Episode 196 - Watches Roundup

Published on Wed, 27 Jul 2022 22:05:39 -0700

Synopsis

This is a transcript of a podcast episode where the hosts Andrew and Everett discuss new and upcoming watch releases, articles, and other watch-related topics. They talk about customizable watches from LACO, a new purple dial Monaco from Tag Heuer, a new GMT from Bulova, a reissue of a 1965 King Seiko, and other watch news and releases. They also discuss an article about the future of watch retail and share some personal updates related to watches and other interests.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? Well, I hate Brenda and a bad guy hit me in the shin and I peed on all my pants.
Everett Because of America. What a good day.
Andrew Uh, no, I'm doing good. You know, I'm, I'm actually struggling a little bit, Andrew. I'm struggling a little bit with the, the, um, uh, the, the, the pot, you know, where, where I turned the music down. I had on the old board. I really had, I knew where everything was. I knew what volume I wanted, where, and I feel like you'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's just re re uh, retraining that I've got to burn the muscle memory. That's what I need to do. Yeah. Just some familiarity. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful board. I will say, can we do this? Is it okay if we do this? I don't know. I don't know what we're about to do. We are selling a RODECaster Pro 1. We haven't listed it for sale anywhere, but if you or anyone you know is looking for an in-home studio type podcast producing piece of hardware, we've got one. It's going to be a smoking deal. incredibly well-maintained and cared for. I just cleaned it. I disinfected every inch of it. So if you want, if you're interested, hit us up, slide into the DMs, you or anyone you know, I'll give you prices, anything you want. And if you want us to re-infect it. Can we have like a classified ad section at the beginning of each episode? It's our show. Right. It's our show. Yeah.
Everett So yes, it has gotten the stamp of approval.
Andrew Okay. I don't know if you heard the stamping. I was going to say, I'm not sure that they got those. the demonstrative because I saw it and I barely understood it. Yeah. Well, it's hard. I don't have a stamp in my hand. Fuck. Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, how are you? I am great. I'm finally taking a big, deep breath. I thought you were going to say dump. I am in my pants right now. I have size 32 Depends on and I will tell you they have been life changing. Wait, do Depends come in like standard pants size?
Everett I would think so.
Andrew I mean, I would imagine they're not like size like children's diapers. I was thinking like small, medium, large, but I don't know. You probably need a better fit than that. Maybe. You're trying to keep a lot of stuff in. I mean, they're like adjustable, right? It's not like a... I don't know. I don't, I'm not wearing them. You've ruined the joke. Thank you. If you know, slide into the DMs. Taking a big sigh of relief because the World Athletic Championships are over. Oh, yeah. And that was a hard thing for you. I think for most of you, Gene, it was celebratory and fun and beautiful. But for you, I worked a lot. You worked a lot. I'm almost funded to Santos, though. So in the last two weeks. No, no, no. But that that closed a significant delta. So that's almost funded. So that's awesome. But it was just it was exhausting. It was a long couple weeks of wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep, wake up, just wash, rinse, repeat. Pleased that that's done. It was super cool. I did get to go to one of the sessions, which was very fun. I think you talked about it on this. I think you had done it like the day before.
Everett Yeah. So, but I'm, I'm pleased that they're, they're behind us now.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. It was a really, it was a really neat event. You know, our city, the world championships doesn't happen all that often. It's not as big as the, it's not the same scope as the Olympics because it's just one sport, but it's the same, you know, same width. You've got all the countries there, right? You've got delegations, you've got countries. Certainly a small, I mean, you have to qualify for the worlds in a way that it's a higher tier than qualifying for the Olympics. It's a smaller pool of athletes. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe you're right. I will say our city and our local planners had prepared for a much more impactful event. We didn't see a huge uptick in traffic. I mean, certainly a little bit more, but road traffic was not hugely impacted. Restaurants weren't hugely impacted. The only thing that I know did happen as a result was that you couldn't get a hotel. You couldn't get a hotel or an Airbnb. There were also some really critical roads that were blocked off with anti-tank beach protection devices. Right. Yeah. That was annoying. Yeah. Having to detour around. And they were in some critical areas too, like areas where you can't just simply detour. Yeah, there's no simple detour for those areas.
Everett So they're also heavy enough that you can't like get out and just by yourself, move them, which is by design.
Andrew It's just, it's annoying when you need to get somewhere. But all in all, I'd say it was a pretty cool event. It was really, it was really neat to see all the athletes, you know, you could see athletes just around town. I met one of the 3000 meter steeplechase runners from Morocco. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Was he, Tall? Very. And he spoke no English. Yeah. So I speak just enough Arabic to resolve the issue that caused me to interact with him. Yes, steeplechasers tend to be tall. That's what you would say in Morocco. He was way tall. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, they speak Arabic in Morocco, but it's a weird Arabic. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Andrew. We are six and a half minutes in. We're six and a half minutes in. excuse me, sir. And we're talking about watches today. Oh yeah, you're right. I was going to update you on the status of my depend. Yeah. How's it going? We're coming along. We're talking about watches today. Specifically, we're going to do, it's been a couple of weeks and a lot has happened and a lot has happened. So we're going to round up, we're going to round up the watches that have the watch watches and watch ish things. We've got some articles. We've got some releases. Mostly that's it. Articles and releases.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I felt like there must have been something else that I could categorize.
Everett The things that gather our attention.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah, that's right. You know, you were a little ahead of the game with your list. I know you've got a couple that you're itching to talk about. I'm so excited to talk about this first one. So I found this. Oh, something's happening. There we go. You lost it. No, I was moving forward and backward. So I found this via Time and Tide. The Locko Pro series lets you customize your ideal Flieger pilots watch. I was like, I mean, bottom of the page, it says that you can There's 14,000 permutations, which is something that you can pretty easily calculate based on how many options there are. So I go to the LACO website and sure as shit from start to finish, you can build out your LACO either in the Stuttgart or the, uh oh, Karlsruhe. You know, Andrew, you're on your own, man. in either iteration of the Locko Pro. So I started building mine and I was like, Oh, suddenly I think I need this.
Everett They are going to ring in at bucks, right? They're like 1500 bucks.
Andrew Cause it's not, this is not like the auction.
Everett No, this is the,
Andrew This is the good shit. Um, and they're going to ring in between 850 and 1500 euros depending on your options. So I didn't look at the price of what I was building out, but you can, you can build out your perfect type a and a 37 millimeter case with a crown left and do all this cool shit that you, the things that we as watch people complain about. If it was just this one little difference, you get to change that one little difference.
Everett Super cool thing that I've not seen on this scale.
Andrew Other companies have done this, right? There's other companies that let you build soup to nuts your entire watch, but not Locko, not a brand this big. Yeah, I think Seiko actually has just... Did they? announced some sort of watch builder too, which is interesting. This might be a thing, right? I think I read something about a Seiko 5 watch builder, or maybe it was just their online. Anyway, it seems like this could be a thing in today's day and age with the way we make products. A company like Locko selling a bucket load of watches, we could do this.
Everett Yeah, it makes no never mind to them. The parts are already there.
Andrew They're on hand. You just have to have an individual go pick them. You know, I like this, but I'm looking, I'm looking through this. So you start at $8.50 and I'm just going down the list. This is like, maybe not quite as egregious, but almost as bad as the salad bar at Whole Foods, right? Like add a couple of olives and it's like three bucks additional. So, so Yeah, but I mean the big changes are, you know, you're going to pay more for a bigger case. Yeah, yeah. Why is that? Why is a 40 millimeter case $100 more than a 37 millimeter case? Because it's... And why is a 43 millimeter case 200 euros, not dollars, 200... Well... Dollars now. Yeah, yeah. 200 euro is more... 200 euro for a 43 versus a 37 millimeter case. It's more steel. It's 316L steel, man.
Everett This is valuable shit.
Andrew $80 for a left crown position. I'm down with that.
Everett I'm willing to pay 80 bucks for a crown left.
Andrew Well, that's, I think that's the point, right? They're like, I mean, someone will pay for this left hand crown position and it's easy to do. It's just free money. Yeah. And people will pay for it. Cause that customization, uh, enjoyment is worth the extra money. I mean, think of how many things that people are like, yeah, I'll pay $85 to have this monogram. I mean, some of this stuff makes sense, right? Like anti-reflective inside and outside. It's a little, Oh, a hundred bucks for outside anti-air. Who does that? I mean, some of this stuff makes, it makes a lot of sense. Additional finishing. Sapphire case back is another 50 euros. Decoration on the movement. That makes sense. Is it worth a hundred euros? I don't know. I mean, I behold it, right? But I wonder how much the, it doesn't really say. This is cool, man. First engraving is free of charge. So, you know, the only thing, so I'm looking through this, can you change like dial colors? I don't, I haven't looked that far. I only, I only want a black one. I don't know that you can. Well, either way, this is pretty cool.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew It's a cool idea from a company that I didn't really ever expect to see something like this from. Yeah. I'm not sure the customization is, is where I'd want it. If, if you truly can't change the dial, You can either, so the dial options are either with printing Laco and made in Germany or without imprint Laco and made in Germany. And the without imprint is 150 euros. I'm just joking. They have to remove the imprint.
Everett They have some dude out there hammering the back of the dial and pound them out.
Andrew Some 80 year old German watchmaker that let's see if the dials, if there's other color options for the other dial model. This is cool. Uh, Not going to be nothing, but also not a tremendous amount of money. No, but I mean, north of what you would pay for this watch off the shelf, which makes sense because it's going to be wholly customized. You could feasibly have a one-of-a-kind watch made by Laco, which is cool. It is cool. No, I'm into it. I like it. I have no actual objections. I'm not a big fan of the, uh, etching or not this, the etching, but the, um, FL 23, 8, 8, 3. Yeah. Hatching's the word I'm going to use. Cause that's what I have right now. Still a little brain dead engraving. That's the word I'm looking for engraving on the non crown side. I was wondering what you're saying. I got it. I got it. Yeah. That's, that's the thing, right? Nobody likes it when the brands do that and the brands insist on doing There's some applications I like it. I do like it on the 30-year Apollo edition of the Speedmaster. Sure. But, you know, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably also one of those things you like it if you like it, right? I don't like it on any Invicta. I have yet to see a well-executed Invicta engraving on the case side. It's not the pro diver. What's Invicta's like sea dweller. They're like hype, they're hypey, big. They've got like a, they use like a old, like vintage brass hard hat logo on one of their lines. And I actually really like, I really like those engravings, but, um, Hey, speaking of too much money for an inconsequential change to a watch,
Everett Damn, I'm ready for it.
Andrew One of my favorite companies as of late, Tag Heuer. Tag Heuer has released a new version of probably its most iconic watch. I think we could say that. That's fair to say, right? I don't know. Wow. So they released, they're calling this purple. The pictures I've seen, I think purple is maybe not the right color. I think it's I don't know. I accept purple.
Everett If we're going to stick to like binary or not binary, but primary color names, binary color names.
Andrew Good God.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew We're going to stick to primary color names. Purple is what you have to call this. Okay. Fair enough. Uh, a purple dial Monaco, basically full on modern Monaco with a purple dial. I think if we're going to call this purple, it would be fair to say this purple skews to the red.
Everett Uh, yeah. And, and even some pink.
Andrew And that's what this is. This is a Purple Monaco. Purple has been maybe the color of this season, right?
Everett It's seeming to be so. And I don't know how I feel.
Andrew I've seen a lot of sort of one-off releases in purple this year. I'm not sure. I mean, I definitely don't mind it. I think purple is cool. In fact, I've got a purple tie. It's my very favorite tie. I wear it, you know, mostly on Sundays. Um, I'd say I wear it to, you know, maybe 20% of the time I wear a tie because I just gravitate toward, I like purple. I don't know if a purple watch is for me though. I don't know if it is either, but it's a really well executed purple. You know, it's not, um, cause kind of sunburst, right? It's not, it's not a Easter, Pastel dial. It's a really deep, dark, that sunburst kind of starts with white intermixed into it and fades into black. It's a, it's kind of sunsetty purple. Degraday. Yeah. It's a, it's a really well executed purple. And I think my favorite execution of purple that I've seen thus far. So this is an Ellie, 500 pieces. Um, I think that they're boutique, they're boutique exclusives. So, uh, if this is something that interests you and you live close to a tag boutique, I'd say just grab one. I mean, it's, they're, they're not quite flyer price, but they're north of that, but you're certainly gonna make your money back. Yeah, I think possibly. And it's like, what a cool watch to have. So, uh, caliber 15, these are cool, man. I dig them.
Everett This got me, when I looked at this, it got me thinking about, getting a horizon.
Andrew Oh, did you see this? Did you see this? It comes in three 16 now. Ooh, Andrew. Now that's, that's a game changer. Andrew, what's next for you, buddy? Next up for me, we have another new release. I feel like you weren't ready for me. I wasn't ready for you. We discussed how we were going to manage this and, and I, I dropped the ball because I was looking at watch porn. I did. So I did sort of like I sort of like ambushed you with it. Yeah. A little bit. It was a little sneaky. Bulova. How about Bulova? Drops a... We've shit talked Bulova recently. We have. And they're there. And with good reason. This isn't like unfounded shit talking of Bulova. It's wake up Bulova. There's an opportunity here. for some really cool shit. They're in the ballpark. Courtesy of GMT. The Citizen Company.
Everett Yeah, yeah.
Andrew But their new release, the Wilton GMT with a Miyota movement. Don't love that name, by the way. I don't really like the name and I really hate the dial. Really hate it. I'm, I'm fine with the Roman numerals. I hate GMTs that have a globe map, a globe map, right? It's so you get it. It's so you know what the watch is for Andrew. I, but I'm, I'm even fine with the Roman numerals in this application because it really compliments the, the tuning fork logo that they use. It's a, it, Matches really well and I never really considered that. But the Roman numerals really compliment that logo. I really like this case shape.
Everett I just I I don't.
Andrew Like the dial, I don't need the globe map. If this was just a mat, flat or anything else, I'd be picking this up. These are 900 bucks. 878 95. with the gold-plated variant, 875 steel with a blue dial. So it comes in two variations, steel blue dial, gold-plated. For a jumping hour, for a jumping hour GMT.
Everett Yeah, it's the Miota 9075.
Andrew Which is a great movement. Yes, this is, this is cool. This is great promise. It only, I think it only comes on leather. I'm not seeing any bracelet pictures, which makes me think it only comes on leather. And Boliva does this weird thing where if they sell you something on a bracelet, Or if they sell you something on leather, the bracelet won't fit it. It's a, it's a, is that true for this as well? There's no bracelet option yet. So I imagine when they release a bracelet option, should they, the bracelet won't fit these. Right. Only 30 millimeters of water resistance, 12.7 thick, 43 lug to lug, or no, excuse me, 43 wide, 49.5 lug to lug.
Everett And I'm,
Andrew digging the direction Bulova's going. I can go with some design tweaks, but I'm super down with this really cool drop, super affordable category in a kind of on the tail end of this GMT craze, right? We saw a ton of affordable GMTs pop up over the last several years. They're throwing their hat in the game and I dig it. No, it's a great movement for it. You know, frankly, it's, it won't be as popular as the new Seiko movement. And we, we already know several projects in, you know, whatever our space, certainly in the micro-brand space, we know people are going to be working with that movement, the Seiko GMT, and it's going to be everywhere. And they should. They should. They should. I mean, it's, it's a crazy value. It's just a neat watch. The Miota is more expensive than that movement. Um, but it's, it's a better movement. It's thinner, It's higher beat. I don't know if it's more accurate, what's better, but it's going to be a better put together movement, a better finished movement, slightly. It's a great movement, is my point.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew And cool to see Bulova doing it in an almost Saab case. Yeah. I'm with you, though, on the dial. I hate the dial. I think these embossed dials, right? I mean, it's just expository and obviously not literally expository. It feels, it feels, uh, juvenile to me. Yeah. What's the, what's the company that does the embossed shark, uh, Helson? Yeah. I, you know, they just, it just feels juvenile to me. Um. It feels like holding onto these design decisions of the early to mid nineties as still reasonable design choices of 2022. It's juvenile. Back that ass up. Yeah. As. Yeah, with two Z's. Yeah. Or dollar signs, take your pick. Or, yeah, that's, oh, did that come, did that come with the option, the dollar sign option?
Everett It should.
Andrew Well, I agree with you. I agree with you. I got another watch I'd like to talk about, and it's important that we talk about this one quick, because I don't think you're going to be able to get it very long. In fact, I checked right before, about an hour ago, and it was still available. Let's just check real quick again. So this is a watch by Isotope, which I think is a really charming company. They kind of do their own thing. They have a cool design language. They're doing a thing and I dig it. I dig it when a company does a thing. Sometimes I don't like that thing. In Isotope's instance, I like the thing they're doing. I think it's attractive. I think it's tasteful. It's not overly serious. It's a little playful. I dig it. So Isotope released a Like no shit, quanta saturation, 300 meter diver that doesn't have a seconds hand, has tiny stubby rounded off pink hour and minute hands. It's like got this great like royal blue and I think coral is what I'd call the color for the numerals in the hands. 617 pounds, I think it's like 900 U.S. dollars. They're only making 100 of these. They only made 100 of these, I assume. I think they're probably already made, yeah. And they call the blue-pink color palette Blink, which I think is cute. I really like these. The most notable thing about these is they come with a lander on. 24 automatic lander on, super old company. However, uh was dead for quite a while and was revived just recently 2016 2017 something like that so these come with a lander and lander on uh the 24 is a 25 joule 28.8 four hertz movement uh 40 hours of power reserve i don't know a lot about this movement but i'd like i like the idea of sort of uh democratizing movements, especially in a watch like this. It's a great price. It's a cool watch. If anybody who knows me knows, I love an H case diver. Um, I fucking love this thing, man. It's 743 us dollars. Is that, is that what you came up with? It's I mean, wish it's what's on their website. Nice shipping calculated at checkout. So who knows what that'll be? I've got an $891 and 68 cents. I should buy it. We are looking at literally the same webpage. How is that even possible? Maybe the, maybe the pound crashed since you refreshed your website. Uh, the hydrium X blank. Yeah. Okay. Well, are you still looking at $807? Tell you what, I'll buy it at $743 and you, I will sell it to you for $8. Okay. Sounds good. Uh, this is very SoLabs feeling. Yep. Like, Super whimsical, fun. It's cool to see a brand do like, do something so no nonsense. It's all nonsense. Pure nonsense, right? I mean, this is a spec'd out Solabs watch. I do wonder about their logo. Uh, you know, their logo reminds me of a logo from a brand that everybody will know, but I'm not going to name drop. We're not going to do that. Cause that, yeah. but a brand that sort of like makes fake watches and also does some cool stuff in other ways. Uh, but it just feels like poorly thought out to me, frankly. Um, but I'm fine with it. It seems a little risky. Maybe lazy. It seems lazy. Perhaps. I'm wondering why there's a price difference in what we're looking at. I wonder if I got like a special deal. I refreshed it twice now. I'm getting a better price. Are you on like a VPN or something here, Andrew? I'm on their straight website using Verizon. Well, that's the Hydrium X Blink, Andrew. That's cool. What do you got? What's next? What's next up? Next up for me, we've got a new release. All right. Into what? A new wish. New wish. An iterative maybe release. Yeah. And this is an iteration of a watch we've talked about recently.
Everett Yeah. Into the King Seiko family. King Seiko KSK. It's back.
Andrew The 1965 watch is being re-released, and it is gorgeous. And I know we talked about it recently, but I got to talk about it some more. The lugs alone on this watch are reason enough to buy it. And it's going to come in at thirty three hundred bucks.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew But it's such a cool. Piece of history being reintroduced into this King Seiko line that has a lot of really cool opportunities, the medallion on the case back. So Ratsu polished just. This this to me is like kind of making the delineation between Grand Seiko and Seiko a little confusing, because this is kind of in the world of Grand Seiko, but under the name of King Seiko, which falls under Seiko. Yeah. I mean, I, I think probably what happened here is once Grand Seiko went its own way, um, when its own way, uh, the folks at Seiko were like, look, we got chops here. We can make cool shit without those Grand Seiko fuckers. Maybe. I mean, that's I mean, frankly, I think that's kind of what's happening. I mean, but also there wasn't room in the catalog for a watch like this with Grand Seiko already there. That's right. There was no room for Grand Seiko and King Seiko. So, yeah, we we're going to sound like a broken record. I really hope that they turn this into a thing. Me too. King Seiko. I think that there's a lot of room there. I'd love to see some modern King Seikos. I know that we've got these sort of 60s. That's a bit of a responsibility for a while to revive the 60s kind of heyday of this watch design. And I think these are clearly modern watches, right? I'm not suggesting they're not modern watches. I would love to see like actually just modern interpretive designed King Seikos. So, so. Maintain the language, maintain the ideologies and give us some new King Seiko source material. I'm ready for it. I dig that watch. I dig that watch. Andrew, I've got another thing. This is a little boring. Shocking. We don't need to talk about it forever. But I read a really good article. This has been a week and a half ago now, I think. Yes. by a collected man who is an anonymous watch blogger that's on his eponymous website. I don't know if that works if you've named yourself after your website, if it's still eponymous. A collected man. What is the future of watch retail? This is what I'd call long form. This is long form. Maybe not the most engrossing long form. You may skim a little bit. However, it's well-sourced. It's well-sourced. It's data-driven without being analytical. It's sort of a conversation about what's happening with watch retail presently. I will say this article skews towards the higher end. So we talk a lot about Audemars Piguet, Rolex to a lesser degree. Watches of Switzerland is a brand that gets discussed in this article, but, and I don't really know if he, if he, uh, is, is able to kind of figure it out. There's a few things that he says are, you know, this is what the data tells us, but also the data is flawed in these ways. Like one of the things that I noted from the article was they talk about, um, Watches of Switzerland's sales. their, their retail, their in-person retail sales are doing more business relative to their online sales in the last year. Uh, but he notes the watches of Switzerland doesn't sell Patek, Audemars or Rolex on online. They only sell them in boutiques and those are their heavy hitters, right? So there's, There's some caveats that he takes on and also provides different analysis. Some folks are like, well, we're still recovering from COVID and other folks are doing well. So it kind of depends on the industry, but it's analytical in a way that's not boring and it's thoughtful. And I think it's good. I think my takeaway from the article was certainly in luxury watches, retail is and will exist for a long time. I think it's unclear about less expensive watches, less than luxury. If, if retail really has a strong future, um, we, we don't know. Right. And we had Patrick Bremer on a couple of weeks ago and he said, yeah, well we do that, but we're struggling. We're struggling with that based on some advice that he'd gotten from someone. from a prominent watch person who we know, we know who it is, but we're not going to tell you.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew We've got secrets from you. We're not supposed to. And so, but he was struggling with that. Right. Um, so it's interesting. Economy and luxury will always remain in brick and mortars. Yeah. We're always going to see citizens, Seiko, Bulova, Jisha, in Macy's and JCPenney and Fred Meyer Jewelers or Kroger Jewelers, wherever you are, those will always exist. And you're saying the extremities will always exist. The extremities will always exist. There's a, there's a diminishment in the, that midsection. Yeah. In the value you're getting isn't near to luxury value, right? In the way of your build quality.
Everett You're getting a lot more bang for your buck, but those margins are significantly smaller.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew The direct to consumer model is kind of King. If you're looking for a good deal and for brands who are looking to provide a good deal and stay viable without a huge liquid capital investment or sitting on inventory, if you can't afford to sit on inventory, you really can't afford to be in a retailer. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I mean, I think some will tell you if you can't afford to sit on inventory, you can't afford to be in the production and sales business. However, to some extent, we know that there are many very high quality and very well respected micro brands that operate with basically no inventory ever. So, and we won't say anything bad about those, about those micro brands, because we don't want to get tarred and feathered. But there's also plenty that sit on a significant amount of inventory themselves without dispersing it throughout. They manage their own, their own workflow and their own logistics supply chain throughput. And yeah, I don't know. Throughput? Yeah. I like that. Did you just make that up? Is that a, is that a real word? Yeah. Throughput. Throughput. It's getting something from back here. Throughput. Out there. It's the throughput and it's the process. I'm going to have to take your word for it. Yeah. So that's a boring article, but I think it's a super interesting topic though. It is. I don't think it's a boring article. It's a boring article to talk about in this context, but I wanted to bring it up because I thought it was a good read. And if you're a nerd, I'm kind of a nerd. If you're a nerd like me, I think check it out. It was interesting to me. Um, two, two takeaways. So the first one I already said, the second takeaway that I got from this is that it would be, you know, we talk, we tend to think of things in binary, right? You know, we're guilty of this too, Andrew, to say, you know, this is dead. This is the new thing. Well, we're responsible for hot takes. That's right. I think that, I think when this conversation in particular, most conversations, but this conversation in particular, I would be, I think it's a mistake to compress the nuance here. That's a, that's a callback. So, you know, it's just a little bit of, if you know, you know, either. I think it would be a mistake to pretend like there aren't multiple answers that all exist at once, right? Retail sales are still a thing. Direct consumer is a thing. It's different. I think that's the best way. The way people consume watches is different today than it was 20 years ago, obviously. And it'll continue to be different. Again, in 1990, I'm not sure anybody would have been able to predict what's happening today in watches. You know, it's just hard. It's hard. Yeah. But things don't die necessarily. They get sick and they wither. And then you give them some antibiotics and they're back. A new sprout pops up.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I'd like, I'd love to see a proliferation of like multi-brand boutiques. Because I'd love to be able to go try on watches from small brands. Yeah. I would love... Like if Worn and Wound had... Pop-ups or like... Well, I mean, they kind of do, right? Well, but if they had brick and mortars throughout the country. Sure. I mean, 30 is a lot, but 30 covers every major city in the United States. And then everyone, everyone is within driving distance of going and trying on a notice or an instrumental. And a loco. Or a loco. Or there's so many. I don't know why loco popped into my head. Because I think actually you can try a loco in other places. But yeah, the opportunity to be hands on with a watch before you're buying it. Because how many watches have you bought without ever having touched it? Most. Most, yeah. Most of the watches that I own. Samesies. I don't know that I've seen any of them in person before I bought them. You know, with my, um, with my, uh, like as, as we get further and further into this, into this hobby, you know, I've now been to several windups and I've met people at meetups. Uh, and so it's fewer and fewer recently, but certainly in the first, I don't know, two or three years of my collecting. It was, it was most. Yeah. How cool would that be to be able to go try on watches and, and, and curate your taste right there in a boutique. Yeah. That's not a boutique. Cause it's not pretentious and douchey. It's a bunch of watch nerds hanging out with a bunch of nerdy watches. Yeah. That'd be dope, but it's expensive. It's wildly expensive. Right. And it would be the death of a lot of brands. You know, I think, I think worn around, their, the sales side of Worn and Wound is clearly their most valuable asset today. They've got great, great writers at Worn and Wound. And I really liked a lot of their content, but I think at this point, you know, the, the wind-up watch fair and the, the watches they sell, the wind-up shop are their biggest assets and probably make almost all of their money would be my guess. But I, I really actually like that there's a, so that's another thing that this article talks about. It talks about the marriage of content and sales, right? And how brands, even sort of typical retail brands, brick and mortar retail brands, have had to incorporate, you know, Hodinkee and Worn and Wound, and to a lesser extent, maybe a blog to watch. These folks invented the idea of lifestyle watch shots, right? It was the content creators who built trust with you and said, you can believe me, and now you can buy watches from me because you trust me. Sure. Yeah, sure. I mean, well, that's cynical, but I appreciate it. No, that's it. That's what happened is we trust these outlets because we trust these writers. We've been with them for years. I think there's a different thing happening too. I mean, that's a fair comment. I think I'm referring to something a little bit different, which is that, the way watches are presented online is different today. The way watches are presented at, uh, even a direct to cons or even a retail non-direct consumer, you still got these photographs that are reminiscent of something that, uh, Ariel Adams might've shot. He's a bad example. And actually forget, I said that, but, but something that, you know, one of those acts would have shot or something, you know, it, There's a thing happening, I guess. There was someone here from Houdinki this week. He wrote about the games. Oh, yeah. I pulled that link, I think. I read it and I got deeply offended that he didn't try to have a beer with me. Oh, is it someone you know? No. I recognize the name. I don't remember who it was. I mean, it's one of the writers, right? Yes. He was in Eugene and he didn't Have a beer with us and wrote a great article. I enjoyed the article. I was actually, I was also annoyed that I didn't realize that Seiko was going to have like a little micro presentation there about their timing mechanisms. Yeah. So, so a lot, some people will know Seiko is one of the main sponsors of the world track championships. They've been the marquee sponsor timekeeper for decades and decades. I think their contract is up in 2024. And it'll get renewed. But it's already been renewed in 2036. That's right. So there were some opportunities to do Seiko things. I wasn't able to take advantage of that. I thought it was going to be able to take advantage of and it didn't work. I sort of didn't expect to, but I didn't realize that there was a Seiko thing going on.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Okay. My next step.
Unknown Okay.
Andrew This is a watch that everyone knows. It's the JLC Reverso. A watch we've talked about recently. Have we talked about the Reverso? Well, we mentioned it in passing last week when Will was on. Oh, we did, yeah. Because this is one of those watches that's accessible at $10,000. Yeah. Well, not this one. This one, definitely not. So, in the Japan, there is a 10 item, 10 piece release of this beautifully painted. Grand view enameled.
Everett Grand view enameled reproduction of Hokusai's woodblock print, the Amida Falls in the far reaches
Andrew of the Kiso Kaido road. Hokusai being the painter of that wave that every college student on the face of the earth had hanging in their dorm room. And a lot of them now have tattooed on the back of their left arm. It's a guilloched green dial. I mean, this is not an accessible watch. None of us are ever going to see one of these in person. Nope. But I was absolutely enamored by this. I love the reverso. If like The Reverso was like a probably 60th watch for me. And deep into retirement after I've like found a way to make millions and millions of dollars selling blood and semen. Cause this is, it's such a cool watch. I haven't, I've had the opportunity to wear one. I've rotated it. I've been like, I see it. I get it. I want one. I just know it's not a realistic thing for me right now. And I'm okay with that. sure for a lot of reasons it's not a realistic purchase for me but oh my gosh this thing is stunning so 18 karat white i'll say there's two disappointing things about this watch to me that you don't have one so what one it's it's gorgeous right i'll admit that it's gorgeous but um a only 30 meters of water resistance i can't dive in this And two, no 316L steel anywhere on this. There's zero 316L steel.
Everett What about the buckle?
Andrew I don't think so. I think it's white. I think it's fucking gold. Boring. Yeah. I just feel like JLC is kind of like they could like do more JLC. Exactly. Like we trust you. I don't know. It just seems like they're pulling the wool over people's eyes. It is a bit of a letdown. We don't even have a price. It's probably like, you know, more than $10,000. You got to ask. That's beautiful. I do really like that. Gorgeous. There are a couple of these. There are a couple of these photos that have like a picture of the Hokusai reproduction and like a paintbrush touching the back of the case. Is this hand painted? Yeah. Jesus. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's why it's there's only 10. Yeah. The guy has spent the last 10 years doing this. They didn't have a dial picked out, but they knew it was going to be on a reverso. That's why they could never change the case shape. And he just got diagnosed with IBS. So they had to cut it off. They were going to do 25 originally.
Everett Yeah. Gosh, it's just gorgeous.
Andrew This is the kind of like haute stuff that I go for. Yeah. I think I only get one more and I'm sort of, I'm waffling here, Andrew. I'm waffling. I'll just do them quick. One, Autodromo introduced their 10th anniversary, I think, Vallelunga, which I think is a super cool watch. I love this watch. It's like a $700 reproduction of their very first watch. I think it's epic. I think it's beautiful. It's got a Miyota 8 series movement, which is little bit of a bummer, I think, for this watch. But still, the price is right. It's gorgeous. I love it. Okay, that's all I'll say about it. Moving on. There's an article on Time and Tide about Taika Waititi, who I think is totally killer, just generally speaking. Like, I think that guy's rad. And the title of this article is, Taika Waititi is a certified watch geek, which makes me even cooler. And I think that that's like... He couldn't have gotten cooler, though. That's the thing. He's at max coolness. I don't know. I think he turned it up to 11. So just to go through the list. He's got a Pasha. He's got a Santos. He's got a 1200T. He's got a vintage 70s King Seiko. He's got a Gold Speedy, a Gold Daytona, a Blue Dial Panerai. And then it gets interesting. He's got a Captain Willard. He's got a Carrera, a new-ish Carrera. I mean, these watches are like... These watches are like... Those are Watch Nerd picks. Watch Nerd picks. Yeah. Barring the Panerai, that's kind of the outlier for me. Yeah, I think that Panerai is gorgeous, actually. It is, but it's just, it's kind of an outlier. I'd be willing to bet that was his first. Maybe. It's big. He still wears it, though. And actually, I love that watch. I'm going to buy a Panerai. The King Seiko. Did you mention that? Yeah. Yeah. It's got this vintage kick Seiko and a vintage Willard. It's a 60, it's a 6105 vintage Willard. Yeah. It's dope. I mean, these are like nerdy, nerdy watches. Yeah. It's some of them and there's nothing, there's nothing crazy here. Well, okay. Excuse me. Solid gold, a rose gold, a rose gold, uh, What do we call that watch? A Speedmaster and a yellow gold Daytona are both a little crazy, but I mean, in the realm of crazy. Yeah, but when you're that cool, you can do those things. Yeah. These are, these are legit cool watches, man. I dig it. Concur.
Everett I'm going to rapid fire mine. A new Bulova has hit the streets in the way of the parking meter.
Andrew It is a bullhead chronograph. Yeah. called such because the dial looks like a parking meter. Are we going to talk about Bulova with kind words twice in one episode? We're going to do it because I love bullhead chronographs. Me too. They're just perfectly quirky, but still they're not weird, right? They're quirky. Yep. They exist for a reason. They're remnants of stopwatches. It makes sense. And in the, in this platform makes perfect sense. Yeah, super dig it. It's part of their, um, Oh, what are they calling their, their like reiteration movement? It doesn't matter. It's, it's part of their kind of vintage reissue movement or a archive archive series. Yeah. G-Shock with a new, again, Miyota movement in here, right? Yeah. Like all of us doing things. They're leveraging the resources they now have. Or or Miota was like, Get the fuck out of the way, Bulova, and let's leverage the history and actual cool shit that you guys could and should be doing. Let's fix this. G-Shock with a new release based on the advanced crew escape suit for astronauts. It is the orange astronaut suit that you expect to see a 5600 in that full orange color American flag. Keeper on the wrist, NASA branding and logoing. Super dope. I'm all about partnerships with NASA as is everybody who sells watches. Exactly.
Everett Now this is the one that I was actually most excited about. It's a, uh, brand called awake mission to earth.
Andrew It has a bit locker in the, uh, no, not bit locker is a bit locker. Is that a, that's a, like a, it's like an invisible QR code. Okay. I can't remember the name of it. Um, Blockchain, not BitLocker, blockchain in the, in the, uh. It's like the NFT thing. In the crystal. So when you scan the crystal with your phone, you get routed to a live view. To a human trafficking syndicate. A live view of cameras from the ISS providing you views of earth from space. right? That's a totally useless thing to have in your watch, but it's super cool. It's also a very attractive watch. They're making 250 of them. It's cool. Uh, and last, Hey, I'm just going to, I'm going to come out and say it. I think useless, cool things on watches are the best things on watches that don't interfere with the watch at all. You wouldn't, you don't see it also. What a cool authentication device. Please give me more. Uh, yeah, please give me more. I actually heard someone talk. So just real quickly, I talked about the new Vallelunga from Autodromo. There's no, it's a chronograph. There's no, they interrupt the hashes at the bottom between four and six or four and seven. I'm not sure exactly what it is. Uh, four and eight maybe. There's no, there's no markings because it replicates, it replicates a card hop, right? That's kind of, that's kind of autodromous thing. And I read someone bitching about it. I'm like, how are you going to keep accurate time? Fuck off. That's not what it's for. Get out of here. Get out of here. Leave. Leave my life for forever. It's awesome. Last up, Tudor with a big move coming in with the 39mm Ranger. Did we not talk about this? We haven't talked about this yet. That's your fault. And this thing is it. I mean, we did talk about it because we talked about Henry having a new one. I think we talked about it with Will. I think we Henry reached out to me this week and said, thanks for the shout out on the show. Oh, well, fuck me then. Everett. But do you have anything else? But also, but also Tudor released a 39 millimeter Ranger.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew And it's affordable and it's awesome. I'm going to review one. I'm compared to the Manta Triumph because I think that that's its closest analog today in terms of price and everything. Yeah. And I suspect I'm going to like the Manta more. But I'm going to review them. I'm going to review them. I'm going to wear them side by side. I don't know, man. I won't double wrist them because I can't do that.
Everett That'd be a hard pick because having worn several things side by side with a BB36, I'm like, man, this is it.
Andrew I'm with you. You know, we've taken some shit for how much we love Manta. I think we're both really, we really like that form factor. We really like the finishing, the details, but I've got no shame. I think that that's just an incredible value in watches and totally out of this world. I think probably the best value in that price segment. And that's it. I'm all out of things. I've done it. Andrew, other things go. Okay.
Everett Gosh, it was fast.
Andrew You're wearing your EMG Nemo. Again, not a watch, not a wrist strap because we don't do that, but you're wearing a watch clicker manky strap. This is one of the Protos too. With a black Dial. Yeah. Nemo. And I just, I'm feeling, I'm feeling things, man. I'm looking at it. I'm feeling things. I'm feeling like, you know, when you see like that picture of your kid when they were like four years younger and you're like, Oh, that's what I'm feeling when I look at this. This is a combo. Oh, she was so cute.
Everett Yeah. I like this combo a lot. Yeah.
Andrew So my other thing I was watching We've talked about it. Somebody feed Phil.
Everett And he did a episode of Brazil. And he had one of his meals was feijoada.
Andrew And I saw it and I'm like, just kind of put it in the back of my mind, but it's always just been kind of sitting back there. Feijoada. Can I Google? I Google it, but I can't spell it. So feijoada. It is basically black bean chili. Oh, okay. So it's it's it's widely accepted as the national food of Brazil. It's not exactly chili, though.
Everett So even in looking at... I mean, because you start with beans, so it can't be chili.
Andrew But even in looking at a dozen recipes, this is like American Southern soul food. So what I did... And some onions. So if you're going to tell me you made this thing and didn't share it with me, I'm going to be pissed. It's in my fridge. F-E-I-J-O-A-D-A, because Portuguese. Started with some garlic, onions, a little bit of coriander, some chicken stock, just threw it in the slow cooker just to get it warming up. Browned a pork shoulder, a top sirloin roast, bacon, threw all that in there. with a couple cans of black beans, a can of fire roasted tomatoes, and then a smoked ham hock. And I just let that stuff, I just let it cook out. Oh, a little bit of cilantro. Just let it cook out. About two hours before I was ready to eat it, shredded all the meat up, pulled the ham hock bone and the ham hock skin. Dude, it was like barbecue plate in the way of a stew. It has all these really familiar flavors. It was, it was straight barbecue comfort food.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew It is so good. Sounds delicious. So good.
Everett Put it over some rice, traditionally served with some orange slices. That's what I did.
Andrew I didn't need any of the orange slices cause I could just go back for more and more of that slow cooked, like all those flavors, that saltiness. So my other thing, feijoada, F E I J O A D A. I'm going to drop just a link to the Wikipedia of what it is.
Everett If you have a slow cooker and you like doing chili for your family, try this.
Andrew Andrew, have you ever had Ugali?
Everett Ugali?
Andrew Yeah. Ugali is a Kenyan dish. It's a cornmeal. I don't really know what you'd call it. It's like a side dish, but it's made with cornmeal. It's like this dough that kind of... Oh, yeah. The dish that you were talking about? It's like an uncooked tortilla. Almost. It's usually thicker than that. It gets served in like balls. Yeah, a ball. You smash it out and you wrap your food around it. It's like a dumpling wrapper. When you told me about this dish, I thought that would be great over rugali. It would be. That's what I had to say about your other thing. Yeah. So my other thing is feijoada. It's Brazilian comfort food. I really like that you're pronouncing it right. You don't do that very often. I mean, you purposefully mispronounced that. There's no way to mispronounce this thing on purpose. There's no letters in places that make sense. Fe-ju-i-a-ta. You just have to say it right. Because it's worse. It's like, there's not a funny way to say it. I got another thing. Do me. So I have worn Ray-Bans for, I would say, most of my adult life. I bought other sunglasses over the years, but I have primarily stuck to Ray-Bans and typically Wayfarers. I did finger quotes just now. You're not an ESS guy? What's ESS? Those are the army glasses that you get for free while you're deployed. Oh, you know, those guys fucking wear. I tried to get, I tried to get some of those BFGs is what we always, or BCGs is what we called them. Birth control glasses. I tried to get some of them when I was at basic and they wouldn't, I couldn't, they wouldn't give them to me. I was like, wow, why can't I get these? And they were like, no, you can't have them. Uh, like I had to bring two prescription glasses like myself. And I was like, but I want those ones. And they were like, no. Anyway, uh, you're on the guard. How did you guys get like nine pairs of prescription inserts? I think that's actually what it was. It was cause it was guard. Yeah. Uh, anyway, I've been wearing, I've been wearing Ray-Bans for years and years and years, mostly, mostly Wayfarers. And I, what I've always done is I bought the, what I'd call the new Wayfarers. There's maybe like marketing language for what it is, but at some point, I think in the late nineties or maybe, maybe mid nineties, Ray-Ban released a redesign of the classic Wayfarer. The classic Wayfarer is kind of a funny shape. It is a little wide. at the top, it's got a big taper to the bottom of the lenses. And it's just a little bit of a vintage design. There also is a pretty steep angle from the cheek to the brow. Yes. It comes in at an angle that steers towards your face at the bottom. It's like 45 degrees. And so I think a lot of people don't like that shape. It doesn't look like a modern pair of glasses and design, maybe perhaps. And so the modern wayfarers are much, they look the same, obviously the same type of glasses, but they're, they're more, they're more modern. They're more, they just feel like glasses. You put them on, they're comfortable. They're great. So I did my summer, my annual, uh, losing my glasses festival in the last month, uh, lost the ones that you fly line together. I did. Yeah. Yeah. Within like a week and a half of, of repairing them, which I was really proud of that repair too. It was a good repair. I lost them. Uh, so they're gone forever. I, um, so I had to get new glasses and I went to our, my local eyeglass place and I tried on a pair of OG wayfarers, just like kind of shits and giggles. Like I'm not going to buy these cause they're OG wayfarers and nobody wears these. And I put them on my face and I was like, you know, I'm gonna take a flyer. And so I took them right off. And I said, this is what I want. And the guy who helped me out is the guy who's been helping me out for the better part of 15 years. He was like, you don't want those. You don't want those. Look, look, look, look, look at these, the classics. And I was like, no, you know what? I don't even want to try them on again. They fit my face. They were comfortable. Just, just do it. And so he, he orders them. I got them this week. Uh, or in the last week, I, I gotta say, man, I think this is like, One of my favorite pairs of sunglasses I've ever had. And they'll last six months? A year. I lose my glasses most Julys. But if things go the way I think they're going now, I'll order another pair next July. I really like them. Now, I think something occurred to me today as I was thinking about this. I think they're a little bit like a classic Speedmaster Pro in that the fit is a little vintage. Yeah. It's a little awkward, like the Speedy Pro is known for being a little long. Yep. Just a touch. And for you, it doesn't, you know, you've struggled with the fit with the Speedmaster when you've tried it on.
Unknown Yep.
Andrew I think that that's probably true for the Ray-Bans too. I think that the Wayfarer Classics are gonna be too wide for some faces. I've got... I don't know, what's a nice way to say fat face? You have a round head. Yeah. It's not like... lumpy. It's not, it's not like robust. It's just, you have a round face, oval face, right? Yeah. And, uh, and so I think that works well for me and it might not work well for everybody. It doesn't work well for me. I have a, I have a much taller face that's narrower. So they're just a touch too wide for me. Cause I would like to be able to wear them, but they don't, they don't fit me right. Just like to be master pro. I thought they were great. I think they're great. And I think if you've ever sort of been on the fence, I'd say, just do it. I also don't know what your vision is like, but when I put them on, man, I got immediately sick. It's not great. I was, I felt like I was looking through 3D glasses. Yeah, it's not, it's not ideal. It's bad. So don't lose your glasses. If you ever see me driving without my glasses, it happens sometimes. Pull me over. It's dangerous. It's against the law. You don't have a driver's license. It's against the law. Uh, I actually, uh, am not required to wear my glasses when I'm driving. That's horrifying. Just given having seen through your, Prescription. Andrew, I think we did it, man. We've done it. We've updated you on the last couple of weeks of cool releases that we like. And if we didn't mention it, it's because we don't care. How about that? What? Hey, you guys, thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast.
Andrew You can check us out. Our only fans. At WatchClicker.com or on Instagram at 40 and 20 or at WatchClicker. Look, you guys, it's a website. This is what we do. We are the podcast of the website. Articles, reviews, all the good shit. You can also, if you'd like, you could support us. And we'd love it if you did. Look, all the things we have to do, hosting, hardware, software, it all costs money. And those of you who do support us on patreon.com slash 40 and 20 are the reason we're able to continue to do this week after week. The reason we're able to put beautiful pictures that Will took on the website. And don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. I don't know why I couldn't find the transition there. Did I miss a category?
Everett No, I just took your sock and he looked at the weird face I was
Andrew This is my Chinese communism watch.
Everett That's what I was trying to figure out. I was like, that's not an inside out sock. That's just not in English. Oh, our mics are on.
Andrew No, they're not. I mean, I don't know. Cause I can, oh, I don't see the mute. They're both muted. Both muted. Both muted. No.