Welcome to the business of watches, the Houdincki podcast where Herology meets high finance,

and we go behind the scenes to talk to the executives at the heart of the watch industry.

This week, we're connecting remotely to the United Kingdom to talk to the head of the biggest

watch brand in the UK, Christopher Ward.

Mike France is the co-founder of Christopher Ward and the CEO.

We talk about the brand, which is kind of a 20-year overnight success story, and we focus

on a surprising part of the growth ambitions for the brand in the U.S. retail, or rather Christopher Ward's unique way

of doing retail, which is by appointment showrooms. They've just opened a boutique in Chicago,

and there is plenty more to come. But first, I'm joined by my colleague, Senior Hodinky editor,

Mark Kozlerich, and we are going to talk about the

Royal Pop, the collaboration between Odomar P. Gay and Swatch.

Mark Kozlerich, senior editor at Houdinke, who happens to be in Switzerland right now, and we had dinner

last night. Mark, welcome to the business of watches. How are you? Great. I'm looking forward to

turning this into a more cuisine-focused podcast, and we can recap our dinner. But maybe we'll do that

after we talk about some watches. Indeed, we will.

And so it is Monday, the 18th of May, and I went over to the swatch boutique on L'Odermache here this morning, and they were open again.

And at 10 a.m., they were selling more Royal Pop, the Otomar Pigay by Swatch collaborations.

Obviously, we saw the launch over the weekend.

You've had a chance to go hands-on with these pocket watches, this collab between Odomar Pige and Swatch.

First, you know, let's talk about the product.

You've handled that you're a pocket watch guy or the pocket watch advocate, I think,

is what we say here at Houdinke.

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