Reply With QuoteHodinkee and it's products are for trendy hipsters.
This watch is horrible!
Another Hodinkee collaboration here: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/in...r-for-hodinkee
Not so sure about it and a wee bit out of my price range at 5900 bucks too...
Edit: Still available in shop for anyone who wants one....
Hodinkee and it's products are for trendy hipsters.
This watch is horrible!
I don't like the sub-dial colours, but I like the overall design. It's un-fussy.
I don't like the price.
Not for me.
Not a fan, seems confused, it's a pretty dressy watch then the splash of colour which in my opinion doesn't work well in the subdial. I feel like it's almost good but misses the mark somehow. Will no doubt sell out quickly, they have a lot of fans with huge amounts of disposable cash.
Yea I echo sentiments of a bit confused styling.
Hodinkee collaborations seem to focus on simplicity which I commend. But this is a bit of a miss from me.
I love it! Lovely, lovely thing.
I do not love the price.
I think 39mm is slightly on the big size for this. I understand why they went with that but I'd like to have seen a 36mm or possibly 38mm.
Bleurgh.
And sold out......
I think it looks nice, especially with the orange nato
I quite like this. There some credible pedigree behind it. Probably more so than the SM Tuesday. Also a very small LE.
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That's the least-crappy-looking TAG Heuer since the '90s re-issue of the 1969 Carrera. Mind you, that's not saying that it actually looks good.
I hate it, but hodinky knows their audience.
Pretty cynical really; it just mashes ideas from several vintage designs without being true to any. Hodinkee are pretty slick salesmen.
I quite like it but the 19mm lugs kill me.
Fabulous post!Originally Posted by Belligero
Really surprised by some of the comments here.
It is a pretty straight stylistic version of this vintage skipper
Image from Heuerboy.
So very little imagination has gone into it, it is a "classic" design including the colouring.
The fact that the coloured segments now make no sense (they should be 5 minute segements for starting gun intervals, but the Hodinkee one now has 10 minute segments) is a bit meh.
Dave
Shows how opinions differ; to me it looks bad. Nothing like the real thing......one of the two dials has simpy disappeared. The remaining dial is on the wrong side . It is just a crude parody . All because Tag believe all punters want a date on every watch .
Compare with Zenith, their recreations of the 60s CP2 Chrono sticks to the original properly, so no date. If you are going to loot the past, do it well, with style and confidence.
Awful date, really messing that up. Oh well, another day another Hodinkee miss.
An "homage" to two watches,managing to miss the better features of either,IMHO,and at such an attractive price.
If I wanted a LE chrono then I would look to Speedy Pro.
But of the same era Heuer was also offering the Carrera 45 Dato, with one sub-dial and date, so there is precedence.
Date is just a complication that once available, was used quite a bit.
I admit, it is not wholly successful, but it is actually quite close to the original.
The CP2 re-issue is another thing altogether, and yes, they kept the date off, but the sub-dial placement is waaaaay too close to look as nice as the original, because they made the other main re-issue mistake of making it too big.
Don't get me wrong, I am no fanboy of Hodinkee's offering, but it certainly has heritage in the styling.
Dave
I agree with everything you've said.
The use of a 30min register is disappointing: what's the point of a Skipper(era) when it can no longer be used for racing? Heuer used the Skipper "complication" in seven or eight models; all had 15min registers. It's very odd.
I don't mind it but the hodinkee pricing is a little on the dreamland side. Like the sunburst and colour scheme.
They get away with it though. Don't they sell out instantly?
Was looking on IG earlier and there was a fair few posts from people annoyed they missed out buying it!
Theyve certainly created a lot of interest in vintage watches from a lot of people. I think many old school watch lovers don't like them because theres almost a feeing of new blood wanting stuff just because it's 'hodinkee' and cool. It all fits in nicely with the instant generation that like to fit a certain created lifestyle. A bit like the whole cafe racer/tracker scene.
I'd rather they were around than not even though I find a lot of the following a bit much but the fact they get many collectors to share their collections on video is enough for me to want them around.
Yeah. It's certainly an effective business model.
There's a lot of instant gratification "curated" stuff around these days.
I hate it, and I don't like the direction hodinkee has taken in the last 18 months
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It's an excellent way of making money: become the arbiter of taste amongst very wealthy but very insecure people, and then be the person to sell them the thing that you've told them they need.
How it will all look after the party is over, once they've cashed in all their credibility, and a younger generation has grown up laughing at it all, is yet to be discovered.
Interesting comment, I thought it was the young hipsters lapping it all up, and the older curmudgeon (like me) that appreciated just how much they were over-fluffing their own offer.
Dave
It's a young-ISH crowd, people buying their way into a moneyed equivalent of cool, having not had the real thing when actually young.
But my point was not so much their actual age now, but that everything passes, time never stops ticking on, and more intense a fad is, the more it is ridiculed by the generation that follows.
They have some wealthy backers who have pumped a fair bit of money into the business. For the past 18 months I reckon growth sacrificed profit. Now they need to prove it can make money. These collabs, the store and other trinkets are the only ways to make money above and beyond the advertising model which is needed to justify the valuation Hodinkee likely has.
The next year will be telling as that focus on profits becomes sharper into focus. Growth wise they've captured a fair bit of the WIS and high end market already and not sure how mainstream they plan to penetrate with Hodinkee.
Thank you for the business analysis Crazyp first of all, I love this sort of insight.
Yeah, that's exactly it - as evidenced, among other things, by the "serving suggestion" pictures they always include with the vintage watches they sell. You know, presenting the watch with (sort of) period correct sunglasses, driving gloves, car keys etc. alongside it. I must say that this would annoy me as a customer, it would make me feel as if I'm falling for a ploy, but I have no doubt that it works well enough for them. It would suggest, though, that they are trying to cultivate a younger generation of enthusiasts, in the way that Hodinkee understands the term, of course, i.e. people ready to pony up the cash for old watches - the older generation wouldn't require this context, especially as one-dimensional as it's mostly featured.
Not a fan but it makes the Speedy Tuesday look fantastic value
Pedants corner....but the cp2 re-issue is identical in size to the original. 43mm. That must have been huge in the 60s. What is it with Italians and big watches?
Hmmm.. i can't say i care for this.
In fairness, 3 hand watches with date are far and away the biggest sellers.
Although contradicting myself, not sure mass appeal matters with such a small batch.
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Erm is it just me or are the divisions on the sundial completely nonsensical - how on earth are you meant to measure anything other than 10/15/20/25/30 mins using those markers?
Young hipsters don't buy $50,000 VC chronographs. It's the rich NYC set who's lapping up this stuff.
I was wondering that myself but their explanation is "10 minute countdowns are a common feature of many modern regattas"
I have no idea about that at all but I'd imagine it was more about keeping the tri colour sub dial colour segments rather than timing?
Having looked on their website now, I must say it's quite a nice looking watch actually. The sunburst dial is lovely. But it is a lot of money!
They must literally be raking it in though, fair play to them. How much can they be buying these at from Tag? Can't be loads surely? They probably made about $250,000 in about half an hour!
What they need to do is keep rolling out these colabs, bloke will be laughing all the way to ththe bank! Not that he can be doing badly already, seem to have loads of staff etc.
I find all that stuff so obnoxious too. It's like if you wear a watch you must be wearing fancy leather shoes some sort of wool jacket/jumper with a tie and pocket handkerchief, trendy sunglasses, oh and a leather/bead bracelet too. I appreciate it's mostly marketing (though it seems at least a few Hodinkee staff fit the bill) but meh it makes me feel slightly nauseous and puts me off the product. Basically they look like pretentious gits, no offense intended to any fine TZ members who may dress the same.......In the watch weblog world it seems more affected if that makes sense.
Oh and I find the original more balanced looking therefore I think it works better than the reedition.
Last edited by Frakius; 22nd June 2017 at 17:06.
Is the original a modular chronograph built on a ETA clone base? I suspect not.
I spotted one these completely battered in a Fellows auction. Thinking I was being very clever I bid at £2500 on the reserve of £400 to £600. Unfortunately winning bid was £17k!Really surprised by some of the comments here.
It is a pretty straight stylistic version of this vintage skipper
Image from Heuerboy.
So very little imagination has gone into it, it is a "classic" design including the colouring.
The fact that the coloured segments now make no sense (they should be 5 minute segements for starting gun intervals, but the Hodinkee one now has 10 minute segments) is a bit meh.
Dave
There is another for sale at an auction soon, they have wised up to this and the pre-auction estimate is £12-18,000
Makes the Hodinkee one look cheap..........
D
I heard on the grapevine that the dial was unrepairable as the lacquer had lifted and wrecked the Sunburst dial. Apparently the buyer had it mounted on a stand next to his already owned perfect dialed one. I'm thinking he's probably got a retina entry, walk in safe only entered via hidden private lift. Sadly I couldn't compete with this Bond Style Villain.There is another for sale at an auction soon, they have wised up to this and the pre-auction estimate is £12-18,000
Makes the Hodinkee one look cheap..........
D
Another thought was this watch was entirely unsuitable for its job in that it had precious little WR and was dainty to handle . The next generation Skippers were in far more pratical Autavia cases I believe.
I feel like Hodinkee has been getting pretty obnoxious for a while now. The articles can read as smug and I feel these collaborations are cynical. Having said that... both the VC chronograph and this I've really liked the look of. I've wanted a blue sunburst for a while but don't want a bi-metal Sub, this could be it. I'll reluctantly be keeping an eye out on the second hand market...
This tells me that they are more than likely using old stock cases from their early 2000 models. The margin on these must be huge. Fair play to both TAG and hodinkee if they are sold out.
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I don't get it, the whole point of a regatta watch is the count-down function in 5 min lots:
"At the start of a regatta, yachts are jockeying for position behind a starting buoy for 15 minutes. At the sound of the starting gun, a countdown is begun and the competing vessels launch past the start line 15 minutes later. Yachting Timers like this one are used to time the countdown onboard, their brightly colored countdown sub-dials denoting the remaining time."
(https://shop.analogshift.com/products/heuer-skipper-1)
Not, as Hodinkee imply:
"The chronograph minutes register is divided into 10 minute intervals by the three color sectors, echoing the design of the original reference 7754; 10 minute countdowns are a common feature of many modern regattas"
(https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/in...r-for-hodinkee)
Not only do they have a standard 30min scale, it's also a standard count-up format and to boot, the coloured sectors make no more sense.
Either they didn't understand the original, or they were too lazy to implement it (which would have been very easy).
Although I like the original 7754 for its fineness, I prefer the 'big eye' version on the 7764 - it emphasises the main feature/purpose of the watch. Hodinkee seem to have neglected that feature all together - despite it being the one the watch is named after...
Shame.
Last edited by andy111s; 23rd June 2017 at 13:22.
^
Very well-put.
The stretched-out Arial used for the "SKIPPER" text also implies a rather careless design process.
I'm ambivalent about these but they may prove to be shrewd investments at least in the short term, I'd wear one but wouldn't pay nearly $6k.
For anyone who missed out with $6k to burn there are still 83 of the 100 LE hour glasses available if you fancy a Hodinkee fix....
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