Episode 112: 40 and 20 Holiday Special

Published on Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0800

Synopsis

This is a podcast episode from the "40 and 20" watch enthusiast podcast, where the hosts Andrew, Will, Mike, and Everett discuss their favorite watches they got hands-on with this year, as well as watches they regretted not getting to handle. They talk about brands like Lorier, Traska, Seiko, Farer, and others, analyzing the design decisions and value propositions. They also discuss broader topics around the watch industry, like whether there are too many microbrands releasing watches, the "golden age of choice" for consumers with many affordable options, and criticisms of brands doing "derivative" designs. The conversation touches on other media recommendations like movies, TV shows, podcasts, and more.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew, my best friend, Will. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett? I think Mike and Will, how are you guys? I think Mike is also here.
Everett Mike really got the shaft on that one.
Will Yeah, sorry, Mike.
Mike It's all right. I'm used to it.
Will That's not too important. What I think is important is have I been upgraded from good friend to best friend?
Andrew Yeah, well we talked about that you were we had it we had interviews. They were extensive exhaustive and Everett was replaced. That's right.
Mike Yeah, I think that's more important to focus on that Everett was downgraded Yeah, yeah, it's fine.
Everett It's fine story my life.
Will Yeah.
Mike Yeah, so Mike's here, too Cool just a warm body Hey Mike
Everett Hi. Hey, welcome to the WatchClicker 40 and 20 Christmas special, you guys. We're all here today. You've got the entire staff of WatchClicker, including Andrew and myself, the regulars.
[silence] Yeah.
Everett But we also brought on our editor-in-chief, the boss, Will. Shit gets weird when he's around. We're a little less willing to speak our minds. And also Mike Ryzak, which is exactly the opposite phenomenon. So it blends out.
Andrew Yeah, that's true.
Everett It blends out.
Andrew So y'all are in for a treat. As usual.
Will It's basically going to be the four of us talking over each other for the next hour.
Andrew Yelling, in fact. Hopefully your kids aren't asleep.
Will I'm in the basement, so who cares? They're asleep. Also, America.
Mike That's not an issue.
Andrew Then we're good. It's time to get to it. So, as Everett has said, this is our, I think we'll go even go Christmas part two because we kind of talked about, we talked about our lists. It's the season, right? So, we're going to do not necessarily just our Christmas episode.
Everett But it's our Christmas. It's our Christmas celebration. It is. It's our celebration.
Andrew We're going to talk the year in review because we've got a bunch of folks here who get to get our hands on a bunch of watches. And sadly there were some that we missed. So that's what we're going to do today. But first I want to hear about how Will and Mike are doing. And Everett, I'd even kind of like to hear about how you are. So Everett, how are you?
Everett You know, that's the one thing about this show is when we have Will on, I'm like in this place, I'm in this demoted position.
Andrew You're the side piece.
Everett I feel like I should just peace out. Like when we do these.
Andrew That's what we've been aiming for. That is the goal. Yeah. OK.
Everett Just make it so bad for you that you quit. No, I'm doing well, man. It's Sunday. It's really nice, right? It's really nice to do this on Sunday because it's like totally refreshed. Yeah. I hardly even remember what work was like. Been just eating food. I've been off work for 12 hours. And drinking drinks. Yeah. A little different, little different situation for you. But yeah, really, really pretty well in this chair.
Andrew How are you, Andrew? Good. I'm a little tired. Obviously, like I said, I've been off. I've been away from work for almost exactly 12 hours now. I think I pulled out of the parking lot 12 hours ago, took a little nappy poo, woke up to some grumpy ass kids. So that's been my day. But, you know, now we're drinking some, some hard seltzer at the Raspberry Cosmo. Not only is this the best, I think, the best combination seltzer pack at the convenience store, it's also the cheapest.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. It's like seven bucks, right?
Andrew It's like ten bucks. OK, but whatever.
Everett Well, how are you doing, man?
Will I'm good. I'm just, you know, living, living through holiday drama as it is. Other than that, just I've got a ton of watches in for review. And this week is my last week of work. And then I'm off until January 4th or whatever it is. And I plan on spending the entire time off just hammering out reviews.
Andrew I think I have 12 watches right now.
Mike Oh, holy fuck. Send them back.
Will 12? Yeah. And I've got two more coming this week. So there's going to be a lot of good content on the site in 2021, that's for sure.
Andrew You know, when we have 12 watches, it's like because we haven't sent back a bunch of people's watches.
Will That's right. That's right. I probably have a couple that I should send back. I was just looking at one that I just wrapped up doing and I've had it since September. But I asked this brand, hey, do you want your watch back? And they haven't responded to me yet. So I'm sure they will at some point.
Andrew But that seems to be the key. If you just hold it on, hold on to it for long enough, they eventually forget about it. And then you say, hey, I'm going to send it to you. Whatever.
Will I have no doubt that my response will be met with a FedEx label.
Everett Yeah, yeah, that's that's that's always the best right when they send you the label so you don't have to go to USPS and Take a picture of your receipt or I am NOT sending anything USPS to anybody right now Is USPS really bad? I've seen a lot of stuff on Instagram.
Will It doesn't show till February right now Yeah, I I've had really bad luck in the past couple weeks with USPS I have some some watches that were supposed to be here two weeks ago that haven't arrived and it's a
Andrew Oh, they did arrive, but I made a sweep by your house. Not a problem. Ah, the old redirect. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, I call it porch piracy, but it's not a big deal.
Will Eh, different kind of redirect.
Everett It's insured. Yeah. You know, I ordered some stuff from Tel Aviv this week. Well, I got something on eBay, and it's coming from Tel Aviv, and the shipping, the tracking projected delivery date is like sometime between January 6th and March 4th. Sounds about right. I appreciate the accuracy. Mike, how are you?
Mike Tired.
Everett What could you possibly have going on in your life to be tired? You're not working. You're in a dark basement. You're basically on six weeks of vacation.
Mike Six weeks. Yeah. Full paid vacation. It's great. So we have a 20 day old human and human is generous. I mean, it's really a lump of flesh at this point. Bump on a log.
[crosstalk] That poops.
Mike Yeah. Um, it's, it's a, it's a 20, 20 day Yule log is what it is. Um, it generates heat, um, and occasional joy. Uh, so that's Miles. We just welcomed Miles. So we're getting into the rhythm with him.
Everett Uh, welcome Miles. Welcome to the world.
Mike Yeah. Thank you. Uh, you know, I was like, oh, paternity leave. I'll have plenty of time. I also have a backlog of, I don't You seven or eight watches, right? Yeah. Uh, fortunately or not, I may not have to review two of them as we were discussing, uh, in our text. Uh, you know, sometimes we get watches in that. The timing works out that their campaign is unsuccessful before we get to them. And that seems to be the case with two watches. So I may be down to six, but it's still quite a bit. And, um, I basically have no time on the weekends right now. when I would normally have a little bit of extra time.
Andrew What do you do with all the time you would have been at work otherwise?
Mike My son, errands, watch my money disappear.
Will Procrastinating on waiting reviews for the website?
Mike Yeah, mainly procrastination on photography and reviews.
Will That's okay. I'm going to be right there with you in a couple months, Mike.
Everett Appreciate it. You know, I feel like we actually picked the better avenue into this, into this watch thing, right? The, the reviews, right? A lot of independent work, no hard deadlines. Like we just have to get, we just have to get together on Sunday, do a little bit of research, a little bit of preparation. And drink beer. And then sometime between Sunday night and Thursday or Thursday morning, I have to edit the episode and that's it. That's the, well, Andrew does show notes occasionally. Sometimes. Yeah. That's, that's it.
Will I really screwed up.
Everett It's all on a schedule.
Will I really screwed up on what I chose to do.
Everett Yeah. And then you keep making it worse.
Will I know, I keep adding stuff. I'm like, oh, what if I do video now? What a dumb decision that was.
Mike And then audio reviews, that's a great idea.
Everett Yeah, well, you know, the audio reviews are really easy, really low stress, and they go really quick.
Andrew The hard part about the audio review is us both, or two of us having the same watch at the same time. Yeah, they're just not great to do with only one person holding it.
Everett Well, and let's be honest, the hard part about the audio reviews is getting me to edit them in a timely fashion.
Will Mm hmm. Yeah, that that is very true.
Andrew So I think we reviewed the the notice watch, I don't know, February and it just hit the website.
Everett Yeah, no, it'll hit the website tomorrow when you're hearing this, it'll be up.
Andrew But yeah, it certainly was in February, though.
Everett I think, yeah, at least a year and a half ago today.
Andrew It's the second thing we recorded.
Mike You guys got real early access to that thing.
Will That's right. It was actually the Contrail one.
Everett And I just dubbed in you guys saying two every time you said Contrail. Two! It works out really well. It works out really well. Well, thanks for joining us. I think probably just because of the amount of stuff we have to talk about today, we should probably jump into it Uh, so, so Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas to everybody. Uh, and, and I think Mike, if we can, I'd like to start with you. Terrible idea. Uh, no, it's a, it's a fantastic idea. So the deal is two watches guys, one watch that you reviewed or had hands on with, cause we don't always review our watches. So it's not fair to say we've watched, we reviewed, uh, but a watch you had hands on with your favorite watch of the year that you got hands on and your favorite watch of the year that you didn't get an opportunity to have hands on with. So, Mike, what do you got?
Andrew And we usually don't review them because Will has usually gotten them first.
Everett That's right. Even when I get them, I'm like, oh, I should do a review. It's like, oh, yeah, no.
Andrew It was like I already have it in the can. It's ready to go. Cool. Your pictures are better and you wrote better about it.
Will Thanks for doing the work. Making you guys look good since June. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Everett Thank you for letting us. We're just parasitic. It's a parasitic podcast. Mike, what was your favorite watch of the year?
Mike You guys know I write for mostly Watch Clicker and the Time Bum. What? I know.
Will We don't speak of the second one, Time Family.
Mike This is a real deceit here.
Andrew Do you use a pseudonym?
Mike Yeah, Steve Plummer.
Andrew Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
Mike A lot of people know me. Um, so I was, I was looking over all of those and I think it wasn't necessarily the watch I would like definitely buy out of all the ones I reviewed, but I think it's the one that stood out the most was the Biotech Leviathan, which was a watch that I had been waiting on for a while and kind of pestering them. I own the Biotech, um, Corsair CS, um, which is kind of a dress pilot watch that I really like. I recently thought about selling it and my mom likes it so much that she threatened to disinherit both of my sons if I did sell it. Wow. Yeah.
Will Yeah. But she would keep you?
Mike I don't know. I think I'm already in there. I don't know. Everett, maybe you can weigh in later legally. So, You know, they come out, they have, they have, uh, two watches so far, both leaning dress and they came out with this third watch, the Leviathan, which is a just, um, a really, uh, just a unique, uh, diver. Um, it's, and, and I think they still kept that biotech language while, creating something really, really new. Um, and it's the lugs are everything about it kind of, I think brings something a little fresh. Um, you know, the, uh, the bracelet is something I hadn't seen before. The lugs are kind of really annoying cause they have, um, end screws that you have to fasten together into a I hate when you have to do the screws from both sides.
Will It's the worst.
Mike Both sides. Yeah, it's a nightmare. But that aside, one of the issues with the Biotech that I owned was the loom was really unbalanced. They totally resolved it. It's a fully loomed bezel. Oh, wow. The dial is gorgeous. They have a lot of different options. I got the I like it. It's not uncommon, obviously, to see with a little red. I'm just realizing how common that actually is, is black, red, and gold. I think they just nailed it. The bracelet is superb.
Will I liked with the bracelet how it has that kind of royal oak look. with the way the links are structured, but it's not flat.
Mike Right. Is that the flat look? It's kind of a rounded Royal Oak. It's almost a dressier kind of version. And it's a butterfly class, which is interesting for a dive watch, but I don't think necessarily a deal breaker for a dive watch.
Andrew What are the lugs in this watch? It looks almost like they're Like the underneath, like the end link wraps around like it's a reverse integrated.
Will Bracelet is the end link has like an what looks like the lugs right on the on the outside and link.
Mike Yeah. So basically you've got lugs that are kind of thick straight shot lugs that have an actual angle, not just the curvature out of the case. which is another thing I like in something certainly we don't see a lot of. I remember seeing it in one Kickstarter, but I forget what it was called. Yeah, you know, everything about this watch, even the case back art, which usually I'm like, whatever, crisp, clean. And, you know, I think one of the things that why it stood out and why I picked it was because it is so much different than a lot, even a lot of the other divers that we see, which are generally lookalikes, right?
Everett Yeah, that's right. It's either a sub case or it's a 50 fathoms case. Exactly. Um, that's it.
Mike And you know, I, when I reviewed my sea master, I've referred to the sea master, uh, as kind of a dress diver. Um, just because of how slim it wears and Um, the fact that the bezel is inoperable. So, you know, I think this is that except it has a dress aesthetic while actually being totally operable as a dive watch.
Everett Um, so that's, yeah. I think one of the interesting things you said about this in your review is that although it's 40 millimeters, uh, not including the crown because the crown is offset and because of the way the lugs slope down, it really wears a lot slimmer than that. So really more of like a 38, 39. So although it's kind of chunky. It winds up being a pretty slim watch.
Andrew Yeah. It's a long lug to lug, though.
Everett It looks... It's long, but curves down.
Mike Yeah. I'll tell you what, this watch is one of the more expensive watches that I reviewed. This year, it's $1275.
Andrew But if you pay in pounds, it's only $1075. Yeah.
Mike So it's a lot cheaper. Yeah. But I'll say this to cap this off, is that, you know, from a brand that not many people know. A lot of brands that are unknown charging that price, you're like, no way. And the watch doesn't end up being worth it. I think this watch is easily worth more than that. Um, and you know, if you take a look, I think if it's something aesthetically that appeals to you, it's something that's going to make you really happy. It's a, it's a phenomenal watch. Um, so you know, my, my free one is on the way in the mail because I told him I was doing this. So hashtag sponsored.
Andrew We also all have one on the way.
Everett Well, what about a watch, Mike, what about a watch that you didn't get your hands on, but you wish you had?
Mike I teetered on this, but I think really it was the Chris Ward super compressor, which I saw and I was blown away by. That style is not new, obviously. It's very old. The EPSA case is, what, 60s, I think? Um, but early 60, 64, I think 64, you know, just throwing out a date. Yeah. Um, I, you know, and the C 65 is, I think one of the best cases out there right now. The light, that light catcher case is phenomenal. Totally.
Everett Totally. It's lightsaber on when you, when you're on the show, you got to say lightsaber. Yeah. We worked out a thing with Chris.
Mike Yeah. With, with Chris Ward. Yeah.
[silence] Oh, the Sabor.
Everett Yeah, we might have to re-engage that conversation. Fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, no, super cool watch, right? You know, I think that it's a weird watch, right? Because when you read about it, you're like, so you've reverse engineered this lost technology that is admittedly worse than other technologies that were invented at around the same time. And that seems a little backwards, For, I think for what we do, right? And I don't mean what we do, but watch people, right? It's pretty fricking neat, right? Like it's got just enough water resistance and it does it in this really sort of intriguing way.
Mike Well, but I think the whole idea, and Will, you were the one who corrected me when I threw out, well, it's only 150, is that the quoted water resistance on that watch It, you can't really quote one. They have to, because they, they just do, but the water resistance is kind of.
Will It's dynamic. Yeah.
Mike It's not static, like your normal watch, because that's the whole idea of a compressor case is that it, it resolves what the compression. as it happens.
Everett Yeah, so actively. Yeah, I think they have talked about this last week on the on the Vostok Amphibia show.
Andrew With that, though, it might 150 might be the depth. It might be the pressure that it fails in the ascent because it's not going to fail in descent. It'll fail in its in its ascent from that pressure. That might be its its breaking point in the way of I only need to be good on the way down. Yeah, because I'm not going to survive below a hundred fifty. I'm certainly not coming back.
Mike Yeah, I'm just doing the one dive.
Andrew It's not gonna be a dive. It's just gonna be a drop. Yeah, that's just it.
Mike I'm dropping by Titanic. I'm getting the heart of the sea and I'm coming.
Everett Yeah, yeah, that's it and leaving the watch because part of the ocean.
Mike I'm leaving the watch and renaming it the heart of the heart of the sea to ooh. Yeah,
Andrew this is
Mike I, you know, looking at the profile, like I know it's the C 65 case, but it's very clear that they altered that case a little bit for that watch. So I'm interested to see what changes were made, even if they were minor.
Will Yeah. Well, they called it, they called it a light catcher case, but it's, it's not the C 65 cause it's a little more squared off I think, but they still use those same lines on the side, like they do on the C 60 and the C 65 cases, which are so good. I mean, the thing about the super compressors, Christopher Ward is really good with putting some interesting technology in their watches that a lot of other, I don't want to say smaller brands, cause I don't think Christopher Ward is that small, but a lot of other brands that aren't quite mainstream do, you know, like the super compressor or moon phases, chronometers, that sort of thing. You know, they offer a good value. I mean, we're obviously a fan of them or, you know, me and Mike are, I've reviewed a ton of them on the website and every one they send me, I'm like, Jesus, I want to buy this one too. You know, they could make me go broke.
Mike Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think Chris, Chris Ward is a, is a brand that has just constantly improved, um, while still maintain, I mean, they have regrettably, I think they're moving away from their more affordable price point. I would have loved for them to kind of maintain that stable of affordability while also doing this, but I understand why you want to shift the whole brand. Um, but I mean, if you look at the early stuff, it's just like, oh, like, whoa.
Andrew And then how far you've come.
Mike Yeah, it really is.
Will They're only good looking watch was the Trident for years.
Mike Years. Yeah. I mean, their, their dress watches for the first three or four years were just garbage design wise.
Everett And now they're just throwing daggers. It seems like every, every Christopher Ward that comes out that, uh, that trident, that yellow limited edition trident that came out last year. Yeah. I think that's like, Oh dude, I'm going to have to figure it out.
Mike But even like their, their dress watches, like the Malverns. And they're really nice.
Will Ooh, yeah.
Mike Oh, so clean. Uh, so that's me. I got the Biotech Leviathan. Unique, awesome. And the, uh, regret the Chris Ward super compressor. I'm going to pass the torch. Who's next?
Everett I know. What do you think, Andrew? What about you? I think. Oh, yeah, I think I'm going to go next.
[crosstalk] Then you should do it.
Andrew My turn. My favorite watch of the year that we that we are able to get our hands on. We didn't review it. I didn't review it ever. Didn't review it because we don't review watches. We just talk about them and drink beer. But we did have this watch for a long time. Yeah, man, he's great. He just really tolerates our bullshit. He does. The retro magic. Mm hmm. And The reason I'm going to call it the Retromagic is because when you try to type Retromagic in your phone, it auto-corrects to Retromagic. Magic, which I think is just a better name. I don't, I mean, I think Jonathan did a really good job naming this watch, but I think Retromagic is far more appropriate.
Everett Well, and when we had him on, he did not object to it.
Andrew No, he didn't. He did not object. So maybe we'll see a Retromagic coming in the next... Uh-oh.
Will Why doesn't... He could do a limited edition Retro Magic with the Technicolors.
Andrew Ooh, a watch clicker. Ooh, or we could do the orange and blue. I like that too. But this watch was just... It was different than what he's put out already, but it wasn't. Yes. It was... Yes. It had all of his design language. It was somehow new, revamped, innovative, but it didn't it didn't blow the world away. It said, Hey, you know what? I'm going to do better. And this was a killer watch. I love that he did it two movements. And I love that I, I, his thinking behind a, uh, a Swiss movement and, uh, courts move. No, no, no, no. A Japanese movement. Yeah. Yeah. He's a Swiss and a Japanese movement in the color ways. Yeah. So using the, using really traditional, uh, movements for a Salida movement or traditional colors for his Salidas and cool as fuck, like trendy, just a little bit edgy colorways.
Mike Is he sending a message there? Is he saying, listen, I mean, is that a, maybe it's probably not, but is that... No, no, he talked about it, Mike.
Andrew If you listen to the podcast ever... Yeah, I did. So, no, what he said was, his thinking was people who are okay, like who aren't going to turn their nose up at Seiko movements are also likely people who are going to be kind of down with cool colorways.
Will Yeah.
Andrew But people who are looking for... A little bit more playful. Yeah, a little bit more playful, especially because the Retromatic, I don't think is... I don't think should be your one and only watch. Yeah. I don't think really should be a first watch.
Mike No.
Andrew It's in that realm. It's like maybe a second or third watch. But if you're buying a second or third watch, you're kind of... I think for people who are in that place in their watch journey, they're kind of starting to sniff Swiss. Like, I'm a little bit intrigued. And they see the Retromagic, which is a super cool vintage-inspired watch. Like, I want Swiss, but I need a normal colorway because, you know, who wears a red watch? People like us who are down with Seiko movements.
Mike I mean, it's a nod to, you know, I think we've all seen those memes of the watch collector progression, the curve. Right. Where it's like Rolex is amazing. Rolex is garbage. And then Rolex is, you know, and Seiko and all of those brands. I think it is a nod to that kind of, you know, you're a little bit further along. Right. If you know, you're okay with a Japanese movement because you're not just checking a box. And in general, if you're, if you're at that point, you probably don't need another black or blue dial. Will. You can never have enough. You know, you're probably expanding enough and you, you know, green and red, it's like, yeah, I could have something fun now.
Everett You know, I think that that is my favorite sort of not, um, simple dial, you know, my favorite textured dial. I don't, I can't think of another textured dial, you know, the, the fairer GMT, the white fair GMT that came out this year. I really liked that dial. But I like the falcon textured dial and I here's the thing though.
Mike I do not like that waifu dial I don't know if we can even call the broom the retromatic textured How what well it has it has texture It has texture. So the depth falcon is what you're gonna get This I mean there is it's it's layered, right?
[silence] Mm-hmm I mean, you see what I'm saying?
Everett Is there a way to drop someone from a Skype call?
Andrew I accept that that's what you think.
Will Well, I think that's a little bit of semantics because... It is.
Andrew I'm going to cry at you because that's... Oh, no, I'm a slow... That's a... All right. All right. Well, it's a texture dial. And somebody texted us about or messaged us about the disorder name that makes you scared of basketballs. Whatever.
Will It's try a phobia or whatever the heck it was.
Andrew Whatever it is.
Mike Tryptophobia.
Andrew Tryptophan.
Mike Tryptophan.
Andrew It is terrific. That's my favorite watch of the year that we got our hands on. Because we had a lot of great watches that came through these hallowed doors into this hallowed guest room. And that was my favorite. That was the one that I was least excited about and most Except most impressed. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for. Most impressed everything else. I'm like, oh man, I'm going to dig this watch. I love it. It comes in. It meets the expectation. Retro Magic comes in. I'm like, I know it's going to be good. And then it is very good. It is better than what I expected.
Everett How about one? How about one that you didn't you didn't get your hands on?
Andrew So the one I didn't get my hands on this year. I don't know how we didn't. I'm a little bummed out by this. Yeah, we'll work on this next year. I'm going to call it out. For 2021, we're going to correct this. It's the Traska Summiteer. The Traska Summiteer was our objectively best watch under $501.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Andrew And it was maybe the only one we haven't ever handled.
Everett I believe that's correct.
Andrew Phenomenal watch.
Will Yeah, really good.
Andrew And yet somehow it objectively wins the best watch under $501, by way of the 40 and 20 objective standards, which are scientifically proven.
Will Exactly. Well, the thing about the Trasket Summits here is it's basically a budget Zen 556 without really sacrificing very much. Yeah, that's right.
Andrew It's sacrificing next to nothing.
Will No, it's a great watch. And isn't it coming out with a 36 millimeter?
Andrew And with more dial options. Yes, with more dial options and it's invincible. I want one. I almost bought one. I had one in the cart and then I was like, I'm gonna hold off a day. Now you hold off more than if you hold off a day, you don't get a watch. I wanted to get one to see if I could scratch it because I was pretty sure if I could damage that watch, I would get it. I would get a replacement.
Everett You just wanted a replacement of your perfectly good watch.
Andrew I wanted to see. I wanted to test it.
Everett Yeah, Yeah, no, from what I hear, that coating's really pretty good up there with Zen's Tejamenting process or whatever, that it's actually really good. Yeah, I've had... You never know, right? You never know if someone says something like that, is that actually gonna be good? Like Seiko's scratch-resistant coating is like, meh.
Will Dye Shield.
Everett For a week. Yeah, Dye Shield, that's right.
Will I've had the Summateer and the Free Diver in, and both of those especially with the class. I was like, let me see if I can give this thing some desk diving marks. And it it's fine. It doesn't accept any scratches. It lives up to the hype.
Andrew And I would hope so, because that's that to me is there is their biggest selling point. Not only are they making a great watch, they're making a very well sized, very well designed, great design language, really cool colorways watch. But they're also saying, also, Andrew, you can't fuck it up.
Mike I feel like that's a watch where, I mean, at least the four of us would be very comfortable. If somebody were like, I don't know what I want, but here's the amount of money I have. I don't want to get too crazy. I just want something that I can wear if I need to, wherever. Boom.
Andrew Summateer. I was on the cusp of recommending Summateer at the wedding that I was at last week.
Mike That's a weird speech to give at a wedding.
Andrew We were talking about watches, you know, at our at our reception or at the reception, which I say reception. I have to caveat this in COVID land. There were six people there. It was an elopement, but we're talking about watches. And I was going to I. Some a tier was top of mind, but I couldn't in good conscience recommend a watch that you couldn't obtain. That's fair because it's gone. But yeah, that was the first watch that came to mind because just for people who who need a one watch. They're virtually indestructible. They're really well made. You can find any color way almost. So that was the one that I lament not having through these.
Everett Will, I think you got talked over, but you were mentioning that they're just introducing that in the 36, I think, or they just announced it, at least.
Will Yeah, I forget. I forget if he's calling it the Summiteer just in 36 millimeters or if it's another name. Is that the commuter? Yes, that's what it is. That's what it is, yes. Yeah, 36 millimeter. I think that's going to wear really well because the The Summiteer's lug-to-lug wasn't super short, but it wasn't super long either. So I think if he just scales that whole thing down to 36, I think it'll still kind of wear a little bit larger for people who are wary of 36.
Andrew Yeah. And 36 is a really good size for those of you who haven't tried it.
Everett Yeah, it is. Yeah, I mean, I think it depends, right? Like a 36 millimeter sort of shallow dress watch is going to wear small. So I think, you know, smaller than maybe we're used to, uh, in 2020. So, but yeah, my, my experience with, with the Laurier Falcon two, which I'll talk about later, but, uh, at 36 millimeters, I was like, I do not ever feel like this is too small.
[silence] No.
Everett So, well, well, great. We'll, we'll, we'll, we're going to move on to you. I think, well, what about you? You, the man who gets all of the watches, I get to go last because, because I'm in charge. You're not Wilson Churchill.
Will Right now you are. That's kind of true. Let's not push it, Everett.
Andrew Learn your place. He's getting to exercise some autonomy right now, so.
Everett That's exactly right. So the man who sees damn near every watch that comes out, what was your favorite watch that you got hands on this year? Both watches are just... Besides the BB-58.
Will Yeah, just the BB-58. That was a pretty okay blue. That's it, I'm done, I'm out, bye. No, The one watch that I was really impressed with, and it took me a while scrolling through all the watches that I've reviewed this year to really pick one out that stuck out to me, was the Seiko SBDC 109 or the SPB 151, depending on who you're getting it from. But it's the Willard reissue that they came out with this year. Yeah. This was a watch I got in after the SBDC 101, which was the MAS style case that was a little bit smaller. And I really thought that the Willard was going to be like, nah, it's too weird, too quirky, don't like the K shape, all that stuff. And I ended up liking it way more than the 62 MAS reissue. Really? I'm looking at my review on the site now, and I'm looking at some of the wrist shots. It just looks so good on the wrist. It's really comfortable. It doesn't have that bulbous look that kind of takes over your wrist like a turtle does. Because I tried a turtle, I think last year, and it fit my wrist, but it was just a little too bulky. But the Willard really kind of scaled that all down. And that quirky style case just works. I think I said it in my review. It's one of those watches where you look at it in the watch box and you're like, man, it's a weird watch. I don't know how this looks good. And then you put it on your wrist and you're just like, man, this is the coolest watch ever. It's so comfortable because the, the lugs just taper down. Nice. It just hugs your wrist in a way that you really didn't think that it should.
Everett Reading from your review, you say it turns down just enough not to be flat. It's almost as if someone took a ball of putty and mashed it down on top of your wrist.
Will Yeah. That's exactly what it's like.
Andrew And I would have thought, looking at the crown guard, you'd think that... I'm imagining it on its little pillow in the watch box and thinking that crown guard, that weird kind of asymmetric transition from the bottom to the top of the watch is gonna be weird. But once you put it on, it somehow vanishes. It looks just like an appropriate crown guard. You lose that bottom half, that three to six full chunk of the case.
[crosstalk] Yeah.
Everett You know, and I know this is a reissue, so they're really, they're speaking on existing cues, but I think they had an opportunity to make bad decisions here, and they didn't do that, right? They didn't do any of the Orient or Bulova things where they take an existing watch, reissue it, and actually just screw it up, you know?
Andrew And of the ten things that were really good about it, they do nine of them really well, and then one so bad, it ruins the rest.
Everett The proportion of the lugs of the lug width to the case, they maintained that that stoplight second hand, which I love that is basically perfect.
Will The one thing I didn't like about the watch was the bracelet. But you could make the argument, you know, that if you're going for the look of the original Willard, you're not going to wear it on the bracelet anyway. Yeah, I like bracelets. I prefer to wear my watches on bracelets a lot of the time. Yeah, me too. But this was a watch that after I had written my review and I... Usually after I'm done with my reviews, I kind of wear it how I want. I'll put it on different straps, see what it's looking like. I try to give more of a look at, hey, if you bought this watch today, this is what you're getting. And I put it on some straps after I was done and it really shines on a nice rubber strap or a Tropic. So if you're looking at this watch and you read my review and you're like, oh man, the bracelet sucks, just take it off or buy the one without the bracelet, and you'll be you'll be super happy. It's such a great watch.
Everett You know, this this watch, because of its just unabashedly retro thing, I think this could work well on a on a one of those Italian vent straps from Watch Gecko, the Bonato Centuri Centurini or whatever. Mm hmm. The rubber is like it seems like Yeah, yeah, the rubber, the rubber vent straps that OG with the Indy limits written on the. Yeah. Written on the.
Will Oh yeah. The only thing I didn't like it on was a NATO strap. It just.
Andrew Yeah, those.
Will Yeah, it was. I think the K-shirt just didn't work with it. It stood out kind of tall, even though it was relatively thin. It just didn't work. But I mean, anything else I put on, even leather straps looked pretty good, but it was really good on rubber straps.
Everett Gotta get that rubber. Yeah. What about one that you didn't get your hands on, Will?
Will So I'm hoping... Whoa, whoa, wait, can we stop here?
Andrew Is this just the one watch that came out that you didn't get your hands on? Is that why it's your... Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.
Everett Yeah. I'd like actually to say one thing about the Willard. The End Link on the Willard is one of the few affordable watches, affordable, quote unquote affordable. This is not a cheap watch, but it's not an expensive watch either. The end links are machined in a way that that center link sits as if it's an independent piece of the link. I think that is so rare. And I know you complain a little bit in your review about the fitment of the end links, but I love I love that feature to have an end link where that center link has actual prominence. and shaped sides. And I know that that's a difficult thing to manufacture.
Will I agree with you. And that's where I think the end links on the bracelet bugged me so much, where if they had made it fit the case better, it would have been outstanding. I mean, you know, 11 out of 10 status. I think they just missed a little bit, which Seiko can do. It's just how they are.
Everett Yep.
Will Especially with bracelets.
Andrew So what's the one watch you didn't get this year?
Will Yeah, the one I didn't get, hopefully in 2021, it might be coming in. But the Ferrer Pilot collection that they came out with late fall. So there's. Yeah, so good. Yeah, there's there's three of them. So it's the whole collection, but they're essentially one watch. There's the Morgan, the Cayley and the Bradfield. Now, the Morgan and the Bradfield are the obvious two winners of the bunch. The Cayley has a California dial, which I just... We all love.
Mike Even if it didn't have a California dial, even if it wasn't weird numerals, it's still the lesser of those three. Yeah, it just doesn't work for some reason.
Andrew I'm just really surprised that given the blue dial, that wasn't what really got you.
Will I do not love all blue dials, to be clear. You know what? I'll give you a good example. The Willard that I just talked about, the blue dial that they came out with for that, I hate it.
Mike Did it have any gold on it? Is that why?
Will It had a gold seconds hand, but I don't mind it because it looks yellow. But I didn't like how they did the blue with the bezel. But I hate it. But anyway, back to the fair. They're pretty cool because they're, I think they're 38 or 39 millimeters. You know, it's going to be all dial. I don't even think they have a bezel on them of any sort. I think the dial extends all the way out to the ends of the watch. the watch case.
Everett It drops straight off from crystal.
Will Yeah. So they're going to, I think they're going to wear a much larger than, you know, the 39 or whatever they are. Um, but fair does a really good job with, uh, slimming down their lug to lugs, where I think these are in the 44 to 46 range.
Mike So I think it's 46. Yeah.
Will Yeah. I think it's, they're just going to wear really well. And you know, with fair that they know how to do it with color, uh, especially that white dial with the, uh, The blue inner track, yeah, and the yellow loom on the hands. I think that's a good design decision. It's not fake loom, that's not what they're going for. I think it's just a color choice that they've made. The whole watch just looks really good. I'm trying to get one in for review. They're a little bit hard to wrangle because they're pretty popular, but they're... They're just really, really tempting, especially at the, I think they're just around 900 bucks, which 900. It's under 900.
Mike If you don't go like the Milanese.
Will Okay. 895. Yeah.
Mike Saving a bunch of money. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, a whole bunch of money.
Everett I really like their execution of the Type B dial. You said the white dial, it's got that ring, but their execution of the Type B on the black dial... The morgues.
Andrew That's what really sings to me.
Everett I think it's pretty fantastic. I can't tell, I'm looking at it, I'm like, why is this a different Type B execution? It's not a 24-hour ring. Yeah, I guess... It's a 12-hour ring on the inside. I guess that's what it is, but I do really enjoy it.
Will Well, I think what... So... So perhaps not an actual type B. I think what Farer did really well with this is they hit all the marks of a good pilot watch. It's readable. It's got a large face. In this case, it's a large face with being in a small case watch, and it's got that big ass crown. I mean, you know... Big onion crown, yeah. What else do you want?
Andrew Big old chunk, grip it. You know what I want?
Will I don't want to know whatever it's... No, I don't want to know what you want.
Andrew Pixar for this year.
Everett Well, so I think I'm sort of on record already. My favorite watch of this year was a Laurier Falcon 2, my favorite watch that we got hands on. And I suspect it would not be my favorite watch of the year had I not gotten hands on it, right? Yeah. Because I think that is... It's a risk for a watchmaker to... Or a watch brand to do
Andrew uh is to make a 36 millimeter watch especially with such with a watch that was already wildly popular at 39.
Everett Yeah well and and 39 40 is such a safe size um that to to veer from that and so it's it's actually something we're seeing more right we talked about it earlier traska is going that direction we're seeing more of that uh but still pretty pretty risky you know there's a chance you're gonna hold stock you don't how much do you order uh you know Laurier sold out of these super quickly. So there's obviously demand for it. And it wasn't just the idea of 36. It was actually getting 36 on my wrist and realizing, oh, this is good. 36 is good. In fact, earlier this year, I wrote an article about just sort of smaller watches and sort of rethinking my approach to watch sizes because I'd had these experiences with... I got that Pulsar, that little quartz Pulsar G10 watch, which is tiny, 36 and a half, I think. And I wore that Laurier Falcon 2. And gosh, I'm having to rethink things. But the execution of the Laurier, because it's a sports watch, it's got sort of bulk at the case and bulk at the lugs. It winds up just feeling like a spore watch. It's not dainty. You don't put it on your wrist and think, oh man, I got the little watch on today. I got the antique watch on. It does not do that, which is the thing that surprised me the most. You know, you wear it and you think, oh yeah, this is just a watch. Yeah. And I suppose for some people, you know, one of our earliest listeners, Instagram Watchuseek Oversteer, and if you've ever read any of his comments on Watchuseek, you know he's a big more is more kind of guy, but... 55. You know, I think some people, the point is, I think some people are not going to like that. They're just not going to like that. But for me, and the way I wear my watches, I was like, yep, this is something I'm going to start looking for, smaller sport watches. And you know, Laurier, they're really hitting on all cylinders in terms of what they do. And some of the people we've talked to say, I would like it if they did more. They're sort of monosyllabic in terms of their case design, and that's maybe a fair criticism, but... Well, you know what, Everett, though?
Will A three-year-old company... I'll say this. I heard some comments after the Hyperion came out, and I have it in for review, so I can speak to it, where they said, oh, the Hyperion is just the Neptune with a GMT hand added and a Pepsi bezel, and gave them a whole bunch of crap for it. And I just sat around thinking, Rolex has done that for years with the Submariner and the GMT-Master. Decades. Yeah. Yeah. Decades. It's the same crap and they get away with it. So why can't a smaller brand do something and make it a good watch? You know, they didn't make it any thicker. I think it's the same thickness. It wears really well and they get crap for it.
Mike Isn't it ridiculous that a small brand is held to a higher standard than a large brand?
Everett It happens all the time. One of my favorite watch podcasts. In fact, I think- Forty and twenty. One of about three that I listen to every week is the Whiskey and Watches podcast. I don't know if you guys listen to that one, but those guys are great. They are really, really great. I think sometimes there's too many of them, and so it's hard. Who's talking? But they had Lauren and Lorenzo on for last week's episode, and I thought they did a really good job with the interview. Lauren said something about this. She said, you know, people... I opened the shitty one.
Andrew I opened the one I didn't want. I hate it.
Everett Lauren says, you know, we, this is what we do. We're getting criticized for a Pepsi GMT. And it's like, you don't know what the hell we do. If you're criticizing that, you don't understand what it is we're trying to do. And she might have not been quite so forceful about it. But really, the point is good, right? This is what else would we do? Yes, we did a Pepsi GMT because that this is what we're doing, you guys. So obviously, you know, the one thing I say about Laurier is they're making all the decisions. They're not phoning anything in. They're making the decisions for better or worse. They're making the decisions. And like anything else, that was a decision they made. And yeah, I think I think it's great.
Andrew And beyond that, and I think this is absolutely the perfect segue, I don't give a shit what your least favorite watch was for the year. We can circle back to that. I think this is a good moment to talk about that, where we have this weird collision of small watch companies who are producing really great shit and somehow getting shit on for it. We see a company, and I said it before, but I'm gonna say it again, we see a company like Tudor, whose achievement of the year... It's a blue watch. Was blue.
Mike Blue. Yeah.
Andrew Blue. The best blue. That's like... I've heard it's a really good watch. It's a pretty... It's pretty okay. That was their achievement. They just put a blue dial in a watch that already existed. And broke the world. All the technology is already there. All the manufacturing is already there. And people just like ruined dozens of pairs of pants just waiting for it to be released. And when they, yeah, right. And socks and basically any article they could reach when near their computer looking at, what are you talking about? They creamed their jeans, man.
Mike And then they, and then they, then they creamed their replacement jeans.
Andrew Yeah.
Mike And then apparently socks for some reason.
Andrew Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully they weren't your socks. That's a, that's a really mean thing to do to your own socks. Um, did you, how did you not get that? I felt like that was really clear.
Will Keep it going. Just keep it going. I got it, Andrew. Don't worry.
Andrew Keep going. So where I'm at here is we're in this world where people are pissing and moaning about a small brand who is self-funding. They're not doing pre-orders. They're not taking funding from consumers to fund production. They're doing it themselves. And they say, you know what? We can do a GMT now. And we're going to do a GMT.
[silence] And then they do it, and people are like, oh, it's just a GMT. Why would you do it like that?
Andrew Motherfucker, because that's the way you do a GMT. Yeah.
Will Well, Andrew, I think where I get frustrated with those kind of comments is people come in and say, this new watch from this brand, new brand or old brand, is derivative. They're just taking something else and slapping their logo on it, and that's all they did. And this is all micro brands are doing now. And you know, the space is too populated, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, it goes with everything else that is a consumer product. If you don't like it, move on. You know, I, I understand the reason, you know, especially in a, in a watch media outlet that maybe you want to talk about it and be like, Oh, uh, you know, you shouldn't be doing that or whatever. But to the, to the same point, it's like, just don't talk about it. If they don't get the attention, they're going to be a brand that can't stand out, and they're eventually going to perish. But if they're taking one design that they do, and maybe it's a little bit derivative, and there have been plenty of micro brands that we like that have done that, and they take their second and third watch and expand upon it and start to apply their own design language to it in a way that really starts to stand out, then they're going to get up to that next step. You know, but to just say that an established brand, you know, like Laurier that we've been talking about, Oh, they did a Pepsi bezel. So it's a derivative product. I just don't like the argument, you know, in situations like that.
Mike I think the, the, I mean, the argument is, is it's, it's just so, I don't know the word it's it's flawed, right.
Will To say it's a lazy argument, Mike is what it is.
Mike Yeah. It's a lazy argument to say, because I mean, If you're gonna make that argument, you're throwing out, I don't know, what, 95% of watches made since 1990? Maybe more. Maybe all watches, especially considering that most watches made now are reissues, right?
[crosstalk] Yeah.
Mike I mean, most watches then you should be shitting all over, but people aren't. I think it's an easy target for people, um, who don't have, you know, perish the thought, don't have maybe nuanced and educated opinions about these things that are just seeking to make an opinion. To say that, you know, oh, Pepsi, derivative, right?
Everett Oh, well, you know, you know, that's it.
[silence] It's secondhand derivative.
Everett I was listening to two broke watch snobs last week, as I do most weeks. And and Kaz kind of got cornered. I think he cornered himself, which was interesting. he was, they were talking about the GMTs, right? And, and he was saying, you know, you're sort of damned if you do damned if you don't, which is, and, and he was talking about Laurier, the Zodiac, the Baltic, Baltic, Baltic. And, uh, and, and he's saying, you know, on one hand, if you do the thing that's classic and quote unquote derivative, then you're criticized for, uh, being derivative or being simple or not being creative. On the other hand, if you make sort of wild decisions, like certainly Zodiac with their GMT lineup that they released this last year, they made some pretty crazy decisions. And I think they're kind of fun, right? Yeah. But you're criticized for being sort of too out of the box.
[silence] This isn't what a GMT looks like.
Everett His conclusion, and I think this was wrong, his conclusion was, maybe we just don't need any more watches. maybe that means we should stop making watches. And I was like, hold the fuck on you guys. This is not, we are in a golden age of watches. You know, we hear, we meaning Mike, Will, Andrew and I, every week we hear there's too many micro brands, micro brands are releasing too many watches. There's too many watch podcasts. There's too many, and maybe all of that rings true to you at home, But I think the better take is that we're in a golden age of choice, right? You have every week, you have probably 10 to 20 hours of watch podcast you can listen to being published.
Andrew You have 10,000 or more words a week of written.
Everett That's right. Written word. You have every week a new watch is being released, right?
Andrew Thousands of Instagram pictures. Hundreds maybe. Hundreds of thousands.
Everett You've got guys on every continent in many, many countries releasing watches. Not every continent. Every... That's true. Every type of watch you could want, every size of watch you could want, crazy watches, simple watches, derivative watches... Fake watches. Well, I mean, we really are... in the riches of choice are upon us. And I think that that should be celebrated. I just can't, I can't get behind the, there's too much of this. There's too much of that. Just be, be joyful about the amount of choices. If you want, if you want the $800 Laurier Pepsi, you got it. If you want the- No, you don't. It's gone. Well, you got more coming. If you want the $1,200 Valtic with some more color options, basically the same one. If you want that, you got it. If you want the Zodiac, the $1,700 Zodiac with the Bona Fides, you can get that too. The choices are there. Also, you can get a GMT-Master II in 10 years.
Andrew Well, I think... That option is there, yeah.
Will What I think the point is, is that if you have 250 bucks, 500 bucks, 1,000 bucks, 1,500 bucks, any bracket that you want, the choices are there for you. And you don't have to buy everything that comes out. You know, you guys, we know that we see it. Um, you know, we get the press releases and all that stuff. This watch is coming out. Here's what it is. Here's how much it costs. And you know, there's that hype factor to it. And Instagram plays into that, of course, where it's like, wow, you know, I got, I gotta get on the new thing. But if you're a person just sitting back kind of on the fringes of that, you know, you know, watch community where we're at and you're saying, I've got a thousand bucks. I'm going to wait for the perfect watch for me. That perfect watch is probably going to come to your door a lot sooner now than it would have five years ago. And it's probably already out of that.
Mike And let me play devil's advocate. It's the same thing. We're at the same place with watches that we are with TV, right? There is TV for everybody now and there's tons of it and there's so much good TV right now. I mean, as far as the number of high quality shows that are being made compared to any other time, I think we are at the peak, right? And maybe going up, I don't know. And I think that's the case with watches too. And I think that's because of accessibility to manufacturing. Um, anybody who wants to make a watch kind of can. Um, and with that comes the good and the bad. Right. And it's the same thing as like, you know, if you want a surge protector, which is something I recently bought on Amazon, you know, maybe 25 years ago, there were like eight brands, right now, if there was the one you could get at Walmart. Now it's, I mean, 27 brands you've heard of plus 600 brands you've never heard of. Right.
Andrew And they range in price from $45 to $0.06, and you don't know which to get.
Mike And I think you don't know which to get. I think that's what maybe Kaz was getting at, that I think I've gotten at, that I think we've all at some point felt is that overwhelmed, just oversaturation. It's just a lot, which isn't a bad thing. It's just a bad feeling, right?
Everett Which is exactly why you have the WatchClicker, which never does affiliate marketing. Yep. Never takes money for reviews.
Andrew We have sent review pieces back because we're not willing to review them.
Everett If you're reading a recommendation on WatchClicker, whether it's our WatchClicker recommends or one of our reviews.
Mike This went really into ego stroking really quickly.
Everett There is. Stroke my ego with me. Stroke it. The point is good, though, right? You've got people criticize Hodinkee or Worn and Wound because of their relationships with the brands. And I think that's a fair criticism. I also think it's overplayed. But you've got folks out here who are willing to do what we do, which is just to say, this is my opinion, right? I'm in the know, or at least modestly in the know. And here's my opinion. So I don't think variety in and of itself is the enemy. No. And I think I'm remiss to sort of lean into that popular diatribe.
Mike My point was more to say, I think I understand. I think people are expressing, when they say, maybe we don't need that many watches, or stop making this many watches, or as I've expressed to you guys recently, just because you can doesn't mean you should. You know, what's really being expressed is a feeling of being overwhelmed with too many choices. Choice is not a bad thing, but sometimes it can be a lot.
Everett Well, hold on. That's when you close your wallet and make a decision not to buy something.
Will Let me say something, too. I think what all of us need to realize in the space that we're in, because we're all playing in this very niche Instagram watch podcast sort of space, is that there are more people than all of us in this community that are buying these watches that aren't in this space. And there are people who, you know, might look at, you know, a Laurier or, you know, a Manta or these other, or Brew, you know, and look at these brands. that have never been on Instagram, never listened to a watch podcast, never been on a watch website. And they just, you know, get an ad on their Facebook as they're browsing family photos and say, hey, that's a cool looking watch. Maybe I'll buy that one. I think that people need to realize that all those people are out there and they exist and they're buying watches and they are really probably the people that are keeping all of us engaged in these brands. Because I think if you look at it and you spoke to some of these brand owners, I bet you that more of their dollars are coming from people who aren't in the... I'll just say the segment that we're in, the people that are buying those watches are the people who are maybe only buying one watch in their entire life.
[crosstalk] Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, because us and our neckbeards are not buying most of the watches that we review and opine on.
Everett Those are the guys that wind up with the Tommy Hilfiger watch that is at the top of the Gear Patrol best watches of 2020 year list. Yeah.
Andrew Yes. And there it is, the Tommy Hilfiger, best of 2020. $22,000. Way to go, Mike. Was that a Calvin Klein?
Mike I am wearing, to all of our point, I'm wearing the Calvin Klein Achieve Chronograph. It's a Swiss quartz, sapphire crystal. I'll be reviewing it for the site. in spite of everyone.
Will I like it. I'm I'm reviewing the pro diver. Yahoo.
Everett All right, guys. Well, I know.
Mike Stop. Well, hold on. Everett, what's your what? What did you regret? Yeah.
Everett Oh, the watch, the watch that I didn't get hands on and that I regret not getting hands on it is the Astro Banks Fortitude. I think that he's just hitting every single metric in terms of a watch that I want in this watch. I think the one thing I was sort of lamenting with that watch is that he didn't incorporate the asymmetric case size that he does in his field military dive watch. I'm glad that he didn't. The Sea Ranger? The Sea Ranger, exactly. I loved the Sea Ranger. I almost didn't give it back. Gosh, that could make this watch really interesting and fun. With that said, I love just about everything about this watch. You know, he does a really, and when I say he, Andrew Perez of Astro Banks, who we've had on the show, does a really good job with polish to brush transitions. And when you get these clean, clean transitions, so I think we see a lot of muddy transitions in the space that Andrew and I occupy. I think you guys see probably a little bit higher quality finishing on watches than we do normally. But you get these muddy transitions and it just sort of is a nothing burger. I think what Andrew does so well is that clean. Yeah, I am. Lapped transition and it just makes the whole freaking watch pop. I think it's the same thing that we like about the Christopher Ward lightsaber case, right? where you get that pop of polish and that brush transition, and it's sharp and clean, and it's like, bam, look at this bling. That clean transition is so important. I think Andrew nails that. So that's the one watch this year that came out that I thought I really should have tried harder. Especially with that Mother of Pearl. Oh, man. I should have tried harder to get my hands on that one. I love Mother Proxy. And I know, Will, I know you reviewed that, and I think perhaps you acquired one of those, would you not?
Will Yeah, I just got an email that I'll be getting mine in about two weeks, I think, right before Christmas, he said.
Mike Now, Everett, aren't you stealing that off of his front set?
Andrew No, it's me. I'm actually set up in the neighborhood. Yeah, that's interesting.
[crosstalk] I've been living in a tent on the street.
Everett You're Pennsylvania Proxy, right? He's got the law enforcement connection, so it's a harder for me. It's harder for me to set some.
Will Yeah, that's fair. I'll let you guys know where the spare key is.
Andrew Oh, I don't need spare. We got the garage porch. Well, I'm not an animal. I'm just a pirate.
Everett So other things. I'll go first.
Mike Why do you go first? This is crazy.
Everett I watched this movie on on Amazon. I think we paid for it called Mike, I'd like you to go first, please. Called Love and Monsters. Uh, and, and you, you see the tile and it's like, eh, this is going to be goofy. Oh, I've seen the tile. And then you watch the trailer and you're like, okay, maybe this is going to be all right. And then you watch the movie and you're like, holy crap, this is good. Oh, so, so good. Well, I mean, I think my favorite watch, my favorite watch, my favorite movie that I've seen this year, Love and Monsters. Like Love and Watches? It is like Love and Watches. Exactly. And Love and Basketball. Love and Monsters. So, you know, the premise is Earth has been invaded by monsters and folks have had to sort of hunger down underground. It's really tongue in cheek. It's cute. It's got like sort of a... This has nobody in it. This is starring zero people. What is that? What is that Woody Harrelson zombie movie?
Will Adventureland.
Everett Zombieland.
Andrew Adventureland was also very good, but Zombieland is the correct answer.
Everett It feels a little like Zombieland. No, is it Adventureland?
[silence] Oh, shit.
Andrew Now I'm torn. What do you got, Mike?
Mike I've been wanting to share this with everyone for quite some time. I want to talk about shoelaces. Oh, boy.
Will Shoe laces, okay.
Andrew You using the squiggly ones from the 90s?
Will Did you put a whole bunch of them together and make a watch strap out of them, like paracord? There we go.
Mike Yeah, those are the most practical and attractive watch straps.
Will Victoria Inox, baby.
Mike Yeah. What?
Andrew No, hang on, Mike. This is important. We're going to go over for this one. We'll say that word again.
Will Victoria Inox. Yeah, thank you. Victoria Inox. Oh, God. Yeah. And with that, I retire from the watch world. See y'all later. Adieu. Victorinox, baby.
Andrew I was gonna let it go. No, I couldn't let that go. I was like, that's, you just made it two words. Shoelaces, my friend. What about shoelaces now?
Mike Yeah, the rust-free Queen Victoria.
Will Wait, are you kidding me? It's really called the Queen Victoria?
Mike No. Jesus Christ. Will, take a break. Take five. Will's gone. We lost him. So a while ago, at the same time, I had about three sets of shoelaces snap on me. Just totally broke. That's the fucking worst. The very worst. And, and I, my first instinct was, I'll go to CVS. Well, that was, well, I couldn't feel my feet. That's why I didn't know they were going to snap.
Andrew That's why you wear shoes. Yeah.
Mike Yeah. It's my diabetic neuropathy. Talk about your shoelaces. So my first instinct was, I'll go to CVS, I'll replace these. So I did, I got some replacement for the, uh, some tall black leather boots I have. And I laced them up and there was about 23 feet left over of lace. And so I strung them around and around and tied them on. And I said, this just isn't going to fucking work.
Andrew And then you couldn't feel below the calf.
Mike Yeah. Well, I strung them up like stripper boots. You know? Yeah. It's a new kink I was trying. And so I, I don't know how I found them, but probably the Googles. Lace Lab. Lacelab.com. L-A-C-E-L-A-B.com. Phenomenal shoelaces I've replaced. I even went ahead beyond what I needed and got some more because I was like, well, I'm here. They have a bunch of like kind of sneaker head shoelaces, like they have leather shoelaces. I don't need those.
Andrew I like that. I like leather laces.
Mike I feel like maybe for your all whites, you could get some white leather shoe laces.
Andrew Those are dyed on both sides. There can't be a rough outside. Yeah.
Mike All right. So I'll check. I would go with the white luxury leather laces. They're gold plated. So the nice thing is they kind of have a guide. First off, they have tons of different laces and they have a guide where it's like, listen, if you, if your boot has like this many eye holes, here's the length that you need. So I ordered them, loved them ever since. Not going back to CVS for my shoelaces. I'm sure there are other places to get it, but this is where I'm going from now on.
Andrew You shouldn't have been going to CVS for shoelaces. I didn't know where to go. You should have been going to the Walmart.
Will Do they come in a Pepsi color scheme?
Mike Yeah, do they have Pepsi? They have Coke bezel. They have Coke bezel.
Andrew Oh, they have bezels? I can accept them.
Mike Yeah, they have bezeled shoelaces, yeah. What do your shoelaces look like, loser? They're just blue.
Andrew I don't wear shoelaces. I haven't learned in a long time.
Mike You just wear Velcro, right? Velcro dance show.
Will They're blue. I wear loafers everywhere I go.
Everett All right, Lace Lab. I'm looking at the White Luxury Leather Laces, gold-plated. I'm going to stick it in my cart.
Mike Do it. Just buy them.
Andrew They're only $54. They're not even that much.
Mike What are you buying? They're $17. $17.
Andrew I got the 19 carats. Other things will... What do you got?
Will I got... I got a podcast. So... Yeah, we're on a podcast. 40 in 20 to watch your podcast. It's not a watch podcast, I promise. So I like true crime podcasts, you know, serial killers, all that kind of shit. So this one's, it's called Tenfold More Wicked. And it's, uh, it's one of the podcasts that they do, uh, seasons, um, where they, they do a bunch of episodes on one topic. And, uh, this is their inaugural season. So it's a new podcast and what they're doing it on is this guy who it was in the mid 1800s. He was a serial killer and he really had it out for this one family and decided to just start off in a whole bunch of them. And. for years rained hell on this family and would just kind of kill them at, not random, but they wouldn't know that it was coming. And it took a long time for them to kind of figure out, you know, who was, who was killing everybody. But I've listened to a couple episodes of it. And the person who does the podcast interviews people who are, um, alive today that are descendants of the family of this people that got killed.
Mike And it's almost mean.
Will Yeah, so so you got that link to the past, right? Because I think this started taking place in 1849 ish. So quite some time. But it's it's it's pretty diabolical.
Andrew Did you ever listen to Small Town Dicks?
Will No, I listened to Shit Town. You ever listen to Shit Town?
Everett Haven't listened to that. Shit Town is so, so, so good.
Andrew Small Town Dicks is really good, is a very good true crime podcast. The original hosts were this kind of like model. I don't know how she got into it, but also Lisa from The Simpsons. I forget her name.
Mike Julie Kavner. No, that's Bart.
Will No. That's Bart. Do you mean Lisa Simpson?
Andrew Yeah, Lisa Simpson. It was just Lisa Simpson. The human who voices her. She is the other co-host, and they have two... At the time, they were two active police officers with a city adjacent to ours, and they do all... Their first three seasons are all true cases. They interview the dudes who investigated it and all that shit from Lane County. From Lane County, where we live. And then post-season three, it's mostly our county, but they branch out nationally. It's a really interesting true crime.
Everett We're 200,000 people, so they've run out of cool shit that happened.
Andrew Yeah, right. Their whole shtick is like, as told by the people who investigated them. Yardley Smith.
[silence] Yes, Yardley.
Mike Yardley and Zibby were the hosts. Yardley or Yardley?
Andrew That's how she says it. She says Yardley, so my assumption is that she's wrong. So we're going to say Yardley.
Everett Yardley Smith. Definitively.
Will Yeah.
Everett I've looked up I've looked up tenfold more wicked. This is from exactly right media, which does my favorite murder. And that's messed up. Really no gifts. They've got that. They're one of those syndicates that does some pretty good shit.
Will So, yeah, I've been enjoying it.
Andrew I'm intrigued. I'm gonna check it out.
Everett So is the whole is like a season podcast.
Will The whole season is live now. Three episodes. I'm not sure how many there's going to be. I've gotten through, I'm current with it, so I know there's at least one more, so I'm assuming it'll be a few more.
[silence] I don't like doing that.
Everett Yeah, I might wait till they're all out so I can binge it. That's my jam. I'll let you know. Andrew, other things.
Andrew What do you got, brother? I have an amendment to another thing from a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago, I recommended to you the Starz show Outlander.
[crosstalk] I stand by that recommendation.
Andrew Stop at season three. At the conclusion of season three, just stop. It gets a little soapy. It doesn't just get soapy. It gets played out. And now I'm watching it. I'm watching it the way I watched True Blood. And like, well, I'm this far into it. I need to fucking finish it. And I'm not particularly enjoying it anymore. I'm in the middle of season four. I'm not going to give you any spoilers, because there's plenty of people who enjoyed it through season four, because there was a season five, and I believe season six has been announced.
Everett We enjoyed we and we have enjoyed all of it, but I hear you.
Andrew It's just it's played out. I want it's not played because because Game of Thrones was played out season seven.
[crosstalk] Yep.
Andrew Right. Sorry, ever. Just that's just the way it is. They need. No, they did a good job wrapping it up. They must. They needed to wrap it up. I need a conclusion. They did the best they could with No, I think you did, because there's no way they make an ending for this world that we want to live in, because that's the thing. We don't want to live in a Game of Thrones world. We all want to live in Outlander world. So you can't end it, but you also can't keep it going, because only so much shitty stuff can happen in your world before you're like, man, fuck. Just die already.
Will That's like Game of Thrones. You just stop it at the end of season six. That's the end of the show.
Andrew Ah, but that's hard because people need conclusion. So the last season of Game of Thrones, they did the best they could. I liked the ending. It wrapped it up. It tied all the loose ends. I'm not pleased with the way they did it, but they did it the best way that they could because there's no way they could have done it that I wanted them to do it. Listen, I would have liked Game of Thrones to run for another 20 years.
Will If Watch Clicker was Game of Thrones, Mike would be the editor in chief because he has the best story.
Andrew I also think he's most likely to kill us.
Mike Already have it planned out.
Andrew But Outlander, I'm in the middle of season four. I'm still enjoying it. I still watch every episode. You're invested. I do wish it. Yeah. And I think that's it. I do wish that Hulu had an option of playing a playback at two times speed.
Everett Yeah. Because I sort of gotten. Have you gotten to Brett Williams yet on the beach?
Andrew Mr. Olivier? I saw Mr. Olivier on the beach. And I almost got on our Instagram message, Brett, with a picture of it. I didn't, because I was like, I don't know, that seems kind of weird. He's like a Hollywood star.
Everett A South African cinema star.
Andrew Yeah, it was weird. But I was looking at it, and I was like, I know that guy. I've seen the inside of his apartment. And I was like, well, that's a weird thing to think. Very. That's really weird. But I'm in the middle of it. I'm still enjoying it. I encourage you to continue to watch it, but just recognize that it's a very, I think soapy was appropriate. I disagreed cause that was like that trigger. That was a little bit triggering to sit. I'm, I'm getting soapy, but no, I'm getting soapy. It's a little bit there. It's just a little played out and I'm sort of excited for it to end. And that's why I'm going to finish it because I just, I just want some resolution. I want everyone to die. That's what I fucking want. Or I want a cliffhanger. I just want something. I just want resolution, right? In any form that it comes.
Everett Well, uh, I guess in the spirit, in the spirit of holidays. So this is going to be our last episode before Christmas. So Merry Christmas to everybody. Uh, happy holidays as, as you were, if, if, if that's.
Andrew We're in the midst of Hanukkah, the throes of it.
Everett That's right. Happy holidays. This is a, this is our, uh, our Christmas special for what it's worth. We, we, uh, didn't do much sort of, uh, holiday stuff, but that's okay. We, we reviewed our favorite watches of the year.
Andrew And our misses of the year.
Everett Andrew, anything you want to add before we, before we patch this up for the day? I just added it. Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at the Watch Clicker. Also, please do check out the website. That's where Will, Mike, occasionally Andrew and I contribute some written materials. All of the podcasts are live there. There's a lot of good shit every week. Something goes up for real. If you want to support 40 and 20 and the Watch Clicker, You can do that on patreon.com slash 4020. That is where we get all the support for everything we do. We're not, we are not taking a paycheck from Patreon. Or Orion.
Andrew And don't forget.
Everett Or us. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
[crosstalk] Bye bye.
[inaudible] Oh.