Episode 103 - Brett Williams of Albany Watches

Published on Wed, 14 Oct 2020 22:52:32 -0700

Synopsis

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This is a podcast episode featuring Brett Williams, the owner and founder of Albany Watch Company. Brett discusses the successful Kickstarter campaign for his debut watch, the Ama Diver, which draws inspiration from the Japanese pearl divers known as Ama. The conversation covers topics such as the watch's design, specifications, and the story behind its conception. Brett also shares insights into his acting career, having worked on shows like Outlander, Black Sails, and Raised by Wolves, and his experiences working with directors like Ridley Scott.

Additionally, the hosts engage in casual conversation about various topics, including sustainability efforts, golfing, surfing, and DIY home improvement projects. The episode offers a glimpse into the world of microbrands, combining watch enthusiasm with personal anecdotes and banter between the hosts and their guest.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 1420, the Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm so much better now that I cracked this beer. This is like the world.
Andrew Me too. Every week, every week when I come over, I text you the same thing. You keto? Question mark? That's true. And usually you say yes, but when you don't, boy, it's a party. Because I don't, I mean, I, I, the seltzer is just as good, but I prefer beer when it's not just as good. Seltzer is okay. Beer is very good. So I get to get a six pack of beer on my way over and we're drinking beer.
Everett And then we drink that beer. Yeah. Uh, and I do appreciate you for doing that so much.
Andrew It's the only thing I do for the process of the show.
Everett I mean, you do more than that.
Andrew No, I grease, I grease the skids of creativity via beer when I bring it over.
Everett You do more than that. Uh, yeah, no, I'm good. I had a long weekend. Uh, I had a long weekend, a golf weekend. Yeah, which was fun. I went to this beautiful, we've got a resort out here in Oregon, just about two hours from us. It's more than that. It's like three. I think we got there in two and a half. You know, you know how these things go. Yeah. But yeah, so I played 54 holes of golf, drank a bunch, won some poker. So I just had like. Yeah, that's a good weekend. Like a dude's weekend. And you have all your clothes? I mean, intermittently.
Andrew OK.
Everett Most your teeth? I got, I kept, I retained all of those.
Andrew Yes. And just a faint black eye.
Unknown Yeah, that's right. Jackpot.
Everett Deserved, deserved, deserved.
Andrew How are you, sir? Good. I've been renovating a half bathroom in our house. Yeah. And it's been, so when we moved in, it was just in, it was kind of scary. We bought the house and I was like, I don't really like this weird poop cave because it's not, it's, it's in a converted garage that was converted into a master suite and it's only a half bathroom. So that's all it is. It's just a poop cave, right? It's not really attached to the living space. That room has now become a family room and we don't ever, we never use that bathroom such that it's had a bookcase in front of its door for the better part of a year. That's accurate. So I started tearing it apart and I think I'll finish tomorrow. Nice. I've got, I've got every, every, so part of the issue was that it was a half inch plywood that was just painted, um, which was just, horrifying, right? And it wasn't it wasn't painted well. It was like they missed spots and not just missed spots. They didn't paint the spots where they couldn't reach behind the toilet, you know, in the corners. It had weird.
Everett A lazy blind man painted it.
Andrew Yeah, it had it. It was just it was disgusting. So you're you're getting there now. You've hung drywall. Drywall's hung. It's the drywall sealed. The vanity is in. I'm putting up the paneling and molding in the morning. A couple of things that I need to go get to Lowe's because I broke some stuff and We're going to go Lowe's tomorrow and then finish it up. Light fixture and paint will go on hopefully tomorrow evening. Kapok. Yeah. Jackpot. It's good. So I'm tired. Yeah. And I'm also like, you know, that weird, you just kind of have residual splinters all over your body. Yeah. I have that. Yeah. I hate that feeling. Also a little bit of rasp from drywall dust.
Everett Sure. Yeah. That stuff's probably not good for you.
Andrew You know, it makes good, makes for really good boogers. Yeah. Like really good boogers. That's true. That's a satisfying booger.
Unknown Oh, yeah, it is.
Andrew Pull out that black. Pull you inside out kind of booger. Oh, yeah, there there's something.
Everett Well, we've we've got a guest on the line. We should. We should bring him in now that we've talked about boogers. Yes, that's the that was the segue. Check that off. So this we were just we were just saying this is our perhaps maybe not 100 percent, but most likely. Well, I'll look right now. Our very first guest. with his own IMDB page. We've got the owner of Albany Watch Company, owner and founder of Albany Watch Company, and actor extraordinaire, Brett Williams on the line. Brett, how are you? I'm good.
Brett Williams I'm good, thanks.
Everett How are you? You just heard all about it, but we're probably better than you because it is a relatively early evening here, 8.30, and we have just, in real time, watch the sun, your Southern hemisphere sun rise in the background of your image, which is terrific.
Andrew That, that view.
Unknown Look at that mountain.
Brett Williams Yeah. That's like a, that's Table Mountain. That's, um, like an international landmark. It's a wonder of the world.
Everett So you, you are in Cape town, South Africa. I am in downtown ish, obviously with a wonderful view of, and you call it Tabletop Mountain. Table Mountain. Table Mountain, excuse me. And I'm not familiar, but I'll be Googling.
Brett Williams Yeah. It's the first thing you see when you come into Cape Town. So it's a landmark for everything. It's really, really massive. And we're like one kilometer from the sea all around. I can just, when I drive to my partner's office, when we go and do business, I drive all around the coast. It's incredible. Really, really beautiful.
Everett Yeah. I mean, it's gorgeous. It looks, it reminds me of, uh, of Sedona in Arizona. That's what, that's what I, uh, it occurs to me.
Andrew It looks like. There's not an ocean there though.
Everett That's true. No ocean. Maybe one day, maybe one time there was.
Brett Williams Maybe, maybe, yeah. A couple of billion years ago, it might've looked, might've looked fairly similar. Um, yeah. So I apologize for my croaky, my croaky throat. I had a cigarette last night celebrating the launch of Albany. One of those click cigarettes. Um, you know, I was being all hardcore.
Unknown Yeah, that is very hardcore.
Brett Williams Yeah. Yeah. Super. It had two clicks actually. Blueberry and mint. Nice. Yeah. Living on the edge. Sounds like a good mojito. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The mojito in a stick form that you have to light and inhale. It's a perfect kind of thing. Um, so I saw that you guys were cracking open the beers. Yes, sir. Yes. Yes, sir.
Everett That's one of our trademarks.
Andrew Oh, look at you, joining the party.
Brett Williams Join you with a tiny whiskey at five thirty in the morning.
Andrew And a congratulations to you. Cheers. Congratulations. Because as of about 10 minutes ago, you guys are at $60,000. So what's that, $40,000 beyond your goal? I forget what your goal, what your target was.
Brett Williams We were, our target was $30,000. So you've doubled it. Yeah, we're at 65 now. So our target was 30 and we cracked it in 55 minutes. Wow, wonderful. It's amazing to watch.
Everett And so now in a matter of about 12 hours, you and your partner, you mentioned earlier, you have a partner, you and your partner are now concocting and working on stretch goals.
Brett Williams Great. It's, it's an didn't expect it to kind of steamroll so quickly to snowball. And so then people started saying, hey, what are you doing for stretch goals? And we already had one in the pipeline, which we've put up, which is a Silver Sun versatile, which is going to look amazing. And then I actually opened it up to the backers. I wanted to know what they wanted for a stretch goal.
Everett Are you guys getting feedback on that already?
Brett Williams Absolutely. I didn't want to impose my iron will as a brand owner.
Andrew No, that's how you start off. You let people know, this is what I'm doing. You're going to like it.
Brett Williams Yeah. Yeah. And you will like it.
Everett Yeah. So for those of you who are sitting at home thinking, okay, Brett Williams, you've talked about acting, you've talked about Albany Watch Company, but you still don't know what I'm talking about. If you've not heard of Albany Watch Company, Albany is a brand new company, been sort of in the the watch circle for about a year, uh, presenting this pending watch, this Alma diver dive watch skin diver, I'd call it. Although, uh, although it is certainly not spec'd like a traditional skin diver, it's spec'd very much like a full spec, legit, no shit dive watch at, at 30 atmospheres. But this is a 300 meter, I would say sort of a traditional Japanese 62 MAS. style skin diver. So why don't you tell us, why don't you tell us first about Albany watches, give us the name and then maybe we'll talk a little bit about your watch.
Brett Williams So Albany is actually, I've, you know, when I, when I bought the name out Albany, people are like, Oh man, I'm from New York, Albany, New York. And I was, I had to say, I apologize. My dad is from Albany, Australia, and he grew up on the West coast of Albany, which is an ex whaling town. When I was a kid, and even now, he'd always tell me about the crazy stuff that he'd do in Albany and these crazy adventures. I mean, he was a champion boxer of Western Australia who was, who went on to almost become a 1968 Olympic gymnast, and then chose to, yeah, so just boxer turned gymnast. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. He was a box. He was a boxer and he met a Christian brother who said, why are you doing this? Come I'll teach you gymnastics. almost became an Olympic gymnast and chose to go into the seminary instead. And then they kicked him out after six months.
Everett They're like, you're too athletic for this.
Brett Williams It was like a real, it was like a real dough moment. You know, I was like, Oh, my dad could have been an Olympian. Um, and then he, he traveled the world a bit and he wound up in South Africa. And that's, um, that's where I come from. Yeah. So Albany is like, it's an homage to like his adventurous spirit and his sense of wanderlust. I mean, I've written that before and it really is true. That's, um, that's, that's the essence of it.
Andrew Yeah. So, so that, that sense of, of adventure, you've written it, it's all over your Kickstarter campaign. It's, it's, it's what, what I'm feeling is, is your vision for this watch, the, the watch to, to take you on adventures for the Ama specifically. And I, I will have to circle back to the brand, but I want to ask that is this AMA as the AMA diver, are all your watches going to follow the same tradition of finding this really, really unique thing and paying respect to it via a watch?
Everett Oh, homage perhaps in the classic sense of the word, in the colloquial sense of the word.
Brett Williams Yeah, absolutely. So I've been researching like a lot of stories. There's there's a crazy story. I'm actually looking at the book now. It's called The Sense of the World. And it's about a British marine who went blind in the 1800s and then traveled the world as a blind man alone. fought the slave trade, was imprisoned in Russia as a spy. There's like these incredible like stories of people who just did these amazing adventures that not a lot of people really know about. The next watch is going to be a GMT and is based on, I don't want to give too much away, but it's based on two German airmen who crashed off the coast of Australia in the 30s and sort of fought off starvation, saltwater crocodiles, and were eventually found by an aboriginal tribe. The one guy went completely nuts, but the guy who survived, that's who we're focusing on.
Andrew I mean, who wouldn't? There's no place worse on the planet Earth to be marooned than the island of Australia. Everything there can kill you.
Everett Everything can kill you. You can do a stretch goal for a watch based on the crazy guy.
Brett Williams I could like, like we could do like a free therapy session. You're absolutely right. Like everything in Australia wants to kill you. When I lived there, when I moved there, I was terrified. I was terrified of the funnel web spiders because they can bite through boot leather. I mean, you know, it's my dad got chased through a paddock by a King Brown snake, which is one of the top deadly snakes in the world.
Andrew I think 10 of the 12 live there or something like that, like the majority of them are in Australia.
Brett Williams Absolutely. It's like everything wants to kill you. There's the box jellyfish, which you can't see because it's tiny, you know?
Everett And that's maybe the scariest animal on the face of the earth, right? The box jellyfish.
Brett Williams It's insane. Yeah, it's the it's the the scariest animal that you can see through, you know?
Unknown Yeah, I hate that.
Brett Williams It's like so benign, but it, but it, um, yeah, but it's, yeah, it's tiny.
Everett Um, you know, I saw this, I saw this documentary on these fellows who were, who were hunting or maybe not hunting, not, not to, not for game, but, but sort of looking for box jellyfish for research purposes. And I saw that. And in this documentary, at one point they run into a school of box jellyfish and they all get stung. And the next scene is them in the hospital, just writhing in agony.
Brett Williams You've seen this, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've seen it. It's like, I think, I think what happened was they got on onto the boat and the woman took her mask off and one of the tentacles or I don't know, what do you call them? The stingers had broken off on her mask. And as she took it off, it grazed her face and she ended up in the hospital. And then the guy was like, Oh my God, are you okay? And then he took his glove off and the same thing happened to him. And you see them like doubled over in pain in the hospital. It's absolutely insane.
Everett God, that does not look fun.
Brett Williams Nope. I've actually been to that part of the coast. I filmed a Steven Spielberg series called The Pacific. I don't know if you know that.
Everett We've talked about it on the show.
Brett Williams Only vaguely. Yeah, we've talked about it on the show.
Everett So fantastic, fantastic segue, because Brett, you, as we mentioned earlier, are not only the creator of this fantastic Amawatch, but in your day job, as it were. You're also a professional actor with a significant resume at this point. So tell us a little bit about that. Tell us about acting. How'd you get into it? What have you done? I mean, we know a little bit about what you've done, but. Yeah.
Brett Williams So, you know, the genesis is I was watching the Oscars in my morning and I saw, what's his face? Oh my God, I can't remember his name now. The Road Warrior, Mad Max. Mel Gibson. Our favorite anti-Semite. That's right.
Everett Yes, that's right. Son of Australia.
Brett Williams Actually, he's from New York. Okay, fair enough. But I'm not surprised to be roughed up in Australia. Yes, I saw Mel Gibson win the Oscar for Braveheart and he was at some party and I was like, that's what I want to do. I want to go to parties. So, yeah, I thought I'd be an actor.
Everett That's the way to go. Many great careers started exactly the same way.
Brett Williams Yes, absolutely. Yeah, so I went to drama school in Australia because my dad's Australian. I decided to study there. I was going to join the Air Force if I didn't get in, but I can't fly because I'm colorblind. So I really pushed. I got in. And then I graduated, I didn't get an agent, and I came back to South Africa and I started working straight away in commercials and little stuff. I mean, the industry here was pretty small, very big for commercials. All the international people come here for that, but the film and TV stuff has started to come in slowly. So we filmed a lot of like, like Homeland was shot here, Outlander was shot here, part of Outlander. And I've slowly worked my way into doing better and better stuff i actually i moved back to australia and um and with my son at the time it was ten i was i suppose i am a single dad and he's twenty three now so i moved back to australia when he was ten and as i cracked my first big role in australia i had to turn it down because i just i didn't have the money you know to survive i had to i had to take a job as an sda travel agent oh man oh man
Everett Yeah. And so what was the role?
Brett Williams What was the role? There was a show called Underbelly, which is a sort of a, I think a cult cop show about the underbelly of Australia. It's all these like significant criminal, um, families and, and players in the criminal underworld. And it was for season three, I went in as a John who was hiring a prostitute and, um, They were like oh they really liked you they thought you were fantastic but they want to give you a role as a political analyst much bigger role.
Andrew Moving up in the world like we don't we don't buy this.
Brett Williams So, yeah, I've done some crazy stuff, man. I spent like a month or two months on a sailboat that was exactly the same as Jacques Cousteau's Calypso, because we filmed the French film called L'Odyssée with Audrey Tattoo and Pierre Nanais. And we got to like cruise around for seven hours a day on this boat as the crew of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso. It was a biopic.
Everett Fantastic. And, and did you get, did you gain your sea legs in that time? I feel like I would have just been sick for two months.
Brett Williams You know what? Yeah. So I got on the boat and I was like, Oh, I don't need any seasickness pills. Thank you. I'm fine. And I didn't quite understand projectile vomiting until I was on the boat. You know, um, it, yeah, the first day, seven hours, I couldn't get off the boat. Yeah. It was insane. It was like, It's, uh, I don't know if you've ever, if you've ever had seasickness. Oh yeah. Yep. Yes.
Everett Yes I have.
Brett Williams Yep. There you go. Yeah. It's unrelenting.
Andrew And for hours after you're back on planet earth, you're still sick. Yeah. Nothing makes sense. The world's upside down and you just vomit.
Everett Andrew, do we need to talk about the science of the, of the surface of the planet? Do we, is that a thing we need to talk about?
Andrew No, you, if you were in the middle of the ocean, like if you're on earth, and you fall, you're good. You get exhausted and you collapse. You're good. If you're on the ocean, in the ocean. Off of planet Earth. Off of planet Earth. You die when you get exhausted because you sink. We're not a science podcast.
Everett Just caveat for anybody listening. Oh, we're not a science podcast. Yeah. No, that's accurate. Well done. Well done. So so so you see a French French film, but but you've also been in significant significant Shows, I think, primarily that are very well known to some of our American audience, I would think, although I'm very proud to say our audience spans the globe. I think we're probably about 70% American listeners, but we've got upwards towards 30% of our listeners around the globe. And so there could be some folks in Europe that maybe know more of the stuff, but certainly of things that I'm very familiar with. I think each of these three shows, are shows that have been other things. I think so. Yeah. So Outlander, you were in Outlander. I think I think a pretty cool scene of Outlander. In fact, I told I was telling my wife, oh, he was in Outlander. This is the scene. She was like, Oh, and your name of your character was.
Brett Williams Mr. Olivier. Mr. Olivier. Yes. Well, actually, actually, I'm not quite, I am not quite sure. I haven't checked the IMD. It was either Mr. Oliver, or I think initially it was Mr. Olivier, which, which I was like, Oh, he sounds quite interesting. And then it was like, Hello, I'm Joseph Oliver, you know, in whatever accent it was. It was a West Country accent, actually, which is really hard to do because everyone does the Northern now and West Country is quite different.
Everett And maybe more of a classic accent too, right?
Brett Williams Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty cool. I mean, it's nice to kind of do that kind of stuff. And I think in the film industry in Cape Town, we're sort of expected to like, oh, can you do an Irish accent? Absolutely. Or an American or You know?
Everett Okay, so let's do it. Let's do it since we're here. Let's hear some Irish. Come on, man. No, I can't.
Brett Williams You can't do that to me.
Everett Okay, well, at least give us your American accent. I'm deadly curious about this. Yeah, let's hear it.
Brett Williams Okay, so, you know, I got this watch. It's new.
Unknown Kickstarter. Found it in 55 minutes. Pretty good. I have to get into it a bit.
Everett Bravo. That was fantastic. Hold on, let's do this one. Oh no, that's the wrong one. Nope, still. Yay, that's the one I was looking for.
Brett Williams I think that's the timeline of the accent that you got right there. I started from shit and got a bit better.
Everett No, that's good. You know, with Christopher Walken, I think the dead space is really important and you nailed it. Well done.
Andrew And for those of you who couldn't Well, none of you will get to actually see that occur. The mannerisms were right. It was the head bob along with it.
Everett I think that's part of it, right? I think that's what you've got to get the mannerisms. They pull the accent. So also Black Sails, Black Sails, which is a show that we've talked about on our show prior to knowing you. It's probably been another thing twice. I think that's possible. Yeah, I think that's possible. And so you were a pirate referee in Black Sails.
Brett Williams I was. I actually had a role before that they cut out, where it was all me, and it was for the end of season two, and they ended up running out of time, so they had to cut the scene.
Everett It had nothing to do with your abilities.
Brett Williams No. The pirate scene was on the west coast of Cape Town, and it was a week on this intensely hot beach. Not, I don't know if I can say this, but a couple of extras passed out because you're in like thick woolen, like pirate clothing gets like 40 degrees here. I don't know what that, that is in Fahrenheit, but it's a bucket.
Everett It's like, it's like death Valley.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett That's like 110. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Williams Yeah. It's, it's very hot. Um, and so we did this, the scene, it took a week to do, and I was like shitting myself because opposite to like heavyweight actors, And, um, it was great, but the fight scene, that sword fight scene that you see in that, in that show is they were doing it. And, and the one actor is a very big guy and he was, you know, you've got these big pirate boots and you're doing a sword fight on sand, on beach sand. And the stunt coordinator was like yelling at him instructions and he just fucking lost it. Sorry, can I say that? Yeah, you can say whatever you want. Please, fuck, fuck, say what you want. And he totally lost it. And then when they did the scene, it was like he had this anger and the stunt guy was, I could see the stunt guy was like, Oh my God. It was like they'd choreographed it, but he was like really like swinging hard and it worked really well. But you learn sometimes those older actors, Um, they can, they can take things like really seriously. I don't personally, you know, but some people take things really seriously. There was a show that shot here that was based on Troy and, and we all talk in the industry, you know, because we're all Cape Town actors and they were like, man, those British, British actors, they're like, Before they get into the scene, they're like, fucking cunt, fucking whack. Getting all like aggressive to get into the scene or like putting their fingers down their throat to choke themselves so that they've got tears. It's like, it's insane.
Unknown It's too hardcore.
Brett Williams I'm like, what are you doing? It's like, dude, just, just act, just get into the scene and do it, you know? Um, I guess, I guess whatever you got to do, right? Whatever you got to do. It's the weird thing is whatever works for you and works on screen, you know?
Everett Um, and so most recently, most recently and very recently, we've talked about this on the show, I think in the last month or so. Uh, and you and I, uh, Brett, we've been talking, uh, I guess for the better part of six months, uh, pretty frequently, quite a bit. Uh, I know, I know a lot about you that we're not going to cover in the show. And I, and I suspect, you know, a lot about me that's never been covered in the show and that's okay. Um, but you had said, Hey, I am in this show, this new show on HBO, uh, called Raised by Wolves. and it's premiering and you should check it out. And so you and I were, I was like live, live blogging the show to you, chatting with you as I watched it. And I said, Oh, I can see you. And, uh, and no, no spoilers. Uh, I won't get into too many spoilers, but at some point I reached a point and said, Oh, I don't think you're going to survive that. And I guess maybe that is a spoiler. And I can't remember exactly what you said to me and say, yeah, it's a tough industry or something like that. Yeah. But you were in at least the early parts of this new fantastic HBO Ridley Scott sci-fi show Raised by Wolves. I think we should talk about watches a little bit. But before we do, can we can you just talk a little bit about working with Ridley Scott?
Brett Williams Yeah, man. Okay, so just to sort of set the scene, he's 82. Okay, he's, he's, I never realized he was 82. He's, He's the hardest working person I've ever met and he storyboards every single scene that he does. So the entire, he did the first two episodes, the first two episodes, so the entire first two episodes are storyboarded by him. You know, people would say like, Oh, if he wants to show the camera guy what to do, he'll just quickly like storyboard it. He's amazing. He's, he's like, you know, whether artistically, whether you agree with, you know, there's obviously some contention with certain films he's done in the alien franchise, but he is, he is a master. Why'd they take their masks off their helmets off, you know, suspend your disbelief. Come on, man. Um, he is a master. He's incredible. He, He's kind of, um, you know, working with him, he's all about the creative process and the, and visuals. I think, I think he's a visual storyteller. So he's, he's just incredible. He's, he's great to work with. He didn't say goodbye to me, but you know, that's okay.
Andrew You know what he did in a storyboard?
Brett Williams Yeah. He said, I've got a great, can I say that? Can I spoiler it?
Everett I mean, yeah, go ahead, man. Mute the next two minutes if you don't want to hear it.
Brett Williams Yeah, he was like, um, he was like, cause I'd read the script and I was like, Oh, so my hand, my hand explodes. So maybe I'm coming back. And then he came up to me and he was like, I've got a great death scene for you. And I was like, Oh no.
Everett That's how he said goodbye. Yeah, that's how he said goodbye.
Andrew He gave you a marvelous death. Goodbye, Brett.
Brett Williams He did. He did. And we, um, we shot the death scene where we shot that whole scene. And I thought we were still rehearsing and he was like, cut, moving on. So I was like, um, I haven't, I've got my best work to give.
Everett Well, I will say it was pretty neat. It's pretty neat to be on HBO. Uh, which I had to, I had to order, you know this, but I had to order a Chromecast in order to watch this thing because I'm a Roku guy. And Roku, when they made the switch from HBO Go to HBO Max, Roku lost its access to HBO shows. So I had to order a Chromecast and make sure it was here for the premiere. That's right. That's right. So it was really cool, though, to be watching this and talking to the person I'm watching on the TV in real time via DM. Yeah, it was it was pretty neat. So, well, I think that this I think I've got a reasonable segue here. Uh, not that we were okay. We'll see about this. Not that we worry too much about segues, but, uh, you know, talking about, uh, Ridley Scott and perhaps, you know, maybe a most recent alien movie that, that maybe, uh, had limited, uh, critical appeal. Even if I enjoyed the shit out of it. Um, I think that watches are a similar thing as, as movies, as, as any expression of art, right? And I'm not sure that it's always fair to call a watch art. I think they're commodities, perhaps more than anything. But it seems to me that the best watches, the watches that we like the most, are watches that sort of take some risks, tell a story, don't look like every other watch, but that conform to a certain set of rules. When you were designing this first, your debut watch, this Amadiver, Uh, how much are you thinking about those things? You know, I want to be, I want to be making an expression, but also making something that could be commercially successful.
Brett Williams Um, that's a really, it's, it's a really difficult thing to balance actually, because this is my first, it's not the first watch I've designed. I did design another watch, which, which was horrific. Sure.
Everett Like your first movie.
Brett Williams Like, like, like, It was my Stallone porn movie, basically. It was horrific. It's a really difficult balance because you become part of a community and you've got everybody else's opinions filtering in about what they like and what they don't like and what works and what doesn't. I'm an artist as well. I'm not just an actor, I paint as well, and I'm always trying to find a truth in something, if that makes any sense. For me, the story aspect is really significant in the watch. It's just as important as any of the design aspects. For me, it's a holistic approach to product design, if I can say that. You know, because otherwise it's just a watch for me.
Everett And you can find watches on Amazon for under a hundred bucks.
Brett Williams You can find them at Walmart for five bucks. Yeah, exactly. You know, you can you can find them on Alibaba for five bucks.
Andrew I want to I want to circle back real, real briefly. So we've got your acting career. Yeah. At what point did you decide, number one, watches and number two, I'm going to design one. And then take it to market. Talk about that transition, that process.
Brett Williams So my first significant watch was a Rolex, an Omega Seamaster. That's part of the story. My dad bought a gold Omega Seamaster in 1969, year 1969 when he left Australia. And he gave it to me. He's not a watch guy. And he gave it to me when I was 18 years old and it was too big for my wrist. I went overseas and my girlfriend had a little problem with a few things and ended up selling it while I was overseas for those few things. And that was the genesis of my kind of watch enthusiasm. I scoured the internet looking for that. Then I discovered more automatic watches. My first automatic watch after that was a Turtle, which I've still got, Sega Turtle. And I started getting into the microbrand thing. and was looking at designs and I was just blown away by how people were taking their dream and their designs and somehow getting it out there. And other people were interested. And I was like, well, I like design. You know, I was designing car suspension. I'm restoring an old muscle car. So I was redesigning the suspension. I thought, well, I'd love to design a watch on the same software. And that's where it started. And then I started getting into the story aspect of things that influenced the design
Andrew um the design language with the hands and especially the second hand with the harpoon second hand the pearl dial um and it was a really organic kind of flow from there and so it's just it's in your nature you're just uh you're a tinkerer you're like i can i can do this i can you're envisioning it and you just want to take your take your vision to to reality absolutely so so with that let's talk about the ama diver finally we're here we're here we made it 38 minutes in. Congratulations.
Unknown High five. Virtual. Yeah. Yeah.
Brett Williams We got you. Cool. Um, so the Yama dive is, uh, as you said, a skin diver, it's a 300 meter, um, certified dive watch. Well, it's tested. No, I don't want to say certified. It's tested to 300 meters. Um, it's inspired by the Pearl divers of Japan who are known as the Yama. It is, as you said, it's got that 62 MAS style case, which is like so 1960s, 70s, beautiful. You know, I just, I love the lugs. I love the utilitarian nature of the case. It's really beautiful. It's got inner AR sapphire crystal for the dome. It's got a sapphire crystal bezel insert. The movement of the bezel is extremely precise. There's no back play. That was actually one of the things that took me to my new manufacturer. I couldn't get the bezel action right with another manufacturer, so I didn't want to go into production with that and give that to potential backers. It's got a Miyota 9039 movement, which is fantastic, I think. Wonderful. Yeah, wonderful movement. Yeah, it's really good.
Everett Meaning no date, you're all three of these are all three of your sort of initial models are no date, no date models.
Brett Williams Yep, there's no ghost stop or anything like that. I tested the prototypes initially with a Sellita and a Seiko. And then, you know, it just made sense to do a Japanese movement anyway, with a Japanese inspired watch. So I went with the Miyota.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. And I think in terms of movements, we see a lot of watches with the NH35. Yeah. And we see maybe slightly fewer watches with the 9015, 9039, 90S5 range of things. I think our sort of general opinion is that the Miyota movement is better in every way, but perhaps one, You've got, uh, I say perhaps one, cause this doesn't bother me at all, but it's got that unidirectional rotor, which can, which can cause the, uh, helicoptering, I think is what I would call it. Uh, I don't think that's problematic at all, but I, I know that's a, but in terms of- I like feeling my rotor transition both ways.
Andrew I just like it. In terms of- I wear my watch on the right wrist. It doesn't, it doesn't wind properly.
Everett It's a higher beat rate. I think it's over a full millimeter thinner. Um, it's just, uh, every bit as reliable. Um, I think it's just, it's just a superior movement. It's wonderful.
Brett Williams I didn't realize, but it actually has three screws holding down the rotor. Um, which is maybe overkill.
Everett Yeah. With NH35 it just has the one, just the, just the one, one screw.
Brett Williams As does the 2824. Yeah. Um, You know, but for me, it's, I don't, you know, people say, Oh, it's a noisy movement, but I don't really shake my wrist in the air. You know, I do. I have a shake weight. I'm a righty as well, by the way, I wear my watch on the right hand. So, you know, when, yeah, when I was taking the photos for the watch for the watches, I was like, Oh man, it took me ages to get the watch on my, on my left wrist to take the photos.
Everett It's so hard.
Brett Williams Right? Yes. It's so difficult.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Cause you don't put a watch on that wrist ever. So you're like, how do I, what is this?
Everett Like, it's just a weird nub that I feel like this conversation has limited value to the 13% of our listeners. I'm sorry, guys. I'm going to cut it off right now.
Andrew Fine. Right. So let's, let's, let's keep diving in. This is crazy thin too. So you're, you're coming in at, uh, with the crystal or yeah, with, with the crystal, with the domed crystal. Yeah. 12.8 millimeters.
Brett Williams without the crystal, 13.3 width. Oh, okay. Okay.
Unknown And whatever. It's same, same man.
Andrew 12.8 meters of water resistance. Crazy thin. And, and I think, I think part of the reason you saw such a huge, I mean, you doubled your goal already and we're in, we're in our 15 ish maybe, uh, is this, this is a gap in the watch market. Is this perfectly sized, Super thin, I mean, skin divers are a gap in the watch market. This vintage inspired, really fashionable, really functional watch. And you hit the skin diver out of the park. You've got this really great story by these AMA divers. And how did you get there? How did you find them?
Brett Williams You know what? The weird thing is I don't even know. I don't know how I came across the story. It just, it resonated with me whenever I found it. And it resonated with the It's weird like chicken and egg situation, you know, because I know I was designing the watch, but then I also know I was Investigating this incredible 2,000 year old skin diving tradition that these women have passed down through generations to their children who pass it down to their children So Yeah, it Yeah, look I think what you said, it kind of blows me away. I get very sheepish about praise, any kind of praise. You're in the wrong job for that. I'm a South African.
Unknown Yeah, I'm a South African, so I know.
Brett Williams We're all like, yeah, I did this little show called Raised by Wolves, so you may have seen it.
Unknown It's a bit like that.
Brett Williams I don't want to have, I'm very cautious and very aware of having any kind of like Dunning-Kruger syndrome, or Dunning-Kruger effect, I think it's called. Yeah. You know what I mean?
Everett Yes. That versus imposter syndrome.
Brett Williams Yeah. And I've got that as well. So yeah. Jackpot. That's a bingo. I'm the full package.
Everett Well, and so for those of you don't know, Dunning-Kruger effect really sort of people who know very little about a thing, but believe themselves experts, and imposter syndrome, people who know relatively a large amount of stuff, but they know enough to realize how little they know, which I think that we're, Andrew and I, are probably transitioning from Dunning-Kruger to imposter syndrome in our lives as watch podcasters. At one point I thought, yeah, I know a lot about watches. And then as we've interviewed people who are genuine experts, it really starts to sink home. And along the way, you glean that information and you take it and you make it part of you. And I realize we probably know relatively a lot, but there is always that concern. There is always that, you know, gosh, I don't know. So I'm feeling a little remiss about giving you my expert advice, as it were, based on your request. I think we'd be remiss not to talk a little bit about these Ama divers because the story is wonderful.
Andrew I want to rewrite history real quick. Please. You chose them because you were on a beach in Japan and you were just sitting sketching this watch design and you saw the woman on your case back burst forth from the water.
Everett And it was so hot.
Andrew Yeah.
Brett Williams And that's... You've read my teenage diary.
Andrew Yeah. So that's how she got on the case back. She allowed you to sketch her. And you said as payment, you're going to dedicate this watch to her and this tradition. So that's the new story.
Brett Williams Draw me like your French girl. Precisely. So, sorry, I'm just unfurling myself here. My ankles are sore from sitting cross-legged. Yeah. Okay. So that image is, my rendition of a photograph by Wase Yoshiyuki, who, uh, was a photographer in the thirties, forties, and fifties. And he documented the Amo divers from his village. And it's this incredible photograph. If you see the case back, you know, the Amo divers dove naked just to segue into that they dove naked because they dove twice a day. It was cold. Um, or hot.
Unknown Yeah.
Brett Williams You know, they wore any clothing. It made them colder. You know, it was like the world's first wet t-shirt competition. No one wants to see that if that's your day job. So they dove naked because their skin dried quickly. So she's, the image, let me paint it for you. The image is she's standing on a rock with her basket and she's looking backwards. And for me, that was like really significant because the armor divers are dying out. And it was almost like this vintage image of And I'm a diver looking back over time, over the tradition, you know, it was romantic.
Everett And it's just this wonderful, it's this wonderful image. You know, I've seen it on Instagram a few times sort of blurred out, you know, because she's she's got a bare chest. But it's really it's not a sexual picture. It's just this you can tell that this is this professional, well, doing her job. We can't boost our Instagram posts. Look, look, they're boobs. OK, they're boobs and they're hot. But it's this it's this, you know, you can tell this is a professional doing this professional job. And, you know, I think I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting that you've taken this approach to the skin diver. You know, I think most people think of skin diving. You know, they picture the the covers, perhaps even if they don't know they're doing so, but they picture the covers of this you know, 1970s Skin Diver magazine, right? With these waspy, snorkeling, young couple, you know, sort of heavily sexualized imagery of young people doing sexy beach stuff. In Hawaii, yeah.
Brett Williams In Hawaii, that's right. That's right. Or it's like the you know, the the wetsuit with the front zip that's just pulled down a little bit too far.
Everett A little bit too far. Yeah, that's right. That's right. This is this is maybe a different approach to skin. I mean, certainly what they what the Ama divers do is skin diving, right? They're they're actually pearl divers. So they're professionally harvesting pearls. So so how do you feel like that sort of blue collar, I guess, to use an American phrase?
Andrew Very Rosie the Riveter imagery.
Everett Yeah, very. That's right, that's right. He's just made the Rosie the Riveter post for those of you that can't see, which is all of you. How does that sort of guide your design decisions here?
Brett Williams Yeah, so to answer your question, Albany's inspired by lesser known adventurers, right? Sure. And those people are not flamboyant playboys. They're everyday people who want to do something extraordinary. I like that.
Everett Yeah. The Tenzing Norgay versus. Yeah. Like us. The Tenzing Norgay versus the Edmund Hillary's, right? The lesser known explorers. And and so is there an element of is there an element of professionalism? Do you think that you've included here that versus the superfluous in the design? You know, I think the skin diver cases is sometimes misunderstood. And some of that is because it's sort of this uh, amorphous. We talk about a skin diver and to different people and certainly to different companies, that means different things. Is there an element of professionalism here that you're, that you're going after?
Brett Williams Um, I guess, you know what? Uh, it's, I get, I get what you mean, but I just don't think I'm that deep. No, I, uh, I do get it. I'm, I'm not really, I'm not going for this professionalism thing as much. It's more, you know, I know myself as a person and these are just stories I'm really interested in, you know, if I'm taking your question right.
Everett Yeah, no, you know, the thing about my questions is I really aim to disrupt the interview with terrible questions that catch our guests totally off their guard.
Andrew And make no sense to anyone.
Everett And that make no sense to anyone. So it sounds like we've done a really good job. So thanks for joining us for this Episode of 40. No, you know, I guess I guess the answer is, is perhaps no, right? This is a watch because it's a watch and watches are fucking cool, right? And that feels OK to me. There's no judgment there. In fact, I like it. We're on record as having said, said, said multiple times that watches are most people take watches too seriously, right? You know, discussing Ridley Scott, as we were, you know, it's a fucking movie about the genesis of an alien race. And people are talking about plot holes and continuity. You know, we see all the time with watches, people criticizing, you know, you know, you're going to get criticisms that there's no date option, right? And certainly if you had a date option, you'd get criticized for uh, having a date and, and being asymmetric or, or whatever.
Andrew Get criticized for having a date, no date, but then having a ghost stop in your crown. Sure.
Everett I mean, you're... You fuckers! You're never gonna... Because there's no movement that accommodates that at the time or it's like, ah, you can't win. So, so I guess, I guess to the extent that this is a watch because watches are cool and this is a cool version of a watch that I think that's, I think that's fantastic. And I appreciate you saying that and I'm sorry to have put you on the spot. I'm sorry, Brian. Not at all.
Brett Williams No, well, I accept your very humble apology.
Andrew Wonderful. I want to talk the dial. Talk me through the decision to go with the material, and then what challenges exist with going with that material, the colorways? I'm just imagining the manufacturing process would have been a giant pain in the dick.
Brett Williams It's weird because the pearl dial is really gender specific, right? We don't think of the pearl dial as... I know that my watch is geared towards men because of the size and generally... And dudes typically wear watches, yeah. And dudes typically wear watches and dudes typically don't wear pearl dials. But yeah, I think... You know what, it was like action before thinking. I think it was like, I'm a diver, pearl diver's gotta have a pearl dial. And it didn't even occur to me that it might be like a feminine dial. So it had to be a colorway that people would respond to. So the watch is completely like a deep, deep black. The kind of black, you know, when you see in movies and the antagonist is a demon and he's got those black eyes, it's like that. It's beautiful. Not to sell my watch like that, but it's that deep, deep, deep black. As soon as the sun hits it, it just changes and it comes alive. I mean, I've had it for a year. I'll be driving, the sun will hit it, and I'll still be looking at it. It's amazing. It's really beautiful. As far as the process goes, I know that it is mother of pearl sourced from the sea. I don't know the entire process. I definitely don't think the process is a Swiss process like the Rolex. I've had people come back at me go, oh, you know that pearl dials are really, really difficult to make. And how can you say it's a pearl dial and it's sourced from the sea? There are various processes that people employ to get a pearl dial made. Ours is not cut from a rare Australian mother of pearl shell. I can tell you that. Are you kidding me? I'm sorry. At $299.
Everett You know, well, and do you have any sort of indication of where you sit today, uh, having sold 170 or so watches already? Do you have any kind of indication of what the popularity is of the mop dial versus your painted brass dials?
Brett Williams It hits above everything else.
Andrew Yeah. I love mop dials. I think probably episode 30 or so. I had a Mother of Pearl dialed Citizen and you made fun of me for it. Maybe it was an Orient, but you made fun of me. That's because it was a lame watch. No, it wasn't a lame watch. It was really cool. I think Mother of Pearl is awesome. The the the pictures that are on there and I've looked at a bunch. I've watched most of the review videos that are up showing the way the light plays on that on that dial is awesome.
Everett You know, I will say this. I've never owned a mop dialed watch. But what I do have is I have a set of about 20 mop shirt buttons, mother of pearl is what I mean when I say that, that I sew on shirts. When I buy a shirt that doesn't have, that has plastic buttons, I've got mother of pearl buttons to sew on it. No, you don't. No, it's a true story. That's a true story.
Brett Williams Uh, that's amazing. Of course you do. Of course I do.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right. Well, uh, so I, I know that we, we haven't talked about everything week, week, we should have, um, because we've been talking about mother of pearl buttons, but, um, anything that you want to talk about. So we were right now, we've got about a month left in your Kickstarter and, and I assume if you sell 5 billion watches, you're going to be able to produce 5 billion watches. Is that right? So that's how the math works. Yeah. So we're at the stage, you know, that's one of the nice things about Kickstarter. No, it's okay. And I don't mean to interrupt you, but we've talked a lot recently about Kickstarters and pre-orders. And, you know, I think that there's some, you know, confusion in the industry about what that means. But one of the objective benefits to a Kickstarter release is Yes, it's going to take a few months to get your watch. But if I sell 5000 of these things, I can make 5000 of them because I know before we go to production how many watches I've sold. So. With about a month from the time people will hear this on Thursday, two days from now with about a month to go, where can people find you? How can people order your watches? Kickstarter, by the way, and how much are they going to pay for one of these wonderful 300 meter 41 and change dive watches. With a nudie on the back. With a nudie on the back.
Brett Williams So you can follow us on Instagram. That'll take you straight to our Kickstarter. And that's Albany Watch Co. And we've got an amazing Instagram. I'm very, very proud of it. It's got all the information you need. It's got founder videos and watch videos. And it'll take you straight to the Kickstarter. And you can pledge on Kickstarter. I think our tiers are filling up. Uh, so we've got a super early bird, which is, is done for the full brushed beads of rice bracelet option. Uh, there's the early bird and then there's the Kickstarter, but we're not going over $350, $349 for the watch. Those US dollars, 350 bucks for this wonderful, wonderful watch. Yeah. You add, for $3.99 when you add the upgrade, you get a stainless, fully brushed, I don't know if anyone's done a fully brushed beads of rice bracelet, and it's a really good bracelet. It's fully machined, it's got machined end links, removable links, micro adjustments, you get an eco weave NATO strap, a Nubuck Italian leather strap, a double ended watch tool, a waxed watch roll, and it all comes in a sustainable bamboo box with our logo embossed on the top.
Everett Wonderful. And you know, I wish it's something we have. It's something we have written down here. But I wish we had talked a little bit about sort of your commitment to sustainability. I will just leave and I will I will leave the point saying Uh, your company is obviously dedicated to sustainability and sort of eco initiatives. And we think that's super cool. And I'm sorry, we didn't get to talk about it.
Andrew Um, so anyway, we spent a bunch of time talking about mother of pearl buttons.
Brett Williams Yeah. Look, I'll just, I'll just say, I mean, if you can fit it in, I'll just say, you know, as a surfer, there's a lot of times when I go surfing and I have to stuff plastic bags into my wetsuit to take to the beach to put in the bin. That means a lot to me, you know? Yeah. So we can't be 100. It's very difficult for a startup to be 100% sustainable with everything that they're doing. That's what we want to aim for. We're trying to be as sustainable as possible from the start.
Andrew Yeah. That's such a good goal. I spent two weeks in the woods a couple weeks ago on a hunting trip, and we collected a couple dozen balloons, like the plasticky... What's the material called? Latex? No, not the latex balloons, the like ones that have print on them. Oh, oh, yeah.
Unknown Yeah, mylar.
Andrew We collected a couple dozen mylar balloons that had sunk into the woods. Yeah. Waste.
Everett No need for it. It's very cool. It's very cool that as a as a business you're dedicated to doing, you know, I think that there's a lot of mystery about what that means. And we'll have to leave that mystery for the next time we have you on when you release this GMT watch. But I guarantee we'll get to it then. I guess for now we'll move on. We'll move on. Andrew, other things. What do you got? This is interesting. I only know what it is as a category.
Andrew As a category. So I've got it. Hang on. Don't go to. I'll need to incognito this. So I as I as I talked about earlier, I've been redoing a bathroom and I've had I got a tool. when I was doing recessed lighting, I got an oscillating multi-tool. Oh. When I was doing my recessed lights, because I needed a plunge saw, but I hate drywall plunge saws, like just the knife. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate them because they're so imprecise, they're messy, they like. Physically hard to use. Yeah. Also, yeah, they require work and I don't like that. I'm very lazy. So I got an oscillating multi-tool and I got the Chicago Electric Harbor Freight. Hell yeah, I know that company. $20 special. And it's just an oscillating saw, and it comes with electric. There's there's 200000 potential attachments to it. There's Sanders and a variety of cutting tools. And if you can imagine it, it it attaches to this super easy attachment point. So from demo to now finishing, I've used a few dozen different tools. This is the only tool. that has been out only elect only power tool that has been out and in use in every single step of the process. That plunge saw, the angle saw, the sander. I've used like six or seven different attachments for it. I this is the best $20 I've ever spent in my life. I used it for everything as part of the problem is that I was having to cut through quarter inch dry or quarter inch plywood in a room filled with plumbing and electrical behind it. So I was having to like cut little people's and look, because this isn't a normal house where things like run where you think they are. So I'm having to cut people's and look for my danger zones. And I'm just I just use this plunge saw. I used it to cut drywall. I used I've used it for fucking everything. Find one, whatever your economy tool brand is, whether it's Chicago Electric.
Everett And it should be Chicago Electric.
Andrew I think so, too. It's corded. and it's 20 money. You literally can't go wrong. If you burn it out, your feelings aren't going to be hurt because you're going to go spend 20 more money and get another one. This is not a buy nice, not twice situation. This is a buy this one until Chicago Electric no longer exists. It's terrific.
Everett And Chicago Electric will exist forever because it's wonderful.
Andrew It's money. I love that name.
Brett Williams It's such a good tool. Chicago Electric.
Everett So do you have any familiarity with Harbor Freight, Brett?
Unknown No, but I mean,
Everett Yeah, sorry, yeah. Yeah, well, it's this. It's a I believe an American just solely American company, but they are sort of the.
Andrew I don't know if they make like the dollar tree of hardware stores. That's right, but it's not $1 there.
Everett It's there. It's not $1. It's $20, but you can get a power tool, a legitimate power tool for 20 bucks. You know they make sort of knockoffs and and substitutes for Dewalt and. You know, these high end big box store power tools and everything, not just power tools. You know, you can buy a hammer, you can buy a screwdriver. Oftentimes this stuff is very cheaply manufactured, but almost always practical, especially for someone like Andrew or I, who's doing two to five projects per year. Yeah, it probably wouldn't stand up to a commercial use. It wouldn't stand up to commercial use, but for the for the homeowner, with the occasional use. It's fantastic stuff. And we've talked about Harbor. We've talked about Harbor.
Andrew We talked about Chicago electric tools before.
Everett Yes, that's right. That's right. So we're big fans.
Andrew Oscillating multitool. That's that's the one today. So I've got another thing.
Everett Do me. So I how many? So do you think the amount of our listeners who are left handed is more or less than the amount of our listeners who golf? Oh, I'm guessing it's I'm guessing it's a toss up.
Andrew I think there's probably less left handed people than there are golfers.
Everett So statistically speaking, 13% of the world's population is left-handed. That's that's the number, right?
Unknown I don't know.
Everett Yeah, so that's the number. I'm guessing about 13% of our listeners golf and I'm talking to you.
Andrew I bet more than 13% of our listeners golf. Good like like 80% of our listeners are males between the ages of 20 and 60. So my guess is like 50% of people golf.
Everett I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you 50 percenters. So I I am the type of golfer who doesn't hit every shot well, who makes something like 20% of greens and maybe like 15% of fairways. My iron game is strong. My wedge game is mediocre. My driver and three wood, five wood game is it's not weak. I hit the ball forward. I hit the balls now. No, I mean, that's the problem is it's not forward.
Andrew It is frequently left closer to the green than when it than when it started. That's true. That's true.
Everett Almost always. Almost always I hit. I had a pretty mean hook and I know how to hit a slice or a fade, but in doing so I don't. I don't. There's not a lot of middle. It's either left or a forced fade to the right edge, right? So it's always.
Andrew It's never in the same. You're the guy who lines up perpendicular to the tee box and just smacks it, hoping that you're hooked.
Everett It's not that bad, but it's not that bad, but it is not great either. You know, I have new irons, which I talked about recently. Yeah. I have new irons. And new grips on them. And the grips on the irons are just fantastic. I was like, man, this is really nice. These feel really nice on my hands. And I have woods that are a few years old now, but which had not great grips to start with, and we're starting to wear out. I got new grips for my wedges and my woods this week, and I installed them at my house. I cut the old grips off. I got the lighter fluid. I did the whole thing. It's fun. It's kind of a fun project to do at home, and I did what? I live blogged it to you guys. It was like a half hour? Yeah, more than that. Maybe an hour, though, for six clubs. So my driver, three wood, five wood, and my 52 or I guess 50, 54, and 60 degree wedge. I did all six of them in probably about an hour. Not a ton of time. You carry a lot of wedges. That's true. That's what the girls say. And golly, it is the biggest difference I have ever made in my golf bag. I've never replaced a club that made this big a difference. Your putter did. You're wrong. Your putter did. My putter made a big difference too. But I mean, it is easily It was easily the difference between, you know, say 25%, maybe 20% of my fairways to 40% of my fairways, 50% maybe. I hit the ball straighter. I'm able to swing harder. I have way more. It was like, geez, man.
Andrew Golf is one of the few things that you don't realize you've hit your threshold of where you're better than your equipment. You just think you suck. Golf's the it's a really like it's a lower threshold for your talent, exceeding your equipment's talent than most other things. Most things it's like you're never going to be better than whatever equipment you bought, even if it's the bullshit economy brand golf like it. It happens quick.
Everett Yeah, well, and I wouldn't say I'm better than my equipment. Certainly I'm not.
Andrew You were better than those than that equipment. That's the thing is that that's what upped your game. That change is what made your game better, which meant that you were you were being degraded.
Everett Yeah. And I think maybe even more than that, right? I was inspired. I'm thinking, gosh, I'm not hitting my I'm not hitting my driver. I'm hitting my driver really inconsistently. You know, it's not the driver that's the problem. It was these old, tattered, not great grips in the first place. So something so, you know, and you can buy grips. You go to your local USGA store or whatever it is, like nine bucks a piece, double sided tape, wider fluid that's on the back on the patio, right? It took me an hour to do six clubs. And it's, you know, so for a total of 60 bucks, literally a total of 60 bucks, that was all the money I spent, less than that. And an episode of television. And an episode of television. You know, I'm all about sort of doing things, small things, fun things that can actually make a difference. You know, everybody wants to go buy the new Honma driver or whatever. Nobody wants to buy the Honma driver. No, that's not me. But perhaps the new TaylorMade driver, you know, Try different things, have fun. And really, that was the other thing. I pulled the clubs out of the bag. I went with blue grips and my wedges and orange grips for my woods. And it was like, I just felt really good about pulling them out of the bag. Like, look at this, you know, little things.
Andrew Anyway, get your shafts fitted to you. That's another thing that really helps people's golf game.
Everett Huge. So that's my other thing. Are you a lefty? No, Andrew's a lefty. I am. Yeah, he's he is the the disabled one.
Brett Williams Yeah. But you write with your left hand.
Andrew I do. I shoot left-handed, I write left-handed, I pull a bow left-handed. I golf right-handed, though. My parents, when I was a kid, had this thing where they're like, if you do things left-handed, people are going to fucking hate you. So all athletic activities, I do right-handed.
Unknown Do they change just like that?
Andrew I mean, perhaps. I don't know. I don't have memory of it. I just remember being like trying to throw a ball left-handed and be like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, other hand. Like, well, this... So I'm relatively ambidextrous. I can write with my right hand, but not as well as my left hand, which isn't great anyway, so it's not like a big loss. And he doesn't know how to spell, so... No, literacy is not my thing.
Brett Williams That's so weird, because I wear my watch in my right hand, but I write right-handed. Oh, interesting. I kick right-handed, and I play golf left-handed.
Andrew Oh, where do you put your wallet?
Brett Williams Right, right side.
Andrew Oh, interesting. And how do you serve?
Brett Williams Uh, natural skateboard. Like I was a skater, so it was always natural, natural skater. Okay. Yeah.
Andrew That's the problem with being left handed is like people just fuck you up everything. Like you don't just get to be left handed.
Everett So when I started skateboarding, I pushed, I pushed, pushed, I pushed Goofy and, and like Mongo Goofy. And then, and then I originally like broke myself of it, but yeah, I feel you.
Brett Williams Right.
Everett Sometimes it's just like, this is what feels right.
Brett Williams Yeah, absolutely. But I know that whole Mongo thing. Every time I pass a skater and he's a newbie, I'm like, oh God, he's skating Mongo. He's pushing Mongo. Which for those of you that don't know, is like when you basically push with your front foot, so your back foot is on the tail of your board. It's quite kind of an awkward thing to do.
Andrew It's also very inefficient.
Everett It's inefficient. Well, and switching to jump tricks, it can be a nightmare.
Brett Williams I had no idea you were a skater.
Everett Well, I'm 40 years old, so I'm not a skater, but there was a time in my life. Yeah.
Andrew You know, he was going to buy a skateboard quite recently.
Everett That's true.
Brett Williams That's true. I know that. I know that. I know that feeling.
Everett My wife borderline threatened to divorce me. She didn't get that far, but she was like, I really think there's something else you could do with this with this time.
Andrew And that was a self-preservation that because you were going to get hurt.
Brett Williams Yes. Yeah, definitely. You know what really helps for that is to live vicariously through a child that skateboards.
Everett Yeah, that's what I need to do. And I've got two of them that are the right age. So we'll figure that out.
Brett Williams We'll figure that out. My kid got into downhill skating. So yeah, so like 60 miles an hour down hills and stuff was just, you know, insane.
Everett We've got a very famous downhill uh race here in well it's not in Oregon it's in Washington but it's right over the river so there's Mary's Peak is this internationally famous downhill skateboarding course it's one of the big events for downhill skateboarders and it is it is literally suicidal yeah people die yeah the crash videos are terrific
Brett Williams Oh, no, I know. Like, I know all the, you know, a lot of the skaters here, you know, they do these fucking mountain passes with cars coming up the other side. And they're like, no, but it's cool. We're not crossing lanes. And I'm just like, yeah, great. You're not. And your friend is filming you with the GoPro on the bottom of his car a meter behind you. You know, it's insane. I think there's a longboard company out of Oregon called Original. I think it's Oregon. My kid was sponsored by them. So my kid was sponsored by them for a little bit.
Everett What do you got for your other thing?
Brett Williams I feel so boring because I don't have anything. I've been concentrating on... I don't even know what to tell you. I bought a new surfboard. That's about it. I transitioned from Um, a retro surfboard to a modern surfboard. That's, that's about it. So what's the difference there?
Everett Yeah, what'd you buy? Did you buy a carrier to car or what'd you get?
Brett Williams Um, so I surf traditionally twin fins, which is a very kind of cruisy style. Sure. You know, on the wave. Um, and, and I, I went to Jay Bay, which is this world famous break that everybody surfs and I got chewed out by the locals. You know, which is really embarrassing. I mean, if you can imagine golfing and you're ready to make your shot and people start going, back of the line, buddy, you suck or whatever it is. And there's a whole group of them. It's like being at school again. If you were ever bullied at school, it's like being at school. So there are all these jocks, jock surfers who sort of called me out.
Everett So I can't get that 86 twin fin out of here.
Brett Williams Yeah, exactly.
Andrew That's exactly what it was, the way you laughed, that's exactly what it was.
Brett Williams It was like, I'm a pretty good surfer, so I surf, I'm six, sorry, I wish I was six foot, I'm five foot ten, so my surfboard is... I used to go to Carthage. I used to go to, I remember in Australia, I'd go to castings and for some reason somebody told me I was six foot. And I'd stand there and go, hi, my name's Breck Williams, I'm an actor with So-and-so and I'm six foot. And then the next guy would be like, hi, I'm So-and-so and I'm six foot. And he'd be about two inches taller than me. So.
Andrew Nah, bro, you're six two, don't worry.
Brett Williams Six two, man. Someone's messing with you. So I surf quite a small board, but it wasn't working. And I met this pro surfer. from the 80s who's a shaper here named Peter Lawson and we got to talking and he brought the board down for me that he shaped for me it's amazing it's like it's exactly it's the same thing it's like when your equipment doesn't work for you anymore and you can feel it you're like laboring and you don't understand why, you think, ah, I really suck, man, what's happening? That's the vibe. I got this board and I was like, oh, fuck, man, I'm just flying. I'm like turning, I'm turning off the top of the wave, my feet aren't coming off the board, and also my twin fins taking a beating. I broke the nose of my twin fin surfboard off. Can I say this on here? I'm sure you can.
Everett I don't know what you're going to say, but the answer is yes.
Brett Williams I was surfing in pretty As the surfers say, gnarly surf.
Everett Oh yeah, that is a bad word. No gnarly. Anything but that.
Brett Williams No gnarly. So I was surfing in some really sizey surf, which had a lot of power behind the wave. And I said to my, I was having really a good time. And I said to my friend, as we all do, last one, and I took the wave and I pancaked, which is when you fall flat and you sort of wind yourself. So I winded myself and then I, the wave washed over me and it's called the washing machine. You get into the washing machine. Oh yeah. And the board, I felt the board hit me in the testicle and, um, yeah. And I thought, I thought I'd punch it. I did have a tiny puncture. I mean, it was like a millimeter, but I thought I'd done real damage and I came up and the nose of the board was like bent like that. Dude, you got balls of steel. Yeah.
Andrew That's resume shit right there.
Brett Williams I took photos. I Instagrammed it. Nobody liked it, but you know, it, uh, it was a moment for me. So I got a new surfboard and which I'm going to, I've had one surf on it and really shitty surf and I'm going to go surf this morning.
Everett Yeah. Like right, like right now.
Brett Williams Um, when this is finished, I think I'll make myself a coffee, get in the car, do a 40 minute drive to another beach, which is way around the coast. And I'm going to go surf.
Everett And so we're going to suggest that that whiskey was one finger and not three fingers. I may have a small nap. OK.
Andrew I've only I've only surfed a few times and one of them I got put in the washing machine. It was the last time I surfed and I was in pretty shallow water. And when I I pancaked and penetrated the water and hit the earth and kicked myself in the back of the head and I stood up and I picked up the surfboard and I Walked out of the surf, never to return. Because I'm not a bendy fellow. To be able to kick yourself in the back of the head is quite the bend. That's amazing. It was unpleasant. So I don't, I don't do that anymore.
Everett And you know, Brett, I've surfed a lot. We have, we have actually really good surf here in Oregon, but it's, you know, it's cold, right? It's fucking freezing. It's 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. And so closer to 56, 57 degrees Fahrenheit, you can do these conversions. But cold is shit in the summer. And so so a lot of people will come from places like Australia and South Africa and say, you cannot surf here, right? If you're so I had a I had a warm water wetsuit that was about three, four, and my cold water wetsuit was five, six, which is an incredibly And still, it's not sufficient. Your hood, your gloves, your booties, full meal deal, and still some of the time miserable. You can't pee enough.
Brett Williams Yeah. And for listeners who don't know, that wetsuit's made out of real whale blubber.
Everett That's right. Real, exactly, exactly. You're inside the whale at that point.
Andrew At that weight, you're inside it. You can barely move. You look like the Christmas story and you're still freezing.
Everett You put it on like a jacket. Yeah, that's right. Uh, uh, yeah, you know, surfing, I think maybe more than any sport I've ever done, except perhaps, uh, skiing. Uh, you know, you've, it's this really very physical and, and, and different than, you know, I, the only other thing I can compare it to is playing the trumpet, which is if you, uh, if you stop doing it for a very short amount of time, you perhaps still have the muscle memory.
Andrew But the atrophy of those actual muscles is so significant.
Everett It's so significant. And it happens very quickly. You take a month off of surfing and it's like I simply I cannot get out because I'm just too weak. You know, the the amount of fitness that's that's required to surf with any sort of with any sort of consistency or I'm doubling up there.
Andrew Yeah, I don't know what's happening there.
Everett Well, three beers. That'll happen. Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. You, you've got to work your ass off to stay in it basically.
Brett Williams Yeah, you do. It's a different kind of, um, physicality. It's a different kind of exercise that I think people don't realize until they do it. And also that kind of cold. So that's what I'm going into now. Um, that like 11 degrees, which is 51. Ooh, very cold. Very, very cold.
Everett Very cold.
Brett Williams Um, so we get the Southeaster, which blows out to sea and that turns the water ice blue. And you know, when it's blue ice blue, you're like, oh man, you really want to get out there, but it's so cold. But what people don't realize is it burns.
Andrew Yeah.
Brett Williams It, you, it, you get in the water and it's like being on, it's like a weird cold fire. It really burns you. And when you come out, when that blood starts returning to your feet, it's agony.
Andrew Oh, you're certain your toes have fallen off.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Like, oh, they melted. They're gone.
Brett Williams It's, it's nuts. It's totally nuts. And also that thing of like what you were talking about, when you go into the washing machine, when you fall off, that is a real like fight or flight, live or die. You, that reflex kicks in. Like you panic. Oh, I accepted death. Yeah. Yeah. You have to train yourself to like relax. It's going to, it's going to wash over you. We're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. And you come up and it's been like five seconds.
Everett And it feels like, it feels like it's been a half hour.
Unknown Yeah.
Brett Williams It's, yeah, it's like a Tolkien book. It's, you know, that's what it's like.
Everett Well, uh, Brett, I want to just thank you so sincerely for coming on the show, uh, for you at home, if you, if you haven't checked out the Instagram, which is Albany Watch Co, uh, and, and, and the website, which will, the website at this point is only directing you to the Kickstarter, but I assume at some point that'll be more comprehensive. Um, but certainly all the information you might ever want about the Alma Diver is on the Kickstarter, including including all the reviews. Mike Razak, our good friend and senior contributor for Watch Clicker, did a review of the Ama Diver on the Time Bumps website. So as you know, Mike, Mike writes for a few different websites.
Andrew You can check that out. We compensate him the best, though. That's true.
Everett That's true. The do's are lower here than they are elsewhere. Yeah, please please do check. Please do check out Albany watches on On those various sites and certainly check them out. You've got the Kickstarter is gonna be open till November 11th I believe is the is the close date on the on the Kickstarter.
Andrew There's 20 days left. So as of listening, you've got 18 Yeah, no, it's more than that.
Everett It's 20 28 days. No, bro. It says 20 days left
Andrew OK. I'm not a fucking doctor.
Everett All right. Fair enough. You're not a doctor. That's true. But you can count better than I can. I can read. So so do please check out. Andrew, do you have anything else that you'd like to add before we go? 20 days to go. Brett, do you have anything you'd like to add before we go?
Brett Williams I'd just like to say thank you, Andrew, for wearing that shirt before I go surfing. You're welcome.
Andrew I have a Jaws shirt on. So Godspeed to you, my friend. You only have great whites there. It's not a big deal.
Brett Williams Yeah. They've actually disappeared. Touch wood. Touch wood. They've gone out for a while.
Andrew Check out the Queen of the Ocean that just got found in the northern Atlantic. She's 50 years old. Oh, really? Yeah. So she's not there. You can be comforted by that, that she's not around.
Brett Williams Thank God. I just want to thank you guys. That was really fun. Loved it, man. Thank you.
Everett And thank you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the WatchCooker podcast. feel free to check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 check out check out how many watches because they're doing some really cool shit you guys. I'm a diver available now on Kickstarter. If you want to support the show patreon.com slash 40 and 20 that's how you can support 40 and 20 and the watch clicker. That's where we get all our money for hosting etc etc. Also, don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life and other things we like. Bye bye.