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 a big deal for us. 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. I'm a huge fan of the site. In fact, I've seen every single Talking Watches multiple times, and I've been waiting for this moment. In fact, I think I got my entire collection just so I could do Talking Watches. 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 always used watches as a utility, as a tool. In fact, my dad had a 1680, and we'd go fly fishing all the time. He would be like, okay, well, let's take 45 minutes, let's hit the stream, and he would go, right? 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? He would treat this watch like an egg timer. It was an egg timer to him. What was so amazing about that is we'd be fly fishing, whatever, and 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? What is the functionality to it? 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. From that, he went and gave me this as my first watch. I had an interest in time. I had an interest in horology, an interest in nice things, but I never really understood what it was to own a nice watch. This to me was so technologically advanced. I was like, his arms are moving and sweeping as the time's going. I loved it, and it became kind of like a staple of me. I would walk around into a room, and people would be like, oh, is that a Mickey Mouse watch? I'd go, yes, it is my subtle reminder not to take myself too seriously. Where it took me was my manager, Conrad, who I very much respect and look up to. He had a red 1680. My dad had a red 1680. They do everything in it. Go fly fishing, catch a fish, pull it out of the water, and there it is. 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 efficient. That was my new obsession. How long did it take you to acquire the 1680? A long, long time. A little while. My dad ended up having a 1680 pretty much his entire life. And then 10 years before he passed away, or 15 years maybe, he sold his 1680 and bought this tag. Now, 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, and as you can see by just the patina on it, the usage of it, the dial, everything about it 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 a sentimental piece. I remember I would sometimes be like, hey, dad, can I wear your watch? And I'd remember the feeling of 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 horology lord, as you will. And I remember seeing his articles of like, what are the best vintage watches to buy? Because I read all these articles. I've been reading Hadinki 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 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 Eriku, and my friends over at LA Watchworks really elevated it with the little, because I really loved the Sea Dweller look, but I wanted to see that beautiful, just the dial is just so beautiful on it. And I recently lost the Pearl. I was open water swimming, and I was getting onto 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. Do you actually use your vintage Submariner swimming? I do. I know. Everybody would. And here's the other spooky thing is that I think the gaskets, I know that it's watertight because Bo and Edvy at LA Watchworks test all my watches periodically because I'm neurotic about, because I go in the water with most of these watches. So tell me about the white gold GMT. So I've had an obsession with this watch since it came out at Baselworld 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. You really can. The heft of the watch also is so noticeable. And yes, you wear a 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 GMTs 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. Do you ever sleep with your watches on? No, I actually don't. You don't? Unless I'm in like a really strange place where I feel like I have to get up really quickly, you know? Like something might happen. So you put it on the nightstand and 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, it's this chime, and it puts me to sleep like that. No kidding. 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 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. Right. 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 become better. I just know that, by the seller, I bought it from Eric Koo, I trust Eric with my life, and he believes it to be true. That's the thing. I mean, there's been so many examples of things like this where, 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 Gavril Tryback, and 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 of a 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 I've read somewhere in the depths of Houdinki, it is the ultimate curiosity piece. But the construction of this watch, I mean, all kidding aside, the construction of this watch is beautiful. It's kind of amazing, actually. It's just incredible. I realized when I bought this, I was like, that's it. I'm deep into it now. I can't go back now. If I'm buying an homage piece to a Daytona, a Paul 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 a Paul Newman Daytona? And they couldn't even tell from here. And I was like, might could be. But no. But what I love is that that conversation starts, and I go, no, but this is... And tell me about this guy here. This watch, my mom bought for my dad in the 70s, and then when he passed away, we found this watch in a black 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, and 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. But then I was a little curious to like, why? And they explained to me that these were all like little, like little nothing watches back then, but because there's none in this kind of condition. It's an interesting piece, and I never will wear it. I just don't wear it. 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. And it was your father's, I think. It's my dad's watch, and believe it or not, he only wore it during like very special occasions, and it looked itty 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 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 watch, okay? I got the 5164A. Sure. It was definitely my grail watch, okay? Obsessed with it. When it came out in 2011, if I was to build my perfect watch, it would be the Patek Aquanaut. All these watches are pretty much bulletproof. This one 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, dial looks like the world, it's beautiful. There's an anti-reflective coating on the glass, which just makes it even cooler. They thought of everything when they designed 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. 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, outside of what we're doing right here. Well, not to pontificate the idea of time, 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. I could say, this is just justifying your sick obsession with watches, Keegan. Which it may or may not be. But my second book comes out April 24th. Amazing. 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 skies and 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 two watches. Have you thought about this before? Oh, I've thought about it. If I could pick a watch right now, it would be a 5711, a Nautilus. I think that that's just the perfect sport watch for every occasion. That and obviously, all jokes aside, cover your ears, a real Paul Newman Daytona would be my Grail watch. Oh, I would totally do it. But like an RCO, like a real proper, you know, you don't want to put it on because you're scared of like, you need to ensure 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.