HODINKEE Radio: Episode 2: Gary Shteyngart

July 23, 2018

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! I first met Gary Shteyngart back in 2016 when he was in the early stages of researching a New Yorker story that became Confessions of a Watch Geek. If you havent read it, youre missing out C hes an incisively funny guy who is able to mix excitement and scathing criticism in a way that makes my head spin. This guy knows what hes doing.Since then, Gary has become a watch nerd of the highest order (he tans his own watch straps on the porch of his home in Upstate New York, for example) and Ive been lucky enough to get to know him a bit too. We lament our shared problem of having small wrists and opine about the best 36-38mm watches we can find (Explorers and Langes often come up).A few weeks ago, HODINKEE editor-in-chief Jack Forster and I were fortunate enough to wrangle Gary into the studio to talk with us about his forthcoming novel, Lake Success, which is in no small part about watches, his thoughts on connoisseurship more generally, and, of course, his love of good red meat.?We hope you enjoy Episode Two of HODINKEE Radio. Check out the show notes below and let us know what you think in the comments. Wrist Check An Explorer reference 1016 from the early 1960s with a stunning gilt dial and a tight rivet bracelet. Gary spent months looking for a clean example of a gilt 1016, passing on quite a few sub-par watches before settling on this one. It was definitely well worth the wait. Show Notes 0:07Gary's article Confessions of a Watch Geek6:57Jack's gold Rolex Day-Date article13:45Gary's upcoming novel Lake Success21:06William Gibson interview on watches28:02Jason Heaton on living with only one watch49:03Finding Vivian Maier