Episode 154 -Sleeper Watches Under $1,000

Published on Wed, 06 Oct 2021 23:59:00 -0700

Synopsis

The podcast hosts Andrew and Everett discuss their picks for affordable "sleeper" watches under $1,000 that they believe are underrated or overlooked. They each present three watch choices, covering a range of styles like dive watches, pilots watches, and unique vintage designs. They analyze the specifications, design elements, and value proposition of each watch, highlighting why they consider these timepieces to be hidden gems. The conversation also touches on various topics like craft beers, running, and other hobbies as casual banter between the two friends.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 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, how are you?
Everett I'm doing really well. You know, I think I always push my glasses up right as you're approaching my intro.
Andrew I'm not sure why. We have a routine. It's all built in. It's like this hundred and 153? 154? 154. 154 times we've done this.
Everett 154 times we've done this. That is really a lot of times. It's a lot of times. That's a lot of times. I don't know.
Andrew Um, and there are many of you out there who have listened to all 153 times. Yeah, that's nuts. And you're about to do it another time.
Everett That's nuts. I, I would, I have some guesses about who might be on that list. It's just you. I definitely haven't listened to them all for sure. 100% have not listened to every episode. Oh, because I've edited a couple. Um, well, I have edited almost every episode and the ones I haven't edited, I have listened to to see how badly I did like to check behind me. With that said, I do not always listen when I edit. So sometimes I'll say that's fair. Sometimes I'll sample. So audio is good here. Audio is good here. Audio is good here. And any timestamps I have, I edit back to front. Gotta remember to edit your timestamps from the back to the front.
Andrew Always back to front.
Everett Because if you start at the front.
Andrew And your timestamps change. Yeah, that sounds like a lesson learned the hard way.
Everett Many, many times. Way too many times for such a simple lesson.
Andrew You don't just write back to front at your timestamp. That would be just like a thing that I would write every time. Andrew, how are you? I'm good. We're on the tail end of weekend. We're enjoying some white claws because somebody I know is back on keto. Back on keto.
Everett Yeah. Back on keto. I have an update. Do it. This is nobody's going to care about this. You barely care about this. But I, starting October 1st, have run every single day. Ooh. Running streak is back on.
Andrew Are you doing a full mile?
Everett Because that would be, well, I've run, I've run between two and three miles at least three times now. So I'm going exceptionally slow. My legs are in, in the worst shape they've ever been in my entire life. That tracks. Yeah. So like right now my quads are on fire. Um, they're just, I just, just out of shape, right? It's like couch to
Andrew couch to 5k or whatever. Your bounce back is going to be shorter than the typical couch to 5k.
Everett I'm sure of that. Yeah. I'm sure of that. Uh, but it's been pretty neat. It's been pretty neat to be running again. I can't believe the, the condensed recovery time, you know, because the injury was such a plod, right? It's like, I'm just never going to get better having come off of a surgery and just instantly Being able to use my body again has been crazy, and good, and amazing, and I love it.
Andrew I'm happy for you. Thanks. I'm glad you're running. And it's perfect because now it's wintertime so we can't golf, but we can fish.
Everett We can still golf. This is very much still golf weather.
Andrew As long as it's not pouring. Would you feel comfortable wading?
Everett Wading?
Andrew Yeah, like to fish.
Everett Oh, yeah. Yeah, I could wade right now. Let's go do that.
Andrew We'll get the boat set up, we'll do some salmon runs.
Everett All right. All right.
Andrew Beyond that, terrific. I again, so we're going to circle back to me since you asked me before you rudely interrupted. I'm doing quite well. I am enjoying White Claw right now, but the first of the winter beers are hitting the shelf. I found Widmer Burr, the hopping red at the grocery store and just got excited. So I love winter beers. I like winter time because I like cold, but winter beers are where it is at. And I think Burr is my favorite beyond like, you know, the normal, um, abyss releases and things of that ilk, but favorite normal drinking beer. I could drink Burr year round and it's back. I have some in my fridge and I drank some today.
Everett Winter beer is my favorite beer season, right? Those are any sort of brown, red, Oktoberfest, amber, anything in that realm is where I like to be. You are a brown beer guy. I am. I dig, uh, obviously I dig an IPA. I dig a good stout, but my jam, my all day, everyday jam, something in that amber to brown range.
Andrew I feel like you came to that conclusion a couple of weeks ago when we were drinking Oktoberfest beers here.
Everett More recently than you'd expect for a 40 damn near 40 year old man who's been drinking beer since he was like 17. Uh, yeah, no, I came to that realization pretty late, but I mean it, it's just, and you know, here's the other thing. I like all beers.
Andrew Yeah. It's like pizzas. You're not going to give me a pizza that I don't.
Everett That's right. People have, you know, say, Oh, well Chicago pizza isn't even pizza. It's like, who cares?
Andrew I'm going to put it in my face.
Everett It's going to be delicious. Fucking bread and cheese. And it's going to be awesome.
Andrew I'm weirded out by Detroit style pizza with like, the sauce on the top. I don't know that I've ever had that. I just saw a Pizza Hut commercial for it, calling it Detroit style pizza, and they make the pizza. It's like focaccia bread with cheese and toppings, and then they just pour the sauce on top. So it's kind of like a wet sandwich, like a wet, like a wet open face sandwich, but I'm still down with that line It's bread and cheese and toppings and it's going to be it's me hot and put in my face.
Everett That's how I feel about beer. Although some beer does not taste good. Uh, some doesn't, but I'll still drink it. But by and large, any decent beer I'm going to drink, but yeah, Amber's October fest, man, we got to get some good October fest. Are they going to, are they all gone?
Andrew They're pretty close to it. You're going to, you need to make a run like this week.
Everett I'll do it. I'll do it. I don't know. I'll have to store them. Why? Because I can't drink them right now. I'll store them. No, this, this man, this man's wife bought him beer once and wanted it and didn't want it to get consumed. So she put it in my garage cause she knows I drink beer on Thursdays and Andrew drinks beer many more days.
Andrew Well, also because it was a gift and it was meant to be a surprise in the future. So yeah, that's, that's why I hide Christmas presents because I don't want them. I don't want the surprise spoiled. Not because I don't want the person to have the thing. Dick.
Everett So, we should talk about watches today. We're talking about watches. We get there.
Andrew Yeah. We get there. Record time today. We always do. 7 minutes and 45 seconds. This is record time.
Everett And we had a lot of news. We had a lot of things to talk about. It's not true. We had no news, but no.
Andrew Tons of nudes.
Everett We're talking about sleeper watches. Yeah. I like this category. This is a fun one. I think thousand dollars is, uh, that sort of ceiling for a lot of people, but it doesn't feel insane.
Andrew Well, it depends on how many watches you bought.
Everett I'm sure that's true. I'm sure that's true for, for a first time watch buyer. It might feel insane. Anyone who's been in the hobby or even anyone who's like, I'm going to have a watch that I really love. People, uh, people are able to set their own budgets, but I think in, in the grand scheme of things, this is within almost every definition of enthusiast affordable watches there is. Yeah.
Andrew It's interesting. The, the gap for me, isn't it right at a thousand? It seems like that threshold's about 1300. There seems to be a, a change at the $1,300 mark.
Everett In terms of your emotion. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew It's weird. So we're, we're, we're doing sleepers and we're not doing sleepers. Oh, I've never heard of this watch before. Right. And that's cool. We're doing sleepers that we think are cool. Maybe not talked about enough because of their coolness. Off the beaten path. Yeah. Off the beaten path. Some, some do a little, a little digging for them. So I stratified mine out. I did some tiering. I did a sub-500, a sub-800, and a sub-1000. I did not.
Everett No, you didn't. I did right at a thousand, maybe a little less than a thousand, and maybe barely a thousand if you work a little bit.
Andrew Yeah, but the point of this is to highlight There's some, there's some stuff out there that you're not going to see getting pimped all over the social media world. That's not going to be getting a ton of reviews. It's not going to be making the big circuits. You're not going to see big press releases on them. And if you're willing to put the time and energy into finding something cool, it's out there for you.
Everett Yeah. You know, what I found is at a thousand bucks, there's just a really, a lot of cool stuff out there. A lot of, um, quality at a thousand bucks, some boring stuff, some odd stuff. A lot of Longines, a lot of Hamilton, really good Hamilton stuff. You know, your lower end big brands and obviously the micro brands, the high quality micro brands live at about out or about a thousand bucks. You can get into, for instance, one of the watches we're not going to talk about, but we both, simultaneously or concurrently kind of decided that we weren't going to talk about, but the Tag Heuer Formula One, you can get Quartz Formula One brand new for less than a thousand bucks. So it's crazy. If you have a thousand bucks to spend on a watch, you can buy some really cool shit.
Andrew The only thing you can't get is a label. If you're looking for a technology, If something about, like if you want a Speedmaster, you have to pay the Speedmaster premium. But if you want that kind of chromograph, that style, it's there. If you want an automatic GMT, it's there. If you want moon phases, it's there. There is nothing besides, you know, some like real super complications, grand complications or whatever. You're not getting that south of a thousand. You're not getting that south of five thousand though. Yeah, it's all available in the one in the sub
Everett $1,000 category. And as I think we'll find, you can get some labels at that money. So what do you think? Do you want to kick us off, Andrew?
Andrew I do. And so I'm going to go in ascending order with mine. So I'm going to start with my... Your cheapest watch? My least expensive watch. I'm ready for it. I went with the Scurfa Diver 1 titanium that's my pick number one it's titanium that's a cool watch to have we all know about scarfa that it's a i've heard of it it's it's a it's a diver's watch brand fubu quick t2 titanium so it's titanium's tiered one through five right one through five I think that's right. I think it's T1 through five. So you're not getting the highest grade titanium, but you're still getting a quality titanium case. 500 meters of water resistance. That's a lot. A Ronda 713 quartz movement.
Everett Fantastic switch, rebuildable or serviceable quartz.
Andrew Four gaskets on the screw down crown. That's to be expected for 500 meters. But you're just getting this super overbuilt, high water resistance, crazy light up the room loom in a cool package. It's going to weigh next to nothing. It's a little bit on the, well, no. So I thought it was a little bit bigger. It's a 40 millimeter case. It's 47.7 lug to lug 14 and a half thick. Yeah. No thick, but it's going to wear like tight and it's titanium. So it's going to feel small. You're not going to have that same thick booty sitting on top of your wrist. 20 millimeter straps. And through scurfa, you can also buy bracelets to fit it. So it's not coming on a bracelet for this, uh, this price tag of, so it's £205, 280 bucks. I don't know if they're shipping or customs costs at that point, but you're getting a lot of bang for a pretty low amount of buck.
Everett It's not a lot of bang for not many bucks. Uh, Finishing is great, man. You got a helium escape valve in case you're doing whippets or whatever. It's fantastic.
Andrew And I think what I like about this is this is a very by design tool watch. Yeah. That still is attractive. This isn't. I mean, you could wear this as a dress diaper. This is no. This is no less attractive than really any of the dive watches on the market.
Everett I mean, you know what you're getting with Scarfa, right? It's 40 mil. I mean, it's essentially a sub case. Uh, you got crown guards, you know what you're getting with it.
Andrew All the usual stuff for under 300 US dollars in a titanium case. I think this stands up against your, uh, your Divex.
Everett I was just going to say it's no Divex offshore, but it clearly is. Yeah. Better finishing. Um, yeah, this is a fantastic watch. And the bracelets, the bracelets are affordable too.
Andrew Yeah. I think, I think this, Skrf has to me a sleeper brand entirely, their whole lineup. is I think overlooked at large by the watch community.
Everett Yeah, no, I think that's fair. I think that's fair. So I've got a watch. Can we talk about it?
Andrew Why not? I needed to get my beverage.
Everett Uh, my watch is a brand that I don't think we talked about on the show. I'm sure we've talked about this brand before, but I think we don't normally talk about this brand because much like Steinhardt, I think Squalla is known primarily for its sub homages. And I know that's not my thing and I suspect it's not your thing either. I think that Squalla and Steinhardt both make fantastic watches and I think it's, you know, when we have talked about them in the past, it's because of their watches that are not Rolex homages. Correct. And today's going to be the same. So I, I know Squala is this historic brand with a lot of historic brand identity, but it's not something I've really ever gotten into and that has not changed. However, in researching this episode, I found a watch that has really intrigued me. The name of the watch is the Squala 20 Atmos Corallo. I may be pronouncing that that wrong. I'm sure it's Correo. It's some Italian probably Corallo, Corallo, Corallo. The Corallo chronograph. Uh, this watch is fascinating to me. So this is a dive style chronograph watch. Um, it's got very, would you call this, uh, I might call this sort of 80s Hoyer aesthetic, perhaps.
Andrew Yeah, that's where it looks out of. It looks very late 80s, early 90s.
Everett And there's a reason for that. There's a reason for that. So Squala, being one of these companies that's made cases for forever, Squala found a bunch of new old stock cases. This case, which is a 38 millimeter dive chronograph case, And they had a bunch of 7750s and they took 7750s and stuck them in this case and released a new watch. This is literally a 1980s case that's been modernized with function and feature. 38 millimeters, 44 and a half millimeter lug to lug.
Andrew Oh, it's just going to be a peach just sitting on top of your wrist like a nickel.
Everett That's right. It is a 7750. It's a 200 meter water resistance 7750. So like a tube of nickels. That's right. So you do have a 15 millimeter case to deal with. So that's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. You know me. I like a girthy watch.
Andrew Get that booty on him.
Everett 20 millimeter lug width. So you're going to be able to use everything on it. I find this watch delightful. There's two dial iterations. There's a matte white and a sunburst blue they have gilt hands and indices which is an interesting decision really sort of iconic squalor aesthetics in terms of the fonts it's a day date look this watch is not going to be everybody's cup of tea so please understand i am not saying this watch is going to be generally loved i however think it's totally delightful i love the big fat, curved bezel. Yeah. Oversized font on that bezel. You've got this huge 1 to 15 countdown timer or not a countdown timer, but the first 15 minutes are your dive timer. 200 meters, 200 meters of water resistance, no screw down pushers, which I think is fantastic. I don't know what else to say about this. I will have a link in the show notes. The case, the case finishing is superb and fun.
Andrew It's exactly what you're going to expect at a squalor kind of thin looks.
Everett I might not be everybody's deal, but I just think this watch is terrific. I've never heard of this. I've never heard of this before today. Mercedes hands again. Again, there's a lot of weird on this watch, which is kind of my jam. This is very much an Everett watch, uh, cause it's kind of weird and quirky, but also still looks like a watch. It doesn't look like it's trying to be weird and quirky. It just is weird and quirky, which is what I
Andrew I think that makes it, I think it shows that it's deliberate. It's not ironic design decisions. That's right. This is, looking at this watch, you know it's a Squala. Yeah. You just do. There's no, like, oh yeah, I recognize that.
Everett The printing on the dial, so the two versions of this, the matte white comes in at under a thousand, so it counts. There's also a sunburst blue that comes in at $1,090. I think I probably slightly prefer the matte blue, but I'll squeak this into the show with the matte white. you didn't you didn't link me the blue oh i don't like the blue as much oh really yeah well i'm not a big i'm not a big sunburst guy yeah and it is it is that is a sunburst yeah i really i really dig this watch man 15 millimeters just all the all the watch you could ever want and more it looks really good on that leather too fantastic medallion case back it's got that big booty
Andrew uh that many people hate but that i think works just fine i i really like this watch and i have nothing else to say i think that's a good pick i think this is maybe the perhaps the the the iconic sleeper pick the quintessential thousand dollar sleeper yeah like where where is this and why why does nobody know about this watch why has nobody seen this watch and i'm sure not a single reviewer has ever reviewed it. I bet we could write them and get this in.
Everett You know, I did try to find reviews of it and, and couldn't find any.
Andrew We could be the first.
Everett Yeah. If you know someone at Gnomon, uh, holla at your boy and I'll do the, I'll do the review. Cause nom nom. If you at home know someone at Gnomon, make that connect.
Andrew You know, I, I every once in a while get, uh, Instagram messages in my request folder on like my Instagram. Yeah, me too that our people are They're clearly just spamming followers of watch accounts, right? And It's always just these terrible brands, right? Just terrible. Okay. We're looking for people to be ambassadors Why would you want my personal profile page right as an ambassador for your brand? How desperate are you? I It's not a prolific page, ladies and gentlemen. So my next pick, the Hamilton American Classic Handwined. I'm going to read the reference. It's the tank made by Hamilton, but it's the H-135-19711. Jesus. Yeah, it's long. It's no Bulova though, right? No, no Bulova references. It's everything you know and love. But made by Hamilton. It's got the classic Roman numerals, the classic shape, a little bit more curvature to the sides of a case. It's not a full rectangle H case. Little softness in the sides. Roman numeral markers. Roman numerals, blue hands. Have we talked about this watch on the show before? I don't know that we have. We've talked about the Tank several times in iterations of it, but I don't know that we've ever talked about this specific watch. It's got the classic Hamilton logo at the 12 o'clock with the dual stars. And then the print, Hamilton. It's a hand cranker. It's such a good dress watch. And I love it. It's 600 bucks. I can't believe we've never talked about this. There's only been a few people who have done reviews on it. And the nice thing about it being Hamilton is they can afford to have watches out like this that nobody buys. And it's affordable for really any true dress watch. Here's what I know is going to get you the most excited. I can't find the spec ADR power reserve ADR power reserve forever. It's a thirty four and a half millimeter case, which is deceptive because it's just it's a rectangle, but it's thirty eight lug to lug. So this is going to wear.
Everett This is more like a dress watch.
Andrew Yeah yeah eleven point two thick twenty two millimeter lug width.
Everett But I actually don't love the lugs on this. And that's going to be, I think, a sticking point for someone who looks at this. The aesthetic of the lug with that inner curve. I'm not sure that's going to be everybody's cup of tea.
Andrew It's going to be a little miss because there's no way to do an appropriate looking straight link bracelet on it. You couldn't put a straight link mesh or something on there because of that inner curve.
Everett But this is... Although I think this thing would bang on shark mesh or something.
Andrew This is going to live on leather. Live on stamped croc or maybe even true croc. That's what this is. This is a dress watch. But it's a banger. You don't find tanks from iconic companies at this price point. Obviously, you're not going to find a Cartier at this price. Right. You can find plenty of, you know, here's a rectangle. It looks like a tank. I think this is maybe one of the, I mean, there's got to be something that beats it out there, but I don't, I don't know of it for this style design and then what you know you're getting out of it.
Everett I think it's a great pick. Uh, it's, uh, it's really aesthetically pleasing to the case. Finishing looks fantastic.
Andrew It's a 2,801, uh, modified caliber.
Everett So I don't know what they do to it in house, but it's, it's a 20, it's, it's the, whatever the ETA age 50 and they pull the rotor, right? Cool, man. What'd you got next? I've got another watch. Uh, you know what? I think we have talked. We've talked about a similar watch to this one, but it had a, uh, a seconds. It had a small seconds, right?
Andrew Maybe. I don't know what you're doing next.
Everett No, no. I mean your watch your Hamilton.
Andrew I think we talked about a watch that looked similar to that, but with small, we've talked about similar watches, but I don't know that we ever talked about this one.
Everett Okay. So I've got a watch. This is a, this is an interesting watch. This is a, Revival Brand. So we've heard a lot about Revival Brands in the last several months.
Andrew It's kind of been the thing in the last five years.
Everett Yeah. I mean, we we had Rich and Katie of Wellsboro on. I know that Bill Yao has revitalized. I think it's Tornek Rayville. Anyway, Revival Brands are a thing. And this is a Revival Brand that's been in play again for several years now. But it's a brand called Le Jour. It's a French brand. Historically, I think that they were a Yema brand. Yema? Yema? I think that Yema distributed their watches through this brand, Le Jour. And now it's an independent brand. I think it's out of Hong Kong. But they're making some really neat watches. I think that they're making some automatic chronographs, which are pricey and, and you know, the price of chronographs always turns people off, but they also have some absolutely dope classically designed dive watches. And the one I am going to talk about today is one I haven't heard a lot about, uh, which makes it appropriate for today's episode of sleeper watches. This is called the hammerhead diver. Um, and it is what it is. It is a no shit, 200 meter, 42 millimeter dive watch is what it is. Uh, with a very, very vintage style case and everything else. Totally modern.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett No Fotina, no aluminum bezel. This has got a ceramic bezel, fantastic finishing. Sapphire crystal, full steel, everything on the bracelet, applied indices, and it costs $720.
Andrew With a Sellita automatic.
Everett With a Swiss automatic movement. What's going on with the lugs? You know, they're cushion case lugs, right? So you get this weird step. I don't know if it's weird. I think it looks nice. But yeah, there is a thing there, right, where you have a step down It actually reminds me of a little bit of the Vostok 710 case. This is a thick watch, right? So dimensions being 42 by 48 on the lug-to-lug by 14 and perhaps a half based on one written review I read. So it's going to be a full-size dive watch. This is not going to be a a skinny svelte dressed up.
Andrew The aristocrystal on that is going to be deceptive though. I think that's right. I don't think that's going to ride as high as the dimensions would indicate.
Everett I think that's exactly right. And Le Jour just does a great job with everything. Their case backs are crazy good. Their fonts are good.
Andrew The loom is excessive. There's so much loom.
Everett Absolutely outstanding. For just a little bit more money, $980, you can get this same watch, basically this same watch, in a GMT. So the Hammerhead also comes in a GMT version, SW330, for $980. 200 meters of water resistance. The GMT comes with a linen dial, which is not my thing at all. I would much prefer if they had flat dials on this. But in terms of linen dials, it looks great. Slightly different indices, slightly different hands, but it's also really, really good, dude.
Andrew So that's crazy that they're able to do that at that price.
Everett I mean, these are like microbrand prices. Yeah. And I guess that Le Jour is maybe not a micro-brand, but something like a micro-brand.
Andrew I think you nailed it. It's a very vintage brand without the vintage stuff that we don't like. It's very Zodiac. It's got that feel of really classic designs. Not all Zodiac, but that's what comes to mind. In the way of a little bit more well-known brand, that's what comes right to mind. Like, oh, I could I could see this with a Zodiac logo on it and I wouldn't necessarily be surprised.
Everett Now, now much like my first pick, this is a thicker watch and its case profile is very what I'd call slab sided, right? So that is not everybody's cup of tea. I think it looks great on this watch and I think with the style of watch it makes a ton of sense. So, um, yeah, 700 and change for the for the straight diver, 720 for the straight diver and 980 for the GMT. Um, dang, I'm actually super impressed with this watch and I'm surprised that we don't hear more of it, which I guess is what makes it a sleeper.
Andrew Yeah. Not a whole lot of anglaise on that, on that case. That thing is, that's right.
Everett There are polished, I mean there are polished chamfers, but they're pretty skinny and they're only at the top.
Andrew They're not, they're not to,
Everett to contour the case they're just to they're just to bounce light and create some design shape classic classic slap side yeah coinage bezel i mean this it's actually a really freaking cool watch cool hammerhead stamp on the uh on the case back yep yeah and and the bracelet looks fantastic it's an oyster it's an oyster bracelet i know lejour also does like a jubilee style bracelet this is just a no shit to a watch oyster i dig it man yeah
Andrew Yeah, this would be a really good vacation diver, like tropical vacation diver. It has all the looks to it. It's just polished enough that you could make it look nice for dinner.
Everett And they come in multiple colors. I think when these came out, they had 2824s in them. They've transitioned to Salidas, but if you go to Nomon, they've got several colors available.
Andrew And I can vouch for Nomon. I've purchased from them and had really good experience.
Everett Yeah, no, they're legit. They're a super legit company.
Andrew More, more vouchers, the more better. Right. That's right. Uh, yeah.
Everett Don't pick. What's your third watch Andrew? I mean, I actually know what it is. You do know.
Andrew My third watch, the Damasco DS30. And this is maybe not as much of a sleeper watch as I kind of initially felt But I think that Damasco in the way of a Fleeger brand is a bit of a sleeper brand.
Everett They feel like a sleeper to me. Yeah.
Andrew So I chose the 39 millimeter bead blasted submarine steel case in gray. A couple of reasons. Number one, I think Damasco as a brand is a little bit of a sleeper. I think they're often overlooked and I can't remember what Will had next to the Damasco. But he was trying to weigh out the Damasco versus. And what it came down to was he... Maybe a Zen. Oh, yeah. No, it had to have been. He was tempted by the Damasco. And that speaks to what's coming out of that brand. And we'll move past that. But just in a first person opinion, it's bringing some Bring in some chops. So this is a 39 millimeter, really classic kind of sector-y, fleager-y pilot's watch. Super appropriately sized. I chose the gray because I love gray dials. I wish gray dials were the thing this year. I made some projections last year that gray dials were going to be the thing. Fail. Womp womp. It was a miss. But I like pilot's watches. I like them a lot. I like really simple. I like the geometry of all the markers. I dig this watch. So it's an ETA movement, 39 millimeter case, 20 millimeter lugs. And here's the big thing. For most pilot's watches, you're not getting good water resistance. You're getting 200 meters of water resistance out of this watch.
Everett Yeah, this feels very much like a brand that is aiming to be an alternative to Zen, right? Because of availability or what, it feels like they're trying to say, hey, we're here. If you can't find that Zen, we're here.
Andrew And we're doing exactly the same shit. I'm sure their finishing's different. They're using similar movements. But by and large, if you're making a Flieger type A, everyone's making the same type A or the same type B. The only difference is the branding and the case finishing.
Everett Yeah. You know, and this is Damascus, one of those brands too, where it's adherence are very vocal about how their watch is as good as the other stuff. You know, the two I think about, um, The two I think about in that range are, uh, Damasco and Fortis, right? You know, these are watches that are perpetually overlooked and are competing with the big boys every step of the way.
Andrew And not just competing. And maybe the problem is that they're not competing with the big boys because they're, they're producing comparable quality products at a significantly lower price and getting absolutely none of the fanfare.
Everett Yeah. Yeah, that I think that's right. Yeah, no, this is a, it's a gorgeous watch. Perfect, perfect proportions. The crown is, Oh, it's good.
Andrew Nice, big, it's kind of subtle crown guards, but crown guards nonetheless, really classic design, gray dial, black date wheel.
Everett Yeah. You know, an unlock a watch. Uh, there's another watch that this sort of reminds me of a little bit, that we've talked about on the show a lot, uh, the Laco, yeah, Ochin and Augsburg, you know, which is a much more affordable watch and not going to be anywhere near as, oh yeah, we didn't, this is $961 from, uh, Long Island watch. So, so unlike those watches, this is going to be a really tight, tightly machined, um, fantastic watch, but just design wise, This thing does not have that real slab-sided Flieger appearance that you get with some of these more affordable pilot watches. The shape on this thing is really good. The case sides are nice and slim. The case back is well-rounded. It's a great watch, man. I want one. Yeah. I kind of want one, too.
Andrew In gray.
Everett You get Twinsies watches.
Andrew Ooh. Yes. Good pick. Yeah. Nothing else to say. Good lume. This is my sleeper pick number three. What's your number three?
Everett Okay. So this is a cheat. This is a pure cheat and it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be in this type of episode if you didn't cheat.
Andrew That's right.
Everett That's what I was trying to say. Uh, and so I did cheat and I'm okay with it. I think it's a good cheat. So this is a watch that you cannot buy on long Island or no mon or Joma probably, uh, unless they find some in a warehouse. That's right. But rather, this is a watch that you're going to have to go probably Chrono24 to find.
Andrew Set up your watch recon alert.
Everett Or if you have a broker or a used guy that you know, you can go that route too. But I was astounded by this watch. Yeah. I was astounded by this watch. I can't remember who it was. Someone from Fratello, I think, recommended this as a watch that you can get under $1,000. And I don't think that's true.
Andrew It's not true.
Everett today. These watches come in at between about $1,050 and much more. But it's a watch from a brand that you know. This is a watch from a Swiss brand called Omega. Have you heard of that brand?
Andrew I mean only vaguely. I'm just kind of peripherally familiar with it.
Everett What's more is it's a mechanical chronograph from Omega for a thousand bucks. Today. And okay, so that's a little bit of a cheat because I don't know if you can really call this a chronograph. I wouldn't. Okay, so what this watch is, this is the Omega Geneve Chronostop. We'll just call it the Chronostop, the Omega Chronostop. Omega. These were made for just a couple years, starting in 1966. And what it is, is a single pusher, single, single chronograph hand. So the chronograph, it's a one minute, 60 second chronograph. It's two minutes. One minute. One, it's a 60, it's not, it's just 60 seconds. Don't be a jerk. A 60 second chronograph. It's a single pusher. You push the pusher once to start the chronograph. And then when you're done timing the thing that you want to time, which is going to take less than 60 seconds, it must, you push and hold that pusher again. If you don't hold, you will not be able to see the elapsed time. Cause as soon as you let that pusher go, it goes back to zero.
Andrew This watch was clearly not one of the watches used to time the Olympic events.
Everett So that is a very discreet purpose. I think that the lack of a tachometer on this watch is a little odd because it would be perfect for timing miles, right? So how fast am I going? You press it, you hold it. So you either need to know your tachometer scale, which I think many, many people do, or you need to have some sort of reference. But these are very racing inspired dials. There's several different dials. Um, and And I think the most interesting thing about these is that several of them have the dial turned at 90 degrees so that the 12 o'clock actually occurs at what would normally be 3 o'clock. Now, those are expensive. Those are, I think, the driving or the racing models. So that you can do all your manipulations with your hand on the wheel and still look at your... So the idea is that you wear it on the inside of your wrist. and you actuate it with your left hand or your right hand, whatever, and you can see that on the inside of your wrist with your hand on the steering wheel. That's cool. Nobody's gonna do that, but it is cool. But you could. And there are a lot more money. So you started about $2,500 for those, $2,300, $2,500.
Andrew Can't just pop the crystal off and twist it 90 degrees?
Everett 36 millimeters.
Andrew Finally chose an appropriately sized watch. With no running seconds, this is a bizarro watch.
Everett No running seconds, two hands, it is a bizarro watch, which for me makes it fucking cool as shit.
Andrew This is a pure Everett watch.
Everett So there's a Rolex, there's like a prototype Rolex that's similar, and I'm not gonna, I think it's the Zero Graph, that is similar in function. I think it operates almost oppositely, right? Same kind of thing, but when you push it, Anyway, it operates like the other way, like you have to push and hold it to get your time or something like that. Anyway.
Andrew Oh, it's like a running seconds.
Everett Yes, yes, that's right. Um, in any event, I think that these watches are really kind of fun. Um, and different and it, everybody talks about how practical watches are. This watch is the opposite of practical and that's what I want. I don't even set my watch most of the time. What I want is something interesting and cool. So for a thousand bucks, you can get an Omega and it's cool as shit. And people be like, what is that? And you're like, oh yeah, look at this. And you know, I don't know, these old movements.
Andrew You can get a lot of other Omegas for under a thousand dollars that aren't so weird.
Everett I mean, I don't know. You can get some Seamasters for about the same price, but I think that this is about the most affordable Omega you can find. And I think it's cool. I think this is way cooler than a freaking stainless steel Seamaster OG Seamaster.
Andrew I mean, no, you're, you're, you're right about that, but you can find DeVils all day long.
Everett No, you're right. You're right. This is way fucking cooler than a DeVil.
Andrew Yeah. No, obviously it's way cooler than a DeVil, but it's also way weirder.
Everett So if you're like me and you like weird watches, this might be the one for you.
Andrew And if you don't care if they run, this is definitely it. Though this specific one has just been serviced.
Everett So we can say, yeah, we're linking, we're linking to one of these that's been serviced. If you want this, you're interested in this, go to the show notes. I can't imagine it will be available very long, but you can get one of these right now for $1,000, $1,040 serviced. I thought it was $1,090. Yeah, you might be right.
Andrew 141. So you were more right than I was.
Everett And it looks like it's in great shape. It looks fantastic. Chrono 24.
Andrew It's a 1967 production.
Everett Authenticity guaranteed. Verified dealer. Secure payment via escrow. Coming from the Netherlands.
Andrew The Netherlands seems to have gotten a lot of good watches. It seems like whenever I'm on Chrono 24 looking for something really specific that I'm like, I'll never be able to afford it, but I'm going to look anyway. Dude, look at that. That is such a cool watch. It is good. I know. And that's why he pulled up the Damasco DS30. It seems like a lot of them come from the Netherlands. No box, no papers on this though. Nope. It's a 1967. I'm just saying I've seen 1940s boxes before. Once.
Everett It was not the original box. It is a box. I know exactly the watch you're thinking about. I really want to buy that watch. Yeah, don't. So our friend, Rich, Time Titans of Wellsboro Watch Company has this 1940s Patek Calatrava yellow gold, and it is immaculate and perfect in every single way. Basically the most perfect watch ever made.
Andrew Perhaps, yeah.
Everett And I almost risked divorce to buy this thing.
Andrew No, no, no. You almost started divorce proceedings. It wouldn't be risking a divorce. That's a certainty.
Everett The divorce would be certain.
Andrew Yeah. And the only thing you could take, you would take away from the divorce is probably the Speedmaster. That watch wouldn't even be, you wouldn't even be able to get it. Yeah. That, that watch is really, it was absolutely gorgeous. He handed it to me and I was like, no, I shouldn't touch this. No, no, whatever. Touch it, play with it, wear it. I was like, I should not do
Everett It would not qualify for today's show, but it was less money than I would have thought. Yeah. At least to us.
Andrew Yeah. And really everything there was a lot less than I would have expected it to be. Which is, I don't know, that's maybe a problem. So you have any thoughts about this show? I want people to search out what they want. It's out there. If you've got the ass to go make the perfect watch, to say, you know what, fuck it, I want to make what I want to wear. Maybe invest some of that time into finding it because it exists. And it exists for way less than you think it does. And I think that's the idea of our show kind of in general, but of this show specifically, there's some shit out there that is really cool and is not getting mainstream marketing. It's not getting a ton of media outlet marketing. It's not the darling of Instagram, but it's out there and it's cool as shit. We're talking about the SSB-031, because that's what I'm wearing today. Yeah. This will never be a darling of Instagram. Nope.
Everett It's $135. $125. $125 on Amazon right now. SSB-031 Seiko, the 40 and 20 chronograph.
Andrew It's so good. So good, dude. This qualifies as another sleeper watch. Yeah. It's as cool as cool gets.
Everett You know, I said to you, I walked in and I thought maybe you were wearing a Tag Heuer. It just, you know, Andrew's got the L3 one, which is the ionized bezel. And I can't recommend that bezel enough because it just looks phenomenal. You got it, what, on a Barton Silicone Elite, an old beat to shit Barton Silicone Elite that would, if you want a rubber strap that gets better with age, Barton Silicone, now that thing's going to tear on you at some point.
Andrew It's silicone. I think the, I think the spring bars are going to go first.
Everett It's going to tear.
Andrew But it's 20 bucks, so I don't care.
Everett But it looks so good in the meantime, right? Yeah, that's just a fantastic watch.
Andrew The gray one. You've all seen the gray one on the C63 that I have. And we didn't talk about any Christopher Ward. And I think a lot of Christopher Ward is kind of sleepery because their value proposition against what they're competing with.
Everett Yeah, I think value proposition more than sleeper.
Andrew But that gray on the white C63 is It was made for that.
Everett Speaking of the Barton Silicone Elite now. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think, I think your, your summation was perfect. You find the thing you want, uh, and, and it might take some digging. Enjoy, enjoy the oddities. Enjoy the weird single pusher, 60 second chronograph, if that's your thing. And also don't, you know, I'm very, very used to doing things on this show. whether it's the topic or the watches I pick that I think are really cool and having people be like, what the fuck is wrong with you? I'm okay with that. And you should be okay with that too, because more than anything, I think what we aim to do is inspire, inspire you to be the collector you want to be, right? Or the enthusiast you want to be. So, you know, you don't have to like the things we like, but what you need to be aware of is there's options out there. You can have this really enigmatic, wonderful collection, not to use that as jargon, but just, you know, watches that you truly love and prize because they're cool and not because they're Instagram. And there's nothing wrong with having a fucking Instagram darling either.
Andrew So no, if you love your black dates up, you should love that power to the people, but also don't buy it just because the darling of Instagram. I love a black dates up.
Everett So who doesn't? Andrew, other things, man. What do you got?
Andrew I have another thing. I found it's a YouTube page that I've been kind of aware of, but I've been watching more of his stuff. It's called I like to make stuff.
Everett That's his YouTube channel. I both know exactly what that means and have no clue what's going to be on the channel.
Andrew And that's it, right? That's exactly it. So, uh, The recent project on his web page, so you go to his YouTube, it's different. But on his web page, it's a Lego sorter. It's the guy obviously has kids. My guessing is in his mid-ish 30s. And he created a Lego sorter. And it's just this 3D printed. As you do. Yeah, right. It's just this 3D printed sieve that sorts out all your Lego sizes and shapes so he can dump them back into totes for his kids. One of the things that I watched today, actually, was this, uh, it's a locking picture frame for, for to cover a wall safe. So he, it's a, it's a tutorial video. He mounts this wall safe and then 3d prints to identical maze plates. And now imagine a oval like a with, where are we going with this? I'm just going to explain the plate. Okay. So so imagine a maze through this this plate and he mounts these plates these identical plates into the back of the picture frame and that's what hangs on it. So in order to remove the picture from the wall, you need you have to complete the maze wonderful and and reach the point. Then he wired those two plates to little siren alarms with a nine volt battery and showed you this whole process showed you he didn't show you the 3D printing but 3D printing isn't really a process that you need to see. because you build it in a CAD and you launch and you go. Show the entire rest of the process, show the wiring, and then it's not super secure, right? You just yank shit out of the wall. But it's just a fun, quirky, little puzzle maze to mount a picture onto the wall. And imagine all the things you could put on your wall that your wife could never take off because she could never figure out the maze. But just things like that. I mean, he shows the the process of like what you don't see in TV kitchen remodels. Like, you got to measure all this shit and you got to build this all out in CAD and you got to do all these things. And he kind of, he brings some perspective. So it's ranging from the fun and silly to really practical of making things. That's just what he does. He likes to make things.
Everett He likes to make things. He's our kind of guy. Exactly our kind of guy. Like, I can do that.
Andrew That sounds wonderful. I'll check it out. Disproportionate confidence to his abilities.
Everett I assume there will be a link in the show notes. There will be. I will click on it. And you, you at home, you should click on that. I've got another thing. Do me. It's a weird one. I don't know if it's a weird one. It's always weird. It's always weird. So this is, we were talking before we started recording today and I said, you know, I don't know, I've, you know, kind of struggling with my other thing this week. I have another thing, but I feel underqualified to talk about it. But it is actually been the other thing in my life this week that's been the most present. Uh, and, and so when I say I'm underqualified to talk, I am not, this is music and I am not a music critic. And the last time, maybe the only time I've talked about music is another thing. People had opinions and they didn't like that. I had an opinion. You talked about a Christmas album. Oh yeah. We've talked about two. Well, we've both anyway. Uh, no, I said, I said my other thing was Nicki Minaj's verse on monster.
Andrew which I still today, you, you, you did, you did opine that it was maybe the best, best hip hop verse of all time.
Everett And I still feel that way, but people didn't like that. People got mad. So I don't think we'll have as many harsh opinions because I'm not going to go on a limb and say, this is the best of anything or, or anything like that. I'm just going to say, this is an album that I've been listening to nonstop, like a eighth grader for the last, I don't know, 10 days, but Lil Nas X, Montero. It's poppy. It's hip hop. It's his, I think, debut sort of big studio album. I think it's not his debut album, but it's his debut studio album. Yeah.
Andrew And it is... It's his first full release album.
Everett Really, really amazing. Really very good. Every song is good in their own way. Many of the songs are absolute bangers, and you've already heard some of these songs, whether you know it or not. Holy cow. Fantastic. Again, not a music critic, so I don't know what to say about it. The crepuscular... Kylo Pera. You know, I don't write for Pitchfork, and I'm not going to attempt to do anything of the sort today. But what I will say is fantastic. Just one of the I can't think of too many albums that have come out in the last 10 years that have caught me like this. Big Boy came out with an album a couple of years ago. I really got into that for a while. Um, yeah, Lil Nas X, Montero, geez, Louise, that guy's fantastic. Maybe, maybe one of my favorite musicians that has ever come out. Cause I actually just think he's fantastic. Double entendre. I love everything. Yeah, that's true. Uh, I love everything about that guy.
Andrew And I love that album. I haven't listened to the album yet. I'll give it a listen though. Do it. Because I like all of it. I've never heard anything from him I didn't like.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. That album's great. Sweet. Andrew, are we all done? I think we're, I think we're there. Anything, anything you want to add before we go? Nah. Buy what you like.
Andrew Not today.
Everett Hey, hey, uh, thanks you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20 of the WatchClicker podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40, if it's up, at 40 and 20 at WatchClicker.
Andrew Hopefully it's not.
Everett If you want to check out the website, you can do that at WatchClicker.com. Not complicated. That's where we post weekly reviews, articles, and every single episode of this podcast. If you want to support WatchClicker or 40 and 20, You can do so at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And look guys, it's really important to us. That's where we get all the money for microphones, hosting, and this stuff actually just does cost money. And don't forget to join us next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.