Episode 163 -Our Christmas Lists

Published on Thu, 09 Dec 2021 06:37:00 -0800

Synopsis

The podcast hosts Andrew and Everett discuss new watch releases from Lorier and Wowbrook, and give gift recommendations for watch enthusiasts such as watch straps, screwdriver sets, leather desk mats, lens kits for phone cameras, and prints from Art of Horology. They also talk about watch storage options like pre-made inserts for Pelican cases from a company called Now Pack, and Andrew shares his experience of sourcing a rare stereo wiring harness for his Lexus from a Japanese auction site using a broker service.

Transcript

Speaker
Everett 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.
Andrew Everett, how are you? Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Uh, you know, here we are again.
Everett Just as we always are.
Andrew Yeah. No, I'm good. Uh, Yeah, you know, just middle of the work week, just doing my thing, building them hours. Living the dream. Yeah, well, it's somebody's dream, maybe.
Everett I mean, you're building hours, that's what matters.
Andrew Yeah, yeah, yeah, making money, getting that paper, as they say. Yeah, no, good, how are you?
Everett I'm hanging in there. Tail end of a trying weekend. I think that schools adding surprise days off is is wrong. Uh, so our school district had a surprise day off on Monday and they announced it about a week ago, a week and a half ago. Yeah, probably probably two weeks preceding the day off. I was not expecting it. I got a call like a reminder phone call about it on Thursday. And I was like, oh, fuck. I was like, oh, cool. It'll be a great day. We'll just like hang out and bro down. And my six year old was a pain in the dick, like just a like big feelings, super emotional, grumpy jerk all Monday. And then it picked up again first thing this morning, this Tuesday, first thing this morning. I asked like I asked him a question. He just collapsed and started screaming at me and I was like, what is happening. So I don't know if you got any of that blowback on, uh, when he, when he came to your house to get a ride to school, but he seemed to have overcome it by the time he got home and then he, you know, right back downhill.
Andrew So just a struggle of a weekend. Yeah. You know, we didn't get it. Um, although he definitely, he had a market look in his face when he got there this morning, like small flames burning behind his eyes.
Everett Yes.
Andrew Yeah, actually, I think I mentioned it. I was like, you doing OK? You seem a little intense. And he was like, nope, I'm good. You know, he's always so happy in the morning.
Everett Yeah, he's he's you know, I got to count myself lucky that he's a sweetheart. He really is outside this house. He's respectful. He's more or less really well behaved. Like we can take him to a restaurant and not think twice about it. We don't mind having him in public. But man, once our front door closes. It's a different thing. So, but I think that's a good sign, right? This is a safe place. He gets to feel his feelings here. And yeah, that's right. We've got some good outlets for him and yeah, it's just a struggle of a weekend. So I didn't, I got some stuff done, but not nearly as much as I'd like to on a typical weekend.
Andrew But did you do, did you do any like a constructive weekend things? I worked on Mount Laundry. That's constructive.
Everett Yeah. And that's it. Cause I lost my whole Monday. And then Tuesdays are, you know, like a catch up day on that point. So, and because the kids get out of school so early, there's like five hours where I have like time to do stuff. Right. It's a pretty short period of time. It goes faster than you think. It goes really fast. And if you sit down for a break, it's done. That day is gone. Right. So, and then, yeah, just, you know, a little bit of a trying weekend. So hit the ground running when I go back to work tomorrow.
Andrew I did some productive stuff this weekend. Yeah. I finished our, I finally finished our winter like landscaping. So I did all the, I did the roundup in the flower beds for all the sort of weeds that have popped up all the trouble spots I did. Uh, I cut the, cut the lawn back, although I've been letting it grow cause you want to preserve those nutrients. I didn't finally cut it back. Hopefully it's final winter shearing. I did all the edging. Yeah, that one looks good. I did all the pruning of, we've got these bushes that just grow like a radical amount every year. And so I cut those back and they're all cut back. Although I think, I think I need to cut them back a little further, but I'm going to order a saw. I'm going to order like a Japanese pruning saw for it. Because why not? A future other thing, I'm sure.
Everett I have one.
Andrew No, it's not a nice one. No, no. Don't you worry about me. I've got this all figured out.
Everett I have to take this bush down by the front of my house. I think I'm going to take it all the way down to the ground. Just pound it down. Yeah.
Andrew Get the chainsaw. Have you been poisoning your bamboo?
Everett Relentlessly. To no effect. We tried to plant some little grass bushels back there. The bamboo roots are so thickly woven beneath the surface, you can't dig it. You can't dig it out. In order to correct this, I'm going to have to get somebody with a little ride behind excavator because the space between my fence and my house isn't wide enough to get an actual front loader. It's a little ride behind excavator and they're going to have to excavate and cut out my retaining wall to cut out the roots, displace all that soil, rebuild the retaining wall and backfill it.
Andrew It sounds fun, man. I want to get, I want to get some big tools. I know you're talking about something terrible and I'm bringing delight in the prospect of toys out of that, but I'm not going to change my attitude.
Everett I'd like it if it was in your yard too. So, you know, we're there. I talked to Justin one of our neighbors about getting a boom lift like renting a boom lift for the day And he's on board. He's on board. He's got to get a couple of other people on board to offset the The boom lift cost for us to hang us our Christmas lights Well Andrew my friend We're talking about we're talking about watches today adjacent
Andrew Yeah, yeah. I guess that's right. So we're not really talking about watches, although I assume we will at some point talk about watches. Oh, we'll get there. In fact, you know, so the topic for today is our Christmas list.
Everett And it's an annual tradition.
Andrew It is. It is. It is. But before we get there, can we talk about some new watches? Yes. Because there's a couple new watches that came to my attention this week, and I assume they also came to your attention because they came to our attentions via the same mode. Collectively. Yeah. The collective. So first, one of our favorite brands talked about them all the way back in episode one. Sure did. Laurier. I think it was episode one.
Everett I'm not going to go back and listen, but I believe you.
Andrew Yeah, don't do that. I'm not going to either. So I'm going to say episode one, we talked about Laurier. Laurier released a new watch today or announced a new watch today. Kind of. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I mean, it is a new watch and they did announce it. So yes.
Everett But it's not, it's, it's their collaborative watch.
Andrew Yeah. So Laurier did a, has done a limited edition watch with the Urban Gentry. What? Okay. So can we get this out of the way really quickly? The Urban Gentry is a personality that is not for everyone. They did a limited edition with him, and that is what it is. It's fine. The watch though. The watch is fantastic. Is good. Yeah.
Everett It's right about what I've been begging watch companies to do, barring one for me glaring issue, which is no bracelet.
Andrew Yeah, so let's talk. The watch in and of itself is interesting because it is both very different, I think, than anything Laurier's done. And also, undeniably a Laurier case.
Everett Yes, it's super familiar. It's called the Safari. And it, no, yeah, it's called the Safari. The Laurier Safari, that's right. Comes in two colors, copper dial or an ivory dial. And based on the color scheme on the tab when you click it, I was expecting it to be a really good kind of olive-y green dial. I was very excited. Ivory makes more sense now looking at it because it's just a super clean ivory dial.
Andrew Yeah, the pictures make it look pretty white. It sort of has a marine kind of a nautical feel to it, if you ask me.
Everett Yeah, kind of pilot-y, kind of field-y.
Andrew Yeah, it's a polished case. It's got square lugs, like sort of a semi-filled uh, lug space, uh, probably old fashioned, right? So this is, you know, typical Laurier plastic crystal, everything else, just bees knees, C3, super lumen of a 200 meters, yada, yada, yada, big old crown, big old crown. Yeah. I really think this is a very cool watch. And I actually think it goes really well without a bracelet. I know I'm a bracelet guy, but this watch feels like a strap watch to me.
Everett It would be a strap monster, but I want the option of the bracelet. I want to take the bracelet off and put it on something else.
Andrew Well, not the bracelet, but the watch. Yeah. Yeah. My suspicion is this thing would wear really well on shark mesh or whatever, but it's not quite the same deal.
Everett No. But a good release and something exciting that we're seeing. I don't think we've seen it before. In their sales method for this release, they did 150 of each colorway. Those are for sale this weekend. So, uh, the 11th and 12th, as you're listening to us, these watches will be available. The first 150 of each colorway are ready to ship. Any orders beyond those first 300 orders will be filled in about six weeks. So they're doing, they have their initial inventory that they're going to sell and ship immediately. And then they're almost, they're doing a pre-order effectively. Effectively. Yeah. For anything else. And then after the 12th, any orders that aren't in, gone forever. You're never going to get to order this watch brand new in box.
Andrew Yeah. And I wonder what that means. You know, we, we don't have a lot of, there's no frame of reference here for what this, you know, this watch is being gone forever might mean for Laurier. Does that mean that they may, offer this watch in different sort of dial iterations or different colors in the future as a non-Ellie, or does it mean this whole entire silhouette is gone forever? And I don't think we know yet. And certainly we haven't talked to Lauren or Lorenzo about that. No, we have not. But a cool release. Yeah. And an interesting order method, right? We'll make as many as you guys want, but you get two days to order it and that's it. Yeah. And you can't cancel. I've not seen another company do that. I've not seen that before. So interesting. It'll be, it'll be curious to see how this goes. You know, watch people will find a way to be mad about it. I'm sure.
Everett Um, definitely. I already found a way. It's an old bracelet. Yeah. Can't have my money.
Andrew Uh, you know, the, the watch itself is pretty cool. I dig, I dig the heck out of it. Yeah, it's good. So there's one more watch I want to talk about. This actually got suggested by Will to be, uh on our this actually got suggested by will to be a gift gift suggestion uh and i i think we both agreed that we wouldn't do watches for our gift guide today true with that said i think this is a pretty stinking interesting watch i'm not exactly certain how new this is but new um that is the woolbrook aka douglas Outrider Professional. And I am enamored by this watch. I'm really, really into it. So, Woolbrook, as you know, Woolbrooks are not super spendy watches. This is a $575 retail watch. I think it's available pre-order now for $515 US dollars. This is a field watch, sort of an explorer-y looking type thing. Not exactly an explorer, but a field watch with a 24-hour inner track. 6 o'clock date, prominent 6 o'clock date with a magnifier window. Really clean bezel. Looks like it may be a bit of a chunky boy. A little bit. Thick boy. But 39.5mm, 48mm lug to lug, 20mm width. Oh, here it is. 14 with the crystal. So, it's not terrible. 14 with the crystal. I really dig the way this watch looks.
Everett It does look good. I'm not a huge fan of green lume. Well, and it comes in white lume if you want. Does it? Green and white lume, yep. Well, then it changes because the bracelet option on it looks really good.
Andrew Yeah, it's a killer jubilee. Uh, Warwick does an interesting thing with their, with their Jubilee or, uh, not Jubilee, it's a Beads of Rise. They've got an interesting, the center link sort of comes to a, a sharp ridge. Uh, the center links do. I think that's a pretty cool look. I wonder if I'd like that as much in the metal as I do via the Instagrams. I think I think so too. I mean, this is a really sharp watch. Wahlbrook is doing, uh, I think something similar to a company like Laurier, uh, in that they're making modern, you know, fairly modern watches with that really classic aesthetic.
Everett Modern interpretations.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. 150 meters of water resistance on this screw down crown. It does have a modified Yoda 8,000, which is sort of like, uh, spinners on a Hyundai, but, uh, I don't love that. They are committed to the meal to 8,000 series movements. You know, I think that's a problematic movement. There's nothing wrong with it. I just don't think it's the best option there.
Everett I think there are much better, even in that same price realm that they could be doing. Yeah.
Andrew But I think we'll work has done something interesting here and they've sort of, uh, implemented, uh, a shock system into this. They call it their hexaplex architecture, um, which I think involves sort of a robust bumpered case holder. Um, I'm sure at some point we'll be able to tell you more about that, but I think this is pretty, pretty sick. I'm into this watch, man.
Everett It's a good one.
Andrew Are we good to sign crown? Did we meet the quota for talking about watches?
Everett I think we have. We're, we're, we're okay. Cue the music.
Andrew Right. Let's talk about some gifts.
Everett So in our annual fashion, it is our, what do you buy for the people who year round buy all the things that they want for themselves anyway? Cause that's what watch people are. We buy things for ourselves. We meticulously research and buy shit we like. and are hard to get gifts for.
Andrew Yeah, that's really, that hits the nail on the head. Yeah. Yeah, this is the episode that you send to your girlfriend, wife, husband, boyfriend, who is scratching their head trying to figure out what to buy you.
Everett Yeah, because we bought it all for ourselves already.
Andrew Can I start?
Everett You know, I think you should, because I think you have one more than me. Oh, weird, I cheated today. So this first thing I was kind of on the fence about, but I think it's just cool enough to be on my list.
Andrew That's how I feel about you in my life.
Everett No, I know. Like just on the cusp. I'm your Alabama. I get it. So this is not a unique product to this website. I found on this website a personalized watch block, watch box wrapped in black leather with a glass display case that is etched. So you can customize what the etching is going to be on the top. Oh, interesting. And it's a 10 watch box. Now it's got glass. So, you know, there's, there's some limitations there, but you can choose any of their pre-made designs and have it shipped 50 bucks. It's not bad for a 10 watch box. I mean, this is, this is going to be probably comparable to a $30 box you could buy on Ollie. Yeah, that's my guess, but you're getting the etching on the glass. So either a monogram, the name, a significant date. I got it. I found it on a grooms shop.com as a recommendation for groomsmen gift. I think this would be a dope groomsman's gift. But if you're looking for, I mean, it's not cheap, but it's not break the bank expensive and it's protecting some break the bank expensive stuff. I think this would be something anyone would appreciate, even if they already have watch boxes that aren't full. I think this would be a very appreciated addition.
Andrew What would you write on yours?
Everett Uh, probably wieners and gonads.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Something fun.
Andrew Yeah. Dicks. You know, back in the early to mid 2000s, I, um, restored a bike. I bought a bicycle and converted it to a single speed and, um, you know, put a cool paint job on it and wheels and everything. And I, at some point designed a sticker. that I wanted to get printed on Mylar that was like a super 80s bicycle logo. And it said, like kind of disguised, it said in kind of small 80s writing, motherfucker, and then a big 2000 on it. And I always think about that. Like I want to get motherfucker 2000 printed on everything. I never made that to put on that bike, by the way, but.
Everett No, because if you'd have made one, you'd have made hundreds. You'd still have an inventory of motherfucker 2000s.
Andrew Just put it on everything. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm thinking getting this and putting, having a motherfucker 2000 printed on it. That'd be dope.
Everett That'd be dope.
Andrew Hey, Hey, Hey.
Andrew Can I do me? Do me. Okay. So first thing I want to talk about, and I'm going to start with the most boring thing on my list. It's not boring. It's awesome. But I put some thought into this and this is where I landed. I wanted to recommend one just a single watch strap that you could safely buy anyone, anyone, anyone, and they will enjoy it. Um, you know, I think people are all over the map on this, but I've never, never heard anyone not love this strap. I picked the crown and buckle Supreme NATO, Matt watch strap. And I say, this is boring, not because it's boring, Supreme, not because it's boring in and of itself, but because we talk about it a lot, or at least I do. I think that this is really legitimately the most versatile, best quote unquote, best NATO on the market right now. And it's cheap ish. It's not cheap.
Everett It's 28 bucks.
Andrew Yeah. It's, it's relatively affordable. Um, it's certainly in that stocking stuffer or I don't know you that well price range. Um, They sell it in several colors at this point. Five colors? I still wish that they'd go a little deeper into the color catalog on this. But you can get it in blue, you can get it in grayish black. They've got an olive, they've got... Nine colors.
Everett Blonde.
Andrew Yeah, blonde. Blondes have more fun is what I've heard.
Everett I think most people call it tan.
Andrew They've got their uniform, which is sort of like a drabby coyote, you know. Good colors.
Everett Greige. I thought you just misspoke, but it's actually called a greige.
Andrew Yeah, yeah, it is. It's actually just greige. I think that this is an easy pick. If you don't know what to get someone, they want a NATO. This is a high quality NATO from a high quality company that you can't get on Ali or anywhere else that looks good on everything.
Everett And good news is if they don't turn out, they're not a watch person, they could just wear it as a bracelet.
Andrew Yeah, that's right.
Everett Because those kinds of bracelets are coming back in style. Yeah, people are wearing all kinds of weird straps and leather things.
Andrew Bracelet stacking. I think I'm going to get some puka shells and some Oakleys. Froster tips.
Everett Yeah. I can do it.
Andrew I'll do it for you. That's going to come back at some point, right? You hope not, right? Can you imagine when that comes, when the kids are like, oh yeah, look it, I'm wearing a Hawaiian logo Tommy Hilfiger shirt and I've frosted my tips.
Everett And I'm wearing a puka shell necklace.
Andrew With puka shells. It's like, god damn you.
Everett Hopefully Zahn's come back.
Andrew I want it that way.
Everett Ugh, what a nightmare.
Andrew Yeah, crown and buckle. Supreme Mattnado. Let's be clear. It's the Matt. Supreme Nado is a wonderful, wonderful strap.
Everett Great strap. Supreme Matt is the way to go. Go Matt. Yeah, you don't want it to look reflective.
Andrew Matt's a weird name.
Everett It is. It doesn't sound like there should be an E.
Andrew Hey, Matt. Your name is Matt. Hey, what do you call a guy with no arms and no legs on the porch? I don't know. Matt.
Everett Keep going. Carry on. My next step. I'm excited about this one. I might buy this one for me. From a company called Marathon that we all know and love. Oh, the Canadian company. Yeah. An analog desk alarm clock with auto night light oh oh oh oh i own this coming in at 39.99 you can get gold case white dial silver case white dial black case white dial midnight blue white case blue case black case got nine case options there nine case options just a cool like you know for all for all the time we spend looking at our watches Most of us don't put any thought into any of the other time telling devices in our lives.
Andrew Dude, that gold case is real sick.
Everett Yeah. So for 40 bucks, you got the option of a desk clock from a company that has like, is a dope watch company. You know, it's not just buying a, you know, a digital take your pick alarm clock. It's got some, some watch. Relation there. Affordable and cool. Smooth sweeping, just like any other, but that's something I've never really understood about big quartz clocks.
Andrew How do they do the smooth sweep? They're all smooth sweep.
Everett Science, man. I don't get it. Auto nightlight. It's, uh, so they're actually, this is a spring drive, I think.
Andrew Yeah. 40 bucks. So I own this. Yeah, I own this. I own the white case, white dialed version of this. And I think the reason I have that is because that was the one that Werner Wundt had in stock when I ordered this. Our link in the show notes is going to be direct from the Marathon website.
Everett Yeah, direct to Marathon.
Andrew And they've got a lot more options. I'm not sure better options, but more options. I own this. I use it in the office and I unexpectedly use this every single day, specifically the alarm function. I don't mean I use it to like tell the time.
Everett No, he uses the alarm function to time his naps.
Andrew I use the alarm function to remind me of a meeting or phone calls, you know, Oh yeah, I'll give you a call at 11 or whatever the next thing is. Cause I'm the guy who I start working and the clock goes away. And I've tried to ask my assistant and I was like, Hey, come kick me when I have to make the call. But she, She does sometimes.
Everett She also has a job that she needs to do though.
Andrew Yes that's right. So I just set the alarm clock for the next thing I need to do and it goes off. It's super reliable. You know it's one of these like turn the dial to set the 24 hour alarm hand and so I was a little worried that that was going to be inaccurate. It's not. I can set this thing to like three to five minutes before the hour or the half hour that I need to make the call. And it works perfectly every time. Never late. It's fantastic. I use this thing every day, probably twice a day. The alarm, specifically the alarm function. And it's really easy. It's a red button that sticks up top. If you want it on, the button's out. If you want it off, the button's down. It's fantastic. I love this. I love this clock.
Everett And it's from Marathon. Yeah. They do all kinds of other clocks. They do a ton of digitals. They do a ton of like smart clocks and the alarm clocks that project the time onto the ceiling so you don't have to trouble yourself to roll over and know that you're still awake. They do a couple like this and this is cool. And it's 40 bucks. This is one you can take a flyer on and I think you're going to be really pleased. And it comes with two double A batteries, which is like half the cost of a clock.
Andrew Okay. Next up. Screwdrivers. Ooh. Watch screwdrivers. And I've brought two separate options to the cut today.
Everett Okay.
Andrew Because I think screwdrivers, like so many things in life, you start with the question, what's your budget, right? Because you can go, you can go to, you know, Home Depot or perhaps even Walmart and buy an inexpensive set of micro screwdrivers that will be good and functional and just not great.
Everett No.
Andrew Right? Softer tips. You're gonna break some tips. You may, you know, and a non-hardened tip can cause damage.
Everett Yeah. Can it?
Andrew Anyway, having a nice set of slotted, specifically slotted, dedicated watch Screwdrivers, I think, is a great idea. I do have a small set that I built piece by piece of Wiha, I think is how you say the German word. It's Yiha. Yeah, Yiha. But I've picked two options that are not Wiha because I think that they are better. I think that they are better. And in fact, I may get one or if not both of these. The first one's expensive. A little bit. The first one's expensive. But it's cooler. And I understand that this is probably the most popular screwdriver set amongst actual watchmakers. So people that for a living do watches, I think that this is the number one most popular set of screwdrivers. It's the one you see on every watchmaker's desk with the tourney dial and the colored handles sticking up around that dial. This is the version 30081-S09 mini watchmaker screwdriver set on rotating stand.
Everett Stainless steel.
Andrew Stainless steel. So we're going to link to Esslinger where you can pick this up. It's 140 bucks. So this is not, I put this in a gift guide because, you know, people buy gifts of different values.
Everett True.
Andrew This is an expensive screwdriver set. Yeah. And I would say this is for The person that's got a deep collection, that is maybe a bit of a tinkerer.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew That really likes nice things.
Everett Maybe is modding watches on their own.
Andrew And has a bit of an aesthetic, aesthetic fetish, right? They like shit that looks neat and cool. This is a very sort of, this is a signal item, right?
Everett It's gonna be in the background of all of their Instagram shots. That's right.
Andrew That's right. So A, it's going to be functional. It's an incredibly functional, wonderful, excellent tool. You're going to have slotted screwdrivers in multiple different sizes, but also it's kind of sexy. Yeah.
Everett You know my favorite part about this is? Yeah, tell me. It's not just that it has colored handles. It's that it's color coded on the little lazy Susan.
Andrew Yes.
Everett I love that. Yes. So not just that it's a good screwdriver, but in the way of like of product design. the color coding of the slots.
Andrew Yeah. And you know, you get, you get a lot of, a lot of screwdrivers here. It's, it's everything from half a millimeter to 2.5 millimeters. So, so there, there are a number of these things that go in the set. I think that you can also get this set without, um, you can also get this set without the, Lazy Susan, but I wasn't able to find that. So, and I, and I understand that Lazy Susan is, is a bit of the cost, so they may want it without, but I think you get it with, if you're going to get this set.
Everett I'm just, I'm found the 30081 mini watchmaker screwdrivers with stainless steel blades, 1188. And I'm assuming that's per. Those are just per driver.
Andrew Those are just the blades.
Everett Oh, it's just a replacement.
Andrew I believe so.
Everett They also have a 10 piece set for 269. Yeah.
Andrew That's got more colors. There's also a Hortac I think that's 300 that is more. I think the version is the way to go if that's what you want, but it's a lot of money. Now I've also picked more of a stocking stuffer type price range. So there is a company called Moody.
Everett I'll be putting a stocking in your house. Right. It's not a big deal.
Andrew There's a company called Moody. It's a U.S. tool company. And they recently, you may know that name because they recently worked with Worn and Wound to make a six piece slotted screwdriver set, sort of a watch specific slotted screwdriver set, made in the USA, all sort of hardened, hardened tips, carbon steel tips, all slotted, six different sizes. I think everything from 0.025 inches, because they're American made, to 0.1 inches. So similar range as the version size. And the worn and wound kit was $35 and they're now sold out. They're no longer on the worn and wound website. But what I found is from a website called tooldiscounter.com.
Everett Which is where you want to buy tools. That's
Andrew The same kit, the same set of tools for $18.82. Yeah.
Everett What was it on Warn and Weld? Like 45 bucks? 35, yeah.
Andrew So I believe these are the same, not quite the same exact tools, but the same tools functionally. The knurling, the end piece of the knurling is steel instead of black on the Warn and Weld, but I think that they're exactly the same otherwise.
Everett I want some companies to come out with much longer handle screwdrivers.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett I like the short handle for this type of work, but I want some more purchase, especially when I'm breaking that the, the screw on a bracelet for the first time.
Andrew So, so the other thing about the other thing about the Warner one set is they came in like a, uh, they had like a fancy schmancy watch looking tool roll, and these come in a plastic case. So that may account for some of the price difference.
Everett Oh, certainly.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm a short. I'm a short. I want them long.
Everett I'm long and strong.
Andrew So two different screwdriver sets, one very to two, two pretty drastically different price points. Probably going to do most of the same things.
Everett One of them is going to look cooler. One of them is going to look cooler. And if you haven't figured out by now, we are all about having tools to do some of the work on your watches by yourself.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett I don't think a single one of these has ever gone by where we've not recommended tools or a toolkit for watches.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, that's an integral part of the hobby for me. I don't know. I don't think it is for everybody, but for me, um, the, the ability to understand what's happening, at least conceptually inside of the watch, but also to do basic repairs, you know, at least entry level repair. I'm gonna have less fun if I'm not able to engage that way with watches. So, I think that's not the case for everybody.
Everett I want to be able to fix it if it's broken. And I know I can't. Still not there. Gotta send it to people. Smart. Yeah, well, it's something. Next up for me, our old friends, the art of urology.
Andrew Yeah, I love those guys.
Everett They are great. And as of today, so on Tuesday the 7th, they still say they can ship in time for Christmas. And it's coming from the UK. Coming from the UK, yeah. So most of their prints are about 16 pounds and 20 bits. That's what they call them, right? 20. 20 bucks or so. Yeah, 20 bucks or so. We know them. We love them. Everything they have looks good. They've got a bucket of pre-made ready to go. If you want custom, you've missed the ball for Christmas. Maybe consider a birthday present or just because present. Um, I don't know the last time. Oh, they have dropped some new ones. They have a paddock Nautilus and packaging. I remember seeing those on Instagram.
Andrew Yeah, they've got a lot of the players, right? They've got APRO, but they've also got like F91, right?
Everett Yeah, they've got some stickers now. They were actually really expanded their lineup. But what a good, easy, attractive way to just share some love. And these people are great. Yeah, so episode 46,
Andrew uh episode 46 of 40 in 20 we had these guys on the show and talked about what they're doing you know really this is a small company this is it's two people uh husband and wife and uh making art and fulfilling orders out of their house at least at the time and and i don't know if that's still the case but i kind of assume it is and man they look good yeah skx Marine Master 300, tons of good prints on here. I think that if you got a print from Art of Horology for someone you loved, that would be a prized possession for the rest of their lives.
Everett I would think so. And I would expect they would probably buy more. This seems like the kind of thing that is very much a slippery slope. Like you buy one and you're like, I think I could probably, this needs some friends on the wall.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett The full color F91 is just dope. It's a really good. It makes no sense against all the other players they have, you know, with subs and GMT masters and a bunch of different speedies.
Andrew And I like how it's got, um, the, so the, the, the light is on and the, uh, they've sort of included, Liam's included the, the shadowy part of the dial in where the light doesn't reach.
Everett Yeah. As good as that F91 light is, it's not good at all. Yeah.
Andrew Really good stuff. Good choice, Andrew. I like this. Thanks. Yeah. It's sort of a missed opportunity to do something fun with the digital date, but yeah.
Everett Yeah. That's that's save that for the calculator watch. I'm going to have them do a custom with the calculator watch and it's going to be eight zero zero one three five or one two five one one three two. Okay.
Andrew You ready to spend some money?
Everett Do it.
Andrew So have we, we've talked about watch, watch storage, Pelican case options before on the show, right? I don't know if we've talked in depth. Oh, well, okay. So we've at least mentioned that, you know, a Pelican case I think is a really obvious watch storage option. Um, it's secure, it's watertight. Um, They're oftentimes lockable. Uh, they're extremely protective. Um, I, the reason I have not yet initiated that process is because I've been a little bit reticent to do like a pick and pull type of deal with a Pelican case.
Everett Um, like, like do the cutouts yourself?
Andrew Yeah. is something about that process that just gives me a little bit of angst, right? I'm not gonna do it right, or it's not gonna look as good as I want, or it's not gonna feel as secure as I want, and so I haven't done it. I do know that there are some really good guides online for how to do it, and that it's extremely doable, but even then, like, what do you use for the pillow part? I don't know, right? So I haven't done it just because I haven't wanted to solve all the problems,
Everett There's also the problem of that you're, you, you exceed the space you could get in any reasonably priced Pelican case.
Andrew Yeah. Well, that's true. Uh, there's a solution and I just recently learned about this, but there's a company called now pack N a L P a K specifically now pack.com. Um, now pack makes pre made inserts for popular Pelican case sizes. So Pelican 1120, Pelican 1170, they sell both foam only options as well as fully foamed kits. So for instance, their 10 watch, the Pelican 1400, you can buy for $170 Pelican case And insert. Right now, $169.99. How much is a Pelican 1400 by itself?
Everett I don't know.
Andrew Let's see. Probably I'd say $250. I don't think it's that much. It's a lot. A Pelican 1400? I don't think it's that much. The name is expensive. Oh. So I guess like $120.
Everett That's not as bad as I thought.
Andrew Yeah. Depending on how you have it outfitted. uh so there's uh you know there's for 170 bucks so 40 bucks more you can get a full insert now some of what i do like that they they make foam for an apache case so they have a 10 watch that can fit an apache 2800 which is essentially the 1400 The main competitor of the 1400.
Everett But it's made specifically for the Apache configuration.
Andrew Exactly. So they've got custom foam for the Apache 2800, which can be purchased for like 50 bucks at Arbor Freight. So it's 90 bucks for this kit. So 130 bucks total or 87 bucks. And you can just drive down to the and these Apache cases are apparently great. You've got some options here. You can get foam only for an existing Pelican case if you have one of the big ones. They've got the 1470 with case. I guess that's an 18 for $219. Yeah, that's good. You can get a 1510 which I think would hold 21 watches for $329. I have a 1510 and for foam only it's only $200. There you go.
Everett Well, that's a lot of money, but yeah, but I don't have to do all the cutting and foaming myself. Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Andrew So, um, this might not be for everybody, but I think for a guy like me that would like to have a Pelican, I probably would get a smaller one for like traveling. But for a guy like me that would like to have a Pelican, I think that this is a pretty neat option. And I thought it was fun to talk about. I had not heard of this until recently and it's a really good option. Yeah. Yeah an 11-20 three watch foam only for $45.99.
Everett But you go all the way for $76 you get a case and the foam.
Andrew Yeah for the 11-20 that's right.
Everett And then you've got your travel case for watches.
Andrew And it looks like there's a space for straps in there and yeah I think this is a great I think this is a great option. This is a good find. You're welcome.
Everett Thank you for spending my money.
Andrew I don't know if you looked at some of the watches they have on that website. Yeah, it was absurd.
Everett They're like, let's find a bunch of fossils.
Andrew It makes you wonder if maybe they don't actually know what's going on.
Everett They don't. That's OK. So mine's more of an idea. And I have a specific product that I found, a leather desk mat.
Andrew Yeah. We recently got leather desk mats.
Everett We did. And that was kind of what sparked the idea. Now a leather desk mat for me serves two purposes. Number one, watch people like leather. I don't like leather. We like the way leather patinas. We like the way it ages. It starts fresh and brand new and then just becomes a part of you. It sits on your desk. You work on top of it. You can get a little monogram. Just a nice everyday reminder. Now here's really why I like it. I am constantly looking for something to put down on a flat surface when I'm trying to change straps, bracelets, resize, take your pick. I usually use a folded t-shirt. A leather desk mat mitigates that entirely because that's going to be your go-to spot. Put your watch stuff down. It's a padded enough surface. You're not going to worry about damaging your watch or the surface that you're going to plunge your screwdriver into when you get frustrated. It's going to have a little bit of stickiness. My first thought was maybe like a gun mat, like a gun cleaning and repair mat. Cause those are typically like kind of a rubberized neoprene feeling. Some of them come with magnets in the corner to hold spring bars and junk.
Andrew That's like an oversized mouse pad, right?
Everett That's all it is. It's just an oversized mouse pad, nice chocolatey brown leather. It's going to look great under your keyboard, sitting at your desk, and it's going to be way nicer than touching whatever surface your desk already is. One I found was on Etsy. It's for a brown nine and a half by 15. It's 36 bucks. Yeah, nice little little work surface, put your keyboard on it, put your mouse pad next to it, and work on your watches on it. Stop finding t-shirts.
Andrew You know what I like about this, Link, is you can select different colors of matte too, right? Mm-hmm. They've got a bunch of different colors.
Everett They've got all the leather colors you would expect. I like brown. I think brown just ages really nicely.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah, this is fun. And you can like etch it too. Yeah. Yeah, this is a good choice.
Everett I like it. This Etsy one comes like carpet backed. It's not. It's got like a felt, but like felt backed. I like to call it carpet.
Andrew These are cool. What you got?
Everett That's it, man. I'm done. Oh, I have one last thing then. You know, I hate that the Amazon app, when you click on shit in Chrome or Safari, it opens up in your app. I don't want to go direct to the app, otherwise I would have searched for it on the app. I want to keep the tabs open on my phone for show notes. Anyway. I'm just a bit of a flyer. Because they're cheap. Because they're cheap. This is kind of the stocking stuffer. Watch people, because of Instagram, like taking pictures of their watches. They like people to see it. There's a company called KeyWing, and they make lens kits for phones. And these lens kits, you have to take your case off, sorry, so risking your phone's integrity here. Clip over the lenses of your camera to create fish eyes, wide angles, and macro lenses. And everyone loves a good macro watch shot. It's our favorite. That's how we learned that the blue on the BB 58 was better than just okay.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Cause it was a bunch of different blues. So it was a good blue. That being said for 19 bucks with prime delivery, you can get a kit of four lenses that clip over your existing camera lens to be able to up your iPhone camera game. And I've used these before, and they're pretty okay, but they're just kind of fun. And for people who just like doing fun stuff, snapping pictures with their phone, trying new things, I think this is a great stocking stuffer idea.
Andrew Yeah, you know, so I have, I've had two different sets of these. I've had both a cheapy, you know, something like this Lanky's um, relatively cheap. It was fun. I didn't find it particularly useful. I've also had a, there's a company called moment that makes, um, that makes fairly expensive lens kits and they're bayonet mounted and they use a case that matches probably your phone's, um, you know, your phone's geometry. I really, really liked the Moment version of these. I don't think it took significantly better pictures, but the whole process was just easier, but it's a lot of money. So this Lenke's, I think you get three, four, you get four lenses for 16 bucks. I think each one of the moments that I purchased was for a hundred bucks. Yeah. So it, there's a, it's kind of a lot of money. Um, I think you could go either way with this. If it's something, you know, someone likes, you know, perhaps they just want the macro. Um, you could get them that, but yeah. So, so different options depending on what you want to do.
Everett Yeah. Up your phone camera game.
Andrew Yeah. Up that phone camera game. Cool. That's it. That's it. You know, I kind of feel like our whole episode has been other things. which is fun, but I still want to do other things. Me too. It's a time-honored tradition. So with that in mind, Andrew, other things, what do you got?
Everett I got another thing that I'm, I'm excited about. It's winter or it's not. Is it winter yet? December 21st is the first day of winter, right? Is it that late? Yeah, I think so.
Andrew I don't know. It feels very much like winter though.
Everett It's raining. It's wet. We've been getting just torrential downpours. And I was out like in shoes getting wet. As you do. And I put on my Romeos and it was still getting wet. And I have steel toed Romeos and I love them. But I was like, man, I need I just I want a pair of not steel toe just working boots that I can wear in the rain and stop getting wet. So. I did some looking. I didn't want Chelsea boots because pass. But I wanted something that even if the leather upper gets wet, it's not going to be able to seep in through it. So I got a pair of Justin square toe rubber boots. I got the Stampede pull on square work boots. And I've had several pairs of Ariat boots before and Ariat and Justin's are kind of the affordable entry into Western boots, we'll call them. Yeah. My Western boots are the Justins. And so I was like, you know, let's go Justins. I chose these. I got the wrong size, returned them from Amazon, got the right size. So, uh, PSA here, buy a half size down if you're going to buy Justins. Yep.
Andrew Yeah. Cause they're like, it's like European sizing.
Everett Yeah. or it's American sizing, but they were half size too big at my normal shoe size. So, uh, I got, I'm gonna put them on. And my experience with Western boots is the first time you put them on, you got to wear them all day and you got to do all the things in them. You got to lotion them, try to get them wet. Cause otherwise you're not getting them off, which goes for a really nice break in and super comfortable. These, First time I slipped into them, it felt like slipping into a pair of Romeos. Loose-fitting enough, they slide right on and off. Tight-fitting enough that you don't slide around in them. They're comfortable. I did a small jump off of a thing earlier today. And in mid-descent, I was like, that was a bad idea. This is going to hurt. Great shock absorption. I landed, and I was like, oh, I'm wearing tennis shoes. This is great.
Andrew Did you get these at like a farm supply store?
Everett I got them on Amazon.
Andrew Okay. Well, you said that. Yeah. You know, the thing I, I like Justin as a brand because they're available. They're pretty widely available. If you've got a farm supply store in your town, they probably carry Justin's. I don't know if they carry these or not. Um, but Justin is just like that classic sort of perhaps a little bit like Carhartt, maybe what Carhartt was 20 years ago or, uh, Dickies Dickies or Wrangler. They're one of these brands that people who work know and rely on and trust. They're oftentimes American made, which, you know, I don't know how significant that is, but for me it feels like something that is at least a sign of care or investment. Yeah, that's just a, it's just a great brand and they make high quality, like you said, right? Yeah. Good shock absorption. These aren't fancy. No. They're not hand welted. They're not, uh, you know, Chrome, Excel or whatever. They're just like built to be comfortable and to work and to serve the needs of someone who needs to do work and to fuck them up.
Everett They're a hundred and so I've paid 125 hundred. Yeah. 125 bucks. These are built to work and I'm not going to be concerned when I kick something and gouge the leather. Yeah. So these are my, Romeo analogs that give me a little bit better ankle protection for the wetness. And I like them so far.
Andrew These are, so Justin's are the boots I bought for wearing out to rural site visits where I'm going to have to see clients in their environment. I'm going to have to come to them and I don't want to look like a total rube.
Everett Yeah. You also probably shouldn't be wearing, you know, Oxford's out into
Andrew That's exactly right. So like, you know, some of the attorneys I know were like bean boots to site visits or whatever. And bean boots are a great boot. I love that. But they just look, you start to stick out like a sore thumb. So my, I never clean my Justins. I just, you know, they just have like dirt and mud on them and they're dusty and they're not work boots. They just, it makes it, it makes me feel like I'm not, Sticking out like even though you know, I don't ever wear them for work. I just wear them.
Everett You don't do it pants in do you know?
Andrew I Just wear them to go out to site visits But it makes it at least it at least gives the appearance that I've been in a field before That you're aware of where you are. That's right There and they're not like expensive they're not fancy so no one's gonna think oh look at the fancy lawyer, yeah They're just sort of inexpensive, relatively, but they're not cheap. Cochise boots. Yep. That's right. That's right. Man, good choice. Hey, I got another thing. Do me. Mine's a little different.
Everett We're going to... Netflix show.
Andrew It's not. It's not. It's even weirder than that. As some of you may know, I've recently upgraded my 1996 LS400. to a 2003 LS430.
Everett The upgrade.
Andrew You know, we've talked about this already, but I got the same color. It's gold. It's still got a tan interior. But it's the GS. No, it's still LS. It's an LS. It's the gold edition. Oh, it's the GE. It's the gold edition. That's right. It's the gold edition. I've got gold badges. So I got the LS430 and the first thing I wanted to do was upgrade the stereo because the stereos in these things are nice. But they're, they're dated as a 2003 car. So I don't have an aux port. I don't have, it's got a, it's got a tape player and a six disc CD changer.
Everett Do you, do they make the firewire cassette adapter thing that we all used to use in, in like the early two thousands where you'd plug that into your.
Andrew Yeah, they do. So they even can do better than that. There are Bluetooth tapes that you can stick in. That's not as good. So, so anyway, there are, There are poor man's upgrades to this to allow the function, but I don't want that. I want like a full meal deal car play headset. Okay? Seems reasonable.
Everett I want to be able to get in the car, have wireless car play, just... Do you know that if you were to buy a post 2010 car that would be available?
Andrew Yes. Okay. I do know that, but I don't want to do that, right?
Everett That's an option. That is an option. The next one will be a 2012 LS400 and it will have that technology.
Andrew Maybe, perhaps, yeah. It'll be broken. So right, I started looking at head units. I found the head unit I wanted. I bought the head unit. That's not my other thing. It was coming and then I started to like really sort of dive into what am I going to need for a wiring harness because anytime you put a head unit into a car, you need a wiring harness. You need a dash kit, you need a wiring harness. You know, Lexus being Lexus, of course, didn't do anything simple, right? This is not just a standard 12-volt stereo, you know, normal Ohm speakers. Everything's different.
Everett Different Ohms on the left and right, and then the front and back.
Andrew Two Ohm speakers all around. It's got the tuner in the trunk. It's got a stock amp that doesn't work with any other system, right? Made by Pioneer, so it's a good amp, but you know, it's like, There's just a lot and everything runs through an ECU, right? A closed system ECU, right? And so it quickly became apparent to me that I was going to have to do one of two things. I was either going to have to completely bypass the stock speakers and amp or get this very specialized kit from a Japanese company called Beatsonic. So I find the part number and I don't think about it a whole lot more because I don't need it right now. I figure out the head unit I want, I order the head unit, the head unit's on the way, and I'm like, well now that the head unit's on the way, I need to get this wiring kit. So I order it from a place that has it in stock, and almost immediately it comes back that it's not actually in stock. I say, this product's been discontinued, we're returning your money. And it's expensive. That's a bad sign. By the way, this part's like $350. And so I'm like, okay, well, that's not a big deal. I saw one of these on Amazon. And so I go to Amazon and I order the part next day. Same thing. This part's out of stock.
Everett We don't have it, which is unusual for Amazon.
Andrew I'm like, Oh, okay. Well, we might have a problem. So at that point I called the company and I say, Hey, do you have one of these? And they didn't know we've discontinued. We don't have them at all. I'm like, Oh, okay. Check the back. That's a problem. And so I find another place that says they have them on stock and I call. I call a place called Car-ID. It's one of these big websites. And I say, hey, do you have this part? And they say, oh yeah, I get someone customer service. Oh yeah, we have them. We have them in stock. I was like, okay, well, I've tried to order this three times from places that have them in stock and they don't have them. Anyway, long story short, they have them in stock. I order it. I give them another $350 third time. So now you've got like
Everett $5,000 on hold. Yes, that's exactly right.
Andrew My credit card is maxed in holds, credit card holds. Uh, so, you know, three days later I get an email from them that says we don't actually have this thing. Kidding. And so now I'm really out of options. I need this part or else I'm not going to be able to make this stereo work. I'm going to have to like go back to the drawing board and like put in like completely bypass the existing stereo system, which that's a possibility, but I don't want to do it.
Everett Um, and it's going to be incredibly expensive and labor intensive, you know, like running wire in a finished car is hard.
Andrew That's right. I'd have, I'd pay someone to do that. But, um, so I, you know, I last the last ditch effort. I go to the club Lexus website and I make a post and I say, this is my problem. And someone says, Hey, this is a Japanese part. And there's a website called Yahoo auctions, Japan. And they've got like 50 of these things on there right now, and they send me a link to the search results. And sure enough, I go, and the website's all in Japanese.
Everett Which is why it didn't show in your Google searches, I assume.
Andrew That's right, that's right. And they do, sure enough, they've got like 50. And everything from really cheap, like used, someone's installed this, it's been in their car, and then they pulled it out, to brand new old stock, versions of this for more, but still quite a bit less than they were available new. So the deal with this website is you need a broker because you can't just get on Yahoo, at least I can't get on Yahoo Auctions Japan and order something. So I, that was kind of a nervous feeling. Like, what does that mean? What's a broker look like? What does this actually look like? So I, of course, you know, just Google Yahoo Auctions Japan broker. The first site I go to comes up, it's Baiyi B-U-Y-E-E. I quickly Google, is Baiyi reliable? Everything I read says it is. So I ordered this thing via Baiyi. I paid, I think, total 800 yen, which I think is maybe $80 in service fees. I opted for EMS shipping, which was like for the size of the thing I was doing, another you know 80 bucks so 160 bucks of service fees and shipping and i still maybe not maybe it wasn't even quite that much um maybe like 120 bucks and i still saved money on this purchase versus what i would have if i would have just gotten the u.s now how long is will this brokerage site make jdm watches available you know i think that they do i think that the answer is Yes. And that's the reason I thought this might be appropriate to talk about on the show today, because there is a whole world of JDM shit out there. You know, Japan's this very, very tiny, but highly populated country. And in the world that we live in, there's a lot of cool shit in Japan, a lot of neat JDM stuff. And I think if you were creative enough, were interested enough, there may be some options there. Now I kind of looked at like vintage Seiko chronographs and their prices seem to be pretty close to what we'd expect in the US. But I think as you got away from the mainstream popular stuff, there may be some opportunities to snag some deals.
Everett Grand Orient shit.
Andrew Perhaps, yeah. You know, and I'm not sure exactly.
Everett King Orient, Grand Orient.
Andrew Is it King Orient? What is the Orient's, the Orient Star?
Everett No, Orient Star, but there's a brand, there's a JDM brand. It's either King or Grand Orient. I want to say it's King Orient.
Andrew Well, in any event, I think that, you know, perhaps for G-Shock, JDM stuff, I think that this might be a really interesting, now maybe we're telling you something you already know, but this had not really occurred to me Bayi is all, I was able to pay with secure payments for everything on Bayi, PayPal. PayPal. Who's Al? PayPal, which gives you some security, some safety.
Everett An extra layer, yeah.
Andrew Yeah. It just felt like this is all really, I'm feeling really comfortable with the way this was going. And I haven't received the part yet, admittedly. However, I have shipping from EMS, shipping tracking. I think I will get it, if not this week, then the first part of next week. So a total of like maybe 10 days from the time I bid on this item to the time I'm going to have it in hand from Tokyo. I'm really impressed by this whole process. So, you know, we'll report back with the results of this thing at the end of the day.
Everett And we'll also have a YouTube video on the install.
Andrew No, not really. Yeah, we'll see about that. Yeah, I'm not sure what the other thing is. Yahoo Auctions Japan or Baiyi or the combination of the two.
Everett I'll be linking to both of those websites. Okay. And just put a question mark. Yeah. Just website one, website two. Godspeed.
Andrew See, yeah, that's my experience. I'll report back once I get it, obviously. But assuming it's what I expect to happen, I should have that part. in like a week, which is nuts.
Everett And your kids are really jacked about being able to watch Netflix in the car. Betty actually is super jacked. She was talking about it from the moment I picked her up. That was, that was what she opened with and then was continuing to talk about it while walking away. Like usually when people are talking about something you're not interested in, you walk away. She walked away from me while talking to something that I was talking to me about something I was not interested in. That's my daughter, man. All right, bye. She's amazing. She might've still been talking when she got in the house. Probably.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Andrew, I think we've done it. We've done it. We have the comprehensive Christmas list of things to buy for people who buy everything for themselves. Mission accomplished. We've done it. Hooray. Merry Christmas, everyone. On today's Tuesday, so on the 9th. But this gives you some time to do some last minute gift buying. Yeah, we gotta have time to shop. Yeah, and get it shipped. Art of Horology is not going to be able to ship it for before Christmas for much longer.
Andrew Thanks for the beer.
Everett Always my pleasure. And thank you.
Andrew Thank you at home or in your car for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. Remember you can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at Watch Clicker, but also more importantly at our website, watchclicker.com. That's where we post every single episode of this podcast, as well as reviews and articles and really content's been pretty good these days. Yeah. If you want to support what we're doing at WatchClicker, and really, genuinely, honestly, please, for the love of God, we would love it if you did. You can do so at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's how we pay for all the hosting, photographs, bandwidth. I don't know. It's expensive. Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. You can be a patron. We'll send you a sticker or something. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday. for now there are watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.