The Art of Bespoke Watchmaking with John McConnico of Bespoke Watch Projects

When time itself becomes an artist's canvas, magic happens on the wrist. John McConnico of Bespoke Watch Projects joins us to unravel this enchantment, turning the gears of creativity to reveal timepieces that speak volumes more than just the hour. Our conversation traverses John's evolution from a creative director to the mastermind behind a brand where personal expression and precision craftsmanship converge—each watch is not a mere gadget but a narrative, a distinctive statement crafted in collaboration with its future wearer.

Imagine your life's milestones, your passions, and your legacy, all encapsulated within the confines of a watch face—this is the intimate journey we embark upon with John. He graciously walks us through the process behind these bespoke creations, from fostering deep customer relationships over a casual coffee to designing watches that are as much an heirloom as a utility. As we delve into the emotional heft of these timepieces, John shares stories that exemplify how watches serve as vessels of heritage, marking the poignant moments that define us.

We wrap up with an exploration into the meticulous craft and challenges behind these horological artworks. John's insight into the balancing act of luxury and accessibility leaves us pondering the value of time—not just as it ticks away on our wrists but in the dedicated efforts of artisans like himself. The episode concludes on a heartwarming note, echoing John's commitment to his craft and the personal touch that turns a Bespoke Watch Project into something to cherish for generations.

Checkout Bespoke Watch Projects:
https://www.bespokewatchprojects.com/

Transcript

Blake Rea: 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist. Today we have John tuning in from Bespoke Watch Projects. Say hello, introduce yourself.

John McConnico: 0:11

Hello everyone. It's great to be here.

Blake Rea: 0:14

Great to have you. Great to have you. Tell us about Bespoke Watch Projects, tell us what's so special. Obviously, you don't need an introduction to me, but a part of the podcast is bringing awareness for brands, maybe that that don't have such a mainstream outlet, um. So tell us about bespoke watch projects and tell us, tell us, how it started absolutely.

John McConnico: 0:35

Uh well, my name is john mcconico. I'm the founder, designer, watchmaker, uh, mad scientist of dials. I started Bespoke Watch Projects approximately 10 years ago, getting right up to that 10-year mark. There's a little bit of ambiguity there because when I first started out it truly was a personal project. I come from a design and art background. I was a creative director for years in agencies. I've done product development in the past. I studied architecture in art school years ago.

John McConnico: 1:11

So I've kind of had my hands on a lot of different creative things. I've been a watch collector. I mean I have a story, like a lot of other folks, that as a kid I collected watches, had that interest, and then probably seriously started collecting watches in college, right after college, so 90s I'm dating myself but you know, been a collector a long time. And so approximately 10, 11, 12 years ago started the process of kind of learning some of the core kind of watchmaking skills. You know a lot of the dexterity around assembling watches and just you know I knew some of the basics, but you know a lot of the dexterity around assembling watches and just you know I knew some of the basics but you know more of the hands-on stuff and at that point it really was a desire really to make my own watch. The irony in that is that, even though I come from a creative background and kind of very design-driven and art-influenced and kind of very design driven and art influenced, at that time I really was kind of more into kind of very simple tool watches and my first release was actually a Flieger, a pilot watch. I'm putting my own spin on it. So actually I did a Sunray I call it the Sunray Flieger and at that point didn't even really have a brand name. So I was kind of tinkering.

John McConnico: 2:39

I was coming up with my own spin on things and then sharing social media and then within about 18 months it went from being kind of this total side project to something of those early watch groups and just other friends who are watch nerds, you know, wanted a bespoke watch. Essentially they said, yeah, I'd love what you're working on. Could you do something special for me? And that was really part of the thrill for me was that the fact that I'm touching every watch, the fact that I'm making it for someone. You know, I've always loved gift giving, so it's kind of like that little bit of the endorphin rush you get from that. And then it really did kind of transition pretty quickly.

John McConnico: 3:11

At that point, within about six months, I said, okay, I kind of have something here, you know, I should formalize this. So what the heck do I call myself? You know, well, I guess I'm doing bespoke watch projects, okay. So it really was kind of a literal you know a literal term and it actually at the time I had a design firm I'd founded with a buddy of mine and we, you know, you know we were always into kind of this very kind of modernist naming methodology about what we do, you know, influenced by kind of this form is function kind of kind of approach. And so for me, you know, naming the, this kind of watch pursuit, really was about while my name is associated with it, while I make it very apparent that I am the person creating the watches that it really is as much about this collaboration with every client, every customer. So I tell people I'm kind of like an architect for the wrist. It's about this kind of interaction, it's about this collaboration.

John McConnico: 4:13

I do make ready-made pieces which I rotate on my site as well as make for events such as wind up and intersect and a lot of the events that I do as wind up and intersect and a lot of the events that I do. So even if a person buys a ready-made piece, they're still unique. Each build is unique, you know. Each dial has a certain kind of unique quality to it. So for me it's really always been about that kind of specialness, that relationship with each customer and the kind of uniqueness of every watch. You know, every watch is essentially this little piece of art or this little house that I'm making. And then fast forward a few years from that start, you know, I would say within three or four years.

John McConnico: 4:57

After that I was prototyping and doing stuff. I said I really want to do something different. Not I don't want to do an homage, I don't want to do kind of my own spin on an existing historical design, even though I love a lot of vintage stuff. So really the secret sauce for me was bringing in the dial production in-house. So it's something I left out.

John McConnico: 5:19

I'm in California, so I'm in Oakland, california, in the Bay Area, and I have a studio. So I actually have kind of a two-sided studio, the dirty side and the clean side. So and it's really more akin to gosh, I mean, it's kind of like a combination of a, you know, an architecture studio and an artist studio, as opposed to kind of your traditional watch company. And the reason for that is really that, you know, for me it's that process of I've always done fine art over the years as well, so I incorporate a lot of those processes into my watchmaking.

John McConnico: 5:52

All of my dials that I currently offer are what I call intaglio dials, which intaglio printing, which comes out of fine art that is actually like engraved surface that you print with. So when I created my dial kind of techniques a few years ago, it's about this kind of tactile quality that all my dials have, so they're engraved, they're actually not traditionally printed and I use custom patinas and finishes and surfaces and all of my dials. So that kind of adds to the to the uniqueness of each piece. The uniqueness of the dials I'm constantly doing batches of them kind of adds to the uniqueness of each piece. The uniqueness of the dials I'm constantly doing batches of them, kind of like a potter would do pottery, or some of the techniques I use are the same I used in paintings years ago. So in some ways it's kind of been full circle.

John McConnico: 6:41

You know, I've been around for a while. I've done a lot of shows and you know I'm kind of a I guess, a unique. I have a unique profile in terms of an independent brand or micro brand because of the way I produce things. But I've found that as the years have gone on, that the kind of design background I have, the art background I have, really does bleed into the watchmaking and it's kind of like one creative bucket, if that makes sense. Yeah, so it's. You know, it's been kind of interesting journey. That that's still. You know, it's still an interesting journey.

Blake Rea: 7:11

So yeah, I mean, when I was reading about you, um, doing my homework right, doing my background check, um, you know, I saw you worked with. You know, big box brands apple, sony, I mean, and those are, those are brands that take design, unique approaches to design, right and everything has a practical design touch. I guess this I don't know if that's the right way to explain it, but the laptop folds in a certain way, the the sony camera screen opens in this certain way, for a certain reason Everything has a practical design utility. And so how has that process been like, from designing consumer products to designing wearable art? You know?

John McConnico: 8:02

Yeah, I mean it's funny because, surprisingly, a lot of people ask me about you know a how the heck to get into watchmaking, um, and B kind of um gosh, how long it take you to learn watchmaking. And and I like to say, well, there, there's no such thing as really learning all the watchmaking. It's kind of like you want to learn a new piece of software, you, you learn the six things you want to know and then it's much easier to learn the next 60, right? But for someone truly to say that they know everything is usually, uh, not true. So you know, I'm I'm very humble when it comes to my, my kind of watchmaking expertise. I've, I've been very lucky over the years to learn a lot and have a couple people who are older than I am who, um, have given me a lot of over the years to learn a lot, and have a couple people who are older than I am who, um, have given me a lot of tips along the way and a lot of it is is kind of practice and dexterity and just you know, like learning an instrument or something, um, but the watchmaking side of it what's interesting is is kind of the, the product, the engineering side of it. I felt like in some ways I was extremely lucky and that came together pretty quickly in terms of my understanding of it, being able to learn more and then rely on a lot of other people to help me along the way. And it's no coincidence just like I think we're all aware of is that with the rise of micro brands, independent brands and small brands that you know, production has changed extremely a lot in the last 10 years. You know the capabilities that we have in terms of being able to source parts or get parts made. You know collaborate with other people to get parts made. That kind of thing has changed a lot. So I think in some ways my timing was lucky.

John McConnico: 9:43

But what's interesting is that you know back to your question is the you know designing something for the wrist. Like my wife, for example. She's in fashion, she has her own apparel brand. We both have, you know, an art school background, design background. I think through osmosis I've kind of learned a lot about apparel design, just having a lot of friends in that space, even though I've not designed apparel per se. So kind of like the physicality part of that, I think, is something I had kind of an just an awareness about and maybe just being, you know, all of us who are kind of watch lovers and collectors, I think there's a certain awareness about how the watch fits, how it curves and, you know, hugs the wrist and all that kind of stuff. So I think there's a certain kind of intuitiveness to that.

John McConnico: 10:29

But I think, surprisingly, I couldn't have predicted just the kind of tangent I would take in terms of fine art kind of influences and off-roading a little bit in terms of doing different finishes and experiments with finishes. So I think a lot of my time over the last five or six years has been kind of these non-traditional methods and really, you know, pushing myself. So I'm that way whether it's gosh, whether it's creating a painting, whether it's building piece of furniture, whatever, whatever I'm working on, I kind of like to push myself kind of beyond my comfort zone a little bit. Or, um, I think charles eames had a great quote about kind of playing jazz with something in the process, like when you yeah, when you're designing, like you allow yourself to kind of, uh, have a little bit of flexibility.

John McConnico: 11:18

And so I tell people that you know, with some of my watch styles, for example, they came about not because I had a premeditated design, um, but or concept, but because I kind of embraced the, the process and the materials, just like, uh, you would do a painting.

John McConnico: 11:33

You know so a lot of uh, you know a lot of my, my pieces are. You know ones that I perfected that that were, um, you know different lacquers and enamels and finishes and and kind of plating and plating, uh, testing that I've done, that I wouldn't have necessarily known to do beforehand. Um, so you know, that's kind of part of the exciting part of it is that that, um, I yes, I think I rely a lot on my background and product development and art direction and other things. But you know, I even surprised myself at how much of the stuff pushing forward is the unknown. You know, it's the stuff that you kind of discover in the process and I think that with any kind of interesting artist or interesting designer or even brand, I feel like that's a common thread that you find the more interesting folks are the ones who allow themselves to kind of take on influences and experiment and kind of come up with a new destination, for lack of a better term.

Blake Rea: 12:35

Right. And as a, obviously I'm a creative too, right. So here I have a podcast, I have a YouTube channel, I do all the filming, I do all the editing, I do all that Photography.

John McConnico: 12:42

We do all that.

Blake Rea: 12:43

I do all the filming, I do all the editing, I do all that Um, photography, we do all that. You know, you, you find yourself grounded in, like your base art form or creativity platform, right, so, like you know, I'll venture off and do a podcast, like I'm doing now, and then I'm like oh, I come from filmmaking. You know, filmmaking is my background, right, but it takes a lot of the same principles of narrative direction, like we have to keep this story going or people will not listen to this podcast the structure that you have.

Blake Rea: 13:13

Yeah, yeah, and so I understand the process of structure. You know linear and non-linear storytelling, yada, yada, yada, um. But you find yourself as a creative. You know, of course, like I'm, every time I do a new project, like if I get a new watch or whatever to do a review, it's like I'm starting over from zero every single time. Like I, I know how to do it, but I don't like. Everybody's like, oh, what are you gonna do? I don't know, I don't know. Like I have no idea, um, but then the story.

John McConnico: 13:43

you kind of let the story speak to you, yeah.

Blake Rea: 13:47

You know how to push off. It's like you know how to push off and how to get going, but you never know where you're going to end up. I don't know where the finish line is, but that's just a part of being a creative right.

John McConnico: 14:04

I like to say if you're doing a painting and the same thing with anything with a story film you're only done when you choose to stop touching it.

Blake Rea: 14:12

Oh my gosh yeah exactly that's it.

Blake Rea: 14:14

You know, and you could take every Hollywood blockbuster that's done hundreds of millions of dollars a year and re-edit it and tell a different story. You could do that for the rest of your life. Yeah, so it's hard, but it's definitely fun to come back to that. And in watchmaking, we're talking about watchmaking here. But look at Cartier. Cartier is one of the best watchmakers in the world, you know, and they sell a lot of watches because they come from fashion, they come from jewelry, so so they're, they're more experimental with shapes and materials and precious metals and and they can shape things a lot differently than than IWC or what you know what I mean, and their heritage.

John McConnico: 15:04

I mean they, they have such a, they have such a history to pull on in terms of kind of what inspires them, what they do with materials, for example. Yeah, yeah, it's like I mean just like all the brands they kind of pull from that. And it's kind of like you said. It's that. It's that core, core part of every brand's DNA. You know, pull on.

Blake Rea: 15:26

And if you think about the world I think is especially the watch world is upside down, right, because you think of luxury, right, luxury is not mass market, luxury is not mass production, right? So the the sense here, right, um, you know you're an artisan, right, so you have the the ability to put together, in theory, a more beautiful watch than the most luxurious, prestigious watchmaker, because you have the attention to detail. Right, you may not have the same resources, the same money, right To do what they do, but you're only limited by your creativity.

John McConnico: 16:14

Yeah, and actually that's a really interesting point, because I had a conversation a while back last year with someone, an in-depth discussion about what luxury means, and for me I think it's changed over the years. But luxury to me is not the kind of canned concept of it's got to cost this amount, it's got to have this. Obviously, there's a certain kind of rarity to things that are luxurious, but in the world we live in now it's such a kind of, as you know, it's like okay, we're going to release 500 of these, whatever it might be a purse, a watch, boots, whatever and there's a rarity that they kind of build into that to bank on the fact that that means luxury. And obviously materials are part of it too and they can be beautifully made. But for me luxury is and this is especially true as I get older um, you know, luxury are those things that we. They can be time, they can be experiences, they can be your relationship to an object, whether it is a one dollar object or a million dollar object.

John McConnico: 17:17

Um, for me it's, it's a love for design and art. So if I find something that really really speaks to me, whether it's a watch, whatever it is, it's almost agnostic of price. So I kind of, in some ways, as I've gotten deeper into it, I approach my own watches and product like that Is that I want it to be an accessible heirloom number one, because half my customers are, I would say, watch people collectors who see it as a great value and something unique, are, I would say, watch people collectors who see it as a great value and something unique. Other house my customers are maybe, you know, maybe they're kind of getting up to that point where they want their first kind of watch. That's different, or maybe it's their first mechanical watch or maybe it's their. They've been saving up for something special. I never want to exclude those folks ever.

John McConnico: 18:01

So, I always feel like the kind of idea of the accessible heirloom and that luxury is something that really can transition. Yes, there can be very expensive luxury items, and for good reason, but also there can be ones that are very accessible in a lot of ways, and to me that's no less luxury. And it's kind of how I look at the world now too. It's like when you're inspired by something, I was like, okay, that's yeah, this thing or this experience is really, really special. That's kind of living a luxurious life in some ways, when you have that kind of relationship to things that you know it's not necessarily just price. So I think people's perception is changing a little bit, even in the watch space. You know, when I meet people at shows, I feel like what we all look for as collectors, for example, even if someone can afford a watch that costs XXXX, you know that. You know it doesn't mean that they don't appreciate something that is also um affordable.

Blake Rea: 18:57

Yeah, no, and, and I I actually sold some of the most expensive watches in the world.

Blake Rea: 19:03

I worked in a retail environment for about a year um and the watch industry and I got to see all you know, all avenues, all sectors. I got to to learn about the retail experience. You know know bringing brands in, you know doing events and all this stuff. I learned about all of it. But there becomes a point in a life where you transcend as a watch collector. I've never, ever vocally said this, but you know this is the platform to do it if it's my own.

Blake Rea: 19:33

But people transcend luxury products. Where I met a guy, for example, that came in and he was looking for a Grand Seiko and he had one of the rarest Pateks on in the world, like maybe an $800,000 Patek. But his philosophy was like, yeah, I'd much weather wear this grand seiko because I know it's a quality product, yeah, and it's a fraction of the price and I have the. I have probably a stronger connection.

Blake Rea: 20:09

He was, he was an asian, german, um, but he had a stronger connection with grand seiko than he did, even as rare as pateks you know, and so people come full circle where, and, and you know, you could look at fashion, right, like Kanye West, right, like, look at his clothing line, like, like the people that come out of his, of his fashion, like his fashion shows, look like homeless people, you know, right.

John McConnico: 20:39

Yeah, fashion shows look like homeless people.

Blake Rea: 20:41

You know right, yeah, he's definitely, he's definitely, uh uh, blurring the lines between all you know disciplines and yeah, yeah, yeah, like ultra high net worth and and so that that that gap of luxury and yeah in quality is is shrinking, or should I say that luxury and design quality or shrink?

John McConnico: 20:56

or shrinking.

Blake Rea: 20:57

But something that really interests me is you have mentioned that a wristwatch is an extension of somebody's personality, so I want you to elaborate on this philosophy and how it drives your design. So pretend that I'm a customer. I'm coming to you. Hey, john, I want to watch Before you just say, okay, cool, you can buy this, or the bespoke side of it. I want to get to know you before I build a product for you. Like, like, how does, how does that work? Right?

John McConnico: 21:29

So and that's funny that you say that, because that has happened where I've. I've literally met people at events where they've contacted me, and if they were local, for example, it's not unusual. People in the Bay area will find me. They hadn't heard of me before, but they'll see me in a show or they'll find me and we'll meet for a beer or coffee. I even had that in New York when I was there before. Someone actually went through my website, through the chat, and they were actually shocked that someone, a human, actually answered the web chat. So through the chat, and they were actually shocked that someone, a human, actually answered the web chat. So I think I would freak them out a little bit, but we actually ended up meeting up.

John McConnico: 22:08

So it's not unusual that you know, like I said, kind of that architect relationship, that it starts out with a conversation that starts out over a beer and sometimes customers don't even know exactly what they want. You know, like I said, half or maybe 60% of my customers are watch people. They, they have a certain affinity to certain things, whether it's you know, hey, I love a California dial, I love a sector dial, which I I'm a sucker for a sector or they love a Roman, you know they might have already some kind of preconceived ideas of what they want or what they think they want. What's interesting is that in that journey usually what I'll say is you know, here's stuff I'm working on First of all. Sometimes that kind of drives the conversation and actually people seeing the, the watch and the metal, you know, to actually see a dial, for example, you know one that I'm working on. You know I'm always working on new dials and new finishes. So sometimes just bringing that along to kind of show people and you can't replicate that on the web very easily in terms of texture and surface pattern, that kind of thing, that will inspire a lot of conversation.

John McConnico: 23:11

But I find that some of it is, you know, to your point about kind of the personality and getting to the person. You know sometimes it's it's influences in unexpected places, like, for example, I've started doing automotive additions, which I kind of formalized it recently but I've been doing it for gosh three years now probably, where someone found me at a show and he has a car that he races that you know. Long story short, I ended up designing something where I'm pulling motifs that areed the interior, um, actually using matching the automotive paint of his car and actually using that on the dial, on the engraved dial, so that that's kind of shows a level of customization or bespoke them that. Um, that is kind of one side of it. Uh, in terms of really really going deep in terms of okay, he was all about you know his racing and kind of having a time piece that captured that, I've also had a client who's an architect and we shared a lot of similar philosophies in terms of love of modernist design and other things.

John McConnico: 24:31

So capturing some of that stuff in the design of the dials and sometimes it can be unexpected places. You know it's not necessarily just because a person loves A, b or C, but you know things they gravitate to in their lives. You know whether it's obviously cars one, but you know certain types of design and so I try to kind of tap into that a little bit. It's like, um, I tell people ask questions that a designer or especially a watchmaker might not normally ask. Um, in terms of, it's almost like if you're a filmmaker, for example, you're gonna drill deep into the concept of something, or if you're working on a documentary, you might ask some questions that go kind of like a level deeper than people might expect yeah and it's all those textures that come together to kind of give you a full understanding of the story.

John McConnico: 25:20

And I'm kind of the same way, you know, and I love, you know, I love history, I love kind of finding out more about people, which is why I love doing events. So for me it's kind of natural to kind of ask that those kind of questions and dig deeper. And, like I said, it's all about creating an heirloom, right? So it's, you know, for me there's no greater compliment than to think that someone's great-grandchildren will have the same watch that I made for someone, because it really meant something to them. And, as we know, a lot of times when we buy watches, they can actually have a time and place associated with them too, or an event in our lives. Yeah, so for me it's, it's that's, you know, there's kind of an emotional aspect to it, with myself and with every customer that really I try to capture, which can be hard to quantify sometimes, you know, you really have to kind of dig deep to to figure it out there there's somebody I heard.

Blake Rea: 26:22

I don't remember who it was, but somebody said there's only one device in the world that tells you the future and the past at the same time and it's a watch. Yeah, because obviously it keeps the time in the future. But also you can look down at your watch and say I went to my honeymoon with this watch. I went to, you know, to to france and I dropped this watch and, yeah, you know, I lost it. And then somebody screamed at me hey, you sure you dropped. You know what I mean.

John McConnico: 26:52

Like you have these you look at a little ding on your watch and it's like, oh, I totally remember yeah, you know I want to keep this here, yeah.

Blake Rea: 26:59

Like I broke my finger when I made this ding or something. You know what I mean.

John McConnico: 27:02

Yeah, yep.

Blake Rea: 27:06

And that's the coolest thing that I've ever thought about watches as literally like time capsules, like they keep all those moments on the case, right, yeah?

John McConnico: 27:16

That's another interesting thing, and I've told this story before. But, um, my, my father passed away a year, a few years ago, and I got inherited my grandfather's pocket watch from I believe it's 1908 I might be wrong, but around that time and I never knew that he had it. So my dad had kept it in his jewelry box for his whole life and obviously he'd never gotten it cleaned or anything. So, you know, popped it open. It doesn't run on time yet, but it's it's, it's clean, it's beautiful. The interesting thing about that is I'd never met my grandfather, so he was born in the 1800s and he was. He died before I was born.

John McConnico: 27:55

So, as to your point, it's like this this pocket watch captures, uh, the past in a way. It's like this direct connection I have to my family, someone I never met. Um, I think that's pretty powerful too. When you think about the watches we're wearing on our wrist today, uh, you know, you hand those down, um, you know, hopefully someone takes care of them, um, and you just they, they end up telling a story, you know, like in the future, um, so it's almost like you're imprinted on the watch in a way, uh, and we're we're just kind of caretakers along along the watch's journey, you know and and my dad and probably your dad and and and, I don't think, my children, or maybe you know.

Blake Rea: 28:40

Um, but the first thing that people did when they woke up before cell phones was check the time. Hey, I woke up, had time to get the day going up it's x, 7 30 am.

Blake Rea: 28:54

You know I need to be at work by eight, so that gives me. You know that's the first thing that they would do check their watch, put their, put their watch on, you know, take it with them to the bathroom or whatever, and they would carry it with them because it was a necessity right, and now it's not. This is the exact opposite of a necessity now. Um, but to think about that and to to reel that in is like with your grandpa's pocket watch, like if you put that thing by your bed and the first thing you did when you woke up was check to see what time it was on your grandpa's pocket watch. You were doing the exact same thing he was doing with that exact same item.

John McConnico: 29:32

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Blake Rea: 29:34

And it's crazy.

John McConnico: 29:35

And to your point about like the, the dings on watches and stuff too, it's like when you that's what I love about like when I was watching. I'm still a watch collector but you know, like I would, I started out vintage years ago and that's the thing I liked about vintage is that you would see those dings, you'd see where you could tell if someone actually, by the back of the case, someone wore this watch every day, you know, and I would love that kind of patina, that kind of history that shows that someone used it, you know, as opposed to it being almost new old stock. So 50 year old wrist cheese, well, yeah, maybe cleaning that up first, yeah you can tell, you can tell but yeah, that's the.

John McConnico: 30:10

That's actually the, uh, the, the unfortunate um yeah.

Blake Rea: 30:17

So let's, let's walk our audience through. You know you talked about the why and the how, but let's, let's break it down a little more and walk us through the creative process. You know, um, how do you tailor the watch to the owner? I mean, obviously, obviously you said that they, they have some ideas, but I come to you and I want to watch. Yep, let's go from there, yeah.

John McConnico: 30:45

Yeah, so, um, you know, sometimes I start with um, I can tell pretty quickly if someone's kind of concept driven or, you know, their watch lover and they, you know, obviously kind of like certain things, gravitate to certain things, that might start the conversation. But sometimes I start with format. So, for example, I have several case options. My, my most popular one, which I released a couple of years ago, is my 38 millimeter kind of to no shape case. Which Beautiful case. Oh, thank you.

Blake Rea: 31:13

Yeah.

John McConnico: 31:14

I love it. I mean, it's something that I've I. I spent actually more than a year just getting the curve, the curve just right. So I kept curving lugs, curving lugs, curving lugs. It's kind of this balance. As most of my watches are kind of like this balance of tool watch and dress watch, meaning. Personally I love blurring lines between the two. I believe that everyone should kind of wear a watch and not have to worry about it, but there is a certain kind of specialness to it and depending on the dial selection and the handsets and the straps or bracelet, you know some of my watches can look very kind of field-like or tool-like, but then they can also easily look more dressy. So my cases are kind of designed like that.

John McConnico: 32:00

The 38 millimeter is my most popular format, but I also have midsize and I have even larger watches, ones I don't make as much anymore but you know, larger hand-wound movement, that kind of go from my my original Flieger Origins years ago. So you know I might get a handful of those that I create a year in that size. But sometimes I'll start there in terms of kind of what feels right on the wrist, what format, and then I'm going to be releasing, actually very soon another kind of 36 millimeter watch as kind of a little bit more of a field watch kind of profile, as well as a 39 millimeter. So you know, I think my core, my core collection, really is that kind of 36 to 39 millimeter and then within that my dials. Since I have this kind of flexibility and I do all the production of my dials in a house, that's where kind of the fun continues. So you know, if someone, for example, determines like yeah, I think I'd like a you know midsize, you know just feels nice and compact on my wrist, yeah, I want to you know leather strap, so it might start, that might be the original kind of start of it, and then we go from there into the concept of the dial and then I'll show them kind of a lot of stuff I'm working on and I literally have, you know book of patina recipes that I keep track of.

John McConnico: 33:25

I use different metals such as brass, copper, sterling silver, zinc, gold alloy. Most common ones are brass, copper and zinc, which kind of give you very different effects obviously. So I love copper and a lot of the warm metals. So you know, someone for example might say I'd love to have something that's like transitional, dressy but also a little tool-like, but they kind of gravitate to warm colors. Then a lot of it is me actually coming up with something that they didn't expect. You know, saying, hey, I can do a patented copper dial, for example, that's engraved, so it kind of gives you this really cool guilt effect on the dial. But then we could also do kind of a lacquer finish, you know, so you have this kind of high contrast style with copper elements in it, that kind of thing, and then I can even do, you know, say, custom painted hands with it. So it's a little bit different combination. So it's kind of like putting together a puzzle or building a little house.

John McConnico: 34:25

You know, sometimes they start with the overall format, which is the case. Other times people might start with a dial first saying, you know what, I haven't quite decided which size I want, but it kind of doesn't matter because I've engineered it so that I can really make the dial for any of those sizes, which kind of. You know, it's kind of an exciting thing. You know, just like a lot of watch collectors use the first thing.

John McConnico: 34:49

If I buy a watch, I usually don't like the strap, you know.

John McConnico: 34:51

I want to replace it, I hate it.

John McConnico: 34:54

Or there's something you always want to change about a watch. It's like, oh, I wish I could remove this one thing or I could swap out something. So that was part of it when I first started was giving people that power to kind of start to think about their watch in a different way. So I find that you know what people get really excited if they can just change a couple of things. You know they might see what I'm working on and say I love that. You know that kind of modern Roman dial, but wow, you could actually do that in copper and then we could use a different handset. And then I, you know, I source all the leather so that it's all very kind of special leather, even stuff that you can't find twice. So you know, they even that kind of thing. People really geek out quickly in terms of thinking about options. So I would say, more often than not it's about me kind of guiding them and helping limit options as opposed to I want to actually narrow the funnel versus broaden, you know.

Blake Rea: 35:51

Like wheel them in, like, hey, come on, let's do this.

John McConnico: 35:54

Yeah, just because you know people do get overwhelmed and I totally get that. Let's do this. Yeah, just because people do get overwhelmed and I totally get that. So it's something that I want to make sure that I can help guide them and come up with some options. And a lot of times people end up with something they didn't expect to. They actually end up very different in product than they expected to have, simply because they're allowing themselves to kind of experiment and consider different things.

John McConnico: 36:17

And also, I should add, and one big part of it is, I have a watch builder on my website that I launched a few years ago.

John McConnico: 36:23

That is a huge help because I don't put every dial option in there, but again, not to overwhelm people, but as I'm doing batches of dials and new designs, I'll put some of them in the watch builder and then every few weeks it changes, so it's always being refreshed. But I find that often people have already played in the watch builder and selected a case and a dial and a hand, set a strap and it you know it totally gives you an accurate visualization of what it is, um, and so they already have kind of an idea, like they, you know, they literally have like little cheat sheets where they've played around with it. So, um, I found that that's extremely helpful too, just kind of putting a little bit of power in their hands, but letting them also know that you know I'm kind of the chef so I can help direct them. And you know, um, uh, you know I can be a part of that process to help direct them with all the decisions.

Blake Rea: 37:15

So yeah, actually. Uh, ironically, I have the watch builder up here and one of my other tabs, and so I was having a little fun with it. So at some point I will own one of your watches, I promise you, you can kick the tires yeah. So obviously something that most people don't understand is obviously you're working with materials right like this. The watch supply chain is probably one of the most complex supply chains in the world absolutely arguably right.

Blake Rea: 37:46

so, beyond materials and sourcing, what are some of the challenges that you have kind of realized that exist in watchmaking and, conversely, like, what are the ways that you get past that and what are the most rewarding aspects?

John McConnico: 38:02

Hmm, you know, I think that's actually really interesting and something I've thought a lot about. I could probably answer that with like a single answer. So do it. You know, the first few years of of me starting this journey, you know know, as we know, like it was good timing in terms of certain parts were available, you know. So, for those who wanted to mod, watches or tinker, you know we're very lucky in the last 20 years that that's become a thing right. Um. So there is a certain accessibility that has increased, which is great. Um, yet at the same time, there's this kind of push pull process of the supply chain at a movements becoming hard to get.

John McConnico: 38:42

And as you probably noticed, most of my watches are at a movements. So yeah 2024 is my kind of workhorse movement that I use in most of the watches I make. So what's interesting about that is the first gosh. Probably six or seven years I was actually acquiring parts, I don't know, kind of in a I don't want to say hoarding, because that sounds dirty it doesn't not at all.

John McConnico: 39:12

I was collecting. I tell my wife I'm a collector, not a hoarder. Um, you know, literally there were parts that I was acquiring um over years that at the time you couldn't really foresee some of the supply chain difficulties. Um, but as I was getting busier and I was I was trying different things. Obviously that required some equipment and parts. So I was lucky enough to get like a lot of edit movements, for example, a lot of parts for them.

John McConnico: 39:41

And what I found is that I kind of got to the sweet spot a few years ago where I would spend so much time on production say five, six years ago, assembly, getting some more parts to fulfill orders, trying to plan ahead, whether it was manufacturing some parts or making stuff myself or acquiring it and finding a supplier or contact a supplier I had and trying to figure out if they have enough. But then I got to a point where I had enough of my internal supply in-house that, in conjunction with my processes becoming streamlined, I've kind of flip-flopped in a house that that, in conjunction with my process, has become more streamlined. I've kind of flip-flopped in a great way where, instead of spending 80, 80 percent of my time doing kind of busy work and production work. Now I find that you know, 80 of my time is planning ahead. It's creative development, it's prototyping, um, face time with people, you know it's like uh, which is great. So and a big part of that was kind of the and I just got lucky that you know kind of the supply chain part of it.

John McConnico: 40:45

Having parts in house that I could be a little bit more self-sufficient is huge. Um, I you know I still have to like my cases, for example. Um, those are something that I do in batches, so I tend to do about 300 cases in a run. That takes time. You know this 38 millimeter case is my most popular one. Now I actually started that process pre-COVID and it wasn't actually because of COVID that I actually spent a lot longer during development cycle because I was changing the profile and I was re prototyping things, but that really was about a two and a half year project for that run of cases. So there's certain things and that's something that people don't necessarily realize that it takes a long time for certain kind of parts to to make them to produce and to be ready. You know, luckily, the dial part of it is something that can iterate, which is kind of makes me a little bit of an odd duck in the micro brand space because I'm the one touching everything and assembling everything and making the dials, but it gives me a lot of flexibility.

John McConnico: 41:54

But I think the ongoing challenges which we all face as small brands are the capabilities of some manufacturing, and I know you had this discussion whether the brands. You know Vortec obviously I'm good friends with him and it's like we had that conversation too, like he's one of the rare folks that is kind of creating an infrastructure around manufacturing which is huge. So I think, as time goes on, it's going to be really really, really interesting for all of the brands that you know we kind of lift each other up, you know. So I think if we become more unified which I know in the UK that that's been great what they've been doing, I think as we all become more unified, I think it gives us a certain power, whether it's to go to particular factories to produce things that that they haven't produced yet, or creating obviously our own domestic kind of manufacturing capabilities.

John McConnico: 42:51

I think especially stuff like cases, sapphire crystals, I mean there is some some, there is some movement on the movements, um, you know, in Arizona, and stuff like. So there's, there's stuff um happening which I think is very exciting, um, but I think those are the challenges that I have, which everyone has, is that there's certain components that just require a lot of time and expense, um, and thinking ahead. So if I'm releasing a new case, that is not something that takes weeks or months but usually takes years to plan ahead for that. And obviously, investment, and for me I'm kind of being a small brand, basically a one-man brand that's something I take very seriously as well. I mean, I've had other businesses in the past in terms of design firm, but services organization is very different, obviously, from a product company. I'm never going to, you know, I'm A never going to borrow money and B I'm never going to be in debt, hopefully, and then C, yeah, and C, you know I always want to be profitable, but in a fair, responsible way.

John McConnico: 44:10

So you know, I like to keep my prices accessible. But you know, knock on wood, I you know I'm totally bootstrapped and that's kind of how I approach my development. So you know, I don't I don't pursue doing a new case or whatever it is I'm investing in, until I know that that's the proper thing to do, that I can meet the desired price point, you know, offer value to the end buyer. And also, obviously, you know that it works for my finances to actually invest in A, b or C. You know whatever that part is.

John McConnico: 44:43

But your original question there is, like I think the challenge is it's something that we all face a kind of similar supply chain challenges and just shortages too.

John McConnico: 44:53

You know, sometimes they're just things that we're talking about a niche within a niche, a niche in terms of watches. If you're looking for a particular kind of screw or part, even though it might be a fairly common thing within watchmaking itself, you're dealing with it in a bubble in a bubble. So, yeah, it might not be readily available. So I think you know, moving forward, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens, not just domestically but even globally with all sorts of brands in terms of our relationship, meaning independent and micro brands to the kind of mid-tier or larger brands. I think there's going to be interesting relationships that form, as well as just our kind of network of you know, independent brands. So I think you know, to me it's kind of an exciting time that I think there'll be a lot of change in the next five years. This is my rough prediction, but like it's exciting to even see brands that haven't been around that long, how much they've been able to do really quickly.

Blake Rea: 45:58

So so I'm a huge fan of back to the future is one of my favorite movies like absolutely.

Blake Rea: 46:05

Doc brown is one of my favorite characters. The only reason why I'm saying this is because I'm curious what your flux capacitor moment was like. You know, you hit your head, boom, came up with flux capacitor. There had to have been a watch that you were working on in in your studio for a customer and you're like, oh shit, like I didn't expect to do this and this, I didn't expect for this to happen. But this is insane and this is beautiful and now I'm gonna share with the world.

John McConnico: 46:37

Hmm, you know what there kind of is a flux capacitor moment. Um, yeah, it's interesting, I've never thought of it in that context. But yeah, I love back to the future yeah, yeah, you got to I'm a kid.

John McConnico: 46:47

I'm a kid of the 80s too. I love it. Um, yeah, I think I think really it. Uh, it wasn't necessarily a client commission, but when I started really allowing myself to do weird stuff, for lack of a better term. You know, as we all know, I think collectors now we all gravitate to things that are different and it's really refreshing to see that in the watch space, where you know what people doing weird stuff and it's like people love it. You know, people are into it, they want something different, offbeat. You know, we've seen a lot of interesting releases lately that have got sold like bank gangbusters because they were so different from anything else before.

John McConnico: 47:29

So I think for me, going from even doing pretty experimental dial designs and kind of, you know, graphically different treatments is one thing, but, um, about a couple of years ago, um, doing dials that were really more about surface texture and, um, not as much of a hard edge design but allowing myself to kind of think a little bit more free form about it, um, and kind of get messy and to kind of just try stuff, that was pretty cool. You know, like I did a series of dials which I'm still doing that are, you know layers of enamel and metallic pigment in which, basically I call them, they start out. And this is French model new, which is like kind of nude model. So I had my model new, which is was a series of dials that don't have markers on them, that are really more about celebrating the material and the treatment of the material, like, you know, very minimal watch tech, you know kind of design, and then from there it kind of evolved in. This thing is as I was playing around with materials. I was, I was doing layers of metallic pigment and then when I'm doing a radial, radial finishing on them, radial brushing, so it's kind of start to start to change the nature of the material as well as remove it a bit, so that you actually end up with like this, this tremendous amount of depth in the dial.

John McConnico: 48:52

And I was doing, you know, different colors, different treatments, and it was totally just an experiment and my original intention was to create another color, another kind of technique, surface technique that I can engrave with designs. But I found that I didn't want to violate the dial treatment with markers, like it totally changed the look of it. So I think my flux capacitor moment was when I kind of gave myself permission to just try stuff and I said you know what, I really don't care if anyone buys it or not. Uh, you know, when I gave myself just that license, I like it, it's kind of cool, it's kind of weird, um, uh, you know, and of course I have my drawer failed experiments too.

John McConnico: 49:32

But you know, when I started like playing with that and you know what, I'm just treating it almost like a piece of art or painting which, um, someone out there will probably appreciate it maybe it's one person, maybe it's just me, but that's okay um, and I found that when I actually uh, it was actually a wind-up a couple years ago, I put some of the pieces out, um, and I had some of these dials and one of them was really gnarly looking and when, when I literally gnarly like it was what it was, it was brass style that I did finishing on it, I did patinas and then actually did a sterling silver plating on top of it, so it ended up with this like very modeled appearance. Like from a distance it looked almost like a map, but looking closer you realize it's just kind of like this crazy texture dial. And I put it out there, you know, almost as a conversation piece. I thought you know what people probably, if anything people might like think this is really weird and ask me about it. Um, it was actually the first watch that I sold at the event.

John McConnico: 50:30

So it kind of showed me and of course, validation's great, but it kind of showed me that, um, again, it's kind of going with your gut and experimenting a bit and being a little bit free form that, uh, even as watch collectors, that we all look for something that's a little bit unique, um, and different.

John McConnico: 50:47

And you know, beauty can be in a lot of different ways, you know, reflect itself in a lot of different ways. So I think, um, going that route where I actually have as part of my collection that is more experimental and a little bit more of kind of dial as art approach, if you will, I found it has been very popular, whether someone actually, you know, someone might still gravitate to a practical watch, for example, but I found that people really appreciate it and that, um, it's actually fueled a lot of my other commissions in terms of trying some different stuff, simply because I allowed myself to kind of off-road a bit. Um. So, yeah, I started with the flux capacitor. Now I have the version that has the garbage that you can put in and it's like the version 3.0, you know.

Blake Rea: 51:32

Yeah, what's the?

John McConnico: 51:34

I can't think of the name of it, um it was like garb, dramatic garb imagine, I don't know, it was like some yeah yeah, it was pretty bad, I think, pouring a little soda in there.

Blake Rea: 51:43

Yeah, exactly, um about that yeah, something that, um, you know, obviously we talked about earlier in the podcast. Uh, you know, we talked about film and we talked about being able to edit a film and create endless amounts of of stories and and and films and narratives or whatever. But your goal is to offer accessible heirlooms for watch collectors. But how do you balance Cause these things typically don't go together in the same, the same sense, like you know quality, uniqueness, while still being grounded by affordability?

Blake Rea: 52:27

Like how, how does that, how does that even work?

John McConnico: 52:31

Yeah, and it goes back to kind of what we discussed earlier about luxury. You know, my, I think, my, um, my viewpoint on luxury and even you know kind of my evolving viewpoint over the years for luxury is that it doesn't necessarily need to be unattainable um or uh, expensive to the point of being, you know, unattainable Um, but it's a, it's a, it's a fine balance. So, for example, you know, most of my watches are in that um, you know most are in that kind of 800 to 1200 range, some of them are more. You know, if I have some kind of custom products a little bit more than that Um, but I would say that's my core sweet spot. And, um, you know, in the future there will be different tiers of products with the intention of doing exactly that in terms of like. Okay, if someone wants a certain kind of bespoke approach to a made order watch, here's one option. But you know there might be a tier three that you get certain materials, certain treatments, certain kind of more laborious processes that obviously warrant that price. But I think the balance is it's something I'm always doing is kind of um, keeping an eye on that and uh, you know, I don't want, I don't want people ever to think that there's an artificial um inflation with prices, which I think is hard for watch brands. Um, it's something that we all complain about with big watch brands. Um, you know, when you look at what's under the hood and you look at how things are finished, it's like, oh what, you know, why are they asking this price? On the flip side of that, you know, I'll just go out there and say that and I own a lot of micro brands too, that people that I personally know and respect, you know, there are a lot of micro brands out there. That's tremendous value and to the point where I feel like some are underpriced for kind of knowing the care, design, finishing everything that they put into the watches. So I think there's a sweet spot, you know, and I think with every brand it's different For me, because I touch every piece of the watch and the dials are kind of this, this essentially made to order thing or at least, you know, very unique thing I'm.

John McConnico: 54:41

I'm constantly assessing, you know it's like, okay, if I'm putting X number of hours into creating this kind of dial, for example, you know, should that be the same price as this other dial, right, or? But I also have to look at it from a consumer standpoint is I don't want to confuse people. I want to make it intuitive in terms of I don't want pricing to be so complicated that someone's head spins or they, just because they made one little choice, they're like why is this so much more? I don't want that to happen either. So for me it is a challenge, probably more so than maybe other brands, because of the nature of how I kind of make the watches.

Blake Rea: 55:18

The limitations. You're one man.

John McConnico: 55:20

Yeah, yeah. So so for me, you know, I basically say you know, I'm, I'm, I want people to realize the value they're getting. Uh, and if anything, I want them to to think about, okay, why, why doesn't this cost more? Which I have some people ask that, um, but at the same time, I'm very transparent about how I make things, you know. So you know, I'm using, you know, workhorse movement 20, 24, modify it, regulate it myself. I'm even doing some kind of treatments to the bridges and stuff.

Blake Rea: 55:49

now, kind, of like I know you're writing stuff.

John McConnico: 55:54

So obviously that could be kind of a tier eventually. You know more, more finishing and different stuff. So the movements, as well as other movements I can source. But you know I, I I'm constantly kind of assessing the, the work that's involved and that's the hardest thing Cause, like you know, you put X number of hours into doing editing right.

John McConnico: 56:12

So you, I'm sure you realize at certain points, like okay, if I were paying myself for my time, like what would it be worth? So there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears that we all put into our art forms and that's something that I just kind of accepted early on. That that's really what I want to put in. I want to make sure I'm passing along value. But, like you said, there's a fine line and kind of that, that heirloom concept, luxury concept. So it's a balance and you know, I think that me packaging it in an intuitive ways that people realize kind of what they can get, like if they have a certain budget.

John McConnico: 56:52

For example, they're looking for a certain kind of watch, that is something that's not too complicated or hidden or surprise. But at the same time, you know, I want to make sure that I'm actually being transparent about, hey, I'm using this kind of material. It has this kind of labor that puts into it. You know it's assembled by me, which some people might not realize. You know, all that kind of stuff is a very different kind of watch than if it's a watch that's just. You know all that kind of stuff is is a very different kind of watch than if it's a watch that's just, you know, unpacked from the factory or obviously a big, a big box retailer or or uh, yeah, or something that is uh, uh, you know, not a very limited model. So, um, so, you know it's.

Blake Rea: 57:29

It's a little bit of a tango, I think, in terms of just communicating to the consumer you know what they're getting and kind of how I, how I want to provide value to as as a product designer. Um, you know your, I think your goal is to impact people in their lives by your designs, right? That's probably. I mean I I'm sure that's like a number one checklist for any product designer.

Blake Rea: 57:54

Um, and for me as a filmmaker, you know my goal is to tell a story, right, and if I can, if I can compact that story, if I could, if I could take an hour story and compact it into three minutes, then I am like a mad scientist you know in a way, um, but the only reason why I'm bringing this up is because I had just worked on a project for a partner here and you know they had given me some watches um to do some reviews with and, uh, it was super, super cool watch brand um. I already told you about them, but mula um oh yeah and uh and anyways.

Blake Rea: 58:32

You know it was a brand I'd never really like, even had on my radar, and I took them, I just fell in love with them. You, you know, and that happens unfortunately a lot from what I do but anyway, yeah yeah, yeah, it's a hard, hard one to talk about, but anyways, somehow, some way.

Blake Rea: 58:49

you know we had like a little TV there and you know they were like oh, let's airplay it for you know the rest of our staff to see what you came. I was like, ok, you are legit screening my work in front of your entire staff right now.

John McConnico: 58:59

No stress.

Blake Rea: 59:00

I know, right, and then these were like not even finished videos, like I had gaps that I literally I had came there to drop a few things off, to drop the watches off, I brought my camera to shoot some additional B-roll and then there we were, screening my you know my work, and uh, and then the owner goes how long did that take you to do? And I'm like what? Like I've never, I've never had anybody ask me that question, you know. And then I told her and then she goes holy shit, like it took you that long. And then she goes back to her staff, like her staff had walked away at the point right, and she goes how long do you think that took blake to make?

Blake Rea: 59:44

and and then this guy was like oh yeah, like you like way under, like you know, like insultingly low number, you know, and um, and then she's like no, that took him eight hours to edit, you know. And then he goes holy shit, like what the you know. So the reason why I'm telling you this story is I know you probably know exactly where I'm going right now. So your, your watches, your watches, people get their watches, they see your watch like, oh, this is cool, boom, let me buy whatever. But people really have no idea the amount of time, labor, energy, effort, sleepless nights. You know they watch my three minute video.

Blake Rea: 1:00:26

They think it took me three minutes to make it you know, or in your case, you know thankfully you don't have the issue that a lot of other brands it's just like, oh, this watch is cool, it probably comes straight from china. You know like, yeah, doesn't happen for you, but I'm sure there's something that you do in your, in your development. You know if it's probably the case or the finishing, or the dial finishing, where you people have no idea how much time that takes you to get that effect, so kind of like your yeah, kind of like your flux capacitor moment.

Blake Rea: 1:01:00

What, what is your? This is my vort, this is my black hole moment. Right, we're using a lot of moments like where you could say I could spend 20 hours doing a perlage effect on a dial and nobody has no idea, but then then I charged my $200 for that dial, you know.

John McConnico: 1:01:21

Yeah, yeah, I mean. Yeah, that's the one we use in the review, yeah, I mean. So it's funny. You know those black holes and I think I totally relate to your story about the, the filmmaking Cause. Any you know different kinds of designs I've done.

John McConnico: 1:01:33

It's like people can be surprised how long the creative process takes, whether it's something production related or just creative related, right, or just almost like just how long it takes you to get, to figure out how to tell a story, to get your ideas together, have your notes together, all that kind of stuff. People usually have no idea how long it takes, and while, yes, some of the hands-on stuff can take long too, sometimes you surprise yourself how quick it can be. You know, like, you know, like some, you know fine artists might say, oh, they spend uh, weeks coming up with an idea for a painting, but then they actually painted it in five hours, you know so. So it's, um, I think it's like that in a weird way with watches because there have been times where I would expect to spend a long time say, okay, I'm going to assemble five watches this week, or whatever it might be.

John McConnico: 1:02:25

I'm going to do a batch of these. Do assembly this week I'm going to do some dials. Next week I'm doing prototyping. Another week I can be actually surprised at how quickly some things come together. But then, like you said, the black hole is I'm going to sit down and work on this one dial and it's like two days later, yeah, my wife has to pull me out of that rabbit hole.

Blake Rea: 1:02:48

It's like my wife Much time in there, you know.

John McConnico: 1:02:53

So that happens a lot. I mean, whether it's like working on, uh, a physical treatment of something like literally being in the dirty side of my studio working on a dial, um, but on the flip side of that, uh, you know, just some of the planning stuff can take a lot, a long time. Like I'm actually working on, um, a batch of of watches right now and that's another side of my business is I'll actually do custom pieces. Like I'm doing a run of 25 watches that are designed for this group, and so I'm kind of working collaboratively with them. It's a really cool project.

John McConnico: 1:03:29

But I'm spending a lot of time on the design process, a lot of time on the. Literally, I have a spreadsheet where I'm looking at okay, I need this component, what do I need to get in the next couple weeks? When do I start assembling this batch? You know it's almost like that unsexy stuff that, yeah, as creatives we can spend a lot of time on that. So I think to me that's become more of the.

John McConnico: 1:03:52

The black holes, I think, are some of that planning stuff. Or even going back to my case, design, where it took me probably twice the time that I originally thought, because I literally was spending it on changing the profile of the case and I changed it three times before. You know, during the prototyping stage, that credit process which a lot of micro brands go through, I think that can be a huge time sucker. A lot of micro brands go through. I think that can be a huge time sucker. But yeah, I think probably the unique thing for me is, um, doing that dial, finishing or experimenting with a different finish and again, I have my drawer failed projects too.

John McConnico: 1:04:25

So I might have like, oh, I can totally nail it, I love this thing I'm working on, and then realize, oh no, I gotta, I gotta pull this back and kind of pull it back in the shop and tweak it a bit more. So there's that kind of trial and error that you go through with with physical production. So you know, I think, I think for me it's probably, yeah, it probably is the dials and the planning which are. You know, it can be humbling sometimes when you're you know that you've got to do certain things in a couple of weeks and you're kind of under the wire, like there's creative stuff that you want to get through as well.

Blake Rea: 1:04:59

So yeah, Do you ever find yourself Cause? I mean, obviously I know the artist type I have. I know a lot of friends. You know I went to film school and so you know I I come from associating myself with artists, but artists are generally pretty selfish people and so you might know I'm going with this. But, um, has there ever been like something where you designed it and it was just so important to you that you're just like I don't know if I should share this? You know, and that could be, you know, a not really a form of selfishness, but you know, just personal expression exactly.

John McConnico: 1:05:44

Yeah, you know, I think actually goes in a line with the, the way I said earlier, is the the kind of the kind of dials the experimental dials is working on? I think that was something that's like hey, this is kind of weird look. And honestly, you know, I think when I accepted the fact which it's gone through a it's like, it's like acceptance. You know, it's gone through different stages over the years in my business where, um, I you know, I tell I I'm pretty honest with people. I tell them, you know what, I'm making my own donuts. So if I don't sell any donuts, I'll eat them all you know, I'll be in a desert Island, I'll enjoy the watches.

John McConnico: 1:06:19

So that's a nice way of saying that, that you know making stuff that I care about and even if someone doesn't buy it, then it's still worth making, which is kind of a weird you know for for something, for being a a, a brand that's selling something. It's kind of a weird thought process, but I think once I got to that realization a few years ago, it maybe kind of opened me up a little bit in terms of what I allowed myself to produce.

John McConnico: 1:06:48

Um, yeah, that you know I do have the flexibility to try stuff and which you know, obviously a big watch brand can't do that, they right. If they're going to do like a brown dial, they better damn well make sure that someone's hundreds at one time.

John McConnico: 1:07:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah and it's and it's even then it's a risk. There are a lot of stuff that yeah, yeah that watches or brands are creating that they know that might not sell but it it's worth it for a particular reason. Um, so I think it's when I give myself the license to kind of just try stuff, you know, especially like with those dials, for example, then it kind of loosened me up where I'm like you know what, yeah, maybe it's too weird, but that's okay. And you know, a lot of what I do is collaborativeened me up a little bit to go through that creative process with clients so that we could kind of take a journey together. You know which, which I'm, you know, kind of comes. It's kind of natural to me, given my background, kind of how I work with people, that that's what you do in traditional design.

John McConnico: 1:07:50

Obviously, that kind of collaborative experience but I think it may be a little looser is like when I kind of accepted the fact, you know what, we could try something weird if we want to. You know. So, literally the guy with the car, like I've done several of those now where it's like, let's, you know what, how about we use your automotive paint, you know. So I've done that several times where it's like actually source the automotive paint and use it on the dial and try something very different. Automotive paint and use it on the dial and try something very different, um, just kind of trying to color outside the lines a bit in terms of process, um, which I think is really rewarding for and it's rewarding for me, but it's obviously rewarding for every customer and client, um, but yeah, to your point, I think kind of that art background, there might be a little selfishness or maybe just um personal expression, part of it.

Blake Rea: 1:08:36

That you always. It's like hey, this is too personal for me.

John McConnico: 1:08:39

That and he was a filmmaker, right. I mean that same thing. There's a part of that that you hang on to Like. You tell a story a certain way, you like to use B roll a certain way, or there are certain things you like to capture, a certain vignettes you like to capture in a certain way. That that's your DNA, that's a part of you that you have to hang on to an express and I think that you know every art's that way, I think it happened to me, like, particularly, I was in I don't know, I don't remember I was in.

Blake Rea: 1:09:09

I was in like like some european, I think I was in serbia, but I took my drone and I like was flying my drone all across belgrade and, um, there's this one church uh, saint sava, that's the name of it and I flew my drone at saint sava probably super illegal, I don't even know but in the middle of night, right, and so of course, you can see the glow from, you know, the church. And then, as I got higher in altitude, I was like, dude, you could just see the strings of lights through the city. And I was just like you know, I at the time I was selling stock footage. You know, I was putting videos up like aerials up on stock websites. People were buying them and, you know, using them for whatever right, and I was like this is what I'm never gonna sell because this is the only. I just want to use this in my video, you know, and I ended up using it, but this is one I'm never going to let somebody gain access to.

John McConnico: 1:10:11

Yeah, because it resonated with you. Yeah, yeah, it's like.

Blake Rea: 1:10:14

This was just like the I don't know. It was just like a very special, like full circle moment for me.

John McConnico: 1:10:21

I have a little bit with pieces Like I've you know, full disclosure I've had. I've had a few watches I've made lately for with the intent of having read, you know, for a show or something I can't let it go. I mean, I mean, they're all my children in a way.

John McConnico: 1:10:35

but um or there'll be a piece that I put out there and it's like I hope no one buys it Kind of a funny feeling, I mean. It's kind of like your footage, right you, there's something that resonates and you realize that, even though you might make another one, similar.

Blake Rea: 1:10:51

It's not gonna be the same. And yeah, yeah, you, you know the backstory right, like, you know the the case ding moments of that that one we talked about, the case ding, right, you know like, yeah, and you know the moments that nobody else is gonna know and you're like, oh man, this is so, so special like you sitting at night doing that drone footage or me making that that's you.

Blake Rea: 1:11:09

You remember that part of it, yeah yeah, you remember the where you got, how you got to that that place, yeah, um, so I have two more questions and we'll wrap absolutely Absolutely so, which you know. We just talked about having products and stuff that resonate with you. Which product is it that you produce? That is your personality in a wrist form, you know, like this encapsules everything I wanted Bespoke Watch Projects to be. This is me, this is my, my purest form of expression, and if I was a human turned into a watch, I would be this watch, you know, oof.

John McConnico: 1:11:56

Yeah, that's a hard question we have hard questions here.

Blake Rea: 1:11:59

man, you should have listened to some of my other podcasts. You probably would have never showed up.

John McConnico: 1:12:02

I know, yeah, that's a hard one. Yeah, it's funny because even though I'm a designer and I try to eat my own dog food, or over the years, I tell clients, you know, you got to always edit down, edit down, you know, be selective. I had a professor in school that said you know, you're as strong as your weakest portfolio piece. You know, like, I try to live through all that but it's hard because, um, literally it's hard for me to narrow down Even, like, if I have to select 10 watches I want to show someone. It's extremely hard because there's so much variation. Um, I do have to say I kind of have to.

John McConnico: 1:12:36

Um, my best answer for that, I think, would be looking at my pieces and even my collecting background. It's like, you know, some of the things I've I've really liked that aren't my watches. I mean, I think, um, there's some historical aspect I think I have for for horology, like kind of appreciation. So I like I love sector dials. Um, so if I had a short list I would probably say my sector dials I really love. Um, you know, obviously by nature of how I engrave and create my dials, they're all kind of guilt styles to a certain degree. Um, so I think that aspect, uh, kind of that metallic aspect really, um resonates with me. So I love copper, I love a lot of the warmer metals lately, so I'd probably have to say maybe like a you know, steely gray patina with copper.

John McConnico: 1:13:27

But then in a sector, dial form to me is a kind of a no brainer. I have, so you know, some of my dials that are a little bit more graphic, like there's one called the Monobonder which is kind of a little bit of a Bauhausian dial but with some concentric circles that I use graphically so almost like a bullseye dial, but not quite so. I think there's a little bit of that too, that kind of pulls a little bit from heritage stuff from existing horology, but with kind of a twist. So I think there's kind of those are the two sides to me that I would say. If I kind of boil it down to two or three things, um, I would say that kind of captures my personality amazing but it's a hard, that's a hard question to answer in five minutes.

John McConnico: 1:14:19

Yeah, yeah, I should.

Blake Rea: 1:14:20

I should have prefaced with like what is the one that you would be now like today? This moment instead of like tomorrow or the day the day after, but, um, but, anyways, I'll, I'll let you, I'll let you die on that, that hill yeah um, but, but no. Something unrelated is, as I was going through and I was poking around, and oh what did I do? No, it's actually something you need to implement.

John McConnico: 1:14:49

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.

Blake Rea: 1:14:50

So, you know, I think I don't remember where I saw this, but there was like I don't know. It was a website where you could go and you could make something custom. It had a builder right. There was a randomizer Ooh, something I just noticed as I was going through and I was building my own bespoke watch project Like an AI engine or something, yeah. It just throws something together.

John McConnico: 1:15:21

The gong computer.

Blake Rea: 1:15:22

Yeah, exactly the flux capacitor when you just press a button and it just randomizes the design. Because I was literally flipping through the cases and I was flipping through the dials and I was flipping through the hands and as I was going through the hands and the dials, I just realized every combination looks amazing. You can't go wrong. I know this seems really weird, but like, like, for example, there was like I had the green what dial is this?

Blake Rea: 1:15:53

the green 60, super 60, ombre zinc, and then I threw gold hands on it like the gold arrow hands, which actually kind of shouldn't work, but they work kind of in a way it's, it's and then, and then I have a, a green second hand and I'm like this on paper does not work, but everybody, I promise you, if you are seeing what I see, it works.

John McConnico: 1:16:17

So that's interesting. Yeah, actually I love your idea of the randomizer randomizer that's a great idea.

John McConnico: 1:16:22

but uh, and I and I appreciate that's a compliment, I appreciate the no wrong choice comment, but you know it's funny because I try to be aware of that when I'm putting, say, more dials in there. But it's really interesting because I've found that I've been surprised. So it's you know, putting together watch combos is kind of like an outfit and there's certain things that just shouldn't go together but they end up working. I actually have some orders where people choose random stuff that I've never actually tried together and I'll literally be sitting at my bench assembling it.

John McConnico: 1:16:52

I was like damn, that actually fucking works yeah I mean seriously, it's kind of amazing that, and again, part of it's seeing in the metal too, right, so yeah, a tone of something and like yeah, even though this is green and that's green, it somehow works um so I kind of think that's actually kind of a really exciting thing, and so yeah, it's amazing but I'm sure one of these days there'll be something really bad that comes out and I'm like, oh yeah, I'm not shipping this when you take your your gold toner case and then you slap it on a steel bracelet we could draw.

John McConnico: 1:17:28

We could draw the line there, yeah and yeah, hey, are you sure you want me to ship this like doing two tone in a bad way?

Blake Rea: 1:17:35

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah so if you do do a randomizer, don't let it randomize steel and gold, or you know these two different color metals there'll have to be some, if then statements to make sure yeah, yeah, there you go, there you go yeah, um, and yeah, so we talked about this before. Before the record. Uh, before we press record the record, um, tell us what is in the pipeline. Is there any upcoming projects, collaborations, like anything that you're excited to share? Spill the tea and then we will leave you.

John McConnico: 1:18:12

Yeah, I mean, as comes no surprise after this conversation, I'm continuing some experiments with dial treatments. So folks will see that, especially at some of the upcoming events that I'm doing. Um, I tend to do, uh, wind up San Francisco, cause it's literally right here, um 20 minutes from my studio. Uh, and I also do wind up New York city. Um, I'd love to do, I love Chicago, but I'm usually busy that time of summer, so I tend to do the SF wind up, new York wind up and then also district time in DC intersects, which I recently did in Atlanta. So I do several events throughout the year and the great thing about that is I make sure that I'm kind of working ahead for that.

John McConnico: 1:18:58

So I'm going to be releasing some new dial treatments that people haven't seen before, as well as I'm launching a couple of new case options. You know a 36 millimeter case and a 39 millimeter case. So those are actually coming out very soon. So people will see those on in the watch builder, they'll see it on my website as I roll it out. And, yeah, they'll also be some kind of under the I don't want to say under the radar, but in the club kind of stuff so people go to sign up on my website. I'll be sharing access to some of that stuff before the big release and as I'm actually assembling some watches with my new dials and cases for some of the upcoming shows, I'll make those available to, kind of my peeps and then it's not unusual for me to have stuff at shows. That's not that those pieces will be one of a kind and they're not available on my website.

John McConnico: 1:19:56

So you know, that's all kind of fun to work on, but that's kind of on the case side and on the dial side I'm going to be releasing some new stuff and then, yeah, then I think there's some potential collaborations I'm working on coming up, probably early next year. So it's amazing, yeah, I mean it's, it's it's as we know. It's like we get up every morning, all of us in the creative fields and, just like you know, there's always a new opportunity. So, and I think in the watch space, I mean so many people are doing cool stuff and you see a lot of micro brands, um, collaborating too, which I think is really exciting. So, um, it's uh, it's ever evolving so.

Blake Rea: 1:20:32

So, if I heard you right, you're gonna be collaborating with some micro brands.

John McConnico: 1:20:35

Did I, did I oh no, I didn't say that per se, uh no, no, I, I.

Blake Rea: 1:20:40

I assume that you didn't say that, but I, yeah, I put two and two together.

John McConnico: 1:20:44

There's been a lot of discussions around that, not just with me, but just in general, yeah, but yeah, I do have some kind of creative collaborations that I've been talking about that might come to fruition next year, but in the meantime I'll be kind of doing my thing and releasing a lot of new treatments of dials and cases that people haven't seen yet. So and that's usually one of the first questions when people see an event is like oh, could, yeah, is there a different case I can use? There's that kind of thing. So, especially offering kind of the different finishes, I think is huge for people to kind of have more options to choose from.

Blake Rea: 1:21:21

So, yeah, Well, thank you so much much, john. We have took an hour and 20 minutes.

John McConnico: 1:21:28

We have a feature-length film here we do, yeah, we just need popcorn, yeah yeah, yeah, I'm I'm sure there's some my wife loves.

Blake Rea: 1:21:36

I really like sweet popcorn. It's like I don't even know what it is oh well cowacorn. Yeah, it's. No, it's something different. I don't know, know what it is. Oh well, calicorn.

John McConnico: 1:21:45

Yeah, no, it's, it's something different. I don't know.

Blake Rea: 1:21:47

It's like very sweet Maybe, I don't know yeah it could be, I don't know, but it's, it's like you get into. It's not something you buy you, you're it's not something you make.

John McConnico: 1:22:08

So no, no, no, so again, thank you so much for coming on. I am so glad to have you.

Blake Rea: 1:22:09

Thanks for having me, yeah I hope uh, yeah, hope to to see you again soon. I will see you at wind up. I will find you and then, if you're not, too I'm not sure which days I'm gonna be going. I already have my flights, already have my hotels. I got everything booked. I'm not quite sure. I'll definitely be there one of the days. And then I was thinking about getting together some of the brands to do kind of like a lonely wrist dinner. Yeah, that'd be great.

Blake Rea: 1:22:35

Maybe like 10 or so of the brands that we've worked with, or however many I know. A few of them have already reached out and said hey, let's do dinner, but with my limited time I can only do dinner.

John McConnico: 1:22:49

so many dinners. I can't do 10 dinners in three days. You know like, yeah, yeah, so I might see if I can organize, like a lot of the folks you've had recently. I know like I think the bravura guys are going to be here um yeah, yeah, they are yeah yeah, so a lot of guys you've had recently.

Blake Rea: 1:22:56

I think a lot of them are going to be here having to be coming to um so so the ones that I've specifically talked to you is, uh is, ferlin mari you know he came on um, we just had jose from isotope. Um, he and I are in regular discussion. And then um, and then yeah, I mean some of the guys like I'm driving peter's watch right now- um yeah and uh and yeah. So I mean I guess, I guess we'll see.

John McConnico: 1:23:22

But yeah, I think it's. You know what it's going to be. We're destined to have drinks at some point, Whether it's a large group or small group.

Blake Rea: 1:23:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so obviously we will figure that out as time comes a little closer. But yeah, thank you so much again for coming on and everybody, we will link Johnpoke john's bespoke watch projects in the the description of this podcast and you should definitely check them out. Go to his website, build a watch and see what I'm talking about. You will have something special in your parcel, in your purse, yeah I don't know what I'm talking about.

Blake Rea: 1:23:59

What am I talking about, john will? John will post it to you and it will be special from there I'll slap it on your wrist yeah, he will fly in and and help you attach the watch to your wrist yeah, full fitting all right.

John McConnico: 1:24:16

Well, thanks for having me this has been awesome and yeah, it was, yeah, great to chat with you yeah, yeah, I agree, and I will talk to you very, very, very soon. Yes, we'll talk soon.

Blake Rea: 1:24:26

Take care everybody.

John McConnico: 1:24:27

Bye.