Morgan King, Safe Deposit Boxes, And An Ode To The Speedmaster¶
Published on Mon, 12 Aug 2019 10:00:08 +0000
We're back, and better than ever!
Synopsis¶
This is the relaunch episode of Hodinkee Radio, introducing a new three-block format. The show begins with editors Stephen Pulvirent, Ben Clymer, and Cara Barrett discussing recent highlights from Hodinkee's summer coverage, including a viral New York Times story about the safety of deposit boxes, their comprehensive Reference Points feature on the Rolex Submariner, and the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. They also discuss Morgan King's Talking Watches episode, the discovery of Marlon Brando's GMT-Master from Apocalypse Now, and Cara's watch spotting article about Kelly McGillis wearing a gold Panthère in the original Top Gun movie. The editors reveal that Hodinkee is moving to a new office space after years in various locations.
The main interview features Morgan King, a legendary Los Angeles-based watch collector known for his vintage Rolex Daytona collection and his signature habit of wearing two watches simultaneously. King shares his journey from collecting baseball cards and comic books as a kid in Queens, New York, to becoming a serious vintage watch collector. He discusses his love for 1960s and 1970s aesthetics, his entrepreneurial background running a security camera business with his wife for twenty years, and his passion for magic and celebrity selfies. King reveals his grails, including the elusive RCO Daytona, and explains his philosophy of only keeping watches he truly loves. The episode closes with a thoughtful essay from Hodinkee Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster reflecting on what the Omega Speedmaster meant to him as a child during the space race era and why it still resonates fifty years after the moon landing.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | Hey Gray, how's it going? Stevie man, how's California? California's great. Sun's shining, blue skies, no complaints. Um so I am cutting together next Monday's episode and I'm realizing we need an intro. So if you could give the people a little taste of what they can expect going forward. All right. So instead of a one block show that focuses on one main interview, uh, we're gonna do a three-block show. So we're gonna kick things off with a conversation amongst our editors, then we'll go to our main interview, and then we'll have some new experimental things we're trying out uh on the back end of the show to close things up. It's the same basic idea, highlighting the people of the watch world, but we're just gonna bring you a little bit more each week. That's the work man. Uh one thing you should know, there's gonna be some new music this week. I hope you're alright with that. Alright, let's take a listen. Hey everybody, we're back. I'm your host Stephen Polveran and this is Hodinky Radio. We've spent the last couple weeks in the studio reworking the show, and we've got a brand new format that I think you're really gonna like. First up, we've got Morgan King, an amazing collector in LA, who some of you might know from his episode of Talking Watches. We also have our own editor-in-chief, Jack Forrester, talking about why, 50 years after the anniversary of the moon landing, the Speedmaster still means so much to him. But first, we've got a conversation between myself, Ben, and Kara about some of the summer highlights from Hodinki. We talk about everything from our favorite summer watches to why safety deposit boxes might not be so safe, to the discovery of Marlon Brando's Rolex GMT. It's great stuff. Let's get into it. Alright, we're back. It's been two weeks. And we're here with a new and improved, I think, I think we can say that, new and improved Hodinki Radio. To start things off, I've got Ben and Kara here for our first new uh new Hodinki Radio, Hodinki Radio 2.0. Thanks for coming. Yeah, no problem. Flattered to be the first personality on the new segment. How do you think they they decided on us? I don't know. I think that we were available. You're here. We're the least busy of all the teams. Yeah, you guys are definitely the least busy. I mean not bad. We use outlook here at Hodinky. And Microsoft. So we're gonna we're gonna chat about what's been going on at Hodinky this summer. Cool. We always think it's gonna be quiet, right? Like we always think the watch world's gonna calm down, and in however many years of doing this, it never does. Never does. No, I'm really tired if I'm being totally honest. From all the news, from all the news. So much news. Yeah. Despite the entire country of Switzerland being on the next. It's actually National Swiss Day today. Is it? It is, yeah. Oh, we're recording this on National Swiss Day. There we go. Congrats, guys. Nice. You made it. You did that again. You're still Switzerland. Still neutral. Um so it's been two weeks since people have heard from us. So I thought what we could do is kind of go over some of the craziness that's been going on this summer. Um so to start things off, we'll start with somebody else's story actually that we recommended. Uh which is this story that ran the New York Times about safe deposit boxes that I think we all had like a collective panic attack about. Correct. Yes. Ben most of all. Yes. I think Ben, you're the one who first dropped this story into Slack. How did you end up finding this? I think it was my father who who's like, you know, a a super kind of like physically conservative human being was like, hey, you gotta check this thing out. Because I actually about a year and a half ago, I put my parents on my safety deposit boxes here in the city because if I get hit by a bus then nobody else would have access to it, which would be a problem. Yeah. And so my dad is like aware that I like keep stuff in in the safety deposit boxes and he's like, hey dude, check this out, you know? And it's like, ooh. Uh and the the crazy thing dude, I'm gonna ruin your day. Uh the crazy thing about it by pure coincidence is that I know the gentleman Philip in in the story. Yeah. He was an old I guess he was at Christie's for a while and Philip Ponis. Yeah, he used uh I don't know if he No, he was an antiquor for a while. So we're we're gonna link it up, but for people who haven't read the story, what happened? What did the New York Times report? So basically th this guy is a real watch guy. I mean been around forever. Decades, you know, and w you know was a serious buyer of things. Yeah. Uh and he left, you know, let's say a few million dollars worth of things, watches, in his safety deposit box in New Jersey, I believe. And one day went to check them all out and they were just gone. The box was empty. Uh and his bank, I forget, I think it was Bank of America.. W Wellells Fargos Fargo. Wells Fargo. They're having a lot of issues. They are, they really are. They were like, sorry, brah, like, you know, there is there's no you know, there there's no regulation that says like we like there's no insurance on this, there's no anything. It's just like they're just gone. It's kind of like you're at your own risk here. And he was like, Well, that stinks. And then, you know, he ended up finding a lot of his stuff, and including getting some things back that were not his. Yeah. Um and so that just put this like this collective panic, uh, you know, out there for anybody that keeps anything valuable in a safety deposit blocks because I never really thought about what would happen if I if I went there and everything was missing, but like what would your course of action be? You know? I mean cry. Yeah. You have nothing. Panic. I mean really a panic. Like that's because the whole point of the article is like the banks are not legally liable for your for anything in those boxes. Right. And also your insurance. See, most people think their insurance has them covered. But they don't but they don't. Like once you put it in the bank, most people most people's insurance isn't gonna cover them. Yeah. Well, the whole point, I think of, a safety deposit box, especially like in watches, is you you don't cover that by insurance because you have the safety deposit box as the insurance. Like that's the insurance. Like right there. It's always there. I mean, it's just wild. I can't even begin to imagine how many like millions or billions of dollars worth of stuff is in a chase vault. Absolutely. I mean that's the Lower Manhattan you just have like it could be like imagine a large safety deposit box filled with diamonds. Right. You know, like I guarantee you, like at any of the banks near us, like that is a thing. There are boxes filled with diamonds. So I mean that's where a lot of people keep their valuable still. It's kinda like money under the mattress, you know? Well it's like you know, in in New York City in particular, like I believe all of us here are renters. Yeah. So none of us own our homes. No. So it's like you would would you really feel comfortable leaving, you know, a valuable item in your home if your landlord has a key, if your maintenance guy has a key, et cetera. Like I I don't. Yeah. I agree. So I do leave most of my stuff in a safety deposit box. And to to know that they're not that safe is is pretty pretty terrifying. You also can't screw a safe into the floor because then you'll have to replace the floor. Car with the practical concerns. I've thought about it. Like I this story sent in like shockwaves to our own little world, you know, but I think in many ways this is like peak New York Times where they like identify like one person that happened, like they did something one time, like this is a trend now. Yeah. Right. Um so it's like I don't I don't think it's really a concern at all. Uh yeah. There were a lot of comments though on the New York Times article and people were upset about it. Of course. Yeah. I would be too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the more you know. So while we're talking about high value things, uh Hodiniki Radio. Yeah, Hodiniki Radio. Yeah. This is a classic classic Hodinki Radio segue here. While we're talking about expensive things, uh one of the craziest displays of watches I've ever had the pleasure of seeing uh was the spread we pulled in for reference points of Mariner. Yeah. Oh yeah. Uh which was a pretty monstrous project to to undertake, but uh a super fun one for for me. Should we give Steven a round of applause for reference points? I asked everybody to thank you guys. It was crazy fun to produce and I can honestly say I learned more about the Submariner in the like two to three weeks of of working pretty consistently on I don't I I've seen a lot of spreads. I've never seen so many of the same model in one place. You know, of of just Submariners. Like there were no GMTs or Daytonas, it was just subs. That that was pretty neat, for sure. I would also like to talk about the peaks and valleys of Stevie's journey through the Submariner reference points. Uh one yeah, as his destiny, there was one morning where he was like, Oh, I love the Submariner, it's so amazing. And then the next day he was like, I hate the Submariner. And then by the time he was done, he was like, It's just beautiful. And I was like, Okay okay,. It's like it's rol aler coaster over here. I was like, I'm not every I was like, I'll talk to you later when it's done. So can we can we talk I don't I don't know if you have this prepared, so we'll go anyway with this, but how many watches were in that story? It was I think the final count was somewhere in the like thirty four to thirty eight range. Okay. Of watches we actually had. Right. And how many words did you write on that story? It was just shy of ten thousand words. So a novella. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the equivalent of like one of those, you know, twenty five page New Yorker stories in terms of And the video was what, twenty minutes long or something? Uh I think like fifteen minutes. So how long did you guys sit? Because I wasn't. So we he actually recorded I think a forty-five minute conversation. And then it was four or five of us shooting video and stills for another six hours. Seven hours, maybe it was a it was a full day of just gathering assets. And then, you know, huge shout out to Eric Wind on this. Like this could not have happened without Eric Wind um amongst all the other collectors who who he helped uh pull pieces from. But uh yeah, Eric and then a handful of other collectors and I were talking literally on like an hourly basis uh for days and days and days to just you know the thing that made this so difficult and also I think ultimately like an actually valuable thing to put put out into the world is that this information didn't exist in any one spot before this. So it was a lot of like, you know, digging through old forum posts and, you know, all the books that everybody knows about and trying to kind of cobble all of this together into one thing. Yeah. I mean and and again the the idea of having like that many s rare submariners. These were not modern subs. You know, uh in one place is I was chatting with Eric about it before and he kind of put the value of that collection like ten million dollars. Yeah. Sounds about right. Of submarin, of steel submariners. And uh we did have security. Uh we did not keep them in a s in a safety deposit box. No. We had two security guards. Yeah. Uh that's excluding you though, right? You can't. That's excluding I'm the real security guard. We had Jack, Jack Ounce is a security guard. That's true. We're really all security guards here. Um yeah, I mean we're talking about maybe doing another one, doing one with either the explorer or the GMT, maybe both. I think you have to. Look, it it's to to me, I mean, as as as the Hodinky guy, I mean this is like peak hodinky guy this is like as as pure as it gets in terms of what we do. I mean we do on average one reference point per year basically since we started doing this, which is which is not a lot. And I think now you know now that you've heard this conversation you understand why. I mean it's just so much work to get get prepared and and together uh for you guys. But I mean the response has just been amazing. I mean I think this will be among the most popular stories we've done in in many years, I would say. Love it. Let us know in the comments what watches you want to see more reference points on whether it's GMTs, Explorers, or something not Rolex, uh let us know. Because we like Ben said, we don't produce them that often. But you know, we'll uh we'll take take some advice. What would you want to do? Like if you if if you were like, hey I'm gonna And let's exclude Rolex because just because excluding Rolex. I mean Kara and I talked about doing something Royal Oak related. Um you know, maybe time and date Royal Oaks, just like basic jumbo royal oaks. Um That that we could do pretty easily. Yeah, there's only like seven or eight of those probably. Yeah. That's probably the first thing that comes to mind. How about you guys? I think that that would be great. Because it would be it would be really popular. It'd be a quick hit, quick win for sure. Nautilus would be similar. That would be a good one. What else? I mean, I guess something with with paddock in general, like either like all of their QPs or all of their chronographs or like kind of just breaking it down that way. I know we've done similar stories about that, but not reference point. We did reference points perpetual calendar chronograph. That was the first one. But you could split them up. Yeah. I I think to m like for me, uh I would love to do potato chronographs, of which there are really not that many. You're talking like thirty year gap there. Yeah. Uh and then the just standard perpetual calendars as uh would be need for sure. But you know it's it's funny, like people just don't seem to care about like those type of watches right now. Yeah. You know? But maybe they should. I they definitely should. I mean, maybe maybe reference points will make them care. Another big feature we had recently, talking watches with the astronaut Dave Williams. Which shout out to Cole. It was Cole's first reference points. Sorry. Steve. Cole's first talking watches. Uh came out great. I loved it. I watched it I think three times, four times now. Yeah. Yeah, no, it was it was awesome. I mean it was this was something completely put together by Cole who's a newer member of the team. He just did a bang up job. And Mr. Williams is just like an awesome guy. Like talk about a bass, you know, like he's not the CEO of a hospital, but he used to be like a trauma uh doctor. Yeah. Trauma surgery. He wasn't surgeon, I guess, but he was a physician, certainly. Uh in the ER, and then went to the fucking space station. Yeah. It's crazy. And to the bottom of the ocean. Yeah. He's like he's basically done everything. Yeah. It's uh it's pretty wild that people like that exist in this world. Yeah. He makes us look lazy. Yeah, he does super, super lazy. But I thought it was just really neat because like that's such a nice balance, like a John Mayer episode, which is like here's just a whole bunch of amazing shit, you know, and then and he has his own stories of course, but but this guy was not at all about like the the collection of things or like the consumption of things, like these are tools. Yes. I use this when I go here. Yeah. Yeah. Uh pretty neat stuff yeah it's like the Moki one. Mokey. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's not talking about whether his sub has like a guilt dial or a map dial or pointing crown guards. He's like, oh yeah, this this went to space. Yeah. Okay. We have a couple of those coming up similar to the data ones, I think. We have some pretty cool stuff coming coming down the pipe. Stay tuned. Yeah. Stay tuned. Uh while we're talking about exceptional watches, Marlon Brando's GMT. Oh yeah. That dropped. That dropped. That dropped. Yeah. That I mean that was, you know, years ago I wrote the story of like I think the 12 greatest missing watches. Among them was this watch. Yeah. Um so pretty neat to see the surface. Uh, you know, always not without controversy, you know, Phillips in in many ways, because they are certainly the market leader, they're kind of lightning rod for people just kind of talking shit. Yeah. Um But you know, if you know Paul Boutros and if you know Aurelic, you just know that they don't screw around with stuff like this. Uh and the the watch is amazing. I mean, what what can you say? Like this is an iconic watch. You know, Apocalypse Now and Marlon Brando, it it's not the same thing as the Paul Newman, right? I mean the the Paul Newman watch was was Paul Newman, who's arguably the iconic American actor of of a previous generation. But also it changed things for our world, for the watch world. Right. Marlon Brando's GMT did not do that. Right. But it's still Marlon Brando. It's still apocalypse now and it's a Rolex. So it's a pretty compelling thing for sure. I also like the way it looks without the bezel. Yeah, it looks sweet. I do too. It's cool. James uh James got to go hands-on with it. Like the day after the announcement was made. Pretty pretty jealous. The watch looked awesome. Yeah, it's sweet. I mean, I think like that, and you know, me as as a recently dedicated golfer uh with the uh the Jack Nicholas watch in the same sale. Like those are two pretty cool things. So they're in the same sale and like especially like if you're our c you know parents generation, like Jack Nicholas and and Marlon Brando are about as big as it gets in terms of athletes and actors at the in the 60s and 70s. Yeah. So it's it's gonna be a big big week for Phillips for sure. Yeah. I like your point about the Paul Newman. I think that's that's something interesting to think about is like every time a new since the Paul Newman sale, every time a big celebrity tied-in watch comes up, everybody's like, Oh, is it the next Paul Newman? No. I personally I don't know what you guys think. Like, there is no next Paul Newman. I agree. Like Sun Wchat because of its impact on watch collecting as a whole category. I don't think there's another watch like that. I agree. I I think there are watches that that could exceed that value, but it wouldn't have the same importance to like our community and it wouldn't get people excited the way that the that the Paul Newman did. Yeah, I just don't think the Paul Newman necessarily is about the value or the money. I think it's just about the impact that it had on watches in general. I mean, I don't think I mean no, I know that we would not be here if that watch had not kind of surfaced and been found by like all those Italian dealers. Way back when. Way back when I I think also, I mean like Paul himself, I'm gonna call him Paul because I know him. Right, best friends. You know, Paul is just like he was a good guy. Like he was a philanthropist, he was super handsome. Like he just had he was he was a full package man. It's total stud. Uh and it's just like there's not that many you know, Marlon Brando was not that. Marlon Brando was super talented, but also had like a dark side and like e you know, to have somebody that is just like unanimously supported by all is pretty rare. And Paul Newman was that for sure. I gotta say I love the engraving on the back of the brand watch. I love that he just did it himself with like some like, you know, engraving gun and got it like a hobby shop and just like scrawled his own name into the back of his watch. We should start doing that. Should we? Yeah. Is that is that how you're gonna engrave your collection? Sure. Yeah. Kari, you gonna do it? Sure. Alright. I'm not. I've actually brought stuff. It's actually really hard to do. Is it? Yeah. It's like a Dremel tool to grow. Yeah. Yeah. And then or if when you're like kind of like uh gouging out metal, I did it with like gold once and it was really, really hard. Okay. What'd you do that? Uh I went to a jewelry class with Van Cleef once. Oh okay. And pushing metal is hard. Good to know. Pushing metal is hard. And we're moving it too. is Is that that our episode title right there? Pushing metal is hard. I once did a gem setting class with Piaget, which is actually really interesting. Because it's like you I I don't why, but I always assumed that there was like glue or some adhesive involved in this, and there's not at all. Like you're just pressing metal around like the edges of the gems to keep it in there, which is wild considering that they stay on the watch when you're banging it around all day. Yeah. Pretty neat stuff and that's why gems at watches matter. Boom. Boom. There we go. There you go. Um you know, talking about big big news, we also had the anniversary of the Speedmaster. Uh which is if we're talking about like monumental news in the watch world, this might be the the biggest news in the watch world. You know, it's the 50th anniversary of the Speedmaster going to the moon. Yeah. Um also like two guys going to the moon, I guess. I guess that matters. I guess Neil and Bud would probably argue with my characterization of that. Yeah. Um but yeah, we did Jack put together a whole bunch of coverage. Uh and people are gonna hear from him later in the show talking about kind of the personal side of things. But Jack put together a a whole bunch of coverage around this, including asking everybody what their favorite speedmasters were. So we'll link that story up, but can you guys both tell us about your favorite speedmasters? Okay. So I'll let you Ben's gonna mull it over because I think he's got a lot, but I will say I'm not a huge speedy fan. Ooh, hot take. I love the What's your favorite speed master? None. No, but I like the no, I like the Japanese one with the orange on the dial. The racing dials. Yeah, the racing dial. And the gray. Grey. But that's a purely aesthetic choice. And I like that it's like for the Japanese market. So I'm not the speed master expert. I will record this. I'm not crazy about I'm not the expert. I haven't I haven't gone on that deep dive yet. And I don't want people to judge me for it. I am who I am. All right. Okay. Don't at Cara about the speed master. Don't at me. I'm tired. So I mean I wrote this in inject story. Obviously, you know, my grandfather's watch a side. That's number one for the obvious reasons. We don't have to go down that. That's BMS or two, because it means I have a job. Yeah. Which is good. I love it. Uh so we'll push that one aside. I mean, I I I love them all, but I I to me it's a twenty nine ninety-eight. Uh I have one. Uh that to me is as pure of a speedmaster as there is. I've had literally every reference of of vintage speedmaster. Um yeah, twenty nine ninety-eight is is I was about to say the which is not appropriate. You cannot say that. Jesus. Oh, yeah. But uh cats meow, man. It's just uh it's a great one. Uh I'm gonna do that part over. I think the 2998 is just it's like the archetype to me of the of the speedmaster. We're not gonna we're gonna say in this one yet. Where do I cut it? Oh god. But I think uh you know I mean and then Omega, of course, dropped this the 321. Yeah. Which is you know, to me, as as a guy who you know knows the Omega team pretty well and pretty friendly with them, uh I was in some ways really unexpected because you know the 321 came out, it was announced in January of this year, and I had always heard from them and and kind of, you know, around town that we would not see a three twenty one this year. That it just wouldn't be ready. Uh and then of course they dropped this crazy platinum speedmaster on at the exact minute that man landed on the moon. Right. Yeah. That's cool. That watch is awesome. It's awesome. I gotta say, like I really struggled, wondering like, okay, I what are they going to drop? I I knew they had to do something. It'd be crazy if they didn't. But I was wondering like what they've done so much i mean omega's really done a good job reviving classic speed masters uh i think this is awesome the watch with the onyx dial the lunar meteorite subdial it's cool it's cool it really is and that what's funny is like so I I loved the the gold watch that they did. Yep. The moonshangles the moonshangle love that. Like really considered buying one like really amazing watch. I didn't love the steel watch so much. It just wasn't my aesthetic. Uh I know it's sold out a thousand times over, etcetera. And like for a speedy guy, you kinda have to have it. But it didn't speak to me. This is like this is right in my wheelhouse. This is this is super cool. Three twenty-one is, I mean, the the movement or among the movements, uh the Mentijera. And now it''s backs. And what neat about these watches, the three twenty ones is that they're gonna be assembled by one watchmaker. So it's like a really artisan level watchmaking from the second biggest watch brand in the world. Yeah. And it's it's even cooler when you think about Omega in that term. It's like o,kay, this is not like this is not, I don't know, Vashron or Petech or AP or Langa, like this is Omega. Like they're making you know north of a million watches a year probably. Like behind Rolex, they are the biggest watch brand in the world. And to have them take enough time to care about the enthusiast market and take enough time to to to have one watchmaker assemble each watch is is really very telling about how they they view their place in in the world and how they view the enthusiast world. Yeah. I like that. Would you say that the platinum one' likes the fanciest Speedmaster ever made? Uh I mean there there are some that are j jump set, so I would say those are slightly skeletonized. Skeletonized ones. My only gripe is that I wish it came on a platinum bracelet. If you're gonna do it, let's just do it. You know? And I know f I know for a fact, because I was offered one once that for the fortieth anniversary, they did a platinum speed master on a platinum bracelet. So I know that it's possible. Uh I think their suppliers have probably changed, but so that that was kind of a I wish they had done that. Yeah. Certainly not sad, but okay. If you're gonna do it, let's let's do it guys. Yeah. I mean we get we get messages from people all the time asking us if we can help get them, you know, fifty seven elevens and if we can help get them no date subs and whatever. People in in most cases very wrongly assume that we have some sort of inside track and can just like get people whatever watches they want. For the record, Steven does. I do, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's actually how I make all my money. So if you want some, hit me up. But uh please please don't. Um but uh I think I got more messages from like friends and and people I'm friendly with uh asking about this watch than any other new release this year. Yeah. It's a ton of text messages being like, Hey, do you think uh you think you can help me find one? And people seem excited about it. Agreed. And I I think re realistic look, it's a ton of money. It's sixty grand or so. Um but platinum case hand, wound, vintage movement, like it's it doesn't seem that egregious, honestly, the price. No. It's cool. Yeah, and they're only doing a f I mean this year they'll probably the they're supposed to deliver later this year, or at least the first batch. And we're talking like, you know very few watches so this is not like a big release for them at all. Yeah so the last story I want to talk about is a story Kara published the other day. Kara's laughing she knows exactly where I'm going with this. Watch spotting in Top Gun. Oh yeah. But not the new Top Gun. Not the new Top Gun. And nor did I watch Top Gun to spot this watch. What did you do again? I was reading the Daily Mail. Yeah, you were. Okay. And uh the paper of record. It was a unflattering story about Kelly McGillis. And then I saw that she was wearing the Pontera in the in the movie. I thought that was kinda cool. It's fitting. It's cool. It's very fitting. I mean that watch was the watch for nineteen eighty six, which is also her birth year. Yes. Yellow gold. It's pretty cool. And she, from what I remember, I've only seen it a few times, and it's as I said in the story, it's not my favorite movie. Car's just coming coming out swinging at everything. Car hates Speedmasters, Car hates top gun. You are not gonna make any new fans. Yeah, negative yeah, negative Nancy over here. Get her off the get her off uh what do you what movie do you like? What watch do you like? Yeah. Okay, I think Cocktail is a way better movie. Interesting. Interesting. Than Top Gun. Okay. That's a very hot take. Interesting. And if you're not gonna buy a Speedmaster and you can't say Daytona, what would you buy? Like Like if you had a son or a brother, you have neither, as far as I know. What would you buy that that man? Oh, that's a good question. Maybe I'll get them a speedmaster.. Alright But I'm talking about for myself. Throwing it out there. Real on the come on. Like it's for m like |
| Unknown | for like I I think Speedmasters are cool. I get the appeal. They're just not for me. And so my opinions are based on what I think. And that |
| Unknown | 's okay. That's okay. That's fine. That's what this is all about, right? So I'm allowed to have hot takes. You're m e extremely invited to have hot takes. We love hot takes here on Hodinky Radio. But yeah, she was wearing back to the story, she was wearing the gold Panter. It looks pretty cool with a bomber jacket. I gotta say. It does. That watch with a bomber jacket's gonna be a lot I prefer the pink sweater over the shoulder, but that's because I like literally wore that outfit like two days ago. So it's fine. Um but yeah. I liked seeing that. I didn't see what watches they were wearing though. I don't know. That volleyball scene, you know. It's hard to tell. I don't think they were wearing a watch. No. Speaking of people having opinions, people had a lot of opinions about this story. Did they? About that story? About that story. Oh, I stopped. People in the comments. Yeah. People have very strong feelings. A, about the movie Top Gun, B about the Ponter, and C about us doing a watch spotting in a 30-something year old movie. For the record, guys, like it's no fair game. Okay. Well I would like to point something out. Yeah, exactly. Whenever I do a wash spotting, it's usually some golf tournament where you're side. I'm signed to I'm like, you guys know I'm the least sports oriented person on the team, but okay. And second of all, it's a it's a usually a Rolex because they sponsor a lot of golf tournaments. And then people |
| Unknown | complain because the player who's spotted wearing the watch is sponsored, so they're like, Well, this isn't real a watch spotting. And then now I do this Top Gun movie and this is a real watch spotting |
| Unknown | and people are complaining about it too. Well you can't win, right? This is the internet. Yeah, the internet. You just can't win. Maybe that's why I'm so negative. Maybe. The internet has ruined Kara. No, but it was fun. I enjoyed it. We've got one last No What? What? Go ahead. Alright, you got more? No. Alright. So we got we've got one last bit of news which is is not coverage of the watch industry, but it's sort of like coverage of ourselves, I guess. Which is that we're best kind of coverage. Yeah, it's best kind of coverage. We're uh we're moving offices. Yeah, we are. Yeah, new hodinky HQ on the uh horizon. On the horizon, yeah. It's uh been a long time coming. I mean, so we have had uh well, we've had a few offices since since inception. We had my apartment, we had Sew House on ninth Avenue for a little while, uh, we had the graduate school up uptown, we had uh we work. We work phase one. We work phase one, which was the tiniest little room for just Steven and I. Like literally Steven would have like I was on the inside, he was on the outside. Like he would have to like get up out of his chair so that I could get out. It was bad. Uh it was it was pretty bad. And then we'll kind of like sit in the hallway sometimes when he joined as like a freelancer. Then we had we work phase two. Yeah. Actually kind of phase two and three. Because we had the four four person and then the we had two four people. Oh yeah. And then we got the second office. Yeah. Uh and then we came over to here, which is across town on the other side of Soho, and uh we've been kinda going crazy since we got here. Yeah. Uh and so we're about to have our own floor built out. Yeah, full office. Full office with doors and everything. Oh man. Uh which is pretty wild.. Con Confferenceeren roceom room. So we basically have been working out of this loft in Soho for the past, I don't know, two or three years. I guess. No, almost five. Four and a half years. I started four and a half years. Two thousand. Yes. Yeah, four years. Two thousand. Because you guys had just moved in when I started. Right. So we've been working out of this kind of like loft space or you know, kind of open open floor plan space in Soho since 2015. And uh we pretty much didn't do anything to the space at all. Like we just threw some desks in there and kind of went for it. Uh and now we have a full designed, you know, office inclusive uh space downstairs in this building. And it's it's pretty exciting. It'll look like a real company, you know, which is kind of crazy to think about 'cause you know, in my mind this is still just like me and Steven talking about. I mean that's what's happening right now. That is actually what we're doing currently. Yeah. We just have like thirty five people sitting downstairs. But uh yeah. Uh yeah, it's gonna be exciting stuff. So people will notice uh you know, that famous bookcase from uh the videos. Oh yeah, it's it's gonna be no more. It's been disassembled already. There will be something else in its place though. There will be. Yeah, a couple things. Uh another bookcase? Maybe. Hopefully. There will be space for books in the office. Correct. Um so yeah, so keep an eye out for that. Uh you'll you'll be seeing that in some videos, I think, coming pretty soon. Pretty soon., Ye yeah.ah It's uh some big big things coming over the next few months for sure for us and and for you guys, we hope. Yeah. Awesome. Well, pursuant to that. Uh I know we've all got you know office space to move into, we've got stories to write, things to to wrap up. So thank you guys for joining. This was fun and uh we'll do this again soon On a recent trip out west, I was able to sit down with Morgan King, an LA collector who's kind of a legend in the watch community. Morgan is one of the friendliest guys you'll ever meet, he has a giant smile on his face, and boy does this guy love watches. Without further ado, here's my chat with Morgan. The man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Morgan King. Good to see you. Hello everybody. Hello Steve. Great to see you and B2B here in Los Angeles. So most people listening probably don't realize this is your second time recording with us. Yes, it is. The first one never aired. You couldn't get it right the first time, huh? It is our fault. I'll take responsibility. We sat down, I guess, I guess maybe a year and a half ago now. Uh and recorded what ended up being the earliest pilot episode of Hodinky Radio. And it was so early that it was a different format. We had some other folks on the show, totally different thing. We decided not to air it because it just like didn't make sense in the final show, but we we finally were gonna we're gonna fix it. We're gonna come back and we're gonna do this right. We're gonna edit this for right |
| Unknown | . Because there's so many things I remember talking about that was just really like, I was like, what are you guys doing? That's like so odd but so different. And I was following your lead because uh I trust anything that you guys do anyway. Oh well that's that's |
| Unknown | uh trust misplaced, but I'll uh I'll take I'll take it. Um you know our our audience is probably a little familiar with you 'cause you did talking watches what, two and a half, almost three years ago now? Yes, sir. Long, long time |
| Unknown | . What was that like? Uh you know it was great. I didn't know what to expect when uh Ben was there. Uh he was easy 'cause we didn't know we were filming until he said, Okay, that's a wrap, thanks. And I was like, What? That's it, we're done. And he's like, Yeah. And uh I don't know how you guys did that. We recorded at least uh what an hour? Okay. And you guys edited the crap out of that. You made me that's it that's it. And yeah, uh Will did a great job |
| Unknown | . Will and Gray and uh Dave, they've been making me look like not an idiot for for years now. Oh it's all them. Yeah, it's oh it's all them. It's all them. Without them, no nobody wants to listen to me. But in that case. Then they're good to keep them on. We'll pay them on the clock. Yeah, we'll kick them around. Uh I want to go back to the very beginning. Let's go pre-talking watches. Yes. When did you first get into watches? How did how did Morgan King watch collectors start |
| Unknown | ? Well, from the videos right we talked about the whole comic book and the baseball cards. I don't know if I talked about that or not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh but yeah when I was a kid growing up in uh in the eighties in New York City, baseball cards, comics were huge. Huge, huge, huge. You're talking about uh the Wolverine, Second Marlins, uh Steve uh Frank Miller's Batman, everything I just loved. So you had to have the cover, it had to be mint. You had to get them uh approved and you know had an created double uh double backboarded and bagged. It was you had to have three. One to rock, two to stock, maybe one more extra just to read. You know, you stole money from your m your father's wallet just uh you know, dad wouldn't miss it. It's only dollar fifty anyway. Um you need that comic book. Of course. You need four of them, right? That's just that's that how it worked. So uh I yeah, I would I would have that and I would just go crazy. I was obsessed over it. Uh eventually basketball cards came into it as well. You know, tops, uh upper deck, uh the 86 Mets, right? 86 Mets, baby. Wookiee Wils |
| Unknown | on. Yeah. Mets are making a run right now too. We are we are in the middle of the Mets uh win streak right now. They're above |
| Unknown | five hundred. That's all that matters. Live and large. Right? As my coach would say, better than four hundred. So that's okay. But the Yankees. Six fifty five right now. Yeah, I don't I don't want to talk about the Yankees. They're from New York. It's show some love. It's fine. Uh everyone may know, but I'm from Queens, New York City, so I'm a I'm a I grew up a Mets fan, but you know, I still show some love to to the to the stripes. All right. Not a Dodgers fan? Uh I am too. I'm I'm one of those things where wherever I go, you know, I like to mesh. I'm not one of those hardcore like, oh, you either gotta bleed or or die kind of scenario. Okay. For me it's like, hey man, it's cool, we could all coexist. Yeah. Right? You like Rolex? I like paddocks. Can't we y'all get along, right? Come on. Met the Mets and Yankees or the uh Rolex and Paddock of baseball? Well, not exactly the same. You know, the subway series, we know who won that one. We won't say we won't talk about that. Yeah. Anyway. But anyway. Hello, BSI Qu |
| Unknown | eens. Love you all. Yeah, shout out to Queens. So you're collecting baseball cards, you're collecting comic books. Yes. When do watches come into the picture |
| Unknown | ? Watches come in when the pop-up swatch happened. Okay. Right. It was one of those things where I started seeing them in like I think second grade, third grade. All the hip kids had them. They're they were stuck on their shirts. And I was like, yo, what is that, man? They're like, it's a Pops watch. Look, it pops off. I'm like, yo, that's crazy. So I'm like, I want one. I went to I think it was Macy's or it was um let's see. I think there was Saks Fifth Avenue back in Bayside. Uh there was one in uh um Long Island Roosevelt, right? Yeah. And there it was. It was like $50. And my dad's like, are you crazy? No. You can't even read time. I'm like, oh, I want one dad, please. He's like, you know, you can have this one. This one looks like you know I think it was on sales on clearance or something it was like uh something that was defective like you can have this one but I loved it I enjoyed it I wore it I popped it on it it was great I I don't think you're right I I was not able to tell the time on that, but the fact that I had one I I felt like belonged. Uh and then I just kept it. I'm very nostalgic in that sense. I keep things. You know, things that that that remind me of things. Even now I have so much clutter in my office um that if you looked at it you're like, oh this guy's got a problem. This guy's gotta go to therapy. This guy is a hoarder for sure. And uh It's high quality hoarding. It's all mint in box, super nice. Sure, sure. Absolutely. It's all that stuff that, you know, when I was a kid, I didn't have much. Uh we came from a very modest beginning. So whenever I wanted something, I'd like, can I get that? And I knew the answer was always gonna be no. So I was always like, oh, okay. But I gotta ask, right? You have to ask. You gotta try. Every now and then they throw you a bone. You're like, okay, you can have this, but it has to be on sale. I was like, oh, dad. Or mom. My mom was always like the the type that that was always like, You don't need that. It's gonna you're gonna lose it the next uh the next minute you have it. So no, you you can't have it. So when I grew up I was like, I gotta get this, I gotta get that, I gotta get another one just in case I f I lose the first one or I scratched the other one. So yeah, it's it's kind of a bad habit. So my wife and my kids were always kinda like, Oh, make sure dad gets two. |
| Unknown | You've trained them well. They know exactly. You've actually gone back and bought some of the stuff that you wanted when you were a kid, right? |
| Unknown | Yes. You've collected it now. The Corgi Batmobiles. Yeah. That's one thing. I I remember talking about that our first episode. It's never been here, but we might release that, right? Or maybe hide it as well. Maybe maybe maybe someday. So there was this Corgi Batmobile the batman robin they came with it came with the bat boat if you were lucky because they came in a three-part series or the bat chopper and that was the one that was made in England the United Kingdom and this was back in like nineteen eighty three nineteen eighty four And that was back when we had the big wheels. And I wanted a big wheel because I got good grade as my dad, so you can have it. But then as I walked down the aisle in Jackson Heights, Queens, H.L. Green. If it's still there, I don't know. know, but let me Send me a text. Let me know if it's still there. Batmobile, Corgi, Batman and Robin, with the Bat Chopper and the Batboat. And man, ever since then, I wanted it and I couldn't get it because my dad promised me the big wheel instead and I had to share with my other brother David, younger brother David. I hate him so much now because to this day. So now every time I see a Corgi Mapmobile, either at Frankensons, which is a local hobby joint place, you can pick up stuff even at the San Diego Comic-Cons or New York. Any sort of vintage toy place I'll go into. I'll pick that up. And those things are so expensive now. They're like $2.50 for like open boxing all ripped up. A thousand dollars if they're brand new in the box. But I have to buy them and it's just killing me. You're just filling that hole. It's like that serial killer who has to buy cash in the rye, right? Every time they walk by, who is it? The Mel Gibson movie that was in there? Maybe, yeah. Oh, I forget. It was Julia Robertson and Mel Gibson, I'll remember it later, but he would buy Catcher in the Wire Buck and he had like eighty-seven volumes. So I have like thirty-two Corgi Battle Mobiles. All right. Yeah. It's better than the one that you could have had back then. Oh well, I think if I had that one, I wouldn't have this emptiness. You wouldn't need the thirty two now. I am like plugging in right now if I have making myself whole and I I just can't get that done someho |
| Unknown | w. Well your watch collection is also big, but it's also it's not just anything. Like you collect very specific things and you kinda hone in on particular watches. Do you remember the first watch kind of uh in your in your current collection that you saw and you were like, Oh shit, like I I need that gave you that kind of feeling |
| Unknown | . It was a evolutionary process I think. I think the first thing that I really really looked at and said, Yo, this is great, was probably that swatch chronograph from 1986. Okay. It was black, it was simple, it was timeless, and it was just like, wow, what is this? They had like this uh textured band on it, and I was like, this is kind of cool. I could kind of go swim with it and I don't feel bad and it's plastics if I drop it it won't break. Uh but eventually the the chronograph look because I always felt like a standard watch without any chronographs just had like a plain look. It was kind of like almost empty. I felt like it was missing something. And I'm the kind of kid, as you know, I'm a hoarder. So I always felt like, you know, if something's empty, this this I gotta put something in it to kind of make it fill it up. Um I've always I always see it as like an empty bowl. You gotta fill up with cereal, right? You gotta put cocoa puffs in it, or you gotta like put your lucky charms. It has to have color, it has to have a different hominess. I also feel like you know, the more things you have in something, it's it's more things to play with, more things to talk about. Uh so I I always wish the glass was always half full. But yeah, though the swatch was something that I really enjoyed. It really gave me a lot of uh pleasure because just remember it's the first watch. My gosh, this is something that you know, just last week I didn't have it. Now this week I haven't. Everyone's talking to me about it. Cause like, yo, what's this? Oh, you're a grown boy now. You can reel you can tell time. I couldn't tell time, but I was just like, oh yeah, it's it's four o'clock right now. It's like, you know, we're in school, like, oh, it's four o'clock and teacher's like, no, sir. School just started. It's around maybe 8 45 at best. No, no, no. It's time to go home. My watch says so. I'm yeah, it says so. She's like, you didn't it's not even set right. I don't think it even has batteries in this. I'm like, oh well, you know, these kids don't know. It looks cool. It's fine. Fake it till you make it, right? Yeah. But eventually, uh the Hoya Carrera, I think is was was another thing. Well, as I got older, um I found the reedition. There's a reedition that Hoyer had made. Um, I think it was around nineteen ninety nine, 2000, 2000, you know, around there where I was like going back into pieces. I was like, yo, this is a great looking watch. You know, back then, uh, the Tag Hoyer, like 1500, the F-1s, they were hot. But they came up with this re-edition. I was like, what is this? And they had a picture of it being black and white, the racing scripts, the uh if you had the the circles, you know, the rally circles on the bands. I was like, this is a beautiful looking piece. It came with the Monaco, came with the curves, and it said re-edition. I was like, re-edition? That means this is like an re- it's a re-addition of edition of the original edition. Like, yeah, it's and back then the internet was was happening. So I I got online and I Googled it and I was like, wow. I don't think it was even a Google, was it? I I I did something. I did some sort of search. Ask Jeeves. Ask Jeeves, maybe AOL, online. Alta Vista. Alta Vista. So I looked that up and I was like, wow, this one's great. This is from 63, 64. I think I want one. But you know, back then I had no idea like how even to get one. Yeah. Uh I'd go to these like um antique shops and no one had any of these until like eBay came out. And I was one of the earlier ones, like think nineteen yeah nineteen ninety nine two thousand I was on this eBay thing I was like I don't trust this thing no way man leave a credit card nah this is a scam I'm a New Yorker you know I'm always pessimistic about life. And I'm like, no no, no,. I'm my credit card. But I only had a little limit. It's like, yeah, what's the what's the loss? Five thousand dollars. I'll do it. So little and behold, started buying them. And then that was the one that just I loved. And of course I had the re-edition hoyers, but eventually I realized I'm not wearing these. They're so pretty, you know, I'm loyal to them, but I'm like, ah, you know, let someone else enjoy them. Gotta repurpose them. I always, you know, as much as I I I believe in God, I also believe that there are such things as the watch guards, you know, this karma. Yeah. You know, you keep them all to yourself, you're not gonna wear them. That's just darn greedy. And somehow, somewhere, the the watch guards will will know that and they'll hide that watch that you want to get, or or that watch you really really, want, the owner, he'll sell it to you for an extra zero, but he won't give it off that much. You know? So I always feel if I do the right thing, I pass on something that I'm not gonna wear, if I enjoy if I um, you know, do something nice for someone else, for my fellow man or woman, uh it will come back to me in some way or form. Yeah. And you know what? That that that idea has stuck with me for a while. I I I I have to say, which is kind of weird, I've hit a particular level in my collection where I was I'm very, very happy. Uh I I guess my bar is fairly low. When I was young, uh I had a little list on my on my sheet. I was like, what am I gonna do? And I said, uh I would like to have a small watch collection. I want to have, you know, certain things like a house, a car. I always wanted to drive a Range Rover. I drive a Range Rover now, which is nice. My that's m my bar is very, very low. It's from 2010, so it's old as anything, but I love it. I'm very, very n uh uh s sentimental nostalgic. So I'll drive until it dies. I'll be the guy pushing that car on the four or five, saying, I'm not gonna get rid of you. I love you. There's a hundred thousand. Everyone hawking behind you. I'm like, it's fine. Just drive around. Just drive around. But uh yeah, I'm one of those guys that will just stick to you till till till the end. And do you think that sentimentality is why you like vintage watches? Absolutely. I feel like in the 60s and 70s where I kind of grew up. I grew up in seventy five. Uh and uh I was born in seventy five, excuse me. So around that time, uh it was around that transition where you know punk rock was starting, it's Cindy Lauper, wham, fluorescent colors, someone's desperately seeking for s for Susan, right? Madonna. And that was like but from the sixties I also saw the the Paul Newman look. A lot of guys were wearing hats still. They're still wearing the fedoras. They still had the the turtlenecks and mock necks. And it was like a weird uh stage where you saw the punk rockers, but yet you saw the classy guys, Sinatra-like guys, still smoking, having like these, you know, camel-type uh overcoats with their you know, nice Bergdorf Goodman uh gloves. It was very, very odd. And I was remember watching everything. I was like, this is like a weird time, everything's transitioning. So during that time, I really enjoyed that look, how everything was simple. And uh I guess I you know, back then they only had what, thirteen channels on TV, there's no cable. Yeah, right. Right? Channel two, three, four, five, seven, nine, and eleven maybe. Maybe if you're lucky you have thirteen for Sesame Street. But I remember watching different strokes and like facts of life, all these shows, and they all had that like kind of feel to them. And I was like, I want to be in this era forever. And uh growing up, I just bought stuff that that really weren't trendy. It was very, very basic, a lot of solid colors. I bought things, I still have jackets from high school. Now that I'm in LA. But I still wear. I still feel like they're gap. They're from J. Crew back in the day when only J. Crew had it at the South Free Seaport. There was only one store. But I would drive and take the subway all the way there. It would take me two and a half hours to get there from Queens. But I would buy my first, you know, my Anorak that I still have to this day. Nice. It still fits me. And I don't know, I don't know how long I'll have it, but now they're coming out with re editions. So I get to tell my kids, look, dad's got the original. Got the OG one. And they're like, oh, that's so old. Get rid of them. Like, no, never. Never. I should have bought two. So no. That's that's how it is. But what was your question? I don't even know. I go off the water the question was is is the sentimentality why you like vintage watches? That's gotta be. Yes, I do. And the short answer, yes. I uh I just love them how they just reflect life at the time. It's just so so simple and yet it matches everything. Yeah. Like even now if you look at it, right? These things are fifty, six years old and no matter what, they m they match your face, 'cause your face doesn't change really, right? Styles change. Yeah. You know, you you look like a modern man with uh with your hip uh look, your haircut and your beard and everything. But you know, next thousand years you there's gonna be guy that may look like you and they'll call they'll call that look the Stephen P. It'll be the Stephen P. reedition P. re edition, you know. Three point six. Who knows? But uh but yeah, those are timeless. And that's one thing I really, really enjoy. I I like things to stay the same. I don't like change too much. Okay. Right? |
| Unknown | And the watches, the watches you collect are those sort of classic tool watches. Like that's that's really your focus, right |
| Unknown | ? Oh yeah. But I also have to admit, I'm also very, very superficial. I'm kind of vain. That' Tsalk oingkay. talking about when I was a kid, I wanted to fit in, right? That the whole Swashing wanted to fit in and make sure that I was well liked and enjoyed. So I realized early on that I kind of stuck with things that were mainstream. You know, even now uh I kind of go back and I look at my YouTube channel, the one that you guys posted, and I'm always looking at the comments like, oh man, this guy doesn't like it. Oh this guy likes it. But never read the comments, man. That's rule number one. That's okay. That's okay. Rule number one. I like to because you know, you know, I I'm not sure if uh well, first of all, nobody really knows. I'm not I'm not anybody. I'm walking down the street, nobody recognizes me. Only a couple of guys are like, yo, you're that guy with the with the two watches on your wrist. I'm like, yeah, that's me. And they're like, What's your name again? It's like uh King. Some dude. K |
| Unknown | ing from Queens. Yeah, that's me, that's me. So I'm like, I love that too. King of the Word. |
| Unknown | Yeah, for sure. You should trademark that and then. We'll just call it uh for Morgan, King of Queens, the rap music from Stephen P. |
| Unknown | Okay. I mean I'm on board. Done. All right. You you mentioned being the guy with two watches. Yes. I don't want to let that slide by. You're Mr. Two Watch. I'm Mr. Twatch. You're the only person I know who can wear two watches and make it look |
| Unknown | cool. You know, it's all about confidence. You fake it till you make it. Every single day. There's always someone that comes up to me and says, Um, Sir, you're wearing two watches. I'm like, Yeah, I am. |
| Unknown | Yeah. And what they don't realize is like in the case of today, your two watches are a red sub and a 1655. That's right. |
| Unknown | These are two real deal watches. These are legit ones. If you uh but I although I do have some not so legit ones just to kind of keep me grounded, you know. But uh today I'm wearing a 1680 Mark I red sub and a sixteen fifty-five Mark III rail dial. Yeah, I had to like look that |
| Unknown | up, but but it's really the good that's a good pair right there. Two very different Rolexes, but at the same time kind of similar |
| Unknown | . Right. You know, it these are timeless. These are the ones that are back in the you know the 70s and the 60s, and they're just, you know, the timeless. And I think I yeah, they've they all have re editions now if you look at it now. Yeah. They're all they all came back. So uh I always like being the OG if I could, because I was born too late. You know, I was born in twenty five, these things were released earlier than me. So if I had was able to buy one new, I would have loved it and would have kept it. I would probably would have kept it. I still have my Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle toys and my G.I. Joe's. It's amazing. I don't know if I told you, but I actually have like twenty different uh variations of the GI Joe action for your storm shadow and s and uh Snake Eyes. First edition, you know, you are like the quintessential collector. I am because I just |
| Unknown | got it. I feel like some people have it and some people don't. You're you're a collector, like |
| Unknown | deep down. But my things own me. That's the thing. I'm like, I I can't put you in the sun. Yeah. You know, you'll you'll get you'll get faded. I you know, that's gonna lose value, right? I put 'em in boxes, I put 'em in uh Ziploc bags. It's it's really a a trial and you know the people who are around me really love me. I know that because I'm very difficult. I'm very, very difficult. That's how you know they love you. They've kept you around. They kept me around. They haven't defended. They haven't uh deleted me from the Facebook contacts. It |
| Unknown | 's all right. Yeah. So before we move too far away from it, why do you wear two watches? Because you always wear two watches. This isn't like a thing you do sometimes. You almost always are wearing two wat |
| Unknown | ches. Yes. I like two watches because something clicked in me back in the day. When I used to wear one watch, and you know, when you only had one watch, you had one watch. But then there was a time I was able to buy two watches because I would work in Brooklyn back in the day. in Uh high school, I worked for my uncle in Brooklyn Heights. So I would take the subway there and I and made some money. And eventually my one swatch became two swatches. My one Hoyer became two Hoyers. Well tag hour back in the height in the day. So there was a time that I actually had to when I collected comic books and baseball cards, I had to get a ver every single version of the variation. So the plastic chronograph, the b first one that I got that I talked to Ben about back in Talking Watches, I have the black dial, I have the white dial. I have the red dial, I got the blue dial. You got all of them. I got all of 'em. But then I was like, man, I can only wear one. But then I'm like, wait, I got another wrist. Why can't I wear two? I'm gonna wear two. You gotta wear two shoes, can't you? You got two earrings, right? But wear them both. What's the big deal? And I used to get people just looking at me and say, yo, this guy is off the charts. And I you know, here I am. You know, and I like talking to myself sometimes. So I'm on the subway from Queens going to Brooklyn Heights, talking to myself, wearing two washes. It's like, oh, this guy definitely. You're a classic subway guy. This guy. All I'm missing is a trench coat, right? Which I also probably had. I had like one of those beige trench coats |
| Unknown | . You're the guy, everybody on that subway car went home and said, Oh honey, you'll never guess what I saw on the subway |
| Unknown | today. Yeah, you know, I want to give him some money, but he wasn't h holding a cup, so uh what are you gonna do? But uh yeah, these two cups, these these two watch was something I really, really enjoyed. I think another one also was um it's just a passion. You know, for me, if I could have two persons, I would. I'm a big bag man like you sometimes. You know, we all love our Phil Sin and love a good bag. You know, right? Come on, who doesn't like these? Um, I really enjoy just the way that and the bags are symbolic because you get to hold stuff in it. Yeah. You know, you get to hold your comic book. You get to hold that walk man or your your iPhone or your gloves or your shades. You seem like a man with a lot of accessories. I have too. The only reason why I didn't bring it because I didn't want to seem like uh, you know, I was I was gonna stay over. All right. This is a safe space. You're you're you're welcome any time. Well, thank you. I I will bring my my bag. And I always always toothbrush in my bag also. Believe it or not.. I do I carry a deck of cards, uh, toothbrush, sunglasses, charger |
| Unknown | , and I always have a watch. I know about the deck of cards because something else that people might not know is that you're really into magic. Yes, I am. |
| Unknown | That you know, that was episode one. Yeah. First air one that hasn't aired up. So that might be where it's a good thing. Let's let's talk about your love of magic. I do enjoy magic only because that evens up the playing field. Growing up, I was a little bit shy. Uh my household we spoke Mandarin Chinese, so I didn't really speak English that much. So when I went outside like kindergarten, first grade, second grade, I was always uh kind of the odd man out. I didn't know the the lingo or even I I think maybe had an accent. Who knew? But um I worked very hard to get rid of it. Now I sound like I'm a New Yorker where now I'm I found like a an educated college man. But uh growing up I always felt a little bit awkward. I felt like I was like, oh, I was always starting late. So as I got older, I always looked for things that would kind of keep you fresh and quote unquote not weird, but it was just that you would stand out. So Magic was one of them. I always like David Copperville when he made the Great World China disappear on one of his specials on TV on those 11 channels that I had got to watch. It was probably a rerun, but it was one of those he's like, yo, that's really cool and then as it got older my kids um went to school and i and and there was a teacher that was a magician and she was like listen if you guys finish your homework finish your assignment early i'll show you i'll show you an effect and i was like, she said effect. I was like, what does that mean? It's like a special effect. No, it's a magic trick. But I we, you know, us professionals call it an effect. So now I'm like, I always call it an effect now because I didn't want to disappoint her. But uh it really, really levels the field because when you come in, you don't know you from anyone. You come into a bar, you come into a room, and you kind of need to like show yourself, you know, either what you're wearing, how you present yourself. And magic is great because it's a great icebreaker. You talk to somebody, you show them an effect, next thing you know, five minutes later, you guys are best friends because you guys both shared an experience. Right? That's what I think life is all about. You share experiences. You and I, why are we here? Because we love these old things that tell the time. Yeah. We also love the Mets. But that's that's another right. That's another We can do a whole separate show. Oh, forget it. That |
| Unknown | 's episode two. That's gonna be unaired. |
| Unknown | The the Mets supplement. When the Mets win the World Series, we'll do a special episode. |
| Unknown | Uh twenty eighty six. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. So they're bringing it hoping to be around for that. W |
| Unknown | ell Stephen P three point six will probably report that. Yeah, that's probably true. Exactly. Yeah. But uh yeah. So it's it's so magic was something that I started. So I ended up taking classes at the Magic Castle here in Hollywood. Cool. And uh that place is great. Yo, that place is like old Hollywood. It falls into place because I love things that are timeless. It got started back in like the well the host of stuff was built in the 1920s. Uh but back in the 1670s, the Larson brothers uh actually started. And it was one of those things where timeless, it's you still still have the old Johnny Carson set by the Owl Bar. Nice you had like, you know, everything's like legit red velvet seats, you had you know cocktail, Irma, who's the invisible piano player, who's a ghost, by the way. Uh she's playing music, uh pop songs, new songs, old songs, you name it. She plays. Um, but everything there is like it doesn't change. People I've seen that they're like nine year old guys are still there saying, you know, this place hasn't changed since I've been here since I was a kid. And it's uh I just love that. You see celebrities there also, you know, Katie Perry, John Mayor, he's been mayor at the Magic Castle, uh, Johnny Depp, Jack Black, those are some Terry Hatchers, some of these people, you know, and you just like, oh hey, what's up? And you're how I'm knobbing with him. You know, I don't know if you know, but I'm I'm a little bit starstruck. I get starstruck. So that's something I wanted to talk about. In addition to being a watch collector, a magician, you're also the king of the selfie. Uh uh you know, thank you for that. I I I uh a lot of it is Photoshop. I'm really good at that. I have my children work on it for me |
| Unknown | . Actually if if that turned out to be the case, that would almost be more impressive by the actual uh the |
| Unknown | reality. Well I think I I attribute uh my selfies to two things. Number one, you gotta have courage. You will n what is it, Wayne Greshkin said you will |
| Unknown | always miss all the shots that you miss. Yeah, you miss uh you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. Oh I like that. There we go. Thank you, Stephen P. Yeah. You know being a hockey fan is useful for |
| Unknown | twelve seconds. There we go. Well there it is. There it is. That it served its purpose on in in this lifetime. Uh but yes, uh so you go and you have to have fresh breath. Those are the only two things. You go in, you look them in the eye. Can't be creepy, gotta be nice. You gotta say hello, tell them you're a fan. Uh just because you don't want to throw them off because i've been i've been confused for being like a japanese producer they're like oh hey we worked at this uh event together right and i was like uh you do i say yes do i say no i'm like well we'll give me the stuffy yes we did. Yeah, we did. And they come in with that always gives you a little more extra brownie pants. They'll hug you a little bit more or they get a little bit closer. That's funny. Uh security won't push you away. Okay. Uh so sometimes some of these guys come with security and they are you don't see them. They're they're there, but they are like if they know if they think you're just too creepy, no, you they they won't let you get there. And it's legit to them. Interesting. Have you ever had |
| Unknown | like you go to approach somebody in a security guard kind of like appears out of nowhere |
| Unknown | ? Exactly, exactly. He came out right and was like, No man. No. I was like Disneyland. I was there just walking over. We were just hanging out, downtown Disney. This was back when it was uh Heidi Klum and Seal, they were still together and had their kid, but they had their face painted like animals. Uh just I guess to hide from the from the crowd, but it's seal and heidi clume with their face. There's no way, like, how do you not notice them? So I just I d well to be fair, I didn't notice until we got into the line. We're getting beignets. I think it was uh Benigans, uh delicious beignets if you're ever in downtown Disney go there. So we're hanging out, hanging out and my kid is playing and their k they brought their kid and just luck the draw my kid starts playing with this other kid and I'm like, oh that's cool. Face is painted, it's really cute. I look up, look at the parents, I'm like, yo, this is this is kind of weird. And they're both kind of face painted. And you know, I kind of walk in to kind of say hello. And this guy got him now, it just pops out. He's just like, boom, right? Almost like a a body body blow almost. And I was like, yo, where'd where'd this thing come from? And he just kinda looked at me, just kinda nodded and like I was like, okay, never mind. He just shook his head. He was like, mm-mm, mm mm. Any favorite selfies? Favorite oh. I think Drew Barrymore. Yeah? Oh, I love her. Okay. Fire starter, E.T., you name it, Charlie's Angels. Uh I had a chance to uh you know when we go out. These stars are regular people anyway, by the way. They are, they eat, they breathe, they hang out. Uh I have a feeling I I have a little theory that people that don't want to be seen or don't want to be bothered, they don't go out. They get they get take out or they they get grub hubbed over now or they have their associates bring food. So the people who are act out are actually good people, I feel. But you need to also have a good sensible vibe around them. You know, if they're on a date, if they're with the kids, you know, leave them alone. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Um have you ever seen somebody out and really wanted to go over but just kind of like felt like the vibe wasn't right? Uh there was one guy, um |
| Unknown | Hawkeye from Avengers. Okay. We had I had just seen him. Um Jeremy Renner. Jeremy Renner. He was at the Little Mermaid Anniversary with Leah Michelle. She was performing. I'm a huge Leah Michelle fan from Glee. Love her. She was a Hollywood Bowl. This was just this past year. So I was with my kids. I took them. Jimmy Renner brought his kids. And of course we're all during to mission we go to the bathroom. And I'm while I'm walking, I see Hawkeye walk right by me, holding his kid. I was like, yo, that's Hawkeye. My my daughter's like, who? I'm like, Hawkeye from Avengers. Like endgame like that guy? No, that's not him. I'm like, that's that's him. That's German Renner. He's like, oh wow. He's like, oh you're gonna get a selfie dead? I'm I'm gonna try. But then of course, you know, we both use the restroom. I'm trying to feel him out. But the good thing about it is some guy recognized him earlier. He says, Hey Jeremy, great to see you. Can I get a picture? He's like, Oh, I'm with my kids, I'm sorry. Okay. And they're like, So somebody else made the mistake for you. He was like, Oh, of course, of course and but he shook his hand, he was nice, he was very nice with everyone. But he was just like, I'm with my kids, you know. I would get divorced if I lost this one. So like understood. But uh just to be able to see them and it''sd see that a he regular person, he's cool and uh he actually sat not so far away from me. So I was able to see him. Like he was a great dad. Like, you know, it was kinda raining that day, so they gave him like a poncho and he was nice. He put the ponchos on his kids. Yeah, it was you know, a regular guy if you just didn't recognize him or just didn't know who he was. He just seemed like a regular guy don't dad with his with his wife. N |
| Unknown | ice. Any selfies that are like dreams for you? Like who's who's the who if they're listening to this podcast should come find you and take a selfie. Tom Hanks. I love Tom Hanks. All right. |
| Unknown | I don't know why. Maybe it's castaway. Maybe it's big. He might be like the most likable actor. Oh dude for sure. Bosom buddies. Right. Come on. Now I've met his wife. I've met his son all in all these events, but I've had not had a chance to meet Tom Hanks yet. I hear he's always at the Dodgers games. I hear he's always out and about, but our cross our paths don't cross. I just think, you know, I might blow up if I ever meet him. But uh I would love to meet the guy just to say hi, you know, because just yeah. She seems like a really legit man. Um so yes, hey Tom, come and find me. I'm Hanks, if you're listening to this, come find Morgan King, get a selfie and send it to us. Yes, do that. I'm actually trying to do a coffee book. My my friends are saying, you should just do a coffee book for other people that you've met. I'm like, that would kind of be weird. Kind of amazing |
| Unknown | . You mentioned me earlier, you know, before we turned the mics on that you felt like your your watch collection was in a pretty good place these days. But are are there any grail pieces out there that you're still you're still hunting |
| Unknown | ? You know, actually not. I think the RCO was the one I really, really wanted. There was a time uh back in the day I was very, very strong on the VRF, vintage Rolex form, and I had collected every reference. So I had the black and white DA variations of the six two six two, six two six four, six two six three, six two six five, six two four zero, only stainless steel because I grew up with uh Asian uncles who just loved yellow gold and it was very gaudy and I was just kinda like oh I don't like this yellow thing. You're a steel watch guy. I like steel. Um although I I did order the Omega fifty Anniversario Speedmaster. It's good, but it's got that yellow thing to it. But I'm like, you know so good. All right. I'm not generally a yellow gold guy either, but man, that watch is good. So okay, well when it arrives, right now it hasn't arrived yet, but when I'll wear it, I'll let you know. If not, I'll send it to you. Perfect. Done. Done. Done. We'll take care of that. But uh I had all these stainless steels and I just love pump pushers, screw down pushers, and beef unbeknownst to me, it was the six two four zero or the six two six three, the RCO version, that uh some of these watches came in that I just didn't have 'cause I had the white, I had the black, and I was like, oh, I'm done. I'm good. Because when I was younger and I and I got into watches, the first thing I wanted was just some chronographs and horror. And of course you evolve. Eventually you're kind of like, oh man, I want I want some Rolex, I want some Omegas, I want some. So I would go through all of them and say, what would I really, really want? And cause they would always say also, if you don't aim for the stars, you'll never know where to aim, right? So you you gotta go high. But I was very lucky in the sense that I saved up, I ate ramen, you know, I didn't get distracted. I didn't buy all those Ferraris and helicopters when I had a chance to, right? You cruising around in a helicopter sounds amazing. Oh come on. Letrack would be a breeze. Yeah. That would be hard to push around when it ran Yeah, it'd be a little tough. Yeah, a little tough. But uh as John Mayer said, right, he says these are all the things, these are all the drugs I didn't take. This is the result of that. And I kind of did the same route where I was I was a good boy, born Christian, so I was always like, Hey, no, God's watching. Don't do that. Don't do that. So I s I was able to save a lot of money and and put it towards watches. And I figured, you know, at first it was kind of like my wife was like, What are you doing? All you need is one, right? Don't I'm I said uh You get one nice one, you're good, yeah. But then you know, I I stopped telling her 'cause I kept buying the same versions, you know. Sixteen eighty Mark one, Mark Two. She's seen the Batmobiles though, right? Like she knows she knows who you are.. I hide them I did in the closet. I don't tell her. You know, I leave one outside just so she shows it. But then every now and then like I'll have one in my hand. She's like, Oh, that was from the bookshop. I'm like, Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I hide it before she goes back to the books. So she's still p thisicked one. It's part of our magic deck that we do. But um it got to a point where when I had a little list of what I wanted as far as uh watch was concerned. I always wanted chronographs, and the Daytonas were just something that really spoke to me. Yeah. Obviously I got I had a a 16520 white one back in the day, uh Zenith movement, back in 2000, yeah, around 2000, it was when I got engaged. And I went to this Ben Bridge store back when there were still Rolex dealers, and they're like, Yeah, we have one. I'm like, How can I get one? Like, well, you gotta, you know, what else can you pony up? I'm like, I want to buy an engagement. He's like oh yes, if you're buying an engagement r, yes, maybe a Daytona will be in your ticket. Maybe we might have one in the safe. I'll let you know. So uh I bought an engagement ring. I bought a I bought the Daytona and I just enjoyed it. And I and from there I'm being loyal. I'm like, hey, you know, I gotta get something the next one after that, the next one after that. But then because I found the re-editions of the Jorge Carrera, I started going back. I started doing like this huge search on what the re-additions meant. And I found the old vintage day tones. Back then they weren't too expensive. Yeah. You know, maybe 18,000 twenty thousand for those. And I wasn't willing to pull the trigger on that just yet. But as we got older and I had realized if I want nice things, they gotta save up for them. No one's gonna hand them to you. You gotta work hard. Uh so I started saving up and started buying them. When they became a little bit more uh affordable and then then as I noticed the prices kept going up. So I was like, oh man, I better start buying some now because you gotta get hidden before it gets crazy. So I was very lucky where I was able to buy a lot of these old references when before they were still under thirty, thirty thousand. Um so and I'm because I'm loyal, I always want to buy things that were consistent from the same dealers sometimes, because I don't really trust myself. I'm kind of blind when it comes to details. I always have people email me, hey Morgan, is this real? Is this legitimate hands? I'm like, oh, I don't know, man. You mean what I asked? Somebody |
| Unknown | else. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes I ask someone else and like, oh yes, of course they are. Yes. Cause even even if you are pretty knowledgeable, like it's always good to have another opinion. I ag |
| Unknown | ree. There's always like a second or third opinion. And that's how I think you know the premiums come into some of the watches. Some of these watch dealers they do charge a premium, but it's about knowledge, it's about the know-how. And the most ones that I deal with, they take it back if it's not legitimate all the time. Yeah, you know, you do hear her stories about people, you know, buying something wrong and not being able to return it, then there's legal issues. Um the old adage, right? Like you're buying the seller, right? Like you have to you have to trust the person you're buying from. And the industry is so small. You you know, y you hurt somebody, you do something wrong, it gets back. It lasts a very short leg. So yeah, I try not to hurt anybody or do anything wrong with anyone. Um but yeah, when I going back to the whole Newman thing, I just wanted to buy all the Newman's that I wanted. My grill was the s was the RCO when I found out that that it w that it even existed. 'Cause back then I w you know, without much information, there's only like, you know, I thought maybe what two, three, four pieces. The rising sun, right? Eric Car uh Eric Clapton, forgive me. I keep saying Eric Carmen from Hungry Eyes. My bad. Dirty Dancing Z? I'm a nostalgic guy. But uh Eric Clapton had the rising sun. I was like, oh, this is great. It's like one off of another. And of course, Japan started making more. And I was like, What's what's legitimate? What's not? So I would talk to Eric Ku, I would talk to Andrew Schear, a lot of the old um vendors that used to really, really get into it. They were really it because information wasn't really out there. Right. Um a lot of them were hearsay. You had guys that are like, oh I know everything. This is from Texas or this is from this and that. But you really needed to know who you could really, really trust. So when I found that the RCOs were legitimate also, you know, with the step doll this and that, uh I said, Okay, if you can find me one and you can find me one in a good condition 'cause you know, condition was key. Yeah. Uh baseball cards, comic books, everything was all about conditions. So I need to make sure it was legitimately nice. Cause if it something distracts you from the dial, then it it kind of loses its luster. Yeah. But you have to be able to be okay with it. Um I hated Patina for a long, long time just because it was uneven and it had like this brown like suntan look to them, I felt that it was not for me. But eventually I I looked at him now and I'm like, oh potino's nice. Yeah. Well we'll we'll take one. I'll take two. But it has to be an even potino. It's still kinda off, then I I still kind of of |
| Unknown | 'cause I have a little bit O C D. Yeah. You know, it has to be a good thing. I would say that's that's something that, you know, having seen a bunch of your watches, your watches are all or for the most part in really good shape. And they're they're original, but they're really well preserved examples. You're not just buying like any old sixteen eighty that comes by, you're buying a particular one for a particular reason. Yeah, I I found out early |
| Unknown | on in life that you have to be able to love it in order to own it. If you don't love it, you gotta move on. That also helps me with my pocketbook because there was a time I did go through and bought everything that existed back in the when they were still available. But I ended up realizing I was just not wearing them or they something oh this one's kind of you know that it's got a hairline scratch, it's got a spider web on this one. Yeah. Uh it crackled. I wouldn't wear them anymore and I would end up training them or selling them at a loss a lot of times too. And I was like, why would I do that? You know, just for the hunt.? Ah So then I kind of honed myself and said, I'm only gonna buy something that I really, really know that I enjoy. Okay. So that's why I made a list. I made a list and I will say, hey, this is what I want, the RCO, I got it. But I also realized that I didn't wear a lot of the pump pushers on Daytonas. Although I had the rev all the references, it was oh man, I felt like amazing for like first two or three years. If you Google me, I think you can still find some of the pictures that I posted back in the day when I was all proud of them. And I would never post them all. They're all like in sections. I had, I think, at at one time uh twenty-three Newmans. Okay. Um, but I only wore the screwdowns. And I that was when I said, you know what, let's let's concise the list and figure out what was going on. And I made the RCO Micrail piece. Okay. Uh and I also made a list of not to spend any more money. So I was able to trade a lot of pieces. Oh, cool. So that mill gouse the six five four one that was seen on I think talking watches or the sixteen fift sixteen sixty five the mark zero the one that was on that police auction from uh Rolex form. Yep. Those are all trades. I had traded some of the pieces I just didn't wear because I think if you threw more money in it was just kinda like, you know, we wouldn't be able to eat, I'd be homeless. Yeah, and I I'd be hitched up. Yeah, I don't think I'd have a wife and kids by now if I had done that either. So they they definitely would have left me and probably just said this is you know that homeless guy on |
| Unknown | the on the scene. Talk to yourself. What are the pieces then that are going to be the last to go? Like what if if you keep consolidating, like what are the two or three watches that like when it all comes down to it, those are the two or three that you you just like can't ever see yourself parting with. |
| Unknown | My original Tagquare F1 would be one of the last ones to go 'cause it's just sentimental. That's kind of what really, really started all. Yeah. Because that hurt when I bought it. You know, I was just not new as kids in college and I was like, Oh, I got so money I'm gonna pay for it. And until the the next month when the bill came, I was like, Oh man, I gotta I don't have this. I don't have nine hundred fifty dollars. So I'd I'll go to mom like, Hey mom, can I borrow nine hundred fifty dollars? She's like, What? For a watch? I'm like, for a watch. And and since I said, Nope, you bought it, you pay for it, you own it. So yeah, I think I must have charged up I think it took me like a year to pay it up with all the uh APR fees. I think I could have bought two more tagwares. So uh that that that that that you know, I learned my lesson there. But uh the F one uh tag choir, I think the RCO, right? 'Cause that's that's hard. It's about rarity. Right. There are some out there, but uh these still have all the looms intact, which I'm I'm a big stickler for. I hate watch. Beautiful. I should have brought it. I'm sorry. I think we have a photo of it. You do? Okay, good. I think so. Oh yeah, Ben Ben was wearing it. You can see from his uh his arm. I think we got a photo. Uh and the third one, how old are you? Probably the six two six five Paul Newman. Okay. I I've always liked the the reverse, the black and the white versions. And I think it's always nice to have both. Okay. You know, 'cause those the things that started. I would have probably kept the white version of the tag choir, but it's quartz movement and it would it just died the movement and so it wasn't worth it for me at least. I still have it, but it just doesn't work. Okay. Sometimes I wear it as a bracelet. You know, just to kind of be like all right. Yeah. Well you have another watch on, so you've got something to tell the time way. You're fine. Yeah. But it has to be on my right hand. If it's not on my if it's on my left, okay. Then I'm gonna think it's eleven PM having breakfast. Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah, exactly. So it's always with |
| Unknown | the one that doesn't work, always on my right hand for sure. So outside of watches, I know some uh congratulations are in order. You and your wife uh kind of closed down and retired your uh your company after twenty years? |
| Unknown | After twenty years, we did retire our company. Uh it was twenty wonderful years. We still started in September nineteen ninety nine. We weren't married then. Okay. We were fresh out of college and she was like, hey, we were entrepreneurs. Let's do something. Uh I graduated from Babson College in uh in in Massachusetts. Uh and we're we were born with the entrepreneurial spirit. It's just like, I want to start a business. I want to do security cameras you want to come to la with me and i was like uh la with you man kid from queens kid from queens i was like oh you know from new y know how it is yeah. You live and you die in new york you're not gonna leave. You know, even when I went to school in Boston, I was like, Oh, you know, I'll come back. No problem. Yeah, just it's just three hours away. Don't worry about it, Ma, I'll be back. Yeah. You know? Same time zone. Yeah. Don't uh don't lock the door. I'll be I'll be home. Don't lock the door. But uh yeah, from there I ended up heading to LA for love. And uh since then twenty years later. Twenty years later. So uh it happened at a time when there was a lot of competition. Uh there's also some some readings that a lot of these have spire in it. So a lot of these cameras that were not made in the US were formulated. Most of the time it's in manufacturing a lot of it's not made in the US. So it's all from out of out of the country. So it's all it's kinda a little bit shady in and clarity of how the technology is in. So yeah, it's been tested that a lot of these had some spyware. So the government was like, Oh no, you gotta I gotta return these back to you or I'm not gonna buy this order or not renew it. So it felt like it was the right time to kind of like move on, do a better things and more things. But you know what? It's it's got great sentimental value. A lot of these people that worked with us was copy of say was their first job. They were in their 20s. We were in our twenties when we started. So we all kind of saw each other grow. We all kind of saw each other get engaged, married, kids, house, that dog. And now all their kids are growing up. So it was a time where like, you know, let's end it. It was like a long high school graduation i even got varsity jackets for us you know as a as a parting gift you know as a great gift you know just say you know it's uh 20 years of high school it's kind of like glee you know yeah people never graduate. Don't worry about it. You're forty five years old. That's okay. You could be the starting quarterback. You'd be okay. You're like Tom Brady. So yeah, so I yeah, so we are now starting our new venture. We don't know what we're doing yet. Maybe uh travel the world, maybe just sit in our home and do nothing. Enjoy life. Maybe I'll just stalk celebrities at on Beverly Hills and just I mean you could stay busy. I could stay busy. That's or just just teach my kids how to do Photoshop and just make it so much simpler. Well, when that book's out, let us know. |
| Unknown | Oh yes, absolutely. I'll I'll send you one. First copy. Thanks, man. Thanks for joining us. This was fun. And uh I'm glad that finally a year and a half after we tried, we're gonna uh we're gonna finally make this one happen. I hope we can release the first one because I that was |
| Unknown | I would love to see how let's see. Let's see if we can do something with it. But it's an always an honor to be here. You guys are like family and you guys are always so fun to hang out with the especially in LA. Feel the same way. It's always uh it doesn't feel like a a proper trip to LA without seeing you. Dude, same here. Love. Love from New York. Love from LA and love for all you watch fans out there. Thank you so much |
| Unknown | . Anyone who's even a little bit into watches will know that the Omega Speedmaster is one of the most iconic watches of all time. And a lot of that comes down to its connection with NASA and the moon landing specifically. A few weeks ago we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and our editor-in-chief Jack Forrester thought it was a good time to sit down and think about why this watch still means so much five decades later |
| Unknown | . The Omega Speedmaster is one of the three watches that I remember most clearly from my childhood. I remember them all from about the same time, which is the late nineteen sixties, I'd say. The other two were a Benress triple date watch that my father owned, and a yellow gold Rolex Daydate that belonged to an uncle. The Speedmaster is a watch I first noticed because, like most young boys during the nineteen sixties, I was absolutely obsessed with the space program. Anything that gives a sense of a tangible connection to manned space flight was a subject of fascination. My lunchbox had space food sticks and tang in it regularly. I probably drank enough tang to float an aircraft carrier between the tang and the space food sticks. It's amazing I still have all my own teeth. Tang is kind of nasty. In case you don't happen to know what it is, it's an orange beverage powder you mix with water. You get something that tastes almost completely unlike orange juice. I mean honestly it's unpleasantly artificial tasting stuff, but on the strength of its use by astronauts on board various spacecraft, I drank it by the gallon. I was a little young for the first Project Mercury missions. John Glenn orbited the Earth aboard Friendship 7 the year I was born, but six years later one of my favorite toys was a G.I. Joe playset that included an astronaut action figure, a space capsule to put him in, and a vinyl record with a recording of actual communications between Glenn and Mission Control. Glenn drank Tang on board Friendship 7, by the way, the first time anyone had drunk the stuff in space, but definitely not the last. In the mid to late nineteen sixties, there was hardly any more powerful selling point for anything than to say that it was used by the astronauts. My earliest memory of the Speedmaster was seeing it in magazine advertisements. I think it was probably around the same time that Apollo eight orbited the Moon in nineteen sixty eight, and I'm pretty sure the magazine was national geographic. It's hard to overstate just how it felt to watch the evolution of the space process I learned later that much of the breakneck pace of the development of manned space flight in the USA was due to competition with the Soviet Union, but when I was a kid, none of that was really on my radar. I just didn't care. The whole idea that we had to beat the Russians to the moon for reasons of national prestige was almost totally uninteresting to me. The excitement that I felt, and that I think a lot of us felt in those days, had to do with something. Traveling to space and exploring other planets wasn't a Russian thing or an American thing. 1968 was the year that Apollo 8 orbited the Moon. That was the first time that any manned spacecraft had orbited a heavenly body other than the Earth. It was also the year that Stanley Kubrick's 2001 a space odyssey was released. I was six, and my dad, who'd taken me with him on a business road trip, took me to see the movie at a drive in theater in Reading, Pennsylvania. I don't remember which theater, but it could very well have been Shankweilers, which is about a half an hour a The screen seemed absolutely huge, and the spaceships looked very real at the drive in, as if they were flying through the night sky. That you were six, and that highly detailed digital special effects are still decades away. It made, to put it mildly, one hell of an impression. The funny thing about the movie was that it seemed completely plausible. Sure, we couldn't quite get to Jupiter yet the way the astronauts did in the movie. And there weren't any moon bases yet. But it all seemed like it could happen. The movie showed a beautiful pan Am operated shuttle taking passengers to a colossal space station orbiting the Earth, and then a trip to a huge base on the moon where an alien artifact had been discovered. The spaceship discovery, which in the movie flew the mission to Jupiter, didn't seem that far out of reach, technically. It had nuclear engines, a centrifuge to provide artificial gravity, and the astronauts watched the news on flat handheld devices with high resolution color monitors. Kubrick actually anticipated the iPad, and by more than forty years. The movies aged incredibly well. The spacecraft and other devices in it still look, by and large, completely modern. There are some definite anachronisms for sure. I mean, after all the movie was made in the 1960s. For instance, most of the monitors on the Discovery and other spaceships use cathode ray TV tubes. There's a Bell telephone video phone on a space station that charges a dollar and seventy cents for a two-minute toll call to Earth. The space station restaurant is a Howard Johnson's. But the movie is still, today, very convincing, and to a six year old in nineteen sixty eight, who had seen the thirty six story tall Saturn V rockets lift off from Cape Kennedy. Human travel to other planets seemed like a foregone conclusion, especially after the moon landings. So the Speedmaster was really part of the general vibe of that whole era. It was part of a time when we all really thought sure we might take a little break to catch our breath after Apollo, but space stations and interplanetary spacecraft were just around the corner, and the future would probably look a lot like 2001. We all know that didn't happen, of course. We didn't exactly stop trying. Low Earth orbit continued to have a human population, first with Skylab, and then with the International Space Station. The space shuttle, which turned out to be both unsustainably complicated and expensive, as well as very, very dangerous to operate, came and went. We sent probes to Mars and did a tremendous amount of wonderful science with unmanned spacecraft. But a permanent man presence, life on other worlds, routine flight service to a gigantic base on the moon, it never happened. And many of us who were around for Apollo wonder whether it's ever going to. For a while, and through the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, I basically forgot about the watch. Mostly I forgot about watches completely. I went to college, graduated, moved to New York, and struggled. I met my wife and got married, and then struggled some more. And then in graduate school, I started getting interested in watches again and I started thinking about the speech I was very surprised and pretty excited and happy to find out that the Speedmaster through all of this continued to be flown. It was recertified in the early nineteen seventies. It flew on Skylab missions and on the space shuttle. It's been part of crewed missions to the ISS since the first parts of the station went into orbit. That was in nineteen ninety eight, several years after I started getting really interested in watches again. While I was in grad school, and for the first couple of years afterwards, the idea of owning an expensive Swiss watch was fun to think about, but between starting a family and trying to start a business it was totally impractical. However, things continued to move along, and as we struggled a little bit less, the ideas started to seem less and less ridiculous. And one day, impulsively, I bought a used Speedmaster online on timezone.com and I'm wearing it right now, having owned it for over twenty years. It was my first good Swiss watch and I'm very attached to it for a number of reasons. It represents a time when I was first really starting to do well professionally, and it also makes me remember a very special time in terms of my interest in watches. The watch internet was really starting to take off back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and online Speedmaster fandom was really exploding. Personalities like the late Chuck Maddox put up Speedmaster information online that is still valuable research data even today. Suddenly watch enthusiasts could talk to each other more or less in real time. It was a great time. Sure there were lots of rivalries and some dumb animosities and plenty of abrasiveness. Watch enthusiasts have always loved to argue with each other, and the rise of the forums made it easier than ever. But it was a also a time when combination of growth in the watch industry plus still accessible prices, plus the internet, made for a sense of shared excitement, a feeling that you were part of something really pioneering, and it was a time of amazing technical invention as well. So the Speedmaster reminds me of all that. I should say my Speedmaster reminds me of all that. I've owned and sold several other watches for various reasons, but the Speedmaster to me is a souvenir of a wonderful time. It represents the beginning of my own really serious involvement with watches, and looking at it and wearing it brings back a lot of memories of places and experiences and people. Some of the people, like Chuck Maddox, aren't around anymore, but when I wear the watch, I remember them, and how exciting it was to find out that other people felt the same way I did about watches and about the Speedmaster. But the Speedmaster reminds me of something else, too. I said before that going into outer space never seemed to me like it was a matter of national pride. It was a human adventure, a manifestation of a collective human aspiration to go further, to go beyond, not just beyond the pull of Earth's gravity, but beyond ourselves as well. It sounds corny to say so to day, I guess, but in nineteen sixty eight the Speedmaster to me was part of something bigger than Apollo, bigger than the American Space Program, and bigger than the moon landings. It was part of what felt like a real fundamental change in the world. It was part of a moment when we all looked up at the night sky kind of all together in a way we never had before in human history, and we could see the moon and the stars and say to ourselves and each other, that's where we're going. When I look at my Speedmaster, I'm not exactly that optimistic six year old again. The years don't miraculously fall away. But it does remind me that it used to be possible to feel hopeful altogether in a way that we struggle to feel today. And it makes me a little more hopeful that maybe someday we could all together feel that way again |
| Unknown | . Thank you to Cara, Ben, Morgan, and Jack for joining us this week. This week's episode was recorded at Mirror Tone Studios in New York City and the Network Studios in Los Angeles, California. It was produced and edited by Grayson Korhonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show, it really does make a difference for us. Thank you, and we'll see you next week. |