Tosh ShowDaniel finds time to sit down with watch dealer Eric Ku to learn how he day traded with his tuition money in college, became an expert on vintage watches, and spent $100,000 on a Casio G-Shock.
Does your three year old's son already have a Rolex? Be honest, yes he does. Pashha Cosha show. All right, it's Tosh show time. If you're happy and you know it, give me one of those.
Pretty happy you're related d twelve horses out front.
I'm in a good mood for no reason. How are you doing, Eddie?
Pretty good? Better now knowing that you're doing.
So good, Eddie?
What's your favorite meal? Oh?
My favorite meal chicken caesar salad. What I just love a good chicken caesar salad.
Eddie's favorite meal is a chicken caesar salad. Do you like do you like having the the what's more anchovies on top of it? How many anchoviies do you want top of your caesar salad?
Two?
Or three?
Three?
Well, one time I had a caesar salad in the back of a car. You know, you know, like I Here's here's what happens. I don't usually eat before a performance, but after a performance I eat, but usually afterwards, were immediately getting into a car. So Eddie, he gets off stage if he's on the show first, he gets to eat while I'm on stage. But when I get off stage, I got a run. We run to the car anyway. This time, I happen to have a Caesar salad and I'm just eating it in the back of the car, and it had three anchovies on top of it, but I couldn't see because it's dark, it's night, and I just put all, like, like all three of them in my mouth at once. I had one bite, there was just like all anchovy and I couldn't I couldn't get it down. I was. I was trying to get it down. I couldn't get it down. I started dry heaving, and then I was like, this isn't gonna this isn't gonna end well.
A sea lion.
Doing tricks and getting finished. I was like a sea lion. I couldn't get it down though I needed. Oh it's bad. That was a bad chicken Caesar show. Yeah, you know, the Chicken Sealer chalad was invented in Cabo San Lucas. Did you know that?
I did not know that.
It was a lot of people think of it. You don't. You don't think of it as a Mexican dish, but it is. It's originally from Cobbo San Lucas. Don't even look it up, guys, Just trust me that occasionally I have a nugget. Oh all right, well it's time to turn this show over to the people that made this show. The number sixty seventh podcast in this country comedy related. It feels good, it's not bad, top hundred. We're gonna do some viewer comments ed.
From the Fire episode. I've loved Tosh for years, but it's surprising how woke he is. Must be a California thing.
No, I don't, what do I say? It's not a California thing. It's maybe it's a big city thing. You live in a city, you experience different walks of life more than other places. Let's be clear, Californe's got some deep red spots. Yep, go woke, go broke. You know who's never said that. My business manager. He's like, you're fine, everything's okay. You're you're not be as woke as you want. You're not going broke. You know what I like to say, refuse to evolve, enjoy living paycheck to paycheck.
That makes a good shirt too. Amber episode. I hate obligated gift giving on holidays or birthdays. Give should be for no reason at all, and just because you want it because you were thinking of them.
I like that idea. And just Santa just shows up at your house any random day you're you're just eating lunch. All of a sudden, Sanna comes down the chimney, boom, tons of presents. Holy cow, the chainsaw.
I didn't leave it, Mark, but that Saint Laurent bag nuked the table.
Oh are you so excited? Go ahead, open that gift up. See if you liked it. That just scratch scratch the table. Oh no, I mean that is the longest scratch ever permanently. There, Jocelyn, you owe me a new table.
This montage makes me appreciate the new table so much. The old table is so tiny.
I mean it really was, and good it was only thirty inches across the old table. And how do I know exactly because Dylan constantly would would be like, the microphones are only thirty inches apart. That's not enough. I'm getting I'm getting bleed from your mic into their mic. It's an audio nightmare. So I was like, okay, let's get one that's forty two inches. Oh god, that would be great, so confrontational.
I think guys like ballerinas because they're like models with actual talent.
Okay, First of all, I don't mean to speak for all guys, but guys don't care if hot girls have talent. Let see it.
I guess you're right Toosh Loves talking about conservatives as if they're dumb, but the guy doesn't know basic elementary level math.
Math has never been my strong suit. I'll admit that. And I don't think all conservatives are dumb. All Christian Conservatives. That's a that's a different equation. Here's a little math problem for you. If the world is only six thousand years old, but you find fossils that are sixty million years old, does that mean that God just put them there as a fun little Easter egg to test your faith?
And Daniel claim as gives us charitable donations.
Yes, yes I can. And the grooming that I spend on Carl every other week so that he pops on camera, that's a write off.
I beg for an emergency pod discussing Sinner only getting a three month ban and not missing any grand slams.
Yeah. I don't know what what Sinner did. I don't know who he's got dirt on, but the fact that he is just getting by with a slap on the wrist it's also his steroid. You know. His positive test is just the dumbest thing you could ever imagine.
Now.
I know that there's only a small group of people listening to this that give two fucks. But he failed a steroids test because he said his massage therapist had a steroid cream on their hand and when they were treating him, it accidentally rubbed into his system twice, two different times. Anyway, normally people get like a minimum of a year or two years, and he got nothing. And now they're like, Okay, we messed up on that. We're gonna give him three months. So he misses no major and he gets to play in his home tournament, his home country tournament. Oh shocking how that worked out. And by the way, I've said it before and I'll stick by it. I find it confusing that he's from Italy and has an Italian accent and has red hair. It just doesn't match up from brain Sinner needs to do steroids. I mean I watched him years ago. I was like, yeah, it's not fun cheering for just rail thin ginger out there. Tennis has to have a little sex appeal on whether it's men or women, you know, Agustine. Agassine knew that when he was high on whatever drugs he was doing and trying to keep his two pay on during the French Open, people didn't even know he was bald. He had just a big fake wig on with the headband. It was like, eh, those are the days.
My pig was also around eight pounds. Three years later, she's at one twenty, still lives inside Wonderful Pets.
Oh look at that. I can't wait to have one hundred and twenty pounds pig in my bedroom. No, okay, don't even finish that joke.
Oscar's episode they had a tent on the worm.
I love that comment. All cats, they're the same rage that I had. There was a tent and the whole village just going for a ride on the worm that was so impossible to board prior to that scene. No, this is how we all go jump on Sir, sir, sir, we're only boarding group one. Oh I'm on my fault, my fault, I'm military. Well then you should know how to jump on this by yourself.
Lol. There's a hotline thing attached to this video because of Toash saying he's going to get himself.
Okay, we can't. We got to bleep you, eddie because they put that on there because those words were said, and I wasn't even I wasn't making light of people that end life. I was just pointing out that I was giving all my stuff away constantly, and that's a telltale sign of potentially doing said deed. Anyway, get help.
So you blew it, you gave it away, that you were born in seventy four, and then tell us you're in your late forties. Come on, man, own up to it. You're fifty.
Oh, I know. This is referring to when I was talking about being a Dolphins fan from when they won the Super Bowls in seventy two and seventy three, and then I said that I was conceived in seventy four. That idiot doesn't understand what conceived means. This is why we have a problem in this country with abortion. People don't know when life begins. This person thinks since I was conceived in seventy four, that I had to be born that year. No, that's not how it works. I was born nine and a half months later. See, my father put his penis inside of my virgin mother's vagina and they nurtured, They nurtured me, and then nine and a half months later, I was born in Germany, in beaupart in nineteen seventy five, the twenty ninth day of May. And they it is good.
It sounds like something straight out of a Bible.
Uh huh.
Why does he think we give a shit about his parenting stories and family life? I don't watch this for that.
Well, it's like this and like that and like this, and uh it's like that and like this and like that and uh am I right, Oh, you're right.
Ah.
I don't know what you watched this for or listen to it for. But all I know is I appreciate it, like and subscribe.
Ta's show is good, but could be great with a bigger frame.
I agree, But it's not a frame. It's a border. Hey, it's a subtle border that makes you feel like you could hang your iPhone on the wall and watch me. It's like moving art. How long have we been I feel like we've read too many comments. This will be a perfect time for me to start wearing a watch. I need a watch.
Guy.
Enjoy Pasha. For all the money I've wasted in my life, I've never bought a luxury wrist watch, mostly because I'm successful enough that I never gave a shit what time it is. But maybe after my conversation with today's horologist, I'll finally see what all the fuss is about. Please welcome watch collector and dealer Extraordinary to the stars.
Eric, Thank you, thanks for having me.
Hey, thanks for being here. By the way, just in case your cares, I'm dressed today like somebody that would sell fake watches. That's what I was going for. I see, I can already. My first question is normally do you believe in ghost? But I want to get right to that time piece that's on your wrist.
I was fed misinformation that you were a connoisseur of Cassio G shocks, so I thought i'd bring a kind of special one to show you.
Is that that's a Cassio G shock, but it has a price tag that I'm positive I'm gonna be blown away by.
Yeah, it was made for the thirty fifth anniversary. They made thirty five pieces, and it's the only G shock they ever made entirely out of eighteen karat gold. Uh huh. So it's like a brick on your wrist.
Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, is that six figures low? Six figures over, one under two? Do you care about it? Do you are?
Like? No?
I want I want this.
I've been looking for one of these for many years and this one just came up not that long ago, uh huh, and had to have it.
So I don't wear watches, Okay, I own this Cassio.
There you go, Okay, I mean you can kind of see that it looks kind of similar.
It's going to say, look, no, it's it's a let me feel how heavy this is? Oh my goodness, that is so silly.
I love the irony of this watch because it looks like any other one hundred and twenty dollars kind of a gold tone cassio.
G shock, Well do you know this cassio is eight dollars yep? On Amazon? Now I don't we all know Amazon is the devil? Fine, but this watch. I ordered this watch in the morning and it was at my house that.
Afternoon Amazon Prime same day.
It's almost as if they just have a bunch of these in their truck and I hear somebody want now. The only reason I wear this watch is because I had children, and when I go surfing, I need to know how long that nap is going to be, or if I have to pick somebody up or get something. So I was like, I need a watch to surf in for the first time in my life, and so I got this watch. Then I noticed on it it just says water resistant. What's that about? By the way, I've never had an issue with it, and it keeps perfect time. I don't change it to standard back into daylight saving said, you switch your watches back and forth.
You know, I kind of just grab whatever is around, and usually I have to set the time before I.
Wear it, so you always make sure that it's.
Right most of the time, except sometimes there's really complicated watches to set that could take like ten to fifteen minutes to set. And I don't don't bother doing that.
By the way, since I as a child, I used to have a Shark Freestyle watch with the cloth band, and then in school, you'd remember this smell under your wrist.
Is it an eighties thing? The bell crow band?
Yeah, it's a double bellcrobo.
Yes, yes, like a leash?
Yeah? Now that what happened to that brand? I don't even are you kidding me? Those things have to be worth a fortune. Now I'm sitting on like seven hundred sweaty bands.
Might be worth tens of dollars.
Do you believe in ghosts?
I do?
Nah, wasn't sure. I didn't know which way you were going to swing on that one.
I'm a pretty rational person, but I do.
Did you accidentally put on two watches or is that your daily routine?
No, no, it's not my daily routine. I thought we would be talking about something, so I brought another interesting watch just to share with you.
What's what's on that wrist over there?
This is a cool watch. This is called the Shash and it's made by a Cardier uh huh. And it was the trophy for this thing called the Cardier Challenge, and it was for the winner. There's a famous car race called the Paris Dakar Rally where they drive like cars and motorcycles from Paris tod Car, okay, And you had to win it twice to win this watch, and only one person ever won it twice, so they had only given away one of these watches a surprise, and so it's like a unique piece and it was given I think in nineteen eighty six.
And how did you get it.
It was a watch auction purchase.
Oh man, how did you get so into watches? Obviously you cared about them your whole life, but where was that transition?
When I was a kid, one of the first kind of educational gifts that my parents got me was a subscription to National Geographic magazine, and Rolex always had a prominent advertisement in the magazine. It was either like the back cover or the front intercover. And Rolex would always make these ad campaigns talking about achievements in like human ingenuity, and you know, Rolex was tied to the summoning of Mount Everett by Tensing and Hillary in like nineteen fifty three, and then all these like feats that they sponsored, like Lewis Leaky who studied you know, the Great Apes, and you know, like the Origin of Man. And so their advertising was always tying with these sort of like super scientists. And it just got ingrained into my mind that Rolex's were very high quality watchers.
I mean they are. But mean you were really affected by advertising?
Yes, I was.
I got National Geographic as well as a child, and all I took from it was like boobs come in all shapes and sizes.
Well, that too, you know, all right, pancake ones and whatever.
Where'd you grow up?
I grew up in Potomac, Maryland. It's a suburb of Washington, DC.
You love Maryland? You know.
I came out to California for college and never went back.
That happens to a lot of people. By the where did you go to college?
Berkeley?
Ooh, ninety eight percent of the people we've had on the show have gone to Berkeley. I swear to you, really well, Yeah, it's almost like we're a satellite campus this podcast. I'm telling you, it's it's pretty intellectual cal Bears. I don't ask for a lot on this show, but I think Berkeley should at least get my kids in. They're not going to do well once they get there.
They might give you an honorary degree, and I don't want to.
Do I want I just want my kids to go there.
Man.
I would take some pride in that. Yeah, I mean, you have children, one I do.
I have one son just turned three.
Are you putting tons of pressure on him?
No? No, I was just freestyle.
That's what I wanted to hear. Yeah, good for you, all right, talk about when you were in college the day trading.
Freshman year, spring semester. I started day trading with this money that my dad had given me for a year's advance tuition, room and board and everything. And eBay had just IPO. This was I think nineteen ninety eight, okay, And I was able to take thirty thousand dollars and turn it into like four hundred something thousand.
That's what I wanted to hear.
Yeap, I thought I was a financial genius.
Were you like, I'm gonna drop out of college?
Not not that level? But started doing stupid shit Like I bought a watch, I ordered a brand new Porsche, and I didn't want to take one off of the lot. I wanted to like speck it exactly how I wanted it.
When you say stupid, all I hear is just goddamn genius, Thank you. It's I mean, you're in college. It wasn't like you were sixty and had like a family of twenty to support. You were in college and you took thirty and ran it up to half a million dollars.
Yeah, exactly.
Had a happy ending.
No no, no, I mean long term, long term, yes, short term no. After thirty days, you can start playing options on stocks, and I was like, this stock, there's no way that it can be this high. And I just like put everything into like shorting the stock, and then I went from like four hundred and something thousand down to like twelve dollars.
Yeah, but you still had that Porsche.
No, I didn't because I didn't kick one off of the lot. I ordered it and then put a two thousand dollars deposit, and in California, deposits are always refundable. But I was so embarrassed. I didn't even get the two thousand dollars back.
You didn't go collect that two thousand, No, I didn't. You're still owed that munchy I am.
Probably it's an uncollected fund somewhere.
But I put two thousand years and years ago on a sprinter van and my wife never let me get it. She's refused to let me get it, and I collected.
There you go.
You stayed in school, you finished I did what did you study?
I studied interdisciplinary studies, which was a really flim flam major of you didn't know what you want to do and you could combine three majors into one.
Oh wow, did you take any like quote unquote real job right out of college.
Oh totally. I had worked in various companies, startups, and my last real job was at this computer recycling company. And I remember the moment that I became a watch dealer full time was because I had gotten like seven FedEx packages in my office and you know whatever, the managing director of the business was like all shitty. I was like doing all this stupid stuff there, and I just realized, like what the hell am I doing here? And I went and just quit that day. It just gave notice and left.
So how along from college to that moment.
I would say, like I worked for a good four or five years at various.
Jobs, okay, and then quitting your job and saying full time this is my passion. How long from that moment to oh, I've made myself a good career here.
I mean I think even like that first year, I was like doing quite well and so I was really happy. I mean, I can't imagine doing a job working for somebody else right now, you know.
Yeah, I sat in one interview before I was like, oh no, I can't have a job. This is this is bad. Well, just because I was like, I wouldn't hire me, and I'm an idiot. Was the first nice watch you bought went in college?
Yeah?
It was.
It was a Rolex Air King, which is the cheapest watch they made at the time.
What's the cheapest role like cost now?
Now it's probably like seven thousand books.
Wait, funny story about your your original Rolex Yes, is that you bought it back? Yes, you had a Hawket.
Yes, Or during my financial crisis of nineteen ninety eight and.
You got a similar one, or you tracked down the exact No.
I so I sold it on eBay. Funnily enough, Oh.
The company you were shorting? Yeah, look at.
You in nineteen ninety eight, and several years later I fired up like an old computer with all the old emails because they weren't in the cloud at the time. I found the person that I sold it to, and I emailed them and explained that I'd become a watch dealer and I was really interested in buying the watch back because it had a lot of sentimental meaning to me.
And then the guy wrotely, just gouged this shit.
Well, he gouged the shit out of me. But the first email I got back was like, well, it has a lot of meaning to me too.
Brother.
The guy was a lawyer. Unfortunately, huh, and I paid a world record price for this to buy that watch back.
Well, you know what, it'll get him, eventually, something will get him, or he's probably still just making a killing.
He's still a lawyer.
I think, what's the most expensive watch you've ever sold?
Privately? I sold a watch that was fifteen and a half million dollars.
I wanted to hear that fifteen and a half million dollars.
And on on our auction website we sold to one Cardier for like one point six y five million, which is a world record for that watch.
By the way, you own is it your company or you co founded I watch auction site? What's it called?
I co founded with my partner justin a watch auction site called loop this. We're located in West Hollywood and we do watch auctions every day.
Do you control the reserves that people put.
On their marketing? We sell as no reserve, no reserve yep.
Oh man, Now I got to be on that site.
All real auction shouldn't have a reserve anything, and it shouldn't end with like a clock.
How do you guys snuff out bad behavior? Then? In terms of you know, people putting false bids in.
I mean, we do things like do credit card holds and all this stuff, and there's sophisticated algorithms to look for this.
How many times do you have you do people buy watches and then they renig on the whole thing.
We've been quite lucky. We've auctioned about three thousand waunches so far. Huh, and our canceled transaction rate is I mean, I would say maybe ten to fifteen out of three thousand. It's very very minimal.
Are you allowed to bid on your own site? You know, there's been times accusatory as possible.
There's been times where we really wanted to buy something for ourselves, but you know, we just let it go.
My question is like, have you seen something on your site like, oh, that person got to steal that is undervalued for what that watch is worth.
There's been times that things sell less than we anticipate.
That'd be hard not to pull the trigger on it.
But there's also things that sell for like a lot more.
Know that always happens. That's what That's what auctions are supposed to be. You're supposed to be overpaying. You co founded a watch repair company and how much service do watches actually need Besides occasionally change in a battery.
Digital watches like a Cassio G shock, the movements are quite cheap inside. Aside from changing a battery there's something wrong, they usually just toss the movement and put a new module in like a few bucks.
Okay.
Mechanical watches require quite a bit of service every few years, and it's very complicated, and there's not that many people that can do it, and it's kind of becoming like a lost lost art.
You know, do you actually do it or no?
I myself do not?
Have you ever tinkered? Can you get in there and do anything?
I know that every time I try to play watch maker, I fuck something up.
Do million dollar watches have batteries?
Typically not? Okay, a million dollar watch that has a battery inside, it's million dollars, probably because it's made out of like precious metal and diamonds and things like that.
Or it was on someone famous when they were killed.
Potentially, uh huh, although most of the watches that come up for auction belonging to famous dead people are usually mechanical.
All right, but let me embarrass myself and start. You can correct my pronunciation of these brands. What is Autemar's Uh? Is it Pigott Poojia, Odemar piguet, Odemar pigue Yes, oh, okay uh? Petique Philippi, Philippe, Paddock Philippe, Paddock Philippe. I actually have heard of Paddock Philippe, Richard mile Mille, Richard Meil Meal. Yeah, that one's easy. What is longness long?
Long jeans, long jeans?
Yes, I haven't gotten one right yet. What is it Hubolt, Hue, blow, Hue, bloat?
Yeah?
Which one of those is the best watch?
I think many people would say that Paddock Philippe is the best.
What's an entry level Paddock Philippe sets.
You back nowadays? I would say thirty thousand dollars.
Why are new watches now sometimes cheaper than after it's been you know, around for a few years.
I think because there's a very robust like collectors market, and things that are discontinued, you know, become collectible. So there's some old models, vintage pieces that have become highly coveted over the years.
What time piece would you suggest to someone who's just starting to be interested in nicer watches?
I mean, the great thing about watch collecting is there's always something interesting in like every different price point. There are a lot of interesting watches that are right around one thousand dollars ranging up to like several million dollars. I think for I'm going to just make a bunch of assumptions here, but assuming a budget is you know, like a thousand or two thousand dollars, there's a lot of.
No, no, my budgets can be bigger than this. If I'm jumping to the game ten thousand, yeah, now I'm wearing something.
Yeah at ten thousand dollars, there's definitely like a lot of choices. I think the watch is that preserve value the most, and are the market is the biggest. Four would be some sort of a rolex, like a Rolex, dive Watch or sub.
Mariner, Oyster Jubilee or President.
I like oyster bracelets. That's a very sophisticated question.
Why the way, Well, I want I want people to know the wristbands on the Rolex. Are those the only three options?
Or now they do this thing called oyster flex now, which is like a rubber bracelet, which is kind of cool.
Actually, fuck Mary Kill Fossil TIMEX.
Swatch This is a very tough one.
I just wanted to go from sophisticated.
Okay, kill, I'd kill fossil oh Man and toss up on the other two.
How good are the fake rolexes that people sell like on the streets in New York?
I would say there are some very good fakes. I'm in all these groups online, like other watch dealers and whatnot, And a lot of the people that are in these groups could be like owners of like pawnshops or small jewelry stores. There are like organized group like gangs of people that take these very convincing fake watches and just try to like pawn them or sell them. And so there's all these like alerts that I see in the group. Some of them have gotten quite good.
What's the best what's the best con someone's pulled money wise?
I mean it's always with some sort of a rolex because they're so liquid or like cash right, so great. So a watch that's worth maybe twelve to fifteen thousand dollars, somebody could go into a pawn shop and want three thousand, and then the greed gets the hold of whomever, and then they kind of don't check carefully and they get ripped off.
You know, if I owned a really nice fake watch with no intention of ever trying to con anyone other than just wearing it for my own personal enjoyment or to flex, is that still do you still like? I don't know that that hurts our business.
I don't think it hurts our business, but I think it might reflect poorly on the person that's wearing a fake watch and flexing.
Well, what if you don't know, I mean, if no one knows, I'm not letting anybody examine it. But occasionally you just see me walking around and it's like, oh, look at that.
I mean, there's like a really funny thing. There's this very coveted Paddock Philippe watch called the Nautilus, and they made a special one with Tiffany the jeweler, and they made one hundred and seventy pieces these things. It's like silly because if you can buy it, it's thirty five thousand, forty thousand dollars. The market price was as high as five million for this watch, and highly qualified buyers, celebrities were wearing them. But you'd go to Europe and be in Paris, it's like all the taxi drivers are wearing like fakes of that watch. This is that kind of a funny thing. You know. There's actually you could probably find this photo online of after the Taliban liberated Afghanistan they were wearing these like Tiffany nautiluses. So you know, it's like a weird thing. I mean, I'm not going to pass judgement on anybody that chooses to do that, but.
Wow, do you know any celebrities that do that, because you know, they're our celebrities admit that they wear fake diamonds because they you know, just.
I think fake diamonds like there's no like intellectual property behind that. But like watches, Like I mean in movies they use fake watches a lot prop watches. But I don't know any celebrities that would be like, I'm wearing a fake Rolex on the red carpet today.
You wait, I'm gonna wear a fake Shark. Have you personally ever been conned or caught someone trying to sell a counterfeit watch to you?
You know, people offer counterfeits all the time in the watch world. There's degrees of like fake. It's not like a made in China like fake Rolex. The value in watches a lot of times is based on certain components, like the dial is in some collectible Rolexes, the dials maybe ninety percent of the value. So a lot of people try to manipulate the dial, and it's more like a bespoke level of fakery as opposed to like a factory made fake huh. And this is very prevalent, and watches a regular Daytona, let's say, is worth like forty thousand dollars, Paul Newman Daytona can be worth three four hundred thousand. So if somebody can manipulate a dial to make it look a certain way, they have like a ten x appreciation potentially Paul Newman, you think he's dressing not really?
Does Hollywood come call in for like either freebies for people walking the red carpet or for a project where they want somebody to wear a watch? And do you care about that or do you say that's not my business?
I mean it's fun sometimes and when it works, it's like cool, Okay. I would say the most prominent one that I was involved in was I sourced this very expensive Rolex Daytona for that movie Crazy Rich Asians.
Mm hmm.
It was actually quite prominently featured in the movie, and both the director and the writer of that book were really into like the little details and wanted to do it right, and so they wanted like a specific vintage Rolex for that scene, which I was able to provide for them. And it was just like a nerd thing, you know. Nobody got any credit for it or anything, but it was interesting seeing it in the movie. And funnily enough, Rolex is a sponsorer of the Oscars now and they put together a like thirty second or one minute long commercial of all these montages of movies showing Rolexes, and that was fairly prominently featured in the commercials. So I thought it was kind of fun.
And made it to the Oscars. I did I love crazy rich Asians. I just liked it because it was like a world. I was like, Oh, I knew that wealth existed, but it's fun to watch it.
It was a fun movie for sure.
Uh huh. Do you hate the celebrities that are in the collecting game? Do they negatively affect what you do or do? Is it all positive?
I mean I think it's generally positive.
Mark Zuckerberg, are you glad that he's like flaunting the wealth on the wrist or no.
I mean it's certainly bringing a lot of attention to watches, but it's just kind of interesting when you're like Thanos and have unlimited money, you can just buy whatever. Uh huh. But you know, he's very quickly over the last three months become you know, a big collecting celebrity.
So yeah, I hated him when he started wakesurfing. I might get the fuck off the lake. There's a John Mayor Limit Edition ap Royal Oak Jumbo Ultra Thin Rose gold watch. It sells for one hundred and eight thousand dollars. Does it also play James Blunt covers?
That's a good event.
That makes me laugh. Uh, James Blunt, what a dig on John Mayor? Hey, John, is he a legitimate watch collector?
He's a legitimate watch collector. When I started in my I started a website years ago called ten Past ten. It was like in two thousand and five or six. He was literally the first watch I sold was John Mayer off of my website.
He bought it or he get you on his he bought.
It from me.
Okay.
Yeah, he's really a very educated and like very into watches, Like he knows his stuff.
What's the guy girl ratio in this world of collecting high end watch is it's it seems like it's male dominated.
It's skewed quite heavily to the men. But I would say, you know, in the last five ten years, there's been a lot more female collectors.
And what about the watches themselves? Is it? Do women still if they're a collector, do they still want the man's watch.
We went through this era in like the early aughts where people were wearing these huge watches that look like tunicans, you know, and the men were doing it, women were doing it. And now the look is more restrained and refined and elegant. And I just like running joke because I collect like dress watches a lot, which tend to be smaller, right, especially Cardier for example, And we always like have a joke it's like is this a men's or women's watch? And it's like, oh, this is like an Eric men's watch, which could be like a women's watch or something. But you know, it's just tastes change.
Over the ars men's watch. That's nice. Yeah, My father in law used to wear a Rolex and it was I forgot what the name of it. Was, but it seemed dainty, and I kept saying, you should graduate to a man's watch. Yeah, And then I feel like I shamed him to a point where he eventually sold it. He just sold it, and then he wears his late father's Rolex, which I will point out is a man's watch and much much bigger watch.
I mean in the nineteen forties when Rolex really started like ramping up there. The watch that they made at that time we call like a bubble back because the movement's really thick, so it looks like a bubble on the back. They're really small. The average diameter of a men's watch now, i'd say is about thirty six to thirty eight millimeters. Those are like, you know, like twenty eight thirty really small, and that was like a men's watch everything. I mean, if you look at photos of like Chuck Yeager, the famous pilot, like he wore this little like speed King when he broke the speed record or whatever, and the things like this big.
Best James Bond watch, Daniel Craig's Omega Seamaster three thousand, or Roger Moore's Sako G seven five seven in Octopussy. Please lock in your answer We're.
Getting into a really nerdy territory here. Can I do an other?
Yes? Is it a Rolex?
The other would be the Rolex. It was a sub mariner that Roger Moore wore. Forget which James Bond, but it had like teeth that could cut like a rope when he was tied up. And you know, when Ian Fleming wrote James Bond, it's specifically mentioned Rolex. It changed over the years because of you know, licensing and people wanted to promote things like the Omega tie in was obviously like a licensing deal.
Did that upset you the Omega tie in?
I think it upsetted a lot of people that were about authenticity.
Is that a good watch?
By the way, they're good watches?
Okay, how many watches do you personally own.
My personal collection? I mean I would say maybe like one hundred pieces.
You have a safe.
There are many safes. That's my that's a.
Nerd problem it and it could be PTSD from the wildfires. But like my wife during these last evacuations, we took off up to Santa Barbara and I came back every day and checking the house and she's like, you know, move some stuff down to the guesthouse because that's like a little bunker that we don't want to lose. And I'm walking around the house going I don't know, I don't know what is worth keeping in here. I just couldn't figure it out. So I love that I don't have a watch to care about, Like would you panic in an evacuation, like I need to get all my watches.
I mean, for best practices, I don't really keep any watches at the house. Saying that for the listeners, everything's no, I mean everything's in my offices or like in a bank deposit. Uh huh.
I think that there's a long way to go when you're getting dressed in the morning to go grab your watch. I gotta go swing by the bank to get my swanky cassio that costs six figures.
But when I go to the office, I can just pull, you know, something out of the safe there.
Do you get stressed out when you know you have something so valuable on your wrist?
Sometimes? Yes?
Are you scared of magicians.
Sleight of hand things? I never travel to Europe with a nice watch on my wrist because there's many street magicians there, or those guys in Europe What they do is they have like a little blade here and they just cut the scrap.
They do.
They're always riding on scooters. Never wear a nice watch when you're traveling around.
Europe, say, never write a scooter. I'm like, well that dude, Why are some watch water resistant ratings so high? Are people actually diving a thousand meters?
These are like purpose made things. They have one model of Rolex called the deep Sea And James Cameron, the director.
What else would you be talking about when you said James Cameron.
I mean there's James Cameron, the guy that works at the gas station.
You know, no one wants to hear about his watch.
Yes, Jimmy Cameron, all right, James Jimmy Cameron.
Yeah, yes, Well he's big into everything on.
Like deep sea exploration, Titanic.
What's he wearing?
So he has this one called the deep Sea Challenge.
Okay.
The thing is like this big, it's all almost the size of this cup, and it can go down to like the depth of the Marianna's Trench, which is like the deepest point in the world, which I don't really know if there's people that can prove or disprove that is actually down there, but.
Right dise he to stick his hand out of the little submersible and say, look, it's still working.
Kind of yeah.
Do you know what the most valuable watch in the world is.
It's this pocket watch called the Grave Super Complication. In the early nineteen hundreds, there were these two guys, Henry Graves and Robert Packard Packard I don't remember the first name, and they were both like wealthy industrialists that were constantly trying to one up each other and commissioning overly complicated watches. So the most complicated one was the Henry Graves Super Complication. And the thing is literally like this and like this thick, and it's just I think I don't even know how many but it's got like thirty five twenty seven something a lot of complications. You know, it can calculate where the stars are at nighttimee. It can calculate the sunrise sunset time.
You know it can How do you prove that. I'd just be like, yeah, that's it's calculating where the stars are.
I'm convinced that it never actually worked. But you know, but that's like that's sold at auction several years ago for twenty something million and it's a mystery who bought it. And if that ever came up again, I mean that could be a candidate to be like fifty or one hundred million dollars.
And would you throw your hat into the ring.
I'd be the guy placing one bid for like one hundred thousand, and then when they ask would you like another bid? Ser I'm like, oh no, I'm good.
Where are you on pocket watches?
You know, if I had a monocle, I would probably carry a pocket watch.
But that's too many things hanging in Yeah, talk about how stupid smart watches are. People texting on their ritz? What the fuck?
You know? I love the Apple Watch for its like usefulness, but I never do like the texting or anything on it. You know, it's just to show data like more one way. I guess.
Okay, yeah, So you do you own an Apple Watch?
I do you work quite often?
You have a fancy band for it? Or no?
No, no, I just wear it on. I like the rubber Loop.
Everybody that's on the show gets a gift. It's not exciting though. Usually it's just stuff from my house that I get read. The first thing I'm gonna give you is I've never owned a watch. Okay, but that's not completely true. One time I was performing in Ireland. I was at this kill Kennedy comedy festival. I was with Dom Morrera, this comedy icon, and he was yelling at me. He goes, why don't you have a watch? He's like, it's the only tool we need as comedians. We just need to know how long we've been on stage. It's the one thing we need. And I was like, I don't know, I just never had it. He's like, you buy a watch. And I literally went into one of those dumb what are those things called an international airports a duty free shop in London and I bought a watch and I was like, there, I bought a watch. Dom. He's like, good, it's Gucci. Oh I don't even know they made watches. Anyway. I wore it for a while on stage. But now I want you to have the only watch, oh my gosh, that I've ever really owned.
This is a big responsibility here, Yeah, it is. Thank you.
Oh you're welcome.
You might see this on eBay one day.
It's on eBay tonight. You put that on your auction site. You let me let me know how it does.
It come with a meat and greed experience.
Oh but I mean I can verify that it is my watch, that I bought it at the airport, at the duty free shop and Heathrow.
I will wear this with honor.
All right, get that off. My desk is going to say this is for for your your son. This is cactus water.
Oh my gosh, I don't.
It's yeah, it's so stupid. My wife bought all this cactus water. It's half the sugar of coconut water. My kids fucking hate it. And I'm like, we'll get rid of it. So you're like, well, wants you to throw it away? No, I don't throw it away. During the evacuation, everybody was raising. They said no, you couldn't drink the water for a while. So I'm like, oh shit. Their only water in the house is fucking cactus water. And I was like, this is horrible.
How does it taste? Not all?
It's not my thing, you see, see if you're something like that, Okay, now bring that other thing over for me. This is this is my real gift for your kid. But it's it's oh my gosh, this is a real badle tric. But it's a three in one, meaning that like, right now, the pedals don't move, but you you click this, and then it becomes this steering doesn't work, but like it works with the hand if you do. But if you want the steering work, click it. Oh sorry, I forgot which way there it is. Now it's worked. Then this this comes off, this whole thing. You're gonna love this, kid. You take this off. Bam. Then the handles off. You know, it's just take this thing off. You get it? Hold on? Do this? Yeah, I get this off.
Do I have to pay for the instruction manual?
No?
No, no, you go online, you'll find something. Okay, you take that off, then you take this off. This comes these legs come off. Then it's just a straight tricycle. But it's Bentley. It's Bentley really put it out, and I thought, wow, what kid, if he has a Rolex, he's gonna need this.
I'm honored, Thank you very much. Did your kid grow out of this or he just didn't like it?
Or yeah, no, you grew out of it. Okay, yeah, the oldest one and now the youngest one, she's not going to get an opportunity to ever enjoy it.
I have some small gifts for you.
Well, I don't want them, I know you.
Please finish them by the afternoon.
Oh that's that's my Oh an edible gift.
Yes, yes, gods, these are chocolates that we made.
Why did you make chocolates?
Our loop? This company, our auction company?
You guys get it? Chocolate and expensive watches. What kind of chocolates are there?
It's from this company called Anne Suns that does all the gift boxes for like the Oscars and grand is it liked?
But has it got fancy raspberry shit?
Nancy chocolate?
Well?
I want it to be simple. I like to just the chocolate.
We can pick out the ones. You don't want me to find other people just want you have to peel the stick around.
Don't tell me how to do it. Okay, okay, how many did we get?
There's three boxes and that's good.
That's all I needed. Oh look at this boxing. This is fancy. Oh those are fancy. You guys don't mind real quick?
Do you indulge?
Hmm?
There's THHC in there?
Isn't there?
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm not going to bother me. I'm happy. How long you been married?
Eighteen years?
Why did you wait so long to have a kid because.
I was always stressed out that I was not ready to be a dad. Now it's difficult being that old dad.
I think it's I'm so much older than you, and you say you're an old dad, so that makes me laugh.
How old are your kids?
Five and two?
Okay, so six and two?
I don't know. Hold on, no, I no know all my kids are, but I don't care about how.
Old are you when you've had your first kid? Forty four?
Forty five?
Okay, so I was forty two? Similar, right, just tired?
No, I don't, I don't. I love it. It's so much better be in this age. Are you kidding me? First of all, we don't have to do it as long, you know, but.
Don't know what that means.
You know what it means. It means we don't have to By the time they're horribly problematic, you know, taking our money and shorten whatever stock they think they should do, we're gonna be like whatever, good luck? Do you care about clocks a little bit? You got a grandfather clock at your house?
No grandfather clock?
Now, I grew up with a cuckoo clock, and I guess that's probably one of the few things that I have sentimental associate it with fond memories of childhood. So when I got older, I bought a good cuckoo clock from Germany, and I love that thing. That What I've learned, though, is that if you don't it's in a vacation cottage, and then when I go to visit it, I have to take it apart and.
Wind it, oil it.
I have to oil it a little bit every night. If it sits for too long, that's not good. But man, do I love that cuckoo clock. That might be the only thing I like. This is John's grandfather's World War two watch.
Okay?
How often is your job just people bringing old World War two watches and saying, hey, is this worth anything?
It happens wartime watches are quite collectible. This is an Elgin and I see it has the engravings on the back with the military stock number on it.
How much would you give me right now? And I'll take anything.
A few hundred bucks, I'll take it, okay, sold say by the heirloom.
John, John, he's got two hundred bucks, he's got three kids. He doesn't need this thing. By lunch? Yeah, what do your parents think of your career choice is now that everything has worked out well for you, I.
Mean, now the dust is settled and I'm in my forties. You know, everything kind of worked out and it was great. But you know, to tell my parents, hey, I went to school at Berkeley, I had legitimate jobs, and then I wanted to quit everything and become a watch dealer. That was this kind of a difficult discussion in the beginning.
But now do they all own nice watches.
Yeah, they're all good. They all own nice watches, you know, and everybody's having a good time, all right.
Eric, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for teaching me about watches.
And thanks for having me. I'm gonna cherish this. Yeah, there you go.
I don't know how to do it, Pasha, I want to thank Eric for being on the show and spending some time with us. Carl, you wear a watch. I know you have a fit band. He's supposed to be walking four miles a day. You walk four miles a day. Speaking of someone that doesn't walk enough. My father in law, as you may remember, he's getting both knees replaced, and he had the first one done and I said, hey, send me a video when they're taking the staples out, because they are pretty gruesome. Anyway, he sends me this video and I it's so cringey to listen to. Not you're like, oh, is it gross to watch staples being puld out? No, not at all. That part's fine. He doesn't realize that there's audio when it's recording, and I thought it was a bit at first. He's just talking to this woman about me. She's like an intern or not an intern, who like a college residents that's pulling the staples out. So she's probably nineteen or twenty and she has no clue who I am, which is a little insulting. I'm not gonna lie. I might have to book myself at a nursing school anyway. But he just keeps going on, like, do you know Comedy Central? He was on there for like thirteen years. He did a show is very popular, Just going on.
Do you ever watch You're Too Young? Did you ever watch Comedy Central? No? Okay, have you ever heard of the comedian named Daniel Tosh wes Age? I think You're just too young?
So Tosh was on Tasha is my son in law?
Oh, he was on Comedy Central?
For eleven twelve years with a show called Tosh two point zero.
Okay, this is on TV, yeah, a TV.
Station, okay.
And then it just he just keeps going like, oh, well, now he's a podcast.
Now he has a thing called Tashow, which is his podcast.
At some one point, she's trying to change the conversation and she's like, oh, those are those are nice shoes that you have, and he's like, oh, yeah, my daughter bought me those shoes. She's married to him. It just doesn't.
End like your shoes you got them from the band store.
Those are from my daughter that's married.
To Daniel holy Cat. The guy not one mention of his other kids. He didn't care at all about them. There's no mention of his other daughter or his youngest son who's out in LA just trying to hustle. No mention of his oldest son or his wife. All of this nonsense. Back if it just keeps talking about me, it's so funny to me. Then I played for my wife. I played to Carl. She's just like has her head down, she can't listen to it. Then at one point he goes, oh, no, I think it's recording audio. Oh and He's like, oh, sorry, Daniel, if I'm saying anything, then I shouldn't say about you.
Oh gosh.
I got to make sure the videos. It's a video. I hope there's no sound.
I won't send it to him.
That's why Daniel hope that was offensive.
He doesn't know that video.
I didn't.
There's no video recording. Silently, knucklehead. Anyways, his knee uh doing well, but he's nervous about doing the second one. I'm like, hey, he went this far, just do it all right. Let's get to some plugs here, Tosh showstore dot com. Guys, get some merch. Come on, I told you if I out in the street wearing it, you're gonna get one of these. Eddie's tour check out his website and my tour. Remember that I canceled Lisbon so that I could be in Philly, the Lisbon of the East Coast of America, and then I'm going to Lisbon right after that show. Now it's not for the free plug. Okay, what do we got here? Let's see. Today's free plug goes out to all my crunchy moms out there because it is for childish child dish and it's a brand of safe plates. You get it, all right, child Dish, like, yeah, that's a pretty good name, all right. You won't find plastics, BPA, melamine, or any other endocrine disruption toxins in their products. Easy for me to say. Childish makes functional dinnerware alternatives to keep your children healthy. They're dishwasher and microwaves safe, but are made of lead free suram with FDA approofed silicon is FDA still thing. I feel like the current administration might have chopped that out. They might have they might have got rid of ATA. By the way, I have these dishes in my house for the kids. It says it's designed for children three now, but I let my two year old use it. But she's gifted. The thing about it is they've got, like, you know, this real ceramic plate and they've got some cool graphics on it. But then they have this rubber silicone underneath it so it keeps it from not sliding. But here, wait for it that you take off when you're done eating, put it on top. It's a lid. Put the plate in the refrigerator boom. You're second feeding. You're not having to do a second set of dishes. It's its own little container. That's where they got me. I like that. Now, have I bought a set of it?
No?
No, she gave us two sets for free. But you know now she's getting a free plug. That's how it works. You grease my wheel.
I scratched your back.
By the way, this is founded by two moms. I know one of the moms. She's not she's a good good has a son plays with my son. Her son is just a super athlete the same age as my son. My son can't keep up at all, but he tries, and I'm like, don't worry, buddy. You just keep losing to him. Is gonna build character. He's like, I want to win once. I'm like, nah, winning's no good coming in second. That's where it's at. What they say, a healthy meal starts with a healthy plate. Stop feeding your kids plastic use childish instead. There's a nice plug. Now the next playdate, I'll have something to talk about. See you next week.
