How to Explain A Man and His Watch to Someone Else

A Man and His Watch is Matt Hranek’s narrative hardcover of 76 watches, each photographed and paired with the story of the man who wore it. Artisan published the book on October 31, 2017 under ISBN-13 978-1-57965-714-7 (ISBN-10 1579657141). Hachette Book Group, which now lists the Artisan title, gives a hardcover page count of 216. Elizabeth Doerr’s October 2017 Quill & Pad spec sheet records more than 100 color photographs, paper-over-board binding with a slipcase, a trim of 7 by 11 inches, and a $35 list price. JCK’s November 27, 2017 interview with photographer Stephen Lewis also called it “the $35 book” and reported a second printing within a month of release. Hachette’s current hardcover list is $45.

I learned that sequence at a folding badge table, explaining party games to people who had just signed a guest contract and wanted to know who won before they sat down. A game stalls when the explanation starts with exceptions. This book stalls the same way if you open with Rolex references, auction hammers, or a speech about collecting.

What is the one-sentence win condition for A Man and His Watch?

A Man and His Watch is a testimony album: one watch, one owner, one reason he kept it.

The subtitle on the jacket, Iconic Watches and Stories from the Men Who Wore Them, is the same rule written for a bookstore shelf. Hachette’s jacket copy says Hranek, a watch collector and New York men’s-style editor, gathered firsthand interviews and archive visits for 76 watches, with original photography of every piece. JCK’s Victoria Gomelsky, writing four weeks after publication, counted “nearly 40 men” as the speakers. Some men bring more than one watch. Mario Andretti’s spread, as the Amherst library table of contents lists it, holds four: a 1967 gold Heuer Carrera Pilot, an Orfina Porsche Design, a Fischer Ancre, and a Heuer Autavia.

If the person in front of you wants a catalog of every Rolex reference, you have handed them the wrong box. If they want to know why a maître d’ still wears a Timex that Bill Murray pulled off his own wrist, you are in the right room. I keep that win condition on a dry-erase card. Repeat it before you name a celebrity.

Which numbers should you cite when you describe the book?

Cite the publisher’s count, the catalog page count, the ISBN, the photograph floor, the on-sale date, and both list prices. Name who published each figure.

| Fact | Figure | Who published it | |---|---|---| | Watches profiled | 76 | Hachette / Artisan jacket copy | | Hardcover pages | 216 | Hachette title page; Quill & Pad spec sheet | | Cataloged pages | 215 | Library of Congress record, LCCN 2017004928 | | Photographs | more than 100 color photographs of watches | Quill & Pad spec sheet, October 11, 2017 | | Photographer | Stephen Lewis | Library of Congress catalog; Quill & Pad captions; JCK | | On-sale date | October 31, 2017 | Hachette “On Sale” line; JCK | | ISBN-13 | 978-1-57965-714-7 | Quill & Pad; Hachette; LC catalog | | Trim | 7 × 11 inches (29 cm in the LC record) | Quill & Pad; Worn & Wound; LC | | Binding | paper-over-board with slipcase | Quill & Pad | | 2017 list price | $35 | Quill & Pad; JCK; Worn & Wound, December 21, 2017 | | Current hardcover list | $45 ($57 CAD) | Hachette Book Group title page |

Two page counts sit on the same object, and both are real. Hachette and the contemporaneous watch press count 216. The Library of Congress MARC record, which also credits “photographs by Stephen Lewis” and notes a bibliography and index, describes 215 pages of color illustrations and portraits at 29 cm. Retailers that print 176 pages are echoing the ebook pagination Google Books assigns to the Workman digital file, not the hardcover in the slipcase.

The photograph figure is a floor. Quill & Pad, from a review copy in October 2017, wrote “more than 100 color photographs of watches.” Hachette says every one of the 76 watches received original photography. Allen Farmelo, reviewing the physical book for Worn & Wound that December, described watches floating in black space, strap or bracelet showing, no wrist shots. Analog:Shift later sold a signed poster of Lewis’s work advertised as “80 watches.” That poster is a separate product. The jacket still says 76.

JCK recorded the shoot on a Nikon D800, including Mario Andretti’s house, Geneva, and New York. Gomelsky wrote that the project took two years.

How do you walk someone through a spread without stalling?

Setup first. Exceptions later. I time this on a sand timer because a long preamble is how a table goes quiet.

1. State the win condition before any famous name. “This is a testimony album: one watch, one owner, one reason he kept it.”
2. Open one cheap watch and one expensive watch as a pair, on facing terms. Hranek’s own Sears Winnie the Pooh, which Worn & Wound notes his grandmother gave him in kindergarten, belongs in the same photographic language as John F. Kennedy’s inauguration Omega.
3. Name the three jobs the book will not do: it will not appraise the watch, authenticate a reference, or tell you what to buy next.
4. Hand the book over and let them pick the next spread.

Farmelo’s layout, from the paper copy, is the watch on one side and the owner’s testimony on the other. Stop talking long enough for them to read a paragraph. If they stall on a name, skip the biography. JCK’s favorite, from Lewis, is Dimitri Dimitrov, maître d’ at the Sunset Tower in Los Angeles, wearing a Timex Indiglo that Bill Murray gave him because the dining room was too dark to seat a table.

How is A Man and His Watch different from a market price guide?

A Man and His Watch answers who wore the watch and why it stayed. A market price guide answers what a comparable example was listed for in a given year. People searching this title often want the second job.

The comparison that still holds is Hranek’s hardcover against the 2017 thirty-seventh edition of The Complete Price Guide to Watches, compiled by Tom Engle, Richard E. Gilbert, and Cooksey Shugart. Tinderbox Press released that paperback on March 7, 2017 under ISBN-13 978-0-9829487-6-7. Library records at Link+ and the Michigan eLibrary describe 1,212 pages at 22 cm. The Tinderbox jacket language, reproduced on Google Books, calls it a mini-encyclopedia with over 10,000 watches priced and over 8,000 images, issued independently of any manufacturer.

Five days before Artisan’s on-sale date, Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo sold Paul Newman’s own Rolex “Paul Newman” Daytona, Reference 6239, at Winning Icons in New York. Phillips’ announcement records $17,752,500 with buyer’s premium, a 12-minute bidding war, a room of more than 700 people, and a sale total of $28,875,750.

| Property | A Man and His Watch (2017) | Complete Price Guide to Watches 2017 | Phillips Winning Icons, Oct. 26, 2017 | |---|---|---|---| | Job | Owner testimony plus photographs | Identification and listed values | Realized auction prices | | Watch count | 76 (Hachette jacket) | Over 10,000 priced (Tinderbox jacket) | 49 lots, all sold (Artnet) | | Pictures | More than 100 color photographs (Quill & Pad) | Over 8,000 images (Tinderbox jacket) | Lot photography | | Format | 216-page hardcover in a slipcase | 1,212-page paperback, 22 cm | Live sale plus results | | 2017 cost | $35 list (Quill & Pad, JCK, Worn & Wound) | Dealer paperback; 2017 list unverified here | Newman lot $17,752,500 | | Afterward | Repeat a story | Ballpark a common reference | Cite a hammer |

Stephen Lewis told JCK, “The magic behind this book is that it’s really story driven. It’s not your typical watch porn.” Gear Patrol, in the line Artisan still prints on the jacket, said the book “speaks to the nature of watches as deeply personal items.”

I prefer Hranek for a guest with twenty minutes and a coffee table, Engle-Gilbert-Shugart for a dealer with unidentified pocket watches, and Phillips for a dated hammer. Mixing those three jobs is how a convention table argues about a rule that was never in the box.

Does A Man and His Watch tell you which Rolex is a Holy Grail?

No. The book will show you Rolex watches, including ones collectors nickname as grails, and it will not rank them, price them, or tell you which reference to chase.

Search interest around this title clusters on Rolex and on “Holy Grail” watches because the cover is a Paul Newman Daytona, and because the auction of Newman’s other Daytona landed in the same week as publication.

The auctioned watch is a Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Reference 6239 with an “exotic” dial, the piece that gave the Paul Newman nickname to a family of Daytonas. Phillips dated it to 1968. Forbes, reporting that night, recorded the caseback engraving “Drive Carefully, Me,” a gift from Joanne Woodward, and the 1984 transfer to James Cox. That watch is not the cover.

The cover, as Worn & Wound and the Amherst library preface both describe it, is Newman’s later Model 6263 “Big Red” Daytona, now worn by his daughter Clea. Hachette’s jacket says he wore a Daytona every day for 35 years until his death in 2008, and that Clea wears that timepiece in his memory. Quill & Pad’s review, published two weeks before the Phillips sale, already flagged the distinction: the book photographs the 6263 Clea wears, while another of Newman’s Daytonas was about to go under the hammer.

If someone asks whether the book includes “the” Paul Newman watch, say this: it includes Clea Newman’s 6263. It does not include the 6239 that made $17,752,500. It also will not tell you whether a Daytona in a dealer window is a grail, a redial, or a fair price. Rolex still occupies a large share of the pages. Sir Edmund Hillary’s Oyster Perpetual, worn on the 1953 Everest summit, is on the jacket and in Farmelo’s review. Nas’s Patek Philippe Nautilus Reference 5712R, Ralph Lauren’s Cartier Tank Cintrée from Andy Warhol’s collection, and a Casio G-Shock from Kikuo Ibe sit beside it.

Which two pages should you open first?

Open the cheapest watch you can find and the most famous watch you can find, then stop talking.

Worn & Wound names the pair that already lives in the book: Hranek’s Sears Winnie the Pooh, which his grandmother gave him in kindergarten, against Kennedy’s inauguration Omega, photographed in the same tight, black-ground style. Farmelo also counted two G-Shocks and two Timex Indiglos in the volume. Those cheap watches are the rule applied to plastic.

If the person already knows watches, skip Pooh and open Dimitri’s Indiglo against Sylvester Stallone’s Tiffany-signed Rolex Submariner Reference 1680, the piece Quill & Pad flagged as Stallone’s emotional pick. If they arrived from the Newman news, open Clea’s 6263 and then a watch with no auction headline: Adam Craniotes’s Casio F-7, which Quill & Pad excerpted.

Skip the table of contents tour. The Amherst catalog lists archive visits to Rolex, Cartier, TAG Heuer, Omega, Hermès, and Zenith. Those pages are for people who already collect. Hranek’s preface watch, per that catalog, is his Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust, inherited after his father died when Hranek was 18. Black Bough, from the physical copy, retells the origin: the father bought it to mark the first year of his own business. Use that spread if Pooh feels too cute.

Who should you hand this hardcover to?

Hand it to a watch enthusiast who wants a narrative coffee-table book, or to a guest who has never cared about watches and will not sit for a lecture. Keep it away from anyone whose actual question is “what should I pay.”

Worn & Wound is the field test I trust. Farmelo’s partner, who had banished a gifted watch to a drawer, stopped on McQueen’s Monaco and on Warhol’s Patek Philippe Reference 2503. A dinner guest with “next to zero interest in watches” stopped on Eng Tay’s Panerai 3646. Farmelo’s December 2017 verdict: “A Man & His Watch is a lot of book for $35.00.” He described a die-cut, embossed, foil-printed outer box and thick glossy pages.

I would put this book on a side table the way I put a short-rules card on a badge table: visible, complete in one glance. JCK reported a second printing by November 27, 2017.

Skip it if the person needs serial-number lookup, redial detection, or a Holy Grail shopping sequence. The 2017 Complete Price Guide still does listed values better, even as a dated paperback. Hranek’s later Artisan hardcover A Man & His Car, on sale October 13, 2020 at 240 pages under ISBN-13 978-1-57965-892-2, repeats the testimony format for cars.

I would rather send a collector to a price guide and a civilian to Hranek than try to make one book do both. Two games in one box is how you lose the room.

FAQ

What is A Man and His Watch about?

A Man and His Watch is Matt Hranek’s 2017 Artisan hardcover of owner stories: 76 watches, photographed by Stephen Lewis, each paired with the man who wore it. Hachette’s jacket frames it as interviews plus archive visits, not as a catalog of references or a collecting manual. The through-line is why the watch stayed on the wrist.

How many watches are in A Man and His Watch?

Hachette’s jacket copy, repeated across Artisan listings, counts 76 watches, each with original photography. JCK’s November 2017 interview counted nearly 40 men as the speakers, because some contributors brought more than one watch. Quill & Pad’s spec sheet separately records more than 100 color photographs of watches in the volume.

Is A Man and His Watch a Rolex buying guide?

No. It is a narrative coffee-table book. Rolex pieces appear, including Clea Newman’s Daytona on the cover. The text does not rank references, list market values, or tell you what to purchase. For listed prices in the same year, the 2017 Complete Price Guide to Watches priced over 10,000 watches in a 1,212-page paperback.

Does A Man and His Watch include the Paul Newman Daytona that sold at auction?

No. Phillips sold Newman’s Rolex Daytona Reference 6239 on October 26, 2017 for $17,752,500. The book, on sale five days later, photographs his later Model 6263 “Big Red” Daytona, which Worn & Wound and the library preface identify as the watch his daughter Clea wears. They are not the same object.

When was A Man and His Watch published and what is the ISBN?

Artisan’s hardcover went on sale October 31, 2017, the date Hachette still prints on the title page. The ISBN-13 is 978-1-57965-714-7; the ISBN-10 is 1579657141. The Library of Congress control number is 2017004928. Hachette lists 216 pages; the LC catalog record describes 215.

Should I buy A Man and His Watch or a watch price guide?

Buy A Man and His Watch if you want owner testimony and studio photographs in a 7-by-11-inch slipcased hardcover. Buy a price guide if you need listed values, identification, and grading language. The 2017 Engle, Gilbert, and Shugart paperback did that job with over 10,000 priced watches.