40 and 20 Mini Review - Nodus Contrail II

Published on Mon, 14 Dec 2020 06:00:00 -0800

Synopsis

This is an audio review of the Noct Contrail 2 watch by two friends and watch enthusiasts, Will and Andrew. They discuss the various features and improvements of the Contrail 2 over its predecessor, including the slimmer bezel, articulating bracelet, roulette date wheel, and overall comfortable fit on the wrist. They express their appreciation for the quality and attention to detail from the Noct brand, and consider the Contrail 2 to be a great value proposition in its price range.

Overall, they give a positive review of the Noct Contrail 2, highlighting its attractive design, solid build quality, and thoughtful refinements that make it a compelling watch in its category. They recommend others interested in watches at this price point to seriously consider the Contrail 2.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, watch fam. Here we are today, Will and I, my real very good friend. And this is Andrew, Big Shock, and we're talking audio review today. One of our special mini-sodes, watch reviews. It's going well, Will. How are you?
Will I'm doing good. It's Sunday. I'm watching football, making Italian food.
Andrew Ooh, what are you making?
Will Making sausage rigatoni. It's kind of like a vodka sauce. Just a cream sauce, but one of my favorites for fall Sundays.
Andrew That sounds like a terrific Sunday activity. I'm just at Everett's house drinking beer in his basement. Does he even know you're there? Yeah, I came over. It was just his wife over here, so I started getting everything set up, and he came through the door and just saw me. Hey, where are my things? Get out of my way. I'm busy. So yeah, I've taken over our sound studio today for one of our Hopefully becoming more frequent. Audio reviews. It's hard because we rarely have two of the same watches within the WatchClicker family at the same time. It's easier to do these when we both have the watch in hand.
Will Yeah, yeah. I think this is probably the second or third one we've done and that's really been because, like you said, we often don't have the same watches.
Andrew But we've got one today. Well, we've got two because you have one and I have one. And today we're going to talk the Notice Contrail 2.
Will Yeah, and I think that we should probably talk about why we both have one, because you have the one that I reviewed for the website and on YouTube, which is the black on steel. And I've got the black dial with the black bezel, sapphire bezel. So this came to be through the help of my wife. It was a gift from her and a couple of family members, but it's already got a good connection to the hashtag WatchFam. because she wasn't sure what to get me for my birthday and she's friends with one of the guys in one of the watch groups, you know, that we all have and was talking to him and trying to figure out, you know, a good gift. And through his help, talking with Wes at notice, they were able to figure out that this black on black would be a good gift. So whole bunch of people involved, very thankful to everybody involved in getting it on my wrist.
Andrew It's awesome to see it on your wrist. And what's it wearing? So I see the black on black, but it's wearing something that I really like on it.
Will Yeah, so I've got it on brown Horween leather, and it's one of the straps that Notice makes. So they sell a couple from their website. I think black is one, and then two different browns. And this is the lighter brown, kind of like a cognac color, I guess. I don't know what you'd call it. But yeah, it looks really good with the all black dial.
Andrew It does. It looks very good. And I have in front of me the black dial with steel bezel on their really terrific bracelet.
Will Yeah, the bracelet on the Contrail 2 is really good. I think it's the same one that they had on the Duality with the exception of the clasp. The Duality had the diver's clasp with the flip lock, and this is just a double push button.
Andrew Which I think you've been on the show and expressed a preference for.
Will Yes, I prefer them over any other type of clasp.
Andrew Were we talking, was it on air that we talked about trying to just do a friction closed clasp?
Will Yeah, I don't remember what episode that was for, but yeah, we talked about that and friction bezels.
Andrew Yes, because I also really like friction bezels. Whenever people are talking to us about what's coming up next, I always try to throw in the idea of friction bezels.
Will Yeah. I wouldn't be opposed to that. And I do the same thing with flat sapphire crystals. Really, really want people to start putting those in more watches. No one seems to be listening to me though.
Andrew That's okay. Maybe someday they will.
Will Or we'll just make a watch. There we go. That's what we'll have to do.
Andrew We probably won't do that. At least I won't. I'm, I'm, yeah, this is about the maximum input I have. So, uh, let's, let's get into this contrail. Remind me, did you have a contrail version one?
Will Yeah, so I had, um, it was actually the first watch I reviewed from notice was the original Contrail. It was the Laguna Sand with the black bezel. Um, and then after that I had the, it was when they launched the SS models. Um, so I had the Arctic white, I think they called the dial color with the steel bezel. Um, yeah, yeah. So I've seen all of the iterations, uh, with the exception of the fixed bezel, which I think they call the 39. So that's the only one I haven't actually touched, but all of the rotating bezel versions I've seen.
Andrew And what are your thoughts of initial iteration versus Contrail 2?
Will So the one thing that turned me off to the original Contrail was the bezel. It was pretty thick and it just looked wide on the watch. I think it made it look really bulky And that was part of the reason that I really liked the SS when they came out with that because it slimmed it down a little bit. They sloped it down. And if you look at the side of the contrail, it's got the two rows of knurling. The original had three. So just to give you an idea of kind of the, you know, thickness that it had at some point. So, and I know that they changed the case a little bit. I don't remember kind of what the dimensions went from to this. I think the diameter stayed the same and the lug to lug is approximately the same. It's really in the thickness that they changed it and then the lugs sloped down a little bit more, I think, too.
Andrew I think... How could they get more slope down on the lugs? These turned down a lot. Yeah. This thing rides tight.
Will Yeah, I could be wrong on that. I swear I remember reading, though, that they were... Took a little bit of flatness out of them, but maybe I'm just thinking of the bezel, because I know they slope that down. That's part of the interesting piece about the Sapphire bezel, that it's sloped Sapphire. I like it. Yeah, they did a really nice job, kind of... And Notice does this a lot with their watches, where they release a version two or three, and make some refinements to the watches. I know that they've done it with the Retrospect. I think that was probably the first one that they really started tweaking.
Andrew And it seems like they do that between every iteration. Once they do a production run, they make a few tweaks. They do another production run of even without changing the name. They're like, oh, yeah, by the way, we changed these couple little things to make it better. They're just a constantly evolving organism. And even one watch run to the next is almost iterative.
Will Yeah. And I think we touched on that a little bit when we talked about the I forget what we call the episode, the watch iterations episode that we did about a month or so ago. I think we may have touched on notice how they do that and you know, the pros and the cons of it. But, uh, you know, they're doing it with the, the sector that they just launched on Thursday, you know, that they've got some new dial printing with the numerals and this, uh, uh, what do you call it? The crystal is a little different. So, you know, they're always, they're always tweaking. And if you're a person who needs the latest and greatest thing, I think it can, can definitely hurt your wallet.
Andrew Oh yeah, oh yeah, definitely would notice. Everyone else, I mean, it's a couple years between watches and iterations and unfortunately you're gonna have to buy a dozen sectors before you find the one that you like the best. Which, I mean, maybe isn't that unfortunate because they're all terrific. We should circle back to the Contrail though.
Will Yeah, definitely. I mean, the thing that I like about it is it just sits so nice on the wrist. I think you touched on a little bit where you said it sits tight. And I think unless you have a really huge wrist, I think you're just going to be really happy with how this fits because of the way those lugs turn down. And that nice, um, polished undercut on the underside of the case. I mean, it every once in a while I'm wearing this and I get it. I get a look from a certain angle where the, the polishing all shines and the case shape on this is just, it's so
Andrew phenomenally comfortable. I can't imagine a wrist shape, besides somebody who's maybe got like a two by six for a wrist, who's not going to feel really comfortable wearing this.
Will Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's just got a lot going for it. That's nice. And, um, they were pretty much there with the Contrail SS. And I think that whatever small tweaks they made on this version, um, really kind of makes it, you know, It's always the latest and greatest is gonna be the best, but it is the best version of the Contrail.
Andrew And I think they said this is a 90 click bi-directional bezel.
Will Yeah, it is. And I'll put, I'll put mine up to the mic and we'll see if we can get it. Cause it's, it has a very interesting sound. It doesn't sound like any other bezel that you've spun around. I can almost guarantee it. So it's, It's bi-directional. When I was spinning that, I went one way and then went back, and on the return trip, it seemed to be a little quieter because it has that kind of chunky, gnarly sound when you're spinning it, and that's because of the ball bearings, I'm assuming, because I know that some of the bezel mechanism has ball bearings in it. I'm not too well-versed on it, but I'm assuming that's why it sounds the way that it does.
Andrew I would think so, and I like the bi-directional. I think it's an Interesting touch for such a classically styled watch to have such a vintage feeling bezel action.
Will Yeah, yeah. And I know with talking with Wes, I think back when they launched the Contrail SS, he feels that if you are putting a dual time bezel on a watch, that it needs to go both ways. You need to have a bi-directional bezel. And, you know, I think I pointed out in my review, You know, it takes two times as long to go around if you're trying to get or three times as long to get to line up nine at the 12 o'clock position if you can't go both ways. But, you know, it makes sense. You know, if you're trying to quickly set a time, you don't have to think about which way you need to turn it. You just look at whatever number you need and line that up and you're good to go.
Andrew And being a 90 click, you don't have to have that same worry about a 120 click because there's nothing that frustrates me more than 121 clicks. That could be the most frustrating thing in the world.
Will Yeah. Yeah. Um, I agree, especially for, um, anything that's got a GMT bezel of some sort, um, whether it's 12 hour or 24 hour actual GMT bezel is when they just slapped on the bezel insert for it on their standard, you know, 120 click, uh, you know, bezel action. I'm talking about other watch manufacturers that might be doing this because it's very common when they launch a GMT version of a watch or want to put a 12 hour bezel on. They just, they just change the insert. Nothing else has changed.
Andrew No. Yeah. Cause why not? I mean, that's cheaper that way. Yep. Yep. And I, I, I get the thinking behind it.
Will Um, you know, and the, the good thing is with 24 hour bezels or sorry, 12 hour bezels is that As long as you're timing thing in five minute increments, you can still use it as a dive time bezel. You know, I use it when I cook bagel bites because those go in the oven for 15 minutes. And I know when my minute hand gets to three on the contrail, they're done.
Andrew Yep. I like that bagel bites in the, in the oven. Uh, one thing I like about it too, is it kept the, the dial itself really clean. Having having getting your numerals around the bezel, I think it's a really good way to integrate numerals into the watch without putting them on the dial because I'm not really a big fan of combination numbers and markers. I want one or the other, and I love this dial with just markers, not numerals. But I like to know the number because I don't read good. I need something there. I need a very idiot-proof way of reading my watch if I'm going to use it.
Will Well, then this, it's about as good as you're going to get, you know, that one through 12 or, you know, the triangle. So, um, they are, it's, it's very easy to read and it's loomed. Well, yours isn't, but the, um, Sapphire bezel version, the numerals are loomed. So it, it looks pretty nice at night. Um, I don't know if I have put a loom shot on Instagram of this specific watch. Um, but if I haven't, I'll make sure I get one up so everybody can check that out. Um, The other thing that I like on the dial itself is, I think we need to touch on two things, is the hands are nice and long. So it's, there's no question as to what you're looking at, but I think the star of the show is the roulette date wheel.
Andrew Yep. Yep.
Will So each version dial color, I'll say, has a different combination of colors. Ours are going to have white and red. So if anybody doesn't know, um, Right now, mine is on the 25th. That's today, right? I have no clue. I don't think today's the 25th. It is. Yeah. Tomorrow's the 26th. So it's white, 25th. Tomorrow, when it flips over to the 26th, 26 will be in red. So it's alternating. Every other day will be either white or red.
Andrew Oh, interesting. Mine on the 25 is red.
Will The even numbers are white. That is interesting. We found a little difference. Ooh. Yeah, mine is definitely white. Twenty five.
Andrew I'm I'm red. Twenty five. I like it. Cool. But on a on a still black date, we'll correct.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I'd be kind of cool to have like a truly roulette and like a black and red and then a white background with a black like an actual checkerboard. They will.
Will Yeah, I don't know.
Andrew Terrible with the bezel or with the dial, but it'd be a cool thing.
Will Yeah, yeah, you'd have to have some way to have that set up that it doesn't look weird on the contrasting color days. I don't know if anybody's done that. Be interesting though.
Andrew So I'll have to look around. I bet it exists out there somewhere.
Will It's gotta.
Andrew I think so. I think so. We've got the roulette date wheel. What was the other thing you wanted to really touch on?
Will Oh, just what I said about the hands and the markers. Oh yeah, yeah. I feel like, and I guess I need to see them next to each other, but I feel like the markers are longer, or maybe at least the 12 o'clock markers are, than the original Contrail. Or maybe it's the hands, I don't know, it just seems like they're a little bit longer, and I could be wrong on that. But it also could be because the date window moved from 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock on this version. On the original it was at 3. So maybe that's kind of what's making it look different to my eyes.
Andrew Maybe. I think the six o'clock date window was such a good choice for this because it balances that nice long. I think that the markers at the 12 o'clock are actually the same length as the rest, but they're not. They're not coming to a point.
Will Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew They seem they seem longer. But with the notice logo, it balances the the dial really nicely in the on this black one, the the red. Contrail name at the six o'clock almost is lost. on the black dial they use like a like a really really deep like burgundy red yep for the the contrail naming um that pulls that date window out to you and sort of disappears in the into the dial yeah it's it's definitely a darker red than the text on the date wheel um because the the date when it's red i think pops out a little bit more than the contrail text so it's a little bit different but it's
Will It's all that, you know, nice red accented, uh, you know, little touches that I just think look good.
Andrew And they execute really well, just universally across their line of watches. They have those, those little details that are just right.
Will Yeah. Yeah. They've always done a fantastic job, even in their earlier watches with their fit and finish. I think that this is prop, this and the duality are, probably their best finish watches. The finishing on them, especially the brushing is really nice and how they execute their polished chamfers always looks good. I like the polished knurling on the bezel. I thought it would make it a little bit harder to grip and turn, but the bezel turns pretty easy. I know we kind of already touched on that. I won't harp on it too long, but it overhangs the case a little bit too, so it's really easy to grip. You know, you like spinning the bezel around, you'll like this watch for sure.
Andrew Something that I'm just now noticing on this chapter ring, we have the 24 hour time scale.
Unknown Yep.
Andrew That from the nine to three is right side up so that when the watch is on your wrist, you're reading it right side up. And from three to nine, you're also reading it right side up when you rotate it down. So the text is reversed.
Will Yep. I did not notice that. That is a nice touch. That's a nice touch.
Andrew And it's really subtle. You wouldn't notice without giving it the type of exam that we're giving it right now, where we're staring at it and trying to find things that... Yeah, trying to talk about it live. Yeah, right? But yeah, that's a super practical touch, and also really, really subtle. I don't think Just a normal wearer putting this on your wrist, you're never going to notice that 24-hour scale in the chapter ring.
Will Yeah.
Andrew Without knowing that it's there.
Will The chapter ring kind of, you know, fades into the dial a little bit too, because it's not super visible because of, I think, how the crystal is set up. You know, you kind of need to look for it a little bit and that's fine. I don't really think that's a bad thing. But it, yeah, it's very subtle. It's kind of one of those things that's just there when you need it. If you're a person who likes to read 24-hour time, it's there for you to read.
Andrew Or take macro shots of cool details on a watch.
Will Yeah, you know what? I probably sat here taking macro shots of the chapter ring and didn't even notice what we just talked about, about the numbers being inverted. Because I know I did not mention that in my review whatsoever.
Andrew That's okay. We'll just put an edit up. It's not a big deal.
Will And no watch is perfect. The one thing that I've talked about with each iteration of the Contrail, and Wes told me that he heard me after I published the review of this watch, is the crown size. I've always felt that the crown is just a hair too small. I wish it was a little bit bigger.
Andrew In depth or in its girth?
Will In its girth. I wish it was a little bit wider.
Unknown Okay.
Will Yeah. I think it's, I think it's just the right length. I think it comes out from the case the right amount, but because of the, you know, the crown guards are pretty shallow and tight to it. Um, when you're unscrewing it or screwing it back in, it can be a little bit of a nail biter, but once you get it out, it's fine. It's really just when you're screwing it in or on screen, it's more screwing it in. Cause I'm doing that right now.
Andrew Even if they just changed the knurling on the crown, I think a little bit just to give it a little bit better purchase on there. Cause I, I see what you're talking about. It's a sweaty fingers are not going to be able to unscrew or rescrew this in with ease.
Will Yeah. And I mean, it's a small thing. I'm really nitpicking with this watch. Obviously I like it because I, I own it. Um, you know, and I may or may not have dropped a couple of hints here and there that I do like this watch and that's why I do own it. But, you know, it's like I said, no watch is perfect. There's always things that, you know, are going to be improved upon unless it's a Rolex Explorer. I'm sure the, uh, people of the world will recognize what a perfect watch that is.
Andrew Yeah, precisely. Precisely. So forgive me, what other colorways are available on this?
Will So there's Laguna Sand, which is the tan with the texture, which that looks pretty cool, and that was one of the original colorways. The black that we have on the original Contra was also textured, but now it's glossy. There's white and blue, and the blue only comes with gilt accents.
Andrew So that's why you don't have a blue?
Will That would be precisely why. If they had done blue with steel, that would have been my jam.
Andrew Because some of our listeners might not know, but you like blue watches.
Will I do very much like blue watches.
Andrew I just say one of my favorite parts of this, and I think it's probably. Can be overlooked because the watch is so so great, but they're killing it in their bracelet game. This is a really cleanly articulating kind of H-link style. Yeah, I'm comfortable saying H-link.
Will Yeah, I'm pretty sure they call it an H-link.
Andrew Really articulating, really comfortable bracelet.
Will Yeah. And I really like how they do the polished chamfers on the outer ends of the links. Yeah. And the links aren't huge either. So when you're removing the links to size it, I found that I was able to get a really good fit. You know, some watches when they have, you know, those big old links, even with your micro adjustments, you can't get it just right. I was able to get a good fit with the bracelet. And like you said, it articulates really well. It falls off the watch. you know, and just goes right around your wrist really easily. Um, and it's, I love that double push button class. So happy they kept that.
Andrew Yep. And the, uh, the micro adjustments actually equate to a full link size. If I'm, if I'm looking at this correctly.
Will Yeah, that's, I don't have the bracelet in front of me, but that sounds about right.
Andrew Yeah. It looks like the three micro adjustments will, will equate to a full link. So that's a nice little benefit that speaks to the size of the links for those of you who don't have one in front of you.
Will Like, I guess the last thing we should probably talk about, and no one ever seems to talk about case backs, but I just happened to turn it over and actually get a real good look. Case back on this is pretty cool with the, uh, the relief or motif, whatever you want to call it, of the, uh, the airplane kind of zooming through the sky and it's, it's polished against the rest of the case being, I guess, bead blasted case back.
Andrew Yeah. It's, it's almost like acid finished. Yeah. It's, it's, It's even got a little bit of texture to it.
Will Yeah. It's pretty cool. I never really examined the case back too much aside from, you know, taking a photo of it for the review probably, but it's pretty cool.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew All in all a good watch. And these are coming in at, I don't remember the price off top of my head either.
Will Um, I think they're around 500 bucks, five 50 maybe. Oh yeah. You know what? Neighborhood. Yeah. I think there's, I think there's 600 on those. Yeah. Oh, are they?
Andrew Okay.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Well, regardless, you're getting a you're getting that bang and deal on a really well executed watch. I was a little bit concerned by the weight of it because I've been wearing pretty small watches as of late. I wore this exclusively for about a week and a half. And after the second day of getting accustomed to wearing a normal sized watch again, it just it vanished. It just melted onto my wrist and became a part of me.
Will Yeah, it's got it's got a good amount of heft to it without being cumbersome. You know, and the profile, everything together that we kind of talked about just makes it a really good all rounder.
Unknown Yeah.
Will Yeah. They've done a bang up job with this. They sure have. The refinements are in the right places, I think.
Andrew I think I'm going to keep this one. I'm probably not going to send it back. Don't. Sorry, guys. All right. Well, anything else you want to add to our Contrail 2 quick audio review?
Will Yeah. You know, I don't throw out I try not to say this too much, a watch is good value because when we're talking about things that cost hundreds of dollars, I don't want to be disrespectful to people's budgets, but if you're looking at watches in this price range, this is good value. I think what you're getting, the build quality, the movement that's in it, the finishing, notices, just their personality and their customer care I think is all really good too. You're getting a good package. Try not to talk about, you know, things being good value too much, but it really is. It's a it's a solid watch.
Andrew This is this is something that if you're in the market for this price range, this deserves a second, third look. Definitely. All right. Well, with that. Here comes the music. Thanks for joining us for this audio risk check or not audio risk check this audio review. It is there's the music. Check us out online. at on Instagram at The Watch Clicker and at 40 and 20. Check us out on our website at The Watch Clicker. It's got all the reviews in print where you don't have to listen to me and Will Yammer on and mostly just get to read his great writing. We've got some other other writers who come on from time to time and give some really good opinions of watches that are out out there for you to take a look at so you don't have to buy them all to try them out. We're taking the risks for you. Thanks for joining us and we'll talk to you later. Bye bye.