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Baselworld 2019 Preview

Published on Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:00:00 +0000

Our editors look ahead to what's coming at the year's biggest watch fair at an interesting time in its history.

Synopsis

In this episode of Hodinkee Radio, the editorial team gathers to preview Basel World 2019, which promises to be markedly different from previous years. With the Swatch Group pulling out—eliminating brands like Omega, Breguet, and Blancpain—the show has shrunk from over 1,500 exhibitors just a few years ago to around 500. Host Stephen Pulvirent is joined by Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster, editors Cara Barrett and Cole Pennington (making his podcast debut), Ben Clymer, and John Bews to discuss what to expect.

The team reflects on highlights from Basel World 2018, including the Rolex Rainbow Daytona, the steel GMT Pepsi on Jubilee bracelet, Patek Philippe's Nautilus Perpetual Calendar, Tudor's Black Bay Fifty-Eight, and Grand Seiko's VFA releases. Looking ahead to 2019, they speculate about potential releases while admitting they have little concrete information, particularly about Rolex's plans. Discussion topics include the possibility of a Milgauss update, new steel offerings from Patek Philippe, and significant anniversaries like the 50th of the Monaco, El Primero, and moon landing. Beyond watches, the team shares their favorite Basel traditions—from a beloved kebab shop to drinks at the expensive but iconic Three Kings bar—and Cole completes the Hodinkee questionnaire, revealing his guilty pleasure of dollar dumplings in Chinatown. The episode concludes with plans for daily podcast coverage throughout the show.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown It's not too often that we can get the whole hodinky editorial team in one place at one time. But last week we were able to wrangle almost everyone into the studio to talk about what lies ahead at Basel World 2019. It's hard to believe it's that time of year again, but in just a matter of days, we'll get to see the latest releases from literally hundreds of watch brands, including the likes of Rolex, Tudor, Patekfully, Grand Seiko, Brightling, and a whole lot more. That said, this year's show is gonna be a bit different. For one, Swatch Group is out, which means no Omega, no Burgay, and no Blanc Pon. And overall, the show is down to 500 exhibitors from over 1500 just a few years ago. Most of us here at the dink usually go into Basel World with a pretty good idea of what to expect. This year though, all I know is that it's gonna be a different game altogether. We'll go over all of this in greater detail, along with the team's highlights from last year's Basel World, the watches we'd all love to see this year, and our favorite places to grab dinner and drinks after a day at the fair. Plus, we're gonna welcome a new hodinky editor to the show, but I'll let him introduce himself. Let's get this thing going. I'm your host, Stephen Pulverant, and this is Hodinky Radio. Guys, it's it's almost boss world time, right
Unknown ? Yes. So
Unknown we've got I guess most of the crew that's going this year around the table here. We're missing James Stacy, our resident Canadian.
Unknown Who? Who? He's actually
Unknown on a flight right now back to Canada. Uh and then we're missing Dave from our video team. But otherwise we got we got the whole crew here plus John Buse, who's actually not going to Basel this year, right?
Unknown Yeah, I'm gonna stay back in New York and do some real work.
Unknown Oh, okay. What is that real work
Unknown ?
Unknown Yeah. Soonish. And not see our faces
Unknown . We got a debut. We got a deb
Unknown ut, yeah. We got uh Cole. You want to uh introduce yourself here
Unknown ? Hi, I'm Cole Pennington. It's my first uh first appearance on well first yeah, first appearance on the podcast. Gre
Unknown at, can you put some like crazy sound effect in there
Unknown ?
Unknown Happy to be here. And uh yeah, it'll be my first Basel World as well. Oh man, I forgot about that. Can'
Unknown t believe we didn't air horn for that. We will in post.
Unknown We will, don't worry about it. Yeah. Yeah, very
Unknown excited to be rolling with this crew here.
Unknown Well we're happy to have you. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And to Cole's right, we have the ever
Unknown what, ever charming, everything, the
Unknown myth, the legends hi
Unknown everybody, Jack Forster, editor in chief
Unknown . And then on my right
Unknown . Cara here, ed
Unknown itor at Hodinky. I'm back. I'm going to Basel this year again. I guess this is my fourth Basel or third Basel. Noah's my third. Third. Noah's my fourth. They all blur together. They all blur together. Yeah. Such great memories. Is it the memory? Is this what? Are the memories of Basel World itself or the other stuff that goes on around Basel World? Uh both. Okay. Both. Both. All right. And then to your right.
Unknown Uh this is Ben Climber, reporting live from upstairs at the office in New York City. Yeah, yeah. You know, this will be my ninth or tenth puzzle. I don't know just one of those two. Um yeah, super psyched.
Unknown Yeah. So we leave while we're recording this on Thursday afternoon in New York. Uh Jack is going to Davos for not the World Economic Forum, which
Unknown really I thought that it was the World Economic Forum. I thought that
Unknown Davos like appeared out of nowhere for the World Economic Forum and then like disappeared back underground for
Unknown I think there are a lot of people who w wish that's actually how it worked. I can't
Unknown imagine a better place for Jack than Davos
Unknown . No. I would agree. Especially during not the World Economic Forum.
Unknown no it's uh well it's it's it's uh um not touching that one
Unknown . Actually um uh Mr. Joe Thompson who's also not with us uh but will
Unknown be in Basel with us. Um and I are going over because that is where the Movado Group does its uh annual presentation. Um instead of they were at Basel World obviously for many, many years. Um but for the I think the last I'm gonna say three years now? Or two years? Yeah,
Unknown two, I think. Um they've done uh they they'
Unknown ve uh just done um uh a separate event at Davos. Uh never been. You know. And like most people, um, you know, I think of it as a place where uh the masters of the universe meet to uh control the uh destinies of us um proles. Um but um I'm going for a watch fair.
Unknown You're going for a watch fair, but you'll be joined by somebody who's practically royalty, right
Unknown ? Um yes. Um uh yeah Malcolm is apparently a keynote speaker.
Unknown What are you gonna say to her when you meet her for the first time?
Unknown Um I'm go if I have an opportunity to say anything, um I'll try to say something short and to the point, uh like um you know how much I admire her work in human rights advocacy and um what's George like
Unknown ?
Unknown I'm pretty sure that if she's got a list of things she absolutely doesn't need to hear about, I bet that's close to the top. Right at the top. Actually I'm I'm curious to see what you'll have to say. I mean, uh, you know, Amal Clooney at a I mean the Movado group to be fair is a huge, huge force in our world and uh um you know um I but I'm just cu I I don't see an obvious connection right off the bat, so I'm curious to see what she'll what she'll say. Curious to see the keynote
Unknown . They're publicly traded, they're American based. Yep. Uh really great history there. Uh and it's a brand that we don't really talk about much and most people in in the high end world don't really discuss, but it it's powerhouse, it really is.
Unknown Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Another day for that.
Unknown So Jack's going to Davos for Movado and to hang out with Amal Clooney. Uh the rest of us leave Monday night. Uh I think we're all flying over there together this year. We all on the same flights over? Yeah
Unknown . Yeah. All right. It's g
Unknown onna be a party. But uh yeah, so we fly Monday night. We'll be on the ground in Switzerland Tuesday. And then really things pick up on Wednesday. Wednesday's the press day. So normal people, you you normal people and retailers can't get into the show, but we can get into the show. Uh and we'll have that's when the first big embargoes start breaking and things really start heating up. That's when you know the Rolex Tutor and Patek Philippe News all drops, and then other brands start hosting kind of big, big press conferences.
Unknown Yeah. No, I mean it's uh Basel is is always a really exciting time for for me personally, as as a true lover of watches. You know, the SIHH is is wonderful, but it's so high end. I mean there's there's really nobody there besides the Bauman Mercier that that's really under ten thousand dollars. Maybe the occasional Jaeger here and there and Cartier. Uh but I mean Basel is the blue chip big name stuff. I mean it's it's Rolex, it's Tudor, it's Pitech Philippe. I mean those those three brands alone, you know, make would make the flight worthwhile. Uh so
Unknown the LVMH group of course still be there in full force.
Unknown Yeah. Tag Hoyer, uh Zenith, Zenith
Unknown . Showbard which doesn't get a ton of play
Unknown um perhaps relative to the others in the U.S., but they're a benchmark ten
Unknown ant. Uh it's still over five hundred brands showing at Basel. To give you an idea, I think SIHH has what, thirty two brands and that includes all those little little independent guys. Uh so I mean just the scale of it is just enormous compared to to the SIHH. S
Unknown ure. Although it's interesting. Joe uh Thompson publ we published an article by Joe Thompson uh today uh which looks at some of the statistics for the show. In two thousand sixteen, I think there were around fifteen hundred
Unknown Yeah. Um fifteen hundred exhibit
Unknown ors and it and it's now it's uh And in the early two
Unknown thousands there were over two thousand. Yeah. Yeah
Unknown . And uh now it's down to five hundred so it feels I mean within very recent memory it feels like a very different show
Unknown . Yeah. I mean, I remember last year, I mean going back even a couple of years, right, when when the economic downturn kind of hit you people talked about, oh, is the energy of the show different? Are there more people, fewer people? You know, what's what's the deal? Last year was the first year where it felt like the actual like architecture of the place was different, like there was one less floor, they'd removed the palace. It was it was a different place. I mean, did you guys feel that way too?
Unknown Palace was the the palace, by way, for for uh those listening who don't know what that was, it was a separate uh pavilion for independent watchmakers. Yeah,
Unknown yeah, thank you.
Unknown Or the more people less like it was kind of totally subjective, what what you kinda happened to happen to see. Steven's totally right. Last year things things felt markedly different. This year things will feel otherworldly different. I mean it's just gonna be a totally different place with without Swatch Group there, that's eighteen brands and eighteen relatively large brands.
Unknown And not just any brands. Right. I mean we're talking Omega. And
Unknown like you know, when you walk into the Basel World Hall One, the first thing you see, if you look straight down the alley, is Omega. And now they're gone. Uh so I mean it it's pretty wild to to to conceive Basel World w without Omega and Swatch Group in general, but that's what we're gonna have
Unknown . Because it's gonna be so much different than it's been in the past. Yeah. I can tell you having just earlier today like finalized all of our schedules and made sure that, you know, all the calendar invites had the booth numbers on them. It's a completely different place. I mean, I've this is I think my sixth or seventhh sixt year. And I sort of have that like muscle memory. Like I just know where all the booths are. That is not the case anymore. I'm gonna actually have to look at a map this year. I mean, you know, Rolex is in the same place, paddock's in the same place, uh, tag in Zenith are both still right by the front door. But uh once you get beyond that it's a it's a different show.
Unknown We should do a graph of our steps last year and the year before that and compare them to this year.
Unknown Like from our our health day, like from our phones. Yeah. Interesting
Unknown .
Unknown It was like six miles in one day. We should get some of that sweet, sweet health tracker money somebody if you wanna if you wanna sponsor us, hit us hit, us up.
Unknown Jack, are you going to wear both your Apple Watch and another wat
Unknown ch to do that? You know, I'm considering it. Um yeah, why not
Unknown ? So before we get too much into this year's Basel, let's talk a little bit about last year's Basel, which which Ben and I have kind of touched on. What were some of the highlights from last year? Since we're now we're gonna be entering a new product cycle, what were what are some of the highlights you don't want to kind of let go from from last year? Rainbow
Unknown . Really
Unknown interesting. I was gonna try not to say it
Unknown out loud, but you just gotta get it out of your system.
Unknown Okay, well maybe this year they'll have a second ra
Unknown inbow. I mean a double rainbow. A dou
Unknown ble rainbow. Split second. Now wa
Unknown it, if they actually do introduce a double rainbow Daytona, you you heard it here first from John Beavis
Unknown . John is the leak. Gosh, I mean if it
Unknown if it actually ended up being the case, I mean
Unknown , we just would not see John ever again. R
Unknown olex would come down. John just disappears. Man. Can you see a
Unknown a green green van pulled up front and John
Unknown just gets pulled inside?
Unknown That would be freaking hilarious. A double. Oh my god
Unknown . What else from Rolex? Steel GMT on Pepsi, right?
Unknown Yeah. And then the and then the root beer, of course there were
Unknown two. There were three.
Unknown Yes. Yep. Which is harder to get now
Unknown than the ceramic Daytona was
Unknown supposedly. Yeah, I I would say the the Pep
Unknown si GMT on Jubilee is the hardest swatch to get in the world, I would say
Unknown . Yeah. I mean some friends of the show um uh had I I think a couple uh or maybe three at uh the last get together we had in New York. So, you know, they're out there. They're just out there in small, small numbers.
Unknown Yeah. One of the watches that came out that I I think kinda got lost this year was um Patek had the the fifty seven forty, the Nautilus Perpetual Calendar.
Unknown Yeah, it it it got lost because it delivered like two. R Right, right, exactly. You just like you know
Unknown , people think the GMT is rare. It's like I think I've seen one of the perpetual calendars and not even in the metal. I saw like somebody I know posted it on Instagram and that's it
Unknown . I've seen one in the medal that belongs to Sherry, Ramen, or Ram Aanhmed who we've done talking watches with I believe he got the first one in the UK at Wempey over there. Uh yeah I mean I as far as I know one has been delivered to New York, maybe one to two. I mean really next to nothing.
Unknown Yeah. Terry Stern wears one too. Jerry
Unknown Stern does wear one. He but it's kind of a boss guy. Yeah. He does own the company. Uh so yeah, fifty seven forty, I mean that that is a super hot watch at like kind of the the next, you know, at the hundred and twenty thousand dollar price range. Which is like, you know, not not the real world. Um what else? You were freaking out about that
Unknown . Oh yeah.
Unknown That was the uh the chronograph with the orange uh
Unknown yeah the the aquanaut in in orange. That's another really hard watch to get. And then
Unknown the fifty two seventy P with salmon, which you were freaking out of the yeah I love that watch.
Unknown I really do. Uh that that is that is like real Patek Philippe. So that was an exciting one last year, which was literally just a dial color and and some you know blackened markers, but sweet thing for sure. Yeah
Unknown . Tutor at a really strong year
Unknown . Another GMT? Black Bay fifty eight and the GMT. Black fifty eight was so good. Yeah. Have those come out yet? Yeah. Yeah, there are
Unknown but also pretty hard to get. They are. They are. I I
Unknown I own a Black Bay fifty eight and it's uh it's an amazing watch. What's funny is I actually through through some happenstance I got the Black Bay fifty eight and the no date sub within like a few weeks of each other by coincidence. And I actually think that the Black Bay fifty eight is I wouldn't say it's a better watch, but it's easier to wear. It's nicer to wear than the than the no date sub.
Unknown Yeah So that was the uh very James Bond looking device. Um you remember that, Ben? It was uh aluminum case with an atomic clock in it.
Unknown It's a watch. Yeah. Yeah. It was like two and a half million dollars. It was still two and
Unknown a half million dollars. I think it's still two and a half million dollars. Yeah, I
Unknown don't know if
Unknown I mean we could ask. Yeah, yeah. Two instead of two point one
Unknown . Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, with a mechanical watch
Unknown that fits in a cradle on top and the atomic clock mechanically uh synchronizes and regulates the um the watch, which is pretty amazing.
Unknown Nobody's brought up the Grand Secos yet, have they
Unknown ? The VFA stuff. Yeah, the VFA st
Unknown uff. Uh which again, like in the same way that the fifty two seventy P is like real Patek Philippe. Uh I thought the VFA stuff was like real like nerdy hardcore Grand Seiko stuff that uh I really enjoyed that.
Unknown Oh you know what Brigade came out with a uh sort of a um revision of the uh the Marine.
Unknown You're right. Remember that? Oh yeah, John, you reviewed it, right? Yeah
Unknown , I did a week on the wrist with which one was it? I think
Unknown it was the Chrono.
Unknown What did Omega do last year? They did the Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8, which Shame re'vieswed for us recently. That's a neat thing
Unknown . There's those anniversary Seamasters, the nineteen forty nineteen forty eight. Those are beautiful
Unknown . Yeah, those are really
Unknown really beautiful. Oh by the way, Cole, speaking of uh
Unknown you and I were talking about this a little earlier,. um Um Seiko did a uh pretty sweet reissue of Vintage Diver
Unknown . Yeah, so I last year was on the other end, I was reading the content that these guys were producing, and one of the things that I was most excited for was that nineteen sixty-eight re-edition. I think it's it's dubbed the SLA O two five, but it's the uh it's kind of the OG of the Seiko Divers,
Unknown and and I was particularly
Unknown excited for that. And then not so excited when I found out the price and the scarcity, of course. But it's great, great to to see it.
Unknown I mean, what do you think of that? Uh the the whole that that that was a second year SECO did that, uh, the whole strategy of taking what was an affordable tool watch and coming out with basically a premium version of it
Unknown ? So it's a touchy subject for a lot of people, I'm sure. However, I think the strength of these watches in their heyday was that they were cheap. You could toss 'em around, people bought 'em. They fought wars. They were worn underwater around the world. Do you really want to do that with a five thousand dollar re edition that's limited? I don't know. I think as an exercise in watchmaking, yeah, very interesting. But I wouldn't put it through the paces and take it to do it it's intended to do.
Unknown So let me challenge you on that a little bit, respectfully always. So how how much were those watches when new in the sixties, say, sixties or seventies
Unknown ? Under most of the time under one hundred dollars. Right. All the time under five hundred.
Unknown Right. Sometimes three hundred. So a submariner, right, which we all agree is is worth six to seven thousand dollars. That was also, I mean r,etail was probably $165
Unknown . So if you kind of look at the ascension
Unknown of both pricing of both prices, they're actually pretty in line with with where they were back then, you know
Unknown ? And I guess and I would challenge you. Would you take double challenge
Unknown ? Is this a podcast first? Dou
Unknown ble challenge? I see the green van is gonna be coming for several.
Unknown Oh man. It's just me and Jack left
Unknown . Would would you take uh any of the Rolex the modern Rolexes in your collection and really knock them around? Y
Unknown es. Alright. Well then
Unknown He's not lying too. I've seen him do it.
Unknown I mean I go I I've got a I've got a Daytona that I jump in the lake with. I mean I go like if if I go hiking, which I do occasionally like I wear a submariner or or a GMT. So I would. But I mean like that that's the beauty of Rolex. And I think also similarly, like Seiko is or Grand Seiko is kinda like Rolex. Like you get this really high quality thing that really can take a beating. I just think it's like a mental thing, mental block where people are like, oh, I spent five grand on this, I shouldn't knock it around. But you definitely can.
Unknown Yeah, I think part of the reason that disparity exists in people's minds, and I I agree with
Unknown that
Unknown Comparison between the prices that are paid for vintage submariners versus vintage vintage 6105s, for instance.
Unknown And after you saying that, the prices are going to shoot up
Unknown . What else happened last year? Brightling did this crazy Nava Timer Super 8. Ye
Unknown ah. Yep. Those were the first Brightlings with uh George Kern's fingerprints on them, right?
Unknown Yeah. I I think I think they were George Kern fingerprints. I don't think they were like solely his you know they had just joined I think last year, right? It was his first boss. Ye
Unknown ah, I think so too. Longine had some good stuff
Unknown . They had a thirty six millimeter watch that was
Unknown dedicated to it was actually a woman's watch, but I think anyone could easily wear it because they came out with a blacked out version. The
Unknown y had the the longing military watch too.
Unknown Oh yeah that was beautiful watch
Unknown with the the kind of like speckling on the dial. Yeah.
Unknown Those just started delivering too, right?
Unknown Mm-hmm. I think I've seen them popping
Unknown up. Soon to be available in the H
Unknown odinki shop. Oh boom, there we go. But that's actually true for the record if anybody wants one. Yeah. We got 'em.
Unknown Uh one watch that hasn't been brought up that I'm kind of surprised was the Bulgari Octofinissimo Turbion Automatic.
Unknown Oh yes, the triple threat. Uh the what? The
Unknown triple threat. The triple threat.
Unknown Broke three records. So we've got we've got dou
Unknown ble challenge. I
Unknown did the video on it, but I forgot what they were. There's the thinnest uh turbion in the world. Yeah, third
Unknown thinnest turbion, thinness. Thinnest automatic turbine.
Unknown Automatic turbion, thinnest turb
Unknown ion repeater, or automatic repeater or somet
Unknown hing like that.
Unknown It wasn't repeater. It's a different watch.
Unknown JK. Do you think Bulgary might come out with the another rec
Unknown ord record breaking thin watch again in 2019? I mean, you know, it's anybody's guess what they're up to? I mean they s they they certainly could, although I feel like at beyond a certain point chasing records is a little bit of a via negativa. You know, like um and one of the things that I actually like about Bulgaries' efforts in ultra thin watchmaking is number one, they always the the watches that they produce are like, you know, they're watches that you can buy. You know, they're for sale. Um, they're fully homologated as daily wear watches. Um and they're aesthetically interesting. Now, I mean, I know everybody was not a fan, not everybody was a fan of
Unknown I agree. Okay, so I we now know the three things. It's the world's thinnest turbion, the world's thinnest automatic watch, and thinnest automatic
Unknown There we go. Okay. Wait a minute. It's the thinnest
Unknown automatic watch? That's what they're
Unknown saying. Jack? As of as of twenty eighteen. As
Unknown of two thousand. Those record
Unknown s are broken daily. I mean honestly that sounds somet
Unknown hing from PAJ probably, right? Yeah. Well they that was
Unknown um Maybe that wasn't on was that automatic, the pa the paper thin one? No, no, no. That watch is not.
Unknown P A J does a little micro. Well they're neck, they'
Unknown ll check that out. Stay tuned. We'll revisit on the first episode of the Basel World Podcast. First time
Unknown I get to do this today. We'll link it up in the
Unknown show notes. There's another wat
Unknown ch that we've yet to discuss here, and I'm going to ask Stephen to give us uh his thoughts, and that's the Gnomos Autobahn
Unknown . Oh yes. The Gnomos Autobahn. Ooh. Wow. Not my favorite gnomos. I say as a proud gnomos owner and uh frequent wearer. Yeah, I mean the Audubon not not my favorite gnomos, but uh I honestly like that gnomos is really, really pushing on this minimatic uh and neomatic platform, um, you know, their their own in-house ultra-thin automatic movement, in-house escapement. And they're they're building on it and they're seeing what they can do with it and how far they can push that. Um and I'm curious to see what they come out with this year. I mean, one of the things with Gnomos is generally you get variations on a theme. You're not getting something that's like, you know, totally out of left field and gonna, you know, blow your mind. But what you get is a steady improvement or a cool new variation on something that feels sorta familiar, which which I like generally
Unknown . What else came out last year? Guys,
Unknown hey guys, how about how about Jack
Unknown what's up? How about Citizen
Unknown very quietly coming out with the most accurate watch movement ever made by anyone, period. End of story. How about that? D
Unknown id that happen? For their hundredth anniversary.
Unknown He could drive uh movement in a pocket watch uh case, in a transparent pocket watch case, accurate to one second per year. Guaranteed.
Unknown Did we write about that? I did. On our website or indeed
Unknown . On his own personal blog.
Unknown Jack Forrester talks about watching
Unknown I did in fact write about it on Hodinky, which apparently some of my colleagues don't read. But yeah, I thought that was I thought that was quite interesting and um I th bel I believe there's a reasonable expectation of seeing it in a wristwatch that you can buy this year. I don't know
Unknown .
Unknown Yeah. I'd be into it. Uh
Unknown so speaking of what's coming, let's let's transition to this year's show. Uh and I wanna preface this by saying we do have a handful of things that we already know about that we have signed away our lives to not talk about like not a
Unknown lot, right? Not a lot, honestly, way, way less
Unknown than in in previous years. Um so if we don't talk about it here, it's cause we probably know something that we are illegally not allowed to say. Uh if we do talk about it here, we genuinely have no idea. So uh speaking of things we have no idea about Rolex.
Unknown No idea. No idea. I get I get ideas. Any idea. I would say like the month leading up to Basel when I run into people at events or on the street or whatever, I get asked every day about what what Rolex it's gonna do. Uh I truly have no idea. And frankly I don't think even I was with some some people from Rolex USA not so long ago, like two weeks ago. And I was like, hey, what's going on? And they're like, we don't know. You know, so I mean even Rolex USA, very high ranking people at Rolex USA don't know what
Unknown Which is par for the course with Rolex.
Unknown Last year that that GMT had been teased out. People were that was people
Unknown kind of expected that, I thought. Yeah, it it's funny. I
Unknown 'm like the there's only like so many things that like could conceivably come out from Rolex. You know, I think like a a steel Pepsi is was super high on the list. Uh we were just chatting about this at lunch, you know. I there's like any number like what's this year gonna be? It's gonna be a new Samaritan or new milk, like we have no
Unknown Well they've been the milgauss has been all over their Instagram, which is why everyone thinks the milgauss might be something that they're doing.
Unknown And and I think that I think that's possible, but like, you know, from my perspective, like the milk house is like barely a commercial watch. You know what I mean? It's it's like the deep sea. It's like kinda off the side of their desk. You know, the milk house is a neat thing, don't get me wrong, but like there's just you know it's is it a is it like a competitor to a a date just, day day? You know, what is it? I I mean I know what it is, obviously. What would it take?
Unknown You heard it here first. Ben Klymer does not know what a mill gouse is. U
Unknown h Ben Klymer is Ben Clymer's asking questions like what
Unknown What would it take for the Milgauss to be interesting for you though? I guess that's that's the big question. Like what could Rolex release under the name Milgauss that would make you feel
Unknown thing that makes it interesting, the fact that it is this sort of quirky off off you know off the desk thing
Unknown I love that ziggy hand yeah
Unknown ziggy hand yeah is that what it's called we
Unknown could do the Bill Gauss the billion Ga
Unknown uss Wow
Unknown the the looks on faces are
Unknown Well and I think something that that could make it really compelling uh is that the Milgaus with the Explorer are uh the two sports watches that do not have rotating or at least sh you know now ceramic bezels. Uh and the explorer obviously never had had that. There was a version, although seldom seen, of the Mill Gas that had a black bezel. I think it was six five four two.
Unknown Right? Six five four two. Six five. Uh yeah, six five uh yes. Whatever
Unknown . We'll we'll we're gonna add that in when Stephen pulls it up. It's si
Unknown xty five forty one. Okay. So the version of the six
Unknown the version of the Milgaus reference six five four one had a black bezel. Uh and then there was another version of it that had a really beautiful polished steel bezel. And those are really collectible, like multi-hundred thousand dollar watches, uh dating to the fifties, I believe. Um and so th there is precedent to see milk us with a black bezel, and I think that would make it just by by nature of what people want today, that would make it a lot sexier commercially
Unknown . Yeah. Yeah. So will that
Unknown happen? Who the fuck knows? Mill gas with the black
Unknown ceramic bezel? Oof. And the double rainbow. According to the
Unknown bigger tinted green crystal.
Unknown Do you remember that? I mean, like when the tinted green crystal came out, that that was like the hot thing.
Unknown That watch was hot for a long time. I mean you you couldn'
Unknown t that was like the steel day tenant like you could not get that watch for a little while.
Unknown Yeah, I love that watch. Yeah.
Unknown Jack, do you like that watch? I love that watch. Do you
Unknown love it more than a day date? Um
Unknown I mean love is such a hard thing to measure, isn't it, Carl?
Unknown Yes. So I mean clearly we have no idea what Rolex is gonna do, but what would you want to see from Rolex?
Unknown Rainbow tinted crystal on the mill, anybody
Unknown ? Ohny Bews, what
Unknown what do you want to see from Rolex? Oh gosh
Unknown . I mean I I don't know. Um
Unknown If you could design a Rolex today, what would
Unknown it be? Maybe a
Unknown ceramic bezel on a milgauss
Unknown . Okay. Jackie
Unknown ? Uh I'd like a slightly smaller mill gouse with a white dial
Unknown . I'm going to go with Jack here. I would like a slightly smaller mill gas. Slightly small smaller mill gouse or a slightly smaller explorer?
Unknown 36 millimeters? Bring it back down to 36. Imagine the score
Unknown back oof yes. U
Unknown h that'd be nice. Yeah. C B
Unknown . I would like a thirty-six millim
Unknown eter steel day date. Wh
Unknown ich they'll never make. Correct. Because it should be in precious metal, but I'm just saying if they made one for me, I wouldn't say no
Unknown . You guys hear that over there in Geneva? Yeah. Hey Geneva. Um from my side, I I this could easily happen and but I truly don't know if it will. That would be the next generation of gold Daytonas, which would be on a bracelet but with a ceramic bezel. So right now you can buy a gold Daytona but they only come on the Oyster Flex. Yeah. Just because. So imagine that on a on just a solid gold bracelet. Like I would I would buy that hard.
Unknown You give them money twice. I only want one watch,
Unknown but but I think that's like a like that's going to happen at some point. We just don't know when. Yeah. What else? Okay.
Unknown So let's go across the aisle from Rolex. Uh not to Tutor, but the other direction. We'll go to paddock. You know, we all know that Nautilus is unbelievably popular. Every time somebody asks whether it's it's Jack or whether it's Joe or somebody at another publication asks Terry Stern, you know, are you gonna make more Nautilus or are you ramping up steel production? He says no. He he doesn't want to kind of like leverage the brand too hard in that direction. Uh what do we think we see from Paddock this year
Unknown ? I have the slightest idea.
Unknown I could I I could I could guess based on what makes sense and that is like they need something else to sell to young people. You know, so maybe something else in steel. Yeah. You know, something that is priced around the same as a Nautilus, if not a little bit below. You know, Aquanaut and Nautilus are just you can't get them. They just don't exist on them on the market really. So something that is a little bit more in line with what with what Patek Philippe is known for, which is kind of like round dressy watches in steel titanium, something like that. I I wouldn't be shocked if we saw something like that. Just because I I know that, you know, the the Calatrava market is not what it used to be. That was their defining watch for for generations. You know, that's what everybody bought as their first paddock. Now it's Nautilus. So I think, you know, I think they would love to get people back into into round watches, but who knows.
Unknown I saw somebody say again. Steel Calatrava
Unknown ? But that would be nice. Yeah. I mean I saw someb
Unknown ody recently uh out in San Francisco who was wearing the fifty five twenty two A, the pilot calatrava, the steel one from the New York exhibition. Uh and he, you know, takes it surfing, gets the strap wet all the time. And the watch was totally beat to shit and looked amazing. It's honestly the coolest I've ever seen that watch look. Uh if they did something kind of in that, in that vein, you know, a forty, forty-one millimeter, kind of more casual round watch, uh, I think that could be a huge, huge success.
Unknown Yeah, I I think like the the lore around the steel paddock is not what it used to be. I mean it used to be like like it was they just didn't. Then they did the fifty fifty five twenty two and there's a lot more Nautilus and Aquana now in steel. So I wouldn't be surprised if we saw them do some other things in steel, just because why not? I mean people don't people don't really care about precious metals anymore with the exception of maybe the person to my left. Um but um you know I I think I I wouldn't be shocked at all if we saw something in steel a little bit more approachable. Which is still gonna be a you know twenty five thousand dollar watch minimum guarantee. You know
Unknown , yeah, I mean the fifty five twenty-two was in the fifties, I think. I remember
Unknown fifty five twenty two the the time only or the
Unknown time only. No, that was twenty two thousand. Twenty two, okay.
Unknown That was the uh anniversary watch, right? The grand exhibition watch, yeah. Sorry the the travel time is in the fifties or fifty.
Unknown What about more general trends this year? I mean, other than the I mean the obvious there's the obvious fact that the show is shrinking and that uh you know all of the brands have to find a way to bring in uh a younger audience, try to find a way to stay relevant to the audience they have, deal with the fact that the conversation about, you know, luxury watchmaking is increasingly online and not in um the traditional media channels that they became habituated to in the previous fifty, sixty years
Unknown ? Well at SIHH
Unknown from from back here I noticed that there were an it there was an increase in ladies'
Unknown watches. Yeah. Which I think will probably continue or like non gendered watches that kind of go both ways.
Unknown Right. Right. Um so I think we'll probably see
Unknown more of that. Probably more price accessible pieces, hopefully. Um but you get that naturally with Bas
Unknown el just because of the the brands
Unknown shown. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And be and because of the
Unknown fact that in general the Basel world doesn't exist in the same ex uh atmosphere of exclusive luxury that you get at the SIHH
Unknown ? Yeah. No, I was gonna say
Unknown we also obviously um we all remember we sa
Unknown w a ton of really good commercial product
Unknown um at SIHH and that
Unknown Yeah, I would I would agree. Um
Unknown we've also got some interesting anniversaries this year that I think could produce some cool stuff. Um I mean the big one we're we're gonna gonna miss is without Omega at the show we're gonna miss the 50th anniversary of of the moon landing and of the moon watch but we still have quite a few things we have you know Tag Warrior has the 50th anniversary of the Monaco. Zenith has the 50th anniversary of the El Primero. Um we're also going to get uh it's the 50th anniversary of all the chronomatic watches, so that also includes uh the chronomatics from Brightling. Yep
Unknown . Yeah. Hamilton. Hamilton who
Unknown won't be who won't be at the show. But yeah, they'll have one as well.
Unknown Lest we forget it's also uh it's the same anniversary for uh the Seiko sixty one thirty nine.
Unknown Yeah, true.
Unknown True. So
Unknown I think you know, we'll probably see anniversary models for all of those. It's an e
Unknown asy assumption. Yeah. Yeah
Unknown . We we've already seen some ann
Unknown iversary stuff for the Alpami, right? They did that box set.
Unknown True. Uh so I wouldn't be surprised. That was a fifty
Unknown thousand dollar crazy thing at SIHH uh or in Geneva. Um so this I would imagine would be more commercial stuff. So El Primero and chronomatic, you know, Hoyery stuff would would definitely be hot on on high the list rather for this year.
Unknown Yeah, yeah. What else? I don't know. It's interesting. The um the I mean the whole atmosphere um ha it you know at Basel World this year, it kind of like feels like it's gonna have a little bit of a whiff of survival mode about it, but both because the show is down two thirds in attendance in in in exhibitors not in attendance, um over the last three years and and just because y you know, as far as the larger global market for for watchmaking in general is concerned, I mean, you know, pretty pretty much the only thing that you can say with any certainty is that there's a lot of uncertainty
Unknown . Yeah, one of the the things I always enjoy about this show, just just personally speaking, is the time with the independence. You know, you you don't you don't get a chance to see these people and these watches quite as much because they're dealing with, you know, much smaller marketing budgets. They're not flying journalists over to Switzerland to come visit factories. They're not at all of the b the you know smaller trade shows. So it's it's always really special to get a chance to go spend, you know, half a day and and see these people who are are in many cases, you know, the name of the brand is the name of the person you're sitting across from and the watch in your hands is the thing they have invested the last, you know, ten years of their their life into.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. Um and sometimes you
Unknown get surprises, like you know, we've talked about it before, but last year I went and took the appointment with Acrivia, not really expecting much. I mean I knew the watches were good but they weren't really my taste. Um and you
Unknown were blown away. Yeah I mean red what red Je
Unknown ff showed me was probably my favorite watch of the of the last year, uh Chronomet Contemporane. Um really amazing. So
Unknown wait back up your favorite watch of the last year. Pro
Unknown bably possibly one of the GPH D award, yep.
Unknown Uh best men's watch if I remember. I think so. Ye
Unknown ah. And uh I mean it'
Unknown s a hell of a watch. It's yeah. And
Unknown so I'm I'm kind of like cautiously optimistic that, you know, we'll get even with the show shrinking in size and a lot of people who we normally enjoy going to see. I'm I'm excited and again cautiously optimistic that you know I think it's Friday morning I'm spending like two or three hours just kind of going independent to independent. Um and I'm I'm hoping to see something that I I'm not expecting, something I have no idea that exists. Uh that's gonna kind of knock my socks off. It's okay
Unknown to be optimistic. You don't have to be cautious cautiously optimistic
Unknown . Really? Yeah. Okay. Th
Unknown row caution to the wind, Steve. Oh okay
Unknown . Ooh, I like this. Well, MB and F just dropped
Unknown their first ladies' watch, pre Basel
Unknown . So I'm excited to see it again.
Unknown And I if you haven't seen it at this table, I highly recommend you go
Unknown try it on while you're there 'cause I think it's f
Unknown ine for anyone to wear. It's amazing. I was really impressed
Unknown . Yeah, you know, um I'm really curious to see what uh I I'm I mean of course we're all curious to see what Grand Seiko is up to, but I'm really curious to see what Seiko Seiko is up to as Um, you know, especially uh what's going on in the uh prospects line. You know, again, we don't have any advanced information. Um but um you know, producing a high value uh tool watches that are great bang for the buck, but that are affordable by quote unquote normal people is kind of you know like um Seiko's uh USB well not unique selling point, but it's a major selling point, you know, historically for Seiko among watch enthusiasts who are who are looking for real value. So you know I'm hoping to see some great drops from them also. Yep. Yeah. Yeah.
Unknown I'd I'd love it if they took a new direction with the turtle or did something a little
Unknown I mean what's wilder than a gold turtle?
Unknown I know what's wilder than a gold turtle. A solid gold turtle
Unknown . Up is a uh solid gold G Shock. I mean, admittedly, I think they're making it. Oh
Unknown yeah, I'm excited about Casio too. Yes,
Unknown good call, Jack. Good pivot. Yeah, Casio's a ton of fun. Also,
Unknown you know what's fun, Jacob and Co. U
Unknown h different kind of fun, but uh different kind of fun. It's just we it's I mean it's it's uh a a wild booth to walk into. You know, he's got uh he's got the boutique on Madison and um you know we have an appointment with him every year. And you know, you walk into most of the booths uh at Basel World and that's you know it's welcome to the world of fine Swiss watchmaking here is our heritage, our history, our devotion to precision, and uh you know some watches that are not annoying to look at. And you go into and you go into Jacob and Co. and it's like you know, it's like somebody has said open sesame. It's you know, just like one case with like ten million dollars worth of stones in it after another. Yeah,
Unknown last year is all the biggest spooning caviar into your mouth as you walk into the booth. Everyone there is over six feet. Yeah
Unknown . Everyone's there is over
Unknown six feet. It's all the like models walking around
Unknown . Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Unknown Yes. I'm only 5'4, so it's it's obvious to me that they're much taller.
Unknown But the thing with
Unknown last year we didn't think it was the booth, the
Unknown s booth. They ha he walked us into
Unknown the back to show us the biggest diamond in the wor
Unknown ld. I don't know about that. Okay, well it was a it was massive. Car is like the women are so tall and the diamonds are so huge and uh It was too much. And so you go in and he had this he had this security case and it looked like a regular vit
Unknown rine but it was covered with black all around all of a sudden it just went and
Unknown dropped down and there was the diamond. Just there
Unknown .
Unknown It was many million. So that's all that we need to know
Unknown . That's all we need to know. And then I tried on the watch that
Unknown Floyd Merriweather has. Okay.
Unknown The billionaire. He did. Yeah. You saw the billionaire?
Unknown What is it? Dice? Maybe. Also as an aside, if you don't know what we're talking about with the booths
Unknown . We did produce a video a couple years ago
Unknown walking you through the the Pelex
Unknown po. We will no it's the Polexpo. The Mesoplots. The Mesoplots.
Unknown Can you edit that out? Yeah. No. Okay.
Unknown Um but anyways it shows it's really great Yeah, link it up in the notes, Stevie. I'm trying to think any other standout appointments. I mean the Hublow appointment is always a blast. Last year, Jean-Claude Bieber popped into our appointment unexpectedly. Uh-huh. Just start yelling. Ten people and he just like showed up and wanted to show us the new watches and he hung out for a little bit. It was great. I don'
Unknown t think he yells. That's just his normal tone of the thing. That's true. J
Unknown ack, maybe you should do an impression
Unknown . Negative, sir.
Unknown Yeah, we're not going to Jack is now gone. We're gonna avoid that
Unknown . Yeah. Not not
Unknown mean malicious. No, no, no, sir. Mr. Beav
Unknown er. But uh just just
Unknown surprisingly accurate. Yes. Yeah. And and respectful. Hugely respectful
Unknown . Extremely accurate and respectful, like all good impressions. I have a question for everybody. What are
Unknown your what are you most looking f well first I want to start off with Cole 'cause I
Unknown 'cause he's new. Um but I wanna know A. We've also been talking over him
Unknown for the list of the
Unknown I wanna know what Cole is most looking forward
Unknown to and then I want everyone to go around and talk about what they're most looking forward to outside of
Unknown the watch show. Oh just while we're in Basel. Yes. Interesting. Okay. So Cole, kick it off. What are
Unknown you most excited about besides spending a lot of time with us?
Unknown Like way too much time with us. I'
Unknown m super stoked for that. The stuff of lore. People talk about it every year. Not not having been, it's you know, it comes up all the time. I'm primarily most excited to see what the hell is everyone talking about. I mean you know, you guys talk about this so much and there's so much going on. I just want to take it all in and kinda drink in the experience. Um and I guess that goes for inside and outside Basel. Something I'm particularly excited for that's watch specific. I want to see some of the watches we might not get in America. So some of the things that are retailed outside of America. Last year, uh Jason wrote a great piece on the Certina, DS two hundred PH two hundred m that w wasn't available in the US and I read. I think your re
Unknown aders were upset about that too. They were like, you wrote this up and we can't buy it. What
Unknown it's a forbidden fruit. And that's so I want to go see what what's out there, you know? I think the that's going to be particularly exciting. I've also heard rumors that uh there's some really good kebabs in town. I that got me excited.
Unknown Dude, you stole you stole my uh my thing I'm most looking forward to right now. All right, so this is this is I'm doing this for James Stacy since he's not here and I know it's legitimately the thing he is most excited about every year. Uh there's a little kebab shop. Uh Basel is not a town known uh from the astr
Unknown onomic capital club. Yeah, and it's a little tough dur
Unknown ing the show. Everywhere is slammed, there's huge weights, they jack up all the prices on the menus. It's like it's kind of a mess. Uh and James found this little kebab shop where they bake the pita to order and we ended up eating it for I probably had it for legitimately half my meals while I was there last year. Uh it was not the healthiest move in the world, but it was great. Uh and so I'm I'm excited to go back to our our spot, which will we will not name because on
Unknown ce
Unknown This? Okay. We'll talk about this object. J
Unknown ames franchising torches too? Yeah. James
Unknown and I have a whole side business franchising restaurants we eat at when we travel. Se
Unknown parate podcasts. Should I go next or should
Unknown I wait till everyone answers the question before me. John
Unknown ny Bews? Uh sure. I mean well obviously
Unknown I'll be a spectator. Uh yeah what are you gonna miss the most
Unknown ? I guess maybe the
Unknown kebabs. Yeah.
Unknown I don't know. I mean I I'll I'll miss uh you know, just like hanging out
Unknown with the crew and uh jamming
Unknown on stories uh in the evening. It's uh you know reporting Basel is uh is hard work, but it's a lot of fun too. And and there's a a lot of camaraderie to it. So I'll I'll be a little upset that I'm not part of it this year. But um in in terms of product that I'm looking forward to seeing, uh I guess Rolex, right? It's pretty obvious, but last year I felt like uh it was so exciting what they were doing, um, and people were really, really interested in the product they came out with. I wonder if this year can match uh can you know live up to that.
Unknown Yeah. Jack? I'm exc
Unknown ited to um walk through uh there's a part of the old uh old town of Basel uh that's actually more or less the birthplace of the Swiss uh pharmaceutical industry. Um it's not particularly um there's a and there's a there's a museum of uh um what I don
Unknown 't know. I just I d didn't really see you going in
Unknown that direction. And dur uh for for the period fifteen twenty seven, fifteen twenty eight, the uh f very, very famous medieval alchemist Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim medicine based on the uh perspectives of uh the Greek physician Galen was hogwash and uh uh all the doctors were doing was making people feel uh worse rather than better. So you know it's uh it's just an interesting part of Basel's history that has, you know, zip zippity doo dah to do with watches and watch making it.
Unknown I'm actually gonna I I'm gonna piggyback on that one too. I'm just stealing everybody's everybody's recommendations here. Uh we go to Basel every year, uh, but we basically see nothing outside the four walls of the halls and the like, you know, two or three restaurants that we go to every year. Uh so this year I'm finally gonna go and I think we're gonna make it a little editorial uh field trip the day before the show starts to kind of decompress. Uh we're gonna go out to the Fondation Bailer, uh which is one of the the you know, most amazing private collections of art in in all of Europe. It's in this beautiful Renzo Piano building kind of on the outskirts of town. So we're gonna we're gonna take a little a little trip out there and you know see us some uh some art before we start staring at watches for four or five days in a row. I'm pretty excited about it.
Unknown Alright. Well mine is far less cultural
Unknown , but it's a little bit kebabs. I know. Okay, fair. Okay
Unknown , one, there's really good pizza in Basle. Yeah, there you go
Unknown . There's all yeah, is that the sh the Sch
Unknown nitzel place? Yeah, really good. So besides that that there's a little place that I this is what I thought Jack was gonna say. A little place called the Three Kings. And it's basically the rainbow daytona of bars. Be
Unknown cause it is one of the most apt comparisons I think I've ever heard of.
Unknown In a hotel on the river, the drinks are offensive
Unknown . In cost.
Unknown And yeah, sometimes you know what? This old gal just likes to go
Unknown and have a glass of wine that costs
Unknown 40 euros. Okay?
Unknown For the house red. I mean to be fair, it's uh
Unknown it's one of actually there's there's really no way to justify the prices and I'm not even gonna try. Um it is it is one of the oldest hotels in Europe.
Unknown Yeah. And well and the nice thing, everyone the every
Unknown one kinda goes there, so you see them like at the end of the
Unknown day and then. I also feel like they
Unknown have like red velore like curtains with like tassels.
Unknown I don't know.
Unknown You go there on a Friday or Saturday night and Le Toulemon de Basel is there. I should have said that in German. Um Swiss
Unknown German. But you know, you see you
Unknown see uh industry executives uh there, you know I mean super, super high powered people uh whose names everybody, you know, h in this room and probably listening to And and people you would swear are not on speaking terms with each other, and they're like standing there at the bar, you know, uh having a great time and um you know, deciding all our fates. It's it's you know what it is. It's like the World Economic Forum, but for watches. Yeah,
Unknown it's like Dalgos. Uh all right, so we're gonna we're gonna wrap up here in in just a minute. Um oh we didn't get we didn't BC we didn't get our fearless leader Benk Fimers. Who cares? What are you looking forward to most, Mr. Klymer
Unknown ? Uh I mean everything that that I am looking forward to has basically been said. I'm big fan of the Schnitzel. Duhas, there's there's a great restaurant right there. Uh that has some wonderful schnitzel that I used to hang out with back in the day with like Robert Jan from Fratello and Max Booser and the Gronfeld Bros. Three
Unknown Kings, I mean, so the Three Kings is has been
Unknown described, you know, at scale, I would say, but the best part about the Three Kings is the King of the Three Kings. And I'm talking about Mr. Jack Forrester. Oh, this guy runs the show at the three kings. He is the mayor of the three kings.
Unknown If by that you mean uh I was there entirely too much last year and you've heard from Anna in accounting about my uh bar tab. Then
Unknown yes. That that uh that is entirely possible. No, Jack at the Three Kings is a special site for sure. Um what else? I don't know, just hanging out with everybody. You know, the Basel is so different than the SIH. SIHH is tight, and you know, you're at these luxury hotels and you know at Baselware and Airbnbs, we're kind of roughing it a little bit. Say again? We
Unknown 're roommates with each other. We all have a lot of people. Some of us will be ro
Unknown ommates. Uh I think I'll Jack this year.
Unknown I think Carl will probably never um
Unknown Yeah, there w there was a I think there was a clogged toilet involved with that one. I'm not sure. We don't I guess we don't need to go there. Okay. Um Honestly, so
Unknown am I. You know, it's just like oh for me, Omega
Unknown Omega, Hamilton, like these are great brands these are brands I wanna see. You know, Brigade, Blanc Pon, like these are quality stuff. And so without them there it's gonna be a bit of a of a slower show for sure. I
Unknown mean like I don't necessarily wanna have the last word in this uh you know, p ac well like actually I It's all yours. No, but you know, like the once I mean what you know, what you just said, Ben, it's like uh you know, one of the things that I think is really a shame about the state of the Swiss watchmaking industry nowadays is that so many brands seem to their public to be playing a zero-sum game with each other. You know, it's like we we in order for us to win, somebody else has to lose. And Basel World is one of those rare occasions on which the entire industry can get together and celebrate this extremely look, I mean, watchmaking in Switzerland is this extremely kind of weird cultural product that does it doesn't really exist anywhere else, certainly not with a you know with a certainly not with a variety into the scale that it exists in Switzerland. And you know, this is not to say that there aren't beautiful watches being made in places like you know, Glassuta, uh you know in, and Japan, I mean, you know, there's wonderful watch making happening there as well. But you know, it's I think it's just a crying shame that the Swiss watch industry doesn't present a little bit more of a united face and celebrate, you know, five hundred years of you know just phenomenal, phenomenal history. Yeah.
Unknown Government bailouts for Basel.
Unknown Let's do it. Let's make it happen. Actually, one thing I am looking forward to seeing some I think one of the most interesting things is to see who's walking around the Basel World show and who's peeking into the windows. So you often see like see like you see Francois there from AP all the time. You see Wilhelm from Langa there checking out what Patek is doing. You know, you you see that a lot. And just to kinda like if you know these these faces, you see like, okay, like they're they're checking stuff out for sure. Uh and you know, obviously that there's a famous story that when um when Lange introduced the the datagraph that Philippe Stern came over and was like, Huh, like we we have a problem here, you know? Ye
Unknown ah. And uh and like you you kinda
Unknown get that,. Like you know, you'll see I wouldn't be surprised if you see the CEO of X, Y, and Z checking out like, you know, an arch competitor uh in in civilian clothes, like often not in suits, really kinda like, you know, maybe with a baseball hat on, sunglasses, etcetera. And it's just kind of a neat thing to to to see these guys really care, you know
Unknown . My favorite instance of that is every
Unknown year, inevitably, uh you run into Philippe Dufour.
Unknown Always. And he he's always done two things
Unknown . He's always found some obscure young watchmaker you've never heard of, and he's like, this is the guy, this is the next big thing. And he also is talking mad shit about the big brands all the time. Uh just about how how standards have dropped and you know, this is garbage and that's garbage and like always in this sort of like, you know, playful, understated kind of way, but he's just like he walks around and ever like the seas part around him. It's uh it's kind of amazing. M
Unknown m-hmm. He said something that uh I'll I'll
Unknown always remember that when we interviewed him last year at his uh at his uh studio and he said he said something like um you know the standards have really dropped um the brands what do they do they produce uh watches where the finish is not what it should be and then they give away a loop uh as a gift. It's like they're giving you a stick with which to beat them
Unknown . Yeah. All right. Cool. So we're gonna wrap things up. Uh we've got a lot of stuff to get done before we go to Basel, because remember, we still have to do that, I guess. Um, but to finish things up, uh we're gonna put Cole on the spot here for a second. Oh boy
Unknown . Sorry, dude. This is uh this is Cole
Unknown 's I'm not sorry at all. Uh this is Cole's first episode of Hodinky Radio. So we thought we would kind of introduce you to the listeners by having you do the Hodinky questionnaire that we finished the episode with.
Unknown Yeah. Uh and all of
Unknown you stay on guard. We've got some cultural recommendations coming up. So uh think about what you're gonna be listening to on the flight over. It can be music, it can be another podcast, it can be something else. What if you'
Unknown re sleeping? Okay. The sound
Unknown of the sound of the plane. That's fine. How poetic. What's a watch that's caught your eye recently
Unknown ? Um well I feel like I can talk about this because it's all over Instagram. But the there was a leak, this this uh, you know, the Captain Willard, the Seiko six one oh five. If you go onto Instagram, you will see pictures of it. They've been there for weeks now. Um that kinda caught my eye. Um I don't know anything I don't even know if it's true. It could all be fake news. We don't know. But
Unknown hopefully not. Yeah, hopefully that exact
Unknown ly. So that's that caught my eye and I'm particularly excited if that does happen. That'll be real exciting to see in the metal
Unknown . Cool. Um yeah. Alright, so what's the best place you've traveled in the last year
Unknown ? Uh last year's been pretty busy travel wise. I recently got back from something domestic, which I found absolutely fascinating. I went I steamed out from Port Fouchon, Louisiana, which they call the end of the world. It's kind of an obscure town out in the middle of a little coastal peninsula in Louisiana. Steamed out a hundred and thirty miles into the Gulf of Mexico to these oil rigs. One of them's called the Ocean Black Rhino, the Discover Enterprise, and went fishing for tuna. And while I was out there, you know, everything's completely quiet. You can't hear anything. Th no no seagulls, people, whatever. Every now and then you would hear the intercom on these d massive oil rigs. You'd hear someone say something, some machine start up, then it go back to being quiet again. And to me, you know, that's that's not a there's nothing totally exciting about that, but that was a moment that kind of captured my attention and said, Oh wow, this is cool. This is out there. N
Unknown ice. Nice. Cool. What's uh what's the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who gave it to you
Unknown ? I guess so to kind of piggyback off that experience in the middle of the sea, no one told me anything, but something that happened is you know, you get intermittently seasick. So you go to sleep for a little bit, you wake up a little bit, you go to sleep for a little bit, you wake up and fish. Then when I was waking or one one in the middle of the night I woke up and I went outside and the deck hands were scrubbing down the deck of the boat. You could just wait till the trip's over and then clean the boat, right? But I would see them, you know, any time they were free, they would start cleaning the boat, scrubbing the boat. And I kind of saw that and was like, yeah, even when no one's watching, no one else was awake on the boat. Went outside, they're out there toiling away. And I that was kind of inspirational and advice in a way
Unknown . Cool. Uh so the last question, what's your guilty pleasure
Unknown ? Guilty pleasure. All right. So now that I've started coming down here every day and working at this office, uh at lunchtime I will often sneak away and I won't blow the spot up, but you probably know about it already, it's dollar dumplings in Chinatown. I uh yeah, I spend a buck fifty multiple times per week scarfing down some excellent dumplings in Chinatown.
Unknown I give it six months.
Unknown Awesome. So we'll have you go first, but uh what is everybody going to be listening to on their flight over to Basel World
Unknown ? Everybody? I don't want to speak for everybody. No no speak for myself
Unknown .
Unknown Actually actually Cole is just gonna recommend and everybody has to listen to whatever Cole says
Unknown . Um I'm going to be well hopefully we're not flying a seven thirty seven max. I don't think we're not anyway. I think they're grounded. Yeah, they
Unknown 're grounded, that's not happening. Um
Unknown most of the flight, if it if I don't get a window seat, I like to look out the window a lot of times, but if not I'll be watching, searching for Skylab, which is a documentary that just came out about Skylab. Everyone talks about the ISS, but we had something very similar to that even before. No one even talks about it. So I'm interested to learn more about the Skylab program.
Unknown Jack, on your flight over to Davos
Unknown ? Actually boy, I crack myself up sometimes. Uh you know, I don't actually listen to music much on airplanes, but I do like to pop in some um earplugs and read. And I'm currently reading all of the um I don't know if anybody here has ever um heard of an author named uh Rex Stout. Uh he was a detective uh fiction novelist and he wrote over 40 novels chronicling the career of um the American detective Nero Wolf, who's a real character. He is uh he basically never leaves his brownstone, lives in New York and uh all of the actual legwork is done by his uh long suffering assistant. Uh he weighs over three hundred pounds, he's a gourmet. He's a um uh v he's an orchid collector and uh between uh t I think um nine and eleven AM uh he does no business because that's orchid time. Um so it's and they're uh they're actually really, really wonderfully written books, books and uh you know largely forgotten by you know, unless you're hard acore aficionado of detective fiction. So he's kind of like he's kinda like the American Sherlock Holmes if Sherlock Holmes uh was acutely agoraphobic, a genius, and had a live in Swiss chef and orchids. Sweet. So
Unknown that's what's super appropriate. Yeah. All right. C B? Uh well I clearly I'm the only one that has the like you f sleep on the plane over rule. No, of course. But you So
Unknown what? I think everybody actually will be sleeping on the plane.
Unknown Yeah. I hope everyone is sleeping on the plane. So I will not be listening to anything. I'll be sleeping. Okay. I will take two advice PM. I will close my eyes. I will probably not fall asleep. I'll probably pretend to be asleep for seven hours and then I'll wake up and I'll be in Basel. Okay
Unknown . Good. What?
Unknown Oh I'll be in Zurich first.
Unknown All right. D do
Unknown cks from the Basel. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah I mean I I I think like like Cara the the goal is to sleep. You know I've got my my pre flight rituals which include are we flying out of JFK or Newark?
Unknown Oh we're flying out of Newark sorry no chicken parm this time
Unknown no chicken parm. No chicken parm before the flight is always n aice thing. No, not in terminal. Where do you get chicken par
Unknown m at JFK? The Palms. Oh, they have chicken palm
Unknown ? You just blew
Unknown John's mind. It's
Unknown very good. I mean it's the Palms, you know? It's also the size of a trash
Unknown can lid.
Unknown I think have like a glass of red wine and just kinda pass right out. I mean it's a really hectic week. And then m on my side of of of the shop, I actually go right into meetings on Tuesday in Zurich. Yeah. So the Swatch Gupro is uh presenting some stuff in Zurich uh that Tuesday and I we land at like I think seven forty and I have a meeting at nine A.M. in Zurich uh so hopefully be sleeping and get ready for for that. Sweet
Unknown . Uh I'm gonna recommend another podcast. Um I'd like this is the only this is the only I don't yeah, I don't listen to podcasts or music or anything. I just listen to myself talking to other people uh all the time. I me
Unknown an no judgment. Oh
Unknown tempting.
Unknown I'm gonna recommend a podcast. It's kind of weird, but I've gotten really into it lately. It's called Behind the Bastards. Uh and it's essentially these really in-depth stories about the worst people in human history. And it is amazing. Uh it's they they basically there's a regular host, and then he brings on sort of like comedians and like internet conspiracy theorists, and they just talk about the craziest and most awful people from human history. Uh it's super compelling. Most of them are like, you know, two or three episodes long. Uh I would recommend start with the one about John McAfee, the guy who created McAfee Antivirus software. Uh he's also insane. Uh yeah. So I don't want to spoil it any more than that. I knew nothing about him. Um So
Unknown this is people who are evil in an interesting way, right? It's not like the Tamerlanes and Hitlers and Genghis Khan. I me
Unknown an, some there are multiple Hitler episodes, but yeah, it's also people who are who are a little more off the beaten path. Um yeah, the Roger Stone episodes are also really compelling. Um so yeah, that's what I'll be probably binging a couple episodes of that as I try to pass out and get some sleep.
Unknown Also to be clear, nothing I think is weirder that's been spoken about tonight than or
Unknown chid time. John, you're not gonna be able to listen to all the time. Yeah, what's what's on what's the soundtrack for finishing the magazine?
Unknown Oh well, I mean you guys are gonna be doing uh podcasts from the show.
Unknown Oh good feeling segue so I'll listen to I'll l
Unknown isten to Hodinky Radio for sure. And when I
Unknown 'm not listening to Hodinki Radio, maybe I'll listen to
Unknown Live Rust, uh a live album uh by Neil Yo
Unknown ung that I've kind of rediscovered and have been
Unknown jamming uh quite a bit in my uh life lat
Unknown ely. Sweet. Yeah. Yeah, so John brings up a good point. Uh podcasts from Basel World. So just like we did at SIHH, uh we are going to be bringing you an episode a day from the show. Uh so we will have episodes Wednesday through Saturday. Uh you're hearing this on Monday, hopefully.
Unknown We're also gonna be doing Friday live from the show, right?
Unknown It's not gonna be Friday live. Ben's Ben's got a big grin on his face. He knows he knows he's making
Unknown Oh, I think everybody remembers Friday Light
Unknown . Our producer Grays
Unknown on Corhonan still has PTSD from Friday Live. At six in the morning so that it's ready for the lunch crowd.
Unknown Yeah. Should we do Friday Live?
Unknown We are bringing back one of the great Friday Live
Unknown duos of all time
Unknown , Car and Jack. Oh
Unknown , are you gonna bring that bell?
Unknown I will be packing the bell. Y
Unknown es. I have it on my desk right now so I don't forget it. Uh so yeah. So tune in. They'll be coming out probably you know, afternoon, evening time, eastern time. It's gonna be kind of the last thing we do every day. You'll get a synopsis of what's going on at the fair, what we've seen that day. It's going to be a couple editors every day. Yeah, they're going to be great. Tune in and let us know what you think of them in the comments on the posts on the site if you have questions, if you want us to check certain things out, we can try to make that a priority the next day. Um yeah, and that'll be great. So we'll have, you know, all in all, you'll get five episodes of Hodinky Radio this week. Lucky, lucky you. Yay
Unknown . Content of unparalleled depth and beauty.
Unknown Perfect. Awesome. Thanks for uh thanks for taking the time to do this, everybody. I know we're uh we're busy getting ready, but uh Basel World's coming up soon. Thank
Unknown you, CVP. All right, see everybody
Unknown uh I guess later this week. This week'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. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you later this week live from Basel World.