A Look Back At The Watch Releases Of 2024 - Part II | Hodinkee Radio

welcome back to another episode of hinki radio today's episode of the show is sponsored by our friends at Brook Lotti the award-winning whiskey from Isa who we have partnered with here at hinki for the last couple of years stay tuned for an update later in the show on what we're up to this season hey it's me James Stacy and I'm back for another episode of hinki radio if you saw our previous episode which was sort of a look back at 2024 with a tantan and Malica we're repeating the format today but I've got two new guest to chitchat as sort of a retrospective of 2024 our favorite watches the kind of big moments things we remember maybe some stuff we forgot all that kind of stuff so uh welcome to the show uh editor and photographer Mark kerich and editor Rich foron how you guys doing doing great yeah good thanks James I think it makes sense to start kind of as broadly as possible here in your mind did 20124 have like uh this is the year of something or was it kind of too VAR I found it to be kind of a a a surprising but varied year cuz you know we talked about this a bit on the previous like you know we did start at what felt like kind of a lower note with uh a sort of subdued watches and wonders but I actually think if you look back this wasn't that quiet of a year in total what are you guys feeling about it I think one of the questions on list is about Trends which sort of overlaps with this one but I found 2024 to be the year of like the nonstandard nonr quote unquote shaped watch um and that is both in the preown market honestly as well as the modern Market reflecting some of the trends we've been seeing in that other pre-own Market lately okay um and like I was just G to say before we get too deep into it because you know so much about the Vintage side is this something where the Vintage side is actually pushing the modern watch idea forward like people got interested in vintage shape cases and that's why we're seeing modern ones I mean I guess that makes sense but and if so what were the ones that what are the real like Trend makers on the on the Vintage side of it yeah I mean yes it does feel like it to me but I think my position was a bit biased there um I would you could dumb down things to say like hey look at this mod release it dates back to this trend that started three years ago in vintage um this is a comp that they might not love but um I do think that the crash sort of popping 3 four years ago is the exact reason why we have burner on in 2024 um and that says nothing to diminish what burn around did but there's a through line a thing for sure there are other examples of that as well when you talk about Minis and just differently shaped watches that Brands had not been thinking about previously yeah and we we talked a ton about even the the cardia effect of like they're having such a moment that it's actually bleeding out into other brands getting some Shine for having a similar idea or a similar model all really good watches and and certainly I think the the crash to burner on is like a very direct sort of not an homage but it's it's a nod it's a love letter uh to that idea for sure um Mark what what else kind of sits out for you like maybe outside of the the Cartier space I mean the shape case thing is definitely something that's here this year that was less prevalent last year I feel like this year was sort of the year of the Slow Burn when it came to like releasing is just because I remember my you know fever dream sleep deprived induced handson with the cardier rewind that a lot of people read during watches and wonders I feel like the response to that was sort of overall pretty negative people were thinking like what the heck why do we need it it's you know unnecessary it's kind of silly or even stupid but now in the last couple months I've heard a lot of people talking about how amazing that watch is and how creative that watch is and I think there's a lot of releases like that this year where I was going back through stories for things that we introduced that I think took a while for people to come around to and I don't know if that's a reflection on the fact that the the overall release pattern or how watches and wonders played out or whatever it may be was not so heavy hitting right away that people had to take some time and think about what came out this year and see if there was anything that they actually genuinely liked because there weren't a lot of obvious Mega releases um I think even stuff like PCH releasing white gold versions of watches that they had previously done in steel like the the denim strap thing wasn't really denim strap but I think now people are starting to come around to these things after looking at the state of what other people I've released over the year and and are starting to realize that maybe not everything has to be a a punch in the gut for it to be be good I I think it was a year that was largely characterized by really solid product not just the wild stuff but like on the previous app with tantan we spoke about the white Dow Speedy you almost universally loved the exact sort of watch that Omega should should get into and to be clear we didn't get into this but I'm really fascinated by the way that that brand is now using Daniel Craig as like a leaker like a like a you know they give him a watch he shows up at a party people go nuts we we you know Mark you shot him uh you know we we shot him wearing a yet unreleased watch at the Olympics I feel like he did it at least once a couple weeks ago again and then now we have the watch and guys like a no date steel seam Master these watches look incredible and I think they fit in really nicely with the tutor the mon what we're all calling the monochrome I think like that genuinely entry level to like Omega had a pretty solid year as far as like product you can buy and enjoy sport yeah I think that's I think that's like the other Trend I think of in 2024 as well which is when I looked back on the releases 2024 is sort of the year of fan service when you think about the white di speedy and the first mean space and the Sea Masters that just come out and that's just omaa for sure yeah the shape stuff fits into that too cuz it's like you were looking for that in the pr Market hey here's this it's a little bit different but you you already want it um and I always felt in terms of new releases as someone who pays so much attention to pre-owned and vintage stuff that the brands just will never give you what you want and it'll be this gap between here's what you want this is what we're going to make I think 2024 was like the Gap is here or it might even be exactly what you want yeah I do think that is a very interesting thing that Omega is doing as you said it's fan service it's something really great to drive hype I don't think they have too many more in the chamber before that gets already too old I mean we we saw sort of the push back a little bit on the the no date SE master that he was spotted and people were like all right you know you did it once and it was fun second time not so much third time now we didn't we didn't cover it with the set of gold but at the same time you look at the response that people had to those stories and number one story of our year was the one you wrote of him wearing that uh that model at the Olympics people this is like you know we got a comment on a story we ran yesterday saying like hey could you guys write less about the moonwatch and my reply to the comment was just if you guys stop reading it we'll stop writing it like I don't know what to tell you these are very very popular stories and omega's genuinely in everyone's mind uh especially when they you know when they really nail a product that people want and you can go out and get it I think that's an important part tantan brought that up in the last chat where people can get really excited about an Omega because there's a good chance you're not going to have to fight to get one you might have to wait you might have to wait until they get a restock but they're coming it's not this like nebulous Genies wish sort of scenario like it can be with other brands this is not a shot at Rolex or pek at all because I still think they're making really great products but that is something that I point out to a lot of people um when they say like oh yeah well Rolex and and pek they have to be the number one red stories for for you guys at all times and I think people are burned out on the idea of like something great being completely unattainable you have to jump through hoops you have to sort of massage an ad to figure out what the way to get them to be your friend and give you what you want Omega went from saying we had so much demand for this watch that it could be you know a year before you could get the white Dallas speed master to hey we ramped up production and now you can get in a couple months and it went it was a period of a couple weeks where they were very responsive to the demand and the interest and you know they they are making sure that people can get what they want they're adjusting things accordingly and to me I think that's part of what makes that so great the other thing that I wanted to highlight when you said we were talking about how slow the year started out I got a kick out of looking at the top stories for the year and realizing that the the number one story to come out of watches and wonders was me writing about buying a moon Swatch at the airport as I left watches and wonders people are still excited about it and as he says if if they didn't keep reading about it we wouldn't keep writing about it but people still want to hear about it yeah and look I think that the interesting thing with moonwatch and I I said this way too much on the on the previous outing is it just proves how important it is to be able to have fun in this game like don't get me wrong there are collectors who are buying very needle point specific things for their collection but most people are doing this just for the emotional response of of of being able to find the watch maybe learn about it uh you know maybe you have to travel to get a moon Swatch or or a scuba 50 or something like that but I I think what we're actually capturing with that is is how much maybe this whole hobby didn't feel that fun during the pandemic necessarily prices went through the roof uh it felt like doors started to close on people and then I think on the same like like almost in the same breath you could say that like think about the Omega experience from a more generalist Enthusiast someone who loves watches but maybe doesn't read about every new release doesn't know about weight lless and they go to a mall or whatever and they go to the Rolex store they go to whatever store and they told like well we don't actually have anything um you know let us you know get on this weight list and we'll M message you or like I don't even know what your inroad is anymore you buy a two-tone date just I'm not sure and then they walk across the aisle to an Omega store and they see the white di speedy and they're like oh you know maybe we don't have one today but probably in the next two weeks let us give you a call I just think that's a uh an experience that is going to ingratiate a lot of people to Omega and to add more context on the on the the moons watch thing I know it's super super accessible for someone who's either just getting started but and Mark can probably speak to this as well the collector you talk about who's laser focused and buying PEX at a high level and maybe is like super into 397s right now is leaving his house on a Sunday morning with a moon Swatch on and they're the same buyer at that level because at the end of the day and I've talked about this before I don't know where but um watch guys kind of want someone to come up to them in public and say hey Hey man nice watch like at some level that is why you're putting on a nice watch whether you admit it to yourself or not and maybe it's maybe it's 1% maybe it's 10% but the moon Swatch creates the same conversation that a cubus does or a 3970 does it is a signifier to those who know or those who care that you also know and care and that's powerful at that price point and that's why everyone's buying it and also you think about you want to get people into the space and you say like okay it starts conversations I've talked to more people that have been wearing Moon swatches than any other watch that I've seen around 50% of the time they're like oh no this is the Omega SWAT you know they don't know what they're wearing they just liked it they saw it they bought it but 50% of the time it's either somebody that e has other watches like you said and you can start up a larger conversation or it's somebody that you know I get a lot of messages from people saying like I want to buy my first watch um you know it's going to be a big purchase for me what should I buy under $500 for us in this world that's all imaginary points are you know points don't matter everything's made up that kind of thing like we're thinking 5 to 10 but for a lot of people big purchase is 500 and if if the door opens at 500 and you get a moons watchat I'm not going to tell you that you're less of a watch person because in six months a year maybe you're buying a citizen diver maybe you're buying a Hamilton and then the next thing you're buying a tutor and you start reading more and I I think you you want people to get excited you want people to to get into this space or if they don't get into the space to look down at their wrist and be happy that they bought something that makes them happy absolutely Moon SWAT yeah for me I was I was literally about to say the same thing like I think the the moon Swatch that whole program and I would say Swatch in general because you don't have to buy moon Swatch or scuba 50 they make a bunch of really cool fun watches that don't cost that much money and you can get into and like I do believe like you could go buy a neon Swatch and then go to your first red bar and have a pretty good time and like that's that's a like for a world that is largely obsessed with money and what some like that's a relatively low barrier to entry to go hang out um and and I think I think it's an interesting development in this world where we get two very different responses to the the sort of moon Swatch scuba 50 program where certain folks in the industry don't like it because it cheapens something that they focused on like whether that's a speedy or a blon pond or something like that and I'm not convinced that it does cheapen anything but that's that's the rhetoric and then but on the same time like think about how many people we've talked to in the last few years like since 2021 that got into this because of that watch it's just what an amaz it's just such a solid gateway drug especially in a world where you can't buy a007 Seiko you can't even you can't go and buy an SNK Seiko for $90 like you used to be able to like the math has kind of changed and I think being able to have fun and enthusiasm and credibility within the within the Enthusiast space at $500 or $300 is amazing I also think that leads into like this idea of how to how to broaden your reach and your appeal without cheapening things and I think that's another big trend for the year um you know I'm sitting here with my mad one hey hey there you go and I absolutely love this watch but I think you see a lot of more high-end independent watchmakers start to navigate that question of how do we reach a broader audience without cheapening the product that we make and I read an interesting interview with Theo fry I think it was in a collected man did a really good job about talking about what he's been doing with his you know he's a young indie star making cool turbion and kind of stuff highend collectors want to do uh or want to pick up and then he's also doing space one and that's somewhere between I think like ,800 and $3,000 or something depending on the model he said in the interview and I think this is exactly what mad one has has done for mbf I think it's what grown the grownup felds tried to do recently as well is figure out a way to reach a broader audience without cheapening your own name and it's a hard thing to do but it's a trend that I think is really picking up this year and it makes me happy is somebody that I can't imagine that I'm gonna buy a turbon OPI from Theo fre as much as I love that watch but now I can get a space one his name is associated with it it's a completely different cool as well they're they're super cool um so I think that's another big Trend that I hope continues on into the future especially as the higher end of the market kind of quiets down a little bit these brands are going to have to start navigating that and yeah you look at the you look at the financials for mbf and I think this is something like 30 or 40% of their their income for the year is now mad ones which does great things for the brand as well again special thanks to our partners at Brook latty for the support of hinky radio this holiday season we've partnered with Brook latty on a special giveaway that you can learn all about in the link in the article below or in the notes for this episode you might be surprised at what you see and you most definitely don't want to miss it and now back to the show so I'm going to give you guys a Choose Your Own Adventure I think we'll get to both of these but you guys can pick where we go next you want you guys want to hit cubitus or you want to hit tutor Mark I never liked Goosebumps so you go ahead and pick our path oh man um let's let's start with cubus and and I I think we'll probably keep it Rel short it was a huge moment um it's hard to figure what hasn't already been said but um we can do that I would say yeah definitely defer to Ben's story he he wrote it from the perspective of someone who actually buys PEX which I think is important um you know I have a I have a diletant you know perspective on it from 50 yards away I'm looking through the glass at the Boutique and uh I don't I'll I'll I'll kick it off I don't really understand the extreme negativity um but I assume that's not coming from people who were going to buy the watch and obviously that's been largely the tenor of the feedback from pek as well um I you know I don't have a problem I would say most brands watches I don't like every brand here there has watches I really like but I'm not like a brand guy I don't think cubitus wasn't the first watch that pek makes that I don't think was for me right you if that makes any sense uh but I also I don't find the watch like offensive or that strange especially not Downstream of an increased interest in watches that aren't round uh the need for the brand that their self-imposed need to move beyond the 5711 uh I think all of this kind of makes sense I think we'll have to wait a year or two to really understand if the model was successful from pek standpoint um but I think as far as a brand like PCH being able to create a moment for themselves I don't think they could have done much better weirdly than they did with the cubitus let me try to stir the pot a bit for you boil you up a bit more does it make you any more upset that pect both discontinued your favorite watch the 51 yeah and then comes out with the cubus does that brand positioning make you any more concerned I mean look again I can only speak from like uh like video game bucks if you will uh I I was not in the market for either of these uh I know Mark is also I think we share our extreme love of the 5164a but there's also like a lot of them they made them for a long time uh so if I think if you really want one of those you can probably it might even be easier to get a 5164a than a cubitus probably quite a bit easier uh depending on who you're calling um yeah that's true but I'll I'll touch on that in a second sorry oh okay cool I I to to attempt to answer that question I don't even think like that just because I'm so far from being like a a pek buyer none of it's real the 5164a I think is just an evolution of a twin time pek lineage that I really love that dates back to the 50s um and there's something about that that I adore I think I might have a different opinion on the cubitus if I was in love with the Nautilus and I like the Nautilus I have no I have no nothing against it but I'm a I'm an Aquino guy I think deep down like if if it was my credit card hitting the table be probably for an aquanut I like the idea of a pek on a rubber strap if you're going for a sporty pek otherwise like yeah you know 3940 or something like that would absolutely Curry my favor but I think that's where I probably land just because I I feel so much more strongly about the aquanut than the Nautilus that I don't I don't really feel um like the Cub like the cubitus just adds it doesn't seem to take anything away in my mind which is yeah again I I don't I don't fully understand the negativity parts of it for sure and especially the part that's coming from like actual collectors that feel like they're not getting what they want from a brand and that's not a problem unique to pek at all that's how all brands have to deal with their best clients they're also the ones that know the most typically and I think you do have to make them happy and I I'm time will tell if this watch is one that makes their clients happy in terms of negativity this is p experiencing what like every single brand on our site experiences when they release a brand or a new watch like nid grunin releases a new GMT it's 36 mm so many people commenting if it was only 38 if it was only 37 like this is unique not super tech it's it's across the industry it just is so much more heightened when it's Tech's First Watch in 25 years like yeah well it's it is like I saw someone compared to like waiting for a band to drop an album and you really want the album to be similar to the one that came out 20 years ago but how could it be it's not 20 like a lot has changed the band is older everything's different and I think like we see a little bit of that in the cubitus where it's it's a bit of a you know a fifth album from a brand that you love and it's a new sound and sometimes that like I can list brands where I liked the new sound eventually and unless other were like I only like their first three albums or whatever and I think that's what pek's dealing with and I agree what they're dealing with may be novel to them because they don't release watches that often but it's not novel to the watch world at all they're just getting what most brands get when they drop that's a good great great perspective like you say the the audience has been waiting 25 years for this uh but also pek has sort of iterated on designs and stuff close to home for that amount of time and so it's not I don't think anybody after 25 years would necessarily not it out of the park the first time um I think the accessibility thing is an interesting thing I think the question of whether or not we're going to see them discontinue All Steel Nautilus next year um you know 5990 the 571 12s like are they going to pull those just to put more pressure on consumers to buy the cubitus I don't think they're having any trouble getting people to buy the cubitus but I'm also hearing from people that have not been offered a nautilus have not been offered an Aquin that they're being offered a cubitus um it seems like maybe pek is putting more production uh into that model to drive that model and drive customers towards that model I've been in uh a number of places that retail PCH over the last couple weeks and seen that customers are seeing the cubitus every single time I walk in you've got customers sitting down and handling them and they've got models there for people and they seem to be taking orders um and registering interest which they wouldn't be doing on an autus uh so I think you know there's a a bigger strategy with how pek is going to be rolling this out and as you said it'll take year a year or two to figure out what that strategy is just for that model but also for the brand in general the changes that they might make to sort of make the cubus more of a success or at least more ubiquitous my only feedback is the same things that everybody else has said which is it just to me doesn't look as thoughtfully designed as some things in the past and part of that is the size I've tried on two of the three models they do wear quite large they are quite flat I think this is what happens when you make a big Square watch I think the other thing to think about too is what it will look like on the secondary Market when things cool down I don't think it'll go Below Retail but when you look at stuff like 527s and the things that we as as watch lovers look up to and want to have the fact that those sell Below Retail and stuff like the cubitus is so much above retail or the Nautilus or or these other things is still surprising to me so I think that will be a curious thing to watch as wall over the next year or two yeah look I think I think a lot of this is pointing towards some unknowns about pek strategy I I think that the cubus could mean that watches and wonders might be wild but we are going to do a couple episodes on 2025 so let's hold off on that uh line specifically let let's get to a favorite of mine who I think had like a a sneakily strange and successful year of changing how they speak to the audience and in the The Wider world and that's tutor so we kind of kicked off the year with some really solid consumer product that's the bb58 GMT and certainly the what we're calling the monochrome the nicely made update to the uh the current 41 MIM black Bay but then we saw multiple you know unique dial variations for the Formula 1 they did Miami and Las Vegas uh we also saw the pink dial we saw the Blue Boutique Edition and then of course we still have we have our first Pelos that like isn't even a DI watch so the Brand's like actively trying new stuff including making models that people can't buy they still have this very strong connection with cycling what what do you think of the tutor strategy you know I think a lot of times myself included as a huge fan of the brand you you focus on these tiny boxes that maybe aren't perfect for you like bb58 G GMT comes out and it's in a a cat color way with guilt and you go well you know if it wasn't guilt i' would buy it if it wasn't you know if it was Pepsi instead of coke I'd buy it if it was black and like you know there's all that kind of discussion but if we go be if we go a layer beyond that what do you think of the year for tutor because I I think that we saw kind of a new playbook or or a new page in the Playbook yeah I mean it's I think the product is super interesting but the other thing that goes with it is a lot of brands do the you know watches and wonders release dump a bunch of product on you kind of a deluge that you have trouble to process and then wait 6 months until two or three fall releases I think it's much more exciting to have these things rolled out slowly over the course of you know here's one and and then two months later there's another one and then a month later there's one that's kind of Niche but it's fun and uh you know the inter milalan black Bay 58 which is not everybody's favorite but they're doing stuff like that and that was available largely for for people that wanted them for a short amount of time and I think that's a more fun way to engage with consumers it does make it a little hard to if you're the kind of person that like me has to stay up for a watch and and see what's coming out and and decide what you want and and be able to make some decisions and not worry that you're going to have a better watch come out in two months but it at least keeps the excitement going and keeps you surprised at what the future might hold and I think that's really good for the community at large I think the Playbook is new and it's interesting to follow it from our Viewpoint and it feels new but what they're doing is very core to the tutor brand sort of goal and Ethos which is I can remember I walked into a tutor Boutique in Chicago five years ago that I was at ad that stocks tutor just to correct myself but they had stocked all of tutor's line and that was a really eye openen experience to me because I had seen tutor through the lens of the relaunching in the United States and the hinki lens which is like the black Bays of the world the black Bay 58s of the world then you see the whole catalog and you're like oh they make something for everyone their whole catalog is a commercial product brand and they relaunched by creating interesting models for the enthusiasts to layer on top of that commercial product catalog now they're treating those Enthusiast watches the same way they treat the rest of their catalog which is like hey we're here for you and we're going to offer you everything you want eventually like just wait for us to build out this catalog it's not just not just the 58 it's not just one pgos now we have five now we have the 54 like it's just the expansion of the catalog in the same way that the rest of the catalog spoke to like just to dumb it down a bit like that elevated M watch buyer sorry for sure I look I think I think everything you said is almost directly proven by that monochrome the the 24 right that was the tip that was like this is what we're doing they started in 2012 and they've just been progressively iterating and now they've essentially locked in on their take on a modern sub and it's as deeply conventional but they've checked every box you get tfit you get a great bracelet you've got the loom you've got a great bezel it's a great looking watch it wears really well they've obviously locked in on a movement strategy that's much different than 12 years ago um and and I think yeah I think it's been a fascinating sort of time for the brand and you know we've we've only got a couple minutes left here and we've got there's so much to talk about from this year obviously we did some great stuff with hinki with like the UBS House of craft the other big story which I think will play out obviously more next year and I'm very excited to get into it in Parts three and four of this little December year end series is tag and lvmh taking F1 I think this is like it was a big story when it came out but I I think we we don't even understand how big it will be we don't know what the execu of that stuff is going to be admittedly this is just a bit of a teaser for parts three and four but I will have Rich and Mark on to talk about the future of this sort of stuff but uh why why don't we wrap it up with like if you've got one or two quickly uh favorite watches of the Year anything stand out anything you bought that you love that's usually a pretty good metric for me like I'd go doca sub 200s way up there for for something I could afford Mark wrote about AAL for foron and uh and the EMC SR71 those are probably my two favorite like no-budget cool new things that came out this year uh what how about you guys what what landed on the radar whether it's something in reality or something you just kind of dream about that grubble was definitely on my list too I mean the watch blew my mind I think your photos did a great job as well Mark like it's very hard to take a smallish watch and have the time that's spent on the movement come through in a photo and I thought that was really great but in terms of watches that stand out to me a watch I purchased this year at the very low end of the market um is an impossible watchco Malachite Dial Co just a simple like time only watch made by one guy in tolina Alaska using imported Chinese Parts but these Stone dials are really really crazy um I always like to shout him out because I do wear that watch a lot and it's you can spend $700 in way worse ways um and at the other end of the spectrum um I think laon Faria had a great year if we were talking about Trends and the classic moon is probably my favorite watch of the Year totally biased I love the brand I love the aesthetic but I think they knocked it out of the park and signaled a new Direction going forward for that brand that I think is going to be really cool so I'll call that one out as one of my favorite watches of the year I love it and I love the the mix there uh that that stone brand we'll put that in the in the show notes I believe you showed me an early one I'm not sure if it was the one that you have or not um and then I think it was also in one of our staff picks and just a really really cool watch and I love seeing that type of like taking something that's not really part of the micr brand space usually whether it's a shaped case or very cool dial usually it's sport watches and I love that we're now seeing that micr brand space that sub thousand category like really Branch out into taking the format that used to give people sport watches that they couldn't buy for a reasonable price and now we're getting dress watches that that you can buy for a reasonable price and very interesting designs and that sort of thing so good call out on that one how about you mark what uh what one or two kind of stood out for you you know the one that has gotten the most risk time and I'm lucky that be I I won the lottery while I was in Geneva and they had a few watches um available at the time so I apologize to everybody that's still waiting on delivery of the Mad Juan but I've been wearing this a lot so much so that I end up trying to spin my GMT uh when I put my GMT on I like I'm used to that feeling of the rotor going and so I it just becomes like a fidget spinner kind of thing but it doesn't work when you're using a normal watch and I'm worried that maybe I'm actually damaging some of my other watches that are not meant to spin like that but um I I love the Mad one I also love the reaction that people get when I am showing them the new slim for the first time I wore it in Singapore um and mbf was there their most most of their you know commercial team was there Max was there they didn't bring one because they were all allocated but people still wanted to see it so much that I ended up just basically handing it over to the team for the weekend just so they could show it to everybody um and people got such a kick out of it and it it is again one of my favorite watches that they've done I think it's amazing that they're making it slightly more accessible not as much as the impossible watch Co stuff but um but still like very nice from a brand that is is making things starting at50 or $60,000 generally um yeah the the grubble was just incredible uh the lauron fery a releases were on my my list as well the the classic Sandstone Auto was a little bit high priced as a limited edition and it wasn't one of their natural escapement watches which is kind of what I would think about going for if I was buying a luron fair but still two really great releases this year um you know have a soft spot for this in in a lot of ways but from the high end the John Mar Royal Oak was just a a big moment which also like does Mark that 5134 but like the the 2120 2800 the end of that generation and that does kind of tease because some eventually we'll see something new for QPS from them that could be part of the 2025 conversation that sort of thing but I agree it's it's a moment as a complete nerd for the first generation of that movement in a royal back in the 80s uh it's it's something to see them end that that movement entirely yeah and I also think you know selfishly for us at at odink where we've had Jon sort of be a part of our our family for a while it's fun to see him finally have something that speaks to the The higher-end Collector that he's been for such a long time um and a lot of thought that went into it it's a really cool watch um not at the super low end but the other one that I wanted to call out that I think is just a great buy and at some point I'm going to have to get it uh the grand Seiko sgw 003 their manual line High beat White Birch dial their brilliant hard titanium case which they've used I think now it's three times or something including with the Cotto super high polish titanium really cool watch really great wine to it um I think one of the best watches of the year I I would have for GPH Academy I put it you know pretty much at the top for whatever I could put it for just because I love that watch so much and and it just highlights like not everything as I was saying before not everything has to be a gut punch to be a a solid watch that maybe flew under the radar but it's it's a great watch and I think like a great uh rep representation of what the year has been for a lot of Brands I don't disagree at all I think uh I think it was a year largely categorized like we talked about by conventional product product that Brands actually wanted to sell to a wide Market people who knew what they were buying but I also think we're at the end of this episode this has been an absolute treat guys I love doing these sort of retrospective look back at the year it's it's kind of a fun thing it's always one of my highlights of December and to sit down with you guys and chitchat from I mean we we really covered some bases here so I really appreciate it but uh Mark and Rich thanks so much for joining me and I can't wait to chat 2025 with you guys in the next couple weeks