HODINKEE Radio: Episode 87: Wrapping Up Watch Madness While Watches & Wonders Goes Online

April 20, 2020

Subscribe to the show: (Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn). Already heard it once or twice? Please leave a short review, and tell us which guests we should have on! The last few weeks have been a wild ride, to say the least. I mean, even just in the watch world (yeah, let's forget about everything else for a minute), we've seen iconic trade shows upended and we found out that Tiger actually sleeps with his Deepsea on. But, on top of all that, we've had Watch Madness, our first-ever Talking Watches bracket challenge. To say it's been a blast and a success would be quite the understatement.? Over the last three weeks, you, our readers, have cast literally hundreds of thousands of votes, slowly narrowing the field to highlight your collective favorite episodes. As it got down to the Sweet 16, the Elite Eight, and then into the Final Four, voting got tighter and tighter, and the match-ups got tougher and tougher. Eventually, a king was crowned, and the very first episode C featuring Mr. John Mayer C took home the championship, but not without John Goldberger putting up a valiant fight. There's still so much to talk about from Watch Madness, so I got Ben and James on the line to go over some of the less talked about match-ups, their respective approaches to filming episodes of the series, and the biggest surprises they experienced along the Watch Madness journey. You can see the full results here, but here's the completed bracket for reference: Adding to the excitement, the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie (FHH) announced earlier today that this year's Watches & Wonders show will go on ... online. This Saturday, more than a dozen brands that would have participated in the live show are launching their new watches as part of an online platform being hosted by the FHH. I was able to talk to FHH chairwoman and managing director Fabienne Lupo on Friday to get a bit of a preview of what's coming as well as some thoughts on the role that organizations like the FHH can play in these turbulent times. Finally, finishing things off, we have yet another story of one of our team members' work-from-home watches. This time, we've got Jon Bues, our senior editor, talking about why, despite not leaving his house, he's been rocking a classic travel watch these last few weeks. Sometimes a watch's function goes way beyond practicality itself. We hope you enjoy Episode 87 of HODINKEE Radio. Check out the show notes below, and let us know what you think in the comments. Show Notes 11:45Rolex, Tudor, Patek Philippe, Chanel, And Chopard Leave Baselworld26:22LVMH Watch Brands Leave Baselworld In The Wake Of Rolex, Patek Philippe, And Others38:10Talking Watches With Gary Shteyngart38:30HODINKEE Radio Episode 86: Gary Shteyngart39:22Talking Watches With John Mayer40:37Talking Watches With John Mayer, Part 241:00Talking Watches With Jean-Claude Biver41:05Talking Watches With John Goldberger46:10Talking Watches With Moki Martin48:30Talking Watches With Wei Koh48:45Talking Watches With Aziz Ansari49:15Talking Watches With Alfredo Paramico51:20 Talking Watches With Ren Beyer51:30Talking Watches With Fred Savage53:30Talking Watches With Ahmed Rahman54:00Talking Watches With Tony Fadell54:30Talking Watches With Daniel Dae Kim54:35Talking Watches With Reza Ali Rashidian54:50H10 Livestream: The Why Of Dive Watches57:00Talking Watches With Keegan Allen1:16:00HODINKEE Radio Episode 25: Jean-Claude Biver And Joe Thompson1:22:00Talking Watches With Roni Madhvani1:27:16Talking Watches With Matt Jacobson1:33:00Reference Points Understanding The Rolex GMT-Master