Unpolished Watches

One of the reasons I find watch collecting so fascinating is that it puts on full display the entire breadth of human psychology: Why we want the things we want, and how to be happy with what we already have.Today’s guest is kingflum, who writes the newsletter Screwdown Crown. He’s known just as much for his diversions on psychology as he is for calling out the BS he sees in the watch industry. We discuss how to appreciate watches without having the sometimes unhealthy desire to own every single one; the two systems always at work in our brains; how Instagram has changed watchmaking; enjoying his titanium Rolex Yacht-Master and Romain Gauthier C6; why your taste is not as personal as you think; the McMansion effect and the power of mimetic desire; the difference between a community and a cult, and which are FP Journe owners? On the eve of Watches & Wonders, we also talk about the industry: Is the slowdown cyclical or existential; the rise of Chinese manufacturing; the death of the middle market. We close with a few minutes on the current state of watch media: How brands are (or aren’t) interacting with independent newsletters, handling criticism, and is now the most exciting time to be an enthusiast? Subscribe to Unpolished here.Subscribe to Screwdown Crown here. Our book recs: * Thinking, Fast and Slow* Alchemy: The Dark Art of Creating Magic* Wanting: The Power of Mimetic DesireUnpolished subscribers get:* 2 newsletters/week* 10% off U.S.-made straps in the Unpolished Store* $50 off any service from WatchcheckSubscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUnpolished is the newsletter for watch collectors, and a top-20 Fashion & Beauty Substack. Join for free or get all the good stuff 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

Paid subscribers can see the full Unpolished Guide to Selling a Watch: https://www.unpolishedwatches.com/p/the-unpolished-guide-to-selling-aIn early February, I went to Miami for a small vintage meetup. While there, I sat down with Wes Wynne of Collectors Corner NY to discuss a question we’re both asked often:How do you sell a watch? We discuss the who, what, when, where, why, and how of selling, including:* The players: From large dealers like 1916 Company or Analog Shift to niche dealers like Wes, along with platforms, marketplaces, and auctions.* When to consider selling vs. consigning, and the margins for each, with a few real examples. When do you need a consignment agreement, and how to get rid of the “dogs” in your collection? * What to ask a dealer, along with a few of our pet peeves and red flags.* A rough Chrono24 Rule for thinking about what your watch is actually worth. I’ve published a companion guide on “How to Sell a Watch,” exclusive to paid subscribers, that goes into more detail on working with and navigating this complicated, confusing world. A useful, practical guide for paid subscribers.Subscribe at: unpolishedwatches.comSubscribers get:* 2 newsletters/week* 10% off U.S.-made straps in the Unpolished Store* $50 off any service from WatchcheckSubscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUnpolished is the newsletter for watch collectors and a top-20 Fashion & Beauty Substack. Join for free or get all the good stuff 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

Paid subscribers can see the full newsletter and show notes here: https://www.unpolishedwatches.com/p/precision-and-the-protection-of-disbeliefWelcome back to the newsletter for watch collectors. A few notes:* Canvas Straps are now available in 20mm and, for the first time, 22mm. Shop the Unpolished Store here—all paid subscribers get 10% off. Pick one up at the launch price of $65 for the next week. * Upgrade to Founding Membership here to get the 2025 Rewind Magazine. For annual subscribers: An email from Monday also has another easy way to upgrade.* Unpolished hit #20 on Substack’s Fashion & Beauty leaderboard, which I believe roughly tracks paid subscriptions. There are just two male writers in front of me—Jake Woolf, I’m coming for you.* I was on Derek Mon’s YouTube and talked about a few watches here. * Today’s letter is brought to you by Pushers.io—more below.This is the podcast version of the Unpolished newsletter from February 28, 2026.* To subscribe and get full access to the newsletter and show notes, head to: unpolishedwatches.comSubscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUnpolished is the newsletter (and podcast) for watch collectors. Join to get all the good stuff for $8/mo or $89/yr: 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

For full show notes, visit this link: https://www.unpolishedwatches.com/p/notes-from-tudors-quiet-100th-birthday This is the podcast version of the Unpolished newsletter from February 23, 2026. * To subscribe and get full access to the newsletter and show notes, head to: unpolishedwatches.com* Shop straps in the Unpolished Store: shop.unpolishedwatches.com (Canvas Straps on sale this week!)Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS 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

Paid subscribers: Follow along with the full show notes here. To become a subscriber, join Unpolished Watches or manage your account here. Founding Members receive the 2025 Rewind Magazine, which you can learn more about here. This week’s format is a little different. Last year’s most popular podcast was How to Collect Neo-Vintage Watches. We’ll have more “How to Collect” episodes this year, but in addition to a podcast, I’ll write a more comprehensive Collector’s Guide for paid subscribers to follow along. Each episode will feature a dealer or expert going deep on their particular niche.Unpolished is the newsletter for watch collectors and a top-20 Fashion Substack. Subscribe now ($8/mo) to get all the good stuff, including the show notes to follow along with this podcast: This week: The vintage Rolex Daytona with dealer Michael Morgan of Iconic Watch Company. Michael’s a dealer based in Orange County who focuses on vintage Rolex. Collecting is about recognizing patterns, and whether or not you’re interested in the Daytona, this episode will help you understand those patterns in vintage Rolex and how to think about originality and period correctness. We cover all four-digit Daytona references, starting with the last Pre-Daytona 6238.The vintage Daytona can be divided into three eras:* Pump pusher era: Refs. 6239 and 6241 (1963–69)* Transitional era: Refs. 6262 and 6264 (1970-71)* Screw-down era: Refs. 6263 and 6265 (1972-1988)* “Experimental” reference 6240 (1965-69)The Daytona’s been covered again and again, so instead of repeating what you already know, I’ll try to fill gaps I see in what’s been published and talk about the market right now. Why now? While everyone else is going crazy for neo-vintage Patek Philippe, smart collectors are zagging, baby!We focus on standard dials, though the exotic Newman is mentioned a few times. In 1988, Rolex discontinued the manual-wind Daytona, replacing it with the automatic Zenith Daytona.Other Show Notes: Here’s the Patek Philippe 5004P and First Series Patek Philippe 3970 we open by talking about. Both were listed for $750k by European Watch Co. The 3970 has since sold, which I suppose shows which one the “market” finds more compelling right now. Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUNPOLISHED STORECheck out our Matte Calfskin and Canvas Straps in the Unpolished Store. We’ll be adding 22mm Canvas Straps in the next couple of weeks (and restocking 20mm)—in the meantime, 18-19mm straps are on sale for just $65. Shop the Unpolished Store now. 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

View full show notes here.This week, I’m joined by Alfred Chan and Phil Toledano of Toledano & Chan. They’ve just announced their latest release, the b1.3r, an updated take on their brutalist integrated bracelet watch. Alfred is a talented watch designer, and Phil is an inscrutable artist and collector.We talk about that their latest release, but also: manufacturing in China vs. Switzerland (their first releases were made in China, while the b1.3r is made in Switzerland); stone dials and the state of the microbrand space; making an asymmetrical crystal; the best watches they bought in 2025; marketing, TikTok, brand ambassadors, and Timothee Chalamet; making something that’s intentionally divisive; why their costs $10,000 (!); and what’s next for Toledano & Chan. The case and bracelet of the b1.3r is now in titanium, and it’s been slightly shrunk down compared to previous releases. The main feature of this watch is the solid-gold “ripple” dial, meant to look like ripples on the water (very Grand Seiko). For more, visit Toledano & Chan or find them on Instagram. Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUnpolished is the newsletter for watch collectors, and a top-25 Fashion & Beauty Substack. Join a community of 1,000+ enthusiasts for just $6/mo: Below: The new Toledano & Chan b1.3r, and the massive “soup bowl” Phil talks about at the start of the episode. UNPOLISHED STOREIf you’re enjoying the podcast, head over to the Unpolished Store to pick up one of our Canvas or Leather straps. The leather straps are a high-quality french calfskin that sits right between dressy and distressed. The Canvas Straps are 100% cotton—unlike other canvas straps, they aren’t lined which means they’re thin, flexible, and comfortable:* Shop the Unpolished StoreI’m able to keep the podcast free thanks to your support with subscriptions or buying straps! 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

Paid subscribers: All winners of the holiday giveaway are being individually emailed today. If that’s you, please respond in 24 hours before I draw the next name!Welcome back to the Unpolished podcast. Our first conversation of 2026 is with Nicholas Bowman-Scargill. He’s the 4th managing director of Fears Watches, based in Bristol, U.K., and the great-great-great-grandson of Edwin Fear, who founded Fears in 1846. Fears closed its doors in 1976, but Nicholas reopened them in 2016. This year, Fears is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its re-founding and the 180th anniversary of its original formation.Nicholas made an early-career pivot to watches, joining Rolex in the U.K. as a watchmaking apprentice. After five years at Rolex, he set off on his own to relaunch his family’s dormant watch company. We talk about what he learned at Rolex, why the Crown makes such good movements for watchmakers, 10 years of Fears, mistakes he’s made, the state of British watchmaking, how to make a good watch case, and a lot more. Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSSUNPOLISHED STOREIf you’re enjoying the podcast, head over to the Unpolished Store to pick up one of our Canvas or Leather straps. The leather straps are a high-quality french calfskin that sits right between dressy and distressed. The Canvas Straps are 100% cotton—unlike other canvas straps, they aren’t lined which means they’re thin, flexible, and comfortable: * Shop the Unpolished StoreI’m able to keep the podcast free thanks to your support with subscriptions or buying straps! Show Notes:* Fearswatches.com* What does craft actually mean to you? (last week’s newsletter* Fears Brunswick collection* Fears Arnos (my favorite Fears)* A Theory of the Case, last weekend’s newsletterGet in touch:* tony[at]unpolishedwatches.com* Instagram* Tap the heart, leave a comment, or review the podcast wherever you’re listening. 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 is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.unpolishedwatches.comClick here for podcast show notesWelcome to Unpolished’s year-in-review newsletter. It won’t be the last issue of 2025, but highlights some of the most popular and interesting stories of the year, while also giving an update on Unpolished. Many of you are paying subscribers and thus stakeholders in this newsletter, so you deserve it! You can also listen above or in your podcast app. To see all the numbers and enter the holiday giveaway (more below), upgrade now:Btw, I received a press release this morning that Kari Voutilainen is stepping back as co-CEO of Urban Jürgensen, but will join its board. Alex Rosenfeld, the other co-CEO, becomes CEO. At its best, the internet can be amazing. Unpolished launched with a few thousand people on an email list built up over 5+ years, and 12 months later, it’s a sustainable, very small business that’s replaced my previous income. But the internet is also frustrating. It engages us, enrages us, and hijacks our attention. Today, social media, especially Instagram, is the home of the watch “community,” while YouTube is its library of reviews and opinions.One of the common questions I get—it showed up again in last week’s Q&A—is what other watch “content” (a gross word) I consume. But I’ve found this question is really asking something more like: How do I stop scrolling and consume stuff that actually feels worthwhile? It applies to watches, but not only watches. I was at a dinner with a few collectors in New York earlier this month, and one of them (hi!) said to me that his favorite coverage helps him better understand and appreciate watches—even without any intention of buying them. Whether that’s understanding the innovation, craft, or culture that’s imbued in any particular object. Because that’s the reality, isn’t it? Whether it’s a $17m Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph or a new $4,000 watch from Tudor, we’ll never own most of these watches. And that’s just fine. But they’re still ours to appreciate. What we’re really talking about isn’t ownership—it’s attention. In a world of frictionless consumption, there’s growing value in things that reward patience, permanence, and earned understanding.There’s something uniquely human about our ability to create abstract, symbolic tools and build on them over time. Mechanical watches are a perfect example: centuries-old instruments designed to measure an idea—time—that we defined in the first place.As I’ve mentioned, “craft” was one of the main themes of 2025, and it gets at a feeling bigger than watches. Technology, whether it’s social media or AI or software updates to your car, has encroached on anything real. Watches can provide a small respite. They can urge us to slow down, to appreciate what goes into making an object with hundreds of parts and centuries of history. Like anything that sticks around long enough, watches have transformed from technology to tradition. Wrapped up in that is also all the problems that come with any tool that becomes a status symbol or luxury.This idea, craft, has been wrought to the point of cliché, but the reality remains: People appreciate craft, whether it’s Larry Bird making 99 free throws in a row after practice or F.P. Journe harnessing the phenomenon of resonance. Which is what’s exciting for watches. These objects can be beautiful displays of a variety of crafts, whether feats of the human hand or human engineering.The bad news: I’m not sure the larger watch industry is really adapting to this. Some corners of the high-end and independent scene have leaned into craft, but anxiety about luxury defined the broader conversation in 2025. That tension showed up in what people actually read, at least in this newsletter. As we’ll see below, the most-viewed articles this year were (1) about how “watch prices are insane,” and (2) expressing my complicated feelings about luxury. These weren’t celebrations of the new, but reckonings with price, value, and the uneasy state of luxury. Taken together, they provide a snapshot of where watch culture is right now—and where it may be headed, whether the industry is ready or not.The Most Popular—and Interesting—Stories of 2025When I look at metrics, which isn’t often, a few numbers are important: views, new free subscribers, and new paid subscribers. Interestingly, there wasn’t much overlap in which stories performed the best on each. People view, subscribe to, and pay for different things. It’s the fun, and the challenge, of the newsletter format. This is the 91st newsletter published this year, which also includes 14 podcasts (including 7 guest chats), 4 Q&As, and 2 strap launches. Below, more on what I’ve learned about format and what that means for 2026. As always, the entire archive is available online. 2025’s most-viewed stories* Watch Prices Are Insane — Tapping into another theme of 2025—high prices. A survival guide for collecting watches when watch

Jack Forster is the global editorial director of the 1916 Company. You can also find his writing on his newsletter, Split Seconds. Jack joined me to look back on 2025 in watches. Jack names his “Escapement of the Year,” “Chronometer of the Year,” and we talk about some of the biggest trends in watchmaking—finishing, craft, complications, technical innovations, and more. Before that, we also look at Breguet’s new magnetic escapement in the Experimentale 1. We discuss what it means to be a “collector,” and whether there’s a difference between collecting and accumulating; whether we should bring back real chronometer awards; and the best thing Jack’s had on his wrist all year. It’s not all sharp internal angles and technical innovations though, we also talk about some of our favorite releases of the year Follow Jack’s newsletter, Split Seconds, and find him at the 1916 Company. Subscribe to the podcast to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.Subscribe for $99/year ($8.25/mo) to get all the good stuff, plus 10% off in the Unpolished Store and $50 off any service at Watchcheck:VISUAL NOTESSHOW NOTES* In Conversation with Philippe Narbel, Fourth Wheel* The Sharp Inner Angle And The Limits Of Machining, Split Seconds* Breguet Launches The 250th Anniversary Expérimentale 1, With Magnetic Escapement, 1916 Company* Breguet Experimentale 1: Anatomy of a Magnetic Escapement, Relogios Mecânicos * Some Quality Time With The Grand Seiko Spring Drive UFA, 1916 Company* Zenith Introduces The GFJ Caliber 135, An Old School Champion Of Precision, 1916 Company* Daniel Roth, a surprising breakout watchmaker of 2025, UnpolishedGet in touch:* tony[at]unpolishedwatches.com* Instagram* Like this post or leave a comment if you’re enjoying the podcast interviews and want to see more in 2026: 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