Breitling relaunches Gallet on September 3rd. Openwork hosts Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin unpack Georges Kern's play: chronographs at 3,000–5,000 CHF, an exploration story aimed at Bremont, Longines, and Tudor, sold in Breitling boutiques. Plus Universal Genève and Breitling's return to Watches & Wonders.

Then a listener question: how has working in the industry changed our collecting? It starts with selling nearly everything to help fund Collective Horology — what survived, what still stings (the Urwerk collaboration, the MB&F LM101, the Lange Odysseus), and rebuilding from an empty watch box.

What came back is different: neo-vintage tool watches, Holthinrichs, Ming, Singer. Buying on the merits instead of the hype, why an Aquanaut lands differently outside collector context, and the freedom that comes from retailing independent watches.

Openwork is a weekly podcast about how the watch industry actually works. An unfiltered look behind the scenes — no press releases, no hype, and no sponsored takes. Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email podcast@collectivehorology.com.

In Episode 90 of Openwork, Collective Horology co-founders Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin reveal that they've sued the U.S. federal government over the tariffs squeezing the watch industry and small businesses nationwide. They explain why they joined the suit alongside co-plaintiff Burlap Barrel, how the latest Section 301 tariffs continue to limit access to independent watches, and why it's the volatility of trade policy — not just the cost — that makes it so hard for small businesses to plan and grow.

The guys then dig into the numbers: the latest Swiss watch export data (up more than 11% year over year in June 2026, with the U.S. driving growth as China slides), the "bullwhip effect" tariffs are having on imports, and fresh quarterly earnings from Richemont, Swatch Group, and LVMH — where jewelry is powering the luxury recovery while watchmaking hangs tougher.

Finally, they turn to the shifting Rolex and pre-owned market, where Rolex's share of secondary-market value has hit a seven-year low even as its Certified Pre-Owned program grows into a juggernaut. They close on the retail arms race reshaping the industry — Bucherer's giant new Rolex flagship in New York, fresh boutiques nationwide, and what the rise of big-box players like Watches of Switzerland and the 1916 Company means for family-owned dealers.

Openwork is a weekly podcast about how the watch industry actually works. An unfiltered look behind the scenes — no press releases, no hype, and no sponsored takes. Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email podcast@collectivehorology.com.

A quick news note: On Friday, July 24, Collective, along with New York spice importer Burlap & Barrel, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade challenging the federal government's latest Section 301 tariffs. We'll dig into the details on our next episode. In the meantime, you can read more here.

On this episode of Openwork, Gabe Reilly and Asher Rapkin talk with Karel Bachand, founder and chief engineer of Barrelhand, the San Francisco brand rethinking American watchmaking. Karel reverse-engineered an Urwerk as a teenager and cut his teeth on microgravity devices at NASA Ames before building Monolith — a mechanical watch designed from first principles as an aerospace tool, and one that couldn't be made in Switzerland.

The conversation digs into the question the industry avoids: after sixty years of luxury and heritage, what does a watch brand look like when it picks substance over story? Karel breaks down building an American supply chain from scratch, why decentralized manufacturing beats bringing it all in-house, and why a mechanical movement — not quartz or digital — is the right call for the harsh reality of a spacewalk.

It's also a frank take on collector blind spots, like the assumption that a modified Sellita movement is a cop-out instead of a deliberate, reliability-driven choice, and on growing the independent watch community by drawing in people from outside it. Explore Karel's work at barrelhand.com.

Openwork is a weekly podcast about how the watch industry actually works. An unfiltered look behind the scenes — no press releases, no hype, and no sponsored takes. Hosted by Asher Rapkin and Gabe Reilly, co-founders of Collective Horology. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find us online at collectivehorology.com. To get in touch with suggestions, feedback or questions, email podcast@collectivehorology.com.