Episode 157 - WindUp/WatchTime Recap with Mike Razak

Published on Wed, 27 Oct 2021 20:32:43 -0700

Synopsis

Everett, Andrew, and Mike Razak, a senior writer at WatchClicker, discuss their experiences attending two watch shows in New York City - WindUp and WatchTime. They share their favorite watches they got to see and try on, including the Formex Reef with interchangeable bezels, the Bell & Ross BR05, and luxury pieces from brands like Chopard and Zenith. They also talk about the different vibes of the two shows, with WindUp feeling more intimate and familiar, while WatchTime exposed them to ultra-high-end brands they hadn't seen before. Overall, it was a fun weekend meeting in person and immersing themselves in the world of watches.

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 host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, welcome home. And how are you?
Everett Thank you. I'm good, man. I'm just I'm living life. I'm doing I'm doing all the things I feel elated by my watch experiences in the last handful of days. I'm just ready to really cut a rug tonight in podcast fashion.
Andrew Yeah? Yeah. I don't know what that means, what podcast fashion of rug cutting is.
Everett No, I don't have any clue either, but it seems like... Sounds awesome though, so I'm down. It's a thing that probably should be good.
Andrew Okay, my pants are gone and let's cut this rug. How are you doing? Good. I have had an especially productive weekend. Oh, oh yeah? I have. I've had a light fixture that needed replaced and I replaced a light fixture. I finished my workbench and got my garage mostly buttoned up. I still have some cleaning and organizing to do, but I'm, you know, given that winter is, is upon us, um, my backstop to get the boat stored indoors is like, it's looming. So I got to finish the garage before I can get the boat pushed inside.
Everett Oh yeah.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. You do. Yeah. So that's going to happen. That's been my, my accelerant. Um, I kind of light fixture a place today and I felt pretty good about it because whenever you cut into a new house for the first time, you're just not sure what you're, what's going to happen when I pierce this wall. Yeah. Like what's back here. What have they done? And they did it. I mean, I'm not surprised. Everything in this house is just above medium. Well, not quite great, but right in that good range. Yeah. It's exactly what I was hoping to look like on the other side of the drywall.
Everett Versus your old house.
Andrew Yeah. You know, there might be in four or five layers of drywall and you know, some plumbing that doesn't go to anywhere, but has water in it for some reason.
Everett That's good. Yeah. And you did manly things. I did. And you look manly as a result.
Andrew Yeah. My hair is gone. It's all that testosterone that just courses through my veins. So yeah, I had a productive weekend.
Everett I had a productive weekend too.
Andrew You know though, I know you did. I'd like to hear about somebody else's productive weekend first.
Everett All right, whatever.
Andrew Mike, welcome to the party my friend.
Mike Razak Hey guys, how you doing?
Andrew So good. I don't remember the last time we had you on. I remember what happened the last time you were on. I just don't remember when it was.
Mike Razak I'd like to, uh, point of order. Point of order. The last time I was on, Uh, was the, uh, you and I did a joint audio review.
Andrew We did do an audio review of the contrail, but the last episode.
Mike Razak Of the Alcatraz.
Andrew Oh yeah. We did the Alcatraz after that.
Mike Razak You and Will did a contrail I think.
Andrew Yep. That's true. You're correct. Yeah. I apologize. I suck.
Everett It's all right. You know, Mike has been here sans clicks at least once, so let's stop giving him shit about it.
Andrew Yeah, exactly. And tonight he's ready to redeem himself on a full feature length episode
Everett So here joining us, our senior writer, watch clicker, senior writer, Mike Razak, AKA Mike Scott watches, not Mike Scott watches, which was Scott watches. That's what I thought it was at first. So Will said, yeah, do you know Mike Scott watches? And I was like, no, but that's a great, that's a great Instagram name, but it's not that, which is pretty disappointing, but he possesses that. Yeah, that's right. Mike, Mike has watches. Uh, So Mike's got watches on Instagram, Mike Razak, senior writer of the Watch Clicker. I've said all that and I'm going to continue to say it. Senior writer, Mike, how are you doing?
Mike Razak Senior writing, Mike, is pretty good. I'm staring down the barrel of an overnight shift here. So those are always guessing games, but hopefully a smooth one. And still riding that high from our watch weekend.
Everett Yeah, New York City, man. We met in New York City.
Mike Razak We did, on a face-to-face, in-person basis.
Andrew And shared a twin bed. Yeah. You guys didn't even spend the night there. There's no reason for you to have done that.
Mike Razak No. And to correct, it was a cot.
Andrew Well, the kind that sinks in the middle and really forces you guys together.
Everett Pushes you into one another, yeah.
Andrew It's called a lover's cradle. Ooh. Yeah. Now I'm even more jealous.
Everett So if you've been living under a rock or if you've just been avoiding social media watch world, as I am want to do from time to time, you may have missed that this last weekend was sort of the comeback party for the American watch show. And Mike and I both had the opportunity to travel to New York to attend worn and wounds wind up watch show as well as watch times. New York City event. So two pretty different events as far as watch shows go. Um, but we, we did them both. We did the big apple and we're going to tell you how it was.
Mike Razak Great. Thanks for joining us guys.
Andrew I'm mostly interested in how the corndog was.
Mike Razak I wasn't there for that. And I, about which I'm a bit upset.
Everett You know, the corndog was not planned. The corn dog was, so I was in Midtown, specifically at the Cartier boutique, which- Did you get me something? I did. I'll show it to you later. At the Cartier boutique with our good friend, Debbie, Case and Crown on Instagram, she was trying on some watches and I tried on some watches. If you've never been to a big, No, well, first of all, maybe I shouldn't say any other boutique. If you've never been to the Cartier boutique on Fifth Avenue in New York, I highly recommend it. It's in an old mansion. It's giant. It's gorgeous. You feel like royalty the entire time you're there. They bring you chocolates and beverages, and it's just an experience in and of itself. Because it's all Cartier, right? It's not just Cartier watches. It's all Cartier. That's right. Give yourself about an hour. take a seat, enjoy the ride. It is, it is an event, uh, and, and really cool. But we were there and we were going to walk from there midtown down to Chelsea market where wind up was. And so along the way, you know, there's just, it's New York, right? It's everything in the world in a 20 minute walk. And I saw this, I saw this stand and they had corn dogs, but in addition to corn dogs, they had like variations on corn dogs. So what I ordered was, A sausage with a mozzarella stick dipped in corn batter and then rolled in hash brown potatoes and then deep fried. And some of you may not think that sounds delicious. And you survived. And I survived. Well, the jury's out. Uh, uh, it, to me, that sounds like peak street food and can confirm absolutely 100% incredible. So here I am. So that was the last day in New York. Here I am with all of my luggage, my carry on on my back army style, you know, back and front loaded my, my backpack on my front, just, you know, walking with full luggage, downtown New York on fifth Avenue, eating a mozzarella stick corn dog with rolled in potatoes. It made me feel like a real human being. This is New York. Just doing everything. Yeah, that was good. It's interesting that you bring it up because it's been on my mind a lot.
Andrew I believe it. That will never leave your mind, I'm sure. I saw that without even knowing what it was. I was like, that's going to be a special corndog. And then I read the ingredients and I was like, man, I got to make a trip to New York.
Everett I don't even know if I'd be able to find that place again, but yeah, totally worth it.
Andrew So you guys both had the opportunity to go to both fairs, festivals, shows. Expos. Expos. Yeah. Let's run them down. So, well, first you guys got to meet. How was that? It was great. In person.
Mike Razak Yeah.
Everett Is he taller than I think he is? Mike is taller than you think he is. He's pretty, he's pretty tall. Uh, actually I think within about 10 seconds of meeting him, I sort of, uh, with a slightly chagrined, uh, with a slightly chagrined tone, probably, uh, told him he was taller than I expected. Uh, because then I knew that the entire weekend walking around with him, I was going to be the short guy. That's why you wanted me to come. Yeah, that's right. You would have made me seem a lot taller. Um, No, it was really cool. You know, this, this was, you know, not just with Mike, but certainly with Mike. Um, my whole weekend was meeting people who I feel like I know extremely well, but have never met in person. You know, I would say about once per hour for three straight days, I was shaking hands with someone who I've talked with extensively online and just having this really like instant connection. Uh, because I know this person and, and, you know, Mike is special. We, we are in a chat with our staff, right. Uh, or, or at least our core staff that texts pretty much all day, every single day from the time these guys wake up at six 30 East coast time to the time you and I go to bed 12 o'clock Pacific time, there are chats almost constantly. And so. It was this really surreal experience to meet for the first time one of my best friends in the world. And I don't feel weird saying that, Mike, because that was my experience, right? It was like, yeah, I just know this guy and I love this guy and he's one of my best friends. And now we're going to spend the day together for the first time ever.
Mike Razak Yeah. I mean, Everett and I, as we were kind of planning, Hey, what are we going to do? When are we going to meet? Where are we going to be? What's what's going to go on? You know, we were talking about kind of the anxiety of this whole thing and not just like planning this kind of weekend, but also just like meeting people you feel like, you know, but also is it going to be weird and different? And are they going to, are they going to like you in person? Like that just basic anxiety. Right. And I think even for, you know, Everett, for me, for me thinking about Everett, like I have that anxiety, even though like, I mean, out of all the people that wind up, I know Everett the best, right? Because we talk all the time. But then, you know, I think to Everett's point, like we met up at Grand Central and it was just like, boom, we were off to the races. Like it was, you know, we'd known each other forever, which I mean, we've known each other a long time.
Andrew Yeah.
Mike Razak Yeah. Never looked back.
Andrew Well, now that's out of the way. What's that? Now that that's out of the way. Yeah. Let's hear about the shows. I mean, these are two really different shows, so I think we should talk about them independently. Let's talk about Wind Up.
Everett Yeah, I can start there. So I actually showed up in New York a day before Mike did and kind of uh, showed up just with a smile on my face and, and nothing else. Right. And I didn't have any plans. I hadn't really connected, you know, I'd connected with people online. Hey, I'm going to be there. Let's try to meet up. Um, but I didn't really have any concrete plans. Um, just, I'm going to do this thing, kind of raw dog it as it were. And, uh, you, you know, everything's a little different, right? You know, New York is different than Oregon in terms of, you know, how people do COVID. Can I, can I, can I talk about that real quick? Can I talk about, um, COVID protocols in New York? You know, I thought New York, um, was going to be slightly troubling in terms of COVID protocols because of what I had read. I was really, really refreshed, uh, in terms of the way I personally felt safe. Um, you know, by and large, if you're out and about in the city, Everybody, or at least mostly everybody is wearing masks all the time. Um, and, and it seems voluntary voluntary. It doesn't seem coerced. People just are doing it. Um, and then if you go to a restaurant, you're, you're showing proof of vaccination. Uh, even just to sit down at a restaurant, you're showing vaccination proof. And I know that people for a lot of very good reasons are, are not maybe pleased about that, but for Me, it made me feel safe. You know, um, I obviously can show my code card and my vaccination card, and that's, um, an easier thing for me, but it just felt really comfortable. And so you get to the watch show, you get to wind up and you show your vaccination, proof of vaccination when you walk in. And, um, I'd say at wind up, I was in a mask 95% of the time. Um, occasionally you'd take it off and, and talk to someone, but you know, that person's vaccinated. It just felt really, I really enjoyed that aspect of it. Um, as far as the show goes, I mean, it's maybe exactly what you expect. Uh, there's, I don't know, Mike, maybe, you know, the numbers exactly. I would, I would estimate there was 35 booths at windup. That might be a little bit of a high estimate. Um, yeah, I mean, yeah.
Mike Razak I'd say probably 2025, but yeah.
Everett And, and largely brands that I know, um, that I know, you know, sometimes personally, I know the owners, um, other times I'm familiar with the watches. Um, but you know, it's like if you've ever wanted to see that Hamilton, um, or that Oris it's, it's there, they got it. Um, and you can try it on and put it on your wrist and, Windup felt really comfortable to me because it's very much the world in which we play all the time, right? And not every brand that I would hope would be there was there, but brands that I'd never even considered being there were also there. So, yeah, I just, I really liked it. The feel of Windup is very personal. Everybody who's there wants you to touch their stuff. It happens when you're a raw dog. Um, you know, take a look at this watch and yeah, yeah, you can try it on. Yeah, you can take pictures. Um, you know, just this really like sandbox, go crazy kind of environment. I thought it was really cool.
Andrew What was the size relative to like pre COVID shows? Do you know, Mike?
Mike Razak Yeah. So, I mean, I was talking to Zach a little bit about that, um, towards the end of the evening. I was just there. Zach Watts, yeah, the founder and co, yeah, co-founder and whatever of Worn and Wound, the Grand Poobah, um, about that. And, and also to John Ferrer of Brew. Um, and the consensus was, in my experience was, I mean, when I was there in 2019, it was a sardine can. Shoulder to shoulder. I mean, sidling to get through places at times, peak hours. You know, I spent almost the entire, an entire day there, just at windup, really not leaving. So I kind of experienced from open to close and it was, it was a lot. And Everett will tell you when we walked into Chelsea Market and I saw the show space and saw how how much sparser it was. I breathed this eye relief. I was like, Oh, this is much better. Um, especially with COVID, but just in general, I was just like, this is a good amount of busy. Um, I think there's plenty of space to move, but it was plenty busy. I had heard, I did hear that it was a little busier early in the day. Cause we got there around like four, I don't know, was it busier on, uh, maybe not on Friday, but.
Everett You know, my, I was there all three days. My experience was. It was always relatively busy, but never cumbersomely. So, I mean, there was oftentimes, you know, maybe a one or two person wait at a table you wanted to go, but, um, never more than that. And nobody seemed overwhelmed and nobody seemed crowded. Um, it was just really, yeah, pretty, pretty open. I thought.
Mike Razak Yeah. I mean, it was maybe not in the eyes of the windup organizers, but as a, participant or not a participant as a somebody going there to see all the watches it was kind of ideal busy like there were you know a good volume but accessible.
Everett You know Mike I talked to two owners who brand owners who told me that they had their best show in terms of sales just dollar figure and in terms of unit moves units moved so your speculation that it was maybe fewer people overall, I don't think, at least with my very small sample size, I don't think necessarily meant a worse show for the owners.
Mike Razak No, to that point, I think it allowed them to engage. You know, I spoke to one owner who said, you know, he had a 30 minute conversation with somebody and the result of that ended up being a sale when they weren't expecting a sale from it, you know, and if you'd had a crowded, space, that probably wouldn't have happened.
Andrew Yeah. Well, a crowded space like that kind of generates some frenzy. Like, Oh, I got to move on. I got to get to the next booth. I'm going to wait in line. Like it creates this, this fabrication of, of urgency when it sounds like this was like an, I mean, nigh on intimate event.
Everett Yeah. I would say intimate is a great word for it. Windup felt very intimate to me in a good way. I mean, is there intimacy that's bad?
Andrew No, I don't think so. People insisting you touch their stuff. I mean, it sounds like, you know, regardless of what happened, you were having an intimate weekend. So, are we seeing new releases at Windup this year? Are we seeing just catalog that's already there? Who's there offering sneak peeks? Fill me in, because I wasn't able to get the weekend off, so I was stuck at home.
Mike Razak Yeah, I mean, so... What did I miss? You know, I've been, this is my, I want to say third time going, um, maybe fourth, but definitely third. Um, and it, it always has been a catalog showcase, right? Like here's everything we got. Right. And in many cases, you know, showing off, well, this is going to be released later or, you know, especially for these small brands, a brand owner has, um, you know, the next thing on their wrist, they're wearing a prototype that they haven't even shown or announced, right? And then you have bigger brands like Hamilton where it's, you know, warm bodies manning a booth and they don't actually even have the latest release, right? They got hired like for the day. A little more than that, but not much more.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah. I actually think Hamilton had most of their new good shit.
Mike Razak They did. The one in particular was the I guess the one that just dropped on Hodinkee. Yeah. And that was there. No, that was not there. I asked specifically for it or they lied to me, which is also entirely possible.
Everett Somebody might've bought it. Maybe it was there on Friday and not on Saturday.
Mike Razak Yeah, maybe.
Everett Uh, but yeah, right. You, you do, you know, I, I gotta say, Mike, I don't know that I saw a ton of brands, micro brands with incredibly new stuff. You know, Formex did have their reef. dive, their reef dive watch, which is, yeah, that's, that's one of my highlights. Yeah. Oh, okay. So we'll come back to that. But, but, um, you know, I know both Astro and banks and so labs at least, uh, had versions of upcoming models, prototype versions of upcoming models.
Andrew Was Andrew Manning both those booths? So Rick,
Everett One booth, Rick Cosgrove of SoLabs and he was there and Andrew Perez of Astronautics were there and they kind of did their booth together, which I think makes a ton of sense based on the way those brands are structured. But yeah, you know, I didn't see a ton of new stuff that I didn't expect, but that was okay because I got to see, like Mike said, the catalog showcase by and large, you know, Monta was there and they had everything. And it was just a pleasure to go through all those watches. Nor Cain was at, at both shows and say what you will about Nor Cain. I was really, really impressed with their setup. Um, and they had new shit, cool shit. So.
Mike Razak Yeah.
Andrew Let's hear some favorites. Well, who all was there? I mean, you said 20-ish. You're going to miss some, and this isn't meant to be an offense, but who all was there? Love it.
Mike Razak Hamilton. Do you have a list? Ellen. No, that was watch time, sorry. Hamilton, Oris, Seiko, G-Shock, Veyr, Brew, Laurier, Astor & Banks, Solabs, Zodiac, Ball, Bespoke Watch Projects, Ite Noi, Formex, Unwind in Time, the Worn and Wound, they had like a five or six table U at the back. Manta. Visitor. Visitor. It was right next to Manta. Aloha. Oh, yeah. Aloha. Yeah, Spencer was there. I have reviewed that watch that he has, but he just had this tiny little watch box and his four watches on this big ass like folding table.
Andrew Um, and they have like, like banners and shit.
Everett Or was it just like, he had the most, maybe one of the more Spartan displays, but I'll tell you, he, that guy is just an incredibly gracious. Oh my goodness. And his, his watch is really, really fantastic.
Mike Razak Yeah, it is. It's a nice watch. And then the last one is a Benres.
Andrew Okay.
Mike Razak And I think that's all of them.
Everett You're close. Zodiac. Did you get Zodiac? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Maybe you nailed them all. Oh, no. Stella.
Mike Razak Oh, Stella. Stella. Marcella. And I forget the guy's name. But yeah, they were right next to Ashton Beck's.
Everett Yeah. Haym Watch Company was there. H-A-I-M. And, you know, his watches. So he had his new Kickstarter watches there. which they're with their, you know, it's a sport watch, kind of a funky bezel. Um, I thought they were great too. You know, those watches were just great in person.
Mike Razak That was a booth where I, it's weird. I, you know, having been to wind up and experienced a lot of those brands while I was at the show, I did much more socializing than actually looking at all the watches. And so, you know, I didn't stop at Laurier. I didn't stop at Haim. Um, you know, I had seen Bespoke Watch Projects when I was there before, and I'm sure he's doing some new stuff, but I didn't stop there. It was at, you know, only after the fact am I scrolling through Instagram and even your feed, I was just like, Oh shit. I forgot to look at watches while I was there.
Everett Yeah. Cause you're talking to people. So, um, Andrew, I think your question was favorite watches. Um, for, for me, there's an obvious answer at, uh, At wind up, which is the so labs layer one. And I can say that it's an obvious answer, because I, I purchased it.
Andrew Hadn't we had one of those in for review before?
Everett We've never had one in for review. We definitely had Andrew and Rick on. I know that. We had them on the show, but I've never seen one myself. And I got my hands on it and I was like, yeah, I'm buying this. And I did it right. I did it right then. Sort of spontaneously. I was like, yeah, I want to buy this. How much? As far as watches that maybe I didn't expect to like, there's one that sticks out to me. And Mike, I don't know if you had this opportunity, but Oris makes a version of the Aquis that is 36 and a half millimeters and they had the Ocean Plastic 36 and a half millimeter Aquis and I just for shits and giggles tried it on and the second I got it on my wrist I was like oh damn it dang.
Mike Razak So yeah that's another brand I didn't stop by but
Andrew Did you stop at any of the brands? Because it seems like everything he's mentioned, I didn't get to that one.
Mike Razak There are doors at the top on the inside of Chelsea Market, and then there are back doors. And what I did is I just entered and immediately exited, and then I went back to Pennsylvania. And that was my entire expansive windup.
Andrew But someone's got some pictures of you in there. So that's what matters.
Mike Razak Photoshop. To your point, that Oris, You know, Whale has, on Watch Clicker, we've kind of reviewed it to death, right? The Oris Aquus. I have not had that, but I got the 41 millimeter in for a full proper review and I was properly blown away. I had very low expectations for how that would be on the wrist. And by God, even at 41 millimeters, it is, it's a real treat. And I imagine it's just as good if maybe even better at 36 and a half.
Everett Yeah, you know, I think we, we tend to think of 36 and a half as being pretty diminutive in watch terms. And certainly it is. I think that watch in particular, you know, the other one that I tried on that was realistically too small for me, I think there was a 37 millimeter Norcane, whatever their main diver is. Um, and that watch also just like, yep, this is, this is awesome.
Andrew That seems the magic of a show like this, because it's very rare that we get to be in a room with all of these watches, with even some of these watches. We're in really unique positions as people who review a lot of watches and get to see a lot of watches, that we get to be hands-on with... Oh shit, you've reviewed, what, 198 watches or some bullshit, Mike?
Mike Razak Something crazy, 160, something.
Andrew And we get watches through all the time. We're in a really unique position, but for most folks, there's a couple of expos a year that you can actually be hands-on with these brands and kind of mitigate some of the leap of faith in your purchase. That to me is kind of like what seems the real value in these watch expos is for people who are in the market to buy, but want to trust their purchase beyond what they've read on the internet, beyond what they've seen in reviews, you know, take your pick of reasons. And to be able to put your hands on that many watches, you know, like I, obviously, you know, you're going to like Manta, you know, you're going to like the Astern Banks, you know, you're going to like the Laurier lineup because they're universally liked. Yeah. But there's these other watches out there that maybe haven't ever been reviewed. Maybe haven't, you know, have gotten mixed reviews. that are still really viable that to go to a venue like that and get your hands on, I mean talking about an Auris 36 and a half, that's something I would never consider. Yeah. Same. Even if, yeah, I mean those just would never even enter my psyche as a viable watch purchase. Yeah. Did you have any, I mean you said you didn't get to, you know, you just ran through, but did you see a watch? Like did you glance over at one? Were you surprised by anything that you hadn't seen before?
Mike Razak Uh, so, um, One that is just a cool watch is the Zodiac Olympus. With that, like, kind of a shield case. And it's part of their, I think, Heritage or something line. But I put that thing on with no expectations. And, you know, it's just a perfect size. And even though it's so quirky, the models they had there were the Worn and Wound collab models, I think.
Andrew They had that neon green one, didn't they? That limited edition that just dropped. I don't know. It hasn't just maybe been like two months. I saw that and got weird. I was like, oh, God, I think I need this.
Mike Razak The Olympus?
Andrew No, it wasn't the Olympus. It was it was another collab that they had just done.
Mike Razak Yeah, I know the one you're talking about. And I I'm not sure I saw that because I think that sold out because basically Zodiac was there with Warning Wounds stock. So Warning Wound just brought their stuff from warehouse, except for a couple of, uh, to be released. They have a really thin GMT. That's really nice looking. Um, with that, I guess brands are just stuck on the orange, white, black motif for GMTs. Uh, but it really works. It's got a matte black bezel. Um, I really enjoyed that. Um, Then the Formax, the Formax, which you guys know, I'm a big, big fan of that brand. Um, but they're new, so it's a little gimmicky, but it's also really incredible is this interchangeable bezel. Um, Oh yeah. Yeah, it is. And you know, my concern and I think probably everybody's concerned with something like that is this tension is going to be terrible. It's going to be impossible to get on and off. You pop it off without tools and it lines back up and the tension is just as good as the original Reef model, which had great bezel action.
Everett Yeah, same initial, exact same initial reaction, Mike, both before touching it and after touching it. I was like, yeah, this is legit. And the guys at that, you know, the owners of of Form X were just really incredible. And yeah, I really was impressed by them.
Andrew Is there enough tension in that removal leverage action that you're going to live mostly without concern of accidentally removing your bezel during the course of real life? Absolutely.
Mike Razak 100%. I mean, you'd have to hit it at either just really, really hard or in any other case, at a perfect angle for that thing to pop off.
Everett Yeah. Yeah, I agree. You know, and it's the type of thing, you know, maybe over time that security would lessen, but my initial inspection of their show pieces was like, this, this is perfect.
Andrew Well, you shouldn't be changing your bezel every day. Well, I don't know.
Mike Razak Maybe you do. But I mean, you could, and it's pretty cool. So they are, it is not backwards compatible, obviously. Um, But this is the the reef going forward if you order a new reef it will have the interchangeable bezel option is my understanding and I think that Bezels are you know? 150 or 160 which considering what you're getting that seat may seem like a lot But considering you're getting a what you're getting. I think it's a totally reasonable price I mean, it's similar to buying a you know really nice strap except this feature is much more engineering
Everett Yeah, and they've got both steel and ceramic additions, and both of them are, both the steel and the ceramic are just flawless, I would say, upon my initial review.
Andrew That's a good surprise.
Everett Yeah. Excellent. You know, another table that I was actually impressed by, Uh, when, when I say oppressed, like had a good positive reaction to was visitor, that's a watch that, um, you know, the owner, Phil, I know you, Mike, you and Phil are our friends and that you, you know him well, and you've reviewed several visitors positively. Um, it's a watch that I see online and I'm like, that's not my watch. That's not the watch for me. Um, you know, full polished case. I think it's the. Um, the, the dune shore, uh, um, 44 millimeters, polished case, kind of weird hands. Um, and then I get this thing in person and I'm like, this is actually really fucking cool. And, and had some, I had some time to talk to Phil about, you know, what he's doing with this. And he's like, yeah, you know, I'm making the watches that I want. And I realized I, I full well realized that a 44 millimeter full polished dive case is kind of an obscure dive case. It's not going to be for everybody. But this is what I want and I really like it. And fortunately, there's enough people in this world that also want something like this, that I'm having some success. Uh, you know, and, and actually getting hands on the watch. I was like, this is really neat. Uh, you know, maybe not an everyday watch, but certainly a watch that I wouldn't kick out of bed as it were.
Mike Razak Yeah. I, as you mentioned, I've been a fan of Visitor for a while and for only slightly less time of Phil. Uh, not because he wronged me. or anything just because I met him after reviewing one of his watches. I still lust after that red dial Linden, which is his dress watch, much slimmer than the other options. But yeah, he owns it as he did to you. He knows his watches aren't for everybody and he doesn't care. He makes watches for himself and then makes a lot of them so other people can buy them if they want to.
Andrew Did you guys get to touch the Ball Skin Diver?
Everett I did. You know, Andrew, I tried both the Ball Skin Diver and the newer, the slightly smaller case, the 40 case. I'm blanking on what it's called right now. The Marvelite? The Marvelite. Both in Andrew's preferred rainbow.
Andrew The rainbow tubes are the coolest shit on the planet.
Everett And I'll tell you right now, if you'd have been there, I think you could have gotten one for about $1,750. So what I noticed was that some of the brands, not all of the brands, but some of the brands in particular, the bigger brands had sales goals. That's my interpretation of what was happening. And on Sunday, on Sunday afternoon, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday, I think some of those brands were hustling a little bit. And I think that had you been there with a smile on your face and a wallet that was slightly open, you could have gotten a very good deal on that.
Mike Razak I, I've long loved the Marvel light. It's such a good case. Yeah.
Andrew Oh good.
Mike Razak But, but it, but the original is a little chunks.
Everett It's a, it's a big watch, man. I was, I, the, the, the, the, yeah, it, that is a big watch and not bad. Just big. Yeah. Just big. So let's hear about watch time. So can I start by saying I did not want to go to watch time. I wasn't interested in it. I mean, if, if you look at the lineup at watch time, it is not a lineup that interested me for obvious reasons. You know, we've done, you know, 8 billion episodes of this podcast at this point. And if you're listening and you've listened to any of our episodes, even say 10, you know, where our personal preferences lie in terms of outlay. And you know, just budget, right? That's maybe the first concern in watches. The watches at watch time do not fit in my collection. And at times I have been loath to think, talk about, to think about, talk about, or even really consider watches that fall outside of that spectrum of my comfort zone. And so Mike said, I really want to go to watch time. And I said, well, I'll go with you, but I gotta be honest. It doesn't really interest me. I'm not gonna. I don't think I'm going to enjoy that show. And I could not have been more wrong as much as I loved wind up. And I really did, you know, meeting people that I know friends, right at this point, friends, many of these people, um, watch time was a wholly different thing. And, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I did that. And if you ever get a chance to go to a luxury watch show, you at home, I'm going to recommend you do so. I had a blast. Mike, I'll turn it over to you because I want to hear your thoughts on that event.
Mike Razak I'll start it with that. Because my approach was almost the exact opposite, right? I wanted to go see those. Despite the fact that, you know, I'd say 80% of those watches are lifetime unattainable for me.
Andrew Yeah, unattainable I think is an understatement for that.
Mike Razak Like the Grubel Forsey, it's $580,000, right?
Andrew Take a second mortgage, man. You're such a bitch.
Mike Razak I took the second mortgage to buy the 280,000 gribble. But I went there, you know, having so I was approaching the weekend differently, too. I'd been to wind up. I was very familiar with all of those brands, you know. And and so I really wanted to go see some of these brands I'd never been able to see. You know, a lot of, most of those brands have boutiques you can visit. Some more sparsely located than others. But, you know, in my experience, the boutique experience is not one that I'm super comfortable with.
Andrew And this- It's going to be super different than an expo experience. Yeah. A boutique, you're going to them. An expo, they're trying to- In a sense, they're coming.
Mike Razak Yeah. So I was- Yeah. But I was so happy I didn't, having a chance to handle some watches I have long wanted to handle, if not own. And ones I, brands I either wasn't aware of or wasn't very aware of and, you know, had, have a whole new appreciation for.
Andrew On some of these luxury brands, people aren't aware of because they make three watches a year and there are sold out 10 years in advance.
Everett Right. And, you know, they were, they were there. with those three watches and you could try them on. Yeah. MB&F Bulldog. What a watch. Wore it on my wrist, right?
Mike Razak What a watch.
Everett You know, like these. Is this post corndog?
Andrew Did you get corndog grease on it? Cause I once got a, I once got barbecue sauce on an IWC big pilot and the guy was not pleased.
Everett You know, I think you could have gotten barbecue sauce on the MB&F Bulldog and they would have been fine. Right? Continue. So, so Mike, I think we can talk, we, you and I spent a lot of time at two booths in particular, and I think, you know, we could talk about all the watches. Um, but, but you and I were really along with your friend, Paul, who's a wonderful person. I was really happy to meet him. Um, we're really, I think jointly, uh, surreptitiously perhaps enamored by two brands that were there at watch time. The first being Bell and Ross and the second being a complete, in my mind, sleeper. And, and maybe, maybe as of right now, as I sit here today, my favorite watch brand in the world, which not even on my radar as of last Friday morning, Chopard.
Mike Razak Um, we spent what an hour at the show part of it was that long, but I mean, it was, uh, I mean, orders longer than we spent anywhere else. Um, the, and, and the three people at that booth, three or four people, I mean, those are the kind of people you want at every expo at every boutique. I mean, if I, if I'm writing to show part, I'm saying clone these people and put them in every store and every vendor of any Chopard location you have. You know, selling without selling, right?
Everett And can we be, you said the three people, but if they just cloned Gabby, that would be cool. Sure. I'll say this, Gabby was an excellent salesperson.
Mike Razak Yeah, she was. You know, stories about how they hooked up the morning show, Jennifer Aniston's watch, the Alpine Eagle, which was cool to hear somebody watches that show and notice that watch. But then, you know, my my prior knowledge and, you know, of Chopard as a watchmaker was the Mille Miglia, which is not a line that I've ever found appealing. And then to have, you know, these grand complications coming out of What was that? 16-millimeter thick, 14 complication that took that specific watch that they had there was retooled to be oriented for New York and it took 2,000 hours because they had to rebuild parts?
Everett Yes. The LUC All-in-One is Chopard's 14 grand complication watch. It's a giant, right? What would you say? It has to be. 46 by 16.
Mike Razak I don't know if it was 16 thick. I'd say probably 42 or 43.
Everett Yeah. It's enormous. It is. And it's, and it's platinum. So it weighs a billion pounds. I mean, and it's in this glass case, this sort of standalone tall glass case. And it's just like the Rose from Beauty and the Beast. Exactly. Exactly like that, actually. And you know, Mike, Bless your heart, Mike. I don't know that I would have had the same experience without you. Mike is very confident and he's got the gift of Gab. And he's real handsome. And he's real handsome. And, you know, Gabby was ready to eat him alive. I'm going to I hope Jen doesn't listen. Mike, Jen, if you are, Mike wasn't going to let her, I'm sure, but gave gave just enough to talk this woman out of taking this additional, one of a kind, priceless watch, literally priceless watch out of this case and to let us fucking wear it. A million dollar watch. It's at least a million dollar watch. So the basic bitch only ever made, you know, they've made at least 26 of them are $450,000 watches. This one's an additional 2,000 hours of tooling. Yeah. And one of a kind. Yeah. and not for sale. It's a million dollar watch and let us play with it and literally play with it. We got to like try this on and turn around and like take stupid wristies and like, oh, check me out with this angle.
Andrew Maybe she didn't think you'd be very fast.
Mike Razak Little does she know. I want to actually clarify that it was the tall, handsome gentleman that I wooed to take that out of the case, because I don't know that Gabby was tall enough to reach the top of that case.
Everett That tracks actually, Mike.
Andrew That makes more sense now.
Everett You know, and I will say at watch time, everywhere you look, there is a 6'5", broad-shouldered, bored-looking, vaguely European man with a chiseled jaw standing in a corner just looking at you, and you know He's a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and will kill you if you even sort of move fast.
Andrew Brazilian jiu-jitsu only works if they can catch you.
Everett He could catch you, by the way.
Mike Razak I like being there with Paul, who has some major life events coming up that he's looking to commemorate. And because of that, he is at this show kind of shortlisting watches. right which is yeah which is a cool thing to be a part of and him pulling me and and everett too over and saying what are what he between these two langs which one would you do you think would be better this actually happened yeah do you have to pick and i said bellen go ahead go ahead sorry what'd you say i want to hear it and i said you should probably get a glashutha because they're i like them better
Andrew You guys said Bell and Ross was at Watch Time?
Mike Razak Oh yeah.
Andrew That seems out of place.
Everett Bell and Ross was... Everett was smitten.
Andrew I was... Okay, wait. I like Bell and Ross, but it seems out of place given the other brands. Well, Norkane was there too, so... Also out of place, I feel like.
Everett Well, you know, both of these brands, I think, are sort of on the floor of luxury, right? You know, they're both sort of in... in our world in terms of watches that we might consider buying someday because of their pricing structures. But also in the realm of luxury, Bell and Ross, I've seen their designs, the BR05, cool. You know, their 03s, their big square cases, cool, but not really something that I cared about, right? Bell and Ross as a brand kind of seems funny. Like they started off using zinc cases and then they developed their own cases and it's kind of like their new money. And they're a little funny and whatever. Not a watch that I was ever enamored by. That Bell and Ross booth totally changed my opinion. First, the watches are excellent.
Andrew Believe that.
Everett Just without any reservation, those watches are all excellent. Very, very good watches. And then their executions, man, I'm going to tell you right now. I have never, ever, ever considered buying a diamond encrusted watch until I tried on the Diamond BR05 and I'm not even slightly joking when I say I really, really do think I am going to at some point buy a Diamond BR05.
Mike Razak He could not stop talking about this watch.
Everett It is so good. 10,000 bucks, steel case, diamonds on the bezel. It's nuts. Diamonds on the markers. I loved it, Mike. Did you, you obviously are not quite as enamored as I was, but.
Mike Razak I tried it out. I thought it was fun. I think a big part that helps it be fun is how they pull it back with the rubber strap. Right. It is this balance of like super flashy, but also very sporty. Right. I mean, not just the case, but the strap. Um, I, I was, I had gone to that show. That was one of the watches I wanted to try. I knew I wanted to stop at Bell and Ross. I wanted to try the BRO five and it was pretty much everything I wanted to be, which regretfully. Right.
Andrew I guess the question is rubber or diamond encrusted bracelet also.
Everett Yeah. Well, so the dime, the diamond encrusted bracelet, adds $10,000 to the price. Just double the price.
Andrew There's one for sale on Chrono24 for $12,500.
Everett Hold on. God damn it. No, I think that that's a third party. That's third party diamond encrusting. Kevin just bought a watch for those listening, by the way.
Andrew I just pressed buy it now. It's linked to my account. So I bought a watch. You're welcome. You'll see it back for $18,000. Don't worry.
Everett You know, Mike, I'm going to say something crazy and you can tell me if I'm wrong, but I think that the BR05 is the steel sports watch for the affordable connoisseur. I say that in the context of the Nautilus and the Royal Oak and the big boys. I think that that watch Obviously very deliberately on the part of Bell and Ross, I think that that watch is the entry level buyers or the regular human being as I like to call them, watch enthusiasts avenue of approach for the affordable, you know, integrated sport watch.
Mike Razak Yeah.
Everett Or perhaps the Santos. I think you get similar sort of feel with the Santos.
Mike Razak I don't know how it popped up, but the... Is it as big as I think it is? No. Nope. Not at all. Nope.
Andrew It wears... So 41 in the square case seems big.
Mike Razak Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I feel it wore 38. Yeah, it is... It's ridiculous.
Everett I mean, it's ridiculous.
Mike Razak If you had just asked me before telling me what the size was, how big it was, I probably would have said 39, 38. I don't know how it wears that well.
Everett Interesting. OK, it's it's nuts. I mean, it's I'm sure I seriously wanted to spend 10. I like I want to talk and say, hey, babe, listen, I need to do a crazy thing. We'll talk about when I get home.
Andrew But I've already done it. Not a big deal.
Everett I got to be honest, she was a little perturbed at me for buying the hundred and fifty dollar.
Andrew So I'll tell you something right away. There the BR05 GMT on rubber is only five thousand.
Everett No, they're not. They're not crazy.
Mike Razak Ross pricing is, is really good. And to your point about it, not them being out of place, you know, Bellum Ross does some very, what I think are like. Trendy autology things. Um, Turbiones, uh, racing, like super high-tech racing chronographs, um, you know, solid Sapphire cases. Um, they do some crazy, like really high end stuff. It's just. unlike a lot of the brands there, that's not their bread and butter, right?
Andrew But, but it also, they seem out of place because they seem kind of, kind of bad boy in that realm, kind of Panerai, like they're cool. They're very, they're luxury brand, but they're not the same dude. They're like new money luxury, right? Like that guy doesn't fit in at the country club, even though he's worth more than everyone else.
Mike Razak Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. They're kind of, they're,
Andrew That was kind of my thing. They're just a little bit fringy for luxury horology. I imagine the owners there in leather tuxedos with no shirts and mullets. I don't know. And they're wearing pit vipers. That's what I see Bell and Ross ownership looking like. I'm sure it doesn't.
Everett You know, I don't know what the Bell and Ross owner looks like. I don't think that that's impossible, that that's the case. I really like that brand. Yeah. Yeah. You know, they actually converted me. You know, Norkane, I kind of put them in the same boat. I was really impressed with Norkane. I have never even considered Norkane. You know, what I, my experience with Norkane is that of, I think our community, which is overpriced, unjustified pricing. Um, which is a dog shit argument. Well, it is, you know, we were, I think you and I, Andrew are in the same, um, in, in the same sort of place, as far as that goes, like we, I, I think we both uniformly hate arguments about too expensive, too expensive, not, not, uh, not enough for what it's worth. And, and Mike, you know, I don't mean to leave you out of that, but I think you're more inclined to say, That's not worth what they're pricing.
Mike Razak Well, I think, I think the reaction to Norkain by the community was who the hell do they think they are coming in at this price point? Like you, this is a price point that's associated with brands that have been established for 20, 30, 60, 50, however long years with quote unquote heritage. And you've got none of that. They're charging Omega prices. Right. They're charging Auris prices. They're charging Bell and Ross prices, right? They are charging those prices. Without the names, you know, and and that's a dogshit argument too, right? It's like Those people are then putting primacy upon heritage, right? Which is You know, which means Bulova should be three four maybe five times more expensive than it exactly Which which they should because they're the best watch watches in the world.
Andrew Yeah Because of their heritage.
Everett I'm so impressed by Horace.
Andrew I want to spend $5,000 on a below a curve.
Everett Mike, I think you're making a point and I'd like to give you an opportunity to finish because I think it's a good point. You know, you're saying the reaction is sort of who the fuck do these guys think they are?
Mike Razak Well, and the reality is, you know, it's a simple argument, but I think it's the right one is that, you know, the watch should be judged on its merits. You know, they've got, uh, Kinesi movements, right? These are tutor movements, tutor level movements that they are having customized. Their GMT is a true GMT, right? Which how many GMTs at that price point can say that, right? Um, you know, I think they're doing things that not people may not love. And I think, you know, some of their marketing is a little hokey, but like, Those are solid watches and they're not going to let you down. Like you said, I was wowed, less by the watch, but by that rubbernado that they had on the GMTs. I thought those were super cool. This flexible, stretchy, rubbernado.
Everett Yeah. You cannot say enough about finishing. Um, I, well, maybe, maybe you could, I cannot say enough about the finishing of those watches. I am, I am a guy who, you know, Mike and Andrew and will have made fun of me when I have gotten neck beardy about finishing on watches. But when you walked through wind up, there was a handful of brands, a very small handful. And I'll just say there were three brands. at wind up with watches that were superior in almost every single way to every other brand at wind up manta, which just makes a great watch. You don't say what you will. I know, I know people say what they want to say at any given moment. Monta watches are just superior finishing to any other watch under 2000 bucks. That's I'm going to say it. And I feel like that's an inarguable point and I'm done. You've got Oris, which they're more expensive watches are just tits. And then you got this, you got an Orkane who comes to wind up. They're sort of the odd man out because they're this sort of big brand, really high quality stuff. And, and it's like, this is the shit, man. This is the shit. And they were more, they were the most expensive brand at wind up for sure. Am I right about that, Mike?
Mike Razak I can't think of... Yeah, I mean, certainly average price across models. Yeah, I would say no doubt. I will add FormX to that list, but we don't need to dwell on it too much. But I think... Yeah, that's a fair question. I think Norkane, being at wind-up and watch time, tells you everything you need to know about Norkane.
Everett Yeah, agreed. Baller move.
Andrew Well, it's also I think that I think that's part of the issue that the watch community has with them is they don't know where they fit in the world. Which is basically, I mean, young enough that they just don't know.
Mike Razak Isn't that every watch brand that settles themselves between $1,500 and $5,000 though? Like, wait, wait, are you, are you high end entry level or are you lower end upper level? What are you? Right?
Andrew Right.
Mike Razak Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. It's mid-grade fuel and nobody knows, nobody's ever bought that.
Mike Razak Can I do a couple of honorable mentions at watch time? I want some. Please do. Please do. Everett, you and I were both dazzled and, and, and pleasingly perplexed by Jaquet Droz, right? This is when I first blew Everett away with my brazen requesting of a watch. This is some... True. The Lotus Blossom. This is a watch with, you know, Jacque Drozd, almost all of their watches have the same layout, right? They have the 12 o'clock, you know, third size dial that tells the time and then around that they build whatever the automaton of the day is, right? So I said to the guy, can I look at this? And it's like, Mike, what are you doing? And the guy's like, yeah, absolutely. Let me grab it for you. So he brings it out.
Andrew This watch... Is he wearing white gloves? He was. Yes. Did he provide some for you? He did not.
Mike Razak My man. He didn't even ask.
Everett Mike just raw-dogged it.
Mike Razak Raw-dogged the Jack Dedro. Fortunately, before Shake Shack. And so this is a watch with enamel, whatever it is, it's beautiful. that features a koi that rotates around the dial while its tail flaps around, and a lotus flower that goes under three parts of the dial. And each time it goes under, the watch mechanism removes a jewel in the center of the lotus flower and at random puts a new one in between three or four different types of jewels. At random? I asked the guy who was working the booth, how does this work? He says, I have no idea. That's true. I witnessed it. It's stunning. It is. And I think a lot of people, I have heard, you know, Jacque Drozd doesn't make watches, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, I won't say that's false because that's not the point of that brand, right? Jacque Drozd historically was a creator of automata, right? These machines that did things when actuated, right? And that's still what they do. But man, I newfound respect and just awe in that piece.
Everett I'm with you. I'm with you. I second, I second the honorable mention recommendation. Yeah, we, we did spend a lot of time there and those watches are very, very cool.
Mike Razak And then there's one other personally for me, I'd gone in finally having an opportunity to go to Glashütte Original, um, and try a watch I've long coveted, which was the, uh, Panamatic Lunar. Right. And, and, I was really hoping that thing would wear terribly, but it did not.
Everett You know, all of Glashutte's watches are amazingly, incredibly better in person. I was blown away.
Mike Razak Then they are. I tried the CQ, which I, when I, when it was first released, I was like, this is a piece of garbage. I don't want to see this. I tried the newer vintage dive with that green dial. I tried three or four watches there and every single one was impressive. And to your point, so, so, so much better in person than they are by any other medium.
Everett You know, I, I would give one more or, or, or is the, are those your honorable mentions? Yeah. You know, I have one more, um, Zenith. Right. Zenith. You know, I don't think actually we need to do Zenith any favors here on this show because Zenith is, you know, maybe one of the top five or six most popular haute horology watch brands on earth. But as a dude who knows nothing about haute horology, Zenith brought the heat, man. Every single one of those watches That full carbon case defy is just like nothing I've ever experienced before. I mean, light their carbon, that carbon bracelet, Mike, uh, where I warned you, I had to warn you about it. You did. You had to warn me. It is insane. Totally insane. So, so to, to bring it back, to bring it back. I hope we didn't lose Andrew.
Andrew I was watching the animation or the video of the Magic Lotus.
Mike Razak Amazing, isn't it?
Andrew So to bring it back. That's affordable. That's a second mortgage watch. I'm good with it.
Everett If you have an opportunity to go play with these pieces, these really outrageously expensive, you're never going to buy them pieces. I'd say just do it.
Andrew And they don't make you wear gloves. You can go raw.
Everett You just raw dog, man. Uh, it was such a treat. And actually, Mike, I'll just say to you in front of the world, I'm so glad to have done this with you. Uh, it was really a fun experience and, um, yeah, man, you, you know, I feel like I did something special. I know I didn't do something actually special, but it's like, what a treat.
Andrew Indeed. I'm sorry to have missed it.
Everett Yeah, I'm sorry you missed it too. I would have loved to have you there.
Andrew We'll be at San Francisco.
Everett We're going to do it. I mean, there won't be, there won't be a Diamond Bell and Ross, but we don't know that.
Andrew That's true. I might've bought it by then. It might've been delivered because you did click buy now. So I have a weird conversation upcoming.
Everett Mike, anything from these shows that you want to add? I know that we could talk for hours and hours and hours.
Mike Razak Yeah. I mean, there are so many cool brands and brands, a couple of brands I'd never heard of that I'm not even going to mention. I don't want anybody else to hear about them either.
Everett Well, Mike, what was the brand that sort of neither one of us had ever heard of?
Mike Razak That was El Leroy. El Leroy. Part of the Parole family, I think.
Everett Yes. Yes. So, That was such a weird experience, right?
Mike Razak Because I don't think you hadn't heard of them. They have no presence. And they admitted it. They have no presence in the United States whatsoever.
Everett A 300-year-old brand.
Mike Razak Used to make them for what? Louis XIV or something crazy?
Everett Yes. Completely in-house everything. 100% flawless execution.
Andrew I mean, you go to a place like this and they just came to like show their dick and be like, you can't have it. And then what's the deal?
Everett Well, I think you probably could have it, which, which is maybe the point. Um, you know, and the reason I bring them up is not because you should go look at El Leroy or whatever, but that's a thing that I didn't know before. And I do now. And it's really cool. Like, This world is so much bigger. You and I, Andrew, I think, are very much in the world where we've learned a lot about watches. And maybe some people who listen to us think we know more than we actually do. And we're very conscious of that. Oh, we don't know shit about shit. Exactly. The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know about watches. Mike, I don't know if you have the same feeling. I've always respected your knowledge about, you know, in particular micro brands. I sometimes hesitate to ask you about what your recommendations are for shows, because I know I'm going to get inundated with more knowledge than I can possibly compute.
Mike Razak Somebody asked me about straps recommendations the other day for a watch, and I think they got way more than they expected.
Everett They were not prepared. You know, so in that context, right, it's like, I don't know what I don't know, and I'm very comfortable with that. But I go to this event and I'm like, man, this world is just totally expansive and really good.
Andrew It sounds like watch time was maybe the better experience.
Everett Not better, different, but a really surprising, surprisingly cool experience.
Andrew And you got free champagne.
Mike Razak But Prosecco, I believe, but yes.
Andrew Yeah, whatever.
Mike Razak Sparkling. Sparkling.
Andrew Yum. Was there like caviar and finger sandwiches and shit or just champagne?
Mike Razak No, it was mountains of caviar. Yeah.
Andrew Okay. I was gonna say they were just priming you to buy them.
Everett There was free champagne though and we partook.
Mike Razak I feel like watch time for me, and I think for most, especially most people in our situation, is a more novel And therefore, perhaps more exciting experience as far as the watches go. And for me, it was more enjoyable as far as the watches go because of that. Right. But socially, you know, wind up is that's our bailiwick. That's our wheelhouse, right? That is where all the people are.
Andrew And from from wind up what you've had half or better of, if not those watches, those brands in front of you.
Mike Razak Yeah. So I, I mean, I, I get to apologize to almost all the brand owners for damaging their sample watches. So that's a special treat for me.
Andrew I mean, you're the one who drags them across concrete. We all know that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I tie him to my ball hitch and then send them to you. And yeah. Yeah.
Everett Andrew. Other things. What do you got?
Andrew I got another thing that you better. So when we moved in this house, we had a non-functioning pellet stove. Yeah, I remember. Turns out all I needed to do was put batteries in the thermostat, but it took two technicians to come out and figure that out, that's the whole thing. That being said, my pellet stove is up and running. Yeah. How comfortable is my upstairs right now? Really good. The heat from like burnt material, like wood or pellet, is I think so much cozier, like there's a different aroma to it. So for those of you who have like a gas fireplace and you, you like it and you think it's all great and stuff, it does put out heat, but I'm going to make a pitch for either a wood burning stove, but, but I'm pitching for a pellet stove right now for, for a full year, you can buy 50 bags of pellets, which is kind of the average of what people expect you to burn in a year for $250. a year of heat. That's cheap for 250. Now you have to have a place to store said pellets. We're holding our house between 70 and 75 degrees and using one bag a week.
Everett That's cheap.
Andrew That's nothing. They cost $6 a bag. So what's that $24 a month for heat?
Everett Yeah. I mean, if you don't care about The global climate change.
Andrew So here's the thing about wood. Here's the thing about pellets, and this is why we're especially excited to have a pellet stove instead of a wood stove. In Oregon, on our bad air days, you can have no visible smoke emissions from your house, which means you can't use your wood stoves. You're not supposed to use your wood stoves. You can use pellet stoves, and I've burned two-ish bags. There is... three tablespoons of ash in the ashtrap. It burns so efficiently, so warm, you get a full fire effect. I absolutely love it. If you're looking for a heating change, if you're just, if you're considering it, I fucking love it. Mine's a Whitfield and Whitfields are no longer in production and they're a little finicky. The first technician that came out Fucked around with it for like two and a half hours. Just said, Hey dude, I'm not going to charge you. I don't know what's wrong. Call this guy. This other guy came out and he's like, Oh yeah, dude, I installed the stove. And he then re hooked up the thermostat heater or the thermostat wires and put batteries in the thermostat, which I just thought was an obsolete, obsolete thermostat. And now I have a fully programmable, like I wake up in the morning, go downstairs and there's a fire roaring. It's just automatic. starts it running. It's so good. So like I said, if you are considering it, I am willing to vouch for it and say pellet stove over wood burning or wood stove. So that's my other thing. I have a Whitfield. Like I said, they're obsolete, but there's a ton of options out there. Less electronic, more better.
Everett Mike, other things. What do you got?
Mike Razak I want to forward a recommendation from Phil, a visitor, his wife, Steph. Um, I got, I, I was fortunate enough. I got dinner, uh, with them and my friend Shreyas beans and vessels on Instagram. Um, and his wife, I was fifth wheeling it hard and we just got to talking and, uh, landed on podcasts. And she said, you know, she does not like this podcast. Specifically. Ours specifically? Specifically. Yeah. It was. Yeah. She couldn't distinguish between your voices. So whatever.
Andrew We sound identical.
Mike Razak We look pretty similar. Clones. Clones. Yeah, I get it. Um, she told me about a podcast that I have since learned am way behind on the time zone. Uh, my dad wrote a porno. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I have since learned that this has six seasons, two books, and has at least one world tour where they've gone and read and done their commentary. This thing is a riot. So the setup is the guy who reads the porno, his father, 60 years old, endeavored to write some erotic fiction. And the first book is called Belinda Blinked. And the main character's name the subject of these sexual exploits is Belinda Blumenthal, which is, you know, it gets anybody hot under the collar, just the name. Of course.
Andrew Yeah. I have to excuse myself. Yeah.
Mike Razak Raging over there. And it is, not only is the text so, I feel earnest, but still so, so bad. But the commentary is Fantastic. So he invites two of his friends over to his house. To to read this aloud, chapter by chapter, one chapter is an episode. And then they just tear it apart. And it is his father, but he has a pen name, which is Rocky Flintstone. Of course, I am about three quarters of the way through season one. I'll say this. I don't know. what kind of legs, obviously enough people are listening and they're doing very well with it. But personally, um, I don't know if it's something I'll stick with for six seasons, but it is very, very funny. Uh, so my dad wrote a porno. Perfect. Yeah.
Everett I've got another thing. Do me. So I, I have, uh, I have, personal artistic aspirations. Uh, I do art and I've talked about this recently with my, um, Linotype printing.
Andrew Flintlock Everett is also an artist that's going to soon hit shelves.
Everett So I, I have recently, uh, downloaded a couple of vector art programs. I've downloaded a free vector art program called Inkscape. which I think is a very good, robust program, you know, sort of in the vein of GIMP or perhaps open office, you know, one of these free to the consumer programs that's by and large volunteer supported. Inkscape is great, but that's not what I'm going to talk about because the program I want to talk about today is something I had to pay for. I had to pay about 60 bucks for it. I can't remember exactly the amount. It was 60 bucks or less. Uh, But it's a program called Affinity Designer. So this is what's popularly known as a vector art program.
Andrew It's fifty five dollars.
Everett Fifty five dollars. And vector art is I think the most famous vector art program is called Adobe Illustrator which is made by Adobe which is a very very famous company and famously has completely converted to a subscription only sales pitch, right? So what you're looking at is about 20 bucks a month or 240 bucks a year for an Adobe subscription that will give you access today and for the month that you've paid for to a suite of Adobe products, Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, whatever their video editing is. Um, you, you get a lot of firepower for 240 bucks a year and, and in two years, that'll be 480 and then three years more. And, and, and assuming they don't, uh, uh, raise their prices, you know, and they will, uh, it's, it's expensive, right. To buy into the Adobe suite of products. It's a lot of money. So affinity designer, 60 bucks, 55, you pay today and you get it for forever. You get a license. For this program forever. Are there updates? So I have owned this program for 60 days and I've already gotten a fairly substantial upgrade. It didn't really change the way I use the program, but they are constantly issuing upgrades and you are taking part. I don't know if you'll get every iteration, but you are getting incremental updates and I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing with this program. You'll find that out at some point in the future. I am. I'm making a porno. I am so so so happy that I purchased this program. You know it's one of those things that people are using and when people are using a program in the 21st century they are posting tutorials for the things they're doing on YouTube. The community. There's a forum where you can log into and ask questions. It's this really incredible software, almost probably as powerful as Adobe Illustrator, maybe with some limitations and maybe with some benefits. But I have now undertaken several kind of impossible projects, meaning before I started them, I thought, I don't think I'm going to be able to do this. and using just YouTube videos and forum support have been able to, you know, I've shared this with you guys and you guys have seen the results make really incredible pieces of digital fish. I don't know if art is, is maybe too, too liberal, but you, you know, have done these really incredible things and the interface is so user-friendly. I, uh, if you have any interest,
Andrew I mean, everyone saw the new logo in digital for 1420 after dark.
Everett Oh yeah, that's right. The watch clicker, the neon watch clicker logo. We posted that, um, you know, that was just sort of a goofing around thing. And all of a sudden I have this like really incredible thing, you know, the, the experience has been really good and really fun. And if you have any interest in this at all, I would say go buy a copy of Affinity designer, look up some YouTube videos and start playing with it. It has been one of those moments for me where I realized I've got this incredible world to explore. And it really, you know, in terms of art and creating visual, uh, you know, digital imagery, uh, has changed my outlook on things and it's been really fun.
Mike Razak I can plus one affinity because that's the, by the good grace of will. Um, and at his recommendation, I, that's the photo editor I use, which is affinity photo, which is, um, you know, I don't have any other experience other than the iPhone editing suite. But, uh, yeah, I, I really like affinity photo and I imagine the, uh, platform you're using is just as great.
Everett So, and, and, and, you know, Mike affinity photo and affinity designer work together. same same software language and you can take an affinity photo design and shove it into a designer or vice versa and they will talk to each other and they know what each other is doing and a ton of opportunity so i think you can buy the full suite for like 170 bucks of affinity products and world is yours so that's what i got mike andrew As we wrap up, anything you want to add to this episode?
Andrew I'm out of things, man.
Mike Razak I'm empty on things.
Everett Mike, I really appreciate you coming on tonight, man. I know it's super late there on the East Coast.
Mike Razak I'm double dipping right now. My overnight shift has started.
Everett Yeah, that's good. You're getting paid twice. All the money we're giving you and all the money.
Mike Razak It's weird that you guys pay me so much, but don't really pay yourselves.
Andrew But I appreciate it. We got to keep the talent. You know, we get all the equity and stuff.
Mike Razak Yeah.
Andrew Swag. Exactly.
Everett We get swag. Yeah. Well, this has been a lot of fun. Mike, we got to bring you on more often.
Andrew You didn't do any clicking tonight, man. I'm really proud of you. And I appreciate that you've really set out to improve.
Mike Razak Yeah. You may get some ice crunching though. So you're welcome for the watch cruncher.
Everett Hey, thank you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20. You can check the WatchClicker out at WatchClicker. You can also check out our website, WatchClicker.com. That's where we post all of Mike's great reviews and very few of Andrew and Everett's great reviews and articles. We've got a ton of writers at this point, and we're doing really good stuff over there. If you want to support what we're doing at 40 and 20 in the watch quicker, you can do so at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look guys, you know the deal. We're completely unpaid in every respect of this, except for the very few of you who decided to support us on Patreon. And we appreciate it so much because this isn't cheap. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life. and other things we like.
Andrew Bye bye.