'Watch Madness' Talking Watches Tournament Preview¶
Published on Mon, 30 Mar 2020 10:00:09 +0000
No sports? No matter. It's Talking Watches Tournament time.
Synopsis¶
This episode of Hodinkee Radio launches the first-ever Watch Madness Talking Watches tournament, a March Madness-style bracket featuring all 53 episodes of Talking Watches, Hodinkee's flagship video series. Host Stephen Pulvirent is joined by editors Ben Clymer, Will Holloway, James Stacey, and Cara Barrett to preview the tournament and discuss the legacy of Talking Watches. The conversation begins with reflections on how the series started unexpectedly in 2013 with John Mayer at a café in New York, with no tripods and minimal planning, yet grew into one of the most influential watch media products ever created. The team emphasizes that Talking Watches has always been about the collector rather than just the watches, focusing on human stories and making watch collecting accessible and relatable.
The bulk of the episode consists of detailed previews of the first-round matchups across four divisions. Each editor walks through their assigned bracket quadrant, discussing the personalities, collections, and unique stories of collectors ranging from celebrities like John Mayer, Aziz Ansari, and Fred Savage to athletes like Mario Andretti, Jack Nicklaus, and Andre Iguodala, to scholars and experts like Jeff Stein and Reza Ali Rashidian. The team shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes from shoots, including humorous moments about challenging filming conditions, nearly running over Don McLean, and the memorable mic checks from professional entertainers. Throughout the discussion, they highlight how the random mathematical pairing of episodes created fascinating matchups between vastly different collecting philosophies and personalities. The episode concludes with an invitation for listeners to vote daily on Hodinkee's website and engage with the tournament over the coming weeks.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| Unknown | I mean for me from my perspective this was always about the the collector and not so much about the watches and I think that the collections that you see throughout all these things you know, s,ort of speak to that. You know, there are some multi-million dollar collections and then there are some, you know, on the other end of the spectrum. But it's it's about the ethos of collecting, it's about the person, it's about the stories behind them that really make this thing work |
| Unknown | . Hey everybody, I'm your host Stephen Polverant and this is Hodinky Radio. We've got a really fun one for you this week. We're kicking off our first ever Watch Madness Talking Watches tournament. There are 53 episodes of Talking Watches, our flagship video series and in some way our flagship editorial product. And they've been recorded over the last seven or eight years, and we thought it would be fun to assemble them all together, put them into a March Madness style bracket, and let you, the readers and listeners, vote on your favorites. So what we're gonna do is over the next couple of weeks, you'll have the opportunity every day to visit Hodinky and to cast your vote on who you think should win in head-to-head episode matchups. Some of the matchups include Gary Steingart vs And.re Iguadala, Tony Fidel vs. John Mayer's second episode, and Mario Andretti against Jack Nicholas. This is pretty wild stuff. Before that though, we wanted to get a group of our editors together to give you a little preview. So I got Ben and Will and James and Cara together, and we decided to talk about the history of talking watches, what the show means to each of us, and then get really deep into each matchup, giving you a play-by-play, previews of the collections, and who we think might come out victorious. This is gonna be a ton of fun, and we're gonna come back to you at the end of each round before the next round and give you another preview. So we'll be with you the whole way through this. Uh so without further ado, let's get into it. Test one check check check levels. Yeah, I think they're they look pretty they look good. Yeah. They're good? Yeah, they're solid. Yeah. Alright. Podcast jokes. Hey team, how's it going? Alive. Alive? Everybody's doing alright? Yeah. Isolation is cool. That's that's one take, Kara. Um basically the same day every day. Every day time is a flat circle, my friends. Yeah. I've been looking forward to this call all week. So we got uh we got CB here. We got Mr. Mr. James Stacy. Hey everyone. I got Mr. Will Holloway. Is this your uh is this your hodinky radio debut? |
| Unknown | It is uh terribly uncomfortable, but here I am, uh working uh remotely from the rolling hills of Northwest Connecticut |
| Unknown | . Perfect. And then we got uh our fearless leader, Mr. Ben Climber. Sir, how you doing? Good. And we got our our producer Grace here too. I think he may may pop in and say something a little later, but uh yeah, he's in the background for now. Um so we're here to do to do something fun, to launch, launch a new, a new project. Uh, you know, we've been thinking a lot about what we can do uh, you know, remotely, what we can do to to kind of keep people entertained and and kind of build on this level watch collecting while everybody's looking for for some distractions. Plus, I know a hand But fine. So I don't know what you guys are talking about. You're fine. It's been really hard. It's been really hard. James. James, nobody's moved any chains. Nobody's moving any chains. The game is no longer about yardage. I uh I'm lost. I don't know what to say. Well we we got a solution for you, man. Uh this game is all about yardage. We are launching Watch Madness, the 2020 Talking Watches tournament. Uh basically what we've done here is we've put all 53 episodes of Talking Watches into a March Madness style bracket. Uh episodes will go head to head with one another, and then one will move on, one will get cut, and then we'll keep the voting going uh over the next couple weeks. And eventually we'll emerge with a talking Watches champion. Um if you're trying to do the math in your head, yes, fifty-three does not pair off into even brackets. So the first eleven episodes of Talking Watches uh all get buys, so they move past the first round. And then after that it'll be a clean head to head matchup all the way down to a uh final four and then uh eventually a a champion. So does that make sense to everybody? Very well explained, Steven. Alright, per perfect. Um I think I think I have a future on ESPN maybe, but uh all right, so before we get into the brackets, what what we're gonna do here today mostly is preview these. We're gonna go through all the episodes, talk about the matchups, and kind of look at what the the first round holds. But Ben and Will, I wanted to get some of your general thoughts about talking watches. I mean, this this premiered, or I guess we kicked this off back in what, two thousand thirteen, uh, with Mr. John Mayer. Uh and this was really your collective collective brainchild, right? It was. And I think what people |
| Unknown | may not realize is that this all started, you know, sort of on a whim and you know on a shoestring. Um, you know, John had sort of come into the fold, you know, on the website, had written a few articles, you know, for us. And at some point we, you know, got together and said, Hey, let's do a video. And um it this was not called talking watches at that point. This did not have a name. I don't think anybody expected us to be sitting here seven, eight years later uh talking about fifty three episodes. Um I think after episode three with John Goldberger, we all kind of looked at each other and said, okay, what do we do now? And you know at that point I think people started coming out of the woodwork, this started to sort of gain a little traction and you know become a thing. And it's kind of grown from there um over the years. But kicking off with John obviously was a was a big coup for us, um, you know, as a small sort of agile media company a at that point and his sort of larger than life personality uh brought um you know a lot of weight to this and and kicked it off and it it became a thing |
| Unknown | . Yeah, and I I wonder Ben for you, like what what does this mean to you as as kind of a bigger part of Hodinky? I mean this is in some ways like our flagship video series, our flag one of our flagship products. Uh I would say so. I mean, I think it's you know, it it means a lot to me, you know, kind of personally and professionally. I think to to us as a company, I mean I think you nailed it. I'd say it's more than our flagship edit you know, video product. I think it's our flagship editorial product. You know, I think it's it's in fact I know rather, not think, it is the number one requested you know thing that we do on the website. That and then like limited editions, like those two things are are what people want from us all the time. Obviously, both of those things take a lot of time and a lot of work on the back end to make happen. Uh but yeah, I mean as Will said, like there was no, you know, just like Hodinki in general. Like there was no premeditation behind this. Like it just kinda happened one day. You know, I I think I I shared this on my podcast episode. But basically, like John was in town doing something, like playing he still lived in New York at the time, but wasn't really living here that much. Uh he was in town to do like Letterman or Leno back then or something like that. And he's like, Hey, like I've got two hours before I have to get on set. Like I've got seven watches. Like, should I should we do this thing? Or we're like, uh, okay. Uh and I had I I was somewhere was I think in Nantucket w on a trip or something and flew in that morning and I think Will went down the street to this place called Little Prince, which is just like a random cafe, pretty good cafe, just you know, just down the street from our office or we workspace and asked if we can do it and I think you know as I said before like I don't think they really believed him that like John Mayer was going to show up. And they were like, yeah sure, like whatever dude. Uh and then John Mayer showed up and then we did it. And then like a week later, like before we even published that episode, JJ Reddick, who also was kind of around at the time and still is, um, was like, Yeah, I'll do it too. Uh and so we had John and and JJ who, you know, looking back, like, you know, those are two huge names to have uh you know, we'd be thrilled to get those guys now, you know. Um Yeah, I wonder for for Car and James, you guys were not at Hodinky when those first couple episodes launched. Do you do you remember your kind of your first memories of of talking watches? I I I remember remember seeing the first one and thinking like, oh wow, they're into something at a whole different level. Um, you know, John's just so magnetic and there was a rapport going on. Uh just yeah, it's the kind of thing that just it kind of worked out the first time and watching it was uh was a thrill. I remember thinking like, oh this is a guitar guy, my brother's a huge uh John Mayer fan. I probably knew like all the hits and uh and then to see him like kind of pour over something else that he loves it's kind of fun to to see someone that you know because to to be somebody like a John Mayer you have to really love guitars and and playing music and to see that same sort of like ability to latch onto something past to something else, like watches, is is really special. And I think that's some of the fun that's in this is you meet these people who are fanatics for something, and then they're also fanatics for watches. It's this fun kind of uh crossfade |
| Unknown | . From a production standpoint, I just remember trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. Um yeah, a lot of water glasses. Uh yeah. You know the third the third guest of that first episode is the water glass always be be rolling well you know it was a long conversation um it went on and on uh so we were you know what you see in that first episode is really the highlights of you know that of that conversation. But I just remember this was an open restaurant at the time. So you know audio was a challenge, running four cameras, trying to keep everything in focus, making sure batteries were running, SD cards were were all there. I mean there was there was a little bit of pressure, I will uh I will admit. But somehow it uh somehow it |
| Unknown | worked out. It's just amazing that like they didn't shut the restaurant down. You know, like we were eating lunch right behind us. Wait, there were people eating there while you guys were filming it? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. Th |
| Unknown | ere were people pointing. Oh I thought it was chumbi guys. No no. Yeah. I I think I think they thought I said Sean Mayer or something. |
| Unknown | You guys did it before Jerry and uh you know comedians and cars. I always wonder how there's people in those in those uh restaurants they go to. I had no idea. You wouldn't could have fooled |
| Unknown | me. Also, at that point, I should say that I didn't have enough tripods for the four cameras, so uh couldn't afford a tripod, so um ended up doing a handheld uh camera which I thought would give me a little bit more ability to move around and get some different you know types of shots and somehow that lasted as a sort of element of of these shoots for you know for a for a long time um |
| Unknown | which kind of started for no reason whatsoever. Would you guys say that like talking wat something that I think is interesting about talking talking watches is that it really does it is a literal picture of the human element of watches, which I think was kind of not really talked about as much before unless you were like looking in auction catalogue and seeing provenance or like hearing stories from like other people. Would you say that like talking watches was really kind of kicked that off in the industry, or was like were there other people doing something similar? It just was kind of different. But I mean, what do you guys just think about? I mean, at le |
| Unknown | ast in video format for sure. I mean, like, you know, the the the early videos that I like shot over my bed, which like Will hates, you know, I had like people think I had like a fucking head cam on, I did not. It was on a tripod, I just had my arms wrapped around it. Um you know, like nobody was doing video at all back then. And then this was certainly like the s the first semi professional video in in the watch space. And more so than that, like, you know, as you said, Carr, it's like, you know, it's the idea of like a human interacting with this product as opposed to just the product itself and focusing on collectors. But I mean I think even more than that, like focusing on like you know, young collectors and people that like you actually like kinda like wanna spend time with as opposed to like that rich old guy you like kind of know or like your dad's friend that's like a doctor, like that like you really don't care about at all, like you're just not into that vibe, you know. Um and so yeah, I I think, you know, if if if I may say, I think, you know, we uh you know in some ways we said like hey like let's put the the focus on the the collector as much as the collection. Yeah I think that's a great point, Cara. I |
| Unknown | mean for me, from my perspective, this was always about the the collector and not so much about the watches. And I think that the collections that you see throughout all these things, you know, sort of speak to that. You know, there are some multi-million dollar collections and then there are some, you know, on the other end of the spectrum. But it's it's about the ethos of collecting, it's about the person, it's about the stories behind them that really make this thing work, um |
| Unknown | you know, from my from my perspective. Yeah, I mean I think you know, we we've said this before, but like I think so many people think before they find us or somebody like us, they they kinda think that they're like an island, you know? And then it's like you're kind of embarrassed and you're kinda bashful about like your love for these things. And then I mean that that first video with with Mayer was amazing because like, okay, like here's like a successful, cool, talented guy, and he's into the same stuff in the same way that I am. You know, obviously he has a much different budget than most of us. |
| Unknown | Yeah, like the crunch of a chrona like crunch of the the winding stem. Yeah. You know, this essentially for a lot of people is sort of online therapy for watch addicts. You know, this is a place to go and feel like, oh, you know what? You know, to Ben's point, I'm not alone. There are people just like me out there who are really, really into this stuff. Like James. Yeah, just like me |
| Unknown | . All right. Let's uh let's dig into the brackets now. I think w the five of us could probably sit here and just like reminisce about talking watches, but let's do it through the episodes. So we've got this broken down into roughly four divisions. It's not roughly. Four to five. Not roughly four. Somewhere between four and four. Specificity is the soul of narrative. Correct, yeah. So we've got this broken down into four divisions, uh, and let's start with the division on the top left of the bracket, uh, which is the one Will's gonna cover for us, and we're gonna start with our very first episode with John Mayer. Sure. Thanks, Stephen. |
| Unknown | I will call this the Mayor Quadrant uh as a working title just to keep it uh keep it simple. By virtue of being early adopters to our Talking Watches series, John uh Eric Coo and Fabrizio Sotti uh received first round buys. Well deserved. Well deserved. People that trusted us to tell their stories online to the to the world. So they get first round buys. Which leaves us with five matchups in the mayor uh quadrant. Uh the first one being Aziz Ansari versus Wei Ko. Interesting matchup, uh Emmy Award-winning writer, actor, director, producer, I guess all around entertainment renaissance man versus uh a veteran of the watch world fashion space and renowned racentour I would say is that accurate yeah, that's fair. Um Aziz brought uh a small but solid collection to the table for his episode, uh three pieces. Um one that stood out to me was that Onyx style day date. Really a great looking great looking piece. And then there was the pre-daytona, which he he talked about at length, um having been um having jumped in a pool with it during the filming of uh an episode in the second season of Master of None, uh, for which he won an Emmy. Uh I will say side note, Master of None season two was fantastic. Some of the best television that I've seen in a long or I had seen in a long time. So bonus points for that. And then for Wei, uh known as the founder of Revolution and the rake, uh sort of an all-around man-about town. Um he brought 10 watches to the table, including um some very cool independents. There was, I think, an Urwerk, uh Richard Meal, Debatune, so kind of a different and unique collection, you know, for this series. Standout watch here for me was that 70s Royal Oak in Yellow Gold. It's such a kind of classic look in that 70s, 70s vibe. These were both shot in the office at at y the old hodinky HQ, so bonus points to both for not uh having us lug the equipment anywhere. Uh that's kind of the most important thing for Wahali, right? Spoken like a true video producer. So save my back there. So pretty solid matchup. Different collectors, different ways of thinking about collecting. Different ways of thinking. Different ways of thinking. So pretty solid match |
| Unknown | up in round one, I would say. Yeah, good matchup. Yeah. All right. Well, who's uh who's up next in your your quadr |
| Unknown | ant? Uh my second matchup is uh baseballer Jose Bautista and uh actor, producer, and the guy from Lost uh Daniel Day Kim. Yeah, also COVID-19 Survivor. Cheers to that. Cheers to that. Batista, probably the greatest bat flipper of all times for for baseball fans. Renowned for that. This was a this was a shoot down in uh Tampa, Florida. I remember it being incredibly hot. Oh my god, so hot. |
| Unknown | It was so fucking hot. This this episode is really all about how hot the shoot days were and how far Will had to lug suitcases of tripods. Yeah. This whole thing is basically Will and I complaining about things. Ye |
| Unknown | ah, yeah, exactly. What's new? Yeah. Yeah. Um Jose, I think, brought about eight watches for this shoot. Um, and the thing that really struck me was you know him being an example of somebody who had found professional success and was able to revisit uh a sort of passion from childhood. He, you know, he had been a a watch enthusiast from a young age. Uh so this really kind of um really kind of spoke to that. Um the Panorai Radiomere three day really uh kind of spoke to me. Super simple, super clean. Bonus points for being easy to shoot. So that's something that always wins with me. DDK, uh all around true gentleman, as Ben said, COVID 19 survivor. Best jawline in the biz. And I was gonna say that damn jawline. Um so if we're voting on jawline alone, we can all just go home now and He's also fifty years old and he's gotta draw a line like that. No way. I'm a birther here. He's at least fifty, we'll say that. Yeah. Um uh DDK brought I believe nine watches. Um and the thing that really struck me here was the nice variety of pieces um from a Seiko 5, which was the same model that his father had worn when Daniel was a kid, all the way up to Nautilus, and then a bunch of Speedmasters in between. So really different types of collections, but I think they really speak to the types of people who you you know that we showc |
| Unknown | ase in this series. Thoughts on that? Does uh Batista get bonus points for the second base fight the season after? Uh I think he got |
| Unknown | his bell wrong pretty so no. He gets negative. No? Okay. Alright. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Bonus points also to DDK, you know, throughout this it's fair to say that people who are on camera, um a lot, actors in the in those types just know how to play to the camera and are really good storytellers, so they make the lives of us video people much simpler. So you know, points uh points awarded there. Great |
| Unknown | . Who tell me about that mic check in LA? That mic check? You know what I'm talking about. Even on Zoom, I could tell he knows what you're talking about. Story story time. You were like, give me a mic check, and somebody gave you a mic check, and you were like, fuck, that's an amazing mic check? And I thought you were kidding, but you weren Right, right. So to Will's point, when we have entertainers, actors, musicians on the show, they are generally more familiar with how to play the camera, how to how to work the medium and we are in Los Angeles shooting the second episode of John Mayer talking watches and before every shoot we have to make sure that the audio levels are correct, right? So I would say to you, Ben, uh mic check, and you would say mic check in that exact way. So this is this is my point that there is kind of levels to this. When you ask John Mayer to do a mic check, he does it with the Who had the weakest mic check? Weakest mic check? I can't think of anyone off the top of my head. I mean, there have been guests who've who've just outright ignored me. Uh, you know, the the star power of our hosts usually kind of overpowers our our guests a little bit, but uh but can't can't really think of the worst mic check. Yeah. If you if you ignore Corhonan, you're not getting you're not getting a part two. It's game over. Uh Will, who's up who's up next in your uh in your print page? Uh next up we have uh |
| Unknown | Reza Ali Rashidian versus Brad Farmery. Uh we have we have you know the probably the foremost dive watch scholar uh in the world. I think that's accurate to say, versus a Michelin star uh chef who uh you know has a few restaurants in New York. Um I I believe that Goldberger book on dive watches, that was all of Reza's collection? Is that corre |
| Unknown | ct? Yeah, the other way. The book. Everything in the book was Reza's collection, but that's like a small percentage of Reza's uh collection. Right, right, right |
| Unknown | . So an incredibly impressive uh collection that you brought to the table. During the episode we only focused on on some of those to you know kind of narrow it down. But um there was that uh deep sea special number one, uh, not two, not three, number one. Uh so quite, you know, quite a piece there. Um that piece loses probably many points for being absolutely impossible to shoot um with that you know domed crystal um so negative points there uh there was that uh single red patent pending sea dweller which really stood out as the a star to me and Yeah |
| Unknown | oh yeah. I mean he's Reza's the guy. I mean if if you want to know anything about s in particular in this case, you know, Sea Dwellers, uh he's he's absolutely the guy. I mean he's uh he's also just like the nicest, warmest human being ever. I also want to give a shout out to myself. My beard looks great in that episode. It's a true story. It does look good. episodes, that's the best beard |
| Unknown | moment for me. What he doesn't know is that was all done in post. So uh you know um Reza is up against Brad Farmery. Um you know in terms of Brad I think that the the chef watch collector uh connection is a kind of an interesting one and he's a good example of that. Um you know we hear about chefs all the time and we you know later we'll meet Alton Brown and uh uh you know, we hear about uh Daniel Balud and in folks like that. So there is definitely a chef uh watch collector connection. Um he also cooks with a white system fifty one, which is a very cool, very cool piece. For me, the standout watch there was that Bellin Ross, I think it's a BR03. Super clean, simple, all black with that sort of square square case. You know, kind of a nice tough tool watch and and for me super easy to shoot, so bonus points there. Next matchup is the magician Dan White versus the uh Hoyer expert uh Jeff Stein. Uh great matchup to me. Uh Dan White is the magician at the Nomad, which makes the best chicken in the world. Um true story. So that uh you know gets points, you know, with me. Uh Jeff Stein, uh Ben will remember this. The wonderful old Mr. Stein dropped 146 watches on his kitchen counter. So if you want to know what gives somebody anxiety in my world, that's it. But Jeff is just, you know, the depth and breadth of his knowledge about a particular brand is impressive and very interesting. He really, really goes deep on Hoyer. For Dan, uh this was an episode hosted by Jack. Uh so anybody who can do uh you know magic tricks on Jack during the episode and sort of befuddle Mr. Forster gets a lot of points for me. That was a a great element of this uh of the of this episode. Um for uh you know for Dan I think the standout piece to me was um well there was both an IWC Mark 15, which was a high school graduation gift to himself, uh and he also had the new uh Rolex Daytona um with the Serachrom bezel, probably the hottest watch in the last three or four years. Yeah, that's fair, I think. Yeah, for Jeff, uh ton of Hoyers. Impossible to pick one or two here that that really stood out. He just had, you know, every Octavia, every Carrera, uh, and and and whatnot. Um so that was that's a that that I think is a great matchup and and really two completely different ways of thinking about watch, you know, passion and and interest and collecting. Alright. Last up on your side. Last up on my side is Bike Farriston versus Greg Norman. That's a matchup right there. One thing that strikes me is how this brings these people together. In in what other world would you see these two matched up in anything? You know, Spike, uh, you know, car enthusiast, comedian, Seinfeld, writer, best known for episodes like The Soup Nazi. Again, big points for Spike. Plays so well to camera, knows exactly what he's doing. Great stories, great anecdotes. |
| Unknown | So the episode with Spike was a fun one because we got to go to the Santa Monica airport, which is just kind of a really neat place. It's kind of a nineteen fifties style airport that that still exists today. You know, a a lot of folks, including Spike, uh including Harrison Ford and Keanu Reeves and Jerry Seinfeld, et cetera, have the these hangers there that they that they rent. You know, when we were filming with Spike, Harrison Ford's uh hangar, which is just across the way, the the door was open and you could see some like kind of Indiana Jones style airplanes in there, some motorcycles, et cetera. Um, you know, Seinfeld keeps a bunch of his cars there as well. It's just a a neat, neat place. And you know, and Spike, you know, in many ways represents, you know, a lot of things that that that that I love, not only watches and cars, of course but you know, I'm a huge Seinfeld fan and and growing up you know the the idea of the soup Nazi was just like this like revelatory thing for me when when I experienced it the first time around I think I was in middle school or high school and like to meet the guy who conceived of that was was was pretty neat. And then of course the fact that like you are in a functioning airport, but this is not really a commercial airport. It's kind of like an FBO. I guess there's some small commercial flights there. But you know, after we did the filming, Spike was like, hey, get in. And we hopped in his Speedster, which is the car that he's had from really, I think the longest out of all of his cars. He bought it when he moved to LA. And we just ripped around the whole the whole facility in this speedster. Uh which was like such an LA type a thing to do. Uh and certainly, you know, a a memory for me. Uh but yeah, I mean, you know, having Spike become kind of part of the family from from you know that that episode on has been great and we're obviously still very good friends. You know, we now actually have the same car. You know, of of there are only you know there are only nine of which in in the world, two in the country, so so mine and spikes. Um you know and he's just a great guy and really become kind of an ambassador not only for for us in the watch world but also kind of like the enthusiast Porsche world which is a fun little place to be |
| Unknown | . And then with Greg Norman, we shot down in Florida at um the clubhouse at one of his uh golf courses uh that he had designed. Um Greg Norman is one of those just really impressive human beings who is all, you know, a little bit larger than life. Um he has really parlayed his sports career as a as a Hall of Fame golfer into a very successful business uh business career. Assembled a nice collection over the years and had great stories to go along with them. The Rolex Hulk was a standout there to me, something that he uh wore often and was was especially proud of. It had been a gift, a birthday gift from a friend, I believe, in uh in Australia. Um bonus points for Greg for allowing us to play around on his golf course. Uh play a full round or play around? Uh a full round or a round? I believe we played nine. Is that Greg? You would rem |
| Unknown | ember. Uh no, we I mean we played eighteen. I think we ran out of balls around uh hole fourteen and had to to skip on back to the clubhouse |
| Unknown | . Okay. Okay, great. I would say that yeah, things fell apart around uh hole fourteen. Let's go with that. So I think that's a an again a very interesting matchup. Bringing together two people with different uh ways of collecting. So it's to me, really fascinating. Um I'm gonna really enjoy seeing how people respond to this |
| Unknown | . Nicely done, Will. Uh Thanks, Stephen. I think we got uh James, you're up next. Uh yeah, let's do it. So I got a really good quadrant. It's uh it's a real big mix of people as as you would uh you would kind of expect from this. Um so the first one and and I don't even know if I'm actually saying this sentence correctly, but uh Goldberger, he gets a buy. Do you get a buy? Is that how that works? Yeah, yeah. You get a buy. So Goldberger gets a buy, so we can move on. So the first one we're talking about is actually Mario Andretti and Jack Nicholas. Oh in in my opinion, like a really fascinating lineup uh or matchup because we're talking about two there aren't they're almost like the other words kind of fail these two guys. Like to say they're icons of their world is kind of a discredit to some level. Like Mary Andretti was largely considered to be the finest um car driver in existence for a span of time. Certainly um a favorite in uh Ferrari's endurance years, and then moved on to race just about anything that had wheels. I mean, if if there's a there's a driver out there to remember, especially an American one, it would be Mario Andretti, really impressive guy, and some really, really cool watches. John did a great job with this in a in a a room that looks like a museum to Mario himself. And then uh and then of course we saw Ben with what is probably one of the most um famous kind of setups for for TW is Jack Nicholas and One Watch. And uh and I I think it's it's one that I've watched many times, not only because I've written things like Sunday rewinds for it, and then of course there was some auction coverage this past year because this watch was sold uh for a charity, which is fantastic. And and the two really come together uh as an interesting matchup. And this is one that I I would have a lot of trouble calling because Andretti, you have the appeal of several different watches, obviously, and and this great conversation around it. And then with Jack, it's his appeal. Your your it your vote would be more for Jack himself. And I I think the two are uh are a really interesting uh mix-up and both great episodes. Yeah, I mean it it's it it's interesting because like they were peaking kind of at the same time. You know, they they kind of came up together and as you said, like they you know, na Nicholas is literally considered the greatest golfer of all time and and and Andretti is in the conversation, as as you said, like I agree, like if you're gonna talk about somebody that drives all categories, he's number one. You know, there might be a better F1 driver, there might be a better, you know, whatever driver, but uh if you're gonna talk about car driving, he's he's right up there. It I didn't even realize until this moment that like we had both of those two guys that kind of peaked together uh in in our little stable of of of videos here. Who do we think would be better at the other one's sport? I think they'd probably be both pretty bad at the other. But I I my money would be on my money would be on Nicholas, maybe when he was a a a touch younger, but Nicholas simply because he clearly had demonstrated the ability to move from one sport to another. Yeah, he was a basketball player. Right. Yeah. So I think he just has that hand eye and and and I don't know I don't know if you could train a race car driver to think at a golfer's general level of speed. I'm not sure. There's like race car driving is a special type of insanity. And I'm not sure how well it translates to Like that's the thing that's special about Andretti is a lot of times uh a certain type of race car driving is very specific. Whether you're a rally driver or like guys that make the leap through several different types of cars is is rare. I mean it happens, but it's rare. And uh to to see see you know uh a guy like uh Nicholas get behind a Formula One car would have been pretty special. Now they're they're both like there's no you know having been there for both of these things like the both these guys are just competitors. Like they just like they're there to compete, you know? And so I think if you challenge Mario and ready to get good at golf, like he would figure it out. No question about it. Like he'd make it work, you know. We should we do that? That'd be amazing, actually. Yeah. Uh the funniest thing to me is that like these guys got matched up accidentally. Like this is just this all these uh this bracket was determined purely mathematically. It was purely by the order in which we shot and ran these. Um so the fact that these guys end up matched up in the first round is is uh pretty serendipitous. Absolutely. All right, so let's move on to round two. So I don't take up too much time here. Uh my second round is also a pretty pretty rad uh collection. It's Tony Fidel and John Mayer's second video. Um so I mean uh a a really tough matchup, especially for Tony. John Mayer is a favorite among what I have to think is most of our viewership. But I will say to anyone listening to this before they go in and cast their vote, don't sell Tony Short. Uh, it's a fantastic video. He's a very thoughtful uh person. I mean uh uh a true icon in his genre in Silicon Valley, and uh and and definitely one of one of the videos that I remember watching more than once, uh, because I remember having read his name. I've I've been a longtime kind of tech nerd. And to see his name pop up from one company to another, these big kind of product leading companies, uh he Yeah, I mean in terms of of of legacy, I mean obviously there's there's Nicholas, greatest golfer, Andretti, you know, among the great drivers, mayor, amazing musician and amazing Instagrammer. But like the in terms of people that like have impacted like actual life, Tony is is probably I would think number one on the list. You know, I mean iPhone, iPod, Nest, et cetera. Um there's a great film about a uh a company that he used to work with called General Magic, which is I would highly recommend. Uh that was basically like precursor to, you know, several things that we now have today. You know, he's he's the real deal. I mean he's still a a close friend of ours and and around the company all the time. Yeah I, I think you know it's it's hard to compete with with mayor's collection, especially in number two, but if there's somebody that's going to compete with kind of like general influence and and you know kind of interestingness uh to to our audience, Tony would be the guy. Yeah, I I agree entirely. I think it's a great one. I think both of these are fantastic. Obviously the mayor ones kind of speak for themselves in many ways. And with Fidel, I mean uh he has such a such a uh kind of an eclectic collection it it varies in a few different uh kind of directions, but I I gotta give some strong love for that fifty seven twelve. I mean what a what a fun thing to see. And and it definitely I love that uh, you know, Will you photographed it, I assume so or or were involved with such, you got the scratches. And there's something really fun about seeing a Nautilus with with a lot of wear on it. So huge, huge points for that. I think also the uh he had his he brought his wife Danny's watch, the the Jaeger one oh one, the little the little diamond |
| Unknown | I remember walking out of that episode being like, you know, I don't think I've ever met anyone whose mind works quite like that and expresses he expresses himself so succinctly, you know, even when talking about very complex things. Uh quite an an an impressive human being we're talking about here. Yeah, he's he's one of a kind for sure |
| Unknown | . Okay, so for my next one, an another kind of difficult one to call depending on your taste and watches, but this is Shuhei Nishigushi versus Jason Singer. And I I think that um the two of these are this this is an interesting matchup because you have uh a really eclectic profile of taste from Nishiguchi and then you have Singer who is a prolific collector. So if you're in it just for the highlights, the hits, I mean he has some some really really awesome watches. I mean and and and a level of knowledge and understanding that comes through very quickly in the video itself. I think this is a fun matchup and and I certainly uh the Singer's one of my favorites in in terms of going back and being able to to look at some pretty special uh Patek Philippe references and and that sort of thing and and and to see the way that obviously with talking watches we uh that these are all people's collections, but I would say not everyone that's on talking watches is a collector per se. The same way that I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm a watch collector in and that I'm a watch owner in many ways. Um and with Singer, you're looking at like a pure collector |
| Unknown | . Not quite at Jeff Stein level, but too many watches on the table |
| Unknown | . Yeah, there is a solid, there's a couple shots of just a a whole table full of uh really impressive movies. Yeah, I I'll I'll add something quickly. I mean Jason Singer is is, you know, at least at one point was and probably still is, you know, the greatest American high-end watch collector. You know, he's a collector. It's not like he's not doing this for fashion or being cool. Like he is like he needs to collect. He needs to like go through that intellectual exercise of like looking at minutiae, finding the different variants, acquiring them, uh, you know, really, really doing it. And So yeah, this next one is one that does actually have uh a personal stake in my world because it involves one that I actually hosted and uh one that I'm quite proud of, actually, and that's Moki Martin. And we have him teamed up against uh Rani Madvani. Uh this is a really tough one to call because in my in my book like Moki could take it the entire way. Like I think he I think we're we're talking about a champion here uh on any level and certainly in uh a talking watches bracket I think he's he's worth the vote. Uh I could not be more biased. I love Moki. Uh he's one of the most impressive people I've ever come across, one of the most positive people I've ever come across. He loves watches and he had a couple of really great watches and uh we had a uh a thrill of a day shooting that episode for sure. If you want to talk about um standing in the sun and attempting to to deliver a uh a two camera segment before I sweat through my shirt. Uh doing that on Coronado Island with uh with Moki was something else. Something I'll never forget for sure. Yeah. Uh side note, you know, could you have worn a smaller shirt for that? It was an appropriately sized shirt. Well one size A bit of a gun show, I'll say, but okay. Hey. You down there on uh seal island, might as well make make sure that everybody knows that you're uh what you're packing. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then with um with uh Mr. Madvani's collection, I mean a a really specific aesthetic in that it was one that was adjacent to a lot of the classics. And I really like to see that in that that sort of like collector's eye in applying to some of these what you would call more esoteric or kind of weirder options that are all still coming from all these brands that we know and love. And uh he really has uh he he presents his perspective on watches, especially when they get into some of the discussion about watch cases, uh, I think really well. And I think it it's uh it's an oddball collection among the greater kind of talking watches sphere, but uh one that's d definitely worth a viewing and uh and may very well be worth your vote. Uh i if uh if you if you like uh yeah just some of the kind of like weirder or more the it has a very defined kind of perspective that again is kind of outside a lot of the the stuff that we see more commonly on TW. Yeah. If you want to see a bunch of those like funky cased watches, follow him on Instagram. Um it's just like a never-ending stream of these just like really unusual watches. Like stuff, it's not the stuff you're gonna see on everybody else's Instagram. And then last up as far as uh matchups go for um my quadrant of this uh this Rene Bayer. And this is a super tough one. These are two killer collections, great personalities, really cool watches on both. I mean, if we're talking personally, the fact that Renee Baer has an Everest watch is uh is kind of uh you know uh a tough thing to look past. That's such a k killeriller one. It's also, I think it's my favorite TW hosted by Steven. I really love this one. You guys had some like fun chemistry going on and he he seems so happy to be there, which is uh which is an obvious plus. And the watches are the watches are crazy. So, you know, w when Steven did the Renee Bayer episode, that that that is one and and I am, you know, kind of if I can say the the most giving, you know, kind of uh executive possible. Like I want my guys to get the the limelight completely. But that one I was genuinely jealous of because the the Bayer Museum and the Bayer collection is something that I've heard about for years. And I've been to the store or you know, the the flagship store in Zurich. I've never actually been in the museum, and so to be able to get an inside look at what the Bayer collection is actually about is just amazing. And you know, and to be clear, like that that collection doesn't necessarily belong to Renee Bayer himself. It belongs to his family's museum, which he is obviously the, you know, the majority shareholder in um really wild stuff i mean you know as as wild as you can basically possibly get uh and it just shows how important these early you know kind of flagship retailers were and still are to this industry. I mean, you know, the the the Rolex from, I believe, Hans Wilsdorf, you know, these connections to Patek Philippe, as far as I know, they're the only retailer besides Tiffany, of course to have Bayer on the dial of any 5170, and that was even a special edition watch. You know, really just wonderful collection of kind of old school uh watch industry folks. Um and then and then certainly with uh with Ahmed Rahman's uh certainly no less crazy when it comes to watches, some really cool stuff. I mean that that Cartier I think is the standout for me. What what a a neat watch with a fascinating movement and a really cool history. And I think this one is one uh from my bracket or from my quadrant, I think this this one, this matchup is one that I'm really interested to see how people decide to place their vote because I don't actually know where I could either. Two really cool collections, two great personalities. Yeah, totally agree. Um I think both of those episodes both fall under the like must watch category. Like if we were to create a list of the, you know, top ten to fifteen episodes, I think I think both of those would would make their way onto it. Uh cool. Thanks, James. You've got uh the the folks on your bracket who have buys are who again? Um that's John Goldberger and Praz. And Alfredo Paramico, right? Oh right. And Alfredo Paramico. Uh Kara, you're you're up next. Oh man. I was hoping I would go last. Nah, we're we're gonna go around. We'll go in a circle here. Is that how these |
| Unknown | sports brackets work? Okay. That's how sports work, yeah. Well I'm glad you clarified that the how these were picked, that they were at random because I really was confused as to how some of these people got matched up. Um, but so for me in my quad, the buys are JCB, Kevin Rose, and J.J. Reddick, um, all of which are very like iconic early episodes, so I think that that is well deserved. Um but kicking things off uh is done McLean and Morgan King, uh, two vastly different episodes. Um, one is the famous singer of American Pie and a couple other songs, and Morgan King is a celebrity in his in a way in his collecting habits I'd say but he also loves celebrities so I feel like personality wise this is kind of kind of matches up really well, but they have really different collections. Like Don McLean is kind of varied and he buys kind of not on impulse, but I would say he buys emotionally, where Morgan King is emotional about his watches, but he goes really deep and he's really thorough about different references and he's really into Paul Newman's and Daytona's, whereas Dom McLean's more into like kind of classic watches. So very different lineups, but we'll see, we'll see who comes on on top. I don't know if I th Stephen Gray and Will were all there for the uh Don McLean shoot. That was my very first talking watches. I was very um behind the scenes tidbit there. U |
| Unknown | h coming into his house, uh, I almost ran him over, uh backing the rental van into his driveway. Uh he was directing me from behind, you know, uh uh at the bottom of the driveway. And you know, this famed singer of American Pie was like sort of hopping back and forth from side to side, waving me in. I kept losing him in the in the mirror, so I thought he was done for. And Will, don't forget that the soundtrack to your near vehicular manslaugh |
| Unknown | ter of Don McClain was American Pop. Bye bye. We uh we must have listened to that song, what, twenty |
| Unknown | times on the drive out? It was on a loop. We tried some of the other songs, but they weren't as good. So we stuck with uh American Pie. That was that was the soundtrack. But yeah, no, that was pretty I mean that was pretty scary. Um both almost running over him but also meeting him 'cause he's like this big uh this big singer, and you kind of like grew up listening to that song, and all of a sudden you're like, I'm in Don McClain's house. This is very strange. Um but yeah, it was it was it was fun. So it'll be interesting to see and you know, Morgan himself is like such a character and he's really very fun and very nice and he's very approachable and um so his collection's pretty killer also, so I think never a never a dull moment with Mr. King. Uh not at all. And he's always around, which is nice. He's always kind of, you know, whenever we're in LA, he wants to hang out, and so it's always it's nice to kind of keep that that |
| Unknown | friendship going, I think. Yeah, Morgan's also low-key uh lent us many, many, many watches that have showed up in other places. So yeah, shout out to Morgan. Uh you've seen his watches in his Talking Watches episode, but you've also seen them in the Hodinki magazine. You've seen them in other features we've run on the site in reference points. You know, when when you need a sort of high-end hard-to-find watch, uh Morgan's a great place to go because he usually has it and he is |
| Unknown | So we've got Howie Kendrick and David Robinson |
| Unknown | . That's a funny it's funny that that worked out, those two guys together |
| Unknown | . First round sporto matchup. I think that you guys rigged this, but it's maybe not. It's like my David Robinson pen there you go James host of that episode and yeah I think it's very interesting I mean two two athletes clearly and um both with very different collecting styles I mean how he is loved watches as a kid and um kind of started collecting them later on in his career. And it's a lot of vintage, it's a lot of like very pure tool watches. So it's like dive watches, military watches, you name it, like he's really into that stuff. And he is also a very nice person and very approachable. And was I remember meeting him in the office that day and he was genuinely really excited to be there and talk. You could tell he really really loved watches um and he's also kind of worked with us on H10 and stuff like that so that's one collection then you've got Dave Robinson who's also very into watches, but has a really unusual collection and it's kind of quirky in the sense that like he's got a piaget here and then he has like a r a random minute repeater from Ulysses Nardin that's his favorite manufacturer, and so it couldn't the collections couldn't be more different, but the ethos is still there, which I think is um which will make it kind of difficult to choose between these two. Yeah, that' |
| Unknown | s it. captured the sort of ethos of of collecting really well and was it was really um really presented really well by him uh I really enjoyed that one. And David Robinson for those of us of a you know of a certain a Yeah, he was awesome too. And and if you want to talk um |
| Unknown | a hot day It was a hot day in San Antonio. It was a hot one. We shot we shot the interior segments at Robinson School, which was lovely. Um, but as Gray just likes to see me sweat, I had to do the stand-ups outside and it was so hot where I like I put my sunglasses on. It was so sunny and hot. I actually put them on and then I went and re went to reach for more sunglasses. I already had them on and I was like so bright. Welcome to Texas, baby. This can't be a good sizzle. Yeah, yeah. It just doesn't get that sunny up here. It was hot. It was hot. It was a really fun shoot. Uh he was great. I thought the watches were a lot of them were like determined by things he bought at various stages of his athletic career. And then uh which I with a which I think is beautiful. And then he he had uh he had a lot of great stuff and and a I mean David Robinson, an amazing attitude, really nice guy. He was happy to be there and we hit we it was a good shoot. And then we ate a lot of barbecue. Oh so much. Kings Kings County or something like that? Kings Road. King's Road. So jealous. Gray, how does Howie's World Series win for your Washington Nationals weight this category? District of Champions, baby. DC. Ushering in a new era. All right. I shouldn't have invited this, but alright. My mistake. Cara, who's up who's up next for you? I have Jonathan Ward |
| Unknown | and Bethany Frankel. Two very very,, very different videos and collectors. Yeah. Um so this will really be just come down to like I think just like personal preference. Um, I mean Jonathan Ward is the founder of iconic four by four. He's into cars, like all these SUVs, he and his wife kind of like I think remodeled them. James, you can probably talk a little bit more about that than I can. Um, but his watches are all very design focused and they're very is esoteric the word? It's they're very um unusual. Like they're just not your run-of-the-mill watches. So th |
| Unknown | ough the episode with John Ward is kind of a throwback episode but existed before Singer, of really souping up four by four. So Land Rovers, uh FJs, et cetera. I think he actually prefers working on the FJ to anything else. And we're talking like you know mid-six figure, just crazy spec'd out Land Rovers and FJs, you know, that that are often in the collections of some very notable folks. And he's just one of those guys that really beats to the sound of his own drum. And he just, you know, if you look at his watch collection, it is different than anything else we've ever featured on Talking Watches. He just does what he wants |
| Unknown | Um Bethany on the other hand, she is also about the details but in a very different way and she's really about finding what she likes and researching and trying to, you know, get the best deal for the best watch out there and she's really kind of enjoys the the hunt, if you will. Um and she's has a little bit more |
| Unknown | of a classic aesthetic. Cara, what uh what did it mean for you to be able to host the |
| Unknown | Oh, it was sick. I loved it. Um she is someone that I've watched on T V for a very long time, since the beginning of Real Housewives of New York. And she was always one of my favorite people on the show, so it was really surreal to meet her in person. She's very actually very funny, very warm, very smart, very quick witted, and it was great. I really enjoyed it. Yeah |
| Unknown | , I would uh add to that. I was sort of skeptical of you know a reality TV, you know, personality and and whatnot. Boy was I wrong. Like she is a whip smart person and she used just like, you know, destroy you in the batt |
| Unknown | le of wits. Uh r really interesting p interesting person. And she's actually doing a lot right now with Be Strong for coronavirus. So um we should probably link that up in the notes, Stevie, if we can, because uh her charity Be Strong is actually very active in um global crises, so crises. But yeah, so I mean for me, you know, I have a soft spot for that episode, obviously. Um then we have David Williams versus Phil Atoladano, which I actually think is a really interesting matchup that this happened this way. I you know, we know Phil is he's a friend of the brand and company and w spent some time with him outside of w talking watches and he's a very eccentric character and he's very funny and you know very English and um he's an artist but he's also a car collector and he collects very specific watches that are kind of weird. He's like really into beta 21 right now, which I think is very funny. Versus David Williams, who is an astronaut and pilot and has done a lot of like I don't know. He's been out he's been out to outer space. Like he's actually like kind of like lived these these adventures in real life and he collects watches based on his use for them. And um so it's just a very different collecting style. One is more purpose like purpose driven and the other is more um he buys what he's into in that moment. So Phil Toledano or or M |
| Unknown | r Enthusiast as he now goes, uh, you know is, really he's just one of the oddest people I've ever met. And I say this as somebody that talks to him almost every day. You know, if if you've ever met if you've ever met Phil, you know that like he is the most active communicator on earth. Like he will just text you and everybody else all day long. You know, Phil is an amazing guy, and it's funny to see that that video now because he's really become, you know, he's become part of the watch community, at least in Instagram or on Instagram. Um in that he's posting all the time, he's giving feedback, he's giving tips on his own buying and selling. Uh and it's neat because, you know, that was kind of his introduction to to the watch world. Yeah |
| Unknown | . The the David Williams episode was shot at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. There it is. There it is. Where we actually ran into James's old boss. Yep. Well she was a big fan of of uh James Stacy, so |
| Unknown | Canadians, we stick together. There's only so many of us. Who closes who's closing out your bracket, C B? Okay, pros 2 |
| Unknown | and Roger Smith. Okay, that's a pair right there. Yeah, when I saw that, I was like, uh, huh, okay. I was like, alright, different, very different. So Praz in his second episode showed up with like twenty watches. I wasn't there that day. John Buse hosted it. Um but I did see the watches after the fact and they're it's pretty I mean it's like it's a heavy flex that collection. Serious stuff. Serious stuff. It's very serious. I mean he had all the um Grand Exhibition paddock world timers, he had the AP Royal Oak and Black Ceramic, he had that Nautilus with like a bird on it. You know, it was a big thing. A bird and like a billion diamonds. Yeah, a bird and a billion diamonds. Nautilus with a bird on it. Nautilus with a bird on it. My favorite line from that episode is he said that paddocks and uh APs were like the new Cartier Love bracelets. I'll just think that's a good idea. |
| Unknown | I can't say that he's wrong. I just I don't understand. |
| Unknown | Yeah. It's a little bit of a reach, but sure. Um and so yeah, so then you have that. And then you have Roger Smith, who is like very you know, a very serious watchmaker, very well known, very admired, a big deal in the independent circle. And he is you know, he's very thoughtful in his collection. He doesn't have you know, he has a very select number and he wears them and his daily wear is a Rolex and like he's just very methodical as you as one would expect with a watchmaker, right? So it's just totally different two different people, two different um collections, both are very famous in their like respective fields, so it's kind of interesting to see them you know together. But um two very, very different people |
| Unknown | . In in the same way that we did the switcheroo with Andretti and Nicholas, uh who do you think would perform better in each other's uh occupations? Praz and Roger Smith. I think |
| Unknown | Roger Smith would be a better singer than Praz, a watchmaker. |
| Unknown | Praz on the Isle of Man, uh w making watches. Ye |
| Unknown | ah. I'm going with Cara on this one. I actually would like to see Roger Smith uh in the in the Fujiis. I think that would be great |
| Unknown | . I will though uh on a serious note, you know, say that I have or I did travel to the Isle of Man to to do a shoot with Roger a couple years ago when we were doing the Road Through Britain uh series and just such a special guy who has such a special place in |
| Unknown | Alright, C B. That uh that wraps up. That's my round out. I don't know how you guys are gonna vote. It's tough choices out there. Alright, let's uh I'll go through my quadrant and then we'll uh we'll wrap this up, do some uh final predictions here and uh then let people dig into the dig into the bracket themselves. Um so for my quadrant, there are two buys. Uh it's Mr. Eric Singer, uh, from the band Kiss. And then Alan Mala, who was the founder and publisher of Man of the World, the uh sort of men's lifestyle magazine. Um, they both have collections that that are super specific to their personalities and their kind of backstories, but uh we can we can save that for for the next round. Uh so the first the first true matchup that we have in uh on my side of the bracket is Mark Hadawi against Alton Brown. Um you know Mark is a designer and uh sort of architectural restorer and historian. Uh and then Alton Brown is is a TV personality, famous chef. Um, and it's funny because these these two guys, again, like a lot of the folks here, have collections that are sort of microcosms of their personalities. Uh, I think you could look at these collections of watches and kind of get a sense of of who these guys are. You know, Alton's collection is it's mostly tool watches. Um it ties to his his level of aviation. He's a pilot. Um ties back to this Omega that that was his father's. Um everything's very purpose-driven. Uh I specifically love the the first watch in the story is a 6542 GMT uh with its original bakelight bezel. Uh and every time I see a picture of this watch, and not just this reference, but like his specific example, it just blows my mind. Uh to me it's it's one of the most beautiful vintage Rolex watches I've I've ever seen, and I see qu quite a few uh in in this line of work. But uh then we have um Mark Hadawi who is kind of a collector of lots of things. Uh he collects antiquities, he collects 20th century design. Uh to some extent I gu,ess he collects architecture. We shot it in his John Lautner house up in the Hollywood Hills. And he's sort of been pairing his watch collection back. And he's he's really boiled it down to a handful of pieces. So he had six watches, uh, all of them vintage Rolex, and any one of them could be the star or centerpiece of any other collection. Um, really incredible stuff, uh a big logo 6200, um, just a really perfect um gold 1675. Um, just like really, really amazing stuff. Uh, and it it kind of filming it in that house, just it all kind of felt of the same of the same ilk. It felt of a place. Um I mean Alton Brown is another one that you know we had heard and had seen he was into watches for the longest time. And he became again quic,kly part of the Hoodinke family after talking watches, he then came back and appeared at our uh Hodinky ten uh anniversary weekend in New York. I mean the the the star of that episode has to be his father's Omega. You know, the fact that his father passed away, you know, kind of early on in his life, and then it was stolen from Alton's uh dorm or apartment when he was in college, and then he found it years later on eBay and confirmed that it was actually his father's watch. I mean it's just kind of mind blowing. Uh and you know, I I think that is one of my favorite stories, period, from from any talking watches. Um that was that was a really I think really special episode for us as as a company. He's just such a great storyteller. So my my next uh matchup is another one of these funny, funny pairings that could only happen this way, which is uh it's William Messina and Fred Savage. Um who like my my first thought when I saw this was like these two guys could not be more different. But I actually think they're kind of like two sides of the same coin in a funny way. I think like William is a scholar and like a true like nerd about these things, but also loves watches. Like it really comes from a place of of passion and for him it it is fun. Um on the other side, like Fred Savage, when you meet him, you think he's this like fun-loving, goofy dude who just like gets really excited about watches and likes them. Uh but then you start talking to him and you realize he really knows his shit, uh and he's done a ton of research and he he really goes deep on this stuff. So I I think these guys have these two shared impulses and one just shows more of one and the other shows more of the other. So I mean you really if if you know Fred Savage and if you know you know William Messina, you you really on the surface couldn't think of two more different human beings. I mean, William is the guy to correct somebody on anything at at any point and say, well, actually, you know, it's X, Y, and Z. And and Fred Savage on the other side, you know, he just wants to learn and he just wants to be told what what's cool and what's not and what's interesting and what's not. But when you think about them both and when you really get to know them both, they're actually really similar. They're they're both really kind of hyper-emotional, you know, really sentimental guys that really care about watching uh care about watchmaking in a pure sense. You know, it's not about the ownership, it's not about the you know the accumulation of wealth or things that represent wealth And so in many cases these guys are a lot more similar than you than you might think. I'll I'll keep things moving here. Uh the next one in my in my quadrant is uh Todd Levin uh and Matt Jacobson, uh which I think is another just like perfect pairing, mostly because I think these two guys would like love each other. Like I think these two guys could be best friends. They're both super obsessive dudes and I mean that in the in the best way possible. Um they're guys who are all about the details, all about scholarship. They collect across categories. I mean in both cases they're art collectors, design collectors, record collectors, watch collectors, uh Matt's a a car collector as well. Um and they're they're guys who have like very tight curations on their collections. Like they're not guys like, you know, maybe uh Jason Singer is an amazing collector. His collection is massive. It's it's equally about quantity and quality. There's there's a comprehensiveness to that kind of collecting. Um Matt and Todd are about kind of like figuring out how you can have like the smallest number of the most interesting things, which I find weirdly appealing. Or I guess if you know me, probably not that weird. I find it very appealing. But uh yeah, these these two guys is a matchup. It's kind of like two it's a it's a head-to-head competition of tightly curated, very scholarly uh collections, but that also have have an emotional component, which I think is nice. It softens things a little bit. |
| Unknown | I I really enjoyed um I think Todd's was the most recent episode and I really enjoyed how he described his approach to collecting and sort of you know ascribing value, uh you know, monetary value versus meeting uh you know to to to the collection. I thought he did that really well. And it so it was a differ |
| Unknown | ent, you know, kind of a approach to this. I mean I wonder from your from your perspective, using that as kind of a jumping off point, right? Like we've done fifty three of these, you've been at every single one of them. Somehow something new comes out of each one. And not just a description of a of a watch, but like some sort of new approach, new ethos, new idea comes out of each one. Does that continue to surprise you? |
| Unknown | Um you know, every time because it's a combination of the person and their background and what you your understanding of them brings to the table versus how they choose to sort of convey and tell their stories and their collection and how the collection. So every every single one brings something out, and there's always a takeaway. Absolutely. Yeah |
| Unknown | . Cool. All right Al.right, so then the next one uh is one of our most recent episodes, uh with Josh Bernstein, which was hosted by John Buse. And then uh an older one uh with Raul De Molina, um who I I think this one's really fascinating because these are both guys who are on TV in very different ways. Uh and Raul de Molina is to me fascinating because he's he's a massive, massive celebrity in the Spanish-speaking world. And if you don't speak Spanish, you might not know who he was. Um, so he has this weird sort of like he has gravitas, but also kind of like an unassumingness about him that that I find really charming. Um this is an episode that like when I I saw it, I didn't know who he was. Um I had no idea what what I was kind of getting myself into. And I've watched it a couple times and every time I just I find him charming. Like it makes total sense to me why he's a huge deal. El Gordo. El Gordo, man. I don't know. These these collections are again very different. Like uh Roel's collection is is a little bit bigger and a little more varied, whereas Josh's is very like tool watch purpose driven with the exception of of this really beautiful Cartier tank. Um yeah, I think it's it's I mean at this point we've we've run through so many brackets there's there's not a whole lot to say other than like it's one of the things that I think is interesting about this this process is that it puts very different approaches to the same hobby next to one another and sort of like forces you to think about where where you kind of fall in it um and where your own your own preferences are. Alright we got uh we got what two two more on my side um the the penultimate uh matchup in the bracket is one of my favorite ones. Uh it's Gary Steingart, uh, the author and uh amazing personality. Opposite Andre Iguadala, uh, the professional basketball player and one time uh M VP of the NBA Finals. Um this is another case of Will, who do you who do you think would do better in the others career, Andre or Gary? Sorry, side note, I apologize. |
| Unknown | I just left the scene. Uh my wife just screamed because someone came to our door, uh, which is I guess life in uh you know isolation. Yep. But it was okay. Don't worry. It was okay. Uh uh s rewind that Stephen, Gary and Andre in uh |
| Unknown | Who would do better in the other's career? Andre or Gary? Und |
| Unknown | oubtedly Andre. Um Gary in the NBA trying to guard LeBron James, coming down on the fast brick, pulling up from 16. No chance. Uh-uh. No chance. I'm sorry, Gary. Love you. I'm sure that Andre could write a pretty killer book, and I think he has actually, on business and finance and investment or something along those lines. So there's at least a |
| Unknown | good New Yorker story about Gary spending a week in the NBA. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean when we when we shot the one with Andre Guidala, I mean he was I mean you don't hear his name every day anymore, but at that at that time, he was one of the biggest names in basketball. Yeah, he was |
| Unknown | . They had just finished, I think, the 2015 NBA finals. Uh Golden State had had uh defeated uh cleveland and he was the NBA finals MVP. He was in town I think for Fashion Week or some such thing and he was you know he was the guy at that moment you know he was the he was the guy. So it was really an honor to have him have him on the show. Uh and that was uh shout out to Brad Farmery. That was shot at uh public uh one of Brad's uh restaurants here in New York |
| Unknown | . Very nice. Uh and then yeah, Gary, uh this this was one of my favorite episodes, continues to be one of my favorite episodes. Um not just because Gary has has become a friend uh since since getting involved in the watch world, but uh seeing he and Jack interact like that is just amazing. Uh it's watching two extremely complicated minds that both are worrying about nine million things all at the same time just like go toe to toe with one another is so fascinating. They could be talking about watches, they could be talking about anything and I would I would watch. If you want to to think of an a a fun what if of those guys in the basketball world, just imagine the two of them as the coach for the other for each against the other team, just throwing chairs at each other. And uh I I like I like both of them have like a coach energy maybe more than a player energy at this point. Yeah. But I just love the idea of like either one of them getting it right in the face of the ref, you know, really questioning a call, really really dumping a a clipboard with a missed free throw. Like that might be the cover art for this for this post is uh Gary Steingart pulling old chair toss. Just grab it just grab a chair, scrap a nachos out of the h of the front row, like get 'em all on there. Amazing. Allright, with with that, I'm gonna move to our last pairing here. I think everyone's losing it a little bit. Uh we're gonna we're gonna go the last pair is John Edelman uh up against Keegan Allen. Uh John at the time we shot this was the uh CEO of Design Within Reach. He's a a legend in the the design and business world. Um and then Keegan Allen is is an actor, a photographer, a musician, podcaster, uh, an all-around super fun dude. Yeah, he's he's great. Um there's there's a small list. I think I I don't think we're giving people too much of a peek behind the curtain here. There's there's a small list of LA-based folks who any time anyone from the Hodinky crew is in LA, they they get the phone call and end up having dinners and drinks and talking about watches and driving around LA having a good time. And Keegan is is toward the top of that list. Um he's really become a great kind of like friend friend of the show and uh all around all around supporter. But uh yeah. This this video was shot during a really interesting uh period in in Hodinky history, when I guess what, like 12 of us, 14 of us went out to LA for 10 days to shoot a whole bunch of videos, host some events, uh, you know, do a whole bunch of stuff. I think we we did a couple stories at retailers out there, just a ton of things. Uh that's when we uh when we taped all of our um all of our pilots for uh for the pod. Uh and we shot this in the very weird house that we rented in No. Everyt |
| Unknown | hing changed. We've changed as a people. It was a good shoot day |
| Unknown | . All d all shoot days are good days, Steven. All shoot days are good days. So sick of hearing about picks by now. But the the real takeaway here is that it's up to you guys. Like everyone listening here, you should go vote. We're going to be rolling this out over the next couple of weeks, three, four weeks. Check the site daily. You'll have opportunities to vote on the matchups. Uh we're gonna do kind of weekly updates here here on the podcast. They won't all be uh full hour plus episodes. Um but yeah, I think this is this is an interesting opportunity for you guys and and for us at Hodinky to look back on a couple years of talking to some of the best collectors and most interesting collectors in the world and think about what it means to be a watch collector in in 2020. You know, what makes an interesting collector, what makes an interesting collection, what speaks to you? Um don't just vote, leave comments. You know, we're gonna go through the comments and talk about them here here on the show uh and in future posts on the site. This this isn't just a a thumbs up, thumbs down. It's it's also about why. Um awesome guys. Thanks for uh thanks for bearing with us through this. And uh like I said if you're listening and you want to vote and you want to get engaged here we would love it. And uh all the links will be down in the show notes. So uh check them out there, Grail. Grayle, make sure you're all taken care of. Woo! This was fun, guys. I love sports. May the best one win. |
| Unknown | And and get out there and vote, people. Rock the vote. May the best one win |
| Unknown | . This week's episode was recorded remotely by our group of editors and 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. |