The Poor Man’s Watch, Revisited, with Will

Published on Wed, 19 Jan 2022 22:33:40 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts discuss their picks for iconic watches and affordable alternatives that are objectively better or equivalent replacements. Andrew selects the IWC Big Pilot and Laco Augsburg Flieger watches. Will picks the Omega Aqua Terra and Casio Edifice. Everett chooses the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Tissot PRX Powermatic 80. They analyze how the affordable alternatives compare in categories like water resistance, size, movements, straps, aesthetics, lume, and intangible qualities. While the iconic watches often score higher overall, the affordable options provide tremendous value and in some cases match or exceed the premium models in certain respects.

The hosts also discuss other topics like the Subnautica video game, smart home light switches, and iFixit's precision driver kits. They are careful to avoid reproducing any copyrighted lyrics or excessively long quotes.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 1420 The Watch Clicker Podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm good. I was just wondering if next time you could set your beer against the table a little louder. I'm doing good, man. Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm actually, uh, I'm actually like, feeling good, but my family has all sort of gotten sick in the last few days. We're, we're very well COVID tested at this point. We don't have COVID, which is always the immediate concern, but there has been a number of, uh, a number of sick feelings in the house. Did you do the rectal tests? Uh, no. Oh, is that a thing? Could be. Okay. Uh, yeah, but doing, doing well. I'm, I'm happy to not be, uh, sick. How are you Andrew?
Andrew Hang in there. Today was a day. My two-year-old's classroom this morning, we got an email at about six o'clock, closed because of teacher shortages for sick call-outs. And then I got a text from you and said your kids were staying home because they weren't feeling well. And then my wife sussed that out. She was like, well, Mark was in exactly the same environment for his kids for the same period of time. we should probably keep him home. I was like, well, you're not wrong. You're not right because you're going upstairs to go to work. And that leaves me alone on a day I intended to be alone. Yeah. Alone with two kids. I was as a result alone with two kids today. So I'm a little tired, a little worn out and a little grumpy, but this wild berry truly seltzer is not helping. I think maybe the black cherry will. So I just got to get through this one quick.
Everett I've got another question.
Unknown Yes.
Everett Will, Will, he's, Will's here. Will, how are you?
Will I'm just, I'm just waiting patiently for my intro. I'm no longer Andrew's good friend, apparently. I've been demoted.
Andrew Well, I mean, I didn't want to be, you know, show too much favoritism. I think it's the first time we've had you on where I didn't just like shit on Everett for a mean amount of time.
Will I was a little offended that you didn't.
Andrew You know, I like to mix things up from time to time. I was a little thrown off because I got to open my beverage, but not take a sip. And then my voice was a little scratchy and I just, I, I, yeah, it got away from me.
Everett I'm sorry. Yeah. I punished him for weeks after every time it happened. So I think maybe he's, he's just learning his lesson.
Andrew Nah, if it was the punishment, I'd like that. So I figured we were just going to do that anyway.
Will Stockholm syndrome.
Everett Will from another coast in the United States and many, many time zones away. How are you man? How's it, how's things going?
Will Good, good. I'm doing well. Uh, the kids went back to daycare after being home for a week because of COVID exposures, which thankfully all negative. Uh, but you know, having two kids at home who just want attention is, as you know, exhausting. So it was nice to send them off and get back to normal. Good riddance. And we're hoping that they make it a couple of weeks before the inevitable next exposure.
Everett Right. Yeah. That's sort of the name of the game.
Will Other than that. Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, all good business as usual. Everything's busy and well oiled. Can't complain.
Andrew Got to get the lube on. What have you got in inventory in the queue right now?
Will Quite a bit. So I've got the Breitling Superocean, which that'll be the next video review probably early next week. And then I've got the brew metric, which I posted a couple days ago. I'm not sure if I'm doing a written or a video that it'll get reviewed something. And then John also sent over the eight bit brew also for me to check out, which is super cool. Kind of want one. What else do I have? I've got something else. I don't remember, but you guys know yesterday I got in the the Serica 5503, which I'll definitely do a review of, because I know everybody's curious about the bracelet, which I love. And I just found out that it fits on a Speedmaster, so that's fun to know.
Everett Which means vice versa as well.
Will So I was able to get the beads of rice bracelet from Uncle Seiko and the flat link from Uncle Seiko for the Speedmaster on the Serica. So they fit. Um, so I'm guessing most things swap back and forth, you know, similar lug shapes, you know, they have those twisted wire lugs and everything. So I've got something else in for review, but I don't remember what it is.
Everett You've got one of those new, one of those herons in, don't you?
Will That has come and gone. Um, yeah, the reviews up for that. Um, That was just a written review.
Everett I mean, I, of course I read every review on the website, so.
Andrew He didn't know though, you didn't know that if he hadn't sent it back, maybe it's the way we handle reviews and it sits in a box ready to send back for months.
Everett You know, new, new review on the website. Uh, I thought maybe we could just talk about it because I think it's a little bit different than, than our typical fair, uh, Furry Rest Abroad, who's That's, that's the, this, this writer's, uh, preferred, preferred handle, uh, published, or I guess we published Furry Rooster Broad's Boulevard Precisionist Chronograph Review on the website. Not the most, uh, not the most, uh, generous review we've ever had on the website. One of the more fun reviews though, I think, um, kind of a, a, a different pace and a little bit different tone.
Will Also, definitely not the smallest watch we've had on the website.
Everett One of the bigger watches, I'd say.
Will Yeah, I think it's 46.
Everett Yeah, it's a big, it's a big old watch.
Will That's a... Yeah, lug to lug is 55.
Andrew Huge. Tombstone.
Will Furry likes them big though, so that's his jam.
Everett Yeah. That was a fun review. Anything else we've had? You know, we obviously had our article about the new PayPal tax. Oh yeah, the Hunter Review published on January 6, Ocean Hunter Review.
Andrew Is your phone scrolling on its own based on your voice? I'm not sure.
Everett I'm not sure.
Will That can happen. It's a nice feature.
Andrew It made me uncomfortable. His phone was like, oh, maybe it's the size of the... It's funny, that Boulevard Precisionist picture is so big that as it was scrolling tiles, it was actually expanding and contracting the print below.
Will That's just Everett's old man text size.
Everett That's right. Your eyes go bad. It happens to everybody. It'll happen to you too. Maybe someday. Well, so we've got a fun topic. This is a topic actually that we've been circulating for a while. I think Andrew, like most of our topics, Andrew kind of proposed this and we've been jamming back and forth on it as a group for a while. And this kind of Got gelled, I don't know, a month or so ago, and we've spent the last month kind of thinking about our picks, but we're doing today a little bit different spin on our poor man's series. Uh, oftentimes when we do these poor man's episodes, we'll pick a watch and then come up with several sort of less expensive, notably less expensive versions of that watch that may scratch different itches, uh, in, in sort of a consumer exercise, uh, for the affordable watch fan, we're going to do something a little bit different today, which is we've each picked sort of iconic, um, but, but expensive watch oftentimes on the more expensive side, and we're going to come up with a replacement. The, the, the goal was, to pick an objectively better or equivalent replacement for that watch at a much more affordable price. So we've all done that kind of differently. I actually like having reviewed our picks and our decisions. We've done that a little bit different in an effort to provide some context for our choices and also to sort of explore what we're getting and what we're missing with these picks. We've each scored both versions, the iconic version and the poor man's version. And so we'll just take some time to talk through that and what that might mean for, for you or for us, if we were to make these decisions, am I missing anything?
Unknown That's it.
Andrew So watch clicker presents the poor man's our favorites, our favorite poor man's.
Will Yeah. And I would like to give a shout out to Eric EAA who, uh, pitch the original idea for this, which think was he was hoping for probably something a little bit different which was I think he was hoping for us to actually find the watches that were better and some cases maybe we did in some cases maybe we didn't but yeah I did want to give a shout out to Eric for throwing this little spin on you know our poor man's version.
Andrew Our poor man's watches are objectively better for your wallet in every regard. I don't think any of us picked a poor man's version that was more expensive than the OG
Everett Yeah, we can talk about this as we go through, but you know, there is some truth, at least some truth to the idea that you get what you pay for with watches. And whether that's a meaningful, whether the thing you're getting is meaningful or not, in some regards, All of our choices kind of suss that out, right? The more you spend, the more you get, at least in some regards.
Andrew In some regards, but I think if we're not doing the Speedmaster today, but I think if we were to go at our objective rating scale of the Speedmaster and rate it against any of the poor man's speedies, I think the Speedmaster itself loses to even the SSB just based on water resistance alone. I don't think it can, I don't think it can overcome the water resistance deficit. Cause there's just no reason in the world for it to not have more water resistance. You get what you pay for as many times as you get.
Will It was that guy that I don't know if he's still on Instagram, but there was that guy that I forget what his handle was. It was like Speedmaster and water or something. And it was just pictures of his Speedmaster, like in the ocean, going diving, whatever. And you know, his, his thing was kind of the water resistance doesn't matter as long as you're not going hundred feet underwater.
Everett It's interesting to note, which we all know, it's interesting to note. I haven't heard nor seen of, I haven't seen nor heard of that guy for several years. So, uh, Omega stopped providing him speed masters to who knows, who knows what happened there? Well, with that in mind, uh, I'm happy. I'm happy to sort of lead this thing off, kick us off. with, with my choice, because I'm kind of excited to talk about. So, um, I've gone, I've, I, I approached this. I actually had the benefit of seeing both of your guys' picks before I settled on my two watches for this show. And I think that my, I think that my poor man's watch is the most expensive. In fact, I'm certain. I'm certain my poor man's watch is the most expensive of the one. Oh, that's not true. No, mine is. But in any event, I think it's a good place to kick us off because I've picked a classic Flieger watch, the Luftwaffe Flieger watch as my choice. And I think that that watch is, in a couple of respects, sort of a really simple, really basic, really classic watch, sort of like a classic army field watch in some ways, you know, where the design is kind of set, the basic design elements are kind of set, and what companies do with those designs is kind of bound to those initial design parameters. With that said, the iconic version that I've gone with, and it serves, it bears to mention that this watch is not the classic Flieger, The IWC Big Pilot, and I've picked just for the sake of specificity, the 43 millimeter IWC Big Pilot, which I think if you're going to criticize that watch, and I know Will is willing to criticize that watch because I've heard him do it, it's a very, very boring watch. Almost certainly purposefully so. I design very much so. With that said, it is undoubtedly an iconic watch. IWC being one of the five sort of original, uh, you know, German air force watches, which that's a, that's potentially problematic, right? These are these, it just bears mentioning. These are watches made for Nazis during world war two, but by Nazis for Nazis, the watch in and of itself is not, that and these watches that are being made are not that. But some people don't like that aspect of these watches. And you know, uh, your mileage may vary in that regard, but these are both companies.
Will There's a whole bunch of other shit you should stop buying if that's what you feel.
Everett Yeah. Well, and, and, you know, there's maybe some nuance there, but yeah, these are, these are watches. We're appreciating them for watches, clearly not for any of that other nonsense. Um, but IWC, obviously one of the original five makers of this watch, and they've continued to evolve that watch. So the, the big pilot is not the classic 55 millimeter Flieger. It's a much more manageable 43 millimeters. Um,
Andrew Whoever would have thought that much more manageable would be a 43 millimeter watch. Well, right. You're not wrong in your assessment, but that's a big ass watch.
Everett Still a big watch. I mean, it's called the Big Pilot, so you don't expect it to be dainty. And IWC does this in a particularly IWC way. Extreme finishing, in-house movement, very good in-house movement. Probably not what you'd call photo-hrology, but a really good in-house movement. Anglage on the case, you know, hand finishing, some hand finishing on the movement. This is a really, really nice high end watch in all respects. Bracelet's going to be great if you get the bracelet. I've chosen the model on the leather strap, which is probably good for a leather strap.
Andrew Yeah, I really liked the leather strap that I wore when I tried one of these on.
Everett And so, you know, you're getting all those classic Flieger elements. This is certainly an iconic watch. I've picked a poor man's watch that I think competes with this in a number of respects. So this is a watch we've talked about on the show before. Uh, this is the Laco Augsburg, also the Aachen, Aachen, I think, um, which is, I think the type B. So the Augsburg is the type A and This is Locco's entry level. They call it the basic Flieger. So Locco, notably one of the other five companies who made an original Flieger watch. So you get the heritage. This is a real no shit. Locco's got a claim to fame on this watch. And also similar to IWC has made their, this original 55 millimeter design into a much more manageable wearable Everyday 42 millimeter watch. Um, so a little bit smaller. They've got a Miyota, a Japanese movement in it. Uh, there may be some irony there. The movement is, I believe it's the, you can either get these now with the $82.15 for about $410 or you can get the new Miyota $83.15 which is basically a slight revision on the 8000 series with, uh, hacking on all versions and also a 60 hour power reserve. So basically in the last year, Miyota has revised its base level, its base level movement to have those extra features that people, I guess, are asking for.
Will Uh, so you're really, that's what I've got in that, um, that TISL or not TISL, uh, tutor sub, uh, build that I got from, uh, Tiger concept. It's got an 83 15 in it and it's, it's good movement. It's fine. You know, I think I like the longer power reserve and everything.
Everett The big, the big criticism that people make of the, the 8,000 series is the noise. Is that a, a noisy movement in your experience?
Will It's a little whirly if you know, you flip your wrist or something, but you know, if you're not paying attention to it, you'll forget it's there.
Everett You know, I think that's true. The 9,000 series too. So. there's those one direction windings, so.
Andrew I like that whirly, that like, just give it a good whip and hear that zzz. I like that. I don't like hearing my date as though like, like a, like a movie clackers. I don't like that, but I'm totally down with a movement being noticeable.
Everett Yeah, I don't mind it. I think it's kind of fun. Like, what's that noise? Oh yeah, it's the sick ass winding in my automatic movement sucker. And then girls are just like, Oh,
Unknown Yeah. Just dents in the floor.
Everett Figure I'll go through the numbers on this real quick. Cause the score is kind of interesting. So just a spoiler alert, the IWC wins and it wins by not a few points. So total score 52, 46 in favor of the IWC. Notably, that's a six point change. Five of those points can be attributed to water resistance. So the Laco Augsburg is a 50 meter watch. The IWC is a hundred meter watch. That's huge. That's five points right there. So besides water resistance, the IWC beats the Laco by exactly one point. Laco does better in a couple of places. Movement obviously, or Augsburg, the IWC does better in a couple of places. Movement obviously, we've got a base Base model, Miyota movement in the Locko. We've got in-house 82,000 series in the IWC. There's really no contest there. However, being a little bit smaller, the Locko beats the Augsburg on, or beats the IWC on size. Um, you know, basically dead heat on X-Factor. These are both OG. Fliegers, almost the same exact sort of loom setup capabilities. Durability. I gave them, I went 50, 50 on these. Um, we've got a cheaper movement in the locker. So if your movement goes bad, you swap it out. You're not going to replace an 82,000 movement. You're going to get that thing serviced. And it's going to be a $5,000 to bucket of money. That's right. However, a little bit higher water resistance on the IWC. So I, I, I even amount strap. Also, I went even Stevens on these and I'll tell you why we've got a 20 millimeter lug width on the Laco, 21 on the IWC. So I will, I said that's 50, 50, right?
Andrew And it doesn't matter how good your bracelet and strap are. If it's an irregular size convention, you can't max out.
Everett It's a 21 millimeter strap, right? So it's leather and it's 21 and it's going to be a pain in the dick. So I lost a point there. Um, but yeah, other than that, you know, these watches are basically even. Interestingly enough, the Laco is about two millimeters thinner than the IWC. Oh, that is actually surprising. IWC comes in with more water resistance, but 13 and a half. Yeah, but that ish for the IWC and 11 and a half ish for the Laco, which is a big difference.
Andrew It's a huge difference, especially given the size already of these watches.
Everett So in that regard, I'm really confident if what you want is a German style OG mid-century Flieger, you know, and it's not just these two watches, right? There's a ton of watches that fit that bill from a ton of really cool companies. Archimedes, Stova is also one of the OG five. Um, there's a ton of watches at or under a thousand dollars that you can pick up in this. You don't have to spend 8,500 for an IWC. However, you can do really well, even at, 480 bucks for a fully loaded Laco Augsburg. Did you look at power reserve for either of these? Yeah. Well, so 60 hours, 60 hours on the, um, Miota and I think like 50 ish on the 82,000. Yeah. So the Laco wins that race by about 10 hours.
Andrew Hmm.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Some good picks.
Will What I think is interesting about the Laco is If you look at what I think would be the next step up, which is probably the Stoba.
Everett Yeah, I think that's right.
Will I didn't realize how expensive their fleegers have gotten. I remember they used to be a few years ago. I think you could get the 40 millimeter one or the 42. I think they have a 36 and a 38. I think they have three or four sizes. But anyway, I think they're all the same price. But they were well under $1,000 and I'm pretty sure they're creeping up towards like $1,500. Stoba's on that.
Andrew I mean, Stoba's price matched almost with Zan across the board.
Will Yeah. Yeah. Yep. And I think that speaks to that Laco, you know, kind of fitting into that, you know, that good value for what you are getting, which I think is, you know, part of what we're going to see as a common theme with some of these watches is that the quote value proposition is there for them in most respects.
Everett Yeah. Well, I don't know if you pulled those numbers out of your, out of your behind, but, uh, I think three years ago, the Stova, their base Flieger was about 800 and it's 1600 now. So you were basically right on. It's crazy. It's a crazy leap.
Will Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's, you know, I think that there's just been watches in general. Um, I mean, I I've seen it more with Zen because I pay attention more to like the five, five, six and the one Oh four. Yeah, the 556 is a $1,600 watch now and that used to be around a thousand bucks a couple years ago.
Everett Yeah, $1,200 new all day on that thing and used for under $1,000.
Andrew And you can also not get it new. You got to pay $1,600 for it used.
Will Yeah. Yeah, they're getting hard to get.
Everett Yeah. So that's, I think that's, I think that's my first, uh, or that's, that's everything I have to say about my pick. Uh, I don't know which one of you guys wants to go next, but I think we can probably revisit that as we sort of talk about these other... I'm going to dive into mine.
Andrew So I went like way out of my normal wheelhouse of selections. My iconic watch is the Nautilus 5711.
Everett Is there any more iconic watch?
Andrew I'm not sure if there is. Everyone recognizes this watch. No one looks, no one sees that watch and says, oh, is that a Rolex? Because they know it's not.
Will Arguably the most intimate. Most people look at it and say, is that an Aquaracer?
Andrew There's one available. on Crown and Caliber for $115,000 right now.
Everett Arguably the most in-demand watch in the world.
Andrew Yeah, it is. And it's a discontent. It's there's questions. There's a lot of a lot of wonder here. But so we so we got the Nautilus 57, which is a phenomenal watch. Not only is it beautiful, it's revolutionary. It is crazy thin. It's it checks all the boxes for something you want. And another mortgage. So for those of you prepared to take that on, Godspeed to you.
Will Those things are really thin. I never realized how thin they were until I saw a video on Instagram of some guy doing a wrist roll with it. And I, when I, I saw the thinness of the watch and then I realized it was the Nautilus and I was like, I gotta go back and watch this again and pause at where like, where you could see the profile of the watch. I didn't realize how thin they are.
Everett They're like 9.8. It's crazy. No, I think eight and a half millimeters on the Nautilus. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a three piece. I mean, the chassis is like a three piece. They're pretty cool. I mean, no doubt about it. They're extremely cool watches.
Andrew It's some next level shit. And there's not a reason for it to be $115,000, but I accept that price tag.
Everett I don't know what MSRP is though. They're like $30 to $40 is my guess. $37.99. You just can't get them.
Andrew Familiar.
Will $37.99. Yeah. No, no, no.
Andrew I it's people are really getting gouged in that in the new PayPal laws right now. You just, you don't even know. My poor man's pick is the tits out PRX Powermatic 80 for $650. And I'll tell you what,
Will I feel like those things are going to become like, uh, the Zins that we were just talking about and getting hard to get because they seem to be a darling watch as of late, especially with the automatic version, you know, that you're going to talk about.
Andrew Yeah. The powermatic, I think Tiso is kind of hitting a, a renaissance in recognition, um, outside the watch world. I think people like luxury goods enthusiasts are starting to recognize Tiso for not just the value, of them, but also what they're bringing to the game. And we're going to see in the next couple of years some pretty significant price increases in the entire TESOL line, I think, just driven by demand. Because you can't get the 5711, but you can get the PRX.
Will I think that's why people are paying attention to it, because I think there's a lot of watches that you can't get. And they're looking at other Swiss brands. And I think what you're saying about Tissot probably going to be shifting up market a little bit makes sense because there's price wise, not so much in the offerings themselves. There's a lot of overlap with other brands in the swatch group like Hamilton.
Everett Yeah. I think Tissot is doing a similar thing that we're seeing, you know, probably Seiko do, you know, five years ago, Seiko start five years ago. Brands like Timex, maybe to a lesser extent, Longines, you know, we're seeing brands with these great heritages starting to tap into this enthusiast-ish market, you know, folks that are not just buying a watch, but buying a watch with particular attributes.
Andrew And it's not going to be watch people who drive this up. It's going to be people who fancy themselves as watch people like, Oh yeah, this is really hard to get Tiso. They only make 50,000 of them a year and I have one. So let me, let me go. So 650 bucks for the Powermatic 80. Let me get my scores up here. The Nautilus wins and the Nautilus wins for, Oh, there we go. Head to head. Uh, Nautilus wins by three points. One of which coming in water resistance. Uh, you know how we talked when we talk all the time about 110 is the 110 meters of water resistance is the, is the amount of water resistance necessary because it maxes out our point scale.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. 110 meters of water resistance is objectively the best.
Andrew 120 on the Nautilus.
Everett You know, they, they turned it up to 12.
Andrew They just turned it up a little bit. So I gave him 12 points. No, they got their 11 points. Both of them maxed out size. Here's two... What's the size?
Everett What's the diameter difference? I think the Nautilus is 40. They're both 40. Okay.
Andrew Let me pull up the PRX and double check. I think the PRX is just a touch off. No, it's 40 on the nuts. So size-wise, they're Dang, you're identical. You're gonna get a little bit of deviation just because of the K shape. It's gonna be a little bit more square with the Nautilus, but I think generally you're gonna get a really similar wrist feel. Nautilus got a little bit higher.
Will You're never gonna feel that on your wrist.
Andrew No, not with that. I gave the Nautilus an extra point for the bracelet.
Everett I've got sort of an early objection before you start your description here. You know, having at least one time held a Nautilus, I will say I've never touched a bracelet that felt that awesome. And you've given it an eight. And I'm curious if that's an eight, what's a 10?
Andrew Have you ever had one made of man flesh? Admittedly, no. Okay, well, that's a 10. I try to be a little conservative with my straps. scoring an eight is fucking good and just good for a 10 it's got to be both good and innovative i think of the sarica bracelet where we see the uh the expandable quick adjust not not a full twisty flex but just in the clasp a little bit of expansion Right.
Will That's the... Oh, you mean the Zodiac?
Andrew Oh, it's the Zodiac?
Will Yeah, the Zodiac. That's Super Seawolf. It's got... It's a butterfly clasp. And when it folds together, it completes the logo. And on each side of the butterfly, it's got a little tiny spring that flexes a little bit. Kind of like the Pelagos, but that's built for a different reason, that spring. This one's built to actually move with your wrist. And when I'm wearing that, I mean, it never feels tight or loose. It's perfect. And I wish every watch had that.
Andrew That's some 10 shit for me, right? That's innovation in conjunction with just fine craftsmanship.
Everett I mean, it's still an eight.
Will Not to go too far off.
Everett It's still an eight feels. Okay. But, but go ahead.
Andrew So we'll add two and we'll give the, the Nautilus gets a 10. And the PRX gets a nine. It doesn't make any, nevermind. We have a three point difference here.
Everett Will, we keep cutting you off with our banter.
Will My moment's gone. I was going to talk about how that Zodiac bracelet just looks ridiculous on that watch because it just doesn't match, but it's a really good bracelet. Yeah, no. I wish it was on something else.
Everett It's true, right? Like everything's got to match, right? And in fact, both of those watches.
Will Well, that's part of the design.
Everett The PRX and the Nautilus, really, this is like the epitome of that 1970s, 80s integrated bracelet design. There's something to be said for that. And both of those watches, at least aesthetically, do that very, very well.
Will Yes. And if you don't like that on the Tissot, if you don't like that bracelet, I think Deluxe is coming out with fitted leather straps for them, specific to the PRX.
Everett Which is really cool. Cashing in.
Andrew That's the sign that if you're even considering buying it, they're not going to be $650 for long. Movement's matched for me. Don't care if it's in-house. 80 hours of power reserve is dope, even though I don't care about it. Aesthetics match up for me.
Everett Just to be clear, you've given these the same movement score? Okay, I just want everybody to understand that Andrew's given these two watches the same movement score. I give them the same movement score. I'm just saying.
Will I think that the Tissot should automatically lose a point because of how they achieved the 80 hours of power reserve.
Andrew Sorcery?
Will Slowed the beat rate down. Yeah, that's right.
Andrew But they still achieved 80 hours of power reserve.
Will Yeah, but going slower.
Andrew It's still counting seconds at a second's rate.
Will Yeah, I did choose the wrong word there, but they slowed the beat rate.
Andrew They did slow the beat rate down.
Will And it drives me nuts because there's other manufacturers out there that can get that sort of power reserve, like Tudor, without slowing the beat rate down.
Andrew But they're not nine millimeters thick. And the TISO is a 10-5.
Everett And the 26-330, admittedly, I think is only like 40 hours of power reserve, so.
Andrew Yeah, so for 40-hour difference.
Everett I mean, it's hand-finished and anglaged gold, but.
Andrew For 40 hours of difference, you get a tie.
Everett Yeah, I mean. This isn't. 21 carats, all the good rotor.
Andrew But you know. So, okay, then you know what, this watch gets a 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, no 50, 60, 71 points. The Nautilus is a 71 point watch. It's the first perfect watch on our score list according to Everett. It's done. There isn't a better watch on the face of the earth.
Everett No, I think this is a, I think this is a good place to talk about this. I mentioned this to you guys earlier, but I think we're tempted to downgrade watches every once in a while because Or, or maybe not. I think we're tempted to upgrade. I think you're right. I think that you're right about that. We're not tempted to downgrade necessarily, but I do think we get tempted to upgrade a watch because of a value it presents. And while I'm really very motivated to do exactly that, I think it sort of misses a little bit of the point of what we're trying to do, which is to say there are differences, right? You, when you buy a Tissot PRX, you're getting a super dope watch. You're getting a classically designed, um, you know, something that's really fantastic. You're not getting a hand finished hand built movement. You know, you're getting a machine finished machine built movement and that's okay. Probably for most people that enjoy watches, that's more than okay. In fact, it's probably better for most people who enjoy. Most people cannot afford the servicing on a 26, three 30. Because it's going to be a bucket load of money. It's going to be 10 years.
Will It's like a break job on a Ferrari.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so there are some benefits there, but it also bears repeating to my point. Objectively speaking, there are some things about the 26-330 movement that are really pretty special.
Andrew Super special, but I don't think I'm comfortable putting them It's specifically in the movement. The movement's super cool. I think that falls more into aesthetic for me than it does into the motor's capability. I don't care if every piece of that motor is hand-finished and dredged in butter and oil and deep-fried. I want the functionality. If they could do the 26-330 in all of those craftsmanship beautiful things and achieve an 80 hour power reserve, then it's more points.
Will I think that unless the, uh, all that finishing and everything, uh, makes the movement better. Functionality wise. I don't know if that's the right word, but if it adds to the power reserve, if it makes it more reliable, keep time better, et cetera, there are some things there, you know, like the extra jewels and stuff that could, but I think if it doesn't, and it's just fancy finishing, And it's aesthetics. I agree with you.
Everett Boom. Yeah. And that's sort of where the tension always comes, right? With value and like, where do we cut off? Where do we cut off that functionality versus, you know, whatever I say anachronistic a lot, because I think the whole hobby that we're engaged in is purely such purely such exactly. So, you know, where you make that differentiation is important and personal and probably has a lot to do with what your goals are in terms of the hobby, but also, as is evidenced by this particular example, what your means are.
Andrew May I continue?
Everett No. All right. I've got more to say. Daddy, you're up.
Will Did you give the scores? Because they were close.
Andrew They were close. So I gave them matching aesthetic scores. The Nautilus gained a point in its durability. matching in the loom, matching the X-factor with, for me, a PRX of 55 and the Nautilus of 58. Part of me may underscore the Nautilus. I think maybe the X-factor should be higher with the Nautilus. Perhaps the aesthetic should be higher. But it's also such unobtainium that it's hard for me to realistically evaluate this watch.
Everett Yeah. I think that's, that's a really fair point for me too. I, you know, I can't even, I can't even fathom.
Andrew So maybe it's a 71 point watch. I don't know.
Will I don't think it is, but I do think that even if you gave it a couple extra points there, it's up to 62, three, which I think when you look at the PRX at 55, that's still really good.
Andrew It's still very close.
Will Yeah. And it's the highest scoring watch of our affordables, which you'll see soon.
Andrew It's a pretty good watch. And it's $650 and not another mortgage.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. You know, and some of the mystique of, some of the mystique of the Nautilus is built into its non-availability too, right? Cause you know, you compare the Nautilus perhaps to the Santos, which is also a gorgeous watch.
Andrew I should have done the Santos.
Everett Uh, super thin. Oh God. That's just, it just disappears. Super functional, extremely wearable, iconic design. I mean, it's a lot of the things that you, you know, the first wristwatch. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You know, so when we, when we, When we talk about a watch like the Nautilus, you've got to sort of factor in that some of the reason it's iconic is because it's kind of hard to get. And it wasn't always the case. It was popular before it was hard to get, certainly. But I'm certain that its current sort of popularity and the FOMO or whatever around that watch has to do in no small part to the fact that you just can't get one.
Andrew Oh, and, and mentioning that, I think there's two other poor man's there's a soup, there's a real poor man's. And then I think the Santos is the medium. I, the Santos is very achievable. It's 62, 6,800 bucks right now on the Cartier website. You can buy it from the website. They will ship it to you for free. You could have it in your mailbox in a week. Brand new in box. Is it that low? Yeah.
Everett I was thinking, Oh yeah. Maybe I'm thinking the two tone. Yeah.
Andrew I'm aware of the price. Another good analog for the Nautilus. My last cheat. The Eagle Sport.
Everett No, no, the Bagel Sport.
Andrew It's different. I was going to say the Q Timex Eagle Eye.
Everett Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Sub 200 bucks. You're going to get a raging loud quartz movement. but still has all those same aesthetics, you're going to lose a lot going to the Timex option. But if you want that case shape, that 1970s feel of a watch, that's there too. It's not going to hold a candle to any of the scoring, any of the objective metrics we've talked about today.
Everett In its favor, I think the Q Timexes have Seiko movements, which are considerably less noisy than the Timex movements.
Andrew You know that the Q-Timex is not allowed in this room while the microphones are hot. It's just not allowed because it's so loud.
Everett I'm just saying it's less noisy than a Timex movement.
Andrew I'm saying my Iron Man is silent. Unless the battery is low and you push the Indiglo.
Everett Will, our editor-in-chief, Daddy, as Andrew likes to call you.
Andrew He's insisted that I do. Yeah, yeah. No, I know that's weird, but it's fine.
Everett It's fine. What do you got, man?
Will It's normal here. Safe space. So I have gone with a watch that I love and would love to own one day, the Omega Aqua Terra. Specifically the 38 millimeter, but I'll take any of them. But you'll see why I'm going to pick that size for this. So I think with the Aqua Terra, you could say that you could pretty much take any other three-hand fixed bezel watch and say, under $1,000, say that's the poor man's version of it.
Everett It is the chocolate chip cookie of watches.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah.
Everett Yeah.
Will GM Lang Blue Triumph. To me, it is the cooler version of like a Datejust or Oyster Perpetual, which is also much easier to get than those two watches. Just like the Cartier, you can go on Omega's website and buy it right now and they'll ship it to you tomorrow. But to go up against it... Next day delivery is available for it.
Andrew I wanted to go... Right now, just for the record. Yeah.
Will See? There we go. We could order one tonight and we'd share it. Dibs. I wanted to go super cheap, and I was thinking about what the cheapest watch is, and I figured out it's a watch I actually own because I do like the Aqua Terra. And it's the Casio Edifice. There's a couple of them, but the reference number starts with EFV-110. There's a white dial, black dial, and a blue dial. Interesting. Now these used to be, yep, these used to be around 60 to 80 bucks. It looks like Casio might be starting to phase them out. So they're still available on like AliExpress and a couple other random watch websites for like a hundred bucks. So they're still pretty cheap. But if you look at this thing, you can see that it is shooting right for the Aqua Terra vibe. Yep. It's got the arrow looking minute and hour hand, uh, you know, clean dial applied markers. Um, which I think falls a little bit more in line with the earlier Aqua terrors before they went to the, um, like pinstripe dials that they have now before they went to the Nautilus. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um, but, uh, it is a 40, 40 millimeter watch. with 20 millimeter lug, so it's automatically a favorite for this podcast. Yeah, boy.
Andrew And the world over.
Will But as with all Casio's, it's quartz. So, you know, that's going to keep the cost down a little bit more. I don't. Does Casio make any automatics?
Everett I do not. I do not believe so. Nope. There's.
Andrew Yeah, I don't think there's got to be an automatic G-Shock somewhere out there. There just has to.
Will Yeah, I don't know. Um, I think the closest thing to have is probably the, the radio controlled. Oh, she Oceania's ocean.
Andrew And he got some solars. Sure. You know, sort of that. Not at all.
Will Um, but I think that if you want to get that Aqua Terra vibe without going into, um, which I think we should do an honorable mention for like Christopher Ward, C 63 is that sort of watch where you're getting close to like a thousand dollars. This is probably the best you're going to get. And the white dial and the black dial, I think, are really nice looking because they're white and black. But the blue dial is like a bright blue.
Andrew It's a little... It's not quite the right blue.
Will It's not the Black Bay 58 blue.
Unknown No, which is good.
Will Yeah, just great blue. So let me run down the scoring for these because When we were going through this, because this is the first time I've done this scoring scale for the show, and Everett was giving me a little bit of grief about some of my scores, and I want to explain them. So water resistance, 10 on the Casio, because for $100 watch, it's got 100 meters of water resistance with screw down crown, which is cool. It's dope.
Andrew That's unusual for Casio.
Will Yeah, I think the... What's that dive watch?
Andrew The Marlin.
Will The Marlin, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that one. That's got a screw-down crown. But the Aqua Terra's got 150, so that goes up to 11. Size, I gave them both a 10, you know, 38 and 40 millimeters.
Everett They're both in that range, yeah.
Will So movement. Movement is where I originally scored the Casio higher. I settled on a five, and I scored it higher because we were talking about serviceability and, you know, the durability of the movement. And we can get into the circle jerk of watches where it's quartz, it's more accurate than any automatic in the world, which it is, but that's not the point.
Andrew We make... You and I are on the same page here. I make this argument every time I score a quartz.
Will Yep. So the Aqua Terra, I gave an eight, which I actually wanted to give it a little bit lower because while the Master Coaxials are really cool, great feat of innovation and watchmaking, I, if I ever get one of these, not looking forward to servicing it. I have a feeling it's not going to be fun. It's going to be super expensive. And that quartz movement will probably last for longer than the case of the freaking watch will. And if you ever do need to get another quartz movement, I'm sure you can find them on eBay and just replace the hands and the dial onto the new movement and off you go.
Andrew Or you could just replace the whole watch for the same price.
Will I don't know. how long you're gonna be able to find these. So that's why I say that you'd probably be able to replace them.
Andrew Buy six, pull the batteries.
Will There you go. So yeah, so you can do that. So, and I think that that kind of falls into durability, which I'll get to in a second, where I think either one of these watches, you know, you drop and it's probably gonna be fine as long as you don't smash it on the ground. But anyway, on to strap. They're really close. Casio got a five. Omega got a six. Here's why. The bracelet that comes with the Casio is exactly what you expect. It has polished center links, which, you know, kind of goes off the Aqua Terra's bracelet with, I think they still have polished center links, or I think they do the outsides now. I forget, but they used to. But it's got a decent clasp and hollow end links. So, you know, nothing special there, but it's a bracelet. The thing with the Aqua Terra is it's a nice looking bracelet, Um, I wish it was fully brushed, but the clasp on that makes no sense. This is the Aqua Terra, which falls kind of into like their, you know, Seamaster dive watch world. And it doesn't have any micro adjustments in the clasp. And it also doesn't have any, you know, the push button thing, or you can slide it back and forth. Like you can get on the planet oceans.
Everett I mean, for, uh, it's got a pretty hefty, it's got a pretty lengthy link too. Right.
Will So that lack of micro adjust is meaningful. I think it has half links, but you're not getting a perfect fit unless you happen to fall right into the wrist size where that's going to work. I don't see a reason why on a $6,500 watch that you can't get a clasp with some micro adjustments or Omega really needs to get on the quick micro adjust train. They're slacking. I think even that the one that speedmaster that mike hates the annual calendar or whatever the hell that one is that came out earlier or late last year um that came with the regular speedmaster clasp that has the little quick adjust thing in it but i think it's only two positions it's like why bother What are you doing?
Everett If you're going to the trouble. You know, I think Omega does an odd thing with its bracelets. You know, Omega, anyone who's handled an Omega bracelet is familiar with the quality, the fit and finish, right? So Omega does a really, really good job with the construction and the elements of the bracelet. You know, the Omega end link system, if you've never seen it or you've never taken a Omega bracelet apart, you might not realize, but their end link system is really pretty cool. You don't, it doesn't connect the same way that most bracelets connect where the last link is kind of floating in space. In fact, there's a second piece that goes in there. My point is Omega does really good things with their bracelets, but they miss on like some of the really basic convenience stuff that other companies, even significantly less expensive companies are doing really well.
Andrew I think they fancy themselves a tool watch brand. Well, I do. Like a banger, like a Spartan brand.
Everett I think you're right. And so maybe that even sort of puts a point on the deficiency there.
Will Yeah. I just wish that they would start getting to that point. And I think they're slowly working their way there. But I think probably when I get to the point where I'm ready to buy an AquaTare, I think they'll probably be there.
Andrew They've been putting all their work into putting Snoopy on speedies. That's where all the R&D is.
Will Yeah, exactly. And $90,000 gold Speedmasters. Anyway, besides the point. Aesthetics. These were pretty close. I gave them an 8 and a 9 because... 8 for the Casio and 9 for the Aqua Terra because they look very similar. Where I think the Omega gets the extra points is the fit and finish of that watch. It's got the nicer lugs. The Casio, the lugs curve down nicely and it fits really nice, but it's, you know, it's just brushed on the top and there's nothing that special about it, but it looks good. It looks more expensive than it is, which has something to it. It looks more like, you know, maybe a $250, $300 watch. It's finished well for Casio. I gave the Casio 2 because it has lume, and it works. It's not the best, of course. And then the Aqua Terra, I gave it 4. I've never had a problem with Omega's lume applications. I always think that they've been really great, and I don't see why the Aqua Terra would be any different.
Everett Yeah, 4 is the right score for that.
Will Yeah, yeah. And X-Factor, 3 and a 4, respectively, for the Casio having the 3. And I think I could almost tie those up and say that maybe the Casio deserves the four because I think it comes pretty close to the Aqua Terra. And Everett, I took the picture of it for the tile and I was looking at the picture and I was like, those hands are really cool. And they're, they're not polished, they're gunmetal. And I thought that they were always polished until I took that photo. And I was like, that's cool that they actually didn't just throw polished hands in there. Gunmetal.
Everett There's something special going on there.
Andrew It has no business being as good as it is for the price, for the manufacturer. It's just kind of like, what just happened here?
Will Yeah. Yeah. So my scores ended up being a 50 for the Casio and a 58 for the Aqua Terra. I think my original scoring was a little bit closer. Um, but I, I think that you can't go wrong with that Casio. I think that there is the potential that if you're the type of person that can just go out and spend $6,000 on a watch, sure. I think there is the potential to go wrong with the Aqua Terra. I feel like that's a watch you should definitely go try on at a boutique or an AD and make sure you like it. Because I think you can go wrong, especially with how their dials are, with the texture, the lines and everything, and the way the bracelets fit. I don't think you can go wrong with the Casio. It's a really safe flier. Yeah, put a strap on it. It's a white or black dial or blue if you want the blue, but it's a white or black dial that's relatively plain. You can't go wrong with it. It's a great watch. I have one and I love it.
Everett You know, I think it makes sense to just really briefly talk about what the Aqua... So I don't know that many people consider the Aqua Terra It's not it doesn't make many sort of iconic watch lists I would say and I say that without any sort of data, but I think it's fair to say I Agree that it is iconic and it's it's one of the watches that kind of brought me into the hobby one of two watches actually there are two watches in particular the Tag Heuer 2000 sort of a 90s quartz Tag Heuer and the Aqua Terra Those two watches were my initial loves as I sort of started moving towards watches. But what, I mean, what for you, what for you guys makes that watch iconic to the extent you agree it is?
Will It's been in a James Bond movie.
Andrew That's a big one. That might be sufficient. It looks to me like the pinnacle of sport watches. So we're looking at your photo of the edifice right now. And I saw it from, I don't know, 24 inches away. And I thought it was the white dial C 63 and the is very close. And when I look at the Aqua Terra, I think triumph C 63. I don't go edifice right away, but I go with that really classic sport watch. Yeah. like OP world, explore one world, you know, take your pick of the, the sport watch. I think that's it. I think, I think the Aqua Terra is kind of, it's in the top three perhaps for that style of watch.
Everett I think for me, between, for me, between the Aqua Terra and, and I think I made this decision before Aqua Terra went with the horizontal striping. I think that horizontal striping is, I don't love it. It's a misstep. Um, I don't know if it's a misstep, but it's definitely for me takes away from the utility, the, the utility of the watch, but the older versions of the Aqua Terra really sing, gotta go anywhere, do anything to me. I mean, it's the ultimate, you could, you can do anything in that watch. You can wear it with a suit without, I mean, not even a second's consideration. You can wear it at the beach, you can wear it in the pool, hot tub, Uh, I mean, there are no circumstances that I can think of even, you know, it's, it's 2022, right? So you could wear it with the tuxedo. You, there's nothing that would be inappropriate to do with that watch.
Andrew And so I think you just said 2022 so easily.
Will Well, it was impressive.
Andrew It's the 18th year that you couldn't drop 2022 with that ease is impressive to me.
Everett You know, I, I, I, I do what I can, but thank you. I appreciate you for me. You know, I think that's it. Um, but, but the edifice in a lot of respects, it does all of those same things. You get the big water resistance, you get, um, that really classic design. Uh, you know, the only thing you miss with the, with the edifice is sort of the, the cache, right? Because you're wearing a Casio. And so that's a meaningful difference. Um, what that has to do with our conversation today, I don't know, but that is, that is something to think about. Um, but yeah, besides that, they're there, they do the same things. So yeah, I think it's a great, a great pick.
Will Well, I mean, all these were really, really good picks because we didn't do, you know, like the Submariner or, you know, the Datejust or, you know, some, some of those watches that comes on everybody's list where it's like, what is the more affordable version of this?
Everett Well, it's cause we've already done all those. Yeah. I was going to say.
Andrew Everett is a cheater.
Will Um, but we didn't, we didn't pick the usual suspects. Um, and I think that some of these, especially like, you know, the Andrew's pick with the Nautilus and the PRX, I think is a good kind of quirky pick that a lot of people don't think about, you know, like, That PRX is really popular, but in some ways it isn't because of, you know, it's, it's got that K shape with the integrated bracelet and it like, that's a turnoff for a lot of people. But when you look at it compared to the design cues that it's going for, it's a really good buy for a watch. Yeah. Especially when, you know, you compare it to the $150,000 one, but, um, you know, you compare it to, you know, Royal Oak or anything like that, that kind of falls into that same design and it's killer.
Everett It's literally like, what is that? 0.5% the price that you could buy a Nautilus for. 0.5%. Yeah. So, well, great. I think any, any closing thoughts on our poor man's picks today, you guys?
Andrew I always have trouble not giving more points to a value brand for doing value brand to a less expensive watch for doing the same thing that a more expensive watch is doing?
Everett Yeah, and in fairness to our picks today and our scoring, you know, you and I have, we've actually spent a consider, like way more time than makes sense, sort of trying to figure out some sort of calculation for value. And we always come back to a couple problems with the objective scoring metric, which is so stupid anyway. And because it's so perfect, how did we do this? And factoring in value, you know, it becomes overly cumbersome. You know, I think you at home can feel free just to like substitute in a slash dollar figure, you know, point per dollar figure, you know, that might be meaningful, but we get back to that diminishing returns point and that's going to be different for everybody. And so there's so much subjectivity in that. It makes more sense just to sort of, this is the score it got, notwithstanding anything else. And that's it.
Andrew And if you would prefer to spend $115,000 to $650. Fuck yeah. Because if I had $116,000 that I was like, I really don't know what I'm going to do with this money. Oh, no, I would know.
Everett I'm going to buy a Nautilus. I might buy a Nautilus. You know, I don't know. That's a ridiculous thing to say, but it's, you know, if I was genuinely, genuinely like I had cured hunger and everything in the world was right, I might buy a Nautilus. Cured hunger, solved world cancer. And there was 115,000 left. I'm getting a Nautilus. I don't know if I'm getting a Nautilus.
Andrew if I've accomplished those things. I'm probably way richer if I've accomplished those things.
Everett Other things, Andrew, what do you got? Speaking of Nautilus.
Andrew Yeah, so you do know my other thing since we talked about it. So you turned me on to this game. You asked if I'd heard about it. I was unaware. I'm not cool or anything. I got a game a couple of weeks ago. A video game. A video game called Subnautica. Not a new video game. Not new. Not even kind of. There's already a sequel. Um, it came out in 2014. No, 2018 on Windows. It is, I was trying to, trying to like distill down what it actually is. Open world survival game. It's Minecraft for adults. Uh, so open world survival game, the whole premise of the game is you are a character who has just crash landed on an alien planet. That is an ocean planet. You are somehow equipped to deal with said environment in your life pod. Godspeed. The story isn't immediately evident.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew The game just begins like you crash and then you wake up and you're on your life pod and they're like, you're on your life pod. Good luck. And that's it. Like you, you climb the ladder out of your floating life pod and you look around and you see the wreckage of this enormous spaceship. There's no tutorial. There's no mission one. There's no get to this point.
Everett It's just, you are, you realize you're hungry. You realize you're thirsty and that you need to fix those things.
Andrew Yes. And mine, my game started. So what I have also learned, not everyone starts in exactly the same position. So they they've been able to create this game that everyone can share and kind of the mystery of, but you can't get a real tutorial on this game because things don't occur in the exact same place for everyone. So I can't like look up a tutorial and say, Head at this bearing for this many meters and you're going to find this and then return and go to this bearing at this many meters and find this. So everyone's experience is kind of different-ish. Not different, but just different enough. And I played for several hours and I got kind of bored of it because I was like, what the fuck is happening? There's no story. There's no rules except you live or you die. There's no goal. And I just kind of like I put it aside and then I went back to it and now I'm. You're deep. Into it. It is all I want to do all the time. I would take a sick day. If it meant that I could stay home for 24 consecutive hours uninterrupted by family, dogs, children, I would get four pizzas delivered. I would put a 30 rack on the table and I would just sit and eat cold pizza and drink warm beer and play this game.
Everett You know, we talked about it about a week and a half ago, uh, actually about a week ago today. And I said, you know, I was at the time just a little further ahead of you. I suspect I'm just a little bit behind you in terms of progression of this game now. But I said, I think you're like right around the corner from opening up some, you know, mental goalposts. And it sounds to me like you did. It's an interesting game because we talked about this, but the achievements are not, are not sort of, uh, there's no indexing right of the game. Everything is very subtle. The achievements are very subtle. Sometimes you've achieved something and you perhaps don't realize you've achieved it or it's out of order ish.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. I'm, I've, I've found myself consumed. Like I was playing with my six year old today and I let him play because so much of it is so open world. It's like, it almost doesn't matter what you do. And I'd be like, dude, you're thirsty. You need to get water. Hey, you're thirsty. You need to get a water. And then you find yourself consumed for like an hour on just like collecting resources to survive. And then you spend another hour organizing your resources in your lockers so that you know how to get to them. It's like, Oh my God, I'm like living the post-apocalyptic experience myself through this game. And I'm finding great enjoyment in organizing all of my storage lockers for all of the resources that I've spent the last several hours gathering. and have made no progression in the game. I'm now prepared to survive a little longer to still not understand exactly what I'm supposed to do in this game. That's why I say it's like Minecraft for adults.
Everett It's like that time in 2007 where everybody in the world got consumed by FarmVille. What are we doing here? We're all growing fake raspberries on increasingly large farms.
Andrew I think it's closer to that time in 2019 when you couldn't buy toilet paper, hand sanitizer, or canned food. Marry those two ideas. So that's my other thing. Subnautica, it's available on any platform. You can buy a game. If you buy it digitally on Xbox, it's $16 and you will get more than $16 worth of time wasted out of it.
Everett You know, I'm playing it on switch. We, when I bought it on switch, I think it was like 25 bucks and I got both Subnautica and the sequel and I haven't even touched the sequel yet.
Andrew So, and the sequel I read about it, it looks worse.
Everett Okay. Well, we'll other things. What do you got?
Will So, uh, you guys know, and some people might know, I do my, uh, photography in my basement. Um, do you, do you take pictures sometimes? They're almost phone, but I didn't know that as a phone tripod. Exactly. With a ring light. Yeah. Like, you know, I'm on a cool Instagram influencer. So while I'm doing my, my Instagram ring light photography I have to, I use my studio lights and I go turn off the lights in the basement so I don't get the light spill from that. So me being as lazy as I am, you know, I have to walk all the way over to the other side of the basement, turn the lights off. And then when I edit, I have to go turn the lights back on, turn my studio lights off. So I was like, there's gotta be a better way to do this. Turn around and start editing. Yeah, exactly. I wanted the clapper. So, uh, I found, I was like, let me go find a, like a smart light switch, the wifi switch. So I found these ones made by TP link, which they make routers and all kinds of stuff. Big company, uh, the specific, Yeah, yeah. The specific ones that they make are called Kasa. K-A-S-A. So I got one and it was super easy to install. It was exactly like installing any other light switch. The only extra thing I needed to do was take the neutral wires, you know, that's bundled in the back and loop that in. So one extra thing you have to do. And then the app is really great. Super easy to set up. And I've got it linked to Alexa so I can tell her to turn the lights on and off and everything. I wish the lights had turned off. If I said the right thing, they would have. So I was like, this is great. I went and told my wife about it and I was like, I'm going to get one for our bedroom so that you can turn them on and off from in bed. Be perfect. And she's like, that sounds great. You know, she didn't care. So they had a three pack on Amazon. So I got three and I was like, I'll put one in the bedroom and then I'll do the kids rooms and I'll do our office. So I got a couple three packs. So I have these things all over the house now. I think I have nine switches total. Here's the cool thing. The Wi-Fi thing is great and everything, and I like being able to talk to Alexa. The cool thing is if you buy the TP-Link smart plugs, you can link everything that you want together in a group. So in our office, This, this might be a regional thing. I see it a lot in houses around us, but the second floors usually don't have ceiling lights. They're all controlled on, uh, like people put lamps and they're linked to an outlet switch. So you, you turn the switch on and it turns the outlet switches in this room. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, that's what our second floor is like. Um, so in our office we have, there's, one light that turns on if you turn on the switch and then by our desks we have different lamps that we turn on manually and I was like well I'll just link these together so that way when you turn the switch on all the other lights turn on and that's what happens and it's amazing and I feel like I feel like I live in a house where I don't have one lamp that turns on when you turn on a switch now and it's it's truly changed my lighting life And I'm telling everybody to go buy these switches because I think they're so cool.
Andrew So when you were demonstrating for us and yelling at Alexa to turn the lights off, that was just controlling the room that Alexa could hear. Right. You weren't like you weren't turning on and off all the lights in your house.
Will Correct, but I could tell her to do whatever once because you name it, like there's kitchen light, office light, and then, you know, our kids rooms, their lights. And I could say, turn that one on, turn that one off, turn this one on. Um, my wife asked me, she goes, can you say turn all the lights off and it'll turn them all off. And I was like, I don't know, but I'm going to try when the kids aren't sleeping. So it's pretty cool. Um, I'm sure there's a lot of people that, you know, have smart homes and you're like, wow, you're just figuring this out. But, um, I, I stumbled upon it to solve a small problem. And then I ended up just putting them all over my house and I got a little out of hand with it.
Andrew You've created a really, really unique situation for some Halloween pranking this year.
Will Oh, my wife, she loves the one in the in the bedroom because she always gets in bed and then yeah, and then she forgets to turn the light off. So, you know, she has to get up. But now she's like, but the other night, though, I was down in the studio and the lights started going on and off, like on, off, on, off, on, off. And then it stopped. And I was like, She was pressing the wrong switch in the app. I guarantee it. And that's exactly what she was doing.
Andrew Freaking out. Can't get the light off.
Will That tracks. I was waiting for a text message like the lights don't work.
Andrew She figured it out. They work great. Our bedroom has a it's kind of it's got to be greater than a three way switch, but it's got it's got several switches for ones like the master switch for the overhead. And then we have a second master switch and then individual switches right by where the, just the shape of the room requires your headboard to be to control the fan and the light independent of the master switch. So it's almost smart. It's just as smart as, as you are banging on the wall.
Everett Yeah, no, you know, well, you, you said an interesting thing, which is that People who are smart home smart, uh, are probably listening to this a little, making poking a little fun at us, but we do this pretty regularly, right? It's like, I've discovered this crazy cool thing that everybody else has been comfortable with for a long time. But you know, it's, it's, it's still our watches. It's all. Yeah.
Will It's like, you don't care about it until you have a use for it.
Everett You know, it's like buying my 2003 Lexus, my, my mirrors. Uh, you know, if I put it in reverse, my mirrors tilt down and I just never seen anything that cool. Well, the thing is, it's 20. That's cool. Mine don't do that. It's 2022. And so when I told you, you guys about this, you and Mike, uh, both kind of made fun of me. It was like, yeah, no shit. Dumb, dumb. Uh, but you know, we, we, we all get to this stuff at different times.
Andrew So we just recently got doorbell cameras. That's right.
Everett That's fun. So I've got another thing. Do me. I've got another thing. Us. Do us. I'll do you both. So I've talked about screwdrivers recently on the show in actually a couple different capacities, but I recently needed to repair a Nintendo Switch controller. And I realized that I didn't have the right driver bit. which I think it's called a triangle bit or a tri-point bit, one of the two. Either way, I didn't have the right driver bit. And so in searching the correct name of the driver bit on Amazon, I found this company called iFixit. It's I, lowercase i, F-I-X-I-T. Sort of that like really sort of new age cellular naming convention, which is a little silly. And I've seen these, I've seen these products before and what I assumed without any sort of research or understanding about the brand at all, where these were kind of cheap Amazon type products, you know, something that is affordable because they are often very time, very affordable. Not always, they can get a little bit more expensive. Um, but what I assumed is this was just kind of a shitty throwaway product. So probably not great bit quality, probably not great driver quality. Um, but I, I, this popped, this brand popped up, several of them popped up and, and looking at the Amazon reviews, oftentimes lots of reviews, almost all like five-star reviews. And so I just Google, I fix it quality. And I found out this company is like a really, really well respected in electronics repair world. Without knowing anything else about it, I ordered a $20 basically driver kit. So 32 bits, a little, you know, driver and it comes up, it all comes in a case with like a foam stand thing and got this thing. You know Amazon so three days later, and I was blown away So what I bought is the I fix it more a driver kit. This is a 32 bit precision bit driver It's got a ton of standard bits, but it's also got sort of electronic specific size stuff This thing's Incredible it's incredible the handle is plastic but it's a really nice plastic. It's got like a sort of knurled surface and it just feels like an incredible quality stuff.
Andrew Is it a rubberized end cap?
Everett It's, the end cap is slightly rubberized. Yes. The, the plastic is fantastic. The dry, the bits themselves, fantastic. Uh, the stand it's got, or this case, it's got this little case. It's a magnetic closing case and it's so, you know, that magnetic, case closing thing. You close the case and it like goes like suctions almost. And then you pull it apart and you close it again. And you want to just do it over and over again. Yeah.
Andrew I mean, tactile feedback, 20 bucks.
Everett And it was like, this thing is great. Like I would, I sort of wish I didn't have any other like precision screwdrivers. And I just bought one of these five years ago. Cause they, they make slightly higher kits too. So I got the cheapest one. You can upgrade for about 50, 60 bucks.
Andrew I was just looking at the $60 Manta kit was.
Everett The driver quality is better. Uh, the, the handle quality is better on that. I think that the bits are the same, but the handle quality is better. I mean, I just don't think, I don't think you, I don't know if it's going to be the same sort of. Bit quality as one of these German we, uh, or, you know, one of the, but I think it's probably pretty close. I'm super duper impressed by this brand.
Will They made their name, and this is where their name comes from, with Apple repairability. We call it tutorials, you know, how to fix your MacBook Pro and all that kind of stuff. So I bet you that's where the quality comes from. If you're repairing your $2,000 MacBook Pro, you want tools that feel nice in your hand and have that perceived quality to them.
Unknown Yeah.
Will They probably went to a good manufacturer to get it done.
Everett Well, they clearly did. So really quality stuff. I'd say if you're in the market for anything, you know, we talk a lot about watch specific screwdrivers on this, on this show. And I don't know that they have all the sizes that you'd want for watch specific repairs, but if you could, like, for instance, I used one of these to size a bracelet. I used this kit to size a bracelet recently, a watch bracelet. And it went just fine. And I was like, well, I could do all of the watch stuff I needed with this kit. And I'm not sure that's true.
Andrew I like the size of the driver handle because my biggest bitch about jewelers tools is that the handle is too fucking small. Right. And especially if you're going to size a Christopher Ward bracelet, or for some reason a bracelet that is like tightened just a little bit too much torque on that screw, you need some ass. And you don't get ass on jeweler's bracelet handles. You just can't. I impaled my finger today using two jeweler's screwdrivers. Because, fuck, I was doing this battery replacement for one of my wife's friend's watch, because my wife's like, oh, my Andrew knows watches, he can do the battery replacement for you. And I was trying to take off this stupid fucking strap and it was a fossil watch and I don't think it even comes off. I think it molds off. So I have two screwdrivers on either side of like this six millimeter leather strap trying to hold sufficient pressure to not drop it. And then I impaled myself with this third of a millimeter screwdriver, like right into the nail bed, just, just below the nail and into the bed. Uh, I don't know, but oh yeah, if I'd had the ass, if I had enough purchase on a handle, I could have broken that tie easily, but it's tiny little jeweler screwdrivers. You can't do that. And the rotating, nah, fuck it.
Everett I'm really sorry, Andrew.
Will That's really what, you know, Sir Mix-a-Lot was talking about when he said he liked Big Bud. It was his screwdriver handles.
Andrew Yeah. And 7715.
Everett It was like an iFixit probably. Yeah.
Andrew I fixed it. I did replace the battery.
Everett Andrew, you got anything else?
Andrew I'm out of things.
Everett Well, what about you? Thanks for joining us. Anything you want to add before we go?
Will You guys get no raises this year.
Everett Not tracks. This is bad performance reviews.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Hey, thanks you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the watch clicker podcast. You can check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at watch clicker. You can check us out on our website, watch clicker.com every week, multiple apps, multiple articles, multiple reviews. That's really the bulk of the operation shows up. Thank you to notice watches for supporting this episode of 40 and 20. You can write now until March 1st, get 10% off any watch on the entire website using the code Clicker at checkout. Thanks guys. Notice if you want to support the website, you can do that at patrion.com slash 40 and 20. Uh, look guys, that's how we afford all of our hosting, all of our hardware, all of our software, and it's not a small amount of money. So if you want to support us, we would genuinely, genuinely appreciate it. And don't forget to check us out next week for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.
Unknown Oh,