Episode 209 - Windup Recap (NYC 2022)
Published on Wed, 26 Oct 2022 22:50:56 -0700
Synopsis
Everett and Andrew discuss their experience at the Wind Up Watch Fair in New York City. They played interviews with various watch brand representatives showcasing their products, including William Wood watches with firefighter-inspired designs, Brew Watches with their new brewing method chronographs, Bruno Sohnle Glashutte with high-quality German engineering, Serica with their acclaimed field and dive watches, Autodromo with their new 10th anniversary Valhallunga, Formex unveiling their new Essence 39 Malachite edition, Circula with their revived German watchmaking heritage, and James Brand with their high-end everyday carry items. The hosts highlight the vibrant community atmosphere, innovation across brands, and the opportunity to connect with creators in person.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Everett | Does that look wrong? Does it look right? I guess it does. I don't know what I'm thinking. It looks normal. |
| Andrew | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? |
| Everett | Yeah, I'm so good. Like a rocket ship on my way to Mars. Straight blasting off. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm I'm doing good. I'm freaking. So sad to not still be in New York rocking and rolling. |
| Andrew | But the show must go on. It is. We had to come back just to record this show. Also, because I'm not sure we would have survived much longer. |
| Everett | No, we were definitely on a death march. We were going very hard in the paint. That's good. I mean, it's nice that at 40 we can still. I'm not 40. Well, yeah. Well, at 40, I can still. I don't know how you did it. Because I'm so old. Yeah. You're as old as me. Do that. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I did have a blast. So as you know, we went to wind up this last weekend. |
| Andrew | We did. |
| Everett | I was there in the great city of Manhattan, which is great. I, I am really intrigued by the constant motion in New York. |
| Andrew | It's a very delicate ecosystem that is hanging on by a thread. And works. And works. Works. Works. |
| Everett | Maybe we'll air quote works, but... Works-ish, right. It's happening. Very much happening. And we, I think we basically, we're like the kings that wind up. |
| Andrew | I think I would agree. |
| Everett | Uh, so we got to New York Thursday evening, very late. We got off the airplane, we got in an Uber, super cool Uber driver. Yeah. Vin. Talked our ears off in a good way for an hour and 20 minutes as we took a, an Uber from Queens to our hotel right in Chelsea. Uh, and then we checked in. at 1.30ish and then proceeded to go get pizza. |
| Andrew | The worst pizza I've ever had. No, it was not that bad. I would have rather had Totino's. Really? I thought it was pretty decent, but. Until there was chopped dino nuggets on my pizza. |
| Everett | That wasn't it. Yeah. So the barbecue chicken needed some work, but the sausage was pretty good. |
| Andrew | It wasn't bad. Yeah. The olives were a little turnt, but. The chicken nuggets were just, they were a bridge too far for me. |
| Everett | And then about six hours after that, we were waking up to go meet good friends, Frank Affronti, Frendy McGee, Mike Grazak, John Farrer of Brew, Debbie Case and Crown for brunch in the city. And it's like, here, here we go. |
| Andrew | It's happening. |
| Everett | I haven't slept. Who cares? Let's fucking go. And we went, we did. That's all we did for the next, what, 50 hours or so. Or so, yeah. We just, we go'd. And I had a blast, Andrew. I did too. So your first windup. |
| Andrew | My first windup? |
| Everett | You have an opportunity to, um, to share your thoughts. From a beginner, from a virgin, a wind-up virgin. I had- Former wind-up virgin. |
| Andrew | Yeah, the cherry been popped. I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Not just from your exploits and tales of former wind-ups, but also like, I know what a pseudo trade show slash festival looks like. So I had an idea of what to expect. Really the unknown for me was just the environment we're going into where it was with a ton of people that I had never met, many of whom I'd interacted with, many of whom knew me well. |
| Everett | That does take some getting used to. |
| Andrew | But I, I was, you know, not unaware of their existence, but certainly not as comfortable with them as they were with me, which is sort of the, you know, the nature of, of what we do. And Frank said something really, really interesting. He's like, I don't know how you guys do what you do. Like the vulnerability that it takes to just like put that part out of you or that part of you out into the world. And I didn't really grasp that fully until I met people who knew me, but I did not know. |
| Everett | And they know you, right? It's not just that. I mean, these people have spent hours with us, many of them hours and hours and hours with us. And so on one hand, it's really flattering and humbling. And on the other hand, it's kind of awkward. because like, man, I wish I knew you better for this conversation. But I don't have the familiarity. And that's not true for everybody. Some of these folks we know very well, it feels like. |
| Andrew | It creates a nice dynamic though, where it's immediately a, that discomfort that I feel melts away pretty quickly because it's somebody who's comfortable with me. It's not the meeting like, both of you on guard. It's just me. And when I don't see that reflected, it's much easier for me to be like, Oh, this is, I know this person. I'm okay with it. Cause they're not giving off any of the first time meeting vibes that make most first time meetings kind of uncomfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but you know, moving past that wind up was terrific. We got to see all the watches, all the people, I didn't get to see a G-Shock stress test. It kind of bummed me out a little bit, but that's on me. It's not because it didn't happen. It's because I didn't do it. Yeah. But beyond that, it was terrific. It was a great weekend. |
| Everett | You know, I lament how short it is. It's probably, um, not the length of the event that is the issue, but the amount of stuff that I would like to do and the amount of, you know, we get there and it's like, I want to see this person. I want to see this person. I want to be at this event. I want to hear this panel. I want to get to this table. I want to talk to this owner. Um, and at some point you just simply can't do it all. Um, three days, two and a half days, I guess seems like a lot. |
| Andrew | Well, it's not even that long. It's, it's noon to six. |
| Everett | Yeah. Well the show itself is 18 hours of |
| Andrew | show. That's not very much. Yeah. It's usually a convention like that. It's going to open at like eight and close down at six. It's going to be a full day. You go to like a sportsman and outdoor show. You could spend 20 hours there over a weekend. That's right. Yeah. And that wasn't the same opportunity here, which is maybe, I mean, I think I appreciate it a little bit cause I was pretty worn out. Yeah. But I think it's also because of the rate at which we had to do things because of the limited time that was available. |
| Everett | And, and, you know, within that, we obviously had a ton of opportunities to socialize and to hang out with people. We did karaoke in K-Town. We, I mean, we, we did the weekend, but like, you know, it would have been cool to go to Battery Park or, you know, see the Statue of Liberty or, you know, you know, any number of New York things that you can do that. I mean, frankly, we did, we just didn't have time. |
| Andrew | Yeah, this might as well have been in Omaha. |
| Everett | That's right. It could have been anywhere, and having it in New York is wonderful, but there wasn't any time to be in New York for the sake of New York. Correct. Although we did some good stuff. |
| Andrew | Yeah, we did some New York things. |
| Everett | We took the subway. We did do that, yeah. |
| Andrew | We did go to the Cartier Mansion. |
| Everett | Fantastic. |
| Andrew | It was. |
| Everett | Yeah, tell us about the Cartier Mansion. |
| Andrew | Ooh, it was not as good as you pitched it. There was no champagne. There was no caviar. There was no massage chair while I'm trying, like having trays of jewelry and watches brought to me. There was none of that, but it was terrific to wander through this unfathomable mansion and look at all the things that Cartier has to offer. So I did get to try on a Santos and have a line on when that acquisition will be. made. |
| Everett | But it's happening. Yeah. It did not happen because you found a line. A better way. |
| Andrew | But that was cool. Yeah. It was cool just to like to be someplace that I have no business being and still be waited on. I forget the sales reps name. It was like Ann Marie or something along those lines. It was one of those two part names and She didn't, she wasn't a hard seller, but she was certainly in that sales mode. And I was like, man, look at that. |
| Everett | She could tell you were a buyer. She just didn't know that you were too smart of a buyer for her. |
| Andrew | Perhaps. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I think most people don't go into Cartier looking for watches who are very informed, like who are as informed as, as people like us about their watch buying. Yeah. I think a lot of people come in and they're like, I want a Cartier watch. Allow me. Please see this rose gold Santos size large. It's lovely. Yeah. |
| Everett | She did seem to think that the size large would be better for you. She, she's wrong. She was wrong. |
| Andrew | I agree. She was wrong. Uh, cause that medium is just, it's good. |
| Everett | Well, can't wait for you to get it, Andrew. I hate to, I hate to cut us off, cut you off, but we've got a lot of material to get through. |
| Andrew | We have a lot of people who graced us with their time as we do. |
| Everett | We did take our recording equipment. Apologies in advance. Our audio, I would, I should say my audio from these, this set of interviews is not my best work. And so some of these interviews, you'll just have to bear with us. We did get some clipping. We'll work on it. We'll get better. This recording in the field, things new to us. We'll get better. We'll figure it out. In the meantime, try to ignore the bad, appreciate the good. Cause there's a lot of good here. Andrew, I want to start with a brand that I'm familiar with from past shows, but I did not get a chance to get on the microphone in San Francisco when I met him. William Wood. |
| Andrew | Do you know this brand? I do. And I didn't recognize their watches right away. I recognize their watch straps right away. Oh, yeah, sure. Because of their upcycled fire hose usage in their straps. I saw that and I was like, I know you. I know this brand. |
| Everett | So William Wood is like a firefighter themed watch brand from England, from London, I believe. Part of the British Invasion panel. As it was. And they make terrific watches. I almost think it's easy to be like, well, yeah, that's that firefighter company. But they make really terrific watches. And I got a chance to sit down with Johnny. for just a few minutes and chat. And we're going to play that now. I'm here with Johnny of William Wood watches. I had an opportunity in San Francisco to meet with William Wood and did not get an opportunity, Johnny, to get you on the microphone. So president and CEO of William Wood, you've now been at a few windups. We have. Yes. Yeah. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | So, uh, how you doing? I'm doing awesome, man. I was going to say, I spotted and recognized your face from San Francisco. So it's really good for us to reconnect again. Yeah, this time in the Big Apple. |
| Everett | That's right. It's amazing. You come to these things and you met someone for 15 or 20 minutes. And then all of a sudden, you're like friends with people and you're making eye contact. Oh, yeah, I know you and let's connect. It's really good to see you. You've brought a billion watches. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yep. |
| Everett | And they're awesome. Thank you. Tell us about your watches because I think you've got a brand like like several brands actually in this building that has really dedicated themselves to a theme. You know these are the types of watches we make and at the end of the day we're all watches but but you guys really have a strong theme. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | Thank you so much. Yes. So William Wood was the name of my late grandfather and he served in the British Fire Service for over 25 years. So what makes our watches incredibly unique is every single watch. is made from genuine upcycled firefighting materials. So we take this hundred year old British brass firefighters helmets here, we smelt it down in Hatton Gardens in London, and we put the brass inside every single one of our watch cases. |
| Everett | And hopefully these these brass firefighting helmets, which is beautiful. Hopefully these aren't endangered. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | They are not endangered. Do not worry about that. There's plenty in circulation. If you think about it back in the 1920s, almost every firefighter in Britain would have had these helmets. Not the most practical because they're made from brass. That's right. It seems like it might get a little hot. I think so. Yeah. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yeah. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | They hadn't thought that one through, had they? Maybe they designed it to be in a watch a hundred years later. |
| Everett | So, so you're, you're smelting down the brass. You're using, where are you using these in the watches? |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | So we take their residual brass and we pour it into the watch crown. So we have a mold, which is our side profile of a 1920s British brass firefighters helmet. And we sink the brass mold into the crown itself. And it's beautiful, right? It's gorgeous. And it's gorgeous. And people love that they can buy into a piece of real firefighting history, of course. |
| Everett | That's right. And of course, that's not your only upcycled firefighting product. Absolutely not. I think you guys are actually kind of well known for these straps, but tell us about that process. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | So this is cool. So as you can see, all of our watches are very striking, bold, colorful, and the straps are basically made from genuine upcycled fire hose that has been donated to us from fire departments all around the world. And believe it or not, different fire departments use different color fire hose. That makes sense. Well, getting into this, I thought a lot of it was going to be red, but we have orange, green, yellow, blue, purple, black. |
| Everett | You guys do have one of the most colorful, uh, one of the most colorful watch displays here. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | You've got like Studio Underdog and then William Wood with all the colors. The British brands fly in the fly. |
| Everett | That's the creativity. I like it. So you've got a new watch here. We do. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | Can you tell us a little bit about your newest watch? For sure. So five and a half years in, believe it or not, we had never made a field watch. And as a brand who is inspired by firefighters and first responders to not have a field watch, which can be worn on duty or in active surroundings is crazy. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yeah. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | So we launched our new Fearless collection about 10 days ago. So it's a matte stealth black case. It's come down from our usual 41 millimeters to 40, but it sits like a 39. Yeah, I would say that's right. The dial is inspired by charcoal, so it's got a lovely rough effect to it. It's got rose gold plated indices filled with bloom. The second hand is inspired by the chime of a fire bell. The back of the hand is a firefighter axe head, which is really cool. And then the sort of piece de resistance is the back of the watch, which is a modern day British firefighter helmet with a viewing glass in a with a color matching each watch looking through to the movement. It's incredible. |
| Everett | It's unique. It's incredible. Well, so do you find that? Do you find that you're able to sort of skirt the two on the nose or gimmicky? I think you do a really good job of that. But do you find that there's ever a concern that it's So how do you have that conversation? |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | You know, you have hit the nail on the head. If there was one thing that we take into account with every design discussion, it's making sure the watch is always luxury, never tacky, because when you go so far into a niche like this and be playful, there are a lot of firefighter products out there which are under $100. So for us to come in and go, we're building a watch here that can compete with Swiss independent watch companies, We need to make sure every decision is a luxury one. Yeah, and not a potential tacky one. |
| Everett | You know, we see like we see this happen occasionally with these themes. Like I said, I know brew does a fantastic job of making these like ridiculously themed watches. Also incredibly cool. I think you guys have done a really good job with thank you so much. As you look around the room. Have you seen any other brands that you're like, holy shit, that really surprised me. I don't know what I'm looking at. This is awesome. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | I mean, there's probably too many to name, but you mentioned one already. I mean, I love what Rich does with Studio Underdog, to be able to build a brand based on watermelons, aubergines, pandas. I mean, it's really, really cool. It's incredible. And you mentioned another one, brew. I love coffee. So to be able to, again, it's a bit like us, like people keep saying, how far can you go with firefighting? Look at someone like brew, like how far can you go with coffee? You can go as far as you want to take it. |
| Everett | It seems like you could even go farther than coffee, but you're both are killing it. |
| Johnny of William Wood watches | Yeah, exactly. Maybe we do a firefighter coffee watch. Johnny, where do we find William Wood? So you can follow us on Instagram at William Wood Watches or you can find us on our website WilliamWoodWatches.com. We've got a whole array of beautiful collections there and a lot of them are in stock now ready to be dispatched, which is really cool for Christmas. Perfect. Hey, thank you so much for taking the time. Thanks for having me on. |
| Everett | Pleasure. |
| Andrew | Those are fun. |
| Everett | Yeah. You know, I was really surprised. |
| Andrew | What the crap of your audio was. |
| Everett | Just, just get ready. Cause it gets worse. No, I was really surprised at how, um, high quality that whole entire lineup is. Uh, I really like the Valiant collection, which is sort of their dive bezel, uh, watch got a little crown guard. Um, Everything is so, so good and good in a way that is surprising to me. The quality is there. And these are not inexpensive watches. They're not particularly expensive either. You know, $1,000 is not nothing, but it's also not outrageous. The quality is there, right? The build quality is there. The aesthetics are there. firefighting based and it doesn't feel silly. Um, yeah, I just, I think these are great. I love the upcycled straps. I'm a bit of a bracelet guy, but you know, whatever. That's fine. Um, the straps are our killer. |
| Andrew | Yeah, they are. They, they were, I was excited to see them in person. I, I, Mike did a review on them sometime ago for the site and finally getting to touch one. I was like, I get it. I get it. I see it. This is cool. We should move on. We got a lot to get through. |
| Everett | Speaking of brew, Andrew, you had a chance to sit down with John Ferrer, our friend. I did. Multi multi time guest on the show. This will, I think, make a three or four for him. |
| Andrew | It will. And obviously he is such a joy to talk to. He's so charismatic, so charming, so warm. And he let me stick a microphone in his face, so Please enjoy my brief chat with Mr. Jonathan Ferrer. Good morning. Andrew with 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. We are here on day two of wind up New York, and I am joined by the wonderful Jonathan Ferrer. |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | How are you doing my friend? I am doing great. Thanks for stopping by. We're so pleased that you are willing to take the time. So what's going on? It's been a busy show. So bigger space, more brands and more new releases. Yeah. Uh, not just brew, but all brands. Yeah. It's exciting. And I feel like it's this new fierce environment of everyone trying to push themselves. And so every table you go to, you just see so many new innovations for each brand that makes sense. So it's just like a whole evolution chain year by year. |
| Andrew | That's been really exciting for us to seeing all that innovation. |
| Andrew | And I brew, I know you won't take credit for it, but brew plays a part in this and this pushing the envelope of innovation and what can we do better? |
| Andrew | What can we do next? And it's awesome. So what have you got? |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | What are you doing right now that's new and awesome? Yeah, so we're actually trying to chisel away at what is brew really, like what's the philosophy? And so we're leaning into different brewing methods of coffee. So if we're going to be a brand that focuses on the philosophy over brewing, why not make time telling devices that actually directly correlate to it? So the latest chronograph I designed fits into the family of chronos that I've already made. However, they specifically mark different espresso timing, pour overs, French press and cold brew. So instead of just a single shot time, it's giving you multiple layers on a single watch. |
| Andrew | Adding to that functionality. So I'm not just, I'm not just brewing an espresso shot anymore. |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | Yeah. Yeah. And you know what, it's like level one for ourselves. Sometimes you get these ideas and they can sit on the desk and they might not get baked at all and ever turn into something. And so now it's like if there's an idea we're putting into action as quickly as possible and testing. So I would say there's more experimenting and testing and having fun these days than ever before. |
| Andrew | That's awesome. And it's cool that the industry is allowing for that freedom and encouraging that freedom. |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | Yeah, yeah. That's what's so cool about this. There's that encouragement where everybody's saying, even if it's not a fully perfect, innovative idea, You could see that everybody's leading in a direction that makes sense for their brand, their DNA. And so everyone's kind of nudging each other to keep going, keep doing what you're doing. And then so we're seeing everybody refine themselves a little bit more. And so what is this whole micro brand sphere is elevating to something much smarter than that label. Whatever that next tier is, I don't know. but it's growing to that level. It's interesting to see. |
| Andrew | It's, it's been cool for me. This is my first windup and seeing the collaboration between brands, seeing that this isn't a cutthroat competitive community, though it can be, I'm sure that it's there, but you don't see it here. All these brands are elbow to elbow and they're friends with each other. You know, it's, it's been a really cool collaborative environment to see. |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | Yeah, absolutely. Like the overlap is not It's not the turmoil that you would expect. Instead, it's almost like this sharing and cooperation in terms of what's working for you and what's not, in terms of logistics on using movements, what movements are best. Are you even able to acquire these? Are you customizing them? And then down to the design details. Like, what are people wearing these days? Is it smaller? Is it bigger? You know, bracelets, bands? And so it's just this sharing. And I think we all understand what ingredients maybe work for brew. might not work for the next brand. Yeah. So there's there's less fear, more sharing. |
| Andrew | Yeah. |
| Andrew | I'm sure you've got a chance to walk around the room a little bit. What's getting you excited right now? That's not at your table, because your table is pretty exciting. But what's what's around here? |
| Jonathan Ferrer of Brew Watches | That's like, I need to grab it. I need to walk around. But as I as I peek and gander right now, in general, I do like color. So Farrah watches is really pulling out like all the coolest watches in terms of color. Autodromo, always a short thing as well. You got Studio Underdog with the watermelon watch. Here's a watermelon on his table right now. Yeah. And you know, we're talking about like no fear, having confidence to stay in your own lane, your own direction, doing what you want. If this was 20 years ago and somebody came out with a watermelon watch, they would turn their cheek at it so quickly. But now, We're endorsing it. It's thriving. It's cool. It's interesting to see wild ideas becoming widely accepted. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Awesome. Thank you very much for your time. |
| Andrew | I know you're busy. There's a bucket load of people here. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. You too. |
| (no speaker identified) | Thank you. |
| Everett | You know, that guy is such a pleasure. When you get to the show, everybody's like, |
| Andrew | lined up just to be seen by him. |
| Everett | And everybody speaks about him with reverence. And he's the real deal, right? He's just so kind and so thoughtful. And, you know, you'll be like, tell me about your new stuff. And he's like, no, tell me about you, your personality, your soul, who you are, who you want to be. |
| Everett | Jesus Christ, John, show me the new fucking watch. |
| Andrew | Just be less cool. |
| Everett | So John's just announced the, uh, brew method chronograph and we got a chance to play with them. Um, what'd you think? |
| Andrew | They are cool. And I think it's interesting. Uh, and you heard him talk about this in the, in the interview where he's going, he wants to really find the identity that shaped brew and lean into that. So this whole method watch, you heard him talk about it, but the, uh, it almost looks like a, um, like a heart timer or like some kind of calculator watch. Like there's four different rings on the dial that are discrete, but still noticeable, right? If you just look at it, you'd think it was just an interesting design choice. Yeah. Visual interest. Um, when in fact they're all different timing methods for these different methods of brewing coffee, whether it be a pulling an espresso shot, a pour over cold brew, which was an interesting 14 to 18 hour soak. And I was like, that seems ambitious, but I dig it. Yeah. Like dig into this relationship between your brand and coffee because it's so unique. And the, the way he incorporates those ideas into his designs is, is really great. And it's, it's simultaneously very functional and very subtle. Yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah, that's right. Well, I got a chance to see a ton of new brands at this windup because this windup, I think, was amongst the biggest watch shows in the United States. 60 brands. Really, really big. And so walking around the room, some of these brands like, well, I've not even heard of this brand. Let me see what they got. And sometimes it was surprising and other times less so. But one of the brands that I saw and I was like, holy crap, these are actually like sort of awesome, was a brand called Bruno Zola Glashutte. And I'm probably not doing that justice. But I sat down with their ambassador who's at the show named Dario and talked to him. I think he's charming. I'm going to play him. |
| Andrew | right now. He's better at German than you are. |
| Everett | Dario, good morning. Thank you for taking some time. We're at the Bruno Söhnele table, Saturday morning at Windup. You're going to have to correct my pronunciation of both your name and the brand name. |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | I've been calling you Dario. Yes. So my name is Dario Laurin Baer. I am from Germany and I'm here with our brand Bruno Söhnele Glashütte. That's the German pronunciation of our brand. Uh, yeah. Thank you for having me. |
| Everett | Yeah. And I, you know, I was not familiar with your brand until we started sort of looking at the brands who are going to be at wind up knowing we're going to be here. Um, and I said, well, what are these? These look great. Uh, had an opportunity to sit down with you yesterday, kind of look at your watches, talk for a little while. These, these things are kind of crazy good, uh, in a way that really shocked me. Tell me about the brand. |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | Tell me about your watches. So first of all, thank you for the compliments. Um, so, The founder Bruno Söhnle himself was like into watches since he was 17 or younger. So with 17 he started to work for watch companies, build watch factory, build watches, sold watches for different brands. And his biggest dream was like, I want to have an own company. So back in 2000, he gifted this brand to himself for his birthday, for his 60th birthday. So what a birthday gift. Yeah, it's amazing. And he started out with quartz watches made in Glashütte, as folks did at the time. So it's like, it was like a niche product, because it's not only quartz watches, so they are high quality and refined movements. |
| Everett | You've actually got some displays of these early quartz, these early quartz movements. And we're not talking about Chinese quartz. These are incredibly like well manufactured machined brass plate quartz movements. |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | Yeah, that's right. So we have the base movements are from Ronda. So they are Swiss made, and they're out of metal. So there's, you have, you can actually take them apart. So what we're doing is we are changing parts, refined the parts and For example, finishing striping and glass hit stripes. Fair enough. Firmly blued screws, for example. So the same things we have with our mechanical movements there. We do at the quads once as well. So and you have like, if the quads movement is like broken or something, you can maintain maintenance it. Yeah, maintain it. Yeah, yeah, you can change parts and you can repair your watch. |
| Everett | And you don't do not have just quartz watches here, though. We've got some autos and and I think that that's really the showstopper. What has been the most popular items at the table? |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | Yeah, so after the brand was founded, a few years later, he got into mechanical movements as well. So we got automatic movements. And one of the most frequent asked watches is the Mechanic Edition X. So Mechanic Edition X. It's like the most, how can I say, prestigious model in our collection right now. We have a hand-wound movement. This wonderful guilloche dial. A small second and thermally blued hands as well. |
| Everett | Enamel numerals. This is a really lovely watch. And this is a watch that you might see online and be like, meh. And then you see it in person and you're like, oh my gosh, this is a serious watch. |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | It's really cool with the polished bezel and the brushed sides. And then you turn it around and you see the movement, which has an own three-quarter plate. Classical striped finish, firmly blued strews as well. Perlage on the bridges. And we have golden chatons, which are polished by hand. So there you got like the crazy movement. |
| Everett | And so this is like a $15,000, $25,000 watch, yeah? |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | $2,900, all right. Yeah. |
| Everett | I mean, this is incredible. Thank you. This is actually a really lovely watch. So is this Bruno Zonda's first wind-up event? It is. And is it the first American watch show? Yes, it is. And how's your travel been so far? |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | I'm so excited. So yesterday it was like, oh my god, so many people and it's just Friday. I had so many conversations with people who didn't know the brand before. Some people just know about like the automatic ones. And they're like, wow, okay, cool watches. Nice styling. Yeah, so I'm very, very positive about the event. And I'm Very happy to be here. |
| Everett | Dario, looking around the room, have you had an opportunity to see anything that's knocked your socks off? |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | I was like the L'Oreal New York. Yeah, L'Oreal is fantastic. Yeah, like the not rectangular watch, but like the shape. |
| Everett | They have that Tano, that new Tano dress watch. Yeah, I like that. Totally fantastic. |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | I like the case shape. Yeah. Where can folks find Bruno's online? |
| Everett | Sorry? Where can folks at home find Bruno's online? |
| Dario Laurin Baer of Bruno Sohnle Glashutte | You can go on our website. It's brunosoenle.de. So normally in Germany, you write it with a U. So in America, you just write O-E instead of it. So yeah, look at our online store. |
| Everett | And we'll have a link in the show notes. Yeah, OK, perfect. Fantastic. Hey, thank you, Dario. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you too. Have a nice day. Andrew, how charming is his accent? |
| Andrew | It is so good. I, I found that, uh, you know, we spoke to a lot of international brand owners, uh, and the, there's something about the way native German speakers learn English is their inflections and the the way that they speak English is so endearing. Like not in a, like a, Oh, Oh, you don't speak good English, but it's so fun. Yeah. It's just like, we have this idea, like, and it's just the way German sounds, it's their consonants are much more harsh than ours. Uh, so we expect when they speak English that they're going to be like gruff and angry, but they're, you realize that though that the, Maybe consonants are kind of hard in German. It's actually a really like joyful and airy language. |
| Everett | So this Mechanic Edition X that we talked about, you know, if you look this up and we'll have a link to this in the show notes, if you look this up, it may not blow you away. In person, this watch is totally a hundred percent crazy. I mean, I picked it up and I was like, holy crap, what is this? The guilloche on the dial is mind-blowing. And I mean, not a watch that I would look at online and be like, let me look at that one in person. It was really, really good. And they've got a huge range of prices. I think this is one of their more expensive watches at just under 3000 euro. Um, but they've got everything from $300 quartz watches to, to this. And, uh, Everything across the board is just super well made. In the moment, you can be charmed by the owner, but I think it was more than that. These are really great. |
| Andrew | It was one of the more surprising brands I came across. Most of the watches that we came across, I was like, this is exactly what I expected it to be. This is exactly as good as I'd hoped it would be. This is awesome. But there were a sprinkling in there, or seeing it in person, I was like, oh, fuck. |
| Everett | Did you have a specific moment or a specific table that you went to that you were like, Oh my God. |
| Andrew | It was the Serica table. Yeah. I was number one, totally smitten by Jerome. He immediately, I spoke to him on Friday and I was like, Hey dude, I'd like to come and do an interview with you tomorrow. Are you okay with that? He's like, yeah, it's fantastic. I came back by the next day and I was like, Hey, I'm so sorry. I've forgotten your name, but you know, here I am. And you know, we said we would, you said to be good with five minutes. When can I come back by? And he's like, whenever. And I remember you as professor X. And I was like, what are you trying to say? He said, professor Xavier, not professor X. And I was like, well, that's not the worst way to remember someone's name, but that you didn't remember my name associated with it. But he like, he remembered the conversation and for a brand owner, to remember anybody from the previous day is nothing short of extraordinary. Andrew, did you get that interview? I did. I got to chat with him briefly. And then after this, we can chat about just how smitten I am with Serica watches now. And this is Andrew again with 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. We're here at day two of wind up and I'm with Jerome of Serica watches. |
| Andrew | Hey, man, how are you? I'm so good. How are you? Thank you for your time, man. It's amazing. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | We, we here in New York for the very first time, and we've been getting a lot of love and attention, man. So it's, it's great. It's amazing. |
| Andrew | It's good. Well, so tell, tell the folks out there a little bit about Serica. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Serica is a, is a brand that we founded four years ago now in 2018. And the idea behind it is very simple and very ambitious as well. Because the way I always put it is we're trying to make watches just as well as they used to. And when I say that, obviously, it's not saying the same way as I used to. But it's about understanding how come these watches made during the golden age of watchmaking were sexier, were carrying more emotion, were, in my opinion, often better, despite the lack of technology that we now have. And one of the answers, one of my answers anyway, is that these watches, when we talk about sports watches, which is what we do here, were very reliable, waterproof and everything. But these watches also were very elegant and beautiful little things when we're not abusing them, basically. So trying to recreate something that does not trying to mimic or steal any design element from the past. Obviously, we did not invent the round face and the black dial, as you can imagine. but we try to be skilled and subtle enough to add our own very own flavor and to make something new and fresh. And we already have like three, three models now, the field watch, the dive watch. And we just launched last week, the GMT watch. Right. And try to trying to reinterpret those legends is always like, it's a, yeah, it's a challenge, man. Let me tell you. So for example, the GMT, because it's the latest watch that we launched, Trying to compete with the design that killed the game back in 1954 is no easy task, let me tell you. So now if you say GMT, what do you think about? |
| Andrew | Everyone's thinking a forehand maybe a rotating bezel. |
| Andrew | Everybody thinks about Rolex. Yeah, we're going we're going straight to Rolex. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Like stretchable legs said about Pepsi red arrow hand or maybe orange hand like which is Rolex as well. Right. So the thing is, we went a very different way. And what you see it's like you're instead of going with a 24 hour bezel, we went with a two times 12. Yeah, with the asymmetrical division black and white and with the first for the first time is watchmaking for As stupid as that may sound, it's the first time ever that the GMT hand is actually lollipop shaped. Really? Yeah. And so it's just as easy to read and looks nothing like the Rolex. Right. It's a I love that watch, man. It was also for us the opportunity to introduce chronometer certification. So right now what you have is either watch that is waterproof to 20 ATM, you have a watch that is made that with like very high end materials, you have the single block two tome ceramic insert, you have the sapphire crystal double dome two millimeter thick enamel dial with a hell of a personality and chronometer certified. And basically it's below two grand. Yeah, so we can all look around. I think that doesn't exist. |
| Andrew | No, no, you're not looking at chronometers under $2,000. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Especially not Swiss made with that kind of materials. |
| Andrew | Yeah. You guys are doing something special. Tell me a little bit about this field watch. This is one that I've been looking at for a while and got really excited to see here. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | The field watch was introduced, that's basically the first watch we introduced back in 2019. And it's about trying to elevate the field watch design without losing anything of its minimalist appeal, I would say. And when I say elevate, it's just like treating it with more respect. The field watch is a military watch. So as a military watch, it's always suffered from maybe a lack of a lack of fanciness, I would say, because of the military. When the government produced watches for people who are going to go to combat and not necessarily come back, you need something cheap. Yeah. So the material use, the finishing is not something, obviously. What we did here, we kept the minimalistic approach, the very robust approach. The so it's a case that's also water resistant down to 200 meters. But we integrate very high end materials we integrate 316 stainless L alternate finishing the double dome sapphire the animal dial and some dial design that |
| Andrew | And it's suitable to a field watch, but it's it's elevated. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Yeah, it's a real field watch. It's not a field looking watch, you know, yeah, a fancy field looking watch. It's a true field watch. And we're trying again, to treat it with yet most respect. Yeah. And it makes the world super versatile. Meaning a watch that you can take on any adventure because it can take it. But a watch that you'd be eager to take out for dinner with your best suit because you want to. |
| Andrew | That's the trick, you know what I mean? Yeah. |
| Andrew | So you said this is your first wind-up. What's been the most surprising part of it for you? |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Surprising? I don't know if it's a surprise, but like, okay, yeah, the first surprise is how many people are here. Since like Friday 12th, wow, there's more people here on a Friday than any watch event in France probably. Really? on a busy day. Wow. And although, you know, when comparing to France, it's, um, it's very heartwarming the way Americans show their support and love, you know, when a French guy will say, it's pa mal, which means it's really not bad. Is that a high praise? Yeah, that's high praise for a French dude. And Americans are like, I freaking love you dude. And it feels great, man. |
| Andrew | Oh, that's awesome. I'm so pleased to see you. I've been excited about this brand. I gotta say that, |
| Andrew | I was excited about these field watches and then I picked up that bracelet and was just blown away. |
| Andrew | The Bunkley bracelet. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | I wish I could tell you that I invented it, but obviously I didn't. |
| Andrew | The execution on it is terrific. That's the thing that is most pleasing by seeing this is your photographs of these watches don't do it justice to the true finishing, the true what you're really getting in the metal. These really outpace their photos. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | It sucks for the photographs, but I like it this way better. |
| Andrew | These are terrific in the metal. If anybody out there, when you get a chance, Absolutely CDs in the middle. Where can people find you? |
| Andrew | Sorry, sorry. Where can people find you? |
| Jerome of Serica watches | Online, we're very easy to reach. We ship worldwide, like we ship to over 70 countries. And if you one day, if anyone comes to Paris, we have a shop there. Get in, have a coffee, have a chat, pick up a watch or don't, but we're always happy to see you guys. |
| Andrew | Now we have a reason to be, another reason to go to Paris. |
| Andrew | I mean, this will be my reason. I'm like, no, I need to go see Serica, so I have to go to Paris. |
| Andrew | That's a bummer. I'm sorry. I don't have to do that now. |
| Jerome of Serica watches | So like I said in the interview, these watches are great. |
| Andrew | That bracelet was paper thin, perfectly drapes over your wrist, so adjustable. I was blown away by it. |
| Andrew | I was so pleased to see these in person. This was my most tempting watch. I like this, this was about as close as I got to making a watch purchase this weekend with a Santos on my wrist. Also later in the weekend. |
| Everett | Yeah, no, I mean they do such a great job. Yeah. And that new, their new, uh, and the GMT. Yeah. The new GMT is so good. Uh, there was a brand that I was really excited to see. Tell me more. We talked about it before on our, on our last episode, but Autodromo, uh, Again, this brand that I've seen a hundred times, but just never really interacted with, never had a chance to touch their watches. I did get a chance and they're really good. |
| Andrew | Touched more than their watches. |
| Everett | And I talked to Bradley Price and I'm going to play that right now. Saturday morning, wind up, everybody's tired, but everybody looks excited. I am here with Bradley Price, founder and owner of Autodromo. Bradley, you agreed to talk to me for a few minutes before we got really cooking here. How you doing? Yeah, it's a pleasure to talk to you. Autodromo was one of the brands that we selected in our pre windup show that we were kind of most excited to actually get hands on the pieces. I've got some familiarity with Autodromo been in watches for several years now, but never had a chance to handle the watches. I now have done that. Well done. Mission accomplished, as I'm sure you know, |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | I've been very fortunate being a New York based brand that we've been at every windup, except during COVID, I skipped one year, but we've been at every windup from the start. And I was proud to be a sponsor of the first windup as well to help get it off the ground. And I love the guys at Worn Wound and the great people, great team. And they've been really wonderful supporters of the brand for 10 years now. And so so wind up is very dear to me. And I, it's wonderful to see how it's grown and matured over the years. |
| Everett | And now what warning wound and you you just celebrated Autodromo's 10th anniversary. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | Yeah, yeah, yeah. How was that? It's great. It's like a real milestone to, you know, a lot of the brands here are not 10 years old yet. And Although some of them, it feels like they're catching up in age because they're like seven years old or whatever. But like, I still think of it as like they came after me. They're the new guys. Yeah, it's funny though. But, uh, you know, you can never actually catch up, I suppose. But, uh, no, no, it's great to see like a lot of quality brands that have come in to the space, um, that are here in the show. Uh, and, and to see the community that's grown up around all these brands, uh, of enthusiasts and, and, and the nerding out that goes on. It's, it's awesome. |
| Everett | So you've just released your 10th anniversary Valhalla, which is gorgeous. You made some some changes. This is an automatic watch and not a quartz watch. Yes, it's a details have been really refined. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | Yeah, it's kind of like I joke, it's like a director recutting their first movie or something years later, because it's like, I really loved that dial design from the very first collection. But I wanted to add new levels of refinement and higher quality build quality. obviously replace the quartz movement with a very nice Miyota automatic movement. We all know the Miyota nines are the best. Well, this is actually so this is the 8315. Fantastic. But that is a has a 60 hour power reserve. Yeah, obviously has a calendar. And it's just a very nice movement. But this is actually our entry level automatic watch. So it's 695 Whereas the group B is got the 90 fifteens. That's that's at 975. |
| Everett | Well, and that watch, I think one of the things I didn't realize about the group B is how thin it is. The Valhalunga is not supposed to be a thin watch. It's not but it's still very, very wearable. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | Yeah, it's not thick. It's just not a slim watch. |
| Everett | The group B comes at what is that nine and a half millimeters nine millimeters. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | I think it's like 10 and a half. But that's you have to remember that the the domed sapphire or the the chamfered sapphire adds a little bit of a thickness that you don't really see. |
| Everett | And it doesn't feel I mean, it feels under 10. Frankly, I was so shocked when I picked that watch up. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | Yeah, it's very slim and it and the bowl case back just sort of sinks into your rest your wrist. So yeah, when it's on it feels incredibly slim. |
| Everett | So again, I'm going to ask you about the watch you're wearing because you're wearing a really very cool watch. Thank you. |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | So this is called the group C. It's a it's our first ever digital watch. Yeah. And it's, it's based on kind of endurance racing from my childhood, which is the 80s and 90s. And it's basically I wanted to do something that had the same kind of color story of stuff from when I was like 10 years old, right. And this has some motorsport references as well, to Porsche 962s and Sauber Mercedes endurance cars of that time. But it's also just supposed to kind of be like a heart back to my childhood and like something I would have thought was really cool when I was 11 years old. |
| Everett | I would have thought it was cool when I was 11. And I think that's idea. Yeah. So looking around the show here, anything that's really stood out to you or kind of surprised you made you go Whoa, second look? |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | Well, I'm actually I'm really great, grateful to be next to the James knife booth, actually, because, you know, that's another brand that's run by an industrial designer. And his products are so beautifully executed and beautifully conceived. And it's really cool to see them in person because I'm not like a knife collector or anything. So I don't own any knives like that. But it's really fascinating to look at them and study how he's done them. And they're all titanium. And I mean, it's beautiful, beautiful to see. And it's cool to see also, because that's a new initiative with worn and wound is that they're kind of branching out into this more like everyday carry kind of stuff. That's how it's not just watches. And so that's a new standard age with Yeah, standard age. Wesley is a good friend and his stuff is really cool. Check it out. And it's, you know, I'm thinking about getting one of his Targa Florio jackets. Yeah, that's a cool double breasted jacket. I haven't got one of those. So I like that idea. |
| Everett | So where can folks find Autodromo? |
| Bradley Price of Autodromo | So you can follow us on Instagram. It's at autodromo. And then you can go to autodromo.com. We're also in the windup shop. |
| Andrew | He was super fun and we are running short on time so we're gonna push right through into this segue. He mentioned a brand called James which turns out is very near and dear to my childhood in that he lives in my childhood neighborhood like had a brief discussion about these different landmarks and I was like You actually know what you're talking about. Like, this is real. People all the time are like, I'm from Portland. I'm like, Portland, Portland? Well, no, Aloha. Like, you're not from fucking Portland. It's like saying you're from the Bay Area, but when in fact you're from San Diego, it's different. So, Everett had a chance to speak with Ryan, the founder and creative director of James Brand. Enjoy. |
| Everett | We're at the James Brand table with Ryan Coulter. founder and chief creative officer of James brand, James brand being one of the few but increasing amount of non watch specific brands at windup. Brian, how you doing? |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | I'm doing great. Yeah, I'm doing awesome. Yeah, we you know, we do a lot of business here with the folks that wind up and you know, we kind of exist in the everyday carry space and are very interested in kind of connecting what's happening in your wrist on your wrist with what's going on in your pocket. You know, I've always just been fascinated by the concept of like the lay down and sort of what it says about the person and how those objects going to help a person throughout the day. So a lot of the historic knife market was really focused on sort of tactical applications or like classic hunt fish applications. And they make a lot of great stuff, but no one was really focused on like the smaller things that you just use for utilitarian purposes that live on your dresser. And so that's kind of what we do. Ryan, you're you're an Oregon company. |
| Everett | 40 and 20 is an Oregon podcast. We get a chance to sit down and have dinner and we've had a chance to talk. You know, I think one of the things about Oregon that people don't realize is Oregon is sort of the heart of the American knife industry, at least at least in the 21st century. How does James fit into that? |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | Well, I mean, I think if that wasn't the case, we probably wouldn't exist. I mean, knowing that and being around a lot of those other companies was surely inspiration to make me feel like we could do this there. I mean, you've got Benchmade and Leatherman and Kershaw and Gerber and the list goes on and on. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yeah, exactly. |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | You know, William and Henry and Zero Tolerance. Leatherman. Yeah, it just it goes on and on. And so that was kind of, you know, it helped me feel like, hey, this is possible to do in Portland. And especially in the early days, I felt like we would be able to find talent, subcontractors, that we would be able to learn a lot about the space by other folks that were in the Portland area, which is true. That helped us out a lot. |
| Everett | So we've talked about EDC on our show quite a bit and, you know, knives and carry items and our other things section always has various, you know, everyday carry type of stuff. But we've noticed that there's not a very strong marriage between watches and everyday carry. A lot of everyday carry watches are the usual players, but we're starting to see increasing amounts of like really specialized boutique brands, like the higher end watches that are showing up in that space. At a place like this, do you think that you see more everyday carry more obviously more watch people better. You're starting to see an increased amount of overlap there. |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's kind of like what our job is, is to kind of make that overlap and kind of get people to think about it. But I see it more and more, you know, I'm not even really selling things here. I kind of just exist. to show people the concept, but I'm also here to kind of see how it's being reflected back. And so we've been slammed the whole time we've had people stopping by, people are showing me their products, both James brand products and other EDC products. So they're here for watches, but they're living in that sort of EDC space. So we are definitely like seeing it. But I think for us, it's really a mission to make that connection and really be like, Hey, there are other things besides tactical and outdoor applications here. And like we want to really kind of sidle up to that. |
| Everett | So one of the things we talked about frequently is this evolution of micro brand watches, you know, whereas five or six years ago, you saw a lot of this tactical or overbuilt, overbuilt was the term du jour, five or six years ago, and we're starting to see a bit of an expansion on what a micro brand watch might be, you know, we're more dress watches, everything's smaller, everything's more luxurious. Are you seeing the same thing in in the EDC and knife industry and and and is James a leader in that regard? |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | Because I think it may be well, I mean, you know, my answer is going to be biased. But the answer to the first question is yeah, absolutely. There's a lot more like just modern, minimal, sort of like very cleaned up design out there. I mean, one of the reasons that I started this is that I was always carrying a pocket knife. And everything was overbuilt. it was bigger and just like overly done. And I really wanted like pure minimalism. And I honestly couldn't find it either in the product. And I couldn't really find a brand that really represented those values. So I think we you know, we've been doing this since 2011. So I think we have definitely been a leader in that movement. But there are a lot of people that are doing it now, you know, tactile turn the tactile knife company, a lot of the other makers have really slimmed their things down, focus on like in pocket dimensions and size. I'm the chime within. Yeah, I'm super interested in that thing that we're not allowed to talk about. But everybody will know that in two weeks. |
| Everett | Yeah, exactly that thing. Remember this conversation, folks. |
| Ryan Coulter of James Brand | It's really cool. I'm a I'm sort of a vintage pinball guy too. And the sounds on vintage pinball machines are these little mechanical chimes that these little hammers beat in order. And I've always thought it was just such an interesting concept because it's just so analog. It's just so straightforward. Really cool. Tell me about where to find James Brand. Um, you can find us mostly at thejamesbrand.com. You can find us kind of every town has us somewhere, but we're generally in your outdoor stores. We're at backcountry.com. You know, we're in New York. We're at the windup shop. Um, but start with thejamesbrand.com. We've got our store locator there. You can find everybody, everybody there. Ryan, thank you so much for your time, man. Yeah. Thanks and good luck with the, uh, the new launch. |
| Everett | You know, so cool to talk to. A Portland brand. |
| Andrew | A real Portland brand. Portland City Limits brand. Right. |
| Everett | Right. And you know, just someone who's familiar, you know, he mentions at the end, good luck on your launch. And he's talking about Foster because we had talked about it earlier in the weekend. |
| Andrew | Because we unknowingly had dinner with him the night before. |
| Everett | That's right. That's right. Foster, the name of Foster refers to a street in Portland. and it's this street with some personality. And, uh, we can talk at you. We'll talk about this on this show. It's at another point, but Ryan was one of the first people that I explained that to. And he was like, Oh, I see. That's really cool. Like he got it. Um, and, and that's, that's the thing, right? People from Portland might get that and other people might not, but it was like, We're from the same place and we know the same things and feel the same things. I just felt like this instant kinship with that guy. |
| Andrew | And we had to go all the way to Manhattan to meet him. |
| Everett | That's right. That's right. Another brand that I had talked about last week that I was very excited to see was a brand called Formex. We've talked about Formex on this show and I teased, mentioned, perhaps that I might be buying a Formex watch. Well, it turns out I did buy a Formex watch. I bought a Form X Essence. And in light of that conflict of interest, because I'm now totally smitten by this watch, love it. In light of that conflict of interest, Andrew, we asked you to conduct an interview with Raphael of Form X, which you begrudgingly did. |
| Andrew | Well, it's because I wanted him to put his hand in my pocket when I did it, and he wouldn't. Yeah, he's a handsome fellow. |
| Everett | He really is. Raphael from Form X. Here we go. |
| Andrew | Good morning. |
| Andrew | This is Andrew with, uh, 40 and 20, the watch quicker podcast. We're on day two of wind up New York and I'm with Raphael of Formex. Raphael, thanks for giving me some of your time. How are you doing? |
| Raphael of Formex | Good morning. I'm good. Thank you. I'm, I'm trying to do my sexy voice because I feel like we're here standing here holding microphones. |
| Andrew | At least we could be sharing one. If that's something you're open to, we can share a microphone. But here we are on day two. Yesterday was pretty crazy, and I'm pretty told Friday is the slow day of the weekend. |
| Raphael of Formex | Yeah, everybody was pretty shocked about how many people were actually coming on a Friday. I think taking a day off just to come here. So very, very good audience, let's say quality. But yeah, loads of people, so really good. |
| Andrew | And we're here at the FormX table, obviously. Obviously. What is going on with the FormX world? What are you guys most excited about that you're here with right now? |
| Raphael of Formex | So we're obviously always very excited about everything we're bringing. Since our range is still pretty young, all of it, actually we've replaced all the older FormX models from when I took over the brand. So everything you see here now on the table is actually completely from the new FormX. We brought here something special that we've just launched on last Tuesday. It's a limited production Malachite dial of the Essence 39 that you can see here on a bracelet and on a strap. So two versions and we're producing only a hundred a year because it's, yeah, it's a bit complicated to produce, to source, so we decided to limit it to those hundred pieces and there's only a few left. So we actually have two, well, we now have only one here to sell. Well, I mean, that's a good problem to have. Yeah, great. And then this year we decided to actually bring some inventory, which we usually didn't do. So we have like a handful of watches here to sell. And yeah, we're just excited to come to these shows because we're mostly an online based brand. And this really gives everybody the opportunity to look at the whole range You know, like somebody might like the Essence 39 on the steel bracelet online and then they get here, check out the Leggera edition, the carbon fiber and ceramic pieces and get completely blown away by how it feels, how it looks. So I think the touch and feel is still something very important and something that you can't really circumnavigate or circumvent when selling luxury items like watches. |
| Andrew | I had a chance to look at these reef bezels and I finally got a chance to see your clasps in person, these carbon clasps. These are some next level things. |
| Raphael of Formex | Talk to me a little bit about those. Yeah, so, you know, I kind of grew up in the watch industry because my dad has a business that supplies watch parts, components. We also have a dial manufacturer that works for other brands. And I kind of grew up in this world of product development. My dad always was at his core an inventor. pretty early on came up with micro adjustment systems when they weren't a thing at all yet. I'm talking about 15 years ago. So we've been dabbling in that kind of stuff for a long time. A lot of the big name brands always said they weren't ready before a couple of years ago. And yeah, we already had kind of a head start in all these little systems and then you know how to perfect them. And Formix is also always kind of a lab brand for us to test not to test new things on the customers, but to bring them out to market first and actually see how the customers interact. So the shows are always great because people who don't know anything about the brands come and handle the watches and you don't explain too much in the beginning, but you study how they actually interact and what you could improve for day-to-day use. So yeah, everything's always development and lab and then studying how the customer interacts with things to in the end come up with something that is ergonomic and comfortable to wear, which we think is important too for watching. |
| Andrew | Yeah. And you guys seem to be right on the cutting edge of that development stuff and getting things to the market first. And that's, that's pretty cool. Uh, have you had a chance to be around the room? Is there anything out here that's like getting you excited? |
| Raphael of Formex | Yeah. A lot of, a lot of really cool stuff. I mean, when you talk about the, the guys who came in as complete outsiders like Rich from Studio Underdog doing something that is so strikingly different from afar already. We can look at his booth from here and you can see his signature crazy tiles. Yeah, it's really, really refreshing for us to see that, especially for people who've been in the industry for a long time, and to see what kind of power the internet and crowdfunding and all of that stuff had on creativity or empowering creativity of young founders. So yeah, lots of different new brands. around here that I haven't seen yet. So, yeah, I hope I get the chance to walk around a little bit. |
| Andrew | It's an exciting time. |
| Andrew | Thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you, guys. He's so fun. And so he and I have to apologize. I, I might not have sounded distracted. I was very distracted because while I was doing this interview, Will and Marcus. Will, Daddy Watchcougar. Daddy Will and Marcus of Formex. were about two and a half feet away from me. Deep diving into the bezel technology and the buckle technology. So I was, I was splitting my attention, felt a little rude, but I was, I was blown away by this. Next up we have another German company, a legacy company, a brand that we spoke about being excited to see. Cornelius. |
| Everett | from circular. And I think this is the hit of the show for me. It's up there. We're here in the morning of Saturday wind up. I am with Cornelius of circular watches, circular being one of the brands that we were most excited about to see here. And I got a chance to sit down with the owners for just a little bit yesterday. I said, I'm going to come back and get you on the microphone. Cornelius was immutable. Cornelius, how are you? Owner of circular watches. How are you this morning? How are you enjoying the show? |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, thank you. Thank you for talking to me talking about our watches. Yeah, it was yesterday was first day Friday. Lots of people came in here lots of people at our table. Basically six hours of nonstop talking. It was but also lots of good energy from from the visitors from the watch fans taking a look at our watches and other watches. It's amazing brands here. It's a good venue. |
| Everett | And now this is your first wind up Is that right? |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, it's the first wind-up. So last year we've been to the Watch Time show in Germany in Dusseldorf. It's a pretty big show, the biggest German one. And it was already also a really positive experience. So then for me, it was the next step to the US wind-up, New York City. And yeah, I get the feeling of how the watch lovers here tick a little bit, yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah, a much different scene, I'm sure, than Watch Time in Germany. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, I was surprised. It's similar. Because I was a few weeks back, I was in London. And the people at least at this show, they were not so much interested in the specs or in the accuracy of watches. And that's one thing where we are very strong at. Yeah, we were because Germans, German engineering, detail obsession. So our watches are, when you look purely at the specs, this really top and the accuracy, we regulate every single watch in-house by our watchmaker. That's something very important. And here today, yesterday, Americans were also very focusing on accuracy. So it was interesting for me that they have the same kind of pattern when it comes to watches. |
| Everett | You know, when I think of Germany, I think of really two things. Like you said, the, the accuracy and the precision engineering, but I also think of design, you know, the Bauhaus school of design, I think of these very important, uh, industrial design elements. I think that your watches kind of do both of these things. They're obviously very precision based when you pick them up, you can tell, but the designs on these are very, uh, Frank and, um, playful but without being without being silly. Tell us a little bit about your watches that we've got here. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, we have the three current collections here. And as you said, I'm really happy about how they turned out today a little bit funky, but still clean on the dial. That's always so you need like clean dial, but also a characteristic dial. So it steps stands out And here we have the Super Sport. It's our real super compressor. |
| Everett | And when you say real super compressor, I think it's important to kind of dive into that because we see a lot of super compressors. And as far as I knew, Christopher Ward was the only company that had a real super compressor, but you've got a spring, a compressor spring dive watch here. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Exactly. We were shortly after Chris Ward on the market. The second one on the market, I think, Um, with the spring loaded case back, uh, which gets, uh, more and more, uh, better sealed with, uh, deeper, the deeper you dive. Um, so the, they are in petrol color, red color is limited to 99 pieces. Um, and only on the market for four weeks now. And then we have to black one. And, um, our, we have a skin diver, the AquaSport. |
| Everett | And you're wearing the adventuring dial, which is totally lovely. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah. I'm wearing the adventuring AquaSport 2. And yeah, it's just an eye catcher. |
| Everett | You cannot say anything else about it. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | You can see it sparkle from across the room. Exactly. It was yesterday to start here. People were really just looking and I was handing it to second row people just to show this watch. It was really nice. Thank you, Raphael. |
| Everett | We just have a friend from Formex cleaning our table. Thank you, Raphael. So, Circula, not a new company, but you guys have sort of brought Circula back into into being an active player. Can you tell us just really briefly about the history of Circula? |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, my grandfather set it up in 1955. And we're in Pforzheim. And Pforzheim is, besides Glashütte, the German watch city. It's a watch and jewelry city. There's lots of brands, midsize brands in the city. And in the 70s, my dad took it over. And then with some iconic designs, which I also really like and took as an inspiration from him. Yeah. So Aquasport is based on one of his designs from the seventies. And now, yeah, now I'm third generation. Um, uh, and, but it's actually the first generation that's doing a direct to consumer approach before we only were in brick and mortar stones stores, which is a hard model in Southern Germany, basically. And now we were internationally direct and this is also the reason now for a look |
| Everett | It's the petrol color, super sports super compressor watch what you're referring to as petrol sort of a teal like a green teal beautiful super deep dial. And how about the field watches? I think the field watches are my favorite. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Yeah, they are new. So they haven't haven't launched yet. We just had the pre sale, which was really, really good. Yeah. And so I'm happy with that. And we will. Now we left him ready for the first batches for early November to ship out and then So if you order now, it's going to be late November, early December until we have stock again. |
| Everett | Cornelius, I know you've had a chance to walk around the show a little bit here. Anything in particular that's caught your eye? What's been the coolest thing you've seen here? |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | No, I like a lot of watches. Richard, our studio underdog is super cool. Yeah. But also, of course, Raphael from Formex. He has a new Malachite watch. Really nice. Super gorgeous. Yeah. So there's definitely great stuff around here. |
| Everett | Cornelius, tell people, our listeners, how to find you. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | We are online, www.circularwatches.com, and you can see all watches there, nice photos, and buy them online. |
| Everett | Wonderful. Thanks so much for your time. |
| Cornelius of Circula watches | Thank you for having me. |
| Everett | You know, these guys are players. |
| Andrew | And another example of how fun German native speakers are when they're speaking English. |
| Everett | Yeah, very much. Uh, you know, Cornelius was a blast. I talked to him for probably about 40 minutes on Friday. Uh, these watches, these watches, I don't know why, you know, I think we, you and I, Andrew, we see a lot of new brands and sometimes they're interesting. Sometimes they're less. So I think circular has showed up and it's, it would be easier to, it would be easy. to look at them as like another kind of new micro brand with quirky designs. But they're not that. This is a smash with a zombie brand. Yeah, that's right. I don't think that's what this is. I think that these guys are players. And I think you would be doing yourself a favor to really check out their watches. Every single curve, angle and chamfer on every single watch that I looked at at that table was near perfect. Prices are great. The owners are great. The dials are great. That, that aventurine. Yeah. Oh my God. |
| Andrew | Hey look. The case on the pro trail was like the stuff of legends. |
| Everett | Yeah. It's fantastic. So these guys are players and I, I, I think that they are not getting the attention they deserve. This brand is probably my favorite new brand and I didn't realize it until five days ago. |
| Andrew | Has it been that long? |
| Everett | Four days ago? Five days ago? |
| Andrew | It's been a while. |
| Everett | I did get a chance to sit. So this show was great. We haven't really talked about the show. We have a little bit. It was huge. |
| Andrew | 60 brands. |
| Everett | There were panel discussions downstairs. There was a full bar. This is maybe not a full bar. There was beverages available. Yes, that's right. There was so much going on. I got a chance to sit down. with Zach Kazin. So for the San Francisco windup, I sat down with Zach Weiss. I love both the guys. I think these are great dudes. All of the World and Wild guys are great. But I did sit down with Zach Kazin, someone who I've been friendly with for quite some time. And that is this interview. Morning to wind up. I'm here with Zach Kazan, editor at Warner One. Zach, how you doing? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing so good, man. Yeah. This event is crazy. It's crazy busy. A lot of people. Yeah. You know, so I had a chance to sit down with Zach Weiss in San Francisco and do what we're doing right now. And that event, I think at the time was way bigger than anything you guys had ever done before. The space was big. There was different kinds of brands. There was more brands. This is half again as big. |
| Zach Kazan of Worn & Wound | Yeah, we have over 60 brands in total. It's, it's wild. It's hard to imagine, you know, just how far wind up is has come. But it's great to see the breadth and variety of watches at the show. That's really a lot of fun. People seem to be enjoying themselves. It's great. |
| Everett | You know, we're hearing from a lot of folks that in the past wind up has been a bit of a social event, but but pretty small, you know, if you're, you know, maybe 10% of the regional people are coming I get the feeling that this is a national event right now. |
| Zach Kazan of Worn & Wound | Yeah, I've talked to people who've come in, you know, from literally all over the country who've come to this event, which I think just really speaks to, you know, kind of where the watch industry is at this point. It's, you know, it's not like a niche hobby anymore. I think that it's like, it's become somewhat mainstream. And, you know, people really want to gather and kind of, you know, socialize, as you said, and talk about watches and We have an opportunity here to do that. We have, you know, panel discussions this year for the first time at a wind up watch fair and, you know, some, you know, alternative programming that people can get involved in, you know, exhibits in the lounge area. So there's a lot to see. It's more than just kind of like looking at watches at booths. There's a there's a social aspect to it as well this time. |
| Everett | Yeah, you know, we just sat down with Ryan at James brand. I'm |
| Zach Kazan of Worn & Wound | a good coordinator does all that and he does a great job of reaching out. And he's done a great job. Yeah, so he develops all those relationships with these brands. But yeah, you know, we're all interested in things other than watches. There are a lot of kind of things that are adjacent to watches where I think it makes sense to, you know, kind of have those folks from those brands here. The James brand is a really great example. You know, Everyday Carry is, you know, not even just adjacent to watches, like watches are a part of that in a very real way. Um, so yeah, I think that's something that, uh, I hope we continue to experiment with because I'd love to, uh, you know, selfishly, I just love to meet people from, from some of these, uh, some of these brands, everyday carry brands and, uh, you know, like leather workers and, uh, you know, shoemakers and things like that. Like all that stuff is of interest to me personally. So I'd love to see that. |
| Everett | Yeah. And so this, so this show, uh, I think what, what's, what surprised me about New York versus San Francisco is looking around the room uh... all the brands that have really shocked me brands that i've never heard of and then you walk up to the table and you're like oh my god these watches are great i just sat down with dario of bruno sonley yeah and those watches are like that that guilloche dial automatic is nuts uh... has there been anything that you were surprised about walking around this floor so i did a uh... we do uh... for the last several windups we've done these uh... these sponsored videos with with brands who uh... you know they uh... |
| Zach Kazan of Worn & Wound | they pay to have us, you know, do a little short video clip with them. And so I did one with the Abingdon company yesterday, which I admit was a brand I was not familiar with. It's run by a woman who specializes in marketing watches directly towards women, but tool watches specifically. And I was just really impressed with her and the kind of like the way that she's kind of cultivated this really like niche brand and developed a really great community around it. So, you may have noticed, |
| Andrew | Abington watches came up once, but from a pretty important player and studio underdog came up. I don't know, six times, 106. |
| Everett | I counted it was 106 times. |
| Andrew | These are both brands that were really captivating and don't worry. We missed out on them at wind up. We're not going to miss out on them in the long run. And we're working on it more because we want we want a little bit more than just what five minutes can offer. Just not to say we didn't want more from every brand we spoke to. But there's there's some things that need to get dug into in these brands. |
| Everett | Andrew, wind up New York City 2022. Final thoughts? |
| Andrew | Recommend. If you can spare a weekend. Maybe take a full week, take the family on vacation in New York slip away for a day, two, three, and go to wind up. If you're in the New England, if you're on the Eastern seaboard, it's a short drive. Like if you live north, if you live Richmond or north, it's a relatively short drive. I 100% recommend just stopping by one of these windups. They're super fun. And I wasn't bullshitting when I spoke to Jonathan and said this doesn't feel like a cutthroat competitive environment. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yeah. |
| Andrew | We spent every night with multiple brand owners all together eating Korean barbecue, boozing, singing karaoke. And there's not an inkling of anything but love between these brands. And that was tangible at this event. This is a true like enthusiast environment. Everyone loves watches and that's why they're there. |
| Everett | It's, this is a community get together on a huge scale. |
| Andrew | Yeah. It was, it was, it exceeded my expectations. |
| (no speaker identified) | Yeah. |
| Everett | Thoughts Everett? You know, same Andrew. I love, I love this stuff. I think this is more than anything, the reason why I do this stuff, people, connections, having the opportunity to unwind with someone that, you know, you don't get an opportunity to unwind with, making friends across the world. I love it. I'm here for it. |
| Andrew | And we look forward to San Francisco. |
| Everett | With that, I'd like to Thank you guys for tuning in for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 or at WatchClicker. Find pictures, updates. This is what we're doing. Better yet, just go to the fucking website, watchclicker.com. That's where we post every episode of this podcast, but also reviews, articles, really good stuff. If you want to support WatchClicker and what we're doing here, You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look guys, bottom line, that's how we get the money that it takes to keep this thing going. Software, hardware, hosting fees, which, oh my gosh, hosting fees. Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. You can give a buck, you can give five bucks, whatever you want, whatever you think this is worth. We'd love to have you on that team. And other than that, don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. |
| Andrew | Bye bye. |