When Rashawn Smith and Perri Dash launched the Wrist Check Pod in 2021 from a Brooklyn café table, they weren’t just starting another watch present—they were quietly detonating a cultural grenade in the heart of horology’s long-standing homogeneity. What began as a pandemic-born conversation between two friends who bonded over shared style sensibilities has evolved into a full-throated challenge to an industry that, for generations, whispered its exclusivity through limited editions, insider jargon and imagery that rarely reflected the world beyond Geneva’s boutiques or Zurich’s vaults.
Today, as the podcast celebrates its fourth anniversary with over 60,000 YouTube subscribers and a burgeoning deal with Revolt TV for the first-ever nationally televised watch series in the U.S., Smith and Dash have done more than diversify the conversation—they’ve expanded the very definition of who gets to speak about timepieces. Their rise coincides with a broader inflection point in luxury goods: a 2025 Bain & Company report noted that Gen Z and millennial consumers now drive 45% of global luxury growth, with authenticity and representation ranking higher than heritage alone in purchase decisionsBain & Company Luxury Report 2025. In this shifting landscape, the Wrist Check Pod isn’t just participating—it’s helping redraw the map.
Their origin story, rooted in the fashion orbits of J.Crew and Billionaire Boys Club, reveals how deeply personal style and horology have always been intertwined—yet rarely acknowledged in traditional watch media. Smith recalls bonding with Dash over a limited-run BBC hat, a detail that speaks to the streetwear-luxury crossover now dominating youth culture. That aesthetic fluency allows them to discuss a Patek Philippe Nautilus with the same ease as a Casio G-Shock collaboration with Awake NY, dismantling hierarchies that once deemed such comparisons sacrilegious.
What truly distinguishes their approach, however, is the deliberate rejection of gatekeeping. Unlike legacy horology publications that often assume fluency in Swiss German movement terminology or expect familiarity with 18th-century pocket watch lineages, Smith and Dash meet listeners where they are. Episodes have broken down the practical differences between mechanical and quartz movements not through technical jargon, but through relatable analogies—comparing a tourbillon to a figure skater’s spin, or a quartz crystal’s vibration to the hum of a refrigerator compressor. This accessibility has drawn in listeners who might have felt intimidated by the velvet-roped aura of traditional watch forums.
Yet their influence extends far beyond pedagogy. Through high-profile collaborations with Ulysse Nardin, Blancpain, and Official CPTime, Smith and Dash have leveraged their platform to push for structural change within brands themselves. In a 2024 interview with WatchPro, Ulysse Nardin’s CEO Patrick Pruniaux acknowledged that partnerships with voices like the Wrist Check Pod have accelerated internal diversity initiatives, noting that “representation isn’t just about who appears in our campaigns—it’s about who helps shape our understanding of what luxury means in 2026”WatchPro Interview with Ulysse Nardin CEO. Similarly, Blancpain’s recent Fifty Fathoms collaboration, which featured a dial inspired by Harlem’s cultural renaissance of the 1920s, was directly influenced by conversations with Dash about horology’s untapped storytelling potentialBlancpain Harlem Edition Press Release.
To understand the broader significance of their function, it’s essential to contextualize the watch industry’s historical blind spots. For decades, luxury watch advertising leaned heavily on imagery of polo fields, yacht decks, and boardrooms—spaces where diversity was historically scarce. A 2022 study by the Fashion Institute of Technology found that over 78% of luxury watch ads in major publications between 2010 and 2020 featured exclusively white male models, reinforcing a narrow aspirational idealFIT Study on Luxury Advertising Demographics. The Wrist Check Pod’s rise reflects a consumer-driven correction: today, 62% of viewers under 35 say they’re more likely to engage with a brand that features diverse voices in its storytelling, according to a 2025 McKinsey analysis of luxury consumer behaviorMcKinsey State of Fashion 2025.
Their impact is as well reshaping expectations around expertise. In an era where influencer culture often privileges volume over veracity, Smith and Dash have built credibility through meticulous research and transparent sourcing. They routinely cite primary sources—manufacture archives, patent filings, horological society journals—when discussing technical topics, a practice that has earned them respect even from traditionalists. As independent watchmaker Kari Voutilainen noted in a rare podcast appearance, “What’s refreshing about Rashawn and Perri is that they ask the right questions—not just about price or prestige, but about intent, craftsmanship, and the human stories behind the movement”Kari Voutilainen on Wrist Check Pod.
Looking ahead, their ambitions are both personal and systemic. Smith’s dream of booking Kevin Hart—a former Audemars Piguet ambassador with a well-documented love for vintage chronographs—isn’t just about celebrity appeal. it’s about bridging worlds. Hart’s journey from Philadelphia comedy clubs to Hollywood stardom mirrors the aspirational narratives that resonate with new collectors who observe horology not as a legacy inheritance, but as a personal milestone. Meanwhile, their ongoing work with Revolt TV aims to bring watch culture into mainstream Black entertainment spaces, a move that could finally normalize horological conversations in barbershops, cookouts, and weekend brunches—places where cultural taste is truly formed.
For those just entering the world of watches, their advice remains refreshingly unpretentious: buy what moves you, learn from credible sources, and let your collection evolve with your life. In a market saturated with investment-grade speculation and fear-of-missing-out-driven purchases, this philosophy feels less like guidance and more like liberation. The Wrist Check Pod has proven that you don’t need a family vault or a Swiss passport to appreciate the art of timekeeping—you just need curiosity, and the courage to wear your interests on your sleeve. Or, as they’d say, your wrist.
