Episode 246 - Watches Roundup for July 1, 2023
Published on Wed, 12 Jul 2023 23:24:53 -0700
Synopsis
The podcast discusses several new and upcoming watch releases, including:
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The Porsche Design Chronograph One 911, made with a unique titanium carbide case material in a limited edition honoring the Dakar rally.
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The Citizen Bullhead 50th Anniversary watch, a modern re-interpretation of the classic bullhead design packed with features.
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The Arconaut Arc Two with its unique dials made from layers of automotive paint overspray called "Fordite".
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The TAG Heuer Carrera Skipper 7754 re-issue celebrating the brand's 60th anniversary.
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The TAG Heuer Monaco Skeletonized watch with its innovative use of color and depth on the open-worked dial.
The hosts also discuss other topics like an innovative Apple Watch conversion to a mechanical watch, a new apron for cooking/workshop use, and a retro-style iOS video game called Vampire Survivors.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Andrew | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 20, The Watch Booker podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life and other things we like. Everett, how are you? |
| Everett | Killing it. I'm here. I'm drinking a beer. I had I went to a baseball game tonight. I worked just like on top of the world, man. That's I'm pleased to hear that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | And now you're making a scene. How are you doing Andrew? I am good. I had a terrific weekend. We pulled the trailer out to Newport, Oregon, and had a pretty hectic camping trip. As anybody who's camped with two young children and two dogs would know. And we're not in a big trailer. We're in a 21 foot, uh, about as like the smallest five person sleeper trailer you can buy. Um, so it was a little cramped, but the weather was great. The beer was many. |
| Everett | And a flowing. |
| Andrew | Yes, it was a flowing and it was terrific. But I'm covered in bug bites, a little sunburned and everyone is still pretty tired. |
| Everett | That's how that goes. Yeah. Camping trips are hard. |
| Andrew | It's a fun trip, though. It's intense. Well, we weren't. |
| Everett | We were in camper. Yeah, a little. It doesn't not quite the same level of ring. |
| Andrew | It was it was good. Good. A lot of learning. None of the things that I was worried about going wrong went wrong. |
| Everett | It was the things you weren't worried about that gotcha. |
| Andrew | No, actually, it like it just everything went right, which is a little scary. You know, everything worked there. Everything worked back. My wife and I high fived in the driveway when we got the trailer parked and I was like, we did it. Now what? Like what's about to go wrong? And there was a few little hiccups and stuff, but nothing actually went wrong. Like the tools never had to come out. Nothing broke. We didn't forget anything of import. It was a fun weekend, but but for the bug bites and sunburn. Yeah. Because the bug bites are at really crucial junctures like my knees, my ankles, my hands. |
| Everett | Yeah, it's buggy season still. You got another month before the bugs all die. |
| Andrew | Gosh, there were so many. We walked about like a three quarter mile. paved trail up to the last like 300 yards into the dunes, which was then leading to the ocean. But about a quarter mile of that was through this really densely wooded, wet, beautiful paved trail with clouds of mosquitoes. Yeah. So you like had to run and you're just like running and flailing about to just mitigate some of the mosquitoes. Uh, that wasn't so great. |
| Everett | Yeah. The Oregon coast is, uh, the Oregon coast is a mixture of dune and rainforest. And if you're in the rainforest portions, it's buggy in July. Very, very wet. And it never gets dry. It's just all, it's never warm enough for it to dry out. |
| Andrew | It's just always wet. The nice thing is about, you know, when the Oregon coast when it's 65 degrees, it feels like it's about a hundred. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | So it was about 55. 60 degrees the whole time we're out there, just beautiful weather. But for the last day, I woke up. The day we're going to pull stakes. I opened the door. It's pissing rain. |
| Everett | You didn't hear the pitter patter before that? |
| Andrew | No, because it wasn't. It was like so humid that there was no rain actually hitting the earth. It was just soaking up everything. So there was like an inch and a half of water on the pad that we were on. So there were things that we left out that were floating. Everything was wet. No boy. Uh, fortunately sun broke a couple hours later, we got to air dry out and then I just reset up camp in the front yard and we got home and let it dry everything out. |
| Everett | Yeah. Cause it's warm enough here. |
| Andrew | Yeah. So yeah, I'm, I'm good. I'm worn out, but I'm good. |
| Everett | Well, good stuff. Glad to have you back. Uh, we're not changing the, we're not changing the tenor of our podcast to be about, to be about camping rather. We're still, we're still a watches podcast and we're here today to talk about watches. |
| Andrew | That might be where you're wrong, my friend. It just might be where you're wrong. |
| Everett | I got to say, I do actually think I'm right about this. We're, we are talking about watches. |
| Unknown | Okay. |
| Everett | We're talking about watches. Andrew, it's been, it's been a great week in watches. There's been a lot of things that have happened. |
| Andrew | Yeah. An unusual amount of cool things. I think not really unusual. Just a lot of cool things have happened. Some things that have been noteworthy. |
| Everett | You want to get us going? |
| Andrew | I do. I want to talk about a watch that we haven't talked about yet, and it isn't new this last week. But I want to talk about it because it's doing a cool thing. We're going to first talk about the Porsche Design Chronograph One 911. And this is not a new watch by any means. Even this particular release isn't that new. Yeah. But we haven't talked about it yet. And there's something really cool to talk about here. So this chronograph one release is being kind of an homage to the Dakar rally. Are we going to call it Dakar? Dakar? Yeah, I think Dakar. Dakar, which is a endurance rally desert race. |
| Everett | A super brutal, one of the world's most brutal rally races. Yes. |
| Andrew | 62% don't finish. Just don't finish. Because of mechanical issues. Yeah. Cause you're racing in the most in-house, you're racing basically on the surface of Mars. That's right. Hot and sandy, uh, as it would happen, mechanical instruments and things don't like hot, dry and sandy. They like it wet. Sloppy. Anyway, so this watch is cool for one reason only. Besides it looks good and it's like a historic watch and doing all this cool thing. So, um, the Porsche design has been working on PVD coatings and then titanium carbide coatings. Mm-hmm, which is as not a metallurgist my lay Understanding of it is it's a really hard material to work with because not only is it super hard titanium, but it's also carbide Fusion into the super hard titanium. So you're working with two Difficult to work with materials on their own. |
| Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| Andrew | You're fusing them together to make coatings, which is really neat |
| Everett | Yeah, so titanium carbide is like PVD or DLC, but better. It's a harder, more resilient, more robust material. But this isn't a coating. |
| Andrew | Correct. And that's what makes this watch special. This watch is special because they found a way, they made a way, they didn't find it. They made a way to make the entire case from this material. What it leads to is a gorgeous color. It's like the super, it looks like titanium, but it's darker. It's almost like a really lightly grayed PVD'd titanium. Yeah, it looks like it's PVD coated. But it's not. That's just the case. You're also going to get all of the like scratch resistance, all of the wear resistance in this really dope rally sport watch. |
| Everett | So I understand this is forged, which makes sense, right? You, you wouldn't want to, you wouldn't want to machine this whole watch, but it's certainly machined. |
| Andrew | There's there's, they have to do machining on it, right? You have to, you have to machine in your, uh, threads. Yeah, your threads. I was going to say bevels, but that's not it. Well, I mean, you have to, you're going to have to machine all of it. |
| Everett | Yeah. So it's, it's going to be the, the, the main block is going to be, |
| Andrew | forged, but then you're going to have to machine in the, they probably forge the slab and then machine in the cuts. Yeah. Which is cool. |
| Everett | Which I don't know. I don't know what material you use for the cutting for the cutting tool. Like what's your tool material for diamond? I guess. Yeah. |
| Andrew | Lasers. Who knows? Yeah. This thing is crazy. It's super cool. And it's kind of, uh, It's it's almost pushing the cutting it when it is pushing the cutting edge of what we're seeing of the case materials. We're seeing a lot of experimentation in case materials right now and exploration in that. You know, we see the we see Omega using a carbon stuff. We're going to talk about another watch here in a little bit that's using some different materials for cases. And I kind of like the way luxury watches are going to broaden the horizon in case materials. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | So dimensions on this, we've got a 42.7 millimeter case, 15 and a half thick. It's a thick bitch. And I think they probably just didn't want to exert the effort to get it any smaller because when you're forging titanium carbide, you're also dealing with like in to get it thinner. It's just an enormous, amount of force. |
| Everett | Well, so talk about the watch a little bit. This is a Porsche Orfina looking. This is the watch you know. Like you look at this top down, you'd know what it was. So this is a Porsche design Orfina chronograph. This is the one that you know and love, but with a Dakar logo and it's got some fancy stuff on it. It's got a Porsche wheel rotor, but it's just a Valjoux 7750. It's a thick bitch. Porsche calls this movement the work. W.E.R. K01.240. But it's a it's a 7750 variant, which the 7750 is in and of itself like a 11 millimeter movement. So I'm exaggerating by several millimeters there, but it's just a huge movement. |
| Andrew | This is limited to twenty five hundred pieces and it is fourteen and a half thousand dollars. |
| Everett | This is a luxury watch for sure. This is not a watch for the casual. This is not a watch for the casual purchaser. |
| Andrew | It's not a watch for us. I wish it was a watch for us because I really like it. |
| Everett | Yeah. Cause it's cool. It's super rad. I, you know, I think a material like this really neat, fun, um, you know, practically speak, you know, it's like when you, when you pick the character at the beginning of the Dungeons and Dragons video game or whatever, you either have the archer who's really nimble and can shoot really far, but if he gets whacked even once, He crumbles or you got the big tough guy that can take a dumb ton of damage but doesn't have any range and it's slow as shit, right? There's going to be there's going to be limitations of this material. I don't know. I don't know what they are. I don't know if it's more, you know, likely to shatter or whatever. Maybe the limitation is just the expensive tooling. I don't really know. It could just be cost prohibitive. |
| Andrew | That could because I don't see a weakness in in titanium alone. And then with a metallurging smelting of carbide into it? |
| Everett | Well, you know, so, so titanium carbide is going to be a blend of those materials. So you're going to get the strength of titanium with the lightness and, you know, sheer strength of, of carbon. I mean, there's going to be benefits, but like a carbon fiber bike frame, super rigid, super light, but you get hit with the fucking rock. on the wrong part of the frame and the and your face is going to be introduced to the earth. That's right. The frame is totally toast. So have you watched any tour stages yet? No, I haven't. I'm sorry. No, you do. I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me. So, yeah, I don't know if there are limitations and I'm not I'm certainly not suggesting that those limitations exist. I'm just saying, as with all things like like titanium versus stainless steel. Well, you know, you know, what are the benefits? Stainless steel is easier to machine. You can get a much higher polish. you know, it's right. There's always tradeoffs. So there's no, I didn't find a weight. Yeah. I don't see a weight. I imagine it's got to be feather. |
| Andrew | Very light. Yeah. The movement is the heaviest part of this watch for sure. |
| Everett | And the movement obviously is steel. So, uh, but I imagine it's very, very light. Yeah. |
| Andrew | This is cool. I like seeing new case material and different stuff pioneering |
| Everett | Pioneering. Well, speaking of pioneering, I've got a fun watch. Do me. I actually maybe don't love this watch, but it's fun. So a few years ago, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came out. Brad Pitt wore a Citizen Bullhead. Zach Weiss famously broke the news that when that film was based, 1969, the Bullhead hadn't been introduced yet. It didn't matter because it was fucking rad. And that watch is rad. The Citizen Bullhead Chronograph, which is, you know, this sort of unspoken hero of Citizen's watch line, is a rad watch. These are rad watches. Citizen, for the 50th anniversary of that watch, Excuse me. I really liked that movie, by the way. It's a fantastic movie. Yeah. I think it was nominated for like 20 Oscars. Citizen has released an heir to that watch. A successor, maybe? A successor. Yeah. So this watch is much different than that. If you've seen the bullhead, You know, in particular the one from the movie, gold case, gold dial, black sub dials. It is a very simple watch. You've got the crown at 12 o'clock. This, I mean, it's just a simple watch. The new 50th anniversary Suno. What's my, uh, reference here? It's 30 characters. Hang on. Yeah. Well, in any way, in any event, it'll be in the show notes. This new 2023 50th anniversary Suno is not simple. It is anything but simple. And there is a lot going on. You've got an alarm. You've got a date. You've got an eco drive power reserve indicator. You've got a four o'clock crown for the GMT movement. or for the GMT function, you've got a 12 o'clock crown. You've got black pushers as opposed to the gold pushers on the OG. I mean, this is just a very busy watch. |
| Andrew | But for being so busy, it's actually not. It's like kind of it's it's very night hockey night. There's a shitload happening. And they found a way to stuff it all in without it looking like a watch that you need to like change the dial on to find functionalities. |
| Everett | Yeah. This watch reminds me of a Nighthawk in terms of what it's doing. Um, cause it does everything. This watch does everything. It just doesn't have a slide rule. That's fucking failure. That's right. It does not have a slide rule, but it does have a tachometer, tachymeter, It's got, like I said, a power reserve indicator. It's got an alarm with an alarm on off indicator. |
| Andrew | Are you ready for the reference? Yeah. Go for it. A V 0 0 7 2 0 1. Stop. Stop. |
| Everett | My ears. My ears. Stop. That's a lot. Yeah. X. Yeah. What do you think of this? I, I actually, So hold on, we gotta say the most important part. It's huge. It's 45 millimeters. |
| Andrew | It's a big watch. And it's also thick, which you kind of have to be to fit all that in. I hate the integrated non-bracelet lug. Yeah. I think on a bracelet, I'm okay with this. |
| Everett | And it does come it does come on the bracelet. |
| Andrew | But I don't like it on anything but the bracelet. |
| Everett | You cannot get the 50th anniversary gold version on a bracelet. You can get the Promaster Suno in both blue and green, both which styles I like better. |
| Andrew | The gold's the baller, though. Yes. |
| Everett | And that's right. |
| Andrew | That's the Brad Pitt. It needs a gold bracelet. And on leather, it just doesn't look right. Yeah. It's also big. It's very it's very citizen. |
| Everett | Yeah. Well, so three versions. You've got the 50th anniversary gold for $1,195. You've got the steel blue on a bracelet for $626.50. And you've got a limited edition super titanium green dial on a bracelet which is kind of, it's got some things going on. It's an interesting watch. Uh, and that one's also 1195. So these are up in citizens, up, up in citizens price range for watches like these. Um, and there, you know, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago, right? They're discreet. These are discreetly citizen. |
| Andrew | They're doing some stuff right now. They come in a cool pelican though. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah. You're getting, you're getting your money's worth, but, but you're right. Andrew, these are thick. What's the dimension on the, what's the dimension on the thickness? |
| Andrew | It doesn't say on the website, but it looks about 15, 16, 16 ish. But I mean, you have 19 complications. |
| Everett | Yeah. And you don't buy this watch cause you want something dainty either. This is a big fucking watch. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | I bet the Super Titanium is really comfortable, though. |
| Everett | Yeah. $1,195 for that guy. |
| Andrew | Because even big, it's going to be super light. |
| Everett | 200 meters on these. |
| Andrew | These are cool watches. Oh, interesting. The non-limited edition, the Super Titanium and the blue don't have the integrated |
| Everett | bracelet like the gold one of the blue they have the same it's the same thing it's a it's a tab that sticks out underneath the underneath the case it's it's the same same design though oh it just has a gold end link on the yeah that's right oh weird that's right anyway i thought these were cool and i was like that's worth talking about on our show about 100% is. Affordable, cool watches, even if I probably am not a buyer. |
| Andrew | No, I don't think I'd be a buyer for these, but I can, I can certainly appreciate them. I like the bullhead. Andrew, what's next? I have another interesting case material watch for a brand RDA, the older sibling of Cardi B. Um, So this brand, Arty A, has released a watch, the Aqua Saphir. And this is a brand I was not familiar with. Uh, and even looking at their website, I'm like, I don't really, this is, I don't know how I missed this. So they're an independent watch brand from Switzerland who got their start on Kickstarter. And then got a little bit of ass in the way of Yvonne Arpa of Hublot, Jacob & Co., Baume & Mercier, you know, just some little fellas to keep working toward whatever it is they're working toward. I'm not really sure what their goal is, but they have released an all sapphire case AquaWatch. Not a dive watch. Reason though, it looks very much like a dive watch. It has a dive bezel. It is very dive-esque. All Sapphire. Reason being that it's not a dive watch is that Sapphire is really, really brittle. So to do any kind of machining on it is exceptionally challenging. Um, sapphire cases are not this is not the first what's impressive about the sapphire case is that historically sapphire cases were very water resistant at 30 meters because to be able to machine the necessary space for gaskets for pressure ratings to really cinch things down you shatter the case yeah this watch has achieved a 60 meter water resistance rating. And to be able to double a water resistance is really cool. Yeah. So they've innovated some really creative ways to machine Sapphire, to inlay things into the Sapphire, to be able to create the necessary pressure to protect against water intrusion without shattering the case. And these watches are beautiful. They are not my cup of tea at all. I wouldn't even want to try one on if I saw it at a table. I would look at it and be like, that's really cool. Moving on. But this is neat. Specs on it. Besides our 60 meters of water resistance, we had a 41 millimeter case. A, where's the movement? Hang on. An Arteon exclusive. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | They're probably working off Solita being a Swiss brand, maybe Etta. |
| Everett | Yeah, I mean, it could be any number of brands. |
| Andrew | It could be any number of things. So they're doing some in-house stuff to it. They have a skeletonized, kind of brass looking, maybe it's gold plated, like rotor. |
| Everett | Yeah, it might be rose gold. |
| Andrew | It's beautiful. I love it. Now, another thing here, these are 30,000 Swiss francs. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | So again, for the cheap one. Yeah. For the cheap one, 39,000 for the cayenne tinted bezel. Yeah. Because I guess, I mean, it has to do with the coloring of, of Sapphire and the, um, but these are gorgeous. I don't know who the target audience is for them. Um, but look at this gray dial, this kind of meteorite gray dial on that bezel. Yeah. It's beautiful. |
| Everett | Yeah. These are interesting. I mean, you clearly have, you clearly have some luxury watch chops involved in the production of this thing. If you saw this thing on Instagram, you might not. You just go right by it. You might just go right by it because the, you know, you can't thread, you can't, this can't be threaded, right? This is, You can't torque it at all. That's right. So the crown tube just kind of sits in there. Even the crown is machined. We see a lot of watches made from weird materials, and oftentimes the crown and the crown tube are still stainless. Here, the crown is machined sapphire. Yeah, so you've got to kind of know what you're getting into with this watch, and for 30,000 francs, you really ought to know what you're getting into. |
| Andrew | And you probably won't. If you're dropping 30,000 on this, it's because it's pretty and you got 30,000. That's right. Yeah. |
| Everett | Cause it's beautiful. Yeah. It's what that said. |
| Andrew | It's pretty rad. Yeah. I don't like the ombre white and green dial, but that meteorite is that's fire. |
| Everett | So I got to watch. Okay. This is a watch that I first heard of from our fearless leader, Will Gillis. a couple weeks ago. Will the watch clicker Gillis, uh, he posted a review of a watch. I'd never heard of from a brand I had never heard of. And I was like, wait a minute. This thing's really cool. So he posted a review of the Arconaut Arc two. And this is a watch that looks different than other watches in every way in terms of the dial. in terms of the case, in terms of the hand, hands, in terms of the crown. And there's nothing on this watch that looks like other watches, right? A couple of interesting things about this watch. So first, integrated rubber strap, but not just integrated, seamlessly integrated, except for the difference in material. uh it's it's not a tiny watch this is a 41 millimeter sport watch 13 millimeters thick 50 millimeters long this is a a good size watch but because of the way it curves and because of the integration I suspect it probably wears a little bit smaller than this but that's not the most interesting thing about this watch the most interesting thing about this watch is that they're each piece unique in that the dials are made of a material referred to as Fordite or Detroit agate. And it's essentially a material made up of trash layers of automotive paint that's gotten very hard and can be cut. Uh, yeah, this is overspray. This is baked car paint overspray is essentially what Fordite is. So Ford, being the car manufacturer. Fordyte is hardened, baked paint that's then machined. And that's what these dials are made of. Meaning, as they're machined, you get these layers. And I think this is probably purpose-built as opposed to actual just over-sprayed Fordyte. And they made dials. So each one of these dials is random, spotty, and more importantly, different. So you get to choose the dial you want and that's the dial you get and it's going to be the only one that looks like that. That's also true for meteorite or what's the material that Formax uses? The green stuff. Mother of Pearl. No, no, the green one. Anyway, or Mother of Pearl, right? The same thing. But it's different than that because you're going to have different colors and different anyway. Very, very cool. Different size blobs. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So the whole thing's blasted, including the handset. There's no text, branding, markers. It is minimalist, although it seems a little difficult to call this watch minimalist when you look at it. |
| Andrew | It's an ode to the Fordyte. That's what this watch is built around. |
| Everett | Man, it's so terrific. It's so terrific. Now, Will has his wrist to crystal measurement for which he's got this down to about 11 meters, meaning with the curve. Millimeters. What'd I say? It's not 11 meters. 11 millimeters, which means with the curve of the case, it's actually going to wear much smaller than that 13 millimeters would suggest. Made in Denmark, maybe not made in Denmark, but a Danish company, 100 meters of water resistance. I think this is terrific, Andrew. And I hadn't heard of it. And then I was reading about it. I was like, well, geez, we got to talk about this. It's got some neat, some neat tricks it pulls with the integrated rubber strap connection. Basically a tool. It's not a spring bar, not a traditional spring bar connection. It's got like a tool-less connection that looks pretty clever. Uh, geez, man. This is pretty. It's screwed though. This is pretty terrific. |
| Andrew | Relief cuts on the sides of the case. This is a neat watch. It looks like a UFO. |
| Everett | It is UFO-ish. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Everett | It is UFO-ish. |
| Andrew | No, it requires a screwdriver for strap changes. |
| Everett | So I do understand these things are on a waiting list that you can get on. Um, And I don't know what that's going to look like, you know, what the availability on these things is going to look like, but it's a sub $5,000. Pretty neat thing, dude. This is cool. If you haven't seen it, check it out. There'll be a link in Will's review in the show notes, as well as links in that review to the, to the, website where you can find these things. Yeah. 3950 Soprade 10. That's the information I was looking for. |
| Unknown | Okay. |
| Andrew | So not cheap, but I think pretty terrific. Shouldn't be cheap though. This is, this is a one of a kind watch. This is a cool watch. Different than anything else. Really deliberately designed. I'm, I'm for this kind of stuff. Andrew, what's next? I found a cool thing and I'll be linking to the YouTube video. So there's this fella. Oh, what's his name? |
| Everett | Jack Spiegel. Oh, Jack Spiegel, that guy. I have no clue who you're talking about. |
| Andrew | He's an Australian DIYer who goes by Nano Robot Geek on Instructables. He acquired some first gen Apple watches and was trying to decide what do I do with these things? One of his things that he's trying to reduce is is e-waste, which is kind of inherent in our consumer, ever-evolving, once you break the seal on your electronic, it's obsolete. So he acquired these Apple Watches and was trying to figure out what to do with them. And he turned this first gen Apple Watch into a mechanical watch, an automatic watch. And it took some doing. Right. So he's got a YouTube video that I'm going to link to. And really, you know, it's, you know, it's about finding a movement to fit inside the case. It's about doing a little bit of machining to open up the back of the case, to give you an exhibition view, to change out the dial, which he made himself. But then also overcoming the odd placement of the crown on the Apple watch. He engineered a really neat way to overcome that. There will be no spoilers. I'm just going to link to the video and say, number one, this watch is all the beauty of Apple and all of the coolness of a really cool mod because the Apple watches are the early designs, not the enormous one, not the Hublot Apple watch that now people are wearing. But just the small Apple watch is beautiful. It's this great It's this it's a design achievement. Yeah. And this guy turning it into a automatic watch. I'm like, I mean, I'm ill qualified to take on this endeavor. Why shouldn't I? It's really cool. Watch the video. You will enjoy it. And also if for no other reason than just to see a cool geek nerding out and doing a cool thing. |
| Everett | Yeah, I mean, this thing's really beautiful. We've got a zirconium dial. |
| Andrew | Which he laser cut and did by himself. |
| Everett | Beautiful hands. You've got an open heart. This thing's terrific. |
| Andrew | It's super cool. Tell me the Apple Watch doesn't have soul again, fucker. |
| Everett | Yeah, this is this is actually Seiko NH38 movement. that's been fully custom. I mean, this is a mod, but this is like a next level. This is a next level watch mod and it's terrific. It's a, yeah, you know, the, the Time and Tide article you sent me about this thing references the Swiss Elf watch final edition from Moser, which is a similar, which is a similar execution. an objectively stunning watch, which is hilarious, but also a little absurd. This is not that this is actually. Just cool. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yeah, because the the motion is like. I don't know. It's a little weird. It's a strange move to pull. |
| Everett | It's a joke, right? It's a joke. |
| Andrew | But still people bought it for 30 grand. |
| Everett | Right. Well, so in the spirit of our show today where we were talking about outrageously priced watches, I'm going to talk about another watch that's more expensive than what we usually talk about, but because I think it's terrific. So Carrera is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, which we've noted on this show before. Hoyer, Tag Heuer is really leaning into it, as you do on a birthday, I guess. Earlier this year, they released the 60th anniversary glass box. And then just this week, just today, in fact, I read a glut of articles about a remake of probably the most sought after, one of the most sought after Carreras in existence, which is the Hoyer Carrera Skipper 7754, which is named after a America's Cup 1967 skiing champion, right? So the 1967 America's Cup, a ship called the Intrepid One, The Intrepid had this lovely kind of teal colorway, and this was their commemorative watch for that. They didn't make very many of them, but in the way of Carreras, it is pretty out there with its regatta timer styling and its colorway. You've got this teal and coral on a navy background. It's just different. It's different than what we're used to. It is one of the most iconic Coltie Carreras there are because there weren't very many of them and they're very hard to find. And so TAG decided to issue its 60th anniversary glass box in a skipper form for the first time and since 1968. And it's it's terrific. It's terrific. It's different than the skipper in some really notable ways one it's way bigger i think the original skipper is like 34 millimeters and this one's 39 the original skipper is a two register this one is a this one is a three register with a seconds register at the six o'clock the original didn't have a Day window, this one does, also at six o'clock. The original one was very simple in its aesthetic. Flat dial, flat chapter ring, small, not very prominent markers. This one is not that. This is big, modern Carrera. Don't. Tag Heuer. Fuck you. Don't. Raised chapter ring. All the things shiny, glossy, bling, blang, big, prominent, fuck you, handset. With that said, they captured the spirit of the original. Yeah, this is a cool release, I think, from from Tag in 2023. |
| Andrew | They captured the spirit of the original in the colorway only. How hard would it have been to keep the original pusher style? I think there's a few key misses. in this, in this updating of the, of the watch. Cause I think it's a really cool update. I think there were some, there's some ways that would have been really easy to stay true to the original. |
| Everett | Yeah. I don't think that's what they're doing here though. They're not trying to re-release the original. |
| Andrew | No, they're updating and, and releasing a birthday successor. |
| Everett | They're trying to have a variation on their new glass box, which is their top of the line, fuck you Carrera. And doing that in that colorway of the original, which I get. Two things I don't like about this. One, I don't mind the pushers. I know you don't like the pushers. |
| Andrew | I want original pushers. |
| Everett | Yeah. So those classic pushers, I'm fond of them as well, Andrew. This has the modern Tag Heuer, and this is a fantastic movement, by the way. This is the TH20. Fantastic movement. 80-hour power reserve on a chronograph. Holy shit. But the sizing is perfect though. I don't like the addition of the date window or the date window. Get rid of it. I don't want a date on this watch. This shouldn't have a date. |
| Andrew | No, you're going to get dates wearing this watch. You don't need a date on your dial. |
| Everett | Right. I also don't like the fact that they moved the skipper text to the bottom of the nine o'clock register. So the original says skipper at 12 o'clock. And this one says Carrera at 12 o'clock instead of Skipper. That feels like a mess to me. I don't mind the six o'clock seconds register. I do mind the movement of the Skipper. |
| Andrew | Well, because the six o'clock seconds register is almost deleted. It's super subtle. |
| Everett | Yeah, that's right. Yeah, you're right about that. I think if they'd gotten rid of the date window, kept the Skipper text at 12, this would be better. But you know, Carrera text at six, like just, I don't know. They make, you make decisions or put the career text at the, in the nine o'clock and keep that skipper prominent, but you know, you make decisions. |
| Andrew | I'm everybody's going to, everybody's a critic, but they kept the case shape really close up to and including the beveling on the inside of the lugs. |
| Everett | That's the career case. |
| Andrew | It's just, it's a career, but they didn't have to given the other changes they've made. Right. |
| Everett | Well, I mean, this is just a glass box. This is just a glass, but this is exactly the same as the glass box, the 60th anniversary. |
| Andrew | Keep the pushers, man. Yeah. And put it on a rally strap. What the fuck? |
| Everett | All right. Now you're being silly. Anyway, that's cool. So these are not limited, which is cool. They're available now-ish. They're about 6,600 francs. So I think that's $7,500. So they're not cheap, but it is a line with, it's a th 20 Carrera top of the line. This thing is fantastic. |
| Andrew | That's a great value. My minor bitches. I really liked this watch. |
| Everett | I could, I could wear this watch and it's, it's not offensive too. So it does have a 15 minute regatta timer. So that's the big difference between this and the glass box. So it's actually got a separate reference. It's not a th 20 dash zero zero. It's a th 20 dash zero six. Because you've got a 15 minute regatta timer, which I don't know if this is still the case, but in 1968, that was to indicate the 15 minutes that you had to get through the opening gate. So this has got that timer on it as well. Cool. |
| Unknown | Cool. |
| Andrew | Cool. Uh, I mean, since we're talking about Tag Heuer, uh, it's only fitting to talk about the skeleton which i don't know that we've talked about yet it's also not a particularly we skipped over this we had it in the show notes one day and didn't make it there yeah so i wanted to talk about this i saw it again on a hands-on review and was like oh yeah we haven't talked about this this is my favorite monaco i don't like skeleton dials me either this is my favorite monaco and i think this is one of my This is, in my opinion, the best executed skeleton dial I've ever seen. Because they used so much color above the skeleton dial that it almost creates the illusion of there being a dial. And until you're close up on it, you're not, you don't see that it's a skeleton. I love this. The DLC black and teal. |
| Everett | is terrific. So you have these. Yeah, it looks like a Tron. It looks like a Tron Monaco. |
| Andrew | Yeah, it does. You have both of your registers outlined outlined in teal. You have teal. I don't even know what you'd call. They almost look like bull bars. Creating that depth that you would expect on the dial and then the way they've done the skeleton, it's dark. that almost looks like a black dial with teal highlights. I dig this. This black and teal talks to me. |
| Everett | Yeah, so these are also TH20 movements. I think this is the O2 movement. Yeah, they're the TH02s. Which is tags, sort of, don't fuck with us, chronograph movement. Uh, and it's a Monaco, right? This is a, this is a Monaco exactly like you'd expect. But, but I agree with you, Andrew, that the depth on the dial on this thing is terrific. And they've got that big raised square sapphire glass that kind of sits above everything. Everything is like chamfered. There's chamfers on chamfers. Every step of the way is you get around this thing. Even the corners are sort of angled. This is a very interesting. |
| Andrew | It's got like a surfboard bridge over the skeleton. Yes. Which is I think what makes the skeleton work. |
| Everett | This is a very interesting application of geometry and watch design. And I think my favorite part is on the sub dials. The seconds are lined up in two parallel lines. So you've got 25, 30 and 05 straight across the top and 10, 15 and 20 straight across the bottom on your 32nd register. And then on your hour register, 10, 12, 2, 4, 6, 8, but they're in straight lines and it's just angle on angle on square on square on square on square. And it's rad. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Everett | It's cool. |
| Andrew | A rubber, a rubberized bracelet with it's not full rubber, it's rubber and nylon sailcloth. Yeah. To kind of bring more of that racing feel into it. This is this is my jam. |
| Everett | Unfortunately, there are eleven thousand dollars. These are expensive. |
| Andrew | Yeah. |
| Everett | These are expensive. |
| Andrew | But they're pretty rad. If I could get a Monaco for like 50 bucks, I'd buy it. I really want a Monaco. |
| Everett | I like it. I mean, it's up there with the Sub and the Speedy and perhaps the, your Cartier, the Santos as the most iconic watches, right? So you've got the Navitimer, the Santos, The Sub, the Speedy, I think the Monaco, right? In terms of like- Recognizable. Five most recognizable watches on earth. I think it's up there with those. That's my list of five. You know, maybe we need to have that episode. |
| Unknown | Ooh. |
| Andrew | I've just- You finally contributed once. That would be a contentious episode. We would get some real hate mail. |
| Everett | I've just given my spoilers for what I think are the five. And maybe it's not that controversial. Uh, yeah. |
| Andrew | I don't know if I put the Santos up there. |
| Everett | You know, I think there's an argument to be made for the tank to be in that spot. And certainly there are. |
| Andrew | I think you put the tank in there. See, for me, I think we'll have to discuss this maybe in the next couple of weeks. |
| Everett | And do a top 10 most iconic watches of all time. |
| Andrew | Yep. Do a top 10. We make our lists, we come in blind, and then we fight to the death. |
| Everett | Listen, folks, this is how the sausage is made. Andrew, are there any other watches that you would love or even like to talk about before we move it along? |
| Andrew | I'm deleting pages right now. I do want to just briefly mention the Zodiac Super Seawolf in ceramic. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And we don't have to talk about it super long. It's a Super Seawolf. It's in ceramic. Ceramic is certainly an innovative material for Zodiac to be working with. It's not all that innovative in the way of the industry. It's really cool. I really like the look of ceramic cases. I really like the look of non steel cases for the most part. Uh, I think this is really cool because the Zodiac is already, the Super Seawolf is already so colorful and, and Zodiac does this really great job in the way that Farrer does in incorporation of color to bring ton of personality into the watch without being crazy. |
| Everett | Yeah, I don't think we talked about these last year when they released the black version of these, but it's essentially just a Seawolf with, it's like, if I understand it correctly, there's a metal, there's a steel core that sits inside of a ceramic case. The entire the entire thing is ceramic, the bezel ceramic, the bezel insert ceramic, and the case is ceramic. |
| Andrew | I don't like them. |
| Everett | They look cheap. I don't like the black version anywhere near as much as I like this white. This white and orange. Holy shit. So that's the update. They've released this in white this year and they're they are say XC and they're and they're eighteen hundred bucks. |
| Andrew | Right. That's like really accessible. |
| Everett | Right. This is certainly not cheap. |
| Andrew | This is not an affordable watch, but when you compare this to like whatever an IWC, but I think when you're also getting, when you're, when you're branching out and you're getting into Swiss made, truly Swiss made longstanding reputable brands, Zodiac's a player, they're a player. And that's, that's affordable for that space that you're playing. And you know, once we move out of, purely Asian manufacturing or even majority Asian manufacturing. This is not affordable, but it's accessible. |
| Everett | Andrew, other things. What do you got? |
| Andrew | I have another thing. I hope you do. Yesterday I'm cooking. I'm making dinner. And I like look down at my clothes and I'm upset because I'm I have like splatter and grease stains all over me. And I was like, man, what the fuck? And for some reason, I'm like, I've been cooking a lot for a long time. It finally dawned on me. Oh, get an apron. just solve the problem, which took me to the internet and the internet took me to some weird places. You know, I, I just, I, my initial Google search was best aprons, 2023 best apron porn, 2023. Oh, I'll be shooting that later this month. Uh, you'll see it on the only fans. It's not a big deal. Uh, So it took me to some weird places and there's a couple of brands that are like industry standards. And it's like the these are what professional chefs wear. But I didn't want the thing that you're that a restaurant is buying at wholesale to outfit their chefs with. Right. I didn't want something disposable. So then I kind of went a little bit deeper and there's a few brands that stood out and those kind of hovered in the hundred, hundred and fifty dollar zone. Cause I didn't want like a linen, you know, barefoot Contessa apron. Right. |
| Everett | I wanted something. You didn't want the Hadley and Bennett. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Right. I didn't want that. I wanted something structurally sound. I wanted something with some pockets. I wanted something with as little hardware as possible. So I knew I wanted a cross neck apron because that removes some hardware immediately. I wanted something that passed through canvas because I wanted canvas or something of that, of that ilk, not leather, though leather would look really good on me. And I came across a guy, I don't remember his name. He's a YouTube chef fella who was like Carhartt. And I did some digging on the Carhartt and there's a couple of professional chefs around the world who are like, Oh yeah, this is all reliable. This is the one. And it makes perfect sense because Carhartt makes really durable workwear that only gets better with time. The first time you put it on, you're like, man, this is uncomfortable. This is like trying to wrap a piece of sheet metal around my body to form it to my body. |
| Everett | But then once you've worn it five, 500 times, it perfectly forms to it. |
| Andrew | So this is a cross back. There is one connection point on the top and it's stitched, which means it's easily repairable. There is no hardware to fail. It crosses, it passes through a rivet in the sides of your apron to be able to pull it tight and adjustable height ties in the back. It has more pockets than I'm ever going to know what to do with. That was my first thought. I was like, man, this is a lot more pockets than I think I wanted, but I'm, it's like, it's got like 15 pockets. No, it's got like 50 pockets because every pocket is layered. So for every one pocket you see, there's three beneath it. There's a zipper pocket on the front. There's a pet. There's everything I could ever need. This apron is more than I'll need, which is exactly the kind of stuff that I want to buy. It's not something I'm going to grow into. It's something I can never grow out of. And here's the winner. It's 40 bucks. Yeah. I got it in the mail today. I put it on. It fit like a piece of sheet metal wrapping around my body. And I'm like, thank you. Carhartt. It's got stiff pockets. I was like, Oh my gosh. I can't wait to destroy you. Yeah. And I will never be able to do it. |
| Everett | I think the nice thing about this is, is a, you, you can wash it, right? It's just duck fabric. I'm not going to. But you can, you can wash it. And, and if you, if you hand wash it, it's gonna, so, so actually duck fabric. So I've got a pair of Carhartts that I treated like raw denim and they're, they've got terrific fades, sick fades, bro, that type of thing. Uh, so you can treat this like raw denim and, but, but because of the nature of this thing, you can use it for garage stuff and kitchen stuff. |
| Andrew | That's exactly what I, what I'm going to do with it. It's going to be a wood shop apron. It's going to be my, my clothes protector. |
| Everett | I guess I would say if you're going to like Do small engine repair. |
| Andrew | I probably will be just wearing grubbies at that point, not my apron. |
| Everett | Yeah. Or if you do. For the purpose of contamination. Maybe just give it a quick rinse before you take it into the kitchen. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Andrew | I'm excited about this. That's right. It's a little longer than I was expecting, but it's also like, I'm not a tall guy, so that's like, that's just sort of my life. You can get a hem too. I'm not going to. I'm just gonna. Just gonna rock it. |
| Everett | Yeah. |
| Unknown | Cool, man. |
| Everett | I'm excited about this. So I've got another thing, Andrew. And I know you just talked about an iOS video game recently, but I'm going to talk about an iOS video game because I got caught. I got unwittingly, unexpectedly caught. |
| Andrew | Are you making money on Solitaire Clash? |
| Everett | I'm not, no. I did the thing, so actually after you had your other thing a few weeks ago about Ro. |
| Andrew | Yeah, it was last week. |
| Everett | Was that last week? Okay. So right after that, I did the same thing. I went back to the house and I was like, you know what? I need a new iOS video game. And I looked at Rome and I was like, this isn't for me. I'm not, this isn't my style of game and I don't think I'm going to enjoy it. But in looking at it, I found a game that I thought, now this does look like me. And this is a PC game that's been ported to iOS. And the review I said, said one of the few iOS ports that works as well, if not better than the original. I was like, well, I was like, that's cool. That's a cool thing. It is a rogue like or rogue light game, meaning sort of a top down dungeon crawler game, but unlike a dungeon crawler, this is sort of like a twin stick shooter, but it's just one stick, but also like bullet hell. nightmare game called Vampire Survivors. And I was reading the reviews and I was like, I don't know, 30 minute levels, you know, 15 or 30 minute levels. |
| Andrew | This looks like your style. |
| Everett | Like, I don't know. This seems like, and also like Castlevania graphics, like, fuck it. It's free. I'll take a flyer. So I downloaded this thing. It's free. There are some ads, but they're not Uh, they're not intrusive and they're not mandatory. So you can get, sometimes you can get a revive for an ad or if you want more gold, you can get that for an ad, but you don't have to do the ads. They make money. They've got some DLC drops that you can make money on. Uh, the one thing that it doesn't have that I, at least I don't think it has is the ability to just pay the manufacturers and skip all the ads, which I don't love, but, but the ads aren't there. Unless you ask for them. The ads don't pop up on that. It's like watch ad for X. Like if you want to revive, you can do so by watching this ad. But you never have to watch them if you don't want to. And the game is perhaps the most addictive game I've ever played in my life. And really deep, surprisingly deep. When you start playing, you're like, this is going to get old quick. And it doesn't. because they add just enough stuff when you get to the point where you're like this could get boring it's like oh no they added a thing and now it's not boring anymore that seems to be that seems to be the theme in the games i've played most recently that i was like whoa whoa this is cool so i talked about a game recently that i'm blanking on the name of But it was the same thing, right? It was like just when you think you had it figured out, there was this next layer of complexity that popped in and you're like, Oh, well, that's interesting. |
| Andrew | Have you played the new balloons? They've done an update and added a new monkey. |
| Everett | I haven't, but the kids are talking about it. He's a baller. So yeah, vampire survivors, uh, really fun. |
| Andrew | Really, really fun. It looks good. It looks very much like, uh, like, NES graphics. There's a game that I'm trying to think of that I can't remember. It's not a top down. It's a 2D, like very much Mario. Oh, man. You're like fighting the undead and like shooting gravestones and shit. |
| Everett | Castlevania? No, it's not it. Well, in any event, this game feels very much like a game that could have been made 30 years ago, but with modern complexity and data and RNG and really cool. It is really, really well executed. Now you may have already heard of this if you're into the scene because I understand it's kind of an old game and there are a bunch of clones that popped up, but this is the one and it's horrific. Really, really good and fun. I've been playing it for about a week now and I've wasted way more time on it than I care to admit. |
| Andrew | Oh man, you remember Earthworm Jim? |
| Everett | Love that game. Love that game. Really, really brutal that that fish tank level. |
| Unknown | Brutal. |
| Andrew | Super ghosts and ghouls, ghouls and ghosts. Yeah, ghouls and ghosts, that's the one. I can't believe I had that game. But yeah, ghouls and ghosts. That's kind of what it reminds me of. |
| Everett | Similar aesthetic. OK, Andrew, do we do it as always? Anything you want to add before we go? Get out of here so I can do notes. Hey guys, thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. Why don't you check us out at WatchClicker.com. That's where we post reviews, articles, and of course, every single episode of this podcast. You can also check us out on Instagram at WatchClicker or at 40 and 20 underscore WatchClicker. That's the only 40 and 20 Instagram account. And if you want to support us and oh boy, we hope you do because this is expensive and we get paid nothing. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Those of you who are already supporting, thank you so much. You're the one that you're the ones that make this all possible because hosting and hardware and software is not cheap and it's all subscription. Patreon.com slash 40 and 20 and don't forget to tune back in next Thursday. for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye. |