Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry

We take a deep dive into the current state of the secondary (pre-owned) watch market with our friend Hamza Masood of WatchCharts – the world's most comprehensive, transparent and trusted source of watch market data. It’s a service we at Collective subscribe to for its valuable insight not just into the pre-owned watch market but what that data can tell us about the watch industry at large. And that’s exactly what we discuss with Hamza – what exactly is going on in the pre-owned watch market and more importantly what does it tell us about the industry at large, and of course, the implications for collectors.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

We look at the shifting landscape of watch retail – specifically the rise of single-brand boutiques, the trade-offs of those changes, and what the future looks like.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

On this special episode of Openwork, we discuss Hodinkee’s recent announcement that they’re shutting down their retail business – with the exception of limited editions – to refocus on editorial. This is big news that touched off an immediate and widespread response within the watch community. It also has significant implications for the watch industry at large, reshaping Hodinkee’s role within it and more broadly putting magnifying glass on the turbulent landscape of both watch media and retail.

Links:

• Announcement from Ben Clymer (founder of Hodinkee): https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/a-note-on-the-future-of-hodinkee

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

Our conversation with Tony Traina of Hodinkee takes a look at the current health of and sentiment toward the watch industry. We look at how brands, retailers and watch media contribute to the current state of the industry, and what they can do to improve things.

Links:

• Rescapement

We’d also like to hear from you on those topics. In particular, we’ve created a short survey at collectivehorology.com/survey to get your thoughts on watch collecting – what you’re into, what needs to change, and how you see the future. And to thank you for completing the survey, we’re offering a very special gift. More details at collectivehorology.com/survey. Thank you for making the time.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

This episode is a very frank and unfiltered conversation with Aren Bazerkanian, founder of Havid Nagan – the upstart independent brand that took the watch world by storm in 2022 with its debut watch the HN00.

We recorded this conversation in January of this year at a time when Aren was navigating challenges with Swiss watch production. In particular, one of his key suppliers experienced a leadership change and increased costs, rendering the economics of his second project the HN01 Lucine unsustainable. As a result, Aren did what many start up businesses have done time and time again – pivot. In particular, he refunded all customers who placed pre-order deposits, while he identified new suppliers and productions partners, and not to mention developed an all new watch. Aren documents this in greater detail and transparency at his site havidnagan.com.

As Aren navigated this uncertainty, Asher and I debated whether to air this episode at all. However, now that Aren has set Havid Ngan on fresh footing, we all agree – including Aren – this conversation sheds greater lights on and insight into the realities his business had to navigate and the principles he used to do so.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

Probably the question we’re asked most is how we design and develop our collaborative watches – how we identify brands, how the creative process works, and how we make decisions along the way on everything from design to finishing. So on this episode, we’re going behind the scenes on the making of our latest collaboration: The Armin Strom Gravity Equal Force P.03 Night Ops. 

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

We share our biggest lessons from going inside the watch industry. We both made the transition from watch enthusiasts to industry insiders. We’ve had the opportunity to retail watches, design them, meet many industry luminaries, and even serve as GPHG academy members – and we’ve learned a ton along the way. We often get asked what that journey has been like, and what advice we’d give others who are looking to do the same or are just curious.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

We discuss what happens when a founder leaves their brand. From Daniel Roth to Speake-Marin, there are examples of this all over the industry, with some interesting – if varied – results.

We're joined by one of our oldest friends and an authority on independent watchmaking Roman (@timesromanau), host of the Independent Thinking podcast on Fifth Wrist Radio.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

We're joined by Thomas Fleming (Fleming Watches) to talk about the realities of starting an independent watch brand. Everything from what it means to build the strategy, raise the funding and develop the branding for a company to how it feels to finally put something that you care about so much into the world.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].

We’re lifting the veil on selling and trading your watches. We cover the options available when you’re ready to move on from a watch, the trade-offs of those options, as well as why there are different cost structures depending on how you sell or trade your watch. In particular, we share how we as dealers look at buying and trading for watches, which will hopefully demystify things and more importantly help the next time you approach a dealer about selling or trading your watch.

Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology, Openwork goes inside the watch industry.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email [email protected].