It is often said that one should never meet their heroes. However, Marc met one of his heroes on this podcast and has no regrets about it. Richard's stories about the early days of watches on the internet and his efforts in building a community were truly remarkable. We hope you enjoy this episode! If you’re a watch content creator, and/or attend events and participate in discussions about watches on platforms like Discord or Slack, then you, too, owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Paige.
You can find Richard here on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rpaigewatchco/. Do go say thank you!
Link to our Discord Community: https://discord.gg/3pfhUFPYFD
00:12 – Introduction
00:46 – Wrist Checks
03:42 – Richard Paige’s Bio
06:35 – Richard’s early days – Paris 1925
11:22 – Taking Paris 1925 online - early ‘90s
24:42 – The very first online brand collabs
33:44 – What are WIS, from the man who coined the term!
37:44 – The challenges of running TimeZone.com
46:35 – Herding cats, I mean keeping TZers in check
49:26 – The brands vs. Richard Paige
51:11 – Adding subforums on TZ
53:37 – The next generation
55:47 – Why did he sell TZ, and Marc’s terrible Godfather impression
1:02:25 – Richard’s perspective after the sale
1:07:30 – 11 years between TZ and Rpaige Watch Co.
1:13:14 – The future of large-scale watch production in the USA
1:15:06 – Advice for new watchmakers
1:17:34 – THANK YOU to Richard Paige
1:18:11 – Listener Question
1:24:27 – Goodbyes
1:25:04 – T2C OUT!