Unpolished Watches

Today’s guests are dealers Eric Wind and Charlie Dunne of Wind Vintage. You probably know their bona fides: Eric was an early contributor to Hodinkee, then became a specialist at Christie’s, before starting Wind Vintage in 2017. He’s one of the world’s most respected and knowledgeable vintage dealers. Charlie Dunne is Eric’s strongman, vice president, and senior specialist at Wind Vintage. He was an avid researcher before joining Eric in Palm Beach. The pair are fresh off an appearance on Hodinkee’s Talking Watches with Ben Clymer. Eric and Charlie’s book, Vintage Watches: The Modern Guide, releases on November 17. We talk about Eric’s passion-to-value scale and how it’s changed as the market’s shifted, the speculation that’s moved into Lange, Journe, and independents, why Eric sold about half his collection and what a two-watch collection looks like for a dealer, mid-century Patek Philippe heading into auction season, the math to make a real return a $10 million Patek Philippe 2499, the dealers making (or trying to make) markets in neo-vintage brands like Blancpain and Ebel, why vintage Vacheron got hot, whether Heuer is a boomer watch, and the fake Paul Newman Eric spotted in one of my GQ photo reports. We also get into why collectors have become so obsessed with being early. Thanks to Eric and Charlie for joining the show. * Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.comShow Notes* Vintage Watches: The Modern Guide, Amazon* Wind Vintage* Talking Watches: with Eric Wind and Charlie Dunne, YouTube* The Vintage Watch Podcast, Patreon* Eric’s HSNY talk on collecting vintage watches, YouTube* The Boomer Watch Is On Sale, Unpolished* The $10m Patek Philippe that sold at auction earlier this year, Phillips* The 16-year-old watchmaker fixing split-seconds chronographs, Unpolished* Fake Paul Newman on slide 10 of this post, InstagramUnpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com to shop our collection of Canvas and leather straps. Everything has been restocked for the fall.* Pick up a 3 Canvas Strap Bundle for $169, a 10% off the single-strap price ($157 member price!)* Shop the new Textured Taupe, made of high-quality Epsom leather.Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors and a top-20 Fashion Substack. Join for free or become a member for $8/mo:👉 Unpolished doesn’t run brand ads. Members get: (1) Welcome Care Package; (2) 10% off the Unpolished Store; (3) $50 off a Watchcheck service + comments and Q&As. Benefits info HERE. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com/subscribe

This week’s guests are Adam Golden of Menta Watches and Chris Gary, the producer and director behind Chasing Time, a documentary about watch collecting premiering at the Austin Film Festival at the end of October.We start with a market update from Adam: whether the indie boom is sustainable, the institutional money driving the market, and why a headline auction result doesn’t make your watch worth the same. Plus the obsidian-versus-onyx debate that runs through the documentary, and how to deal with the court of public opinion.Chris was an enthusiast and collector for a dozen years before he spent 2023–2024 following Adam to Geneva, Tokyo, New York, and Miami. We talk about what that access changed for him, the independents he sat down with–Sylvain Berneron, Naoya Hida, Xhevdet Rexhepi—and why the most interesting young watchmakers are looking at 1940s design and Breguet for inspiration instead of Rolex.I sat down for an interview for the documentary in 2024, so we chat about the process of making the documentary, which follows Adam’s day-to-day life as a dealer, with appearances from Ben Clymer, Davide Parmigiani, Daryn Schnipper, John Goldberger, Wes Lang, and more.Chasing Time screenings are being planned for Miami, Atlanta, LA, Chicago, Geneva, London, and New York, with a wider release expected in early 2027.* Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.comShow Notes* Chasing Time, official website* Chasing Time on Instagram* Menta Watches; Menta on Instagram* Chris Gary talking about collecting in 2020 with Grey and PatinaUnpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com to shop our collection of Canvas and leather straps. Everything has been restocked for the fall.* Pick up a 3 Canvas Strap Bundle for $169, a 10% off the single-strap price ($157 member price!)* Shop the new Textured Taupe, made of high-quality Epsom leather.Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors and a top-20 Fashion Substack. Join for free or become a paid member for $8/mo: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com/subscribe

Zach Kazan is the managing editor of Worn & Wound, and he’s covered microbrands as closely as anyone for the last decade. In two weeks, Worn & Wound puts on its Windup Watch Fair in New York (Oct 16–18) with 160+ brands under one roof. I’ll be there, along with some of you, so I wanted to get Zach on to talk about the state of the microbrand. We talk about whether “microbrand” still means anything, and why some brands hate the word (while others embrace it); the boom of a decade ago and the more experimental one happening now; Ming, and the point where a brand stops being micro; pre-orders as interest-free loans; why Zach keeps coming back to watches made by people he knows; the founders who still answer their own DMs and Reddit threads; how Serica and Anoma collect feedback before a launch; Halios, and the case for staying small; the AP x Swatch, the Bulgari x Vianney Halter, and other watches built to be loud for a week; Moser’s move into the main hall at Watches and Wonders, the Streamliner 34, and the $4,900 ana-digi Off-Grid; whether a shakeout is coming; why the Apple Watch isn’t the cool thing to have anymore, and which brand should be saying so; the Gallet relaunch.I also ask which watches from Geneva Watch Days he’s still thinking about, a few weeks later.“It’s all gone from my brain, Tony,” Zach says.* Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.comShow Notes* Worn & Wound; Zach on Instagram* Windup Watch Fair NYC, October 16–18* Behind Lorier’s Acquisition by Worn & Wound, Unpolished* Prevail Onward Future Field Watch* The Geneva Watch Days Debrief, The Worn & Wound Podcast* Gagà Laboratorio Labormatic Superleggero, Monochrome* Bulgari Octo Finissimo Dual Time x Vianney Halter, SJX* Royal Popped, Unpolished* Late to the trend, and better for it | Moser Streamliner 34 Review, Unpolished* H. Moser Streamliner Off-Grid* Moser and Reebok’s Streamliner Pump* Gallet’s Flying Officer used to go somewhere, UnpolishedUnpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com to shop our collection of Canvas and leather straps. Everything has been restocked for the fall.* Pick up a 3 Canvas Strap Bundle for $169, a 10% off the single-strap price ($157 member price!)* Shop the new Textured Taupe, made of high-quality Epsom leather.Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors and a top-20 Fashion Substack. Join for free or become a paid member for $8/mo: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com/subscribe

Austin Rogers is a New Yorker by way of Ohio, and goes by @rehaut on Instagram. He’s also scuba certified and an aspiring mountaineer—he’s tried to summit Mount Baker three times but has encountered some truly terrible luck. Each time, he’s had a Rolex Explorer on his wrist. The first video of Austin’s I saw had him tossing a few Doxas into a hazy lake to find out whether orange really is the most visible color underwater. Austin describes himself as “maybe the most credulous watch buyer”—as a diver and climber, he uses his watches, and he’s got lots of opinions on them. We talk about grade 2 vs. grade 5 titanium, and whether choosing grade 2 is cutting a corner; the watches he’d titaniumize (Submariner, Explorer II, a shrunken Sky-Dweller, the Laurent Ferrier Classic Origin) and the ones he wouldn’t; why the “Omega’s catalog is too bloated” critique doesn’t land for him; the baby Ultra Deep he’d build if he got the keys to the factory; which Tudors from the 2013-onward rebirth era could be collectible in 20 years— North Flag, smiley dials, early FXDs, the double-signed stuff; the Submarinerization of the Longines HydroConquest and whether Longines had any option; his Grand Seiko problem; the Ulysse Nardin Diver [AIR] he regularly thinks about selling everything else for; boomerang watches; and why he keeps buying the nicest new-old-stock neo-vintage on the market and then eating an enormous loss on it.“I like to think of it as a service that I’m offering,” Austin says.* Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.comUnpolished is the newsletter for collectors and a top-20 Fashion Substack. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo ($80/year):Show Notes* Austin on Instagram* Austin’s Doxa test video* Weekend Edition: Let’s lighten up and talk titanium, Hodinkee* Ulysse Nardin Diver [Air]* Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Ultradeep* The Tudor North Flag, with Tudor’s first in-house movement, SJX* Phil Toledano’s Tudor P01* Rowing Blazers Tudor Black Bay 58, Loupe This* The new Longines Hydroconquest* Photoshopping Vintage Rolex Watches That Never Existing, HodinkeeUnpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com to shop our collection of Canvas and leather straps. Everything has been restocked for the fall.* Pick up a 3 Canvas Strap Bundle for $169, a 10% off the single-strap price ($157 member price!)* Shop the new Textured Taupe, made of high-quality Epsom leather.Unpolished is reader-supported and doesn’t run brand ads. To receive new posts and support my work, become a free or paid subscriber: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com/subscribe

Subscribe: https://unpolishedwatches.com/In December 2025, a surprising watch went viral. It wasn’t from Switzerland, Japan, or any of the traditional watchmaking hubs.It was from India and cost about $42. The brand did no marketing, and it sold out more than 5,000 pieces in just 2 minutes.Maybe you’ve seen the Delhi Watch Company Terra. It’s a unique take on a field watch: monobloc titanium case, a case design inspired by a climbing carabiner, and with a parachute-style strap.Released for DWC’s 5th anniversary, it surprised everyone, and I wanted to get the story behind the Terra. So I reached out to Delhi Watch Company’s founder Anish Dandwani and designer Ishaan Vajpai, the duo behind the Terra. We talk about the Terra, but also a lot more—what’s it like to go viral, how watchmaking is developing in India, what makes it different, and what’s next.This episode is also on YouTube here—the guys share their screen a couple of times to show renders of what they’re working on, so check it out there if you want the full look.Unpolished is a collector-supported newsletter about watches. Join for free or support with a paid subscription. Subscribers get 2 newsletters/week, a 10% discount on all orders from the Unpolished store, $50 off a watch service, community perks, and much more.* Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.comShow Notes* Delhi Watch Company* DWC Terra* Ishaah Vajpai on Instagram* Vincent’s early hands-on review of the Terra, Mainspring Magazine* Inside Titan Watches, Hodinkee* Sebastian Watch Co., artisanal dials made in India* Quest Precision on Instagramshop.unpolishedwatches.com: Shop Unpolished straps, including the new Textured Taupe, made of durable, versatile Epsom leather. Available in 18-20mm: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unpolishedwatches.com/subscribe