Episode 257 - Watches Roundup for September 28, 2023
Published on Wed, 27 Sep 2023 22:56:58 -0700
Synopsis
The podcast discusses several new watch releases, including the Colorado Watch Company's US-made watches, a new Tag Heuer Monaco lume dial, Oris' downsized Divers 65 chronograph, the Bulova Oceanographer GMT dive watch, and the controversial new Hamilton Khaki Field Expedition watch. They also talk about Everett's upcoming baseball-related trip to Seattle, Andrew's upcoming vacations, and some food snacks like Pepper Jack cheese crisps. Overall, it's a casual conversation reviewing the latest watch news and releases.
Links
Transcript
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| Andrew | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew, and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. |
| Everett | Everett, how are you? Doing well. Baseball season's coming to a close. Finally. Oh, my gosh. I'll tell you. Reopens again in February, though. I can't talk about it yet. There's still stuff happening. I'm going to Seattle on Friday to catch a couple games, but the significance of those games changes greatly based on what happens tonight and what happens tomorrow night. So, yeah, it's there's a lot of stress, a lot of stressors. I've already bought the tickets, paid for the plane tickets. I'm going, but there's a there's a lot on the line tonight. In fact, I better just just take a quick little look. |
| Andrew | I mean, no matter what, it's going to be fun. Yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah. Yeah. I'm going. It's our meaningless games. I'm going with West. The two of us. We're going to stay with a friend that I haven't seen in a few years. It's going to be a blast. But yeah, doing doing well. Exciting week. Fun stuff. Andrew, how are you doing? |
| Andrew | I am good. Tail end of the weekend. I didn't get much done this weekend. I ended up having like a broken weekend and then I had to work most of one day of it, which kind of turned into a bit of a bummer. But What is I have. I was looking at my schedule for the next couple of months. I have a lot of vacation coming up. I'm going to Vegas in two weeks and then I'm taking most of November off. Yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah. It's going to be nice. Yeah. Real vacation. Real vacation where you're actually removed from work is nice. |
| Andrew | Man from the state. Yeah. I'll be out of the state obviously in Vegas and then we'll be in California in November. And it's money. I'm very pleased. |
| Everett | Well, it's the opposite for me. It is money, but instead of in, it's out. |
| Andrew | Money out. Lots of, yeah, lots of money out. Last night, Sam asked me what my budget was for Vegas. And I just kind of looked at her and I said, some. Some. Yeah. |
| Everett | Yeah. Yeah. That's always a, that's always a tough decision. Like, cause you have to decide like, |
| Andrew | I don't really gamble. Right. So I don't have a gambling budget. I'm going with a few frugal people. So we're not going to do like big extravagant restaurants. We're going we've got some plans. Right. But we're not hitting up the like multi hundred dollar kind of stuff. We're going to go to Best Friends on the first night we're there. I don't I don't know what that is. Oh, gosh. What's his name? He's a celebrity chef. He was in Roy Choi. It's one of his restaurants. So it's a Korean fusion restaurant. It's kind of like an eighties and nineties theme. It's been featured in several places. So we're going to hit that up. There's a steak place that we found that does happy hour, half off steaks between midnight and 3am. So we're going to do some late night steak and booze. And so, I mean, Vegas is expensive, but I'm not, I'm not going to gamble. We've got shows, a couple of shows booked. So cool. Cool. Yeah. It'll be, it'll be good weekend. |
| Everett | Nice. Yeah. Disney will be very expensive though. Yeah. Yeah. Very, very, very. |
| Andrew | Yeah. The nice part is we booked way early in the year, so we're not like spending the money on the trip and then spending the trip money. We, we made basically two, two installments trips paid for now that we have to pay for being there. Yeah. And I'd appreciate you keeping your voice down because there is one of them still awake. Oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. They don't know that we're doing that. And I'm not sure we're going to tell them. I think we're just going to load them on the airplane. Do it. Just pack them in, put them in a bag. We could do that. I was thinking we would just like board the plane like normal human people and not tell them where we're going. Yeah. Which is a weird thing to do. Real exercise in trust there. |
| Everett | Right. I took my kids to a movie not too long ago, but right at the same time, We had been doing like, at one point we had to go to do like a field prep and we had just been doing like random labor stuff that the kids are like, why am I here doing this labor? So like for baseball, we'd had, and so when we, I told the kids, I was like, you need to put on like sweatpants and stuff, grab a jacket just in case. And they're like, what are we doing? I was like, we're going to do field work. And so I mean, I still, I, yes, obviously I'm still pleased with myself. That's a good one. I like it. Um, In any event, we're not here talking about Vegas or Disney or spending money or... Surprising your kids. Even pranking your kids. We're here to talk about watches. We felt like we had to do a roundup this week because we did not do a roundup last week. And gosh, in the last two weeks, there have been, I don't know, maybe 20 different watch drop-through releases. that I would like to talk about tonight. We are certainly not going to get to 20. |
| Andrew | I don't think we'll even get through our list. |
| Everett | No. Yeah. So we've narrowed down these to, I think, what we think are the most interesting or most impactful watch releases for us, for our community. With that said, I'm struggling to see a next hour and change where we get through all of these or maybe even most of them. |
| Andrew | Yeah. I'm trying to decide what I want to start with. I'm going to start with what I think is the most interesting because this could either be our most time consuming or our quickest quickest one through. Because I think there's more to this. And I think this this hopefully will become another episode shortlyish. Colorado Watch Company. Hmm. The fellas from Vortec, RT Custer and Tyler Wolfe. have done something really, really, really cool. Something that a lot of watch companies have been aspiring toward. And we are at an 80% U.S. sourced cost of bill of goods made watch. |
| Everett | Perhaps even 85%. Yes. Per wristenthusiast.com. |
| Andrew | This is cool. The design itself is neat. |
| Everett | There's a couple different designs, right? |
| Andrew | Right. They're they're neat. But what I'm excited about is this is what went into it. You know, the designs, I like them all. I mean, the bullhead is cool and it's not a true bullhead. It's they're more like pocket watches, kind of the Vortec du jour pocket watch into a which they're calling the GTC and into a wristwatch and then some pretty standard fair field watches. And the design is cool. I don't mean to diminish the design that went into this, but what we're talking about is a U.S. made movements, jewels from New England, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Hampshire. There we go. So metal components made at Vortec in Colorado. Movements and overall watch assembly take place in Arizona. Rubber straps in Minnesota. Sapphire from New Hampshire. So over 85% of all costs with producing the watches are going to US companies and suppliers. I'm wondering what we're still having to import, what they, what we, America, what they, uh, Colorado watch company are still having to import. |
| Everett | Yeah. You know what? I don't know. Yeah. My guess is there various parts in the movement if I had to guess. So, They are getting their movements from FTS, Fine Time Piece Solutions out of Arizona, known for making the Ameriquartz and now really sort of going hard in the paint and able to bring, able to bring automatic movements to the, to the forefront. I gotta imagine FTS is using, some foreign materials. |
| Andrew | But we're still at that 85%. So for the field watch price on Kickstarter right now $8.95 with a projected delivery of May 2024. And the GCT, which is the restyled pocket watch design at 1295 also anticipated in May of 2024. This is cool and I'm very much hoping that they would like to talk to us about this because this is some innovative stuff from the American watch manufacturing world in a way that we haven't seen it in some time. This is cool news for the state of the American watch union. |
| Everett | You know, Andrew, not to draw anything away from the manufacturer, which I do think I agree with you. That's the big story. The, the watches here are interesting. Um, I think the GCT maybe not, maybe not my thing. Um, this is a good, that's a good, like, extra watch in your watch box. Yeah. It's interesting. |
| Andrew | It's like a once or twice a year for me in the way that I wear watches. That's a once or twice a year. I'm going to see that and just be like, Ooh, today's the day. Put it on, set the time and then put it away again for months. |
| Everett | The field watch on the other hand, I'm sort of into it now. It's a little tough for me to tell if they're doing some like, I think we've got a bit of like a torn jean vibe. with their dials. We've got some wear and at least in the photos we're seeing, you know, some paint removal. |
| Andrew | I was thinking like aviation. It kind of looks like like fuselage metal. |
| Everett | Yeah. So I'm unclear if that is an aesthetic decision or if that was just for these prototypes or if that's if that's going to be sort of their vibe. There's also some, yeah, they're making some bold choices. The branding at 12 o'clock, bold, I would say. We're going with sort of a sector dial with like Geneva striping, bold. They're making big decisions, which I'm always a fan of, but I do not think these watches are going to be universally loved. |
| Andrew | I love the, I'm excited by this gray dial in the steel case. Yeah. The colors. So the, the big Colorado from 10 to two, almost like the full width of that space with a big, bold red outline, blue hands, a red seconds hand. It's a really fun use of color on a gray dial. |
| Everett | Yeah. So these are cool. They're interesting. It'll be, it'll be curious to see where these guys go from this. Um, but yeah, definitely check it out. Obviously we'll have links. They are funding Colorado watch company via Kickstarter. At this point, I think they've got like 165 backers and they have secured 200 ish of the $260,000 funding goal. So they're very close. Most of the early, early bird, deals are gone, I think you can still get $100 discounts if you're interested. So from, you know, I think $9.95 or $9.50 to $8.50, something like that. |
| Andrew | So we're at $2.08 of $2.50 with 29 days to go. |
| Everett | I was obviously shooting from the hips. |
| Andrew | I apologize. I'm just, I'm just clarifying because we pride ourselves on precision and accuracy. Yes. No, we don't. Exactly. No, we don't. We never will. |
| Everett | We never will, man. We never will. I almost, I almost kicked this one off my list, but I decided I want to talk about it. So Benris, famous company supplier of American military watches and Steve McQueen bullet watches. Benris is this company with a ton of history has been revived and is making watches again. Benris announced this week, um, a reissue from the 1960s of the ultra deep. Now, when we hear ultra deep in 2023, we think of watches that are designed to go to the Mariana trench. This is not that. So what this is, is a 1960s super compressor style, uh, dive watch diminutive in size. Now the original Benris Ultra Deep was an EPSA super compressor. This is, this is not that. However, it is aesthetically very similar to that. We've seen a lot of companies. do similar things where they will take a catalog watch which was made by EPSA with a full super compressor spring case back watch and remake it in more of a modern just twin dual crown. That's what this is. This is not, to my knowledge, Christopher Ward is the only company that's done in recent history a true super compressor style case. This is not that. This is, however, a 36.5 millimeter twin stick dive watch in a very 60s style with sizing that is accurate. |
| Andrew | 36.5 on the case, 41.5 lug to lug, 13.8 thick, 660 feet of depth, which is |
| Everett | is approximately 200 meters. It's a very standard depth rating, but they have gone with the 666 11 points. That's right. Yeah. Do you have thoughts on this immediately? |
| Andrew | Immediately? I really like it. I like that very 60s, 70s dive watch feel. And more importantly, I like the size because this is really easy to do in like 40 to 44 because that's what really common. Uh, I think this is kind of a risky release being so small, but I'm, I'm about this. I'm kind of in the zone of wanting a, like a no shit diver. And this, this is now in the consideration list. |
| Everett | Yeah. I'm not sure I'd call this a no shit diver. I think there's plenty of shit to be had here. Not, not bad shit, but Yeah, this is a, this is an aesthetic decision with that size being slightly under 36 and a half. I think it might be too small for some folks. What I, what I, or just under 37, what I will say is that without a external bezel, I, I believe this will probably wear bigger than a 36 and a half millimeter watch with a bezel would wear. The dial is going to feel more open. They have done a lot with the dial here. There is a lot going on in the style. It's beautiful. Thousand bucks. So proud P024, which is, which is as far as I know, a fantastic movement. I've never heard anything bad and only good things. Um, terrific looking bracelet, even if the bracelet does not look to be anything incredibly special. Benris does have a reputation for doing relatively well with their accessories. Uh, crowns look great. The case back looks great. I'm not wild about the class, but there's always going to be something, uh, you know, for the money. I think it's, I think it's going to be a question mark for you that you have to decide. |
| Andrew | Yeah. I, I don't know if it's in the consideration, but we got a quick release bracelet. I could go for a better locking mechanism on the clasp too. Um, but it's also, you know, it's a remake of, of a thing, right? A friction clasp would have been probably appropriate for, this is an upgrade. Big domed crystal. Yeah. Yeah. A great, a sapphire crystal. Which is going to get really banged up without any kind of protection from a bezel. |
| Everett | Well, that's Sapphire. It'll be fine as long as you don't tell it again. Yeah, until it's not coral. That's right. I'm into this. They've done it well. The magnifier at the three o'clock date window, I think, is going to rub some people wrong. I don't think you or I have ever been. No, I think real anal retentive about date windows, but that's going to be a love it or hate it for sure. |
| Andrew | I think it's well enough executed. There's plenty that are poorly executed and plenty that are well executed. And you notice it right away. |
| Everett | Great fonts. Swiss made on the dial. It's a, this is a killer watch. |
| Andrew | Yeah. I'm, I'm with it. Andrew, what's next? Next up for me. Uh, just something cool, you know, and I think, uh, just a little, just a little something cool. Tag Heuer turns on the brights with the new loom dial Monaco night driver. And I knew you were going to talk about this. This is why I sent you a link. Uh, even before that, This is so cool. I like. The Monaco is coming in so many iterations, and I think I've probably talked about seven different Monaco releases. We talk shit on Seiko all the time for they're just constantly churning out skews. Tag Heuer's doing the same thing. |
| Everett | Do you know anybody who's bought a Monaco? I mean, there are not a lot of people in our circles buying Tag Heuers, but there certainly are people. I have never seen a Monaco in the wild. I've never heard of someone buying a Monaco in the wild. Who is buying all of these Monacos? |
| Andrew | They have to be going like hotcakes. |
| Everett | People are buying them, obviously, but who is buying them? |
| Andrew | I don't know. I'd like to meet those people because I'd like to wear one of these. So the dial itself is the very traditional Monaco dial that you expect, but it's almost like a reverse, uh, reverse imagery loom. So the dark circle in the center with full loom on the outside around the circle on the edges of the dial and full loomed, uh, sub dials. This is cool. I, I'm just digging the, Monaco upgrades. I mean, we had this, I talked about the skeleton Monaco when it came out, cause it's just cool as shit. I just wish they were a little bit more affordable. |
| Everett | Well, yeah, that's the thing. These things are all coming out at seven to 15,000 bucks. |
| Andrew | This is 9,300 Swiss francs. There's only 600 of them being made. 900, 600 of them being made. Now it is also coming in titanium. I'm like some, some other cool shit besides this full loom. It's black DLC grade two, three titanium. What is it? Oh, DLC grade five titanium. Um, I mean, shit, just grade five titanium alone is going to put you over seven grand and then you put anything else into it. But I think the Monaco is just one of the coolest watches ever made. I really want to get one of the, One with the left hand pushers. But I also don't want to drop that kind of cash on it. Yeah. This is a cool watch. I mean, there's not much to talk about. It's a Monaco with a loom dial, but I fucking love this watch. It's great. And with only 600, they're going to sell just, they might already be gone. I've got a watch that I'd like to talk about. Is it cooler than this? |
| Everett | Um, probably not. I think, I mean, it's pretty fucking cool. So Patrick Bremer of the Bremois watch company. Uh, we've had a chance to talk with Patrick a couple of times. He is a fascinating dude. Uh, he's, I will say a very handsome man. It's distracting. Yeah. He's a handsome man, but he also makes a really terrific watches and he released a handful of years ago now. he released his debut watch, the Lexington, which was an homage to the Chrysler building. When I love it, when we get to use the word homage on the show, the way the word was intended to be used, this is a true homage to the cross Chrysler building. And he has released his second watch, which is an homage to the Eastern Columbia building in downtown Los Angeles, which is, I think it is a, an Adobe or a, um, or a stucco. I I'm not sure it is a, a beautiful building. Look it up. Um, because I think when you see the building, you will, uh, you will understand, uh, this watch is called, just the Eastern, it's not called Eastern Columbia, which that's fair. I'm fine with that decision. Um, and when you look at the watch and you look at the building, it's like, aha, aha. Okay. So nothing's been aped and yet the spirit is captured almost completely, I would say. Uh, Also, the Eastern Columbia building is freaking gorgeous. So what's different? I think the bezel is different. The dial is different. There's also a lot here that's the same. When you compare the Lexington and the Eastern, I think the mid case is nearly identical, if not identical. The movement's the same, STP 111. I think the crown is the same. However, the hands, the dial, the fonts are all different. And notably, the bezel is different. I think that the Lexington was controversial in that it's got sort of a stepped bezel. Gorgeous, extremely well executed, but different. Very Art Deco. But I think some people may look at that bezel and think, you know, it was maybe a step too far. Not for me. A step, a step too far. You did it. I feel good about it too. Well done. So with the Eastern, they have made the bezel, I think a little bit, uh, a little bit more digestible, uh, which is to say it's a sort of a, kind of a standard bezel. So if you were someone that looked at the Lexington and thought, I don't love it now, we've got some additional adornment on the, on the dial, at least in this one colorway, we've got gold numerals that are sort of on a, like a sector ring that is not outside and not inside. Yeah. Um, these are really, really interesting watches and they definitely got a vibe, right? I don't think you would be relegated to great Gatsby parties. However, this is not, I mean, this is a, uh, a particular, it's an enigmatic watch, right? This isn't maybe a go anywhere, do anything everyday watch. |
| Andrew | Oh, certainly not. But it's a really lovely watch. And at 985, you know, I think when I think of watches that are doing this kind of kind of playful color, almost artistry with the dial. Um, it, I'm hard pressed to come up with somebody doing a like thing. Like this is, this is a great go into the office watch when you know that the worst possible thing is that you might get into a car crash on the way there because it's, it's not, it's certainly not go anywhere, do anything, but it's very refined. It's, and, clean with still a lot of interesting things going on. It looks very much like the clock. Yeah. But it's a watch. That's right. Uh, the color integration is great. The, yeah, this is, it's really lovely. |
| Everett | Thus far, just one color on these. They're calling that Pacific. It's sort of a, a combination of a dark and a light blue with gold accents. Uh, and it's good. It is a very good color way. Kind of a flat hand. Mm. Uh, 50 meters of water resistance, sapphire crystal, 39 millimeter case. Terrific. No bracelet. No. And I don't think this is a watch that needs a bracelet. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Rare that I say that, but. I can't imagine wearing this on a bracelet. Yeah. It's lovely. Check it out. Andrew, what's next? Oh, next up for me. Gosh, there has been so many cool things. Um. Oh, load. Oh, loud. Uh, that's it wasn't lottying, but I was telling my phone to load. Uh, so Oris has done a new thing. Oris has updated something for us. And I think that they've, they've done what the people wanted. The Oris Divers 65 chronograph now available in 40 millimeters. |
| Everett | Andrew, have you ever put on one of the 65 chronographs? I don't think so. It is an absurd watch. It's a it's a cool watch, but it is fucking absurd. It is like, I don't know, they were like 18 millimeters thick. It's probably the thickest watch I've ever put on my wrist. |
| Andrew | 43 wide, 16 thick. 16? Yeah. I'm sure it was thicker than that. I'm reading it right now. Well, I'm not a doctor or anything, but I am literate. So it's still a little bit thick. It's coming in a 40 millimeter case width and 15 six thick. There's some grace in my heart for a little bit of thickness on a chronograph because I kind of want a little bit of thickness. Sure. I'm with you. I don't, I don't need it to be a slab though. This watch is it's the diver 65, right? This it's exactly that, but scaled down and is a really good release. I think these are going to move. Yeah, so it's they're using the AORUS 771. It's coming off the SW510. Only a 48 hour power reserve. I'm saying only because you care about things like that. I do not. That seems perfectly appropriate for a watch that I'm maybe going to wear at most like twice a month. I think it's cool. I think it's a good release and it's I think they're showing recognition of the fact that they're kind of missing a big chunk of the market by having a big old fatty is the only one available. Not cheap. Um, they are coming in at 4,400 on a bracelet and 4,200 on leather. Um, I can't say with a lot of confidence that this would be my go-to kind of four to $8,000 chronograph. Uh, I don't know this, that like, I don't know, without a few minutes to think, I can't, I don't know what else would beat it, but Oris has never really spoke to me in most of their watches. I have weird taste in my mouth from like some like aversion to Oris, just from some affiliations totally unrelated to anybody Oris related, but, but it's a really lovely watch and I'm really glad they sized it down because I know I've seen, oh my gosh, it's everywhere. I've seen them and I've obviously heard the complaints. So sizing it down, I think is a great move. |
| Everett | You know, in addition to, in addition to sizing it down, I think they've also taken care of some other things that I didn't love about this watch. The gilt fonts and all the gold tones and The faux Tina's. Yeah. They've they've resolved a lot of these. I'd say resolved is not unfair. They've resolved a lot of these things that I think. Rectified. Yeah. Made made the watch less less than ideal. It's super wearable now. Yeah, I think that's right. It's much more versatile. I think that's right. You know, just just to be clear, For about the price of this watch, I think you can get a Seamaster 300 chronograph. So let's just to be clear. You can also get a Speedmaster. Right. You can get a Speedmaster. That's right. |
| Andrew | Or a BR05 chronograph. Now they're coming to me. There's a lot of other options I'd go to first, but this is super sporty. |
| Everett | It's clean. I just want to say, Will did a review of this back in 2020 of the original. Uh, 16.8 millimeters thick. So Hodinkee is being kind when they say around 16. |
| Andrew | Around? Yeah. 16.8. That's like, no one has ever rounded down to 16 there. That's every bit of 17. All right. That's a big bitch. That's a big bitch. |
| Everett | Yeah, that's right. That's right. But it's, it's a, it's a cool watch. I had it on my list to talk about too. So it was a little sad that you stole it. They've, they've made this better being in the around 14 range. And 40 millimeters. |
| Andrew | I'd call that around eight if we're being, you know, really fair here. |
| Everett | That's a significantly more wearable watch. |
| Andrew | Fifteen four is still thick. And only 100 meters of water. I mean, I don't know. I know. |
| Everett | But 15 and change is like, OK. That's a chronograph. That's a 7750 chronograph. Yeah. This is not a 7750. It's the 510. But that's in the range. Yeah. |
| Andrew | I don't know. They're doing a thing and they're doing it intentionally because there are other much slimmer options they could go with. What you got? |
| Everett | Uh, Andrew, have you heard of the, I'm, this is one of those times where we say a word on the show. I know exactly what you're about to say. That we've never said before, but only read. Do you know the, the watch company, I believe Monami? Monami. I don't know if that's actually what you call it, but it's a French watch company. Nope. Okay. Well, a couple of years ago, uh, monomy watches, uh, released a watch called, I believe the LA F I, I hate it. It's terrible. Or maybe law F just not my watch. Like kind of a Hoyer square case thing with a weird sector. I don't like it. I don't like it at all. It's an automatique on the dial. It's look, I didn't love it. Monami has released a new watch called the La Fidel, which I believe is like. Oh, it says it here on Warner One, the loyal one. |
| Andrew | Oh, I thought they were, it was a homage to Mr. Castro. |
| Everett | Also, I know nothing about French. I'm probably saying Fidel wrong. So while they kept the automatique on the dial, still don't love it. It's French. Okay, fine. I think everything else here is better. The dial is better. This is an integrated steel sports watch in an acceptable size and with, I think, uh, I think fair to say, uh, interesting, um, aesthetics. So this is what you think it will be when I say those words. However, this is a $600 Nautilus ish. uh prx ish yeah it's really interesting watch it's 38 millimeters around 42 lug to lug 11.25 thick which at this price i will accept it uh 200 meters of water resistance miyota 9000 movement this is an interesting watch for 600 bucks right now oh |
| Andrew | Never mind, that's gone. That's gone. Where's the first available? It's fully funded on Kickstarter, so fully funded on Kickstarter. |
| Everett | That's right. I don't know if you can back this anymore. Oh, is it is it off? Is it off the table? |
| Andrew | I was just looking because I was intrigued enough. Yeah. |
| Everett | Well, there will. These are not limited. And so they will be available. |
| Andrew | I'm not going to pledge without a reward. Oh, there we go. Oh, you got to click on it. |
| Everett | And you got to click on the back of this project. |
| Andrew | Well, no, but then you got to click on the actual unit. |
| Everett | Yeah, there's still there's still available. |
| Andrew | Get two for 878 euros. |
| Everett | You can get four. For 1756, do you want you want to get four? I do believe you can still get the five four hundred and thirty nine. |
| Andrew | dollars 439 euro early birds so it come my my kickstarter might not be working because they're all showing zero seconds to go uh the single 439 euro you can get right now so it's coming in four colorways or five colorways really gray green copper and salmon these are all kind of unsaturated earthy metal tone colors not easter |
| Everett | Yeah, that's right. These are not Easter colorways. |
| Andrew | And a military version called La Fidèle Dirty Dozen. Yeah, fair enough. You'd think they would have also included the French. Dirty Dozen. OK, I have to have a word for dozen in French. |
| Everett | So what I won't say is that this is going to blow your socks off. If you're a person that listens to the show, you're not going to look at this and be like, With that said, we do this thing, right? Where we talk about new, interesting watch releases, especially affordable ones. To me, this is a new, interesting watch release. |
| Andrew | The Dirty Dozen one intrigues me the most because it's just a three-hander. It's a time only with a... Yeah, no date. Yeah, no date. |
| Everett | And an interesting dial. You do get a weird sort of topiness with the handset on that one that I'm not wild about, but... |
| Andrew | Kind of like these. Yeah. I mean, I don't like their logo. It's like a it's little it's no, I just don't like the design of the logo itself. It's a geometric like. Square made of triangles. |
| Everett | So that's actually a hexagon. |
| Andrew | No, it's a square, it's a three dimensional square. It's a cube. |
| Everett | I see what you're saying. |
| Andrew | We'll move on. I mean, I know it's, I recognize that in a 2d format it's, it's hexagon hex hexagonal, but I believe it's meant to be a 3d cube. Let's move on. I'm going to stick with this. I will, I will fight this one to the death. Cause if you zoom out on it, it looks like it's intended to be a cube. I'm going to kick you probably. Um, |
| Everett | The easiest way to rile up Andrew is just to look at him, not say anything at all, and just look at him, like, go on. That's the easiest way in my experience. |
| Andrew | I'm sweating. We have a new Psycho release. Shocker. Celebrating a weird birthday. 55 years. And As tribute for the 55 years of Seiko 5 Sports, they have used the inspiration of Bruce Lee. Now, I really like Bruce Lee, and I think they really tried hard with this release, and I think some people will like it, but I was pretty disappointed with I saw it and I was like, Oh, that's a cool person to celebrate for this. And then I looked at the watch some more and I was like, that's how you chose to do it. I don't get this watch at all. I do just do not get it. There were so many cool, there's so many cool ways you could integrate Bruce Lee into a good watch design. And it's just, it's just not like this is, I don't, I don't have anything to say about it that I like besides the available black and yellow nylon strap that comes with it as its secondary strap. It's such a bummer. It's this. So they tried to incorporate some really cool stuff. So Bruce Lee, obviously a super famous martial artist, really revolutionized the way Asians and Asian Americans were portrayed in Western media. did some really important stuff that has to have lasting impacts, not just in Hollywood, but globally. |
| Everett | And apropos to this conversation, famously wore a Seiko 5 sports watch back in the seventies. |
| Andrew | Which is why they chose to celebrate him because he's this iconic wearer of this line of watches. So they chose to do an etched |
| Everett | Embossed? |
| Andrew | Yeah, that's maybe where we're going to go with an embossed dragon on the black dial based off of one of his drawings. And I just I feel like with all of the other things going on that they're doing, they could have just skipped the dragon altogether. They have his a Jeet Kune Do saying around the bezel, which is cool. And it's in Chinese characters. I don't, I can't, I'm not going to look up what it says. I didn't commit it to memory. Um, no, uh, using no way as way having no limitation as limitation. They have that, uh, they have the Jeet Kune Do, um, emblem on the case back. And I feel like if they had just done those two things with an all black color way on a DLC case with yellow, accents around the markers. This actually might be pretty okay. I just feel like they smashed too much shit into it. |
| Everett | Yeah. This is like that kid's drawing where they start drawing the clouds and then they draw the grass and then draw the more grass. And then they're like, well, there's a lot of grass. So I need to draw all the blades of grass. And then they're like, Oh, but looking at the clouds, there's also lines everywhere. And so they draw more lines and then you just got, and then there's poop in the grass. |
| Andrew | So I need to draw that. And then there's also like the, it's, they, they, They had a bunch of great ideas, and I would hate to see what their first draft of this looked like if this is what came out of the press. |
| Everett | And we're poo-pooing this thing. If you love it, you love it. That's fine. But I will say, if you do love it, they're affordable. It's 520 euro, which is not nothing, but 580 bucks. But get them fast because these are limited. Limited to 15,000 pieces, which... What? Like everything is limited to 15,000 pieces, right? Like there's probably only like, I don't know, a hundred watches ever made that. Okay. Whatever. Uh, moving along. This just won't be one of them limited to 15,000 pieces. So, uh, yeah. |
| Andrew | Okay. Right. Just 10 pounds of shit in a five pound bag. Like there's so much opportunity for a cool thing here. |
| Everett | And this is a five K X it's neat. |
| Andrew | It's a bust. which is a bummer. |
| Everett | It's a boss. |
| Andrew | The, the strap though is, is dope. And it looks really good on the strap at a distance before you get close enough to see the dragon. |
| Everett | Um, so, uh, the citizen pro master tough land watches. I think we've talked about this on the show before in the context of the Ray mirrors version. Uh, Citizen just released a handful of ProMaster Land series watches. One of these is new. So they've released this ProMaster EcoDrive Altachrom. This is a 47 millimeter DLC super titanium, which is Citizen's Titanium technology with Duratect. This is a giant. Yeah, this is a giant chunky high altitude watch with eco drive. It's rad. It's got an altitude sensor, which is cool. We don't have a ton of watches with. Altitude sensors goes up to 10,000 meters or or 30 3000 feet. Um, and is good to 300 meters below sea level. It's neat. This is, this is a neat watch. Uh, and this is the story. The story is the Alta Kron. I'm not crazy about it just in terms of its utility, but it's cool. However, they have also in doing so released two new colors, to the Promaster Tough Land Super Titanium watches, which is a green and a gray. I think that these are not different than their current version of this watch. It's a 200 meter titanium quartz watch with their caliber E168 eco drive mechanism, which I think is Sort of like the high torque standard for them, the gold standard eco drive. But this, the both of these, I'm going to call it like an anthracite. I don't know if there's a name for this style color in a, in a jade green. These are both totally terrific. The jade green, this pro master tough, super titanium and green. |
| Andrew | Oh, my gosh, I can pass on the green. That gray is terrific. |
| Everett | The gray is terrific, too. It's like kind of a titanium. It really goes well with the case. |
| Andrew | It's gray enough that you can't discern that it's a titanium case. |
| Everett | These are terrific. Yes, these are money. And I kind of want one. Five hundred seventy five bucks. |
| Andrew | Come on. Which is a I mean, is a. Good value for what you're pulling out of that. |
| Everett | Yeah, so they're actually calling it. Interestingly enough, they're calling the gray black, which disagree. Yeah, agreed to disagree. These are terrific. I'd like to get one of these. I think if you want a. If you want to know shit, so these are Monica cases. If you're not familiar with these watches, look them up. If you want to know shit, tough end of the earth watch, an analog end of the earth watch. I don't think for certainly for under a thousand bucks, I don't think you can do better than this. |
| Andrew | I could go from being a little bit smaller. |
| Everett | They're 40 millimeters. |
| Andrew | 41. Oh, come on Andrew. That's it's 41. Go from being a little bit smaller. I think these are going to be great. All right. |
| Everett | We just get out of here. |
| Andrew | I mean, if I'm going to get a, Big ass watch. I'm gonna get this 47 millimeter Altecron. 47, right? |
| Everett | Yeah, 47 millimeter case. These actually don't wear super huge. I wouldn't hate this at 38, but I don't think 41 is inappropriate for this watch. |
| Andrew | No, I would prefer it at 38, though. Yeah. Being titanium at 38, too, would just be invisible. |
| Everett | Yeah, and these things are super light. They weigh almost nothing, but they look like a big, substantial watch. that with the Duratect and super titanium, that's going to wear super well. Don't need to worry about batteries. Like if you're truly in a, I'm not going to have access to any sort of utility for the next five to 10 years of my life. Pick up all three. This is, this would be a great watch for that circumstance. I'm going to take this backpack and I'll see you guys in a decade or so. Get this one. |
| Andrew | Yeah, no, I think you're, I think you're on it. They come on a titanium bracelet too. This is, these are good. Since we're talking about Citizen. Keep it, keep it going. A super accurate atomic timekeeping moon phase. So we have a moon phase release in the Tsukiyomi A t collection three new watches with the eco drive h874 movement that has a moon phase regulated by atomic timekeeping with a daily update this is the real end of the world because then you'll know what the moon looks like too i think it's interesting i've i've never really are these are these multi-bank i mean you can use these anywhere in the world yep They are what, seven band? Is that seven? Well, six. Six. Yeah. So it's automatically adjusted 850 bucks. They are 43 millimeters with 10.9 thick. Also titanium, a hundred meters of water resistance. Uh, they come in like very astral colors of the moon. There's a very red, like purpley moon, a deep blue moon, and then a white with like a little, little hue of purple moon in the background as the dial. Um, moon phase has always confused me, like the interest behind it in, in, in modern watch watch wearing. Um, it's kind of a subtle moon phase. on the six o'clock sub dial. It's got a chronograph function. I'm mostly excited that it's incorporating eco drive with multi-band to stay always charged and always accurate for your moon phase. Like we've just created the most accurate watch ever plus or minus 15 seconds, but, uh, it's going to update every day. Which is is this is a cool integration of technologies. And a weird implementation of what's kind of like high horology, moon phase design. It's it's very citizen and. Kind of weird. But I think I really like it. |
| Everett | Yeah, I'm into it. I mean, you're right. This is, this is sort of the space age shit that I don't usually go for, but yeah, this is good. |
| Andrew | It's just, it's just weird enough that I like it. |
| Everett | Yeah. I don't, I would, yeah, I would never buy this watch. |
| Andrew | Wouldn't kick it out of bed either though. |
| Everett | Um, well, since we're talking about citizen, I'm going to keep it in the family and talk about one final citizen that we have on our list. Your questioning eyes mean that I'm going to land this. Did you send a link? Bulova announced this week the Bulova Oceanographer GMT, which is a devil diver with a 9075 in it. This is a GMT devil diver. and it is superb. So if you've been into watches in the last dozen or so years, you'll know that Bulova has had some success with their Devil Diver 666, first in an obnoxiously large watch, later in a more conservatively sized watch. The Bulova Devil Diver is famous, a famous dial, kind of some, these weird glass cylinders on the markers, which I don't know that I, if there's any other watch that has used that aesthetic. There's probably a reason. And now with the 9075 being obviously high enough in production numbers, um, they've done a devil diver with the GMT movement. Uh, I'm, I'm good with this watch. |
| Andrew | I'm, I'm good with it too. A 41 millimeter case is the, what, when did we go to Mexico and try on a devil diver for the first time? Was that like 2016? |
| Everett | Yeah, that sounds right. No, maybe 2018, 2017, 18. We were doing the show. So maybe 18. Yeah, it must have been 18 or 19 in that case. They were just way too big. It was a big watch. It was a big chunky watch. Yeah. |
| Andrew | So these are, maybe it was 2019. |
| Everett | Yeah, that's what I think. 20, 2019. So it was spring of 19. So these are 41 millimeters. Andrew said 14 six, which is not thin, but we've got a lot going on here. We've got a GMT movement. We've got 200 meters of water resistance, 666 feet famously. Uh, we've got a big dome Sapphire crystal. So the, the thickness is excused by the function of the watch. Um, We've got three colorways. We've got terrific looking bezels. Kind of a doxa-ish case on this thing, which is the aesthetic. A lot of polish. |
| Andrew | They've also done away with the butterfly clasp. |
| Everett | And they've done away with the butterfly clasp. Thank you, by the way. This is a flip lock clasp. We've got a sort of a red and blue. We've got sort of a stoic black. Um, we've got a fantastic looking bracelet. We've got an IP black, uh, white with full loom and white with full loom. Yeah. Uh, I don't really, I don't really know what else to, Oh, and then there's a guilt case by the way, the sort of root beer guilt case, which, um, I don't really know what more to say about this. I think the details are all there. They're not cheap. We're looking at $1350, which is appropriate. I mean, this is a GMT, automatic GMT in a sort of historic line within Boliva's lineup. There's nothing wrong with the price, but you're not going to, this isn't a bargain by any means, but it looks to me like you're going to get value for this. And if you dig the watch, I mean, is there an automatic dive GMT for less than $1,300 right now? I mean, they're doing it. |
| Andrew | The Seiko 5 GMT. |
| Everett | Oh, okay. Yeah, no. Fair enough. This is a 200 millimeter 200 meter watch though. |
| Andrew | So just so the the Pepsi and the root beer both come with a 24 hour bezel and the full loomed white comes with a true dive timer bezel. Yeah, just noteworthy. And I that's the one I like the most anyway. |
| Everett | And it has your 24 hour markings on the on the minute track. Yeah. |
| Andrew | I think that's a that's a clever way or the hour track. |
| Andrew | Yeah. |
| Everett | Because there's no hour markers. That's right. Yeah. Well, there are there are markers. There are the glass. There's no minerals. There are no minerals. That's right. |
| Andrew | So these are these are cool. That was a clever way to do that. I like that. They are cool. I don't see one in my future, but they're they're definitely cool. |
| Everett | Yeah, I'm probably more likely to buy this than that less than the last citizen we talked about. Definitely. You know, Andrew, there's at least I closed like six tabs. There are at least one more watch that I think we could talk about. I think we talk about it more because of at least how much I hate it than anything. The khaki field expedition was announced this last week. How much you hate it. And I think it is a big piece of poop, which is not to say it's not a quality watch. I'm sure it is an extremely high quality watch, but I do not remember a major, well-respected watch manufacturer that I respect as much as Hamilton for their responsible releases, putting out a watch in the last several years that I hated as much as this. This is a field watch with an external bezel that does none of the traditional field watch things I like. Has a bizarre, bizarrely executed compass bezel. That feels like it's from another decade. |
| Andrew | That's what chapped me about this release. |
| Everett | Has an obnoxious dial layout. incorporates faux loom, has mismatched hour and minute hands with an hour hand that's about 20% too long. It's conservative. And a stupid crown. I hate almost everything about this watch. |
| Andrew | I think if they put a 12 hour on this, you would be less offended. |
| Everett | Maybe? That might help. If this had a bezel that wasn't freaking dumb, I might hate it less. |
| Andrew | Yeah, this is a weird, a really weird move. |
| Everett | I don't remember a watch that hated as much as this. I can send you some links. I love Hamilton. I, and everything Hamilton puts out. I'm like, this is cool. This is cool. I mean, they got some weird shit. |
| Andrew | It's got a 60 click bi-directional though. |
| Everett | This is not supposed to be weird shit. This is supposed to be Hamilton heritage line and I fucking |
| Andrew | hate it. It comes in 37 and 41. I like the idea of this watch and then seeing it because it also comes in titanium and on a bracelet. |
| Everett | I'm cool. 37, 41. |
| Andrew | That's a great decision. The, the bezels of poor choice, the hands don't make sense. Really even the dial, like the dial itself is kind of an odd choice given the, even the dials that already exist in their catalog. |
| Everett | Yeah, it's there's a lot of weird decisions and it's 1000 bucks and you've got a uniform size one through 12 hour markers. This is this is a terrible watch. I'm sorry if you love it. I'm sorry, but it's a terrible choice. You should take it back. |
| Andrew | Yeah, it's like the. The wish version of the Explorer 2. |
| Everett | This feels to me this feels to me like a. 1990s fossil watch. That's what this feels to me like. |
| Andrew | It's the compass bezel. |
| Everett | That's what it is. And I say that with the utmost respect. For fossil in the 90s. For fossil in the 90s. I mean, you've got a great movement. You've got an H10. You've got 200 meters of water resistance. You've got a great size. Two great sizes, 37 and 41, both of them Under 11 millimeters thick. Oh, that's not true. The 41 is 11 and a half. Oh, excuse me. 100 meters of water resistance. With that said, I hate it. |
| Andrew | There's a lot of hate it missed points of execution. Did I say I don't like it? You haven't said you don't like it, but look at a distance. This like kind of at a distance wrist shot. If that could be just a steel |
| Everett | If this had a sir, a 12 hour bezel, a different dial, a different bezel, a different handset and no full loom, throw that bitch in the lake and I'd like it more. |
| Andrew | It'd be rad. I think it's a really cool idea because I think that kind of field dive watch from Hamilton is a is a cool idea. Like taking the khaki mechanical and adding a functional bezel to it would have been really neat. |
| Everett | It's just that they didn't do that. It's such a weird watch. |
| Andrew | Yeah, they didn't do that. This looks like a Kickstarter watch. |
| Everett | You know, I'm wearing my Hamilton coupe today, which is also a weird watch, right? I bought this thing on a whim. It's too big. I mean, it's not too big. It's objectively not too big. |
| Andrew | It's objectively just the right size for an aviator's watch. |
| Everett | But it's kind of huge for me. It's a big slab. Um, I, it wasn't new when I bought it. It's been really well worn, but it still looks terrific. This to me is a watch that makes sense though, right? A hundred percent. The dial makes sense and it looks good and it feels good. There's nothing weird on this. Some people don't like the day date, love the day date. Like this is a, This is just a good watch. Hamilton, Katka mechanical. |
| Andrew | Love it. Hamilton doesn't do weird shit besides the Ventura. Like that's weird. And it was also an iconic nineties watch via men in black and plenty of celebrities before then. |
| Everett | Yeah, sure. This, this new release that's been like kicked out to every single publication with, with press releases, like no, |
| Andrew | I don't remember the last time we just talked about a watch to trash it on this show, but they didn't, they must've known how you would feel about it specifically because we did not get the press kit. |
| Everett | Andrew, here we are over an hour. Anything you want to talk about before we move it along? |
| Andrew | No, I'm all out of things. I, like I said, I closed a bunch of links. We didn't get through our list. |
| Everett | Not even fucking close. There are like 10 watches, 10 drops that we didn't talk about. Andrew, Other things, what do you got? |
| Andrew | I have another thing. So I've talked about Wisps in the past, which are cheese crisps. They're baked cheese. Yeah. Right. Everyone likes crispy cheese. So I'm at Costco the other day and I see this bag and it's like right next to the Wisps. And I say, I'll give that a try. It's from a company called Sonoma Creamery. I'm going back in. And I got the Pepper Jack cheese crisps. They're, I don't, I don't know. It's a Costco. So everything's 20 bucks. So I assume that it was 20 bucks. It wasn't, it was probably 10 bucks, maybe 15, but it was, but everything's $20 at Costco. So Costco prices on Amazon, they're a little bit less, um, direct from Sonoma creamery. They're 50 bucks. Don't buy direct from them because, Oh no, So it's 12, 2.25 ounce bags. I was going to say, it's got to be like a 10 pack or something. Two 10 ounce bags is 30 bucks. And the package that I got from the Costco is a 10 ounce bag. So actually the two 12 ounce bags is not that big of a deal because that's like Costco pricing. |
| Everett | But do you want me to do your other thing? Because I think I could. |
| Andrew | These are so good. So baked pepper jack cheese. almost like extra toasty cheese it like just like seriously three seconds from getting into that burnt bitter space a little bit of heat on them perfect crisp these are my new favorite snack you know what they taste like like baked pepper jack cheese no do you know when you fry a grilled cheese sandwich like a cheese skirt yeah |
| Everett | And there's that little piece of cheddar that falls out of the sandwich and stays in the pan. And then you come back later, like an hour later to do the dishes and you pick that piece of cheese up off the cast iron. That's what that tastes like. It's a little less greasy. It's not greasy at all. |
| Andrew | In fact, no, super, super dry. Like I, I opened it and I took a bite and I was like, Oh no, see you later bag. And I've been pretty disciplined and not eaten the whole bag yet. |
| Everett | Yeah. That's like, uh, that's like, uh, if you're trying to do like low carb or keto, that's, that's going to ruin your life. |
| Andrew | Yeah. In a good way. Yeah. I've been trying to do some like better macro tracking cause I'm doing a little bit of a dirty bulk period right now. And these have been, these have been helpers. Yeah. That's my other thing. Delicious cheesy snacks. That's your other thing. Yeah. Uh, you can, I brought the sandwich bag of them for you. Oh, I'll just eat them all. Uh, please don't do it while you're talking though. |
| Everett | I may, I may just, uh, I went to get my skis tuned. This is the time, by the way, reminder, PSA, get them, get them tuned. |
| Andrew | Now get them sharpened, wax tuned up. Do it now. |
| Everett | Cause they're going to be busy in about six days. This is the time. So PSA, go get your skis tuned. Uh, I went to draw my skis off to get them tuned. this week. And while I was there, they had a display that I'd never seen before. I'm probably, I'm guessing I have seen it, but I just never registered it before. This is, how do you pronounce that? How do you pronounce that word, Andrew? Voile? Voile. So there's a company called Voile and they make straps. They make a whole bunch of shit actually, but Of note, and apropos to our conversation today, they make straps. This is a rubber strap with an aluminum buckle, polyurethane. They're stretchy, not super stretchy, but stretchy. |
| Andrew | They have just a little bit of give. I have, we use these at work for something. |
| Everett | So that is, so that's actually, that's actually why I'm going to talk about this. So Andrew is not a professional skier. Andrew's a law enforcement officer. I bought these straps. They're marketed as ski straps. In fact, I think they're called ski straps. So I bought the 15-inch Voile Straps Aluminum Buckle Ski Strap. That's how they sell this thing. Look, these things are like one of the greatest things ever. This is basically a watch strap. In terms of function, you wrap it around a thing, you put the strap through the end, but they're these giant stretchy polyurethane straps. Not stretchy. Flexible. Flexible. That's right. They don't, they're not stretchy. You're right. It's not like a bungee or rubber. |
| Andrew | It's important. They, they cinch shit down tight and because they got a little bit of give to them, like when you're stuffing that canvas bag full, they got a little bit of give so you can really stuff it down and hold stuff secure. |
| Everett | That's the word give. They give, they don't stretch. And don't break. |
| Andrew | I'm going to get like a hundred of these things. We use them to secure all of our breaching tools, like a sledgehammer and a halogen, which are heavy. And those are what secure them down to each other. |
| Everett | So the reason they work so well for skis is because of that give. Just put them around the skis. They're durable. They're tough. You can just tell you pick these things up. I can't break you. The buckle, it like has this, it's aluminum, but it's got this like really good feel to it. The manufacturing on it is nice. If you like things, I like things. You guys, if you like things, you're gonna like these. They're cheap and it's the type of thing you'll get one and you'll be like, I can find many more uses for this. So Wally, I understand. So if you go to volley straps on Instagram, I understand they run a contest, which is you submit a photo of you using their strap and you can win like the full kit. And some of the pictures are hilarious. So one of the winners that I saw was a fellow that had hurt himself, broken his leg and was using crutches. And he had used the strap to fix his coffee mug to his crutch. |
| Andrew | Baller. Yeah. Not super practical because you will spill that coffee. |
| Everett | I'm sure. Yes. The point is these things are like one of the most versatile tools I think I've ever picked up. And they're. Yeah. Seven bucks a strap. Seven bucks. That's right. So when you go to get your skis tuned. Pick a couple pick up a couple of Wall-E straps. Tell them Everett sent you. |
| Andrew | I get. They will look confused. |
| Everett | 50% of all gross sales. |
| Andrew | They'll be even more confused when you tell them that. |
| Everett | And just get the, I mean, if you like things, if you're like me and you like things, even if you don't know what you're going to do with it, just get like 30 of them. |
| Andrew | 25. You got to go even numbers. |
| Everett | 24. Yeah. |
| Andrew | Done deal. Then you can bind 12 things together. |
| Everett | Andrew, here we are once again at the end of the show. Is there anything you'd like to add? |
| Andrew | I liked that Hamilton watch. |
| Everett | Hey, you guys, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker podcast. Check us out at WatchClicker.com where you can find every single episode of this podcast, maybe not the show notes, but every single episode. You can also check us out on Instagram at WatchClicker or at 40 and 20 underscore WatchClicker. If you want to support us, and oh boy, we hope you do, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Look guys, it's not, it doesn't cost a lot of money to do a website and a podcast, but it costs some. And the folks that support us on Patreon make it happen. Keep us going after almost five years. We're coming up on it. 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. Buh-bye! |