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Baselworld 2019 Round-Up, Day 3

Published on Fri, 22 Mar 2019 19:46:00 +0000

The Grey NATO crew comes in to talk bronze bezels, oddball Hublots, and putting your money where your mouth is.

Synopsis

This Hodinkee Radio bonus episode provides a comprehensive preview of the 2019 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG), the prestigious watchmaking awards often described as the Oscars of the industry. Host Stephen Pulvirent is joined by Ben Clymer, John Brozek, and Cara Barrett to discuss which watches they would vote for across various categories if they were on the jury. Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster, who is actually serving on the jury this year, could not participate for ethical reasons.

The team covers multiple categories including Men's Watches, Men's Complications, Ladies' Watches, Mechanical Exception, Chronographs, and the new categories of Iconic Watches and Dive Watches. Notable picks include the Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire (unanimous choice for Men's), the Bulgari Octofinissimo Chronograph GMT (unanimous for Chronographs), and the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Jumbo Extra-Thin (unanimous for Iconic). The discussion reveals insights into jury dynamics, with Ben Clymer drawing on his experience as a former jury member to explain how debates and lobbying occur behind the scenes.

For the Grand Prize (Aiguille d'Or), the team's preferences diverge. Stephen favors the AP Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin (RD2) but predicts the Vacheron Constantin Twin Beat Perpetual Calendar will win. Ben champions the Urwerk AMC for its innovation and meaningful impact on a smaller brand. The episode emphasizes how the GPHG, while sometimes controversial, remains the watch industry's most significant annual recognition event, capable of launching smaller brands into prominence while validating the innovations of established houses.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Alright, let's go to the big the big prize. Let's uh Big kahuna. Let's do this. The big tuna. First the big tuna. Uh that's actually what they're gonna rename the prize this year in in in at your prompting. Le Grandon. Yeah, I'm gonna uh Le Grandon. We should give that a word out. Should we come a hodinky thing? I gotta stop Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Pulverin and this is Hodinky Radio. We're dropping this bonus episode on November 6th, which is the day before the 2019 GPHG Awards, which is the Grand Prix d'Orlogerie de Genève. It's kind of like the Oscars of watchmaking. We thought it'd be fun as a preview to get Ben, John, Cara, and myself in studio to talk about the watches that we would be voting for if we were on the jury. Uh, our our own editor-in-chief Jack Forrester is actually on the jury, so we couldn't have him participate for ethical reasons. Uh, but this should give you a pretty good sense heading into tomorrow's awards ceremony of which watches and which brands to look out for. You'll be able to stream the actual award ceremony on hodinky.com and we'll have tons of coverage afterwards to kind of wrap up the show. But if you want to get your feet wet and get a little sense This is the ticket. Without further ado, your official preview of the 2019 GPHG This bonus episode is brought to you by Ferdinand and the Chronomet FB1L, an innovative watch with a celestial twist. For more, visit ferdinambertude.ch. Alright guys, it's uh bonus episode time. Woo oooh. We got the Grand Prix coming up, GPHG. Uh when people are hearing this, it'll be the week, the week of the Grand Prix, uh day or two before. Uh biggest awards in watchmaking. Are you headed over there? I will be, yeah. By the time people hear this, I will already be in Geneva for the awards. Yeah. Exciting stuff. Who are you going with? Uh I'm going with Jack, who is on the jury this year, and then uh Cole is also gonna come with us. Yeah, for the first time. It'll be Cole's first Grand Prix. I feel like Jack was destined for a jury. Uh yeah, he's basically a perfect fit, right, John? Oh yeah, definitely. Uh and Ben, you used to be on the jury, right? Ye
Unknown ah, until they kicked me off and gave uh my spot away to Jack. That's how it goes, right? Are you still bitter about that? So bitter. So fucking pissed
Unknown about that. What's uh just to give people a quick overview before we get into this year's uh awards, as as a former jury member, can you give us a brief overview of what the
Unknown the GPHG is? Yeah, I mean, so so basically it's the Oscars of watchmaking are the closest thing to it. Um, you know, basically, brands submit whatever watch they want for any number of categories. Uh all the jury members, uh, of which I used to be one, uh, get together in a room in Geneva the week before or a few days before and just debate all day uh about what is deserving of whatever. Uh and then we would all vote uh in secrecy uh and then the announce you know the announcements would be would be given at the the ceremony which is not black tie but very formal which is a really Swiss thing. Uh it's basically like the last degree of formalness before black tie. Interesting. And it's actually a huge faux pas to show up at Is it really? It really is. Uh it truly is. Doesn't the host usually wear a tuxedo? The host does, but everybody else is in a dark suit. And if you wear a tux, you look like an idiot. What if you wear a light suit? Interesting. Well, they're Swiss, I don't know if you're trying to do it. But yeah, so it's it's the most Genevan thing you could possibly imagine. Uh it's the most Swiss thing you could possibly imagine, super campy, super silly. Um, but fun. I mean, it's the again, it's the closest thing we have to the Academy Awards, and it's uh you know, it it it at times it can be really meaningful, other times it has almost no meaning. Um, but you know, it's one of those things that uh the industry takes very seriously and thus we take very seriously
Unknown . Yeah. It's I have to say I I went for the first time last year and it was strange to see all of those people from the industry in the same place. Like even at Basel World or S.I.H.H. it's still kind of like segmented. It was kind of strange to see like all these people from like competing companies, different like big luxury groups, and then also like all the little independent watchmakers all kind of like gather in a room together. Yeah, it's
Unknown gotta be the only place where everyone kind of comes under uh under one roof at the same time, huh? Yeah, probably. Probably. I can't
Unknown really think of another. There are a couple people missing though, notably. Uh Right. Right. So Rolex does not participate. Tudor has in the past. I don't know if they are this year. Uh I believe they are. They are, yeah. I believe they are. Okay. Uh Petech has not participated for as long as I've been around, which is ten years plus. Uh this is unverified, but somebody once told me that they once lost a uh a category to H Moser when H Moser came out with that really m really innovative perpetual calendar maybe ten, twelve years ago. And after that they were just like we're out, fuck it. Um which is a very protectful thing to do. I've also heard the same thing uh about another brand after they lost to I think Seiko for some really innovative something or other. They thought they had lost to Citizen, uh which is a different entirely different company. Um so it you know it's it's not without its you know drama here and there. Yeah for sure. But but but but tech and Rolex would be the two b
Unknown ig that do not participate. Right. Right. And you know you mentioned Seiko and it it is interesting being in a room full of like almost exclusively Swiss watchmaking executives and hearing a Seiko award announced. Uh you kind of feel this like tremor go through the room. It's it's kind of cool
Unknown . Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's the the the Swiss are very proud. I mean they they've got this this thing called watchmaking and they they really, really take it very seriously. Uh you know, I mean Langa obviously makes among the best watches in the world and there there's always been some tension when Langa wins an award. I don't know participating this year. Um, you know, the the Swiss, they they
Unknown they take it seriously. Yeah. So all right, in the interest of keeping this moving, we've picked a couple key categories, kind of the what we think are are the most hotly contested categories, the categories we think people are are most interested in. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna walk through them and we'll each give the watch that we think we would vote for if if we were on the jury and and kind of debate that a little bit. And then at the end for the the big prize, the Grand Daggy, the the sort of like grand prize of the whole night, um well I'll say who we who we would want to win and also who we think will win. Because I've got to say it's not doesn't always line up uh ex exactly how how personally I would I would vote. But uh let's uh let's just jump into it. So the first category we're gonna do is the the men's categories. This is a pretty open category. It's basically any watch that's marketed at men. They tend to be simpler or more like time-only style watches. The six nominees here are Alchemist's Mechanical Healing CU29, the Debatune DB28 Yellow Tones, the Grand Seiko Spring Drive Manual Winding in Platinum, the Gronfeld 1941 Principia Automatic, Laurent Ferrier's Bridge One, and the Vutalinen 28 Ti. Car, you wanna you wanna go first on this one? Ye
Unknown ah, I picked it's not particularly innovative, but I picked the Groenfeld 1941 Principit Automatic, which is their traditional manual watch, but it's now automatic. Um I love those guys. I think their watches are incredible. The movements are amazing. That would be my pick. All right.
Unknown JB. Uh, I also am going with the Grunfeld, uh, if you know for no other reason than uh with the exception of maybe the Grand Seiko. This is a watch that I could see myself wearing every day. And I think that's kind of what you're going for in the men's category, right? You're looking for like the best overall daily wear men's watch. And I think this one uh is that for me. All right
Unknown . Ben? Yeah, I'm I'm gonna stick with these guys. I think uh you know this watch is immensely wearable in particular in the steel case. It's self winding. We actually had a guy in the office wearing this watch yesterday. Oh yeah, we did, yeah. Um the Grand Seiko is probably the watch I would buy first out of all of this, out of all these rather. Um but the Gronfeld is is I think probably the highest quality men's watch uh here for sure. And as as Mr. Bugh said, like it's very wearable. The the the the hand hammered platinum henwound seiko is is just a different thing altogether. To me, that feels like it belongs in another category.
Unknown Yeah. Uh I can't believe we're starting with a unanimous vote here. But uh I'm I'm also going Grohnfeld uh for all the reasons you guys stated. It's wearable, it's beautiful. Uh I think Ben, I think you've described this before as having a movement that it looks like a longa chronograph, but it's a time-only watch. Yeah. Uh and you kind of get the the best of both worlds there. So I would say I would agree with Ben that the the Grand Saco is kind of a close close second for me here, but I agree with you. That feels like kind of a different thing. Yeah. Um all right. Speaking of fancy things, let's go to men's complication. So the six watches nominated here are the Automar P Gay Code 1159 Minute Repeater Supersonary, the Chapek Plasmandome Ombre, the David Kando DC six Solstice, the Ulise Nardan Freak X, the Vachron Constantan Overseas Turbon, and the Zenith Defy El Primero 21 Double Turbillon. Let's go the other direction here. Ben, you wanna uh you wanna kick us off here
Unknown ? Yeah. So I mean, never would I have guessed that I would be giving an award to the eleven fifty nine uh for anything this year, but I I think here here we are. You know, I mean I think this uses that RD one uh caliber, that really incredible uh minute repeating caliber. Yeah. It's in a round case. Uh this dial of all the 1159 dials, with maybe the exception of that really beautiful adventuring um QP, yeah. Per vector calendar. It's probably the nicest. Uh size is good. Sound is exceptional. Um yeah, this is probably the one. I mean, that my my second place here would be the self-winding turbulence in in the overseas, um, which is just an amazingly complex, beautiful movement that you can wear very easily because it's stainless steel, it's on a bracelet, etc. It's got this peripheral rotor. That's a really neat thing. The others are just not me. Uh a lot of the stuff we've seen over the years from from other folks. We've got some movements that that are not necessarily produced in-house. Uh the this AP is and the Vasharon too for that matter are are like really, really, you know, kind of tour de force uh showings from from both you know AP and Vachron. So I would
Unknown go Supersonary is a very close second. Why uh why the VC for you? Um well as Ben said, it's a very wearable watch. I think it's uh it's interesting to see uh a Torbion, which is not um a complication that you associate necessarily with wearability or with everyday wear put into uh a line and into a case that is like as far as Vashrones go, like the ultimate everyday we uh wear watch. A
Unknown aron Powell It is and I think you know it it's cool to see Vashron kind of competing with the Royal Oak in this space. You know, like the the the Royal the steel Royal Oak Turbion has been kind of a a benchmark of that brand for a long, long time, or at least for the last few years. You know, the the celebrities on the West Coast tend to tend to choose that watch often, and it's nice to see Vachron doing things their own way. And in my opinion, this is a much more impressive movement than than what AP puts into their turbion. Yeah. Uh self-winding, et cetera. Um so yeah, neat wat
Unknown ch. Yeah. C B. I also picked the eleven fifty-nine because I do love a minute repeater. Um, so that is why I went with that one. The other ones are just not they just don't sing to me. Pun intended
Unknown . You gotta put some sort of sound effect in there. Great, that's that's on you, men. That's really funny. Yeah, I also I actually uh also went with the VC uh Turbion. Uh I am on the record many, many, many times having said uh that I'm not a Turbion guy. Uh this just works for me. I agree with with what Ben said. The movement is incredible. The fact that it's automatic with a peripheral rotor is really special. It seems like Vachron didn't just do the thing they could have done here, which is like take whatever their their sort of like base uh tur turbion movement is and just like stick it in an overseas case they they did something really thoughtful here um and I think sort of maybe purposefully tried to to outdo what uh AP and others are are doing in this space. So I I give them a hat tip there. And it's a watch that when I put it on my wrist, I was like, oh, like I I could actually wear this thing, which I really didn't expect. My sort of caveat would be although the David Kandau watch is like not at all my speed, not at all something I would want to wear. Um, I got a chance to see his work maybe six months ago. Uh that is an exceptional piece of watchmaking. It's it's pretty wild. Um so I wouldn't be surprised if if some folks on the jury kinda went went that direction. Just kind of knowing how the the tastes of the jury tend to tend to skew. Um next up we're gonna go to ladies' watches. Um so in the basic ladies category, uh we've got the new Bulgury Serpenti Sedutori uh in pink gold with diamonds. We have the Chanel J twelve caliber 12.1. We have the Hermes Galope d'Ermes, we have the Hublot Classic Fusion Orlinsky Titanium Alternative Pave, we have the Moritz Grossman Tefnut Arabian Knights Milanese, and the Van Clefenar Pell's Perlae. So, Cara, take it away. Because I'm a lady. Yeah. I me
Unknown an, 'cause you're sitting to my right, that's why. I'm just gonna go back and forth. Um I picked the J twelve, which looks exactly like the old one, but it's not. Um they'd made a lot of different tweaks to it this year. And it is hard to reinvent a classic uh that really didn't have anything wrong with it at all. But the movements on the Chanel watches I think have become really, really beautiful and they've really focused on them working with Romain Gautier and other people in the watch industry and they really take their investment and their time pieces seriously. So I uh that's why I
Unknown 'm going with the J twelve. Alright. Jam Bews. Uh I'm going to go with the Bulgari uh the Sorpenti sedutore. Um I mean the Surpenti is just such an original design. There's nothing else that is quite like it out there. And um uh I think it's a it's a wonderful watch design
Unknown . Mr. Clamor. Yeah, I'm I'm probably gonna go with Chanel as well. Uh just because you know the Hermes and the Bulgari I think are are more beautiful and more interesting, but they're both courts. And I think you know the just knowing what I know about the jury, like they just won't they won't have any of that. You know what I mean? Uh the the Chanel is interesting because this uses that that movement uh that they basically co-designed with Tudor. Yeah. Um so yeah, I think that that's a that'
Unknown s a nice one. Yeah. Yeah, it's funny. Uh look looking at these watchers, I hadn't thought about the fact that both the Bulgarian the Hermes are quartz, but uh I'm still I, think gonna go with the Hermes here, uh the uh Golope d'Ermes, um which was designed by former uh hodinky radio guest in the Archibong. Um it's just the the sort of like even if you remove the watchmaking component for me. Uh the industrial design on this is is incredible. Uh the shape of the case, the way the crystal is curved, uh the way the dials are done, the typography is custom for the numerals. It's just like a really thoughtfully designed product that that feels like something a lot of people are are gonna wanna wear. So I think this one uh maybe maybe our most divisive yet, maybe. Yeah. Uh I would say so. Let's go back to more complicated things. Let's go to the category called mechanical exception. This is kind of the high complications, most complicated pieces uh submitted. And this is this is I think gonna be a pretty competitive category this year. Um the six watches are the Automar PG Royal Oak Self-Winding Perpetual Calendar Ultra Thin, which is the watch that many people probably know as the RD2. This is the sort of like commercialized version of the RD2. Then we have the Bulgari Octoroma Grandsonary Perpetual Calendar, we have the Genes GNS 1.2, we have the Ulise Nardan Freak Next, we have the Urwork AMC, and we have the Vachon Constantan traditional Twinbeat Perpetual calendar. Uh John, let's start with you on this one. Oh
Unknown , I'm gonna go with the uh with the Royal Oak self winding uh perpetual calendar ultra thin. It's uh I mean it's uh obviously it's a huge accomplishment as a as a complication to be able to make a perpetual calendar so thin. They they were able to achieve it by basically simplifying uh the layout of uh of uh the wheels on a perpetual calendar and they did it they did a I think a great job um with that it and it's a's a it's a watch that I would like to wear. So I'm I'm gonna pick that one. Ben
Unknown ? Uh again, I mean my my answer is different than what I would actually spend my money on. Would I buy the Royal Oak? 100%. Does that deserve to win here? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, it is an amazingly innovative watch and, you know, really kind of reframes what an ultra slim perpetual calendar can be. Uh the Vashron is a little gimmicky, but pretty neat as well. Uh but I think the airwork here is is really exceptional. And I think that's what what we're talking about in this category. They basically basically created a master slave device here with with a watch that sits into a clock and and vice versa and they reset each other. Uh it's it's pretty wild. It it really is
Unknown . Yeah. Kara? I'm going with A P uh like John. I think the perpetual calendar complication is hard enough to make, so making something even thinner and automatic is really impressive to me. Again, with the theme of recreating something that's already been kind of perfected. I think it's a really interesting quality
Unknown . Interesting. So I'm gonna kind of split the difference between you guys. Uh and I'm gonna go with the VC, I think. Um I agree with Ben. I think the the twin beat idea is a a little bit gimmicky. You know, I'm not quite sure how useful it it is in in practice. Uh but I think the concept is really fascinating. Um I like that Vacheron is is doing things like this, that they're investing in this kind of R and D uh and it it'd be nice to see them get a little bit of a a little bit of a reward for this. You know, it's it's something that I I can't really think of too many other watchmakers who would who would try something like this. This bonus episode is brought to you by Ferdinand Bertude. The modern Ferdinand Bertude brand launched in 2013 with the goal of making complex watches focused on precise chronometry, much like its namesake, an 18th-century master of the marine chronometer. The brand's first watch, the FB1, took home the prestigious top prize, the Aguid d'Or, at the 2016 Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève. Carrying through much of the FB1's DNA is the new FB1L, a watch that shows the time as well as the phase and age of the moon, inspired by scientific exploration and the spirit of the Enlightenment. The FB1L has Ferdinand Bertude's signature 44mm octagonal case design with a round, spacious dial at the center. The hours and minutes are displayed at 12 o'clock, with a large central seconds hand emphasizing the watch's focus on precision. New though are the age of the moon and the phase of the moon displays, both of which reside in the bottom half of the dial. These displays deviate just one day every 577 years, making them some of the more accurate astronomical complications on the market today. All of this is powered by the caliber FB TFCL, an in-house movement that is both technically brilliant and beautifully finished. The power barrel and constant force fusion chain mechanism are both open, so you can see them functioning, and the one-minute turbion has an impossibly delicate-looking cage that seems to float down at 6 o'clock. It's a true tour de force of modern watchmaking. Only 20 of these watches will be made in total, 10 with a combination white gold and black ceramic case, and 10 with a combination ceramized titanium and white gold case. This is a truly unique watch built for collectors who crave something special. For more on Ferdinand Bertude and the Chronomet FB1L, visit ferdinambertude.ch. Alright, let's get back to the show. Maybe the most popular category of watches for from a lot of people is is chronographs. So let's take a look at the chronograph uh category. We're all gonna pick the Bulgari, right? We're all gonna pick the Bulgery. I'm gonna read them out. We'll we'll we'll let's talk about why we're all gonna pick the Bulgarian but I looked at this and I had to say like this usually is one of the most exciting categories and this year I looked at it and was like, this isn't this isn''t even close. Its not. Yeah. No. So the six watches are the Bulgari, uh, which is the Octofinissimo Chronograph GMT automatic, the uh Showpar LUC Chrono 1 flyback, the Hublow Classic Fusion Ferrari GT three D Carbon, the Louis Monet Chronosphere, the Taghoyer Carrera Turbion Nanograph, and the Zenith Defile Primero twenty one carbon. Um somehow we have three out of the six watches are made of carbon. I don't have any idea why that is, but Carbon's trending. Carbon's obviously trending. Uh all right. Why why Ben did we all pick the Bulgari? It's just the best. It is. I mean I think it's the best doc
Unknown tofinissimo yet too. Yeah. I yeah, I would say it's up there. I mean it's a little wider than the other ones. That would be my only criticism of it. But the chronograph is so slim. It's GMT. We we all love this this line of watches. It's just it's amazing. Yeah. I like the click of the chronograph buttons. You
Unknown like the click of the chronograph buttons. Yes, I think that's the sign of a good chronograph. Yeah, I would agree. Uh one of the things I think is interesting about these chronograph buttons is that they are not angled at all. Like because of the geometry of the octo case they actually pushed directly into the side uh which when I first picked the watch up I thought might be a little weird and uncomfortable but it actually turns out it it works perfectly it's not a problem, not a problem at all. Um yeah, this watch is awesome. I think there's a lot of people, uh not even just the four of us around this office who who want one of these. Yes, it
Unknown 's a popular watch. I I reviewed it at length. I did a week on the wrist with it. Oh yeah, you did. We'll uh we'll link that up in the show notes. And I didn't I did not want to give it back. It was like the kind of watch where I was like, yeah, this totally makes sense. I should have this. So what what's the You should have this. Yeah you should you deserve it, John.
Unknown What's kind of like the TLDR on this, right? Like if if you wanted to give people like two or three sentences that encapsulate like what this watch is about and what it's like wearing it. Yeah, I was gonna ask you. Uh too sorry, too long didn't read or like don't read. Uh for the record, I knew that. I just didn't think our readers would be able to do it. Sorry, sorry about that. I had no clue. So what's your what's your two or three sentence sy
Unknown nopsis of like what this watch is about? This watch is super thin and it has the complication that I think is the most fun to use a chronograph, play around with time your lunch break, and the chronograph and and the complication that is the most useful to GMT. This is a perfect everyday watch
Unknown . I mean, can't argue with any of that. Yeah. Um let's kind of go the the other direction now. So we're gonna go to the watches that are are more budget focused. So the uh petite aggie, which is under I think it's seven thousand Swiss francs. What does that mean, the petit a small it's a small hand. Small hand. Small hand. Baby hand. Tiny hand. Tiny, tiny hand. Freakishly small hand. Unbelievably diminutive hand. So the six watches here are the David Rutin Meteorite Watches streamline, the IWC Pilots Watch Chronograph Spitfire in Bronze, the Kudoke, Kudoke II, the Maurice Lacroix Akon Mercury, the Trilobe Les Matino Sunray Grey and the Zenith Pilot Type 20 full silver. Can you say the third one again? Kudoke, Kudoke 2. Thank you. Yeah. Kudoke. Do you like that? Kudoke. It might be pronounced like that. That actually brings me a lot of joy when you say that. Honestly, have never No, it that's that's clear. If I said it wrong, come at me in the in the comments on Houdinky and please let me know. Because I genuinely have I have no idea. That's not my own joke. Okay. Moving on. That's really funny. Sweet. So
Unknown what are we what are we going with here, Carr? I like the IWC. Yeah. And I'm just gonna say it's the best looking one out of all of them, and that's why I chose it. I am that showing it. Yeah. That's so you're right. That's
Unknown it. That's totally reasonable. John. I'm also going with the IWC and uh frankly I was surprised to see IWC competing in this category. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's I think it's the best watch uh of the six, so I'm gonna go with that one. Ye
Unknown ah. Ben? Uh yeah, again, I mean if if I had to put my dollars down here it'd be for the IWC as well. Uh the Kadoki, I know as I mentioned on the site, Wes Lang is a big, big fan of these guys. Uh he's a pretty well known artist and he does the column for GQ. He likes them, so I imagine that they've got to be pretty good. Um but I will admit I don't know much about them. Um so realistically that O
Unknown BC. Yeah, I'm gonna go with the IWC too. Um, you know, we have another unanimous category here. Um I think these new Spitfire watches in general, not just the chronograph, are are awesome. They're priced really well. They have new in-house movements. They're sized nicely. They're a little smaller than the sort of mainline mark watches. So the time and date is 39 millimeters and the chronograph is 41 millimeters. And they're just they're super wearable. They're great everyyda watches and this this bronze and green combo is it's pretty good looking yeah it looks good looks good um all right now the other budget category which is the challenge category which is even is even less expensive I. believe this is under 5,000 or 4,000 Swiss francs. Um the six watches we have are, I think it's pronounced Sega design, uh single-handed mechanical wristwatch series Globe. Great, great name, guys. Uh the Doxa Sub 200, the Gorilla Watches Fastback GT Drift, the Ming 17.06 Copper, the Seiko Pressage Arita porcelain dial and the Tudor Black Bay PO one. Uh John, how about you kick this one off
Unknown ? You know the this I'm looking at all six of them right now and the Ming is really nice. Uh I'm a I'm a big fan of what Ming does. However, this this color scheme is not my favorite of what I've seen from them. I'm gonna go with the Seiko. I would imagine that probably if you one or two of you would also be going with the Seiko. I really like what uh what Seiko and the pr uh with her passage line, what they do with these uh porcelain dials or with these special dials. Um you get a real um you know, y without spending a a ton of money you can get something really handmade, something that is like really traditionally Japanese. Um and it just doesn't cost that much. So it's like a it's a an affordable watch that offers something really special. So yeah, I'm gonna go with the Pressage Arita porcelain dial.
Unknown Nice, Ben Ben.? So for this one, uh I agree with John the the Seiko is is pretty great. Uh but I'm I'm gonna go with the Tutor. Uh I I like the idea here. I like that that you know Rolex continues continues to use Tutor as kind of this like like lab uh for really kind of crazy things. And this is a crazy watch. I like the controversy that came with it. The Seiko is wonderful for sure. Prosage with the porcelain dial is a really neat and really Japanese thing. The snob in me looks at these porcelain dials and just like can't focus on how low quality they are relative to the porcelain dials that you see in other things, like on a Credor, you know. And I know we're talking 50 times the price. Uh but you know if you're gonna go for something like this, it it feels like like you just don't need the porcelain dial at this point if you're not gonna do it the right way. Uh so for that reason and many others, I'm gonna go with the tutor.
Unknown Cara? I'm also going to the with the tutor because this is the Oscars of watches after all. And usually the weirdest thing wins. So for me, that is how I came up with this one. But yeah, I like the P I like that watch. I think it's kinda cool. Yeah. It's super weird. And it just like doesn't I don't know, it doesn't like fit into everyday life, except I did talk to someone the other day who's on the wait list for one and can't wait to get it.
Unknown I talked to somebody yesterday who owns one. He got it like four or five days ago, uh before we recorded this and loves it. Like he's been wearing it around. Maybe it's the same person. Maybe. We'll talk about it often. Is it Beyonce? Yes. It is a Beyonce. Damn it. Actually was Gaga. Okay. Oh. okay Uh I almost went with the P P01 on this. Uh I'm still kind of up in the air, but I'll give my vote. I'll give my vote to Ming. Um I agree with John. The 1706 is not my favorite Ming Watch, and I know this isn't like voting on brand. It's voting on the product, but I kind of like that they're like a little upstart brand. They're doing their own thing. I do think they're pretty good value for money in most cases. And, you know, it'd be nice to see a a little guy take home take home a prize. So nobody else went with the Seiko. Okay. Yeah. I mean I'm not sure. That's okay. Everyone's entit
Unknown led to their own opinions. This is what the voting is all about. I'm also pretty sure this watch with a blue dial was in this category last year. The Ming. No, the Seiko. The Seiko. I believe you're right actually. Or something similar, if not last year, than the year before. I guess what I'm trying to say is like it's just nothing new. They've been doing this for a few years now, so it's like all right, the P P O one is like really different.. Yeah, agreed The the Sega's a great watch. We sell that watch
Unknown . Uh it's just a it's just a different thing. Yeah. Um there's some new categories this year, so I want to make sure we we touch on those. We're not gonna get to every category, but they're two new categories. Uh one of which is the iconic watch. So this has to be a take on something that a brand's been doing for a long time. I mean it's kind of self-explanatory. It's it's sort of something new that's a riff on something classicic or or icon well known. So the six watches we have are the uh AP Royal Oak Jumbo Extra Thin, the version in white gold with a salmon dial, uh, the Jura Perigo Quasar, um, the Hamilton Intramatic Automatic Chronograph, the IWC tribute to Paul Weber Edition one hundred and fifty years, the Tag Hoyer Monaco eighties, and the Zenith El Primero fiftieth Anniversary A three hundred and eighty four Revival. Ben, how about you start us off here?
Unknown I'm the Royal Oak is certainly going to win. Like there's no question about it. Yeah. The Monaco and the El Primero certainly are the Royal Oak certainly is the other ones I would say less so. You know, the the the El Primero that the Zanith chose to submit here I don't think is the strongest choice. I think you know a more A three eighty six look or even the G three eighty one look would be a little bit more appealing. Uh and on the Monaco, I think they chose the nineteen eighties dial, which is what brown? It's red. It's red. Yeah, again, it that just doesn't feel like really Monaco-y, you know? Um, whereas the 15202, even in white gold, which kind of goes against everything that the Royal Oak stood for back then, is just it's a killer. And it's and on top of that, like, you know, when you speak of like watches that are really sought after right now, like this is right up there. Like these you cannot get. They're trading double retail, which means they're that's a hundred thousand dollars for a relook. Um, you know, I think that that's probably the one that that I'd go with. Yeah.
Unknown Cara? Yeah, I gotta agree. Sorry, I feel like I'm just repeating everything that everybody else is saying, but I agree with the AP. I mean it's truly iconic in this every sense of the word in my humble opinion.
Unknown I'm gonna jump here and say me too. So John, you gonna make this unanimous? Uh yeah, I'm sorry, I do have to make it unanimous. I was hoping you come in and be like I was hoping John was gonna come and be like, you're all idiots
Unknown . Yeah. No, there's nothing wrong with the other watches. It's just hard to compete with the Royal Log. It's kind of like, okay, well, I think the
Unknown way you compete is you put an A Nautilus in there, or you compete a Samariner in there, or a seamaster, or whatever. Like then you've got real competition. But right now it's like it's not really fair. R
Unknown ight. Yeah. Exactly. Also, I think this is just a way for them to kind of squeeze in some like more neutral
Unknown designs as far as the other categories. It's interesting point though that Ben made. If if it had been another Monaco and if it had been another El Primero, it could have been a could have been a very different. And the thing is
Unknown like, you know, you know, obviously this 15202 BC came out this year, so that's why they put it in here. But like even that's kind of an odd choice. Yeah. Like it's the whole point of the Royal Oak was that it's steel. Like that's literally the whole point of that watch. Yeah. So to to to feature one in white gold is a little odd. Um but great watch
Unknown . Yeah. I mean the nice thing is in this category, like you can't really go wrong. Like they're all really great watches. Um all right, another new category. Uh we're gonna do the divers category. So the six watches are the Debatune DB twenty eight GS Grand Blue, the Longin Hyd Hydro Conquest, the Reservoir Hydrosphere Blackfin, the Resins Type 5, the Seiko Prospects LX Divers Line, and the Ulise Nardan diver great white. Kara, you wanna start? I'm gonna go with the Debatune
Unknown because that case is so cool. I did not expect that. I know. I'm coming out. She wears one on the weekends yeah, the It's just people don't know about it. You're a secret Debitune collection. Secret like major m massive collection of Debatons. No, that case is really cool. I remember go seeing it with the names and it's like a bendy and the lugs move and it's just kind of like it's like Car is for the record, like throwing her hands up in the air over the stuff a cool thing. It's just like who needs a Debatune dive watch? Nobody, but maybe I do. I don't know. Like that's kinda how I feel about that.
Unknown Yeah. That's my choice. I'm gonna go with the Resence Type Five. I I love the way it I think it's you know the best looking uh watch of the lot and uh I love the fact that it is able to look like that, be constructed the way it is and still meet all of the you know the requisite uh demands to meet the ISO sixty four twenty-five
Unknown . All right. Coming coming out of the gate with two kind of weird choices. I I
Unknown like this. I'm going with Buse here. I think abuse. Yeah, the restless is is a neat thing. Uh interesting. It's just it's just a totally different type of dive watch
Unknown . Yeah. Uh I'm gonna go super boring. I think Seiko, Seiko here. I like that prospect. I know, but it's like it's it's again we talk about like core competencies, like they're good at that. Seiko making a like tough as nails affordable spring drive dive watch is just like it's it's a good thing. Like why mess with the with the formula? The resence is way more interesting. The Debatune is way more interesting, but like Seiko's great. And a lot of people are gonna buy them and like them. So all right, let's go to the big the big prize. Let's uh big kahuna let's do this. The big tuna. First the big tuna. Uh that's actually what they're gonna rename the prize this year in in in at your prompting. Le Grandon. Yeah, I'm gonna uh Le Grandon. We should give that a word out. Should we after the Grand Prix take the watch that we think got like the shortest shaft? Like the one that that got short chains the most. The watch that should have won but didn't become Le Grande. Yeah, the Le Grandon. All right, we'll do that on the next uh next in the recap episode. I hope that's too enough. I think it is. It is, yeah. Okay. Uh you're good there. Um All right. So let's start by picking what you would vote for, like what you would want to win. Uh and then we'll go back and kind of try to like actually guess. We'll we'll put some skin in the game here and and guess what we think is gonna win. So uh John, let's let's start us off. What what are you voting for to take home the big prize
Unknown ? This is very difficult because obviously you're comparing, you know, wildly different types of watches across all the different categories. I think you're up to the task. Right? But looking over, you know, the f the full range of choices here, uh I'm gonna go with the Hermes Arceul or Delaloon. Which I think is just
Unknown interesting. Interesting. So that's competing in the calendar and astronomy category, which we didn't cover, just so uh just so people know. Mm
Unknown -hmm. Yeah, so that's that's uh that's my choice. Interesting. Okay. Sounds like probably no one else picked that one
Unknown . No, I doubt it. It's I didn't. I'm now rethinking my choice, Mr. Climber.
Unknown I'm going back to the airwork. Okay. I don't think I don't think you guys know what this thing is. Like this is a totally crazy thing where like it's got a base that uses the atomic clock and then every time you set the watch into it. Yeah. It's like brigade. Uh it's a nuts thing. Uh and and nobody's done anything like it. And again, knowing what I know about the the jury, there are several uh work diehards on on the jury. Uh I think there's a good chance that that could take it home if people start talking about it. But you're that
Unknown 's supposed to be your next pick is for what you think will win, but not what you want to think. It can be the same. Okay.
Unknown I mean what are the dynamics like on the jury? Are people trying to sway each other? Is it a little bit I mean? There's a lot of egos and there's a lot of like people just talking over each other like like you would expect, you know. Uh but yeah, there there are people that do try to like plead the case for so and so. It becomes a little tricky because like oh you find out that person X used to work for so and so or they went to school. But I mean like that that's true with anything. True with the Academy Awards, even, you know. Uh but yeah, there is definitely like some lobbying uh that goes on for that. Are there like Swiss chocolate bribes and stuff? Uh not so much that chocolate's pretty abundant over there. All right. Um but uh you know, I mean peop people take it really seriously. And like, you know, and the other thing that I like about the Urwork pick, if I can say, is that like it's meaningful to them. You know, if A P wins, who cares? You still can't get a Royal Oak. You know what I mean? Like right. Uh you know, Gronfeld when they won, that was a really meaningful thing. Laurent Ferrier was put on the map by winning this thing. Um I think a crivia won last year, right? Yep. Yeah. That was a big deal for for Rex. Um so you know, uh again, Urwork has has been around forever. They're doing great. Um they don't necessarily need the help, but they're also like they're not AP, they're not Vashron. Like it you know, an award like this is a really meaningful thing and I think well deserved in this case
Unknown . Interesting. Awesome. Okay, well I, would like the Bulgari GMT chrono to win, but I think that the AP RD2 will win. But I also don't know what the inner workings are like. I also would like to give an honorable mention to the MBNF ladies' watch this year. Oh yeah. So that's watch so let's talk about it
Unknown . That was in ladies' complications. Yeah, which we didn't cover just because we had to cut some categories to keep this at a reasonable time, otherwise we'd be here for for two hours. But uh yeah, the MB and F Legacy Machine Flying T uh in the ladies' complication category to me is a no-brainer for that category. Yeah, they would get the Grand Ton. The Grand Ton. Okay. Okay. Uh yeah, I'm gonna go with this was a tough one, but I I think maybe the RD2. And I agree with Ben that it's not meaningful for AP, but I kind of like that this is this is a super over-engineered watch. It's super complicated. There's tons of innovations in it. But it's also like really consumer friendly. There's something nice about the idea that like you can know a ton about watchmaking or you could know nothing about watch making and this watch is kind of equally appealing. Uh it kind of has something for everyone. Um it's really wearable. You know, I've I've had some issues in the past where like some of these watches that that win, especially the big the big prizes, the Grand OG and and others, where like it's you know, a forty-six millimeter watch that's four hundred thousand dollars, they make three a year, and like it's it's like almost a concept, it's like not even really a product in the like proper sense. Uh whereas I kind of like that these are limited, but it's it's like a real product. Like people will buy them and wear them. And it's it's kind of a a mix of like AP's sort of like cool kid status and also AP's fine watchmaking uh abilities. So that said, I don't think it's going to win. Uh I actually thought the I think the VC is gonna win. Um I can see that. I think the jury, like like you were saying, Ben, like, you know, people have various uh interests. And I think, you know, giving the prize to a big brand like Vashron in some ways will be appealing to a lot of people. Um and the fact that it's it's a big brand doing something that's like highly technical, highly watch nerdy.. I don't know I could guess. I could also see the Urwork winning. Honestly, I I hadn't thought nearly hard enough about the uh the Urwork coming into this. I think that's my my takeaway from this recording. Thanks for enlightening us. Sometimes you gotta talk to Ben Climber if you wanna uh if you wanna get the real decisions in life, just give me a call. All right. Honestly, I kinda do. So yeah. Uh should I buy this this shirt? Yeah. Yeah. That conversation just happened just so everyone knows um so I think I think this is it's gonna be a pretty interesting interesting year. There's some good watches, some good categories, I think some good competition. I think there's a lot of categories where like there are maybe two or three standouts and hopefully the voting will be will be tight. Agreed. Awesome. So we'll uh we're gonna circle up some of the same members of the team, some different members of the team after the awards. Uh and we're gonna kind of go over and by the time you hear that episode, you'll know whether our predictions and our preferences were right, wrong, both indifferent. I don't know. But are you guys gonna do live at you? Live podcasting from the room. So we're not gonna do any live podcasting from the room. We will have live coverage uh on Hodinky.com. So you'll be able to live stream the Grand Prix as always from Hodinky.com while it's happening. So it'll be at 6.30 p.m. Swiss time, uh which uh that's when the ceremony starts. It it may usually get off a little late, and then uh it takes about an hour and a half or two hours. Uh we'll have tons of live coverage on Instagram and Instagram stories. Uh we'll have coverage immediately after the awards of who the big winners were. And then the week after, we're gonna take some time, give it a couple days to sync in, and then do a little bit of a recap uh after everybody's had had some time to process. So that'll come uh next week. Love it. Cool. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Big big time. Thank you. Today's episode was recorded at Hodinky HQ in New York City and was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show. It really does make a difference for us. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday with a full episode.