Episode 215 - 2022: Another Great Year of Watches

Published on Thu, 08 Dec 2022 08:40:59 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts Andrew and Everett recap the major watch releases and trends of 2022, including new colorways from many brands, affordable GMT movements from Seiko and Citizen, the Seiko King Seiko reissue lineup, the Doxa Army, the Christopher Ward Belcanto chiming watch, the Tag Heuer Aquaracer 200, the Laurier Zephyr dress watch, and more. They discuss the significance and impact of these releases in the watch world. Andrew also reviews the movie Bullet Train on Netflix and recommends affordable prescription glasses from Warby Parker.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? Man, I'm so freaking good. I'm like. Top of the world, so freaking good. No, dude, I'm good. Life is Life is amazing, right? There's just, uh, so many things happening right now, but so many of them are good. Uh, add to that's like Christmas is coming. Some of us have decorations up. Some of us don't. You at home can take, take, uh, take from that what you will, but no, I'm doing really well. The, the, excitement I feel for tonight's episode is high also.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew So yeah, all things good. Andrew, how are you doing? I too am good. I'm a little sleepy. I had a weird sleep weekend. It's my weekend. It's Tuesday night. Um, I just had a weird, I just couldn't get my sleep schedule right. Which meant that I was like napping and then not sleeping at night and then napping again during the day and not sleeping at night. So it's just been a little bit, Um, irritating. And it worked out last night because I ended up working for a while. But, um, yeah, just a little, a little tired. And I told Sam today, it's like, look, under no circumstances, can you let me fall asleep before bedtime? Like if you must kill me, then do so. And at 825, I was on the couch and suddenly awoken. I was like, motherfucker, you said you weren't, I don't know. I was like, how did you not, how did you let me fall asleep? She's like, you, I was upstairs. It's like, I mean, I gave you really clear instructions. I don't understand why. Uh, and I felt bad cause I, I fell asleep listening to, uh, our episode from last year for hopes and dreams for 2022 to try to compare against, uh, what actually happened. And you know, I don't know what we talked about. So scrap those plans. Yeah. I laid down, I put my phone on my chest, I turned the volume up, And then I woke up listening to an episode from January of 22. So yeah, that's where we're at. So it was cool. So I slept, you know, probably an hour, which is great. Now I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep, though I'm quite sleepy. Yeah, you'll be fine. We'll give you some melatonin, have a couple of beers. It'll be fine. You know, you say that, but as an expert in this field, yeah. Other than that, I'm good though. It's been, It's been a good weekend. I've gotten quite a bit done. I think I've put the final touches on this year's Christmas decorations. I think every year we try to grow our decorative spirit a little bit. I threw away hundreds and hundreds of feet of Christmas lights. Good for you. That's a hard thing to do. It wasn't. Turns out super easy. Threw them away, replaced some others. We got a big ass 11 foot tree this year. That's good. Yeah. I like the big Christmas tree. The problem is though, uh, the taller you get, the girthier you get. And we have kind of a, we have an interesting spot in our, uh, where we decided to put our Christmas tree that has a pocket door. So we're a little bit limited. And this year our door is, uh, just slightly obstructed by the tree. Obstructed. So I think, I think next year we'll have to adjust the plan on where the tree goes. Cause we, you know, last year we had like a nine foot Christmas tree, which is the biggest tree you've ever had. And we're just going to keep growing. Yeah. Go 15. I think, I think next year we'll, we'll do, we'll have to get a different species of tree, I think. Um, cause we have one of the fur varieties that's real full. Yeah. I like, I like the nobles. I like the nobles for, for the taller trees. They're all, you know, sparse, but in a, in an attractive masculine way. Yeah. So I think we'll end up doing one of those next year. Like Lily Tomlin. Yeah. I think I want to, I think I want to do 15. I think we, I think we could real reasonably if we, if we dedicated the entire room. So we have like a half wall dining room with a, with an open ceiling. I mean our, our front room is two stories tall, which is silly because we could have two extra bedrooms instead of all that open air. But we have that open air. Which means that I feel like I need a 20 foot Christmas tree. Sure. You're, you're, you're obligated by, by way of. Yeah. Having the thing. Yeah. And I, I, my neighbor, I know he does a, he has like a 15 foot artificial tree. Yeah. Um, and it's steel framed and he has a really similar layout to us and he, uh, he has to get his wife on a stepladder and then he goes up onto his landing and has a rope tied to the top of the top section of Christmas tree. and is lowering the top half down, dangling over the landing while his wife positions the tubing together. So I'm going to start a metal band and call it wife on a stepladder. Uh, there's something there. I think that sounds a little bit more like punk band, but yeah. Okay. Maybe sure. Maybe like a ska band. Ooh, yeah. Here we go. Uh, Andrew, with that, I don't, I don't mean to cut you off. We have a lot to talk about. So do cut me off. This is maybe our shortest intro. We're at a six minutes, six minutes. It's been a year. And today we're going to break it down. This is the breakdown of the year in watches that was 2022. Yeah. And it's still 2022, but you know, it's never too early. There's nothing happening. There's nothing new that's going to happen in 2022. Zero. And if there is, we'll round it up. With that said, Andrew, 2022, what happened? Go. Color. Shower happened. Show did. We had so many new releases that were not new releases. Hey, it's the new colorways. And it's and it's so and so introduces red, blue, yellow and orange Easter pastel colors all year from everyone ranging from Rolex to Omega to notice to Zen. everyone had the Easter Colorway special. How do you feel? I like it. I like that everyone, that everyone embraced it. Those aren't for me, but more is more and more is more better. I guess the question I'd have for you is, is it the excitement about the releases or is it the, sort of Me Too aspect of it, or is it something else? Because for me, what this means is that a lot of watches, so for instance, and I think the one that you had sent me perhaps to discuss tonight, or at least the lean image, was the Zen 556, or Sin 556, whatever you'd like to call it. For me, I don't see that as necessarily for watches, although it is for watches. What I see that as is this watch that I love. You can't buy in standard colorways. That's right. In a colorway that I might really like, right? So for instance, for the Zen, I really like that red one. And I'm like, that's cool. I can get a red, red Zen five, five, five, six. And that's dope. And I'm here for it. Well, you can. You can pick them up. They're on sale all the time. I mean, I guess the point I'm trying to make is if you would take a step back and look at this as this is an opportunity to get this watch you really like in a color that you're going to be excited about, that's cool.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew But there's something about the... Drumming it up as a new release was kind of my issue. Or the Johnny come lately aspect of it too, right? Yeah. No, I took issue, I think, with the hype generated around new colorway releases. Sure. That, I mean, I, I understand and expect that a brand doing something new draws attention to it, right? That's how you make money. It felt like a little bit of a cop-out for a lot of these brands who should have been releasing new stuff. Like instead of dropping a new watch or instead of doing something big and exciting, Easter colors. I think that I just think that the hype train was, uh, not exactly aligned with what was being released. You know, it was very reminiscent of tutors blue. Good. And that wasn't exciting. It was cool. Right? Blue Bay 58. That's dope. Does it deserve like teaser posts and ads? And that, that thing is going to sell itself. You don't need to get people excited about it. It's exciting already. So for the, for the year of color, we're going to give that what one and a half thumbs up. Yeah. I'm going to give, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm like, I'm a 75%. That's a passing grade and I'm a full thumbs up. I like the color, but I didn't like the way it was executed. Uh, yeah. Would you, how would you define this year? Yeah. You know, for me, this was the year of, I actually think more so than any year we've been doing this. This was the year of releases that I didn't expect, but that I was absolutely stunned by, floored by, astonished by. So unlike prior years when Tudor released... Blue. Blue. It's pretty okay. This year Tudor kind of came hard. Yeah. They kind of came hard and you're going to want us to talk about the plug was 39 and we're not gonna because the plug was 39 is fine, but it's actually hear me out. Just a fucking Black Bay. It's just a 58 you guys in titanium with with with plug those hands. Okay, so enough about that. I'm pumped about the Tudor Ranger. Yeah, and That was a line that I was really sad that they decided to discontinue. It didn't make sense to me. Yes. And then they made it made sense. And you know, Tudor didn't just do that either. They had their, you know, the Pro. Fine. I don't love that watch. I think a lot of people don't love that watch, but I don't think it's bad either. But for me, the Ranger indicates that Tudor is here for it. Like, we're not just the Black Bay. We're not just the Peli. We're not just the Peli. We're the Black Bay Peli and the Ranger. Yeah, no, I think that that watch is the right size. I think it's the right aesthetic. I think that it does something that I am here for, right? Yeah. I want the North flag and I think it would be absolutely probably the surprise of 2023 if we didn't see something like a North flag hinted at or released in 23. But the Ranger to me says, hi, we're Tudor. We're going to do watches. You're going to be able to buy them. Yeah. And you're probably going to like them. I think the Prince and the Ranger from Tudor are two of its most important lines for that reason. They are, straight Swiss luxury. They're really well made. And they're not the, and I don't, I don't think those are the watches that people think of when they think of Tudor because they put so much money into the Black Bay line. They put so much money in the Pelagos that Tudor is, is kind of perceived as just a sport watch, younger brother Rolex. But then when you see things like even the Black Bay 36, you see the Prince, you see the Ranger, there's this really deep catalog that they're executing really well. And I think they deserve more love. So I think Yeah. Deep catalog, deep cuts. Yeah. Yeah. I've worn a Ranger and I've played with a Ranger. I'm sorry. I know you're still upset about that. And you live across the street from me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have no complaints about that watch. I was going to ask you if you had any complaints, but I'm going to fart in here right now. We're just stuck. What's next? Next thing I want to talk about, and we don't have to spend a lot of time about it, but I was so excited by what Tissot did with the PRX this year and last. And this year, they put the flag on top with the 35 millimeter PRX. and they dropped it in a bunch of colorways. Yes, I am here for it. Somehow, Tissot took this line that existed in their catalog and they made it truly their flagship. That's where they're putting all their money, that's where they're putting all their development, and it's their most forward-facing line, right? It is the thing, and it became the darling of small watch brand people and big watch brand people at the same time. They did this really cool thing in this really affordable package. And I'm, I'm excited to see how they continue to generate this momentum or if, if maybe it's the, and I, and I think honestly the PRX has had its moment in the sun and it's probably just going to be, you know, it's going to be a thing of 2022 but damn it is, It's cool. And what Tiso did this year was really neat with respect to the PRX. And they didn't stop doing other stuff. Tiso kept their momentum going everywhere else, but they did a great job capitalizing on the really grassroots and organic momentum generated by the PRX. And I think that there's something else there. I think it's okay for a brand to have a flagship and to play that flagship hard. You know, it'll be interesting to see Tiso has always seemed like a fairly identity less. Yeah, kind of boring, but company to me, but don't need to be. And, and this feels like for the first time that I've been into watches, Tiso's got a real place and they've got, you know, their flag is in the ground, as you said, and now people have to try to come get it. I'm stoked for this watch. I'm stoked for Tissot, but I think you're probably right. I think we're going to start to see it maybe fade a little bit because at some point, right, it's hard to do a lot with this, but certainly they're not done. I would be surprised if they were done with it. Yeah. It's like a 60, 70 sport watch. If you don't know the PRX, you know, where have you been? Right. Please crawl out of the hole. Yeah. It'll be cool to see what they move with next? Like if they're going to keep this, this vintage feel, the 60s, 70s design feel and use that as their primary catalog driver for future releases, or if this was just a flash that, you know, they had this thing and it happened to coincide with what people wanted at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think we're past, um, I think we're past flashing the pan at this point. Yeah, I mean, there have been no subsequent flashes, so. Right. Sticking with Swatch Group, perhaps we should talk about probably the biggest watch story of the year, which was Omega. Oh, I thought you were talking about Ming. That was this year, right? That was early this year, Ming's fucked up hands. Perhaps. Not something we prepared for the show because not something we're going to talk about, but I do think you're right. No, I'm talking about the other most important story of the year, which was Omega collaborating with Swatch, in-house collaboration. We made a word for that and I can't remember what it was. But the release of the Moon Swatch, which love it or hate it, certainly the watch release of the year, the most important watch release of the year, the most talked about watch release of the year. the most controversial by far. By far. There have been a ton of breakdowns on this release in the last several months. Many of them really critical with the way Omega handled this release or perhaps the way Swatch handled this release. I don't frankly find a lot of value in rehashing that. What we can say though is that this is something that's really cool in what it means for the way Omega Swatch Group is going to handle releases moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. Do you remember a watch being released? A sub? I don't know. Any watch. Do you remember a watch being released that was in this high demand ever? Still today, you cannot buy these. So much of it was artificial, right? I mean, they decided they were going to, only sell out of brick and mortars, which is a really weird decision to make in such a globalized and like div what's the dispersed market, right? If you don't have a swatch store nearby, you're not getting this watch. And they were not apologetic about it. It was like, fuck you go in line, right? Like come into our store. This, this had, you know, pioneering, Technologies in the bioceramic, the it's for them, right? We're talking about the Swatch Group and Omega and Swatch. This is new. It was the it was. I recently complained about Snoopy on a Speedmaster. And I never thought I would I would ever. Have to talk about seeing Swatch on a Speedmaster. But evidently I do. Yeah. Right. This is, this is bizarro land that totally worked. And I think, I think perhaps they just weren't expecting it to work so well. Right. I mean, it was the Disney equivalent of frozen. It's like, yeah, we'll do this. And I'm like, son of a bitch. This is the biggest move of the decade. Yeah. Oh. Oh. We might have fucked this one up. Yeah, you know, I think they're at full capacity on these two. I think they're making these as fast as they can short of, you know, sharply increasing the amount of these that they're making, which probably would have a deleterious effect to their overall plan. I don't think they can make them fast enough to sell them to the people that want them. There was some concern when these came out that they would diminish the value of the Speedmaster. I don't think that that's a real concern. No. It's wholly different. You know, the X33 doesn't diminish the value of the Speedmaster Pro. Sure. The X33 is objectively better. And the Speedmaster Pro is objectively more expensive. But there is something to be said for... I don't know if it's actually more expensive. The fact that... I don't remember a company like this doing something like this, you know, Adam RPK or, or Patek Philippe is not releasing cheaper versions of their flagship watches. And while also putting the branding of that watch on the face, this isn't a redux, this isn't a coat, like this isn't a collaboration in, in the way that we typically see it. This is a, this is a whole line of Speedmaster. made by swatch.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew And it works. This is, this was one of the strangest things and that it worked, I think is, is probably the story here is not like the failings of it, but the success is the story. So I'm going to give the, I'm going to give the moon swatch a thumbs up. I'm giving it two thumbs up. It's super cool. The mission to Mercury is dope. Three thumbs up. I think I'm a Pluto guy or perhaps a Mars. Uh, but I love the Pluto inclusion too, because Pluto hasn't been planet and what, 10, like maybe 10 years. Yeah.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew That's right. And they're like, no, fuck it. Pluto gets its own watch when, when Pluto was a planet. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. This thing is dope and it makes no sense. It makes all the sense. It is a speed master produced by swatch and in no way. devalues or takes away from the the Speedmaster itself. It's just a different iteration. And maybe that's part of the part of it is because the Speedmaster has so many iterations already. You know, we have the pro, which is what we all think of. And we have the reduced and we have, you know, the nine dozen different variations and color ways. And like, I think you could probably find a new Speedmaster every fucking day for a year. And if you kept digging, you would, I think you could probably go further than a year. First time against base, blah, blah, blah. Well, I'm here for it. We've given it three thumbs up. This dope. I like it. Uh, I also talk, wanted to talk about this. So shoot. Do we just start over again? Yeah. Um, so we saw a cool release this year. in the way of an unusual collaboration that kind of drove people crazy. Yeah, I hate it, personally. You know, really reduces the value of the Speedmaster. Plastic Speedmaster. Trash. You can buy the shit out the back door from Ollie, which, by the way, that Ollie out the back door, not out the back door that Will got to see if it was out the back door, was a really good clone. The movement was wrong. Yeah. But it was Omega and Swatch branded. Right. Yeah. Like the photos of it when he bought it, didn't have the Speedmaster logo or the Omega logo at the 12 o'clock. Like on the AliExpress, the listing photos. Yeah. But when he got it, he sent us pictures. I'm like, that's just branded. And then he popped it open to find out that it wasn't, in fact, a It wasn't out the back door, which is fortunate for everyone. Another cool release this year that was about a year in the making was the Doxa Army.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew And it is, you know, super fucking cool. They started with their ceramic release. And that went like hotcakes, as you would expect. Well, it was limited. Yeah. Analog shift limited. Yeah. But then it came in on all steel and honestly it made me really question my future Doxa acquisition. I love the style. I love the story behind it. I love the blue Doxa. I think I might like this one more. Yeah. You're here for it. I'm here for it. This is, I'm 100% on board with it. The, uh, The drama associated with it. It's totally a non-issue for me. Maybe perhaps makes me want it more. Yeah, between this and the Synchron, is there any competition in your mind? If I could get a Synchron, I would. But I like buying brand new in box. Yeah, that's a thing that I have. You know, whatever. I like to be the person to open the box. Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think it's a great watch. 2000 bucks. It's pricelined and spec'd up with every other Doxa, right? I mean, it's a 300T with a different dial. That's right. Which, as between the 300 and the 300T, I prefer the T. Yeah. Yeah, I think this is great, frankly. Yeah, there's not much to say about it, right? It's a Doxa. It's a Doxa. It is exactly what you expect of it. Nothing is going to truly wow you. It's it's just a fucking baller to a watch. You go black bezel or green bezel. Hmm. I go black. Yeah, I think I'm about the black. I really like that green that they've used for this thing. I do, too. I honestly, I would I would go the ceramic if I could. I'm not I'm not a huge fan of the tan photina dial. Yeah, I'd prefer it in white. But I'm apparently a custom dial guy. I like everything about the watch, but the dial color. Whatever. That's just I have a problem. But I mean, I think if I were going to if I were going to get one of these, I would be comfortable getting a ceramic secondhand. I'm here for it, dude. Yeah, these are cool. And they're they're just just weird enough. There's enough story to it. Yeah, this was a cool release this year. I think my favorite release of the year also comes from a company that I think is similar to Doxa in some ways. Doxa, obviously, kind of what I'd say is like a reissue brand, you know, basically revitalized in its modern form by Rick Murray of Synchron. You know, this guy was an enthusiast and he was like, This is this cool brand that needs to be... Needs to be a part of the landscape. Needs to be a part of the landscape. And, you know, in some ways the designs of Doxa are anachronistic and old, but also in some ways they're sort of avant-garde. And I'm here for it. Another brand... They are very, very, very much like Bok Chok. Right? There are these really classic designs that were cutting edge on their inception and have remained so. They just have been, they're just dated. You know, not dissimilar to another brand that had a much different trajectory, but I think in some ways it's similar. And that is Tag Heuer, formerly Heuer, brought from the brink of extinction much earlier without ever... Tom Brady in courts. ...really letting go. Tom Brady in courts, that's right. Tag Heuer has, I think, been maligned in recent years for, you know, just making decisions that were based on the bottom line and not focusing on their watches in the way that a fan of Tag Heuer would wish they would. However, in recent years, Monaco has been reissued, Carrera has been reissued. A lot of iterations of Monaco and Carrera. And in 2021, Tag Heuer re-released the Aquaracer 300, which came out and it was like, oh, damn, this is pretty cool. It's big and it's a lot. This is a more is more watch in some ways. But Tag, you're back. Welcome back to the party, my friend. Welcome back. Tom and Tiger have brought you here. I think this year they put a capstone on that event when they released the 200 meter Aquaracer 200. This, for me, is the Tag Heuer. And some of that's personal to me in my own watch growth and watch story. The Aquaracer was really the watch that sort of I first glommed on to. And in some ways, it was the watch that kind of defined what I like in watches. When they released this last year, I was tentatively excited. They released a quartz version, and then they released the Aquaracer Professional 200 Date. is what they call this thing. I really thought you were gonna get one of these. I was surprised you got a Formex in lieu of this. This is... It's twice as much as a Formex, so let's... Yeah, it's 2,800 bucks. That's right, but I think this is still on the table for me because this does so many things that I really like. The bezel, is that funky sort of... They did not shy away from their DNA. They fully showed up... What's a 12-sided? A dodecagon. It's okay. It's a dodecagon. Dodecagonal bezel. They fully showed up, they said, this is where we come from, this is what we do, 200 meters. The 300 meter watch is too much. The Aquaracer 300 meter watch is big. That's a dive watch. I don't want a dive watch. I want a small watch that I can wear to the office that makes me feel like I could someday, if I felt frisky, get wet, go dig up an underwater treasure. And this is that watch for me. Fantastic movement, caliber five, wonderful finishing, great size, 40 millimeters, all of the things that Tag Heuer should have been doing for the last 25 years reduced to a single watch. Boom, boom, pow. It's not crazy. It's not big. It's not insane. It's a small dive watch that's made to fantastic specifications with a great movement that is affordable. This is The watch, this is my favorite watch of the year, for sure, 100%. It's a cool release. And the off-color lume in blue for the minutes and second hand. Yeah. They do the same thing on the black dial. Yeah. It's just enough. Like BGW9 on the hands and like a C1 or C3, I'm not sure. Yeah, they nailed this. They nailed it. I mentioned, you know, multiples of their ambassadors. I don't think there's another brand that has ambassadors the same way that TAG does. Maybe Tissot. Name Tissot ambassadors. Wow. Hold on. Let me Google it. Yeah, that's what I mean though. I mean, TAG always has these athlete ambassadors. Damian Lillard, Clay Thompson. Clint Capella. Neat. Did you know that before the Googling? Yeah. No, you did not. Yeah, I did. No, because you Googled. I've watched it happen. I can see it in your glasses. And a bunch of people I don't know. Tag Heuer does a really interesting... Tony Parker. Oh my God. They do this really interesting thing with their brand ambassadorships that... Primo. Fucking shit, Everett. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. I'm going to try something different. We should move on. We talked about the Seiko GMT. We should because holy shit. Shit. What? What? What? Here we are. We've been in the last, you know, however long GMTs have been around kind of lamenting the not that long, by the way, right? They're relatively recent invention and they've been expensive. You know, when, um, Baltic and Laurier dropped their GMTs using what at the time was the most affordable movement. And we were looking at sub-thousand dollar GMTs. We were elated. Elated. We were so happy that we now had a GMT, a true GMT movement. And those used to the SoProd, is that right? Yeah, they were both using SoProd. in the relatively affordable category that wasn't quartz, right? Because quartz GMTs are a wholly different game and they exist much more affordably. But we're talking a mechanical GMT movement under a thousand dollars. And obviously there was the bit of the kerfuffle of, you know, the disparity between Laurier's price and Baltic's price. And that's neither here nor there. But the fact is we now have a truly affordable GMT movement in the space, which has encouraged. Well, I don't know. Obviously, Citizen slash Bulova was must have been in development before this thing dropped. But we I assume that the development of one encouraged the other. So now we have two affordable automatic GMTs, which we could expect The Bulova version or the Citizen version already being available in several watches that have come out. And we can assume the Seiko, once production is scaled, also going to be available. Kind of revolutionary. Yeah. So we're looking at a sub $500. Not a sub $500 movement. Sub $500 watches with a mechanical, normally an automatic, but with an automatic GMT movement. This is something to behold. Also the watch is fucking banger. Yeah, no, it's a, it's a, it's a banger. It's it's like, I mean, it's GMT, SKX, right? I mean, there's no other way to describe it. It's the Seiko five, but it's rad dude. It's have you, have you worn one? No. Oh dude. They're rad. I'm sorry. Hey, take it easy. You, you're the one throwing things around, but this is so cool. This is, I think one of the most under the radar, biggest hits of this year was the release of this movement and the pioneering of affordable GMT technology. I cannot wait to see how this is implemented across the affordable watch base because it just made GMTs accessible to all the brands that we know and love at a price point that we're going to be ready to stomach. Can I say two things about this watch? No. You may say one. Okay. This is what I'll say. That was my pick and you stole it. I was, I was angry because I didn't let you talk about the Tag Heuer Ambassadors. No, because you Googled and then talked shit on it. Can I say my other thing? Yeah, you can say them both. I don't remember what it was. But can we talk about Seiko for just a little bit longer? I think we have to. Because there's another watch that Seiko released this year. And instead of being new and cutting edge and bleeding edge, which you don't like, it's old. Yeah. Seiko released something old this year. Seiko released their KSK reissue King Seiko, the SPB2XX lineup. This is a relatively faithful homage to a vintage Seiko, which is not in and of itself notable, right? Seiko does this all the time. That's a thing that they do. But this watch, this watch is important. And I think the context being Grand Seiko was the winner of the King Seiko Grand Seiko sweepstakes and Seiko grew Grand Seiko into a baby. And one day that baby grew wings and it flew away. And it's. Is that a little like weird that they won their own competition? Yes. Because there's some, there's some conflict of interest there. And now the Grand Seiko has, completed the circle by way of detaching itself from mommy and daddy, emancipating itself. Seiko appears poised, if you ask me and you, because you've opined the same, appears poised to have another, a back pocket. Is Seiko just going to like keep spawning luxury, like more expensive than Seiko brands, like just brands that surpass its own ability. And at some point, they're just gonna start making them up. Like, you guys haven't heard of this brand. You might be unaware of Prince Seiko, but Prince Seiko, let us tell you. Yeah, no. So I love this watch. I love it so much that I've put my money where my mouth is and purchased one, which I own. It's my front pocket. Which I now own. And sadly, because of other things going on in my life, I don't wear any watches anymore besides one. But this is a watch that just a few months ago was getting really regular wear. It's small. It's 37 millimeters. It's incredibly well finished. Say what you will about the movement, the 6R movement. That's maybe the only thing left wanting here. Yeah, especially for the price. Not a cheap watch. $1,700 with a 6R, right? Yeah. Just a few years ago, you could get a 6R Alpinist for like $385. So there are... I got one for $400. Right, exactly. So there are some things that don't make sense with this watch that you'd wonder, what are you gonna do here? And frankly, I think Seiko has got a problem. I think that they're... movement selection for their sleeker watches in that mid-range are lacking. I think we see that next year. I think we'll probably see some Seiko movement introductions. One, I think we'll see one movement introduction next year to kind of fill that King Seiko void because there's no way they're unaware of the fact that Alpinists should not be using the same movement as King Seiko. They just shouldn't. Yeah. Well, they don't anymore because the openness get the four R now. Right. But, but that's, but I think, I think they'll correct that. And, and I'm, I'm sure that. Are you predicting a new mid, mid range Seiko movement next year? I'm thinking like a North, like a, like a North of mid range. Yeah. Well, you know, like a three from the line, not a deep three kind of, kind of range movement from Seiko next year to fill that King Seiko void. Cause I think King Seiko was kind of a pilot, right? King Seiko is, what, two years old in earnest. And I think they put it out there to test the waters. I think the waters have shown themselves ripe for that market. And I think as a result, they've got some things in the work to fill out that brand, right? They're not going to reduce the quality of their existing lines and existing brands at large. This was a market test. with King Seiko. It has succeeded. It seems to have succeeded. There's some shit in the pipeline to fill out that brand and to make it fill the void that Grand Seiko created without being a direct competitor of Grand Seiko. We're not talking spring drive shit here. We're talking some cool shit. Otherwise, this brand doesn't make sense. This line doesn't make sense if you are going to create a luxury feel without something to power it in that world. How thick is the 8L movement? Yes. So the problem with the 6R movement... They're a little thick, I think. They're thick boys, right? Let's see here. So the 8L... Are you going to give me dimensions here? Caliber corner? Uh, this fucking dial though. God, I don't think caliber corner is going to give me dimensions. The problem with the 6R is, is chonky boy. And, and your, your prediction here, I think is a little cray. Um, but it could be that you're right. It could be that it doesn't make any sense to, to create a line underpowered. Right. It makes sense to test the line. to test the the new brand effectively without without its full strength. But they've seen the ass that King Seiko is generating, and I think they're going to power it. I think they had something in the works. They wanted to pilot King Seiko to see how it worked while the finishing touches were put on this movement. I think we'll see something really cool from Seiko next year. That'd be cool, man. You know, the 8L movement, I'm struggling to find a dimension on it. But if there was a way for Seiko to take this movement and, you know, dumb it down a little bit, make it a little less nice, but also retain some thinness. But the 8L, I feel like the 8L is usually used in like big boy watches. So I doubt it's super thin. Yeah. The bottom line is Seiko needs a thinner movement, right? They do. And they have it. I'm sure they do. They're just finishing it. What do you got, buddy? Deep breaths. My favorite watch release of this year? It's not the Tag Heuer? No. The C1 Belcanto. From Christopher Ward. Never heard of it. You know, it most people haven't, you know, it's it kind of came in under the radar. And it's not until that instantly, it's not particularly special, right? Kind of a boring release from Christopher Ward. We all know Christopher Ward dropped a repeater. A chiming repeater, our repeater, and You know, this might be an unpopular opinion. I'm not a big fan of the looks. It looks very skeleton to me. It looks very like Richard meal. Why the fuck is this on the dial of my watch? But the more you look at it and the more you understand about it, I'm like, okay, this makes sense. This, this is a space view for chiming hour repeater. I accept the reason this is my favorite release of the year is number one, because the space view, what do you mean by that? Hey, this is a really cool thing that we've done. Look at what we've done, right? This, the space view didn't emerge has design, right? This, the, the bowl of a space view, was a dial-less watch that was meant to show people the movement to see how cool it was. And then they would order it with dials. Like, what's going to go in this thing and cover this movement? It was so popular, exposing that movement, that it became a watch to show the inner workings of the thing. That's what Christopher Ward did here. They wanted you to see the inner workings of why this is. Hmm. Right. It's not an open heart. It's not a skeleton. It's a look at what we were able to accomplish at a somehow affordable price. Yeah. Extremely affordable for what's going on here, for what's going on here. Right. You look at comparable chiming watches. And we're not even in the same sport. This is my favorite release of the year because of the passion, the work that went into making this technology accessible. It makes me really, really excited for the pressure that it puts on other brands to innovate in the way that Christopher Ward just did. It is super fucking cool. It's not easy to tell the time. It's not right. It's a whatever. It's effectively a 12 o'clock sub dial secondary to tell the time, but you will be alerted every hour. This is so. So fucking cool. Affordable hotel is what this is. Yes, this is a game changer for the. Accessible market. So I think affordable is a bit of a stretch for this. Right, this is still a stretch. Big reach, big purchase. Yeah, sure, sure. So what is 3500? Yeah, 30 north of three.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Right. This isn't a cheap watch. I shouldn't be because this is some shit right here. They changed the game. They did something huge. And I cannot wait to see what's next. You know, if you're, if you're not regularly hobnobbing with important people in the industry like we are, you may not know this, but, uh, this is, I'm joking by the way, for you at home, I'm joking. We just hobnobbed with each other. Uh, you know, this, I, I don't know that this indicates what is coming for Christopher Ward in any meaningful way. No, I don't, this, this isn't going to turn Christopher Ward into like. Jacques Hedreau. Yeah, no, we're not going to see like Chopard and like this, they're not going to turn into that. But it reveals, it reveals something about Christopher Ward that I think is important. So Jorg Bader, who is I don't know what his title is, but he's sort of the face of... Yorg, that's his title. His title is Yorg. He is sort of the face of their watchmaking efforts. And Yorg is more excited about this watch than he is about the Aquitaine or the Sealander or any of their other sort of made for... Those were inconveniences. Those were inconveniences. This is what he wants to be doing. This is what he loves. And this isn't the first watch that he's sort of taken off and really flexed on, but this is the one that I think he's the most proud of. And so knowing that he's such, knowing that he's such an important part of the brand and that he's such an important part of what they're doing, I think this showcases something about what Christopher Ward's priorities are and it's meaningful in that sense. And yeah, if you weren't impressed by the super compressor. And if you weren't impressed by the moon phase shit they're doing, because those are, it's kind of easy to miss those, right? Like, like the super compressor. I don't even think anybody, I don't think people totally realize how important that watch is. No, they just overlooked it. They're like, Oh, that's neat. This is impossible to miss. Christopher Ward is a legit watch company making making legit watches, and this puts a point on that. And they're, and they're demonstrating to the horology world that it can be done. You don't have to be ninth generation made in the foothills of the Alps watches to be fucking legit. Although Jörgen is kind of that. He is that, but you also, You also don't have to be charging $25,000 for this shit. This can be done at relative scale with relative affordability. And it's dope. This is my favorite watch of the year because it's maybe the most important small brand watch that's been released in the last decade. So I bought a watch a few years ago at a wind-up event that was from a company called Solabs. Ooh. It was a plastic watch. Are you taking my thing? A hundred percent. You fucker. And at the time we talked to, out or around that time, we had Rick and Andrew, Andrew being a bastard in banks, Rick being the sort of design influence of Solabs, one of our most favorite and drunkest episodes of 40 and 20 of all time. If you haven't listened to it, I recommend you go back and do so. With that said, we knew at the time that they were working on an automatic steel version of their layer watch and they did it. They did it. They did it. They released it. We've had hands on. They kind of debuted it at wind up this year in October. I like it. It existed. Right. But it was sort of debuted and brought forth in October at wind up the layer two series. SW220. Which is a which is a fucking rad movement, by the way. Yeah. 10 Atmos. Like this is this is all the things you liked about Solabs with the full correction of the things that you were kind of like, I'm not quite sure about this thing is dope. It fits great. It wears great. It's somehow both understated and quirky somehow at the same time. And it all moves. That whole dial is constantly moving. It's so fucking cool. You know, uh, There is a certain something about this watch. You've got this variation on the colors on that back layer that I don't even fully understand, but the influences here are obscure, a little bit tricky to pull out. The design though, the actual design is something to marvel at. This is different than any watch that exists. Which is not to say it's revolutionary, but it's unique. And I really like that. Without being fucking weird, right? There's a lot of unique watches out there that I'm like, cool. Yeah, that is unique. You did something. Not cheap. $1,300. One of the things about the Soleps that I liked, the original layer, the layer one, Was this is aren't 1300 bucks. These are 965 money. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. That's an important, that's a, that's a $400 difference. And that's important. These are under a thousand dollars right now on pre-order. Oh yeah. $1,300 is the retail price. Yes. So under a thousand today, pre-order for January delivery. I think that they have all of these still available. I'm looking. I'm trying to, yeah, you can add them all to the cart right now. Five colors. We've got, well, they all have names. Obsidian Frost is their PVD'd out. Charcoal Fog, Iced Oatmeal, Iron Flamingo, and Plum Punch. Of these, Iced Oatmeal is my favorite, although my least favorite name, followed closely by Plum Punch. I like the iron flamingo. It's kind of gray with black and a little bit of pink flourishes like a flamingo, which wouldn't make sense because it's called iron flamingo. Andrew, have we done it? Uh, no, no, no, no, no. I have one more. Oh God. Okay. I'm sorry. I see it. The Laurier Zephyr. How about that? It is their, how about that? Their straight dress watch, right? It is, A. I. Rectangular. Like fat rectangle. Tonneau. You know, a tonneau is a barrel. That is a barrel. I understand that. I think tonneau is maybe one of the worst definitions of a case shape that could ever be made because tonneau could describe everything from this to a bocktock, right? But if there is a tonneau, this is it. Tonneau is literally barrel. That is, that's not what a fucking barrel looks like. Have you ever looked at a barrel? That's a barrel. That is barrel shaped. Okay. That's barrel shaped. No, you're right. Um, so the first in 40 and 20 history ever, it was right. Yeah. And I accept it. I don't like it, but I accept it.
Everett Oh,
Andrew Six pack is escaping me while I try to retrieve a beer. 31 millimeter case, eight millimeters thick, 42 long, and it's gorgeous, right? It has all of the dial texture that you've come to expect from Laurier, which is kind of their thing, right? Like Laurier does these very, very 60s, 70s style designs with acrylic crystals, but I would define Laurier by their dial texture. Heavy waffles. Super heavy waffles. This is, you know. Sort of like a rose turned. Yeah. Rose turned is absolutely the right choice. The finishing on this is great. When I saw pictures of it, I was excited about it. I didn't fully appreciate this watch until I put it on in person. And this thing is money. Like this is. The dress watch. The only thing I don't like about it, though, not enough loom. Which tracks? I'm joking. Yeah, because there's none loom, like exactly none. They could pipe it in maybe into the into the texturing of the dial and do a full loom roast turn dial. There's something there, right? There's maybe there's maybe some potential to make this a sport watch. It's not a sport watch. It's very, very different from Laurier's lineup. But it has all of the Laurier DNA. This sits perfectly next to the rest of their lineup. And I'm excited to see the dress watch feel kind of re-emerging. You know, we last year, maybe two years ago, we did a lamentation to the dress watch. The dress watch is dead. It's dead. And it hath been. It's been dead for a time. Laurier is doing something to try to revive it. And it's super cool. This was a. Release this year, they got me super excited. This was my third favorite pick of the year with the celebs layer to being my second favorite pick of the year. Of releases, this is this is a great watch. Check it out. Ninety twenty nine, two hands. Yeah, this is a two hand watch. You guys, this is a true dress watch. Less hands, more better. I could have been on the show on record. before saying I think I would be okay with a single hand watch. And legibility is here too. Yeah. And it's gorgeous. Beautiful watch. Blued hands like the, like Santos blued hands. It's gorgeous. $4.99 on pre-order now. It comes in a beautiful white, a lovely black and like a black gilt. Yeah. I'm not a fan of the gilt. Not a fan. Interesting. And what are we going to call that third color? I'm trying to find it. Burgundy? What do they call it? That's what I'm trying to find, what they call it. Yeah. We don't, they don't care what we call it. It's red. I think I'm going to call it burgundy, but it's, it's also red. Pino. Pino, is that what they call it? That's what I call it. Oh, fair enough. Yeah. The white is the, is the money shot though, for sure. Andrew, have we done it? Did we round it up? Did we recap it? Are we done? Can we move on? It would appear that we have done it. To 2023. Yeah. 2022 is done. Done. We have announced our favorite releases, the biggest news, and recapped what was a really exciting 2022 for watches. Yeah. Agreed. Some shit went down this year. My favorite year in watches since since we've been doing this.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Thanks, 2022. Mm hmm. Andrew, other things. What do you got? Oh, I got another thing. As I discussed earlier, I have had some sleeping problems this week, which means that I watched a lot of television while trying to tire myself. I saw a news article recently that was like that you need to watch this next Netflix movie today. I watched Bullet Train. Oh, interesting. I've heard terrible things. And I sort of expected to hate it. Brad Pitt, correct? Yep. Brad Pitt. So it is a David Leitch of Deadpool and uh, I think Knives Out, right? He did. Yeah, that sounds right. Uh, so he, he's a John Wick fella, Deadpool, um, Bullet, obviously he did Bullet Train. Um, He's been there, right? He's been peripheral to a lot of these things. He's been there. And he started it. And Brad Pitt's kind of in this weird phase in his career where he like, I don't know, he's like trying to shirk off being one of the dudes of his generation. I think back to Burn After Reading where he's just like this goofy fuck. Yeah. it doesn't make any sense for Brad Pitt, but he wanted to do it, which means he got to do it. And as like, it was just weird. Um, so start this movie, Brad Pitt is again, this kind of goofy fuck. And then they start introducing these characters and it has this like interesting collision between like a, um, a Tarantino super small space because Tarantino's movies are often in like really restrictive spaces, right? Hateful Eight is what comes to mind immediately. Reservoir Dogs is another good example. You know, his part of Four Rooms, his entire story really happens in this confined space. But then he tells the story outside of this space, though it's occurring in this really small space. This movie is occurring on a bullet train as it's traveling through Japan. It had a very Tarantino feel, but collided with Ocean's Eleven with this huge cast of these people with these big personalities. And the more I watched it, I was like, oh, I kind of am OK with what's happening. It's a phased story that is it. They did this really interesting job of. slow revealing things and then backtracking to why that thing matters, like in a very Tarantino esque feel, but in a pace that made sense. And I was shocked by how enjoyable this movie was. It's not a good movie. Okay. I want to be super clear. Like this isn't a cinematic masterpiece. This is just a really entertaining, fun, kind of bring you along with the ride. movie and it it worked. It was really well acted. All the characters you hated but simultaneously were rooting for. And you were kind of the whole time wondering, right, that like. You didn't know what was going to happen. This wasn't a super predictable movie. I mean, it was predictable in so much as you knew how it was going to end. You just didn't know how they were going to get you there. And that was fun. I dug it. It's on Netflix right now. It is worth the two hours of your time, especially if you can't sleep. This was, this worked. I was, I was like actually really surprised by how well it worked. I'm going to watch it, but it, it worked bad things. And now I'm excited because the bad things are all totally valid. Yeah. Whatever, right? This is enjoyable. I'm good with it. And that's it. It's kind of Kill Bill-esque, right? Where like you get these forward and back flashes and you're not and you know, right? You're not unlike Kill Bill where you're not entirely sure where you are in time. You know where you are in time, because if you're on the train, you're on the train, you're in the modern time. But things kind of push around and they move around. And there's these personalities that all have histories together. It was is fascinating. Andrew, you know why I think we're the best watches podcast around? Why? Because we record in the same room. I think we're the only watches podcast that I can think of that regularly records in the same room. And there's something that happens in a room with you that wouldn't happen if we were over zoom or whatever. Yeah. You'd be judging me a lot right now. I would. Yeah. A hundred percent. Uh, I've got another thing. It's cause of the no pants. I'm at my house. I don't have to wear pants. I have in the last year ordered. Dude. Well, I, I, I, So let's go back 18 months. I am, uh, I am a person who wears glasses on my face because without them I can't see, uh, which means I need to have at any given time, at least two pair of glasses. I need to have a pair of sunglasses with your level of responsibility. I would say three and I need to have a pair of clear glasses. Um, I can't wear transitions because I am not a psychopath, but, um, I do see the appeal there. I need to always have two pair of glasses. Oh, I hate them. I hate seeing the semi-smoked lenses. My dad has a pair of transitions and I make fun of him. Yeah, yeah. Only psychopaths wear transitions. With that said, I'm also not the most careful guy in the world. Let's just put it there. I'm kind of clumsy. I'm sort of forgetful. I can admit these things. You're a little bit careless with your things. I'm a little bit careless with my things. But you know what though? That means you're living in the moment. You fully enjoy that fucking moment that you're living in and future effort can deal with the consequences. So regularly I find myself ordering glasses. Glasses cost a lot. A lot, right? Sunglasses cost a lot. Even just regular glasses cost a lot. I recently found myself in the need of a pair of glasses, and so I ordered a pair of glasses from Warby Parker, which is a company that I've heard of a billion times and had just never done it, right? The quality is going to be suspect, blah, blah, blah. And that checks out, right? These things are not like, these things are not fantastic glasses. However, for 95 bucks, you can get a pair of single vision lenses delivered to your house. You can oftentimes try before you buy. Would your prescription try before you buy? No, no, no. No, it's purely get really close to the mirror and see if you look okay or take a picture of yourself. But you can often do that. I've sort of figured out what I like in glasses, so I'm able to just go say, oh, these ones will work and I order them and for 95 bucks. So I'm now on my fourth pair of these because two pair, literally two pair have been eaten by the dog. I lost a pair, another pair got stolen. So what's going on with the lenses you're wearing right now? Dog. Okay. Uh, with that said, I have found this process to be incredibly easy. It takes a little time from the time you order them. I'd say you're about three and a half weeks to the time you have glasses in your hand, which is a long time if you don't have glasses trust, but yeah, 95 bucks, 95 bucks for very good. For frames and lenses. Full meal deal. I'm not even submitting these to insurance at this point. That's some next level shit. Copping. And I think it's one of those things. The reason I'm talking about my other things is because I've been a glasses wearer for years and have never done this before. And there's other companies that do similar things. Warby Parker is the one that I'm now familiar with and they've got eight billion lenses. or excuse me, 8 billion frames. They've got all the options that you want. They have Dahmer glasses. They also have a try on virtually option, which I'm trying to allow my permissions so I can try on some glasses. Yeah, I'm skeptical that that actually is a meaningful thing. With that said, the quality has been great. Some of the frames are better than others. the more expensive. So there's some that cost about 200 for frames. Those are better than the hundred dollar versions, but the hundred dollar versions are fine. Especially if you go through glasses as fast as I do. Um, man, I'm telling you, if you're a glasses wearer and you haven't tried Warby Parker, give it a shot. You upload your prescription. They do a weird thing with your camera to measure your pupillary distance. You order your glasses.
Everett Boom, boom, pow.
Andrew They get delivered three weeks later. You have new glasses. 95 bucks. I'm not getting paid by Warby Parker, although I should. Yeah, the opposite. How many you buy from them? Speaking of not getting paid, we do have some sponsors for this episode. Show do. This episode of 40 and 20 The Watch Clicker podcast is brought to you by Escapement Media. If you're starting a new watch brand or have an existing watch brand, Escapement Media has your photography and video needs covered. Once you see the photos, you won't be able to escape. Check Escapement out at escapementmedia.com. By Foster Watches, great effing watches. Check out the 11 Atmos Skin Diver, now on sale at fosterwatches.com. And by Franco Fronte Photography, offering images and videos of real watches on real adventures. Your favorite divers from a hundred feet below to 14,000 feet up. Now accepting underwater bookings for March of 2023 at affrontography.com. Links for all of those available in the show notes. If you would like to advertise on 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast, send us an email at hello at watchclicker.com. And thank you. for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the watch clicker podcast, check us out at our website, watch clicker.com. That's where we post weekly reviews, articles, all the good stuff. You can also check us out at Instagram at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. That's an old story. If you'd like to support what we're doing here, you can do that at patreon.com. Look guys, that's how we afford all the microphones that I'm bashing and the hosting fees and everything else. If you want to support us, we'd love it. And don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.