Episode 109 - Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega of Lorier (Part 2)

Published on Thu, 26 Nov 2020 20:57:41 -0800

Synopsis

Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega, the husband and wife team behind the microwatch brand Lorier, join Andrew and Everett for a wide-ranging conversation. They discuss Lorier's origins and design philosophy of creating affordable yet high-quality watches inspired by classic mid-century tool watch designs. The couple also details the challenges and lessons learned from launching multiple new models in 2020 amidst the pandemic, including their hotly anticipated GMT watch the Hyperion. Beyond watches, the conversation ventures into other hobbies and interests like Dungeons & Dragons, music, video games, and more, providing a glimpse into the personalities behind the brand.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 40 in 20, 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, how are you?
Everett I'm doing all right. You kind of jumped the gun there.
Andrew I wanted to get into this beer. We've been sitting here pre-showing with just like sealed cans of beer in front of us. And I figured I could get a sip in before I had to start talking.
Everett As these things go. And it worked. Yeah, that was I mean, you really moved fast. I could see the determination in your eyes. It's like you got a little look.
Andrew I had a moment and I had to seize said moment in order to get a sip of beer prior to. You carped that moment. Prior to my famous introduction. Renowned even.
Everett Are you OK? No. I'm tired. You're tired.
Andrew You look tired. I got up at like one today. So four hours, five hours sleep.
Everett I ran this morning, my friend and I, and we started running and I said, Hey, John, instead of doing what we had planned to do today, why don't we instead add about three miles and go up a mountain in the middle of it? That sounds stupid. And he was like, yeah, he sounds stupid. Yeah. Okay. And I was like, no, I mean, it's not a big deal. And he was like, no, no, let's do it. No, let's do it. But I could tell he was sort of like, eh, but it's, but you know, whatever.
Andrew He's like, I'm on the end.
Everett I might not hate it. So we started off 11. Instead of 11, we did 14 and we went up Spencer's Butte, which is fine. But as we're coming down Spencer's Butte, he tells me, yeah, I did a shift at Egan Warming Center last night, so I haven't slept at all. Oh, Egan Warming Center is our local one of our local places that facilitates homeless shelter when it's really cold.
Andrew And it was cold last night. It was freezing last night. I can tell you with certainty. So Egan Warming Center is named after a unhoused veteran who died on the streets of Eugene in sub-freezing temperatures, uh, like Major Egan, I forget his first name, um, but as a, uh, in honor of him every year, every winter, when temperatures drop below 30 degrees, there's like two dozen facilities that open in our area that are staffed and safe and warm and wholly staffed by volunteers. give people a warm, dry place to sleep.
Everett So very cool. So John had worked the shift there from, I think one to one to seven. And so right, he had just finished right before we'd started this round. And then I talked him out of, I talked him into 1500 feet of elevation and three extra miles, but you're a jerk. I am a jerk. I am a jerk. And on that note, I'd like to introduce our guests. Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega, I'm really actually excited that you guys have come back and joined us. You know, I feel like sometimes we burn it up a little bit, right? And this and that, but you guys feel like old friends to me.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, we're super happy to be back.
Lauren Ortega Yeah, I'm so happy to hear that. When you said, you know, I am a jerk and on that related note, I was like, come on now. I thought we were friends. We are very much friends. I'm glad to hear you are happy we're back.
Everett so we're really happy when people decide to come back because our greatest fear is after the first time people interact with us they're like not doing that again yeah to be clear not calling you jerks calling myself a jerk uh and and and also a little bit astonished that you guys would come back after having met both of us oh we love it yeah i think i think we all have the same fear honestly Well, welcome, and you guys are a little bit ahead of us in terms of schedule, at least on this particular day. It's a little bit later for you, so thank you for joining us a little bit past your bedtime. It's maybe not past your bedtime, but certainly as you guys would be winding down is what I understand.
Lauren Ortega It's okay. We get to wind down with you now. Well, you're welcome.
Lorenzo Ortega It's a good way to spend a Sunday night.
Lauren Ortega Yeah, instead of just, you know, stressing about Monday morning, we get to have a nice little chat. So thanks. This is actually really nice.
Everett And I gotta ask you, is Monday morning a stressful thing for you in the life of a watch brand owner? How are Monday mornings?
Lorenzo Ortega That's a great question. Monday mornings are probably the busiest time we have because We try not to answer emails on the weekends.
Andrew I was just going to ask that about your work life balance. And I'm so happy to hear you say Friday when we get done with work, we mostly check out.
Lauren Ortega And that's the way it should be. We try our hardest.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, we try. Sometimes we fail, but we try.
Lauren Ortega But then that means that, you know, Monday is just even worse. So sometimes I'll be like, okay, this weekend, you know, Saturday, Sunday afternoon, I'm going to do emails and get all caught up. And then I don't do it because this is my weekend and I deserve to live my life. And then Monday morning, I'm like, why didn't I do that? You know, so it's constantly a push pull between present and future self, like which one's more important.
Andrew I always yield to future Andrew hating current Andrew. I always.
Everett Yeah, that's a better plan. Yeah, that is.
Andrew Do you guys do you guys make a little bit more of that work life balance sacrifice on launch weeks and like that period surrounding a launch?
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, definitely. Yeah, we haven't we haven't really had a day off since. For as long as I can remember, August, maybe.
Lauren Ortega Because even if we're not, yeah, even if we're not like answering emails, there's still other stuff to do. So, um, it's just been a really crazy year. It's just been a lot.
Andrew It has. And partly your fault because you guys have dropped a lot of stuff this year.
Lauren Ortega Yes. Yes.
Everett Entirely our fault. Yeah. How many watches, how many watches have you, have you introduced in 2020? Is it four or is it three? For the record, I'm pretty sure that's not Lorenzo. I believe that's a cat.
Lorenzo Ortega That is her cat, Roxanne.
Andrew Oh, singing Roxanne in the background.
Lauren Ortega You're not asking her about her work-life balance. She makes a lot of sacrifices. Um, I think it was five. I think, I think it was five. Yeah. I mean, cause the Gemini. Right.
Lorenzo Ortega We revamped the whole collection.
Lauren Ortega Everything. Yeah. Okay. So
Lorenzo Ortega We introduced the Gemini late 2019, but we actually released it 2020. Yes. So I don't know if that counts.
Lauren Ortega I think, I think that, because also there was the, you know, limited edition with Warren Wells. Okay. So that's something.
Everett And then Neptune Series 3, Falcon 2, Hydra 2, and now of course, the Hyperion.
Lauren Ortega So yeah, you're right. It has been a lot. Um,
Everett And but the good news is 2020 besides that has been a really quiet year. Yeah.
Lauren Ortega You know, that's part of what makes this feel so weird, because on one hand, like going into this, we're like, OK, 2020 is going to be a big year for us just because what's lining up and, you know, we're switching to Miyota movements so we can revamp our current collection and then we already had, you know, the Gemini was already rolling and we're like, okay, now we'll plan for the end of the year, which would be the Hyperion. Um, and then, okay, we were in Hong Kong in February, um, with our, you know, production assembly team. And then we left and the borders closed.
Everett Fortunate timing.
Lauren Ortega And you could never go back.
Everett It was like a week later, right?
Lauren Ortega Yeah. Pretty much.
Andrew Yeah. You'd have been hanging out with Wes if you hadn't got out when he did.
Everett Well, so we're doing you guys a bit of a disservice here. We need to, we need to hear more about that story. We need to get back to 2020 because everything, everything is happening in 2020. But why don't you first introduce yourselves? Because I, you know, I think we know who you are. I think 90% of the people listening, but there's 10%, 10% perhaps who don't know who you are. Lorna Lorenzo Ortega, Ortega, excuse me. introduce yourself. Tell us who you are, what you do.
Lauren Ortega Okay, well, we are husband and wife team behind the brand Laurier.
Lorenzo Ortega And our mission basically is to make watches that feel like they came out of the time machine.
Lauren Ortega Yeah, focusing on classic design, on basically our ideal tool watch from the mid century. That's kind of what we're trying to recreate. and make as accessible as possible right um so keep the prices as low as we can relatively speaking for a watch you know because those are super cheap to make i i've seen watches for like nine dollars at the walmart so i know i can't they can't be that expensive well if you like the watch get it you know i've typed this about laurier in two in two separate articles at this point one of those you haven't read in the other one i think you guys have but i've typed it
Everett Laurier is not, you guys don't do homages to any watch. It's not an homage to a watch. It's a watch to an era of watchmaking, I think is how I describe the company, right? That sort of late sixties, early seventies focus on the really hardy but stylish and dressy sport watch.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, I think that's exactly I think we just really like that spirit of, you know, like you wear a watch as a companion, because if you think about it, you know, a watch back then was like the the famous icons, right, the the Swiss watches of the 50s 60s 70s, you know, the Submariners, the GMT Masters, like they were essentially really good looking g shocks, like you got them for their function. Like there was no other watch that kept time as well and did their job as well. And they also happened to look really good. And they were reasonably accessible. You know, you could get one from an army base. And you know, that's such a cool thing that we don't really have these days. So we thought, OK, let's kind of revive that because, you know, we love that spirit.
Andrew And we also have these animals in the world who insist on having dozens and dozens of watches. So that you can't have, because any one of these watches is a perfectly appropriate one watch forever. And then you give it to your kid and then they wear it and it gets serviced and they, and it just, it keeps going and going. I, you guys, you guys are just hitting it on the head in the way of that one well-designed tool watch that also happens to look really good.
Lauren Ortega And now we're at, you know, personal crises because we can't, it's hard to live our ideals right now when we make the watches we absolutely love. And I would love to wear only one watch, but I keep, you know, feeling drawn to, okay, today I've got to wear the Hydra, you know, and I would just love to stick with one as much as that's our goal. That's our mission. That's our philosophy. But I can't even do it.
Andrew I wore three watches.
Lauren Ortega I'm ashamed.
Everett I wore three watches. You did. I saw pictures of them.
Andrew I wore my watch that I worked in and then I put a watch on that I was going to wear for the day. And then I we were talking about a different watch and I changed and I started wearing that watch. It's a little embarrassing.
Lorenzo Ortega No, that's fine, you know, if it makes you happy.
Everett I don't know that it made me happy.
Lorenzo Ortega Well, I mean, you had to try it, right? Like, you felt like doing it, so you had to see how it felt. Yeah. Like, for me, I always regret changing watches. Like, that's just the kind of person I am. Like, we'll go to a restaurant, and I'll always get one thing, and then one night, I'll feel, you know, let's switch it up a little bit, and I always regret it. Because it's just not as good as that one thing. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, I get that one thing all the time for a reason. Yes. Why? Yeah.
Everett I'm the guy who convinces myself I need to put my watch on a NATO strap or on a leather strap. A braceleted watch, I say, I need to put that. I need it. This needs to be different. And then I never wear it. And I'm like, why isn't this on the bracelet? That's me. That's my sort of idiosyncrasy. Watches that come on bracelets sitting on NATO straps never get worn.
Andrew I am pretty partial to the Silicone, the Barton Elite. That just transitions from watch to watch, but it doesn't matter. We should talk about you guys instead of lamenting our terrible watch behavior. So 2020, you guys launched all the watches.
Everett All of them.
Lauren Ortega Literally, yeah.
Andrew Was that all already in the works going into 2020?
Lauren Ortega It was, but the timeline got kind of, uh, compressed and shifted just as, you know, 2020 happened and there are delays and unforeseen things. And so it should have been a more regular a release you know schedule um but it just kind of happened where you know the hydro is only ready now um and it should have been ready like you know july or august july or august and so some things were just compressed it's kind of manic but from our perspective it seemed really deliberate so we're gonna cut that whole period and be like yes we plan these to the day and we hit them exactly where we want it because it seemed
Andrew very structured. Your releases were, um, they, they weren't super close together. They weren't crazy spread apart. I think you did a really good job in managing your launches with all of the other chaos occurring around you.
Lorenzo Ortega Thank you.
Lauren Ortega I'm really happy. Um, but you know, I'm just surprised that people can still keep thinking about watches like during 2020. You know, that was, that's been my surprising.
Andrew It's an escape.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. Like, yeah, yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega Just, yeah. It's like a little glimmer of happiness.
Lauren Ortega Sometimes like, can we even post now? You know, like, do people want to hear from us right now? We keep doing it.
Andrew People don't typically want to hear from us.
Lauren Ortega Like, hey guys, good news. You know, like, no, there is no good news.
Lorenzo Ortega But yeah, I think, I think going into, 2020, like this was late in 2019. I think our goal was 2020, we're going to really solidify our core collection and sort of have every one of the archetypes of watches that we like the most and kind of have a distinct identity for each of them. And I think just the timing worked out to where 2020 was that year. And, you know, if we could do it, like, we were just going to do it. Like, we weren't going to space things out where, okay, you know, like, oh, it's too soon to do a third version of the Neptune. It's too soon to do a third, a second version of the Falcon. It's like, well, this is kind of what we want to do. And we think, and we like this direction we're going in. So we're just going to do it.
Lauren Ortega Yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega And I mean, it's, it's kind of risky. We. Thinking about it. And, you know.
Lauren Ortega We didn't want to wait. Um, then we felt was the right thing to do. So we were just really happy to, um, see the response.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. And some of the response was, um, some of the response was, Oh, I see that you guys updated this. Are there going to be updates in the near future? Because I don't want to miss that next update. And our answer answer was always, well, no, we don't plan on changing anything. for the foreseeable future as it is now. Cause I, I feel like where we're at now in terms of design, you know, like just to take a step back, I think, I think we're really comfortable with, with what we have with, with the way the collection looks.
Everett Well, yeah, let's talk, let's talk about it. Right. I think we can talk about an instance of the civics because a year ago today ish, uh, you were a watch that had several models, excuse me, a brand that had several models, which were really variations of, a single watch platform. And I don't mean that, uh, as, as a pejorative, but you had sort of a watch that I could buy in several different forms. Um, and yeah, that's totally correct. Yeah. And that was, and that was exciting, but also maybe a touch boring. I really liked it. Now you guys have got four and a half, I would say totally distinct platforms. So 12 months later, you've introduced four watches, three and a half platforms, completely complete sort of variations. You know, we're no longer are we using, are we using a single platform to give you different options? We're giving you totally unique and different watches. Um, how do you get there? I mean, obviously that goes back more than 12 months outwardly outward facing, right? I'm seeing a year's worth of work. I know it's more than that for you, but how do you get there?
Lauren Ortega Well, it was, it all just came down to deciding that after the feedback we had received that it would be worth the risk to use a more expensive movement, to use the Miyota 9 series, um, which it, would we be able to make our watches thinner? Hallelujah. If we used it. And because of that thinness, we could then shape and mold the case, um, to better suit, um, each of these watches personalities a little more. And so once we were like, all right, let's, I think we can do, I think we can, uh, you know, bump up the price a little bit. Um,
Everett All the way to $500, which puts you at about $400 less than anybody else. Yeah. But go ahead.
Lauren Ortega Well, I mean, you'd be surprised. But yeah, it was once we decided we could change the movements, then we could kind of mold the collection.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, and a lot of it was also just having conversations with people, you know, during mind up during watch get togethers. And, you know, they would say, Oh, you know, I wish this was x, I wish this was y. And people have valuable input. You know, it's, and it takes time to absorb and digest that.
Lauren Ortega Because sometimes, you know, what we see isn't what other people see. And, like, for example, with the Hydra, Um, and the Neptune. Um, I was surprised by how many people couldn't tell those watches apart. Um, sure. And the first one. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew First iteration. Yeah. Neptune and Hydra one.
Everett Right.
Lauren Ortega So yeah, the Hydra one and the Neptune. Um, and so, okay, that's good to know. Um, so we're not achieving like what we're setting out to do in, in that sense. So let's dig a little deeper.
Andrew How do you cope with that as the design minds behind something where you've poured so much effort into a design and people just miss it?
Lorenzo Ortega Wow, that's a great question.
Andrew You guys seem the type who are just like, well, fuck it. I'm going to make it better. And that's kind of what I'm getting from you guys. But I'm just wondering what that I mean, you don't have to go into the existential crisis that I'm sure goes along with that, because I'm sure there's something there where you're like, oh, I mean, I put myself out here and you guys said I don't like it. But what's the next step? Like, how do you how do you take that feedback and go from, OK, I put this in. I still want this design to exist, but but I want you guys to get it. What is that that step like? What's that transition like?
Lorenzo Ortega That's a really great question, and I don't know if I can think of a good answer. I think a lot of it just comes from a gut feeling of, you know, this looks good and this feels good, and sometimes it works out, and you can't really tell until it's out there.
Lauren Ortega And part of the risk is there are already plenty of people who like it as it is.
Andrew Right.
Lauren Ortega You know, and so how do you weigh those two sides? You know, and how do you keep that in consideration as you move forward? So yeah, it is it's, it's taxing. And we you know our stomachs you know and knots about it while we were designing and going through it and okay we're gonna do this all right we're gonna do this and we spent you know like two weeks figuring out okay do we exactly what we wanted like the hydra you know markers on the dial to look like just going back and forth between like three different options this one this one this one this one or this one or this one and it was just the most like minute tiniest little differences that we were just, yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega And sometimes sometimes something that's good on paper and then you get the thing and it's okay.
Lauren Ortega That didn't work out. Right. Yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. Yeah.
Everett Well, so, I mean, I think you've made a few big jumps, obviously the release of the Gemini, you know, your, your first chronograph, right. Um, and you're using a seagull movement, which I think some people, at least, At least in 2020, I think using a seagull movement, a mechanical seagull movement in the chronograph is a little bit of a risk. I suspect that in 2021, we're going to see it more and more. But yeah, you introduce you introduce a chronograph, you redesign the Hydra, the Hydra, which some people couldn't tell the difference between the Hydra and the Neptune. You know, your Neptune being your sort of stock diver. Now your Hydra is an internal bezel dual crown diver. And then you come out with a GMT, right?
Andrew You know what? We haven't done enough this year.
Lauren Ortega I feel like part of this was just this urgency and excitement we felt to make these watches that we loved. And we didn't want to wait.
Andrew So I'm I'm really pleased that you guys dropped a GMT this year because last December, Everett and I declared 2020 as the year of the micro GMT. So no way we did. We did. Hot take. And the year before, we declared it the dress, the dress sport watch. That's right. And we're actually way ahead of the game.
Everett Nostradamus is. Yeah. of the Michael Brown Watch Game.
Andrew No one listens.
Lauren Ortega So what's 2021, guys?
Andrew We haven't released that episode yet.
Everett Yeah, I'm sorry. You're just going to have to wait like everybody else.
Andrew Yeah. We're going to talk to you guys after the show, though, so we can make this kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy because we can't be two out of three. We got to be three for three. So, man, I had a question before I started bragging.
Everett That's always how it goes.
Andrew But so you guys are You guys are getting on these paths of really clearly delineated designs of each of your brands or of each of your designs. Are you settled with the Hyperion? Like, is this, this is, this watches DNA and this is where it is going forward?
Lorenzo Ortega Yes. Yes. I would say so. Yeah. So, you know, so the Hyperion has been on our drawing board really since the beginning.
Andrew Since you heard our episode about 2020 being the episode of the year of the GMT.
Lauren Ortega With the Hyperion, it's just GMTs are really expensive. And so it took, we could only do it once we had built up and, you know, we're self funded. So once we were able to make enough money to do it, then we did it, you know, but it was, It's been on the board since day one.
Andrew So, so when I saw your sneak peek pictures with a GMT hand, uh, I was, I didn't know what to think. I was like, how are they going to drop a five to $700 GMT? And it's a little bit more because that's where I sort of expected it to land just on the way that you guys manage your pricing. And then it comes out and I'm like, you guys dropped an $800 GMT. Mm. How did you drop an $800 GMT?
Everett What you guys are doing is... We don't need to name names, but everybody knows. Everybody knows. We're not going to name the names, but you know. You know at home. And Lauren and Lorenzo are smiling, and they know. Well, Lorenzo's not smiling. But you guys are doing a thing that other companies are doing, I'm going to guess, better for way less money. Yeah. So, and I assume it's not because you guys are doing this altruistically. There's a margin here. Where in your process are you able to make this happen?
Lauren Ortega We don't know yet. Part of it. We hope that we make money off this.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. I mean, part of it is kind of altruistic just because like we have this romantic, and I mean, people will criticize us, you know, for not doing business
Lauren Ortega as well as we should but i mean it's really just about this romantic idea of you know it shouldn't cost more than this because we want people to have it if that's the criticism we're receiving service maybe by offering our watches for as low as we do because then you get maybe some unrealistic expectations and other businesses and business owners may not or want to or shouldn't be expected necessarily to, you know, go through what we do to get, to keep our prices low.
Lorenzo Ortega I think the mechanics of it is just, we just do everything as much as we can ourselves. Like all the photography on the website is us. All, like all of the customer service is us. Like just like the building of the website layout, all of the copy.
Lauren Ortega Yeah, we don't.
Lorenzo Ortega All social media. It's just the two of us. Yeah.
Lauren Ortega So if things move a little slow, if you're like, oh man, why don't we have stuff in stock yet? It's like, it's just the two of us, you know? Sure.
Andrew Yeah. Let's talk about the story of the Hyperion coming to be. So you said it's been on the drawing board for like three years. And I think that's a really important takeaway. from talking to you guys because you are self-funded. This isn't just like, Hey, you know, Everett and Andrew said this was going to be the year of the GMT. So pre-order it, pay us some money and we'll drop a GMT. This is like, you guys have been waiting to achieve this goal. So this is a, this is a milestone for you guys.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And, and we're super happy that it happened and it feels good.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. It feels crazy that we could do this guys. Like, Holy, this is a big deal. You are right. We are really happy.
Andrew You should be. This is awesome. This is a huge release. And from, like you just said, it's just you two. I want to hear the story. I want to hear from its inception, conception? To its birth.
Everett All right, guys. Keep it clean. Wait, wait, wait. Keep it clean.
Andrew Yeah, because this is a family show.
Lorenzo Ortega Well, we'll do our best. Yeah. I mean, like, like any watch nerd, you know, you have your ideal vision of, you know, a diver, a pilot's watch, a chrono, right. And, you know, a GMT is one of those types of watches that, you know, we wanted to make. And so, you know, the Hyperion was it for us. And I, So in terms of design, I can already hear people saying, Oh, you know, it's not original enough to which I would say, I'll say it for you. You know, it's, yeah, it's a fair critique. Like, but our process in designing it was it's, it's really difficult to make a GMT bezel. That's not. a Pepsi bezel like in the same way that it's difficult to make a diver and not offer it with a black bezel. The same thing with a GMT like you kind of like for me at least like from a purist mindset and maybe this is the wrong mindset to have. But for me there's like no there's no better way. I probably shouldn't say better. There's no there's no more classic way to separate daytime and nighttime hours than that red and blue like it looks sharp and it's practical and so we were you know like over the years we were like going back and forth on this hyperion design you know it's so it was okay is it original enough So we would change up things like we would change the colors on the bezel. We would change the shape of the markers, you know, and go back and forth. We'd come back to it after, you know, taking a week off. And what we have now is basically to our eyes, the best version or the best looking version of the GMT.
Lauren Ortega One thing about GMTs is like, there's a, there's a lot going on with the 24 hour bezel. Like it gets busy really quickly. So our goal is really just to make it as clean and good looking as possible. Like we don't want the busyness and you know, you, you can probably say like, yeah, it is, we, we got a lot of requests. Can you make, you know, uh, the Neptune, but with a fourth hand and a Pepsi bezel and yeah, that's kind of the, you know, the foundation of it, but we certainly had to change things so that it would look appropriate for a GMT.
Lorenzo Ortega Right. There's some subtle differences that I think you can really only appreciate once you have both of them in hand. Sure. Yeah. Sure.
Andrew And I think they're, they're important differences. I think if you just throw a GMT hand on a deliberately designed diver, you're, you're, you're doing a disservice to both. You're you're degrading the value of the design in that dive watch because it's not a GMT. It's not what it's for. And you're you're you're not fulfilling your goal of creating a true GMT. You're just you're you're throwing a fourth hand on that, you know, is maybe or maybe not independent and going, woohoo, we did it.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, but I mean, yeah, I agree. But there are some examples that look good, like with everything, there are exceptions, right?
Lauren Ortega Um, but yeah, with, with the Hyperion was just, I mean, it was something that was always just there. Um, and then once we had enough money to buy the movements, we're buying these movements, we're getting these and, and we had the movements. We, we bought the movements before we had enough money to like put the down payment on production for the rest of the watch. We're like, we're getting these movements and the rest will come. And once it did, we. We began, um, yeah. Yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega I remember, yeah. I remember that day of, you know, of us contacting Sopron and they gave us the quote and us saying, wait, we can afford this. We can do this now.
Everett Let's do it.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. And we were like, Oh my God, we're doing a GMT.
Lauren Ortega And we just spent all our money on GMT movements. So we better do it.
Andrew Tell me about the two loom colors. the difference in loom from the bezel to the dial?
Lauren Ortega Oh, well, you know, that was, that was an accident, honestly. It turned out really well. But I hate to say we weren't thinking that sharply when we first set out to make it. We wanted to use all of BGW9 because we prefer the blue glow. Um, and you're like the white daylight. Yeah. Yes. Right. Best white. Um, but then once we got, you know, the bezel, uh, prototype thin, I mean, one thing you probably, one, I guess, connecting feature of our watches is like the very thin slim bezel. We keep it very minimal. Um, and so because our bezel so slim, the numerals are small and they're thin. And, you know, the laws of physics are constant, and there just wasn't enough surface area for BGW9 to really work that well. So we saw it as a really great opportunity then. Okay, if we use C3, that means, you know, we can also use C3 on the GMT hand, and it's even better now. It worked out. Yeah.
Everett And it looks great. And I'm going to commend you guys on something because I think that, um, I think that there is some value to owning a design. Right. And I, and I mean, and I mean that comprehensively, I think that what we see every watch company doing, including Laurier is releasing a watch and multiplying the dial colors. and multiplying bezel options, and not owning a design, right? So when you get, you have a single watch that the company designed, and then three other versions of that that are sort of add-ons, and they may be popular, and you don't know what's gonna be popular, but here we've got one watch that you designed, and there's a gilt version and a stainless version, or steel version. I think it's a I think it's kind of sort of a bold move- and I think with this watch it makes sense to have done it that way. But I just like it I just like the fact that you owned the whole design.
Lauren Ortega Thank you because we were going into it we- very much debated and had on the table different. they all just seemed like tagalongs they seemed inferior and okay maybe they're unique or different but they're not as good like yeah the other ones were just so good as they were and so we felt like those are just like superfluous yeah yeah we knew we knew going into it you know like the pepsi bezel will forever be associated with Rolex
Lorenzo Ortega because they were the first to do it. And they weren't the only ones to do it, but they were the first to do it. And, you know, we're willing to accept that.
Andrew Or the biggest to do it. We can't say the first, but we can say the biggest.
Lorenzo Ortega Oh, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. I might totally be wrong. Yeah. I don't know either, but. Yeah. Thank you for that, Andrew. Yeah, but like Lauren was saying, like we had all these options and to our eyes, none of them looked as good as what we have now.
Lauren Ortega Because I think, You can go into it being wanting something different, but like different for the sake of difference is only cool for like 10 seconds. And then if it doesn't stand on its own, like then you can just get bored with it and move along. I think it has to look good and doing too many, throwing too many like quirky things or variations in just to be like, Oh, see, we're not like the others. Like that's pointless to me that gets in the way of something looking as good as it can.
Lorenzo Ortega And for what it's worth, I will say that the Pepsi bezel, like the colors aren't like standard blue and standard red. No, they're good. It's hard to appreciate on on video or just in pictures. But in life, it's very apparent. It's not like a normal Pepsi bezel.
Andrew So cool for 10 seconds, I think is a really important statement that you just made because you sold out in 10 seconds.
Everett Maybe a minute, maybe a minute.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, yeah, within five minutes. But, you know, honestly, that's that's not really something we're proud of.
Everett No. For the record, I'm going to suggest that it was maybe as little as a minute. OK, based on their based on the reports we're hearing.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah.
Everett Anecdotal evidence would suggest so both something that is awesome and maybe problematic. So talk about that a little bit.
Lorenzo Ortega I mean, yeah, we weren't really tracking it. So we don't know the exact time that they sold out. But yeah, it's like, I, we wish we had made more because we don't like disappointing people, you know, like, I think everyone would have been happier if we had more people wouldn't have been like, again, from our coming from our position.
Lauren Ortega You know, GMTs are really expensive. It was a big investment for us to produce what we did and coming out with a new watch and a new design in 2020 like we this is all us it's all our money and our lives are it's you know depend on this so if we invest in something heavily and then it flops like that's not good so um we couldn't it wouldn't have been wise We had no idea what demand was going to be. And so we did what we could. We did what we could afford. And we'll go from there and grow from there. But now we have an idea of what the demand is like. And it's not a limited edition.
Lorenzo Ortega We'll keep making more. Yeah.
Andrew So when will we see more? You don't have to give me a day.
Lorenzo Ortega I don't know when this airs exactly.
Andrew In the next few weeks, months.
Lorenzo Ortega In the next few weeks.
Andrew Okay. I mean, that's awesome. That's a huge, that's nice.
Lauren Ortega The holidays and, you know, New Year's and Chinese New Year's and all that, like not much happens in between January and February, but.
Andrew No, I sort of expect you guys to be assembling watches in your apartment.
Lorenzo Ortega The goal is to have them in for delivery bikes. Christmas. Yeah. We'll see. Like we're, we're working hard on it, but yeah.
Andrew But soon it's nearer than a pre-order soon.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. You know, you guys said something before we started recording and then you didn't say it when we had the same conversation earlier and I'm going to call you guys out on it. But you, you, you said, you know, also we're leaving money on the table, right? I think it's important to note, I think that there's this idea that is prevalent Maybe not persuasively so, but it's prevalent that watch brands limit supply to create demand artificially. And I think that undoubtedly, with a big brand with very developed marketing techniques, there is some benefit to that. But I just cannot imagine, I want to sort of put it to sleep, because I just can't imagine, and would you guys just confirm this for us and for the folks at home. There is zero benefit for people like you to do that, right?
Lorenzo Ortega Like the goal is to have as many people as possible have one of our watches. Yes. Or six of your watches. If someone emails us and says, you know, I had it in my cart, I was checking out and then it disappeared. Like that makes us sad as well. Like we could have, like we wanted you to have the watch too. And we have more on the way.
Lauren Ortega And also our audience, is not big enough for us to purposely deny some of them. You're not a huge fan. Who knows about us? I don't know. Most people have never heard of our brand.
Everett They don't know. You guys don't have ADs who can play waiting list games with consumers to sell your dress models.
Andrew You also don't seem like evil geniuses. Like you do seem you do seem very smart, but you're not like evil geniuses like plotting in the next room. You can't see my hand motions, but I'm doing the evil genius like hand thing. You know what I'm doing, but you don't seem like that. Like that's how and we're starting to run long, but I just that's a hard balance to strike. And what's the thinking? I'm not asking numbers because I don't care. I want to know the thinking and where you try to find that balance point against what you are confident. Because you guys need to be confident that you're going to sell a bucket load of watches. But where's that threshold? And how do you build that threshold? Is it based off of data from previous watches? Where is that? Or was it a purely financial decision of like, this is what we can afford to make right now?
Lauren Ortega Well, a lot of it's based on what do we, what do we need to live off of, you know?
Lorenzo Ortega Can we still survive? That tracks. Yeah. But it's, it's both. Yeah. It's both. It's figures from past sales. It's, uh, it's what we have are the financial resources that we have currently. Um, you know, like, it's antithetical to who we are to be exclusive. Like we don't want to be an exclusive watch brand. Like we think that's one of the worst parts of the watch industry where it's a good thing to be exclusive. It's like, no, like everyone should be able to enjoy watches. So like one thing we did this past summer, for example, like for all of our sold out models, we made a wait list where you could reserve a spot at no cost. Like we bore all the upfront costs into producing watches. Like if you were on the list, you had a watch made for you.
Lauren Ortega You are guaranteed a watch when it's ready. You'll be contacted and you can buy it.
Lorenzo Ortega And we didn't ask for a deposit or anything.
Andrew And then those people can back out if they're just like, Oh, I want to be on the wait list. And they can back out and you've already paid for that watch.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew So I mean, not you as the purchaser, but you as the brand.
Everett Right. Right. Yeah. I want to ask you guys about that. What are your numbers? How did that waitlist work? I mean, in terms of people who signed up on the waitlist versus people who wound up buying the list, do you have off the top of your head?
Lauren Ortega It varies. And I think the pandemic had a lot to do with it in terms of how confident people were going into the waitlist. And then once the months had passed, and your watch is available, and it was like, OK, actually, my budget isn't where I wanted it to be. Sometimes it'd be high as like a 90% fulfillment. Other times it would be low or close to like 60%. So it just varied. And I don't think we're going to do that kind of waitlist anymore because of that.
Andrew I sign up for the waitlist with dozens of fake emails.
Everett I'm sure you're appreciated.
Andrew I am so appreciated.
Lorenzo Ortega I see, I see. That makes sense.
Andrew I have to say the Hydra on leather looks really good. I keep seeing your wrist come up, Lauren, and I'm really digging the Hydra on leather.
Lauren Ortega Oh, thanks. Yeah, I put it on leather lately and I got this leather strap. I'm just trying to switch it out. Kind of like you, Everett, where you just like switch your straps out. I'm trying to use this leather on everything and see how it works.
Everett But then do you lament having it not be on the bracelet?
Andrew Because the flat length bracelet you guys have is So good.
Lauren Ortega Well, you know what? I was wearing this Hydra on a NATO strap and that and I really like that. I first I started with it on the bracelet, but then I switch it to the gray NATO and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is really comfortable and it looks good. Like the gray NATO really brought out the gray and the dial and it was really cool. And so I was wearing that, but now I feel like it's getting, you know, cooler. More wintry. I think a dark brown leather strap is more the mood now.
Andrew I'm sorry to have changed the topic. We were talking about my fake email signups. And have you seen, is that almost beneficial to have those people backing out of their pre-orders? Because then you've got an inventory on hand for sale.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, we figured that that would be, you know, the worst.
Lauren Ortega case scenario which is you know that's fine because we have watches to sell right um but those waitlists were helpful in helping us predict demand as well and also just get the ratios down okay how many you know what's the demand like for the black gilt neptune versus the black white neptune and just to kind of yeah see the proportions you know and so we could be a little more instead of just ordering, okay, the same number in every color way.
Everett And just sort of guessing, right?
Lauren Ortega So those waitlists were very helpful in that way. I'm glad they're mostly over though because it was, even though we didn't take any money, it's still stressful knowing people are waiting.
Andrew What is the model that you guys have expected to sell that just isn't? Because it doesn't seem like it exists, right? But what's underperforming in the catalog?
Lauren Ortega You know what? We got a ton of requests for a blue gold falcon. A gold falcon with a blue dial. And so we made it. And it's selling fine, but it's not selling at I thought it would be the most popular one because we had so many people asking for it.
Andrew It's just not proportionate to what people are like. I'd really like it if it was like this and $24.
Lauren Ortega Don't listen to those people.
Andrew Neckbeards, they're not buying your watches. They're just complaining about them.
Everett Don't ever listen to anyone. That's the bottom line.
Lauren Ortega We thought it was a good idea so we made it. We'll take their suggestions if we like them.
Everett So you guys, I think it's important. I think it's important before, before we let you off the hook here, because, you know, the last time we talked, we talked about this a little bit before we started recording, but the last time we spoke, you guys were very much, uh, an established micro brand, but I, I would describe the state you were in still sort of prepubescence, right? You had released some watches, you were killing it, but you had really, uh, not dove into the full spectrum of, where you're at now.
Andrew Is the word prepubescent stressing you out?
Lauren Ortega No, I'm not stressed out. I'm just overwhelmed because it's interesting to see how people view us because we are still very much scrappy underdogs hustling.
Andrew You're not. You may feel that way, but you're not.
Lauren Ortega you know, we are some kind of big established brand.
Everett Well, so, so, so right. So, okay. So, so take the caveat, right? You guys are very, you're, you're a two man shop or, or, uh, a husband and wife shop, as you describe yourselves. Um, you're, you're still in, in the grand scheme of things, you're a very mom and pop as the, as the phrase may go. And, and that is, uh, that is undeniable. Right. But I think in terms of your designs, And the concepts and the products that you were delivering, you were slightly immature the last time we spoke. And now looking at your catalog, I think that there's a ton of stuff going on. You've got really sort of developed design language that is pervasive across your models, but these distinct, these distinct models with personality and physical not just aesthetic features, but physical features that differ from one another. So, and furthermore, you guys drop a watch, you sell that watch. So in terms of your ability to communicate with people and your ability to produce concepts, you know, from concept to a model, that's going to be in your mailbox a week from today, you guys have matured a lot. So I'd like to ask you guys in that process, what have been the biggest things you've learned? Uh, anything that's surprised you? anything that's been sort of harder to deal with than you would have expected or perhaps easier? Are there things that come to mind immediately about this process?
Andrew Wow, you just asked like an hour worth of questions.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, no. Excellent question again.
Lauren Ortega Yeah, you guys are really... We're Barbara Walters today.
Andrew We told you we wouldn't be, but we're doing it. Cause we're drinking beer. We just disarm you. We're like, Hey, we're just losing.
Lorenzo Ortega We're drunk.
Andrew What do you want from us?
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. I think, I think what's been unexpected is how quickly things can get overwhelming. Like there, there have been days this year where, you know, it's like, did, did we bite off more than we could chew? And, you know, 2020 being 2020, You know, I, I feel like everyone's feeling that to some degree.
Lauren Ortega Um, it's hard to know what feelings we feel because of our, uh, unique personal situation and what feelings are, can be attributed to the larger events around us. So that's part, that's what makes the introspection harder is because this has been such a rough year for everyone. And so, How do we feel happy about what we've done? How do we, you know, feel anxiety about what's to come? How much of that is, you know, due to the pandemic and general uncertainty? It's, it's, if this was a normal year, I could give you a better answer. But because everything is just so, yeah, I think to, to
Lorenzo Ortega to summarize like what we've learned this year is basically we have to take a step back and appreciate what we have because it's very easy to get caught in the day-to-day and get caught in a stressful or tense situation like people are especially testy we're especially testy this year but it's important to just you know take a step back and appreciate be grateful I'm sorry, that sounds kind of corny. No, it doesn't sound corny.
Lauren Ortega Gratitude is our coping mechanism.
Andrew That's our only way that we can... Sorry, you guys are such good fucking people that gratitude's your coping mechanism for 2020.
Everett You know, I think that there's a couple things going on, right? I mean, I think that one It occurs to me that you guys are expressing, at least, and it occurs to me, based on your pained expression, in particular, Lauren, that you're feeling a little bit of imposter syndrome here, right? Where we're just a husband and wife team who are doing this crazy thing and we've bitten off more than we can chew, as Lorenzo said. Meanwhile, I think You said it, right? It surprises you to hear what people say about you. You know, everybody doing this is doing this same thing, right? You guys are extremely successful and you've got this great brand. And that is something, you know, but I think everybody feels that thing, right? That thing that, you know, why, A, why is this happening? And I think there's something else happening too, right? There's this, in this terrible kind of scary time, we're, we're having this success. Is that okay for us to just enjoy that? And I mean, for our parts, we'd say, yes, please. You guys enjoy it. Yeah. Please enjoy that. And to the extent you're not enjoying it, uh, work on that. But, um, yeah, that's hard, right? It's, it's, uh, it's a hard part of this process.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. But like Lorenzo was saying, I guess be more. We've learned that we really have to put our foot down, take a step back when we need to. We need to do what we want and trust our gut more than listen to others.
Lorenzo Ortega We have like one thing that makes me happy is we have, we look at each piece in our collection. We have like a little watch case or we have one of each that we use for photography. And you know, I, I, I look at it, like the ensemble and it makes me happy. I'm happy with how it looks.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. I think, yeah, we're just really happy and proud of it. Um, so that, that feels good, um, to do something that you feel totally a hundred percent good about. Yeah.
Andrew So I only have one last question. Lauren, are you left-handed?
Lauren Ortega I am. Yeah.
Andrew I just I've I've been watching your guys's left and right wrist to see what you guys are wearing. And so I just I saw you wearing your watch on the proper wrist. And Andrew's left handed as well.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. Oh, nice.
Andrew Yes. So I so I see you wearing on the proper wrist. I had to ask.
Lauren Ortega OK. Yeah, I'm glad to hear. I'm not alone. No, not alone.
Andrew And maybe you guys could drop a Destro watch. I will buy one. There are no left-handed kitchen shears in the world. Okay. As I say that, I know that everyone who's listening is going to send us a bucket load of left-handed kitchen shears, but OXO at $20 does not have left-handed kitchen shears.
Lauren Ortega That's what makes us adaptable, resilient.
Andrew And like 20% more likely to commit suicide.
Everett You know, my son is left-handed and we're teaching him to, we're teaching both my children to golf. And Andrew says, you're not going to let him learn how to golf left-handed, are you? No, don't do that. And I was like, yes, of course I'm going to let him. And Andrew is very opposed to it. We've made the decision and not included Andrew's advice in our decision-making process. With that said, yeah, there's a thing that I don't have to think about.
Andrew So both my wife and I are left-handed and both of our kids are showing right-hand dominance.
Lorenzo Ortega What? It's weird. Right. That's disappointing.
Andrew But so my parents were like super opposed to my left handedness. So I'm very ambidextrous because they were like, no, you're not going to learn to throw a ball right handed or left handed. That's weird. Learn to throw a ball right handed like a normal.
Lauren Ortega So when I was playing tee ball, like they didn't make, you know, the Walmart in the neighboring town where I got my baseball glove. They didn't have one for left handed. left handers so yeah I played t-ball you know throwing awkwardly with my right arm but then when I you know got in high school and played softball then I could you know uh hit either way and yeah it was beneficial because I I had more um more abilities yeah on the bright side you know like for those of you who don't know I I box and when I box I'm left-handed oh
Andrew I would have loved to spend an entire episode talking about boxing with you. Oh, man. Yeah.
Lorenzo Ortega Next time.
Andrew Yeah. Yes. He's coming back. They're coming back.
Everett We'll see. They might just be being nice.
Lauren Ortega They're not a lot of special. We'll talk about sports.
Andrew Oh, so what's weird? I box right handed. But I've got a gnarly jab as a function of being a left handed person.
Lauren Ortega Wait, so why did you cross over? Are you right eyed? No, I'm left eyed. But you still box right-handed?
Andrew Yeah. I'm a disaster.
Everett He is the most ambidextrous person I've ever met in my life. I'm a disaster. I've done every single thing possible with this guy that you can do left-handed versus right-handed. And he's, it's a total crapshoot. I never know. I never know which way he's going to come out.
Andrew The only thing that's definitive, I write better left-handed. It's not great. but I write better left-handed. And you shoot left-handed.
Everett Yeah, shoot left-handed.
Andrew You shoot a gun left-handed, but shoot a bow right-handed, right? No, I shoot a bow left-handed, but I shoot very effectively right-handed also. It's bizarro.
Everett Other things, Andrew, what do you got? Oh, I have a good other thing. You've got a good other thing? I do.
Andrew All right, good. I want you to leave that silence in. So I have been on the hunt for a new pair of dress boots. And reason being is that I've owned a lot of pairs of shitty, like $50 to $120 dress boots in my life. And I had a couple pairs that I didn't replace because I didn't need dress boots anymore. And my dog ate them and they just, they went away. So I've been on the hunt for new dress boots. And I, as we do as like serial disgusting hobbyists, went on the hunt. And I filmed Thursday Boot Co, which is short for company, for those of you unfamiliar. Get on with it. Thursday Boot Company. And GQ has reviewed them, and there's a bunch of other fashion websites that have reviewed them, and like, hey, these are really good boots. But there is an article that I read from a dude who just wrote a review about these boots that he wears. He's a travel writer. He lives in South America and these are boots that he swore by. He's like, Hey, yeah, I bought a pair. I wore them for five years. I wore them out. I live in them. I'm a travel writer in South America. These are the boots that I wear. And he, so that was what sold me was like a totally non, non funded, like no associate link paid review. So I bought a pair of, the Thursday boot company, Captain Boots at $199 in the brown. And I woke up this morning and they were delivered to my house. I opened them up out of their Amazon package and I opened the box and my living room immediately smelled like a leather workshop. I was like, Ooh, that's good. I love that. That's, that's good. I put them on. they were uncomfortable. That's good. Because you don't want leather boots to be comfortable right away.
Everett Not uncomfortable, but stiff, right?
Andrew Yeah, you want them stiff. I hit them with some Hubert's shoe grease, and I laced them up. And I've had to tighten them a couple times, because you can tell the leather's kind of doing a little bit of forming. I could go with a touch more cushion in the sole. I might get some insoles for them. But the soles are comfortable. I'm not a tall guy. Having a little bit of a heel is nice. I like to wear Western boots, and I wore them basically exclusively when I was living in Texas. It's weird to wear them in Oregon, so I don't wear Western boots anymore, because people are like, what are you doing wearing cowboy boots? I'm like, I'm not tall. What do you want from me? I need some height advantage here. So we have a little bit of a heel on them. But I've been wearing them since I woke up at 1, so it's 7 now for us. So six hours. They're a little bit softer. They look good. Everett, you concur. They look good. Concur. With a little bit of Hubert shoe grease. Great laces. They look even better. Yeah, good laces.
Everett Good your welt. Yeah. Steel shank, cork footbed. Yeah. All the things you want.
Andrew They're legit, man. They're legit. So the captains are $199 money. Cap toe. These are money. I love them. I don't know the height of the shank on them. I'd say six inches, maybe eight inches.
Everett Of the, yeah, I'd say that's a six inch boot. Yeah. Six inch boot.
Andrew Yeah. Not a shank. But yeah, like a six inch boot. These are money. I like them. And, and they're 200 bucks. And so my, my, my terror was like, do I go with like a red wing and spend like 350 to 400 bucks? Or do you do something? Do I go something like, yeah. Like, do I go super big? Like, but, All the reviews I could read were like, these are $200 to $400 boots that you're getting the value out of these big companies who are charging like five to five plus. And I, not having owned a $500 pair of boots, because that's just not a thing that I would do just yet, I think these could be my dress boot go-tos.
Everett Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, the leather looks good today. It'll be interesting to see how the leather, it doesn't look a corrected grain. It looks like a full grain. It'll be interesting to see how they wear because that's really the biggest difference you get. But the construction looks solid.
Andrew And it feels solid. All the stitching as I was greasing them, I was like, OK, these are like proper stitches. And then even in the interior of the boot, you can feel, not feel in like a discomfort way, but like you can sense the... That's a lot of dead space for this show, man. I just lost a word.
Lauren Ortega Quality, maybe? Yeah, that's the word.
Everett Hey, that's a fantastic word. Lauren, we really appreciate you being here.
Andrew I'm getting Alzheimer's. You can sense the quality of the construction of the boot just in the way that you're wearing it. I feel it's...
Everett You know, so a couple weeks ago I did my outreach on my white sneakers, right? I said, hey, I'd like to buy some white sneakers. Where are you still on my other thing? And Thursday was one of the companies that came up a lot. Yeah. Thursday makes a sneaker and Rosen Anvil, which is a YouTube sort of shoe guy, has talked about their sneaker a lot. So yeah, I think it's a great company. I think it's a good value company.
Andrew So if you're in the market and you've got between two and three hundred bucks for a pair of dress boots, I'm more of a dress boot kind of guy. I wear them with jeans. I like to wear them with khakis. I wear them in a suit. I prefer dress boots, especially in the winter. And Clark's, you know, the $70 Clark's dress boot is great. It's just not cutting it. I'm a little, I just want a little something more. And you know, the Macy's $100 boots, they're fine. They're comfortable. They're, you know, they look pretty okay.
Everett Don't do that.
Andrew at this point, like the longevity of your boot, if you're listening to a watch podcast, you have enough to spend, you know, an extra hundred bucks on a pair of boots instead of a pair of Macy's boots. Check them out. I'm digging them so far. They're getting more and more comfortable. My feet don't feel great, but they don't feel bad.
Lorenzo Ortega Have you all heard of Meermin? Meermin, yeah. Fantastic stuff. Yeah. Yeah, I have a pair. They're two years old. The only bad thing I have to say about them is they're a literal pain to break in.
Everett Yes.
Lorenzo Ortega But now they're amazing.
Andrew That's the thing with leather shoes. The break in period should be uncomfortable. You got to earn the you got to really earn your leather boots and leather shoes. I probably wore my. So I have a pair of Western boots that I wore like pretty exclusively while I was living in Texas because it's appropriate to wear there. and I wore them over here the other day, and I probably wore them for like four months. And I did the whole break-in, like I greased them, I put them in the tub, I had to have people help me remove them. It took about four months for a proper break-in, and now they're probably the most comfortable shoe I own, like short of slippers.
Lorenzo Ortega Wow.
Andrew You gotta earn the comfort.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.
Lauren Ortega I thought there were cowboys in Oregon. I thought you couldn't get away with boots in Oregon. Not where we live.
Everett Oregon is a very... We've got state of Jefferson, part of Oregon, and then we've got Eugene and Portland, right?
Andrew Yeah, we got West Virginia and Seattle. That's right.
Lauren Ortega So you're like, around these parts, there are no cowboy boots. Yes. There's certain... Okay.
Andrew I wear them and I very much stand out.
Everett People are like, what's that guy doing? I've got a pair of Western boots and I wore them to court one day and people were like, what the fuck are you wearing?
Andrew Meanwhile, I went to jury duty in Texas and the prosecutor, the defense attorney and the judge are all wearing black cowboy boots. So it's just a little bit of a regional difference.
Everett That's right. Eugene feels like a very progressive college town and that's where we're at. Well, so I've got, I've got, I've got a footwear update too. I alluded to this earlier. Uh, I did reach out on the show for recommendations on a pair of white sneakers. They say, Hey, you know, I don't really want to get a pair of common projects. They're just sort of a lot of money and I'm just not feeling the hype and don't want Air Force ones. I don't want Air Force ones. I've had a hundred pair of Stan Smith's over the years and I don't really want that cause they just get shitty so fast. And uh, so I got a ton of great recommendations. And what'd you go with? I went with a great recommendation for a company called Greats. Great. So this is one of these, uh, startup companies, um, very much started, uh, their company based on the, the success of companies like common projects. Um, they make, I paid about 130. I think that regularly they're about 170. Okay. Um, I got, I got a little bit of a sale, but they're just a white sneaker. And so much like your Thursday boots, they came in, they're stiffer than I expected, right? Cause I'm used to Stan Smiths.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah.
Everett And you put a pair of Stan Smiths on and they instantly feel like a slipper. Comfortable out of the box.
Andrew Not a great thing unless you're looking for hiking boots.
Everett That's right. This is a full grain leather shoe with leather liners. And, um, you know, it's a sneaker, it's, it's a rubber sole, but, um, there are, there are just a touch stiff, but that's what I expected. And I think what I hoped for, um, But yeah, so that's my update. I am, I'm excited. You can look them up. Great. So there'll be a link in the show notes, assuming Andrew does the show notes and he coined us usually does. Um, but yeah, that's my, that's my update. And so it's very similar. I won't harp on it too much. Similar to Andrew's experience, right? I got them. I've worn them a handful of times now. They look good, feel good. We said that about something else today. Look good, feel good. I don't feel like there's much else to say about them. Look them up. Great. Leather white sneakers. Great. I think they're fantastic. I've worn the shit out of them and they look awesome.
Andrew Uh, totally off topic, but, um, apropos of nothing, Mike is very close to becoming dad too.
Everett Mike Razek doing his thing. Lauren and Lorenzo, do you have other things?
Lauren Ortega Do we have things?
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. Um, I have two other things.
Andrew Yes. I love doing two other things. Everett always complains about it when I do two. Do two. You're the guest. You get to do whatever you want.
Lorenzo Ortega Do two, do three. Thank you so much. Yeah. These, these are two things that I have found relaxed me in 2020 for different reasons and in different ways. My first thing.
Everett Edibles. He likes the THC, the THC CBD blends.
Lorenzo Ortega So the first thing is John Coltrane's rendition of Favorite Things.
Everett Oh, we this has been another thing on the show. Absolutely. John Coltrane's. Yes, I brought it up one week. John Coltrane's Favorite Things is one of my very favorite pieces of music of all time. Go ahead. I won't steal your thunder.
Lorenzo Ortega Please go. Great minds. What can I say? That's really all I can say. Like I've had it on repeat. It's amazing. It's like it's perfect. And yeah, I mean, what else is there to say?
Everett It's so, so, so good. This was an early other thing.
Andrew This was like an episode 10, 11.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. I say, gosh, I found this piece of music. It's John Coltrane's Favorite Things. It is mind-blowingly good. Yes. Great minds think alike. That is a wonderful piece of music.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. My second favorite thing, totally different, but also weirdly relaxing, is Doom Eternal, the video game. Ooh. It's basically the same. Yeah. It's, it's just, you just, you know, shoot demons and chainsaw them. And you know, it's very fast paced, but you get into a rhythm and it's very Zen. Like you get to like a Zen point. It's, it's cool. I highly recommend it.
Everett Um, I can tell Lauren is really into this.
Lauren Ortega Okay. I think my face is just way too expressive. I need to work on that. But, I'm generally a backseat gamer, right? I enjoy watching- I cannot stand watching Doom Eternal. It's so gross. And, like, how can you take these- like, you dehumanize them. You de-demonize them!
Andrew They're demons! They're not humans!
Lauren Ortega But it's just gruesome!
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah. And, well, they just released an expansion, The Ancient Gods Part 1, and it's even faster-paced than, like,
Lauren Ortega the base game which means more chainsaw faster pace means more less gunfighting more melee yes i can't keep up just watching it and yeah you sit and watch him play video games or do you play with him well i generally i'll watch if it's like a narrative based then that's really what i enjoy because i can make you know inappropriate comments and you know just like the witcher 3 or like the mass effect Or Red Dead Redemption.
Andrew Like, you know, I loved dude. Red Dead 2 was one of my favorite games of all time. Not only. So the the story was great. The the does the game design was like breathtaking. I've I've like spent hours just riding my horse around the wilderness.
Everett Yeah. Yeah.
Lauren Ortega Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Oh my gosh.
Lorenzo Ortega Yeah, we were talking like cowboys for like, six weeks playing that game.
Andrew Oh, Arthur. This is why we do this show.
Lauren Ortega I think everyone Oh, God, people. Maybe we shouldn't have come on. I'm just reliving, you know, briefly, like, reviewing things we've said and people must think we're the craziest, like weirdest, like, I'm sorry.
Andrew You've listened to a few of our episodes, right? Like they, you realize that people are shocked by us weekly. We get emails from mothers who were like in their eighties, like, how could my child be listening to you?
Lorenzo Ortega Wow.
Everett This is not true. No, this is not true. Not real. No, you guys, I think, so we've always said, right, and I mean this sincerely, The most important thing that I think we do is talk to people, right? And talk to people about who they are as people. Watches, you know, we've seen a lot of sort of existential, what is watches? Why am I doing this? You know, major publications and small publications alike, or even not even small publications, just sort of Instagram personalities lamenting certain aspects and this is boring and, you know, well, at the end of the day, it's watches, right? You guys, this is watches. And there's never been a time like right now to get into watches. And so the more, the better. We don't really care about watches, either one of us. I mean, we both love them.
Andrew Yeah. But our whole, the reason we're doing this is to talk about affordable watches. introduce people to the affordable watch category, but more importantly, to tie people to the brands and the people behind the brands that are involved in this game loving weirdos with good taste in music and wallpaper. I'm going to ask, I need a quick, uh, A quick aside, what's the picture in the frame behind you?
Lauren Ortega This pink one?
Andrew Yes. I can't quite tell what it is.
Lauren Ortega It's just sentimental. Lorenzo's mom painted this. Oh, it's a flower. Yeah, it's a rose. It's a watercolor.
Andrew We couldn't tell. When you guys saw us writing on the notepad... We were guessing. We were trying to figure out what it was.
Everett Yeah, we were in between turkey neck and something else that I'm not going to repeat. Yeah, at a distance.
Andrew Yeah, but that totally makes sense. And it's a euphemism, even for what it is. So for what we thought it was so.
Lauren Ortega Oh, at a distance. Yeah.
Everett Lauren, other things.
Lauren Ortega I can't believe my child is listening to you about that.
Andrew Feel free to email us. Everett checks the emails.
Everett Lauren, other things. What do you got?
Lauren Ortega Well, this is going to solidify, you know, many of us as weirdos, but one thing we've been doing, and this is a mutual thing, is some of our friends from Texas, we have organized a Zoom D&D game. And so once a week we'll play D&D with our friends in Texas. And yeah, that's, that's been our little escape. Like it's the thing we do most regularly now that,
Andrew So do you spend all a week strategizing about what you're going to do next?
Lauren Ortega No, not really, because we're pretty laid back about it. I mean, yeah, we're pretty intuitive.
Andrew Oh, OK. Yeah. I have I read the I read a book called Fuck. Doesn't matter. It was it was a murder mystery, though, a true murder story. where the suspect was a super intense Dungeons and Dragons player. Like that was his life. He existed in the Dungeons and Dragons world and he was suspected of a murder that occurred in like a subterranean, uh, like, uh, university maintenance facility. But the whole thing, it was like this weird, man, I wish I could fucking remember it. Um, the whole thing was like this weird collision between this murder mystery and how Dungeons and Dragons fit into it. And after I read it, I was like, I kind of think I love Dungeons and Dragons, but I don't know anyone who plays Dungeons and Dragons. And I kind of like hint at it every once in a while. And everyone's like, no, I don't know. I don't play that game. I'm like, okay, I don't, I don't play it either. Me either. Who does that? Cause I don't, but I've been fascinated by it since I read that book. Gosh, I wish I could remember the name of it.
Everett Well, you can't, and that's the story of your life.
Andrew Yeah, I just forget I'm old. I'm the 40 version of 40 and 20 today. So you play remotely. Do you guys just pick up where you left off?
Lauren Ortega Yeah, so one of our friends is the dungeon master, and he controls the narrative, and he knows where we're going. And so he creates the world for us. And then we as our characters, you know, decide what we want to do.
Andrew What are your characters? Oh, so... We'll cut this if you don't like it.
Lauren Ortega It's called a tiefling. And basically you're like half human, half demon or... This is why you don't like doom.
Andrew Okay, I get it. Now it tracks.
Lauren Ortega What did you say?
Everett This is why you don't like Doom. We get it right now. It's all coming full circle.
Lauren Ortega It hurts me, you know. So that's my character. It's a sorceress, sorcerer tiefling.
Lorenzo Ortega And I am just a basic human. You're just Lorenzo, just like fucking shit up. I'm just a guy. Everyone else in the party is like a goblin or a tiefling or a dragonborn. And so I end up being this fit for just being a guy. It's great. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. God, I love it. I love when we get to places like this in our interviews cause this is where we want to get. We want to get to the, like the people behind the brands. I, I'm, I'm beside myself happy right now. This is, this is where we want to get. This is our goal. We want, because we, the people who listen to us are just people like you and like me.
Everett Everett's a dick. And some teeplings.
Andrew And Everett the asshole. That's what we want to get. We want people to get to know you because there's so much value in this small brand purchasing world. And that's prolific through the way informed consumers buy things, right? They go to farmers markets, they go to Etsy, they go to these places where they want to connect to the seller, where they want to know who they're buying from, because for whatever reason, that's important to them. And that's why we're doing the show. We're so pleased to share the Dungeons and Dragons versions of you guys with the world, because that ignites this kindred spirit with Any question, people are like, oh yeah, the Hydra, it's fucking awesome.
Everett But they also play Dungeons and Dragons and so do I. And I gotta tell you guys, I am going to be scouring the internet for videos of Lorenzo Ortega kicking the shit out of someone in a boxing ring this week for our show notes. I don't think they exist. Well, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see about that.
Lauren Ortega If it's Lorenzo Ortega getting... I'm going to tell you a really sad story, okay?
Andrew Oh, do it. Yes.
Lauren Ortega I was supposed to be taking the video of Lorenzo, you know, kicking, you know, knocking somebody out and getting the golden gloves trophy. And my finger was on the take picture. This isn't like age of like a digital camera, right? My finger was on the take picture button and not the record video button. So I was sort of hoping you'd say there is no video. I was kind of hoping you'd say it was like of Lorenzo getting his, you know, hand lifted up in victory because that's when I ended the video, which took the picture. So that's my bad.
Andrew Which is not to say I wish harm upon you, but I was sort of hoping you were going to say, I ended up taking video of him getting like whooped on by a guy, like two weight classes above him. And it's this, it's a really sad video. Like nobody should fight Andre the Giant, but for some reason he's fighting Andre the Giant.
Everett Lauren and Lorenzo.
Lauren Ortega We do have some pretty cool pictures though. Yeah. Lorenzo, yeah. So at least we have pictures, but no video.
Everett Tell these folks where to find you on Instagram. Tell these folks where to find you on the internet. How do I buy a brand new Laurier watch if I were so inclined to do so?
Lorenzo Ortega So we are on laurierwatches.com. That's L-O-R-I-E-R, laurierwatches.com. And on Instagram, we are just laurierwatches.
Andrew Yeah, just Laurier watches, whatever. It's just a thing. God, you guys. I hate how humble you are.
Everett It bugs me. Andrew, anything else you want to add before we go? No, I just added it. You just added it. Okay, well, you're a good man. Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the WatchClicker podcast. Check us out on Instagram at 40 in 20. We're at WatchClicker. Check Laurier out at Laurier watches on Instagram or at Laurier watches.com. If you want to support our show, you can do so on patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Also check out watch clicker.com. That's where we put all the posts of the of the podcast as well as watch reviews and other content. It's a fantastic website. We're really proud of it. And we've got people that are much more talented than us that contribute stuff to it. Yeah, way more talented than us. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday. for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew Bye.
Everett Andrew always gives me shit because I'm recording.