Hollywood Watches With Agent Dave Park And The Fall's Hottest New Releases¶
Published on Mon, 14 Oct 2019 10:00:11 +0000
Sitcoms, sport watches, and a whole lot more.
Synopsis¶
This episode of Hodinkee Radio features host Stephen Pulvirent catching up with editors John Mayer and Cole Pennington about their recent travels and projects. Cole discusses his trips to Shanghai for the launch of the Oris Big Crown Pro Pilot X and to the Goodwood Revival in England, where he covered vintage cars and watches and wrote about World War I trench watches. John provides updates on the fifth volume of Hodinkee magazine, which includes an investigative piece by Cole about a long-lost watch recently returned to its owner's family. The main segment features an extensive conversation with Dave Park, a partner at United Talent Agency (UTA) and prominent Hollywood watch enthusiast. Park shares insights into what talent agents actually do, explaining how they represent actors, writers, directors, and producers while helping package television shows and manage careers. He describes his journey from growing up as a latchkey kid watching sitcoms in Northern California to working his way up from the UTA mailroom over 23 years, drawing inspiration from shows like Family Ties and Michael J. Fox's character Alex P. Keaton. Park and Pulvirent discuss the evolving watch culture in Hollywood, noting how it has grown from being primarily focused on expensive status symbols to encompassing genuine appreciation for horological craftsmanship. Park explains how he has become an unofficial watch advisor in the entertainment industry, helping colleagues navigate purchases while encouraging them to buy what genuinely moves them rather than simply following trends. The conversation touches on common questions Park receives about watches, the challenge of balancing personal taste with industry perception, and his current favorite pieces including the Rolex GMT-Master II "Root Beer" in rose gold.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | We forget sometimes is to most newbies, they're not thinking about that. Just go, that that looks great to me. That feels great on my wrist. Right. And then all of a sudden somebody tells you from outside, oh, you shouldn't be looking at that watch. Or oh no, no, no, no. That's not one of the holy trinity or whatever it is, right? Yeah. By the way, I've been guilty of that without even thinking about it to especially closer friends of mine, but it's not necessarily the hey you're wearing this cool ceramic dayton or you're wearing this cool paddock nautilus or whatever. It's like those kind of watches are a little bit more personal |
| Unknown | . Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. If you've been following the site at all lately, you'll notice this is a pretty busy time of year for us. Everyone's traveling, we're working on a ton of different projects, and it's not too often that we get a bunch of our editors to sit down and chat. So it was a real treat for me this week to get to sit down with John and Cole to talk a little bit about what they've been working on. I've been doing my own thing and uh they've been doing some really great work and it's it was exciting to get to hear what they've been working on. Cole traveled across the pond to the Goodwood Revival to check out vintage cars and watches. He put together an incredible story on trench watches and sort of the early days of the wristwatch. He also went to Shanghai, China with Oris for the release of their Big Crown Pro Pilot X, which shows off a different side of the brand. And while he was doing that, John was in Switzerland reporting on Chopard's new Alpine Eagle luxury sport watch, uh, and getting the next issue of the Hodinki magazine out the door. So he's gonna give us a little bit of a sneak peek at that. Then the main event this week is my conversation with Mr. Dave Park, a Hollywood agent wat,ch guy, and all around gentleman extraordinaire. Uh Dave's a partner at United Talent Agency, and he's someone who really knows the Hollywood scene forwards and backwards. We talk about what exactly an agent does, uh, how growing up watching sitcoms at home got him to where he is today, and what the current watch trends are out in LA. Dave's someone I always see when I'm on the West Coast, and I think you're really gonna enjoy our chat. But first up, my conversation with John and Cole. Hey guys, good to see you. Good to see you. Pleasure is mine, Steve P. We've been uh we've been all over the place lately. Yeah, you could say that. Yeah. I realized uh we want to get you guys both here because I realized uh talking to Gray, our producer here, that uh neither of you had been on the show for a little while |
| Unknown | . And I definitely felt like something was missing in my existence. That's what I that's what I like to hear, Cole. That's that's what I |
| Unknown | 'm here for. Uh it's cause you guys have been heads down on projects. You, Cole, have been traveling and John's John's been working on the magazine. Uh Cole, where have you been? Where where you're back in New York now, but where have you been in the |
| Unknown | world? Back in New York. Uh first stop was in the east in uh Shanghai, China, then went over to Goodwood in the south of England. And yeah, now I'm back here so to three different continents there. So it was good. Look at you jet setting all over the place. |
| Unknown | You had to warm Shanghai up for me. Exactly. I was scoping it out to make sure it was safe for you. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh and John, you've been you've been doing magazine st |
| Unknown | uff? Yeah, I've been pretty heads down on the magazine, uh Hodinky magazine volume five. Volume five, man. Yeah. That's crazy. It's hard to believe that we're that we're already uh now five uh issues in. And it's a fantastic one, truly. It's done, right? Oh it's all it's done. It's with the printer and uh we'll have we'll have copies in the first week of November |
| Unknown | . Okay. Amazing. Yeah. Shout out to Fritz, our printer. Now it's his turn. He's gotta he's gotta do the hard work now. Yeah, he'll now he always does a great job for us and uh we uh we expect him to do it |
| Unknown | again, it'll be great. Anything you want to tease or do we have to kind of sit tight? Forgive me if I'm a a little bit coy, but I'll I'll mention you know just kind of general ideas about a few of the features. Um our own uh Cole Pennington, who's with us uh,, wrote I would say an incredible uh investigative piece about uh a watch that was lost for a very long time and recently was unearthed. Sufficiently cool, uh yeah. And was recently unearthed, we'll say and uh is back with uh its owner's family. Um but you will have to read uh the magazine to find out a little bit more about that. It's a good one. It's a |
| Unknown | good one. It is a really good one. Uh it was a really fun one to edit, especially because I kind of purposefully stayed out of it for most of it. We always try to keep like somebody to be a fresh set of eyes, like toward the end. And I got to be the fresh set of eyes on this one. So I didn't really know what to expect. And the story went through a bunch of different drafts, some revisions. We found some additional facts. And then I got to read it. And it was, it's fun. Like rarely do I get the experience like the readers get where like I get to come in at the end and see like the fully formed, polished thing, uh, and have I hope it wasn't work for you editing |
| Unknown | it. I mean for me it wasn't. No, it's a great s it's a great story. Uh and I'm you know, I'm just happy that this issue we were able to bring a lot of new voices uh to the publication. Uh not just writers, but also photographers. We had some really talented people come in and I think do an amazing job for us. So definitely pick up a copy when it becomes available. Aw |
| Unknown | esome. I'm gonna drag you back in here. We're gonna have to do a whole whole uh magazine episode as we get closer. I would love to do that. Awesome. Perfect. And Cole uh Goodwood, how was Good |
| Unknown | wood? Goodwood. Yeah, Goodwood, I mean it's it's literally a total immersion in another place in space and time And so we ch this was the Goodwood Revival. This is Goodwood Revival. So yeah, there are two Goodwoods. Long story short, Lord March is the Duke of Richmond now, needed to find a way to revive his property. So he, you know, had a natural interest in motorsport and so forth. And I think 1992 was the first Goodwood festival of speed. Okay. And then the revival came, I believe that's that that was the order. But uh long story short, yeah, it's uh the revival is a period nineteen forty four to sixty-seven. Okay. Right about there. Okay. And so this revival is revisiting what cars may have raced on the track at that time, and everyone comes dressed to the nines like they would have. But you had a pretty good hat situation going on. Yeah, yeah. I got uh I got an old old old hat from my gramps, uh got it restored and uh down here in Soho actually and uh wore it and put on some uh period suits and uh yeah tried to I even tried to do like a little bit of a uh accent and so forth. Oh man, I love it. Oh man. Should we do a hodinky revival? Yeah. I can't do it. You can't put me on the spot. You can't put me on the spot. All right, all right |
| Unknown | . We should do a hodinky revival. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. What period would we revive? I have no idea. I I think like it'll be like the eighteen forties. It'll be amazing. No, no, no. Yeah, that's a little later. But we could do that. That'd be fun. Uh all right, so you you |
| Unknown | did Goodwood, you covered it for the site. Covered it for the site, and um one thing I didn't I mean I did watch spotting there. Yeah. And really cool. I mean some people actually followed the rules and wore watches from the period. Cool. But as you can imagine there's not many surviving w I mean, not everyone has a watch from the forties, fifties or sixties. Yeah. So plenty of new stuff. But yeah, it was very cool. Very cool. And uh Rolex is one of the headline sponsors there, so Rolex gave out some watches to the winners. Cool. Any highlights of watches you saw while you were there? Anything from the period that really stood out? From the period, to be honest, a lot of unbranded stuff from the period. Stuff that I couldn't ID right away. I mean the the coolest thing was definitely the diversity for sure, but there was this one GP that stood out and had this brilliant dial that uh instead of radiating from the center like a sunburst style would. Yeah. It almost go comes from the six o'clock position. Oh cool. It's like Oh wow. Yeah. I'm sorry, what what period was this from? Uh so it's actually it was worn by an an automotive writer named Connor Golden and he s he got it from his grandfather. Gotcha. And I think he said uh fifties. Oh yeah, coldties issue. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's really interesting. So that was one, and then there was this uh incredibly classy old German lady wearing this absolutely iced out Rolex. Yeah. Which was so cool. And she was wearing a fur coat. I mean, it's not it's not cold. Wearing this not cold glamorous fur coat and this iced out rolly. And it was and when I asked to take her picture, she was she she definitely she was all about it. Okay. Cool |
| Unknown | . It was great. So before that though, let's let's go back to Shanghai for just a second, right? So why were you in Shanghai? That not just to warm it up for me. Ye |
| Unknown | ah, well that that was one thing. I just needed to scope it out, you know? Um well I guess that points to a larger question. Why are you in Shanghai? Why is Shanghai important? And I think the reason I was there was to cover the launch of an Oris watch. The better question to ask is why was Oris in Shanghai? Yeah. Yeah. Uh yeah. So I mean we don't typically this is super interesting, and I'll get to this a little bit later, but uh Shanghai is an incredibly important market within China, and China is a very important market in the world. Yeah. We don't really think about how big it is, right? For every main city we have here, the throughput of watches from boutiques, second-tier cities in China do double or triple that. Right. So volume-wise, it's incredibly important. And I think finally brands are coming around to saying, hey, we're going to do a global launch in a market where it's just as important. In fact, probably more important than Switzerland in a lot of ways. Yeah. So I think that's why there was no, you know, Shanghai didn't spire the watch or anything like that. It was simply that it's an important place, it's an important market, and this is where they chose to do a global launch |
| Unknown | . Yeah, I mean not every I mean we think of like the traditional places where these things happen are either Switzerland or maybe New York, maybe LA, maybe London or Paris, maybe. Right. Occasionally I guess you get something maybe like uh Hong Kong. But yeah. Uh yeah, no, you're right. I mean it makes a lot of sense that Changhai is it's a huge important global city. There there's a lot of money to be spent and uh there's a lot of customers |
| Unknown | there. And and I do before I forget, I want to give a shout out to the Shanghai Watch Gang. Yeah, the Shanghai Watch Gang guys are awesome. Serious. So uh there that I hung out with those guys a little bit and you realize that you know that the hobby completely transcends cultural differences. If you're watching your watch guy, they do the same thing we do here. And uh maybe even to a larger degree. I mean those guys bring the heat. Dude, those guys don't mess around at all. |
| Unknown | Yeah. So the auris that you saw there, you wrote about it for the site. That's right. Can you tell us about this watch? It's kind of not, I think, what most of our listeners probably associate with Oris. I think like most of the guys listening, most of the people listening uh probably think like diver sixty-five, right? This is a different thing. |
| Unknown | Yeah. So I guess this is this is really a testament to the fact that Oris is an independent manufacturer and they have the capability to do something that to execute to a higher degree than we're used to. We have to acknowledge the capabilities there, right? So the ProPilot is kind of a it's an exercise in doing that. It's a watch. And what's the what's the full name of this watch? Oris Propil Okay. Yeah. So the X kinda stands for experimental. Okay. Not 10. Not 10. Yeah. It is not the Pro Pilot 10. Yeah. But basically what it does is it reminds us that yeah, Oris has the capability to do all these things. They are a totally fully integrated manufacturer. And uh the actual watch itself is just totally wild. It's done in titanium and has these crazy facets on the case, has an integrated bracelet. It's not what we're used to for Morris, and the price point is also not what we we're used to for Morris either. But if you think about it, it makes complete sense. Uh given the expertise they've developed in the aviation watch segment and diver and just producing movements. They they've produced their own calibers forever, right? So that's the the gist of that watch. It's very cool. I I I think it's a great move for us personally |
| Unknown | . Yeah. I mean it's a it's a skeletonized ten day movement. Uh the watch basically has no dial, right? Like the registers kinda like float exactly over the top. Uh and like you said, the price is not what you normally think of for more. Which |
| Unknown | that's that's real change, you know? Yeah. Yeah. There are other watches at that price point that you would definitely consider before this, but I think this is worthy of consideration. One cool thing to mention about the the ten hour power reserve is that the hand moves incrementally as the power reserve depletes. Meaning like you don't really care when you have ten to five hours or uh Oh, you're talking the display is like |
| Unknown | graduated so that as you get down to it it move it becomes more specific. Exactly |
| Unknown | . That's cool. Um and it's calibrated so that you can see when you have like less than X amount of hours on it. Because you don't really care when it's fully wound. Who cares? You know? Yeah. But only towards the end do you start to care. So that's that's what's really interesting about this watch to me. And uh I think I I think I just said 10 hour power reserve. It's not, it's 10 day power reserve. Very different. Yeah, that's uh that's a pretty big difference. Time time passes different |
| Unknown | ly for us all Steve. Yeah, yeah, right. We each get to do our own thing here. Do you think that the launch in China has anything to do with Oris thinking that this watch specifically might do well there? Do you think this is a launch kind of targeted at that market or do you think it's it's a much broader sort of strateg |
| Unknown | y question? I think it's a hat tip to an incredibly important market. I mean I I don't know for sure, and these numbers were not ever confirmed, but this may be their first or second largest market that they operate in, right? Okay. So that's probably why I don't think there's anything about the watch, although I will say that this market tends to like flashier in your face kind of uh watches, and this is to a degree that. Yeah. Um but I think it's it's just a launch, really, at the end of the day. Yeah |
| Unknown | . So before we go to a story that John wrote about another release I. I do want to touch on for a minute kind of the opposite of of the Pro Pilot X, uh, which is another type of watch that you wrote about recently, uh, which are these little World War One trench watches. Um which are kind of the opposite. Like they're not big, they're not in your face, they're not high tech. They're like the sort of simplest, smallest, like almost the like smallest unit of wristwatch that one could hope for. That's true. Um can you tell us a little bit about the story you w |
| Unknown | rote? I uh don't have to walk through the whole thing. No, I'll I'll I'll touch upon it here. I think the the angle of the story what stood out to me was just how beautiful these things were. And how how what I said elegance is really they they radiate elegance. Roman numerals, blued hands. I mean the blued hands are something these watches they look like langas of today, you know? Yeah. They're really beautiful. And I think the irony is that yeah, these were actually watches worn for war. Which nowadays when you think about military watches, it's Benner's type one, type two, marathon navigator, G Shock, things that, you know, don't look nice. I I I find them beautiful, sure. From an industrial perspective. But the trench watches are really cool because they could have been, you know, throw a nicer uh bracelet on it or something and that's a dress watch. Yeah. |
| Unknown | You know, it's a proper dress watch too. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah, one of the ones the one of the ones I really liked uh was this Enakar that has this like teardrop case and there's a compass actually embedded in the case below where the movement is. It's a really weird little like time capsule artifact. Um but it's it's kind of it speaks to a bygone very early era of the wristwatch. Very early. We'll link the story up. People should go check it out and and you know we've kind of alluded to it a little bit, but trench watches are are really important in the history of the wristwatch. They're they're the first wristwatch. Yeah, exactly. The first popular wristwatch. Yeah. Um cool. So I want to finish things off. Uh since we can't go a single week on the show without talking about stainless steel integrated bracelet sport watches because I I don't even know anymore. Um but we can't. So uh John, amidst all of the magazine craziness, you somehow found time uh to introduce a new collection from Chopar, the uh the Alpine Eagle collection, which is the latest entrant into the uh sport watch category, the integrated bracelet sport watch category. Can you give us the kind of uh TLDR of uh |
| Unknown | what this collection is? Yeah, I mean, so as as Stephen mentioned, we're talking about watches with you know s steel sport watches with integr integrated bracelets all the time. They represent a huge percentage of the total watches I think over a certain value that uh come out of that are sold uh every year. And so, you know, for many, for many brands, I think they're waking up and seeing that not having one in their repertoire is probably a mistake. Um and that was the case with Chopard. This this launched the Alpine Eagle has was, I think, about five years in development. And uh they got the idea to do it when um the youngest generation of you know, so for those who don't know, Shepard is a family-owned and uh managed uh company based in Switzerland, and when they're the youngest uh generation of the family uh happened to spy one uh in the office and said, What is that? It was not an alpine eagle, it was a watch that came out in nineteen eighty called the St. Moritz and kind of made it his mission to get the St. Maritz remade. They couldn't call it the St. Maritz because another watchmaker currently has a deal with the municipality of St. Moritz. And so that's why it's not the return of the St. Maritz and it's the launch of the Alpine Eagle. But it's you know it's a good looking steel sports watch. There are some gold and uh two-tone versions available as well. There's uh seven references for women, uh three, or seven smaller references, I'll say. I won't say that they're for women necessarily, uh, because I I think uh one or two of the uh smaller ones could work for a guy as well. And then there's uh three larger 41 millimeter uh pieces. But yeah, they're good looking watches. They both have uh both sizes have chronometer rated uh in-house movements from shopard and um some really magnificent dials uh the dials are amazing. di Theals are are totally beautiful. Yeah. They're my favorite thing about the watch by far. I think they're great too. I also think that uh the stainless steel that they're using is really interesting. Uh it's something called I think loosen two two three. Okay. Uh and that references uh the hardness of the steel. It's two hundred twenty-three Vickers as opposed to like about one fifty, which is I think more or less standard for uh the kind of steel that you'll see in launches. And I think this will have an interesting application for a watch of this type. When I say this type, I mean, you know, uh these watches that kind of reference 70s watch design that have uh a lot of facets have a lot of contract uh surfaces with contrasting finishes what screws screws exactly yeah and i think that uh i think that those types of watches in my experience anyway, tend to show off scratches more than others. Um so using this this harder steel in a type of watch design that I think is typically prone to showing scratches is a smart move. And we'll see if these uh if these end up wearing uh wearing better over time than than some of their competitors. They're also uh pretty affordably priced. You know, yeah |
| Unknown | that's the thing. I mean they're they're we think of these as you know, we'll just call it like it is, right? Like you think of this as a competitor to like the Nautilus or the Royal Oak. Uh but it's priced significantly lower than that. Significantly |
| Unknown | lower they start around what, like twelve thousand dollars in steel? Yeah, like twelve thousand nine hundred so around thirteen thousand, but that's that's well well uh that's half the price of of of like a fifteen two oh two, you know? Yeah. So I mean so almost to say that they're a competitor of of the Nautilus, I think is not is not a hundred percent accurate because they're in a totally different price segment. Yeah. Um but uh they're definitely there, I you know, it's I think it's very smart for a brand uh to come out with a watch that is gonna scratch that itch, that steel sport watch itch for people who have the money and the inclination but, just can't can't get uh their their absolute top choice. |
| Unknown | I have a quick question. Yeah. The name Alpine Eagle just screams to me. I I need to know the |
| Unknown | creation story. Okay, so the name itself was primarily born out of the inability, I think, to use the name St. Moritz. Um, but uh the uh you know the the co-president of Chopard, Carl Friedrich Scheuffelet, was uh you know skiing one day. Uh he was uh working on this project up at his family's uh ski chalet in in Stad. As one does. As one does. And uh he happened to see an alpine eagle uh you know soaring above him. And I guess it's a pretty a rare occurrence in Switzerland these days. It's a Okay, so it is an actual it's like a bald eagle or a golden eagle. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. supposed to reference the iris uh of the eagle's eye |
| Unknown | . They do have this like sort of swirly like multi-tone thing. Yeah I mean we should l |
| Unknown | we should link up the story. We'll link up the story for sure. It's introducing post with uh with live picks so you can see our own pictures of these watches |
| Unknown | . It's interesting. I think I think we're reaching this point now where we're we've almost like we've almost come through the the period of like everybody doing the oh I will like hand raising like oh I'll have I'll have a steel sport watch oh I'm gonna make a steel sport watch we've like almost come through it now to the point where it's just like expected like yeah it's no longer copycatting it's just like everyone has one in their collection it's just like how everyone has a dive watch with a rotating bezel. Like everyone now basically has to have a steel sport watch with an integrated bracelet where like you're just not going to sell that many watches right now, which, you know, an important thing to remember, uh, and I think I' Ive've said this before on the show, is like these companies are not like artists creating watches to keep the diehard enthusiasts happy and feeling inspired. Like they're businesses, they're giant multinational corporations and they have to stay in business. And like if this is what customers are buying, like this is what companies have to make. Like they need to make money at the end of the day, right? Let's hope some people in those companies are still making watch to the enthusiastic. Yeah, yeah. And they are. And and that's a good thing, but I think, you know, it's it's the enthusiast reaction to you know the Alpine Eagle and to Bell and Ross released a an integrated bracelet watch a couple weeks ago uh that we talked about here. But like the diehard enthusiast reaction is to like finger wag and be like, oh, this isn't Royal Oak, this isn't Nautilus, everybody's just copycats. But like these are companies. Like they don't have any obligation to your like sense of propriety. Like they they need to stay |
| Unknown | in business. And I will say too, in the case of Bell and Ross, it didn't hard, like I think I think both of these brands deserve a pass. I think we shouldn't uh be overly critical of them. One, you know, Bell and Ross is a watchmaker that for all it's for basically since it's existed, has referenced historical watches that they didn't make and they're totally open about it. Yeah. That's kind of like it's their it's like their stick if they're if you will, right? That's what that's what Bell and Ross does. And then Chopard, you know, I had a chance to catch up with Carl Friedrich Schauflet uh yesterday morning. I had an event here in New York. And uh he told me that if you know if the St. Maritz hadn't been a watch in their back catalog, he definitely would have thought twice about coming into this space. But you know, the fact that this is something that they've already done that's part of their own history, uh just to him helped uh make it make a lot more sense, I think. Yeah. Cool |
| Unknown | . Yeah. All right guys. Uh I think we're gonna we're gonna call that a wrap for today. I'm off to Japan on Friday. You guys traveling? I'm off to work. Normally. John, you're off to uh Van |
| Unknown | couver to print the magazine, right? Exactly. Yeah. So the files are with the printer, but uh we go off uh every issue and just and uh do a little uh quality control, I guess. We we look at uh the printing as it happens. Nice. Uh to make sure that it' |
| Unknown | s as perfect as we can make it for you. Perfect. Awesome. Well uh look forward to sitting down with you guys again soon when I'm back and uh thanks for this. Thank you. Thank you, Stevie P And next up from a recent trip to LA, my conversation with Mr. Dave Park. |
| Unknown | Hey, it's good to see you. Good to see you too. Uh I guess it's been a while, I think. It has been a little while. Um you know, we've both been busy, but it's good to see you for su |
| Unknown | re. Bizy might be a uh an understatement. But yeah. Uh we first met, I guess, when we did the UTA Hodinky partnership last year |
| Unknown | , right? Yes. And uh which was quite a success and people still talk about it in my agency and clients that were there and uh so we definitely have to kind of figure out another round of that, I think. I but um think everyone on the pinky team would love it. Yeah. No complaints on our end. Um yeah, it was great having you guys back then. But um but that's already been a while. So Yeah. Guess it's been it's been almost a year. Yeah. Yeah. Ooh. Yeah. Wow, I can't believe that. Uh what have you guys been doing with the artist space? No, it's it's been kind of a whirlwind. Um and we got a new uh director of fine arts at our agency and and we've kind of a beefed up the entire department and honestly we had you know a great uh we've had a kind of a a variety of different um exhibits um iwei did a huge exhibit there for which was amazing in in in addition to a number of other um installations in the city at simultaneously. But since then we've kind of had an eclectic uh uh grouping, I should say, of different types of artists from different fields, and not just all one type of artist. But we are trying to really uh kind of be smart about how we're moving forward with it because we there's so much demand from our clients, not just our fine artists, but our traditional artists like our uh musicians and our directors and um just kind of more traditional, you know, artists that you'd think a talent agency represents to kind of cross over and somehow use that space to kind of enhance whatever they're doing. Right. So some of them have specific interests in doing fine arts and uh and actually either paint or sculpt or whatever, which is kind of interesting. Um but others like we use the space for live performances, we use the space for um, you know, all kinds of different uh ways to exhibit talent, right? So we're still learning, we're kind of still figuring it out. But you know, the Hodinki event was one it's a huge success and an example of like a for us non traditional way of showcasing um something that our talent and our community was really excited about and and all and we were able to pair you guys with an art exhibit during the the install. So it worked perfectly. Yeah. It was like that should be I mean everyone was like, wow, this is what I pictured Hodinki to look like physically, right? Um people asked us if they were like, did you guys bring the art? We were like, no no no no no. Well I think the the biggest That's certainly yeah, which uh we'll we'll link up a photo in the show notes, but that definitely got uh got a lot of attention. That was cool. And I regret not buying some I both regret and not regret, um not you know, not buying some uh of your awesome vintage pieces you know that you guys had back. We had some good stuff with that. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. So you know, we'll we'll talk more about our partnership and kind of how we met, but uh I w I wanna get out in the beginning kind of I think a lot of people probably don't understand what it is that you do and like what it is that a a company like UTA actually does. Like I think people know there's this idea of like oh there's there's agencies and they manage talent and like oh what does this mean but like what does that actually |
| Unknown | mean for people. It's a great question and and and even before I got into this field I didn't know what agencies did and this is, you know, I've been doing this a long time. This is my 23rd year at UTA, which is a long time. So I've been and I started in the mail room, you know, and and which is nuts to think about. But um You know, it's it's one of those things that like isn't necessarily um widely known and s it's not like talent agencies in general have, you know, um job postings and career days and whatnot, although we're trying to do more outreach to kind of get uh more kind of an interesting, eclectic, diverse talent pool of people that want to be in the business. But it's still somewhat um an unknown quantity. But essentially, you know, UTA is one of the big top three or four talent agencies in the world, which typically uh we represent, you know, the the best actors, writers, directors, producers, um, uh, musicians. And when my first started we only did the kind of traditional film and tv T V business, but now you know we've expanded to have a fully fully fledged music department, um, a fully fledged news department in terms of representing journalists and news personalities, um and uh we have every pr a promotion department, an alternative department. We have you know a department that represents just like interesting social media and uh influencers and creators. Um and you know, we just recently uh announced that we uh you know got into our sports business. We're probably the last big agency of the big three to do it really, um in terms of a collaboration that we have uh we made with Rich Paul of Cl of Clutch Sports, right? So LeBron's agent. And so he's now we have a significant, you know, um uh uh ownership stake in in his company and he's now become the head of our sports division and it's really exciting. So like the reality is that most of these uh artists all want to be in different spaces. You know, and and then the idea of like the old school way of like, oh, stay in your lane and be an awesome writer, awesome director, awesome actor, and that's what you're gonna do. Um, it just that's not enough. It's not enough to kind of stay competitive and and and and agencies across the board are really fighting to kind of be more expert in the kind of, you know crossover business. That's the best way to put it, right? So and and and by the way, the music and the sports business in particular is is is a highlights that in terms of you see how many athletes and and and musicians that want to do so much and are kind of commanding so much um kind of attention and presence and beyond beyond what they're doing. Right. So that's what we do as a an agency and and obviously as an agent we're and I I particularly work in the T V department. That's my primary focus. Um where I, you know, represent, you know, writers, producers, directors and actors in TV and package and help package television shows and network and cable, both comedy and drama. Um and and the basics. Well it would would it's both. You the primary focus is representing, you know, the the creators and the the principles of a show and and helping them create, you know, or kind of start their careers and then kind of enhance their careers as they start maybe if they're a writer, um their first writing gig, their second writing gig and finally getting to a point in their career where they're ready to kind of create their own show and positioning them to be able to be able to do that in a proper and kind of leveraged way. Um and then part of what we do is really kind of make introductions and connect dots, right? So like, hey, instead of just going off and selling your own show idea by yourself, why don't you work with this great fancy non-writing producer, um, who can help you, who's had a this experience doing all these shows, or this great fancy director who's awesome and could help you from a standpoint of selling the show, but also can direct the pilot, if not more, or an actor that really doesn't want to be um an actor of stature typically, that doesn't want to just be casting, that they want to be attached to a project from the beginning, they want to be part of the ownership of it, they want to be part of the selling of it. So all of these things come together and we typically know most effective big agencies will kind of individually understand what our artists want and then look at it from a 30,000-foot view and then say, Okay, well, we're gonna start making these marriages because we think based on what we've heard and based on us knowing our clients really well, we feel like that will come together well. And so a lot of shows that you see um typically these days are kind of put together, they don't happen haphazardly. They're usually put together by a group of agents, group of other representatives, like their managers and their lawyers and um executives. They're all you know, no one group should take full credit. Um but the but I can take um some pride in knowing that it typically starts between the artist and the agent, right? They come they usually get the phone call first saying, Hey, I've got this idea. And they haven't talked to anyone else about it. And then you can kind of start game planning that and then it just kind of builds from there. So that's the bigger picture of it. And it's obviously just also making deals. Like if you make a deal for an actor or writer, it's like you make that deal, you commission your standard 10% of that deal. That's like the agent's cut. Um but kind of next level agenting is really kind of macro level, kind of global thinking, how do you expand and and take that artist to some place where they don't even know where they want to be yet? Right. As opposed to just kind of doing the you know, hey, you called me 'cause you want a job and I I found you a job. Yeah. That's like the basic level of doing it. Um but what excites me and and and my colleagues at my company is kind of doing the you know the next level global way of thinking about you know how to put careers together and and projects together and that and that's more |
| Unknown | fun. I think one of the things that comes across, you know, both in this conversation and and also, you know, as somebody who who follows you on Instagram, you know, seeing as you're attending San Diego Comic Con or or or a big industry event, like this is clearly something you're passionate about and that excites you. But you said so you started in the mailroom. Started the mail room. Kind of what what drew you to this? How did you end up with it? You know what |
| Unknown | ? I was lucky in the and there's always about there's always a level of luck involved in everything, I think. Um but uh you know I d I I went to school at UCLA. I grew up in Northern California. I went to school at UCLA. Um I thought I was gonna become a lawyer. You know, I grew up as a latchkey kid, you know, uh son of son to immigrant, you know, parents in Northern California, um, who would walk home from school every day and uh you know for a long distance by the way we wouldn't let our kids walk you know a block I walk miles in fifth and sixth grade and whatever but um and then I'd go home and watch T V from like three o'clock to like past ten o'clock every night, you know, waiting for my parents to come home from, you know, the store they were running. And um little did I know that that was really prepping me, you know, watching all the repeats of everything and all the current shows and um loving both drama and comedy and I remember I remember like you know you know specifically watching so much so much drama um you know that kind of whole kind of Stephen Cannell, uh Don Belisarial, you know, Botchko, um like you know, Aaron Spelling, I mean there's like the list goes on, Glenn Larson, like all these producers, all their shows for me, um were like just an escape and just kind of they raised me a little bit, right? And that kind of I remember Friday nights, that kind of Love Boat in the Fantasy Island uh block that like just I had always watched. I don't like comedies were great too in terms of watching shows like, you know, everything from All in the Family to Sanford and Sun to different strokes and I mean the list goes on. My favorite with family ties because I was like, man, like growing up growing up in a like a Korean American immigrant family pretty conservative and so I'm like, wow, there's like there's just like this really kind of kind of well to do white family and they disagree so much but they love each other. It's amazing that they get along with like I've never seen this before. Um and Michael J. Fox was was like my idol. I mean he was a lot of people's idols. But I watching family ties and and kind of wanting to be Alex P. Keaton. Not necessarily the conservative, you know, Nixon loving Republican, but like that kind of entrepreneurial, like he loved money. He loved to be successful. He loved it and mattered that his parents didn't love money and that they were like running a you know they were hippies running a public state, you know, TV or radio station or whatever it was. And um that was a a kind of very motivating kind of uh influence, kind of almost a mentor for me. And the the crazy thing was and obviously Back to the Future and that whole trilogy was amazing. Um and then when I got to UTA years later, I got to meet him, he was a client, you know, one of my mentors, Peter Benedict, who I worked for as his assistant and and is still there, as one of the founding members of the agency, and a very good friend and uh mentor to me, like represented Michael J. Fox for all all of that, my you know, family ties and all the back to future renegotiations and all that. Um and so meeting him years later was like I don't necessarily get starstruck, but like that was a big that was a big moment. Um but anyway I was I digress. But like just getting into this business, I you know, I do I knew nothing about it. This you have to understand when I got in this business, you know, this is pre entourage, you know, I think Jeremy Guired maybe just come out, which is on really sports agenting, but I remember reading articles um in the LA Times and weird publications that don't exist anymore, like called Spy Magazine and about agents, right? And we read about CAA and Mike Ovitz, who, you know, was the kind of the dominating big superagent um back then and reading about you know how CA was built and all his kind of Armani clad foot soldiers walking up and down Wilshire Boulevard, which kind of scared the crap out of me, but I'm that like',s kind of interesting at the same time. And um but I really had no idea. That's not what motivated me. I really got was motiv motivated out of um being uncomfortable. You know, and they say, you know, I was I my my path was was set to become a lawyer and after UCLA I moved back to San Francisco 'cause that was my dream to be living and being a uh living in San Francisco and ha being a lawyer up there. And um and ultimately I I enrolled at Hastings and dropped out. I mean I took a year off after college, took a gap year back before gap years were kind of cool because I just didn't want to roll into law school right away. Yeah. Um and I worked as a paralegal at a law firm in San Francisco and I realized I hated it, but I couldn't tell my mom that uh I didn't want to be a lawyer anymore 'cause this is what they gave up they sacrificed so much to give my brother, my sister and I like better opportunities and here I am trying to be, you know, a millennial before millennials even existed, right? Saying, Oh, that's cool. I don't want to do what you guys want me to do. Yeah. I'll take you off. Exactly. Yeah. But uh but it was an eye-opening thing. I was very lucky to kind of have that experience at a law firm for a years a parallel ago before I enrolled in law school um because it just was eye-opening and I I'm one of those people that if I'd gone through a law school I don't know if I could have pulled out at that point. I mean, there was so much sacrifice around me. I was just learning to love the law. It'd been like an arranged marriage or something. But there was a moment where I just realized, oh my God, I just have to pull the ripcord, rip the band-aid, whatever it is. Um, and so I was able to do it and my you, know, freedak my parents out. I moved back down to LA since I went to school down here. Um, so it wasn't that big of a reach for me to come to LA at that point. And then a lot of my friends who I went to school with are like, you should who are now in the entertainment business, like starting out in like being young assistants and young coordinators, they're like, you you should really check out being an agent. I said, why? Because I can help you negotiate your Carly steal and I can get you help, you know, I go on Craigslist for you and negotiate whatever couch you're buying better. Of course. They're like, yeah, you're really good at that. I'm like, maybe. And they're like, and you love TV and film, and you really love TV. And I'm like, okay, well, maybe. Not knowing anything about the business. I mean, the film business is like self-evident, like to most people. You buy a ticket, that's where the money comes from to pay for everything, right? To go to movies. But back then, before Netflix and streaming services and everything else, it was really the broadcast game was it. Nobody really understood that wasn't in the business how the T V business worked. I mean, you see commercials, it's for free, what's going on? Because I had no real plan for the first time in my life, you know, and because I was you know uncomfortable, they say, you know, comfort is the, you know, is get what's what's the analogy where that, you know, basically the the biggest enemy to progress is comfort or whatever the analogy is, right? So I was not comfortable and I and I needed to figure out the next phase of my life and I'm like, screw it, I don't know why, but I will try um becoming or looking into working at a talent agency and everyone said it's a great experience and it is because it's a great um it's like really kind of uh being in almost a fraternity or sorority, right? Because you get into a a system where there's like twenty or thirty at the minimum, at least when I did it, um and now there's much more, people in a mayor room class at any given time, um, and you're all kind of struggling, you're all kind of trying to figure it out. You don't know what you want to do. Everyone's like, Oh, do I wanna become a talent agent? Do I want to w become a lid agent? Do I wanna, you know, work in m movies or television? Do what do I want to do? Um and you meet people along the way that become lifelong friends. I'll I mean I I never went to sleep away camp, but I guess it's some something similar to that, right? So |
| Unknown | um you say a mailroom class. Yeah, I think the idea of like, oh, I started in the mailroom is like it's almost become a a trope. What does it actually mean to make it's like you know I Is it what is it what I think it is? It's kinda what you think it |
| Unknown | is. I mean uh if you again not to ref overly reference Michael J. Fox, but if you see the movie The Secret of My Success, he starts in the mailroom and works his way up. He also sleeps with somebody, you know, the boss of the wife's boss or something. It was just no not what happened. But uh at least for me. But um but yeah the whole idea of starting the mayor room and um understanding how a company works from the ground level, right? You you're at the heartbeat of like the logistical center of this building and company and seeing, you know, everything from delivering the Hollywood reporter and variety every morning to every agent and their mail and the faxes that would come through because it's pre-email when I started. I don't want to date myself, pre, you know, you know, cell phones being ubiquitous completely, right? So everything was really hand delivered. You know, faxes would come over through the central office, mailroom and we'd have to deliver everything, messenger services, we take things to our clients and you know, so you met like fancy actors and directors when you kind of drop things off delivering them. You know, like back then if you didn't have a Thompson guide, I don't know if your listeners know what that is, but pre Google Maps, there was a book that you typically go to Costco or somewhere to buy, which was a huge basically book of maps that were detailed. Okay. Right? So you look up a street address and you go go to page 54 quadrant C4 and that's where it is and that's how you'd have to figure out how to get there because there's no internet to figure it out. So everyone had one of those standard issues. Or you were screwed just to know how to get anywhere. But yeah the mailroom you know, you, start when I started I was making two hundred fifty bucks a week before taxes, working seventy to eighty hours a week and being a huge sponge, learning everything, absorbing everything, just the look and feel and vibe and of how the business worked and the kind of the rhythms of the how the agents would talk to each other and the buyers and their clients and so much of so much of it is kind of literally absorbing the culture of Hollywood, right? In terms of how business is done, in addition to like understanding how do you make a TV deal, how do you make a movie deal, how do you make an actor deal, those things are are some of the most teachable things. You know, you either have street smarts or you don't. You either have passion or you don't. You know, you either can kind of walk the walk and talk the talk in a way, or you can't. And and yes, you can enhance those things and and definitely through a mail room, everyone's green and there are people you'd meet in the mail room and be like, you Oh',re gonna be an agent, and they become agents later because it's a baptism by fire. Like you you kind of you get there, it's like it's like boot camp. Like you show up, like, oh my god, and then you come out, you know, an adult. So um that there's definitely a part of that. But yeah, you learn and then the next step up is becoming an assistant. So you know when you're in the mailroom, you start interviewing the only people that like when I hired I just hired a new assistant recently and her name is Hannah and she just she came out of the mailroom and we only hire assistants that come through the mailroom. Right. So it's a training program. But any any assistant in the mailroom is eligible to be an assistant anywhere. And that person wants to get if they become promoted to become an agent, they can go up all the way. You know, we have you know a board of directors of I believe five agents, and I think three of them came out of the mailroom like from years and years ago, right? Um which is exciting. I mean it's like you can that whole mailroom to boardroom mentality of like that. That's a cool thing. It's a cool thing. That doesn't exist most places. It doesn't exist most places. And um it's really cool to be able to know that you have upside professionally immediately, right? Like basically you are your own worst enemy or your best own agent. in a way Okay. Um by kind of navigating the process. And so and Hollywood ultimately is it's truly an apprenticeship for most jobs. Like there's no middle management really, right? So you're either an assistant or you're you're an executive of some kind. So when you're an assistant, once you get out of the mail room at at least at an agency, um, you really are apprenticing under somebody that is training you, right? Even though some bosses are worse than others and some are not very good at mentoring. Just by working for them, you're learning how they operate, how they move, how they kind of, you know, communicate all of it. And so by the time you're done on that desk, you should really know like I used to say tell my assistants like if you know what every single phone call on my phone sheet is for at that point and and you can predict the calls I'm gonna make next ish then at that point you're all you're kind of ready to get promoted, right? 'Cause like most of the time you're like, I don't know, I'm just kind of you know, holding the ship together or whatever. Yeah. But the assistants that can kind of almost operate their boss's office even when they're on vacation, oh no, I got it, 'cause I I talk to the clients, I handled them, and I've followed the payments over here and that this executive called for this. I got it. I know where to get it, whatever. They're ready. You know, they're on in and the good news is we shift around our assistants to uh work for multiple agents so they can get more than one style. You don't want somebody just molded in one. They wanna you want them to be exposed to multiple different styles of agenting and then kind of come up with their own best way of doing it themselves. But it's um it's not for everybody. You know, it's um but I really believe no matter what that I can't think of a single situation where someone that really had the skill set and would really loved the business didn't get promoted ultimately in some way, shape or form. Right. It's not like sorry, you're amazing, you're fantastic, we're just gonna let you go. Usually there's something wrong if that happens. Like that's you say that they're great, but there's but maybe, you know what, I just don't see them being an agent for X, Y, or Z reason. But the people that you really see, you make room for ultimately, you know? So anyway, that's uh Yeah, so that's the mailroom processes I think still it's kind of like a tried and true way of doing it, you know. It's um it's kinda like as a you know I'm a big baseball fan. It's like the scouting way of doing it. It's not like the sabermetrics way. You kind of you still have to see them go through and and and and kind of check their egos at the door. These Ivy League school kids are coming in thinking that they're just gonna get these great jobs and that they they show up and're pushing a mail cart. And you know, they're being kind of, you know, tortured by sometimes assistants that are younger than them, depending if they already went to law school and came here or had pro uh get a m got a master's. And it's like you just you have to check all that the door. You know, it's about okay, once you hear, you know, what's your point of view? How passionate are you? You know, do you really want this? And, you know, and are you willing to make sacrifices to get what you want? Because this is a very unlike a lot of jobs, like being a talent agent or you know, really being a Hollywood talent agent, you can only do this pretty much in one place in the world. I mean you can do it in New York too, right? Um you can do it in LA. And yes, we have offices in other places, but like there's like a mu really for music and other kind of disciplines. But to be a film or TV agent, you kinda have to be in LA or New York and there's really only like four or five places that really do it well. Okay. And so it's as a result, like like the companies that are in it like mine, the bigger companies, you know, it's like they're able to be a little bit more picky and and and present a process that's more selective. So interesting. Yeah. That's awesome |
| Unknown | . No, that's that's like you said long-winded. No, no, no. Like you said, it's it's a it's a thing that's pretty opaque to people who are not in it. And so I think it's it's fascinating to get a peak peek under the hood. I mean |
| Unknown | it's still worth watching Entourage and Swimming with Sharks and you know you know, even like movies like Devil Wears Prada, which like you think Merrill Streep is being so crazy, right, in terms of her requests, but there are Hollywood bosses, both you know, older agents and older film and TV executives that act not exactly like her character in that movie, but like like that. And like, and you have to understand like your boss as an assistant your boss is your your single and most important client and if you and if you're able to handle that client yeah then you start to understand okay now I can build a client list and you know you understand how it really really what it really means to be in the trenches to do what you need to do to be resourceful and and think both kind of creatively and street street smart wise and intelligently about getting something done. You know? Um anyway. So it's it all those things have bits of truth in them in terms of those kinds of shows that highlight agents and whatnot. But um but at the same time the it the business has definitely got more professionalized over the years. Like back when I started, you know, more crazy shit hap happened just in terms of like if you were to read books like the Mail Room and whatnot and hear old stories about like you know the like back in the day um you you get you people will just get shocked looking at those now. But um but the old mint the the old mentality of like still having to you know work your butt off and like check your ego at the door and honestly, just you know, make sure that you love it because if you don't, there's like ten other people, if not more, waiting to take your job. That still kind of exists. Yeah. You know? So |
| Unknown | I just want to say Devil Wears Prada, the single most referenced movie on this podcast. Really? I think this might be the we've done what? At the time we're recording this, we've done over 50 episodes. I think it's been referenced five or six times now. That's amazing. So yeah, it's the number one, it's the official movie of uh Hodicky Radio. It's uh Devilwears Prada. Excellent. Love it. You know, one of the things that strikes me is through everything you've been saying is it's a lot about the sort of like culture of Hollywood. Like there's there's a way of doing things. There's the ways the sort of like rules of engagement that people have that you can't really learn unless you're you're immersed in them. And lots of places have sort of like subcultures and and rules and things like that. And one place that I I think that manifests itself funnily enough is is in watches in a in a funny way. Like Hollywood has its own little watch culture that that is different. And it's different than LA watch culture more broadly, but like what have you found to be as as a watch guy? Like what have you found to be the sort of like watch culture of of Hollywood these days? That's a great question. Great segue |
| Unknown | . Yeah, you know. You know, it's interesting because when I first started getting into watches, you know, in Hollywood, I I hadn't I hadn't really noticed watches very much other than you know when they would show up on the red carpets and um and you know, you'd see a couple of ads and like the in the trades and whatnot, but it wasn't really something that a lot of my, you know, co-workers or, you know, executive friends and I or even clients would talk about. It wasn't and and then really when it it kind of cr crossed over more into mainstream, at least for me when my perception of it, um my first love was Panorai, you know, and and it became And when would that have been? That was gosh, like right in the early two thousands. Okay. Like in two thousand I think my first kind of real watch purchase was like in two thousand four or five. Okay. Uh that's about right. Which was my first watch was a Luminore Panorai Luminore Pam ninety. It was like power reserve watch. Yep. Um I don't know why. At the time it was like the perfect watch for me, of course. But um but when when that the kind of it that was something that a lot of my colleagues and some of my friends were into, um and I just decided to take the plunge and then people started talking about it. And and either fortunately or unf unfortunately, it kind of also kind of um just came about the same time of the big watch craze, I wanna say. Like you you're seeing a lot of bigger watches 'cause my next watch after that was a big pilot and I've owned and then sold like a ton of big pilots, but I can never pull them off. I can never pull them off. I have very s small uh Asian wrists. I can't pull it off. Um I feel the same way. That's a watch though that I feel like a lot of guys with smaller wrists want to make work. Well man, if they came out with a forty millimeter to forty two millimeter version, I would just be all over it. But like I just can't do it. Listen up by WC. I just can't do it. But um but but in terms of the culture since I mean and obviously everything just kind of you know in my opinion has gotten exponentially um more exciting and it kind of has exploded in Hollywood in my opinion and a lot of people are just really you know, not just into watches from a kind of a that's cool because I saw that AP on entourage, but into it just from a standpoint of that's really great. That's a statement. That's like a real real kind of you know uh that shows how your style in a way that's not just surface level. You know, it's like it shows like your real passion for something. Yeah. Um and that's that's the part where I just got even more excited because it wasn't just about, oh well what kind of expensive car or what kind of expensive kind of jewelry or whatever kind of you know suits are you wearing or whatever. It's like, hey, let's talk about those watches and especially people that are into more vintage pieces or just or just wanting to come up to me and talk to me about their watch that their dad gave them or what have you, right? It wasn't about like going down to Geary's and buy the buying the most expensive Rolex or whatever. It was let's talk about what you know what you're into and what what moves you in you in a way. So um but that said, and you know, it's also really grown like the watch culture in Hollywood to kind of not just to be a man's domain, it's really men and women across the board that that talk to me about watches all the time. I somehow I become like an unofficial watch guy in Hollywood. Definitely my company, but all over uh town in a strange way. And um so people call me all the time, say, Hey, I want I'm thinking about this or can you help me get that or whatever. Um and oftentimes, you know, if I'm not avoiding their calls completely, um you know, it's I it really have to judge it. Number one, obviously if they're a good friend of mine, I'll help them no matter what, where whatever the motivation. But but you know, if it's somebody that was referred to me you know a friend of a friend whatever like if if they're just doing it because they think it's cool because somebody else is wearing it and they're not really into it like I'll try to you know I'll try to get them more educated. I'll honestly send them to ho send them to Hodinky or what have you. Thank you. Um, which is so true, to really educate themselves before they just jump into a you know four or five figure purchase right away. It just doesn't make sense, right? Because and usually I try to weed them out because if it may just be a a very short, you know, blip of a phase for them if they just kind of saw something that someone was wearing at a at a sporting event or a concert or whatever, right? Or red carpet. So but you know it it's the good news is I I don't feel that the traditional film and TV business in Hollywood um is overly uh blingy. I think you know, most of the the enthusiasts and collectors that I now know um in Hollywood are pretty they're kind of were kinda like minded. Like it's not it's not about the blingiest watch, it's about the cool like what what moves you, what's cool, you know, the brands that, you know, um were cool a while ago. Some of them are still cool, I guess, in Hollywood and but but kind of the the most um uh enduring brands have kind of stayed that way and you know and most of the pieces that people like are honestly in a good way more reflective of their own taste uh within kind of what you know the overall kind of aesthetic is if that makes any sense. Yeah, no that, makes a lot of sense. Um but you know, I have my favorites and I'm biased. So, you know, I'll I'll tell people to go, you know, hey, go go go look at this Rolex or go look at this paddock or go look at this AP and you know, or you know, I still love Panorai and IWC and for the if if if some big dude comes and says they want some great sport watch, I'll say, Have you looked at the big pilot? But um wear it vicariously. Exactly. That's. a hundred percent Hundred percent. Um but uh but it's fun. It's fun because you know, when I'm oftentimes, you know, because our office is right around the the corner from Rodeo Drive essentially, yeah, that uh you know of a client or a friend will say, Hey can can you go with me or can you help me? And I'll just go, you know what? Yeah, let's just go down and walk walk down and we'll hit the boutiques right down Redale and go down to you know check out the pieces and it's just fun to kind of like you said, live vicariously through them just from the discovery of it when you see them put it on and you know, it it's fun, you know. Maybe I should just give this all up and sell watches. I don't |
| Unknown | know. I think you're pretty good at what you do. So that uh but do you what have there been any watches that like you've been either in a meeting or you know kind of uh you know meeting with a new a new client or you know kind of in your normal day-to-day life where a watch popped up and you were just like, whoa, like I did not expect to see that |
| Unknown | here. You know, yes. The the answer is yes. It's funny because um I work with some or a number of our music music clients, musicians, um, and when they're wearing those watches, none of them phase me. Like none of those stand. I mean, they're amazing pieces and diamond encrusted nautiluses and all this kind of stuff. But like it's usually like the executive or even the like a writer client or director client or whoever just comes up showing or comes up wearing something that I just didn't expect like a, you know, like a like a vintage Daytona. And I didn't know that, you know, they were even, you know, remotely passionate or interested or um you know, I or something that's just not a Rolex or an omega, which tend to be the most ubiquitous amongst people that are just getting into the watch business, at least I've at least or in the watch industry in terms of from Hollywood, I've seen. And not that I have anything against, I mean, I love Rolex in particular, but but it's usually kind of like the ones that are um just unexpected from a standpoint it's not the most expensive piece, right? Like if you know I saw I did see someone wearing a Grand Seiko the other day and I was like, wow, that was pretty cool. Not the cool not the cool one that you reviewed recently, that the slim blue watch that I'm now obsessed with because of you. You're welcome. But uh but just like something like the fact that they knew what it was and the fact that they were like yeah I saw this piece and I was traveling and I was in London I bought that there. I'm like wow. That that's cool. Like it's not about they didn't go out and have to go to, you know, uh the A P boutique and buy the most expensive, you know, Royal Oak. They just Right. They bought something that really spoke to them and they were somewhere and it moved them and that that was cool. That that always surprises me 'cause it's not any one type of person. I guess maybe when I first started, like I was thought that they were you know, watch collectors were kind of really way more than like minded. They were kind of one race or one kind of people or whatever. And and what I found very quickly, and even more so through the business, is that yeah, we all have our kind of um common threads in terms of what why we're in you know what brought us together to be in that meeting or to be in that room or be you know in that same place together. But so much of how they people express themselves through watches I it surprises me all the time. And so yes, it happens where I'll see in be in a meeting or go to lunch or whatever and then someone's wearing something. And it's usually the the not like, hey, it's not necessarily the hey, you're wearing this cool ceramic dayton or you're wearing this cool, you know, paddock nautilus or whatever, uh it's like those kind of watches that are a little bit more personal. Right? Uh well at that point speci |
| Unknown | fic it's almost like a secret handshake. Right. There's there's nothing secret about wearing an awesome Nautilus or a great royal oak or a you know awesome Rolex. Like there's they can be great things, but there's nothing sort of like knowing or like insidery about it. Whereas like if a guy shows up to a meeting wearing a grand Seiko, you know there's something there. Like there's something that's not evident on the surface. 100 |
| Unknown | %. You know, and it's because like, yeah, you know, uh it's it just shows that, you know, I'm I'm an I have I have an obsessive personality. When I get into something, I really get into it, right? So um and I don't expect everyone to always feel the same way about their passions, but when I meet somebody that's like minded in whatever they're doing and have evalu and they you they've clearly evaluated something in in the in a very kind of serious manner, which I would do in my own way. Like like like a Grand Sego is no matter how you slice any of those pieces, they're great deals vis-a-vis relative to, you know, their competitors. And so like and how great and functional they are and beautiful they are and and again I'm just recently gotten into it again because of you and others, but um it like it's it's it's more of a thinking man's watch to me. It's like, wow, you've already thought about this and the kind of the value proposition there is amazing. That's a huge part of it. Yes, it's great to have these amazing kind of, you know, kind of universally lauded pieces that that are are fantastic like a you know like a the ceramic daytona if you still have it I'm still notice it right it's like wow you got that piece it's amazing um it doesn't mean that you haven't thought about that watch I'm sure you figured out a way and had the right connection to get that piece. But I have equal respect for somebody that got that great Grand Seiko or got like the whatever like that vintage piece that that they've been seeking, you know, and that really moved them. Um or someone that took the time to get the the cool tutor that just came out or whatever. Whatever it is, like it's not about the price point. It's about what are they what they put into um uh their own kind of mind in terms of their passion and their kind of drive to go get a certain piece. Yeah. Um and that's cool. That always makes me always I'll have more questions for that person typically than the person that just has a great, you know, you know, Rolex sub on, which is always awesome. Yeah, no no but it's just I have way more of those conversations bec that become kind of the same than hey you have something compl completely off the beaten path a little bit from most of the people around us. Let's tal |
| Unknown | k about that. So what are some of the questions you said people come to you looking for advice or with questions. What what are the things that you get asked the most? Like what are the questions that we can just from now on you can just direct people to this episode. Uh what are the questions you get the most? |
| Unknown | Um Well number one the first question is like can you help me get a discount on the Rolex or Paddock or AP or insert brand name here? That's the number one question because especially ag agentsent are you know they think about money. So like they nothing wrong there, yeah. There's nothing wrong there. Um another question I get is is it too flashy for me to get X Watch? Oh Oh, interesting. Yeah. Like is it like is that if I go get this particular rose gold or white gold with diamonds or no diamonds or what have you. Or by the way, just particular pieces. Like it doesn't have to be white goal. Could be like, hey, if I go get buy this Richard Meal, you know, watch, is that going to be something that people are going to be like, oh, like you know, it's going to forget this thing. Yeah. You know, same by the way, same thing with cars. Like I've been asked, because I've 'cause I'm a gray hair in my office, like people like, hey, if I pull up in the you know, the new you know, whatever Porsche GT3 touring or whatever, and is is are the partners gonna think I'm making making too much money? Or you know whatever like there's those kind of questions you know and the irony is is that it comes down to I say this with both with all of it it comes down to passion if you love if p if you're a known collector if, you are a known person to like be into it, then you're fine. Yeah. But if you're just somebody that woke up one day and decided like, you know, you're gonna have a midlife crisis and by the flashest Porsche you're gonna get you can find, then you will be looked at kind of differently. I'm sorry. I mean people talk in an office envir |
| Unknown | onment. So it's also like you're working in an office full of smart people for whom a big part of their job is reading other people. Right. So like that's kind of like the worst place to try to like put on errors. Correct. Yeah |
| Unknown | . Correct. But you know the the toughest the the the toughest question actually is hey I I'm looking at watch X. I know nothing about watches or know very little about watches. I'm looking at Watch X and I love it, but people are telling me that I shouldn't buy that brand. I should go buy Y instead. What should I do? And that's a really hard response because you know you there are so many great looking watches. I mean, granted, yes, we are now, you know, as you know, passionate watch collectors, we're we've all been ingrained with and kind of hit over the head with like many reasons why we should love certain watches and many of which we agree with, many of which we agree with kind of passionately, many which of we agree with kind of cerebrally, right? Or what have you. Um but to most what we forget sometimes is to most newbies, they're not thinking about they just go, that that looks great to me. That feels great on my wrist. Right. Even though it's more expensive or less expensive or whatever. And then all of a sudden somebody tells you from outside, oh, you shouldn't be looking at that watch. Or oh no, no, no, no. That's not one of the Holy Trinity or whatever it is, right? Yeah. And and I'm by the way, I've been guilty of that. Without even thinking about I mean we we are Yeah. Without without even thinking about it to especially closer friends of mine. And it makes me s I have to stop sometimes and go, you know, I can't do that. Like they have to find their own I can give them guidelines. I can say they'll ask me what's typical or whatever, but like just because someone's buying a watch or wants to buy a watch that's not from a traditional watchmaking brand, but still from a fine place. Yeah. Or whatever, like they shouldn't it shouldn't be it shouldn't just be about resale, it shouldn't just be about what other people think. Um and that's the hardest part because I'll may have I may have my own opinions about it, but like really governing that in a way that's not overly heavy handed in terms of trying to put too much of my two cents on them is something I have to be more careful of because otherwise I can they can I've overly influenced them. Yeah. You know and, like it's just be you know, it's hard. It's hard it's a hard thing. That's the that's where I have to be. You know, with some people that are really close, I treat them like family, like yeah, I'll tell them don't don't think, do do as I do as I bu.y that Do as I don't ask questions. Do and completely don't ask any questions. But um but honestly for the most part I don't want someone to feel like they can't uh feel bad about liking something. There's some certain design element on this watch, I really loved, but people were like, Oh, you know, that's a third tier or whatever. Like, come on, no. Make somebody happy and make somebody happy. Like that's what matters, right? Or at the very least, like say, hey, you may love that, but have you really looked at everything? You know, have you really looked and just make sure that you know hold on to that visceral response, but then make sure you look at everything because it's no matter what you're buying, it's still an investment, both both either financially or just risk time. So make sure you're really kind of have seen a like gotten a the correct sample size, so to speak, to make a decision. And that usually is a great um softer indirect way of saying maybe that's not the right one to get. But again, it's like you know, it's like to to each his or her o her own, like you have to you still have to love it, you know. Like I don't want anyone to buy something just because they they they were told to buy something and they just never wear it and sits on their you know desk or in their safe and that's that's the biggest tragedy, right? |
| Unknown | So yeah. So is the watch you have on right now? Has that been getting uh a lot of wrist time? |
| Unknown | I just got I this is not planned at all. Okay. I just got this yesterday. And I waited maybe over a year for it. Can you tell people what it is? It's a after all that, it's a r it's a Rolex it's a new ceramic Rolex to uh root beer in ro in full rows. I guess. I guess the it's I love it. It's beautiful. It looks great. I love it. I almost I almost got the two tone. Okay. Because it was just a little bit easier to get than this piece, ironically. Um and I'm like, no, I'm gonna hold off. You know, I I can pull off the full rows usually when I wear a suit or go into the office and whatever. And I just didn't want you know, I just never again the two tone would that would be the only two tone I ever was like, Oh yeah, I want that piece, but I wasn't gonna own both. And uh yeah, I'm kind of in love. So you think that's getting the majority of the uh it's gonna get some great wrist time. I'm you know, I'm I don't really I'm careful with my watches, but this one I'm gonna be a little bit extra careful with 'cause I really want it to man, like it' |
| Unknown | s There's something about those center links when they're polished like that and they're like not all scratched up. There's something about it that they just it really glows. Oh my |
| Unknown | god, yeah, I agree. I agree because and it's just this particular watch, you know, with the s the the the bicolor ceramic basil, but the fact that they put the rose like I guess typically they put platinum inside the numbers, right? In the basil, but they put it's either colored platinum I guess or rose gold or I don't know. But like the fact that they're not white inside and they match the rose and the way the black and the brown it are colors just perfectly kind Yeah. Honestly. Yeah, it's it's a fantastic watch. I mean, so yeah, it's you know, and I o I own other precious metal pieces and I love them, but it's this is gonna be hard to take off |
| Unknown | . I mean, this time of year, it's it's a good time too. It's a it's a sports watch. I mean I guess in LA I say it's this time of year. I guess it's always sunny here or it's always sunny and |
| Unknown | hot. And what's I don't know if it's me just getting old, but like I have to have a bracelet or a rubber strap. I can't do leather straps anymore. And and I love them all and I always look at them and I'm not trying to and that's an it's a really unfair over characterization of a lot of great watches, right? Oh no, strap. But like, like if I can put a 5170p on a rubber strap, tell me if there's a rubber strap for that watch, because then I'll wear that watch. But like otherwise, maybe you wear it once or twice, you wear it out, and whatever. Like, yeah, and I in and I'm in an office environment, I should wear it more, but I I don't want to worry about sweating into my watches. And I don't even it's not like it's a problem for me, but like I'm just more comfortable wanting to wear the watch. Yeah. If it's more comfortable on. Yeah. So if it' |
| Unknown | s if it's over 65, 70 degrees, it's bracel |
| Unknown | ets for me. Again, not a pre um determined plug. The Hodinki straps are are are better that and more comfortable than a lot of stock straps, especially from paddock. And that makes it a little bit more wearable. So I've I've swapped out a couple of those on my watches, but like I'm kind of close to maybe moving some of those |
| Unknown | strap only watches. Like it's just I because I just don't wear them. Yeah. I basically I wear straps in the fall and winter. Otherwise it's it's bracelets. Or maybe in NATO. Like I'll wear a NATO in the summer about it. Winter for us, this is winter. You know it's true. That's true. It's for the record, it's like seventy-five degrees outside. So uh yeah. Which compared to the New York summer feels like winter. But uh yeah. Do you have any uh any pieces? I mean I guess you just got this, but any any pieces you've been eyeing lately, anything that just kind of like stands out to you? U |
| Unknown | h well the stuff that I'm eyeing it's like it's just impossible to get but like you know the my my my grail piece right now for whatever it's worth is is um the uh the AP perpetual ceramic right so it's the the full ceramic and black yeah in black um I watch is incredible I just I saw it in person once and I fell in love, and I've always been a fan of ceramic, although I don't think I own any ceramic right now, other than whatever ceramic is on these Rolexes. But um that piece just blew me away. The way that that was finished. A lot of ceramic to me, sometimes an on a variety of different brands feels a little bit too much I don't know, even if it's finished well, it just doesn't feel um feels more toyish to me. I don't know why. But um but on that a the AP ceramic, the way it's finished is like, oh my god, it's like next level. So but it's an impossible watch to get. I've also They're tough, yeah. I mean, like everyone that's a paddock fan, I'm sure it' beens I've been eyeing the the uh fifty seven twenty six blue dial. Yeah. I kind of missed out on all of them like an idiot. Um that's not true. I have I've I have a c I have a couple, but like it's not like I wish I had I di I don't have the traditional blue dial like 5712 or 5711. I just don't have that. And I'm fine with it because I have other pieces that make up for it. But the 5726, I think, was I I did for some reason when it was just in the gray dial or in the white dial, it just was didn't do it for me. But that blue dial really works on that watch. Yeah. So I would agree. But who knows? |
| Unknown | Who knows if I'll ever get that watch? Well, if anybody listening knows uh knows where to find either of those, let us let us know. Drop us a note. Uh thanks for what you're doing this, man. It's good to catch up and hear a little bit about what life's like in Hollywood these days. I hope it wasn't much of a crash and burn, but this is awesome. Thanks, man. Thank you. This week's episode was recorded at Network Studios in Los Angeles, California, and at Hodinky HQ in New York City. 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 for listening, and we'll see you next week. |