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Killer New Sport Watches (Plus Collector Edmond Saran)

Published on Mon, 4 May 2020 10:00:28 +0000

From hardened steel divers to star-dial Rolexes, this week we've got something for everyone.

Synopsis

This episode of Hodinkee Radio covers a wide range of topics in the watch collecting world. The first segment features hosts Cole Pennington and James Stacey discussing new watch releases following Watches and Wonders 2020, including affordable tool watches from brands like Doxa (the Sub 300 Carbon in forged carbon), Zinn (the U50, a smaller version of their iconic dive watch), and a G-Shock NASA limited edition. They also discuss high-end releases like the F.P. Journe Chronomètre à Résonance with remontoire and various Cartier pieces. The conversation touches on Cole's recent series spotlighting watch retailers and the important role they play in the industry, which is often overlooked by enthusiasts who interact primarily with brands. The second half features collector and blogger Edmund Sarin in conversation with Ben Clymer. Sarin discusses his journey into vintage Rolex collecting, particularly his fascination with rare star dial models and time-only pieces rather than the more mainstream sport models. He shares insights about his international background, his non-commercial blog Le Monde Edmond, and his collecting philosophy of holding onto pieces long-term to build relationships with them—a view influenced by his German mother's old-school mentality about possessions. The conversation also touches on vintage car collecting, including Sarin's experience owning a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, which while iconic and beautiful, proves challenging to drive. Throughout, the episode emphasizes the personal nature of collecting and the importance of doing thorough research, particularly with vintage Rolex where knowledge matters as much as budget.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown My mother's German, and she she has this old school thinking of you know, whatever she managed to get or someone gave her, she held on to it. And I'm a bit old-fashioned in that way. That I get attached to my things that I own. Is it the smartest thing? No. When you buy something and you start using it, you you you build a relationship with it. Today people get bored of things very quickly, they sell it, they move on. You know, if you're always getting rid of things you, you don't can't build up a a history with it
Unknown . Hey, everybody, I'm your host Stephen Pulverant and this is Hodinky Radio. We've got a pretty wide gamut of stuff on the show this week. We're gonna start off with Cole and James talking about some of the new watches that have come since Watches and Wonders last week. We're gonna talk a little bit about Watches and Wonders. We can't avoid it, and I want those guys' perspective, but we're really gonna focus on a collection of cool, affordably priced tool watches that dropped this week, kind of in the aftermath of the show. We've got stuff from Doxa, from Zinn, from G-Shock, and a really special piece that doesn't fit that mold, but that we kind of have to talk about anyway. We're also going to discuss Cole's recent spat-of-stories about retailers and what it's like for us who don't typically deal with that side of the industry to all of a sudden get to talk to these guys a lot and really get some insight into what they do. There's also a preview of a story that's gonna run later this week, but I'll let Cole tell you about that. After that, we've got a conversation that was recorded before all of this craziness started between Ben and collector Edmund Sarin. He splits his time between Zurich and New York, and you might know him from his website and his Instagram account, Le Monde Edmond. He and Ben talk about the rise of vintage Rolex, including some of the more unusual pieces, how Edmund got into vintage watch collecting in the first place, and the push and pull between being an enthusiast yourself and trying to provide some outside perspective for others. You should give him a follow on Instagram, by the way, if you don't already, at Le Mondeadmon with some uh underscores between the words, uh, it's great. If you like things like Stilina Rolex's old Bond stills, you're gonna absolutely love it. It's a great follow. Like I said, there's something in this week's episode for everybody. We've got affordable, we've got super high end, we've got vintage, we've got modern. If you like watches, you're gonna like this week's show. So with that in mind, let's do it. Hey guys, good to talk to you. Hey Stevie. Good morning, Stevie. This is what, like week uh week eight, I think, of work from home? Something like that. No idea. Yeah. I lost track a long time ago. Every week is just a week, you know? I really I really am not gonna lie, I could really use a day date right now. Uh buying all of these like three hand no date watches has proved to be uh quite quite the folly on my part considering now I have no idea when or where I am in the
Unknown universe. Yeah, I I went with a with a no date watch the last couple days and it's been um existentially uh problematic. I've I've always aspired to l
Unknown ive like this, so I'm I'm fine. People people can't see, but your beard would attest to that, right? Yep, exactly. That's right. Man, I am I am missing my barber so much. Mm shout shout out to Mark who I know listens to the show sometimes. Uh dude cannot cannot wait for our uh our next hang. It's uh very, very overdue. You're gonna have your work cut out for you. Alright, so last week on the show I had Ben and Jack on to talk about everything Watches and Wonders. That was kind of like our our big story for the week. It I know overwhelmed the three of us to just crank out uh as as many stories and to see as many new watches as we saw. But uh, you know, some new stuff came out this week too, not from Watches and Wonders, and that's that's really what I wanted to have you guys on to talk about. Uh it's watches that when I see them, I immediately think of the two of you. Um but before we do that, let's let's do a little Watches and Wonders recap quickly since you guys weren't weren't on the show last week. So you know the first first thing I want to ask is what what were your top picks from the show? Like maybe you know, two or three watches that that really stood out to each of you guys. Maybe maybe James, you want to kick us off?
Unknown Yeah, sure. I mean as far as the stuff that stood out for me, it it's it's uh kind of a small change to their lineup, but I think that it it makes the watch what exactly what it should have been, and that's that uh the Vashron Constantin overseas perpetual calendar ultra thin with the blue dial. Now you can get it with the matching uh pink gold bracelet. And I think uh it's something that probably should just come out last year when they announced the bracelet. But my guess is there were people who were genuinely just waiting. Like maybe not a lot of people, but like a handful of people who are like, well, they've got the blue and they've got you know the opaline dial now has the bracelet. And I'm sure they went to the boutique and asked, you know, can I buy just the bracelet, which I'm sure you can't. Um but uh yeah, so now you can get it with the blue dial and you get the bracelet and the two blue straps. And I think I think for a pink gold watch that's uh it's a pretty good looking QP
Unknown . Yeah, I totally agree. That watch that watch is so killer. Uh and I I wanna know how many people bought last year both the opaling dial and the blue dial so that they could swap the bracelet between the two of them I guarantee for themselves, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like I don't blame those people at all, to be honest. It's kind of absurd
Unknown , but I don't blame those folks at all. Yeah, I guess if you have the means, right? I you we saw people do similar stuff with the Oyster Flex uh straps from uh from Rolex, you know, when they were is still only available on uh you know uh precious metal Daytonas and and that sort of thing. So I think you you know you've got to kind of buy all of it and mix and match on your own, which is insane, but I guess that's uh that's watch collecting, right? And uh beyond beyond that lovely uh QP, I I think that the Hermes Slim De Hermes GMT and Rose Gold, that's exactly how that watch should look. It's so killer. Um I love the gold hands on that blue dial look really good. I think those are uh yeah you know there's you're on a little rose in rose and blue kick here. Yeah, I think I think I am. I mean and the the only the only uh one that kind of kicks outside that is I think that new uh Gier master control calendar is also a pretty gorgeous thing. Yeah, I tot
Unknown ally agree. Uh Cole, where where's your head at here? Uh I think my my top three were the the Odysseus and White Gold. I love it. Absolutely. The J JLC Master Control Date, so I I actually like the simplicity of that one. Um and then on the kind of crazy end or whatever, the Laurent Ferrier Torbillon Grand Sport. I think that has like by far the most beautiful movement out of uh the bunch. Maybe uh Odysseus as well, but really the Laurent Laurent Ferrier. Those
Unknown are my top three. The movement in those the movement in those watches is absolutely bonkers. I mean I I saw their grand sport in the metal last year when they offered it on rubber as as a limited edition. Um it's insane. I mean, like nobody is doing a turbulent movement, especially a hidden turbulent movement at that level, uh, until maybe you get into like you know Google Forzy, but it's a totally different style. Um, but in terms of like sort of traditional watchmaking, maybe with a little bit of a modern twist, you've got that like brushed ruthenium uh, you know, finish to it that makes it a little a little darker, feel a little more contemporary. Um those movements are just nuts. I mean, I I remember the first time I ever saw a Laurent Ferrier movement, we had uh back when they were I mean, they're still hard to find and hard to get, but this was when they were like unobtaining them. Uh we had our our friends at Man Freddie had one uh and their client very kindly it was it was already pre pre bought, uh and their client very kindly said that they could send it to us for a day before the client picked it up. Uh they literally overnight the watch to us. Uh Ben and I received it. It was back when it was the two of us and Will. Uh I think Will was out of town somewhere or something. But the two of us received the watch, unpacked it, shot it, packed it back up, and like two hours later it was back at FedEx because the client was coming at noon the next day to pick it up. Uh it was the first time I'd ever seen one in the metal. And I remember just like my my jaw was just on the floor the entire time. And uh, you know, I guess like eight years later I am no less shocked by those watches every time I see them. Yeah, they're they're gorge
Unknown ous. Absolutely the uh the other one that that stands out for me just as a brand is like Cardiate came correct uh a lot of stuff from them all of it really really good the new Dumont XL, k thisiller, the uh Dumont L E's. Uh of the three, Steven, what's the gold gold one called? The number fourteen
Unknown ? Uh it's like the number sixteen B or something like that, B B I S.. Yeah Um uh so yeah I the Gold and Gold ones killer uh and the Meleon I really really dig yeah. Really cool stuff. Really, really cool stuff. I it's it's astounding to me that like Cartier continues to just crush it year after year. Like you would think they would run out of stuff, because they they don't launch one watch. You know, they launch like a whole collection, major updates to every other collection, some previous stuff, some high jewelry, clocks, like they they go hard every year, and yet somehow there's always more to do and and it doesn't feel like repeats and you know, again I've been covering Cartier now for like a decade basically, and they like they haven't really had an off-year. I mean, or a year where they don't at least have have some home runs. Um yeah, I mean, you guys also both have been covering this long enough. Like you remember when Cartier was focusing really heavily on the like the high watchmaking stuff, the the crazy complications, the minute repeaters, the perpetual calendars, the turbions, the mystery watches. And it's been really interesting, I think, for me to see over the last couple years, them kind of pivot back toward what's like core Cartier, which is is design, right? It's it's not about some new crazy skeletonized minute repeater movement that they developed. It's about the tank asymmetrique. It's about the Santos Dumont. It's about new things like the Mayon. You know, it's it's creating like yeah, for lack of a better word, like icons, like things that you can recognize from across a room and go, holy shit, that's special. Yeah, agreed. They're they they come from jewelry, right? So kind of makes sense. Yeah, and you know, I've said before, like I own a Santos Dumont in the in the smallest size. It's quartz, it's steel, like it's it's a pretty you know unassuming watch in a lot of ways. I have never once I've owned it for about a year now. I have never once looked at it and gone, ugh, I wish this was mechanical. Like that is that is literally never I mean, I guess in theory, sure, like all things being equal, why not? But in in wearing it, I have never once felt it it was it was impoverished by that. Um Cartier just does such a good job on the other stuff that you're like, ah, whatever. You know, it's fine. Cool. We could probably do another whole show on this, and I'm sure we'll go over it more. But uh we got some other releases this week that that I want to make sure we we get into. So the reason uh I picked the two of you guys to to hop on a call with this week is we got some watches that this week are in the the more affordable end of the spectrum. They're from classic kind of like cult watch, uh watch aficionado uh tool watch brands. Um and they're pieces that that all have something like sort of new and interesting about them. So uh we've got stuff from Doxa, from Zinn, uh from G Shock, uh, and then I've got kind of one outlier I want to I wanna take your pulse on, but uh let's let's start with Doxa. Uh you know, woke up one morning this week uh to this press release in my inbox and I was like, wait, what? Uh
Unknown James, can you maybe tell us about this watch? Uh yeah, so uh basically the the for the the fast route for people who wouldn't know any of the following small references is uh Dox is a obviously a dive watch brand that was kind of born in the mid-60s, highly connected with Cousteau, and a bunch of Cousteau's businesses as well. And at one point, US Divers, which was the distribution company that Cousteau made uh to sell the Aqualung, which was his early kind of evolution of the scuba system. He also used that company become the sole distributor of Dox's first kind of tool dive watch, the Sub 300, of 1967. If we fast forward to 2017, they did a 50th anniversary of this model, uh, which was a literal laser scan of the of the old one. It's it's an almost one-to-one recreation, as faithful as you could be without going into any like faux Tina or or kind of uh fake patina or whatever you'd like to call that. Uh those were very popular. They made 300 in each of the brand's kind of iconic colors, a black dial is called a shark hunter, an orange is a professional, and a silver dial is called a sea rambler. Those all sold out. Then they started making a few special editions which have uh what are called black lung or aqua lung dials. Uh that depends on the outline of the di of the logo, but it carries that US Divers Aqua Lung logo on the dial, which connects back to these ones that were made specifically for US distribution via Cousteau. What I'm trying to say here is this is a brand with a very interesting, often ignored history, and they make one of the most kind of funky, unique, fun-loving tool dive watches in existence. Uh, and for this brand new model, they took the sub 300 formula and they rendered the case and the um bezel in forged carbon. So it's a limited edition piece um called the Doxa Sub 300 Carbon Aqua Lung US Divers LE. And they basically took the exact same formula from the 2017 models but changed up how it's made. They also went with a yellow, uh black and yellow motif, which is the the brand has never done a yellow minute hand uh on uh on a watch like this in the past so you're looking at it's a forged carbon outer case if you're really into carbon fiber and forged carbon's use in watches or cars you'll know that there's it comes in many man,y different w manners. Uh in this scenario you have a titanium inner case that's where the movement would mount where the crown screws in, where the case back screws in, and the rest is is kind of a carbon, a forged carbon shroud, uh uh wrapped around that. So it's super light, it's 87 grams, 42.5 millimeters, uh a little less than 13 and a half millimeters thick, uh 300 meters water resistant, and I I think it's absolutely gorgeous. Uh, you know, I'm a huge fan of the sub-300 uh re-editions from 2017. And uh and the the difference here is you know, those watches came out at say 2500 bucks and this doxa uh is also a limited edition at 300 pieces but at four almost forty eight hundred bucks forty seven ninety
Unknown yeah I think even even though it's like basically double the price of a steel steel doxa um I still look at this watch and I'm like, that's that feels like pretty good value to me. I mean, like it this watch reminds me a lot in in in a funny way of the um offshore diver that AP did a couple years ago. Um, which I think was also yellow in forged carbon. Uh I know there was a yellow one and an orange one. Yeah, the yellow one was the forged carbon, the orange I think was the ceramic one. Um but like this watch has a lot of that kind of like tool watch. It's slightly elevated by the carbon. It's got this stealthy vibe to it. Um it's cool. Like I'm I'm not, you know, I get Doxa as a as a thing. Like I understand it. It doesn't generally speak to me personally. Uh this is a watch I I want to see. Like I'm I'm kind of excited by this. Uh uh it feels it feels like an interesting direction to take the brand in. I mean Cole, you're you're a Doxa fan. Like how what what do you think about this? Like it seems like a bit of a departure. Do you feel like it's it's too far? Do you think it's it's right in the wheelhouse? What's your what's your take on this? You have you have a much better sense than I do
Unknown . So I don't know. I won't I won't say I'm a purist. I think I'm I aming patiently wait to see it in the middle to to see what I think, but like one of the lines again, this is pre-Hodinky. One of the lines that uh stood out to me from one of Jason's pieces was like um something like the case was rendered in 316L just like God had intended. Something like that. And for me, I I think of historic doxes and so forth, and I I've seen Squale. Squale did a bunch of watches in carbon and so forth. So I'm and then when that happened I was like, oh man, another one of these like iconic dive brands is maybe losing the plot. I doubt that's the case with Doxa because they just don't do anything wrong for the most part. But as a sort of purist in in this kind of uh watch making I I like steel, so let's see what happens. But um
Unknown So so I gotta ask for you guys, carbon or solid gold? Which which crazy docs are we are we going for? What's the move here, James
Unknown ? Um well like for a 300. Because the solid gold is is the chronograph, which is a whole different thing on wrist. Um but uh yeah for a 300 it'd be gold for sure. I think carbon's fine. I I don't know my my thing with forged carbon is because because it it it it's not unlike carbon fiber where we say carbon fiber but coal you you would know this from the automotive space you can buy actual carbon fiber stuff for a few dollars on eBay or you can see some sort of uh a piece of something that was made by hand by Koenigseg that could cost $40,000 and weighs less than a golf ball. Uh like it the the the range at which this this material exists Okay, well is it aluminum? Is it steel? Is it tin? Is it pig iron? Is it aerodine? Like like what are we talking about here? What what is the the makeup? So the the big thing is is you know if you read a lot about carbon and forged carbon cases is uh edge retention can be an issue um b because of the way that they're made. And and you know, in this in this scenario, they're essentially milling out a block of carbon material, and it's not necessarily something that's meant to take a lot of wear. I can't say that's how that's that's the scenario with uh with the doxa, but I you know forged carbon cases have been around even at much lesser price points for a lost a long time. Ocean seven uh had a watch under a thousand dollars, which used a steel core but had uh a forged carbon case. And I if I remember correctly, I I would have to ask Mitch uh for clarification 'cause this would have been a decade ago, but um the they went with a more curved case shape because they they weren't they weren't known to keep really crisp lines um on forged carbon. So it it uh the the thing that comes down to is is who's making the the product, where does it come from, you know, what what are its actual properties. I I think forged carbon looks incredible. Uh but as a watch case is it gonna be better than steel? Um no, I don't think so. And and the other thing to consider is like Cole said, is uh it's one thing if this is a uh flagship product that they get to keep on their website for a while, they didn't make that many visually, it's very it's gorgeous. I think it's super cool. It's another thing if this is indicating where the brand wants to take the 300. Um you know you it you know it's it's it's that uh it's that thing where you you c you kind of want I want doxes to stay at that, you know, sub two thousand dollars, steel, ready to buy and then wear for, you know, all sorts of purposes, including diving and otherwise. And I think as a collectory sort of item, this new carbon thing is amazing. I think it's super cool. Yeah, good good good talk
Unknown . I think this is actually a nice a nice segue, right? The the idea that this is a tool watch and it's now being rendered in a way that that maybe makes it not such a tool watch. It makes it maybe more of a collector's piece. On on the other side of that we've got uh the Zinn that was released this week, the U fifty. Um Cole, maybe you can kick us off on this because I know I know you are a big Zinn f
Unknown an. Yeah, it's Sin. I you know I I always pronounce it Sin and I feel like I should probably pronounce it the German way, but I'm just gonna say sin. So if anyone comments and said you're pronouncing it wrong, I apologize. Maybe I'll pronounce it both ways so that people can give me shit in the comments. But um yeah, I've loved sin. That's like one of the first watch brands that I've liked ever. And I think the coolest thing about this release is this is the watch we've literally been waiting for forever. Like, imagine being younger and having a smaller wrist or whatever, getting into sin, loving the philosophy and everything, and then you put it on, you're like, well, I can't do this. You know, I can't wear this thing. It's huge. Um so this this is A one of their coolest watches rendered in a side. What is the watch? It's a U fifty. Oh, the SINU fifty, but it people will know the design from the SYN U one. Right.
Unknown So And the big difference is this one's forty one millimeters and it's a hair over eleven millimeters thick, right? It's like it's an actual like quote unquote
Unknown like normal sport watch size. Yeah, it's it's exactly like it's the same size as a C Master or it's you know, a millimeter larger than a sub. It's and it's thin too. It's like eleven point two somet It's ele
Unknown ven point two, yeah. It's it's eleven eleven point two. It's not just thin, it's remarkably thin. It's thinner than a subray. I think that's I think that's uh a a good measure thinner than a BB uh fifty-eight
Unknown . Fifty-eight. Yeah. It's that's that's incredibly thin, incredibly wearable. And um I think to have the and the other thing about sin, which I guess we'll we'll get into, but we should introduce it, is the tegmented steel which is uh untersea submarine steel uh which is like uh really cool because it can expand and contract so every time a a submarine does a a dive it go,es down deep, the steel actually contracts and is strong enough to stop contracting, and then when it surfaces again it expands. And not many metals can take that kind of the a lot of cycles doing that. It creates a lot of fatigue. But submarine steel is special, high tensile steel is special in that it it can do that. So like giant subs are made from that steel where like fast attack subs and so forth are made from titanium. So this is like a special metal that you're getting here. This is like when we were talking about before the docks that could be rendered in a bunch of different metals. Like this isn't just metal, this is submarine steel. It's a big deal.
Unknown Can I just step in and and please correct me and we can obviously cut this out, but there's um Zinn has differentiation between sub steel and tegumented sub steel. Yes, that yeah, that's true. Yeah, so uh all of them all U series watches use the submarine steel. Some have the Tegimet, which is a proprietary literally Zin Zin developed, um yeah, baked on coding.
Unknown Right. And even this watch has like some renditions of it have only the bezel in tegmented steel, some are the whole watch
Unknown . Yeah, so you can you can basically all of them have tegumented bezels, which means they're very hard, they're very hard to scratch if you've ever had a watch with a with a really legit hardening. So a Bremont, a Zinn with Tegiment, or um some of the the specialized Seiko super bright uh class coatings can be uh pretty good too. But Zins is probably one of the best known because people really abuse these watches. These are watches that are worn by various elements of uh you know German uh military and uh Leo and uh re r reallymarkable thing to finally see the U1 at a size and a price point um that really makes it a no-brainer. I mean this starts just a hair over two
Unknown grand. That's one of the things that makes this watch so interesting to me, right, is like it's it's a reasonable size and it comes in at a price point that makes it competitive with actually Doxa in a way. Like these are two brands that for whatever reason I feel like have a have a a lot of overlap in terms of their their fans. Uh but they haven't really had competing products in in a lot of ways. And it feels like this kind of maybe puts them head to head. I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm misreading that, but that that's that's kind of how it feels to me.
Unknown Yeah, it it's a strong price point. I think they're going to be competitive. I mean, any of the great brands at two at two t two thousand to three thousand dollars have always known that Zinn is there uh with the with a huge enthusiast following. And I think it it it's's just uh I think it's a really successful design. It's also a distinctly modern watch. There's no um there's no kind of Fotina. There's no oh we made a dive watch that looks like the 60s. This this looks like a like something you would wear on a submarine or while diving and and I like you know when the watch came out uh Heaton posted a bunch of photos of uh him diving with the with the U1 and in all of the photos, and think about the lens you use when you shoot underwater. It's this ultra wide lens to try and get as much of the diver in frame. You can see the time on all of the watches. I mean, it's it's just such a bold, legible, you know, I think I think these in my mind the U1 has always kind of been alongside something like the Pelagos, a kind of like uh not sterile, but kind of stoic, I'm a dive watch, dive watch. Like no, no concerns with a past design or or light like like what could we make if we made it now or or when they made it and to see it out in in yeah at forty one millimeters thin enough to be worn every day bracelet or rubber and yeah with a starting price point uh I think it was twenty twenty one sixty and then you can go up pretty high if you want to do the the the full black the U50S which has a black bezel and a black case that the only available in the fully tegumented layout um runs the price uh up quite considerably. But man, I think this is just a an a killer release and something that Zen's gonna move a lot of units uh to people who have been waiting, basically. And and when on their live stream they were very clear. Like they literally started the presentation saying, like, people asked for a smaller U. Here it is. We've been listening. It took us some time to make it thin enough to wear. Um but yeah, you and you get a solid Swiss movement and a ton of loom, uh pretty unobtrusive date display, nice use of color, and and I love the the steel the look of the steel bezel. I think it's incredible
Unknown . Yeah, I agree. Um all right, just to keep this moving, I I gotta I gotta cut this one off. We're gonna move to the the last of the sort of like affordable tool watches from this week. Uh, and that's a G Shock. Uh, this is the NASA limited edition, which sorry for everybody listening, it is long sold out. Um, I know quite a few hodinky team members couldn't even get them in time. Um, I think one or two of our colleagues may have sniped them, but uh this watch is so awesome. Like uh thinking of NASA and G Shock together is just like doesn't really get any better than that. Um and the watch is all white with the red worm logo uh above the the time display. Um yeah Cole you wrote this one up but like this this is just so fun to me. Um I'm I am one of the people who was bummed that I I did not order one in time. You've been working too hard, Stevie. You didn't have time to snipe it, you know? I sh I should have known, man. I should have paid attention. But uh yeah, I think my favorite thing about this might be that when you light up the time display, uh you get the moon uh kind of in silhouette behind the time. Um which I could see being a pretty fun uh bar trick once uh you know, we're allowed in bars again. But um I think that could be that could be a fun one. Uh I don't know. There's not a ton to say. Do do either one of you have anything else to say. I just I just thought this was like this is the watch this week that maybe put the biggest smile on my face
Unknown . Yeah, I think it uh everyone felt that way and it felt like something that was a long time coming. It makes total sense instead of like some weird reference that not many people get everybody loves NASA. So I think it's a home run and something that that should have happened a long, long time ago. So it's it's very cool to see it
Unknown . Yeah, I mean it's like square G Shock, NASA, like fucking right. Like, you know, it's it's of course this is gonna be cool, you know? It's it's a it's an easy home run. Um cool. Uh the last new watch I wanted to talk about this week is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, but like I it's it's been literally decades in the making, so I I think we have to talk about it is the new uh FP Jorn. So this year is the 20th anniversary of the uh resonance, the Chronomet uh resonance to give it its full name. Um and instead of doing what most people would do, which is take the existing watch, put some sort of special dial on it, maybe these days like make it in steel, put it on a bracelet, whatever. FP Jorn went the total opposite tack and re-engineered the entire watch. He was like, Hey, I have this thing. I did it 20 years ago. It was incredible. Um, throw it away. Let's do something new and make it even better. Um, and so the the big addition here is this watch now has a remontoire in it. Um so the idea behind the resonance was always to make a watch that was was more precise, more accurate, um, with the two balances kind of kind of helping one another. Now there's a remontoire. So we've solved another horological problem here. You know, we're basically like one step shy of like resonating turbions. Um but I I think they didn't incredible job. They went back to the original dial layout. Um, or not the fully original dial layout, but they got rid of the um uh sort of like parking meter style. So it's like the most recent uh resonance in that way. So you have 24 hour time on the left, 12 hour time on the on the right. Um in theory, you're supposed to, I think, wear it where the two times are the same so you can see that they're in sync with one another. A lot of people use one of them for for travel time. That's how I would I would wear it. Um the other big difference for people who know the resonance is you'll notice uh it used to be one crown on the right side of the case, one crown in the top of the case, uh between the lugs, um, which made it exceptionally difficult to wind. Um the two crowns are now on the right side of the case. Aesthetically I don't like it as much personally. Um but I think practically it makes way more sense. Um Jack, instead of writing an introducing post, wrote an in-depth story here uh that gets into the whole history of the resonance, how the development uh operated for for making this new version. Um it's it's a pretty serious story. I highly recommend you go read it. Uh I've had to read it two or three times already, uh parts of it three times, uh to fully comprehend what's going on and this is a watch I know pretty well. Um so go go check it out. I I don't know what did what did you guys think about this uh this release I'll I'll stop babbling about how much I love this watch. Yeah, I but we loved it so much we're speech
Unknown less is what it sounds like. I mean it's it's it's such a complicated thing. Um it really requires an essay or uh or you know, in this case w closer to maybe two essays from Jack, uh to to get your kind of head around it. Um I mean it's Jorn doing exactly what he does. Uh there's there's even like what I like about this is there's even some irreverence to the the past resonance in the new one. It's like he said, Well, we can do better, so we did. And uh and there's a little bit of it that looks back at it, but I I think a lot of it is is kind of uh like a very forward thinking i it's also gorgeous. Uh you know, like talk about a style that they've been working on for years that I think they may have really cornered in on something uh th that kind of ha has the best of all of it, uh, without being too in your face or too asymmetric or I mean in this case there's almost no asymmetry at all. Uh it's it's it's really a lovely thing. Um yeah, I it's it's just kind of a jaw dropping creation. Uh but I I definitely can't add anything technical to what uh Jack's already put in. So I would I would just say go go read his piece for
Unknown sure. Yeah, you and you and me both there. Um yeah, I'll just add like the the resonance is one of those watches that you know I have a personal attachment to. It's it's one of the first watches that really caught my attention. I would I would put it up there with like in a very different way the the IWC Portuguese uh automatic the the seven day uh with the I'd put it up there with something like the Zeitwork uh from Longa. These are those watches that like in the early days when I didn't I I kind of knew maybe watches were a thing I kind of wanted to check out. It was was something I paying attention to on other people, but I I really didn't know anything. I hadn't gotten into to really like diving in yet. But like I would see these on people and go, holy shit. Like what is this? How do I understand this? Like this is a thing I need to know more about. And and seeing a resonance on a on a friend, you know, probably back in like it was probably like 2009, maybe, maybe 2010, um was one of the things that just just absolutely captured my attention and I've I've never become less infatuated with this watch. It's a watch I someday hope to hope to own an early resonance. Uh although now I may may need need to to own the newest resonance. But uh yeah, I just I I think it's like you said, James, I think it's Fp Jorne doing Fp Jorn in a like totally unabashed way. Um and uh yeah, just go go read Jack's piece. He's he's much more eloquent about this than I am. Um Lots of killer stuff though. Before we wrap up today, yeah, it's killer completely killer. Um before we wrap up today, there's two two other quick things I wanna wanna touch on. Um Cole, while I have you, um you've been doing these stories for us for these last couple of weeks, these retailer spotlight stories. And I just quickly wanted to talk about your your experience there. Um you know the the kind of bricks and mortar retail side of of watchmaking isn't something we deal with terribly often at Hodinky in our in our day to day as as writers. Um because we're dealing directly with brands, most of the time we're sourcing watches, you know, directly from them. Um we don't really report on the retail dynamics. I mean Joe does to some extent, but those of us covering product don't don't really have reason to interact that often. Um but we forget that like for most customers, this is their main way of interacting with with watches, uh especially in the metal. You know, they're they're not calling up longa and having a sample sent to their apartment. You know, they they go to their they go to Wempey and they check it out. You know, they don't go call Rolex and say, Hey, can I come up to your showroom and see the new sub? They go to Fortane, you know. That's right. Uh so I I just wanna know quickly, like what what has it been like for you these last couple of weeks working so closely with these retailers? I mean you're you're talking to folks multiple times a week, you're publishing stories about four retailers a week now. Um how how have you found it? Well, it's a lot of work to start with
Unknown . But um the experience, I I guess what what's the takeaway? What do you learn? A few things. A I think that even we uh forget about all the contributions. Kind of like what you you touched on here, but these guys are doing a ton for the scene. And and you learn about that every time you talk to a new retailer, they say, Oh, I've got this side project, or oh like you know, we've done a million hodinky collabs. Turns out retailers have done a bunch of collabs too with with brands. Um And like this one that was featured uh yesterday, this one out of um the Netherlands. They actually founded Watchbase.com, which I know we all use. That's rad. All the time. Basically every day. So so yeah, which is kind of crazy. Like, who knew that? Um and then you you kind of get these historical tidbits, like there was one one of them in the early days they sent a photo which was like would have been right after the Civil War of their uh storefront with some uh Union soldiers or something standing outside. Very very cool. And the other things too, like, yeah, we don't talk to these folks often, so there's not I would say that in these times specifically, the whole watch world is super cohesive. So under normal circumstances would we like get the chance to interact in this capacity? No. But now we are and we're kind of like everyone's on the same team sort of th
Unknown Yeah, I know I mean I I've I've had some pretty great interactions with retailers over the years when when I can. I mean I already mentioned Wempey and and Fortane and those guys are some of the best people in the watch industry than I know. I mean, like they're they're so passionate and they're really on the front lines, you know, communicating to consumers, trying to get people interested. Obviously they're selling products, but you know, they they really see themselves as as kind of like standard bearers in a lot of ways and and it's great. I've been to some some really awesome events uh a couple years ago these folks Rasney in Chicago opened a half paddock half Rolex store on Oak Street, uh which like you know I can't imagine like a more perfect business to be in, by the way, than selling paddock and rolex on like the most exclusive shopping street in Chicago. Um but like we just went out there for the opening. It was like the first new paddock door in years and they invited some folks from Hotinky and we said, like, yeah, sure. So Frank and I went out for for a two day trip to Chicago. Uh and we surprised the paddock team there. They didn't know we were coming. Um we did this all independently. This this wasn't like a partnership or a deal or anything. Um and it was so fun to see like, you know, this family business. They had their like 17 year old son giving a speech about how like he's so proud to know that someday this will be his store and like it's it's it's a really touching like kind of old school business in a lot of ways. Like we forget that you know you have the big box kind of watch retailers but a lot of these places are are mom and pop you know the forteane's another great example like you know i've i've met basically the entire boniface family at this point um you know bindi in la is is another great example and uh it's cool I. I've've personally cool uh found it really like touching to read these stories and and it's a nice reminder that we're doing a lot of this behind our keyboards and we we don't see these people every day. But you know, these are these are good good folks and we get to build good relationships and so do so do they. Uh and and they're they're a big part of our our business. And I mean I know James, one of the one of the retailers Cole covered was your local retailer
Unknown when you were in Vancouver, right? Yeah, Rolldorf and Co. Really good friends, great people, deep into watchmaking and supporting the education of watchmaking, uh both around Vancouver and then down into Seattle where there's a school, you know, family owned business that carry a bunch of really interesting brands. He's woe step trained. Uh, you know, uh Jason Gallup uh is the uh owner operator there, along with a couple other guys, uh, as his crew, his watchmaking crew, uh servicing crew, and uh you know, I I've had him on on the Green NATO in the past, so you can go back and dig that up. But I mean this is a guy that came out of the same same class at Woe Step as uh Kari and Stephen Forcy. Uh and he w that's that's a pretty good company. He runs a killer shop in uh in Vancouver and they're just moving into a new space. So they'll be able to uh kind of launch that once retail exists again. Uh and I I was very much uh thankful and I know they were too, of Cole and his willingness to uh give them some some spotlight on uh on the the retailer highlights
Unknown . Yeah of course um something cool I'll share really quick. I I had to go down to Philly uh this past weekend and I was walking down the street. So keep in mind some of these retailers I have never been to before, like ever. Um Okay. And the the way we we were, you know, flooded with requests and we kind of work through them in time, but there's a bunch in the pipeline, right? So was walking down the street in Philly, in Manioc specifically, and uh I walked past this really cool storefront, I'm like, whoa, this is sweet. There's like model airplanes, model cars, watches. In fact, I think there was yeah, like Urwork or something was in in the window. And I'm like, whoa, this is sweet. I look up at the sign and it's a guy I've been emailing with back and forth for weeks about this column. And I'm like, oh man, this is sweet. Like I'm so excited to go here. It was Martin Pooley in Man Young, Philadelphia. So Martin's Martin's the man. It was just so crazy. Yeah, yeah, totally well known. But like I had never been past the storefront in Philadelphia before, and then all of a sudden I'm walking down the street and then wow, there it is. Everything we're talking about is right here. So one of those uh co winky dinks as they say, you know. N
Unknown ice. Well Cole, you know, to finish things off, uh I just wanna ask you one more one more question and it's about a story that hasn't been published yet, so I don't want to talk too much about it, but uh you're you're working, people who are listening will get a little sneak peek here, but you're you're working on a story about vintage watch advertisements, another part of this business that is, you know, not entirely related to what what we do on a daily basis. Um and you're looking through old uh EuropaStar um issues, uh watch industry trade publication that's been around basically forever. And uh I just wanna know what is what is the thing you are most excited to share with people in this story? I don't want to spoil the whole story, but what what thing are you most amped to publish? Uh interesting question
Unknown . Yeah, I would say just the the ads from brands that are no longer around that you probably don't know of. Like not to say you don't know these brands, but more like we just forgot them. Like a lot of these brands went away from that were, you know, actively advertising in magazines in the 60s and 70s and so forth, and they have some wild advertisements. So I'm uh I'm excited to put those in front of people um and also offer a little context too. I and uh the the crazy thing is that advertisements, the role of the watch in our lives and the role of the watch in the industry or whatever has changed dramatically over time. It used to be necessary, now it's just kind of a a thing that we all talk about and it's a luxury. But the advertisements really haven't changed that much. So kinda getting into why and uh and also just getting nostalgic about old old watch ads, you know. That's it. L
Unknown ove it. Little bit of old watch nostalgia. Never uh never hurts. I've actually found myself wearing my vintage pieces a lot more lately. I've been wearing mostly modern watches for for a while with the exception of that that vintage Grand Seiko. Um but I've been I've been wearing my vintage pieces a lot more uh these last two three weeks. Something kind of comforting about it. I don't know. This will be a piece for you, Stevie. Perfect. Uh thanks guys. We we ended up going pretty long here, but I think it was I think it was worth it and uh appreciate all your perspective and let's uh we'll keep the new new coverage rolling. I th I think I think we're now in the thick of it. I think we're gonna see some new new pieces rolling out pretty consistently over the next couple weeks and uh we'll keep every everybody up to date. Awesome. Thanks guys. Cheers. Up next, we've got Ben's conversation with collector and writer Edmund Sarin
Unknown . So we have a very special guest here on Hodinki Radio today. A man that is probably very well known within the high-end watch collector community, a man named Edmund Saren. And Edmund has been operating a blog for for how many years now, Edmund? Um six? Six years. And what was the the impetus for for starting the blog
Unknown ? I think I started at the time where I was fed up of the financial markets giving me a hard time. And I had started collecting watches and cars and I was basically a way to document, you know, if I'm doing things right, what models I find interesting, and just kind of a nice way to enter a different world than just financial markets. Be creative and write and and dream about things and it just a nice it was a nice balance. Yeah, and and and your
Unknown your blog which has a URL of what would be the the URL for your blog? The URL the the website address for your blog. It's Lamondedmond.com. Mm-hmm. So the world of Edmund. Yes. And so the this blog is has has kind of made a name for itself in that you are an unabashed collector. You're not a journalist. You're not somebody that is uh that is within the space. You're a true collector. This is a non commercial blog, unlike myself, uh unlike Odinky here. Um it is a blog that is purely your opinion and purely what what f what you find interesting, which I think is a really unique perspective in the watch world today, which is you know, a lot of guys are trying to turn this into a business. A lot of guys are really trying to gleam something from this, gain something from this. You're not at all. You're just doing this for the love of watches and and to potentially share your taste and your interest in in in watches. Yeah, I think you you said it. I couldn't have said it better than you. Absolutely. Sorry, I have a phone call coming in from Switzerland right now. Which is not surprising at all. Sorry about that. And so give us a little bit of of your background, where are you from? Things like that
Unknown . So I uh I come from quite an international background. I have a German mother, uh German-American mother. My father was uh Egyptian-Lebanese. I grew up um basically in Switzerland most of my life, studied in America. Did you go to school in Europe or the US? I went to university in America. Oh yeah? I went to BC. Oh sure. And then I went back to Europe, studied there. Then I came back Sure. It would fit you by the way. I could see you as a diplomat. Okay. I take that as a big compliment. And then you went into finance after that. And well I was always always into finance. Um but you know the mar I I basically twelve years ago decided to work for myself after having worked for banks. And you know, when you're I was 30 at the time, and when you work for yourself and things don't go as planned, um, you know, sometimes it's tough to stick in there. So and I I have I'm quite broad in my interests, so I thought, you know, diplomacy always interested me. Mm-hmm. I was interested in diplomacy. So I decided to to do a degree in case I wanted to to enter that field one day. It was kind of um that's why I decided to do that. And then how did you come into the world of watches? So basically, I think my father had a big influence on me because and that's why I also love Rolex so much. When I was about ten years old and I'm gonna be writing a blog post on this, um I remember playing with his he had a white gold daydate with diamonds. Oh wow. And that watch really left an impact on me. Um and I would play with it and look at it had a it has a beautiful blue dial. And so I've always been interested in watches, you know, growing up in Switzerland too. You know, when you turn 18, my mother gave me a Rolex as well. And so it was kind of a natural thing to be around watches, and so I think that's that's how it basically happened. Then I started reading your blog about old watches and and other blogs and sort of migrated from you know newer watches to old. Yeah. And w where is your primary focus now as a collector
Unknown ?
Unknown Yeah, what what brands what what excites you today? I would still say um I think Rolex really excites me still, believe it or not, because the crazy thing with Rolex is the more you think you know about the brand, the more you realize you actually don't know anything. Right. And you know, it's so broad, it's so uh multifaceted. I think the design is so great. And it's so difficult to collect, you know. I love Patek and other brands, but you know, to collect Patek well basically I, think you only you basically need on a very high level you have if you have enough money you'll collect well. With Rolex, it's not about money. Right. Okay, you need a certain amount, but I think what I love with Rolex is you have to do your homework. No matter how much money you have, if you don't do your homework, uh you're gonna get screwed. Yeah. And it's challenging to collect Rolex well. And I'm still fascinated by it, and I think I have a long way to
Unknown So how do you go about researching any particular Rolex you're you're looking at?
Unknown That's a good question. So I think you know today the big advantage is you have so much information online, unlike you know, five, six years ago, where people were just starting to put information online. So I think you know, between researching online, looking at the auction houses, going to you know, collector gatherings, looking at the watches, at the auction houses. It's basically hands-on research. And I think today you have a lot of resources available for you to make good decisions on collecting well. A
Unknown aron Powell Yeah. And how do you view the auction houses and how they play in in kind of the the ascension, the ascent rather of of vintage watches as as collectible assets? Um re can you repeat that again? Sure. So how do you view well really how do you view the the auction houses and their role in this growth of of the say the vintage Rolex world to to to keep with the theme
Unknown here? Well I think auction houses uh do play an important role because you know at the end of the day, a lot of the auction houses have been around much longer than you know you or I have been collecting. And so they have uh a lot of research, a lot of um you know if you go for example on on on a Rolex model they're selling and you hit on the lot notes, they usually have good data on you know when the model was introduced, um, etc. So and you know it's becoming harder for the auction houses to find great watches, but I still think they do and I still think it's it's a great learning tool um to go to the auctions to to hold the watch in your hand. So for me it's it's it's auction houses are still valuable in in how I buy and learn about watches
Unknown . Yeah, and what about the the social set that comes with first of all you live in Zurich, so you're you're Swiss. Um what comes along with Actually I'm American, but living in Switzerland. Yeah. Okay, an American abroad. Just to make that clear. That's right. So you you live in Switzerland and obviously the hub of the watch world. Is that an advantage to you? Is that a disadvantage to you? Are you too close to home in some ways? Uh or is it something that you find really helpful in that you can take a train to Geneva anytime you want to etcetera to see the the auctions?
Unknown Um It's a very good question. I think in some ways it's an advantage because you know I'm very close to I mean I think Geneva still holds the most important auctions of watches, even though New York is coming and Hong Kong is is growing because of the wealth there. So Geneva I think is important and you have collectors coming all over the world still to Geneva, and for me it's just a three-hour train ride. Right. Um so I think that's a that's a big advantage. Um funny enough, in terms of vintage, which is my main interest, I don't think it's necessarily an advantage being in Switzerland because in fact I actually think it's a disadvantage. If you look at I bet you here in New York, for example, they're way more collectors and meetings and events organized around vintage watches than Switzerland. Because in Switzerland you still have this understated, you know, low-key mentality where people don't show what they have. You know, we're not that open as a culture as for example Americans are. Sure. So actually I think if I'd be living in London or New York, I I would I would it
Unknown would be better for me. As a collector. Yeah. Yeah. Uh do you have many collector friends that that live in Zurich, for example
Unknown ? Um I don't. It's slowly growing. Um I'm part of a a chat group that's um you know growing and but no, most of my, you know, collector friends are not in Switzerland. They're all over the world. Um but I think Switzerland is is coming along slowly. Yeah
Unknown . A as somebody that that is very close to the collector world and and you really are a real collector. You're you're not buying and selling often, you know, this is you you buy what you like and you you tend to keep it. Same is true for cars. Who do you admire as as a collector
Unknown ? Well, uh without you know um trying to trying to um you know what's the right word? Uh I certainly admire you a lot. That's very kind. You know you're far younger than me but, you've been uh you have a great sense of style and you're a very broad collector, which I really appreciate. So I've learned a lot from you. Um taking someone older, I I l I think he's for me really still uh someone I really look up to is John Goldberger, who you also know. Of course. His collecting is very broad too. He whatever watch he puts on it just looks so good on him
Unknown he he he has that that thing about him where he can wear whatever he wants and not just watches I mean I've seen him wear a full denim on denim on denim outfit and pull it off. Yeah no he's
Unknown uh I've learned incredible amounts from him and um he's someone I certainly look up to as well. So these are our two people come to mind. But you know it's many I've learned a lot through many collectors. Some you know s that are smaller but focused on on on lesser known brands so I've been fortunate to to know a few collectors who have helped me along the way. Sure. And what are the watches that you're wearing today? So I brought um you know there was this Rolex meeting in New York. Sure. And I figured there'd be a lot of subs and a lot of Rolex sports watches. So I brought something different. I brought a six zero nine eight star dial um with a honeycomb honeycomb dial, uh, which is something fun, uh time only. I think it's underappreciated still, very rare. Just something fun and nice to look at. Yeah. And on the other wrist I'm wearing a Bombay style six zero nine zero. I think that's a reference number. And also with stars. So
Unknown I'm full of stars today. And so for for those who might not understand what a star dial is, obviously stars on the dial, the the most famous stardial would be the six zero six two, which is the triple calendar moon phase, correct? Right. And those are we'll say very expensive
Unknown watches. Yes. So uh basically a lot of people when they think of stardis, they think of that reference, but um Rolex made a few time only stardis as well. Um I mean a good example is the galaxy, which is you know maybe the most famous stardile of all, which uh I think there are only three or four known. Um it's a beautiful kind of oversized case. It's an Oyster case. I think it the size is 35 or 36 millimeters, and it was sold a few years ago at Philips. I think it's an Asian collector bought it. And ever since I had held that watch in my hand, I was fascinated by you know time only, just stars on the dial, no moon phase, no triple calendar, no date to distract, just stars, the seconds, the hourhand, and it's something so pure for me. So after seeing that watch, I became fascinated by time
Unknown only stardis. And th that that's a pretty esoteric, you know, pretty unusual kind of subset of of Rolex collecting. It's not just time only, it's stardile time only. Totally. Are there many other collectors in this space? Do you know any other collectors in that space
Unknown ? Um not really, and that's why I kind of like it, because it's um I think it's still unexplored, it's unknown. Um when these watches for example, one of the watches I'm wearing um came up for auction and it really nobody was paying attention to it. Almost nobody bid on it and I managed to to buy it, you know, for for for close to nothing. So I think it's still I wrote a post about it as well. It's still
Unknown Yeah. And in in many ways, if you if you think about these watches relative to their non-stard dial peers, it's really one-to-one when you think of a non-Paul Newman Daytona versus a Paul Newman Daytona. They're no different except for the dial. And yet when the Daytona world you're paying two, three, four, five more X, you know? Uh do you think that could be possible with stardials down the road
Unknown ? Yeah, I think you know I think many well for for a start, um so the references I'm both wearing are actually not very rare references, but only with stars on the dial, they're very few. So these watches are very rare. Um, and I think they're underappreciated, and I think with time you, know, collectors will w will find these more interesting because they're so different. And you know, in the end, I think how do you differentiate yourself as a collector? You try to own things that not everybody has, right? Mm-hmm I mean that's why as much as I love the Paul Newman I'm not that attracted to it because it's so mainstream and I find it more interesting to collect things that are beautiful but not that well known. So I think stardules have a great future. So obviously
Unknown you you just came from Roly Fest, which was a big, seemingly wonderful event put on here by our friend Jeff Hess and the guys at Phillips. What was that like as a spectator? Was was that overwhelming to see so many great watches in one place? Was it was it interesting because you got to see and meet all these wonderful collectors, or was it a little stayed because so many people w brought similar watches
Unknown ? Well no, so anytime you see, you know, we had what a hundred plus collectors coming, we had probably three or four hundred watches on the table. You know, many of these watches are Or subs, it really is impressive. You don't get to see that very often. And it was overwhelming because you don't almost know where where do you start looking, what what details do you start looking at? If you pick up one watch, you know it's it's you know, you have so many other watches to look at that I think it was almost too rushed to really appreciate each individual watch, but it was it was a gre
Unknown at experience. Yeah no that that's really neat. And how do you feel about you as somebody who has your own taste which is you know even though it's Rolex it's very different kind of Rolex. How do you feel about the future of Rolex Sports Watches? Do you think that it can retain its cool factor? Do you think it it can retain its value long term? Or do you think this is something that it might fall out of favor? In the same way that bubble backs in the 80s were everything to Rolex. And now they're you know they're not worthless, but they're they're worth you know, I would say a tenth or a tenth of what they used to be
Unknown . Aaron Powell Actually, I think it's a great point you make, you know, because nothing continues forever in the sense that you know watches go through trends. But having said that, I think I I really do think that Rolexports watches are, you know it's it's it's going to last because the design is so strong. You know I think the bubble backs they're usually smaller in size they're more for the connoisseur collector and Rolex sports watches are so timeless. If you look at a 1960 sub, that that's gonna look good in 30 years or 40 years today. And you know, will the hype slow down and the prices uh come down a little bit, sure it will. But I see, you know, a I see a great future. I think more and more collectors will want to own them. I think that's the big advantage that Rolex has over Patek, for example, is it's just a young, cool looking watch brand. And you know, there
Unknown 's no other brand that has that coolness factor. Agreed. Agreed. And I think you know, we especially in this market in the US, like the if you go okay, in New York and LA, people might know what Patek Philippe is, but also maybe not. And then you go to the other markets, everywhere in between, nobody knows what Patek Philippe is. Everybody knows what Rolex is. Rolex is part of the American kind of like social culture. Yeah. What would it be?
Unknown Gosh. Is so something that I own already or whatever you like. Well let me answer it in two ways. So the one watch. If I could only have one watch to hold on to, it would be my father's day date, which my mother decided to give me after I think it was 41 at the time. So she made me wait 28 years. And every year I would beg her if I could have it, and she said, No, no. And you know, that watch is just I think it really has so much magic for me, and so much memories of my father who sadly, you know, no longer lives. So that that that watch is for sure the most important to me. But if we're talking about a watch that I don't own yet, I think my dream I mean there m I have many dreams, but we all do. Sure. Um it would probably be that galaxy black star dial. You think so? Yeah. Totally. Over the Bao Dye, over anything else, yeah. Because it's so simple, it's so uh powerful, and you know I've I admire the collector who owns that today. Um there's there are one or two out there, but I'm thinking of one collector especially. He has he has a great taste and a very good eye and I think it's such a beautiful watch. It's it's I think that would be the one watch. Plus, not not everybody has that. You know, the Baudai is great, but you know, there are many black dial as six zero
Unknown six two out there. Yeah. And for for those who who might not know, uh Edmund is referring to uh at WatchArts on Instagram, uh who's a a friend and I'm sure you know he uh he would appreciate the we'll link up to his profile in the in the notes here. Um but an amazing collector. Absolutely. One
Unknown of one of the for me, one of the most astute collectors out there
Unknown . Yep. Absolutely. Um cars. Cars are a big part. Well I I wouldn't say a big part of your your your passion, but you do you do love them. Yes. Yeah. And mostly F
Unknown errari? Um I love all brands. So uh I I love Ferrari for the history. I think the history of Ferrari is you know, it's it's unbeatable. You had you know the crazy founder Enzo Ferrari who you know managed to get the best racing drivers in the world race for him. He managed to get the best engineers to build the best engines. He managed to get the best designers like Pininferina to to design the cars. So he's you know, the brand is so mythical. It's so beautiful. The old cars are just like pieces of art that I appreciate Ferrari for the history. Um, but you know, I have uh I love Porsche like like you as well, I think. Um I like British cars, so I'm not m loyal to one brand, but Ferrari
Unknown has something special in my heart. It's funny, you know, I've long had this idea of doing uh car reviews, vintage car reviews, after owning them for some time. And you know, when I bought my first vintage car, which was a 356, just a B supercoop. There was so much stuff that nobody told me that I never would have known that like, you know, really you just don't even know what you're getting into. Uh and I think, you know, the the ownership uh process of a vintage car is in many ways really different than the ownership of a vintage watch. A watch is a watch at the end of the day. It pretty much they all do the same thing. You're never gonna spend thousands of dollars on a service, maybe a few thousand if you're if you're in a tough spot. Cars can really take it out of you. They can also catch on fire. They can also kill you. They can also kill other people. I mean they can also, you know, really damage folks financially. And I think again, this idea of like real ownership of a car is not a simple thing. It requires work, especially a vintage car. And you have, if you don't mind me saying, one of the most iconic cars in the world, one of the most beautiful in the 300 SL Goldwing. And this is a car that I mean I've dreamed of owning since I was a child. I mean it's just it's a perfect object. And yet you don't love driving it
Unknown . Yeah, I mean we talked about that this morning at at coffee and I I briefly told you why. So for me it's one of the greatest cars ever made. And if you look at the history of cars um and you look at Mercedes after the Second World War, you know this was I mean think about it in the beginning of the nineteen fifties they came out with this car where you don't even have proper doors because they designed the car first for it to be a good car to drive and race. And then after they built the chassis they figured out wait a minute, the doors don't even fit. And so that's how the Gallwing doors actually were created. It was um there's really nothing quite like it. And as much as I love it optically and to look at, it's very tricky to drive. You have drum brakes, um, it gets extremely hot in there. Right. And there are no windows. Windows don't open. Yeah. You have little side windows where the air comes through, but so it's unless you're a very good driver, which I admittedly am not, um it's a very tricky car to drive fast and well. So as much as I love it, it's optically, it's not my favorite car to dri
Unknown ve. Aaron Powell It it's really interesting. I mean they they say never meet your heroes, you know. I mean the the the again the Goldwing is such an ic it is the icon, arguably, of of the vintage car world. It's it's amazing to hear that it's actually maybe not that easy to live with. No., not at all It's
Unknown in fact as as good as it looks, uh it gives you a you know a headache to drive. And I think I'm in the minority saying that. Who owns one and all many other collectors, they they all love their Goldwings. It just, I think, you know, every experience is different. And um, I love my car, I'll probably keep it, but I don't drive it often. Yeah,
Unknown and it's funny, you know, the last time we met in New York, which was a few years ago, we kind of had two differing collecting philosophies. Mine is of of the mindset that you should try to own as much as you can to experience it all, to say like, hey, you know, this watch is for me, this car is for me. If it is, you keep it forever, it sticks with you, you collect it. And if it's not, you move it along, and now you know. And then you know the this loss, this obsession over this material object is no longer there. You kind of have a different mindset, which is pick what you love and and stick with it.
Unknown Yeah, I mean I have that from my mother. You know, I grew up uh my mother's German and she she has this old school thinking of you know whatever some some whatever she managed to get or someone gave her she held on to it and I think things that I own. And it's probably is it the smartest thing? No. You know, does it make the most sense? Probably not. But I have that from her that I I get you know, each w when you buy something and you start using it, you you you build a relationship with it. And I think that's something valuable. And you know, today people get bored of things very quickly, they sell it, they move on. And um I think my mother taught us, you know, hold on to your things that you own and you know, with time it's it's something special to and and one day if I have a child and I say, Listen, I got this Goldwing, you know, when I was in my thirties, and look, I'm seventy-two now and I still have it, yeah, that's pretty cool. Instead of you know, if you're always getting rid of things, you don
Unknown Have you ever had an experience where you wanted a a watch so badly, maybe like the Goldwing, and then you got it and it was kind of disappointing Um that'
Unknown s a great question. Let me think about that. Um You know what? I've been very lucky. I I can't recall I can't recall of of that ever happening to me in watches. I think I've been lucky that, you know, when you when you attend these auctions and you try things on, I have generally a good feel if I like something or not. Um no, I can't think of one instance. You're you're lu
Unknown cky. Yeah, I am lucky. Um so I wanna thank Edmund for joining us today. Uh it's always a treat to see you, my friend, and uh come back in the case. Likewise and thank you so much for inviting me to Hodinka Radio. Pleas
Unknown ure 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.