166: Watches And Wonders: 31% Panic, 69% Champagne

This week on aBlogtoWatch Weekly, Rick, Ariel, and Ripley launch the show with the vestigial clap-in and get right to the hot topics of the week: Watches & Wonders, of course, and the many varying views on Trump's tariffs and how they'll affect the watch industry. But first, Ripley puts in a plug for better swag at the event next year. Underwear and socks would be awesome! He ran out of clean shirts before his flight home, so he was ever-so-grateful for a brand-new Oris t-shirt. And Doxa gave out passport covers so Americans could obscure their identities — score! Rick asks the rapidly devaluing 64k question: What is the collective sound a gaggle of watch executives makes the day after tariffs are announced? Ariel observes that already very high prices were a pre-emptive strike among said execs, who'll just absorb these new costs. David arrives, wondering where the convo is at, and he commiserates on the swag issue. Post-W&W decompression has obviously been needed (folks are giddy!), but the guys DO get down to talking about actual watches — first, through the door of Ariel's parallels with The Brutalist. You'll simply have to listen to understand this one. Rick scrolls down the list of 60 brands featured at the show, and they proceed to talk about Chanel, Chronoswiss, Bell & Ross, Nomos, U-Boat, Norqain, and more. You'll have to click through to find out whether the news is good or bad.