A Lively Chat With Alton Brown About His Love Of Watches | House of Craft

I must say that when I see all the faces I know now why I didn't retire because how can anybody retire from a passion I don't know our economy and the gender inequality will catch up as a brand we better be prepared for that last time I saw you you were actually talking about watches that belong to your father yeah this is all your fault yeah you guys I said it in the video and in my intro thanks for bringing it up but this is all your fault I didn't care about Watchers until you guys put all these videos gaming the algorithm pretty much yeah good afternoon ah how good is this right cozy day three Reach Out And Touch the audience yes it's very close and fun and uh look uh Alton welcome thank you thank you always for your support obviously we have a talking watches with you and Ben from 2017 you at age 10 in 2018 I was too scared to come say hi to you I don't think I was putting out scary Vibes but okay you were surrounded by other people who wanted to say hi to you so uh it's such a pleasure to have you back on the stage and and to he to chat about watches and that kind of thing and you know I just think it's uh it's kind of fun to to have some friends that keep kind of showing up and we get some of that at uh at House of craft this week uh I'm really curious you know last time we kind of touched Bas with you uh we had a chat about watches and watch Fascination and in some ways craft and that sort of stuff how's that evolved for you over the last few years well you know the thing about watches and being passionate about about watches um is directly related to your own relationship to time right and I'm running out of it um you know I'm I'm 62 now so um I look at watches now like oh crap um anybody else no I'm the oldest guy in the room um but you know that I think that when you know you're you're younger and you're um you look at a watch as a uh as a totem as a representation of where you are and who you are where you want to belong what you want to be you know like when I was a kid my fascination with watches started I learned to tell time before I learned to read um because I was obsessed with Jac stow and all those guys wore badass watches you know and badass dive watches um and a lot of different kinds not all just like submariners there are you know so many different watches um and and so you kind of use a watch to identify and then you use a watch perhaps to tell a story about yourself to to advertise this is who I am this is what I want to be and then maybe eventually you start to look at a watch as something where um you use it as a sign of your own accomplishment I have accomplished X therefore I am wearing this and then eventually you start I think wearing watches where you're looking at time and the significance of time um and and I and I think that's changed for me just since we did that that last event which has been a few years which is that time is the number one currency for me now you know when you cross into that you cross that Rubicon uh in into the 60s you're like oh oh crap yeah if you're not Keith Richards this is real you know um Keith doesn't need to watch cuz time will end when he dies but um for the rest of us um we kind of have a reckoning and so every day when you put on a watch it's like what is my relationship going to be to my mortality today because every watch becomes a momental mort and and AAL Mor and that's um kind of kind of where I am um with with watches which sounds depressing but it's not because it means that every single one that you put on um is significant and it's how it's made is significant how it feels is significant and when you look at it what does it remind you of or make you feel um is significant so it's all different for me now I'm going to stop talking well I mean you're talking about you know the significance of picking a certain Watcher when you put it on you've got two watches on currently so maybe we start with a little wrist check what what have you got on for some double risting for today's I'm I'm wearing uh first off my wife Elizabeth never wears fewer than two watches High two on one she wears two on one yeah she's got a a Santos from the 80s writing up against her uh her gold Rox so um and she treats them with complete disrespect which I adore uh yeah she got Gardens with them and they got like dirt cased on them I'm like you go girl um I'm wearing two uh significant time pieces on my right arm um I am wearing a um the my new watch uh which was done with with Brew Jonathan ferer oh Jonathan hi um there's another tall guy with glasses over there um and Jonathan and I got together and designed this watch um and and we only made a few a few pieces but it kind of represents a huge statement of of um I know for me of of what I love in watches and what I wanted that I wasn't getting uh from watches which which greatly had to do with the patina on the on this bronze dial that they we came up with and then on my other wrist I'm wearing something that is really significant to me uh because I I I believe that the one of the greatest periods of industrial design was the late 60s early 70s um the 747 uh the 911 the versions of the Porsche 911 from the uh the early' 70s and then of course the watches that were designed during the 70s especially from uh from jenta from Gerald Genta of course the the Royal Oak and the Nautilus um and this is a 1974 Omega Speedmaster with the TV style dial the reference 17.14 I think there weren't that many of them but to me every time I look at this watch it was 50 years old it looks brand new yeah which there's something about a particular time in the late 60s and 70s that when I see those designs still seem really fresh to me um and I love it's funny you get to a I don't know if this is an age thing how many people like wear a watch not because of how it looks but how it feels I I'm real tactile so H you know the way the pushers feel the the weight the way the weight moves on my wrist um I love integrated bracelets um I don't know why um but it's a thing for me a touchstone for me um so these two watches together which both have soft rectangular uh faces which is just a Vibe with me um are real significant so that's what I got on so what what do you think it was about the late ' 60s early '70s I me the the obvious point is that of course like the watch industry was really starting to struggle courts crisis etc etc um but what do you think it was that that informed the products that came out in in in that era you know when you look at the at the products I think that there was and you know when you look at the touchstones of design from that period and I'm I'm not a designer uh but I those those things resonate so strongly with me I think you know we were coming out of of the of the 60s into an age where real designers were trying to show us what the future looked like everything was forward looking it wasn't about now and nothing was being driven other than of course the the kind of dealing with the courts thing which you know a lot of great watchmakers embraced you know and there are some great references out there you know I still wear my old puls are you know uh from time to time you know and Omega had like an in-house courts movement right and and a few other houses did um but I but I think that there was still this this whole thing about the future is going to look like this the future's going to feel like this you know you're going to have a jetpack I still don't have my jetpack um and and and so there was a hopefulness that came from that that I think was a very physical um thing that was not based necessarily upon what can the technology do it's like we all now have carry around these these kind of ugly slabs in our pocket uh which don't have buttons hardly um that are defined by what technology can do not what we can do as human beings as human animals as physical things right so um and and I think the technology is greatly driven by that although I would say that the watch world now is very much about pushing back against that you know being very tactile being beautiful craftsmanship for craftsmanship sake wearing a watch that you just know what's going on in that little box all those little pieces that are moving and that gives a lot of us a a lot of Joy but for for that particular period I think that there was a a joyfulness I think that a lot of companies were untethered you know and and we all of a sudden had branif International Airlines with their color schemes you know color Peter Max kind of released us into this thing um and and the designs um certainly for es there are so many especially in the early 70s for some reason that seem to me to be new every every day and and I I don't know I'm not an expert on it so I can't say what it is but I feel it I can I see it and I feel it yeah I'm curious did you kind of explore any of that influence in your the process of creating the Brew collab yes everything that went into creating The Relic with Brew was informed by um you know the age of you know I wanted to make a watch that look like and and I think that that Jonathan did too wanted to make a watch that looked like it had been dug up on the planet Dune you know um it was kind of like something that had a real deep patina that looked like an archaeological um specimen um almost but that still when you looked at it felt futuristic in in in a way and then we married that to I was a freak over bun straps all because of one thing because of the movie three days of the Condor which one of my favorite movies of all time where Robert Redford wore a doca Shark Hunter on a bun strap and I remember being a kid going oh my God that's the coolest thing it's it's one of the all-time great looks him in that film absolutely the thing about the thing about the bundo you know it's it's it's interesting because it's it's actually hard to pull off because it's it's like it's casual and sporty but it's kind of also it's a lot of things and you got to really kind of throw your head back and just wear it which of course you know Paul Newman also did with his Panda absolutely uh for everybody in the audience we're we're going to do a ton of Q&A it's what Alton asked when when we chatted to uh to kind of plan this out I adore Q&A so please get your questions ready uh I only have like 45 50,000 more um you know I'm I'm really curious you got to explore creating your own watch and and see that come to life uh what is that like when you when you know handed you the first one or maybe the close prototype and you actually saw something that went from a you know all the design fit probably a folder on your phone you've looked at for the last few months I got pretty freaked out when the first dials came because we wanted to do something interesting which is we were going to laser wretch the indexes um around the outside so that the whole um Jonathan found some it was they were in Hong Kong right they they did the U they took these sheets of of bronze and you know they cut them and they they oxidized them and then we laser cut them to get the indexes I remember the first one he showed me I was kind of like oh wow this this is really this is really going to happen um and and that was more exciting than actually getting the first watch it was that that first understanding the one I'd never seen anything look like that before i' never seen it was like we've made a dial that I don't think anybody's ever made a dial like this before and it looks very very different and every one of them is different you know every one of them is unique um which I there one of the things that I that that I hope happens more of in the watch world now is the kind of micro runs of limited editions so that anybody that gets a watch with in reason price with with with attainable right um we'll be able to look at a watch just say no one else has this piece you know this kind of limited edition uh and I hope that we see more of that hopefully technology and and small watch makers like Jonathan will be able to make that happen and how did the um like obviously you're well known from the world of food and Gastronomy and that sort of thing and there's two different sides of that world where someone has to make that food and that's a whole different process than enjoying the food and I think that's very similar to watches in that a lot of us enjoy watches but have never gone down the process of necessarily making one or making all the decisions that go into it did did that process change your philosophy or the way that you think about watchmaking sure and well you know it's funny that you you know you mentioned the food when you when you cook you're always thinking about who the end user is going to be you know who's going to eat this you can cook just for yourself and that's and that's fine um but it may be that no one else will eat that you know you might like tootsie rolls on beef liver and that's fine you're not going to sell many it's not a sharable place it's not it's not so sharable you're going to have all that to yourself um and so you know I think that you know with the with the watch you know process you've got to look at it and say okay we are making these for other people to wear what what are they going to want what are they going to need what what what is two individual about what I'm asking for um and I I think Jonathan is really uh great at at looking at what can really be sold um out in the world um because you've got a popular brand um so there was a safety net you know for for that for I wasn't worried about putting tootsie rolls on the on the liver maybe that's the next one it's the next one good he said no to that one no oh well he's such a demanding guy right in a in a nice soft way yeah you know I'm also curious you've always been a guy in that struck me as someone who's always just followed their enthusiasm and their their personal curiosity for a great many different things and uh and I'm wondering how your the last few years have kind of changed what you're focusing on what you're in could be Watchers could be something more broad well that's a great question um you know there are a lot of people in this room I'm sure that that ended up doing what they were doing because they were following following a passion you know you probably remember why you first got into this sure do um and probably didn't have any idea where it would take you right that's correct um and but I mean but that's most most of us do that you know most of us look at well I really want to do X because I love this and then you never know ultimately where it's going to take you in my case um a lot of of the changes of the past few years that have kind of directed me more has been uh the changes in in business structures in television um the way that that that programming gets done and made and and I'm not I'm not a huge fan of it really you know uh because the the television world has changed abruptly in in just the last uh 10 years uh which is why you know I'm putting more of my um efforts into live performance because I think that people are um really interested in in authentic experiential things and television's got us all kind of fractured in 50 different directions it's oh like we'd watch your show but we're going to have to get a membership to this which means getting rid of this membership and over here and we can't remember password the whole time yeah it's it's it's it's it's a difficult and tedious world so I'm kind of switching off from that uh for a little while which I wouldn't have seen coming and for folks in the audience who are curious about the the live you know sessions what's the experience like for that well back in 2013 I did my first live tour show uh where I wanted to invent the live culinary variety show um I was very affected as a child I was born in the 60s and growing up in the 60s and 70s variety shows on TV were a big deal the sunny and cheer show the Hudson brothers you Colgate hour Colgate hour uh well that was a little the 50s uh Carol Bernett show you know shows that they mixed um comedy with music and various acts and I was like why can't we do that with food we should be able to do that with food right in front of a live audience and so I I did a tour my first tour in 2013 I thought well that that was actually a whole heck of a lot of fun I think I'll do it again and we did another one and then we did another one during Co and then we just this week announced that one more I'm GNA do one more and that and that'll be it one more live tour which will be next year starting in February we're going to play 64 cities Wow Wow on that tour um and then I'm going to then I'm going to step back for a while and kind of wait and see what happens to the rest of the planet um see if we spin out of orbit I don't I don't know what's going to happen but um I do think that if you're going to be in media and you're going to be in the public eye if you want to be relevant you occasionally need to shut up and and watch and listen so I'm I'm entering my shut up fa sweetheart I'm entering my shut up face just so yeah yeah good not just yet because we've got some questions yes questions would be awesome all right everybody let's let's kick it off anybody got a great question to get us going hey no I've really enjoyed your stuff since Good Eats so thanks for being here thank you um what watchs do you like to wear when you cook I am so rough on time piece peses um I I and I use u chronographs a lot I time everything on a watch because I hate timing if you're in the middle of cooking and you're all like greasy um it's really hard to deal with an iPhone it's just a very unpleasant experience right um so I I I use watches with with with pushers uh I've got this this speed master um an old um Omega flyback that was my dad's that I cook with a lot anything that I can res reach and punch that that timer um I don't think that there's anything that I won't cook in ah there's one Paddock I might not cook in my only Paddock I might add uh that that I won't cook with but otherwise I'm completely open I even have an old Sears stopwatch oh cool uh windup stopwatch the times it's a 30 second revolution uh so it's really very visible that I keep in my apron that I'll cook with what what have you added to the collection the last couple of years um I finally got myself you know I did have a few Grill watches as and I know Ben and I have talked about this before and and certainly Jonathan I have I am a sucker for a real messed up patina um I like to see a face where it's like where have you been and what happened to you oh my God you've had it rough um and that's one whole section of my uh collection and I I finally added a really messed up Royal Oak from the 80s where the original blue face there's nothing left um on the dial so just Nubs you know bare Nubs rode hard and hung up wet um that that uh that's that's one this this guy um and I think I oh and I put up uh I put on an old tutor sub which is my only Submariner I don't have a Rolex subor because I don't like Rolex samor U but I have a tutor samor that is all one color I call it the Swamp Thing because everything I don't know what somebody did to this thing but everything looks like seaweed the whole face and you really can't tell time with it but it ticks so I think it's doing its job okay great any other questions for Alon anybody have uh a point of curiosity please do we need to wait for a mic okay yeah yeah right get walk over um you have impeccable style and I was wondering whether you've ever gotten into pocket watches I adore pocket watches more specifically I adore the age of the pocket watch um I love pocket watch chains I I like that that that whole vibe and I've got a few um but the really good ones are really expensive you know it's like vaston made some during the 30s and 40s that are like just some and you open up the back and it's like staring into heaven you know uh and and one of the nice things about pocket watches is unlike wrist watches you know you can really get in there and see what's going on you know you got to have a microscope sometime uh for for modern watches but you can really get into a pocket watch I've got I've got just a few but it's something I could spend a lot more time on for sure I would love to see pocket watches come back in style but then we'd all have to wear waste coats and we'd have to have chains and then we'd start wearing top hats and stuff and wearing monal and oh my God where does it go from there we we we have a few guys on staff that are very Pro pocket watch right now is there a particular um brand that they are Mark that they they're uh big on the specifically the American stuff um our our colleague who's not here Mark is uh I mean like borderline working his way towards like a PhD and these things he got a lot from his grandfather and they are deeply cool you know the the whole world of just Railway watches but you know the problem with Railway watches is they're real Beast to set because they were made to be difficult to change the timeline so you know got unscrew everything and get the little eever out but it's such a beautiful coal in yeah yeah this is before before um iPhones yeah hello hi how's it going very well awesome um you've always been quite Technical and academic in the way that you approach ideas Concepts like from Goods all the way on so obviously watches are highly technical highly you know detail oriented like is there a specific aspect of a watch or a complication or something that like calls to you in a way that's different than just you know the watch as a whole like is there something about watches that really like calls out to you and kind of activates that like academic part of your brain absolutely um good question I had an uncle that I was very very fond of who was a a watchmaker watch repair man is what he called himself he actually worked in the back of a hardware store back when hardware stores used to repair watches and I would sit with him for hours watching him disassemble you know and and set everything aside and sort out all the pieces and clean and put things back and I remember the day that he taught me that there were rubies you know inside these watches and I was like oh my God it's a treasure box um and and so I became very enamored with movements I very enamored with the pieces because he would let me sort out Bridges and you know escapements and you know and and I never learned enough to like build a Watch On My Own by any stretch of the imagination um or even just keep up with the parts you know he worked over one of those big screens really these like silk screens that everything we catch on um but that's when I started to really realize that there was there was a whole magic or world going on in there um and and and and appreciating those from early on um and watching the advancements that have been made and the fact that we have not abandoned this mechanical form we keep making it better right when we could get rid of it we could get rid of it we don't need it right but we keep doing it and and we keep and every few years there'll be some massive refinement you know and somebody will come up with a new way of doing things um or making it thinner or making it you know whatever it is um and so I think that that I don't know why we have this magical commitment to these moving Parts these little bitty moving things which are completely superflous in our society they really are and yet we keep holding on to them so for me that magic of seeing the inside of Pandora's Box was revelatory really really a big deal now I don't I won't tell you that I own a watch specifically now that I own just for the movement um although I'm really the first time I took a part and I think you're supposed to do this um I'm I'm fascinated by the grand SEO spring drives you know I'm I'm a big fan of that that brand uh I was one of the few people that managed to get the 50 was it the 60-year Godzilla watch or the 50y year Godzilla watch and you know taking that apart and looking at that drive is like I've never seen anything like this before you know it's like I don't even recognize I don't know what this is you know uh which is endlessly fascinating and I think anybody that owns watches that are really into them should be able to open them up and look at them because that's really where the the magic is and for for those of you who were not in the last session W with Ronnie Chang he actually also mentioned the the grand SEO Spring Drive it's amazing that you get two shout outs Spring Drive just Spring Drive is number one it's it's really beautiful to watch um to to to open up and look at in the back I bought that watch from you guys by the way appreciate that yeah that's great you know I I I have an extension of that question great question uh when you when you think about things like Technologies things that could be added to a watch is there a you know because Brew who you've worked with they they have a connection to the chronograph to the time that it takes to pull a shot of espresso is there a complication that needs to exist for chefs that just doesn't or hasn't been sorted out or well that's a good question um I think that um the most practical um the most practical complication for a chef that has yet uh to be invented would be oddly enough um a three-minute countdown you'd be surprised how many things in a kitchen happen in three minutes um three minutes is is when the pine nuts burn um three three three minutes in the egg is done I think a three minute countdown timer would be would be a really good idea slight modification to like a a regata timer or something just small it's like a we got a timer but not quite which is one egg two eggs y three eggs done and the pine nuts are burned that's great uh anybody else with a question for for please I just changed my question in my head what's your favorite cooking show it doesn't have to be a cooking reality could be reality or like you know one of those like AMC you know I'm not going to try to be like a nice guy my favorite cooking show was good eats uh and and that's because I made it for me um it was the show I wanted to watch so I was lucky enough to get to make the show that I wanted to watch so it's my favorite absolutely I hear are there other people doing good whatever um no there there's so much good uh food content now but um I don't watch it to be honest with you so yeah good eats I like I do too good eats we we could start a club you have a good eats book not in there that's too small we'll have to oh down there come at me later uh another question there's a gentleman way in the back here with a fantastic beard Adam hi hello beard thank you if thank you for indulging ing me um imagine this watch Stadium it's your Grail watch versus the underdog what is your gril watch and what is the underdog that can go up against it well I tell you right now the uh Underdog would be the uh Timex Marlin uh because uh it takes a licking and keeps on ticking nobody remembers that CLX it takes a licking and keeps on ticking yes we do in the 60s um it's still a watch that will do absolutely everything and then um my gril watch would probably be something uh that M Miss jern has under his workbench that he hasn't gotten out yet um it would definitely be from him because I think his time pieces are absolutely fabulous and I'll never own one because I'm not willing to sell my house not to go back to cooking uh immediately but um for somebody who may or may not have one chef's knife in their kitchen does your watch collection represent any in any way your knife collection uh do you have have a beater do you have a dress knife do you have what a great question that is a fantastic question and I do think that there's probably a correlation between uh my watches or the way that I I acquire them and the way I acquire knives because me for me knives are very Soulful devices as our watches and I buy them one at a time and I'm I'm I usually buy them from small makers you know artisanal makers um where I can really see their mark on the metal um beers yeah I mean like knives that I used in culinary school you know they were the best that I could afford at the time I still have um and it and it's it's really as a cook it's wonderful to age with a knife to see the knife change because it does you know the shape changes a little uh especially like a boning knife slowly starts to get thinner and you know the spine starts to look a little funny so it's a it's a relationship a lot like a watch um it's really interesting that you bring that up I mean I have a lot of knives I use five probably you know um Elizabeth and I have a little uh cabin out on a lake in Alabama and like our kitchen knife is like this this weird military dagger that I picked up some it's not even a kitchen knife you know it's it's not it's like youed it's supposed to like I know kill somebody I guess but um you form a relationship with a knife the way a tool feels in your hand and that becomes as much a part of how that tool works as whatever the business end is you know that interface between you and it um is so so critically important and and and it's like I have this thing for my Carta which is a resin impregnated linen that's been layered up and when I touch it I just I have this thing for it so I gravitate towards people that tend to make knives with my Cara handles it's just a thing for me and I don't know why I can't explain it um but maybe you're not supposed to be able to explain those relationships but yeah there are beaters there are dress watches you know uh there's there's you know dive watches and speed watches on the rack you know there's there's different things that's a very good question I'm going to that's a book please so I now I'm what what youash well my my interest in watches you mean yeah my entire life from when I was a little bitty kid I it there's always been a fascination with the fact that we wear machines on our arms that tell us what we're losing when you think about it because every time that second hand goes click or swoosh or whatever it does there's something that you're not ever going to get back again and I don't know when even when I was a little kid there was there was something about that that was very captivating to me that we literally have a device that tells us our life is leaving who does that you know and people say well that's creepy dude uh I was timing my car you know um which we can certainly do but for me as as a kid so I've always um had had that Fascination and you know even working in TV everything you do is timed you know you time everything so you just don't wear one you don't wear a watch no no I can't go out without a watch I could go out without underwear and I'd be okay not the case today but I can't if I'm not wearing a watch I freak out because I'm like how do I know what I'm losing if I don't wearing a watch it's a good question oh hi you mentioned before that time is the most important ingredient in cooking and we see on talking watches and there's a lot of celebrity chefs that are obsessed with watches that have watch sponsorships do you think that their relationship with time is is because of cooking or is have more to do with the fact that you're often all dress the same in a kitchen like everyone's in a white coat and it's the only way to really differentiate yourself in your own kitchen but amongst other interesting that you that you mentioned that because the differentiation is actually really big thing when when you're um when you're in a in a kitchen where you know 30 people are wearing the same white jacket uh who's the boss well the boss is the guy who's wearing that you know um and so I do think that the more you're based on a uh uniform in in your job uh the more you want to spice things up where and when you can and make a statement where you can whether there's actually uh something going on with that with the actual relationship to time I I don't know I know so many chef that don't time anything I time everything because I'm transfixed by the kind of quantifying of the information that leads to success or failure um I need it it's like I weigh everything too if you guys got into like really great scales I'd be there for that um we can do that a badass mechanical scale I got one of those totally into that white kitchen scales I have like more scales than than watches probably um but I do think that a lot of it has to do with the status of delineating and differentiating yourself from the from the other Cooks in the kitchen I think that's absolutely what it is because once you get to a certain point and you can afford this particular time piece you you you immediately signal to everybody else in the place who you are and I mean with that in mind did you have like a specific mental process and picking the watches you wear when you do one of these live performances no you know why because I'm I'm far more interested even with so the the best thing that a watch collection can do for you especially as you get on in years is to tell you more about who you are why why do I have this why am I wearing this okay because it's not about status anymore okay you move through status right and you you move through you get a watch that maybe you've looked for and youve tried to get for decades and you get it and you're like and you put in the safe right after uring it with hinki of course obviously um and look at this guy but you know the ones that you keep gravitating to you start paying attention like why what is it what what is that what is that saying um and so I think you can start using a watch as a as a as a as a piece of therapy almost to figure out who you are have you had that experience even recently with a watch where you question I I I I every time I put on a watch now and my problem is is that I'll have days and it's funny when my life is really hectic I'll change watches four times in a day I'll do that yeah yeah I have a watch drawer at work I have you know I have watches everywhere stashed we're like I'm not feeling right change watches this thing I just wrote sucks yeah it's the wrong watch you know damn it I shouldn't have WN the jger I should you know and so I'll I'll change watches to change myself you know I will and of course this is a horrible problem to have oh my god um what watch is going to wear um but but um for me it it's very much um reflects on what I'm doing that day but coming to something like this I think the authenticity of just whatever it is that that I have you whatever it is that I'm wearing automatically so no I didn't think about it is there a a Grail dining experience that you have sorry again like a Grail dining experience the Jour the Undiscovered Jord is the I don't look at food that way um for some reason I don't have like the Grail experience I don't have like the ingredience that oh I've never had the 49 petas by the way I've never had the 49 Petras if you want to buy me over um if you have the 49 Peters but um I have come to look at food as utterly tied into experience of where who why and when you know um my Elizabeth my wife and I we have we've got one real food weakness which is caviar we have it on potato chips you know and and what we try to do is we try to remember you know why were we here why were we doing this when we were doing this so I've gotten where I use food as a marker of events so it's not like oh my god do you remember the blah blah blah cheese the cheese is there to remind you about who you were with where you were and why you were in in that place um those experiences you know that's something that a watch really can't do food only takes on real meaning when more than one person has it um one person wears a watch at a time generally speaking until the new card love watch comes out where we're like wearing them together um and so to me food you know I am I am always more pleasantly surprised and delighted by the unexpected food so to have a Grail food would be to automatically preload it with expectations that immediately begin to Decay the The Experience so I rather just wander into a cafe and say holy crap the X was amazing and be surprised by it so that's that's how I do it thank you I'm sure everybody has heard of the idea of like comfort food do you have a comfort watch um sure I do I do it's a watch that that Ben has seen it's it's my my father's um Omega uh rata flyback um and that's because he he died when I was quite young and so that watch which had been stolen um and then I found years later the actual exact piece on eBay and then paid to have it rebuilt because it had been damaged is special and comforting and probably the watch I'll die wearing which is why I don't wear it anymore but it's comforting to know it's there and you got it back then and that is an incredible story uh of how that watch was retrieved uh we had a question uh in the back here um a lot of the dining experience obviously is about pairings uh last meal on Earth you get appetizer course drink watch entree course drink watch dessert drink watch are they watches that I already own or can I just have whatever I want whatever you want this is fun do I know it's my final meal while I'm having it yeah I do know well that changes things doesn't it um well often people ask me what my my last me what should be um I I almost always say duck Fe because it takes three days to make um so you buy yourself a little bit of time but um I I think that with with the watches I would I would descend into childhood um I would probably um my I I would start um the meal with um with with the aforementioned caviar uh potato chips um and um and and I probably ice cold chopan vodka because it's potato based and I prefer that I don't like champagne with uh with cavar um that would that would be the opening course and I think that the the watch for that um would be um whatever that was that I pulled out of J's under J's uh work table um something with uh with with maybe a repeater well now you wouldn't be want to be reminded of the time would you not really um maybe something with a dual time on it but I've always thought jours pieces were just you know magnificent so that that would be the opening course and then the second course um I would uh probably um have um very often my my wife gets up in the morning she's one of the only people I ever know that gets up and lights the grill and she makes these like grilled soups in the morning for breakfast which are really really kind of uh extraordinary because they're complex and and really uh things that I could could never do um and so I think that I would probably U have that with um a real it would be a pocket watch that I could lay on the table and it would be there was I don't remember the reference number it was a paddock um from like the 20s um that was a very specific moon phase um and I can't I can't remember the actual model that Al actually also had a stopwatch built into it I don't remember the ren't SE they made three of them um you know and they're all on the L or whatever and I I would steal that because I want to be able to sit and look at it you know while I'm I'm having my soup I would spill soup on the watch um and then I think that the uh final course would be super trashy right and it would be like U my very very first um uh Pulsar um digital watch uh from the 70s you know the kind where you had to push the button to light up the time right uh with uh Little Debbie nutty bars uh a pint of mint chip ice cream and a pack of cigarettes because at that point who gives a you know um and uh probably a bottle of really old bourbon and the cool thing would be is that I would stall the time by reaching over and pushing the button to see where the time was which you would have to do during that so that that would be that would be my watch Food menu for the final meal let me let me know if you got room at the table for that last one that's sounds we're we're that'd be really good yeah yeah especially the cigarettes Ben how about you did you were you dreaming up a food and watch pairing there yeah I mean for me I'm a much simpler man than than Alton Brown you know oh come on um for me I mean similarly it would probably be uh I actually also like caviar but it's a more recent thing for me uh so caviar would be in there we had some caviar with Wu last night which was like the most opulent thing I've ever eaten in my life but had it last night salt and fat baby exactly you get it uh probably my grandfather's Omega would would be the first watch uh and then you know as as has been a theme in in all my chatter this week is is transition into watches that I've receiv received from from my wife you know for my kids Etc more recently so probably end up with uh pizza from a very specific place called pontillo in Upstate New York which is where I'm from uh and then probably the wash that my my wife gave me for my 40th birthday and what did she give you what did what in the world does a Woman by Ben climber as as a watch so those that have been here all week have heard this a few times now so I apologies but it's a it's a 36 millimeter day Date Rolex Day date in Platinum uh brand new engraved on the back she wrote a little thing on the back and got it for my 40th birthday congratulations thank you lovely James do you have a thought about this yeah I'd probably go like oysters two ways like just raw oysters and then either Rolex or tutor diver of some sort probably like the Pelos would be good yeah something in that zone I mean I'll definitely it'll be oysters it be the last bite I hope for sure we got more question eat an oyster off an oyster yeah yeah you know I left out sushi which would definitely be in there as well me be yeah there would have to be some sushi in the meal I need to work on that whole question and get back to everybody another book you got a question yes uh oh oh no it's a good one uh do you ever have a memory of a significant watch that's been given to you as a gift one and then two do you have a memory of a significant watch you've given as a gift number first um the best um watch that was giving to me as a gift was when you gave me number one of your black PVD um automatic I wasn't even thinking that you yeah but you did no because nobody would give me watches right very very rarely so that was actually the best one and I give my wife a watch every 12 days basically um because I'm an addict but I displace it onto her arms and um she's not wearing it today but re uh recently we found a spectacular um uliss nardan brutalist watch this massive thing uh in stainless steel with with a with a I wouldn't even call it a bracelet it's more like this massive stainless steel cuff uh from from the 70s that that I think was was really great but whenever I really want to buy a new watch I buy it for my wife because what's she going to say I mean and but her arms are getting longer from wearing them all at the same time so I love giving watches as gifts because it's it's my love language yeah do you share watches with your wife yes so you know look there there's there's there's a very very old um longine tank um from the 40s that's one of the ones with a really messed up face and if she doesn't wear it for I'm like well it needs to be worn you know we to wind it up let it run so maybe I'll wear it for a day um but by and large I try to stay out of her watch drawer cuz you know there's there's places even a husband doesn't doesn't go however you can you can wear any watch I have anytime you want to yeah just want to establish that on the record on the record any other questions we've got a few more minutes so clearly you like to collect things watches knives scales I guess as well are there any other things that you like to collect there are a lot of things I like to collect I simply cannot afford to collect them um I I I went through a nasty uh vintage automobile period um which is just really uh restrictive uh you know on top of the you know buying the the warehouse to garage things in and and I I have a particular year that I'm fixated on which is 1973 most of the cars made in 1973 suck mechanically they're just really difficult automobiles so I'll spend all this money like redoing these cars and still because they're from 1973 they're very challenged you know I I my favorite is I have this we have this beautiful black Mercedes 280 SE 1973 it's a it's the bond villain car right massive Grill blah blah blah if the temperature gets over 72 degrees it gets vapor lock and the and it quits on the freeway which has happened to me over and over again um so that that's that that was a habit that I decided to nip in the bud I'm going back to motorcycles now they just you can get more in more and I had a I had an airplane thing for a while it was also very difficult to maintain yes other than that we seem to collect dogs um which keep radiating to us uh from various places and uh and millions upon millions of books which is my my lifelong Obsession you know I'm I'm also curious if you've ever had the option or the ability to bring someone into watches like have you shepher that's a fun experience I have I'm a pusher I'm a pusher um I I I've gotten I've gotten people that didn't think they cared one bit who cares it's the time and now they're like oh my god did you just see the SEO reverence um and um and it's it's it's a fun thing to to do and and and there have been a few people I'm like okay well I'm just I'm going to give you this I'm going to give you this watch um I've had it for a long time I really like it but I think you need to wear this for a while because you're not looking at time the right way and then all of a sudden I'm getting text in the middle of the night I'm on blah blah blah website did you see the blah I'm like dude back down you know um and everybody always with guys there always like well I'm only going to I'm only going to collect only to this price point right I mean I cut it off and I'm like yeah great idea that's good yeah $1,000 you go you go cupcake um and then pretty soon they're like you know they're just like well my kid doesn't really need to go to college um I could totally just take that money and buy this you work and you know um so yeah I've I've I've pushed it on to a lot of people and and and it's interesting the people that it'll catch with and the people that it won't catch with um a lot of them will either be like it's just about design it's about having this beautiful machine on their arm or they'll be something significant you know that relates to a relative you know like I my grandfather had this and I would play with it when you know or or a movie you know a movie reference you know um that that they remember a particular watch from a movie and then you know they end up getting it so I I think that it's something that more and more people are doing and I and what's really interesting I think is that so many people are collecting uh time pieces now that aren't spending you know it's like well do I buy the Porsche or do I buy the you know they're they're they're they're buying in in a Range that is actually reasonable because there are so many great watches especially vintage watches from the 70s and 80s that are very very affordable I I think so yes I have done this I have spread the love fantastic and they have each and every one of them ured their watches all right we've got time for one final question anybody want to close it out for us there was one recipe you would think everyone should learn how to make and one watch everyone should experience whether or not they own it what would they be well the recipe is simple it should be learning how to make whatever it is that your mom your grandom your dad whoever made for you when you were a kid that was your favorite dish because passing on of dishes is really critically important and it's one of the things that that I feel bad about Food Network in the in the in the 2000s and 2000s and T we so took over you know kind of the Z Heist of of cooking that people forgot that you really need to know how to make Mom's whatever casserole whatever it was that you loved on Thursday nights because you need to know how to make that so you can pass it on to your kids that's a Heritage that's that's super important um I think that um because of course you know food keeps us going um watches don't necessarily they just make the time better um I think that that you know some people are never going to appreciate a watch they're not it's a it's a it's a thing that tells me how many hours are left in the day they're just not going to have that what I would hope is that people find whatever philosophical poetry makes their life a little deeper on a day-to-day basis for me I do love watches and I I've collect I have a small collection that's meaningful to me and looking at them and feeling them on my arm gives me a richer existence right that may not be for everybody for someone else it might be cocktail glasses it might be chairs what whatever it is that is something that you can have in your in your everyday life that makes your your life for True whatever it is I hope they find it fantastic I think that's a great place to stop uh thank you so much for this hour thank you and thank you Ben for I didn't let you talk at all but just a pretty face you you speaking of pretty faces we all see what you wear on your wrist which is extraord appreciate really thank you everybody uh for for coming so excited to here and as somebody that watched h Grove from literally a place where you just went to buy a couple of NATO straps every now and then into being a real Community uh it's great to be here thank you for that thank you appreciate that you