Drafting High-End Watches With A Sense Of Adventure – A TGN Special With Collective Horology

Published on Fri, 04 Nov 2022 08:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

This podcast episode features a collaboration between The Graynado and Collective Horology, where they discuss Collective Horology's new watch collaboration with Armin Strom, called the P3. Asher Rapkin, one of the founders of Collective Horology, joins the hosts to talk about the inspiration and design details behind the P3, which is a limited edition watch based on Armin Strom's Gravity Equal Force platform. They also participate in a fun "draft" of high-end watches with an adventurous spirit, each picking three watches and sharing their rationale for their selections.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to a special presentation of The Graynado in partnership with Collective Horology. This episode is the first of a new concept for TGN that will allow us to collaborate with the people and the brands that we like to produce standalone special episodes that we can offer to all of our listeners. James, we're pretty excited to introduce this format to TGN, wouldn't you say?
James Yeah, we sure are. It's been kind of a long time coming, kind of workshopping it. And this largely only exists because we haven't had a lot of success with ads in the past, especially because they always felt like kind of a break in the entertainment of the show itself. Even when it was one of our voice reading the ad copy, I just didn't like doing it. I didn't like the way it sounded. I liked it even less when I went to edit it later. Add into that the fact that the standard episodes of TGN are now entirely listener supported, so that's your normal four episodes a month and then the Q&A, and we figured it was best to try something kind of more, a bonus episode brought to you by a special sponsor. As such, this episode is brought to you by Collective Horology, and we're thrilled to introduce Asher Rapkin, who is one of the founders of Collective. Welcome, Asher. How's it going?
Asher Rapkin Hey guys, it is really, really nice to be here. And I have to say, I'm excited for you in this format in particular. I've spent 22 years of my life working in advertising, so that could be a fun conversation on its own.
James You know, we touched base back at Wind Up Chicago, and you guys had kind of an interesting collaboration, which as of the moment this episode is available, you can go to CollectiveHorology.com and actually see the new watch, a collab with Armin Strom. And we're going to get into a bunch of details about that. And you guys want to do some ads and we kind of said like, no, we don't do ads. And then you're like, well, what do you do? And that kind of led us down this road. You know, I think of it like the Colgate hour, if you remember from the fifties, but instead of the Colgate hour for this time, it's, you know, it's, it's the collective horology hour and it's a special presentation from you guys. So we get to talk a little bit about what you guys have going on and then we're going to have a, a really fun draft. And to say really fun, I'm like legitimately excited. Cause you know, when Jason and I draft watches, it'll be, your one watch option, your watches under $1,000, your maybe a dream collection or something like that. And this is just... Yeah, this blows the roof off. Yeah, full on like we said, high-end watchmaking with an adventurous spirit. But I do think that the kind of natural place to start is there's probably a chance that there's some folks in our audience that don't know collective horology really well. Do you want to give us a little bit of background on how it started and the kind of special thing that you guys bring to watch enthusiasm?
Asher Rapkin Yeah totally. So my partner and my oldest and my best friend Gabe we founded this company in 2018 and released our first watch in 2019 around the idea that we wanted to create collaborations for enthusiasts. And over the last three years or so we've we've done that releasing a wide range of watches at all various different price points with all manner of different makers all held together by really two things. a desire to use watchmaking as a canvas for storytelling and to expand everybody's horizons. And I don't mean that facetiously because obviously everybody, you know, goes on their own watchmaking journey. But our hope is that we can open people's eyes to new watches and new makers that they may never have considered before. So as such, we create collaborations in partnership with brands that we admire. And that's everybody from Zenith to Josh Shapiro, an American watchmaker, most recently IWC, one of my most admired brands, Urwerk, and now a brand that I'm madly in love with, Armand Strom. And each of these watches are available first to folks that we call members, who are people who participate in our community, who are folks who have invested in a collective watch in the past, as well as new members that want to join and are interested to find out what we will be making in the future. So that's what we do. It's grown, I think, from a passion project for Gabe and I into literally what we go to bed thinking about, what we wake up thinking about, which is probably not all that different from the way most collectors approach watch collecting.
James I mean, it's pretty similar to the way that what's happened with TGN for Jason and I. This was something we kind of did to fill a day or to have something out in the world. And because we like chatting with each other and it's become something really cool with kind of a really fun group of people behind it. And I think they'll connect with the watches. I know I met you and Gabe quite a long time ago, it would have been, when did the Zenith come out? It was mid 2019?
Asher Rapkin It was, it was, it was fall of 2019. And that was my first time coming into the Houdinki offices, which, you know, as somebody, I mean, I, I grew up watch collecting, you know, just at the end of the forum age, um, and just at the beginning of, um, you know, the growth of like mainstream watch media. Uh, so yeah, you know, going up, going up the stairs and knocking on the door and there's the little H and the whole thing, you know, it's, uh, it was cool. It was, it was incredible to go in there.
James It's always nice to see you and Gabe whenever we manage to be in the same part of the world at the same time. Usually that seems like it's Geneva. And then, of course, being 2019, there was a big break there. So, you know, we got to catch up earlier this year and then again to see you pop up in Chicago with Windup. And you were just at Windup New York, right?
Asher Rapkin We were. And actually, you're reminding me, you pointed, Gabe and I, when we bumped into you in Geneva, to the coolest watch that I saw that I believe you said was one of the coolest watches you saw. which was that absolutely bonkers Van Cleef and Arpels automaton, the flower automaton. The garden flower one. Yeah. Incredible.
Jason Heaton So big thank you for turning me on to that. So, uh, so Asher, you know, I mean, until, until you guys at a collective come out with your, your Van Cleef, uh, uh, collaboration, um, let's, let's, let's talk, let's talk a little bit about the, uh, the Armand Strom collaboration. Cause it's, it's a really cool piece. And I think when you showed it to us, you know, you'd mentioned that, that you kind of felt like this was a watch that, that was, along the lines of a TGN thing, you know, like something we might appreciate. And certainly it is, it's, it's a really cool piece. First of all, why don't you tell us a little bit why you partnered with them, how that came about and, and then kind of get into the nitty gritty about the, the watch itself, you know, its specs and special elements.
Asher Rapkin Totally. So I, I became aware of Armin Strom a couple of years ago and I went in, I think as somebody who is a little bit of a complication nerd. So I was attracted to their resonance watches, which, Yeah. And I think that, you know, I think that's kind of what gets a lot of people's attention with them, but, um, it was outside my price range and, you know, as, as so many things in watches are, so I kind of just filed it away and was watching. And over the years, um, I became more and more curious about what they were doing, because what I realized is that Armstrong is one of those manufacturers that forces you to rethink the way that you look at hoterology. You know, for me, hoterology has often been defined as like incredible high complications, ludicrously well-finished watches, And that's certainly true of what you can find with Arm & Strom, but it's almost inverted in the sense that while all their watches carry that, they're really focused in an incredibly nerdy technical way on precision watchmaking in a way that other high-end watchmakers certainly pay attention to, but they don't make it core to their ethos in the way that Arm & Strom does. The watch that we're going to talk about In a few minutes, the Gravity Equal Force, which is the platform on which we based our next collaboration, the P3, is so incredibly technically dorky, and I mean that with nothing but passion and love, that it made me re-approach what attracts me to high-end horology. And that's on top of their unique aesthetic. I mean, anybody who's listening, if you are unfamiliar with Arm & Strom, definitely do some Google image searching and check it out. You'll see the aesthetic of the company is incredibly distinct. It's one of those few brands I think you can see a brand and if you could see a watch and if you erase the marquee, you'd still identify the watch as an Armand Strom. And then on top of it, I know this may not necessarily matter in, you know, to everybody, but they're just genuinely lovely human beings. And when you have the opportunity to collaborate with someone creatively, it's not just about the strength of the brand or how cool the watches are or the technical or aesthetic abilities. It's also, how much you actually enjoy working with them.
Jason Heaton So you saw the Gravity Equal Force, um, initially as a, as a watch that you admired and then you approached Armstrong and said, Hey, can we do a special edition of that, that watch particularly?
Asher Rapkin Not exactly. So I actually bought a Gravity Equal Force two years ago from, um, a good friend of mine, uh, Pietro, who owns a company called the Limited Edition, which if you're not familiar with, by the way, is a retailer out in the UK who is just, if you want to go down the independent rabbit hole, I don't know of anyone better. Not only is Pietro a cool dude, the breadth of his, stock is incredible. And he did a piece, actually, a limited edition, if you will, with Armstrong that I really was attracted to. And I bought it from him. And I fell in love with the watch. And that was kind of what pushed us over the edge to approach them. We generally don't approach a brand and say we want to work with a specific platform or specific watch. We try to have the concept lead us to what watch to work with, rather than doing it the other way around. We've tried it that way, but it can be a limiting factor, frankly, if you go and say, we want to make, you know, the best blank, or we want to do X, Y, or Z, you're sort of automatically cutting yourself off at the knees. So when we approached them, we told them a bit about what we wanted to do, and we offered some creative territory, which is how we work. We don't come with designs. We don't say, you know, please make this. We say, here are some creative areas and territories that we think would be rich and fun to explore. And then we allow the watchmakers to do their job and come back and propose designs that fit within the vernacular of that brand on the platform that makes the most sense. So I think Gravity Equal Force made a lot of sense for the concept of what we built. And also, you know, I think made sense for the parameters of what we wanted to bring to market because, you know, make no mistake, these are expensive watches. The watch that we did is $25,000, you know, so we wanted to also make sure that we were making something that was attainable, relatively speaking, within the Armstrong line as they make watches all the way up into six figures. So while we didn't specify a product, we did say, you know, we want to keep this watch at under X dollars, but we are open to which of the models in that price range would, would do that.
Jason Heaton And tell us, let's jump into the specifics about this particular watch. Tell us a little bit about the specs and kind of what you really like about it.
Asher Rapkin Let's do that. Let's talk about the technology here and then we can we can get into the creative. So the thing that's particularly cool about Gravity Equal Force, and I'll add that if you are unfamiliar with or if I'm doing a bad job of explaining this, you can go to the Armstrong YouTube channel and you will get a much better technical explanation. So I apologize in advance to any watchmakers listening to this. So the idea here is essentially to create a stop work declutch mechanism that's built into the barrel, which essentially allows for more consistent energy as the mainspring unwinds. Now I'll translate what that means. In essence, you have an automatic watch and an automatic watch generally has a rotor, right? And that rotor winds the mainspring in the barrel. And that essentially provides the power necessary to sustain the watch. And as we all know, over time, as your watch winds down, there's less power that's provided to the watch, which can affect the accuracy of that watch. So that's why if your watch has 10% power left in the power reserve, it may not be as accurate as when it has 90% of power in the power reserve. So to address this, to ensure that anytime this watch is running, it is telling accurate time, there is a mechanism that's built into the barrel that will essentially stop the watch when there's not enough energy to keep it running at the most accurate spec. And there's sort of two benefits to that. One is this incredible pride of ownership where you now know that if your watch is running, it is going to be as accurate as possible. And two, uh, it's a neat little trick when you pick the watch up and you haven't worn it a few days, you don't actually need to fully wind it. All you need to do is give it a couple of turns so that once the watch starts, it won't essentially start running until it has enough power to be accurate. And then off you go on your day and the micro rotor will do the rest. So this is a technology which has never been paired with an automatic watch before, and it's distinct and unique to Arm & Strom. It's something that, as I mentioned earlier, I think really appeals to the incredibly nerdy watch guy inside of me. You know, just like everybody else, I think, in watch world where you're like, what do I want to do with a hundred bucks? I'm going to go out and buy a Timecraffer.
James Heck yeah.
Asher Rapkin You know, this is literally the watch that will make you just giggle when you start to explore in that world.
James And so that's what you started with as far as the base. And when you first showed us the watch, a render sort of idea in Chicago, I was really taken by some of the changes you had made to make the watch feel more in the realm of an adventure sort of sporty watch. Why don't you walk us through some of the changes you made for this limited edition?
Asher Rapkin Yeah. So Collective is a company based out of Ventura County, California. And if you've never been to Ventura, we are a hidden gem, um, just South of Santa Barbara and just North of Los Angeles. So we're nowhere near as fancy as Malibu. And, uh, you know, we're not as, uh, we're not as ritzy as Santa Barbara. We have a little bit of grit. And for those who are also unfamiliar in Ventura, we're very proud to house the headquarters of Patagonia. And in fact, if you just go right out of my office and down the street for a mile, you'll get to the original Patagonia store. It's called the Pacific ironworks. It's boss. Because of that, you tend to see people walking around here in Patagonia, head to toe, because so much of being in Southern California, where we are, is about living outdoors. And it's also a part of the aesthetics of where we live. So what we wanted to do was take a hote horology timepiece and reinterpret it through the lens of those who are passionate about technical and tactical outdoor gear. So that if you're wearing, you know, if you're wearing shorts and sneakers and You know, you've got your Patagonia stash jacket in your back pocket as you head out into the woods. While this isn't a sports watch, by no means, it is a watch that would fit into that aesthetic. And that's the territory that I think really resonated with us and with Claude, who is also a massive outdoorsman and mountaineer. So we looked at a number of elements of inspiration. There's the textiles of all the kinds of clothing we were just discussing. There's the kind of gear that I think, you know, I tend to carry when I go into the outdoors, pocket knives, et cetera. And then reinterpreting some of those textures, both as a textile, for example, like the strap, but also reinterpreting it through more traditional watchmaking technique like guilloche. So that led us to the P3. And the P3 is essentially a technical take on Arm & Strom. And what is, one of the things that is most awesome to me about this watch is it's the first time that we have completely in partnership with a watchmaker reinvented a watch from the ground up, from the case material to the caliber. So this watch is 41 millimeters in titanium, which is a first for the Gravity Equal Force. It features a base plate, which is made by Kari's factory, Comblomine, but is in a pattern that I think is probably highly recognizable to those who love outdoor gear. While we wouldn't describe it when you talk to the factory this way, it's essentially a matte black frag pattern. And that matte black frag pattern serves as a background to the dial, which is a sunburst matte green dial with luminous numerals and battens that have been significantly upsized from what you would find on a traditional gravity equal force for legibility. What you'll also find are three bridges and these three bridges at what would traditionally be say two o'clock, three o'clock and four o'clock on the watch, which are our signature element of the design of the gravity equal force have been completely redesigned. They've been milled out. with the second bridge having a bit of a dip to it. And the reason why is that this is a bit of a nod to some of our favorite knife makers and the way that they mill out the scales on their knives and the angles of the knife clip. And it's one of those little things that I like to hope is not very on the nose, but a little bit of a nod to, you know, folks that happen to love this kind of gear.
James If you've got a nice, a decent knife in your pocket, think about where your thumb hits the back of the spine. sometime... I don't know if this is a term that someone told me and it's like maybe a Canadian thing, but I've heard jimping. Oh yeah, exactly. And that looks... It looks so similar on the bridges. It's a neat effect and the watch is subtle. It's not fancy or flashy, but then if you look at all these details, and please hit the show notes or visit collectivehorology.com to see it, it comes together really nicely. I think the colors work well, but I get excited about stuff like jimping. It's...
Asher Rapkin No, I do too. And actually, um, you know, when we, when we were talking about this, like I sent a lot of references over to Claude, including one of my favorite knife makers, um, which is American knife maker called Holt blade works make just absolutely beautiful, beautiful knives. You know, when we sent these over to Claude, you could see how excited he was getting, you know, cause for me, like growing up a pocket knife was like a Swiss army knife. You know, like I didn't, I didn't really think about, about knives as an aesthetic vehicle or an artistic platform, if you will. The final element that I think is awesome about this watch is the finishing on, if you look at the reverse side of the movement on the plates there. Traditionally, when you look at the finishing of a Arm & Strom, you're gonna see a lot of high-end recognizable finishing, Geneva stripes, et cetera. And the finishing here is still excellent, but what is remarkable is that we've dialed that back, or I should say Claude dialed that back with intent and purpose. And that's why you'll see milling, many of the bridges have been actually, or plates, excuse me, have been milled out which is a little bit of a nod to Armand Strom, like the man Armand Strom, who was known for skeletonizing watches, and then Sandblasted. So there's a real technical feeling to the finishing that is intentional, that you can see on the back of the movement here. While it wasn't drawn from this, it is aligned to one of my other favorite watches, which is the 50 Fathoms Bathyscaphe, which has a movement that is very sedate in its finishing, but highly intentional, and I think carries with it. Yeah, exactly. And it just it fits the vibe of the watch.
James Matched up on the strap, which we can, of course, get into. I think this is like as close as I've come to an Armstrong where I just look at it and go like, oh, no, no, they like they they they found kind of a new zone. And, you know, years ago, I want to say it was Formula One 2016. I spent a couple of days in Austin with Serge and Claude and got to know the company a little bit. And at the time, they were really trying to translate what they liked about Armstrong. from what Armstrong was already, kind of had already established. So it was a lot of skeletonization. You had the big kind of case element at six that had been kind of a classic piece of their design for a long time. And they were trying to figure out ways to push the watchmaking forward. And I feel like there's a certain maturity to this design that aligns with what I expected from these guys. That it wouldn't look out of place if you wanted to wear something from an independent brand like Armstrong. with a puffy jacket or something like that when you went to grab your coffee?
Asher Rapkin Yeah. And I mean, look, to me, going back to the earlier point about why we did this in the first place, you know, I really do believe that watches are an incredible media for storytelling. Sometimes that's, that's what history the watch has been imbued in or imbued with itself, right? Like it was lucky enough to get the handle that Explorer, um, that, you know, Marlon Brando's Explorer from the 2019 auction, the one that he like carved, you know, GMT master. Yeah, exactly. And that watch is imbued with an incredible story by virtue of its provenance, if you will. Whereas watches like this, I hope, carry with them some degree of the maker's own interest and passion, too. And one of the anecdotes that I love most about this watch in general was about two months ago or so, I emailed Claude asking to see the final movement shot before he cased it up to send us the final prototype. and I received a one line email from him, which I will edit, um, for the family listeners on the, on, on the call, which essentially said, dear Asher, this watch is beep excellent. And I was like, you know, I love that because that's just not, that's not the general method of communication that one is used to when dealing with watchmakers. So, um, you know, it's just their excitement and their passion is contagious. Oh, absolutely.
James Yeah, I think this is a very interesting project and I'm really kind of thrilled that you thought that we would be an interesting vehicle for talking about it. 30 pieces, $25,000 a piece. And obviously we can get to the draft. I think now we've set the vibe of like, you know, interesting watches that have sort of a sporty appeal, a sense of adventure. But everyone listening, they should just go to collectivehorology.com and check it out.
Asher Rapkin Absolutely. If you come to our site today, not only can you read all about it, You can see all of the content that we produce, that Armand Strom has made, and that our friend Adrian Barker has also done, which I would actually encourage you to watch if you have a second, because one of the things that's also highly appealing about Armand Strom is that there's all this talk about, you know, like, oh, it's in, you know, in-house movements and in-house this, that, and the other thing. But the reality is, and I can't recall who said this to me, but you know who was, I think it was Ricky from Scottish Watches. He was like, if you gave a child a crayon and asked them to draw a factory, like what would come out? is the way Armstrong is set up. It's like, this is the room where people make things. This is the room where they design them. This is the room where they make the cases, et cetera. And you really see that come to life, where it's literally everything from the cases to the screws to the bridges. They are making it themselves. They're designing it themselves. They are engineering it themselves there. So if you have a second, check that video out too. Not only do you get to hear from Claude and Serge, you also get to see this incredible factory and what they're doing at their manufacture, bringing these watches to life. It's just neat.
James Absolutely. And we'll, we'll include that link in the show notes, of course. So if, um, if you got this surprise episode in your email, go back to your email and you can click through all those notes and everything should be simple enough. Uh, look, before we get into the draft, I think we should do a wrist check, see what everybody's got on just cause I'm not sure. I can't quite tell from the zoom. If you have the new PO three on, it looked like someone with more of a bright dial. But Asher, how about you go first? Let us know what you've got on wrist.
Asher Rapkin Totally. As someone who is a longtime listener of TGN, that was the hardest choice. Like, what do I wear? We're tough to impress. Seriously. So I was like, the hell with it. I'll just wear something I love. So I'm wearing a watch made by one of my favorite humans in the watch world, Nicholas Bowman-Scargill, the fourth managing director of Fears Watches out of England. And I am wearing a collaboration that he did with Topper Fine Jewelers a few months ago. So I'm wearing the Topper Brunswick 40. Nicholas just released new Brunswick 40s a few weeks ago. Full disclosure, I am also an authorized dealer of Fears, so don't want anyone to think that I'm pumping it one way or the other. It's just I love the guy and I love the watches. And this one in particular, the California Dial, it's a beautiful white lacquer with luminous indices. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the first watch he's ever done with lume. And I'm like, California dial 40 millimeters, waterproof. Rob Kaplan's one of my best friends. Rob's great. Nicholas is a good dude. Yeah, it's like this is too perfect. So that's what I've got on.
James Oh, that's cool. That's awesome. We've been hearing a ton about Fears, eh Jason?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I really admire what Fears does. I kind of watch them from a distance on social media. And I know we have mutual friends. Don from Vertex is a good friend of Nicholas's. I'm just not at heart, kind of a dress watch guy. And yet whenever I see a fears, I'm like, maybe that's the one that might like get me wearing a dress watch more often. Cause I really liked most of his designs and the Brunswick is, as you said, kind of his most sporty endeavor here to date, I think. And, uh, that one really calls my name. That's cool.
Asher Rapkin That makes me happy to hear. Yeah. It was the same thing for Gabe, by the way, Gabe is like the hardcore tool watch guy amongst the two of us. And he wears a salmon Brunswick and this was before we ever picked them up as an ad. We were just like, this is a cool watch. Yeah.
James Very cool. Jason, what do you got on wrist?
Jason Heaton Well, in light of today's, uh, as we're recording this, um, today's announcement of the deep sea challenge with Rolex, I pulled out my, uh, my Rolex diver. I've got my, uh, one 40, 60, uh, uh, Submariner. This was my 40th birthday gift. So it's a, well, I'm not going to say how old it is now, but people can do the math far shallower than, than the deep sea challenge. But I don't know. I just thought, you know, I hadn't worn it in months. It was kind of time to pull out the Rolex. So maybe a boring choice, but Is that a two-liner or a four-liner? This is a two-liner. Yeah, this was the 14060M. Got it new from a retailer back in, what year would that have been? 2010. And they had had it in their case for a few years already, just unworn. So it's, I believe, a Z series reference number, so, or a serial number. So, I mean, drilled lugs, you know, nice thin case, aluminum bezel insert. I mean, it's just, it's such a perfect watch. Yeah, for sure. Shut up and play the hits. Yeah, right. James, how about you? What are you wearing?
James Yeah, you know, I've spent the last couple days, let's be honest, the last couple weeks, like looking over ludicrously high-end, hilarious, awesome, complicated sport watches and watches that kind of blend elements of the sporty world and otherwise. And it was just making me happy. And I think within that mood, I stuck with a watch that's been making me very happy for the last little while. And it's a very humble watch that actually I'm becoming a little bit of a broken record on. It's the Scurfa MS22. Lovely. I'm wearing it on this canvas. Uh, I have, I have a couple of the, like the CNS, the, uh, cheap NATO straps, um, like paratrooper style, but they do a different version now that they say is more comfortable. So I bought that a couple of those for, you know, four or $5. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm kind of obsessed. Uh, I like it a lot. The, obviously the accuracy, the quartz is cool. Um, but it's super just really nice and wearable. There's, you know, we did a whole episode last week about titanium watches and how I think Jason, you said it, and I've been editing the episode today. So I was kind of doubling down on the info, but there is this cool thing that happens when titanium is used on a watch that's already a normal size, whether it be a 40 millimeter Skirfa or 41 millimeter Arm & Strom. Like normally we're used to seeing it on giant Seikos, huge citizens, you know, titanium ploprofs. And like, sure, it makes up for the fact that the watch is, it helps make up for some of the fact that the watch is huge. but it also doesn't give you all the tangential benefits of having a normal size watch that's also so light. So at 40 millimeters, yeah, I'm just having trouble finding any reason to take it off my wrist. So I'm, I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's great. Makes me want to go put on mine. Just, just you talking about it just makes me smile. I love that watch. Yeah. Asher, if you don't own a Skirfa yet, you don't know what you're missing.
James Yeah. Yeah. Out of England, we had them on the show, uh, Man, at this point, I can say years ago, right, Jason? It's got to be a year and a half, two years ago. Yeah. Paul Skerfield, a commercial diver who started this brand. And, you know, he'll sell you what's a titanium diver one, 250 bucks.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, crazy. And the quality is so good.
Asher Rapkin Yeah. Yeah. I'm digging this D 100, this D 1 500 gloss orange.
James Yeah, they do some cool stuff. The Treasure Seeker stuff is cool. The Topside stuff is rad.
Jason Heaton They're almost impulse buys. I mean, they really could be, you know, you have a bourbon in the night, maybe, you know, you feel a little loose and you pull out your wallet and there it is.
Asher Rapkin Do you guys remember, and maybe this is a little too tech nerdy, but Google used to have this thing called Google Labs, where they would test out all these various products for for Gmail and other things you could opt into. You know what I'm talking about? Of course. Okay. So they had one, one thing which I always appreciated and really frankly should be reinvented for the drunk watch purchase, which is called beer goggles. And the idea essentially was that, and I guess this sort of predates like, you know, I suppose texting to a degree, but the idea was if you were, if you were sending an email between set hours, let's say 10 PM to 6 PM or 6 AM, you had to answer a number of math problems before you could actually send the email. My favorite for years and I try to stick to it. I do my best unless I really know I need the item, but the
James It was the 24 hour Amazon rule. Oh. So if you, if you want something on Amazon, put it in your cart, but you can't buy it for 24 hours. Yeah. And, and like not half the time, like 85% of the time I'd come back and go, I don't need to spend $28 on this.
Asher Rapkin This is what my wife does. She just drops like everything into the shopping cart, which then forces me to not actually be able to buy anything because I'd have to either buy everything in the cart or just, or like delete everything and go to the process of re-adding. Save for later, save for later. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, there you go. Random insight into my, my marital reality.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. All right. Well, now that we've gotten our frivolities out of the way, I think it's time to get onto the serious matter of the draft in a high-end watches with an adventurous spirit. James, you want to walk us through kind of the rules of our very serious endeavor here?
James Absolutely. Yeah. It couldn't be more serious a draft. Uh, we're each going to pick three watches, so there'll be nine total. Once a watch has been picked, it's off the list in the event that we're all thinking the same thing about certain watches. And because it's a collective horology presentation, I'm going to let Asher pick the order. It's a serpentine draft, so it'll be 1, 2, 3, 3, 2, 1, back and forth until we've got nine picks. I guarantee we're going to see some crazy stuff come out in this draft, which is kind of what I really like about doing silly watch drafts. So, uh, Asher, uh, you can pick the order you want to go first. You can obviously one in three gets you in the hot corner. You get two in a row. So, uh, let us know and, uh, and then we'll get started.
Asher Rapkin Sure. Well, I'm a Curb Your Enthusiasm fan and Larry says middling is the hardest, so I'll go in the middle.
James Oh, wow.
Asher Rapkin So Jason, you first. James, you can follow me.
James Hot corner. Okay, Jason, first pick for you in the high-end watches with a sense of adventure draft. Let's do it. Let's get into the fun stuff.
Jason Heaton All right. I had one that I was going to lead off with and I'm throwing it out the window. I'm going to actually start with my, what was going to be my number two pick because I think it kind of fits with what we've been talking about today. This is, hopefully this is a surprise for you guys coming from me. This is the Chopek Antarctic chronograph. Rattrapante Ice Blue.
James Yeah. I saw this and shot it in, uh, in whenever Watches and Wonders was. I can't remember.
Jason Heaton Jealous that you got to handle one of these because I think they're just such handsome watches. So Czopek is a brand that we, I don't think the name has ever come up on TGN. I think I've never actually spoken the name out loud and wasn't that familiar to me, but you know, I've, I've seen kind of the stories about them and seen photos and, and I just think it's such a handsome piece. So Czopek, the, the name comes from, um, uh, Polish emigre to Switzerland who, um, had partnered way back in the 1800s with, um, Patek, uh, before Patek, They split up and Patek founded Patek Philippe. And then the company sort of just went away in the late 1800s. And the brand was revived in 2010 and they started making a few watches. And I don't think it's a stretch to say that their Antarctique is kind of the platform that people seem to really gravitate towards and has kind of put them back on the map, so to speak. Um, you know, for one thing, I just love the name, uh, that kind of drew me to it. And I was kind of curious, where did this all come from? But then I started looking at this, at this kind of latest watch, which wasn't an official nomination for the GPHG awards. And, you know, it kind of follows the suit of these sort of integrated bracelet sports watches. Um, but then you have this, this open work dial with, with the split seconds complication, and there's just a lot of color and kind of funky stuff going on here. And then to top it off, this is a, watch that's in a 42 and a half millimeter stainless steel case. It's got a really impressive water resistance of 120 meters. So like, you know, you can you can do stuff with this watch. And I've always loved the split seconds complication. And it's a monopusher. So that you've got a pusher on the right side of the case to start, stop and reset. And then on the left side, of course, you have the split seconds pusher to, you know, do your lap timing, so to speak, and 60 hours power reserve. This is a watch that was developed by Chopek with chronode, which is the company's manufacturing partner. It's run by Jean-Francois Mojon. You know, it certainly has the vibes of what you might consider like an Ingenieur or a Royal Oak or something like that. But they kind of have their own design language. And I don't know, it's a really dynamic, beautiful watch. I think it's really high domed crystal. I'd love to see this thing on my wrist. And, you know, it's 50,000 Swiss francs. So, you know, a little outside my budget, but hey, I think it's not As astronomically expensive as, as actually what I expected for something like this.
Asher Rapkin What do you guys think? Speaking of brands that, that are owned by really lovely people. Chapek definitely is, is in that category. Super, super cool humans. But the thing, one thing that I love about that brand in particular too, is how transparent they are about their suppliers, which is like not common at all, but they are extremely proud of working with Cronode or working with any number of other companies that, that help make their watches come to life. I just think it's so cool that, that they, that they bring that out, you know, as an acknowledgement, most people don't frankly. And, uh, I don't know. I just, I find that, I find that, that curtain, that curtain being pulled back is a really neat thing for enthusiasts.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And what do you think of my watch?
Asher Rapkin I mean, if we're playing with funny money here, sign me up. I had the chance to, uh, I had the chance to try it on at watch time, um, a couple of weeks ago and that watch is so great.
Jason Heaton James, would you wear this one?
James Yeah, I love that pick. And Jason, I had no idea that's the direction you're going. I'm thrilled. Great first pick.
Jason Heaton Good. Well, I'm glad I surprised you because now I got to sit back and wait for you guys to steal my other picks, but I'll take my chances.
Asher Rapkin All right, Asher, your turn. Well, it occurred to me the last time I was on a pod with you, Jason, was with Jeremy for Blamo. And I mentioned one of my favorite left turns in watch collecting, a brand that I really like. So I figure might as well start with that. I'm going to throw out the Ulysse Nardin Diver Chronometer, and it's the 185-173 blue. If you are not familiar with this watch, this watch is super bizarre and totally rad. It is a blue DLC diver with a gold bezel. So it is two-tone in a manner of speaking, except I've never in my life seen a blue and gold watch. Shout out, by the way, to Jimmy from Feldmar, who showed this watch to me for the very first time. I was like, you should see this. And I was like, that looks blue. What is this? And dove into it. But I think what's neat about this is I love the way UN reinterprets the diver. Like, I don't dive. I can't imagine anybody does dive with these. I suppose you could. But if you're like me, who like, I dig the diver aesthetic, but I'm not like, you know, I'm not looking for like a hardcore tool watch to try and convince myself that I could do anything more than snorkel. This, this fits that, that aesthetic. It also has their in-house caliber. For years, I used to kind of scratch my head about that unusual strap construction, you know, with the little titanium insert. Super comfy though, right? It's so comfy. It makes sense. Yeah, it does. And it's one of those things where I never really fully understood it until I tried on a UN diver. And now I genuinely love them. I realized that like, you know, they may not be at the top of everybody's list, but I get a serious kick out of these. And generally, when I see somebody wearing one of the limiteds, like there was one recently that was also pretty cool. I think it was a tribute to like the great white sharks. It's like a beautiful white dial that's like super textured. It's really neat. So I just, I love what these guys do. The watchmaking is there, the creativity is there, and it's just an aesthetic that I've never really come across anywhere else. So it's a like it or hate it kind of thing, but you can't deny that they're doing something interesting and different. And I just find that really appealing. That's a great pick.
James Yeah. 44 millimeter case, $13,700. What I like about these, and I've seen the, maybe not the great white one. I want to say it was a tiger shark or a hammerhead version.
Jason Heaton Or the lemon shark. Maybe the lemon shark? The lemon shark is a boss. Oh man, I should have that on my list.
Asher Rapkin That's a good one.
James A friend of a friend just had it on his wrist, found out I like watches. He's like, have you seen one of these? I'm like, no. He's like, I kept breaking other watches, so I wear this one. The guy's like a high-end general contractor. beats the hell out of his watches, and this is what he liked. Interesting. And he had a big wrist, he's a big dude, so the 44 looked perfect on him. He was thrilled about it. Took it off, gave it to me, beautifully finished watch. And I like that they have just a little bit of the sweet era of the Aquatimer to them. Like the 2002 to say 2008 Aquatimers. Nice, clear, stark, not vintage inspired. They do it well.
Jason Heaton Yep. This was a brand that I never paid much attention to when it came to their, their dive watches or watches in general. And then they have the Marine Torpeyor and they've got some really interesting, like really high end complication stuff. And, and then I was in Bermuda with them for the, um, the America's cup few years back. And I had a chance to go out diving one day and they, the CEO of the company just took his diver off his wrist and gave it to me and said, just wear mine for the day. And I wouldn't dive in Boston. And it was like, yeah, and it sold me. I mean, talk about a great move. I mean, it was, it was great. And I've really grown to like them. They're cool watches.
James Yeah, absolutely. Right on. Great pick, solid pick for the second one. So that's the Ulysse Nardin Diver 44 millimeter. Yeah. And in that blue gold coloring, I have to agree. I don't think, I don't think I know of another one that combined those two sort of finishes. I've gone off the deep end with my first pick. I hope you guys are ready for this. So we're talking Audemars Piguet. It's the Royal Oak Offshore Perpetual Calendar in titanium. It's the 25854 TI. I've been thinking about these a lot. So imagine you take the movement from a 2554, well, the generation later that has the leap year indication, and put it in at the time what they considered to be a huge gargantuan 42 millimeter titanium case. And then for me, it has a white tapisserie dial with black dial furniture, which is my sweet spot as far as they go. So it'll be in the show notes, of course, if you don't know this watch, introduced around 2003, all titanium. I love the idea that they took their sportiest watch and they put their most difficult finicky movement and then combine the two and they're like, look, it's huge. We know 42 millimeters, sorry. And the watch for me, like, I just think it's one of the coolest things out there. And again, that's the 25854TI. I've been obsessed with these for a little while. They're nutty.
Asher Rapkin How long do you need to be underwater for this complication to pay off?
James I don't even know what the water resistance is, if I'm honest. I mean, like, it's probably, you could go underwater, I guess, right? But I mean, it's, you know, to do the chrono and the QP, I love it. It's so awesome.
Jason Heaton Yeah, this is for some future undersea society, you know, that the rich get to live in first. Definitely, definitely.
James It's for the guy definitely who owns the boat. Yeah. And the small, the small, the small country that he docks the boat at occasionally for sure. Someday I think these could turn around and kind of have a little bit of a little bit of a rerun, but my doubt is they made very many. Cool. All right. Now do you get to go again? I do. Yeah. That's how the hot corner works, baby. Lucky. So this is a tough one because not only do I have an awesome list of picks here, but it means that I'm kind of also picking theoretically what my third will be by picking my second. And I was super tempted and even chatting with Jason about the draft to go with something very kind of attached to what I talk about on the show when I talk about higher end watches with a complication, but I wanted to pivot a little bit. I'm not pivoting super far, but I wanted to stay in what I think was And Asher, you can by all means correct me, tell me I'm dead wrong, but a little bit closer to the inspiration of the P034 collective. And that's the new Patek Calatrava 5326 annual calendar travel time. So instead of just going with the 5164A, which is my literal dream watch, I feel like the white gold, the texture on the dial, almost like they made the highest end field watch possible, This is a watch that I didn't get to see in person because of COVID reasons. There's only two people from Hodinkee were allowed to go to that meeting and that wasn't me. We didn't need photos that time, which is usually how I sneak my way into these meetings. And so I didn't get to see it in person and I haven't seen the standard, the time only Calatrava or the time date Calatrava field watch, quote unquote. But this one really speaks to me because if you look at it, it's essentially the aesthetic of a Hamilton khaki, just elevated as far as they could in a white gold case with two of my favorite complications. Annual calendars, I think, are very special. They're deeply Patek. It was theirs. They made it first in 1996. And then the travel time, which is my favorite complication in sort of watches in general, and certainly from Patek. So that's my second pick. I was very tempted to go 5164A, but instead it's gonna be the rather lovely 5326G.
Asher Rapkin Didn't you say the 50, I feel like I read an article that you wrote once that was about the 5164R. I'm just curious. If someone did like, let's like, it's all funny money, right? Let's say somebody did actually offer you a 5164A versus an R, what would you do?
James My problem is the R, and this is where you get into, I can be really picky even with funny money. I don't love the brown dial. It's too brown. The absolute dream, if I lotteried out tomorrow or whatever, would be a 5164A with the green strap, the green rubber.
Jason Heaton I would have gone 5164. I think it's a little more in line with sporting intentions, if that's our angle here. But I get it. I like this watch a lot. I love the texture on the case band. That dial is just bewitching. I haven't seen one in person, but they're Their videos and photos on the site just show it really close up and it has that really beautiful, almost like, I don't know if this is a compliment, like an asphalt texture to it. And it just looks great. And of course, like paddock movements are beautiful. So no, I think this is a good pick. This is a beautiful watch.
Asher Rapkin And I'm just thinking about what you were saying earlier. I'm like, if the Hamilton is for a hike, like this one is definitely for the fox hunt. The fox hunt, like a really baller pick. Yeah, exactly. It's not a field watch.
James It's an estate watch. I mean, I'm in the field, but like, I need to be near like a triple cream. And, you know, a very good bottle of something bubbly and that sort of thing. So I'm not against either. I like the field for sure. But also, you know, yeah, give me give me a picnic every now and then to there. Yeah, they're they make some great stuff. But anything with the travel time, just like go nuts. And then, you know, I wanted to try and follow the spirit of the p o three, where adding certain elements and textures and that sort of thing. And I think that Patek kind of did it in a similar fashion within their own world with this white gold Calatrava.
Asher Rapkin Well, if you're listening, Terry, we're very happy to work with you. So you just let us know. He's a big fan. Yeah.
James He's never missed an episode. There you go. All right.
Asher Rapkin Asher, it's your second pick. Cool. I'm gonna take us in a totally wacky direction. I like it. One of my favorite watchmakers making a totally awesome watch. I'm going to throw out the resonance type five diver. Oh, that is a great pick. Thank you. I love this. I mean, look, I love resonance to begin with. Like I, you know, this falls into that category again of like, love it, hate it. It like, there is nothing like a resonance out there. And the diver in particular, it's like a lesson that I learned, you know, whenever I looked at, started looking at like higher end watches as a collector is never, ever, ever spend your money on the, on like the cheapest from, from somebody like the most affordable entry level. wait until you can, you know, you have access to, you know, like the highly complicated piece or whatever it is that really attracted you, you know, it's like, don't buy the Saxonia thing. You know what I mean? Like, wait for the, wait for the longer one. And for me, it's like this, that's it with resonance where it's like the type one is just, is an amazing expression of design, but the watch I always wanted was the type five. And yeah, I don't have this watch someday. I hope to have this watch. They're so cool. They're so neat. I've played with them so many times. They, they like have this like intense density to them when you pick them up, even though they're really lightweight, they are ludicrously legible. You know, they look to me, and again, I'll preface by saying like, I am not a diver, but to me, they look like what a future interpretation of like diving gear could look like. Like it just, they managed to nail this, this, this Vanguard aesthetic while still feeling super tooly. It's just, it's just cool.
James It's just cool. If they remade the abyss now. That's what they would wear. Someone would have one of these on their wrist, right? Yeah, right, right. Totally. So, Jason, have you spent time with one of these back in the day?
Jason Heaton No. Well, only at the Baselworld, right? That's the only place I've seen it. And it's just cool. I mean, I think that the oil-filled case allowing for that completely perfect view of the dial from any angle is remarkable. I mean, you hear about it. I mean, we've seen that with what the Zen UX and maybe one or two other watches in the past, but to see it on this watch with that just crazy display.
Asher Rapkin It's almost like you're looking at some kind of an LCD or something, you know, it's just, it's just from what I understand from people who own resonance watches, they get asked very regularly if it's some sort of like, uh, you know, is it real? Yeah, exactly. Is it real? Is that some sort of a smart watch, et cetera? Um, it's, it's so cool.
Jason Heaton And that's a compliment to them. I mean, I think it's just awesome, but I, I have to say, I was looking at, I'm looking at their website right now at this watch and it says, unlock the gentleman diver in you. So I think, I think that that captures the kind of the vibe of what we're after here anyways. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Nice.
James Yeah, man. Great pick. What a cool watch. Yeah, that was, that was on my list, but I definitely thought I could have it as a ringer for round three.
Jason Heaton All right, Jason, I'm loving these picks because it's like, like this is funny money, but it's like, it's something so out of our norm here and it's just, it's just fun to like just totally dream. All right. My second pick is one that's probably a little more predictable and it was the one I was going to lead with. This is the IWC Big Pilots Watch Perpetual Calendar Top Gun Serratanium. $56,000. Well, $56,700. Sorry. Limited availability. Enquire now. This is the version of the Big Pilot. Um, you know, I remember years ago, I think it must've just been a ceramic case that Adam Craniot's, uh, one of our longtime chums, uh, Red Bar of Red Bar fame. he owns this watch in ceramic, an older version of it. And then when they came out with the serratanium, now it comes with a full serratanium bracelet, which to me, I don't know, this watch still belongs on a strap, but I can, I can overlook that. I can move it onto like a gray NATO or something, but just an incredible piece. I think the combination of the big pilot aesthetic, which is so it's so IWC, it's such a tool watch. It's such a kind of classic pilot aesthetic. And then you throw this wild, very sporty looking, full, you know, full complication movement behind it with, with that double moon phase display. And then, um, what, what the perpetual calendar display on the dial has this very instrument look to it. You know, it, it almost reminds you of the instrument panel on a plane or a car or something like that. And with that, and with that big onion crown and all in black, this is just a mean looking watch. It's just a, it's a cool watch. It's, it's so technical and so dare I say masculine and just so IWC. And I just love this piece. I think it's so cool.
Asher Rapkin Have you seen the variation of it? The Toto wolf variation. It's like the IWC lumen, if you will. It's so it's serotonin case. Um, it is a Sapphire dial that's been loomed. It's so cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I do like this watch. I've never really been kind of a straight up big pilot fan, like the regular, you know, steel version that they've had for many years. I just have never saw my, saw myself wearing that watch. But for some reason, when I've seen this watch around, I'm like, That is so dynamic and it's just so cool. And it felt like it just fit perfectly on this list.
Asher Rapkin And like a relatively accessible QP, I guess you could say.
Jason Heaton Sort of. Yeah. Still in funny money territory, but yeah. Exactly.
James Very cool pick. Hot corner for you. Yeah, Jason, it's your hot corner. You got another pick.
Jason Heaton Oh, I get to go again. Okay, well then this is my third pick. I'm going to go with the Blancpain 50 Fathoms 8 Day Tourbillon. Oh, right off my list too. Great pick. So eight day movement with a tourbillon in a 45 millimeter 50 fathoms case with that awesome domed bezel classic you know 50 fathoms format with the titanium version comes you can get it on a bracelet for some reason that the sailcloth just looks amazing yeah on this watch I've always loved the the 50 fathoms format and you know as weird as it looks to see this big um you know open worked tourbillon right up at the top at 12 o'clock it's It's crazy that this is a 300 meter 50 fathoms dive watch that has a tourbillon. I mean, how crazy would that be to go diving with this thing and look down at your wrist and see that thing spinning around while you're, you know, so nitrogen narcosis at a hundred feet?
Asher Rapkin I don't know. I know one person who could find out.
James I mean, just so awesome. Yeah. So yeah, they've done a couple of versions. They do one that has the, it almost looks like a car's tachometer for the, the power reserve. Yep. And I don't know what year that one came out. And then they did an update. I want to say like late 2021 to kind of clean up the dial a bit. Uh, yeah, these are like 120 to 140 Euro. Uh, so big, like big, big money stuff, but just super fun.
Jason Heaton Yeah. The white gold, when I'm looking at goes for 139,200, um, which is serious, funny money. Um, we'll need all of our bucks. Yeah, exactly. But Hey, um, yeah.
James I love this watch. Have you ever seen one of these in person? Either of you? No, I have not. I wonder how many they make. Yeah, crazy. Very cool stuff. Great pick, Jason.
Asher Rapkin Yeah. You scooped me though, man. I'm not going to use this one because I can't do two Blancpain in a row, but I was going to throw out the 50 Fathoms X. Oh, yeah. Yeah. All right. So I would say my last draft pick here is from one of my favorite watchmakers, and that would be the MB&F Legacy Machine Split Escapement Evo. So this is, uh, this is a watch that's based off of the legacy machine line. So, you know, for those who are familiar with MBNF, or if you're not, you got two lines, you have the horological machines, which are the crazy inventions, you know, the bulldogs, the flow, et cetera. And then you have the legacy machines, which I suppose are, are more recognizable as a traditional watch. Um, but all of them of course, feature that incredible flying balance wheel. So you have this, this incredibly reductive design, um, that's still ludicrously well-finished and thoroughly distinct aesthetically speaking. Like this is another one of those watches where you cannot mistake this for anything except itself. And I love how MB&F leaned into this design and pushed what was essentially a dress watch, I suppose you could say, into the territory of something that is an everyday wear for a supremely awesome human being. Yeah, so this watch is just absolutely gorgeous to me and represents so much of what I love about independent watchmaking. It's creative, it's thoughtful, it's totally distinct, the watchmaking is there, and it's purpose-driven. Like, this watch exists for a reason. So, a massive hat tip to Max Buesser on this one. I love it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a great pick. That's a good way to cap your trio there, Asher. Good one.
James All right. That leaves it to me to close out the draft with my third pick. I am going to go with something predictable. It's one of my all-time favorite watches, definitely among my favorite modern watches, and that is the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Everest Dual Time. I've talked about it a ton. I'm surprised it wasn't necessarily any of your picks. We deferred to you. I mean, I knew you were going to pick that one. Yeah, I appreciate you guys giving me some respect on that one that I've never earned. You know, it's just a watch that I adore. I love the idea that you could have a Vacheron that is literally an everyday watch, like everyday, even when you want to go for a hike. I love the coloring for these, the titanium with the sort of rich steely blue and then the orange accents. And then on top of that, you know, sucker for GMT dual time complications. So this is one that the teaching audience, you know, I didn't pick a 5164A as Jason mentioned in pick one, but I did want to get this in there. And also I love the idea of my three watch collection at this point being that that bonkers AP, this white gold Calatrava, and that would fly way under the radar for a white gold watch. And then finally this titanium Vacheron, it's kind of, it's a lot of zigs and zags in three watches.
Asher Rapkin You know that they now make a titanium bracelet for that watch, too? What?
James Really? So I saw the titanium bracelet back when they did the prototype.
Asher Rapkin Yeah.
James Corey was wearing it on the titanium, and they said, please, no pictures of that, because we're still working on it. And it's not that they didn't want it to be hidden. They're like, we literally haven't... It hasn't been hand-finished like the rest of the case. So they didn't want pictures of it. But I didn't realize they were now officially offering it.
Asher Rapkin I saw one. So unless someone pulled a fast one on Vacheron, it's out there. This is great. Now, who's buying me what?
Jason Heaton Can you imagine opening your watch case and having those three, whatever three you picked, like stare back at you every morning? I mean, here we are with our, you know, the watches we're wearing today. Like imagine if you didn't have those and all you had were these three. I'd be pretty happy. I'd be terrified.
James Yeah, true. I'd be terrified to touch any of the controls on the AP.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Yeah. Lest the pusher just kind of go soft and you go, well, it's going, it's going back to Labros.
Asher Rapkin Don't worry, James. They would be more than happy to service it.
James Oh, absolutely. For sure. Nine really hilarious watches. And I think a lot of them kind of represent a similar vibe to the PO3 that you've got going with Collective Asher and with the folks from Arm & Strom. Any others on the list that you guys didn't get to that you wanted to cover? We're a little over time, so at this point, we might as well just appreciate it.
Asher Rapkin Gabe wanted me to throw in, but admitted that this is totally pandering. Obviously, you got to mention the solid gold Doxa. I feel like... Oh, wow. I totally forgot. Oh, man. Never, never forget the solid gold Toxa. No, certainly not. 70K for a solid gold Toxa, for sure. That was a really fun watch. And the only other one that was on my list that I adore, and I feel like people need to love this watch more, is the two-tone Glashütte Original CQ. I just... Oh, okay.
James Just dig that. Yeah. Yeah, they make a nice thing, and it just doesn't get a lot of attention, because I think, not to be unfair to them, but because I'm not saying it's at the wrong price point, it's just at a really tough price point for these days. Sure, sure.
Asher Rapkin But again, we're playing with Monopoly money, so yeah, man.
James High value in the fun bucks world for sure. Jason, anything left on your list?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I had a few. I kind of overstocked my list in the fear that you guys would take all mine, but I'm surprised none of us had a Richard Mille on there. So my next pick would have been an RM 32 Diver Chronograph, which I had to throw in there. I had a chance to dive with one in St. Bart's years ago, and it's definitely really not my taste, I would say. But impressive piece. Cool watch. And Richard Mille, I mean, these are extremely high-end watches with definite sporting intentions. I'm actually surprised none of us picked one.
Asher Rapkin I think it's because I've never actually had one on my wrist.
James Ever. And I had on my list, one that Jason did have on his wrist, the 2501, the Stallone. like back country survival watch with the water purification tablets. I just think that watch is so fun. Like, I don't really know why it exists. It feels like the kind of thing where they could have said, Hey, look, we designed this, but we probably won't bother making it. And we all would have felt the same way about it. But I thought it was pretty cool. And I enjoyed, I remember very much enjoying your story, Jason. I went and reread it earlier this week. And it's just, that's just a fun thing to exist.
Asher Rapkin What is the letter of responsibility like for a watch like that?
James I'm just curious. Similar to when I borrowed a Bugatti Veyron. Okay. So, so onerous.
Jason Heaton Yes. I don't honestly, I, you know what guys, I don't think I signed anything. I mean, I was on that trip. I was in Aspen for the snow polo thing with, with Richard Mille and then Ghoshani was with me and I was with Laura, the person who does PR for Richard Mille. And she just said, I mean, we arranged ahead of time, but if you guys want to go use this thing and just bring it back tomorrow, we stayed overnight at this hot tub in the mountains with this thing. Amazing. I actually wove that into my story. I was like, I could just like disappear over the next pass into the next county and disappear.
James Pull a cliffhanger and fake a plane crash. And yeah, it could have been a whole thing for sure.
Asher Rapkin I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's probably a rough one to fence. Yeah. A little tough. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think you're right.
James The other stuff that I had on my list was this IWC Aquatimer Perpetual Calendar Digital Date Month.
Asher Rapkin I had the Ingenieur version of that. That movement does not get the respect it deserves. That movement is boss. Yes.
James And you could tell that they knew it was great and they needed to find a home where it made sense, and they just never did. But to see it in a 49 millimeter dive watch... And they made the 50th anniversary version or a 50th version, something like that, in 2016. that was in serratanium, so it was actually like pretty sporty looking. The one that I pulled up was the yellow gold with the black dial. What is the market where you go that high into a complication world and it's also still a huge dive watch? Yeah, yeah. Jason, the other one I had that I kind of thought you might've had on your list was that really high-end version of the Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic. Oh yeah, yeah. So a solid gold sports watch with a mechanical depth gauge.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I've tried to stay away from watches that had complications that were specific to a sport for some reason. I wanted like a sports watch with like a high-end kind of other type of complicated, like a QP or a, you know, Rattrapante. Crota. But yeah, no, that would definitely be on a, on a good short list. It's a nutty thing for sure. I had, I had a kind of a boring pick, but I thought one of us might've thrown it in there. The, the Lange Odysseus in titanium. I thought. A great pick. I don't know. Kind of a boring pick, I guess. I don't know. A little too predictable.
Asher Rapkin Ooh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to, I will, I will just say, I love that watch. I, I, my, my favorite watch that I own on a regular and I wear on a regular basis is a stainless steel Odysseus. Okay. I love that thing on so many different levels, but the coolest part of the titanium are the ripples on the dial. You know what I'm talking about? Oh, I'm just looking. Yeah. So if you zoom in, if you zoom in and you look at the batons, it's as if you drops the baton right into this like glimmering pool of water and it just sort of like ripples. It is so cool.
James Wow. Wow. Yeah. I finally got to see the new titanium one in the metal at Watches and Wonders this year. The Odysseus is an incredible watch that's just hard to translate because they've done so many things their own way and so much of it is in detail.
Asher Rapkin A hundred percent. And I love watching people grumble about that watch and then getting a chance to handle it. And then, you know, just walking away hat in hand, just loving it. I it's, there's so few watches that are like that. I it's so, it's so great.
James Well, look, Asher, I think this has been really fun to learn about the new project with Armand Strom, of course, and to see it come kind of full circle and they'll be live. And obviously it's very limited and very special and that sort of thing, but we, we really appreciate the chance to chit chat about it. And then I, at least for me sitting here, uh, the draft was super fun.
Asher Rapkin This is a blast. And thank you guys for your interest and for chatting with me. And I'll add to other folks too, you know, this is a really special watch and something that we're really excited about, but it is not the only project that we have coming. And we have aspired to and are happy to say that in the future, we will also have some watches at a more attainable price point. So for those who are listening and who are excited about what we are doing or curious, please know there will be watches that are not 25 grand. So. Fantastic.
Jason Heaton Alright, well thanks so much for listening to this TGN special presentation, and a special thanks to Asher and Gabe at Collective Horology for making this all possible.
James And we hope all of you had just as much fun listening to it as we did recording. Feel free to participate in the comments on Substack, thegreatnado.com, and let us know if we missed any of your favorite adventurous high-end watches, or maybe if there's one that doesn't exist that you'd love to see someday become a reality. Who knows, maybe Collective can make that happen for you. If you'd like to learn more about Collective Horology and their collaboration with Armin Strom, please visit collectivehorology.com. And thank you so much for listening. Asher, it's been a treat. Thanks guys.