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Benjamin Clymer and Jeffery Fowler on Hodinkee · Masters in Business

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: This is Master's in Business with Barry rid Hoolds on
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: This week on the podcast, I have a pair of
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: extra special guests. Ben Klember took an buyout offer from
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: UBS in two thousand and eight, right in the middle
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: of the financial crisis, and said, I know what I'm
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: gonna do. I'm gonna launch a site about watches, which
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: has been my hobby and see where this goes. And
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: that was fifteen years ago and it's turned into one
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  Speaker 2: hundred million dollar business with incredible investors and just a
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: huge brand on the Internet. Jeff Fowler has been CEO
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: of the company for just about two years. This really
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: is a fascinating discussion. First, if you're interested in watches,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: it's amazing to talk to guys who have known so
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: much and are so plugged into what's going on in
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the industry and really are right in the middle of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: what's become a speculative boom in time pieces. But also
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: this is a story of starting a small media outlet,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: a small web presence, and recognizing that there's business potential
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: here and how to slowly grow that into something that's substantial.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: How do you hire people, how do you go out
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: and find investors. When do you do that? When do
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: you take this to the next level? When do you
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: as founders and CEO say hey, I need somebody who
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: can scale this and I'm going to step back and
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: become chairperson and bring in a professional CEO to run
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the site. So there are a lot of different ways
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: to look at this. I found the conversation to be
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: absolutely fascinating. I could have gone for another two hours
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: with no further ado my conversation with Hodinky's Ben Klember
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and Jeff Fowler's let's talk a little bit about how
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: a blog becomes a business. I know a little bit
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: about that. Twosand and eight you launched a blog after
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: you leave UBS in the midst of the financial crisis.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, first, what were you doing at UBS? So I
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: was basically the lowest of the low man on totem poles.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I was twenty four. I was working at UBS in
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: wealth management. And it's funny, actually, before I even get
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: into that, coming to Bloomberg is actually my favorite place
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to go because it is the only location that I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: visited pre hoad Inky and post hod Inky. Oh really so, actually,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: when I used to visit here, your systems used to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: pull up the original photograph ever taken of me as
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a guest, and it was me at twenty four years old,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: no beard, dressed head to toe and Joseph A. Banks. Legitimately,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not dressing that anymore, thankfully, and it was just
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: an amazing flashback. Anytime I come here, I've been here
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a few times for other shows, and so this is
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: one of the few places really in the world that
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: kind of unites my pre hoad inky and present day world.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: That's really interesting. So post Ubs, yes, you're doing this
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: just as a hobby, started as an interest.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Started for fun. So I was a kid. I was
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: in wealth management at Ubs, and this was two thousand
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: and eight when Leven collapsed and the world effectively imploded,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: certainly for people of my age who had no authority
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: at all. I mean, we had no cloud whatsoever in
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a giant company like at Ubs. And they said basically like, look,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: you're probably going to get laid off. Will you take
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: a severance package and get out of here? And I said,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: oh no, what hell? Yeah, absolutely, And keep in mind
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I had nothing. Both my parents are public school teachers.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, I didn't come from a world of luxury
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: or finance or anything like this at all from Rochester,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: which is not anywhere near Westchester, you know, a really
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: dramatically different world. And I said, you know what, like finance,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: this version of finance is just not for me at all.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I always fancied myself a writer. My grandfather, who was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: kind of a mentor not kind of. He was a
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: mentor to me. He was still alive at the time,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and he was an entrepreneur. He gave me his Omega Speedmaster,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: which is a really nice watch, when I was sixteen
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  Speaker 1: years old. Is my only nice watch.
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  Speaker 2: So wait, you're I'm trying to do the math if
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you were twenty four and eight. So you got this
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: watch in two thoy ninety nine.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, around there, I would say.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: And he purchased it twenty thirty years before he.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Actually purchased it. He purchased it in the early nineties.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: It was a later speed Master. He bought it when
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: he was in his probably sixties or seventies, so it
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: wasn't like something he had throughout his entire lif but
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: still it's what I remembered him wearing. And one day
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  Speaker 1: he just literally slid off his wrist and said, I
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: want you to have this, which is unbelievable to me, obviously,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: and that was his daily drug, that was his daily driver.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: That and a gold Rolex Day eight as well, which
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: now my father has. And it was just something so
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: impactful to me. And he was really my hero. I mean,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: he represented something that that I didn't really see much
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: of in Rochester, New York, which was a self made
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: you know, truly self made to a material degree. Was
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: interested in the world, interested in how things are made,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: nice cars, nice watches, et cetera. And had very little
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to do with the cost of things, but really appreciated
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: how things were made. And it was always critical that
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: he made me understand why in Omega would be two
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars instead of two hundred, or Mercedes would be
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: sixty thousand dollars instead of six thousand.
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: But really quite interesting. So so you have this cash
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: out from UBS.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: If you can call it that. I think it was
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: a grand total of around nine thousand dollars, all right
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for me, Hey call it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: One thousand and eight. That was not nothing.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And look, and I was twenty four, I was
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: living with my girlfriend at the time, and so just
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: kind of goofing around. So I'm like to be able
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: to pay my you know, I think my share of
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the rent each month was around nine hundred dollars, so
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: like that paid.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Hey, but your years were almost the year's worth and.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Rent exactly right, so allowed me to take my time
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and write with that. With that time, I ended up
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: freelancing for the likes of GQ for the Financial Times
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: How to Spend It, you know, great really great publications,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: mostly about watches, but other men's lifestyle things, cars, you know, whatever, restaurants.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Ended up applying to journalism school here in the city
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: at Columbia for a master's degree. I went to undergrad
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: for finance and computer science, so dramatically different field, and
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I said, look, I'm going to be in media, and
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I wanted to be a true journalist, like a real
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Bloomberg style journalist. I wanted to do it the right way.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: So I applied to Columbia, somehow got in using my
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: blog about watches as the foundation of my application, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: ended two years of a master's degreeyet at Columbia, while
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: I continued to blog every day about watches.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: And the site was called to Dinky it was.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: It was called Houdinky from the start Hodinky with a
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: y and it means wristwatch in check of all things.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Everyone asked, I'm actually not check, but I was just
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: kind of goofing around and googling Google translating what wristwatch
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: was in different languages, and and you might remember. But
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: like so in two thousand and eight, Google was the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: hottest thing on earth, and Google was like, really kind
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: of it's on its ascent, and the double vowel kind
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of like stuck with me. And another site that launched
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: around the same time had a double vowel, and it's
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: called Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site. So the double vowel,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: for some reason, really was popular with Internet domains.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: You can't get you can't get a domain, right, I
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: literally wrote down what was the inspiration for using the
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: check word for watch? But I know if you go
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: to register a company or haven't forbid register a dot com,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: every word, every two letter, three letter four letter combination
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: has been taken, every common word in the dictionary. Somebody's
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: squatting on. So yet really have to get creative.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we we. I'm still used to saying we
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: as if it was more than me. It was just me.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: But I always used to use the royal weed to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: pretend like we were biggert we are now actually having
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the people here, which they were a huge company you
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't understand. So but back then, even more than that,
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  Speaker 1: I was already a of the tenuous relationship tenus it
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: best relationship that watches and luxury had with the Internet.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: And so the first people to sell watches on the
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  Speaker 1: Internet or even list watches on the Internet were what
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  Speaker 1: we call gray market dealers, guys that had no legal
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: right to sell watches.
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  Speaker 2: So people that we well, I'm guessing eBay was pretty
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: big in the early Absolutely still is eBay is the
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: largest watch strow on Earth.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Oh is that true? Absolutely absolutely, much to the chagrin
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of the Swiss, but it is the largest seller of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: watches on Earth. And look, I mean it's just it's
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: just reality. But I mean, forget eBay. eBay is a
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: real publicly traded you know, has has business practices that
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: we all hold in the high regard. Well, you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: there are other other sellers.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Out let's put a little asterisk on that one big circle.
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  Speaker 1: That's a good one. But the there were a lot
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: of other purveyors of watches that really were not super
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: super ethical folks, little shady a little bit. And so
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the Swiss and the and the Europeans at large were
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: really kind of reticent to to to get involved with
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: watches on the Internet at all, and that includes evening
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: even a covering them. So when I would go to
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Switzerland and say, hey, Rolex Pa Tech, whoever Omega smaller brands,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: can I photograph your watches from write about them? They say, oh,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: you know, we don't really want coverage on the internet. Truly.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: That's how it was like in the early forward tech exactly,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: very forward thinking. There's a famous line that I've told
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in a few other podcasts and a few other stories
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: where a very very prominent i mean one of the
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: most prominent CEOs of one of the largest Swiss luxury
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: groups in the world told me to my face in
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: twenty ten that he thought the internet was for poor people,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that nobody would ever make a buying decision based on
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: anything published on the Internet. And keep in mind, this
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: is what I was doing for a living back.
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  Speaker 2: That's you know, if someone would have said that in
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  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety nineteen ninety five, I would have said, all right,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: their a little backwards looking, but by twenty ten.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Yes, Amazon is immense.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: All these companies had migrated. Jeff, what were you doing
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: in twenty ten?
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: I was working on Louis Vuitton at the time, and
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: it was actually Jeff who said it to me.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, Lesbie, they have a pretty robust online presence.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean at that time it was likely the
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: case that Louis Euton's dot com store, if you want
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: to call their online presence, was likely the biggest store
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: in any of their regions globally, certainly in the US.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Louisviton dot com for the US region was well on
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: its way to becoming the biggest site for any sales
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: for Louis Vuitton. So yeah, was well established at that point.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: But Ben's right, I mean even across the broader luxury
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: categories of fashion shoes. I mean, luxury was late to
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: the game, saw it as more of a branding and
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: marketing activity, and the watch industry in particular was very,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: very late to I think understand the true impact and potential.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Of And when did you first first become aware of
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: this little blog called hode.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I was at LVMH for a number of years,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: mostly with Louis Vuton for the first few years and
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Louis Euton has a watch business and division, and then
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: within lvmhor I moved to Taghoyr, which is a pure
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: watch business within the broader luxury group. It was really
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: kind of in the Taghoyr timeline for me career wise
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: that it became aware of Ben and of Hoodinky, And
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: as he stated earlier, in my mind, Houdinky was this
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: huge operation. It was, you know, dozens of writers and
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: journalists simply because the influence that they already had at
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: that point, this is twenty twelve twenty thirteen, was enormous
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: in the industry. There would always be someone from Hoodinky
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: at a precedent or press junket.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: The site was getting a huge amount of appeal and
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: building a community. So we were well aware of their impact.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: But I hadn't met Ben yet. I was heading up
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: retail for Tag Hoyer for North America, so I was
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: sort of traveling around from market to market, store to store.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I was very aware of Hudinky's impact.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: So I'm going to jump to the end of the
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: story and then we'll backfill what took place between eight
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: and twenty twenty two. You join as CEO last year.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: How did that transition take place and why were you
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: excited about stepping into the chairman's role.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: So for me, Hoodinky has been my life's work truly.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have a child now, but I kind
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: of think of it as my firstborn. And you know,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: like any child, you know, things tend to grow up
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and mature. And I think, you know, if there's one
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: thing i can say about myself, it's that I'm acutely
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: aware of my strengths and weaknesses. And as my strengths
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: are that I've got the vision, the idea. I think.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: I think I'm a solid writer. I've got, you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the creative mind to to build something that other people
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: wouldn't see. If I may say, where I'm not super strong,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: honestly is running a business at scale constitution is tough,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: sure is to come to find out, you know. And
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: so you know, when we closed our Series B in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty, which as you mentioned, include lvmh in in
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: a minority share, there's no there's no majority holder. Just
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to be clear, TCG, Tom Brady, Tony Fidel, John Mayer.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, like all these mean, that's a crazy list.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: That's a crazy people don't know who Tony Fiddell is.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: He is essentially the guy who created the iPod and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: then said I need to do something out and then
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: goes out and creates nests. Yes exactly, I mean talk about.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: A design you know, legacy, amazing.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: He's he's a legend, and he's of all the people
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: in my in professional life that is mentor, he would
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: be the one. And actually it was he who decided,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: or he who influenced me not to sell the business.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I had the opportunit need to sell the business in
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, and he said, do not sell this thing.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Let me help you raise money. So he actually invested
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: as early as to us.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: And I know from having seen him on talking watches. Yeah, exactly,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: he's been a watch geek forever because the you know,
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: it's funny, we briefly touched upon what your grandfather said,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: but the elements of design and precision craftsmanship come together
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: and watch in a way very few things do. Perhaps
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: the iPod and nest are good example.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: That's exactly that, and so so Tony Fidel. A guy
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: named Kevin Rose who sorted dig and is now in NFTs.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: He was actually he stepped in and invested as well,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and was actually our CEO for a while. Tony Conrad,
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: who's big and trueventures he did Peloton and Blue Bottles
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: really great, you know Silicon Valley names that were all
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: friends and we all kind of connected. They all kind
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: of helped me shepherd in this new version of what
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Hodingki could be, which was that of a retailer and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: that of somebody who had this amazing influence. Editorially speaking,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: we had done limited editions where we designed them. I'm
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: actually wearing one right now. Let's say this is an
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: IWC that we did, sure, so you know, this is
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a seven thousand dollars watch. We did five hundred sold
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: out and I think four minutes. Wow. So you know
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: it was it was with their help and their product
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that we said, hey, this could be something much bigger
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: than I don't want to say just an editorial platform,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: but we can do real content to commerce. And that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: was really not a model that existed anywhere.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about that. I want to loop Jeff
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: into this part of the conversation. So you start out
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: as essentially a non professional media outlet, evolve into a
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: media outlet, and then eventually add e commerce when you
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: think about Hodinky today, and I'll direct this to Jeff
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: who joined in twenty twenty two, is it media first?
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Is it e commerce? Or is there no bright line
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: between the.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I get that question often, and in
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: fact I get that question often even from new joiners
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: to Hoodinky people that have come aboard. Perhaps it's that
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: we've hired them into the commercial side of the business.
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: Perhaps we've hired them into the editorial side of the business.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: And it's not long before they ask, well, which one
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: are we are?
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: We?
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: Are we an editorial sort of content business? Are we
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: a commercial business that sells things? And I sort of
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: reject the premise that it has to be an or
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: rather than an end. But I think it's the end
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: aspect that really makes us unique, that really sets us
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: apart as a pioneer. And I'm going to quote actually
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: someone totally not connected to our business, but recently at
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: a conference for CEOs tech executives, the global president of
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Shopify was speaking and was on stage and behind him
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: in his slideshow, he presented the logo of Hodinky, and
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: a friend of ours was in the audience. It was
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: quick on the trigger and pulled up his phone and
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: recorded you know this otherwise private conversation happening with CEOs,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: and the gentleman from Shofai said, does anyone know who
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Hodinky is?
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: And what year was this? This was last year.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: I remember we're talking maybe six months ago. They don't
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: know who Hoadinky is. A bunch of hands I presume
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: got you know, put in the air because we were
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: just listening to the audio. Says for those who aren't aware,
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: if you want to watch, talk to me later. And
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: then he proceeded to say, Hodinky is the greatest watch
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: retailer on the planet. Here's why, And he said they
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: spent the first better part of ten years just writing
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: about watches, just pursuing the knowledge of watches, furthering the
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: knowledge of watches, building a huge community, and then and
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: only then did they start to actually sell things, at
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: which point there was a captive audience of people ready
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: to convert, which you know, at the end of the
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: day is really important if you're running an e commerce business,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: you know, conversion is the key to all of that.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: And I think, you know, we and again we get
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: asked this often is like, you know, are you editorial
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: or commercial? Isn't there a conflict. Isn't there some sort
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: of like mixed sort of motives there, And we reject
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: the premise. Again, we simply say, we write about things
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: that we love, we sell things that we love, and
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: in some ways this there's an intellectual honesty to that.
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: You know, there's there's editorial choices being made at every stage,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: whether it's on the content side, whether it's on the
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: commercial side, and it just so happens that a content
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: to commerce model, if done effectively, is an incredibly efficient model.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: A little secret.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: We don't sort of always say this, but something that
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: we love to brag about is there wasn't until twenty
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: twenty one that Hodinki spent its first dollar on marketing, right,
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: A lot of businesses have to spend a ton of
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: their revenue on marketing in order to get that next
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: customer in the door. Really is the editorial side of Hootinky,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: That really is what gets people interested, keeps them interested,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: keeps them engaged. For many people, it's their daily read
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: on their morning commuter, their afternoon commute, you know, And
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: that's really the secret, the secret sauce.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and just to put just quickly, to put a
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: fine point on that, just add further context. So Jeff
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: is exactly right. We hadn't spent a dollar marketing, and
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: literally not a dollar on marketing until April of twenty
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: twenty one when we heard it for CMO. We were
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: doing about thirty million dollars a year in revenue at
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that point. So we've gotten from zero to thirty million
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: dollars a year roughly, you know, give or take without
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a dollar spent on acquisition costs. Wow, that's impressive.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: So since you mentioned the media focus on what you
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: really love, let's talk about what you guys write about.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: It's often about the history and the narrative surrounding a
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: specific watch, the brand, the background why a watch is important,
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: even if you don't like it, here's why it's significant.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: There's a lot.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: I mean, obviously I'm a fan for a long time,
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: but discussing the in depth background of each watch. When
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: you started doing that, yeah, I mean other than a
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: p industry professional red a trade publication, nobody was doing
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: anything like that online.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. And I think if there's one
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: thing that I'd say we got right early, which was
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: this the idea of taking this thing that really could
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: be perceived as pretentious or complicated or certainly expensive, you
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: can't deny that, and explaining it in a way that
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: is incredibly digestible for the average guy like you or
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: me or a Jeff, and also doing it online in
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: a broadcast mechanism. There were some people discussing the finer
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: points of high and watch making inforums, but you had
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: to register the comments, I moderated. If you weren't part
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: of the gang, you basically had no cloud at all.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: And I said, that just doesn't feel democratic at all,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Like I love this stuff in such a sincere way.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I want to basically share what I'm learning to as
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: many people as possible, and then people can read it
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: or not, they can comment or not. That's okay, and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I think that is really what made us different from
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: everyone else. And we did it in a way that
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: was style. And something that I've always really focused on
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: is ensuring that the presentation of our of our media
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: is really beautiful. And so the first dollars I ever
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: spent at Hodinky were to actually have double engraved business cards,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: which literally cost me thousands of dollars. We were exactly
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: you know, back in the day when business you.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Got that nice nine thousand dollar ubs exactly.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: I've probably spent a third of it on business cards, truly,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: But this idea of like presenting something that was just
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: so much more thoughtful than anyone else out there. And
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: yes we were a blog, and yes we had a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: silly name, and yes we were online, but I cared
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: in such a way that was so different than everybody else.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: And a lot of the journalists, and certainly not here
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: at Bloomberg, but elsewhere in the world, a lot of
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: journalists in the luxury space are there for the good wine,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: the pretty girls or guys, the free travel sometimes on
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: these junk kids, and these amazing experiences. And I get that, like,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to knock people that are there for that.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I wasn't. I didn't know that existed. I wasn't there
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: for any of that. I was there for the product
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: and there to share the product with as many people
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: And full disclosure, Bloomberg republishes ho dinky columns on occasion
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: it goes incas Yes, in the Wealth or Pursuits section
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: of Bloomberg. I didn't mention that earlier, but I want
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: everyone to understand you and I have never met before
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: the strictly in armslong conversation, but there is a relationship
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: between Bloomberg and Hodinky. But let me go back to
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: spending three thousand dollars on business cards on a zero
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: like of course, law, when did it dawn on you
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: that hey, this is could be a business and maybe
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: generate a profit.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, I mean early on we had advertisers, and
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: back then, I mean the cost of running hoodinky was
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: my time, which was effectively free, and then hosting fees
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: on squarespace and elsewhere. So we'll say, what we're using
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: for software was so tip it or Tumbler for the
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: first six months, and then Space and Squarespace, and I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: love those guys. They were really instrumental to the growth
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of Hordinky allowed me to design my own website in
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine till probably twenty twelve or thirteen
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: when we got a professional upgrade and really like without
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: them and the interface that we put forward and everybody
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: was using WordPress and other you know other a really
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: frankly more rudimentary at the time products and Squarespace. Squarespace
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: was incredible, I mean really allowed. It was almost like
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: Shopify in a way, like really open up a whole
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: new world to me to to preduce something that was
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: really beautiful.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: What were you using before square space tumbler? All right,
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: so let me explain how old I am sure when
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: I launched my blog it was on GeoCities, which means
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: that you had to do HTML coding. You learn and
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: when six apart came out with uh, I'm sorry, is
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: it movable type came out with trying to remember the name.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Of it, I can't even remember anymore. Uh.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Six apart was a movable type where it was old
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: wizzywig where you didn't have to code indent or pictures
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: or wait, I could just drag a picture there. This
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: is astonishing.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: So you went from an hour of writing in two
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: hours of coding to an hour of writing and five
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: minutes of formatting it was that was three Yeah, that
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: was a game changer. So when you go from four
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: space to whatever was next, what we're using is.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: The So we were in squarespace until probably twenty we
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: did a super custom version of scareespace and just on background,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: I was a coder like I in high.
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: School graduated, I said, you were college finance.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: So I was doing I was banging out coat for
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a good chunk of time there in college and before
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: I built my first website when I was probably fourteen,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: so you know, it was something that that I really
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: took a lot of pride in. And then in twenty
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: thirteen fourteen, an agency that that actually Jeff knows what
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: called Wondersauced a great name, I know, they approached us
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and said, hey, we love what you're doing. Your content
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: is unreal, like, can we help redesign your site? And
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I was like, I don't have any money, but sure,
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: you know, And it was this probably twenty twelve.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: Okay, at that point in the nine thousand zeverance was gone.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Right, so four years later it was long but yeah,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: so taking a step back. So we we hadn't been
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: making money with advertising, and advertisers came quickly because we
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: had represented we represented.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Anybody else was in that space.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: You had it to yourself all online. And on top
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of that, our audience was wrapped. I mean, audience was
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: obsessed with what we were doing. The young and they
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: were They might not be wealthy now, but they probably
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: they probably were going to be, you know, And so
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: we had average Our first big advertiser was Automarpi Gay
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: We had Ptec as a no kid. We had Rolex
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: as an advertiser, frankly in a different way than we
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: do now. Even it was really special because we weren't
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: selling anything. We were just there to promote the industry.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: And what change for me was after a few years
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: of making a good living and I own the whole thing,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: so it was like a nice little living for me.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, like, I'm getting these emails that person
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: X or woman why is buying this protect filip or
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Rolex whatever because of the content we're creating And here's
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the proof, Like, here's an email, And I would take
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: that to brand X and I would say, hey, isn't
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: this cool? Do you guys want to advertise more? And
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: they say, oh, no, we're good, But like you want
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: to come to per Se for dinner? And I was like,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: per Se is lovely, but like you know, that doesn't
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: that doesn't pay for my rent, It doesn't allow me
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: to grow this business. And I said, man, our audience
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: is really special. And we started doing these surveys, internal
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: surveys where hey, what do you want from Hoodinki? The
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: number one response every single time to this day is
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: for Hoodinki to sell things. Because they trust us.
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: Really very interesting. I'm intrigued by how you guys have
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: grown own. I'm familiar with a few parallel stories, but
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know of anybody that's taken it to the
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: level that that Hodinky has.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: I appreciate that.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Ben Kleimber is the founder of odinky, one of the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: world's most fascinating and well read watch sites. Jeff Fowler
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: is the company CEO. A couple of years ago they
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: launched whodinky shop is what its current name is. I
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: don't know if it was called something else.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: It's Hodinky. I mean the shop was, you know, it
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: was basically, you know, to get into breast haacks. It
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: was a subdomain powered by Shopify, so we did shop
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: at hoodinky dot com. But it's hodinky.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: It's all one company, all right, and it now does
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: sells over one hundred million dollars worth of watches, which
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: is not too shabby. So so let's talk a little
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: bit about the wacky world of watch retailing, starting with
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: why can't I walk into a Rolex shop or a
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: bushera Tourneau or any retailer and say, Hey, that Daytona
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: is pretty nice, and that Batman Jubilee bracelet. Let me
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: take those too. Why can't we do that?
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, the simple answer is just supply and demand.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: You know, there's well more demand than there is supply
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: of these products brand new at retail. You know, it's
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: estimated that Rolex produces around a million watches something like that. Yeah,
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: give it, give or take a million watches a year.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: No one knows the real answer for exactly how many
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: they could sell if they had, you know, the amount
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: of supply to meet demand. But it's got to be
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: in the millions, so you naturally get this issue of constraint.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: I don't believe it's a managed constraint. I don't think
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: it's one where they're like intentionally trying to come some
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: million units under the demand. But of course, like you know,
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: only Rolexs would be able to answer that question at
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: the end of the day. Scaling up in this industry
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: is not terribly easy. I mean, you know, they're roll handmade,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: They're very intricate. Some of the nicer watches are five hundred,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: seven hundred nine hundred teeny tiny little pieces. Yeah, and
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: I often say that, you know, leading aside of the
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: brand on the dial of the watch, the most important
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: thing on the dial of a Swiss mechanic watches these
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: two tiny words Swiss made usually around the six o'clock marker.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: And for that to be the case, it's got to
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: be totally manufactured, assembled, quality controlled. Every step of the
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: process is to take place in Switzerland. And I'm sure
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: you visited Switzerland then, and I have been there many times.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: I have, it's on my list.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: It is a teeny tiny country, right, It's like I
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: always say, for most parts of Switzerland, if you just
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: pick up your eyes and look at their eyes, and
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: you're probably looking.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: At another country.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: You know, the tiny villages in the mountains, you know
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: the historical you know, cradle of watchmaking is all there,
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: and a lot of people in those parts of the
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: country are affiliated to the watchmaking industry. But they're making
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: one tiny subcomponent, teeny tiny part, and it all comes
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: together in one glorious supply chain that ultimately becomes these watches.
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: But it isn't as though you can just scale that.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Up very quiet and to put some flesh on the bones.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: So if Rolux is doing a million million, two Paddock
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: is doing sixty thousand, Yeah about that, And Lango is
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: doing five thousand, Yeah, five six seven in that right,
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: I mean are just insane numbers. Yes, it's seven thousand
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: of anything is Yeah, you know that. That's how many
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: must and convertibles sell. Yeah, that's and good good luck
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: get it. They cost about the same. You could walk
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: into a Ford dealer in order must end convertible. You
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: can't walk into a language now. To be fair, a
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: lot of these places they're like perpetual calendars that are
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: a buck fifty. You could probably go in and get one, yeah,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: if you, if they like you, maybe maybe, And I
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: like those seem to be more available than the Yeah.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: Look I think that the average I mean just to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: get you know, the Rolex question is one we get
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a lot obviously because every guy in the street. Look,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I love Rolex, I own several, but everybody when you.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: Were a UBS, did you notice that, like every kind
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: of shady stockbroker had a Submarner. Yes, I mean I
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: know everybody loves that. I have a problem with that
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: watch because I just associate it with you know, junk
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: stocks and heart selling.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that, and like the whole like used
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: car salesman guy where it's like that has that has
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: dissipated quite a bit, and now people want Rolexes.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: You know, when I was, well, they're not the Rolex,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: just the sub mariners got it. Like the senior guys
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: had gmts and Daytona's, but the junior guys all were
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: wearing subs and people kind of looked a stancy.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: He used to be able to go in and get
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: it whenever you said, yeah, exactly. And the world has
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: just changed. And look, I would never take or we
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: should not take all the credit. But like sites like
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: ours change the demand flow in such a way that
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Rolex or any brand just couldn't keep up with it.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: And then COVID everything changed, you know, Dict Covid, Covid.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: We'll talk a little bit about Covid, but so let
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: let's talk about a couple of other smaller brands. I'm
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: a fan of some of the h. Moser and Company.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Grooble four S seems to have exploded. NB and F
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: is next level Jacob and Company. Yeah, and that's before
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: we get to artisans, the Geneva who have decided give
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: us your Rolex and we'll slap one hundred thousand dollars
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: worth of labor on it and make it one of
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: a kind. Like this sort of thing start in the
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: car industry on a very very small level. You can
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: personalize your car, put stripes on it. But to take
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: a thirty thousand dollars Rolex and turn into a six
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: figure product pretty amazing.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, Rolex is should be viewed differently than
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: almost every other watch brand market shared to the giant.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: I mean in the US they're one half of all
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: luxury watches, is that true?
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: I know, globally it's twenty something, and.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: It's just enormous in this country. And you know, look,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: there are big if you go to India, if you
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: go to Asia, there are brands such as Omega, Launjeans,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: et cetera that that could rival Rolex in terms of popularity.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: But in the US, this is Rolex country for sure.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: But they are they should be viewed separately from almost
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: everybody else in the industry. As I said, the demand
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: mechanism that they have is just so robust. It's like
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: people don't even know why they want a Rolex, they
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: just do. And almost no other brand in the luxury
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: space and watch his car as anything really benefits from that.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: So quick funny story, I have a guest a couple
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: of months ago, and he's wearing a reverse Panda, which
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: is the Daytona chronograph with the white face and the
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: black dials. And I don't remember what I was wearing.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Was probably my my yacht Master is my daily driver.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: And I just happened after we'd done, I happened to
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: mention it to him, and he said, about twenty years ago,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: when we first launched the firm, him and his partner
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: got one and then went to their local ad and said,
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: I need thirty of these.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: This is twenty years ago.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: And there why he goes every time we make someone
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: a partner, we give them a daytime.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like talk about it was a good investment.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: By the way, he's in private equity, he's got a
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: good talk about spotting value before anybody else did.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: But that sort of thing could never happen.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Well, no, Barry, you don't have to go that far
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: back in time to get to a moment where it
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: was possible to go into many of the brands you
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: just named and asked for a discount. I don't watch
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: how they have it available. You'd be able to get
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: it for a discount ten years ago, five.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: Years ago, I mean, if you're talking about MBNF Moser
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: three years ago, pre COVID.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was looking at the torb On and the
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: Mosar and just couldn't wrap my head around the price,
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: and I couldn't pull the trigger. And now I regret it.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: Not because I'm a flipper. Every watch I've ever bought
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: I still have unless I've given it away, but just
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: the thought of like, oh, I'd love to have that
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: for half of what that's gone for.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, once you break that, this is going to sound awful,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: but here we are. You know, once you break one
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars market, it becomes a lot easier. Do
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: it once and you can do all the time.
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: A lot of demand, limited supply. I couldn't help but
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: see Bloomberg headline last week Rolux and Protect investment beats
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: S and P five hundred gains over the past five years.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: In other words, if you went out and bought a
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: bunch of rollies and a couple of paddocks, you outperform
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: the market. Is this what's driving the speculation in the
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: watch industry.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I think it's part of it.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: And again I think to really trace the history what
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: got us here, you'd have to go back to again.
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: You know, if I may say, sites like cud inky
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: that really helped to kind of encourage more curiosity about
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: this industry, build a community of people, more and more
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: of whom are interested in this in this product category.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: I think you can can't ignore the impact of the
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: Apple Watch, if I may say, I mean this was
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: why is that? Well, this was meant to have been
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: the nail and the coffin of the mechanical watch.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: So let's let's back that up a little bit, because
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: I like where you're going with this so quartz crisis.
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: You had all these cheap Japanese quartz watches using to
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: maintain battery precise to seconds a year. And why do
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: I need a complex, expensive mechanical watch when I get
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: a cheap.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: Oh, we've seen we've seen this story before. This was
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: meant to have been the end of the Swiss the
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: mechanical watch industry in particular. Obviously, you know there there
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: were some incredibly talented, committed executives at that time, any
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: of whom are in particular you want to mention anything
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: the one who probably gets and maybe deserves a must
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: graviouldn't you grade is probably Jean lab there, Nick Kayak
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: as well, you know.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: The designer of the uh Autemar Piget Oak and the.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Jarl.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: Jenta has to get a lot of credit for saving
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: the watch industry, right is yeah, where do you put
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: these three guys in?
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: If I got in? Yeah, it slightly different. So Jenta
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: was early nineteen seventies and he was just a designer.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: So it's like saying, hey, like, design me a coffee cup.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Here's a coffee cup. That's it. We're done now. You
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: know what Ap and Petak and others did with Genta's
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: design is really what allowed them to kind of continue
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to grow. But I think what what Jeff is referring
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: to is really a decade later when courts really kind
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of came in, and to be clear, courts won. Like
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: if you look at how many watch probably ninety nine percent, right,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: So just to be clear, like courts won. That doesn't
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: mean that this that the Swiss didn't have its own
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: little kind of pocketive influence and pocket of growth growth potential.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: But as Jeff is saying, Jean club Beaver, who revived
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: blan Pond and then Omega in the nineties, he was
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: the first one to sign James Bond and Sydney Crawford
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to Omega. Huge deal, mister Hyak who designed the Swatch, right,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: I mean that is a Swiss made watch for back
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: then was probably what twenty five probably yeah, thirty.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Bives and that's a giant right. People collected them like
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: beanie babies.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Swash in the eighties was as big than anything today.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: I mean just cannot be kind of surmised or can
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: really understood today here, Swatch in the eighties was everything.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: It's because they turned watches into fashion.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Exactly exactly that you still have a few tricks up.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: Their sleeve, right, Well, we just saw what they did
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: with Omega, had.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: People lining up around the block to get to get
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: a watch.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: We've done five collaborations with Swatch, right, I mean Judikia,
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: We've collaborated with Amez, with Laika, with Omega. I mean really,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: you know, high end brands, and we did with Swatch.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: And the guys that are buying our sixty thousand dollars
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: of astron or whatever are also buying our swatches.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Really absolutely so, I totally get the appeal of Asiko
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: for three, four or five six hundred dollars you get
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: a really well made watch. Question that looks pretty good,
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: tells pretty good time. And if one of your nephews
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: says something, oh you like it here, Yeah, it's not.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: It's I don't know if I would do that with this,
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: but I certainly would do that with anything from Seiko,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: even some of the nicer divers that are experienced. But
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Swatch always, maybe it's my age, watch always struck me
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: as kind of like a fun fashioning not a serious
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: time people.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, first of all, Swatch owns Blanc Pond, Brigue, Omegan.
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: Oh the company I'm talking about the Schwatch watch exactly.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: The company is massive.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: I would argue though that does it does it need
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: to be something complicated, in something serious, because for some
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: people that gets in the way of just the enjoyment
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: of wearing the watch.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, I'm aware when I wear a
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: very nice watch, I'm aware. Oh gee, am I going
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: to get on the subway with this?
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Very true, very true. We'll talk about what AP
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: is doing.
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, with a Swatch, he probably wouldn't have that concern
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: for sure. And I think you know there we talked
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: about Gerald Genta, I mean his impact was surely from
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: the design angle he's watched. One thing they've done incredibly
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: well is just design great looking watches and design watches
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: for different people with different appeals. It was in Paris
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: recently they did a really cool collaboration with Cafe to Floor.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: We've talked about the Moon Swatch. I mean, ours our
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: beautiful watches and are the ones that we've collaborated with
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: Swatch on. So design something to watch is no firm.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: For some people, it's a it's fashion, you know, it's
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: something that they put on in their part.
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about the Apple Watch. Yeah, when when
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: the Apple Watch comes out and it starts just selling
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: crazy numbers, what was going on in Geneva?
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: What would people think? They were terrified and really like
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: here we go again, Oh my god. I mean it
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: was the end of the end of time, right and
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: in full transparency, I was consultant on the Apple Watch,
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: like I helped. I helped them and Johnny I was
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: on our second cover of our magazine. I mean, well,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: and so you know, I'm a lover of Apple Like
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: I was just a designed guy. The guy who's spending
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: money on business cards when he had no money, Like
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: what Apple does is just remarkable. So it was honored
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: to work on that project. And so I was actually
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: the only person from the watching industry to attend the
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: launch of the original Apple No kidd. And that story
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: that I wrote, which was totally unbiased, Like even though
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: I helped kind of work on it, it was like
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: what they were doing with the Apple Watch in terms
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: of materials and in terms of the way that the
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: bracelets snapped on and off. I mean like it was
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: miles ahead of Switzerland, miles and these things were four
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars and that really really terrified the Swiss. And
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: the Swiss are there there. They can be persnickety, for sure,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: and they really thought that anybody that was supporting the
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Apple Watch was an enemy, including us for a time,
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: No kid, truly and we we still to this day.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: So Apple Watch more were proud to sell it. But
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: it really got people to think about the wrist as
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: real estate again, which they had not gone in a decade.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: The wrist as real estate. Yeah, huh, that's really interesting.
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: So I noticed you're not wearing an Apple Watch, not today,
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: and you're not wearing an app I was this weekend.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: I consider it a great privilege to not be notified
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: about anything.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Like to me, to me an Apple watch, an Apple watches.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Wait, I'm tied into I'm getting Slack notifications, I'm getting
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Twitter notifications, I'm getting email and text leave me at
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: the long Yeah.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's kind of get it.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people that you know,
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: if they lost their roll ups, they'd be upset, but
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: they couldn't go a day without their look, their Apple.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: The Apple Watch, you can make whatever you want it
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: to be. So I wear it solely when I go
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: to the gym and when I play off, that's it.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: That's the only time that I wear Historically, I used
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: to win a few versions ago. I had one that
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: was selled, and I would leave my phone at home
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: when I would go driving, and I might need a
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: vintage car to kind of escape. But so I use
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: it for two things, working out and really working out,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and that's it's But I do not have notifications of emails, texts,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: et cetera. It's really for me giving input to it.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: How many steps did I take, what kind of calories
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: have I burned? Et cetera.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: And you you don't want to wear a nice watch
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: when you're golfing anyway, because the little pistons that hold
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: the face in place will snap if you're wearing a watch,
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: yeah and swimming the golf or good. Yeah, you could
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: always buy a reshard meal. Yeah, I mean that's probably
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: the most responsible thing to do, exactly. You know, we'll
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: get those financially response, get the one, the rough m
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: the dolarwares. Yeah there, but it's on his other hands,
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: isn't it.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: It's not on his uh but but Bubba Watson has
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: his own reshard meal and he wears it every time
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: he plays. No, kidd is it's pink, right, it's pink
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: now is originally white, but yes, funny and a pink
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: three million his was when it launches around six fifty.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: I would guess now probably run a million.
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: Right, So so forget strapping a BMW two your wrist.
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: That's a very nice three bedroom condo. Oh yeah, yes,
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: place two bedroom condo with yeah, yeah, exactly. And you
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: know that not everybody is going to be comfortable, or
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: even the people who can afford it. A lot of
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: people look at Watchnista's for lack of a better word,
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: and like.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: You guys are crazy. Yeah, And I think to some degree.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Everyone that's passionate about anything is a little bit crazy. Sure,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: But I think also if you look at I mean,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the other thing that I'm interested in like you is cars.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: And so if you look at the running costs of
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: a great car, Let's say you buy a car and
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: watch both fifty thousand dollars right right, own it for
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: on them both for ten years, get the ing German
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: for both for ten years, to watch you. Basically, if
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: you want to have insurance, you can. You don't have
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to have a storagees nothing, put it in a drawer,
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: a safety deposit box. Cars, insurance, maintenance, parking cars are
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: so much more expensive you want to maintain as a
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: collectible assets. So it's remarkable and I do both, so
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: I know. But watches they can do so much more
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: than cars.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Eight you're wearing. You're wearing them right now, so am I,
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: so is Jeff.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: And these are things that like these are real almost
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: Housman's for for for people's lives, and so like when
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: my daughter was born in December twenty twenty one, I
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: gave my mother, my mother in law, and my wife
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: a watch each to celebrate the birth of her. And
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: those watches are hers and like, you know, for until
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: until the day that she dies, you know, hopefully long
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: far away, those watches of hers and she'll remember that
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: that these were given, you know, the day that.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: She was a milestone.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: And I think you know the omega that my grandfather
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: gave me. That watch changed my life. I can wear
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: it every day. When my daughter was born, I was
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: wearing that watch. And when I asked my wife to
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: wear to marry me, I was wearing that watch.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: And what'd you get married? In?
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: A ptec A Protect fifty two seventy all right?
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: Because you weren't fooling around. This was a serious that
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: was Yeah, we were not messing around. We were in
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: Rome and yeah, it was. It was.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: It was a good one.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: When you travel, do you travel with multiple watches either?
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it depends on where I'm traveling to. Recently, we're
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: in Geneva for Watches and Wonders, the big international trade
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: show of watches. I think I had nine watches for
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: that event.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: Really so different. Watch twice a day.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, multiple times, multiple watches in this same day. Sometimes,
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: you know, your meeting with a brand partner you want
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: to represent. Sure, sometimes I'll bring one watch if I'm
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: going or two watches usually as a minimum. If I'm going,
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: you know, on a golf trip, I'll bring a watch
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: I wear golfing. I'll bring another watch that's sort of
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: like a daily wear, usually something that can kind of
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: go with different types of looks and outfits and activities.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: But and just for the record, Ben.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Mentioned you know you don't have to ensure what you
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: should ensure your watch, especially if you're traveling with it,
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: especially if you value it. Inside note, we offer insurance
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: hooting and.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk a little bit about that. But
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: as since you brought it up, someone asked me this
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: question the other day. I said, I don't know the answer,
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: but I know the guys that do you have a
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: writer on your home insurance with a number of watches
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: listed you travel with that watch? Is that covered under
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: your homeowner's insurance or do you need to have a
• 40:48
  Speaker 2: separate policy on them.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: There are lots of questions like that that you could
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: ask when discussing how a homeowner's insurance policy could cover
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: the value of a loss or stolen or downage watch.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: I would just say ignore all those questions because, to
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: be honest, the best way to ensure your watch is
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: not to attach it or assign it to your homeowners policy.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Itated Yeah, I mean, we've had stories from people who
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: had to make a claim on a damage or lost
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: watch while it was a part of their homeowners insurance.
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: Then their homeowners insurance got canceled and they couldn't get
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: homeowners insurance. Again, it's just not a situation when we
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: want to find yourself.
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: I total de car at five miles an hour, I
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: got t boned, and I had that exact same thing
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: happen right the homeowners and the umbrella was canceled and
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: you had to scramble to replace it. Because it's easy
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: enough to get homeowners an umbrella is a little more complicated.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. In twenty twenty one, we actually launched our own
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: insurance program that that myself and a job with Job
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: So Chubb is the underwriter, but we conceived this product ourselves.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: This is a totally unique product designed for watch collectors,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: so it has nothing to do with homeowners, nothing to
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: do with anything else. And you can dynamically and really
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: retroactively assign and unassigned insurance attachments to any watch, so
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: like you're out of the house right now, you could
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: ensure that watch when you go home tonight and put
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: in your safe, turn it off, do it all on
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: your phone. And so it's all in the hood Inky app.
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: It's underwritten by chub, so you know, best in class.
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: It's really an amazing thing that truly like, Like I
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: can say, you can critique Codnky for anything you want,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: but our insurance product is better than anybody else's by far.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a look at that.
• 42:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit interest.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: And by the way, you guys did a very nice
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: job on the app.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Oh thank you.
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: I'm still waiting for Bring a Trail at a roll
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: On and I don't.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: And they did a billion.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: Dollars in sales. I sold one hundred thousandth car.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Amazing.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: They definitely need to uh but but this is something
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: you guys were Internet.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: Although so were they?
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah right, didn't they start out as Yeah?
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: So I've known Randy who started Bring a Trailer for
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: ten plus years. We used to do a column called
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: bring a Loop that was very much inspired by Bring
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: a Trailer. Know those guys super well. I mean they've
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: done amazing things that abstoually sold to hurst in look
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Covid and good on them. I mean they've they've got
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: a great thing going. I mean, they really you know,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: we admire a lot about what they do. I know
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: that they admire a lot about what we do, but
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: they've been able to to really own the collectible car
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: category in an amazing way.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: You guys talk about what you were doing during the pandemic.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: I know a lot of people with streaming Netflix, bring
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: a trailer and ho dinky is what kept me occupied out?
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, and you know, to the detriment of my
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: bank account, but to the betterment of my wrist and garage.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: So it was. And I mean I was into this
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: sort of stuff long before, but it's just amazing.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: How gee, I'm not commuting.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: I'm getting so much work done from home in my pajamas, unshowered.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: We had a rule in our house you had a
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: shower once a week, whether you need to or not.
• 43:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, it was just you know, and occasionally get
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: out of your pajamas. But it was just really easy
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: to say, I'm done with everything, now let me wordle
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: and then oh dinky, and then bring a trailer. It
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: was it kept everybody entertaining, all right. So let's talk
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: a little bit more about retailing. You launched the shop
• 43:59
  Speaker 2: in twenty twelve. You're now doing one hundred million plus
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: in revenue. Yep, congrats, that's a real number. It is.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you, But you guys are also expanding that you
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: bought Crown and Caliber and tell us a little bit
• 44:11
  Speaker 2: about the thinking of behind the purchase. Yeah.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: So twenty twelve, the first Shopify site was set up
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: to sell some straps and related accessories. At the time,
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: I think Ben and the team would would pop up
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: at occasional you know men's men's wear flea markets things
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: like that were always sort of like scrappy and you know,
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: trying to connect you know, lovers of watches with products
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: that they love. Limited editions, as Ben mentioned, was a
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: big push towards the commercial side. That was around twenty fifteen.
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: The first watches. The first one was was a Max
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: buser Watch MBNF, so beautiful, beautiful, limited edition collection. And
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: then it wasn't until twenty seventeen. And I say twenty
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: seventeen I emphasized that because that's not that long ago
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: that Hoodinky was the first online only authorized retailer of watches.
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: So that, yeah, that reticence to kind of move online
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: and really see online as a channel as a commercial channel.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: I mean that that that sort of ail wasn't pierced
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: until twenty seventeens. And Hoodinky was really the trailblazer, launched
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: with eight brands as authorized retail partners up and now
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: we're up to about forty brands, so, you know, not
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: a nice list of brands, it's a great list of brands.
• 45:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know for some of them where they're
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: only online authorized partners, so Arimez, Apple, Omega. You know,
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: for those three brands, the only other retailer besides themselves
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: who sells their watches as an online only channel is Hoodinky.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: But then Omega is probably second second substantial oh yeah,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: substantial watch elo with hundreds of models, it seems.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: Ye oh yeah. I'm look, they sponsor the Olympics, they
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: sponsored James Bond. I mean this is a global, global brand. Yep.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: So, but at that point in time, Hoodinky is still
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: new watches, limited edition projects, which you're not doing them
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: every week or sometimes not even every month. We do
• 45:49
  Speaker 3: about a dozen a year. Uh, And then vintage watches,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: which you know, there's always a market for collectors who
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: want a vintage watch. Really a one of one define
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: vintage typically defined US a watch that's before nineteen nineties.
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Okay, you know when.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Did the modern US watches start showing up on hote King?
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: When did you decide to do modern use?
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that would be the pre owned category as
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: pre owned distinct from vintage, and that they're both pre
• 46:12
  Speaker 3: owned technically, but vintage will be nineteen nineties and before, yeah,
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: and pre owned would be you know again, a modern
• 46:18
  Speaker 3: IT eighty could actually be a watch that someone else
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: has just purchased and is flipping. They've never worn it.
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: It's in its.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: Original box with original papers. That was with the purchase
• 46:28
  Speaker 3: of Crown and Caliber, which was the business that we
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: acquired that you mentioned. That was in February twenty twenty one.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, looking back as an outsider, I
• 46:35
  Speaker 3: was not involved with the business at that time. An
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: incredibly shrewd decision because basically online at this point, you
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: still have very very few brands that have meaningfully moved
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: their new watch sales online, some not at all. So
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Rolex doesn't sell online, ap doesn't sell online, Paddock doesn't
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: sell online. Even authorized dealers of those watches are not
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: allowed to sell the watches online. You can see the
• 46:56
  Speaker 3: reference information. Then it will say visit a retailer, and
• 46:59
  Speaker 3: then and a local retailer. The only way you can
• 47:02
  Speaker 3: buy those watches online is to buy them pre owned
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: and pre owned, which you know, as Ben mentioned earlier,
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: used to be quite a wild West sort of shady
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: business online certainly not something that you would kind of
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: you wouldn't use catchwords like trust or authority or authenticity.
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: It was really kind of buyer beware situations. The online channel,
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: you know, really had a lot of opportunity to be
• 47:23
  Speaker 3: cleaned up. And I would say that Crown and Caliber,
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: a business that's been around now for a decade or so,
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: is one of those business that was doing a very
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: good job of playing the game in a clean way.
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: They were buying the watches that they were selling, taking
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: ownership of those watches, which I think says a lot
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: because it means that they were willing to vouch for
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: those watches in terms of their authenticity, the quality. They
• 47:42
  Speaker 3: had invested in a true watch shop in Atlanta, Georgia,
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: where the business was found in its base. So you have,
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: you know, watchmakers who have graduated from the likes of
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: the Rolex School watchmaking, the Reachmont Technical Center in Dallas,
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: Texas to have real, real train skilled artisans that are
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: able to repair and service walk to make sure that
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: when those watches are being sold to the next owner
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: that they're in as good a condition as that when
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: they were originally sold. That Basically, the acquisition by Hoodinky
• 48:10
  Speaker 3: allowed Hoodinky you kind of fast forward its way into
• 48:13
  Speaker 3: being a player in the pre on space, which is
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: a larger market than the new watch market online about
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: thirty percent of pre on watches are sold online versus
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: only about five percent of new watches that are sold.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: Thirty percent. That's an amazing statistic. I never would have
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: guessed it was that large. You mentioned authenticity there. There
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: are lots of replicas out there. What do you guys
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: make of the super replicas that without a loop? Certainly
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: from a risk distance, it's hard to tell. Like in
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: the old days, you would see a fake Rolex Chinatown,
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: twenty five bucks.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: With a ticking secondary right.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: Exactly, Yeah, no sweep and it would jingle and you
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: know its the best twenty five bucks you could spend
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: in the world. Watches and kept pretty good time today,
• 49:00
  Speaker 2: pretty impressive, yeah, now, and they're pre sophisticated counterfeit pieces
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: out there China mostly right, Some that you know, go
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: so far as to include all like manufacture original parts
• 49:10
  Speaker 2: on the outside of the watch. And it's only when
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: you get inside into the movement that you understand that
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: the movement has some parts or the original movement has
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: been swapped out. You're telling me Rolux doesn't come with
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: a twelve dollars Chinese.
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: They don't don't do that.
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: No, No, that's not the case that.
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: By the way, the new transparent case back on the Daytona.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Is this something that we're going to start to see
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: more of as an anti counterfeit or that just happens.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: To be a pretty titanium watch. My my guess. Look,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know it all, to be clear, and I
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: really mean that, I don't think that has anything to
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: do with anti counterfeit, and I think it's more celebratory
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: and they want to show off the new movement, et cetera.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: And to be clear, it's only in the platinum Daytona.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: Which, even which is unfortunate. The one of the nice
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: things about Langa is every one of their watches has
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: a display case back, which is quite This is.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Really one of the I mean look, every not ivy Omega,
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: but a lot. I mean, so does scant Acos. I
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: mean it's it's it is uncommon for a high end
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: watchman to not today, but it wasn't always the case. Sure,
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: yeah right yeah.
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: So so how big of an issue are these super counterfeits?
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, for us, they're not a major issue. And
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: that's again down to the fact that we've had we
• 50:17
  Speaker 3: have an investment in people that are able to sort
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: of sess them out. And that's even before we get
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: them in our possession. We have pretty good you know tracker.
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: You can eyebowl something on it just a photo. Some
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: of the sock ex selling Sneakers has a counterfeit division, yeah,
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: because they were getting so many fake nikes coming in.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: We we have a staff of authenticated yeah, truly. And
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: then the benefit of us being us is we have
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: direct relationships with brands and we can say, hey, bright
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: Ley and grand Seiko, whoever was this watch born with
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: a black dial or blue? We can track the serial
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: number two and not not many people on the pre
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: own side can do that. And as Jeff said, I
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: think you know much credit to Hamilton Powell, who's the
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: founder of Credit Caliber the business that that we now
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: that we now own. You know, he really wanted to
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: do stuff that is like, buying a watch is one thing,
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: but selling a watch is actually brutal. And if you've
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: ever tried to sell a watch, which doesn't really sound
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: like you have, it's awful. And so if you want
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to do it, either go to Corona twenty four and
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: it may never sell. You go to auction. They're gonna
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: take twenty percent. With crownic Caliber and now Hoodinky, we're
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: gonna tell you what we're gonna pay then and there
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: you're gonna send in the watch. We're gonna send you
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: a check.
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: That's it.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: You're done.
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: So I tell I'll tell you that sounds like a
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: lot of fun. So you take them on consigned, we
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: owne that you buy that we're cutting your check.
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no kidding. So one of the few I.
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: Didn't realize that think it's big. That's a big difference.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: Instant quoting about eighty percent of the watches as well.
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: So again you go on to Crowncaliber dot com, Hoodinky
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: dot com. You type in the reference number, some information
• 51:35
  Speaker 3: Rolex Batman, etcetera, ask a couple of clarifying questions you
• 51:37
  Speaker 3: get a quote right then and there, and if you
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: like that quote, you send the watch in. We authenticate,
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: inspect that, make sure that it is as it was described,
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: send you a check.
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: You'll have a check right away. So my brother has
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: a Vacheron.
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: I forgot the model. It's one of their more globe
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: trot or something popular.
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: Overseas, overseas, overseas, but they came.
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: Out with a black dot and he has a blue dial,
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: and I've never seen a blue dial else.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: That's a classic fashionround color. That blue dial is gorgeous.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: And very deep.
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: I literally have never seen that anywhere else in blue.
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna send him over to you guys, because he
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: wants to sell it, and I had no idea you
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: guys would would cut a check like that. So we're
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: talking about online retailing, but I'm gonna throw one of
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: your quotes back at you, which is physical retail will
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: always have a home in luxury and watches. Of course,
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: I think in everything, in everything, So sometimes like one
• 52:34
  Speaker 2: of the things I like about the yacht Master is
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: it has a hef You feel it. Yeah, when I
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: Baltic makes some nice watches, you put him on your
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: wrist you're unaware you're wearing. And even this has a
• 52:48
  Speaker 2: little bit of a half which is mostly the pink gold.
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: But you know, how easily can you buy a watch
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: that you've never had on before?
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: Pretty easily. We do about one hundred million dollars year
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: worth of it. Yeah, okay, so let me rephrase that.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: How how comfortable can so if you know what you want? Right?
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: So? The Moser tor me on in vans of black
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: kind of an interesting watch. I've had it on in
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: the in the ice blue and the dark blue. I'm
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: not sure which way I would pull the trigger in that,
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: but I've worn it and I'm like, Okay.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: I'm comfortable with this watch.
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: But if I've never tried a watch on before that
• 53:26
  Speaker 2: the new ice blue Daytona with the brown bezel, if
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: you're going to drop, you know again an S class
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: on your wrist. Can you do that online or do
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: you want to go in and experience it?
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Well, everyone's different for sure. To be clear, Rolex doesn't
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: sell online anywhere with anybody, not not with us, not
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: with not even themselves. So no Rolex New can you
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: buy online?
• 53:48
  Speaker 3: Just right here?
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: But like, let's use a brand that that we sell
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: because this happens every day. A brand new Omega speed Master,
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: which is about a seven thousand dollars watch that fire
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: case back, great manly wound, iconic thing. We sell those
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: all day long, and if people don't like it, they
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: can return it, right and so.
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: Thirty days so longly you give them to Yeah, I
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: think it's fourteen days.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Two weeks. You know, we can't like I've been wearing
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: it around. You try it on. If it's not for you,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: you send the book. I think you know what we
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: did with with the Hodinky Shop in twenty seventeen, we
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: took I look, the brands that I hold in high
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: regard are no.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Surprises, and they're not unique to me. It's it's Apple,
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: it's Nike. I mean, I wear air Maxes almost every day.
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: If I if I like the air Maxes.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: I get those are good ones.
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: If I like the air Maxes that come in the
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: mail to me, I keep them. If I don't, I
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: send them back. I got my I got a refund
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: in three days or five days. And that's fine. And
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: so taking these very normal twenty fourst century e commerce
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: practices and applying them to watches is not that crazy,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: but we were the first and still we remain one
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: of the few who does it far fetch does it?
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: Mister porter does it? Great etailers like that.
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: You're you're out of far fetched. How did that experience
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: translates to Hodenky.
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting because I talked earlier about when I
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: first encountered Hodinky. And you know, sometimes if you if
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: you go away from a thing and you don't go
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: back to for a while, and that was the case
• 55:01
  Speaker 3: for me. I was really busy with my career. My
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: wife and I were having three boys in three years,
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: so we were pretty busy. I hadn't paid super close
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: attention to everything that was going on in the world
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: of hood Inky until it was contacted by a recruiter,
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: until I got a chance to meet Ben, and I couldn't.
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: I just couldn't believe how much had evolved at the
• 55:18
  Speaker 3: business because in my mind it was still, yeah, the
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: pre eminent watch blog, but I had no idea watch blog,
• 55:24
  Speaker 3: yeah retail exactly, all the retail like, the way that
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: the business set of all was enormous. Me the fact
• 55:29
  Speaker 3: that it had launched its own insurance product, I mean,
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: it was incredible and sort of I think what I
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: saw was I had just spent almost six years at
• 55:36
  Speaker 3: far Fetch starting when you know, the primary business of
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: Farfetch was then and remains a marketplace, but so much
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: it evolved at Farfetch as well. I mean, we had
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: launched a platform services business which was taking all of
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: the core technology and making it available for other retailers
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: like Herod's and the likes. We had acquired a few businesses.
• 55:55
  Speaker 3: I was involved in the acquisition of Stadium Goods, a
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: pre owned sneaker marketplace. So just seeing kind of how
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: that business has grown and evolved and I've kind of
• 56:03
  Speaker 3: grown up in my career with it. I saw a
• 56:06
  Speaker 3: lot of similarities with hodigiva'm on. It's a foundation of
• 56:08
  Speaker 3: things that were there that one of our investors likes
• 56:11
  Speaker 3: to say, are they close to maturity or are they
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: like ten percent? And I'd say lovingly, they're closer to
• 56:17
  Speaker 3: like ten percent, meaning like there's so much upside, there's
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: so much still growth and evolution in front of us
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: and in different ways that we can kind of push
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: this business forward. And just being able to work alongside
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: Ben as a founder of somebody who's who's I think
• 56:30
  Speaker 3: truly one of the most influential people in this industry
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: just was like an opportunity. I simply I would I
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: would have never forgiven myself if I didn't go for it.
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: Someonelmost told me that's the kind of sign of an entrepreneur.
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: I've never been an entrepreneur to start my own business,
• 56:43
  Speaker 3: but I had that feeling.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: You've worked at companies that are I don't want to
• 56:47
  Speaker 2: call them startups, but not that you know, there's a
• 56:51
  Speaker 2: difference between joining Amazon and eBay today and joining h Sure,
• 56:55
  Speaker 2: joining eBay when it's two years old, and people like, hey,
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: we don't know if this is gonna be Yeah, I
• 57:00
  Speaker 2: think I'm probably the guy right behind the guy with
• 57:02
  Speaker 2: the machete.
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: Blazing a trail to the jump.
• 57:05
  Speaker 3: I'm with him, but you know, he's got the He's
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: the one who's been there instead of taken that sort
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: of initial leap of faith. I mean, it's one thing
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: that I think you always just have to like never
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: take for granted in a business like Hudinki. And I
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: think Ben did a good job with this very recently
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: for an internal meeting, was just reminding people that this
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: thing wasn't always a given, you know, And he went
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: back to his original email inbox from two thousand and eight,
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: to the first emails he sent from his inbox, and
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: they weren't to collegues. They were to his family members.
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: It's like, can you guys believe I'm getting paid to
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: do this?
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: Send five dollars? Truly, So Jeff's referring to a post
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: that I was writing about watches. I was being paid
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: seventy five dollars a post, truly.
• 57:40
  Speaker 3: Then the first advertising contract, which was twelve months run
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: of sight for a price that today might get you
• 57:46
  Speaker 3: a day, it was twelve hundred dollars for the year.
• 57:51
  Speaker 3: So those things, now you know that that's fifteen years ago.
• 57:54
  Speaker 3: And again remember that the first part of the first
• 57:56
  Speaker 3: decade of those fifteen years largely was spent just developing
• 57:59
  Speaker 3: the most important editorial presence for the world of watches.
• 58:03
  Speaker 3: I mean, I still think it is a startup, but
• 58:05
  Speaker 3: it's a startup where there's again there's a trail that's
• 58:07
  Speaker 3: been blazed. My role, the way I see it is
• 58:09
  Speaker 3: really just to kind of, like I suppose, increase the
• 58:12
  Speaker 3: speed and certainty of execution and really help it scale
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: and build and sort to help us realize what we
• 58:17
  Speaker 3: think is our fullest potential as a business.
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: So let's stay with retail. I was going to ask
• 58:24
  Speaker 2: you who your competitors are, but really, in terms of
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: new nobody else is really selling very much online. Yeah. Look,
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: I mean a handful of micro brands, but sure none
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: of the bigs are selling to the level.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look there are a lot of and look,
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: it's funny you say competitors like these are all our friends,
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: Like we get coffees with them all the time. Watches
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: in Switzerland and Torneo Booker, like these are great world
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: class retailers. We have a lot like they do stuff
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: that we can never do, and I think we do
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: stuff that they could never do, you know, but there's
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: nobody that competes with us directly in everything we do,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: and I think that's what makes us so so special. Frankly,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: Like this is a truly unique business, a piece unique,
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: if you will. And you know, so many times over
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: the years people said, was Houdinki the Warby Parker of watches?
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: Which is not is it the Glossier of watches? It's
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: none of that. It's something else entirely. And I think
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: what the ambition is here is to become kind of
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: really the global global leader of watches content and commerce,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: and like really b watches through six do we want
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: to ensure your watches, we want to help you buy
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: and sell them. We want to sell you straps. We
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: want everything to exist in watches on Houdinki and we're
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: getting there. And I think that's what's so exciting about it.
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: And I think to Jeff's point, like I view really
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: all brands as one or two things. Are either a
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: challenger or you're an incumbent, right, And I think like
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: a Torea, which is an amazing business, and one I've
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: got a lot of love for it, like they're inn
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: incumbent business. They've been around forever that they're now owned
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: by Booker. We to some people are probably an incumbent,
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: but we're not like this, as Jeff said this, I
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: came from nothing. This business came from nothing. And the
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: way that we view everything we do is from the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: mind of a challenger. We want to continue to push
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: and continue to change things.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: Keep in mind the Internet runs in dog years, so
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: you're an incumbent on the Internet. But when you look
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: at some of the watch brands that have been around
• 59:57
  Speaker 2: since the seventeenth century, eighteenth century, seventeen fifty five older
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 2: than the country. Right, it's just absolutely so. So two
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: thousand and eight, two thousand and nine young business in
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 2: the internet, sort of middle aged.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to be clear, like I so
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: the business was an immediate platform with a little bit
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: e commerce that was basically three people until twenty fifteen.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: Then we raised our first venture capital. We were probably
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: ten twenty people, and now we're one hundred and thirty
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty. So it's big or now that's a
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: real business. It's a real business. But we're still not
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: or know, we're still not Bloomberg. We're still not you know,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: something like that that is ubiquitous in a great way
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: and really has the the kind of the certainty of
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: its future. Like we want to to continue to push
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: and challenge what the luxury watch industry and what all
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: industries kind of think of when they think of retailers.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: We are a retailer. We are immedia platform. We're a
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: community platform, we host events. We're an insurance product. We
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: are a strapwear brand. We make things that say hood
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Inky on them. We are all these things and that's
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: exciting to me.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: A couple more questions about retail before we move on,
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 2: got to ask about Rolex getting into the certified your
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: own business. What's that about? Where do you think that goes?
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: I sort of use the analogy of like the world
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 3: of automotive we talked about cars earlier. I mean, for me,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: it would be almost like impossible to think of a
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 3: world where, you know, BMWU or Mercedes didn't offer a
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 3: certified pren program under their own brand, under their own market.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: But let's break that take that apart a second. You
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 2: go and buy you want to buy a used car,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: but you like the advantage of having the manufacturer tell
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: you the cars in good shape and they're going to
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: warranty it for you know, another three years and fifty
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: thousand miles, so you're going to pay a little bit
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: of a premium to pick up, especially if you're looking
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: at an expensive car or complicated, you know, any of
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 2: the more sophisticated vehicles out there. It's nice to have
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: that backdrop when you're going out and buying a GMT
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: from Rolex. Do you what does CPO do for you
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 2: other than tell you have Rolex tell you we looked
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: at this wat we cleaned it up here.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 3: I think for some people that's worth the premium, and
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 3: at the moment, at least based on the evidence that
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 3: we can we can observe. You know, where Rolex certified
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 3: premium programs have already started to roll out is they
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 3: are pricing it at a premium. The only way the
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: premium to a premium, to a premium, to use a premium,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 3: to use the premium to the kind of market price
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: a pre owned so a sub mariner which we were
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 3: talking about earlier. You know, ten twelve thousand dollars watched retail,
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: usually selling for the upper teens, maybe twenty thousand dollars
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 3: in the preon market, you know, the Rollck certified preon
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 3: prices are going to be even higher than that, maybe
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 3: in the mid to upper twenties. And so for a
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: certain buyer that maybe is peace of mind. Maybe it's
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: the kind of knowledge of having bought it from a
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 3: Rolex authorized dealer, certified by Rolex, making sure that it's
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 3: only ever been serviced by Relux. And but again I
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: think where the comparison still holds to a certified preon
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 3: program is there's a finite number of places that sales
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 3: certified preon and those are the brands themselves or the
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 3: authorized dealer with the brands. There's tons of places that
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 3: sell pre owned cars, and there are lots of places
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 3: that sell pre owned watches. I think consumers have choices
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 3: to go to a trusted player in a pre owned space,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 3: or maybe you know, go buy it off of eBay
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 3: from the original owner. Take your chances. Maybe you get
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 3: a lemon, maybe you get something in In our case,
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're I think, as trusted as it gets.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 3: The trust is unimpeachable. Never you know, never sold the
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 3: non authentic piece, never sold the piece that we couldn't
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 3: stand behind and vouch for in a pre owned capacity.
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 3: And to the points that we were discussing earlier, the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 3: ease of selling with us is unparalleled. I think the
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 3: ability to sell and transact your sale of a watch
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 3: over the internet, get an instant quote at an inserprise.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 3: The way the Certified pre Owned program is working at
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 3: the moment is you have to physically take your watch
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 3: into an authorized dealer that is offering the Rollick CPO program.
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 3: They'll inspect your watch, they'll offer you something in exchange
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 3: for your watch, And then I think, then this is
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 3: you know, just my own personal views. Then they have
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 3: the challenge of showing the original piece side by side
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 3: with the pre owned piece, right, And there's something a
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 3: little off there, right, If you're selling an original sub
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 3: mariner for that ten twelve thousand dollars retail price and
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 3: then the pre owned piece right next to it for
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 3: twenty seven twenty eight thousand. Explaining that is a challenge.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 3: But my point being that like their entry into this market,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 3: if anything, just serves as an endorsement of the pre
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 3: owned market. I think it's the biggest brand of the world.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 3: Whatever they do matters a hell of a lot in
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 3: this space, and I think we look at that as
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 3: a good thing. It's kind of a blessing, if you will,
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 3: for the pre owned space and for the importance of
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 3: the pre and space in the kind of constellation of
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 3: you know, how people consume and transact with watches.
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: So let's do a compare and contrast. I'm going to
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: mangle his name, the CEO of.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 3: Paddock Here Here Star.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So he goes out and buys modern era Paddocks
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: on the US market to figure out who's flipping them
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 2: and to call a dealer two account, Hey, why are
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: you selling our rare watches to somebody who's just flipping
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: them on the secondary market. Can we assume we'll never
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: see a CPO program from Paddock that?
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, I think you guys actually reported that pretty recently,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: that that Thiery said that.
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 2: That was an interview that one of the Bloomberg reporters
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 2: who were at watching exactly right.
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: So, I mean, as of today, it seems like they
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: will not get into CPO, and that is not surprising
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 2: Really, all the volume, it makes much more sense.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but exactly the ticket price is so much higher
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: with Rolex in particular, I think it's important you could.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: Get in to a Calatrava relatively get it twenty five probably, Yeah,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: oh really if you can get it, Oh, that's much
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: more than they were just a few year.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and again you can't you can't find them at retail.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: They're they're so more demand than supply.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, Rolex is a different thing. And I
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: want to be totally concise here, So like when when
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: we say Rolex CPO, like the dealers are mostly going
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: to be doing this stuff, and the dealers set the prices.
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: It's not like Rolex set the prices.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: So what's in it for Rolex versus you know, what's
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: in it for the dealers, because there's only so much apply.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: I went to an event out in at the Manhassan Americana,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: at the big watch place over there. I'm I believe
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 2: that's correct, and they have they're pushing everything except ap
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: Rolex and Paddock. Because you want to get on their
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: their good side.
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: Buy some of these watches.
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's they don't come out and say it,
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 2: but it's wink wink, nudge, nudge. Hey, if you wanna
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 2: if you want a Batman, you need to buy one
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 2: of these Pistachio Brightling premieres, and then we could talk about,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: you know, a batgirl on a jubilee.
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: If that that's what gets you excited.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 2: How did we ever end up in this place?
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean it's it's the uniformity of taste at
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: this point. And I'm gonna blame it on Instagram, my
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: friends at Instagram. You know, it's just so many people
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: posting the same stuff over and over again. And five
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: years ago, nobody cared about the Nautilus or the Aquanat.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, they were good watches and we all liked them,
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: but It wasn't a big deal at all, and people
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: were buying what they like. And then all of a
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: sudden people say, wait a minute, I can I can
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: buy a p A tech at twenty and sell it
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: for sixty, sell it for one hundred and sixty, which
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: the Nautilus was trading at first, really fifty seven eleven A.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: And so that that changed the dynamic completely. It used
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: to just be like, hey, I like this thing, I'm
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: going to buy it. I may make money, I may not.
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: Then it became if you're not making money, you're a fool.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: And that's whole a lot of people in finance.
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 2: Is it just five years ago?
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: Is it that reason? I would say, I would say
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: pre COVID, Before COVID, it was not a concern. It
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: really wasn't. Okay, Daytona, you knew you'd get that an
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: awkward I'm sorry, Nautilust maybe you'd get that, but it
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: wasn't that way. I mean. I bought my fifty seven
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: eleven R from Tiffany here in New York in twenty thirteen.
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 2: Tiffany Blue No no, No, this is a rose could one.
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: One before the blue one, and they it was sitting
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: in the case, and that's it and there I'll take that.
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: And that watch at its peak was probably four hundred
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Yeah, I probably bought it. Would you pay
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: forty five something like that?
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: Ten X is not a bad exactly, but that's a
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: change left ubs. Yeah, this is where So here's the
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 2: crazy thing. I have slowly warmed up to the north.
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 2: It's not my favorite watch. I don't some of the
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 2: design I don't. I don't get the Royal Oak. I
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 2: know people who are like have eight of them. I
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 2: just can't wrap my head around. And I know I
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 2: understand the historical significance.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: What what makes the Royal.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 2: Oak and the noaut you So, first of all, I'm
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: ten years older than both you guys. So I remember
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: the seventies as a horrific decade of all around hollester
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 2: and disco. Right, that's the seventies to me, and the
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: design ethos. By the way, I have a very contemporary house.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: I love mid century modern. So if you go back
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 2: to the some of the designs of the I was
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 2: just in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Valley Hoe Hotel that
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: like the rat pack should be washing it. Just that
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 2: sort of design ethos it it's before I was born,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: But I'm like, I get it. But I remember the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 2: seventies as just like a horrific era. Maybe it's the
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 2: same thing as the Samarana. I just associate it with.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: So I look at the Royal Oak and I'm like, yeah,
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 2: it's got that kind of Remember the giant Porsche Carrera
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 2: glass shirt.
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: They were horrific And.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 2: I know the historical significance what makes the watch so special?
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Well, And the first of all, it was my first
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: high end watch. I bought two roll exes and then
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: after that I saved up when I bought a Vinta
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: JP and a Series Royal Oak. This is probably twenty
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: What year was the watch nineteen seventy two? It was okay, series,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: the first really early one, and box paper is the
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: whole thing. And it first of all, it was the
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: AP was the first high end manufacturer ever visited. So
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: that opened up my eyes to what watchmaking could be,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. Yeah, yeah, to see how
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: a Royal Oak is finished, polished the case, you mean,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: not a boutique. You went to the mids Switzerland.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: Really we should all get such a trip.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: It was amazing honestly do that.
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 2: I know guys that go to Modena and do the
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: Ferrari exactly and they come back and they say, whatever
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 2: on the car wasn't enough.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna yeah, so precisely that. I know someone with
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: a five point.
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 2: Fifty just came back and bought a fourth thirty.
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: Coues he could. Yeah, it's it's that experience, you see
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: what it really goes into the stuff and you fall
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: in love. And then the royal look in particular the jumbos,
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: the thirty nine millimeter watches wear some that's hilarious, that's
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: what they're called. Yeah, they wear so amazingly on your wrist,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: and it's just it really, it is just I think
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: like the chicest, most elegant watch a man or a
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: woman can wear.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 2: I mean I've loved them forever. I bought one as
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: recently as a month ago, two months ago.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: It's just an amazing thing. And then all of a
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: sudden they're actually cool. And I think ten years ago
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: they were not cool, and that was kind of fun.
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: But it's a lot more fun when they are cool
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: and people know what they are, and people are excited
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: to see a royal oak on your wrist. And then
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: you got like our friend John Mayer who's very close
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 1: with them, and Ed Sheeran and Kevin Hart, all these
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: like kind of cool interesting people started to get kind
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: of hip to the royal oak thing. And now it's fun.
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: It's part of like a cultural phenomenon.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: Well, I love the idea that if you know, you know,
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: meaning so I could I could wear any of my
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 2: eclectic watches or the langa. Nobody says a word, but
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: every now and then someone at like some event will
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: come up and say, is that the moon face?
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah? If anybody knows what that long it is, that's
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: a very good sign.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because then they're like, oh, this guy, that's the
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: real stuff. This guy's plugged into what's going on in
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: that space. And it's not just a matter of you
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: have money, you could go out and buy the most
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 2: expensive car. It's you're picking something very very specific. So
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 2: so one of the people here has this nautalis he
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: sat on his wrist for thirty years, and it's the
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: blue leather band and the blue face and it's not
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 2: the full chrono, but it has the offset second hand
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: calendar and I've kind of warmed up to it. Is
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 2: the Every time I see it, I'm like, I just
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: appreciate it a little more. Yeah, and I didn't feel
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: that way when I first spotted that.
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: The natalist in the and I'm sorry keep saying awkward.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: Not a lot notalists and Roy. Look, if I may say,
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: I think they belong on bracelets. They were conceived on
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: bracelets by drill genta. So ones on strap I've often
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: I haven't had a super strong affinity towards, but those
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: on bracelets I think are just fantastic. They're not They're
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: not a rolllex like. You're not taking them swimming, you're
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 1: not taking them diving. You can't go chopping wood in them.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: You know, Jeff and I both live.
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 2: Well, you shouldn't chop wood in any so you shouldn't.
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 2: But sometimes I learned the hard way. Again, I can't
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 2: even throw a ball with this. That's how I the
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: rehired meal.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: I always the result. I would just go back to
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: the resharch, go straight.
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 2: Off at half a million dollars when you're acting. So
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: so as long as we're talking about specific watches, what
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: are some of your favorites and what are your grail watches?
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 2: That man, you haven't gotten, but you would love to have.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean my favorite, my favorite watch is the Omega.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: My grandfather gave me. No surprise there, that's the one.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: As I said, I.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: Put clearly a family emotional connection question, and all these
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 2: watches have an emotional component outside of something like that.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: Outside of something like that. Look the Moonwatch, the hand
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: one Moonwatch for seven thousand bucks. You can buy it
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: on Hoodinky all day. Get it is the best watch
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: in the world for that kind of well with the
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: speed Mast Speedmaster, so my speedy.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: I just refused to get the hechs Alike because I
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 2: know I the beauty of Rolex and I just had
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: this after almost twenty years, fifteen years. I just had
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: this repolish because I destroyed this watch. It's actually tight
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: since they repolished it.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: But I this is a.
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 2: Platinum yacht Master and I bought this in eight from
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 2: a mortgage broker that was just liquidating everything. So that's
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 2: my as I'm writing bail Out Nation, I buy this
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: watch from a mortgage broker, So that's my emotional But
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 2: you know, you could beat the crap out of these.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: The same thing with the Speedmaster, but the hex Al
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: I was terrified about So I got this. I paid
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 2: up for the Sapphire.
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: Got it.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 2: Because you know, when I smash it into something, I
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: don't have to worry about a dent, a dent scratch
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: or whatever. So that's a great entry level sub ten
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars watch.
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: It's both an entry level and exit level, if that
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: makes any sense. Like some of the wealthiest guys I
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: know that have owned every paddock, every long but whatever,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: they end up wearing a handwab moon Watch. And I
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: guarantee you when I retire from you know whatever, this is,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: that's the watch I will wear every day Handwab.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: Lie So when I wear so my two sub ten
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: thousand dollar watches that I wear pretty regularly. One is
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: the Monica with the gray face from Tag. The other
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: is a Speedmaster, And every now and then someone will
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: say I go speedy. Yeah, yeah, And it's just like
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: you know, if you know, you know sort of thing
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: it is. So let's take how about you, Jeff, what
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: are you wearing sub ten Yeah?
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: I mean my so my two sentimental favorite watches again
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 3: both have a connection to my my family, and one
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: is my great grandfather's pocket watch. It has his initials
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 3: instead of the numbers. So it's Jay Virgil Allen and
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 3: we named our third son Virgil after my great grandfather.
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 3: This's got his name on it. A beautiful one hundred
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 3: and twenty year old American mad pocket watch. And then
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 3: I have my father Saeko, which you wore every day,
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: and it's a quartz siko on a on an elastic strap,
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit like this one bracelet. I should say, uh,
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 3: this is a hood Inky limited edition I'm wearing today.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 3: This was under two hundred dollars, even under ten. That
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 3: was under two hundred dollars time X collaboration we did,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 3: and I love it because of that that that's sort
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 3: of you can't see. It's a pretty bulletproof. Yeah, I mean,
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: this is this This I literally don't have to think
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: twice to put it on my wrist. I wear I
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 3: Ben knows. I'm on a quest to kind of get
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: as many hood Inky limited edition watches as I'm happy.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: To help with.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it feels like it special to me
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: to kind of own a little piece of our history
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 3: as a brand. And again we've done limited editions with
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 3: everyone from time X and Cassio, g Shock all the
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: way up to Vastron and you know crazy independent brands
• 1:15:41
  Speaker 3: like Grunfeld and and and and Lauren Ferrier and others
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 3: like that. I guess my, yeah, this this, this is
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 3: like one that I'm wearing a lot currently, but not
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 3: to copycat. But I love the will make a speed
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 3: Master And again the hood Inky limited Edition speed Master
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 3: is a personal thing.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: It was anniversary with the Snoopy. Yeah, that's a great
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 2: little watch, although that's kind of going ballistic.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: And price also. Yeah, so if you go to YouTube.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 2: You can find the old sixties and seventies zero commercials
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 2: for time X takes a looking and keeps on together.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 2: I remember they would strap it to a front of
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: a boat with a bunch of navy seals out and
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 2: the boat would be slapping the water and they'd pull
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 2: the watch out and still still going. They were great commercials,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: and the washes last forever. So fun fact, did you
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 2: know that the very first television commercial ever aired ever
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: worldwide was a watch brand?
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: And what was all of us?
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, no, nineteen forty one. I want to say, during
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: the World Series game or something like that. Nineteen forty
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: one was nine seconds. It cost them nine dollars.
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 2: That's unbelievable. So let's let's take a step up above
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 2: ten grandy, what would you guys look at. I'll give
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 2: you a budget ten to fifties, so easy for me.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 2: And we talked earlier about like, you know, you saw
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: a watch, you fell in love with it. On this
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 2: you decided not to pull the trigger, and then you
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 2: regret it every singce it kind of got away from you.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 2: For me, it's actually it is a Lunga one, but
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 2: it is a special series of long ones they did.
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 3: Called the Swarre series. Swarre dial. It's a mother of
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 3: pearl dial and it's this one in particular. Phillips had
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 3: it in their watch auction last November. Bend, myself and
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 3: another collie of ours were at the Phillips headquarters in Geneva,
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 3: saw the watch before it was under the hammer, loved it,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: just everything what to look go for. I want to
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 3: say it only went for about well only went for
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: thirty five or forty thousand Swiss francs. So it's definitely
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 3: within the budget you've just given this. But and again
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 3: Lunga ones, there aren't this is not a ubiquitous product.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 3: There aren't that many of them. It's one of those
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 3: if you know, you know, I love the aesthetics of
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 3: the dial. I love everything about the Lunga brand, but
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 3: like this one in particular, this the dial just totally CAPTU.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 3: I would look at it and I would just get
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 3: lost in the dial every time i'd wear it.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 2: I Oh, so, so you didn't pull the trick, didn't
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: pull the trigger?
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: How about you?
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 2: What what got away? Uh?
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: Well, the stuff that has gotten away is generally a
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: little bit higher end stuff.
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: So I have one of those that I've never even
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 2: thought about pulling the trigger on, and recently, well I'm
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: asking you the question. But so before we get to
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 2: the crazy higher end stuff, you know, under one hundred
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 2: over ten, Yeah, what would you wear?
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: Weirdly, the watch that like I really kind of hated
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: when it came out, now I love and I'm just
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: never pulled the trigger. As the platinum Daytona, I'm a
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: hardcore Daytona guy. I'm with you. I just never I was.
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: I was actually witch color combination. So the platinum one
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: is only the ice blue with the brick the brown ceramic.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 2: Do you do you like the new I love the back,
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: but I kind of like the face of the older one.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Interesting like if I could mix those two. Yeah, I
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: prefer the new one, honestly, and I may it's great.
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: That one I really disliked in twenty thirteen Minut launch,
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: mostly because I was sour. I was sour that they
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: didn't give us the steel watch with a ceramic bezzel.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: That was the big thing that that came out in
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. Got that, So that's to watch. I'm just
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: like weirdly never owned, which is strange because I love
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: platinum watches. I love Rolex and I love the Daytona.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: I just never did it.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 2: And now you know, we'll see that's really can I
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 2: tell you that blue brown and again dating back to
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 2: the fifty sixties sort of fashion. So my wife used
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 2: to teach fashion illustration and design. She's a colorist, and
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: you show her that light blue with the brown, and
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 2: she's like, wildly underrated, perfect combinations. People miss it. And
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: when that came out with the display case, I mean,
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 2: what what can you say?
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's look, it's an eighty thousand dollars chronograph.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: So at that level, your little price, well, look you're
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: intil You can buy a Langa, you can buy a
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: Pat Tack you can buy a lot of stuff for
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: eighty dollard bucks. You get the platinum bracelet, which is
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: expensive for sure. So it's it's a I've got a
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: I've got a complex relationship with that watch.
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: So let's let's talk rail watches regardless of price. What's
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 2: the one that's out there that that is the killer
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 2: for you?
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: There's a there's a few, I mean there are several. Really,
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't be surprised to learn a thirty four to
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: forty eight Paddock, which is their first self winding perpetual calendar,
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: in particular in white gold. Those were kind of trading
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: in like the mid two hundreds for a long while. Gold.
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 2: What's the face collar?
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 1: It's silver?
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 2: Kind of all right, because they've run the they've done
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 2: the salmon, they've done the watch.
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: So this is way earlier. This is nineteen sixties, nineteen
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: seventy oh really, yeah, So the very first ones, those
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: were trading the mid twies forever. The minute I could
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: afford one, I kind of hamm them hot. And now
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: they're trading for about eight hundred two million.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 2: So as a Daytona guy, what do you think of
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: like the Newman Daytona's in the sixties era. They're not crazy.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 2: They're like, for the same seventy five, you could get
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 2: a nineteen sixty nine.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sixty three nine. I've had many of those. I've
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: had a bunch of Paul Newman. So no, no, it's
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: not a Grail watch. Look a sixty to sixty three
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: Mark one Oyster Paul Newman, which is kind of like
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: the big bad Paul Newman. I had one of those.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: I sold it too soon. Wish I still had that.
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: But a gold Paul Newman I've never had that. That'd
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: be something fun. But these are crazy watches, you know,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: I mean really expensive watches that I like. I don't.
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: I don't live in Manhattan anymore. I live upstate. Those
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: just don't fit my life all anymore. When I lived
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: in Manhattan and it was kind of out and about,
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: it kind of made sense. But now, as a father
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: in particular, it just doesn't compute this terrible for chopping
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: would yeah, you know, it always goes back to chop
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: riding my canoe, you know, things like that. So what
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: T Grail watched? Jeff? Money is no object? It would
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: it would?
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: I think I'd go with a watch that comes from
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: a craftsman from a craftsman's hand. So I probably a
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 3: Roger Smith or Philipe du four, you know, knowing that
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 3: I do own a piece of art from an artist,
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 3: somebody who individually made this piece by hand, put a
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 3: stamp on it, saw it from birth to basically like conception.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, that that that would be it for me.
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 3: And again I think Philipe dufour is turning seventy five,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 3: not getting it oneah, and he's still making every part
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 3: of the component, every piece by hand. Roger Smith, you know,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: kind of next generation. But yeah, Reshap, these guys who
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: are making these watches, just you know, it's incredible what
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 3: they do. It's a it's a one man operation start
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 3: to finish, and I just think like something like that.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 3: It's yeah, it's like you're buying twenty watches exactly.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: It'd be like you're.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 3: Buying an original picassa from the man himself while he
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 3: was still painting.
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: Like and you know that Roger in particular, and I'm
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: lucky enough to own one. I've known him forever. His
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: story is amazing. He makes ten watches per year, Roger Smith,
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: all by hand. He does not own one of his
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: own watches never has because we can't give up ten
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: percent of you know, he can't take one watch out
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: of the line of ten per year, you know. And
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: these watches are phenomenally expensive that you know, new and
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: they're there worth even more kind of secondhand. But his watches,
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: as Jeff said, are just to me. It's the ten game.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: It's a great story on Hood of Geek today about
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: his second pocket watch, which there's a whole backstory to it.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: Basically was he made a pocket watch and presented it
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 3: to his master, George Daniels, and George Daniels rejected it
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 3: and said to go back and work on another version
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 3: and do it better. Took him five years of his
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 3: entire life livelihood creating a second pocket watch, And then
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 3: Georgia said, did you make every part by hand? He said, yes, congratulations,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 3: Now you're a watchmaker. He then sold that pocket watch
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 3: to a private buyer to fund the creation of his
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 3: next series of watches. And that watch is going to
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: be auctioned by Phillips and I imagine kinds of records.
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, easily, for sure. I mean his wristwatches, like
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: just generic risk watches now.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 1: Trade for about six His generic wrist watches if you
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: can find one. I mean, Jacobs and Co. What do
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: you do with stuff like that?
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 2: There are half a million, a million.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: It's a different thing.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 2: He did that out thing that went for thirty million
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 2: rights like these are just insane numbers.
• 1:23:35
  Speaker 1: It's a different corner of the market. It's a very
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: real corner, a really trade for sure. You know, he
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: he tends to, he designs it, he does the setting
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: and all the stone work. But the movement is a jeweler. Look,
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: he's Jacob, Jacob the jeweler. He's the guy in all
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: the rap songs. Literally, So it's a different corner of
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: the market, but a very real one. And like you know,
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: he is selling those watches for crazy numbers all day.
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: Huh amazing.
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so so let's talk a little bit about talking watches.
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 2: This has become a super popular segment of Oh Dinky,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 2: I know the first one was with John Mayer.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: How did this get started? Yeah, so kind of taking
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: a step back in twenty twelve, when I launched Straps
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: online to sell straps, I got an email that said,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: Hey John Mayer here, love what you're doing. Let's hop
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: on the phone. And I was like, Okay, like, I
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: wonder who this is, some guy named John Mayor, you know,
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 1: some accountant in Texas named John Mayer. So got on
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: the phone. Turns out of John Mayer, the rock star,
• 1:24:28
  Speaker 1: and we just became kind of fast friends. You know,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: we were about the same age at the time. We
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: were both living a really weird life. Mine was on
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: the road, traveling around for watches, take pictures, writing. He
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: was an actual rock star, and we just became like true, true,
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: very close friends, very quickly. And so in twenty thirteen
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: he called me and he's like, Hey, I'm in town
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: doing Letterman or Leno or something like that. I've got
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: a bag full of watches. Do you want to just
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: like record a conversation about watches? And I said sure,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: and we had wait. So this was Mayor's doing his idea.
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, we'd always talked about doing a video together
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: some kind, but never premeditated, never storyboarded or anything like that.
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 2: And I've got a bag full of watches. Sounds like
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 2: he just knocked.
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: He used to roll pretty heavy with stuff, not so
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: much anymore, just for security reasons, but you know, to
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: to to our credit, like the first really the second
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: person we ever hired at Hodinki was a full time videographer.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: So I said, who I went to Columbia with Will?
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: Who's still with us? I said, actually, I got a
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: video guy right here, and so we went. We were
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: on Verick Street. We went over to a place called
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: Little Prince, which is a little cafe there on the
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: Spring or Prince rather and uh. And we walked in
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: and we said, hey, I got John Mayer coming here
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: in twenty minutes. Can we shoot? And they were like, sure,
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 1: we're not open yet. We don't really care, you know,
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: And so we shot for an hour, one camera, one
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: never man, and we just talked about watches, no makeup,
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: no anything, no, you know. His assistant wasn't there, and
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: it just became Internet magic in a bottle, as things
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: can happen, you know, can do well.
• 1:25:48
  Speaker 2: It was very authentic. Here's a guy who's who's a
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 2: rock and roll star. Yeah, this generation's Eric Clapton, singer, songwriter,
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 2: guitarist touring with the Dead Post Jerry.
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 2: And if you find out there's a whole nother dimension
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: to him, is he's really into watching.
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: Oh you you really have no idea?
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 2: So when you record this, you have any idea.
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: This is going to blow up.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 2: Now. Look whereas you're doing you're thinking, oh, this is
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 2: great stuff.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 1: It's John is an amazing person. He's the most well spoken,
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 1: most creative, oddist thinker of anybody Herman. I say that lovingly,
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: like he's just got a different mind than the rest
• 1:26:23
  Speaker 1: of us, truly. And you know, we were recording it,
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: We're like, okay, like this is going to be special
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: for us. But like there's a little watch blog. Three
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: guys sitting in a we work, you know, sure, and
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: uh we put her online and it blows up, I
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 1: mean just explodes. And then from there J. J. Reddick
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: basketball player who was a friend of mine at the
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: time as well still is and said, oh, like I
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: would do that. He was into watches. And then John Goldberger,
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: this great collector, and then as he's I'm sorry, and
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: Jack Nicholas and you know insert. It has just been
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: a run of celebrities.
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 2: Most recently I saw Kevin hartny six, Tobias Harris, I
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 2: just saw that was really kind of yesterday Kermit the Frog.
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: That was what I was going to say. Yesterday we
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: had Kermit the Frog, who I think Trump's everybody.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 2: Ye.
• 1:27:02
  Speaker 1: Celebrity.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 2: I can't say I've ever spotted a time piece on
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 2: his off free and wrists exactly.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: To get them.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 2: Especially so there is a Kermit watch from Warrist that
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 2: and he's out promoting exactly.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was part of that.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 2: So the first of every month instead of a one
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 2: showing a Kermit. So so as long as we're talking
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 2: about it, that was shown it Watches and Wonders twenty
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 2: twenty three.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: What did you guys see? What'd you like?
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 2: Would you think of? Uh?
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: What took place?
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'll say this, this is my second TI
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 3: I'm going to watch his Wonders. I had been to
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: previous iterations of watch shows Bazzle World and Siah. Watches
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 3: and Wonders kind of was the mash up, if you
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 3: will have. Bazzle World and Siah went in dormant for
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 3: few years of course because of COVID. Came back in
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 3: twenty twenty two, and I think it came back with
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: a bang. It was almost like this pent up energy,
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 3: pent up, like just this big release of actual release
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 3: of tons and tons of watches and some really incredible watches.
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 3: I think two through there were some standout watches for sure,
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 3: probably less across the board just wow affect than there
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 3: wasn't twenty twenty two. I think some of that was
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 3: that again builds up post pandemic. I mean for me
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: and I will say this, and he's sitting here right
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 3: next to me, not trying to blow a smoke, but
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: like for me, one of the most special things was
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 3: getting a chance to walk around with Ben. I'd been
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 3: working with him at that point for a little over
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 3: a year. A year prior I was in my third
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 3: week and he had just had his first child, so
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: he wasn't able to attend. He was at home with
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 3: the baby. But walking around with him was really special
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 3: because you see a lot of people who instantly recognize
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: Ben come off to him. These guys, well, they say,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 3: they're like, you're the guy with Kermit the Frog. Now
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 3: they say some version of the reason I'm in the
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 3: industry is because of you, or the reason I fell
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 3: in love with a category is because of you. And
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 3: that's I said something to someone later that week, because
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: eventually it rubs off on you. I have this association
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: with Hodinki now simply by being an employee of the brand.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: For the last year, we host a kind of a
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: community meet up event on the Thursday, the last night
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 3: that many of us were in town, and we just
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 3: did an open invite RSVP through the website through Hodinky,
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 3: so anybody who was in town was welcome to join.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 3: And I must have had a dozen people at least
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 3: saying thank you to me. And I thought, I've never
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 3: had never worked for a brand or a business, and
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 3: I worked for some great brands, I mean Cardier, Louisvistan
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 3: tac Quire. Never had someone come up to me and
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 3: say thank you, and again, credit to this guy who
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 3: started it all that that's the impact he's had, that's
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 3: the effect he's had, and that's the effect Hodinky has
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: had as a manifestation of all that Ben's you know,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 3: created to this point. And now I get to sort
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 3: of be a part of that, to be, you know,
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 3: part of in some ways like serving this broader watch
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 3: community and helping to kind of continue to further curiosity, knowledge, passion, enthusiasm,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 3: and and it's it's really a wonderful feeling for someone
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 3: to come up to you just be like, thank you
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 3: for all that you're doing.
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 1: Huh.
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 3: And we don't take that for granted. I don't take
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 3: that for granted, certainly. I just think that's a really special.
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a rare what struck you at Watches and
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 2: Wonders Besides the Oris kerrment.
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: The Oris kerment was a fun one and I think,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: you know, echoing what Jeff said, it was my first
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 1: time there because a my daughter was born last year
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: and then COVID so three years, so it's been four
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: years since I was in Swiss. You've gone to the
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: ones before, oh for fifteen twenty years. Yeah, So getting
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: back there and seeing people still appreciate what we're still doing.
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: I've been doing this for fifteen years. This is not
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: like a two year old startup. So exciting to feel
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: that energy and that appreciation. Again, definitely in person. But
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: in terms of product, look, Langa, we've talked about a lot.
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: They make some of the best watches on Earth. They
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: introduced one watch and they're only doing one hundred of them,
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: which is crazy. Odysseus Chronograph, It's one hundred and fifty
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars saying.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 2: So flex to launch one that is a flex and
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 2: ps gone girl hated.
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't even never hit.
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 3: It, never hit the shot.
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 2: But by the way, you mentioned the the blue and
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 2: brown Daytona, which came out any other new watches. I mean,
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 2: I understand the entire Tutor thing blew up. I'm not
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 2: a giant Tutor fan. They just feel like they're lesser. Rolexes. Well,
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 2: I know that's blasphemy to say.
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, it's it's not blasphemy, but I understand it.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: I haven't a love Tutors.
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 2: I think at don't have the same proportions. They just
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 2: feel like they're.
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: And I do it too. I tried to. I really was,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: went in to buy put them on, and it just
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: kind of you gotta buy what you like, you know.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: But they had a pretty strong year. Rolex has a
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: new titanium watch, the Hot Master in titanium. I really
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: like that. That's cool that. I like that more than
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: I thought that I would. It's big but lightweight. Patech
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: had a new travel time watch. So wait, you brought
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: this up? Is it possible that? How is it possible?
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 2: Protect Philip has not introduced a brand new watch in
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 2: twenty four years?
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: How is that humanly possible? Well, I mean that's a
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: little bit of parsing of word. They're a little bit
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: and so.
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 2: They're always doing variation. Yeah, so this is a new
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 2: model line, brand new. What other industry could go two
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 2: decades plus and not introduce a new anything.
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: You know, Portia, I mean they haven't. I mean, I
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: guess they did.
• 1:32:07
  Speaker 2: The Taykan, well, the Tykan, the Panamara is fifteen years old.
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 2: The Macan is twelve years old that they've remember. It
• 1:32:16
  Speaker 2: was blasphemy for them to roll out in suv of
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 2: course fifteen years ago.
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: But I mean again, I mean, so like the Tykan,
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, the Cayenne was two was the year two thousand, right,
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 1: so that's twenty three years ago. The Taikan, which is
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: the electric car, was probably what six years ago? Five?
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 2: You know, I think it's less than that.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 3: It's like Paul McCartney, right, he hasn't released an album
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 3: in thirty years, but he can sell out.
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: To read it.
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 2: But if you're a Beetle, right, if you're one of
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 2: the two surviving Beatles, you can probably the tech is
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 2: the tech and I guess that's the parallel. So, since
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 2: since we're talking about cars and I know you have
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 2: to run soon, you spent the pandemic rebuilding three thirty GP.
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 1: A slight, A slight exaggeration of my role in that.
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: So I was I was working with somebody that was
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: helping to do it, So I wasn't rebuilding. This was
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: literally barn find a garage find it. They call her
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: barn find but it was in a garage in Rome.
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: That's all original, all original, untouched. It was on Bloomberg
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: a few weeks ago. My friend Hannah wrote that story.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 2: So he's been a guest here a couple of times,
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 2: so she was actually I actually visited her and Magnus
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 2: in their shop in La It's.
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: So tying it all together. Hannah was actually my editor
• 1:33:26
  Speaker 1: at one of my very first freelance jobs for Forbes exactly,
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: but not for watches. She was editing a literary blog,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: like a book blog. I was writing for that unpaid.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: Oh that's crazy, but I just wanted I wanted to buy. Yeah,
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 1: so she's amazing. But yeah, So I'm really in the cars,
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: and I spent a little bit of time and a
• 1:33:44
  Speaker 1: lot of money doing that during during COVID. But that's
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 1: what I'm into. I'm intofying these things that have direct
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: connections with interesting people and keeping them going.
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 2: What other cars are you playing with?
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: I've got drive an E thirty nine five almost every day,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: so I know.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 2: The spe convertible six. I the last year they made
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 2: the sticks and I couldn't find it. I had to
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 2: fly out to Indianapolis test drive it, and then my
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 2: wife and I drove it home.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: That's fun.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 2: Stopping off at Falling Water is the first day they
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 2: were open for the season.
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: I'm not kidding. I did that in a GT three touring.
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: I stopped off at Falling Water. Yeah, truly.
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 2: I have a client that has a GT three that
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 2: he wanted to sell, and the dealer said, give to us.
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 2: We'll take a twenty percent consignment. I'm like, we know
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 2: people that bring a trailer, let me list it for you.
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: So that's what we're That's that's really funny. GT three
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: stick Ship.
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 2: It was the touring right, no wing, but the stick,
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 2: which is now becoming increasingly rare. We were there the
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 2: first day it was open, and I'm driving this six
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 2: hundred horsepower monster and there's like a light dusting of snow,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 2: so I am like feathering the throttle because with just
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 2: the slightest touch you're going sidew so but it was
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 2: spect what a spectacular place.
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: It really is. Nowhere it really is.
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 2: It's amazing in into Porscha's you know, stuff here and there,
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 2: so a little blasphemy. I have two nine to eleven's.
• 1:35:08
  Speaker 2: One I'm keeping stock. That's a cabrio. By the way,
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 2: before they went crazy, I picked these up for pennies
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 2: and I have so the eighty seven is in a cabrio.
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 2: The I'm sorry, the eighty eight is a cabrio. The
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 2: eighty seven is a three hundred thousand mile car that
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 2: I'm pulling the engine and the transmission out, dropping Tesla
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 2: motor and completely kidder a nine to eleven E with
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 2: Moment Motors in Austin.
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 2: And I've been on the weight so all these guys
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 2: are booked a year, Yeah, Valley, I've been on the
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 2: wait list for almost a year. It goes down to Texas.
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 2: By the time this broadcast, it should be in Texas
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 2: getting a heart transplant. And that's kind of a funny.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: And by the time I'm done, I.
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 2: Would have been able to walk into a dealer and
• 1:35:57
  Speaker 2: say give me that nine to eleven for what this
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 2: will ends up costing. But it'll be the only electric
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 2: nine to eleven in New York by the time It's
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 2: done super cool. So if you're a BMW and a
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 2: Porsche fan, I feel your your your taste. The one
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 2: thing I have to ask in terms of Grail watches,
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 2: so the and I'm not just a longa person, but
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 2: the and I am going to mangle the pronunciation. The
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 2: hand work best stuns anork s guns step tourbiyon. Yeah,
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 2: that just has the numbers and that sort of carved.
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. The aperture at six, Yeah, what the hell does
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: that thing go?
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 2: For?
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: The stage?
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 2: You, by the way, complete you can't see them anywhere.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 2: If I saw one was somewhere at auction I found
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 2: out about afterwards, I would I would ballpark three hundred, okay, yeah,
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 2: and that was eighty ninety when it came out.
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: Probably more. I mean if I know a website that
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: would probably be able to tell you. I think we
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: covered it. I know we covered it.
• 1:36:57
  Speaker 2: When I came out a buck and change, Yeah, I
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 2: would get one forty oh so it's only double.
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: But those are those are the airs thin in that world.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 2: Like I saw one of those go for about two
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 2: hundred about a year ago. And again I'm still wrestling
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 2: with a thirty forty thousand I'll watch two hundred is
• 1:37:14
  Speaker 2: like next level.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just I mean, it's just said earlier, really
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: earliest in this in this session, like it's just applying
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: to man, there's a lot more guys that want a
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: Nautilus or an aquanat yeah, because they know what it is,
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 1: or Daytona. Nobody's ever heard of a Handrick skin turbion
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: from longag even if it is that much.
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, that could be the like if I
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 2: have a rail watch, that's it.
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: And once I do that, then I just you know,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: you've done it. Probably not where do you go from that?
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: I mean that.
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 2: So that's listen, that's the same problem with the Grand
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 2: Longo one. Where do you go from there? It just
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 2: you just struck going full OCD and backfilling and it's crazy.
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: So I have a bone to pick with you guys.
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 2: I'm speaking at some event in Aspen. It was the
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 2: International Luxury real Estate and I've been about real estate
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 2: my whole career. So they invited me, and you know,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 2: they say, get there a day or so early because
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 2: the altitude is you know, you don't want to stand up.
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 2: And if you've been to Vail, it's the same sort
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 2: of thing sor right, I get there, I get a
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 2: day to kill and I go into Aspen and what
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 2: is this a Langan Zone shop? So I go in
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 2: and I see the Langa one, which is their famous
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four watch that's asymmetrical, which was a radical
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 2: departure from Marches, and I think there's just like March April.
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 2: And I get back home and I don't know if
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 2: you've ever experienced this. You see a watch and it
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 2: just starts to haunt you again. Yes, right, we're talking
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 2: about Yeah, I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it.
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 2: I have a big round birthday coming up in October,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 2: and so I make an appointment to go into the
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 2: Langa boutique in New York and I try on the
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 2: longer one and look, I'm not a little guy mill
• 1:39:01
  Speaker 2: What is this a toy?
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: I need a real watch. And so the woman says, oh,
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: we have the grand Langa one, sure, and I try on.
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 2: It wasn't the one I fell in love with, and
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 2: it wasn't the one I ultimately really wanted.
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: But have a bone to pick with you.
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 2: It was it was a Grand Langa but without the
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 2: moonface and that sort of chocolate, silver gray. I don't
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 2: even know how to describe the color. Sure, And so
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 2: I start looking around and looking around, and now I
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 2: find I find the Saxonia with the moonface black watch
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 2: pink face, and I'm waiting on I'm trying to decide
• 1:39:41
  Speaker 2: if I want that, And then I see the platinum
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: Grand Langa one. What is that?
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: Forty one and a half something like that? Yeah, exactly,
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: and and it's on you.
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 2: It's sixty six new but new papers box on Hodinky
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 2: forty two, and I'm trying really hard to wrap my
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 2: head around forty two.
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of money for a watch, yeah, and
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: I can.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 2: Afford it, but it's it's just a lot of money.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 2: So I make the decision.
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 1: I don't remember.
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 2: It was like the end of August or the end
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 2: of September. Hey, my birthday is in October.
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna go.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 2: Get that watch on my birthday, even though it's gonna
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 2: kill me to spend that much money. Yeah, just it's
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 2: I have way too many cars, I have a bud like,
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 2: I'm not afraid to spend money, but to strap a
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 2: BMW on your wrist, you have to mentally brace yourself
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 2: for that so my birthday rolls around and I I'm
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 2: gonna do it, and I go to the whole dinky
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 2: stot gone and not only is it gone, you can't
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 2: find them for sale anywhere. Wow, they just have disappeared.
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 2: I have Buddies on forty seventh Street and I'm like,
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 2: find me a Grand Laga one the I think it's
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 2: the one thirty five twenty five.
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: We should talk off air, yah yah. Yeah.
• 1:40:52
  Speaker 2: So so you can find them new in Switzerland for
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 2: retail and you still have to pay like a nine percent.
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 2: It's insane. So this was my other longa chop which,
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 2: by the way, this is even more dressy than the Platinum.
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 2: That's almost like a sporty version that watch. And I
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 2: don't want to order it from a site I'm not
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 2: familiar with. Ye, And it turns out that the guys
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 2: that have this watch are an Aventura. I'm at a
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 2: different conference in Miami, and I do my gig. I
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 2: come literally off the stage into an uber run to Aventura,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 2: look at the watch. They wouldn't take a credit card,
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 2: but I mean it's a whole room full of well
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 2: if they take a credit card, they could charge a
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 2: credit card for you, blah blah blah. But they weren't
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 2: set up to do it there, and so get home
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 2: wired and the next day the watch showed up. So
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 2: this is my I couldn't get my grin langa one
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 2: but and it was forty two. And I'm like, now,
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 2: how often you kick yourself.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: With ye all the time? Yeah? Runs out all the time.
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 2: We can help get that watch even and the the
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 2: other Daytona. And I don't want to make this all
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 2: about my watch shopping, so so I do this with cars. Yeah,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 2: I have way too many cars. I'll watch a car
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 2: come out, I'll watch the price wobble, and I'm like,
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 2: come to Papa a little lower. And I bought a
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 2: couple of nice things during the beginning of the pandemic
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 2: when people are freaking out, and I'm looking at the
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 2: Daytona in the white, golden blue face, which was I
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 2: think twenty six, twenty eight retail, it was twenty, it
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 2: was nineteen, it was eighteen. I'm buyer at sixteen and
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 2: then the lockdown happens and it's forty five, fifty five,
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 2: sixty five. It just goes nuts. I'm like, for two grand,
• 1:42:43
  Speaker 2: and look.
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: What you did? You free. Nobody ever could have guessed though.
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so hold aside these million dollar watches, these one
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars watches, A newbie interested in watches, how
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 2: did they get involved in watch collecting?
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: Where would you send somebody like that?
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 2: Really?
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, kind of riffing off of something
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 3: Ben said earlier, which is this kind of there's a
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 3: sense of like the imitation culture, like you want something
• 1:43:10
  Speaker 3: because you see other people having. For me, I personally
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 3: think the best way to build a collection is just
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 3: really follow your passion. Get out there, educate yourself, learn read,
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 3: visit a few retailers, you know, maybe maybe check out
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 3: an auction, you know, catalog to see what's what's considered
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 3: to have a history or provenance of Just do your
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 3: research and then ultimately, you know, pick something that.
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: Really speaks to you.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 3: If there's a way to again weave some sort of
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 3: milestone or personal aspect into the watch. I think one
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 3: thing I often think about is, of all the things
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 3: you put on your person, a watch is one of
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 3: the very few that will actually typically have a story
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 3: associated to it, like your sneakers, your jeans, or your
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 3: sweater typically will not. So I don't know, then there's
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 3: something just special about that. Like like Ben said, they're
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 3: sort of like totems of our lives in some way,
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 3: and a collector, I think, you know, we'll always remember
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 3: her his first watch. I think it's just, you know,
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 3: it's worth it to take the time to do the
• 1:44:06
  Speaker 3: research and really wait for that thing that so to
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 3: speaks your name.
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would certainly echo all that, but I
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: would also say listen to actual experts in a field,
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: not the guy you found on YouTube or the gal
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: you found on Instagram or TikTok. There's so many people
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: out there that are purporting to be experts in this space,
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: mostly on social media, YouTube, TikTok, etcetera, that have no idea.
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're just kids that think they understand things.
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 1: And to be clear, I was one of those kids.
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: I've since put in fifteen years to ensure that I'm
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: not one of those kids. And there are people out
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: there that really know watches, and then there are people
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: out there that really don't and pretend to understand the source.
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, going back to journalism school, like know your source,
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: know who's saying what and why, know who's a retailer,
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: of so and so, you know who owns twenty of these,
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: so they're trying to build it up. Really understand why
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: people are saying things that they.
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 2: Are, and any particular brands you would send people, Just
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 2: like I always tell people someone asked me about to watch,
• 1:44:54
  Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, go look at Saco.
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: Say if you're.
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 2: Wrong, YEA, spend four hundred dollars.
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sekos Watch System fifty one self finding watch for
• 1:45:02
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty bucks. We sell them on Hoodinky.
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: They're amazing, they really are.
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 2: And and the next step from there, and then we'll
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 2: go then then Hamilton, Hamilton field Watches really handsome. Wow,
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 2: great watch, solid, solid, long lasting. I agree, all right,
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 2: Now I'm going to take you one last one. I
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 2: keep saying last one. So you go past Hamilton, where
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 2: do you go?
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: Tag tag Hoyer, Uh huh, you know a Tag Hoyer,
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 1: Aqua Racer, a Tag Hoyer, Monaco.
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 2: Even those are great watches. Carreras, they're a little bit
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 2: more money, but great watches. Great, Jeff, anything from.
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 3: You, I would say, you know, I love the Hamilton pick.
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 3: I think the Hamilton field Watch is like a total classic.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 2: I bought their new Krono by the way, is really
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 2: crazy handsome for what it is. Yeah, and very reasonably priced. Yeah.
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 3: I bought the Field watch for my brother and one
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 3: for myself kind of when I joined Hodinky as a
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 3: nice little celebration of that moment. And then if I
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 3: were going to go one level, I'd say the Tutor
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 3: black Bay fifty eight, and we talked a little bit about.
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: Nine to keep up.
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 3: For me, it's perfect kind of size, it's it's a
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 3: great everyday watch.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 2: They have a very vintage vibe to it. That's kind
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 2: of what attracted me to them. Guys, thank you so
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 2: much for such a generous spot with your time. Next
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 2: time we do this, I'll have a camera crew, we'll
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 2: do talking watch U I'll just do I'll just grab
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 2: a dozen watches from people here and thank you guys
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 2: for being so generous with your time. If you enjoy
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 2: this conversation, well, be sure and check out any of
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 2: the previous four hundred and ninety three such discussions we've
• 1:46:28
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• 1:46:33
  Speaker 2: at YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you find.
• 1:46:37
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• 1:46:39
  Speaker 2: Sign up for my daily reading list at ridults dot com.
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• 1:46:50
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• 1:46:52
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• 1:46:57
  Speaker 2: Wold is my producer. Samantha Danziger is my audio engineer.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 2: Sean Russo is my researcher. At Teak of al Bron
• 1:47:05
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• 1:47:09
  Speaker 2: Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.