Episode 222: 3 Watches for $1,000

Published on Wed, 25 Jan 2023 23:33:10 -0800

Synopsis

The speakers, Andrew and Everett, host a podcast where they discuss watches, food, drinks, and other topics. In this episode, they each select three watches under a budget of $1,000 that would form a well-rounded collection. Andrew's picks include the Traska Freediver dive watch as the cornerstone, the Veyr C3 quartz field watch, and a modded Casio G-Shock with a Royal Oak-style case. Everett's choices consist of the Marathon Navigator's watch, a JDM Citizen ProMaster Land titanium watch, and the Timex Todd Snyder Blackjack watch. They analyze the rationale behind their selections, highlighting the unique features and quirks of each watch.

Additionally, Andrew shares his thoughts on the movie "Violent Night," and Everett discusses the HBO series "The Last of Us," praising its compelling storytelling and strong performances.

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 I'm doing well. We don't talk enough about food. We talk about watches, drinks, you talk about food. Well, cause I do a lot of cooking. Yeah. Well, I do a lot of cooking too, but I just, uh, I talk to you about it. I just don't talk to... Sometimes.
Andrew Yeah. I think I do a lot more explorative cooking.
Everett And I do more, I do more like, okay, look at all the things in the fridge, figure out a way to put them in a single bowl where they taste okay.
Andrew Yeah. And I do really deliberate. menu against grocery shopping planning. Like I know every dinner we're going to eat through the end of the month. I don't ever do that. We've reduced food waste that way. It lets me be like, we don't have those like bullshit. God, it's six o'clock. We both just had a long day. What are we going to do? Pizza hut deliveries, like even pizza hut is deliberate.
Everett Cool.
Andrew Oh, hey, we finished all of our like what we were planning for. I the next menu item requires slow cooking. We're going to have pizza tonight.
Everett So, yeah. Well, in any event, we should maybe I should maybe make more of an effort to talk about food because it's one of the things that we promise people every single week for two hundred and eight billion weeks at this point. Uh, we've promised. And, and, and frankly, I just haven't, I haven't been picking up the slack there and I'm sorry.
Andrew I'm sorry. I got a cookbook from Jet Tila. This is not my other thing. And those of you unfamiliar with Jet Tila, he is an Asian American chef and TV personality, oft featured on Cutthroat Kitchen as a judge. He has a, maybe this was another thing.
Everett I think it was.
Andrew I think it maybe was. It is a killer recipe book. But one of the recipes in there is, as he calls it, the last pad thai recipe you'll ever need. And he's not wrong. It is terrific.
Everett I mean, legitimately, how many pad thai recipes do you need?
Andrew Well, I don't know. I mean, like. Just one. I think if if you experiment with it, because it's not it doesn't taste quite the same as Like that shitty Thai place down the street. You know, it's not as sticky. It's not as sweet. It's a little bit more tart, a little bit more bright.
Everett And I really dig it. I like a really like a really tart Pad Thai. Yeah. But you do need sweetness, though.
Andrew You need it. You need some. But it needs to be balanced. And this recipe is killer. I think I've made it like eight times.
Everett You got to have good fish sauce, too. That's the other thing. Pad Thai requires a good fresh Fish sauce.
Andrew You know, I haven't really experimented with fresh versus unfresh fish sauce. Fish sauce.
Everett I mean, I think it's boils. I think fish sauce boils.
Andrew So I mean, it probably does, but I don't ever get the big bottles of it. And I use enough of it that I exhaust it before, you know, but it is a very good recipe. I'll send you a picture of said recipe. Perfect. Perfect. Andrew, how are you? I am good. It's Wednesday, which is unusual for us. Uh, so I worked today, so I'm a little tired. It's been a long day. Uh, and it was a training day, but it was, you know, man, you remember that movie? Yeah, I do. It was exactly like that movie. That's the craziest part.
Everett But you didn't die. No. Or get beat up or whatever happens to him at the end there.
Andrew He doesn't, you know, Oh, what does happen?
Everett You know, it's been a long time.
Andrew I might watch that tomorrow. Um, cause tomorrow's nap day. Tomorrow I go back to work in a night, which means I get to wake up in the morning, send everyone off to school, start drinking right away and take a very long nap, which is, you know, people think nap like, Oh, I fell asleep for 40 minutes. It's like, no, I'm going to sleep for four and a half, five hours to reset and go into, into night mode. Yeah, really. It's, it's your, It's my sleep. Your sleep. It's my sleep cycle. So, uh, and that's, yeah, so, um, I'm good. I'm a little, I'm a little tired, but other than that, you know, pretty great. That's it. You look good. Yeah. I'm drinking exotic pineapple as you've already heard. Topo Chico. Topo Chico hard seltzer. And, uh, when I first discovered this is when I became, uh, no longer bothered by your keto-ness.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Cause this is, this is good. Yeah, it's better in the summer. It's not a very good cold weather beverage, but it'll do.
Everett Sick. Sick. Turns out we're talking about watches today.
Andrew Which is an unusual turn for us at six minutes.
Everett Turns out we're talking about watches. We're going old school today.
Andrew With a bit of a rebrand.
Everett with a bit of a rebrand. And I like it. I think it's a good direction that we've taken it. So today we're talking about three watches for a thousand dollars. Now, when we used to do this, we were pretty, um, we were pretty aggressive with our rule setting. Uh, you know, none of this, none of this. And I think this was the hardest. That was for sure. Oh my God. This is, for me, this was the hardest one of these that we've done. I struggled today. I had a really hard time. We gave ourself a bigger budget.
Andrew Which is the problem.
Everett Theoretically, it should be easier. It's not.
Andrew It's not. It opens up so many doors.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew You know, at 600 bucks, you have, you know, effectively $200 per watch or a cornerstone $400 watch. And $200 watch. And $200 to work with. Opening it up to $1,000. gives you this huge, huge catalog to work with. But also because you have that extra money, you're like, man, I think I should be a little bit more deliberate about at least one of these picks. It was hard for me too.
Everett I think we got better watches today than we would have been a three for six. Much. But yeah, I struggle, I struggle bust a little bit. So three watches for $600 old school 40 and 20 with a modern twist. There's going to be something for everybody today. I can, I can almost guarantee that now we have talked about our philosophy in the past regarding these. This is if give me this much money today, tell me what I have to do with it. Say I give me an X amount of time to get it done. And what three watches am I going to buy? Um, And this assumes that we don't have any watches either. So with that in mind, talk to me a little bit about your, before we get into the watches, because we're going to get into watches.
Andrew We're going to get there.
Everett Talk to me a little bit about your philosophy. How'd you approach today? And what was your process?
Andrew So my process was meticulously drawn out on a legal pad. And it just kind of began like, okay, what if I'm trying to begin a collection of watches, a catalog of watches to sit on my watch box, in my watch box, on my dresser, what do I want? And what kinds of things am I looking for? And I appreciate some durability. right? Some functionality. And I'm not just talking about like, like I don't need to be able to hit my watch with a hammer, but I would like it to be able to get wet. I'd like it to be able to mow the lawn and one of them be versatile. I want to be able to wear them and not feel concerned. So that was, that was kind of front of mind. It's like these, these are the watches I'm going to be wearing. This isn't a special occasion watch. This isn't a, you know, a safe baby. kind of thing. We're talking functional, wearable, all the time watches. Okay. So that's, that's where my head starts. All right. Well now we need to start thinking about some styling. Cause I'm just imagining like me not doing what I do for a living, but doing what I've done in the past for a living. Okay. So I need something that's reasonable, not crazy and loud. And something that I'm going to wear. It's not going to get in the way. I'm not going to feel weird about wearing it. First and foremost, and honestly, this is my first pick, was, OK, we got to have a quartz. Grab it, throw it on. I'm late for work. I don't need to wind it. I don't need to set it. It's just on. Then I want to have a little bit of a techie, toolie watch, something that's going to be Real durable, real fun, but but not like helium release valve. Right. Crazy. You know. Right. Right. And my last watch, I was like, OK, let's do something. Kind of quirky. Definitely cool. That takes a little bit of investment, not not necessarily financially, but like I'm going to do something kind of neat and go just just a layer deeper. than buying off the shelf. Because that kind of rounds it out, right? That solidifies the kind of dorky thing that we do, which is nerding out about watches. So I went with a little bit of a cheat, kind of out of your playbook, a little bit of a cheat for my last watch.
Everett It's fine. I love it. As you know, I'm all about the cheats. And in fact, I almost used a 10% code today. I didn't. I didn't wind up doing that, but yeah, I love it.
Andrew So anyway, that was mine, like a well-rounded. Nerdy and simultaneously really functional collection of watches that are going to carry you for a long time, and they're also going to span some diversity and functionality, they're going to span some diversity in pricing, and you're going to get to see that what really happens between two and six hundred dollars in the way of finishing, in the way of design, in the way of construction value. and create that like, oh, okay, this is what happens here in this Delta between two and $600.
Everett All right. I like it. I like it. I took a different approach today.
Andrew You did?
Everett I took a different approach today than I've ever taken before in this task. And I did a thing, which I'll talk about later. I did a thing that surprises me still as I sit here today. And we'll unpack this as we move through. But I had a hard time today, as I said. And I think the reason I had a hard time today is because I got weird with it. And I started weird.
Andrew Yeah, you kind of painted yourself into a corner.
Everett I painted myself into a corner. And so I didn't have any rules when I started. I just picked a watch. And I was like, this is one of my watches. And so as I approached this thing and as I built out the rest of these things and I stuck by my watch, I stood by my man, and that forced me to think about what I was going to do today. So I did have some rules. I did have some rules. Obviously three watches, a thousand bucks, those are out of the way. I wanted each of these watches to be interesting. I wanted each of these watches to be meaningfully different. And I wanted to have at least one pretty good bracelet. So with that in mind, where I ended up is kind of weird. I normally gravitate towards automatic watches. I don't have a single mechanical movement in my picks today. These are all, these are all quartz watches. They had to be cool. They had to be interesting. They had to be different and I needed to have one bracelet.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, that, that is a really good summation of what I'm looking at.
Everett So with that in mind, Andrew, do you want to kick us off here? Because it, well, let's see.
Andrew Let's start with our cornerstone, what we built our collection around, like the thing that limited us. Yeah. Because that was the important watch in the collection.
Everett What's your cornerstone here?
Andrew Mine? It's a dive watch. Sure is. I went with the Traska Free Diver, specifically in stone gray.
Everett It's a beautiful watch. Now, this is a lot of money.
Andrew Yeah, which is why it was my limiter, right? This, this wasn't my first pick. This is what I landed on and then became my limiter. Here's why I picked it. Dimensions are great. 40 and a half K size, 48 lug to lug, a 20 to 16 taper bracelet. And I can speak from actively wearing it experience that the Traska bracelet is off the
Everett hook. Totally rad. It's a 40 and 20 watch. This is a true 40 and 20 watch. Exactly.
Andrew The design is a little boring, which is my jam. Yeah. Right. There's nothing big or explosive or groundbreaking about it.
Everett This is an absolutely boring watch in the best possible way. Yes.
Andrew The most exciting thing happening on the dial is the Trasko logo. The, um, what do you call that? Like the Celtic kind of knot?
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Weave thing.
Everett Yeah. Well, I'll say I really like Trasko's markers on this. It's got these dimensional markers and I think they're fantastic.
Andrew Yeah. They're like, they're everything about this watch is just perfectly boring and perfectly thought out and I love it. And that's what makes it such a good diver for me. Great loom, great dimensions, great functionality. The water resistance you want, it's got 200 meters of water resistance. We went a little bit different with a gray dial, right? It's not white, it's not black, it's not blue. It's a little bit different. The black bezel. And here was what was important to me and why I went Traska. Their hardening is Terrific.
Everett Yeah. I mean, Traska does so many little things, right? They make watches that we call boring, but I think that's a little unfair because this is a gorgeous watch, but it's not going to blow your mind. You don't look at this and think, whoa, what is that? The opposite. You look at this and think, yeah, that's a nice looking watch, but you've got the perlage on the clasp. You've got that scratch-resistant coating.
Andrew Which to this day, so we're looking at over a year, I have no life marks on this watch. This could be sold as like new.
Everett Like new.
Andrew That's right. And I'm wearing a commuter today. So just to finish painting that scene.
Everett You got the female end links. You've got great loom everywhere. Everywhere. Loomed on the bezel or two, right? Fully articulating bracelet. I like how they do the picture of the bracelet all sandwiched up.
Andrew Yeah. It's money. This was my cornerstone watch because it was the most expensive. Like I said, it's not the first watch that I picked, but it's the tool watch, the true tool watch, the tool appearing watch. It's got a bezel. You're going to learn all about how you feel about bezeled watches, and you're going to have a watch that you can bang around and not be worried about it.
Everett You know, and if you live in a semi-casual world, if you're not ever formal in your attire, this is an everyday watch. This is a absolutely perfect everyday watch, as long as you're okay with a bezel, with a dive bezel. And I think a lot of people in 2023 are okay with that.
Andrew Yeah. And I think you ought to be, because it's perfectly sized. It's a lovely watch.
Everett Perfect.
Andrew Okay. What about you?
Everett I mean, let's just say that's a boring pick.
Andrew It's that, but I am a boring guy, so I'm going to recommend to you the most boringest watches you can imagine and you're going to love them.
Everett So I can't say the same for my first pick, my cornerstone, the watch that put me in a corner, the watch that boxed me in. This watch is not boring. So what this is, is a watch from a Canadian company called Marathon. And they say, commonly known as the pilot's navigator with a date nav D. So I went with the date version.
Andrew You went with the date nav D. That's what I'm talking about.
Everett I went with the sage green pilot's navigator from Marathon. I went with sage green because I really like the sage color. It's green and not black, but it's a very dark green and it can play black, I think.
Andrew It's about as green as green can get before it turns black.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. So this is a watch that was designed in a partnership with the Air Force back in the 80s. It's got tritium.
Andrew I love trit tubes. I just love it.
Everett It's got a Swiss, a high torque at a movement, the F06 movement, which is actually a really cool, it's actually a really cool movement. Now with Sapphire. Huge upgrade. Now with Sapphire. Um, it's got this, what they call a composite fiber shell. It's a resin cased watch, but, but by all accounts, a pretty hard resin, uh, 60 meters of water resistance, which I think is going to be fine for just about everything short of snorkeling, snorkeling, maybe, um, and maybe even that, uh, bi-directional bezel, bi-directional friction bezel. Um, not a dive watch. but certainly has a bit of a dive watch aesthetic with that bezel. Great. That classic asymmetric case, kind of a Benris style thing, but it's a marathon style thing.
Andrew This is all marathon pilots watches. This is maybe the 10th time you've talked about a marathon watch. And I don't understand why you haven't bought one.
Everett So, uh, this watch is weird. It's weird, but it's really freaking cool. But this is your banger. And so what a weird watch to start the collection off with. I don't know why, but today, today I was like, I'm starting with the Marathon and that's it. This is the watch I'm getting. I'm starting here. This is the cornerstone of my collection, which creates some problems moving forward.
Andrew Some real problems. I love this watch. Because it's $480. Oh, we didn't mention the free diver is $600.
Everett $600. And this is $480. So I'm not quite, but I'm getting pretty close to half of my budget with watch one. Man, I'll tell you, you can't put a bracelet on this thing. It's fixed lugs. Fixed lugs.
Andrew But it's got all the cool factor of having a national stock number. Yes. Of being a true, not just a military inspired watch, but a true military designed intention behind it. Watch. That's right. The bi-directional friction is because of like, that's what you're, you need that bi-directional friction bezel for navigating purposes.
Everett And, and, and they sell these with the U S government dial or without you get a choice. It doesn't cost you anything different. uh you can either get uh their the issue nylon or the little bit softer standard nylon and that's it you you you get to choose weird things when you pick it has the uh uh the the nuclear hazard because of the tritium yeah uh warning label at three o'clock because it's got tritium in it
Andrew The only concern I've ever had with Tritium is the half-life, right? So when you start losing loom on it, your choice is to accept that you have no loom anymore or replace the entire dial.
Everett Yeah, that's right. I mean, the loom isn't going to last forever. And with this one, you do get loom at the markers. You get this orange at the 12. It looks really cool for so long as it works.
Andrew And it may not work for forever. But BGW-9 is not going to work forever either. It just might outlive tritium tubes.
Everett So that's where I'm at. That's where I started. 41 millimeters, 20 millimeter lugs. Not a true 40 and 20, but close enough for government work.
Andrew It's 43.6.
Everett 43.6 with the crown.
Andrew Yeah. Which you have to count because the crown guard is one side of the case.
Everett I think it's 40. 41 with the crown guards. 41 at the crown guards. So it probably wears more like a 39. What? Because of the asymmetric case size.
Andrew Maybe, yeah.
Everett Yeah, it's 41 at the crown guards, 43 and change at the crown. It's a cool watch. I'm here for it. I want it. Uh, I'm starting here and I'm committed. Okay. At this point, I'm committed. I'm getting the Sapphire Navigator. Here we are.
Andrew Yeah, I'm with you. This is, uh, they are calling it 41, but I'm not understanding why they can call it that.
Everett So we've now, so we've now, we've now picked our cornerstones. Okay. Andrew, talk me through your next two choices.
Andrew Okay. So my next two choices. I've got my dive watch, right? I've got my tool watch. I've got my cool thing. And now, now I'm starting to think about the non-automatic movement, the easy grab and go quartz watch, which is, you know, easy because there's a bazillion options out there, which made it hard. I wanted it to be, Something cool. Right. Cause it ought to be cool. Ought to be. Yeah. Uh, and, and, and not just cool. Cause it's like, Oh, that looks cool. But I wanted something to be kind of cool about it. So my choice was going to be a field watch and I wanted it to be small. I wanted to do like a 36 to 38 watch. for that size experimentation, right? Cause the first time you put on a 40 millimeter watch, you're like, Ooh, this is the idyllic size for a watch. This feels really good. And then you wear some forties and you put on a 44 and you're like, God, that's a big old bitch. And you wear those for a while. And then you put on a 36 and you're like, Oh, now I get it. So, I wanted to cut that learning curve out or that experimentation period out and just jump right to it, right? So I wanted to do a small field watch, but that's still cool, right? There's gotta be something to it. I went with the Veyr C3, which is the USA assembled quartz in black. You have a very classic, minimalist field dial. It's got the Fotina, which is a little bit of a bummer, but is a good exposure to that design element to see if you like it. Cause honestly, Fotina looks way worse in pictures than it does in person. I really do not like it in pictures and in person. I like almost can look right past it. Yeah. Have you had that same experience? I have. For how much you don't like Fotina?
Everett I have, yeah. In fact, there have been watches that I've met in person that I thought, you're okay, notwithstanding your Fotina.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. It's just far more offensive in photographs than it is in person, because the light catches in an interesting way and really yellows it.
Everett And I'll admit, part of my objection to Fotina is philosophical, and that's stupid.
Andrew Yeah. But your reasoning is valid. Like I want to earn the patina, like don't give it to me. I buy rusty cast iron skillets from Goodwill so that I can clean and season them. Yeah.
Everett I buy pants that look like they've been worn a thousand times.
Andrew Yeah. So this is my pick. Let's talk about the watch a little bit. And so I, this was my first pick. This was the watch I went to right away. I was like, I like the USA courts. I like there. We're going to get a hundred meters of water resistance right away. We're going to get durability. We're going to get affordability, 239 bucks for this bad boy. It's going to be a little more on bracelet, but we've already got a braceleted watch in the way of the Traska and the Traska's bracelet is almost certainly going to be better.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew I haven't worn a veer bracelet. I think they do a good job. I'm sure they do a good job, but it's just not going to be as good as it's not anything crazy, but it's good.
Everett Yeah. Male on links versus Trask is female on links.
Andrew Right. Very attractive. Very simple, easy grab and go quartz field watch. That's going to come on your choice of a series of nylon rubber or leather.
Everett And you get two straps with these. They come, they come stock with a black strap and you also get to pick a second strap. Yeah.
Andrew And I think these would be dope on a Silicone Elite. I think this is what that would live on. Because that's what a field watch should live on. Sure. Something durable, something comfortable, something water resistant. And that's all the things that this watch is. So now we have a grab and go quartz and we have a 36 field watch. That's what I was looking for. I wanted to fill out that Okay, we have an automatic movement. We've got a tool watch. Now we have something a little bit more reserved. Not exactly, and definitely not at all dressy, but has that kind of feeling to it. You put it on leather and it's gonna be that 1960s, this is my watch and I wear it to everything. And I wear it on black leather so that I can wear it in a suit.
Everett Do these come on the Silicone Elite? They come on a silicone strap. Is it a Barton? I do not know. I think it may be looking at the strap. I think this may be a Barton. It kind of looks like it. That's that's branded for there. I think it might be.
Andrew Where's the. It certainly looks like it, but if we're being fair, I mean, it. It could very well be just an out the back door Ali purchase that is Barton, but. But also, you know, silicone straps are silicone straps, right? There are varying degrees, but the range is not that wide, at least in my experience. Has yours been different as somebody who's tested a bucket load of straps for a watch?
Everett No. Yeah, that's been my experience.
Andrew So you've got the waffle printed. Barton, effectively, and it looks great on it. It's an attractive watch. It's USA made. And that's the cool part, right, is you get a USA assembled courts. Swiss courts. U.S. made. Yeah. U.S. made. Right. I mean, these are Rondas, right? Or are they Etos? No, they can't be Etos. They're Rondas, aren't they?
Everett No, no. It's the AmeriCorps. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Andrew Yeah, the AmeriCorps. 6130. Super light.
Everett Made down in Arizona.
Andrew Yep. This is it. Right? This is my, this is my, my banger grab and go mow your lawn in it. 36 field watch.
Everett Well, let's, let's move on to watch number three then.
Andrew No, I want to hear your watch number two. Oh. Cause then I want to reveal my cheat.
Everett All right. Fair enough. So again, my rules are they all got to be a little different. They all have to be cool. and cool in the same way you talked about. Not just it looks cool, right? Because everything looks cool.
Andrew There's got to be something cool about it.
Everett There's got to be something cool. And and I need a bracelet.
Andrew So next because we're without a bracelet still.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Next up. I was like, I need to find my bracelet because this is going to cost some money. I need to have a good bracelet. I need to have an OK bracelet because the bracelet I've got here isn't isn't going to blow your socks off. but I wanted to have a good, suitable, functional bracelet that didn't feel flimsy, didn't feel cheap, didn't feel crappy.
Andrew You went exactly the right route.
Everett Oops. So it took me a while to find this watch. I looked at a lot.
Andrew This is some JDM shit that you dug up.
Everett I looked at a lot of watches, man. I looked at a lot of watches. I looked at a lot of Seiko.
Andrew Which is the natural route to go.
Everett I looked at Traska.
Andrew I looked at a lot of Orient. Traska would blow you out of the ballpark. You'd be down to like a $5,600 for your last choice.
Everett That's right. Ultimately, Traska was just too much money. Same with Astro and Banks. I looked at a bunch of watches here that would fit the bill and kind of had to dig hard for something cool. And also, let me just say something. Seiko and Orient, I think were kind of quickly out because I was like, well, the bracelet's not good enough. I looked at some, I looked at some Citizen, um, diver stuff, like your, your eco drive, um, and some of their automatic options. And I was just, I was like, you know, I could go with like the Fugu, which has got an okay bracelet. And I just wasn't feeling it. And as I was looking at Citizens, I found a watch.
Andrew You weren't thinking like Nighthawk route?
Everett No, well, that did come up. That did come up in my search and it was close, but I found something better.
Andrew I think I would agree.
Everett I found something better and I found it for a great price. So there's a watch called, there's a JDM watch called the Citizen ProMaster Land. It's a titanium watch made in Japan, sold to the Japanese market. It is, it's got that pro master tough look to it. It's an eco drive movement. It's a 20 bar watch. It's fully titanium. It's got fantastic pinchy crown guards. Oh Lord, the crown guards.
Andrew Boy, oh boy. It's basically an asymmetric case.
Everett Fantastic knurled crown. Beautiful. I love that citizen knurled crown with those tight crown guards. And just a little bit of specs here. We're Sapphire. We're 200 meters. We're Citizen's Super Titanium with their Duratec coating. So it's going to be scratch resistant. It's got micro adjusts on the clasp, not just micro adjust, excuse me, quick adjust on the clasps. So if your wrist swells, It's, did I say Sapphire crystal? Cause it's got a Sapphire crystal and, and it's radio controlled. All right. But there's a catch because it's JDM. It only syncs to the radio in Japan.
Andrew Yeah. So quartz movement plus or minus. That's what radio control like three or whatever. Something like that. Six is global.
Everett And this is one.
Andrew Yeah, radio control. Oh, just Japan. Just Japan. So you have to make an annual trip to Kyoto to... Yes.
Everett Sync your watch. And short of radio syncing, it's plus or minus 15 seconds per month, which is not great, but... That's also not terrible. Anecdotally, these movements run much more accurate than that. There is a workaround. So they make an app. I can't remember what it's called. You can Google it. They make an app that will emit It'll emulate the... It'll emulate a radio frequency from your phone. It's a little tricky. I understand it's a little tricky to make it... Sounds illegal. It's a little tricky to make it emulate our time. And so, if you were gonna get this watch, you'd have to be willing to fuck with it. Because... Or just set it. I think these... I don't think you can just set these. This is... It's not... So, it's weird. and it's a little quirky. It's insanely good as a watch, but it's got a big quirk to it.
Andrew It's got a big amphibia quirk to it.
Everett It does. So there's a quirk here. Uh, ignoring that for a second, 393 bucks for this guy. This is the green dial and it's absolutely stunning.
Andrew The markers are almost guilt, but they're not at all, but they're not.
Everett Yeah, they're, they're not. Um, I want to say that this is 39 by 45. Yes. 20 millimeter lugs, super titanium everywhere. It's going to look great on a strap, but please, please, please just keep it on this fantastic titanium bracelet. 11.5 thick.
Andrew Ooh. Yeah. So the, the, uh, minute line. has at the 11 o'clock in lieu of 55 has the word no at 12 has RX and then between 1 and 210 has HML. I'm assuming that is the radio reception indicator like nope, no signal. I'm in high, medium, low signaling.
Everett I am going, I of course know exactly what all those symbols mean, but I'm going to, for the love of the game, make people look it up. Because I actually have no fucking clue.
Andrew The RX is actually the one that has me stumped.
Everett That means time to get more pills. Yeah. So this is fascinating. I've accomplished a couple goals here.
Andrew You got something real interesting.
Everett You got a project. That's right. In terms of, in terms of my objectives, it's interesting. It's cool.
Andrew It's also a fucking dope watch. It's got a bracelet. If you're in Japan, this is, I don't know why you don't have this. It's got a bracelet.
Everett And so I've, I've fully met my requirements. Now I've got a problem here.
Andrew You can set this with the, with the crown. The first question is how can I set the watch? Manual is only in Japanese. Can anyone help me set it up? Hi, for time adjustment, adjustment, open, right, the crown thread. and pull the crown, two clicks, set the time, rotate the crown, date adjustment, push the crown. So yes, you can manually set this watch. All right, fair enough. But it would be cooler to be able to drop a Japanese satellite emulator out of your phone.
Everett So now I've got a problem. I've spent 480 bucks on my Marathon, and now I've spent $393, which is not quite 400, but I've spent $800 And 70 what?
Andrew 70 money. Yeah. You're in a little bit of a lull. So we're going to hold you in suspense here while I talk about my third pick, which is my cheat. While you think about whatever it's thinking about. I don't think this is a cheat. It felt like a little bit of a cheat when I was picking it. So we have our tool watch. We have our 36 field watch. And now I wanted a cool thing, right? Something maybe you gotta fuck with, something a little weird, like, do you want an amphibia? Do you want, like, something real obscure? And I got to thinking, I was like, oh, what about a mod? To do your first mod is the epitome of watch nerdiness. And I got to thinking about like the first mod that a person would do.
Everett And granted, you don't have a ton of money left.
Andrew No, no, I'm running low. We're not talking about an SKX mod. Exactly. I'm talking about one hundred and sixty three dollars left on the table. OK, so I'm like, I'm a little like I was was kind of sweating. I was like, how do I do something cool with one hundred and sixty three dollars left? Because it's got to be cool and it's got to be nerdy. And I want to do a mod. I want to do something that you're going to have to change. So immediately you go to G shock, at least in my mind, that's where, where I go when I want to do a super accessible mod idea, right? Because there are so many options available. And I was like, Ooh, I know exactly what to do. You know what to do. We're going Cassie. Oh, So, for those of you who listen to a watch podcast and don't know what a Casioque is, it is the GA2100XXX, choose your color, with a Royal Oak, air quotes, Royal Oak case and bracelet mod. So, the GA2100, from Casio.com is 99 bucks. I found several options on Amazon for 70 bucks. And then I went to Ollie and I just Googled or I just ollied Casio case and found Casio case in stainless steel for 55 bucks. And here we are under my $163 left with a, in and of itself, the 2100. It's a very cool watch. It's not extraordinary, but it's cool. It's attractive. It's anodigy. It's an interesting shape. If you don't want to mod it, you don't have to, but you can also, if you want to, with your little bit of spare, get a Royal Oak. Case and bracelet. It's not real Royal Oak. It's okay. It's from Ollie. And with some experience from Ollie's steel cases to go on G-Shock, I was more than pleasantly surprised. And this is it. This is the, this is the cool, weird, super nerdy, no one you know has one. Last pick is a Cassie Oak.
Everett And now you can buy a steel cased. Yeah, they do have a steel case, Jay. But I think they're like five hundred and fifty bucks.
Andrew And there are there are recent release, I think, on the heels of the Casio mod. And Casio is like, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait. We can monetize this. Hang on. Pay us. Pay us. Stop doing it yourself. But yeah, they're expensive and they're definitely going to be better than your AliExpress. mod case but you won't have done it yourself and as easy as the mod is to do there's a little bit of like i did that i made this going into it and i think that's kind of it to say it's a cool mod to do it's fun it looks good and that's my last pick and it's got screws on the bezel yeah which means that it's not going to rotate by its very nature. Yeah, that's it. That's my last pick. That was my little bit of a flyer. It was certainly out there and I feel good about it. It's one of the things that like I'm, I'm a little, I don't know why I haven't done it cause I really like that Cassie Oak mod, not even a big fan of the Royal Oak, But the Casio mod, it's got my number. And it's a G-Shock. So it has all the things. That's it.
Everett I love it. I love it. So you've got, you've got a Traska freediver. Yep. Traska freediver. You've got your, the watch that you could wear every day and never need anything else. True. You've got.
Andrew Grab and Go Veyr C3.
Everett You've got your small, super wearable grab and go courts. And you've got your kind of a bombastic G-Shock modded steel.
Andrew That's indestructible. It's still 200 meters of water resistant and it's still a G-Shock. All of these are bangers that you are going to be able to feel comfortable wearing every single day in every single environment. Shit, the the Casio could almost be your dress watch. And your grand total comes to nine hundred and forty three dollars. All right. So no, nine hundred and eighty three dollars. Nine hundred eighty three. Yes. So you can get a you can get a strap.
Everett Yeah, sure. A cheap trap, a cheap strap. Yeah. All right. Back to me. OK, do me. I started with a terrible choice.
Andrew You started, yeah, you started it a little weird.
Everett I got a marathon navigator. Next, next choice. I, I, I basically accomplished my only goal for the collection, which was to have a bracelet. And now I've got this small wearable titanium, titanium citizen JDM with radio control, which is dope, obviously. Uh, so I don't, I, The only restriction for my third watch is that it's got to be cool. The problem is I've only got 127 bucks left.
Andrew Yeah, that's limiting.
Everett Which is limiting. We got some really obvious choices. We talked about them last week. I could get a G-Shock. Boring.
Andrew I could... Hey, a Casio is not boring. You're right. You're right. Sure. Because it's a change from a G-Shock.
Everett It's a practical choice, but... No, fuck off.
Andrew That was a good choice. No, no.
Everett It was a good choice. In my collection, it's too boring. I need something more here.
Andrew I have enough courts.
Everett I can't have digital too. I could get a Vostok. Okay. I could go like perhaps MDV 106. I don't really have a dive watch.
Andrew You could go almost anything in the five series.
Everett I need something a little different.
Andrew Yeah. Do you know the SSB031 was discontinued? Yeah, like a hundred years ago. I knew that. And then when I saw it today and realized that that actually came true, it was a little troubling for me.
Everett I'm sorry.
Andrew I have one. I'm not worried about it, but.
Everett So the only rule is it's got to be cool. It's got to be cool. It's got to be interesting. I found a watch that I think meets I think meets the requirements. I really contemplated swatch, like quartz swatch, and ultimately decided that's not what I wanted. I'm going Timex, man.
Andrew Yeah, I think that's the right choice in the situation you're in.
Everett And I'm going Totsnyder.
Andrew Yep.
Everett And I found a neat one. You don't have to look hard to find a neat for $97 and 99 cents available right now on watches.com. I found the Timex Todd Snyder blackjack black and blue.
Andrew There's only one left as of right now.
Everett So I'm going to buy it. Uh, so these are, it's like a roulette dial.
Andrew It's actually, no, there's still only one left after refreshing. It's like, uh, you've got a,
Everett 12 hour and a 24 hour and a minute track. There's a lot going on.
Andrew But there's not, though. It's a really traditional field watch. But rather than just the numbers, you've got bands of color.
Everett I would not call this a traditional field watch, but I think I see what you're saying. Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's got this like Monte Carlo thing going on.
Andrew See, I go right to aviation. This looks very like BMW.
Everett It's all of these things. It's all of these things. It's BMW. It's got like a bit of an aviation thing. It's got roulette. It's got this Monte Carlo. Uh, I think they, I think they say it's got like a New York theme to it, but I don't really know all of that. We're not getting an incredibly high quality watch here. So this is a black coated brass watch. It's got a shitty strap. It's got a terrible movement. It's going to be super loud. Oh, gosh.
Andrew The date wheel is just oh, wait. No date wheel. You don't have to worry about hearing the little movie clacker.
Everett There's no date. But 50 meters of water resistance, it's probably going to be OK ish.
Andrew Just good enough. 40 and 20, though, it's got a 40 and 20 sizing. Great design. Great size. Great design. And it's cool. Our stamp of approval because the Todd Snyder collaboration with Timex. It's cool. And it looks cool. It's interesting. And I think that's it. I think it's interesting in your picks is that you went straight interesting. Nothing you picked is pedestrian. You went with a marathon, asymmetric case. asymmetric resin case with tritium tubes, a green watch and green JDM titanium that doesn't actually work in the United States, which perfectly fits you and this super colorful, big dial. It's not big dial. It's 40 and 20, but big in the way of personality, big personality. This is not a watch I feel like I could
Everett I could definitely, I could and would wear this watch. So no autos.
Andrew I have never, it's got four colors on the dial. That's a lot.
Everett I have never done one of these where at least two of my watches were in autos.
Andrew Yeah. You went all, all courts all the way.
Everett And I had some automatic choices for this last one. And I was like, you know what? I don't need it. I don't need it. Now, practically speaking, I like automatic watches. Everybody knows that about me. I like automatics. I like mechanicals. I'm not a huge quartz guy. In any event, I love all these watches and I would wear all these watches.
Andrew So describe to me how you would view this as a collection of watches. Like who's wearing this?
Everett Me! These are three watches that I... This is the butterfly catcher collection. 100%. These are all cool and weird. and cool and weird.
Andrew But none of them are particularly weird. They're just all... The marathon's weird. No, the marathon's like a fourth watch. Fourth, fifth watch kind of pick, right?
Everett It's my first watch.
Andrew And it was your cornerstone. And you ran with like what, what... That marathon's your cornerstone. God help you because it's an asymmetric cornerstone. So who knows what the shape of that building is going to look like.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. You know, normally I think we both kind of do the same thing when we do these, we, we feel like, okay, I need this watch for this situation. A different watch for different situations. I didn't do that today. Um, these are, none of these are situational watches. Um, although I think that you could, accomplish just about everything short of in a black tie event with these watches. And perhaps you wear the Todd Snyder to a black tie event and don't worry about it. The size is fine.
Andrew You wear the fucking marathon.
Everett And so all that to say, I I feel good that I could run this collection if if I needed to. And and I want to run this collection. This is the collection I want to run. I love I love these watches. I spent, I think, $985 or $86, something like that, leaving just a little bit of room. I didn't need a 10% coupon.
Andrew Which is your usual move.
Everett I didn't cheat. There's no cheating. Andrew, thank you very much.
Andrew You didn't cheat.
Everett And I love these watches. The more this collection sinks in, I'm like, Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. Does it?
Everett Yeah. They're all cool. They're all cool. These are all like, and all three of these, I think the Timex Thompson, uh, uh, Todd Snyder is maybe a little bit pedestrian, maybe just a little bit, but in any event, the, at least the other two watches, I mean, these are watches you could show up anywhere. Any, any group of watch people, the billionaire group or the single layer group, it doesn't matter. The people are going to find these watches cool and interesting.
Andrew And, you know, you're going to be the only person in the room wearing that watch always. That's right. And unless you're in Japan and then you might come across somebody else wearing that Citizen.
Everett I think that Citizen's probably a popular watch in Japan because it's freaking epic. I mean, if you lived in Japan, that's that could be the only watch that you ever wore. It also comes in black for decades. Yeah. A little bit more for the black. I will admit to having relying on the green because it's a good looking green, but also because of its price.
Andrew Um, it's like 50 bucks less.
Everett Yeah. Mark Olimaris did a video on the blue dial, which is stunning. Um, which average bros, um, watch reviews. Uh, he did a review on the blue, which is fantastic. Um, Yeah, and there's a black tie. So, you know, if you've got a little bit more room in your budget than I did today, you take your pick. I went with green because it worked better in my budget. And it's a good looking green.
Andrew It's a really good green. This could very well be a one watch. It has all the things.
Everett Yeah. I love it. We did it.
Andrew We have.
Everett Once again.
Andrew I wasn't sure we could.
Everett Might have just had to give it up this week.
Andrew This was the one moving to a thousand dollars was was a lot harder. Because it opened up a bigger price range for that cornerstone expenditure. And you didn't. It entered that world that we talked about last week, of that like $500 to $700 world where everything is great. Well, not everything is great, but there's a lot of great shit. It took some discipline to not just be like, all right, well, I'm gonna spend $725 on a Hellcat. Yeah. And then get a couple G-Shocks.
Everett The Hellcat was on my list. The Hellcat was in serious consideration for me today because I still think today The Hellcat is one of the greatest watches known to man.
Andrew Concur. It was on my list. I made dozens of lists. It fell off after like list number three, I was like, this just isn't. It doesn't work. It just doesn't work against what I need. Is it 650 or 700? 725. Against what else I need to accomplish.
Everett Andrew, well done. Powder cells on the back. Other things, what do you got?
Andrew Oh, I watched a new movie and it's not exactly a new movie. It just came out on Peacock. I finally watched Violent Night.
Everett Oh, I haven't watched this yet. It's on Peacock.
Andrew David Harbour as Santa Claus, and I'm going to give a little bit of a really a good Santa Claus pic just, you know, you don't see it when you're like David Harbour. That. You mean Hopper from Stranger Things, Santa? I don't see it. And then right as soon as you see him, they this is like. They opened it up and they set the tone for the movie so well. Right out of the gate. And then it progresses. And it kind of holds that tone. And then they crank it. You're like, oh, man, this could like almost be a horror movie. This is this is almost Krampus. What are we dealing with here? And then they have these throwbacks to like Die Hard and Home Alone. And this movie was made for all of you people listening, because everyone who's listening to us Not everyone. That's not fair. 95% of the people listening to us exist in the same general demographic that Everett and I live in. We grew up on Home Alone. We grew up on Die Hard. Like, these aren't necessarily young childhood movies, but these are, you know, early life memories. And they found a way to make this brutally violent Like Kill Bill Violent Movie Sentimental. It was.
Everett Which is which is a which is a an accomplishment.
Andrew It's something right. Because Kill Bill is like a little shocking. Yeah. And you're down with it and you're there for it because it's kind of comic-y. It's kind of like 300-y like blood splatter the screen kind of stuff. This wasn't that.
Everett But it was. They didn't go straight Tarantino. No, not quite.
Andrew But there was some stuff that I was like, whoa. That was whoa. And they made it just a little campy and like this was just such a phenomenally thought out movie. It it was just at least for me. I do a thing where when I watch a movie, I try to predict the ending and I as I'm watching it, I I'm like, this is going to be a twist. This is going to be a twist. This is going to be a twist. And then I grade myself at the conclusion of the movie as to how well I predicted it. So for me, like I have a problem. It's a little predictable. I think for the average viewer. You're going to be immersed in it the entire time and super love it. There were a couple of characters who you were like, why is this person even in the movie? And then they like just showed back. This is a super fun movie. I'm going to watch it again. I'm going to watch it during not Christmas time. It was very fun and I am giving it two thumbs all the way up. I loved it.
Everett You used both your thumbs.
Andrew Both of them. They're, they are, they were in Oregon up.
Everett This guy. Yeah. Uh, I've got, I've got another thing. Do me. Andrew, have you heard of a show called?
Andrew That 70s show? Yeah.
Everett The Last of Us?
Andrew I, um, no, actually.
Everett So there's a video game series called The Last of Us, the series known as The Last of Us. And I think the most talked about show these last couple of weeks has been the new HBO show. called The Last of Us, which is based on one of the games in the series, specifically I think the 2013 iteration. I am not someone who's played these games. I have actually played these games, but not to completion or even very seriously. And so I was a little concerned in starting this watch that or starting the show that I had heard a lot of good things about that. Well, I'm, I'm not going to get as much out of this because I don't have experience with the games. I, I now two episodes in. So, so these are a Sunday night HBO show, which I think is kind of that's, that's HBO's prime time. That's their, that's their prime time, which is weird. So the show stars Pedro Pascal, who is, Gosh, fantastic and wonderful. And Bella Ramsey from Game of Thrones. And it's so good, Andrew. So this is a zombie show. And without giving anything away, I don't think, these zombies are made zombies by way of a fungus called cordyceps. which is a real thing that exists in the world and that actually turns ants into zombies.
Andrew It's true.
Everett Uh, so it's got this element of sci-fi that is, is. Just true enough to be really scary. That's right. That's right. Um, I will say at this point, I think that they are onto something here. uh it has the acting has been good the little bit of character development we've gotten so far has been phenomenal there is a there is a flashback scene in the second episode back to when the the contamination or the whatever it is is discovered and there's this There's this professor and the whole scene is just tense in this really like, I don't know, like realistic way and the acting. There's this, there's this army, uh, army officer who is like his performance is spot on. The professor is spot on. I am really enjoying this, this show so far. And, and it's not a zombie show like, uh, The Walking Dead or whatever. It, it sort of seems to me like, you know, it seems like typically when you watch a zombie show, the zombies are always there. I, this has not been that way.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett This has not been that way yet. Maybe. Um, what I would say about it is when the zombies need to be there, they are obviously, and they're really interesting. And the game has, You know, these different types of zombies and it's good. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm struggling to say a really simple thing. It's really good so far. And as a guy who likes zombie shows, I can understand why people might not like zombie shows. I think this is different in a meaningful way. And if you if you're hesitating because it's a zombie show, I'd say maybe give it a chance. Um, because I think it's different in meaningful ways. Uh, yeah, the last of us.
Andrew I'm down with it. Yeah. I don't have HBO. Okay.
Everett Yeah. You can come over.
Andrew Might do that tomorrow.
Everett Really good. Really, really good. Just starting. We're just getting started. These are early days.
Andrew These are the building episodes. Yeah. So maybe the zombies get more prolific.
Everett Or maybe they don't. We don't know.
Andrew Maybe, yeah, maybe they get less prolific. We actually have a happy ending to a zombie movie.
Everett We actually just don't know.
Andrew World War Z had the happy ending, right?
Everett Yeah. I don't like to talk about that movie. You know, that book was so good and, and, and I actually think the movie was kind of good, but so yeah.
Andrew I enjoyed the movie, right?
Everett I hate it when they, I hate it when they make a movie based on a book and the two things are, they're not the same, like not even remotely the same. I don't hate it. I don't hate anything, but it always is like, this is so weird. This isn't this. Yeah. Andrew, we do have a sponsor for this week's show. We do. Are you okay if I, if I talk about our... I must insist that you do. So our sponsor for today's show is Casper and Zen. Vintage and modern repair and restoration. From your grandfather's pocket watch, to your own modern sports watch. Casper and Son offers service and repairs at affordable prices. Visit casperandson.com or at casperwatchrepair on Instagram to give your favorite watch second life. I'd like to walk through some of Casper and Son's prices because this is crazy. So if you go to casperandson.com and you go to the services link, It's in the hamburger. Click the hamburger, click services.
Andrew Did you say hamburger?
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Okay. That's what you call that. That's a hamburger. It looks like grilled cheese to me.
Everett So movement services, manual mechanical movement services, $90 to $160. Automatic mechanical movement services, $130 to $200. Battery replacement, if you're so inclined, $10 to $15. Crystal refinishing and replacement, $10 to $60. There's a range there, obviously. Case and bracelet cleaning, $20 to $50. Ultrasonic cleaning. Case and bracelet polishing, $20 to $100, depending on the watch and bracelet.
Andrew And what you've done to it, okay? You know what you did to that case and bracelet, and if he's fixing it, you're going to pay him more.
Everett Find me another automatic mechanical movement for $130 service. For $130 to $200.
Andrew I'll charge you $100, but it will come back worse.
Everett This is fantastic.
Andrew Yeah. And it's Evan. We love Evan. We trust Evan. We know Evan. You guys know and love Evan.
Everett I.Cortman on Instagram.
Andrew Our gold watch dude.
Everett Fellow who has written a bunch for Watch Clicker is really, really knowledgeable about gold watches. all the types of gold watches. If you haven't read Evans gold watch series on watchclicker.com, you should, but check out Casper and son. I think that this is like the most affordable watch servicing on the face of the earth.
Andrew No, I mean the most affordable that you should pay for, right? If you're paying less, you're, you're, you're paying me to break your watch more.
Everett And Hey, thanks you guys for checking out this episode of 40 to 20 watch clicker podcast. you check us out at WatchClicker.com which is our website where we post every single episode of this podcast as well as articles, reviews, other things about watches that you may or may not be interested in. You can also check us out on Instagram at WatchClicker or at 40and20 underscore WatchClicker.
Andrew Next week I tell the story.
Everett And if you want to support us, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look guys, this is not free to keep this thing going. We have many of you who have already decided to support us. If you haven't, maybe just check it out. You don't have to give a lot. You can give just a little, and it would still help us pay for things like hosting for images, hosting for audio, hardware, software, all the things we need to do. For those of you supporting us, we love you and we thank you. And if you're not, check it out. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.