Talking Watches With Keegan Allen

today we're in Los Angeles to talk to a photographer a poet and an actor who you may know from the hit TV show Pretty Little Liars he's also a watch collector his name is Keegan Allen and today we're talking watches Keegan Allen welcome to talking watches thank you this is this is a big deal for us you know we've known each other for a little while and I know you've been a fan of the site for a little while as well a huge fan of the site in fact I've seen every single talking watches multiple times and have been waiting for this moment in fact I think I got my entire collection just so I could you talking about yes so let's start with this guy down here is this your first watch technically yes it's my first watch that I got I got into watches in a really unconventional way my family sort of always used watches as a utility like as a tool in fact my dad had a 1680 okay and he would go we'd go fly fishing all the time sure and so he would be like okay well let's take 45 minutes let's hit the stream and he would go right and we'd be like all right we got 45 minutes and I always used to be like what are you doing how is that possible and he would treat this watch like an egg timer it was any time yeah and what was so amazing about that is we would be fly-fishing whatever and like some friend would come up and be like hey what's up Phil and they'd be like oh man that's such a beautiful watch I'd be like what is he why what is the functionality to it so that was my first introduction to watches the reason I got the Mickey Mouse watch first was my uncle who could have any watch in the entire world his watch collection was insane he only wore a Mickey Mouse watch no affiliation to Disney but he would always tell me and stress to me how important it was that he never take himself too seriously and so from that he gave me went and get gave me this as my first watch I had an an interest in time I had an interest in her ology and interest in nice things but I never really understood what it was to own a nice watch so this to me was so technologically advanced that was like his arms are moving and sweeping the has the times going but I loved it and it became kind of like a staple of me I would walk around into a room and people said a Mickey Mouse much and I go yes it is my subtle reminder not to take myself too seriously but where it took me was my manager Conrad who I very much respect and look up to he always he had a red 1680 my dad had a red 1680 and they do everything it yeah go fly-fishing catch a fish yeah pull it out of the water and there it is and it was I have I love the water I love going in the water and all this stuff so I was like wow that watch can do anything it's bulletproof it's an egg timer it's it's a it's efficient so that was my my new obsession and how long did it take you to acquire the the 1680 a long long little while so my dad ended up having a 1680 pretty much his entire life yeah and then ten years before he passed away or 15 years maybe he sold his 1680 and bought this tag now interesting every single watch person in the world is going to cringe at that but the beauty of it is my dad never regretted it he wore this watch did everything in it night as you can see by like just the the patina on it the usage of it the dial everything about it is is just it's him it's him embedded into this watch so I love this watch and I wear it sometimes because it's it's a sentimental piece I remember I would I would sometimes be like hey Dad can I wear your watch and I remember the feeling of like the the chain I can hear it I can hear him how I got this was kind of funny we both know John Mayer he's an amazing musician but he's also kind of the go to her ology he's you know Lord as you will and I remember seeing his articles of like what are the best vintage watches divine because I read all these articles I've been reading her Dinky since the beginning of time to me okay the beginning of time no pun intended and I think I was like hey man can I get can I get your opinion on where to get a 1680 and he wrote back I think exactly hey now those are very easy to find let me point you in the direction and he pointed me in the direction of Erik ku and my friends over la watch works really elevated it with the little because I really loved the sea-dweller look yeah but I wanted to see that beautiful it's just the dial is just so beautiful on it and I recently lost the pearl I was open water swimming and I was getting on to the boat that we were swimming off of and I went and I went oh like but nothing had happened just the pearl fell out you actually use your vintage Submariner swimming I do okay I do I know everybody would and here's the other spooky thing is that I think that the gaskets I know that this watertight because bo and NV at La watch works test all my watches periodically cuz I'm kidding neurotic about because I just go in the water with motor these watches so tell me about the the white gold GMT so I've had an obsession with this watch since it came out at Baselworld in 2014 obviously a lot of people were excited but a lot of people were disappointed that it wasn't in stainless steel I happen to kind of love that when you look at it next to stainless steel you can see the difference in the precious metal really the heft of the watch also is so noticeable and yes you wear white gold watch with this kind of just the pizazz of it and nobody knows that it's what it is it's just it's hidden it's beautiful and it's functional I love GM teas because I travel all the time sure and yeah it's great I do something really weird I want to ask you if you do it okay you ever sleep with your watches on uh no I don't unless I'm in like a really strange place where I feel like I have to get up really quickly like that might happen so you put it on the nightstand in you I did you leave it I sometimes will sleep with my watch on because it helps me fall asleep I sleep with it on my ear and I love the sound of you can hear it as it's this chime and it puts me to sleep like that okay yeah I know that's really weird but it's something that I do love about it and you have another vintage GMT right next to it I do I have something that we have we have discussed at length about the blueberry 1675 with the red GMT hand it's a watch that is shrouded in mystery indeed I've heard you know all of the blue bezels were from the UAE Air Force and they all burned down in this factory and some guy grabbed 200 of them 208 of them and ran out and got away and you know you see these watches show up on antiquorum or you see them on eBay or you see them all over and they have these huge premiums and you can never tell if they're real right but there are ways to tell that it's real if you pop off the bezel there's a tiny little pinhole and it's exactly in a specific spot where you can tell that it's real also there's almost a glow and the two has a specific hook to it now I don't know if any of like over the years the counterfeits have been become better I just know that by the seller I bought it from Eric ooh I trust area with my life and he and he believes it to be true that's the thing I mean there's been so many examples of things like this we're like the universe decided it wasn't real and then all of a sudden we decided it was real right and anything is possible with vintage Rolex as we know and so we see a bunch of Rolexes and then something that looks like a Rolex but it's not a Rolex yes it's a giver we'll try back in it's an it's an early serial number it's an 18 out of 500 and it's a panda and it is not a Paul Newman Daytona but the beauty of it is that I can feel like I'm wearing a quarter of a million dollar watch without worrying about wearing a quarter million dollar watch now is that in essence paying homage to it maybe is that in essence completely the opposite of what you should be doing as a watch collector maybe but I enjoy it so much because as I believe that I've read somewhere in the depths of hidden key it is the ultimate curiosity piece but the the construction of this watch I mean all kidding aside that the construction of this watch is beautiful it's kind of amazing actually it's it's just incredible I realized when I bought this I was like that's it I'm deep into it now okay bye bye nano Maj piece to a daytona apollo newman daytona and only people that know what it is know what it is and I've had people beeline it to me across a grocery store I was at Whole Foods once wearing this and someone shot across the aisle and they went is that at Paul Newman Daytona and they couldn't even tell from here and I was like might could be but I but no i but i but i what i love is that that conversation starts and i go no but this is tell me about this guy here this watched my mom bought from my dad in 70s and then when he passed away we found this watch in a block box and I didn't know anything about it it's a little bit too small for me to wear but what's really great about it is I took it in to Tiffany's to just get serviced they were hey can we buy it from you seriously yeah and I was just like no I will never sell it to you I don't have any interest in selling it and then I was a little curious to like why yeah and they explained to me that these were all like little do you like little nothing watches back then but because there there's none in this kind of condition and it's an interesting piece and I never will wear it I just don't wear it it's it's one of those like you stock and then you rock okay and I always keep this one away just to kind of look at it sometimes it was your father's it's my dad's watch and believe it not he only wore it during like very special occasions and it looked 80 bitty on his wrist and he didn't care but he just loved it because my mom gave it to him and it was you know it was like there's there's the the sentimentality of a beautiful gift that my mom like saved up years and got him a Tiffany watch you know when I get to like this Squatch okay I got the 5160 for a sure it was definitely my Grail watch yeah okay obsessed with it when it came out in 2011 if I was to build my perfect watch it would be the paddock Aquanaut all these watches are pretty much bulletproof yeah this one is is made for my life so much so that when I get off a plane and I'm in New York I just press it three times and I'm in New York and I love all the functionality of it it's so clear diode looks like the world it's beautiful there's an anti-reflective coating on the glass which just makes it even cooler yeah they thought of everything when they design this they really did it's amazing that all these watches fit into your life which is really kind of a varied existence right I mean you're an actor obviously you're a photographer yes you're a poet yeah so you're kind of all over the place so tell me a little bit about what you do outside of today you know outside of what we're doing right here well not to not to be to like not to pontificate the idea of time yeah but time plays a huge part in my career on all aspects I'm a photographer but I'm an actor first and foremost and being an actor you have to understand time you know I could say is like this is just justifying your sick obsession of watching which it may or may not be but my second book comes out April 24th basic it's it's called Hollywood it's a book of photographs that I've been working on for five years at this point I wanted to show a city a town an idea of somewhere where I grew up my entire life but through my eyes but in a way that doesn't dictate how to look at it it's just what I think it is and we all have these forever lands we all have these places in our mind that are golden backdrops that are beautiful like beatific sky is a wonderful moments and I think that's so thrilling to share that with people like to open that up and give them inspiration to share their moments as well and the last question we have to ask the holy grail oh man what do you need okay so it's it's two watches and we thought about this oh I thought about it if I could pick a watch right now it would be a 57:11 a nautilus I think that that's just the perfect sport watch for every occasion that and obviously all all jokes aside cover your ears a real Paul Newman Daytona yeah be my it would be my you know watch oh I would totally do it but it like an like an RC Oh like a real proper proper you know we don't want to put it on because you're scared of like you need to insure your life for it it's something that you find something that you can appreciate and I put it on my wrist and it's almost as if I feel like I've created it I didn't but I can appreciate it I can appreciate what the brand did and all the hands that were involved all the years of study that someone went through to create what was on my wrist and for that reason I feel like I have all of the Grails I could ever want but the hunt always will continue you

Channel: Hodinkee

Views: 407,770

Rating: 4.8620129 out of 5

Keywords: HODINKEE, HODINKEE Talking Watches, Talking Watches with Keegan Allen, Keegan Allen, Pretty Little Liars, Toby Cavanaugh, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Tiffany, Celebrity Watch Collection, Keegan Allen Hollywood, Tag Heuer

Id: xVAaURP3_9c

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 23 2018