What have my friends said? Funny enough, I was hanging out with Scarr [Pimentel, founder of Scarr’s Pizza] and he’s like, “I need to get one of these.”
What are people saying in the comments?
Well, in some of the comments, people are like, “Oh, I suppose you’re going to become a rapper now,” which I find kind of vaguely like…
Racist for sure.
One hundred percent. Look, I would like one day to own a Rolls-Royce and drive it around, because I’ve never been in a luxo barge before. I’ve never owned one of those cars. And I would like to feel what that’s like, just to be in a car that’s so luxurious. We’re only here once. You might as well try as much different shit as possible.
I’ve had interesting experiences with both the Panerai and RM watches, because when I’ve worn them, people have been like, “Oh shit, okay, I get it now,” which is unusual because they are both quite vilified. Even when I was wearing “geezer” stuff 10 years ago, people were not like, “Oh, I love that.” They were still like, “Oh, that’s the Liberace watch.”
There’s such Cartier mania right now and excitement around really boldly designed dressed watches. So the very sensible route we take is exactly the one you’re already headed down. Not just because they’re so modern, but the Panerai because of its massive size after we all bullied brands into making smaller watches.
The thing about the Panerai is it’s like a secret shame. When I post it, I’ll get messages from people wearing their Panerais that go, “I still love my Panerai.” It’s like they’ve been shamed out of publicly showing them.
Do you feel like there is something in the water and maybe more and more people are going to start embracing watches like this? Because it does feel inevitable to me, with the cyclical nature of trends, that there will be an evolution beyond the Cartier, Piaget, little-dress-watch mania.
There’s such a frenzy over Cartier, man. It just seems improbable that it’s going to continue. And again, it doesn’t mean those watches are not cool. Where do you think people will wash up?
Well, I think that they’re going to come ashore with you a little bit, at least with bigger sport watches. I wonder what else you’re kind of digging around in? Is Frank Mueller back on the table for you? Bigger, louder watches with lots of complications, which is the opposite of what’s been hot on the vintage market recently.
Funny, I did have a brief Frank Mueller dalliance, but it just didn’t quite work out.
One of the things I really like is finding watches that are super common and then finding some weird articulation of that watch. So, Rolex Daytonas, but really quite rare variations that come on a strap. It’s really specific—I’m deli-slicing this into obscurity. So there’s the Daytona Beach, which I love actually, but then no one’s really paying attention to these ones [on straps with more muted stone dials]. They’re super, super rare, but it’s like mid $30K on [resale sites].
I do love what you touched on, too, that just the experience of wearing these watches is so different. I remember the first time I tried on an RM, it was shocking because it’s so light and just looking at them, you expect them to be really heavy.
Right. Because they’re these chunky things. When people have a go at me about the RM, I just say, “Look, I’m just curious. I just want to know what it feels like.”