Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry

66:58

Who Pays for Watch Media? – Influencers, Access, and...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/10/05

Watch media looks nothing like it did ten years ago. Blake Buettner was one of Hodinkee's early writers, later managing editor at Worn & Wound, and built The Deep Track on his own. He joins Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin to talk about how watch journalism got decentralized. A Hodinkee Introducing article used to be enough to sell a watch. Now a launch gets spread across traditional outlets, watch influencers, YouTube creators and celebrity endorsements, and most of it runs through brand PR rather

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62:37

Dressed for Success? – Rolex's Padellone, Breguet's...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/09/28

Eighteen months after Liberation Day, we look at where Swiss watch exports stand. Shipments to the U.S. are down 8.3% year to date but still up 8.8% versus 2024. Mainland China is down 23% from two years ago. Global exports are still up 1.7%, carried by the UK, India, Europe and South America. The growth is coming from watches over $50,000, while the $1,000 to $10,000 middle of the market gets hollowed out. Collector taste is moving away from steel sports watches and toward dress watches,

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44:12

MING's Very Big Year – And What Comes Next – Episode 94

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/09/21

Recorded live at Geneva Watch Days, this episode of Openwork sits down with Ming CEO Praneeth Raj Singh to unpack one of the strongest product runs in independent watchmaking: the Polymesh, Iris, Starfield, Lightning, and Comet. Hosts Gabe Reilly and Blake Buettner ask how much of it was planning versus luck, and Praneeth explains the shift from pandemic-era scramble launches to a more deliberate cadence, plus why Ming's graveyard of killed ideas is bigger than its actual catalog.Praneeth gets

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63:34

The Unsung Watches – Geneva Watch Days 2026 – Episode 93

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/09/14

Gabe and Asher kick off Episode 93 with news: Collective is now an authorized Ressence retailer. Then they get into the week's biggest story out of Geneva Watch Days 2026: Breitling's Gallet relaunch, its inherited distribution network, the debt behind the bet, and why it beats the usual sub-$5,000 heritage revival.The rest of the episode is Collective's annual rundown of the watches nobody else is covering: the Laurent Ferrier Classic Moon Dusk and its lumed double-moon phase, Singer Track's new

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53:01

Geneva Watch Days 2026 – Bigger, Better, and...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/09/03

Gabe Reilly and Blake Buettner record live from Geneva Watch Days to discuss the show’s atmosphere, the growth of independent watchmaking, and what Blake’s new role at Collective means for future content.We break down major trends: independents gaining mainstream traction, the rising accessibility of creative watchmaking, and the cross-pollination of materials and techniques between affordable and high-end brands. And of course, we highlight standout releases, including Ming’s 57.05 Comet

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50:33

Collection Reset – Working in Watches Changed How We...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/08/24

Breitling relaunches Gallet on September 3rd. Openwork hosts Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin unpack Georges Kern's play: chronographs at 3,000–5,000 CHF, an exploration story aimed at Bremont, Longines, and Tudor, sold in Breitling boutiques. Plus Universal Genève and Breitling's return to Watches & Wonders.Then a listener question: how has working in the industry changed our collecting? It starts with selling nearly everything to help fund Collective Horology — what survived, what still stings

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43:07

We Sued to Stop Tariffs – And Rolex Is Reshaping...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/08/10

In Episode 90 of Openwork, Collective Horology co-founders Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin reveal that they've sued the U.S. federal government over the tariffs squeezing the watch industry and small businesses nationwide. They explain why they joined the suit alongside co-plaintiff Burlap Barrel, how the latest Section 301 tariffs continue to limit access to independent watches, and why it's the volatility of trade policy — not just the cost — that makes it so hard for small businesses to plan and

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61:37

The Watch Switzerland Can't Make – Karel Bachand...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/07/27

A quick news note: On Friday, July 24, Collective, along with New York spice importer Burlap & Barrel, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade challenging the federal government's latest Section 301 tariffs. We'll dig into the details on our next episode. In the meantime, you can read more here.On this episode of Openwork, Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin talk with Karel Bachand, founder and chief engineer of Barrelhand, the San Francisco brand rethinking American watchmaking

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47:43

The Rise of Tudor – How Rolex Wins by Letting Tudor...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/07/13

How did Tudor go from a brand you couldn't even buy in the United States to a half-billion-dollar powerhouse selling 300,000 watches a year? In this episode of Openwork, Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin trace the rise of Tudor — from its wilderness years in the shadow of Rolex to the 2009 reinvention that produced the Heritage Chrono, the Black Bay, the Pelagos, and an in-house movement. Along the way they unpack the ETA supply crisis, the 2008 financial crash, and Rolex's move upmarket that opened the

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60:45

Bonus: Reviving the U.S. Watch Industry – Josh...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/07/06

To mark 250 years of American independence, we're revisiting one of our favorite conversations: our sit-down with Josh Shapiro, the American independent watchmaker behind the Resurgence — the only watch that currently meets the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's standard for "Made in America." It's a fitting week to ask a question that feels newly urgent in an era of tariffs and reshoring: what would it actually take to bring watchmaking back to the United States at scale?Josh takes us from the

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50:31

The Analog Boom – Watch Sales Surge to Start 2026 –...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/06/29

This week we're proud to welcome Bamford London to the Collective line card. George Bamford is the OG of modern collaborative watchmaking, but it's his own designs — the D300 Ceramic Diver, the Monopushers, the GMTs — that pulled us in: pieces that read as instantly recognizable without ever aping the usual suspects, built from forged carbon, ceramic, and titanium, at a genuinely accessible price. They also slot perfectly into the decade-plus renaissance in English design and watchmaking. Then we

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35:01

Bonus: The Watches of Armin Strom – Claude Greisler...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/06/22

We're on summer hours, but we wanted to keep something in your feed as much as we can — so this one comes from our Watches Of podcast, a conversation Gabe recorded in person with Claude Greisler of Armin Strom. Claude is one of the brand's two modern co-founders and its master watchmaker, and he made the trip out to Los Angeles for Open House, where a full spread of the Armin Strom collection was on the tables. Before the watches, the two sat down for a wide-ranging talk about how he got

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45:37

Tariffs on the Rise (Again) – New Justifications,...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/06/15

Gabe heads to Las Vegas for one of the largest trade shows in the watch and jewelry world — a B2B behemoth that's quietly making a bigger play for watches than ever before. He breaks down what the show gets right, where it falls short of the events collectors actually obsess over, and the one brand on the floor that genuinely stopped him in his tracks across every price point imaginable.Then the conversation turns to the topic everyone assumed was behind us. Tariffs didn't go away — they just

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30:05

Open House Recap – Inside LA's First and Only...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/06/08

Morning after Open House 2026 — the biggest event Collective Horology has ever thrown. Now in its third year at The Aster in Hollywood, the fair pulled 400+ people through the door, a line down the street, a closed RSVP, and attendees who flew in from as far as Boston. Gabe and Asher dig into why a show built entirely around esoteric, left-of-center independents draws such a self-selecting crowd: not casual passersby, but a curious, informed audience that knows exactly what it's looking at.Every

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49:10

Watch Retail Consolidates, Rapidly – What It Means...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/06/01

While preparing to speak on a panel about the rapidly changing state of American watch retail, Gabe stumbles onto an annual industry report that ranks the largest jewelry and watch retailers by revenue — and what he finds stops him cold. The company sitting at the very top of the list is one neither he nor Asher had ever heard of: a quiet giant operating thousands of doors in plain sight. And the name long assumed to rule American watch retail? It's quietly been overtaken.This week, Gabe and Asher

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58:13

The Quiet Giants – How Seiko, Citizen, and Casio Each...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/05/25

Seiko, Citizen, and Casio each pulled in over a billion dollars in revenue last year — in most cases record-breaking, and all three landing neck and neck around $1.3 billion with healthy 9–14% net margins. That's remarkable on its own. It's stunning when you remember it happened in the same sub-$5,000 segment that's been punishing the Swiss. While Swatch Group struggles and the broader industry hunts for its footing, Japan's big three are quietly having their strongest year in decades. We dig into

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57:30

Royal Flop? – AP x Swatch: Brand Building or Crisis...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/05/18

We recorded today's episode on May 13, just a few days before the AP Swatch Royal Pop went on sale. We discuss the decision-making and implications of this project for both companies' brands and businesses, and for many reasons, we consistently question why AP in particular would partner with Swatch on this project. On the positive side, we do point out Swatch's competencies in production, distribution, marketing, and retail of these kinds of products. Sadly though, today's events — store closures,

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54:33

How Watches Get Allocated – It's Not Just Spend...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/05/11

Why do some watches always seem to go to the same people? Listener Terry wrote in with a question we hear constantly: how do brands and authorized dealers actually decide who gets the most in-demand pieces? Is it spend, celebrity, genuine interest, or something else? Gabe and Asher walk through the five allocation models that govern how hot watches move from manufacturer to wrist — closed-door allocations, customer pre-sales, first come first serve, lotteries, and order windows — and the trade-offs

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50:52

Against All Odds – How Richemont, LVMH and Swatch...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/05/04

If you'd told Gabe and Asher on August 7th — the day the U.S. announced a 39% tariff on Switzerland — that the holding companies would close out 2025 with their watch businesses up, they wouldn't have believed it. But that's what happened. Richemont's watch division grew 7% year over year. Swatch Group posted 7.2%. LVMH's watches and jewelry held flat while fashion softened around it. The top line says remarkable resilience. The bottom line tells a more complicated story.Profits are largely flat

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53:07

Breitling vs. Richemont – Opposite Bets on an...

Openwork: Inside the Watch Industry ·

2026/04/27

A grand reorganization of the luxury watch business is happening in front of us, and nowhere is it more visible than in the diverging strategies of two holding companies making opposite bets on the future. Gabe and Asher unpack the contrast between Breitling, which under Georges Kern has quietly reconstituted itself as a private-equity-backed challenger group — bulking up through the acquisitions of Universal Genève and Gallet — and Richemont, the industry stalwart now actively slimming down,

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