This week we chat to Reinhold Messner. The first man to climb Everest solo, Messner popularised the alpine style of climbing. Felix talks to him about adventure, the environment and the importance of failure. Beyond that we find out why Beyonce, Jay-Z and Diddy have been in the luxury headlines and why Kurono Tokyo got caught up in Instagram drama.

This week’s episode is a two-parter. The main attraction is, of course, Hublot CEO Ricardo Guadalupe. Recorded during Watches & Wonders earlier this year, Mr Guadalupe discusses the difficulties of working with sapphire, and Hublot came to excel in technical case materials. They also talk about the important role art plays to the brand and why collaborations with creatives like Takashi Murakami push watch design forward. Before that, Andy and Felix run down some of the year’s most colourful releases.

In this 100 per cent in-house production of OT:, Andy and Felix look back on the spicy cocktail that was August 2021 and provides some searing insight into the watch headlines. There are good news stories like a near-instant sell out of vintage pocket watches, a wee dram of anOrdain and Andy getting up to speed with the new Masenna Lab. It’s not all so peachy, as issues like quality control over at Ming, as well as (more) drama around a decidedly not-in-house Panerai movement. And then there’s the question of what Chrono24 will do with 100 million euros and what that means for watch collecting.

Pop the bubbles and get ready to party because OT: just clocked in 100 episodes. To celebrate, we’ve pulled out all the stops. We’ve put together some pizza-themed merch, which is as wholesome as you’d expect. But more than that, we offer the first taste of our upcoming watch collaboration, and we can’t wait to tell you more. The main course in today’s celebration, though is Maxime Plescia-Büchi, the founder of Sang Blue, who you likely know from his successful series of Hublot limited editions. Of course, we chat to Maxime about Hublot and what it’s like to tattoo Kanye West, but we also use the opportunity to get his take on watch design.

Inspired by a chat on our community Discord, Andy and Felix dedicate this entire episode to the spiciest of hot takes. Andy takes the heat out of hype watches, while Felix disses one of the most popular complications out there. That’s the great thing about a good hot take, though — it doesn’t need to be particularly rational or even fully formed, just passionate (and preferably spicy). The heat continues thanks to some California Reaper level heat from Discord members who have thoughts about premium prices, date windows and everything in between

Calling in from Los Angeles is today’s guest Dan Brunn, an award-winning architect whose practise is inspired by sustainability and growing up amid the Bauhaus buildings of Tel Aviv. We find out how Dan leapt headfirst into the world of bespoke architecture by scoring a prestigious Venice beach build fresh out of architecture school. We also find out about the Flip Flop house, and what it’s like to live in something you created.

Today's guest is Asher Rapkin. By day Asher is a marketer for Facebook, but by night he's the co-founder of Collective Horology, a community of watch lovers held together by collaborative watches. The latest collab just launched, and it's the very cool, out-of-this-world Urwerk UR100-V P.02 for Collective. We chat to Asher about what inspired this watch, as well as get into the nuts, bolts and balance sheets as to how a limited edition is made. We also find out why Collective exists in an age when Instagram and other platforms have made finding watch enthusiasts easier than ever.

This week we chat to the man who calls himself the King of Vintage. Jasper Lijfering is the man behind Amsterdam Vintage Watches and its transformation from a family business into one of the most recognised watch dealers online, thanks to a combination of hard work, social media smarts and transparency. Jasper tells us about the ups and downs of life in the spotlight — from robberies to stunts, as well as just how he ended up selling a John Player Special to none other than Ellen DeGeneres.

This week Andy and Felix are talking about some of the highlight watches from Only Watch, a bi-annual charity auction consisting only of … you guessed it … watches. But more than that, it’s an auction of one-of-a-kind pieces, and things get a little wild. This year there are 54 pieces submitted, including a HAND-some F.P. Journe (made in collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola of all people), a super aged-Tudor GMT and heaps of orange.

Andy chats to Edouard Meylan, the charismatic and thoughtful CEO of H. Moser. From how the Meylan's acquired the legacy brand and what the future holds, through to the importance of community in brand building, we quickly learn that Moser does things a little different. Nowhere is that more apparent than with their periodic campaigns poking fun at the wider industry. From watches made of Swiss cheese to the masterful parody that is the Alp Watch, Moser isn't afraid of being bold.

Joe Salanitri is one leg of the tripod that is Sooshi Mango. The comedy trio shoot to fame on social media thanks to their witty response to the pandemic and their incredibly accurate portrayal of multicultural Australian life. We chat to Joe about whether we should have masks on (or off) and the surprising Sea-Dweller he’s got on his radar. 

In this episode, Felix and Andy look back over some of the years best new watches under $5000, including strong contenders from Seiko, Tudor and Cartier. They also get back on the Watch Matchmaking bandwagon, finding Robert a well-priced daily wearer with heirloom potential.

Today’s guest is the cool, calm and collected Cole Pennington from Hodinkee. We got up with Cole fresh from a stint in Thailand, a country close to his watch-collecting heart and one with a special relationship with Seiko. Speaking of Seiko, Cole and Felix politely disagree about the legendary Monster, and Cole talks about the one that got away. We also chat about Cole’s important story uncovering a new space watch, the watch stories that make Cole tick, the ones he can’t tell.

In addition to being one of the original streamers and one of Minecraft’s first employees, Lydia Winters is also super into her watches, as anyone who follows her dedicated watch account @enjoythewatches will know. We find out just what a ‘Chief Storyteller’ does and how Lydia started streaming in the wild days of the internet, and that led to her working for one of the biggest games in the world. In parallel, we discover how Lydia’s love of watches grew over the years, with a collection including Nomos, Tudor, Omega and more.

In the world of high-end independent watchmaking, Max Büsser is a king. This romantic vision is pretty accurate, but it’s only part of the picture. Max tells us about the anger and frustration that caused MB&F to be born, the importance of friends, the madness of developing 22 calibres in 20 years and why he is determined to run his business differently.

This week Andy and Felix talk to Chris Hall, a man steering the watch content of one of the most influential online retailers in the business, Mr Porter. Taking up the mantle of Mr Porter’s Senior Watch Editor in the midst of a global pandemic is no easy feat, but Chris has handled it with aplomb. We find out just why someone would consider buying a watch off Mr Porter and which of the new releases stand out for him (hint, Hermès and JLC get a lot of love).

South African-born professional explorer Mike Horn has lived a heck of a life. He's sailed around the world 27 times, walked around it three times, crossed Antarctica and summited some of the world's highest peaks. And he's down much of it with a Panerai on his wrist. Mike tells us about the time he used his watch as a piton, but also what drives him into the wild, and what the point of exploration is when the map has been filled in.

Now that Watches & Wonders is done and dusted we thought it was high time to do some soul-searching and come up with our favourite releases from the virtual fair. Felix, in typical fashion, went a little weird and focused on some less-hyped releases while Andy played it straight with four rock-solid choices. How did we do?

This episode is the long-awaited return of James Dowling. This time around, we talk about Rolex (I mean, when you're known online as @MisterRolex is kind of comes up), but mostly we talking about weird watches, following ‘dead ends’ and how collecting has changed over the years.

This episode is action-packed in more ways than one. Of course, the top billing goes to Jason Heaton, a product journalist who's penned his first novel, But before that, we have some action of a different kind, with Andy chatting to Mike Manjos from WatchBox, about the winners from Watches & Wonders. Then it's straight into the thriller that is Depth Charge. Heaton bills it as a classic paperback page-turner in the vein of Cussler or Fleming, with a healthy dose of diving, and of course, dive watches.