Drafting Our Favorite Watches Of The 1970s – A TGN Special With Collective Horology
Published on Tue, 07 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
This is a transcript of a podcast episode featuring Jason Heaton, James, and Gabe Riley from Collective Horology. They discuss Collective Horology's latest collaboration with Oris, a limited edition Diver 65 called the Divers 75. Gabe provides background on how he got into watches and the origins of Collective Horology. They then engage in a draft of 9 watches from the 1970s, with each person making 3 picks and explaining their choices. The draft covers a range of iconic and unique 70s watches, highlighting the design trends and technological innovations of that decade. They also mention some additional 70s watches that didn't make the cut. The episode promotes the new Oris collaboration and offers a special bundle for listeners on The Grey NATO Slack.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to a special presentation of The Grey Nado in partnership with Collective Horology. This episode is part of a loosely new concept for TGN that will allow us to collaborate with the people and brands that we like to produce standalone special episodes that we can offer to all our listeners. |
| James | Yeah, that's right. We don't really love ads. So this is our way of doing something that is essentially an ad, but it doesn't turn its back on the entertainment or interrupt a standard episode of the show. It's an extra episode freely brought to you by a brand that we know and love. And for this outing, we're pleased to have Collective Horology back for a second TGN special. |
| Jason Heaton | Totally. So almost exactly a year ago, Collective Horology sponsored our first ever TGN special for the launch of their collaboration with Arm & Strom. We did a draft of high-end watches with sporty intentions. And for this special, we're back with another super fun draft focusing on watches from the 1970s. Why? Well, to properly start this episode, we need to introduce our special guest, who's Gabe Riley of Collective Horology. How are we doing, Gabe? I'm great, guys. Thanks for having me. Oh, an absolute treat as always. I mean, that was one of my favorite things last year. It was kind of one of the only drafts we ended up doing because we had a good time and we felt like anything else would kind of be stepping on that. So it's exciting to have another draft on the table. These are always so much fun to kind of research for and get ready for and put your list together and try and predict what I know about you and what I know about Jason, like what you guys might be picking and we'll get into some of the metrics of how that's going to work. But I would love a little bit of a background for someone who say, didn't listen to last year's episode, which you definitely should. It's still really fun to go back and take a peek at that. Even if the watch isn't still available, you know, I'd love a little bit of a background on Gabe, how kind of maybe how you got into watches and how that led to collective. Yeah. |
| Gabe Riley | Great question. How did I get into watches? The short story is when I was about 18 years old, My high school girlfriend's dad showed up in the living room of their apartment with a Ziploc bag filled with watches. And he said to me, every man needs a watch. And he pulled out of this giant Ziploc bag filled with watches, which is a wild mental image, a Cartier Santos tank watch. And I didn't really know anything about watches. I knew like Cartier was a luxury brand maybe, but I didn't even know they made watches. I didn't really even no, or it didn't even really occur to me that like watches were a thing that you would collect or have a giant bag filled with or be into in that way. And it sort of, sort of opened my eyes to that, to that world. And then within, within the world of watches, I found my own collecting lane, which is really pretty similar to the, to the TGN world, which are tool watches. And my best childhood friend is also my business partner in collective Asher. and I grew up together in, we met in seventh grade in, in New York city and homeroom. And as we grew up in life and we sort of went our separate ways to university or living in different places around the country, watches ended up being the thing that kept it, kept us connected as friends. And so it was really nice to get into the watch hobby and actually have a really close friend to share that with. So I wasn't sort, you know, like the, the outsider in my group of friends or friends are the only person who was in into watches. And over time, we, we ended up working at the same company together for about 10 years, which was Facebook. And within Facebook, we were some of the first people in an internal and like an employees watch group. So this was a group of Facebook employees who were really into watches and we'd, we'd get together. And we ended up creating our first collaborative watch for that group, which was actually, it was just in talking in talking watches with with Ed Sheeran and John Mayer, which was a Tudor Black Bay for Facebook employees. So we made that watch, we made a couple of other watches for this Facebook Employee Watch Club. And we started to realize, hmm, maybe there's something here. And about five years ago, we started collective really on that model, which was building collaborative watches for a community of people. This the collab we're gonna talk about today is our ninth, which is pretty wild. We've been doing it for five years now. And, um, you know, the, the thing that, that collective is most known for are those, are those collaborative watches. And we try to do them across the spectrum. So the last project we chatted with you guys about was for arm and strong. That's a very different watch than the, the, the Oris diver 65 we'll talk about, um, today. And that's because we believe in having like a wide open and curious kind of collecting philosophy rather than focusing on one particular lane or price point or style. watches. So we do that. And then the other thing Collective does is we're a retailer of independent watch brands. So we have about 10 independent watch brands in our shop now. And those range from everything from Chapek to Formex to Fears to some smaller makers that people may be less familiar with. And the focus there, again, is on having a really wide net of interesting uh, watchmakers who are doing unusual things and don't have a ton of distribution. |
| James | And Gabe, you, um, you've had a presence. Uh, we've met you a couple of times at wind up in Chicago specifically, and you're just coming fresh off wind up New York. Is there a brick and mortar presence to collective it right now? Or do you have plans for that? |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah, we, we started a collective in, um, in Northern California in the, in the Bay area. Um, actually when we were both working at, at Facebook and as, as Asher and I have this like, very fascinating way of ending up in the same place at the same time. Collective is based in Ventura, California, which is probably most famous as being the home of Patagonia. And we have a, we have a space there. So that showroom is open by appointment. So if people want to come and check out watches, we call it the watch yards. It's in this sort of industrial artist space. Our, our next door tenant is a, is a sculptor and there's wooden carpenters and all sorts of interesting creative folks in this space and a brewery right across the street with amazing views of the ocean. So people can come to Ventura and check out watches there. And then we also have a small clubhouse space in Hollywood, in Los Angeles, that's open by appointment. So if people in LA want to see some watches, we can see them by appointment there as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Very cool. That's great. I did not know that you had the ability to kind of invite people into the spot in Ventura, let alone a nearby brewery. That sounds like a nice afternoon. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. Being near a brewery was a requirement for Asher. It gets a lot of use. It comes in handy. |
| Jason Heaton | I like it. That's great. Well, look, that gives us a little bit of background on you and on Collective. And obviously, you and Asher are kind of a package pair. Whenever you run into you guys at one of the shows, I think, you know, I'm crossing a parking lot in Geneva, that's where I would typically we catch up or maybe at a sleepy breakfast table at the hotel before we all head to the show. I think that was maybe our last sort of sit down meeting together. It's always a treat to see you guys and you guys have been great supporters and fans of TGN. So we're always thrilled to be able to do these sort of collaborations and for anyone listening, we don't do many of them. One a year is kind of the track run you guys have done. this will be the second uh with us and it's something that we take really seriously and something we really enjoy and a big part of that is talking about the the new watch the collaboration watch and i think with this one it's a watch that needs um kind of a visual as well so i would really suggest even more so than normal swing by the show notes or swing by collective horology.com to see the watch now if you're listening to this episode the watch is out whether or not it's sold out that depends on how long you took to to kind of get to it but Why don't we jump into sort of the details for this one, which is the Oris divers, quote unquote, 75 caliber, 400 CO4 for collective. |
| Gabe Riley | I think the place to start with this watch is really with Oris. Um, because this, this project kicked off because we wanted to work specifically with Oris. Like you guys, we have a huge soft spot for them. We love the watches. I mean, they make a great honest watch. Yeah. And I think the other thing that's, that's special about Oris is, This is a brand that takes being part of the watch community very seriously. We're just talking about wind up. This is a brand that has been at the center of wind up since the very beginning. They of course have the, or a social club as well. And they just make a point of being present in the watch community and playing an active role that a lot of brands just don't. And they do it and they managed to do it in a way that feels authentic and not ham-fisted. In fact, when I was in New York at Windup, one of the highlights was going to the Aura Social Club event. So the New York chapter had a party and it was at a dive bar and in the best possible way. When you're spending a week in New York going to watch events, It's like going to an Oris event at a dive bar is like the antidote to everything else. Oh yeah. Pallet cleanser. Yeah. Right. It just created a really relaxing environment where people could, could be themselves. And there were folks from all walks of, of collecting there. There were people who run the watchmaking divisions of very high ends, luxury brands to folks who were just starting to explore watches and get curious. So it was, it was a really special thing. So working with Oris, was important. And then the next question is, well, which watch or really what do we want to say with Oris? And the first Oris I ever had was a Diver 65. It was one of the early ones. It's called the Diver 65 Deauville. And it has this beautiful blue-gray dial with these very funky Arabic numerals at the cardinal points. It's not a watch they make anymore. I loved that this watch was super funky and unusual in terms of the dial design. And the other thing I love about the Diver 65 is the case profile and the profile of the bracelet. The mid case on that watch is very elegant. It wears really well at 40 millimeters. And the bracelet just has this beautiful taper. It's a watch that just kind of like oozes charm. It's a really charming watch, the Diver 65 in general. We knew we wanted to do a Diver 65 and the next kind of question for us was, well, what do we want to say with it? And we don't have a house style. You know, a lot of brands who do collaborations have a very specific either format or philosophy they follow. And we don't, we try to find with every project we do something to say with that brand. that enhances what's already there or enhances what we love about that brand that's, that's already there rather than trying to mold it into a particular style or, or, or do, do something we've, we've done before. And so we wanted to do something that was kind of like creating the Uber Oris and really drawing out the things that we love about Oris. And I can talk about what those are, but to do that, we sort of looked at the 1970s and the design language, of kind of 1970s California. And this was a this is a design territory that a lot of people are probably familiar with. Just close your eyes and imagine shades of browns, maroons, oranges, and yellows. It's that kind of that kind of vibe. And it's still alive and well in fashion today. In fact, it's having something of a comeback. But for us being in Southern California, which we talked about, it's sort of a color palette and a mood that never left, you know, it, it started in the 1970s and never, and never went away. So we decided we wanted to sort of pull on that sort of color palette and visual design language. And it worked really well with the diver 75. So as James, you mentioned folks should check out on our website, collective horology.com some images of the watch and you'll see it's a, it's a diver 65 it's in 40 millimeters it's by color. So it uses, or it says by color, bronze and steel bracelet. The bezel assembly itself is bronze as well. This is something that Oris does. That's kind of quintessentially Oris. I don't know anyone else that does bi-color bronze and steel. And certainly what's great about Oris is in the price range they're at, you're not getting something that's PVD'd or painted on or capped. It's full bronze. So it's, it's accessible, but it's also a really authentic kind of bi-color format. And then the dial itself uses that Arabic dial from the early Diver 65, which I chatted about, but it's done in browns, maroons, and yellow. So it pulls on that, on that color palette. It's no date and it uses the caliber 400. And so these are all ways of kind of saying something and using this, this creative lane of this 1970s California design, but making something that only Oris could make. If you see this watch across a room, There's no doubt that it's a Diver 65, and that was really important to us. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And the thing that struck me when I first saw the... Like when you guys first told me what the watch was, I was kind of like, well, you're really describing a watch that I'm really not in the market for. Browns, two-tone, 70s. And then when I saw it and I was kind of like, oh, this is... The level of cohesion is really high. Everything works together nicely. And what I think after looking at the images quite a bit, and I haven't seen this watch in the metal yet, But after looking at the images quite a bit, I think what really sells me on it is the color of the loom somehow doesn't look out of place. You know, like it must be difficult because if you think of you, if you think back to the other 40 millimeter versions that had this dial, the standard original black one, not that hard to match something with black, everything matches with black. So the loom could just be loom colored. And then if you move on to the Deauville, which was those bluish yellow, sort of hues, the, the yellowy tone in the loom worked out well. And I think in my mind, I didn't see the loom working that well on maroon. And then when you see it all kind of come together and then in my, again, you take it a step further and think of wearing it for six months or a year and how the, um, the patina starts to develop on the bronze elements. I think it's going to be a watch that yeah, obviously it's definitely an ors, but also won't look like other 65s or, you know, being the 75. Yeah. |
| Gabe Riley | It's, it's weird like that in that, um, It's both quintessentially Oris, but looks nothing like any other Diver 65 they've done before, which is this interesting tension. The other thing that was interesting about the process of making this watch is the final watch we ended up with after prototyping was different from the watch we designed. Working in this world of browns and maroons and yellows is not easy. We found out it's really hard to do a watch with like a brownish dial and brown tones. We had a render, which we approved, gosh, maybe a year or so ago at Watches and Wonders. And then we went into the prototyping process. And Auris actually ended up producing about five different versions of the dial that were all in sort of the same family. but explored kind of a wider range of color. And we ended up with something that I don't know if I would have approved off of a render, but when you see it in the metal, it actually worked better than what we had. So just a reminder that not only is Brown hard to work with, but having something in hand or actually produced is really important. And a key step after just approving something on or designing something on a computer. |
| James | I think it's a, it's a, it's a particularly tall order to differentiate among, you know, within the family of the diver 65 because there've just been, let's face it, a lot of different variations, including collaborations with places like topper or, or Fratello or Hodinkee or whatever. And I'm curious with this one, like it truly is unique among that family. Um, and when you were starting to think about this watch and you had this color palette in mind and this inspiration of, you know, California seventies, Did that come first or, or was it, let's go with the bicolor, let's go with bronze. Like what did you consider doing this without the bronze, the bicolor configuration, or was it all kind of a cohesive idea? |
| Gabe Riley | Our creative process generally doesn't start with a watch. I think Oris is actually a kind of an acceptance that where we went in knowing we wanted to do a diver 65 beyond that. No, we didn't have any particular design in mind. So we're not watch designers. We never designed the watch or tell the brand what to do. The way our process works is we approach the brand usually with three different creative ideas. So we actually brought a few different creative ideas to Oris. And it actually, they were all rooted in being from Ventura, California. And another design we actually explored was using a color palette drawn from outdoor gear. So think of the color palettes used in outdoor gears from Brands like Pataconia or Cotopaxi, brands like that, that use very vivid primary colors in fun ways. That was a sort of a territory we explored. We also explored a color palette that's literally drawn from the environment around us. The colors of like the cactus and the citrus that grows in the hills around us and things like that. And then the third was this 1970s sort of Southern California design language. And when we approached Oris with that idea, we gave them all three, but with, with the one we ended up moving forward with, we just gave them a mood board really. And we said, here's kind of the color palette. Here's the vibe. This is the mood and the inspiration. We gave them some thoughts on materials, finishes, things like that, but really, really not much. And we'd said to them, how would you interpret this? And so the result was they came back with a fully designed watch and we looked at all sorts of different versions of it. But we never said to them, we want a Diver 65 in this size with a brown dial and bezel and bi-color. It was really a mood board that then they interpreted and took in that direction, which is kind of how we work with all brands. We don't design the watches. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And the other side of this, I think, and we'll get to this in the draft, there's a lot of inspiration. You could go any direction with the 70s because 70s watches are quite popular right now. So it's an interesting timing to think that there are many conventionally hyper popular watches that were born in the 70s, and then there's so much from that decade that's just down to these sorts of colors and shapes and fonts. And I know that the font, let's say, of the markers for the 65, the Cardinal markers is the 60s font, but it feels so 70s, which means it seems to work with these colorings. You think of the mood board that you're talking about, and in my mind, it's got the the intro to super bad, which I couldn't like is maybe the greatest intro of all time and has the fantastic like it's them dancing and all the colors. It's very seventies, despite the fact that the movie, of course, is not from the seventies and then cross that with some of like really cool, like kind of California car culture from that era with the stripes and the lines and the shapes and the I think of big kudos and like nine fourteens and signal orange and really cool stuff like that. So I kind of get the vibe. It's a, it's, I could see that. I think I could see at least a version of that mood board. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah, it was a fun project. And then, you know, when you have an idea like that in this whole design territory like that, the other thing that ended up being really fun was all of the assets we created to launch the watch from the photography, which was shot by Zach Pena and, and his inspiration for the photo shoot. And people will hopefully see the photography for this watch was it's a road trip. from LA to Palm Springs. So you see the watch, uh, you know, out in the desert in desert light, the colors on this lot, just not only is that the environment that inspires the watch, but the watch just looks great in that sort of environment. We also created a whole bunch of video assets that were, uh, to both tease the watch and reveal the watch that were inspired by 1970s movie title sequences. Oh yeah. you know, think like Saul Bass title sequences or think James Bond title sequences from that era, very colorful and graphical. So we ended up just having a lot of fun with not just making the watch itself, but making everything else that goes around the watch, including a project we did with our, with our mutual friend, Wesley Smith of, of standard age. So one of the things we, we just couldn't contain ourselves or keep ourselves from doing because the world of this watch and the visual language of this watch is so fun was making a trucker hat. So we've made a standard age, um, 75 trucker hat. So it's a, it's a Brown trucker hat with a 75, uh, logo done in, in, um, in this color palette. And, uh, that that's something that's included for free with, with the first 150 watches are one of the first 150 people to preorder. that standard age trucker hat is included with the purchase. And it's just another thing we could not contain ourselves from doing because that world is just a lot of fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Okay, so I mean, the hat sounds awesome, as does the idea that you guys went back through some of the great title sequences and pulled kind of inspiration from that. Sometimes that's the that's like, arguably, you can start a movie and be like, I'm not sure I'm gonna watch this whole thing. And then like, I don't, I don't know if I've ever made it to the end of the title credits for North by Northwest and wasn't so jacked to watch that whole very long movie. So I get it. I think that's also like kind of fun inspiration. You're mentioning the pre-order. So the watch is available on pre-order starting today when this episode drops November 7th. Price is $41.50. And we've got a little bit of a, an extra bonus for those on the TGN Slack. Do you want to walk people through some of that? |
| Gabe Riley | Look, we're, we're TGN geeks. We've been listening since the earliest days. I think I've listened to every episode. Me too. Oh yeah. Funny how that works. And so we wanted to do something for the, for the TGN community. So we have, in addition to the things we just mentioned, we have a special offer for the TGN community. It's a special bundle for that community. And the details of that are all in the TGN Slack. So if you're a member of the TGN Slack, all the information on the TGN bundle is there. And if you're not yet a member, of the TGN Slack. This is a good time to join because we have a couple of goodies that we're including for TGN community members along with the watch itself. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, one of them is especially special, but if we're keeping it a secret, we can keep it a secret. That's fine. If you're listening and you're part of the Slack, swing by either TGN-General-Chat to see the thing or there'll also be a new channel called Special Presentations where we can talk about this episode and we'll also reiterate this special package. I guess the most I can say, because I can't really contain all of my excitement about this little add on is it glows in the dark and it's not what you're expecting. So if you're in the slack swing by and take a peek at it, it's really cool. And if you've been on the fence for the slack, it's five bucks a month, hop in there. And actually, if you only did it to get this extra, you probably pocket like 35 40 bucks. I'm not sure what this product goes for, but I've never seen one in this spec before it pays for itself. Yeah, there you go. So a 40 millimeter Diver 65 in bi-color with a very special dial, which we've explained. I highly recommend people either hit the show notes or collectiveferology.com or both to see more. Check out those images from Zach's, check out the video elements. It's a 250 piece limited edition, right? Yeah. 250 pieces total. And anything else you'd want people to know or are you feeling inspired by the seventies enough to jump into a draft? Yeah. Let's get into it. Alright, so it's my job to explain the draft, but Gabe, it's going to be your job to pick the drafting order. So I'll give you a minute or so to think about who's going to go in what order. It's a serpentine draft. So if you pick last in the first round, you pick first in the second round and so on. We'll each have three picks. Nobody can double pick. So once it's picked, it's off the list. There's no price consideration here. We're talking about watches of the 70s, with the goal being a watch that was made in the 70s, sold in the 70s, that sort of thing. Really, make your case when you pick your watch that it's a 70s watch. If it came out in the 70s, that's easy. If it was still being sold in the 70s, but you think it was a 70s watch, you're gonna have to convince us. Everyone's gonna get three choices. And at the end, we'll even do a little bit of a chat of some of the watches that didn't make it, but we'll end up with nine, hopefully very 70s watches. Any questions? Or Gabe, can you let us know the order for today's draft? |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. So I had the internet randomly assigned an order. So Jason, you're going to go first. I'm second. James, you are third. |
| Jason Heaton | Hot quarter. Not bad. I love it. All right. This is going to be super fun. Uh, so Jason, when you're ready, uh, kick it off with your first one. And I, I, I will be clear if you pick my first pick, our friendship is over. |
| James | There's no chance. I just don't think there's a chance. Um, in fact, I'm pretty excited because this watch that's my first choice is the watch that's actually on my wrist. It's a watch that I told a little story about last year when I happened upon it at an estate sale. And it is an Omega Speedmaster Mark III. So for the benefit of you guys that are, you know, James and Gabe that can see it on our little video call here, I'm wearing it right now. It's got the blue dial. These first came out in 1971. So it's fits squarely in our requirements. Um, and what I particularly like about this is that this is a watch that really was representative of what Omega was doing at that time. You know, the early seventies were obviously a very tumultuous time for the Swiss brands in general. And Omega had kind of gone in this direction where rather than just iterate their existing families forward, they just went some really wild directions with huge cases and lots of angles and hooded lugs and color, uh, specifically they did a lot with blue. And so to me, it's just, it's not only born in the seventies, this is a very seventies watch in terms of style and also representative of all the, not really aesthetic is the fact that this, this watch uses Omega's very first self winding, uh, chronograph movement. It was their, uh, caliber 1040, which was a Lamania base. Um, but it was, it's kind of representative of that time as well when automatic chronographs were, were new as well. And quite thick in the case of this one. I mean, it is, it's a massive thing. It just looks like Darth Vader's helmet or something. So that's, that's my pick. It's the, I think it was the count, the, uh, I think it was the reference 1 7 6.0 0 2 for those keeping score, but it's the Omega speed master Mark three. |
| Jason Heaton | What do you guys think? That's fantastic. I think that's a solid pick and they are a very seventies, uh, sort of thing. And I think it's kind of cool. I think it would be really difficult to do nine great watches from the 70s and not get into Omega's giant, chunky chronograph offerings. I won't say any others. Yeah. You know, it says I'm not stealing any picks or anything, but I think that's a solid one. What do you figure, Gabe? |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah, I think it's interesting. It's a really good first pick because I think it's a harbinger. I'm guessing it's certainly a harbinger of a lot of things I have, which is, you know, these codes of the 70s, unusual case shapes, automatic chronographs, which, you know, just before the seventies, but really carried through the seventies, um, interesting use of, of color. So those are some things, at least in a lot of the watches I researched and are certainly in some of my picks that stand out as kind of the codes of the seventies. So great first pick. |
| Jason Heaton | Thank you. All right, Gabe, you want to follow it up with your first pick? I'm excited to hear what you, what you're thinking, where your head space is. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. So my, my first pick it's a, it's a defensive pick. I'm picking it first because so, because it's, um, such a such a quintessentially 70s watch from actually a brand that's not really kind of a 70s brand or didn't really have a ton of stuff that stands out as particularly 70s, which is the Rolex Explorer 2. Yeah, like I said, it's defensive pick, man. Well played. Yeah, definitely my first pick. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So that's reference 1655 created in 1971. So, you know, very, very much a child of the 70s. |
| Gabe Riley | in 39 millimeters. It's a, it's a classic Rolex sport watch, except that it's not. So, you know, in terms of its proportions, right, it's going to wear like a Submariner or a GMT master of, of, of that era, but it's probably one of the most unusual Rolex watches ever. Certainly one of the most unusual Rolex stainless steel sport watches ever. So you've got a dial that's very geometric. You don't have the typical kind of indices and loom plots that you would on other watches, they're very angular, square, rectangular, triangular. You have that use of orange in the GMT hand, or I guess it's not technically a GMT hand, but in the 24-hour hand, which they brought back and sort of endures to this day. So I could imagine if I was alive in the 70s, and this is kind of the philosophy I applied a little bit to my picks here, which is I'm trying to close my eyes. Imagine I'm alive in the 70s and I'm trying to pick a couple of watches for my personal collection. And I wanted them to feel not like quote 70s watches, but I wanted them to feel modern or contemporary. What would I be going for? And to me, the Explorer II kind of stood out from the beginning. It's just 70s enough, yet also very wearable and something that endures, I think, as an oddball Rolex to this day. |
| Jason Heaton | I can't, I don't know. I'm sure I could. You took the whole script, the whole thing that I had planned. I think this is such a special moment in Rolex's lineage and of my favorite kind of line from Rolex, the Explorer II. But the Explorer II started out weird and became conventional, but it took them a long time. When it came out, it would arguably didn't even look like a pro model. Like you said, an entirely different dial design, didn't look anything like a Submariner dial in a different case or a GMT dial in a different case. It took them a long time to figure out the functionality. For those who don't know, the original 1655 was essentially a linked 24-hour hand. So the normal hour hand showed you 12-hour time and the 24-hour hand showed you 24-hour time. The conceit that's still shared today is that it was for spelunking and cave exploration where you didn't know if it was night or day. I don't know if that's true, but the watch was, you know, later picked up by Reinhold Messner, who for what for all reports like to be on top of caves, not inside them, and it definitely in spaces where you can tell if it's day or night. It's just one of my all time favorite watches. When you say a 70s watch, there's like six or seven watches that jumped to my mind, and this is among maybe the most bland because it now has become an 80s watch, and then it became a 90s watch, and then it became like they just kept going with the Explorer two. and it's now such a core piece of their like professional lineup. And then, like you said, to see after the 50th anniversary, to see the orange hand come back, I'm of course a huge fan of kind of where they solidified the professional look of it with the 16570, but a 1655 errantly and possibly incorrectly often called the Steve McQueen Explorer, no real knowledge that he wore one, but a fascinating watch and just a fantastic first round pick. We've got a big Omega chrono and we've got a Rolex sports watch. It's the seventies. |
| Gabe Riley | I love the Explorer too, because it's a very seventies watch without being like a caricature of itself. I mean, I think a lot of the watches, at least that I picked and I looked at are kind of like they're caricatures of, of seventies design, a little, a little cartoonish and you know, they're, they're charming and endearing, but like how well did they really endure? Whereas this kind of, Uh, ticks both, both boxes and has some longevity, which I think is interesting. |
| James | Yeah. Every once in a while, you know, Rolex comes up with these oddballs that, that you, they're so unusual other than the case, you know, it's like these, um, strange day dates and things that the weird cartoon ones that they came out with, uh, just this past year. And I think for Rolex to enter the seventies with the Explorer two, it's like, it's kind of Rolex, like really trying hard to like be hip, you know, and like do something funky and colorful, um, at the beginning of that era. So. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I like that call. Such a great watch. And if you happen to be watching the video, but Gabe, you can see right over my shoulder is a print of said watch. |
| James | Oh yeah, right. Yeah, there it is. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. I didn't even notice. I'm glad I did my defensive pick. It worked out. Yeah, that was a good call. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. That was a really good strategy. You read me like a book and a well-explained solid watch, great first pick. I get my first and my second pick back to back as I'm in the hot corner. Makes it a lot easier to pick between these two watches because I was really struggling when I realized I wasn't going to get the 1655, but I'm going to go with a Benris Type 1. I just think when I think of 70s watches that I will forever want to own, that's among the coolest watches ever made. It has an incredible CIA backstory. I love that it's a 12 hour bezel. I love that if you put that watch on today or if you put on a modern iteration of that watch, They wear perfectly, they're identical, the asymmetrical case is just enough, just a little splash of the 70s, and otherwise a very conventional, low profile, military adjacent, and kind of like an everything I would need from a watch scenario with the 12-hour bezel. Even more, say, quote unquote, travel friendly than the 1655 would have been is that you didn't have an independently adjustable hand on that. I love the way these look. Every time you see one in like a grainy photo from some possible op from the seventies. You're like, Oh man, that's just, that's so cool. They're amazing on a NATO. So I'm going to go with the Benner's type one to kick it off. |
| James | That's a, that's a pretty sober choice. I mean, I'm surprised, but, but it is very seventies. And when I see those watches, as you said, in grainy photos and things, I just think, I don't know, I think Vietnam era, cold war kind of conspiracies and paranoia and just like deep undercover kind of stuff. It's a, feels does feel very indicative of the kind of the vibe of that of that that decade. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah, it's a stoic watch for sure, right? Like it, speaking of a watch, it's really not a caricature of the 70s. This, this one definitely is not. But one of the things that was been I've spent way too much time over the last year thinking about 70s design, 70s watches and things like that. I think we often have a mental image of what the 70s are and 70s design is. One of the things I uncovered in spending so much time in this decade is there's a ton of range and there's all sorts of interesting stuff. This watch is a great example of it. Another example of a very stoic take on quintessentially 70s would be brutalist architecture. within the seventies, like we oftentimes think of it as a monolith, but it's, it's really not a monolith. Uh, and this watch is just a great example of that. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I also think like that the seventies was a time that obviously this is a, a silly statement, but I think it's make sense to say is like the seventies, especially the early seventies, the watches we've picked largely have come from the early seventies so far would reflect the end of the sixties, which was a time of great division in, in the structure of the world. There was an active war and there was counterculture. there was the freedom of the West Coast against the kind of continued class rank, if you will, of the East Coast. And this is... We're speaking very specifically to America at this point. But I like that if you're drawing inspiration, yeah, at the same time, you could go with something that's a little bit more of its era of Vietnam, like the Benris Type 1, or you could go... And obviously, this is a watch that came out later. Or you could go with something that's of the era of big but still pre oil crisis muscle cars, right? It's in two different vibes. They came out at the same time, right? And I think especially the early 70s, because cars really change in the middle there for a number of reasons that don't have any place in this draft. But I do think they're an interesting thing to kind of sit on where, yeah, this was a time of like a lot of complexity. And I think part of that was relayed in some of the product and the way that fonts and I mean, there's no fonts on a type one. Um, uh, but the way things like fonts and color and that sort of thing were used. So, uh, I have, I have a strategy, which is a little bit like a couple convention, more or less conventional watches. And then something I hope that won't get also, um, snapped up before me, but something a little bit wilder to make sure that we get both sides of the seventies. So yeah, benders type one is my first one. And you get the next one. What's your second pick? And the next one, I think people could probably guess this one, which is why I wanted to leave it for the second. But we're going to go one same year that the Benner's Type 1 came out, 1972. A fellow named F.A. Porsche left the company that bared his last name, started Porsche Design, and made the world's first all-black watch on a bracelet. It's the Porsche Design Chronograph 1. It is one of my all-time favorite watch designs. And if you told me it was from the 90s, I'd believe you. If you told me it was from the 2000s, I'd believe you. If you told me it was from like 1965, I'd probably still believe you. It's a watch that's just perfectly designed. It has a great weight on your wrist. It has a lovely presence. This is a watch designed by a guy who's made a few other things that lasted, like the 911. They're celebrating the better part of more than seven decades of that car. And I think from a watch standpoint, I don't know that it's the equivalent of a 911. I would say that it isn't, But I love seeing these. They wear like almost nothing else. I feel like a lot of whole brands have been designed under the design language of this one watch, Porsche Design and otherwise. And it was an easy shortlist for me as I hoped I could get either the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 or the 1655. So it's going to be a Porsche Design Chronograph 1 for my round two pick. |
| Gabe Riley | It's pretty wild. Every time I see a Porsche design watch, no matter what vintage it's from, the first question I always ask is, what year is this from? Because you can't really tell. |
| Jason Heaton | Not unless you get really deep into small stuff on the dial. If you get close enough, almost like with 1655s, there's several different dials over the run. But they're all, at a glance, very similar. And there's something sweet about them, for sure. |
| Gabe Riley | So is this a watch you consider quintessentially 70s, or did you pick it because you think it's a significant watch from the 70s? |
| Jason Heaton | I think it's probably more the latter than the former. I think a lot of people, like I said, might actually weigh this in as being a watch from the 80s when Top Gun came out, right? Yeah. Or maybe a watch from the 90s when IWC really aligned their aesthetic with the core of this watch's aesthetic. But weirdly, yeah, it's from 1972. Basically, the dial design is almost a direct lift. And if you ever get a chance to sit in a similar era 9-11, you can really go like, oh, this is the same dude did this. And I think it's crazy to think that one person... It's not crazy to think that one person, especially in the guise of 70s watches, we may even get to some of those watches, that one person made a big impact on something like watch design. But I would say this is more quintessentially a very lasting great design that happened to come from the 70s, rather than a like incredible time capsule of 70s design, if that makes sense. |
| James | Well, it was on my list. So I'll have to scratch that one. It was, it was going to be number three or four. I feel like this watch is bubbled up in people's consciousness. Obviously this recent version that Porsche design came out of the chronograph one, the modern stuff is nice, but like it, these watches have been on my mind. And when we were talking about 70s watches, Gabe, to your point, This doesn't feel quintessentially seventies, but for some reason it's like, it's perfect for this draft. So good call. |
| Gabe Riley | And I think Gabe, it's your next pick. So I've got something from the very late seventies. I think it might be a watch that came out in, in 78 or 79. And that's the Seiko Golden Tuna. So this is a 600 meter quartz dive watch. What's interesting about it, this wasn't the first Seiko Tuna. So the first Seiko Tuna came out, few years earlier, I guess, middle of the 70s, and it had an automatic movement in it. And the Golden Tuna, which came out a few years later, was the first to use quartz. Thinking about the 70s, I mean, I felt like I couldn't end this draft or I couldn't, you know, I would be remiss if I didn't include a quartz watch. Quartz was a really important part of the 1970s. I also really wanted to include a Seiko watch. I mean, Seiko is a brand, and maybe we'll have others in the draft here, but Seiko is a brand that was absolutely on fire in the seventies. There are so many great Seiko watches that feel quintessentially seventies and feel significant. I'm actually wearing a Seiko Turtle from 1977. So that was from the first year of production of the Turtle. I have a real soft spot for Seiko. And so I almost put the Turtle in, But then I realized I could do something courts and I could do something really kind of interesting with the golden tuna because it's, it's a really serious dive watch in its own right. It's a 600 meters water resistance, uh, built for saturation diving with no kind of helium escape, escape valve or, or anything like that. And, um, I just find it's like a very fascinating, unusual. And again, if I think back to, If I was around in the seventies and I was looking for a really cool dive watch, this is one that would stand out as very different, very modern and extremely high tech and innovative. |
| James | That's an, that's an amazing pick. And I, it reminds me there's a lesser known film from the seventies that, uh, features this watch. Um, and it's surprisingly it, it stars Roger Moore and it's called North sea hijack. Have you seen that? He, I think he wears this watch in that movie. |
| Gabe Riley | I haven't seen that movie, but he does wear it in one of the James Bond films from that era as well. The golden tuna. So maybe Roger was Roger more like a Seiko ambassador. |
| James | Well, he wore Seikos in some of the earlier ones too, like the LCD one and things like that. So yeah, he seemed to have a connection, a strong Seiko connection. |
| Gabe Riley | If I'm being, if I'm being totally honest, the thing that put me over the top with this watch was that it was, that it was worn in a, in a James Bond movie. So that was just like the final box I needed ticked to get it, to get it to the top of the list. |
| James | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. That's great. A solid pick. And I really love pulling on the quartz thread, which, you know, I very briefly referenced the oil crisis, which had a big effect on cars. But arguably, weirdly, within a few years, we had a very similar sort of crisis based on the backbone of the Swiss watch industry, which, of course, is mechanical movements. So I think that's a fantastic pick. And I'm so glad we got a Seiko in because so much of what we love, like you said, Gabe, about Seiko was kind of born in the 70s. And they do really carry that torch into current models, whether it be a brand new turtle and SRP 777, or, or otherwise, you know, the Willards and the, and the rest of it, a huge lineup that still is very much informed by that era of, of the company success, uh, and, and kind of the generalized expansion of hardcore diving, um, which was certainly something we saw in the seventies. All right, Jason, you get a round two for you and round three. |
| James | Man, it feels like I've been off, uh, off for a while here now. I don't think this is one that I wouldn't call this a defensive pick. I think it's, I've got this theme going and I'm going to continue on with it. And this is of automatic chronographs. And this, uh, my next pick is the citizen bullhead chronograph. It was the caliber 81 10. I think it was nicknamed the challenge timer. So people might be familiar with this watch due to its appearance on Brad Pitt's wrist in once upon a time in Hollywood, a great film, even though it was actually set before this watch was released, which a number of people have pointed out. But I think this is, such an incredibly uh great kind of 70s uh example of a watch it was the it was the bullhead chronograph came in a number of different forms there were two-tone ones with kind of a early sort of form of pvd on part of the case they did a gold one they've done two-tone it's a flyback movement which is really cool with the bullhead pusher sort of scheme i guess some people called it the mickey mouse chronograph style. Um, and I just think like this watch, uh, on, you know, came on a bracelet. It could be seen on a bone strap, which I think would be the way, the way I would wear it. I mean, anything on a bone strap, uh, is, is just pure seventies to me. Yeah, this is, it's just such a great watch. And I think it's, it's enjoyed a bit of a comeback, uh, on the vintage market and things because of, because of that film, if I'm not mistaken, citizen just released kind of a more modern iteration of this, uh, within the past couple of years. |
| Gabe Riley | I like how you're, you're, Your choices are veering absolutely gonzo, whereas James has a much more sober taste in 70s watches. But yeah, these are just so neat. |
| Jason Heaton | I like these. It was fun to see it, quote unquote, incorrectly. Yeah, like you said, in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Not as bad as the Submariner or Sea Dweller in Argo, a modern ceramic. Oh, yeah. But that happens occasionally. That's a great pick, Jason. And I think definitely deep into the seventies in terms of design and something that even when they make it today, you can't really make a bullhead chrono and not talk about why and why is the seventies. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so a good pick for sure. And, and Hey, it's you for a round three. |
| James | You get to kick it off. Oh, here we go. Okay. Well, all right. I'm going to keep on with this theme. Uh, and, and this is probably one that I'm guessing you guys had on your shortlist at least. Staying with automatic chronographs, staying in Japan, the Seiko 6139, so-called Pogue chronograph. So, you know, this was arguably the first automatic chronograph movement in the world, which I feel like, you know, yes, 1969, but it really was a harbinger of the next generation and where watchmaking was headed. And I think, as I've shown with my two earlier picks, automatic chronographs, I just feel are so early seventies. There were such great ones back then. Uh, and this one of course is one of the most famous. Uh, the Pogue configuration specifically had this shimmering sort of sunburst yellow, sort of orangey yellow dial, uh, with a Pepsi bezel, which should not work together, I think, but it does really wide, almost kind of square, very angular case. Uh, you know, these, these watches are just, I owned one for a while and I do kind of regret getting rid of it, but these are, these are just quintessential seventies. I mean, I just went full on with, you know, Seiko such a powerhouse as Gabe you mentioned in the 70s and then just pure funky 70s style with this one. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah I love how they come into the 70s with a watch like this and then they leave the 70s with something like the Golden Tuna. I mean it just sort of yeah they're the perfect kind of bookends to the to the decade and what's also interesting like you mentioned with the with the Pogue here in 1969 it almost like from doing research on this there are a few watches I came across that were just eye-popping that I always thought were 1970s watches that were made in 1969 or started production in 1969, which was, which is interesting. I still get, you know, intellectually give them credit or whatever is seventies watches, but there was, it's true. I mean, obviously there were technological breakthroughs that happened in 1969 automatic chronographs being one of them, but there was something in the water in 1969. It's almost like when the calendar turned, from 68 to 69, the 70s kind of really began, which is kind of interesting. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I've read in some media theory about the way that some decades hang on to being that decade, like how the 70s goes into early 80s in many ways. And yeah, that's a solid pick and a solid trio that you put together there. I like that you had kind of a theme. We hit different sides of the watch world with Omega and Citizen and then Seiko and Yeah, not, I'm going to be honest and we can get into it more once Gabe and I get our last picks in, but not what I was expecting for you for your second or third pick. So I actually have some freedom here on my list. I wasn't quite expecting. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. |
| James | Yeah. So do I. I hadn't set out with this intention of just doing automatic chronographs, but as soon as I did my first one and then I looked down and you guys didn't take them, I thought, all right, well, let's just run with it. So yeah, it worked out. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, well, let's see if Gabe can follow suit with a trio that has kind of as much luck and forechance and kind of aligning nicely there. But Gabe, what are you going to follow the Explorer 2 and the Seiko Golden Tuna with? |
| Gabe Riley | Yes, I'm calling an audible here. My third watch was actually going to be an Aquastar Regatta, which is a wild, tonneau-shaped regatta timer from the 70s. But I think you've so well covered the world of of 70s automatic chronographs, which, which at its heart, the regatta is a, is a chronograph that I'm actually going to switch it up. So I'm going to, I'm going to move into a totally different territory and one that's kind of a harbinger of something we haven't really discussed. So my, my next pick, my final pick is going to be the Zenith Defy A3648, also known as the plunger or the plonger. It's a really wild dive watch that Zenith created in the 1970s. So if you guys are familiar with the Zenith Defy, it's an octagonal shaped stainless steel sports watch that Zenith actually launched in 1969. So this was a watch that I thought the Defy was a seventies watch. It's actually a watch from 1969, but this particular version of the Defy was made in the seventies a couple of years later, I think in 1971. This watch was, uh, created and actually discovered it through an article that Cole Pennington did in Hodinkee on Zenith watches from the seventies. So it's a defy, but it's a dive watch, which is crazy. So it's got a rotating bezel on it, which is unusual for a defy. And it has, um, a dial design that almost reminds me a lot of, and this is another great brand from the seventies reminds me of a Zodiac Seawolves. So it's got this orange and black kind of very graphical dial. And I'm, I'm picking this one. It's a 39 millimeter watch. Very, very wearable stainless steel comes on a, on a beautiful gay for air bracelet. But I'm picking this one cause it, it, it pulls a bunch together for me. One is it's a Zenith defy. And I think the idea of these, these octagonal and geometric stainless steel sports watches is something that's obviously very important to the seventies. A lot of times we think about the Royal Oak as kind of the first watch that kind of started it. And I think in the popular imagination, the Royal Oak was obviously a very significant watch, but the Zenith Defy came out years earlier and was a watch that I view, and I still view a lot of Zenith designs as ahead of the curve. So I view this watch as something that's very important in terms of setting a template for a style of watch, these stainless steel sports watches that came to Defy in the seventies. And then I think it's also interesting because it's just a very quirky, unusually shaped, very colorful dive watch, which is something I also associate with the seventies, whether it's this watch or a Zodiac or something from Doxa. So to me, it brings these two elements together. It's a very deep cut, but it brings these two elements together in a really interesting way. |
| James | That is a really deep cut. I had to like Google it while you were talking and that's a, that's a wild piece. And you know what I noticed too, it has the, the now controversial 430 date position, which, uh, I just don't see much on the, on older watches. That is a wild thing. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. And that, that's something that Zenith, I mean, to this day remains really dedicated to the 430. Yeah. It's a very deep cut. Like it's not an iconic or a, or a significant seventies watch, but I think it's one that pulls in a lot of different pieces of what for me defines what a, what a seventies watch is. |
| Jason Heaton | Good pick. Uh, and I, there's something about cause Jim from, giant mouse. He has a very similar old Zenith diver that has the smoother case, but has the crazy orange. I believe it's in the photo report from wind up Chicago, but it has that in that orange, like you'd almost swear it was backlit. It's so bright, whatever material or execution and it throws out so much light. It's a, it's a, yeah, they're fabulous things. Hard, hard to ignore on a wrist in the same room. |
| Gabe Riley | And there are a couple of brands. I think you just cannot, we could not, finish this draft without mentioning. And for me, Zenith is one of them. We talked about the importance of having like Seiko in here. And I think for me, I felt really, really guilty about leaving Zenith out because whether it's, it's the Defy or certainly the El Primero Chronomaster stuff, it's a, it's a very interesting and significant seventies brand. So I'm, I'm, I'm glad I called the audible and thank you, Jason, for, for all of your unusual chronographs. It, it opened up some space for this one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's great. A solid pick. And I agree that they're a brand with like a quintessential seventies vibe, even today. So a solid pick for sure. And that brings us to my pick the final of the draft. I'm having a really tough time here because there's some crazy obvious stuff that we're, we haven't spoken about. And there's one that I didn't even, I had it on like my like sub list, but I didn't have it on my actual list. Cause I thought there was no chance it wasn't Jason's first or second. And I think that's the one I need to go with. I think it'd be really strange if we did a whole episode about 70s watches and neither Jason nor I picked up Loprof. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So this to be fair, and if you guys want to vote on this, we can vote on it. Technically, very deeply, technically a watch of the 60s, but was originally announced and began retail in 71. Its development was definitely into the late 60s, but from the research that I did to confirm, February 1971 is when you could have actually gone out and gotten a Ploprof, which at the time was called a Seamaster 600 Ploprof. There were like six or seven other watches that were deeply more... Somehow more 70s, but in some ways less, hard to describe. Wilder watches in terms of dial and function, that kind of thing that I have on my list, but I just... How do you not have the Ploprof? This... Because I think it marks kind of the start of something for Omega, these kind of big hyper overproduced, engineered watches that still really deeply were tools. These were watches worn by actual divers, you know, Cousteau, and they had all that connection to that element of the world. But at the same time, this also marks the end of the 300. Right. Which around 1970 basically wrapped up. You know, that's one of my all time favorite sport watches, period, from any decade. But I think it'd be difficult to call, even though it was still being sold, say, to the tail end of 1970. That's not a 1970s watch. It's like deeply a mid-century watch. And I feel like the next phase of Omega is kind of represented in either watches like Jason's Speedmaster Mark III, which is a first round pick watch that wasn't picked, but maybe we'll talk about in a minute, like a Flightmaster. and stuff like the pro prof suddenly omega went, oh, we can just do anything we want and they did whatever they wanted. They made some really cool stuff in an early pro prof. A modern one is a treat to see, but an early one is like seeing a Lamborghini mirror. It's just something like deeply special and cool and felt 5, 10 years ahead of its time. |
| James | Well, and it's a fantastic pick. It was on my list until I got on this weird chronograph jag, but to kind of close a circle here, you know, gave you mentioned the aqua star. And, and then with my pick and then the Ploprof, there is a connection here because the, the guy who was overseeing AquaStar throughout the sixties left AquaStar, he was wooed away by Omega and went to work for Omega. And he was the guy behind the Flightmaster, this case on the Speedmaster Mark III, uh, and the Ploprof development. He was, he, he was, his name was Frederic Robert and he was this, uh, Really interesting guy who obviously knew what he was doing, largely unsung, but definitely connects these, uh, these brands we've talked about. |
| Gabe Riley | It's a, it's a great one. Cause it's such a wild and outlandish and creative design. Really? You show anyone to blow prof today, they're fascinated by it, no matter who they are, no matter what they care about watches or, or don't at all. It's such an outlandish design, but it's one that really captures people's imagination. And it doesn't quite fit. I mean, In some ways, yes, but in many ways, it doesn't quite feel like a lot of the other outrageous 70s watches we discussed. I mean, it's case and construction is so distinct. It doesn't feel from, you know, like it's from central casting in a way that maybe some of these other ones kind of do. |
| James | Its appearance or its form truly followed function, whereas a lot of these other elements like the Zenith Defy, I mean, that clearly was an architectural, that was an aesthetic choice to make a case that shape. It had nothing to do with the function, whereas The Ploprof ends up looking very 70s, but I'm sure that wasn't even on the designer's mind when he put all this together. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, look, we kind of started this off by chatting about mood boards. If I were to make a mood board about the 1970s, how many pages of that mood board am I going to get through on Keynote or whatever before I include that picture of Gianni Agnelli in the wraparound sunglasses and wearing his Ploprof 600 on the sleeve with a Western belt. Maybe this thing didn't represent the wildest edge of the 70s, but it was like a piece of the miasma that made up that wildness. There's so many watches that any of us could call iconic that I think are significantly less iconic than this watch, and part of that is that they still make it. I think it's a way crazier thing to have as part of today's lineup than it did in 1971. Yeah. |
| James | All right, let's quickly go over our picks. In round one, my first choice was the Omega Speedmaster Mark III. Gabe had the Rolex Explorer II, reference 1655. And James went with the Benrus Type I. Then round two, I picked the Citizen Bullhead Chronograph. Gabe had the Seiko Golden Tuna. And James, you had the Porsche Design Chronograph I. And finally, in round three, I kicked it off with the Seiko Pogue Chronograph, reference 6139. Gabe went with a very funky Zenith Defy A3648 plongeur. And James also had a plongeur for his final choice, the Omega Seamaster 600 ploprof. There we go. What amazing nine watches, right? |
| Jason Heaton | This is super fun. And look, we're, we're a few minutes over schedule here, but Gabe, if you're good, I think we should chat about some of the ones that like were on the list, but didn't make the cut. Cause we only had nine. Do you have a few more minutes? |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I can, I can set it off. So one, you know, we talked about some of these brands as being quintessentially seventies, Omega, Zenith, Seiko. One brand that's not on here that I really think of as a 70s brand is TAG or Heuer at that time, I guess it was. And we had, we had nothing from Heuer. I mean, that's just a brand that was obviously instrumental to automatic chronographs as well and embraced a lot of the design codes of, of the 70s and, and had even really before the 70s primary color and things like that. So there's one watch that was really kind of calling my name as like that 70s watch. which is the, uh, Hoyer Autavia GMT. And, um, if you think of like, you guys remember the Moser watch that they called like the Swiss icons watch a few years ago, it was like this parody watch that had, you know, all of the features of every popular watch kind of put into one thing for me and in a much more cohesive and, and, and authentic way, the Hoyer Autavia GMT does that. It's got a, a, a 10 Oh case. It's an automatic chronograph, it has a really vivid use of color. It combines a lot of different complications, which were kind of around in the 70s, whether it's the GMT or chronographs. And for me, it's almost like, you know, if I if you're look up 70s watch in the dictionary, you might see you might see this one there. So that was a really hard one for me not to include. But I think we did a good job of representing a lot of what makes that Hoyer special and in the other picks we had. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I came really close. I mean, an 1158, the CH 1158, the solid gold Carrera was on my list. Turns out it came out in 69. So that one got trimmed. But I think that an Octavia GMT is a fantastic pull. I had the Monza on my list, which is one that is like 76 or thereabouts. Also a really cool watch. But with the Benris and the Porsche design, it just all felt so kind of demure. and like too quiet. And let's be clear, before we miss the chance, everybody at some point was screaming through it that we didn't pick the Nautilus or the Royal Oak, which are probably the two 70s watches that have created the craziness around 70s watches today or in the last, we'll call it five years. |
| James | Yeah, it felt wrong for some reason for this one. I don't know. We kind of did when we had our special presentation with Asher, we did a draft and we chose sort of high end luxury sports watches. it seemed more fitting to have those watches fit in there. But this one kind of felt maybe because we're following up our discussion of the, the collective horology or us special edition. It just felt like, yeah, I wanted stuff that was kind of more sporty, accessible. Uh, you know, I'm surprised that nobody picked a James, particularly you, and maybe I got the year wrong. Uh, the, like the tutor Monte Carlo chronograph or the home plate, they call it. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh yeah. That would have been a good one. |
| James | Yeah. Cause I almost feel like it has some, some visual, similarity, if you squint, kind of with this Diver 75 that you guys have put together, Gabe. Sort of that, a lot of geometric interesting shapes on the dial and some use of warm colors. But yeah, that was on my list. |
| Jason Heaton | Second series of that watch was 1971. Okay. So could have been there and that would have been a great pick. That one, I slept on that one. I'll admit to that. Let's see what else I had on my list that was kind of fun. Rolex Oysterquartz. Oysterquartz. |
| James | Yeah. Oh yeah. That would tick a lot of boxes, including the Reinhold Messner box. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I had an Omega Albatross, if you know what that is, the anti-digi, 1976, released for the Montreal Olympics. Oh. It was a sideways, sort of like that Angelus they did 10 years ago. Yeah, right, right. So it's like a rectangle that sat sideways on your wrist, and one side had a conventional analog time display, and then the chronograph was in two separate LCDs on the left. Crazy. |
| Gabe Riley | I was surprised we didn't have anything from Doxa. Yep. I intentionally didn't include Doxa in anything I was doing, because I thought it would be lazy and covered by you guys. |
| Jason Heaton | For me, they're a brand that's distinctly 60s in their vibe, because everything is based on the 300 and the 300 came out in 67. But it was tempting to pick something from the later generations and that sort of thing, because there's still some really good stuff and some funky stuff in their back catalog. |
| James | And one that I just couldn't get myself to pick, but was on my list, my long list, was the Heuer Chronosplit. It had two digital displays, one over the other, and they had a couple of different case shapes. They made one called the Kentucky, one called the Manhattan. I mean, really, kind of horribly, kind of ugly watches. I mean, like really ugly watch. I couldn't get myself to include this one. But yeah, very sad. |
| Jason Heaton | The other one that I actually found on a list of ugly watches from the 70s, and I disagree with this, is one... Did you guys come across the Wittenauer Futurama 1000? I almost picked it just for the name. a great name. It's a double retrograde, so it's a asymmetric rectangular, but north south. Oh yeah, watch with two retrograde hands, one indicating our one indicate and then they would both snap. I guess at noon they would both snap to the top. They came in steel and kind of like a play. It was on it was on my short list because I thought if I got an explorer to and a chronograph one and then something just like wild that would have never survived the seventies. this probably didn't even survive the mid seventies. It was to it was probably too much, but what now is another one of those brands and and you know elements of boulevard and there's a lot of brands that like do you connect really well with this decade, and then I think some of them didn't not what now are in boulevard, but some brands that you could name wouldn't didn't make it through the courts crisis right so yeah makes them a quintessential seventies brand anything else on on your guys list that you feel like people are just going to shout at us. |
| Gabe Riley | If we don't at least call out I think the Nautilus and the Royal Oak are conspicuous in their absence. But again, two things come to mind for me. Those aren't really watches in my wheelhouse or in the TCN wheelhouse. And I really approached it as, again, if I were alive in the 70s and I was looking for a watch for myself and I wanted something that felt contemporary, which direction would I go in? And those just weren't weren't watches that came up. And maybe it's in part because at the time, you know, the history around it isn't really clear, but oftentimes it's, it said that it took a while for the Royal Oak to be understood. I think we, you know, you think about a lot of the other watches we picked, they, they fit right in with the gestalt of the seventies. Whereas, you know, you can imagine something like the Royal Oak is just so arresting and different for so many reasons. It's, it's, it may have taken a while to sort of click where we think about it now as a quintessentially seventies watch. But I wonder if anyone at the time really, and I don't know, thought about it as like a, Oh, that's a really modern contemporary watch that, that, you know, that feels like something I'd wear. I don't know. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think with the Royal Oak, it was like largely seen as a dud for a couple of years. But the other thing that I think outside of the specific deep watch nerds that existed before the internet, What we know of the Royal Oak and the Nautilus today, that didn't exist 10 years ago, let alone in 1972 and 1976. These are watches that have may have been popular in past decades in various versions and the rest of it. Of course, they're still around, so they were popular enough to continue to be made. But really, the Zenith is probably two years ago for both of these watches. To paint a picture where they were suddenly crazy hyped among people who maybe didn't know one watch for another. They knew a Nautilus or you knew Royal Oak, like some people would know a Submariner, but maybe not a 1655, right? I think if you did this draft three times, they would be in there even among us, but I'm pretty comfortable with the nine we came up with as kind of representing the taste and vibe of the show and of collective. And yeah, like Jason said, kind of aligning more directly with the sort of value statement and aesthetic and everyday sort of wearability of something like that, the aura 75, uh, limited edition. So that was really fun. I enjoyed every minute of that. |
| James | Yeah. It's, it's always a blast to do these drafts and, uh, you know, Gabe, you were, you were a great participant. You and you and Asher have done collective proud when it comes to, to these watch drafts. |
| Gabe Riley | Yeah. We're, we're good at odd ball watches. So it's, it's fun. And, and I think, you know, we said before we were, we recorded like, gosh, the research for this, this podcast was just so much fun. That Zenith, for instance, I had no idea even existed. So my watch nerdery is the better for it. So thank you guys for the opportunity. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, no, this was an absolute treat. Thank you so much for supporting the show with another special presentation. Obviously, all of this is in honor of the new Oris Divers 75 caliber 400 CO4 for Collective. You can find every detail that you need at collectivehorology.com or in the show notes. Please leave a comment, let us know what you think of the episode. And Gabe, any other way that you'd love people to connect with Collective or the new Auris? |
| Gabe Riley | I think that covers it. And then the only other thing I'd mentioned is for folks who are listening and are in the TGN Slack, there's a couple extra goodies for you there if you want to check out the watch through the Slack. And then for folks who haven't joined the TGN Slack, this is a good opportunity to join it and to get access to the watch that way. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a treat to have either you or Asher on the show and to cross paths wherever we are in the wider world of watches. But yeah, thank you so much for this and congratulations on a new collaboration with Oris. Looks great. Thanks, guys. |