The Best From Zenith, Bulgari, Sinn, Parmigiani, and more | Watches and Wonders 2025

This week's episodes of Hoodinkee Radio are proudly sponsored by our partners at UBS. Stay tuned later in the episode for what we're planning this year in celebration of all things horology. And keep an eye out for the return of UBS House of Craft. Hello and welcome to day four of Watches and Wonders. This is of course Hoodinkee Radio. My name is James. I'm joined by Malaika, Mark, and Tim. We're moving quickly because it was a very busy day at the show. I hope you guys have been enjoying the daily episodes. I had a really fun day. Usually on Friday I try and leave Pal Expo for at least part of it and see some of my other favorite brands. What's it like out there? The sunshine is sunshining. Geneva's doing the thing where suddenly you go like, it was pretty good. Can I make a confession? It's sunny and warm. On Wednesday I left the Pal Expo for an hour. That's illegal. I went into town, got a cold brew from Starbucks and came back. I've never had a cold brew in this country. I thought I was losing my mind and I went outside. I took a car to town, got a cold brew and came back. I like how you're confessing this on the podcast. Why not? Let the people know how tough it is in the Pal Expo. There's obviously lots of watches and of course cold coffee to talk about. And wonders. Some wonders, including cold coffee in Geneva. I think the main thing that I would just establish is we've got a couple episodes in the bank that are Rolex, Tudor, Cartier heavy. Let's shift to some other stuff. What did you guys see that you were really pumped about today? I saw some stuff I can kick off if that's easier. You seem excited so let's go for it. The first stop today for me was with Zinn, one of my favorite brands, German sports watch brands. If you don't know them, they're like very cool calculating dial kind of high spec sports watches. And they have several new models. But the one I was most interested in is a chronograph GMT dive watch. And this is kind of what the brand excels at, which is not super large, but fairly from a sport watch world, complicated models. And they've developed a new module. And with their movement maker, they were able to essentially now industrialize the movement. So it'll end up in other watches, but they were able to take the functionality of say a 7750 or an SW500 and parlay that into having a jumping GMT hand. So it's still a collar GMT, but it jumps to the right size in 41 millimeter range. And the pricing's really good. And I wanted to see it. And you see it on paper and you go like, I've owned several watches very similar to this, of course. And it's great. I really like it. I think it comes in, I think around 3,500 bucks, which for a chronograph and a GMT feels pretty reasonable. And if you're into the Zen vibe, it has the aesthetic sensibilities of a stop sign. It's just pure legibility. But yeah, it's fun. I think I know what a molecule fits, but I want to see if I'm right. Gina, I was just sitting there. Sorry, I zoned out for a minute. I was trying to remember what appointments I had today. Sure. The last appointment was special. This is the sleep-deprived special for everybody watching. We lost the plot a long time together. Today's just the fun. I was on without the plot. I went to Bulgari with Mark, and I think we were lucky enough to see obviously the Ultra, which is what must be what was happening. You know what I'm going to say. Yeah. But we also saw- Wait, wait, wait. Just quick one second. Because I saw the Ultra, the original model, when it came out. And I've said this before. I've said it in writing, probably say it too much. That watch, much like the Richard Mille UP01, it's like a magic trick. You can't process it. There's that last moment where somebody, they tell you to take the jack of spades out of your own wallet. And you're like, I just, what is this? They turn that watch sideways. How does anything happen in there? No, and I want you to have your turn, but I'll close the loop on this. You don't want to call a product stupid to the director of the- No, of course not. But you did. But I did. Because I was like, it's stupid in that you just can't process this. It's a magic trick. It's a magic trick. Yeah, it's sorcery. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Wow. It is. It's solid. It's not a good- It's not a solid trick. I would say that would be- All right, but back to Malika, I want to- Okay. Ultra is sick, I will say. It's getting to the point there where I can't tell. How do you process the difference? It's hard to process the difference, to be honest, because at that scale, if you don't know me that well, I have this complete obsession and fascination with Bulgari Serpenti, and I'm sure my colleagues have heard me talk about it enough, but they've redesigned Fabrizio has, sorry, Fabrizio Buonamasso Stigliani. Give him the respect he deserves. Give that man the respect he deserves. He has come out with a new Serpenti. It's called Eterna. It's not particularly watchy. It's more of a jewelry situation. But it's amazing. It has a watch, and it's absolutely stunning. And I think the kicker was it's a really cool thing, and I photographed it, I got to handle it as well, and seeing how they make a hinged cuff. So it's a cuff on a hinge. Two hinges. One is white gold, sorry, two hinges. One is white gold, one is rose gold. It's slightly more conceptual than the Tuba Bulgari Serpenti in that it's a bit more graphic. It's a bit less realistic. Not to say that the Tuba Bulgari is a realistic snake, but it's a little bit more conceptual, and it's got loads of diamonds on it. The white gold, we were the only press apparently that got to see that, or at least US press. They asked all week. They could never get it. And since I think we were one of the last appointments for them, they brought it in. And it's another one of these, there's barely a surface that's not covered in diamonds. And it's just, I don't think I've seen her happier in a long time. I haven't been that happy in a while, to be honest. Just like me and Zyn. That's just me and James for you. I felt the smile expanding on my face because it's not watching. It's a court's movement, but hey, we're here for fun. It's cool. Yeah, it was pretty cool. And if Mark thinks it's cool, that means I've got the watertight sealant proof. It's really cool. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but occasionally I'll wear a cuff on my right wrist or whatever. There's a world in which that styling of it might not be my thing, but I could see myself wearing, I mean, it is very conceptual. It's really cool. It's very cool. And then they also had the new automatic movements fit in the Serpentis. They've done this tiny solo tempo automatic movement. Pretty cool. I tried one on. I actually could feel the difference, but I'm sort of drunk on fatigue, so I'll report back. Well, also, if you want to learn about that movement, pay attention for the next issue of Riggi Meg. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, number one Serpenti fan in the world, maybe. For me, so a couple of interesting appointments. I got to see another plug for the magazine to see the revival of the caliber 135 for Zenith, which I visited. How was it in person? It's really cool. I mean, I got to see the actual platinum. When I photographed, I believe I photographed a steel sort of prototype with everything else in it, but the steel case. I got to see the platinum version with the platinum bracelet. It was really cool. It's just, it's a good group of folks to hang out with. I really appreciate the team there. And I also like, I just appreciate the enthusiasm that they have for not just their own product, but like the history of watchmaking. I talked to Laurence Boneman, who I think heritage director or something like that, but she's just passionate about anything. I can send her a picture of a movement from the 1700s and she'll be like, oh yeah, so-and-so made that. I'm like, okay, cool. Great that you have that memory. I wish I had that, but I love those people. I would say like the one that surprised me beside the Ultra, which was really cool. And I really, I really adore Fabrizio as well, but the eight-day Calatrava, which I think we didn't really talk about a lot, partially because it got overlooked by a really great other Calatrava release, but the blue dial and the lack of like tinted loom, tinted indices, that kind of thing that they've done on the past ones, it's a really cool watch. And so I took like five minutes to shoot as much content as I could, so I could maybe write a hands-on. I think that's a, if you're a guy that's like, I'm only going to wear Patek, but I want a Patek that I could wear as like a field watch-y kind of thing or whatever, I know it's a wild thing to say. There are probably people out there. They've been doing the field watch thing for a few years. Yeah, and I think this is maybe the most interesting version of that. So that was a fun surprise. And also nice that Patek let us come back and see stuff again. Yeah, for sure. My highlights were actually my two first meetings of the day. Started the day with Tan-Tan at Recents. Yeah. Got hands-on on the Type 7. And speaking of like wanting to get outside, that beautiful blue dial just made me yearn for the blue, beautiful blue sky. Such a fun watch. Nobody does it like Recents. Exactly, exactly. And the temperature gauge on there was really interesting. I love that. I told her not to laugh. You're good. And then I also enjoyed going with Mark and Rich over to Laurent Ferrier to see the classic Auto Horizon. It was just so great to connect with them in person and see that watch. I just love, speaking of blue, I guess I'm on a blue theme, even though I'm not wearing my navy suit today. But another beautiful blue dial, and we got a chance to really see what that watch has to offer. And I know Mark's a big fan of that watch. The Laurent Ferrier thing was great. And then also, we actually saw Laurent Ferrier himself. Oh, that's great. Just hanging around and got to meet folks. And my French doesn't exist, and his English is not his favorite language, I guess. But it was just nice to say hello. And I think that's part of the fun for me is that. And then we went to Parmigiani. Michel Parmigiani was there. And we chatted for a little bit. And kudos to the press person that works on the brand, Fernanda, who translated to Italian over him and did the whole thing. And I was like, oh, that's kind of helpful. And their releases look strong. Okay, so the Taurox with the perpetual calendar, really cool. I think it's interesting they decided to keep the Taurox movement that they had originally and just do a modular perpetual calendar on it. And they've created a good base. The aesthetics are really strong. I think they're doing a really good job. The sleeper for me was there was a Tana PF that was, I think it might be there like 36 millimeter sizes and smaller size skeletonized. And the entire skeletonized movement, all the bridges, everything like a soft green. I've never seen that before. It's really cool. I don't know that I've ever seen like a real skeletonized colored movement like that. Black, yeah, it's black, gold, silver tone. Yeah. So this was green. It was like some brands do like a well, we does a bunch of color, but that's like a different architect. Yeah. This was this felt like a green gold almost or something, but it was very cool. And they've done a couple revamps of a couple watches with a little more color in the soft way that they would like to do. But that was, I'll probably end up writing a hands on. I'm saying it on a, so now I have to do it. But in, in the next couple of weeks, maybe write about these new colors and, and, but again, like we're all here for the product. We bring the product to the people, but like, I'm here for the people because I'm not buying the product. I get to see it. It's fun. And so see Michelle and Laurent and Fabrizio and all of these people, it's been a good way to wrap up. I mean, that's one of the big values of the show. And I would say it's one of the big values of the show is like things just start to dial down by 20%, the kind of intensity. And you do get a chance to spend some time sometimes with leaders of brands, leaders of the designs of brands and that sort of thing. And it brings me to kind of the next thing, which is in past years, we've always done episodes with people who are on their first year, Tim, like zoom out a little bit. You're relatively new to the watch world. You're absolutely killing it. If you guys have been all of the bajillions of videos and everything posted onto the Instagram went through Tim's phone at one point. And obviously he'd go behind the camera and Dave, who's behind us here. I think he might be asleep. His desktop is quiet. I think he might be asleep. These guys have been grinding to bring these videos out. So please check out the Instagram. But Tim, aside from the workload that we handed you with posting social, what do you think of the show? Do you have any frame of reference? Have you done trade shows in the past? Yeah, I've done some trade shows in the running world. And very different. And I've been thinking about it today. It's it's overwhelming, but in the best possible way. It's I had a friend I had of taking photos of I want the I want the I want the camera, the video camera to I got him. So it's overwhelming in the best possible way. You know, I had heard a lot about it. We've been building up our minds. I've obviously read and seen Houdini coverage in the past. But to be able to experience it for the first time, I wasn't really expecting like, I wasn't really ready for how big the show is both in terms of like physically big, the booths are huge, the number of people, and just like the overall experience completely blew me away. I just had such a fun time with a great group of people. I think we just it just felt it was a true pleasure of mine to be able to be a part of, you know, the illustrious coverage that y'all have done over the years and to be able to help add that in whatever way that that I could. So it was very fun. I am looking forward to sleeping at some point in the not too distant future on the plane. That's what the plane's for. But yeah, you know, Mark, we had a great conversation before the show started. And, you know, to Mark's point, like, he asked me, what are you looking to get out of this this week? And I said, kind of the same point like relationships, like not only I want to build relationships with my colleagues, this is a great time to do so. Because I'm by far the newbie here. And so, you know, to get off site and spend a week with these great people that was really great, but also build relationships with, with the brands and the folks behind them, because they're doing amazing stuff. And they're really passionate about it. And it's just really, I love being around passionate people. And everybody is is that here, certainly, running off of espresso and champagne, hopes and dreams, hopes and dreams. It's been fantastic. Special thanks again to our partners at UBS for their support of Houdinki Radio. Last October, Houdinki and UBS brought together some of the most influential personalities and brands in the industry to celebrate all things watches. This year, we're partnering again with expanded events across the US in addition to our fall House of Craft in New York. Stay tuned to Houdinki for updates on these events and other projects with our friends at UBS. Now, back to the show. I as for the massive thing, I this is like a weird thing. But I, you know, you look at these booths, you know how big they are. But I also today like a rich and I went back to paddock. And we went to the third floor. And I was like, I've never been on the third floor. And it was just it was wild. Like they construct I we've talked about before, but they construct fully functional buildings. And it like Burlwood everywhere inside the Patek booth, like exactly what you would expect for a salon or like for Patek. You're on the third floor in a conference hall. Like I will say there is no beating the Patek and Rolex booths like that definitely like somebody took an entire hotel in builds it inside of another Rolex booth is kind of this. It's not the same as Patek, but it's like the same standard in that everything is like, serene and perfect and polished. And you're like, Oh, okay, like, guess you're gonna pack it up and rebuild it. Yeah, well, and like Bulgari, they wanted to create a temple, a Roman temple type feel. And like, they literally have marble columns in their multiple different marbles that they turned into like the pillars. I mean, they really have every brand comes out and tries to like tell a story Rolex and Patek are, from my experience, generally the same year to year with a couple of tweaks, but it's still like, it's impressive all the effort that goes into this and, and I you have to remember like, they're here to tell their story, try to translate it to us. And so like, it's a it's a part of the entirety of what we see. Yeah, the Patek thing is interesting, because they launched that the current booth, I think my first or second year ever in the industry at Baselworld 2012 2013. I could be off, but I think that was the case. And walking into it is like stepping back into Baselworld. And I've never been higher than it's always the same room every year. Yeah, I know where you go down the hallway. It's the right and like it's this. It's it's almost like a bar or console. You've got like you like a giant poker. Like the entire world will add a photo, of course, but like the entire booth is inside essentially like a glass enclosure. And it's all lit. It's hard to describe if you don't if you don't have like, if I explain this to you, would you be like, oh, I can picture you can't know you can't you can't use a big trade show like a huge car show or something you start to get the factoring but it's so much more specific to brands into the idea of like luxury with this then then the car show and a lot of brands change every year too. So I mean, that's the thing Rolex and Patek stable are largely the same but you know, people move their booths around they blow it up for different storytelling and I get it they're trying to immerse people in a short amount of time to the idea that they're trying to convey. So by the way, it is absolutely massive in here. Yeah. What's also we're only using a portion of how big the space is. So big. Yeah, it's so big that I just stopped trying to learn where anything is. And I'll be like, does anyone know where I used to the course? There's like a GPS like you can say I'm at IWC and it's like, you follow it. All right. Okay. So we we did the whole like we did our favorite watches. We don't get to go to all the appointments we split this up. And I mean, no 10 we had 10 people promoting here and so it's been really cool to have everybody go off and find their own things they're excited about. Do you have a watch that you didn't see that you would have loved to have seen we had this idea for like the hands off column? Yeah, where we couldn't. It's the watch we didn't see. And we have to try to write about it based on like, a distant recollection of what it was. But what was the one watch that you wish you would have seen? So for me, like, obviously, if you if you watch the show, or you watch where I read the read where I write the rest of it, like the I like relatively compared to what the full delta of the watch world inexpensive sports watches. But last year, I went with Malika to Chanel and saw the pink x ray. And like, that's why I would come to a show like this is to see something I'll never see again. And they did another version, which I saw in the back of your camera. No, which is just, there's no structure to it. That isn't a baguette of some sort. Yeah. And when you start to think about like, as the commercial product, put that aside, think about making that Yeah, every baguette every one of those gems has to have two little footings at least. So the amount of like very incredibly precise engineering just to make something that beautiful, which is literally just beautiful for the sake of being beautiful. I think it's just, I love how hard they're willing to push to make something like that, even if the market for it is quite narrow. And seeing stuff like that. It's just that I like a jaw drop. So if it's a up 01, like we mentioned, or the ultra tourbillon, the ultra from the year before, that kind of stuff, like it kind of, it gives me this weird, like, energy for the next while of life. Yeah, I may never see it again. I may never put it on my wrist. But that's rad. I'm speaking of jaw drops. And I wasn't expecting a straw drop. I saw this planetarium clock at Van Cleve. I've never seen they do. I have never like, first of all, the amount of lapis lazuli. This clock is ginormous. It's also 8 million Swiss in precious gemstones. And I'm like, what a flex like, my gemstones are like on my giant clock. They're not even wearable. They're just like, here's my diamonds, like studded on my clock. Well, that's definitely for you at that point. Like you're unless you're bringing people over to your house. Like, yeah, you're not wearing that out. That's for you. I don't know. I mean, I think that is maybe one of the most exuberant objects I have ever seen in my life. Yeah, I hate missing the Van Cleve. And I couldn't make it this year. I'm sorry, it was an exact replica of like a watch that isn't made for me. But I'm so delighted by its existence. We love the oyer, the oyer floral. Yeah. Okay, it's pretty. I love flowers to begin with. But like, the all of that and you don't know what in the show notes. Yeah, pretty rad. I didn't have a chance to go to the Patek booth. I really wanted to see a Calatrava. Ben wrote a great hands on on it. And I just admired it from far outside the glass across the street from the Rolex booth. But I hope to enter the hallowed walls of the Patek booth next year. But I've, I've been like, eyeing a Calatrava. I'm nowhere near being able to achieve it. But to see the new reference, and as Ben said, it was the top, his favorite Calatrava in the last 17 years or so 18 years ago, I think goes a long way. So would have loved to seen that in person. And hopefully we'll get a chance to and then not too distant future. Yeah, no, I want to give Patek a shout out. Actually, okay. Um, because it took a minute to hit. But first of all, really strong lineup this year. And I was really impressed. Very well rounded lineup. Lots of vintagey inspired, but also modern, but good balance. I didn't notice but then Andy, our colleague, sent a message in the WhatsApp about the QP24. And it suddenly clicked that Patek had made like a modern watch for women with a complication with no gems. Like, I don't know why it took me four days to realize that. That's kind of a big deal. Like, I know that 24 is not acronym or Nautilus, but I was really impressed. I saw it in person in our meeting. And I'm like, Okay, I think they might be listening. So I'm pretty impressed with that. That's great. Opposite end of the spectrum. For me, I saw it through glass twice, maybe three times. But one I saw, which I'm glad I saw was the bald eagle lips, which is like, flexing on America, like you'd like, it's an ellipse with a bald eagle on the dial painted enamel. That's not the brand name. No, no, no, that's that's my name. The bald eagle lips. You had me gave me last night with that for sure. But if I could spend like a half an hour to an hour sitting in a room alone with the with the wild clock that they did that desk clock. Yeah. I you can't like because it's through glass, you don't get any sense of like the function or whatever. And yeah, it's a clock. And so it's a long burn kind of thing with the perpetual calendar and the shining or whatever they have in that. But like, you look at that, and you're like, no, I just want to sit with that a while. Like, that's because I, I can come to something I want to sit at a really beautiful desk where that's included. Yeah, I'm just kind of absorb the overall scene and how it's part of it. Listen, Tiffany lamp. Sure. Yeah. Why not? But look, guys, I think that's Episode Four, day for watches and wonders. Obviously, there's a ton more to talk about. And there is 80 plus stories on the site at this point from the show. So check it out. Hope you love it. Let us know in the comments if you want us to do more of these in the next couple weeks to recap some of the other stuff we haven't gotten to. And thanks so much for watching. And thanks to all of you for being on the show. Thanks, James. Oh my god, did you pass out? We we had a whole segment about it. There was a day of sleeping segment. Was there? Yeah. You take the tripod off the camera. No, I tried to get out. I tried to get out of the way. So you're trying you but he was from here.