Slept On vs. Overhyped Watches: The Full Roundtable

I answered this one twice during my recent video AMA, once alone on Friday night and once Saturday with Tai and Spence standing next to me at Shreve, Crump & Low. Different night, different room, four opinions of ours.

Friday night, my three picks for slept on.

First was Holthinrichs, out of the Netherlands. Small enough that "slept on" almost undersells it, most people have never heard of them at all. They 3D print their cases and their Haute Horlogerie pieces, which I don't own yet and would like to fix, are genuinely magnificent. Their Ornament Nouveau is unlike anything else on the market right now.

Second was Pequignet, out of France. I've got the Concorde Titanium and I love it. They're moving into making their own movements and calibers, and they're starting to build for other brands too. Almost no U.S. presence. I might be the only guy wearing one on this side of the Atlantic.

Third, and this is the bigger call, was Parmigiani. They went quiet for a while after an initial run of popularity, then brought in a new CEO, Guido Terreni, who's completely reoriented the creative direction. The Tonda is the first real signal of where he's taking the brand. The sales numbers back it up. People who actually spend time with the movements, the finishing, the feel of these watches come away converted. I think that conversion is still early.

Saturday, the question came back with three more voices in the room.

I went first with the overhyped side, since I'd already covered slept on the night before. Rolex, for me. Outside of my Daytonas, which I love and kept, I don't see what the excitement is about anymore. I've sold off most of mine.

Tai took the elephant in the room: F.P. Journe. He told a story that put a number on it, he sold a Resonance for half a million dollars, and the same reference is trading at three and a half million now, nine months later. His words: "when a chart go like this, just be prepared." His slept on pick was Daniel Roth, which their Connecticut store carries and Boston doesn't yet. He put one on me and I understood the appeal immediately, the case design and the finishing are shoulder to shoulder with the bigger independent names. He threw in a second slept on pick too, Moritz Grossmann, right as their new anniversary piece, tefnut 36, hit Instagram. We both agreed on the spot that it's stunning.

Spence went overhyped on Audemars Piguet, not the brand as a whole but what it's become, an engine for Royal Oak variations. He still rates the Jumbo as a real classic. His slept on picks were JLC, which he thinks has quietly leveled up over the past few years without getting credit for it, and J.N. Shapiro, where his opinion carries real weight since he's toured Josh's shop in person. He described machines a few hundred years old still in use and called it genuine American watchmaking, bringing something new to a category most people associate with Switzerland and Germany.

What stood out putting these next to each other.

Parmigiani showed up as a slept on pick from me on both nights, which tells you it wasn't a one-off answer, it's where my head actually is. And nobody at the table defended Journe's pricing outright. Even Tai, who sells the brand pre-owned when it comes into the store and clearly loves it, called the run insane.

Knowing me, ask me again in six months, most likely at least one of these answers changes.