Latest / What's on Your Riste? A Watch Podcast / S01E19: F.P. Journe: The Watchmaker Who Couldn’t Stop

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S01E19: F.P. Journe: The Watchmaker Who Couldn’t Stop · What's on Your Riste? A Watch Podcast

0:00
There's a workshop in Geneva's Old Town, small by industrial
0:03
standard, a team of watchmakers, maybe 150 people across all of
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their operations. It's a boutique strategy that by
0:11
design, limits how many watches they can sell a year, a wait
0:14
list for like the most sought after pieces.
0:17
They stretch years out. And in the middle of that, there
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is a man who's been making watches since he was 20 years
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old, not overseeing, not directing, making at the bench
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with his hands for 50 years. His name is Francois Paul Jorn,
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and he is, by the reckoning of nearly every serious collector,
0:35
every serious journalist, he's the most important living
0:38
watchmaker in the world. And this episode is about him.
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And it's been coming since episode 13.
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And I hope, I think I'm ready to deliver it in.
0:47
The old brass glow you been the morning thin.
1:09
Welcome back to What's on your We Stay.
1:10
I'm Wachovsky, 18 episodes in. We've been around the world,
1:14
Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, America,
1:17
Japan, Britain. We've covered tool watches and
1:19
philosophy and security in the bloodline of Renault and Papi.
1:23
We've spent an entire episode on Reshef Resheppy, the watchmaker
1:27
who trained with Jorn and absorbed his operational
1:30
philosophy. And through all of it, his name
1:33
has kind of been in the background.
1:35
F Jorn So today, finally, we're here.
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This one matters. Segment one we're going to go to
1:42
we're going to go from Marseille to Paris and really talk about
1:45
the origin now. Franz AA was born in Marseille
1:49
in 1957, and he was, by his own cheerful admission, not
1:54
particularly an engaged student. And he's joked in interviews
1:59
that he might have become a butcher if his cousin hadn't
2:02
been the head of a watchmaking school in Marseille.
2:05
Because after Jorn was expelled from school, his parents needed
2:09
him to They need to put him somewhere, and his cousin's
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school was basically a convenient answer for them.
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And this is, as origin stories go, again, another remarkable
2:19
one. What happened when he arrived at
2:22
the watchmaking school there is something that really matters.
2:25
He found that he was actually really good at this, really good
2:29
at precision work, the mechanical thinking of it all,
2:33
the he had an obsessive attention to tiny tolerances and
2:38
tiny components. And something in in how his mind
2:42
worked seemed to match watchmaking and what watchmaking
2:46
was asking of people who made watches.
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And so he graduated from the Paris watchmaking school in
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1976. And remember, this is someone
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that was actually expelled from school before and he had
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continued his education in the French capital.
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And then he did what most young talented watchmakers of his
3:04
generation did. He went to school or to work in
3:07
an established workshop. Specifically, he went to work
3:10
for his uncle Michelle Jorn, who ran a clock and watch
3:14
restoration atelier in Saint Germain de Prey.
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And that's, it's kind of this historic Paris neighborhood.
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So Michelle Jorn's workshop was not making new watches.
3:25
It was kind of restoring the old ones.
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Antique clocks, important historical pocket watches,
3:30
pieces, you know, by Brigade and Janvier and great watch and
3:35
clock makers of like the 17th and 18th centuries.
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And so Francois Paul, he spent eight years there.
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He learned kind of the deepest history of the craft by handling
3:45
its most important surviving objects.
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And he has said of those years, my 8 year period working with my
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uncle allowed me to discover the origins of watchmaking up to the
3:56
19th century. And it really enabled me to meet
3:59
many important collectors. And while he was there out, you
4:03
know, outside business hours using his uncles workshop and
4:06
tools, when the restoration clients had left, he started
4:10
building something of his own. And he really became fascinated
4:13
by the Turbion, specifically by the extraordinary Turbion pocket
4:17
watches he encountered on the wrists and in the collections of
4:20
clients who brought their pieces into Michelle's workshop.
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And he wanted one. And like many of these
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watchmakers, he, he could not afford 1, so he decided to build
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1. And Jorn started sketching his
4:32
first Turbion at roughly the age of about 20.
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And he also read George Daniels book, but he read the book The
4:39
Art of Brigade, the same George Daniels that we spent time on.
4:44
And other episodes And Daniel's account of Brigade's turbion
4:48
mechanism kind of lit a fire in FP, and he worked on the turbion
4:53
in his uncle's workshop in the evenings and on weekends, but
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alone and by hand for seven years.
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And in early 1983, the watch was finished.
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It was a pocket watch with a turbion and signed FP Jorn Paris
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on the dial. Every single component, the case
5:10
in gold and silver, the movement, the hands, all made by
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Jorn's own hands. And he was 26 years old.
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In 1985, he set up his own workshop in Paris, making these
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bespoke complicated pocket watches for top collectors.
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And the watches that followed an astronomical chronometer
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planetarium clocks with, you know, various spectacular
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complications established his reputation among this small
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group of collectors who were really paying attention.
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And at age, you know, 22, he'd already been commissioned by
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this Parisian atelier to design this planetarium mechanism for
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aspirin in London. And the name again, you're going
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to recognize this from episode 12, the the same aspirin that,
5:53
you know, where Stefan Forzy and Bart Grunfeld did time kind of
5:57
early in their careers. And so by 1991, Jean had made
6:01
his first Turbion watch. And it's the direct ancestor of
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what would eventually become his kind of debut production piece.
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A handful of these watches were sold to collectors who, who knew
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what they were looking at in the watch world, hadn't caught up
6:16
yet with what Francois Paul Jordan was making.
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But boy, oh boy was it about to the segment 2.
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We're going to talk about Geneva 1999 and we're going to call
6:24
this the debut. My subheader for this section
6:28
was I had it is called the founding the subscription and
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then also the beginning of a legend.
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So in 1999, Francois Paul Jorn moved to Geneva, the again the
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watchmaking capital and at Basel world that year again the the
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industry's biggest annual trade show, he launched a brand under
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his own name. Now here comes, you know, we
6:47
stay practicing his his his French.
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So FP Jorn and you're going to have this Latin afterwards.
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Now, as if it wasn't bad enough for me to pronounce French, and
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now I'm going to get into Latin as well.
6:58
So infinite inventit ET ichi, it's INVENIT space ET space
7:06
FECIT. And it basically in Latin means
7:09
invented and made. Now the phrase is stamped on
7:13
every movement Jorn produces. It's not marketing language,
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it's a factual description of his working method and a
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philosophical statement about what watchmaking means to him.
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Jorn designs his watches and he makes them.
7:27
Not in a different building, not by another team.
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The watchmaker who imagines the mechanism is the same watcher
7:34
watchmaker who's responsible for the workshop that produces it.
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So his debut, Torbian Sobran is it's it's offered by
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subscription, like subscription, right?
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Meaning that collectors commit to the purchase before the
7:49
watches are made. 20 pieces. And then the movement features
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something that at the time, no wristwatch Turbion had ever
7:57
incorporated a a Remitoir Egalite.
8:00
And it's basically a constant force mechanism.
8:02
So let me explain what that means, even though I can't
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pronounce it because it it matters for everything that's
8:07
going to follow. It's so the mainspring, as it
8:10
unwinds it, it delivers diminished torque to the
8:13
movement, meaning that as the the mainspring, when you wind it
8:16
all the way up, it has the most amount of torque.
8:18
And then as that mainspring slowly unwinds and uncoils
8:22
itself, it has progressively less torque.
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OK. And so this diminished torque on
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the movement is problematic. And so a gear train works to
8:31
regulate this problem. And so an escapement is trying
8:35
to compensate for this problem. But the variation there is real.
8:39
And so a fully wound watch, for example, keep slightly different
8:42
time typically than a watch that's wound, you know, halfway
8:46
and 3/4 of the way and so on. And so watchmakers have known
8:50
this problem for centuries. And so the Roman Soir he
8:54
designed solves this. It's a small secondary spring.
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It's wound periodically by the mainspring.
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Now this delivers power to the escapement in these identical
9:05
pulses, but it does it every second.
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And so the escapement actually never sees the varying torque of
9:11
the mainspring. It only sees constant even force
9:14
of the secondary spring. And so the result is that the
9:16
escapement runs much more accurately.
9:19
And it's that every state of winding, it's exactly the same.
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And so Jorn put a Roman Soir in his first production wristwatch.
9:27
And no one had ever combined a tour beyond with a Roman Soir in
9:30
a wristwatch before. And he did it in 1999.
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This was his debut. Like, hey, dudes, I'm just going
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to show up and and and show you this right.
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And so this is his subscription pieces.
9:41
They they sold out and again collector's notice.
9:43
And then something very unusual happened.
9:45
The early FP Jorn watches as the the subscription, the Torvion,
9:49
the subarine, the first Octa pieces.
9:51
They were made with movements like in brass, like most
9:54
watchmakers. And then Jorn made a decision
9:56
that the entire history of watch modern watchmaking no other
10:00
manufacturer at scale has replicated.
10:02
He switched all of his movements to 18 karat rose gold.
10:05
Like not just the visible bridges, like all of the plates,
10:09
all of the bridges, every single gear, every component that could
10:13
be made in gold is made in gold. Now movement components in 18
10:16
karat gold in in production watches is not like a it's it's
10:21
not like a one off like but but why gold has different
10:25
mechanical properties than brass.
10:27
It is more stable against temperature fluctuations.
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It doesn't corrode. It is, on the other hand,
10:33
softer, which actually can improve behavior of certain fine
10:36
components. And this is the part that makes
10:38
kind of watchmakers genuinely sort of pause.
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It is kind of beautiful in a way that brass simply is not.
10:44
And Jorn, you know, a Jorn movement under a case back looks
10:48
completely different in this sort of material sense from any
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other production watch in the industry.
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And again, no one else does this at any price and the cost alone
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again is prohibitive for most brands.
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Jorn decided that it's this is a non negotiable whatever the the
11:03
price of gold is at the time, right?
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People know that gold prices and precious metals prices have kind
11:08
of gone crazy in the last last five years or so.
11:10
That decision made in like the mid 2000s is a definitive
11:14
statement of his values as anything else that he's ever
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done or said before. It's saying that there there are
11:22
no compromises here. OK, now we're going to get into
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the resonance. This is a mechanism that kind of
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defines him. And I think it's kind of the
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most important watch in the Jorn catalog for understanding this
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person, kind of a technical, but not necessarily, you know, the
11:37
human component of it. So we're going to get into this
11:39
as well. OK, so now the watch that in my
11:41
view most completely captures FP Jorn is is a what they're about
11:46
is not the Torbian, it's the Chronomet Resonance is launched
11:51
in 2000 and still the most technically singular watch in
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regular production anywhere in the world and makes kind of
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explain what I'm going to talk about here.
12:01
So the resonance uses this phenomenon observed by the Dutch
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mathematician Christian Hygens. And that was in like 1665.
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A Hygens noticed that two pendulum clocks hung on the wall
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over time synchronized their swings.
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Their oscillations would couple influence each other through the
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shared mechanical connections of the wall until they were beating
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basically in precise opposition, not randomly synchronizing,
12:27
opposite synchronization. And so like 2 partners breathing
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one in, one out, sort of like me sitting in a room in a vacuum
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with a tree, right? I'd breathe in, I'd breathe in,
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it would breathe out. I would breathe out, it would
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breathe in. And so Hikens recognized this as
12:41
this kind of a precision advantage.
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If one clock was running slightly faster than the other,
12:47
slightly slower, the residence between those two would pull
12:50
them toward the correct rate and the errors would cancel
12:54
themselves out. OK, now let's get into antit.
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Jean Vie and Abraham Louis Brigade both.
13:04
Both of these people experimented with resonance
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clocks and pocket watches in the 18th century and the principle
13:11
was understood, but no one had made it work reliably in a
13:14
wristwatch because wristwatches they they move constantly.
13:17
They're on they're on your wrist and they're moving through space
13:21
and at different angles and and work Dum Dums and we bump them
13:24
against stuff right. So the conditions for these kind
13:27
of stable resonance systems that worked in like a wall mounted
13:31
clock, for example, that seemed pretty impossible to replicate
13:34
on something that a human arm would wear that was moving
13:38
around. And Jorn, again, like like most
13:40
of our folks that we've covered in this podcast, they're
13:43
obsessive. Jordan spent 15 years figuring
13:46
out how to do this and he placed two independent balance wheels
13:50
in very close proximity on on a single case.
13:54
And they were close enough that the tiny air pressure variations
13:58
that were created by each balance oscillation, the spring
14:01
expanding and contracting, kind of think of it as breathing in
14:04
and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out,
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they could actually influence each other's balance.
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And when the conditions were just right, the two balances
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synchronized but in opposite phase oscillations beating
14:16
against each other, not with each other.
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And the precision benefit that Huygens observed in like the
14:22
1600s and his clocks was now applied on the wrist.
14:26
So the practical result, if your wrist movement accelerates 1
14:30
balance, the resonance effect will slow it back down.
14:34
And if the temperature changes effects one, the shared
14:37
oscillation will correct it. And the two balances keep each
14:40
other honest. It's a check and balance.
14:42
It's a yin and Yang. It's a husband and a wife right
14:45
on your wrist. And there's again, there's no
14:48
single balance that can achieve this alone.
14:51
And so when you look at a residence dial, it has two sets
14:54
of sub dials, one for each balance, each with its own time
14:58
display local time on one side and typically what you'll see is
15:02
a second time zone on the other. And the the symmetrical layout
15:06
is really unmistakable when you look at it.
15:08
You are looking at the visible expression of an invisible
15:13
physical phenomenon. You're looking at resonance and
15:16
the subscription resonance pieces that have sold at
15:19
Phillips Auctions for like over 1,000,000 Swiss francs.
15:23
Those are crazy. The current caliber 1520 that
15:26
was released in 2020 for the 20th anniversary adds a single
15:30
mainspring with a differential. The visible, it's visible on the
15:34
center of the dial and it's splitting power equally to both
15:38
going trains and it adds it because it wasn't more
15:40
complicated enough, right? They're going to add a rum and
15:43
soir to each going train as well.
15:45
And so the 2020 Residents has 1 barrel, 1 differential, 2 going
15:49
trains, 2 rum and soirs to balance wheels.
15:52
And it's all snuck into a wristwatch somehow.
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And I want you to sit with this for a second.
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Again, 1 barrel, 1 differential, 2 going trains, 2 rim and toirs,
16:01
2 balance wheels. Again in a wristwatch.
16:04
It's not like a demonstration piece.
16:05
This isn't like a concept, like a one off.
16:07
This is like a watch that you can order in platinum or rose
16:10
gold and actually have this watch on your wrist.
16:12
And it's a watch that's built around the mechanism that
16:15
brigade theorized and Francois Paul Jorn spent 15 years making.
16:20
This is what this guy does. Now Segment 4, I'm going to get
16:23
into this, so I'm going to call this the the collection or
16:25
guided tour. We're going to take a walk, but
16:27
it's going to be a brisk walk. But you should know some of
16:30
these names. And again, I, I will do my best
16:32
with the pronunciation, but just bear with me and I apologize to
16:36
my, my brothers in, in Switzerland.
16:38
I, I'm doing my best here. So let me talk you through the
16:41
Jorn collection because I think it deserves this sort of guided
16:44
tour. So the tour beyond so brain is
16:46
their, their first piece, their flagship, the tour beyond with
16:48
the Roman Soir, the the current. They currently feature this kind
16:53
of vertical turbion cage and they were redesigned in the 20th
16:57
century, the 20th century in the 20th anniversary to ensure
17:01
consistent amplitude weather. The watch was laying had on its
17:04
side. The movement again is 18 karat
17:06
gold and the prices start well above €150,000 right then they
17:11
have the chromat silver rain. This is kind of like the
17:13
everyday Jorn if if there is such a thing as an everyday
17:16
Jorn, the time only watch with a very distinctive asymmetric
17:20
layout and the hour and a minute dial they're offset to the
17:23
right, small seconds is to the left and the power reserve is
17:26
above no complications beyond like a regulator style display
17:30
on the kind of like and this just outstanding precision.
17:33
And this is the piece most Jorn collector collectors have the
17:37
geoche, a silver dial blued hands, rose gold movement
17:42
visible through the case back and they start somewhere around
17:44
the €50,000 for like the new examples.
17:47
And they are considerably more on secondary market again, if
17:51
you can even get them retail now they have the Karna Metz
17:54
residence and that is the crown jewel of the collection again,
17:58
in my opinion. We just told kind of the story
18:01
of the dual oscillators. Constant force resonance to
18:04
ongoing trains, most technically distinctive watch in regular
18:07
production anywhere in the world.
18:08
Then there's also the Octa family.
18:10
Jorn's self winding automatic watches, the Octa automatic.
18:14
It's kind of their entry level automatic again, if there is, if
18:17
there is such a thing in Jorn, the Octa Loon, which adds a moon
18:21
phase. There is a calendar version
18:23
which is a complete calendar. They have the UTC, which has a
18:25
second time zone. And so the Octa family has this
18:28
specific characteristic that collectors love.
18:31
There is this eccentric time display.
18:33
It's offset from the center that allows room for other functions,
18:37
all automatic, all rose gold movements.
18:39
Again, the Octa is where many Jorn collectors begin their
18:42
relationship with the brand. And there's also the centigraph.
18:46
And so when you look at the the the chronograph again, this is
18:50
accurate to one 100th of a second and is displayed by a
18:55
second hand that completes it's 1 revolution every six seconds.
18:59
Most kind of graphs are they measure kind of 110th of a
19:03
second. Jorns does one 100th of a second
19:06
without a split seconds mechanism.
19:09
They do it through a pure gear train architecture.
19:12
And again, these these folks won the GPHG Chronograph Prize in
19:16
2009. And now we're going to get into
19:18
one that I think is is unique as well.
19:20
They have the Sonori Subarin, and this is Jorn's grand
19:23
complication, A striking watch that chimes the hours, quarters
19:28
and minutes when you want it to on demand.
19:31
They're produced in very tiny quantities.
19:32
The prices are on request, which is, you know, painful.
19:35
And it's one of the most complex Sonori mechanisms in modern
19:38
watchmaking. And they also have this thing
19:40
called the line sport. It's the sportier titanium case
19:43
version of the collection. Same mechanical philosophy, more
19:47
approachable aesthetics, still with rose gold movements inside
19:51
the, you know, every piece in the collection is made in like
19:54
3840 or 42mm platinum or 18 karat gold cases, leather straps
20:00
or metal bracelets. Boutique retail, typically only
20:03
annual production is around 900 watches per year, and that's
20:06
across the entire range. So for context, you know.
20:09
The Rolex makes roughly in the 1st 20 minutes of a Monday
20:13
morning. That's what that's what FB Jorn
20:15
is going to make in the entire year, right?
20:17
So Jorn has no interest in making more than that.
20:20
They have been explicit about this as well.
20:22
And so I think it's for me for context, I think it's just, it's
20:25
fascinating. They don't want to make more
20:27
watches. They're explicit about this.
20:29
The the workshop is sized in a way that it is produced and it's
20:33
designed in a way that is doing exactly what they want it to be
20:36
able to do. OK, so now let's get into the
20:39
next section, Section 5, Segment 5 is Jorn on Jorn, and I'm going
20:44
to call this the philosophy section.
20:46
So the man's own words and his way of thinking about
20:49
watchmaking, I think you know what makes him distinctive
20:52
beyond just like the technical component.
20:54
So I'm going to do my best to tell you what makes Francois
20:57
Paul Jorn distinctive in a way that goes beyond his movements
21:01
because you know, there are other great watchmakers out
21:04
there. There are other people producing
21:06
technically extraordinary watches.
21:08
What makes Jorn who he is in his hobby goes, I think, well beyond
21:12
that. And the most almost
21:14
constitutionally opposed to pretension.
21:17
And I think this is interesting as well.
21:20
In an industry that's built on the careful management of
21:23
mystique, Jorn tends to say what he actually thinks.
21:26
He's funny in the way that people who are supremely
21:30
confident in their work can be funny with this kind of dryness
21:34
that lands because he's earned the right to be dry.
21:37
And again, when we talk about, you know, when he was asked
21:40
about Rashep Rashepi again, who we discussed in episode 13,
21:44
trained under a Jorn Wright himself before he founded
21:47
Akribia, he said that Rashep was his favorite young watchmaker.
21:50
And then again, he added now that especially that he stopped
21:53
copying me. And again, that line, that's the
21:55
whole man and just a handful of words.
21:57
He loves the young watchmaker He trained, you know, trained
22:01
enough to call him his favorite. He's self possessed enough to
22:05
frame it as a compliment to himself, right?
22:08
And I think he's talked about what drove him to make watches
22:12
and terms that sound like more of a novelist than an engineer.
22:16
You know, he wanted to own a Turbian.
22:19
He couldn't afford 1, so he decided to take the path that he
22:22
was going to make one for himself.
22:24
That's not the language of a technician optimizing production
22:27
process. That's a language of someone
22:29
who's genuinely haunted by by an object that he couldn't possess.
22:33
And so he wanted to own one and whose path to possession was to
22:38
make something from nothing. That's kind of the orientation
22:41
toward the objects, towards something itself rather than
22:44
toward the market or positioning or brand strategy.
22:48
And this is what I think the Invenet a seat or Faqit actually
22:54
means in practice. He invented it because he wanted
22:57
to know if something was possible.
22:59
He makes this stuff because it's the only way he knows how to
23:03
properly understand what he's inventing.
23:06
He has to do it from scratch. He doesn't want to purchase it
23:08
from Atelier or someone else making them and then put them
23:10
into his movements. He wants to make them.
23:12
And there's a line from FP Jorn's own website that has kind
23:15
of stayed with me. And if we talk about things
23:17
haunting me, this is kind of one that haunts me.
23:19
He talks about his time and his uncle's restoration workshop
23:22
handling, you know, great historical pieces.
23:24
And he says that this period allowed him to, quote, meet many
23:28
important collectors, but also to understand, quote, origins of
23:32
watchmaking. No, not the history of
23:35
watchmaking, the origins, the thing the craft was reaching for
23:40
before commerce and scale and branding arrived.
23:43
Jorn spent 50 years trying to get back to those origins by
23:48
making watches that are fully thought out, that are fully
23:52
thought through. And this is the part that gets
23:54
me is that they are fully made by the same person who invented
23:58
them and who imagined them. That's what that means.
24:01
And that is, I think in the end, why we've spent, you know,
24:04
going, building up to 19 episodes to get to this point
24:07
because I didn't feel like I was worthy to even discuss this
24:10
material. I felt like the I wasn't going
24:13
to be able to provide ample respect for what this person has
24:17
done. And I'm hoping again, I think
24:20
maybe after 19 or you know, the end of the first season as it
24:23
comes to a close, I'm hoping that somehow my voice is going
24:26
to come through and in a respect for what this person is doing,
24:29
the segment 7, why Jorn matters, you're also going to know that I
24:33
left out a section about Jorn in regard to the court section.
24:36
We can get into the quartz watches as well and how
24:38
magnificent those watches are. But I'm going to stick to to the
24:42
ones that I know the most about South.
24:44
Again, the show's argument I want to explain this to.
24:46
So I'm going to pull some threads together hopefully and
24:48
I'm going to connect Joran back to what this show is really
24:50
about. So let me kind of make the full
24:51
argument now. So in episode 10, we talked
24:54
about Hedonia and Eudaimonia, the watches that make you happy
24:57
and the watches that make you, you.
24:58
We said that a healthy collection has both, but that
25:02
the most meaningful watches the ones whose value lives entirely
25:06
inside of you and what you understand them to be.
25:08
In episode 11, we talked about Rolex, the brand whose value
25:12
lives in kind of a significant part in the recognition what the
25:16
watch says about the world around you.
25:18
In episode 12 and 13, we trace bloodlines to Renault and Poppy
25:22
through Google, Forzi and the Gronofels and Pequine, and then
25:25
to snuck in Resheppe. Resheppe and the watchmaker
25:29
whose pieces are really invisible to anyone outside of
25:33
this hobby, who's really in deep and whose entire value lives in
25:37
what you know, what the wearer knows.
25:39
And now, as you know, we've come kind of full circle to episode
25:43
19 and we get to FP Jorn. FP Jorn to me is the connective
25:48
tissue of the independent watchmaking world.
25:50
The Gronofelds came from Manoa. Papi Rashef came from Jorns own
25:54
workshop. Philippe Dufour, whom you know,
25:57
the Crador Micro artist studio folks had traveled to
26:01
Switzerland to learn from, is Jorn's peer and contemporary.
26:04
And the network of the finest watchmakers in the world runs
26:07
through a handful of people. And it does seem to me, as I
26:10
look and I step back and I do more homework, Jorn seems to be
26:14
this central node. He's the answer to the question
26:17
of this show that we've been circling since the very first
26:20
episode. What does a watch actually mean?
26:24
A Jorn watch means that one person with a formal education
26:28
that was interrupted by expulsion.
26:30
I'm sorry, Francois, for bringing that up with a family
26:34
connection. Who gave him a second chance
26:36
with eight years spent handling the greatest watches of the
26:40
third of three centuries in Paris in a restoration workshop
26:44
and then decided at age 20 that he wanted to build a torbion and
26:48
then spent seven years building it and then 15 more years
26:52
building everything else that followed.
26:55
That is what a watch can mean. Not a logo, not a wait list, not
26:59
a secondary market multiple, just one person's obsession made
27:04
physical, handed to another person who wears it on their
27:07
wrist for decades. Invenit ET bekit invented and
27:12
made. That's the argument.
27:14
That is what this show has been building toward.
27:17
All right, I hope that that that landed OK, Segment 7, we're
27:20
going to get into what's what's next.
27:22
And also known as the Season 1 finale.
27:25
This is a teaser for episode 20. And again, I hope that this
27:30
comes across as warm but also anticipatory of just one my
27:33
appreciation and then also excitement to bring a Season 1
27:37
to a close. I am honored to be able to do
27:39
this. So next week is the season
27:41
finale of What's on Your Reese Day.
27:43
Season 1 so far has had 19 episodes.
27:46
We've been to Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, France,
27:49
America, Japan, Britain, and we have this growing arsenal of
27:54
followers now across the globe, which is just, it's nuts.
27:57
And we've talked about philosophy and security and
28:00
vintage washes. We've talked about the
28:02
psychology of buying a Rolex in the, the, the mechanics of
28:05
Spring Drive and the story of a refugee from Kosovo who grew up
28:09
to make the most quietly extraordinary watches on earth
28:12
and a French watchmaker who trained him.
28:15
And so next week, before we close this season out, I want to
28:18
hear from you. And so the second-half of
28:21
episode 20 is going to be something that I, I, I shuddered
28:24
to do and not do, but I'm going to do something that I, I know
28:28
some podcasters just hate and other ones just build their
28:31
livelihood on. So I'm going to sneak it just as
28:33
1/2 of an episode, OK, It's going to be my listener mail
28:36
section. These are the letters or
28:38
messages that I've gotten that have come in things about like
28:41
Hedonia and Eudaimonia, stories from like episode 10, the Rolex
28:46
friend confession from episode 11, the I once saw the Shep in
28:50
person and this is what it was like.
28:52
I actually got one of those stories, which is pretty cool.
28:54
Episode 13, the British watchmakers and then episode 18
28:59
and everything else that has just been generous from people
29:02
to send me. So I just I'm really excited.
29:04
So I'm I'm going to read some of them on air.
29:06
I'm going to respond to some of them and I'll let you as the
29:09
community kind of speak as well. Now, this show has always been
29:14
about conversation, not just the brands and the movements and
29:17
stuff, but really not going beyond just the history.
29:20
But I really like to talk about the people who love this hobby
29:24
so much that they made watches that mean something to them, and
29:28
then they share them with us. So the first half of the finale
29:31
is going to be this reflection on the season.
29:33
It will be what the show has been and what we've learned.
29:36
And they were. I think Season 2 is going to go
29:40
and there are some places that we haven't been yet, some makers
29:43
that we obviously haven't covered, some conversations that
29:45
we haven't even started yet. And so I'm going to do my best
29:48
to kind of map out what that looks like.
29:49
But the second-half of the episode is going to really
29:51
belong to you. It's going to be a this moment
29:54
where if you you know, we have a letter, a story, a memory, a
29:57
question, a collection update, a watch you've been wearing since
30:00
episode 3. This is the moment where you'll
30:02
send it to me. OK, And we're going to use, you
30:05
know, use the contact information
30:07
restayristepodcast@gmail.com to send me information.
30:11
And again, I'll read some of those ones on air.
30:14
Now one season again, 20 episodes of hopefully I'll do my
30:17
best to close it out the right way.
30:18
OK, so that has been episode 19 of what's on your restay in this
30:21
episode. If you gave you something, if
30:23
you and if you one can afford an FB Jorn or if you've ever seen
30:28
one in person or if you simply look up the residence and it
30:30
just you get to sit with it for a second online.
30:32
That's the right response to Francois Paul Jorn for the seven
30:36
years in that Parisian workshop outside of business hours.
30:39
For the turbion you built at 20 because you couldn't afford to
30:43
buy one. For the Rose gold movements when
30:45
everyone else said brass is fine.
30:48
For the residence, which took 15 years to work, for training
30:52
Reshep. For the quote about Reshep.
30:54
For all of it. This hobby is unimaginably
30:57
richer because you never stopped.
30:59
I'm watch Offski, take care of yourselves and wear something
31:01
good. And if that's an FPG or in,
31:03
goodness gracious you, you are too.
31:06
You're too fancy for this podcast.
31:08
Have a great day. When the old brass glow you bend
31:27
the morning thin little rooms of steel where the minutes sleep
31:35
within tiny moonlit screws and a patient hand.
31:42
You turn a silent world till it learns to stand. 1 ring, then 2.
31:48
The air links in. I hear the this beneath your
31:53
grin. Make it last.
32:01
Hold the past tick by tick. You call it homes ones from bone
32:10
to Chrome. From Bone to Chrome.
32:25
When your bench shat down, there's a thin gold line, a
32:29
wheel, a gem, and a stolen kind of time.
32:32
You don't chase the rush, you coax it near.
32:37
Every little bee comes back crystal clear. 1 ring.
32:41
Then too, the air leans in. I hear the hush beneath your
32:47
queen. Make it last.
32:55
Hold the past. Stick by pick.
32:58
You call it home. Zone, zone from bomb to Chrome.
33:04
Let the day run the wild at the shake you keep the heart from a
33:24
final break. No wasted shine or borrowed
33:29
face, Just the steady art of a perfect place.
33:39
Make it fast, hold the past tick by tick.
33:46
You call it home from bond crown, keep the flame sign your
33:58
name. One small pulse and it feels
34:01
like more.