Talking watches & the Newman Daytona...

Keyzer

As a relative newcomer to being obssesed with watches (although I've liked them since I was a young kid), I find the following clips captivating. I now want about 200 grand worth of watches.

Fascinating discussion with John Mayer on his watch collection. His knowledge is impressive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrXaGFCij1A

And the remarkable Paul Newman Daytona auction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0tjSUOvi5k

IrishPlayer

Also enjoy following Talking Watches series. Great way of enjoying the hobby without spending a fortune . Watched that episode, not a Rolex fan especially that Daytona but interesting about the Comex version learning about the French diving company also was on antiques road show someone posted on here.

Moki Martin is my favourite episode so far of Talking Watches telling stories of the time he served in the navy wearing a tudor he was issued and how it was used as a piece of important equipment rather than a luxury.

Also compared to other people on the series I feel like he really has a passion for watches, especially with the tan mark on his wrist .

Wibbs

I'd have a few issues with what Hodinkee has become and what it has done positively and especially negatively for the hobby, but of the series my fave would be one of the very earliest ones; John Goldberger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgSYZIUrRkw

A guy that's been in the hobby for decades, with a deep knowledge built up and books written on different brands and types and a collection that's not driven by current fashion and dealers.

The Mayer chap is enthusiastic alright and comes across as sound, but both his episodes tend to show a collecting focus that has come from elsewhere, namely those dealer driven choices. IIRC the first was more new stuff and IWC and Patek, with a Rolex Milsub that ended up "controversial" as far as authenticity goes. The COMEX was consistent and now he's gotten further into the Rolex rabbit hole with the Daytonas*. You could nearly name the dealers in both episodes. I can understand that to be fair. Busy rich guys tend to be targets for dealers in whatever area they decide to collect/invest in. Vanishingly few are trawling junk shops, the small ads and ebay for finds. The problem with that, especially when the stuff goes public is the feeling that dealers are driving advertising for a market they're trying to exploit/expand using prominent collectors to do it. If the Mayer chap had shown up with a few I dunno 1930's Helvetia watches, watch the "value" fly up in those(actually I'm surprised the dealers haven't targeted them and similar big names no longer with us).




*TBH while I like a fair number of Rolex models down the years(especially some of their off the radar steel pieces of the 40's and 50's) I could never really see the appeal of the Daytonas, never mind his garish pimp models that look like they've been smothered in glue and dropped into a bag of boiled sweets. I always found them a bit clunky and made for a market that was looking for chronos at the time with a bought in movement(to be fair Heuer bought in nearly all their movements). The vintage ones are pretty rare because they just didn't sell very well in period and even as late as the 80's they were kept at the back of dealer displays.

mad m

Ah hand me the cheese knife, want to crack open the backs!