Episode 187 - Watches Roundup

Published on Wed, 25 May 2022 21:30:46 -0700

Synopsis

This episode of the podcast covers recent watch releases and news, including a new space-tested automatic chronograph movement from Fortis, new Seiko and Orient watch models, the Rolex scarcity extending to other luxury brands, and a technical blog post explaining how a mechanical watch movement works with interactive graphics. The hosts also discuss other topics like a useful carpet cleaner and a charming city-building video game.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 20 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett You know, I'm here.
Andrew You've made it?
Everett I've made it. I'm here. I'm not going to say much more than that because I just really can't admit to much more than that at this point. I've got some sort of non-COVID It's probably monkey pox upper respiratory infection. So that's been my week. It's a little rough. It's a little rough. I'm managing. I'm pulling through. Uh, but yeah, good. Good. Andrew, how are you?
Andrew Uh, I'm good. I'm kind of, I'm on that, um, kind of like early in the COVID thing, kind of fear cliff. A lot of people that I, uh, am, am frequently around have gone down to the COVID or other ailments. And that's kind of one of those things where I'm just waiting for it to happen to me. Yeah. I mean, you among them, like, well, you don't have COVID, but you're still sick. And I don't like getting sick. Yeah. But other than that, I'm good. We've had good weather.
Everett Yeah. Weather's been great.
Andrew Doing yard work. And we're drinking Topo Chico Heart Seltzer. Strawberry guava. Yeah. For this round. I don't know what else is up in the box, but these are delightful. Delightful, it's a good summer beverages and today felt like summer. It's like 80 degrees sunny.
Everett Yeah, it's 75 degrees 75 degrees today when I went on my run, which is like felt like summer.
Andrew Yeah, I Did a bicycle ride this morning on It's I mean, I don't know how tall the Butte is Spencer's Butte Or Skinner's Butte. I remember which ones in town Skinner Butte. I don't know how tall it is. It's only a few hundred feet But I did it on a bike that's not meant for that steep of climbing, nor is it sized for me. And it's 15 years old, so it's very heavy. It's poorly maintained. And I did it while weighed down and I got to the top and I was like, fuck everything. Just everything. I'm still cooling down from that because it was probably 70 degrees when we're doing it. That's too hot. Yeah, it's too hot to be doing that in all my stuff. This is like a police. Yeah. And it was for no reason. It was like one of those. Well, this is part of the certification. I'm like, why? Why is that part of the certification? Well, because it is. Does it serve any purpose? Well, everyone does it. Do I have to? Yes. Why? Because everyone does it. Like, nope, that's not an answer. And I did it because everyone does it, though. It's not a requirement. It was stupid shit for stupid shit's sake. Pisses me off. Seems like you're going to be OK, though. Yeah. Yeah, I'm just gonna be grumpy about it forever. And everyone's like, oh, I did it. I'm like, well, yeah, because you were made to do it. Like, with no purpose. Doing stupid shit for stupid shit's sake is stupid. You were in the army, Andrew. I know. And that's why I hate it so much. Because like, well, there's no good reason to be cutting grass with scissors. There's no good reason to be hand painting rocks. There's just no good reason in the world to be doing those things. If you just want to waste my time, waste my time. or do me the courtesy of telling me that it's to waste my time.
Everett Have we ever told the white spot story on the podcast? I'm unsure. So this is legend in the army and it varies from post to post and many different people tell us on many different posts and so it's one of these stories that maybe was true at some point but almost certainly has been mythologized. But there's this story of the private who is driving home from a painting detail one day And drops a bucket of white paint out of the back of his car truck on some back army post road. And instead of cleaning it up, cause it's impossible to clean paint up on the road, paints it into a perfect circle and then comes back to that post 20 years later for his retirement ceremony and drives along that road. And there's still a perfectly maintained white spot in that place. That is, that's, yeah, that is that story. exemplifies any sort of service. We do this because we do this.
Andrew There is no reason. No one knows why it exists. No one knows why we continue to do it. It serves no function, rhyme, reason, or purpose, but we do it because.
Everett We do it because we do it.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Andrew, we're talking about watches today.
Andrew We are. We're gonna, we got a good lineup of stuff. Some cool stuff has happened in the last couple of weeks. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. I think that's right. We're, we're going to talk about We're going to talk about all the fun things that have happened in watches in the last two or three weeks.
Andrew Not all the things, all of them, but some of the fun things, some of the things that we found most fun. Yeah. Cause it's our show.
Everett We get to talk about the things we want to talk about.
Andrew Yes, indeed. Can we start with the only thing that stands out from the rest? Can we? Yeah, let's do it. Fortis.
Everett a space tested automatic chronograph movement now i don't know if being space tested is especially relevant or i mean i think it adds a cool x factor so you do the thing where you jump into the story before you've said the story so fortis announced this week i told i told the story i made the announcement that they've they're going to they have not yet they have not yet but they are going to release their work 17 automatic chronograph watch movement, which has which will be the first ever space tested, actually space tested automatic movement.
Andrew What? I'm not sure if that's important. It just adds to the cool factor and adds to the Fortis cool factor. I mean, Fortis is doing this really like needlessly cool stuff. For no reason. Other than that, it's really cool. And I think maybe that's the, that's the hook here is like, Hey, we actually tested the shit in space. Okay. That, I mean, neat, but neat though. This is exciting. This is, I mean, I don't know the last time we saw a truly new automatic chronograph movement. Nothing's hitting the top of my head quickly.
Everett Well, you know, I mean, these get iterated on all the time, but you know, I think you kind of nailed it. Like, what, what does this do? What does it mean? And, and I don't know the answer to that. It'd be, it'd be interesting to see something a little bit more detailed. Um, you know, what are the parameters here? What are the environmental things happening? Um, but certainly they sent a bunch of watches up. They, this, this movement hasn't been put in a watch yet. Right. But they sent a bunch of movements up. On a on a hot air balloon is what it is, right?
Andrew Yeah, in a gondola, like into a weather. I mean, they put it up in a weather balloon into the stratosphere with the help of the Swedish. Yeah.
Everett And they landed in a Swedish forest, I think, you know, that would finish forest that would track.
Andrew I don't know if you can. I mean, you can predict the landing of a weather balloon, but.
Everett I don't know how well Finnish forest. Uh, 90 minutes of exposure to the upper stratosphere at the edge of outer space, the movement survived a full descent and landing in a finished forest. So these are cool moments. Uh, you know, it's, uh, it's an automatic chronograph. I don't know what else to say about it. Six, nine, 12 movement.
Andrew Uh, I'm sure it looks like a chunk, which you'd expect, but just from movement photos. I'm like, Ooh, that's a, that's a big bitch.
Everett 60 hour power reserve. I mean, it's a full on automatic movement.
Andrew Yeah. It's cool. And just for cool sake. And I think maybe that's enough for me. It's a space tested for no other reason than testing it in space. Which is more than you can say, most movements are tested underwater, so maybe there's something there, but it's cool.
Everett It's the first ever movement to be tested in space.
Andrew Yeah. For cool sake.
Everett Cool for cool sake. Can we talk about Seiko?
Andrew I think we're going to talk a lot about Seiko.
Everett Because this is a brand that does not test its movements in space. Mm-mm. They do not. So a couple of interesting Seikos came out or were announced the last couple of weeks. Mm-hmm. The first one, you actually sent this to me. A new slit of cocktail time.
Andrew Man, yes. I did. And I'm sure you weren't unawares. But the new cocktail time, cocktail time? Cocktail time? Cocktail time? I don't know.
Everett We have three new cocktail time watches.
Andrew Yeah, three new. And these are, you know, the cocktail times that you have come to expect and are familiar with, with some upgrades, some updates, some new colorways. My absolute favorite is this kind of gunmetal Which shouldn't be shocking. It's kind of gunmetal-y, gray, with the same, I mean, I don't know what kind of texture I want to call that. It's not concentric circles. It's kind of woven, like basket-woven texture on it.
Everett Sure. Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it basket-woven. Something. It's a nice texture, though.
Andrew Yeah, it's a good, it's good enough. It's a little, it's a little, it's the most expensive of them. But we've got a sunburst, kind of a reversed sunburst blue. Going from real light, almost white, to a good navy.
Everett Almost like an ombre.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Right? And that gray and a kind of chocolatey brown. I don't know if bronze is the right word. Guilt. I think we'll just go with like a dark guilt. Yeah. With like kind of rose goldy.
Everett So notably three new, three, three new cocktail times. These are the presage cocktail time. So these are the four hour movements, not a six hour movement like the, like the classic cocktail times. I do like the, the bracelet that comes on these. So they do appear to be a hollow end link bracelet. Which for 500 bucks, these are all coming in around 500 bucks. Does that make sense? Yeah, I don't know.
Andrew I'd like a solid end link, but... You're not going to get that out of most Seikos at this price point. Unless you're getting the Alpinist.
Everett Decorated rotor on these. Yeah, I do like the dials on these, on all of them.
Andrew And that's kind of par for the course in the... in the cocktail time world.
Everett Yeah. Sort of like a rose turned guilloche.
Andrew Yes. That's what I think is maybe more appropriate. Rose turned. Even though if you really zoom in on it, it's, it's yeah. I don't know. It's kind of basket weave rose turn. I don't know. It's an interesting texture that I like. That's subtle without like a macro zoom, which I don't have in my normal eyeballs. So it's not really, You don't have the macros and eyeballs installed. No Yeah, I mean this is exciting. This is cool.
Everett This is I I'm not sure I was lamenting that there weren't updates or new releases to this line, but I'm pleased that there are You know, I think that these are gonna be sort of in Seiko's regular rotation for for new releases, you know It seems like every year they come out with a handful of new ones, and I think it's a great You know at 39 and a half millimeters These feel a little dated to me at this point. You know, a dang near 40 millimeter dress watch. In 2015, 2016, as I was getting into watches, these felt a little big. And as time goes on, I think they get increasingly bigger. So it'll be interesting to see if Seiko rides that cocktail time out at 39 and a half millimeters.
Andrew I'd like to see a reduction. I know, I think we would all expect to see a reduction. I think a 36 would be a cool addition. We'll see. We just call it Cocktail Hour as opposed to Cocktail Time. Andrew's on the Everything 36. Everything 36. Or even down to just a 39.
Everett Another set of Seiko. Another set of Seiko. You also sent these to me. Seiko's continuing to iterate on its, what are they calling this, the Black Series? the black series. Uh, yeah, these, uh, so three new watches, all sort of a green black PVD coded. We've got a new turtle, a new samurai, and then the new midsize solar diver, uh, which needs a cool nickname. I think it's the midsize solar diver.
Andrew It needs a better nickname than that.
Everett So we got three we got three new watches that all very very similar colorways. Like sort of a very dark drab dial and notably all of the photos that you'll find of these. The loom is popping. Bright green popping loom. I just can't imagine that in real life this is how they look.
Andrew But it's Seiko so you sort of Want to believe it perhaps.
Everett Yeah on all the press photos we see of these the loom is perma glowing It's I mean, I think it's the luma bright.
Andrew I mean, it's it's gonna be a green pad. I think even without without glow We're gonna see a green loom plot.
Everett Yeah, maybe maybe it's a extra green plot. Yeah, I Like these I like these They're sort of tactical. I think mm-hmm these will attract the tactical consumer. I'm not sure the murdered outlook is for me.
Andrew Yeah. I'm kind of wondering how long the black series is going to last and how well it's playing. Like if, if they're just throwing some shit at the wall to see if it plays and if it plays, they'll stick with it. But I'm, I wonder how long these are going to stick around the, I mean the 7,000 units isn't exactly a limited run, but it's a limited, Right, so they're dropping 7,000 units of this tortoise. And 8,000 of the samurai and 6,000 of the midsize solo drivers. So it's fairly limited for Seiko, which is kind of a throw it at the wall run, which for any other non-Seiko sized brand is significant. I mean, that's more than Rolex produced of their entire catalog this year. So, you know, there's something to be said for it. I'm kind of wondering how they're going to play. Like if we're going to see what we're going to see next in the black series.
Everett Am I seeing right? 650 euros for the solar, for the midsize solar.
Andrew Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Right. So that's what? 8750.
Everett Cause I think the automatic turtle, the automatic turtles that they've got that midsize diver priced so much higher.
Andrew It's because it comes on a bracelet. The tortoise is on a canvas strap. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm interested to see where this black series goes. I think it's a cool thought and I think it's Seiko tapping into the tactical market and seeing brands like Sangin and these other kind of tactical brands really capitalizing on that market segment and trying to get their feet back under a minute.
Everett You know, I don't know if this is anything new, but, um, you know, I don't know that they're tapping into it is, is a new thing. It seems like they've been doing this for a while, but at, at those kinds of numbers, I think Seiko could just infinitely make watches. So whatever they want to do. Right.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett But anyway, There'll be a link to those in the show notes. You can check them out.
Andrew Yeah, they're cool. I mean, they're not for me, not by a long shot. I wouldn't ever buy one. If you gave me one, I'd be pleased with it, I'm sure. But I wouldn't. Not for my money. Cool as they might be.
Everett Can we talk about a watch I am excited about? Not sure. So Hamilton announced a new Frogman diver.
Andrew The answer is yes.
Everett This week. So the Hamilton Khaki Navy Frogman is a watch with some history.
Andrew About as much history as a watch can have.
Everett So Hamilton's introduced this new iteration of the Khaki Navy Frogman watch and this thing is I think it's kind of like anti-trend. We talked about micro-trends, watch-trends last week. I feel like this watch is a little anti-watch trend and I'm kind of here for it. So it's a 46 millimeter, 13 and a half millimeter thick scuba diving watch is what it is.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett We got no bullshit, no bullshit, big ass, unapologetically big 300 meter dive watch with crown guards for its crown guards.
Andrew Yeah. Like a Panerai crown guard.
Everett That's right. And I, I fucking love this thing, man.
Unknown Um,
Everett It's huge, and I want it.
Andrew You know what's most interesting to me is the... It seems like they almost created two, like they could have made this two iterations with the DLC and the stainless. I think if they'd have gone with a texture-free dial on the steel model, it would have been two wholly different watches that would have really captured the entire target audience. I'm not a big fan of the textured dial. And I know we were just talking about cocktail time where I like textured dial, but I don't like most sand textured dials.
Everett It's interesting, you know, the pictures of this, I'm a little I'm kind of curious how it looks in person, because sometimes the sand textured dials look better in person than they do in pictures. I actually think the photos of this look great. I love the handset.
Unknown Mm hmm.
Everett I love the font on the bezel. The whole thing's huge. I think this is a cool watch.
Andrew The crown guard's dope. Yeah, it's like... It's a cage. It's a crown cage. Crown guards.
Everett Crown guards for your crown guards.
Andrew Yeah, it's a cool release. It's a cool update on a cool historic watch. I'm for it. I agree with you. Barring the textured dial.
Everett You know, the other thing is these are, I want to say $1,300.
Andrew The yeah, from from 12 to 1300, I imagine the difference is going to be in a bracelet.
Everett Which is. In the range of afford, I mean, that's not an affordable watch, but.
Andrew It's in the range of affordable for a prospect out. That's right. Automatic dive watch full dive watch. Yeah, I mean, 300 meters of water resistance.
Everett And I think they've got each 10 movements. So, yeah, 80 hour powers are a full meal deal.
Andrew All the bells and whistles. Cool. scuba diver case back, like the very traditional frogman scuba kit mask on the case back. A cool heritage watch that's been really well updated.
Everett Yeah, boy.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I want to talk about one that that I didn't really see coming. and uh i've i've looked at it now several times and kind of have i'm feeling some things it's a new gnomos watch oh yeah the tetra neomatik yeah i don't know the i mean is the tetra neomatics not new they've just released the
Everett The neomatic and for new color.
Andrew Exactly. In the new colorways. And when I first saw it, I was like, you're just you're just bandwagoning it. This is what everyone's doing. But I got to say. The. The red. Is doing it for me. So they released. No most released. Four new colors. For the neomatic.
Everett This is a 33 millimeter square. Exactly. Square pneumatic. And they put new movements in it. They put their in-house D.W. D.U.W. 3001 in this thing.
Andrew Red, blue, black and off white. Very Easter colored, not pastels, but just like very bright, vibrant, which I think is maybe the difference that we're seeing from what what a lot of other brands are dropping in these kind of pastel-y flavors. We're seeing really bold primary colors in this blue and this red.
Everett Yeah. Both the black and the white dial feel very Nomos to me. Super. Yeah.
Andrew Nomos has a really unique and recognizable design language. That's right. The blue and the red are a little bit different, I think. And the red is doing it for me. Every time I've looked at it, I'm like, oh. Uh oh. It's new movement, new colors, another cool update. Here's the problem. 175 pieces each and 3800 bucks.
Everett Yeah, I mean, I think that they're priced what you'd expect for an in-house Nomos movement.
Andrew With a super limited run and yeah. Yeah. For some reason in my head, I always have Nomos as this like
Everett just slightly reach brand like in that zone between like in that zone south of attainable omegas and they're not i don't know i think they they are they're expensive i think that they are there but you know you you think nomos is one of these brands that um i think some people have some things to say about nomos but nomos is essentially a startup 20 years ago right And they've sort of established themselves as a Glashutte watch brand in, you know, in the late stages of watchmaking. And people take for granted, at this point, Nomo's lineage. They do everything in this... Wow, I'm making so much noise.
Andrew Yeah, you're really ruining it.
Everett They do everything in this uncompromising way, but also with fresh designs. I really love Nomos as a company, and I think in order to have nice things, we've got to appreciate companies like Nomos.
Andrew Well, we've got to have nice things, right? I mean, that's sort of it. We piss and moan that watches are too expensive or You know, is this brand really worth this amount of money? And the fact of the matter is, if they say it's worth that amount of money and people continue to buy it at that amount of money, yes, it's worth that amount of money. And we need brands that are charging the right amount against the quality they're putting out to have nice things. That made sense.
Everett You know, I'll have to listen to it on edit because as I sit here now, it's hard to say.
Andrew We don't have nice things unless people are making nice things. people are buying said nice things.
Everett Can we talk about another company with an interesting legacy also introducing a watch this week with an in-house movement? Yes. A little bit more attainable. A little bit more attainable. A company that we know and love from the olden days of this show. Orient has introduced A new 38.5mm bambino.
Andrew They sure have.
Everett Don't you feel like this is deja vu? Didn't Orient introduce a 38.5mm bambino a few years ago and it just never happened? Yeah. Or a 36mm bambino?
Andrew I feel like they teased they were going to and then it didn't happen.
Everett I could be wrong. I have yet to find these for sale anywhere. But we are seeing monochrome, time and tide. Everyone agrees that it's happening. Everybody agrees that Orient is releasing a 38.5mm Bambino see-through case back with the in-house whatever FE movement.
Andrew The F6724.
Everett You've got an off-white dial, a white dial, a black dial, and a completely plated white dial.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
Everett This looks great. I mean, it just looks like exactly it looks like eggs.
Andrew Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh 20 millimeter lugs finally 20 millimeter. It's me. Finally this this could be Orient's biggest hit the only problem is they're 10 years late to dropping this in 38 and they should be dropping it at like 34 to 36 right now.
Everett Maybe.
Andrew But their lugs are the right size. 38.4.
Everett I think I could wear this thing today.
Andrew I think you're right. These wear big. These wear like manhole cover big because of the dome. Because it's all dial. Well, it's all dial, but because of that big ass dome on the crystal, it feels bigger. It's like any Christopher Ward that you put on. You could put on a, you know, I think the C63 is a 39 millimeter case. And it looks like a manhole cover because it grabs so much light, and it's so legible. There's so much dial there to be seen. You're like, man, this has to be a 48. Sure. And that optical illusion, it's comfortable like a 39. It wears like a 39, but it looks much bigger. Yeah. In a dress watch, I don't particularly want that illusion of size. I think a 38 is still a little bit too big for this design, though it is a drastic improvement from the previous 41 and some change with 21 millimeter lugs.
Everett Yeah, I think these look really promising.
Andrew This is maybe Orient moving in the right direction and getting all the components right.
Everett We're seeing these listed at 275 euro and 295 euro for the gilt models. I suspect these will have a street value of something closer to 150 to 200.
Andrew I'd expect so once they stabilize and they're available globally.
Everett Really lightly decorated rotors. I mean, this is a really beautiful. This is a beautiful watch. I'm personally probably most high on the plain white dial. Plain steel hands. Simple three hand. It does have a very, very tiny date window. Uh, yeah. I mean, I really think they did not orient this at all. This has been just well done.
Andrew The off-white slash cream with the kind of blued hands is really what's doing it for me. Yeah. Part of it's that convex dial too. Like there's just a lot of things that make this watch optically seem much bigger than it is. I think under 200 bucks though. You're not going to, this could be the under, under $200 dress watch of the year. Yeah. It may, might be the only one. Yeah.
Everett Right. But it is the, it is the under 200 dress watch of the year.
Andrew Which is an important category to fill and it'd be neat if somebody else could enter that space. But the Bambino is just kind of an un-topplable.
Everett You know, we don't talk about this movement very often cause it's the only one that gets to use it. But the, F62724, F6724 movement. Pretty, pretty thin movement, hacking, hand winding. I mean, this is, if Orient sold this to the world, I think it would be a pretty popular movement, but their operation is so small that they, they just don't, but.
Andrew And it's got a 40 hour power reserve. Yeah, they all watch.
Everett Nobody cares. It's 360 now.
Andrew Like, I don't know. I don't know if I need an automatic movement in a dress watch because I'm going to wind it for the day that I wear it and then put it away until the next time I wear it.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Well, that's a, you know, it's a, it's a thing, right? Cause this watch, so we do have 12 and a half millimeter thickness. You know, you think maybe if this was a hand winder, we can get that under 12.
Andrew Probably. But also I wonder if they're including the crystal in that.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Cause the crystals have, It's, it's half the height of the case. What else you got Andrew? Oh, I also have, where is it? Where is it? This is a cool trend that we've now seen a couple of this year in the way of a full loomed dial. So the Yema Superman with full loomed
Everett What do you think of these watches, Yima? So Yima, a French brand that's been sort of in the game now for a few years. I've not had hands on, I don't think you have either.
Andrew I haven't had hands on any of them. I sort of, I get the impression that they're about on par with AV8, with Spinnaker, with mass produced, not exactly small brand, but not exactly big brand. I think there will probably that, and this is just my assumption with no, nothing to back it up beyond what I see in their catalog. My assumption is that they're going to be perfectly inoffensive, not noteworthy watches.
Everett You know, when I think of Yima, I think of a lot of quality control things that we've read about folks messaging us or, or watching sick posts we've read.
Everett I think that there's maybe some quality control issues going on there. We're not exactly cheap, right? I mean, Yema's starting in like the $500, $600 range and going up to much more expensive than that. These Superman, I think, these are like $1,000 watches.
Andrew And I think- 1,000 euros, yeah, I mean- It's an attractive watch. It is. It's kind of, it's a very tool watchy. It's not kind of tool watchy, it's a very tool watchy.
Everett But that is really link sort of oyster kind of a subby case.
Andrew Yeah but it's the full loom dial that gets me excited because I like to see more full loomed dive watches and we're moving away from dive watches as the hot item and as as the the go to design for every single new brand. In part, I think, because the style is trending away from them. You know, the market desire is trending away from dive watches. But I think that we could see a resurgence if we see a couple brands dropping some full loom dive watches or even some full loom pilot watches, because that's a super functional characteristic in a pilot's watch. I want some full lume. I want a full lume dial watch and I want some more options to choose from. But I'm excited about it. I'm hoping that a brand like Yema, Yema? Yema?
Everett Yuma? E-510D Yuma?
Andrew Yeah. I'm hoping that seeing a brand like this means that it's getting a little bit of traction in the design Circles. And then we might see some more, but I'm excited because I think it looks really good. Yeah, these are fun. That's yeah, they're fun. And you could probably buy one unlike the Moon's Watch, which is the most fun watch of the year.
Everett So we've well, OK, two things we should talk about quickly. So Time and Tide is. Time and Tide is reporting Or I guess they're cross-reporting Bloomberg reporting that the Rolex scarcity is extending to periphery brands. Cartier, Tudor in particular.
Andrew Breitling, everyone.
Everett Chopard. So we're seeing, wow, in the last two months, Prices on in-demand, the most in-demand watches are maybe dropping, coming down a little bit. Watch prices on brands that have regularly been available are going up as the availability of watches, Tudor, chronographs. Some of these watches that you've been able to buy, things are tightening up at that next level. I don't know what that means. Probably nothing for me. But it's significant. There's something that's happening.
Andrew Yeah. And this isn't just specific to watches. This is specific to truly luxury goods. I have a friend who's a big cigar purchaser. Now, he doesn't just buy big cigars, but he buys many in grand volume. And he's seeing on the order of hundred times price increases, things that used to be seven to $10 or in the hundreds of dollars down, he's, he's seeing like not overnight and it, but it wasn't incremental rapid price increases on things that were otherwise very easily attainable. And I'm wondering. if we're going to see this as a ripple effect through the entire industry, or if we're going to see this exclusive to the watch industry, right down to even our, even, even our small brands, our independent brands, or if this is going to be localized to big luxury brands. And if we see just a huge disparity between accessible, independent brands and frankly, Swiss brands.
Everett Yeah, I mean, I'd be shocked if it extended to like micro brands, for instance. It just doesn't make any sense. People don't know about these brands.
Andrew No, but I mean, how much of it is in the logistics and in manufacturing costs that the costs are being passed on to consumers?
Everett Well, we're going to see that. I mean, we're going to see manufacturing costs continue to rise, I think.
Andrew That's yeah. But I'm wondering how much we're seeing out of the Swiss world because of that versus they're seeing the demand there and they're just capitalizing on the opportunity.
Everett You know, Chris Vale, owner of Nth Watches, has written recently on his WatchuSeek thread about the feasibility of American watchmaking in relation to Chinese watchmaking and how Chinese watch prices continue to go up. relative to American watch prices and how at some point the consumer value for buyers, particularly in the United States, is going to be there where we're going to see comparable prices for manufacture in China versus the United States. Maybe not one to one, but there's a thing happening right now with in particular Chinese manufacturing prices going
Andrew I hope that spurs on American manufacturing to be able to take on the burden.
Everett What's next? I got one more. This has been on our list a couple times now.
Andrew Yeah, throw it up.
Everett So a handful of weeks ago, our friend Tony reposted Tony at Rescapeman reposted a A post? There's a fella named Bartos Cichanowski, I think.
Andrew That's how I'm going to say it too.
Everett Bartos. Bartos Cichanowski. He's got a website. It's Cichanow.ski. I guarantee you there will be a link in the show notes because you're not going to be able to spell that from my description. But this guy just posts on cool. He has a blog about cool technical things. And he made a post about how a mechanical watch movement works. Yeah. And we've had this on our list before and we didn't get to it, but this is really, really incredible. So this made the rounds, I don't know, about a month ago. Yeah, about. And it was one of those things that you, maybe you saw it and you clicked on it and you read it and you know exactly what we're talking about. If you didn't. If you didn't, if you did see it and you didn't click and you're hearing about it again, stop what you're doing, go to the show notes, click on this thing and go through it. If this is the first you're ever hearing about it, same. Stop what you're doing, go click on the link and just go through this. This thing is freaking incredible.
Andrew The animation, the technical writing, the accessibility of the technical writing. It's money. It's, it, it, it does it all. Even if you already know, it's good to look at it and be like, Oh, cool.
Everett You know, we've talked about this stuff on this show a number of times and we've read about it and we've talked about these things, but I have never. So, so just to sort of walk you through, uh, a little bit right now, I am looking at an infographic. There's, I think probably like 60 interactive infographics on this thing. Right now I am pulling a slider to the right and left. And what this slider is doing is winding up the arbor, which turns the mainspring, which once I release it, initiates the gears, the second, third, and fourth gear, and turns the second hand. And I can watch it happen. It takes about six seconds for it to unwind. And as you move down the post, it introduces the escapement and shows you how that interacts. And why? That's right. And so you get, and you get interactives for each of those with these sort of physics, uh, these, this built in physics to these sliders. This thing's incredible.
Andrew It is. And I like it. And I don't know how we haven't talked about it yet, though we've looked at it Several times.
Everett This is the coolest thing in watches right now, right? Perhaps. Yeah. And this isn't even, it's not even like a watch specific website.
Andrew No, it's just a nerd. Who does nerdy things and knows how they work.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew And puts in a totally obscene amount of time into it. Yeah. Just these graphics alone would take me months.
Everett I mean, you've got to figure this is like, this could be like, uh, you know, graduate or undergraduate level final project.
Andrew Yeah. Just that page. 15 minutes of content. Yeah. Worth it.
Everett That's it. Andrew. Other things. What do you got?
Andrew I have a kind of a lame other thing, but it's been a bit of a lifesaver. We have dogs. And kids. And a residence. And dogs and kids destroy soft surfaces. Everything. They destroy everything. Everything is snotty, drooly, covered in boogers, mud, and other unknown... Other things we like. Yeah. Other just unknowns. Like what's that stain? It could be anything. So several months ago, We got a true carpet cleaner, like rather than renting it. Cause the only other times we've ever used a carpet cleaner are when we were moving out of an apartment or a house and had to shampoo the carpets. And we're like, well, we've been doing this to rentals for a long time. Why don't we do it to the things that we own? So we got a Bissell. Turbo Clean Dual Pro Pet Carpet Cleaner. I don't know why it's the pet. But it has a, I expect they all probably have this, is a little hose with an upholstery attachment. And you can upholster, you can hose all your things. So for those of you who are somehow unfamiliar with a carpet cleaner, it's a wet vacuum. With like an extractor. With an extractor, yeah. So it's got its two tanks. It's got its main, it's got its main basin. that you put your solvent or whatever cleaning solution you're gonna use into it mixed with water and Bissell makes a whole variety of different application cleaners like for odors and stains and stuff. And I gotta say, it is a game changer. It sits in our closet and then like you finally look at your couch and you're like, God, that thing is a, that's a crime scene. I cannot have, One, I can't even have people I live with in this house without this couch being clean. Break it out. Super easy fill process. Super easy drain process. 15 minutes to clean your whole couch. Couple hours to dry it out with a fan running. And it's like that couch is brand new. The upholstery brush on it does a really good job to get out dog hair and chocolate stains and God knows what stains. And we have a hound. And hounds have little barbs at the end of their, each of their hairs that stick onto things. Like I, the worst splinters that I get are my dog's hair. Cause it, it penetrates your skin. It sticks in there and it hurts and organic material in your skin really hurts. It gets hound hair out of upholstery. Like out of my couch surface, hound hair, gone. All the kids stains, boogers, snot. Who knows what else? It's like it's brand new.
Everett Would it be usable in the car?
Andrew We just used it in the car. Kid had an accident. Pee all over. Pee like above the waist level somehow all over. Uh, Sam hit the car, hit the, hit the booster seat, all of it. She now has to do the other seats because of how clean that section is that she did. She's like, well, that's was a mistake. So now it has to do the rest of her backseat. It is money. It's it's a little bit bigger than your standard vacuum, but marginally.
Everett What's the value proposition on this?
Andrew I mean, it's one hundred and sixty five bucks. Oh, shit. It's next to nothing. And then you buy your cleaning solvents for like, what, eight bucks. So the investment is next to nothing against the cleaning that you're getting out of it and the satisfaction of looking at your stuff and it being clean again.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Carpets. rugs, furniture, all of it. I kind of thought it was a ridiculous purchase until the first time we used it and I was like, oh no, I get it. I get it. It makes perfect sense.
Everett You know, you'll have to check back in on this because I think the concern with something like this would be durability, right? If you rent one from Home Depot or whatever, you know it's going to work. And if it doesn't work, You're going to take it back and say, this doesn't work. And they're going to say, Oh, we're sorry. And they're going to give you a different one.
Andrew So your rental is what? 30 bucks for the day for we've used ours enough times to have bought it already. All right. In the year. Yeah. Cause it's got the hose. Like you don't have to fill the basin up all the way. You can just do it on the vomit stain on your Ottoman or, or just a quick rip through your car. Like I find myself in a position where I'm like, Oh, I'll just, I'll just carpet clean it out. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. The convenience of having it and, and you're not having to go to Walmart or Home Depot or Lowe's or wherever and get the one that like the meth head has just returned because he cleaned up a murder scene in his RV. You don't want that. Like they're, they're not disinfecting these things. The soap isn't necessarily disinfectant. I know what mine is cleaned up. I'm comfortable with that thing being, potentially reintroduced to my couch. It's still vomit, but it's my vomit. It's my kid's vomit. Or maybe mine. I don't know. I can usually get to an acceptable receptacle. Acceptable receptacle. It's good. Thank you. Yeah, this is a weird... I'm very pleased that we made a purchase.
Everett What you got? Andrew, do you subscribe to Apple Arcade?
Unknown No.
Everett I'm going to, so first of all, I think I'm going to eliminate some of our users right now by talking about a game that I think is only available on Apple. And then I'm going to alienate some more folks by way of talking about a game that's only available via Apple arcade.
Andrew So I sort of the 90% of you listening that this applies to enjoy.
Everett I lament the. trend in games right now, which is sort of, uh, what do you call it? Freemium content.
Andrew I hate freemium content and I totally buy into it and I spend money on games and bugs me.
Everett I, I, I, I, I would rather pay a developer to do the front end work and then to purchase a complete package, right? Something that is, you know, like the old school NES game, right? This is the game. And we've made it as good as it's going to be. And we're not going to tease you with additional purchases.
Andrew You're not going to get better by spending money.
Everett Yes, exactly. So I think that the current game is all about spending money as you go. Pay to play. And I lament that. So I pay for a subscription service through Apple. I can't remember how much it is, but it's like five bucks a month. But I get unlimited access to these games on the Apple Arcade. And I found a game, a Uruguayan game.
Andrew Okay, we're going deep into the catalog here.
Everett It's called Outlanders. It's called Outlanders, and it's sort of like, Sim City or... It's a town builder game is what it is. It's a town builder game. This is not a new game. It's not a new game. It's several years old. I think it's available on computers as well. But I'm playing this thing on Apple Arcade and it's just absolutely charming. It's sort of like you So the way I've been playing it as scenarios where you get dropped into sort of an existing settlement and you've got a goal, you know, you need to make a hundred loaves of bread by 45 days or whatever. And so you've got to, you know, feed all your people.
Andrew It's not real time though, right?
Everett You know, no, it's not real time. Uh, the days are some sort of analog of, of time passage.
Andrew It's a time pass while you're away from the game.
Everett It does not. It's not. Nope. Nope. Yeah, that's right. That's what you're asking. No, it's not real time. Anyway, it's just charming. It's it's sort of low stakes, but also the mechanics are pretty specific and you've got to make sure you keep your people feed fed and you've got to take care of housing and people get unhappy if you're not. You know, if they're unhoused or whatever, Um, it's really sort of small scale. Um, you, you know, these developments are anything from five to 50 people, uh, you know, sort of colony size. Um, anyway, you've usually got limited resources and you've got to figure out how to use the resources the best way. I've really, really enjoyed this game. I've, I grew up playing SimCity tracks. Yep. In particular, SimCity 2000 was the game that I first played and I was like, this is so cool. I'm enjoying this now. In 2022, the same way I enjoyed SimCity 2000 in whatever, 92 or 93 when I was playing that game.
Andrew The iPhone versions of SimCity have always let me down.
Everett Yeah, you know, I think that there was something about that gameplay mechanic that got lost with time. But, you know, like other games that have come, and gone at this point now, rollercoaster tycoon or whatever, right? Yeah. You get this, uh, you get this city or town developing. Anyway, it's, it's a lot of fun. The graphics are really fun.
Andrew The artwork looks nice.
Everett The artwork's beautiful. Um, it's charming and I've just had a ton of fun with it. So I've gone through, I think eight or nine of these levels, they call them, which are these simulations. There's also a sandbox mode, which
Andrew I haven't played around with too much, but... Looks a little hardcore, I think. Yeah.
Everett That's my other thing.
Andrew That's a better other thing than a carpet cleaner. Just different. No, it's better. It's just objectively better.
Everett Andrew, we've talked about watches, we've talked about carpet cleaners, we've talked about very, very specific subscription to Apple Arcade games. Anything else you want to talk about? I think that's it. Well, Thanks you guys for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20 of the Watch Clicker podcast. Make sure you check us out on our website, watchclicker.com. Check out Will's review of the Dietrich SD2. Just went up this week. It's really good. You can also check us out on Instagram at Watch Clicker or at 40 and 20. That's where we post pictures and announcements of all the things we're doing. If you want to support what we're doing, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look, that's how we afford the brand new Roadcaster 2 that we're going to have to buy because it was just announced. And all the other stuff we use to make the show great. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.
Unknown Hello.