Independent Spirit: Exploring Obscure Watch Collecting with Yandretti

Episode Transcript
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Blake Rea (00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Lonely Wrist
podcast, where we explorewatches just not as objects, but
reflections of people, cultureand design.
I am your host, as always,blake Ray, and today our guest
is a true connoisseur of theunconventional.
This collector has built acollection around the rare,

(00:22):
under-the-rad, the radar andfiercely independent watch
brands.
We are about to find out whatdrives someone to seek out the
truly unique watches in thiswatch world.
Of course, I am talking aboutthe man, the myth, the legend,
jan, aka jan dreddy.

Yandretti (00:37):
Welcome to the lonely wrist blake, thank you for
having me.
Uh, we've been trying to dothis already for quite a while
and I guess everything has beento be at a certain time, and
after Geneva it was a good timeto link up.

Blake Rea (00:53):
Yeah, I know it's been a long time coming and
something that particularlyinterested me and to have you on
Is just the amount of Obscuritythat you have in your
collection One, and you knowjust your passion for the
independent scene.
Um, I think you know it's goingto be a lot of value to our

(01:13):
audience and, uh, I justdefinitely can't wait to have
your have this published andjust to hear the feedback it's
funny.

Yandretti (01:20):
Like you, you get such a good description right
now of the collection withoutyou know the collection being
shown.
And about an hour ago and uh,one of these uh like instagram
watch groups somebody posted ameme that said that uh, mbnf
owners will wear mbnf to likerandom events, just so people
could ask them like, oh, what'sthat on your wrist?
And I replied to that.

(01:41):
I'm like man.
Most of my watch collection Iget those kind of responses like
oh, what's that?
And it's not even uh, mbnfs oranything close to mbnfs, so I
thought that was interestingit's funny because I consider
myself uh informed.

Blake Rea (01:55):
I guess I mean fuck I have a watch podcast.
You know like I should know alot about the independence, but,
um, it seems like every singleday you know I've been following
you for a while now it justseems like you're posting stuff
I've never heard of.
You know, the obscure stuff,the yeah, I mean you just have
such a wealth of knowledge inthat space and and yeah, I'm,

(02:16):
I'm excited for you to share itwith everybody.

Yandretti (02:18):
You don't do like a wrist check.
We can we can, we can, let's doit all right, go ahead.
You inspired me, because when Iwas waiting for you, when you
had your phone call.

Blake Rea (02:30):
My wrist was, uh naked.
Then I'm like, oh shoot.

Yandretti (02:31):
He's wearing a watch.
I'm like what if he asked mewhat's in your wrist?
I don't want to say theinvisible watch.
So no, let's do it so I've beenobsessed with this glasut
original pano inverse hell yeahthe engraved bridge and the
balance wheel right on the dial.
So my whole thing I've beensaying to everyone I know, uh,

(02:51):
who I speak watches with that.
Last year, 2024, was the yearof the stone dial, to the point
where if I see another stonedial I'm just gonna like throw
the watch like in the water.
I'm tired of the Malachites,the Lapis, the Tiger Eyes.
It's already like done to death, like overkill.
And when the year ended, a newyear started.

(03:13):
I said this year I want to seetourbillons and I want to see
balance wheels right on the dial.
Yep, and so far I've beenseeing that actually from some
brands, one which, uh, will bereleased, uh, tomorrow
officially.
You know who we're referring to.
I don't know if we can refer tothem yet, although by the time
this airs this will be out.

(03:33):
Yeah, yeah, it'll be out okay,yeah, so the new christopher
ward has a nice bridge andbalance wheel right on the dial
and when I first saw it becausecertain images got leaked about
a month ago in like certainchats, but luckily they weren't
leaked outside of those chats,so you know the community, yeah,
the community is very kind inthat way and I'm surprised they

(03:55):
did such a good job uh, you know, not having any of the leaks
until pretty much today, um,which is the day the documentary
comes out and the watch isofficially released tomorrow.
So they've done a great job.
But when I first saw the watchI was like, wow, I almost feel I
believe in law of attractionand I really feel when I saw
that watch, I'm like man,literally like January 1st.
My mind is like I want to seebalance wheels, I want to see

(04:18):
tourbillons, all that good stuff, because to me that gives a
watch life.
It gives it almost like a, theheartbeat, instead of just the.
You know you look at a watchfrom, say, the 70s, 60s, 80s,
even 90s.
It's just a watch.
It tells the time, you know yougot the hour hand, the minute.
Some don't even have a secondhand and it's just.
You know the old school,classic look.

(04:39):
And I feel like, with the waywatch making is going today,
with the crazy watches from thegrubel for, say, sort of david
candice, mbnfs and even themicro brands like um, I love
micro brands and I feel, uh,micro brands are bridging that
gap between high end andaffordability, while also being
true to design, which is what Ilove.

(05:01):
And watches I love.
Love design, language anduniqueness.
So, for example, martin DWatches they have their
Kickstarter campaign for theirConnemara model, which is their
second watch their first one Iforgot the name of the model
came out last year, very popular, and I think you've seen me
post it and I sent you the linkI have.
This one, the Kickstartercampaign freaking 300 euros, 289

(05:24):
euros.
That one, the kickstartercampaign freaking 300 euros, 289
euros it's crazy pennies for awatch.
And the watch is gorgeous,horizontally brushed, colored
dials with a double balancewheel on the dial.
For freaking 300 euros.
And a kickstarter campaign likeit's ridiculous, you know, and
uh, to the naked eye who's not a, to the person who's not a
watch collector.
Once you have that watch on yourwrist and you go somewhere,

(05:45):
automatically the question well,what is that in your wrist?
I noticed that from far becauseof the two balance wheels and
also the horizontal brushingwith, uh, the bright colors on
that dial, and a person wouldlook at that and think that's
okay, probably 15, 20 000 watch,maybe even more, and to find
out that it's sub 1000, it'slike it's mind-blowing
completely everybody needs likea conversational piece in their

(06:09):
collection and a lot of peoplehave that, that stereotype that
it needs to be like ridiculouslypriced, but it doesn't have to
be and that's what the microsare doing and they're bridging
that gap to the point where, forexample, to me one of the best
watches of the last five years,pretty much since the pandemic
started, has been thechristopher world, belcanto

(06:31):
that's.
You know, the watch is alreadyiconic.
The watch is considered amasterpiece amongst pretty much
every enthusiast and the reasonis they took a chiming movement
and made it into a sub fivethousand dollar watch, which is
unheard of, because I think thenext chiming watch, I think, is
the uh LUC Chopard and I thinkthat's like around 45, 50 grand,

(06:52):
maybe even more.
So for them to do that sub5,000 and it just it looks
insane.
The whole dial looks like afloating dial and it chimes
every hour and has a lot of nicecolors.
And and it chimes every hourand has a lot of nice colors,
and you know they did a millionand one collaborations but still
they're all nice and superaffordable.

Blake Rea (07:11):
Yeah, I mean, it's crazy, the the value that
christopher ward's able to packinto any time piece like I mean,
from even their, their, theirbasic, like c63 collection all
the way up to the belcanto.

Yandretti (07:23):
And now with the uh, the new piece, um, which I I
don't even know the name I havefrom my understanding, unless
they changed the name, it wascalled loco, kind of like a
locomotive local like crazy, inspanish.
I don't know for sure, butoriginally it was called the
loco.
I'm not 100 sure now because ofthe footage that I've seen on

(07:43):
instagram for the release ofthis documentary.
Uh, it's called like wheelingor something, I guess, because
the balance wheel, but I don'tknow like freewheeling or
something yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I don't know if that's thename of the documentary or the
model, but I know originally itwas called loco and in my head
at first I was like loco, but Ithink it's short for locomotives
, because locomotive the wheelsspin, I guess, sure, or maybe

(08:04):
that's just the wheels in mymind spun that uh elaborate
story right now, I don't know.
But, um, but yeah, that watch.
Speaking of that watch again,that's another watch.
That's sub 5000.
I mean, maybe a little more nowwith tires, but msrp wise,
another watch, uh, sub 5000, andI think there's a six-day power
reserve and they got their yeah, they got their movement, I

(08:26):
think from where mb and f getstheir movement at least, that's
what I heard from you know weeksago during those original leaks
, but I guess we'll seeofficially today when the
documentary drops.
But I'm excited yeah, no, I'm.

Blake Rea (08:37):
I'm always excited for new watch releases.
Um, I'm curious if you canremember the moment where you
know you saw a watch that kindof kick-started your passion for
you know these independents,underappreciated brands.
I came with the crazy questions, man so it was.

Yandretti (08:57):
It wasn't really a moment, so I gotta let you know
how this whole watch collectingjourney started and why I kind
of went down this path.

Blake Rea (09:04):
Do it.

Yandretti (09:05):
So my first love since I was in high school was
perfumery.
So I really enjoyed fragrances.
And when I say fragranceseveryone knows the brand Creed.
Yep, I was wearing Creed whenCreed was pretty much the only
high-end brand.
Everything else you know, youhad the designer, fragr, the
aqua, digios, the armanis, theversace's, and creed was kind of

(09:28):
considered that high-end cremede la creme in a perfumery.
And, uh, I got introduced to itby a friend of mine who was
older, to hang out with olderpeople when I was a teenager
they were in their late 20salready and they had the creed
and I remember smelling it.
It was the creed, silvermountain water, the white bottle
, and I was like, wow, I wasjust blown away it was, like you

(09:50):
know, going from eating hotdogs your whole life to suddenly
trying, I don't know, likeblack caviar, like a medium rare
yeah yeah, with like trufflebutter.
I was just mind blown.
I'm like wow and um, I got somebirthday money fresh.
Uh, first freshman year ofcollege and I went to college in
Manhattan.
So I took a walk straight toBergdorf Goodman, to the Creed

(10:10):
section, boom, spent a fewhundred dollars and got my first
niche luxury and everywhere Iwent, oh you smell so good, oh,
you smell so good.
What's that?
What's that?
And I was just so happy.
It just felt somethingrefreshing and something
different and I just liked howthat felt and, uh, just like,
kind of, I'm a huge movie buff.
I grew up watching movies sinceI was three, four years old.

(10:31):
So my parents, uh, when I grewup in ukraine, in order for them
to leave me by myself so theycould do grocery shopping, I
would ask them to put on theterminator for me.
So, literally, yeah, so thiswas the the late 80s, so this is
before t2 even came out, sothey would put on terminator one
for me.
I'm freaking, three, four yearsold watching the terminator.
You know, oh shit rated r movie,yeah, um.

(10:52):
So, growing up watching moviesalso, I'm a big fan of, like all
kinds of movies that are notmainstream, like there's even a
theater, for example, in newyork.
I've been going to since I wasin high school.
It's called the Angelica FilmCenter and they play independent
movies and foreign movies.
And when I was younger I used tojust take a day to myself on
Sunday.
I would turn off my phone, Iwould go to the city, take the

(11:14):
train there, I would go see amovie, sometimes even two movies
, I would just walk around and Iwould have that day to myself
where no one bothered me, no onewas able to reach me, and it
would just be me, the cinematicuniverse, and just like a breath
of fresh air and walkingthrough manhattan and because,
uh, it's by soho and kind of toget back into it, how this

(11:34):
conroe started.
So with the niche perfumery, Istarted buying and collecting
perfumes.
That also you typically wouldnever hear of them and if you
smell them you'd be like, oh, Inever seen that before, I never
smelled that before, I neverheard of that before.
And I also became known as kindof the guy who always smells
good but also always.

(11:54):
Also always smells different,because yeah you know, as a
collector and that kind oftransferred into my love of
watches, in the sense also thatall watches tell the time and
you know the real, real, reallike enthusiasts will get down
to that.
Uh, oh, if you buy a watch forlike a few hundred grand, with
this movement you're within likeplus two, three seconds, plus

(12:17):
minus two, three seconds.
Man, those two, three secondsaren't really going to change
the day for me.
You know, uh like, we got onthis call at 12.
Whether we got on at uh 11, 59and 57 seconds or 12, uh 12 on
the dot and three seconds later,it doesn't make a difference to
me.
But for me I was alwaysinterested in, uh, visually

(12:38):
pleasing watches that lookcompletely different.
I like, uh, almost like, havinglike a piece of art on your
wrist because all of them willtell the time.
But I like watches that tellyou time in unique ways, like
retrograde hours or retrogrademinutes, uh, watches that just
look completely different.
I like skeleton watches andlately I've been having this
obsession with seeing thebalance wheel on the dial, which

(13:00):
gives me like that feeling ofjust the watch being like a
living, breathing piece of art.
That's just like beatingconstantly no, yeah, that make.

Blake Rea (13:10):
That makes a lot of sense and and the transition
just seems organic, going fromfrom fragrance to watches,
because they're both both waysof expressing your individual
individuality if I, is that theright word individuality um you
know, to be expressive, right to, to be unique, to stand out.
You know, um, I know youmentioned, like you know, aqua

(13:31):
de geo and your fragrance kindof, uh like shout out.
But everybody has that, or likeblue de chanel, like everybody.
I mentioned aqua de geo becauseaqua de geo was the first
fragrance I ever had nothingwrong with that, nothing wrong
with that, but I think it's oneof those entry doors into into
fragrance, you know um but youknow it's funny.

Yandretti (13:51):
I'm gonna off topic real quick how that all started.
It's an embarrassing story butit's a funny story.
So I think I was probably like15, so I think it was sophomore
year of high school and you knowI grew up.
I have a younger year of highschool and you know I grew up I
have a younger sister.
I never had older brothers,just you know, older friends.
But no one ever told me, toldme, about grooming and colognes

(14:12):
and you got to wear deodorantsand stuff like that.
So I think it was sophomoreyear of high school.
I'm on the bus going home andyou know I have my arm up
holding you know the pole on thebus and some girl who was a
classmate of mine she was like,oh uh, can you put your arm down
?
Your armpits stink.
And I was so embarrassed.
It was like a good looking girland I was like, okay.

(14:33):
So I went home, startedresearching and I was like, okay
, first I gotta get a deodorantand then I gotta, and then after
that I'm I always have to smellgood after that.
So Aqua De Joux, I think at thetime, just came out and it was
like, oh, this is at the timewhen, like pickup, was still a
new thing Do you remember thosedays when Neil Strauss had the

(14:55):
book the Game, yeah, yeah, andthis was like right before he
even wrote the Game.
So this is.
You know, I was still in highschool.
This is like 2005.
I think the book came out 2006,2007, maybe something like that
.
Maybe I'm off by a year or two,actually, no, no, no, wait,
sorry.
I started college in 2000.
I was in high school, say it,2002.
That's when I was a sophomore,2002.
My dates are a bit that's okay.

(15:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, was asophomore in high school, so
that's when aqua de jure justcame out and you know it was
obviously super affordable that.
And if you remember dolcegabbana poor home, the one that
came it was like a yellowish.
Uh, the juice was like ayellowish and they had the dolce
gabbana right on the bottle and, uh, the box was blue and like
velvety blue, suede-ish almost,I think so I think so so those

(15:43):
were like the first two.
I got the aqua, did you and that, and I just remember after that
like, oh, you smell good, yousmell good.
I'm like, oh yeah, that girlreally set off a monster with
that comment she made on the bushas, she has, she smelled you
recently no, she's smelled me inlike two and a half decades um,
no, but funny enough.

Blake Rea (16:01):
Like for for me.
My mine was versace eaufraicheiche or whatever.
Like the little blue, likeclear bottle.
Like that was my first designerfragrance, and now I have
probably like 150, like 200bottles of cologne too, like I'm
so into fragrance and I thoughtabout doing like a fragrance
podcast too.

Yandretti (16:21):
Oh, that would be good.
I'll be your first guest.

Blake Rea (16:23):
Yeah, yeah, there we go.
I'm curious about I mean, soyou you've talked about how you
got into collecting, but butwhat would you say collecting
means to you at this moment?
Um, is it about appreciation?
Is it's not about investment?
I don't know a lot of peoplethat that in watches, unless

(16:44):
you're trying to get crazypaddocks or Rolexes, not the
space that we're in.

Yandretti (16:49):
I never understood that.
Honestly, watches is aninvestment, because if you're
going to invest in something, bythe time a watch appreciates,
you could have made money in thestock market and crypto and a
million other things.
I'll give you an example.
So for my 30th birthday, so myfirst grail ever, was actually a
Rolex Day-Date residential, andthat was a watch I always

(17:13):
wanted and then, by purecoincidence, I turned 30 in 2016
.
That was the year that forRolex's 60th anniversary of the
Day-Date.
60th anniversary of theDay-Date.
That's when they came out withthe 40mm size model in rose gold
, with the olive green dial,with those dissected Roman
numerals.
It's iconic now, but it cameout in 2016 for my 30th.

(17:36):
So I told myself this is a goodtime to get your grill kind of
30 for 30.
And at the time I remember theprice and that you could get it
25% off.
So 25% off retail came out toabout $27,500, which is freaking
expensive.
Of course that's like you knowyou could get like 10 other
watches for that.
But at the time that was mygrill.

(17:57):
But the reason I bring up theprice is because now that watch
is probably what?
$40 if you're lucky, yeah, like$45, like 45, 40 ish, somewhere
around there.
But retail wise it's still onlyaround, I think, yeah, 38, 40,
whereas before the retail was,uh, I think, like 30, 37, 37,

(18:17):
500, but you were, you were justable to get it for, you know a
huge percent off.
So realistically, the msrpdidn't really change that much
and it's been what nine years.
It only changed what by two,three grand.
So it's not really feasible forme to get a watch as an
investment because in this, uh,eight, nine years, for example,
I bought bitcoin at, uh, Iremember my first bitcoin I

(18:39):
bought when I was eight, uh,eighteen hundred dollars.
Right now I checked today, it's94 000.
So in the same time frame thata Rolex Day-Day went up three
grand and MSRP, a Bitcoin wentup freaking $92,000.
So that's an investment.
A watch is not an investment forme.
For me, a watch is a way tokind of the way people buy

(18:59):
clothes or women buy handbags.
I enjoy watches.
You know some people havesneaker collections of, uh, you
know, worth hundreds ofthousands.
I don't understand that, butI'm not a sneaker head I never
was, yeah but to me, watches isan extension of my love of
perfumery and also my love ofart and individuality.
That's why I like and myappreciation for the independent

(19:22):
brands are because they areable to do things that
mainstream brands are not.
I'll give you an example rolexright to me.
The reason I bring up rolexbecause, uh, even though patek
is more, uh, regarded in ahigher level sense than rolex,
rolex is still, to the layman,the only watch brand they really

(19:44):
know.
If a person never seen a watchin their life, they have heard
of rolex yeah, you could.

Blake Rea (19:50):
You could be wearing an invicta and somebody doesn't
know watches like what is that?
A rolex you got like?

Yandretti (19:56):
yeah, it's, uh, it's already.
It's iconic the way.
So to me you know how thingsbecome iconic.
For example, mike Tyson right,people don't refer to him as
Mike Tyson.
Once you say the word Tyson,it's known the brand, xerox, the
paper, the copies.
You call something, oh, can youmake me a Xerox?

(20:16):
You don't say can you make me acopy?
Yeah, so when you become knownas the brand name already and
it's kind of universal, that'swhen you've really transcended
and that's kind of what rolex is?
You just hear of a watch, it'sautomatically rolex yeah my
grandma, my grandma's, hasn'tseen.
The only watch she's ever seenwas an orient.
So growing up in ukraine theyall had orians there with the

(20:37):
japanese movements my wholefamily had an orient.
But she's heard of rolex, youknow which goes, goes to show.
But the reason I bring up Rolexagain, you know I like the
experimental and the interestingwatches and my favorite Rolexes
in the last five years havebeen the Puzzle Dial Day-Date
that they came out with twoyears ago now.

Blake Rea (20:57):
Like the emojis and stuff.

Yandretti (20:58):
Yeah, the Celebration Dial which just got
discontinued, and also the PoundDial which I used to have on
the Oyster Perpetual.
And also the pound dial which Iused to have and I'm an idiot,
I sold it two weeks before itgot discontinued a year ago,
which I regret to this day.
It was the 36 millimeter withthe green palms.
And so those three watches, tome, were the three times when
Rolex, in the last God knows howlong, really decided hey, let's

(21:20):
experiment and do somethingcompletely new.
That's very unlike rolex.
And what happened?
They released those threewatches and they got heat for it
and I never understood that.
It's like, as a watchenthusiast and for the diehard
rolex lovers, you want them tokeep cranking out the same watch
year after year, like where'sthe fun in that?
And what got me into theindependence, for example?

(21:42):
I go to all these events.
If I see somebody with a Rolexon, I don't even like I'll say
hello, but I won't even.
Oh, it's a new race, I justdon't care.
You see, automatically and it'skind of it's boring.
Yeah, as great as Rolex is andwhat they have done for the
community in terms of forwatches, they're just kind of
boring to me.
Yeah, okay, it's a Rolex CoolNext.

Blake Rea (22:05):
I saw like this one meme and it was like uh, from
toy story and it had like allthe buzz light years on the
shelf Like if you remember thatscene where, like he's, trying
to find the buzz and then umlike, but essentially the
caption was like Rolexcollectors trying to stand out.
You know, out of watch meet up.
You know what I mean.
Um, and it's funny and we liketo make jokes about it, but I I

(22:30):
think what what it boils down tois non-watch guys own, will own
rolexes, right, non-watch guyswill own omegas.
You know less so omegas, but,um, you know, it doesn't.
Really you can't spot a watchguy if he's wearing a rolex.
You know, like he's been.

(22:51):
Oh, it's a great, a great role.
Yeah, yeah, I got it from.
Yeah, you know, I like, youknow, like he doesn't.
They don't know anything aboutwatches.
You know, every time I've ohcool, it's a cool daytona, you
know, yeah, yeah, I got it abouta couple years ago.

Yandretti (23:05):
But like oh like what else?

Blake Rea (23:06):
what else do you have in your collection?
Oh, no, no, no, not, not, notanything else.
Like you just get that kind oflike really passive conversation
that that you have because theydon't know what to buy, so they
just buy a Rolex.
It's like a default.

Yandretti (23:20):
It.
It's funny you say that.
So I have a buddy of mine.
He's a detective and he wantedto get a watch.
He had a Movado, like an oldschool Movado, and he was like,
oh, I kind of want a new agewatch, I want something modern.
And I haven't.
Really I got this watch when Iwas young, or maybe it was a
gift, I can't remember and he'slike I want to get myself a
watch.
What do you?

(23:46):
I told him, knowing him, I saidyou know what you know what
would be great for your firstwatch?
A case of a Cartier Santos.
Because nowadays the Santosesthey come not only with the
bracelet but they come with aleather strap so you could swap
it out.
So it's almost like you havetwo watches.
If you get the green dial, itcomes on a green alligator strap
which you could wear as a dresswatch and sporty, you could
just boom.
Quick change into the bracelet,which, to me, cartier Santos
has one of the braids bestBracelets ever period from a

(24:12):
design perspective with thescrews it.
Just I love it.
I think super unique and it'sone of the five best bracelets I
think ever made what?
And so when I told him the car,you kind of, yeah, I think I
want a Rolex I'm just like Iwanted to pull my hair out.
I'm like, ah, and he ended upgetting a submariner, which to
me, it's a nice.
To me, a submariner is a top 10watch ever made in terms of

(24:35):
like legendary the submarinersto rolex, what, uh?
A car, a tank is to carrie.
You know it's one of those like10, 20 iconic legendary watches
, but at this point in time,it's a freaking submariner.
It's boring.
There's nothing new about it,there's nothing innovative,
there's nothing cool aside thatyou're wearing a rolex and okay,

(24:58):
it's understandable.
I understand why he got it.
You know because, just likeanyone, like I can't even really
say anything I have a rolex,yeah.
But it also says something.
When I could tell you that Iused to have three rolexes a 36
millimeter, 40 and a 41, and I'monly down to one rolex, which
is the 36 millimeter, becausethe other two rolexes, I was
like it's kind of boring.

(25:18):
I'm way over this already.
I don't want it anymore.
Let me get something else.
That's way cooler.
That kind of speaks to me, youknow.
But, um, most people will get arolex for the status.
Whether it's, uh,subconsciously or consciously,
it's still a status symbol, andto me that's kind of boring,
like I rather you not know whatI have in my wrist than you know

(25:40):
.

Blake Rea (25:40):
Oh, he has a rolex no , that that's so funny because I
have a very similar story.
One of my friends, uh, as arestauranteur he's got like
seven or eight restaurants andin north carolina and there's no
, um, there's no cartierboutique in north carolina.
You, there's no cartier dealersin north carolina.
But he approached me and said,hey, like I want a rolex

(26:00):
submariner, like I want a gmt,like I want a daytona, and I'm
like he's like, what can you doto help me get one?
And I was like, bro, just, yeah, I sent him the link to the
santos, you know.
I was like you know, if, if Iwere to suggest a piece to you
that is a little bit more, uh,I'd say just as iconic and I

(26:20):
mean just, and has theet, likethe name cachet, um.
And he actually went with mysuggestion and purchased the, uh
, the Cartier Santos and um, andI mean what's weird is like
everybody's got Rolexes inRaleigh but not a lot of people
have Santoses in Raleigh becausethere's no Cartier dealer,
there's no boutique there.

(26:41):
Like Raleigh is one of thosefringe markets.
Like you'll see, santos iseverywhere in new york or here
in vegas or in la, but inraleigh that is like that is.
That is a status symbol, Ithink, and, and you know, shout
out to him but, um, he lovesthat watch, he wears it every,
every day, and, and, and I whichone?

(27:01):
which one, sorry which one thesantos uh, okay, yeah yeah, with
the bracelet, um and the strapand um, and yeah, he loves it
every single day and I, I alsohave one too, like I have the
medium um and and, yeah, I lovethat watch, just the versatility
that it brings.

Yandretti (27:18):
It is have you seen my santos?
Uh, yeah, you have the santosgalbi right no, I have the caray
, which was the the original one.
It preceded the galbi.
So I have the one from the 80sthat michael douglas the full
yellow gold one that michaeldouglas wore in the movie wall
street oh, that's right.

Blake Rea (27:37):
Yeah, I have seen it, I have seen it.

Yandretti (27:39):
It's actually like my favorite watch ever.
That watch to me just I don'tknow.
It transports me to a differenttime and era.
I wish I grew up in the 80s.
I mean I did, but I was.
I was born in 86 so I didn't dothat much growing up in the 80s
.
I'm a 90s baby, but I alwaysloved the 80s everything from
the music to the way peopledress.
Like you ever seen the moviehot tub time machine?

Blake Rea (28:00):
I haven't.
Oh, yeah, yeah, I have.

Yandretti (28:03):
Yeah, I'm like man, I wish I had a hot tub that could
transport me to the 80s forlike a weekend to go dress up in
funky outfits and go skiing andput on that Cartier Santos.
And you know, if I grew up inthe 80s I would have still
gotten that Santos over a daydate, because that was the
Cartier's answer to the day date.
It was that gold Santos andthat's my favorite watch of all

(28:23):
time.
I feel like it's just, it'sperfect.
There's, it's just perfectionand it's a part of like a time
capsule.
But also with Cartier, I got tosay that when I was younger,
when I first got into collecting, when I was in my, you know,
early and mid twenties and latetwenties, Cartier got a lot of
hate from watch purists.

(28:44):
Oh, it's a jewelry brand, justlike Harry Winston also, and
Harry Winston makes some of thecoolest watches.

Blake Rea (28:50):
They do and so does Shapar?
Yeah, the.

Yandretti (28:52):
Harry Winston premiere oh my God, what a watch
.
And the opus that they did,just incredible stuff.
But for years Cartier, shaparand Harry Winston anytime I
would mention them, they wouldkind of get a like kind of blown
to the side from collectors as,oh, it's a jewelry band,
they're not real watches.
So during the pandemic, vintagecarter years started like

(29:16):
making a huge resurgence, to thepoint that when kanye west wore
the crash and he had thenetflix episode with uh, was it
david letterman that came to hishouse and to kind of see his uh
, hollywood hills minimalistapartment or how I think so yeah
, yeah and tiny was wearing thecardia crash.
After that video.
That's when the crash justsuddenly boom like, blew up from

(29:39):
like at the time I think it wasabout 19,000 if you could find
one 20 grand to like 250 grand,which is insane.
All because, again, the hype.
Everything was all about hypeas well, and how a lot of these
vintage watches like the RolexKing Midas if you take a time
machine back to 2019, you couldget a yellow gold Rolex King

(30:00):
Midas for like ten thousanddollars now 35, 40 grand.
All because, you know, frominfluencers to youtubers,
everyone kind of hyped it up.
But with cartier, I actuallyfeel like they really deserve it
because they are the masters ofdesign and they speak to me
again because just their designlanguage, they make such cool

(30:21):
stuff.
Uh, except for their jump hours, man, To me they look like
bathroom scales and everyone'skind of making the same jump
hour style right now, you know,with the two windows.

Blake Rea (30:31):
Yep, yep, yep.

Yandretti (30:33):
And, like you've seen , my Fernando Ranzon jump hour,
the one that the Matt 2 kind of,in my opinion, copied.

Blake Rea (30:39):
I think so, I think so.

Yandretti (30:42):
It was the crazy one.
I wore in Genevava on thatcrazy galaxy oh yeah, yeah, yeah
, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So to me, like that's a jumphour, but everything else is
almost like a it looks like abathroom scale.
It's like you just got thesetwo little openings and carrier
again came out with the gold onethis year and that to me is
whatever.
But uh, again, I'm glad thatthey're getting recognition they
deserve in the watch communityinstead of just being kind of

(31:05):
snubbed out as like, oh, it's ajewelry brand.
No, cartier's were one of thefirst watches, the Santos Dumont
, and you know they're legendary.
What did that watch come out?
I think in like 1910 that watchgot made, so you know.

Blake Rea (31:19):
Yes, I'm running 1910 1912.

Yandretti (31:21):
Yeah, I think it's somewhere around there.
Yeah, yeah, somewhere aroundthere 1910, 1912.

Blake Rea (31:25):
Yeah.

Yandretti (31:25):
I think it was 1910, somewhere around there, yeah, so
yeah, I'm glad that they'regetting that recognition.
And what was the other topic?
Let's get away from Cartier andRolex.
We've been on them for too long.

Blake Rea (31:41):
How do you feel like your taste has evolved over time
?
Collecting independent watches?

Yandretti (31:45):
Oh it evolved a lot.
It evolved a lot completely.
So I also, as like a huge, hugeenthusiast lover, collector
there, I'm bipolar with watches.
I'll tell you what I mean bythat.
Today I could be wearing a 29millimeter santos and be like,
oh you know, I can't wear bigwatches anymore, blah, blah,

(32:07):
blah, blah, blah.
Tomorrow I could put on like a45 millimeter bouvet that I have
, or a louis monet, which islike 46 millimeters, and be in
love with that.
And because I can't wear smallwatches, they're way too small.
And at a certain point Irealized I just just like
everything.
I love watches.
Today I could wear 45.
Tomorrow I could wear 36.
By the time weekend rollsaround, I'm wearing a 27 or 28

(32:28):
millimeter watch, 29.
All shapes, sizes, colors.
I'm big on dials, though.
I love some pizzazz, someflavor on the dial, something
unique.
In the last month you know whatI've been obsessing over
tahitian mother of pearl.
What's with the balloons?
I have no idea.

Blake Rea (32:47):
I was like what the hell?

Yandretti (32:48):
party time.

Blake Rea (32:49):
I've never seen that before.
I mean, that must be a must, bean epic.

Yandretti (32:52):
Uh the ai right understand what we're talking
about and let's celebrate.
Yeah, I guess right, theyshould have done that when I
mentioned that celebration,though yeah, that would have
been perfect uh, so lately I'vebeen obsessed.
So, um, teledano and chan, whichI'm a huge fan of their watch,
they're coming out right nownext month I think, like mid-may
with their new sahisian blackmother of pearl and they have

(33:15):
that new 3d crystal.
Instead of a flat crystal whichthey had on the first B1 that
had the lapis doll, they have a3D crystal now and when I saw
Phil in Geneva he had a fewmodels that are coming out this
year and one of them he hadalready, that Mother of Pearl,
which I seen in New York at anevent he did at John Rousseau's,
but the lighting there washorrible, so it was very dim lit

(33:36):
, so it's hard to really tell amother of pearl without natural
light and sunlight hitting it.
So when I saw him at geneva atbeau rivage, I said, phil, I'm
gonna take this, uh, mother ofpearl, I want to take some
videos outside, I'll make you areel and I want to see how it
looks in natural light.
And, oh my god, I would.
I didn't want to take it offthe wrist, I wanted to run away

(33:57):
with it.
You know, obviously I wasn'tgonna do that, but, um, it
almost looks with that 3dcrystal.
When the light hits it, itdistorts the mother feral doll
and it looks like one minute itlooks like clouds moving.
The next minute it looks like arainbow is coming through the
clouds.
Then it looks like a, like searipples in the ocean.
It's insane.

(34:17):
Like every angle you look at it, it just looks like a different
watch and I became obsessedwith that to the point where, uh
, I ended up getting a selten,which is, you know, like a big
micro brand.
They have an incredible watch,uh, so it's a moon face,
guillochade, mother of pearl,and I put it on like a crazy, uh
, python strap to match themother of pearl.
Look, uh, I don't know ifyou've seen it on my instagram,

(34:40):
but it's a looks maybe and soI've been up.
So I've been obsessed with uh,black opal dials.
Recently.
It's at a point where I endedup getting a zentier.
It was like uh, the bathroomscale and jump hour, but I had
to get it because there's only37 of them made the opal dial.
Are you familiar with zent?
It's a micro brand.

(35:01):
They had a few watches come outrecently, like a Malachite and
a Blue Lapis.

Blake Rea (35:05):
I'm actually not no.

Yandretti (35:07):
One second.
I'm going to pull it up for you.
Actually, since I'm in my room,I'm going to show you this
thing.
Super cool, it's a 36millimeter.

Blake Rea (35:32):
One second super cool .
It's a 36 millimeter for allpeople that are listening.

Yandretti (35:34):
You have to go to youtube to see this.
Oh, hell, yeah, you want me totake it out of the box for the
viewers?

Blake Rea (35:38):
yeah, you can, yeah, do it One second.
Dude Sick.

Yandretti (35:56):
Yeah, so that's black opal, Trying to get like a good
view of it.
So in light it really likecrackles and sparkles.
So most of these black opaldolls I started doing my due
diligence.
They were around on vintagewatches.
But on the vintage watches theyhave about a 30 millimeter case

(36:17):
which I'm fine with.
I like watches of all sizes.
But to really appreciate blackopal you don't want it on like a
tiny little dial because you'renot going to enjoy it.
So I want to find somethingthat's between 36 millimeters
and say 40 to really enjoy thatblack opal how do you, how do
you learn about all these crazybrands?

Blake Rea (36:37):
How do you find them?

Yandretti (36:40):
Man obsession?
I guess, no, no, I just lovewatches.
It took me out of a dark placeone time.
By dark place, I mean, I thinkI told you the story in Geneva
when my dad was sick before hepassed away.
I would come home every dayfrom either the hospital or
hospice and what kind of got meinto my like alice in wonderland
tunnel, was just going onyoutube and watching all these

(37:04):
uh vlogs and podcasts anddifferent watch videos and that
literally just kind of took meaway from, like the stress of
seeing my dad sick and helpingto take care of him, and it kind
of channeled that into just myown little you know escape room
where it's just like me watches,and just kind of diverted my
attention from like the realworld into like this like land

(37:26):
where, uh, you know, becausewatches also symbolize time and
every time you get a watch, likeI could look at a certain watch
and I remember the time periodI got it in.
So it kind of takes me back tothat time, you know.
Or even now, like, for example,I have um, so I have three
watches that I got when in.
So it kind of takes me back tothat time, you know.
Or even now, like, for example,I have um.
So I have three watches that Igot when my dad passed away.
So the first watch is omega seamaster 300 chrono and the reason

(37:51):
that one is so significant.
So it was my dad's first likebig boy watch, I guess in
america, and grandparents whoare now gone as well they're the
ones who gifted it to him.
It was his parents, so theygifted it to my dad.
I think circa.
So it's the watch that JamesBond wore, I think, when Pierce
Brosnan was James Bond in thelate 90s, something like that.

(38:13):
So I remember vividly theygifted it to my dad for his
birthday and I think it was like2001 or 2000 maybe.
So I guess I don't rememberthat well but I'm bad with dates
.
But, um, I remember they giftedit to him for his birthday.
They're like, oh like, son, wewant you to have this nice watch
wow and he wore this like firsthe wore it for like years and

(38:36):
then he got himself a brigadetype 21, which I also have now.
And then also in 2000 I thinkit was 15 for father's day I got
him a panerai chrono daylightthe chronograph.
So that watch is verysignificant to me because
anytime I wear it it reminds meof the time 10 years ago that I
gifted it and seeing hisreaction on father's day,

(38:58):
because I seen him like an eBaylooking at it online.
I'm like watch websites lookingat that watch.
He really liked Panerai, whichI never understood at the time.
I was never like a Paneristaand I know they have a huge
following and a huge community.
But I nice, I'm going to showyou.
I'm going to show you the onethat I have.
Um one second.

Blake Rea (39:18):
I'm a huge Panera guy .

Yandretti (39:21):
This is interesting.

Blake Rea (39:26):
So oh yeah, dude, Hell yeah.

Yandretti (39:29):
Yeah, so it's the chronograph.
He wore it on a black leatherstrap that it came on and I
hated that black leather strapand once I got the watch, I went
to Panera in Manhattan and Ithrew it on this white rubber
strap.
I feel like Panera it's my ownpersonal opinion based on my
taste but I feel like panerai's.
They really shine on thesepanerai rubber straps something
about these rubber straps.

(39:50):
They give it like a super heavyduty diver, look a sporty, look
just super cool, cheek, lookjust.
And I just didn't like when hewore it on this black leather
strap.
I feel like it just.
It didn't look good with thislike crazy white sparkling dial.
And now I call this watch mysnow white because it's white on
white now.
So these three watches prettymuch take me back to a certain

(40:15):
time, which again watches.
That was my escape and all mywatches take me to a certain
time, time you can't get backbecause you know we live in a
temporal dimension where timejust moves forward.
So we have these memories,memories and you know, these
watches, kind of almost like apicture in time that makes sense
, yeah, so so go back to thepanerai.

Blake Rea (40:38):
Yeah, I mean the way that they use rubber and have
like rubber, I mean it's justthe best rubber strap in the
game.
And then have you seen theirlike accordion style rubber
where it's got like the little,like ridges at the top?

Yandretti (40:53):
Is that the one that they did now, with like
collaboration with Prada for theLunar Rosa models?

Blake Rea (40:59):
No, no.
So it's just kind of like ageneric little rubber strap, but
at the top of it it's gotlittle ridges and they use them
in the submersibles.

Yandretti (41:09):
Dude, that's the one I originally wanted for this
watch, for my dad's watch, butthey didn't have it for this
model.
You see the regular it's likeyeah the lugs.

Blake Rea (41:24):
Right, right, the ridges were the lugs.
I think right, no, no, no, um,it's.

Yandretti (41:26):
It's the oem panoramic strap no, no, but I'm
saying those ridges, they werelike around where the lugs.

Blake Rea (41:31):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yandretti (41:32):
They're right there where the lugs are yeah, so this
is more like a flat one.
They didn't have it.
But that ridge one man thatgives it such a good look.
And also panerai is a strapmonster.
I could literally put thiswatch on orange, on teal, on
bright yellow any color it'llwork the I I prefer.

Blake Rea (41:49):
So I used to wear those like the, the panerai,
like branded ones with thepanerai, panerai, luminor ones
or whatever.
Um, and then I started gettinginto the submersible straps.
Because of those little likeridges at the top, it it grows
and shrinks with your wrists.
Oh so, like, like, as if youcould make a panerai strap more
comfortable.
Those do those step it up liketwo or three times, which is

(42:13):
crazy to even.
How'd you get into?
panerai um, I I don't reallyknow, but the way that I got
into watches was, um, I was likeI was doing like a tiling.
My mom was a property managerand she was like hired me and my
friends to help out around thecomplex and I was laying tile

(42:35):
and then I went out to take alittle like break and on the
window seal there was a watchand I was like it was.
It was a, um, a gold or like atwo-tone chronograph, invicta,
like a racing chronograph and Ijust thought it was the coolest
thing and um, and so I startedwearing it.

(42:58):
And then, you know, I meanwatches in a weird way, they're
kind of like like littleconfidence, like kicks.
You know, um, you know you canlook down and see I mean now
particularly like you can lookdown and see your hard work and
accomplishments on your wrist,and so so at the time I was just
like man.
This is so cool the way itmakes me feel like you know,
like the practicality.

(43:18):
I was always cooking, I workedat um, a restaurant, and so I
was just like man.
This is so cool the way itmakes me feel like you know,
like the practicality.
I was always cooking, I workedat um, a restaurant and then so
I was always using the, thetimer, the chronograph function
you know back when I used it.
I don't use it anymore, um, butbut no, it just it, it just I
don't know.
And then, next thing, you know,I moved to, la and me and my
friend, uh, we, you know, as weknow, as we started like he was

(43:42):
a DJ and I was like his, likebooking agent and uh, and so we
bought watches together.
We're like we need some.
You know, if we're going tostart pitching stuff, like I was
going around calling people,doing cold calling, posting ads
on Craigslist, just trying toget bookings, like for weddings
and and corporate events for him, and I was like, if I'm gonna
be presenting stuff, like it washis idea, kind of like we need

(44:04):
watches, like we need some coolass watches that make us look
professional.
And you know, we just we wentout, we bought watches.
We didn't buy like anythingcrazy, like we bought some, um,
just some, some nice littlecasios, you know, like the
little, like casio metalbracelet ones, um, because he
was like a retro head, uh, butbut anyway, so when we brought

(44:27):
him together, that that sense oflike, camaraderie, like like I
never forget it, you know forfor you and your friend to have
like, like a, like a, like afriend's watch or like a yeah,
and so then I was just like theway his and his, yeah, yeah yeah
, kind of like, yeah, not, yeah,the opposite of his and hers.
But you know, you know I'mtalking about like you have

(44:48):
friends where you buy watchestogether, um, or you know, you
maybe buy the same watch as yourfriend or maybe buy, like, a
different variation of it or adifferent dial color, and it's a
way to kind of uh, to kind ofexpress your friendship with
somebody and I have a similarstory as you actually.

Yandretti (45:04):
So my friend jeff uh, so this is like circa from 2012
, 13 to about 2020, right so hewas very into watches also and
every year so he had a realestate company in stan island in
in New York and I had ane-commerce business with like
involving private label goodsand shipping containers.

(45:24):
So every year, him and I wouldget a new watch and it would
always be some kind ofindependent because it started
off.
You know, my first like big boywatch was a Breitling and he
also had a Breitling and once wegot away from, uh, we both like
agreed that our taste leanedtowards independence for like
cool stuff that you won't see,really made differently and uh,

(45:47):
not to kind of appease to themainstream crowd, but more to
like the individuality of theperson who's going to wear that,
I guess.
So I remember every year wewould commemorate business by
getting a watch.
So it was almost it wasn't acompetition, but it was more of
like, oh, what are you going toget?
Like I couldn't wait to seewhat he would get and he
couldn't wait to see what Iwould get, and then we'd go for
like a walk and kind of checkout each other's watches and

(46:09):
kind of, oh congrats, ohcongrats.
So I remember I got a Beauvaisand he ended up getting a Harry
Winston Premier and then theWinston Premier.
Then the following year I gotmyself a Luis Monet Geograph
Rainforest Limited Edition andhe ended up getting the
Perpetual Calendar from RogerDubois.

(46:30):
I forgot the model name.
I'm so bad with referencenumbers, man, I can't keep all
that in my head.
We're just going back and forthyear after year of independent
brands.
Then both of us ended upgetting Ulysses, Nardin, Maxime,
Marine, the chronometer, whichI still have to this day.
It's the only chocolate dialrose gold case watch that I have

(46:52):
.
It's like a two-tone but it'slike brushed chocolate dial,
which is just completelygorgeous.
And one thing also I'll say,since I have a large collection
that I've been collecting fortwo decades, what I love about
my collection and I don't knowif this is going to sound bougie
or strange, but I love that Icould go to a lot of different
events for brands and I'll beable to wear a watch for that

(47:14):
brand.
I could get invited to sayBreguet and I'll have a Breguet
on.
Like I could get invited to sayBreguet and I'll have a Breguet
on, or I could go to a Paneraievent.
I'll be able to come with aPanerai.
Go to Breitling I have aBreitling, you know.
Go to independent event.
I have like freaking 30independent watches, you know.
So I think that's kind of cool,also with having a diverse
collection.
But even the stuff like the bigbrands, like the UN, right now

(47:36):
in the last decade they're veryobsessed with getting their
freak on, so to speak, becauseeven now in Geneva, everything
is freak, freak, freak, freak,freak.
And I pull out my classic UNchronometer and I'm just like
man, this is just so, it exudesclass and confidence and just
that understated, just elegantgentleman watch, Whereas now

(47:58):
they're so focused on freak,freak, freak, freak, freak and
it's like man, Just take it backto a few cool, drop a few
classics, you know, bring thoseback yeah, I have a UN diver and
To me like it's like theperfect UN, because it's almost.

Blake Rea (48:15):
It's not like they're chronometers like their
heritage stuff, but it's notlike their chronometers like
their heritage stuff.
But no, dude, I love it.
It's like the epitome of what adressy water rugged tool watch
should be, and that's just whatI tend to wear.

Yandretti (48:31):
So I like to get visual, as you can tell.
So I'm going to whip out the UNright now.

Blake Rea (48:41):
Oh yeah, Hell yeah.

Yandretti (48:43):
You know, just, classy, old school.
You could dress it up, dress itdown, you could do a black
t-shirt, you could wear it witha polo, you could wear it with a
button-down, with a suit.
It's just, you know, nice andclassy.
It's interesting it's two-tone,which is strange because
two-tone I'm usually used tolike you hear two-tone, like
Dayjust with the two-tonebracelet, but it's weird to see

(49:04):
two-tone, I feel like, on aleather strap.
And this is it, dude awesome.
Yeah, because the lugs aresteel, and then the case is rose
gold bezel.

Blake Rea (49:15):
Have you ever been, like connected to a watch
emotionally in a way that younever expected?

Yandretti (49:31):
I don't even know why I stopped on that one.
The answer is an obvious yes.
The connections are again.
Two of the watches I'm superconnected to is that Panerai,
because I gave it to my dad andthen it came back to me like
almost like in full circle whenhe passed.
So that's significant to mebecause it was a watch I gave
him.
He wore it so much he stoppedwearing his Omega and his

(49:51):
Brigade and he would just wearthat Panerai all the time.
So seeing him wear it made mehappy that, like, oh, I was able
to do something to give back tomy dad, because if it wasn't
for him I probably wouldn't havegot down this watch hobby,
because he got me my first watchfor my 21st, which was a blue
Breitling Navitimer.
So I guess those two watcheshave a certain impact.

(50:14):
But then again, you probablywant me to speak on watches from
my own collection that I gotfor myself, right?

Blake Rea (50:20):
No, no, I mean just any any watch.
Um and so I, ironically, my, mydad was a, was a Breitling guy.
Um, like my, my dad passed away, like last August, and before
my wife went back to Russia, um,your, wife is Russian.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I don'tremember you telling me yeah,

(50:41):
yeah, I told you you were drunkthough I don't get drunk, I just
get tipsy okay you were tipsythen um but, no, no, funny
enough, um, or weirdly enough,like my dad, uh had had came and
he was, he'd been on a realestate for a while and then he
got back into real estate andthen he joined like a brokerage

(51:01):
here in vegas and then, becausemy dad moved to vegas and then
he kind of dragged me out here,um, but you know, as he
graduated from this, this realestate program, he was like
somebody said to him, I think,in the real estate training,
like you know, it's all about mymy dad was always like a real
sharp dresser, but you know, um,they were like you need a super
nice watch.

(51:22):
You know, and you know my dadhad a movado, which you know
isn't, isn't, isn't terrible, no, have you seen some of these
vintage movados?

Yandretti (51:30):
oh, my god, they're beautiful.

Blake Rea (51:32):
Make movado great again yeah, no, I mean his was
uh, it was more like a mid-2000smovado because it had, like the
, the little holes in the brace.
I can show you a picture of it.

Yandretti (51:43):
It's called the Museum.
No, Wasn't it like a Zenithmovement?

Blake Rea (51:45):
It's called Movado Museum, no no, this was like
this was a quartz watch, okay.

Yandretti (51:51):
But I think it is called the Museum Movado Museum.
Look it up later if you have achance.

Blake Rea (51:55):
Yeah, it could be, yeah, it could be.
But so anyways, this guy kindof put it in his head that he
needed like a watch or something.
And me and my wife went withhim to like we took him to
Bucherer here, and so he waslike Blake, what type of watch
should I get?
And so anyways, he was likereally stuck on this, like Rolex

(52:19):
.
I was like trying to see if Ican get him a Rolex right, like
you know, the epitome of astatus watch and for whatever
reason they wouldn't allocatehim one.
You know how it is.
But then we were going throughthe certified pre-owned session,
my dad pulled out this likebust down, like diamond bezel,

(52:44):
like mother of pearl dial, likediamond indices dial, and it was
like I mean, it was like a dayjust right, you know, um.
And I was like dad, do youreally?
You really want this?
like you're really going all out, huh yeah, and I was like uh,
and he was like, yeah, well,what else do you think better we
could find?
And and so I mean, this waslike a twenty thousand dollar
watch, mind you.
And I was like, so thechallenge was accepted, that,
you know, I found something thatkind of fit his bill.

(53:06):
Like, uh, he wanted somethingthat was, uh, you know,
comfortable, you know um to wear.
I mean so rubber.
You know, we decided on rubber,but I ended up we ended up
pulling out the um, thebrightling super ocean heritage,
um on rubber, two-tone, so ithad gold in it.
You could wear it with, with,with silver gold, whatever, and

(53:27):
and he went for that, which was,you know, six grand um, and
then, and then he wore it everyday, and then you know when
those odd months would change.
Like he didn't even know how toset the date.
So, like, um, I'd have to meetup with him to to set the date
properly, properly, or like ifit would stop running.

(53:48):
Like he didn't even know how toreally set the watch.
But, um, he got that maybeabout, uh, like a year ago, like
, like like four, four or fivemonths before before, before he
passed away um, but but now thatwatch is so crazy important to
me because we got to like shopit with him, like we were there

(54:08):
involved in the buying process,like I I helped him pick it out,
um, and and yeah, so, so I havethat same kind of connection,
you know that, that you havewith your Panerai and um,
whenever I I was working at umlike a cybersecurity company and
uh, you know, when I wentfull-time into contractor, um,

(54:30):
my dad was like, oh,congratulations, now, you know,
now you're a free man.
You know like you can do whatyou want.
You know, cause I was, I was ona salary, I was on a fixed
salary and um, you know, becauseI was, I was on a salary, I was
on a fixed salary and um, youknow, just the, you know, from
transitioning from like you know, the entrepreneurial side, you
know, and so my dad, um, hehelped me buy, ironically, a

(54:50):
panerai, so, um, so it was likethe luminor, just the 44 luminor
, and I had like said somethingwhere I, you know, I like put a
bunch of money into like my,like my, um, like my retirement
account and uh, it was like aRoth, so like it was post, post,
tax, so like um, or or, uh yeah, post tax, so like I could

(55:12):
withdraw it at any time.

Yandretti (55:13):
Yeah, do you do that every year?
Yeah, oh yeah, you just I justdid it now too.
You know it's funny, so I didit right before you know.
You had to roll over the 7K andI'm very big like huge on Tesla
stock Because I think it'sgoing to be my personal opinion
that it's going to be thebiggest company market cap wise
ever, not because of the cars,but behind all the tech.

(55:34):
So just when the market dropped, the money came into the IRA
account and I bought a whole 7Kof Tesla and then it just shot
up already, like in these twodays.
So random tidbit.
Their earnings were crazy downyeah but you know what it didn't
once Musk got on a call and hewas like you know, I'm going to

(55:55):
be spending a lot more time withTesla instead of like Doge and
all the stuff that's rolling outwith the robo taxis and the
fully full self driving and alsothe Model Y.
He said they're going to becranking out Model Ys in like 33
seconds per car, which isinsane.
Like production wise.
I don't even know how that'spossible.
But the earnings call.
The earnings were not too goodbut shockingly, after hours the

(56:19):
stock went up and pre-marketwent up and it's been up today.
Shockingly, I was like what now?

Blake Rea (56:23):
I expected like a huge sell-off, but yeah have you
, have you ever gone down like arabbit hole, like chasing a
watch, that that barelyanybody's ever heard of?

Yandretti (56:35):
uh well, I feel like I was one of the first people on
Barron's and that's probably Icould say right now Barron's is
probably my favorite brand.
I have three Barron's watchesand I plan to get more, because.
So I feel like Barron's theyare bringing again.
I feel like Chinese watchmakingstill has this stigma To the

(56:59):
point where people would ask meabout Barron's and I wouldn't
even say it's Chinese, I wouldsay Hong Kong, just because I
don't want them to start kind oflike, oh, is that Chinese?
And I feel like five years fromnow, and the people who are
like super Swiss, swiss, swissthey're going to hate me for
this, but there's going to be nodifference.
The whole like, oh, swiss, onlythat's something that's going

(57:23):
to be gone.

Blake Rea (57:24):
I feel like five years from now, because yeah,
chinese watchmaking is right now, just though they're doing.

Yandretti (57:27):
They're coming out with like triple access
tourbillons at like aridiculously affordable price,
for example, wow.
But with barons specifically,uh, they have three levels.
They have the barons inventor,the baron's original, which is
like their low entry, then theinventor, which is like their
mid-tier, between like six toten grand watch, and then they

(57:49):
have a new one that they cameout with called the baron's
master series.
So last year their first watchwas the kung fu.
There was only 10 of them madeand I posted on my instagram
when I met with them and thiswatch is it's freaking insane,
like it's an insane watch.
It's around, like I think,$18,000.
So their midline series I havethree pieces.

(58:10):
I have the Joker, which was thecollaboration with Konstantin
Chaikin, which, by the way,they're coming out with a second
collaboration with Chaikin inJune, which I still don't know
what it is.
They wouldn't even show me, butit's the second collaboration.
And Chaikin has made quite aname for himself in the watch
community Because before he gotfamous with the Joker watches,

(58:33):
he was actually a very renownedwatchmaker in Russia and a big
clockmaker.
He made some legendary clocksand he holds, like I think, over
25 different patents for likeclockmaking and watches.
But you know he blew up withthe Joker watch and then, uh,
last year he made the like thethinnest watch.
I feel like everyone's been ina competition to make the
thinnest watch possible.
Yeah, it seems lame, but which II agree, because I want a

(58:58):
little bit of heft on my watch.
I don't want like a piece ofpaper with a strap.
That to me, is kind of so myfavorite Barron's watch.
So the second one that I havefrom them is the Batman
Tourbillon.
I'm not sure if you've seen it.
It was one of the watches Ibrought with me to Geneva.

Blake Rea (59:14):
I think I saw it yeah .

Yandretti (59:16):
So at first I had a love-hate relationship with that
watch because I bought itwithout ever seeing it in person
.
I only seen videos of it andnot even like review videos,
because it was limited to 200pieces and again, a lot of
people don't know Barron's andwhen you have only 200 watches
made, the chances of you seeingone in the wild is probably
almost non-existent.

Blake Rea (59:36):
Yeah.

Yandretti (59:37):
And so I ended up buying the watch.
The reason I had a love-haterelationship, so Batman is my
favorite superhero ever.
I don't even consider him asuperhero.
He was a crime fighter who wasthe real Batman, not what the
movies made him.
Have you seen the last Batmanmovie with Robert Pattinson?

Blake Rea (59:53):
No, I haven't.

Yandretti (59:55):
I need to To me Batman is Christian Bale, come
on.
Or Michael Keaton.

Blake Rea (01:00:02):
Or Michael Keaton.

Yandretti (01:00:02):
Okay, yes, I actually rewatched Batman Returns with
my sister.
I put her on recently.
That used to be my favoriteBatman, but the last one is
incredible.
Man, like you need to see it.
Trust me, it's amazing.
Yeah, I'll check it out.
But in this Batman movie, batmanwas who he's supposed to be.
He's not a superhero, he was adetective.
In the comments he was adetective looking at clues and

(01:00:25):
solving all this stuff, and hehappened to have all these
gadgets, since he was abillionaire, to be able to
assist.
So technically, he's not asuperhero.
He has no superpowers.
So what Barron's did?
They collaborated with WarnerBrothers for the 85th
anniversary of Batman and tocreate this Batman watch.
So where my love-haterelationship comes in from, the

(01:00:47):
watch is 38 millimeters, andyou're probably thinking like
that's a good size 38.
I agree 38 is a good size.
I have two Ming watches, bothin 38.
The problem that I have withthis watch being that small,
it's also thin.
What goes into this watch?
So the watch itself is amasterpiece.
Come back.
I can't see you.
I feel like I'm looking atmyself.

(01:01:07):
It's weird.
Where are you?
I'm here, come back, Okay.
So there you are.

Blake Rea (01:01:12):
Just the editing, the editing.

Okay, gotcha, so listen whatever is more
comfortable for you.
So this watch what makes it amasterpiece?
It really is a horologicalmasterpiece.
So the assignment was for thewatchmaker and I found this out
because I questioned.
So the Chaikin Joker is 42millimeters, which is on the
bigger end, but it's a nicewatch.

(01:01:34):
So I would have preferred ifthis Batman watch was also 42,
and I'll tell you why.
So I would have preferred ifthis Batman watch was also 42,
and I'll tell you why.
So the assignment was fit abilateral date wheel, day and
night indicator into the watch,a free sprung tourbillon into

(01:01:59):
the watch, a power reserve, askeletonized manual movement and
a bi-directional date wheel.
Manual movement and abi-directional date wheel.
So what I didn't realize untilnot that long ago.
A bi-directional date wheel isa very difficult complication
because most date wheels just goforward.
So today, what's today's date?
The 24th, 23rd 23rd 23rd.
If I need to go back to the 22ndor 21st, I have to go all the

(01:02:20):
way forward.
You know, 24, 25, 26, 27.
Until I get there Withbi-directional, I just, you know
, click the crown backwards andI'll go back to yesterday right
away, instead of having to gothe whole month just to get back
.

Blake Rea (01:02:32):
Especially, if you're traveling.

Yeah, and I didn't know until recently, until not
that long ago, that that's avery difficult complication to
be able to move the day wheelback instead of having to go all
the way around the month.
So they fit that into the watch.
They fit a free sprungtourbillon which is the batman
logo.
On top of it, the tourbillonwhich kind of the bat, the bat
symbol, spins around on thetourbillon.

(01:02:54):
That's the bottom half of thewatch, and then at the nine
o'clock they have a rotating AMPM indicator, which the PM is
the it's like.
So it looks like a ball, like afloating ball that rotates.
So the black part of it has theBatman logo, that's for
nighttime, and then the otherhalf of that ball is white and
it has BW standing for BruceWayne, which is the day

(01:03:18):
indicator.
And then at the top, at aroundtwo o'clock, they have a power
reserve.
So they fit all of this into askeletonized manual wine
movement into a 38 millimetercase that's also super thin.
So that was his assignment.
He's like I want to see, I wantthe challenge of fitting all of
this into a super thin, smallcase.

(01:03:38):
But my issue was which is wherethe love-hate relationship came
from?
I wish it was bigger because Ifeel like it has so much juice
in the box that I want to beable to really magnify and
appreciate it all, instead ofkind of having to put a loop to
it to really see what's inside.
I would have preferred if itwas 42, just like the joker,
because those four millimetersthey make like a huge difference

(01:04:00):
, you know, in terms of visual.
But everyone who's seen it waslike holy shit, what like this
is incredible.
It's incredible.
You know everyone, every time Iwear it, people want to take
videos, photos, and which mademe appreciate it that much more.
But the real appreciation camewhen I realized that the
watchmaker, when I sat down withbarons and uh, the CEO, eric,
in Geneva, and he I asked himwhy'd you guys make it so small?

(01:04:21):
Like, uh, he's like it's notsmall.
I'm like, okay, 38, it's notsmall, but why not 42?
All your other watches are 40,41, the Joker's 42.
And he said specifically thatthe designer wanted the task of
putting all these crazy thingsinto a smaller case just for the
challenge for himself andmission accomplished, man, so
crazy time piece um.

Blake Rea (01:04:49):
Have you ever, like, influenced a watch brand
directly in their design?

process.
I know that you also did uhlike a piece unique with uh
chanel um, it's funny how youpronounce his name.
Chanel like the handbags.

Blake Rea (01:05:00):
Dude, embarrassing.
Involvement Chanel, chanel,Thomas Chanel.

Okay, chanel, it's called Chanel, that's fine.

Blake Rea (01:05:10):
But no, jokingly, my friend follows him.
And yeah, I think I told youbriefly, but my friend follows
him.
He's like dude, this guy's inGeneva, you got to fucking meet
him.
And I friend follows him.
He's like dude, this guy's ingeneva, like you gotta fucking
meet him.
And I was like he's like, I'vebeen trying to get one of these
watches for a long time, youknow, and he's just, the guy's
just got so many projects infront of him.

Um I'm gonna tell you a secret.
I mean, I don't know if it's asecret, so hopefully it's not,
so you know who he's trying todo a collaboration with, who
actually wants to do it with himandre burkus.
Oh, wow, yeah, that would befreaking insane.
Yeah, I guess they met eachother in geneva and we're like I
know, I like your stuff, I likeyour stuff.
Oh, let's do a collab.

(01:05:51):
That would be freaking wild.
Like burkus has been killing iteverything.
I see that him he comes outwith.
I'm just like wow, wow, wow,wow, wow, like my eyes.
Just that would be insane.
Yeah, so you were saying so.

Blake Rea (01:06:03):
Your friend was like yeah, yeah, my friend sent me
his his instagram tag and waslike dude and so I reached out
to him when I was in geneva, andthen, um, and then so he and I
were going back and forth and Iwas like, hey, dude, I'm at, I'm
at, uh, I'm at the paul expo.
Like, where are you?
He's like, oh, I'm at thebarrage.
And then I would go to thebarrage back, dude, I'm at the
paul x pro, or like.

(01:06:23):
Like, I like, so it just seemedlike we were at the opposite
places at the opposite times, um, but ironically.
And then when we went to thewolf party, um, and you know,
you were like, oh, like I waslike, oh, what?
Oh, uh, chanel, and I was like,um, I was like, wait, what the
fuck?
Like like I'm, you're so usedto seeing like black and white

(01:06:45):
ceramic stuff, um, and and thenwhen I, when I looked closer at
it, and then I still didn'treally it's, still didn't really
process, but then, um, when youknow I was following him, and
then so he posted your watch upand I was like, oh, fuck, okay,
like full circle moment, yep, um, and so tell, tell us about

(01:07:07):
that whole like process.
For like, I mean commissioning,I'm assuming you just
commissioned to watch with him,or yeah.

So I'm gonna tell you the full process, but before I
get to that, I'm gonna tell youa funny story.
So I'm hanging out with uhthomas schnell and I'm hanging
out with my friend nick uh,timekeeper's guide uh, who I
spent the whole week with prettymuch he planned it the
itinerary for both of us, suchan amazing dude.
So he planned the wholeitinerary for us for morning
tonight.
Because I hate planning, I'mspontaneous, so I need someone

(01:07:34):
to always plan everything for meand he just took that task and
he knew the assignment and heplanned everything.
We're hanging out at Time toWatch it's in one of the rooms.
We're just by the window, kindof uh, waiting to figure out
what we want to see next.
So we're just chatting it upand I see goldberger come in.
You know, goldberger, uh, Ithink so look him up.

(01:07:57):
Uh, aurora montanera, but hegoes by goldberger.
He's that older gentleman who'skind of, uh, he's been
collecting.
I don't know how old he is, Ithink he's been collecting since
we were like swimming in ourdad's ball sack.
Sorry if this is too rated rand c for this.
Yeah, so if you, if you look upa photo goldberger, if you just
google, you'll be like, okay,this guy, like you've definitely

(01:08:17):
seen him somewhere beforebecause, uh, he's known in the
watch community, oh yeah yeah,yeah, john goldberger yeah, yeah
, yep.
So I've seen him walk in and Iknow he likes all these vintage
stuff, like you know, vintagetanks and, uh, all these vintage
watches.
So I'm like man, I get mysalesman hat on and I'm like to
thomas chanel, I'm like I'll beright back, I want to show

(01:08:39):
goldberg your watch.
So I come up to him and I'm uh,I seen him walking by, so on
purpose, I kind of like brushedmy beard, like this, so you know
.
So the watch stands out and ashe walks by he kind of like
points to it and I'm like I wantto show you this watch.
I'm like it's a pleasure tomeet you, amir, I want to show
you this watch.
I'm actually hanging out withthe watchmaker a few feet away I
want to introduce you.
So he walks over and I tell himso the thing with the Chanel

(01:09:02):
watch is he uses these vintage40s and 50s Longines movements
into these watches.
So that was kind of my sellingpoint for Goldberger.
I was like, oh, take a look,and he comes over.
So I introduced him and Thomashad two other watches,
prototypes, with him and you'veprobably seen me post.
One was this gold dial brasswatch and another was mine, but

(01:09:26):
mine was like a salmon open workdial and the one that he had
was completely just like nudemetal skeletonized prototype
which also was insane, likeeveryone who saw was like, oh my
god, I want one.
And I think I got his uh, hisbooks closed for like another
half a decade now thanks to mypromotion.
But um goldberger walks by andhe takes a look at the watch.

(01:09:49):
He starts talking to thomas andout of nowhere, he just like
reaches into his jacket, takesout a loop, looks at the watch
and tells him oh, the movementon this watch was imported in
like 1952, and just kind of putshis loop away, gives him the
watch and walks away.
We're all just looking at eachother like what the?
And like we're cracking up.
You know, he just took out theloop and tells him the year that

(01:10:11):
it was imported.
That's crazy.
Yeah, so the chanel watch.
So my process with him.
I read an article I don'tremember if it was with
monochrome watches or hadinki.
One of them had an article onthomas chan schnell in 2022,
2023, something like that.
They actually had one recentlyas well, one of the two.

(01:10:31):
One of the two did it first andthen the other of the two did
it?
Uh, maybe two months ago.
So I've seen his watches and itcatered to what I was looking
for at the time.
So what I was looking for, Ialways wanted a cartier tank
style watch.
So the only two real companylike two not real, but the only
two companies that kind of makethat look are jlc with the

(01:10:51):
reversal and cartier with thetank.
What I was looking for, thatlike tank style, yeah, the
problem is I have never been afan of jlc, just personal
preference.
You know it's a legendary brand.
Just the reversals, just they.
It's not me, it never spoke tome.
Cartier tanks certain modelsspeak to me, obviously the
classic ones and, as mostrecently, I like the Art Deco.

(01:11:12):
There's the vintage Art Decoand there's the new Art Deco and
also the Mosaic dolls.
They premiered at Watches andWonders in 2023.
2022 or 2023?
I think it was 23.
It's like rose gold, yellowgold and white gold tiles.

Blake Rea (01:11:31):
Like the tributes or something.
Yeah.

My issue with a Cartier tank and why I ended up
not getting one.
Because any tank I ever triedon, it just didn't sit good on
me.
Either I have weird wrists ormaybe due to how flat the case
is, it just doesn't have like aflush way of sitting and I get
OCD with watches.
So if it's not sitting rightand I kind of have to move it
around it still doesn't sitright, then it won't sit right
with me, figuratively speaking.

(01:11:56):
So once I saw the Chanel watch,I'm like whoa, that caters
exactly to what I want.
I was looking for a tank style.
It has that tank style, but ontop of that it looks completely
different than anything in themarket.
And again, I like my watchesunique.
I like to walk into a watchconvention with something that I
could share with fellow watchcollectors to really wow them,

(01:12:18):
not because I want to wow them,but to kind of share that joy of
like, hey, check this out, thisexists in the world.
Oh, what's that?
Oh, tell me more.
Oh, this is so cool.
Oh, I like to share that passionof watchmaking of these
independent brands and microbrands with other collectors,
because there's a good chancethat a lot of the watches I have
.
Someone hasn't seen them everin the wild and just for them to

(01:12:39):
experience, like whoa, there'ssomething super ultra cool out
there that I've never heard of,this is awesome, thank you.
Thank you for introducing me.
You know, I like that feelingof just like sharing, you know,
with these watchmakers, the artthat they have created and to
share with, to help share withthe world, because you know,
obviously, these indie brands.
They have smaller budgets than,say, a Rolex or Patek, so I

(01:13:00):
like to kind of market it forthem, almost be their ambassador
.
You know, if the brand, andwith the chanel watch, what I
really loved were the lugs.
They were stepped on both sidesand they were also sandblasted
and they kind of curved to thewrist and on top of that the pin
buckle on the strap also has astepped pin buckle, so it kind
of matches the case, which Ithought was super cool, and I

(01:13:24):
also love the art Deco style ofthe dial and there was.
When I contacted him it waslast year he told me his books
are closed and every month Iwould kind of DM him and bother
him because I'm very impatientwith watches.
If there's a watch and I can'twait, I don't want to wait.
Like, for example, I have aChristopher Ward Belcanto.
I have the Phoenix editionwhich this guy, jazz, from a

(01:13:47):
McLaren car club created.
He does bespokes with CW andthe Belcanto Phoenix.
It was made with this superbright orange color to match his
McLaren, which is that orangecolor, and he ended up.
I met him through the Rolexforums at the time that I was on
them.

Blake Rea (01:14:06):
It's called Rolex forums is the message.

I ended up getting the it's called rolex forums as
the message.
Yeah, yeah, for like them justbeing snobs and whatever.
But I met josh through thereand he ended up actually giving
me an allocation for the belcanto, for the phoenix, and
there was only 99 of them madein that color.
Yeah, so, even though the belcanto is already not a rare
watch, but the phoenix isbecause 99 were made, yeah yeah,
so with that, watch, um sure.

(01:14:31):
Why did I bring it up um?

Blake Rea (01:14:34):
you're talking about kind of like how your
collaboration with him kind ofmanifested hold on, hold on.

I'm trying to remember, um, this is what
happens when you go off tangents, and I could speak all day on
watches.
That's all right.
Uh, okay, so whatever.
So back to back to thomas.
So, what I liked about the case, I like these, ah, okay, so, cw
, they didn't even.
Uh, they had some watches that,um, there was like in I think

(01:15:01):
it was in prague, there was likea micro brand and in the event,
and then thomas, actually, Ifound out about this event and,
uh, thomas was there showcasinghis watches.
I think I forgot what's calledlike prague indie show, prague
micro brand micro brand prahayeah, yeah, okay.
So you know what that was.
So I ended up looking at theinstagram, at the stories, and

(01:15:23):
started seeing all the coolwatches.
They were there and one of themof them was Chanel's prototype
of the skeletonized dial.
And at this point, ah, so okay,I remember back to the same,
why I brought up CW.
So CW, they had a pre-order forthat Belcanto, I ordered it and
I got the watch a year laterand I can't do something like
that again, because to wait awhole year, it's like man, if I

(01:15:47):
want to watch, watch, I want it.
Like even two months is kind oflong.
I want it now, yeah, I rememberwhen I wanted that baron's joker
because 200 were made, Iliterally ended up finding a
seller for it and I had thewatch shipped overnight to get
it the next day, like I can'twait.
I'm super impatient, which issomething I need to work on.
But also, if I like watches,why do I need to be patient?
If I want to wear one today, Iwant to wear one today.
So, yeah, so that's why Ibrought up cw, because it took

(01:16:10):
like a year for the belcanto.
So when chanel tells me hisbooks are closed, I decide to
bother him at least once a month.
Like, thomas, come on anyupdate, any update.
And I actually told him that,uh, I love your watch so much
that I want to, like you know,feature it in it in different.
At the time this was right, Iwas about to do Tommaso's show
or maybe I just shot it, I don'tremember the collector

(01:16:31):
conversation and when wefinished it, tim actually told
me he wants me back for a sequel.
So you heard it here first.
So with a sequel, I have tobring a new set of watches, and
one of the watches that I wantedto bring was Thomas's because
it's again, it's so unique andit's a watch that I like, love
and that I hold so dear to mebecause it really itched, that

(01:16:51):
tank itch that I was scratchingat for years and years.
And I'm glad I didn't pull atrigger on the tank.
I feel like I would haveregretted it.
But Thomas's watch gave meeverything that I wanted that
look, that feel of like what itwould have been like to have a
tank, but with a different,unique spin on it, just
something completely out there,something completely unique.
And I haven't seen a singlethomas chanel watch in the wild

(01:17:13):
until I met thomas chanel and hehad two on him, you know.
So I'm probably the only one innew york who has a chanel for
now, or, as you would say,chanel.
And finally he got back to me.
He's like I'll open my booksfor you.
You've been patient long enough.
I waited months and months andmonths, and then I asked him for

(01:17:37):
a small solid, which he chargesfor, but he did it for me to
put my favorite number, which is23, and to put Faryan on the
case back.
I saw that which makes it itlike a almost like a unique
piece for me, because that watchis special to me and I wanted
it kind of catered to me, evenmore so than just if he would
have gave me the watch.
So he did all that and when Isaw the problem, what was it

(01:17:59):
called?
Praha or Prama, I don'tremember.
Micro brand Praha no-transcriptdeco numerals and I was like,

(01:18:36):
okay, this is what I want, likelet's do this.
And he was like, okay, cool.
And then he told me he couldmake the case, since it's open
work.
You pretty much see themovement on the dial.
It's open work and he said itcould be salmon, like salmon
coated movement, and I'm like,okay, perfect, let's do that.
And so now it's like a salmondial, but it's pretty much the

(01:18:57):
whole movement is on the dialplate.

Blake Rea (01:18:59):
It's amazing, dude.
Yeah, it's amazing.

Yeah, and then he put it on this crazy gray salmon
strap and I was just like, oh myGod.

Blake Rea (01:19:10):
How do you feel that like?
Let me see, do you think ofyourself more as like a?

curator or like a patron of the arts or just an
enthusiast.
So I'm weird, I'm like I'm ahuge enthusiast.
Like so I'm weird, I'm like I'ma huge enthusiast.
But also I love to share thatenthusiasm and all these rant,
like in quotes, random brands.
The reason I say random becausemost of the brands I look at
people have never heard of themand I just want to share that
like hey, check this out, thisis super cool.
You've probably never heard ofit and if you actually do the
research, you'll see that it'san amazing brand.

(01:19:45):
So I'm very enthusiastic.
I love to share that.
I almost it's almost like I do,like I'm an advertiser for these
freaking brands.
I need to start getting paidfor this.
I promote the shit out of them.
Like you know, my fernandoron's on jump hour, the schnell
watch, my barons.
Like I just wear them all thetime to like all these events
and like that I know it's goingto be new people and just

(01:20:06):
because one it's, I know I'mgoing to be the only one in the
room with it too.
It's just it speaks to me inthat artsy, unique watch.
That just kind of is anextension of my personality and
also just to kind of I wantpeople to know that there's
these amazing brands out therein like these uncharted
territories that you don't knowabout because you've been

(01:20:29):
spoon-fed rolex and patek downyour throat like, yeah, since
you're a child, you know andthere's just so much cool stuff
out there that you don't knowand it's so much cooler than the
stuff.

Blake Rea (01:20:39):
You know, is there a watch out there that like that
eludes you, that you've beenlooking at for so long that you
know maybe you passed up on itwhen you had the opportunity to
buy it and just since then youhaven't seen another one come
back or like.
Is there something out therethat that has done that to you?

no, honestly, no, no, okay, uh, surprising, like,
what I really like is the ludwigbayard upside down watch.
I think that's an insane watch.
But I'm also at this weirdpoint in my life right as like
this huge watch enthusiast.
I'll give you an example.
Like I love the mbnf perpetualcalendar, I think that's, in my
opinion, probably the best watchof these last two decades.

(01:21:19):
But and I know this is gonnathis might sound weird or it
might sound very like oh yeah, Itotally agree and understand
that.
So the watches say about 160,000, right, if I say got that watch
?
Right, say I decide I'm likeyou know what I want that watch,
let me freaking pull thistrigger and I buy this watch for

(01:21:39):
160 grand.
Right Now I wear this watch.
Instead, you know what I coulddo with that same 160 grand Buy
like 20 super cool independentwatches and literally have 20
super cool watches that'll alsohave balanced wheels or have
some kind of tourbillon or atell time in a different way.
So I'm at this point now whereI find it super silly to kind of
spend like a shitload of moneyon one watch where you could

(01:22:02):
literally get 10 super cool or15 super cool, heavy-duty,
finely-made watches for thatsame amount and they say less is
more.
But that's not my opinion withwatches, because there are just
so many cool indies andmicro-brands with so many
interesting designs.
The dials shapes, ways oftelling the time, like.

(01:22:23):
I have this Barron's 20-gramwatch.
Have you seen it?
It's the one, the super thinwatch, but the whole movement is
right on the time.
I have this Barron's 20 gramwatch.
Have you seen it?
It's the one with the superthin watch, but the whole
movement is right on the plate.

Blake Rea (01:22:31):
I'm not sure, maybe I probably have.

So it has.
Basically, the whole movementis skeleton.
It's the one where the dial iskind of squarish, but it's not
really a square, it's a littlebit.
The angles are a bit different.
It starts off like 42 andtapers to 38.
You know what I'm talking about.
Now I'll have to go back andlook I'll I will just google
baron's 20g.
It stands for 20 grams.
The watch weighs 20 grams, soit's like literally like five

(01:22:55):
pennies.
Second baron's 20g.
You've definitely seen thiswatch.
It's oh yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, okay, this watch is.
It's a stunner.
So when I first, when theyfirst released it, uh, I think
like three years, two years agoor three years ago, people were
comparing it to like a richardmill in terms of, like it's like

(01:23:15):
having an mbnf for richard millon the wrist, except for like
120th of the price, and it'svery true.
So that, barons, I, I think theMSRP is like close to $8,000 on
it, like $7,800 $7,600.
$7,600.
But that watch, literally onthe wrist, it feels, it looks
and it's made like a freaking$60,000, $70,000, $80,000 watch.

(01:23:40):
So it curves First off, itcurves to your wrist.
Second, it weighs literally 20grams.
That's why it's called 20g,which is funny.
They ended up making, um,another model with three
different, three or fourdifferent colors that looks the
same but it's called 11g.
And I held them both hand inhand, the 20g and the 11g, in
geneva, and the difference isobviously the freaking nine

(01:24:02):
grams.
But what the hell is nine grams?
It's like a freaking feather.
You don't really feel thedifference.
Except one cost significantlymore but this watch itself.
So it has a retrograde hoursand retrograde minutes, it has a
power reserve and the wholemovement is right on the plate.
So the case back is closedbecause you don't need an open
case, because you see, literallyon the dial, you see the

(01:24:24):
movement right, it's just super,like it's a masterpiece of a
watch.
And all the reviews when itcame out were like this is a
masterpiece, this is amasterpiece and I'm like I need
to get my hands on that.
And a lot of watch enthusiaststhat I knew who like, like
oddball watches, were sayinglike, oh, we want that watch and
at the time I was kind of, yeah, I don't know, just because the
angular case kind of fuckedwith my OCD.

(01:24:45):
But then I saw the watch, Itried it on and I was like I
need this watch and now it's inmy collection.
It's actually one of myfavorite watches.
Of all the watches, that's one.
If you told me you have to giveme six watches in your
collection, you'll never partwith that.
Baron's 20 gram is one of them,for sure.

Blake Rea (01:25:08):
That watch is just man like is.
Is there a piece that you, thatyou've gotten rid of, or you
let go that you?

just like kick yourself over for letting it go.
No, so, okay.
So there's two interestingthings, and both of them are
completely, uh, have nothing todo with each other, and it's two
things that, uh, I had to getrid of.
I call it like my blind spots,right?
So the first blind spot, whichis to answer your question, is
about getting rid of watches.
So for years, I would justcollect, collect, collect, and a

(01:25:35):
lot of collectors I met when wewould talk watches.
They would tell me that inorder for a watch to come into
the collection, something has tocome out, and after a while, at
first I was kind of like, doesit, though?
Because I would just collect,collect, collect.
And I got to a certain pointwhere I realized I'm like wait a
second, jan, you love watches,you love collecting, but a lot

(01:25:56):
of these watches you haven'tworn in years, literally like in
years, or maybe you wore oncein the last three, four years
and the question that I had todig deep in with myself and ask
myself is do you really need itin your collection?
So I'll give you an example Ihad three Cartier's right, this
Goldor Massif, and two othervintage ones, a Galbaix and a

(01:26:18):
Touton Carre.
So the Galbaix there was only2000 of them made in the year
2000 for SIHH, for the Asianmarket, and it was an automatic
dial.
The watch was automatic,usually the Galbazer quartz
there was only two made thatwere automatic.
This was one of them that hadfully loomed Roman numerals and
there was no date window and itlooked completely like a brushed

(01:26:41):
gray dial with the steel case.
It just completely blended.
Well, only 2,000 of them made.
It's a super classic watch butunfortunately I almost never
wore it.
I wore it once or twice.
I had it for years and I endedup getting rid of that and my
two-tone caray, because the onlyone of my three Cartiers that I
would wear is my Goldor Massifand that's my favorite watch of

(01:27:02):
all time.
If you got rid of my wholecollection and if I didn't have
these heirlooms that involvedfamily and you told me, jan, you
could only keep one watch inyour collection, it would easily
hands down be this gold CartierHormisif.
So for me I started selling someof these watches because I
realized I'm like, wait a second, the watch collecting hobby is

(01:27:23):
an expensive one.
It's not like perfumes, whereyou know perfume, where, yeah, I
could spend like 400 on abottle of cologne, but it's not.
You know, watches aresignificantly more um.
So I realized I need to startselling some of these watches,
because what's the point ofhaving a watch if you're not
wearing it?
And then I would be like veryon the fence about that, because

(01:27:44):
then I would look at them andtry them on and I'd be like, man
, I don't want to get rid ofthis, I love this watch.
But then after I'm like but ifyou love it so much, why don't
you ever wear it, you know?
So I realized I need to makefree up some cash and like I
can't just keep hoarding watches, because then I'm a watch
hoarder instead of a collector.
So I started selling off somewatches, but nothing that I've

(01:28:04):
regretted yet.
Oh no, sorry, I regret one watchthat Datejust 36 Palm Green
Dial that got discontinued.
Yeah that's right.
Yeah, you did mention that.

Blake Rea (01:28:15):
Yep, that's it.
Do you feel like there's anypitfalls to avoid when
collecting independence?

No, no, just go with what you like.
The watch has to speak to youand I always say don't get a
watch just because someone elsetells you it's a cool watch.
Get a watch because it speaksto you, it resonates with you
and it just you know how it is.
You see a watch and it justthat's you.
You just know it's you.
It's like oh, this is me, thisis an extension of me, whatever
it is you it is, you knowwhether it's a color or whatever

(01:28:48):
it could be, just something inthat wash just resonates with
you and it just feels like it'san extension of your arm, you
know.
So, pitfalls, no, not really.
Just buy whatever you like.
Don't buy what someone elselikes yeah, that makes sense.

Blake Rea (01:29:00):
Um, yeah, I mean, this has been crazy insightful
to kind of to pick your brain.
Um, to talk about independence,the future of independence.
Um, I feel like we covered alot.

Can I tell you that second blind spot?
The first was with the in andout of the collection.
Yeah, the second one justbecause, so you know your
viewers and your listeners don'tget curious.
Oh, there was like two.
The other blind spot I had waswith straps.
So with straps, before I usedto feel like I could only have
the strap that came with thewatch.

(01:29:32):
Otherwise it feels like buyinga car and putting aftermarket
rims on it, which to me alwayslooked odd.
I had to get rid of that blindspot.
And now this is going to soundlike a cocky or arrogant, but
it's not.
I'm very humbled by this.
I have a lot of like people inthe watch community who will DM
me or WhatsApp me, cause I havea like.
A lot of like people in thewatch community who will DM me
or WhatsApp me because I havelike a lot of these different
like indie and micro brandgroups on WhatsApp and they'll
actually ask me to help them.
They'll send me a photo of awatch they bought or are buying

(01:29:54):
or waiting on.
They'll be like, hey, can youhelp me?
You're like the go-to guy forlike super cool, unique straps.
I became, I guess, that guy fromlike you know, I don't know, I
guess it started with thatGalaxy strap on the Ranzan and
the Mother of Pearl strap on theSultan, and I have like a good
eye for like straps.
I guess at this point, and it'sjust so, people will come to me

(01:30:15):
in the big oh, can you help melike find the strap, and I will
send them straps like you knowlinks to straps and usually
they'll end up buying it.
Usually they'll end up buyingit and then like a week later
they'll hit me back like dude, Igot the strap, it's perfect.
Thank you so much.
Like I knew I could count onyou and that's like so humbling
and it makes me feel so likelike I don't know it's.
It feels like I'm appreciatedand I appreciate that I'm able

(01:30:37):
to give back, to actually havesomeone enjoy their watch that
much more and to be of help andlike kind of give back to the
community and like whether it'sadvice or just like some kind of
help, you know, because I willtake that time to like actually
go through different straps andfind them something for the
watch.
Like you know, sometimes it'lltake me like 40 minutes to an
hour, but I'll do it because Ijust enjoy it, man, it's on my

(01:30:58):
free time.
You know, I'll just enjoy doingthat, doing something for the
community and in the realm ofthe watch community.
But yeah, so that was the blindspot to get rid of, like oh, to
just be able to put customstraps on watches.
Sorry I caught you off, but I'mdone no, no, that, yeah, that
makes sense now.

Blake Rea (01:31:15):
Uh, full circle.
And I love that, I love thatyou're, you know you're having
it the same discussion behindclosed doors but to to open it
up for for the audience, um, andyeah, I mean your.
Your wisdom is is insane.

I mean it's been a pleasure.
I'm going to get going and I'lllet you edit this.
It's been men this, like thesetwo hours flew by completely.

Blake Rea (01:31:42):
I know, I know it's crazy.
It just that's the way ithappens.
We just have so much fun onthese things it's it's hard to
to bring it all together.
You know so awesome sounds good.

All right, man, it's been a pleasure.
I'm gonna run chat with yousoon, so thank you, yeah, yeah,
later man.

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