Have you ever wondered what it's like to curate a watch collection that's as unique as your fingerprint? That's exactly what we're talking about with Kelly Yoch, the godmother of horology, who imparts her wisdom on standing out in a sea of sameness in watch collecting. She shares riveting anecdotes from her experience shaping Ed Sheeran's eclectic assortment of timepieces and champions the mantra #BeYouNotThem. Our conversation takes a personal turn when I recount the heartfelt connections made through a simple G-Shock giveaway, highlighting the profound joy that comes from sharing our passion for watches. Together, we navigate the pressing concern over the pursuit of identical models and consider how the original utility of watches is often lost amidst the clamor for status.
Transitioning from sharing our personal tales to examining the personal journey of our guest, we explore Kelly's unexpected shift from TV producer to a luminary in luxury watch sales. Her story is a compelling testament to the power of passion and expertise in forging new career paths, as she moved from behind the camera to the dazzling world of high-end horology. The discussion then leads us to the slippery slope of sales ethics, where Kelly reflects on the internal battle between industry demands and personal integrity. She opens up about maintaining honesty in a sea of entitlement and how authenticity is a non-negotiable trait in her approach to business, even when it means being labeled the 'bad guy' for setting healthy boundaries. Tune in for an episode that not only spotlights the inner workings of the watch industry but also the integrity and humanity that defines it.
Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2237102/support
Visit our Blog: https://lonelywrist.com
Watch our Youtube: http://youtube.lonelywrist.com
100% Viewer Funded: Donate Here
Have you ever wondered what it's like to curate a watch collection that's as unique as your fingerprint? That's exactly what we're talking about with Kelly Yoch, the godmother of horology, who imparts her wisdom on standing out in a sea of sameness in watch collecting. She shares riveting anecdotes from her experience shaping Ed Sheeran's eclectic assortment of timepieces and champions the mantra #BeYouNotThem. Our conversation takes a personal turn when I recount the heartfelt connections made through a simple G-Shock giveaway, highlighting the profound joy that comes from sharing our passion for watches. Together, we navigate the pressing concern over the pursuit of identical models and consider how the original utility of watches is often lost amidst the clamor for status.
Transitioning from sharing our personal tales to examining the personal journey of our guest, we explore Kelly's unexpected shift from TV producer to a luminary in luxury watch sales. Her story is a compelling testament to the power of passion and expertise in forging new career paths, as she moved from behind the camera to the dazzling world of high-end horology. The discussion then leads us to the slippery slope of sales ethics, where Kelly reflects on the internal battle between industry demands and personal integrity. She opens up about maintaining honesty in a sea of entitlement and how authenticity is a non-negotiable trait in her approach to business, even when it means being labeled the 'bad guy' for setting healthy boundaries. Tune in for an episode that not only spotlights the inner workings of the watch industry but also the integrity and humanity that defines it.
Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2237102/support
Visit our Blog: https://lonelywrist.com
Watch our Youtube: http://youtube.lonelywrist.com
100% Viewer Funded: Donate Here
All right, welcome to another episode of the Lonely Wrist. Today we have a very, very, very special guest the godmother of watches herself, ms Kelly Yosh.
Speaker 2:I actually don't know where that started. I guess it's better than tag. You know what I mean. I'll take it. I'll take it.
Speaker 1:It's a good title to have and so, funny enough, I was texting my friend and she is the store director of an IWC boutique here in Vegas and she's like, oh who, your next podcast guest? I was like, oh, guess who we have coming up? And I was like the godmother of watches. She's like Kelly, kelly, yosh. And I was like yeah, and she's like, oh, my God, I wanna be like her when I grow up.
Speaker 2:That's ridiculous Like nobody. Nobody. If you do my life, nobody wants to be like me. Trust me when I tell you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna lie. When we tried to meet up when you were here in Vegas for your birthday and my wife was at the Ed Sharon concert yes, and I wanted to be you that day. No, yes, she was backstage with Ed Sharon like hanging out Yo that's amazing. I didn't know that I'm not sure if we had to edit that out.
Speaker 2:So Ed's 32, he has been collecting watches and I have helped him on that journey since he was 20.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's awesome. I've seen that he's got a pretty extensive collection as well. He's got some piece uniques and things like that as well, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:He's actually a very smart collector.
Speaker 1:I could tell. When I saw his one of one, patek like with his, like local, you know, home there, instead of like London, I was like, wow, that's so sick. And I like partner up with other YouTubers and like every once in a while like we'll do giveaways, and so I was just feeling super generous one day but I gave away a G shock of choice, and the person came back to me and said I want the subtract tour watch, and so they literally just posted a picture of it like today, like thanks, blake, like you're the man, like I just got this. That's cool.
Speaker 1:It just kind of comes full circle, you know. But no, I was totally jealous. Now I was telling my wife cause she was there. I was like, the lady that's come on the podcast is backstage for Ed Sheeran right now, Like that's so cool.
Speaker 3:She gets Ed Sheeran's music and to talk about his watches Like that's the best of both worlds that Kelly's got yeah.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm always happy to talk about collectors that are smart and collectors that are, you know, very thoughtful when they're making selections and they're not geared towards one thing, because the most boring aspect of this entire industry right now is the fact that every single person wants the same exact stuff.
Speaker 3:I agree.
Speaker 2:I gotta be honest with you, I've never, you know, coming back into the industry in 2020 and being multi branded again. I genuinely thought I was gonna have such a great time. And you know and I am don't get me wrong but it's weekly that I question myself, because it's every day, it's the same thing and even as a kid, like I, was never one to go with trends, I mean, I mean, look at me, I don't. You know, I'm not a trendy person. You know, I truly believe and I post it all the time. It's a hashtag that I use all the time. It's be you, not them. You know, because, honest to God, I don't know what it's like to walk around and want the same exact stuff that every single person wants. Why would you want that?
Speaker 3:I don't get it. Some people do. People you know, have the I don't know what you wanna call that the sheet mentality, where they see something that works and then they wanna try and make it work for them. From my perspective in terms of watch collecting as well, I feel like that's pretty bland. I like to diversify personally and get things that are different as well.
Speaker 2:Like, where does the emotion come in anymore? You know what I mean. It's like you know, social media has been such a great thing and such a detrimental thing, and it's, you know, the great thing is the exposure, obviously. So reaching out to young guys that maybe are and I say guys just because, let's face it, 90% of my business is still men, you know what I mean, it's just kind of the way it is, you know. But reaching out to young guys and women that are looking to start collecting and still yourself relevant, like that's really important, you know, and that's important, I think, in any industry that you are in, but to the detriment. It's kind of like oh look, 912 people have posted a Submariner today.
Speaker 1:I need to throw my sub away. She's falling asleep.
Speaker 2:It's like how you know if you have a Submariner for a reason, like if it was something that was in your family and it was passed down to you, or you genuinely just love a Submariner, there's nothing wrong with that, there's nothing wrong with that. But to not take a price point now because they're not cheap. Submariner is 10 too, and I only use that because that's the price I remember today. You know what I mean. But it's like it's literally it's $10,200. $10,000 is a lot of money. So like why wouldn't you want to expand your horizons and actually look at everything that's $10,000 and make a decision? That's right for you and not for the masses? It just to me it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:I think, and I have a unique perspective on this, because watches, you know, like originally they came out as time telling instruments, right, but then people have lost the identity of what a watch is really supposed to be because then it became like a status symbol, right, they're like, oh, like, if I'm in business with this person and he's wearing a day date, you know, I know he's successful and he's successful and whoever's successful business, yada, yada. So watches have kind of shifted from being a useful tool to like a status symbol and now people associate that status like that's just where it is now in general. So like, with Instagram and hype culture coming full circle, like everybody's like you know a 5712, right, like everybody wants a 5712 because the 5711s are gone, you know, and now the 5811s are impossible. So like, okay, I can find a little middle ground, you know, but you know it's just hype circle, hype culture coming full circle.
Speaker 2:And yeah.
Speaker 1:I bought a sub, not because I really wanted a sub, but because I got offered a sub and I was like, okay, this is the most, one of the most iconic watches in history, arguably right. And I got offered one. So I'm like shh, you know. But I also wanted to do it differently. I didn't want to buy just the black sub, you know. I wanted to buy like a unique. I feel like the Starbucks is more unique and that's the one that I have, you know, the green bezel. So I was like I want to do a sub, but I want to do it a little bit more unique.
Speaker 2:And then I do like a sub, but and again, there's nothing wrong with liking a sub, of course, yeah, you know there's nothing wrong with it. But you know, and again, that's the first thing that popped to mind, but the fact is, it's really, I mean, what does everybody ask for? Everyone asks for a Daytona. That's I mean, you know. So I should probably give the sub a break, you know, definitely, like you know, it's really, it's really. You know, a white-faced Daytona is what every Tom, dick, harry and Bob, you know, are asking for when they walk into your store, you know, so yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm at your store right now, as you can see, I love the fact that you guys have that as a background. I'm in the living room, somewhere in a cabin, hopefully not talking to anybody. Justin, what store are you at? I chose this lovely living room. It couldn't be mine. Who knows? We don't know.
Speaker 3:That's the headquarters. I'm in headquarters. I'm not sure which store I'm at, but hey, it's watching the Switzerland, so look at that. Look, there's Rolex as well, it's quite beautiful.
Speaker 2:You can't decide, it's quite beautiful, it was great, it was great. And actually you know what that is our American Dream Store. That's where I was today, justin. Oh, and like, yeah, you're in Soho.
Speaker 3:I'm in Soho Thea, las Vegas.
Speaker 1:I'm really glad to have you on. Obviously, we've been going back and forth for quite a long time trying to figure out scheduling. Thank you for taking the time to sit down with us and to chat. Of course, should we do. We always do a wrist check. I know that's kind of cliche, it's okay, but I definitely want to see what you're wearing on your wrist.
Speaker 2:So you know, I know you guys follow me. So you know I'm a huge Grand Seiko fan, so I am wearing my from the elegance collection. There you go. So you know, Maddie LeWound Power Reserve. This comes on a bracelet I customized. Any strap that I wear is never a company strap. I always customize, even down to the buckle. Sometimes I believe that watches are very personal, so for me, every strap that I do is very, very personal, Very customized.
Speaker 3:That's the best way to do that. I respect that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am wearing a Pam once or A4.
Speaker 2:Great watch.
Speaker 1:I love it Before the price increase. I got it Before the price increase.
Speaker 3:You know, we can see it literally about everything.
Speaker 2:Oh, is that a Hamilton?
Speaker 3:No, it's a Loco, it's a floating watch.
Speaker 1:Justin has left the watch.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is the Loco. Okay, see, that's cool yeah.
Speaker 3:It's underdog.
Speaker 1:There's a funny story about that. Watch. I got it and I was like I don't wear this. And Justin was here for a convention and I was like, dude, just take this.
Speaker 3:I said no, I don't want it, Please don't give it to me.
Speaker 1:And I, you know, I mean it's like I picked it up, I got it. I don't even know how much I paid for it. And then when I left or, I'm sorry, when Justin left my wife was like, did you give Justin that watch? And I was like, yeah, yeah, she's like what the hell why? And I'm like I think I got it for like 90 bucks or something Like secondhand. It's like a $300 watch Secondhand. I mean, you know.
Speaker 3:I just wear it whenever he sees me so I can impress him, and then I just throw it every time I get off camera.
Speaker 2:So question for you guys then because I find myself doing it all the time. Do you guys? Because you are such you know you're passionate about timepieces do you find yourself giving them as gifts a lot?
Speaker 1:I try to.
Speaker 3:Not me personally, because my collection isn't as extensive as Blake's, but he's pretty good for that.
Speaker 2:But like, even if it's a fun time X or if it's a swatch or you know what I mean Like that's what I find myself doing that a lot, because I think it's valuable from $50 to $500,000. Like, my goal is to have a watch on every single person's wrist. You know what I mean To respect time, to respect craftsmanship, no matter what it's made of or whatever the case may be. I mean, it's what I do for a living, but I thoroughly enjoy giving a young child, for example, a watch.
Speaker 3:Sparking that interest, especially at an early age.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter brand or anything, it's just anything that's in the book. I think it's a really fun thing to do.
Speaker 2:And just a little fun fact swatch and I think you guys know that I'm a huge swatch collector. I have over 100 and some swatches. But swatch actually the line flip-flack. I didn't know this, but flip and flack are actual characters and so swatch. What they do is they put together a box it's adorable and they put a book about flip and flack and then right next to it they package the flip-flack watch.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:And together this costs like $60. And now it is my standard gift for a child, even if it's like a baby's first birthday, because I always, always believed in giving educational gifts to children, because they grow out of clothes, they grow out of it. But if you give them something to help the parent educate the child, like books or a toy that shows them how to tell time, a puzzle or something like that, I always think that's so beneficial. Plus, it makes you feel good too. But swatch is doing something really, really great and it's something you guys should know, because I only found this out this year and I bought six of them Because I think that they're really great gifts.
Speaker 1:I didn't know that. I had a flip-flack before, and obviously so. My friend just purchased a few for his children, but I can't say that I'm in the situation enough to purchase swatches for people. It's really hard Because I think.
Speaker 2:Well, you guys aren't old enough yet either.
Speaker 1:Right, I don't think I don't have a lot of like my family's really scattered, so I don't really get the chance to see my family very regularly.
Speaker 2:Good for you.
Speaker 1:Good for you, for whatever reason, I might be the last generation of my family in a weird sense, because none of my siblings have children. I don't have children.
Speaker 2:Me neither.
Speaker 1:You know where that's going.
Speaker 2:Me and my brother no kids.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's weird that we're at a time in our life and generation, right Culturally, where it's like it's kind of taboo to have children in a way. You know that sounds so weird, you know it's like Procreate, it's like OK, well, should we?
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, and I've always said why are you breeding Like ew, like who?
Speaker 1:I know you're gross, Like what the heck?
Speaker 3:I have seven kids. No, I'm just kidding, I don't have any kids either. He's a Mormon.
Speaker 2:He's a Mormon, right, right, whatever, that's fine. Yeah, he's got you, do you, it's totally fine.
Speaker 1:Seven wives and seven children. Let's, let's jump into this. We've we've had some, some banter here. But tell us, I know you were at Tiffany for a while, but tell us how you got into. Like watches, just in general.
Speaker 2:So, coming out of college, both my ex-husband and I had radio, television and film degrees. So my ex-husband is in radio and I was in the TV portion and I was a producer, in fact, and I was doing really well in the city of Philadelphia. And my ex-husband was more successful and he still, to this day, is very, very successful. He works for I Heart Radio and we did five moves in three years because of his job. So each time we moved I couldn't get a job because every production house wanted me to start at the bottom and I had come out of college. I graduated cum laude, I had the best internship, I was already a producer and my ego wouldn't allow me to start from the bottom. Every single goddamn time I moved to a different city I just couldn't do it. But what was keeping us both afloat was the fact that I've always sold. I've always been in retail ever since I was 16 years old, and I started to feel really bad about myself because I was like, am I going to do this for the rest of my life? And my ex-husband said to me he was the one that actually said to me like Kelly, this isn't a bad thing. Like, this is a true career, like you happen to be really good at it. So go sell something that's going to make you happy. Stop with these little jobs that you're taking here and there and you're managing a store and you're doing it. But go actually sell something that is going to make you money. And go sell something I'm still waiting for the money, by the way but go sell something that's going to make you happy. And he's like what makes you happy? And I said watch this in jewelry. And he's like so go sell it. And I was like well, who's going to hire me? That's a fine jewel. And he's like go figure it out. And so I did.
Speaker 2:And Hamilton Jewelers in Princeton in 1997, I was the youngest person on the floor and I was the only person that they had hired that did not have a GIA degree. And so while I was there Hank Siegel, who still owns Hamilton Jewelers I was able to not only complete my degree, but they kept pushing me, because I was a woman, to go sell jewelry. And that's not where I was happy. I was always behind the watch cases because I had always, even as a kid, I had always worn a watch, always. And so my grandmother kind of started that because she was one of the people Remember when Swatch came into fruition it was like again, this is way beyond you guys, but like a cabbage patch kid, you had to stand on these awful lines at Christmas time, and so my grandmother stood in line for me and that's how I got my first Swatch.
Speaker 2:So Swatch is very personal to me because of that. And then I started to let God forbid, I hate to say this, but I started to like the watch customers better than I did the jewelry customers, and what I mean by that is I was dealing with a lot of men. Men are sometimes easier to deal with, and I was dealing with this sort of you didn't hear from me.
Speaker 2:I doubt right, and it was this fast-paced sort of wheeling dealing kind of mentality back in the late 90s, early 2000s and I loved it. I loved working with. My book was filled with car guys. We were surrounded by dealerships and these guys would come in and they'd want to talk watches and listen. It's a fun fact, but it's actually a study. But men feel actually more comfortable buying from a woman. Then you throw in the fact that a woman that actually can talk technically, not that.
Speaker 2:So my boss saw that and I worked for this gentleman named Mike Hopper and to this day he is still in the industry and I still respect him Like no one's business. He's a mentor of mine, he is my second father, he is someone that has been with me since the beginning of my career and he said to me and it was kind of on a bet and he said to me he's like I think it's really this is, by the way, this was back when you could actually talk to employees like you could talk to them. Like God forbid this was said today. But he was like I think it's really sexy that a woman can get behind a counter and talk about a machine and be confident and do it. So you know what You're gonna run my department if you think you can do it. I don't think you can, but let's try and.
Speaker 2:I was like oh, I'm sorry, did you just challenge me, you know? And so I was taking home catalogs every single night and just reading them cover to cover and learning each brand you know, basically by a book. But then you know each brand recognized that I was pretty serious about it. So then I started to become trained by each and every brand you know, through their levels of training and the Patek Philippe one in 2005,. They threw a laptop at us and this training that Patek provided was like nothing I had ever seen. It was like a college course and it kind of blossomed from there.
Speaker 2:I scored really high. They took me to Geneva and the next thing I know I was representing Patek Philippe for the last 27 years in some sort of capacity, and so you know the luxury lines that sort of went with Patek Philippe have been a passion. Now that I'm back in the industry, being multi-branded, I value every single brand, not just the high-end brands, because those brands for $1,000, those brands for $5,000 are just as important, if not more important, than the high-end brands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you sell a thousand of one watch, like a Hamilton or Oris or whatever. And then I mean the economics lines up, you know, like if you look at it from the airplane industry, like the economy, I think it's the economy class. I'm not sure if it's the economy class that pays for the first class or vice versa. The first class pays for the economy class, but same principle right, it is the same principle.
Speaker 1:yes, and that, yeah, that's so funny because retail's changed a lot. So I actually and I never told you I used to sell watches as well. We started off as a watch collector and then I literally like came back from Europe and I was kind of like in between a weird time where I wasn't sure if, like my then Fionne, was gonna come, because my wife now is from Europe as well, and so we were like going through the process, like bringing her here and getting all this paperwork, and I was like never sure if she was gonna come. And so I was like all right, let me take this job. At a watch boutique here in Vegas we sold 30 brands.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna say on stream, but I will text you and tell you where I worked, because we try here I mean to be very unbiased. Like in our whole concept for our blog and our podcast is like we don't do paid reviews. You know, like a lot of watch bloggers will get a watch in the mail and then they'll get paid to review it and then they'll pretty much say whatever the watch brand wants them to spit, and we don't do that. So, like I just got this watch in, I said in the other room, but it's from Notice oh yeah, great brand.
Speaker 1:They are amazing. Yeah, and I told Wesley he's gonna be like a few podcasts before you, but I was like, yeah, if you send us a watch, then I'm probably gonna shit on it. You know, like, I'm sorry to say, but he's like dude, I love that Just. And then he sent me a watch, you know, because I find it hard, especially with all these content creators now, it's like they're only talking about the products they sell. Yeah Right, every watch blog to exist ever does that Like they're not gonna talk about products they don't sell because they're monetizing things.
Speaker 1:So our viewers pay for this by donations, like we are viewer funded, you know. So it's just people that just out of the kindness of their heart, just say we like Blake, we like Justin, we like the podcast, like here's money.
Speaker 2:People like you guys. This is great.
Speaker 1:Go figure. Sometimes I you know, surprisingly and Justin doesn't know this I never told him this he came on Big reveal Justin.
Speaker 1:This is a huge reveal. He came on as my first podcast guest. Justin and we've been friends for a while. We got into watch collecting together and the first podcast like blew up. Like just because I know big brands, justin knows micro brands. And then we just kept kind of going. And then I get more fan mail about Justin than I do about me. He doesn't know that, but every every time and my wife is the podcast editor my wife's been editing podcasts for a long time and she goes every single episode. She's like God, justin is so good at podcasting and I'm like what about me? Like she's like, well, you're all right, I guess you know.
Speaker 3:But because I just sit here and look pretty and I just let you take the wheel. You know that's easy. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yo man, Justin, that's hard.
Speaker 1:I'm dragging him along for the journey. That's right and yeah, we got into watches together and yeah, so it's always been our passion and our dream to do something with watches and yeah, this is really the only way that we could think about doing it. You know, like I didn't like selling watches. You know there's so much politics in selling watches, especially when it comes to like allocations and Dude it's horrible. Who decides what?
Speaker 2:It's horrible.
Speaker 1:Going through these little politics and like what you can and can't say and I got to a point where I was lying to people.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, I'm not a liar Like this affects the way I sleep at night, like what I say and what I don't say, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that, speaking of that and it's so true one of the things that I have found so hard is the fact that I've told the truth. You know, I've run a business very honestly my whole career and you know, there have come times when there are certain people that you almost don't have a choice but to be just bold and honest, and those are the people that are always gonna hate me and, you know, never have any kind of respect for me. But, like dude, you can't walk into a business, okay, of any kind whether I'm selling touch-up white t-shirts or Ferraris okay and actually think, with your sense of entitlement, that you deserve that's a word that I absolutely just erase it from your vocabulary. None of us deserve anything. Okay, we, you know how you get something is. Why don't you just try to be a human being and have a conversation? You know Then this do you know who I am below me, like?
Speaker 2:you know you attract. What's the saying. Like you attract flies with honey, not vinegar or whatever the case may be. Like whatever that saying is, I think you get my point, but like to literally demand, expect and use the word deserve.
Speaker 3:Who do you think you are?
Speaker 2:It's awful, we're the one that it turns out to be the bad guy, because you said no. And it's like what Did you go to the? Did you go to the Ferraris dealership? Because they were on their business. The same way, you know what I mean. Like you can't just walk in and buy a Pista, you know, like it's just that's not gonna happen. You know what I mean. So you know, patek was and again I refer to Patek. You know what I mean. That's what I've spent most of my years doing, but I mean, it's simple. Do you have a relationship? You know? Have you bought something else? Because to come in here and demand, demand, demand, demand a piece that I'm gonna get four of, and even just to use the grammar that you're using, I mean, come on, man, it's just that's not realistic, you know. And so you know.
Speaker 1:I had a different approach. So when I came in to watch sales and this is advice for any sales person ever, especially in the watch industry when I came in I was just a watch nerd already. So I was like everybody on the internet who likes watches and who's a watch nerd they suck If they're on the internet. They're trolls like super hard, like they don't give a shit about you, they don't care about you. You're a douchebag.
Speaker 1:Every collector is weird.
Speaker 1:It's a weird space to be a watch collector on the internet, and so every other collector on the internet was just super weird, super douchey.
Speaker 1:You just can't meet genuine connections through the internet as a watch guy for some reason. But I was like, all right, look, if I go to this boutique and work there and I see watch nerds like in real, like real life watch nerds like I'm gonna make friends, like I'm new to Vegas, and so my perspective every single time was whenever a customer walked through the door or I should even say customer like whenever somebody walked through the door, I wanted to make friends with that person and my other colleagues were like looking at this as if they were like had a piece of bait and they were trying to catch a fish and I, literally I could not look at it like that, and that probably had a lot to do with my success where I was like I mean, I was outperforming a lot of my colleagues who had been there a lot longer and I was like, look, I told them they're like, why do you do your presentations this way?
Speaker 1:Like, why do you talk like this? I'm like, well, first of all, if I'm here to make friends and then I sell a watch, secondly, that is the long game right. If I make a friendship with this person, they're gonna be loyal to me. Any watch they buy in the future, they're gonna text me first. And I never really understood it like that until I became a sales professional. Like I just saw it happen and that wasn't my mentality. I was like, hey, look, I just wanna be friends with these people and hopefully they buy a watch.
Speaker 2:Sales professionals. One of the biggest things that I'm always asked by, no matter where I've worked Kelly, can you teach the other sales professionals what you do? And the answer is no. You either have it or you don't. And you can teach the fundamentals of how to clientele right. You can. You know you take the names, you take the addresses, you take the phone numbers. You know you do the thing. You know you get an item in that you think that customer's gonna like you contact them. Okay, fundamentals, fundamentals.
Speaker 2:But they're not taking the time to realize that there's actually, like you said, a long game. There is a long game. You know what I mean. You shouldn't be thinking about tomorrow. You should actually be thinking about six months from now, a year from now, because it's not. You know, the immediate sale is what keeps the money flowing, each paycheck, and those are gonna happen. You know what I mean. If you work in a situation like a watch is a Switzerland because we're blessed to carry so many brands, you know you're gonna have that guy or that gal walk in that needs a gift, that needs, that's looking to reward themselves, that, you know, just got bonus and maybe is thinking ahead. That's gonna keep the bread and butter on the table. But the fact is, you know what's gonna keep your pocket lined for years to come? And it's the long game, it's the relationship, it's how you treat that customer if they're just in the mall to say hello, you know.
Speaker 1:It's crazy and I never really understood this until I obviously joined, you know, like the industry from your perspective. But I started thinking back about, like what creates a successful experience, right, and an example is whenever I'd go to my dentist, no matter who was at the front desk, and whenever I walked in they'd say, oh welcome, blake, like I've never seen you before and you know who I am. And I was like holy shit, that's powerful, you know.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:Like just the small things. So whenever I was you know, clientelling, like we call it, you know they give you a little card and I just be like I'd write down everything I could remember about our conversation, you know.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Their kids' names, what type of car they had, where they went to school, like, and that's where I'd start. Like, oh, like, what brings you in? You know, oh like, where are you from? Like, I see you got an NC State shirt on. Are you from North Carolina?
Speaker 2:Oh, like Bro, this is not rocket science.
Speaker 1:I know, yeah, it's and people who are complicated.
Speaker 3:It's about being personable too, and me and Blake it has this conversation. Yeah, just being personable, being genuine, and that's one of the best ways that you can honestly be a salesperson and that's, you know, no change for watches as well.
Speaker 1:I hated that on my business card and they printed my business card and it said sales professional. I was like I don't want this title People professional.
Speaker 1:This is a shitty title, like can I just be like a watch nerd or like a brand expert or something. It just says friend, yeah, friendly, watch guy, you are how, eventually, when you do that and you're like, hey, I'm just here to talk to you, I'm not here to talk about, eventually they're just like dude, like shut up, and I'm here to look at Omega's. You know what I mean? Or what, yeah, yeah, no, it's so funny because I left a while ago like the retailer, and I still talk to the people every day. I still talk to those guys that are buying watches.
Speaker 1:And my friend was in Japan and he's like Blake, I'm trying to get a grand seiko from Japan. Like, what would you recommend? Yeah, I was like dude, you can't go wrong with any grand seiko. But I'm getting people that are texting me like what do you think? Is this a good deal? Is the bad deal? Like, what do you think about this watch? And I would even tell my friends, customers, even if you're buying a watch somewhere else, let me know what I can do. If you need a watchner to talk this over through, or if you need a reason to buy it or not buy it, I can give you either of those reasons.
Speaker 2:Well, you're genuinely interested in them, exactly If the watch-buying experience has to do with them. You're genuinely interested because they've become part of your life in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 1:Right, and there's something powerful about connecting somebody with something that they love. Yeah, you know what I mean. Agreed, what I'm passionate about, and that's the most rewarding thing Agreed.
Speaker 3:Would I want to go out in a public space and talk about cooking or what I want to talk about watches? I'll probably pick watches and that's probably what I'm going to be most interested in. So it's cool that you can kind of harness that and then help your customers to your passion. She's like both. But I'm kind of moving on to the next question for you, kelly, while we're kind of on the subject what defines a successful customer interaction for you?
Speaker 2:It's. I call it because I was taught this, it's the me factor, and what that means actually is and Blake, you just described it that client, that friend, that customer whatever you are calling them that guest literally trust you so much that they will call you for anything. And so, hey, kelly, I know you don't carry this, but my granddaughter is graduating from college and I really want to buy her something special in a handbag and I loved what you had the other day, like could you suggest something like that? I want to spend $1,500. That means that they trust me for literally every factor in their life, and so there's no better compliment than trust.
Speaker 2:You know they trust you. They know you're at least going to tell them the truth. I mean very harshly I will tell you the truth. That's either a welcome or it's like oh, don't ask Kelly, because she's actually going to tell you the truth. I know I've told you so. To me that's the most successful interaction I can have the fact that three hours later, 30 days later, three years later, they're like you know what I'm going to call Kelly and ask her.
Speaker 1:There was no real measuring stick for me, because I can't tell you how many times I've lost a sale, because there's no way to measure this. Because I told somebody to not buy that watch. Yeah, you know. Like, oh yeah, like I read about this Dude, don't buy that watch. Like, why would you say that? Like, how many reasons do you want?
Speaker 2:Well, the last 10 years of my career is when we really started to talk about and this word makes me crumble when people started using the word investment. Oh god, and I'm like. First of all, if you're buying these things for an investment, we shouldn't be even talking, because it's just, that's not. I don't have a finance degree. I can barely add, subtract, multiply and divide. So, right there, if you've come to me for an investment purpose, we're not going to have any more of this conversation because I can't. So what's this going to work? It's going to be worth.
Speaker 2:When I walk out the door and I'm like what? But these are questions that have always been thrown at me, especially selling Tiffany Stamps' Patex. What's this worth? I'm like you know what? We live in a very powerful world now where you can literally pick up that cell phone and Google anything that you want. But don't ask me, because that's not how I'm here to sell. I'm here to build a collection with you. I'm here to represent the brand appropriately. I'm here to represent myself appropriately, but we're not going to sit and talk about the financial gain that you're possibly going to have when you walk out the door. That's not how you buy watches. People do that. Those people that do you go ahead. I'm not your person. That's why there are many people I would not like a person 70% of the people that come into the store.
Speaker 1:Look at it from that frame of mind.
Speaker 3:It's in chain.
Speaker 1:If I buy this now, when I leave this store, what's it going to be worth?
Speaker 2:It's true.
Speaker 1:And they're looking at Kono24, looking at eBay. What's the used value? It's the same thing as the car industry. A lot of times, when you buy a watch and you walk out of the door, it's not worth what you just paid for it. Sadly, sadly. But that's not the reason why you're supposed to buy the watch in the first place.
Speaker 2:No, Now the collections that I built with gentlemen that are millions and millions and millions of dollars. That's sort of a different frame of mind, because we're talking about things that are, let's say, tens of millions. And if they're sitting in front of me and they're looking at, let's say, a $500,000 Patek, they're looking at a $500,000 Jacob and Co.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm pulling brands out of my butt right now. But am I going to lean to the Patek? For several reasons, but that's not to knock Jacob and Co. Of course I'm not a covered in stone type of watch gal. I never have been. I don't really own many things with diamonds.
Speaker 2:If I'm going to wear jewelry, I'm going to wear jewelry. That's how I actually look at it. So it's one of those things where I am also going to be honest. So if someone's going to put me on the line and say, kelly, should I buy this or this? And we're talking about half a million dollars, I'm going to be honest. But if we're talking about again a Gran Seiko versus a Tag Heuer, I'm literally going to be like you know what? I'm invested in Gran Seiko because I love the brand. I think it's one of the most amazing things that you can buy under $10,000. But a Tag Heuer was my first luxury watch.
Speaker 2:So I mean you have to really be comfortable in your own self, and not many people are. They're not comfortable in their own skin, so making these purchases, they ask for guidance. But first and foremost you sort of have to be comfortable with your own self and your own money flow and know that if you're going to blow $500,000 on this, but you, honest to God, love it so much. You know what I mean. But you know it's so interesting because I started, you know so much, with a passion for watches. And now it's like I have to be careful with some of these gentlemen that are building these collections of millions and millions and millions of dollars, because I'm like I wouldn't buy that. I wouldn't buy that but, like you, love it. More power to use, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:You just put a hot turd on your wrist. No, I literally think about this too, like as a collector, and I have 85 watches. Okay, like I have more than most people. I was talking to Adrian from Luxury Bazaar the other day and he was like, do you get 85 watches? I never. I don't talk really too much about that and he's like dude, you have more watches than almost anybody who I know. And I'm like, yeah, I guess I don't know, but you know, I found and I'm an advocate now for people not having 85 watches Like I literally talk about like getting like a three watch or a five watch or maybe a 10 watch collection, like because there's no poss.
Speaker 1:I mean, look what happened. That's how Justin got his watch I didn't wear, right. So, yeah, it's no possible way for you to wear all these watches. Like you're going to gravitate pieces you love and there's going to be pieces that just simplify and that just make it short in your collection. But as a collector, like one thing I've noticed is like you go in right and you're looking at the same watch. It's like you're building a house right and your house is your collection and you're buying the same material over it Like you're buying a part of the roof, a part of the roof, or you're part of the foundation. However, you want to spend the analogy on it. Like you're buying a sub and you're buying a panorai, then you're buying the 50 fathoms and then you're buying an Aqua Terra, then you're buying. You know it's like then you're buying a Pelagos and then it's like, okay, like you just bought the same watch over and over and over.
Speaker 2:You're like oh, I guess I like a certain look. Okay, that's fine, You're allowed to.
Speaker 1:You are, you are. But then you think about it like how do you? How do you implement this watch? Like that's where I made the mistake early. Like how am I going to use this watch? When am I going to wear it? And then you start thinking about you go into a watch shop and you're like, oh, like you think about the watch just on your wrist and not the watches that are back at home, you know. Like you think you don't think about like here's the gaps right? And like, okay, I'm building that house. Like what pieces of my house are missing? You know, do I need this piece or that piece? And then my wife the other day we were like where's this going? Like where's my collection journey? I have no idea. I don't think anybody can answer that. But I went on current 24 and and made my dream list of watches, just like the, if I had these. I don't know how many watches this may be 12 or 15.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I would never ever buy another watch Be sure about that I don't know, Maybe no, maybe not. I did that two one time. But you have to Long game right, Looking, looking ahead. You know that's how you survive in this industry, or die right. But I'm curious as well. So obviously you're the I'm not sure of your official title, but it's director of customer relations, that's that.
Speaker 2:Director of client relations for watches, the Switzerland group.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Client relations, something that I think is probably challenging. So obviously, watch is what's almost like the largest retailer and watches in the world, probably so where you fall in the spectrum of that side of things. But how do you ensure? Okay, okay, so is that? Is that Bukerer down there, or is that?
Speaker 2:No, I was talking about me personally?
Speaker 1:Okay, I was. I thought you were talking about the other big boys. You know what I mean. No, we're up there. No, we're up there.
Speaker 1:How do you bring that consistency from New York to Vegas to? Are you just the US? Are you? Are you responsible for global or US? Okay, so how do you, how do you consistently bring that across and distribute that ideology you know of, of you know being honest and being transparent and creating a unique experience? Like, how do you, how do you communicate that to everybody? And I will say this is for my record, and nobody, I've never said this and I would never say this publicly, except for to you and for here and for today and for right now, Like every single boutique I've ever been into, except for watching the Switzerland people. People are, people are scared at watching Switzerland. It seems like to cross that border from like, okay, this is a customer, Okay, this is a friend. They're scared to be friends with me for some reason. I don't know if it's because I have a podcast or because of a watch nerd or whatever, but they're scared to cross that threshold.
Speaker 2:It's being part of a publicly trained, publicly traded company.
Speaker 1:So that means they can make friends with watchers.
Speaker 2:It is. We try our hardest to maintain a very professional front. I think that most people don't know how to combine both. So if you're going to choose, you choose the more professional sort of stance. And I was hired because literally watched the Switzerland was like how does she do that? Huh? Did she just tell that customer that he was stupid and slap them? She did, and yet he's writing the check for $200,000. You know what I mean. So it it is something that we're genuinely tried trying to sort of break through in all of our showrooms in New York. It is a little different. There is a much more laid back vibe, much more. Soho has really got it down pat. Where you're sitting, Blake, the Soho store.
Speaker 2:Under your lounge, hudson Yards again, I think, does it well. But it's hard when you're a publicly traded company and you have as many employees as we do. There are, there are gems in every store. You know. In Vegas we have, you know, a young lady, for example, that has just broken those barriers and has really, really genuinely. She's so personable that you know, when we even had all of our GPHG stuff going on in New York, I requested to have her sent in because she's, she's that good. But again, trying to clone you know myself, or you know this young lady that I'm speaking of, or this, this great gentleman that we have in Soho, trying to clone them is, is really hard.
Speaker 1:You talking about Bruno Justin and I both know Bruno. Yeah, she's listening right now, actually, probably.
Speaker 2:It's hard, it's really really hard, and I'm trying my best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, watches like obviously. I mean obviously watches have took you and connected you with amazing people in the world. How do you feel like the watch industry attracts like-minded people to each other compared to any other industry? I think, we have some hard questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you do Give us the juice.
Speaker 3:Give us the juice and do a back flip. I'm just kidding, yeah.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't have drank at lunch then, I guess right, no, we we are very mindset focused.
Speaker 1:You know we're not product focused, like and we talk about it. And somebody's asked me and they put this I prefer that. Yeah, like our podcast is not. It's not very. I mean, we're technical right To a degree, but if you look at and listen to every other podcast, it's more like a founders podcast, a creative podcast, and then watches are the meat and potatoes Right?
Speaker 3:Because we have Because we we have. You know you, kelly, you know, as a guest coming on here, you know as a colleague, as a friend, we want to get to know you and our listeners and watchers. You know we want to be more personable with the people that we bring in here. We, you know, we try and ask some pretty tough questions sometimes and if you want to pass, that's okay.
Speaker 1:We listen to all of your public statements and we ask the exact opposite.
Speaker 2:So that's the question again.
Speaker 1:So obviously watches are amazing and it brings a lot of like-minded people together. Yeah, but why do you think watches and no other hobby scene industry attracts collectors in the way that watches does? Why do you think that is? I disagree with you. Okay, maybe cars and guns too, sorry.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I know right, I can't be part of that, Chloe, because I, I, I can't have a weapon in my hand. It's just like-.
Speaker 1:We were joking, me and my friends and obviously Formula One's coming next week and all my all my friends are here coming and I'm hosting them. But if you want to sell a watch, go to a gun show or a car show, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, see, that's what I was going to say, so, so, so, cars. I have a really big client of mine that lives in Vegas and he's a car guy and all of his friends, all of his personal friends, are in the automotive industry. I think that, you know, collecting is passion. Passion brings people together. So, you know, I know a guy that's really into wine, okay, and he collects at a very, very high level, and his best friend that's how they met they met at an auction together, you know.
Speaker 2:So I think that we all work really hard for our money, right? So you work, you work really hard and you like to play hard, right? So when you play hard, those are the people that you're normally going to connect to immediately because they're sharing the same sort of downtime, you know, and downtime is when we let our guards down and we're really our own self. You know, now I, you know I'm black and white, there's, I'm not gray, okay. So in my work life and in my fun life, my downtime, I need the same person. But there are not, you know, these guys that have to have these, you know, really high hand finance jobs. They have to be on in a different way, so you know when they're taking their. You know I have to listen pardon my French, but I call it FU money. Okay, if they're going to take their FU money and they're going to spend it with me, then I need to give them my time right, and I need to give them the experience that they expect, because they could take that money and blow it on a car. They could take it and blow it on vacations, they could take it and blow it on anything they want, but they're taking the time to actually have a conversation with me, have an experience with me and buy something from me. Now, watch this at Switzerland Me.
Speaker 2:I take my job very seriously, and so I truly believe that they're buying a watch from me. You know what I mean, so you know it's. I do find, though, when I start to talk to them about their best friends, that they bring to me as a referral or something like that how did they meet? They met at their at their past time. So I think it's anything luxury, I think it's anything. Or you know, cars, or wine, or cigars, for example. Oh man, I know guys that have a cigar club that absolutely all of those guys are each other's rider dies, you know, and so it really, it, really it's. It's, I think, anything that you kind of spend your downtime on, because you're relaxed, you're your real self. So I think that's what attracts each other you know towards friendship towards you, know relationships, because you're sharing a passion together.
Speaker 3:I like that. I've also thought about that too. Like I'm personally not really a huge car guy, I'm into cars, don't get me wrong. I'm a guy. We all are, whether we all like it or not. But I've always thought I'm like man, why are car guys like so into watches too? And I'm like, put my hand on the steering wheel, I'm like, oh, hey, there's my watch.
Speaker 2:Oh, but mechanics feel it evokes emotion.
Speaker 3:It does. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:You never see a mechanic like a legit car mechanic, with a watch, though no. It's so weird.
Speaker 3:You don't want to get your wrist stuck in anything.
Speaker 1:Well, no, I mean, it's just because they understand how these technical things work. I guess I don't know, and they're just like that's the last thing I want on my wrist.
Speaker 3:Technical engineering you know fail.
Speaker 1:And then try to get fixed. You know, yeah, true.
Speaker 3:I'm going to ask you this, kelly, because I don't think that we talked about this yet. What's your favorite watch in your collection?
Speaker 1:We jump around a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you had to pick one, if there was one watch, it doesn't matter about price or anything. What is your favorite watch?
Speaker 2:It literally changes all the time.
Speaker 3:I wish I had that problem.
Speaker 1:Obviously there's watches you never sell.
Speaker 3:But yes, right.
Speaker 1:So I recommend you to consider the watch that only you appreciated in your collection and we've joked around and Justin asked me this before, and so we've asked every single person this if this watch were to be taken with you to the grave because you love it so much and you want to rot forever in it Sorry to be gory there and grim.
Speaker 2:So the first thing that I bought myself like with cash meaning I didn't win it, I didn't get a good deal on it, like I didn't. You know, the first thing that I bought myself was a two-tone Pasha Chrono, and I can't part with that because it was purchased for a reason. So I had just gotten divorced. I was 30 years old. I felt like a failure. Like a failure Because I, you know, I married young and I couldn't make this marriage work and I had hit sort of rock bottom. And this watch I took my divorce money and I spent it the wrong way. And that watch actually is really important to me because I look at it every time I wear it and I think to myself this is when you hit rock bottom and I had to file for bankruptcy and I had to sell other things in order to eat, in order to pay rent. And I wouldn't let this watch go because it reminds me every day where I came from.
Speaker 1:That's the reason why you buy watches.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. So many a time I thought to myself as I got older, I'm like I got to let this thing go. Because why do I want to be reminded? Why wouldn't I? Because you have to know where you came from in order to move forward. And so my joke, even in my 30s and my 40s, my joke was always if I could teach a college course on how to completely screw up your life and come back, I would probably have the most well attended class in the college. Because I did. I made all of the wrong mistakes, all of them, and you know what. It's made me the tough bitch that I am. It's also made me the most humble person, because humility gets you very, very far in life. And as much as we laughed and joked about the title when you guys opened the podcast, as much as we can laugh about it, it shows that I've been doing this for 27, almost 28 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not going anywhere. I may be in different facets of this industry. Who knows where I'm going to be in a year, two years, five years, 10 years? But I guarantee it'll probably be this industry. You don't know. I'm not going anywhere. I love this too much, but it's really, really interesting to me when people forget their past. I like to remind myself every time where I came from, because I didn't ask for help. I did it myself, and I think that's really important, not only for a human being, but it's very important for a woman.
Speaker 1:We joked, and this was just a joke and a talk. Do you know, jose? Perestroika, periscope. I know the name, yes, Okay, he was on our podcast and this my friend from the IWC Boutique. She brought this up and I totally forgot we had this conversation but ironically we talked about having a car fax for watches. It's a total joke, but it makes so much sense. I took this watch to XYZ. These are the moments that I nobody documents that. Here's the moments that I've cherished with this watch.
Speaker 3:It's true.
Speaker 1:Nobody's ever documented that. Okay, I took my Panerai to his visa, I got engaged in this watch, or like, because I know all the moments that I've had with this watch, but it's never been documented. You have an excellent point. We joked about that because I'm sure there's a watch out there that belonged to John Lennon or maybe Ed Sharon, that he sold or was passed around, that somebody has it and doesn't know it belonged to them. True?
Speaker 2:It's a good point, I like it.
Speaker 1:There's probably millions of watches out there that have that same backstory. It was passed through and John Lennon's son got it and then he needed money for this or who knows whatever, or he passed it to his son and he didn't know how important it was. And so having a way to document that was what we talked about in our podcast. And it's funny because every time I talk to a watch collector it seems like this needs to happen more and more and more because that could affect the value. If this I don't know who knows, if I got the second pre-owned and it belonged to Tom Brady or something, don't you think Chrissie's would be like, hey, let me get Tom Brady's Panerai to auction. And of course I would say no, but besides the point that affects the value of the watch you have.
Speaker 2:I was like that watch is not worth shit.
Speaker 1:I know Not that that's important, because we just literally had a huge rant on how watches and value is. No, I agree with you. I agree it's not in this world Like it's another fairy tale. But how great would that be, be fun, it would be awesome. And then to have pictures, kind of like a Facebook profile, for your watch. You're like boom, boom, boom. People do it for their dogs.
Speaker 2:All right, okay, true, now he just touches a very sensitive subject, because Palmer definitely has his own page.
Speaker 1:So there you go. See, you do it with things you love, right? You archive the moments that are important to you with the things that you love, and that is how you take pictures.
Speaker 2:It's very true, it is. It's very true, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I just had to make a funny thing because Okay, just win.
Speaker 2:Let's mark this day and time. Blake was right. We just what are we all wearing? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:What are we talking about, too? What the and this is kind of again springboarding, because we do that. If you, I, as a sales professional, found myself showing the same watch over and over and over, not because I thought somebody else would like it, but because I loved it. Yeah, like, okay, here's a watch. I know every single function. I know every single complication.
Speaker 2:I tell every salesperson to do that.
Speaker 1:And I know the backstory of this watch and for me that watch was the Seamaster 300 heritage because I knew that that was like released in the fifties. It was Omega's like first shot of the dive watch. It started from the Seamaster 120 and went up and they increased the water it was it's like there's so much important to me Like I could. I could literally like sell, but I could never sell the watch. I knew everything about the watch but nobody seemed to want to buy it. So that's funny.
Speaker 2:For me it was when I was at the Pentax Leafs line. It was a 51 96p 51. You know what that is.
Speaker 1:P. I'm going to look it up.
Speaker 2:So it's a Magnuliwound Calatrava Brigade, numerals time only absolutely stunning. And every time someone asked me for a Nautilus or an Aqua, I'm like have you seen this? Because the reason you haven't seen it is because you're caught up in height. But if they knew what it was when they walked in, that meant that they cared about the lineage and the history of the brand.
Speaker 1:For Mr Summers. It kind of reminds me of the Baltic, the MR 01.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the Mr, mr O1. It does. It is a beautiful watch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it looks like it's all platinum. Should they only make it platinum?
Speaker 2:Yes, so it was platinum. It had a closed case back. And again, you know when Patekfully started to give collections a name. So, for example, in the 80s is when you know the Calatrava collection was the Calatrava collection and the Aquanaut collection, and the complications, grand complications, but I mean you know you harken back. By the way, I'm bringing back the word harken, by the way I've decided that today. I've worked second time using the word Okay. You said harken back.
Speaker 1:With your grand seco on documented.
Speaker 2:If you look back seriously, it particularly leaves lineage the reference 96. That's it. That's the end of story. If you've learned anything today, please, please, google reference 96, and that is Patekfully's lineage.
Speaker 1:I'm going to follow this watch on Krono24 and watch the second. We drop this podcast.
Speaker 2:The value just you know again, if you call yourself a Patekfully collector and because, remember, people love to give themselves titles Okay, if you call yourself a Patekfully collector and you don't know the lineage of Patekfully but how you know it came to fruition and what watches were integral to the, to the growth and and you know the success of Patekfully, then you're not a collector. Because if I'm going to be a collector or something, I'm going to know everything about the brand or everything about. You know my passion, back to when it was formed. Now, I'm not saying you have to like it, but I'm saying you have to know what it is. At least, if you're going to call yourself a collector, you know. Are you, are you a Porsche collector if you only like and know one car? No, no, you know. So it's, you know it's. It's just it's ironic because people that love to call themselves collectors don't actually know anything about what's in their collection.
Speaker 1:I agree with that Probably me too. Sorry to watch watch brands that I've done you dirty. Yeah, it's always my favorite.
Speaker 2:I'm a collector, Are you? I'm curious.
Speaker 3:Kelly, I'm curious which, which brand do you guys sell the most of within watches of Switzerland besides Rolex? That's like a given, but like what do you think?
Speaker 2:the next is oh well, you know the top three, you know dollars and cents wise. I mean you know that's sort of that's obvious because you're looking at price points that are that are really, you know, extraordinary. So I mean you know you're looking at the Patek Philippes and the Cartieres and you know whatever you know, we own a Breitling boutiques, we own Omega boutiques.
Speaker 1:So I mean let's go by units, because that's probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, those are, those are just sort of the obvious ones, because we own those boutiques. So we do very well. We do very well with Oris and we do very well with Gran Seiko. Again, we own a boutique. We do very well. I mean we do great with brands that are here. And the brands that are here, I mean we're. We're a beast, you know, when it comes to volume, just because we sell it all. You know, and it's funny because when you read a report, you know I and I'm like and I hate reports. I can't read them. I'm the worst Like. You do not want me in your office because I can't do anything. I'm like, you know, like my girlfriend who was with me at Tiffany. She now runs Analog Shift next to James Lambden and she still, to this day, like cracks up laughing. She's like I'm sorry, did someone just tell Kelly to make a spreadsheet? Like that'll take her seven years. You know, I'm like, yeah, I can't do anything. You know my boss when he hired me, he's like how are you?
Speaker 1:And I'm like no you're hired Great, got the job. You know what, kelly.
Speaker 2:Just go back out and sell something. Okay, great, I can do that Right. But I mean we you know now my focus in the company are the independence. So we're really building a very, very strong collection of independent brands. We have Armand Strom, we have Arnold and Son Angelis, speak Marine, and we have a lot MB&F, you know so, bovet Moser. So I mean you know we're we're doing a lot with all of these brands. So I mean, like on a daily basis it goes like this, because it just depends on the week.
Speaker 1:What do you feel like is the most underrated brand? We know you said you're a huge grand seco person. We had that on our question but what do you feel like is the most underrated brand that, like most people don't know of? They've never heard of it. Maybe you sell it, maybe you don't, but you know, if you could shed a light into a dark corner and that be that watch brand, what would it be? Because I actually never heard of Speak Marine until you brought them in and I was like, like these things are sick.
Speaker 2:And again, it's not a brand for everybody. You know what I mean. Like it's not just like Bovet is not. You know what I mean, you know. And. But I love the brands that that know themselves and know their own identity and they're not going after every single customer. You know what I mean. Like I love. I love when a brand sits down with you and they're like we're not for everybody and I'm like neither am I. That's great.
Speaker 1:I'm going to acquire who they are.
Speaker 2:They're comfortable in their own skin, you know. So I would think I would challenge everyone that wears, you know, a $10,000 Rolex to put that away and look at other things under $10,000 that are absolute workhorses that are, you know. And so that's where the grand secoes of the world come in Oris, I love Oris.
Speaker 3:I do too.
Speaker 2:I do. I love every of them. You know I love Oris Again, a very approachable brand, president. A very approachable brand. You know selling things for $2,000 that are again they're. You know they're an independent. You know they're a great brand. You know Tudor Tudor is a great watch. I'm trying to think what we have Doxa I'm a big Doxa fan.
Speaker 3:Doxa's cool yeah.
Speaker 2:Big Doxa fan, I own three of those too. It seems to be a number for me, so I own three Doxa's as well, like a little tip. When I like something, I'm all in, you know.
Speaker 3:Third time's the charm every time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, doxa is just great. I mean again, price point under $5,000. You know, I mean you're getting something that's like sporty. You know helium release valve you want to take diving. You know color. I mean lack of better words, just color.
Speaker 3:The orange I'm like, love it.
Speaker 2:I have an orange. Yeah, and again, you know, if you're looking for a dive, watch, the color that you're supposed to be looking for is orange, because that's the color that, when you go down deep, you know, that's the color that you get.
Speaker 3:It's the opposite spectrum of what blue is, so it like contrast.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly so. So, yeah, I mean, I love all of our quote, unquote inexpensive brands. We have some great inexpensive brands we had. We had really good quality and listen, we're not, we're not, we need to touch on more. You know, yeah, we have, yeah, we have to touch on more of them. You know, and there are some things in the works, but you know that we're that we're going to add and we're going to be representing well, they're coming.
Speaker 1:We had Mike Pearson on. I'm not sure where he's at in the chamber, but we're huge fans here of Zodiac, zodiac is a great watch. Huge fans. I got the white ceramic one from Mike. Oh, cool, White and blue. I mean I think it's sick.
Speaker 2:Great piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we gave him shit because it didn't have a ceramic buckle.
Speaker 2:But besides the Zodiac is something it's funny. Zodiac is something that all of the red bar people in New York own.
Speaker 1:Justin was at red bar yesterday and I had to call him and ask him how it was, because I'm not cool enough to be in red.
Speaker 3:It was fun. Two out of 10.
Speaker 2:If you live in New York, you would be a member of red bar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I need to go there.
Speaker 1:No there's no, there's no Vegas chapter of red bar. That's weird. So I have been working and this is the first time publicly announcing this I've been working with the guys in Atlanta from the watch, from watch society. Yes, and we're doing it in Vegas and I am the president of the Vegas watch society. Oh yeah, so yeah, so we're we're working on our first event.
Speaker 1:And we are. I will let you know. I don't know. I've already, I've already submitted the dates to our partner who will be hosting it, and I don't want to say that out loud like who it is yet. Okay, I haven't secured it, but I will text you the details and I'm doing it with a few other people, like I have all the people that I know, like from from here, from my sales, from customer, I mean it's going to be, I think it's going to be really big.
Speaker 2:Like, honestly, I would love to support you. So if it's something that, if it's something that I can actually fit into my schedule, I would love. I would love to come.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's epic.
Speaker 2:No, I would. I would love to, because I support all of these groups, because I think that they're really important. They're important not only to community, but they're important to retailers as well. I mean, let's face it, we yeah, they're important to the industry like big time, big time. So if there's something, if it is something that I can do, I have like a couple of upcoming things, but not major, but like if it's something that I can actually do, blake, I would love to come.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there there's a few things I'm going to ask from you now that you offered. But no, we, we want it to. We don't want an application like everybody's welcome, we want a safe, secure, like PC environment.
Speaker 1:you know, no politics, no religion. Like leave that at the door, like just watch nerds watching out. You know, and my, my strategy to grow the group has been to to go to every sales professional that I know, that I have a relationship with, and be like dude, just get your biggest customers here. Like get your biggest watch nerds here.
Speaker 2:So or you know what, or the new customer that's just starting to get into it, and maybe once a connection or a friend or you know whatever, like you know, that's where you know that's. I tell you, like I always blown away when I go to the New York chapter of red bar because I can't believe how tight they are. It's amazing, it's amazing. And they always welcome me. Because I can't. I can't attend every week, it's just it's impossible for me, and even sometimes once a month it's impossible for me. But Kathleen, who runs the New York chapter red bar, is always, always reaches out to me and says, can you do this? And you know I'm like no, I can't, but yes, I can know. Like you know, whatever, it's always always so welcoming to me, to my clients, to whoever wants to come. It's important really important.
Speaker 1:Even if you don't want to watch play, you're going to be welcome as long as you're fascinated or interested in watching. Yes, the Vegas.
Speaker 2:I'm sure the passion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be for you 100 percent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, 100 percent so let me know. Please. We appreciate that To my, my Well, no, I do, I think it's, I think it's really important.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to hear that, thank you, thank you. Justin's in North Carolina, so he doesn't care.
Speaker 3:I got a fly. I thought it would come that way, yeah, but no, to kind of segue us into the, to the next bit and we're trying not to keep you too long because I know we're approaching about an hour and a half here, so hopefully just a few more quick questions for you.
Speaker 1:I know that we. I know right, we don't know Me.
Speaker 3:But no, I know that we were talking about, you know, some of the diversity and stuff within the industry. Why do you think that there's so little amount of females within the industry?
Speaker 1:I just talked a lot about. We don't understand. I don't understand, justin, and I have talked about it. I've talked about it with other female pioneers. I call them pioneers if you're in this industry, because the male dominated industry, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 3:When I was at Red Bar yesterday, we had a turnout of probably about 90 people. It was actually a pretty solid little event and almost every single woman that was there was either there supporting their husband, which is fine, but there was a small handful that were actually really into watches.
Speaker 2:But I have a question.
Speaker 3:I have a little pump of shit, but I've always got a questioning. I'm like man, like I understand, you know, like from a you know gender preference and stuff and from a jewelry perspective and things like that. But I'm like man. Watches are like really neat, like there's a lot of heritage to them. You know, they can be very valuable, they're fun to look at.
Speaker 2:It's a mechanical. What is?
Speaker 3:it, yeah, like, what is it that like?
Speaker 2:It's mechanical.
Speaker 2:We had a. We had an almost almost an all female store when I worked in Hamilton Jewelers. We had an almost all female store in our red bank area when we had that store and my my boss, you know, would send me every Friday night down to the shore, basically to, because it was literally, you know, it was crowded on Friday nights and so you know, kelly, go down there and teach these ladies how to sell watches. And I started laughing. They were petrified to get behind the counter. Meanwhile you should hear these broads talk about a diamond and I'm like, if you can talk to a diamond, you can talk to a watch.
Speaker 2:You know, the amount of technicalities that go into into light refraction and Kulit and table and crown angles of a diamond. You know I can do that too. It bores me to death, like I would rather eat Glen's. Okay, you know it's. It's not what it excites me, but it is what excites most, most women.
Speaker 3:Yeah, now the clarity and the cut and the color, and you're just like, oh, it's pretty, you know yeah, it sparkles. You know, it's.
Speaker 2:It's just, yeah, it's just funny and I think you know, women have always just the women I worked with, for example, in the very beginning they were just, they were so afraid of being behind that counter and having a man stop them, you know, and I wasn't, because I would look you dead in the eye and I would say you know, sir, I don't know you're talking over my head, but I'll get you an answer and they would be like oh, I love that, that's all.
Speaker 3:When you mentioned, when you mentioned humility earlier, that that's a great lesson, you know what?
Speaker 1:That's cool if I don't know it, but you're going to show me because clearly you're interested in telling me, so I I literally, when I worked at the watch company as a watch, I was the only person that came in there as a watch nerd, like I didn't. I didn't care about selling watches, I didn't care about making money. I know that seems so weird, because it wasn't like my nine to five, like it was just like a, something I did to keep my mind busy.
Speaker 1:But everybody would ask me, like watch collectors will come in intentionally is such a weird thing. But they'll try and like, put you in a gotcha moment, like, yeah, tell me about, tell me about this one. So you come at this like what, what movement is this?
Speaker 1:And then the sales professional will kick in and go oh, you know, and then they're like actually, no, actually you don't know what the hell you're talking about, and watch collectors will do that. And so I told everybody I worked with if you ever get faced with a technical question you don't know, just say you don't know, but say you'll find out, and that is the game changer.
Speaker 2:So my answer my answer again. You know, as, as a woman, because you know people wanted to do it all the time my answer was if I got cornered. So what do you do for a living? I'm a lawyer, okay, so on Monday morning I'm going to show up at your office and I'm going to tell you how to do law. How's that? I'm a human, you're a human, and you're coming at me. It's almost like you want me to fail. Okay, and that's not. That's not fair, because I don't come to your house or to your office and treat you with disrespect. Now, if you want to teach me something about the watch that you have, man, I'm willing to learn, because I like this as much as you do. But don't come at it from a very indignant point of view. Let's not do that to each other. And I said that one time. That very conversation.
Speaker 2:I had that very conversation because I had someone so rude and so like, so male. He just couldn't, he couldn't get over himself. You know what I mean. And he was disgusted that there was a woman behind the Batex-Felipe counter and I didn't know that his wife was a woman. I didn't know that his wife had heard the whole interaction. So he asked me where the restroom was. I told him where it was and I sat back down at my desk and the wife came over and she said to me my God, I am so sorry and I'm like about what. You know what I mean. She's like about that interaction. That's my husband.
Speaker 1:I'm like no, I'm sorry for you.
Speaker 2:And I said to her, I said you know, I said honestly, I said he got me on a really bad day. I said, but I think I was fair. I said because he and she's like, oh no, she's like I, she goes, I've never seen anyone, she goes, you know your stuff. And I said this is my home. I was. I was chosen by Batex-Felipe to be in the salon. Clearly I know what I'm talking about. And because I didn't know the exact reference of the Submariner on his wrist, you know I was like sir, that's not my specialty. Oh well, don't you think you should know that if you're a Batex-Felipe salesperson? No, always, it's always a proving ground for some reason.
Speaker 3:Like not at all, sir. Not at all, Because I chose where.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be the focus point of my attention and I chose to I. You can't come in this house and know something more than me when it comes to Batex-Felipe. Don't do it, trust me. You know I, you know I was very, very confident because I had worked so hard to be there. You know, but that's my, that's my thing. Like, sir, don't, I'm not going to come to your, your office, on Monday, and tell you, for example, how to do your job.
Speaker 1:Cross examining you on a Monday. Let's not do that.
Speaker 2:Do you know again, I don't come to your house and rearrange your furniture because I think it's wrong. It's your house Like, oh damn it everyone. Maybe we again, you know, as a human, let's learn from each other.
Speaker 3:No, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I don't know the exact reference number of the you know red dot stuff you're pulling off of your wrist. Sorry, I didn't, I didn't know. I'm forgive me.
Speaker 1:It's really sad that we have to actually even talk about this Like this. This happens like more than you would ever expect.
Speaker 2:Oh, it happens.
Speaker 1:I never knew it, like oh. And then I realized as a watch guy like maybe I'm the gotcha guy you know, like I, but I would never. I would never call somebody out, Like I would go into like Macy's looking at a Hamilton or something and they would just let them talk, and then meanwhile in my head it's just spinning like dude, you have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:But you want to know something. That person behind the counter, maybe they don't, and maybe they're covering for someone. Maybe it's a bad day, maybe you know we don't know, but you know what it's. There's a way of saying it, like, like you can say actually I'm familiar with this model. May I tell you something about it? What's wrong with that? You know, and if I was a salesperson I would say yes, I'm so sorry. Like you know, I don't. This isn't my specialty. I work over in jewelry and I'm covering for, you know, someone's lunch. I'm sorry, sir. I'm happy to answer any questions that I can, but if you know something, let's share it. Tell me.
Speaker 1:It's, and that that goes back and perfectly brings back kind of hits, the home run of where we talked in the earlier the podcast. People don't care, no, like even the watch guys. Like they don't care, like for any salespeople that are listening, that sell watches for a living and that's your nine to five main source of income. It doesn't matter about what you know about the watch. Like, I think the biggest thing that you can do is just is just understand the customer, yeah, and try and find something to fill their need. Okay, what do you want to watch for? What do you have?
Speaker 2:Common ground yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, like, what are you hoping to add to your collection? Okay, let me show you. You know, let them get hands on with it and then just shut up.
Speaker 2:Just shut up.
Speaker 1:It's that simple. It's that simple Like, don't say anything, let them handle the watch, let them go through the process, and then you know. Don't be rude I mean, it's just, you know, you know what?
Speaker 3:They're on opinion.
Speaker 1:You know what I question. I would ask 10 out of 10 times that nobody else would ask in my, in my store. What do you think?
Speaker 2:Oh, I know.
Speaker 1:Like you never hear anybody else ask that, like I've never even asked that before as a watch guy, like as a watch, I ask it all the time, I know. What do you think about this Omega, like? What do you think about this Hamilton, or like, like, like? What do you think about the watches that are on this tray?
Speaker 3:That helps you reach that common ground too. So then you know how to continue forward with the conversation.
Speaker 2:Well, listen, I mean, it's selling also, you know it's selling one on one. You don't ask yes or no questions. You ask open ended questions so that you can start a conversation. You know I see that you gravitate towards blue. Sir, tell me why. Is it just a favorite color, or is it? You know? Do you like the way it looks on your skin? You know it's just. You know it's open ended questions so that you can get them talking and you can feel. You can feel it. If they don't want to talk, that's okay. Then just clerk it, you know, because maybe they, maybe they don't want to have a conversation, maybe they're having a bad day, maybe they just maybe they came in to feel good. You know what I mean. Maybe they just came in to feel good, and that's fine too. But read the body language and read, you know, read the reactions and actually hear the concepts, actually listen to what they're telling you.
Speaker 1:And retain it. You know, like that is going back. You know I would write these things, you know, because those are important, they're very important. I remember your daughter is Jane and your wife is Jennifer and you know you were here visiting, like for SEMA or whatever. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, and then you'll be like oh, I remember last time, like you were here for SEMA, how's Jennifer, how's Jane? Like is Jane still at you know MIT? Or like did she graduate yet? Like, like that's the type of shit that like people are just like whoa, like like pump the brakes here. Like are you a stalker or are you reading my mind?
Speaker 2:Listen, it's the little things in life that are so impactful. I walked into a hotel while I was in LA and I had left a 30 year old pair of earrings on the plane.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Man, I was devastated. I still am. I was devastated. Right, I walk into the hotel excuse me into the hotel to check in and that woman at the desk read me and she's like you know, ma'am, you know, is there anything else we can do for you? She's like, if you don't mind me asking. She's like you seem upset and I'm like I am, it's not with you, because she could read my body language, you know. And she's like, she's like, oh, I just wanted to get in. She's like, oh, I just wanted to make sure. And I told her my story and she was like, oh, and I was like, yeah, I'm like really upset. She, you know what kind of earrings were they? Where did you buy them? We started to talk I get up to my room I'm not even there five minutes and a cheese plate arrived because she wanted to just simply cheer me up.
Speaker 2:Now, what did that cost her? Nothing, A cheese plate, nothing. A little cheese plate, little grapes, and like you know what I mean and a bottle of water. Thank you, that actually made my day, because she cared. She cared enough to know that I was upset. I'm in her house now and how was she going to make the experience better, but give me a cheese plate that probably cost them two bucks. I don't know Like it was and it was. That thought went a long way, and every time I go to LA I most likely will now stay in that hotel.
Speaker 1:That's exactly it. Yeah, segwaying here, I've noticed and maybe other people don't notice because I'm in Vegas but a lot of the brands that you carry Are kind of pushing away from the shop and shop experience. Like every brand wants their own boutique. They don't want to be next to this brand or they don't want to be next to the, and it was so weird to see that from the in the air perspective, like, oh, like it doesn't want to be next to tutor, like they just don't, like they were like we're not going to be in your shop if we're going to have an empty space next to tutor. Yeah, it's so weird. Yeah, but with that that trans is transitioning. Now I'm sure because you just said it. You know you guys are opening Breitling boutiques. Breitling doesn't want their own boutiques now, and IWC wants their own boutiques and now tutor all of a sudden wants their own boutiques and Omega Like how do you feel like that change will impact the future customers?
Speaker 2:Okay. So I'm not going to mention the brand, of course, okay, but I already. I already have an experience and I knew this was going to happen and I said it, and the manager of the store actually laughed with me the other day because it happened. Okay, so a particular brand decided to go boutique only on many, many things, and this is the brand that is very middle of the road, okay, very like as far as price point goes, middle of the road, okay. And this brand decided to go boutique only, boutique only, boutique only, with many, many, many, many things in the collection, and the price point, like I said, is middle of the road.
Speaker 2:So what happened? They started opening boutiques and nobody's coming. So now they're back letting us have some of the things that we couldn't have in the past. Okay, so what? What they're realizing is the brand itself is most likely not strong enough to stand on its own, but it needs that support of a retailer saying you know what you want to spend $5,000 to $10,000. We have many choices for you, and on this pad I can put four watches and usually that's one of them. So it's interesting that they had decided this, but now they're starting to come back and I'm like, is it too late?
Speaker 1:Because it's like it's like you suffer an independence for a while here.
Speaker 2:It's interesting, like all of this. That's so interesting to me because I've been in the industry for so long and so I've seen the ups and downs. The ups and downs. You know what? If I hear one more person talk about how 2024 is gonna be the worst year of your life, like I'm actually getting sick of it. I'm tired of talking about a recession. I'm tired of talking about you know-.
Speaker 1:COVID.
Speaker 2:Death coming, you know, and how it's gonna be the worst year ever. I'm tired. I've lived through all of it. 2008, our market crashed, guess what? 2009, we were back because we were still.
Speaker 2:You know, us three here on this podcast were middle class. We're the ones that filled the most right and so, if something like that happens, the rich are always rich. They're still buying, they're still collecting. They're still you know what I mean. They're smart with their money. You know, it's always the middle class. So us, I'm always gonna have a job, because we're the ones that have to work. We're gonna work and we're gonna make it happen. You know, we're the ones that are the workhorses. We're going to make life happen. You can't not have us. You know what I mean. So you know it's funny because, yes, I mean typically luxury products are the first to go, but luxury products are also the things that make us happy. So in a time of distress, you have that extra 500, 1500, and life really sucks. Guess what? You're gonna buy yourself something you don't need and I'm there for it.
Speaker 3:How do you decide which brands to carry within the market?
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I think that is definitely higher than me, but but I am very blessed to be part of the conversation lately, because when I believe in something, I sell it, and so I love Arnold and Sun, for example, and we just we added Arnold and Sun. I've sold five of them.
Speaker 2:And it's because I love them, because I want to put them in front of collectors and I want to put them in front of collectors. I want to put them in front of collectors. Listen, they're doing they. If you have a moon phase, you have to love an Arnold and Sun. They're Luna, magna, they're moon phase watches. I mean, they're beautiful. They're beautiful. They also have a skeleton watch on a strap less than $20,000, that's absolutely stunning. It's paper thin, it's beautiful. You know. They do it on a bracelet as well. They do it in rose gold on a strap. It's beautiful. So, you know, I challenge again all of these gentlemen that are, you know, the, the, the, the, the APs and the Vacheron people of the world that can't get their product anymore. It's time to look at something different. Let's do that. You don't have to like it, but let me show it to you, you know, cause if I love it, maybe you'll love it too.
Speaker 1:I actually wrote this question and the only reason why I wrote it is because when I look at watch the Switzerland on online and I see all the brands you carry and like, I think about, like my store, my watch in Switzerland, and I'm like, oh, wow, that's a real big miss, like, and what I say is like, why don't you have Nomos? Like in this?
Speaker 2:store Love.
Speaker 1:Nomos Like like, why is? Why is Nomos not in? I don't even think you guys have a have Cartier in that store In.
Speaker 2:Vegas.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:No, we don't.
Speaker 1:Miss you know.
Speaker 2:so I wrote that question, but that might have but there's also licensing and there's also Cartier may have a rule, because they have a big, they have a salon. We may not be allowed. You know what I mean. There's listen, there's 19,000 rules. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:I can tell you, nomos doesn't have a boutique, though.
Speaker 2:Nomos is something that we carry online and we have also I think we put it in, I think it's going into Boston. Boston also had TISO and I think that all of our high end branded stores, like Vegas, I firmly believe they need something at a very beginning price point, because when you're in Vegas and you're happy, you're also buying gifts.
Speaker 1:I think that's what Tudor is for them. Like, tudor is their happy entry brand.
Speaker 2:I think they could do better.
Speaker 1:I think so too. Yeah, you know, like, even Rata, like would be a great addition, like Longines, right.
Speaker 2:Longines does ridiculously well. Longines is amazing and it does really really well with the Asian client and it does really well in Boston, in our casino, in the win in Boston, because it has a really, really huge Asian base of clients and I mean that's just the truth. I mean it's the truth. And also, you know, with casino dollars, like you know, let's say you're walking out with 3,000 casino dollars. Then you know what? Because I'm that person I'd love to buy myself like a little token. I'm on vacation, I'm having a great time. It's a moment I won. I'd like to buy myself something. Do you always watch? Are there?
Speaker 1:any specific brands that you guys hope to carry in the future that you just don't yet Like any, just on a corporate level.
Speaker 2:We're working on a few.
Speaker 1:No spoilers. No, I can't I know Every, every time we've had a podcast, our guest has always dropped a little nugget Smidge, a little smidgey smidge. So I guess your smidgey smidge is something's coming. It's coming. You guys know the brand.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:I was looking up, I was looking at your collection right now and another brand that I love that you carry Recents Amazing, we have that in Plano.
Speaker 2:Bring it to Vegas, baby.
Speaker 1:Good watch, interesting watch, amazing brand. It's an interesting brand it is and nobody knows about them really Even watch guys.
Speaker 2:That's true actually.
Speaker 1:It's sad and, yeah, that's a watch that I hope to add to my collection at some point, like a type three, like, oh my God, you know Jesus.
Speaker 3:Awesome. I think I'm going to ask you the last one, if that's okay, kelly, this is the last I got for you today. But where do you see watches of Switzerland heading within the next decade or so, kind of looking towards the future and how the company is shaping out?
Speaker 2:I'm not a spokesperson for our company and I can't be because of again being a publicly traded company. So if I say anything, it's just my hopes, it's my personal hopes.
Speaker 1:Not on the record but you're dreaming here, right? We're not. This is not. You don't have to reveal any contractual information. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Kelly had a dream, and that dream was in the direction to watch the Switzerland. What would it be?
Speaker 2:You know, I would love to see us in the United States sort of stay where we are and really hone our skills on making ourselves a destination that wows people, that really, you know, surprises people, and really hone in on some of these brands that no one knows. I always want to be the first person to carry something really interesting in the United States, for example, that's why I mentioned ID. Id is just a thousand percent sustainable. You know watch company and if you read anything about it, I encourage everyone to read. You know everything about it because the direction that they're going to go, the direction that they're going, is exactly where I'd love to see the earth.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean, quite frankly, as far as recyclable materials, how they package, how they even get the watches to the states like on a boat, you know. You know like it's. You know I mean honest to God, it is a fascinating brand that we are 100% behind and I'd love to see us do more things like that, really support the brands that need our assistance and all over the map, you know, as far as price points, I just want to be that destination where you know, no matter what you have in your pocket, we're going to welcome you with open arms, a smile, a conversation and get a watch on your wrist.
Speaker 1:And Leonardo puts them on his yacht and drives them across the ocean. For those of you who don't know, I'm joking and Kelly knows what I'm talking about, but Leonardo DiCaprio invested in ID. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:But he's also very much about he always has been about sustainability. I like him, hate him. I mean, as an actor, he's one of my favorites, you know. In fact, I was watching movies on the plane and I was like, yeah, I don't watch the good Leo movie in a while, and I just watched Shutter Island on the plane Fantastic movie.
Speaker 2:Great movie, right. So I mean, but honestly, he's, he's someone that you know that really believes in the cause, and so he invested in it. Like, listen, I wish I had the money to actually invest in causes, because you know what I mean. Like, for example, I love animals more than I do humans most of the time. You know what I mean. So you know, if I was out there to save every dog in the world, they probably would be doing that. You know what I mean. So, so honestly, you know, it's one of those things where we want to be a part of anything that's got an initiative like that, because we want to support them the best that we can. That's a watch brand that I think is really going to take off, especially to people that maybe have never been interested in watches before. So we might be getting. It's a brand like that that we're. You're getting someone in the door that may never walk in the door because it's not their bag, it's not their thing, it's not their jam whatever.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean Like. So this is, this is the brand that I think will actually attract some people that have never thought about wearing a watch before.
Speaker 1:Under 25 bikini models Got it Supermodels. Sorry, Leo, but no, let's uh.
Speaker 2:Are they buying watches?
Speaker 1:I don't really care I mean, I don't know, but I'm sure he'll make it happen. This turned it. We try and typically shoot for around an hour and some change, but obviously we don't want to like pull back all the time, pull back on people's personality Like we don't want to. We love you, kelly. Yeah, you have the double podcast because you're double the personality. I'm sorry. No no, it's a lot.
Speaker 3:It's a lot.
Speaker 1:We surprisingly have a lot of people that listen all the way through. It's so weird Like we would expect a lot of drop off. You know, like I was somebody that was like, hey, like why don't you do a 30 minute, 45 minute podcast? Like most people just listen to it all, like we have a lot of people that hang in there.
Speaker 2:So that's beautiful. That's beautiful. You guys are doing it right, I think you guys are going to be a hang in there pot.
Speaker 1:You're going to be a hang in there podcast.
Speaker 3:I hope so. We appreciate you. Thanks for all the information and all your responses. I mean, we couldn't have done this without you, clearly, but that was great talking with you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker 2:It's my pleasure, and let me know your date.
Speaker 1:I will Absolutely.
Speaker 2:That'd be awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on, everybody, and thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next one.
Speaker 3:Thanks everyone. Thank you.