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Scottish Watches Podcast #756 : Our Fun February Finale
00:54:45
In this final February episode of the Scottish Watches podcast, the guys kick things off with the video game-inspired Citizen Tsuyosa collaboration with French designer Romaric André, better known as...
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- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the Scottish Watches Podcast. Got an exciting action packed episode for you today talking about all the latest releases from the world of watches, plus some cool stuff that's happening in Eventland because there are many events about to happen, many are unfolding and in the next week or so we're going to be traveling down south to British Watchmakers Day. But more about that later on. Probably the first thing we want to do is check in with Dave, see how he's doing.
- [00:22]
B
Dave is doing fine. Yeah, he's here. He's back in Scotland. He's kind of glad to be back in Scotland. We even had a little bit of sun yesterday. Apparently Spring starts on the 1st of March. Don't believe it. But yeah, all good, good here. Plenty of things to be talking about in this episode and as Ricky says, and we have shows aplenty coming up over the coming weeks and months. In fact, we've got everything I think we're pretty much arranged for Watches and Wonders. Ricky. Everything's planned in apart from a few little tweaks and edits where, well, some brands maybe are going to be there and they're not there now, but we'll leave that for later on. But yes, we should probably get in and about this show because we've got plenty of things to be covering.
- [00:56]
A
Yeah, we're supposed to meet the guys HYT and then we got a message through saying that our appointment had been cancelled. I went to the Watches Wonders website and they were no longer listed on the brands page. So who knows what's going on there. Hopefully they're still around. I know they've fallen by the wayside a number of times over the past few years, but it's not good to hear about brands falling under. Although I did recently hear that Fossil have come back like a phoenix from the ashes. We're going to find out more about that in due course. But let's crack on and talk about fantastic limited edition because that seems to be the kind of thing that we are known for on this episode. Yeah, and we've got that guy, that guy Second can't get rid of him. He's always hanging around like a bad smell.
- [01:32]
B
Yes, indeed. Citizen and Second have teamed up for a video game inspired watch and they've based it on one of the very affordable models within the range, that being the Tiosa. This is a watch that was released back in 2022 and it would be fair to say it's become, well, one of the go to favorites for a lot of people either getting into watches or firmly in the watch collecting hobby already because it's a great value watch for the money. There's been multiple different dial colors, a couple of different sizes and they're all broadly retailing under the kind of 500 US dollar mark. 400. 500 pounds, same in euros, etc. Etc. What does Toyosa mean? Well, it kind of translates from Japanese into something along the lines of power, strength, that kind of idea as well. I would say it's fair to describe it as a 1970s styled stainless steel sports style watch with an integrated bracelet, but as I mentioned, at an extremely affordable price.
- [02:28]
A
Like a Japane Tissot prx.
- [02:31]
B
Yeah, I think along with prx, along with a multitude of watches within that kind of area, it's very attainable. You don't need to wait forever to get one. Although for this one I get the feeling this one's going to sell out pretty quickly and be hard to get, but. Well, that's because it's a limited edition collab with one of the, well, hottest collaborative designers in the market at this point in time. And who is that? Well, he's French of course. His name is Romarek Andre and he is known as Seconde Seconde. And what he's done as well, he's taken the play of the name, that being that strength and power and he's kind of brought back a reinterpretation of an 8 bit pixelated Japanese katana sword. And that is playing the role of the minute hand in this. But it's more than just that. What he's done is he's taken each of the kind of applied indexes or indices and they look like they've been slashed by this sword. So they're all kind of cut at different angles.
- [03:23]
A
And being Scottish, we know all about
- [03:25]
B
getting slashed, getting, getting your face done in. Well, we do indeed. The clasp of this watch, it's also got some chip marks as we call them, or sword slashes the case back. There's always a little message generally on second, second collaborative watches. And this one says being smaller has never stopped minutes from slicing hours into pieces, which of course is a great play on what's being shown on the dial. You've got a date magnifier on the front crystal. It's got the calibre 8210. It's an automatic movement, 40 hours of power reserve. You've got that three link metal bracelet on there. It's limited edition. There's a reasonable number, there's 3,600 pieces of it. So I think that's fair to say that if you want to get one and you act quite quickly, you should be able to get one. Why 3,600 pieces? I always get hung up on what's the number related to. Well, that's because one hour can be chopped up into 3,600 seconds. Quite cleverly done there. Price point wise it's $495 and it's coming in a limited edition box that has also been designed by second I would say all in all for under US$500. It's a great looking watch. It's from one of the hot designers in the watch world at the moment. Looks good. Reasonable number of editions been put out there, Good chance of getting one. I really see there's very little to not like about this watch. That is, unless you don't really like that cartoony type thing going on outside that. I love it. I think Ricky's going to like this one as well. I don't think he's going to be able to argue for under $500.
- [04:52]
A
I could try but be wrong. I don't like this one. Compared to his other ones, this isn't the one I would go to. I have quite a number of his in my collection. I've got the spinny car, the 50 Phantoms. I think it was the second edition because I couldn't even get hold of the first one. We've got the Snake edition from Christopher Ward which is my ultimate second watch and we've seen all the ones he's done. He's done things with Mozart. Well, so many players. I've got a Timex one as well. I think it was L to my ex. It was a Valentine's watch a couple of years ago. Didn't quite land properly, that one. People didn't get the joke behind it. It's got that kind of Minecraft look about it with a sword. But it's not for me. This one is definitely not for me. But the next thing we're talking about could be for me.
- [05:30]
B
Well, you say next thing we're talking about. We're actually going to talk about two things from one company. The company we're talking about is Chronoswiss and they've got two new watches that are related but unrelated at the same time. We've got the lunar chronograph Aurora and we've got the space timer gravity. As I mentioned, these are two watches that merge typically what Chronoswiss are good at, the kind of heritage aspect and innovation and modernism Brand dates back to 1983. Really were founded on, as I say, merging that classical craftsmanship with that kind of edgy design. The lunar chronograph Chronograph Aurora. Well this is refining or evolving a design that's been quite definitive for Chronoswiss over the last 20 years. The original version was 1999 and it was well acclaimed for its integration of chronograph date moon phase complications. This new one is a bit more modern feeling, still blending those classical elements but a bit more contemporary. 41 millimeter polished stainless steel case. You've of course got that iconic onion crown in there. You've got the screwed lugs, you've got the knurled bezel. But the dial on this one is inspired by, well as you probably guessed from the name, the Aurora Borealis. It's a CVD coated dial that shifts from, I would say deep green colours into quite punchy blues. You've got white Breguet style hands on there. You've got the moon phase at 3 o', clock, you've got small seconds at 9 o' clock there's an analog date around the perimeter or the re hot ring. So you've got a hand that indicates the date as it goes around the perimeter. It gives it a bit of visual symmetry. I would suggest Calibre on this One is the C755. It's an automatic movement, 46 hours of power reserve. You've got the central chronograph seconds, you've got a 30 minute and a 12 hour counters at the 12 o' clock and 6 o' clock position. It comes on a dark grey nubuck leather style strap and it's going to sell for well in my opinion, as is often the case with Chronoswiss, a very reasonable price, 9,800 Swiss francs, a lot less than most people would probably expect it to be when they see it in real life. The other model, before I go to Ricky and ask him which one he prefers, is the space timer. Gravity. This is an altogether slightly more expensive option but in my opinion it is well, great looking. This is where they're exploring. Well, Gravity. You've got a matte gray stainless steel case here and of course it's a bit celestial in what it's trying to look like and feel like it's styled to look like planetary atmospheres, as if you would have seen them from orbit or from space. You've got a color changing CVD finish that starts between roughly half past one and half past six and it Kind of changes between a deep green and a very deep ocean like blue colorway on there. But then between 630 and 130 on the other area of the dial, you've got a lasered moon surface texture to be quite authentic. It's been created using NASA imagery. You've got all those craters and ridges and a three dimensional detail showing on there as well. And then kind of floating above it, you've got these transparent hour and date rings floating above. Well, the hour gauge and the date ring, it's 44 millimeters, as I mentioned. It's a stainless steel case. It's got the calibre C308. It's automatic again. And you've got hours, minutes, dates and moon phase on there. This one though is limited to 50 pieces and it's priced at a little bit higher. It's at 21,300 Swiss francs of the two. I like them both personally. This one though is super cool.
- [08:53]
A
Going to rewind the clock back a little bit, tell you our history with Chronoswiss. Before I get into these new releases, we first got to see them in real life in Dubai at the first Dubai Watch Week. We went to 2021 and we actually interviewed the CEO at the time and he was really good. So down to earth. And I was looking at these timepieces again. Podcast only been running for a couple of years. I was still all new to this and I couldn't believe the quality, the finish, the way the color bounced from the dial. And when we were asking him more details about it, we thought, what is it? Is it a paint process? Is it a dye coat? Is it a powder coat? Is it an ion coat? What is it? And he said it's actually cvd, chemical vapor deposition. And that is different from PVD because it gives a uniform coating even on the edges. So you don't have thinness on the corners like you do with a paint process where the micron levels are so thin and then it clumps up paint wise elsewhere. This gives such a unique, almost ethereal look to things and this is what they've carried forward in the designs we're talking about today. We're actually going to be catching up with them because again, Dubai last year we caught up with the folks, we had a good chat with them and there are some plans in place to do a full episode explaining the entire history of the brand going back multiple decades. What was that there? Four decades there or thereabouts? Slightly more than. It's going to be incredible. To find out what they've done because they're delivering all this technology, value for money in unique looking timepieces that no one else has tried to copy, no one's dared tried to copy. And they're bringing out price points that in this day and age, and we talked about it last week, where everything seems to have doubled, it's still massively beneficial to your pocket. You're going to get something that is unique. No one else has got, no one else has seen. You're going to be the only person at the party wearing a chrono Swiss probably unless they sort of kick off as we expect them to do so especially this year with what they've got planned. But the two releases today, one has got the standard look that we've seen a million times before. The purple haze, the orange colored numbers where it looks like it's been cut away. The dial looks as if it's a video game like the Incredible Machine from back in the day. And then you've got the more sedate one with the four points, the very symmetrical looking watch. That should appeal to me more. But it doesn't because I like the crazy. And we know what's coming down the line because we've been privy to a little bit of information. All I can say is these ones are fantastic. But come watch us in wonders time. There's going to be even more to whet your appetite and we're going to tell everybody to now go and check the show notes. Just I said this beginning of the show, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the link in the description takes you to our website and all the information in the watches, the events, industry, news, all that good stuff will be there in a chronological order. If you're listening in a podcast player, then obviously the link will be in the podcast player. Click on that takes you to the same place, means you're fully aware of exactly what is going on and you can see the pictures of what we're talking about. If you're not catching this up on YouTube, another thing to tell you to do is if you are on YouTube then we'd love it if you subscribe to the channel. Doesn't cost you a penny. Helps us out dramatically, gives us more insights, gets more brands speaking to us. We're able to bring more stuff to you in a timely fashion ahead of time so we can schedule it and get it out there as fast as possible. And when we go to the big events that we are doing, we get to meet more people, we get More access, which again benefits yourselves. Now, Dave, some industry news.
- [11:47]
B
Yes, indeed. Well, WatchPro, they're a print magazine, they're also online. They are a stalwart of the UK media outfit in the uk. They're doing an event called Women in Watches. They're going to be doing a few different curated talks with different female leading lights within the watch industry. It's going to be taking place in London on March 2. It is open to men if they wish to attend as well. The first panel is going to be focused on leadership and representation within the watch industry, looking at career pathways, visibility and structural challenges across the watchmaking sector. That one is going to be headed up by the Watch Pro editor, who is Mae Garland. She'll be joined by watch historian, author and watchmaker Rebecca Struthers, the LAing's board director, Serena Gough and Christopher Ward, CEO of Sarah Bauman. That conversation will cover leadership opportunities, pay gaps, representation of women at senior levels within the industry and how the industry can better support the progression of women working across retail, brands and media. The second panel, well, there's going to be a familiar voice or face in there as well that will explore women as consumers and market shapers, looking at how they are influencing watch design, buying trends and brand strategy. WatchPro's digital editor Ella Kirby will be heading up that one. And you will have former Watches of Switzerland buyer Faye Soretti. You'll have Bonhomme's senior watch specialist, Sarah Ferguson. The Duchess makes her public outing on a panel. And Bremont's chief marketing officer, Ellen Barnes. You'll also have another previous guest on the show, Scarlett Baker, the watch journalist. She'll be on that panel as well, of course, covering traditional market segmentation, how it's evolving, how female collectors and buyers are shaping product development and why brands and retailers are rethinking how they approach women within the marketplace. Should be exciting, should be good. I'm sure we'll have Sarah on the show at some point after that happens to talk all about her experiences there. It's taking place at the Art Hotel in Battersea. That's just behind the Battersea power station. Monday 2nd March 2026. There are a small number of tickets available. Check out the show notes or of course just Google Watch Pro women and watches. And I'm sure it'll lead you to where you can get tickets for that.
- [13:55]
A
Good to see Sarah appearing in more places, not just on this podcast. And the recognition is well deserved because she's been around far longer than I've been in the watches. And she knows so much about the history of tons of brands. There's many things that we don't know anything about. And she'll drop us a message on WhatsApp. Or when we catch up in real life, she'll say, oh, have you seen this new thing? So looking forward to her kicking some ass down in London. And where are we going to kick ass next, Dave?
- [14:18]
B
Where we're going to kick ass is something we're going to do to stop our asses getting kicked that's been kicked by Mziel because we forget to do the wrist check when we're meant to do it. So we're going to do the wrist check. I always come second. Ricky, you are going first. So tell me all about what you're showing on your wrist today.
- [14:33]
A
Uno, reverse card, you're going to go first because I'm not going to tell you what I've got on the wrist today. Someone else is going to do that for me.
- [14:38]
B
How very rude. Okay, well, I will go ahead and I will talk about what I'm wearing. And I was thinking, what should I wear for this recording? And after we talked about that Chronoswiss and the gravity model with clear discs floating above things, I thought, I know what I'm going to wear. A watch that, well, is very different, but similar in some ways. And it's from another brand we talked about at the top of the show. That's Citizen. So it kind of all lines up. What I'm wearing, or should I say holding at this point in time, is the Citizen Alticron Cirrus. This is a watch with many, many functions. It's going to be difficult to get it, but you can maybe see lots of the different layers of sapphire discs at various heights throughout the dial. It's a chonky little number. It's produced out of grade five titanium and ceramic. This is, of course, an eco drive watch. So it's powered by light, light charging a battery. So not a mechanical watch, but lots of functions and features. You've got the obvious ones, the time, the seconds, the date in here. But you also have altitude. You can see that on the yellow. The little altimeter, I think they're round about the 7 o' clock we can see. Altimeter is written on there. There's other functionalities like compass, lots of different functions, all operated by either these pushers, which are on the opposite side, and it's got the sensor built into the side. Many years old, this watch is. I think I've had this for probably at least eight or nine years. Can I remember how it works? Absolutely not. I just press buttons and see what happens when things spin round the dial. But I love it for the pops of color. I love these bright yellows, reds, greens, oranges, all these different colors. I just think it's a fantastic watch from an aesthetic perspective, with lots of functionality that, well, David's never going to use in the real world. But it looks cool on the wrist. It's an integrated strap, as we can see, so that means on the wrist. It does hug the wrist very nicely, considering it's a, well, fairly chonky watch. If I remember rightly. My buying decision on this was based around the fact that you were drunk. Well, no, I actually wasn't drunk when I bought this one. But there's a Blancpain diver, a very big diver with quite a similar aesthetic when it comes to how the strap mounts, that is considerably more expensive than this one was. From memory, I am envisaging. I think this was in and around the 1,500 pound mark. I did have to buy it from Japan, so it was a bit of a importation gamble, but it came through and it's been reliable and running ever since. You can even see that it's holding its charge very nicely. Nearly full, even though we're in the midst of the winter in Scotland, which means there's no sun. So the Alticron Cirrus is what David is wearing today. Check out the show notes if you want to see some better pictures of it.
- [17:19]
A
And well done to Dave for using a black background with a black watch this episode. He's learning, he's doing great. Not my favourite citizen, that one. It's very. I don't even know, it's kind of 90s looking. I'm not too keen on it.
- [17:31]
B
Well, that's just frankly rude. But anyway, I don't expect any less from you. You're getting to come in my position, which is second.
- [17:38]
A
Ooh, er, Mrs. Ooh, er, Mrs.—
- [17:40]
B
Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. But you've got someone else who's going to come second, which is even worse, to be honest. But anyway, let's just carry on with it.
- [17:46]
A
They've stopped stirring the pot.
- [17:48]
B
That's also probably not the best use of words, but yes, let's get on with someone else coming second to tell me what Ricky's wearing on his wrist, which means, of course, at the same time you will find out what he's wearing.
- [18:02]
A
Well, this is a part of the show where we bring somebody on to talk about what they do, not what myself or Dave does. Because you already know that story. We tell you infinitely every single episode. But we've got somebody here that has released a watch, has started a brand new, but it's got a bit of a difference. And instead of doing a disservice myself, I thought bring the head honcho on, the guy that started it all. So, mystery guest, introduce yourself, Tell us who you are, why you're here and what it is you do.
- [18:24]
C
How you doing, Ricky? My name is Ed Margulies and I currently have a watch brand called Split Watches.
- [18:31]
A
Okay, what is the difference here? Right, because we know loads of people that start watch brands. You seem to have a bit of a unique story.
- [18:38]
C
So I am, I'm a third generation watchmaker and I, after leaving my education, I started in the family business and I distributed a brand called Girard. Perregaux was my first brand into the uk, an official importer. I was pretty lucky because it was unfortunately a tough brand to sell at the time. This was about 35 years ago. But they, I think about three months after I took the brand on, they signed up with Ferrari and became the official Ferrari watch brand, which helped my, helped my journey along quite nicely. Cut alongshore, restore. I ended up sort of earning my stripes and I distributed brands like Blancpain, Hublot and the, the crowning jewel for us was Audemars Piguet and I took the Audemars Piguet distribution on and then I left the business for a while, which is another story. And I wanted to start a watch brand with a bit of a difference.
- [19:40]
A
And it certainly does have a bit of a difference because the watch that I have got on the wrist today that you've sent up for us to check out, it's almost like the beginning of the Simpsons when Homer Simpson is at work and he leaves the facility with a glowing rod of something that you wouldn't want near your person, your skin or on your wrist. So tell us the story of Split because it's an interesting one.
- [19:58]
C
So I sort of, I have a lot of very fond memories of the watch industry, but there were a few things that I struggled with a bit as well. I guess it all sort of started off when someone told me you had to have perfectly manicured hands to work in the watch industry. And I was very much a nail biter. I was anxious. I had a bit of imposter syndrome being in the industry. And I met some incredible people. I dealt with some incredible brands selling incredible watches. But it was very much the high end of the Swiss luxury watch industry. And I saw a lot of status and ego involved in watch journeys people have. It didn't sit too well with me and I thought. I also noticed that watches. It's kind of weird because when I first started in the watch industry, people bought a watch to tell the time. And now that I'm starting split, no one needs a watch anymore to tell the time. And it's sort. It sparks conversations and it tells stories, I think. And I wanted to tell a bit of a different story and use that spark that a watch can have to create conversations, connections, togetherness. So I done a few things to try. And I also had a lot of trauma, by the way, which as a child and that when I had my own kids, that sort of came back to bite me and I was a bit of a wreck and I needed to get away, sort myself out and focus on my wife and kids.
- [21:27]
B
Kids.
- [21:28]
C
So then once my wife was nudging me pretty hard to get off the sofa. I had quite a lot of issues at the time and I had a little bit of a spark myself. And I, with a business partner I have, we started this brand called Split. And so we donate and now as therapy to our charity partner for every watch we sell, we. I think with the first brand, all of our watches are displayed at 7:23 instead of that 10 past 10 smile and sort of just encouraging people to own it when they're having a bit of a bad day. We don't always have to have a big smile on our face and tell everyone we're doing well all. All day and every day. So, yeah, so a lot of what we're doing is. Resonates around that and, and also a little bit of a backstory that we didn't launch. The brand with which we're going to tell is. Is around music and the power of music and those moments like the early days of punk or the early days of blues or the. The early days. And just about those moments when you go to a concert and you push boundaries and there's a little bit of counterculture involved and it's always been a big thing for me and we're going to sort of try and get that feeling across when we all sort of come together as a group and it's. It's honest, it's emotional and it takes us to some really exciting places.
- [22:49]
A
Well, when I heard about the brand and I saw the logo and I heard the name Split, it obviously took me to a certain movie that I watched many years ago with a Scottish guy in it. Fun laying up.
- [22:58]
C
That's right.
- [22:58]
A
So glad to see it's nothing to do with that in particular, but the watch itself. Let's talk about that. We've gone through a little bit of the backstory. There is a lot more to cover. So obviously we will talk about that in the future. But you do have a website, you do have an Instagram channel, your backstory. The complete article is there. People can go and check out and it will be linked in the show notes. Miz will put that together for us. But tell us about this release, the one that you've sent up here. Because it's mammoth, but it's not. You would think it would be like this massive weight on the wrist, but it isn't because you've used some pretty interesting technologies, materials, even the movement. You've not gone with what most people would probably think you would go with. So run us through this model. What's it called and what does it
- [23:34]
C
do that is called in the Skies. It's actually a little. Little nod to Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac. And the artwork for the. For the album Inspired as well. So that this. It's got some Peter Green in it. Wanted to make a watch. Sort of at the beginning of my journey, I had the option and it would have been a much easier option to make a watch with a steel bracelet, a Swiss movement, a nice shiny watch with a lacquer dial. And I think I would have. My days would be a bit easier than they are at the moment. It's pretty tough launching a new watch brand in the climate we're in at the moment. But I wanted to stay true and authentic to what we're trying to do at Split. I didn't want to go with steel. I questioned absolutely everything. I sort of had an overview of the industry. I had a lot of experience in the industry and I questioned for example, why I think 70 odd percent of luxury watches are made with stainless steel. So I questioned if stainless steel is a luxury product. It was very interesting. During the design stage, my designer was pushing me to put a lot more detail on the dial because supposedly there's some subconscious thing that goes on with us that when we see more detail on a dial, we associate that with value and with. With technology. But I wanted to strip everything back. So I. I've always loved the 2reg Chrono. So I wanted to launch the brand with a 2reg and again I looked at going via Switzerland. I sort of love the old heuers in my day, I've got a big, big love for vintage watches and they, they had a Sellita movement which was quite incredible. But that's. That company since been bought out by a big brand, a big player in the industry. And I've always loved Seiko. I think it's the most incredible, undervalued brand. I think there's something about the Japanese which is very true to what we're trying to do as well. And we ended up going with this Quite beautiful revolutionary 2 Reg Chrono and any 86 movement from the Seiko family. And yeah, we're trying to do things a bit differently. So instead of stainless steel, we tried to create modern materials that are more in keeping with what our lives that we're living today. And so we had to look at every single option to try and create the best quality watch we could. So we created our own case, which is a mixture of polymers, nylons, ceramics, which gives a nice soft feel to the case. We using an FKM rubber strap. And we've got, we got that lovely movement inside which can be seen through an exhibition case back. And that glow. So the glow is something I always wanted to do, I think. I think we can occasionally take ourselves a bit too seriously in the world and I think the watch industry is guilty of that as well. So we wanted to, we wanted to create something a bit fun, a bit different.
- [26:24]
A
It does look like Homer when you do this. That green glow coming off that. Jesus Christ.
- [26:29]
C
The radioactive plant. Yeah. But thankfully I don't think it's going to cause people any issues. I'm hoping.
- [26:36]
A
Well, as we've unsuccessfully tried to light the thing up in the studio with 1, 2, 3, 4 lights running, we're going to have to get some B roll and drop it in here. I want to ask a little bit more about it because looking at the watch, this is not your first rodeo. Your previous history within watchmaking circles have definitely shown through because when we see a watch from a brand and it's their first go at it, it's a little bit rough and ready. It's like looking at your kid's first drawing on the fridge. It ain't going to be up a castle. So how long did the design process actually take to come to fruition for
- [27:03]
C
the watch we spend, my business partner and I, we were sitting on the sofa. We've just about evolved to a small, a small room in an office now. But we've been working from our, from my home for the past. I think it's Been about two years now and that we've worked on this, our first series of chronographs and we were looking into how we could create a glow version of it. And it's something we're going to try and incorporate into all our future models as well. And incidentally the. The MC range. So we've. We. We launched with MC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and that was a little nod. And we're trying to do some subtle nods at the moment, but that was a little nod to a band called the MC5. An American punk band, Proto punk band. And yeah, there's it. The watch itself and the glow. It's been about just over two years in the making. And thank you for your very kind comments, Ricky. Means a lot coming from you.
- [27:56]
A
And I think that dial, it's not over the top. It does have a lot of stuff on there. It does have everything you need with the markers, the date window, the aperture and you know, you've got a Seiko movement inside. Well, all the things line up properly because Seiko didn't actually put the watch together. But some of my favorite parts are the pushers on the side because they are in stark contrast to the rest of the watch. As you say on the back you've got a Seiko movement, but it doesn't really look like a Seiko movement because it has been decorated especially with the rotor and the different coloration in there. And this isn't a movement that I am familiar with. Obviously we know the NH35, the 35A and various iterations of it.
- [28:32]
C
Thank you, Ricky. Yeah, it's not used very often. It's an NE86 and it's a BI compact 2 reg chrono. So yeah, not a lot of people use that anymore. People tend to like the 3 reg a bit more than the 2 reg. But going back to MC5 and apologies for my language, they have a song called Kick out the Jams Mother. And it's all about sort of the jamming and the sort of a lot of excess noise for the sake of noise. And I think that's about as clean a dial as I could create for a chronograph watch. And I really wanted to go with a 2 reg rather than a 3 reg because we want that sort of. Again, it's like that clarity in your head. We wanted to get as much clarity on the watch as well. And by the way, the pushers. Thank you very much. That's a sort of a little modern nod to a mushroom pusher which I always liked as well.
- [29:23]
A
Well, I think our time has come to an end because we've got the rest of the show to get on with. But instead of me talking about this thing, I thought better to get all the information straight from the horse's mouth. And it is a brilliant example of executing a watch design that could be cluttered, it could be a little bit kitsch, it could be gimmicky, but it isn't everything about it. It reminds me of really expensive watches, the type of watches I've been talking about for a long time. The Girard Perregal, the collaboration with Bamford that I keep looking for. But it keeps going for like 15 to 20 grand. And this here, it sits great, it looks great. Even the case into the FKM rubber you would expect there to be a color difference because material is slightly different. It doesn't. It matches even under the studio lights are really harsh and they show up all the blemishes. Now this is fantastic and it is obviously limited edition so you want to check the show notes jump across. They've got this colorway and you've also got a few other colorways as well.
- [30:12]
C
Annoyed a lot of people by the way and I appreciate you mentioning that because I went through quite a few different prototypes before. I was happy with the color matching and I've really annoyed a lot of people because I wasn't very easy. But I think it's quite important to try and get your product as good as you can get it for the customer.
- [30:30]
A
Well, that is the end of our little segment here. We have to let you go. Unfortunately tons more questions but we are running out of time so you'll have to come back, tell us a little bit more about the history and how things have gone. We want to find out, we like to check in and find out from brands how the first single went. What is the follow up going to be like, what has the reaction not only from the press but from the public being because we find out that it's not just the purchasers of watches that like to say things. You will get comments from people that aren't interested in the watch but maybe give you ideas for a second hit the follow up album. So thank you so much for joining us today and be sure to check out the show notes for links, all the pictures, all the tech spec and if you want to grab one you better be quick.
- [31:07]
B
Thank you very much Ricky.
- [31:08]
C
Thanks for having me.
- [31:09]
A
That's the risk checks done. We mentioned earlier that Fossil group seemed to be back back with a bang because they did some jiggery pokery here in the UK in Milton Keynes we talked about last year. They had a lot of their Zodiac releases disappearing into various outlets across the world at really low price points. They're good watches. They were decent at the price they were currently at. And then when they got reduced absolute bargains, loads of people went out and bought them. We hadn't seen any activity and I still haven't seen any activity on the Zodiac Instagram page. But I did hear that Zodiac have got a collaborative watch out this week, which I'm not 100% sure on. So I'm going to try and find out if our contacts are still there, what is going on. But Fossil Group, the large conglomerate, the organization behind everything, they've got a couple of releases out too.
- [31:52]
B
And they've brought back something from the past, something big, something bold and something that, well, when I found out the price, I thought do not need this in any way, but probably will end up getting one. What they've done, they've brought back their big tick Y2K and it's returned for, well, an all new generation, arguably one of the most recognizable designs. And well, it's back in a limited edition format first introduced back in 1999. That 19 number keeps coming up. People apparently now can't believe that actually people were born with 19 as the start of their birth year. But yes, indeed, they definitely do. It's combining analog timekeeping with quite a distinctive animated digital display. Something that was definitely very much of that Y2K generation. The brand themselves, it was founded way back in 1984, making it positively, well, Fossil, like they were built on a reputation of very much design led watches, blended nostalgia and accessible innovation. And by the 1990s they were really pushing lots of, well, different formats, especially that kind of hybrid format, mixing analog and digital elements. This RE edition stays pretty close to that original style and formula. It's using a case design that that's effectively straight out the archive. And there are a couple of different models that well, faithfully reimagined the original flickering flame digital displays in either red or blue colorations. And there's another two model that show a kind of central scrolling seconds. Pretty sure this was also done by other people in and around that time. It's quite a distinctive look for it in and around that Y2K period. They've also done something that's a bit on trend, I'd say they've brought out a pocket watch variant of these as well, which has got the Flames logo Or the flames kind of digit digital display. You get seven different animations you can put on the watch via the side pusher, push it to activate those different animations. It's a dual battery system. One battery just runs the quartz movement for the timekeeping, the other drives the digital animations. Which means that, well, hopefully if you like playing with your digital animations, it's not going to wreck the battery that keeps the time. They're all stainless steel cases, they're all 50 meters of water resistance. They're pretty cool and funky as long as the price is right. And for me the price is pretty damn good. The pocket watch is going to be 170 US dollars. That's going to put it in the 130, 140 UK pound mark and the watches themselves are 195 US dollars, probably going to be in and around the 170 UK pounds mark. Pretty cool looking watches I'd say.
- [34:20]
A
Ricky, I really like look at these. Back in the 90s this style was all the rage. Oakley had many watches. I recently bought a tag watch which I think is probably slightly newer than the 90s, but it had that armadillo style to the bracelet and this is very, very similar. It reminds me of when you used to see flames on hot rods, flames on modified cars, things like that and that was very late 90s, early 2000s. It's good to see Fossil doing things. I really do hope they hang around. They've done a lot of private label stuff. If you have got Hugo Boss, if you've got Calvin Klein watches, Diesel watches, things like that, that they are the watchmaker behind the scenes that actually produce all this stuff. And as we said a million times before, somebody that maybe gets a fashion watch or an Apple watch or fitness tracker, then it might lead them down the path of buying a mechanical watch, an automatic watch in the future because they're getting used to wearing something on the wrist again. So Fossil does have its place. I know people sometimes don't like them, they can be looked as a little bit cheap but every time I'm in different places. There's an outlet in Scotland, Livingston designer outlet and they've actually got a Fossil outlet inside and you can pick up all kinds of cool stuff. I bought a ton of watches in there at ridiculously low prices so fingers crossed everything is going well for them. As much as we like to talk about the budget friendly options, sometimes we like to go into the stratosphere with Richard Mille.
- [35:36]
B
We do. And now this one before I start is going to be Quite complicated to describe because there's a lot going on and we'll say right now we don't actually know the price but the price is not going to be well value led. Let's go with that. So what we're talking about here, well it's The Richard Mille RM41 01 tourbillon soccer timer, football timer. Depending where you are in the world. We're going to call it the football timer because well, we play football here, which is not what the Americans think is football because what they're thinking is football isn't football.
- [36:09]
A
Hand egg.
- [36:10]
B
Yes, as Ricky so delightfully describes it as hand egg. Pass ball is probably more accurate. But anyway, what does this watch do? Well it's based around soccer stroke, association football to give it its full names and using it as a tool that you can use as a referee in the game. Quite how many referees can afford this watch will be able to use it? That's a very different question. You can time the two 45 minute halves of the football stroke soccer match. There's also other things that a few folk have done before where you can include tracking of the time between the halves or the extra time added. But very few folk have gone as full on as rm. In this case it's a tourbillon. Not normally a watch type that you would associate with active sports, but nonetheless it's a tourbillon. You've got a rotating display on there that will show which part of the game you're in I. E First half or second half. There's also a mechanical counter to keep track of each team's score case on it. Well it's using that material that's so well known with RM tpt. There's two colours. There's red Carmen basalt and there's dark blue quartz. You've got a skeletonized dial. And for the first time this TFT material has been produced with well real basalt stone in there. It uses a 40 micron thick basalt fibers that are stacked at 45 degree angle rotation between the layers and it gives almost a wood grain like effect going on there. But it is real basalt rock. You've got an all new caliber. It's the RM41 01 caliber. Partly took five years to develop and it was done in collaboration with Audemars Piguet. It's also a flyback chronograph and of course as I mentioned as a tourbillon some unusual things. It's got a central minute counter. There's two hands that look like they both belong to the chronograph they do, but it's not like two seconds hands, one's for seconds and one is for the minutes. Slightly unusual at that 9 o' clock you see the match time indicator. Each time you reset the chronograph, the display will rotate from the first half to the second half, then also from the first and the second extra time periods as well. The chronograph pushers are on the left side, so it's destro style, but on the right side you've also got pushers. They will handle the other complication that we talked about, the score you can track. At the top, the home team and at the bottom the away or the visitor team. They're little horizontal scales that run across the watch dial. Each push equals one goal. You have to be careful, of course. Press it too many times, you have to go back to the start, but. But it is a goal indicator nonetheless. You've got a power reserve indicator on that watch. The movement is made from microblasted grade 5 titanium. 70 hours of power reserve. It's a big boy. It's tonneau shaped. It's 43.24 millimeters by 49.65 millimeters and coming in at just over 16 millimeters thick. There's only going to be 30 pieces of each colourway. Price wise? Well, nobody knows because it's price on request, but we're going to hazard a guess that it will be in the high six, maybe even possibly the low seven figures at the retail price for the watch. It's going to be expensive. Can't see many. Well, you know, school league, soccer, coaches buying one of these to check out what's happening during the game. Really cool. Completely pointless. Which makes it in many ways even cooler. Not a fan of Richard Mille style aesthetic personally, but I can really appreciate what they've done here with the movement. Ricky, you're not a kickball, grass, tennis, whatever we want to call it today game. You're not into football like I'm not. What do you think of the watch, though?
- [39:36]
A
No, not big on foosball myself, but I love the fact that there are brands out there, Richard Milburn one of them, pushing the envelope forward, putting as much creativity, ingenuity inside a small watch head as possible. In the past we've looked at things from upload, the Ferrari watches, where they've had little engines inside, obviously Bugatti, the Tourbillon. Not just a car, but collaboration with Jacob and co. What they've done, minimizing down to the micron levels, creating technology that doesn't just tell the time, but does it in such an animated way. That's what I love. It's the hobby, it's how it looks and the rest. It's also the ingenuity underneath the sapphire. And this is a watch I would never buy, I could never afford, would never want to own. But there are other RMS that have been really cool in the past. We've looked at different things. Way back in the beginning of the podcast they released their candy collection. That was at SIHH 2019, I believe it was. And obviously they're not involved with watches and wonders, which is a continuation of sihh. But the guys at ap, they're back and we're looking forward to meeting them this year and seeing what they're up to. But back to the rm. Would I buy it? No. If I was offered one for free, would I take it? Yes. Would I sell it immediately? Of course. And of course we should tell you, if you want to get in touch with us, never DM us, always drop us an email. We've got a few sitting ready to attack. We're going to have a bit of a mailbag episode coming up soon and if you've got any questions, queries, feedback, negative guest you want us to bring onto the show brand, you want us to speak to models perhaps we've maybe missed, or you want us to revisit, drop us an email infoocottishwatches.co.uk.
- [41:04]
B
yes, indeed. Well, we're going to have a little bit of industry news now and what we're going to be talking about as well. Not probably a great surprise. We know the market's not in the, well, most healthy place and a few brands are seeing volumes drop and turnovers drop. And this week it's the turn of Breitling, which looks like it's happening, had, well, some billions of its value wiped off by its private equity owners in the uk. The Financial Times, a fairly reasonably accurate reporter of news, is bringing news of us today that the private equity owners CVC Capital and Partners Group have both repriced the value of the business as the sales and profits have declined. The private equity investor Partners Group, well, they took control of Breitling in 2022. They had a deal that took their stake for from at that point 25% that they'd acquired back in 2021 to majority ownership of over 50%. That deal which was done with London's based CVC Capital, so its stake reduced, that being CVC stake reduced, was That
- [42:01]
A
a fillet or a ribeye?
- [42:02]
B
Oh, I think I'll go a fillet just now. Blue, please. Blue. Nice and nice and lightly cooked. But anyway, the value of, indeed the value of Breitling at that time was 4.5 billion. Originally, when CVC bought the business, it was valued at around $900 million. So quite an increase, I have to say. CVC have halved the value of its remaining stake partners groups. Its values are holding at roughly 70% compared to what it was previously. As well, the Morgan Stanley and the Luxe Consult reports estimate that Breitling Sales touched around 870 million in 2023, but it's declined to around 820 million as of 2025. It was the 17th largest watchmaker in Switzerland by back in 2018 and it kind of upped itself to 9th around 2022, where it still is. And they've got around 300 boutiques worldwide, which has really been quite a market increase since all of the investment. But it shows that. I wouldn't say they're getting twitchy, but they're definitely getting a bit more realistic about the valuations of the brands they have. Be interesting to see what happens with the brand, what their plans are going to be and if their plans, of course, change is this dramatic push forward, forward with all of their boutiques and the two additional brands that are going to be brought into the fold. Let's see what happens with that. Well, over the coming weeks, months and
- [43:18]
A
years, when we get invited to have a look behind the curtain at Breitling last year, and I can't remember where we were, may have been Geneva watch days or something, and they invited us along to have a look at the changeover with the collection. A lot of the journalists and media folk in the room were talking amongst themselves about the direction change and it looked a little bit as if maybe Breitling were not doing as good as they were claiming. Last year there was a lot of changes, a lot of reversions where perhaps they tried some things out that hadn't quite hit the mark. And then you've got to add in the fact that last year, the year before, and potentially start this year have not been the greatest within the industry. And that is a massive brand that has got a lot of people they have to keep. Right. Obviously our friends within the industry, Britt, Adrian, other folks have been across to see what they've been doing at the manufacturer and fingers crossed that they do okay, because again, last year, and we talk about Dubai Watch, we call it time because it's the most recent thing we've been to give it a couple of months. We'll be talking about British Watchmakers Day and Watches and Wonders. But Breitling had a massive presence at Dubai last year. It wasn't just Breitling, it was also Universal. Geneve and Gali, they were talking about all the brands, they had this brands thing going on. So hopefully everything will go according to plan. Hopefully new releases will come out and they won't just fall by the wayside. Because it is one of the stalwart brands of the industry that's been seen in the high street along with Tag Heuer, Rolex, Tudor and Omega. But I suppose that's the part of the show where we tell you what we've been up to because it's not all wristwatches. Sometimes we're allowed out the house to play.
- [44:44]
B
You're maybe allowed out the house. I can kind of go and come as a please, but yes. What have we been up to? The answer is, for me, not a huge amount. I have got myself back from Switzerland and I've decided to try and just take a little breath.
- [44:57]
A
Were you down at the baftas?
- [44:59]
B
I was not at the baftas because
- [45:01]
A
Scottish people went to the baftas, I heard.
- [45:02]
B
But I was doing some filming, not of that ilk last week for something that's going to be coming out in the near future. Outside of that, really, as I say, just trying to chill out and not do very much. I watched some stuff on Netflix, can't even remember really what it was. It was that enthralling. I am though, looking forward to catching up on. I think it's the third series of. I think it's called the Night Watchman or something like that. Whatever. It's on Netflix, I think might not even be on Netflix. But anyway, I got a notification to say the third series is out and I've watched the ones before. Outside of that, I've not been up to basically anything of any interest. Ricky is always out and about doing things that are involve comics and fun things and finding dubious content on YouTube. So Ricky, what have you been up to?
- [45:43]
A
You're right, lots of dubious content on YouTube and not just our shows every week. Good reminder. Subscribe, follow, like comment, all that good stuff. There's a guy who, I can't remember his name will be in the show notes and he decided to take 400 car batteries and wire them up and then would place something in between the contact points of all these batteries just to see what would happen. And I love YouTube. I love the Internet because it means the stupid ideas that Dave and myself come up with. I wonder what would happen if. Well, turns out people have done that for us so we can watch from the safety of our own homes and not end up in hospital, the morgue or the graveyard. Really good. Cool episode. He managed to. It wasn't even the fact he was blowing stuff up and putting it between the connectors. There was one point where he actually put an anvil. Anvil as an Acme anvil. Roadrunner cartoons. An anvil beside the wiring. And the electromagnetic field created and generated with those 400 batteries running in parallel in series and linked together. Lifted the anvil off the ground. It was just insane. So, yeah, link in the show notes. It's about two hours long. Skim through it if you get bored. It is well worth it. And this guy is still breathing, which is insane. Other than that. Went across to Sci Fi Capital Comic Con, I think it's called in Edinburgh here in Scotland. And they had all kinds of cool stuff. It's something I go to every often just to see what is what. And then there was some other news that spotted on YouTube that the Doctor who movie from around about 1996, I think it was, which had Eric Roberts and Sylvester McCoy and that other one, Paul McGann, I think he was, who was only there briefly in the movie. It's something I watched in television because it was a collab between the BBC and one of the American players back in the day. And that was roughly when I stopped watching Doctor who, because I was a kid of the 80s and 90s. It was Sylvester McCoy, it was Peter David and it was Colin Baker. But the ones before that, the ones after that, not really my bag, what else has been happening? Went to Caravan, met up with Jonathan, previously of the Edinburgh Watch Company. He was there with his fantastic GT3 Porsche 911. It was cold, it was a little bit damp, but it was sunny. And we turned up to this event, me and the wife had a look around and it was all kinds of cool stuff. There was like an event door sitting there. There was. It looked like a catering, but it wasn't. There was all kinds of modified stuff. Yeah, it was a really decent start to the year because obviously we love cars as much as we love watches. Anything mechanical, it doesn't matter if it's a movement in a watch or if it's an engine under the bonnet. We did highlight that we were going to be getting involved in something to do with cars. And Potentially our live recording and that is working its way forward. We have made some inroads, no pun intended, and we will bring you some juicy information about a bit of a collab that we're going to be doing where we're going to record a live podcast to do with speed racing and watches. And another thing we've been involved in is speaking with the folks over at Yema. They've been producing watches for a very, very long time. We feature them maybe once or tw, maybe nearly five years ago. We get sent a watch to review live on the show. But things have been quiet since. But they got in touch to say, hey, how's it going? Listen, let's start communicating again, let's see what we can do together. And potentially we'll be doing a show with them to give you the full potted history of Yema, the releases, the in house calibers that they have got, plus the crazy designs. And I don't think I've seen something crazier than the one we're about to talk about.
- [48:57]
B
Yes indeed, it's the Yema Wristmaster Slim small seconds and there's a camo version, but we'll get to that later on because it's in hiding at this point in time. The brand was founded way back in 1948 and at one point it was France's top producer and exporter in and around the 1960s. Lots of legendary models in there like the Superman during the Quartz crisis. Unfortunately it went the way of many brands, really fell on its luck and was well pushed around, changed hands, different owners, including for a little while owned by Seiko. Back though in 2009 French watchmaking group Hombre, they acquired the company and they've started the comeback from the there lots of modern reissues of models like the Fly Graph, the Rally Graph, the Navy Graph. And they've also produced a very slim in house micro rotor calibre. It's a made in France movement. Now what we're talking about today though is the three new Wristmasters with small seconds. So you've got some new dial colors and as mentioned at the top, a limited edition Snow Camouflage edition. So what have we got going on? You've got the octagonal case, it's definitely got that 60s 70s feel to it. It you've got that in house calibre, the CMM 29. It's a 39 millimeter watch. It's got a very slim profile of 9.2 mm and a very tight lug to lug of 43.5 mm 100 meters of water resistance. It does proclaim to be a sports watch after all. And that bezel's got six notch scallops out of it as well. Gives it a bit more context, a bit more, well, something about it. The two core models in the stainless steel case have got vertical brushed finish. That kind of goes from the bezel onto the case and the bracelet. The dials are available either in a blue colorway or a green colorway. You've got the small seconds counter at 9 o'. Clock. The camo one, which is in my opinion the very cool one. So only going to be 100 pieces of it. And it's a snow camouflage dial. So you've got grays, light grays and white tones. And it's achieved by laser engraving. It's all over that dial and the case and the bracelet. Although there are certain areas, like those areas within the bezel that haven't got it on it, that gives it a bit of, well, texture and it breaks up a little bit. That movement's got 70 hours of power reserve. Pretty accurate. Regulated to minus 3 plus 7. So just outside cost, but in definitely the top end of the accuracy windows for many watches. And price Point wise it's €2,249 for either the blue or the green dial. If you want that snow camo one, you have to pay a little bit more, but not so much. It's €2,399. So a very small upcharge for that pretty cool snow camo model. I love it. That's no camo one. Great looking watch for the money. I think it's definitely a great alternative to quite a few of the more mainstream options out there, giving you something a little bit unusual, a little bit different. And yes, it's a French brand, but that doesn't mean anything bad. There's lots of brands from outside Switzerland, the uk, Japan, lots of places in the world that are producing fantastic watches as well. Ricky's going to like this snow camo one. I just have that vibe about.
- [51:54]
A
I love this watch. If it's something a little bit different, like the watch I'm wearing today, that is a little bit different, that's a lot different. So if it's something unique, it adds something to the party, then I'm all about it. That's why we talk about Richard Mille, tourbillon football watches, all that kind of jazz. If it has got something that makes it stand head and shoulders above the rest and these guys do know what they're doing. These Guys are produced in in house movement with a micro rotor. The back of the watches are fantastic. When you look through the display case back the way they've got the bridge arrangement set up, it's great front and back. They've got a lot of plans for this year. That's why we're trying to push things forward to bring them onto the show to discuss not just the history but the future of the brand. But if you want to go into our history, we have got a ton of releases in the past. Dave, where should people go?
- [52:35]
B
Well, they should listen to Alistair from the alliance of British Watch and Clockmakers. He's talking all about the exclusive watches that are going to be available at British Watchmakers Day, which is taking place in around about one week, just over one week from when you're listening to this. We've also got Simon on from Montblanc. That's the third part out of four episodes that are going to be taking place all about Montblanc and Minerva. And of course after a long hiatus, Adrian from Bark and Jack was back on talking all about that collaborative watch that he's done with Christopher Ward. A few other people maybe that you can mention as well. Ricky.
- [53:08]
A
Yes indeed. We had the CEO Formula E on not just talking about electric cars and all that kind of jazz. We were talking about watch collecting and how it doesn't matter if you're spending a couple hundred bucks on something like a spinner or Venetianico or you're spending a couple of hundred thousand on something crazy like an rm. He was talking about the collaborations with watch brand Formula E. He used to work at Honda Formula One, amongst other things. Was working for Richard Branson at one point in time. Very interesting guy, great story. And he will be making a return appearance because we couldn't get through everything we wanted to in one edition. We obviously had Andrew Morgan, the man with our hands. Previously a watch finder. He's been let out of his cage for the past couple of years doing his own own thing. He is working behind the scenes with many brands. Some you know, some you don't know, some you've heard of and some you don't know he's involved in at all. He drops all that knowledge on us in that episode, telling us about what it's like to be not just in front of the camera and the microphone, but behind the scenes helping brands get their messages out. And that is pretty much it. So thank you for listening. We'll catch you again soon.
- [54:05]
B
Take care. Sam.
- [54:37]
A
La.