The Real Story Behind the Most Famous Watch Review Ever
A 'start here' guide for Unpolished, plus I applied for a gold MoonSwatch.
📆 Happy World Emoji Day. Look at that calendar emoji, and you’ll get why. In today’s newsletter:
I filled out a MoonSwatch 1969 application so you don’t have to.
The real story behind Walt Odets’ famous Explorer review.
A map to Unpolished’s best stuff.
A few of you have stumbled into this newsletter from this Huckberry YouTube video or the most recent video on the Unpolished channel. If that’s you, check out the new Start Here guide at the end of today’s email.
A new store in Chicago
Yesterday I visited Ad Patina’s new storefront in Chicago. Hundreds of old magazines everywhere you look—1970s Car & Driver, 80s Vogue, 90s Nat Geo. Dozens of his favorite ads are framed throughout the store. Watch ads, but also cars, design, and Absolut Vodka, with all kinds of ephemera scattered across drawers, shelves, and tables.
These ads are cultural artifacts that put objects within the context of their time and place. The copy is undeniably succinct and occasionally brilliant. A Porsche “kills bugs fast;” Pirelli’s tires on a Ferrari are “a generous contribution to the performing arts.” Many are important in their own right, not just as supplements to something else. A copy of MJ’s first Sports Illustrated cover recently sold for $230k.
Ad Patina’s store is in a 1920s building with hardwood floors and a farmhouse-style sink in the back. Coincidentally, there’s a watch repair store next door, even if they’re only good for the quick battery change. Congrats to Nick on the awesome new space. Reach out to Ad Patina on Instagram or via his website if you wanna visit.
I filled out a MoonSwatch ‘1969’ application so you don’t have to
Q1: Have you ever gifted a golden table clock to a president?
You may have seen that Swatch is releasing another MoonSwatch. This time, it’s gold. You have to fill out a 32-question application for a chance to win. Most of the questions are funny, though some suggest an earnest answer (none were given on my application). This generation will recall the day it had to answer “what would you do with a MoonSwatch 1969,” the way mine had to answer the common application’s “why do you want to go to [X] University?” I proceeded without much thought, and finished in about eight minutes.
Fill out the application here, if you must.
👑 Speaking of golden table clocks and presidents, Trump’s annual disclosure lists Rolex in the amount of $25,000, for the 10 U.S. Open box tickets he received—he sat in the brand’s box during last year’s final. No gold desk clock, I guess? The line item is right below FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who gave 10 tickets for the final of this weekend’s World Cup.
🧑🚀 In other Speedmaster news, Sotheby’s sold a bunch of Buzz Aldrin’s stuff. His 1990 Speedmaster sold for $45k, but the coolest item was no doubt this Buzz Lightyear signed to “The Real Buzz!”:
BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE ESCAPEMENT
A New Event for Collectors, By Collectors
The Escapement is the first collector-focused event built for enthusiasts of all types. It’s not a trade show. Come for live talks by independent watchmakers like Rexhep Rexhepi and Romain Gauthier. Plus, get hands-on with watches from Greubel Forsey, Simon Brette, and some of today’s most important makers. All in an arena and format that’s never been done before.
It’s not all watches: Saturday night will feature a comedy headliner, while Sunday will have a closing concert. Friday is VIP day, all day, with an opening-night Gala. Saturday and Sunday are General Admission. Join us: November 20-22, Etihad Arena, Abu Dhabi (UAE):
The Roundup
The real story behind the most infamous watch review ever. Psychologist and author Walt Odets died last week. Here’s a 2025 NY Times profile. In addition to his profession, he was a prolific watch reviewer, maybe the first. I found a single podcast interview with him here. For a man who was eulogized across the watch internet, his detachment from it all in the podcast is beautifully quaint. He struggles to remember the names Hodinkee or Jean-Claude Biver!
Much has been written about his impact, and of course he’s influenced my perspective. I’ve repeatedly quoted his reviews for the Chopard L.U.C 1860, Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin, Lange 1815 Up/Down, parts 1 and 2 (his balanced POV surely part of the reason I now own the latter).
Find his entire archive on TimeZone here, hopelessly formatted as it may be.
A footnote to his wider impact: Odets wrote for TimeZone, perhaps the first real watch blog, owned by Richard Paige, a fourth-generation watchmaker and retailer in San Francisco. So much is made today about conflicts of interest in watches, and it’s certainly a bigger and more complicated industry than in the 1990s. But here we had a talented writer/technical tinkerer who partnered with a retailer to create detailed reviews we still refer to as the gold standard 30 years later. The kind of tie-up that YouTubers would scream about today.
Odets’ most famous review was his takedown of the Rolex Explorer (part 1, part 2). But in an interview years later, Paige said he “set the whole thing up—the whole thing was orchestrated by me.”
Paige openly admits his bias: on the TimeZone forums, most posts were arguing about Omega vs. Rolex. Enthusiasts basically thought luxury watches began with Seiko and ended with Rolex. Paige wanted to change that.
No conflict, no interest, as the saying goes.
He knew Odets was more familiar with Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Lange, and if Paige gave him a Rolex for a review, it wouldn’t hold up. So he gave him an Explorer I. From there:
“Walt did what he does best. He honestly critiqued the watch using the higher standard of much finer watches as his point of reference.”
Paige says he even got an email from Rolex HQ about the review, asking for Walt’s home address. “It seemed likely to me they might actually go after Walt,” he said. Paige never responded.
Sure, conflicts of interest can be bad. But instead of always blaming the conflict, maybe what we really need are more people with the cajones—backed by actual knowledge—that Paige and Odets had to say whatever they wanted.
One last irony: Paige said that Odets began reviewing a wider array of watches, and eventually admitted the Rolex was a pretty good value.
🎨 FP Journe as art. Art newsletter The Appraisal brought to my attention that auction app Fair Warning recently sold a Journe Chronomètre Bleu Byblos for $600k. This is the 99-piece limited edition made for the 2015 opening of its Beirut boutique, basically a CB with a partially openworked dial. The Appraisal said it’s the first time the well-known, one-lot-at-a-time art app had sold anything in the collectibles/objects space. And it did well—Sotheby’s sold a Byblos for $537k just a week before. More on watches-as-art in the coming weeks.
🇺🇸 Flags and hand-finishing—a chat with 1776 Atelier. I’ve been curious about 1776 Atelier, the newish American watch brand that, as the name hints, is unabashedly American. kingflum has a good interview with co-founder Jason Lu. His partner, Zach Smith, will be familiar to Unpolished readers, see Forget American, These Guys Just Wanna Make Great Watches.
Unpolished: Start Here
At the beginning of the year, I started paying for Claude Cowork. I fed it all my old articles. At first, the goal was to build a better search engine for myself to sift through 5+ years of newsletters—a “RAG” in AI-speak. Then a few weeks ago, I saw ScrewDown Crown use the same setup to create a “start here” guide for his web of tangents, asides, and often-insightful philosophical takes on collecting. That quote about great artists stealing started ringing in my head, and I thought I should do the same for Unpolished—so I did.
The first bits are copied below, and the full Intro to Unpolished is below. It’s also pinned on the homepage if you ever need to find it.
I’ve been writing about watches for the better part of a decade. This all started as a newsletter—the first time I hit send, it went to 51 people. Eventually I became an editor at Hodinkee, then I launched Unpolished in January 2025. Before that, I was an attorney.
What is Unpolished?
Unpolished is a 2x/week newsletter for watch enthusiasts. Most issues are built around a main piece, along with a handful of shorter hits—market notes, recs, whatever’s worth flagging. It’s pretty casual, but calls out bullsh*t when we see it.
It doesn’t run ads from watch brands and is supported by paid subscribers, in addition to selling a growing array of straps and accessories in the Unpolished Store.
Who am I?
I’m Tony Traina. Unpolished is the newsletter I wish existed as I was becoming an enthusiast. Opinionated, grounded in history, fascinated by collectibility, and not concerned with brands or PR agendas. Based in Chicago.
What I cover
I love vintage watches: Cartier, Rolex, Patek Philippe, but also Movado, Longines, and Gallet. Neo-vintage: 1990s Chopard, Lange & Söhne, and Blancpain. Plenty of modern coverage too—much of it focused on independents—but always with an eye on what came before. That back-and-forth between past and present is the whole point of Unpolished.
A few themes you’ll see come up again and again: constantly questioning what it means to be collectible; skepticism toward hype and the social pressure that distorts everything; a running argument about what “good taste” actually means versus what we’re told it means; the difference between rare and important.
That’s all informed by reporting with real names and numbers instead of vague gestures at “the market.” I talk to plenty of collectors, dealers, and independent watchmakers who know more than me.
What you get as a subscriber
Free subscribers get a taste. Paid members ($8/mo or $80/year) get 2 issues per week, plus:
10% off all U.S.-made straps in the Unpolished Store
$50 off any service at Watchcheck
Care Package—Unpolished polishing cloth + stickers
Access to comments and Q&As
Founding Members get an annual gift and Rewind Magazine. 2026 is sold out, so more on that when the time’s right.
Where to start
The thesis pieces, to understand how I think about collecting:
47 Unpolished Rules for Watch Collecting—buy what you understand, and other practical and theoretical rules to guide your collecting (or not).
How to Actually Develop ‘Good Taste’—understanding what moves you and when you’re being moved for the wrong reasons.
Are You Playing the Game You Wanna Play?—What happens when numbers replace judgment—and how to take it back.
Rarity is Overrated—is it rare or is it obscure?
Here’s the full map:
Podcast + YouTube, too
🎧 Unpolished Podcast: A regular chat with collectors, watchmakers, or insiders, as well as audio editions of select newsletters. Subscribe: Spotify / Apple / RSS
Listener favorites: Bradley Taylor; Wei Koh; Jack Forster; Ben Dunn (Watch Brothers London); Nicholas Bowman-Scargill (Fears); Steven Holtzman (CD Peacock); William Massena
🎥 Also on YouTube. Subscribe here.
Thanks for reading,
Tony
I kept hearing about Walt Odets especially when I was researching the 14270. I ended up buying the 114270. Everyone in more contemporary articles kept talking about him like he was dead. But I googled his name and found a website with his email, so I emailed him and spoke to him on the phone and I ended up putting him in touch with Allen for the podcast. He did say he hadn’t gotten into watch culture since his forum days because he felt some hostility and homophobia from the watch community of the time, especially after the Rolex review. Pretty interesting guy. I think nowadays we don’t really appreciate what a catastrophic event the AIDS crisis was in the gay community
I said I wanted to bring a McChicken to the moon on my application. I’m not sure if an actual human will read it, but if they do, all I hope is that they get a good kick out of it.