Shows
Beyond The DialThrough The Looking Glass - On Watches & Philosophy (The Final Episode)Farewell, and thank you all for listening. The Aesthetic Revolution Will Be Beautiful!
2024-03-282h 03
Beyond The DialConversations - E19 - Rikki from Scottish WatchesAllen and Rikki lament and celebrate the current world of watches in equal measure, covering the rise of fashion and red-carpet nonsense to the role of modern materials in high horlogy.
2024-02-011h 03
The Waiting List Podcast#183- ”We felt it was important to have plurality in terms of news” – Allen Farmelo & William Massena, Founders of The Watch SpaceOn this episode we speak to Allen and William about their new app The Watch Space, why we need to take a broader approach to watch journalism and what they hope to achieve with this app. Click to download the app here https://www.thewatchspace.net/
2023-12-1459 min
Beyond The DialI Fell Into The Rolex Black HoleAllen could no longer resist the forces of gravity at the center of the horological universe, and now he is broadcasting from the within the Rolex Black Hole. He has sold off swaths of his collection and aquired two five-digit Rollies. An unexpected turn in Allen's journey, and perhaps one from which he can never return. Has he sold out or bought in?
2023-11-2848 min
Scottish WatchesScottish Watches Podcast #519 : Chatting With Allen Farmelo About Watches, Bikes, Audio and A New App For Us AllClick here to read along and see the photos in our show notes as you listen – https://www.scottishwatches.co.uk/category/podcast/ Welcome to the Scottish Watches Podcast Episode 519! Chatting With Allen Farmelo About Watches,...
The post Scottish Watches Podcast #519 : Chatting With Allen Farmelo About Watches, Bikes, Audio and A New App For Us All appeared first on Scottish Watches.
2023-11-2056 min
Beyond The DialSWATCH's BIOCERAMIC - THE UNVARNISH FACTS (AND OPINIONS)Is SWATCH's BIOCERAMIC anything more than a petroleum-based plastic? Find out in this episode as Allen shares his investigation into this divisive material, its history, its current context, its chemical makeup, and even an email about it from a SWATCH representative.
2023-09-0732 min
Beyond The DialInsights E35 - How "In-House" Obscures The Quality of Movements (& Insults Our Intelligence)A watch movement made to exacting standards by a robot on Mars working for a third-party alien corporation might turn out beautiful, precise, complicated and fascinating. Barring production on a more distant planet, no movement could be further from "in-house." This hypothetical Martian movement would absolutely trounce, say, a cheap Seiko movement made "in-house" by actual Japanese robots. I'd take the third-party Martian movement any day, and I bet you would too.
2023-03-0120 min
Beyond The DialInsights E34 - For Exhibition Only - Rolex Without WatchesHas Rolex evolved into a brand that's For Exhibition Only" And what if Rolex no longer made physical watches? Could this be the future of global luxury brands in the centuries to come?
2023-02-0824 min
Beyond The DialField Reports E9 - Bremont's Authenticity Soars In An Old PlaneAllen went to the UK for the launch of Bremont's first serially produced watches with their in-house movement, but what Allen got was a ride in an old plane that showed him the unique authenticity at the center of the brand set on reviving British industrial watchmaking.
2023-01-121h 01
Beyond The DialConversations E18 - Walt Odets On His Five Favorite WatchesWalt has some very classy timepieces, all of a type: smaller, understated, and often highly complicated. Allen and Walt talk through five of Walt's most favorite watches, plus a sixth that came to Walt as a very pleasant surprise.
2022-11-081h 12
Beyond The DialInsights E33- From Horological Silence Into The Noisy Watch Space - A Personal History of Watch Collecting (1990-2020)In this essay-style episode, Allen drags the historical lens across the watch space from 1990-2020, showing how what was once a lonely nerd's hobby grew into a fashionable social activity.
2022-10-0536 min
Beyond The DialInsights E32 - A Tentative Critique of the Post-Pandemic Watch CultureIn this insight essay, Allen admits to feeling a little disillusioned with the broader watch culture and tried to identify why it feels different to him since COVID pandemic lockdowns and the rapid expansion of interest in watches. Special interest is paid to the role of social media in hollowing out how we enthusiasts and collectors interact around watches.
2022-09-2219 min
Beyond The DialIteration Inundation - The Endless Stream of New(s) WatchesIt's gotten overwhelming, all the new releases. Allen talks about how the digital medial environment, including the socials, has put undue stress on watch brands to always be releasing something new. and he has some ideas for how to deal with it.
2022-09-0735 min
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E6 - Complicated Chronographs - Flybacks, Split-Seconds, Ultra-Fast, & MoreDavid takes Allen deeper into the world of mechanical chronographs, covering all the major complications from early flybacks to the latest in mechanical chronograph technology.
2022-07-2955 min
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E5 - Understanding Mechanical ChronographsDavid takes Allen inside the fascinating world of mechanical chronographs, and Allen finally "gets it." Vertical vs. horizontal clutches, column wheel vs. cam actuators, reset functions, and much more are covered here, leaving the listener with a foundational understanding of mechanical stop watches.
2022-06-171h 04
Beyond The DialInsights E30 - "In-House" - How An Overused Term Lost Its Meaning & How To Fix ItAllen expands on his written essay on this always confusing and sometimes contentious topic. "In-House" refers to a movement built....Where exactly? By whom? It's hard to know anymore because brands have use the term in marketing so loosely that no precise definition exists. Allen suggests new terms to help clarify the many modes of movement manufacturing.
2022-05-2443 min
Beyond The DialInsights E29 - The Watch Collector / Enthusiast Dichotomy & Its DiscontentsAllen upends our current way of diving up the watch community into collectors, enthusiasts and consumers and suggests that we'd be far better off describing different levels of horological experience. Not to be missed for the die-hards, in this episode Allen's "phenomenology of watches" finally pays some dividends.
2022-05-0243 min
Beyond The DialConversations E17 - Bulova's 20th Century Mechanical Prowess (w Michael Benavente and Colin de Tonnac)Allen speaks with Michael Benavente of Bulova and Colin de Tonnac of Semper & Adhuc about the history of Bulova as a mechanical watchmaker. There's a lot to learn here. For example, did you know that Bulova once employed more Swiss mechanical watchmakers than any other brand, including the Swiss ones? Michael provides historical perspective and Colin provides mechanical insight. Good stuff.
2022-04-111h 01
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E4 - Servicing Mechanical MovementsDavid and Allen walk through the sometimes dubious topic of having your mechanical watch serviced. David explains how it all has to happen as Allen warns of scammers and how to beat them. You'll learn about timegrapher results, especially amplitude, as well as old and modern lubrications, why parts wear out, and even when service should be avoided.
2022-02-2256 min
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E3 - Movements As Torque ManagersDavid Flett schools Allen about what torque is and how it operates and is managed within a watch movement. Philosophical ponderance eventually finds its way, of course, but applied physics to horology remains the main story here.
2022-02-021h 10
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E2 - Gears & The Going TrainIn this second installment of the How They Work series, David Flett joins Allen and leads him through the gears that make your mechanical watches work, generally known as "the going train." By the end they've imagined complications that track time on Mercury, Jupiter and Mars.
2021-12-091h 03
Beyond The DialInsights E28 - Quantum Leaps in Collecting WatchesAllen explores his new directions for his own budding collection of Vacheron Constantin watches, centering on a near disaster of a purchase due to his unbridled impetuousness. Two friends saved him from repeating past mistakes.
2021-11-3043 min
Beyond The DialInsights E28 - Falling Back In Love With Vacheron ConstantinAllen sold his 50th Birthday Grand Seiko, and now he's run out and bought a sweet 33mm platinum 1984 Vacheron Constantin Historique and a Unimatic U4, which he feels embodies Milanese Brutalism. Find out why he's in The Horological Flow State.
2021-11-1053 min
Beyond The DialInsights E27 - Why I Sold My 50th Birthday Grand Seiko At Age 51Allen explores his decision to sell his BIG 50th BIRTHDAY WATCH just one year later. This one is all about aligning one's true passion with one's budget, or lack thereof. And Allen explores how modern watch marketing can come between an owner and his watch.
2021-10-181h 02
Beyond The Dial9000 Miles, 21 States, 5 Weeks, 1 Motorcycle & 1 WatchAllen return from an epic cross-country motorcycle trip with reservations about his Grand Seiko birthday watch and a head full of American Weirdness.
2021-10-0647 min
Tenn and TwoGoing Beyond With Allen FarmeloThis week we sat down with Beyond The Dial host Allen Farmelo to chat about his latest watch collab, motorcycles, and buying Rolex's in Nashville. Super fun chat you don't want to miss!! Find out more about the Alsta x Beyond The Dial Motoscaphe 120, here! For pictures, details, and links to what we talk about visit www.tennandtwo.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!Questions and inquiries can be sent to info@tennandtwo.com.
2021-08-101h 23
Fifth Wrist RadioIndependent Thinking - Allen Farmelo (@beyond.the.dial); Watches, Motorcycles, Tanks and the Aesthetic RevolutionAnother episode of the Independent Thinking Show for FifthWrist Radio. This is a place dedicate to showcasing the great people doing interesting and cool things in the world of horology.
Conversation between Roman (@TimesRomanAU) and our guest - the journalist, podcaster, motorcycling fanatic and poultry fancier, Allen Farmelo (@beyond.the.dial); host of the brilliant Beyond The Dial podcast.
Join us for a passionate and honest conversation about authenticity; pitfalls of marketing; the watch media landscape; our approaches to communicating about horology; NAZI watches; Ducati motorcycles; Cartier Tanks; Andy Warhol; Walt Odets; and our mutual fascination with all things horological.
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2021-08-082h 04
Beyond The DialField Reports E8 - The Alsta x BTD Motoscaphe 120Allen goes into the ideas behind the Alsta Motoscaphe 120, one of a very few purpose built motorcycling watches. Not branded to match this or that bike, nor just a clever facelift, the Motoscaphe 120 is the culmination of Allen spending the last 30 years or so riding motorcycles with mechanical watches.
2021-08-031h 03
Beyond The DialInsights E26 - Eccentricity, Ostentation, Wealth & WatchesWhy do the rich get away with all kinds of bizarre quirky behavior while the rest of us are made to look silly when we express our little kinks? The answer is complicated, and when we bring watches into the picture, it only gets more complicated.
2021-07-3042 min
Beyond The DialConversations E16 - Walt Odets, The Original Watch BloggerWalt Odets is, by most accounts, the first person to blog about watches, thus creating a template for how watch journalism evolved over the past 20 years. His work, however, never resembled modern watch journalism; his was critical, mechanically minded, and decidedly unconcerned with fashion and trends. Allen and Walt discuss his journey in watches and much more.
2021-07-201h 45Beyond The DialSatanic RamblingsAllen grabs the mic and speaks for an hour with zero edits on topics ranging from his dream of playing with The Grateful Dead (#letallenplay) to OEM straps to how mechanical ignorance leads to silly horological obsessions, and more...
2021-06-151h 00
Beyond The DialInsights E25 - Horological Hedonism & The Aesthetic RevolutionHorology Inc. provides us with a vast array of dial colors able to splash dopamine onto our opiate receptors. We often dismiss new colors as a superficial trend lacking horological innovation, but Allen argues that - because splashy dials spontaneously inspire joy, beauty, and emotions that, science has shown, replicate our experience of Love - great dials may be closer to the center of The Aesthetic Revolution than we ever imagined.
2021-05-1243 min
Beyond The DialInsights E24 - Large Watches - A Case Study Featuring the Moser Pioneer Centre Seconds Limited Edition in Mad RedAllen breaks form on his approach to the hands-on review while exploring how Moser creates what is, in his opinion, one of the most beautiful watches currently being produced.
2021-04-3032 min
Beyond The DialInsights E23 - Rolex vs. Gen XCan irony reconcile the cynical Gen X world view with a luxury hobby? Does the Swiss watch industry sell us "Vintage Nationalism" along with our watches? Did Jean-Claude Biver leverage anti-establishment tendencies with his anti-electronic rhetoric of the 1980s and 1990s? Allen takes a stab at these topics and more in this essay episode.
2021-04-2344 min
Beyond The DialInsights E22 - The Enduring Allure of LuminescenceIn this essay-style episode, Allen takes a journey through the history of glow-in-the-dark materials, drawing a personal narrative spanning five decades alongside a technological and psycho-evolutionary analysis of luminescence.
2021-04-161h 03
Beyond The DialConversations E15 - From Singapore to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New York, London & Beyond (w LungLung & Dainel of The Waiting List)Daniel and Lung Lung from The Waiting List podcast join Allen and James for a 2-hour conversation about how unique regional cultural experiences shape our attitudes toward watches and each other. Expect a lot of laughter and surprises as cross-cultural discoveries emerge in this lively conversation.
2021-04-052h 14Beyond The DialAddressing Anti-Asian Hate (w/ James Im)Flare ups in anti-Asian hatred in the USA have inspired communities to join together to raise voices and awareness around the often overlooked (and sometimes intentionally erased) abuses against Asian-Americans.
2021-03-301h 14
Beyond The DialConversations E14 - Ducatis, Watches & Espresso Machines (with Jon Ferrer of Brew Watches)Allen and Jon both ride Ducati Panigale V2s, and therefore have much to talk about. But they don't talk all that much about motorcycles, instead focusing on Jon's family's history at Cartier and Tiffany, Italian espresso machines, and the indie watch scene.
2021-03-031h 44Beyond The DialBeyond The Dial's Promise To Our Readers & ListenersThis is an explanation of how our commitment to you, our readers and listeners, requires that we maintain traditional journalistic ethical boundaries. It summarizes many months of concerted dialogue between the four founders as we created our brand of product journalism. That brand can be summarized as a promise to always keep you, our dear readers, as our primary allegiance.
2021-02-1828 min
Beyond The DialHow Watches Work E1 - The History of Mechanical EscapementsWelcome to "How Watches Work," a series of episodes dedicated to understanding the devices behind the dial. In this introductory episode, David Flett walks Allen through a history of mechanical timekeeping going back over 5000 years and sweeping up to modern times.
2021-02-091h 02
Beyond The DialConversations E13 - Defending NASA & The Omega Speedmaster (w Greg Bedrosian)Greg knows his Star Wars, Speedmasters and NASA history inside out. Greg's rebuttal to Allen's deconstruction of "Grand American Space Narratives" via the Swiss watch industry opens up new ways of thinking about the Omega Speedmaster, humanity's role in space, and much more.
2021-02-021h 06
Beyond The DialInsights E21 - Rethinking The Space Race & The Omega SpeedmasterAllen finally takes on this horological masterpiece, which he's never really felt anything for at all - perhaps until now. From musicological analysis of Phillip Glass's minimalist music to deconstructing nationalist narratives, this episode doesn't critique Omega's branding of the Speedmaster as much as it critiques modern branding entirely.
2021-01-161h 18
Beyond The DialField Reports E7 - The Rolex Explorer II at Vail ColoradoAllen takes us on a downhill journey back to his days as a ski-punk while rocking an Explorer II Polar White in Vail, CO. It's a tale of personal rediscovery aided by a badass tool watch.
2020-12-2222 min
Beyond The DialInsights E20 - The Quartz Crisis & The Future of the 20th CenturyFollowing up on Episode 51, Allen turns a cultural-history lens onto the Quartz Crisis for a look at how quartz watches fit into the broader context of the 20th Century. Using his formal essay format, Allen contextualizes The Quartz Crisis as just one of many technological disruptions that ultimately culminated in the so-called Digital Revolution of the 21st Century.
2020-12-1754 min
Beyond The DialConversations E12 - The Quartz "Disruption" of the 1970s (w Pedro Mendes)Pedro comes on to discuss his new-found acceptance of some quartz watches, and he and Allen end up discussing the Quartz Crisis from many different angles. Notably not reaching consensus on key topics, this conversation leads to some rather interesting questions about how and why electronic watches disrupted the watch industry in the 1970s. The Quartz Crisis Part 2 will be a formal essay by Allen inspired by this discussion.
2020-12-091h 142020-12-0104 minBeyond The Dial50 Lessons From Allen's 30-Year Watch ObsessionEpisode 50 gets a special episode in which Allen spends one minute each on fifty different lessons he's learned over the past 30 years of being into watches.
2020-11-2449 minBeyond The DialDear Horology Inc., Enough With All The New Watches!It's not just COVID-19, it's the hundreds of watch brands bombarding us with hundreds of "media worthy events" every year that's a creating clamorous mess. New watches hit the market every day, and it's exhausting. The decorum and sanity of a reasonable annual release schedule is long gone, but perhaps it's time for brands to innovate new marketing strategies before the white noise of Horology Inc drowns itself out.
2020-11-1935 min
Beyond The DialInsights E19 - Wrist-Presence & The Inelegance of Tool WatchesEvolutionary theory suggests that we are drawn to certain people and not others based on hardwired aesthetic judgements wrought over some five-million years. Allen suggests that similar hardwired aesthetics are at play when we judge "wrist presence," and goes on to suggest that tool watches categorically fail to achieve this elusive quality. A deep dive into Cartier and Rolex in the early 20th Century shows how very different impulses in creating the wrist watch, the former elegant, the latter not so much.
2020-11-111h 00
Beyond The DialConversations E11 - Is Your Pilot's Watch a Nazi Watch? (with Oren Hartov)We see so many recreations of vintage watches issued to commemorate moments in history, people, wars, accomplishments, and so on. A certain line of WWII pilot's watch recreations present difficult questions about memorializing the Hitler's Nazi regime. Israeli paratrooper and military watch expert Oren Hartov joins Allen in an open dialogue which explores numerous angles on what will always be a tricky subject.
2020-10-231h 04
Beyond The DialConversations E10 - Seiko's Dueling Factories, (w David Flett & Pedro Mendes)The Calibre 400 is not the first of Oris' in-house modern movements, but it is their first work-horse automatic winding movement of the modern era. Designed from the ground-up according to Oris' value-focused ethos, this movement is highly efficient, packs a 5-day power reserve, is robustly anti-magnetic, and happens to look a bit like the Oris Bear. VJ gives us an in-depth consideration of this innovation.
2020-10-1539 minBeyond The DialCollecting Concepts #2 - Spreadsheets, Soccer Timers & Mindfulness with JamesBTD guide James shares his concepts about collecting with Allen. They discuss James' spreadsheets, his love of Omega Soccer Timers, older railroad packet watches, and alarm watches. James gets into Buddhist philosophies about mindfulness as a guiding principle for watch collecting and life more generally. This episode wanders in a rather delightful manner.
2020-10-071h 27
Beyond The DialConversations E9 - Seiko's Dueling Factories, (w David Flett & Pedro Mendes)Seiko famously had two factories working simultaneously in both collaboration and competition to produce the most accurate watches in the world in order to beat the Swiss at their own game. David and Pedro had done deep research into this topic and come up with new intel that's fascinating in its own right, and very relevant for collectors of Seikos and all watches.
2020-09-291h 01
Beyond The DialField Reports 6 - Mission Lake George (Allen Reflects on a Successful Mission)With the diving behind them, the BTD Crew that dove Lake George is unpacking both their gear and their thoughts about the experience. Allen reads an essay he wrote about SCUBA diving in search of outbreaks of the invasive species Eurasian Milfoil, and he muses on everything from bringing climate change deniers together with environmentalists to how much better the Oris Divers 65 was than his dive computer.
2020-09-2550 min
Beyond The DialField Reports 5 - Mission Lake George (Concept & Plans)Sponsored by Oris and in partnership with The Lake George Association, the BTD crew is headed out to document invasive species in this iconic American fresh water treasure nestled in the Adirondack Mountains. Allen and Shelley will be making 6 dives over two days to photograph Eurasian Milfoil, a plant that threatens fresh water ecosystems throughout the USA. In this episode, Greg and Allen discuss the mission, their preparation, their gear - including watches - and the concept of mission-based journalism.
2020-09-1844 min
Beyond The DialConversations E11 - Narrowing the Collection (w David Flett)Allen and David discuss their simultaneous breakthroughs in their personal collections, with David going deep on very specific vintage Seikos and Allen finally admitting that the Cartier Tank is his favorite watch of all time, and thus worthy of his full attention. David's keen distinction between watches one wears (the rotation) and those one collects (the collection) clarifies and focuses the whole endeavor of owning watches.
2020-09-091h 02Beyond The DialHorological Meditation IITimes are crazy, and our watches can provide the steadiness we may be lacking. This is the second of Allen's horological meditations, and for this one he breaks out his Strat and improvises some spacey stuff with the hope of bringing a little escape.
2020-08-2712 minBeyond The DialEpisode 39 - 10 Watches Allen Has Flipped Recently & WhyFor the most part, these are great watches, but Allen flipped them anyways. Often Allen is raising funds and making room for something new, but he is also rolling up on a new collecting ethos - or two. Get a little rant about journalism and some frank talk about what does and doesn't float Allen's horological boat.
2020-08-181h 08Beyond The DialInsights E19 - Entropy & The Poetry of PatinaAs Elvis once said, "Let's get way way gone for a change." Patina is an observable effect of entropy, or the ongoing disordering of the universe. Allen worms his way into this topic and comes out the other side concluding that patina is - not metaphorically, but actually - poetry. This episode offers a wild ride through quantum gravitational theory, information theory, phenomenonology, poetics, philosophy, and, of course, horology.
2020-07-251h 20
Beyond The DialConversations E10 - Coral Restoration Foundation's Martha Roesler on Reviving The Carysfort ReefAllen's interview with Martha Roesler of The Coral Restoration Foundation covers the science of reefs, how recreational SCUBA divers can help them, how Oris has been supporting the CRF, and much more. Allen revamps his call to listeners to come together and make a trek to Florida to help plant corals, and the Oris x Beyond The Dial Essay Contest is announced.
2020-06-2956 min
Beyond The DialInsights E18 - Divergent Aesthetic Arrows & Sub-Cultural TribalismWhy do we focus on having just one personal style? Why do we fracture our communities endlessly into smaller and smaller tribes? How do our personal aesthetics signal tribal membership? Why is carbon fiber so divisive among watch wonks? Allen ponders these questions and more as his love for all things Italian, fast, and matchy-matchy surges after years of suppression.
2020-06-181h 04
Beyond The DialConversations E9 - Pedro Mendes on Watches, Wardrobe & The Aesthetic RevolutionMen's style writer and historian, Pedro Mendes, talks with Allen about watches, men's style, environmentalism, racial tension, gender, and so much more. You'll also get some amazing leads on where to look for your next bit of lifetime-lasting tailored garb.
2020-06-061h 14Beyond The DialJustice Should Never Be a Luxury ItemToday, June 2nd 2020, is Blackout Tuesday. We are facing real and present dangers to our freedoms and to justice with an oppressive state, and any single person who benefits from the status quo is enjoying a luxury at the expense of those who suffer under the status quo. Allen stands in unity with his colleagues and friends who have foregone wrist shots for black squares on Instagram, and explores some ideas about how to move forward.
2020-06-0229 min
Beyond The DialConversations E8 - ORIS Deep Dive with VJ GeronimoN. American CEO of ORIS Watches, VJ Geronimo, visits Allen at BTD HQ for a spirited discussion about the history of Oris, the company's environmental conservation efforts, the new Divers 65 made in collaboration with Japan's Momotaro Jeans...and much more. VJ's passion is contagious, and the rich history of Oris is fascinating.
2020-05-291h 09
Beyond The DialInsights E17 - The Aesthetic Revolution (Will Be Beautiful)What started as a cute aphorism has grown into a socio-economic theory. Allen works his way through the assumptions that make up this theory, drawing on personal memory, Marxist and Anarchist failures, Pan-Indigenous Environmentalism, and, of course, horological love. The goal? Nothing short of transforming Late Capitalism through our built-in human love of Beauty.
2020-05-141h 23
Beyond The DialInsights E16 - Spiritual Materialism: How Watches Take On Significance and MeaningOn the surface, owning a watch isn't a complex thing. Dig a little deeper into our motives for owning any given watch, and things get complicated fast. Allen explores the mental gymnastics involved in picking out your next watch, and he explores everything from the study of human motives, to why so many watch nerds hate on Invictas, and more.
2020-04-271h 18Beyond The Dial30 Holy Grail Watches in 5 CategoriesIt's Episode #30, and Allen takes you through 30 incredible watches that constitute some of his Holy Grail Watches, of which he seems to have an endless supply built up from years of adoring incredible timepieces he can't afford. The five categories include: time-only watches, travel watches, dive watches, complicated watches, and vintage watches.
2020-04-081h 19
Beyond The DialInsights E15 - Refinished Dials & Their Potential ValueWhy do watch aficionados hate on refinished dials so vehemently? How can these otherwise astute folks miss the incredible artistry involved in refinishing dials, and the layered narratives (or mysteries!) that so often accompany a refinished dial. Allen takes listeners into the future, when the refinished dials of the 20th Century become museum pieces in their own right, and he examines why it is refinished dials tend to degrade a watch both socially and in monetary value today.
2020-03-3052 minBeyond The DialHorological Meditation #1Allen takes you on a meditation into your watch, accompanied by a remix of the Graph Rabbit song "Only Fields" from their album Snowblind. This is an opportunity to seek solace and peace in your watch's benign and reliable nature.
2020-03-2621 min
Beyond The DialInsights E14 - Rolex Is A Black HoleAllen falls into the bizarre and powerful orbit of beautifully aged vintage Rolex steel sport watches, those nearly unobtainable, very expensive timepieces that form an elite class of collectibles. From within this orbit, our host attempts to decode what's happening beyond the event horizon of Rolex by focusing his cultural studies and anthropological lenses at the center of the horological galaxy. Here lies a long and ponderous episode that uses warp drive to travel far into the watch space, boldly going where very few ever get to go.
2020-03-251h 17
Beyond The DialField Reports E3 - Diving Shipwrecks Alone With The Rolex DEEPSEAAllen delivers his longest written piece about a watch here on the podcast. The watch is the Rolex Sea-Dweller DEEPSEA, and the story is part memoir, part explorer's diary, and part contemplation on the state of the world. A special thanks to Bob's Watches for providing the Rolex DEEPSEA for Allen's use on his strange mission.
2020-03-171h 11Beyond The DialConversations E7 - Vintage Seiko Expert David FlettAllen sits down with vintage Seiko expert David Flett for a highly informative dive into this snarly, but wonderful, collecting category. Whether you're looking to build a massive collection of old Seikos or want to snatch up your first vintage Japanese piece, this is the episode for you. And if you're not into Seiko, David's advice on vetting watches and their sellers is golden for those interested in any brand's vintage pieces.
2020-03-111h 21
Beyond The DialInsights E13 - How a Watch's Design Affects Our Perception of TimeAllen sits down with Edouard Maylan, CEO of H. Moser Watches for a candid conversation about how this historically significant Swiss watch brand has become one of the most pioneering watch houses operating today. The watches are avant-garde, but they get there by employing traditional watchmaking techniques (fume dials, in-house movements, traditional cases) in new ways. Being edgy and traditional simultaneously, Moser has captured the watch collecting community's hearts under Maylan's leadership.
2020-03-0551 min
Beyond The DialInsights E13 - How a Watch's Design Affects Our Perception of TimeAllen takes a deep dive into the phenomenological perspective and clarifies how it can actually operate as a way to examine watches by performing subjective reports on four watches, a Nomos Club, a vintage Seiko Weekdater, an Aquadive Bathescaphe, and a Moser Streamliner. By looking at how quantum gravitational theorists have shown that time doesn't exist, but is instead a subjective phenomenon - that is: a product of our minds - Allen then explores the fluid ways we perceive time, and how watches affect that perception.
2020-02-231h 10
Beyond The DialConversations E5 - Longines CEO on Busting Bandits, Closing The In-House Manufacture, & His Journey From Exile to ExecutiveAllen sits down with Longines' CEO Walter von Känel for a candid interview about the struggle against counterfeiters, dealing with the gray market, closing the in-house manufacture and adopting ETA, as well as Mr. von Känel's personal journey from being the son of poor dairy farmers in exile during WWII to the head of one of Switzerland's largest watch houses.
2020-02-0734 min
Beyond The DialInsights E12 - How to Pick Out Watches You'll Keep ForeverIf you're flipping watches constantly and wondering how to slow that down, Allen's got a method for picking out keepers and avoiding flippers. The method grew out of a talk Allen gave at a Gear Patrol event about creating the perfect three-watch collection. He wanders into Spiritual Materialism, a developing theory he's been tinkering with for about a year.
2020-02-041h 00Beyond The Dial20 Watches Allen Almost Bought During a 3-Day DeliriumRather than go to Vail, CO with Oris and his awesome colleagues, Allen came down with the worst stomach flu of his life, during which he entered a fever-induced delirium and started shopping for a new watch for 3-days straight.
2020-01-3058 min
Beyond The DialInsights E11 - Horological Polygamy & The Unholy TrinityHave you tried to settle in on just one or a few watches and find yourself bored? Are you more interested in the hunt for the new timepiece than in a long-term relationship? Allen confesses to growing bored with his carefully curated 3-watch collection and to how he began to quell that boredom by fooling around on the side. This infidelity includes springing for his first Nomos!
2020-01-1634 min
Beyond The DialInsights E10 - The Omega Cal 321 & The Quest for AuthenticityWhy are we so excited about a recreation of a vintage movement like the Omega 321? Has digital social media and the ensuing crisis of truth prompted some of us to seek analog expressions of our authentic selves? Can a mechanical watch help us maintain authenticity?
2020-01-0942 minBeyond The DialAllen's 10 Favorite Watches of 2019Allen goes through his top 10 favorites of the year. Not a "best of" list, but a "my favorites" list, including some very expensive and some very affordable watches.
2019-12-2255 min
Beyond The DialInsights E9 - Whiskey, Weed & WatchesHow do booze and pot affect your perception of time? Your sense perceptions? Your impulsivity? Find out as your host, Allen, brings his personal experiences up alongside phenomenology and medical research to form a theory of how watches connect us to eternity.
2019-12-1244 min
Beyond The DialInsights E8 - Embracing Mortality With A Grand SeikoAllen's birthday watch is a Grand Seiko Limited Edition SGBH269, a watch that explores the turning of the seasons from Spring to Fall, just as Allen is turning to the autumn of his life. This episode is a meditation on mortality, nature, dying, living, and being true to your self, all in relation to this fascinating Grand Seiko.
2019-12-0250 min
Beyond The DialConversations E4 - Gary Shteyngart on Watches as Literary DevicesAllen sits down with best selling novelist Gary Shteyngart to talk about how watches have figured into Gary's writing. From his New Yorker article called "Confessions of a Watch Geek" to his novel Lake Success Gary has used watches as literary devices that become windows into the internal lives of characters both real and fictional. Gary's command of watches as a topic is impeccable, and he is as fluent as anyone in going into "why they're so fascinating."
2019-11-251h 04
Beyond The DialConversations E3 - Demystifying Watch Service (with Steve Kivel)Grand Central Watch's 3rd generation leader, Steve Kivel, has turned his family's business into a high-tech service center with seven full-time watchmakers working full-time in a brand new state of the art facility. Allen and Steve sit down to discuss the ins and outs of proper watch servicing, how to vet your watchmaker, and why spending the extra money on proper servicing should be the norm but, alas, is not.
2019-11-1854 min
Beyond The DialConversations E2 - Badass Tool Watches on Badass Women (with Cait Bazemore)Allen's colleague Cait Bazemore comes on for a lively discussion of the emerging trend of women wearing more complex mechanical tool watches, and how the watch industry is shedding it's old-school attitudes toward so-called lady's watches. From Serena Williams to Cate Blacnhett and Lindsey Vonn, badass women are wearing some seriously badass watches these days.
2019-11-091h 03
Beyond The DialField Reports E2 - Ferraris, Ducatis & Hublots in TuscanyAllen returns from a week in Italy having toured Tuscani on a Ducati motorcycle while wearing his Bremont Supermarine, lapped on a race track in a Ferrari, sported Hublots, and having accidentally bumped into the representative for Nims who just climbed 14 of the world's largest mountains as part of the Bremont-sponsored Project Possible. The birthday watch saga continues.
2019-11-0552 minBeyond The DialAllen's Top 10 Watches of All TimeCelebrating the 10th Episode, Allen goes through his top ten watches of all time. It's a personal list, not a top ten best, but a top ten favorite. You'll hear about some very tasty watches and what specific features appeal to Allen, including two watches which remind him of Jerry Garcia's guitar. Oysters, the plantimal not the watch, are discussed in some detail along the way as well, and the birthday watch decision begins to waver again.
2019-10-2053 min
Beyond The DialField Reports E1 - Press Trippin' With LonginesAllen's account of his trip to the Longines factory in Switzerland starts with an explanation of how one ends up on such a trip in the first place. He then recounts hanging with Longines' CEO Walter von Känel (a.k.a. The Chef), a dream like factory with shipping robots and worker-determined schedules, and of course some beautiful Longines watches.
2019-10-1452 min
Beyond The DialInsights E7 - Apocalypse Later: Zen Dystopias & The Apple WatchWhy do mechanical watches seem so calming and down to earth? Why does the Apple Watch seem so intrusive? In this episode, we travel in time to consider old and new technologies up against each other, and how a mechanical watch once felt oppressive, and how the Apple Watch may one day seem disconnected and archaic. James Bond and Marlon Brando make a guest appearance via a listener essay at the end.
2019-09-2139 min
Beyond The DialInsights E6 - "Women's Watches Suck," a man said.A colleague once told Allen that women's watches don't get as much coverage because, "Women's watches suck." Let's complicate the topic of gendered watches, and let's get past some of our ingrained attitudes about what makes a watch right for a man or a woman. Also, the birthday watch gets a break-thru!
2019-09-1257 min
Beyond The DialInsights E5 - "Tool" Being the Operative WordWhen watches are truly designed as tools and do their job without kowtowing to fashion trends, our aesthetically fussy attitudes can give way to a far more grounded affection for the designs. Many watches, old and new, are considered from this functional perspective.
2019-09-0452 min
Beyond The DialInsights E4 - The End of 'Microbrands'Allen goes after the notion of "microbrands" and calls for a change of thinking around the role of independent watch brands of all sizes. He discusses independent record labels as an analogous notion, gets into the importance of regionalism and diversity, talks us through a number of examples of regionally-oriented indie watch brands, and reviews two indie dive watches, one from Greece, and one from Croatia.
2019-08-3057 min
Beyond The DialInsights E3 - Just a Rolex Datejust for a MonthIn Episode 4, Allen is visited by a fox while record his account of a one-watch experiment. Unexpected results include feeling great about the one watch even though his time in it was hellish, and realizing that his personal collecting habits need to follow a wholly different set of concerns than those that govern his work writing professionally about watches. A lovely listener essay closes out the episode.
2019-08-2745 min
Beyond The DialInsights E2 - Why Watch Diameter and Wrist Circumference Don't MatterAllen ponders how watch diameter and wrist circumference became the main measurements of watches when, in fact, those two dimensions hardly matter when it comes to how a watch works on your wrist. He recommends a few different strategies for estimating how a watch will fit. This episode's listener essay inspires a contemplation of journalistic integrity in the age of so-called advertorial content, and Allen reads from The Rake magazine's editor Wei Koh's thoughts on the matter.
2019-08-0139 min
Beyond The DialConversations E1 - Oren Hartov, Expert on IDF WatchesIn this episode, Allen talks with Watch Desk Editor at Gear Patrol Magazine, Oren Hartov. They discuss the ins and outs of working in a bustling news room, the history of Israeli military watches, escaping the Nazis, making music, and a number of fascinating stories about Oren's family's watches going back five generations.
2019-07-241h 04Beyond The DialInsights E1 - Academic Perspectives on WatchesHost Allen Farmelo discusses various conceptual frameworks that we can use in attempting to understand watches. These include a mechanical perspective, cultural, social, historical, design, phenomenological, and (out on a limb here) New Age. This overview provides a set of possible frameworks that the ensuing episodes will use interchangeably. Think of this as the Metasode. SHOW NOTES The Mechanical PerspectiveJens Koch's Article in Watch Time about the Rolex DEEPSEA The Social & Cultural Perspectives Allen's Article at Worn & Wound about the Bell & Ross Areonavale 41mm The Historical Perspective...
2019-07-1250 min
Beyond The DialWelcome to Beyond The DialYour host Allen Farmelo says hello and gives a short introduction and guide to Beyond The Dial.
2019-07-0103 min
The Worn & Wound PodcastEp. 66: Pairing the Watch To the OccasionOn this week's episode, Worn & Wound Managing Editor Ilya Ryvin and Contributor Allen Farmelo discuss how they pair their watches to the occasion.
For more coverage of your favorite watches, check us out on www.wornandwound.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For a great assortment of American-made watch straps and other accessories, head on over to shop.wornandwound.com. And if you like what you hear, leave us a review on iTunes.
Also, don't forget to shoot us an email at info@wornandwound.com or message us on any of our...
2018-05-2353 min
The Worn & Wound PodcastEp. 61: From Switzerland to New Zealand
On this week's episode of The Worn & Wound Podcast, Ilya and Worn & Wound contributor Allen Farmelo discuss Baselworld 2018, Allen's trip to New Zealand with the Oris Big Crown ProPilot Worldtimer, and a whole lot more.
This episode of The Worn & Wound Podcast is brought to you by Hamilton Watch.
For more coverage of your favorite watches, check us out on www.wornandwound.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For a great assortment of American-made watch straps and other accessories, head on over to shop.wornandwound.com. And if you like w...
2018-04-101h 02
Working Class AudioWCA #031 with Allen FarmeloAllen Farmelo has begun to call himself a “recordmaker”.”We all do everything these days,” he says, “and the old terms like producer, engineer, mixer, carry so many assumptions that aren’t really accurate these days. They have their roots in a much more ordered hierarchy that’s rarely true today.” As a record maker, Allen has worked intimately with everyone from Ian Gillan of Deep Purple to The Cinematic Orchestra. Allen has also worked with a slew of rather huge pop artists that he doesn’t put on his discography because, as he puts it, “Fattening up one’s discography with incid...
2015-07-201h 21