The Vintage Hunter: Cameron Barr of Craft + Tailored on Curating Horological Treasures

Remember that time you stumbled across a treasure at a flea market and felt like you'd won the jackpot? Multiply that thrill by a hundred, and you're close to understanding the exhilaration Cameron from Craft + Tailored lives for as he scours the globe for vintage watches. His tales of discovering horological gems and the emotional connections forged with each timepiece are the heartbeat of our latest episode. We crack open the world of watch collecting, discussing the meticulous art of authentication, the nuances of valuation, and the evolving tastes of collectors who now relish under-the-radar brands alongside the traditional giants.

Imagine a community where the shared love for vintage watches creates a bond like no other, where inclusivity is not just a concept but a practice. Cameron and fellow aficionados are doing just that—building a space where everyone, from the wide-eyed newbie to the seasoned connoisseur, finds connection and camaraderie. Our conversation meanders through personal growth mirrored in professional triumphs, and the sheer joy of connecting with fellow enthusiasts at global events. We even dabble in the future of horology, pitching the idea of a Netflix series that combines the allure of vintage watch hunting with the enchantment of travel.

As we wrap up this horological odyssey, Cameron imparts wisdom on navigating the vintage watch market and emphasizes the importance of community, knowledge-sharing, and authenticity in our collections. He regales us with stories of unexpected finds and the serendipity of connecting with kindred spirits in the unlikeliest of places. This episode isn't just for watch lovers—it's for anyone who cherishes stories of passion intersecting with profession, and for those who believe that sometimes, the true value of time is in the tales it tells.

Check out Craft + Tailored:
https://www.craftandtailored.com
https://www.instagram.com/craftandtailored/

Transcript

Blake Rea: 0:00

What's up everybody. Welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist Today. Of course, justin is back and my brother Cameron from Captain Taylor. What's up, buddy?

Cameron Barr: 0:10

Hey guys, Thanks for having me.

Blake Rea: 0:12

It's been a long time coming. We're trying to get you on, man.

Cameron Barr: 0:14

Yeah, I've been a busy boy. I've been traveling a lot and I'm finally in one place, for I guess now it's been a week and a half, which is even weirder sometimes than uh being on the road for extended periods of time. But uh yep Back uh here in LA for a minute and uh honor to be on the pod man.

Justin Summers: 0:35

This is really cool. Yeah, You're practically the musician of the watch industry. Is that how it works? Kind of yeah.

Cameron Barr: 0:41

It's funny Cause we kind of call it like you know, when we go out on our watch hunting safaris or expeditions, we're kind of in a way like on tour, and I have a few musician friends and clients and we actually kind of relate because we're always running through airports and in the hotels and, you know, eating weird food and all that kind of stuff. So a little bit, yeah, yeah, definitely some similarities there I was getting.

Blake Rea: 1:07

I was getting ready to tell justin the story on how I met you, but then I was like, let me just say this like for the podcast, because this is good, a good story, cool, I, I went to the vintage watch show, like last year at the win, and then, um, I had watched a video about like speedmaster mark twos and uh, I was like dude, I fucking want one, so bad. And then, sure enough, like I'm literally going around asking vendors like for Speedmasters, yada, yada, yada, talking to a few people, and then, camera standing right next to me flipping through like some you know, a little box of like watches that aren't on display, he's like, hey, man, check me out. I mean pretty much said something like that. And um, and then, sure enough, like when I found the mark too, and then I, I got home and I like had like favorited a video on YouTube. It was Cameron's video.

Justin Summers: 1:56

Oh yeah.

Cameron Barr: 1:57

I was like, okay, so I just bumped into the guy that influenced me to buy a speedmaster mark too you were in the right place at the right time yeah, yeah, you can say that's awesome and, yes, all the world really is, especially in the watch community, right, um, oh yeah, and you know, traveling as much as I do that's the thing that I love the most is meeting people that you know found something that we did helpful or share kind of like the same passion that I do, because I think doing what I do it's a little bit crazy sometimes, especially with the amount of travel and kind of putting it all in there, and when I meet with somebody who shares that same passion or obsession, it kind of validates my seemingly borderline insanity. So, um, that's probably one of the best parts of what we get to do is, um, you know, meet with people who have the same passions that we do, and and, um, yeah, so that's, that's totally awesome.

Blake Rea: 2:56

I know I yeah, hell yeah, I do.

Cameron Barr: 2:57

Okay, cool.

Blake Rea: 3:00

Yeah, I'm never going to get rid of it. I sent it off. It's kind of like a frankenmark too now, because I sent it off to um to get a service and they put like luminova hands on it and then I still got the tritium dial. So, like in the future I probably will try and like get bring it back to original spec yeah, I mean, I like to do that.

Blake Rea: 3:19

I know that the watches have like a history, but a part of me taking ownership of that watch is, like you know, forming a new history from it and giving it a new life. So, you know, obviously for the highly desirable stuff, you know it's really a frowned upon to to do what I did, um, but but no dude, I love it, I love it.

Cameron Barr: 3:38

Yeah, I mean that's. That's interesting too, right, because, um, you know, omega, out of all of the brands, they do have a really cool kind of archive and service side of what they do. And I think, you know, once you take ownership or possession of something, I'm a believer that I have to wear it and use it, regardless of the price point. And that might be kind of an interesting, you know, thought, because some of this stuff is like priceless, right, I think I have a an element of situational and kind of just environmental awareness. Or, you know, I'm not going to take a Paul Newman, you know, driving around a racetrack, right, I mean, I have.

Cameron Barr: 4:24

But also, at the same time, you know, there is an element of awareness and also functionality that I think needs to come with these pieces. And I think that also, you know, if something doesn't fit the lifestyle of the wrist that it's on, then those watches tend to kind of sit and that's no fun, right. So I think, obviously, time and place, but the fact that you have the original parts and can bring it back to the original spec, I think is important and, um, you know, yields an element of uh, you know, I can't, I think long-term collectability, if I can say that, um, especially with some of the vintage pieces, for sure.

Blake Rea: 5:01

Yeah, I mean I obviously I feel like as much as I go in and out and as I go out at night. You know, having lume is is a practical part of me. Owning a watch, yeah, um, and it's hard to find watches from, you know, the 70s and 60s that still have functional lumes is nearly impossible, yeah, but but yeah, so it just kind of was one of those creature comforts that I was like all right, you know, I'm willing to sacrifice some of this and I do have the, you know, the original hands and everything, the original everything, so I could get back whenever I wanted to, which I think is pretty important. Totally, I'm curious. So obviously I know what you are, I know how awesome you are and I know what you do, but tell everybody else about Craft and Tailored and give them a little background.

Cameron Barr: 5:47

Yeah, so Kraft and Tailored is the company that I own and founded. I guess now we're coming up on eight years, I was a watch collector and an enthusiast before I started the company. I came from the technology space and I really liked things whether it be clothing or cars or watches that had an element of versus just being an item of, you know, tangible monetary value or brand really. So I got a little bit burnt out in the tech world and kind of didn't know what I wanted to do and over a period of four or five years before I started Craft Tailored, I started collecting watches. And over a period of four or five years before I started Craft Tailored, I started collecting watches and through collecting I was able to, you know, gain a lot of knowledge and insight into, you know, the history of these things and the technical. You know elements and also, with vintage there's, you know specific details that you have to pay attention to, like fonts, and you know the shape of serial numbers and the range of serial numbers and that kind of stuff. So, um, sorry, we're, uh, in downtown LA and it's a. It's a busy morning for us here. I'm not sure LA sounds like a beautiful place. Yeah, it's interesting, we love our, we love our office, but, uh, we're right in the heart of downtown LA so it's a busy spot. But, um, you know, through that, uh, developing passion I guess in a way. Um, you know, I, I started to become very knowledgeable about specific references and specific eras and things like that, and then what ended up happening is I amassed this collection of watches. I would be in these you know kind of interesting places all over the country and the world and I would find watches that were of good value or kind of like, you know, hidden in plain sight and, being an obsessive collector, I would buy these watches and in some cases, I would, you know, restore the movements to make make sure that they were working or what have you.

Cameron Barr: 8:09

And this is, you know, this is probably now 10, 11 years ago, maybe even longer at this point, but a lot of the knowledge and academics on watches was like barely on the internet. It was in books, it was in old past auction catalogs. It was in books. It was an old past auction catalogs. It was in that kind of area and the community at that time was really just kind of like the message boards. Um, it was like Omega forms, it was military watch, resource forms, it was vintage Rolex form, uh, those kinds of places. So I really became connected with that community of people because they were enthusiasts just as I was, but maybe some of them had more knowledge and that kind of stuff.

Cameron Barr: 8:49

So through finding these kind of things hidden in plain sight, I amassed a collection and then when I left the technology space, I kind of started helping people buy watches and passing on my knowledge, and it wasn't really anything for business or commerce or anything like that. It was really just to be a part of the community, which is something that's very important to me still. So I had a good friend that was like you know, maybe you should do this watch thing as a, as a full-time gig. And I was like really like why, you know? And I had amassed this collection of watches and I kind of started to feel like a hoarder. I think at one time I probably had in my own personal collection like eight or nine 5513 no date Submariners and I kind of started to feel a little bit guilty because I have, you know, two wrists and two ankles right. There's only so many watches I can wear at a given moment in time. So I kind of felt like these things, even though I had found them and kind of, in a way, um, you know, resurrected their, their, their existence, um, I kind of started to feel a little bit guilty because I loved wearing these things so much, and and, um, you know why much, and and, um, you know why. Why do I need, you know, redundant? And you know, uh, you know gatekeeping, yeah, and it really wasn't a gatekeeping thing. I, you know, I, I was just in a position to where I could find these things and kind of verify and validate them.

Cameron Barr: 10:17

So I started selling some of the collection and then, as a result of that, um had kind of, I guess, built up a bit of a reputation and then started Kraft and Tailored, and at the time when I started, it was really just me. I was a guy that probably had anywhere between five and eight watches at any given moment in time and I had spare time on my hands after leaving technology. And even to this day I still kind of really can't help myself if I walk by like a pawn shop or an estate store or whatever, wherever it is in the world, like some, in some cases, I'll like be late for a dinner meeting or something because I like have to go into that store and make sure that there isn't something there. So, fast forward, you know a few years, we started with a YouTube channel and an Instagram and kind of started leaning into social media. That was something that I guess is just kind of part of our generation. Really. It was kind of a native kind of migration into that.

Cameron Barr: 11:12

And then one of the things that I really wanted to do was share what I knew about these things. So Blake, like, for example, the Speedmaster Mark II video, that was a really cool and interesting watch to me and I had amassed this knowledge. So why not put that into a video and share my knowledge and maybe give people a little bit of a historical overview or talk about why these watches are cool and important? And that's kind of spun up into what Kraft and Tailored is today. So I think we're first and foremost, a vintage watch dealer and a curator of those things, but we also manage a good number of very important collections. You know we have a content element which is, I would say, more educational and we talk about things that are relevant to the watch space from a historical and kind of technical perspective. And then we also have the Craft and Tailored Journal, where we've done some collaborations and we're talking about our travels and or interesting, you know, things that pertain to horology. And you know, here we are today.

Blake Rea: 12:15

Something that I think was funny is when I, when I was going through looking for my mark to like you were talking about like the cases, like being molested or something like yeah, you're like make sure the case isn't molested, I was like you know, okay, it was molested, you know. Like I was trying to define because it is like a radiant, like sun, sunburst, like finish, which is very unique to to the case, and then the champers are polished and then brushed on the side again.

Blake Rea: 12:42

It's just a very unique case finishing, um, and yeah, so it's kind of funny. But uh, I'm curious and you're talking about as you got going as a collector like what was your first couple like pieces?

Cameron Barr: 12:56

the watch that really started it all for me, um is a watch that I still really love today and we talked a little bit about amassing this collection of no date Submariners. The first watch I ever really kind of fell in love with was and I had some, you know, smaller, you know kind of more interesting things, I guess, before I really bought my first Rolex. I still have this watch. It's like a Hamilton khaki field watch, right, very simple, mechanical movement kind of just. You know that you know field watch interpretation through Hamilton and I had bought a later model that was Swiss made kind of post you know the American watchmaking side of Hamilton and it was more kind of a modern, contemporary piece. But the first watch that I ever bought was this Rolex Submariner, reference 5513. It had a meters for a style. It was missing the complete bezel assembly, the crown had, you know, gone lost, and I think what ended up happening is there was like a little jewelry store, pawn shop that I would pop into and I said to the owner of the shop hey, next time you know an old Rolex comes through the door, just give me a call. You know I want to, I want to. You know it doesn't matter what the condition is or whatever. And it just so happened to be that it was this 1967 Rolex 5513 that probably lost the bezel or the crown at some point and the guy kind of just threw it in the drawer and there it sat for you know, 25, 30 years at that point, right, uh, or maybe even longer. So I get this watch and you know I, without kind of really knowing what I was getting into, I knew that the watch, I kind of had to verify what it was for myself and at the time I think I paid like $750 for this watch. Um, even by standards back then, I think that 5513s were probably trading for around maybe $5,000. So it was a great deal.

Cameron Barr: 14:50

But I didn't really have any kind of perspective on you know, I just kind of took a chance on it and wanted to get involved and so, through kind of learning about this watch I had to, you know, I learned about, you know, that mark variant of that dial, right, being that it was a matte dial, it was meters first instead of feet first. I learned why Rolex had that you know, kind of interesting depth rating presentation. I had to find the correct, you know mark three insert. I had to find the correct you know twin lock, you know crown for that era of watch, and that really kind of pulled me into the watch community because, you know, I had to find these parts to basically bring this watch back. And so that was really the tipping point, I think for me is learning about, you know, the intention behind a lot of these things and the history and the subtle small details that really make these things what they are. And so that was really the first watch that kind of pulled me in and there was a lesson in that watch for me.

Cameron Barr: 15:52

I had amassed this collection of Submariners and as I became a dealer I started to acquire different things. I was kind of on my collector's journey, I guess. And so there was a point in which I had acquired a watch that was seemingly in better condition and you know it had a stronger case and all that kind of stuff, and I ended up selling that watch and that was probably one of the most regretful sales that I had ever had. At the time I really didn't think anything of it, but that watch kind of being the first watch and the watch that sparked my passion, I would probably pay like quadruple the price for that watch today just because of the sentimental value of it, um and uh. So that's really kind of what pulled me in. I guess I got my start in true vintage horology with the vintage submariner, um, and I think the 5513 and the 5512, the no date subs are kind of one of the most pure interpretations of the Submariner because obviously with the introduction of the Submariner in the 1950s the watch didn't possess a date.

Blake Rea: 16:57

You know it kind of had that real pure tool watch kind of feel and you know that's a watch that is kind of near and dear to my, to my heart, still even to this day something that I think about go ahead like something I think about a lot, um is, you know, there's so much misinformation, especially in the watch community, and not having, like now there's resources out there that are slowly coming to existence that will help people navigate some of these tricky vintage buys.

Blake Rea: 17:30

But we had Perestroika I'm sure you probably know Jose Perestroika. Yeah, he came on, he was one of our first podcast guests, yeah, and we just deep dived and just to see how much stuff out there. First of all, there's not enough information. There's no like real, like playbook, uh right. And then there's just so much, like you know, misinformation, misdirection, manipulation, whatever you want to call it in the vintage watch industry where people are essentially like refurbishing these and then you know, using a fake, you know fake pushers or, like you know, a fake dial and then selling it as original. And yeah, I can. I can only imagine, you know, in 10 years past, you know just having to go through and navigate all that.

Cameron Barr: 18:17

Yeah, you know it's. It's interesting because I think there's a couple of things One you know, I guess let me kind of start from the top. One you know a lot of these brands that we hold in such high regard today they either don't have an archive or like a historical kind of like spec of what things are, and I think the reason for that was if we look at like just take Rolex, for example, you know Rolex was making tool watches. Submariners back in the 1960s were I think I have the old vintage ad that is for like a sub and it was like a $215 watch right, which is back in the 60s, not a lot of money, but it's also not like the most expensive thing that you could buy. And I think that you know, just looking at that one segment of the entire type of wristwatch genealogy within the sub, you know these things were made to be tools and I think that what makes them so interesting to collect is the different variants of, you know, say, the Submariner or the Day-Date or the Daytona or whatever it is right. But I think that you know, say, the Submariner or the Day-Date or the Daytona or whatever it is right. But I think that you know, these subtle changes that we celebrate today weren't in many cases defined as being collectible or rare. It was just a change of the dial, it was the change of the luminous material.

Cameron Barr: 19:40

I think also in the 1980s and into the 1990s the collecting mentality has also changed. So in some cases you'll see a dial that's been refurbished. You'll see a bezel insert that's been changed, whether it was a service bezel, whether the dial was changed for, you know, to make the watch more functional or whatever. I mean. I've even seen watches that have been, you know, reloomed. Really I don't think with the intent of them being, like, beautified for an uplift in sale. It was more of a technical thing. Or say, a dial, you know, tarnished or generated a patina. If somebody in the 80s or the 90 dial, you know, tarnished or generated a patina, if somebody in the eighties or the nineties was selling that, um, they would want to present the watch, you know, in a in a better way.

Cameron Barr: 20:31

So I think in in some cases, um to to, you know kind of maybe expand on this, um, watches will have these service parts or refinish dials or whatever, with the intent of that not necessarily necessarily being like a malice one where somebody's trying to, um, you know, kind of like uplift the value of something, um, which obviously plays a huge role in the collectible value today. But there also is, um the other side of that, where and this is, I think, where Jose comes in where there is an element of malice, intent, like any business, especially things that are highly collectible or valuable, where, you know, somebody is, say, optimizing the case or the dial or, you know, doing whatever to uplift the collectibility or the awareness of something or to increase value. And I think that that comes really with with any business. Um, having been in the business for a long time and having been a collector for a long time, I mean we've really seen, we've seen it all, um, we've seen, you know, things that in some cases are also just unexplainable. Right, like um, I have a Patek Philippe right now. It's a Tasty Tandy, so really interesting and highly collectible Patek Philippe chronograph out of this one, I think is out of the mid 1960s. And what's interesting about this watch is it came from the estate of a now deceased owner.

Cameron Barr: 22:06

Um, the dial actually predates the existence of the watch and but the dial is authentic. I've had a bunch of other peers and experts look at the dial and the dial is authentic. So how do you explain an earlier dial in a later case? Well, the most plausible exponent explanation is you know, maybe say in the in the eighties or whenever right In the, in somewhere in the watch's history, somebody probably had two of them. One of them had a better, more pleasing dial and they took that dial out and optimize that that case and whether that intent was of malice or or not is is something that I don't know. That's the only plausible explanation that I can, that I can see, um, for that uh, earlier dial being in a later case, but it's a hard watch now to sell, and or I have to kind of go back to the consigner of that piece and say, hey, listen, here's kind of the situation. This is what I think happened.

Cameron Barr: 22:55

I can't be for sure the dial is authentic. The case is authentic. It has an extract of the archives from Patek Philippe, but by technical collector standards this is incorrect. So, yeah, to answer your question, I think, like anything, you have to be careful. I think you have to do your due diligence. There's guys out there, like me, like Jose, like anybody, that have a specific area of expertise that you can, of course, that have a specific area of expertise that you can, of course, leverage.

Cameron Barr: 23:25

And then I think there's the other side of the coin, which is there's a lot of misinformation, and then there's a lot of people that think that something is true and this is like, this is the gospel and this is the way that it is, and it's like but wait, where did you get that information and why do you think that is the gospel?

Cameron Barr: 23:43

And I think that that's a really interesting facet of the collecting community, whether it be cars or art or, in this case, watches, where in some cases there's a lot of, like you know, internet savants that don't have hands on experience with this stuff or are just kind of going off of what everybody else is saying, off of what everybody else is saying, and there's a lot of new information that's coming to light that is now being deemed as factual and quote unquote gospel that previously wasn't.

Cameron Barr: 24:13

We see that a lot with Patek Philippe, where in some instances there is like this kind of transitional period, or with, like Rolex, for example, with the small crown Submariners there are, you know, with like Rolex, for example, with the small crown Submariners. There are, you know, dials in later 60s era cases that Rolex has had a surplus of them. They put them together and they sold them because, you know, rolex was like we're sitting on these cases, we're sitting on these dials. Let's make a more economical version and move this product. So that's the interesting and fun element of the watch community where I'm still. You know, I think the watch world would consider me an expert, but I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm still learning things, I'm still seeing things and there's a lot of information out there that you know isn't necessarily factual, because you know one person or another said it to be true. Um, so yeah, it's kind of a kind of an interesting world, especially dealing with high end vintage watches, for sure.

Justin Summers: 25:12

Definitely I'll switch gears real quick, if that's okay, cameron. Um, I'm really curious, cause I know that you've mentioned to the you know us, to the people, uh, that of course you guys get to travel the world and kind of, you know, curate and locate these watches. Can you give us a little insight into the process of, kind of what that's like to search for these vintage watches around the world, and are there any particular you know, maybe, regions or countries that are, just, you know, treasure troves for, you know, these vintage watches?

Cameron Barr: 25:40

Yeah, for sure, you know. One thing is is that I started traveling for, you know, things like auctions or for specific client meetings and that kind of stuff. And when I found myself in these specific areas of of wherever, the first thing that I do is Google vintage watch shops or whatever Right. And in some parts of the world, you know, for example, like Hong Kong or Japan, I was finding that there really there was community there, there were enthusiasts, especially having, you know, things like Instagram and Facebook and YouTube and all these other things at our disposal. I knew that there was a community there, but there wasn't kind of this defined you know, overview or guide of where to go to kind of find this stuff. So one of the things that I really wanted to do is, as I started traveling more, I wanted to kind of keep a reference point of who had what types of watches and maybe not gatekeep that stuff as much, but really ultimately kind of share that with the community. So you know, I was traveling to Europe a lot, I was traveling to Asia a lot for various watch shows and antique shows and other meetings and stuff and I kind of had this like wild hair up my butt to, you know, to put this stuff all together. And so the first guide that we did was the Hong Kong watch vintage watch buyers guide, vintage Watch Buyer's Guide. And as we had gone to these areas on multiple occasions, we kind of knew where to find this stuff. And so we put together these guides, which would at least give people a starting point and also serve as maybe like a validated reference point of hey, I as Cam, I as Kraft and Taylor have been to this shop. I know who's running it. This is the type of watches that they typically have and curate. I physically have been there and this is a great starting point. So we started with Hong Kong, then we did Tokyo, we've done Paris, we're going to be doing Italy, probably Rome and Milan. I definitely want to do more European countries, london. So now people are kind of using these guides as at least a jump off point for where to go to find this stuff, and that's kind of, I think, what started all that. I think you know.

Cameron Barr: 27:54

The other thing for me is it's I'm always about the hunt, right. I love finding this stuff and going into these different areas of the world. Typically there's some kind of you know anchor reason for me to be there. It will be like either like a big antique show or big watch show, and I think the other thing to consider is that when we're on the internet, when we're on Instagram, we're looking at whatever it is that we have a specific interest in, but different watches were popular at different times during different eras and different parts of the world, and these other parts of the world have different options. You know, especially in areas like Hong Kong and Tokyo, you know I'm finding a lot of really interesting watches that I really can't get here in the United States.

Cameron Barr: 28:37

The other thing I would say is that in the United States, everything is really spread out.

Cameron Barr: 28:42

You realize very quickly when you start traveling I would say, at least for me, more internationally how big the United States is. You know we're in LA, california, but you could drive from San Diego for 10 hours and not be out of California, right, you can drive across the country and be in the car for another eight hours and be in the same state. Texas is a is a big right. So you know, in the US there's these little kind of specialists scattered throughout a very big landmass where, for example, in Japan or Hong Kong or in Europe. These countries are a lot smaller, so you have a denser, higher concentration of watches. So one of the great things for us is we're always looking to buy, we're always looking to source. I'm in that kind of perpetual mode of hunting. But when I go to Hong Kong or Japan there's a higher concentration of the things that I'm interested in and we can kind of cover a lot more ground quicker and have a variance in what it is ultimately that we're looking at.

Blake Rea: 29:48

Yeah, I purchased. There's a period of my life which is kind of how I found you and I'm most interested in your story where I was kind of like getting little parts of watches and like doing research and trying to assemble an accurate reference where I would buy like a movement, make sure I found a great dial. Or sometimes when you buy the movement in the dial, you know I wasn't doing this for for resales, just doing this for fun. It was just an interesting, fun hobby. Of course I'm not a watchmaker, so I had to find a watchmaker. But I found a vintage zenith, uh caliber with a dial and and then everything was running perfectly.

Blake Rea: 30:21

And then I was in istanbul and I literally reached out to somebody on Instagram and I said, like it was like vintage watch collector Istanbul or something I don't know. Anyways, he was like, oh, I was like, hey, I need this, this case, like I could never find this case anywhere in the United States. But I texted him the case and I was like skeptical, like, and he, he found that case for me in Istanbul.

Cameron Barr: 30:43

And he found that case for me.

Blake Rea: 30:43

In Istanbul and it was like so the movement in this came from like I think I got it from like Ukraine, but it came from Russia and then it came to Ukraine and I had a guy in Ukraine that was just going to the markets in Ukraine, because what people will do is, like you know, they'll just throw out their watches and you know you get a lot of footage.

Blake Rea: 31:03

Yeah, yeah, throw out their watches and you know you get like a vintage. Yeah, yeah, um, anyways, it all came together in the weirdest way and it feels so rewarding once you, like you know, as a collector, you pull this watch together and then you get it on wrist and it starts running. There's something that that, like you can't ever compare that feeling to anything else in life. Um, I know it's a lot different to what you do, but as a collector, it's just something that I used as as a fun little way, um to make watch collecting interesting, because it can be so boring right as a watch collector in the weirdest way. Um, but I'm curious as to what? What was your most memorable find in history?

Cameron Barr: 31:50

They're all kind of bittersweet. I'll start off by saying that because for me a find in many cases doesn't really have anything to do with like the value of the watch in terms of tangible value. I mean, we've, I've unearthed some things that are like these priceless artifacts, you know, with a ton of provenance and history and that kind of stuff. Right, you know, I think that you know there's, there's been a good number of them. I think the thing that is like the most fun for me is like finding things in really unexpected places. One of the most memorable, I think, recent finds is a watch that ended up in my personal collection.

Cameron Barr: 32:32

Tyler Vaines, who is my cousin our moms are our sisters who's the vice president of Craft and Tailored, joined the business, I think in year, at the end of year one or year two, as we started to kind of expand the business and I just needed help knew really nothing about watches at the time and now I would consider him a peer and definitely in the top tier of experts in the world on horology, just through this eight years of like drinking from the fire hose right and through his experiences. But Tyler and I were in Japan and there's this really cool mall in Japan. It's called Nakano Broadway and there's a couple of bigger dealers in this kind of like arcade mall. Jack Road is one of them. There's like a bunch of different like little watch shops. So we this was, I think, on our either. This was probably our first trip to Tokyo together and you know, this mall is like a really interesting place. It has kind of everything in the mall. There's like a whole floor dedicated to comic books, then there's a whole floor dedicated to like transformer figurines and then there's a whole floor that's dedicated to like vintage dolls and it's just like this weird eclectic like mall of collectibles, um, and it's very bright, and there's like these little, like kind of hidden corners where you'll turn a corner and there's like this like you know, 80s atari collecting gaming corner. It's like a really interesting place, yeah, and so, um, we kind of made our way through the mall and and really didn't find anything.

Cameron Barr: 34:17

And we're on our way out and there's kind of this, this shop that, um, it wasn't a dedicated watch shop, it was kind of like something you would probably find similar to like maybe Europe or maybe even the US, where it was kind of like an antique store where they were like these glass cases, but I think, you know, there were different people who owned the cases and this guy kind of was facilitating the shop filled with just, I would say, kind of like weird junk. You know, it wasn't really there's a curation and there's kind of a level to it, but it was like fountain pens, ashtrays, weird signs, old Barbies, like just just kind of an eclectic mix of stuff. And we're walking by and I got like this weird feeling. You know, and that's something that I've really kind of tuned into. I'm not really a hippie, woo, woo kind of dude, you know, I'm not. You know, monitoring the moon cycle and putting my Christmas card to them. You know, I'm not that guy, but I kind of had this like weird, like magnetic feeling. And so I'm, I'm kind of like going into the shop and I think at the time we had like a a dinner reservation or something and we were burnt out, crazy jet lag.

Cameron Barr: 35:29

Tyler's looking at me like bro, there's nothing going to, there's not going to be anything in here, let's go Right. Our feet are, we're like, we're tired, um, and I'm like just give me a second, just give me a second. So I walk in and I kind of start looking through the cases and then in the back corner of the shop I noticed this um, like old Rolex, like watchmaker sign. It was like Rolex watches sold here, service and repair, and so, like you know, a moth to a, a bright light bulb in the darkness, I'm like beelining it towards in this case.

Justin Summers: 36:01

You can smell it just sitting back there somewhere.

Cameron Barr: 36:04

I just had this feeling right and so I like beelined into the case and this sign was incredible, um, and it was probably from like the late fifties or sixties, like this really interesting and cool sign which we which we, of course, had to have, and Tyler lugged this thing back from Tokyo in his suitcase, um, but then what, what happened is, in this little case, we started finding other like vintage watch ephemera, which is something that I also love collecting. I collect the old JLC clocks and signs and old advertisements and Rolex ashtrays and Rolex coasters and, uh, omega stuff and whatever. So we, we kind of found some of this like cool ephemera. We got like this, like Omega, uh, zippo, that was like new, old stock. We bought, um, uh, you know, just a bunch of cool little accessories and, of course, this sign. So we're we're taking this stuff up to the front to kind of pay for it.

Cameron Barr: 36:57

And the in the guy, um, you know, didn't really speak english. He was talking to us in japanese and we're kind of using google translate to communicate and stuff. And he goes well, do you like? Do you guys like, do you guys like watches? And we're like, yeah, of course. And he's like oh, let me, let me take you to this back case. So he takes us to this back case and there's a bunch of like really odd and kind of weird watches. There were some like citizens and some cool Seikos, and then there was two Tudor watches and one of them was a Tudor no date, submariner, snowflake, black dial, and this watch was just like you know, perfect case. It showed honest patina and, where you know, unpolished. On its original bracelet. The black dial, um didn't show any degradation and I'm like we're in the most random spot, right, um. So we ended up acquiring that watch for kind of a good deal in terms of price, but the condition was there and it was definitely a find.

Cameron Barr: 37:53

And I kind of put this watch on my wrist, not really with the intention of keeping it, but throughout the rest of that trip I had traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto and spent some time in Kyoto. I kind of just started wearing this watch and fell in love with it, and that ended up kind of being a watch that just really never made it into the sales section of our vault. It kind of just ended up on my wrist, or I'd like hide it in my own personal watch roll or whatever, and so this watch kind of then started traveling with me and kind of became this, you know, marker for this experience with you, who is my cousin but also one of my best friends, for this time that we were in Tokyo together, and I would say that that was one of the more memorable recent finds. It's not an unearthed big crown or Paul Newman or anything like that, it's this simple, no date, snowflake Tudor sub.

Cameron Barr: 38:48

But that watch is, you know, meant, you know, everything to me, uh, and it's a watch I wear a lot and I'm learning in my later collecting that in a lot of cases it's not necessarily about the value or the ultimate collectability of things. Sure, I have those things in my collection, but this Tudor, you know, snowflake, is kind of like that watch that marks a specific moment in time and it kind of reminds me to just like keep pushing even though we're jet, lagged and tired. Maybe maybe just go into the one more shop or maybe keep going, cause you just literally never know what you're going to find or where you're going to find it.

Justin Summers: 39:21

I love how everybody always has their own personal stories that are kind of attached to watches and where they were at in their lifetime or you know what was happening in that specific moment. I'm the same way, you know, especially with music and things like that. You know you hear a song and you're like, oh, this brings me back to a certain time. But yeah, I have the same thing with watches. I love that story. That's really cool. I'm curious you know how do you guys assess and authenticate a lot of these vintage watches that you guys find and you know what are some of those key things that you look for?

Cameron Barr: 39:49

Yeah, I mean that's a great question. I mean so I think you know we definitely carry tools with us that allow us to inspect watches and authenticate them. I would say that the first thing is, you know, I'm reading books still right, I'm collecting books. I'm on the internet all the time. I'm going to the auction previews and previewing things and assessing things and all that kind of stuff. I've been a member and invited to a bunch of gatherings like Rolly Fest in New York, the VRA Vintage Rolex Asylum get together in Indonesia and some of those types of meetings.

Cameron Barr: 40:29

Obviously I love the social element meeting people and sharing the passion but in some of those instances I'm able to see a lot of the world's best watches and I'm analyzing them and increasing my experience and my hands on with a lot of this stuff. So I think the one thing that allows us to do that quite well is just having done this for so long and looking for consistencies and, in some cases, looking for flaws and things that are known to be kind of a maker's mark, so to speak. I always have a loop on me, I always have ultraviolet light on me when we're traveling to countries. We also carry things like a Geiger counter, because you know, because you know some of the watch makers time radiation, radioactive loom, which is a, which is a good tell on things, um, you know. So I'm looking looking at those things, um, and I think there's definitely had a really interesting conversation with a, with a collector, the other day I'm probably looking at things that most people they don't even know exist or care to know exist, like the mark variations of a dial. And does that mark variant, you know, match the serial production run for those known watches? Is the tritium lume, consistency, or the radium or whatever? Does that match that production period? There's like this kind of like index in my brain that I'm always trying to refresh and keep sharp. That allows us to make you know successful and proper buys.

Cameron Barr: 41:57

In some cases, too, I've come across things where you know I don't know a hundred percent, but I'm using all of that kind of accumulated knowledge and I'm looking at, like, the way a dial was printed or the way a case is finished, to kind of use my best judgment in buying some of these things. Some of the stuff, too, is also definitely much more known, like, for example, with Patek Philippe or Rolex or whatever. In many cases, you know there's kind of a standard or you know kind of that again, those maker's marks that we're looking for. But some of this stuff that's like you know more piece, unique or maybe there's not as much information or knowledge.

Cameron Barr: 42:33

A lot of it is using the tools that I have with me and and sometimes doing a quick Google, sometimes trolling, you know, instagram, and seeing if I can find somebody that has that specific variant, because there have been cases where I've found things that you know they're like hen's teeth. There's so few of them that you know the reference points of that example are so far and few between. So I'm using kind of a mixture of those things to help validate, help verify, but I think a lot of the things that allow us to successfully find watches and bring them to market or add them into our own personal collection are a ton of experience. You know a ton of academia relating to learning from other people and reading literal books, looking at old auction catalogs from like the 80s and the 90s, where I'm looking at, you know, pictures and that kind of stuff to always increase my knowledge and use as a reference point, even when on the road.

Blake Rea: 43:33

How do you feel like the market for vintage watches has evolved over the years and like, where do you see it heading?

Cameron Barr: 43:40

That's a great question. I mean, I think, like any market, you know, and I think we're in an interesting time and place for watches as a as a whole, I think you know any market is going to have its ups and ups and downs and I don't think it would be a market if it if it didn't. You know it, a market can't always be doing this and a market can't always be doing this, right, a market ebbs and flows and tastes change and and you know all that kind of stuff. I think, um, the vintage market. I think the one thing that is interesting about vintage watches as a whole is, if you look at the way that things were made in the forties, fifties, sixties, et cetera, really up until kind of the early, you know, two thousands, late nineties, is things were much more handmade. You know movement production and things like that, is things were much more handmade. You know movement production and things like that. There was a lot of hand finishing and that obviously takes time. Um, where today, watches are being produced in a much more of a mechanized fashion. Um, you know, things are being cut with laser and they're being, you know, milled in a certain way with machines and that kind of stuff which obviously yields an increased production of those things because we're using technology to make basically everything. I think there's some similarity maybe to the vintage car market too, where at those specific periods and times there's only so much of this stuff and there's only so many survivors, which kind of yields an element of collectability. I think overall, you know, factoring those things in, I think that you'll see these antiques and these kinds of things always retain some collectible value. I think trending will definitely change.

Cameron Barr: 45:18

I'm seeing a lot more people, myself included, move outside of say, vintage Rolex or Omega or Audemars Piguet and get into brands that are maybe just different. A watch that I recently found and added in my personal collection is this early Frank Mueller master calendar. Um, and I've been studying, uh, frank Mueller and his kind of earlier creations and learning about him as a watchmaker, you know, more recently. This specific watch is really interesting because it's a master calendar but it has Roman numerals on a guilloche dial and there's very few of these. They were only produced in the later part of the 1980s. I think he started Frank Muller in 89. And I think this is either a 93 or 94. So pretty early in the Frank Muller production.

Cameron Barr: 46:08

But I think people are also looking at different things, right. I think Cartier is an example of that, breguet is an example of that. You know there's other watches, maybe even within these bigger brands, like Audemars, piguet or Rolex, that people are looking into gay or Rolex that people are looking into. I think also, size trending is kind of playing a role into what people are wearing in watches that have integrated bracelets that obviously are not as easy to wear or maybe now more socially or fashionable today, maybe socially acceptable or fashionably acceptable, if I can say that. So I'm seeing trending change and that's a really interesting thing to kind of observe and also be a part of.

Cameron Barr: 46:51

I never thought I would be obsessed with Frank Mueller, but as I learn more about the brand and him as a watchmaker and some of that early stuff, I'm going like Frank Mueller obsessed. I'm really trying to find some of these early references where he's doing things that are interesting from a complications perspective and the case finishing is different and that kind of stuff. Um, where today you look at frank muller like what is this? You know rm clone that you guys are, are, are creating, right, yeah, deviation from the original part of the brand.

Blake Rea: 47:20

So, and I know you acquire a lot of rolex, like patek, like vacheron, and cartier is like your baby, um, and then, of course, omega. But are there any brands that like you, just like say, hey, I will not touch that um, you know some of the like you know I.

Cameron Barr: 47:40

I like you know rm, I like um. You know the AP like piece, unique, kind of weirdo stuff. I think that those watches are really interesting for sure. I think the value that watches like that bring is they're really pushing the boundaries of modern watchmaking. They're really on the cutting edge of doing things with materials and machining and things that I think are crazy. Would I ever own, you know, an Hublot? Probably not. Would I ever own like a Rainbow Daytona? No, probably not for me Do. I think that they're interesting watches, a hundred percent. I mean, you look at the gem set bezel of a Rainbow Daytona and that gradient. There's nothing on the planet that quite can capture that. Rolex is really figuring that out, and I think some of these pieces are to be viewed as more artisanal or art pieces instead of being something that has like an element of functionality.

Cameron Barr: 48:40

I think for me personally, you'll see a lot of watches on Crafty, tailored and kind of in our curation that we personally love, and that's kind of the element of it being bittersweet. You know, going back to the Tudor story, that's a watch that ended up in my in my personal collection, cause I kind of had developed this sentimental kind of connection with it. But you know there's a it's. It's a hard business for me because I find things that you know I have to sell. I've got to keep the lights on. We want to grow this and it's sometimes a really hard to sell.

Cameron Barr: 49:11

You know, a perfect example of this is we recently found a really nice reference 1016 in Tokyo and we were doing like this video of it and it was kind of like almost like a live response or kind of an overview of what we had found for the day or the past couple of days. And I think I kind of like under like a live response or kind of an overview of what we had found for the day or the past couple of days, and I think I kind of like under my breath said like shit, this one's better than mine. Like I kind of want to keep this one in a weird way Right, but I couldn't because I again had that sentimental connection with my 1016, you know my Explorer one and you know it's funny. I was talking with a client about it and I said, listen, like I literally this is better than the one that sits on my wrist and is in my personal collection and it's kind of a bittersweet thing.

Cameron Barr: 49:54

I'm happy to pass that on to the next collector and and um, to be able to facilitate that and kind of dig through all the muck and mire to find these things. But also at the same time it's like man, I don't know when I'm going to find another one like this, or this one's better than mine, you know. So it's kind of a uh, that's tough Cause, that's tough Cause.

Justin Summers: 50:13

You just have to sit there and accept it at that point, like well. But, like you said, you know you've got a personal connection with yours. That'll lead me into my next question Um, do you have any personal favorite watches, uh, or styles that you've come across, in terms of the Tudor, of course?

Cameron Barr: 50:27

Yeah, I know that the Tudor is a cool watch, Um, um, yeah, I mean I like watches and I and I think going back to kind of the curated collection of what we bring in, everything outside of really the ladies pieces, because I can't wear like a 26 millimeter, you know, uh, date just, it just would look weird on me. I can't even read those, honestly.

Justin Summers: 50:48

I'm like what is that?

Cameron Barr: 50:50

But you know, I think we kind of buy and curate what it is that we personally like. Very rarely do. We buy on just value and I think that that's an element that is hard for the beginning collector to really understand. In some cases the value is in the condition or the uniqueness of that piece. But you'll see, like on Craft Tailored, we don't really have a lot of two-tone subs. It's not that I hate them, I just personally probably wouldn't wear one myself, and so that's why we just haven't had a lot of them, because it's not something that I would personally wear or have an affinity towards Um, so um, you know, I think, going back to that, a lot of the stuff that we bring in um is stuff that we would would wear ourselves. We're kind of buying with passion, uh and and kind of attention to those types of details. As it relates to the personal collection. I kind of ebb and flow.

Cameron Barr: 51:51

I wrote an article kind of like a love letter to the three pieces that I wore the most last year. I wore that Tudor Submariner, I wore my 1016 a lot and I wore an early Cartier Tank, louis Cartier Extra Plat, and it's their kind of extra thin Cartier tank, louis Cartier extra plaque and it's their kind of uh, extra thin Cartier tank. It's in yellow gold. It's on its original deployance strap. Um, you know, those are probably the, the, the watches in the collection that get the most wear. I've been wearing this from Mueller a lot. Um, I have this really amazing, uh like brigade pebble from the 1970s, which is really cool. It's on the smaller size, um, you know, but, um, there's a bunch of stuff.

Cameron Barr: 52:33

I mean I've got subs and all kinds of kinds of things, but, um, I don't know, it kind of depends on my mood and what I'm doing. I think it kind of also goes back into the cars I drive too. Uh, you know, I think that these things are vehicles to transport us into maybe a different time or place. So I'm not, I don't want to be Steve McQueen, I don't want to be Robert Redford, I'm not, you know, wanting to put on that costume, but I think that when you put a specific watch on your wrist in the morning, or when you drive a certain car or something like that, it for me personally, it changes the way that I feel about myself and it is kind of like a vehicle to uh adjust my, my reality. So um, yeah, I don't know if that answers the question necessarily, but um, definitely it's a good way of putting it.

Blake Rea: 53:18

I appreciate that man what advice would you give to somebody looking to start purchasing and collecting their own vintage watches? I mean, obviously they can go and kind of go straight straight to you, um, but for people that are maybe looking for a little bit more thrill and excitement, like to try to like hunt out their own stuff yeah, yeah, I mean, or you know, just collecting in general.

Blake Rea: 53:40

Oh, I know this is a really subjective question and you know you ask this question to every to every other person. You're going to get a different answer, um, but but if you could reach out to, because a lot of our, a lot of our listeners are not vintage collectors and we knew we had to have you on, because I think a lot of people are intimidated to get into the vintage space, um, so yeah, yeah, it is a scary place.

Cameron Barr: 54:07

Um, you know, uh, I think the the first thing would my my first element of advice would be to research the heck out of what it is that you're interested in. I think you know there's this element of can you find a great deal out there. Can you find, you know, these hidden treasures like laying on the surface of the earth Absolutely 100%. But to do that correctly, I think, requires a lot of knowledge and time and patience, and I think the one thing I would say is take your time, do your due diligence, reach out to the community. I answer as many questions as I can on people looking for more information. It's gotten a little bit crazy because our social media following has definitely increased over the past five years and we're getting a lot of emails and all that kind of stuff. But I try to answer as many questions as possible as it pertains to acquiring knowledge and or also trying to put this stuff out there that gives people knowledge, you know. So I would say the first thing I would say is you know, take your time, do your due diligence, reach out to the community. If you, you know, like something or inspired by something, learn about it before you maybe jump into the pool. And I think the other thing, too, is the value, even the monetary value in this, in the cost savings of you taking that time to do the research and or to ask experts. It's not just me, there's a whole network of experts and trusted dealers out there that are just as obsessed with this stuff as I am. You know, in in some cases, will give you the time and they'll help you out, um, so I would say that, that's, you know.

Cameron Barr: 55:51

Maybe my, my biggest piece of advice is take your time, do do research, um, and you know, don't be afraid to ask. You know what's the worst thing that can happen Somebody doesn't respond to your DM or your email, or they tell you to go F off, like, okay, those probably aren't people you want to work with anyways, right, um? And and I'm in that same position a lot If I come across something that I'm not super sharp on, or if I'm, if I, you know, have never seen it before, I always reach out to my peer, peer network. I'm always the guy that's just sending it a blind DM hey, I found this. You know, you seem to have one. I'm looking to learn or gather more information.

Justin Summers: 56:31

Can you help me out? Right, there's nothing wrong with that, because everybody specializes in something different and you know, more more likely than not, there are people out there that you know have an abundance of that information. I mean, essentially, how Pawn Stars made it. I mean you know they did the same thing. They invite these experts in to you know they did the same thing. You know they, they invite these experts in to you know help relate this knowledge to these products. And I mean you know nobody's perfect and, like you said, you know you can be an encyclopedia for the most part, but you know you're, you're collecting that knowledge over time, so there's nothing wrong with reaching out to people.

Cameron Barr: 57:00

Yeah, the thing I've learned, too about working with some of the top collectors in the entire world is all those guys and gals are still learning. You know, we're all still learning. It's like we're, you know we're we're looking back over hundreds of years in some cases and it's like you know, there was no internet then. There was, like this old, crusty, dusty book that like has like the information about these, about these watches, and it's like some of this stuff is not readily available. And also, just because the internet says it so doesn't mean that that's ultimately true. So, I think, take it with a grain of salt too. And, yeah, I think that that would probably be my biggest piece of advice and is get involved with the community, reach out. I know, blake, you are always involved in the community, you're always at the events and you're, you know, doing all that kind of stuff, and I really relate to that. Even though I'm a bit busier now than than, say, a couple of years ago, I still try to get into those things because I love meeting with people, I love being inspired by other people.

Cameron Barr: 58:04

There's a great collector His Instagram handle is Ronnie Mondavi, and he collects these interesting pieces, these really, you know, cartier Patek, you know all kinds of stuff, and he actually has a Breguet that is very similar to the one that I just acquired for myself and I saw him post it and that really inspired me to try to find one of these Breguets. And when one popped up, I I snapped it up. I, you know, seemingly overpaid for it. I didn't like hit a home run on the watch or anything like that, and it's a watch that's in my personal collection now, but it was a kind of a direct inspiration from another collector. It wasn't something that, like, I had discovered or whatever. I saw him post I'm like, wow, that's really cool and interesting. And then when I saw one come up, I got it for myself.

Justin Summers: 58:51

So yeah, that's awesome. Are there any emerging trends, you know, in the world of vintage watches that you know, I would say like enthusiasts should be aware of?

Cameron Barr: 59:05

Are you talking more about, like things that are increasing in popularity, or are you talking still under the radar, that people aren't paying attention to?

Justin Summers: 59:12

yeah, I guess, whatever is maybe more or less of people not paying attention to that.

Cameron Barr: 59:17

You've been seeing a lot of that you could kind of just make people aware of yeah, I think you know, one of the things that that um is quite interesting in the world of vintage watches is that in many cases there were a lot more partnerships and collaborations that happened than than today. For example, rolex today is making their own dials or making their own cases. They're doing all this kind of stuff where back in the day there were these small little kind of villages, I guess, or little towns in the valley that were kind of contributing to the greater watchmaking, you know, industry um. So, for example, um, I recently found a gondol, a vertical gondol, which is a a really interesting cartier reference. Yeah, um, it's kind of this cushion shape, it's kind of this oversized, very 70s looking watch. And when I was in hong kong I found an ebel version of the gondola. At first I looked at it. I'm like that's got to be a cartier um, but that led me to discover that ebel was creating a lot of the cases and all that stuff for Cartier in the 1970s. So I found this Abel version of the Gondol, vertical jumbo, and that led me down this crazy rabbit hole to start looking at Abel watches from the later part of the 1970s, because people are, you know, kind of getting into the Cartier stuff a little bit more. But if you peel back the layer of that onion a little bit more, you'll realize that Cartier was working alongside of these other partners to kind of create their product and in a way kind of white labeling this stuff. So I found kind of the precursor to that entire reference range, which is highly celebrated and highly coveted.

Cameron Barr: 1:01:04

But if you really dig back and look, abel was kind of the case maker and you know the dial maker and all that kind of stuff for this watch which I find really interesting. So I would say that I think that the community's ability to like dig deeper into something is definitely something that is much more celebrated, like oh hey, this is the same case maker as you know Patek, or hey, this is the same you know maker as, say this, this Cartier, and people are definitely becoming more aware and kind of like celebrating that stuff, whereas back in the day it wasn't really something that was like publicized. Same thing with dials, like you know the Paul Newman dials if you look at that Paul Newman font, you can find that in Novotik Wrenchens, you can find them in Baylors, you can find them in you know all sorts of different watches when it wasn't just Rolex that kind of had that configuration. It was other brands that were kind of employing that like lollipop type of marker in their sub dial and stuff. So I would say that people are becoming more aware of that and kind of celebrating those things independently.

Cameron Barr: 1:02:14

I think smaller watches are definitely trending. I see more people getting into like Rolex bubble backs and kind of celebrating those interesting watches where two years ago if it wasn't 45 millimeters people had no interest in it. You could put it on them. Yep, yeah. And I think the independence is definitely something too. People are starting to celebrate more of the independence. Like one of my favorite, uh, more modern watch brands I mean, I'm not just a vintage guy, I love horology and watches through and through is trilob watches. I think that they offer a really interesting watch at a very affordable price point. You know in-house movement, really interesting dials, really interesting dial and complication layout and really those watches aren't that expensive compared to, say, like a Jorn or something like that. That has a little bit more of a marquee type of brand behind it.

Blake Rea: 1:03:05

So yeah, I'd be curious if you could kind of touch on restoring a vintage watch. I mean, obviously I know you get a watch and it's probably nine out of ten times not retail ready. Um, so talk about some of those challenging that you guys challenges you guys face when you find a watch and let's just say, a corner market in japan, versus getting it back to the states and then obviously I'm sure everything gets inspected and then you get it serviced, or you know, make sure there's no dry oils or yeah, um, because obviously you're taking a vintage piece of you know art right, and um and bringing it to modern form in a way, so so it can be worn by the modern man.

Blake Rea: 1:03:48

I'd be curious to get your take on what that process is like and how involved that is.

Cameron Barr: 1:03:53

I would say like 99.9% of the verification happens at the time of purchase and I'm probably able to do that a lot differently than, say, the average person, because I'm doing it so much so when I'm inspecting a watch like, say, in the middle of nowhere. I'm doing it so much so when I'm, you know, inspecting a watch like, say, in the middle of nowhere, I'm looking at the serial, I typically will bring a case back opener, I'm looking at the movement, I'm looking at the dial, I'm using all these kinds of tools to verify. But when we get the watch, say, back into the office, one of the first things that we do is we need to just kind of, um, you know, clean the watch. In some cases we're finding these watches and they have, like you know, 25 years of like arm funk on them, and it's just, you know like, I don't want to send it man.

Cameron Barr: 1:04:37

Yeah, I don't want to send a watch off with, like you know, funk in the bracelet. So, um, so that's, that's the first thing. Um, in too, especially in Japan and Hong Kong, the quality of the watches and the care that they've kind of received over their life is a lot different than what we would find here in the US. In many cases the watches are very well respected and lightly worn. I would say that that's one of the biggest things about finding stuff outside of the US and or anywhere. I mean, it kind of just depends, but I would say the condition of things is generally a little bit higher.

Cameron Barr: 1:05:12

As it relates to restoring the watch, we don't really do any kind of restoration to the dial or the components of the watch because in our world, originality and that is definitely favored and is something that is, you know, looked at and cared for. So that's something for us that we're not doing. I'm not, you know, replacing hands or anything like that, or reluming a dial or any of that kind of stuff. That's something that we definitely don't do. But from a technical perspective, you know, if a movement isn't running and if it's not keeping time, then what's the point of wearing it. So in some cases there is more of like a cleaning of the watch not necessarily, like you know, the dial or any of that kind of stuff. It's really more of like a mechanical kind of service where we're servicing the movement, making sure that it's running at spec. We use a very tight network of watchmakers and specialists, depending on what it is. In many cases if it's like really complex and complicated, we're working with the manufacturer. So, for example, I had a very interesting Breguet come in, beautiful watch, really interesting reference, but it was complicated and that's a watch that Breguet is servicing because they have the parts, the components and the technical engineering on staff at Breguet to in some cases bring that watch back to technical specs so that it actually works.

Cameron Barr: 1:06:43

So we're really careful with that kind of stuff and we pay very close attention to servicing watches and kind of bringing them back up to road worthiness, if I can say that. I think in some cases it's almost like buying, say, an old 911 or an old vintage car. It's been sitting in the garage for a while, maybe it has a pristine interior and the paint is great and all that kind of stuff. Paint is great and all that kind of stuff but, like you know, the oil lines are cracking and there's old gas in the tank and you know you know maybe the exhaust is rusted off the car right. Like you in some cases need to bring those things back so that they are road worthy again. And, generally speaking, that's kind of what we do in terms of, like, bringing these watches back.

Cameron Barr: 1:07:23

In some cases, too, the watches are in such great condition and we're so particular and peculiar on what we buy if I can say that we're really not buying everything that we see, matter of fact, in some of the videos. You know, we make it look easy but in that day, say, we acquire 10 watches in a day. We've probably looked at like 250, in some cases, 500 watches to get to those 10. So we're really buying a very small amount of watches, even though it looks like a lot. You know we've gone through so many watches. We just posted a video on Instagram talking about buying watches in Japan. You can see we're flipping through, you know, a ton of watches to buy a very small number. So, even though maybe we make it look a little bit easier, it's not something I'm not like walking into a place and buying 30 watches at a time we're really buying probably 1% of what we see, maybe more, maybe less, depending on where we're at.

Justin Summers: 1:08:24

I would be scared of running across the same watches that I've already looked at. I know that you guys have probably more than likely had that before you. You know where you go to, a location that you know you've been to before and then you see this watch you know out in the public again. That would be one of my worries. But I know that we've been talking about the past. On to another tangent, we've been talking about the past. What are some of the future plans for Craft and Tailored, and are you guys you know? Do you have any exciting developments that are you know in the near future? Can you tell us more about that?

Cameron Barr: 1:08:54

Yeah, for sure. You know we have a couple of really interesting collaborations coming up or creating watches that are modern and new, that kind of take inspiration and homage from the past. I'm getting ready to go to Watches and Wonders in Geneva. I'm really excited about that because Watches and Wonders is, for me, a really cool thing. I like that. It's kind of this big event. You know everybody's excited about it. You know there's all these companies that are releasing new things. So I'm getting ready for that and I think, like the thing that I want to do is use our vehicles whether it's social media or website or a journal or whatever to educate and inform people and kind of use that as a tool to spread awareness to all things watches. But we kind of have this saying it's. You know that that is kind of stuck with us. It's more than just watches. So I think there's other things that kind of spin off of, you know, watches, whether it's automotive stuff or architecture or design. I find that watches are a connecting point for a lot of other things and that's something that we're kind of interested in. You know, I think like talking with a, with a collector or a friend or somebody that is a watch enthusiast and also learning about them is something that is of interest to me. So I think we're going to kind of lean into that a little bit more. There's definitely going to be more travel guides. As we go to different areas of the world throughout the year, we're going to be trying to curate these little guides and little things to aid the collector community, you know, to find these great places, and we work really hard to find these spots and put a lot of like sweat equity into traveling and and doing that stuff.

Cameron Barr: 1:10:39

Matter of fact, there's this really interesting guy in Hong Kong. His name is Raymond and he has like you can check out the videos, but he has what I think is probably one of the smallest watch shops in the world. It's like literally this like stall on Pottinger Street in central Hong Kong. You would probably walk past it a million times not even notice it, and also it's like on the street. So you're like what? What are these watches Are they? Are they good or whatever? The dude is a wealth of information and knowledge. His watches are awesome. You know he doesn't have the biggest selection in the world, but it's very tasteful, it's very curated.

Cameron Barr: 1:11:17

I actually bought a watch from him the last time I was in Hong Kong and it's cool because I get DMs from people that are like, hey, I saw Raymond today.

Cameron Barr: 1:11:26

I bought a watch from him and Raymond has like no internet, you know no cell phone, you know no website, no Instagram, none of this stuff. So for me to like have this like cool experience and to share that with people and drive people to this kind of small dude in the middle of nowhere is really cool and and so I want to do more of that kind of stuff where, um, you know, people are coming into these places and they want to know where to go, kind of in a in a in a selfish way. I didn't have that and I had to kind of hunt this stuff out. So if I can bring awareness to that, um, that would be really cool and and kind of cultivate the community a bit more, uh, and help facilitate that stuff. That's definitely something that is kind of always in the back of our head as we create videos and more content and do collaborations and that kind of stuff for sure.

Blake Rea: 1:12:17

That brings us, like right into the next question. I mean, obviously, building that community is very important to what we do selling watches or, in your case, selling watches, and me, in my my case, educating people. Um, you know, our outlet has been more community focused than it has been product focused, and you see a lot of other outlets out there that are product focused and we try to shy away from being that outlet. Um, but how do you see yourself kind of progressing the brand through the community and continuing to produce quality content that people enjoy? Um, and just again, to kind of hammer a little bit more home, there is, um, you know, my friend's going to japan in a week and he's like, hey, where should I go? And I'm like, dude, I've never been to japan, but here's a great article. And then, of course, I referenced um, I sent him the link to your article, um, and just you know, I just again kind of want to like thank you for being so transparent. Um, with what?

Blake Rea: 1:13:20

you because you know these. These are things that nobody else does. You know, um, and you look at other vintage dealers out there. I'm sure you probably know who I'm talking about one of the most popular instagram vintage dealer, um, besides yourself. Uh, you know they? They don't. They don't talk about that. They're just like hey, I'm in, I'm in tokyo and I bought this watch, and like they never, it's like they're not giving their references. It's like they're's like they're not giving their references. It's like they're citing something but they're not giving references, which is very important from the academia perspective, right?

Cameron Barr: 1:13:53

So yeah, I think, I think there's two sides of that. One, you know, um, you know, at our level right, if we're working with, say, like a big dealer in Japan, there are customs and traditions that have to be respected and also there, you know, I'm not I'm going in there knowing what I'm buying and leveraging tenure and expertise in the business to do that. And some of these places are not set up to work with like the retail type of customer. So I can't, really I'm not gatekeeping, that I'm ultimately having to pay respect to the business in, I have to maintain and be respectful of. But I think there, to your point, there maybe sometimes is gatekeeping and for me I'm not.

Cameron Barr: 1:14:53

Like if somebody goes to Raymond or one of the shops that we've mentioned in Paris, they buy their first watch and that was a great experience for them. That really makes me happy because I want to facilitate good things within the business, uh, and within the community, in the, in the, in the culture, um, you know, and I, I I really find value in that. I'm not worried about another dealer selling a watch. I'm worried about, um, you know that, that person having a good experience and having a good transaction and really facilitating kind of good vibes and good energy within the watch community. There's a really cool and fun dealer in Paris. His Instagram is Archie Watch, and he had, like this little Instagram post. That was like, you know, it's like I love a support, I love like the support of watch community, right, and that's kind of what this is about for me. I want to, you know, create good vibes and good juju in the watch community, because there's enough gatekeeping, there's enough BS. You know there's enough risk, like, why add more to that? Right? Why not be helpful? Why, you know, why not share where we're going? Right? And I think the thing, like with the guides, is you know, I've been to those places, I know what's there, I know what types of watches they have, I know how they transact and if I can facilitate a good transaction.

Cameron Barr: 1:16:23

I think that that, in some way or form, kind of just comes back to the community as a whole. So why not invest into that? And you know I value transparency. I think, like we're doing this amazing stuff, we're in these great parts of the world or whatever it is, why not show that stuff? I think there's been, you know, a good number of feedback where people have questioned why we're doing that, and I think, um, for me, um, the feedback from the community as a whole has been really positive and I think people are interested in that.

Cameron Barr: 1:16:58

I noticed that when we do some of these guides and when these videos, um, people like bookmark that stuff a lot and I think that's with the intent of like referring back to it as they're in these places. Or if we publish an article that has information on it, that is, um, maybe more, if I can say like, uh, like educational, um, people will find value in that and and and I find value in that stuff too. I'm always bookmarking stuff and and trying to kind of archive that stuff for myself too. So, I felt like, in order to maintain that side. That's part of the reason why we are looking to create that content and be more approachable and open. Granted, when we're getting 100 DMs in a day, sometimes it takes me a while to get through all that stuff.

Cameron Barr: 1:17:44

And there's also a side of the internet that is not very respectful. They don't really respect our time or whatever, and it's like price. You know, I kind of relate to some of those dealers who get burnt out with that where it's like price or they're just kind of there's no, like you know, ethics or or politeness, and in some cases I don't take that stuff personal, but but we try to, you know, position ourselves as a facilitator and educator and somebody who is creating awareness around these things, instead of just gatekeeping it. Because I think for for me personally, I, I, I want to embrace and support the watch community and and I think people should support one another even if their opinions are different. Even if you know you like this and I like that, you know, maybe you know we're both talking about something that's in a way similar, right? So why not, you know, support each other even though the opinion is different, instead of just, you know crap all over each other. I just think that that's just there's enough of that out there.

Blake Rea: 1:18:51

You know, I'll leave that for the other people. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I really love. I think that's what attracted me to you and and um, and of course, you know, going back to the beginning of a podcast where we talked about the video and you could just tell, um, I've done a lot of, a lot of trade shows recently, um, and something that I I did to step out of the box is like I just got back from Geneva in January.

Cameron Barr: 1:19:10

Yeah, following along with your trip.

Blake Rea: 1:19:13

Sweet. I kind of wanted to step outside of the press circle because you know, geneva, especially from a reporter's perspective, like press, like we just become like in queue where people are just lining up and they have these little, like you know, these little talking points, the boom, boom, boom, you know, they just hammer off, they give people the same press. So, right, something that that we thought about was like let's just go to geneva early, you know, um, and get the watches and wonders stuff you know, kind of packed down before watches and wonders, you know, we, we again, I've talked about this we don't, we don't, we're not product focused, we're community focused. Like everything that you read from us comes from a communal perspective. Like, hey, how to travel with watches, or hey, you know, I did a video on how to buy watches, istanbul, how to safely choose an AD and how to negotiate with an ad, I mean, and these are all things that that community and collectors, um, you know they don't have resources on.

Blake Rea: 1:20:13

So very similar to you, um, but but I'm very curious to see, or maybe you know, if you could paint a perfect picture of craft and tailored in 10 years, what would that picture look like? And we will leave you with that one.

Cameron Barr: 1:20:31

Man, that's a good question. I'm going to try to figure that out. You know, I think there's a lot of people that that get busy thinking about things, and I'm a guy that just gets busy doing things. You know, I, I want I don't want to say that like I don't have a plan or or whatever because I think we, we definitely do, but in many cases, like, a lot of what we do comes from just getting out there and doing it, and if and if that can be an inspiration for somebody, whether it be watches or travel or whatever, you know, I think that that's something that would, that I would find rewarding. I oftentimes feel kind of like the odd duck, because I'm just going out there and doing this stuff and and people are like, wow, you really did that. And I'm like, yeah, for me that's normal, right, I'm just going out and doing it.

Cameron Barr: 1:21:24

I think, as it relates to um, craft and tailored as a, as a business, I think you know I'm I don't want to say that I'm satisfied, but I'm not also not satisfied with where we're at either. I think if, if we can facilitate a better community and and and we can have a part in doing that, then that's something that's very important to me. Um, I think you know. I mean, maybe it makes sense for us to have another location. We've got a beautiful showroom here in Los Angeles and the watch community in LA is is kind of kind of small. In California in general there's only a few of us dealers on both the modern side and the vintage side. I think maybe, you know, in 10 years I don't know know, I hope I'm still alive.

Blake Rea: 1:22:10

You know I drive fast sometimes I I would love to see from crafton tailored a netflix series oh man, like a series yeah, like a view like just traveling around, kind of like like rick steves or something, but you hunting vintage watches. But then, if you think about it kind of like a cocktail of like, like storage wars, you know type of vibes, like like that would be epic and I would definitely watch every episode.

Cameron Barr: 1:22:43

I would too well, um, if you know anybody yeah, um, you know, I think that could be fun. I think that we're kind of, in a way, doing some of that right. I think, you know, the world we live in is is interesting because we we're doing a lot of long form content where the episodes would be on like a specific watch and they'd be like three to five minutes long. Obviously, short form content is kind of dominating the space right now and I even feel like in some cases that I need kind of like the information package in a way that's consumable. But also I definitely haven't lost sight of creating more long form content. More long form content. There's a lot of guys that will reach out, guys, gals, everybody, um, that, uh, you know, wants us to do more long form content and maybe do a deeper dive into the references We've thought about maybe, um, doing something, maybe like Bourdain style, where in many cases we're we're out there in the middle of nowhere doing this stuff and I and I think we're trying as best as we can to share that with everybody, but also, at the same time, it's hard for me in some cases to do that, because it's like me and one other person and I'm also trying to buy watches and make sure that I'm doing that part right and also trying to find the cool dim sum shop in Hong Kong or the cool yakitori spot in Japan and kind of share this stuff.

Cameron Barr: 1:24:07

I think that's part of the reason why some of the guides and some of that stuff has done so well for us is because, um, you know, we're in these countries and in these places and really doing this stuff. So we're speaking from a perspective of experience and having been there and I think that that's also the difference I would definitely like to see us maybe create some content around, you know, like traveling. Maybe it's not just about watches, but maybe it's about all the other great things that we're experiencing when we're doing this stuff. And I think, you know, the travel in some cases can be really rough, right, you're seeing the internet and everybody's seeing kind of just like the top, the top layer, just the cream, right it's like, oh, this is so cool and it's not like shit, flight delay, or you know, ta typhoon coming through Hong Kong and we're locked in the hotel for three days and the building is shaking, like you know, we're not really sharing that stuff, um, but I also think like that could be interesting to to talk.

Cameron Barr: 1:25:03

Talk about that. I don't know if, um, if, if we're net Netflix worthy, but I appreciate that and, um, you know, that would be something that would be really fun for us and we're pretty open and accessible. I I don't, you know, share everything, but you know, I think that that's kind of the fun thing too, and if I, if I and or we as a community, can inspire more people to to do fun or interesting things, um, I think that would be a big success for me and a win yeah, I think the behind the scenes is, uh, uh, it's very interesting for for for my perspective and I'm sure, a lot of other people's perspectives.

Blake Rea: 1:25:40

Because let's just say, for example, they, they realize what you went through to find that one watch, or maybe bring that, and then when you bring that watch home, you look, let's just say, for example, like you had some event that happened or something like where, who knows right, um, some somebody may relate to what you had to go through to acquire that watch, and then entail creating an immediate bond with that watch that you found. Like, let's just say, you found a vintage watch, that you found an estate and it was past, that it was like a grandpa who, um, you know, like he didn't have anybody to give his collection to, or, and then it ended up at an estate sale and then you got your hands on it. And then let's just say there's a collector out there that had the exact same patek or exact same rolex, and you know, they, they weren't able to acquire that from their grandpa. You know, for whatever reason, right, you know, I mean just similar circumstances people can build their own connection with your products, you know.

Cameron Barr: 1:26:48

And so, yeah, I think that could be really fun and cool for sure. I mean, we definitely have enough travel on the schedule. Last year I did 450,000 miles in the air. Uh, that's a lot of time. Seat, um. So, uh, sponsor me American airlines, but uh, but, um, you know, I think we're we're definitely trying to figure out a way to bring more access to that type of stuff. Uh, in figuring out how to do that from a technical perspective and bring in the right people that can kind of capture that, because, you know, people would say, oh, cam is a content creator, cam is a dealer, cam is a news resource, he's a collector.

Cameron Barr: 1:27:30

I think, in a weird way, I'm kind of all those things which is hard for the industry to kind of like compartmentalize, right, because people like to put things into like these, like edible, consumable, justifiable things. And you know, I'm kind of in a weird way, all those things. I think craft and tailored as a whole is, in a way, an extension of the things that I have passions with, and but also, at the same time, like we're really out there, we're really doing it, I'm really wearing it, I'm really driving it, I'm really, you know, going to these places. It's not just kind of internet fluff, so to speak, and I think that is something that I want to use to again kind of give back to the community and maybe facilitate inspiration in people, or maybe even brands and stuff like that.

Cameron Barr: 1:28:18

I think, you know, a lot of the watch brands today are are kind of lost. I think Cartier is doing a great job of looking at their archive. I think Rolex is starting to do that a little bit, I think maybe even Batek, right. So we're seeing these brands kind of pay homage in a modern way to their heritage, and if I can be a facilitator to that, um, that would also be really cool, right. So, um, yeah, I think there's a ton of opportunity for us. I think we're we're growing sometimes faster than I like, uh, because it can be a little bit overwhelming, but, um, it's been a great ride, a great journey and, um, you know, it's doing stuff like this that I really love and really enjoy. So, thanks for for having me guys. I really appreciate this and uh yeah.

Cameron Barr: 1:29:01

Be a part of of the pod.

Blake Rea: 1:29:03

Yeah.

Cameron Barr: 1:29:04

Yeah.

Blake Rea: 1:29:04

Thanks for coming on. I know it was really crazy going back and forth for a long time. We like to give our outlet to our guests, so we did touch through a lot here. Um, is there anything that maybe we didn't talk about or that we didn't touch on that maybe you would like to? You have the floor entirely to yourself now.

Cameron Barr: 1:29:27

yeah, I mean we talked a lot about me and craft and tailored. I think I I kind of want, like, what are you excited about? Like, what are? What are you excited about, justin, what, what? What are you excited about, blake? What are? What are you excited about, justin, what, what? What are you looking forward to? Maybe from watches and wonders? What are you looking forward to? You know? Is there something that you're chasing? I'm kind of interested to hear, hear what you guys are interested in.

Cameron Barr: 1:29:48

And, blake, you have a really cool collection, I think. Um, you have a diverse collection as well. You've got modern, you've got vintage stuff, you've got expensive stuff, you've got accessible stuff. I mean, you're, you're, you're really a, a true collector, which is something I relate to, cause I I'm the same way with my watches. I have swatches, I have a you know, a friend of mine recently gifted me this like a swatch, which is like so cool, cause I'm a like a collector and I love that watch, you know. So I I want to maybe ask you guys questions what are you, what are you excited about? What's on the horizon for you? Does it have the little?

Justin Summers: 1:30:25

red dot. Is that the one you're talking about? Yeah yeah, love that we're camera guys, so we know so.

Blake Rea: 1:30:31

So yeah, we there's a lot of overlap for us because we're we both come from the camera world. Like Justin and I both worked as Canon vendors, we've kind of grown up together. Regarding Watches and Wonders, I really don't know. I tell my wife I hope they don't release cool shit because they don't want to buy it. I go on the record a lot and I talk about how I like to see brands experimenting you know, kind of like what you said with materials and shapes and form, and I think that's what resonates so much with me with Cartier, because they are a jewelry like a high fashion jewelry company, so they can work with shapes and materials that nobody else can. Really, if you look at our outlet, we are starting to kind of go backwards, but we're also going forwards at the same time Because if you look at our podcast outlet, we're working with a lot of micro brands, right. But if you look at our website, we're working with a lot of big brands. I've got press access to Patek and Omega and Hublot and all this stuff. So we're kind of going forwards. We're coming from two angles and we're meeting here in the center right now and we're starting getting ready to bring bigger brands on the podcast.

Blake Rea: 1:32:00

I'm not going to say who but, going back, I just want to see the community grow. I want to see a transparent watch community. I want to see new people getting into the hobby. I want to like a supportive watch community, because this community can be very, very, very toxic, but it can also be very, very, very supportive, um, and and so if I had a perfect world, it would be that, um, and that's kind of the reason why, you know, lonely wrist exists. You know, because I I liked, I liked being in the community, I liked talking about watches, I liked being that resource, but I hated the process of doing it, because when you're selling watches I think I don't know if you know, but I came from an AD, so I came from that, like you know, suit and tie, retail environment, um, and it feels like a very sterile experience, you know, and, and there's also a a shady aspect of it, you know, um, like where people were coming in for certain watches that we had, but we pretended that we didn't have.

Cameron Barr: 1:33:17

You know, um, so I think that's an interesting facet and not to you know, interrupt you. But I think the one thing that I like it's funny, right, because you have this collector side, or whatever you want to call it, which is like oh, did you get that at retail? Well, how much did you pay for it? And I'm like, what does it have to do with? What does it matter? Right, like that, that collector kind of acquisition dynamic really took a shift where it was like well, do you even like the watch or did you just buy because it was available and at retail? You know, regardless of what it, what it is, and I think that's something I don't deal with a lot, because we're more on the vintage side of the fence where it's like, okay, great, we have this watch and it's one of two available in the entire world, right, um, and I like that element of it as well. I'm not saying that I'm not a modern watch guy like I think the new ceramic daytona white dial it's a grill watch for me, right, but to pay $36,000 for one, I there's so many other things I'd rather acquire that, I think would give me a better sense of exclusivity. You know, if I could get one at retail, awesome, like let's do it, um, but I think that that and there's nothing wrong with that I think that that's, that's, that's fine. I don't I don't really have an's nothing wrong with that. I think that that's, that's, that's fine.

Cameron Barr: 1:34:44

I don't I don't really have an opinion on that, right, but I think the collector mentality kind of changed to where it wasn't really about the watches anymore, it was about, like the hype behind some of these things. And I don't I'll say this, I don't really think it was necessarily, you know, the brands themselves doing this. I think it was kind of the market that did this to itself, you know. I mean, it was kind of it's the community, and I fortunately don't deal with that side of the community a lot because I deal with true enthusiasts and collectors. But to your point, like where's the passion, where's the you, the you know, where where's the excitement with these things? Versus, just like what'd you pay? I'm like I don't know.

Blake Rea: 1:35:25

I could show you 15 other watches that are like half the price of whatever it is that you're showing me, that are much more horologically interesting and much more significant and just as cool, and they're not 150 000, I got you know now, now that and I I've said this on the record too, like I mean people who watch me on youtube, like I go on and stream a lot with a lot of other youtubers and I've said this publicly but but now, now that the brands essentially the covid pushed the hype up right, right, for whatever watch, right, daytona, submariner, whatever OPs, so the brands got used to that and then their business model has been to maintain the hype, not to produce the hype, right. So you know, you see brands like Rolex or Patek or I mean not so much Lange anymore or Vacheron, because those brands are kind of falling away from the hype. But Rolex does a great job at it, patek does an amazing job at it, but they're keeping the hype up, they're maintaining it, they're propping it up by creating this surplus, it up. By creating this surplus I mean, especially if you look at the retail Rolex distribution model, where there is 2 million watches produced a year don't quote me on the number but and then there's 3,300 retail partners, right, where do the watches go? You know they end up at on chrono 24 or, you know, on ebay or at a premium or at some great market dealer or whatever like um. So, but the thing that I do believe is that now that this hype has like this, this hype has pushed the market there, I don't think brands like rolex or, or patek or ap, are gonna let those, those, those hype pillars, fall, like they're gonna continue to hold the, the hype weapon, um, and they're doing it by the artificial surplus, I think, you know, because I know, I know it was in our safe.

Blake Rea: 1:37:34

You know, when I worked at a retailer and it was crazy, you know, um, and that was again part of the reason why I, it just wasn't for me, because I, I, I take pride in being honest and transparent and and a pillar, you know, a beacon in this community.

Blake Rea: 1:37:51

I'm trying to to be known as that, um, where you know I'm not going to give you the fluff, I'm not going to give you the bullshit, um, and I just, I just couldn't, I couldn't continue down that path, um, without I felt like I was losing my integrity, you know yeah, I think you know, I I think that's the the thing that I love about cnt and and maybe kind of the position that we hold, and again, we don't really deal with a lot of modern, modern watches, I think, I think interest yeah, I think we're just dealing with the, with the collectors and the consumers and a lot of my clients and a lot of our, our, the guys that we work with, guys and gals, they have, you know, a diverse collection, right, it's not just all modern Rolex, gals.

Cameron Barr: 1:38:38

They have, you know, a diverse collection, right, it's not just all modern Rolex, it's not just all, you know, grail level, patek. I think that variety is the spice of life and I think most of the people that I work with and what we do from a content perspective is very informative. You know, we'll, you know that's that's my ultimate goal. I try to stay out of the politics a little bit, because, one, I can't control them and also, like, there's so much more interesting stuff too, like you know, I love discovering new things that, um, you know, maybe somebody didn't consider and that's really fun, fun and and interesting.

Cameron Barr: 1:39:15

But I think you're, I think the the common theme for sure is that you know there's an element of the community that is very supportive and very much uplifting to the collectors themselves, and I think that that's something, um, that's really important to me, right, Regardless of where you're at in your collecting level or what you have in the collection. Um, you know, I think that that's something that I want to perpetuate within what we do as a dealer. Granted, we are definitely more on the vintage side and that kind of stuff, but I think that, you know, that's the other great thing. There's so many different facets to our community with the independence and, you know, with all that stuff, there's so many flavors, right, and at the end of the day it might all be a form of ice cream, but there's an unlimited number of flavors. That makes this so cool and rewarding and interesting.

Blake Rea: 1:40:08

Something that I noticed too, and if you look at some of my other projects, so we have obviously Lonely Race, and then we have the Vegas Wash Society, which was kind of appointed to me by another community and there hadn't been a Vegas Red Bar for a while. So we saw an opportunity. And then, if you notice about watch collecting, you see people that have a lot of money and you see people that are one watch collectors that dream to have just a rolex, you know, it doesn't matter what rolex it is, or just to have an omega or something. So in the watch community you have people that are, you know, just trying to get by, and then you have these ultra high worth people. But then you find yourself, you, you find that these, this community, segments even further by how much money you have.

Blake Rea: 1:40:59

So the patek collectors will stick together. The you know the rolex, patek ap, you know, the longer guys will all be like okay, here, here we are. And then the one guy with a citizen that does hundreds of hours worth of of research every week trying to learn about new, like watches, technology, innovations. I mean, why? Why is there such a segmented collector, like we're already, like a small percentage of of collectors like there's so many other different types of collecting, like hobbyists that collect different things, like watches is not a top collected item, you know.

Blake Rea: 1:41:36

Um, so that goes back to the vegas watch society um, trying to bridge the gap of just the one citizen guy who loves watches to the, the guy like we had a guy we had an event, um march, uh, march 9th I think and uh, you know, there was one guy that had a citizen or like a you know, just a seiko five or whatever, and he was super passionate about watches but he felt like he didn't have the place to be at our watch community because he didn't have a rolex or because he didn't have a patek or whatever. But then we had a collector that flew in from california and he had a day date with a mother of pearl dial, um, the diamond indices, and it was a rolex masterpiece with the, the, the credor right, the, the yellow gold, rose gold and the white gold yeah, the tridor, yeah, that's yeah tridor, sorry, yeah, and so he was passing it around.

Blake Rea: 1:42:31

You know there was maybe 70 people there and he was passing this watch around. Um, so, so just giving, giving somebody that space, giving somebody that community, is probably the most important thing for me.

Cameron Barr: 1:42:45

For, for lonely risk, um and I think that's really awesome and the fact that you're able to facilitate that. Maybe bring the guy in. That is kind of just starting, but maybe he got to like feel the Tridore for the first time or experience it Like that's, that's something. I think that that is really important. We have, you know, a showroom here in LA and the thing that I love doing is bringing people in and having kind of a watch hang. And I think the other thing too is that we are so internet based that in many cases, like we're looking at these images on online, but when you feel and experience some of these things for the first time, it can kind of change your, your perspective in some cases for the better or for the worse. It's like you know.

Cameron Barr: 1:43:30

For example, I would say platinum is probably not my top metal for watches. It's so heavy. But I love the way that platinum looks right. It has kind of this white gold. It's kind of its own thing. I didn't really understand until later in my collecting that like I can't wear platinum because it's not functional, it's so heavy. It depends on, you know, its format or whatever. But yeah, right, experiencing that and like its format or whatever. But yeah, right, experiencing that and like feeling stuff is so cool and you know to your point.

Cameron Barr: 1:44:04

For the Vegas Watch Society to be able to facilitate that stuff I think is so important and I would encourage people to get involved in that, even if you have a citizen, you know like, I mean, there are a couple of jerks out there, for sure, there's always a bad apple in a bushel, right, but generally speaking, for the most part, the watch community has been um, kind of cool and kind of welcoming for the most part.

Cameron Barr: 1:44:30

Right, there's always a, again, a bad apple for for every you know bunch, but, um, yeah, and I think to, to, to be able to, to pull, pull that together like I think is really cool, especially in an area like Vegas, because it's such an interesting community. We were out there together with Robert Port during F1 and what a crazy place like Vegas is really cool, you know, and and in a way, for the locals, that I think is also really different, because I I come in and out of vegas I come from for watch shows or events or whatever. I don't live there, but, um, people that live there are really interesting and cool people. Um, and watch community I'm sure there is is also equally as cool and interesting I haven't.

Blake Rea: 1:45:14

I haven't seen much of it, and that was surprising by our first event. Because, you know, like course, the way that I tried to grow the community was through my friends in retail, like, hey, like if you have a few customers that are locals, that are super watch nerds, like connect me with them, like I would love to meet them, and I see a lot of people that come and go out of vegas, but, you know, here the locals, we kind of stay out of the the scene, you know, because it's really easy for you to get caught up in, you know, whether it's gambling or or other toxins here, right? So, um, the community is very, is very different, um, and and so, yeah, took a. I felt like it was really challenging for me to kind of unearth this community. Um, and I have no idea why the local red bar community stopped doing Vegas. Maybe just the leadership didn't get passed over or whatever. Um, and it felt like there's this huge gap and you know, I had heard people that said like hey, like you know, don't start this in Vegas, Like this is gonna. There's this huge gap and I had heard people that said like hey, don't start this in Vegas, there's just not enough demand for it or people are so hard to get organized, or whatever. I just got a lot of pushback and a lot of constructive feedback that was telling me to not do it, but that just made me want to do it more.

Blake Rea: 1:46:40

And then the fact that we had such a large event and we had a company like bucherer, which is arguably I mean not arguably, but the biggest watch retailer in the world. Because when I approached them, I was like, hey, I want to start a watch community in Vegas and I don't have a community, but I want to start it and I want your help. And um, and they were like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. You know, it was that, it was that natural. And I was like, holy shit, like I thought that they were just like like, laugh me out of the building, you know Cause I told them. I was like look, I don't know how many people are going to show up. I'm going to do an RSVP. I'm going to make sure we keep records of people who are coming, like you know what, what type of collectors they are, um, you know, to get some information about them. So we know that we're having like a good mix of of of enthusiasts and um and and it literally started off with all of my retail partner friends were like, yeah, dude, I'll help you, I'll help you, I'll help you, I'll help you.

Blake Rea: 1:47:41

But then it just became like crickets, like nobody helped me, zero people helped me. So there I am, like up until the last minute, like, of course, I had almost like 45 or 50 people that RSVP'd and I was like, oh shit, like what, if no? You know, like there's a thought in my mind where I get. I got to Bukovar and there was nobody there. It was just an empty showroom and I was like, shit, am I going to be the only person like me and my five friends that flew in? And here I am, like they're flying in, I'm promising them that this is going to be an amazing watch show. And you know like there was always that doubt in my mind, um, but at the end of the day, my friends were like dude, this is just for for them. You know, it's not, it's not for anybody else. So if people don't see that there's a community here that's for them, then then yeah, it's their loss.

Blake Rea: 1:48:35

But ended up being an amazing show. We're doing um, another one on the 12th, which is april 12th, and it's just going to be like low, low, um, low pressure, like we're just going to do, like maybe at a bar, like a little poor house, or you can go, wait, you know, uh, weigh your own beers out. Uh, that's cool. And then I, I'm also working on a few other larger events. So you know, our goal is to have at least two to three large events a year, and when I say large, I mean a couple hundred people, if we can pull it together. And then, just you know, maybe the 10, 20 or 15 guys that are just like you know grabbing beers, you know showing off their newest watches, or whatever yeah, having a hang and then bringing bringing exposure, I think, to to the vegas scene that is nearly impossible to do but but showcasing.

Blake Rea: 1:49:29

There's so many great watch brands out there, like like when we went to atlanta, like like justin and I just came back from atlanta, like yesterday, like the day before um, and we're at a watch show with 17 different brands and they're all amazing watch brands in their own light, but not a lot of people get the opportunity to buy them or to get hands-on with them, should I say? Because there is this paralysis that goes in where you see a watch on the internet and you know it. It's probably the most challenging thing as an internet watch dealer is creating an accurate picture of the product you're selling.

Justin Summers: 1:50:07

Yeah, for sure.

Blake Rea: 1:50:08

And especially vintage. That's like impossible to do yeah.

Cameron Barr: 1:50:13

It's tricky sometimes, for sure.

Blake Rea: 1:50:15

There's so many brands out there that people will never get the opportunity to buy or to own or to get hands-on with because they don't have the distribution. You know they don't like. You know it wasn't until two years ago that Oris, like a huge brand in the watch industry. They didn't have a retail partner in Vegas.

Cameron Barr: 1:50:36

That's so weird.

Blake Rea: 1:50:37

Yeah, a retail partner in vegas, that's so great, yeah, you know. So I I am talking and working on um bringing something like that to vegas, you know, like helping to curate a collection of brands, because everybody comes to vegas, you know. So the challenge is what will get people off the strip and into my part of vegas, like like henderson or summerlin, um, to see these brands? Like, what brands excite people enough to get them to take an uber 20 minutes away, 15 minutes away from the strip, to see this watch, um, and that is the question that that I I have I have the answers, um, but I'm working to to try and do so that's awesome, man.

Cameron Barr: 1:51:31

Well, it's going to be fun seeing that grow. And, uh, you know, I'm sure I'll be following along with, uh, social and we have some vegas stuff, I, I think, coming up there's, I think the the show. Sometimes I kind of forget, like, what we're doing, because I'm like, okay, here's what I have for the day and then, okay, great, we're getting on the airplane and then doing that kind of thing. But, um, I think for the antique show we definitely go, I think every year. Um, I think there's like a smaller, uh, like jewelry show, it's like an IWJG or something, and then the big antique show, um, they do the Vegas one and then they do, uh, own boss, miami, original, miami beach antique show. So, generally, those shows will definitely be out and, um, when we're in town, we gotta, we gotta get together, we'll do a dinner or something. It'd be great to catch up with you guys.

Blake Rea: 1:52:19

I already have my pass for the Vintage Watch Show, which is May 30th to June 2nd. It's during that same time as Couture, which is the antique one. I definitely would love to see you at that one, I think also in the future too.

Blake Rea: 1:52:38

we've done some, some trader spotlights, if I can call you a trader um and uh, and I would love to you know work on something like that with you in the future yeah, that'd be cool, you know, maybe follow you around with some cameras and and if you're down, let me tag along to to hong kong or japan or whatever, and and I would be that that third perspective, where I'm not I'm not going to take away from your mission, which is to go out there and to acquire products, but just to to document the odd things that that you guys don't have time to, yeah, I'm just trying to start the netflix series.

Cameron Barr: 1:53:15

I'm trying to start a netflix series like like I, I want those, I want that, that, uh, those netflix, uh publishing producer rights.

Blake Rea: 1:53:24

I got to get in there early I'm working on it, man, let me give me the opportunity I'm down man but but no, I mean, it's just what you're doing is amazing and I told, told Justin before you came on that that this was. I mean, I hope that a lot of the people who come on the podcast don't hear this part, but um, but I was definitely probably most excited for this one, um, oh, thanks man.

Cameron Barr: 1:53:50

I really appreciate that.

Justin Summers: 1:53:51

He was. He was fangirl, and just just a little bit.

Blake Rea: 1:53:54

I was, I was, I was, I was like man, this is a big one, this great I was. I was hyping up to justin because justin was like oh, whatever, you know that's another podcast.

Justin Summers: 1:54:04

We'll kill it man.

Blake Rea: 1:54:05

either way, great show, but there's so much, there's so much alignment between what we do and what you do and you know, anytime, for example, I'm sure you probably see, but anytime you guys have a crazy unique watch like I always repost it on my, on my social to to try and create some awareness and help you guys, you know, get out there and yeah, I really appreciate that.

Cameron Barr: 1:54:28

I think for me too, I, you know, as we grow, I don't know if I, like you know, I never thought Kraft and Taylor would be like this. You know, I never thought that, like you know, I was coming back from Japan. It's like the weirdest thing. I like sit down in my seat and I like look over and the guy that's like across from me is like scrolling watches and then he like looks at me and he's like, oh, I just saw your Japan video. I'm like, yeah, I'm here in Japan. We had this conversation. He was a really cool tutor. We just started talking watches. This was a weird thing.

Cameron Barr: 1:55:11

I was on the same leg, I was transferring trains in Dallas or something going to a different terminal, and I step onto this train and this guy's like Cam and I'm like hey, and he ended up being a client that I'd never met before, who was an international client traveling, and so that was really cool because it was the first time that we had met, because we had been DMing and he bought watches from us and there was kind of like that virtual connection.

Cameron Barr: 1:55:36

But it was like cool meeting this guy and in a, in a train of all places right Just through happenstance. So I never thought that we would be here. I don't know where we're going to end up, but I think the fun thing is is that, um, I don't really care how big or how large this gets. I, the community, is the most important thing for me, and giving people access and and you know, showing people what we're doing, I think, is the most important thing for us. So so, yeah, man, I I appreciate the opportunity to be on the on the pod. I really like what you guys are doing and you know we had a great, a great time in in vegas when we were doing stuff for rob report. So, um, we did.

Blake Rea: 1:56:22

I know we were talking about them, but but, um, yeah, we had, we didn't have as we didn't have as much time then to to clack down like a two-hour pod, but uh, but no, it was. It was an honor to be on the same panel as you, for sure, and for now, free to come on our podcast and you know, I've been a been a fan for years and and you're, you're worth forever fans.

Blake Rea: 1:56:45

So so, yeah, we will always support you in any way that you, any way that we can, from us here at lonely.

Cameron Barr: 1:56:55

I really appreciate that. Yeah, no, this has been an honor and a super fun pod. Thanks for having me, for sure. Thanks.

Blake Rea: 1:57:01

Joe, yeah, well, thanks, we're cracking here two hours now. We always have an epic one every once in a while, and so, yeah, I'm glad that you came on and we will definitely, definitely, definitely be watching and we'll definitely stay in touch, for sure.

Cameron Barr: 1:57:19

Blake, Justin, thanks again for having me, guys. It's been an honor. Can't wait to hear myself speak. But yeah, thanks for having me on, guys. I really appreciate it and we'll be in touch. I'll see you, guys in Vegas.

Blake Rea: 1:57:36

Yeah, you're welcome.

Cameron Barr: 1:57:38

Bye, guys, thanks.

Blake Rea: 1:57:40

Bye.