Episode 234 - Watches Roundup for April 20, 2023

Published on Wed, 19 Apr 2023 23:46:11 -0700

Synopsis

Andrew and Everett discuss recent watch releases and announcements, including the Libera DMD-001 modular watch on Kickstarter, a new Moonswatch colorway, Circula's Pro Trail limited edition, new releases from Farer and Isotope, and Seiko's 38mm Seiko 5 Sports watches. They also talk about Autodromo's new Group B Rally Sport Chronograph collaboration with Hodinkee. Additionally, Andrew recommends the Netflix series "Beef" and Everett discusses the book "A Master of Djinn" by P. Djèlí Clark.

The conversation covers their thoughts and opinions on the designs, specifications, and pricing of these various watch models. They analyze the aesthetics, unique features, and overall appeal of each timepiece. The podcast gives insights into the current watch enthusiast landscape and the latest micro-brand and mainstream offerings capturing attention.

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 really well. Thank you. Excited for the watches conversation we're about to have and the beers we're about to drink. I'm gonna try not to get as... Are you okay over there? You're dropping stuff? I got a little hammered last week because you served me 9% alcohol. We're a little bit more conservative this week. Yeah, these are eight. Six. Six and change. Yeah, no, it snuck on me last week. I was like, damn.
Andrew I also, uh, I mean, I was putting, I was adding things into the, uh, sealed beverages too. So it was, it was by design. I feel like I did a pretty good job. I'm pleased with the outcome, um, and the things that happened after. And I think that's maybe where we should leave it.
Everett Uh, yeah, no, doing, doing really well. The, the watch week has been kind of fun. Um, checking out the things that have been going on and the releases and the variations on releases. So I think we're going to talk about a bunch of that tonight, which I'm excited about, but yeah, just really solid without being, uh, without having anything too exciting to talk about. Andrew, how are you?
Andrew Do we call it the fallout of watches and wonders? Like the, the perhaps the aftermath, the two weeks following where it seems like watches and wonders really kicks off the, release season for the year. There's some preceding it, and there's always some cool stuff, but Watches and Wonders seems to be like the official start of here's all the cool shit.
Everett Yeah, well, I think certainly it's the big weekend. You know, I think releases in the internet age, releases happen whenever a company wants to release them. And frankly, that's usually whenever they're ready. But for the watches that are kind of reserved for a show, be it Watches and Wonders or Worn and Wound, you know, talking to the Monta guys last week, they had set aside two announcements for Worn and Wound, which would be what? Next week. Next week. Yeah. You know, I think it just doesn't, like, there's always some reason to announce a watch on the internet.
Andrew Unless you're psycho, in which case it's just suddenly there.
Everett Right. Well, and I think that that makes sense. If, if you're announcing your watch at watches and wonders, or as part of that group of announcements, you're, you're going to get hype because maybe people who aren't paying attention are paying attention, but you're also going to miss hype because you're, you know, you're lost in the noise. That's right. So, uh, but yeah, no, it is, it's been a fun couple of weeks. Andrew, how are you?
Andrew I am. debilitated. I had a couple laborious days. We moved a bunch of mulch yesterday and I was a little sore this morning when I woke up and I was like, eh, you know, that is what it is. That's, that's the nature of being hunched over. And today I used my Bissell standup steam cleaner fella to shampoo the couch. which was about an hour long bent over at the waist. And I stood up when I was like finally done and just thought I was going to die. So that's been my day. It's just been, um, a little, a little tender. Other than that, made some good dinner, made some loco moco. Cause I, as a matter of course, when I make burgers for dinner, make a bunch of extra so that the following night you can have loco moco. So I'm well fed. I'm just a little sore.
Everett A little sore. We were talking before we went live. I kind of, I wouldn't say I threw my back out cause that sounds dramatic, but I'd had some back pain about a week ago and it was like three or four days and I got through it. But I found that the blend of Aleve, Tylenol, and THC gummies is precisely the right blend of ingredients to treat back pain. That's what the doctor ordered. Those three things, any one of those will treat some of it, but together, that's the, that's the truth.
Andrew You know, I've been, I've been doing horizontal and, and beer. That's been my, my answer.
Everett Probably less effective for the treatment of pain, but also with its merits. Yes. Well, with that, do you have any reservations about, as the kids say, jumping right into it?
Andrew I think we should, and I have no reservations.
Everett None reservations. So there's a bunch of shit, as always, there's a bunch of shit that's happened. We're gonna talk about the things that we found most interesting. If we don't talk about your favorite watch, send it to us and maybe we'll talk about it next time. Uh, or maybe we'll just have a private conversation with you because that's awfully fun to do.
Andrew Or we'll just talk trash about that being your favorite watch.
Everett Our choice. With that said, these are the watches or the announcements that have come up the last, you know, what, week and a half or so or, or have been caught our attention at least in the last week and a half or so that we want to talk about tonight. And, and Without further ado, I'm going to talk about a watch that I have reservations about. Ooh, okay. So I'm not sure if it's appropriate to call this a watch, although certainly if you ordered it, a watch you would get. This is a Kickstarter project. It's a Kickstarter project by a company called, I believe Libera. And this is their debut watch. which is being called the DMD-001. Well, shoot, this thing is awfully clever. What this is, is a watch module with a completely modular case and strap system. Much like the, oh, uh, what the heck is the name of the, uh, Fortis, the Fortis.
Andrew Uh, yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Everett The, the plastic, uh, the plastic Fortis, Andrew Google. I am. Much like the Fortis watch that was released in the seventies and then, or perhaps the early eighties and then re-released a few years ago. This is a, polymer case, plastic strapped, modular watch. But the fun thing about this is when you order these, I believe you get the full kit. So for about $300, you're going to get a 27 millimeter colors, 5.3 millimeter movement that will plug into a plastic case, a polycarbonate slash TPE coated polycarbonate case. So the TPE giving it a soft touch. They claim that this is going to give lower CO2 emissions, yada, yada, yada. But I mean, frankly, I don't think anybody, well, maybe not nobody, but I don't think too many people are super worried about that.
Andrew No, because you're shipping it from China. I'm not concerned about the, like the bio responsibility of the watch. I should be, but I am not.
Everett That's right. So for right now, the 199 euro or 270 ish dollar option, you're going to get one dial case and strap plus four additional cases and strap. This comes in a, like a sort of dark gray and a white case. It's decidedly sporty. It's got a, it's got a dive watch feel to it. Certainly this is not a dive watch, but it's got a dive watch feel. And I think it's clever. I think it's attractive. I think that it's less money than a moonswatch. I also get it. I really kind of dig it. That's right. So, um, they've produced some, they've got some available on Kickstarter. Um, like I said, like 200 and 250, $270. You get all the straps, all the cases and a module with the Seiko NH35. I want to say it's 50 meters of water resistance. Andrew, do you know?
Andrew I'm sorry. I've been Googling for the, um, the name of that Fortis and there's one called the Fortis colors. No, but that's not it. And I can't, is it, are you sure it was Fortis? Yes. I own one. The interchangeable one.
Everett Well, it's not interchangeable.
Andrew No, no, no. That's the, with the interchangeable bezel, the, the essence has the interchangeable bezel, but that's for Max.
Everett This is Fortis, which are different companies.
Andrew Yes, it is. You're right.
Andrew Yeah, that plastic Fortis is that's not interchangeable, though. It's not designed by it. There was a company who in the last year, though, they did do a drop with the exact same technology, and I can't think of who it was.
Everett Hmm. So I'm talking about the Fortis Flipper. Yep. which I own, which is a resin cased watch that has a module with a construction almost identical to this Libero. But yeah. So anyway, that's that. Who did it?
Andrew Oh, gosh. I won't remember. I'm going to give up on it. Sorry, guys. Somebody will remember. It's not the Fortis Flipper, Andrew? No, it's a recent release. It's like, in the last year, a brand did a, like a self-contained module that you could select your case, bezel, all of it, and it was meant to be interchangeable. We talked about it. Right here. Right here on this very show.
Everett Right here on the show. Well, So much for me remembering things. I'm irritated. Well, so, you know, this is similar to the the Bundeswehr style. You're getting a similar type of deal where you're like the HK Bundeswehr where you're getting, you know, module inside a case. So this is certainly not the first time that's been done.
Andrew No, no, no, no. But it's certainly interesting. And it's it is not. unattractive. And for what it is, pretty reasonable price. It's spec'd well too. Yeah. Andrew, what do you got? So it's on Kickstarter, which is interesting. We haven't had a Kickstarter catch our eye for some time.
Everett I think that's right. It's definitely been a few weeks.
Andrew Yeah. Uh, okay. So next up, and we don't have to spend a ton of time on this, but it's certainly something that's, you know, worth mentioning. We have a new moonswatch. None of us will see it in person. None of us will ever be able to buy it at retail, but it is the moonshine moonswatch and it is, I like the moonswatch release. I really like it. I don't, get the hype associated with it. I don't understand camping out on the streets of New York city for the opportunity to maybe buy one. I don't, I don't get that. And I don't get how it has remained so hot. They're doing something really interesting to keep our attention on it and never sell it to us. I like this release. It has a silver colored case, gold accents on the dial. It's very attractive. But I, I don't, I don't understand. the lengths that people will go to to get this watch as lovely as it is. This is maybe my favorite iteration of it though.
Everett I think like with any, any hype beast, right? It's the, the demand is going to outweigh the intrinsic value of the thing. So I think that this was announced a little over a month ago now. Uh, and, and essentially this is just a standard mission to the moon, but with a gold secondhand, right? Uh, you know, which is not to say that's good or bad. Um, it, it's a couple of things unclear to me. Is it, is it actually limited? So when they announced these things, they said, it's just going to be available for one day. So it's kind of like, if you want this, you got to get to a store today, but, but it's not, um, clear to me if that's if there's going to be more of these later. But yeah, most of the moon swatches, even though they're very hard to get, not limited in any meaningful sense, you know, you have the ability to go get one. So it's curious to me. But no, I don't disagree with you. This isn't attractive. I think it's fun. I think it's attractive.
Andrew I wonder the quality of the nylon strap. I wonder if they are like Omega sourcing these straps.
Everett You know, I don't know.
Andrew I would because that would be a baller move to be Omega sourcing on these resin cased watches.
Everett I would guess for the price, you're going to get something significantly lower quality than a than a typical. I mean, they're selling an Omega NATO for basically the same price as the moonswatch. So I'm guessing you're getting something with a little bit lower cost.
Andrew Maybe, or maybe they just ate some margin out of it.
Everett Yeah, it's possible.
Andrew I don't know. But I, I dig this release. This is my, like I said, this is my favorite one. It's the only one that I would wait in a physical line for, but I certainly wouldn't camp in it.
Everett Right. Well, and I think that was the deal. If you wanted one, you were going to have to camp.
Andrew Yeah. Live on the sidewalks. for however long.
Everett What's the what's the going rate on these on Chrono24? Right now, eight hundred ninety two bucks.
Andrew That's actually less than I would have expected. That's a steal.
Everett Yeah. Well, and it's probably a heck of a lot better than waiting in line. So.
Andrew Or flying to New York. That's right. That's the other thing is the secondary market value on these is almost reasonable when compared that you can only buy them online. on the secondary market. In order to buy one, you gotta fly somewhere, or you can just pay double and not have to fly, which is less than flying to New York for most of us.
Everett You know, I used to be a Volvo owner, and there's a company that makes parts for old Volvos called IPD. And when you said paying double, it reminded me just now, IPD is, everybody calls it I pay double. It stands for I pay double. That's not really what it stands for, That's what happens when you buy a Volvo, though. Or drive a Volvo. I've got another watch I'd like to talk about. Ooh, let's do it. This is a watch that we were both wooed by last year from a company called Circula. Circula. We were both smitten by this brand at New York Wine they've released their pro trail watch, which we've talked about on the show before in a limited edition old radium. Now this was actually announced a couple of weeks ago, uh, but we didn't get a chance to talk about it when it came up. This is essentially a PVD coded or perhaps DLC coded, um, pro trail, the exact pro trail that you might, that you know, and love already. But with this, you know, Fotina, I'm on record not being a huge fan of this watch, but I think it were of, of Fotina, excuse me, but I think it works here. Um, and it's a fun, it's a fun way to do a limited edition. I think thousand bucks pro trail, just the same as you, as you know, and love, uh, you know, very thin. I think that these are just a hair under 12 millimeters thick. Um, And I think this is really smart for 40 millimeters, 20 millimeter lug width. Uh, yeah. Did I say 1,750 bucks on the nylon with that great case side and really kind of understated, but also interesting case. Good handset. I'm kind of into this.
Andrew Salida SW 200 movement. This like, this stands out to me as, as one of my favorite brands that that we came across at Wind Up in New York. They were one of the brands that we talked about being the most excited to see, and then we saw them and they delivered.
Everett That's right. We did. We talked about that even before the show. So these are, as of this moment, still available. I've just added one to my cart.
Andrew Do it. Now there's one less available. Even with the Fotina, you're into it, huh?
Everett Yeah. No, I think, I think it's attractive. This, you know, they've got this sort of sector dial, um, with a bit of layer, three dimensions to it. Great case finishing. Yeah. This is a, this is a smart watch.
Andrew It is. This would be a good, this is a good pick.
Everett What's next bud?
Andrew Oh, Ferrer has done an interesting thing.
Everett Ah,
Andrew Yes, they have. Farrah was another brand that we looked at in New York. And I was excited to see if their color in person is as vibrant as every photograph I've ever seen of them. Because there's just no way, right? Farrah is just vibrant. big, beautiful colors at times too much, but it makes sense. And I see him in person and I was like, this is, this is real. What I think I was seeing, I am in fact seeing, they have released their Lander in 36, which is the GMT in 36 with three Colors unique to the size. The color you expect, you know, they have their their. What do they call it? Sea green.
Everett Yeah, that's that that sort of teal blue.
Andrew Yeah, the blue with orange accents. A sea coast. Which is. More green. Like I call it turquoise. Hmm. I recently learned that this is not turquoise. Do tell. Can't really talk about why I know that.
Everett OK. OK.
Andrew They're calling that spearmint and a. Pink. Kind of cotton candy pink. Yeah, with red accents and they're calling that pink. Pink. They're calling that pink. Which is, you know, I think a missed opportunity given the naming conventions for the rest of them. Sea coast and sea foam. Pink. Pink. I've come really close to getting a Lander a lot of times. Because I love this watch. It's beautiful. Ferrer's case finishing is phenomenal. their color selection and their contrast on their dials is simultaneously super legible and super fun. Yeah. Uh, they, they have found this really good way to balance bright, big colors without being out of control. Um, it's interesting the way they do it. And I haven't been able to place my finger on, why it's tolerable when they do it and other brands not. I mean, this is, their colors are as big as studio underdog. It's just that there's not a watermelon on the dial or a pizza.
Everett Yeah. Well, and I think that they're doing, um, yeah, they've really actually much like studio underdog have really dove into the colors in a comprehensive way. It's not just a color. They've really spent time and you can tell these are really cohesive, even though they're bright. Um, you know, that pink with its red and blue hands, you know, they've, they've made it as interesting as it could be. And somehow all three of them are extremely tasteful. I'd say tasteful is the right word.
Andrew Yes. So these are coming in at $1,450, uh, which is about where the rest of the lander line is. So it makes sense.
Everett Yeah. Wow. And with the three 30 dash two movement, I think that's right. Yeah. Yeah. 36. These, the proportions here are pretty similar except for the thickness. So I think this actually winds up being just a touch thicker, maybe as much as 0.2 millimeters thicker, but at just under 11 for the 40 and 11 square for the 36, assuming that's not nominal measurements. Yeah, this is priced right, I think. And it's gonna wear a peach, I think.
Andrew Yeah, and at 11, that's still thin for a GMT. 56 hours of power reserve, they've been able to achieve in that. It's gonna be a nice, it's gonna be a nice wearing watch.
Everett And I'm a huge fan of Ferrer's circular hour marker. Um, I, you know, the syringe hands, I'm neither love it nor hate it. Um, but they definitely work. This is, this is exactly what you'd expect it to be. If I said to you without sending you pictures, there's, a 36 millimeter Farrah Lander. This is what you would picture, right?
Andrew Cause it's a 36 millimeter Farrah Lander. They didn't do anything outlandish. They didn't reinvent the wheel here. They said, Hey, let's make a Lander 36. And then they did just that.
Everett Yeah. Now, if you are into, if you are into the, that blue green, what are they calling that again? The C the C something. Um, if you're into that one, there is green. sea green. There is a slight difference here. The GMT hand on this is red. And I believe on the 39, I believe on the 39 millimeter it is, or 40 millimeter, it's orange and orange. Nope. I take it back. I take it back. It's orange and red. Womp womp.
Andrew So. This is just better done. You notice it better. That's right. I like their date window too. I don't know anyone who complains about their date window specifically, but there are those who would complain about date windows. I like their date window execution all around.
Everett Totally works for me.
Andrew Andrew, what you got? I just had one.
Everett Oh, was that yours? Yeah. Oh, I guess we both picked that one.
Andrew We did. And I didn't send you as many because there was some overlap in the things that we, uh, I just, I didn't send you the same links that you had already sent me that I had selected to send you.
Everett I got a brand here that I've got, that I've got, uh, uh, mixed feelings about. Okay. Isotope. Isotope watches. Uh, this is a relatively old brand in the micro brand scene. So I think that they came out in 2015, right at the tail end of 2015. Um, I still watches came on there. It's like one of those watches you look at, this is design heavy, right? This is, uh, got influences from, uh, perhaps the Bauhaus design period and, and other periods, you know, sort of like, uh, uh, industrial design thing.
Andrew Like maybe it's not a watch thing, but it's a design things. Yes.
Everett But mixed with a number of very good watch designs, right? So, so, uh, a bit of a hybrid, uh, a bit of fusion cooking, if you will. I have mixed feelings about isotope because they have these blank dive bezels, these blank dive bezels that are kind of good for nothing, I think. they're attractive. But it, it, it makes me feel a little funny to have a bezel that doesn't have any markings on it. Well, they've released two new versions of their Hydrum watch. One of those being called the Pro Nordblad and the other one being called the NASA, which there's some takeaways.
Andrew Yeah. I'm intrigued by that. Um,
Everett So two of these, so two of these new hydriums, uh, the Pronor Blad being named after, I believe, a professional diver who I've never heard of. You've never heard of this? No.
Andrew So she did this huge, like there's a Netflix documentary on it. Uh, she was the longest free dive under the ice swimmer.
Everett I see Johanna Nordblad. So Finnish ice diver and free diver, 25 years of experience, and in 2021 made history by becoming the first person to swim 103 meters under ice without fins. Yeah. You nailed it. You didn't watch that. I did not. I did not. And you did. I did watch that. And you're now getting a bonus other thing.
Andrew I watched it because I was like, I have literally nothing else to do. nothing else on Netflix seems fun to watch the tile on it. I watched a little trailer and I was like, this will fill my time. And then I was like, immersed in it. I was like, okay, all right. I see it. I don't get it, but I'm, I'm here for it.
Everett This is like the octopus teacher show that everybody watched over the course of about a week and then forgot about it. Yeah. Well, you know, I never watched that. Oh man. It's terrific. It looked really beautiful, but it's terrific. The guy is, I do not find the fellow who made the movie as charming as I think a lot of people did. In fact, I think he's kind of fucked up, but the, the octopus is fantastic and underpaid severely probably and severely underpaid. So what I like about these, both of these have markings on the bezel and they're both, uh, this sort of, uh, I don't know if it's ceramic or sapphire, but you've got a glass looking bezel with numbers underneath. Very different watches. The Nordblad is a hyper legible, very, very, very straightforward dive watch with a cute handset. I'm using the word cute, not like, not like, a boy band, but playful. And, um, you know, uh, three, six, nine, 12 Arabics, um, baton markers everywhere else. There looks to be a torch in terms of loom. The NASA on the other hand, NASA on the other hand, this is different.
Andrew So it's a blasted case. Yeah. For these to be coming out as a pair is, is a really, I mean, it kind of makes sense. It's like a interesting art installation and, and, you know, free diving and space. That's right. But, uh, that's where the similarities. And did you mention a thousand meters of water or a thousand feet of water resistance? I did not mention that.
Everett Is that the water resistance?
Andrew The Nordland's got a thousand feet of water resistance. Yeah.
Everett That's what 330, 300 meters ish. It bears a Swiss made marking at the six o'clock. How about that? Who care? Is the NASA have less? Does the NASA have less water resistance?
Andrew I don't know. I don't think it says anything on the dial besides NASA.
Everett Well, well, quickly, so quickly, I'll say one other thing about NASA.
Andrew If you haven't seen this. 300 meters on the NASA, yeah.
Everett Loomed hands, loomed dial, loomed second piece on top of the dial, and loomed bezel, fully loomed. So it's white on white on white with some black, with some black borders to separate our everything. Still very legible, but not legible in the way you might expect.
Andrew No. What is the, I can't find what the teardrop on the dial is, is meant to be.
Everett And I don't, I don't think I've read anything about that except for fun looking. Okay. But I thought these, I thought these were terrific. They are not inexpensive, but they're, they're, you know, in the realm of, of what you'd expect. So 900 pounds per, which I think is going to work out to 1100, 1200 bucks, something like that. And I think they're terrific.
Andrew This is a Cerakote blend on the NASA case. Because it almost looks titanium, but that's the Cerakote. It's Cerakoted. Yeah. Terrific. Yeah. I'm, I'm here for it. It's a, the Nassau is bizarre, but the Nordblad, I'm like, I'm really down with. Yep. Yep. This is a good pick. is a weird pair of releases. They're limited though. Uh, a hundred pieces of the Nordblad and 200 pieces of the NASA. How does one get licensed, get, get the licensing rights to put NASA on your dial?
Everett You know, based on the amount of watches that say NASA on them, I suspect it's pretty straightforward, but I don't know.
Andrew I would like to see a, uh, a foster, NASA branded watch just so that we can further discuss the licensing procedure.
Everett I'll submit that to the licensing department. Maybe. To the legal department.
Andrew Let's just have the licensing guy from NASA on. That'd be rad. Yeah. Like what's the most ridiculous thing you've allowed NASA be stamped on? Because it's not a lunchbox.
Everett I bet our friend Nick Mankey would be willing to talk about it.
Andrew I bet he would be able to talk about unless he is signed some sort of NDA or he's just doing it until the NASA says not to. Which I wouldn't think he would do, but one just never knows. I have a new pick. Seiko did something cool. Seiko is listening to the people. They're power to the people. We have some Seiko releases. in 38 millimeters in the Seiko 5 Sports World, the SR-PK29, the 3.1, 3.3, and 3.5.
Everett Just really reach, they're really reaching there. Just getting crazy with it.
Andrew They like those odd numbers. I wonder what 30, 32, 34, and 36 are going to be. But we have the 5KX in 38 millimeters in black. Cream, mint, and orange. And the orange is butt, I think. But the black is fire. I don't like the orange.
Everett Not into it, huh? No. It's an iconic Seiko colorway.
Andrew It's my issues with the gilt. I want white on the bezel with that. I think a white bezel makes that orange pop because they have white markers on the dial and then gold tone on the bezel. And it just kind of mutes everything. And it's, it bummed me out, but I like the mint. I like the cream, the black is fire and the black is what this watch should be designed in. So this is, we all know this watch.
Everett And so what you're calling mint, I think they're calling teal. Also gilt hands on the, on the mint slash teal. It's tolerable to me.
Andrew Interesting. But they're also not that guilty. Yeah. I don't, I, it just, it, it's not the right combination on the orange.
Everett So I've seen this referred to as the successor to the SKX013 a handful of times. Obviously this is targeting the same consumer as who, as the person who would have purchased the 013, Much like the Seiko 5 Sports is to the SKX, I'd say this is to the 013. Probably a little bit bigger than the 013, maybe just a hair. I'm going to take additional umbrage with it. Uh-oh. Anybody who has worn the 013 and compared it to the 007, We'll note that the cases are actually slightly different. The 013 compared to the 007 has a more, I don't know what the right word is, but it's a bit more angular. It's a bit flatter and just generally looks and feels slightly different than the 007 in a way that I find quite attractive. This has eschewed that that difference in design for something that's much closer to the 007 or perhaps the 5KX with the lugs that curve down more aggressively. And so I think they kind of missed something for me at least. They kind of missed something with this because I really liked that difference.
Andrew If they're iterating on the 013. And I don't think they are iterating on the 013. They are in the sizing, but I think they're iterating on the Seiko 5, which is the successor to both.
Everett Yeah. Well, I think it's a bit of a missed opportunity.
Andrew It is. Yeah. It's a missed opportunity. It's got the forearm movement. Yeah. It's 375 bucks. Yeah.
Everett 325 is what these, which I think is a fine price. This is a totally fine price for this watch. It is not going to, this is not a spec monster, right? Hard Lux crystal, hollow end links.
Andrew 100 meters, like this is the 5 series, right? We're not, we don't have specked out, affordable, super affordable Seiko anymore.
Everett But 38 millimeters, 12.1 thick, which is fantastic. Nice and compact on the lug to lug at 44, just a touch over 44, 20 millimeter lugs. I mean, it is exactly what you would expect this watch to be.
Andrew But it's an exciting release. I'm pleased to see Seiko continuing to iterate in this five series zone. And they're not just throwing shit at the wall. They're kind of reviving things that have existed and been really popular to bring a little bit more legitimacy to this new Seiko five world that we live in.
Everett And for those of you who were irritated about the 013, the day date window cutting into the chapter ring, that's been remedied by this release.
Andrew You're welcome. They're listening to the people.
Everett It's a good watch though. There's nothing, I had nothing bad to say. There's nothing offensive about it.
Andrew It's just like the 013. Yeah. Nothing offensive. In, in six years, people will be able to bitch and moan about this, this, this, but as it stands, this is a perfectly inoffensive, affordable, well-specced dive watch.
Everett I think that's right.
Andrew But it's Seiko 5, so people go bitch.
Everett So after about three years and change of ignoring the company Autodromo on this podcast, not for good reason, for no reason, not on purpose, but generally after three years of ignoring Autodromo, we're going to talk about Autodromo for the second time in just a matter of weeks. Autodromo released a successor to its Group B in a chronograph. In a automatic chronograph. So announced this last week, the Autodromo Group B Rally Sport Chronograph in collaboration with Hodinkee and all of these being available exclusively via the Hodinkee shop. Love it or hate it. I think some people are have feelings. I have less. This is a 39 millimeter titanium and steel case, nine millimeters thick, uh, 40 millimeters. Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. I'm sorry. The group B is 39 by nine. This being the automatic chronograph is 40 by 13.4. So a little thicker than the group B as, as one would expect.
Everett And this is, I think, a lovely little watch or perhaps a lovely, not so little watch. These are, I think, fairly, uh, being compared to, uh, being compared with the Gigaro Seiko stuff. And if you look at these, so we'll have a link to the Houdinki shop as well as a link to a write-up on these, but these are very reminiscent of the 1980s Gigaro design watches.
Andrew 100%. They, they elicit all of the same industrial kind of, uh, like 80s futuristic ideas, super flat, clean lines, like just geometry on point. But without any of the like delicate, kind of floofy future things. These are, this is, this is if 1980 said, this is what 2020 is going to look like. That's right. That's right. Uh, and it's what 2023 looks like because these are dope.
Everett I think they're all pretty terrific. So these are all, you know, as you might expect, they're all named after, they're all named after, Group B, famous Group B cars. So for instance, you get the S4 referring to the Lancia, Delta S4, you get the S1 referring to the Audi Quattro S1. They're all named after famous Group B cars. There are five of them. However, two of them are sold. The 037, which is a It's black, but kind of that bluish black, midnight black, that kind of reminiscent of a, a solar dial with orange markings that's sold. There is a lovely green kind of a mint and Emerald combo also sold the, but in my mind, the three that remain available. The three that remain available, the white, gray, and yellow S1 with a black case.
Andrew I really like that one.
Everett The white, red, and teal T16 with a kind of a big teal.
Andrew These are the 70% dials that are all left.
Everett That's right. The 70% dial. The green's a 70% dial too. And the S4, which has got a navy and white, my least favorite, not because it's unattractive, but because it's the least interesting.
Andrew Those 70% dials are gorgeous. And they really remind me of like the BMW logo. They really remind me of like just original aviation design. And I know that's not what these are based on, but that's what it like. That's what I see when I see these dials. So when I say a 70% 70% of the dial, the bottom 70% is a different color, right, than the rest. So it's, you'll have to look at them. I feel like I'm describing it pretty well. From 10 to 2 is white, with a totally white minute marker around the outside. And then from two to 10 is blue with a horizontal line across the dial. And it just, it, it looks like aviation instruments to me.
Everett Yeah. Or, or perhaps more appropriately dash instruments.
Andrew It looks, I think aviation when I think, I think of like a, just a horizon instrument, uh, they're beautiful that, that, uh, white, yellow and gray is. Yeah, that's doing something for me. Yeah, I think that's the one that's the one for me, too. And these are mechanical chronograph movements and they're they're coming in at fourteen hundred bucks, fifteen hundred bucks.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Which makes sense. Yeah. No, that's right.
Everett And these are dope pieces each. That's right. Not not too many pieces. Custom grade titanium case backs. And and what I think we've said this about Bradley Price before, but what I think he does so well is to design a watch that's evocative of the thing he's evoking without being over the top, right? None of these are silly. None of these are, you know, are making decisions to make you think about something. They're not in your face about it. They're, you know, they're not, They're not to prove the point doing something silly or quirky. These are just spectacularly designed watches that are evocative in all the right ways.
Andrew And they're also not just a huge miss. I'm like, oh no, this is inspired by the colorway on the 1942 Spitfire's instrumentation gauge. Like no one, no one would get that but you. And it's okay that you did get that. But that's not your rallying cry. This is the combination of, no, no, no, this is what inspired me. And you can see it without having to do some research to understand what you're seeing.
Everett And so, by the way, this is the S1 Quattro that that S1 is based on. Yeah. With the gray and the black and the yellow.
Andrew So if you own an S1, you should own this watch. Perhaps, you know, I'm just I'm just saying there's the opportunity remains.
Everett I think the the T16 is my is my favorite of these with the blue. Although I go I go back and forth.
Andrew So the real light blue. Yeah. Periwinkle 70 percent. That's right.
Everett And that is based on this Peugeot T16 Evo car, which is one of the sexiest, ugly cars ever made. Yep. Uh, well, I think we've done it. Don't you think?
Andrew I, you know, I, I think we're there as we usually do. Some things we didn't get to, that's okay. But that's, that's the way it goes sometimes. It's part for the course. You guys, you know, You don't have to listen to us for days at a time. But you can if you want to. We could stay here for many more hours and stay at this. And we may. We may, but we'll do it in the privacy of, maybe we'll have a hot mic episode where we just like, just let's see what happens. There's no intro. There's no outro. It just is.
Everett Andrew, other things. What do you got?
Andrew I watched a Netflix series a couple of weeks ago. and loved it. And then in the last, like, week, started reading about it. And finally, for the first time ever, I was ahead of the game. I watched the series Beef, probably the weekend it came out. And then Beef blew up. The Netflix show Beef is a. It's a Netflix series starring Steven Yeun and I forget her name. It's Glenn from Ali Wong. So he said Ali Wong. OK. Steven Yeun, Yeun, Yeun. I'm not saying it differently, but in my head I'm trying to put it out differently. And Ali Wong. The whole show begins with a road rage incident in a parking lot, which is a really interesting way to begin a show. And then they develop these beautiful, so it's 30 minute episodes. There's six or seven episodes. It's short. I watched it in one night. I did stay up late, but I watched it in one night. So they, it starts with this road rage incident. And then they, they craft these beautiful characters whose lives are kind of falling in on them and why this single road rage incident was so important to them. And, and then they're there, like it takes it from there. So it's these people who just need a win and then they don't win and everything spirals. And it's really for, for being 30 minute episodes, they do so much. really great character development. The storytelling in it is awesome. It's these people who make sense. Like you just get them and they do a really good job of just making you forget about any of the other oddities associated with this incident. You just don't care. It is a total suspension of disbelief and you're totally and completely immersed in the story. And I absolutely loved it. I talked to a couple of people who were like, I don't really like it. And I was like, well, you're a fucking idiot. This show was terrific. It was for me, I have a problem. It was a single night view for most people. It will be like a really easy, comfortable Friday, Saturday, Sunday night. watch a few episodes every night, enjoy them and go to bed like a normal human person. I couldn't do that. Uh, and I'm, I'm glad that I watched it all at once because that's how much I liked it. I was bummed that it was over when it ended. I was really satisfied with the ending, but also like, well, Oh, I want more. I'm not ready. I'm not ready for it to be over. I'm not done. Yes. Yeah, I know that feeling spectacular. I might I will watch this show again.
Everett Love it. Yes. Love it. You are more willing to watch things again. I typically I watch and then I need like a three to five year cool down.
Andrew There's certain things that I go back to like I've never watched Game of Thrones a second time. I tried to when the new series was kind of on the horizon. Uh, and then I gave up and didn't watch the new series because I didn't want to watch the new series without a refresh. Sure. I've only watched breaking bad once. Uh, Sopranos I've only watched once. Like there's just some things that I just, I like the one time does it for me. Like the wire I've watched like three times. Yeah, I've watched the war, but they're not, but they're not like iterative. Some things I watch, you know, quarterly, not TV shows, but like movies or like short TV shows. I'll watch quarterly, but like literally you watch it four times a year. I watched dumb and dumber six times a year. I watch every Jurassic park at least 12 times a year. When people quote dumb and dumber to me, I watched dumb and dumber last night. I always shake my head.
Everett I am not as enamored by that movie as I think most people are.
Andrew It was, it was fun. I do the full Ace Ventura marathon at least twice a year. Oh boy. Why would you do that to yourself? Why wouldn't you? I think you're wrong for not. There's some things they got my number, man. And I go back to them. I like comfort food, you know, and those, those are, and it's not like I sit down and I like get excited and pop popcorn and watch it. It's like I turn it on and it plays amidst my life. Fair enough. I get it. Okay. Some of them I do sit down and watch.
Everett Dumb and Dumber is one of them. Make an event of it. Yeah.
Andrew Or a bottle of wine.
Everett I've got another thing. Do me. Mine is not a show or something you could watch unless you are very actively watching because it's a book. I guess in theory you watch a book. You could watch somebody read it to you. You watch all the pages.
Andrew For our less literate listeners.
Everett I started a book probably about four months ago, and then something else came up. I can't remember. Something was released, and so I read that, and then I read a couple other things, and I was like, oh, I want to go back to that book because it was starting off really well. And so I went back, I picked it back up, and I got sucked right back in, and I finished it in about three days this week. The book is called A Master of Djinn. I believe it's, how do you say that word? D-J-I-N-N.
Andrew That's the only way I can imagine saying it.
Everett I think it's a made up word. And so. D-G-N-N. Maybe we, we say whatever we want. This is a book by P. Jelly Clark and it's a Tor.com release, which Tor.com is the Tor sort of.
Andrew It's not a made up word. It's an Arabic word. Oh, okay.
Everett Well, fair enough. Tor.com is the online publisher for Tor. This book came out in 2021 and was kind of like all over the award circuit, the sci-fi award circuit. So not an artist, not an author I'd ever heard of. I didn't know anything about the series, but you kind of jump into the middle of a of a world that's already been built by two prior novellas, which I didn't know going in. This isn't like a sequel or anything, but you can tell as you're reading it, there's references that make you understand that there's other releases, but. Just a few of of the nominations and awards, so it won the Nebula 2022 Nebula for Best Novel, the 2022 Locus Award for Best First Novel, and the Compton Crook Award, which I'm not familiar with. But it was also nominated for the Hugo Best Novel, World Fantasy Award Best Novel. So basically this was like a player. This was one of the award show darlings. And it's terrific. So I've heard the term steampunk used to describe this genre, which I guess is fair, but also it's got, it's like, steampunk, whatever that is, meets noir. It's got this like smoky cop, you know, grumpy cop vibe to it. The protagonist, a young lady cop named Fatma. And this is set in Egypt in an alternate universe. It's an alternate universe, early 20th century Egypt, in which the world governance, the human governance of the world has coalesced around a group of beings that have emerged, referred to as the djinn. Which is the Arabic word for genie.
Andrew There you go.
Everett Makes things make a little bit more sense with that title. And of course, they are genies. Or just others. Mystics. Mystical beasts. That's right. Fantastic. It's fantastic. So it is a crime novel. So we're solving a murder with our protagonist and her plucky, uh, new partner who are all members of the ministry, which is this law enforcement agency that doesn't actually exist. It sounds very silly and it is in some ways, but it's also really good. The world building is fantastic. Um, The characters are like surprisingly charming. I just loved it.
Andrew And that's good writing though, is you take a simple idea that's maybe a little outlandish and you build a world around it that people can get involved in. If it's too complex of an idea, you can't build a world. People gotta be able to buy into it.
Everett And you can tell that they're not, they're not giving you unnecessary details. So a lot of times with a book like this, I'll find even with very like well respected authors, I find sometimes they give us too much of the world and don't give us enough of the human and the experience. This, there's all these bizarre, unexplainable things happening, but they're passe for the folks experiencing them. And so they don't spend a lot of time. It's, There's no, the exposition isn't there, right? We're just going along this bizarro world.
Andrew So that's a normal thing. Okay. That's the world I'm in. That's in passing.
Everett And it was just terrific. So I finished it this week, um, and I was like, totally blown away. The ending is really good. It's not really good, but it's good. And the reason I brought this as another thing is because it's one of those books I think you may pass on or at least that I may have passed on. You might see someone recommend it and you're like, what is that? No, no, no. Next. And I think it's worth it.
Andrew It was great read. You read good books. You read, I'm sure read some bad books, but books you're willing to recommend are.
Everett Yeah, well, I read a lot and I don't recommend all that many books. So yeah, I thought it was terrific. You're a good book source. I can't be. Yeah. Although some folks, Mike Razak, for instance, finds my approach to picking books to be objectionable.
Andrew Yeah. Not all of us can read Harry Potter exclusively. So also your, your book reading is very different than those who have young kids. You can sit down in your living room and you could feasibly read for an entire evening and, and have no interruptions, no real problems with it. I do often, in fact. You do have more available leisure reading time than Mike or I, for example. I think that's right, yeah. Because your kids are pretty self-sufficient. Anything that I do has to be able to be dropped or perhaps even thrown at one of the creatures that live in my house.
Everett Although I will say the majority of my reading is like 9.30 to 11.30. Which is TV time for most people.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Sleep time on accident for me.
Everett Andrew, here we are just a little over an hour in after last week's very long episode.
Andrew And our deepest apologies for giving you the opportunity to pick the brains with us of the team from Manta. We just, we, we cannot be more apologetic of that episode going long. Yeah.
Everett No apologies at all, but a bit of a break this week. Anything you want to add before we get out of here?
Andrew I'm out of things.
Everett As per the usual, all out of things. Hey, you guys, thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. You can check us out online at WatchClicker.com. That's where we post every single episode of this podcast, as well as reviews, articles. There's new stuff every single week. Check it out. You can also check us out on the socials, really just Instagram at WatchClicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. That's where we post updates and photographs and other fun things like that. If you want to support us and we hope you do, because this is not a cheap endeavor and we basically do it for free. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And that's where we get all of our money for hosting for photos, audio, uh, website, et cetera, hardware, software, patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to tune back in. next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew Buh-bye.