Episode 105 - Revisiting the Starter Watch

Published on Wed, 28 Oct 2020 22:21:56 -0700

Synopsis

Andrew and Everett discuss recommendations for different types of watch buyers:

1) The "dive watch guy" who wants a sporty, tool-like dive watch. They suggest affordable options like the Casio MDV106, Orient Mako/Kamasu, Islander watches, and entry-level picks from Dan Henry and other microbrands.

2) The "dress watch guy" who wants something less sporty. Recommendations include the Timex MK1, Citizen Chandler, Vaer field watches, and fashion watches from brands like Seiko or entry-level Swiss brands like Tissot.

3) The "fancy bitch" who wants something stylish and different. They consider popular enthusiast choices like the Lorier Falcon, Baltic Aquascaphe, Christopher Ward C65 Trident, and unique affordable pieces from brands like Brew, Dan Henry, and Timex.

They also discuss movement options, brand perceptions, vintage reissues, and setting reasonable budgets for first-time buyers. Overall, they aim to provide thoughtful, unbiased advice tailored to each type of buyer.

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. You're going to miss out on the signature beer cracking sounds right at the opening of the episode because our beverages are already open because this, ladies and gentlemen, is round two. Take two. So, Everett, how are you?
Everett I mean, really, it wasn't a very long... I mean, we only just sort of got in there. I mean, this is... I'll make the cam mix noises. It didn't make any noise. No. These green tabs are interesting. The green tabs are weird. I like the green tab. I'm doing really well, man. How are you doing?
Andrew Good. You know, we're coming towards the end of my weekend. We golfed on the normal weekend. Yes, we did. Yeah, you and I golfed. Yeah. That was fun. That was fun.
Everett I golfed really, really poorly, which was, which was shitty. I got sunburned.
Andrew Oh, did you? Yeah. Not terribly. Obviously I'm, I'm, I'm healed, but yeah, I got home and Sam's like, what happened to your face? What happened to your face? She goes, no, you're red all over. I was like, oh, it's true what they say. You can sunburn in the clouds. Yeah. Yeah. No, really you can. It was a weird day too. It was kind of cold. It wasn't ever overcast. It was just kind of, Just a little bit overcast, a little bit sunny. The temperature kept fluctuating, like I was in and out of my sweatshirt the entire, like every other hole pretty much.
Everett It was a chilly day. It was a nice course though. Yeah, it was a good course.
Andrew It was a good day of golf. Yeah, yeah. We played with, unbeknownst to us going into it, played with your doctor. That's right.
Everett Who's a surprisingly good golfer. Yeah, he was good. He was good. Yeah, we showed up and they said, oh, you're gonna be with my key golfs here regularly. Super nice guy. And so we, we take off with Mike and we were on the practice screen. I'm like, gosh, you look familiar, man. And he's like, I don't know. I was like, what's your last name? He says Garfinkel. And right as he's about to say, I'm a physician. I say, oh, you're my doctor. You're my physician. You're my doctor. Uh, you've had your finger in my butt.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. And he's only seen him once. That's right. Not in a professional capacity yet. So.
Everett That's right. I mean, in fairness, I just got a new doctor, so I've only seen him for like a year now. So we're not that close yet. I mean, we're close enough that he's out of his finger and my butt.
Andrew Whoa. You're not supposed to do that. Not supposed to do that. Okay. All right. How are you, Andrew? Oh, you already asked that. I told you I'm good. I told you about my weekend that we golfed. How are you? You know what? Let's just dive into the topic. We're going to dive right in today.
Everett We're only three minutes in. We're only three minutes in.
Andrew It's too early. For those of you who fast forward for 15 minutes, you're going to miss out on the first 10 minutes of content because we're getting right into it today. And we're going to, we're going to kind of take it back from where we've been in the last two years.
Everett Can you believe that? Two years, man. Yeah. It's crazy. Not quite, but getting there. No, no. Yeah.
Andrew We've done 104 episodes. I think this is 105.
Everett This is the beginning of our third year. Dang, man. We didn't even celebrate it. Yeah, we did. We had beer. Yeah, we had beer. Marks all manner of occasions. Last year, last week was two years of 40 in 20. Yeah.
Andrew Dang. Thanks for being on the ride. So in honor of that, we want to go back to what got us started. Just answering the really hard to answer question. of people getting into watches. What should I get? What should my first watch be? And why should it be that? So we're not just going to say first watch. Well, maybe first watch, maybe second watch, but somebody relatively or wholly unfamiliar with watches, with the brands, with styles. They've started to kind of shape what they like in a watch. And we've narrowed it down to three categories. those three people. Because when we were talking about it, I think you're right in that everyone you talk to about watches is going to distill into one of these three categories when they're first entering the watch realm. Guy number one, or gal, but we're going to say guy because we typically talk to dudes because women won't talk to us. You have a beard. I have a mustache. There's good reason to not talk to us. So guy number one is the dive watch guy. I just really like dive watches. And there's a lot of them out there and it shows in, I mean, every brand's first one or two releases. Sure.
Everett Sure. I want a dive watch. I don't know anything about watches, but I know I want a watch that looks like. That looks like that and it goes. A Rolex Submariner, right? That's, that's what it is. Submariner. I think it's actually. I want a Submariner watch. That's the one I want it to look like this. What can I get?
Andrew Well, if you have 10 grand.
Everett 10 grand and six years. Yeah.
Andrew Guy number two. I don't like dive bezels. I don't want it to look tool watchy.
Everett And he says he wants a dress watch. Yeah. Guy number two says he wants a dress watch, but he does not want a dress watch. He wants a sport watch with a sterile bezel.
Andrew And guy number three is that fancy bitch. He's like, I just want something that looks good. Yeah. He's probably an Apple watch wearer already, but he's like, I want something cooler than this. Yeah. Probably has an analog face. for his, or like, what do they call it? A analog display.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. On his Apple watch.
Andrew Yeah. I saw an Explorer dial on an Apple watch. On an Apple watch?
Unknown Yeah. Did it look good?
Everett Yeah. You know, I think guy number three actually sometimes thinks he wants three, but he actually wants one or two. So That's been my experience, right? Where you can say, I don't want, I don't want a dive watch. I don't want anything too sporty. I want something either, you know, technical. I want something with heritage. I want something, um, dressy. And, and when I say dressy, I actually mean dressy, which that's rare. Yeah.
Andrew But that fancy guy is going to want some, some bang for his buck there too.
Everett He wants some bang for his buck.
Andrew He's going to want some value.
Everett Yep. Yeah. And he wants something with some real sort of intrigue, right? He wants something with some real intrigue. And he's probably willing to pay a little bit more, too.
Andrew And whether it be intrigue in the way of novel technology, novel company, there's got to be something, just an X factor to that watch to really grab his interest.
Everett And I think for a guy like you or a guy like you or me who's receiving this question, who's on the receiving end of the question, and on the delivering end of the advice. I think that's the most fun. That's the most fun, because that guy you can really sort of dive into. His budget's probably a little bit higher. Yep. His ability to sort of think through the topic is probably a little bit higher.
Andrew So that's... He's probably already put some research into it. Perhaps, yes. He's done it. Or done some of the legwork. But this is a hard world to get into. And every layer you peel back, there's 50 more. Yeah.
Everett It's like a labyrinth. I think it's important. I think it was important that we did this episode. And we've been talking about this episode for a couple of months because I think what has happened for us, and I don't lament this at all, But I think what's happened for us is we've matured in our podcasting, our, you know, we, the show has matured. The topics have matured. We can no longer every week talk about the best three watches for 400 or, or, or whatever. Right. I mean, that was really what we cut our teeth on as we were recording, but it, at some point, and I think this is normal and I think it's, it's, uh, okay. I don't think it's bad. I'm not lamenting it again, But at some point, the show has matured a little bit, right? And it has to. We've shifted heavily to interviews, which I love doing. I think we're good at it. I think we're really one of the, maybe the only totally dedicated, affordable podcast doing interviews. You know, I'd say 60% of our episodes at this point are interviews.
Unknown Neighborhood, yeah, probably.
Everett Uh, and despite what you might hear from those other podcasts, not a single one of them is a commercial. Oh, everyone pays us though. We have never been paid for an interview and we are not sponsored by Oris. So fuck off. We just interview people that are fucking interesting. We do work. We make fucking content. And part of that is interviewing interesting people, right?
Andrew Yeah, and sharing the story behind the brand. I mean, I think to our interview with Brett, just because he's recent, everything that went into it... Brett Williams of Albany Watch. Yeah, of Albany Watch. So to me, he's just Brett. Right. We text. Daddy. And I think the story behind that, you're not going to be able to get that from the website. You're not going to get that same kind of connection. And I think that's something that is is missing in a lot of people's watch buying experience. I think that's why you see so much watch flipping. People buy the watch, they have it for a couple months, and they're like, eh, we're not connected to it, and then it bounces, it just rotates through it. Which is not to say there's something wrong with that, but adding that human, from the owner to you connection, I think can make watches a lot more special.
Everett Or Michael Seals, right? Yeah. I wanted a Royal Oak, and something like a Royal Oak, and when I was designing it, I'm wearing an F91. The first time he's ever talked about that was on our show. So we've matured. The show has matured. With that said, the reason we got into this was because that preliminary question is so much fun, right? I mean, that's what it was for me very much. Like, I want to spend some time thinking and really use my frugal tool set, my frugality tool set, to find absolute real value, bang for your buck, And you and I, and Will, and Mike, and the folks that we work with, and certainly a lot of you at home, are totally jaded. We no longer are actually doing the affordable watch thing. I mean, I don't know about that. You may be more than me, right? Perhaps. But it does not hurt my feelings at all. to seriously consider a $500 watch. $800? I'm sort of like, okay, got to think about that. $1,000? I get uncomfortable. $500? It's like, yeah, that's how much watches cost. We are jaded. That's not the truth.
Andrew We're desensitized.
Everett I don't know if jaded's it. We're desensitized. Fair enough. I'll accept the amendment. We are jaded.
Andrew Desensitized.
Everett It's fun. I think it's fun. And I think it's a good thing for us to sort of go back, not retroactively, not retro, not, not actually go back, but to get back to those roots. But for winter season, 2020, you know, what does this landscape look like now?
Unknown Yeah.
Everett You know, do we still want to talk about SKX and Bambino? What is the landscape for the new watch buyer look like now? I think largely it's unchanged, but also different in some notable ways. I think there's some new entries that we can talk about.
Unknown Um, but yeah.
Andrew And our knowledge of the industry is deeper. There's so many new brands that are out there. There's so many that in the last two years, so much has come onto scene that can replace those things that we were talking about two years ago. There's better options for a lot of those things that we've talked about.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right. And I think there's brands that we've probably written off. I think brands that we may have talked about a year and a half ago that we probably won't talk about today because for whatever reason we've just decided, you know, that's maybe not as good a value as I once thought it was.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. Now there's something better out there.
Everett Probably. Probably. So do we just dive in? Do we just dive I think we just dive into Dive Watch Guy.
Andrew Dive into Dive Watch Guy?
Everett I think we start talking about Dive Watch Guy. Because that's the most basic, right? And I think the answer is the easiest, too. Oh, yeah.
Andrew Don't look at me like that. It is the most basic, because I also think he's the most common. He is the person who sees whatever dive watch you're wearing on your wrist, probably doesn't ask if it's a Rolex. probably says, Hey, I really like that. It seems like, you know, watches or it's a watch friend who sees you wearing a dive watch.
Everett Hey, I really like that. Or knows you host a podcast about watches.
Andrew Perhaps. Yeah. I really like that. Can you tell me about it? That's the kind of style of watch I'm looking for. This is about how much I want to spend.
Everett Well, yeah. So that's right. That's the first question I have to say, I have to ask because, because already in my head, I'm thinking, okay, You know, you want to be spending 450 to 550 for that entry level dive watch. Wrong. That's probably too much. That's probably at least 450 is probably at least double his budget. At least what he thinks his budget is.
Andrew His emotional budget going into that conversation. That's right.
Everett He thinks his budget is roughly 200, if not less. Mm hmm. If not less, he might be thinking 125, right? So there's options out there. You got to have that conversation up front. Yeah.
Andrew You got, you got to have a conversation. Cause are you going to be an MDV guy? Cause are you, are you looking for the under, under a hundred dollars? Cause the MDV for an entry level watch could be as good as it gets. Yeah.
Everett It's a little big 60 bucks on those these days. Uh, 48. And so we're talking about the Casio Marlin MDV 106. 48 bucks, under 50 bucks.
Andrew $48 and six cents. Quartz movement, 44 millimeter case, 20 millimeter lug width.
Everett Good looking.
Andrew Yeah. 200 meters of water resistance.
Everett Comes in multiple colors now.
Andrew Yeah. Looks really good on a super engineer. Balances the weight of that thing. Cause it's a clunker.
Everett It's a big watch. Yeah.
Andrew But it's a good watch for 50 bucks. Like, Hey dude, you, you've got, there are options or you can take it all the way up to something in the, in the stay in sub thousand. Cause I don't think I'd ever recommend to dive watch guy north of $1,000 watch. For the like, hey dude, this is really something you should consider. Because I think dive watch guy just wants like a one watch.
Everett He wants a one watch, that's right. He's a guy who probably is working blue collar or just a normal ass dude who wants to wear a nice-ish watch. Mid-level management and he doesn't know that a dive watch isn't dressy enough.
Andrew Or he thinks it is a dress watch. Yeah, perhaps.
Everett Because it's got a steel bracelet. Either way, he knows what he wants. He knows the aesthetic. So yeah, I think, I think you got to figure out what budget is. And, and, and you start at the Casio. Now, some people are going to be repelled by Casio. Be repelled. Some people are going to be repelled by that. I think it's, it's sort of, you have to convince the young watch enthusiast, the, and I don't mean, I don't mean young in years. I mean, I mean, young in the watch journey, you have to convince them That that's a dope watch, I think. I've had that experience, right? Again, is that Casio? Yeah, this is a sick watch.
Andrew I think Casio and Timex are both making a shift to legitimize themselves in the way of their horological chops. And you're really seeing it with Timex. They're leaning into it. They're trying to fill some holes in the watch industry. And I think Casio is coming out with some really cool shit. that is starting to stand up and perhaps fill that gap that Timex is leaving.
Everett Let me ask you a question. I take a MDV-106 and I set it on the table, and then right next to it, I take an EcoDrive, the standard EcoDrive 200 meter diver. I can't remember what it's called. Like the EcoZilla or the ProMaster diver? Not the EcoZilla, the regular... Yeah, like the ProMaster. The ProMaster diver. That's right. I take a ProMaster diver and an MDV-106. I say, you can pick one. You have to wear it. You can't sell it. It's yours. You have to wear it. You can't sell it. Pick one. That's a hard pick. It shouldn't be a hard pick, right? You've got a $300 watch and a $50 watch.
Andrew My assumption is I'm not paying for either though. But there it is.
Everett It's a hard pick. I'm taking the Casio.
Andrew That's why it's a hard pick. I don't know because I like that Promaster, but I also really like the Marlin.
Everett Yeah, I'm going Marlin every time. Yeah. So there's value, right? There's value, but you got to find that. I think, uh, and I think you have to have those conversations, right? Cause everybody's different, right? And everybody's budget is, it is different. Not, not only in terms of number, but in terms of flexibility, right?
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Cause some people go in, it's probably going to be 200 bucks, but you're like, Hey, I mean, Hey, you know, check out this, look at this Neptune. This is $500 watch. This is a dope-ass watch. And maybe their, maybe their budget shifts a little bit. Like, oh, you know, $500 is doable. Yeah. Cause it's all about sharing options. Cause dive watch guy, there's a, there is no shortage of options out there in the world. And there's so many questions to ask that beyond price, beyond like, how much are you willing to spend?
Everett What other questions are you looking for? Yeah. For me, I want to know sort of like, Are you trying to stay away from mall brands, right? That was a thing for me when I started into watches. I decided what a mall brand was, however educated that decision was, and I steered away from those things. Not always. In fact, I have some mall brands in my collection. Quite a few Seikos, in fact. And I think Seiko's sort of transcendent, a little bit, right? They really bridge the gap between horology, mall brand. I mean, they're ubiquitous in so many ways, right? But even before I got into watches, I knew that Seiko was a little bit different. Like, Seiko's cool. Okay. And they're cool in a way that... perhaps, and there's gonna be some pitchforks. They're cool. You better don't say it. In perhaps a way that Citizen is not.
Andrew I think. You can think that, but Citizen has an eco-drive.
Everett That's really neat. It's really neat technology. Seiko's got solar. It's not eco-drive. It's not called eco-drive, but it's the same shit, right? But yeah, so I want to know, What is it? How do you want this thing to feel? Do you want to have something really sort of boutique? Do you want to have something that's going to have some brand lineage to it? Do you want something that people are going to recognize? Do you want something that literally no one else on the face of the earth has, maybe not literally, but figure it out. Like 250 people out there have? That's right. So, so those, those kinds of things. I mean, I want to know, I want to know what do you, what statement are you trying to make? Because you're trying to make a statement.
Andrew Yeah. You're, you're, you're asking to buy a big watch with frequently bright colors on it.
Everett What do you want to signal to people? And no one's going to answer that question. You can't answer that question. You can't ask that question because no one wants to. It makes it, it, it really sort of, puts a point on the vanity of the whole thing, right? Because it's a vanity purchase.
Andrew I want to know the same thing, but the way I phrase that question is, what's the feel you're going for this watch? Are you looking for something refined? Are you looking for something bold? Are you looking for something vintage-looking, maybe retro-inspired? Are you looking for something really modern? What are you looking for? Sure. Yeah, important questions too. But I think that's how I glean that same bit of information. What's the feel you're going for here?
Everett So we've got the $50 MDV-106. Yeah. I think there are a couple of very obvious upgrades. And for me, five years ago, four years ago, three years ago, perhaps as recent as two years ago, there was no question in my mind that it's the SKX. I still think today that's the coolest, the coolest watch. And I mean cool, like 501s, Ray-Bans, timeless, cool, right?
Andrew A Barracuda jacket. Man, that is an outfit right there.
Everett It is. I mean, I'm describing James Dean. James Dean wears an SKX, right? Uh, And so I still think today for under 400 bucks, that's about the coolest watch you can buy. But I think it's no longer in this conversation. It's not. For any number of reasons.
Andrew Most notably that they're 400 bucks now.
Everett That's right. The cost has gone up significantly.
Andrew They're harder to come by. And for the uninitiated, because of the lack of supply of the SKX, I don't think it's I don't think the SKX is a first watch purchase anymore. A whole generation of people will never have that conversation.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right. Starting about, what, a year ago? Yeah. That's right. And say what you will about, you know, the specifications, the chunkiness, the mineral crystal. Say what you will. It was still cool. It's always been cool, and it still is cool. But yeah, for the uninitiated, for the first time buyer, It's not 220 bucks. And that's a hard pill to swallow for that watch. And it's a hard recommendation to make. So what fills that place right now?
Andrew So the DB, the DB 300, that was a direct competitor, is virtually disappeared from their website. There's like five colorways left. It seems almost like they're doing away with it also. The DB 300? The deep blue. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, the deep blue. It seems almost like they're, cause I was looking at that today. Uh, what immediately comes to mind is the Islander in 38 and 42. How much, how much is the Islander? The Islander is, um, the 38 is $2.99 right now. Okay. So if you're looking for that same style, feel, appearance, that aesthetic, you're going to go a little bit more, but there's, there's a couple of watches. with very different feels to them that are still in that sub $300 price range and pretty squarely under, well, one of them is the Orient Mako, which I think is not as ubiquitous. It's not as subjectively cool. It is objectively better.
Everett The Mako 2, yes, I agree with you.
Andrew And it's $140. $125 for a Blue Dial Mako 2 right now on Amazon. $125.
Everett 134 for black.
Andrew Yeah. It's going to fill that SKX void. It's not going to be as cool. It just isn't, but it's okay. It's better.
Everett Yeah. And it does the same thing, right? You see someone wearing an Ori Mako and you're like, Oh, that's a good looking watch. It's a dive watch. I know that you thought about that purchase. I see someone wearing an Ori Mako, which has happened a couple times. I'm like, yeah, that's a person who, even if they're not into watches, even if they're not a watch guy like me or a gal, that's someone who made a good purchase, made a thoughtful purchase. A thoughtful purchase.
Andrew It's very classic. It's very clean. It's dressable. It's a good dress diver.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Andrew Because that's what it is. It's a diver. So by dressable, I mean, you're going to look a little out of place pouring spiked seltzer down your front. Don't worry about it. Um, but it's, it's an attractive clean watch. Yeah. The other one that came to mind for me in that, in that entry level, super affordable is the Dan Henry 1970. No. Yeah. At two 90, it comes in two sizes for 40 and 44. So if somebody wants that little bit bigger, I'm not going to, go right to, hey, get a Monster Invicta. Maybe I'm thinking Pro Diver, if people are good with that, but the DH-1970.
Everett And I think really you can go from there, right? I think you deliver those options, right? You deliver something like a Dan Henry. This is an homage to a classic watch. You can have that conversation. You can talk about the Mako, like what this means for watch people, because it means something. You can go the Casio, right? If you want something no shit, awesome, dirt cheap,
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Get it done. Bill Gates wears one. Fuck off. Yeah. Right? This is dope. But from there, right? So now I'm saying, okay, well, I'm not feeling this. I've got a little bit of extra cash. I'm sort of, I'm picking up what you're putting down. There's some other places you can go, right? I mean, I think immediately, I think Kamasu. If I'm going to buy an Orient Mako platform watch, I'm going to buy a Kamasu. So for a little bit of extra money, a little bit of extra scratch. $350? Yeah, I think they're $354. Uh, you know, immediately I'm getting a significantly better watch. Yes. Newer, better colors, uh, different platform, right? So some of it's just different, but some of it's better, objectively better. Um, I'm going to think about companies like Traska. I'm going to think of companies like Laurier. Um, you know, what are these entry level options? I'm going to think EMG and HK Ed. Yes.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Yes, absolutely. EMG. Albany even. At the rates they're at. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Right. So you can, you can have that conversation, but I think you, I think you start Casio, Mako.
Andrew And you know what I'm recommending for the guy who's like, I've got about six, 700 bucks that I'm, that I'm prepared to spend on a, on a dive watch. And it's probably gonna be my only watch. The Baltic Oxcroft.
Everett It's such a cool watch.
Andrew 39 millimeters, 20 millimeter lugs, 650 bucks, 200 meters of water resistance. Perfect.
Everett You're going to recommend that over the Neptune, huh?
Andrew Yeah. For somebody who's got a little bit more money to spend. I think I'm going to say Aqua Scuf. I might still go. I might still go Laurier. I'm a little bit torn, but I think I'm going to go Aqua Scuf.
Everett Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. Great watches. Great watches. So I think really that that's where you start. I mean, And sky's the limit, right? We could talk about the Astro and Banks's, we could talk about, I mean, sky's the limit. You start getting into that conversation, you're having a different conversation.
Andrew You're talking to a watch person who's testing you.
Everett So what about our second guy? What about the guy who says, oh, you know what? It's too busy. I don't like that dive bezel. That big clunky, I want it to be a little bit dressier. I want a dressier watch. I want a dress watch. No, you don't. No, you don't. No, you don't. So what's your first recommendation for that guy?
Andrew My first recommendation for that guy is, I asked the question, what's the feel, right? Are you going, because this takes you one of two ways. For me, it takes me one of two ways. I'm going to go sport watch or I'm going to go field watch. And it's what are you looking to do with this watch? And that's going to dictate. And also, what's your budget? Yeah. Well, yeah. And what's your budget? But that's already been there. That's my first, first question. My first thought for him, is the Veyr C5. 200 bucks. It's got a Swiss quartz. 40 and 20, a hundred meters of water resistance. Stylish as fuck. Bang around, usable field watch.
Everett Money. And if you don't know, if you've been listening to us and you're listening to this and you say 40, 40 and 20, yeah. What does that mean? 40 millimeters. with 20 millimeter lugs, 40 and 20, all right? We've said it, we've said it before, we'll say it again.
Andrew I don't know if we have said it before.
Everett Someone messaged us this last week and said, it was a gelatomancer, says, hey, you guys should do an episode where you take edibles and then plow through the episode, call it 40 and 20 and 420.
Andrew Ooh. Or just call it 420 and have like the second or the zero of the 40 melting. This is 420. We would just be in the bed with like that. That's what we can do. We could just lay down and record from the bed. He's onto something. I like it.
Everett Um, so yeah. So I think that's a great choice. I think that, uh, I think that maybe you start with something like that. Right.
Andrew Uh, cause you get, that's how you get the read. You get the read. Do you want a field watch or do you want a sport watch?
Everett I think there's probably some places that I start maybe a little bit before that. Right. Obviously it's a little bit more money, but the dress gay X. Yep. You know, those, those came on the scene. They were super hot for about a month. And I think people have sort of forgotten about them. I still think that at whatever, two 25.
Andrew Yeah, they are one six. Nope. Uh, two 75 right now.
Everett Okay. I think, I think still that watch that platform. is about as cool as it you can get. Now, it's going to be too expensive for a lot of folks, right? It's going to be too expensive. And that's an easy conversation to have. Like, look, this is really fucking cool. You should consider looking at this. Nah, I couldn't spend that much. Okay. Well, now we know, right? Now we know. So let's scale it back. So here's the C5. Here's this fair C5. A couple of options I really like to sort of float. The Seiko SN-ZG, which is in many respects similar to the C5. It's a little bit bigger. It's that 42 millimeter. It's a blasted case. Really sort of fieldy watch, even if you take umbrage to it being a field watch. It has that field feel. Field feel. Yeah. Yeah, right? I mean, you get to the same place, right? Uh, you, you get to the same place and they're cool. They're cheap, dirt cheap. I think like 140 bucks. Yeah. Uh, you can, and it's automatic, right? So now we've got a Quartz Varis C5. This is cool. Check this out.
Andrew If you want something automatic, check this out. You know what? I'm also floating to this guy. Tell me. A racing chrono in the way of an SSB 031. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. You're not getting a big clunky dive bezel. You're getting something a little cool, a little sporty. I mean, it's not. I mean, it's a tack bezel, right?
Everett And an external bezel, I guess, is what I mean. It's not a dive bezel, you're right.
Andrew It's similar, but different, right? There's some familiarity there, some crossover. I think I'm going to float a chronograph to everyone who asks the question, because chronographs are cool. And my first float is always going to be the SSB-031, because it's fucking cool. Yeah. Mecca quartz is cool as shit, and it's $165. Right, right.
Everett What about the guy, what about the guy that wants something really cheap? Ooh, really cheap. I want, I can't spend more than a hundred bucks.
Andrew I'm going to go with, I think, I think the brass colored MK1s are coming in under a hundred bucks.
Everett Yeah. That's, that's kind of where I'm at too. I'm at MK1. Yeah. Uh, For this guy, it's like, that's still more than I want to spend. I'm going to float at MK1. What do you think of this? Do you think Timex is OK? I mean, right? Because some people aren't going to be OK with that. Do you think Timex is OK? This is a cool watch. Timex makes shitty watches. This isn't one of them. This is a neat watch.
Andrew Everyone makes shitty watches. That's right. Every big brand makes a shitty watch or two, or a few dozen. Yeah, that's right. If I were responsible for the catalog of every major watch brand, they'd cut it down by 60%.
Everett That's right. So moving the other direction, I think, okay, the Seiko price is okay. I'm not worried about the price, but I'm not feeling it. I'm not feeling it. The crown is in a weird place. The SMZG, it's just not something. I want to spend a little bit more money. How do you feel about a square watch? I think that's a good place to go, yeah.
Andrew And I think I asked him two questions. How do you feel about this Horizon by EMG? Okay, no, not quite feeling the chronograph. How do you feel about this Retromatic? Which is brand new. Yeah, and it's cool as fuck. It's square but soft corners. It's cool as fuck. It's got enough water resistance that you can shower and do your normal business in it. The proportions are right. How do you feel about this? It's also coffee based, so it's cool. It's not, it's not got an espresso timer. Sorry, y'all. What are you thinking? And then you feel that out. Cause now you're starting to get a sense for their, for, for how they're feeling about different styles of watches. And if he doesn't like the retromatic, he doesn't like watches and just tell them to go away.
Everett It's a oh my God, 425. That's way too much money. Like, OK, OK, we can work with that. We can work with that.
Andrew So we want to get down. We want to get between like we want to get into that 300 dollar range.
Everett Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Well, what do you got there in the 300 dollar range? I think I'm going to. I'm going to suggest a boulder venture. See how he feels about that. I think I think boulders are coming at what, 290? Yeah, I think that's right. I think I'm going to go venture. I say, look, this is a titanium case. This is also cool as shit, because it's indestructible. And it feels like you're wearing nothing. Downside, you're only going to be able to wear pass-throughs. Right. And for somebody who's going to want a dressy watch, that's going to be a miss for them.
Everett And it's aesthetically right. It's a bit enigmatic, right? That's not going to work for everybody. But the price is right. The movement's right. The brand is cool. So yeah, that's in the conversation for sure. And we were talking about this today in our watch clicker group chat. And that's come up, right? That case is kind of weird. I don't like that case. I like the case.
Andrew It's not the Venture, though. It's the Venture, whatever their chronos called.
Everett That's the one we're talking about? No, I think we were talking about the Venture with the angular sort of semi-hooded lugs.
Andrew Yeah, they're a little odd. Yeah. But the watch itself is a little odd. Making a watch out of titanium is a weird thing to do. Right. That's right.
Everett That's right. Embrace it. How much is the Summateer?
Andrew Summateer, I mean, if you can find one, 500 money. Okay. Remember, because we had to do 501.
Everett Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That's right. Also a very cool watch, but definitely on the high end of the price spectrum. I'm also going to pitch a Sektor Field.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Yeah, that's right. 400 bucks. Four and a quarter. 425, okay. Yeah, it's in there. The thing, I think that the Summiteer's a really easy sell for someone who's never seen watches because of the tejumented case, or I guess it's not tejumented, but you know, the hardened case finishing, like this watch is.
Andrew It is titanium, but it's not titanium. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And I'm also going to say, if you can find a Saab, a secondhand Saab.
Everett And I think this is the easiest sort of, this is the easiest category to fill in with random shit on Amazon too, right? It's like, okay, none of this is working. The price is too high. You don't like the SNZG. You don't like the boulders too much, whatever. This is the category where you can really start to say, okay, this is a watch from perhaps Tissot or Bulova or Citizen perhaps. This is a Citizen Automatic. There's one I was looking at earlier a Citizen Automatic for 150 bucks, and I thought, that's a great choice. I'm not gonna find it, so. I think I know, is it the blue one?
Andrew I think we just stopped talking about it.
Unknown Okay.
Andrew I also was thinking, if somebody wants to drop some scratch. Some real money. The Tits Out Gent Powermatic. Yeah. 775, 40, now here's the problem. 21 millimeter lugs. In-house movement though, and it's just a slick watch.
Everett Yeah, very much so. Very much. Hold on. I'm going to find this.
Andrew No, you're not. Okay. Carry on. Go to your browsing history on the Amazon. I got it.
Everett You found it? No. Yes. No, you didn't. Citizen NH8350-83L. This is the black dialed version. It's kind of big. 42. Oh no, it's 40. It's 40. And it is just a dressy sport watch. Automatic movement from Citizen, which is atypical. Oh, yeah, I know this watch. It's sort of got like a bit of a Tissot Vis-a-Date.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Type of feel. Super generic. Generic, easy, cool watch too. You know, it's got a decent movement. It's an 8000 series, so whatever.
Andrew Probably with a watch like that, it's going to be a hard sell at over 200 bucks. But you said that's what, like 160? 131. Nice. It's kind of got like that really as generic as it comes, like Movado feel to it, minus the diamond at the 12 o'clock.
Everett That's right. That's right.
Andrew Very, very easy to wear. For some reason, people like, I don't know. Yeah, I don't understand.
Everett That's the one that they say, you know, I've got this Movado, but I'm not really feeling it.
Andrew Yeah. So yeah, duh, you're not feeling it.
Everett So I think our most fun category is this third one, right?
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Because one is fun. Two, I think a little less fun.
Andrew Two can be a little bit of a challenge, because he knows what he wants, but he has no idea what the fuck he wants. Right.
Everett I think when we start talking about three, I think one, this can go in a lot of different directions, right? This is the guy who kind of knows what he wants. And so now we're going to start to play.
Andrew He doesn't know what he doesn't know, and he's open to learning. He wants you to just spray him with diversity.
Everett Yeah, that's right. And I would say 40% of this time, 40% of the time, this guy wants... An Apple Watch. A 5600. Yeah. Once you tell him this watch is as cool as it gets, a G-Shock 5600 is as cool as it gets. It's every bit as cool as an SKX. Cooler.
Unknown Eh, I don't know about that.
Everett Because you can get them for 50 bucks. Okay, so sure, there's that, right? It's more attractive in some ways.
Andrew And there's a hundred thousand variants of them. That's right.
Everett That's right. Which also partially maybe makes it a little less cool, but that guy, 40% of the time, that guy, if you put the, if you float this watch, you know, he's saying, well, 5600 or the 5610 for 30 bucks more is solar multiband six radio controlled. Holy shit. This is the coolest shit on the face of the earth. You can get that guy pumped up.
Andrew It's not even on the face of the earth because it uses satellites that are in space. That's right.
Everett 40% of the time, that's what this guy wants.
Andrew Yeah, he gets it and he's very happy. He gets the all white and he's just ballin'. But we gotta give him some choices. You gotta ask some questions. Is this the fancy bro who's got a bunch of fashion watches? He probably does.
Everett He's got a mini Invicta collection.
Andrew Or he's got some Skagen watches. Skagen? Skidmark watches.
Everett Skidmark watches.
Andrew Yeah. He's got some of those, you know, perhaps he's got a couple Macy's jewelry counter watches, maybe. He's got an MBMT. Yeah. He's probably got an MBMT.
Everett What do you think about this, this DW company? What do you think about these watches?
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. You know, he's, he's probably heard of Bulova. Probably, probably vaguely familiar with TAG and that's, You know, he's, he's done a little bit of research.
Everett I like to, I like to say, I like to say to this guy, I like to say, well, why don't you, why don't you go find some watches that you think are cool? Don't worry about how much they cost.
Andrew Cause I can find you something better.
Everett $20,000, $5,000 doesn't matter. Find the coolest watch that you can find and send it to me and we'll go from there.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Right. Cause you're going to see, you know, you're going to see, you know, maybe a Speedmaster or a Navitimer or some Panerai. That's right. That's right. OK, now I know. Now I know what direction you want to go here. And here are some options.
Andrew You know, one of the first things I always I for somebody who's looking for a watch like that. Like, hey, dude, here is a cool watch from a brand who's a little bit down in the dumps. They're trying to figure out who they are again. Super cool fucking watch. The Lunar Pilot.
Everett Yeah, that's in fact, that's exactly that was the first watch. It was, in fact, the only watch I wrote down preparing for this.
Andrew Really? It's the only one I wrote down. It's it's so fucking cool. But we're going to change gears for a second. Did you see they're releasing an anniversary Accutron, the Space View?
Everett Uh, I did not see that. Oh, it's so cool. Is it the, is it their new, uh, their new movement technology?
Andrew Uh, I don't, my phone's somewhere. It'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Look it up. But they're, they, they dropped an anniversary edition. I think it was an anniversary edition or special to some LE. Um, it looks so cool. I want them all. I'm just going to buy the whole inventory. Bathe in them. Not a cheap watch. No, space views are not cheap watches. Or the Lunar Pilot, right? Correct. I mean, it's not especially expensive. It's a $345 watch. It's also a big watch. Big watch. 45 millimeters. But it's not even the lug width that was the issue for me. It's the lug to lug that was the issue for me. 52? It might as well be 100. It's a keyboard. Yeah, it's a big watch. It's like those Garmin GPS watches.
Everett Bona Fides.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett It gives you that Speedmaster feel. Heritage. Heritage? Yeah. I guess that's what I was trying to say.
Andrew I mean, in the watch itself, but it's also got heritage in the brand. It gives you that Speedmaster feel, like you're saying.
Everett And it's cool. And it's not an homage.
Unknown No.
Everett It's an OG. It's not something trying to be something it's not. It's not aping some other design. And there may be some conversation to be had there. It's its own thing. It's OG. Like you said, it's just cool. It's just cool. And, and I think if you can get someone excited about it, it's a great direction. The price is going to turn some people off that first, that first time watch buyer.
Andrew But if it's a fancy bro, I don't know if it's going to turn them off. I think, I think for a dude who's like that, you can even go something like, like pitching a Montenoble at the $1,600 point and be like, Oh, also by the way, you can get the curved and rubber strap. that are made exclusively for Rolexes. Right. Because this company makes them. Yeah, that's right. That's right. And Fancy Bro is like, wait, you mean I can get a Rolex without paying Rolex price? Yeah. Well, I mean, no. No. You can get a Rolex strap.
Everett Obviously, we're talking about Montenegro with their Everest connection. And a dope-ass watch.
Andrew Yeah. I think Fancy Bro is going to be kind of open to that conversation.
Everett That's right. That's right. If they've got, I mean, certainly if they've got that sort of money, you know, you start talking about Christopher Ward, you start talking about Manta, if they're into that sort of thing.
Andrew I don't know who wouldn't be into that sort of thing.
Everett You know, I think that there are a number of people that listen to the show that wouldn't be into that sort of thing, right? I think that Manta exists in a very uncomfortable space, which is to say the direction they've taken for pricing it incorporates a ton of objective value. I think the question is, does the average watch collector feel like that those objective features, right? And when I say objective features, I mean things that cost money, Swiss manufacturing, Swiss movements, um, finishing, right? The, the, you've got to sort of, figure out for you or for however the buyers, where does diminishing returns, where is that point for you? Because it's not a universal question.
Andrew No, it's not. And frankly, for all of us, it changes day by day. That's right.
Everett That's right. Do you want a watch that's finished like a Swiss watch? I think that there's a lot of folks out there that want a Rolex or an Omega because they're Rolex or Omega. They don't need finishing greater than a notice, perhaps. Yeah. But, but rather they need that name brand, right? And so if they're going to spend big bucks, they're going to spend big bucks for a name brand. And if not, what am I missing with an $800 notice? Uh, or, or perhaps an Astro Banks I'm getting, you know, why do I need to spend twice that? Or even an Orion. That's right. That's right. Why do I need to spend twice that? Oh, speaking of which, I got my fucking Hellcat, and it is... She is a Hellcat.
Andrew Goddamn. I have done some things.
Everett I had this uncomfortable hunk of metal. Yeah. Fantastic. You know, I think OP39 is off my list, right? I love this watch.
Andrew Yeah, it's money. I love it. And we were talking, there's some kind of... Oh, it's even kind of concave.
Everett It is. That bezel is concave.
Andrew Yeah. There's a, there's an illusion that occurs that makes this watch look bigger than it is.
Everett Yeah. Cause you were saying this is, it's a little bit bigger than a Saab. And it's not.
Andrew It is not. It's a half a millimeter smaller, but the bezel has a slight concave in it. It's also a very steep angle and it's highly polished. On this one it is. Yeah. So that reflection off of that bezel. gives it some presence. It's good though. I'm leaving with it. Okay. Just bring it back.
Everett I probably won't. So what else is in the mix? I'm going to tell you right now. Five micro adjustments on it. For this guy, if we start to talk about $400, $500 watches, I'm going to say go to the Laurier website.
Andrew Yeah. Go to the Laurier website. Find something you don't like and then buy it for me and then find something you like and buy it for you.
Everett For me, I think Laurier is doing a really neat thing and the aesthetics aren't going to be for everybody, right? The lugs are a little long, right? You know, there's some things that might sort of catch someone off guard if they don't know what they're looking for. They might just say, I, that's not, I'm not connecting with that. And I'm, and I might be able to understand why, but that's where I might start, right? Mm-hmm. Check these guys out. This is one of the coolest brands in the business. And there's options, right? These are reasonably priced.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett They're super cool watches, super cool brand, great owners, good quality. I think their ST, their Seagull movements maybe leave some question marks for a first-time watch buyer. Do we recommend those movements to a first-time watch buyer?
Andrew I'm not sure. I think you do, because one of the watches I always recommend, I say go to Amdiver and get yourself an Amphibia. Yeah. 124 bucks. You can customize this watch, basically build whatever you want.
Everett Yeah. Well, I think that that movement, I think that movement, I think the Vostok movement is probably more reliable than an ST chronograph movement. Perhaps.
Andrew In fact, I'm sorry. It is, it is. But, but you're still, you're still getting that, that question mark.
Everett No, I don't, I don't think there's a question mark there.
Andrew Fine.
Everett Moving on. What else do we got for this guy?
Andrew So I'm thinking alpinist. Yeah. I'm thinking a fucking cool, sporty, something a little bit different. Because I was thinking a lot of like internal rotating bezel, something just a little bit novel.
Unknown Sure.
Andrew That's going to be eye catching. That's going to stand out because Fancy Bro wants to stand out. He wants something a little flashier. You know, this is also a guy I'm going to go towards square chronographs. I'm going to go to some surfboard dials. Something like that. Just, just say, Hey, look at this.
Everett Good speed. Yep. Going to go good. Yep. Definitely brew. Dan Henry, 1972. Yep. Yeah. This guy, this guy doesn't know it yet, but he wants a chronograph. He probably does.
Andrew Or, or, you know, he, he wants like a, um, a 1963, you know, any of the, any of the variations, whether it be the straight Chinese with the Chinese star or one of the HK ads.
Everett Or perhaps one of the greatest watches ever made, a Citizen Nighthawk. Perhaps. Perhaps. Yeah, that's right. I mean, that's the last place I go with this guy, right? Check this out.
Andrew What do you think of this? What color way was the one that Will sent us the other day? The brown one? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like the, that like, uh, almost like cognac brown. Yeah. Yeah. Those are neat. I really liked it. Those are neat.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Or like a Blue Angels variant.
Everett With the perforated leather, blue leather. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, I think you also look towards Oris.
Everett Sure. As the budget goes up.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. I think you start looking into, or Hallios. You know, Hallios has some, on the more affordable end options. There's a lot there for this guy, because he wants something a little bit different. and is more likely than not ready to drop a little bit more money. You're not gonna haggle so much of a price with this guy. And that's what makes it fun, because you can just be like, hey, this is a really cool fucking watch. This is a really cool watch. Hey, I'm gonna have my hands on this. Hey, check out the disaster in banks. The world's open to that guy. I feel like that guy's more open to listening. His mind is less made up.
Everett And that guy's gonna be a watch podcast addict. Probably, yeah. By the end of the month, too, yeah.
Andrew Oh, yeah. Yeah, he'll have somehow caught up on everyone.
Everett That's right. That's right. Well, I think we did it. Yeah. I think we've revisited the issue with our sort of brains having been developed by having done this for two years. Obviously, we didn't talk about every otch, right?
Andrew You're going to say... No, these are your only options.
Everett You're going to say via DM, oh, you didn't think about this. You didn't think about that. I appreciate that. I'm still thinking of watches. I was like, oh fuck, we should have talked about that. That's right. That's right. There's a thousand watches, but this is kind of where, this is what the process looks like for us. And I think if you're into watches, you maybe had this conversation. You probably had this conversation with someone in your life. Unsolicited.
Andrew That's right. For sure. You've, you've given this advice unsolicited.
Everett I'll tell you the last, the last piece of a closing note for me. I'm not closing for you. I'm just saying closing note for me, the last, recommendation I made for a watch was a girlfriend of a listener.
Andrew Interesting.
Everett Name was Carly. She wrote me and said, Hey, my, my boyfriend's super into the show. His birthday's coming up. I want to buy a watch. I don't have enough money to buy what I want, or I'm not going to spend what I want. I've got a budget of sort of like a hundred bucks, but I want to get something really cool. I don't want to just get something off the shelf. I want to get something cooler than that. And I mean, it was really kind of a conundrum. And the watch I recommended, the watch she wound up getting, and I understand her boyfriend liked it, although he never reached out to say, hey, thanks. Whatever, fuck you.
Andrew He stopped listening. He got his watch.
Everett I said, I, the recommendation. So we talked a lot. I mean, there was like two days worth of messages back and forth.
Andrew And a bunch of nudes too. I've looked at that. I've looked at that message thread. That is not true.
Everett That is not true. Uh, the recommendation I wound up making was an F91. Yup. W. Or maybe an F84. It may have been an F84, uh, with a very nice seatbelt NATO. And we talked through it, right? What, does he have these? And does he have this? What does he like? Oh, he really likes this. I think he had had a, some sort of seatbelt NATO. And I said, check out the blue shark. You got to get the blue shark thin. Ultra luxury. No, I didn't do the thin. I went the full size.
Andrew But if you're going F91 series, it's hard to get that full, that, that full shaped NATO in there.
Everett Check this out. And this is a watch I'm wearing right now. I'm wearing an F84 with it's, it's cool. It'll be something he can do. You know, because changing a strap on an F-84, F-91 is not the easiest thing in the world. You'll have to look at a video. It'll be a fun process. And at the end of the day, it'll be a dope watch. And she wound up doing that and he loved it. You know, so, you know, think outside of the box to think about, you know, what is this going to, is, is this a process you want to buy? Is this a, you know, what is it we're looking for here?
Andrew I found that really only what like people, once they've become initiated, give a shit about the F-91. Everyone else thinks it's a joke. They're like, what are you wearing? This is my Osama Bin Laden watch. What are you talking about?
Everett What am I wearing? One of my favorite watches. So, I mean, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be, you know, a crazy sort of max value, max spec type of situation. You know, it's, you've got to sort of feel it out. What are you looking for? What are you trying to do here? What's the goal here?
Andrew Connect to watches. That's right. Find something that you like.
Everett And an F91 with a $40 Blue Shark seatbelt NATO is so good. Like the coolest watch on the face of the earth.
Andrew It could be. The only thing that I think beats it is your Speedmaster on that pajama elastic.
Everett I love that. My Mankey strap.
Andrew Yeah. Oh, that's good.
Everett Picked up a second Mankey strap this week.
Andrew Yeah. I almost bought one. I got a mesh bracelet to give a try on my Recraft. Yeah, I think it's gonna work. Yeah, do it. It's supposed to be my porch right now. Not the watch, but the bracelet. The bracelet, yeah. Andrew, wait, can I closing note?
Unknown Sure, do it.
Andrew Bottom line is, when people are coming to you asking watch questions, it's because they know you care. Share the passion. That was why we started this podcast, because when we were starting our watch journeys, We were alone and in the dark and having to just figure it out for ourselves. And it, I mean, we're, we're two years into media about it. Like we're two years into talking about it and no less now than we did when we began. And all we want to do, the reason we started this is because we wanted to be able to be a resource for people like us where we were before we started this.
Everett Share it. And we wanted to get that sweet Aura sponsorship.
Andrew Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Honinki came knocking yesterday.
Everett Andrew, other things. What do you got?
Andrew I do have another thing, Mr. Everett Meadows.
Everett Don't say my full name.
Andrew It's not your full name. It's true. My other thing. Ready for it? I'm ready. Aardvark hot sauces. Made in Portland, Oregon. Aardvark is a Portland-based hot sauce company, and they have a variety of sauces. And, you know, I don't know why, but for some reason you thought that I didn't like Aardvark. And it's perhaps, and we talked about it a little bit, it's perhaps because it doesn't go with everything. I'm a bit of a hot sauce flavor profile asshole. I don't mix and match cuisines when it comes to hot sauce. And I think what it comes to is that a lot of places in the Pacific Northwest have Tapatio and Aardvark. Great, great choices. Great choices. But if you have only Tapatio and Aardvark, almost certainly neither of those hot sauces go with the fare you're bringing me.
Everett Right. Like fish. Neither one of those hot sauces go with fish. No. No. I mean, Tapatio maybe, depending on the fish.
Andrew Depending on the fish, but you gotta get some, like, Like Red Dot or Crystal to go with fish. Ooh wee. Yeah, you gotta get some Louisiana hot sauce to go on fish.
Everett You know what, I like Louisiana Crystal on peanut butter and jelly. Yeah. It's the weirdest thing, but I love it.
Andrew So I like Serrano hot sauce on peanut butter and jelly too. Because Serranos and jalapenos go really well in jelly.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Just add a little bit of heat to it. Wow, that was loud. That was loud. Now, so Aardvark, based out of Portland, Oregon, They do a habanero hot sauce, a serrabanero, which is serranos and habaneros, a little less spicy, a drunken garlic black bean sauce, which I have not tried, but I'm... It's amazing. I'd like to.
Everett It's not super spicy, but really good.
Andrew And a drunken jerk. They also have a fabulous foursome, which is all the packages. You can order from their website. You can also get it on the Amazon for nine bucks. And I'll tell you, these are nine ounce bottles, eight ounce bottles.
Everett Hang on, we're going... It's a healthy bottle. It's a healthy size bottle.
Andrew Yeah, eight ounce bottles. So eight ounces doesn't sound like very much, but it's quite a bit when you're looking at a bottle of hot sauce.
Everett Yeah, habaneros, in the standard fare, you're not gonna use a whole ton of it.
Andrew I used a bunch of it on some gumbo tonight, and it was good. It wasn't a good match, but I had just picked up the Aardvark, and I was like, eh, I have plenty of Louisiana hot sauce. I got plenty of cayenne pepper. I have all the appropriate things for gumbo. I was like, I want some of this. I put it on there. It did the trick.
Everett You get that nice happy too.
Andrew Yeah. And my, my sister got me some ghost chili salt from, uh, Ooh, I forget the name of it. That'll be my other thing for next week. Tune back in next week when I talk about habanero chili salt. Um, but do you check it out? If you're a, if you're a hot sauce aficionado, like either of us, your, uh, your condiment door of your fridge is, is primarily, uh, inhabited by hot sauces.
Everett Cause that's what mine is.
Andrew I've got like 20 bottles in there. Me too. I mean, I have, I have, spanning the gamut of of hot sauces of the world of varying spice levels and applications.
Everett I've got way too many like 250,000 Scoville hot sauces because you get like three ounces of that and it lasts a very long time.
Unknown It does.
Andrew Yeah. Right. We need to have like a wing night and just just go to bring it. Yeah. Yeah.
Everett I like it.
Andrew I want to get an air fryer.
Everett I do too. I was looking at an air fryer just the other day, an affordable one, and I thought, yeah, it might be time.
Andrew I was looking at that Ninja pressure cooker air fryer.
Everett That's the one I was looking at.
Andrew Yeah, I was looking at that. But I still don't have enough counter space. I have so many kitchen gadgets, man. I have so many kitchen gadgets.
Everett I think I'd put mine in the garage.
Andrew I don't have a garage.
Everett It's true. It's true.
Andrew We built a storage bench to store my kitchen gadgets.
Everett That's true. That's all that's in there.
Andrew I remember doing that. Yeah, that's all that's in there is just kitchen shit.
Everett Yeah, yeah. I don't have a microwave, so I feel like an air fryer would be a place I could, like, it would take, the air fryer would go in the microwave spot.
Andrew There's no microwave, so you don't have a microwave spot.
Unknown Oh, that's true.
Everett But I mean, it could have that real estate. Whatever real estate would be dedicated to a microwave.
Andrew I'd like to side-by-side deep fry, air fry, and oven bake some wings and do an eat-off.
Everett I'm here for it. I'm here for you. Yeah.
Andrew I mean, I, I don't have a deep fryer or an air fryer, so we would just have a bucket load of oven baked wings.
Everett Yeah. I mean, you can deep fry in the pan. We deep, we deep fry in the, in the crusade.
Andrew You can't do wings properly in it.
Everett I've tried.
Andrew It's not proper. It's not proper. I've got another thing. Uh, I'm going to start smoking wings too.
Everett Yeah. You've got a, you've got a, really get the texture right, otherwise they clog up the screen in the pipe. It's weird. Yeah, I know. Uh, I've got another thing. I don't care. Can we talk about it? No. Monosodium glutamate.
Unknown Hmm.
Everett AKA MSG.
Andrew AKA the truth.
Everett AKA the truth. I talked about this and I was like, have we never talked about MSG on the show? And you said, well, maybe we've talked about it in the past.
Andrew I think we've talked about adding MSG to things.
Everett So first I want to make something clear. MSG does not give you headaches.
Andrew No, it gives you that because it does give you headaches in that when MSG is on, I think you eat too much of it. Yeah.
Everett And then you're just full. And because you're so full, you get a headache. Yeah. MSG is the most vilified seasoning in American cuisine, I would say. Right.
Andrew What about what's the sugar substitutes in diet sodas?
Everett Oh, come on. Not even close. Aspartame. Yeah. But the vilification is nowhere near the same, right? No. You will have conversation with smart, educated people. They say, I don't believe the earth is flat because fucking science. And they will still cling firmly to this belief that MSG is a very, very bad thing. So if that's you, I know that the Earth is not flat because I'm not a fucking idiot.
Andrew I mean, have you ever seen it from space, Everett? I don't think you have. You don't know.
Everett However, however, MSG is bad because it's bad. Because I saw on the Chinese restaurant, it said no MSG. So I know MSG is bad. And I remember in the nineties, there was a big thing about MSG. So just get out the Google machine. Just get out that thousand dollar supercomputer that you got in your pocket or in your hand. Unless you're driving. Don't do it. Don't do it when you're driving. Andrew will give you a ticket.
Andrew He's got a mustache. I have a mustache. I have two mustaches, actually, because it doesn't connect.
Everett Look it up. Or if you're willing to believe me that MSG is totally fine for you, it's no worse for you than salt. Just go buy a bottle. You can buy it at the grocery store. There's a brand called Accent. Go to the seasoning aisle. Look for Accent. That's MSG. Or you can go to your Asian store and buy like a two pound bucket for like seven bucks. Yeah. get some MSG and put it in just about anything. Ice cream, sweet stuff. It's not really for desserts, but salty stuff, just about any savory dish. Holy cow. I cook everything with MSG now. Well, that's because you're keto. That's true. That's true. Basically everything I make, I put a dash of MSG in it and it is phenomenal. So there's this mythical fifth or sixth or whatever flavor profile the umami flavor yeah the umami flavor which is maybe not a real thing but also kind of a thing uh but that's what msg provides i think it's fifth fifth the fifth flavor profile whatever it it's a it's a it comes in crystals it looks like salt or meth or meth don't smoke it i don't know maybe let's try it uh golly I fucking love MSG.
Andrew When I was in college, we used to buy it in bulk at the grocery store that had bulk offerings. Yeah. And we put it on fucking everything. Pancakes, popcorn, bacon, because why not? And then and even while we're doing it, none of us knew any like. We were like, oh, this is so bad for us, but it's also so good.
Everett Yeah. It's dope on popcorn. I do like like one part one part MSG. Four parts salt and melted butter on popcorn.
Andrew A little bit of nutritional yeast will go a long way.
Everett And a little bit, you can do a little bit. Well, and so nutritional yeast is actually MSG. The flavor that you get from nutritional yeast, that sort of strong, pungent, umami flavor, that is MSG. MSG is in everything too. That's the other thing, guys. It's in so many things. It's like tryptophan, right? It's like, oh, I don't eat turkey because tryptophan always makes me
Andrew No, it's because you ate your body weight in stuffing and cranberry sauce. It's in everything.
Everett And gravy. Right. Uh, same thing. I recommend go get a, go get a, uh, a salt shaker of accent and just try it. Just try it. Just try it.
Andrew You've bought more expensive things at our recommendation. That's right. That's right.
Everett That's all I got. Andrew, anything you want to add before we, uh, before we shut it down for the night? That's it for me. You sure? Yeah. Okay. Well, it's been really nice to hang out with you.
Unknown I know.
Everett It's been a while since we've been alone. You should put your pants on. This is getting weird.
Andrew I don't like them.
Everett Hey, thanks guys for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. What are you doing?
Andrew There's a fruit fly. It's been buzzing around.
Everett Check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at the WatchClicker. If you want to read the articles, the reviews, all that stuff that we put on the website, you should, because it's all fantastic. Will is a great writer. We're not. WatchClicker.com. You can also find every single episode of the podcast on WatchClicker.com. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.