← Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry
Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry
Special Episode: The Unsung Watches of Watches and Wonders 2025 – Episode 37
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- [00:00]
A
I've never seen anything like this. It is a piece of Kinetic times sculpture. He presented it with much humility and just, you know, I'm from St. Petersburg. Eggs are, you know, a sculptural element that I'm used to. And hey, here's a 24 second tourbillon and it wobbles.
- [00:19]
B
This is openwork, a look at the unsung watches of watches and wonders 2025. It's a podcast from Collective Horology. I'm Gabe Riley, co founder of Collective.
- [00:28]
A
And I'm Asher Rapkin, co founder of Collective Collector. Horology is an independent watch retailer based in Southern California. We carry a wide range of independent brands, including Ming, Speak, Marine and Fierce. To learn more about us and check out our available inventory, visit collective horology.com well, Gabe, man.
- [00:48]
B
Yeah, well, Gabe, indeed. It's Friday night, we just wrapped up. Gosh, what is it? Our fourth and final day at Watches and Wonders at Large 2025, which included obviously the Watches and Wonders Fair itself and all sorts of horological wonders around Geneva. And we talked about this in our last pod, but you know, there were so, so, so many watches that were launched this week.
- [01:13]
A
There were so many watches.
- [01:14]
B
And not even that, because some of the things we're going to talk about today are not watches that launched this week. But there were so many watches that we saw this week and had a chance to go hands on with some of which have been around for, for quite a while, but our eyes were open to them and that's a big part of what it, what it means to be here. So the idea is not to talk about, you know, the land Dweller or what launch from Tudor or anything like that. Those watches have been well covered, but we figured we'd do a bonus episode of this podcast to focus on those sort of unsung watches of the week. We've never done an episode talking about watches themselves. It's always been about the business of watches. So it'll be interesting. We've each picked up five unsung watches of Watches and Wonders. Watches we love, that we don't necessarily think get got the attention they deserved. And we're going to talk about them.
- [02:05]
A
All right, I'm down. Let's do it.
- [02:07]
B
Asher is exhausted and ready and ready. Ready to hit it. I'll start us off with, with the watch and look. I should also say this is not an advertisement for watches carried at Collective. It is, however, a reflection of how we spent our week and many of the brands that we met with not all, probably not even half of them. But the brands we met with, of course, are brands that we sell and that we retail. So we will talk about those watches, but we're going to talk about other watches from other brands we have no relationship with. And they are just as cool and just as eye opening. But I'm going to start with a brand that we do carry, and that's Garrick and That is the S3 deadbeat, which. Oh my gosh, that is. That is a lot of. A lot of watch.
- [02:50]
A
Yeah. You know, I think one of the things that always blows my mind when I, when I hang out with the Garrett guys, who are wonderful human beings on so many levels, it's just the, the continued improvement to their product. And I mean that in a positive way. I mean, those watches have been amazing since the first time I saw them seven or eight years ago in person. But this piece is. Feels like a quantum leap, you know, the level of finish, the attention to detail, and I think most of all the refinement, you know, when it feels
- [03:24]
B
like a cul of everything they're capable of.
- [03:26]
A
Yeah. The more time you spend around watches from a specific brand, and this is one thing that's awesome about being an authorized dealer is like we get to see so many watches from a brand, which means that over time you start to see, or sometimes you don't see incremental changes. And these incremental changes over time really add up to a meaningful difference. And the S3 deadbeat is a perfect example of that. The finishing, the thoughtfulness, the unity of the creative execution. It's just a banger of a watch.
- [03:55]
B
Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. So from, you know, from Garrick here, you've got obviously a watch with a very high end watch with a deadbeat complication. It's a fully in house watch. It's got essentially an open, exposed dial. So all.
- [04:11]
A
There's no dial.
- [04:12]
B
All sides of the quote movement are fully finished. And the level of finishing here is quite impressive. And it really reflects what Garak is capable of, I think. What.
- [04:24]
A
It's legitimate English watchmaking without any sort of pretense. Yeah.
- [04:29]
B
And I think what stood out for me about this watch is just how well finished and beautiful and photogenic it was. I took a lot of photos this week of watches and this is one that just jumped out of, out of the camera. It's absolutely beautiful. It is a horological tour de force. We'll obviously have links in the show notes to all of these watches. I'll put a blog post up on collective horology.com about this watch with those photos as well. It's just, it's that good. One thing that came to mind and this was something we talked to the guys at Garrick about last night when we were having beers with them. We were at Fier's Beers, so, so every, every year the, the guys at Fears have beers host a round or an evening of, of beers here in Geneva. And the guys from Garrick, of course, you know, they're not going to miss out on a pint. We were hanging out with them and one of the things we talked about was their decision to move away from some of their, what they would call their entry level pieces. And this was a, a, a for them to make. So those would have been what the S4 and the S6. Amazing pieces. I actually have one on order, so I'm waiting for you buy that from. Yeah. Gee, I wonder. But incredible watches and an incredible horological value. And you know, I think when a brand makes a decision to move away from watches in that price point, which are under $10,000 to the stuff that their in house stuff that's 20k, $20,000 and up. I think a lot of the collector response, you know, can oftentimes be cynical. Like why are they Is really unfortunate. And the fact is these guys can't achieve the level of watchmaking they're doing with the S3 if they're, if they're doing nothing but focusing their effort and energy on the highest level of watchmaking possible versus, you know, fulfilling what for them are relatively volume order. So it's a decision they didn't take lightly, but it's a decision that allows them to show truly what they're capable and more importantly to your point, what British watchmaking is capable of, which is a much, a much broader cause. So cheers to the guys at Garrick. Well done.
- [06:33]
A
Cheers.
- [06:34]
B
Your first choice, first pick.
- [06:36]
A
Okay. The Chopar Quattro platinum with the ice blue dial. All right. I love Chopar. Chopar Luc watches are absolutely some of the most elegant and refined dress watches you can find. And I even struggle to use the word dress watch. In fact, you know what? They're not, let's not call them a dress watch. They're just elegant and they're fundamentally refined. And the devil is in the details with them. And the details are absolutely stunning. And I in general am not a platinum watch guy. I have, I just on a personal level, like I've it. I don't. I gravitate. More towards rose gold, but when I'm looking at precious metal. But this watch was just a symphony of subtlety. It's. It's just dead sexy. So you have a watch here which is a new version of the Quattro, which has a. Just a very elegant profile to it to begin with. The dial itself is this just wonderful, like, extremely subtle, but textured blue, ice blue. And on the wrist, it just has this wonderful presence to it. And it feels like the kind of watch that you could wear on a very formal strap and, you know, wear in an incredibly formal setting or a watch that you could put. You could almost dress it down because it is in platinum. It could, you know, know, it could pass as something a bit more. A bit more casual. But the thing about Chopard watches that really take me and I think were. Was exemplified in this watch in particular, is that it really is the sum of its parts, you know, taken on its. On its own. You know, the case is beautiful. You know, the dial is beautiful and the movement is beautiful. When they come together, they form this complete idea that is just. It's very. It's. It's very lyrical.
- [08:19]
B
It's just a.
- [08:20]
A
It's just a beautiful watch, man. And it's like it's not trying to be anything that it isn't. It is very comfortable being what it is. It's not biting off some other brand that is famous for, you know, making Calatrava style watch or something to that effect. It's its own vibe and its own thing, and it just. It just is so comfortable in its own shoes. And it's so rare that I reach for, like the platinum, you know, dressier watch when watches are put in front of me. But like, when that box came out and it opened, it was. That's what I want. Also, not for nothing but Chopar pricing.
- [08:55]
B
This is an important point. Yeah, this is a. This is a segment of the market that I think people have gotten kind of very cynical about when it comes to pricing and what. And what you get for the price.
- [09:03]
A
I recall this was somewhere in the 40,000 Swiss. And, and before, you know, before we, you know, get someone saying actually about that, I would just encourage you to think about what it is you're getting. You're getting a Geneva sealed hand finished in house, relatively thin. I don't have a quality of ultra thin, but like relatively thin caliber that is beautiful and elegant and has implied motion in the, in the bridges and the plates. It's gorgeous in platinum. In relatively low production numbers. For the mid-40s. And when you think about that, that's. That's an incredibly compelling offering that holds its own against what you could get from a Vacheron or a paddock or
- [09:43]
B
you look at or what across the street there at the Pole Expo, you know, hallway watches, and wonders what Patek is offering in that category. Or even the same price.
- [09:52]
A
Yeah, Although, Although. Although. We do. We do sometimes, I think, you know, look sideways at Patek. And even though this isn't on our list, I will say that. That. Forgive me, because I don't. I don't know the reference, but the replacement of the 5196P, the new iteration of the Calatrava and Platinum, that was also. That was also a very, very sexy watch.
- [10:11]
B
That's a nice watch. This is an excellent watch. I think. Another thing for people to know about Chopard, we have no relationship with them. We meet with them every year. I think this is our third or fourth time meeting with them at Watches and Wonders.
- [10:23]
A
But we like them.
- [10:24]
B
And it's. I mean, it was the best meeting we had for me, at least. And I don't. I'm not a dress watch guy. I'm not a classical watch guy at all. But just in terms of the watchmaking and the watches and the craft we were exposed to, by far the highlight for me. And this is a big brand that really cares about watchmaking, and this is a brand, and the people who work
- [10:47]
A
at the brand, it's a big company, but it. But the LUC watchmaking division is relatively
- [10:52]
B
small, and the people who work in that division really care about watches and are engaged in the watch community. If you are out at Watch week in New York or Geneva watch days or wherever you might, we see the folks from Chopard out and about and in the community. And what that means is. That's great, but what that means is, like, there's a genuine care and passion for watchmaking there that I don't know exists at companies of that size. So hat tip to Chopard.
- [11:22]
A
Amen.
- [11:23]
B
All right. My second choice, and I just said I'm not like a classical in a dress watch kind of guy. And this is not a new watch, but it's a watch that I got to see, and I think you got to see for the first time in the middle. Yeah. In person. It's a legendary watch in the world of independent watchmaking, which is the Straylor
- [11:42]
A
Papillon, the Andreas Strayer Papillon from Andreas
- [11:46]
B
Straler, and who himself is sort of watchmaker. To the stars of watchmaking. So this is, this is a watchmaker who is a supplier to a number of independent watchmakers out there and also makes his own watches. Most of his work is extremely, extremely limited production.
- [12:05]
A
Yeah, I think Andrea Straylor as A company makes 12 to 13 watches a year.
- [12:09]
B
Yes. Of this, of this kind of watch they have.
- [12:11]
A
What's the Stray. The Strayer. There's two companies. There's. There's Andrea Straylor and then there's Straylor.
- [12:17]
B
Okay, so Straylor, is it the Cerna, is that. Yeah. That's also an excellent watch.
- [12:21]
A
Absolutely.
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B
I've seen that before. It's awesome. Speaking of like, watchmaking, I'll go off piece here at the, you know, kind of the similar level in value as what we talked about with Chopard. That, that piece, the Cerna from Straylor is a remarkable horological offering. I think around 20,000.
- [12:38]
A
It's 20,000.
- [12:39]
B
Yeah, but, but this watch, the Papillon, why is it called the Papillon? Mole. In French, papillon means butterfly. Again, this is another. I think I have a thing for open worked watches here, which you'll, you'll see with some of the other choices. But the, this is an open worked watch watch. And the bridges on the dial side of this watch, one of the main bridges that ties a number of the components of, of the watch of the movement together is in the shape of a butterfly. And this is a watch that is like Andrea Straylor's watches. This is a watch that is highly and extremely technical, yet extremely lyrical and romantic. And that is a very rare thing to find. Well, oftentimes you tend to get one of more than the other.
- [13:21]
A
You know what it is? Yeah, yeah. You know, you nailed it. It's the, the design of the watch comes to life through the architecture of the movement, and that is very special and unusual in the world of watchmaking. Usually so much of the storytelling of the watch is on the dial side. And in this case, the whole watch is a complete thought. And the complete thought is rendered while showcasing the talent both creatively and technically and aesthetically of the watchmaker. And this is an expensive watch, but it's totally worth it. I mean, yeah, if, as I recall, it was somewhere around 120,000, $130,000 worth of 100 CHF. But the thing is, you know, before, before your jaw hits the ground on
- [14:12]
B
that, you can appreciate and respect it without owning it. It's just a cool thing.
- [14:17]
A
Sure. I mean, absolutely. But even more than that, a watch like that looks like that is what was required financially to support the industrial reality of making that watch. Like that. That's not, that's not, you know, a $150,000 AP, you know, which is a watch that I assure you costs a lot less than that to manufacture. And that's fine. Like people have a right to make a living or whatever. But. But in this particular instance, this is a watch where this is probably the least he can charge for the amount of overhead and technical innovation that was required to make it. And that's cool.
- [14:57]
B
Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of cool watches.
- [15:01]
A
Oh, dude.
- [15:04]
B
Okay, so I would have put this on my list if it weren't on yours. This is just rad.
- [15:08]
A
So again, speaking of folks that we are friends with but. But don't currently carry, I went to Urwerk today, which as a side note has an. At one of the coolest offices I've ever been in. Before I go off script on that, I went there and I was able to see some of the novelties and I got to see a novelty that I'm particularly excited about and it delivered, which is you are 102 Reloaded. T re the ur 102 Reloaded was based off the very first watch that Martin and Felix released back in 1997. 1998. And this and, and that. That watch sold out rapidly two years ago when it, when it came back on the scene. Maybe even three years ago.
- [15:41]
B
Two or three years ago, Yeah, I think two.
- [15:43]
A
But this, this one came back in the, in the brand's well known T Rex finish.
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B
And which is what it's, it's like, it's.
- [15:50]
A
It's a, it's a treated bronze, but
- [15:52]
B
it has the look of scales.
- [15:53]
A
Yeah, exactly. But there's a couple things about this watch that are awesome. So first of all, just like overall, I like the model. It's, it's, it's very. Or work. It's a heavy distillation of the design. But there's one thing about it that most people don't realize because I never saw this, which is how you pop the crown on this watch. Now, years ago, Martin, when he was working with us on our, on our collaboration with him, talked about how he sees. This is Martin Fry, the lead designer at Urwerk, talks about how he sees control panels. Think of like, you know, the control panel in an aircraft, for example, as a, a visual language. And as a result, that's why you'll see things like buttons that have set time engraved on them or turn here. There's things that you would see In a very sort of almost the least artistic setting one could imagine, like an airplane cockpit. And he takes that and he turns it into something that's a design language. And I saw that on the case back here because I struggled for a second to pop the crown, to play with it and set the watch, and I couldn't pop the crown. I'm like, what am I doing wrong? I turn the watch over and because of the way the crown is set into the case, there's a little switch on the back of the case. It says set crown with an up arrow. And you just slide this little slider up and it pops the crown out and you immediately set the watch and you snap it back in. And the thing is, is this extraneous and unnecessary maybe? I mean, they could have also designed the case. You didn't have to do that. But that's not the point because that's not the way that Martin expresses himself through design. Instead, Martin, you have this really fun, tactile experience in doing something as, you know, simple as setting the watch. And you know, is. Is a switch that pops the crown something that you need to spend $40,000 for? No. But is a watch that is the result of, you know, 28, almost 30 years of creativity that leads to something this, you know, this distilled, which is a theme that I'm seeing in the stuff that we're talking about. It's like there's a lot of distillation of like brands resulting in some of their best work coming through.
- [17:53]
B
Good point.
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A
And that's what I see here. So this is an ultra wearable $40,000 ur work based off their initial piece in a signature finish using Martin's design language. Chef's kiss. Badass watch.
- [18:04]
B
Yeah, amazing watch. We love them. And Urwerk is almost a 30 year old brand.
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A
1997. So yeah. Yeah.
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B
And the 102, their first sort of production piece. And they've managed to.
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A
Such as it is, and they managed
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B
to reimagine it and execute it in a way that still feels fresh and cool and surprising today. How. How rad.
- [18:27]
A
Cheers to Martin and Felix. Good people.
- [18:29]
B
Yeah, Speaking of good people. Next up, this is the first brand that we, we retail that's on today's list, which is singer Rhea Matt.
- [18:36]
A
He talked about Garrick.
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B
Oh, I did talk about Garrick.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Well, look, man, it's Friday after Watches and Wonders. All right, so the second man, I'm shilling hard tonight. But no, this is, this is the watch I was looking most forward to seeing. This Week it launch, it's Singer reimagines Heritage Chrono. A very unusual kind of like in some ways a very ordinary watch, but a very unusual watch for Singer. Singer is of course known for their chronographs, but they're central chronographs that put the chronograph function at the heart of the dial in front and center. And then time telling in hours and minutes is subsidiary to that. It's an inversion of the typical chronograph format, but not here and not with this watch. This is a traditional or a conventional two register chronograph. But what's really interesting about this watch is it kind of marks a new chapter for this brand, but yet also kind of a larger return to form. Singer is of course part of Singer Group, which also owns Singer Vehicle design. And Singer Vehicle Design is of course known for their resto mods of 964 Porsches 911s. And they've taken that approach to this watch. So what they've done is they went out and they acquired some Valjoux 236 movement. So this is the. This movement came just after the Valjoux 23, which is a legendary column wheel chronograph from the 1970s. This is sort of the high beat version of it. They were able to get their hands on a hundred of these movements. New old stock from the 1970s. And they completely refinished these movements. Yeah.
- [20:11]
A
So I want to address this because I think this is a really important thing about this watch. When you say completely re restored. I read the materials and I was seeing the photos, but when you go in, when we went to Shinger's office,
- [20:23]
B
we got to see exactly what they did.
- [20:25]
A
Yeah. And it's. The movements are unrecognizable from when they started.
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B
They saw. They showed us an example of one of the movements they acquired that was unfinished and untouched by their watch. Yeah.
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A
Completely undecorated, totally raw brass movement.
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B
Completely undecorated, totally raw. Next to what they've done, which is, you know, obviously refurbished. It works, it's regulated, it's rhodium plated, it's hand finished and it's beautiful. And so they've done to this legend, legendary chronograph movement what Singer does to Porsche cars. And they've done it in a dual register chronograph that still looks and feels like a Singer you. We put this watch next to all the other watches in their. In their collection. The design codes are clear. So it's. It's a beautifully wearable watch. 38.8 millimeters. The lug to lug I still remember is like. Was like 44.9 millimeters. Something.
- [21:21]
A
44.9.
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B
Something like that. Yeah. A really beautiful wearable manual watch chronograph from Singer, which is just cool to see. Yeah.
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A
And just shy of 20 grand.
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B
An incredibly beautiful watch. So hat tip to Singer on that.
- [21:37]
A
Okay. We're going to take a trip to the other fair time to watches.
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B
Oh yeah. Just across the street.
- [21:42]
A
Just across the street where I came across a brand that I had received some press releases about but hadn't seen in the metal and was very pleasantly surprised by the creativity of it, which was Breva, that's B R E V A. They had on display a very attractive watch that had a completely esoteric complication likes of which I'd never seen which were two power reserves. One of them counted down the. I believe it was a seven day power reserve.
- [22:10]
B
Yes.
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A
And then the other power reserve kicked in on the final day to show you the full days remaining power.
- [22:19]
B
How many hours of power reserve were essentially remaining within that day?
- [22:22]
A
Totally. So super esoteric, you know, bizarre complication. But the aesthetic of the watch was absolutely beautiful.
- [22:30]
B
Yeah, it's. It's a cool watch because it's an unusual time telling format the display and I got some beautiful photos of this watch too. So what I'll do is on the collective blog along with this podcast I will put all the photos of these watches because we got some, some good ones and these are beautiful watches. But it's an unusual time telling format and layout for the dial yet rendered in a way that feels completely classical and elegant.
- [22:53]
A
Yeah. Kind of cool for a pretty. A pretty young for. For a very early debut. It's, it's a. It's a strong banger out the gate. So much respect.
- [23:03]
B
Yeah, that, that was a. That was a cool watch and that was part of the fun of time to watches in particular. So many brands you and I have never heard about that that we, that we discovered there. Another brand familiar to us, not a brand that we retail however is Armin Strom. And they had a number of cool releases this week.
- [23:20]
A
Yeah, they returned to the fair too.
- [23:22]
B
Yeah. To the fair. That's right. They hadn't been there last year. They returned to the fair. They released three watches. The one that stood out to me was the final piece that they released at the end of last week which was the. The one week skeleton.
- [23:33]
A
Oh yeah, yeah.
- [23:34]
B
And you talked about refinement and I talked about my theme of open worked
- [23:39]
A
watches, like four for four here, but,
- [23:41]
B
but this, this does both. You know, Arminstrom obviously a very, you know, we talked about Straylor being a brand that really balances technicality and sort of classical and romantic watchmaking. Armin Strom is nothing if not, not technical. That is their, that is their appeal and what, and what we love about them. And this is a watch, you know, the one week is sort of their time, only more traditional time telling format sports watch. And this one is done with an open dial. I think they've done one or two versions of this watch previously.
- [24:13]
A
Yeah.
- [24:13]
B
And the dials have, you know, beautiful back plates. I'm guessing those are from Combal line. But this is a skeletonized dial and it sort of feels like it's, it, this is like what the watch was always meant to be.
- [24:27]
A
I agree. It's just, it's again another refined version of what the brand is capable of. And that is honestly like, those are the watches that I like to buy. Those are the watches I want to invest in.
- [24:45]
B
Yeah. You have meeting after meeting after meeting all week. And so Asher starts developing these like verbal tics or things, you know, themes he keeps hitting on in meetings. And one of them is this idea of a complete thought watch, which are these watches that in their execution, they're a total thought. Everything about the watch, the decisions around the watchmaking, the decisions around the finishing, the decisions around design, they all work together and service of an idea. And to me, this is the version of that watch that does that.
- [25:21]
A
Yeah. And I just thought, I don't sit in meetings and say things like your
- [25:24]
B
watch is not a complete thought. No, of course not. But you know, for a lot of the brands we gave praise to this week, that, that was, that was one that was kind of the point we gave praise on was like, for sure, you've really thought through everything here holistically. This isn't just a redial or a different case size or shape or putting it.
- [25:41]
A
It's a fully rendered idea.
- [25:42]
B
It's a fully. To me this is like, like a fully rendered Armin Strom and it's just, just cool to see.
- [25:48]
A
Which leads me to a watch that I really wanted to see again, a brand that we, we really admire but don't carry, which is Resonance with their Release of the type 7, which is their sports and sports dual time watch.
- [26:00]
B
I mean, look, I integrated bracelets.
- [26:02]
A
Yeah, totally. The thing that's awesome to me about Resonance is like, you can like it, you can hate it, you can think, it's awesome. You cannot. Whatever the bottom line is, there is nothing, nothing that looks or acts like a resonance. And the type 7 is a completely novel, integrated. I don't know if it's a sports watch, but integrated bracelet watch, it references that genre.
- [26:31]
B
Yeah.
- [26:32]
A
And you know, I think it's awesome that they decided to take a new complication, a dual time complication and then render that in an entirely new model. And it was just a two for two situation. And when you look at like the, the lines, that's true.
- [26:47]
B
I mean, that's important. It's not just this is what we were talking about.
- [26:49]
A
It's not just a new watch.
- [26:50]
B
It's not just like take the, take the watch and put it in a different case and bracelet. It's deliver an entirely new watch.
- [26:56]
A
Yeah, totally. I mean, you could have totally taken the Type one and just put it in this case and you know, many brands would have done that and it would have effectively met, you know, would have met a brief. But this, this was more than that. This was a completely new idea and it came to life beautifully. It's look, it's, it like everything resonance makes, it's its own thing. And it doesn't feel like any other watches I've handled. You know, it doesn't act like any other watches on the market. You're gonna, you're either gonna love this thing or you're not. But the polarization of that to me is always a really good sign because when you put a watch in front of somebody or I or watches put in front of me, and my first reaction is oh, like, oh, cool. And yes, that dead error was intentional. It's just there's no there there, but it's like you pick this up and my first reaction was like, this is awesome. And I could totally see how somebody might not feel that way. But that level of polarization of like, you're either going to love it or you're going to hate it is an indicator of strong design and intentional choices. And this watch exemplifies that.
- [28:05]
B
Yeah, it's true. You got, you got me thinking about this. It's like, which one of these watches doesn't belong here? When you're wandering the hall of the halls of the Plexpo or Geneva in general, so many of the watches we've seen and we talked about are extremely well finished. They're evaluated on a lot of the criteria that classical watchmaking is evaluated on. The watchmaking, as in kind of like the movement and its components, the finishing the design. And when you go to resonance, you evaluate their watches in an entirely different way. So it's like all of the things you are using as a yardstick for all the other watches you had seen that day or that week kind of go out the window, and it's an entirely different thing. And that takes bravery. One of the things you see in this industry and you see in every industry is a lot of comfort in being like others and following others. So for us as retailers, one of the questions we get asked the most about brands we're talking with is which other brands do you carry that are like me? Because there is comfort in being around and being like other brands. And this isn't just true of watchmaking. This is true of human psychology.
- [29:19]
A
I think there's more to it than that.
- [29:21]
B
But my point here on Resence is that, and I know some people are often cynical about this brand because they end up using a lot of the criteria they use to evaluate other watchmakers to resonance. And I think what resonance deserves a lot of credit for is a willingness to be fundamentally different and brave in an industry as in any industry, and as life where that's. In life in general, that's hard to do.
- [29:48]
A
Yeah, it's a good point. When I think about, like, anything, whether it's the Type one, the Type seven, the Type three, whatever, it doesn't want to be anything but itself at all. And there, when you do walk around the hall, like, there are a lot of watches that want to be a
- [30:04]
B
different watch, or the conversations are all about anglage and micro rotors and enameling. And it's like resonance is. Is like in the industry, but apart from it in a way that I think is very brave and very cool.
- [30:18]
A
Yeah, that's a, That's a good point.
- [30:20]
B
All right. My last. My last watch. And this is like, like, you know, every. Every show, there's like the watch that if I could just like, put on my wrist and get up and run away with, like, this would be. This would be the watch.
- [30:33]
A
Oh, this one? Yeah, this is. This is a Gabe Reilly watch.
- [30:36]
B
Yeah, unfortunately, Asher got to it first and said that before he even handled the thing. But he. He was right. He knows. He knows me well enough. This is the chopard Alpine Eagle 41SL cadence high frequency. So this is a. A high frequency Alpine Eagle delivered in a kind of ceramic. Titanium.
- [30:56]
A
Ceramicized titanium.
- [30:57]
B
Ceramicized titanium case. It's very closely related to the titanium high beat Alpine Eagle, which is also out a couple years ago, which is also. But this is like the uber version of that watch. It's like they took everything about that watch and dialed it up to 11. The watchmaking, of course, is impressive. We can go back away from residents and back to the world of, you know, classical watchmaking and the criteria we use to evaluate that watch.
- [31:23]
A
That watch isn't finished like a classical watch.
- [31:26]
B
No, but it, it, it's a Chopard. It has all.
- [31:30]
A
Oh, it's, it's made to an extremely high standard. But the finishing matches the. The aesthetic of the watch.
- [31:35]
B
Yeah, I mean, the aesthetic of this watch is very, very modern, very kind of tactical even. It is just like a super cool badass watch. And man, did I love that thing. It's just cool.
- [31:51]
A
Yeah. Like a gray ceramicized titanium with pops of orange sign gave up.
- [31:56]
B
It's. It meets my highest standard of praise. Asher's highest standard of praise is the. Is the complete thought watch. My highest standard of praise is the cool chef watch. This is a watch that a really cool chef would wear. And man. And it was one of the last watches we saw at Chopard and really of the fair altogether. And if I could have run out of the place, I would have been tackled by the security. It just so cool. Just freaking cool.
- [32:26]
A
Agreed. By the way, that watch, I would be thrilled to wear that watch myself. Okay. My last watch isn't a watch.
- [32:33]
B
Surprise.
- [32:34]
A
My last watch is an egg.
- [32:37]
B
What? Yes.
- [32:37]
A
Yeah. So I don't even think you saw this. No, this is. This was ridiculous. So on our. We didn't spend nearly as much time at one of our favorite places at Watches and Wonders, which is the ahci, which, as I'm sure you've heard on previous episodes, is essentially a showcase of some of the. Some of the best and some of the most up and coming independent watchmakers. And one of them is a Russian watchmaker, Anton Sukanov, who has made several awesome watches, some of them automotive, inspired, etc. But. But he is from St. Petersburg, and for those who are familiar with nesting eggs, he didn't make a nesting egg, but he made an engine turned. And forgive me if I'm getting this wrong, it's either lacquered or it is enameled. I think it's enameled egg. So it's about 12 to 16 inches tall. It has a rounded base, so it kind of wobbles. And at the top of it, of this egg is a 24 second tourbillon. I've never seen anything like this. It is a piece of kinetic time sculpture. He presented it with much humility and just, you know, I'm from St. Petersburg. Eggs are, you know, a sculptural element that I'm used to. And hey, here's a 24 second tourbillon and it wobbles.
- [33:54]
B
You know, this is the kind of stuff that you only see at the hci.
- [33:58]
A
It reminds me of like a few years ago, the first time I saw Raoul Page and he showed, was showing one of his watches, but he also was showing his automatons. And for anyone who's never looked at Raul Page's automatons, go, go do yourself a favor and Google them now. The man is an incredible art. I mean, I think people know him now for his finishing, but he's also just an absolutely incredible mechanical engineer and designer. And these watches are, I'm sorry, these automatons that he makes are just bonkers. And that's, that's what I saw here with, with Anton Sikonov's egg, which is such a great sentence, but it was just, you know, the creativity for an idea like that. You know, it's, it's one thing to be creative in one format. It's another thing to be wholly creative across multiple formats and multiple media. And to me, what this showed me is that this, this, this young man, this, this, this young watchmaker is not just a talented and creative watchmaker, he's just a creative dude. And that was going to lead to some awesome, awesome work in the future. So to Anton Sukhanov's 24 second tourbillon egg.
- [35:02]
B
Cheers. Absolutely wild. And this is, like I said, this is exactly what makes the AHCI one of the most special places in Geneva at any, at any time of year. But of course it happens during the week, hands down. Of watches and wonders. Well, that's 10 watches.
- [35:20]
A
That's 10 watches.
- [35:21]
B
And by the way, hats off to you, none of your watches are watches that we retail. So thank you for waving the, waving the flag of independence in, in more ways than one.
- [35:33]
A
I can't be bought.
- [35:34]
B
You can. Asher cannot be bought. An unimpeachable editorial despite whatever disclaimer we gave at the top of this podcast. I'm going to put all of these watches I've got. I took photos of most of them myself. I'll get photos of the other.
- [35:46]
A
I'll try to get some photos of the egg.
- [35:48]
B
Yeah, we'll get our hands on some, some photos of, of, of the egg. They'll be up on, on the blog@collective horology.com blog so you can ch. And man, we are on our way home tomorrow. And what a week it has been. So busy. So many cool watches. Are you ready to go home?
- [36:09]
A
I'm so ready to go home.
- [36:11]
B
All right, well, we'll leave it. We'll leave it there. How about that?
- [36:13]
A
All right.
- [36:14]
B
All right. Well, thank you so much for listening. This, of course, is open work. It's a podcast from Collective Horology. You can find us online@collectiverology.com and to get in touch with your questions, your suggestions, or your feedback, we'd love to know if you enjoyed hearing an episode actually about watches. Just email us@podcastollective horology.com.