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Eric Wind: Volume 2 - Vintage Watches & Horological Partnerships with Wind Vintage
1.6k Plays1 year ago
Eric Wind is joining me for his second episode of Collectors Gene Radio today and as you could imagine, we’re chatting all things watches and Wind Vintage. Since our last chat, Eric’s had a countless list of exciting things going on for him and his brand, such as his partnership with Kith, the several Rowing Blazers collaborations, a Volume 2 of his HSNY talk, his podcast Significant Watches, and a lot more. Most notably, the incredible selection of vintage watches you can shop on his website, windvintage.com. It’s not often you get to chat with someone who is so honest and knowledgeable across so many different brands. Eric’s continuous efforts to be involved in as much as he can definitely attributes to where he and Wind Vintage are at today. It’s always great to catch up and pick his brain, as if I don’t bug him enough. Needless to say, I’m sure we’ll be doing much more of these. So without further adieu, my friend Eric Wind, for Collectors Gene Radio.
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Transcript
Introduction to Vintage Watches Initiative
00:00:00
Speaker
They approached me and said, hey, we're opening two new higher end stores, one in Miami Design District, one in Rodeo on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Would you be interested in putting a selection of vintage watches in there for sale? Took me all of about two seconds to say yes.
00:00:22
Speaker
What's going on everybody and welcome to collector's gene radio. This is all about diving into the nuances of collecting and ultimately finding out whether or not our guests have what we like to call the collector's gene. If you have the time, please subscribe and leave a review. It truly helps. Thanks a bunch for listening and please enjoy today's guest on collector's gene radio.
Eric Wind's Brand Updates
00:00:47
Speaker
Eric Wind is joining me for his second episode of Collectors Gene Radio today, and as you could imagine, we're chatting all things watches in Wind Vintage. Since our last chat, Eric's had a countless list of exciting things going on for him and his brand, such as his partnership with Kith, the several rowing blazers collaborations, a volume two of his HSMY talk, his significant watches podcast, and a lot more.
00:01:13
Speaker
Most notably, the incredible selection of vintage watches you could shop on his website, windvintage.com. It's not often you get to chat with someone who is so honest and knowledgeable across so many different brands. Eric's continuous efforts to be involved in as much as he can definitely attributes to where he and Wind Vintage are at today. It's always great to catch up and pick his brain as if I don't bug him enough already. Needless to say, I'm sure we'll be doing much more of these.
Watch Collection Highlights
00:01:41
Speaker
So without further ado, my friend, Eric Wind, for Collector's Stream Radio. Eric Wind, welcome back to Collector's Stream Radio. Cameron Ross Steiner, thanks so much for having me. My pleasure. It's been a while since our first chat, but it was a hit, so I figured I'd have you back again. It's all about the clickbait. Yeah, there you go. Wait till you see the caption that I have for this one. Oh no.
00:02:09
Speaker
I'm kidding. Yeah, of course. What's on the wrist today? Or what was on the wrist today now that it's almost 9.30 pm where you are? I've got a 10.16 on the wrist that I'm very excited about. Normally, I lean toward the earlier 10.16s from the 1960s with the rivet bracelets. This is a mid-80s example.
00:02:32
Speaker
super crispy, unpolished, and the lume has turned such an attractive color that it makes my heart hurt when I look at it. That's when I know it's a really, really good watch.
00:02:47
Speaker
evokes a physical reaction when I look at it. It's so good. Love it. Is that in your personal collection or is that on the
Seiko Collaboration Insights
00:02:56
Speaker
site? It might be. I just got it within the last few days and I'm really, really enjoying it. Love it. Yeah, so we'll see if it continues to mesh. I really like it. Glad to hear it. Yeah, what's on your wrist? A watch that actually just arrived yesterday. It is a... Doxa.
00:03:21
Speaker
It's a Patek Philippe Aquanaut reference 5165. Nice. I got rid of my 5066 and swapped it out for this guy. I'm surprised you went 5165, not 5065.
00:03:38
Speaker
Yeah, I think one thing is the pricing. I know. A 5065 is incredible and would love to have one, but a really great deal came about for this 5165. And I just love that they made this for a couple of years. Not that it really matters to anybody, but I think most importantly, the fact that it's 38 millimeters. So they took the 5065
00:04:03
Speaker
and they just made the next modern version of it. Yeah, exactly. Which was kind of cool. The big thing is the strap going flush into the case. Yes, and the only thing that's a bummer about these ones is that, at least for the 5165, they only made black straps for them. So I can't swap them out with anything too fun. And I can't find anybody who made aftermarket ones like they do for the 5167.
00:04:31
Speaker
time to step up, you can start selling them on Amazon.
Partnership with Kith
00:04:35
Speaker
I think I just found a hole in the market. Yeah, exactly. My opinion is you should enjoy it for a little bit, then sell it and get a 5065. Yes. So far, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I know. Man, if your prestige and taste deserves a 5065 jumbo,
00:04:56
Speaker
I loved the 5066. I thought it was a great watch. I didn't mind the size. You know me. 5065 will be better on you. I think so. We'll let Madeline decide. She'll decide to put it into the house. Yeah, exactly.
00:05:17
Speaker
So last time we spoke you were launching a Seiko collab with Rowing Blazers and since then you've done several. So the feedback from what I could see has been amazing but I would love to start off and hear your perspective on all that because it seems like it's an ongoing thing and there's a lot more in the works.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, to be able to have participated in this process is pretty amazing. I never thought I'd be designing a Seiko that the public could buy. It's just fun to create something that's approachable, that's a great watch. Very few problems with these watches mechanically, you can wear where the watch is. I know someone who's about to do an Iron Man wearing one.
00:06:03
Speaker
Whether you have a collection worth millions of dollars or a collection worth under $1,000, you can kind of nod and say, that's a cool watch. And congrats, it's a great watch to wear. So we've obviously done three capsules. We hope to do more. The first one, obviously, was the dive watch.
00:06:24
Speaker
With the rotating bezel, we did three of 42 millimeters. That's pretty much all that was in the Seiko 5 sports line at the time in 2021. And now they've obviously really expanded it to a variety of models, but we did the SRP-E line, which is, you know, was renamed SRP-J for our watches. And also, you know, a watch that,
00:06:50
Speaker
can be worn by anyone. It wears more like 38 millimeters with the short lugs and a lot of women wear them and enjoy them. And it's just gratifying for many people that this is their first mechanical watch. It's a great place to start. It's fun, which is what we're trying to do. We're not trying to take ourselves too seriously. And it's been really a wonderful project.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, no, you guys knocked it out of the park. So hats off to you. Thank you, Cameron.
00:07:24
Speaker
You also just launched a new initiative with Kith, which I think is really special. So, I mean, were you and Ronnie Feig just hanging in Boca Raton one day and decided to come up with this idea? I wish, yeah. It was great. They approached me and said, hey, we're opening two new higher end stores, one in Miami Design District, one in Rodeo, on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Would you be interested in putting
00:07:52
Speaker
a selection of vintage watches in there for sale. Took me all of about two seconds to say yes. The feedback has been really wonderful. We've sold far more watches than I would have expected. It's been fun to have something cool people come in and sometimes you get the impulse buy or sometimes you've got someone who has really been looking for something for a while or I bring a client to the place.
00:08:21
Speaker
because the watches are listed on my site, so it's been a lot of fun. They're an extremely professional business. I'm super impressed
Promoting Vintage Watches
00:08:31
Speaker
with the quality of the staff that Ronnie has and the work ethic and culture. It's not so easy to find that these days, honestly. A lot of people mailing it in are not on top of the game, but everyone at KIF is really on top of it, and there's a good ethos and culture there.
00:08:49
Speaker
I really view it. My job is 80%, obviously buying and selling watches and making a living and doing other things, but I try to dedicate 20% or so to just being a positive person for the vintage watch community. People email me all the time with
00:09:10
Speaker
questions about random things and I try to answer them. I could just ignore it, but I find that doing good things generally comes back around.
00:09:21
Speaker
No one was forcing me. I certainly wasn't paid to do the HSNY talks, and there were a lot of work, but I think it's very important for people to be able to learn about how to collect vintage watches, do things like the reference points videos with Hodinky, or put vintage watches for sale in a place where influential people might walk in and get people to think beyond just going into a modern AD and buying a brand new watch.
00:09:48
Speaker
And it's ultimately my future at play because I'm over-invested in vintage watches, so I'd like to continue growing in value and interest.
Modern vs. Vintage Watches
00:09:59
Speaker
But I really think it's very important to share the gospel of vintage watches with others.
00:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And it's the idea with Kith, obviously to sell the watches there, but to kind of rotate a capsule of new vintage watches every so often to freshen up the showcase in there. Yeah, yeah. We try to keep aid in each location.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, obviously Rolex is kind of the largest market of collectors and interest and robust, but I like to put other things in there like Omega Speedmasters and those types of watches. So even Zenith's and Hoyer's and unusual things. So it's, yeah, it's always a mix, but it's fun.
00:10:44
Speaker
Yeah, no, looks awesome. Next time any of you guys are in Miami or on Rodeo Drive, go check out the store and check out Eric's little selection there. And we're in the new Williamsburg, Brooklyn flagship as well. And honestly, they're selling watches very, very well out of that location. New York is still the mecca for vintage watch lovers, I would say. So that's been great.
00:11:10
Speaker
Awesome. So you're covering a lot of different corners of the, uh, of the part of the world over there. Exactly. You've been also on your website listing a ton of incredible vintage and modern watches. Um, which I find to be really refreshing for someone who is in your position as a dealer, right? Because most of the people that are in your position as a dealer,
00:11:36
Speaker
don't really list much on their website. A lot of the stuff that they sell doesn't even make it to the site, which I'm sure still happens with you too, but it's nice to see you listing a really wide variety and plethora of great vintage watches for sale all the time. Yeah, it's fun. I mean, it's certainly faster to just
00:11:58
Speaker
list things and let people find you and it creates a culture. I know clients that are coming back to the site, you know, five times a day to look at what we may have put up during the course of the day. We get a lot of page views, which is wonderful. We get almost
00:12:18
Speaker
Wikipedia-like editing by people who text us if there are any mistakes on a page. Hey, you put five ADN links and those are ADN links. We got that yesterday. It was Charlie Dunn's mistake, but that's okay. He's doing a great job. I guess you gotta fire him. Exactly.
00:12:38
Speaker
We're on track for over 3 million page views in 2023, which is insane for a site. We don't spend any money on SEO. It just is all organic and clients that are addicted to seeing what we've put up. It's fun. Yeah. I mean, you listed a incredible tanks and tray the other day. Yeah, that was a very special watch. Is that a piece unique? It was. It was custom commission.
00:13:07
Speaker
What do you think of the size of that model? I like it a lot. Yeah. My wrist is a little bigger than yours, but I think it's spectacular watch. And I wouldn't mind a vintage Sintray and platinum one day like that. That wouldn't suck. Yeah, exactly. From the 1920s, it'd be nice. Yeah.
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's
Significant Watches Podcast Creation
00:13:33
Speaker
in trade, I think, went on hold pretty quick as soon as you put it up there. I didn't even think we'd get as many inquiries as we did, but we got just a deluge of inquiries both through our website and through Chrono24, so it was insane. Yeah, really a great combo. Do you have any Cartier watches in your collection at the moment?
00:13:56
Speaker
I still have my Santos Dumont and I still have my Benoit. Nice, yeah. And then I still have my white gold Piaget Tank Dormel, which is the same size as the Cartier Tank Dormel. It's virtually the same watch. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, really neat. Obviously would love a Cartier Tank Dormel, but kind of seems silly to have both. Yeah, yeah. You sold your Royal Oak, right?
00:14:22
Speaker
sold my gold Royal Oak and bought a steel 15,000 reference Royal Oak. Nice. Which I think is a really interesting model obviously because Royal Oaks wear a lot bigger than what they suggest in their millimeter size. Yeah. So this one technically coming in at like 33 millimeters or whatever it is, wears so well
00:14:46
Speaker
and more like a 35. And it's just a really neat little fun watch to put on. It's so light, you kind of forget about it sort of thing. And it's still super sporty. I've been loving the Roeloke more and more and more. The more that I wear it and the more that I, not so much the modern stuff, but great watch. I love it. That's fantastic. How about you? Any Cartiers you've added recently?
00:15:12
Speaker
I'm not the biggest Cartier collector. I still would like a Tank Louis jumbo and white gold in case anyone sees one. I saw one recently, the case was a little polished. I'm kind of crazy about that stuff, so I would prefer it to be unpolished, but they just so rarely come along. They're hard enough to find in yellow, but white is crazy rare.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah, you could spend your whole life. Hopefully it's not that long, but yeah. Hopefully you find one. Yeah. And I love the tank normal as well. I had a really fantastic one recently I sold and I was tempted to keep it for a few minutes or hours, but I decided to let it go. Yeah. I mean, you have a great white gold
00:16:01
Speaker
Santos that you have it kith in Miami. Yeah, that's been nice. I get inquiries about it, you know Occasionally, it's great great watch. I find that era to be a little bit small on my wrist Mmm, but they're great watches. Yeah, they are for sure. Yeah, that's that one should sell no problem. Yeah Has your collecting? philosophies or the things that you've been chasing has it changed much since we last spoke and
00:16:29
Speaker
I still try to limit my Rolex collection to no more than one piece of each model, generally. I occasionally break that rule, but try to refer to it after a little bit of time. The exception is I have a ton of really great Vulcan crickets that I love.
00:16:51
Speaker
you know, just one Daytona, one GMT, one Explorer to one sub. Now this might be my next 1016 Explorer. But yeah, I try to keep just one and I try not to get too high on my own supply. So there are just, I think that the, it's a test of like if it really does
00:17:16
Speaker
almost make my heart hurt when I look at the watch, either when I'm holding it on my wrist. If I feel that strong, like, wow, this is so good, then I've got to try to figure out how to make it happen. Yeah. Now that you've been listening a lot more modern stuff on the site, obviously, you're primarily a vintage guy, but are you coming around to any of the modern stuff?
Vintage Watch Trends and Controversies
00:17:42
Speaker
I know last time we spoke or maybe it was when you were in town, we were talking how
00:17:46
Speaker
Obviously, the GMT and the new sub, they're all much bulkier in bigger cases, but are you coming around to it more than now that you get to wear more often? They have a place, obviously. They're excellent watches, well-built.
00:18:05
Speaker
From an environmental perspective, there's probably too many modern watches being made. We don't need all this stuff being made in the world and just going into the same people's safes and safe deposit boxes.
00:18:20
Speaker
In general, I find the construction of vintage pieces to be more charismatic. There is more sort of hand intervention. You can just tell and feel that when you feel these things. There's much more of the robotic and machine process for making modern watches that they don't
00:18:42
Speaker
often have that feeling of a soul that the vintage pieces have. But there certainly are some things that are impressive. We have a 38 millimeter Royal Oak in rose gold on the site right now. And Charlie and I, when we got the watch, we're super impressed with the case construction. It's just a beautiful watch, all the angles in rose gold. We've had some, obviously a number of modern steel
00:19:11
Speaker
Royal Oaks, but they're not nearly as impressive for some reason. The construction and the brushing and everything is the gold piece. With the blue dial too, it's pretty incredible. Yeah, it's a very attractive watch. I'll say that I have not been super impressed with the modern Patek Philippe watches.
00:19:30
Speaker
some of the Calatravas we've had and other pieces like the 6007. There's no brushing whatsoever anywhere on the case, so it just feels like a scratch magnet. It's all the same high polish finish and like Laurent Ferrier watches have the same issue. A lot of modern watches don't know how to put brushing into it, at least with
00:19:55
Speaker
Alonga and Zona, you get the brushed side, like vintage, you know, Patek Philippe, you have brushed sides of the case, etc. Yeah, they excel at that. Yeah, but now it's just like literally one big scratch magnet. And I feel like I might scratch the watch just putting it on my wrist. So they're not my favorite, I feel like.
00:20:19
Speaker
I think the problem with most modern Patek especially, first off, the size is too big. I don't understand the allure of like these massive dress watches. Yeah, 40 millimeters is just insane for a dress watch. It just reminds me of a wife who goes to buy her husband who's a financier, a Christmas gift. Yeah. And she just walks into the store and has to choose from
00:20:44
Speaker
three brands, 45 millimeter dress watches. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Also, obviously, Rolex sells a lot. It seems to sell a lot more 40 and 41 millimeter Datejust and Daydate than 36. And it just is way too big on people. I have women come to me all the time. I want a 41 millimeter Datejust.
00:21:06
Speaker
It looks so silly. It's not even something I would wear myself. You really rethink this. Rethink your life. Yeah, rethink this before you make a huge mistake. Are you seeing collectors trending in certain ways in terms of what they're after now? Obviously, everyone wants
00:21:31
Speaker
you know, the pieces that we all know of, but are you seeing certain trends? I mean, we're seeing things like these vintage protects on these integrated mesh woven bracelets with diamonds and all those sorts of pieces are kind of making a little bit of a comeback, but what else are you seeing out there?
00:21:48
Speaker
There's a lot of attention on Daniel Roth. I was saying recently that collectors like to think they're kind of unique in their approach, but they're just lemmings following each other around. So all this Daniel Roth stuff and attention is obviously spurred by the relaunch of the brand. Same with Gerald Genta, where it's starting to see more interest in the brand, obviously as they relaunch it.
00:22:18
Speaker
I think there has been a trend toward formality. You were way ahead of the curve with that, always into fancy stuff. You foresaw the Cartier trend several years ago. You first saw Piaget is still kind of happening. And then it's, I feel like, early days. Other things like, you know, Boucheron, I can see growing interest. All of these really well-made gold and precious metals brands
00:22:49
Speaker
There's a lot more positivity around Jaeger LeCoultre as well with the launch of the Collectibles, two capsules now this year.
Future Collaborations and Initiatives
00:23:00
Speaker
And, you know, excitement. I think people for the last decade were just waiting to be excited about the brand. There was everyone felt like they had kind of seen everything and the full catalog and there was no real
00:23:14
Speaker
collector resources or good books, I would say, about the brand. So that's definitely inspired interest, which helps inspire values and things selling quicker than they have in the past. So yeah, I think vintage Breguet, I think those Breguet wristwatches from the 40s to the 60s are
00:23:37
Speaker
Obviously even 30s to the 60s are extremely special and rare and uncommon and exceptional, just super hard to find. So that's also an area where there's plenty of people that are looking for those and would love to learn more about them. Yeah, no doubt. What do you think about all this craziness going on with this Omega Speedmaster in the auction? I mean, I would have to assume that
00:24:06
Speaker
people smelt this from like a mile away. Yeah, as soon as that watch sold, there was a lot of discussion that it was a Frankenstein that had been offered around with incorrect later movement and service replacement hands and no bezel or incorrect bezel, et cetera. And then it had been kind of pieced together
00:24:33
Speaker
Dr. Frankenstein's monster to make a watch that would set a record at Phillips. These bad things often don't stay six feet under forever. Obviously, it came out. It's unfortunate that it happened.
00:24:52
Speaker
Obviously, Omega has made their statement and kind of blamed the staff of the museum. I've heard, you know, that a lot of watches have gone missing from that museum over the years, maybe to the tune of thousands of prototypes and things like that. It's just a shame, obviously. It's hurt Omega. I love Omega watches.
00:25:17
Speaker
Got a beautiful Omega Time only. I'm holding in my hand right now that I picked up Resol and Rose Gold. You just look at some of the exceptional watches they've made and they were just as good as anybody else. Sometimes you have to dig through a lot of average stuff to get to the really, really excellent pieces.
00:25:42
Speaker
some of those Omega Platinum constellations and other pieces from the 50s and 60s, they'll just make my jaw drop on the floor when I see them. They're exceptional. Yeah. I mean, you have even at least 10 great Speedmasters on your site right now. Yeah, and they're not really moving. I love Speedmasters, one of those watches, like a Submariner, that people should at least own at some point in their collection, I feel like.
00:26:12
Speaker
Not that I'm one to give you rules that you need to follow, but I had heard many years ago, I think Ben Klimmer had said that everyone should own a Speedmaster at some point, and they're collecting Ark, and I would agree with that. Yeah, I third that. Yeah, that's good. I have a great Speedmaster. I don't wear it every day. Partially, it's a 321. It's got the CB case that I love.
00:26:42
Speaker
It's not water-resistant. They're pretty much impossible to make water-resistant from that era because of the pushers. And I don't want to replace the pushers to ugly service ones. Understandable. In the Florida humidity of June and July, I just don't want the movement to get moisture in there. I don't think anyone wants to send anything to Omega Service right now. No, no, no. There's plenty of good people to work on it. I had the watch serviced and I love it.
00:27:12
Speaker
It's like a day-to-day thing. We have three kids under the age of 10. And if you're picking the kids up out of the bath or other stuff, Vintage Rolex is a little more straightforward for doing that if it's water-resistant.
00:27:28
Speaker
Yeah, I suggest a rowing blazers Seiko for that. That's perfect. Or a rowing blazers Tudor or Zodiac or any number of things. That too. Yeah. How's your podcast been going? Significant watches.
00:27:45
Speaker
It's been good. We had some audio troubles two episodes ago. I heard, but I pushed through the whole thing. It was still good. That's good, yeah. The latest episode doesn't have those issues. So yeah, it's been a lot of fun. I mean, it's always fun to put it out there and hear kind of almost instant feedback from people who have listened, someone from an auction house that I was
00:28:11
Speaker
I kind of tweaked the auction house, I would say, on the latest episode, wrote back immediately, kind of defending the auction house. But I was impressed that they were listening within hours of it coming out.
00:28:28
Speaker
I think it just shows there's a lot of hunger for content and quality content in the world of watches, and particularly with vintage watches, there's not enough content to really satiate the passion that people have for the subject. There's just not enough content to make you happy each day. So that's why we have such a
00:28:53
Speaker
big following, I feel like, even though we don't really spend a lot of time on it. But it's just a fun conversation. I put the group together a few years ago. I invited the three other people because I thought they each had an interesting perspective on what's happening in watches in their own way, kind of specialty. And Gabe knows a heck of a lot more about independence than I do and what's happening in that world.
00:29:23
Speaker
Man, he is so knowledgeable. It's crazy. He is. Years before we started this, I said, Gabe, I think you're maybe the only person on Earth I would pay to listen to hear what you have to say because I learned something every time and feel more educated about what's happening in the world of watches. It's true. After I hear you talk, I feel like I've just gotten smarter about
00:29:51
Speaker
the topics of the day. That's cool. Obviously, when we started it, Tony was not with Hodinky yet. He was still a lawyer and just doing rescapement as a hobby. And I always enjoyed reading his work. And also one of the few people when every article comes out, I kind of set everything else aside and would read it. And the same with Charlie. So it's been it's been really fun. You know, I think
00:30:20
Speaker
We're not making any money whatsoever. So it's like maybe one day we'll get sponsorships or something like that. I personally would love to move to a weekly schedule. I'm sure a lot of people would as well, except Charlie, who does our editing. But I think hopefully we'll keep with every other week's schedule.
00:30:43
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I always enjoy when you guys put stuff out, especially during auction seasons. It's always nice to hear your guys' opinions on everything coming around the bend. Yeah, and it's fun.
00:30:58
Speaker
I think it's kind of like a group of people that are friends and people like listening and to hear what we have to say about what we're seeing in the world of vintage and the watch market and everything else. It's very, very interesting. And certain things really raised my eye like when SJX was writing about the Imperial Patek Philippe calendar watch and was saying it's far more important than
00:31:23
Speaker
John Lennon's 2499
HSNY Speech and Knowledge Sharing
00:31:25
Speaker
and Paul Newman's Daytona and Buzz Aldrin's Speedmaster, particularly the last one I was like, uh, I personally, it's, I find that a little bit of a reach from my perspective, but it's fun to, you know, raise these things. Otherwise they just kind of, everyone glosses over it or doesn't talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I, uh, I couldn't agree more.
00:31:53
Speaker
Recently, you had the opportunity to do a second HSNY speech. First one was a hit, and I thought the second one turned out even better than the first one. Curious to know how you think it went. I thought it went really well.
00:32:09
Speaker
it was kind of daunting. I was thinking about it for six months. So I had a lot of time to kind of brainstorm what's interesting, what's going to be helpful. And then you really don't write it till the night before. Yeah, exactly. I still managed to finally put it together the last 48 hours. But yeah, I thought
00:32:33
Speaker
delivery was, I was very happy with it and I was very happy with the content. And just try to put myself in the shoes of a collector. What would I have liked to hear when I first was getting interested in vintage watches and collecting them and writing about them? What would have been helpful to know? Things like, you know, protectfully dial restoration and other things like that, which no one's ever talked about really at all.
00:33:02
Speaker
Yeah, I know you had some great images and stuff of that that you showed and I'll be sure to obviously link it up so everybody can go watch if they haven't already. But I thought that was my favorite part was the dial restoration stuff. Yeah, we could have spent like, you know, 50 hours on that but
00:33:18
Speaker
just enough to get people interested and like, wow, they know a lot more now than they did. Because I didn't, you know, know that stuff when I was first writing about it. I just thought it was as simple as either to reprint a dial or it's original. Not that like, there's this huge swath of dial restoration in between those things. So yeah, so that's
Views on Watches and Wonders Releases
00:33:41
Speaker
interesting. And also like, I'm trying not, I
00:33:44
Speaker
I'm not trying to say you can't buy a dial with restoration because you wouldn't own almost any of 1518. They almost all have dial restoration and the ones that don't have heavy spots on them and might not be attractive to a lot of people.
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's just important to know what you're buying and collecting and what matters to you. Right. At the end of the day, if you're okay with it, then move forward. Yeah, exactly. Obviously, most collectors care almost exclusively about the dial. I lean a little bit more towards the case, but the dial is obviously important too. It just doesn't matter to
00:34:32
Speaker
I want people to buy what speaks of them and where they fall on it. I don't need to tell them what to do. What about your best and worst releases from this year's Watches and Wonders?
00:34:47
Speaker
I don't even know. I hardly remember what came out and we're only a few months out. I mean, the only thing I can remember immediately are the Rolex models, of course, the Daytona with the steel ring around the bezel, but they're still delivering previous model Daytonas like weekly. I'm seeing people get
00:35:11
Speaker
John Mayer's and other watches. The previous version of Steel Daytona is coming straight from Geneva. So I don't know when we're going to start seeing more of the new models. Yeah, who knows.
00:35:24
Speaker
What do you think about the titanium yacht master? I was going to bring that up next because I think Tom Cruise was wearing one on his Mission Impossible world tour. Oh, interesting. I think it's actually a very cool watch, but 42 is a little big for me. If they had made it in 40, it would be very, very sick.
00:35:45
Speaker
But I like that they've done nice big bevels on the case. I like titanium as a case metal. Gabe Benadore really won me over to the titanium team years ago when he was talking about all the positive attributes of titanium beyond being light. I think it just can be finished very attractively.
00:36:07
Speaker
I thought that was one of the cooler watches. I never thought we'd see titanium Rolex watches like that available for the consumer market. It just seemed like that was not something they were going to do, but they did. I'm curious to know how it's going to wear on the bracelet because I think on Oysterflex, it's way too big. Yeah. And I don't know if on the bracelet, if it'll kind of hug the wrist more
00:36:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know.
Collecting Philosophy and Market Trends
00:36:35
Speaker
I'm curious as well. Tom was wearing it on a bracelet, I think. Such a cool watch. Yeah, that's one that stopped me for a moment and I was impressed with.
00:36:48
Speaker
I haven't been very impressed with the modern Patek Philippe watches. The one watch that has passed through my hands recently that I was impressed with was the 5811 Nautilus. I've sold a lot of
00:37:05
Speaker
modern and vintage Nautilus watches over the years, but... Not a lie. Not a lie, exactly. But, you know, the one watch I really like is the 3700, particularly in steel, for me personally. I was going to ask you about that, because last time we spoke, that was a grill for you, and I was curious if that still stands. Yeah, I had a really great one in the collection for a while.
00:37:29
Speaker
I think I mentioned it, but it's now Daniel Dickham's watch and I get a parental visitation occasionally. A sleepover. A sleepover with the watcher, at least a playdate. Yeah.
00:37:45
Speaker
5811, I was very impressed with the finishing and movement and everything else. It seemed to me a lot nicer watch overall in terms of construction than the 5711. The 5740 is also impressive perpetual calendar. But outside of that, those are the only two I really, really like or impressed with construction wise and everything else. I do like the 5711 with green dial just
00:38:13
Speaker
I like the dial and everything, but the 5711 case to me is just way more crude than the 3700. Yeah, for sure. Have you seen any intriguing 3700s come up that you thought about adding?
00:38:28
Speaker
The nicest one I've seen in a while is Dr. Greg Petrone's watch from True Patina and the True Dome Crystals that I love, but he bought a 3700 resell. That's spectacular. So I've been occasionally pestering him to sell that to me. And how's that going?
00:38:47
Speaker
Not well, but he usually does tall things after a while, so he gets an itchy trigger finger and doesn't keep things forever is my experience with him. Well, for now, I guess you get to enjoy the two-tone one that you have on your site. Exactly, exactly. How do you like that watch in two-tone? I like it. The dial is super attractive. There's two versions of two-tone
00:39:12
Speaker
Most of them you see have a blue dial, but the gold dial is spectacular. It's a really beautiful dial and feels very Cameron Ross diner to me. Yeah. I happen to really love the gold dial on the two tone Nautilus. Yeah. It's way, way nicer than the blue. And it's just a cool thing. Very special. Love it. Any, uh, new and exciting collabs that you have coming up that you could share or give us a hint at?
00:39:41
Speaker
We've got some really cool watches in the works. I won't say what they are, but I'm very excited about them with Throwing Blazers, working on my first wind vintage solo watch collab, and some cool new retail partnerships in the works with others.
00:40:02
Speaker
just to continue to expand and spread the gospel of vintage watches in new places. So that's really it. I'm just continuing to list a lot of great watches as well and sell a lot of great watches in a pretty simple formula.
00:40:21
Speaker
Love it. We're here for it all. I want to wrap up with the collector's gene rundown. I know we did it the last time I had you on. So I tweaked the questions a little bit or refined them. So I'll try and keep you on your toes a bit. Yeah, absolutely. All right. What's the one that got away this year? I mean, there's nothing that I absolutely regret selling. I mean, um,
00:40:47
Speaker
I was working on the Ternac Rayville that went to Sotheby's in New York recently. The guy reached out to someone else I knew who referred him to me and I gave him my thoughts.
00:41:05
Speaker
And then he had dollar signs in his eyes and I was trying to be realistic, but he sees 150K results at Christie's. And I said, listen, I just don't think the market's there. I think it's more like...
00:41:21
Speaker
100, 110, 120, and kind of made my pitch. And he decided to put it at Sotheby's and he did, I think, worse than what I was pitching being able to get for him. So, you know, that's reality. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. But
00:41:41
Speaker
You only get one shot at the roulette table sometimes in that situation if it's a watch you've inherited or purchased new. So you do your best to try to give them the best advice you can and guide them. But in this case, you decided to go to auction, which is certainly fine. And he got
00:42:01
Speaker
He got the true market value for the watch, less, you know, 25% plus on the buyer's premium side because it only went for about a hundred all in. So I think he's going to walk away with 80 or less, but, uh, it's reality. Certainly he got issued the watch. It was free. So that's not a bad come up for him. That that'll do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:42:28
Speaker
about the on-deck circle? So this could be a watch, this could be a watch brand, this could be an up-and-coming blog besides WinVintage. What's something you think everyone should pay attention to in the watch world right now? The volcano cricket. No, I'm just kidding. It's a great question. I can't think of something everyone needs to pay attention to. I think people are
00:42:52
Speaker
focused on their own area of interest. There's obviously a lot of people interested in independence. There's people interested.
00:42:59
Speaker
huge percentage of people interested in Rolex. I think JLC is growing for the first time in a while, so I'm happy about that in terms of the collector community with vintage. I hope people continue to look not just to auction as the place to buy high-end watches, but to dealers in a self-interested way. And yeah, I think there's a lot of exciting things happening with watches from
00:43:27
Speaker
a lot more content on YouTube to TikTok and Instagram remain still central to all of this,
Advice on Watch Collecting
00:43:35
Speaker
but I think continued conversations for people in the world of watches. Absolutely. How about the unobtainable? What's a vintage watch that's unobtainable that you think should be obtainable?
00:43:50
Speaker
I mean, that white gold jumbo tank would be great. I'd love to obtain that. Usually it's the opposite. I'm thinking of watches that are extremely undervalued. That should be worth more. But something that's unobtainable that I wish there were more of. I think just anything great condition. It demands such a premium for something like that.
00:44:17
Speaker
Yeah, but what I have been really focused on as well with my site is what would I wish I
00:44:27
Speaker
had in terms of a site to search for when I was getting into collecting, again, 15 years ago. And that would be a site like Wind Vintage where I could find a bunch of unpolished watches. That didn't exist. Five or six years ago, you couldn't even find an unpolished date chest out there. It was extremely difficult and you felt like you had to spend
00:44:51
Speaker
months if not years trying to find one that was truly unpolished. So that was part of the impetus is I'm excited to offer really excellent condition unpolished subs. Again, it felt like it would take years to find an unpolished sub when I
00:45:06
Speaker
bought my very first Submariner I bought around 2010 was a Bart Simpson dial and it was polished and gilt, you know, kind of end of the gilt era. And the lower right lug was more polished than the others, which was really driving me crazy. And at that time, like the word unpolished basically didn't exist. And I began
00:45:34
Speaker
trying to study, you know, the limited photos that were out there on Google Images, Instagram didn't exist yet, and trying to figure out what should the bevels look like on this? You know, are there supposed to be bevels? What do the lugs look like? What do the crown guards look like? And like, not really, there wasn't even a discussion that, oh, the 80s subs look different than the 60s subs that have longer bevels, things like that. But like,
00:46:01
Speaker
people almost take it for granted that you could just go online and buy an unpolished Submariner or something like that. But it was so hard to do. And we would see so few at Christie's or other places. So I think people almost take it for granted. But I certainly, if I was getting into vintage watches 15 years ago, would also be like, wow, what's coming up for sale on vintage that I can buy? That's a great question.
00:46:30
Speaker
It's hard. Yeah, I think you've definitely achieved that. I think your site is the best it's ever been in terms of inventory and content and all that stuff. Thank you. Yeah, also the content. In an ideal world, we would be putting up an interesting article every day that is something like the bar there is also what would I want to read or look at in terms of the photo report or something else.
00:46:55
Speaker
I find photo reports very inspiring personally to see what people are wearing, how they're wearing it. I like to see what's out there and dynamic. Like honestly, photo reports I think for me are even more interesting to look at than just scrolling through Instagram and looking at a wrist shot of something with no context. I really like looking at photo reports
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's great because it's usually based around an event, right? Yeah, and you get a vibe for the event and also it's just fun to see what people are wearing. It always brings a smile to my face as long as there's good watches. So in an ideal world, we would be publishing a piece of content every day as well. Love it. The page one rewrite. So if you could rewrite the history of one watch brand, who would it be?
00:47:50
Speaker
That's a really good question. I think Patek Philippe's history is wonderful. I don't think you need to do anything there. I love the Rolex history. Again, I can see myself rewriting anything with that.
00:48:05
Speaker
Lange could probably use a rewrite for their World War II era. We'll just skip over that era. Yeah. By the way, Rolex, I always admired that they helped with the prisoners of war and the Nazi camps like the Stalag.
00:48:25
Speaker
Lyft 17 and these other prisoner of war camps that Rolex would give watches for people who ordered them and say don't even think about paying until you're out. I mean pretty unbelievable, protected that as well in at least one case, but Rolex did it for a lot of people.
00:48:45
Speaker
I guess if there is one, a couple kind of tough moments, Tag Heuer, obviously when they were Heuer and had to sell to Tag in the 1980s and the court's crisis, how it really affected them and they had got Jack Heuer and led them down.
00:49:03
Speaker
to make all these different digital watches as well on the 70s. You know, Chrono split and all these other kind of interesting digital watches but that eat batteries like crazy if they even survive. I wish, you know, I wish they had
00:49:21
Speaker
the financial resources where they didn't have to do that and could have kind of continued on their path of 60s and 70s watches updated that are so awesome. Some of my favorites and really one of my early loves with watches would have been interesting if Rolex, if the King Midas had been super successful for Rolex and they had this whole like, some people say it was maybe Genta designed or whatever it certainly feels that way, but what if Rolex had
00:49:51
Speaker
really continued to expand on that whole concept. I can't even imagine what a King Midas would look like right now. Yeah, what if they did that and beat the Royal Oak and the Nautilus and everyone else and were like the kings of the luxury sports watch out. That would be hilarious. Yeah, that's like an alternate history that would be.
00:50:13
Speaker
Interesting. Instead, like, you know, the King Midas is grotesquely undervalued compared to the other watches, even though it's arguably a much better made watch, particularly in that 70s period.
Reflections and Vision for Wind Vintage
00:50:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think those are just a few interesting ideas. How about the goat? So
00:50:35
Speaker
Obviously, this is who you think is the greatest of all time, but is there another collector or, I guess, of that kind of sort that's come up on the scene recently that you think folks should pay attention to? Cameron Ross Steiner, he said. I did not set you up for that. There are some great collectors that are coming up on the scene.
00:51:01
Speaker
It's interesting because obviously I spend a lot of time each day talking to collectors and I love what I do as a vintage watch dealer because I'm hunting for great watches, also trying to place them in great homes and help people build their collections. Sometimes people come in and you can tell there's almost a manic energy to it that's not healthy and like they've had too many cups of coffee in the morning.
00:51:32
Speaker
That's not good because those people burn out or in some cases had a client who was a wealthy doctor, but he wasn't conveying to his wife that the purchases he was making in terms of dollar amounts.
00:51:47
Speaker
And she had a heart attack when she found out how much he had spent on watches and maybe threatened divorce. So, had to sell most of the collection, which was devastating, disheartening, sickening, all of those things, where she had been more honest at the front. I've heard, unfortunately, that story happened a few times where
00:52:17
Speaker
you know, lives thought the watches that their husbands were bringing home were one one-hundredth of the price of what they actually were. So a word of wisdom is just don't lie to your significant other about the prices of these things. If
00:52:33
Speaker
if it's relevant to the significant other in some way. Yeah, and not all doctors can be trusted. Yeah, exactly. But if you have totally partitioned finances, maybe it doesn't matter as much or whatever. In some cases, it really does matter. So that's important.
00:52:51
Speaker
It's been nice to see some of these articles and photos coming out of Ali and AJ and Ronnie Chang and all these guys wearing the watches that you've either sold them or the collaborations that you've done. I think that that's been really cool to watch. Yeah, that's one of the most exciting and rewarding things about doing these watches. We even
00:53:16
Speaker
Mindy Kaling wore Zodiac rowing plazers recently, and that was just super cool. She's not really known as a big watch person, but she really likes it. Z Way has been wearing a few pieces there. She got a Tudor rowing plazer she loves, and she has Seiko rowing plazers as well. That's sick. So yeah, just continuing to get
00:53:43
Speaker
new and interesting people out there wearing great watches. It's a good thing for all of us.
00:53:59
Speaker
I mean, the Submariner was one of the first. That really is a special watch, the Submariner. I think for some people it's a little bit tired because it's like the watch that they think everyone gets when they get their first bonus check on Wall Street and things like that. But for me, the sub was like the first luxury watch I knew about. And that was something I really wanted to get a great...
00:54:25
Speaker
a great vintage sub with beautiful patina on the loom plots and a great bezel, just that great rivet bracelet. That was what I wanted and I spent years looking for when vintage.com didn't exist for me to just go on and buy an unpolished one. Sure. It does now. It took a long time to find one that was like the perfect watch. I bought it
00:54:49
Speaker
from Paul Thierry of Bob's Watches. And I was just like, couldn't stop looking at the watch when he let me kind of look through some of his personal pieces. And I was like, Paul, this is insane. Would you sell this? It was a 5512. I wasn't even looking for a 5512.
00:55:12
Speaker
I just wanted that great watch unpolished case and beautiful patina for the loom. And it also made my heart hurt when I saw it. That's when you know. Yeah, that was it. And
00:55:29
Speaker
I don't wear it as much as other watches. I prefer wearing a GMT with a little bit thinner profile. I like the colors of the bezel a little bit more fun. The Submariner is more staid and serious, but it's just a very special watch.
00:55:49
Speaker
What's your thoughts on stabilizing the hands so that you kind of give yourself a little insurance policy with the degradation that can happen with tritium?
00:56:03
Speaker
I think it's good to do if the watch is going in for service, particularly, might as well do it. Greg Petronzi, True Patina does a good job. He doesn't work on radium watches because he's afraid of getting sick or cancer from the radon and the other radiation. But it's always a good idea. The issue is just making sure that the watchmaker you have stabilizing it
00:56:32
Speaker
is using the right kind of glue because certain glues will actually discolor, change the color of the hands. So you don't want it to be this attractive warm kind of pale yellow and then stabilize it and they go black. That wouldn't be a good thing, but it has happened for people that use amateurs. So
00:56:57
Speaker
That's not good, but the reality is too many people are focused on the loom in the hands. If everything else is original and amazing on a watch, and there's maybe loom that's fallen out of a hand or something else, to me,
00:57:18
Speaker
that's not a reason not to get the watch. You just get that loom redone, color matched, et cetera. And the loom is not meant to last 500 years in these watches, but the rest of the watch could last that long.
00:57:35
Speaker
but you know the loom is just sitting there unsupported like a trampoline like eventually the trampoline's gonna sag and fall out like you know it's just for me a crazy thing to expect that even like 50 60 year old watches the loom should be absolutely perfect in the hands otherwise i'm not buying it if you do get it stabilized does that last for forever i mean or is that something like you have to maintain
00:58:01
Speaker
I don't know. I think no one knows necessarily. I guess we'll wait to find out. Yeah, it does help, certainly seem to help at this point of it not developing holes or fissures or cracks should make it a little bit more
00:58:18
Speaker
impact resistant, if you will, won't just fall out. But Loom ultimately could just disintegrate and fall. So hopefully that helps prolong that process so it doesn't do that. Sure. All righty. I know this answer from the last time, but I got to ask it again. Do you feel that you were born with the collector's gene?
00:58:44
Speaker
Yes. Yes, I do. I started with baseball cards and football cards and those sorts of things and coins that I had inherited. Even as a younger kid wanting to collect little souvenirs from museum gift shops, my favorite thing was going to the museum and then picking out something in the gift shop. So it all starts from there. And
00:59:13
Speaker
and didn't expect it would advance to watches, but hopefully it doesn't go too far crazy beyond watches. Watches are enough. Love it. E, thank you so much for coming on again. It's been such a pleasure getting to know you over the last few years and watching all the endeavors that you have going on with Wind Vintage and the podcasts that you have and everything with Rowing Blazers.
00:59:38
Speaker
We're all on the sidelines continuously rooting for you. Thank you, Cameron. I hope we can get dinner in Phoenix sometime soon, but not over the summer. Yeah, please wait. Thank you, Cameron. Anytime. Talk soon. All right, that does it for this episode. Thank you all for listening to Collector's Gene Radio.