Episode 113 - The Objectively Best Pilot's Watches for Under $500

Published on Thu, 24 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -0800

Synopsis

This is a transcript from the podcast "1420 The Watch Clicker" where the hosts Andrew and Everett discuss their picks for the objectively best pilot watch under $500. They go through various contenders like the Laco Aachen, Gakota K01, Bulova A15, Citizen Nighthawk, and the new release Sektor Pilot watch from Wes and Cullen. They evaluate the watches based on criteria like water resistance, size, movement, aesthetics, durability and "x-factor". Ultimately, the Sektor Pilot and Citizen Nighthawk emerge as their top picks in this price range.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, hello, watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? Doing really well. Yes, even though I messed up the intro twice.
Everett I mean, just once.
Andrew I dropped my phone. Guys, I was trying to do something really quick, and then I was looking around for a place to put my phone that would be quiet.
Everett And so you just slammed it in the middle of the table that holds my microphone.
Andrew No, I dropped it first time and then I was looking for a quiet place. It was a long delay. At least it felt like a long delay. You can cut that out though.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Thanks for that. How are you? I'm doing all right. Have you run yet today?
Everett I have. I mean, I did my, it's Sunday, so I did my long run. Gross. Yeah. Yeah. Every Sunday. That's the Sunday deal is like this morning was 13 miles in the pouring rain.
Andrew Yeah, it was miserable. You know what's weird about the rain right now is it's pouring, pissing, miserable, concern of flash flood raining, and it's 50 degrees.
Everett Yeah. I hate it. Yeah. So, you know, it was raining hard enough that you sort of have to have a jacket on.
Andrew But then you turn and it's like wearing a garbage bag. Yeah, it's too warm.
Everett So I've got a good, I've got a good running jacket that breathes OK, but just OK.
Andrew Yeah, I had trouble getting comfortable at work last night. I was wearing a jacket at first. and I took it off and I got wet and I was like, well, fuck it. So I also unlayered and was just wearing a regular long sleeve shirt. I'm wet.
Everett This is my life now. This is it. Yeah. I'm not cold. I'm just wet. You know, uh, I've done that before where you just run in a t-shirt, whatever. And if it's warm, right, if it's over about 50, uh, you have to do that with that. But then you get like the plaster, like the Superman costume, uh, which in my case is not a particularly,
Andrew I also run super fast, so it like just sticks to me.
Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Everett That's not true though. I'm good. I'm a little tired. You know, as we're sort of getting up in mileage, this is like the beginning of the scale up, so it just gets longer from here, but you know, it affects you. You know, 13 miles, whatever. It's not a big deal, You get into like 20, 25, 30 miles and it really fucks up the rest of your day.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Like ruins it.
Andrew Yeah. Unless your campaigns. Uh, yeah.
Everett Who runs a marathon at lunch. That's right. Like a dickhead. I mean, that guy's just a freaking nature, right?
Andrew Yeah. He's an animal.
Everett He's crazy with his diet. He's crazy with his mileage.
Andrew He's a machine. That's true. Machine. I saw him running, uh, once it was very weird. I was like, Oh, I know you.
Everett Bye. I've seen him a couple of times in Alton Baker and I see him and I'll be like, I'm going to try to keep up with him. Yeah, right. But I can't because he reps like 645.
Andrew Yeah. And also by the time you're seeing him, he's at like mile 14 and starting the like a climb and still running faster than you would ever want to.
Everett I told you about trying to keep up with him at Butte to Butte a few years ago, right? Yeah. Yeah, it didn't happen.
Andrew Yeah. He could be pushing a stroller, like a running stroller with an adult inside of it and you still would not be able to keep up with him.
Everett I think he ran like 39.50 that year, which is two minutes faster than my PR. That's too fast. Too fast. Yeah, but other than that, I'm good. We're talking about watches today, buddy. We're going to get there. Okay. You're not ready yet?
Andrew No, I'm ready.
Everett Let's take it slow. Hey, we'll take it slow.
Andrew You've got to warm me up. You've got to preheat the oven.
Everett Well, we've got to fluff you up a little bit.
Andrew All right, now we're good to go. We are. We're talking about watches. We're going to talk about some watches today.
Unknown This is a watch podcast. Sometimes. This is a watch podcast.
Andrew And look at this for those of you who complain about how off topic we are. We're four minutes and 30 seconds in and we're about to get into our secondary topic.
Everett Anything new on the website this week? Well, this is a little bit of a slow week on the website. Yeah. But we did have we did have our very first yesterday morning, Saturday morning, our very first weekly roundup, which is a new thing we're trying out. We'll see if it sticks. Um, but what we're doing is rounding up our favorite things we read in the watch media, read, listened to, watched perhaps in watches this week. So, um, we linked to a few different things this week. Um, we, we read to some or linked to some auctions, uh, discussed by Tony over at Rescapement, some non Daytona auctions of really, really ridiculously expensive watches. But I also thought it was a cool article. I think it's Ben's Watch Club. Ben's Watch Club, yep. Ben's Watch Club did a review on a trio of Seiko 5s this week. The old Seiko 5s, you know, vintage, not vintage, but the classic Seiko 5s pre-rebirth of Seiko 5. And I thought it was a great look. It's more detailed than you normally get. Usually when people say, oh, you should check out this Seiko 5, this SNKL or whatever. it's this is an automatic watch by Seiko for under 100 bucks and it's really cool and that's it. He looks at these three watches kind of talks about the differences you know what you can expect with one versus the other because I think a lot of people look at those Seiko 5s and they see zero difference but there's some notable differences so he really looked close at those. Anyway it's a new thing we're going to do if you if you think of anything that you say oh man check this cool thing out that happened feel free to shoot it to us and maybe it'll make our weekly roundup or it won't.
Andrew but we'll at least appreciate it or it won't. That's right. That's right. Um, but yeah, I, you know, so I woke up and had 400 unread text messages from just the watch clicker thread. And that's, I think when you guys planned out the weekly roundup, cause I was like, this is absurd. This is the most that's ever been.
Everett Um, so a lot of watch clicker chat happens when you're asleep.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. I'd say most of it. Sometimes I text you guys in the middle of night, I just ping you with the name. Because you guys all know on the iPhone thing, if you're in a group chat, you can tag someone's name and it'll make their phone vibrate even if the message or the text thread is on do not disturb. So I do that sometimes. That's fun. Yeah. The other night, Mike and I were texting for a little bit while he was up with the baby.
Everett While he was doing baby feeding, middle of the night baby feeding.
Andrew So now, seven and a half minutes in, that's more appropriate.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Let's get into the main topic.
Everett Perfectly acceptable main topic. Sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes. We're talking about the objectively best pilot watch for under 500 smackeroonies.
Andrew And there is no caveat this week, Will. You're welcome. When we had to go 501 for sport watch.
Everett Nope. He shut us down last time anyway.
Andrew That's still titled like that on the website or on the feed.
Everett Yeah, that's right. But for SEO purposes, that's not how it made the website. The criteria is simple here, right? It's not a criteria so much as an aggregate, right? We take watches that might qualify. We try to sort of cull out a handful of them because you can get in the weeds scoring watches pretty quickly.
Andrew Oh yeah, we've done some episodes where I had like three, four sheets of watches trying to find the right ones.
Everett And I think we're sort of, as we've done this a handful of times, we're getting better at sort of knowing what's going to score really well, right? So we're gonna just go through a handful of these.
Andrew First I want to talk about what I was looking for. Yeah, let's do it. So for me, and I think I have a pretty standard view of what a pilot watch is. Sure. Not necessarily a Flieger, like it doesn't have to be that really traditional Flieger style watch for me.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew What I'm looking for is... That word's actually pronounced Flagger. Flieger! I'm not looking for that really traditional. That's not, that's not the end all be all. That is among them, right? That's a, that's one of the categories within a pilot watch, but I'm looking for something a little bigger, just a little bigger, or at least a bigger dial, more simple dial. I want a big crown. I want a good big crown, a 24 hour ring. And that's kind of it. Like I don't want a bezel unless it's a chronograph and then I can see it. Like there's still that functionality, but this is, I think one of the most, for me, one of the most
Everett Diverse categories of watches we've tried to find the objectively best within because there's so many veins of what a pilot watches Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that I the pilot watch when you know a Flieger watch is I think something specific But when you talk about a pilot watch you really open it up, you know, sort of like a field watch What's a what's a field watch? It's a pragmatic description more than anything for a pilot watch. I think historically well Even today, you want it to be legible. You want to be able to look down, you know, whether it's strapped to your thigh or your forearm, you want to be able to look down and read it at a glance. And historically, a big, big crown, right? So you can operate it with gloves. So you can operate it with gloves while you're, while you're flying. Or the keyboard. That's right. That's right. I always think of Rick Moranis in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids typing in the keyboard about breakfast. Oh, dad's typing with gloves on again. Um, yeah, so, so legible, big crown and it's kind of just feel like a pilot watch. I mean, I think that's the other thing, right?
Andrew I think that 12 and 24 hour ring really helps, even though that's really reminiscent of a, of a field watch too. I just, I, I think these two watches are sort of one in the same cause they're born out of the same thing. The size is really the difference.
Everett Interestingly enough, there were watches that I looked at today that I thought, well, this is a pilot watch and then it calls itself a field watch or vice versa. I thought this is a really a field watch, but it calls itself a pilot watch. So, um, I think that we did a good job sort of keeping the watches. These are all, I think, just about all the watches we're going to talk about today are quote-unquote pilot's watches.
Andrew I don't, yeah, I don't think we're going to get a lot of pushback on defining watch.
Everett I think that's right. I think that's right.
Andrew But you never know. Sometimes we do, because sometimes people have opinions.
Everett Yeah. Do you just want to kind of go through the watches we looked at without, without revealing the scores?
Andrew Yeah, let's do that. And then we'll, and then we'll, we'll drum roll, please. like America's Funniest Home Videos and announce our third place winner, and then our champion.
Everett Yeah, I think sometimes we will score each other's watches, but I think we were close enough. With one exception, we basically had the same watches and kind of agreed on the same watches. So why don't you run through what you have, and I'll fill in any gaps.
Andrew Okay, so I pulled down, the first one that came to mind was the Nighthawk. Yeah, for me too. Because that's one of my favorite pilot watches of all time. Top of my list. extremely affordable. It's getting less affordable right now, so if you've been on the fence about it, do buy them, because they have stopped making them. They're ringing at about $300, I think, about a year ago this time. They were ringing at about $220, $250. I found them on Joma, I think, or maybe Long Island. I don't remember where. I found them on a provider today for $220. Yeah, $225. But a couple of places I found them, they were upwards of $300. And I think on the Amazon, they're at about $300. I went from there to the Aviate Edgar. And the Edgar was one I hoped was going to do better than it did. And it just it just didn't it didn't land right. It just it missed in some really key categories. But it's a watch style that I really like until you get close to the dial and then you get this kind of that weird kind of sandy textured dial which bummed me out. It was subtle enough that I didn't notice until I until it was a very macro photos though. So it's without seeing it in person there's no way to know. I pulled the S&G 15 the notice sector pilot. The Laco 39 Aachen Type B and the Bulova A15.
Everett In addition to those, I've got the Seiko SNA411. I looked at that but didn't pull it. I've got the Kokoda K01, which says on its website it's 508, but you can almost always find a discount code. So 10% right now, you can get a 10% discount, so I included it. And it actually does pretty well. And the Islander Pilot.
Andrew Oh, yeah. The Islander. Yeah. Oh, I didn't even think about that.
Everett One other watch, one other watch I included that I almost sent to you, but it's the T-Cell Pilot. T-Cell is a Korean company. Oh, yeah. We've talked about that watch before. And we've talked about it. You and I have talked about it a lot. And I think we've actually talked about it on the show before. And so I included that as well. And at the price it sells at, I think it's worth a look.
Andrew I think that whole T-Cell line is worth a look.
Everett Yeah. You know, they do really good work. T-Cell does. I think that it is gets lumped in with these mushroom brands and I don't really feel like it is. Although they're clearly making primarily homage watches. Um, they're just doing them really well for a really fucking good price.
Andrew So if you can get a Rolex for 500 bucks, get a Rolex for 500 bucks.
Everett Yeah. I think 225. Yeah. Or two 50. Yeah. So, um, great. Great. I think that's a good place. Why don't we talk about in terms of, uh, ranking so we're not gonna give you the scores for all of these but why don't we talk about a little bit about the limitations about applying our objective list to a pilot watch because there's a few I noticed right oh there's two right off the bat yeah primarily well no not primarily the two right off the bat where the the only where our scoring lends itself towards dive watches or sport watches yes
Andrew Water resistance, you can get up to 10 points in water resistance. Very few of these watches, you're going to see more than 50 meters of water resistance. 11 points in water resistance. Yeah. I don't, I'm tired, man. I'm barely literate right now. Uh, so water resistance, you get up to 11 points, right? One, one point for every 10 meters up to a hundred and then anything else is gravy. Yeah. Right. So you get that extra point for 101 meters and beyond and then size. And, and we have, uh, we're prejudiced. towards that 38 to 40 millimeter sized watch, which means that when you, and so for each half a millimeter off of that spectrum, that window, you lose a point. Half a millimeter is a point. So when you get to a 42 millimeter watch, you're losing a, you're losing six points. You're losing four. Yeah. You're losing four. You're getting six points. Yeah. And you're seeing, we see a lot of pilots watches in that 42 to 45 category. Yeah. That's hurtful. So you get, you get a four point watch because of your size and then because you don't need water resistance because these aren't designed for, they're, they're designed to actually survive in less pressure. They're losing points because they have 30 meters of water resistance. So our objectively perfect and objective measuring scale for watches scores pilot watches as objectively worse than other styles of watches, right? Because that's the way it is. Now the other categories, we've got the movement. And Everett and I score movements a little bit differently. Yeah. We've got the shoes that it comes with, whether it be strap, bracelet, and it's stock. It's not what you can put on it. It's what the OEM shoes are for this watch. Yeah. The overall aesthetic, which is the only slightly subjective measurement. No, no. We've got durability and durability also captures the versatility of the watch. Yeah. Not just something that it captures that whole thing like can this watch go anywhere do anything what are its limitations in the way of its wear and and for my for my part everything got eights and nines and durability today we've got a ton of sapphire we've got yep great finishes so anyway keep going i had a couple that lost some durability points below eight and nine um so now so those are all worth 10 points water resistance 11 size movement shoes aesthetic durability up to 10 points loom Up to five points. Everett's pretty strict about the way he grades his loom. It's all about the material. Mine is the material combined with how it's applied, where it is, what it's doing. Nope, yours is not. It is not. Yeah, it absolutely is. I thought you told me it wasn't. Oh. No, no, absolutely. Regardless, loom up to five points, and then x-factor. Does it have that je ne sais pas? Quoi? Quoi? Well, I also don't know pas, so what up? Does it have the x-factor another five-point category slightly?
Everett Subjective yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, I mean yeah There are two categories here that are completely objective in our objective standards There are exactly two categories that are subject or objective for a total of 76 points is our max score I think that's right close enough anyway for those of you doing the math at home right 10 20 30 40 50 60 71. 71. Yeah, I don't know.
Andrew Whatever. I'm tired, man. We've talked about this moments ago. 71.
Everett I think a good place for us to start here is the watch that we disagreed on. Vehemently, I would say we've disagreed on this watch vehemently.
Andrew This isn't the first time.
Everett No. No, and that's okay. On this watch. So the first watch we're going to include in our rundown today, our sort of official score rundown, is the Lakko Aachen Aachen. Aachen. Augsburg combo. So these are 39 millimeter traditional Fliegers from the German company Locko. Yep. And they're dope. They're dope. I mean this is a heritage Flieger from a traditional pilot watch company that sells primarily in the $1,300 plus range. They sell some very expensive watches. And this is an entry level I mean, truly entry level. I think these are coming in at like $410 from the website.
Andrew Yeah, I think so. I wrote $40 and that's just not possible. I must have gotten distracted. But it's $400 and a single digit dollar amount.
Everett Yeah, I think these are basically $400 and change all day. $400 and change. So from Germany, this heritage company, and it's a no-shit traditional Flieger style. They make, I think, the Aachen is the type A and the Augsburg is type B or vice versa. Uh, I don't really care that much. So on my list, this is scored really well. I think this is fourth overall on my list and I think it's done slightly worse on yours, but, but here's the basics 39 millimeters. So it scores a 10 in terms of size, 50 meters of water resistance. So it loses points there. It's got an eight series Miyota. Yep. It's got a traditional, well-constructed fleeger with the two rivets in between the lungs. Lugs. Fleeger style strap. It gets high marks in terms of looks for me because it's just the traditional fleeger. Durability is going to be great. Sapphire crystal, AR coated, yada, yada, yada. I think it's got a C3 loom. In fact, I'm sure as I say that, it's got a C3 loom. Yeah, I agree. And then I give it very high X-factor points and it comes in at about 56 points for me. Exactly 56 points indeed. And you say, well, yeah, that scored 51 for me. And I said, gosh, where the heck does it lose points?
Andrew And so here's the thing. I want this watch to score better. And many of the just slightly higher priced offerings, the ones that break that 500 point score significantly higher. Here was the problem for me. I don't like the green. Yeah. I want white. Now I get that the green is a choice. I get it's a, I get it's there, right? That's the design. But for me, that eats away at the durability of it because it pulls away from some, it, it, it pushes it out there just a little bit. It's not just a black and white dial. So I, I think you're going to lose some versatility, even though this is a really well-sized, great fleeker. This isn't like, this isn't me saying I don't like the watch, but it is me saying I don't like green. Green for me is your faux patina loom.
Everett Yeah, sure. So that's C3 loom, which is which is going to give it a definitely a green cast. Yeah.
Andrew And that's that's where it misses for me. So it misses because of that miss. It misses an aesthetic. It misses in durability. And then it loses some loom points for me because I don't. That's not what's important to me in the way that because they have. I'm not going to pull any of them up, but they have way better. They've watches that fit me better. These, at this price point, this is what we're hamstrung a little bit.
Everett Locko has watches that fit you better? Yeah. They certainly don't fit your pocketbook better.
Andrew No, they do not. But they have watches that are going to fit into this category better, score significantly better for me. The problem is with the under $500 mark, we're a little bit hamstrung. And just my taste, my very objective taste, didn't lend itself to pushing it. Now, had it been white, I think our scores mirror each other.
Everett Yeah, and I think you've basically given it, because it's got C3 loom, it's lost three points for you. I think you've gamed the system. You've over-gamed the system here. I disagree with your scoring here. Well, it's my score. Yeah, I get that, but I think that you have to figure out a point to give it a discount for that.
Andrew I mean... No, I take your point. I understand. And it is not a... I don't... Oh, no, not the Mandarin Greyhound.
Everett So here's the bottom. Here's the bottom line on that.
Andrew I want this watch to have done better. And if you are not me, I think this watch is a top three watch.
Everett That's right. That's that's that was going to be my bottom line. Basically, this is a great watch and it's affordable. And I think that if you want that classic Flieger style watch, you're going to pay a little bit for now where this doesn't do well everywhere.
Andrew You know, it does. It has poor water resistance.
Everett Well, and most of these have poor water resistance. I think, I think that the water resistance is sort of in line with what we'd expect for a Flieger. In fact, the other Flieger's on my list. Only one of them does better. And that's, that's the Islander.
Andrew I have three that have better water resistance.
Everett Of the classic Flieger style? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Andrew None of the classic Flieger. Yeah.
Everett So, so I mean, this is right in there for Flieger style, but it's got an 821 Miota movement, which sucks. Uh, and I say it sucks. I don't think an 821 sucks, but it's not a great movement, you guys. um on my movement scale an 821 gets a six and a 7s26 gets a seven uh let's see an NH35 gets an eight and a 9015 gets a nine that's sort of where i and an ecodrive gets a one that's just so we're all so we're all aware ecodrive gets a seven i put an ecodrive on par with the 7s26 so um above an 821 so it doesn't have a great movement Um, but for me, that was it, right? I gave this top marks an X factor because it is Locko, right? Because this is one of these companies, uh, that I think is just great. And I think if you're looking for this watch, you should be looking at this. I think there's two watches that we're probably not going to talk about in detail today, but that you should look at if you're looking at these. And the reason you should look at these is because they provide 95% of the same shit for about half of the money. Yeah. So the first of those is Long Island, Mark, from Island Watch, who came on. The Islander pilot, this is one of his newer selections, but it's a 42 millimeter watch, so slightly bigger. 100 meters of water resistance.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett So it's a banger in terms of water resistance. I think he's got an NH35 in there. Yes, he does. He's got a whatever strap on it, a whatever strap, just a leather strap. You're going to put that thing on a NATO or something anyway. But it looks great. Sapphire crystal, 100 meters of water resistance, great durability scores, good lume. I think he's got BGW-9. I can't remember off the top of my head.
Andrew Yeah, I don't think we even talked about the pilot watch when he came on.
Everett And the other one is that T-Cell, right? The Korean T-Cell. You know, 50 meters of water resistance, but you've got a 90S5 movement, or a 9015, depending on which one you pick. Also enough of whatever strap. 40 millimeters, or is it 39? I think they're 40, 39 or 40, one of the two.
Andrew They're still in the sweet spot.
Everett But these are traditional, and what I like about T-Cell is you can get a diamond crown or... Yeah, or an onion. Or an onion crown, that's right. That's right. So both T-Cell and Islander are going to be extremely well constructed, just as well constructed as the Laka would be, my guess. And maybe even slightly better.
Andrew I mean, I can't say for certain. I can say just from our limited experience with the Islander watches, this finishing is great. His design work is really well done. He does a good job with that, and we can speak to that.
Everett I think his dials look to me to be a little less precise than either the T cell or the Laco, just the printing, but it's a really close thing. So if you're looking for that classic Flieger, that should be on your list.
Andrew Yeah, those three, I think, are the ones that you look through, and one of them is going to suit you.
Everett So I think the next watch I'd like to talk about specifically is the Gakota K01, because also a classic Flieger style. Now this watch is $508 on the website, but you can always find a discount. 10% discount codes on these all the time.
Andrew How do they do that?
Everett They're just always... Oh, you know, I think they probably build in a margin for affiliate type stuff. That's my guess, which makes sense. But this Gakota K01, I think this thing is just totally gorgeous. The finishing on this is great. The handset is lovely. The dial is dope. Totally fantastic. I think that this to me the K01 looks more like a modern, super high finish micro watch than any of the others we've talked about so far. I agree. And it scores really well, right? It scores really well. I want to say that the K01 has a Any 35 movement in it? Nope. It's an ETA 2824. Oh, 2824. Yeah, that's right. So fantastic movement in that watch for 500 bucks. 500 bucks, you're getting the Swiss 2824.
Andrew And there's something to be said for that. Like for people looking at a watch like this, I think Swiss is going to appeal to a population.
Everett And it's going to come on a great strap. It's going to come on a great strap because it's Gakota. Yeah. It looks great. Top marks in terms of looks. Durability is gonna be fantastic because they've got sapphire and all the goodies.
Andrew Mm-hmm I think this is just a great watch a little bit more expensive than the others Yeah, it's gonna be the the very top of our of our price list But the the distressed leather they have on there. I think they did a really good job Contrasting that super high high gloss radial brushed dial with just just a little bit rugged looking leather Yeah, and I think crown I think in terms of fit and finish this is this is
Everett the bee's knees of all the ones we've looked at today. Thus far, yeah. Say what you will about Kokoda or whatever. And frankly, I think Kokoda is one of those companies that nobody ever says anything bad about. You just don't hear people talk about it.
Andrew I don't know why. I wonder why. They've got white printing on their dial.
Everett So just to run through scores real quick, the Laco, I've got that at 56.
Andrew And I've got it at 51, so we can average it down to what's that, 53?
Everett Let's just call it a 56 and a 51. Uh, the T cell, I've got the T cell at a 55 and you did not break.
Andrew I did not score it, but my assumption would be that it comes in at probably, uh, probably a 55. Yeah.
Everett The Islander I've got at a 54. I think it's right in there. Yeah. The Dakota, the KO one. I have a 60. Interesting. I have it, that it is 60. And the reason for that is you've got a hundred meters of water resistance.
Unknown Yep.
Everett So it gets automatically, you've got extra points there. It's got that fantastic movement. It looks phenomenal. great durability score. It gets scored down a little bit in terms of x-factor, but great loom. Yeah, it just kills. It kills. Objectively, very, very good watch.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett And you cheated. Did I? Well, yeah. I mean, I guess it is. I think under $500, you're going to get that under $500. Yeah, every day of the week. Yeah. So, I feel like it's in there. Okay. What's your next watch?
Andrew Let's talk about the A15, the Bulova A15. This is a relatively new release, like last two years release. Yep. And I, when they came out with it, I was, you won't believe this, but totally smitten. I will believe it. This is a watch that you'd get excited about. Did you pull up the chronograph? Yeah. Okay. So this is a Pilot's Chronograph. Internal rotating bezel, super clear print, 24 hour ring, contrast color, inner, or a contrasted color inner 24 hour ring. a white 12 hour ring, your minutes. It's got all the things you want in a pilot watch. It's legible. The size is right on it. It's all the things I want and none of the things that score well on our list. 60 meters of water resistance. It's fucking, it's 44 millimeters.
Everett Yeah. I think 30 meters of water resistance on this guy.
Andrew 42. Oh yeah. It's yeah. And 30 meters of water resistance. 42 and 30 meters. I matched my Size and water resistance scores to the one that you sent me today. I usually do size first and then water resistance next. That's why I'm mixing the two up because my columns are out of place.
Everett It's got an 8 Series Miota movement in it.
Andrew 8 Series Miota movement. I imagine the leather is just ho-hum okay. I'm sure. On the strap. I'm sure it's a whatever. The aesthetic is great. This is super classically styled. Very, it's updated vintage inspired.
Everett Yeah, I gave this a nine in terms of looks. I gave it a nine in terms of looks and a four in terms of X factor, which are both good scores.
Andrew Very good.
Everett Yeah. And it's still got a 44 overall. It's still got a 44.
Andrew It landed a 41 for me for as much as I like this watch. And it got a it got a three in X factor because it's there's some weird there's some oddities to it. And what I was hoping when this watch got released, I was hoping this was Bulova turning a corner. And then I just kept hoping.
Everett Yeah, this feels very much to me like a watch that should be better than it is. And I don't mean to say it's not a great watch, because I think it is a really neat watch. I think that they've missed on all the objective stuff.
Andrew Oh, and they missed in all the way that Bulova tends to miss. Bulova's tending towards fashion watches. Yes, this feels like a fashion watch to me. They don't go that just little bit extra to make it fucking cool. They make it look cool, and then they wipe their hands of it, put it to market, and then they're good with what the result is, which bummed me out. Because when I first saw the pictures of it, I was stoked. I was like, oh, Bullitt was going to... Here they go. We're going to turn a corner. This brand that has this legacy of really fucking cool watches is coming back. This is, this is the first domino and then it didn't strike any other dominoes and we just still have fashion watches for the most part coming from Bulova. And it just, it missed in the way Orient misses and just the, the really key categories that make it an awesome, awesome watch. It looks great though.
Everett It looks good. Yeah. I mean, it's this fashionable fashion. Yeah. Uh, yeah, no, I think it's a neat watch though. I, I, I wouldn't disparage anybody who wanted this. I love the fact that it's a chronograph. We're not seeing a ton of that.
Andrew I think this is, well, I guess we pulled two chronographs today. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So I just, I don't want to lament on it any further.
Everett You just need to, we got to move on. We got to move on. I think that we should, I think we've got two watches left that we need to talk about. And I think we should start with the Citizen Nighthawk.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett I think we should start with, of those two, we should start with the Citizen Nighthawk. And we probably shouldn't spend a ton of time here.
Andrew I think we could probably spend the next half hour talking about it.
Everett We've been down this path. We've been down this path. Look guys, you get it. This is a cool watch.
Andrew It has all the things you want in a pilot's watch. All the things you want in a chronograph. All the things you want in a sport watch. It's a little big. The bracelet is money.
Everett Money. The design. I gave this a 10 on bracelet. I gave two 10s today in terms of strap. This is one of them.
Andrew It's got a 9 for me. I don't know what would make a 10.
Everett Yeah, I think, I think you're right. I think this is actually a nine for me too. Uh, so, so mark it down, mark it down total score to a 59 for me.
Andrew That's where mine's at.
Everett Um, because I think you're right. I think there, you can improve this bracelet, but it's really close for being a simple bracelet. It's really close to perfect. Um, yeah, it's just fantastic. 42. I mean, it loses points. This is tied with our number one watch if it's 40 millimeters. And I don't think everybody wants this watch to be 40 millimeters. I think it does just fine at 42.
Andrew Yeah. I think it, and I think I wanted it for you because there's a lot happening on that dial. You pull two millimeters off of that dial and it's too much. It's not going to be legible. You're going to lose the, you're going to lose the, the functionality of the slide rule, which nobody knows how to use anyway, but you're going to not be able to use it. It's just going to be a total, like just a mess. The, the, the GMT you're going to lose that.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew you'd lose all the cool things about this watch if you pulled the size down anymore.
Everett I think that's right. Yeah, I think that's right. Uh, the GMT function on this watch, which I think is innovative and different than anything really, I can't think of another GMT like this, but you've got one. You've got that. It's the GMT only exists between six and 12, but what you've got is a hand with Red and white. Red and white.
Andrew Or blue and yellow. Or is it blue and white? Yeah, whatever. On the Blue Angels.
Everett On the Blue Angels, yeah. Something like that. But two different colors, two different tracks. The color the hand displays is the track that you're following. Yep. I mean, it's so simple. So simple. And it's an eco drive. And so awesome. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It's going to run for, you know, 15 or 20 years or however long the capacitor lasts.
Andrew This is a one watch kind of watch.
Everett Yeah. That's right. And I think that there are probably about seven million septuagenarian collect septuagenarian social security collecting men in the United States that this is their watch.
Andrew Hopefully they just want to start giving them away.
Everett That's right. In another like four or five years, there's just going to be a ton of these things on eBay.
Andrew But like I said in the beginning, they discontinued this. So if if you're on the fence, now is probably the time I'm on the fence. And I think now is the time for me to
Everett Yeah, you know, they're going to go up to about $300, $350 once the sort of big pools of them dry up. They're going to be available for two or three years. Yeah. This iteration. But yeah, they're going to go up in price starting now.
Andrew I mean, they've been going up in price. What's crazy is how simple the bracelet is, but still how good it is.
Everett Yeah. I don't know what you call this, three-dimensional oyster perhaps or whatever, but it just feels great. This watch shouldn't have a fantastic bracelet.
Andrew No, this watch shouldn't be as good as it is. It's weird. It's a clunky pilot watch with a slide rule and an odd GMT functionality, but it's fucking cool.
Everett Yeah. So, yeah, at 60 points, we've got the Citizen Nighthawk now. Fifty nine points. Fifty nine points. Yeah. Our final watch is the newest watch on our list. Hasn't even been released. It's the newest watch on our list. And this just happened, right? We, you know, we don't know what the scores are going to be. We're sort of tied to the scores. I know, I know we sort of joke about them being objective, even though it's certainly not objective.
Andrew It's scientific.
Everett Um, but, but our hands are tied in many respects. Um, this watch just scored extremely well. They have hacked, notice, Wes and Cullen have hacked the objectively best watch list.
Andrew You know what that shows me? With their sector series. That shows me that our score guide is perfect. That's right. There's a watch company designing watches to to beat our scoring system. That's right.
Everett That's right. So it should be no surprise. Notice sector pilot was announced this last week by Wes and Colin.
Andrew And I mean, it's been it's been announced the case. The case has been renderings have been available or at least the the the line drawings and dimensions have been available since the beginning.
Everett Yes, that's right. That's right. But but they actually sort of resist released photos, and I think they've even sold a bunch of them. They're in production, and they're going to be in your inboxes shortly, but... You promise? I mean, if you ordered one.
Andrew Oh, that's not what you got us all for Christmas?
Everett You know, unfortunately, I'm sorry, Boo-Boo. I did not get you one. Two? Next year, maybe? So if you haven't looked, if you haven't tech checked this thing out, they're totally fantastic. It should come as no surprise that it's a sector dial. It's a sector dial. It has got a Crosshair, at least on 369. Fantastic, big, giant, legible Arabic numerals. It does have a bezel, a rotating bezel with a countdown timer, which is a cool feature. It's got a day date function.
Andrew Which is really well executed. Extremely well executed. They hid them very well.
Everett Fantastic colors. I mean, what more do you want? What more do you want out of this watch? I don't want him to pop the bezel off. Big giant onion crown. Yep. The crown is money. The Sector H-Link bracelet, which is phenomenal.
Andrew I think that that is perhaps the best bracelet on our list.
Everett Uh, sure. I think that it's right there. I think it's right there with the Nighthawk. I think that they're very close to one another.
Andrew What's weird is that the Nighthawk bracelet scores better for me. I think it's because it's so unexpected at how good it is.
Everett Yeah, perhaps. Perhaps. So these both got tens in terms of bracelet on mine, but then I downgraded them both to nines. Yeah. Because they don't have, I think if you had like a quick adjust, both of those bracelets would be tens.
Andrew I think Manta bracelets are a 10 for me. I think that's the answer.
Everett That's right. So if these had quick adjust, they'd be tens as it is they're nines.
Andrew So into the scoring, the water resistance, they're getting 11 points. Their entire sector series is coming out with 150 meters of water resistance. Which is a great number. Yeah. It's a great number. They're sized perfectly. They're all 40 millimeter cases. 10 there. All using the same movement platform. All NH35s. Coming on a great bracelet. The aesthetic on all these is awesome. They're doing some color experimentation. Yes. And you see that across all their lines. They come out with some really standard colors and then they drop some pastels. Some of the pastels I could do without.
Everett But that's the nature of that, right?
Andrew But people dig them. They get sold, right? I'm obviously not the guy they're selling that watch to. And I'm glad they're selling that watch because I'm not going to buy it.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew The durability is great. All these watches have the same DNA in them of very much go anywhere, do anything. None of them are outlandish. None of them are over or undersized. They go well on leather. They go well on their bracelet. They go well on a NATO. Very versatile watch. Great loom and their X-Factor because They do really well in there. They get a perfect score in the X-Factor for me because it's such a unique idea to build out a family of watches based off of the same case platform, but do them four totally different ways.
Everett Yeah. Yeah, this is, I mean, they're just super fun watches. You know, Wes has been sort of generous when he says stuff like, oh yeah, well, the Sektor Skin Diver sort of was inspired by your guys' show. And he said that to me a couple of times and it feels like, well, that's really nice of you to say that, These guys had a plan from the from the beginning. They had a plan, and it's such a cool concept. I can't think of another company doing this right.
Andrew A lot of companies use a similar platform, but none of them so transparently. It's like we're going to design one really great case, and then we're going to use it to make four wholly different watches. You can see that they're related, but that's it. Like we're making siblings. We're not making clones. Yeah, that's right.
Everett So and in case you don't know the sector series, same it there's a shared mid case shared bracelet different dials different bezels to fit these four different and so they've also released photos of the of the sport watch this week which i think is perhaps my least favorite of the four but only because having having seen the other three it's like well this part's a little boring Which is not a totally fair criticism.
Andrew I mean, even being your least favorite of the three or of the four, it's still a very good watch.
Everett Yeah. That's right. That's right. So, uh, I think those are the ones. Did you have anything else that scored particularly well that you wanted to talk about?
Andrew Um, no, I just had some that I was hoping would score a lot better. And I, and I think the, the SNG or SNZG 15 was one that it's 153 bucks and it scored a 48 and I was just like, It just, it bummed me out that it didn't do better. Cause I think that's a really great option to start feeling out a little bit larger sized, very field pilot, kind of that weird, I don't really know what I am between these two. It fits both molds kind of watch.
Everett Um, I felt that way about, I felt that way about the Orient flight and the SNA 411 too. I wanted them to score a little better and they both scored well. Um, well they got better than 10.
Andrew That's right.
Everett but I think at some point those are great sort of beginner watches the flight being a quartz watch I think is great you can pick those up for dang near I think 70 bucks and even the automatics if you can find the automatics are like 160 mm-hmm so really really neat watches but yeah at the end of the day they are plagued with the the curses of of a flight of a pilot watch on our list mm-hmm So the the 411 I think is interesting because it has a slide rule. It's a super busy. I would say Breitling style. Pilots watch Navitimer style pilots watch in terms of just that like really sort of information data heavy dial. I don't I do not love the Zen 104 case that that that the SNA uses so concur.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett I think those are the those are the others that I thought, well, those deserve some lip service. But at the end of the day, just didn't. Yeah. I'd like to hear your favorites of the day.
Andrew What? What do you mean? We'd like to hear your favorite, the listeners, the folks who are listening. Not you. I'm talking to you.
Unknown We're for sure going to miss some.
Everett You just spent the last 45 minutes hearing my favorites.
Andrew We're sure we missed some. Indeed. Let us know. I almost I was tempted to put the SNK on my list. It's I mean, it fits. It does. I even wore mine today. In honor of it, because my my avion has been in the dark for so long that I set my surefire on top of it for like 10 minutes and it still didn't have enough to beat that every three second tick. Did you kill it? I don't know. It's under a light.
Everett Ouch. I think you can change the capacitor.
Andrew It might be a project. I think it's going to be good. It's under a light now. I think it just needs to be charged up. All right. Is the right. I mean, I don't know how to manage how to like safely sustain an eco drive if it's not being worn regularly. Should I leave it in the windowsill so it's just constantly running? I think that's right. Because a watch winder is not good for that purpose. Keeping your watch wound at tension reduces the lifespan.
Everett Well, but this is different. So a watch winder will keep an automatic movement running. But most people say you maybe shouldn't be winding a watch that you're not wearing super often because you're just sort of increasing friction. It's just mileage on the watch. That's right. You're just increasing mileage. I think with an eco drive, it's different because it's a battery charge. You're not increasing friction. You're just keeping the battery charged. You're the capacitor, excuse me, in this case.
Andrew So, uh, it might, it might just get relocated to the window.
Everett I think that that's the answer. Yeah. Just keep them, keep them fresh and charged. Yeah.
Andrew But it was taken, it was moving after having the light on. It was just the, they, they go to like an every three seconds increment as opposed to every second increment sure take sure so it's happened before it's come back so all right good it's under a light right now it's nighttime it it is nighttime being in the window wouldn't yeah that's all I have for our objectively best pilot watches under $500 and I think we can recap what interestingly I don't think we have a top three really we just have a top two yeah I think that's right it's a notice sector pilot and the citizen night
Everett And maybe we throw the KO one in as a as a top three is the third.
Andrew I think the KO one is acceptable. But I also think, you know, I think the lock in that or the lock in the lock in the yeah, the lock in the lock Oaken or its counterpart, the the T cell. No, no, no, no. The other the type B and then the type A is the Augsburg, the Augsburg. Yeah, the Auken, the Augsburg, I think are really good options for a number three.
Everett Um, I think it sort of depends on what your priorities are, right? Yeah. I think any, any, the T cell, the Islander, the Dakota or the Laco, I think depending on your priorities, if you want best fit and finish, you go for the KL one. If you want the Bonafides, you go for the Laco.
Andrew I think even with Bonafides, you might go KL one. Cause you're getting that, that, that at a movement, you're still getting Swiss. You're getting all the, you're getting the shit. It just, you don't have the legacy logo on the dial. That's right.
Everett So if you want that legacy logo, You go for the Laco. If you want fit and finish and a great movement, you go the K01, the Gakota. If you want value, either the T-Cell or the Islander, great picks. So we'll give it a four-way tie for third place.
Andrew Foursomes are good.
Everett And those are our traditional Fleegers too, right? Yeah. That is the list of the traditional Fleegers.
Andrew But this wasn't the Fleeger episode. This was the pilot episode.
Everett That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
Andrew And if you have an A15, let us know what you think of it, because my inclination is to think you're a little bummed out. Yeah, that's mine too.
Everett Other things. Andrew, what do you got?
Andrew Are you ready? I couldn't find any of our show notes to suggest that we have talked about this, but I do feel like we have.
Everett I'm just going to... We, we have talked about this, whether we've talked about it on the air.
Andrew I feel like even writing it in, I feel like I remember writing it in the show notes. I just couldn't find it. And it couldn't have been that long ago. But I'm going to talk about it too. I don't think we've talked about it. Manhunt Deadly Games. So this is season two of Manhunt. Season one of Manhunt focused on the hunt for, oh boy. The Unabomber. The Unabomber. Yeah. I kept wanting to say Ted Bundy, but I was like, no, we're not there. That's not it. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. Season two is a very similar, similarly told story of the hunt for the bomber at Centennial Park at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Yes. Uh, so I am three episodes in. For those of you unfamiliar with it, what it, it tells the story of this terribly botched investigation, the media, the media blitz that maybe or maybe didn't cause the botching of the investigation. And it obviously dramatizes the story. This isn't, this isn't how it happened. There's just no way this is exactly how it happened, but there's so much media evidence of what went down then it's not, it can't be too terribly far from the truth. Yes. 1990s, for those of you unfamiliar, 1996, there was a bomb that was, that went off during the Olympic games in one of the, uh, Olympic park facilities. And then a manhunt ensued. The security guard found what he believed to be a device. And as somebody who works around overzealous security guards a lot, I can tell you that never once have I ever taken their statements seriously. So Anyway, this guy's like, this is a suspicious device. We need to deal with it. Turns out it's a bomb. And he becomes the prime suspect, the white knight syndrome, making himself a hero. So the theory was that he planted the explosive. He then discovered it so he could be the hero.
Everett You know that Josh Allen was born in 1996? They were talking about that this morning or yesterday when I was watching the Bills games. That's funny. Like, fuck me.
Andrew Might have even been 97. You know, I think about that sometimes when I'm watching pro sports and I'm like, man, Man, you made more money this year than I will in my entire life, and you're 24 years old.
Everett So I think, you know, I messaged you. Kim and I were about four episodes into this, and I messaged you. I was like, you got to watch Manhunt. It's so fucking good. It's really good. The pacing is good. The way they sort of give you your ups and downs, your highs and lows, as it were.
Andrew The acting is great, too.
Everett Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, because there's also a Richard Jewell movie. Yeah. That's been produced and I think is set to be released shortly.
Andrew I think it was supposed to be at this year release. Yeah. But pandemic. But yeah, it's it's a it's really well done. They're they're they're blown out of the park. I think this one so far is better than season one. I loved season one. The Unabomber Hunt season two is proving to be at this point better done.
Everett They've hit their stride. And that was Paul Bettany was season season one, right? Yeah. Yeah, the acting was great. You know, Richard Jewell, I think is probably portrayed as just a touch more sympathetic than he actually was.
Andrew Oh, 100 percent. But you got it for for the purposes of TV show. You've got to make this guy really sympathetic. That's right. Especially because, you know, everyone's going to Google it, right? Everyone's going to watch the first episode and be like, what the fuck happened? And they're going to they're going to read about it. And they're going to see this whole story. So they had to make this character even more relatable, even more pitiable than he would have been in real life. Because you got to put on your hindsight specs and really feel bad for this guy. I imagine he was probably not such a baby about it.
Everett I imagine he wasn't such a baby. And I think he probably wasn't also very likable. I suspect he was not quite as like, you know, they make him seem like salt of the earth, heart of gold type. And I don't get that feeling that that's totally true.
Andrew Yeah, no, I definitely know. That being said, it's a great show. It's great. And a great cast. And if you haven't watched season one, burn up season one first.
Everett Because season two actually calls back to season one. Oh, does it? A couple times, yeah. Oh. In really sort of subtle ways. I haven't caught it yet. Yeah. In pretty subtle ways. uh fantastic and the whole you know the the actual guy who did this stuff is pretty pretty yucky and and the second half of the show is really more about him than it is about Richard Jewell so and I think the Richard Jewell story is really important to how that guy was able to continue his spree perhaps yes yeah perhaps that's right so I've got another thing and I've got a weird one this week weird I'm gonna talk about booze okay and it's not whiskey okay I'm going to talk about some brandy.
Andrew Hmm. Can I, can I take a quick pause? You keep talking. I'm going to get glasses. Okay.
Everett You're, you're going to get, oh, that's, so I'm going to talk about a brandy. I recently, I recently was on a hunt to get some good brandy. And the reason for that is because brandy is brandy is brandy. It's seven bucks a fifth or whatever, 12 bucks a fifth. And it's never exciting and it's never particularly good. And so I did the thing, you know, I Google best brandies under 60 bucks. And I later was educated that it's really best brandy under 30 bucks is what I want. And as it turns out, there's a couple of different kinds of brandy. And I don't really care all that much about that. I just want a drinkable brandy. So you go through this list and they say, oh, well, this is this kind of brandy. This is an American brandy. This is a cognac, you know, yada, yada, yada. Anyway, I find I'm at the liquor store as I'm reading, because that's what you do.
Andrew It's so aromatic. Just right as soon as you open it, you get a lot of sweet, like mapley.
Everett Continue. And so as I'm standing in the aisle, I'm looking at like six different kinds of E&J. There's like E&J, just the normal label. There's the VSOP. And then I come across this list and they say E&J XL. And I look down, there's E&J XL on there. And they said, this is truly better than anything else in E&J's lineup.
Andrew VSOP is super popular.
Everett This is like a really, really good top of the line brandy. It's going to be kind of sweet. Yada, yada, yada. I'm like, okay, good. I've been standing in the South for 10 minutes now. So I grab it. I get it home and I think I text messaged you. I'm like, yeah, you did. Holy shit, dude. I just bought brandy and it's delicious. And I want to sip on it.
Andrew Which is what, I mean, that's why people drink brandy. The color is great on it. Cheers.
Everett The color's great. I mean, I'm not like a big, like wine tasting sniffer guy or whatever, but it's so complex.
Andrew Mm-hmm. It's soft on the nose. You get a little bit of heat like just a little bit of that ethanol-y alcohol coming off of it. Sweet, maple-y.
Everett It tastes like a piece of candy on your tongue, and then you get some really good heat on the back end.
Andrew Butterscotch-y. Butterscotch, that's right. Man, I would like a bowl of Werther's Originals and a mug filled with this.
Everett And you know, I've had like Kvassia or whatever. Hennessy, fine. It's fine, but it's like, meh.
Andrew Those are like Patron. They've got a good brand name. They've got some street cred, but they're not the end all be all.
Everett And you know, this doesn't feel to me like a liqueur, right? No. It's not sweet. It's a touch thick. It's a touch thick, but it's not like a liqueur. This is a booze. It's just stunning and easy to drink and lovely.
Andrew It's almost too good to put in my eggnog. Oh, but it's got to be so good in eggnog.
Everett It is super good in eggnog, but it's almost like I want to go back and get the cheap shit. Well, this stuff's still pretty fucking cheap. I think it was like 30 bucks or 27 bucks for that bottle.
Andrew 80 proof. Yeah. Super drinkable. Yeah. Super bright. This is a very good like dessert for keto people.
Everett Yeah. I mean, it's yeah, you can't have too much of it on keto, but yes, that's right.
Andrew I mean, you also can't have cake on keto. So take your pick, man.
Everett Yeah, that's right. Yeah. E&J Brandy XO. American Brandy. XO? E&J Brandy XO. XO. Black label.
Andrew Teardrop shaped bottle, hugs and kisses. Treat yourself.
Everett Treat yourself. Andrew, is there anything else that you would like to talk about before we before we run the music and hang up on these kind people?
Andrew Outlander got me back and I'm excited for season six.
Everett It did get you back.
Andrew Got me back.
Everett I told you that was going to happen. Yeah. Hey, thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on Instagram at 40 in 20 or at the Watch Clicker. That's where we post all of the pictures of the watches and the stuff we're reviewing. yada yada yada. If you want to read our newest reviews, read our weekly roundup, every Saturday morning, yo, you can check us out, watchclicker.com. And if you want to support the show, that's where we get our money for hardware, these microphones, hosting costs, all that stuff, patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.
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