Episode 25 - Space Watches
Published on Wed, 17 Apr 2019 23:39:00 -0700
Synopsis
This podcast episode covers a variety of topics related to watches, space travel, and hobbies. The hosts discuss their excitement over watching Tiger Woods win the Masters tournament after an 11-year drought. They review new watch releases from Orient, including a new diver called the Kano and a downsized 36.5mm Bambino dress watch. They then explore the history of watches that have been to space, both officially authorized models like the Omega Speedmaster as well as personal watches that astronauts chose to wear unofficially. Other hobbies like woodworking projects and preferred pens for writing are also discussed. The hosts maintain a conversational tone, frequently going off on tangents and personal anecdotes. While some excerpts from the audio are quoted, no lengthy sections that could risk copyright infringement are included. The overall tone is lighthearted but conveys the hosts' genuine enthusiasm for the topic of watches and space exploration.
Links
Transcript
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| Other Host | Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your host Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? |
| Andrew | I'm good. It's the weekend. It's the freaking weekend. It is. I'm uh, I'm on my lazy Sunday where all I'm doing today is this, I think. Yeah. |
| Other Host | Is there anything else to do on a Sunday? |
| Andrew | Well, I mean, it seems like Game of Thrones. |
| Other Host | Duh. |
| Andrew | Game of Thrones. Well, yeah. So I watched the final round of the Masters this morning, which was so stinking good. Although I didn't expect it to be on as early as it was. It was already halfway through by the time I even crawled my way out of bed, uh, because they have those pending storms. Um, so that was, that was interesting to wake up and be like, I'm missing it. |
| Other Host | That's a good way to start the day. That's one of the best parts about living on the West coast. Most sporting events start East coast time in there. mid morning right so like football season here is the best because you wake up on sunday morning and you turn the tv on and it's football and football's over at like 5 30 p.m like you're done you're done for the day it's not like in even central time or east eastern time where that's your whole day you wake up you get your day started and then you go to bed after football yeah it's i love west coast sports observing yeah you know when i was living in charlottesville we were you know basically |
| Andrew | weekends totally free. So if we didn't go somewhere, we would spend all day Saturday watching college football or whatever. Uh, and we, the, the place was Buffalo Wild Wings. So I remember Sundays we'd get to Buffalo Wild Wings at one and like drag ourselves back up the hill to the campus at, you know, one o'clock in the morning when, you know, some of those last back 12 games were wrapping up. Um, it was a ton of fun, but yeah, it was a totally different schedule. I hated, I hated, waking up at you know 8 39 and not having any football for several hours like five hours it was the worst uh so yeah i'm i'm a west coast guy i know we live and die by sort of what we know i think just about everybody does but i'm a much bigger fan of our west coast sports schedule you know they have trouble getting people to tune into pac-12 after dark games on the east coast because Who's gonna watch a football game that starts at 11 p.m.? That's right. Yeah, it's really tough. So, West Coast for life. |
| Other Host | Yeah? It was a good way to start the day. |
| Andrew | I love lazy Sundays. I think the Masters, the first matchup teed off at 7.30. East Coast time, 4.30 here. Crazy. |
| Other Host | It's like watching the World Cup, getting up at 2.30 in the morning to watch a game. No. |
| Andrew | Uh, but yeah, pretty cool. You know, uh, I sort of cut my teeth on watching Tiger, uh, you know, in the late nineties and early two thousands. And, uh, you know, say what you will about the man. He's just a man, but there's still this part of me that's got so much hero worship. And, you know, Thursday afternoon, I'm like, Tigers in contention. You know, I get this, I feel this excitement. Uh, and I remember thinking last night, you know, he's two shots back, anything can happen. Molinari is playing, you know, some of the best golf in his life. Obviously Finau and Kepka, these guys, you know, Dustin Johnson, for the love of God, you know, these guys are young and top of their game. And so when you look at, you know, old man Woods, it feels like, you know, what are the odds? And they're low, you know, even with the way he's playing right now, you know, I think he's maybe 10th in the world. this year, which is great. You know, that's incredible, incredible, but man, to watch him walk up that 18th fairway, uh, knowing all he needed was a bogey and he wins the masters, uh, just brought back all these feelings, these really cool feelings for me. So it's just neat. You know, I think we're watching history. He hasn't won 10 years, 11 years, 11 years. Yeah. And his last masters was 2005. Uh, so. You know, these feelings that are so familiar, you know, you tuned in on Sunday for, you know, I don't know, 10 years there. And it was like, well, it's Sunday. So Tiger, how much is Tiger winning by today? Uh, you know, I think he was number one in the world for like five or six years straight. Um, and nobody was even close to him, you know, for, for some of that period of time. So to see it right now to, to watch him walk up and, you know, it was different though. It's different, right? He didn't have any of the looseness. And you can imagine. |
| Other Host | I think all the pressure that's sitting on his shoulders. I mean the his drought Has lasted longer than a lot of his competitors careers, right? |
| Andrew | That's crazy. Yeah. Well, it's his master his his major his majors drought is Yeah, I mean he's he's won recently but you know, it just felt it just never felt real and and I'll tell you Kepka who who actually I would have picked to win this thing. I just love that guy and I think he's in great shape and Uh, he hasn't played really good, but you can just see he had everything in line. Uh, Kepka misses that last putt and it gives Tiger that, that, that space he needed and he needed it because he missed his putt. You know, Kepka makes it, Tiger still misses and we're in a playoff, you know, with these huge storms pending, you know, who, who knows the drama could have been, uh, more than it was. Cause as it was, it was a little bit anticlimactic, you know, when he, when he pitches onto that green with two shots to putt in, you know, he's going to get there. So, um, but he, he had that hard, that firm set of his jaw, which I think is, is something that people don't like. He gets that intense set to his jaw where he doesn't take anything else in, you know, so much competition and that fierce concentration he has in him. Um, but it didn't feel, it didn't feel good until he sunk that putt and you could see. 11 years of terrible feelings. He talked a little bit about that champion's dinner he went to a couple of years ago where he had to basically fly from there to England to get his, you know, back fused because he was in so much pain. He had to have an ejection prior to the champion's dinner. And like, gosh, can you imagine going from that to two years later at, you know, 85 years old or whatever he is to winning the masters? It's crazy. Really cool. Say what you will, like I said, say what you will about the guy and he's been through some shit. Um, it just felt cool. Like I feel like a kid again, watching Tiger, Win the Masters. |
| Other Host | I regretted not being able to watch it, but since I was drawing near on nap time, I had the choice of making sure that I had a kid happily going to nap or watching Tiger, Win the Masters. |
| Andrew | Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. |
| Other Host | Well good. How are you doing, man? Can't complain. I am in my last week of fun employment where I will begin my last week. this week, which is kind of bittersweet. I've really enjoyed doing, not doing nothing, but having no real obligations every day, which has been terrific. |
| Andrew | I have to say, what's the bitter part of the... I mean, the bitter part is that I have to go back to work. Oh, okay. Okay. So I was thinking about the opposite way. |
| Other Host | But then, you know, the sweet part is like, it'll be nice to get back into a routine and go to work and... Routines are overrated. Yeah, but there's something to be said about... It's hard for me to wake up before 8 a.m. if I have nothing to do. If I have something to do, I can get up at 2.30 in the morning. I don't have to sleep. But if I have nothing to do, it's hard to get out of bed. So I'm looking forward to getting out of bed and getting into routine. I also find that it's very much an object in motion philosophy. If I'm at rest, I will stay at rest. I can, I'll tell you, I've watched three seasons, no, excuse me, four seasons of Game of Thrones. |
| Andrew | And you're ready for tonight, I assume. I'm very ready for tonight. By the time these folks hear this, everybody will have already have developed their final fan theories. But we are still sitting in this place of innocence and unlimited possibilities. |
| Other Host | Hmm. I was talking to somebody about that today. There are some limits to the possibilities. Few. I mean, there's with George Martin. |
| Andrew | You're right. They're relatively unlimited. |
| Other Host | Yeah. So I was talking about that with somebody already today. And my we were discussing what tonight's going to do. And we were trying to decide if it's going to be a story episode. to build and set the stage for the balance of the season. But because it's an hour long, I think they're going to start with some story building and then throw it all out the window. Very George R.R. Martin style. Just throw everything we thought could be possible in the wind. |
| Andrew | I'm excited. You know, Kim and I just sort of doing a last last few episode catch up and, you know, watching. Hey, guys, spoiler alerts. Uh, so feel free to turn this off. If you're not up to date, turn it off, but it's been two years. So you should be up to date. Good Lord, get caught up. Um, but watching, uh, you know, that scene, that sort of scene on the rock in the middle of the lake, uh, where John and, you know, all of these, the best characters in the show are all sort of standing on this rock and fighting it out. You've got the hound and. You've got the guy who dies and comes back again whose name is... Barak Dondarrion. Barak Dondarrion. |
| Other Host | And Thoros who's already been mauled by a zombie bear. |
| Andrew | Right. You know, you've got these guys who are, you know, the heart and soul of the strength. You know, they're the tip of the spear for the fire army as it were. And these guys are just... Desolate and their state, you know, they wake up and they're standing there and then the zombies realize they can cross the ice and of course Danny blazes in literally blazes in on a dragon and saves them and then you know, the The euphoria is broken by the death of the dragon and it's like gosh But then the euphoria comes back when you watch that bitch burning the wall with ice fire, right? Right Uh, I don't know. I mean, there's, there's, there's a certain amount of, it's not euphoric. It's like, Oh, I was, I was jacked. |
| Other Host | Oh my gosh. I was on my feet cheering when I watched the zombie dragon burning the wall in the same manner I was when I watched Joffrey choking on poison. |
| Andrew | So, you know, the writing's really good. The action's really good. The, the story is good. I mean, I think that's what it is, right? The story's good. |
| Other Host | And real characters, characters that you both love and hate. That there's something that feels so real about these characters who throughout the entirety of it, they're, they're really well humanized and they're really well villainized all in the same, even in the same scenes. Uh, I, I was, I'm on season three again and watching the scene when Jamie Lannister is recounting his version of killing the Mad King. and it being a result of him wanting to not see all of King's Landing burn with Dragonfire. I was like, oh, I forgot about that. That's that was when you changed your mind about Jamie. When you realize that this is this is a dude who you can really like. And then from that point, he kind of he takes his turn and becomes a really likable, though also arguably bad guy in the series. And I'm I could talk about this all day. |
| Andrew | You know, I think one of the few characters that they've struggled to Even though they've they've tried at times, but Cersei Lannister, I think that they have struggled to make her human And that may be that the show needs a real villain, you know, even Littlefinger Goes back and forth, right? I think he was the worst. Well, he was the worst. He was the worst He was only out for him. |
| Other Host | He had like no other positive influences in his life It wasn't like he was out for his kids or his family or he was just up for him |
| Andrew | But we can relate to that, right? I mean, there's a certain part of every human that can relate to that, you know, versus Circe, who I think it's harder to relate to the evil that lives in Circe. And I think there have been times where they tried to make her relatable in terms of her maternity, or not maternity, yeah, maternity. Maternal instincts. Maternal instincts, that's right. You know, she's got this part of her that's this doting mother, but it never shines through as a notable |
| Other Host | characteristic so yeah i think the what i'm dreading most about this series ending is that i i know it can't have a happy ending because if it does have a happy ending you're gonna feel betrayed it won't feel very game of thrones you'll be like oh well that was can like way to go i i just but i want a happy ending at the same time but i i also know that there can't be one you know i think it'll probably it'll be one of those things where you'll have to to adjust your |
| Andrew | Expectations of happiness around what they give you because I I assume it'll be an optimistic even if it's not happy I really yeah, that is my assumption. I don't think the bad guys win I don't think they win either but I don't think the people we want to win win either that's possible Which is which is almost exactly my my point. Okay. Yeah, that's fair. All right Well, we got some watch news that we could talk about. Let's do it. You know, I I've actually been reading about podcasts recently, you know just sort of being thoughtful. We're always fairly thoughtful about what we're doing here. And I see a lot of, um, I see a lot of, if you've got a podcast, you need to get to the topic. Don't spend 15 minutes bullshitting and jawing, uh, about whatever, because that makes it hard to listen to the first 15 minutes. And what I do is I, I wind up skipping through the first 15 minutes. Um, I would say two things to that. I would say one, We, you and I, and you can speak for yourself on this, but I'll speak for you in the interim. I think you and I have sort of decided that this is going to be a sit around and talk to each other type of podcast. So, you know, we don't talk about all the things we talk about in life when we sit here. I think that we talk about things that we imagine at least some of our audience would like to hear about. You know, so it's tailored in some ways. But in the other sense, I think, and I could be wrong in thinking this, I think at least some of our audience likes what we do when we bullshit. So I don't know that it's something that I'd want to take away, and I assume you feel the same way. What I would say is if you feel that way, you can feel free to skip through this stuff. But maybe give us some feedback. If you hate this, or this isn't your thing, let us know and we can maybe put a marker in, you know, watch talk starts at such and such time. I'd have no problem with that. I'd love to be able to connect with you guys on your level. Um, but, but give us some feedback. I don't think it's something we're going to take out. |
| Other Host | No, the, what we've, what we've set out to, to create here is a, uh, watch based conversation. That's why you'll hear us open beers. I mean, this is, uh, our version of inviting you to join us in a, at a table drinking beer talking about mostly watches but just like sitting down with anybody you're not gonna you don't create an agenda when you go in and meet some friends to bullshit like you just you migrate onto a topic and you might follow some rabbit holes down through to get there but i mean i i think when we when we sat down to build this we wanted it to be uh sit down talk about mostly watches and invite some other folks to to join in right yeah i think that's right so |
| Andrew | Uh, let us know if you've got, if you've got thoughts on that, I'd be happy to hear them. Uh, genuinely happy to hear them. I'd love to hear your, your feedback on that. Is, is some sort of, hey, watch talk starts at 15, 10 or whatever. Uh, is that something that would be useful to you guys? So you could skip by us talking about Game of Thrones or whatever. Uh, let us know. |
| Other Host | Well, then you'd miss out on things like a Nashville hot chicken though. |
| Andrew | You would miss out on that, which we're going to continue to talk about. Yeah. Especially when you get off keto. They're coming back soon. Buck Buck's going to be back. I hope so. They're going to be back. So watch news. Yes. Both Orient news related items. So Orient, I think I've decided Orient is the new Seiko. |
| Other Host | Oh, I'm open to it. |
| Andrew | Okay. They're not, they're obviously different in a lot of ways, but I think, um, in a place where we've talked about Seiko historically, affordable watch people, I think more and more as Seiko continues to push its products up market, uh, or down market, I think a company like Orient, which is still doing high-spec items at that lower price range, that $100, $150, $200 price range, I think Orient's going to slide into that place. And we've talked about this a number of times. I've written about this. Everybody in the watch industry has talked about the SKX or the Mako. And as of now-ish, the SKX is dead. It's now just the Mako. It's now Mako or Deep Blue. Yeah. You know, I love you. I know you'd love the Deep Blue. Uh, I don't know if I love it. |
| Other Host | I'm open to it. And without ever having put my hands on one, I'm going to remain open. |
| Andrew | And I'm less so for, for, for, I think a bunch of reasons that, that you probably don't need to be too creative to, uh, to, to understand those reasons. But you know, Deep Blue obviously has their NATO diver, which is at very best an SKX homage. Um, in the most flattering, that would be the most flattering, uh, words, you know, people like it, it's higher specced, it's got a better movement. It's got, uh, Sapphire. It's a little bigger, which I think is a downgrade. Um, but yeah, you know, barring companies like Deep Blue or, or any number of smaller companies, when you talk about that sort of super accessible entry-level professional dive watch, it's the Mako. |
| Other Host | Yeah. Or the Ray or in that family. Sure. |
| Andrew | Sure. And I, and I put, when I say Mako, I mean, I mean, Mako Ray. Um, and, and Orient itself has got a new watch, a new dive watch to, to add to that conversation. Yeah. And I think that the price, price wise, uh, it's right, right there, $250, I think is what I saw. So the Orient introduced its new diver recently. Uh, and I think they've been beta testing some different stuff in the market. Some stuff has shown up recently, but they've officially unveiled The Orient Kano. Yep. Or perhaps Kano, like named after Robbie. Hard to say. I think it's probably the Orient Kano. You made a comment and I think this is going to be the biggest point of contention, but it's bigger. |
| Other Host | It's 44 millimeters. Why? Why? With the way watches are trending towards smaller, why didn't they just upgrade the Mako? Update, upgrade, rename. I don't understand why they dropped a bigger dive watch, because I would like to buy more Orient watches. |
| Andrew | You know, it's odd to me too. It seems like they are eschewing kind of us in the same way that maybe Seiko is, which is to say they are trying to make a universally likable dive watch with the assumption, false or not, 44 is the good, the perfect size for a dive watch. I think you and I would say differently. Uh, I think most watch nerds would say differently. I even think that perhaps the market in general is trending smaller. You know, I've really fallen in love with the number of 40 millimeter dive watches recently. And I would say that's 40 millimeter is the perfect size for, for a dive watch. Um, so, so they've gone in the other direction. They've gone from, You know that 42-ish, you said 41 and a half. |
| Other Host | I think 41 and a half is what the Mako is. |
| Andrew | So they've gone from that to now this sort of big watch. It looks to me like it's got fairly refined edges to it. It's maybe a little long. It's what I would expect out of Orient. Yeah. A really elegant tool watch. What do you think about the perhaps more generic bezel? No notched bezel that Orient's sort of known for. |
| Other Host | I'm torn. This release to me seems a little bit like they're testing out the waters for a potentially larger release of watches. Because it doesn't, even though it has the Orient DNA, it doesn't scream Orient to me. |
| Andrew | Yeah. So I've just pulled it up. It's a 22 millimeter kind of strap monster watch, a new handset that I really like. But, but I, I do think generic would not be an unfair description. It's feels a little generic. |
| Other Host | I do like the red toned bezel insert. I saw a picture of it on a brown leather. It looked good. It did look good. Um, but it's, I don't know. I don't know how to feel about it. I'm excited to see Orient unrolling new lines. I'm not particularly excited about this edition. |
| Andrew | Yeah, no, I think I'm, I think I'm the same. Um, 13 millimeter case, you know, we pulled up a Warner One article and they say, you know, first paragraph, second paragraph, and they say, this is good at 44, but 40, 42 would have been better. Um, You know, we've got a screw down crown. We've got sort of orient, you know, DNA in the case sides, um, the top brushing 120 click. I mean, there's nothing really notable about it, which is not bad. Uh, having a, a very generic, I'm going to say looking dive watch is not a bad thing. I don't think it should be a bad thing. |
| Other Host | You don't have to revolutionize the industry with every release. |
| Andrew | I think if this is 41 millimeters, we'd be like, or 40. |
| Other Host | Yeah. Or drop or go crazy and drop like a 38, 39 dive watch. I mean, Orient does weird sizes anyway. Why not drop a 39 and 19 dive watch? |
| Andrew | And this is going to come in at theoretically under the price of the Mako. So $235 on silicone and $255 on steel. The steel bracelet looks shitty. Uh, it looks like a fused three link. Um, so probably nothing special there. Uh, 40 hours. It's got that F6922, which is Orient's sort of their workhorse, their workhorse, you know, their newish workhorse hacking, handwriting auto. Uh, I think it's a great, I think it's a great option. It's not special in the way something like the, the Mako or the SKX even is. So time will tell. |
| Other Host | Yeah. I think, I think this will do well. I, it's just, I want something different. I want something like a smaller Bambino. |
| Andrew | Yeah, why wouldn't they just come out with a smaller Bambino and make us all happy? Like a 36 and a half millimeter Bambino would be sweet. |
| Other Host | Almost like they read our minds. They're doing that too. That's the real exciting Orient news. Because we can't cover one without, even though we could cover one without the other, we might as well cover both because we both like Orient. |
| Andrew | We'd cover the other one. But we'd cover the Bambino if we had to pick one. |
| Other Host | This Bambino, when You sent me a text about it. I hadn't seen the release yet and I was almost mad with myself for having already owned one. Then I was like, oh, it's a wholly different watch. I can get a wholly different watch. 36 and a half Bambino. And it's here. Because my only complaint about the Bambino is that it's just a touch too big to be a dress watch. Too big. It works. I wear it, but it's bigger than I'd like. |
| Andrew | You know, I think I sent this to you on the day of or the day before or perhaps the day after we released the dress watches episode where we said, you know, where I said, yeah, it was the day after the perfect dress watch doesn't exist. What I want doesn't exist. |
| Other Host | Well, Oh, it does. Here it is. And for coming in under $200. |
| Andrew | Well, this, this is more than that. So I think these, the RRP on these is three 50 ish. I bet it's going to come down. I think so. |
| Other Host | We'll be able to pick these up inside of a year for under $200. Yeah. |
| Andrew | Um, three 24, three 52. So there's a, there's a stainless steel and all stainless steel version. These both come on bracelets, which is, which is, different for the Bambino. The Bambinos don't often come on bracelets. So $324 for the stainless version. They've also got a two-tone rose gold version with a rose gold crown and a rose gold stripe on the bracelet. $352 for that, so still super reasonable. Pass. Yeah, well, I kind of like it. I'm not sure I'm a hard pass. You know, there's something about gold-plated that turns me off. But, you know, like a 100-meter dive watch, it's the same. It's the same feeling I get, you know, it looks beautiful. It's aesthetically fine. The gold plating technology is good enough that it's going to stay beautiful for a long time, but I don't want it. |
| Other Host | I don't like rose gold. I don't, I don't care that it's the thing right now. Okay. I don't like it. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Well, uh, there's an option for you. If you like it, there's an option for you. If you don't, um, of course this does have a stupid, um, strap width. I think 17 millimeters is what we decided on the strap width. |
| Other Host | Uh, yeah, based off of your photo, uh, forensic analysis. |
| Andrew | That's right. We didn't actually find a detail. I got a ruler out and did some algebra for the first time in 20 years. Yeah. I remember this now. |
| Other Host | Uh, yeah, yeah. I think we said maybe it was 16. |
| Andrew | 16. I think, I think perhaps 17. It's hard to tell, you know, looking at pictures and proportions and wrists and it's a little bit tough to figure out. My guess is 17. If it's 18, that's better. |
| Other Host | Oh, 18 would be good. |
| Andrew | Perfect. But at 36 millimeters, I'm just looking at the proportions. I doubt it's that big. 18 would be great on this guy. |
| Other Host | Just think of all the 18 millimeter straps you already have. Because I would likely take it off the bracelet immediately and put it on leather. |
| Andrew | Yeah. And the difference between 17 and 18 is such that you can normally squeeze. I don't particularly like the aesthetic of that. I've done that a few times, squeezed a millimeter one way or the other. It creates a lumpiness, or you can tell you're squeezing. Unless it's a sort of well-worn leather and then sometimes it just pops right in. But yeah, this is great, man. I'm so excited for this. This is great. What a perfect watch. You know, I suspect this will be my first Orient because I have, there's been a bunch of Orients that have been close and just not quite perfect. You know, by and large, they're too big for what I want. You know, I want that watch two millimeters smaller. I want a Defender. 2mm smaller. I want a Sun and Moon 2mm smaller. |
| Other Host | And not at the 43mm that we talked about in dress watches, because you want to be able to wear it every day and not as a only dress watch. Right. |
| Andrew | That's right. Yeah. So, you know, I haven't seen really any of these in the wild. Well, certainly not in the wild. I haven't even really seen them make the review rounds yet, except for these worn and wound articles. These are sort of still vaporware as far as I'm concerned. Uh, but I imagine they'll start making the rounds and we'll get a chance to see what people have to say about it. I love the understated, I love the understated looks of that stainless version. It's got those sort of black hands, really simple markers. Everything is just simple and easy. Uh, you still get a date, which it's very Japanese, right? And a nice big crown. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think that's probably the same size crown as on the on your makeup. |
| Other Host | Yeah, a big flat or on the Bambino, just a big flat. |
| Andrew | I really like these. I think they could have done a lot worse with these. And I love the fact that they're going to come on bracelets. You know, I think you put these on a pebble grain or a, you know, a nice calf strap or or something like that. It's going to dress it up. But you have the ability to sort of Datejust style rock it on a on that's OEM bracelet, which I love. So sport watch that has the ability to dress up to a true dress watch. |
| Other Host | Yeah. Love it. I'm wondering, I'm wondering, uh, how, how tall that dome crystal is going to be. Cause the dome on the Bambino is on the one that I have is, is significant. |
| Andrew | It looks like it's basically the same. I bet the crystal dimensions are the same and it is a mineral crystal. Uh, you know, even with that higher price, they have not found it. uh... in their budget to upgrade to sapphire so you know that's maybe not a great a great thing but and i don't see anything about the dimensions of the crystal that crystal to me looks exactly the same you can see the sun catching it right here i bet it's i'm excited about it if there was a lion i would be standing in it yeah they've done they've knocked this one out of the park as far as i'm concerned those coffin you know real sort of subtle coffin markers Well done, Orient. |
| Other Host | Well done. Keep, keep releasing things just a little bit smaller than you have been. Do you think they listen to 40 and 20? I hope not. |
| Andrew | All right. All right. So we're talking today, a fun topic. I feel like we've talked about this topic. |
| Other Host | We have talked about a little bit, but the last two times we've touched on it, we've said, you know what, we're going to dedicate a whole episode to this topic being watches that have been to space. Any of these space watches and what I found most intriguing about this was that there are the there was two varieties there was the issued to the astronaut or cosmonaut or whatever you want to call them that was the authorized official timekeeper and then there's a slightly smaller list of watches that they brung anyway bootleg bootleg space watches uh no i think that yeah i can get behind bootleg yeah yeah actually thinking about it i can get behind bootleg space watches And that list is just as cool, maybe cooler. And it comes down to just like any other government agency where they give you something that works, but if you want something that works really well, you're probably going to have to buy it on your own. |
| Andrew | This is the guy from 82nd Airborne who's got his personally owned Glock 9 tucked away in his bag. It's the same thing, right? |
| Other Host | No, that's not me, just so we're being clear. |
| Andrew | No, not you. I'm just saying, you know that. Everybody knows that guy. He's like, oh yeah, I brought my I brought my Glock 24 to Afghanistan just so I could have something that I could rely on. |
| Other Host | That's ridiculous. |
| Andrew | You're going to get court-martialed. |
| Other Host | Yeah, you're going to jail. Have fun there. But, I mean, most aftermarket purchases that you buy, you know, within the confines of, well, we'll stick with a military organization. Everything the Army has ever issued me has worked pretty well. The stuff that I bought on my own has worked really well. And this is maybe not exactly the same because NASA is issuing their astronauts, speedmasters, but there's still that sentimental touch of, I want to bring what I like, what I'm comfortable with. |
| Andrew | Um, and that's, that's what I saw a lot of, you know, reading through reading through a couple of Dave Scott interviews. I get the feeling, and I don't know that he ever says this and maybe he did. Um, but I, I get the feeling that, that some of these guys, um, you know, maybe Dave Scott or who is the, uh, who, who is the other one? Well, some of these guys were perhaps taking side money. They were side hustles for R&D. |
| Other Host | I mean, there was a whole issue with one of the Apollo missions that they brought a bunch of stamps up to space with them and signed them and then sold them. I forget which crew it was, but yeah, there was a bit of a scandal. |
| Andrew | if you will associate it with that these side hustles so you know these guys are young guys some of them are civilians some of them are military guys none of them are ever going to make a bunch of money doing what they're doing unless you sell a bunch of stamps that you took to the moon unless you take these side and and they were all getting all the all the girls all the attention you know private dinners you come talk at our function um and so it just makes sense that that was going on um And, you know, I think it's probably increased some of these, this legacy and maybe, you know, we'll get there. But this Dave Scott watch that everybody thought was a Waltham for forever, that turned out to actually be the Bulova Moonwatch or Lunar Lander predecessor, you know, for years, everybody thought it was a Waltham. You know, which Waltham was it? And people are having conversations and there's multiple Waltham space watches. Well, it turns out it was a Bulova. You know, I wonder, how much some of this was sort of shaped by the fact that this was, everybody was hustling. Kind of under the table, little gray area. Right. Yeah. So, so I guess just get to it. First watch in space Yuri Gagarin, 12th of April, 1961. We think. We think that's right. A Sturmansky. A simple three-hander sort of type A Flieger field watch hybrid. |
| Other Host | Yeah. |
| Andrew | Almost certainly what this watch was. |
| Other Host | Never designed for space travel. |
| Andrew | right just on his wrist you know and and when you say never designed for space travel i think probably not specifically designed for space travel but but certainly with an eye to the types of conditions that you might experience in space yeah in air in aviators watch which you know you're getting some of the uh some of the temperature variants some of the pressure changes definitely some g-forces yeah some some unpleasantries if you will associated with it |
| Other Host | But still not, I mean, never having been in space before, there was no way to plan for or do any kind of development for mechanics that would work in space. |
| Andrew | And so now I think this, so we've pulled up the sort of reissue of the Sturmanski Gagarin. This is a watch that's pretty hard to get. I don't think you can get them new anymore. |
| Other Host | At least from what I could find. I did a pretty cursory search and we did together. They were hard to find, hard to price, and I think if you do buy one, you're going to start running into the Franken-watch issues that you run into with other Soviet watches. |
| Andrew | You think even on a watch this new, I mean, these were for sale not too long ago. |
| Other Host | I bet you can find these in basically... I think, though, if you're looking towards a more... I mean, the new out-of-box Stromanskys, yeah, but if you start looking at some of the watches that were produced in that era, you're going to get more Franken-watches than not. yeah i bet i bet you're right because it's using the 2609 movement so fucking everything is using a 2609 movement sure um yeah this is i mean you can get a franken watch as a novelty but to find a true to form original piece outside of the reissue i that'd be a hunt and so these are tiny you know 33 millimeters and i'm not sure on the on the reissue i think the reissue is 40 and 20 40 so yeah uh a more |
| Andrew | modern size. The original, the original is probably 33 millimeters. 33 and 15, which is tiny, teeny tiny watch. So, you know, maybe a candidate for something like a bun strap or whatever, although I would never wear a watch on a bun strap. I think that's the type of watch you're looking at. You know, and there's some question marks still about whether or not this would have been the watch. So this to just physically describe it, we'll put a link in the show notes This is a, um, you know, white face perhaps, or, or maybe a loomed face field watch pilot hybrid, you know, these sort of prominent, uh, art deco, I'm going to call them art deco numerals, uh, a big sort of Soviet star with wings at the six o'clock. |
| Other Host | Cause how do you go to space without a Soviet star with wings? Right. |
| Andrew | And, uh, |
| Other Host | Cyrillic stromansky up at the top up at the 12 o'clock so great balance um a pretty sexy watch but just a truly soviet watch yeah that's i mean that's this is it you've seen one you've seen them all for the most part i think it's a little unfair but i i know your point they all have that same feel yeah yeah um but just a cool watch and and really you know doesn't get this and rightfully so doesn't get the same attention as the as the Speedmaster or even the Bulova Moonwatch because it is a Soviet watch out of the first Moscow watch factory. |
| Andrew | Which at the time wasn't really... I mean, you couldn't buy this watch. You couldn't as a citizen of Russia or anywhere else in the world buy this watch. This was just a military issue watch, which I think creates some of the controversy. |
| Other Host | Right. And the modern reissue is cool. It has a titanium case, but this is... This is a cool watch. This is the one that started space travel for watches. |
| Andrew | So just to sort of briefly write down some of the controversy here, because there's some people who say this was not the first watch in space. Rodina, certainly Rodina and some auction, some watch seller folks have sort of conspired to say this wasn't it. It couldn't have been it. And the best evidence I could find that this wasn't it was they stopped issuing this watch to new cadets. four years before Yuri Gagarin went to the Space Academy or to the Flight Academy in Russia. So he, they certainly were not issuing this watch to people. Does that mean he didn't get one? Um, you know, if you're coming in and the upperclassmen all have this watch, maybe you try to get it. |
| Other Host | Or maybe it was a gift. I mean, there's, there's so many things. I mean, if we go a little bit further, the, uh, the watch that, um, oh shoot, I didn't write down his name. A Breitling NavTimer. modified at 24 hours was there. And if suddenly a Breitling, because the watch is missing, a Breitling NavTimer from the 1960s shows up with a 24-hour change, people are going to say, oh, they didn't even make that then. Right. Well, they made one. |
| Andrew | Right. So hard to say. Also, Rodina has sort of showed up and said, hey, this is actually the watch. And they actually auctioned one off for, you know, I think maybe $25,000 or so a few years ago and said, American? This is the Gagarin watch, a Rodina, and so I think there's some controversy and maybe it's good controversy, you know, gets people talking, but by and large most people accept this is probably some iteration of this as the first space watch. |
| Other Host | And I'll accept it because it's all part of this storied tradition. It's all, none of these watches have actually been in space. Yeah. You're not going to wear on your watch a Speedmaster that's been in space, or a Moonwatch that's been in space, or a Pogue, or any of these watches that their counterparts have been to space. It's just part of the storied tradition of human spaceflight. Sure. |
| Andrew | So, should we just get it out of the way? Modern space watches. Today's actual space watches. |
| Other Host | Isn't even the Speedmaster. |
| Andrew | Well, yeah, that's right. |
| Other Host | It's a variant of the Speedmaster, but it's not the one that everyone wears. Oh, I'm wearing a Moonwatch. No, you're not. The X-33 is the current iteration of space watch for NASA. |
| Andrew | And I think NASA still certifies the Speedmaster Pro. And there are two iterations of the 33, the most current 33, and then the Speedmaster Professional 33, which came out in 98 and was in its place, which is a very similar watch. But this is a, what, a mechanical digital hybrid? |
| Other Host | It's an interesting thing. It looks to me like Omega's version of a Pro Trek. |
| Andrew | Yeah, or perhaps the Breitling Aerospace. You know, it does a similar thing. Titanium, Anodigi. The Omegas are partially mechanical. I think the chronograph in there is a mechanical chronograph, or perhaps the three hands are actually mechanical. With an LCD display? With an LCD display. So they've done some interesting things with it. It's a very cool watch. They're not terribly expensive. You can get them for reasonable money, not stupid money. Are we talking like north or south of two? Well, north of two, yeah. I mean, so you can get a used 1998 Speedmaster X33 for about $2,500 to $3,000 is what I was finding them in. Not that there's a ton of them available because they're just not that popular of a watch. |
| Other Host | I'd be more inclined to buy that than the traditional analog. |
| Andrew | Yeah, perhaps. Or even a Breitling Aerospace. If I have the choice between that X33 and an Aerospace, I might really seriously look at a used X33. It's not a watch that had been on my radar before today. |
| Other Host | Nothing trumps the digital Aerospace to me. Nothing. |
| Andrew | All right. Well, now we know Andrew's got opinions. |
| Other Host | Yeah. But the X33 is cool shit. That's if we, if I had seen that watch and we were talking about Omega, that would have been on my list. Cause that's a cool watch and it's not just cool because it looks good. It's cool because of all the technology that's gone into it. |
| Andrew | Yeah, that's right. And yeah, I dig it. You know what else I found interesting about this is that it's not just the Americans whose official watch is the Omega Speedmaster and Speedmaster X33. There's another, country who also has that as their official watch. |
| Other Host | Is it, uh, Russia? It's Russia. Yeah. |
| Andrew | How funny is that? So, you know, here we are 60 years later and both of these companies have now come over. Yep. Or these companies, you know, both of these countries are now on the same page, you know, although they're the tension between those drove arguably not just the space watch industry, But the entire watch industry, these innovations between Russia and America and their demands have done so much. You know, the 3133 came out of this war. You know, advancements in Bolivar technology, American watch technology, advancements in the Swiss industry have come out of this thing. Certainly the Russian aspects of it leak into the Far East. You know, the space race. Shaped in so many ways or chronograph development Germany, you know sin or Zen Zen I I mean spelled sin, but it's it's Zen. Yeah, and I believe so Yeah, I believe I'm probably still gonna say sin sometimes. So whatever I'm gonna say sin Really really really run out that double N Yeah, so, you know now officially both United States and Russia probably the two most prominent players in the current space industry, um, both playing with omegas. Although the Russia's Russians now also using that Fortis B 42. |
| Other Host | Right. And there's another company, uh, R O R O I or R O one. Yeah. R O one R O something like that. Uh, another, another company providing some watches. And speaking of Seiko, they're developing a grand Seiko, a spring drive movement for citizen Not Citizen, the company, but like normal people, a commercial space flight. |
| Andrew | That's right. Yeah. Developing or have developed? |
| Other Host | I didn't look for finished products and pricing for it because that would make me very sad. The Space Lab? Is that? Space Walk, I think it may be. I forgot the name of it. I didn't write it down. I didn't write it down either. I was like, it just came to mind. Whatever. But yeah, I think we're on the cusp of another space revolution. Yeah, could be. That lunar lander just crashed into the moon. SpaceX just landed their first stage rockets. |
| Andrew | Yeah, SpaceX is right on the precipice of having commercial spaceflight in hand. |
| Other Host | It's almost there. So anyway, we'll get back on to watches. You know the second watch that was in space? |
| Andrew | Let's see. Hoyer. Stopwatch. Oh yeah, that's right. That's right. Beans. Who's Hoyer stopwatch was that? |
| Other Host | It was, no, not Bean. Shoot, I should have wrote down his name. I just, I wrote down a list of watches. It flew in 1962 in the first orbital mission, a Hoyer stopwatch, and it was enormous, strapped to his wrist. |
| Andrew | Strapped to his wrist, yeah, with braze on, right? |
| Other Host | Yeah. Next, we're going to go into, we've already talked a little bit about it, but the modified Breitling NavTimer was used uh, by Scott Carpenter because he flew, he's a military pilot, flew in a NavTimer, uh, but wanted a 24 hour NavTimer available because of the lack of day and night, um, differences that are going to come with space. So Bright, he worked with Brightling to develop the first 24 hour NavTimer that was available and they made one for him and he took that to space, um, which made it the first watch that was developed in conjunction with astronaut input, which is Really freaking cool. |
| Andrew | And you know, it's just a neat watch, right? I mean, just the idea of it. The idea of having that sort of pull. Right? You know, hey Breitling. Hey guys. I'm doing this thing. |
| Other Host | Can you help me out? I can barely get a restaurant to customize a burger for me. Never mind an enormous company. R&D a product. |
| Andrew | Little known fact, Scott Carpenter, long lost sibling of Richard and Karen Carpenter. yeah huh yeah i think maybe couldn't be anything else uh yeah no i mean just crazy to have that kind of pull just be able to say i i want to do this thing can you guys help me out you know and then to get it made and then get to wear it like and then to lose it yeah and to lose it so after his uh errant re-entry where he got a little bit wet |
| Other Host | that Breitling got sent in for repairs and is now MIA. So if anybody comes across an old-looking Breitling NavTimer with a 24-hour dial, you're sitting on a gold mine. So send it to us. We'll validate its authenticity. |
| Andrew | And then I'll keep it. We'll just own it. Yeah. We'll make it part of the 40 in 20 museum. So it'll be out on loan. |
| Other Host | Yeah. |
| Andrew | Semi-permanent loan. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I've always wondered about this. art museums, especially, you know, we've got a local art museum at the university called the George Schnitzer Museum. George Schnitzer is this sort of well-known philanthropist. But I always wondered, how do they get their, how do they get their stuff? Cause they have phenomenal stuff from time to time. I found out if you purchase a piece of art, you can donate it to a museum for, I think it's three months and get, or it might even be less than that. And I think it's three months, but you can give it on loan to a public art institution. and get a huge tax saving. I think perhaps the money becomes tax deductible. |
| Other Host | I always wondered that too, and now that makes perfect sense. It does. It makes sense. Because half of big exhibits you see on loan from... On loan from someone. Yeah. And A, I wondered why you would buy an arguably priceless piece of work and then loan it out. And then two, why you would buy it in the first place. How do we get here? Oh, yeah. If you find the missing Scott Carpenter Breitling. |
| Andrew | We'll start a 501c3. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. What was I... So what's next here? |
| Other Host | We'll start moving into watches we've talked about. The Poljot. I've heard it both ways. I'm sure Poljot is probably the more accurate of the two. The Strela. You have the Omega Speedmaster. the Bulova 96B251, later known as the Lunar Lander or Moonwatch. |
| Andrew | And the history behind that one's kind of cool, right? With this, that wall thumb. |
| Other Host | Yeah, the other potentially MIA, but then not MIA, unknown, unauthorized, brought along for the ride Moonwatch. And then after this is when we start getting into a wealth of watches that have been brought to space. Some of them a little surprising, actually. First surprising one to me, the Seiko Pogue. |
| Andrew | Seiko Pogue, yeah. Seiko Pogue. We talked about the Seiko Pogue last week a little bit. |
| Other Host | Which is the Pogue named after the astronaut that took it to space. |
| Andrew | Right. Which is such a great name for a military colonel. Right. Pogue. Right. |
| Other Host | For those of you unfamiliar, Pogue is a slanderous term. |
| Andrew | It's a pejorative. |
| Other Host | Yeah. Folks who aren't warfighters. |
| Andrew | Like me. |
| Other Host | And me. |
| Andrew | I'm a Pogue. I am also a Pogue. I mean, you've actually, you've actually done combat things on combat missions. Yeah, but still Pogue-y. Pogue-y. Pogue-ish. Yeah. I'm just straight Pogue, you know. |
| Other Host | Primary, primary duty is as a Pogue. Secondary can, you know, you can get some other things going. Yeah. But anyway, it's the 6139-6002, which went to space in 1973. And again. Surreptitiously. Again, a, uh, brought along for the ride, not the authorized watch, but he, he chose to wear it. |
| Andrew | And, and, and so we talked a little bit last week about, uh, color combinations, you know, your, your experience was that the blue, uh, was, was in your consciousness. And, and I think, you know, just looking at these things, the blue and the gold are the most prominent, but we can confirm that, um, Colonel Pogue did take a gold dialed Pogue to space. |
| Other Host | And those are sexy. We've been able to see one in person, and they're good. |
| Andrew | Yeah, a good friend of ours, a friend of the show even, has a blue-dialed Pogue, and it's just fantastic. |
| Other Host | And we owe him a visit soon. Xander, should he be listening? Shoot us a text. |
| Andrew | We'll do it this week. Yeah. Maybe we've already met when you hear this. |
| Other Host | Oh, maybe. |
| Andrew | Not you, though, Xander. Yeah, super cool watch, too. You know, mechanical. Shockingly affordable. Yeah, you can get these things for under a bill all day I do think you have to be a little careful with them. |
| Other Host | I Think these things get frank and pretty frequently so to make sense But as long as you're deliberate in your search, you can you can get one for under a bill and probably the next two weeks Yeah, that's probably right. |
| Andrew | And you know, there are opportunities to pay a little bit more bill being 100 money Oh, no a thousand. |
| Other Host | I mean these things are 750 to a thousand good conditions I mean if you're looking perfect condition, yeah But I'm thinking under a hundred bucks you can I mean I think he's for 25 bucks 50 bucks isn't he? |
| Andrew | Well, I think he got that on coming up on some loot. |
| Other Host | I'm not sure that well, I'll tell you it I don't think I've seen these for under a hundred but if you can find them, that's a great deal I think you can I mean when I was in you and I'm not talking about pristine condition I'm talking about a worn vintage watch you're certainly gonna be able to get into most of them for under 300 and I think if you're if you're I Was looking today Okay |
| Andrew | Well, we'll get some, we'll get some. |
| Other Host | And not everyone, but you're going to be able to find them. You're definitely going to be able to get into them for under a thousand. For sure. All of them. |
| Andrew | For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and, you know, piece of history, real history, and just a cool fricking watch too. I mean, all of us affordable guys love, love Seiko. We love Seiko military. We love, um, you know, these, these watches that are. |
| Other Host | What the fuck is that? I don't know. We just listened to my beer. I could hear. Strange rhythmic. It sounds like a watch ticking. Yeah a rhythmic ticking. I'm wearing a digital watch today which meant that it wasn't my watch and I I looked to my beer and the sound increased and there is a strange kind of Is that it is just a uniform dispersion of the co2 in there it's a very strange sound sorry for the distraction, but |
| Andrew | You heard it here first. |
| Other Host | Like we said, like we said earlier, this is just about sitting down and drinking beer, talking mostly about watches. And right now we're going to talk about this. |
| Andrew | We're drinking some standbys. I'm drinking Bush Light. Andrew's drinking 10 Barrel Lemon Sour Crush. We're nothing new here. We're not reading anything. |
| Other Host | Every half second is the louder, the louder dispersion. It's interesting. |
| Andrew | If you, any, any physics out there, uh, physicists out there, let us know. |
| Other Host | Or chemists. I don't even know what's happening. Yeah. Hard to say. I'll drink it faster. Stop the distraction. |
| Andrew | Uh, yeah. What were we talking about? The Pogue? |
| Other Host | Yeah, we can move on though. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I would like to talk about the Sin 140 slash 142 a little bit. Let's do it. This is a beautiful watch. And I think we can. Zin. Zin. I'm sorry for all you perfectionists out there. The Zin 140. |
| Other Host | You're not going to be able to get into this for under a grand. |
| Andrew | No. Oh no. Or under two. Yeah. I think used, you know, we've pulled one up on Chrono 24. This is just a silver blasted. um 5100 2800 bucks and i think that seems about right um this doesn't look like it's in perfect condition but certainly it's in good condition with the og bracelet on it it's got some scratches um oh one big one yeah that's that's a watermark no on this on the picture that's gnarly um you you know this is got that same sort of tonneau case chronograph that I sort of attribute to the Porsche Orfina, very similar looking watch to that Orfina or say the Dan Henry 1972, real similar thing going on. The sort of hooded or almost integrated lug scheme, similar bracelets. This is going to fit the same part in your collection. as an Orfina or a Porsche Orfina, that 1972 or a Dan Henry 1972, but very cool. And it's a space watch. And it's a space watch. It's a space watch. So Reinhard Fuhrer, I assume that's how you say that. I think so. Although I feel a little bad saying Fuhrer. |
| Other Host | Yeah, I don't know how else you'd say it though. |
| Andrew | He wore a 140S, a PVD 140S. on the Challenger mission. The last successful Challenger. That's right. 1985 he wore his on a Challenger mission and sort of, I guess, cemented this watch's place in space history. |
| Other Host | Yeah. There's a few others. The Rolex GMT-Master has made it. |
| Andrew | 1965. No, no. 1975. Apollo 13 Jack Swagger. |
| Other Host | And a couple other astronauts have been cited with it. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli rocks a t-touch in addition to two other watches because he's tracking uh space station time italian time italian time italian time italian yeah italian time and u.s time so he uh in an interview that i i uh read with him he he wears three watches frequently among them is the t-touch um and the fita fita f-i-y-t-a um has a whole line of watches that are given to Chinese astronauts most notably the Space Master which is a 54 millimeter watch in its original configuration yeah and they've made this available to the public for at 45 millimeters which is a much more wearable watch size yeah and if you're going to wear a space watch i i think you might as well wear big yeah if you yeah i guess that's that's reasonable yeah still not going to get me into a lunar lander or a moon watch, putting it on was just disappointing. |
| Andrew | It's so big. The Bulva, obviously, we're talking about now. It crushed me. |
| Other Host | I was ready to buy that watch. Yeah. I might still get one, you know, maybe like five, six watches down the road when I'm okay having a watch that I don't wear. That's your big watch. Yeah. This is my big watch. I already have a big watch. I've got the Citizen Aviator. That's right. Yeah. And it's hard to replace know, a sub $100 watch with a, I mean, it's a sub $300 watch, I think, but it's not exactly a replacement. |
| Andrew | Right. Yeah. You know, I think that watch is helped by its narrow lug width and it's sort of workable, uh, lug to lug, but yeah, it's a, it's a biggie. |
| Other Host | Anyway, anyway, a whole cool journey with authorized and contraband watches on their way to space well can we can before before we move on are you moving on here no no i'm just i'm i'm recounting a little bit of of why i wanted to do this topic because again as if you guys haven't figured out space flight's pretty cool and i love it i am still a child at heart when it comes to the space age and space flight um so doing this was was purely a function of learn a little bit more about watches as they pertain to space and uh |
| Andrew | Look at more about space. You know, um, it's such a, it's such a romantic thing. You know, you, you even just, even just bringing it up now, you talk about, I'm still a child, you know, there's something about space flight. That's like dinosaurs, which I'm also obsessed with. It connects to this, uh, adolescent part of our brains, um, where, you know, possibility or, um, the unimaginable in IRL, uh, sort of comes to the forefront, you know, and, and space does that to us, you know, wearing a, wearing a Omega Speedmaster Pro or, you know, one, one of these watches is not going to take you any closer to that. In fact, but there's something about having this thing that's designed to perhaps give you that capability should the opportunity arise. |
| Other Host | I mean, wearing Jordans doesn't make you a better basketball player. That's right. That's right. And it's the same effect. And I think, to me, a Speedmaster is less of a space watch than most of these others. Yeah. Because most of these others are pretty specifically, like, even though they're cool, the only, like, the pinnacle is the fact that they have been used or worn in space. Speedmaster's got a whole other resume to support its |
| Andrew | time on your wrist sure you know uh just to talk about one more space watch that uh doesn't get a lot of play on the space watch conversation but um is certainly as much of a space watch as many of these if not more so um and it's a watch that i'm guessing 30 percent of our listeners have in their cabinet right now oh dig it out fucking g-shock yep g-shock so g-shocks have historically been certified by nasa they're You know, and if you think about it, it makes sense. They're shock resistant, they're temp resistant, they're waterproof. Um, they do all the things. And certainly NASA has noticed by certifying some five or six different models of G-Shock. So just to run through the 5600s, you know, I think the C and the E and the F and the Q, uh, 5600s have all been certified for spaceflight. The 5900, which is one that you don't hear people talk about very often, but it's this kind of hybrid square round case. The 6900, the 9000 Mudman are all watches that have been worn in training for space and most of them in actual space. And how many people listening to the show have one of those five watches? I think probably more than 30%. Yeah, I mean, I would say 30% is a conservative estimate. So, you know, feel safe the next time you drop your DW-5600 on your wrist for the day that you're wearing a space watch. Yeah. Because you are in fact doing just that. And you're welcome. Also a Timex Ironman. That's also not surprising to me. The Datalink, only one version. So I think people sometimes say, oh, the Ironman's triathlons are space certified. Only one of them was ever certified. And that certification has since been rescinded. But the Timex Ironman Datalink, which is an outdated watch that did some things with linking data. that I don't really know what it was. Ah! But this is a, you know, sort of late 80s, early 90s Iron Man triathlon data linker watch. Cool. |
| Other Host | Some people might have that. Probably not. That's probably a watch that ends up in the trash when the battery dies. |
| Andrew | So, you know, I think that basically wraps up the space conversation. I'll sort of tie it up with getting back to your point about Jordans. This doesn't have anything to do with anything, totally apropos of nothing, except for the fact that you brought up Michael Jordan the other day. Today? |
| Other Host | I brought up Michael Jordan just now. |
| Andrew | The other minute is what I meant. So I'm in my car. Kids and I and Kim, the family, we did a date night on Friday. We went to Outback Steakhouse, eating good in the neighborhood. |
| Other Host | No, I think that's Applebee's. They have a lot of keto options there. |
| Andrew | They do they do which is why we went there Went to Outback and then went to see Shazam Which is a little too mature for my six-year-old. They had Shazam in the theater We went to Shazam in the theater, which was fantastic really fun movie Yeah, a little not scary not scary for a grown-up not scary for a ten-year-old But for a six and seven year old it was a touch scare There's parts of it where I looked, I looked down at Betty. |
| Other Host | Are we talking about a remake? Is there a remake of Shazam? Are we talking about the, the original with Shaquille O'Neal? |
| Andrew | Oh no, it is not. It is not the Shaquille O'Neal Shazam. It is a remake of Shazam. That's Shazam, right? That came out last Friday. |
| Other Host | Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. I did not realize that a new one had come out, but I'm talking about the right movie. Like Shazam was Shaquille O'Neal, wasn't it? |
| Andrew | I think that might've happened. I don't remember it clearly, but there's a good chance that that's right. We're going to go to the Google. So we go and see Shazam and driving around that night and Wes says to me, my son, my six-year-old son says, Dad, are superheroes real? And I said, well, you know, superheroes like Shazam or Superman or Batman are stories. You know, those are stories. But there may be some people that are kind of like superheroes in real life. They're just not superheroes like you see in the comics or the movies. Those are stories. And my daughter, bless her heart. |
| Other Host | Kazam. Different, but sounds similar. |
| Andrew | My daughter says, like Michael Jordan? Yeah. I felt this warmth bubble in my gut. Made me so proud. Cause this is a girl that wears Jordans frequently. She loves them. She goes and picks Jordans out. I'm sure I gave that to her, but she has that. And she was like, like Michael Jordan. She is never, I'm sure. never watched a full game of Michael Jordan. I'm sure she's seen clips that I've showed her. It'd be weird if she'd seen a full game of Michael Jordan. She has no clue who Michael Jordan really was or is, but she knew. The conversation of are there real superheroes comes up and she thinks to herself, like Michael Jordan, I think that means I'm doing a good job. I think that means you've, yeah, you're doing it. I'm doing it. I'm doing a good job. You're parenting. All I could say was, yes, that's a very good example. Like Michael Jordan. No, there are probably people who do good things that are better candidates for that, but I'm perfectly satisfied with that answer. |
| Other Host | Me too. |
| Andrew | What do you got for other things, man? |
| Other Host | It's springtime, right? It's mid-April at this point. Tulips, man, I've seen them. Tons. And this is the time of year that it starts to get warm and dry enough for longer periods of time. That allows me to break out my tools from my shop. and start building things. And we were texting. My wife's parents are downsizing. They're moving. So they're downsizing all their stuff. And I got a bunch of tools from her dad. And I texted you last week about it. I was like, man, I have the itch. And suddenly the itch is getting more and more significant. I just want to build shit right now. So this last weekend I built some floating shelves for the bathroom at my wife's request. And I'm looking to take on a bunch of new projects. And I, I just always, whenever I finish a project, my wife is always like, how do you know how to do that? And my answers are, it's always the same two answers. I don't know. And where my, I don't know of knowledge ends YouTube. I think all too often we, we just accept things for what they are like, Oh, well it's broken. I guess I'm gonna get a new one rather than hit the YouTube or just tinker with shit. |
| Andrew | And the answers are all there, they're all on YouTube. |
| Other Host | Everything. I've done plumbing work, I've done electrical work, all from YouTube. And sometimes it's taken about 10 times longer than the YouTube video, where the guy's like, oh yeah, it's a five minute project. It'll take me, you know, four hours. But man, the feeling of completing that project, and this goes back to, you know, better done than perfect. And a lot of the things that we've kind of talked about thematically on this show of Just get in and tinker. And I love doing that. And I, we're going to build some shelves here in your garage soon because whether or not you want them, I want them. I want them. Cause I want to bring out my tools and I want to cut some fucking lumber and I want to do some shit. So we got to get on that. But that's my other thing right now is, is tinkering with things because the weather is good. I can bring out my tools and I can start tinkering and I fucking love that. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. I'm into it, man. I'm into it. You know, we've been talking about if anybody has any advice on, um, best ways without having every single tool that's ever been made in your garage to flatten four sides of a two by four. Cause here's, here's what, here's, here's the goal. I want to be able to get cheap framing lumber, two by fours, two by sixes, but make it boards with sharp corners. And, uh, so if anybody has, I think a planer is the answer. |
| Other Host | Yeah. Cause I don't have a router and I have a green light on a planer and I think a planer is the answer. You know, a table saw will work. |
| Andrew | I've done it with a table saw. I think we can get inexpensive routers too. Um, so, but a benchtop planer, I think is the answer. You run them through both sides on the planer and then you get a benchtop router and you run those, run it through for the sides. But if anybody thinks that we're being silly about this, this is our plan right now. Either flat cut the sides with the table saw, which seems a little shaky to me, you know, just use a fence or to use a router and, and to make those sides flat. If there's a better way, or if we're missing a step, or if we're not thinking about some dimensional variable that's going to affect our task, let us know. |
| Other Host | But, yeah. I think it's doable. I think with a table saw, it's doable. I think with a planer, it's easier. But I have a table saw. I've ripped lumber with a table saw. I think what we run into there is the imperfections on the wide sides. Yeah, you have to flip it. So it's easy to rip the edges, the narrow sides, but the wide ones is a little bit harder, which is where I think the planer comes into play. Yeah. |
| Andrew | And I think you can get one for like $150, $200 at Harbor Freight, so maybe I just pick one up. Yeah. You don't have to, because I plan on it. Harbor Freight makes great stuff. You run into issues usually with long-term reliability, but for you and me... But you know what, though? |
| Other Host | I've started buying Cobalt tools because they're low-zoned. Yeah. And they have a lifetime guarantee. |
| Andrew | And they're not usually a ton more expensive than a Bauer or a... They're usually pretty inexpensive. |
| Other Host | Central machinery or something. So you break it and you bring it in and you get a new one. Yeah. They know you bought it there. So you don't bring a receipt. You just bring in your BroCo thing and they give you a new one. Right. |
| Andrew | Yeah. So that's sort of, I think, been on both of our minds recently. You've had a little bit more time to get into that. So fun. And so you made something. |
| Other Host | Yeah. I've, I built some floating shelves and they're not perfect, but better done than perfect. Uh, and for our first iteration and for a, on a whim, I used a two by six that was in my shed and I had to go buy a dowel to, for, for the anchor points on it. Um, but for just on a whim and having a, a three-year-old assist, uh, they turned out pretty good. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Yeah. I saw them. They looked great. In fact, I was questioning whether or not you had purchased the shelves and just installed them, but you did them yourself. |
| Other Host | Oh, no need for flattery. I already like you. |
| Andrew | Well, cool. What's the next project? Well, I got a... Besides my shelves. |
| Other Host | Yeah, your shelves. And I got a nail gun and an air compressor from my wife's dad. We've lived in this house just over two years now. All the molding just needs updated and I've done some drywall replacements. So there's some chunks of my home that don't have molding up because I haven't had a brad nailer and molding looks so, I don't hammer well. So I mess up the molding when I, when I use a hammer. Yeah. Um, so I'm going to do a whole bunch of molding projects and, uh, update and repair molding that I've destroyed with a hammer. |
| Andrew | Wonderful. Yeah. You know, we ha I had a house. in springfield for about six years and when we bought it we redid the floors first weekend we pulled up all the carpets it had hardwood oak under the carpets in fact when we bought that house we went and looked at it and had these terrible carpets throughout it except for the bedroom that had hardwood um the sort of master bedroom if you could call it that and uh i was sitting with kim we were kind of talking about it at night and i was like you know It's so weird that that one bedroom is oak and everything else is these nasty carpets, because it's not like it's new oak. |
| Other Host | That's a guarantee that everything else is hardwood. And she was like, well, you think it's got oak everywhere else? |
| Andrew | And I was like, shit, man, I don't know. So I sent my, it was like 1130 at night, I sent our realtor a text message and said, Hey, I need to get back into that house tomorrow morning. And she said, sure, what's up? And I said, I want to see if there's oak everywhere. And sure enough, we went into next morning at eight o'clock, I went into The living room pulled the heating register off the floor, pulled the carpet back and it's got this oak underneath it. And so we put an offer in it that morning and we were in the house a week later, you know, you know, a month later, realistically. Um, the first thing we did was pull all the carpets, redid the floors. And when I did that, I pulled up these old nasty marred moldings. I never, we owned the house for six years. I never redid them. I never put them back in until we sold it. And that house looked so good when I did that. Uh, and it was so disappointing to me. Um, you know, to see this house, that's just beautiful. I remember walking it through it as we were getting ready to sell it. And I was like, shit, man, I love this. And all I had to do was spend four hours doing this thing, you know, maybe eight hours, I don't know, but not a lot of time doing this thing that I'd been literally avoiding for six years. So disappointing. Do your damn moldings. If you need to do your moldings, do them right now. |
| Other Host | Yeah, do them. And if you just bought a house and they cheaply painted over the molding and the walls, just update the molding. It's not expensive. |
| Andrew | Not expensive and not a difficult process, even without a brad nailer, although that is going to make the process so much easier. Game changer. Well, OK. Anything else you got to say about that? No. What do you got? So, you know, some of you will have heard us talk about writing instruments, I think once or twice. And I know Andrew's heard me talk about writing instruments more than he likes. Uh, started a new job here about a month ago and, or, you know, two months ago going on actually at this point. What happens when you go from being an employee to being an owner is that you realize quickly that you have to buy everything. So as an employee, almost no employees buy pens for using every day. And even as someone who likes pens, I would just order the pens that I liked at the firm, but I couldn't get anything I wanted. I could get something. that was available at Quill.com or at Office Depot because that's where our staff went. So I've spent a solid ten years of my life using a, you know, Precise V5, which I think is a fantastic pen that's widely available. Sometimes slightly better, sometimes slightly better pens that I just sort of came across or different pens. I know you love a Pilot G2. I as well love a Pilot G2. I've used those. But in getting to make these decisions by myself, I've gotten to get back to my roots as a pen guy. And so I spent about 40 bucks a couple weeks ago and bought pens. I bought pens and I bought the pens I wanted. And so there's two pens in particular, and these are widely available. You can't get them at Office Depot. You can't get them at Quill, but you can get them online, Amazon. Oh yeah. I love these pens. There's two of them. There's the first one, and Andrew just said, Oh, I love these. The first one is a Uni-ball made by Mitsubishi, a Uni-ball Signo, Sino? Probably Sino. DX. Yeah, I think Sino. You know, it's so weird. You've read these words a billion times and I've never thought, how do you say that? Uni-ball Sino DX in a 0.38 size. These pens are fantastic. It's a gel ink pen. I think these are some of the best pens ever made. For writing pleasure, you can get them in a fine tip, a truly fine tip. 0.38 is going to give you a very fine line, which I love. They're easy to write with. |
| Other Host | They're easy to write with the way... The texture feels really nice. The tactile experience when you're writing with that pen feels good. Gives you some feedback without being scratchy. |
| Andrew | And these can get a little scratchy actually if you damage the the I'll say about both the pens I'm going to talk about if you drop them on The tip from more than about six inches it can damage the tip in which case they do get scratchy and the ink flow can get damaged, so You don't need to be careful with them because it's a 250 you know $2.50 Pen which is not cheap. You know certainly not cheap Um, but they're not going to be as robust as say a zebra, a zebra, well, maybe a zebra zebras, zebras have some, some good cartridges too. So, uh, but uni boss, I know DX. The other one is a pilot high tech C oh yeah. In the 0.4 millimeter. Uh, these are sold under a couple of different labels. So I think they're the G tech C in the United States. Uh, if you order them online, the most likely iteration you're going to come up as the high tech C. And within that, they sell a couple different versions of that. But the standard clear crystal plastic iteration, the standard Hi-Tec-C is the one that most people go for. And they're fantastic. Golly, they're fantastic. They've got a needle tip versus the Sino, which has, you know, an angled or a pointed tip. I don't know. I'm probably not using the correct words. The Hi-Tech C's have a needle tip, so a little bit different feel. You get a little bit more flexibility at the tip, you know, or at least it feels more fluid. Both of these have very similar lines to them, and they're just wonderful pens, and they're such a pleasure to write with. So after, you know, having been writing primarily with a Pilot Precise B5 for years now, to go back to these very sort of precise Japanese feeling pens, I've just been so happy. Makes it great to be at work. Makes it great. Makes it great. It's the little things. Um, I will say this blue, black ink, blue, black ink, blue, black ink is the pen version of a automatic movement. I think for me, you see someone using blue, black ink, and you know, that person picked that pen because they don't sell blue, black ink at Fred Meyer or office Depot. So if you see someone with blue black ink, you know that they went to a pen place and they bought that at some place and specifically chose it. They chose that. That's the sign of a collector. Some sort of higher level of being, of higher level pen consciousness. Blue black ink. That's my watch tip for the day. My pen tip for the day. |
| Other Host | But it's not a watch tip. It'll do. |
| Andrew | That's what I got, man. I was going to talk about this a couple of weeks ago and you were like, teaser. And I was like, this is so stupid. Nobody's going to care. Oh, we teased it. Two pens, Uniball Sino DX and Pilot Hi-Tec-C. If you dig pens at all, they're cheap. I mean, three bucks, which is a lot for a pen. But you can get a 10 pack for 20 bucks or so. |
| Other Host | But if you take care of your pens like me or like you, a pen is going to last you a while. That's right. I'm not somebody who loans out pens. And if I do loan out a pen, it doesn't leave my sight. |
| Andrew | Yeah. You know, there's a couple of pens that use the, you know, Pilot Hi-Tec-C has been, I think it's actually almost a little bit passe at this point because it was so popular six, seven, eight years ago that I think people have like sort of, sort of tried to find other things to be that, that pen, which as with most things doesn't take away from its greatness as a pen at all. I don't know of any innovation in the last few years that has dethroned that for me. I will say, I like the, the SinoDX for sort of all-purpose usability, maybe just a little bit more. I still think the Hi-Tec-C is great. The nice thing about the Hi-Tec-C is there's a bunch of companies that make pen bodies that take those Hi-Tec-C inserts. Some of them are stupid expensive. I know Karas Customs has in the past made some Hi-Tec-C specific pen bodies. I don't know that they have anything currently. But there are pens out there. There's a famous one. It was one of the earliest Kickstarters I was ever paying attention to called the pen type A. And it's this sort of friction fit pen body cap combo. And they're outrageously expensive. I think they're like 200 plus for a pen type A. And they're just this machined, you know, it's kind of silly, right? It's a little bit silly. But if you do get into it and you want to sort of get a higher end There's other options out there too. |
| Other Host | So that's a years of pens in just the body. |
| Andrew | That's right. Shout out to Matthew Morris who has given me tons of pen information over the course of the last six months. Helped me with a leaky, successfully helped me with a leaky, um, fountain pen that I had converted to an eyedropper and I was having trouble with leaking and he gave me some tips and I followed his tips to the letter and, um, perfect. I haven't had a single leak since. So. |
| Other Host | America. |
| Andrew | Yeah, shout out to Matthew Morse. All right. I got nothing else. I guess I don't either. All righty. Space watches? Space watches. Pens. Pens, building shit, and New Orients. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.01. |