Episode 239 - Watches Roundup for May 25, 2023
Published on Thu, 25 May 2023 11:29:09 -0700
Synopsis
The podcast discusses new watch releases and news, including a new American-made watch from J.N. Shapiro, new colorways of the Citizen NJ015 Suyosa, a limited edition Doxa 300T honoring Clive Cussler, and new olive green Unimatic Modelo watches. They also talk about other topics like a new Masterbuilt grill Andrew bought and the Netflix movie "Missing".
Links
Transcript
Speaker | |
---|---|
Everett | Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. |
Andrew | 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 | Everett, the wiener, how are you? I tried a thing, okay? Is that what you said? It was like loud and quiet all at once. Yeah, you are. Yeah, no, I'm doing all right. I'm feeling self-conscious about my fading skills after last week. And so that was a little bit challenging for me. But other than that... Just deeply insecure now. I knew it would work. I just had to plant the seed. Deep insecurity. I've been thinking about it all week. So here we are. We're doing all this bragging. I know. Stick you down a peg. Just cut me deep. No, I'm doing really well, man. We're full swing into late spring activities I've had. They don't back load baseball games, but because of early rain outs, naturally the end of the season is just go, go, go. He's back up to a pack a day. Don't mind him. Right. And so there's just been a little bit more baseball these last few weeks, which is fine. It's been good. I don't know if I've talked about this on the show. I'm a coach on my son's team. And it's rad, man. It's like they're at this age where all of the kids have athletic ability that they haven't tapped into quite yet. You know, they're like nine, 10. Some like potential boxes opening up. That's right. Yeah. It's really fun to watch these guys like maturing and things are clicking like highly athletic things are clicking. Um, and you know, they're getting better at baseball. They're getting better at baseball relative to their peers. We've had some really close games. It's been fun. I'm, I'm having just a ton of fun and my son is even having fun. So that's, that's what's important. Yeah. Yeah. That's yeah. Well ultimately that that's that's why we're doing it. So it's it's good that he's it's good that he's enjoying it. |
Andrew | I always struggled with youth sports as a kid because I felt like all the teams I played on the kids coach was like in like the bottom third of both skill and general athletic ability and got treated like the star. Like that kid was always the pitcher. He was always the quarterback. |
Everett | He was always the point guard. Sure. |
Andrew | And I was like, what do you do? |
Everett | Like everyone sees what's happening. Yeah. That kid is trash. Except when my dad coached, when my dad coached, he took active efforts to prevent that. Uh, the word I'm looking for is perception. Yeah. Prevent that perception. And I just rode the bench. I played. And I'm not saying I was the most athletic or the best, but I was certainly not bottom tier material. Like I wasn't, I shouldn't have been sitting next to the kid who was also eating a Snickers, but that was me. So whenever my dad was the coach, I was like, this is something is not, doesn't make sense. Yeah. You know, our, our head coach is really his kids on the team. His kid's a pretty good ball player, but Uh, he's just, I, I've been totally blown away. We, we, uh, the, this is Babe Ruth baseball. So we've got like four coaches. I mean, it's starting to get serious and the head coach is just really, all the coaches have just really impressed me. It's been really fun to be part of this group of kids and the, and the, the coaches too are just terrific. So we haven't had that experience, but you can see other teams that are having that type of experience in our league. So. We've got a really good squad of both coaches and kids. We're also kind of in the IT district. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Andrew, how are you? I am good. I got some yard work done today. I'm feeling rested. |
Andrew | I took a little bit of a half day on my last day of work, so I've had a little bit of a long weekend. It's been delightful. I had a really good weekend. |
Everett | Part of my really good weekend will be discussing our other things. I have a feeling. I have a feeling. I know what it's going to be. There's a new website that I found that's really great. Well, in any event, we are today talking about watches after all. And we're right into it, man. Five minutes. Yeah, five on the dot, five on the dot. And today we're doing a roundup of things because we haven't talked about new releases or watch news in a few weeks. And so we decided it would be a good idea to get back in there, get back in the game, do a little catch up, a little watch news, a little release news. What's going on in watches? It's not been a slow summer, but I do feel like summer 2023 the releases have been a little, at least in our world, the releases have been a little less, what's the word I'm looking for? A little less constant, because we're on the heels of some big watch shows. |
Unknown | And maybe less interesting, too. |
Everett | Maybe less interesting. There is some of that. Yeah. But I think we've got some good ones to talk about today, actually. |
Andrew | Yes. |
Everett | First, can I talk about something that gets me Real excited. Sure. I remember those kids listening. |
Andrew | J. N. Shapiro. Mm hmm. A truly. Made in America hand crafted. Watch and it is. |
Everett | Gorgeous. Yeah, so this week, American watchmaker Jan Shapiro announced For the first time in what, since Hamilton? |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | Since Hamilton shuttered its doors. 1969? 1969? 1869? It doesn't matter. And so what that, again, made in the USA means all or substantially all of material and parts were sourced in the United States. So for us, that means a movement. The exception being jewels, sapphire, and springs. Which has kind of been the hang up for everyone trying to effort this. The jewels, springs, and sapphire would be pretty easy to source. |
Andrew | It's just, it, it would take somebody taking that, making that commitment to, to start growing sapphire in America, which probably isn't, uh, really that feasible given the, the margins against international manufacturing. |
Everett | That's right. Yeah. But it's possible. |
Andrew | And it would just. It would just take somebody willing to lose a bucket load of money, a bucket load of money. |
Everett | Yeah. To grow sapphire and rubies that the springs and hairpins. That's that might be a little tricky, but hairpins, hairsprings. So. So. So. So this is what we are. So. So we have first made in America since 1969. It is a. |
Andrew | Ultra high-end, 100%, made in America, handmade. |
Everett | All or virtually all, maybe not 100%. |
Andrew | Fair, fair, gorgeous, small seconds watch. And I am smitten. |
Everett | So California watchmaker fella left education and decided, you know what I'm going to do? |
Andrew | The only way I can perhaps make less money than an educator in California is I'm going to start my own watch brand, but I'm not gonna do it, um, in a way that I could pay myself right away or maybe ever. |
Everett | I'm going to do it to the moon. So small batch, totally artisanal watchmaking. Uh, |
Andrew | The resurgence series is what he's calling this. And this is he's not exactly brand new to the game. |
Everett | This is a name that could be familiar to some of us. |
Andrew | But this is we have the resurgence coming back. Making its way to the surface again, because this takes takes some time. |
Everett | This is here. 37 millimeter. I think eight point something thick hand wind. hand built movement, which is to the moon in terms of quality of finishing materials, rose turning everywhere. |
Andrew | Here's the wrinkle because they're handmade 38 millimeter stock, right? |
Everett | That's his OEM case. Other sizes available upon request, multiple materials. So this guy is, is working with multiple materials in his manufacturing process. Steel, zirconium, tantalum, which I don't even know what the fuck that is. Sounds crazy though. White or rose gold. And here's the thing that kind of shocked me. For this level of finishing, totally handmade stuff, under $100,000. |
Andrew | 70 for the steel, 70,000 for steel or zirconium and 85 for gold. |
Everett | Tantalum I think is a made up material. I don't, I've never, I'm not. It probably is. They probably made it up. What is that? |
Andrew | Are you being real? |
Everett | I don't, I've never, this is not a material I'm familiar with. So here's a question I have. So doesn't RGM, so, so first I will say, aesthetically I saw this and I thought RGM, but doesn't RGM make, Made in America, both mechanical and tourbillon. They must not obviously, cause everybody's saying the first, but I was pretty sure that they had a tourbillon that they're making, that they're calling made in the USA. I can't fight it of course now as I, as I sit here. Oh, 90% made in the USA on the, on the, um, Pennsylvania Tourbillon. So, okay. So it can't even reach the Made in the USA threshold. Because 90%. So, okay, there we go. But I will say, I want to put a little bit of a... There is just an asterisk. Because it's like, come on. So I feel it. That's cool. They did it. Congratulations. Best cup of coffee in the world. But we've got companies, RGM notably, that are doing that are getting very close. They're on the threshold and they're not there yet. They're this Mr. Shapiro. J.M. Shapiro has breached the threshold. |
Unknown | That's fair. That's fair. |
Everett | Which is a huge threshold. It's not like Swiss made. That's like. |
Andrew | High five. |
Everett | Yeah. Or even like Glashutte is is a pretty low threshold, they just had like legislation to raise their threshold. Yeah. Yeah. It's what, 70? Yes. In that neighborhood. Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. No, this is a really cool watch. I do also really love the RGM Pennsylvania Tribune. Both of these watches are, for me, not tantalum, but unobtainium. Yeah. Tantalum is a real metal. I did look it up. Yeah. No shit. But I don't understand it. Well, I expect a full report in the morning. I'll send you the Wikipedia page. That's the best I can do. I'm not a metallurgist. I wonder why tantalum. Now I'm going to go down a rabbit hole tonight. I got a watch I want to talk about. I am prepared to hear it. |
Unknown | Um, I want to talk about, I want to talk about a, uh, a watch from a person I like. |
Everett | A person I've met and who is terrific and who I'm happy, I think, for the first time on the show to be talking about, but the Imperial Watch Company, I met Ben Burkow. Burkow, gosh, I hope I'm saying that right. I've only ever said Ben. I've never said the last name. I met Ben Burkow in LA last year. I know, let's say it different. If you say it different every time, one time, it will be right. At the Notice Intersect event, and Ben had come from Hawaii to go to intersect. And he was just like one of these people you meet and you're like, well, this guy's totally terrific. Um, and he at the time had just kind of introduced and was selling his Imperial Imperial dive watch company called the Royal guard 200. Now I think this is a very cool watch. I think Ben's got a background in watch modding, and it shows from this watch. This is very much the watch of a dive watch modder is going to make, and I believe that he is a member of the Brothers of the Submariner Homage or whatever that watch forum group is, the F71 group. This watch is very much in the style of someone who's up big lover of Submariner homages, but this is not, I would not call this a Submariner homage to begin with the dial is nothing like a sub, but it still has that classic, very clean mill sub type of feel aluminum insert. But these watches are terrific. They're incredibly affordable. I think that these were unveiled last fall. and Ben has sold out of his first run and has now come back and introduced another three watches, another four watches? Three colorways. Another three colorways. And they're all really good. So I think that first Royal Guard came out with that blue bezel. We've now got these in like a gray, almost like a sage gray. A ghosted green. a brown, a terrific brown dial and a really like a sort of ghosty black bezel. So we've got the ghost green, the classic black and the tropical. That's our, that's our brown. And these all look so good. They're not, there's nothing earth shattering here, but these are all just like, really, really, really very well done color ways. Now, the no date is, has got me feeling some things. Ben's using heavy, like yellowish old radium loom. I'm on record, not my most favorite thing in the world, but I think he does it really well. And I think in this application, it is the right, it's the right move. And another thing I like about this is it runs the same color across the dial. So the dial text, the really terrific Imperial logo, the Royal guard 200 printing at the bottom, all in that same color. So it gives them a cohesiveness. Sometimes you get the old radium loom and like a stark white print. And that always looks really awkward to me. This watch is really, this watch is really fun and I'm super excited for Ben. Uh, and I'm, I'm kind of excited about these watches. These are good. What's the sizing on them? So they are, I believe, 38 with a 20 millimeter lug width. |
Andrew | Okay. 50, 50 and 70. 30 more in the original blue. The date version I'm not a big fan of. |
Everett | Usually I'm okay with a date, but the way that the dial has pips for everything but the cardinal directions and then outward facing triangles for the cardinal directions, the date kind of messes up that flow. Yeah, I'll tell you, I'm sort of, what's the word? I'm ambivalent about date windows. I know a lot of people have a lot of strong feelings. To me, this is, I think, a well-executed date window, so I'm good with it. It is. I just prefer the no date version with those big cardinal markers. I probably normally do as well. And I probably do it in this case as well. But yeah, Imperial Watch Company, Be the link in the show notes. Check them out. Support a homie. Really cool watches. And they're super affordable. 500 bucks. Yeah. Oh, exclusive launch price of $399. I don't know if we're... Are we outside of the window? The 72 hour? Oh yeah, we sure are. So 500 bucks. 500 bucks. You missed the window. We should have rounded it up earlier. Sorry guys. NH35 movement. These are dope. This feels like, uh, this feels like a bit of a throwback, right? Like just a super well done, not trying to, not trying to break anybody's windows. It's a super well done, super interesting, but also fairly conservative watch that you're going to want to wear every day. Yeah. Yeah. This is certainly an everyday watch. Uh, I got a thing. I got a cool thing. |
Andrew | Warnemwown found a thing. |
Everett | Thanks, Warnemwown. They found 40 new old stock. Oh, yeah. 1980s Hamilton khaki fields. And I'm not sure where they were hiding, like if they were in a filing cabinet or something, but they they got themselves into 40 new old stock khaki fields. And I'm sure they're sold out. Because when I looked on the website today, there was not an option to buy. Yeah. No, I think, I think that they're gone. And man, what a cool find to get brand new inbox service option available. |
Andrew | Eighties Hamilton's. |
Everett | Yeah. These are Gorgeous. And they've got that really cool khaki logo, that prominent six o'clock khaki logo. Just straight out of the eighties. I love that logo. This discovery should prompt Hamilton to do just a 2024 year long run with that logo at the six o'clock. |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | Cause I would buy it in a heartbeat. I would buy it. Yeah. I think it's terrific. In fact, for me, Hamilton's design language, like moving backwards, I think there's probably a period between maybe 2010 and the late nineties that I don't love. But excluding that period, you, you start five years ago and it just gets better as you go back to like the seventies. Like I think Hamilton's design language in some ways is regressing because they've moved into popular and hot sellable and gotten less interesting. Yes. Hamilton did interesting shit. That six o'clock logo is interesting. That's what I want. |
Andrew | And it's interesting in the way that like Timex is interesting. |
Everett | It's bold. |
Andrew | It's kind of like garish and like shitty, but it worked in the eighties. |
Everett | I would buy this watch in a heartbeat. |
Andrew | Though it is arguably one of. It makes no sense on that dial. |
Everett | Nothing else of that dial has ever changed. And it's gorgeous. I love. No, it has changed. That dial. That new dial Hamilton has is all like. Yeah. So retro, but but like. But it doesn't have a. On the nose. Doesn't have a 1980s khaki stamp. Gimme 80s retro. Between the eight and the four. That's right. I want like between everything between 1982 and 1996. That's what I want. Give it. Give it to me. Put it is. Yeah, you know, this is a super cool find it. It's like a nice reminder of. The 80s, when people were trying to be futuristic, but were actually not. Yeah, that's right. It was it was a weird time. You know, when we first started going, we spent some time talking about ABC watches on an episode. And one of the watches we talked about on that episode was Protrek, for obvious reasons. Protrek, I think Casio's Protrek line is still today probably one of the industry leaders in ABC watch technology. They're really awful watches, aesthetically, physically, tough to wear, way too big, they're made of plastic, the plastic is painted, the paint peels off, and they always look like shit. They're terrible fucking watches. They're miserable watches. I'm sorry, Casio. But with that said, the technology is really good, but one of the things that I said, and that I still feel today, is that Protrek logo is one of my favorite watches, one of my favorite logos in watches, because it is straight out of 1989, And they haven't changed it. You get this spaceship looking watch with this late 80s Eddie Bauer looking logo. And I'm not crazy about juxtaposition for the sake of juxtaposition. And I don't think that's why they're doing it. But I love the fact that they've stuck to their roots and that logo is still the thing. That's their logo. And why change? That's our logo. That's how people know us. It's not like Kia. |
Andrew | Kia just changed their logo and nobody recognizes the Kia logo anymore. |
Everett | That's right. What's NKA? Right. I think that if Protrek leaned into its roots and started releasing some vintage, much, much, much more simple watches, they would have a hit on their hands because their aesthetic is, their aesthetic right now is miserable, but they have all of the IP But they're not, they're not out there to produce bangers. They're out there producing like pseudo instruments that are mostly affordable. Mr. Casio is a billionaire 800 times over. So nobody's listening to me about these things. I'm just saying in, in my dream world, I'd have this like resin cased ABC 38 millimeter ABC chronograph pro track with a simple dial. Now give me a 45 if I'm getting ABC. Gross. No. This is a really cool find. Again, I'm super I want to I want certainly sold out, but 600 bucks for these with a mechanical movement. Yeah, I mean, what a neat find. Really cool. I'd like to get one of these. Obviously, we can't get one of these great new old stock ones. I just like to pick one of these up. Well, now you know that the ceiling is 600 bucks. Yeah. Oh, excuse me. Warner one is selling khaki fields for $5.99. If you want the full grand central watch service, total cost was $10.99. Which makes sense. They did sell these with the service. Yeah. If you wanted it. If you wanted it. Or you could just, just roll the dice. If you're Evan. It hasn't, it hasn't been running for 30 years. You maybe, you maybe do, do the work yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, they're definitely gone. They started, they went on sale it on the 10th. They're gone. Yes. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's definitely. So I've got a watch that I'd like to talk about. It's an integrated sports watch. Andrew, you're going to talk about an integrated sports watch later, I believe. Kind of. But I'm going to throw mine in first because it's more expensive. And I think it's a little bit less our speed. And so we'll glide into your cooler, your cooler integrated sports watch. But I'm going to start with a company that I really love. I believe you pronounce this Alich and Wages. |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | Olic and Wise, they have in the last couple of weeks introduced a integrated bracelet sports watch that they say, and they've named after an 80s or a 70s chronograph. Now, I've looked at both of these watches and this was called to my attention by Worn & Wound, the fine people at Worn & Wound. I think I disagree with their assessment. Thank you, Zach Kazin. Uh, these watches don't look anything alike. I mean, there are certain elements that, that cross the two watches. The crown is similar. The dial is similar. The bracelet has a similar feel to it, but the 1970s 8001, so this is the, this is the 8001. The 1970s 8001 that this is based on is a TV dial chronograph. Mm-hmm. This is a, with no bezel, this is a round, not chronograph, with a exposed support bezel. So, yeah, okay, whatever, that's fine. All that to say, stepping away from that, stepping away from that for a second, this is a pretty cool watch on its own. So this is a 300 meter, COSC certified. Those are weird choices. It's super funky, 1970s, chunky sports watch. And in true, like in fashion, it is chunky and a little bit, uh, not overwrought in its, aesthetic, but certainly like here I am, I'm German. I'm going to sit on your wrist and tell really good time. And I like it. I like it. It looks good. 39 and a half wide, 12 and a half tall. Yeah. So the dimensions are good. That's I can get with that. The dimensions are good. It's not, it's not, the dimensions aren't obscene. It's just severe. I think that's the right word for it. It's severe in that, That's German engineering. German way. That's right. Yeah. Honestly, I like the 70s edition better. That 70s TV dial is dope. Yeah. It's got a real Omega, maybe Glashutte feel. It's a sexy watch. Or even I think Seiko when I see that like kind of busy nonsense, super modern, but not like Space Odyssey kind of shit. So these aren't cheap. Everything looks really well done. The clasp is really good. Everything here looks really good. Uh, but it's, it's a so proud Newton P 0 9 2, uh, 1,800 Franks, which is 2,300 bucks. Yeah. 1,800 C H F 2 USD right now. Presently not 2000. So This is, it's look, so look, the exchange rate right now is saving yet hop on it. Cause that's, that's a good exchange rate. That is actually historically that is a pretty stinking good exchange rate. Yeah. Uh, it's actually a little high over the last year. Uh, even the last five years. Yeah. We're actually not doing super good. Not, not super good. So any, in any event, I do really like this watch. Um, is a bit of a value consideration that you're gonna have to make, but it's a neat brand, great heritage, dimensions are good. If you... Quick adjust, buckle on it. Yeah, and it's a sharp looking buckle. It is. I think if you look at this watch and you say... Clasp. That appeals to me. This is a really cool watch. It is. It's a little weird. Yeah, well, but it's an Everett pick. So actually it really tracks. I do pick weird watches. |
Unknown | I try not to pick ugly watches. |
Everett | You're a weird watch guy. You're not as bad as Mike, but you're a weird watch guy. I don't want the ugly ones. I want the weird ones. This is like a, there's no beveling on the case. This is just a chunk of steel. I bet you could cut things with that corner. Perhaps. |
Andrew | So in the event that you need to, you also have a survival tool, correct? |
Everett | It's a cool watch. It's just, it's, it is, I think I'm having trouble reconciling the, the watch against the inspiration. Yeah. That's a weird, I, it doesn't make, I was like, what, what are we doing here? You're showing me two different watches, two very different watches, which is fine. It could be like, they could be like cousins. But there's certainly, they're definitely not siblings. That's right. Yeah. Nor is one the progeny of the other. That's right. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a strange, strange leap. Uh, both independently. I know I could see these two side by side released. I can get, I can get behind that. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. They would look, they would go together in a line. You could have the, whatever line that these are both part of. But to say one is based on the other just seems a little silly to me. Do they have German date wheels? Cause I think that would be way cool. I don't know. I only say that because the seventies one has dim 22 in the, in the date window. And I know the dim is, is not a commentary on the loom. So I assume that's a day of the week in German. Um, Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Germans just use Arabic numerals, by the way, right? Yeah, the numbers are the same, but the day of the week is different because it's a different language. But this is not a day date. It looks like it could be a day date. OK, well, the old one is a day date, but the new one is not. Are you confident in that? Confident-ish in as much as I've looked at the pictures and they don't have days on them. Just numerals at the six o'clock. It's funny. I zoomed in on three o'clock and I was like, there's nothing in the day window. No, it's just a marker. Okay. |
Andrew | Uh, next up for me, we have a late to the game as always citizen color release with the U S launch of the NJ zero one five |
Everett | Suyosa, I think, right? Are we going to maybe come to agreement on that? And so this seems to be what I would say is Citizen's PRX competitor. Yeah, I think that's right. We've got a |
Andrew | Kind of vintage-y inspired integrated bracelet. |
Everett | It's not quite as 70s as the PRX, but it's got the same feel, generally. In-house caliber 8210 with a visible case back. And I got a bunch of new colors. And the reason I say they're late to the game is because Easter happened a couple of years ago. |
Andrew | And here we have a light powder blue and actually really lovely kind of gold in the yellow, a green, a blue and a black being released to the American market. And these were all previously available in |
Everett | Asian markets, probably European markets, but here they are coming to the U.S. markets. And I am digging it. I love citizens, not citizen stuff. Their Asian market exclusive stuff is way superior to what they're willing to provide to the U.S. markets. Well, and I think their Asian market, their Japanese market stuff is usually the cool shit. Not necessarily that it's better, it's just cooler. I read an interesting thing and it had to do with the separation between Citizen USA and Citizen Japan. I don't remember exactly all the details, but the Citizen USA guy was kind of not down with it. I don't remember where I read that. You know, I don't know, but that wouldn't surprise me. It does seem like they've they've spent some time keeping cool shit out of our hands, which is frustrating. It's really just good for eBay. Uh, so these are 40 millimeters, 11, seven thick applied indices, only 50 meters of water resistance. And you would kind of hope for a sport watch like this to, to at least get into the hundred range. Uh, cause they're really lovely sport watch. Um, 500 bucks. And this is like this is a good citizen offering. Yeah. Unlike most citizen offerings. I will say that the 8000 series movement is meh. Yeah. An exhibition case back to show off your 8000 movement is. But they're doing things to. Meh. But these are neat. They're doing some things right. We're seeing some Some movement of the dial. Wah, wah, wah. I think you're right, though, Andrew. I think that this is a Citizen or a Tiso PRX competitor. I think that this is a player, right? Especially in the affordable world. You know, we lamented the SARB going away. And then, of course, Seiko has introduced a bunch of stuff that does similar things. This is really an entry level banger of a watch. Now, the move to integrated has its limitations, right? So it's hard for me to recommend this to someone as a one watch. Oh, yeah. Much like the PRX, you know, obviously we do have some options for bracelets and straps with the PRX. But they're all within that ecosystem. You don't want to buy into an ecosystem when you're just getting your feet wet. You're not putting NATO straps on this thing. You're not, or pass through straps. You're pretty limited, right? You're not putting a Supreme, a Barton Supreme on this thing. You're really limited. And so for me, when we're talking about this entry level of watches, it's a bit of a niche here. You've got to know what you're looking for. And it's got to be this, uh, versus something with an open lug is going to be more versatile. Now, if, if citizen in the near future drops a, uh, an end link, like a universal end link for this, then we've got a player. Yeah, maybe. Cause this in black, this is a, this is great in black. If you've got a universal end link, cause this would be so good on leather, even with the Cyclops with the, with the magnified date window. Right. Yeah, I actually think it's terrific in all the colors. I think they've done a really good job with these colors, and they're not ombre or degradé dials. They're just solid jewel tone, good-looking dials. Super high polish, yeah. These are the sport dress. This could be, if you don't give a shit about what else you're wearing, this could be your one watch. I dig it. 450 bucks like this is this is our jam. This is my jam. And yeah, and people are going to talk smack, right? It's like kind of boring. It's like jumping on the train. That's why it's my jam. Yeah, I think it's cool. I wish they wouldn't have gone with just Easter. That was that was last year's Easter. Look at all those. Oh, yeah. You know, that's a thing we do in the watch world where we say, oh, they're just doing the same thing everybody else is doing. No, no, they're doing a cool thing. You're not buying all the dials. You're buying the one dial that appeals to you the most. So thank you, citizen, for providing us all these choices. But they should have done it last year when everyone else was doing it. Oh, shut up. Like, give me this in like a matte gray. And I'm in. I'll buy into your ecosystem. Can I talk about a cool, stupid watch? No. Choose a cool, good watch. Casio. No, this is a stupid watch. Sorry, Andrew. Casio, a company we've talked about already today, in the context of Protrek, has released a giant G-Shock that costs entirely too much money and is still really neat. Is this the Frogman? So I've talked about the Frogman a couple of times. We've talked about a couple of iterations of Frogman. You know, I'm obviously a square G guy, but outside of the square Gs, my favorite G-Shock line is the Frogman. I love the asymmetry. It's a big, asymmetric, high-end dive watch. The Frogman is really, that's Casio's, that's G-Shock's quote-unquote dive watch, right? You could dive with any number of G-Shocks, but the Frogman is the guy. They've released a ridiculously expensive MRG $5,000 black titanium MRG with, I don't, I don't remember how many parts it was. I think it was like 73. I'm finding it 70 individual parts in the case, just in the case. Have you ever looked at one of the, the, the blow up, like, |
Andrew | bill of materials for a G-Shock case? |
Everett | No. It is dope. Yeah. Well, especially these MRGs, right? I could get like a two foot by four foot poster of a, of that on my wall. And I don't know that my wife would even complain. Like the exploded case. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. So this watch is huge. It's, it's 56 by 50 by 18 and a half. Arnie. It's a big fucking watch. It's heavy. I think, what, 136? Yeah, 136. In titanium. Keep that in mind. This is a titanium watch and it's still 132 grams. That's a... What the fuck? And like most analog MRG watches, it's got a dial that could be described fairly as busy. But when you really come in tight on the watch, you realize there's a whole bunch of really cool stuff here. The finishing is next level. I've never seen a G-Shock that was finished quite this well, at least from what I can tell from the pictures. You've got titanium. You've got a really neat strap, fantastic dial finishing, which is good because it's such a big dial. If the finishing was crap, you'd know what he's immediately. Uh, yeah, this is such a stupid watch. I so divers on it. Yeah, that's right. Right. Like this is dope. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's got their high end. It's got their high end module. The one that they, you know, put in all their expenses, the 5702 it's a cool watch. It's, It's also $5,000 and so it's dumb. This also almost seems like a break away from the frog man, right? |
Andrew | Like the just banger, all the shit you need. |
Everett | I can't destroy it. This seems like a line of its own to me because of how much cool shit is in it. Well, it's an MRG, right? The MRG is the line. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | I don't know, this doesn't quite seem like a frog man to me. It has a sapphire case back. With a frog man laser engraved into it. |
Andrew | And I don't mean frog man in the way that the original Navy SEALs were. |
Everett | I mean like a frog wearing a scuba tank. Right. That's right. |
Andrew | It captures like this fun, silly, piece in this design. And I think Casio knows that this is a silly thing. Yeah. I think this is a joke. I think they're pranking the consumers. |
Everett | And if I... It does feel like they're shining this on a little bit, right? Yeah. They know they'll sell these. They know they'll sell them at 5,000 bucks. They know people will buy them. For me, I mean, it just doesn't make any damn sense. I appreciate how cool it is, but you can get an actual Frogman For like a 10th of the price. Yeah. And it's better. And it's cooler. Yeah. It's not better. But certainly not worse. It's cooler. Which makes it better. It's cooler, right? I think. Yeah. I think. That limited edition Frogman that's on the Warner One shop right now that's like 600 bucks with that gray and blue case. Yeah. That's the one for me. I want... Give me a... I'm getting a G-Shock, okay? Save your... Highly finished titanium case. Give me a frog, man. Give me a Master G. I'm ready. The frog in the scuba tank makes me feel like they know exactly what they're doing. Oh, you know what you did, Casio. |
Andrew | And people who buy it know what they're doing, and they're down with it. |
Everett | I'm down with it. You know what you did. If I could do this without serious repercussions, I'd get one of these. Yeah. Cause they're dope. I think I'm out. I think I'm out, but I can appreciate it. Good job. |
Andrew | No, if you had $5,000 of like walk around money and Kim wouldn't say shit. |
Unknown | No, I buy something different. |
Everett | I think you would also buy this. No, I would buy something totally different. If I had $5,000 a walk around, there's like a hundred watches that I would buy before this. If you're walking around with $5,000 of walk around money, you've bought those watches. I don't think so. Yeah, no, I want to know who's buying these. There's G Shock people or D bags, one of the two. I'm fine with one less with the other. They're not mutually exclusive. We're not talking about you, Luke. No, no, no, no. Because that man's up. But Luke's not buying this. He's not. Andrew, what do you got next? Next up for Ming. Who's Ming? Oh, I want to talk about something. |
Andrew | Where are we at? Okay. He talks about a Doxa 300T release. |
Everett | Oh, yeah, you are. They have a special issue of their 300T in honor of Clive Kessler. I Love this dial. It is, it's the 300T comes on bracelet or nylon. It's a tan dial. I think they're calling it sand. I'm going to call it tan. |
Andrew | That looks like the, the, uh, |
Everett | It's not the key. |
Andrew | It's not, nor is it the, the compass of an aged map. |
Everett | And it is gorgeous. |
Andrew | It has a super subtle Clive Kessler logo beneath the 300 T. I love this dial. The, |
Everett | honoring of this dude by Doxa is a super cool thing. |
Andrew | The case itself is weathered to be consistent with the aging of the map. This could. |
Everett | Have just trumped the. Caribbean for me like this, this could be just a like I might have to have a hard conversation. |
Andrew | Watch. |
Everett | I love this watch. This scratched all the itches for me. Interesting. I think it's neat. I like the stonewashed case. Uh, I'm not a fan. I, I, I'm not crazy about the dial, but I do, I do like what they're doing here. This watch feels similar to the G Shock to the Frogman to me in that the people who buy this are going to be fans. Like these are going to be collectors and enthusiasts. Doxa enthusiasts, right? Because there's a whole group of guys that fell in love with Doxa by way of Dirk Pitt, right? Mm-hmm. Rick Murray perhaps being the most notable. And so the modern Doxa in many ways owes everything to Clive Kessler and to Dirk Pitt. And so there's not... This is not a huge surprise to me. I don't think it's the sexiest Doxa. I don't think it's the most interesting Doxa, having just worn a Doxa Army. Were you wearing that watch when you sent me the picture? Yeah. Yes. Terrific watch. Was it Henry? Yeah, it's Henry. Why don't you introduce me to Henry? Has he said specifically that he doesn't want to meet me? He did. Yeah. He said, please. Please keep me away from Andrew. Don't share my phone number. That makes sense. Um, ever recently sent me a picture of him wearing a Doc's army instead available locally. And I was like, it's terrific. It is, it is a phenomenal watch. It's a phenomenal watch. This is a neat watch. This is cool. That's neat. It's, it's certainly something different. It's not a phenomenal watch. |
Andrew | It's all the same things, it's just a different finishing. It's all the same things. Exactly all the same things. |
Unknown | Not true. |
Everett | Not true. So there's a couple differences. One, the dial here, while it is attractive, is not as well executed as the Doxa Army. So one of the things, so if you've never seen a Doxa Army... The Doxa Army is... Up close. The dial finishing on that thing is absolutely second to none. I have never seen another Doxa finished anywhere near as well as this thing. The bezel's ceramic, and that ceramic bezel is... That's a chef's kiss, by the way. It was on my cheek, though. You can't compare these two things, right? They're not the same things. But they're not not. the same thing. And the Doxa Army is a 300. So just saying. |
Andrew | Fuck off. |
Everett | Anyway, what have you got next? I'm super excited about this watch. I think it's a really cool release. I think it's an interesting move by Doxa. And I think you should go fuck yourself. What have you got next? You know, I've got one more watch that I'd like to talk about. This is not a new watch. It's not even a watch, it's four watches. But this is a watch announcement release, a series of watches that have been released by Unimatic in their Modelo series, their sort of namesake, or not namesake, their sort of flagship series. It's four different Modelo watches, and these are all in all of colorways. So they've got their U1S watch. This is the one with the solid kind of unmarked bezel with a pip. So olive green on the bezel, olive green on the dial, gilt hands, gilt markers, a bit of conservatively aged loom that flows really well with the olive green in this case. And this is their, you know, 40 millimeter, 300 meter dive watch. Terrific. You've seen it before. It's terrific in this application. They've got their UTS-80. This is the 38 millimeter SW200, kind of HK sport watch with a really simple sterile bezel. Very similar dial, if not the same dial on these two watches. They've got the US80. That is their chronodiver. We've got a mecha quartz movement in this thing. Obviously, three hands on the right side. Again, with the sterile green bezel on this guy. Sexy watch, very similar dials with the gilt and that drab. And then they've got probably for some people, the star of the show and for others, the one that they would never look at. The minimalist Quattro U4 S80. This is the one with the big bulky steel bezel. Big ass crown guards. Giant crown guards. Yeah, that's right. And again, 300 millimeters, 40, 300 meters, 40 millimeter diameter. These are all like, uh, I, I don't know. These are all like 800 to a thousand ish. I think they're exclusively available at Ho-Denki, although they will be available other places later. |
Andrew | Uh, they are available on the Unimatic website right now. |
Everett | Oh, okay. So they've already ended their exclusive period. But I do think the only ones available right now are, The U1-S and the U2-S. I have the U4-S 80 on the Unimatic website right now. Oh yeah, they're all still available on the Houdinki shop as well. So the cheapest, oh 680 for the Mecca Quartz. Oh. Yeah, so a little bit less money on that guy than the others. The U1-S at $80 because of the movement. And the others are 800-ish. And these all come with a signed Unimatic strap. No bracelets on these guys. And all based on Tuscany. These are all, they've said, a love letter to the beauty of Tuscany. Which- They come in a big old fucking Pelican case. Okay. Okay. Unimatic. We get it. It's probably not that big, honestly. It's probably like disappointingly small when it arrives. Right. I can put one watch in here. Certainly not a practical Pelican case. I super dig these. Unimatic is a brand that's really, really grown on me. Much like Serica, these kind of overbuilt, small dialed tool watches, they've very much grown on me. I could see myself with one of these. Yeah, they do the thing well, which is To make watches that feel familiar and comfortable, but are very distinctive, right? Yeah. These aren't outrageous. They're not doing anything like offensive. Or even particularly cool. But, but they're distinctive, right? Like, oh, that's a unimatic and it looks good. Like I want to wear that unimatic. Yeah. So. Or like, like venture, like just, just some, just some tool watch. No bullshit. Overbuilt. I dare you. to fuck this up. Andrew, as we approach an hour, anything else, anything else watch related that you'd like to talk about? |
Andrew | Not today, man. I'm at a lot of things. |
Everett | In that case, Andrew, other things. What do you got? So this last week I bought a new grill. Oh, did you? I did. I saw that they had them on sale at the Home Depot. It's a grill that I've been kind of keeping my eye out for the sales. It is a Masterbuilt Gravity Series 560 charcoal grill and smoker. Comes in two sizes larger, I believe an 850 and like a 1050, which is a description of the square inches of grilling surface within. Uh, I've seen a 560 in person, felt like it was sufficient in size, saw it was on sale at the Home Depot, left for work a little early, went to the Home Depot to get it. |
Andrew | Uh, problem. |
Everett | Home Depot's website was accurate. They did have 10 in stock, but here's the thing. They came fully assembled, which I super appreciate because I didn't have to spend three hours in my backyard building it. But it also meant that I now had a grill with four wheels in the bed of my truck on my way to work, which was like just a little unexpected and as a result, inconvenient. Yeah. Even more so when I got home from work at 6 45 in the morning and told my five foot tall wife, Hey, please help me get this out of the truck. It was dropped immediately. First thing that happened to this grill after purchasing it, taking a short trip in my truck, it was dropped from the bed of a truck. That's terrifying. |
Andrew | I was furious. |
Everett | Uh, anyway, I get into the backyard. I get it seasoned. Uh, fire starting was a little bit tricky to figure out, but once you figure it out, it's, you know, it's dialed in, right? Like it's, it's any new thing. You got to figure out the method. Once you figure out the method, It's just by fire starter cubes. Sure. Slide them in the grate, fire it up. It's good to go. Uh, it is Bluetooth and wifi enabled so I can control it from my phone. I have since made ribs on it. I'm yesterday I made pork loin and chicken thighs on it. This thing is money. So, so I was, I really wanted a, pellet style smoker or grill. Sure. Like a Traeger. Like a Traeger, right? Like that thing. And there's a number of competitors to Traeger out there. One thing that always kind of hung me up was the temperature ceiling on those grills. Yeah. They're slow and low. They're only. Low and slow. What piqued my interest about these gravity series was not only do you not have to burn just pellets, you can burn lump, charcoal, or a mixture, including wood. |
Andrew | But their temperature ceiling is 700 degrees. Right. |
Everett | Which is... A lot. A few hundred degrees higher than what you can achieve with traditional other brands of pellet grills. |
Andrew | I have a friend who has one of these and he has used it through the gamut of temperatures. |
Everett | I've had a number of things off of it. I was like, okay, this is, this is the thing. This is what I want. I got it. And it is exactly what I was hoping for. |
Unknown | I love that. |
Everett | Exactly it. The, the app connectivity. through the Masterbuilt app lets you just pull up your phone, look at both your meat probe temperature and your grill temperature. Once it's running, you close it. You don't have to worry about it. The hopper has enough for what they describe as 10 hours of fuel. Uh, it is, Probably 10 hours at below 250 degrees. Which is... Okay, that's low enough. Low enough because you can refill it at 225. If the grill is at 225, you can top off your hopper. So if you need more than 10 hours at over 250, you just have to eat a temperature loss for... A few minutes. A few minutes. Yeah. This thing's money. Super intuitive, super easy. the ribs were ribs. They were good. They needed a little bit more time that, but that was a me issue. And I woke up late and then fucked with it and had some problems. I thought they were good. I don't, I don't like it when ribs get too squishy. Uh, there's like a fine line, right? Where I want some, I want some bite. I don't want them to be tough obviously, but sometimes you get like when people say, Oh, Oh, the ribs are, falling off the bone. Like, nah, I don't want it to fall off the bone. I want it. That's mush. I don't want, I want much meat. I want some bite to the meat. Yeah, that's right. The smoke is great off of it. I'm, I'm smitten by this. So the, the five 60 is typically 500 bucks. Uh, right now they're at home Depot for 20% off, which means you can buy a cover for it and then get a, get $50 off because the cover was 50 bucks. Covers are expensive. Yeah, they are expensive. Yeah. For everything. I always think of cover as like, Oh, it's like $8. No, they're not $8. But this, if you're, if you're looking for, if you're kind of in the same place I was, we're like, I want a new smoker, but I also want some grilling capabilities. I think this is it. |
Andrew | I have yet to, I'm going to do this weekend. That's my work weekend next week. |
Everett | I'm going to do a side by side on the gas grill. and on the smoker grill of just something that would typically be grilled. So I'm gonna do like teriyaki chicken or something. I'm going to do one bag on the gas and one bag on the smoker grill. |
Andrew | Man. |
Everett | So come back next week to find out. Come back next week to find out. That's it. That's the, the, the master built gravity series, five 60 digital. charcoal grill plus smoker. It's also not that big. No, it was much smaller than I expected it to be. It's a pretty for such a capable machine. Yeah. It's a pretty, pretty, uh, conservatively sized unit. And I've heard it's built by masters. Yes. It's, it's small enough that I don't think I'm actually going to get rid of my gas and then offset smoker grill. And I don't know that my wife's going to complain about it. And that's the commentary on the size. I don't think Sam's going to complain. It's perfect. Yeah. Andrew, have you ever seen the movie Searching with John Cho? I don't know. I have to look it up. So Searching is a movie that came out a few years ago and it was... Is it like Bone Tomahawk? Different. It was reviewed fairly well. John Cho and his daughter goes missing and he can't get the police. And there's this sort of gimmicky premise where the whole thing takes place on a computer desktop, blah, blah, blah. Um, it, it was, it was fairly well reviewed, uh, wound up feeling a little uncomfortable in execution or, or maybe gimmicky is the right word. It was certainly novel and it was well done and John Cho was terrific in it, but it just wasn't the best movie. It was like, okay, this is all right. I didn't see this. So Netflix, uh, released this week a, I think what they called a standalone sequel and what they take that to mean. is a sequel that requires no information on the prequel. That's right. But, but this was, this was actually just a different story, right? So it was, it wasn't, it wasn't really, uh, it wasn't really like a Jurassic park. Uh, it's a, it's a standalone prequel to planet of the apes. Yeah. Right. I mean, there were actually just different stories, but in any event, They feel that they're similar in that they both take place. So this is, so Netflix released, I believe this last week or in the last couple of weeks, a movie called Missing. That one got me. And the premise is that Storm Reid, who by the way is terrific, Storm Reid of, I think, A Wrinkle in Time, which she was terrific in, More recently, she's been in a number of things. Storm Reid is terrific. And she makes this movie. So the whole- Last of Us. Last of Us, yeah. The whole- Euphoria. The whole movie takes place by way of Storm Reid's desktop. And I don't really want to say too much more about that because there are some spoilers. It is a twisty movie. What I will say the difference between this and searching was and the reason I'm going to recommend missing even if I might not have recommended searching is because searching you could feel that they were using a device. It was this gimmick that was really in your face. Was it all front facing camera like from the point of view of the camera? That's right. That just from the trailer that's what it looked like. So you're not really giving anything away there. Missing does the same thing, but it does it in a way that sometimes you forget it's happening. And when I thought back on the movie, I was like, oh, that's interesting. That was all from the camera. There was nothing that diverted from that. That's right. It was, I think, much better done in this instance. Again, love John Cho. Storm Reid is much better for this role. I thought she was totally terrific. He's an interesting actor. I watched this movie almost on a flyer. It came up on the, you know, recommended top 10 in the United States movies. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I'll take a flyer. I watched the John Cho version. You were home alone. It didn't matter? And I was like, no, this is terrific. So if you see it, and perhaps you've seen searching or, you know, just the gimmick doesn't appeal to you or whatever, I'd say give it a try. It was terrific. And it was surprising and twisty in ways that really appealed to me too. Cause I would think I knew what, where we were going with it and then it would change and we'd be going in a different place. And then we'd be going in a different place. You know, one of those movies, that's not an uncommon, but it was really well done. And, you know, if you pay too much attention, you might be able to predict like my wife would like, try to guess. I don't watch movies like that. And so it wasn't so obvious that the surprise was killed by something. It was like, Oh, that that's both sensical and surprising. And I love it. Storm Reid missing available on Netflix. Now everybody has Netflix unless you got an email from Netflix this week saying you don't have Netflix. You don't have Netflix. Totally recommend it. Was terrific. 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10. 9 out of 10. We'll do 9 out of 10. All right. We'll do a solid 8.5. I talk about pretty good movies. 8.5 out of 10, which is a really high recommendation. I've never watched a movie that you recommended and questioned our friendship. Well, I hope you don't question our friendship after this one either. Because you don't recommend movies unless you're like bought in. So that's why I'm giving this one an eight and a half. It was really good. I liked it a lot. Eight and a half is a really good rating. Yeah. This is an eight and a half. It's not like... Like 85% is gonna get you into Harvard. When I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once, I was like, Andrew, I think this is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, and I don't take it back. I've never watched it. God, you gotta watch it. I mean, you realize it won like 75 Oscars, right? So did Titanic. Titanic is terrific too. Come at me, bro. No, that's like a, that's a core movie for me. Same. Sometimes I still watch about four and a half minutes of that. The hand on the steamy window. |
Andrew | Yeah, it changed my entire perspective on life. |
Everett | Andrew, here we are. Once again, having done it, anything you want to add? No, man, I'm all out of things. Hey, you guys, I want to thank you. I want to thank you once again. Raise a beer for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20 the Watch Clicker podcast. We really appreciate you were here. You can check us out on the website watchclicker.com. That is where we post reviews, articles, things that are happening at Watch Clicker happen at watchclicker.com. You can also check us out on our socials at Watch Clicker and at 40 and 20 underscore Watch Clicker. More importantly, if you'd like to support us, And we hope you do. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. We are virtually a volunteer organization, but we do need money for hosting and hardware and software. And that is how we pay for all of that stuff to all of you who support us already. We thank you so much. And if you don't go, go check it out, patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to tune in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life. and other things we like. Bye bye. |