3-Watch Thursday #17
Podcast, podcasts and patent.
Morning Team,
Hope you’re having a great week.
Just like last week I’ve been super busy, but that hasn’t stopped me from keeping an eye on the watch world to bring you 3 things to enjoy/read about/listen to on your Thursday morning.
So grab a cup of coffee, tea or your favourite beveragino and enjoy this short read.
Dialed In - How to Become a Watch Dealer: Watch Brothers London
I’ll be honest, there are very few podcasts I listen to regularly. I enjoy Significant Watches as it’s a great chance to listen to friends and the opinions of people I trust in the watch world.
More recently, Ben, founder of Watch Brothers London reached out. We have mutual friends in the watch world and I’d heard of his company before.
When he reached out, I thought I’d look into Watch Brothers London again and I found this episode of Dialed In:
What a brilliant hour of listening.
Ben reveals how he now runs Watch Brothers London full time and the challenges he’s faced starting and expanding the business.
From the listener’s perspective it highlights how he puts the customer first and I for one really wish Ben the best of luck as he continues to grow his company!
OT: The Podcast: Anthony Traina (Hodinkee) on Following Your Passions, Visiting Rolex and Weird Watches
I’ve listened to a few podcasts this week. OT: The Podcast being one of them.
I’ve been aware of their existence for a while and I’ve previously mentioned articles by Felix on here, but I’d never listened.
Well that’s changed.
In this episode they interview Tony, a person who I’ll admit is inspirational in his approach to watches for his perspective and rigour.
I try my best to keep the contents of this newsletter varied, but Tony makes that difficult especially now he is full time in watches.
Anyway, I’ll stop fanboying about Tony.
I really loved this episode for both it’s content and vibe. The hosts are great and Tony’s stories are really interesting.
I loved this episode so much so, that I went and listened to some others, including the most recent one with Chris Hall of The Fourth Wheel.
Chris, as another writer in the watch space, provided some perspective on starting his newsletter and a different perspective to Tony.
Listening to these episodes back to back it was really eye-opening to see how Tony’s work at Hodinkee is somewhat closer to how Chris can write in his newsletter where he isn’t able to express his niche perspective so much in his editorial role at Mr Porter.
I already recommend Chris’s Newsletter on my Substack, but in case you’re not subscribed you can do so via this link:
He offers a weekly newsletter similar to this, except he offers some more inside industry knowledge.
RIP EP142436B1
I was only put onto this patent and it’s expiration by an Instagram post from watch brand Horage last weekend.
You can read the patent on this link.
In summary, this patent is for the silicon balance spring and has been in existence for the last 20 years.
From my understanding, this patent was filed for by SUISSE ELECTRONIQUE MICROTECH and there is an arrangement that has allowed Rolex, Patek Philippe, Ulysse Nardin and the Swatch Group to manufacture silicon balance springs (commenter: @_rizique_).
I haven’t looked deeply into this, but it could be some kind of licensing agreement or that this company is owned by these watch companies. If anyone is able to shed some light onto this I would be extremely grateful.
The expiration of this patent allows other companies to use this invention in their own watches.
Hence, keep an eye out for silicon balance spring watches released in the coming months and years.
So that’s it.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter.
It was a bit longer than I thought it would be when I started, but that’s what happens I guess when I enjoy writing about something.
I just hope you enjoyed reading it too!
Have a great weekend!
Owen