Beyond The Dial

Horology Inc. provides us with a vast array of dial colors able to splash dopamine onto our opiate receptors. We often dismiss new colors as a superficial trend lacking horological innovation, but Allen argues that - because splashy dials spontaneously inspire joy, beauty, and emotions that, science has shown, replicate our experience of Love - great dials may be closer to the center of The Aesthe...

Allen breaks form on his approach to the hands-on review while exploring how Moser creates what is, in his opinion, one of the most beautiful watches currently being produced.

Can irony reconcile the cynical Gen X world view with a luxury hobby? Does the Swiss watch industry sell us "Vintage Nationalism" along with our watches? Did Jean-Claude Biver leverage anti-establishment tendencies with his anti-electronic rhetoric of the 1980s and 1990s?  Allen takes a stab at these topics and more in this essay episode.

In this essay-style episode, Allen takes a journey through the history of glow-in-the-dark materials, drawing a personal narrative spanning five decades alongside a technological and psycho-evolutionary analysis of luminescence. 

Daniel and Lung Lung from The Waiting List podcast join Allen and James for a 2-hour conversation about how unique regional cultural experiences shape our attitudes toward watches and each other. Expect a lot of laughter and surprises as cross-cultural discoveries emerge in this lively conversation.

Allen and Jon both ride Ducati Panigale V2s, and therefore have much to talk about. But they don't talk all that much about motorcycles, instead focusing on Jon's family's history at Cartier and Tiffany, Italian espresso machines, and the indie watch scene.

Welcome to "How Watches Work," a series of episodes dedicated to understanding the devices behind the dial. In this introductory episode, David Flett walks Allen through a history of mechanical timekeeping going back over 5000 years and sweeping up to modern times.

Greg knows his Star Wars, Speedmasters and NASA history inside out. Greg's rebuttal to Allen's deconstruction of "Grand American Space Narratives" via the Swiss watch industry opens up new ways of thinking about the Omega Speedmaster, humanity's role in space, and much more.

Allen finally takes on this horological masterpiece, which he's never really felt anything for at all - perhaps until now. From musicological analysis of Phillip Glass's minimalist music to deconstructing nationalist narratives, this episode doesn't critique Omega's branding of the Speedmaster as much as it critiques modern branding entirely.

Allen takes us on a downhill journey back to his days as a ski-punk while rocking an Explorer II Polar White in Vail, CO. It's a tale of personal rediscovery aided by a badass tool watch.

Following up on Episode 51, Allen turns a cultural-history lens onto the Quartz Crisis for a look at how quartz watches fit into the broader context of the 20th Century. Using his formal essay format, Allen contextualizes The Quartz Crisis as just one of many technological disruptions that ultimately culminated in the so-called Digital Revolution of the 21st Century.

Pedro comes on to discuss his new-found acceptance of some quartz watches, and he and Allen end up discussing the Quartz Crisis from many different angles. Notably not reaching consensus on key topics, this conversation leads to some rather interesting questions about how and why electronic watches disrupted the watch industry in the 1970s. The Quartz Crisis Part 2 will be a formal essay by Allen...

Evolutionary theory suggests that we are drawn to certain people and not others based on hardwired aesthetic judgements wrought over some five-million years. Allen suggests that similar hardwired aesthetics are at play when we judge "wrist presence," and goes on to suggest that tool watches categorically fail to achieve this elusive quality. A deep dive into Cartier and Rolex in the early 20th Cen...

We see so many recreations of vintage watches issued to commemorate moments in history, people, wars, accomplishments, and so on. A certain line of WWII pilot's watch recreations present difficult questions about memorializing the Hitler's Nazi regime. Israeli paratrooper and military watch expert Oren Hartov joins Allen in an open dialogue which explores numerous angles on what will always be a t...

The Calibre 400 is not the first of Oris' in-house modern movements, but it is their first work-horse automatic winding movement of the modern era. Designed from the ground-up according to Oris' value-focused ethos, this movement is highly efficient, packs a 5-day power reserve, is robustly anti-magnetic, and happens to look a bit like the Oris Bear. VJ gives us an in-depth consideration of this i...

Seiko famously had two factories working simultaneously in both collaboration and competition to produce the most accurate watches in the world in order to beat the Swiss at their own game. David and Pedro had done deep research into this topic and come up with new intel that's fascinating in its own right, and very relevant for collectors of Seikos and all watches.

With the diving behind them, the BTD Crew that dove Lake George is unpacking both their gear and their thoughts about the experience. Allen reads an essay he wrote about SCUBA diving in search of outbreaks of the invasive species Eurasian Milfoil, and he muses on everything from bringing climate change deniers together with environmentalists to how much better the Oris Divers 65 was than his dive...

Sponsored by Oris and in partnership with The Lake George Association, the BTD crew is headed out to document invasive species in this iconic American fresh water treasure nestled in the Adirondack Mountains. Allen and Shelley will be making 6 dives over two days to photograph Eurasian Milfoil, a plant that threatens fresh water ecosystems throughout the USA. In this episode, Greg and Allen discus...

Allen and David discuss their simultaneous breakthroughs in their personal collections, with David going deep on very specific vintage Seikos and Allen finally admitting that the Cartier Tank is his favorite watch of all time, and thus worthy of his full attention.  David's keen distinction between watches one wears (the rotation) and those one collects (the collection) clarifies and focuses the w...

As Elvis once said, "Let's get way way gone for a change." Patina is an observable effect of entropy, or the ongoing disordering of the universe. Allen worms his way into this topic and comes out the other side concluding that patina is - not metaphorically, but actually - poetry. This episode offers a wild ride through quantum gravitational theory, information theory, phenomenonology, poetics, ph...

Allen's interview with Martha Roesler of The Coral Restoration Foundation covers the science of reefs, how recreational SCUBA divers can help them, how Oris has been supporting the CRF, and much more. Allen revamps his call to listeners to come together and make a trek to Florida to help plant corals, and the Oris x Beyond The Dial Essay Contest is announced.

Why do we focus on having just one personal style? Why do we fracture our communities endlessly into smaller and smaller tribes? How do our personal aesthetics signal tribal membership? Why is carbon fiber so divisive among watch wonks? Allen ponders these questions and more as his love for all things Italian, fast, and matchy-matchy surges after years of suppression.

Men's style writer and historian, Pedro Mendes, talks with Allen about watches, men's style, environmentalism, racial tension, gender, and so much more. You'll also get some amazing leads on where to look for your next bit of lifetime-lasting tailored garb.

N. American CEO of ORIS Watches, VJ Geronimo, visits Allen at BTD HQ for a spirited discussion about the history of Oris, the company's environmental conservation efforts, the new Divers 65 made in collaboration with Japan's Momotaro Jeans...and much more. VJ's passion is contagious, and the rich history of Oris is fascinating.

What started as a cute aphorism has grown into a socio-economic theory. Allen works his way through the assumptions that make up this theory, drawing on personal memory, Marxist and Anarchist failures, Pan-Indigenous Environmentalism, and, of course, horological love. The goal? Nothing short of transforming Late Capitalism through our built-in human love of Beauty.