Justin and Mike from Monta

Published on Wed, 12 Apr 2023 23:59:00 -0700

Synopsis

In this episode, Andrew and Everett are joined by Justin Crotal and Mike DeMartini, the owners of Monta Watch Company. They discuss Justin and Mike's recent experience at Watches and Wonders 2023 in Geneva, describing the impressive displays and scale of the event. They also talk about Monta's plans to expand into more authorized dealers, the design evolution of their new SkyQuest and upcoming Ocean King models, and the brand's commitment to quality and refinement. Additionally, they touch on other topics like food, TV shows, and their personal interests.

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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, 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 good, man. You came in, you had a little energy there.
Andrew	I came in hot. I've been looking forward to that beer.
Everett	I'm doing all right, man. You know, as these things go, right in the middle of the week, busy week. But, but yeah, we had our first I think four hours of sunshine in what 20 days? Yeah, maybe more. And so that was like, I feel this, this springtime energy flowing through my veins. And I haven't even started drinking yet. I have. So I'm doing really well. Healthy. I do feel a little tickle in my throat, but I don't think you need to worry about that. You definitely don't need to worry about that. Other than that, yeah, nothing to report, man. Baseball season, man. We talked about that a little bit last week, but also my son has really rolled into his own season and he's like, man, it's crazy to see like the improvement you know, at that age, it, things happen overnight, you know, things click and it's like, Oh man. So that's been fun. Yeah. Doing well. And Andrew, how are you?
Andrew	I'm good. I had a little bit of a weird day. I had to go to work this morning at four and I was there for a few hours. And then, which means I had to wake up at three. So I napped in the middle of day. So I just had a little bit of a weird day. But I'm good because I'm not tired. I took a two and a half hour nap in the middle of the day. So that's the ticket.
Everett	Yeah. And you are at the end of your weekend, though.
Andrew	Yeah, I go back to work tomorrow. So whatever. But it's OK. Want want. It's all right. Had a good dinner. Part of my other thing is what's one of the things I made for dinner tonight. Made some salt pork and boiled cabbage. But don't tell them yet.
Everett	They're going to tune out before the end.
Andrew	I'm leaving out the the other thing, the real special touch.
Everett	Oh, so the salt park wasn't the other thing?
Andrew	No, that wasn't the other thing. Okay. That wasn't the other thing. Turned out well.
Everett	It needed about another day in the brine though. I haven't made anything special. I made some taquitos for the kids in the air fryer.
Andrew	Nice. Yeah. Those are delicious.
Everett	Well, Andrew, I don't want to rush you. I'm out of things.
Andrew	I want to give you time to talk about... Nothing of consequence to offer. Not by comparison at least.
Everett	But I don't want to give you too much time. because we've got a couple of pretty special guests for tonight's episode. We have talked once again, we have tricked some folks, some industry folks into coming on the 40 and 20 podcast. We have procured the, the amazing personalities that are partners in crime owners of Monto watch company hailing out of The lovely city of St. Louis. We've got Justin Crotle, Mike DeMartini. Gentlemen, you are live on the floor. We're not live. You're on 40 and 20, not live at all. Justin, Mike, gentlemen, how are you?
Justin Crotal	Never better.
Mike DeMartini	Good to be here. Thank you for having us.
Everett	So Justin, you've been on the show at least twice, I believe. And then we've also recorded on in other capacities together. So I feel like you're an old hat. Mike, this is your first time on our show.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, I guess. I'm really the odd man out here, aren't I?
Everett	You are.
Andrew	I wanted to point that out. We're going to really hammer on it too tonight.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, I appreciate it. That's good.
Everett	That's good, good. Absolutely. Welcome to both of you. It's been too long. Uh, we have spent together nights with, with many drinks and Italian foods.
Justin Crotal	Uh, but it's nice to have you here on the show in, in multiple different cities, by the way, New York and San Francisco.
Everett	That's right.
Justin Crotal	And yeah. And I just, I just want to throw out there. I was, I was doing a little refresher before this, that it was June of 20. My, what a different time in the world it was back then when I, when I debuted on the podcast and the only difference between now and then in terms of the episode, cause I'm at home recording this with you. It was back then you had drinks pretty much every night of the week. And this being a Tuesday and getting to work tomorrow morning, um, no, no drinks tonight, but we're still gonna have a good time.
Everett	Well, we still do drinks every time we record. Speak for yourself, sir.
Justin Crotal	You're two hours behind.
Mike DeMartini	I got a Fiji bottle in the other room full of vodka. I don't know what Crotal's thinking. You know, I'm just, I'm just pounding it. See Lucy Goosey over here.
Andrew	It's the debut episode. You got to get wild, right?
Everett	You know, my favorite is when we record with someone from, from, you know, South Africa or from somewhere in Europe. And they they wake up early. So we'll stay up late and they'll wake up early. And they I don't know if anybody feels obliged, but we've had multiple folks with like seven o'clock whiskey at 7 a.m. whiskey is on the show.
Andrew	And it's like they don't start with it, though. It's like partway through. They're like, I'm gonna be right back.
Everett	I know Brett from to a watch company. It's like, yeah, power to you, man. That's that's what a life. What a life.
Andrew	He's going to go surfing after.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. Or go, go, go do the act, do some acting things like, you know, you can do that drunk, I guess.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, Krodal and I are going to go get some like toasted ravioli at a place called Emo's here in St. Louis, which is like the worst pizza on the planet and the best T-Rabs ever. It's like kind of a weird combo.
Everett	So toasted raviolis, that's a St. Louis thing, right?
Mike DeMartini	Oh, yeah. We totally originated those. That's our thing. Yeah. And we also created this, you know, Emo's pizza, which is, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's a conundrum. It's like, if you're from here, you freaking love it. And if you're not, you're kind of like, I don't know what they're thinking.
Everett	Skyline chili is the same way.
Andrew	Cincinnati chili. Yup.
Everett	It's the same thing. It's like, if you know, you know, and if you don't know, you're like, what the fuck? Yeah, exactly.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. You're like, that's not that good. That's not great.
Everett	So what's the skinning on this dish?
Justin Crotal	Well, it's the real thin cracker crust, which is done elsewhere, but in particular here, and then it's the Provel cheese. And Mike, what is Provel?
Mike DeMartini	Provel is a very questionable substance. It's only legal in the state of Missouri. It's why it's not transferred out to other states. What it is, it's a mix of not it's mix of mozzarella and provolone somehow melted into one homogeneous solution. And it's fucking hideous. It's just like kind of hardcore.
Everett	I can't tell if you like this pizza or not.
Mike DeMartini	No, I don't. OK, I but I mean, and I'm sure I'm making people mad by even saying this. But what's crazy, though, is Crowdl But yeah, we definitely went in the direction of pizza. Yeah, exactly. With pizza instead of watches, which is probably better.
Everett	It's probably more interesting. We've talked about repositioning the podcast to many, many things over the years. This is the first time we've had a proposal to make it a pizza podcast, but we're going to put it on the board.
Mike DeMartini	I mean, the listens would be out of control. It would be. Yes, probably.
Everett	I think Barstool Sports, the Brick Watch Company guy, they already kind of did that. So maybe we'll put it on the board. We'll put it on the whiteboard. But I don't have all high hopes.
Andrew	I forgot completely about Brick Watch Company. Is that a thing anymore?
Everett	Well, I think he's still got like a million dollars of inventory. So it must still be. Theoretically, it's still a thing. I can't remember what it was. It was like millions of dollars that he had spent on inventory. So it must, it must still be a thing.
Andrew	There's just no way he's out of stock.
Justin Crotal	Yeah. There's no wait list.
Everett	I predict those watches. I predict something like 90% of those watches. We'll make it on the market with a different dial and probably a different logo.
Andrew	There'll be brand new in box for the next century. Yeah.
Everett	I think everybody's wearing a Manta. I'm wearing a Manta. I'm not mistaken.
Justin Crotal	Yeah.
Everett	Which is really cool. I'm wearing a Triumph.
Andrew	I have an Atlas.
Everett	What are you guys rocking?
Justin Crotal	I went with Opal and Noble. I say today because it's like I pretty much put on a different watch almost every day. But then I, I try to wear it all day and then I just capture as much content as I can for the future.
Everett	And Mike, what are you wearing?
Mike DeMartini	I'm wearing the like bi-color black and red bezeled, uh, SkyQuest. And I, you know, the kids call it a Coke. I mean, I just fricking love it. It's just, it's, I, I like waver between the three of them. Um, I can't. I wear the noble if I have to be fancy, but I'm just not fancy.
Everett	So this is, this is my watch.
Mike DeMartini	It is so comfortable. It is so nice. I just have to kind of be in the right situation to wear it. And I just, I'm never in it. I, I, I, I am the guy when Justin always looks kind of snappy at work and I'm wearing. Probably 75% of the time I wear like Lululemon pants and a workout shirt.
Everett	I'm trying to decide if I've ever seen Justin in a t-shirt and I don't know that I have. I don't know that I've ever seen Justin in a t-shirt.
Andrew	Cause he's looking in his eyes. He's saying it's cause I don't own t-shirts.
Mike DeMartini	They're only for the purpose of protecting his nip area, you know, in coldy days.
Justin Crotal	So I was thinking ever, we just gotta make sure we hang out more often. Cause usually when we're hanging out, I gotta be very presentable at wind up or a red bar or something like that. But true. I have my fair share of t-shirts.
Mike DeMartini	At least three. Actually, he's got a favorite t-shirt company. Honestly, he does. He's got a favorite t-shirt company. Well, okay.
Andrew	Let's hear it.
Mike DeMartini	Let's hear it.
Justin Crotal	Yeah. Shout out to Buck Mason. Yeah.
Everett	Oh yeah. Oh yeah. They do. They do good stuff. They do good stuff. Well, enough about t-shirts because you guys have just gotten back from Switzerland where you attended together. I assume maybe you guys didn't, maybe you guys didn't go together. I don't know. You guys went to watches and wonders 2023. which Andrew and I talked about a couple of weeks ago, and we decided at least from a sitting on the couch, scrolling through your feed, this is probably the most exciting watches and wonders that we can, or that I could remember. And I think you, you sort of agreed, Andrew.
Andrew	Yep. And it had certainly more things that caught my eye than any watches and wonder prior like Easter colors. That was not a cool Watchers Watches and Wonders neat.
Everett	Well, some of the watches were cool, but they're just didn't. It seems like this year more than I can remember, there were like there were so many Watches and Wonders releases that we couldn't fit all the things that we wanted to talk about in a hour and 10 minute episode. And that's part part of the part of that is because I don't shut up and I talk about things too long. But part of that is just because there were so many cool things that were going on, you know, we had to curate like, well, we can't talk about that because we just don't have time. So. Tell us about Switzerland, guys.
Mike DeMartini	Well, the experience I'm sorry, I should probably let Justin talk about this because he he's more eloquent about it, but I I just thought it was just. Mind-blowingly impressive show, I've been to Baselworld, We, you know, we kind of start back like the day we land, the day we land, we're fried. Um, we land in the middle of watches and wonders. So we've already seen all the releases online. And, um, we were debating on if we would actually show there, like if we would continue to show, because back when Baselworld happened, we actually used to display at Baselworld. And we used to display at a show that actually was right next door to Baselworld. And I mean, right next door. So we're, we're, you know, we're kind of old hat. I was going to Baselworld back in 2015. I think it was my first time I went to that. So, you know, you fast forward to, I don't know, three or four months ago, Krodal and I are like, like, we should probably go to this and decide if we want to go and display because the brand's really growing fast and things are moving pretty quick. Let's, you know, decide if we're going to do it. And we're still probably up in the air. I'd say we're leaning towards a no at this time. Um, but we went to, uh, Time to Watches, which was a, was, which was a show in downtown Geneva, not too far away from Watches and Wonders. And we went to another thing at a hotel called the Beau Ravage on, uh, Geneva Lake. And like the distance between where the show is Watches and Wonders and these places is pretty small. You can, you can take it, you can take a bus and, and get to all of them. Um, the Beau Revage one, it definitely wasn't our speed, wasn't Crotal. We just were like, no, it just didn't even feel fun. Um, the time to watches, um, that would be like probably the most likely, but it just, it was kind of dead when we went there that day.
Everett	I'm going to give them, I'm going to give them a two out of 10 on the naming convention there.
Mike DeMartini	No joke. Yeah. That's a little blah.
Andrew	Was it just a bad translation or like. Yeah, that's.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, that was kind of like the Nova, the Chevy Nova. Like, what were they thinking? Sending it to Mexico and being like means no go, bro. So like, I mean, what's up? But Yeah it was it was that one was like it was a cool show it was a little too mixed too it was like too mixed around like lots of brands that were small but then you go to Watches and Wonders and it's like epic I mean it was just unreal it was I've been to the Pal Expo for another show that we do related to like purchasing stuff and seeing watch manufacturing and that place looked completely different it looked so impressively nice. I know that if you guys go next year, you're gonna be like, Oh, wow, this is not a trade show. This is this is like an epic level of just beauty.
Everett	Well, give us a sense of scale. So I went to I went to wind up here in New York a few months ago with Andrew. I said I but I realized we went to wind up and you know that that was In wind-up terms, that was a huge show, but I think we were like 80 vendors. And it still feels small. It doesn't feel, I wouldn't say epic, but in wind-up terms, it was like, well, this is really a thing here. What's the relative sense of scale for this?
Justin Crotal	So the time to watch is that Mike was alluding to, I'm going to guess ballpark around 50 brands in that room, kind of make like a circle around everyone. And I would say that's comparable to wind up very different brands. You would not see much overlap. The big difference being that there wasn't as many just general watch enthusiasts from the general population. Like you see it wind up at this time to watch a show. And I think that's the struggle that we're having is Um, if we're going to spend the time and the money and the energy to go with staff and man this booth and pay the booth fee and have product over there and be prepared for it. What is that really going to do for us? Is that going to drive sales? Who are we connecting with?
Everett	What's that? Yeah. Who are we connecting with at the show?
Justin Crotal	Yeah. Yeah. And so I just, I don't think it's there for us in that capacity. What we're probably more interested interested in is acquiring retailers over the coming years. We have two authorized dealers now, one in Evansville, Indiana, and then one here locally in St. Louis. And the goal is to add a couple more over the next 12 months and continue slowly building out that piece of our business. So that could dovetail well with a show, whether it's Time to Watches or the big show, Watches and Wonders, getting eyeballs from retailers, uh in a in a one week setting instead of you know flying all over the country all over the world and trying to have one-off meetings for with with these folks but um the watches and wonders piece like like mike said was i was explaining it to some of my family last weekend it's like a bunch of small-scale las vegas lobbies all in one room if you can can picture that and and they are they just differentiated Yeah, I mean, like the overall aesthetic is all the same. Like for the listeners who've been to Baselworld, the Rolex booth, the Patek booth, the Tudor booth, they're basically identical. I mean, they kind of changed like the front entrance a little bit, like on the Tudor booth, but it's the exact same booths. It's just the way they showcased them in Baselworld was different in terms of watches and wonders had the uniformity to it. And it's just utterly fascinating having seen that exhibition space Like Mike said, at a show last summer, um, in that same spot, now it's. You would have no idea you're in the same room. I mean, massive amounts of drywall and the way that they cover the ceiling with this like white sheet, uh, material so that it doesn't look like there's rafters and everything above you and the flooring and the lighting. Um, incredible. There's just, there's no other way to put it.
Mike DeMartini	What's crazy is this, right? So you go back in time and you go to Basel world and you see this, like these booths and you guys have all seen like Rolex's booth and Tudor booth, you know, like the way it looks, it looks like it's looks like the empire, you know, star Wars, the empire strikes back, like literally is over there, you know? And what's wild is Rolex and Tudor and Patek and, Oh gosh was like Chopard. I'm pulling up like maybe Chanel. These guys, they pop up their old booth from Baselworld, which is already a 10, might I add. Okay, it's already mind-blowingly impressive looking. But then you go down the hallway and you see like Tag, Narden, JJ LeCoultre, I mean, I'm trying, IWC, who didn't really display at Baselworld years ago, they always went to SIHH. And they just kept their same kind of style, which they just fully recreate a totally new concept in a space every single year. And this is like 100 feet by 100 feet wide, and it's totally new. And it's so creative. And like, for example, Narden made this Ulysses Nardin made this. So what's it called? Like the crazy person or what? I mean, I can't even name the type. The freak. That's right. The freak. Yeah. They made the freak on the floor and then they put this glass reflective mirror. I mean, it was mind bendingly impressive. I was so in awe of how beautiful these booths were. And I mean, I mean, remember, Justin, the waterfalls at JLC. Yeah. I'm like sort of like art installations. It's like, what the fuck? a
Everett	You know, it, it, it, it's sort of like six, one half dozen to the other, right? Like this is all for you. You know, I never imagined myself wanting to go to watches and wonders, uh, until about 35 seconds ago.
Andrew	So it's the waterfalls.
Everett	Oh yeah. Andrew's a sucker for a waterfall. I know that much.
Mike DeMartini	Oh yeah. It just gets you so excited. But, um, so, but, so there you are at this incredible show and, You know, you've got all these watch press around and they're amazed too. Like they're in just shock how impressive it is. So, um, everybody's a kid in a candy shop and we're at Baselworld. It kind of felt like it was, uh, I don't know. It's kind of competitively like showing off you're in such awe of everything. It's the exact opposite. Your mental thought process is just like, this is so incredible. I'm just going to enjoy every moment of it. The staff over at Everest, the, The rubber strap company that I also like, I don't own that thing separately, but they have a blog and we got invited to be a press there this year, which was pretty cool. So we covered the show and, um, it was just, they were all just shocked. We'd never done it before. And everybody was just, their just jaw was dropping. Um, there's even what's even crazy about this is like the food they serve lunch at the show. I mean, you don't go to a trade show and have lunch. And it's really nice. Like they're bragging to me, like, oh, yeah, the shrimp risotto. Like, oh, you had the what?
Andrew	Like the shrimp risotto.
Mike DeMartini	I'm like, you had the what? Oh, yeah. And and and George, he had the duck. I'm like, you had duck at a trade show? Was it? I mean, are we are we kidding with ourselves? Like, yeah, I was like it was like five star. okay i did you see the watches or did you guys just eat on my dime you know so um but then yeah it was just you know just so mind-blowingly impressive um but yeah you guys if you can make it next year i mean justin i'm sure you'd agree with me like it would be overwhelmingly cool so it is and the fact of the matter is you can see the watches better on your phone or your tablet or your lap
Justin Crotal	And it's a primarily press event. Is there like just a line of people at every single watch display with every outlet waiting for their turn to photograph the watch? I'm just trying to like wrap my head around what that looks like. On the for we weren't there for the first press days. But But yeah, I mean, from pictures I saw, but then the Saturday and Sunday were what they call the public days. And anybody can go to those you just buy a ticket. And there was a fair amount of people. I mean, the only booths I saw where there was a line per se to stare at the watches through this proverbial window was Rolex and Patek, maybe a little bit at Tudor. The good news is for anybody listening to this, it's not like you're waiting in line for 15 minutes. I mean, we're talking, you stand there patiently for like 30 to 60 seconds until someone clears out of the way and they get done taking a picture on their phone. And then you can press your face up against the glass and take a look at it. But like I said, it's, you're going to have a better view looking at the blog's pictures that they post the first day of the event because they have the press images, then you are getting up to see it yourself through the glass window. But it's more just about the, you know, being in this place with all these people with the shared passion. And, you know, the thing I always remark when we're over in Switzerland is that Europeans are just way more put together than us Americans are. You know, everybody looks nice. They're in a good mood. They feel good. And that that is incredibly infectious and adds to the you know, the allure of the whole event.
Everett	So you guys were there for a little over a week. You did three different watch shows. Um, for, for those of us that might go to Geneva on a whim, uh, to, to one of these shows, did you guys do anything else in or around Geneva that you're like, do this if you're going to go?
Justin Crotal	There's plenty of food, food and drink, and we can make a long list of those type of places but Geneva is a very walkable city. A lot of great places to walk around and I will tell you that that time of year, right so the end of March first part of April, that's typically when the show is going to happen. Um, we were walking through the show and literally almost bumped into Terry Stern, uh, the CEO with grocery bags, literally with his grocery bags, just like he's just getting into his car in a couple minutes.
Mike DeMartini	He's, you know, he's got the fondue pot in there.
Justin Crotal	And, and then later that afternoon, I think, or that early that evening, we were walking through downtown and, um, Francois Paul Jorn, Mr. FP Jorn comes walking out of a restaurant. And, um, and then Mike and I were walking out of the Beau Revache, walking over to the, to the water. And, um, Nicholas from Fears was standing right there and haven't seen him in probably a year and a half. So we stopped and had a nice long chat with him. And then he proceeded to invite us to a pub later that night to have drinks with some of the worn and wound folks and some other friends of the industry. So it's, it becomes just a, uh, just a big hangout session. You know, if you're if you're out and about, you're going to bump into people, you know, and most people are very friendly.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. I mean, just to kind of point out, we did not get invited by Terry Stern to a bar after seeing him. No, he did not. He did not. He and his grocery bags just zipped right past us. I like grocery bags.
Everett	I assume it was a similar interaction with Mr. Jordan.
Justin Crotal	He doesn't speak much English. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike DeMartini	We just although ironically, one of the guys you were with wanted to like go talk to him even though he knew he did not speak English and mistakenly thought he was somebody another person who was like walking the opposite direction and like chased after the guy so he's like Mr. Jorn remember me and the other guys look at him like what who is this person and he's just running after him and Justin's like hey man that's not FP Jorn it's not it's not him
Everett	That's just a dude. That's just a fellow on the street.
Mike DeMartini	Get his autograph. Stop scaring that old dude. Okay. You're freaking him out. Okay.
Everett	I'm jealous of you guys' experience. That sounds like a ton of fun. Can we talk a little bit? Can we talk a little bit about this watch brand that you guys run, Manta? So I want to talk about something because you alluded to, you've added a new retailer in St. Louis and you previously had an AD, where's the first one? I'm sorry.
Andrew	Indiana, Indiana.
Everett	So you've now got two authorized dealers and you're looking to pump that up. It sounds like that feels a little bit like a return to your roots. Famously, I think perhaps Monta's foray into the watch world was, I don't, I don't feel bad at all. And you guys can be mad at me, but a failure in launching a watch brand into the brick and mortar space circa what? 2012? 17? 17. No. Was it that late? Yeah. So here we are. Here we are.
Mike DeMartini	I wear this as a badge of pride that we failed.
Andrew	And we're still here.
Everett	And here you are, right? So now come full circle. Tell us about that. I mean, there's some obvious stuff, right? There's this issue of margins and you guys have positioned yourself in a place to be able to have margins that make that a viable route to your business. Has that always been a goal? Um, not withstanding that, that introduction to the industry and, and how do you feel about getting back there?
Justin Crotal	I think it's, it's been a goal. It got put to the back burner in a big way up until, well, actually right before the pandemic started, we had started talking about it again, and then it got pushed to the back burner for a second time. But the fact of the matter is, at this level, there has to be a way to touch and feel it. You can do well enough online, but maybe there's a bit of a glass ceiling there. I don't think we're anywhere close to it yet in terms of online sales, but eventually you're going to brush up against it. And so having that retailer network that's going to be able to showcase your product properly and reach a broader audience and match your level of customer service for those folks. That's where we want to look to next. And actually we made a video about this while we were over there. So stay tuned for that in the coming weeks as well.
Andrew	Please, I want to hear from you. I talk here all the time.
Mike DeMartini	So, you know, if you kind of go back into 2017 and just to note some things, which is all like, this is where we're like, we're an open book, which is really true. Cause like Justin was working in finance. He was a close friend of mine. Um, he ran the like St. Louis chapter of the red bar. And, um, we'd become like pretty close buddies and back in like 2016, I had a launch party for Manta Manta. was just this like idea that I had and we had only one watch built after about two years of like tinkering with the idea and he comes to the launch party and he's like I'm all in man like this I want to be part of Manta without a doubt and I was like Yeah. So, uh, you don't cause we're not making any money and it's not a good time. Like I've just poured a ton of cash and you're getting ready for Baselworld. I don't think it's, I think it's probably the wrong time. You'll get let go if you want to start working there straight up. Like that's what I told him. I mean, I, if you notice, I'm not really, there's no bullshit with me. And he was like, okay, well, uh, Well, I still want to work with you.
Everett	Yeah.
Mike DeMartini	It was like, it was like, so what, what can I do? And I was like, well, you know what, why don't, why don't you become like, honestly, why don't you take over like a managerial role at Everett in sales? And we do need that. And he was like, okay, you know what? I'll take it. So he takes the role. He's murdering it. Honestly, he does a great job at it. Anything the guy touches, he does a good job at. And, um, You know, we all go to Baselworld 2017. So we'll just kind of back up like 2016. So Epic fail. We don't sell a single retailer really. You know, our watches were too expensive at the time. We kind of had a watch that was, it just really wasn't fully developed. One model, the Triumph on the other hand, just worked. It was flawless. We nailed it. The whole brand just kind of started really going down that track the second we got home because we realized we needed to do something other than this Ocean King that just wasn't selling. So as the true story goes, we decided to like, you know, say we're going to eventually get back to that path of being in stores because the brand is so kind of touchable and feelable and so quality, but we need to be in stores. Really open only just recently, were we able to get an inventory situation where we could, we could do it where we could really get the full collection in place that we've got at the Ocean King coming out in about two weeks. And, you know, we finally kind of nailed displays and we just kind of got our act together finally with it. And I know that Justin and I are very excited about this because a a a
Justin Crotal	You can't fake the reviews. You look at the remarks about our customer service and our design language and everything is that's, that's the foundation. You can't screw that up. So it's gotta be, be very careful.
Everett	Well, Mike, you said something just now that I'd like you to, to dive into a little bit. You said Monte as a brand is touchable, uh, ignoring for a second how creepy that comment is. Uh, Do you think that that's... So I think Andrew and I both have probably had the same experience in that regard, which is that we find ourselves explaining to people or perhaps not pleading with people because we don't really have any vested interest, but saying like, look, you don't get it because you haven't touched it, right? The answer is putting that bracelet on your wrist. So I'm wearing my triumph today on an Everest strap, which is, I'll just, I'll just quickly say this is the nicest rubber strap I've ever touched. And I think that there are probably two or three manufacturers that are making similar products, but this is, I mean, it's, it's out of this world how good it is, but I didn't get it until I wore it. I want to wear my triumph on the bracelet because it is the best bracelet. I mean, and you don't, it's not that it looks, I mean, it's a three, it's a three link, right? It's like whatever, but you put it on and you're like, holy shit, this thing is cool. Do you find that, that that is something that people need in order to feel like Manta makes sense?
Mike DeMartini	I think that like there's a gigantic confusion in the watch world about value. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, I mean, I just want to vomit when someone talks about value in the watch world, because first, if you totally lean into the movement side, you're really wrong because the majority of we'll say in-house movements, they're just not accurate. They talk about being accurate, but they're not. Because to produce a movement where you only make 500 or a thousand or 10,000 pieces a year, you just can't, you just can't mass produce it properly. I already went down that path. I'm like, I went down the path with Eterna years ago. The Eterna 3909, which we made in the first Ocean King was a mind-bendingly impressive movement on paper. It just is a kind of a hunk of junk if you only make a few hundred.
Everett	There are going to be variances at that scale.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. Like we, we literally had to hire watchmakers just to perfect them. So we get them out the door so that they would, they would work properly. I mean, we spent two times what it costs to manufacture the movement to make the movement work. Right. Then you go to like, say for example, you know, just like just for a second, we'll go to the extreme, the perfect in-house movement Rolex. Okay. I'll just jump out and say it. Okay. The thing is absolutely flawless. It's, it's, our watchmaker will even say like, that's the best movement on the market. Is it a value at $10,000 for that watch? Yeah. Crazy as it sounds, it is the value. Okay. Cause it's a perfect watch in the sense of manufacturing and the movement and so on and so forth. You go to us and you say, well, the 2893 and the 2092, the SW300, SW330, those, those movements, they are without a doubt, fantastic. I mean, we tweak them so much, uh, from a timing perspective and a checking perspective. I don't really want to get into what we, we, we, we have internal numbers that we like that we think are pretty impressive. We don't tell anybody how precise they are, but I mean, Justin, come on. Like we go to, do we go too far? Don't we? Because we want people to be happy. Okay. Is it courts?
Justin Crotal	Yeah. Sometimes, not every time. I mean, like a lot of the movements from Salida or the right role.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. But if, you know, if we test them and they're dead perfect, we don't open the piece up. But my point is, is like, there's a big confusion about value with that. Then you jump to bracelet, you jump to case, you jump to like our crown, you jump to our hands, you jump to our dial. I mean, our hands are made in Switzerland. Are they diamond cut? Of course they're diamond cut. There's extra processes that us and only five brands use to make our hands. Us and five brands. Our own hand manufacturer said, you don't need to do this. This is a waste of your time.
Andrew	Doing it.
Mike DeMartini	You don't need to go to. Yeah. And we were like, well, we're American, so we just do everything overdone. So like, you know, because we're nuts. And and, you know, same thing with our our case manufacturers. Same thing. Like you don't need to go to such extremes. You don't need to have a removable tube on your case. You could just just solder it in and be done. And we're like, no, we need a removable tube. Oh yeah. And you know, it's too grindy. We need a better crown. Uh, no, you don't. Yeah, we do. I mean like all of the little things that people just ignore at like the value point, we just went to extreme opposites and said, we're going to bring it to market and do it that way. Is our watch a value at $1,800 for a, for a noble? Yeah, absolutely. It's a value at four grand. Okay. Like I'm not embarrassed to say that. Okay. But we don't sell in value because it's a stupid move. The thought process should be like, did you like enjoying wearing the watch? Yes, I really loved it. Do you like the dial? Yes, I love it. Are you going to wear it for the next 10 years? Yes. OK, then you should buy the watch.
Everett	So with with Manta, I find that Manta's customers that we that we run into. So I've got a friend, Justin, you and I have talked about this person recently. I've got a friend here locally. who has probably conservatively owned 80 watches in the last three years. Six of those have been Montes. He just recently purchased an Opel Ennoble. This fellow is more than just about anybody I know personally, really well acquainted with what he likes on a watch. And in a conversation with him, I said, well, we were talking recently about our disparate habits. So I spend way too much time thinking about a watch, and then I buy the one I want, buy the watch I want, and I keep it for forever. Andrew's the same. Yeah. This fellow is the opposite. Right. So we have similar desires in terms of the watches we're going to own, but we have completely opposite approaches. He is like, I'm going to try everything. And so he, I do believe besides this Opal and Noble, he's sold every single watch he's ever owned and we'll sell the Opal and Noble soon is my guess. But in talking to him, I said, well, what watches have you kept the longest? And he gave me three watches and each of them was a Monta. Do you guys find that So that to say, I think my experience is that Manta customers are loyal in probably a bit of an irrational way. But do you find that that experience, what specifically about the experience of owning a Manta makes Manta people fanatic? I think is a fair word. What is it about that experience?
Justin Crotal	So I think several things, two points that I'll make right off the bat is that, um, in the last 12 months or so, our returning customer rate has eclipsed 25%, which is something I'm really proud of. Yeah. Yeah. And like, even, you know, this week we were shipping these, uh, these Opal and SkyQuest, this limited edition that we recently did. And, um, there was two people, one of which it was his seventh Manta and another guy, I think it was his fifth. And, um, I'm always kind of taken back by that a little bit, just to look at the history. And luckily, because of the shows we go to and the connections we make with guys like you is that most of those people I know either have met them in person or had a phone call with them. And so it's, it's just building that relationship and making sure that, um, you know, you take care of your customers. So you, you, you answer the phone, you respond to the emails. Uh, if they have a problem that you fix it quickly. Um, the other point I want to make is, is, you know, what we talked about with these dealers and, and being able to go hands on is the, the ability to validate the things that they see in here. If they've never seen the Manta before. Um, so Mike talked about the hands. I mean, we can take a lot of pretty pictures, but until you can really see it with your own two eyes and hold it in your hand, um, that's where I think the, the Manta difference really comes to fruition. And, um, you know, I, I probably take maybe two personally, but it just pushes me to do better is when I see comments online, on the forums, on social media. And, you know, like to give it an analogy, like if someone is bashing on Manta, a lot of the things they're saying are so obtuse that it's like. It's like me trying to tell you, well, it's, it's not really that cold in Alaska. Like you don't, you don't need a coat ever. You're, you're not going to need a coat. And that's how, that's how crazy it is to me when I see some of these things. And so, um, so I always say feeling is believing people say seeing is believing. Um, but you, you can't, you can't fake that stuff. The, you mentioned the bracelet. Um, you know, we're, we're constantly trying to improve. And a lot of times now the improvements are so small. Um, the refinements are so small that, um, I try to explain it to some of my friends and they're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Like those, those look exactly the same. I'm like, no, no, look right here. Like, do you see that? And so, so it's, it's that constant obsession. And, um, you know, for where Mike and I sit as watch enthusiasts turn brand owners now, um, that that's what drives us. We, we geek out on this stuff and, and I'm always kind of reminding him, like we can't lose sight of Like that's, that's going to be a big part of our success. And so we're, we're just constantly focused on that, that piece of it. And in making sure that at the end of the day, we have an unofficial motto with Manta that it is, we just want to make cool shit and have fun doing it. And we just, like I said, we can't lose sight of that. And I think if we do that, um, the success is going to continue to follow.
Everett	Well, let's talk a little bit about refinement because that that's, that's a good segue. Cause, cause that was one of the things, one of the main criticisms of Manta that I've seen over time, and this was certainly true before the introduction of the Noble. I think that changed with the introduction of the Noble, but prior to that, I think there was a criticism that Manta had a watch, a watch with different features. And obviously, you had two different case sizes, but essentially, you had two cases, each with two sort of modalities. And, and that was Monta's lineup. And that changed a bit with the introduction of the noble, you know, there's some pretty clear, uh, distinctions between the noble and perhaps the triumph, which I think is maybe the closest thing in your lineup. Um, but still even looking at the two watches, once you get past the dial, you can look and you can see the similarities. I think that changed, and I'm not sure, if you're not paying attention, I'm not sure that you'd recognize this, but that recently changed with the introduction of the Gen 2 SkyQuest earlier this year. There are a number of changes in that watch that I think are kind of a big deal. Maybe not, you know, if you look at the old SkyQuest and the new SkyQuest, you might be like, oh, it's a little different. But you guys have made some big changes there, I think, as someone who's familiar with your brand, understanding what Monta's design language was and where it appears to be going. Now, talk a little bit about the evolution of the SkyQuest. I know Will has reviewed that watch on our website, and I believe he's also taken some pictures perhaps for the brand. I've had the opportunity not to see that watch, but certainly to see it in, in high res images. And, and there are some big takeaways for me, but, but I want to hear your guys' perspective on that.
Mike DeMartini	Well, just to kind of like go for just a second into what Justin was saying there, you know, we both have very different roles here in the company. Justin is the day-to-day runner of the communication between the customers.
Everett	Mike, Justin, Justin is the nice one.
Mike DeMartini	Oh yeah. Yeah. Way better, nicer. You want to meet him. Don't meet me. Yeah. You know, I'm like bigger, taller, like a little bit, but I'm also scarier looking. So, uh, no, no. But, um, the, my point is, is that our jobs and roles here are different, but we have the same, like at the end of the day, we're almost like sharing a brain because. You know, when I show him something, if I like it, okay, I'll, I'll ask him. He's like, man, I'm, I'm all in. I love that. That's 200% us, but I'm more on the side of like pushing the design envelope when people are, might say like, oh, you're not. I'm like, okay, sure, whatever. Um, but that's me. I'm pushing the design envelope. I'm pushing the critical side of that side. And with that, I'm going and testing new ideas and seeing if they'll work. And then he's like, you know, I have to, I have to sell this and communicate this to the customer. I have to be in love with it. So we're pushing, we'll say the same rock, but just on the different side of it up the Hill. So, um, But from you taking the SkyQuest for a moment, why did the brand do what it did? Because if you look at the Gen 2 SkyQuest, it kind of looks like a Triumph with a turning bezel on it. You know, like, you know, it's all polished and there's all these like polished corners and there's all this, you know, there's like a bent GMT hand that goes over an indice and there's You know, there's ceramics and like, what, what, what happened between the time that we saw the SkyQuest V1 and then went to V2? Well, at the end of the day, Justin and I said, when we started this company, like we were going to create elegant sports watches. Nobody really understood what we were doing because they didn't like it. Okay. It's like, we opened up a pizza shop and the first thing we're like, is we're going to make the best
Everett	What the fuck is Provel? What the fuck is it?
Mike DeMartini	But we're going to add Provel to this goddamn equation, right? Like, you know, if you're from St. Louis, right? Instead, we just said, you know, maybe we should just go make it with mozzarella, you know, like, you know, so we broke the brand designs now in two parts. So the Noble will start, you'll start to see the Noble over the next two years evolve into something totally in its own collection, where there'll be the Noble this and the Noble that. And you'll start to say like, this is pretty cool. Like I'm really down with this noble shit you guys are doing. This is really like I showed some stuff to Justin while I was in Switzerland with him. He was like, man, I'm like 2000% in on this, these new noble ideas. Okay. The other side of that is the sports watch collection. Cause you can't, you know, if you're, if you're a watch guy, you gotta have a diver, you gotta have a GMT in your lineup. Can't just be all these like smooth bezel, Hour, minute, seconds, or like, you know, starting to maybe, you can't be doing all that.
Andrew	Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. As the guy who's probably like, I'm going to click on that next diver in 20 minutes to new watch alert. But so we decided to really take this path of saying, what's the best things that we love about the SkyQuest. And then let's improve on that with leaning more into things that maybe people don't entirely understand or see. So like, for example, we went to a flat GMT hand. Well, yeah, I went to a flat GMT hand, but we, it's amazingly well done. And the indice is still quite high. We actually had to have custom parts made for the hand heights by Solita.
Everett	Yeah. So let's talk a little bit. So, so one of the things that, so I'm looking at Andrew's Atlas right now, you know, one of the most notable features of that is that kinked, that kinked hand. that rides low, that rides low on the dial, and then is actually bent at two angles. I don't know what the angles are, but up and over to clear the hands. You eschewed that with the new SkyQuest. I assume that's the most controversial decision that you made with the SkyQuest, but I think that it is emblematic of what you've done. I think you've made the SkyQuest, instead of being a triumph or perhaps an Atlas with a bezel, you've made it something entirely more tool-ish, right? You finally got a tool watch. A couple of features I recognize, right? So the GMT hand being flat, your markers are less pronounced and less beveled. Certainly, the metal portions of the markers, the I would say the markers are bigger. I don't know that because I haven't measured them. The markers are more luminous, less flashy. Your dial, to me, appears to be smaller, but also incredibly more open. What you've done is made this watch seem more utilitarian, more tool-ish, I think.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, I mean, we studied the pros out there who've been doing this, you know, since, you know, our grandfathers were, were teenagers, you know, we said, like, what did they do? Why did they evolve this way? You know, and you start to see what, you know, what, what breaks the mold, at times is like refining and perfecting something. And, you know, we had numbers on the rehaut. We threw that in the trash. We had this like ceramic piece that was like, It was cool, but it just is too thin. We want this aluminum design so we can really kind of nail the coloring. But like, you know, we went to we went to a aluminum manufacturer who makes aluminum bezels in Switzerland from start to finish. That's pretty expensive to do. There's, I mean, their their customers are not normally a $2,400 watch brand. It's just just a fact. So we went to all of these extremes. And when you touch and feel and hold these things, they're just so much nicer in person than you get on a computer screen. I mean, this is a perfectly sized watch. It's like it's smaller than the old one in the sense that it's the lug to lug. But the width is exactly the same. You know, the bezel is is wider. You know, there's there's more there's more readability to it now. You're right. There's more luminescent material, lots more luminescent material in the indice, but the indice is not so like ridiculous with all of its facets. So it's just, I mean, wouldn't you say, Justin, it's just us perfecting what we originally set out to do. It's somehow elegant by just being the fact that we made it so well from a quality perspective.
Justin Crotal	Man, if people could have been a fly on the wall for the design process. Right. And we're so excited and we're feeling really good about this. So we get the prototypes, then we're even more excited. And then we made a last minute, uh, audible call on the teeth on the bezel. And the manufacturer was like, no problem, but we can only get you two or three of them for prototyping. We're like, no, we really need like eight. So we can send out demo units to all these reviewers. No, that's not going to happen. Well, she. So we, we pretty much had to, had to roll this thing out. Um, it was kind of half-assed if I don't say so myself. Um, not because we were lazy or because we were unprofessional, but because we had such limited resources. And as you guys probably know, you saw the comments, like it was 50-50. People either like lost their minds and wanted to like, you know, tell us to F off or they were just totally in love. It was like hot or cold. And Mike and I had numerous like late night calls and they're going, did we screw this up? I don't think so. I mean, I love it. I'm wearing it right now. I really like it. Yeah, but did you see what this guy said? And I don't want people listening to this to think that that's all we do, but we do pay attention once we kind of make a decision that we have to live with it and move past it. And now, lo and behold, it's now become pretty much like knocking on the door of the noble in terms of best seller. So take a deep breath. You know, we're over six months into this the new SkyQuest in terms of sales. And, um, it's, it's going really well. People like yourself now who've had time to digest it and, and understand what we did and why we did it. Um, everybody's kind of coming around to it and, um, and we're going to make this thing for, for a really long time.
Everett	All right. Tough question. If you could, so, so I'm going to go through a list of changes. Lug to lug is shorter. So I think you went from 49 to 47 and change 0.4.
Mike DeMartini	47.4. It got weird. We just made it weird.
Everett	Sorry. Bigger bezel. Dropped the re-hot. Changed the GMT hand. Got rid of the inner chamfers on the lugs. I'm going to foot stomp here. If you could go back, and maybe you could go back because you own the fucking company, Is there any of the changes that you'd pull or are you... And again, tough question. Tough question. You guys have an opportunity and you can even differ if you want. I would love to have a fight on 40 and 20. Anything you'd change?
Mike DeMartini	I mean, Like I'm so messed up in the head. Like we'll get through the first production. It'll be totally perfect. Justin's like clicking his heels. And I'm like, I think we should have done this differently on that little, like very nano thing. And he looks at me, he's just like, shut the fuck up. Yeah, literally. He doesn't, he never says it to me, but I know he's thinking it. I mean, he's probably like, he's like, he's probably staring me down. Like you're nuts. You're too nuts. Cause this is perfect. So, and then there's the conversations that we had just to note Justin was, which normally he's, The glasses half empty guy of this partnership and I'm the glasses half full. He was kind of glass half full going. You just got to let them take this in and just, you know, warm up to this. Cause you know, the numbers are way better than the SkyQuest previous. We're just kind of getting hammered. I think people just haven't seen it good enough. So, but to, to note something, which I'm going to say, which it's fine. I don't, it's totally fine. It's not going to make anybody not buy the watch. But the crown we engrave, we acid etch engrave the logo in a circle on it. And I mean, I do love it because I really do think this is like our crown design. Um, but we went with a, on the future ocean King, which is going to release on the 28th of April, we went with, um, like a, like a debossed crown. So the logo now sticks out instead of being engraved in. And if I would have known how fucking cool that was going to look, I would have liked to have it on the SkyQuest. But it also kind of makes the SkyQuest very unique because it's a little more, I don't want to say vintage-y, but just kind of like, it just adds a little panache. So it's the only thing I could probably tweak. What do you think, Justin?
Justin Crotal	Anything you'd probably pick? No, the only thing I would say, and it's such a Six of one, half a dozen of another for me is the debate about aluminum versus ceramic. Like I love, love, love the aluminum bezels. But I think eventually we will probably bring ceramic back to the SkyQuest at some point. But there again, it's kind of another differentiating factor between the SkyQuest and the soon to be released Ocean King, which will of course have a ceramic bezel. The one other thing I want to point out, just because it's something that gets brought up a lot, so the more people that hear it, the better, is we did update the clasp across the entire collection last year on the Turquoise Noble Limited Edition. That was kind of the starting point. So every watch now, including the Sky Quest, has a clasp that is more curved, which thereby makes it a little bit shorter. And it just makes, if it was possible to make an amazing bracelet even better, that that right there just took it up another.
Everett	I think that's the one. That's the one objection to the to the Monta bracelet is the length of a clasp, right? Which is a necessary evil with quick adjust.
Andrew	So and so many because you have the new one and I have the previous iteration. I just looked at your wrist and you're not wearing the bracelet.
Everett	Neither one of us is the shape.
Andrew	My wrist shape lends itself well to that clasp length to the locker. I've not had I've not had an issue with it, but I see why people do. Yeah. So since we've kind of touched on The ocean King.
Everett	Yeah. Since you guys jumped the gun, just, you know, it's there. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew	Sorry about that guys. Let's hear it.
Mike DeMartini	I mean, I'm doing a lot of talking here, but you know, just to kind of just say it out loud, like, yeah, it King's coming back on 28th, baby. We're launching it at a windup. It's, it's going to blow some fucking minds. It's super cool. Um, we listened, didn't we, Justin?
Justin Crotal	I think so. Yeah. I mean, if, if people don't like this one after literally over a year now of no ocean King in the lineup, um, I don't, I don't know what else we can do. Cause it's on a quit. Yeah.
Everett	Yeah. Fuckers take the shakes off, put them in the center of the circle.
Justin Crotal	Yeah. Um, so it, it will have a ceramic bezel. Um, it's going to be a different case than the SkyQuest, but it's kind of one of those things where the four of us, we could identify some of the differences. The lay person's going to say they look the same. So it's going to be those fun little details that if you'd like to get down in the weeds, um, it's going to have a slightly, uh, updated, uh, class. Um, it's still going to have the quick adjust, but we made a few, um, few cosmetic changes to the class. And, um, and then it's going to have a, um, an actual encapsulated luminous pip within the ceramic. We worked incredibly, incredibly hard on, I should say, Mike, Mike worked incredibly hard. I just sat there and listened and watched.
Everett	It's what you do best, Justin.
Andrew	That's the hardest work to be done. It's the therapy session.
Justin Crotal	Yeah, exactly. Um, But yeah, it's just going to feel great to get it out there. We've had a lot of people constantly emailing in, sending DMs, asking about it. And that just puts a huge smile on my face to know that people are that excited about it and that, you know, our raving fans are just chomping at the bit to see this thing. I'm a little bummed I'm not going to make it to wind up San Francisco. I've got a family commitment. So Mike and Chandler, our watchmaker, are going to be there. But we've got a fun fun kind of unveiling plan.
Everett	Um, and I'll say, I'll say if you're going to be in San Francisco, I've met Chandler. Uh, I've, I've obviously, I know Justin and Mike really well. Chandler is the nicest of the group. So if you get an opportunity to talk to the best one, he's the better, really charismatic.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah, he sells watches.
Justin Crotal	You know, we're very fortunate lucky blessed all these things to have him on the team but I think the thing that I have to remind myself often is he is just not your typical watchmaker. He is he has to be the most extroverted watchmaker on the planet. And that's that's no knock against watchmakers. But usually they're kind of they're a little introverted to themselves. You know, their brain functions a little differently than ours, just because of the mechanical nature. And they live through a riot. We have we have a great time hanging out. I know you guys you guys met him last year.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah.
Mike DeMartini	Funny shit. He's just he's just a hoot to hang out with. I mean, not to yeah, like and Okay. I mean, if you, if you want, we can, we, I mean, Justin could share the screen of the pictures of the ocean.
Everett	It's fine. I saw everything I needed to see. So I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to comment on any details here, but I'm seeing, I'm seeing some, I'm seeing some new, uh, SkyQuest elements and I'm also seeing some old Ocean King elements. So I think people are going to be surprised.
Andrew	We're seeing a leap. A graduation, if you will.
Mike DeMartini	I like what you guys are doing. I've got the bracelet right here. I've got the prototype that we've slightly abused. Cause that's my job also is to destroy things. So you can kind of see.
Andrew	I see. Okay.
Mike DeMartini	It is different. Yeah. It's the, this area here, I had to polish myself. So forgive how it's not perfect, but, um,
Everett	Is there more curvature there? Am I, am I allowed to say that?
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's this bottom part here is it's got, yeah.
Everett	A shorter radius is I think.
Mike DeMartini	I mean, I'm starting to feel like the Dick Joe's kind of like the, it's the girth is here and the length is there is longer. And yes. So, but, but yes, definitely the radius is the, that, that,
Justin Crotal	you know, like to use the analogy, like, like, if you make something more curved, you by definition are going to short point A to point B. Yeah, right. You know, so that was the feedback we were getting. And we kept studying this and studying this and saying, like, that's not the problem. It's it's the curvature, because you have to be able to get it open far enough to slide it on and off your hand. And if you make it too short, you've got Some of these guys, they have bigger hands than their wrist and they have a hard time sliding it on and off. And you could reach the point where you couldn't slide it on your wrist if that folding piece was too short.
Everett	You know, I have on a number of occasions pitched that the one thing in watches that needs to be torn down to zero is clasp design. Based on, I think clasp design 40 years ago was very good. based on where we were at. And I think that we have doubled down on the existing designs to do the things we want. I think clasps are more than any other single thing in watches. The thing that could be rethought from zero in a way to move things forward. I am happy to consult with you guys for a very small fee about my ideas on this. But it's really interesting to me. We're always There, there are known, there are known objections to clasps and the, the problems are physical. And, and I think without a complete teardown of the design, we're always going to have these issues. I think you guys are doing a really good job. So that looks phenomenal. I think if you at home are listening to this and you haven't seen the things we've seen tonight, as is so often the case. You're going to be you're going to be pleasantly surprised. But I do think that's a place clasps. We should talk about clasps and not us or even us. But we as a community should talk about clasps moving forward. Well done, you guys. This looks this looks wonderful.
Mike DeMartini	I think bezels need to go right into that same like thing because like You know, I hear dudes being like, Oh, I bought this blah, blah, blah, watch, spent five grand on it. And the bezel popped off six days later. And I'm like, well, that's not good. And the new SkyQuest design, which we also evolved a lot of that tech into, into the Ocean King. Um, like you can't pull the bezel off. You can't, it's not possible with your hands. There's, you could, you could go get like a screwdriver and shove it in there. And then for about five or six minutes, you could twist the thing apart. And then here's the crazy thing. We could then put it right back on. Yeah. Like it's the patents pending on that. Yeah. The tech in that bezel is I haven't seen anything come out of any watch brand as creative as that. I mean, It's just the truth. Like you can't you can't pull the thing off. Your bezel is not coming off. And then and then literally the way it feels when you turn it. I guarantee you'd be like, I can't stop playing with this. Because it absolutely is so fun to play with. And it's so smooth. And yeah, it's just so so nice. So yeah, it's OK, then we drop into a big joke. Big joke number two.
Andrew	It's so smooth. I just hung out there. And it's so fun to play with it.
Mike DeMartini	I couldn't get out. It's like a 14 year old boy.
Andrew	So I got to see. When I got my Atlas, I had an idea of what I was getting into. And it was a big purchase. It was my first like real big kid watch. And I got it and I was blown away. In a way that I've not ever been with any other watch besides perhaps the Santos. Every other watch that I've ever tried on, I've been like, okay, yep, I get it. This meets expectations. Everything I've ever tried on from you guys, I tried on, I'm like, what the fuck? How are you guys doing this? And you say, oh, by the way, Three patents pending on this, on this tiny, arguably insignificant thing. It's not important to me if I can't remove my bezel and if I do that, you can fix it, but it's important to you. And that's what makes Monta special. I think you guys do all of the little things that don't even matter so well. And they, culminate to this. You guys have been able to create warmth in steel.
Everett	Liquid metal. I think Will used the term in his SkyQuest review, uh, liquid metal. And I read it and I was like, that's it. That's it. Uh, yeah.
Andrew	There's warmth in your cases. You're doing something so cool. And it's, you exist in this really weird space that I think people are unwilling to accept. Because not unwilling to accept because people have great acceptance for you. I think the reticence that you see in the negative social media comments you see are driven by how on earth can a $2,000 watch be as good as everyone says it is. And cause internet people are stupid. Also neckbeard. Yeah. Uh, he's not great. Um, but it's, it, it really is your, you guys are doing something really cool.
Everett	So you guys with, with that, you know, I think what we're going to have to do is, bring you guys back because, um, there's a number of things we can't get to tonight. So here we are, we're at an hour 14. This is long for us. Uh, and, and, and yeah, whatever. But, but with that in mind, I'd really like you guys one or both of you to come back because I think you guys have a lot. So we talked to micro brands, right? Micro brands. I have some experience with what it's like to operate a micro brand. You guys are doing something different. I'd like if one of you guys would come back soon and talk to us about running a company, building watches in Switzerland, because I think this is a pretty unique opportunity for us. So you guys don't have to promise right now, but if one of you guys or both of you perhaps would like to come back and talk to us about that, I would love it because I think these folks at home would love to hear more about what it's like to make watches in Switzerland. We've had a lot of folks come on the show and talk about what it's like to make watches in China. Certainly, we've had Mike France talk to us on a number of occasions about their Swiss operations, but I think you guys could provide maybe a unique perspective on the Swiss watchmaking industry.
Andrew	With respect to the U.S., right? Going from the U.K. to Switzerland is a very different experience than from the U.S. to Switzerland.
Everett	So no promises, but I'd love to have you guys back on soon. With that in mind, I think we need to call it for tonight. Anything else you guys want to add about Manta or what Manta is doing right now before we transition?
Justin Crotal	I always just say we are always here to help. Again, where I sit is kind of running customer service for us day to day. For the foreseeable future, we still have the ability to spend time with folks when we can, but we're never too busy to respond to a DM or an email or a phone call. So if you have questions, just reach out and thank you for the praise. I didn't want to interrupt you guys. I just wanted to have Andrew just keep going on and on about the warmth It's a far steal, but we'll save that for the next time. It's awesome to see a Monta on both of your wrists. And I know Mike and I are both very honored to call you both friends and customers. So thank you very much.
Andrew	Yeah. To be clear, we bought these watches. These aren't gifts. This wasn't like a marketing thing for us to be wearing watches. Yeah, that's right.
Everett	These are our watches. We've both paid retail for Monta watches because we're into it.
Mike DeMartini	And I hate to say this because it's really pissed people off probably, but like we just don't give discounts ever.
Andrew	You shouldn't, you're already giving a discount at your retail price.
Mike DeMartini	So it's as deeply discounted as it's going to get. So, but there is one thing I did want to point out though, that's pretty exciting is the 28th, we have an additional surprise that nobody knows about.
Everett	We're going to come back to that. We're going to come back to that. Andrew.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Andrew, the time has come and I'm so excited. I'm so excited. The time has come. Other things. What do you got?
Andrew	I have a weird kid. He's he's. Yes. Yes, you do. He's perhaps the only child on the planet Earth who doesn't like mashed potatoes. Right. Like what kind of a human doesn't like mashed potatoes? Like, I don't know. It's problematic for me because I love mashed potatoes. They're like a perfect side for almost any meal. So tonight I made salt pork. with boiled cabbage. And I wanted potatoes to go along the side because that's what you do with that. And I was like, okay, what am I going to do? Because I didn't want to just like roast potatoes. I was like, I, I'm going to do smashed potatoes, which is not mashed potatoes. And I had to be really clear in my language with him. Smashed potatoes, for those of you unaware, you boil your potatoes, like you're going to mash them. And then you squish them on a sheet pan, drizzle them with butter and olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast them off for like a about an hour, let them get all nice and crispy. So you get almost like a, like a cake, like a potato cake on the bottom. And then right, like the last 10 minutes I shave some Parmesan on top. And then I hit the ones that go on my wife's plate with some parsley and truffle oil. And the kids just get a little bit of extra shaved Parmesan and holy shit. If this, if you're, that's not how you're treating potato, like this could replace mashed potatoes for me. And it effectively has. on every other occasion, but for Thanksgiving because they're still mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. But smashed potatoes, man, these are my jam. And you can you can treat them like any other way. I've done them with like fingerlings for like sides for like football games or for like the Super Bowl or for gatherings of people coming over. But that's been that's my other thing. Smashed potatoes, bake them, get them really crispy. They're so good. Don't don't peel them, though. Don't peel them. Cause the peel holds that potato together and you get all that delicious potato cheesy truffly goodness.
Justin Crotal	I'm with you, man. I've done them several times. I know exactly, exactly what you're talking about.
Andrew	That's my, that's my other thing. Doesn't like mashed potatoes like freak, but these are, these are also good.
Everett	Potatoes are that crazy thing, right? It's like everything about potatoes is good.
Andrew	Yeah. You can cook. Yeah. No. Parmesan truffle. I use the last of that, uh, Uh, what was that blue wrapper cheese? Oh boy. That might be my other thing next week. Cause that shit was good. Yeah. All right. I'm going to look it up. That's my, that's going to be the other thing for next week. It's going to be primed.
Everett	Justin Kroto, AKA Kroto, AKA Justin. What do you got?
Justin Crotal	Um, I'll give you two things. Um, number one, learn about and understand Bitcoin. It's all I'm going to say. Mike knows I love to talk about it.
Andrew	Oh boy. As it just crossed 30,000 again. And then number two. After the significant losses that you've suffered in the last year. Good Lord.
Mike DeMartini	He's mining it in his basement.
Justin Crotal	So just watch out there. I've gotten back into sneakers. I was huge into sneakers as a kid. And maybe it's just the everything bubble, but There is a strong correlation in the watch market and the sneaker market in terms of, you know, like what, what shoes are the Daytonas or the Royal Oaks or the Nautiluses or whatever it is.
Everett	And do you guys know Pete chillin with chillin with watches, Pete YouTube channel? One of my, one of my good, good friends, uh, someone who does fantastic reviews of watches, he is a tried and true sneaker head. And Justin, you and he are on the same, you, you guys are on the same plane in this regard.
Justin Crotal	All right. You got to introduce me.
Everett	All right.
Justin Crotal	We'll do it. But yeah, having a blast with, uh, with sneakers just picked up, uh, a new pair of the Ashen gray Jordan one lows, uh, for, for those, my springtime kicks Jordan one low Ashen grade.
Everett	Now, is this a thing? So, so the problem I have with sneakers is much like limited edition Omega. Sneakers are like the ones you want are impossible to get right. It's so frustrating. I remember being in high school. So I grew up in Portland, Andrew and I both grew up in the Portland area and grew up in Portland too.
Andrew	That's, that's what I just said. The Portland area.
Everett	He wasn't, he wasn't, I grew up in the city limits, man. Uh, you know, In Portland, you've got access to watches, to shoes in a way that nobody else in the world does, right? Literally, Adidas US operations and Nike US operations are right there. And so you've got these access to shoes, but that's it. So I remember growing up, being in high school, getting like, you could just like go down to the test facility and get brand new off the charts shoes. That's totally changed. You cannot buy the shoes that you want. If you are reading about shoes, you cannot buy them. They're gone. Yeah. Is that the case with these Ashton Gray Lowe's?
Justin Crotal	Uh, no, but I did have to pay a premium for them on the GOAT app, but it wasn't. GOAT, StockX or whatever, right? Yeah.
Andrew	Secondary market.
Justin Crotal	But some of them like, like these, you know, Travis Scott, uh, Like they're like, whatever, whatever Travis Scott has touched this month. They're like 15, they're like 1500 bucks, um, which I think retail are probably 200 something. So massive markups, but I don't, I don't go for that.
Andrew	One of my coworkers played college ball and then she played pro ball in Europe. Uh, and her shoe collection was just, she has like the wall with all the displays. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, obviously it's like, I don't know. I got like the, they gave me that. I never wore it, but they gave me that. The amount of money you have in shoes could pay off my mortgage. Yeah.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, I think that market's even crazier than watches. So my present obsession is all the Tom Sachs stuff from Nike. I'm into the Tom Sachs stuff. Demartini, not Demartinez as was earlier proposed. Mike Demartini, other things. What do you got?
Mike DeMartini	So man, I had to like struggle to think about this. Cause I, sometimes I just get so wrapped up in my own stuff. I forget about like the thing I might be also interested in. Um, one, I don't know if you guys have seen this brand. It seems like it kind of came out of nowhere. It's called Viori. It's like, Try, um, um, um, it's V O or it's V U O R I or vote V U O R 1. I can't, I don't know. This brand makes the best pants for just like going around town and just, I'm wearing, I almost wear them only now. And it's just super comfortable. I would have to give these pants a 10 out of 10.
Everett	Are these the signature joggers?
Mike DeMartini	They may be, but I just absolutely love them. I think they're super cool.
Andrew	Or do you wear the cargo pants?
Everett	Wait, wait, wait, wait. You, you, you don't know what your other thing is. That's, that's my conclusion here.
Mike DeMartini	Uh, no, I mean, I have like, so one day I just walked into a store kind of very long story short. I had a house fire and I lost everything in my house. Like it just went away.
Everett	When did this happen?
Mike DeMartini	In November. Yeah. Oh, my God. I just like everything burned up. It's really was sad. But the time I was like very disappointed and really got me in the stomach. But I was like, oh, well, I got to buy new pants.
Andrew	I wonder why that baseboard was.
Mike DeMartini	I mean, they're all gone, like everything gone. So I went to Nordstrom's and bought a pair of these things. And I was like, holy crap, these are really comfortable. And, you know, I had to wear them for, you know, a week straight because I only had one pair of pants. And surprisingly that pair of pants, which I have fully abused still looks like they're brand new. And now I've bought, we'll say six pairs of, of them for my, for my six days of the week that, uh, then I, you know, finally get to the, you know, the washroom. But they're just so incredibly comfortable. The second thing is I recently acquired a Rolex root beer, the, the most current model. That is such a nice watch. Like that is such a nice watch. I mean, I'm just going to go out and say, I was not a pink gold guy. Yeah. I just wasn't, it was not in my, like, it was not on the vision board. And D at 80 called me that I'm close friends. This was like, Hey, I got your, got your root beer in. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. You know? And I kind of was scared cause I thought I'd never get off or anything. So I went and bought it. Like, you know, I know you're like, wait, what?
Andrew	As one does when an AD calls and says, Hey, I have your thing. Cause if you say no, then there's no other things like that.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. Yeah. You're like, good, good luck getting anything out of me ever again. So like, um, so yeah. So like I immediately ran over and bought it and I kind of the whole time I'm like, Oh, I don't know. Probably shouldn't be doing this, but Oh well. And I am like, I, I just absolutely am enamored how beautiful it is and how it is just so well done and how the, brown and black bezel looks just amazing with the pink gold and they just, I know, I know this watch has been out for so long and we've all seen it, but it is just, most people haven't seen one with a real movement in it though.
Everett	Yeah. It's low key. I think maybe like most underrated iconic watches, right? We talk a lot about the iconic watches and they all tend to be the straightforward black or white dials, perhaps Speedmaster, a white dial Navitimer or whatever. I think the Rubier is low-key the most underrated iconic watches because it is iconic, but it's not one that comes up in that conversation very often.
Mike DeMartini	It is a sleeper watch.
Everett	Sleeper? are
Mike DeMartini	and you know, is that, is that an AP like 15, 400 is on your wrist right now? Is that, is that the Royal Oak? Like that's pretty bad-ass you have. Yeah.
Everett	Whereas, you know, the root beer, the root beer is the seafoam green country squire. That's what that is. Right. All right. All right. So I've got another thing. I've got another thing. Do me. Succession. Oh, have you guys heard of this show? Succession? Yeah. No. Succession is back for season four. And Succession has this formula, right? There's a certain amount of self-loathing that's involved in watching Succession, right? You're watching these people with 1% of their money making 1% of their lives. The flaws of these people are really relatable, even if the circumstances are not. Uh, but here we are three and three and change seasons deep. And there were expectations because seasons one through three of succession had, had this formula, right? They had developed this formula. We're going to, we're, we're going to introduce the people where they're at. We're going to introduce the conflicts and then everything's going to go to shit. So I am so, so season four has just started. And here we are, I think three seasons, three episodes in and the shit just hit the fan. So if you are watching Succession or you've been watching Succession and you haven't yet tuned in, A, don't read a single word. because you're going to get fucked up. Just if you see Succession, stop reading. Don't read anything.
Andrew	Some news outlet, it was their banner, like their banner online article this morning was the spoiler. Don't read anything. That was a news article in and of itself that they spoiled it.
Everett	Watch it because oh my God. So there have been a handful of shows that I've watched. I will always say the finale, the season four finale of Breaking Bad is one of the most incredible moments in television history. That scene where Gus Fring is standing in the field after the bomb goes, and you're like, what? Oh my God. The latest episode of Succession I felt similarly about. So all of the actors in succession are brilliant. Sarah Snook is maybe the most underrated television actor of all time. The performances are phenomenal. And this episode is pedestrian and relatable. I was blown away. This is number two all time TV like contemporaneous feelings I've ever had, second only to the season finale of Breaking Bad, where I was like, fuck, that's the end. I watched this episode with my wife two nights ago, and I was like, this is incredible. So if you're caught up on success... So first, if you're not caught up on Succession, just stop. Don't read anything. Don't look at anything. Get caught up. The show is wonderful. Just turn off your phone. The show's wonderful even though it's terrible. It's the worst kind of wonderful. It's awful and repulsive and amazing. Watch it. Get caught up. When you get to this last episode, stop what you're doing. Put the kids to bed. Open a nice bottle of wine. Cause I, you can't, I can't go back. There's no way to go back. This is, it's one of those things. You can not get it back. It's phenomenal. I don't even want to say anything else about it. Cause I don't want to spoil it at all. Don't read anything. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's all I'll say about it.
Justin Crotal	You've got me all excited because I've only seen the first two episodes of season one and that's where I got sidetracked. So now I'm going to get back into it.
Everett	Don't read anything, Justin. Don't read a word. Oh, my God. I was blown away. Like. Yeah, fantastic. Really, really, really good television. You know that you already know the spoiler, so you can't even do it.
Andrew	I've never watched it either.
Everett	All right.
Andrew	I Jesus, I've tried it. I got through episode one a couple of times and it just never hooked me.
Everett	Oh, my God. Oh, the best television ever made, perhaps up there at least.
Mike DeMartini	I don't know, man. I watched The Bear. I loved The Bear, man. Oh, my God. That was one of the best TV experiences I've ever seen. It just was so, so good. And I'm not talking about the cocaine bear.
Everett	I mean, I'm talking about the one where there's like, you know, with the fellow from Shameless. Yeah.
Mike DeMartini	Yeah. I mean, it was just... You know, just the, the, the, the connection to the family story and like the, you know, the flawless, the way that they had done the whole thing, like, you know, back when I was in college, I was, uh, just like everybody else had a crappy job at a restaurant. I was washing dishes and, um, just that whole experience of working in a kitchen. and hearing the way that they talk and the way they communicate. It's just, it's exactly that, you know, and, and I was working in a kitchen where they were trying to elevate themselves and go beyond to what they were. And in the bear, in bear, that's the same thing. You know, it's like there, it's a, there was a, it's basically a Chicago sandwich shop. And the guy's like, he was, yeah, he's like a three-star Michelin chef. He inherits this sandwich shop from his brother. And He's just like, I'm just going to crush this shit and I'm just going to push it to the envelope. And you think the whole time he's just doing coke or something because he just looks like a hot mess, but you just dig deeper into who he is and he's just trying to push himself so hard.
Everett	The bear was made for service industry folks. I believe that wholeheartedly. I almost think if you weren't ever in the service industry, you're not going to get the most from that show. It is a service industry specialty.
Andrew	Because it's a weird world. Yeah. It's a weird world. It's a weird world.
Everett	Gentlemen, here we are. I kind of like being a watch brand. Yeah, that's right.
Andrew	There's something to that. It's less weird than being a watch brand. It's way less weird. Yeah.
Justin Crotal	Where's the Netflix series about that? Somebody needs to write that.
Mike DeMartini	I don't, I don't think I, I mean, I, people would be like, man, these guys love each other, but they sure do like go to extremes. They're too nuts. They're, they're nutty boys. So.
Everett	Gentlemen, here we are.
Andrew	I'm going to sell it to Netflix.
Everett	Hour and 35 minutes in. So happy, so happy that you guys joined us. What a pleasant surprise. I'm going to pitch you guys on a follow-up episode, so let's be in touch. And if you're at home listening, be excited. I think it's going to be fun. We've talked a little bit about April 28th being an important date for you guys. Real quick, next 45 seconds. Tell us what you want to tell us about April 28th.
Mike DeMartini	Uh, for me, I think that, you know, as I'm, we're going to, to wind up, which is the show in San Francisco, San Francisco, one, one wind up. Sadly, Justin won't.
Everett	Oh, that's right. That's right. He said that previous family engagement. That's right.
Mike DeMartini	But the first thing is, is we have, um, You know, we have the ocean king coming. It's, it's, uh, it's hopefully going to shock you. Hopefully you're going to be excited. We're going to open up a pre-order, uh, on the 28th. You'll see teaser picks probably starting Monday though before. So like five days before, uh, we'll do an Instagram live. The second we actually, you know, show the thing on probably the 27th, I guess, Justin, cause there'll be the day before, right. Before I go. And then, um, Well, the other thing is that we've got a, we've, we we've definitely fallen into this path where we're really leaning into the noble more. I'll just say that. And hopefully you like that too. So, um, and, and hopefully it starts to, to get you excited. So we'll, we'll, it'll be related to the noble.
Everett	Wonderful. Can't wait. You guys. Justin, Mike, thank you guys so much for joining us. Andrew, before we before we send it off, anything you want to add?
Andrew	I'm on things, man.
Everett	Hey, you guys at home, thank you so much for joining us for this a little bit long, but I think pretty worthwhile episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. What do you do as a favorite? Check us out at WatchClicker.com. That's our website. That's where we post every single episode of this podcast, as well as articles, reviews, I think if you go to Google, we're the highest appearing review of the new SkyQuest, by the way. You can also check us out on the socials. In particular, Instagram at WatchClicker or at 40 and 20 underscore WatchClicker. That's where we post updates, the things we're doing, sometimes sexy pictures, whatever.
Andrew	Wait for the OnlyFans, it's coming.
Everett	If you want to support us and look, we really hope you do. You can do that at Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look, that's how we that's how we get all the money to keep this thing running. We're not getting paid, but it doesn't matter because we love doing it. But it does cost money for hosting software, hardware, that sort of stuff. If you want to support us, you can do that. Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And other than that, check out Manta, MantaWatches.com. And don't forget to tune in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.