Actor Aldis Hodge Spills Horological Tea on His Hotly Anticipated New Watch Brand
When he’s not on set, the talented, multi-hyphenate artist is working on his burgeoning watchmaking career.
If you’re not familiar with the career of Aldis Hodge—actor, watchmaker, painter and one-time architectural student—you will be very, very soon.
Having already acted in numerous shows and films since childhood, he’s set to co-star with Dwayne Johnson in Black Adam, a film adaptation of the DC comic that will hit theaters in October. Some may already know Hodge from his lead roles in shows such as Leverage and City on a Hill and movies such as One Night in Miami, Hidden Figures, and A Good Day to Die Hard.
But few may know he is much more than just a talented actor. He is also a serious horologist and watch aficionado with his own line of timepieces in the works. We caught up with Hodge at the Dubai Watch Week ‘Moves New York,’ the 8th edition of the Horology Forum hosted by Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, the UAE’s largest watch retailer, in NYC’s Meatpacking District to find out the latest scoop on his soon- to-be-launched watch brand.
Where did your interest in watchmaking come from, and when did it begin?
I’ve always been interested in art and design—I went to college for product design and architecture. I was going to do that [professionally], but I was also still in the business, acting. I would have to quit acting to become an architect. So for some reason, I got into watches because designing them was sort of like architecture. At 19 I was really getting into that, and I decided to make a company out of it, because I always wanted to start a company that I could establish and pass down to my family—something where I could provide jobs, but also something attached to arts and sciences.
At 19 I started designing conceptually, and at 21 is when I reached out to Hamilton with some concepts. I went out there and visited them, and they told me that what I was designing was not what they did, and they put me on the independent path — they told me I was an independent designer because of the way I composed movements. I didn’t know what I was doing; I was just designing what I liked! But one of the first companies I started looking to for inspiration was Greubel Forsey—also Breguet and F.P. Journe. Those were the companies that interested me because again, I was coming from architecture and design. It all made sense to me when it came to their aesthetic DNA.
Who do you admire in the architecture world?
Right now one of my favorite architects is Tom Kundig, who has a company called Olson Kundig Associates. I think their designs are really forward-thinking, kind of like [those of] John Lautner or Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry. Those guys are the ones I grew up on. From 13 to 15 I interned at an architectural firm where I did blueprints and all that kind of stuff, working on projects—that’s kind of where I got my experience from, although I was into architecture way before then.
How has knowledge informed your watchmaking?
So when it came to guys like Frank Lloyd Wright, the designs he did, to me, set the tone for what modernism is today. They were very much ahead of their own time, and they’re still classic and timeless. There are a lot of modern homes today that are just kind of “dead”—cold. They don’t have enough of a mixture of warmth and nature, soul and authenticity. That’s what [Wright’s designs] had. He had a very, very recognizable style, and that’s something I didn’t realize initially—that I was appreciating “DNA” before I knew what DNA was.
Frank Gehry, of course, has a very specific style with his metalwork. I was watching a documentary on him; he said that sometimes he just takes aluminum, crumples it up, and whatever the shape it’s in, that’s what he goes for. But he has a very specific imprint—you know it’s him. When you see something like him, you’re gonna think about him first. And that all applies to watchmaking. Robert Greubel once told me that you have to define your DNA—that you have to think 10 and 20 years in the future—because people need to see that same DNA.
How do you balance a career in a field as intensive and time-consuming as acting with one in watchmaking?
[Laughs] I don’t know if balance is a word that’s in my vocabulary! I’m kind of flying by the seat of my pants in all honesty. Right now my watch company, in terms of management, it’s really all me. I have a manufacturing partner right now that’s handling the production end of things. I don’t have the time to produce my pieces myself by hand. An associate of mine, Roger Smith, who’s brilliant and one of the best in the game, he’s one of the very few produced by hand. It takes him a year to produce a watch. And you need that kind of time. I would love to get to that place, but it’s crazy right now. In terms of entertainment, my career is going really well, but it’s taken off in a way that’s not slowing down. I don’t want it to slow down!
