There’s something about meeting someone who’s a true collector. Just listening to them talk about the objects they collect, and the meaning and stories they associate with them — it breathes new life into you as a collector. On the surface, it sounds like quirky stuff you’ll find scraping the bottom of the eBay barrel late at night: backgammon boards, toys, watches. But dig just a layer deeper and there’s a story behind every single object.
That’s how I felt when I first chatted with Jesse Johnson. Best known as the keyboardist of Motion City Soundtrack, Jesse’s quick to drop hints that he’s into some pretty off-the-wall stuff (and not afraid to admit he’s kind of a “weird guy” too): poker chips, backgammon boards, vintage board games, records, Japanese toys, and of course, watches. But at his core, he’s just a passionate collector.
Jesse’s Omega Seamaster 300, Speedmaster Professional, with signed Elvis Costello records | Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson
Q: Let’s start with a quick introduction to you.
I’m Jesse Johnson, some people know me as Jesse Mack. I play in a band called Motion City Soundtrack, which will either get a shrug of the shoulders, some people might think it’s cool. We’ve put out 6 albums over the past 16-17 years. We’ve been lucky enough to tour the world, tour with awesome bands like Blink-182. It’s been a crazy, fun, weird life, but it’s afforded me the opportunity to see the world. It’s pretty amazing the things I’ve been able to do just being a weird guy.
As far as watches: I’ve always been a collector of everything. I’ve collected poker chips, backgammon boards, vintage board games, records, Japanese toys. As I’ve passed the 40-year-old mark, all that has led me to watches. I’ve spent the past 10-plus years collecting, researching, and buying and selling watches. The relationships I’ve made with fellow collectors have been extremely supportive, especially now being isolated. I’m still talking to some of these people even though I’ve only met them once or twice.
Q: Watch collecting can be such a cult. Pop-punk bands like Motion City Soundtrack also often developed cult-like followings. Do you find any similarities between the two followings?
One thing that connects a lot of music to watch collecting: if you talk to a musician about their guitar or their amp — for example, I remember we were recording and we were testing literally different guitars cables to see if they sounded different. The crossover between the two is in the passion for the actual objects that you’re using to make the art of music or to build a collection and that high you get.
When you’re at a watch meetup or hanging out with a dealer: you get that same kind of high. Like when I got to try on a quarter-million dollar Daytona — I will never own that watch, but I got that high from just being around it and talking about it — it’s the same high as being around somebody that collects guitars. I had a friend who was working on a song and he was using Elliott’s Smith’s acoustic guitar to write it. There’s that connection between the objects and their provenance that give you that little emotional connection and that flashback in your head, and you’re part of that conversation for a moment.
Q: When you’re looking for vintage watches, what is it you’re looking for that makes you want a particular watch or example?
I kind of like stuff that’s beat up. The watch I wore when I did Hodinkee Radio was a blue Tudor Submariner ‘Snowflake’. A lot of those dials really bubble up and get a little too chewed up, but the one I had had just a light spotting, and I liked that when I looked at that watch I could tell that it was that specific example. It’s since been sold, and I’ve seen that specific watch on a few other Instagram accounts. I really like that idea of collecting vintage and spotting the little things that are very different. It wasn’t a super clean dial, it wasn’t a total eggshell patina on the indices, it’d been polished and worn. I could also tell that eventually [one of the new owners] switched out the bezel insert because there was a place where the bezel had a big chewed-up mark. If everything is perfect and clean it just looks like a watch someone else has.
Q: Can you talk a bit about your Instagram account @modern.patina and what it’s all about?
modern.patina I think of as crappy photos but great stories. They’re all stories about why people have their watches and how they’re connected to them. When I was out or on tour, I’d see someone wearing a watch and just ask them ‘why are you wearing that?’ I’ve seen people wearing gold Day-Dates with a bark bezel and Presidential bracelet, all the way to one of my favorite ones: this guy in his 80s wearing a gold-plated Seiko with the alma matter of his college on the dial. It’s the only watch he’s ever owned. And you can see it in the watch: It’s beat to shit. But when I asked him to take photos of his watch, his face lit up. He was super stoked about it because for 40 years, probably no one has asked him about his watch.
I like the story of the watch, no matter the price point, and how they can mean so much to someone. When you can talk to someone about a watch and you can see them light up because no one ever asks about it, I love that moment.
Q: Are there any recent watches you’ve picked up that have a story behind how or why you acquired it?
Right now I’m wearing a Nomos ‘100 Years of Bauhaus’ Limited Edition. They released three colors, each a limited edition and numbered out of 100. Each sold out, but recently there was a secret page on the Nomos website, and each day they’d put up one watch at a random time every day. Eventually I managed to get the red ‘100 Years of Bauhaus’ edition [through the secret page], and it just happens to be No. 11/100. My daughter was born on November 11 (11/11). It’s a 38mm watch, cream dial, and hopefully down the line it will be hers now. I can put meaning to anything: she’s a Scorpio, and I got the red edition. I like the little things about watches that you can connect to your past, to your future, to your family.
It was totally random too. I logged in every day to check that site, and on this particular day I had gotten up at 7am with my daughter, checked the site, and for the first time in 2 months it wasn’t already ‘Out of Stock’. In my brain it’s this totally serendipitous thing: that watch, that color, at that time with her — it was meant to be. I suffered two months because that moment is exactly what needed to happen.
Jesse’s Nomos ‘100 years of Bauhaus’ along with a Nomos Metro Chronometer for Hodinkee, Nomos Club Campus, and a Sorry board game from the 1950s. | Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson
Q: What else are you into as a watch collector right now?
During this time, with everyone being at home right now, friends of mine I’ve gotten into watches have been getting other friends in touch with me. So I have guys come to me with their collection of 10-15 watches that they want to sell so they can afford one ‘big’ watch. So I’ll direct friends to — not always expensive — watches to consider.
I had one friend who had a collection of a bunch of watches, but had always wanted the white dial [Rolex] Oyster Perpetual 39. So I said ‘let’s get you that watch!’ He had a ton of really good watches that I helped him sell, and now he’s after that white OP. I’m trying to be that watch facilitator with the small reputation that I have. I’ll get messages from these guys afterwards, and they’re so stoked — it could be an Oris, a Rolex, a quartz Seamaster — it doesn’t really matter, but they’re so stoked when they get these watches.
It makes me super happy to get someone into the watch community. I tell them they better watch out because they’ll get hooked, and then I’ll get texts afterwards like ‘what do you think about this or that’ — they get that bug. It’s such an antiquated thing to collect watches, so when you see someone get the bug, it’s so exciting. There’s something exciting about being accepted into the community no matter what level you’re at that I really enjoy. [Note: I caught up with Jesse before publishing and he confirmed that his buddy did indeed finally pick up a white Oyster Perpetual.]
Q: Any watches you’re on the lookout for?
Jesse’s GMT-Master II “Coke” ref. 16710, with his Rolex 16570 and poker chips used in the movie Rounders | Photo courtesy of Jesse Johnson
I did my big COVID purchase already, I picked up a Coke GMT-Master II [Ref. 16710]. I’ve always enjoyed GMT movements and I’ve had a few Explorer IIs, but it always felt like a stop-gap to the GMT-Master II.
This example was in a safe for the last 15 years. It came with box, papers, original hand-written receipt for the sale, booklets. I know people feel one way or the other about that stuff, but I don’t know if this watch had been worn more than five times before I got it. If you run your finger nail along the side of it, it’ll shave a part of your finger nail off. It’s the cleanest example of this watch I’ve ever seen. I kind of like that every single mark it’s going to get is going to be mine. I got a clean example not to keep it clean, but so that maybe in 20 years my daughter will have it, or it’ll be in the family and every ding or dent on it will be mine.
I had this mental fight between vintage and modern, and ended up with a 2001 GMT-Master II. It’s SuperLuminova, it’s got lug holes and solid end links. I’m in this stage where, let’s say you find a beautiful, clean Submariner with pumpkin lume and a spider dial — it looks really great now, but what about in thirty years when I hand this down to my family, what’s the watch going to look like then? Is it still going to have an even patina, is the dial going to crack? I ended up going for a more modern watch that will probably look exactly the same 30-40 years down the line. I know that’s not a very popular opinion in watch collecting, but that’s where I ended up.
You can find Jesse on Instagram @modern.patina and @jessemack. And of course, Motion City Soundtrack is on streaming platforms everywhere.