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Scottish Watches Podcast #754 : Rare Red Releases from Moser, Sartory Billard, Armin Strom and More
00:52:46
First, looking at the new Streamliner Tourbillon Concept Ceramic from H. Moser & Cie. The brand’s first execution of the Streamliner in full ceramic, including the integrated bracelet. We break...
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Scottish Watches Podcast. In this week's exciting episode, we've got heavy hitters and little wristers, plus industry news about the biggest brands in the watch sphere and lots of event details that you won't want to miss. But we'll check in quickly with Dave. He's across in Switzerland, but he's not going to be close to Moser. I don't think I'm a lot closer.
- [00:17]
B
To Moser than you are, which, to be fair, is helpful that I'm in the same country that they're based in. But, yeah, actually I was not that far away from them because this time I flew into Zurich. And of course, as you know, Ricky. Fine. Well, when we went to visit them, when. What was that? A year, maybe even two years ago now.
- [00:32]
A
Two and a half.
- [00:32]
B
Nearly two and a half. We got the train from Zurich out to Schaffhausen, of course, which was, well, a bit weird because I think we went from Switzerland to Germany, back to Switzerland.
- [00:41]
A
Do you remember I got in trouble on the train?
- [00:42]
B
Why was that, Ricky?
- [00:43]
A
Nobody told me that I would need a passport to go on a train to stay within the same country. Because nobody told me that. Apparently we can go out and look back in again, something like that.
- [00:52]
B
Because, yeah, the bit you go, switzerland, Germany, Germany, Switzerland. Yeah, that bit. I didn't even really realize that until, of course, we did find out later during the trip to Moser that that little bit of Schaffhausen is on the opposite side of the river and it's kind of a little enclave of Switzerland. I think it's the only part of Switzerland on the opposite side of the river. Anyway, this is not a geography lesson. We're not back at school.
- [01:14]
A
No one definitely didn't say to me, papers, please.
- [01:16]
B
No, nobody said that at all. No one said that in probably about 70 years. But anyway, probably moving along, before we get ourselves into any trouble, we should talk about something that Moser have brought out because they've done something. Well, it's definitely new, but it's not all new, but it's also very cool.
- [01:33]
A
This is superb. And we do say this about Moser quite a lot because they've not done anything shit that we're aware of. Well, that QR code watch we don't speak much about, but everything else is good. Everything else we kind of are on board with nature. Watch cheese, watch Swiss Alps, watch Swiss icons, watch all the crazy stuff of the past and the cool stuff of the latter releases, including when Ed decided that the way that watch looked was With a bit of a hue of brown on, it actually looked better than the real watch itself. Threw out everything, redesigned it, got everything redone again content wise and put a watch out the tail end of last year that we saw in Dubai. But they're back with something that is very of the moment. It's Chinese New Year. There are lots of places across the world that are closed at the moment because they, they have a process or a link back to China and the mainland. So a little bit like over in Switzerland, you've got the watchmakers holiday this, this time of year. Not much happens over in the Far east, but the guys at Moser, they have got something happening. And it's got a tourbillon on the front, it's got a large aperture. Dave might be on board, might not be on board.
- [02:32]
B
Dave is absolutely on board. Dave thinks this might be the coolest watch that has been released by Mozart in many, many years. And they've released many cool watches over those many, many years. What are we talking about? Let's get to the point. It's the streamliner Tourbillon concept ceramic. And that last word is where all the newness is. For the first time in the history of Moser, they are using ceramic not just for the case but also for the bracelet. And I saw this press release come in and I got excited and I thought it was maybe going to be in a rubber. And I got even more excited when I found out it's got that beautiful streamliner bracelet and even the bracelets in ceramic. And it's a really nice shade of ceramic. It just fits this watch so perfectly. I think the beauty of ceramic is it's very good at getting that kind of almost fluid like feel to it as well. And because you've got all those sleek, flowing lines within this model, probably the most iconic, I would say, within their collection, it just works. So we've got an anthracite gray ceramic, not black, which can be a bit harsh, not white, which can look cool, but also can also not look cool when it wants to. This anthracite grey just is the perfect colour for this watch to match your.
- [03:45]
A
Hair and your outfit today.
- [03:46]
B
Well, I'm kind of in blue today. Don't know if that's coming through in the camera, but I have got the old silver fox thing going on. I'm just leaning into it now. I'm old. Not a lot I can do about it. Ricky, you'll get away with that one because, well, frankly, you're never going to be a silver fox unless of course. No, no, let's not think about where there might also be other hairs. We'll not go into that at this point in time.
- [04:05]
A
I'm the Yul Brynner of podcasting.
- [04:07]
B
I'll leave that alone because let's just keep it on program. Yes. Ceramic grey anthracite colourway. You've got the polished and the satin finishes that you would expect, of course, on the stainless steel case. The dial, no indices, no logo. It has got a red fumet grand feu enamel dial, as Ricky mentioned, it's a flying tourbillon and it's got their famous double hairspring in there. Ceramic, of course, is lightweight, it's hypoallergenic. The dial has also got a really beautiful textured pattern. It's a white gold base with an engraving that kind of gives it a bit of, I would say a hammered effect. That's kind of what's going on here as well. You've then got that amazing red colourway on it. Nothing to spoil it. As we mentioned, nothing else on the dial except for that texturing and that beautiful color. At six o' clock you've got that 60 second flying tourbillon. The movement is their HMC805. It is an automatic tourbillon as well, I'm very pleased to say. It's the 40 millimeter size, which means it comes in at under 13 millimeters tall. The water resistance, well, that's 12 ATM, which of course is not what Ricky would say ATM means. It means 120 meters. And the price, all in all, it's not cheap, no two ways about it, but I was surprised that it's not into six figures.
- [05:24]
A
Well, Dave, come on. Not into six figures. It's like scratching at the six figures.
- [05:29]
B
For sure. It's getting towards six figures. In fact, not even getting towards. It's very close to it, but. But 98,000 of your British pounds, but that includes all your taxes, VAT everything. So no nasty surprises. Many a brand would price it at 98,000 and then have that little X taxes, which of course means another 20% on the top, which of course does mean it's well into the six figures. This is epically good looking. Yes, it's 100 grand. Huge chump change, no two ways about it, but my God, it's just beautiful, everything about it. I can't fault that, this watch. Ricky, I think you're going to be on board with this as well. For once I'm pretty convinced I'm right.
- [06:09]
A
You are, You've been right quite A few times. Like a broken clock twice a day. Yeah, and I'm glad you threw it back quite quick on this one because I thought you were going to just reminisce about Moser and streamliners and Schaffhausen and blah blah blah, because I do. Occasionally I look back to that trip that you talked about and how effing awesome it was to check out a museum that I thought was going to be the most boring shit in the world and was one of the best highlights of any watch trip ever. To the point where you told me ahead of time don't even bother taking the cameras with you. So glad I did. We'll get Mizzy out to link in the show notes. Forgot about them. If you're watching YouTube, show notes will be linked in the description below. If you're listening to the podcast, it'll be linked to your podcast player and Miz will put a link to a video and a podcast where we were over at Precision Engineering Stroke Hot ons Stroke Moser and it was phenomenal. This one is amazing. I love the vantablack. I love the streamliners in gold, rose gold, things like that. Seen them a million times. They always impress. It's a little bit like it's hard to find an ugly looking Daytona. You can find a lot of ugly looking speedies because there's so many of them. But with the streamliner, can't think they put a foot wrong. And this one as you mentioned with the dial, it's almost like is it gos? They did a Viscount style looking thing which was green. This one with the red, I don't even know what it remains of. It's maybe red hot lava in the center emanating out one of those prequel movies to Star wars where you've got the fighting with the bad people and the good people on the lava rocks. The color that burns out of that or a Terminator's eye just before it goes to black, it's just phenomenal. And you're right, the color, if it had been black on the case material, it may have been a little bit too much. It is just the right amount. And although you're saying it's anthracite and they're saying that that is a little bit more in the gray toned. This one is just appropriate. It's maybe charcoal. That's where I would peg this one. And the price point for what you're getting in house caliber, all the singing, all the dancing parts, precision engineering put together for lots of different brand that charge A pretty penny more than this. This is probably my favourite, my favourite streamliner, my favourite Moser.
- [08:11]
B
I don't think we need to say any more about it. Definitely check out the show notes because, oh, it will catch you off guard if you're having a moment. If you're not steadying the feet, make sure you're sitting down before you check the pictures of this one. It's right up there. It's up there with the best of them. But we should really go on because we've got a few other, well, watches to cover and some news to cover we should now talk all about. Well, that other brand, that is, from where I'm standing right now, about 550met, that is Armin Strom.
- [08:38]
A
Got to meet them real life a number of years ago again when me and Dave went across to see the guys at Araj. They placed us in a hotel on the opposite side of the road from Armin Strom and we wandered in there. This was before Dave joined the Raj, you know, full disclosure and all that. We like to get that in early. And we just bumbled in, walked up to the front reception, said, hey, we don't have an appointment, we'd like to have a look around, please. They both came out to say hello and then spent about an hour and a half to Tours wandering us through, through zigzagging between all the departments. Didn't have an appointment. We were just off the street. We had a small relationship with them at that moment in time. But that is a testament to the brand. To show you how cool they are and they've not dropped the ball behind the scenes, they create new ways of telling the time. A couple of years ago, they created a new way of displaying the date using the bezel, using an arrow. It's just so forward thinking, this brand. And where some Companies may charge 200 grand, 3 to 500 grand for really complex watches, these guys try and keep a lid on it. They've got an entry point maybe around about the mid 15s for or what they do. It's incredible they managed to do it that price point all the way up, depending what you're after.
- [09:41]
B
It's the dual time GMT resonance. It's 39 millimeters, which is definitely towards the slightly smaller size of what most folk expect from Armin Strom. Some of their watches are a bit bigger than 39 millimeters. The case is 18 karat rose gold. That is a lovely. I love rose gold. Something about it just kind of. It just looks more premium to me than Yellow gold, but that's my opinion. There's a twin dial on there. The dual time kind of gives that away. They're made of black gold and it's a Grenache finish which is a kind of frosted texture. You've got rose gold colored and polished hands and the applied indexes on there as well. The manual winding caliber is the ARF 22. It operates at 3.5Hz power reserve for 42 hours. And of course it does feature their patented resonance clutch that allows for the synchronization of the two independent regulating systems. It gives you, well, in their words, enhanced timekeeping accuracy. It's a dual time functionality. There are two faces on the watch that you can set independently from each other. You've also got a day night indicator for each of the two different time zones. So, well, you can tell whether it's, well, day or night in each of those time zones. Which means if you're a frequent traveler and you're trying to keep a track of a time somewhere else in the world, well, it makes a little bit easier otherwise. That resonance mechanism is visible through the sapphire case back. It's also quite open from the front so you can see it there as well. Comes mounted on an anthracite alligator strap. They're only going to make 50 pieces of it price point wise. In Swiss francs. It's 115,000 of your Swiss francs. That is around 110,000 of your British pounds.
- [11:17]
A
I love the guys at Armstrong don't have an Armin Strom watch yet. And it has been a year since I moved house, approaching the first anniversary of many things here. So I have been saving my pennies in the background trying to get back in my feet. No one told me how expensive waves can be. Now this watch is really cool. The price point is worth it for what these guys put in there. But let's go back to the word anthracite. The dial on this is anthracite. The dial on the last one, the casing on the last one, everything on the last one. Yeah, it's definitely charcoal into black territory. But this one is beautiful. The symmetry in Armin Strom is fantastic. It is. I mean they could charge three times as much and be compared to Grubel Forsey. They could be in RM territory. But because everything is in house, the design, the manufacturer, the case, everything is bloody well in house. It's not a lie because we've been there, we've seen it and they've grown since we last visited them. So we do have to pay them another visit. It's phenomenal what you can get. And if 100, I think it's 115, you said there. If that's a pretty penny for you, which is for most people, then as I say, they have got other things of equal force, this, that and the other. They've got entry level watches, they've got special editions, different stonework. They've done a lot of stuff with petroleum at the limited edition here in the uk. Many things in the past, hopefully many things in the future. Gets two thumbs up as well. What are we going to do next?
- [12:34]
B
Well, what I'm going to do is patent the phrase bloody well in house. I think that would, that would just work well in marketing. Maybe we should propose that to them and see if they want to call that their next caliber. What I should be telling you though, is check out the shows on YouTube. One show every week on a Saturday will go up on YouTube. If you like what you're watching, please give the channel a follow. It helps us, it helps us to grow our wealth, viewership and of course approach brands and get more juicy things to show you. You can also have a good look at the watches we've been talking about and debate whether Ricky's. Well, his perception of what is and isn't anthracite really is or not anthracite. But anyway, I'll leave that to you. You should also send us a message, leave a comment and we can debate this in a further show. So, yes, do please subscribe to the channel if you enjoy what you're watching.
- [13:20]
A
Something that has come to the fore in the last few weeks is the fact that Kosk USC Dave will tell you what that means in a because he's good at mispronouncing everything. We get lots of emails about that. They have decided to up the ante because it used to be something along the lines of plus four, minus six, minus six, plus four, something like that. Whereas Metas was always a lot more in depth, a lot closer to the zero. And then you had Rolex with their superlative chronometer rating, which was minus to plus two. And every Rolex that I owned in the past, of which I have none, I had a Batman. Before that I had a normal LN GMT Master ii, then I had a Batman, then a Daytona and all of them were around about plus one second a day over the entirety of my ownership experience. So they really are at the pinnacle underneath Spring Drive. But Kosk have decided to up their own anti Dave.
- [14:10]
B
They have Dave's going to attempt to pronounce what KOSK is short for and what is it short for? And he's going to look slightly off camera while he says this because he has to read the French words. Apparently it stands for Control Official Suisse de Chronometry. That is probably a very Scottish accented French pronunciation, but that's what it means. Basically. They test calibers for accuracy. Bonjour, Bonjourno, my friend. Yes. They have unveiled a new standard and it's called Excellence Chronometer. This is an all new level of certification and they're bringing that accuracy window down to within six seconds per day, along with a few new considerations which include antimagnetism.
- [14:56]
A
Is that related to uncle magnetism?
- [14:58]
B
Anyway, it's an all new certification. It's their 50th anniversary of the original ISO 3159 standard and Kosk have now got this, well, much more involved certification. It doesn't mean that standard Kosk certified chronometer level is going anywhere. That will continue to be. But there are three elements that watch brands hope to achieve with this top standards. The tightening of the precision down to that six second window, the anti magnetic resistance and a confirmation or an independent confirmation of power reserve. The pilot testing is going to go ahead from March 2026. So in a mere month from now, if you're listening to this, when the show goes out the first time and the full implementation is going to start from around October of 2026, how's it going to work? The pivots have to go to COSC and they have to pass the ISO 3159 certified chronometer COSchool standard. It's a regime that goes over 15 days. It includes the accuracy to minus 4 plus 6. So everything that you currently know about Cosc, it will then go back to the manufacturer, it will be T2 cased and then it will journey its way back to COSC where it will be subject to an additional five days of testing. There will be some robot simulation of daily wristwear for 24 hours. There'll be testing where the average daily rate must fall between this newer, tighter standard of minus 2 plus 4 seconds. The watch will be exposed to a 200 Gauss magnetic field and it must maintain its performance. And finally the power reserve is checked to confirm whether the manufacturer's stated specification is true and accurate. It certainly brings it a lot closer to things like Metas, which of course is used by Omega and Tudor, Rolex's Superlative Chronometer standard and Grand Seiko's own in house GS standard. Everything is getting into this tighter, more accurate window. Good on them. They picked up the baton and they've moved everything forward. I don't think anyone can complain. It just means that if you get a watch now that's got this new standard, it's even better than it was before. Like it? Good work. All things being equal, I don't see any bad news in this whatsoever.
- [16:58]
A
Okay, Mr. Anal Retentive, are you the kind of guy that constantly, to the absolute second sets your watch or is that just something you do when you first get into the hobby and you're sitting there on time, is waiting for it to count along on the atomic countdown, to quickly press the crown in, bang on the second? Or do you just not care anymore?
- [17:19]
B
Never have cared. Never really got involved with it. For me, if a watch is out, I will notice it after it's out for a few minutes. And I think I'm pretty sure that's a good few minutes out seconds. Never really got engaged with it. Haven't got a time grapher in the house. Never really had the desire to own one. Of course I have access to them at work. I've never put any of my watches on it. I kind of go on the basis that I don't wear any of my watches for long enough to really notice it going out of spec by any significant margin and if it does well, I just get a watchmaker to fix it. Lots of folk get, well, extremely engaged with the whole accuracy thing. I love it when someone puts a post up on social media with some track from some computer program that's telling them how accurate or not accurate the movement is and they start using words like, oh, there's a lot of snow around that line. I just banged my head on a wall at that point in time. Do you know what? I have to go on the basis that most of the brands that we engage with are producing very high quality watches. If they're not running to time it usually something that can be resolved reasonably easily. I'm more concerned about things like misaligned bezels because you have to stare at that every single time you look at your watch. That does do my nothing, to use a Scottish phrase, but outside of that, a couple of seconds a day doesn't really bother me.
- [18:37]
A
Good to know. And we've not reviewed any Seikos for a while, so the misaligned bezels is not an issue at this moment in time, but an issue we're going to talk about now. Is change newer mentioned earlier on? It is hip, it's happening, it's what's going on at the moment. Which means there's been a delay in some timepieces coming across for us to review and check out on the show. But that will fix itself in due course. And a watch that has come along to celebrate things is from Sartori Ballard. Armand has been a busy boy. We mentioned he has got staff, he's got people helping him out. Actually a Scottish person helping him out and we met that young lady across in Dubai a few months back there. So she's helping make sure that Armen can concentrating the dials, the creative side of things as much as she is a creative herself. We're seeing more output, we're seeing more emails and we're getting kept up to speed far more than in the past because you can't do everything yourself. Me and Dave both realized that that's why we've got Mizziel, that's why we've got Gav, that's why we've got a team behind us that help out behind the scenes and it's good to see him doing the same. And this new watch, this is pretty special.
- [19:38]
B
Yes, indeed. So our friend Armando Billard, he is French and I'm glad Ricky mentioned it, this watch to me is all about the dial. What have we got? Well, it's marking the year of the Fire horse and it's a special Chinese New Year edition.
- [19:52]
A
Well, I'm glad he's not dyslexic or you might have a fire hose on the front of it.
- [19:56]
B
Yeah, that's a different brand that do things to do with fire and watches anyway.
- [20:01]
A
Oh, Johnny at Williamwood. Yeah, that's probably what that is.
- [20:03]
B
There's a go. Excellent. Let's talk about the dial. 24 karat gold plated brass dial with a laser engraved image of a horse. Now it doesn't sound like a lot but let's do a little bit of a deeper dive in it. To begin with, it's got hand finishing with Chinese ink. But let's go all the way back to the start of why this is so. Every 12 year cycle of the Chinese zodiac calendar. That'll tell us that 2026 is year of the horse. But once every 60 years the cycles align with the element of fire which transforms it into something much rarer, the year of the Fire Horse. They're only going to do 26 of these. Well, it's 2026 after all. Kind of makes sense for a change. A limited edition number that, well, is based on something that's realistic. It's a 39.5 millimeter case in stainless steel. It's 100 meters of water resistance. Let's talk about that dial. The brass dial, first of all is machined in Switzerland at Sartore Billard's Sainte Croix workshop. It's then sent to, wait for it, the usa where it's laser engraved by an artist by the name of Ron Elkins. It then travels all the way back to Switzerland where it's plated with a thick layer of 24 karat gold plating. Finally, it's sent over to Armand in France where he applies the Chinese ink. It's fair to say there's a lot going on with this dial. It's getting its air miles in. Probably got more air miles than Ricky. That wouldn't be that difficult though, because Ricky's not a fan of traveling when he doesn't have to. Movement wise. Swiss La Joux Paris G100 automatic movement, 60 hours of power reserve comes in a very nice red leather strap with extra red stitching. The price this gets me, this is frankly banging value for money. €3,500 plus taxes for the amount of work that goes into this dial. The flights alone for that nice business class seat for this dial to get between Switzerland and America and back again probably cost more than the entire watch. So frankly, it's a bargain. I don't know if you like horses is an aesthetic that you'll either love or hate, but you can't deny the work that goes into this watch is absolutely phenomenal.
- [22:05]
A
Right, my turn to speak. Dave is learning to let me get my piece out there. I love it. I think it's phenomenal. He's not known for doing these kinds of things. It's strange materials. One of the craziest dials that he produced was using a silicon wafer, the things that CPUs and chips are made of. And he put that as a dial in a watch. And I thought, wow, this isn't. This is old school. We got to see a watch recently from Jacob and Co and it was to commemorate, I think it was something like 60 years in business or something crazy like that that Jacob and co had put together. And this watch was multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the dial was quite similar the way it was engraved like this. And we've had Hermes dropping horse watches. We've seen this and the other. The ingenuity that has gone into this, the creative talents, the fact that it has worked its way around the world multiple times, probably picking up many tariffs in and out of the countries. It has it's phenomenal value. And if his prior watches are anything to go by, the quality will be more than just dial front, it will be everything about it. The case, the way that everything's integrated, the way that the movement is regulated, placed inside, built to perfection, blah, blah, blah. So yeah, this is a win. 26 pieces. Who knows if there'll actually still be any left by the time this episode drops? So click into the show notes, click across. If you like it, grab it because I don't think it'll hang around long.
- [23:23]
B
No, it will definitely not hang around long.
- [23:26]
A
Grab it before the horse bolts from the stable. Dave.
- [23:28]
B
Oh, I can't believe you got away with that. That's pretty cheesy, but. Well, I mean, if ever that was going to get a pass, this is where it will get a pass. What you'll not get a pass for is if you don't give us a like. If you are listening to this or watching it on YouTube and you like it, give us a little like. I know it's not a big ask, but it is a lot and it means a lot to. So please do it or we'll never forgive you. Anyway, moving on with the show.
- [23:51]
A
Do you remember when likes on Facebook were just thumbs up and if someone said, oh, it's terrible, my grandmother's just passed away, all you could do was go like now you can put little sad faces or haha faces if you're that type of person. And remember you used to poke people. Not at high school, behind the bike sheds. I'm talking about on Facebook as well.
- [24:10]
B
Yeah, that didn't age well in this day and age. Don't think anyway. Yes, well, we're going to get on to another watch where there's lots of words in Italian that. Well, probably between us, we're going to butcher it. I'm going to give it a go first. Are you ready, Ricky? It's the Vinci Anico. I think that's right. They're Redentor Archino. No, Arlecchino Carnival limited edition, Dave.
- [24:36]
A
It's the Italian carnival watch, Ricky.
- [24:39]
B
Simplifying things as always. So the Vincianaco. Nope. Got it wrong again. The Vincianico. Nope. Even got it wrong again. Let's not ever mention the name of this again.
- [24:48]
A
Carnival limited edition watch, Dave.
- [24:50]
B
Carnival.
- [24:51]
A
Yeah, with like mosaic patterns.
- [24:53]
B
What you need to do is check out the spelling of Miziel on the show notes and let's see if he gets that right? Because if he gets it wrong, we're all wrong. But anyway, let's accurate.
- [25:01]
A
This looks like when you're trying to read a Welsh train station name and it looks like you're trying to read.
- [25:06]
B
In a dream, that's probably accurate. But anyway, well, let's get on with it. An iconic export of Italy between the 16th and 18th century was commedia deletaro, also known as Italian comedy. It's basically a kind of bit of pantomime where you've got a series of stock characters, but they're very recognisable, they wear consistent outfits and they've got very similar mannerisms no matter what is happening. One of those characters is the name given to this watch, which is Arlicio, better known in English as the Harlequin. Much simpler I can say Harlequin, probably actually a more difficult word to pronounce. But anyway, it's my own language. It's all about acrobatics and witty antics. A bit like me and Ricky, two idiots on a podcast, the harlequin's a bit of a trickster. That's Ricky. In this relationship, what it's wearing is not so much what Ricky would wear because the harlequins of course are well known for this checkered style outfit. And on the watch we've got a dial that's very much a harlequin check style dial. It's produced with polished steel frameworks with each of the individual cells filled with colourful cold enamel, not grandfu enamel. Because when we get to the price of this watch, you'll know why it's not grandfu, but cold enamel works very well. They're only going to make 400 of these. What are the colours on the watch? Lots of them. Is the answer. Yellow, orange, red, lavender, blue, turquoise, turquoise, whatever we want to call it today, Dark green and well, normal green, whatever the difference is there. It's got their standard red and Torque case. It's 38 millimeters, it's under 10 millimeters thick. At 9.4 millimeters it runs on the Miyota 9039. Automatic movement, 42 hours of power reserve. It's a great looking watch. It's really good fun. €950, which is around £825. This is a great looking watch. If you want something bright and fun, you don't need to spend a huge amount of money. I think the last two watches I've talked about, this one and of course that Sartori Billard banging value watches for not a huge amount of Money compared to, well, some of the watches at the top end of the show, which, well, 100 grand is a very different atmosphere that we're spending money wise there.
- [27:12]
A
My wife would absolutely kill to have this watch and she is one of the biggest fan girls of Nancy Anniko, along with, funnily enough, Jeff Dodds from Formula E, who was on and he was talking about, oh, you know, this Nautilus and this Royal Oak and this, that and the other, and then said they'd ordered a spinnaker of insanity. And he loves them. So, yeah, these are loved across the globe for good reason. Fantastic value for money. This one, super limited, a few hundred pieces, but the price point has not been elevated. They have not decided to strap an extra zero on the end like some people do. And the marquetry style, the harlequin color scheme, everything about it is brilliant, but they've not done anything that isn't brilliant. So it's really difficult for me to continuously say this without it sounding like we're shills. And a lot of people in the YouTube and the podcasting and the. I don't even know the Instagram influencer sphere recently have been pushed to be shills. And I remember speaking to someone recently about this, saying, well, you know what? We talk about six to eight watches per week and we have an interview episode. So two hours of content. That's a lot of shilling. We should have big castles in Scotland, not small houses. But anyway, back to the watch. Phenomenal. These guys are all over the planet. They don't need to be. They've been running for many, many years. They produce fantastic timepieces that are well reviewed across the globe in all formats, but they still turn up at the likes of, well, time zones over in Dubai, like Intersect, like Wind Up Watch Fair, all these different things. Pretty sure they'll make an appearance at different things in Geneva, perhaps one of the pirate shows. Well, the first time that I met them was in Italy along with Barbara Palumbo at, I think it was Veo Vintage, which is Vicenza Oro, phenomenal show. And they were there, the two brothers, along with lots of the other staff behind the scenes helping out. So a brand that you should keep an eye on. And we like to say the packaging that the watches come and even at this price point is amazing. It's a fantastic gift. Again, they're not paying us, they don't advertise, they don't do anything with us on a monetary value whatsoever. We just love what they do in the price point. And I was going to have a chat about something and I was going to say to Dave, and he doesn't know this ahead of time. Dave, do you think at this moment in time with the watches that are currently getting released, that 2000 is. The new 1000, as in the Bark and Jack limited edition, is about two grand. Whereas maybe a couple of years ago we would talk about Christopher Ward watches around about a grand. And for instance, there's a couple other watches we had to look at that are about 1,800 pounds to 2100. Whereas maybe a few years back we'd be thinking that'd be priced more about the 1k mark.
- [29:41]
B
I think there's a better truth in what you say if you think a little bit more deeply about it. All the watches that used to be in that 4, 5, 600 pounds are all now in that 8, 9, 1000. Everything that used to be. Yeah, as you mentioned, in and around a thousand is more like towards 2000. Just over 2000. I think it's our friend inflation. We're many years down the line from where. Well, the heightened days of that thing that happened for a couple of years that we don't say the word because. Well, we just don't. But yes, things have got more expensive. I think that's the way it is. And I think a lot of the brands that have developed more than startups are now more typically likely to be in 1700-2200. If we say a broader wide price range, I think you're pretty much bang on the nail for that.
- [30:26]
A
Okay, well time to bang on about something else and that is the wrist check. We have remembered to do it not at the end of the show, which is usually what happens, but around about the midpoint. They like to come second. I'm going to go first. And the watch I'm wearing, as promised, is a watch we talked about a week ago. It hadn't arrived at that moment in time. I was assured it would be turning up in a Fed Xbox at some point over the last seven days. And I'm glad to say it turned up with its brother Stroke sister. So what are we talking about here? We are talking about a watch and I'm kind of going against what I said a minute ago. About 2k is the new 1k. This one sits closer to the 1k mark and it is the follow up from Watcho and Co and Seltun. I'm not going to butcher the name as much as Dave, but I think it's Bahinia. No idea if that's right or wrong. Can people please name these things a little bit easier? Even do a grand seiko, call them bgw8qt or whatever it is because that's far easier for me and Dave to try and say in a Scottish accent. Anyway, back to the watch. Phenomenal. Best thing about this is the dial. That is where all the focus should be put, the attention should be invested. Because they've taken what was a smash hit success last year and they've added even more to it. It seems to be a mother of pearl base with a die coat over the top. If you think of the color that you get from maybe certain fish, some aquatic life, or if you look under the front end of a BMW M3 after some days thrashed it and you'll see that rainbow coloration sitting on the path of the driveway, that is what this is all it has got a CNC turned guilloche dial. It's not hand applied. As we talked about last week where some people pretend that Maybe things take 20 to 25 hours of hand working this, there are no lies made. This is done with a machine. But it's been done to such an exacting standard that unless you've got 5050 vision, not 2020 vision, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. This one that I'm wearing just now is the kind of lilac purple version. It's on a strap that is incredibly small, but they have got a larger strap in the box so you have the option of quickly changing it in and out depending on the size of your wrist, depending where you're from. It has got a colored set of heat treated hands. These ones are blue on the lilac edition. On the pink it is a different colorway and everything about it is exactly the way you'd expect from these guys. They know what they're doing. They did great last year. They've not had to change too much up on it. Got a new crown on the side, it's not screwed down. Doesn't have a second hand, doesn't need to. But if I actually take it off the wrist and the strap on, this is phenomenal for the price point. If I take it off, have a look on the back, it has got a funky super cool rotor that has got all kinds of, I would say Geneva striping. Doesn't come from Geneva, so I don't know if I can get away with saying that. But it just reacts to the light. It is cut in a way that it just looks phenomenal. It is so good on the Back and the front. Dave, have you had a chance to actually see one of these in real life or is this your first kind of outing on it?
- [33:14]
B
No, unfortunately I've not had a chance to see one IRL or in real life if I want to be cool with the kids. It's a great looking watch. I think we said this when we'd both not seen it and we'd just seen the images of it. Fantastic value for money again, another one that's way up in the value for money stakes. Fantastic looking watch. Looks slightly more towards the pinks in real life than I maybe was thinking it was going to do. But that in my opinion is not a bad thing.
- [33:39]
A
Well, it just so happens we do have the real pinky pink version. So if we were to put the pinky beside the brain, you can see there is a bit of a difference in the way they've applied the. I don't. Even the iridescent look to the dial, it does change. So the one that is more purpley lilac has got a more purpley hue to it. The one that is more pinky has definitely got a more pinky hue to it.
- [34:02]
B
Could have thunk it, but yes, when you see them there side by side, definitely becomes more purple instantaneously. Great looking watches. I think we also mentioned these are well, very wearable by whoever likes the look of the watch. Don't think they're leaning into the too feminine or too masculine area. Just a great looking watch to be frank.
- [34:20]
A
There we have them. Two fantastic watches from the same place almost. These are brilliant. Right Dave, what have you got on the wrist yourself?
- [34:29]
B
Well, you may ask, what am I wearing? What I'm wearing is something that's quite difficult to tell the time with. What is that? It's a whoop band. But no, I actually am wearing a watch. I'm wearing one of the older Mirage ones. This is one of the key ones from back in the day. Ricky, you'll remember these. These were one of the the first watches we saw from the brand back many years ago. This being the Autark K1 with the pearl white dial in grade 5 titanium. I actually just decided to wear it because I think frankly it's a really clean, great looking watch. Long gone from the range. Sold out, none to be had anymore. But well, I found one in the sample set and I thought I really like that watch, hence I'm going to wear it. You've got the power reserve down at 6 o', clock, the running seconds at 9 o', clock, the big date over there at 3 o'. Clock. And of course, well, your hours and minutes hand in grade 5 titanium on the bracelet. Just think it's a great looking watch, not much more needs to be said.
- [35:23]
A
I do remember that one. And there were a whole loads of different watches back in the day that were completely different from each other with Orage. I remember that the whole story probably heard this many times before. The whole story about Mirage and Scottish watches was they sent a watch across for us to have a look at and I said that the dial looked like a bin bag, a trash bag and the brand did not get upset about that. Instead of getting pissed off and blackballing us, they said, well, we do lots of other watches, let us send you a selection across and see what you think of the rest of the range. And I remember Solar Wind, that was carved out, it was like a meteor crater on Earth or another planet. It was carved out, a meteor. That was the dial surface. And that one just got me black onyx markers, all kinds of cool stuff. So, yeah, always been great fans of Arage since that moment because again, like we talked about at the beginning of the show with Moser and with their crazy stuff, the guys at Arage have been doing great things ever since. They even gave Dave a job. They took him off the street. He managed to put food in his mouth, you know, clothes on his back. That's to be commended. And something I forgot to mention with my wrist check price point wise. Yeah, that is $1,250 limited to 200 pieces per dial color. Don't know how many are left, no idea. But check the show notes, click across, check it out, it's well worth it. And if there are any left, grab them because they will disappear. Right, Dave, what are we doing?
- [36:41]
B
What we're doing next is we're going to talk all about an event that's coming up. Not any old event, an event in our hometown that is the Glasgow Watch Show. It's back for the second year. It's taking place in an altogether better, bigger and more exciting venue that is Hamden, the national football ground of Scotland. It's going to be taking place in May, 9th of May, to be precise, on a Saturday. Tickets will go on sale Monday 16th March and it'll take place between 10am and 5pm on 9th May. There's VIP tickets available, there's goodie bags. You can skip the queue if you get a VIP ticket. There's also family packs if you've got kids, they can go for free, so you can take them along, you can escape the house and hopefully the kids will be amused as well. Lots of stuff going on. We will be there with the podcast. We'll even be recording a show. Lots of talks and panels happening all afternoon. Anything else you'd like to add that's going on there, Ricky?
- [37:35]
A
You kind of covered it. And we spoke with Hamish, the guy that runs a watch collectors club, and he's one of the gentlemen behind the scenes that organises this event. They've done one in Manchester for a while. They did their inaugural event in Glasgow last year at what is known, or used to be known as the Arches, which is underneath Central Station. If you're in Scotland, if you know Glasgow, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. It was a fabulous venue, but it's no longer available, which meant by accident they've had to upgrade. And the function room in Hamden Stadium can cater to almost. I mean, it's immeasurably larger, better lighting, better access, better things for me. Car parking, pretty tricky in the city centre of Glasgow. So if you're traveling. And that thing about the kids coming for free, that is something that Hamish and co picked up on last year because a lot of families turned up and they didn't expect it because it never happened at Manchester. It hasn't happened at other places. But Scottish people were friendly. We're family friendly. So, yeah, the kids came along and they decided to publicize this fact. So it's a family day out. You can easily park at Hamden. Super easy to get to if you're coming by public transport or getting an Uber. And yes, yeah, as Dave mentioned, we will be there. There'll be panel talks, discussions, and we're going to record a live podcast. We've done this a few times. I think the most successful one was back at Global Red Bar a couple of years ago. Even though I had one of my many bouts of COVID and could hardly speak, we advertised this ahead of time. The folks at the event knew about it. We thought maybe 10, 20 people would turn up. There was a waiting list to get into the auditorium to sit down to watch the show being recorded live. And even though we were both under the weather, it was phenomenal. It was really funny. And if that is anything to go by, as long as we don't catch any little gremlins, any little sniffles ahead of time, and Dave's already sniffling through this episode, this one will be even bigger and better. They're also Going to have people that are coming along from the different brands. For instance, Simon Porter for James Porter. He will be there. Not going to let the cat out of the bag about which watch brands are going to be along, but there will be some firm favorites and some jokers in the pack. Some whale cards will be there too. So one to check out, one to put in the diary. And those tickets will go fast. So once they go on sale, you'll know all about it because we will remind you. And we will bring Hamish onto the show to run through the roster of the brands and who's going to be there on the day. And there's something I'm not allowed to tell you about which is pretty phenomenal for guests that are coming along. There might be a factory visit locally that you might want to get involved in. But the next thing we're going to talk about is Frank Muller and the reason is my wife likes them and I quite like them and it turns out that there is a new guy in the uk. Not a new guy in the uk, but a guy who is now dealing with Frank Muller for the uk. So, yeah, there's some things going on behind the scenes and we might be able to get some access for some review models from those folks. And we've not done that in the past, but they do have a couple of new releases out. We are a worldwide podcast, we like to say, created and blended to perfection in Scotland, enjoyed across the globe. But this one here, Dave, or these couple here, they're not for the UK market, but it doesn't mean you can't get your hands on them.
- [40:32]
B
Indeed, these are the Frank Muller Vanguard Sports Asia Pacific exclusives. Well, we'll give you a price, well, which is local to that area, which of course is Singapore dollars and it'll be 16,600 of your Singapore dollars. There are four new variants to this in different colorways, but the exclusivity as we mentioned is for the Asia Pacific market. You've got new brushed dials with a sun guilloche finish. The numerals are, well, as you would expect for Franck Muller, that typical exploding Arabic applique style. The dials are made entirely in house by Franck Muller in their dial making facility. The movement in this watch is an M SCDT automatic movement. That's a mouthful. 43 hours of power reserve. Bit of a weird number I have to say. But anyway, it's 43 hours. You have got that classic tonneau shaped case size wise, coming in at 42.5 by 52.7 with a thickness of 9.3, but with that little curve on it, which I guess which helps make it a little bit more wearable on the wrist. It comes mounted on an alligator leather strap. It's got 30 meters of water resistance, which means don't take it near the water, kids. I have to say though, Ricky, you've always a little penchant for it. Whenever we're in Geneva, we do tend to wander past the Frank Muller boutique, which is that little island in the middle of the roads, if I remember rightly. And you do have a bit of a sniff around the windows more.
- [41:50]
A
So last year at Geneva, watch days when me and the wife were enjoying the last day when the event is over and we stay an extra day just so we can absorb a little bit of the, the touristic attractions, as she would like to say. And she wanted to go into Frank Muller's boutique and we did and it was very old towny. When you go inside, it reminds me of watch shops from 20 plus years ago and it works. And the salesperson that was there showed us watches, explained a little bit about the brand and then gave us a live demonstration of the crazy earth complication in a number of the watches that were on display. We filmed this on the phone, uploaded it as a reel to Instagram and it has had millions of views, millions and millions of them. It's crazy that the things that we put the least amount of effort into get the largest reception and still our biggest. Our biggest watch video by a landslide is the one that Barbara Palumbo filmed a number of years ago over in Italy, where she pulled her phone out, waved it in front of a watch that was made out of a bit of meteorite rock. As in there was a rock, they carved a hole and threw a movement in it. And that is up at around about 30 million views. Just goes to show it is absolutely crazy. But no, the Frank Miller story will continue. Hopefully we can get our hands on some because remontoire68, Stephen Lee and co, they are now the guys in the UK that are dealing with them. So fingers crossed we can get some good access. It's probably time to talk about what we've been up to and it ain't been much in my side of things. It was Valentine's weekend, so the missus had lots of grand plans for me. We had booked a Valentine's dinner. She booked it and we're running 10 minutes late, late. So as good people, good patrons, she phoned up to say, listen, we're stuck in traffic because we genuinely were stuck in traffic to say we're going to be 10 minutes late. And they turned around and said, well, if you turn up 10 minutes late, we're going to have released your table to somebody else. And she said, but can you not just take the time away because we're going to be there for an hour and a half to two hours. Can you not just pull it back to one hour? You know, we're going to be there anyway. And the person the other end of the phone said, go F yourself. So we ended up at a casino in Glasgow down by the River Clyde, Clyde side, looking onto the colourful squinty bridge down in Broomielaw. Anybody in Glasgow, Scotland knows what I'm talking about. We went in there, they had a Valentine's menu, we sat down, we had a three course meal for the two of us with a bottle of wine, all soft drinks included for 60 quid. And I'm a tight Scottish git, so that was pleasing me no end. Then the following day we went to some cabaret event where we had burlesque dancers, stripteasers, all kinds of stuff. Stuff. And that was just Dave, because he was pissed. No, I'm kidding on that was a really good night. Lots of comedy, lots of singing, lots of this, that and the other. And again, super inexpensive because I'm a tight Scottish tight wad. Dave, what have you been up to?
- [44:26]
B
Well, I was at this cabaret show and I was drinking a lot of. Oh, no, no, I wasn't. But no, no, different cabaret. Yes. What was I up to? Not a lot either. Getting ready. I've been traveling, of course, I'm in Switzerland. The weather here is, well, just as miserable as it is back home in Scotland. Although just before I left on the Sunday, the Saturday was gorgeous. Very cold but very nice. So I went for a little play in, which is the first time I've got to go and give it, well, just a bit of stick on some country roads. I know I'm getting back into my teenage years. It was good fun, I have to say. Enjoyed it.
- [44:57]
A
But you've got an electric car. So was it like Skeletrics?
- [45:00]
B
It was like Skeletrics without the little bit that holds you on the track, you know, Skeletric. When you go a bit too hard and the back end decides to wander a little bit and you're like, oh, I think I'm going to lose it a couple of those moments. But that's, well, that's called playing in cars, in silliness. That's pretty much all I've been up.
- [45:15]
A
To, Dave, should we tell people listening and watching at home that we might be doing another live recording, a car thing that's happening in the near future? Should we tell them that or should we just keep that one quiet?
- [45:27]
B
No idea what you're talking about, Ricky. Move along.
- [45:29]
A
Okay, carry on. Dave, what else have you been up to?
- [45:31]
B
Well, that's pretty much all I've been up to, as you say. Not huge amounts going on over the last week. Just hoping and praying the weather gets better soon because, well, frankly I've had enough over the winter. It just needs to move along, get into spring and get to summer. But that means, of course, there'll be lots of shows coming up because come into March it all kicks off. What you should, shouldn't be forgetting is if you're in the uk, might be too late if you don't have a ticket, but we've got the British Watchmakers Day coming up in a mere couple of weeks. It's going to be great fun, going to meet lots of people there. If you see us there, come and say hello. I'm sure we'll be recording little clippets here and there. And as Ricky said, sometimes the things we put the least amount of effort into are the things that get the best coverage. So who knows, you might get your.
- [46:13]
A
Face on something that we do on Monday's episode. I believe we have got Alistair from the alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers, the folks behind British Watchmakers, the ML. He's going to be on telling us about the brand, the new releases and the special edition watches that will be available there. So, one to check out, one to put a note in your diary about, and I forgot to say in my little diatribe about what I've been up to, I introduced the wife to another classic movie. But this one isn't 30 years old. It's not 20 years old, it's about 12 years old. And if I was to do this, Dave, what would I be talking about? About?
- [46:48]
B
Would it be something to do with money and some dodginess with regards to making money?
- [46:54]
A
Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street. I've not seen it in ages. And it's another one of those you can't go to the toilet because there's always something happening. Brilliant movie, Love it to bits. She enjoyed it too, even though it was like a three hour epic and she asked him certain questions during it, which was quite funny. Yes, it is based on a real true life thing, perhaps slightly exaggerated, but still, still awesome. Definitely one to revisit if you've not seen it in a while. And we want to also say if you listening at home, watching at home, if you get any thoughts, suggestions, comments, queries, feedback, positive, negative things you'd like to see us talk about, chat about, bring onto the show brands maybe we've not talked about for a while or never talked about, new watch releases that may have slipped through past our little radar, past our little antennas, then get in touch, don't DM us on Instagram, leave us a comment on YouTube because we do read those as much as possible. But the best way to do it is to drop us an email. Email infooottishwatches.co.uk because then we can actually collate, take them together and then every month or so we can round all the emails up, do a little bit of a listener mailbag and give you the answers you're looking for from experts that ain't me and Dave. That leads into a report that we saw this week about the largest Swiss watch brands and how things have changed over the last couple of years. So we don't have much time left, David, but do you want to run us through the top 10? 10?
- [48:11]
B
Yes, indeed. The report is from the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry and they're talking about of the 10 largest watch brands in 2025, Rolex is still the undisputed king. I think we know lots of the headline figures. Exports are down, sales are declining for the large group brands. The strong Swiss franc, inflation, economic and political uncertainties are really not helping with it. But Rolex, they seem to be doing pretty well, thank you very much. Their sales exceeded 10 billion Swiss francs and their sales are equivalent to the combined SAL of the next five largest competitors. They're pretty big, it has to be said. The premium segment above 500 Swiss francs, 10 of the top brands now account for 70% of the export volumes. Patek, Philippe, Audemars, Piguet, Richard Mille and Cartier. They're also brands that are doing extremely well in their sectors. Increasing share of Rolex's revenue is now of course coming from their certified pre owned program. We've talked about this over the last few shows. Shows as well. The past two years, the segment above 3,000 Swiss francs, the exports have roughly dropped by about 220,000 watches. That's a lot of watches. That's about a 10% drop over 24 months. It has been reported that Rolex has trimmed their production for 2025. That is for the second year in a row. All this information comes from the Swiss equity research at Vontobel. Interesting reading. It doesn't really tell us anything ultimately new. Just a few interesting figures about how many fewer watches are being exported and as always how well Rolex are doing.
- [49:45]
A
One of the biggest takeaways I saw in this list is the fact that since 2019 to just now, Vacheron Constantin have moved up from 15th position to 8th. And that is pretty incredible because we love what they do, we love the new releases, we talk about them as much as we can do in the podcast. But I didn't think in the global scale in the collector community and the members of the public that don't buy watches on a monthly basis, maybe they buy them once every so often. I didn't realize Vacheron were kicking ass quite as much as they have done. I knew Cartier were going to be good. I knew Richard Mule were doing pretty decent. Omega is up and down a little bit. I like the fact I saw Vacheron moving around quite as much as they had done. But moving through our back catalog. Dave, if people are finished with this episode because we're only done, where can they go now?
- [50:29]
B
Yes, check out the back catalogue. The first episode you should be listening to after you finish listening to this one is the third of four episodes all about Minerva and Montblanc, where Simon's back on really unveiling all the secrets.
- [50:41]
A
Of watchmaking, even talking about the unveiled secret watch.
- [50:44]
B
Perhaps the unveiled secret watch. I see what you did there, Ricky. You're full of them this week. Yes, you should also check out another new watch where Adrian from barkinjack was on, talking all about that Christopher Watts. Ricky mentioned Jeff Dodds from Formula E. He was on recently as well, talking about his wide and varied collection within watches. Who else has been on that we should be getting people to go and check out if they've not already listened to them.
- [51:08]
A
There's been a lot of star players in the last few weeks. We obviously talked about Adrian from Bark and Jack. There we had Andrew Morgan, previously of Watchfinder fame. He was two years out of the grasps of watch vendor, doing his own stuff, doing phenomenally well. And then in the back catalog with Barbara Blumbon talking about LVMH Watch week, we had Sarah, the Duchess of Watches. People ask me what that's all about. The Duchess of Watches. Nothing to do with the Wolf of Wall street where you've got the Duchess. The reason we call it the Duchess of Watches, her name's Sarah Ferguson. And anybody that knows the British Royal family now gets the gist of that joke. In the past, prior to that, we had all our Dubai Watch Week coverage where we grabbed lots of CEOs, movers and shakers within the industry, dragged them on to talk about stuff. We had that guy from Czapek. There's an event coming up with him soon. We had that guy from Mosa, that guy from Hot Launch. We even had Mr. Rolex, James Dowlings. He sent those bookshelves yet. I'm going to get his pension cancelled if we don't get them soon enough. Well, that is us at the end of a show. So thank you for listening, thank you for watching and we'll catch you again soon.
- [52:06]
B
Take care.
- [52:26]
A
Sam.