Apple Watch Series 5 & Fantasy Watch Draft Results¶
Published on Mon, 7 Oct 2019 10:00:09 +0000
A rare inside look at the story behind the latest Apple Watch.
Synopsis¶
This episode of Hodinkee Radio focuses extensively on the Apple Watch Series 5, featuring insights from multiple perspectives. The show includes a conversation between host Stephen Pulvirent and Jack Forster about their experiences with the new Apple Watch Series 5. Jack, who wears his Apple Watch daily alongside mechanical watches, discusses how the ceramic edition has become a consistent presence on his wrist and shares his perspective on why the Apple Watch appeals to him despite being a devoted mechanical watch enthusiast. He emphasizes that wearing the Apple Watch is ultimately about fun and emotional connection, not just practical utility, drawing parallels to why people wear mechanical watches.
The episode also features an exclusive interview with Alan Dye, Apple's Vice President of Human Interface Design, recorded at Apple Park. Dye provides rare on-the-record insights into how Apple designs the watch faces and software interfaces for the Apple Watch. He discusses the always-on display feature of the Series 5, explaining how his team carefully considered which information should remain visible when the watch is in its dimmed state. Dye also reveals Apple's deep respect for traditional horology, mentioning how the design team studied timekeeping history and incorporated subtle nods to classic watchmaking, such as the California dial face that mixes Roman and Arabic numerals. He describes the collaborative relationship between the industrial design team and the interface design team, noting that the Apple Watch has been designed as a unified product from the beginning.
The episode concludes with the highly anticipated reveal of the 2019 Hodinkee Radio Watch Collection Fantasy Draft results. Stephen and producer Gray announce that Ben Clymer won with 36% of the vote, followed closely by Stephen Pulvirent with 33.5%, Cara Barrett with 17%, and Jack Forster with 13.5%. They analyze each participant's collection, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of various picks, including notable selections like Jack's Omega 30T2 chronometer, Cara's Henry Graves Supercomplication as a flex pick, Stephen's Tudor Black Bay 58, and Ben's collection featuring watches with incredible provenance including Neil Armstrong's Speedmaster and Duke Ellington's Patek Philippe split-seconds chronograph. The hosts indicate they plan to continue this type of interactive content based on the strong audience response.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | We all like to cite reasons for wearing a mechanical watch. People argue back and forth endlessly about whether their reasons are better than your reasons for wearing the type of watch they wear versus the type of watch you wear. But the reality is I wear the Apple Watch every day because it's fun. I have a great deal of fun with it. And if I didn't have fun with it, it would be, you know, nothing more, it would be nothing more than what its detractors like to say it is, which is a somewhat superfluous, you know, information management system that that you know duplicates what you get on your phone. And while it's true that functionally there's obviously crossover between what happens on an iPhone and what happens on an Apple Watch, an Apple Watch is a very, very different experience. And if you connect with that, then it really might be for you. And if you don't, it really might not be |
| Unknown | . Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. It's Apple Watch Week here. A couple weeks ago I went to Cupertino, California to Apple Park for the release of the Apple Watch Series 5. And I was lucky enough a day after the release to get to sit down with Alan Dye, who's the vice president of human interface design at Apple. He's not somebody who talks on the record a whole lot, so it was a real privilege to get to sit down with him. And he's the one who crafts not the hardware but all the software interaction. So anything you're seeing on the screen of the watch has to do with Alan and his team. So it was great to get some insight into how the watch is designed, how it's really come into its own over the last couple of years, and also all the little nods to more traditional watchmaking. Alan's a watch guide and he brings a really interesting perspective to this conversation. We also thought it'd be nice to have me sit down with Jack, who's the most inveterate Apple Watch wearer on our team. He hasn't taken the series 5 off since he got it, and we thought it'd be nice to get a different perspective since you already saw my review of the series 5. I'm not gonna tell you too much, but spoiler alert, Jack's pretty into it. And you're really gonna want to stick around to the end of the show for this one. Uh Gray and I sit down and go over the results of the 2019 Hodinki Radio Watch Collection Fantasy Draft. Uh Kara, Ben, Jack, and I drafted our fantasy watch collections a few weeks ago. And then we pulled you, the audience, to see who won. So, and we also go through the collections and chat a little bit about the the best picks, the sleeper picks, and uh what we might do for this in the future. So uh you'll want to listen through all the way to the end for this one. But first up, we've got my conversation with Jack. This week's episode is presented by Grand Seiko. Stay tuned later in the show for a look at one of the four watches from the new seasons collection, which is exclusive to the US. For more, visit grandseco..com Hey Jack, good to see ya. Good to see you too, Steven. Here we are uh both uh co-located for once. I know this doesn't I mean I've made this joke with Ben but I feel like we don't we don't actually see each other that much anymore. Yeah yeah um |
| Unknown | you know I I think we mentioned this the last time that uh uh you hosted me on the podcast. This is the busy time of year. So uh folks are on the road a lot. Ben's on the road currently. You were on the road uh last week and are going to be on the road again very, very soon. Yeah. Um and I'm on the road tomorrow. Oh, |
| Unknown | you're on the road tomorrow. Where are you off to? Yeah. Yeah. Uh I'm headed out to California. Nice. Very nice. Oh yeah, where Ben already is. I forgot you're meeting him out there. Yeah. That's correct. That should be good. Yep. Out to San Francisco and LA for a couple of days. Very nice. No no uh no complaints there, I bet. Yep. Yep. So what I wanted to talk to you about today is the Apple Watch. So you are wearing one on your wrist right now, as you normally do in some regards, not as you normally do in that you're not wearing a mechanical watch today. |
| Unknown | Right. I actually uh am wearing a mechanical watch today. It's uh my uh Grand Seiko high beat, but I it's uh I'm wearing the uh Apple Watch on my left wrist and the um the Grand Seiko on my right wrist, and it's on a steel bracelet and I don't want to scratch it against my desk so I take it off when I'm uh I take it off when I'm working. Take it off take it off when I'm keyboarding. |
| Unknown | Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Um okay so the watch on your wrist is a series five, and I thought it would be good. You've now had that watch for about two weeks, I guess two weeks basically to the day. Um, and you're kind of the most regular Apple Watch wearer that we have here on the editorial team. I mean, I I get my new watch every year in Cupertino. I wear it pretty religiously for a couple days, week, two weeks. And then it becomes more of a a kind of catch is catch-can sort of thing for me. I I wear it when I exercise, which I love. Um, I'll wear it on the weekends occasionally. Sometimes I'll take it on a trip for a week or two just to kind of like mechanical watch a detox. Um but uh you're some you're somebody's a palette palette cleanser. Yeah, it's's palette cleanser. It nice. Um it it's immensely enjoyable in very different ways to a mechanical watch. Right. But you're somebody who who wears your Apple Watch on one wrist or the other most days, right? Ye |
| Unknown | ah. And um in fact, I have been uh oddly enough, it feels more natural. I know I had never tried this before, but it actually feels more natural to me as of this iteration to wear the Apple Watch on my left wrist and wear a mechanical watch on my wr Aaron Powell Why is that? What changed? You know, I'm not really sure. Um it works really well with the Grand Seiko high beat that I have, which is on a steel bracelet. So I think the um the the sense of additional mass feels more natural to me on the right wrist than the left I'm wearing the Apple Watch, you know, for at least twelve hours a day, every day, uh, if not more. And because that's become the sort of regular presence, uh, having what's in rotation being on the right wrist, um, you know, seem it just seems more um |
| Unknown | uh it seems more natural to do it that way. But yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. So let's let's start at square one. Which watch are you wearing |
| Unknown | ? Uh so I'm wearing the are they st are they calling it the addition still? Yes or the addition, yeah. So I'm wearing the ceramic case uh 44 millimeter model. Cool. Um and uh it's uh it's you know like so many things Apple creates I think it's a beautiful design object. Yeah. Um the ceramic is uh it's really, really beautiful. It has a very different presence on the wrist than uh well, you've got the uh the tit titanium model. Yeah, I have the titanium. And what and what uh what the sort of natural brushed finish. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, it's uh it's a little bit heavier. Uh the last Apple Watch that I had had a steel case. And uh this one first I don't know whether it's actually heavier, it feels a little bit more massive. Um has there been a uh is is forty four millimeters an increase in size over the uh previous largest model? Uh not over the series four, but |
| Unknown | over the series three. So the one you had from last year was probably the same, same exact dimension. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. For some strange reason it feels like I've got more screen real estate. And I mean I obviously don't if the size is exactly the same. Yeah. Um but it just feels a little bit more immersive. Not a hundred percent sure why. But very, very comfortable to wear. Um the white is interesting for me because I've never had a watch with a white case before. Um I don't know if I'll ever have a watch with a white case again. Um it's just you're not getting the uh white ceramic royal look perpetual? W No. Oh no. No. Not that I not that I wouldn't necessarily, but it it wouldn't be my first watch, uh for sure. Yeah, you know it's funny that when when I when I got this uh particular uh watch, it was on the white silicone strap and boy it had a very Miami vibe. Yeah. It's a pretty it's definitely a my I don't know why, but white watches feel like a Miami thing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, um it's a little bit of a cliche to say so, but it really does feel that way. I felt like it would go with my you know like white condo and white Lamborghini and white sand beach out in front of my own. I think you need a pink Lamborghini is what you need. With this watch? Yeah. No nobody needs a pink Lamborghini. |
| Unknown | Yeah. So the last uh the last ceramic edition was was gray ceramic, right? Um gray or white ceramic. So the gray one had this kind of like understated vibe. The white is a little louder, but I don't know why. For some reason, it doesn't feel quite as loud in person as I expect it to be in pictures. You know, here's the thing |
| Unknown | . Um, as somebody who loves mechanical watches and will always wear one, um, you know, it's it's true that the Apple Watch, this particular Apple Watch is a more consistent presence on my wrist than any of my mechanical watches right now. However, mechanical watches taken as a category are always going to be on my wrist until the day I die and they have been for the last, I don't know, forty years. Yeah. Um s uh as a avowed mechanical watch lover, there was something to m that almost felt you know sort of furtive and embarrassed to me about wearing an Apple Watch. know You, it was sort of like, well, I have this thing that I think is cool and I've gotten kind of emotionally attached to it. And it does lots of useful things for me, but I'm not supposed to like it. Yeah. So I'm gonna, you know, get one that is not particularly noticeable. And uh, you know, I'm gonna try to sort of, you know, make sure people don't see it the same way that they see my good mechanical watch. And this one just sort of, you know, it sits on my wrist. It's you know this beautiful, smooth, you know, highly reflective white object, and it just says, hey, you know what? I'm here. I'm |
| Unknown | an Apple Watch, get used to it. Very nice. I mean, I remember not to get too sidetracked, but we'll get sidetracked. Uh I remember SIHH 2016. 2016. No, 2017. And you wore an Apple Watch to SIHH. Yeah. And I remember seeing it. Which in retrospect wasn't the most tactful thing to do, I guess. It wasn't, but it was |
| Unknown | it was gutsy. Well because I give you gutsy points for it. Well thank you. And you know, I f I th uh several uh folks in from different brands, you know, sort of said to me, um not confrontationally, but just sort of like with genuine bewilderment, why on earth would you wear something like this, something like that to an event like this? And um, you know, my answer then was this somewhat the same as it is now, which is I think if we're in this world, it's kind of important to know what these things are about. You can't really assess how they're going to affect uh um you know the other domains of watchmaking without having actually experienced them and decided for yourself whether or not this is something that has a useful place in your life. So there's that. Um you know the other thing is that I personally find uh the Apple Watch really, really useful. And you know, the the killer app is of uh you know, a lot of people say the killer app is saving your life. Um, you know, there have been instances already. It's pretty good app. It's not bad. It's a really good app. There was a an incident I think a couple of weeks ago in the news about an older gentleman who'd fall fell off a bike uh riding in a somewhat remote area, and then he woke up half an hour later in an ambulance because his Apple Watch had detected his fall, had noted that he was not responding to repeated attempts on the part of the watch to get him to respond. And when he didn't respond, it called 911. Which is, you know, pretty terrific. It's pretty amazing. Yeah. I shared that story with uh someone in the watch industry who's immediate response was that guy is on the Apple payroll and he's set for life. Okay. Okay. That's uh that's a healthy dose of skepticism. But uh so Steven, you've actually spent uh quite a bit of time with the latest edition of not the edition, but the latest uh you know version of the Apple Watch and did a week on the wrist. Maybe you could um you know give us sort of an elevator speech on what your takeaways |
| Unknown | were. Yeah, sure. So so my basic take on the let's get the name right, the Apple Watch Series 5 edition in Titanium. Um that's a mouthful. Uh yeah, so my my basic take was on paper the, specs don't look groundbreakingly different, right? Like last year we got the bigger displays, we got the different sizes, we got a more immersive experience. A whole lot changed, right? With the series four from the series three, series five from series four looks on paper pretty similar, but my experience with it was markedly different. Um, the always on display makes it an actual watch for the first time. Like this is the first time that no matter when you look at it, your Apple Watch shows you the time. Um and it's hard to overstate for me what impact that makes. Um I like not just the practical value of it, but the fact that, you know, people can actually see what watch face you've picked. Like you can actually express yourself in a similar way to how you would with a mechanical watch. Yeah, exactly. Um I mean, new processors, all those things, like it's faster, it's snappier, it's more responsive. Um they adapted the watch faces really, really smartly uh to make use of the always-on, um which I which I liked. Uh some new designs, the California dial I happen to just find really charming. Like it's a design. It's nothing more than that, but it's extremely charming for me. Um, and I love the titanium case. To me, the the aluminum always felt uh cheap would be the wrong word, but insubstantial, maybe. Like it just didn't have that pleasant weight um which is something I struggle with with you know various materials used in in watchmaking but um the aluminum always felt a little too light and the steel was always really prone to scratching which would drive me crazy because it was highly polished even with the scratch resistant coatings it scratches so and it's a little shiny it's not really my vibe so for me, the titanium like perfectly split the difference. It's it's a heavy enough that you feel it. It's not so heavy. It doesn't scratch. It has a matte finish. It's like it really, I mean, I said it in the review review, but like that's the Apple Watch I always wanted. It was the right material for me, the right color. I like how it looks on my wrist. Like it just, it just works for me. So basically my take is on paper, it's not revolutionary. I personally think the experience is better. And for me, this hardware just clicked in a way that previous versions maybe didn't click so much. So I think you can come away with it with a lot of different experiences, but that was that's sort of my take. |
| Unknown | In terms of the perceived mass of the watch, I actually think that your uh your point about it feeling substantial. I think that's a big part of the appeal for me of the ceramic cased version. It just feels like there's something inside the case. And you know, there are a lot of wonderful watches out there made of that are designed to be very light, which is something that you really have to you know, I think leaving aside pressions of questions of price, I think Richard Meal does this really well. You know, you pick up one of their uh lighter watches and it just it's you feel as if your brain is playing tricks on you, like you're handling a hologram. It's incredible. Um but if you don't take it that far, it's easy for a watch to feel like it's uh uh i for I don't know, flimsy is not exactly the right word, but feels less substantial than it should. And you want a kind of a reassuring presence on your wrist. I actually don't mind uh feeling a little bit of a sort of, you know, kinesthetic reminder that I'm wearing something. It uh kind of increases the sense of companionship. So I like that. Platinum Apple Watch? Uh that might be too much of a good thing. Platinum. Yeah. I mean maybe uh you know, if the uh if the innerds become a module you can pop in and out every couple of years when you need to when you need to upgrade. Um and I always on makes a much bigger difference than I thought it was going to. And I think you put it really well. It turns the Apple Watch into a device. It makes it something where you can see the time all the time and you can see you, know, information that you're interested in seeing all the time. And it makes it much it it it seems to me to make it even less likely that I'm gonna take my phone out of my pocket uh unless I absolutely have to. Yeah. So in addition to the you know the fitness tracking stuff. Um I'm I mean I am addicted to the uh activity tracker. I'm addicted to the exercise tracking functions. But I also find it just incredibly useful as a sort of organization tool. It's a it's uh it's almost become a kind of um uh you know interactive daily scheduler for me. Yeah. Um I like the fact that I can actually I I have three daily alarms set for instance for the times when typically we want to publish content because otherwise I will forget. Um, you know, you just get involved in other things or you get on a call and before you know it, uh, you know, an hour's gone by since the time when you were supposed to I pull you into a meeting. Yeah. Um and uh I like the fact that I can see whether or not tech m text messages have come in uh and I can look at them and see whether they need to be responded to immediately. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. Yeah. Um I like being able to check the weather on it. Um there are several you know independent apps um including the the Dark Sky Weather app that I use pretty regularly. It's a great way for me to keep, you know, I'm a United guy and the United app lives very nicely on the Apple Watch. It helps me, helps keep me oriented in terms of, you know, what flight I need to be on and you know when I need to be at the airport. Yeah. Which for me is really important. I mean uh as you know I'm the guy who uh uh uh actually showed up a couple of years ago for a flight at JFK a week e |
| Unknown | arly. I remember that. It was the best. Oh it was so good. Yeah. Yeah. You guys should have seen our slack when Jack uh let everybody know that he was sitting at JFK Airport a week ahead of time for his flight. I mean, you know, the Do they let |
| Unknown | you in the lounge that early? They might have if I'd asked, but you know, the the lady behind the uh counter at the I was flying Swiss and the lady behind the counter gave me a look that so clearly said, you sir, are a very stupid person That's amazing. So, you know, it's it's a it's great way of staying out of trouble. And um God forbid I should ever need it to uh notice that I have fallen down and can't get up. But uh you know, if it ever happens, uh you know it's nice to have a little bit of a backup. Yeah |
| Unknown | , for sure. All right, last thing I want to ask you about, which uh which watch faces are you using? Because this this new the new uh update, Watch OS six, uh has a whole new set of watch faces kind of optimized for this new always on display and kind of the new dimensions of the display. So we got a big you know kind of update last year. And I would say actually on the watch face side of things, it's just as big of an update this year. Yeah, no, it's true. I actu |
| Unknown | ally really enjoy the sort of um the two the two classes of watch faces that I enjoy the most are the sort of uh gadgety ones, uh the super nerdy ones. Um th so uh there's a um you know there's a planetarium face that shows you the position of all the planets relative to each other. I cannot imagine anything of less daily practical value than knowing whether or not this is a good time for a Homan transfer uh orbit um you know mission to mars. Okay, but you can kind of actually figure that out on the watch. Yeah. And a lot of the a lot of the uh displays, a lot of the faces that I like are ones that show a great deal of information. Just because you know it's fun for me to be able to see, you know, like the relative humidity at the same time that I see the amount of ultraviolet radiation at the same time that I see, you know, how many uh hours, minutes, and seconds it is until uh, you know, sunset at the same time that I can see whether or not I've, you know, my wife is text messaging me, whatever it is she wants to text message me about. Um it's a it's just a uh it's it's for me it's a great way of kind of concentrating a lot of essential information in one place. Yeah. Um the simpler watch faces and the ones that are more aesthetically driven. I love looking at them every once in a while. I don't generally have them on for longer than, you know, half an hour or maybe an hour. Um the I I love the Mickey Mouse watch face. You love the Mickey Mouse. I love the Mickey Mouse watch face and the Mini Mouse watch face. And the more sort of it's funny, you would think that a watch guy, you know, you'd think I'd be more drawn to the sort of like classic, you know, watch like uh faces. But I I like the ones that are that really take advantage of, you know, what this device actually is and what its capabilities actually are that you can I don't need it to mimic a mechanical watch. I've got plenty of mechanical watches. Um I like it when it kind of um you know comes into its own as a uh not just a watch but also an information delivery in a daily management uh you know sort of system. And a way just a way of getting cool information that I you know couldn't get anywhere else. I mean God knows there are planetarium wristwatches. God knows that you have to add three zeros to the price of an Apple Watch to start getting into mechanical planetarium watches |
| Unknown | . Very true. Um Yeah, I think I like I like what you said there at the end about this isn't trying to be or to replace a mechanical watch. It's it's doing its own thing. And one of the things that that I said in in my review, which we'll link up to in the show notes, and in my review last year of the series four, which we will also link up in the show notes, um is that the Apple Watch finally feels like it's at this point where it's it's coming into its own, right? Like it feels like a mature product. Yeah, it feels like the people designing this thing figured it out. Right. And now they're improving on it, they're iterating on it, they're acting features, they're adding utility, they're adding little like fun design flourishes, but like they figured it out. Whereas the generation zero through the series zero through you know, series three maybe, series two, maybe series three, really felt like it was still figuring itself out. Like every generation, you kind of like changed tack a little bit. Like they were trying to figure out what their sort of like lodestar was. Um and it feels like they know now. And that's that's a nice thing. It's nice to watch and I feel like the products that we get as a result are more useful, more enjoyable to use, and also feel sort of more like fully fleshed out, I |
| Unknown | guess. Yeah, you know, I mean I think that um I think for the Apple Watch to really work for somebody on a daily basis over the you know over the medium and long term, its value offering has to be something that you kind of connect with them So a lot of people like to make you know practical arguments for the Apple Watch. I need the fitness tracker, you know, I need I need I'm find the medical alerts useful. It's a way for me to, you know, sort of organize information without having to reach for my phone every five minutes. But there is also you you have to find it emotionally appealing in order to wear it on a daily basis. Beyond the sort of and that's true of mechanical watches too, isn't it? You know, I mean we all we all we all like to cite reasons for wearing a mechanical watch and people like to s you know and people argue back and forth endlessly about whether their reasons are better than your reasons for wearing the type of watch they wear versus the type of watch you wear. But the reality is I wear the Apple Watch every day because it's fun. I have a great deal of fun with it. And if I didn't have fun with it, it would be, you know, nothing more, it would be nothing more than what its detractors like to say it is, which is a somewhat superfluous um, you know, information management system that that you know duplicates um what you get on your phone. And while it's true that functionally there's obviously crossover between what happens on an iPhone and what happens on an Apple Watch, an Apple Watch is a very, very different experience. And if you connect with that, then it really might be for you. And if you don't, it really might not be. Yeah. You know? But it's much more you know, wearing it on a regular basis I think is much, much more uh an emotionally driven decision than Yeah, I would I would agree a hundred percent. |
| Unknown | Like you think you think you've more than the apple, you think it's cool, right? I love it. Yeah. I I think it's a great thing. I mean, is it gonna be my daily wearer anytime soon? Probably not. But I mean, I like I said, I wear it to exercise very regularly. I wear it on vacations, I'll wear it on the weekend. Like I do indulge in it, sort of in the same way I indulge in all of the watches in my collection. Like it sits with all of my other mechanical watches at home and it gets wear when it gets wear, you know? Yeah. Um I I will say I will argue with anyone at this point who who says that it does not look good. Like I think it is a beautiful object. And I think, you know, if you see it in the right context, um there's really no arguing with |
| Unknown | that. I mean there is if you you know, the uh debates about aesthetics often start with visceral reactions and then people find then people find reasons afterwards. Sure. So, you know, I mean uh somebody who just like hates the idea of an Apple watch and loathes everything that it represents, they're never going to be convinced that it' |
| Unknown | s a nice design. No, and at that point, like if that's where they're coming from, like cool. Like you can think that. That's fine. I'm I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you. But I think at this point people who say like um I'm into it. I really wanna like it, but uh it's I just don't like how it looks, it's not very nice looking, blah blah blah. I think like there are enough ways to like talk somebody out of that at this point that if if that's the thing preventing you from wearing it, like I think that ship sailed. I think we can we can agree that, you know, the you know, execution you're wearing, the execution I have, like these are at this point like pretty beautifully designed things. And, you know, you see somebody like Johnny Ive or Mark Newson wearing it, like the guys who designed it. Uh and like it it makes sense. It it really works. Um I will also say the sport band, which is what you're wearing right now, the silicone sport band, I still think is the most comfortable watch strap ever designed. Oh, it's dead comfortable. If I could put that on I'm wearing our uh IWC uh collaboration today. Uh if I could put one of those straps on this watch, it'd be done. It would never come off. But uh should we get working on that? I was just uh you know mulling over possi |
| Unknown | bilities as you were speaking. I was like, There's gotta be a way to get spring bars on the ends of these games. That's a whole other that's a whole other hack. Um yeah, cool. And then somebody uh in the design department at Cupertino wakes up at three o'clock in the morning and says, you know, I |
| Unknown | Yeah. That's exactly what happens. With that, I think we'll wrap up so that nobody comes for you uh in the in the night while I while I'm trying to retrofit spring bars onto one of their straps. Yeah, that's not the way we want you going out, Jack. You've you've earned better than that. Um thanks for joining us. I mean being run over by a tram at Basel World at least. You know, I think that's the least the world of the case. Very least. Uh cool. Well thanks so much and hopefully our paths will cross soon, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Doodaloo. Next up, my conversation with vice president ofan Hum Interface Design at Apple, Mr. Alan Dye. |
| Unknown | Thanks so much for joining us. Good to uh good to be here. Thank you. It's lovely to have you out here at uh Apple Park. Yeah, it's a busy time here at Apple Park too. Yeah, it's been a busy couple of days. We've got a lot going on as usual. It's always actually it's it's always pretty busy. But this week in particular. |
| Unknown | Yeah, certainly. We're recording this the day after the big announcements. So it's uh it's been a little hectic, but uh I'm I'm sure things things are are quieting down |
| Unknown | a little bit for you or something. Just a bit. Just a bit. I mean we do uh we do to keep things pretty busy out here. And we have we have an eye towards some stuff in the future, so uh we're we're we're we're we're we keep it at a pretty high level of of busy. Good.. |
| Unknown | Which is good Well I I want to jump right into it. So you're the vice president of human interface design here. Yeah. What does that mean? |
| Unknown | Well you know we have a uh design team here that pretty much all sits in the same studio and uh we we kind of look at it as there's there's kind of a couple different parts of it. Part of it is industrial design and that kind of refers to the physical design, the product. Right. And we think about human interface as user interface design, so how the actual product works, everything you might see on the display or the screen, as well as all all the interactions you have with the product. But we really, because of the way that we make products here and with the way that we design them, it kind of all happens together. So it's a very fluid process between uh this unified design team and of course all the engineers and and and and folks we work with uh to actually make the products. Right |
| Unknown | . Yeah, and as as Apple Watch has kind of evolved, you know, we we just got the series five yesterday. So as it's evolved, the physical device has changed, so the way you've had to think about the interface has changed along with that, right? Absolutely. And are you guys mostly developing that kind of in tandem or is it sort of software fits into hardware, hardware fits into software? So how do how does that interplay work during the des |
| Unknown | ign phase? I would say from the very beginning, it's probably the product that we've designed together as one studio more than any other. Okay. And um it's without a doubt a product that's constantly being thought of in tandem. So when we started to think about the larger display last year, of course we started to think about how we could take advantage of that display and provide even more utility, show more information, and that drove to some thinking even beyond the the the the design, but right into the chipset to allow for even more powerful processing to allow some of these interactions |
| Unknown | . Yeah, and I I like you mentioned, so last year the big change was the displays got larger, they were edge to edge, you were sort of taking advantage of of more space and a slightly more, I would say, maybe immersive experience. Yes. So this year we get the always on display. So that's that's a whole new set of design changes. How do you kind of reorient your thinking when you've spent all this time thinking about one set of goals? And now you have |
| Unknown | you have a new set of goals you have to shoot for. Well, I guess we've we've been thinking about this always-on-display concept for quite a long time. So the good news is that we're kind of always a couple steps ahead. And I think what's really interesting about always on display is we had this constraint whereby we wanted to be thoughtful about battery life. So rather than just dimming the faces when your wrist is down, we're really we're being really smart on a literally like face-by-face basis in terms of how we handle the information so that the information we think you're gonna most likely want to see when your wrist is down, like the time for example, is actually re-rendered in such a way that it's more visible to the user where some of the other more secondary information might be more dim |
| Unknown | . Can you give me an example of a specific face where as you were kind of trying to figure that out, like what does this look like fully illuminated and what does this look like in its sort of secondary mode? Where you you had maybe some challenges there and had to kind of really seriously think about that? Ye |
| Unknown | ah, I think um a really good example might be some of the faces where we flood the background with color. So for example, we know that you wouldn't want all of that color uh shining through on the display at all times. So when the wrist is down we go to black and when a wrist is up we somewhat I'd like to think elegantly illuminate the screen with those c with that color. |
| Unknown | And and one of the things, you know the word design I feel like a lot of time people think that that means you know kind of window dressing, right? Like it's it's how do you make something look nice, how do you present something? But when you're designing the watch faces like this, you're dealing with really intense technical constraints too, right? Like things down to like the refresh rate on the display drops when it's it's not being looked at. How do you think about those sort of technological constraints really at the foundation of the design process? I mean it's huge |
| Unknown | . Obviously, for us, design is how something works. Uh, how it looks is very important as well, but that's also oftentimes a byproduct of how it works. So, without a doubt, there's a constant conversation between us and all of the engineering teams that are working on actually enabling these technologies. And that there's that back and forth as well, where we learn from that process and that experience, and that very much drives what ultimately the user experiences in the in the product itself |
| Unknown | . Yeah. And you know what, one of the things that I think is really interesting is that as Apple Watch continues to evolve, it's maintained a certain feel, even as you introduce new watch faces and and as the industrial design changes, there are certain things about it that feel like there's continuity there. Right. How would you describe that continuity and how you think about that |
| Unknown | ? Well I think like anything else, we we try and think about um design as a language, right? So we have a certain set of constraints that we even sometimes put on ourselves. We designed a custom typeface that's very malleable and we have lots of different cuts of it that we use consistently. We've been pretty um strict on ourselves, even around the hands themselves. Those stay very consistent. Sometimes they're rendered in different ways, but for the most part it's the exact same hands. We use a very common curvature at the end of all of our different curved forms. So there's little bits and pieces that I guess, and this is really critical to us, that allow for the faces always to feel like they came from the same place. And that's probably one of our biggest challenges actually. Like how do we introduce all of this variability but at the same time remain constant in the look and feel? |
| Unknown | Yeah, because if if somebody's collecting physical sort of um you know, I would say mechanical watches, right? Like if you collect them you you have the physical object and you can have two of them side by side, maybe see how design has evolved in a given brand over, you know, ,10 20 50 years. Here you you don't have that, right? You kind of have to intuit all of that, and that understanding has to be kind of um kind of implicit in the product. |
| Unknown | Right, right. I think that just required us to spend a lot of time very early on before we even introduced Apple Watch to think about some of this language and really be sure that it's the sort of thing that we felt could live on for qu |
| Unknown | ite a long time. Aaron Powell Are there any elements of that language that from the outset you thought would be kind of crucial that you've gotten to a point now where you've had to either toss them out or pretty seriously amend them |
| Unknown | I think we've made some amendments along the way for sure. I think a lot of it has to do with the new capabilities that have come along with some of the new technologies we've we've introduced. So the new display from last year, as well as the new chipset, really allowed for us to like rethink complications, for example. They could be far more data-rich, they could be far more alive, and that gave us a chance to kind of completely reintroduce how we visually describe those complications on the display |
| Unknown | . And now we'll look at this week's sponsor. Well it's officially fall. I've broken out the sweaters and I'm starting to see pumpkin spice lattes on the subway. Watches tend to be flexible and perfect for year-round wear, but this year, Grand Seiko has something special for welcoming the cooler months. The Grand Seiko SBGH 273 is part of the US exclusive seasons collection, and it's the model that represents autumn. Just like the summer-inspired SBGH 271 that we told you about on last week's episode, the SBGH 273 has a 40mm stainless steel case and bracelet and is powered by the high-beat caliber 9s85. What makes it special though is the deep blue dial that's inspired by the Japanese concept of Tsukiyo, the bright shining of the moon against the dark nighttime sky. The dial has a subtle texture to it and changes color from nearly black to a steely blue depending on how it catches the light. The days may be getting shorter, but with the SBGH 273 on your wrist, you might not mind so much. For more about the Seasons collection and Grand Seiko's Alright, let's get back to the show. One of the things I've I've always liked, and I think a lot of folks listening to this have have always liked about Apple Watch is there were all of these subtle nods to sort of traditional horology in in the watch. And you know we we know from previous conversations that that's intentional, right? There was a lot of research done and a lot of people uh spoken to. Absolutely. How how do you look at horology and and sort of quote unquote like traditional watchmaking uh for inspiration as as des you'reigning without sort of feeling like you're you're chained to something, like it's holding you back. Right. W |
| Unknown | ell I think it comes back to like when I think about these things, I think about the values we have as design designers and as a design team. Sure. And so when I think whenever we approach a project or a product and start to think about how we're going to design for it, we always approach that that that problem with a ton of I'd like to think humility, but also a ton of curiosity. Yeah. And the other thing that I think is really key is we also, in that curiosity, and hopefully that humility, we also know what we don't know. And we're aware of that, and we're really interested in um in learning from the past, in deeply understanding a subject. And horology obviously is a space that's insanely rich with with information and inspiration. And so we've I mean it's uh you know you were you know you said subtle, but I'd I'd like to think like there's some you know, there's there's that there's a lot of of of sort of classic horology mixed in all of the work that we make. Yeah. You know, I I think it it y uh you know it that's um uh our our our interest in in in timekeeping even extends beyond I'd like to think the watch. Like early on we spent a lot of time thinking about like how how time has been kept uh f for forever. Right. Right. So I mean we we we're really interested in and you see that, right? I mean you see, you know, some of the things we're doing with um we've inter introduced a new solar phase recently. And that is very much to do with, you know, the Earth's relationship to the sun. And now we're we're we're we're interpreting that in a much more digital way, but it's very much grounded in some of the truths that kind of came from from the past without doubt |
| Unknown | . Yeah. So I w I wanted to ask you about specifically if we're talking about new watch faces, uh the the California face. But before we dive into that, you you just mentioned you know timekeeping is a much longer story than watches, right? Or even clocks. This is this is a thing that goes back millennia. Do you think about Apple Watch, despite the fact that it has watch in the name, do you think about it as being more connected to watches and watch making or do you think about it as being more like another |
| Unknown | I'd like to think it's another chapter, although it's firmly, you know, there's there's it's rooted in the past for sure. I mean I'd like to think about it in the same way that in some ways the iPhone is so much more than a phone, obviously. It does so much more than make phone calls. The watch I think we think of in the same way. And yet when I think about something like the way we think about activity, for example, and the way we track activity, and all the hard work we put into how we describe where you're at in your day in relation to your level of activity, we do that through these three rings. I think that's a really interesting reinterpretation of how people think about time or think about how they've spent their time throughout a day. So in some ways I think it's kind of the next the evolution of what a watch is going to be. Yeah. Or could be |
| Unknown | . I think that's really, really interesting. Um so before before we get too far away from this, the California dial, uh which is a new what new watch face. One of my favorites, by the way. I'm not at all surprised, I have to say. When it popped up during the keynote, I had kind of this flashback to when five years ago when we saw the the initial Apple Watch and the the chronograph, the original chronograph face popped up and you know all the all the watch nerds were like, oh it says it says micro micrograph. Like it's it's this little nod to something from I guess what seventy years ago, eighty years ago. Right. Right. The moment you see that mix of of Roman numerals and Arabic numerals, you know you're dealing with people who who sort of know watches, right? Like that's one of those nods that I was I was thinking of. |
| Unknown | I was just gonna mention that. I mean this is a face that now the th what I love about the face is that of course you can customize it or personalize it in I I mean millions of different configurations. But of course, uh at the sort of ground level, we love this uh kind of riff on a face that's this idiosyncratic mix of Roman and Arabic numerals. Uh that I think first that's from like the nineteen thirties. Um but I think as a design team we've always been kind of we've had a obsession especially with that face. I think because of its idiosyncratic nature and because of its history, and there's a certain, of course, a nod there, but we just think it's elegant and beautiful as well. |
| Unknown | Yeah, I like I like this idea of it being idiosyncratic, right? Like when when you buy a mechanical watch or an a analog watch, you're kind of stuck with the thing you buy. So design tends to be much more restrained. You tend to be uh limited to more neutral colors, things that are meant to, you know, maybe not not look dated in in a few decades, but things that are are going to hold up, right? Right. Whereas when you're dealing with the digital interface, you can you can kind of push it a little bit more, right? You can be a little more adventurous and know that, you know, if people like it one day and they want to change it the next day, that that flexibility is there |
| Unknown | . Right, right. And it's really appealing for the user as well. Like for example, I know I run with a few different faces, even a few different versions of the same face, and I'll swap between them even throughout the day. Okay. Depending on what it is that I'm doing or whether it's the workday or the evening or perhaps the weekend |
| Unknown | . So which which faces are your sort of go-to's, which faces and configurations are are your kind of your favorites |
| Unknown | ? And it's certainly data rich. I use that all throughout the day in a couple of different variations. Just to kind of understand where I'm at my day. Fortunately or unfortunately, my next meeting. Of course. Of course the time and and and and um sort of a sucker for the moon phase as well. Um but then between between that and recently I've been popping back and forth with the California phase for sure, which feels a little bit more like my after work weekend face |
| Unknown | . Nice. And so which which face would you say of the new faces, the new things we're getting with with series five, what do you think best exemplifies the kind of thinking behind series five as a sort of cohesive product |
| Unknown | ? It's that is such a difficult question. Mostly because within each face, as I was mentioning before, there's so many different ways a user can personalize it and create it to be their own. Um there's some beautiful, very simple numeric faces that uh are based on a series of of of of numbered uh a typeface that we created that is very much in relation to the actual shape of the display itself. But if I had to pick one, I probably would come back to the California face. I love its flexibility. I love the way it um allows for uh some some faces perhaps we haven't seen before, but it also allows for a real rich set of data to be sp to be displayed if you want to choose different complications. Complications, by the way, is an interesting one, isn't it? Like we keep we've used that term very consistently over time as another kind of clear nod. Right. And it's probably the word that we would least want to describe any aspect of one of our products. And yet because it's you know, it's because it's so grounded in um in watchmaking, we've had a really hard we we can't imagine not using it. Yeah |
| Unknown | . Have have you had to explain it whether internally to other folks kind of with within Apple or to do you find with users and with customers that that's something that kind of requires some some education or do people kind of just grab onto it? |
| Unknown | I think initially definitely people needed to to to understand where that term came from. But once people understood it, it seems to have been pretty well understood. Yeah |
| Unknown | . I wonder, you know, you mentioned uh a a few minutes ago about the users gaining flexibility from some of the new faces and from the the flexibility of being able to change kind of on a on a consistent basis. I wonder how does that impact your thinking as a designer? Does it does it allow you to be a little more adventurous or to to experiment and try things in a different way |
| Unknown | ? I f I th I mean, of course I think it does. I think it also y you know, uh it in some ways it almost requires more rigor in the sense that it requires that the design team really understands how these different pieces fit together and really ensure that however a user customizes their face, ideally they end up with something that looks great too |
| Unknown | . So the the last thing, because I know I know you have a busy week this week and need to need to get going. But uh the last thing I want to ask about is is the relationship with Hermes uh and how that design process works. So Hermes obviously is a company known for its sort of unique idiosyncratic design. How does the process work when you're working with that team on designing watch faces specifically for the AirMez editions |
| Unknown | ? I would just say we're we're we're a couple of different design groups and companies that feel like they're very much cut from the same cloth, despite the fact that we exist in different worlds. So we have a very fluid, very open, very, very positive relationship with them. It's it's been really amazing to collaborate with folks who have I'd like to say the same rigorous kind of high standards around the work that they make. And I think we're we're kind of constantly feeding off each other and it's been like one of the most amazing collaborations. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for doing this. It's good to see you. |
| Unknown | And uh yeah, we'll hopefully get to sit down and chat again soon. Most definitely. Thank you so much. And to play us out, Gray and I sit down to reveal the results of the Hodinky Radio Watch Collection Fantasy Draft 2019. Here we go, everybody. It's the time you have all been waiting for. I've got uh our producer Gray here. Hey everybody. And we are finally, after many weeks, gonna reveal to you the, winners of the inaugural Hodinki Radio Watch Collection Fantasy Draft 2019. Oh, with the sound effects. We're pulling out all the stops this week. We've got the soundboard on deck. I love it. High production here. Uh so Gray knows the results. I do not. I have the envelope right here with me. Nobody tampered with them. We're not gonna have an Oscar situation here. Unclear. Alright. Alright, perfect. For anybody who has no idea what we're talking about, uh which I hope is not many of you, uh a couple weeks ago we did uh a fantasy watch collection draft, kind of in the spirit of fantasy football, uh right when football season was uh starting uh here in the US. And uh Ben, Kara, Jack, and I sat down and essentially drafted our fantasy watch collections. Uh each collection had to have a modern sport watch, a modern dress watch, a vintage sport watch, a vintage And I app |
| Unknown | laud you for the way that you navigated that uh on air. It was fine. It worked. It was it was all in good fun. But uh no, but seriously, thank you to to you for hosting and contributing to Ben Carr and Jack for awesome collections. And a big thank you to the audience, the listener, you guys. Uh like Steven said, one of our best performing episodes to date. Um that we're taking note of. We're gonna have more of this kind of content going forward. For sure. Uh thousands of people responded to the uh to the questionnaire, the survey. And uh yeah, thank thank you for all that. Ye |
| Unknown | ah. And now you have the results, which I haven't seen since we uh since we launched the survey. So I think what we're gonna do here is Gray is going to do a a slow dramatic reveal. Uh we're gonna count down from fourth place to first place, and along the way we'll we'll talk about each collection and kinda get into what makes each special, what we think the highest value picks were, uh, you know, the best picks overall, and we'll uh we'll do a little recap. |
| Unknown | Alright. As Steven said, we'll start from number four and work our way down. Drumroll? Do we have a drumroll sound effect? There we go. Soundboard needs work, but it'll uh it'll work for this week. At number four. We have Mr. Jack Forrester taking the fourth place. Jack. What percentage of the vote did he get? Jack Forrester with thirteen point five percent of the vote. Okay. A respectable amount. I will say before we get down to number one, all four of you were in close competition. No one uh took the the lion's share, although we do have a distinct one, two, three, and four place finisher. Steven, will you remind the listeners what Jack's collection looked like? Yeah, so Jack's col |
| Unknown | lection, uh his modern sport watch was the Sacro Prospects 1970 Divers Recreation Limited Edition SLA 033 Willard. It's quite a mouthful, but it's the uh the Seiko reissue. Uh his modern dress watch is a Cartier Tank Louis Cartier in yellow gold. His vintage sport watch is a Patek Philippe 3417 A magnetic. His vintage dress watch is an Omega 30 T2 in rose gold, which is an old school chronometer. Uh his high complication was a Patek Philippe Observatory Turbon wristwatch and his flex was a 36mm Rolex day date in yellow gold with a champagne dial. The watch he has long coveted but never had. Oh man, that is that watch is unofficially the Jack Forester. Forget |
| Unknown | the president. That watch is the Jack Forester. So I I think for each one of these collections we should use some fantasy football terms to kind of describe the the picks that we found most notable. So all right. Sounds good. We don't have to tell everybody that you kicked kicked my butt in fantasy football this bitch. We'll get it right out of the way. Claims to be the fantasy guy in the podcast, and then takes the fat L. Killed me last week. But uh, what terms are we using here? Uh I think ones that are most apt for this would be uh a reach. So a reach in a fantasy draft would be where a drafter takes a pick earlier than they needed to. So in this case, it's still maybe a great watch, but it's a watch they chose too early and maybe lost out on value at that position. Uh a sleeper on the other hand would be a watch that fell in the expected draft position and therefore was a great value where chosen in the draft. And then this isn't exactly a fantasy football parallel, but we'll say the MVP, the most valuable pick for To win. Jack has a very specific taste. I would agree. And a taste that is not necessarily shared by the majority of people listening to the pod. Yeah |
| Unknown | , but I what I will say is those people who voted for Jack definitely saw everybody else's picks and were like, oh yeah, Jack's the only Jack's the only choice. Like nobody thought about whether to pick Jack or me or Jack or Cara. If you if you have Jack's taste, this collection is perfect. I mean it's it's flawless. Alright, give us uh give us your sleeper. Oh the sleeper? Uh I think the sleeper pick for Jack has to be the uh the Omega 30 T2. Uh this watch is so cool. They're really affordable. Um, you know, for less than ten thousand bucks, you can have a solid gold, super high grade chronometer from Omega with usually they have these beautiful sector dials. They're really hard to find in good shape, which is why more people don't have them. But uh for me, that that watch is like the ultimate one of the ultimate connoisseurs watches. Like if you see somebody wearing that watch, that person knows a ton about watches and probably has really good taste. And for Jack, this sentimental angle having owned one of these watches before. Yeah, exactly. I mean, and again, like, that's a perfect Jack watch. It kind of makes makes all the sense in the world that Jack would own that watch |
| Unknown | . Alright, Stephen, how about the Reach? Which watch did Jack perhaps uh reach a little bit early for in the draft? Yeah, I'm gonna go for his modern sport |
| Unknown | watch. Uh the the Seiko Willard reissue. I think that watch is amazing. It's a great watch. I think if you're somebody who loves uh vintage Seiko specifically, uh and kind of like vintage tool watches more generally, uh it's an amazing watch. And it's it's about as good as a modern sport watch can get, I'm not sure I would have taken that watch fourth overall. Yeah. That that feels especially because thinking about Ben Kara and me. Yeah. Yeah, true. The strategy. Good point. I think Jack could have could have picked that in a later round and I don |
| Unknown | 't think any of us would have taken it. Much like in poker, you don't play the cards, you play the people across from you. Exactly. Well said. Okay. Al although I must say I love that watch and I love that watch for Jack. Yeah, agreed. Again, like if Jack only owned a thirty T2 and this prospects, like he'd be good. He'd be good. I think he'd be a very happy man. And uh finally, Steven, the MVP, the most valuable pick here. Oof. I me |
| Unknown | an Cartier Tanks, a Cartier Tank. Uh uh, a unique paddock observatory turbine is is a very special thing. Uh, but I'm gonna have to go with that day date. I mean that's it. Yeah. A yellow gold day date on a bracelet uh in 36 millimeters, like arguably one of the top five watches ever made. Um, that maybe should have been the fourth overall pick. Uh if I were Jack, I would have been a little more worried that somebody else was gonna swoop in and take that, but um that may be the the value pick of the entire draft. Um Jack picked that pretty pretty late, all things considered. Um and I I think that's that' |
| Unknown | s a really smart pick on his part. If you hadn't had a chance to read Jack's uh ode to the the 36mm day date uh the tale of two daydates I think the the story is titled go go read that we'll link that up in the show notes to winner. Yeah, that's all all- timetime, great hodinky story. All right, moving right along to the number three position here. Number three is Miss Cara Barrett. Cara Barrett, CB comes in at number three. Uh if you could remind the people of her collection, Steven. Yeah, for sure. Uh |
| Unknown | Kara's modern sport watch is a 37 millimeter Autumn RPG Royal Oak, which is the reference 15450. Uh her modern dress watch is a bulgari serpenti misteriosi palini, which is the one that has all those little balls that kind of like wiggle back and forth when you move your wrist. It's an awesome, awesome watch. Her vintage sport watch is a 6239 Daytona in steel, not with a Paul Newman dial. Her vintage dress watch is an original Cartier Crash from Cartier London. Her high complication would be a white gold Patek Philippe 3448 Padallone, not the Senza Luna version. And her flex would be the Patek Philippe Henry Graves super complication. The flex of all flexes. I mean that's the flex to end of all flexes, yeah. Uh so yeah, car's got a pretty uh pretty interesting kind of uh I would say the collection kind of goes back and forth between like true all-time classics and like quirkier variations on classics, which is I think extremely fitting for cars, taste and watches |
| Unknown | . Alright, let's uh let's quickly dive into her collection. Uh Reach, which of these was a Reach pick |
| Unknown | ? Uh so I want to give Car credit. Carr picked first overall. Uh and I think she took a watch that is not at all a reach. Uh she took the Daytona first overall, which feels like a vintage Daytona going first overall in a hodinky watch collection draft. Feels uh feels pretty fitting. Um she took the Henry Greaves super complication in round two. Uh that was the eighth pick. |
| Unknown | Round two is where things started to fall off the wheels for the for the draft. It's a |
| Unknown | little bit up watches were being picked. Right, yeah. We had to we had to pull it back in. But uh I would say maybe that's maybe that's the reach for me. Uh just because I think it's such an out of left field idea. Uh I did not expect that to be the eighth eighth watch. I was kind of like taken aback when she picked it, but uh good, good, good job. I mean, credit to her. What is her sleeper pick? Yeah, uh, I think the sleeper pick to me has to be the AP, um, which is a watch that Car actually owns, which she she talks about on the show. Um 37mm Royal Oak in steel with a dark gray dial is basically a perfect everyday watch. It's just a super high end everyday watch. So if you were only gonna own one watch, especially only one sport watch, like that's pretty amazing. You get the Royal Oak bracelet, but it's in a slightly smaller size, so it's a little easier to wear. It's not a 15-202, so you don't have to like worry about it too much. Uh but it's got a super high end movement in it. It's finished to the nines. To me, that's that's a killer, killer pick. And finally her MVP. Yeah, the MVP, uh I think it's gotta be that Daytona. I mean, considering you could only we w based on the rules of this draft, only one person could pick any Daytona model. Uh the fact that Kara had the guts to come right out of the gate and take that first overall. And the fact that she picked a six, two, three, nine steel non-Paul Newman, like that's a that's a cool understated Daytona. It's not a sort of like in your face, look at me, I have money and know what people want, kind of Daytona, which I feel like a lot of Daytonas have become. Um I give her credit both for for swinging for the fences but doing it sort of elegantly, uh right right out of the gate |
| Unknown | . In classic Kara fashion. Yeah, exactly. Swinging for the fence is elegantly. Yeah. I'm a little bummed you didn't the serpente, because I think the serpenty is a very Kara pick. Uh dude, the Serpenti. The Serpente's a great pick. Uh' its kind of out of left field for for this this kind of draft. Um I just like the idea of her coming home and then like checking in with the Henry Graves super complication and uncoiling the serpente from her wrist and placing it delicately next to the Daytona and the the other watches. |
| Unknown | That's true. I mean it I think Kara's collection more than any of these collections is the one that like if you saw these six watches sitting on like someone's like nightstand or like dressing table next to each other, you'd be like, who are you? Who are like this is an interesting person who has all six of these things. For sure. Uh and somebody I think it speaks to Car's background too, uh, in in watches coming from the auction world, uh and having kind of a more adventurous design sensibility. Yeah. You kind of balance those two things |
| Unknown | out and you you get these six watches. Yeah. So shout out to you, Cara. Great job. Uh and I forgot to mention the percentage of the of the vote that she got, but Miss Cara Bar Ben there were two. It's Mr. Ben Clymer, the high priest of horology versus SJP, the hostess with the most of our humble podcast here. How do you think you're gonna fare? |
| Unknown | I wanna say I'm taking first place. I'm a little I'm a little skeptical though. Alright, time for Ben. Time for the big reveal. I mean Ben's Ben's the guy. I don't I don't know. I'm feeling a little nervous. You you should because coming in in second place. Oh no |
| Unknown | . Is SJP number two with a meager 33.5% of the vote. Oh man, I'm doing the math in my head. This was close. It was pretty close. I'll give you that, all right. So now that we know who came in first, Mr. Ben Clymer, congratulations, you take the crown, uh, with thirty six percent of the vote. Beat you out by about three and a half percentage points. Okay. Um, but before we talk about Ben, let's go over your collection, Steven. Uh read back to the people what you went with. |
| Unknown | So my collection was uh my modern sport watch was a Tudor Black Bay 58. My modern dress watch was the Acrivia Chronomet Contemporane in Platinum. My vintage SportWatch is a Rolex Space Dweller Reference 1016. My vintage dress watch is a Patek 2526 in white gold with enamel dial. My high complication is a Rolex 8171 in steel, uh, the version with the steel hands and markers. Uh, and then my flex is a uh Richard Mill RM27 |
| Unknown | So rather than identifying your own uh your own sleeper uh reach and MVP, I think I'll I'll shout out a few watches that I liked and you can give kind of your explanation there. Works for me.. All right I think the sleeper pick for Mr. Stephen Polverint might have been the Richard Meal, the doll watch. Yeah. I mean if we're talking sheer like value of a watch, way to grab that pretty late in the draft. Yeah. Also the only Richard Meal drafted uh on draft day. So shout out to you for originality. Um you you want to give some background on on your your Nadal pick here |
| Unknown | ? Yeah, it was kind of funny. I mean Ben uh I I was looking at a different RM and Ben actually reminded me that this watch existed uh mid-mid draft. But uh yeah, this is that all-gray uh Nadal. I mean, we've seen him play with a bunch of watches over the years and they tend to be really brightly colored kind of in your face or all black and kind of with like shiny movements. Uh this is like the understated badass RM. If I was gonna actually walk around with a like crazy multi-hundred thousand dollar turbine on my wrist, like this would be the one. Uh and if we're if we're again if we're going for for a flex here, uh yeah, I mean this is a |
| Unknown | watch that doesn't pull any punches. And if if we're gonna talk about a reach, and I I respect the pick, but this is in my opinion the reach of the draft and why I think maybe you missed out on the number one spot the Tudor Black Bay fifty eight. Yeah. Amazing watch, terrific watch. In fact, probably one of the next watches to enter my personal collection, but as far as having the world of watches available to you, tough to tough to to to pick where you picked it. |
| Unknown | That's fair. In hindsight agree with you. I think this one may have cost me uh cost me the draft picking it where I picked it. But uh you know I'm gonna I'm gonna defend this pick just because now I have nothing to do but dig my heels in and say I was right die on that hill. I think if if we're going for modern sport watch and you only get one. Sure, you can you can have that AP. But like really am I gonna wear a royal look to the beach? I'm not. Like some people do. More power to you. If you if you can do that, like good on you. I I wish I could, but uh I just would not be comfortable with that. Uh you bring up the beach a lot in defending your watches. How often do you go to the beach? Do I I I I think you do a little bit. Okay. Okay. Uh honestly this summer I, went to the beach a lot, but uh I like the idea of having a watch in my collection that's not precious but is still nice, and like I think that's where the Black Bay 58 lands for me. Is it's an extremely high-quality watch, it's really well made. It's beautifully designed. But it has an unpretentiousness about it that makes me not worry about it. And there are times where like I want to be able to hop on the subway and not worry about like if I jam it on the turnstile or on a pole or if you know I'm out to dinner and I bang it on a door, like I just don't want to have to worry about it. And I I think it it can straddle that line really nicely of it's it's beautiful on and amazing on one hand, and on the other hand, it's still like it's a tool. It's a real tool watch. |
| Unknown | Totally agree. And you know what? Uh despite my my armchair analysis of the results, uh, there are plenty of people in the comment section who agree with you, quoting one person, SJP B B fifty eight exclamation point. For that alone you get my vote. So maybe it was closer than it would have been otherwise because of your democratic choice for the bigger. Also a bunch of people in the com |
| Unknown | ments want Ben to buy me a black bay fifty eight, don't they? Yeah, at least sixteen. At least sixteen. You sixteen people all uh are are big uh you |
| Unknown | get a big shout out here. And then MVP pick. For me it's gotta be the space dweller. That is that is one of the cooler watches. I I mean you know as as someone who entered the world of watches fairly recently and still is kind of wowed by by references and specific variations of dials that I've never seen before that one sticks in my head for the impression that it made on me when I when I first saw it. Yeah. That's a wat |
| Unknown | ch that you you find out that watch exists and you're like, oh, like I get vintage Rolex now. Ye |
| Unknown | ah. Like this is insane. Yeah. Incredible watch. So well chosen. Honorable mentions to the Acrivia, another super neat watch and a super SJP watch. Very SJP watch. Uh the twenty five twenty six Patek. Also very S |
| Unknown | JP watch. Yes. I'm pretty predictable. I mean all all the watches here except for the eighty one seventy one are all time only. It's all right. It's good to know. Good |
| Unknown | to know what you good to know what you are, right? And so without further ado, let me crown the champion of the 2019 Hodinky Fantasy Watch Draft Extravaganza. Mr. Ben Climber. Stevie, what did you make of uh Ben's collection |
| Unknown | ? I think Ben picked a very Ben collection. Uh we had some confusion at the beginning of the draft about what fantasy meant, about whether this was like watches you could never have or whether it was like fantasy football style. But uh I think in a funny way, Ben's Ben's collection kind of spl |
| Unknown | its the difference between those two uh two definitions. Also suits Ben perfectly in the sense that he reinvented the game that that we were we were trying to force him into. |
| Unknown | That we that we tried to play. Uh classic. Yeah. Um let's just run through the watches uh real real quick here. Ben's modern sport watch is a modern Rolex Amariner in yellow gold with a black dial. It's the reference uh 1160-618. Modern dress watch is Flippe Dufour's Simplicity number double zero, which is white gold 34mm Guillet dial. It's it's the actual watch that Philippe Dufour himself wears. For vintage sport watch, uh Ben wants the Omega Speedmaster that Neil Armstrong wore to the moon. Um, man, that's that's that's the watch of the draft. But uh his vintage dress watch is the Grand Seco first in platinum. Uh his high complication is a Cartier Tortu minute repeater from the nineteen twenties, which was powered by an AP movement. And his Flex is a uh Petechaly fifteen sixty three, uh which is a split second chronograph that uh belonged to Duke Ellington. So we got we got some major provenance here. Philippe Dufour, Neil Armstrong, Duke Ellington, uh the Platinum Grand Seco, there's like a handful of. The Cardia Minute Repeater, I think there's only a handful of and then we've got a modern gold sub to to balance things out. Yeah, hard to apply |
| Unknown | the the categories we're we're forcing these collections into for this for this specific collection, but I'm gonna ask you to give it a shot. If you were to identify the reach here |
| Unknown | . I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna do a Ben here. I'm gonna redefine what reach means. Uh I'm gonna say Neil Armstrong's uh Speedmaster. That's that's on MVP. Uh it might win all the awards. Okay. But it's it's gonna get reach here uh only because we have no idea where that watch is. Uh and even if it were to be discovered, uh I believe correct me, correct me if I'm wrong. Put a comment in the comment section here if I'm wrong, but I believe that that watch is property of the US government, and so if it was ever found, uh I believe it belongs to the government and cannot be sold privately, at least not legally. Um it would be illegal to own that watch. So all right, what's what's our next category? Sleeper. Sleeper pick. Uh I'm gonna go with the Grand Seco first in platinum. Uh I gotta be honest, I had no idea that watch existed until Ben brought it up on the show. Uh and I went and did some research afterwards. That watch is unbelievable and essentially unobtainum. Um that watch is is unreal. Uh I'm gonna be in Japan next week and uh I think I think I might have to do some digging just to see if I can even find one. I just would love to see one in the metal. And then MVP of Ben's collection. Hmm. I mean you could give it to the Speedmaster, but I I think I'm gonna give it to the Patekfly 1563. Um paddock made these. It's it's a variation on the 1463, uh, which is the non-split version. Um we only know of three uh fifteen sixty three's uh and this one is in the Paddock Museum owned by Duke Ellington. It's it's incredible. I mean, it's everything you want from vintage Patek. Uh, plus the provenance. Like to me, this is again, like we're talking about connoisseurs watches. This is a connoisseur |
| Unknown | 's watch. No doubt about it. The connoisseur himself, Mr. Ben Kleimer taking uh taking number one in the inaugural fantasy draft competition. Three percent man, so close. I know. Maybe better luck next time. Should I rig this next year? Rig it? Yeah, should we rig it next year? I mean you had every opportunity this this time around. Maybe you're just covering your tracks. That's true, yeah. But uh yeah, that that hereby concludes the uh the results show for the for the fantasy draft competition. Um but does not conclude this style of content. We have a lot more uh coming, I think, in this vein. We have more editors out there who would love to uh voice their opinions, different categories, kind of constrictions we can apply to this. Yeah. Um so you know, more |
| Unknown | to come. Yeah, and I would say if you if you have ideas for things like this that you'd like us to do, again, leave them down in the comments. Uh we are very open to suggestions here and uh different ways to to arrange this, different kinds of collections you'd want people to draft. Uh it's it's a really interesting way to kind of get at what people actually like and what what comes to mind first for people. Um you know, there are there are a lot of watches out there. We forget there are a lot of different choices. And trying to pair this down to, you know, the the four of us picked in total twenty four watches. Uh that's not much. This is a very sm |
| Unknown | all sliver of what's out there. Yeah. And uh, you know, the watches are a small sliver, but also the the perspectives on said watches. Uh there was one comment that I thought uh was, you know, particularly interesting, which was the commenters fantasy participants for a second pass of this would be William Messina, Jason Singer, John Mayer, and Eric Coo. Ooh. So uh to the four gentlemen mentioned. Balls in your court. Maybe we'll have to ooh, I like |
| Unknown | that idea. Having a guest draft. Ooh, I like that. Mm-hmm. All right. We got some work to do. All right. Thanks everybody for tuning in on this one and for participating. And uh like Gray said, we'll we'll have more for you soon. This week's episode was recorded at Hodinki HQ in New York City and at Apple Park in Cupertino, California. It was produced and edited by Grayson Corjonen. Please remember to subscribe and rate the show. It really does make a difference for us. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week. |