Allen sits down with best selling novelist Gary Shteyngart to talk about how watches have figured into Gary’s writing. From his New Yorker article called “Confessions of a Watch Geek” to his novel Lake Success Gary has used watches as literary devices that become windows into the internal lives of characters both real and fictional. Gary’s… Read more »
Grand Central Watch’s 3rd generation leader, Steve Kivel, has turned his family’s business into a high-tech service center with seven full-time watchmakers working full-time in a brand new state of the art facility. Allen and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of proper watch servicing, how to vet your watchmaker, and why… Read more »
Allen’s colleague Cait Bazemore comes on for a lively discussion of the emerging trend of women wearing more complex mechanical tool watches, and how the watch industry is shedding it’s old-school attitudes toward so-called lady’s watches. From Serena Williams to Cate Blanchett and Lindsey Vonn, badass women are wearing some seriously badass watches these days…. Read more »
Allen returns from a week in Italy having toured Tuscani on a Ducati motorcycle while wearing his Bremont Supermarine, lapped on a race track in a Ferrari, sported Hublots, and having accidentally bumped into the representative for Nims who just climbed 14 of the world’s largest mountains as part of the Bremont-sponsored Project Possible. The… Read more »
Allen’s account of his trip to the Longines factory in Switzerland starts with an explanation of how one ends up on such a trip in the first place. He then recounts hanging with Longines’ CEO Walter von Känel (a.k.a. The Chef), a dream like factory with shipping robots and worker-determined schedules, and of course some… Read more »
Why do mechanical watches seem so calming and down to earth? Why does the Apple Watch seem so intrusive? In this episode, we travel in time to consider old and new technologies up against each other, and how a mechanical watch once felt oppressive, and how the Apple Watch may one day seem disconnected and… Read more »
A colleague once told Allen that women’s watches don’t get as much coverage because, “Women’s watches suck.” Let’s complicate the topic of gendered watches, and let’s get past some of our ingrained attitudes about what makes a watch right for a man or a woman. Also, the birthday watch gets a break-thru! Latest Podcasts
When watches are truly designed as tools and do their job without kowtowing to fashion trends, our aesthetically fussy attitudes can give way to a far more grounded affection for the designs. Many watches, old and new, are considered from this functional perspective. Latest Podcasts
Allen goes after the notion of “microbrands” and calls for a change of thinking around the role of independent watch brands of all sizes. He discusses independent record labels as an analogous notion, gets into the importance of regionalism and diversity, talks us through a number of examples of regionally-oriented indie watch brands, and reviews… Read more »
Allen is visited by a fox while recording his account of a one-watch experiment. Unexpected results include feeling great about the one watch even though his time in it was hellish, and realizing that his personal collecting habits need to follow a wholly different set of concerns than those that govern writing professionally about watches…. Read more »