These days, watch enthusiasts are spoiled for choice when it comes to quality watch channels on YouTube. To say there’s something for everyone may sound like a cliché, but it’s a true one in this case. Looking for a specific combination of personalities, show formats, styles, and price points? We’ve got it all and more.
Having said that, Simon Ryan’s Escapement24 channel has stood out from the crowd. We can’t quite articulate why we are drawn to the only host of a watch show who overcame stiff competition from a plumber, but we have a few theories. Of course, it helps that Simon is clearly a Formula 1 fan. Perhaps it’s also our shared penchant for dad jokes, or that we’re both too old and out of touch to know what Kith was prior to May of 2024. Or most crucially, also having the same wrist size as baby ants. The fact that Simon was the first watch industry professional to reach out and say hello certainly doesn’t hurt, either.
If running a popular and entertaining YouTube channel is all that Simon set out to do in the watch world, that alone is already quite the dream achievement. His interview pieces boast an impressive list of industry rock stars including George Bamford, Sylvain Berneron, Max Bsser, Andrew McUtchen, and Robin Swithinbank, just to name a few. However, he was just warming up. In 2025, Simon also announced the revival of MONCEAU, a once respected Swiss watch brand that had likely fallen victim to the quartz crisis. The first offering, the Model 01, was even designed by Simon himself. As it turned out, he would also be the first brand founder and watch designer we have ever communicated with.
Despite the busy schedule that comes with making horological history, Simon has kindly taken the time to share some great stories and insights with us. In addition to talking F1 and motorsports, we also learned about his classified childhood memories concerning watches, his musical background, and the string of setbacks that led to reviving a watch brand. In a nutshell, never a dull moment. Thanks, Simon!
Grand Prix Watches: Let’s get a couple of low hanging fruit questions out of the way: What are your favorite early memories about motorsport, and about watches?
Simon Ryan: Motorsport has always been present in my life, although it took many years for me to appreciate it. As a child I remember we used to visit relatives in London several times a year and my uncle used to watch Formula 1 religiously. I was probably around 6 or 7 years old at the time, and I can clearly remember all the men of the family would gather around the TV at my uncle and aunt’s house to watch races on a Sunday afternoon. I’d love to say that this is where my love of F1 comes from, but the truth is at the time I found it thoroughly boring and it used to feel like the races were at least 15 hours long! Now, as a father of two young children, neither of whom have any interest in motorsport, I have to remind myself how I felt about watching F1 when I was their age and try not to be disheartened when they won’t watch Grand Prix with me!
As I got older and in my late teens, I became good friends with a neighbour who used to race motorbikes. He was a lot older than me and came from a family of racers – one of his brothers had competed against Barry Sheene in the 1980s. I went with him to watch several races at circuits like Cadwell Park and Oulton Park in England, and this really fuelled my interest in motorsport. A few years later I had my first opportunity to go to Le Mans for the 24 hour race and that experience has always stayed with me. I’ll never forget being trackside at the Porsche Curves at Le Mans in the middle of the night, watching cars like the McLaren F1 GTR. You were so close to the cars and it was such a sensory experience – the sounds, the smell and seeing the brake discs glowing red hot as they braked in to the corners was incredible. I was lucky enough to go to Le Mans again in 2018 and while I’ve also been to F1 races in Barcelona and Abu Dhabi, nothing compares to Le Mans.
In my work life, most of which has been spent in branding and marketing, I’ve had a few projects that have brought me close to motorsport. In 2013 I helped a client to negotiate a sponsorship deal with a race team which is still owned by McLaren F1 CEO, Zak Brown. After one of the initial meetings we were given an opportunity to see Zak’s private collection of historic F1 cars. It included James Hunt’s 1977 McLaren in the iconic red and white Marlboro livery, Ayrton Senna’s Lotus in the black and gold John Player Special livery from 1986 and the Benetton B191 in which Michael Schumacher achieved his first two podium finishes.
My earliest memories of watches come from my father, although it’s not your usual story as he was never all that interested in watches himself, but it turned out he found them very useful in his work. As part of his business, he’d frequently travel to Eastern Europe – usually by car, taking the ferry from the UK, and he would often be away for several weeks at a time. This was in the late 70’s and early 80s, long before cellphones and email, so we would sometimes go weeks without seeing him. However, during the school holidays he would often combine his business trips with our family holidays. While packing the car for one of these trips I remember seeing him put a small box of digital watches on top of our luggage. When I asked him what they were for, he told me that if any of the border guards stopped us when crossing between countries in Eastern Europe and wanted to search the car, he’d offer them one of the watches and they’d let us through without further enquiries. Apparently, it never failed.
It was only later in life that I realised that my Dad actually had an unusual career, to say the least! He’s now in his 90s and doesn’t speak about his former work much, but from what he has shared, my brothers and I have been able to deduce that he was involved with the intelligence services – as an asset or an agent – for much of the Cold War period. He has a great story about being at a meeting in Kuwait with Saddam Hussain’s right hand man in 1982. I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you….
GPW: When the first TAG Heuer Formula 1 launched, you were focused on buying guitars. Your YouTube intro music also includes a large and well-curated variety of genres. What does your relationship with music look like, and were you able to tell by ear that the Bel Canto chimes in the key of D?
Simon: Music is one of my other loves. Sadly, I was never good enough at guitar to be the next Eddie Van Halen!
I’ve got a really broad taste in music and like most people I’ve gone through a few different phases! I grew up with two older brothers so the soundtrack to my childhood was the music they listened to at home – which was mainly a mixture of The Jam, U2, Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran. In my teens and when I began learning guitar I got heavily in to Clapton and Hendrix, as well as the music of Dire Straits. During my 20s and 30s it was acid jazz, rap and R&B – everything from Jamiroquai to Jay-Z!
I’ve got to confess that I read about the Bel Canto’s chime being tuned to the note of D before I’d ever heard it. Would I have known by ear? Not sure. As a guitarist you tend to be more familiar with the note of E as you spend so much time tuning all the strings from the high E!
GPW: As watch enthusiasts, what do you feel is something we focus way too much on, and what is one thing we often overlook?
Simon: This is actually two separate questions but for me the answer to both of these is very much related.
The whole snobbery around automatic movements being better than quartz is something I always find to be a real paradox. We obsess about accuracy and love it when brands like Omega and Tudor launch new models that are METAS certified because “it’s a waayy higher standard than COSC”, and yet your average $50 quartz watch is probably going to lose less time over a month!
I understand why many people like automatic or hand-winding mechanical movements – there’s something very romantic about the complexity of a mechanical movement and how it can run and keep time with the only input being the movement of your wrist or a few turns of the crown. And seeing a seconds hand sweep smoothly around a dial is just more satisfying to watch somehow than the sedentary, one-tick-per-second of most quartz watches.
However, for me one of the most overlooked or underrated technologies in watchmaking is the 262kHz quartz movement used by Bulova. It was developed by Miyota, a movement manufacturer which – along with Bulova – is part of the Citizen group. Bulova often refer to it as the “Precisionist” and it’s been used in models such as the Lunar Pilot.
The reason it’s special is that it’s a battery-powered quartz movement that vibrates at 262,144Hz rather than the standard 32,768Hz that most quartz movements oscillate at. The result is a sweeping seconds hand that’s as smooth as any Rolex, yet with the accuracy of a thermally-compensated quartz movement. I’ve heard reports that watches with this movement typically lose less than 10 seconds a year.
The drawback is that the chronograph version of the Precisionist movement was very large and so until recently at least, when I assume Citizen/Miyota found a way to reduce the size, watches that used it needed a case size of at least 45mm – which is far too big for my skinny wrists! Now, the newer and smaller version of the 262kHz movement has allowed the case of the updated Lunar Pilot to come down in size to 43.5mm, and a three-hand version of the same movement is used in the 40mm Bulova Jet Star, released in 2023.
GPW: What do you consider to be the perfect gateway drug watch for bare-wristed motorsport fans, and why?
Simon: I think there’s an intrinsic link between watches and cars. Probably because both are mechanical “machines”, but it’s rare to find a watch enthusiast or collector that isn’t also a petrolhead! There are some great motorsport-themed watches out there at almost every price point, from things like the Tissot T-Race at the budget end of the scale, right through to Richard Mille for those who can practically afford to buy their own F1 team!
For me, the brand that will always be associated with motorsport (at least on four wheels), is TAG Heuer. I love the story of how Jack Heuer – a true marketing genius – found success with the Monaco by signing F1 driver Jo Siffert as the first ever sporting brand ambassador, and by finding a way for the watch to be featured on the silver screen in the Steve McQueen movie, Le Mans.
While I was super excited for the re-issue of the original TAG Heuer Formula 1 series and really hoped these would be the perfect wallet-friendly gateway in to motorsport watches, I’m disappointed that they aren’t a little more affordably priced.
Given that, my recommendation would be to look at older, pre-owned models. Prices of the original Formula 1 models have spiked since the Kith re-issue was launched last year, but I recently picked up a TAG Heuer Kirium Formula 1 Chronograph from 1999 for the equivalent of a few hundred dollars. It has a stainless steel case and bracelet, and an ‘ana-digi’ display. While the styling is very much of the era, I think it will soon come back in vogue and the design language isn’t too dissimilar to one of the most highly-respected British microbrand watches of recent years, the Arken Alterium.
Speaking of microbrands, that’s another place to look for affordable motorsport-inspired watches. Atelier Jalaper is a Belgian microbrand with models that are not only inspired by iconic cars of the road and track, but some actually use recycled materials from cars like the Lamborghini Miura. Autodromo is another microbrand that draws influence from motorsport, from open wheel racing to Group-B rallye.
GPW: You have interviewed a large number of respected folks in the watch industry. What were some moments from your conversations that have surprised or inspired you the most?
Simon: When planning interviews, I always try to find guests who I feel I can really learn something from or who I think will have an interesting story. These interview episodes are really designed to be more about the person than the brands or products they represent – I want to know what drives them, how they deal with the difficult times or situations and what makes them get out of bed in the morning. That’s why I started calling this series of videos “What Makes You Tick?”.
There have been many surprising and memorable moments. When I interviewed Max Büsser I was immediately struck by how humble and open he is. I really wasn’t expecting someone with his ‘God-like’ stature in the industry to be so honest about the struggles he has had and just how close he came to failure when trying to establish MB&F. We spoke for a long time off-camera as well as during the filming that made the edit, and we remain in contact. I’ve turned to him many times for advice with my project to revive the MONCEAU watch brand, which is something I’ve been working on for more than a year and a half now and which will finally take place in June of 2025 with the launch of the Model 01. Max has been incredibly helpful and supportive with this project, but a real testament to his character is that on the morning of my 50th birthday last August, the first message I received with birthday wishes was from him.
Sylvain Berneron is another past interview guest who shares many of the same character traits as Max, and he is one of the rising stars of independent watchmaking. He and I became friends almost a year before I managed to pin down a date to record our interview, and while he is always very open and transparent during our regular WhatsApp conversations, I was surprised that he was happy to be just as open on camera during our interview. He was very honest about the challenges he has faced with bringing his first watch to market – the Mirage – as well as how shocked he was to win the GPHG award for it last year.
The conversations I’ve had with both of these guys have been hugely inspiring for me, and their passion and focus is incredible.
GPW: Max Büsser spoke with you about the difference between slapping logos together to create some buzz, versus two companies making something they wouldn’t be able to do on their own. Do any motorsport watches stand out to you as strong examples of the latter?
Simon: Over recent decades there has been a huge number of collaborations between motorsport teams and watch brands, usually in recognition of the partnerships they’ve formed on the back of sponsorship deals. But very few of these (that I’m aware of) seem to have resulted in watches where the motorsport side of this partnership has had any more involvement than ensuring its colours or logo are prominently featured. I think this is a real shame, particularly as some of the greatest engineering minds are employed in motorsport and I think they could bring a lot to the table when it comes to watch design.
However, a few collaborations come to mind where car brands and watch brands have brought their respective design teams together to develop the mechanical aspects, as well as the aesthetics.
A great example of this is the LaFerrari MP-05, a watch launched by Hublot in partnership with Ferrari to coincide with the debut of the iconic car brand’s LaFerrari hypercar in 2013. Ferrari’s designers and engineers played a pivotal role in the design and development of the watch, and the result is pure mechanical art.
Under the curved sapphire crystal the movement has 11 mainspring barrels arranged in a row which give the watch its insane 50 day power reserve. Together with rollers to display the hours, minutes and the remaining power reserve, as well as a vertical tourbillon mounted at the end of them, it gives the impression of looking in to the engine bay of a Ferrari.
GPW: If you were to create a highlight reel of motorsport history, what are some moments you would definitely include in your edit?
Simon: I guess it depends how far back you could go. In my lifetime, the big moments that come to mind – and they’re all in Formula 1 – are Niki Lauda’s championship battle with James Hunt in 1976 and his life-changing accident at the Nürburgring in that year; Nigel Mansell pushing his car over the finish line at the US Grand Prix in Dallas in ’84; Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost going wheel to wheel in identical cars in the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, which culminated in them colliding and taking each other out of the race, for which Senna was disqualified; Senna’s fatal accident at Imola in 1994, which I vividly remember watching live on TV; Lewis Hamilton narrowly clinching the Championship at Interlagos in 2008 while Ferrari driver Felipe Massa thought he had won the title; BrawnGP rising from the ashes of the Honda Formula 1 Team in 2009 and Jenson Button winning the Drivers’ Championship that year – a story even Hollywood couldn’t write; Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber battling throughout the 2010 season and crashing in to each other at the Turkish Grand Prix of that year, and finally, Jenson Button winning the Canadian Grand Prix for McLaren in 2011 with an incredible drive in the wet.
GPW: If you don’t mind, I’m going to briefly mention a different “Simon”: In his book Start With Why, Simon Sinek explores the idea that people are often most drawn to the “why” behind a brand. The “what” and “how” of MONCEAU have been presented in spectacular fashion. What is the “why” that inspired the brand’s revival, and how do you hope it resonates with customers?
Simon: It wouldn’t be accurate to say that I’ve always dreamed about launching a watch brand, but like many watch enthusiasts the thought of designing a watch had crossed my mind more than once over the years.
When you have a creative side – in my case I’d trained as a graphic designer and spent most of my career in the creative industries – that inner voice that says “why not design a watch?” can become hard to ignore! Still, I’d managed to dismiss the idea several times until one day in late 2023. At the time, the business that my wife and I had built successfully over ten years began to run in to some serious difficulties and we were both starting to think about what we’d do next if the challenges we were facing became insurmountable.
At this point I had been doing YouTube for just over a year and had met some incredible people in the watch industry, from award-winning designers to CEOs of major brands, as well as a number of microbrand owners. The realisation came to me that I now had most of the key ingredients required for launching a watch brand: the creative background to visualise my ideas; the experience of bringing brands to market from my career in marketing; a decade of working with global supply chain partners from the business my wife and I were running at the time, and now a network of contacts in the watch industry whose knowledge and experience I could draw on.
Around the same time as I began sketching my first ideas for what has ultimately become the Model 01, I was also developing a keen passion for vintage watches from the 1960s and 70s. One day while browsing eBay I came across a very cool looking watch from the 1960s from a Swiss brand that I wasn’t familiar with. The name on the dial was MONCEAU.
I fell down a bit of a rabbit hole in the following weeks trying to find out as much as I could about the company and more examples of models from their back catalogue, but I could only find a very limited amount of information and the brand seemed to be a bit of an enigma, quietly disappearing around the mid 1980s. I developed a growing determination to bring this once-famous watchmaking brand back to life. As my designs have evolved, some of the details and design language from original MONCEAU integrated bracelet designs have found their way in to the Model 01.
However, while I love the idea of resurrecting a brand from the past I don’t want to simply make modern carbon copies of old or vintage designs in the way that so many brands do. Through my designs I hope to envision what I think the brand might be producing today if it hadn’t ceased production in the 1980s.
And as someone who reviews watches on YouTube, it has been incredibly important to me that MONCEAU watches are not only great designs, but that they offer a high specification and are beautifully made. I simply couldn’t put my name to a product that I don’t believe in or doesn’t compare favourably with similarly priced models from other brands.
The quality of the components and the finishing are also of a very high standard and as MONCEAU was originally a Swiss brand, I felt it was important to carry on that tradition and use Swiss manufacturing partners for the Model 01 and all future MONCEAU models.
It was nerve-wracking when I posted the first images of the Model 01 on Instagram and unveiled it to the world, even though at the time I hadn’t made any mention that I was behind the brand. However, I’ve been overwhelmed by the feedback I’ve had ahead of the launch in June and I really hope that the watch community shares my vision for bringing the MONCEAU name back to watchmaking and wants to come on this journey with me.
I’d love it if in years to come, those who order a Model 01 at launch can look back with pride and say that they were there at the brand’s new beginning.
GPW: Given your background in running successful businesses, you must be well acquainted with setbacks. What accomplishments are you immensely proud of, that in hindsight would have been impossible without past obstacles or detours?
Simon: I’ve had my fair share of setbacks over the years – it’s part of life and definitely part of running a business. You can never plan for the unexpected but you have to learn not to dwell on the problems or mistakes, and find a way to pivot or adapt to overcome whatever challenge you’re facing.
Designing and creating my first watch – the appropriately named Model 01 – is by far the most difficult thing I’ve ever done. Working at such a small scale takes some getting used to. As my good friend Sylvain Berneron very accurately explained, when you’re designing a watch “1 millimetre is like a football field”.
There have been numerous setbacks with the project. The design and prototyping process that I anticipated would take 6-8 months has taken more than 18 months.
As someone new to watchmaking, I naively chose to make an integrated bracelet watch, which I’ve since been told by numerous people in the industry is one of the most difficult styles to make. Due to the nature of an integrated bracelet, the case size has to be relatively small to ensure a good fit on smaller wrists. But a smaller case size limits the choice of movements available.
Then there’s the challenge of ensuring that the bracelet end links align neatly with the case, which has been especially difficult with the Model 01 as I’ve designed removable end links that allow the bracelet to be swapped out for a conventional strap. Again, this is a difficult feature to engineer with an integrated bracelet watch, which is why most require bespoke straps with end links attached to the end of the strap. Achieving my requirement for the watch to be able to use a conventional strap has been one of the most difficult aspects of the project and it’s taken four attempts to produce a removable end link that aligns precisely with the contours of the case. Together with my case and bracelet supplier, we realised after version three that it would never align as perfectly as I wanted it to unless some changes were made to the case. Redesigning the case resulted in a three month delay.
Whilst I could’ve launched the Model 01 sooner by accepting the previous versions, I just wasn’t willing to compromise. It was a tough decision to have to make at the time, as I haven’t had any income for the last six months and any delays would mean the prospect of seeing any much-needed revenue from sales would be even further in to the future. But having now seen the finished prototypes I’m glad that I took the time and put in the extra work to get it right.
GPW: Before wrapping up, I’d like to put a quick spotlight on your early supporters. Who was most welcoming or helpful when you first entered the watch industry?
Simon: I’ve always been a big believer that in business it pays dividends to surround yourself with people who are cleverer or more knowledgeable than you are and to not be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid they may seem. After all, as the saying goes, pride comes before a fall.
The first thing I did after deciding to start a watch business was to pick up the phone and send off emails to a handful of people I got to know in the watch industry who I hoped would guide me on the right path and help me to avoid making too many rookie mistakes.
There are a number of people who have been incredibly helpful and supportive, and to whom I owe a great deal. Max Büsser and Sylvain Berneron are two that I’ve already talked about, but I’m also very grateful to Richard Benc from Studio Underd0g, Christophe Hoppé from Bausele, José Miranda from Isotope, Wes from Nodus and my good friend Alon Ben Joseph of Ace Jewelers in Amsterdam and The Real Time Show podcast.
GPW: You already host a successful watch channel and have revived a watch brand, but it’s clear that you are just getting started. What do you look forward to achieving in the future?
Simon: It’s hard to think that at the age of 50 I might just be getting started! But I do feel like much of my past experience is now proving to be of enormous benefit in my current endeavours.
Currently my main focus is on MONCEAU and the launch of the Model 01 and right now it’s hard to look much beyond this. Although I do have some ideas for future designs and complications I’d like to incorporate in to watches that may follow.
My five-year goal is for MONCEAU to become a familiar name within the watch community as it was five or six decades ago, and for collectors and enthusiasts to associate it with interesting and design-led Swiss made watches at a price point that is well within the reach of most people.
If I can achieve this while making a return that allows me to look after my family and put a little away for the future, then I’ll consider that a success and I’ll be very grateful. Anything more will be a bonus.
Follow Simon on YouTube and Instagram. The MONCEAU Model 01 is currently available on Kickstarter.