Episode 115 - Another Three More Watches for an Additional $600... Again

Published on Wed, 06 Jan 2021 22:44:56 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts Andrew and Everett discuss their selections for three affordable watch collections under $600. Andrew shares his picks of the Alba solar field watch, Bernhardt Corsair diver, and Solabs quartz art watch, highlighting unique and lesser-known options. Everett aims for a well-rounded entry collection with the Vaer S5 quartz field watch, Dan Henry 1970 diver, and Citizen Avion pilot chronograph. They also touch on shows like Cobra Kai and Fargo, and announce the launch of their patron Discord server.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 40 in 20 The Watch Clicker Podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm doing great. End of a long Monday. Long-ish Monday. It's not super long, but a long-ish Monday. Mondays are long.
Andrew Mondays are long, and it's also the first Monday after winter break. Happy New Year, everyone. This is our first episode of 2021. Happy New Year.
Everett Happy New Year to you, Andrew. This is the first time I'm seeing you in the New Year. It is, in fact, yeah.
Andrew Though you were at my house on New Year's Eve, I had to leave early to go to work. I was with your wife.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew You know, filling in for the dad role, the husband role. We're friends like that. That's why this works. How was New Year's Eve work? Busy. It was like pre-COVID times busy. It was great. And then subsequent days were COVID times dead. Just nothing.
Everett Right. Slowed way back down. Did you have troubling things happen or just normal, busy stuff?
Andrew Normal, busy stuff. The normal things that you'd expect in a vibrant city filled with normals and criminals alike.
Everett You just described Eugene. Yeah. Normals and criminals.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Alike. So. But yeah, I'm doing really well. Nothing special. Well, that's not true. I do have something special to report. But first, I'd like to ask you, Andrew, how are you?
Andrew I'm well. As with you, I'm also wiped out. The first Monday back from winter break. Today was just was a weird day in the way of family. We get my kid. Well, I didn't sleep well last night, so I got up super early. So we were out the door, not just on time, but we were out the door very on time today. A few minutes early even. And that includes a five-year-old putting his shoes on, which for those of you who've never had a five-year-old is a 35-minute process. So we get him out the door. We're on the way to school. We realized that his computer that he needs for virtual learning doesn't have its charger. No big deal. It's at school. He'll just plug it in. Turns out it's not at school. We learned that after he's already been dropped off. So I have to go back before his virtual learning day and pick him up and bring him home so he can use one of our computers at the house. And I go buy a charger from Best Buy that says it's got all these different size plug-in ports. Which, of course, none of which none of them fit. They're all like a millimeter off of standard sizing. I don't know what this thing is intended to charge, but it doesn't charge computers, which is the only thing I've ever seen with this style of female to male attachment point. I was furious. So as a result of my fury, he's not going to school again tomorrow either because I couldn't find a charger today. So he's just going to have an extra long winter break.
Everett Have you, like, ordered one at this point? Have you figured out what you needed?
Andrew Yeah, we ordered one on Amazon. Yeah, yeah. So it'll be here Thursday.
Everett I just can't figure out... Unless it's coming by UPS, USPS.
Andrew Uh, you know, I have yet to have anything delayed. From Amazon? Yep. Yeah. Yep. I've made some orders in the past several weeks and everything has been on time.
Everett You know, and I've heard speculation that that's, that's part of Amazon's deal, right? Is that they're They're such a big customer that everybody else is screwed because maybe of the service they demand.
Andrew That's why USPS delivers on Sundays. They deliver Amazon stuff on Sundays.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Well, there you go. Yeah. Thanks Jeff Bezos.
Andrew So it was a, it was a weird day. Still don't have the charger, but unrelated, but similar. I made some Amazon returns, which I've never done before. And I went to the Whole Foods. where there's just like this bank of lockers and a tiny little kiosk and then a window. And I'm not tech-savvy, even kind of. Nope. Not even a little. Can confirm. And I get up and I get to the kiosk and it tells me to log in. And I feel a little uncomfortable logging into my Amazon account on a public kiosk. But I see a little doorbell next to this little window that says, push if you need help. So I push if I need help and I hold the two things in my hands. I'm like, help. And so he's like, oh, yeah, she bags it. She scans the QR code off my phone. She showed me how to get that. And then she scans the code, bags the stuff. And I'm like, wait, is that it? You didn't have to log into the kiosk. Well, I maybe could have. Yeah. But I didn't. I didn't. It wasn't necessary. No, the lady was was kind enough to help me. Yeah. She probably thought it was odd that, you know, I'm 31. Yeah. Doesn't understand technology. She probably thought that was a little weird.
Everett Maybe she thought you were like a Benjamin Button.
Andrew Perhaps, but not. But she was very helpful.
Everett You're actually an 80-year-old man in the body of a 31-year-old.
Andrew I've been accused of being a crotchety old man. I was thinking that's really, really close actually. I have in my mid-20s yelled at neighbor kids for being on my lawn. I've set up sprinklers in my front yard to deter children from playing. It's a thing. But before I was even home, my refund was issued. It was crazy. It was one of the, I'm going to start ordering things on Amazon to return them. Cause it was a fun experience.
Everett Cause they, they basically have possession of it right then. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. They scan it. Oh, yep. It's verified. It's here. Cool. We got it. Yeah. And yeah, it was, it was very cool. That's really great. Yeah. Cause I was kind of worried that I didn't have any of the packaging or paperwork or anything. I just came like with my things in my hands and like, hell, They do it all for you right there. Wonderful. Yeah. So for those of you who have Amazon packages to return, go to your nearest Whole Foods and have a blast. Next time. Yeah. Next time I'll do that. Then hit up the deli and get a piece of pizza.
Everett Uh, yeah, I still have that little, I've told you the, the saga of the Amazon teddy bear. Yeah. Yeah. Have I, have I talked about that on air? People are going to be wondering, but you know, bottom line, I ordered something expensive. They sent a teddy bear.
Andrew A slap bracelet teddy bear.
Everett A slap bracelet teddy bear. That's right. I still have the slap bracelet teddy bear. They still are bugging me about the expensive thing I haven't returned. I've talked to like six customer service people. It's the one place I think you could break Amazon.
Andrew Yeah, when they send you a dollar item. The shipping was more expensive. Wait, what happened? You think, I mean, pick bins are random in warehouses. generally, so that you have to be really deliberate about picking the right thing from the bin.
Everett Yeah. This is clearly, this was clearly, it is a product, we figured it out, it had been discontinued for like 18 months, so it was clearly just something sitting on a counter somewhere, but someone was like, meh, slapped the sticker on it and threw it in the... Yeah. And threw it in for processing. The prank that keeps on pranking. Something exciting happened today.
Andrew What happened today?
Everett We launched the 40 and 20 slash watch clicker patron discord server. Do you know what a discord server is?
Andrew It's so is discord. That's for sure.
Everett So a mere 24 hours ago, I did not really know what a discord server was. I now know what a discord server is. It's chaos. It's chaos. Also, it's really interesting and very cool. It's this sort of. Yeah, entire infrastructure. But kind of phenomenal. We got the help from our OG patron, our very first in-time patron.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett MGM Mays on Instagram. Good friend of the show, has been around since the get-go. I mean, since episode one. Yeah. Literally has been around. And as soon as we started our Patreon, he was, he supported the show and has just always been there. Really nice dude. It sent us watches. It sent us watches. With no reason to trust us. That's right. Way early on it sent us watches. Yeah. Service member, just an awesome, sweet dude, and has taken on the task of setting up the Discord, which I don't think is a monumentally difficult task, but it's something I didn't know how to do, and is also going to be helping us with moderation. So fantastic, MGM Mays, I'm not gonna say your name, although I think you're somewhat public about it, but in any event, just MGM Mays on Instagram, really good friend of the show, and so happy to have him, and the Discord was phenomenal.
Andrew It was bananas.
Everett Exceeded my wildest expectations for what a thing like this could be. We had had some demand for this type of thing, not specifically this, and made the decision kind of made the decision not to do it, and then with some leverage prodding from MGM, finally decided to do it, you know, based in part on his willingness to sort of help out with this thing, you know, well, okay. But I really expected it to be a nothing burger.
Andrew I didn't know what it was, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. You sent me a link and said, log in. And that was a feat.
Everett Yeah. I expected it to be nothing. And within about 20 minutes of this thing being live, it was just... Phone batteries were dead. Bananas, totally bananas. So what we're talking about 40 and 20 watch clicker, we've started discord service server for our patrons. So we've long thought about, well, you know, some people support the show in a tangible way, by way of giving cash to the show. What can we do special for those people? And we finally decided this is at least one of those things. There's some other things we do. We do some get-togethers occasionally. We've got a get-together coming up pretty soon. I think we're going to announce the date on that in about a week. Our second. Our second. Remind me to talk to you about that date. Our second get together will be announced in about a week. Looking at end of February, early March probably. But that'll be locked down. But also we decided to do this. So here's the deal. You can become a patron and get access to our get togethers and just be part of the club for a buck a week. Excuse me, a buck a month. And our $5 tier, we give you access to this, our pockets. to this Discord server. And I think, I think you are really going to enjoy it. Now, if you're already a patron, check your inboxes. You've got a message there which will explain everything you need to know. If you're not already a patron, patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's where you go to find out everything you need to know about this.
Andrew Awesome. What I learned about is that there's tons of pages. It's a, it's a, it's basically a forum for and of with us.
Everett That's right.
Andrew Yeah. That's right. I couldn't figure out how to make it stop notifying me on the top when the sub-forum I was in. I'd get notifications on the top for the other forums when they were pounding messages. I think I fixed that.
Everett I couldn't figure it out. I think I fixed that. Maybe. I think that should only happen now if someone at's you. I was trying to grocery shop and it was too much for me.
Andrew You're like, I'm going to throw my phone across the grocery store. Also the grocery store was bedlam. Today was not a day for Andrew. Today was a loss, but now it's a win because we're drinking some hard seltzer water, which is delightful. And in celebration of the new year, we're going with an OG theme. OG. Yep. Which is slang for original gangster.
Everett Yeah, I think this is always one of our more popular episodes. We're going to have to start numbering them. Three watches for $600 part... 17. 17. I think it's probably like four or five. Subscriber random number. Yeah, I think this might be four. Three watches for $600 part whatever it is. Doesn't matter. We do have some rules.
Andrew Yeah. We have our standard rules. Gotta be readily available. And we exclude the usual suspects. We're not doing SNKs. Really, the 5 series is out. No Mako family. No. What else did we exclude?
Everett Bambino? Yeah. Historically, we discluded SKX. I don't know that that's quite as relevant. I don't think SKX is. G-Shock 5600, the Casio Duro. Yep. You know, the watches that your brain instantly goes to. So with that caveat, with the caveat that, both of our watches would probably be like a 5600, a Kamisu, and an SNK. Yep. You know, Realistically, if I was starting a $600 watch collection, those would be, you know, or perhaps a Nighthawk, that's another one that's banned from these lists. Yep. The Citizen Nighthawk. You know, those kind of watches we're not allowed to include.
Andrew So, but realistically... Deep cuts for the entry-level watch.
Everett If we're actually making these decisions, those are certainly, at least a number of those are on the table.
Andrew Yes, absolutely. But this is an exercise to dig for the hidden gems that we don't often talk about that deserve to be recognized.
Everett Hidden gems. And how do you feel? Do you feel like you found some hidden gems?
Andrew I don't know if I exactly found hidden gems, but I think I put together a very well curated entry-level watch collection.
Everett Yeah, I would say... I think you went deeper than me. I wouldn't claim any, well, that's not true. I think I've found one, at least to me, hidden from me gem, but also a couple of really neat watches. So I'm kind of pumped about this.
Andrew I like your list. I feel a little bit cautious in my list, but there was reason for it.
Everett Well, why don't we get into it? Why don't we do this? We'll do one list at a time.
Andrew Okay.
Everett We'll go all the way through the list.
Andrew Do I have to do my other thing first and then your stuff?
Everett Why don't you go through your list and we'll talk about your watches and then we'll come back and go through mine. And then you can do your other thing. And then I'll do my other thing. The way we usually do it. And then there can be some long silences while you think about the thing you want to say next. I'll edit it out and post you guys. You won't even know.
Andrew I spend minutes thinking of the next, not just sentence, but oftentimes in the middle of my sentence. I'll just take a break. Just power down for a minute.
Everett Right. It is like powering down. I usually get up and like brush my teeth, and I'll come back down, check on him.
Andrew We've picked up recording the following morning before. He's like, oh, hey, welcome back. Oh, what's up? As I was saying.
Everett Anticipation.
Andrew Aesthetic is the way that word is said.
Everett Yeah, aesthetic. I've been getting, I've gotten some grief about the way I say aesthetic. Yeah, you forgot a letter. It's not aesthetic. It's aesthetic.
Andrew Ass is thick. Aesthetic. Yeah, well, let's be. So my thinking for my list was this is somebody who has got $600 to spend on a watch, wanting to buy a watch, right? It's hard to find a $600 watch that's versatile enough, I think, to carry you through everywhere you're going to go in life. all the things you're going to do in the course of an average year. Obviously that watch exists, but it's, it's not the point of this exercise. Right? So I wanted to create a well-rounded list that's going to capture a bunch of feels for a watch. Cause I think the first watch you buy is something you like first of all, but it's opening the gateway. It's opening the door to refine your taste in watches and things you like and you don't like. So I, I like to advocate for people to go a little bit less expensive and say, Hey, try these couple watches and maybe go try them on. If they're, if they're the type of watches that you can try on, go try them on, see how they feel on your wrist. Don't leave the store with it without buying it, but you know, take it on a little test drive. So that was my thinking behind my list. What, what set of three watches can capture a bunch of different areas in the watch world and, and help you refine what you do and don't like. So my first watch. is a watch we've talked about. And actually, I think we've talked about all of my watches. And I think we've talked about all but one of your watches, which speaks to just how we feel about these. The first watch that I chose was the Wehr S5 Standard Issue Quartz. And I went with that because I think everyone should have a quartz grab and go. One of the things that I really like about Wehr is they're a really traditionally styled, well, they're just a traditional field watch. They don't have a 24-hour ring. But you can do, you can do without it. What they have that I think a lot of watches in this segment don't is good water resistance. A hundred meters. You got Sapphire crystal, super Luminova lume, and a really classic looking watch that can be worn on rubber, which is what, uh, one of the options that comes on. It also comes in two sizes, 40 and 36. So you get to make that decision. If you want to go a standard size or a little bit smaller. which I think could kind of, if when put on leather, this would serve in a dress capacity, not necessarily as a dress watch, but could fill that void.
Everett Yeah. And that's the S5 and S3 respectively. S3 being 36.
Andrew So I went with the white dial. It's got a kind of the, the, the super Luminova serves as the color in the markers, which is really cool. It gives it just kind of a teal, a bit of a Nomos feel. Yeah. Yeah. A little, little Nomos-y. Red accents, red second hand, syringe, hour and minute markers. Just a really, I mean, at 150 bucks, it's kind of a steal.
Everett You know, Veyr is a California company. I just think they're doing a really interesting thing. They've sort of tackled this supply chain, these question marks that come up for people when they buy a watch. You know, what am I buying? And we see a lot of well, why is this worth more than this? And, and, and then folks saying, well, that's valuable to me, even though it's intangible for X, Y, or Z. Well, they just say, we're giving you all of these options. We're giving you quartz or automatic and quartz is cheaper. We're giving you American assembled versus Chinese assembled. Right. And, and you're going to pay and you're able to, you're able to purchase your value set. Right. So if you're only interested in the hardware, and you're only interested in the aesthetic qualities of the watch versus any sort of mechanical significance, you're able to get that. You're able to get manufactured or assembled in China, quartz watch for $150, which is what this is. It's a fantastic value proposition for, excuse me, value proposition?
Andrew Volume? I think you said volume because of how loud I just was.
Everett It's a fantastic value proposition for that person that really can't afford a lot of luxuries Or who doesn't give a shit. Or who doesn't give a shit, that's right. Yeah.
Andrew Somebody, I read, it might even be on their website. If you drew a three-way Venn diagram that compared style, durability, and price, Vayor's watches would be dead center. And that comes from Huckberry, which is an interesting retailer business model in and of themselves. But I don't necessarily know they're wrong. I don't necessarily know they're right, right? And we've never handled a Vayor in the metal, Specs-wise, it's there.
Everett Yeah, this is a very cool watch. This was on my list as well. It didn't make my list, but it was on my list. Oh, so you got something better. Cool. I've got something worse. You do, but also better.
Andrew So that's item number one for me. So we're into this $150 for me. Next up, a watch that I don't know how I haven't bought it because I love it, but I just haven't. haven't bought it and I think probably by the time I'm ready to it'll be gone. It's the Dan Henry 1970 and in olden times it came in 40 millimeter and 44 with four colorways in each category. Now we've got 40 in four colorways with date and no date options and 44 in one colorway with a no date option. The 44 is 270 bucks. So I maybe should have picked that one and give myself a little more room. But I went with the 40. And so I really, really like the orange.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. It's a cool watch. I think it's the one he's sold out of, right?
Andrew Uh, no. No? It says, here we go. I'm adding it to my bag. Checking out. No, that would get me in so much trouble. Don't do that. So what we've got here is a 1970s style diver, internal rotating bezel, great colorways. Um, and we know, we know that Dan Henry does good work. We've got a 40 millimeter case, 22 lug width, which is a bummer. Um, uh, straight up two and four crown. I always kind of get annoyed when companies mess with two and four when they try to offset them a little bit. Yeah. It just, it, it messes with the symmetry in a way that that's hard for me to tolerate. Uh, but we've got a straight two and four crown.
Everett It's just, it's a great watch. Yeah. It's super cool. I love the hands on it. I love the fonts on it. Uh, I love the, I love the prominence of that outer, um, that outer rotating track.
Andrew It's just neat. NH35 Sapphire crystal. I don't know that you can really do better for under $300 in the way of a dive watch.
Everett Yeah, well, I mean, it's obviously some sacrifices made, right? It's not a automatic watch. Yeah, it is. Oh, excuse me. You're right. It's an NH35, yeah. Yeah, that's right.
Andrew It's bizarre that this isn't sold out. This watch should be gone.
Everett I think he makes a really lot of them. I think he makes just a freaking... Limited edition, 1970 pieces.
Andrew I think of each color. No. There's only 1,970 of them, and you could be the proud owner.
Everett You should buy one of them and let me have it. I can't remember the exact model. I think that this is an homage to an actual... It is. ...compressor on EPSA. Compressor case. I don't remember either, but it is an homage. Exactus?
Andrew Exactus? Oh, that sounds right. Yes. Yeah. No. Fuck. It's not in a car. It doesn't matter. We know we like DH watches. He does good work at a good price. I think the band is probably gonna leave you wanting, but... Yeah, but you're gonna put this on any strap.
Everett Anything else, yeah. Any strap or band you want, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great choice. It's a great choice. I think that it's not quite an anchor of your list here, because it doesn't act like an anchor, but I think that it may serve that purpose.
Andrew It could, or perhaps the next one will, because this... we were talking about is kind of an anchorless list. And frequently our list is like a $400 watch and then a couple fillers. Uh, but this is, you know, so this is 290. So this is the most expensive watch on the list. I mean, it takes up almost half the budget, but it doesn't feel like an anchor though. It, it monetarily anchors the collection. Um, Yeah, super attractive diver.
Everett This is one of those things that would be a great desk diver, too, because it's... It's my second or maybe my third favorite Dan Henry, which I know that sounds crazy, my third favorite Dan Henry, but the guy's got like 50 watches. Yeah, he's got a bucket load. But yeah, the orange 1970.
Andrew It's money.
Everett And now last up, this is such an Andrew watch, by the way. It is. I saw this on your list and I thought, that is totally an Andrew watch.
Andrew And I don't know how it hasn't been on the list before. We've got the... Let me go find the reference. Buckle up, y'all. It's a long one.
Everett It's a citizen. Spoiler alert. So this takes a little while. We're actually getting the spreadsheets ready. I can't find the... Would you like me to do it?
Andrew No, I'm not worried about it. It is the Citizen Avion chronograph. coming in at 150 money. So we've got two at 150 and then the DH 70 at 290. And this is a pilot's chronograph.
Everett Yeah. So reference number CA Charlie alpha 4, 2, 1, 0, 24 echo. It's big. It's 44. It's big. It's a big damn citizen eco drive is what it is.
Andrew It's a big damn pilot watch. Just like it should be. Where's the dropdown?
Everett And so I think really similar to your Avion, actually. Different in some notable ways. It's the cousin. But the cousin to your Avion. So those same lugs, same big crown, onion crown.
Andrew That same flat, polished bezel, but not a bezel.
Everett It's kind of a really wonderful watch. And for $150, you're getting a lot of value here. You're getting a Citizen Miota chronograph. you're
Andrew And my crystal has held up to some abuse. Yeah, you've used that thing. I've used it and I've, I have not taken any chunks out of it. I've not scratched it. It's, it's holding up.
Everett You, you wore that at JRTC. Did you not? No.
Andrew I wore my Iron Man. Okay. Cause I needed lumen, lumination at night. Um, but so, so here's my thinking. It was a field watch. a dive watch and a pilot's watch slash chronograph. You've got all these functionalities, all these, the only thing that, that this collection is missing in the way of kind of cornerstone orology features is an external rotating bezel.
Everett But you kind of got that with the Dan Henry.
Andrew I mean, it's internal. Yeah. You got that, that same sort of feel. It's different. than an external rotating bezel. But you've got that same idea. This collection, I feel like, introduces you to sizes, dimensions, really traditional case shapes and stylings that lets you explore the things that you like and don't like. Because there's a very good chance that you put on the Avion and you go, whoa, manual cover. Too big for me. But it still gets some play. Every once in a while. Mine came out the other day and I wore it for a couple days. Now it's back in the windowsill and it's just a fun watch to have. I love having a chronograph movement. I wore a chronograph today for the first time in quite some time. It's a fantastic watch. It is such a, I have the SSB on today and I'm actually wearing it while recording.
Everett What's happening? Yeah, it's cause it's so good.
Andrew Yeah. It's that strap, man. You know what, you know what's interesting about the strap and we'll talk about it on air. I don't mind.
Everett So just to be clear, SSB031, this is the 40 and 20, uh, the 40 and 20 Speedmaster. Um, look at the, at the,
Andrew the stamp on the inside of the strap.
Everett Mm-hmm.
Andrew And just tell me what it says.
Everett 69? Yeah, 100%. Yeah. E-E-E-E-A, uh, E-A Leather Goods. Yeah. His logo is definitely a 69.
Andrew When stamped on the inside of your watch strap. That's right. That's the, that's the, the, the joke that keeps on kipping.
Everett Just Eric 69-ing you all the damn time.
Andrew Wrapped around my wrist. And now my watch is going to come off because I know what I'm wearing. Um, so that was, that was my thinking. Give a really wide, variety, some deep cut watches.
Everett And in reality, I think you probably sub the SSB in for the Citizen if you're making this purchase.
Andrew I personally do, yeah. But it's because I have a big watch. I know that that's not for me. Sure. But I think for people getting into watches, you need to know what that feels like.
Everett I think everyone needs to have a big watch for a while. And we talk about this all the time, right? I don't like big watches. Unless I do. Yeah. Unless I do. And then I'm like, yeah, I like this big watch. So don't give yourself too many rules, I think is the point.
Andrew Did you, uh, did I send you a picture of Home Alone with the, uh, the showing of the AMW in it?
Everett I think you did. Yes.
Andrew Joe Pesci's character. Yeah. Joe Pesci's wearing an AMW, uh, right before he gets a, gets a BB in the ball sack.
Everett My Casio AMW 320. Just love it. One of my favorites.
Andrew I think that's a watch that that's kind of an unusually featured watch in media.
Everett Oh no, it totally is. It totally is. It's this bizarre watch that had a moment where all these celebrities were wearing it. Uh, people wearing it in photo shoots is this famous sort of Denzel Washington where he's got his hand sort of posed on his, on his chin featuring the watch prominently. And I assumed it was from a, Casio advertisement and it's not. It's just a random. It's just a headshot. It's just a headshot. Yeah. Uh, yeah, no, it's a fantastic watch, but giant and I love it. I wear it all the time. It does not feel too big. I don't put it on and think, oh my gosh, this huge watch. It's just the watch that I have on that day.
Andrew Yeah. It's money. It, it, it does become a part of you. Yeah. So that's, that's my lineup. And obviously these are interchangeable with a lot of other watches, but this is, that was my thinking. Get it, get a good variety. Don't anchor yourself to anything. Try them all. Got to catch them all.
Everett Got to catch them all. Yep. So I, I have three watches. Okay. But I think I'm going to talk about briefly at least briefly at least. Uh, you know, the deal here is I kind of, uh, I wanted to, I wanted to do this a little bit differently. I mean, in, in, in some respects I wanted to sort of, this chair is just so squeaky. I wanted to pick the watches. I wanted to pick three watches that I'd like to wear. So you said, you know, you're picking this for the new guy. I was actually just picking these watches for me. Give me 600 bucks. What watches might I pick? And you've got to suspend some of your collection, right? Well, OK, if I didn't have this or, you know, I'm picturing myself as a new watch collector with a very limited set of stuff or or an unlimited set of stuff, except for the very specific limitations we said. The first watch I wanted to get knowing knowing I was going to want to keep my my options open was a small quartz field watch. And the reason for that is I've been wearing the hell out of my Pulsar G10. It's such a good watch. Just wearing the crap out of it. I wear that thing once or twice a week. I just love it. It's quartz. It's grab and go. And people I hear people say that, oh, I just want something easy. I want something quartz. I want something grab and go. Part of that's true. but I actually just wear it because I love it. It's not because it's easy or convenient. I just love putting it on. I'm like, gosh darn, this thing's great.
Andrew And it goes well on anything.
Everett That's right. That's right. So I wanted to get something like that. I wanted to get something like that, but I wanted to spend less money. What is the cheapest... How? What is the cheapest small field watch I could find? And I knew there was going to be one out there. So I imagined myself buying some sort of military surplus, no name. So I'm talking to some of my friends. Oh, what do you guys think? And this Alba field watch comes up. So this is a Seiko. It's it's an Alba made by Seiko solar field watch. Hard Lux references AFD 557. It's a hundred meter 36.8 millimeter field watch hour track 24 hour track day date, three o'clock crown. It's awesome.
Andrew I like the crown set better than the SNK.
Everett I think I do too.
Andrew The crown's tiny. But it's not indented the same way the SNK is.
Everett I think it is. Is it? I think in this picture it's pulled out. Yeah. A Seiko VK movement. So a great little movement. Solar too. It's solar powered. It's solar powered. It's just kind of awesome. A downside. And it's a big one. Yeah? There's a big one. And this watch has no, zero, literally zero lume. Why is it green? I don't know. I don't know. It's got no lume. It looks like lume.
Andrew I thought these hands have to be lume, right? They put an effort into an appearance of lume under light.
Everett Zero lume. The hands aren't loomed.
Andrew What?
Everett The markers aren't loomed.
Andrew How are you going to have a solar watch that's literally powered by the sun and not have at least like a splattering of loom on it?
Everett So what? There's some saving grace. If you wanted to replace the hands with something with loom, you could do so probably pretty easily. You're not going to get a dial. You could self loom the dial if you wanted. None of that is worth it. You're buying this watch to be a cheap beater. 100 meters of water resistance. You just need to be comfortable with the fact that you're going to get no low. I mean, it's 52 bucks. So that's the good news, right? I've marked this down as 53 bucks because it's 52 and change. 30, change. I've taken an extra dollar. In the interest of being fair, I've taken an extra dollar. So it's, that is a big, a big, big, big defect, I think. Yeah. With that said. This is JDM. Uh, yeah, I think it is. It's hard to find in the United States, but we're going to give you a link and you can find these on eBay too. So, we're going to put the reference number in the show notes and I'll just tell you again, A-E-F-D-557. You can find them on eBay. We'll put a link to a place you can buy these in the show notes. At least today you can buy these. 53 bucks. Now, the thing I've done here is I've left myself a bucket load of money. I've left myself approximately $272 for the remaining two watches, for each of the remaining two watches.
Andrew You can go, you can go pretty big with 275 bucks.
Everett That's right. That's right. So I'm going to start, I'm going to start kind of big and I'm, I'm doing this organically, right? I've picked this watch and I've decided that's one of my watches.
Andrew This is my anchor.
Everett This is my anchor. This is my anchor. And the opposite of the way we normally use that, right? Yeah. In any event, I went with a company that I think we don't talk about enough. Correct. Because it's probably not super exciting. They're not doing a lot of new stuff. Nope. They order in big volume, and so it takes them a while to get through their catalog. But I think people poo-poo them too. They've just refreshed some of their collection. I'm going with the Corsair diver from Bernhardt.
Andrew I think the second time that a Bernhardt has made our three for six list.
Everett I think maybe more than that. And the reason is they provide it. If you're, if you're really, if your margins are tight, Bernhardt provides some great value. So this is a 42 millimeter diver. It's not small, but it's a full fledged diver. It's a 200 meter watch. Obviously all the normal stuff. fantastic bracelets on these Bernhards. It's a little chunky, but again, it's a, it's a dive watch. So that's okay. It's got a 90 15. Yeah. That's the thing I love the most about this. That's the thing I love now.
Andrew Um, with an etched Corsair in the case back.
Everett Yeah, that's right. Yeah. That, that I, I think it's, I think it's applied. It looks to me like it's printed in the glass. So see through case back in that 9,000 series. Um, And they do have mail-in links, so there's a few sort of hiccups here, but a great construction on the bracelet. Aluminum inserts for $320. I think all of that is great. You're getting a Miota 9000 series for $320. Yeah. I won't say this is for sure the cheapest Miota 9 diver on the market. In fact, I'm certain that there are options from Korea or perhaps other sort of East Asian countries that you could get for about this price, maybe just a little bit less. But I think in terms of what we think of as micro brands, certainly American micro brands, this is one of the most affordable options out there.
Andrew You know what gets me most excited? 316L surgical stainless steel case. We get it. That's what every watch company uses, I don't feel like it needs to be a feature. It's on everyone's 316L surgical stainless steel case. We fucking know.
Everett I think you almost have to say it, right? No, I think you almost have to say it, because if you didn't put it, people would be like, well, is it plated brass? Is it resin?
Andrew No, what truly gets me most excited about this is a 60 minute bezel.
Everett Yeah, it's a great it's a great 60 minute bezel. You know, I actually don't love the way he's done that minute track on the bezel?
Andrew I think I could have done without the connections.
Everett Yeah, that's right. It's a little bit odd connection. And that silver, I don't love the silver 15 minute segment either.
Andrew I do. I like that it's just a slightly different, just change of pace. Black and silver is uncommon. And I think that, I like that. I think it's a good touch.
Everett And the markers are good. The dial's great.
Andrew This feels like one of their more unique watches.
Everett Yeah. No, I think, and I think that it's, I think it's really hard to look at this thing and not, and not appreciate that it's a fantastic value too.
Andrew Sapphire crystal.
Everett Yeah. I mean, that's the thing. It hits, it hits all the metrics. It does. And we know, and we know Bernhardt watches are good. We know Fred Emmes is doing a good job with these. Um, bracelets are, are basically, um, I think there was a time where they were best in class. I don't know that that's necessarily true anymore.
Andrew I could do with a touch less on the crown guard though.
Everett Yeah, it's a prominent crown guard. I do really like the twisted lugs. Yeah, I think it's a great watch. It's a killer choice. So 320 bucks, which means I'm now down. I'm now down to about 150. 150, is that where I'm at? Ish. I know I want something. You need a dress watch in here. I need a dress watch. I need to fill a gap, right? So my thoughts are dress sport. I think I've got more than $150.
Andrew Yeah, you got to have at least $175.
Everett Yeah, I think I've got more than $150. I've got it written down here. I've got $228 left. Wow, that's a lot more than I thought. I've got $228 left. So I start to think Tissot, PRC, that's Tissot, Saab lookalike. I'm looking at Japanese options, Seiko 5, and well, maybe I don't want a dress watch. Maybe I want a chronograph. Either way, I need something kind of dressy that's usable with a shirt and perhaps a jacket even. Something that's going to be a little classy.
Andrew Yeah, because your no loom field watch isn't going to get you there.
Everett That's right. So I probably need clean dial. Mm-hmm. Nothing ostentatious or gregarious. Or alternatively, I could say fuck it and get a Solabs layer for 175 bucks. Yep. And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to get a Solabs layer. I'm probably going to go for the 1.4 abalone or perhaps the 1.5 Turkish coral. Abalone. I think I'm going to go with the abalone. I like that blue Yeah. So stop what you're doing. If you're like, what are they talking about?
Andrew This is not a dress watch, just to be clear, in case we, in case he did not make that clear enough.
Everett Go to so-labs.co. So-labs.co. These are so fun. Our friend Andrew Perez of Astor & Banks started the second company called SoLabs. It's a quartz resin cased, clear resin cased art watch. That's what I'm going to call this, an art watch. Yeah. It's just freaking cool, man. $175. This looks to me like the type of thing you'd find at MoMA, like the MoMA store.
Andrew I really, really like the Olympics guy. Yeah.
Everett These are great. Yeah. Totally impractical. Doesn't meet any of the things I need. I'm usually so pragmatic with these lists, and then this popped into my head, and I was like, yep, whatever else is happening. Today's the day. Today's the day. These are just fun.
Andrew They're fun. They're really reasonably priced. This is about my upper limit of what I'd be willing to spend on just a pure novelty watch. Yeah. I think these are a little bit more than a pure novelty watch, but they're a novelty watch.
Everett Yeah, I wouldn't call this a novelty watch. I think it's something different than a novelty. And I realize there's nuance and I'm not meaning to be pedantic there, but I think it's actually something better than that. Novelty gives, you know, novelty is something you're going to buy. Uh, you know, you're going to buy at the five and dime.
Andrew Yeah. No, I, that's why I say it's a little bit more than a novelty. There's something special here. It's it's art watches is a good way to describe it, but these are inherently novel. Accurate. Yeah. Accurate. Super fun. Disc hands. It's just, It's all questions, all questions, and they're all answered by, why not?
Everett Why not? Why not? So yeah, that's what I'm going with. I'm going with the Solabs. I'm going with the Abalone. And that's it, man.
Andrew Solabs believes telling time should be about funk, not just function.
Everett I've heard that about them. That's what it says in there. So the Abalone Steel has a fully loomed dial, by the way.
Andrew Oh, that's cool.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew What movement is he rocking in these?
Everett Uh, you know, it is, I think it's a Miyota. Um, I think they're only like the Miyota courts. Yeah. Like 30 meters of water resistance. Yep.
Andrew So, you know, and they're small 38 millimeters. They're, they're kind of, kind of perfect.
Everett I mean, it's like two millimeters bigger than my Alba. Yeah. Yeah. That's it, man. That was it. And the, you know what the good news is I've got 53 bucks left. Ooh, for some straps. Or maybe a second Alba. Yeah. In case you get the first one wet. Yeah. Or I like lose it in the dark because I can't see it. Yeah.
Andrew Or you decide to pop it open and paint some loom on it.
Everett Realistically, I get two straps.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett I need an 18 millimeter. I need a 20 millimeter.
Andrew And you're set. And I'm set. That's a good lineup. I like that you went so labs.
Everett I did too. It was one of those. It was one of those things. I really was working hard on a chronograph and there was a couple of chronographs I found that I thought, well, This would be cool. You know, um, Mike reviewed that Calvin Klein achieved for the website, uh, last week. Yeah, that's right. Uh, and I thought, wow, that's kind of neat. That could be on there. Um, I, for a while I was looking at, um, the Yima rally graph, the court, the morality graph, and then taking off the Corsair and sort of subbing something in that place. Uh, Ultimately, screw all that.
Andrew Let's do this. It's hard when you find something else that you like, when you're trying to build this list and keep it under 600, you like start plugging and playing. I mean, my, my list was probably 50 watches considered paired down to these three that fit together for what I was going for. So that's it. 12 watches, 1200 bucks, six watches.
Everett It's 12 for 12 sounds better.
Andrew Okay. Yep. So now we all know what we can do with our stimulus check.
Everett And here's the thing, right? These watches might not be the right watches for you and you might not be buying watches. Um, but as always, I think the point of this show, this, this series has always been to just a, you know, a, if you're a new collector, you're going to read all these things online. And they're going to make you feel a certain way. You've got to look at these things. You've got to look at this thing. You should get a Bambino. You should get a Mako. There's other options, right?
Andrew Because Gear Patrol, High Consumption, Watch Ranker, they all have the same list. Yeah. And the list isn't bad. No, but it's the same 12 watches in every price category. The three websites are clones of one another in the way of the watches that they're saying, hey, buy these. Because those are the companies that can give the affiliate kickbacks.
Everett Yeah, or they're the ones that are on Amazon or whatever.
Andrew But that's a big part of that decision-making process. There are a lot of other watches out there.
Everett It's a fun exercise for us to find the watches, and we hope it's a fun exercise for you to hear what our decision-making is.
Andrew And hopefully while you're listening to our list, you're thinking about how you'd build your own.
Everett I would. I would love For nothing else.
Andrew 60 F91s.
Everett I would love for nothing else than for one of you listening to this show to buy a Veyor S5. One of you listening to this show to buy an Alba. And one of you listening to this.
Andrew There's only eight left, so act quickly.
Everett And one of you listening to this show to buy the Solez. All right. So when you do this, send me a message. And we'll talk about what we do with that information. But it needs to be all three. Send me a DM. Oh, and we'll get to three? If you're going to buy one of those, send me a message. Okay?
Andrew Ooh, we could do like a reverse affiliate link thing. We could do a giveaway when each of those watches have been purchased.
Everett I don't know what we're going to do. We'll do something though. Andrew, other things. Ooh. What do you got? I wrote it down for you. You're just being a jerk.
Andrew Cobra Kai season three dropped, uh, I would say like two weeks ago.
Everett Yeah. We just didn't have two weeks ago. Yeah.
Andrew Not long, but, uh, over winter break, which seems like a great thing unless you have small children and then you don't get to watch the shows you want to watch. So I just got to start Cobra Kai season three and it is good. It is better than season one. It is better than season two. They've introduced better story arcs for the characters they've kept all the goofy 80s karate fetish and somehow not made it weirder, because it's kind of right on the cusp of weird. And then you go back and you watch the Karate Kid series and you're like, oh yeah, no, it was weird then too.
Everett They captured the tone well.
Andrew They captured the tone well. If you have not yet watched any of the Cobra Kai, now is the time to get down on it because you've got three bingeable, binge worthy seasons of television ahead of you. And for those of you who are catching up. It's so enjoyable.
Everett It's so fun.
Andrew Super enjoyable. This is, this is one of my favorite, uh, follow on seasons of television. My wife loved it.
Everett Totally reluctant to watch it. She enjoyed that.
Andrew Yeah, it's good. Good character development. Better than they've done in previous seasons where they've focused primarily on the kids. It's been like kind of, kind of boy meets worldly and the parents were just peripheral. Johnny was kind of peripheral. They've, they've really punched up those characters in the season so far.
Everett You know, I will say the one thing I did not like either Daniel or Johnny's kids. I don't like either one of those. Maybe it's just the actors. I'm not sure. But I don't like either one of the kids. I just find them like a little detestable.
Andrew You know who I really do like, though? Daniel's son, Anthony.
Everett Oh, yeah. The the the chubby kid on the iPad. Yeah. Yeah. He's a good guy. I like him a lot.
Andrew He's not so chubby in season three. but he's still talking shit. Yeah. Mad shit.
Everett I'm like, man, he's grown into his bones a little bit. Yeah. I like it. Good stuff. Yeah. Any, any spoilers for, for anything to get us excited to wet our, to wet our pallets.
Andrew More karate. You're going to, you're going to see some people who you haven't seen in 30 years.
Everett I've heard there's an Elizabeth shoe cameo.
Andrew There's, there's some, there's some, there's more than that. There's, there's some characters showing up that you will remember immediately. and not realize you missed. Cool. Yeah.
Everett Cool. I liked at the end of season two when you started to meet people, you were like, oh yeah. Yep. You have not been an actor. Yeah. For 30 years. What? Yeah. And now we know why.
Andrew You have three IMDb credits with a 30 year gap. All right. Now, Everett, do you have any other things?
Everett I do have another thing. I started a show that I should have started a long time ago. In fact, I think based on my experience with the show, having now binged two and a half episodes or two and a half, excuse me.
Andrew Say it's not binging. That's a casual viewing.
Everett Two and a half seasons. Um, I'm really surprised that neither one of this is watch this. I tried and I, I was interrupted. Yeah. Yeah. No, you, you probably need, uh, some, you probably need some sanctity of space to watch this. at least from your children, but Fargo is an FX series that's based, kind of inspired by the Joel and Ethan Coen Brothers movie Fargo, which was loosely based on some true crime, two different true crime stories. So when you start the series, it says, this is a true story. To protect the innocent, the names have been changed to, you know, respect, in respect to the dead, everything else exactly. So, We watched a season and a half of this and we're like, that is crazy. How have we not heard of this? And of course I look it up and it's not true at all. No. The series is not true at all. Now the movie was based on two, it was kind of a mishmash of two different true crime stories. Why are you looking at me like, do you not like the word mishmash, the phrase? That's not how it's said. Okay. I'm sorry. It's been a long day. Mishmash. Mishmash. The show is not true at all. Totally 100% fictional, but they leave that little snippet in, which I like because it kind of gives you this gravity. It adds some gravitas.
Andrew It always puts me to Googling. I start second screening so hard. I'm like, true story, what?
Everett So it's super, super good. Billy Bob Thornton plays your antagonist in season one, and he's phenomenal. Yeah. The cast from season to season gets better too. I've heard that. Which is surprising. You know, they keep building on these relatively good casts. Just really, really, really good. Really compelling. I liked season one. If season one is a nine, season two is probably an eight. Not far enough in season three yet to be able to tell.
Andrew FX has that thing. that a lot of other channels don't have in the way of making really good television. They do some killer stuff.
Everett Yeah, for being a... Very HBO quality stuff. I think that's right. Poor man's HBO, perhaps.
Andrew Yeah, certainly dirtier, but I feel like that kind of grittiness adds to the... It pulls you in, in a way. It makes it feel more real, less Hollywood, spectacular and more real.
Everett Like Sons of Anarchy, the final season.
Andrew I was gonna say Sons of Anarchy. I was like, are you broken or do we need to go to the hospital?
Everett I smell toast. Sons of Anarchy, that final season was bad enough.
Andrew The final season was bad and you could tell it's because they were given an end date and they had way more to do than they They just, they had to tie it up. It was, it was Game of Thrones season eight. It was.
Everett I mean, people talk about Game of Thrones, right? Say what you will. Game of Thrones is an, is an Academy Award winner compared to that finale of Sons of Anarchy.
Andrew Yes, the finale was garbage.
Everett The whole last season I watched on two speed just to get done. Please make it end. Yeah. Please make it end. So in any event, yeah, I haven't watched it. I've been maybe a little even reluctant to watch it. I don't know why it's I see the tile and I'm like, eh. And then we watched it and we were totally, you know, the, the Portlandia Battlestar Galactica thing, right?
Andrew This is my life now.
Everett Really good. Yeah, really good. And that's all I have, Andrew. All right. Way to go. We did it. We did it. Anything you want to add before we get out of here? I don't think so. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on Instagram. At 40 and 20 at the Watch Clicker. Check us out on the website, watchclicker.com. That's where we post all of our reviews, articles, roundups of other things we read on the internet. Relatively good stuff. If you want to support the show, patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's where we get all our money for hosting microphones. And now we provide you the opportunity to become part of our patron Discord server, whatever the heck that means. And you can talk to us and listeners and other people about watches all day long if you want to, perhaps.
Andrew There'll be someone there all day.
Everett Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye. Oh