Lonely Wrist: All Things Watches & Horology

Minutes and Hours: Rich Park on Building a Nationwide Watch Show

• Lonely Wrist • Season 1 • Episode 50

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From overcrowding a restaurant to hosting 60+ prestigious watch brands across America, Rich Park's journey building Minutes and Hours represents something extraordinary in the world of horology – a genuine commitment to community.

The spark ignited in 2019 when what was supposed to be a small gathering of watch enthusiasts literally burst at the seams, drawing the attention of fire marshals. This unexpected response revealed a hunger for more personal, authentic interactions between collectors and brands. What began as "LA Microlux" quickly evolved into Minutes and Hours, now recognized as one of the premier watch shows in the United States.

What sets Minutes and Hours apart isn't just its impressive brand roster – though with names like Bremont, Christopher Ward, Baltic, Junghans, and dozens more, it certainly demands attention. Rather, it's Park's deliberate choice to limit participation to around 65-75 brands, creating an environment where meaningful connections flourish. "We're not chasing 100+ brands," Park explains, noting how larger shows often leave both collectors and smaller brands feeling overlooked or rushed.

The show has revealed fascinating regional differences among American watch collectors. Los Angeles gravitates toward more exclusive pieces in the $8,000-18,000 range, while Chicago and Austin enthusiasts typically focus on the $3,000-5,000 segment. This type of insight has helped Minutes and Hours craft experiences tailored to each market while maintaining its core mission.

Beyond the main exhibition, attendees can participate in watchmaking workshops where they build timepieces from scratch, attend VIP breakfasts with featured brands, and enjoy post-show gatherings that extend networking opportunities. These elements transform Minutes and Hours from a simple trade show into a comprehensive weekend experience that celebrates every aspect of watch enthusiasm.

The next Minutes and Hours show takes place July 26-27 in Los Angeles, with free admission and exciting hourly giveaways. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just beginning your horological journey, this event promises the perfect blend of exceptional timepieces and the community that loves them.


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Blake Rea:

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode here of the Lonely Riz Podcast. I am your host, as always, blake Ray, and here we are sitting down with a new friend, but an exciting guest nevertheless probably already know who I'm talking about. We have in the hot seat Rich Park, who is the founder of Minutes and Hours, a watch show that travels across the country and hosts over 60 brands. Rich, our friend, is hosting a show July 26th and 27th in Los Angeles. I will be traveling in with some friends, so I will certainly come and see you there. Tickets are free and let's get the entire story from Rich as to how this all started. Welcome to the show, buddy.

Rich Park:

Thanks, blake, thanks for having me.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I'm glad to have met you and got you in. Yeah, it happened very quickly, it did it. Yeah, it happened very quickly, it did, it did, it did. And yeah, so funny story. I think I already told you. But my friend was like, hey, are you coming to Minutes and Hours? And I was like probably not. And then of course I started looking into the show and I'm ignorant to a degree. But then I saw like your roster and I was like, well, how can I not like, how can I not go at this point?

Rich Park:

Yeah, no thanks. We are really, really proud of our brand partners that, um, you know, we've been fortunate to partner with, I think, uh, yeah, um, the brand roster I don't know how to say it without it's impressive. Pretty much it is. It's very impressive. Yeah, we're looking forward to it. We just came off of Chicago this past April with a lot of these same brands and they were just so well-received. So we're very fortunate. They've just been really great partners. So really blessed, really fortunate and really excited to bring these brands more than 60 brands to LA.

Blake Rea:

Let's start at the beginning. What inspired you to create Minutes and Hours? I read that your first show was in 2019, which is a weird year because 2020, we all know having the entire world shut down. But how did you decide to start a watch show and what fueled that?

Rich Park:

yeah, so we did a small show in a restaurant, um, in july 19th to had a couple of brands there, um, and it overcrowded the restaurant. So it I think the fire marshals came and said, hey, there's just too many people here. So, um, you know it, really, it was just wall to wall, it was just it was packed. We were hoping to get maybe 80 people there, but it was a few hundred there and it exceeded capacity. So, um, you know, we thought there's there might be something here, um, and then we proceeded with our first show in la back in 2009, fall of 2019. Yeah, I read it was like april 2019, april, okay, you got, yeah, thank you, you knew that better than I did. Yeah, um, the spring of uh, 2019. So we were the first, um and only watch show at that time to do it in LA, and now we're really excited to be returning. Last time we were in LA was 2021. And now we're excited to come back in 2025.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I'm so excited I'm gearing up. In my mind is spinning like who I'm going to get a chance to spend some time with, like which brands am I going to talk to? So I guess you came from this as an enthusiast, right? You were a watch collector. Like how did your passion kind of grow for the watch community?

Rich Park:

So I grew up in a family where we had owned a watch store. My uncle owned a watch store, so I was always there every weekend just tooling around and they had Rolex, they had, you know, audemars Piguet, they had Concord, when Concord was really um a lot more known, uh, at the time um considered a mainstream brand, so it was. It was great. So I was always around, I always had access to watches, watches I had a lot of watches. Even at the young stage I really wasn't. I didn't know quite what I had. Um, really, really fortunate, um, and I still have some of those older pieces, um, so I grew up in that I did an unboxing on this. This is actually my, my grand seiko sbg 097 on youtube a long time ago and yeah, so we started doing it and just it just really snowballed, fortunately, um, you know, back back then it was rare, I think it was just us and really wind up. Um, you know there's a little bit more shows now, but, um, you know we're one of the OGs.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, that it. I yeah it's crazy, crazy, crazy. And then let's talk about, I guess, the original kind of concept. You know you said that you started off and it was just going to be kind of like a small little. Yeah, get together. Did you like have brands that were participating, like did you just try to bring as many collectors together as as possible? Did you try and make it like kind of like a, like a show where people can buy watches, like like, what was the original concept and how did you get to to where?

Rich Park:

the original concept. We had an open bar. I guess by today's standards it would just be considered a get together open bar in a restaurant there were. We had choppick there. Um, oh, wow, chopp topic. Yeah, I know, for the first time we had topic. Um, we had I can't remember now the strap company. What is that stroke, I can't remember strap company that came and, um, some pre-owned uh watches, so really just three, um, uh and amrez donated some straps and that was it.

Rich Park:

And then we had a, you know, like a panel discussion where we talked to everybody and, um, yeah, so it it. It was, it was fun, so you can't really call it that in an event when it was three different types of um, you know, brands there. Um, it was more of a get together. Yeah, that's still we had at that time. We had no idea that we were going to continue to do this when we started and then, when we did first start an actual event, we were known as LA Microlux and then we started getting more of the mainstream brands along with the independent brands. So, you know, we changed the name to Minutes and Hours. So we started off as Microlux. Morph, lux morphed into minutes and hours as the show got bigger and and the different level of brands started coming on board yeah, that's um, that's pretty amazing.

Blake Rea:

I actually read that too and oh, okay, and so like, so how? What I guess fueled the name change, like did it just not not seem appropriate anymore, or?

Rich Park:

it didn't seem as appropriate. Um and I, we also thought minutes and hoursourscom, which is our website and our store, flowed better than LA Micro Lux and we weren't only about micro brands. So I think the marriage of some of the more independent brands and mainstream brands along with micro brands, just the name change, just seemed more appropriate and it went over pretty well. Just the name change just seemed more appropriate.

Blake Rea:

And it went over pretty well. Yeah, it sounds a little. I guess it sounds a little better. Yeah, and we call it M&H for short, right?

Rich Park:

Yeah, and I know hours and minutes is the name that would naturally roll off the tongue at first, but that was taken. It's not even in use, but we didn't want to bid for that and besides, h&m, that's already a department store, right, so that wouldn't work. But Minson Outdoors we shortened it to M&H, so it just worked out really, really well.

Blake Rea:

Let's talk about some of the events that you've hosted. So you've done Chicago, you've done LA, you've done Austin, you've done la, you've done austin. Um, how do you feel like the, the watch culture kind of, is different in each city. Have you noticed any similarities, like like there are similarities, yeah, but they're all.

Rich Park:

They're so very different, right, they're similar that everybody has a passion. Um, I think chicago, uh, and austin, they really really take their watches and their passion really seriously. They wait in long lines to get in when the show starts because they want a visit of your brand. They come, they've done their research on our website, learning about the brand, and then come and they actually expect to go home with some watches. So, um, it's, it's different.

Rich Park:

La is also, I think la already has um, they're a lot more laid back, um, and so what we found is that in la, they will spend more money on on watches. Um, not more money, but more of the expensive um brand. So, like, we had an 18 a brand had an 18 000 custom watch that um, somebody in la wanted. So, um, you know it's. It's just I don't think I did a great job of explaining it, but there are similarities, but it each market is different. Uh, I think la really likes to look for things that are extremely unique A little bit more. Yeah, they look for things that are a little bit more rare, unique and kind of expensive actually, compared to Austin and Chicago. So Chicago and Austin, I think our sweet spot would be in a $3,000 to $5,000 range where those get really well. Received LA. A couple of times we've been there it was anywhere from $8,000 to, like I said, $18,000. Of course the lower priced ones are easy and approachable, but they go up in LA to the more even the higher priced models.

Blake Rea:

And yeah, no, that's what city, would you say, surprised you the most out of all the cities that you've hosted in?

Rich Park:

Austin is amazing. Austin has really it's just an excellent, excellent community. They're really engaging. Especially when we do our breakfast, our VIP breakfast, to kick off Minutes and Hours weekend, they are there with full of questions during our Q&As. They just it just seems that Austin is so, so prepared and so enthusiastic. Chicago is really eager to learn and approach and just really like a sponge and really just try to take everything in and they do that really quickly. So I think the differences and surprising differences between Austin and Chicago are just that. But they're also really engaging and really engaged, austin and Chicago. But Austin, they come ready.

Blake Rea:

And LA is home. It's home base, right, la is home for me. Yep, okay, and then how did you decide to do like Chicago and Austin, like where did you kind of decide? How did you just say, okay, cool, these are the two, the two other places that we're going to expand into?

Rich Park:

Yeah, so I grew up in Chicago. Chicago still remains my favorite city, uh, so I always thought of a good way to get back to chicago, uh, because I, I, I adore that city. So, um, that's how we approached chicago back in 20. The fall that was the fall of 2019, uh, and in Austin was Texas was untouched at that time, um, when we started in 2022, we were the first watch event to go into Texas anywhere, not just Austin, but Texas. So, um, we thought that would be great, uh, and it paid off, and and it turned out to be great. Um, you know, that Texas market is just, it's hot, it's untouched Literally hot too, because the temperature is really, really hot, but it was an untapped market. So we were eyeing that and we decided to move forward with that in 2022. And it's been great ever since.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I'm curious, and this is probably going to be one of the harder questions that I ask throughout the course of the day but do you have a favorite memory from any of the past shows that you've done?

Rich Park:

The long line in Austin. When was it Last year? The line went around the block and that was like know we that that was our third year in Austin and we've really they really took it, taken us in and and really been great supporters. So when we first saw that line it was just like wow, this was, this was really something here and we we made the right decision. We're able to connect properly with that Austin community. I think that was the first real surprising and favorite part of that Austin experience. And then that repeated in Chicago, where it was just the lines were just really so long, so surprising and pleasant. But it was also rewarding because we're able to prove that hey, you know this, the watch and community really embraced us and we embraced them and it was just really, you know, we love that yeah, that that's I think that's what you know when we had talked before we decided to do this.

Blake Rea:

that's what, something that stuck out the most about, I guess, you and your mission. Like I'm, I'm I'm a community focused guy, you know. Like I'm in the watch community, the community supports me, so I try my best to support the watch community. Congrats, and and I've been very blessed and very fortunate to to be able to sit down with people like you, you know, people who are making a real impact on the ground. So, yeah, the community is what gets me.

Rich Park:

Congrats. I do want to fit this in because we were talking before we went live and the success of your podcast you said was just so highly ranked and, without giving specifically sharing the details that you did, it's really impressive for you to be so up there with some of the the well-known um podcast, so congrats on that thank you, yeah it, it started off as as a passion project.

Blake Rea:

it still is a passion project, but you know, uh, the concept came from I was working at a retailer and we sold a bunch of watch brands and so I had told my wife I left the retailer, I had a health event and I left the retailer. And after I left the retailer, a lot of the people that I was selling watches to just kept calling me like hey, what do you think about this release or that release or whatever. And I just had the exact same conversation with the same, with different people, like you know, when a new watch came out, and so well, you did.

Rich Park:

You did something right.

Blake Rea:

They trust you yeah, well, it's a little easier, I would think, in vegas, uh, to sell I shouldn't say sell watches, but Vegas is one of those hustler-focused cities, maybe similar to New York. I haven't sold watches in New York, I haven't been to New York in a while, but New York is so competitive, so you see a lot of people that are trying to push and pull you in different directions and I I I noticed that here in vegas. So my approach was like I was working full-time in cyber security and at night I was selling watches full-time, so I I wasn't reliant on the income from selling watches. Yeah, so I just was looking at it like how do I meet watch nerds? Like to me, like I had no idea how to meet watch collectors, how to meet watch nerds, like, so it just like, okay, cool If I get to, if I get to first of all hang out with like watch nerds, that's amazing.

Blake Rea:

You know, if I get to talk about watches and somehow make money, that's amazing. And then I get to handle the product right, like, I get to learn about the product, to handle the product like three kind of like you know, things that that set me off on that, on that path, and that was it. The way that I stood out is just being honest, right To be. You know, we'd have people that that would come in and I I would. They'd want to buy a watch, but I would, you know, not always try to sell them a watch.

Rich Park:

You know that that's a good point. I think that comes comes through organically. Um, if somebody reads you and they get a good vibe from you, um, you don't need to force anything. You don't need to try to force a sale on them If it happens that it happened. And I think overall, people are really tuned in and smart and they pick up on that vibe, whether they like you or they don't, and it seems very clearly that people really like you and trust you. I hope so.

Blake Rea:

I hope so. I like them too and I trust them too. But no, funny is, when I started this too, like I saw in a weird way, kind of like you guys, I saw like a gap and the gap wasn't in watch media, but it was how it was packaged and how it was delivered, because a lot of the watch media out there they also.

Blake Rea:

They also profit off selling watches, right? So, yeah, you get, you get people that talk about watches that just so happens to be able to sell you those watches. Um, and there wasn't a lot of, you know, objectiveness but yeah yeah, it was, and they were only talking about watch brands.

Blake Rea:

They sold it, it to me, I just, coincidentally, I know, yeah, it started. It started at some point for me to start doubting the content that I was consuming, you know, uh, respectfully to all those people out there who sell watches, I'm sorry, you know, and I have some of my good friends that, like you know, that sell watches that also are content creators and and that's fine and all but um, you know, I I kind of wanted to to get in the middle of that. If I could, if I had the opportunity, just to say, hey, look like I'm, I'm, I'm not, I don't, I'm not at mercy of the watch brands. You know, I can say whatever I want and there's no accountability for me.

Rich Park:

You have that freedom of not being tethered to a specific brand because you are, unofficially or officially, on the payroll yeah, correct.

Blake Rea:

You know, and I think especially this was at the time when some of the the bigger media outlets were kind of going through a weird phase where they had, you know uh like, been purchased and acquired and then you know like, then ownership transferred and and you know, there was a lot of distrust kind of coming and and especially now I hate to talk about politics, but you see uh like more of a rise in independent media versus people who tune in to the bigger outlets. Now you know, you look for smaller media outlets it seems to be a little bit more.

Rich Park:

That shift from some of the bigger watch uh media has really changed. Where they were the source, but, like you said, you know some of them have always people would give them in the side eye of whether they trust that review um. And so now the shift has gone to which isn't the greatest word, but influencers or even independent. The smaller media is now sharing the big voice table with them, whereas before it was like, hey, you're only, you're a YouTuber, you're just an influencer only, so why are you at this event with us at the big voice table? But the brands recognize the importance of YouTubers or other platforms and so they invite them to the same table as the other um media members and not not only that, too.

Blake Rea:

I've started to notice like people appreciate the dialogue with the creators that they consume. Like a lot of the people that that consume the content that I produce I also. I also communicate directly with them yeah, you were.

Rich Park:

You engage with them in the comment section. You mean?

Blake Rea:

yeah, I engage them in the comment section they've got, my they've got my email some of them have my phone number right, like some of them, they'll shoot me an email saying hey, I'm coming to vegas. Um, you know, everybody, everybody loves to come to vegas. Uh, and, and I them.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I'll meet them at the airport. I'll meet them, like you know, I'll take them to their hotel. We'll go out for beers, I mean whatever it is. Yeah and so, yeah, you have that genuine relationship that maybe doesn't exist with some of the bigger media outlets, where, you know, they know, they know where my morals lie, Uh and so, so, yeah, I mean I, I, I barely take money from brands. I've taken a couple. I mean I've talked about this before, but you know, I, I take money for, for, for, for media assets, not for endorsements. You know where somebody says somebody says hey, we want you to do some photos, we want to do some videos, we're doing an event here, you know they'll pay me yeah, and, and I, their media never makes it onto my platform and my platform never distributes their media.

Blake Rea:

There's, there's never like that, that connection, you know. But, um, same thing we have. We have a watch community, a watch club in Vegas and, um, and same thing, you know. You know people will hit me up about doing events here with my club and and, yeah, you know we don't. It's more just about the passion and kind of amplifying it and at the end of the day, I have a very simple goal, which is to kind of to lower the bar for people to feel, uh, safe and comfortable stepping into the community. Um, you know, to see that there's, you know, good people here, great brands. It's a lovely community, people support you, people appreciate, but there's's, you know, there's also people that ruin it on the other side.

Rich Park:

But, um, you know, just to to let you know that we're not all like snobby dickheads yeah, you know that trust and that engagement is so important and that, well, that's the reason we started the shows, because some of the biggest watch brands you're never going to hear from their ceo, they're not going to ever get your feedback or they're not going to listen to the watch enthusiasts opinions on suggestions for their watches. It's all done internally and we'll spit the watches out the way that we want to, not just because of they don't listen, they don't really pay attention to their customers of what they're saying, they don't listen, they don't really pay attention to their customers of what they're saying. So, with what we do for our shows is we create that direct connection and that engagement between the brand and the watch enthusiast who has something to say and gets heard, and it's just a great way to communicate between the brand and the watch enthusiast during shows, like Minutes and Hours, for example.

Blake Rea:

And people need that, and people appreciate that. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Rich Park:

We see it every time. They love it.

Blake Rea:

A lot of the and I do consulting right with some of these brands and a lot of times because I was also selling watches and I'm also a watch enthusiast, a watch collector like you um, the question kind of comes, like, how do you humanize the brand? Right, because we're so big right, like, how do we like lower the bar? Um, to communicate with our customers A lot of brands have a lot of challenges with that Um, yeah, to communicate with our customers.

Rich Park:

A lot of brands have a lot of challenges with that. Yeah, and their time whether they make time or they don't have time, or maybe they'll send some ambassadors there for a day, but they would rather be seen just with their logo at Wimbledon or somewhere like that, where that seems to be enough, but it does not promote any engagement between their actual customers, right? So I think we found that that engagement is so important and so vital no-transcript to a brand and that brand actually takes every, takes that and applies that and as their next release. You know that really makes the watch enthusiast or their customer really feel appreciated and and and and heard yeah, I'm curious it segues right into a perfect question.

Blake Rea:

Um, you know, I seem you have like what 60 brands are gonna be in la, like 60 plus brands yeah, 65, 66 around yeah, how do you go about curating the, the lineup for, uh, for each show, like, is it just, hey, cool?

Blake Rea:

like we want everybody to participate, like, um, you know, I'm sure you probably have some brands that sign up for this year but they may not sign up for next year, or vice versa. You have brands that are signing up for the first year. Yeah, how do you, how do you curate that epic selection of brand? I mean, you have some epic brands. I, I I was so surprised when I went to the website and just saw some of the most, I think, with some of the most exciting brands yeah, I agree, we're very fortunate.

Rich Park:

Thank you for that. Um. So, by reputation, um of of our shows, word of mouth is you know this, our space, the watch space, is so small and um, that word of mouth happens and, as we've been doing this since 2019, we're really, we're really on a lot of brands as radars, um, and brands will recommend other brands, and that that's been happening more and more recently. Hey, we were just at minutes and hours in chicago, or minutes and hours in austin, why don't you come to chicago? Why don't you come to la? We're going to be there, we can vouch for them um, and I love those kinds of messages. So that is one way. Probably the biggest pipeline to how a brand will participate at our shows is through that word of mouth and seeing our audience really grow with those brands at the shows. If we didn't have, for example, a certain brand um, like fairer, for example, um, people would say at at our previous show hey, there's no fairer here, we would love to have seen fairer. Well, I'll pass that information on and in a survey form and say, hey, this is one of the um you know brands that this is how many people were really expressing interest in, in seeing you there, but with all the different events worldwide, it's not just minutes and hours and wind up right. So there are in other countries too. There's only so many shows that some of them can do, and so they do come back around and they do appreciate that and they are giving our show the time of day.

Rich Park:

Um, and we finally really started reaching that point, I'd say, last year. Um, as you know, they realized we're not going anywhere, we're just continuing to get bigger, we're adding more cities and they want to be a part of that. So I know that's a long answer, but I think it really starts with the, the word of mouth, and then you know, consequently, a brand will see other brands that they respect and they like. Oh, okay, so Farrah might see a brand like Christopher Ward or Delma or Favre Louvre, um, or um, uh, or doxa, for example. Right, they'll see them. Oh, yeah, this, this show is legit if they're, if those brands are going to be there, um, they're on our level, or we would like to also be in the same presence as those brands, and so they will come on board. Um, and then we have really great relationships. Uh, that we've earned and and really um very appreciative of them.

Blake Rea:

So I'm I'm glad that you brought up delma, because I think delma is like a hidden gem.

Rich Park:

Oh, my gosh, the quality of those watches are. We've partnered with them before um and now we. They are on board for the next through 2026 with us. Their watches are so solidly built, not enough recognition for them. But when you see the watches and the value of them, especially their new 1924 Tourbillon, it's just a watch that needs to be experienced and handled in person and they've had that great feedback in Austin a couple of years ago.

Blake Rea:

They're back with us and I'm really excited to have Delmo back and on the roster for everyone to experience. Yeah, I've actually had a relationship with Delmo. They were actually the first brand relationship I ever had. And so when they first, when I first met them and was talking to them like like you had to wire transfer them to buy a watch, I was like I was like you guys need to like modernize, you know, because you know Switzerland, it's things are a little different right there than they are here, you know.

Blake Rea:

And and then I actually built their website so that's right if you've been to their website, yeah I built it, of course. The current, their current website, yep yeah, and I purchased, I, I purchased delmawatchescom, built it in parallel to delmach, and then, um, and then anyways, as as we started growing these two together, they were very concerned about, uh, like losing their delma dots, and I was like, well, once we outshine the delmach, like yeah just point the track and then now it's delmawatchcom.

Blake Rea:

Baby, I purchased that domain I think it's still in my domain portfolio and I just pointed it to them. Uh, but no, I mean, the only reason why I'm saying that is just, they're a great brand, yeah, and they're really customer powered. And, uh, and I I have, um, I went to their, I went to their manufacturer last year year, went to their, I went to their manufacturer last year, year and a half, and it was, it was a weird full circle moment for me, uh, because here I, here I had been like talking to, like andreas uh, I'm not sure if you know andreas, but um, he's like yeah, he's like he's, like the son of the owner yeah his family owns it and his dad will be stepping down at some point.

Blake Rea:

He'll be stepping up and I had talked to him for like years on the phone, but I had never seen his face, like I never knew what he looked like and then when I went. When I went to, uh, when I went to switzerland, uh, I took the train up to to the their city, um, and, and then he went, picked me up at the train station so that's what you, that's what you would do for somebody in vegas exactly, yeah, exactly that.

Blake Rea:

This is all about hospitality, right? So, um, if I could, if I could be a hospitable resource, I'm going to, I'm going to be, and uh, and then, yeah, we shot some content. I actually still haven't even distributed the content. I've been so behind. I need to post it, but we did an entire. It was super cool, like we went through the archives.

Rich Park:

Yeah.

Blake Rea:

I got. I got to see some of their early shell stars, like, um, when I was at watches and wonders this year they were actually at the Boer Vage and I got to hang out with them and uh, and and yeah, I have four or five delmo watches I absolutely love, I actually love. That was actually one of, like, my earlier swiss watches and it's super funny because, um, because my dad had a delma right, so, like it's just a weird thing that that all happened and uh, and yeah, they're so great, they're so underappreciated, yeah, um, but I'm curious is there any other brands that you feel like I mean we, you have a chance right now to kind of shout them out, to kind of plug them? Brands that you know completely blew you away, that maybe you never got a chance to see. Similarly to delma, um, that once you got hands-on with him, just like, damn man, these are awesome simie.

Rich Park:

Simie would be one.

Rich Park:

Uh, young hands um oh, I love young hans yeah, um, you know, mauricio cruz, another one I'm looking at amazing now. Um, of course, we talked about delma. You know, 5280 is another. Uh, 5280 is a brand out of Denver, colorado. The time that it takes to make those dials and those watches is extreme, um, but they're amazing. Enamel dials. We don't see that kind of artistry and that hand craftsmanship today and but they are what that is, the old school style and they present their watches 50 to 80 is is is really impressive. They when, when you see those watches in person, they're like old school way of making watches done right today. And, and that's one of the, that's one of the favorite ones. Christopher Ward, of course, is a crowd favorite. Baltic is another crowd favorite. Yeah, um, baltic is another crowd favorite, totally, um, um, let me just try to milus. Milus needs to be looked closely, looked at closely yeah, yeah, they're awesome.

Blake Rea:

I got to see them for the first time and, uh, at time to watches yeah, and pollen, pollen makes these great fun, great, great fun watches.

Rich Park:

There's another one here, heinrich. It's a German brand. If you've seen their new watches, they're really great. Products like Bosphorus they make those really upscale accessories like watch boxes and stuff. Those are not your average storage boxes.

Rich Park:

I mean the details of those, for example, the interior. A lot of it looks like suede, but 99 percent, 99.5 percent of them it's microfiber, which is fine. Right, it looks like suede but it's a microfiber lining. In Bosporus' case, it's actual suede, every detail of them. And they're not inexpensive but they'll last you. So if you really care about your collection, especially maybe the better collections of within your collection, I think you'd want to storm in, you know, like in boss for his products. So they're just really exciting, just well, well made, a lot like they. They make their. I think their biggest flagship line, or flagship line is the one that look like suitcases. Right, there are others that make them look like suitcases, but not to the level or the attention to details as boss verse, and I've been fortunate enough to to experience so many of these, but I can tell you that boss versus just you know, amazing products and I'm curious so, like looking at the roster.

Blake Rea:

I mean you have like even a brand like bremont which is such a a larger. I would consider them to be larger compared to some of the other brands that you have that are participating. So how do you balance, like, the micro brands, the independents and I mean I would consider Bremont as more of a legacy brand, like how do you balance that?

Rich Park:

Again, we've had great relationships. We've had one for a while with Breman. We've got other things in the works with them. It just happened to be a great relationship I've had with them even before we became partners. We've communicated and then they participated in Austin last year.

Rich Park:

Um, yeah, they are amongst the elite, more prestigious uh, you could even say luxury brand, um, but they trusted our audience, they trusted us. You know everyone on the minutes and hours team and so it wasn't well, we're breman and who are these other brands? Right, it was like these other brands are also really good and and and breman, they're watch enthusiasts too. So you know, when they see someone some of the other brands like I mentioned um, it's it's respect for them, and so they weren't thumbing their nose down at anyone, even though they are, you know, know they are Braymond. They're like, yeah, this is good, we respect those brands and so we're fine with being. You know, they are considered a prestige brand with us. So you know they they're up there. It's good. We have different tiers, right, we have the featured and we have the supporting. Braymont is up there with the other brands Maurice Lacroix, christopher Junghans, simier Paralay so they're up there with them and it's been a great, great relationship with them.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I mean they're all great brands.

Rich Park:

I mean Braymont's really turned a corner right. I mean, you know, with the new logo change last year there was a lot of not the most loved feedback, but they really turned that corner where you know their new designs and the new logo have really become, you know, accepted. You know their new jumping hour, their new novelties have really people really like them now and they've won people over with their new designs and their new logos. And their other previous collections, like the Aviation watches, they never went anywhere. They're still there.

Rich Park:

So, you know, bremont just happened to bring out some watches that are a little bit more approachable in terms of prices, but their other Epic timepieces and the legacy time pieces are still there. They're still part of the collection. So, um, I think it took them a little bit of while to earn people who thought, well, every brain mind is, you know, eight thousand or nine thousand, but it took not a lot of time. But they had an, an amazing Watches and Wonders, right, if you were there, they were one of the favorites how they really earned people, so people's trust and their new design and their new direction. They were able to convey that and you see the feedback now from Bright Mind has really changed for the better.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I made a mistake at Watches and Wonders and actually not scheduling something with them. So they were like, oh, come see us. And I was like, cool. So I went there and their booth was just swamped so I didn't have a proper sit-down presentation and for that reason I just was like I had back-to-back-to-back-to-back appointments and I just was like I had back-to-back-to-back-to-back appointments and I just was like I can't hang out.

Rich Park:

Unfortunately, yeah, I mean they're doing it right now. I like their new collection. I think their Terra Nova is different and unique. I like their Super Marine. It's really really good stuff, and I can't share everything. But the direction of where they're headed it's, uh, really really good stuff and you know I can't share everything, but the direction of where they're headed is it's, it's impressive.

Blake Rea:

They, they took the risk and and it's really paying off for um, for beer mom, with their new direction let's talk about kind of like um, like your differentiator minutes and hours, like how do you feel like you're more of a an outlier out of a traditional watch fair or meetup, like what, what do you feel like makes and separates you guys from everybody else?

Rich Park:

well, thank you for that. We, we're more than just a watch fair for a multi-day watch fair. Um, we have different activities going on during minutes and hours Hours weekend. So we always kick off Minutes and Hours weekend with a VIP breakfast, and this year it's Braymont and so we kick that off. It gives more of a personal interaction between that brand and the people that attend that breakfast. We also have watch building classes. We partner with the Watch Academy by Sumier and where that's a class or workshop, slash class where people take that class, they build the watch from scratch, including the movement, and it's an all-day class, all-day workshop and they get to keep the watch that they build and that's an amazing experience and those who participated in that workshop really, really had a great time. It's a great story. We've had fathers and sons do that because they wanted to have that experience together. Uh, and that's just a memorable watch and you know, the biggest part of watch collecting right is is the experience and the stories behind that and that and that provides that. So we have different activities going on. We we have our after party. So minutes and hours is more than just a watch fair for the enthusiasts. It's activities that are all related, that people can do more than just checking out the watches. They can take the workshop class, they can come to breakfast, they can come to the after party and mingle even more, to the after party and mingle even more. So we're really proud to be the only event that has the watch building class workshop. That's proven to be great with us and we're really happy with our partnership with the Watch Academy and Semi-A. We also are very comfortable with where we are.

Rich Park:

We're not a watch fair that is trying to chase a hundred plus brands. You know there, you know there is one that has um and they're proud of that and they and they should be, you know. But they'll have a hundred plus brands and it sounds sexy, right, blake? So yo be part of this. A hundred brands, we want to be part of it, and other brands be like oh, that must be great. Yeah, we want to be a part of that. It doesn't work for everybody at that level.

Rich Park:

So when we started uh, micro lux, which is now minutes and hours the goal was for that create that interaction, that community, that engagement between the brand and the watch consumer. You're not going to get that when you have over 100 brands. A lot of those brands get overlooked, um, or they get ignored for a handful out of that 100 brands who will benefit from the traffic. It's not for everyone, and that's the number one feedback that we get from those brands that have done a show of that size is that we got lost in that shuffle. You know it. It wasn't as sexy or as glamorous as as we thought.

Rich Park:

So we're not chasing high volume brands. We are comfortable where we are with, between you know, 65 and 75 brands. It's just the right amount to to maintain that engagement and interaction between the brand and the enthusiast. Where no brand gets overlooked, they still have a presence there and people will come see them. Also, some lines are still going to be long, right, but it's still manageable. It's still manageable at every, every booth. There isn't a booth that ever ever got ignored. Or someone said I could not get to that booth because of how popular it is, because you're not just waiting in that line for. So, christopher Ward, right there there they kill it every show.

Rich Park:

Yeah, mike, mike is amazing at what he does and there is a line and there's always going to be that demand for, you know, christopher Ward. But they, if they don't want to wait in line to get to the booth, there are all these other brands that are, that are there, they can do. So they can do that and then work their way back to Christopher, you know, back to a brand like Christopher Ward. So we like that balance. We're not chasing 150 brands. It really doesn't do justice for all the other brands. So, yeah, I think that that is another aspect that makes us unique is that we maintain that, that interpersonal relationship between the brand and the enthusiast, without creating frustration.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, no, it sounds great. Like I said, this will be my first minutes and hours. I can't wait to see you here at the end of the month and I'm looking forward to the dinner, the Bremont dinner.

Rich Park:

Yeah, Bremont breakfast.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, bremont breakfast, sorry, even the after party. I'll be there too.

Rich Park:

Yeah, you're welcome.

Blake Rea:

I'm curious. We talk a lot about entrepreneurship. Our podcast is unique because when we have people like you on entrepreneurs, tell us about some of it's not all roses and sunshine, right. I'm sure you've had challenges that you faced while growing the Minutes and Hours brand and managing multiple cities and filling the venues and getting participation. Tell us about some of the challenges that you've overcome and getting participation, like tell us about some of the challenges that you've overcome and you know, defined you.

Rich Park:

A lot of. I think when you start off, there's always plenty of setback failures, but that's what makes you. You know, if you're resilient, that'll just make you stronger and make you better and want to work harder. So I think one of the earlier challenges we've experienced, before we grew our team, it was only we only started with a couple of people, and now we're, we have several people on the team, but it was well, we don't know you enough, we don't. We, you don't. We're not as comfortable with disattendance or or or some of these brands. That was early on, until we started getting bigger brands. And then those brands who said those things you know, changed their tune and and then and and they came aboard.

Rich Park:

It's also, you know, with other shows that have emerged. Like I said, wind up in minutes and hours were the OGs of watch shows. That's a little bit, but we are different enough. We distinguished ourselves, separated us enough and we continue to evolve, even though there is you know, it's more than just Wind Up and Mints and Hours now that there are these other shows, but we remain unique to that. And so, yeah, it hasn't affected us as much as it could have if we weren't as unique as we are, and some of the other challenges was you know the cities right, we're in Chicago, we're in Austin, we're in LA. We're expanding that. We're going to be in other cities in 2026. Chicago and Austin are our staples. La is, you know, this July, but we're going to expand to other cities.

Rich Park:

Some of the other stresses that come with it are kind of self-inflicted with the different projects that we've taken on to add to our plate, but that's a good thing. So it's a challenge that we brought on ourselves, which creates very little time to sleep, but it's what you have to continuously evolve as a brand, as a business. You can't be stagnant. So we're always looking to expand, we're always looking for different ways and innovative ways, and that's a challenge. And one of the challenges early on, to be different is when COVID hit. We were the first show in the US to go live with a virtual event. We were live with that. I think, yeah, I think Wind Up did it, but they were taped for the most part. We were live all weekend Friday, saturday and Sunday and we were innovative, you know, with that. And now you know people do that on their Instagram or like this, but we were the first ones to go live for an entire weekend and that was really exhausting but really fun. So, yeah, those are some of the challenges, but you know we look, we always expect challenges but we hopefully working hard and you know we can overcome those.

Rich Park:

It also helps to have really great brand partners. That makes it easy, you know, and fun to be with. We try to and I know I try to not I try to separate myself from people that are not pleasurable, right, the people that bring you down or are negative or are really difficult. I think that's something that I almost had to take on at the beginning because we were newer, but now I find I don't want to work with some people that are like that, that are difficult, that add stress, because it's just not worth it, and fortunately we're at a stage where we have a little bit more options to avoid those pitfalls something that I got with your previous statement is you talked about, you know, keeping the show like intimate, right, like how do you grow the show while maintaining that balance of intimacy, like how does, how does that work?

Blake Rea:

well?

Rich Park:

intimacy to me means maybe an attendant of 200, maybe 300, that's just in, maybe 300. That's just an intimacy. And although that's called an event, it's really more like a get-together when you have an attendance of a couple hundred. So intimate I wouldn't say intimate, but we're a proper level. So our attendance is, you know, between 1200 and a couple thousand attendees that come, which is still a packed house, which is very different from a show like in New York, for example, where they have, I think, 10,000, right, and that's great.

Rich Park:

That's not intimate, that's not going to create that kind of engagement, it's a rush. When you have that many, 10,000 people, the brand cannot give you that kind of dedicated time, right, because they see the line and, okay, it's kind of rushed and it's not a very satisfied. There's not a lot of satisfaction with that enthusiast who feels like, hey, I'm coming to your booth but I'm being rushed. That's not intimate. We're not intimate either because we're not a small show. We are, you know, wind up in minutes and hours are the two biggest. But we have that, yeah, that balance, and we do that intentionally by kind of capping the brands that we have in the space of our venue. So you know, we don't need 60 000 square feet where um to fill that with 100 brands. We are comfortable with up to 75 brands, uh, in a, in a reasonable size venue, to create that, that interpersonal relationship and engagement. It's intentional, without trying to chase, like I said, we're not trying to chase 100 brands.

Blake Rea:

What does success look like for you? Is it more cities, more brands, deeper connections with collectors? What does success look like for Rich Park?

Rich Park:

look like for for rich park, the feedback that we get from the guests who really appreciate coming to show in from for what, what they've learned um brands, expansion of cities if those cities are successful, um, with attendance and with brands, and that that's a successful show. To me, the what, what makes a success a successful show is if the brands are happy and if the, the attendees are happy, and that makes me happy to know. That makes me feel a success more than more than anything else. So that's how I measure success. We also have something on that we're working, something that we're working on right now that we will announce soon, um.

Rich Park:

But the fact that we are working on that project right now with brands, um isn't, isn't early success because of the trust that the brands put with me to um to take on this new project, this endeavor. So you know what I? I think a great way for me to sum that up in one word because I was a little wordy um is it is trust. So if the brands can put their trust in me and the watch and do this can put their trust uh, in in in our team, then that's a success for me. So I could have just summed that up with trust.

Blake Rea:

Um no, you did fine, you did trust where do you see, like the next three to five years, with minutes and hours, like maybe some milestone goals or you know, things that you hope to accomplish during that that period, because we're certainly going to check back with you and make sure that you've hit them all.

Rich Park:

Milestones, Maybe to add a different city, Hopefully Vegas. Vegas is one of them. I know you and I have talked about it off air. And this other project. I know I keep referring it to another project, which isn't fair to anyone listening and not me mentioning that, but we'll make that announcement soon. But that's a big project that in five years, if we can grow that into other cities, that will be a great success. In fact, I think the next milestone would be a year from now and seeing how that project shapes out.

Blake Rea:

So yeah, Very cryptic, but no, I'm just. Yeah, I know I don't like that.

Rich Park:

I, I, I think it's kind of I don't like being there.

Blake Rea:

It's for good reason. It's for good Cause I know what you're talking about, but it's for good, it's for good reason. You know you need to make sure that you, you're, you're in a place where you can properly launch it and people will know in due time, right? Yeah, thanks for understanding. Yeah, it'll be great, yeah.

Rich Park:

I try to be an open book. So, yeah, that's not my cryptic thing, it's not my thing. I try to be more open than that.

Blake Rea:

But yeah, thanks for understanding. I was totally joking. I guess this is another aspirational question. I guess this is another aspirational question. But if you could have a dream brand, sign on a dream partnership for the future of minutes and hours, who would it be? What would it look like? Because they might be listening. You never know.

Rich Park:

Yeah, no, that's a great question. We've we've partnered with I'm in terms of some of the other legendary brands like brightling um, we've done that with brightling. Uh, omega would be a really nice reach. And other, you know, shooting for the stars omega would be great. Um, you and I talked about ulysses nardin. Um, that would be great. I think that's Ulysses is such a brand that I think more people need to handle in person and to really appreciate them, because we see them from afar and we know that name, ulysses, right, if you're a watch person, I've heard of that brand, I know of that brand, but I don't get a chance to experience that in the hand as often as I would like. So I think that would be a brand. Uh, that would be a good.

Blake Rea:

Uh, immediately immediate reach for the stars brand they're, yeah, they're exceptional, they're, um, and I mean, maybe I said this before that, but they're a brand that truly understands the community.

Rich Park:

The collectors like the passion behind the community and they're they're really, uh, supportive and embraceful of that do you agree, though, with that, or do you disagree where it's like yeah, I know, you listen, I know that brand, but I can't quite place which model is my favorite, because I don't.

Blake Rea:

I don't come across one as often as I can a breitling or, or you know, a swatch or um, or rolex yeah, no, I agree, they definitely don't have the same distribution as a branditling or, or, you know, a swatch, or um, or Rolex yeah, no, I agree, they definitely don't have the same distribution as a brand like Omega or Breitling or tag or, you know, you can, you can see one of those pretty much in every city. But, um, you know, you, you, it is a brand that, um, I had never seen in the flesh or in the middle, before I moved to Vegas, you know.

Rich Park:

But when you do, you're impressed.

Blake Rea:

Oh my gosh.

Rich Park:

It's kind of like why aren't more people talking about this brand? Why aren't you know? So when you see it you and I see it it's impressive and it should be recognized more.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I mean their innovations and watchmaking are, you know, some of the biggest technical innovations. I think watch brands have ever accomplished Really good stuff. Yeah, seeing them getting hands on with them, selling them and then now working with them uh, yeah it. It was one of my dreams to bring one of one of their watches into uh, into my collection, and I did last year and and I wear it all the time, man I think that feedback would be be great when we had grand seiko.

Rich Park:

We did have grand seiko. The feedback when they get to see those watches in person it either matched or exceeded the hype from someone who's never seen or handled a Grand Seiko before Grand Seiko. People fall in love with those dials, the details of those dials. Nobody does a dial like Grand Seiko. I think with UN it could receive great, great appreciation and feedback.

Blake Rea:

Oh yeah, no, totally, totally. Yeah, we've pretty much reached the top of the hour here and, yeah, I'm super excited to have had you on.

Rich Park:

Oh, it's my pleasure.

Blake Rea:

I can't wait for the show. We actually moved some things around. I was telling the show we actually moved some things around. I was telling rich like we moved some things around. We had three podcasts that we've recorded and we were booked up until mid, mid august thank you so much for accommodating uh but but yeah, this is. This is gonna be dropped next week, so we had to push a couple around. So, uh, to get this out before, before the event, and it's well worth it, of course, you know three weeks to go.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, that's, time goes by yeah, yeah, well, we have, we have three recorded already and it, yeah it august. We were booked up to like mid-august. We had already all of our podcasts distributed, recorded and ready to go. Um, but no, I think, obviously with minutes, and it wouldn't make any sense for us to have this podcast in august after you know well, yeah, thank you for that.

Rich Park:

I'm always, I'm always happy to come on anytime. You'll have me, even after it shows, in between shows. So, um, I I really enjoyed, our really enjoyed chatting with you, especially off camera.

Blake Rea:

Oh yeah absolutely Well. Thank you so much for coming on. Um, everybody, if you know, if you don't know minutes and hours, you know. Obviously you can check out their website. Um, they're in Austin, they're in LA, they're in Chicago. The LA show will be here at the end of the month, july 26th, and 7th 27th in Los Angeles. I will be there. You can come see me. You can come say hi. Yeah, obviously, I'm sure Rich will be there because he's there.

Rich Park:

I think I might. Yeah, I think I might.

Blake Rea:

So yeah, if you decide to go like I said, tickets are free. Yeah giveaways.

Rich Park:

We're going to have amazing giveaways every hour. Wow, come visit tour, get free coffee. We, we provide the coffee tea. So walk around with a cup of coffee and take a look at all the watches and um be eligible for the giveaways. We really do give giveaways every hour and they're amazing. They're going to be amazing products. They get better. Our giveaways get better and better because our partners just trust us more and more and our partners get better and better.

Blake Rea:

So, yeah, and then something I guess I could jump in, because it seems like it's going to be kind of like the Beau Brevage, like where every brand has their own hotel room. Did I understand that correctly? Like their own suite?

Rich Park:

At the show, you mean their booth.

Blake Rea:

Yeah.

Rich Park:

Oh, is it just like a big community space, or how is that what you mean?

Blake Rea:

I'm sorry, what do you mean? So like at the bober vage and um and during watches and wonders, like essentially people book these hotel rooms oh, okay and uh, and then you walk into the. They just open all the doors to all the hotel rooms and then you walk in and it's like uh. Oh, here's Delma, here's Doc's uh. You know, here's uh. Is that the same vibe, or is it just?

Rich Park:

there's a couple of rooms. There's going to be the uh, the big main room, and then off to the side there are a couple more uh rooms, but it's pretty much an open space for everyone to come and see him. If you're referring to the giveaways, the giveaways are. You know they'll be done in the middle, in the main room, every hour, but I try to make you understand the vision. So you come up to the stairs in the middle. That's the main room. Off to the side there are two more rooms that we can put. We'll have brands there in addition to the main room. So all the doors are open so everyone will have access to them.

Blake Rea:

So, yeah, I cannot wait. I am already gearing up to. I don't even know which watch I'm going to wear.

Rich Park:

We know we didn't do the wrist. What do you have on right now? I have a Hublot. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Blake Rea:

I'm not, I don't do. I know everybody does their wrist checks and all I.

Rich Park:

I I will do it if somebody brings it up, but well, I only did it now, because we were just talking about what watch where, and I don't do that either.

Blake Rea:

I'm thinking I'm like, obviously I have to bring a delma, I have to bring a marisa, qual, I have to bring a young hans like uh representing you, gotta represent I gotta represent the people that represent me you know, so understood. Stern glass is another one. I mean, yeah, uh, yeah, it's, it's hard, it's hard do you have a christopher ward yet or not?

Rich Park:

yet I don't. I don't.

Blake Rea:

No, no, I, I, I, I would love to. I have I have 150 watches and I'm trying to scale back as to what I own and what I wear.

Rich Park:

You got to check out the Simia. That's that, that 7-Eleven chronograph with the dial layout you know, hence the name 7-Eleven at 7 and 11. That's that. That's nice. That's one of my favorites too.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, I've never heard of them. I've've never checked it out. I'm in a weird bubble, you know um, and unless somebody walks, up and smacks me in the face I'm not paying attention. So, yeah, well rich, thank you for spending an hour with us. I appreciate you jumping on. I appreciate, uh, everything. I appreciate you you welcoming me to the show, and, and some of my friends, and I look forward to meeting you in person next couple weeks.

Rich Park:

Yeah, no, it's my pleasure. Thanks for accommodating me for pushing back your other scheduled podcast.

Blake Rea:

Perfect, perfectly worked out.

Rich Park:

And I really look forward to catching up with you in just a couple of weeks in LA.

Blake Rea:

Yeah, see you very soon, all right, all right, bye-bye. Thanks, blake.

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