Episode 252 - Watches Roundup for August 24, 2023

Published on Wed, 23 Aug 2023 22:18:03 -0700

Synopsis

Andrew and Everett discuss recent news and releases in the watch world, including the Timex S2 Automatic, a new Synchron Military diver, the Perrin Regia Automatic dive watch, Anordain's acquisition of Pollen Watches and their new quartz models, the Grand Seiko 44GS Katana series, and the Brew Metric Automatic with an NH35 movement. They also talk about other topics like the history of Sea Monkeys, a Rolls-Royce with an AP Royal Oak watch built into the dashboard, and Everett's new experiences with an iPad and Apple Pencil.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the watch clicker podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett here. We talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett Muted. I am unmuted. I'm doing great. You know, the Mariners lost today. I'm going to give the weekly updates, but, but with not withstanding that they had won eight in a row before tonight, they're the hottest team at baseball. They are now well in the thick of the wild card race. Not only in the wild card race, they are, well, as of last night, they were a game back from the AL lead, which is like the first time that's happened in, I don't know, 15 years. It's been a while, yeah. So yeah, I'm doing really well. Go M's.
Andrew And Mariners. The M's.
Everett The Mariners.
Andrew The M's.
Everett The M's are the Eugene Emeralds. Nobody thinks that besides some people in Eugene. Nature Calls Mountain IPA.
Andrew Andrew, how are you? I am good. I'm a little worn out. I went camping for several days. And we got back today. So I am just a little worn out.
Everett Yeah. Camping is worn out time.
Andrew Yeah. Well, especially with kids with like just adults. It's really good, straight relaxation time. Not so much with kids. The benefit was what was that we went with a bunch of friends who all have similarly aged kids. So they kind of like the kids kind of were self-managing pods traveling up and down the cul-de-sac and into the woods and, but it's just tiring to run herd on tired kids. So it was beach forest camping.
Everett Is that right? Yes.
Andrew So all our four other families rented yurts. And then we on an adjacent campground loop had an RV spot. So we were a little bit separated, but not like a great distance away.
Everett Enough to have some privacy, but not so far away that you weren't still in the mix.
Andrew Exactly. No one was knocking on our door when they woke up at six o'clock, which would have been nice. Cause then we just would have put our kids outside, but you know, whatever, but it was nice. So we're all co-located. We, the, The yurt loop was this little cul-de-sac. So we were on a, you know, virtually a dead end that the kids just play in the street.
Everett That's good. And so you, you, you used your, your camping smoker? Yes, I did. Success?
Andrew Great. You know, so night one, I, I just grilled, I just, I made burgers on the grill and then made hot dogs the following day for lunch. I made hot dog burnt ends with cheddar jalapeno hot dogs. Oh, it turned out really good. They didn't caramelize as much as I was hoping. So they were closer to like little smokies. But that was OK because they were delicious. Yeah, little smokies. And then I had a. Second, like a meat thermometer that I use regularly at home. Plugged in to a pork shoulder on the grill, and I'm just doing my normal process, I've got in the smoke, I do a Texas crutch and wrap it in foil. And just kind of out of nowhere, the probe started to malfunction in that it went from the temperature I expected the meat to be at that like 190 to suddenly it was registering at 270. I was like, okay, uh, I guess I'll turn the probe off. Cause that's impossible. I turned it back on or 290. And I was like, no, this is wrong. I moved the probe to 60. And I was like, no, this is just wrong. That's not how meat works. I got into this weird place where I was like, maybe I should trust the probe. So I pulled it off and I rested it and there was a probe malfunction. So I came off probably like five degrees shy of where I want pulled pork to be. So it was just a little bit hard, but tasted great. But the smoker worked great, especially for just something so portable and easy. I, again, highly recommend. And yeah, it was a good weekend. Good shit. Eating good food, camping.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew It's like hard to beat drinking beer in a camp chair, watching a smoker roll, which is something I do in my backyard. I just feel less guilty about doing it camping because I can't fold laundry.
Everett Yeah. You know, I feel the same way about camping that you feel about football games. Like I'd rather be doing this in my living room on my couch, but I do like camping. Uh, well in any event, we're not talking about camping. We have not shifted the focus of our podcast. We are still focused on watches and tonight we are talking about watches rounding up.
Andrew Some cool stuff happened in the last week and a half.
Everett The week in watches as we are want to do. Um, yeah, Andrew, I'm sure you've got something. Do you want to take us away?
Andrew I do want to kick us off with something that is not new, but something that has just, that I just became aware of through a time and tide article in the way of a sea monkey aquarium watch. Um, and being a child of the nineties, very aware of sea monkeys, had some myself. Um, And for those of you somehow unaware, these are a late 1950s, 1957 discovery of an animal egg that after it had been freeze dried, could be reanimated, which made for a really great novelty toy. However unethical. I'm not sure you could buy sea monkeys anymore. Yeah, I don't know.
Everett I don't know.
Andrew So sea monkeys, for those of you somehow unaware, are these freeze dried eggs that you put in an aquarium. They rehydrate. You basically keep them at room temperature and these eggs incubate and hatch. And then you get these, uh, what are they? What kind of shrimp are they? Brine shrimp. Brine shrimp. these brine shrimp then awaken and live in this little aquarium habitat. Um, which is, which is weird, but they have this, uh, this really great marketing that make these brine shrimp look like horrifying creatures. There's a television show about them with Howie Mandel. Yeah. With Howie Mandel and Gilbert Godfrey. Yeah. And Gilbert Godfrey. So there's this huge marketing ass behind Sea Monkeys in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and early 90s. They're this iconic comic book, you know, mailer, get them and thing. So this watch was a terrarium of sorts. It's just, it's just this cheap LCD quartz with a big domed crystal that hosts your terrarium. So you, the whole idea of this watch is that you remove the crystal and you upright it. So you have a little bowl and you use a, a little syringe and you suck your sea monkeys up and you put it into your watch and you seal it back up. And now you've got your sea monkeys to go on your watch for up to 12 hours is the oxygen that was available in your watch. So this is like a horrible thing. It's not the first wearable sea monkey habitat that has a limited lifespan available. You know, this is the titan for the sea monkeys that you've selected from the pool. But I'm looking at this watch and I love it. This is like the perfect collision of cool watch stuff commits like Americana. meets like that comic book thing. It's a collision of three worlds that like really is uncommon. And I dig it. I wish I'd had one of these at a time where I would be OK with executing shrimp by wearing them on my wrist. Well, did you look and you still buy sea monkeys? I did not look to see if you can buy SeaMonkey.
Everett So they supposedly they re-released this in 2020, 2015. So it's interesting. I wonder if you can still.
Andrew You can still buy SeaMonkey kits and they still bear the same packaging.
Everett And it appears you can still buy SeaMonkey watches. on eBay at all. I'm looking at one sealed new and packaged for 400 bucks. So cheap. You get it for a steal. So it might be something that you have to spend a little bit of money on if you want this. But nonetheless, well, that's a cool find, Andrew.
Andrew It was an interesting article. It was kind of troubling. Like to just think about the things that we were OK with in the 90s.
Everett I mean, are we not OK with this? It doesn't seem particularly cruel to me.
Andrew Are we though still okay with it like putting this on a kid's wrist and then just having like dead shrimp I mean, I'm fucking I'm cool with it. I mean, I don't know It's it's certainly it's like a weird novelty watch that I'm I'm really glad exists Usually I'm not Yeah, these seem fun that's what I wanted fun that's and that's what it does for me
Everett Well, I have got a decidedly less fun pick. Are you going to make it?
Andrew I just can't like, I have this dry cough from having been in the Smoky Valley and then leaving it. And I like kind of cleared up and I came back and now I'm just like, got the smoker's cough.
Everett Yeah, you do have a smoker's cough. Um, so we talked about it on the show in 2019. pretty close to the beginning of the show when Giorgio Gali released the S1 automatic Timex watch. I remember thinking at the time, yo, this is rad. I remember saying something to that effect. Beautiful dial, beautiful casework, just a really pretty neat watch. Well, Timex has now iterated on the S1 with appropriately named the S2 automatic watch. But this one's different, and it's different for a couple of reasons. One, it looks different. It also says S2. It's got that... It still has that sort of skeletonized case. It's a two-piece case, but the dials different. We've got an Onyx black dial, we've got some finishing, but most notably, this is a watch that's made completely in Switzerland. So Timex, famously Connecticut watch brand, US, US, US.
Andrew USA, USA is what you're supposed to say to that.
Everett Moved to... Second England. Moved out of moved out of the United States really when all of the rest of the watch business did after World War II. So Timex has been on a weird journey. And with this watch, the decision to be quote-unquote Swiss made is an interesting one, but kind of a fun one. So they've made their journey weirder. Yeah, that's right. But I think it tracks for me and the trajectory that Timex is on, specifically with the galley stuff. Um, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the watch. So we still got a skeletonized mid case. I think it's a little bit more pronounced. It's a steel, I guess, injection molded mid case.
Andrew I was going to say it looks single piece to me.
Everett With the cutout, it has got a titanium or, or a steel sort of injection molded shroud with a titanium mid case. It is top down a very, Simple looking watch, elegant curved lugs. But from the side, you get that skeletonized action. The dial on this thing is stunning. It's got this metal, this steel chapter ring. It's kind of Ming-ish. It is a bit Ming-ish. Andrew, I don't disagree with you. Salida movement, 38 millimeters, 50 meters of water resistance. Uh, yeah. Salida SW 200. I think that this is a very kind of easy going watch on the eyes and probably on the wrist where it is not easy going. It is in the, in the wallet. So this is a thousand dollar watch. It's a $970, $975 Timex, which I think the S1 and the American documents both came in at under 500 and people were like, yo, yo, yo, uh, Timex, what are you thinking? I think people are going to not like the price of this. And there are these price anchors, you know, where, where brands have created expectations for how much their watches cost. And I do think that, The problem with Timex trying to release a $1,000 watch is, it's a shallow one, right? Is this watch worth $1,000? I don't know. But I think in like, if I'm going to stick a $1,000 on my wrist, do I want it to say Timex? When that other guy sitting down the way has a $17 Timex on, is my pride going to be able to handle that?
Andrew I think they're exploring the the waters that. Casio is existing and existing in where they have seven thousand dollar Mr. G's and nine dollar F-91s. Yeah, they're trying to splash around in that space and see if they can make it work. They did that with American documents. They did that with the first galley. they're kind of pushing up market. And I would, I, you know, I would think that Timex isn't trying to recoup off of this watch. I would think that based off of, you know, securing new manufacturing in Switzerland, securing new... Well, so Timex owns, uh, owns a, it's a Tellier.
Everett Uh, they have an in-house production in Switzerland, so they're not procuring new production for this.
Andrew I don't think this is within their existing supply chain, but this is, this is an up upping of their production. This is a change. My guess is that they're making their nut on the easy reader and this is going to make them money, but this is them dabbling in that little bit higher market space and you can see, You can see it in the design, right? It's a galley design. This is unlike any Timex on the market. Yeah.
Everett So I think the deal is, so yes, the things you're saying are true and perhaps even obvious, but, um, the, the concern I have with this, when the galley came out, it was kind of bashed for not meeting the quality demands or, or when the, the American documents came out. the quality wasn't there, the production wasn't there, the design probably wasn't there. Not so for the S1. And I don't think the same criticisms were levied towards the S1. But this being twice as expensive, still in the realm of very, very affordable at $1,000, you know, in the watch world, I do think time will tell, is this a watch that can keep up with the likes of Tissot or perhaps Longines or whoever, right? I'm just throwing names out there.
Andrew Yeah, take your pick of thousands. Ferrer, even, at this price point.
Everett You know, we've got a rubber strap with a signed clasp. I do not love that signed clasp. It just says S2. It doesn't say Timex, and it's not a very attractive S2 in my mind. No, the fonts, but... The watch itself, interesting. So yeah, I'd like to get my hands on one of these and see what it is. But in any event, it's an interesting release.
Andrew I think There's something to be said for wearing a thousand dollar Timex. It's like dropping a V8 in your Camry, right?
Everett You know, I think it creates a bit of a, I think it creates a bit of a irony for the wearer. Um, and perhaps not a positive one. Um, you know, there's this appeal to wearing, you know, an inexpensive Timex or a Casio or, you know, Bill Gates $35 stake or whatever. There's an appeal to that. And I think you miss some of that. Part of Timex's appeal is that they're an everyman watch. This is not an everyman watch.
Andrew I like that I could in a world where I can spend as much money as I want on watches, where I can wear a Marlin that costs under 50 bucks on Monday and this at $1,000 on Tuesday.
Everett Can you get a Marlin for under $50?
Andrew Yeah, they're $50.
Everett Are they? I think they're over. Well, no. There's a $34 for $100. Anyway. Well, yeah. Anyway, it's a neat watch. It's interesting. I think it's attractive, most importantly. Oh, they're $100. Yeah, anywhere from $100 to $300. When did these go up? I think that's actually cheaper than what they were released at.
Andrew No, not a Marlin. I mean the Marlin Diver.
Everett Oh, the Casio?
Andrew Oh, is that a Casio? That is a Casio. You're right. I'm being a dummy. Yeah. A Weekender for under $50.
Everett Sure. Sure. You're talking about the Casio Duro.
Andrew Yeah, the Duro. That was what was in my head as a Timex. Yeah. But it's not. It's a Casio. But I can wear a Timex for under $50.
Everett Yeah, I mean, weekenders are cheap.
Andrew And this for a thousand. And they're notably different in every regard. Yeah, that's right. Andrew, what's next? Oh, next up for me. I have an interesting one. This is another car exclusive, and I am wondering if this is going to be a thing for the next couple of years. Rolls Royce has just dropped a custom drop tail with an AP Royal Oak as its dashboard clock, but it's baller as one would expect in a Rolls Royce or Royal Oak. So here's the thing. This is, I mean, it's a Rolls Royce, right? It took two years designing and building out the custom collage of wooden triangles to emulate falling rose petals. I'm holding my heart, clutching my pearls, if you will, at this.
Everett And I'm just going to throw it out there. It looks like a movie theater carpet, but keep going.
Andrew It looks exactly like a movie theater carpet. Or for those of you familiar with the old Portland international airport carpet, something along those lines. But here's what's cool. Dead center in the dashboard. There is a Royal Oak as the dashboard clock. But wait, there's more. It's a wearable Royal Oak. You push a little button. The watch emerges from the dashboard. You reach into your door panel. You pull out your rubber bracelet. You put it on and now you've got your dashboard clock to go in the way of a watch. This is about as much of a gimmick as you could ever sell me. And I'm down with this is like straight Batman. Shit.
Andrew This is way cooler than buy a 911. And also you can buy a watch for $13,000. This just comes built in with a way to wear the watch.
Everett Yeah. And you can get it all. Oh yeah. The whole package for the very reasonable price that nobody actually knows. Cause if you have to ask, but estimated at a cool 30 million, that seems super reasonable for a Rolls Royce and an AP.
Andrew And you know what's like, I typically like Rolls-Royce body designs. This one didn't do it for me, but because if I'm going to buy a Rolls-Royce, I'm not driving. I'm buying it for somebody else to chauffeur me about. This is a car you'd have to drive because it has two seats. Here's what I do like the idea of the Batmobile. Hey, this is my watch. I'm going to plug in. All right, now I'm gonna wear you.
Everett This might be stupid, but I have an actual criticism about this. So it's an AP Royal Oak. Just one? It's beautiful. Yeah, I think just one. This is a beautiful AP Royal Oak. It's a chronograph. It's a gorgeous watch. It is the least legible This is the least legible watch I think I've ever seen in my life. It's super Richard Mille. And not only is it not legible if you were to have it on your wrist. You can't read it from the driver's seat. Eight inches from your head. There is no freaking way you could read this thing.
Andrew If you're driving a Rolls Royce, you don't care what time it is. Yeah, that's probably true, but still. If you drop $30 million on a car, you don't care what time it is.
Everett Um, yeah, it's interesting.
Andrew It's, yeah, this is the way for the ultra rich to get to the front of the line to buy this watch.
Everett Yeah. And if you're, if you're buying a $30 million car, throw a, throw a 20,000, $30,000 watch in there. I don't know how much these things retail. Uh, I don't even know what it is. It is a Audemars Piguet Royal Oak concept split seconds chronograph GMT. So it is probably a superb watch. But yeah, okay.
Andrew It's beautifully integrated. Watch the animation of how it emerges. This watch is... This is like Beauty and the Beast Rose emerging from the vase.
Everett This watch is very Richard Mille-ish. It's huge. It's a big watch. We have to be able to read it on the dashboard. 43 by 17.4. Um, so the watch only 150 pieces were made in its debut year. It's actually $150,000 watch.
Andrew So, so you're getting the steel, you get a Rolls Royce thrown in roughly.
Everett I don't know. My math is not going to be fast enough, but like a small fraction of the price of the car. So it's a throw one. This is like, this is like the hat that you buy at the dealership. It's just like that. Hey, I just bought a brand new car. You're not going to throw in a hat. Now it's 25 bucks.
Andrew Yeah. Okay. I'll buy a Toyota hat. Go further. Cool, man. Cool. I mean, it's a beautiful whole design. I think it's super cool.
Everett You know, we often also butts. So when we do these episodes, we just pick our links and then we send them to each other independently. Um, we have a lot of overlap, almost complete overlap between our picks. this week. Um, so I'm just going to grab one. I'm not going to worry about what you're doing next. I am going to grab on to a watch that is interesting, but that I don't think I like, uh, Yama. Okay. The old French Yama is releasing a lot of watches. I feel like, yeah, they're like banging them out. Uh, you know, the urban field, the urban traveler, the Superman 500, it's all come out. The. But they were they announced this week the submarine collection and I'm like the French sous chef. Sue Sue S.O.U.S. And. Gosh, OK, what is this? This is a. sort of vintage style as Yamaha does. Vintage style dive watch. I think that this is going to be something that people are going to like, right? It's got some vintage 70s style on the dial, but it also feels like a modern watch. OK, so what's the skinny on this thing? It's got a great size 40.5. on the diameter, 12 to thick, 300 meters of water resistance. It is a well spec'd watch. It comes on either a rubber strap. I think it's an FKM rubber strap, which is attractive with a fitted end link, not just a fitted end, a curved rubber strap, uh, or a, or a Jubilee bracelet. It's a dive watch. It's a 40, 40 meter dive watches or a 40 millimeter Dive watch. It's got a not unattractive bezel. I believe it's an aluminum bezel. It's got a not unattractive sort of layered dial. It comes in five colors, I think. Yes. It's got an in-house Yama Caliber. So yeah, yellow, green, orange, black, blue. Those are pretty straightforward, simple colors.
Andrew Um, matching rubber if you want.
Everett Yeah, that's right. With, with tone matching rubber. Uh, I think that these are gonna be, uh, what under, under a thousand dollars.
Andrew They're right about a thousand pounds. 990 with a, with bracelet.
Everett 990 on bracelet, 890 on rubber. Um, yeah. Okay. I think it's kind of ugly. I hate the bezel. I think it's kind of ugly. I don't even hate the bezel.
Andrew No, I hate that. I hate the print on the bezel. So here's like, I, I'm all about bezel markers. They can make it or break it for me. Here's the issue I take with this bezel and it's not, you know, it's not my opinion solely. Like I'm not just the asshole here. They don't, it's not a 10, 20, 30 40 50 it's 10 20 40 50 well 10 20 30 40 50 but they have the ones and the tens column separated by a vertical marker so it reads 1 10 2 10 3 10 4 10 5 10
Everett For no reason. And they're like kerning issues. At least they're not these photographs that I'm looking at.
Andrew Yeah. These, this is a bummer.
Everett Yeah. I think that this is a design miss. Yeah.
Andrew Cause the rest of it, if they had, if they had just a dive timer or just minute markers on the bezel, I think I'm, I think I'm here for it in the way of a boring thousand dollar dive watch, but the bezel ruined it for me.
Everett Yeah. And, and, you know, people are going to buy these and people are going to like them. It's got, it's a great spec to watch for a great price. Yama makes good shit. It's got a cool movement. It's a 28. It's a high beat movement. Um, it, you know, 300 meters of water resistance. It, it should be, I don't want to shit on anybody. Someone might look at this and say, Oh, I like it. And it's not objectively bad, but subjectively for me, I'm like, well, this looks like a,
Andrew I feel like they could have done a lot better with a little, with not even any more effort. Yeah.
Everett It, it, yeah. So anyway, there's something about it that I do not love. Um, I just wish it looked better. Come on, Yema. That's subjective, right? But it's disappointing to me.
Andrew They could do better because the color matching's great.
Everett I think there's some kerning issues on the, on the bezel too. Uh, and maybe some kerning issues on the dial. I don't know, man. This is it's a weird. This is a weird thing.
Andrew I don't know, I always kind of struggle to take Yema super seriously.
Everett Yeah, because they do shit like this.
Andrew Yeah, they feel like somewhere between a a brand like Spinnaker, which is not to, you know, speak ill of Spinnaker.
Everett This looks like a Spinnaker. That's what it looks like.
Andrew Yeah, they they they toe that line between Spinnaker and, you know, say Serica. Right. Who does, who does like interesting, cool shit and they do it well. Yeah. For way less.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew And it's like, Yema is doing interesting, cool shit poorly.
Everett Certainly less. Yeah. Andrew, what's next?
Andrew Hmm. Another brand that is intriguing to me. We have a new Synchron Military.
Everett Why is Synchron an intriguing brand to you? I don't know.
Andrew I don't know. That's something to do with, like, you know, the history of the people responsible for it. Yeah, sure. Yeah, you know, it's not a big deal. So they've released the Poseidon Black Edition. Of the Military Diver. Of the Military Diver. So imagine a Doxa 300 with kind of a scuba dude dial and you've got the watch with an FKM strap and I'm kind of digging it. It's straight 70s feel. It's all the familiarity of another brand with all the kind of like ire that exists behind Synchron. I'm digging it. I think it's a really cool release. And it's just like this great middle finger. I think any Synchron purchase is just like this awesome middle finger to no one for any reason. It's just like angry for the sake of angry.
Everett Yeah. No. Sorry, guys. I'm sorry. I don't know what to do. This is an interesting watch. It's got this, um, it's got this logo, this Poseidon logo on it that feels to me like it's, I mean, this is an Aqualung logo, right? Like, yeah. You know, there's a lot of stuff going on here. We, we talked about Rick Murray and the Jenny family and they're falling out and the, you know, Synchron being sort of part of this controversy. It's an unabashed middle finger to Doxa. Kind of a non-controversy. And this is cool. I mean, it's a cool watch. Objectively cool watch. I really like what Rick's done with the branding. You know, I hate to say it, but it does feel like, you know, it does feel a little bit like sour grapes to me.
Andrew I'm the white dial one is baller. So these are the the Synchron Military, right, with that kind of checkered dial. But in lieu of the checkered dial, you expect the black dial is just straight black. The white dial is white with some black checkering around the inside of the hour markers, kind of docks, the army checkering and a Synchron Military. That's what I meant. And between at the 20, 20 to 25, there is the black and yellow Poseidon with a whale. These are dope. Yellow strap on these things like black strap available. They're just cool. They're also pre-order thousand bucks delivery in October. Limited edition of a thousand pieces.
Everett Yeah, these are neat. Uh, these are neat.
Andrew What are the, I didn't find the water. What's the water resistance?
Everett I will say having handled 300 meters, both, uh, both the Synchron Military and the Doxa Army, there's, there's, they're really not that close in terms of quality. The, I, suspect that this is probably fine quality, especially for what you're paying for it. But I do think it is a case of if you want the real thing, you should get the real thing.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew But these are cool. They're cool. I think it's a cool release. I like the logoing, which is, I mean, and, and I had a, a window of opportunity for a, both a Doxa army and a Synchron military and passed on both for a reason.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Rick's doing a good job. That Synchron branding is good. Rick's doing a good job with, um, fonts, I think. And you know, his pad printing, I think is excellent.
Andrew The fonts and design are great. It's just, there's some finishing to catch up on.
Everett I'm going to talk about Perrin for a second. Perrin? Perrin? Perrin? I'm going to say Perrin. Perianal? Uh, which is a, Sort of a young Swiss brand that's making accessible watches, has released quite a few watches in the last couple of years. I think Perrin does very interesting stuff with turning, the way they, the knurling and the textures on their metal in particular. is always super interesting to me. They use a nice blend of brushed, blasted, and polished finishes.
Andrew And this watch... And directionality of their finishing. That's right.
Everett And this watch is no exception. So the last week, Perrin introduced, or the last couple of days is when I first read about these, the Regia Automatic 39. Unsurprisingly, this is a 39 millimeter It's a dive watch is what it is. And it comes in two iterations, one with, one with a sort of dive looking bezel and the other with a countdown or a 12 hour and like a, like a dual time 60 minute and 12 hour bezel, a split bezel. Um, these both have kind of stylized, lozenge markers, lozenge dot markers. As Perrin does, they're very, the aesthetic is very stark, white and black. They've got very simple handsets, all in white. These are exactly what you would expect from Perrin in terms of dial design. But the bezel on these things, holy cow, the bezel on these things is really cool. It's sort of a coin edge, but then it has another set of concentric circles above that. It's got fantastic coin edge on the bezel or on the crown with also like a turn. It's just texture. The texture on this watch is great. All of that added, all of that on a kind of brushed finish with a high polished ribbon chamfer.
Andrew Then the super high angle
Everett low angle no super high angle ribbon and also no sharp edges on the watch at all yes like what in the world this is such a contrasting set of design stuff and it works really well you'd think with this level of contrast it's just a very high contrast watch and you'd think with that level of contrast it would be awkward or abrupt and it's not it winds up being very smooth and elegant even though it is contrast, contrast, contrast.
Andrew I think the, those ribbon chamfers are going to like push light off and make it feel small. So it's going to, it's going to look small, but the legibility because of all the light that those, that that crown is catching is going to be phenomenal.
Everett So this is a 200 meter watch. It is 39 by 45, which is very wearable. It is 12.8, which is a bit thick, especially considering the slab side of two, especially considering it's got a 201 in it. And SW is Solita SW 201. I think that they're. They're probably just. This is the watch, they're not worrying about making it slim because I think they could have made this watch slimmer if they wanted to. I'm guessing they didn't care to. No bracelet from what I can tell. It just has a vulcanized FK, oh no, it says FK and vulcanized rubber strap. Also available with optional steel bracelet or strap. Yeah, this is a terrific watch and the price is not bad on this thing either. So pre-order, I think it's like 700 for watch only.
Andrew For Swiss francs, so like 850. Okay.
Everett Okay, and retail price expected at what? Then 1100?
Andrew Yeah, 963 francs. Here's the thing, and this is gonna be controversial to some people.
Everett Oh, the bracelet is terrific.
Andrew It's a 12 o'clock date window. It's a little porthole date window, and that's gonna rub some people the wrong way. Yeah, fuck it. You can barely see it. It's a color matched, great execution. No extra loom around it. It's just, hey, here's the date. Yeah, if if you're not looking for a date window like assholes like us, you're going to miss it.
Everett No price increase for stainless as far as I can, or for the bracelet, from what I can tell, which is odd.
Andrew It's only 300 per model.
Everett Yeah, and the model being a stainless, it is 80 additional francs or 80, 87 additional francs for steel. And it's a good looking bracelet. Yeah, this is an interesting watch from an interesting brand. I mean, I like this, even though it's thicker. I like this. You like them thick in the perianal? A whole bunch more than the Yema Sumerain. Yeah. Concur. Yeah, this is an attractive watch. An attractive Swiss watch.
Andrew I gotta talk about something. Do it. Einar Dain did a thing this week. And they made an acquisition of Pollen. Pollen was a brand that I was unfamiliar with. I saw this thing and I was like, Oh, what's, what are they, what are they buying? I look at Pollen and I was like, Oh, duh, you buy this brand. This is the fun version of Anordain. This is a super cool acquisition and I'm really excited to see how Anordain's kind of philosophy flows through pollen watches because their stuff is cool. Yeah. It's accessible and ordained. It's that same kind of color feel. It's super similar design language. Like it makes sense. A lot of watch brand acquisitions. I'm like, well, duh, you're going to make, you're going to buy that. Cause it's going to make you a buck, a lot of money. This it's like, Oh, we're going to buy that because it's going to be fun. And I'm really excited for it.
Everett There's a couple of things about this story when I read it that I noted. One is that Anardane and Pollen have worked together in the past, which I knew. The second is that one of the founders of Anardane, Louis Heath, is married to a woman named Charlotte Pollen, who just so happens to be the founder of Pollen Watches, a company that's 10 years older than Anardane, by the way. So there is some relationship behind this transaction. Doesn't seem like it. There's some brand history. There's a historical brand relationship here and probably other types of relationships as well. So that to say, this makes sense for a whole bunch of reasons. I think Andrew, you're totally right. That aesthetically and design wise, this makes a ton of sense. And it also just sociologically makes sense. In doing so, they relaunched with a new watch called the Paulin Modal, I think, maybe Modal model, which is a 35 millimeter steel sports watch. I'm going to call this a sports watch. That looks terrific. I like this a lot. It's not quite H case, but a tonneau cased sport watch with a very Paulin aesthetic. And it comes in interesting options, Andrew. One, you can get it with a Les Joux Parade D100. Great. Great. Yes, please. Or the second option is you can get it with a new old stock Etiquartes movement. And the Etiquartes is 500. The D100 is 995. In either event, you get a display case back. Mm-hmm. Which is freaking rad. I love display quartz. And it's a good-looking movement, right? It's one of the blue board, brass, eti-quartz movement, so it's an attractive quartz movement.
Andrew It looks better than most automatic or mechanical movements. That's right.
Everett That's right. Yeah, shit, this is terrific. It's fun, and it's... Affordable and it's good. Yes. And it's good. I think these are probably going to be really hard to get.
Andrew Yeah, but not for long because they're going to be upping their production. This is an interesting chapter. Like I could I'm interested to see what United Kingdom watchmaking does in the next several years because there's such momentum behind it. And, you know, with the, what is, what is it called? The British watchmaking kind of collaborative event.
Everett I know what you're talking about.
Andrew We talked about it with Mike France. They're really pushing British watchmaking. British watchmaking is doing some cool stuff. We see this merger with Anordain and Pollen. Christopher Ward is doing really cool stuff. You know, we've got studio underdog. We've got numerous UK based watchmakers who are pushing the envelope and there's some cool stuff happening and I'm excited for it.
Everett Yeah. So these are, it appears to me that these are all available now. I think it's probably model. I said modal. I think it's probably model. They've got the model a model B model. A is a yellow. Model B is brown, Model C is quartz, and they said... Model B would be brown.
Andrew They should call it Model 2. That's a missed opportunity.
Everett And it says these are shipping on September 8th. So it looks to me like these are all still available. So if you want one, go to paulandwatches.com and get your order in. Because these are cool. Yeah. Free shipping orders outside the UK will be subject to customs and taxes according to the destination country. Yeah. These are cool. 35.
Andrew And your shit will get hung up in customs. I just read an article that the, uh, uh, custom seized like $3 million in counterfeit watches in, I don't know, somewhere on the East coast and not where you'd expect on the East coast. It was like Atlanta or something. Um, and it made me think about some like brands that I'm aware of who have had their shit seized as counterfeit. I was like, well, hang on a second. You're counting these numbers into your, into your, you know, your forfeitures. That shit wasn't counterfeit. That brand bought it. They, they designed it. They purchased it. They paid for the manufacturing. They then had it sent here so they could assemble it. And, and customs is like, nah, bruh, that's counterfeit. Like who for who it's counterfeit. What it says my brand on it. So maybe it should be a compliment for some of these brands who are getting their stuff seized by customs as counterfeit.
Everett Did this happen recently? Whatever you're talking about, are you talking about a historical event?
Andrew It was in the last two years that one of the brands that we know and love had a bunch of stuff hung up and seized by customs. Sounds vaguely familiar. Yeah. Andrew, what's next? Well, I just talked about my thing.
Everett Oh, that was your thing? I thought that was my thing.
Andrew No, I picked that thing. We both did, but I talked about it first. So you have now two to choose from.
Everett I'm going to talk about Grand Seiko. Yeah, you are. Grand Seiko 44GS, the Grand Seiko, the 44GS is the Grand Seiko, right? Yeah, I think so. But it's the one, that is the watch that I associate most with Grand Seiko, Grammar of Design. I know it's not the Grammar of Design watch, but it's the one I associate most with Grammar of Design. Seiko's introduced three brands, so I think a couple of years ago, that was the 55th anniversary of the of Grand Seiko. And so they were 44GS, 44GS. They've introduced three new 44GS models with a spring drive movement. And they're all lovely. They are all lovely. Black, green and red. They've got these beautiful Seiko dials, a red starburst, kind of a mottled green, and also a sandy black, I'm going to call it or charcoal. You've got gold accents and they're calling these the Katana models, which, you know, you know, Grand Seiko does the thing, right? There were evocative of X, Y, or Z, you know, fog on a lake in the morning, blah, blah, blah. These are supposed to be after your first sip of coffee, right? That's right. Tea. I think it's tea. Tamahagani. These are evocative of Katana steel. Tamahagani, Tamahagani, and whatever. I don't know. But that's a, what I'd call Damascus Katana steel, right? Which is high carbon and lower carbon steels smashed together in layers. This isn't a Damascus watch though, which is interesting based on that invocation. In any event, it is It's a 44GS, guys, look. It is what it is. Zoratu polished. I think the coolest thing about this is a lot of people don't like a power reserve. I don't care one way or the other, but you've got this lovely gold power reserve at 730, kind of inside the dial and these gold accents that are like fluted and, oh, the word I'm looking for is like
Andrew comes to a point, almost like a fan stroke. Sure.
Everett Sure. That's yeah, that's right. From lower to higher, the fan gets bigger. You've got fantastic gold accents, stainless, polished, polished silver dolphin hands, and this great gold seconds hand and GS logo. These are great. I mean, we don't talk about every new Grand Seiko release because there seem to be a ton of them. Yeah. And they're very iterative. But we both pinged on this. Because, gosh, something about these are pretty cool. Yeah, these are gorgeous. So Red's limited edition 6000, green and black are non-limited 5600. So this is well outside of the range of watches that we're talking about usually.
Andrew The red is also the most unique texturing on the dial. It is a unique texture. So the green and black have kind of a sandpaper texturing. The red has very much the same kind of chrysanthemum peddling texture throughout the dial.
Everett OK, I like that. I don't I don't object.
Andrew They just did a chrysanthemum release, but it was King Seiko. So you can tell they're still working hand in hand. But it's it's gorgeous dial finishing, maybe like a strawberry.
Everett Yeah, these are cool. I mean, I think I like the black the most.
Andrew This red is the first Don SNK red that I've ever seen that I was like, I could do that. And then I saw the price tag and I was like, yeah, I won't do that. I like, you know, having a family. Andrew. Although with this watch living in my one bedroom apartment, I wouldn't be too terribly unhappy.
Everett Hey, you can have this watch in a one bedroom apartment.
Andrew There'd be questions, but whatever. What's next? Last up for me, Jonathan Ferrer of BrewWatches, our man of brew watches, has done a brew metric automatic with an NH35, which is a no date. It's the brew metric, right? This is a super cool watch. Everything that he does has these really obvious inspirations that are beautifully incorporated into unique design. You see, like every time you look at one of his watches, you're like, Oh, I see that. Oh, that's where he got that idea. But he it's none of it's eight, right? I mean, I don't see nothing I've ever seen of his has been like, Oh, well that's pretty close to this. And this I see like Porsche or like Porsche or Fina kind of design and like 70s racing watch. This isn't a chronograph, but I still see and feel all of that. Uh, he's dropped in NH 35 in these. So you've got a no date in your brew metric 525 for these. Yeah.
Everett And so hold on before you move on. He put an NH 35 in this and I thought, well, NH 35, this thing's going to be chunky. No, 36 by 41, which is deceptive. Those numbers are deceptive because it's square. This watch is probably gonna wear 38 to 40-ish. 10.75. Yeah, he shaved it down. So it's a time-only brew metric that's, I think, thinner or just as thin as the Chronograph with the Mecca Quartz with an NH35 for 575. Sign me up, yo.
Andrew Only 50 meters of water resistance. And next time I see him, I'll talk to him about that.
Everett So these are limited to 500 pieces. I think, well, but I think it has to be limited. Otherwise it gets, it gets too chunky. Um, yeah, they're available. They're available now. As we say this, I don't know how long that's going to last. Um, yeah, this is a terrific watch.
Andrew And I love the brew metric. Yeah. I love everything he's done. Even his weird stuff at the beginning.
Everett Yeah, I think he hit his stride at some point. I think he started off a little awkward. Which most people should do. Yeah, so this is exactly the same thickness as the Brumetric with the Mecca Quartz.
Andrew This is dope. This is a cool release from him.
Everett I'm glad he did it. So just quickly, it is a time-only dial. It is a busy dial.
Andrew Uh, for being a three-hander with no date. Yeah, that's right.
Everett And you've, this is a very seventies brew design, great fonts. This is his standard font work. You've got the coffee bean logo. It's terrific, attractive, busy without being annoying. I dig it. I think it lacks a little bit of the charm of the metric chronograph.
Andrew It does, but it's because it's a three hand. That's right. I mean, you don't get some of those things.
Everett Andrew, we did it. We talked about all the things, nothing else interesting in watches happened this last week. Not even kind of other things.
Andrew What do you got? Ooh, I have a new show that is kind of airing actively. There's two episodes available right now on Peacock. I'm sorry.
Everett You and your Peacock show.
Andrew It's called Myth of the Zodiac Killer. And it is kind of based on the research of a fella named. Horan Horan. What's his first name? I don't know.
Unknown I'm looking for it. Shoot.
Andrew Doesn't matter, you'll see it when you watch, so he is a. professor who studied English and then got into linguistics and was intrigued by the Zodiac Killer's letters. And he used all this AI technology to analyze the Zodiac letters. through his expertise in the AI analytics and hiring some outside analytics firms, has made the determination that the Zodiac Killer is not. Which is fascinating because the Zodiac Killer is one of the, if not the most famous serial killer in the world. Unsolved serial killer.
Unknown Right.
Andrew Right. Unsolved, like just nothing. And the reason, you know, according to him is that there is no Zodiac killer. There was certainly a serial killer in the beginning. And then there were a bucket of copycats who used this lather of the Zodiac killer fear to obscure their own killings. Interesting. So the first two episodes, he's highlighting the first handful of Zodiac murders and offering alternative, not alternative facts, offering alternative perspectives on why these murders occurred, postulating on other Postulating? Yeah, that's the right word. Other suspects.
Unknown Hmm.
Andrew Who would maybe be more appropriate than a random murderer. He, it's fascinating, right? It's kind of in that near to realm of conspiracy theory, but it's reasonable enough given how absurd the idea of the Zodiac killer is that you're like, okay, I can kind of get with this because the idea of the Zodiac killer was like, here's the boogeyman and he's gone.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. And it's not like GSK. It's not like BTK. It's not like any of the other serial killers who have exactly the same MO. Like everything's the same. You see some evolution, but generally speaking, we see the same thing. And then ultimately this person is caught. We don't see that with the Zodiac. Right. And it's an interesting position on why. It's fascinating. I love these like cold case turn ups and these re-examinations of things because they're fascinating because I like puzzles a lot. And this is a cool solution to a puzzle that has otherwise been without any kind of resolution.
Everett It's interesting. So you said it's two episodes in.
Andrew It's two episodes in, there's more forthcoming. Uh, I don't know how the writer's strike is affecting it.
Everett Screen Actors Guild, it shouldn't be affecting it.
Andrew No, they're both strike. Oh, okay. Yeah. SAG and the writers struck first and the SAG was like us too, which was reasonable because you should make more than 18 cents for having been a, a, a lead, uh, credit on cloud nine. from streaming. Like it's just, that's reasonable.
Everett I've got another thing. Do me. This is going to be a funny one because a lot of you are going to be like, Everett, what are you talking about? Like it's 2023.
Andrew Did you just discover KY? I did. Uh, the warming one.
Everett I bought this last week, both an iPad and an Apple pencil.
Andrew Okay, now you have my attention. Apple pencil? Pen, pineapple, pineapple, pen?
Unknown What? A song? I have a pen, I have a pineapple. Pen, pineapple, pineapple, pen.
Andrew Just like that. I'll be linking that in the show notes.
Everett I bought an iPad and I've used an iPad before. I know what an iPad is. I've used a tablet. This is not a thing that I'm wholly unfamiliar with. Uh, but I did buy an iPad. I bought an M1 chip iPad first. Holy cow. That thing is an incredibly powerful and they have even more powerful ones. I was shocked at how quick and snappy and responsive this thing is. Uh, but the reason I bought this was for work. I've been doing a lot of depositions and in depositions, you have to have paper and you're shuffling. And I noticed someone in a deposition recently taking notes with. an Apple pencil and an iPad and it looked just really easy and seamless. And I saw the way they were, you know, they were just kind of going through documents and shuffling things. And I thought, well, they all like, I've got a briefcase full of stuff and they've got an iPad and they're just doing all the things that I've got all this paper and they're just doing it on their iPad. And it looks really convenient and really smart and way more professional than you.
Everett Actually, I'm not sure about that piece. I'll come back to that because I have a point about that.
Andrew I saw a dude do it on his phone one time and that made me want to throw a shoe at him.
Everett So I just, I bit the bullet. I went and bought the iPad. I went and bought the pencil. It wasn't that much money. I can't remember what I spent, but it was, you know, well within my electronics budget for work. And I've been using this thing to take notes on. I downloaded, I spent some money on a good note-taking app. which I might talk about in another other things. Um, but I've just been using this thing for work. I've been using it as a second, like computer to pull up documents on the view sometimes, but more importantly, I've been using it to take all my notes with, and I am stunned.
Andrew Can it scan your handwriting? Cause your handwriting is unique.
Everett It can. I am stunned by how easy this thing was. I'm certainly not a Luddite. I have a certain amount of technical, uh, proficiency, but you know, I'm not like the most like bleeding edge guy. I think this is one of those situations where not being bleeding edge has probably been a nice thing. I bought this thing and there's these apps and the device is all so mature that all I had to do was open this thing up, download the app.
Andrew Oh yeah, you bought an ecosystem when it's developed.
Everett And I'm like, yes. This does exact, the workflows are set up in a sensible way where I'm just like, I'm immediately taking the, within the first 20 minutes, I pull this thing up. I download the app. I tinker with it for about three minutes. I get a call and I'm like, well, let's try it. Pull up my iPad, start taking notes, finish up my call, export this thing to a PDF. It automatically uploads, I just I click share or export, it automatically pulls, excuse me, I got your funk. It pulls up the app that I need to put this thing. My, my file management app pulls it up, sends it to the place I want it in a word functionality.
Andrew So you can like, like search and find and edit and stuff.
Everett Um, it doesn't really matter cause it's just notes. So normally what I would do is I would on a yellow piece of paper, write this and then I'd go give it to my assistant. She'd go to the scanner, she'd scan it to her. Are you going to lay her off now? I'm going to lay her off now. I already did it. No, I'm not laying her off. But it was just like, I finished the notes. She's on the block. I put them on Clio and I was done. You did put it on Clio. And this was within, you know, I've owned this thing for less than an hour. And I was like, well shit. All right. I've been using this thing for work. I've probably spent at this point 10 hours using this thing professionally. And I'm like, dude, this is, this is the shit. Meanwhile, my daughter also has an iPad and she loves it. And she said, well, dad, now that you have an iPad and Apple pencil, you got to get me an Apple pencil and we can do art together. And I was like, okay, that sounds cool. And so we go get, she's got an older iPad. So we had to go get her the older iPad, Apple pencil. And she like, sets up this set of three lessons for us to do. My daughter, my 11 year old daughter. That tracks. Sets up this set of three lessons for us to do. So we take these three individual art lessons. Um, they're like YouTube tutorials basically. But you had to pay for them. And, uh, no, uh, I guess we did have to pay for the third one. And we like make this really cool art. Like just those are really cool. Yeah. Over the course of the weekend, Like we're making digital art and it's like legitimate art. I mean, it's not our art where you making someone else's art, but it's like, holy shit, this is cool. And I'm like, how did I not do this before? So my other thing for the week, I think is the Apple pencil generation two.
Andrew That's what I chose was the Apple pencil.
Everett Uh, because the other one's just an iPad and that's everybody has, I know you all have iPad. I'm sorry. I don't have an iPad. Terrific. I'm so happy with this purchase. Uh, and it also brought me to another thing. So, so two things. One, I think you talked about season two of the bear as another thing. Watch that with Kim last week.
Andrew I watched the whole bear was a whole other thing.
Everett Both seasons do so good. The other thing I did was I downloaded civilization six. Also one of your other things. No civilization. The game Rome total war was one of my things. Oh, well I thought it was civilization. Someone, I saw something that said, If you have a new iPad, you should check out Civilization if you've never played it. So I downloaded Civilization, which I'd never played before.
Andrew And it's like, how many hours are you billing while you play Civilization six?
Everett None.
Andrew Not as many as you play Civilization. No, I don't play that much.
Everett But anyway, other thing, Apple Pencil, really cool. I dig it. Your art was super cool.
Andrew Maybe we'll put in the show notes. We probably won't. I don't know how to do that.
Everett Andrew, anything else you want to add before we go? I'm out of things, man. Hey, you guys. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Forty to Twenty Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor. Check us out online. Watch clicker dot com. That's our website. And that's where we put every single episode of this podcast and articles, reviews, weekly watch stuff. You can also check us out on the socials, in particular, Instagram at Watch Clicker. or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. Don't go to the old 40 and 20. It's fake. If you want to support us and we hope you do patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's where we get all the money to keep the wheels on this wagon. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Unknown Bye bye.