Latest / What's on Your Riste? A Watch Podcast / S01E08: Watch Stories - Czapek: The Watchmaker Who Founded Patek Philippe (and the Story Almost Nobody Tells)

Transcript

S01E08: Watch Stories - Czapek: The Watchmaker Who Founded Patek Philippe (and the Story Almost Nobody Tells) · What's on Your Riste? A Watch Podcast

0:00
What if I told you that one of the founders of Patek Philippe
0:02
and the Patek Philippe, the most prestigious watch brand in the
0:06
world, got pushed out in a bitter falling out 180 years
0:12
ago? And that his original brand was
0:15
completely forgotten for over a century?
0:18
And that ten years ago, a small team in Geneva resurrected his
0:23
name and started making watches again?
0:25
And most people in this hobby still have no idea who he is?
0:29
That's our episode today. This is the story of Chapek, the
0:33
watchmaker who founded Patek and the modern brand, bringing his
0:38
name back from the dead. From pocket tourists The tail
0:50
still lives. Tiny clocks with big time.
0:53
It's gold in the rain, stealing the flame.
0:56
Every scar remembers a name. Watch stories, watch stories.
1:01
History on your skin. Welcome back to What's on Your
1:05
Reese Day. I'm Wachovsky.
1:06
Today we're trying again something new based on a lot of
1:09
feedback from the last few episodes.
1:10
And thank you genuinely for the messages that I am.
1:13
I don't say this often, it's going to sound strange, but I am
1:16
tickled. We're going to start mixing in
1:18
some deeper single brand dives again.
1:22
We're going to call these watch stories and we'll see how they
1:24
land with you. So less running through three
1:27
brands per episode, more 1 brand all the way down.
1:30
As much as I can give you as a history nerd doing homework, but
1:34
then also having three small kids and, you know, helping my
1:37
wife with business and having my own career as well.
1:40
So I'm doing my best to get all of the the homework done.
1:43
But again, as I mess things up and if I miss a date or I goof
1:48
something, give me a heads up. So I'll be looking at history
1:51
revival models, movements, collaborations, personal
1:54
stories, kind of the whole picture.
1:55
And the brand again that I want to start with is one of my
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favorite brands in the entire industry, Chopic.
2:01
And yes, we're going to spend a minute on the pronunciation of
2:04
that because it trips up everyone.
2:06
It starts, it's printed spelled CZAPEK and the CZ is Polish as
2:13
in like in church. So it's chop and then Eck, it's
2:17
not ZA Peck, it's not SAP EC, it's not cha Peck.
2:21
It's cha Peck and pronounce it once.
2:23
Get it right now. I'm going to say that then I'm
2:24
going to I created a song where it just didn't work with it.
2:27
So I kind of fiddled with the two, but you're going to have to
2:29
give me some creative liberties here folks that you know,
2:31
sometimes times things don't rhyme the way that they should
2:33
and sometimes chorus is hit better.
2:35
You know when they when I can mess with the the language a
2:37
little bit. I'm not Eminem.
2:38
I do the best I can. So this is going to be a longer
2:41
form episode. Pour something settle in unless
2:43
you're driving. If you're driving, then then
2:45
don't pour something. Just grab a snack, but don't
2:47
don't be drinking while you're driving.
2:48
We've got history to cover. Let's get into it.
2:51
All right. Segment 1/18/93 The first
2:54
founding To understand why Chopic matters you have to go
2:58
back to 1839 to Geneva and a Polish watchmaker named Francois
3:05
Schabach. Francois was born in 1811 and in
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what was then partitioned Poland and a lot of educated Poles of
3:12
his era and his generation, they ended up exiled after like
3:16
November and this this uprising of 1830 and a failed Polish
3:22
rebellion against Russian rule and so many of those exiles they
3:26
fled W into Switzerland and to France.
3:29
So Francois ended up in Geneva, which ironically, was the
3:34
watchmaking capital of the world at that time.
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Now he was by all accounts and extraordinarily talented
3:40
watchmaker. Hand finished pocket watches,
3:42
beautifully engraved cases, complicated movements.
3:46
He was already known for his work when, in May of 1839, he
3:50
founded a watchmaking partnership with another Polish
3:54
exile, A businessman named Antoni Patek.
3:58
And Antoni was was spelled Ant Oni Atech obviously is PATEKO.
4:05
The company was called Atech Chapec at C And you'll when you
4:09
see that pronounced, it's actually the the letters are ET
4:13
and it looks like ET, but it's actually a like AY and then C as
4:18
CIE, but it's pronounced, you know, it's S EE and that just
4:22
basically means, you know, I'm company right.
4:24
So for six years that was the brand.
4:26
The two Co founders, Pat Tech handled the business and the
4:29
sales and Chopic handled the watchmaking and together they
4:34
built one of the most prestigious early watchmaking
4:37
manufacturers in Geneva. And they had clients that were
4:40
including like royalty from Europe and Russian aristocrats.
4:44
And don't get into to the politics about, you know,
4:46
selling watches to folks that had exiled you.
4:48
What we're not going to get into that part.
4:50
But for six years Chopex name was on the dial side of Patek's
4:54
and then in 1845 things fell apart.
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All right, so segment to the feud and how Patek became Patek.
5:02
And so this is kind of for me, the kind of the spicier part of
5:05
it, the real life drama. So the exact reason for the
5:09
split are debated. This is debated by horological
5:12
historians to this day. And we're going to do maybe a
5:16
full episode that goes deeper into early Geneva and watch
5:19
making drama because trust me, there is so much to to kind of
5:23
uncover. And I felt like as I was peeling
5:25
back the onion to do the homework for this episode, my
5:27
goodness, I could have gone a million different directions.
5:29
But again, these things cannot be 15 hours long.
5:32
So broad strokes are going to be 1844 partnership was not
5:36
working. Pat Tech had ambitions.
5:38
Trotpeck didn't see them right. Remember, Trotpeck is the he's a
5:41
watchmaker. He he's taking his time to do
5:44
individual craft and he's not a business person.
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Sounds like a lot of these folks that we know in this industry
5:50
now, right? You have folks that are
5:52
beautiful watchmakers that are typically reserved there.
5:56
They have the watchmaking first and there's kind of this ethical
5:59
moral compass that they kind of are accompanied by.
6:02
And then they they don't have the business side.
6:04
And so sometimes they partner together and that the business
6:07
side works. But there's almost this sort of,
6:09
you know, ebb and flow. There's a push and a pull.
6:11
And Patek had these ambitions that Tropic did not share.
6:15
And so Patek had met a young French watch watchmaker named
6:19
Philippe. It's Adrian.
6:21
It looks like Adrian, but it's Adrian or I think they
6:23
pronounced it. And I'm going to go through and
6:26
try to get it correct, which is Adrian Adren Philippe.
6:30
And so he found this person at a Paris industrial exhibition
6:34
where Philippe had just won. And so he was a, he was a legit
6:37
watchmaker. He won a gold medal for
6:39
inventing something that we all know and kind of forget about
6:43
now, invented the keyless works, the winding system.
6:46
So the keyless winding system before this, you, when you had
6:50
to wind a watch, you had to have a separate key to wind your
6:52
watch. And so now what he had invented
6:55
was that you could use your crown versus a separate key.
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And this was a technological revolution of the era.
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And so Pat Tech saw it, Pat Tech wanted it, and Pat Tech wanted
7:03
to bring Philippe into the company.
7:05
This has sounds a lot like other brands that we've discussed,
7:07
right? This sounds a lot like Rolex,
7:09
where they would go and they they would see patents or they
7:11
would see manufacturers, they would go instead of inventing,
7:14
they would just acquire, right? And so Francois Chapeck, for
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reasons that historians can still argue about, he, he wasn't
7:21
on board. And so there were disagreements
7:23
about money. There were disagreements about
7:25
direction and who should lead. And in 1845, the partnership
7:29
dissolved and Patek brought in Philippe and the brand was
7:33
renamed Patek Philippe at Sea. Right and see.
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And Tropic was out, and he didn't disappear.
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He kept making watches under his own name so you would see Tropic
7:44
and see. And he was actually pretty
7:45
successful. He opened a boutique in Geneva
7:48
and then another in Warsaw. And then in I think 1854, he
7:52
actually opened one on the most prestigious storefronts of all.
7:56
If you look at like 25 place. And then I think I'm going to
8:00
mess up all of my, my, my French here, but plus plus Van Dom,
8:04
right. If he he was OK.
8:07
My, my French is horrible. I am, I'm sorry.
8:09
I do my best, I try my best, but you know, I'm just, I'm pretty
8:12
useless. So in Paris and that that
8:13
address actually became the most famous luxury address in the
8:17
world. There's a Tropic actually had it
8:19
before most of the brands that you'd associate with that
8:21
location would. And so his clients, no joke,
8:24
were like Napoleon the third. He appointed him as actually his
8:27
official watchmaker to the imperial household.
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So his pocket watches, they won prizes at world fairs.
8:33
He published these these documents on watchmaking.
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And he was at the time a he was a peer.
8:40
He was a peer of Patek and Philippe.
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And he wasn't their forgotten partner.
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OK, so as we kind of go through, this is going to make more
8:47
sense, I hope. OK, so now he's not a forgotten
8:50
partner. He was considered a peer.
8:52
And then here's the thing about history.
8:54
Patek had Philippe. Patek had this keyless winding
8:58
patent. Patek had a Better Business
9:01
operation. And over the next century and a
9:04
half, Patek Philippe became Patek Philippe, the apex of hot
9:08
horology, the brand whose watches your grandfather
9:11
supposedly didn't own but merely looked after for the next
9:15
generation. And Chopic.
9:17
Chopic's company, he kept going for about 30 years after
9:20
Francois died in 1869. It eventually went dormant.
9:24
The boutiques closed, the name kind of slipped out of public
9:27
memory. And by the 20th century, Chopic
9:30
had a brand essentially that didn't exist.
9:33
The watchmaker who had Co founded what would become the
9:36
most famous name in horology was forgotten by everyone except a
9:40
handful of vintage pocket watch collectors who happened to come
9:43
across old Chopic signed pieces. And these like auction lots.
9:47
So 146 years topic was offensively effectively dead and
9:54
then that was until 2015. All right, so it's 2015.
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We're going to get into segment 3, which is the resurrection in
10:01
2015, three watch industry veterans.
10:04
So you're going to have Xavier, you're going to have this
10:08
gentleman who is now the brand's CEO, along with Sebastian and
10:12
Harry. And these three folks made quite
10:17
the extraordinary decision together.
10:20
They were going to bring back Chopic and not as like a
10:23
tribute, right? They were going to do like an
10:25
homage or a tribute band, right? Not as like a vintage Omagy type
10:29
thing where, you know, they're going to make watches that look
10:31
like they were from the 1850s. And, you know, no, they wanted a
10:35
living, working modern manufacturer using the Francois
10:39
Chopic's name, but honoring the history.
10:42
And that made these watches amazing, but then also were
10:45
built for the 21st century as if Francois never left.
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And the way they funded it was nuts, frankly.
10:52
It's, it's beautiful. It's in, it's insane, but it's
10:54
beautiful. Instead of going to private
10:56
equity or a luxury conglomerate, they did something crazy.
11:01
They went and tried to crowdfund it.
11:04
They did share offerings. They invited people who loved
11:07
the story to literally buy in and become Co owners of the new
11:11
brand. Hundreds of collectors and
11:13
enthusiasts across the world ended up as small shareholders
11:16
of the new Tropic. And Tropic is to this day owned
11:20
in part by people who care about watchmaking, not some financial
11:24
holding company. And that partnership is part of
11:27
why I think Chopic does what Chopic does.
11:29
They answer to people who love watches, not to quarterly
11:33
earnings call. And in that respect, they are
11:35
much more in line with the brand of like Rolex.
11:38
However, they're much more transparent.
11:41
They are kind of an open book in regard to what's coming and then
11:44
they listen and they iterate. So I'll give some examples of
11:47
that in a little bit. The brand's headquarters are in
11:49
Geneva and they're explicitly positioning themselves as kind
11:53
of continuing Francois's legacy. They're using his name, they're
11:55
referencing his ideas, even drawings on his Polish heritage.
11:59
And some of the model names. The very first modern topics
12:03
were were called the the K de Berg and they and it's
12:08
pronounced sounds like K de Berg, but it's it's spelled QUAI
12:13
and then space DES space BERGUESI knew this episode was
12:18
going to be hard for me. And so they they named this
12:20
after the Geneva St. where Francois had his original
12:23
boutique, which is, I mean, if you're just again, as a history
12:25
person, you're like, man, that's just there's just there's so
12:27
much consideration in the way that they're doing this right.
12:30
And then there's their chronograph line, which you're
12:34
going to see is the foe bore Ducra Covey.
12:38
I hope that's that's it's French for it looks like Cracal suburb,
12:41
right? It's a direct nod to Francoise
12:44
Polish roots. And so again, it's it's a tip of
12:47
the hat back, right. And again, I'm going to try to
12:50
pronounce some of these words. But again, you see that my I'm
12:53
I'm struggling here now. That's the kind of brand chop
12:56
back is every detail is going to have a story.
12:59
Every model name is this love letter to history.
13:01
And I think for me that's that's fascinating to 2nd floor.
13:04
Let's talk about what makes Tropic a Tropic.
13:06
Now let's talk. About the watches themselves,
13:07
because Tropic has done something in 10 years since the
13:11
revival that I think is genuinely impressive.
13:13
The brand has a few core lines, right?
13:16
They have their, their chronograph.
13:17
They're that's something that's very classical as well, right?
13:19
They they they they have this the the K de Berg and it's kind
13:24
of their more classical kind of dressy, beautifully proportional
13:27
three hand watch. It's kind of in the spirit of
13:29
what Francois's 19th century pocket watches would have looked
13:31
like. Hand finished beautiful guy
13:33
O'Shea dials often with a small seconds at six.
13:37
Sometimes they'll offset them in a different location.
13:39
And this is topic doing what classical watchmaking is in the
13:42
way that it's meant to be done. Then they have their chronograph
13:45
right the aboard Ducra Kobe. What I do I'm getting I don't
13:51
know, it's OK. It's it's a love language and I
13:53
don't speak a love language. Now the mono pusher, their
13:56
chronograph was manufactured in collaboration with voucher and
13:59
it has this dial layout and finishing that puts it firmly in
14:03
hot horology territory. And then there's this line for
14:06
me and a lot of modern. Collectors, that is chopic
14:10
today. It's the Antarctique, and again,
14:12
Antarctique is the one that you're probably going to know
14:14
the most. It's a NTARCTIQUE Antarctique
14:20
that was launched in 2020 and it was a banger home run launched
14:25
in 20 2020. The Antarctic was tropics first
14:27
integrated bracelet, a luxury sports watch and it landed in
14:30
the middle of kind of this integrated bracelet boom.
14:33
Royal Oaks were unattainable. Nautilus was unattainable.
14:37
Everyone was looking for a serious sports watch with kind
14:39
of like serious in house movement, serious finishing, but
14:42
that looked something that was different, not too different,
14:45
but different. And most of the options were
14:47
either 10 year wait list, 6 figure aftermarket prices or
14:50
something ridiculous. And Antarctic walked into this
14:53
vacuum quietly without hype. They didn't have like like the
14:55
celebrity ambassador and they dominated the conversation for
14:59
people who knew the 40.5mm case, the integrated bracelet.
15:03
These polished C shaped links, yes C.
15:07
As in like for chopic, the texture dials that they had,
15:10
they were often registered with this kind of pattern called the
15:13
stairway to eternity. Metal M was was making those
15:16
dials for them and and critically, the in house
15:19
caliber. The SXH 5 was bonkers to look
15:22
at. So I'm going to spend a minute
15:24
on that movement because it, it deserves it.
15:26
And if you've seen these movements, if you've seen them
15:27
in person, they're nuts. The SXH 5 is tropics first fully
15:31
in house automatic. It's it's a 30mm in diameter.
15:35
The movement itself, it's it's 42mm across these bridges.
15:39
It has this is kind of crazy when you start to look at the
15:41
way that this thing is kind of designed, right?
15:44
The the case itself, I would say, you know, you're a 4040 1/2
15:47
millimeter, you've got this kind of movement shape that's filling
15:50
this case. It's got a four Hertz beat rate.
15:52
It's a 60 hour power reserve and it has this off center micro
15:55
rotor. Again, you know what the micro
15:57
rotors look like they're off centered so that you get the
15:59
this look of the entire movement, which is stunning.
16:03
Has a recycled platinum rotor and that lets you see again, the
16:06
entire movement. The skeletonized case back and
16:08
has sell. This is the part that's kind of
16:10
catches people off guard. Has seven skeletonized bridges
16:14
and an architecture that's kind of inspired by 19th century chop
16:17
back pocket watches, but they look like finger bridges.
16:20
And so instead of having this big plate that covers all the
16:22
movement, you'd literally have just enough material to hold
16:26
these bridges in place and it just it's something to kind of
16:29
see in person. Now they also do things that are
16:31
that are crazy. They have these variable inertia
16:34
balances. They have 4 gold inertia blocks
16:37
that are in there that are each one of them is is adjustable.
16:40
You have hand bevelled inward angles and that's absolute hot
16:43
horology. That's a tell because inward
16:46
angles can only be polished by hand machines literally cannot
16:49
make those inward angles. So you know that someone had
16:52
that piece and was hand polishing them typically with a
16:55
small wooden dowel and and polishing them.
16:58
Now, if you look through the case back of an Antarctique and
17:00
you're you're going to be looking at real watchmaking, not
17:03
a movement that was bought by a supplier and rebadged, not a
17:06
tweaked ETA. But honest to God, in house
17:09
manufacturer caliber hand finished to a level that
17:13
competes with watches that are costing three to five times the
17:16
price. That is what Choek is, a real
17:20
watchmaker at prices that by hot horology standards are.
17:24
It sounds ridiculous. They're reasonable.
17:26
Antarctique on steel start in the low 20,000 range and they go
17:30
up from there for limited editions and precious metal
17:32
pieces. They come down a little bit and
17:35
they, they, they've started to get a little bit hotter, but you
17:37
used to be able to. Pick them up for fifteen,
17:39
$16,000, somewhere in that range and now even the pre owned ones
17:42
are kind of coming up and now all of a sudden.
17:45
New ones are up into the 30s. They're getting expensive
17:47
because people are kind of starting to figure this out.
17:50
Now segment 5 iteration and how Tropic actually listens.
17:53
This is crazy as well. So here's something about Tropic
17:55
that not that that I think everyone that's listening, I
17:58
want you to internalize because it's one of the things that
18:01
makes them different from almost any other.
18:03
Brand at this price point, Tropic iterates based on
18:06
customer feedback, like actual feedback from actual customers.
18:09
And this sounds like a smart marketing line.
18:11
It's it's not. I'm going to give you concrete
18:14
examples of what they're doing here.
18:15
The original Antarctique launched with kind of this one
18:19
integrated bracelet design, customers said.
18:21
Dude. We we want.
18:23
Bracelet it's integrated and that's cool as a butterfly
18:25
class, but micro adjustment would be cool.
18:27
And so Chopic went back, they re engineered the bracelet and they
18:30
they improved it with a micro adjustment system on both.
18:33
Sides and then they just rolled it forward on all of the
18:35
subsequent Antarctic models. They didn't they didn't have
18:37
some massive press release. They just, they just rolled it
18:39
out and they offered it to people.
18:42
Now the original. Tartique cases were stainless
18:44
steel and they were rose gold and customers said that they
18:46
wanted a titanium for everyday wear.
18:48
And guess what Chopic did? They developed titanium versions
18:50
and the original Antarctique was 40.5mm and it wears loads.
18:54
It's slammed down, it's really flat and wears really
18:57
comfortable. But then customers were like,
18:59
well, you know, I have a smaller wrist and the 40.5 is really
19:02
pushing the limits of my comfort.
19:03
And so guess what they did? They want no more compact
19:05
options. So Chopic they reengineered and
19:08
they came up with the Antarctic S and they came out with a
19:10
38.5mm texture dials. They had strap options, they had
19:14
ease of release systems and they continue to iterate.
19:17
And so the back case of this is, is an example of all those
19:20
iterations. Chop X has been shaped in many
19:23
ways by what owners and and these prospective owners have
19:26
said to the brand. Now what this is interesting
19:29
because even if you look at if you've gotten rubber straps from
19:32
them, if you get newer ones, for example, they had a tool or you
19:35
could click and, and slowly turn, you know, 180° and you
19:38
could pop the bracelet off with a tool.
19:40
And now the rubber straps, you have a little push button, you
19:42
can pop them out. And again, small iterations,
19:44
right? They, they wanted a brushed
19:46
bracelet as opposed to having polished centerlinks.
19:48
And so they've given you that option.
19:49
They had the bracelet that had a small pins and they were like,
19:53
we would like screws. And so just small iterations
19:55
that they've listened to their customers over time and made,
19:58
you know, these these changes now.
19:59
Why does Tropic do this? They they do it because they.
20:02
Can because they're small enough that the CEO answers his own
20:04
emails, because they aren't owned by a luxury conglomerate
20:07
that that needs design decisions to be approved by a marketing
20:10
team in Paris, because they're explicitly, they choose these
20:13
things. When they brought the the brand
20:15
back in 2015 to be this kind of company, They, they, they had
20:19
planned for this kind of company, a company that listens
20:22
to its, its audio, a brand that builds watches for actual
20:26
people. Now compare this to conglomerate
20:28
own brand. Take any major brand under a
20:30
luxury group umbrella. Say a customer writes them a
20:33
polite e-mail with a thoughtful design suggestion.
20:35
That e-mail is not going to get answered, not in a meaningful
20:38
way. You might get like an automated
20:40
reply, an automated thank you. But the brand's design pipeline,
20:43
they're set three to five years in advance by people in
20:45
corporate offices. You know, this is this is kind
20:49
of insane. And So what we're going to see
20:51
here is something different when when a customer writes to them,
20:56
they might actually get a response.
20:58
And again, this, this is your individual feedback.
21:01
And I think in the kindest terms possible, when we're responding
21:05
or sending emails to to big brands, they don't care.
21:09
Chopic cares. Chopic is literally the opposite
21:12
of what those conglomerates look like.
21:14
So this next segment is going to be a personal story for me that
21:17
I think perfectly captures that. So let's talk about the
21:20
collaborations. We're going to talk about Auster
21:22
and we're going to talk about collective parology.
21:24
Auster is a jewelry. They're they're an authorized
21:27
dealer of Chopic. They're, they're a jewelry store
21:30
and they sell watches, jewelry, all that kind of stuff, right?
21:31
But they're in AD and then collective horology is more of
21:34
an independent watch dealer. Both of them awesome dudes, by
21:37
the way. So first we're going to talk
21:39
about the Antarctic passage. They Drake slash or X or
21:43
collaborated with Oster. So Oster Jewelers, they're in
21:47
Denver and they did this partnership with, they did this
21:50
partnership with Tropic. That's, that's interesting.
21:53
It's, it's a fascinating watch. They limited it to 20 pieces,
21:56
just just 20. And it was was this opportunity
21:59
that this watch which was going to feature and typically they
22:02
have these ice white dials and they have again the stairway to
22:06
eternity texture. They have blued steel hands.
22:09
This one had blued steel markers and then they had this, you
22:12
know, luminescent Arabic 12 at the top and again, blued second
22:16
hands. There was this, you know, they
22:18
replaced this red tipped one and the the watch came on this steel
22:22
bracelet, but it also came with an additional rubber strap.
22:24
And you got the choice of what color you wanted.
22:27
And the execution for me was extraordinary.
22:29
And then there's an Easter egg on the watches as well.
22:31
There's an Easter egg on the 20th that the date is red as
22:34
opposed to just the standard date wheel that they have.
22:36
And I think it's fascinating because what Auster did was
22:39
they, they took this regular, you know, what was the stand
22:42
standard kind of ice white and they grade the dial out.
22:45
And it just it, it was so far ahead of what, what was coming
22:49
out. And now there's a lot of folks
22:51
that are kind of copying kind of the dial layout that, that Gray
22:55
with these blued hands and indices.
22:57
If you look like Traska, for example, they had dropped one,
23:00
one of their commuters looked very, very similar to that.
23:02
Again, you can see what Christopher Ward and stuff is
23:04
done as well. But Austria was, was ahead of
23:07
that. And so it's just really
23:08
interesting to see Jeremy Auster's idea, what they
23:10
collaborated with with this 20 piece limited run.
23:12
And so again, what makes the collaboration interesting is who
23:16
Oscar is. Oscar Jewelers is a small family
23:18
run boutique in Denver. They have like, you know, over
23:22
the last decade or so, they become to me, one of the most
23:24
influential independent watch dealers and retailers in
23:26
America. Jeremy Oscar, he like literally
23:29
cares about independent watchmaking.
23:30
And the fact that Chopic partnered with him for a 20
23:33
piece run says something about how Chopic thinks about the
23:36
watch retail world, not the fact that they're partnering with
23:39
people who care not just like the biggest distributors and the
23:43
this so, So for me, that's a really big deal.
23:45
And I think that personally, I think that topic, the, the
23:48
Auster OSTER, that collaboration is one of the the prettiest.
23:54
It's one of the prettiest Antarctiques that they make that
23:56
was available. Now that's, that's also up there
23:58
with what I would consider one of the most beautiful and, and
24:02
one of the coolest stories of the Antarctiques, which is how
24:04
they did this PO4 Lanikai limited edition with collective
24:10
horology. So collective horology, their
24:12
california-based independent watch dealer, Asher and Gabe run
24:15
that shop. They're super good dudes.
24:17
They are awesome to work with and they have a great website
24:19
and they also have a great podcast.
24:21
So check out their web. If you, if you haven't listened
24:22
to their podcast specifically, they, they are awesome dudes.
24:26
You can check out the podcast is called open work.
24:29
It's a good podcast there. They're super sharp dudes.
24:32
They know what they're talking about and the fact that they
24:33
talk about independent watches. If you're in this space and
24:35
you've enjoyed anything about my podcast, go to them too, because
24:38
they're, they're way more professional than I am.
24:40
Now, again, when we talk about Asher and Gabe, their, their
24:43
brands themselves and the brands that they hold, I think they've
24:45
absolutely outdone themselves with the collaborations and the
24:48
releases that they've had. They've partnered with Moser and
24:50
Zenith and IWC, but then also with like our work and, and Jan
24:54
Shapiro and Armand Strom. So I mean, they're not, they're
24:56
not like entry level dudes. These dudes know what they're
24:59
doing. So the, the Lanikai was their
25:01
4th collaboration. That's what they call it, the
25:02
PO4. The the P stands for portfolio
25:06
piece #4 and it's named after a Lanikai beach in, in Hawaii.
25:10
And, and the Co founder Gabe, he studied, I believe at the
25:13
University of Hawaii. And so he proposed the idea to
25:16
Chopic with some pictures that he'd taken of the beach.
25:18
And So what followed was, and I'm not exaggerating, literally
25:21
three years of development. Now, this isn't the boom of when
25:25
Chopic was making Antarctiques in that Antarctique was a home
25:28
run and Chopic could have easily punted on the project said,
25:31
look, we got, we got so many orders.
25:33
We have all this stuff that we have to do and we're just going
25:36
to have to put you guys on pause.
25:37
But they, they shook hands on it.
25:39
This is the, this was an agreement, right?
25:41
And Chopic honored it. And so they partnered with this
25:43
legendary enamel dial maker. And this is, it's hard to put
25:48
into words how it how significant this is, but Donzze
25:51
Khydron, he's based in the lock and Donzze, by the way, he's the
25:55
same Enameler that supplies dials to Pat Tech and Cartier
25:58
and for their their highest end pieces.
26:00
So Dante was acquired by Ulysses Nardan in 2012 and they still
26:05
make grand food dial enamel dials for like the very top,
26:09
top, top of the industry. And so Chopic had Dante take
26:13
this polished gold dial blank and then press it into kind of a
26:17
concave shape and then hand engrave a wave pattern of this
26:22
like irregular kind of grain texture onto a surface.
26:26
And then apply this tortoise enamel color over the entire
26:30
thing in such a way that the the deeper grooves of the engraving
26:34
collected more enamel. So as they threw the enamel on
26:37
there, think about when you have this sandy beach and it kind of
26:41
makes these ripples, right? Or if you see like the the sand
26:43
at a desert, for example, and had these ripples from the wind,
26:46
it was nuts. And so they created these like
26:49
this natural shadows and and gradients that mimic the way
26:53
that light plays on these shallow Hawaiian waters.
26:56
And the first attempts, and this is in Chop X CEO's own words, he
27:00
said that they were a full blown disaster.
27:02
It took years of them trial and error to perfect this this dial.
27:07
And they had to source a very specific enamel powder that had
27:11
the exact turquoise blue that had this Lanakai coloring to
27:14
itself. And then they had it hand
27:16
engraver Michelle had to develop a completely new technique to
27:20
capture these irregularities of the underwater dunes.
27:23
So every dial that they have is unique because the firing
27:27
process introduces all these tiny natural variations.
27:30
Now the the watch itself was limited to 50 pieces.
27:34
So there's more of those and they were around 26.
27:37
They were expect, let's just say that they were, they were
27:39
pricey, okay, they were okay. They were $26,500.
27:43
That's a lot of money. I just, I was trying to hold it
27:45
back, but I'm just going to say, so they're 26,500 bucks.
27:47
They were available through exclusively through collective
27:50
hierology and by every account from people who handled them.
27:53
And I've never seen one in person.
27:55
This is the part that hurts me real bad.
27:57
It's they argue that it's one of the most beautiful enamel dials
28:00
that they've seen in the last decade.
28:01
Other people that have had, and they're kind of more in this
28:04
space of enamel dial, say it's the best enamel dial they have
28:07
ever seen. And that again is what Chopic
28:09
does. It's a level of craft.
28:10
It's that partnership is the fact that they didn't give up on
28:12
the project. 3, three years, folks, three years.
28:16
But they worked on the specific dial because they had an idea of
28:20
what they wanted and then they, they made it happen, right?
28:23
And again, this is what you get. It's the kind of patience that
28:27
to get something. Right to get it right.
28:29
Before it ships. They're not ordinary watch
28:31
collaborations. These are art projects.
28:34
And the brand, despite making them in kind of tiny numbers at
28:38
fairly fairly serious prices, I think that they're small enough
28:41
and humble enough to do with them what people actually care
28:44
about. And so to me, again, fascinating
28:46
stuff. So now let's talk about this
28:49
next section. I want to tell you about this
28:52
personal story that Tropic has for me.
28:55
And it says everything about why I love this brand.
28:57
OK, so while back my my 6 year old, he's getting into watches
29:00
and he's got a sure Sher watch. So shout out to those guys as
29:04
well. Just because my, my son loves
29:06
your watch and swims with it and beats the life out of it and
29:08
it's still ticking. I'm going to tell you a story
29:10
for Tropic that kind of says everything about why I I adore
29:14
these folks. While back, my 6 year old again
29:16
got into watches, which given that I'm in this space, probably
29:20
is kind of inevitable, but you never know.
29:22
Kids will revolt against their parents.
29:24
We were looking at watches together and we have, you know,
29:26
the magazines and stuff and he's flipping through and we got on
29:28
the topic of what Chopic makes, but then also what they don't
29:31
make. And specifically Chopic doesn't
29:33
currently have, as of this recording, a dive watch.
29:36
The Antarctique is a sporty, water resistant, beautifully
29:40
made watch, but it's not a true diver.
29:42
Sells, you know, 120 meters, 12 bar water resistance rating, but
29:46
it doesn't have a unidirectional bezel and it has a water rating,
29:50
but not like a serious one. It's not at 2 or 300 meters,
29:53
right? So it's not a it's not a watch
29:55
that a dive watch person would say that that's a dive watch.
29:58
And so again, this is me quoting my 6 year old and what he said
30:01
to me, which is why don't they just make one?
30:03
Which again, as a six year old question is a fantastic question
30:06
because the answer is, well, they could, they just haven't,
30:08
right? And they have a pipeline of
30:10
other projects. I'm sure, you know, whatever.
30:12
So we did what any reasonable father and six year old son
30:15
would do. We took out a piece of paper and
30:17
we started sketching what a chopic diver might look like and
30:20
we landed on this kind of dual crown design.
30:23
And the reason he likes the dual crown is I used to have one of
30:25
the watches that was stolen was a long Jean Legend diver.
30:28
And he and my my middle daughter loved moving the crown around in
30:34
regard to the moving the internal rotating bezel.
30:36
It's just like so smooth. They just, they love playing
30:38
with that. And so we started sketching
30:40
these Tropic divers again, but he landed on this idea of having
30:43
a dual crown, 1 crown just at the time 1 crown to operate the
30:46
internal rotating bezel. A super compressor kind of style
30:50
layout, but probably not a super compressor in the traditional
30:53
sense. We thought about how the case
30:55
would carry over for a chop X signature like C shapes.
30:58
And so we thought about what the integrated bracelet would look
31:00
like. And it wouldn't be a bracelet,
31:01
it would be probably like a textile strap.
31:03
So we mocked up where the indices would go, how the loom
31:06
might work and what the bezel scale would say.
31:08
And so my 6 year old wanted little, you know, things on the
31:11
bezel and he lobbied for no traditional diet markers and we
31:14
compromised on what they might look like.
31:16
And then we took out a picture of the sketch and we kind of
31:19
half jokingly turned it into a digital rendering.
31:23
And then we did what insane people do.
31:26
And we just emailed it to chop back.
31:27
And I want you to understand what what I expected to happen,
31:31
which was I expected nothing to happen.
31:32
I expected silence. I expected at best, a polite
31:35
auto response, maybe if I was lucky.
31:37
I thank you for your interest from someone in their customer
31:40
service department, right? That was, you know, just
31:43
learning how to to file papers. And what I actually got was that
31:46
they wrote back, Chopic wrote back, they engaged the idea,
31:50
they looked at the sketch, the the digital rendering and they
31:52
had an actual conversation with us about it and, and made some
31:56
jokes about a future watch designer with my 6 year old.
31:58
I don't want to get into the specifics of what they said
32:01
because that's kind of between my son and them, but the fact
32:04
that they wrote us back and they took the time, they treated a
32:06
six year old's idea design as a real idea that was worth
32:10
something. That for me is the entire story
32:13
of Chopic. It's not a single antidote.
32:15
It is their brand. And so try doing that that with
32:18
a luxury conglomerate. Try emailing the design team of
32:22
any Swiss watch group with your sketch that your kid drew and
32:25
see what happens. You'll hear back nothing
32:28
forever. Your e-mail will not even be
32:30
processed by a human being. Is my guest Tropic, the brand
32:33
whose name was forgotten for over 146 years, the brand
32:37
resurrected by people who explicitly chose to be small and
32:40
to listen. Tropic wrote back to a six year
32:43
old. That is the difference between
32:45
an independent and a conglomerate.
32:47
That is why you are buying or at least liking or enjoying or
32:52
appreciating or I also want to say envying, but just looking up
32:56
to brands like Chopic. It's if you are in the, you
33:00
know, the 90s and you have a Ferrari on your wall, right?
33:05
Chopic is the Ferrari on the wall now?
33:07
They are, they're the brand that I think, Oh yeah, there's these
33:11
hype brands and all that kind of stuff, but Tropic is the brand
33:14
that I think is the most real. And I think there's a, there's a
33:18
value to that. And so when a six year old asked
33:21
them for a, you know, gives them a thoughtful question about
33:23
their work, they, they answered it.
33:25
And I think that's so rare and I think that should be valued.
33:28
And so segment 8, why Tropic matters.
33:30
I so here's kind of the thesis of the episode.
33:32
Why did I want to spend an entire show on Tropic?
33:34
Well, one, because you you asked me to, but two, because Tropic
33:37
to me is a single the best argument for why independent
33:40
watchmaking matters in 2026 and beyond.
33:43
You can buy a Pat Tech Nautilus. It'll be a great watch.
33:45
You'll probably wait three years for it.
33:47
You'll pay an enormous premium over retail if you don't get it
33:49
at retail. And you'll own a watch made by a
33:51
company that is frankly, one of the great watchmaking
33:53
institutions of all time. But a company so large and so
33:57
demanded of that it cannot by definition, be intimate with its
34:01
customers. You can buy an AP Royal Oak,
34:04
same story or or you can explore and possibly buy a chop back
34:10
Antarctic. You will probably get it within
34:13
a few months or a few years, depending on right what you're
34:16
looking for. You may find one of the
34:18
secondary market at A at A at a discount and you'll pay close to
34:23
retail or maybe a little bit less.
34:25
And there's no weightless drama. There's stories of the the
34:29
orders of chop back and what they mean by that is the order
34:33
book is the order book. So if you place an order, you're
34:36
in in the queue, it's not like a Rolex wait list and you don't
34:38
know where you are in the queue. It's you place an order and then
34:42
if they're two years out, then in two years you get your watch.
34:44
If it's a 12 month wait in 12 months, you get your watch.
34:47
There is no jumping the line. So when the CEO, for example,
34:51
puts his name on the list, he is in line with you to get his
34:54
watch. He doesn't get to jump the line
34:56
because he's the CEO of the company.
34:57
His name goes on the list with you, with anyone else.
35:01
And then you are in queue to get your watch.
35:03
And so I think for me, that's that's fascinating as well
35:06
because what you're getting is this watch that's mechanically,
35:08
aesthetically in the same conversation as these high,
35:11
high, high end watches. And the story behind it, in my
35:14
opinion, is better. The relationship you have with
35:16
the brand is fundamentally better.
35:19
And the watch on your wrist will be considered by the right
35:21
people, I think to the people who actually know and not by
35:24
anyone else, which is exactly how for me, I want it.
35:27
Tropic is not the cheapest path to hot horology.
35:29
I don't, I don't claim that they are, but I think if you're
35:32
looking at grail pieces and some people are spending 15 or
35:35
$20,000 on a Rolex, $15,000 for a chopic, in my opinion is is so
35:41
much more of a play for your own heart, not for the envy of other
35:47
people that you don't know. It is, I think in every sense
35:50
that matters, one of the most honest paths you can take in
35:53
this space and in a hobby where it's increasingly dominated by
35:57
hype and wait list and speculation, honest is kind of
36:00
what I'm looking for nowadays. All right, so segment 9, we're
36:04
going to talk about what's next. I hope.
36:06
I hope that this Tropic episode was interesting to you.
36:08
We'll see. I guess we'll get some feedback
36:10
on it. So next episode, we're going to
36:11
do another deep dive in a single brand and we're going to do
36:14
something very different. We're going to go to Kalba.
36:16
Kalba. And you're like, what?
36:17
It's a small town in central Germany, Saxony, that almost
36:21
nobody outside of Germany has heard of.
36:22
And in that small town, there's a there's a workshop, it's run
36:25
by a father and son. And there's a brand that I think
36:29
it's one of the most quietly extraordinary in the entire
36:32
world of hot horology. Dornbluth and sun.
36:34
Now you're going to hear it say it's Dornbluth, DORNBLUTH.
36:39
And it's actually pronounced Dornbluth, son.
36:42
Most people say Dornbluth and son.
36:43
And that's how we're going to say it for me because, you know,
36:46
it's my podcast. If Chapek is an independent
36:49
watchmaker with his charisma and storytelling and kind of
36:52
gravitas and a charming kind of exuberant, just full of joy
36:57
life. CEO and owner.
36:59
I think Dornbluth is the independent watchmaker that's
37:02
doing that kind of same stuff but in silence.
37:04
No marketing team, like almost no Instagram presence, almost no
37:09
broader awareness. And yet they make movements by
37:12
hand with a level of finishing that would embarrass brands 10
37:14
times their size. We're to talk about the father
37:17
Dieter and their son Dirk. It's Dirk, but it's actually
37:20
pronounced, I believe, Dirk. Their movements, including the
37:22
legendary 99 caliber series, these just beautiful dials,
37:27
German watchmaking and this tradition that runs through
37:30
glass hoot and Dornbluth and how they're carrying that forward in
37:33
their own kind of quiet way and why you've never heard of
37:36
Dornbluth before and why you probably should know that they
37:38
exist. So that's going to be coming up,
37:40
I guess, next. So that's episode 8 of what's on
37:43
your We Stay Quick favor. If you found this episode
37:45
useful, if the chopic story landed any parts of it, send it
37:49
to one of your friends that needs to hear it.
37:51
Especially for friends sitting on a submarine or wait list and
37:53
they don't know the whole story of independent watchmaking, that
37:56
they could be exploring something different.
37:58
If you've got a chopic and you just want to show me yours,
38:01
that'd be rad because I like to see them, you know, that'd be
38:04
cool. Or if you are looking for an
38:06
online retailer that might be able to source, you want to
38:08
reach out, tell me which models that speak to you.
38:11
Tell me your stories or your brands or anything else or
38:14
things that I messed up or, you know, shoot me a voicemail that
38:17
says, hey, this is how you properly pronounce that French
38:19
word, you dumb, dumb. To Xavier and to the entire
38:23
Tropic team, thank you for the e-mail.
38:25
Thank you for the kind words to my son.
38:26
My kid says hi and the sketches and and the digital renderings
38:31
are still in our fridge. O I'm Wachowski, take care of
38:34
yourselves and wear something good.
38:53
Back in the dust, back in the fire, old brass bones, new
38:58
blood, desire to Peck on the dial.
39:02
Old name, fresh heat lost for a while now back on it's feet.
39:07
You can hear it coming under the skin.
39:11
A little bit dangerous. Let the story begin.
39:15
The Sunday chopping bracelet got the seeds.
39:21
Come back, come back, please. Welcome back.
39:25
We missed you. Back shop as the Bladen twice as
39:29
mad. Shopping, shopping.
39:32
You still got that spot. Shopping, shopping good.
39:36
Right through the dark. Born in the old world.
39:46
Craft in the hands. I'm kept moving.
39:49
But you made a stand. Names got buried under the ears.
39:55
Still the same crowd when it reappears.
39:58
Polished steel. Truth.
40:00
Ghost in the gold. History came back meaner than
40:05
old. Something something bracelet got
40:09
the sea. Something, something.
40:11
Come back. Come back.
40:13
Please. Welcome back.
40:15
We missed you bad shot bad, some blading twice as man shopping,
40:22
shopping. Still got that spot.
40:24
Shopping, shopping. Go right through the dark.
40:43
They tried to leave you out of the frame.
40:46
But legends don't die. They just change their name.
40:49
Now every wrist knows what the mark can mean.
40:53
A little bit classic, A little obscene.
41:00
Stop it, Stop it. Braceley got the seas.
41:04
Stop it. Stop it.
41:05
Come back. Come back.
41:07
Please. Welcome back.
41:09
We missed you back jump as a blade and twice as mad.
41:14
Something something you still got that spot.
41:18
Something something go right through the dark.
41:45
From pocket tourists the tail still lives.
41:48
Tiny clocks with big time myths. Gold in the rain, steel in the
41:52
flame. Every scar remembers a name.
41:55
Watch stories, watch stories. History on your skin.
42:00
Watch stories, watch stories. Drama spun within little wheels.
42:17
Sailors ring a midnight deal, a wedding thing passed hand to
42:22
hand across the land. Now every face leaves a mark in
42:25
the band, a Watch stories, watch stories.
42:29
History on your skin. Watch stories Watch stories
42:34
Drama spun within. Little wheels.
42:37
Big stories ticking through the years.
42:42
Watch stories. Watch stories turn the page.
42:45
Come near. Old hands, new hands, one small
42:49
frame. Different lives, same heartbeat
42:51
game. Tell me more.
42:53
Open that door. I want the next story on code.
42:57
Watch stories. Watch stories.
43:02
History on your skin. Watch stories.
43:06
Watch stories. Drama spun within.