SIHH 2019 Round-Up, Day 2¶
Published on Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:53:00 +0000
Our thoughts after visiting the independents – plus a special interview from Mr. Joe Thompson himself.
Synopsis¶
This episode captures the Hodinkee team's initial reactions from the first press day at Baselworld 2019, recorded live from their apartment in Basel. The team, including Stephen Pulvirent, Jack Forster, Ben Clymer, and Kara Adegha, along with guest appearances from Cole Pennington and James Stacey, discuss the day's watch releases from Rolex, Patek Philippe, and Tudor. Notably, this year saw unprecedented leaks, with most major releases appearing online the evening before the official embargo lift, fundamentally changing their workflow and dampening some of the traditional excitement of the show.
The episode covers Patek Philippe's releases including the new steel weekly calendar watch with handwritten-style text that's generating significant demand, the khaki green Aquanaut in a larger 42.2mm case, and the striking $226,000 alarm travel time watch with four crowns. They discuss the new 5172 chronograph replacing the 5170, the ladies' Nautilus in 35.2mm with both rose gold and steel options, and various high-end pieces including enamel dial world timers and minute repeaters. Tudor's offerings include a two-tone Black Bay Chronograph, a bronze Black Bay with slate gray dial, and most notably the P01, a controversial dive watch based on a 1969 prototype originally pitched to the U.S. Navy. Rolex's conservative releases include the Batman GMT on Jubilee bracelet with updated end links, the two-tone Sea Dweller (marking the first time this tool watch has featured precious metal), and various updates to existing models. The team notes the emptiness of Baselworld following Swatch Group's absence and discusses the show's dramatic decline from 1,500 exhibitors in 2016 to just 500 in 2019.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | All right, day one of Basel World in the books. We were able to gather the team together after our press day, so technically not the first official day of Basel World, but we got to take our first appointments and start seeing watches today. We were able to gather a a good chunk of the team together in one of the apartments we're staying at, uh into a sort of mock uh studio in a living room and s kind of see what everybody's first reactions are to the the big brands. We got to see uh Rolex, we got to see Patek Philippe, and we got to see Tudor today. We also got to see Grand Seiko, but we can't really talk about that yet. Uh everything's still top secret till tomorrow. Uh and we just want to get everybody's uh initial thoughts. So we uh Ben and and Kara and Jack and myself and even a guest appearance from Cole and James. So give it a listen and uh hope you enjoy the first of our live podcasts from Basel World twenty nineteen. I'm your host, Stephen Polverin, and this is Hodinky Radio. Here we are. Basel World Day One, it's over. I guess it's it's like day point five, right? Like this is press day. This is press day, correct. Yeah, so it's uh it's Wednesday, we're here at Basel. We've got Jack, we've got Kara, we have Ben. Yes. SJP. Quite right. Yeah. Yeah, we got some cheering uh off camera and off mic from uh our producer Gray. Uh we also have Dave here also shooting. Um this is the first time we've done one of these in front of cameras isn't it? Uh Hoding Radio, yeah. The first time we've done that are on. Oh yeah. It's rolling. It was a bad joke. Nice nicely done, CB. Sorry. This isn't Friday live though. It is not. Let's not get to the bell's upstairs. No, I'm on it. Oh sorry, I didn't mean to curse. Alright, so Basel World officially started today for us. For most people it doesn't start till tomorrow, but it actually started last night for us. Uh yes. Cause weirdly, this has never happened before. Right. Uh basically everything big leaked ahead of time. Which doesn't usually happen. I mean, we're talking Patek, Rolex, and Tutor, we knew basically what everything was by four or five o'clock last night. Yeah, but uh around then. Yeah. I mean, you know, which it produced certain efficiencies for us, but holy sheesh, that's a lot of uh embargo breaking. It's kind of a bummer. Was it? I don't know. Well it was it was good for the workflow, but it was kind of a bum 'cause it's kinda fun to like Wednesday noon You watch the little window go up a Rolex. And No, it's not like you think you're gonna want to know what you're getting for Christmas, and but if you do find out what you're doing, you get really mad about it. Or cry. Yeah. I didn't cry last night though. So everything you did? Wait. So everything everything drops last night. And like you said, it kind of changed our workflow. So people who are listening to this or watching this probably don't know, but kind of the way this works is we get some stuff ahead of time that we can kind of prep and and write uh that we just can't talk about. And then when the embargo lifts, we we hit publish and everything's good, and then we get to see the watches and and take photos and stuff. But um Rolex, Patek, and Tutor in particular don't really do that. So it's sort of old school news reporting where like everything comes out. Often emails don't go out. Like all you just sit and refresh the page until eventually there's new watches there. Uh and then we scramble to write everything up as quickly as humanly possible, but we didn't really have to do that last night. No. Instead we got to like take our time and kind of do things, do things the right way, I guess. Yeah, I mean kind of, right? I mean we were still rushing through most of these releases. Yeah, that's true. It made things a little easier today when the show doors uh opened for it. leak so paddock pretty much everything leaked on an Instagram post or somewhere and uh they basically said hey you know what fair game we're uploading everything to the website right now go for it uh Rolex on the other hand didn't do anything you know and so so basically, you know, we we saw this leak on on Rolex Passion Report, which is Philip Stahl's website. But we didn't if this was real or not. You know, it it looked real, it turns out it was real. But you just have no idea, you know, because there's so many websites out there that that purport things and say, hey, you know, this is what we'd love to see from Rolex, etcetera. And so Rolex had no response at all. And so we couldn't go ahead and and do too much on it because we don't we didn't know if that this was real. Turns out it was. Uh yeah. But so the paddock stuff really, really broke last night officially. And then Rolex today Yeah so noon today is when the show actually opened its doors, but Jack got to go in ahead of time, right? Yeah. Uh there was a uh sort of little separate press tour um before the show opened um uh you know show up before the hall opened officially at twelve noon. And you know, it was uh it was it really does feel uh different. I mean without the uh without the swatch group there it's uh I mean you know it's like it's like meeting a friend who you haven't seen for a while and they're missing a couple of front teeth. You know you just you just you're you you know you you you try not to stare but you're like wow whoa um yeah maybe maybe get that looked at. Um Yeah, but it would also be like if your friend was missing their front teeth and where their front teeth were instead there were like restaurants in a really nice press center. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. But but which is which but which which is an interesting placement. I mean uh so there's there's um a large new press center which is great. There's a couple of restaurants for uh for visitors to go to, you know, right on the premises that look like restaurants a person would actually want to go to on like previous years. Um, you know, so all of that is fantastic. Uh but you know, I did have the thought um they are trying maybe to s reserve the space for the prodigal son in case he decides to return in uh you know, in two thousand twenty. So, you know, without much ado, uh Swatch Group would just slot right back in there if they wanted to. And um, you know, the the um not the official word on the street, but the semi-official buzz is that uh this is the last year for Brightling which is going to even free up free up even more real estate. Yeah I thought it was interesting too because you know when you enter through the front doors of of Hall One, traditionally you got kind of LVMH, then you had um paddock, Rolex, Tutor, Showpart, and then Swatch Group, and then Brightling behind them and and so on. So it was this sort of unending continuous stream of of big major brands. Now you have the you still have LVMH up front, you have Chopard, you have Paddock, you have Rolex, you have Tutor, and then there's sort of a break, right? Like you have the press center, you have these restaurants, and then you get to Brightling, and then behind Brightling there's more. It creates this sort of weird dynamic where like it feels sort of like, oh, up front are all the big brands, and then you get a little bit of a break, and then there's all this other stuff in the back, which I'm sure Brightling isn't Yeah, I mean the impression that you know one one has is that sort of Brightling is not you know happy about the whole whole show situation in general, which I think is is you know probably true. Yeah, but you know one of the I mean the the interesting thing about actually walking through uh Hall One is I mean we've you know Joe Re Thompson reported uh you know the statistics on decline in attendance, you know, from twenty sixteen we went from fifteen hundred exhibit not not attendance exhibitors. We went from fifteen hundred exhibitors down to about five hundred this year. And you know it's one thing to look at that as sort of an abstract number, but to actually walk through Hall One and say to yourself, wow, it's this the only thing missing are the tumbleweeds. It really feels empty. And granted today was press day and it opened at noon, so it's it's always a slower day, so we'll really get a good, you know, good barometer tomorrow. But we went upstairs to see Grand Seiko this afternoon, and usually there are two aisles, you know, basically three rows of of booths, and this year there are not They weren't, you know, in our wheelhouse, but uh Swarovski uh had a central central place on the second floor, you know, this huge sort of circular booth covered with uh you know c basically covered with glitter that was twenty five feet high, and it's just it's gone. It's gone. All right. So so enough about the show. Let's talk about the watches. So today, day one, press day, we really focused on Rolex, Tudor, and Patek Felite. We also saw Grand Seiko, but we actually can't talk about any of that yet 'cause they're having a press conference tomorrow and we don't want them to kill us. So that's fine. Um Rolex, Paddock, and Tudor. Paddock was first, right? Yeah, we saw Paddock. Paddock was our first appointment. It's a hodinky tradition to see protectfully very first at Bowser World, an honor, truly. And uh we saw some stuff. We certainly did. Jack, what did you think? Um I th actually uh you know, I really wasn't sure about a couple of pieces, but seeing them in person was uh um It's an eating. It's anything. And it works it works in a way that's about the handwriting stuff on the dial. Yeah, I'm not convinced. That with like a normal typeface would be like okay. I I get it. The the the kind of faux handwritten vibe is is a little a little bizarre. It's little cartoonish, but I think it's kinda cool. I mean I I I can tell you based on feedback from a few retail friends, and I've got a few, they said that the demand for that is bananas. They said it's the strongest demand of any watch that has that Patek has done in the last five years. Well week. Yep. Uh and the the Philippe Barat, who's the the head of technical development at Paddock, said that weeks don't really matter to Americans, but weeks really matter Aaron Powell Yeah. Jack is an expert in European business. Interesting. And calendar. A man of many talents. Our editor in chief and European business editor, Jack Forrester. But uh but yeah, I mean I g I I think the big takeaway here is right, like this is this is an introduction slated to to rel relieve them a little bit of the pressure around Nautilus. Steel, it's pretty much the same price. It's a different vibe. It's round, uh, which is what they they want to be. They want to watch watch, right? A uh as a veteran as a veteran sort of market watcher and taste taste observer as well as taste maker, I mean do you really think there's going to be conversion uh for a potential Nautilus client to this? I think there might be. of that. And so when you truly cannot get an autolist and you say, Oh, like here's an a neat thing in steel for roughly the same price, I I think I think there will be some conversion. That has that has if not the same vibe, at least a a more youthful Yeah it's it's vintage. It's it it's cool. It's casual. It's on a calf strap and you can wear it with jeans, you know, the the old stuff on crop just does just doesn't work. Um and I think also we look at the aquanut. The aqua not five years ago was was a whatever watch. I mean it was like the poor man's nautilus and now you can't get a a Nautilus and so the aquanaut is hot. And so if you can't get You can't get aqua. So you know, soon enough you won't be able to get this calendar watch. Right. Yeah. Speaking of Aquanaut, yeah. I love the new Aquanaut. The khaki green's really cool. I'm really into it. I don't wear a lot of green, but I'm into it. No, it looks good in real. It looks good on the wrist. It's the thing is it's it's a larger case. It's bigger. It's forty or forty two. Forty two point two. Forty two point two with the with the kind of that curved um bracelet, it it wears large. It's kind of like a very baroness Karen Blixen watch. You know, it's like a happy valley Africa, you know, extremely wealthy but also like super, super decadent kind of. I don't get it. Okay. So producers did not, so would like not, I did not. I would like an explanation. Should we know the slide? Are we gonna make Jack to explain? No, I would like Jack to explain it. Is it out of Africa? Yeah. I haven't seen it, but I but I heard you say Africa. Car Car has homework for uh tomorrow. Baroness Karen von Blixen might have worn this watch. Okay. Okay. Cool. It looked good on James Stacey. Yeah. Um what else? Uh the lady's not al yeah, the alarm watch, which is a lot of that's the big guy this year. It's beautiful. That that when I saw the release was like, Why the fuck is this alarm watch two hundred and twenty six thousand dollars. 'Cause you can buy a memo box new for ten thousand dollars. But you know, like then you see you see what actually went into this and it click I mean yes, technically it's an alarm watch, but technically the battleship Iowa is a boat. Yeah. And that's why it's two hundred twenty six. Yeah, I would say that's I would agree. Yeah. The best sounding ones I think. I mean, again, I I'm not a huge fan of the pilot aesthetic. Uh yeah. And doing that in platinum, whatever It also has four huge crowns sticking off the gigantic. The watch kind of looks like a spider. Like it's got the lugs and the crowns, it's like it's got a lot of stuff coming off the floor. Spiders have eight legs though, don't they?? What Spiders have eight legs. Yeah, has four crowns and four lugs. Oh. Interesting. Oh, yeah. Counting there. Counting. So platinum calendar pilot watch with alarm. Two hundred and twenty some thousand dollars. Right. Uh so that's a thing now. Yeah. Yeah. That's a thing we all have to deal with. Now we know. The fifty one seventy also got a successor, right? Yep. Fifty one seventy two. Which is in the metal I much more than the I haven't seen it in the metal yet. And the pictures I wasn't, and then I saw it in real life. The dial's really beautiful, the blue's really matte, the numbers look great. They did a good job of it. Syringe hands, right? Syringe hands, pushers from the 1463. You know, and it's got that same step case of the fifty three twenty. Yeah. Uh fifty three thirty. I don't know. I mean you know some some people are saying oh the movement's not a the movement's not a good good enough match for the case anymore, but it looks fine to me. I mean it's a penny in a birdbath or something. Yeah, no. I mean look it's the the the last one w the last reference fifty one seventy was over thirty nine millimeters. It's forty one like it's it's it's fine. Yeah. It's fine. And Ladies' Nautilus. Ladies Nautilus. Kind of sweet. Yeah, it is sweet. It's thirty five point two millimeters, which is bigger than the last diamonds. Without diamonds. Solid gold, right? Solid gold. So they did a rose gold with diamonds, and then they did a steel smaller. And now they're doing thirty-five point two millimeters in plain rose gold and steel with diamonds. This has that kind of like wavy dial. It does, yeah. Which what are your thoughts on the wavy dial? Okay, so this before Let's real talk. Wavy dial. Before today, I wasn't so sure about the wavy dial. It wasn't because it's kinda like oh I just kinda wish it were looked like the yeah the regular old nautilus Nautilus. So did I I did really like seeing this one today, the rose gold. But I will say they definitely do that on pur perpose so that guys won't buy it. Interesting. You think that's the case? Although that's I think they're trying to keep it like keep it as a feminine watch because they're trying push other women's watches right now. I mean, don't you think there are gentlemen who would Yes, I think there are. I'm not saying they shouldn't. I'm just saying I think that's that's the law. It's a bit moderate. Right. And if you can't get the fifty seven eleven. That's really interesting. Thank you guys. Sometimes But yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was great. Okay. Anyways. Oh, and then we saw a full eight diamond encrusted aud twenty four automatic. Which James's camera could not be a little bit more. It was a this is core hodinky audience. This is a three hundred thousand dollar plus Yes. Sweet. Tweet tweet sweet. Well we should talk about the alarm watch for two hundred thousand dollars 'cause I think it's kind of the same thing. I mean a steel tape watch for thirty three thousand, you know. I mean uh you know at some at at some point it's you you're buying art, aren't you? Yeah. Let's go with that. Okay. Yeah, we'll go with that. Moving on. Let's go. Oh, World Time. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that's beautiful. That was real Patek. I mean if you go back to the bigger I will say I will say before we you know j jump into something else. It's like you know, I've been lucky enough to look at a bunch of uh you know enameled a lot of enameled dials over the last you know dozen or so years and you know you see varying levels of quality and it's it's easy to forget like paddock has its reputation for it does have its reputation for a reason. You know, I mean I I looked at the uh enamel dial on the swatch through a loop and it's it's like flawless. Yeah stuff like that, stuff like the minute repeaters like it's thick. They they do it really well. They do a really damn good job. As I think I've said publicly, like the Patek has competition below $150,000, Lange, Vashron in some cases, even Chopard and Mont Blanc in the Patek, I'm sorry, in the chronograph arena. But once you get into like the super complication or the grand complication, they're really they're on their own. There's nobody else that has that many different references, that many different movements. It's it's special stuff. It really is. But you just don't see it because you know it's all on application. So they're not they're not in retailers ever. Yeah, their Meteor D'art stuff is just yeah, that's so consistently so much better than everything else from anybody else. Well actually we'll link up in the notes to the show. Uh we did a story a couple years ago about all their minute repeaters. Yeah. We had them all they had them all in one place and we were able to go and record them and it was it's a pretty amazing experience these minute repeaters are amazing. They're insane. And there is a new one. It's a fifty seventy eight G with that the um black kind of black enamel dial with like an arabesque pattern. It's pretty cool Which we could not uh play with because it would not come out of its vitrine to play with us. Untouchable. Yes. All right. Tuda. Tudda. It's not a to-da. Tuda. Okay. What do you guys think? So we got we'll go over we'll go over the highlights. We got a uh two tone chrono. We got a two tone black bay chronograph. Looks sweet. Which is awesome. Looks kind of like a John Player special a little bit. It's also on a button strap. Uh it's also on a button strap. Uh we got a black bay bronze with this like beautiful slate gray dial. Super tasteful. Yep. Uh and then the big guy is the uh the dive watch, the dive watch, the PO one. It's really cool. Is it? I saw it. It's really cool. It has the bezel locking mechanism. And it's based on a prototype from I think nineteen sixty nine. So all at a little color here. So that that watch has been kind of circulating on Instagram and some books. You know, there's some kind of like, you know, grainy photos of it around for years. There's some controversy. Quite right. Yes. Everybody assumed it was a fake. Just straight up. I mean like the people that really know, like the guys that you know whose names we all know and respect, everyone's like that's that's fake. Like don't don't even give me One of them. One of them. I mean top top three for sure. Uh and so now, um, you know, they made this watch, which means Rolex feels pretty good about this being a real thing. Yeah. And uh you know they made this as a prototype to pitch the United States Navy and apparently Bulova actually won the contract. And so they made at least one or two of them basically as an internal Frankenwash. They took pieces of parts from around the factory and put it together. I mean it's it's interesting. There is there is actually a patent which is a matter of public record for the bezel locking mechanism. So um you know, it's not unreasonable to assume that an actual prototy at least one actual prototype was produced. So where is the prototype? Oh they have it. It's in one of the windows at the booth. They have it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We're we're going to go go back and take pictures. Trying to get them to take it out of the booth. We'll see if they're you? For me. We'll see. But uh oh and and uh leaving aside the the um s sort of controversial aspect, um it's it's kind of a cool watch in person, you know. I mean it's got a little bit of a little bit of a Rolex deep sea vibe to it, you know, I mean the same sort of um weird attraction that an obviously overbuilt watch that is designed to prevent accidents from happening that in real life you will never encounter uh you know can have. The thing I like most about it is Tutor's done a really good job over the last couple of years building super consumer friendly watches. Like basically anybody can buy a Black Bay, love a Black Bay. Black Bay chronograph, people love it. Pelagos, people love it. It's accessible. Black Bay Black Bay thirty six, I mean like really, really accessible. Well the Black Bay chronograph is I think a little bit of a heavy one for some people. Still like the relatively accessible consumer focused pieces. This is super weird. Like I would imagine very few people are gonna this is gonna be a niche watch. This is not something I think Tutor expects to sell a hundred thousand of, you know? I mean his he's got very granular sort sort of knowledge of this kind of thing. And you know, he uh what he said and he's gonna be on the pod later this week, but what he said was he found he actually found the fact that this is such a niche thing um you know, really, really attractive. He's not interested in the Black Bay fifty eights of the world, but you know, like something you know almost borderland bizarre. Yeah. I mean just I just can't imagine knowing the the Rolex executive team and board a little bit, not personally, but I know no of them. I just can't imagine that board meeting where they said, Yeah, like l let's green light this, let's do this, you know. But that happened. It's cool. Here we are. It kind of reminds me of the old days of Rolex, like some of the weird vintage stuff that you get from the like 50s and 60s, where you just go, who the hell thought this was a good idea to make this? You know? Absolutely. I mean there was so much weird stuff back in the day. And this, as you said, I mean this this feels like the old days. Yeah. All right. Rolex. Gotta talk Rolex. Rolex. Um what are your thoughts, Ben? I wan I wanna hear your hot take. I mean it's Sub up Rolex. It's a it's total meh here. You know, I mean it's it's things I mean to be clear, like I I fully understand why it is that way. Like Rolex can't deliver shit. You know, you can't get a steel GMT, you can't get a steel Daytona. It's it's hard finding rainbow Daytona, it's hard to find half the stuff in the catalog that that came out over the past three years. So to to add another banger on top of that that nobody else can get, it just creates more problems for the retailers. You know, they have to turn more people down. Uh this year was strategic, I'm sure. Uh Rolex is is the best. It's always strategic. It is. And so they said, hey, like let's just consolidate and like let's take some stuff that that needs some some tweaking and and do that and really you know not have a runaway hit. I mean there's really no new model releases this year. Uh really I was curious about the uh little I wasn't actually uh in our Rolex appointment. Uh I was uh you know Yeah so that would be a good one. That would be the closest thing to a new watch. So that is a yachtmaster which currently exists. But in a two millimeter larger case, now in White Gold. Uh and that's it. So it's forty two now? But that matte black bezel is Matt ceramic bezel is fucking cool. I wish that were out on other watches. But yeah, and then so I mean new movements and new kind of case details on the day dates and date just cool. Which I actually really like. Of course. So the new the new Jubilee bracelets, the N links Batman on the Jubilee. Batman on Jubilee. Batman on Jubilee. But the new the new Jubilee bracelet, the end links are different, so it doesn't look s like sort of the bracelet ends and then there's an end link that kind of joins it to the case. It looks like the bracelet just sort of flows into the case. The end link looks almost like a mix of the links. Yeah. New movement, new movement in the in in the the Batman on Jubilee. What else? I don't even know. Well there's a diamond covered day date with rainbow indices. There's that. Right. Cool. Cool, cool. Uh Dweller, two-ton seed. That's kind of the big piece this year, right? Yeah, because two tone. So Seedweller is the only tool watch that has never come with any precious metal details. Period. It's the only one. So this is this is true. This is truly the moment I think when Rolex goes luxury, when a sea dweller is done in in Precious. Yeah. You know, it's a it's a luxury product at that point. Yeah, agreed. Um, you know, I think for me, like you said, there there are some obvious sort of commercial reasons for for Rolex doing this. But also like this is what Rolex does, right? Like Rolex has basically made mostly the same family of watches for the last 50, 60 years. Yes. Right? And what they do is just every couple years they make them a little bit better. They update them. They put some new technology in them. They change the metals, whatever. Yeah. And every year they get a little bit better. And there's something nice about the fact that they don't see the need to come out with some crazy new reference, some new complications, some new whatever, just to keep people feeling like there's new. Yeah. They just make the same watches and they make them better. Yeah. If you buy a date just six months from now, it'll be better than if you bought a date just six months ago. Yeah. And and I would almost so this year, I believe, 2018 rather than last year, was the most successful year in Rolex history, I believe. And I get that with with the GMT and blah blah blah. Uh I wouldn't be surprised if now this year is the most successful year in Rolex history based on on on just the the overwhelming, you know, kind of like latent demand from last year and and the past few years. They don't need new stuff to to to have a great year, you know? They just don't they can't fill the demand they've got on any level. Yeah. Grand Seiko? Grand Seiko we can't talk about. Yeah, we can't talk about it. Oh, sure. Not until tomorrow. What else can we talk about? Oh go ahead. Random rant just random thing I saw today that put a smile in the nineteen seventies um there was a watch called the compucron uh made by vul Bulova which was a I knew this was gonna be a bulova story yeah this is so it's a sort of uh like a a driver's watch orientation um uh not not liquid crystal display, but uh like an actual LED watch. And LED watches um they didn't last for terribly long because um the L LEDs use up a lot more um uh battery power than L C D's and you have to basically have to push a button any time you want to see the time. Uh but they've they have uh reproduced that watch. It's like a it's a basically a perfect copy paste of the watch from the 1970s. And you know us a gentleman of a certain age. It's a gold plated, right? It's oh gold plated or chrome. Yeah. Um is there a two tone version? I can't remember. I know there's a gold one and a chrome one. Um but uh you know it's I mean it's just a great it's great nostalgia trip. And it's like under five hundred bucks. That's sweet. Yeah. C B. We'll put a smile on your face. Uh other than the rainbow data. I know I can't. I was thinking I was gonna say it, but I I feel like I'm being a dead horse with that one. Um no, I was seeing people haven I't seen in a while around the fair. Like who? Uh just you know, other journalists is that don't why are you quizzing me on the floor? I'm just curious on the spot. Yeah I am. It's just nice to see like all the people from the brands I haven't seen in a while and all the other journalists here. I I can't choose favorites. Ben Clymer right now., this, this, you burnt. You burnt. All right. BC. Uh thing that put the biggest smile on my face is I was coming out of the bathroom, uh, walking down the stairs, and I see Oh no, like it is, you know. Uh so I come down the stairs and I see Mike Tay, who's the proprietor of the hourglass and he's a great retailer, talking to none other than Jean Claude Beaver. Oh, somebody's here. Wow, somebody's here. And uh those are two of the best guys in the spectrum. So they're they're chit-chatting and I walk over. Who do you think that is? Oh. I don't know. James Stacey? Cole Pennington? It's on the phone. White button on the left-hand side of the phone on the wall. Black phone on the wall. Black phone on the wall on the wall. Yeah, it's check We have a real professional studio going on here. But it's the white button on the side. So I I I came I I guess I don't need to talk about the bathroom, right? You can talk about the bathroom. Australia for that matter, uh talking to Jean-Claude Beaver. Two guys I know pretty well. We go over there, we start talking about a simplicity. So to talk about a simplicity, Mike Tay has at least one. Uh I have one and Jean-Claude Beaver just bought one this week from Phillips. That's a pretty cool little club, yeahah.. Ye, exactly So we're talking about the simplicity for a little bit. And then I I noticed this little like crown sticking out of Jean Claude's uh cuff. And I expect it to be a patek, which he's done from time to time, or uh Heblo, and it's actually a six two six three Daytona. Boom. Uh so he's he comes back to to Basel no longer officially with LBMH and he just puts on a vintage Daytona and he's just like fuck it. I can do whatever I want. That guy's such a boss. He's the boss I mean he is actually the boss and uh literally and uh he was just like yeah he feels great. He's you know he's not here in an official capacity, he's just meeting with friends, hanging out, wearing a vintage Daytona. It's not bad. That's cool. Yeah. Mine is what was my best? Oh, you know what I loved? Uh saw Renee Bayer in the Sound Lounge today. Yeah, which uh if you remember we recorded uh Talking Watches with him a year ago. We we did it on the way to Basel On the not quite road to Basel. Um we should do that again, by the way. Yeah, we should. But uh Yeah, we just uh I got to see him and and have a quick uh quick catch up with him and he's you know Can I just say by the way, I don't suffer much from professional jealousy. Uh but Jack just winked at me like real hard. Um but uh boy oh boy do I wish I'd uh done that talking watches. What an unfreaking believable collection. Totally. And I'd I'd like to do that. Oh yeah. I hadn't met him and and honestly, you know, going into that that recording we were talking about production ahead of time, you know, Gray and and Dave who were here and and Will who's manning the fort back in New York, we we kinda talked about it and I didn't really have a handle on what Renee was gonna be like. And I kind of assumed like, you know, he's eighth or ninth generation in the industry, huge retailer. I I expected him honestly to be a little stuffy, a little reserved, you know, kind of kinda quiet and that it was gonna be a hard episode to really get stories out of him. Right. Uh dude, we could have talked to that guy for six hours and he would not have stopped. He's just this like fun, gregarious, super friendly, really down-to-earth guy who loves sharing. And isn't it nice to meet somebody who's a name in our world and you you find out that the reason they're a name in our world is because they actually genuinely love watches. Yeah. This guy really cares. So just getting to see him, say a quick hello. I mean we chatted for two minutes, you know, but just getting to see him and say hi was was a nice way to kind of start things. Can I add something else? Something else that made me smile. This is not Basel World related at all. Okay. Little story. So about a month ago I was meeting with Christian Selmany of Vachron saying this crazy watch, I was asking him about vintage Vasheron, which I love. Uh creative director of Vashron. Exactly. And he said, Hey, we've got this thing coming to Phillips. I think that's gonna land, but I can't tell you about it at all. I said, Okay, whatever. And uh then today I was cruising the New York Times, they do this watch supplement on the first day of boss. And Phillips has found this an insane watch. Like, really, like I've seen a lot of vintage watches, me being me, and this is like a holy shit type of thing. It is a retrograde uh calendar with minute repeater, wristwatch from the 30s, and the New York Times ran it today. It's like it's it's the craziest thing I've ever seen from Vashron anyway. And so that has been on my mind all day. And it it looks like a just a a bonker's watch. Wow. Cool. So All right. I mean it is exciting that there are always that there are things like that that still come up. Absolutely. But there's it takes a lot of unicorns though. Yeah. I mean this is a unicorn. It it takes a lot, but when you see it you're like, Oh fuck. Like that's that's a crazy thing, you know? Yeah, yeah. We can still have fun in this business. Every now and then. Or like right now. This is fun. Yeah, yeah. This is fine. Yeah, Gray's got a glass in the air over there, twirling his hair. Yeah. All right, cool. So we got some uh we got some evening events we have to go to, right? Uh and then we have to I don't know, I guess write some stories so that people have things to read and look at. Somebody does. Yeah. Not Ben. Yeah. Ben is fine. Ben's done. This is your last commitment. But uh Jack Forster say, thank God for the younger, more energetic members of the team. Shout out to Cole Pennington. First Basel back. Yeah, Cole Cole. Hey James, Cole, you guys want to come over here? Get on the pod for a second. They're passed they're passed out in the corner. Yeah, they're done. They're just drunk. Turns out they've been drinking beer the whole time we've been recording this. Hey Frankie. Uh yeah. Here we go. Oh yeah, Frank Rhoda's here. There we go. All right |
| Unknown | I actually really liked the uh the deep sea or the uh I really like the uh seedweller in two tone more than I expected. Nice. But you do like gold. I do. Solid. Imagine that in solid. I think that's what was making me smile. I was like, I'm just getting there. What's gonna happen is in like three years they're gonna release a solid |
| Unknown | gold deep sea? Yeah. Just passes out in the meeting. Hey Cole, now that you're here, can I ask you uh I I I I I would love to hear what you have to say about uh the um the the tutor |
| Unknown | . Which one is that? You know which one. Oh I know which one. Yeah. Um I guess so this might go against popular opinion, but I I absolutely loved it. I think the the context is super, super cool. Anything where you're reaching into the past and you know, looking doing something completely different, right? And and what I like about it is yeah, it's actually not designed for everyone. And that's alright. You know, that's to produce a watch that people like me are interested in. That's kind of cool. All right |
| Unknown | . Cool. Yeah. Thanks for joining us, guys. Uh and we'll be seeing both of you tomorrow for tomorrow's pod. U What is James drinking right now? That's the question. It's straight whiskey. It's always what I think. Is that can Canadian whiskey? No, it's a lockable. James is Canadian for those who don't know. FYI. Uh cool. All right. Let's wrap this thing up and uh we will see everybody back here same time tomorrow to debrief on the first full day of Basel World. Boom. We'll have a lot of brands to talk about, a lot of watches to talk about. Hopefully some more good stories. Don't drop don't drop the mics. We need the mics all week. All right. Okay, these are brand new mics, don't drop them. Cool. See you guys tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. Okay, bye. Peace out |
| Unknown | . We're recording a podcast. |