In this episode of On Time, Lex Borrero and CJ sit down with Miami Watch Club member Shelby, also known as J.W. Foster, for a conversation that opens with Bond and ends somewhere more interesting. Shelby is not just another collector talking about grails and market heat. He is an author building a fictional world around a watch-wearing protagonist, and that gives the entire discussion a different center of gravity. Watches are not only objects in his collection. They are narrative tools, symbols, and characters with a role to play.
That distinction is what makes the episode stand out. Shelby's interest in watches comes through aesthetics, storytelling, and mechanical fascination all at once. He traces that instinct back to childhood, when his father handed him a Hasselblad camera and let him explore the appeal of beautiful, complicated objects without overexplaining them. Long before he was deep into independent watchmaking, he was already drawn to the kind of design that makes you stare first and ask technical questions later.
From Bond fantasy to a different kind of spy watch
The title points toward James Bond, but Shelby does not approach Bond watches in the expected way. He appreciates the films, the canon, and the broader mythology, yet he makes clear that he is more interested in the story than in cosplay. The standard Omega Bond formula does not really define his collecting. What excites him is the possibility of building his own Bond-like protagonist and giving that character a watch that feels less obvious, less product-driven, and more original.
That is where De Bethune enters the conversation. In Shelby's novels, the protagonist Blaze McLain wears a De Bethune, and Shelby makes it clear that he wants the character to stay associated with the brand as the story grows. The implication is subtle but powerful. If the classic spy watch once represented utility and cool under pressure, then Shelby sees De Bethune as a more modern evolution of that idea: technical, visually striking, and unmistakably individual.
It is not a replacement in the literal franchise sense. It is a replacement in imagination. For a collector-author building his own hero, De Bethune carries the kind of presence that makes the character feel singular instead of borrowed.
Why De Bethune fits the role
Shelby talks about De Bethune with the kind of conviction collectors usually reserve for the few brands that completely reorder their standards. He describes the craftsmanship as being on a different level and suggests that many people still do not fully understand how good the watches actually are. That is strong language, but it fits the rest of his collecting path. He has already moved through more familiar phases, including Rolex and Omega, and found himself pulled toward independents much earlier than most people would have been comfortable doing.
His explanation also helps clarify why De Bethune works so well in the fictional world he is creating. The watches sit in a rare space between dress and sport, between visual drama and serious engineering. Shelby points to that balance directly, noting that De Bethune makes pieces that can move between different environments without losing their identity. That matters if you are imagining a character who lives between worlds, someone elegant enough for a formal scene and unconventional enough to wear something no one else in the room would choose.
In other words, the watch does not just accessorize the story. It tells you who the character is before he says a word.
Collecting as authorship
One of the most interesting parts of the episode is how clearly Shelby connects collecting to creative work. He does not frame watches as trophies purchased to mark each milestone. In fact, he admits that publishing his first book felt strangely anticlimactic compared with the act of writing it. The real energy for him lives in the obsession, in the immersive period where the work is still taking shape and everything feels possible. That is the same mindset many serious collectors recognize in themselves, the thrill of research, refinement, and pursuit before the object finally arrives.
That creative orientation also explains why his collection gravitates toward watches with a stronger point of view. Shelby says he has always been an aesthetics-first collector, even if deeper appreciation for engineering came later through trips to Switzerland and exposure to independent makers. He likes watches that communicate something instantly. The dial, the case architecture, the emotional charge of a design, all of that matters to him before the spec sheet does.
It is a useful reminder that collecting does not have to begin with technical hierarchy. Sometimes taste leads first, and expertise catches up later.
Intentional collecting over impulse
Another thread running through the conversation is intentionality. Shelby describes his progression from mainstream brands into Journe, De Bethune, and other independents not as a master plan but as the result of paying attention to what genuinely resonated. He acknowledges that he got lucky in some areas, especially with early Journe interest, but he does not present himself as someone who perfectly predicted the future. He presents himself as someone willing to follow conviction before consensus formed around it.
That is an important distinction. The episode is less about being right than about being honest. Shelby did not build his identity around whatever the market already approved. He moved toward pieces that fit his eye, his imagination, and his evolving standards. Even his comment about wanting a future Blaze-themed De Bethune makes the same point. The next watch that matters most is not a random acquisition. It is the one tied to the story becoming real at a larger scale.
That is the broader lesson here. Great collections usually become more coherent when they stop trying to impress everyone and start reflecting one person's actual worldview.
A watch culture built on more than references
By the end of the episode, the idea of a Bond replacement watch has become a shorthand for something bigger. Shelby is not just proposing a different brand for a fictional spy. He is arguing, through his taste and his writing, that watch culture gets richer when it leaves the expected script behind. The obvious references will always have their place. But there is another layer beyond them, where design, narrative, and imagination matter as much as heritage.
That is why this conversation lands. It captures the moment when collecting stops being a checklist and becomes a language. For Shelby, De Bethune is not important because it fits a trend. It is important because it helps express the kind of world he wants to build. And for anyone who has ever chosen a watch because it felt like part of a larger identity, that idea will sound immediately familiar.
On Time often works best when it reveals the philosophy beneath the hardware. This episode does exactly that. Beneath the Bond hook is a conversation about creativity, personal taste, and why the most compelling watches are sometimes the ones that help tell a bigger story.
