Episode 142 -The Very Best Watches For Under $100

Published on Wed, 14 Jul 2021 22:47:56 -0700

Synopsis

This podcast episode covers the hosts' picks for the best watches under $100. They go through a list of 10 watches, providing details on the specific models, their features, and why they made the list. The hosts also discuss a few honorable mentions. In addition to watches, they briefly review some other products like Amazon Essentials shorts and the "Scrub Daddy" sponge.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown there are consequences to your actions. Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett,
Unknown How are you?
Andrew I'm I'm perfect, I'm amazing.
Unknown We know both of those things about you, but how are you?
Andrew Yeah, attractive yeah.
Unknown How are you attractive is a very good question.
Andrew No, I'm doing really well.
Unknown I had a trial today that I won boom boom.
Unknown The wrong one, the one time you get the side trombone, you see a sharpie and mark them
Andrew I had a trial that I won today, which was amazing. Uh, and it was, it was just a good performance and I felt really good. Uh, you know, sometimes trial is, you know, the facts and sometimes trial is how the facts are presented. Today was very much how the facts were presented and, uh, venture jury. It was a bench trial. Yeah, it was a bench trial. Uh, with that said, there were some pitfalls. There were some pitfalls. And I navigated them with that vine swinging thing. And yeah, it went really well. So I'm good. I'm still a little bit high. I'm still a little bit high from that victory. Andrew, how are you?
Unknown I'm well. I'm just coming off of a four-day vacation up into the Puget Sound where we spent, not a cabin. They call it a cabin. It's not. It's a house, but it's just not in our neighborhood. So they call it a cabin. So we spent four days up there with another family and they have three little kids and we have two. So it was hot chaos.
Andrew Yeah. But good chaos.
Unknown Good chaos. Kids had a blast. I'm very tired and looking forward to sleeping. And I joked with my wife, uh, before the night before we left, cause I went, I worked the night before we left and she's like, man, we're going to have so much fun this weekend. I was like, you think this weekend's going to be fun. There will be fun moments, but this is an exercise in survival. And I think I stand by that. Yeah, you're a curmudgeon. But there were fun moments, but generally, traveling with kids is stressful. It's not like when you were pre-kid and you could just pack a backpack and a cooler and leave for a weekend. We loaded the truck for four days. When I go hunt for 14 or more days, I bring less stuff. than traveling for four days with two kids. A ton of stuff has to go. You're kind of trying to do that sweet spot balance of maintaining a sleep schedule so you don't bring home demon children, but also letting them have fun because they're kids and on vacation. So it's just, it's kind of stressful. And then once they go to sleep, it's great because you just like have some unencumbered time with other adults, which is fun. So there's fun moments, fun memories as a whole, Stressful, but still relaxing. I don't know. For those of you who have vacation with kids, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's right. So coming off of that, I came away with no sunburns.
Andrew Which is kind of amazing because you were in the water for a significant portion of the weekend, correct?
Unknown Yeah, I was. Uh, and, uh, only a couple nettle stings. Nettle stings? A lot of stinging nettles up there.
Andrew Did I tell you I ran through a stinging nettle at, you know, whatever, you know, eight mile an hour or eight minute mile pace, just all of it. And it just destroyed my leg.
Unknown Yeah. I have a couple of my hands, a little bit on my ankles. Uh, so you know, that's not great, but fortunately that's like a pretty, it's a pretty temporary and minor inconvenience. It's not poison Oak or something for, I've never been infected and I've touched it, but I try not to tempt fate, but it's just uncomfortable for a couple hours. And then for me at least it just moves on.
Andrew Yeah.
Unknown uh i think there are people that are allergic to nettles and that can be bad but that makes sense for most people for me it's no worse than heat rash that's i'm the same yeah did you ever figure out your heat rash situation it was it stayed raised for a couple days but it's it's gone now so i don't know if it was heat rash i don't know if i just rubbed against something because i was moving lumber so i'm wondering if there was just like a little bit of like if it was just kind of like a scrape with some sap and
Andrew junk in it. It was on his taint also, you guys, so I'm a little skeptical.
Unknown I was riding in like a bull. What do you want? I make some people have saw horses. I have a saw bull in my garage. Uh, yeah, no, it was like my whole bicep, like elbow to shoulder of just the splotchy raised, itchy, burny, really similar to heat rash. So when you said it, I was like, well, yeah, that's what you think it is. I'm familiar with my version of heat rash and this isn't what it is.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown Yeah, it was just some kind of irritant. The only thing I can figure is that it was from schlepping lumber about. Yeah, so I'm good. I'm generally refreshed and wish I had a couple more days off work to recuperate, but I go back to work tomorrow.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah, that's rough. You know, I would say the nice thing about your schedule is you come back Monday night, you work on Tuesday, but you've got, you know, what a full 28 hours. Yeah. So you almost have a full day of recovery. Not quite a full day in terms of the cycle.
Unknown Yeah. So I'll take my nap. I'll sleep tonight and then nap tomorrow. So it's actually the ideal day to do it. Because I assume Sam works in the a.m. Yeah. And she worked today and yesterday remotely. Brutal. So I though I left work. I worked my normal shift. left work, got home, we packed the car and then I drove up there and then I got to this point where I was like, napping isn't an option right now. I need to just finish this day cycle and sleep. So I was up for like 32 hours. Brutal. It was not great. Fortunately I did the drive like on hour 16.
Andrew But well, well, well as much as I want to talk about, uh, Puget sound and heat rash. We're actually going to talk about watches today.
Unknown We'll get there.
Andrew We're talking about watches.
Everett Tell me more.
Andrew Well, and I think today is maybe a little bit of a return to our roots. Maybe a little bit of a state of the entry level watch.
Unknown I think that's it. I think this is the state of the entry level watch episode.
Andrew Uh, you know, the title will probably be something, you know, optimized for search results or whatever. Best sub $100 watch or whatever. Right.
Unknown Best watches under 100. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. It'll be something, something to that extent. Uh, with that said, we're revisiting the topic. I think that for both of us was really important to us when we started, which is and remains and remains and remains. What are the best watches under $100? I saw a topic on Watchuseek, F71, the affordables forum, as it were now, by precisely that title. I can't remember what the thread's called, but something like best watches under $100. And I sort of racked my brain about what I know about watches. and came up with a list of 10. And I posted it in that thread and today's episode, we're going to go through basically those 10 watches that I independently came up with, but that we sort of circulated amongst the watch clicker crowd and amongst other friends as well and said, is this still lit? I think that this is, this is the list. And so these are, we're going to talk about 10 watches. but 10 kind of categories of watches. Some of these things, some of these categories are more specific than others. In fact, some of them are a specific watch and others are kind of a family of watches. Um, but these are, I think the best 10 watches that you can buy today under a hundred dollars with quorum. I mean with quorum. Yeah. And, and so right, that is a good place for us to lay out some, caveats, ground rules, expectations for what you're going to hear today. Uh, because when we start talking about best watches under a hundred dollars, there are eight gajillion watches under a hundred dollars and maybe even 10 gajillion. Yeah. Nine, nine, six last time I checked, but yeah, it's right in there. Uh, some, some of those watches are beloved. Some of those watches are for you going to be just incredible. Some of those watches may or may not always be available at a hundred bucks. Some of them are watches that are kind of not just not going to be considered for today's episode because of the types of watches they are. Uh, and when I say that, what I mean are the sort of extreme Chinese copies.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew We're just not doing that.
Unknown We're talking watches today that stand on their own, that have bona fides based on the watch.
Andrew That's right. That's right. Not the dollar amount. Although with that caveat in mind, there are some fantastic watches that you can buy direct from factory right now under a hundred bucks that are aping, you know, Seiko in particular that are just a wonderful deal. You get great movements. You're going to get great quality of construction. You're going to get reasonable dials, bracelets, all the good stuff.
Unknown It's a borderline counterfeit.
Andrew Yeah. Well, I'm not going to actually characterize it that way. I think your characterization is fine. I don't disagree with it, but you know, no judgment, right? If that's a watch that you like and you're into, maybe you were buying it for modding purposes. I don't know. No judgment, but that's not what we're doing today.
Unknown At all.
Andrew So with that in mind, what do you think? Do you think so? This, this list is numbered, although I don't think it's in any particular order. It's not, it's not. Although I did kind of start from what I think one being the best to 10 being the least best. Do you, do you have any objection to just starting at 10?
Unknown Let's start at 10. Yeah. We'll reverse order it with the caveat that this is, not a quorum order.
Andrew Yeah. And don't get married to this order. This is just a, an order of things to talk about in my mind from, from least to most cool or most interesting or something like that.
Unknown I'm done with that.
Andrew So starting, starting up.
Unknown Let's do it. Can I do it?
Everett Can I do number 10? Because I think this is your watch.
Unknown The Timex Ironman. Yeah. The quintessential right off your wrist sport watch.
Andrew Or just TPU strap that breaks inexplicably off your wrist.
Unknown Or it rots to your wrist. This is a watch you never have to take off. You should for a lot of reasons, but you never have to. The water resistance is good. The functionality is good. The lume is unparalleled.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, when we say lume in this case, it's Indiglo. Indiglo. And that is the gold standard as far as I'm concerned for being able to see things.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown It's killer. It comes in a bazillion different options. There is an iron man for everyone.
Andrew Some of the shapes are kind of goofy, but there's any of them are, are, are goofy.
Unknown There's every size, every color. My recommendation is go with just a classic black and gray, like an iron man. Classic 40 to 44 millimeters I think is what they come in at.
Andrew Yeah, you can get these in a number of different sizes. You know, it always surprises me the diversity of Iron Man when I look at these things, which is to say, um, I think I kind of know what to expect. And then I look and I'm like, Oh yeah, that's different than that thing is. Uh, even though in my head I had conflated the design. So, uh, I think that there's some really classic designs and that's kind of what I trend towards, um, in terms of, you know, the classic, I think is great, but also like the older 90 designs, you know, uh, the Jocko designs, uh, that sort of thing.
Unknown So, I mean, they come in smartwatch varieties for a little more than a hundred. No.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown They come with a GPS. There's some that the $60 ones have heart rate monitors and pedometers. And they're cool too. They look kind of like the Tom Toms.
Andrew You know, there is a functionality that I think was abandoned by Timex, and I'm not sure why, but it was abandoned by Timex many years ago, maybe a decade or more ago at this point. But they used to have a function called Flix, F-L-I-X, and maybe that still exists, I don't know. But I used to do a lot of very early morning runs and a lot of evening runs too, especially in the winter, it gets dark at 2 p.m., 5.30, and so I'd be running after that in the dark uh the function was literally a flick of your wrist you know just kind of a snap of your wrist and the indiglo would come on so you didn't have to touch buttons i thought that function was great i don't think you can find that anymore but those watches are still running though probably so maybe the flicks doesn't work and that's why they discontinued it or maybe they're probably still in their first battery too yeah that's funny So yeah, reasonable water resistance. What are you getting? 100 meters of water resistance out of these things oftentimes. Yeah, it's great.
Unknown I don't know. There's more to say about it. Yeah, it's just a perfect banger.
Andrew You know, I think that this is the watch. There's going to be watches that we talk about later that are maybe cooler in a horological context than the Iron Man. But to the extent that you're buying a watch to run in or to jump in the pool or perhaps do a triathlon.
Unknown A Tough Mudder.
Andrew This is a great watch. I think it's the most ubiquitous functional athletic doing things watch besides a smartwatch or something, you know.
Unknown Yeah, I don't know. I think this is maybe more because I have, I would have reservations about wearing my expensive smartwatch doing any of the things that I've done while wearing an Iron Man.
Andrew Well, you know, I think a lot of runners, in particular bikers too, and by bikers, I mean cyclists.
Unknown No, Harley riders when they're big old ape hangers.
Andrew They want heart rate monitoring and GPS. And I don't want those things. You know, as someone who runs a lot, I find those data points to be cumbersome and discouraging sometimes and not particularly useful for anything. I know people tell me, oh, well, I need to know that stuff. And the, you know, I think you're wrong and I think you don't need to know that stuff. It might be fun, but I think you're actually hurting yourself. Uh, and so I want something like this.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown I love mine. I need to replace the battery. Otherwise I would wear it.
Everett Next up.
Unknown Yeah, do it.
Andrew The Timex, another Timex, our second of three, uh, Timex entries that we're going to discuss today. Uh, the M K one, which is a classic, uh, you know, field watch, right? I mean, depending on the iteration you get of this, this is sort of a classic United States military style spec watch. Um, these come in great sizes, 36 and 40. Uh, they come in resin, they come in aluminum and steel, right? I don't know that these do come in steel. They must. You can get them with pink dials. You can get them with silver dials. You can get them in chronographs.
Unknown Yeah, they come in steel. 45 bucks.
Andrew I mean, this is just a simple, fantastic, classically styled field watch. Functional, Indiglo, most days you're going to come with something like 30 meters of water resistance, which splash resistant. They're going to be in the $40 to $90 range, depending on what you get.
Unknown The mechanical comes in at just over $100 too. I want to say like $150. Yeah. So if you're willing to go a little bit more, getting the mechanical movement is cool.
Andrew I really like the idea of the anodized aluminum. Yes. I've never had an aluminum watch and you know, aluminum is problematic material in a lot of ways, but I think, you know, depending on how you wore it, I think that could patina really nicely.
Unknown Patina so well. Yeah. You'd have to be a little careful with it. You couldn't go full, full on, but like 60% would lead to some really good, uh, wear marks.
Andrew Now, to the extent that you're gonna, uh, to the extent you're going to buy one of these, I would say plan on storing this thing inside of your sock drawer, inside of socks or something because they're noisy.
Unknown Very. Or in a whole other room.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. Just in the garage.
Unknown We don't let the Q Timex in the recording studio when the mics are live. That's right.
Andrew That's right. Yeah. And you can also use them like, uh, if you're, if you're recording music, you could use it as a, as a metronome over the instrument. That's right. Yeah. So just keep it away from the mics though, because that will come through super loud.
Unknown And when the, when the date switches, it's, have you ever owned an MK one?
Andrew No, I, somebody sent us one, uh, kind of early on one of the, uh, one of the resin ones. And it came with something else. It came with a Casio Marlin, I think.
Unknown Oh, were those the two that came together? I thought it was a Boulder Venture and a Marlin that came together. You're right about that.
Andrew You're right about that. Well, in any event.
Unknown It was funny. It was the heaviest and lightest watches I've ever handled all in one package. That's right.
Andrew That's right. Okay. Well, what's up next, Andrew?
Unknown Let's go to next. We're going to break from Timex for a moment. Because why not? And we're going to go the SNK L from Seiko.
Unknown Oh yeah. Yeah.
Andrew And, and, and this reference is depending on, on where you buy it between 99 and a hundred, um, different colors. I think that the, I think that the, the less expensive ones, are typically like the silver dials.
Unknown Yeah, and the black dial right now, so the SNK L23 on a beads of Jubilee-ish bracelet, $104.98 on Amazon.
Andrew Okay, so just a touch over.
Unknown But this is the super entry level. This is the entry level new SARB for me. Yeah. Case is obviously different. But in the way of the handset, which is slightly different, but still really reminiscent of the SARB, this is for me the entry level dress sport. It's got polishing in the right places. It's coming on an attractive bracelet. Long, sleek case design lines.
Andrew Dauphine hands, really classic sort of sport dress aesthetic. And there's a few other watches that I think we just sort of throw in SNKE, SNKK. Basically, these are Seiko 5s. These are 28.5 millimeter dials, 37 to 38 millimeter case, shitty bracelets, reasonable finishing. This is the Seiko 5. This is the old Seiko 5, the endangered species Seiko 5. They're great.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown They're great. They look good. They look good. They feel good. I have a complaint about Seiko bracelets to the end. None of them are good. None of them are bad. They are all just okay.
Andrew They're just fine.
Unknown And I don't, I mean, maybe a grand Seiko was where you started getting into good bracelets.
Andrew Yeah. You know, even the Prospex models that I've handled are really, bracelets are an afterthought at best.
Unknown So the only difference between an Alpinist bracelet and a SARB bracelet are the end links. It's exactly, it's the same bracelet.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown Just okay. Which is a bit of a bummer, but the Alpinist shouldn't be on a bracelet anyway. You buy it with a bracelet to take the bracelet off and then put said end links on your SARB.
Andrew I disagree. I think that the, I think that the Alpinist goes great on a bracelet.
Unknown It does, but I want it on rubber. I like the rubber man. Back to the SNKL. It is. It's kind of this vanishing, shrouded in mystery, no one really talks about it watch that deserves a lot more than I think even than watch people have ever given it.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. You know, it was not very long ago where I think that these things were overlooked, perhaps because of their ubiquity.
Unknown And all the other options in this price range.
Andrew Well, yeah, and I think it was just like, oh, yeah, well, those are just those shitty psycho fives that you can buy on Amazon for 60 bucks at 100 bucks with their endangered status. I think this is something if you don't have one, maybe maybe makes sense to to grab on, you know, even if you don't wear it a lot, grab one, pick it up and keep it around because this is going to be or keep it new in box. Yeah, this is going to be the kind of thing, not not because it's going to be a moneymaker, But because it'd be kind of fun to have one of those, you know, for 40 years down the road. Like, oh yeah, look at this old Seiko 5 that I have and it's in great condition.
Unknown And somebody's going to want it and you're going to tickle them pink when you sell it for a reasonable price in a box.
Andrew Or, you know, you give it to your kids or something.
Unknown Also that who will destroy it.
Andrew You know, wear it, wear it. You're not going to wear it a ton and that's OK. Next up. I think I think my favorite category on this list, just because there are so many options, Simply by way of the way I listed this category, but Timex. Timex's last entry here on the list at number seven with four subcategories. So this, this, uh, this is not a single watch. This is rather probably about 400 SKUs included in here.
Unknown Maybe more.
Andrew The Waterberry, the Weekender,
Unknown I think you've got to include the ranger in there, too. Because the ranger is the field one of that, isn't it?
Andrew Timex ranger. I'm not picturing a Timex ranger. The dive bezel... Isn't that what it's called? The expedition ranger? Yeah. I don't think that counts in this category. These are our sort of not dress, not a sport, like kind of everyday wear, clean, simple, not quite Bauhaus, not quite. They're sort of non-categorized. Dressy, but not dress.
Unknown These are 1950s watches that people bought one of and that was their watch. That's right. This is what the G10 was just This is my watch. This is a watch. And I wear it and I like it. It's attractive. It is neither sporty nor dressy nor fieldy. This is my watch. Yeah. I will hide it in my butthole for seven years because this is my watch.
Andrew Yeah. And I think you get, I think you get basically the same thing with all three of these with just a slightly different feel. So, you know, Waterbury's got more of that vintage aesthetic named after sort of OG Timex factories here in the United States. The Weekender, you get more of that young, millennial, casual vibe. Easy Reader, you get that dad jean, braided leather belt, and New Balance vibe.
Unknown They come with braided leather bracelets or straps, too.
Andrew Uh, you know, so, so kind of what do you want? You know, I wore an easy reader, you know, I'm sure I've talked about this on the show before, but basically all the way through law school, I wore an easy reader, the same easy reader. I still have it. It has, it's not working. Uh, I'm not sure what's going on with that, but I wore this and I, and I wore it. I wore it constantly. I wore it in the shower. I wore it in the pool. I wore it. all day, every day, like never took it off. Like my wedding ring. I always had my watch on my body. Always had my wedding ring on my body for three and a half years.
Unknown And they're good looking watches and they're expensive.
Andrew That may be why it's not working.
Unknown Perhaps it's got some, it's got the funk actually in the module. Yeah, that's right. Whatever. It's $45 to replace it.
Andrew Yeah. And it's cool. You know, I, I never, so this is well before I had any sort of aspirations to be a watch guy. But also, at the same time, it felt cool. It's like, yeah, this is a cool little Timex. Looks good. Plated brass. And I got a deal on it, because everyone gets a deal on it. Yeah, I'm sure it was 30 bucks or something like that, so.
Unknown And you can get them from the not-locked case at department stores.
Andrew That's right. So you maybe don't have to pay anything for it.
Unknown Yeah, five-finger discount. What I like about this family of watches is that there's certainly one for everyone. And for people who are just being introduced to the watch world and to picking sizes and styling, for $120, you can experiment with three sizes, three colors, three styles. Yeah. For $120, less than you can get into most of the watches that we talk about on the show, you can try three options and you spend just buy one of them and spend another 60 bucks on a couple shoe options and you get an immediate feel for the things you do and don't like. There's nothing offensive about these watches. You can look at it and be like, you know, I think I want, I think I want a bezel. I think I want a little bit maybe wider, non-rotating bezel. I think I like this hand set or I think I'd like this different and start to develop and refine what you're really looking for.
Andrew I want a chronograph. I want small seconds.
Unknown I want. Yeah. Yeah. These are taste refining watches.
Andrew I like it. Yeah.
Unknown Andrew number six from Russia with love the Bach talk amphibia and I think just Bach talk in general. I think Vostok and I think we go with the amphibia because it's one of the more accessible.
Andrew There's some specific reasons why I think it's better than the other Vostok.
Unknown No, no. There's a lot of reasons it's better because it's an engineering marvel, perhaps even masterpiece. It's chops in the world of watches are completely unarguable, right? They're just accepted. It's funky. It's fun. It's different, and it comes in a bazillion varieties. It's another watch that you can refine your tastes with. But the reason I think all of Vostok deserves at least a nod within this category, with the Amphibia being the choice, I think the rest of the Vostok catalog is very much like that. None of them are as functional. None of them are as durable. None of them are objectively as good. They are all cheaper. and cheap, and I use cheap intentionally here, to refine tastes. They're just a touch, they're a step up from the Weekender, Easy Reader, Waterberry, watch purchasing choice. There's a little bit more investment in it because you're buying these sight unseen. You can go try on the Easy Reader at Walmart.
Unknown Right.
Unknown You're getting that Vostok from Somewhere in Europe.
Andrew Yeah from Kistapol or from Germany or something.
Unknown Yeah, you'll have never seen anything but pictures It's also a lot more modding options. Yeah, so it opens up a greater world To of watches to you.
Andrew I think that that that single reason in and of itself is one of the things that makes this watch so cool, you know, it's By way of the SKX modding scene The Vostok has benefited by way of Dave Murphy and several other folks who are making bezels that fit on the Vostok and accept the 10 gazillion SKX bezels that are available. So sometimes with specific bezels you may have fitment issues or if you look at... Nothing a file won't fix. Yeah, or if you get into the AM diver, there may be angle issues. But if you go with Murphy or something like that and get one of these bezels, you're going to be able to go to Yaboki's or Daga's or DLW or any of these modding websites, buy a bezel, stick it on your Vostok and boom, you've got a totally different watch.
Unknown And for reference, to get an amphibia from Amazon today, you're going to have to give me a moment
Andrew Yeah, I can talk a little bit about this. Cause you know, I have a, I have a standard teal dialed scuba dude. That's had, it's been through a few different iterations. Uh, I bought it stock. I later got an AM diver bezel. Uh, that was just a Navy sub bezel, uh, tucked it in that AM diver, uh, tucked into that AM diver.
Unknown Oh, you didn't buy AM diver direct.
Andrew I, I did not know. I got the standard and then, Got a different bezel from Amdiver and then, and then later realized I wanted to change it again. So then I got a different bezel from Murphy this time and put it in a, um, and put a Yaboki's, uh, Doxa, Doxa bezel on it. So it's one watch that I've now had in four different configurations. Um, and I still actually have several options if I wanted to change it. It's just fun, and it's one of my favorite watches.
Unknown 91 bucks on Amazon on Amazon, depending on what dial bezel option you want to go with. In case, obviously, but the thing about this is coming from the AM dire world and coming from the Vostok world. It's about 100 options available to you. Yeah, that's right, and tons of modding that's available. This is one of the most moddable watches out there. With pretty low risk. It's not modding an SKX, which you're paying a premium for now. It's modding a $100 watch.
Andrew I think that there are some potential issues with the hands, with setting hands on an Amphibia that you may want to be aware of if you're used to setting, pulling and setting in H35 hands. You know who would be a good resource for that information? Pete at Chillin' Watches. knows a ton about this. But I do think that there may be a potential issue in changing hands on these where you can mess something up on the pinion. But I'm not confident in that. I'll just suggest it. If you're going to buy one of these with the intention of modding dial or hands, that may be something you want to be aware of. So just go ahead and spam Pete's inbox.
Unknown Yeah. Light him up. Tell him we sent you.
Andrew Everett, what you got next? Number 5, Casio F91W. Boom. You knew we were going to get there. So it's an $18 watch, $17 watch some days. F91W? Yeah. Is it less than that? Yeah.
Unknown How much? On Amazon right now. Let's hear it.
Andrew 11.99. 14.99. So 11.99 for the black
Unknown $14.48 for the silver $19.89 for the green and oh so that's actually a gray at $14.48 $15.88 for the silver $23.99 on a bracelet okay so look guys that this is not the best at anything ooh purpley blue $18.99 except for perhaps being a cheap
Andrew Bomb timer?
Unknown Bomb making, yeah. That's great. Ooh, black with gold, $29.40. Man, I don't know anything about that. Straight gold, $34.40? Shit! I need to buy some F91s today.
Andrew What I can't say about this watch is it's ubiquitous. If you wear one, you'll get a nod from watch heads. You'll enjoy it. It's easy to use. You basically can't break it. And if you do, who cares? If you do, who cares? Uh, it's fun, man. You know, I've got an F91 and an F84, which I think are different watches in some notable ways, but also the same watch. And, um, yeah, I just, I have a fucking blast with them. I think it's such a, such a fun, stupid, dumb watch. And I put it on, I've got mine on like a $50, $40 strap and, uh, yeah, I love it, man. I love it. I love it. You've got two of them. I think, right?
Unknown I just have one. Okay. You just have the one. I just have the one. Uh, but I've got mine on a cheapest NATO strap and a, on a black tubular with a gelded strap cut down short. So there's no rollover. It's great. It hides. It's super small. It's super light. You totally forget you're wearing it. It does all the things you need it to do. Only problem is that one light bulb loom is totally ineffective in actual darkness. That's right.
Andrew That's right.
Unknown You can read the hour only, not the minutes.
Andrew It's not a good watch, you guys. It's not a good watch, but it's also not a bad watch.
Unknown It's also just cool. And it's cool. Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden are some of the most notable wearers of this watch. And then us from 40 and 20.
Andrew The boys from 40 and 20. Andrew, what do you got next?
Unknown Ooh, what do we got? We have up next
Andrew I think this is a little bit of an odd selection on this list. I do think we're going to get some shit. Yeah, I don't mind the shit. I'm ready for it. I think we've got to give ourselves shit.
Unknown The Invicta Pro Diver. Yeah. And anyone who wants to talk shit about the Invicta Pro Diver is a hater for haters sake. Haters! You cannot, beyond the logo on this watch, throw any shade at this watch.
Everett Well, no, that's not true, man. I don't think you can. Look, it's a sub homage. Okay, it's a shameless. That's the whole catalog. I know.
Andrew I know. I know. Hey, look, but that is a reasonable criticism.
Unknown And if we're not willing to admit it and admit that there's an element of of the pro diver gets more hates hacking any sub homage on the market than any respectable sub homage on the market. That's right.
Andrew I mean, in that regard, it's no worse than a Steinhardt or a Squalor.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew And when I say a Squalor, I mean a Squalor Sobomash.
Unknown It's no worse. No worse. In that regard. It has all the things. It's spec'd. It's fit. It's just there.
Andrew Seiko movement, NH35.
Unknown It's got all the things.
Andrew Decent everything. bit of branding, a little bit of branding issue. I don't love the engraved, the deep engraved Invicta logo on the side, but whatever.
Unknown That's a bit of a bummer, but a Dremel will fix it.
Everett It's not easy. Trust, trust from a guy who's Dremeled three.
Andrew Just trust. It's not easy, but you can do it.
Unknown And is it worth the effort? Probably not, but this deserves a spot on this list to try out sizing, functionalities, Specs. This is an entry level, give it a try watch.
Andrew 65 to 90 bucks all week long, all year long.
Unknown On prime day, it's like 40 bucks. I think, I think Will bought one on prime day because it was 40 bucks. Something like that.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. And it's, and it's just, it's going to wear well. It's going to be attractive because it's based on the most famous watch of all time. Yeah. Uh, yeah. What, what more to say?
Unknown What to not say?
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown And we just won't say it. Yeah, because all those things have been said. What I'm saying is that this is a very reasonable option and don't let the Invicta branding turn you away from trying out this style of watch because you're getting better specs than most any watch at this price point.
Andrew Number three, you didn't think we were going to talk about this watch because, oh, well, I can't get it anymore. The Seiko SNK-80X Field Flieger is what I'll call it. Yeah man, 90 bucks.
Everett You can still get these things all day long for 90 bucks and it's still one of the best watches on the face of the earth for 90 bucks.
Unknown You know what you can't get though? Tell me. The fucking red one.
Everett I know, man. Where are they?
Andrew Why did we not buy that? I had that thing in my cart for two years. Why did we not buy it? I don't, I, yeah, I don't know. And now it'll happen. I'm like, I need it. And nobody's selling them. No. Where are they? Yeah.
Unknown Nobody's selling them. They're selling every other color. People are selling subs and you're not selling red SNKs.
Andrew You know, I think the red was an Amazon exclusive. It was, yeah.
Unknown Yeah, it was a partner. It was a collab kind of thing.
Andrew I, you know, the SNK, you guys look, I don't care. I don't care what you say. It's a perfect size.
Unknown It's such a good size. The crown's a bit of a bummer. Bit of a bummer.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown Yeah. No, you're right. But it's an automatic watch. And so once you put it on, who cares where the crown is?
Andrew Well, yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's not super easy to wind or manipulate, but once you got it on, you're going to be just fine. Uh, you know, interestingly enough, Seiko has not reintroduced the SNZG SNK lines, although sort of, uh, come out with a new SNG like watch, which again is a field watch standard, you know, 24 hour ring, field watch in their new Seiko 5 sports line. I think they look really cool. I think they've got amazing price. They're 41 millimeters, uh, I think 41 millimeters, maybe 40, a hundred meters of water resistance for our 36 watches. And they look great. They look great. They've got a legitimate modern crown.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I dig them a lot.
Unknown I don't know for that style of watch, I want a bigger crown.
Andrew But yeah, they, uh, you know, SNK, SNK, blasted case. Everything just works. It's perfect. It's amazing. 90 bucks. Don't tell me it's not worth 90 bucks.
Unknown It's worth 90 bucks. It's a fucking steal at 90 bucks. I have mine on a tan and yellow or green and yellow Marine Nationale elastic. Do you have the green dialed one? No, I have the white. Okay.
Andrew Oh, that's right.
Unknown It looks so good.
Andrew Yeah. The cream, cream dial. That is certainly not white.
Unknown No, but neither is a Sarb. Right. The SARB is a lot closer to white. But you put it next to a white watch, like, phew!
Andrew Eggshell much? You know, I did a post on Instagram, this has been several weeks ago at this point, but where I took white shoes, some white Apple AirPods, my SARB and background was white. And when I did this, I was aping aggressive timing habits photo of the same day. I saw his picture and I was like, I could do that right now.
Unknown And he, he made your photo. I want to be super clear about ownership and creative rights.
Andrew But I took the picture and I got it on my computer and I was like, I don't own anything even remotely close to white. And so I had to just take the saturation and turn it down.
Unknown You know, I didn't realize just how everything was yellow, how warm the Sarb was until I took a picture of it next to the sea lander.
Andrew Yeah, it's definitely, there's a lot of color there.
Unknown Whoa, that's a yellow dial.
Andrew Next up. Number two. Number two, we're getting there, you guys.
Unknown This is maybe my favorite pick. Me too. On this list. Me too. The Casio MDV-106. The greatest sleeper in the dive watch segment. And I say greatest for two reasons. It's a killer deal. Great specs. Great watch.
Andrew Wears well.
Unknown It's also grand in that it is quite large. We had it on a Strapco Super Engineer. Right. Holy shit! That thing was a workout. It probably weighed a pound.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah, it was a bit of a heavy watch.
Unknown I got stronger on my right side. On an OEM strap. Or on NATO. Sorry, a nylon pass-through. Or on rubber. Ooh, on rubber would be good. Yeah. This thing is killer. It's a little big. I don't mind it. I don't mind it. But it should be. Yeah. It, it, its proportions are right. It's not like one of those watches that's, that's manhole cover just for the sake of. It's proportioned well. It's designed well. It's super comfortable for even for as large it is. It wears very much like a pilot's watch, a traditionally sized pilot's watch. And that's kind of what you, I feel like you should expect out of a dive watch for legibility. Like a true pilot's watch. Yeah. It's so good. And it's what, 50 bucks?
Andrew Yeah, 45. It's a little subby. if you're worried about those kind of things. In this case, I think it passes even my sort of anti-homage inclinations. It's a unique design. It's got Casio's charming Marlin branding on both the front and the back. None of the printing or the engraving is done particularly artistically. With that said, it's all done well. It's all super Casio, yeah. Yeah. You know, Casio, Casio does really good pad printing. Their pad printing is never, uh, super saturated nor is it, um, refined in any sort of extra sense. Uh, with that said, it's always very precise. It's almost always clean. It's very rarely, uh, floaty, you know, the edges don't get fuzzy. You know my Casio amw 320 that gold dialed arning the printing on that is shock is striking when you see it You're like this is fucking printed It's really subtle.
Unknown Yeah, that's the best word.
Andrew I have for it and Japanese in the sense that it's precise and Exact and and small I don't know if that's word is conveying what I want it to but it's just it's just what tolerances are super tight on it
Unknown And the AMW is what, an 86, 87 watch? Or is it newer than that?
Andrew No, I think that's right. Yeah, it's mid to late 80s.
Unknown The printing looks new.
Andrew Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that whole watch looks basically brand new. My watch is newer than that. I don't know how new. I would say that's maybe a early 2000s model, but... That's still 20 years old.
Unknown You'd expect some float, some decay, and you're not getting that yet.
Andrew none especially for a watch that you've worn so much so so the the mdv 106 is clearly best in class uh people will say oh there's you know well i should just say there's a lot of casio edifice oh yeah uh watches that people talk about but there's that's the deal there's a lot of them there's a lot of them the mdv 106 is the one it's yeah it's the one and it's 49.69 on amazon right now today
Unknown Save 29% according to Amazon. I've never seen it at $69.95. I've only ever seen it at $49 or less.
Andrew Number one, is there any doubt, is there any doubt about what's left here?
Unknown Everett is selling his Speedmaster Pro for $99.95 and that makes it the best watch under $100 today.
Andrew That is not true. Uh, yeah. So the best watch under a hundred bucks, a hundred percent, zero reservations. Come at me. I'll fight you. The square G. That's it. That's it, man. That's it. You know, there's two watches that fit into this category in my mind. And within those two watches, there's probably a hundred skews, maybe more. Let's talk to I bet someone like Luke would know exactly or close to. And have. With that said, really two watches. The DW5600 and the GWM5610. The former being the sort of standard quartz battery operated Square G and the latter being the atomic solar version. Uh, in, in my mind, is it 5610 ringing at over a hundred? Uh, no, 85 bucks usually between 85 and 90 bucks. So 60 ish bucks for the DW 5600, uh, uh, 85 ish bucks for the GWM 5610. I don't think that there's any really good reason to go for the 5600 over the 5610. Um, Unless you want the styling, I think the GWM is the 5610 is just a better watch.
Unknown 5600 is $52 right now on Amazon. Okay. And 5610-1 is north of 100. No. Yeah, the all black.
Andrew Hold on, you guys. Sorry, we don't usually Google on the air, but here we are Googling on the air.
Unknown On Amazon, we're north of 100. Oh, wait, the DW6610SU is 98.
Andrew No, man, you're right. GWM has climbed in price. They're at 140 right now. 130 to 140. OK, well, so look, doesn't matter. The window's closed. The window's closed. With that said, you can still get you can still get a 5600 for under and I'll just say, Oh yeah, that's actually, that starts to become an analysis on my mind. 140 for the GWM and 52 for the 5600. Yeah.
Unknown Okay.
Andrew Well at the, at that Delta 5600 is worth considering.
Unknown I think it's the winner at that Delta. Yeah. You close it, you close it to between 50 and a hundred. Yeah. A $50 difference. It's worth it. A hundred dollar difference. It is not.
Andrew Yeah, no, I'm with you. I'm with you.
Unknown So in any event, in the way of comparison, the 56 56 10 is objectively a better watch.
Andrew They're both gonna go with you anywhere you want them to. They both light. Well, you can see him in the dark as Andrew. I mean, Andrew, where's this thing for copying? Yeah, and it survives. It's durable. Got to tell you, you're gonna have to get some adapters and put it on a manky.
Unknown So good on a manky.
Andrew That is the intended use of a manky, I think.
Unknown Yeah, it's so good. I got to say, so with that, buy this watch, pay the 12 or whatever dollars on Amazon for 16 to 20 millimeter adapters, plug them in. They feel a little loose. They're sturdy. Put it on a manky. Get the manky a little short because you got to account for that extra length. that you're getting from the lugs and the adapters. So shorten the lanky by half or the manky by half inch. And oh my gosh. Yeah, I love this watch. I bought a plastic bracelet off Aliexpress to give it a try. I wanted to give it a try, but I knew the manky would eventually go back on. It's so good. So good.
Andrew You think we can do these honorable mentions in two minutes, Andrew?
Unknown Yeah, we got it. We're just going to run through them. We're not going to, we're not going to talk anything about them.
Andrew We're going to go to the top. The Orient Bambino. What more to say? It's probably the most ubiquitous sub hundred dollar dress watch. These are anywhere from 90 to 120, 130, depending on what you get, but you can find them under a hundred bucks. It's 41 millimeter dress watch. They have 19 millimeter lugs. Fuck off Orient. Uh, what more to say? Two.
Unknown That's it, the TriStar.
Andrew Orient TriStar. Yeah. This is, I think, a really good substitution, not a sub, a substitution for the Seiko 5s, the SNKLs, SNKEs, et cetera. Those things dry up. I think the Orient TriStar, beautiful, terrible bracelets.
Unknown Dimensions are a little weirder. They're not quite the same. They're very Orient brand dimensions.
Andrew 39 millimeters though, right? I mean, you're in that wheelhouse.
Unknown a little bit more modern sizing great watch yeah this is your edition this next one's your addition to our list it is the freestyle brand digital shark watches yeah and the reason i think this deserves a there deserves a place on it it's specced almost exactly to the dw5600 but it's cooler cooler yeah it's fun
Andrew Well, 100 meters water resistance versus 200. I mean, it's definitely a difference. It's just a different deal. But it's a cool watch. You're not getting the shock resistant sort of R&D and yada yada.
Unknown No, you're not getting all that. You're getting that passed down knowledge, right? You're not getting the R&D. You're getting the byproducts and the benefits. It's just a cool watch. They come in at $50 to $70. They're cool. They're fun. They're colorful. If you're looking for a fun summer sport watch, they're not as classic. as a 5600. There's the same amount of colorways, there's just no conservative colorways.
Andrew I think they're older. You know, the 40th anniversary, Freestyle just had their 40th anniversary and Hodinkee did a good write-up. I can't remember who the author was and that upsets me. In any event, there's a good write-up on the Freestyle 40th anniversary. You know, this is a brand that was started by just a couple of dudes, sold to a couple of different, you know, brand companies, brand ownership companies, and then was offloaded, and it's now privately owned again, and they've sort of rekindled the love and turned it into the company it was 40 years ago. I really like them, and I think they're a great option. And they preceded Swatch and a lot of these other companies that we think about in this space. Kind of the original, bright, colorful, plastic Quartzwatch.
Unknown Yep.
Andrew Timex Expedition.
Unknown Yep. Which is where that was the ranger that I was thinking of.
Andrew Timex Expedition, uh, what more to say? There's a ton of options. It's a cool watch, man. You know, this is the, this is the hiking watch for the frugal dude who just wants something that's going to tell time and do a good job.
Unknown Yeah. I like it. And the last. I've had expeditions. I have too. The Casio World Timer. This to me is a top 10. I accept it as an honorable mention. But what's more to say? We all know and love this watch. It's super cool. It's funky. It's super 80s looking. It's never grown or advanced. It just is.
Andrew And with all that said, it's functional. This watch does a lot of things that some people say that they want their watch to do. It does them.
Unknown For 20 bucks. Right. Maybe 40 if you want to get the gold. But for 20 bucks. Come on. And there's fitted leather straps for it available on the market.
Andrew All right. Feel free to send us your comments or don't because honestly this show we've decided that we're right and so you're wrong. But please feel free to send us a message to say how right we were. We like it when you do that. Andrew. Other things, what do you got?
Unknown Summertime here.
Everett Summertime.
Unknown I needed some new shorts. Bust some buttons, wore out. We live in Oregon. I don't have many pairs of shorts because you need them for like 45 days. So I tried Amazon Essentials. Never done that before. Like never tried any of the Amazon Essentials clothing. I got two pairs of men's slim fit nine inch shorts. Okay.
Unknown Money.
Unknown They're $17.30. They come in a bunch of colors. Don't get the plaid. It's not 2005. They come in a bunch of solid colors. So I got a khaki and a blue. I'm wearing the khaki right now. They look good. It's good khaki color. Yeah. They fit right. There's no stretch. I want a little bit more stretch. in my waistband because you know. I want to appear so let me.
Unknown Yeah. Oh yeah.
Unknown No, they're very cottony. Yeah. Super cottony. They breathe well. They fit nicely pre-wash and dry. They fit nicely post-wash and dry. Good pockets on them. The belt loops. So I find shorts have weird belt loops. They tend to be slim like you're going to be wearing canvas boat belts. And I'm the type of person who wears a thick leather Always. And a lot of my shorts don't accept my belt.
Unknown Oh yeah.
Unknown Yeah. These shorts accept my belt with room to slide my belt around and make adjustments and do what I need to do with my belt.
Andrew Can I ask you a weird question? Do it. How is the hip to belt area ratio? Uh, I'm a guy, I need a little bit more taper at the top block of my shorts.
Unknown I'm the same way, because I got the badonk. The booty. Just like you do. I also have thick thighs. So I'm a thick thigh, big hip taper dude. I'm shaped like a lady from the hips to the knees. Yeah. Very comfortable. Nice. No pinch, no squeeze. A little bit of muffin top, but that's just the nature of being a little bit chubby.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown Money. 17, 18 bucks for these shorts. I figured it was too cheap to not give it a try before I went and bought, you know, $40, $45 shorts that I know worked and that I know I liked. Reached out, took a risk with the Amazon Essentials. Super pleased I did. So for those of you out short shopping because it's summer, definitely consider these. They have a couple different inseam links. I think they have a 7, 9, 12. You should be buying 9.
Andrew Are they Amazon branded or are they a good thread?
Unknown No, they're Amazon Essentials. That's even the tag on the inside, Amazon Essentials. Nice. I've never tried them before. Like never tried any of them. I've seen them. I've seen the Amazon Essentials, whatever.
Andrew You know, I have some of the Goodthreads branded khakis and I really like those.
Unknown I have some Goodthreads t-shirts and they're super comfy. They feel really good on the nips. But these shorts.
Andrew Amazon Essentials.
Unknown Yeah. 18 bucks. That's great. Yeah. It's like going to Ross. Nobody else's business has been in them.
Andrew And you can order, you know, 400 pair if you want to. Yeah. And, uh, of that's always the thing about Ross. You go to Ross, you find something you really like and you are never, ever, you're never going to find that item again.
Unknown No, you'll find 20 of it that day, right? It's like it didn't exist after you leave the store. Uh, but yeah, like 15 or so colors, a couple of them were the plaid, but the other, like really the normal like chubbies colors, right? You've got your salmon, white, khaki, blue, green, What are the inseam lengths?
Andrew You said nine and what else?
Unknown I think there's a seven, nine, twelve. Oh, okay. I think.
Andrew I might get the sevens.
Unknown I just have the nine pulled up right now.
Andrew I've got really sexy quads. Get the twelfths. I got another thing, Andrew. Do me. All right. This is a weird one. This is a weird one. This is one of those things I bought. Actually, my wife bought it. One of the things we bought, she was like, oh, I've heard about this. I want to get these. And I was like, Uh, what? Do you get a sex swing? What are you talking about? It's a sex swing. Uh, no, no, Andrew. It's much, much worse. It is a sponge. It's a sponge.
Unknown So I wonder why you sent me that link and I was hoping it wasn't your other thing.
Andrew It is my other thing. So this is a sponge. They say, what do they say? It's called scrub daddy. America's Favorite sponge, I think, is their... The original Scrub Daddy.
Unknown America's favorite sponge.
Andrew America's favorite sponge. Registered trademark. So this is an item I've learned that became famous through Shark Tank. Through Shark Tank. So this guy developed a polymer sponge for 3M. I think 3M didn't wind up buying them. This guy just had all these products. And then at some point he realized, this thing's really fucking cool. Okay, I'm into it. Took it to Shark Tank. Shark Tank popped and I think that this is the highest revenue grossing product to ever come off of Shark Tank. Kim bought these because she's like, I've heard they're really great. And I was like, that's weird, man. It's weird that we're like looking for a sponge because the sponge is a thoughtless purchase in my mind. Dude, I'm telling you, it's the coolest sponge in the world. The texture is incredible. I mean, I use it on everything. I use it on our stove. I use it on dishes. I use it on the floors occasionally. I use it on everything.
Unknown I'm about to buy 10 to qualify for free shipping.
Andrew I use it on our cast iron with no soap. I use it on our aluminum.
Unknown Are you really a no soap on cast iron guy?
Andrew use a little bit of soap on cast iron. So there's some good science that says a little bit of soap on cast iron is totally fine, right? You've literally polymerized the oils. A little bit of soap is not gonna hurt them, but too much soap, that's a bad idea. Yeah. Because then you start to... You break it down and then you just rebuild the season. But a little bit of soap, I don't mind. Okay. A little bit of soap, I don't mind. But I've been using these things on everything and I'm just, I'm totally enamored with a sponge.
Unknown I'm going to read the little synopsis of it. Scrub Daddy's Flex Texture. Registered trademark. Changes based on your water temperature. In warm water, he's soft and more absorbent. Dude, I'm telling you. In cool water, he's firm for scrubbing seriously stuck on messes. He's ergonomic, doesn't scratch, wrenches free of debris, and resists odor for up to eight weeks. And it's this ridiculous little smiley face sun thing. And then they show all the functionalities of like why those holes are cut where they are.
Andrew And I'm like, oh, you're a genius. It's it's crazy. The cold versus hot water thing is nuts.
Unknown I'm annoyed that I like this. It's nuts. But I'm there's a scrub mommy. She's got Brillo pad on one side, man.
Andrew We got a three-pack. We got a three-pack, and I'm like, yeah, this is the truth. I'll be buying these.
Unknown It's the truth. Scrub Daddy is the truth. What the fuck? This is so stupid.
Andrew You're copping though, man. I'm telling you. I am. I'm going to buy them. If you don't have one, go to Amazon. You can buy one or three or whatever. Just pick them up. I'm telling you, you're going to love it. The Scrub Daddy is such a stupid thing. When my wife bought this, I was like, that's such a dumb thing to buy. And now that I have them, I will forever have fresh scrub daddies ready to pull out of the cabinet and use because it's just the use of this thing makes me happy.
Unknown I'm super pleased that I'm now aware of this. I'm super fucking annoyed that I'm excited about a sponge.
Andrew It's good. Andrew, here we are. We've done the thing that we do. We've talked about the best watches under $100. Definitive, there's no arguments coming because we've warned these fuckers off.
Unknown And these are watches we've worn, love, know, and like. We don't think you're fuckers.
Andrew We love you guys. Anything you want to add before we go? No. Just go buy a Scrub Daddy, you guys. Yeah, and an F91. Hey, thanks, you guys, for joining us for this episode of 1420 The Watch Clicker Podcast. We really liked having you. Check us out on Instagram. At 40 and 20 at the Watch Clicker. That's where we post daily stuff. We tell you about all the stuff going on the website. Speaking of the website, watchclicker.com. That's where we put weekly reviews, articles, other fun stuff that we write down, usually on computers.
Unknown I do have one coming that's handwritten.
Andrew If you want to support the show on the website and really we do need support, we need support to continue to do this. You can do so at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. that's
Unknown you