Lonely Wrist: All Things Watches & Horology
Lonely Wrist dives deep into the intricate world of watches, unearthing the stories, craft, and passion behind every ticking piece. From timeless classics to modern marvels, this podcast winds through the history, mechanics, and cultural significance of timepieces. Whether you're an avid horologist or just someone who admires the beauty of a well-crafted watch, Lonely Wrist offers a unique perspective, uniting enthusiasts and curious minds. Join us every episode as we explore the art of watchmaking, discuss the latest trends, and interview watch industry experts, all while appreciating the silent yet profound voice of every watch's lonely wrist.
Lonely Wrist: All Things Watches & Horology
Sophie's Watch World on Passion, Perseverance, and Collecting with Heart
Ever wondered how a simple Rolex purchase could spark a lifelong passion for watch collecting? Join us this week as we chat with Sophie from Sophie's Watch World. Sophie shares her journey from her first Rolex OP acquisition to discovering her shared enthusiasm for watches with her husband after moving to Geneva. Together, they embarked on a captivating collecting adventure that introduced them to hidden gems like the Zenith Defy Skeleton. Sophie brings to light her fascinating transition from acting and luxury fashion to motherhood, eventually channeling her love for watches into a thriving Instagram presence.
In our conversation, Sophie opens up about the challenges and triumphs of being an outspoken woman in the watch community. She emphasizes embracing one's personality and the liberating power of self-expression through social media, despite the occasional negativity. We dive into the ethics of sales in the luxury watch industry, where authenticity and long-term relationships trump quick wins. Listening to Sophie, you'll discover how she skillfully balances a full-time job in cybersecurity with her passion for selling watches, all while building genuine connections with clients.
From exploring the "shrink it and pink it" approach in women's watches to sharing insights from the Windup Watch Fair in Chicago, Sophie offers a refreshing perspective on the industry's evolving landscape. Her tales of acquiring and restoring watches from eclectic locations like Las Vegas pawn shops will leave you on the edge of your seat. We wrap up with a discussion on luxury watch pricing, questioning the rising costs and celebrating the value of Swiss craftsmanship. Whether you're a seasoned collector or just beginning your journey, Sophie's stories promise insights and inspiration for every watch enthusiast.
Check out Sophie at: https://www.instagram.com/sophies.watch.world/
Welcome to We Just Coolin, The Ultimate Chill Zone
Listen on: Spotify
Support the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2237102/support
Visit our Blog: https://lonelywrist.com
Watch our Youtube: http://youtube.lonelywrist.com
100% Viewer Funded: Donate Here
Hello everybody, Welcome to another episode of Lonely Wrist. Sitting in front of me is Sophie from Sophie's Watch World. Hello, hi. Sophie is a fellow YouTuber, also an honorary member of the Double Wrist Committee and the writer for Mainspring, a contributing writer for Mainspring Watch. Does that accurately represent who you are?
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, more or less.
Blake Rea:More or less?
Sophie Cassaro:yeah.
Blake Rea:Okay, I practiced that, in case you can't tell.
Sophie Cassaro:Well, bravo.
Blake Rea:Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of what you're doing, and I mean I was going to put fashion influencer in there too. I don't know.
Sophie Cassaro:Well, there's a sprinkle of style in there, isn't there?
Blake Rea:Okay, Okay. I'm curious to start off with day one. You know what got you into watches? And we'll start there, How'd?
Sophie Cassaro:your journey begin Well. My first watch was a Rolex OP. Like you, had an OP as well, I believe, after listening to your podcast.
Blake Rea:I did. I did leave after listening to. I did. I did.
Sophie Cassaro:That was your first rolex and, similar to you, I was like cheapest one tells the time it will, and I was fascinated by the fact that you didn't need a battery in the watch. That, to me, was magic. This was back in 2016 is when we got it, and it was in the day when you could walk into a rolex store and just buy it. Um, which is what we got it. And it was in the day when you could walk into a Rolex store and just buy it. Um, which is what we did, me and my husband. He. We walked into the shop and I said that one and then we walked out with it. It was magic, um, but I didn't think about it after then. I just thought that's my watch. I slept in it, showered in it every. I didn't take it off. Um, oh, is there a dog?
Blake Rea:yeah, my dog is trying to get some b-roll. Yeah, he's in the back yapping. I, um, oh I. I literally just texted my wife. I was like hey, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, like chill, chill oh no, all dogs are welcome here.
Sophie Cassaro:It's a safe space.
Blake Rea:It is a safe space, but it doesn't help us get to know you better, I will do a whole segment on my dogs at some point, I'm sure.
Sophie Cassaro:Okay, well, I do love dogs, so that's part of the personality. But yeah, so Rolex a few years, well, that was just my watch. Then we this was in London, then we moved to Geneva. I suppose it's kind of game over from there when you move to the kind of epicenter of watches.
Blake Rea:Totally.
Sophie Cassaro:But I became pregnant, I had my daughter. This is in 2018. Still, with the one watch watch my Rolex rocking it, um, and I COVID hit wasn't aware of the watches. I know everyone else was totally missed that boat, like absolutely not involved.
Sophie Cassaro:I was just bringing up my little girl but then, about two years ago, my husband declared that he was a closet watch geek. I had no idea Okay, like zero idea and he'd been secretly watching YouTubes and he was turning 40. And he had also declared that he wanted to spend a large chunk of our fortune on a watch. And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, um, so yeah. So then I was like curious, like what, how can a watch cost that much money? For one, because, bearing in mind, I had a rolex, but at the time it was about three thousand pounds, um, which is, you know, it's a lot of money, but it's totally not it's, but for something you wear every day and it's solid as a rock, I think that's a really fair price yeah and, and I'm still of this mindset, this is just how I am.
Sophie Cassaro:But anyway, back to him. He wanted something. He was thinking you know, champagne lifestyle. I was like steady on mate, like no, um. So anyway, we were watching Brit Pearce, jenny L um, obviously, teddy Balthazar, all of this, and slowly but surely I was kind of the kind of penny dropped and I was like these, these are amazing, watches are amazing. Oh my goodness, I was just like it was like you know, in the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy steps out and she sees she's not in Kansas anymore and it's all in color. That's what it was like for me. I was like oh my God, we can manipulate time, like it's amazing, like this is like art and culture and style and fashion, and I was just like wow firecracker moment yeah, literally.
Sophie Cassaro:So I was like getting way into watches by then. My husband chose, by the way, a zenith defy skeleton blue watch. Very, very nice watch yes um, although he did sell it, like he sold it quite really yeah the blue ceramic one is that it's not the ceramic it's like, but it's this you know, it's a steel titanium one the steel one, but with the blue it's not really a skeleton, really, is it?
Blake Rea:It's like a the Defy Skyline.
Sophie Cassaro:It's like open work Open, work, yeah, open work dial.
Blake Rea:There's a titanium one, I think.
Sophie Cassaro:Yes, that came out later. On.
Blake Rea:Oh, okay, okay, I should know this, I'm a. Zenith guy. But yeah, this was but it's a great watch and he bought one. Yeah, you do, yeah, and you obviously love it. Then I love it, I got, so mine's the white, white ceramic one.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, yeah, so I for insane.
Blake Rea:And I, I love, I love zenith. Zenith is my favorite brand, I think. Your podcast we just released one episode back.
Sophie Cassaro:I started listening to it with Romain yeah, zenith are amazing and I love them, and actually I have it over there, this lovely print, and let me just get it.
Blake Rea:Oh, this is a show and tell podcast here.
Sophie Cassaro:Look at this. We got this at Watchers of Wonders last year.
Blake Rea:Oh, you have the Defy one I have yeah. One second.
Sophie Cassaro:What do you have? I can only see myself. I hope it goes back to you. There you are, oh, and you framed yours. What is it? The pilot oh yeah, gorgeous mine's mine's framed. I just framed mine well, we were gonna frame it, but then he bloody sold it, didn't he? So it was like.
Blake Rea:Well, in case you're wondering, Ikea has the perfect frame for this.
Sophie Cassaro:Okay, send me a message about it and I'll.
Blake Rea:I got you, let me know.
Sophie Cassaro:Thanks, Blake, but yeah, so that's that. So he got his watch and then I suddenly was like okay, so now my Rolex just isn't enough for my hunger of watches. And then I got into Cartier Uh-oh, yeah, I mean, but like neo-vintage, and at the time it's not even that long ago, like a year and a half ago the watch prices were actually quite good on Neo Vintage Cartier. They're not anymore.
Blake Rea:Oh yeah, they're terrible.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh it's crazy, but yeah. So then we started building up. And Abel have you heard of Abel, of course, yeah. I have a big obsession with them. I think they're fantastic. Again, like Neo Vintage, I had three and now I have two. Um, but basically last summer all my watches got stolen oh yeah, which was horrendous.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, so yeah, my my first rolex, those cartiers I was talking about gone, but we were insured. But anyway, I'm skipping forward in the story. So then I went for drinks with a girlfriend and I just want to tell you my background. Yeah, so I was a professional actress before I moved to Geneva and I was also working in the fashion industry for a very luxury lingerie company. I run the flagship store for a few years and I worked for them for nearly a decade.
Blake Rea:Wow See, I knew you were a fashion icon.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, but it's like styling was all part of that. Yeah, but it's like styling was all part of that. And I, just I, I have always had an extremely strong sense of style, even from as soon as I could walk, really um, yeah, like I even kind of made my wedding dress and stuff wow, geez, that's crazy but I, like my mom, was like what are you doing? You don't know how to sew. And I was like I don't care what you say it doesn't matter. And I did it. You know, I did it.
Sophie Cassaro:Doesn't matter, and I love that dress, but yeah, so I just have this kind of sense of style and also I have two children, but it's quite a blur. Like, motherhood is amazing. It's so rewarding, it's fantastic. But also you kind of lose yourself a lot because you're focusing on anyone else apart from yourself. Um and so, and I was breastfeeding for a few years, like on and off, so I kind of couldn't wear what I wanted because I was always thinking about, you know, like whacking the boob out and all of this right as you do as a woman, and it was it kind of got me down. But then, basically the day after I stopped breastfeeding my son, I was like I could wear what I want. Again. It was crazy. I was just like, oh, my wardrobe was so kind of narrow-minded, even though it was massive, I couldn't wear half of my clothes. I kept them all, but it was just like, finally, and I so I went for for drinks.
Blake Rea:Sorry, I'm kind of no, get it out, get it, I'm just excited yeah, no, we're excited um.
Sophie Cassaro:So I went for drinks with a girlfriend. She just told me flat out, like why don't you have an Instagram, like for your style or something? And I was like, do you know what? Why don't I have an Instagram? I should have an Instagram. So the next day I set up an Instagram and I didn't know what it would be about, but basically, by post two, it was already about watches, so that's that. And that was in October last year. No, no, not last year, the year before that.
Blake Rea:Wow.
Sophie Cassaro:January now.
Blake Rea:Yeah, I think so. That's how much.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, and it just went. It just yeah, snow, snowball from there.
Sophie Cassaro:So, um, I don't know if you can tell, but I'm quite a passionate person in general no, yeah, I mean, it shows, I don't do anything by half, basically, and I just, yeah, I love watches and I love what I do for the watch world and the community as well, because it's fun, it's joyful and I'm sorry not really sorry but a watch is a fashion accessory, it is part of your outfit and you should darn well think about how you're wearing your watch and how it looks with everything else. And I'm here to help.
Blake Rea:Yeah, looks with everything else, and I'm here to help, yeah, so so that's a hot take from uh, from sophie's watch world there. So, yeah, look in the mirror. Does it go, if? If you have any issue with that, please don't come at me with it. You will have her instagram, okay I'm just kidding, but not really uh, I'm curious to find out. So, now that you're in the watch industry and you took that kind of consumer first approach, how has your perspective on the industry changed now that you're an insider in the industry?
Sophie Cassaro:That's a good question.
Blake Rea:We asked the hard questions here.
Sophie Cassaro:Yes, Blake, and I have to actually think about that. How has it changed? Well, I suppose I think more in a bigger picture than I did at first. I think more about how will something come across? How provocative can I get away with as well?
Blake Rea:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sophie Cassaro:Because I'm quite opinionated and I'm also really trying to shine the light for women and that in the watch enthusiast space and to kind of be a platform for them and also to not apologize for being fabulous as well. Um, that I know that might sound come across as weird, but like I am extra, like I am a big personality and I find that it's not the watch brands actually I think they love it that I'm the kind of personality. But sometimes, uh, with some guys in particular, they they find me too much, um and yeah, but I'm, I'm here to provoke and I'm just being myself and I'm fabulous and I'm not going to dim my light for someone or like yeah why would I do that?
Sophie Cassaro:that's just who I am I. No, you don't have to like me I. I don't understand why people get offended and then like write comments or do something and it's like well, just don't follow me, I'm not, I'm not forcing anyone to be in, you know around. Oh god, just got my breaking stuff breaking stuff. But yeah, that's, that's something a bit bizarre, because I don't. I don't know why people don't have manners sometimes.
Blake Rea:I've noticed that people just don't seem to be kind anymore.
Blake Rea:Like what happened to being kind and respectful. And now, with all this social media, people kind of realize you can kind of hide behind a fake identity, if that's what you want to call it, and be mean to people. And at first, when I got into it, I was putting my heart and soul into my content and I was like this is so offensive to me because here I am trying to provide value, to be a resource. Maybe you don't care about my opinion, that's fine, cool Right, you don't have to follow me. Um, but I'm here to share it and and hopefully people appreciate that, hopefully, hopefully people will look at watches differently, because I come from the watch industry, I've been an insider and, uh, and hopefully people will look at watches differently. And and, yeah, you know, I'm here just trying to be a resource and you're here to shit on me.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, to shit on me somehow. Yeah, I know, but I think also, like it is, it is a small minority that do this, so I'm talking about it, but actually the majority of the watch community, everyone is so overwhelmingly positive and welcoming, um, I wouldn't be here if they weren't, um, but I just I, I love it, I love the whole community, I love being a kind of middle woman between brands and the community as well. Um, does that make sense?
Sophie Cassaro:that kind of bridge, of kind of totally presenting something showcasing in the best way, I know how and you know, just to just show fab things, fab watches and people you know. I hope they like what I do at the end of the day, because obviously that's all we want. Isn't it just for people to have some enjoyment about the entertainment that we're giving them?
Blake Rea:Yeah, yeah, I, I, um, as a creator, I've kind of changed my mentality on on building content, and I know this sounds weird and I, I, I just build content that I think people would appreciate, or or content that I know that I would appreciate, that I wish was maybe out there oh, that is.
Sophie Cassaro:That is only what I do as well. Yeah, yeah because I just I try and create things that I want to see exactly, yeah because they're not there yeah I'm just like well, I better do it myself then yeah yeah and I've noticed something too that kind of irks me is a lot of the people that talk about watches that are online.
Blake Rea:They also sell watches, right right. Yeah, I've noticed that too and and that to me it's like, uh, it's like it reminds me have you ever seen Mad Men?
Sophie Cassaro:Maybe not, okay, okay.
Blake Rea:Okay, so yeah, yeah, they talk about like in one of the episodes. They talk about like smoking, like how to make smoking cool, you know, and they're working for the smoking company. You know, and I'm like this to me is like the watch industry, you know, it's like it. It it felt like the people that are influencing you to buy watches are the ones that can take your money for buying a watch. You know, yeah, and and hey, like everybody's got their own hustle right, cool, whatever, you know yeah, but I think like that is a great analogy.
Sophie Cassaro:Yes, and you've got to remember a lot of those people were smoking in mad men. So they were passionate about smoking too they were like it's. I mean you can't really like hate on people for, like, just selling watches that they like I I'm not, isn't it?
Blake Rea:yeah, no, I I'm not hating on anybody for for selling watches, aren't you? Uh, I I just feel like you know, obviously as somebody who formerly sold watches yeah um do you think it's just a bit of um, like smoke and mirrors?
Blake Rea:yeah, I mean I, I, I know, based upon, first of all, when you're selling a watch, you know, uh, it's a little bit more difficult than you would think, um, it's a little easier than selling a car, I would say, or a house or something big. But you know, there's, there's ways that you can use psychology to uh, to bait and trap a customer. And, uh, and I found myself, you know, looking into those things, right, um, like, like, like, like a reverse psychology, like you, like the art of attraction, like manipulation, like NLP, nonlinear persuasion. I found myself researching these things as I was a watch salesman and to me, like, understanding how the human brain works is very interesting. So I wasn't the only watch salesperson doing that, right. But then, as somebody walked into my store, it became how do I take food off of their table and put it onto my table? Right, that was the concept that I was starting.
Sophie Cassaro:Is that how you felt as a salesperson?
Blake Rea:Yes, I was starting to transition into that thought process.
Sophie Cassaro:Which is sad, isn't it?
Blake Rea:It is. I can't say that I directly got there, but I saw the transformation happening based upon the people that I was exposed to because they thought like that and that's all I was, you know, kind of exposed to, like you know, like after after every uh interaction you know we do an after action interaction report. It's like, okay, cool the customer. You know, here's the watches we showed, here's what we talked about. Um, you know, here, here's, you know how, what, what you know, here's why I didn't think I didn't close the deal, right, you know we had to write a report Like it wasn't like a big report, it was a little computer report, like how come I didn't make that sale, right? So you know it is much easier to to sell a watch and write a report saying, oh, I did sell a watch, versus why I didn't like me formulate this weird thing as to why I didn't sell the watch.
Sophie Cassaro:But that sounds like an issue with the watch industry, because I come from sales too in luxury lingerie.
Blake Rea:Like.
Sophie Cassaro:I'm a very good salesperson myself, but it wasn't when I was training people and doing this in sales. It was nothing like that. It was all about listening to the customer and giving them the best possible thing for them, and I approach watches in the same way that, that that I a thousand percent agree with, and I I that that was.
Sophie Cassaro:If you come into my shop. You are looking for something, so I, for me, I am problem solving for you and using my amazing knowledge to give you the best possible thing. And for me it wouldn't even be about the most expensive thing in the shop. It would just be about getting them the best, the best and obviously opening their eyes to the possibility of other things as well. Like because they don't know how fabulous a pair of stockings is. They don't know how they don't know how fabulous a pair of stockings is. They don't know how. You know what I mean, but it's like your passion and your knowledge is infectious.
Blake Rea:Yeah, yeah, no, I um that, that I I can't. I can't disagree with you there and our thought process is so aligned. Um, because when I first came in as a watch sales professional, uh, I thought about, like how can I make friends with everybody that comes in to the shop like I want to make a new friend, I'm a watch nerd, they're a watch nerd. Um, a lot of the other sales associates it and, mind you, this was something that I was doing full time.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah.
Blake Rea:But I also had a full time job on top of that, so I was working in cybersecurity.
Sophie Cassaro:Talk about burnout. Yeah, yeah so.
Blake Rea:I was working in cybersecurity during the day and then I was selling watches at night, so I just didn't have anything better to do. You know, at the time and and so, anyways, you know, I was like, hey, how can I make friends with every single person that comes in? How can I meet another watch nerd? Um, and that was the approach that I came into selling watches as and uh, and then I just started to notice, you know, um, and not that I worked for like a terrible company. You know, that's not what this is about. But it then became. You know, a lot of your compensation is based upon commission Right, like yeah, it was with me as well.
Blake Rea:Yeah, and and and yeah, it just became, if you're going to be there, like, how do you earn as much money while you're there, right, um, and I'm?
Sophie Cassaro:I'm sounding like such a terrible person right now, no, but I, I do get it and I saw this happening myself, but it was kind of like I wanted to. I did. I put a lot of emphasis on authenticity and just being there and also the big picture and long-term thinking it's they might walk out of that shop that day totally because you were so nice and you, you just gave them all the attention all the time in the world that you write your name down. They'll come back to you because and they do, and it does work. But you have to play the long game and I say, I say that's super accurate in watches.
Blake Rea:You know that the chances that some, somebody walk into your store and buy a watch. You know, first, 20 minutes is impossible. Um, and and, and, as I, like I, you know, a lot of this mentality came from, uh, from being exposed to the wrong people, right, like, uh, like the, like the sales manager, um, um, as an example, um, and I would see him, you know, getting somebody in and out the door in 20 minutes. And there I am spending an hour and a half with the same, the same group, and I'm just talking about, hey, where are you from? And, mind you, I live in las vegas, so everybody's, everybody's visiting from somewhere.
Blake Rea:Um, and you know, I was much more slower and more methodical and, like I said, I was, you know, cared more about, like, building relationships and friendships, because I understand, you know, it's a long game, it's not a short game.
Blake Rea:You know it's not like you're going into Walmart to buy a pair of socks or something like you know you just pick the pair of socks or something like you know, you just pick the, the pair of socks that fits your, your foot size and that looks comfortable. Or, you know, maybe you get the multi-pack and you walk out the door. You know, like, a lot of times people are spending a large amount of energy, time, effort doing research on a watch. Um, and then they come in to, they go through a validation period where they're trying to validate or not, or, or uh, or get this watch off their mind. So they go through that validation phase where they say I'm gonna try it on, I'm gonna see how it fits, I'm gonna see how it wears, I'm gonna see if it's comfortable, I'm gonna see if it fits my lifestyle, us all we like we all have it like.
Sophie Cassaro:You need the, the reassurance, don't you of like yep, is this a good choice?
Blake Rea:yeah, yeah, yeah. So they, they go through that phase and then, um, and then, after that phase, they go through the, the phase of selling the watch to yourself, so that that is something that nobody really talks about. Um, in, in watches you, you look for more reasons to buy it. If, at least if you're a watch, a watch collector, you look for more reasons to buy it, more benefits to buying that watch than you do, uh like reasons to not buy it. You know you just say, oh well, it looks so good, it'll. You know, I can wear my my santos on a monday, I can wear my iwc on a tuesday or my pan around a wednesday, and then, you know, I've got three watches that I can rotate. And here's my sporty here a Monday. I can wear my IWC on a Tuesday, or my Panerai on a Wednesday, and then I've got three watches that I can rotate, and here's my sporty, here's my dressy, here's my beater.
Blake Rea:You look for more reasons to validate to yourself to buy it, and I understood that, and a lot of the other salespeople understood that too. So you use that right. I noticed would start, I noticed it and and I I will say I didn't, I didn't get too far into this mentality. Um, my lap, my last month that I worked at the retailer, um, I had like, like, almost like, fully transitioned into, into that person that I was talking about, where, like, I was just a sales a snake oil, yeah, a snake oil salesman, you know, trying to sell ice to an eskimo, and uh, and I didn't like that you know, I was gonna say like how did that make you feel as a human?
Blake Rea:terrible, terrible, because it's not worth it.
Sophie Cassaro:Is it? It's not? No, no, it's like a human isn't worth it yeah, yeah and and and no.
Blake Rea:You know, I, a lot of the people I worked with were great people, um, but it it was their livelihood.
Blake Rea:You know, and and if you weren't, if you weren't selling a watch like you're, you know, you might as well be working at m's you know cause the, the, the base, the base salary was so low, uh, that, if you know, if you're not selling watches, like you know, like you know, and I remember one of the guys that worked there, um, good friend of mine, and unfortunately he's, he's no longer, no longer with us and he was, you know, uh, like a big driving factor in this project, like lonely wrist, um, you know, but he had a lot of financial issues, you know, and I was like dude, you're, you know, selling like $300,000 a month in watches, like know, at five percent.
Blake Rea:You know, commission, like like, how come you have, you know, like, financial issues? And uh, you know, vegas, vegas can be a dark place. You know, vegas can really be a dark place. And uh, and, and, yeah, you know, same thing, there's another person that worked there, a single mother, and you know she, she was just a hustler grinder, you know, and I got so much respect for her because, I mean, she, she was, she's, she's amazing.
Blake Rea:You know, she's amazing and and just seeing, like, how she operated and and kind of maneuvered and how she built relations, and that's the thing, right, like that. That you know, that environment is what you're exposed to, you know, because a lot of times there's maybe one or two people in the store at any given time, and so you know, kind of goes back into that that equation of like how busy the store is and so if it's not busy and in most instances it wasn't always busy the other salespeople would be trying to stay out of the way or be helpful to that salesperson. But also to kind of study, right, it was like a study period, okay, like what are they saying? What are they doing? What's the body language? How are they communicating? What's they doing? Like, what's the body link? Like, how are they communicating? Like, what's the body language of the customer?
Blake Rea:Like, you know, you're, you're trained in a sales environment to kind of to kind of pick up on these, uh, these nonverbal means of communication, right, um, and then you know, once you started to realize that it became like like, okay, like how do I dice? Like dice, like decipher, um, these, these communications, non, you know, verbal communication means and like how do I, uh, you know how do I interpret those and how do I respond to those and how do I like, uh, you know what I mean, uh, so maybe I thought about it a little bit more differently. But you know, here I am living in las vegas, on the strip right selling to tourists, um, and and I suppose people would come in with big wins and things to like spend their money on a.
Sophie Cassaro:What would that happen?
Blake Rea:yeah, yeah, sometimes, um, sometimes and and yeah, I mean it it sometimes would happen and not not very often. You know, obviously we, we joke as as a as a local right, like yeah you know, this entire city was not built off winners.
Blake Rea:There was built off losers and people losing their asses, um, but but every seldomly, you know, we would get somebody that would comment and be like, hey, I just won, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and I'm looking to buy a watch or whatever. And it's like you know it, it happened less frequently than you would think and you know, um, I haven't really, I haven't really talked about this side of things too much, but, um, we're working on, uh, a new segment for my youtube. So I'm a new youtuber, um, at least in the watch industry, but where we actually do the exact opposite. And, in my opinion, vegas is the best place to buy secondhand watches, because you get somebody that goes in and loses their ass off.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh yeah, they go to the pawn shop Go to the pawn shop.
Blake Rea:Yeah, and yeah, yeah, they go to the pawn shop, and they go to the pawn shop and and and yeah. So ironically, it looks like you're wearing a santos.
Sophie Cassaro:Uh, santos, medium boom, hell, yeah, yeah, look at that I have.
Blake Rea:I have that watch um and I love it and I actually just got it. So I just got it, uh, about about a month ago, and I've been looking at one forever right perfect it is, it is absolutely perfect. Um and so, at the pawn shop, I found one. I found one like dirt cheap. I mean, like, how much are we? Talking here three thousand dollars oh, that is so cheap. The new model the new model, the new model, the new model. Whoa well, actually actually hold up hold?
Sophie Cassaro:up it's, it's the wssa 0010. So, uh, the does it have the quick, the quick release so there's two versions of the quick release.
Blake Rea:there's the 0010 and the now 0029, and the biggest difference between those two is actually the butterfly mechanism on the leather strap, so not on the bracelet. The bracelet's the same, but if you have the leather strap that folds in on both sides and doesn't have the holes, you have the WSSA 0010. And if you have the, the deployant that has the two and then it folds out and it clips into the holes on one side you have the 0029.
Sophie Cassaro:That's what I have.
Blake Rea:So I bought, mine was the 0010. And it was I mean, it was thrashed Really.
Sophie Cassaro:Well, it's the Santos.
Blake Rea:It is. So that's kind of a new segment that I'm working on are you gonna polish it? It's. I'll show you when we're done recording. Um, it is absolutely perfect. Um, so the bracelet was missing on it, uh, the cabochon missing, uh, and then I mean, of course, the bezel is was thrashed yeah so I bought a new bezel and I put the new bezel on um, and then I found a brace.
Blake Rea:I went to the cartier store. They wanted two thousand two hundred dollars for that bracelet and I was like I was like, well, you defeat the whole purpose of me having a cheap ass watch, like if I spend another two grand, um. So anyways, I went on ebay and I found a bracelet and I just got the bracelet, uh, like a couple days ago, and and so now I have the full set, uh, and I paid. After I purchased the bracelet. I paid.
Sophie Cassaro:It's about 3600 us wow, that's, and I got the bezel and everything and the publisher uh, I haven't fixed that yet okay, so, but I prop, I probably will I probably will um I definitely will, but um, and I'm gonna send it off to cartier and then I'm gonna film.
Blake Rea:You know, I've got some, some cool footage, like macro footage of the before.
Sophie Cassaro:And then I'm going to send it out and do the after.
Blake Rea:And so I'm doing that with a couple other watches. I also picked up a Hublot. Same thing, I mean thrashed as hell. The date mechanism doesn't even work on it. Not that I'm a watchmaker, but I haven't seen and and. For me as as a watch collector, I find it very interesting to hear about these service experiences like what's the process? Like, like you know, how do the brands work with the customers? Like you know, this is a part of the, the industry, um, and and and, being a watch collector that you know people need to know about, you know oh for sure these are videos.
Blake Rea:I would definitely watch well, you're gonna watch them. So. So, yeah, I've got those two um, and then I sprinkle in some of like my um, you know my mixed content where brands will say, hey, like here's this, watch. You know, like, tell me your thoughts and post a youtube video, please. Thank you, you know, and I'm like okay cool, you know my, my mixed content where brands will say, hey, like here's this, watch, you know, like, tell me your thoughts and post a YouTube video please. Thank you, you know, and I'm like okay, cool, you know, I guess you know, um, so so, yeah, you know, and and that was a really long rant, I think we both. I just had an epic rant that was a big tangent.
Blake Rea:Yeah, but but no, so that that's how I noticed the industry almost changed me and I'm glad I didn't get there, because if I got there there would be no lonely wrists like you and I would have never met. I would have never met all these amazing people. Do you feel that watch brands are catering enough to women or do you feel like there's still a long way to go? Because, in my opinion, what I've seen and my friend Abington I'm not sure if you're familiar with her, um, so she, she lives here in Vegas as well and she has a sports watch company and she's a pilot.
Blake Rea:I do know, I do know, I do know yeah, and so she's a good friend of mine and this, this whole kind of concept, came from her and I, having discussions, she took me to chicago. I went to wind up watch fair with her and I helped her. You know, once I left the, the jewelry store, I helped her sell watches and, and you know, do presentations and things like that for uh, for a weekend, uh, to see kind of her micro brand side. Um, and you know, we had, we had some pretty lengthy discussions about, you know, watch brands. What they'll do is they'll just shrink a watch and throw diamonds on it or maybe put a mother of pearl dial on it, diamonds I talk about this a lot.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, yeah, they're not doing enough, but there is a silver lining here because obviously lvmh had their new releases and that fantastic new automatic movement for the serpenti line is amazing and they're going to roll that out across LVMH. So I'm interested to see how they're going to make use of the smallest automatic movement in the world Because you know, like Cartier, what are they doing? Like I love Cartier, but you know neo-vintage Cartiers, they have loads of automatic movements. There's this, this is like I don't know.
Sophie Cassaro:There's this kind of fascination with in-house movements and, I think, at the cost of having smaller movements, really, so that's yeah the lvmh have have done that and I hope that cartier kind of take note, because I think a lot of the range would benefit from having a mechanical movement in and not just a quartz. Not that there's anything wrong with the quartz, but sometimes it's nice to have the option and that it's not always there. But yeah, obviously, shrink it and pink, it is a real problem. Um, that something I find in the industry actually is if I am in a watch shop or like at watches and wonders, I'll sit down and immediately they'll give me the things with diamonds on. I don't own a watch with diamonds on, by the way okay, um, I would like one, I love I would.
Sophie Cassaro:I love jewelry watches, but I I find it weird that when a tall watch has diamonds on oh, totally what's I like just defeats the whole point of it. That's that's where I'm like. Why, um?
Blake Rea:but yeah, to their own I I'm a I'm a huge doxa fan like oh, me too.
Sophie Cassaro:What do you think of the new release with the diamonds?
Blake Rea:I literally reached out. I was like what the fuck are you doing?
Sophie Cassaro:the sub 200 t, yeah, yeah I reviewed the, the, the emerald without the diamonds, um, and I was at geneva watch days and I saw it and like I get it, but I also I don't think it's. Yeah, I, I wouldn't buy it it's expensive, it's expensive well, they did say to me that it was they wanted something in that price bracket um and that's their offering in that price bracket. But why don't you just get an in-house movement?
Blake Rea:then you can have a watch price bracket I I'm not a fan of in-house movements and their movements aren't that great, though, for doxa I mean there's salita well, what's? Wrong with salita? No, nothing's wrong with selita, but I know well some of them I'm just based based on the subject our first argument, our first argument, so I love a selita movement, but I don't know.
Sophie Cassaro:I think for the price, like it is a fair price for the doxa, but I do think I would rather spend a little bit extra and get a better power reserve yeah, that's fair.
Blake Rea:I mean they, they could, they could use lejoux parade or something like that.
Sophie Cassaro:You know, but even a salita, a better salita most of the salitas have the 48 hour power.
Blake Rea:You know they don't have like a high power reserve salita movement um. That I'm aware of. But you know, let me throw my angle at you. Our whole podcast. Like I have all these questions about being an awesome, badass woman in the watch industry, like they're just all kidding shelved but no, this is a great conversation.
Sophie Cassaro:Just a woman I do know about watches. No, yeah, no, of course about it.
Blake Rea:No, of course, Of course, but you know, if you look at the way and being a watch salesperson you know, oh yeah, it's like it's an in-house movement.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, right, right.
Blake Rea:So here's my take on it. And you know, feel free to hang on to it or to let it fall to the side, but they feel free to to hang on to it or to let it fall to the side, but they looked at it as a, as a value, a value add. Right, where, oh cool, it's like it's a flex. It's a flex, you know? Oh cool, we made our own movement. Right, we've got the money to make our own movement. But additionally, if you look at how watches were sold, watches were normally sold through a multi-channel approach.
Sophie Cassaro:They were all just like coming from each other JLC like giving out movements left, right and center.
Blake Rea:Yeah, all of this Additionally, like when you were watch shopping in the mid-2000s. You know you would go to a store and it's a multi-brand store where they have 20 brands right store. And it's a multi-brand store where they have 20 brands right, um and. And so you know they were usually owned by like a mom and pop right, like a local jewelry store that had 20 watch brands and they were selling them and showcasing them. If you go buy a cartier or a tag or an omega from a mom and pop jewelry shop, you're not an omega customer, you are a mom and pop jewelry shop customer. Your customer profile remains with that jewelry store. You're their customer, right. So brands at one point started to realize like how can we, how can we get our customers back from these jewelry stores? Ie, now you see the push for in-house if they have the money to do it, Because a lot of times getting parts, getting diagrams, getting things like that for in-house calibers is more challenging.
Blake Rea:Watchmakers aren't able to get the right parts or the right diagrams or have support to service these watches. What do you got to do? You got to send them back to cartier. You got to send them back, not always, not always, but um, especially when you look at some of these crazy, these crazy movements. You know you talked about the bulgari. You know little mini automatic, you know, and um, I don't think a normal watchmaker is going to be able to service that. So think about it from a car perspective, right? We're like if you have a high performance vehicle, you got to take it to a high performance mechanic, right?
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, but what's wrong with?
Blake Rea:that you pay more. You pay more. So it's not.
Sophie Cassaro:It's like but if you can afford a Bulgari, you can afford to service it.
Blake Rea:Oh, of course, Of course. So it's not really like. The argument is not is not about affordability of service, it's more about accessibility, right, so that's that's totally agree. So that's, that's the issue that I have, because so you buy that Bulgari and Bulgari is only the only one able to service that. You have to send it back to Bulgari and then your watch is gone for five or six months. You know you're talking to, you're in america.
Blake Rea:I'm in geneva that's true, but you're talking to somebody who's got a bulgari watch at bulgari right now and they won't even call. They won't even call me back. You know that's crazy, um so, so yeah, and that's another video, right? I actually picked up one of the, the ginta to another video, right.
Sophie Cassaro:I actually picked up one of the Genta. You need to get one on that.
Blake Rea:I picked up one of the Genta Bulgaris at a pawn shop here and I sent it off to Bulgari and you know I'm giving all my secrets. The Octo it was one of the Diagonos actually.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh, but it was a Bulgari, Bulgargari diagana with the bulgari, bulgari and, um you know, al pacino war one and I, I freaking love it, I love all of it and it's a, it's a, it's a 35 millimeter and it's got this really nice little like bullet style bracelet it is. I'll show you the picture. It's badass. Yeah, that's so cool.
Blake Rea:But, going back, is that big in-house caliber push. That's a lot of the reason why brands are doing that right, because they want to own that customer. They want to, you know, retain that customer and the service side is how they do it. And that's the reason why, if they have the money to push for an in-house caliber, they can do it. And I come from software and technology. The coolest thing about being a software company is being open source, right, letting people help and build your product and helping getting improvements from the community right. That's the coolest thing about having open source software and um, and and. Look at like, here in the U S there's these, these huge issues about right to repair, um and if you own an iPhone like somebody, if somebody opens up your iPhone and and and tries to replace the battery like it's no longer warranties, yeah exactly, I mean the battery, like it's no longer warranties.
Blake Rea:Yeah, exactly I mean. And brands are doing that. Um, and brands are starting to take that away. Because I had another watch that I purchased and I'm not going to say what brand because I love the brand but I bought it from an ad at a discount and come to find out they were they were discontinuing the relationship with the brand. So that's what they do. A lot of these, these, these mom and pop jewelry stores. They'll clear it out because they're like look, we're not going to sell them anymore, we just want to get out. Get it out, we want to bring something else in, let's just get them out. And what happens? Right? So when that dealership license or contract expired, the warranty on my watch expired. I don't know if you know that.
Sophie Cassaro:So I called that's crazy.
Blake Rea:It brands do that. You know, brands do that type of stuff Um, and cause I called them and I was like, hey, like my watch is like and this was before you know I I knew a lot about watches but and I was very disappointed cause I called him. I was like, hey, my watch is running like five minutes fast, like what's going on here like a day. Um, you know, I didn't, I didn't know if it was magnetized or not. You know, at the time I didn't know how to to demagnetize it myself. I was like, okay, like I sent your watchmaker um, and and I said, oh yeah, here's my watch, here's the jeweler I bought it from, here's the warranty information. Yeah, that watch is not under warranty what do you mean?
Sophie Cassaro:like?
Blake Rea:I just bought this watch like six months ago. Yeah, they're no longer a dealer. I'm so sorry, like we're not. You know that watch isn't under warranty anymore and when the you know, when we no longer have a contract with them, we don't have a service agreement the watch warranty expires. And I was just like what the hell Like?
Sophie Cassaro:you just think just do the right thing, like just yeah, not everybody.
Blake Rea:Not everybody believes these same morals that we have about doing the right thing.
Sophie Cassaro:I know, and I get it Like you don't become really rich by having loads of nice morals, I guess.
Blake Rea:No, and and the fact that we're watch collectors, so we're automatically and for the rest of our lives you're going to be poor.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, literally.
Blake Rea:So I want to see that embracement come back to off-the-shelf calibers, because I think about it like as being open source software.
Sophie Cassaro:I don't look at it as a good thing. You know, I definitely. I see this as an opportunity for micro brands. Personally, they're not going to go back, it's just not going to happen. So but I do see this as an opportunity for micro brands because it's a big selling point. It's a gap that they can really feel. They can get these movements and they should start making smaller watches as well uh, for smaller wrists and embrace it, because they don't do it. There's no micro brands like well, there are a few, but there's not that many that actually have have ladies watches, right oh yeah, in their repertoire and they're missing a trick would you feel?
Blake Rea:do you feel like there's certain brands that are, uh, I guess, female friendly in the watch industry?
Sophie Cassaro:Oh, for sure, absolutely yes, and I love the approach of kind of non-gender specific as well, because it just takes, you know, if it's kind of a medium size watch like this Cartier, for example, my husband wears this and I wear it.
Blake Rea:I love that watch.
Sophie Cassaro:And it just it's a great size, um, but it is. It's also just like how some guys like larger watches. It's nice to have the option as a consumer for a smaller watch, and I think even a lot of men would like a smaller watch as well. It's not even about like your sex, it's just like having options and just like a more vintage aesthetic, which I really love personally yeah, the industry went from like having these big bulky watches yeah, hublot types I yeah hublot panerai you know, brands I, I wouldn't say hublot holds a close place to my heart, but panerai definitely does and uh, and then, yeah, you see, brands going back backwards.
Blake Rea:right, I have my fair share of of, uh, smaller watches, I guess is. You know, I have. I have the medium sant. I have a Tank Absolutely obsessed with and I find myself kind of, I literally have my smallest watch is like a 35. And then my biggest watch is a 45.
Sophie Cassaro:Like come on, you got a Pan. Have you got one?
Blake Rea:Yeah, I've got two Panerais and I had one at one point. I had a 45 Radiomir which I just felt was. It felt a little misproportionate. I have a 44 Luminor and then. So when I got rid of the radio mirror I missed it. And then they came out with the Quaranta and that's nice. I just came back from the Panerai factory and and this was january last year and I was like let me buy a panerai to remember my trip, not to right, I know because I was there and I just, I just filmed with the uh, the, uh, that, what was he?
Blake Rea:the, the, the c? O? O panera we filmed some content together and I it's never. It's never gonna get released, unfortunately. Um, I just didn't come prepared. He just sat down with me and I was like I don't really have any questions for you it's like a nightmare scenario I know like oh shit, like uh.
Sophie Cassaro:Hopefully I'll get this I was not expecting this no, no, no and um.
Blake Rea:So after they gave me this private tour of the entire fact, I was there in the fact, in the manufacturer by myself, with one person walking me around the whole, the whole panerai factory, and then at the end of it they take you to this little like office right and it's like a little like uh, it's like a little like lounge right, and they have a, they have a private panerai boutique. Did you get, did?
Sophie Cassaro:you go there and get your watch no, no, that's what I was saying.
Blake Rea:I felt like a big asshole because I was like, I literally just fit. Like you know, here I am self-funding my trip to geneva to film you don't have like seven grand just to drop right now. Sorry, no, yeah, I, you know I.
Blake Rea:I I'm not that person where I can't impulsively just drop seven thousand dollars I have to consciously, I wish, I wish, I could, um, but I have to consciously think about my watch and my choice, and my, and, and, and how I, how I buy watches now, and uh, and so at the end of the tour they're like oh, which, which panerai is are you interested in? Oh, my god.
Sophie Cassaro:And I was like just like there's a hole, you just want to be swallowed up like okay, sorry, that's very nice, bye I I know.
Blake Rea:So the way that I finangled it, I was like oh cool, let me see which straps you got. I bought like four or five different straps from them, because okay, because you did have a panerai at least.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh, yeah, yeah, did you wear it no, no so that didn't wear your panerai to a panoramic tour I wore a baltic to the panoramic do you have? I have the aqua scarf, and then I have the chronograph oh nice yeah, the I call it the mr roulette, but obviously it's mr roulette oh, the mr01 yeah nice.
Blake Rea:They are an awesome brand. Um, I I recently got to try compacts from them, which again is another one of the watches here that I I need to do press on um, and and yeah, and baltic's a great brand, but no, so that this last january was my first time in switzerland and uh, and I started reading about customs and all this stuff and uh, and I was like, oh, you have to get this app and you have to, like you know, register your watch if you're bringing it in and like, do all these weird little things. And and I was like, let me wear a watch that's like cheap ish, cheap ish. And uh, if, like, if something happens to it, like I'm not gonna cry about it, you know, like, if if customs takes it or something.
Sophie Cassaro:But surely you can't, you can just wear your watch that you're wearing yeah, yeah, I didn't know europe. We're obviously a lot more relaxed.
Blake Rea:I didn't know what to think.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, it's better to be safe, isn't it, than sorry.
Blake Rea:Exactly, and I had this weird stigma because I was doing some traveling and I lived in Europe for an extended period of time and I my mom, had a garden right and I, my mom, had a garden Right and it's a little different. But as I was like walking through the Netherlands, like, oh, do you have any like food, or do you have any agricultural products, or do you have any animals, or like, have you come into contact with like, like livestock? They ask you these weird questions and uh, and so of course I declared like, oh, cool, I've got agricultural products right, you know, because I've got tulip bulbs right, yeah, um, and in any ways. So they confiscated them and they were like oh, uh, you know, if you didn't declare those like, that would have been like a twenty thousand dollar fine or something like that. He said something like really like.
Blake Rea:To me that was like holy shit, you know, just over like 15 euros of tulip bulbs, like it would have cost me 20 grand if I would have said no and they would have found them so, so anyways. Then I started doing more research and I was like, okay, cool, they need a health certificate and all this, and you could buy them at the airport because they come with a health certificate. They know this and you know. Here I am just wandering through, you know the flower market yeah just like cool.
Sophie Cassaro:I want these and um and now I'm imagining you with, like this basket and this frolicking through a market and going I'll have this one and this one, and then pretty much, yeah, it pretty much happened like that, because when, when, when you buy tulips in amsterdam, it's a whole experience.
Blake Rea:But they talk about um, like, so there's the rembrandt, like varietal, of a tulip, where essentially it's like it's got, like it's a two-color tulip and it's like white to red, um, and they talked about, um, how that was like a genetic uh, like mutation, right, and how, uh, it was a disease that started infesting tulips that you know now becomes the rembrandt, you know varietal and uh, and so you learned a lot about tulips and I was like cool, you know, and I was like I'm bringing some of these back and I mean it was a long time ago but, um, but anyways, mom did not get her tulips and oh mama I.
Blake Rea:I didn't say anything because then I would. I didn't want to be like, oh, I bought you these tulips and they got confiscated, because then I look like an asshole, like but uh, I was just like okay. Um, so I'm curious. You said you lost a lot of your watches, unfortunately. Um, what is there a watch in your collection that you feel like holds a very special place? You know a watch?
Sophie Cassaro:that you say well.
Blake Rea:I did the Rolex.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, yeah, my OP, I mean I I've got in replacement of this watch right and I, basically I did the smart person thing of, rather than buying loads of watches back with the money, I bought one big watch, um, and I replaced it with a rolex yacht master, um, reference number 268622, with the Rhodium slate dial.
Blake Rea:Yep 37.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, of course, perfect, perfect watch, and I've been wanting that watch for a long time but I never thought I would actually have it and I love it and I can't believe that it's mine still. And I got this as well to replace the cartiers yeah, no I had the drive, the cartier yeah, um, I love that watch.
Sophie Cassaro:Super thin, oh, my thing, again, super thin, um, wind manual winding, beautiful. And I had a muster cartier uh, 21, must 21. And a tank francaise, automatic, beautiful, um, yeah. So I got this to replace all of those. Because I looked at the prices of all of the cartiers, they were like skyrocketing they went up god's sake.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, it was great, crazy, um, the difference in price. So I thought I'd I did get this second hand as well, but it was like a year old, so I saved a bit on that. I didn't buy it full price and but the rolex I got from the ad, um, but yeah, again, that was. My husband was in sicily, because that's where he's from, and he walked into the AD and he said have you got this watch? And they said yeah, and he bought it. So that's both my Rolexes walk in and out.
Blake Rea:Wow, which, which, which OP was it? What size and what color.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh, my original. It was like a salmon pink. Oh, okay 26 millimeter Little tiny one. It pink. Oh okay, 26 millimeter little tiny one. It was very cute. Um, yeah, I do miss it. It's the one that I miss the most for sure, because it kind of I. I said I just that was all I wore for years it.
Blake Rea:It may or may not give you some comfort, but I'm gonna say it out there anyways, but the hopefully, first of all hopefully, the the thief right it was. You said it was stolen, did I? Yeah yeah, okay, first. First of all, hopefully the thief got caught. Part one, but they did it, oh shit. But part part two is maybe there is somebody out there who loves that OP just as much as you love that.
Sophie Cassaro:OP.
Blake Rea:Yeah.
Sophie Cassaro:That's a nice thought.
Blake Rea:Let's be optimistic.
Sophie Cassaro:But you've just got to move on and my collection's evolved and I've got so many watches, even since last summer, because obviously the nature of what I do, I get a lot of watches, so yeah, but yeah, it's still like it wasn't nice what happened and my husband lost his Rolex Milgauss. He luckily he sold the Zenith just before because otherwise that would have been a nightmare, because we wouldn't have had enough insurance, so that was actually really lucky that that happened.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, what else did he have? He had his Breitling. His first watch was a Breitling chronospace, which was really cool. Um, and so, yeah, that was gone. His first watch. Wow, there were 13 watches gone, I know that, but anyway it happened and you just kind of get over it, don't you Just?
Blake Rea:move on.
Sophie Cassaro:It's just stuff at the end of the day.
Blake Rea:It is.
Sophie Cassaro:yeah, I'm curious about your take on journalism.
Blake Rea:You know I'm curious because we're both content creators here. I'm curious about your approach to content creation. You know we talked kind of and we, I think, both agree about making content that that we would enjoy consuming um, but beyond that um do you feel like you have a signature approach to content creation.
Sophie Cassaro:Just look at my instagram, I think you'll find there is and what do you feel makes something story worthy?
Blake Rea:Because you also are a writer, right?
Sophie Cassaro:Yes, yeah, at the moment I'm doing I'm writing for Mainspring and I'm kind of I'm writing, I'm doing a lot of reviews, which I really enjoy it's what I do with my YouTube as well are reviews, because I feel it's important to have a female voice in that sphere and just and talking about their experience of a watch and how it wears, I find that really important. But and again, from a style perspective as well, it's like heavily influences what I do? I'm all about the visuals yeah, I'm very design based in what I do.
Blake Rea:I'm all about the visuals. I'm very design based in what I do. Do you feel like, as a journalist, like the perspective? Do you think watch media does enough to kind of highlight the female collectors? Do you feel like there's enough media out there for?
Sophie Cassaro:female to collectors. I think the media is going in the right direction and I I think they're definitely very happy to see it, I think, and more receptive. I mean I've just I've just sent um. I've just reviewed a formx stratos. I've just reviewed a Formex Stratos UTC, which is a pretty beefy watch and very masculine. But they were happy for me to review it on my little 13.5 centimeter wrist and I was really impressed with that.
Blake Rea:Marcus is amazing.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, but it's nice because it's, from my perspective, right. So it is going to be completely different and I enjoyed writing the review and yeah, so that should be out soon, I suppose.
Blake Rea:Is there a particular story or article that you've? Put together that really kind of resonates with you. I, I know, as a creator, you know I I think about all my videos as my babies and, like you know, I'm having little kids every every time I release a youtube video. It sounds so weird.
Sophie Cassaro:Trust me to say but.
Blake Rea:But what is that article and share with us?
Sophie Cassaro:well article I think the one I I haven't written that I haven't written that many articles yet, but my article that I wrote just like from passion alone was the one for nomos um I saw that my experience of the nomos forum.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, because I just had a really great time and it was just really great to feel seen. I hadn't really it felt so seen and understood because it was coming from a style perspective and the importance of that in the watch industry. So that was just really like, wow. Like because I've always just felt a bit silly. Do you know what I mean? Like yeah.
Sophie Cassaro:I am silly, but I am. I'm not an idiot either. Like I know what I'm talking about. So it was just nice to kind of have that validation of like yeah, what you're doing is actually valid um, in the watch industry, industry, uh, and also I one of my first videos I did on YouTube was about my Cartier Tank Francaise and the old model, because I had the old model and how much better the old model is compared to the new one that they released. And I just love that video because I full-on rant about it so passionately and it's actually, I think it's probably my most successful video too, because it resonates with a lot of people and I'm just you know that like relief that you're not the only one thinking about this stupid little details. And what is the difference? It's like, but the typeface is slightly different. There's no gear share, like how dare you not have gear share? And how dare the bracelet like take away the tank tracks? Like why would you do that, cartier? Why?
Sophie Cassaro:but you know like, but it's from like pure, like pure passion. Yeah, passion is purity. Like it's just just me going off on one, thinking like maybe someone else might feel the same way and like let's talk about it if you don't like, I just want to discuss, discuss it, let's discuss. Um, but yeah, I could just love that about watch collecting and watches in general is that you can go and talk for hours about tiniest little detail and we all get it like the watch geeks unite, we understand, and I am a watch geek first and foremost. Um, but yes, I may be like elegant, I do my photo shoots and all this, but I am, I am a watch geek, I love watches and that's why I spend every morning doing a photo shoot focusing on my watch, because I'm just like look at what I'm wearing yeah, it cool.
Sophie Cassaro:It is like I literally based my whole outfit around my watch because I love it that much. That is.
Blake Rea:That is what I'm about basically my wife doesn't understand that side because I'm literally like before I even think about what I'm putting on, like I'm thinking about what watch I'm going to wear.
Sophie Cassaro:No, my whole thing is watch first outfit second.
Blake Rea:Nice, nice, of course.
Sophie Cassaro:Same same. I never. There is no scenario, other than maybe if I have to go to a wedding and I have to wear like a gown, I would think. In fact, most days I have no idea what I'm going to wear or what I'm going to shoot that day. I just know the watch. I think about the watch meticulously and then it just like, this moment of like, just pure bliss, comes when I like the outfit is complete, like it's so geeky, but it's just I can't. It's, the urge is stronger than me, blake, I can't do anything about it.
Blake Rea:That's super funny because, um, I was figuring out, so we started off with a podcast, which of course you're on right now as we're talking, and then we rolled into a website, and then our third outlet was YouTube, and my first real YouTube video was like why you need a car ta tank right?
Blake Rea:and so I had like this these list of reasons why I feel well, I feel like everybody has to own a car ta tank, and I put it out there, the video I, I mean, I'm a small youtuber, like you know, like, like, no, no joke, we're a very tiny tiny outlet for you.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, I mean we've got like 500 subscribers.
Blake Rea:You know what I mean. Like um, but but anyways, I posted that video and then I got a good amount of traction. I feel like it was probably one of my higher performing videos, like up there and uh. And then people in the comments were like you don't need a cartier tank, like why would you need this watch? And then classic?
Sophie Cassaro:yeah, I don't, but they're watching the video, so it's very bizarre, isn't it?
Blake Rea:and I don't I don't know if this is like a validation thing, but um, so I posted the video and it months passed and uh, brit pierce super fan, I'm a fan of brit pierce and uh, and she posted like the same thing with like why you need a car t8 tank, and it was like the exact same reasons and the exact same order of of like of mine and I again I I was like maybe she saw my video, like that'd be so cool, you know like um, and maybe maybe not, or maybe her and I are just on the same wavelengths, that we're thinking the same shit.
Blake Rea:You know, loves her cartier, that's for sure yeah and, and I don't I don't, I don't, I don't like know her but, um, but hopefully she'll come on to the podcast at some point and uh and no, I was like to me that was like a validation for me. Okay, cool, I made a video that actually is like worthy, you know, because yeah, but you don't need other people I know I do the same thing.
Blake Rea:You are worthy blake yeah, I know I know, but this was early into like. This was like, like I said, it's one of my first videos and I didn't understand, like because I've made videos for people for so long. You know, I've been commissioned by people to make videos for them, but I've never really like went down there. I have a whole like okay, doing the titles. You're very vulnerable as well.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, like it's vulnerable, putting yourself out. There is something I have to do every day and it is you're vulnerable because it's. You're not like because I was. I come from the acting background. I'm not a character, I'm just myself like, which is a personality, but it's like it. There's this vulnerability there that you know if people come for you, they're coming for you and it's like I and just the way you edit.
Sophie Cassaro:It's like it's your choices. Everything is your choice, based on what you want and you, it's all on you. And if like yeah, it's like a lot it is.
Blake Rea:Yeah, I, you know I think about things a little differently now and um, and. But to me it was a cool moment because, like I said, like this was like one of the first pieces of content, I was like I wasn't even sure if this was a good idea. You know, like when you first start, making like video product, like doing videos or doing youtube.
Sophie Cassaro:You're doing titles or doing like there's so much that goes into it the amount of times I've spent, hours and hours and hours, and it just flops like flops you can't. You can't predict it, but you just have to stay true to yourself like don't don't concentrate on what others are doing. Just do what you're doing and what you want to watch a video about. That's the only thing you should be doing I've learned.
Blake Rea:I've learned that now and um and now I I'm just I'm just trying to ramp up the amount of content I produce. I'm trying to make it more sustainable and scalable, because you know, I've I pour hours and hours, and hours and hours of time into one video and then I'm like, well, okay, that like took away my, my desire to do video for a couple weeks. Now you know what I mean.
Blake Rea:Or like something it, just it's a lot it was so consuming, um, and then and then, yeah, so I I've kind of like over consumed the production side of things and and now I don't want to, I don't want to put out another video, I don't want to shoot another video, I don't want to, like you know, like even film another video, like I don't want to edit another video, like because here I am, like you know, spending a couple hours shooting and I'm spending five, six, seven hours editing.
Blake Rea:You know, it's like one three minute video is 10 hours of my time yeah and so so, yeah, I'm trying to figure out a more sustainable approach to video production and I'm getting there.
Sophie Cassaro:I'm getting there, um well, it sounds like you've got some really great ideas and concepts coming up. I look forward to when you do make those videos, because we they sound. We have a lot of cool ideas and concepts coming up.
Blake Rea:I look forward to when you do make those videos, cause we we have a lot of cool ideas and I'm going to come on the record now. But for watches and wonders, you know I obviously I'll see you there, I'm sure. But you know everybody does the the traditional oh, here's this release, here's that release, here's a new release from this brand or that. It's like it's all very product driven and I want to share my watches and wonders experience with everybody and I want to come from that approach I don't want to talk about, of course. I'm going to sit down with brands and they're going to show me their watches.
Sophie Cassaro:What I did I did last year I basically did a whole video about how to go and watch the Wonders and what it was like and what was worth doing and what isn't worth doing.
Sophie Cassaro:And yeah, I've had people actually it didn't do that well at the time because obviously it was just after Watches and Wonders but I've had people contact me recently because they're obviously thinking about going and they're finding it quite useful I'm gonna have to go watch it, because this will be my my first watches and wonders um I think I will do a similar thing as well of like my experience, um, because I find it as well quite overwhelming, like all of the releases, um, I think I would rather just do it like from an experience point of view as well I think because that the people have got it covered, like I don't need to be putting it out there about like what is released, like yeah, yeah, my opinions on it, I just, I agree. I'm going to have a good time and like, just show about that.
Blake Rea:That. That is my. That's going to be my approach this year and and the first. So my first trip was pre Watches and Wonders.
Blake Rea:Like I went in January and and obviously, like you know, it's like that's like the hot time for journalism, like cool Watch some wonders, like we got a lot of shit to cover, we got a lot of work to do. It's like it's like the high season, like tourist season, and if you're living in a ski resort or something like you know, uh, but anyways, um, I was really concerned about the first or last year's watching wonders, because I don't want to. I want to get genuine content and I want people to be passionate about what they're, they're showing and in these brands, you know, after like the first day, you know, maybe they, their, their look starts to to glaze over and you know they said the same thing to like 20 000 people like, oh well, we just released this because, and so I was really concerned about, like you know, their lack of enthusiasm, kind of translating into my content. So I came early for that specific reason and uh, and yeah, yeah, I uh I don't know if it happened or not, but but anyways, but yeah, yeah, I was worried about uh like, like brands getting kind of boring about what they're talking about, because when they do press and they talk to a million people they say the same thing over and over and over and I was very worried about that not coming off as passion in last year's press.
Blake Rea:So I went to Watches and Wonders early, uh, or I went to the brands early and I chose a few brands I was going to cover and uh, and did my coverage kind of independently, yeah, and then and then when watches and wonders came out, I just did like a, like an article like cool, here's my, my favorite releases from watching wonders. Because you know, as an independent creator I just I can't do what all these other outlets can do no, like it's.
Sophie Cassaro:They're all running around like headless chickens as well, so it's like so stressful. I was there only at one one of the press days for watches and wonders last year, and the rest I did the public days, and it was so much more. One of the press days for Watches and Wonders last year, and the rest I did the public days, and it was so much more chill on the public days.
Blake Rea:Okay, so maybe I should go on the public days.
Sophie Cassaro:I think at least one or two days yeah.
Blake Rea:Yeah, if you could change one thing about the watch industry today, what would it be?
Sophie Cassaro:Greed.
Blake Rea:Okay, you mean like, in terms of like them ramping up the prices and giving us the same product.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, it's always the price, like having to, to be more, having to be more, but actually just focus on getting a solid piece and not trying to shove stuff on it for just greed's sake. I find that annoying, and I'm not talking about like really amazing innovations in the you know, like when someone does like the thinnest thing in the world. I find that amazing I just think just on a basic level. I think omega is a good example of that. Like I don't get why they're suddenly so expensive.
Blake Rea:That makes sense.
Sophie Cassaro:Don't have an answer for you. Yeah, because I don't feel that their product is a superior product for the price. I don't, so I don't get it.
Blake Rea:Superior to who.
Sophie Cassaro:Well like Rolex.
Blake Rea:Well, there, there was a time where and if you look at time like I know, I I am a historian in a weird way, a watch historian I'm sure yeah but there there was a time where rolex approached omega and this is my understanding right.
Blake Rea:I wasn't there so I don't have any first knowledge of this, but I heard this multiple times that rolex approached omega trying to figure out how they could scale up production and and lower their costs of production. Um, so at this time, omega was trying to ramp up and and lower their costs, um, and omega was like we're not gonna do that because we care about having a superior product. Um, and and so omega was pretty much like piss off, you know, like so I don't know, that's true, but uh, you're talking to an omega fanboy and in a weird way but, but I'm not going to grill you for it.
Blake Rea:They do have great watches.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, but I don't understand the price.
Blake Rea:I don't understand them either. I'll just wait for them to be half off on eBay or something.
Sophie Cassaro:I just don't get it. But even Zenith you can. They go so cheap secondhand.
Blake Rea:Totally.
Sophie Cassaro:And I saw their sales figures and they keep hold of so much of their stock. They don't sell any of it, which is quite a dangerous model, but the prices are quite high. Um, not to say that they're beautiful watches, but I just, I, I just think that. But same with rolex, and we could all just calm down a bit yeah, like yeah, where does? It go like. Where does it go from here?
Blake Rea:yeah, hopefully not to the stratosphere, cause I still want to be able to afford washes.
Sophie Cassaro:That's the point. It's like I just don't want it to become just a rich person's game. It's already like you have to be on the certain level to enter these entry level luxury brands, but it soon it's going to be like so crazy. I'm just yeah, you can't buy one anymore. And that's sad because actually and I know they like the status thing and all of this but the especially with swiss watchmaking, you see it, they've scaled down massively how many they're making, but made the price really high. So they're still making the money and more.
Blake Rea:Yeah, but they're making way less watches. I think, yeah, I think it's just that strategy where they say you know, we're going to make less, it's going to put less strain on our production. We're going to make the same, if not more, drain on our production. We're gonna make the same, if not more.
Sophie Cassaro:Um, and and at some point somebody thought that that was a good idea, yeah, and I hate them for it, yeah, but I I get it to a point. But it's like there comes of like this, like tipping point where I'm just like no like with the bulgari, for instance, like I'm actually glad they've made this movement because I, I love the serpente right, I loved it.
Blake Rea:But what stopped?
Sophie Cassaro:me. What stopped me buying it was the fact that it was quartz and I'm like I can't justify 7 000 francs on a on a quartz watch. I just can't right I can't. But in my like crazy watch geek mind I'm like, well, I can justify 10 000 on it, which doesn't make any sense either. But you know, like there is like a level of like craftsmanship and energy and design that goes into making that movement right.
Sophie Cassaro:So I get it like from the craftsmanship engineering of this. It's not just like putting in a quartz watch that's already been made Totally so yeah, I'm kind of rambling, but yeah, that annoys me a lot because I am someone who likes to feel like they're getting value for money. Whether that's a hundred thousand francs or you know 200 francs, I still want to feel like what I'm buying is worth that money. Does that make sense?
Blake Rea:A thousand percent. Yeah, that's the why. That's why I shop pawn shops. I'm like a, I'm like a thrifter of a watch collector, like everything. I buy will usually be second hand, or I'll buy the. I'll go on chrono 24 and try and buy the cheapest one if I can, and hopefully it's not too thrash, and I try and balance that like, like, like value and condition. I try that. That's where I have a little bit of fun, you know yeah, oh, me too.
Sophie Cassaro:I love a bargain.
Blake Rea:I've got beautiful um chopard samaritz that I got for a really good price chopard's amazing I love chopard, I see some of their uh millie maglia's here at the pawn shops for like oh, they go for so cheap yeah 1500, like 1300, like okay, sign me up I'll take one, yeah as long as like. There's one right now at a pawn shop sitting there and I think they have it at 2k and I was like, just shoot me a text if you're gonna do 1500 or less, and I think that time might be coming up yeah, I reckon what is your favorite.
Blake Rea:So we're going to do some rapid fire stuff and then I'm going to let you sleep. What is your favorite watch brand of all time?
Sophie Cassaro:Oh my god.
Blake Rea:I got you full screen so I can watch you kind of sweat it out.
Sophie Cassaro:That is tough. No, no, it's Cartier. Okay, okay, all right and bearing in mind I love, I do I love a bell. I love rolex, I think rolex is amazing. But cartier, just for the sheer, like variety through the history and just and the history and just from someone who loves design, they have some exquisite pieces and proper, serious watchmaking and fantastic entry level. They do it all in my book, cartier.
Blake Rea:Grail watch. If no amount of money, if money was not an object, I don't know what I was gonna say there well, and now I've got my eye on a solid gold serpenti with automatic watch. Haven't I covered that'd be freaking amazing, like you know, one that wraps all around my arm. I'll be like this, like the statue of liberty I sold, I sold bulgari um and I love, I loved selling them, you know so good.
Sophie Cassaro:It's yeah so good. I'm so decadent, so yeah, one of those. Please um piaget, something really like crazy.
Blake Rea:Piaget um piece uh like do have you, have you like done a lot of transacting, like have you bar watches and sold them off and then you know, no, that's, it's not my style.
Sophie Cassaro:I'm a, buy it and then hold on for it.
Blake Rea:Buy and hold all right. So buy and hold um yeah my husband sold that hold.
Sophie Cassaro:All right, so buy and hold. Um, yeah, my husband sold that Zenith, but that was like a big decision.
Blake Rea:Yeah.
Sophie Cassaro:By the way he bought, he bought a Basher on Constantine overseas Blue dial.
Blake Rea:The, the three hander or the chrono or three, three hander. Okay.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, the, is it the?
Blake Rea:the hander? Okay, yeah, the, is it the the?
Sophie Cassaro:four, five hundred v that one. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to think about it for a second. He uh loves it and I made him buy it and because I think it's amazing watch, I also love asheron, to be honest yeah cartier vacheron. Clearly I'm a Richemont.
Blake Rea:Yeah, I see her, but yeah, Vacheron again.
Sophie Cassaro:Oh, I would love an American 1921.
Blake Rea:Those are badass.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, that's a grail for me too.
Blake Rea:My friend had one in the yellow gold, because they don't make a lot of the ones in yellow gold, from my understanding.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah.
Blake Rea:They only make them in rose, I think, or white gold or something. But and rose, uh, I think, or white gold or something but, yeah, he had one and he he got rid of it very quickly, unfortunately I don't know why, um so what? Yeah, what is the most annoying watch related stereotype that you've heard?
Sophie Cassaro:um well, I guess for me it's like you can't wear that. It's too big for you okay, that makes sense that makes sense, which I get all the time yeah, yeah the camera makes your watches look bigger than they are so like people need to pipe down like we're judging my wrist, okay, okay so if, if sophie's watch world could have anything that she wanted in a dream collaboration, what brand would you work with and what would that look like?
Sophie Cassaro:oh god, well, I am actually collaborating on a watch already oh yeah uh, but I can't say what it is of course no that is a dream come true, um, but I guess, like fantasy world, um that's the only world I live in me too.
Sophie Cassaro:Uh, fantasy world again. Wouldn't it be cool to have a Sophie's watch world cartier? Yeah, of course it would. Of course it would. Um, I don't know what that would look like, though. Um, I do have a lot of ideas on designs of watches in general. Um, so, yeah, I love the idea of collaborating on in sign with watch brands for sure, and I'm excited for mine my crazy watch to be out into the world. Is it gonna be? Is?
Blake Rea:it gonna be something that is is unisex yes, it's fun okay, well, we'll have to have you back on our uh at some point in the future to talk about some of your collaborations and uh. And so I'm gonna ask one more, um, okay, and if so, obviously, like if you had a roadmap and you said, hey, this is where I want my brand, or One please don't give me a roadmap.
Sophie Cassaro:I'm terrible at directions. Okay, okay, carry on.
Blake Rea:If you know, obviously like with your brand Sophie's Watch World, are there any milestones you hope to accomplish at some point? I mean you just talked about your dream collaboration. Is there anything else that you hope to accomplish in your journey and the watch space?
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, I, I think, yes, privately in my head, talking to myself yes, um, yeah, I think I would. I would like to in some capacity, be a spokesperson for brand, I think.
Blake Rea:Like an ambassador.
Sophie Cassaro:Yeah, like a major brand. I think that would be really cool yeah a pipe dream, um, but also just, I think I I would really like to kind of do more presenting and things like that, and I would love to do that um for media like in the watch world, and do interviews like, do things of that nature. I think that would be really fun, um, because it's something I I've done professionally outside of the watch world, but it would be really cool to do that yeah, and obviously living in switzerland it's in your backyard, yeah, out the window yeah, well, I don't want to take any more of your time.
Blake Rea:We have already consumed nearly an hour and 40 minutes of it. And uh, no, no, no I I am glad that we spent this time with you. Uh, I am super excited for this episode to drop.
Sophie Cassaro:I can't wait, uh yeah, we've really rambled, haven't we?
Blake Rea:we've gone on some, we've done some rambling and it's either gonna be the best one or the worst one, because god, but I don't care, I don't care. Hopefully, people, we shared some cool stories and you know, usually in some of the other podcast episodes is very, you know, is very. We focus on progression and progressing and, you know, extracting information and this one we didn't have to do that, you know, it just was very, it was very cool. I liked it.
Sophie Cassaro:So hopefully everybody else agrees. Well, you know, life's too short not to be fabulous and not to have fun. So I think that's it for today.
Blake Rea:Oh yeah, no, totally, and I will definitely see you in Geneva in April.
Sophie Cassaro:Yes, with pleasure.
Blake Rea:Thank you so much for coming on.
Sophie Cassaro:Thanks for having me.
Blake Rea:I am going to link everything Sophie in the description, so make sure you check her out, Give her a follow and hopefully by the time you're listening to this, she will have dropped her watch and hopefully you will be able to share that with her. Thank you so much for coming on.
Sophie Cassaro:Thanks, bye.
Blake Rea:Bye.
