What's on Your Riste? A Watch Podcast

S02E11: The First Watch (Kids and Teens): Flik Flak, Sher, Blok, Mini Kyomo, Casio, Baby-G, Times, Freestyle, Vintage

DESCRIPTION

The hardest watch you’ll ever buy is the first one you give a kid. This bonus episode is for parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and godparents who want to hand a small person a real watch and do it right. We start with an uncomfortable fact (most young people can’t read an analog clock anymore), make the case for why that skill still matters, then shop every budget: Flik Flak, Sher, Blok, Mini Kyomo, the unkillable Casio F-91W, Baby-G, Timex Easy Reader, Freestyle Shark, and Swatch. Plus the move nobody expects for teenagers: vintage quartz Seiko and Citizen, cooler and cheaper than another smartwatch. People first, as always. I’m Watchovski.

KEYWORDS

kids watches, first watch for a child, learning to tell time, analog clock skill, Flik Flak, Sher Watches, Blok 33, Mini Kyomo, Casio F-91W, Baby-G, Timex Easy Reader, Timex Time Machines, Freestyle Shark, Swatch, vintage quartz, neo-vintage, Seiko quartz, Citizen Eco-Drive, watches for teenagers, smartwatch alternative, gift watch, watch collecting for beginners

Media: [email protected]

Instagram: @RistePodcast

Description: If you could only have one watch for the rest of your life, which one would it be? We take thequestion seriously. We move through the archetypes; the utilitarian's answer, the connoisseur's answer, the sentimental one; and finally the honest version: the watch thatmakes you feel settled. Then we connect it back to what this season has been about all along. Not a list. A mirror.

Keywords: one watch, one-watch question, rolex submariner, omega speedmaster, gmt-master, tudor black bay, fp journe, chronometre souverain, dufour simplicity, philippe dufour, watch collecting, philosophy, collector taste, independent watchmaking, what's on your riste, watchovski, watchpodcast, season 2, collecting life, settled, watch values, whatsonyourriste

Media Contact: [email protected]

Instagram: @RistePodcast

Thanks again to DumiHed (Mike) for this topic :)

Title

Your Grail Watch Is in Japan. How Did It Get There? (S2 Bonus)

Description

It’s 11 p.m. You finally find the exact watch you’ve been hunting for. The price gets your attention. The condition looks incredible. The seller? Tokyo. Again.

Why does the hunt for a Swiss watch so often lead to Japan?

In this Season 2 bonus episode of What’s on Your Riste?, Watchovski follows a question from listener Mike, aka DumiHead, into the machinery behind Japan’s pre-owned luxury watch market: the buying frenzy of the 1980s, boxes and papers that somehow survive decades, dealer licensing through the police, and wholesale auctions most collectors will never see. Add the pull of a weak yen, and your late-night watch search starts to make a lot more sense.

Along the way: what earns buyer trust, what keeps watches moving across borders, and why that endlessly repeated “80 percent” claim deserves a raised eyebrow.

Swiss watches. Japanese detours. And the uncomfortable discovery that your secret watch shop was never really a secret.

Keywords

What’s on Your Riste; Watchovski; Season 2 bonus episode; Japan watch market; pre-owned luxury watches; buying watches from Japan; Japanese watch dealers; Swiss watches; watch collecting; grail watches; vintage watches; Tokyo watch shopping; Nakano Broadway; secondary watch market; watch auctions; AUCNET; EcoRing; kobutsusho license; watch condition; boxes and papers; weak yen; luxury watch resale; DumiHead

Description:

De Bethune is the most underrated independent watchmaker working in 2026.

Founded in 2002 by Denis Flageollet, headquartered in Sainte-Croix, the brand has spent two decades quietly stacking patented innovations into watches almost nobody outside the cult fully understands. The blued titanium aesthetic. The DB28 family. The five inventions in a single movement. Pierre Jacques stepped down as CEO in summer 2025, and we talk through what that means and what it doesn't. This is the case for a brand that the market hasn't caught up to yet.

Keywords:

de bethune, denis flageollet, david zanetta, db28, db28xp, db28xs, steel wheels, kind of blue, blued titanium, spherical moonphase, pare-chute, sainte-croix, jura, aiguille d'or, gphg, pierre jacques, justin reis, the 1916 company, watchbox, tha, techniques horlogeres appliquees, independent watchmaking, haute horlogerie, tourbillon, balance spring, silicon escape wheel, under the radar, underrated indies, what's on your riste, watchovski, watch podcast, watch collecting, whatsonyourriste

Contact: [email protected]

A note on the use of “British” and “Manx”....

When discussing George Daniels and Roger W. Smith, we (I) recognize the importance and pride of Manx identity and the unique culture of the Isle of Man. Both men discussed in this episode had roots in England and later made the Isle of Man their home, and both have frequently been described as Manx watchmakers.

At the same time, Daniels and Smith each explicitly referred to themselves as British in interviews. Accordingly, this podcast may use both terms where appropriate, while making every effort to acknowledge their connection to the Isle of Man and to respect the Manx community and its identity. To my amazing listeners and supporters in the UK, Britain and the Isle of Man, sending love and genuine respect. I hope I did you justice as an outsider.

Season 2, Episode 15

Roger W. Smith: The Apprentice Who Became the Last of a Line

Description: There is a scene at the heart of this episode that tells you everything. A young man stands in a workshop on a small island in the Irish Sea, watching the most demanding watchmaker alive take apart the thing he spent five and a half years building by hand. The old man closes the watch, stands up, and says: congratulations, you are now a watchmaker.

That sentence took most of Roger Smith's twenties to earn. This episode is the story of how he got there, and what he did with it after.

We begin in Bolton, where a restless teenager with no interest in school discovers, through a single lecture, that he wants to do the hardest possible thing: build complete watches by hand, from raw metal, the way one man had shown it could be done. That man was George Daniels, and you cannot understand Roger Smith without first understanding him; the self-taught genius from a poor part of London who invented the co-axial escapement, spent nine years trying to get the Swiss to care, and was turned down by Patek and Rolex before Omega finally put it into production in 1999.

We follow Smith from a garage in Bolton to the Isle of Man, through the years of rebuilding the same watch until it looked inevitable rather than labored, through the brutal apprenticeship, the Millennium series, and Daniels' death in 2011 — when he left Roger his workshop and every tool in it. We talk about what Smith did next: not curate a legacy, but push the co-axial escapement further than his master had taken it, and take on apprentices of his own so that a craft kept by one man does not die with that man.

England once owned watchmaking. Tompion, Graham, Arnold, Harrison, Mudge — the names that built the foundation the whole world stood on. This is the story of the person quietly holding that flame and refusing to let it go out.

Keywords: Roger W. Smith, Roger Smith watches, George Daniels, Daniels Method, co-axial escapement, Isle of Man watchmaker, British watchmaking, independent watchmaker, watchmaking apprentice, Daniels Millennium, GREAT Britain watch, single wheel co-axial, English horology, Thomas Mudge, lever escapement, Omega co-axial, pocket watch auction, Phillips auction, Bolton watchmaker, Manchester School of Horology, What's on Your Riste, Watchovski, watch podcast, mechanical watches, hand-finished watches, tourbillon, detent escapement, Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers, horological heritage, watchmaking legacy, from sketch to wrist

Email: [email protected]

Instragram: @RistePodcast

Thank you to everyone who has made this show so special! This episode is for you!!!

Description:
In this episode of What’s on Your Riste?, Watchovski travels to Saint-Imier to explore Zeitwinkel, one of modern independent watchmaking’s quietest and most uncompromising brands. From the meaning of “Zeitwinkel” itself—the mathematical angle between mean time and true solar time—to the brand’s proprietary German silver movements, asymmetric dial architecture, smoked sapphire displays, and refusal to follow corporate luxury playbooks, this is a story about structural honesty, difficult choices, and the beauty of building watches the hard way.

Keywords:Zeitwinkel, Zeitwinkel watches, independent watchmaking, Swiss independent watches, Saint-Imier, German silver movement, maillechort, ZW0102, ZW0103, Zeitwinkel 273, Zeitwinkel 173, Saphir Fumé, smoked sapphire dial, large date watch, asymmetric dial, three-quarter plate movement, Côtes de Genève, hand finishing, Straumann hairspring, Glucydur balance, What’s on Your Riste, Watchovski, watch podcast, horology podcast, luxury watches, mechanical watches, Swiss watches, independent horology, honest watchmaking, structural integrity, manufacture movement, boutique watch brand

Links to BOTH companies I discussed today...no affiliate links / no paid sponsorships...I just like these companies and wanted to share...

Amsterdam Watch Co (AWCo) Link

CLOSER Link

Title:

S02E24: Bonus: Amsterdam Watch Co (AWCo) and CLOSER

Description:
Buying a vintage watch from another country means paying a stranger for a description. This bonus episode examines two overseas dealers that earn trust in very different ways: Amsterdam Watch Company, a seven-person shop where every watch is serviced in-house, and CLOSER in Nagoya, whose enormous inventory is backed by a police-issued secondhand dealer license and more than a decade of public feedback.

Along the way, we explore Amsterdam Watch Company’s collaborations with Squale, what a Japanese secondhand-goods ledger has to do with your peace of mind, how changing U.S. import duties affect watch buyers, and the single most revealing question you can ask an overseas seller.

This episode is not sponsored, paid, or affiliated. Nothing was comped or loaned. Amsterdam Watch Company reviewed the portions concerning its business solely for factual accuracy. CLOSER Co., Ltd. was not contacted. Import information was current at the time of recording in September 2026 and should be independently verified before purchasing.

Keywords/Tags:
vintage watches, buying watches overseas, international watch buying, Amsterdam Watch Company, AWCo, CLOSER Japan, CLOSER Nagoya, Squale, Squale Subino, Squale No Radiobino, Squale Milbino, Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Japanese watch dealers, Dutch watch dealers, watch authentication, trusted watch dealers, Chrono24, eBay watches, watch import duties, U.S. customs, watch tariffs, de minimis exemption, customs forms, secondhand dealer license, kobutsusho kyoka, kobutsu daicho, watch collecting, independent watch dealers, luxury watches, What’s on Your Riste, Watchovski

S02E06: The Locker Room is Not Watch School: The Bedazzled Submariner Problem

Description

Professional athletes are some of the most visible watch collectors in the world; but fame, money, and taste do not automatically arrive together.

In this standalone episode of What’s on Your Riste?, Watchovski explores the strange overlap between professional sports, sudden wealth, predatory luxury culture, and the watch industry’s obsession with flash. Beginning with a personal story from an NFL locker room, the episode looks at how young athletes can become targets the moment the windfall arrives — not only for bad investments, but also for watches that look expensive while quietly destroying real value.

From iced-out Rolexes and the “bedazzled Submariner problem” to Jacob & Co., Marcus Stroman, and the quieter virtues of real collecting, this episode argues that the loudest watch in the room is not always the most valuable one. The real lesson is not that athletes have bad taste. It is that taste has to be earned, education matters, and the most meaningful value is often the part no one can see from across the room.

Do not chase the sparkle. Chase the work.

Keywords:

watches, luxury watches, watch collecting, horology, independent watchmaking, Rolex, Rolex Submariner, iced out Rolex, aftermarket diamonds, athlete watches, professional athletes, sports and watches, NFL, football, soccer, Borussia Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon, Marcus Stroman, Jacob & Co, Jacob and Company, Astronomia, luxury culture, sudden wealth, watch education, watch taste, bad watch advice, watch investing, watch value, originality, collector education, fine watchmaking, hand finishing, anglage, black polish, Watchovski, What’s on Your Riste, watch podcast, watch collector, luxury watch podcast

Title: The Hum and the Light: They Invented the Electronic Future and Did Not Get to Keep It

Description:

There is a man in Kyoto named Gunpei Yokoi who won by refusing the newest technology. He called it lateral thinking with withered technology: take the cheap old chip everyone else has thrown away and understand it so completely you can do something nobody expects. In 1989 he put that idea in a gray plastic box called the Game Boy, and the color screens that were supposed to bury it were the ones that got buried.

This episode is about two American companies who believed the exact opposite.

In 1960, Bulova threw out the balance wheel and put a tuning fork in its place, humming three hundred and sixty times a second in a pure F-sharp. The Accutron was guaranteed to two seconds a day when a fine mechanical watch lost thirty. Its most famous version was an accident: Bulova sent dial-less display props to jewelers so people could see the machine work, and customers walked in and demanded to buy the prop. That is the Spaceview.

In 1972, Hamilton went further and built a watch with no moving parts at all. John Bergey got the idea from a movie prop his company had made for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and named the result after the spinning dead stars astronomers had just found. The Pulsar cost $2,100 in solid gold, more than a Rolex, more than the average family car. Johnny Carson joked it would tell you the exact moment you went bankrupt. The first run of four hundred sold out in days. James Bond wore one in Live and Let Die and pressed the button twice, slowly, so the whole theater could watch the future light up.

Then the future arrived, and it was quartz, and it was Japanese, and it was cheap enough to make being advanced worthless. Bulova belongs to Citizen now. Hamilton is a Swiss brand owned by the Swatch Group. And the name Pulsar, the proudest name in American electronic watchmaking, is owned by Seiko.

Two truths that will not cancel each other out: they did not survive the future, and they caused it. Look at any screen you own.

We close on the one machine that outlasted all of them, and on why the programmers in this audience, the people who ship the new thing and delete last spring's thing for a living, come home and wind a mechanical watch. Small but mighty. Keep winding.

Keywords:

Bulova Accutron, Spaceview, tuning fork watch, Max Hetzel, Omar Bradley, Hamilton Pulsar, John Bergey, LED watch, first digital watch, P1 gold Pulsar, Live and Let Die, James Bond watch, Johnny Carson, 2001 A Space Odyssey clock, Seiko Astron, quartz crisis, quartz revolution, American watchmaking, Lancaster Pennsylvania, Biel Switzerland, Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo Game Boy, withered technology, lateral thinking, Tetris, Citizen, Swatch Group, SSIH, mechanical watch, watch history, watch podcast