Beyond The Dial

Beyond The Dial episodes:

• 03.28.2024

  Through The Looking Glass - On Watches & Philosophy (The Final Episode)

  Farewell, and thank you all for listening.  The Aesthetic Revolution Will Be Beautiful!

  
• 02.01.2024

  Conversations - E19 - Rikki from Scottish Watches

  Allen and Rikki lament and celebrate the current world of watches in equal measure, covering the rise of fashion and red-carpet nonsense to the role of modern materials in high horlogy. 

  
• 11.28.2023

  I Fell Into The Rolex Black Hole

  Allen could no longer resist the forces of gravity at the center of the horological universe, and now he is broadcasting from the within the Rolex Black Hole. He has sold off swaths of his collection and aquired two five-digit...

  
• 09.07.2023

  SWATCH's BIOCERAMIC - THE UNVARNISH FACTS (AND OPINIONS)

  Is SWATCH's BIOCERAMIC anything more than a petroleum-based plastic? Find out in this episode as Allen shares his investigation into this divisive material, its history, its current context, its chemical makeup, and even an email about it from a SWATCH...

  
• 03.01.2023

  Insights E35 - How "In-House" Obscures The Quality of Movements (& Insults Our Intelligence)

  A watch movement made to exacting standards by a robot on Mars working for a third-party alien corporation might turn out beautiful, precise, complicated and fascinating. Barring production on a more distant planet, no movement could be further from "in-house."...

  
• 02.08.2023

  Insights E34 - For Exhibition Only - Rolex Without Watches

  Has Rolex evolved into a brand that's For Exhibition Only" And what if Rolex no longer made physical watches? Could this be the future of global luxury brands in the centuries to come?

  
• 01.12.2023

  Field Reports E9 - Bremont's Authenticity Soars In An Old Plane

  Allen went to the UK for the launch of Bremont's first serially produced watches with their in-house movement, but what Allen got was a ride in an old plane that showed him the unique authenticity at the center of the...

  
• 11.08.2022

  Conversations E18 - Walt Odets On His Five Favorite Watches

  Walt has some very classy timepieces, all of a type: smaller, understated, and often highly complicated. Allen and Walt talk through five of Walt's most favorite watches, plus a sixth that came to Walt as a very pleasant surprise.

  
• 10.05.2022

  Insights E33- From Horological Silence Into The Noisy Watch Space - A Personal History of Watch Collecting (1990-2020)

  In this essay-style episode, Allen drags the historical lens across the watch space from 1990-2020, showing how what was once a lonely nerd's hobby grew into a fashionable social activity.

  
• 09.22.2022

  Insights E32 - A Tentative Critique of the Post-Pandemic Watch Culture

  In this insight essay, Allen admits to feeling a little disillusioned with the broader watch culture and tried to identify why it feels different to him since COVID pandemic lockdowns and the rapid expansion of interest in watches. Special interest...

  
• 09.07.2022

  Insights E31 - Iteration Inundation - The Endless Stream of New(s) Watches

  It's gotten overwhelming, all the new releases. Allen talks about how the digital medial environment, including the socials, has put undue stress on watch brands to always be releasing something new. and he has some ideas for how to deal...

  
• 07.29.2022

  How Watches Work E6 - Understanding Complicated Chronographs

  David takes Allen deeper into the world of mechanical chronographs, covering all the major complications from early flybacks to the latest in mechanical chronograph technology. 

  
• 06.17.2022

  How Watches Work E5 - Understanding Mechanical Chronographs

  David takes Allen inside the fascinating world of mechanical chronographs, and Allen finally "gets it."  Vertical vs. horizontal clutches, column wheel vs. cam actuators, reset functions, and much more are covered here, leaving the listener with a foundational understanding of...

  
• 05.24.2022

  Insights E30 - "In-House" - How An Overused Term Lost Its Meaning & How To Fix It

  Allen expands on his written essay on this always confusing and sometimes contentious topic. "In-House" refers to a movement built....Where exactly? By whom? It's hard to know anymore because brands have use the term in marketing so loosely that no...

  
• 05.02.2022

  Insights E29 - The Watch Collector / Enthusiast Dichotomy & Its Discontents

  Allen upends our current way of diving up the watch community into collectors, enthusiasts and consumers and suggests that we'd be far better off describing different levels of horological experience. Not to be missed for the die-hards, in this episode...

  
• 04.11.2022

  Conversations E17 - Bulova's 20th Century Mechanical Prowess (w Michael Benavente and Colin de Tonnac)

  Allen speaks with Michael Benavente of Bulova and Colin de Tonnac of Semper & Adhuc about the history of Bulova as a mechanical watchmaker. There's a lot to learn here. For example, did you know that Bulova once employed more...

  
• 02.22.2022

  How Watches Work E4 - Servicing Mechanical Movements

  David and Allen walk through the sometimes dubious topic of having your mechanical watch serviced. David explains how it all has to happen as Allen warns of scammers and how to beat them. You'll learn about timegrapher results, especially amplitude,...

  
• 02.02.2022

  How Watches Work E3 - Movements As Torque Managers

  David Flett schools Allen about what torque is and how it operates and is managed within a watch movement. Philosophical ponderance eventually finds its way, of course, but applied physics to horology remains the main story here.

  
• 12.09.2021

  How Watches Work E2 - Gears & The Going Train

  In this second installment of the How They Work series, David Flett joins Allen and leads him through the gears that make your mechanical watches work, generally known as "the going train." By the end they've imagined complications that track...

  
• 11.30.2021

  Insights E28 - Quantum Leaps in Collecting Watches

  Allen explores his new directions for his own budding collection of Vacheron Constantin watches, centering on a near disaster of a purchase due to his unbridled impetuousness. Two friends saved him from repeating past mistakes.

  
• 11.10.2021

  Insights E28 - Falling Back In Love With Vacheron Constantin

  Allen sold his 50th Birthday Grand Seiko, and now he's run out and bought a sweet 33mm platinum 1984 Vacheron Constantin Historique and a Unimatic U4, which he feels embodies Milanese Brutalism. Find out why he's in The Horological Flow...

  
• 10.18.2021

  Insights E27 - Why I Sold My 50th Birthday Grand Seiko At Age 51

  Allen explores his decision to sell his BIG 50th BIRTHDAY WATCH just one year later. This one is all about aligning one's true passion with one's budget, or lack thereof. And Allen explores how modern watch marketing can come between...

  
• 10.06.2021

  9000 Miles, 21 States, 5 Weeks, 1 Motorcycle & 1 Watch

  Allen return from an epic cross-country motorcycle trip with reservations about his Grand Seiko birthday watch and a head full of American Weirdness.

  
• 08.03.2021

  Field Reports E8 - The Alsta x BTD Motoscaphe 120

  Allen goes into the ideas behind the Alsta Motoscaphe 120, one of a very few purpose built motorcycling watches. Not branded to match this or that bike, nor just a clever facelift, the Motoscaphe 120 is the culmination of Allen...

  
• 07.30.2021

  Insights E26 - Eccentricity, Ostentation, Wealth & Watches

  Why do the rich get away with all kinds of bizarre quirky behavior while the rest of us are made to look silly when we express our little kinks?  The answer is complicated, and when we bring watches into the...

  
• 07.20.2021

  Conversations E16 - Walt Odets, The Original Watch Blogger

  Walt Odets is, by most accounts, the first person to blog about watches, thus creating a template for how watch journalism evolved over the past 20 years. His work, however, never resembled modern watch journalism; his was critical, mechanically minded,...

  
• 06.15.2021

  Satanic Ramblings

  Allen grabs the mic and speaks for an hour with zero edits on topics ranging from his dream of playing with The Grateful Dead (#letallenplay) to OEM straps to how mechanical ignorance leads to silly horological obsessions, and more...

  
• 05.12.2021

  Insights E25 - Horological Hedonism & The Aesthetic Revolution

  Horology Inc. provides us with a vast array of dial colors able to splash dopamine onto our opiate receptors. We often dismiss new colors as a superficial trend lacking horological innovation, but Allen argues that - because splashy dials spontaneously...

  
• 04.30.2021

  Insights E24 - Large Watches - A Case Study Featuring the Moser Pioneer Centre Seconds Limited Edition in Mad Red

  Allen breaks form on his approach to the hands-on review while exploring how Moser creates what is, in his opinion, one of the most beautiful watches currently being produced.

  
• 04.23.2021

  Insights E23 - Rolex vs. Gen X

  Can irony reconcile the cynical Gen X world view with a luxury hobby? Does the Swiss watch industry sell us "Vintage Nationalism" along with our watches? Did Jean-Claude Biver leverage anti-establishment tendencies with his anti-electronic rhetoric of the 1980s and...

  
• 04.16.2021

  Insights E22 - The Enduring Allure of Luminescence

  In this essay-style episode, Allen takes a journey through the history of glow-in-the-dark materials, drawing a personal narrative spanning five decades alongside a technological and psycho-evolutionary analysis of luminescence. 

  
• 04.05.2021

  Conversations E15 - From Singapore to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, London & Beyond (w LungLung & Dainel of The Waiting List)

  Daniel and Lung Lung from The Waiting List podcast join Allen and James for a 2-hour conversation about how unique regional cultural experiences shape our attitudes toward watches and each other. Expect a lot of laughter and surprises as cross-cultural...

  
• 03.30.2021

  Addressing Anti-Asian Hate (w/ James Im)

  Flare ups in anti-Asian hatred in the USA have inspired communities to join together to raise voices and awareness around the often overlooked (and sometimes intentionally erased) abuses against Asian-Americans.

  
• 03.03.2021

  Conversations E14 - Ducatis, Watches & Espresso Machines (with Jon Ferrer of Brew Watches)

  Allen and Jon both ride Ducati Panigale V2s, and therefore have much to talk about. But they don't talk all that much about motorcycles, instead focusing on Jon's family's history at Cartier and Tiffany, Italian espresso machines, and the indie...

  
• 02.18.2021

  Beyond The Dial's Promise To Our Readers & Listeners

  This is an explanation of how our commitment to you, our readers and listeners, requires that we maintain traditional journalistic ethical boundaries. It summarizes many months of concerted dialogue between the four founders as we created our brand of product...

  
• 02.09.2021

  How Watches Work E1 - The History of Mechanical Escapements

  Welcome to "How Watches Work," a series of episodes dedicated to understanding the devices behind the dial. In this introductory episode, David Flett walks Allen through a history of mechanical timekeeping going back over 5000 years and sweeping up to...

  
• 02.02.2021

  Conversations E13 - Defending NASA & The Omega Speedmaster (w Greg Bedrosian)

  Greg knows his Star Wars, Speedmasters and NASA history inside out. Greg's rebuttal to Allen's deconstruction of "Grand American Space Narratives" via the Swiss watch industry opens up new ways of thinking about the Omega Speedmaster, humanity's role in space,...

  
• 01.16.2021

  Insights E21 - Rethinking The Space Race & The Omega Speedmaster

  Allen finally takes on this horological masterpiece, which he's never really felt anything for at all - perhaps until now. From musicological analysis of Phillip Glass's minimalist music to deconstructing nationalist narratives, this episode doesn't critique Omega's branding of the...

  
• 12.22.2020

  Field Reports E7 - The Rolex Explorer II at Vail Colorado

  Allen takes us on a downhill journey back to his days as a ski-punk while rocking an Explorer II Polar White in Vail, CO. It's a tale of personal rediscovery aided by a badass tool watch.

  
• 12.17.2020

  Insights E20 - The Quartz Crisis & The Future of the 20th Century

  Following up on Episode 51, Allen turns a cultural-history lens onto the Quartz Crisis for a look at how quartz watches fit into the broader context of the 20th Century. Using his formal essay format, Allen contextualizes The Quartz Crisis...

  
• 12.09.2020

  Conversations E12 - The Quartz "Disruption" of the 1970s (w Pedro Mendes)

  Pedro comes on to discuss his new-found acceptance of some quartz watches, and he and Allen end up discussing the Quartz Crisis from many different angles. Notably not reaching consensus on key topics, this conversation leads to some rather interesting...

  
• 11.24.2020

  50 Lessons From Allen's 30-Year Watch Obsession

  Episode 50 gets a special episode in which Allen spends one minute each on fifty different lessons he's learned over the past 30 years of being into watches.

  
• 11.19.2020

  Dear Horology Inc., Enough With All The New Watches!

  It's not just COVID-19, it's the hundreds of watch brands bombarding us with hundreds of "media worthy events" every year that's a creating clamorous mess. New watches hit the market every day, and it's exhausting. The decorum and sanity of...

  
• 11.11.2020

  Insights E19 - Wrist-Presence & The Inelegance of Tool Watches

  Evolutionary theory suggests that we are drawn to certain people and not others based on hardwired aesthetic judgements wrought over some five-million years. Allen suggests that similar hardwired aesthetics are at play when we judge "wrist presence," and goes on...

  
• 10.23.2020

  Conversations E11 - Is Your Pilot's Watch a Nazi Watch? (with Oren Hartov)

  We see so many recreations of vintage watches issued to commemorate moments in history, people, wars, accomplishments, and so on. A certain line of WWII pilot's watch recreations present difficult questions about memorializing the Hitler's Nazi regime. Israeli paratrooper and...

  
• 10.15.2020

  Conversations E10 - The Oris Calibre 400 Movement (with VJ Geronimo)

  The Calibre 400 is not the first of Oris' in-house modern movements, but it is their first work-horse automatic winding movement of the modern era. Designed from the ground-up according to Oris' value-focused ethos, this movement is highly efficient, packs...

  
• 10.07.2020

  Collecting Concepts #2 - Spreadsheets, Soccer Timers & Mindfulness with James

  BTD guide James shares his concepts about collecting with Allen. They discuss James' spreadsheets, his love of Omega Soccer Timers, older railroad packet watches, and alarm watches. James gets into Buddhist philosophies about mindfulness as a guiding principle for watch...

  
• 09.29.2020

  Conversations E9 - Seiko's Dueling Factories, (w David Flett & Pedro Mendes)

  Seiko famously had two factories working simultaneously in both collaboration and competition to produce the most accurate watches in the world in order to beat the Swiss at their own game. David and Pedro had done deep research into this...

  
• 09.25.2020

  Field Reports 6 - Mission Lake George (Allen Reflects on a Successful Mission)

  With the diving behind them, the BTD Crew that dove Lake George is unpacking both their gear and their thoughts about the experience. Allen reads an essay he wrote about SCUBA diving in search of outbreaks of the invasive species...

  
• 09.18.2020

  Field Reports 5 - Mission Lake George (Concept & Plans)

  Sponsored by Oris and in partnership with The Lake George Association, the BTD crew is headed out to document invasive species in this iconic American fresh water treasure nestled in the Adirondack Mountains. Allen and Shelley will be making 6...