Is there something about this new collection of watches that was compelling to you?
Well, the truth is, as soon as they said Seiko Rowing Blazers, I’m like, “I already know it’s going to be good.” And if you go Rowing Blazers, Eric Wind, Seiko, it’s like, “I don’t even need to look at it. I already know it’s going to be great.” And true enough, it is great.
But I think what attracts me is the Seiko heritage, which, in many ways, is very Asian to me. This overachieving, underrated brand. I don’t know if there’s a better analogy for being Asian in America. If you go to the origins of Seiko, they were trying to beat the Swiss watchmaking industry in terms of accuracy. And they succeeded, to the point where they caused the quartz crisis by inventing the quartz movement.
And yet they’re still, in many ways, a little underrated as well when you think about watches. And I’ve had a Seiko since college and recently I got back into more vintage Seiko—the Bruce Lee watch is the best example.
Was there a moment when you became a big watch collector? Did you just have the one in college?
Yeah, I just had a watch, but this goes again to my point about Seiko. If you knew nothing about watches, which is what I knew about watches in college, I still ended up getting a Seiko. If you’re looking for a watch, period, you gravitate towards Seiko. This idea that, “Oh, here’s something you never have to buy a battery for. It’ll recharge on your hand.” And then you start looking for, “Well, I want something with a day and a date for functionality. I want something that’s easy to read. I don’t want something where, if I lose it, it’s going to be prohibitively expensive. I’m going to get mud on it.” Then everything leads you to Seiko.
So that was what drew me to it in college—not knowing anything about watches, just doing basic research the way you would research a blender or a vacuum cleaner. And then you just find the one that everyone thinks is good, and that’s what led me to Seiko.
I wasn’t collecting watches then. But just before the pandemic, I was looking to get a watch because I had been on The Daily Show for a couple years. My wardrobe was getting upgraded, but I was still wearing this watch I got in my early twenties. It just didn’t seem to fit anymore—it didn’t fit what I was doing, what I was about, what I was trying to say. I was looking for something that expressed who I was a little more accurately at that point in life. So I ended up getting another watch, and then one thing led to another. And then the next thing you know you’re watching John Mayer talk about [Audemars Piguet] at 3 a.m. on Hodinkee.