HODINKEE Radio: Episode 39: Joe Thompson

April 22, 2019

Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review here, and tell us which guests we should have on! We're kicking off something new today, here on HODINKEE Radio. We're launching a series of conversations with our very own HODINKEE editors. These will roll out over the next few months, but when we decided to do this we knew there was only one place to start: Mr. Joe Thompson himself. You might remember that Joe officially joined team HODINKEE as an editor-at-large back in September 2017, but he brings more than 40 years of reporting on the watch world to the table (not to mention the fact that he's one of the smartest, nicest, and most thoughtful people you could ever hope to meet).Since he got his start as a gumshoe reporter back in the late 1970s, Joe has met and interviewed basically every important figure of the modern era of watchmaking, from Swatch Group founder Nicholas G. Hayek, Sr. to Rolex CEO Patrick Heiniger to Citizen CEO Eiichi Yamada (who took the position just months after the end of World War II). Nobody in the history of horological journalism has been better sourced, better connected, and more dogged in the pursuit of the most important stories as Joe. We get into some of his most memorable moments, as well as why Joe continues to find watches just as captivating as ever today.Now, our conversation lasted almost two hours and it was too good to trim it, so this is our longest episode yet. I promise you it's worth the time and there are some really good stories in the back half. This also isn't the last time Mr. Thompson is going to appear on HODINKEE Radio C I can promise you that.We hope you enjoy Episode 39 of HODINKEE Radio. Check out the show notes below and let us know what you think in the comments. Wrist Check Joe will be the first person to tell you he's not really a "product guy" C he's much more interested in watches as a concept and the industry that makes them than he is in the minutiae of individual watches themselves. However, Joe still knows a great watch when he sees it and lately he's been wearing his newly-acquired Omega Speedmaster "First Omega In Space" quite a bit. Of course the story of the Mercury astronauts holds its appeal, but Joe also loves the attention to detail shown throughout the watch, especially the way the hands reach all the way to the outer tracks and the incredible legibility in general. This is a suitably august watch for a suitably august person. Show Notes 3:20The Cape May County Gazette?4:30Jewelers Circular Keystone?7:29Joe wearing traditional garb in Japan?8:36Vintage National Semiconductor watches?11:25Ernst Thomke and Joe in 1987?11:30Ernst Thomke Wiki bio?25:35The Watch Buff's Book Of Trivia, Revised Edition?27:50King Farouk's watch collection?28:05Winston Churchill's Breguet?29:10Dent Watches?32:30A History of Citizen Watch Company from WatchTime?39:51The Four Revolutions of The Watch World by Joe Thompson?54:26Nicolas Hayek with Joe in 1987?1:01:17Jack Forster on the history of the spring bar?1:15:00Patrick Heiniger obituary?1:30:00Sandy Grady obituary?1:39:00A Week On The Wrist With The Omega Speedmaster FOIS?1:41:00Nyon, Switzerland?1:41:56Isaac Rousseau?1:48:00Absalom, Absalom!