It's episode 5 of this Watch life. Hi. I'm. No, I can't. I'm Lydia Winters. It's been a week. Not like it's been a week, but like it's been a week. Yay. Been a week. The good way to say that, and today is our last day of looking back into 2023. I think once you get past the first week you should stop the look. Backs. I feel so. And so today our look back is going to be some of our favorite things, some emphasis on the some a few of our favorite things. These are a. Few of our.
Favorite. Things. Are we? Going to say no and I am going to start with the Cartier Benoit Bengal that was released at Watches and wonders this year. It's taking a design from the early 1900s and just modernizing it in this sleek, beautiful way that really marries watchmaking and jewelry. And I think this is something I saw as a trend this year.
It's not new. Cartier, Piaget, all of these amazing brands have been doing it for a long time, but I feel like this year they were noticed more broadly in the community. And that's the part I thought was really amazing because. Oh, people were talking about. It yeah. And I mean, Piaget put out the most incredible golden cuff. I mean, this is their in their high jewelry line, limelight.
But it was reinterpreting cuff watches from the 1960s and 1970s, and you see this Oval dial just peeking out of the cuff. Really cool. And it's like the bracelet is growing over the case of the
dial and the dial is turquoise. So there's even more to say about Stone dials this year, but it just really I think especially with the Cartier, with the Piaget and just seeing these beautiful timepieces being recognized for like the beauty of them, I think that's just a nice trend in, in the industry. Both of these watches are courts and sometimes courts can be, you know, a bad word. And I think it's nice to see these for their design where they're just their beauty as
like art objects. So that that's something I just, yeah, I just love them. And I really like that trend of people more recognizing watches as jewelry. So many people don't want to, I won't say, don't want to admit, you know, how do you define these things? These aren't facts, but I do think there's a huge aesthetic element to the majority of people's watch buying. But for some reason that that's not the part they want to talk about or admit to. And I think it's just that it's
not mutually exclusive. You can wear a Benoit bangle and you can wear it with a bunch of jewelry stacked and like that's really great or you can wear a diver by itself and that's also fine. Both are great choices. And I just like that it felt, and I think this is, you know, the trend I most liked this year is obviously more women in watches and just that will start changing how the industry behaves, how the community behaves, and I think that's
really exciting. OK, so my first favorite ish thing. Favorite Ish. It might sound weird, but it's it's actually the softening of the secondary market like it's been happening for a couple of years. It it was not unique to 2023, but the ridiculous highs that we saw in 2022 for many watches, especially like the so-called hype. Watches, like the most popular pieces out there, put them out of reach for anyone who could not buy it at retail.
Yeah, that's true. And I as much fun as that can be for for people who already own the watches, like, oh, it's worth so much. There's a downside to that too, because it also brought so much more spotlight in a negative way to those watches. So a lot of people stopped wearing their watches because they're like, well, now it's worth too much now. Yeah, OK, I only paid $5000 for this. I'd say only, but I paid $5000
for this. Then I could wear it on my wrist, but now it's worth 20 and now it doesn't feel comfortable wearing that outside of the house. That's sad. But then there's also that you. I mean, as as watch enthusiasts, we want people to be able to have the watches they want. So to me, if they're more
affordable, that's great. The weird thing is though, at the same time as the secondary prices coming down, the retail prices are going up. So it's makes the secondary market even a better option for for certain watches for certain people, certain instances. But I I thought that was a really good thing. You don't want to see it go down forever, but I I think it was just still needed some correction for the. The over, Yeah. The 2020, Yeah, Yeah. Well, 2020 was when it really
started, yes. But 22 is the 20 the March 22. It was a a peak that. Yeah, yeah, that that probably needed a a little bit of self correction and this this will help. OK. Very different than softening of the secondary market. I'm going Barbie movie. The largest worldwide release in 2023. The highest grossing film of 2023. The biggest Warner Brothers movie ever? Which is pretty cool. And we had like a very, like a significant watch moment in it, which I it thought was really amazing.
It's not like a watch movie in the way that you know even Interstellar was, and yet it had multiple scenes that referenced watches. Yes, and we had our amazing tag Hoyer ambassador since October 2021. Ryan Gosling was playing Ken. I mean, I'm going to recap this a little, but if you haven't heard of Ryan, well, if you haven't heard of Barbie. Ryan Gosling being Ken, I don't know. It's fine if you haven't seen
it, but these basic facts. But in the movie someone asks him the time and he does not have a watch on and he realizes what a powerful thing this is for someone to ask you that you know do you have the time? And later on in the movie we see him with and not one. Oh, you are spoiling everything. Not 2. Oh. Well, this is not. This is like a scene. This is fine, but three Hoyer watches, Gold Hoyer watches. And it was just so cool. I was lighting up in the theater
like, Oh my gosh. And of course I was like, they have to be. They have to be tag hoyers because he's an ambassador. This is so cool. It's a cool moment for watches and. It's noticeable. Yeah, and I love that they went with the Hoyer brand. They went with some history. They didn't go straight for their newest models and make it feel like, OK, this is really you know, then it gets a bit
more icky. It just feels like a fun moment and it really, you know, I I've seen you wear 2 watches for many, many years, an Apple Watch and mechanical watch, and I even do it too, hidden under my sleeve. It's funny because you're like, I've seen you do it for years and I was like, well, you started doing it over. A year ago. I'm not very pro it, so you'll see one sleeve down all the time I. Will sometimes watch mechanical watches. I I just, I I think I was thinking about this.
They made a conscious decision to go with three watches and I think it's because two wouldn't be enough to be considered weird anymore. And three, you usually do want to go with an odd number. It's like more interesting design wise. So three is perfect. Maybe they were also going to like that Buzz Aldrin look because he was wearing 3. So yeah, if you haven't seen Barbie, I don't know how that's possible since it seems like everyone has seen it, but go check it out.
It is a a fun movie, an important movie in certain ways, but for watch lovers like this is just like a really cool thing. Yeah, to be in the biggest movie of the year, this is very, very cool. OK, my next favorite ish thing is actually a watch. Yeah. OK, so Corona Tokyo is a brand that I really love. It's a brand made by, for those of you who don't know, Hajime Asaoka makes super high end
watches. Not exactly easy to get both from a price perspective and the fact that he is 1 watchmaker making these super high end pieces. So I don't know how many watches he makes a year, maybe two, I don't know, but they're not very attainable and the wait list is like a decade long. So Key, like some other great watchmakers made a more approachable brand where the it's not only approachable from pricing but also availability, although they sell out very quickly.
I wouldn't call them super available, but they've done things to make sure that if you really want the watch, you probably can get it as long as you can can be there at the right time. And they released. Well, it was announced in 22 it. Was really we're too. We're we're we're really looking back. Boo is bending the rules. OK, it didn't ship until 23 and so it was the chronograph 1 mark two and it's just a beautiful
watch. Link to the watch in the show notes on our website thiswatchlife.com but it is a salmon dial. But it's not actually a salmon dial because it's meant to be the color of Kakishibu, which is fermented Persimmon. Persimmon juice. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a very. Conceptual thing, yes. Very, very specific, but it's got a little more brown in it than a typical salmon dial. It's not as rose Goldie and it's
a 2 sub register chronograph. It's a thick baby, though it it is, it is a thick watch, especially because it's only 38mm diameter. So then when you have like it's like 13 1/2 millimeters thick. It seems even thicker, even though 13 1/2 isn't ridiculously thick. It just looks that way because it's not a big watch.
I just think it's a gorgeous design, but really I brought this up because I think it's it's a great example of these other watches kind of like MB and F releasing like the Mad one and and this more approachable series of watches or Sarpanava releasing SUF Helsinki watches that are more approachable but still incorporate some of what makes those high end watches so desirable. Like whether it's design elements or the thinking behind it or even just the brand name.
But I so yeah, that watch. I don't own it yet. I I missed out on that one. Don't know how I missed it, but I will rectify this situation. I've been trying to find one that the price isn't a little too ridiculous. Oh, this goes with your softening secondary markets. This is they weren't. Meant to be together, but now I do realize that the the those two things. It all leads to Boo being able to buy a watch. In 2024. Just one watch. They were perfect. Yeah. So I will get that. Watch.
OK. That is very cool. And I do think that you know, because of the economic state of the world, we could see that more brands actually create that secondary, not secondary create that more accessible price point brand which is very. Cool. I mean, a long, long time ago, that's what Tudor was. And I think that and that wasn't even the difference wasn't as big as as what we're talking about here. Here's like, oh, here's a $50,000 watch or a $2000 watch.
With Rolex and Tudor, that difference was less, but they do it in the car market. All these different brands have lower cost alternative full on brands. So yeah, it's good to see. OK. And last but certainly and not least, I'm going to go with joyful watches because we've had a lot of colorful things. But this year we had two watches that I think symbolize. I'm going to use symbols, graphics, images.
We had the Rolex Day date puzzle with seven inspirational words on the On the Day, the Day Wheel and 31 emojis on. You know, I'm looking at your. Face the date wheel. Listeners, you can't see her face, but it doesn't actually look. The the brows are the brows are down. Look, I think it's experimental. It's fun, it's playful. It's interesting. It's not for me, but I I like the idea idea behind it.
Now execution wise. The one that really got me though in this sort of area is the ORAS Pro Pilot X Kermit. The fact that they have this beautiful green dial, they have the cool Pro Pilot design which is one of their newer designs and. It looks very modern. Looks very modern. And then you have this, the most entertaining feature that Kermit. A little picture of Kermit appears on the 1st of every month. Or is this calling it Kermit Day and you get this little cuteness?
I love that this gives you the choice of either having the date or you could always keep the Kermit there if you wanted. Or you could, you know, use it only only on the 1st when it comes in. But I just really think, you know, it's turbulent times. Watches are still fun, and I think we're going to see a lot more fun, playfulness, whimsical things in 2024. Wow. Well, that's a great way to end things. Yeah, more whimsical is what you're going to see from this watch life. Playful fun.
And goodbye singing. It's the weekend it's. The weekend. Have a great weekend everyone. And I'm going to sleep in tomorrow. Bye, bye.