Paid subscribers: All winners of the holiday giveaway are being individually emailed today. If that’s you, please respond in 24 hours before I draw the next name! Welcome back to the Unpolished podcast. Our first conversation of 2026 is with Nicholas Bowman-Scargill . He’s the 4th managing director of Fears Watches , based in Bristol, U.K., and the great-great-great-grandson of Edwin Fear, who founded Fears in 1846. Fears closed its doors in 1976, but Nicholas reopened them in 2016. This year, F...
Jan 21, 2026•59 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com Click here for podcast show notes Welcome to Unpolished’s year-in-review newsletter . It won’t be the last issue of 2025, but highlights some of the most popular and interesting stories of the year, while also giving an update on Unpolished. Many of you are paying subscribers and thus stakeholders in this newsletter, so you deserve it! You can also listen above or in your podcast app. To see all the numbers a...
Dec 19, 2025•16 min
Jack Forster is the global editorial director of the 1916 Company. You can also find his writing on his newsletter, Split Seconds . Jack joined me to look back on 2025 in watches. Jack names his “Escapement of the Year,” “Chronometer of the Year,” and we talk about some of the biggest trends in watchmaking—finishing, craft, complications, technical innovations, and more. Before that, we also look at Breguet’s new magnetic escapement in the Experimentale 1. We discuss what it means to be a “colle...
Dec 09, 2025•1 hr 1 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com [Note: Today’s audio edition for paid subscribers is different from the newsletter below. It’s a travelogue of my 8 days in Geneva: Some auction talk, manufacture visits, and sights & sounds. Listen above or on Spotify / Apple . The newsletter below is a guide to Geneva focused on watches. But not only!] Arrive in Geneva by train, and you’ll breeze past half a dozen HORLOGERIE shops as you walk down the h...
Nov 18, 2025•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com I. Pink Gold 2499 There was a pink-gold Patek Philippe 2499 behind me , at about my 7 o’clock. On the Friday morning of the Geneva auction weekend, I was drinking a 12-franc cappuccino in the Mandarin Oriental’s restaurant with a friend. Pink Gold 2499 was at the table behind us, enjoying the CHF 42 continental breakfast with his family after landing in Geneva an hour earlier. This wasn’t just any 2499, but a...
Nov 12, 2025•16 min
Wei Koh is the founder of The Rake and Revolution Magazine. This year, Revolution is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Wei is one of the smartest guys in media about watches. He can write 10,000 words about the constant-force remontoir (that’s actually readable) or capture the horological and historical importance of Patek Philippe’s entire line of perpetual calendar chronographs . One of my old favorites from Wei is a piece he wrote about visiting Frank Muller in Thailand, in which he swims int...
Nov 06, 2025•1 hr 4 min
This is the audio edition of my October 29 essay, How to Actually Develop Good Taste . Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS . Shop Canvas Straps in the Unpolished Store . Paid subscribers get 10% off. Upgrade your subscription now: Get in touch: * tony@unpolishedwatches.com * Instagram * Send me a DM on Substack: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatche...
Nov 01, 2025•18 min
Not many people in watches have worked at brands, distributors, retailers, and even as watch liquidators. Steven Holtzman is the Vice Chairman of CD Peacock , a retailer in the Chicago area that also operates in Miami. His first job was in sales for Gruen in the 1980s, slowly moving up to distribute higher-end brands. Most notably, he brought Roger Dubuis to North America in the 1990s, scaling it to a business that was doing $30 million in annual sales by the time he left in 2008. From there, St...
Oct 17, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Hello everyone . Like last week, today’s grab bag is also available as an audio issue. Listen above or find it on Spotify / Apple / RSS . It’s coming a little later because I saw Doechii on the first night of her Swap Tour here in Chicago. She’s awesome. In today’s newsletter : Two ideas for indie watchmakers, when watch design changes behavior, why collectors have such a fetish for “firsts,” my favorite watch from Monaco Legend’s auction this weekend, and how to get banned. To get all of Unpoli...
Oct 15, 2025•16 min
Good morning from New York, where I’m filming a “Masterclass” for Teddy Baldassarre’s updated website. In today’s newsletter: My complicated feelings on microbrands; vintage and modern (and the myth of ‘vintage’); GMTs under $30k, and more from last month’s Q&A . 🎧 I tried something new : This week’s Q&A is also available as an audio issue. It feels like a format that naturally lends itself to audio. Listen above or find it on Spotify / Apple / RSS . Let me know if you like the format, ...
Oct 07, 2025•22 min
Last week, I sat down for a fun chat with Ben Dunn of Watch Brothers London . Ben’s a U.K. dealer focusing on complicated neo-vintage watches from the 1980s–2000s. Our conversation comes in two parts: First, we talk about how Ben’s grown Watch Brothers London since he left Facebook to become a full-time dealer in 2022. Ben’s always transparent about his business and even shares some of his numbers, which I appreciate—he’s not one of those dealers playing the fake-it-till-you-make-it game. Then, ...
Sep 15, 2025•55 min
This week, I’m joined by William Massena . Over 30+ years, William has worn just about every hat in the industry: He was an early pioneer of online forums as a moderator on TimeZone, served as managing director at Antiquorum during the auction house’s heyday, and has long been a collector with an appreciation for both vintage and contemporary indies. In 2018, William founded Massena LAB, a creative studio for collaborations. His latest collab with Vianney Halter called the Old Soul uses vintage ...
Aug 26, 2025•52 min
We’re back with another audio chat, a podcast by any other name. This week, I’m joined by Brandon Moore , an editor at Watches by SJX based in Seattle. Brandon’s been an editor since 2018 and on forums longer than that. I particularly look to his opinions on independent and high-end watchmaking, but he’s got a keen eye and appreciation for watches of all kinds. We discuss trends in independent watch collecting, the interest in hand-finishing, Breguet’s 250th anniversary releases so far, Urban Jü...
Aug 18, 2025•52 min
For those who couldn’t join our May 2025 Q&A livestream , this is the recording with Max Braun. Max is a friend, dealer, and the co-host of the great Hairspring Watches podcast . During our 45-minute chat, we talked about deals on the vintage market right now, Rolex Submariners, TAG Heuer and Formula 1 (and its impact on vintage Heuer), and a whole lot more. Enjoy, and hope to see you in our next livestream! —Tony This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers...
Jun 05, 2025•46 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com For the second day of Watches and Wonders, I joined Stephen Pulvirent and Justin Hast of The Enthusiasts . We discuss some of our highlights from the show, the vibe amid the general industry slowdown, and more. There’s Rolex, Nomos, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, and I pitch the guys on my idea of “opulent simplicity” from yesterday . I’ve included a portion …...
Apr 03, 2025•4 min
