Episode 98 - Interview with Marc of Long Island Watch
Published on Thu, 10 Sep 2020 01:20:21 -0700
Synopsis
Mark Frankel, the owner and founder of Long Island Watch, was the guest on this episode of the podcast. He discussed how he started his business selling affordable Swiss watches on eBay before launching his own website. Over time, he shifted to selling lesser-known watch brands to differentiate himself. After Seiko discontinued the popular SKX model, Mark decided to create his own affordable dive watch brand called Islander to fill that void. He talked about the design process, future plans for expanding the Islander line, and his philosophy of offering high-quality affordable watches. The hosts also discussed other topics like meat processing YouTube channels, the Underworld movie series, and podcasts about Scientology.
Links
Transcript
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| Andrew (Host) | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 40 in 20 Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew, and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? This has been the weirdest day, dude. This has been the weirdest day. We woke up to a literal forest fire in our backyard. Well, I mean, not close, but in the backyard. It certainly looks and smells that way. You know, so I was out of pocket all day yesterday. I went golfing in the morning, golf nine holes and then went fishing. So I was on the middle fork of the Willamette. Um, thanks for the invite. Appreciate it. About 45 minutes out of town. And we're, we're just fishing all day, right around six 30. Uh, the light starting to get good, you know, a hatch is going to come on. We're going to start getting into fish. And my buddy points up and was like, look at the smoke. And we're in this, we're in this, uh, not quite a canyon, but a canyon like valley. And the smoke is just rolling through, you know, and a half hour later, it's like, it's nighttime. There's a lot of smoke and we actually need to get out of this canyon because we could be in trouble. We were not, we didn't know that at the time, but we were seeing smoke from a fire probably about 75 miles away. But in the interim, two fires started within like 30 miles of home here. And now This morning, my receptionist's house burned down. Certainly, totally gone. I think basically all of my staff, their houses are in grave danger. So it's been very odd. It's been a very weird day. It has, in fact. And it's just, it's weird to be in it. You know, we see news coverage of fires all the time. I mean, every summer. It's weird to have it in your backyard and no people affected by it. Yeah. Yeah, it's bizarre. And for it to be, I mean, borderline scary. I think where you're at, certainly not an issue. Where I'm at, probably not an issue. We're both in town enough that we should be okay, but. But you know, everyone thought that. |
| Everett (Co-host) | Yeah. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah. It's, it's crazy. And the, the air quality is so poor. Zero. No, it's like 457. Oh. It's, it's into like 150 now, but. I was saying 0% good, but. Oh, it's a hundred percent bad. Yeah. It's, it's, we kept our kids home from school today and like. Yeah. There's all the alerts that say don't go outside if and you mustn't. So I went outside. You went on a run. Yeah, I went on a run. Because of America. America! Yeah, I was telling our guest, who's in the green room as he put it, that we woke up this morning at about 6.30 and the light coming into my room, it looked like that movie The Martian. Just totally red. Especially that early sun. It got more white through the day. That morning sun was just totally red. It looked like I was living on Mars. And all day, it's just looked like a cold November morning, just foggy and thick. It made me think of that Guns N' Roses song. Yeah. You're welcome. Shall we? Without further ado. So we've got actually a special guest on the show. This is someone that I have been poking for information for for actually, I'd say at least a year at this point about just random stuff. And then he's a tight-lipped fella. I'll give him credit for being a relatively tight-lipped fella. But we finally talked him into coming on the show. Mark Frankel, the owner and founder of Long Island Watch. Mark, how are you doing? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I'm doing fine. Thank you very much. How are you guys doing? |
| Andrew (Host) | You know, just getting by. I mean, you had to listen to our whole spiel. So let's hear it. We're super glad to have you on. Thanks for joining us and can't wait to have a chat. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Sure. I am all game and I'm ready for it. |
| Andrew (Host) | I like that idea. You know, the thing I most like about your business, so oftentimes the first question we have to ask people when they come on is, so where are you located? But with you, I have a pretty good idea of where you are. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | It's in the name, right? The Florida Keys. The name of the company is actually Island Watch. The URL is Long Island Watch. And the reason, so obviously I'm on Long Island, New York. Uh, which kind of sticks out from Manhattan, the little fish that sticks out. And, um, the reason why the business is not called Long Island Watch is because in 2003, when I went to go register the name with Suffolk County, I drove out to Riverhead with my little form and I go to the counter and this is the before the days really of major internet searches. And I said, here's my name, here's my $40. And they said, long island watch Yeah. So that was it. I erased it and it became Island Watch. And then at the time I went to go buy then the URL Island Watch, but somebody was squatting on it. They wanted a ton of money for it. Uh, over the years, obviously I got successful enough. I was able to buy it, but that's kind of why it's Long Island Watch, but the real corporate, the corporate name is now Island Watch Incorporated. |
| Andrew (Host) | Uh, but that's kind of, that was actually the only question we had for you. Uh, so I do appreciate you coming on. Well, thank you. Good night. That spawned another question. How is a person squatting on a URL for a company they don't know exists and then demanding? What is like, is the bucket load of money five figures that they were demanding for it? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | It's well, you know, what it is, is if you think about it, the word island watch, if you want to use like trademarking, is not really descriptive of wristwatches. It could be you like to watch various islands. You know, think about the tropics, it's an island watch. Copyright trademark law gets very fuzzy around URLs and you really don't need... The trademark holder really has no case against somebody that might have bought the URL for themselves. But I think at the time the URL they wanted to charge me like five grand or something. And I was just starting out and I was like, there's no way in hell I'm doing that. |
| Andrew (Host) | There's no system like that with URLs. So people literally, when something exciting happens, or if there's a business that's trending, people will go out and buy these URLs and that's a sexy URL and they'll sell it at a premium. There was a, the last presidential cycle, somebody owned one of the GOP candidates names as for president and it was routing to a gay rights webpage. It was brilliant. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Today I was offered divewatches.com for sale by a broker. Random email. Hi Mark, would you be interested in divewatches.com? I'm not interested. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah. How much do you get for divewatches.com or how much do you ask for anyway? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I, you know, I don't even engage with people anymore if I'm not even serious about it, but I got to imagine. |
| Everett (Co-host) | I'm going to be a URL broker. |
| Andrew (Host) | Probably 20 to 30 grand. I'm guessing. Well, yeah. I mean, I think there's a market there. You'd have to get savvy, but. There's a market there. Yeah, just form emails. You send enough. It's a little bit gross. Yeah, but okay. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's a Saturday morning activity. You send out 10,000 form emails. What do you make, like nothing? So another question, a spinoff question here. What was Long Island Watch prior to you having Long Island Watch? What was the previous iteration? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Oh, Island Watch? It was nothing. They were just a broker. No, there have been other people that have since then tried to use variants of my name, and now I am very legally protected from every aspect. So I unfortunately have put people out of business for trying to use my name and opening a similar business. |
| Andrew (Host) | We have one called Long Isle Watch. Do you think that's going to be an issue? Okay. No, that's okay. Go ahead with that. Good luck. We're going to sell the Isle Watches. It's like, uh, yeah, there's some, some Seiko stuff, some pilot stuff. We're just joking, obviously. So can we talk a little bit about your background, sort of how long, how Long Islander slash Island Watch came to be, how you got here? I know that your background is mechanical engineering and that specifically aerospace engineering was your professional, uh, vocation. Correct. How did watches take over your life? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Sure. So, um, well, it's funny. So watches have always been a part of my life, uh, growing up all throughout the years. My father was an avid watch guy. Uh, he owned a few nice watches, but always appreciated watches. Um, and then 1990, 1998, after I graduated from engineering school, I was out to lunch with a couple of friends and one of them was sporting a really nice Swiss automatic with an open heart. And it's a story I've told on my YouTube channel. I asked him where he got it. He said eBay. I asked him what he paid. It was like 80 bucks. I was like, wow, that's such a great price for such a cool looking watch. You know, you mind asking who this, you know, who was the seller? It reminded me of asking who the seller was. He told me who the seller was. contact the sell out of the blue for some reason. I'm just like, Hey, can I buy 10 of these and, you know, sell them myself here in America? And he said, go ahead. So whatever you want to do, you know, as long as you buy 10 of them, you know, I'll give you a little bit, I'll give you a little bit of a better price and I'll ship them to you. And I mean, that's it. That's how it started. It started on eBay and the whole thing kind of exploded from there. You know, two years later, I launched a rudimentary website. Um, and then while still working full time, Now, as I mentioned, as an aerospace engineer, I kind of coddled this side business. You know, I'd work nights, I'd work mornings, I'd work on the weekends, you know, packing and shipping stuff myself. And then, you know, things got a little more complicated. A child came into the mix. Life got way more complicated. |
| Andrew (Host) | And then... The cheapest labor. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. Labor. They are no not now X another older and back in 2011 my oldest was starting kindergarten and I We didn't have anybody to put him on the bus take him off the bus. So I said to my wife I said this is the point where she's a she's a CPA. She was working full-time I said, I think this is the point where I jump off and start going full-time. She agreed and I Never looked back. That was August of 2011 So I've been doing this full-time since then. |
| Andrew (Host) | You're going on almost 10 years. 10 years in another year of full-time. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. I was just thinking the other day, I've been out of my job for nine years. That's crazy, right? Yeah. It is crazy. Time flies. It absolutely flies. I can't believe it's been nine years, over nine years already. And I still remember everything like it was yesterday. I still remember everything I did, everything I worked on, every platform, every program, everything. |
| Andrew (Host) | So that first watch, I think I know what this is. This is a Grand Elysee Openheart. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Is that accurate? So that's the watch that was on my friend's wrist. The watch I wound up actually getting 10 of was model number 29008, which was a big date with a guilloché dial. But you are correct. That is the watch, the Openheart, and I still have it. That is the watch that I saw him wearing, but the guy gave me a better deal on this one. So this was the one I decided to go ahead with. |
| Andrew (Host) | So did you sell nine or did you sell 10 of them? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I sold all 10. Yeah. Oh yeah. I didn't save anything for myself. I was an idiot. I didn't save my Scrooge McDuck lucky dime. Um, sold all 10, most at a profit, actually like eight of them at a profit, two of them at a very slight loss. And I remember I was out in Montauk. on vacation with, I guess it would be my wife. Yeah. We're in the years we were married and I had a little motor AT&T flip phone and I had configured it to send me little text messages whenever something would sell on eBay. And I was like, I never sit down. I was like, Oh my God, something sold and made 20 bucks. And Mike, my mind was blown. I was like, this is amazing. Imagine if you do this, if this could happen all the time and you know, through 10 years later, no more than that. We're going back. We're going way back. 18 years later. Yeah, it's kind of blown up into something else. |
| Andrew (Host) | I assume you've silenced those alerts. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | You know, it's funny, I used to, I was a big black, I was a big BlackBerry user. Tremendous, obviously, because, you know, they were the founders of modern communication and the BlackBerry, you could configure the LEDs for different mailboxes. to blink different colors, make different sounds. So whenever an order came in, I had it blink green and I had a little cash register sound. And I'd be walking around BAE Systems. That's where I used to work. And people would say, Mark, you sold another one, huh? I'm like, yep. It's a lot of fun. It's awesome. Yeah, but now all that's just all that's just silent. |
| Andrew (Host) | That's right. It would just be it would just be cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah, it's now it's more of just, you know, It's just running the business that takes all the time. |
| Andrew (Host) | What was your decision-making process for the next 10 watches? Did you just look on the Eid for watches that you liked that seemed a reasonable price and look at, hey, a book pricing discount? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Well, I looked into this guy's history that I bought them from because he was actually a manufacturer. He was a manufacturer. He did not manufacture L.E.C. He manufactured a different brand. And I started looking through his catalog. I said, hey, can I get this? Can I get this? Can I get this? And yeah, I started buying 10 at a time. I remember the first 10 watches I bought was 70 bucks each. It was $700, which obviously was a lot of money for me. But that was my initial investment. And then, you know, I started to do different things, get different watches. And then one day I learned a very valuable lesson. There were two watches in the shipment. They were 47 millimeter, bright red, Swiss ETA automatics. And they were just ugly as sin, coin edge case, big onion crown. And I said to the guy, I said, ah, Daniel was his name. I said, Hey, I said, I got these two. I didn't order these. I'm so sorry. You know, instead of sending them back to cost you a lot of money, try to sell them. Like no one's going to buy this. Sold, sold. And I was like, wow. And that's when I learned, you know, big watches sell. And what I like is not necessarily what the customer is always going to like. And that was probably one of the most important lessons I ever learned. |
| Andrew (Host) | That's a good lesson to have learned, especially in your industry. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Oh, absolutely. Because, you know, yes, I am literally surrounded by, there's watches everywhere I look around my, around my office. Um, but probably over half of them I would never wear. I just, I'm not, not a fan. |
| Andrew (Host) | Well, so I, I'd like to ask you a little bit about that grandly say that, that open heart, um, at a grandly say, well, do you know, as you sit here today, what was it about that watch that captured your imagination so visibly? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. So when I saw it at first, um, had a guilloche dial, which I thought was really cool. You don't see many of those. Um, of course it was a stamp dial, but still look really nice. And, you I don't care. You guys know what I mean, right? |
| Andrew (Host) | Oh, you're our people. You know, we've got a shtick on the show of purposefully mispronouncing words. Or accidentally. Accidentally pronouncing words and then later learning, but then leaning into the mispronunciation. So we feel that. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Got it. So, yeah, so I actually, that's what I thought it was. And I was like, wow, I'm like, only 80 bucks. These things are like 10 grand. And the more I looked, I was like, oh, that's just a It's just a balance wheel. Whoops. So, uh, but yeah, that's what really drew me to it, you know, and it was really nice looking and the fact that it was 80 bucks. I was like, wow, this is, that's a deal. It was a hundred Euro and it was 80 bucks. So this is around the time people don't realize this, but when the Euro came out, it was actually worth less than a dollar for a very, very short amount of time. I've had Europeans argue with me over that fact. Like, no, when it first came out, it was 80 cents. And, uh, that's when this happened. Uh, so, uh, yeah, that, that's kind of, I didn't realize being an ETA that, you know, you know, in 10 years it could be worth 600 bucks for, you know, for $80. That kind of, that was kind of over me. I knew what ETA was, knew they were very important. Um, but just the whole, whole look, the whole package is everything about a mechanical wristwatch. Uh, this is when the whole Germasian thing, if that's a term that you guys use, was kind of just coming into play. A lot of companies that were in Germany, but yet manufacturing watches in Asia, um, and not really being honest about it, uh, were coming out. So the fact that you can get watches so inexpensively, just, it totally blew me away. And that's kind of what drew me into it. |
| Andrew (Host) | Well, and this is maybe, you know, we've got a lot of ground to cover today, so I don't want to spend too much time on the history, but it's actually really fun. And in fact, I think in terms of what we want to accomplish today, I'd really like to know as much about that as possible, but we're going to have to move on. How, when you started watch, when you started selling watches, and you started picking watches, you know, I think probably in these early days, you probably had a lot of room to tailor the type of watches you wanted to sell. Um, and you know, like with all things, your knowledge base was developing as you developed. Um, what were the decisions that you were making at that time in terms of what you wanted to be selling and the way you wanted your reputation or, or perhaps your brand to grow in terms of watches? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, even though I am, I guess kind of one of the online, pioneers, if you will, of wristwatch e-comm. There are others that were in the space before me. A lot of them are no longer around. The way I started, though, was, you know, I saw that a brand like these Elysées that I was selling and eventually these Trius watches that I was selling, nobody in the U.S. sold them. So I had a leg up on competition. Granted, no one had even heard of them. But I wasn't dealing with every Tom, Dick, and Sally that was selling. You know, contrast that now to, you know, Hamilton, Seiko, Citizen. There's, you know, at least online in the U.S. has got to be at least 50 or more vendors of each brand, and they're all killing each other. It's called, I call it the race to the bottom. They're all constantly competing on price. There's no price, you know, you know, those are obviously all gray markets. There's no pricing support. So for a little guy like me to try to get a watch and sell it and make money, it just made no sense for me to go for any known brand. So I actually started cherry picking unknown brands. I mean, brand number three in my store was Junkers, which I still carry. because no one had it this country. It was so unknown. The Junkers, Iron Annie, Graf Zeppelin, they're all manufactured by, owned by Point Tech, GMBH over in Munich. But you know, then another brand I brought in was Vostok Europe. Just all these brands that people really hadn't heard of, but they offered something very different. I've always liked different things. Certainly I like watches that are very esoteric. Definitely not run-of-the-mill. I like different ways they tell time. And it was just easier for me to get a leg up financially if I could just sell a watch that I could actually make money on. It absolutely made no sense for me to buy, obviously, I don't talk margins, but I know there are people out there that are buying Seikos for $220 and they're selling them for $229, $235. And after the credit card company takes their cut, after you pay marketing and everything else, I just don't see the value in selling a watch and making 50 cents. |
| Andrew (Host) | Unless you're selling 5 million of them. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Exactly. Well, I know a guy that was in the volume business, and again, he's no longer in business. He's doing something else now. But he was selling Casio, and he was selling G-Shocks. And we were just talking one day, and he said, you know, Mark, All my costs, I sell a G-Shock, I make about $3. And I was like, wow, that's totally not where I want to be. I understand, yeah, if you could sell a million of them, that's $3 million. But nah, I'd rather, Scrooge McDuck again, work smarter, not harder. So I'd rather sell less and make more. And that's kind of always, that's, and that's definitely helped culture or, you know, my curated collection of watches. You know, when I, when people used to ask, you know, what brands do you carry? I'd say you've never heard of most of them. Actually today, that's kind of still true. You've probably never heard of most of them. A lot of them. Yeah. Um, except for Seiko and Citizen and Casio, Timex, everything else is real kind of a lot of micro brands really. And you know, being an incubator for micro brands, kind of micro brands, a lot of times just gravitate towards and it's like, Hey, you know, like your YouTube channel, you want to try to sell our watches or something. And you know, that's definitely, You ask, how do I know or how do I pick what I want to sell? A lot of times it's customers. Customers say, hey, you need to check out XYZ. And I'll check out XYZ. And I'm like, wow, this really is cool. And I'll go for it. |
| Andrew (Host) | Have you noticed, so I mean, I'm going to ask a really obtuse question, so let me reframe it. The watch world has obviously developed in a hundred different ways since you started doing business. You know, the Internet's developed. When you started selling watches, Amazon was still a tiny little used book seller, right? So in that context, the whole world has changed, but along the way, the watch world has changed. How has that sort of global or ecumenical shift in the way people consume watches, or at least the way enthusiasts consume watches, how has that changed the way you've done business? Are there any sort of notable things that you've had to shift to along the way? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | So, funny you should mention Amazon. I was actually, I was beta with them, with watches. When you said they were a bookseller, that's correct. I received a phone call on my cell phone one day. I was coming out of the supermarket and it was from Seattle, Washington, or wherever Amazon is, somewhere in Washington state. And a guy introduced himself from Amazon and they're doing this new thing and they're selling watches on Amazon. And I said, It was news to me, but Amazon, I've heard of Amazon. And so I was a beta seller with them. Um, so to answer, I guess, so that you said Amazon, so I wanted just to make that known. I'm no longer with Amazon. That's a whole nother video I did on YouTube. They are just the worst company in the world. If you are a seller, they are customer centric. They are seller. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You just did a little gesture for the fans. I'll tell them. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yes, they give it to you and they give it to you bad. Very, very poor, very poor. There's a reason why they make so much money because they just rape every client. But so there was a whole paradigm shift going where, you know, people are going online to buy their merchandise. Everyone's going to Amazon. And obviously, like I said before, the biggest problem with Amazon is everyone is just in a gigantic race to the bottom. So while I was a seller on Amazon, And while I sell it just on my website, because there was a time when Amazon was 40% of my business, which is a big number. I refused to lower my prices to the point where I would be more competitive on Amazon. And I felt like it was so much more important for me to distinguish myself. It came out to be in the watch community, but it came out so much more important for me to Have a delineator. What's the delineator? Well, I guess the delineator was customer service. It was domain knowledge and all these other things that make Island Watch a place that people want to come shop. And eventually I didn't need Amazon for that. So I was able to, you know, keep my margins decent while offering all these, I guess all these amenities that you just don't get from other places. Now, I always would argue with people who would say, you know, Amazon's got it for cheaper. and say, you can ask Amazon if it's got a 7S26 or a 4R36 or how many jewels that are in it, and they're going to have absolutely no clue. That's the difference with me. It's domain knowledge, it's shopping a store where the guy that runs it actually knows what he's talking about. As the world was flocking to Amazon and all the watch sellers, and this really happens, all the watch sellers just beat each other up on price. Amazon's got this thing. Hey, you want the buy box, you know, go lower and they have little bots that automatically keep lowering your price so you can win the buy box. So I said, that's not where I want to be for my business. I want to be somewhere different and getting, as I mentioned before, the esoteric product, things like that, that kind of keeps me different. It keeps me fresh. It keeps me kind of out of the riff raff as it were with all the other sellers kind of going after. one another. Um, and then I also found a very good home on, I gotta give a shout out to forums all around watch forums. I didn't know it, but I was on watch you seek, you know, around 1999. Uh, obviously Ernie Romer's, you know, I'm going way back. |
| Andrew (Host) | It's a different, a different thing than it is today. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Very different. And, but I just, I advertise there. I got a poor man's watch forum. If you guys know that one, uh, 3T, Time Tech Talk, all these other forums, I just got to talk to people. And I guess I kind of became ingrained in people's heads as a decent watch guy, kind of a run-of-the-mill person that sells watches. And this definitely helped foster and create, I think, an audience that most of the other watch people were trying to get and watch sellers were trying to get this audience. I had this audience because I was already kind of in all these forums. People would always talk about me, or, oh, go see Mark. And once I saw that once, I was like, go see Mark. I was like, oh, wow, this is awesome. This is great. I love that people kind of perpetuate who you are. And it's word of mouth advertising. You don't have to say anything. So I would say that's definitely a differentiator or how I kept it going. |
| Andrew (Host) | You used the internet to be the neighborhood watch dealer. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah, pretty much. People will say, you know, oh, I'm just down the road from you. I'm happy to support you. You could be in California. You could be in Australia. It doesn't matter. I'm one email away. The internet is an amazing thing. My father owned a brick-and-mortar hardware store in Manhattan, and if the store closed, you didn't make money. He didn't work on, you know, close at 6 at night. He opened at 8 in the morning. I'm out of Long Island. It was a 40-mile drive into the city for anyone that's ever commuted on the LIE. You know what that's like. I'd rather die. It basically killed him. Yeah, it basically killed him eventually. You know, it gave him a heart attack and then that was it. And I realized, you know, owning a business is great, but owning a store, people always say, hey, Mark, open a store. I'm like, are you insane? I would never open a store right now. Why would I do that? Why would I do that? I do so much better just, who wants real estate? Especially now every store I pass is out of business, unfortunately. |
| Andrew (Host) | I'll tell you, Mark, I think that your reputation precedes you in a number of ways. You'll know this anecdote, but I'm not going to tell you. I'm telling the people that are listening at home. A few years ago, maybe a year ago, Seiko, Seiko USA was doing kind of a big JDM crackdown and sort of sending cease and desist to folks that were selling JDM watches in the United States. It's sort of a convoluted story, and it's kind of unimportant, and it certainly slurred our conversation. But there came a post on WatchuSeek about this thing that was happening. And it came in context of Island Watch, Long Island Watch, removing JDM watches from its website. And there was, you know, speculation. The internet speculates, as the internet's going to do. And that's fine. I think that's really ancillary. But the thing that really struck me in reading through this I read through this thread at the time, and I read through it again today as I was sort of thinking about our episode. About four or five posts in, somebody posts, you know, the guy always struck me as shady. He says that word shady. And I remember reading that the first time through and thinking, gosh, that is just not ever the feeling I've gotten. I didn't comment at the time, and I probably wouldn't comment today, or maybe I would today, I don't know. But it was incredible to me, because the next 30 posts on this thread were all people like, fuck you guy, what are you talking about? Mark is one of our people. This guy's awesome. I'm in Canada, and I've bought four watches from Mark. And every time someone says, yeah, I had a question about this thing, and it happened Chris Vale of Nthwatches says, you know, for a while I sold watches with Mark and I don't now, but I'll tell you, that guy's got the best customer service in the business. I had one of my Nthwatches that something went wrong and I was sure that the person was abusing the movement and I wouldn't have replaced the movement, but Mark did. And in retrospect, that was the right move. He's just a solid customer service person, and it's a solid customer service business, and I recommend them. How does it feel when you read through something like that? I mean, set aside the shady comment, right? Because that feels shitty, and that's the internet. But how does it feel when you read the rest of the forum? I mean, to a man, to a person, I should say, every single comment in that thread is, no, Mark's legit. Besides a dickhead. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I remember this, actually. It's funny you should say that. Forget the whole JDM thing. Um, but, and I remember the only reason, I guess that I was very big on the forums. I stopped simply because I just don't have the time in my life for it. Um, Chris Vail is actually the one that emailed me. He said, Hey, you may want to check this out over on Watch You Seek. And you said 30 posts. It was more like 30 pages. It was crazy. I think there were 180 posts afterwards. And I was just kind of like, I'm just doing. I'm honestly just doing what is the right thing to do. As pedantic as it sounds, or as religious as it sounds, I'm just doing the right thing. If somebody emails me and asks me a question, I answer it. Now, granted, my response time is lightning usually, which is definitely one of my personal problems because I can't let emails sit. I'm one of those inbox zero kind of guys. Yeah, blessing and a curse. But no, I just I felt really good. It meant that I don't want to say what I'm doing is working because it's not like I had the scheme. I'm just doing what you know, I was brought up to do. Answer people's questions, help them out when they need it, be honest with them, treat them right. I mean, I can reach in arms you right before we started this podcast. I packed up $1,100 in watches in one box, because a guy emailed me and said, says delivered. It's not here. No problem. I'll replace all three for you. And that's just no hassle, no nothing. Just, it just, I, there's no other way to do it. I can't, I'm not going to make people jump through hoops for me. Um, it's just about treating people right and with respect. And apparently I guess it pays off in, in, uh, in, in that watch you see comment, which yes, was crazy. There was another one also that garnered, garnered a similar, it's a, The old adage, there's no bad press. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah, well, especially when the press is all good, you know, I think the comment is the threat eventually, the one I'm referring to eventually sort of got slowed down. Moderator Kevin said, let's talk about watches, right? As opposed to talking about a vendor. But yeah, the attitude of the threat is very clear. There's one guy who said a shitty comment. And maybe he'd had a bad experience and who knows and people feel people feel how we feel. But the fact that the whole watch community, which is generally made up of people with neckbeards, neckbeards and opinions, the fact that the whole community comes up and says, you know, Mark's our dude. That's got to feel good. I think it's got probably got to feel good. Yeah. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I absolutely and I'm sure there are people that I have, you know, PO'd in the past. I'm sure it happens. You know, sometimes you have a bad moment in your day and Maybe send out an email that you shouldn't have sent out or something and that's sour with someone for life. Very possible. But like I said, you know, I try to treat everybody good. I try to just do the right thing. And I guess, I guess it, I guess it worked, it paid off. |
| Andrew (Host) | So I, I, I hate to have a hard left turn here, but there's a whole other topic that we, that we need to address. And it is, um, actually, well, there's two of them sitting in front of me and it's a line of your watches. Oh, I forgot about those. I didn't. I've been here. I had I known that all we had to do was say not delivered and we'd have gotten a fresh set. That's what we would have said. But here I sit in front of two beautiful watches, one that I favor more. And I want to hear your journey into taking what you're doing as a vendor of watches and that decision to say, you know what, I can do this, too. What's that look like? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. So, you know, it's kind of you, you make your own destiny, I guess. Right. And I'll say that I'm very lucky, but I know deep down, it was just good decisions. Definitely some good timing going on. Uh, you know, go back a few years ago and I met up with, I was in, where was I? I think it was JCK. So that's in Vegas. So about three years ago, I was at a trade show. And I was in a booth with somebody, just chit-chatting that I know, a manufacturer. And he follows me on YouTube and stuff. And he said, hey, you need to make your own brand. And I said, yeah, you think so? He's like, absolutely. Just make your own watches. You have the following. People will come to you. I kind of shelved the idea. I really, not something I wanted. Who wants to make watches? Well, I, yeah, I mean, I say make, make is such a, I'm not. It looks like you got a little tool. Yeah. Yeah. This is tool. Tools are expensive, by the way. Good tools are very expensive. Um, and I guess I was just dealt this, this blow by Seiko. This is back in, uh, Basel world 20. My goodness, the years just kind of blend together. Hi guys. Uh, Yeah. 2019. About a year and a half ago, I think. I think it was 2019. Yeah, it was 2019. And Seiko just tells me that the SKX is being discontinued. I've been hearing this for, we've all been hearing this for years. I mean, this rumor has been around for probably five or six years. |
| Andrew (Host) | I think that there's a worn and wound article from 2015. Yeah. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | That's what, you know, that's what five years sounds about right. |
| Andrew (Host) | They might have stopped producing them in 2015. They just had that backlog of inventory. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Well, I don't think, you know, you're close. I don't think it's a backlog of inventory. I think they probably decided back then they were going to sunset the product. But as any large scale manufacturer, sunsetting a product takes a hell of a long time. And, you know, in no uncertain terms was I told, and again, I've relayed this story on my YouTube channel, that I was told by the person that made the decision. She said, that watch, as I was wearing an SKX on my wrist, And no more, we, we make no more. And I was like, Oh my goodness. And then they said, and this is, this is at the time it was private, but now I can obviously say it. They said, here's the new five collection. The one, the SRPD Seiko fives, um, that came out beginning of the year. It was late last year, whenever it was, the SRPD models. These hundred meter SKXs. The hundred meter divers. Yeah. Hundred meter quote unquote divers. And I was like, okay, it's like, these are really nice. And what are the retails? And they were like 350. I was like, oh my goodness. And I realized after I walked out of there, I was on a train now back from Basel. I was staying up, uh, in, um, where was I? I was staying in Germany. Uh, so I was on a train and eating a sausage from Basel. No, no coffee, coffee, lots of coffee and coffee over there is delicious. My goodness. Uh, and, and all of a sudden I just had like an epiphany and I said, geez, I said the, I was looking at the woman's business card on the train and I said, wow, the watch I have to make is the SKX that people want. The people, we're not living in communist area here, but I was like, wow, it's, it's, it's this simple. Um, and that kind of is where I started. I knew immediately what I wanted and I started. you know, surveying where I could get things made. I was already starting to get parts manufactured for myself, bezels and bezel inserts and stuff, just to kind of, cause the parts market I realized was another good leap for me since, you know, if you're a good forum guy, then people are always modding their watches. So I'd gotten to parts and I'd developed good relationships and I knew exactly what I wanted to make. And that's how the Islander, the classic diver Islander came into fruition. Um, I never looked back. It's actually, I think in two weeks, it's a year ago that I released the first one already. |
| Andrew (Host) | Oh, wow. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | The year has flown. Half of it has been in quarantine, but the year has flown by. And yeah, I've got so much more planned in the pipeline for it. |
| Andrew (Host) | And so in the way of a whole catalog of watches in the pipeline? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I've got, I'm looking at them actually right now. There's all samples. |
| Andrew (Host) | I cannot wait to see them. Yeah, you're going to show us these after we turn this off, right? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I could probably show you a couple of them. Yes. Don't get too excited. One of them was one of them was on Instagram already. I yeah, I've got at least four new styles coming out. It takes a hell of a long time to produce stuff. I give a brand like like Spinnaker. I give them a hell of a lot of credit. You know, again, I know the owner very well. Dude's cranking out designs like crazy. crazy. He's got a roadmap going out two years. |
| Andrew (Host) | It's not just Spinnaker, right? If you just look at Spinnaker, you think, man, this dude's cranking out watches, but it's also do it and aviate. Yeah. His, his eight other brands. That guy is making fucking watches, man. He's making a bucket load of watches. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | He is. He's making watches. He's and I commend him. I get, messages from him at all hours of the day. But yeah, I mean, I give him a lot of credit. It just takes a lot. It takes a ton. And, you know, I plan to continue with the brand. I feel like I'm in this, I guess, a rare position. You know, I know what people want. I definitely feel it. I'm on the receiving end of, you know, 150, 200 emails a day. of customers. And invariably, they all, they all say what they want. And I knew, I knew what they wanted. I knew they wanted a sapphire crystal. I knew they wanted drilled lugs. I knew they wanted hand winding hacking. I knew they wanted good luma. I knew they wanted a solid end link bracelet. It's just, it was so, dare I say, it was so easy. Um, but if Seiko came out with a watch like this, it would be 800 bucks. And I, and I know people poo-poo that and they say, well, that's just stupidity. They're greed. Um, the Seiko fives, the SRPD models, the divers quote unquote being 300 bucks. They go, Oh, that's greed. That's ridiculous. I understand, but you're also polluted by the micro brand industry. We simply don't have the overhead or the distribution that a brand like Seiko, Citizen, Timex, any of these guys have. And. I get where their pricing structure comes from a hundred percent. The SKX should be a $500 watch, really should have been. That's the sticker on the, when the US made it, the SKX 173, the sticker price was $495. It should have been a $500 watch, but the, you know, gray market just kind of got wild on it and drove the price way down. They cut out a lot of people in the middle. But like I said, I understand it, but it just leaves a giant gaping hole for somebody like me to come in and I'm not taking away business from them. I mean, obviously I'm taking away some business, but it's such a small, minute amount. You know, I might make a series of a hundred and I sell out of a hundred. Whoop-dee-doo. The Seiko is making 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 a month of one style and they're doing it again. So, uh, that's how it came in. |
| Andrew (Host) | Well, and you know, I think, I suspect, and we'll talk a little bit more about this or maybe we won't. I, you know, I suspect that Seiko is keenly aware, is keenly aware of what's happening with brands like you. And, and dare I say brands like Hamdollar or whatever, some of these Chinese mushroom brands. Sure. I, I suspect that Seiko is very, very in touch with what's happening. And I, I further suspect they suspect that helps them, right? Yes. This is part of their legacy. This community, this Seiko modding community, and this Seiko spinoff community, maybe is an appropriate way to suggest what you're doing, is not hurting them. It's helping them. Even if you're taking one sale, someone has to make a decision. Do I buy an SKX or do I buy a much better spec'd, for the same price, a much better spec'd island watch? Right. That actually, at the end of the day, even if it takes a sale from Seiko, probably supports Seiko's brand. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Mission. Their mission. Sure. And I think, believe it or not, I think a lot of people still, I still get the comments, a lot of people would rather have the history of the Seiko, which I, hey, I fully get it. I mean, you know, a lot of people can't relate to the logo on the watch that I make. Whatever. It doesn't, I'm not making it for you, although I am obviously making it for you to buy, but You know, I just, I just had to reply to this comment today because I get it all the time. People say, you know, your logo sucks. It's fine if you want to say that, but you need to change it and you'd sell a lot more. I can't sell any more than I'm already selling. Yeah. They sell just fine. I, you know, I, I guess Christopher Ward tried to change the logo a few years ago. |
| Andrew (Host) | Wow. Christopher Ward has tried to change their logo like seven times. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah, and that doesn't work too well for them. I like I like my logo. I like the way it looks. And, you know, that's about it. |
| Andrew (Host) | There's got to be someone. I'm sorry, but I have one last important question. We're starting to run short on time. What was so when you decided and when you're on that train? My thinking is that watches like Deep Blue. already exist, right? I'm trying to remember when they kind of came into picture. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | What was the... Oh yeah, no, Stan's been around for many more years than me. Stan, deep blue, he's been around for many more years than I have. |
| Andrew (Host) | Many, many, many. So then what was the thinking taking on the royal pain in the ass of making a better spec'd SKX and then everything that goes along with it as opposed to going with somebody who's already doing that for the most part? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Are you asking why did I make this decision to do it? |
| Andrew (Host) | Instead of going with somebody who was already doing a generally similar thing. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Oh, like reselling someone else's watch? Yeah. Once you're, you know, obviously I've been in the resale business now for, you know, 18 years and I don't understand, I never did understand margins outside of my microcosm. And then once I was able to experience possibly what manufacturing can bring to the table, um, nevermind all the, the more decisions I can make, it made a lot of financial sense for me to try to just go out and do it myself. Uh, but the, really the defining factor was 130,000 YouTube subscribers. I mean, that's, I've got this audience that tunes in to watch my videos and I, You know, I know a lot of brands would kill for a marketing platform like that. I have the marketing platform. So why not? Why not exploit it? You know, I laughed, someone made a comment on my videos. You know, your channel is too much Islanders lately. I'm sorry. That's kind of what I do. The whole purpose of the channel is to further my brand or my store. And I make no bones about that 100%. I mean, everything I do, I profit off of you buying a watch, why I hesitate to call anything I do a review, because I want you to buy it at the end of the day, although I try to give you an honest assessment of what it is. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah, you know, there's there's this expectation of altruism. I think that there's there's a community of watches, of watch enthusiasts that has an expectation of altruism. You know, one of our one of our good friends of the show, EA8 watches, Eric from EA8 makes straps. And he sells straps for a ridiculously low price. He makes custom straps. So I reached out, I mean, this is my own story and it's a very common story, right? I said, Eric, I want this strap. And he said, gosh, that's going to be a hard. I mean, he hustled to find me the leather I wanted. He went to a vendor, he took pictures and he sells them for nothing. And we have publicly and privately shamed Eric over the years about the price of his straps. And he's, I think got this reputation as this altruistic dude and he does it out of love. But at the end of the day, love of the game does not advance the game, right? Every single person that starts a brand is going to do this because they want to put their kids into college and they want to put food on the table. And so I think that this expectation, this altruistic expectation is unreasonable, unnecessary. And probably a little silly, you know, yeah. Heck yeah. My, my YouTube channel is a lot of Islander watches. That's what I'm doing right now. That's how I'm making money. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Right. Absolutely. That's it. That's the, this is what it's what I do. I'm not, I'm not an independent reviewer. Um, I get, it's a, it's a pet peeve of mine. Um, people will say to me, you know, how come. big review channels haven't reviewed the Islander. Um, and the truth is because these big review channels want the watch for free because they sell it afterwards because they don't make enough money on YouTube. Most people don't. Um, you don't make a good sell. You don't make a salary on YouTube. Uh, so they need to supplant or support their income by selling the watch when they're done. And I feel that that's not true journalism at all. Um, and that's why I have a little probably can't see it. I've got five boxes behind me stacked of Islander samples. If you'll take a sample, I'll send it to you and you send it back. It goes back in the box. There's no expectation of reward. There's no expectation of favor. Um, just an unbiased review. Uh, and I feel like that's the only way it should really be. |
| Andrew (Host) | So let's talk before we transition. Let's talk a little bit about Islander watches, where you're at, where you're going. I think you right now have five models. So you've got the full... We know of five models. Well, so you've got like 60 models, right? But let's talk about cases, right? Yeah, yeah. You've got five cases. So the full size 007... You know more than I do. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Pardon me? |
| Andrew (Host) | You know more than I do. So you've got the full size 007, you've got the 38 millimeter 013, and you have 38 mallards. Correct. You've got the samurai. You've got the turtle. And now you think you have what I think is maybe the coolest watch in your collection. And we can talk later about why I think that's cool. But you've also got your 42 millimeter Flickr. Yes. So five models. I think I've hit all of them. Did I? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | You did. You got them all. |
| Andrew (Host) | Those are all of them. And so that I think that's fantastic. I think, you know, we've obviously got a lot of Seiko there. Seiko, meaning cases inspired by Seiko designs. Absolutely. And then you've got your Flieger, which is inspired by a handful of designs. And there may be some specific inspiration. You can talk about that if you want to. Where do you go from here? Where do you go from here? I know you've talked a little bit about your catalog. What does this look like two years, three years down the road? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | So, you know, I try to listen to people and The problem is a lot of people want different things. And I've always been a big fan of the lowest hanging fruit. Dive watches are the lowest hanging fruit by far. And I will make dive watches from now until I'm blue in the face. I will never stop. I will probably have 150 variants of 007s eventually. They just resonate with people. They just work. So that's why I started there. And then I obviously went to the Owen 3 because the 38 millimeter crowd, as I've said in the past, has the largest voice, which amazes me. We're screamers. Exactly. You are screamers. And then I've gone, I've off shot. So then the pilot's watch is a non Seiko case. It's not a traditional Seiko case. But I felt that a pilot's watch was another style, again, It's not the lowest hanging fruit, but it's pretty low on the tree and everybody associates with a flea, with a fleager. Um, so where I go from there is then I'm going to start to hit, I got to hit the dress watch market. Um, I'll come out with, uh, at least two different cases for dress watches. Are you going to get a tank? A couple of different dial variations of each. No, I'm not. I'll tell you. No, it's a no. It's a no, they're all circle cases for now. Everything is round. Yeah, everything's round right now. So I'm going to hit two different kinds of dress watches. I'm going to hit a field watch at 38, 39, like 38, 39 millimeter. And then I'm also hitting a 40 millimeter kind of explorer dial will have a very familiar vibe to some people of what that is. Um, and then there's another dive case in production, uh, that'll come out. Um, that's probably towards the end of this year. Um, and then I see, I have all these homegrown spreadsheets that I started making and I try to plan things out, you know, coming from the engineering field where we worked on programs that were 18, 24, 36 months, I kind of have a good feel for you know, production planning. Uh, and I realized you have to plan today for what you want to release next year. Uh, I've got more ideas in the hopper. Um, but you know, unfortunately time is my, is the quantity I wish I had the most of. Uh, and, uh, I will plan out more just right now. It's just no time for it. |
| Andrew (Host) | Just as a, as a warning, Tudor released a blue watch. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | No, that's okay. They can do that. |
| Andrew (Host) | Yeah, I know. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | It doesn't bother me. |
| Andrew (Host) | Well, you just laid out like nine new watches for us. That's awesome. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot coming, you know, and it's exciting and it's, you know, every time a new watch comes in, I'm, I'm really, so first samples come in, you know, I got to approve samples. Okay, great. You know, go to production and then, A boatload of money leaves my account and they go into production. But then when they come in and I crack open the box and I pull it out, I'm like, oh, it looks awesome. It looks so great. And I'm like, that's the satisfaction. I'm like, yes, I know this is going to be. |
| Andrew (Host) | I've heard it's more efficient to ship things via Eugene. to this house specifically, and then have it forwarded to you. I mean, I don't know for sure, but I've just heard... We don't have metrics on that. |
| Everett (Co-host) | Yeah. |
| Andrew (Host) | Oh, really? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. It's unofficial? |
| Andrew (Host) | So, okay. Okay. Final question. Final question about watches, and then we're going to move on to our next segment. But when you look back at the things you've done so far, and you've now seen, I don't know, 50 different YouTube reviews of your watches, Are there, is there anything that you've done as you've made watches in the last year that you're for sure going to change that you think, I really hate this about my watches or I really, this bugs me. I'm changing this and I'm going to do this moving forward. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | You know, that's a toughie because I designed, specced out the watches with the intention that it's got to have everything that everybody wants. And I truly feel that the Bass Islander has everything that people are looking for. The only thing that kind of gets me a bit is the clasp on the bracelet. Love to see it be a little bit more of a beefier clasp, but it's such, it's so in the minutia that, um, No, I'm happy with everything the way it came out. I don't think there's one model yet. Well, no, that's incorrect. I did. Okay, so I'll back up a little bit. ISL 11, ISL 12, sandblasted turtles. That's a real turtle. |
| Andrew (Host) | Your desk, man. That's a dream. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah. No, that's a nightmare. The sandblasted turtle making a sandblasted case I thought would be so awesome. That was a mistake. People just don't like sandblasting as much as I do. Yeah. Um, so that was the slowest seller. I'll probably sunset that the, the sandblasted product. |
| Andrew (Host) | Um, I'll also say that it's going to blow out your shelves. Like it's just going to explode. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Oh, it's fine. I'd love to get rid of the last a hundred pieces or so that I have. Um, the turtle people, 38 millimeter people, you guys yell and then you buy. The turtle people, you talk a good game and then you don't buy it. You know, I got in, I don't know, 800 or 900 different turtle styles and I was like, yeah, they're really not selling, but not selling great. I really thought after all the humdrum, they'd move a little bit better, but maybe a mini turtle is what everybody wants. |
| Andrew (Host) | And when you say mini turtle, do you mean a smaller, 777 case or do you mean a quote unquote mini turtle case? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | What I would do is I would make a turtle that's all backwards compatible with 007 parts. |
| Andrew (Host) | And if you understand my my distinction, right, we've got the Seiko turtle and then Seiko introduced also the what the community dubbed the mini turtle, which is not really mini. Uh, at all, but the new case, what I think is probably their flagship entry-level diver right now. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I would go. So what I'm, what I would aim to do is the, a totally new case, not the mini turtle, but a just smaller turtle. |
| Andrew (Host) | A 777 turtle in a smaller format. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | In a smaller form. If you look at the bezels, the bezels are about a millimeter and a half over what a 007 is. So I'd want to just shrink it by just that much such that a 007 bezel will fit, a 007 insert will fit, chapter ring, hands, probably not a bracelet, because the lugs are different and stuff. But that's probably where I would go with a mini turtle. Mark, I'm here for it, man. I'm here for it. You small people are awesome. |
| Andrew (Host) | Andrew, other things. Oh, geez. What you got, boo? I've been on a YouTube channel. You and me both. And it's not ours. It's not. I've been watching The Bearded Butchers. Oh man, yes. These guys are great, by the way. I love them. And I've been watching them for a while, but every fall, I go back to meat processing channels to just kind of hone my skills. Right, here we are. Without having to go buy sides of beef and hone my meat processing skills. And and I so I've been watching these guys today and I turned on YouTube today and like noon and I just turned on their channel and I watched for hours and I've been doing this for, you know, the whole time I've not been working. They're terrific. There are these weird like lumber sexual hipster dudes. I don't know if you guys are familiar with lumber sexual. It's like the metro sexual combined with the lumberjack, like bearded, really hardcore dudes, most Pacific Northwest thing. Yeah, it's like these dudes are out of Ohio. But you'd think they're in Portland. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very true. They have these huge lumberjack-y beards and it fits, right? Like artisanal... And like salvage, like salvage, raw salvage denim jeans on. Yeah. Yeah. Like artisanal butchery is a thing in Portland with hipsters. But that's what these guys are. They just happen to be out of Ohio and they make these like cooking shows on their YouTube channel and they all work at the same butcher shop and I don't remember where in Ohio, like White Feather or something like that. But it's got this very sort of open abattoir, progressive meat processing feel to it. And that's their whole, that's their whole jam is they're all like butchery, cooking, like, hey, this is how you can achieve this commercial grade product at your house. And they use a lot of commercial grade products. And they say, if you don't have it, this is what you can use in lieu of, or you can get these, which are reasonably affordable. And this is how you do it. They share all the secrets. |
| Everett (Co-host) | Yeah. |
| Andrew (Host) | They have a whole line of seasonings and sauces that I haven't purchased and probably won't because I like my own mixes. In fact, I have a teriyaki mix of jerky, of meat crackers on my dehydrator right now. Fantastic. I'm super excited about this. But I love their videos. And there's something really, really like calming about watching a dude carve up an animal carcass. And I don't know what it is. Like, I can't speak to it, but there's just something therapeutic about watching this guy just like dissect and carve out all these sides of Critter. Yeah. Yeah. No, there's something about connecting you to the processes, right? And I think that there's something to be said about the open abattoir movement that is not maybe appropriate for our show, but to that end, right? There's something there. |
| Everett (Co-host) | Yeah. |
| Andrew (Host) | That if you get there and you start to feel it, you know, the appreciation of food is really important to me, as many of you probably know. Have you seen Everett? I'm still down like 40 pounds, buddy. You are. I know. You're looking good. But, you know, there's a thing that can happen there. There's a thing that's actually, actually magical, right? Yeah. It's bizarre to just watch these guys like like use their blade as a paintbrush. Yeah, the things that they can accomplish on like just the shoulder of an animal. I'm like, that's a roast. No, it's 35 steaks, right? Yeah, that's great. It's a great YouTube channel. It's one I'm familiar with already. And and they're beautiful dudes. Gorgeous. Yeah, it could be the beard. I don't know. But they're just they're beautiful men to look at. They're yoked there because they just throw around sides of animal all day. Yeah, they're It's an enjoyable experience to watch. Can we talk about vampires? And werewolves? Are we talking about true blood? No, we're talking about Underworld. Oh, it's your other thing time now. So I didn't realize I was done. No, you're done. OK. So you're done. My other thing this week is a series of movies, a series of five movies. I've watched the first three. And and I'm going to admit to have not watched these when they were new. But the underly. Yes, that's right. So there was a series of movies that came out many years ago, early 2000s. Oh, between about 2000 and 2010. Yeah. That I didn't watch at the time because they looked fucking terrible. And in fairness, they they were in fairness, they were kind of terrible. They're not. But they're not. That's right. You've nailed it. You've nailed the analysis, right? So I got a Netflix recommendation to watch this movie called Underworld. And I thought, well, the protagonist is kind of hot. Mm hmm. And oh, that's good enough for me. What do I have to lose? What do I have to lose here? And so I quickly realized that these movies are bad, but not but not. That's right. It's like Blake. So it is like Blade in a lot of ways. And I think that that's a really apt comparison because I did watch Blade in real time, as it were. So I've watched the first three movies now. So movie one, Underworld, and I think movie two is Underworld Evolution. And then movie three is Underworld Rise of the Lycans. Yeah. Which is like the story of the development of this werewolf class that's rising up against its vampire oppressor. It sounds bad. We're not telling you it doesn't. And I'm going to tell you it is kind of bad. It is kind of bad. And I'm not going to, I'm not going to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. There's a lot about this that if you're a movie buff, you're going to say, with that said, it's been very enjoyable. Yeah, you don't look at your watch. It's been very enjoyable. So I'm three movies in and I thought, gosh, this is the kind of thing that we should talk about on the show, right? This stupid, cheap, easy to digest. I've really enjoyed it, man. We've talked about this. This is my gauge for whether or not I like a movie. How many times I check a watch during it to see what time it is. Flags of Iwo Jima. It was a it was a huge movie, an award winning movie. I checked my watch every 30 minutes. It's like the thin red line. Yeah, it's like come on. It's only been 10 minutes. Get the fuck out of here. This is so good and I'm so bored. Underworld, you don't check your watch. Yeah, that's right. Partly because you're too scared. So super good. I want to cut that off there because we're way over time. This is going to be a long episode. You guys, I'm sorry if you're listening. It could have been way longer. Yeah, no, it should have been longer, which makes me think we'll have to have Mark Rack someday. But Mark, Other things, I know you've got something and we're both super excited about it. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Well, it's funny because before we started, you asked if I've ever been on another podcast. I've never listened to any other podcast in my life. I don't go down any rabbit holes. I just work. And about four months ago or so, Scrubs, the TV show from 2000. Sarah Gilbert for life. Zach and Donald Faison started and I'm a big fan of the show. So I started listening to it. And then all of a sudden they came on a commercial for Leah Romini was doing a podcast on Scientology. I was like, I think I want to listen to that. I always hear a lot about Scientology. I want to hear what's going on. |
| Andrew (Host) | Is this when she was on Joe Rogan's show? |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | So she she started her own podcast. So she had the Aftermath on A&E. And then I guess that ended after a couple of seasons. And now her and that guy, Mike are doing their own podcast together. And it is, I love this. It's, it's like a guilty pleasure. I love listening to it. You know, it's a, you know, she's anti Scientology, I guess. So she was in and she got out. And I just think it's fat. It's a fascinating, um, glimpse into the, into this cult that kind of sucks people in, um, gets their money out of them. They're not allowed to leave. And it's all happening, I guess, in every country, especially right here in the U.S. They have all these different bases around the country. And I'm sorry to say it's kind of piqued my curiosity and so bad that I just signed up for HBO Max so I could watch a documentary called Gone Clear or Going Clear. |
| Andrew (Host) | Oh, yeah, Going Clear. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Going Clear. I just started watching it actually not long before we started. Now it's just this is I think it's so fascinating and interesting, this whole, I know nothing about Scientology, I know that my brother read Dianetics when he was in high school, and I was like, what is that book? And no, he's not a Scientologist, I just don't think he is. I was just going to ask that. No, I don't think he is. |
| Andrew (Host) | You'd know. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | I don't talk to him much. Well, I don't talk to him much. You'd know. I guess you would, right? Yeah, he'd probably be jumping up on a couch like Tom Cruise. You know, I guess that's my other thing, my guilty pleasure. That's kind of what I've been. There's not much I do other than work. That's something that kind of grabbed my attention. |
| Andrew (Host) | Scientology is fascinating. The entire occurrence is fascinating because the people that buy into it, they're financially, but also like emotionally, they're bought into it. And everyone else is like either they know nothing about it and like, oh, whatever. I don't know. Tom Cruise jumped on a couch. It's weird, but he does cool stunts in Mission Impossible. Or they like are a little like they're aware of all the crazy stuff that goes on. And there is some crazy shit associated with Scientology. And I don't know how to how to reconcile that people are fully bought in. Yes. With like. There's some crazy shit, like some scary shit associated with it. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah, it's it's fascinating. Yeah, no, it is. People obviously people buy into all if you want to call it a religion, people buy into all religions, you know, lock, stock and barrel. But this one, man, its premises and everything. I don't know why I'm on one aspect. I'm like, who would be interested in watching this? And the other aspect, I'm like, I can't wait to see the next episode. |
| Andrew (Host) | It's me. It's me. I'm very excited. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Yeah, yeah. |
| Andrew (Host) | Well, that's, you know, I think it's one of those things, right? It's so easy to get sucked in. I've been sucked into various, you know, things that I'm like, how is this possible? Vacuum cleaners, flat earth society is the one that, you know, like just even thinking about it just blows my mind. So I was on an airplane for two and a half hours listening to a flat earther and I was sort of convinced. So here we are at an hour 18 probably where you guys said an hour 15 or so maybe an hour 13 and it's what you asshole who complains about us not talking about watches for the first 15 minutes we didn't talk about watches for the first 50 minutes I'm gonna sneak in an extra other thing okay so if you're still listening and you're still enjoying what you're hearing I want you to go to HBO and and I almost made this thing my other thing this week and then I decided not to and then I'm gonna go back to everything I'm gonna bonus it So there's a new HBO series. There's a new HBO series, and it's called Raised by Wolves. I couldn't decide why you brought this on my phone. It's called Raised by Wolves. I'm going to tell you guys, I don't have authority. I don't have authority from where I sit to tell you all the details, but the owner of a brand new micro brand, Albany Watches, is in this series. And he told me, Hey, I'm in this. You should check it out. So I watched the first episode, which is, I'll tell you this much. The only episode he's in. But he's fantastic. He is really good in it. But this series really so Mark, you mentioned you have HBO Max. You've just got HBO Max. Yes. So you should with your HBO Max. Please, please check this out. Check this out. But it's really, really good. I think that this might be our next great sci fi series. I think it might be a great or next great sci fi series. And just so you know, the owner of Albany Watches is in this. So I'm not going to tell you who he is. If he gives me permission later on, I'll tell you who he is. But he's an actor in this show. And it was I watched the first three episodes. Dead body number three. He's he is a red shirt. I'll tell you that. With that said, Raised by Wolves, HBO Max, please check it out. Mark, before we sign off today, I'd like to give you an opportunity to say anything you want to. about what you've got going on right now where people can find you that sort of thing. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | Sure. So I never had to shout myself out before. No, shout yourself out. You follow me on Instagram. Obviously, Long Island watch follow me on YouTube under the same name. And I just appreciate every customer every follow you buy something you don't buy something you buy something you return it doesn't matter to me. I'm just happy to meet people. that are perpetuating this great hobby of ours. Because really, at the end of the day, that's all it is. Our smartphones tell the time a hell of a lot better than our mechanical watches. |
| Andrew (Host) | That was such a good pun, man. I got to comment on it. This great hobby of ours. Yes, it is. Holy shit. |
| Mark Frankel (Guest) | So good. It comes from my account in the first year I walked in and I said, oh, should we talk about my business now, or should we start with the personal finances? He looks at me, he goes, you don't have a business. He goes, you have a hobby. So I've always called it a hobby. |
| Andrew (Host) | Do you spell it with an H or a U when you apply it places? Hobby? No, hours. On that note, Andrew. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we go for the day? No. Well, thank you at home for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on Instagram at 40 in 20 or at Watch Clicker. Obviously, check out Mark at Long Island Watches, longislandwatches.com. It's the shit, you guys. If you're buying a watch and Long Island Watches carries it, we can't recommend them as a vendor more than we already do. If you want to support 40 and 20, check us out on patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's where The Watch Clicker and 40 and 20 gets all of our hosting monies, money for hardware, anything that we do on this show that costs money, we've paid for it through Patreon and we thank you for that. Don't forget to tune in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye. |
| Everett (Co-host) | Hello, everyone. |