Episode 259 - The Best/Ugliest Citizen Ever?

Published on Wed, 11 Oct 2023 23:23:25 -0700

Synopsis

The episode starts with the hosts discussing pumpkin ale beer and an upcoming annular solar eclipse. They then review and critique several new watch releases, including the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility, Baltic Hermetique, Citizen Eco-Drive 365, Alsta Nautoscaph, Mecheline watches, Tamor field watch, and Serica 6190 field chronometer. They express excitement about the Eco-Drive 365's impressive 365-day power reserve but criticize its unappealing design. The hosts also analyze data suggesting an improvement in the Rolex supply chain issue. Additionally, one host recommends the comedy movie "Strays" and discusses his search for a high-quality 6-in-1 screwdriver for a legacy toolkit he plans to gift his children.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the Watch Player Podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, I'm not sure I care how you are right now because this great gourds of fire is delightful. I brought a good beer. You did bring a good beer. This is from Hopworks Urban Brewery based out of Portland. It's a pumpkin ale. with ancho chilies and spices. And one of my primary bitches about pumpkin ales come fall is that they like, I like a pumpkin pie beer. I like night owl a lot. Like take a pick of pumpkin beers, but they're very pedestrian. They're very one dimensional. It's like, okay, neat. Here is a pumpkin pie beer. This is that on the front and then has just this nice subtle kind of like Mexican hot chocolate warmth throughout.
Everett It's not really spicy, but you get, uh, you get that flavor of, of spice. You get like the.
Andrew You get the mouthfeel of chilies. Yeah. Like it's just a Mexican hot chocolate. It's not spicy. It's just warming. Yeah. But just on, just on your tongue, like kind of the back third of your tongue.
Everett It's pretty good. So two things. One, Hopworks is a really cool company. Uh, if you don't know now, you know, uh, two, well, three things, two, Most of their beers come in tall boys, which I'm a huge fan of. Four packs. That's right. If 12 is good, 16 is better. Almost always. And three, I had one of these the other night and I was like, holy crap, this is maybe my favorite fall beer. I think with brown ales or any sort of autumnal ale,
Andrew Oh, we're going classy tonight.
Everett You tend to get you tend to get that like really springy bubble.
Andrew Mm hmm. And yeah, way high carbonate.
Everett Yeah. This is this has got a nice relaxed bubble, which I like. Give me a relaxed bubble. It's almost not quite almost got a nitro vibe to it.
Andrew Oh, yeah. It's got a very creamy mouthfeel. Um, uh, uh, nice and moist. Uh, no, it's got like a, like a thick, a thick texture.
Everett Um, all right, moving on. Everett, how are you? I'm doing great, man. Yeah, we, we had a, I think our first, like it's fall day.
Andrew here in Oregon. I was outside all day for it, so I'm well aware.
Everett Not bad. Dang near the middle of October, but it was like, I am fall and I have arrived.
Andrew And here's some rain. Torrential at points.
Everett And you know, it's rained, but it's always kind of felt like that summer rain. Today was like a little chilly. You got some of that like weird humidity, but also cold. Anyway, it was like, here we are. Fall has arrived. Everybody's got their Halloween decorations up. Trees are turning. I was like, I'm kind of into it, frankly.
Andrew Yeah. I'm kind of into it. I've been ready for fall feel. Cause we just haven't had it. It's felt like, like last week I got sunburned through a t-shirt.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. We had some like 85 degree days last week.
Andrew That's too much for Oregon fall. Yeah. And now it's here. Kind of enforced, and hopefully what I'm, the long range projections say that Saturday will be a good day for us to be in the prime viewing of the annular eclipse. I will not be in Oregon at the time, so I'm gonna miss it.
Everett Yeah, what time is that?
Andrew Ooh, I think it's in the morning. It's like nine in the morning.
Everett So I think it is going to happen either during or right before my nephew's soccer game, which is kind of fun. Like we will be at the soccer game, uh, during the eclipse.
Andrew I'm looking right now at NASA's website. No, that's the travel organ. I don't care about that. NASA's website.
Everett Uh, yeah, I didn't, um, you know, I was thinking changes is different depending on where you're at for, for obvious reasons.
Andrew Um, um, It begins in Oregon at 9.13 a.m. PDT and ends in Tejas at 12.03 p.m. CDT.
Everett Yeah, so I think probably like 9.30-ish, so probably right at the beginning of the game. I wonder if they'll stop the game.
Andrew I don't think they'll have a choice. Yeah. It will turn to night.
Everett It's annular. So it's not as full. It's not a total eclipse of the sun.
Andrew But the total eclipse, it turned to like darkest night I've ever experienced. Dark.
Everett So you don't get that with an annular eclipse. It's still it stays. I mean, it definitely becomes less bright.
Andrew I mean, 98 percent of the sun is obscured.
Everett Yeah. And we might also have a pretty significant cloud cover. So I think that that will That will change things.
Andrew It's looking good right now. I'll be in Las Vegas this weekend. So I'll be in the like, like 80% coverage zone at what, like this night in the morning or it'll probably be like 10, 15, 10, 30.
Everett Is Vegas, uh, mountain time?
Andrew It looks like it. You're right. It looks like it ought to be mountain time, but, uh, Yeah, we decided to go this weekend because next weekend is the World Series of Poker. So everything was three times more expensive, though it would have been really cool to be there during World Series of Poker. It was not three times more expensive. Worth it. Cool.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Well, that'll be fun.
Andrew It will be fun. Vegas will be fun. I'm gonna go to a bunch of ADs. One of the things that I'm going to talk about tonight is related to that. I'm excited by it. There's some data driven science there. Um, and that being said, we should maybe talk about watches instead of beer and soccer. Yeah. I mean, we're seven minutes.
Everett That's fine. Folks just stick around. We always get there.
Andrew We're talking about interesting stuff, stuff you should care about.
Everett But as you stay, we are talking about watches tonight. We're going to do a straight roundup tonight. Uh, before we move into our new format, we're going to go back to a little bit of just a classic straight round up. Um, because there was just too much cool stuff to talk about. Oh, so Andrew, if you're listening, Andrew wasn't here last week.
Andrew I wasn't. And I did not listen to the episode. I had a weird week. Wasn't able to be here. Thanks Will for, pardon. Thank you daddy for stepping up, covering for me. That's what daddies do. And I appreciate it.
Everett So you all at home know that we're going to move into sort of a, themed roundup as we move forward. I'll give Andrew the details. He's always late to the party with these things.
Andrew Never once been on time, fashionably late as it were.
Everett He'll be fine. He'll be fine. We are today talking about watches. Andrew, do you, do you want to kick us off? Do you want me to kick this off?
Andrew Allow me please. Uh, cause it's something that I'm like is interesting, but it's also very much like the moon watch iterations. Um, kind of, It's kind of worn out for me in the way of the new limited edition Porsche design chronograph one utility. Cool thing about this is they're doing it in their proprietary titanium carbide, which is neat. Uh, but also, you know, at some point you just got to accept that that well is empty and quit going back to it and do other cool shit. I understand that the Porsche Design Chronograph One is kind of a thing in and of itself, and they can make a hundred iterations and every single iteration is going to be really cool because they have all this cool technology and all this cool financial ass to do R&D and to do neat materials. But at some point for me, enough is enough. I don't need the same watch in a dozen materials. And that's kind of where I'm at with this. I saw it. I'm like, oh, cool. Titanium carbide. Neat. in and of itself, but not really neat enough to get me jacked up. This is a limited edition of 250 pieces, which is definitely appropriate for this kind of iterative release. They're doing a thing here. I'm not sure if I get it. It's definitely not for me. Do more shit in titanium carbide, though, because that is for me. Not my wallet, but that's for me.
Everett Yeah, so I'm on record, I think. In saying the Porsche Orfina military case, I think this is probably, if not my favorite, one of my favorite cases of all time. I think that there's really something special about it. I'm fine with this for a couple reasons. One, it's limited edition and it's truly limited to 200 pieces. Two, it's got a whole bunch of neat shit going on. So this is not a military, it's a utility, which
Andrew Okay. I'm not 100% sold on the real differences.
Everett It's got a logo at 430, which is a marmot, which I'm cool with that. It's a monkey. A monkey, which is... A marmot. A marmot. It's a weasel. And it is a, um, it's, it's a, a driving destination. So these are, you know, really neat watches. They've got the work 1.2 40 movement, which is a fantastic fly brat flyback chronograph movement from Porsche. This is a really, a pretty terrific movement. It's got great dimensions, uh, 40 millimeters. It's a little bit of a chunk. 14.15, but you get all the water resistance. This is not a cheap watch. $13,000. It's got a terrific set of colors. You've got a little bit of blue on the dial.
Andrew It's a beautiful watch.
Everett Yeah. And so I'm fine with it. Look, there's always There's always room for more watches.
Andrew OK, I I'm not. I don't know. I saw the Harvest Moon release today. Cost certified, by the way. It is. It is cost, which you'd sort of expect at the $13,000 price point. And it's my in-house stuff. I'm just I iterative releases. Not improvement, but just like tweaks. or maybe grinding my gears right now. You know, I think you're going to be okay.
Everett I probably won't be. This does have a quick release system on it. And I don't see, I haven't been able to figure it out, but it looks to me, uh, like the quick change may be the same as in your, it looks super similar to the Santos, except that the, the press,
Andrew isn't isn't flush. Yeah, it sticks out a little bit. Yeah. Like for the unfamiliar, the quick release functionality in the Santos is a flush depression that when you depress it, it releases the spring bars. This is kind of a button press. It's very much the same technology with just a slightly different execution. But it comes on a leather bun strap and a what's a nylon
Everett Yeah. Some sort of nylon. Yeah.
Andrew With the location for the fat ice race in Zalam Sea.
Everett I do think that it is that Cartier licenses that, that tech for the quick release. Don't quote me, but I do believe that's a licensed tech. And so that it.
Andrew Well, that was why, um, who was making the aftermarket straps, uh, D lugs. Yeah. That's why that was what D lugs ran into was they were, uh, they were doing something that maybe ought not to have been. Yeah. So then they quickly stopped.
Everett It's, it's very possible that, um, it's very possible that Porsche's figured out a way to license that tech. So that wouldn't be surprising. Hey, look, this is a cool watch. I'm, I'm not opposed even a little bit. Um, but I, I hear what you're saying. Cool case, cool movement.
Andrew Cool material, right? The titanium carbide is neat.
Everett And the one, I'll just say the 1.140 movement or 1.240 is a, I mean, it's a modified 7750 is what this winds up being, right? 1.140. Yeah, I think it might be 1.240. It's 1.140 caliber. I'm reading it on the spec sheet.
Andrew I'm showing Andrew and I may be wrong. And I'm showing later in the article that you might be wrong. Somebody's wrong here. And it's not us. It's Hodinkee. That's what I say. Who's miss. I'm not sure which it is. They are lying to us. We should start a campaign against this just irresponsible journalism where typos are unacceptable. I want to talk about Baltic. Ooh. Oh yeah. Actually I was intrigued by that too.
Everett So Baltic French brand maker of micro brand watches that are very affordable. And when we say very affordable, I mean, 500 bucks, right? Yeah, like to 1000. Baltics making 500 to $1,000 watches, which is very much our space. And they they released a new one. They released a new one. They're calling this the okay, look, I'm not French or swish. I believe. Swish. Swish. Uh, I believe hermetic tour.
Andrew I think hermetic tour.
Everett Okay. Uh, which is a 37 millimeter. I'd call this a field watch or, or perhaps a, uh, or, or perhaps a, an Explorer's watch. This is a classic field watch with phenomenal dimensions, a gorgeous dial, wonderful fonts, which fonts are your love language, which one of my favorite things and a sleeper, a sleeper case. Okay. Yes. The case on this thing is a sleeper. Uh, it, at first glance, this is a really sort of straightforward, 1960s, I'd say maybe 50s. Yeah, I'd go 50s. This is small. Dial sports case, but it's got, it's got a trick up its sleeve, which is a integrated crown or a crown that's sort of recessed or integrated into the case at the three o'clock.
Andrew Very much the way the SNK crown is recessed into the case.
Everett Yes. And, perhaps even a little bit more, uh, perhaps even a little, now there's, there's some, some Easter eggs here. So there is a very, very famous watch designer from the late 19th, early 20th century named Francois Bourgel or Borgel. You can DM me if you, if you care, uh, who was along with, our good friend, friend of the show, Hans Wulldorf, one of the sort of pioneers of waterproof cases. And Mr. Borgel actually has a claim to earlier waterproof case designs than even Hans Wulldorf. And this fellow was selling watches, watch cases specifically to the likes of Patek Philippe, IWC, Mido, you know... Movado.
Andrew Big... Oh, the mighty have fallen.
Everett Big players. A couple watches that are notable to that point. One is the 1950s Mido Multifort Powerwind, which is a Borgel designed case that looks very much like this Hermetique. Another one is the, it's an IWC and it is called, oh boy, I'm sorry. I had to look up, oh, the Hermet, or Hermet, which, interesting, okay, we're starting to get somewhere. Also, there is a patent from Mr. Borgel from, I want to say 1894 for a three-piece waterproof pocket watch case, wherein he calls it the Hermetique. The three-piece. And so this, we've got a whole bunch of Easter eggs. I don't see that Baltic is being, um, I don't see that Baltic is being real explicit about any of this stuff, which I kind of like. They're certainly not trying to hide it. But they're being really subtle about it. This is a really subtle, nerdy homage. And I'm here for it. So a couple of things you might notice, 12369 case, kind of explorer-ish. This doesn't look anything like an explorer. However, it fits right into their Baltic like Laurier, and I put these two brands in, I put them pretty closely together.
Andrew They live in the same neighborhood.
Everett These are my favorite kinds of brands. Here we have a watch that is totally different than anything that's ever been made and yet captures the essence. It's so familiar. So familiar. This captures the essence of what this watch may have been perfectly modern, perfectly capable 150 meter watch beautifully constructed modern construction all around you can get this on a tropical strap you can get it on a flat link you can get it on a jubilee or excuse me a beads of rice miyota 9039 you've got this great three-dimensional loomed markers on the dial you've got this ring of metal i mean totally modern but feels like it could be From 1960. I'm seeing two different dials.
Andrew Well, there are four dials. Not colors. I'm seeing different. Oh, no, that's a Mido. That's a reference dial. OK. Yeah. So there is a. I like those triangular markers, even with the like kind of pyramid. Like that, that true vintage Mido reference. Oh yeah. Those are really like that with the pyramid markers and the kind of like almost like Luxor pyramid, uh, feel, uh, 12, six, three and nines. I like that. I want one of those. You know, I think the Mido multi-fort power wind.
Everett Here we are in the middle of October and I think Baltics got a case. for the best watch release of the year. The best micro brand or affordable watch release of the year. There's something to be said for this is not fancy. This is a three hand watch.
Andrew It's inspired though. It is such a great distillation of so many things and you can recognize all of those things in it. And it's still a creation in and of itself.
Everett Mjolnir 9039, whatever. Great. I love that movement, obviously. We've got 37 millimeters, 11 millimeters thick, even with the big old crystal, big, bright lume. And I'm glad they went with the 20 millimeter lugs here. I think a lot of companies would be tempted to go with an 18 or a 19. They did the right thing. 20 is the right decision here. 37 millimeter case. I think it's terrific. I think this might be my sub 1000 watch of the year.
Andrew I think that 20 millimeter lug width on a 37 millimeter or even 36 millimeter watch forces your perspective to make that watch feel and wear smaller. I think when you shrink your lugs down to 18 it it falsely inflates the size of the dial and and appears to be a 40 millimeter watch. Because proportionally, that's how it ought to be. But with a little bit wider lug set on there, it shrinks the head of the watch. And I think that's a really appropriate size. That 36 by 20 makes that watch look, feel, and appear smaller on your wrist.
Everett Yeah, it's not a bad point, yeah.
Andrew And if you're wanting to wear a 50s, 60s style, inspired even by older watch design, you want it to look smaller. I mean, this would be money at like 34 by 18, but a 37 by 20 is like, is proportionately super appropriate.
Everett Yeah. I think this thing's, I think it's great. Uh, I'm not officially ranking it or naming it anything, but I think this is a candidate for whatever it did just go on record and say top three of the year. It's certainly a candidate. It's up there. This is a really killer release from Baltic. Andrew, what's next?
Andrew I have a watch that I think I hate, but has some really cool shit that I'm super excited about. Tell me more. It is Citizen's EcoDrive 365. Oh yeah, I hate it.
Everett Yes, you were right the first time.
Andrew I, I just, I don't, I don't get it. Right. These, these kind of are reminiscent of the, um, what are they? The world travelers that have the weird color way with the globe design on the background, those GMTs, that's a citizen watch, uh, the color. So, so the one that, I'm looking at right now is a just a train wreck of a K shape. With a faux adventuring adventure, adventuring dial. Are we sure it's faux adventuring? It's not adventuring. OK. With gold mixed with ruby. These are just, these are fucking ugly, but an eco drive three 65 is so cool. They have created a movement that they're releasing in, in, you know, a top 10 worst watch release, including Boulevard and citizen watch releases of the century with the Perhaps coolest movement that has ever been in the way of an ecodrive that on a full charge has a 365 day power reserve. This is stretching the limits of what quartz and what ecodrive can do and this is so freaking cool. I don't know why I'm like, I'm like sweaty about why they would drop it in this train wreck. Like, like some, some people are going to like this and then I don't want to poo poo on it because if you like it, awesome, right? There are a lot of watches out there that are as ugly as sin and people are going to like them and they're going to wear them. For example, I saw a dude at the pumpkin patch this weekend wearing this weird smush motion combination. of a Santos. What was that word? Smush Martian. Okay. Uh, of a Santos like kind of shape, but with like weird octagonal casing, uh, that was all like faux diamond out. And he had face tattoos. So that like, I, I don't really need to say more on that, but I saw it at a distance. I was like, that's an iced train wreck. What are you wearing? Like Invicta wouldn't even do that. Who? Who did this? That's kind of what this watch is to me. It's got really weird geometry. If they'd have just shaved off even one angle, I think this had a lot of potential to be cool.
Everett The faux aventurine is a really weird choice, but... Yeah, and they're pitching that faux aventurine as if it's like an experimental dial technique. It's like, why don't you just Just adventuring it. This this thing's awful. It does have a Borgel case, though I notice.
Andrew The movement. This is such cool technology. I cannot wait to see what Citizen starts dropping this 365 into because I cannot imagine a world with like their pro master diver with a 365 that I'm there the day of drop. I'll stand in a line. I will be there for it because this is super, super cool technology.
Everett Well, and it's fixing a real problem. We hear all the time from people, you know, DMS and whatnot about how, you know, folks can't, they just don't have enough charge with their eco drive watches. So it just doesn't last quite long enough. I'm being completely sarcastic.
Andrew You have to leave it in a window. No, it's you do you, if you're, if it's not a regular wear watch, you have to leave it in a window because nobody likes the five second or three second jump to indicate a low battery. It's a really great idea, but How cool would it be to get your watch on a full charge and just drop it in your watch box like an actual grab-and-go quartz?
Everett This coming from the man who's been shitting on the Powermatic 80 for the last five years.
Andrew The Powermatic 80 doesn't do what I want it to do. I want to be able to put my watch in my watch box in March and feel like in July wearing it again. No, it's good. And it's still running like a grab-and-go quartz. And that's what the goal of EcoDrive was to do, was to replace battery-powered quartz. And it hasn't been able to do that until this point. And now it has, that technology now exists to replace a battery entirely and not require you to wind or set your watch. All right, I'm sold. Stop yelling at me. No, shut your mouth. This is cool. This is Citizen's best release since the EcoDrive release. And they did it in the worst possible platform.
Everett Uh, speaking of, speaking of watches that should be really neat, but I just simply can't, I can't get over this fucking dial. It's so bad. The whole thing, man. The case is, I mean, it's a complete non-starter. I don't even want to talk. I'm getting upset.
Andrew This is so bad.
Everett There's a watch company called Alsta. Alsta is a old company. Quite. And now they may or may not be... Zombie. Eating brains. Alsta, famous, famous, perhaps most famously from Jaws, but with its own actual appeal as a company outside of Jaws.
Andrew It made it into Jaws for a reason.
Everett Has released three new versions of the Nautoscaf. Scuff. Which is, look, This watch is a pickle for me. Um, why? Look, this is an H case vintage inspired skin diver. We got up. Oh, hold on. I'm going to talk about the good. So this is an auto scaff. If you know anything about the auto scaff, this is their sort of harshly angled H case. There's, there's also, there's a few different versions of the auto scaff. This is the sort of classic looking, Seiko, you know, H case type of deal. And they've released three of these and they're all stunning. There is a steel cased with a beautiful red dial. And there are two bronze case versions of these. And this is a really high end bronze that's going to patina really nicely. One with a silver dial and one with a black dial. I'm maybe partial to the blacked out with the bronze case. These are fantastic looking watches. Uh, really, really nice watches. They're not absurdly expensive. I think like six 50 for the steel case, eight 50 for the gold case for that. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Bronze case. I mean, it's a real, it's real Browns. Okay. These are great value propositions here. And we're going to get to the first problem. This is a skin diver. with 300 meters of water resistance, or as they say, 999 feet. That's cool. But skin divers aren't serious. These are not supposed to be 300.
Andrew No, no 110 max, maybe 200 if you're pushing it, if you can keep them slim.
Everett Now look, is there a problem with more? No, we have the technology today to do more in terms of water resistance. So It is not a problem in and of itself to have a 300 meter skin diver.
Andrew It is if it's 16.2 thick. What the fuck?
Everett Holy shit. Look, so there are a lot of people that love these watches, which will say, oh, it wears. No, no, no, no. I've tried one of these on. This is fucking absurd. This watch is absurd. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. 16 millimeters is insane.
Andrew It's insane. I don't know where all that growth is coming from.
Everett Now, they do have some booty. They have done a good job with the ergonomics on this thing to make it wear better than it should at 16, but it's still 16 millimeters. You can't get around it. These watches are ridiculous. Also, It's got an NH35. I'm sorry.
Andrew Where's all of the thick coming from?
Everett It's all from the movement. It's just, it's just huge, right? I'm sorry, Alsta. NH35 is a no. I mean, so here's the thing. 16 is a no.
Andrew A ploprof is 18.3. So we're looking at three millimeters. of distance of actual case delta. Between a. Plow prof and a skin diver. That isn't it. This isn't it. No, that's a huge. Miss.
Everett No, this is. Look, I love the way these watches look. Their dials are gorgeous.
Andrew Great. every regard.
Everett Bezel's terrific. No bracelet, which is problematic for me. Yeah, fine.
Andrew It's, it sucks a little bit, but I know how much these costs to make. And that's problematic for me. 16 millimeters.
Everett Fuck off. Fuck off. NH35. I'm fine. Actually, I'm okay with NH35, but if it means 16 millimeters on an HK skin diver, fuck right off. You're doing it wrong.
Andrew Just fuck right off. Yeah. This is, this is a huge miss. This is, this is skin diver adjacent. This is a modern iteration of a prospect dive watch in an H case.
Everett The good news here is I think the rest of the watches we get to talk about tonight, we like.
Andrew Yeah. Maybe not. Yeah, actually everything else we like. We've been really negative tonight.
Everett I mean, just two bad moods. No, just two watches. The ugliest citizen ever made. Out on the planet with the coolest tech. What the fuck? And, and in fairness, we're pretty nice to this all stuff. You can't get past those things.
Andrew No, you can't get over a 16 millimeter skin diver. Cause it's not. You can't call an explorer a dive watch though it has 300 meters of water resistance. You just can't because it's just, it's objectively not.
Everett I did just look at the worn and wound right up on these, which Zach Kazin did. Zach Kazin's a very cool guy. I like that guy. Fuck him, but we like him. The comments, the comments are closed. Makes me wonder.
Andrew It's the thickness because it's objectively wrong.
Everett Yeah. This is, it's a dumb, moving on. Andrew, what's next?
Andrew Oh, so I, I, this is a watch company that I'd kind of seen before, but it never really paid any attention to. I saw some mock-ups of this most recent release and I was like, super jacked him at him. And I don't. Know how to say this, and I'm usually pretty OK with just like taking a stab in the dark, but none of the letters are where they ought to be. I think it's the electricians.
Everett Yeah, I think that's what I call it.
Andrew Latest Mecheline watch collection. And this is. Just one of the most interesting designed watches like this. This looks like a space age things and the electricians, uh, which is why I'm comfortable saying it. They use, um, is allegory the right word? Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. They use like electrical component allegory in the design of their watches to just kind of be a part of the, of the design language. And the watch that we're talking about is the Mecheline collection. And this red one just does it for me. It kind of reminded me of when we were at watch time and I put on, I don't even remember the company. It's the dude who had like liquid pressers. Like what the fuck? Yeah, no clue. He had like a liquid, 24-hour ring that was simultaneously powering these valves that were powering the hour and minute hands. And it told the same time six different ways on the dial. And I was like, I honestly, I can't read this.
Everett I have no clue. It wasn't like an NBNF or something.
Andrew No, I don't remember who it was. Mike told me, he's like, dude, you need to go look at these. These are cool. And they're totally up your alley. Cause it was just like, it was like, imagine an Apple watch with all of the technical things that it was doing and you didn't understand any of it and you couldn't tell the time. I was like, man, this is a go fuck yourself. Watch. Cause this is $200,000 and I can't tell you what time of day it is. I can't even estimate. I like put me outside and be like, ah, it's morning. Uh, but these are, I don't really care much for, the watch aspect of it, but just a super cool design. They're huge. They're like 40 some millimeter watches. Where's the spec sheet on here? 43 or the cases of 46 to 47, so it's 46 and a half. They said they wear it a 43, 44. But this is what actually got me intrigued by it. This looks like a super high Horology, super technical, like Richard Mealy feel. Too cool for school watch 545 bucks. And that that kind of sung to me, I was like, wait a second, this is some like haute cool shit in all of the design language and all of the just the way that it does nothing and everything all at the same time. for under $1,000. Hmm. This, this might now you're speaking my language here. Cause there's nothing I look interesting in the watch way about this. This is weird design. It's all super smartwatch feely, but it's also cool. Cause it's just weird.
Everett Yeah. Uh, yeah. I forgot about this watch when I said we were going to talk about watches we like.
Andrew It's got four LED backlights. Because I hate it. So it carries a battery on board just to light everything up is using an automatic movement. It's just weird. It's using a Miyota 82SO mechanical. This is it's just weird. And I'm kind of into it.
Everett Yeah, mechanical movement. And I think it's got a battery. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting.
Andrew It's got a battery on board for its LED only. There's a little bit.
Everett I think there's a little bit too much affectation here for me.
Andrew I'm kind of cool with it.
Everett Yeah, I certainly wouldn't refer to this as HOTE.
Andrew It's got all that like weird.
Everett FOTE. Horology. I accept vote. Did we even just make up a word? Vote Horology.
Andrew It's patented. We have copyrighted it. TM'd. It's Vote Horology. Better don't be using that.
Everett Right. It's like that. What's what's the what's the company that makes the oh the. Help me help you. Fake like MB&F style. They're not MB&F but they're sort of I'll come. It'll come to me. Uh, but they actually just have a mechanical movement inside of them and like, they look like they're going to be something really interesting, but then they're actually just, anyway. Uh, yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to take it back a step because sometimes we don't need LEDs. More is more. Or like printed GPS coordinates. Uh, Tamor watch company. a company, one of the original dirty dozen companies, the tomorrow watch company, uh, made, made a dirty dozen watch. And here they are, here they are some 80 years later, and they've released a modern field watch in the style of, and I use that term loosely in the style of a WWW watch. This is a hundred meter, PVD case, uh, 36 and a half millimeters, 12 millimeters thick. Solita SW260, which I think is a like 200 series with a, with a small seconds, uh, pretty easy on the eyes, simple field watch. There is not a lot more to say about this. Um, You may want to criticize the small seconds sub dial being only 30 seconds, but the second hand runs both directions. Um, this is both boring and interesting. Uh, and I think I kind of dig it. And I think I kind of dig it. Andrew, what are your thoughts on this? 36 and a half millimeters for a modern field watch.
Andrew Oh, okay. I, I was initially confused by the, uh, 24 hour ring just because of its placement.
Everett Yeah. It looks like it's part of the sub dial.
Andrew Yeah. It looked like it was part of the sub dial. And I was like, there's just no way that you go from 15 seconds to 17 seconds to 18 to 19. I'm not an especially smart person. Geometry is not really my thing, but I do also understand that half of 12 or double of 12 is not 18. But it's actually the interior 24 hour ring. I'm not a huge fan of the way they've marked out the small seconds. Yeah, I kind of in this instance would have preferred cut outs into the five, six and seven. Uh, which is something that I'm not sure I ever would have said. Yeah. Cause I don't typically like cutouts.
Everett You've had too much pumpkin beer.
Andrew Um, maybe, uh, but barring that and even with it, like the more I, I look at it, the more okay I am with it. I liked that PVD case. It's really simple. I, The font is super modern, like this is a very modern iteration of this watch and I like it.
Everett Yeah, I like the brand font. I'm not, I'm not wild about the font for the Arabics, but it's fine. Uh, the font that Tamora's written in actually reminds me of a little bit of the font that we used for the Foster. It's really similar. Yeah. It's got a similar vibe. I think this is pretty neat. There's not, I mean, look. This is a dirty dozen watch. There's just not a ton going on here. And I don't mean that as a criticism. Um, you've got kind of an interesting step to bezel. There's one detail I don't like. which is that at 12 o'clock, rather than 24 in the 24 hour track, you've got a circle T. I don't believe that there's any tritium on this thing. I think that's maybe a circle T for Tamor.
Andrew I would hope so. Yeah. It'd be cool if it's trit though.
Everett And I don't love that. It doesn't, I do not believe there's any tritium on this. And so I think in a military watch, circle T. means something and it can't, you can't just can't lie.
Andrew Right.
Everett And, and, and yeah, maybe it's not a lie, but it's also, so these are a thousand bucks, which I, is it a value proposition? I'm not sure. You've got a decent enough movement. You've got a historic watch company. You've got a bunch of stuff going on here.
Andrew But is it, is a zombie sufficient to, substantiate a price. I mean, in fairness, like they're spending money on this watch. You've got a good movement. You've got PVD. Yeah. You've got, you've got the things here.
Everett I think it's coming on nylon. I think it might be a, just a little bit steep, a steep at a thousand bucks, uh, pre-order available this summer or, you know, this coming summer. So that's another downside. Um, with that said, I'm, I think I'm okay with this watch.
Andrew It's got 316L steel.
Everett It does. I saw that. That's pretty, that's pretty good.
Andrew PVD coded for maximum stealth as written by Tanner Tran of Worn and Wound. Maximum stealth. All right, Andrew, last call.
Everett Okay.
Andrew Oh boy. What do I want to talk? So I mentioned that I would, that we were talking about, uh, Rolex calls. Oh gosh. Okay. Um, so there is some really good data coming from watch charts indicating that the Rolex supply chain issue is coming to an end. We have seen a 6.7% decrease in the secondary market prices from April to now, which is 31% less than two years ago. We're seeing availability of Explorer 36s and of, it's not Air Kings, it's, um, Doesn't matter. We're seeing steady and consistent declines in secondary market pricing of Rolex specifically, which is a really good indicator for supply chain stability. So from this article that I'm going to link to, uh, it comes from Lex Stoke out of Fratello. with some data from, uh, who did I say? Watch charts. We might be, we might be bouncing back. It's happening.
Everett Of course, all things, all things are relative, right?
Andrew Right. But we're getting into a world where it's no longer a two, three year wait with a deposit placed or three times MSRP.
Everett Yeah, it sounds like Explorer 2's air Kings are both showing up, showing up like buy it off the shelf.
Andrew I'm going to Vegas this weekend and I will report back if I can put an Explorer 2 or an Explorer 136 on my wrist and potentially walk out of it. Cause I would imagine Las Vegas is probably pretty well stocked.
Everett And look, you're not going to be able to just go in and buy... You're not going to go buy a Saab.
Andrew You're not going to go buy a Daytona. Those are forever and always wait list watches. But with a stable supply chain, we're also going to see less emphasis on purchase history. So you're not going to buy two Tudors and a Datejust. just to be able to get your hands on a sub or an Explorer. Though you could buy those watches. I'm not saying you shouldn't if you have the means and the inclination. But this is interesting. We're seeing some stabilization, which also means that secondary market's going to come way down. So we're going to be into a world where we can again buy an Explorer for a reasonable used price.
Everett Andrew, I gave you a last call, but I saw some physical expressions of consternation. Would you like another last call? Maybe a honorable mention moment?
Andrew Yes. Serica release. So Serica is one of the watches, watch brands that we talked about pre-windup a couple of years ago that we're most excited to see. It was the most, for me, exciting watch brand that I got to put my hands on their watches. They have introduced their new 6190 field chronometer. Uh, and I, I gotta say this is, um, in photographs, these watches are meh at best. They're lovely. They're well-designed. The bracelet kind of looks iffy. Bless you times two. Um, they're kind of pedestrian. In person, these watches are next level, very much like circular watches that you see a photograph of and you're like, Oh, that's cool. And you just kind of move on. You can't fully appreciate these watches, not in person. So there's three new dial variations coming in in 6190, which is something that Serica does that's really interesting is they'll drop one watch and like kind of a handful of options. They'll do kind of a California, they'll do a field, um, and they'll do, uh, like a, uh, kind of sector-ish dial. They've done it again with the 6190 and this thing is super cool. They're using the Soprod M100, uh, Case size on these is, oh gosh, 37.7. You beat me to it. 10.8 thick, 200 meters of water resistance. These bunk lip bracelets that they're using, I was blown away by. They just drape over your wrist. They're super comfortable. Uh, 990 euros. So what's that like? Yeah. 1,100 bucks right now without your customs tax. So like 1,200 bucks. Uh, I gotta say this, this is one of my most underappreciated brands.
Everett Yeah, no, I think that's right. And you said that these watches don't photograph well. I disagree. I think they photograph. You suggested maybe. I think the second I saw these, I was like, this is special. I think that they continue to be, I mean, at a thousand bucks, you know, this isn't Haute or even Haute Horology. This is, a pretty pedestrian watch made for the masses.
Andrew This is very much like Zen, very much like even like Zodiac, just simple, well-designed, well-executed, good shit.
Everett I think much like a brand like Laurier, perhaps they've done this thing, which is familiar and, and you know, at first glance, maybe a lot like other things, But you see a Serica, you know it's Serica. Beautiful finishing, really wearable watches. These all have, all the new ones have enamel dials. I mean, this is a terrific brand. I don't have any real strong thoughts about this release specifically. I'm excited to see the new case, the slimmed down case.
Andrew Yeah, Serica, man. Chronometer, a thousand bucks.
Everett Underappreciated.
Andrew Yeah. This is very much underappreciated. One of this is a top five most underrated brand. Yeah. Like it fits very much in like the Manta world for me in what they're putting to market. They could charge way more for, yeah, but they don't have the brand recognition or asked to be able to do so.
Everett Yeah. Well, and you also get the feeling that they're just, they've set a margin and they're going to, they're going to do it. And that's that.
Andrew Christopher Ward. Yeah. Yeah. And the owners are just lovely. Like some of the coolest people I've met. He was super hard to understand. Very French. But he said, if I was in Paris. You should stop by and see him. Yeah. Andrew.
Everett Probably won't be in Paris. My friend. Other things.
Andrew What do you got? Oh, I got another thing. So I watched a movie this weekend. Um, It's a movie I've been seeing some ads for on Peacock. Like when you watch movies on Peacock, now you have to watch like two minutes of ads. And it looked funny. And it recently became available on streaming on Peacock exclusively. I know you don't have Peacock. It's the movie Strays, which tells the story of stray dogs. Like actual stray dogs? Yeah, like a dog who becomes stray. And let me just... I've seen this movie. You've seen it? With Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx and Isla Fisher and Randall Park and Will Forte.
Everett No, it was a cartoon from the late 80s.
Andrew This isn't Lady and the Tramp. So let me just... So Will Ferrell is the main character as a dog. Jamie Foxx is his compatriot. Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Will Forte. Brett Gelman, Rob Riggle, Josh Gad, Sofia Vergara, like just this star-studded cast. I watched it thinking I was like, Oh, it's going to be pretty funny. And it was somewhere it, it felt kind of like super bad when it first came out. Right. Like Superbad kind of meets Sausage Party in the way of just ridiculous enough, just enough actual story that you remained invested. This movie cracked me up. It was the adult version of Homeward Bound in all the right ways. And it killed me. And I think that was kind of the goal to be. Reminiscent for for folks our age who grew up on Homeward Bound, Mm hmm. And who have been watching Bolt with their kids and are now like ready to watch movies by themselves again. It cracked me up. The whole movie start to finish. I didn't worry about checking my watch. I didn't I did not care what else was going on in the world. You don't.
Everett I loved this. So the movie I was thinking of was All Dogs Go to Heaven, which I don't know anything about the movie we're talking about today. I've looked at the promotional materials. I'm going to take your word for it, but it's very hard for me to believe it's good.
Andrew I loved it.
Everett Uh, it's not a good movie, but now I'm going to have to watch it.
Andrew It's an entertaining movie.
Everett All right. All right. Well, I'm a big fan of all dogs go to heaven. That doesn't mean anything in this conversation, but I just want to say it for the record.
Andrew I haven't watched that with the kids yet. I don't know if he can stream it anywhere.
Everett Not sure.
Andrew We should try to find it. Yeah, that would be a good movie for the kids.
Everett Andrew, I've got another thing. Do me. Uh, so I, I've talked about tools on this show before. I like tools. I like good tools. Uh, and when, when I have a tool that I want to get, I go to like, you know, I do the, I do the thing, right? As, as one does. With that said, you know, here I am. I've got all these tools. I've got a great, I've got, I just got, I got stuff. The tool that I reach for the most often is a, is a six in one screwdriver. The one I have sucks. It's not bad. It was a cheapie. I'm not sure where I got it.
Andrew It's like everyone's six in one. It just like it predates their existence. Like I've just always had this. That's right. And grandma maybe got it for you when you were four.
Everett A brief aside, have I told you about my wedding toolkits? No. So I have started to put together toolkits for my kids to give to them when they get married. And the idea is to get timeless, high quality, Maybe not, maybe not heirloom quality, but something like that tools, right? Just get craftsman lifetime warranty. Well, sure, that's part of it, you know, but but I don't want it to just be warrantied. I want it to be, you know, something that it You don't need a warranty because this is just always going to work.
Andrew That's tough, right? I have so many of my grandpa's like hand tools that are just rusted pieces of shit, and I can't part with them because it was like. Grandpa's tool. Right. That's just a rusted piece of shit now.
Everett So I've started to put these things together. The idea is that they're not going to be outrageously expensive. They're not going to be complicated. It's going to be it's going to be some. like a version of that silver plastic box that everybody gets when they get their first house. It's got like a hammer and screwdrivers and it's going to be a version of that, but with, you know, more anyway. So I thought, well, the six in one is, is the tool that I use the most. I mean, it's like the six tools in one. It's the screwdriver that I reach for almost always, right? I've got screwdrivers, like, dozens and dozens of screwdrivers and I reach for the six and one most of the time. You typically get a number one and a number two, both in flat and in Phillips, um, diamonds. That's right. And then you get stars and then you get a hex. Whoa. And so I decided I wanted to try to find a good six and one. And I, when you, when you start this search, you find that a lot of people recommend multi tip screwdrivers that have way too many, way too many bits, things that could get lost, uh, you know, complicated systems for complicated systems for like storing bits, et cetera. And, and I don't want that. I don't want to have to unscrew anything. The 6-in-1 is perfect because everything's right there. If you want to go bigger, you just flip it around. If you need a flathead, you just flip the bit around. It's a really, really simple design, which is what makes it good. I found a 6-in-1. Klein Tools makes a 6-in-1. Klein Tools is a famous electrician's brand. They just make really good tools. I do not believe the Klein Tools 6-in-1 is made in the United States, which surprised me. I couldn't see any references to that. But I picked one of these up. I picked it up in person at Lowe's, which was perhaps the biggest surprise. And it's great. It's great. I could just tell the second I touched it, I was like, I'm gonna have this tool forever. The only I think the only thing I'm I'm maybe a little tentative about. So I didn't get I didn't get three of these for the for the tool kits yet because I'm going to use this thing and make sure it works. The only thing that makes me nervous about Klein tools is because they're electricians screwdrivers. It's got a rubberized it's got a rubber sleeve on the handle.
Andrew Yeah. I'm wondering the longevity of that.
Everett I'm concerned about that because there are others I think You can get a snap on version of this that's that's just a resin handle. There's also like a company called Precision Tools that makes a resin version. Anyway, I got the client tool. I'm really, really happy with it so far. I need to do some long term testing on this, but I bought it for ten bucks. Yeah, $9.98 at the Lowe's. Ten bucks at Lowe's in person. Klein Tools, really, really great heritage company. And it's the same as their top of the line screwdrivers. Yeah. Um, yeah. And so that's my other thing for the week because I'm kind of, I'm kind of pumped about it. I'm pumped about it.
Andrew Should be. This is an interesting pick. The rubberized grip is kind of my, is always my hangup. Cause if, if the rubber doesn't fail, the adhesive that secures the rubber to the resin fails.
Everett Well, you'll have to, you'll have to look at it because it's, it's not exactly what, what you're thinking. It's yeah. And, and so also if you're, if you're at home listening. It's also 10 bucks. So Google this thing because it might not look, this looks like a classic tool because that's, that's what it is. Um, it's not one of these new fangled molded, you know, hyper grip,
Andrew No, it's like a it's like a rubber cushion around a resin screwdriver.
Everett This this thing looks like it could have been made in any of the last five decades, which I like. I like that sort of timeless aesthetic. Yeah. So this is the candidate. This is the latest candidate for the six and one for the legacy heirloom. Fix your own shit. Yeah. Toolkit. I like it. That they'll get when they get married. Or if they decide not to get married, I'll find some other. When they buy a house. Time. Yeah, maybe that's it. You're a homeowner now.
Andrew Here's your kit. Or you've moved out. I'm not coming to your apartment to help you fix your debauchery. That's right. Yeah. Here's a drywall saw. Godspeed.
Everett Yeah. So that's all I got. Andrew, anything you would like to add before we Hang them up for the day.
Andrew I think we got to hang them up. I'm out of things.
Everett You're all out of things. You're so lost without me.
Andrew Oh, always.
Everett Hey, thanks, you guys, for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. The WatchClicker podcast. I did do the intro last week. Really rough.
Andrew I'll listen and give you a grade next week.
Everett Why don't you check us out at WatchClicker.com. That's where we post every episode of this podcast, but also where we post reviews, photographs. articles, other good stuff, watch clicker.com. You can also check us out on socials at 40 and 20, excuse me, at watch clicker at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker, both on Instagram. And if you want to support us and we really hope you do, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to tune back in next week for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.