think they're gonna have a lot of trouble selling them. I completely agree. Well I think didn't they say I think this is a case where we'll ha maybe we can check this later, but I think we were told that uh at least the micormum was all sold out. Oh really? In our in our in our media So they all sold out and and it doesn't surprise me either, Stephen. And I think that's because as we've seen kind of over the years what you know ultra affluent people who are buying super expensive things ultimately want is exclusivity that goes beyond merely getting a product, but having experiences too that money really can't buy. I also think there's there's one more perspective that I think I I might be able to add to this, which is like I've been on one of these Five people on the boat who weren't scientists, who weren't paid for like their trip wasn't covered by Harvard or by a research grant or anything. There was like yeah, four or five people who were there on their own diamond. It was about fifteen grand. And that's before you flew to Mexico, before you put yourself in a hotel for the night before. Like I'm sure the rock cost was somewhere approaching $17,000, $18,000. And uh and then not to mention the fact that these people weren't at work, that has a cost associated to it. So when you really do the math, I I don't think it's that crazy. Like I saw some comments people, saying like why would you pay double to do this? And I'm like, Yeah, if you if you don't see the value of being on a boat with a awesome world explorer and what uh all the cool stories he would tell and all the neat things you'd see and the great pictures you'd have and all these things like yeah you and I are on the same are not on the same level. Like I'm a chance to you know a chance to live in this world for a while and make and make it a a little bit a part of yours. I mean that's the money seems trivial. If there's like photography tours that go deep up into the Emerald Sea above Vancouver and they're eight or nine grand for six days. Like it's not that un it's not that crazy of a c price if you're already into the watch and and you you have a schedule that you could take that kind of time off. Like it's cool.
Unknown So these guys are gonna you know, um Joe made an uh an excellent point earlier that we are talking about the the high high end, you know, when you're talking about the Richmond brands. Um but it seems like this kind of thing is gonna become more brands are gonna have to get more and more creative in terms of you know, prices Yeah, it's tru
Unknown e. So before we wrap up the show, uh I thought we'd finish with a little quick lightning round. So I'm gonna ask three questions. Uh we'll get a quick answer from everybody, and uh that's how we'll wrap up SIHH twenty nineteen. So fast. Yeah. So uh question one is many of us are flying home tomorrow. So what's the watch that's gonna stick with you after you leave the show? What's the thing that when you're on your flight home tomorrow or the next day or in Jack's case the next day. Uh what's the watch that you're gonna sit in your seat just like dreaming about? Uh let's start with John. Um probably
Unknown the that Cartier Santos uh Dumont. I love it. Um because I haven't I can't I can't tell you the last time I bought a quartz watch. I can't remember the last quartz watch I bought. But this one seriously has me thinking about um swiping my visa. So I
Unknown don't know. Alright, there we go. Joe, did anything catch your attention? Yes, Stephen. I think it was the Lange Zeitwork and uh not I think, I know. Uh and that's because I was at the launch in two thousand nine and the thing was so different and the reaction among many of us was whoa. This is like, you know, way too across the Longay line. And uh and so it now they're uh ten years later it's now a family, this is the fifth one. So we have to be careful about making too quick judgments uh on first sight about uh a brand stretching uh the limits. Nice
Unknown . Jack? Saw a lot that I loved, saw a lot that I admired. Uh the Vacheron uh twin beat is right up there, but the one I wanted to take home with me, the one I still want to take home with me, the Cartier Privé Tono two time zone, uh based on a design a two um uh two time zone watch that had two movements in it from Cartier's archives. This one has one movement in it that looks like two, uh set with one crown and
Unknown Cool. We got three sexies from Jack to wrap up SIHH. That's what everyone wanted. James?
Unknown Yeah, I mean, I just I was just at the an another AP meeting with John and got a chance to um try on the Royal Oak Chronograph in thirty eight millimeters. And it's a sweet thing when you get to try on a Royal Oak and it's sized for your wrist, 'cause that's what's missing is if it doesn't if that watch doesn't fit it makes no sense. But if it's if it's the right size for your wrist. And they had a gold they had a gold one with kind of a gold white dial. I'm about that for sure. Good pick
Unknown . Sweet. I think I'm gonna pick a Cartier Tonneau also, but I'm gonna do the Privérive T Tano in platinum, the normal, you know, time-only two-hand uh version. SI-HH are probably three of the maybe ten days a year that I wear a suit these days. Uh, but if I wore a suit more often, I would have to have that watch. That watch in platinum with the silver dial and uh the ruby cabish on is it is the most elegant watch I've seen in a long time and it's just it's everything you want from Cartier done just kinda at the most superlative level.
Unknown The truth is if you're gonna fall in love with a Cartier watch it did better be in platinum because Cartier and Platinum are pre essentially synonymous with each other. Platinum
Unknown Cartier is kind of the best. Yeah. Alright. So uh we'll do something a little more fun. Let's go around a little goofier. These booths at these shows, for anyone who has never been, uh, can be a little wild. Uh SIHH H tends to be a little tamer than Basel World, but uh the brands get a little theatrical. They always try to do something eye catching, they're vying for everybody's attention. Uh so I wonder what are the coolest booths that you saw this year? Let's start to my right here. Let's start with James. Yeah, w
Unknown ithout question, Surmaz. Yeah. So uh we got a chance to meet with their creative director and they had a whole like they had a whole mental two thousand and one cubrick thing going on. So like the main space is very dark, but the back wall is this one big white panel of light. And then there's like this weird sphere in the center. And no matter where you stood, it's just g light gradient off of it. It's really great. I would definitely sit there on a chair like with a pair of headphones on and just listen to some music and just kind of watch that. It was great. And like to have people walk by and watch the like a really long shadow move across that sphere is the same
Unknown . It's really trippy. Yeah, it's a
Unknown wesome. It it is like it's the last twenty minutes of two thousand and one in there. Without the space baby, but like almost So they had this Japanese designer designed all of their the windows that face outside, and there's like seven or eight of them, Joe, maybe. And each one takes the watches further and further away from Earth to the extent that you start somewhere on Mars and there's like m the the ground is moving, like they must have a speaker or something that's that's like making the ground jump. And then bublebling. Then a coup watches go past like an actual liquid form of Jupiter. It's not a screen, it's like actually liquid. It must have been a fortune. It looks so cool. And then as the as it progresses, it moves the watches move into a wormhole, come out into another dimension
Unknown Honestly, I'll jump in and say I'm totally with both of you. This booth is so cool. I could have hung out there all day
Unknown . from a few years ago and it's just I loved it. I loved the whole booth. It was awesome. Alright. So we got three answers
Unknown there. Jack. All right. Where are you at? You know, uh I I mean I'm pretty good. That's a spitfire. I mean I'm yeah, I'm an old I'm an old aviation enthusiast and uh you know, I mean I love science fiction too and I actually miss the hermes booth. Um and it sounds like I should regret that I did. But you know, there's something about seeing a vintage Spitfire that's actually getting ready to fly that's just uh you know it's one of those airplanes, like it's really strongly identified with the Air Battle of Britain, and you know, the Hawker Hurricane was actually present, you know, two hawkers for every Spitfire. And you know, pilot was w was a reliable aircraft and you know pilots respected the hawker, but they they loved the Spitfire. And uh, you know, that's how history is kind of voted to. And just to walk in there and see that thing sitting there, boy, uh, you know, it uh it got me gone. J
Unknown ust one of the most beautiful things ever made. Yeah. The Spitfire. Absolutely. Yeah. Sweet. John? Um Hermes was really cool. I sense there's a butt coming. Well the way that you guys talked about it really makes me wish that I had paid more attention when I was in that booth. And I yeah, I think after this recording I think
Unknown .
Unknown booths as opposed to like say Basel booths, which are well Basel booths are bigger, as you as you had already mentioned. But they tend to they tend to remain fairly static. With SIHH, year in, year out, based on what brands are doing with their collections, they'll totally redo them. And um I think what Richard Mill did for the for the Bond Bomb was kinda wild. Uh when you walk in there you feel like it's somewhere between like, you know, living in on the on the board of Candyland and going to Willy Wonka or something But you didn't mean any candy. The official the official candy of Hodinky. I love twin snakes. They did have they had gum they had gummy by twin snakes. They had gummies of some kind, so if you
Unknown 're not picky then then they they've got you covered. Let's close this thing out. Let's take it home. What is your time capsule moment? If you had one moment from the show that you want to remember, that you want to keep with you for years to come, what was the best moment of the show for you? Let's we'll start in the middle here. We'll start with Jack, our Steamed Editor in Chief. Oh
Unknown boy. Actually, you know, um one of the things I really, really love doing at trade shows uh is getting a chance to talk to people who are involved creatively at you know planning creative direction for the brands and planning design. And I had an opportunity to talk to the lady who is in charge of watch design for Cartier, which is a very, very interesting position to be in. And she said something that is gonna stay with me just in terms of, you know, what you have to be prepared to do if you want to work as a creative. She said I you know, I asked her about the pressure of producing watches on a yearly schedule, which is really more congenial to the fashion industry than it is to watch making. This is not a natural product development cycle for watchmaking. And she said, and this surprised the hell out of me, given the behemoth that Cartier is commercially for the Richmond group. She said, we don't have that pressure. And I said, what do you mean? She said we can work on a watch for years. And when when we think we're done with it, if I look at it and I feel that it is not truly a Cartier watch, I can say no. I have been empowered to say this is not a Cartier watch. And I said to her, Does it happen? She said it yes, it happens. It happened this year. You know, we worked on a watch for for years and it just did not look to me when we were done with it like a Cartier watch, and it did not come with us to the SIHH. Because you cannot work creatively if you are under the kind of pressure that you are describing. You need to feel that you have freedom. And I thought to myself, you know, we're in a business where there's pressure to publish, it's relentless. Um, you know, we're feeding a giant beast called the internet. But beyond a certain point, if we don't say to ourselves, I don't care, it's gotta be good, we're in trouble. Agre
Unknown ed.. John Um for me it's something that we are doing this year that we haven't done in the past, and that is um quite literally sitting here as a group and recording a podcast at the end of the day. And today we're doing it with beers and this kind of uh this is this is uh a very important thing that I think that um you do with a group of colleagues when you do a trade show, and that's get together, raise a glass, and talk about how the day was, what you saw, and what your experiences were. Um and I think we all kind of learn from each other uh based on the conversations that we have at the end of the day. And now you get to kind of share in it if you're listening to the podcast. Oh here. Yeah. It's been a really fun addition to uh to
Unknown the trade show regime doing this this year. That's good to hear. Mine's uh mine's beer related too actually. So uh we uh there's there's not too many options in uh downtown Geneva for us uh in the in the evenings after we've finished writing our story I'm giving away the hideout. No, I won't give away the hideout. But there is there is a pub uh that is perfectly serviceable um and open late and open on Sundays, which is a rarity. It's basically that a subway in a McDonald's. And you know, the kind of evenings where you can run into anybody from the industry, you can run into, you know, people on the corporate side, you can run into other journalists, you can run into basically anyone. Um and everybody just kinda has a drink and relaxes and you know, kind of gossips and shares little little things from from the days at the show. And it's a nice reminder that this really is is a strange but nice little community. Uh and you know, whether it's watching an Eagles game with uh Joe Thompson at one o'clock in the morning, uh sorry about the Eagles Joe, um, or whether it's running into folks from from a brand uh you know, having a beer after they pulled a twelve hour day at their booth uh entertaining people like us. Um yeah, it's a nice little nice little way to end the day
Unknown . Uh yeah, I mean for me I was gonna pick what John said, which is just you know, having having more time to sit and actually kinda download on these days, it gives me kind of a different perspective that if I w you know, if you're more insular if you just leave the show and go back to write, I don't get to hear what all of you think about it. Um I I guess second to that is is kind of an extension of the Hermes booth is I I got a chance to kind of sit in on a non press meeting with Pierre Alexis Dumas who is creative director of Hermes. I mean that's that's awesome. That's an awesome position. And it's also one that like you can't mess up. And what he's done as far as like the watches were really cool this year. And then like it we've already talked at length about the booth and and walking around and checking out the booth and and seeing kind of the mind space where that you wouldn't necessarily tide worm as this c sort of celestial galaxy uh you know traveling through wormholes and such was uh was cool and fun and something I'll I'll definitely think of. How
Unknown about for you, Jay? Well l let me put it this way. Uh I was in a conversation with the jeweler, I'll try and make this short, uh about the mania, the frenzy for uh certain watches of certain brands. Not the brand. It's gotta be a Rolex Steel Sportwatch or the the the Nautilus. And I was asking Orkett why and well he he was pus p raising the question if it's gone too far. It's certainly there is the cognocenti, the the collectors who can come in, but now there's sort of this this this mania that extends that the people come in and they they don't really know anything about the Nautilus. They just know they need to wear a Nautilus because they've seen other people and they've gone online and they've et cetera, et cetera. And so it the bottom line came down to the fact that pretty much it was new media that has created this kind of frenzy where uh somebody comes in and wants an absolutely specific watch where it gets so hot. And it's part of my own personal discovery of the power of new media, social media and and the internet and and sites like Hadinki.
Unknown Great. Well I think uh I think that's officially a wrap, boys. I think we're uh we're done. We're gonna pack our bags, probably go take a trip by the uh Air Mez booth and then head back to uh try to get some work done before we have to pack and get on the flight 'cause we have quite a few stories to produce. Uh you're gonna be getting you the listener are gonna be getting tons of content from us over the next week, two weeks, month, and more. Um we've got tons of hands-on photos we're gonna be sharing. We're gonna do some roundups of our favorite watches, uh, we're gonna be talking about trends. We're going to be showing you some cool stuff that are not new releases that we found. Watches we spotted on people's wrists, some crazy prototypes we found, some really fun stuff coming. And then before you know it, it'll be time to ramp up for Basel World. Uh you know, SIHH and Basel World are kind of in flux right now and uh before we know it, it's gonna be time. So this is the last SIHH in January. You know, this is kind of the end of of an era that was in itself the end of the previous era, uh when SIHH and Basel were were next to each other. But uh pretty fast the eras. Yeah, they're moving pretty quickly. But yeah, so this is the the end of the January SIHH era for now. Um we'll be back with more of these in uh in March at uh Basel World. And uh you should let us know what you think. Let us know in the comments on this story. Send us emails. Hit us up on Instagram. Let us know what you thought of these pods. What we can do uh in the future for you to give you the best possible coverage of these shows and uh let us know what you want to hear about. So thank you to you guys for uh coming in here at the end of every day and recording with us. And thanks to everybody who's listening. And uh yeah, that's it. That's SIHH twenty nineteen.