Married To Watches

An errant comment from an anonymous internet troll about the new Christopher Ward Sealander has hit a nerve with Annette.

The idea of calling the Sealander an homage to the Rolex Oyster Perpetual launched Annette into rant mode and uses this week's podcast to air her grievances. 

Sometimes we all need to yell into the void and we are sure many watch enthusiasts share our opinions on watch design, internet trolls, and a general appreciation for what Christopher Ward and the team over in England has been able to pull off in recent years.

The Royal Pop has been the biggest watch story so far this year. Some are disappointed it isn't a wrist watch but that didn't stop mobs of people from overwhelming stores.

We give our own opinion on the Swatch collaborations and some thoughts on how good and bad this latest collaboration of plastic timekeeping.

Coming back from vacation visiting our family we had an appreciation for the impact our watch mania has had on them. Slowly we have seen our family go from rolling their eyes as we talk about the latest releases to watching them get excited about buying a new watch of their own.

We talk about how amazing it is to see the growing love of watches in others and how it impacts our appreciation for our own journey.

Watch auctions are often ignored by the average collector for only being geared towards the most well off of customers, and that is a fair take.

But, these auctions also represent a chance to learn about rare one of ones, historically important watches, and the never before seen in public pieces. They are full of history and design that you cannot find anywhere else. They offer a chance to learn about the world of watches from the rare and unique.

Annette and Mark dive into the Monaco Legends Auction from April 25th and 26th to take a look at some interesting, rare, and museum worthy watches that help show why the world of watch auctions is worth your time and attention.

The biggest watch show of the year has come and gone and left us all feeling a bit underwhelmed. Shifting through the list of watches that didn't excite Annette and Mark find their three favorite watches from the show and talk about who did have a good group of novelties and who did not.

Mark also goes on a bit of a rant on watch journalism for clear factual errors on the Rolex reporting, and for once defends Rolex when doing so.

Universal Geneve has long been the darling of the vintage watch collection community. This week it was brought back to life with an entire lineup as the upmarket sister brand to Breitling.

We go over a very brief history of the brand before diving into the entire lineup from Polerouter to Disco Volante Uni-Compax chronographs.

Not to ruin the surprise, but we think they did a hell of a good job and have a few on our wishlist.

With Artemis II making humanities first manned flight around the moon since 1972 we thought it would be a great time to talk about the watches the crew will be wearing along with watches that have flown in space during the dawn of space travel.

We go over the NASA tests of Rolex, Omega, Longines, and Hamilton to see which watch would go to the Moon and how Omega won the fight.

A much less talked about fight from Bulova a to replace Omega a few years earlier leads to some interesting facts about American built Speedmasters.

Enjoy the conversation as we talk nerdy about watches in space!

Omega released a new Pie Pan Constellation. It hit the market in a time when many in the watch world have some criticism about Omega. Will this new watch help or hurt those voices?

NOMOS and Denison have a few new options but the other big talk of the week was the remodeled Longines Hydro Conquest. We talk about the challenges of designing dive watches, and how the new Longines stacks up.

Less than a month away Watches and Wonders this is the slow time of the watch year but that doesn't mean it is without some interesting news. The release of the Christopher Ward C63 True GMT, the new manufacturing facility for AP, the introduction of the AI Dada watch by Swatch., and the new CEO at TAG Heuer leave us with plenty to talk about.

Takeaways

• Watches and Wonders anticipation leads to a lull in new watch releases.
• The Christopher Ward C63 True GMT and the manufacturing facility of AP are discussed in detail.
• The introduction of the AI Dada watch by Swatch is explored, highlighting its unique features and limitations. Custom watch design process
• Appointment of new CEO at Tag Heuer

Would a watch by any other name sell so well?

Watch brand names have historically been the last name of the founders with a few names of factory locations thrown in. More modern watch brands have created new words that were easy to say for marketing, think Rolex. The latest brands follow the lead of modern companies and create a name that is memorable over the idea of naming it for the founders.

Do these different approaches change the way you think of a brand? Does the difficult to pronounce older brands have a harder time marketing?

We talk it over on this weeks episode of Matties To Watches.