HODINKEE Podcasts The Business of Watches [015] Marathon Watches CEO Mitchell Wein Says He Has To Be Ready For War
This week on The Business of Watches, we head to La Chaux-de-Fonds and sit down with a CEO that running a very different business than most watch brands. Mitchell Wein is the scion of a family that's been in the watch business for more than a century, and the Marathon brand launched back in 1939, supplying timing instruments for the Allied Forces in World War II.
Selling watches, stopwatches, and clocks to governments and military organizations is still the bulk of Marathon's business these days. Wein says 80% of the watches they sell, by volume, are for these kinds of clients. For a company based in Toronto that makes its watches in Switzerland, that comes with a special list of challenges, particularly in the current geopolitical landscape, where conflicts are heightening, and more trade barriers are being erected. Marathon notably supplied the U.S. military with field watches during the Gulf War way back in the early 1990s, and even today, Wein says the company always has to be ready for a potential war and a potential big order from a military looking to outfit its soldiers with a watch able to withstand the rigors of modern armed conflict.
But first, we're joined by another Canadian from the wide world of watches. Hodinkee Editor-in-Chief, James Stacey, drops in to talk about a recent trip to Japan and the launch of the Louis Vuitton X De Bethune LVDB-03 Louis Varius Project, a very exclusive travel watch that, if you're in the right price bracket, comes with a Sympathique clock that serves as a docking station to wind and set the watch.
Show Notes:
2:04 Introducing The Louis Vuitton X De Bethune LVDB-03 Louis Varius Project (Hodinkee)
5:16 Denis Flageollet
6:40 F.P. Journe Reveals Why He Paid More Than $6 Million For A Breguet Clock He Designed
9:30 Hands-On: The DB25 Starry Varius (Hodinkee)
13:02 Travels With A Marathon Watch In Search Of Adventure (Cole Pennington, Hodinkee)
13:40 The Marathon Navigator – Now With A Steel Case! (Hodinkee)
14:30 Marathon X Jeep
18:00 Marathon Our Story (Marathon)
26:00 Comparison of Marathon Navigator Steel vs. Plastic (You're Terrific YouTube)
30:02 Doxa
34:15 Marathon Limited Edition ADANAC Stainless Steel Navigator Pilot's Automatic
40:05 Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Following a Nuclear Detonation (U.S. Dept. Health and Human Services)
42:16 IntroducingThe Marathon Navigator 'Blue Yonder' Limited Edition (Hodinkee)
48:11 NATO Stock Numbers (Wikipedia)
1:02:30 Robertson Screw (Wikipedia)
1:10:12 Marathon Clocks (Amazon)