Episode 204 - Go Bags with Tom Clemence of Clemence Watches

Published on Wed, 21 Sep 2022 23:36:56 -0700

Synopsis

This episode features Tom Clements of Clements Watches as a guest. They discuss Tom's successful Photic Diver watch and the upcoming release of new colorways for the watch, including collaborations with Horologium Watches. Tom shares details about the design process, materials used, and his philosophy behind the brand. They also engage in a fun segment called "The Go Bag", where they discuss which watches and essential items they would include in a bag for a spontaneous trip or apocalyptic scenario.

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 hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett Stupendous.
Andrew I don't know what else you were going to say, because I can't imagine you being, I'm stupid. Well, spectacular. No, because I got the surreptitious. You're using a different letter.
Everett Okay. Stupendous.
Andrew That's good to hear.
Everett Thank you. Uh, yeah, no, I mean, I'm good. It's a, here we are. We're going to, I'm going to drink one of these, uh, Topo Chico hard seltzers.
Andrew These are so good. Uh, they had them at Costco for like 30 bucks for the 24 pack.
Everett I'm a little disappointed that the ranch water hasn't made a comeback yet because that stuff.
Andrew That's fine. It's hard to find.
Everett I need to get some more.
Andrew The ranch Rita's got me like lit.
Everett Yeah, man.
Andrew You drink like eight of them and you're like, these are not 4%. Uh,
Everett Uh, nope, but otherwise, otherwise good. I went and saw Hamilton with my family last night, which was fantastic and a great evening. Um, I, uh, did have a slight, uh, food preparation incident this week and I cut a significant chunk of my finger. Nail. Finger and nail, uh, off. And then I replaced it on my finger and I put tape and about a tube of Neosporin on there and it has all reattached. It has all reattached and it is in the process of healing. However, the nail is like increasingly precarious.
Andrew Yeah. You should just hit it with glue, man. That would have been a better answer than putting the nail back on.
Everett Yeah. It probably, well, it was like a big flap of like flesh and nail. And so I just kind of super glue and then a bunch of Neosporin and called it a day. I think it's going to, I think the finger, the piece of finger is going to make it. So, uh, but yeah, that's how I am. Andrew, how are you?
Andrew I am great. I am going into week two of vacation. I have spent a couple of days out in the woods chasing after four legged critters and it has been terrific. Seen a lot of good stuff. Obviously haven't sealed the deal yet, but it is only a matter of time.
Everett That's the story of my life. Yeah.
Andrew I never sealed the deal. There's many pending deals. Yeah. Many pending deals. Yeah. It's good. So, you know, I love having time off. That's like, I mean, I love taking time off. That's one of the cool parts of my job is I can take a lot of time off, but I can't take big chunks of time off very frequently. Right. So this is like my one long vacation a year. So I have two full uninterrupted weeks. She's just, well, it was partially interrupted, but that's neither here nor there.
Everett Here you are. I'm a bit jealous of you. Uh, yeah. I feel like I could use a two week vacation right now.
Andrew I'm, I'm doing it. I got to go, I got to go watch Oregon beat BYU while I was getting paid to do it. Yeah. And it was great.
Everett We hung out at the game. Uh, you know what's nice about tonight? That it's not just us. It, it, it's nice that it is roughly, nine o'clock and it's an appropriate hour for us to be drinking hard seltzers. Uh, and, and frankly, it's just nice that it's not five o'clock in the morning. Truth. Because in some place in the world, specifically in Edinburgh, it is just a little bit after five o'clock in the morning, which is a time that I would not be awake. However, our guest, our guest today has decided a, that this is an important enough event for him to be out of bed and be just to be awake at five o'clock. Mr. Tom Clements, you returned to us. We're very thankful. Tom Clements of Clements Watches, how the heck are you?
Tom Clements Morning, guys. Yeah, really good. Thankfully, I'm well-versed at waking up at this time of the morning. As you know, when we last met, I do bat surveys quite frequently. Not opposed to waking up this time of the morning for work. But yeah, I've just finished my cup of tea and now made a kind of weird transition to some whiskey. I don't know if it's going to work out. I'll let you know how it goes.
Everett It's going to work great. The amount of times that I have drinking whiskey at at five o'clock in the morning, I'm sure I could count in one hand. And I think that none of those occurred after a sleep.
Tom Clements Yeah, well, I was only asleep for a handful of hours. So I'm thinking of it more as a kind of a quick nap. And now I'm powering through. Oh, this is power hour.
Everett I like it.
Andrew I like it. That's a good way to look at this. This is the rally that we're witnessing right now.
Everett Yeah. Well, you look fantastic, by the way.
Andrew I don't roll out of bed looking like that.
Everett Oh, no, nor do I. Tom, we've asked you to come back. We've asked you to come back because your And I feel like I always feel like I'm going to mess it up. But your Fotic, Fotic?
Tom Clements Fotic, yes.
Everett Fotic Diver has been a smash success. You've sold a bazillion of them.
Andrew Exactly a bazillion too. We checked the numbers.
Everett And so you have decided to bless us with some new colors of this watch. And we wanted to call you and talk to you about this. Tell us what you're doing, what you're thinking, what's going on with the company and what's going on with these new photic divers.
Tom Clements Yes, so it's been a bit of a whirlwind, to be honest, and actually kind of crept up on me. But just last week marked the one year anniversary of when we first started trying to fund Clements Watches to make it a reality. There were years prior to that spent at the drawing board making kind of prototypes and getting to work. Yeah, the company's kind of been fully fledged now for 12 months, and I can't quite believe it's only been that long. It feels like far, far longer. And I mean that in a really good way. I just can't believe I packed in so much learning and development for both myself and also the company's perspective over such a short space of time. So yeah, we produced our watches, the Photic Diver, our kind of first inaugural piece, and that got shipped out to everybody that kind of pre-ordered their pieces back in, uh, back in March this year. That's when folks first started to receive them. And, you know, when, when you put your heart and soul into a, into a watch, into a project, into anything really in life, you always hope that it's going to be well received. Um, I don't think anything could have prepared me for quite how well the photic was received by our customers. You know, I, I toiled over the design of this piece and obviously the quality, the fit and the finish. everything, every single part that makes it special, I toiled over. And it's just fantastic to have heard all the feedback from our owners. Now, quite often, comparisons were being made against this kind of sub 500 pound watch to pieces that are two, three, even six times the price of this. I say price, not value, because we all know, we make the value. But that was something that I just couldn't really get over, you know, my, my, my first dive, the humble photic was being compared to the likes of Tudor Black Bay 58 and, and beyond. And that was a great feeling. So fast forward a few more months, we sold out and we kind of got to thinking, you know, what's, what's the phase two, what do we do next? Um, what we did when we started to make the photic, we had a very clear strategy in mind was that we wanted to develop the line. just not, not kind of just willy nilly, you know, making whatever we fancied, but we wanted to be somewhat focused, but experiment as, as quickly as we could with what we're putting out there. And so when we made the photic, we actually made a surplus of, um, cases, crystals, all the parts that make the watch with the exception of the movement. Um, and what that meant is that financially we're able to be more nimble, um, by not splurging on movements we didn't need at that stage.
Everett Yeah.
Tom Clements And we're able to put that into R&D of these new, really interesting colorways that we're here to talk about today. And that's what we're kind of, I can't believe it's here already, but we're going to be releasing them on Saturday, the 24th of September. So just a few days away now. And what we've done is we've created five new colorways. And if you've seen the Phototype Arrange before, it's a fairly conservative palette. So we've got the Abyss Black, which you guessed it, plain black. We've got the atoll blue, which is the kind of iridescent blue color. And then we've got the namesake of the range, the photic diver. Now that is a gradient fume dial that goes from a deep blue to black at the edges of the dome dial and then into our sapphire dome sapphire bezel, which is also black. And yeah, we're expanding. So these five new colorways, three of them are entering what we're calling the core collection. So they're all made under the Clements banner. And then two of them are being made in collaboration with our watchmakers Horology and who are a British based watchmaker in England. And so I'll kind of I'll lead with the new entries to the core collection and I'll quickly kind of dive into the CoLab because that's where it gets a bit more juicy.
Everett Can I just say for the for the record, before you get here for the record, I want to steal some of your thunder because I think And you may just have to start here because I'm going to say the word. I think anemone.
Andrew That's not how you say that word.
Everett C-anemone. Anemone. Am I close? I think it's hard to say and a fantastic name for a watch.
Tom Clements Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. So, I mean, we'll, we'll dive in with the anemone. Um, that was, um, that's our take on what we're seeing as kind of becoming a bit more of a prevalent color in the space, you know, purple seems to be the hot new color. So about Tiffany, I think folks are leaning towards something a bit more audacious these days. And kind of a bit about me, you know, my, my personal style, my personal kind of color palette, things that I gravitate towards, I'm pretty kind of relaxed and laid back in terms of the colors I'm attracted to, I don't tend to go for the for the brighter, brighter ones. And And it's really important to me as the brand owner to be putting out watches that I love, heart and soul, I love. So when I looked at a lot of these purple dials that were being put out, to my personal taste, they were just a bit too much. And I wanted to find a way to just knock it back slightly. And that's where the anemone came from. I don't know if you guys have got the same species in the States, but certainly in the rocky shores of the UK, you find some clean water and you look down and there's a lot of anemones and they kind of come in all different colours and shapes, but there's this one that's a kind of fantastic, dusty, low saturation purple hue. And that's exactly what we've tried to achieve with this colour. I would say that all of the colours in the core collection, so these three new colours, they've all got a fume dial. So they all go from a light shade to a slightly darker shade, not black, which is quite common kind of for fumes that tend to go from a color to black. We tried to be really subtle and gentle in that effect. And we've applied it over a matte dial. So sometimes when it's applied over a kind of sunburst or glossy dial, you can lose the graduation of that transition. Yeah. We've kept it simple, really clean matte dial. So you can just really enjoy that color fade. And then each of these three pieces is also set off by what we're kind of considering now a signature part of the design of the photodial, which is our bronze gilt accents. So that's on the hands and on the applied indices. And it just catches the light in such a fantastic way, giving all of these colorways just a wonderful warmth. So yeah, that's that's anemone. And then there's there's two others. So there's there's kelp, which you could probably guess is green. And we had to make a green that was kind of by by popular demand, really, when we were when we were initially prototyping watches, we came up with a green render and people absolutely loved it. And so we wanted to give the people what they want. And more importantly, I wanted to make something that I really wanted to do. I was disappointed we couldn't make it in the first stage. So I'm really pleased that we've managed to make it happen this time around. And yeah, once again, it's this kind of knocked back low saturation green tone, which I just can't get enough of. And then it's colour matched as well with our domed sapphire bezel, which is taking on this great green hue. And then last but not least is the imaginatively named Reef dial, which It's perhaps going to be my kind of go to, I think, for an upcoming holiday that I've got in a couple of months, which I'm very excited for. I'm imagining tropical beaches, a little bit of diving, some evening spent watching tropical sunsets, you know, just kind of really taking it easy and chilling out. And that's what the reef for me embodies. I've actually got a very particular, very special memory that it just really plays on. It was a few years ago now, I was, it was after a day spent surfing on a pretty much deserted beach in Nicaragua. And I was sat with my better half, Alison, drinking a beer, watching the sunset. And nice. Yeah, you just pulled it up on screen. Yeah, we were watching the sunset. And, you know, just kind of, it could have been more picture perfect, several dolphins, the first dolphins I'd ever seen in my life, just jumping over the horizon as the sun sets. And that's what I feel like the reef embodies, that kind of laid-back, tropical vibe. And yeah, it's a great dial. And we're describing it as a sun-drenched terracotta. It looks like it's been left out in the sun, but not to the point where it's a fautina. It's an intentional, crisp-looking dial, but it's just got a nice, gentle warmth to it.
Everett Yeah, so you mentioned something, you know, well, you mentioned that these are matte, matte dials, which, which give you the opportunity to observe that full color transition. I do think I think sometimes when you see these ombre or, you know, graduated gradient dials, that If they're too shiny or if the texture is too pronounced or worse both, it can get garish, right? It can get garish and a little bit clumsy. And it seems that you've gone the other direction with these to really... It's not subtle. It's not subtle. It's there. distinct, but it, it almost feels like it's a play, a play of the light, um, in certain on certain angles looking in particular. So you, a few days ago posted, um, or this is today you posted the anemone, uh, and, and there's two pictures you posted one kind of in an angle, which would be some reflection on the crystal, uh, and certainly on the bezel. And then one more of a top down, um, which really for me was, it's telling the color looks different, different light, obviously different posing, but you really get an idea of how that's going to play in real life as you're wearing it. And it feels like that first picture, which is at an angle, sort of more of a lifestyle angle, I guess. You can almost, it almost looks like perhaps that darker portion of the gradient is caused by the actual watch, the dimension of the watch. It's sort of dimensional without being over the top. These are pretty neat.
Tom Clements I'm really pleased you liked them, thanks. Yeah, no, the kind of going for matte on the dial, it was a real test of restraint, I'll be honest. I thought to myself so many times, you know, should I add, should I add a sunburst, should I add a texture, should I add something? But actually, seeing them now in their most paired back form, I'm so pleased with how they've come out. And, yeah, you're right, you know, in different light, these colours look so, so different. And, you know, that makes sense. Different colours render differently in different lights. But I'm still learning what these watches look like because I haven't worn them yet. I'm keeping them pristine for photos and things like that at the moment. In fact, the first time anyone's going to have hands-on with them is going to be at World Time UK, which is an event exhibiting out on the 24th. And we can chat about that shortly. But at the moment, I'm still kind of figuring out what they look like a different light. So when I put those two photos side by side, and scrolled through the carousel, I was kind of astounded at how different they looked and wondered for a moment, you know, have I done something weird here with the editing, but I went back and checked the raw files. And now that you know, that's, that's how they were rendered. And it's, it's, it's just, it's just amazing how it plays with the light. And And to your point about the distortion and the darkening towards the edges, I think it's perhaps made even more pronounced by, it's not the crystal because there's actually exceptionally low distortion from the crystal, but it's those gently domed edges that we've built into the edge of the dial that I think kind of really give it that extra dimension.
Andrew Yeah, you almost didn't have to darken the edge because just the natural shadow that occurs through the dome of that of the dial really highlights that black edge and creates this cool color pop on these dials. The transition of the anemone, which I think I've actually been saying wrong my entire life. I thought there was a second N. An enemy. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Well, that's how I think I said it.
Andrew That's, yeah, that's. I don't know if I've ever seen the word written.
Everett Tom, tell us quickly about your Horologium. Another word that I'm not going to be able to say, collaboration.
Tom Clements Yeah, it's a minefield of pronunciation today, but that's okay. And yes, so the final two colorways that we're doing are in collaboration with our watchmakers Horologium. And a little bit of background about Horologium, you know, they're a husband and wife founded company based here in the UK. And Raphael and Raquel are the names of the co-founders and Raphael.
Andrew Sorry, I don't care if you like me, but we got to get married.
Tom Clements Absolutely. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, Raphael is, is a guy that I first met coming up to probably about two years ago now. And I was trying to find a way to elevate the photodiver to make it more special at this at this stage of the game. So two years back, and he suggested, you know, let's let's work together, see if we can do something. And we kicked around the idea. And that's when we decided that the photic diver Clements watches were all going to be assembled in the UK. Fast forward, several kind of months, years, whatever. And, yeah, it really does. Raphael and I are talking on the phone and, and we're chatting and he says to me, you know, Tom, and I don't think he'll mind me saying this, but he basically told me, and it sounds like I'm gloating and maybe I'm a little bit, that the dials, the hands, the quality of these pieces in particular were head and shoulders above anything he'd ever seen at this price point. I feel like I know watches, but Raphael really knows watches. He's an absolute expert. He's a Swiss train. watchmaker, he's been working in watches, putting them together, servicing them all of his life. His background professionally, he used to work in the servicing and assembly department team in New York City for Tiffany's. Then some years later, went on to work for Braymont in the UK. He's got some serious chops, Raphael, and really knows what he's talking about. Moreover, can really compare our watches, what we're doing to pieces that are multiples. in terms of the cost. So when he said that, I was kind of like, wow, that's, that's a huge tick in the box for me in terms of the decisions that we've made, the manufacturing partners that we've chosen to work with, and everything else that comes with it. So he said, you know, yes, this is one of the kind of the best pieces I've seen at this price point. But I haven't bought it, because I want it in white and black. And, um, This was around the time where I was thinking about what was going to happen in stage two, playing around with these new colorways. And so we kind of kicked around the idea. We're like, you know, let's make that happen. Let's make your dream watch, Raphael. Let's make that white and black. So we did some renders. We kicked around a couple of ideas and fast forward a few more months in the kind of design process. And the Orca, which is what we're calling it, was created. It's a simple new version of the Photic Diver, which has a crisp white dial. It's flat matte, so really low reflection just absorbs all of the light with these polished black markers and hands. And it looks so fresh. I love it. And Raphael, I think, you know, when we're going through the design process again, you know, I feel like I speak to Raphael more frequently than I do my family. I don't know if that's wrong or right, but it's certainly made for a good working relationship. Just a bit about that, being able to speak with Raphael on a daily basis and having several phone calls a week, that's one of the values that I think having our watches assembled here in the UK brings. I don't think I appreciated just how important that was going to be until we got this far in the game. It's not common for micro-brands, certainly at the beginning, to have their manufacturing and assembly outsourced entirely and to not necessarily have a point of contact that they can speak with, not only by email, but also directly on the phone in the same language, a common language. Being able to have that with Raphael has been so valuable. Actually, just a quick story about how that was demonstrated Going back to when we first received the dials of the colorways, Raphael and I had a phone call. The dials had arrived. I went to the workshop to go and check them out. And Raphael had separated out a bunch that he didn't think passed muster. So he thought these dials are not good enough to go into a photo tick. These ones are. And he sat me down and said, look, here's a loop, here's some finger cots, check them out, take a few minutes, see what you think. And I was looking at the rejects, apparently, And I've got a good eye for detail. I mean, Everett, you'll know this, designing a watch, you need to be incredibly painstakingly detail orientated to the point where you're quibbling over 0.01 of a millimetre becomes a pretty kind of common point of contention and discussion. And I was looking over these dials and after a few minutes, I just had to turn to Raphael and said, can you tell me where the problems are because I cannot see them even with a loop and and the the imperfections were were microscopic and he would point them out to me sure enough there was a an imperfection that was smaller than a speck of dust and he was saying you know this is what elevates a watch from being 500 pound generally speaking at retail worth 500 to kind of getting close to double that these types of QC measures. And so we had the stock to play with. We had the opportunity to put the very best pieces out there. So that's what we did. So anyway, going back to the collaboration, we figured out what we wanted to do with the orca. And I was playing around with some more renders and threw up this new color. And I was so excited, literally. after having put it on the dial within several minutes, I had to call up Raffaella and just say, man, we need to make this happen. We have to make this colourway. And this is what we're calling the Nemo. Thankfully, Raffaella agreed, and that formed the second part of our collaborative effort. So the Nemo is what we're describing again. It's kind of, it's not quite orange, it's not quite yellow, it's somewhere in between. Somebody described it to me the other day as iced mango, which I think fits. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it, it looks like a normal orange dial that once again, you know, it's, it was maybe printed in the seventies and it's been left to just kind of gently mellow. And that's the color I think we've achieved. Um, and for me, it just gives that slight air of understatedness that I I'm really attracted to and has probably caused me in the past to swerve away from buying brighter colored darts, such as an orange or a yellow. And yeah, it's looking fantastic. So they're the colorways, but that's not all that we're doing for the collab. You know, we wanted to really flex the horological skills that we have shared between us. And what that meant was that Raphael and his team of watchmakers are taking every single movement that's going to go into a collab photic, and they're going to regulate it in four positions to an average accuracy of minus two plus three, which to contextualize that the standard kind of accepted accuracy of a Miyota 9039, which is what we put in our photic divers is minus 10 plus 30. Yeah, so that gulf has been shrunk hugely. And to have the confidence in the, in the regulation that is being done by an expert in, not in-house, but kind of co-house. If it's a collab, it's in-house.
Andrew Their names on it too. Yeah. That's, that's a collaborative. That's in-house shit right there.
Tom Clements Um, but yeah, we're, we're, we're so excited that, that Raphael and Raquel and the team are being able to do this for us. Um, and then, you know, we wanted to elevate it even more. And so, To do that, we're offering every single Colab piece. We're doing away with traditional boxes that we've used in the past for the Colab pieces, and we're just sending them up plain and simple in one of our bespoke custom leather travel pouches, which is embellished with the Clements logo. It's a really exciting collaboration for such a small company to be doing it at this stage. I couldn't be more excited about it. And what's more is it's two independent British watchmakers working together and hopefully helping to elevate the industry together.
Andrew That's dope. I love that color way that that orange is every time I've looked at it, I've been like, man, I, I can get down with that because I don't want NASA orange. I don't want banana yellow. This is that perfect medium. It's warm, but it's bright. Yeah. That's a, that's a killer color.
Tom Clements I'm so glad you guys like it.
Everett Thank you, Tom. You've now, you're now a year in you've sold exactly a bazillion watches. Um, obviously still a baby company in many ways, right? You've made a big statement, but there's obviously a lot to do for Clements watches, which is both probably incredibly exciting and daunting. What have you learned in the last year? And that is to say, besides everything, What have been the biggest things you've learned about the industry or perhaps watchmaking or perhaps our customer base? What have been the things perhaps that were surprising to you being someone who has appreciated watches for many, many years and has decided to do this thing? What's been the biggest takeaway?
Tom Clements Gosh, I mean, there's so many. And how do you consolidate 12 months? I mean, really, it's looking more like 36 months now. of learning into a few points, but I'll do my best. I suppose top of the list has to be good things take time. You can't rush a process if you want to come out with the absolute optimum best result. I think that's been my approach from the get-go. It would have been easy for us to pump out a generic looking watch using kit parts from that just existed from previous runs from other manufacturers kind of taking the glory of their designs and shoving them into our watch with our own name on the dial. That's easy. Coming up with a custom design, something that's original, something that's yours, and something that, for me, I can put my name on and know that in 30, 40 years, I'll look back on with a ginormous sense of pride That takes time. And so I haven't rushed this process. I've meticulously chosen the right people to work with. I think that's perhaps the second most important thing that I've learned is surrounding yourselves with the absolute best people that you can find in the industry. And I mean that both in terms of folks that you work with who are making the products for you or indeed assembling them, testing them, quality controlling them for you. Um, but also people like yourselves, you know, we, we didn't make this kind of connection by accident. Uh, we, we first started talking, uh, gosh, summer last year now, I think it was. Um, and that, that, that, that was a connection that, that came about through several other people. You know, I think it was will AKA daddy to you guys, uh, introduced us and it was, it was Mike of, of, of the former clicker family. that introduced me to Will. Making these connections with people that share your passion, but also have a genuine interest in what it is that you're doing, and it goes beyond skin deep. These people have got years and years of fascination in watchmaking, whether it's from a podcast perspective, a journalist perspective, assembly, manufacturing, whatever. And, you know, surrounding yourself with people who know and can understand what it is that you're talking about and really appreciate it, um, is a, is a great way to keep self sane for one. Um, but it's also, it's just, it's been, it's been incredibly rewarding. Um, truth be told, uh, I've, I've absolutely loved it. And 12 months of, of having the photic diver officially kind of out there from pre-orders through to fruition and now phase two, where we're coming up to launching these new colorways in just a few days. It's an experience I wouldn't trade for anything. And I think that with the skills and experience that I've collected over that time, and also the folks that I've managed to connect with, means that we're only going to do bigger and better things going forward. And I just can't wait to share it with everyone
Andrew Well, on that, are you in a position that you'd be willing to share some of the next things that we're going to see?
Tom Clements Yeah, I am. Yeah, yes. It's still in early stages. There's no kind of official content out there at the moment on this piece, but our next piece is going to be a field watch. holding name for it at the moment that I will keep under wraps for now. But it's the piece that, second to the photic, I'm missing from my collection, you know. That was the kind of the genesis versus the last of Clement's watches, was finding ways to fill those gaps in terms of what it was that we felt was perfect. and for me it's and perfect is a very subjective and personal thing but that's what led me to create the photic and that's what leading that's what's leading me to create our next piece it's it's it's being designed and created not through necessity to drive the clements brand forward but through my desire to create my vision of of the perfect field watch um and it's gonna have very similar architecture in many ways to the Photic Driver. But as I said, we're going to take what we've learned, the connections that we've made over the last however many months, years, and we're going to implement that. And the next piece is going to have some refinements, some modifications, and possibly we're still unsighted, but we might toy with some slightly higher end shall we say um movements we'll see we'll see how that goes um but yeah it's it's early days yet and i can't say too much because i don't want to disappoint anybody if if if things change but the next piece is is is going to be special and actually it it brings us quite nicely on to what we're going to talk about later and i won't spoil that for anyone but um when I was trying to imagine our picks for the discussion that we're talking about today. I was hard pressed not to want to choose this this piece. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist yet, so I couldn't. But when it does, it'll definitely be taking taking its place.
Everett It'll make your list. So that's a great segue. I do want to ask you one question before before we before we say, well, I'm sorry to interrupt the flow you introduced so seamlessly here. This is a question. This is a question. I guess this is perhaps a legal question, so you may not be at liberty to answer this, but have you submitted a cease and desist to Christopher Ward, specifically to Mike and Jorg over there for stealing your dome sapphire bezel idea? Something that occurred to me.
Tom Clements Yeah, the the paperwork is in the post. No, no, not at all. So obviously, I actually loved it. I loved when I saw the this is another tricky one to pronounce the aqua aquitaine. I think I think is how much Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I mean, what Christopher Ward are doing is nothing short of fantastic. And I mean that across the range, not just exclusively the aquitaine, and their timepieces that they're putting out the brain behind the kind of the business. Mike France, what a guy. I mean, I wish I could speak half as eloquently as he can. And maybe give me another kind of couple of decades in the industry. I'll get there. But until then, I'm nothing short of all of Christopher Ward and the work that they're doing. And the Aquitaine is a fantastic timepiece. And you know, they're in their price point, they're kind of multiples above the Photic. So I feel like we're easily. Yeah, so I'm, I'm pretty happy that to see the Aquitaine and its success and to be able to offer something with a similar aesthetic at a slightly lower, more accessible price point.
Andrew So with that, We forgive your interruption, Everett. I'm sorry. Excuse me. We're going to dive in to our other topic tonight.
Everett Our other topic, a second topic. We're squeezing stuff in.
Andrew We're doing a double. And sir, if you don't mind, because this is, this is your brainchild. Let's hear it. What are we talking about watches tonight?
Tom Clements Uh, okay. Yes. So I thought tonight it'd be fun to talk about a bit of a, fantasy situations. So it's the idea of a go back. Oh, right.
Everett So, um, you know, we don't always ask our guests to come up with fun topics. And so I felt a little bit bad about asking you to come up with the topic, but then I was like, no, this is perfect. This is perfect. We've got Tom Clements on the show and we're making him come up with our topic for the week.
Andrew It makes it so much easier for us.
Everett I know. So we appreciate you, Tom. Give us the skinny. What do we have to do for this task? We have not prepared at all, by the way, so we're going to be totally on the fly.
Tom Clements That's okay. We can be there together. The go bag, yeah, it's, you know, for those that don't know, the go bag is also known as a bug out bag. It's what you grab and go in a spontaneous moment where you have to leave the house, leave your place of shelter. You could be going on a surprise trip. You might be in a post-apocalyptic scenario and you've got to evacuate. It could be anything really. And the go bag is full of all the essentials that you will need to survive and flourish in whatever that scenario may be. So we thought today it'd be fun to talk about several watches that would be either in our go bag or perhaps already on the wrist and several items as well that we would essentially have to have included within our go bags.
Everett Yeah, that's it. That's my understanding of the show.
Andrew And this isn't the entire go bag. This is just like the, you know, some, some thinking points, maybe some jumping off. Whoa. That was a weird burp.
Everett You going to be okay?
Andrew It was like, it was like a breath. That was interesting. Uh, Just some things, some watch and normal things that you need to have in your go bag.
Everett Watches and other things that we like.
Andrew Yeah, all in one.
Everett Tom, this is your segment, so I'm going to ask the question of you with a certain amount of authority. Do you mind if I lead us off? I'm not going to ask Andrew what he thinks. Please do. Okay, so I'm just going to provide some context. This question sounded to me like a, we discussed this a little bit, but in my mind, I was like, I'm going with the sort of post apocalyptic or present apocalyptic scenario. Some shit happened. I'm going to leave my house with the backpack on my bag, my, the backpack on my back, the backpack on my back. And I may, who knows? when I'm going to be back in a place where I'm comfortable. So I've picked five items. I've picked five items. Only two of the items are watches.
Andrew Okay.
Everett But I've thought out these things carefully. And the idea here is I'm going to be wearing these watches for, I don't know, maybe, who knows how long, 18 months, 24, seven years, who knows?
Andrew I mean, The Walking Dead is in season, what, 11?
Everett I know, you could be, this could be serious.
Tom Clements Yeah. Pretty accurate documentary. Yeah.
Everett I'm going to start with one. This is the easy one. I, I just, I have a feeling that this watch is going to get repeated by somebody else tonight. So I'm going to start here. I'm not going to spend a long time on it, but a Casio G Shock GWM 5610 watch. Now this watch is radio controlled, right? So, so the timing is based on radio, which may or may not be applicable in this scenario. We don't know. We don't know that this is maybe the radio control might not work. However, it's solar powered. It is durable, famously shock resistant, uh, water resistant. Um, this watch is a tank, right? We don't, I don't, we don't need to say much else about this.
Andrew And it's going to run forever. It's solar powered at some point time. That day will no longer matter.
Everett The bracelet's going to decay. The strap is going to decay before the watch, practically speaking, will stop working, probably.
Andrew And at that point, you will already be dead.
Everett So the other, so, and it does all the things, right? It's got a chronograph. The other watch I've decided to bring, because who knows, right? Who knows what happens? EMP, maybe, maybe this is an escape from New York situation. It could be, it could be that this watch stops working. So I'm going to bring a second watch. with similar capabilities. And I quickly determined that I wanted a mechanical watch.
Andrew Yep.
Everett Because I'm sort of, I'm covering the basis here. I wanted a mechanical watch. I wanted it to have a chronograph because that seems like of all the tools, that is the most useful tool. I wanted it to have a significant amount of water resistance and durability. And I wanted that movement to be tried and true, to be a runner, to be low maintenance, if not zero maintenance, because in this situation, I'm not going to be able to maintain this thing. Something that's going to run, be reliable and just go, go, go. So I decided what I need is a 7750. Okay. I need 200 meters of water resistance. And because it's a chronograph, I also want to have screw down pushers.
Andrew That's a tall order.
Everett I found the watch.
Andrew That's a hard filter category, right?
Everett I found that. Yes, that's right. I found the watch. It is a Zen 103. Now they make, they make these both with screw down pushers and without. We're going to specify the screw down pusher. They, Zen has put their own chronograph movement in these in the last several years. However, just a few years ago, they were selling these with a 7750. an ETA or Valjoux 7750 movement, one of the most famous movements of all time.
Andrew And we famously have a whole episode dedicated to that.
Everett That's right. That's right. Uh, so yeah, a Zen. So I'm going to have a GWM 5610 and a Zen 103. Okay. Those are, those are my watches, screw down pushers on a bracelet. I'm going to have this thing on a bracelet.
Andrew That's the right choice.
Everett Those are my watches. Those are my Apocalypse watches. $2,000 or so for that. That's a lot of money, but for a mechanical automatic chronograph, man.
Andrew You're kind of getting that at a deal.
Tom Clements Yeah, that's right. Plus it's the last watch you'll ever buy, right? In the Apocalypse.
Everett I think that's right. It's literally the last watch I'll own.
Andrew There is a buy it now option on this eBay that you sent me.
Everett So with that said, I don't need watches, but I have two of them. I do need a few things and I I'm a man who needs certain things in my life. I need underwear, I need socks, and I need a blankie. And those are the things that I've picked. So- Just like all of our kids. So I picked the Exoficio, I can't remember what they call these.
Andrew Give and go. Yeah, the give and go. Which I'm not 100% sure on why.
Everett So these are- Is there a fly in the rear? I don't know. Yeah, maybe. I own several pair of these. This is the, the underwear that I use for hiking. Uh, they dry incredibly quickly. So you wear them, you wash them, you hang the extra pair on your backpack. Uh, if you've ever tried to do a thing, um, where, where you were not going to be able to shower for a few days, I recommend having some quick dry underwear so that you can change every day. And these are the shit, man. I think that this is. They're fantastic. They're comfortable. They're low impact seams.
Andrew You, you change them every day when you're wearing synthetics like this?
Everett A hundred percent.
Andrew Oh man. I, uh, I just rinse them. Like I rip them inside out. I, I rinse them and scrub them and then I wear them dry.
Everett You're disgusting. That's not, what? So I'm going to have two pair of those. I link in the show notes. I'm going to have two pair of Smartwool PhD outdoor light socks. Exactly the same thing, but sock form. Um, There's a number of socks that will meet this. I like these because they're lightweight, so you don't get too sweaty. They dry really quickly. They're smart wool, so they're going to be relatively, relatively durable. It's a wool nylon blend, so they don't get too hot. They're warm enough. Fantastic socks. And then finally, I am going to get a whoopee and put it in my go bag.
Andrew If it's the right choice.
Everett If you don't know what a whoopee is, it's because you didn't serve in the military, but a whoopee is, these things are pretty terrible. It's a standard issue military item. It's actually a poncho liner. So they've got a hole in the middle and sometimes they come with a hood. I have not gone with a surplus whoopee. I've gone with a whoopee from a company called Zero Foxtrot. And I've picked this because it's affordable, $40. Nobody wants to pay $180 for a poncho liner, although people do, and there's several of these that are in the market. This is a $40. They're polyester, they dry pretty quickly, they're packable. I want to have clean underwear, clean socks, and a blanket if I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere. And it's in 103.
Andrew my whoopee that has been with me since 2011.
Everett Is it an issued whoopee?
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I, I, I paid the army to keep it. I was like, no, that's mine. I'm bringing that with me. It's my ballistic whoopee. You hear the air raid siren go off or like the incoming siren go off. You just pull it over your head and like, I'll be fine. Yeah. Yep. That's still with me. That goes everywhere. Yeah. That thing travels.
Everett They're fantastic. Yep. They're fantastic. And they're so, so shockingly warm. They're warm. Yep.
Andrew That's right. Not all at the same. It's a, it's a bizarro thing. That was annoying. Who's next? I want Tom to, to, to back clean up on this one. So I'm going to go next. So I took a, I took a similar approach in the way of the kinds of watches. So I went with a battery solar and an automatic.
Everett Okay.
Andrew my battery, because I wanted watches that were just not bullshit, that we're going to live in whatever stupid environment I was suddenly forced to exist in. First up, the Protrek PRG340T7. And it's a Protrek, right? It's an ABC. It's got all the things you want. 10 year battery life.
Everett It's 60 millimeters.
Andrew It's enormous.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew It's indestructible.
Everett This is actually, I actually heard Clemens is making a Protrek homage. I heard that same thing. As their next watch.
Andrew So this is a resin case with a titanium bracelet. Titanium bracelet was important to me. So we've got our battery powered and supposing this is some kind of EMT environment, you know, this is out the window, but you know, it was at least a valiant effort. Next up, a G-Shock Tough Solar, GWM 5610. Because you gotta have a solar powered watch. And I didn't want to go eco drive because I wanted digital. I wanted, that was my choice, right? I wanted a digital solar as opposed to any of the eco drive or other tough solar options. It's the right decision. Um, we're not going to continue talking about it. Last up the Pelagos 39.
Everett Never heard of it.
Andrew It's not important. It's kind of forgettable watch made by Tudor. Some people thought it was kind of exciting. It's not. So what, what I wanted out of this was an automatic movement in titanium. That was the important, that was what I wanted was a durable metal that was going to be able to survive the apocalypse, water resistant and functional. Yeah. No, it's a, it's a tool watch. There's nothing particularly special or unique about it, but for the fact that it's sort of the tool watch that exists, I think, I think that's a good lineup. That's those are the, my end of the world watches. We've got a battery, which is going to last 10 years, a solar, which is going to last longer than that. And a Peli 39 that's going to last even longer.
Everett And be really cool. Also be really cool. You're going to be the coolest guy in the apocalypse. Probably.
Andrew Now, I have two things that I think are often forgotten. Overlooked, perhaps.
Everett I like that. I like that approach. The overlooked go-bag items. I think mine are overlooked go-bag items.
Andrew They are 100% overlooked go-bag items. Underwear and socks. Because people are like, I'm already wearing them. Well, you're wearing those.
Everett You're wearing those Costco fucking briefs, which I'm sure are great.
Andrew Yeah. First up, a rain jacket. Like a shell. A shell, yeah. And I can't, I finally, in the last two years, bought a good, expensive, just rain shell. And everyone has the trash bag rain jacket, right? You put it on because it's pissing rain and you're wet on the outside because it's pissing rain and then you're drenched in sweat on the inside because you're living inside of a trash bag. Yeah. My rain jacket and in, you know, any outdoor brand, true outdoor pursuit brand is going to have some kind of equivalent. My choice is the first light vapor storm tight ultra light.
Everett Yeah. What's the price on this?
Andrew 250 bucks.
Everett Yeah. I think that, I mean, I think that the good rain shells are started about 180 to about 300 to get like a really high quality breathable shell.
Andrew And you start getting north of that and then you're just paying for the label.
Everett Yeah. Or, or some function that you don't need.
Andrew Yeah. And this is terrific. This is my go-to rain shell. I've worn it under waiters. I've worn it over like that. This is my rain shell. I don't get sweaty and I don't get wet. Yeah. It's not welded seams, but they have the double layer construction that prevents permeation through it. I have a lot of first light stuff, and this is my absolute favorite go-to, because it keeps you dry. Being wet is the worst. There is no better way to ruin an experience than by being wet. Unless you're in the water, and then you should be wet. Next up, water bottle with an important feature. It's got a filter in it. It is the LifeStraw Go one liter coming in at 45 bucks. And if you're not familiar with LifeStraw, they do an entire line of water filtration technologies. This water bottle is designed to be dunked in whatever body of water you are drinking from. The lid removes so you don't contaminate your straw. You dunk your water bottle in, you screw your lid back on, all the water that you consume comes through the filter that is built into the underside of the lid. So everything you're drinking out of that water bottle is being filtered. They do sell replacement filters because you should replace your water filters because at some point
Everett They're not doing it anymore. Or they're not, or they get blocked.
Andrew Yeah, they're going to get blocked. So you're going to get GRD out or you're not going to be able to drink water. But yeah, that's it. Those are two things.
Everett It's like an inline water heater though, right? It's active. You're not taking the time. Cause I'm a Sawyer squeeze guy, but that does create, there is a process that you have to do.
Andrew And I'm a Sawyer, I have the mini filter that fits perfectly onto, uh, A smart, smart water. Yeah. And I have a smart, an empty liter, smart water bottle in my pack marked with Sharpie poison. Don't drink from. And I fill that up as I go. And then I just plug my filter, screw my filter onto it, squirt it in my water bottle. I'm good to go. But this is an inline, everything happens inside your water bottle. It's a full liter. And that is, I think probably the most appropriate size for a water bottle, like 32 to 40 ounces. It's kind of.
Everett I like it between the two of us. We're going to have water. We're going to have a rain show, underwear and socks.
Andrew And we each have a pair of undies because you brought two.
Everett Tom, what do you got?
Tom Clements Oh, some good picks, guys. I think hopefully that my picks will also complement yours. So together, one of us will survive this post-apocalyptic scenario.
Andrew As each of us dies, we all just accumulate better stuff.
Everett And we'll get some protein.
Tom Clements And watches. Absolutely. Most importantly, watches. Yeah. I took a slightly different tact for my first two picks. In my kind of go bag, I'm imagining that instead of an apocalypse, I've just got a text, got a phone call, and I'm spontaneously off to go meet up with a group of friends.
Everett This sounds like it's going to be more fun. Way more fun.
Tom Clements Well, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know. Watch pick, I'm going for the Photic Diver in our new colorway, Kelp. Uh, so as I said, this is a colorway that I created because it was wildly popular when we were initially designing the photic. And also it was something that I really wanted to make myself. And so I haven't been able to wear this watch out and about yet, and I just can't wait to get it on the wrist, quite frankly. So that's what I'm wearing when I'm going to meet up with my pals. Um, second item is. something else that's actually not even going to go into the go bag, it's just something I'm going to just quickly pop on. My boots, I'm a boot guy, I wear boots pretty much year round unless it's exceptionally hot. And in which case I'll transfer to pair of kind of Birkenstocks or something like that. But I moved from England to Scotland where it's colder, and that means more boots. And so Blundstones are my pick. Oh, yeah, good choice. Have you guys Yeah. Uh, so I first, I hadn't heard about Blundstones until Australia company, right. Two years ago. That's right. Yeah. Um, and I think it was actually Jason Heaton who put me onto them when I was listening to an episode of TGN. That tracks. The only, the only other podcast I, any other routine podcast I listened to. Um, and, uh, yeah, man, I, I picked these up after Jason and James were talking about them and man, I love them. I, I've my other kind of go-to boots, a pair of red wings, but they're heavy. You know, I love them so much, but they're just so heavy. And these Blundstones are amazing. They're light, they're comfortable. You can wear them, rain, shine, whatever. If you're kind of going for a walk on the beach, out in town, going to bars, wherever you are, they'll fit in. Um, and yeah.
Andrew What's your Blundstone pick?
Tom Clements Uh, it's the 585s in, I think the color's called rustic brown. They kind of come pre-distressed and they've got a really good look to them and I tend to just kind of top them off with a layer of mink oil kind of once or twice a season. In fact, I gave them a quick oil just earlier this week and they kind of just drank it up because they were thirsty and they're looking good. They have that sort of like outdoor
Everett Chelsea look, right? So they they transition from work.
Andrew Chelsea's.
Everett Yeah. From the.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett From the field to the bar, particularly.
Tom Clements Well, exactly. A work. Chelsea's is a perfect description for them. You know, I'm I'm not a kind of particularly fancy guy, shall we said I have many dress shoes in my wardrobe, but I wanted something that I could wear into the office on kind of a smart, casual basis. But also, as I said, you know, go for a walk on the beach or along some tracks in. So when I picked up these Blundstones, I've kind of learned a bit more about the history of them. I think Blundstone have been going since the 1860s or something ridiculous like that, an Australian based company. And I think they made boots for the Australian army in various world wars. And this design has pretty well been unchanged since, oh God, I don't know, since before I was kicking around, that's for sure.
Everett I think it's kind of the iconic Blundstone too. Yeah.
Tom Clements Yeah, yeah, it's the go-to. And yeah, they're just great. I love them. So that's my kind of first scenario. They're my first two picks.
Andrew Exactly how much guano is on a pair of those boots?
Tom Clements No, no, zero guano. Yeah, keeping them kind of in tip-top nick.
Andrew You don't step in bat dookie when you're working?
Tom Clements I do. I do from time to time, but I don't wear my blood stones for that. We, uh, we, we have steel toe caps for, uh, work. Um, yeah, so moving on to kind of the second scenario, I guess I've kind of divvied this up. So first lights and bright breezy meeting up with pals, going for a drink, walk, go for a walk, whatever. A second scenario is, um, those plans get canceled. I'm having a spontaneous weekend out in the Highlands, kind of that's when I've got a free weekend and I'm not kind of having social social plans or anything like that. That's that's where I head. I get out in my car, drive for a couple of hours and I'm in the Scottish Highlands, which if you haven't been, you should definitely come. It's amazing. One of the most fantastic landscapes I've ever experienced, certainly in the UK. Watchwise, I'm imagining that I'm taking, I'm imagining that I've been very prepared and also have more resources in my bank account than I necessarily do. And I own a vintage, a vintage Rolex Explorer that I have asked my good friend Raphael from Horology to restore and completely service to make sure it's in tip top condition, watertight, taken away nicely. Of course, this particular one would have a fantastically patina dial, all the kind of the extra bits that make make a vintage Explorer.
Everett Mellowed, mellowed in the sun.
Tom Clements Exactly, exactly. And I'd have that on a metal bracelet. That is the one. Yes. Yeah, that's the one. I'll take that.
Andrew I'll take that. There's a buy it now option for that. It's $21,000. Sign me up. Sign me up.
Tom Clements In this fictitious scenario, I've got unlimited funds. So let's go for it. Um, so with, with my vintage Explorer on the wrist, uh, I'm in my car driving up to the Highlands and inevitably the weather closes in and I need something to keep me warm, dry. Uh, and again, if you've experienced Highlands weather, you tend to get at least three seasons in a day. So normally that's bit of snow, bit of wind, bit of rain, And if you're lucky, a bit of sun. And so this jacket for me kind of ticks all those boxes. It becomes really difficult to dress appropriately for when you're hiking and mountain climbing in the Highlands. But the Fjallraven Keb jacket is my go-to. This is a jacket much like a good pair of boots. If you take care of it, it'll take care of you. It's got some kind of technical fabrics, but the major wear points are thick, heavyweight, G1000 cotton, which is or can be waxed. So first thing I did when I got this jacket, I waxed that cloth using the Fuhrer Raven kind of own brand G1000 wax. And it hasn't let me down to date. You know, I've worn this jacket whilst skiing in the Alps. I've worn it whilst hiking and climbing mountains in the highlands. I've worn it in snowstorms, rainstorms, high winds, sun, you name it. It's been there. And, you know, this this jacket kind of keeps you protected from the worst of the elements. And the best part about it, the best part about it is the ridiculous hood. So, you know, South Park, Kenny, the guy with the crazy big hood. Right. Because he always be dying. That is what this hood is like. It's amazing. It's it's kind of it has a rim that you can fold back for when you're not wanting to look like a crazy person, but when you fold it forwards, it creates about half a foot of kind of internal cocoon where your face is completely protected from the elements. Your field of view is significantly narrowed, but no matter how high the wind, how harsh the snow or the rain, you're protected and you're kind of in this safe space to kind of carry on a new adventure. So that's my second pick. Love a Fjord Raven cap jacket.
Everett Yeah, those those look nice. They they are outside of our of our pre before we knew your picks, we said 180 to 250 is the sweet spot. This is a little higher than that, but I assume you're getting build quality. Fjord Raven, obviously fantastic company, I think in the last handful of years has been prone to making fast fashion. However, like many companies, they continue to make serious items.
Andrew They've got their core shit.
Everett They've got their core shit. That's, that's still really incredible. And their fast fashion stuff is still pretty cool.
Tom Clements That's right. Yeah. I mean, Fjallraven is a, um, it's an interesting brand and it's, and it's got a long standing history of kind of being associated with, um, adventurers and, and, and explorers from kind of the, the Nordic countries. Um, and yes, I think they, they have been associated maybe in, in more recent years with some of their kind of more fashion forward pieces, shall we say. But they've always retained that core of technically excellent, hard wearing, and also ethically sourced and produced products. So these are all the kev jackets are kind of fluorocarbon free, so they don't rely upon upon these kind of toxic chemicals for their waterproofing. And yeah, they're made to last, you know, they're high quality pieces and you do pay a premium for that sometimes. But you know, buy once, cry once. I don't think I'm going to have to replace this jacket for a good 10 years.
Everett Many, many years, many, many reigns.
Andrew And you probably won't get the chance to when the world ends.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's really going to last.
Tom Clements Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So when I hopscotch from my weekend in the Highlands to your post-apocalyptic scenario, I'll be pleased. I've got the cap jacket on my back. So last pick is, um, it's a pocket knife. Um, so I feel like, you know, I was actually kind of surprised that you guys haven't picked one of these just yet. So I'm, I'm pleased that I'm the only one choosing a pocket knife for the episode. Um, and I've got one of these pieces it's right here. Um, it's just a little kind of, I guess you'd call it, I don't like the term, but you'd call it a gentleman's pocket knife. This is made by a chap called Michael May in Sheffield, England, which if you don't know, it is a kind of medium sized city. It's got some strong industrial ties with the kind of made famous by the cutlery business, silver and steelware, kind of in the industrial revolution. Unfortunately, that kind of industry, well, unfortunately, unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, that industry's faded away now. And there's a handful of artisans who are trying to kind of hold on to the old ways of doing things right. And Michael May is one of those guys. He makes bespoke handmade pocket knives. And this particular one has got a Damascus steel blade that was actually forged in Sheffield. So it's all kind of locally sourced, they kind of they really go to the next step of trying to keep things local, minimizing their impact, whilst also providing a an item end to them. Yeah. Unlike most kind of popular.
Everett And a real, and a real flat cutting surface.
Tom Clements That's right. That's right. Yeah. So these were originally used and designed for use by, uh, by farmers, you know, they're, they're working knives. Um, the reason they're called lambsfoot is because the straight kind of utility blade was very good at, um, looking after the hooves of, of, of livestock. So sheep and things like that, making sure that their hooves were in good condition. Uh, and more importantly, perhaps also that curved end mentioned that they, they slipped, they didn't accidentally kill or stab the, the livestock. Yeah.
Andrew Um, yeah. And he uses Yorkshire Oak for all of his handles, huh?
Tom Clements Yeah.
Andrew Or for most of them as I'm seeing it. Yeah.
Tom Clements you can you can pick different materials. And yeah, this this one is actually made from from Yorkshire oak. And it's got a nicely kind of finished spine to the blade as well.
Everett Yeah, it's gorgeous. Yeah, it's gorgeous.
Tom Clements Hand filed. It's a it's a fantastic piece. And, you know, I've got other I've got I've got a Leatherman and things like that. And maybe in a post apocalyptic scenario, I'm taking the Leatherman with me. But for a quick kind of run in the highlands when you just need a simple blade to kind of take care of whatever it might be, cutting a piece of rope or string or whatever. This is, this is what I take.
Everett Is that a slip joint or is it a locking blade?
Tom Clements Uh, yeah, no, it's, it's not locking. It just kind of, it's just a folding, standard folding knife.
Everett You know, it's similar to a knife, uh, much, much nicer, but similar to a knife we've talked on the show. My daily, my, my everyday carry knife is a, a, uh, a knife that's made still by people by hand in the United States, a company called Case, which is a very, very old cutlery company, but a knife called the Sodbuster. I particularly carry the Sodbuster Junior because it's a little bit shorter, but same sort of attitude. I think you can pick up a Sodbuster on Amazon for like $35, Same kind of aesthetic and feel to it, right? Different blade style, but a similar idea. So yeah, I appreciate that knife and that looks gorgeous. And I'm a little jealous of it.
Andrew I'm going to get one of his knives. His Nakiri Damascus steel, 170 pounds, which I don't know what that translates to dollars. I imagine that's like 210 bucks.
Everett Ish, probably.
Andrew Yeah. 200 bucks. With a Yorkshire Oak handle.
Everett Yeah, it's gorgeous.
Andrew Yeah. He does some good shit. Man, you've done something to me now.
Tom Clements You're welcome.
Everett Well, so we now have multiple rain jackets. We've got a cutting implement. We've got some boots, socks, underwear, and a blanket. We're going to be fine, you guys. And lots of pretty good watches, too.
Tom Clements Yeah, I think we've got it.
Everett Yeah, I think we're gonna be just fine. We're gonna make it or at least the last of us is gonna be just fine. Tom, once again, thank you for coming on our show.
Andrew Hang on. Tom has an actual other thing.
Everett Oh, oh my goodness. So we did do a bit of a an extended other things segment, but you're right, Tom, I know you per our prior instructions came armed with another thing. So for the first time ever, Tom, I guess the second time, uh, other things, what do you, what do you got that's not, uh, go bag related?
Tom Clements Uh, yeah. Okay. So my, my other, other thing, I guess, uh, is barefoot running shoes. So do you guys know what I mean when I talk about that? Because when I talk about them, more often than not, people think I'm talking about five fingered or five toed, like, foot gloves.
Everett Yeah, like maybe the most sort of prevalent type of barefoot running shoe. But yeah, I do know what you're talking about. Lower structure, zero drop or, you know, very low profile running shoes.
Tom Clements That's it. That's it. Yeah. So, so no, no weird foot gloves. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about, yeah, low structure, minimal, ultra light running shoes or hiking shoes or just everyday shoes. Um, so barefoot running shoes is, is, is what I wear when, whenever I go for runs and, and they've got a kind of a three to five mil thick sole. And their intention is just really to protect you from the nasties that you might encounter when you're running on bare roads or any surface. Yeah. Rocks. Yeah. Rocks are a big one. Yeah. So kind of five or six years ago, I kind of went through an unfortunate series of pretty kind of, for me at least, pretty bad injuries through kind of screwed up my knee and then half my knee heel is screwed up my back, prolapsed a disc and basically took me out for about two years. And those injuries, I don't think were any, I don't think they were a coincidence. I think they're a symptom of me being a really active person, but also during my day job being pretty sedentary, spending at least 50% of my time sat at a desk. And what that meant is that my muscles that kind of you develop as you're growing up and when you're younger and maybe a bit more active, uh, they begin to kind of just wither and die. And it's those little muscles that keep everything in our bodies held together tightly and working in unison. Um, and I was kind of searching for an answer, you know, why do I keep on injuring myself? What can I do to, to prevent injury and, and, and how can I start to enjoy exercise again without, without risk of screwing up my knees or back or whatever. And that's when I kind of stumbled upon barefoot running shoes, or just barefoot shoes. A particular company in the UK is called Vivo Barefoot. I don't know if you guys are familiar, but they're kind of probably the biggest name in the game, certainly in the UK. I'm sure there are others worldwide, but I got myself a pair of Vivos and I just haven't looked back, you know, where everybody, myself included, and this is certainly at least why I think I kept injuring myself. We walk around in these chunky shoes, these chunky boots, maybe blunt stones, maybe not, I don't know, that kind of destroy our kinetic chain. So if you imagine when you walk, just imagine walking normally, you're walking heel down, then toe, yeah? Heel toe, heel toe. But if you were to take off your shoes, if you were to go run across your your hallway, across your garden, across the beach, you're running toe heel, right? That's how we've evolved to run. That's how our bodies are meant to move. And by wearing modern shoes, by wearing modern running shoes, we're completely destroying thousands and millions of years of evolution to create the perfect kinetic chain. And so all that impacts when we run heel toe, that heel impact is going straight through our Up our leg, through our knee, screwed my knee up, into our hips and then into our back and even into our necks. You know, it's kind of crazy. Um, and so yeah, kind of three years ago, I made the transition to barefoot shoes for all of my running. And for some of my kind of just casual jaunting around wherever I may be. Um, and yeah, never looked back. They're absolutely fantastic pieces of kit that will provide Not only strength benefits to your feet in six months, you can increase the strength of your foot by 60%, which is just bonkers. Like you don't think about your foot as needing to be strong, but of course it does. Um, that's why we get flat feet because our feet are weak. Um, not only that, but by having these thin soles, when we move through the terrain, we're actually triggering sensors in our feet that aren't normally triggered when we wear our chunky boots or chunky shoes. we're triggering these kind of feelings in our feet. And what that means is that our brains are more active, different parts of our brains are more active and they can help fight off, deter degenerative brain diseases, such as dementia. They're, they are just, you know, there's a thousand and one things we can all do to improve our health. And for me, at least barefoot running shoes has been a huge one of them and I just love them. And I'd advocate them to anybody that's interested.
Everett Very cool. Very cool. And you haven't had any sort of, um, overuse injuries or whatever as a result?
Tom Clements No. So, I mean, what, what, one of the big things with barefoot shoes is, is they really strongly advise that you quite literally walk before you can run. Um, so try them out, wear them, walk in them for a couple of months and then gradually build up to running distance. So, you know, start with just a short run, uh, and then, and then a walk. So maybe like a couple of kilometers. And then from there you can build up and you will find certainly I do at least that I can't necessarily cover the same distances that I could in regular running shoes. But that's because I'm using all of these muscles in my feet that I never used before. Yeah, all of these muscles in my calves. God, my calves, man, they absolutely killed when I first started using them. And that was a wake up call. Oh, I've never used these muscles before for running. That's weird.
Everett Well, very cool. I'm like a Hoka wearer when I run, so almost exactly the opposite approach, but I think... I'm a Skechers fit wearer.
Andrew I'm just constantly wearing in the gym. When you run? Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Tom, it's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure. We did not even make a single Batman joke. I'm a little disappointed. I tried to squeeze one in.
Andrew I snuck in some Ace Ventura and the guano.
Everett Yeah, that's true. That's true. So September 24th, this coming Saturday, three days after the release of this podcast. Two days. Two days after the release. That's not how days work. The Photic Diver will be released to the whole entire world. Everyone.
Andrew to the whole entire world. Which means you can start wearing them because you have them.
Everett Five different watches. The Clemens, the Clemens exclusive releases and the Horologium. Yep. Nailed it. The Horologium collaborations, multiple colors. We will have a link in the show notes to clemenswatches.com, but you can also just in your, uh, computer machine, type in clementswatches.com. Also on Instagram at Clements Watches, you can check out all the goodness that is Clements and the Photic Diver. Be prepared for a pending field watch announcement. We don't have a date yet and we won't push Tom for one, but it is coming. It is coming. Andrew, is there anything you want to add?
Andrew That's it. I've done all the things.
Everett You did it all. You really did a good job. I know. Tom, before we go, is there anything you would like to add?
Tom Clements Yeah, just just one final thing. Yes, these watches are coming out on the 24th, September, 3 p.m. British summertime. And for anybody that is in London on that day and at that particular time, please come and check us out at World Time UK. We'll be there and it'll be fantastic to meet you.
Andrew I don't think we can make that work. We're not going to. Yeah.
Everett We're not going to make it. I'm sorry, Tom.
Tom Clements That's okay. But for anybody who's international online, we've got our virtual booth just for you. Yes.
Andrew It's just for me. So you can't buy it.
Everett Hey, you guys, uh, look, I just want to say, I appreciate you guys being here for this episode of 40 and 20, the watch clicker podcast. I want you to check out Clements at Clements watches on Instagram, Clements watches.com. But also check us out, check us, check out our website, watch clicker.com slash 40 and 20. You can check us out on Instagram at watch clicker at 40 and 20. If you want to support us and look, we really hope you do. We need, we need money for, for hosting and those sorts of things. And we are able to keep this going with very little impact to our wives by way of the support we receive on patreon.com slash 40 and 20. It really does keep us going for all of you who are already patrons. We appreciate you.
Andrew We do.
Everett And I guess don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour and some minutes of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.