Episode 260 - The Latest Space Watch

Published on Wed, 18 Oct 2023 21:37:01 -0700

Synopsis

The podcast hosts Andrew and Everett discuss various new watch releases and their experiences with travel, gambling, and other activities. They talk about watches from Montour, Studio Underdog, Leica, Fortis, and Christopher Ward, sharing their thoughts on the designs, specifications, and pricing. They also share stories about Andrew's recent trip to Las Vegas, trying a unique cocktail with a poisonous flower garnish, and Andrew's newfound appreciation for hard-sided luggage. Additionally, Andrew discusses his enjoyment of the New York Times games app, including Wordle, Connections, and Sudoku.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. You kind of you came in a little early with the beer cracking.
Andrew No, you had me muted entirely too long. So that's on you, our renowned audio engineer. And I'm going to go ahead and tell you to suck it, Susan.
Everett You jumped the gun. You can see. I did not. You have eyes on.
Andrew You mute me for way too long all the time. You make me drink more than I want. You're trying to get me drunk and exploit me.
Everett I'm doing well, Andrew. Um, I've got a, um, I've got a lawsuit that's coming to a head. So this has been, um, like our deposition week. And there's like over a hundred exhibits at this point that are floating around and several thousand pages of documents that are all kind of in play. Um, have you run out of tabs? No, we could, we would never run out of tabs.
Andrew It's just like binder tabs, exhibit tabs. Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean. We would never. I've, I've interacted with somebody who ran out of exhibit tabs and during a deposition tried to explain himself and I, not an attorney was like, I'm not like, I don't do your job, not you. But I, even I think that's unprofessional. Like, get, get, get, get exhibit tabs, man. Like, what are you doing in your office? Yeah. You know, things happen, right? Multiple weeks in a row. No, that's not a thing happening. That's a, like, get your shit in order.
Everett Well, and, and also it's 2023. Go to OfficeMax, you fuck. Just go into Adobe and print exhibit stamps on the bottom of each of your documents like the rest of us do. It's also a choice.
Andrew A lot of things you could have done there besides piss and moan that you don't have enough tabs. Andrew, how are you? I am good. I spent the weekend in Las Vegas. Uh, I, I did lose some money, but I didn't, I was able to play through the weekend on just cash that I had in my wallet and I didn't go to the ATM. Like I, I went to bottle drop. I had like, I don't know, 70 bucks in my wallet and I made that last, You made 70 bucks. I went pretty well enough. And then kind of like just kind of eased through it, went a little down, had a couple of good hits, a couple of good wins. Went right back up and closed it out on Sunday night, so I had no money going into Monday. Yeah, I made it. I made it last game game in the way in the way of gambling. So I played all craps. Played some roulette. Roulette was actually where I went way up. Uh, you know, and I also found that I didn't win a cent at the Mirage, which is where we were staying. I did really well at the MGM and at Caesars. Everywhere else is where I lost money. What's the minimum bet these days in Vegas? Uh, it depends on where you're playing. If you're playing at like the machines, the minimum bet's like under a dollar. Crap Stables, your minimums are five. Most of the blackjack you're going to play is minimums of ten-ish. I didn't see any under $10 hands. Yeah, there you go. I didn't get into poker at all. Yeah, I like five or ten bucks, depending on what you're playing. Yeah, five to ten bucks, just kind of as you're in any table style games. But I felt pretty good about that because I had budgeted an allotment for like this is your gambling money. And then I never touched it. So I actually am up if we're considering that.
Everett Yeah, that's the way to do it. I mean, if you don't, if you don't go through your budget, you're fine, right? You go to Vegas with a budget of spend money. Yeah. If you win anything, it's, it's gravy.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Or at least that's how I do it.
Andrew And I didn't, I didn't lose anything. Yeah. Uh, one of the guys I was with, uh, he was up at about five up.
Everett A hundred?
Andrew Five thousand. Well, okay. Uh, he is a, uh, problematic gambler. Uh, so we see or any other way we seized some of his money cause he's notorious for going way the fuck up and then just coming away with nothing. So we took money and I put it in the safe with my watches. It's my dog. Uh, so we took 2,500 bucks and put it in the safe with my watches. So I was the only one with the code. And he left with $2,300. Well done. Because we gave it to him before we got on the plane rather than when we got on the plane.
Everett Was he in a state that he even recognized what had happened?
Andrew He recognized that there were $2,500 of gamblable money that had gone missing. No, he knew. He was fully aware of it, which is what his awareness was. He's like, no, there's money in there. I need to gamble it. Cause I can make more money. His mentality with gambling is like, I'm going to go make some money, which is a weird mentality. Cause when I go to gamble, I'm like, I'm going to go lose some money. That's, that's what you do when you gamble. I'm going to go try to minimize my losses. Yeah. And, uh, but so drinking free booze, I didn't get a single comp beverage, but while talking about Vegas, this is not my other thing, but this is an other thing and we're going to open the show with it. There is a beverage that I tried. called the Verbana, Verbena, V-E-R-B-E-N-A. Should you go to Las Vegas, I highly recommend this. It is available at the Chandelier, or Chandelier, if you're going to be, you know, trashy, bar at the Cosmopolitan. And the reason for its name is that it uses a Verbana flower as a garnish. And it's pretty simple. I thought it was going to be gin, but it's actually a tequila and yuzu sour mix cocktail. So it's kind of like a ginny, herbally margarita with this flower in it. And they give you the cocktail flower. The cocktail is 20 bucks, which is not unreasonable for Vegas prices. It's like kind of average. Uh, They give it to you, they give you the instructions. The instructions are take this flower, so take a couple good sips, like a couple slurps, little quaffs of this cocktail, which is nice and sour. It's actually, it's like a really, really good cocktail. Take this flower that's in it, and it's kind of like a bud. It's not a flower. It's like a dandelion bud kind of appearing thing. Chew it. like make sure you get a chew of it on every one of your teeth front back and sides and while you're chewing this thing you're just getting this bizarre pop rocky sensation in your entire mouth and everything's kind of like doing this this weird sign wave of like numb and really explosive and i got some weird numbness in the front of my mouth And one of my eyes is twitching because of how sour everything's getting somehow. And you chew through it and you swallow it and it turns to like just like not even paste, just it just dissolves in your mouth. And the whole idea of this cocktail is that or this flower is that it changes the way your taste buds are interacting with the flavors. So every subsequent taste of this cocktail is experienced differently by your taste buds that have been effectively poisoned by this plant. And it makes, it's not on the menu anymore, but it still makes $9.4 million a year at that bar. So I don't, I didn't do the math on that, but 9.4 divided by 20 is a bucket load of cocktails that they still sell. And I, highly recommend you try one. Everyone I was with was like, oh my gosh, I love that. I'm going to try another one. They did. I was not down with a round two because it was such a bizarre sensation, but it was the most memorable and interesting cocktail I've ever had.
Everett I'm coming up with $460,000 dollars neighborhood or $460,000 beverage.
Andrew And if you divide that by like a daily amount.
Everett How much was it? 20 bucks? 20 bucks. Yeah. Whatever.
Andrew That's how much all the cocktails. A Jack and Coke is $10. Right. Cool. So yeah.
Everett That's not your other thing.
Andrew No, it's not my other thing, but it was definitely an interesting thing that I did while I was there. It was perhaps the most interesting thing. We went and saw a comedy show. We went and saw Ka, gambled, drank, did all the normal Vegas things. Uh, but that was a game changer. We ate at Best Friend. That was really good. Ate at Momofuku. That was really good. Cool. Yeah. Love it. But that cocktail was the most memorable thing.
Everett I was here in Eugene. I had at least one Modelo and I went to Burrito Boy.
Andrew Look at you go. Had the Caesars Buffet too. So good.
Everett How much is the Caesars Buffet these days?
Andrew 80 bucks. Not 90 bucks for dinner. OK. Yeah.
Everett And do they do everything?
Andrew Yeah, they do everything. There was whole roast pig. There was.
Everett What was it? I was. What was it? There was a specific dish. Oh, prime rib. Did they do the prime rib?
Andrew There was prime rib. There was steamed ship. There was brisket, which brisket was a bummer. There was steamed crab legs, chilled crab legs, lobster tail. Uh, they were doing like a Berea taco station, tons, like just everything. It's all, uh, like above average to well done dishes internationally. Like you start in Asia, if you go to the beginning of the line and end with like New England seafood with everything in between.
Everett Well, as much as I would like to talk about Vegas all night, we are not here. to talk about MGM's very lovely buffet. This is Caesar's Palace. Caesar's Palace is what I meant to say. Very lovely buffet. We're here to talk about watches. We're talking about watches, Andrew. We are. And with that, did you come with any watches to talk about? No. Okay. Good night, you guys. It's been real.
Andrew I did. And the first one that I want to talk about is a U.S. company called Montour. Not heard of them.
Everett Montois.
Andrew Clearly French. No, it's an American company. I understand that. I said that now twice. So shut the fuck up. They have released and they're releasing via Kickstarter, I think. Double check on that one. Yes, a Kickstarter brand doing a kind of 70s styled case with a very modern kind of skx feeling dial dive watch and what intrigued me about this was that there were a bunch of colors with a well-specced dive watch but the size is what got me kind of excited about this style of watch we've got a 40.5 millimeter case a little big, but an 11.5 thick, 200 meter dive watch. Uh, and that had me interested because this is a really well-sized touch on the bigger side than what I want, but a well-sized entry into the dive watch game and the time and tide right up is kind of lame. Um, it's almost like they didn't maybe have one in hand because they talk about the impressiveness of the dial, which is not impressive, nor is it not impressive, right? It's a pips and triangles. Dial, but I like the execution of it. It's the simplicity that I want. It's a well shaped case. It's got a nice crown proportion and these are coming in right now on. Kickstarter for 375. for the super early bird, 400 for the regular early bird and 435 for normal Kickstarter. They're going to go up to 750 retail. I don't see them doing another run, but these are certainly a perfectly inoffensive dive watch and well-specced if you're going to get into them in that super early bird slash early bird pricing zone. They're doing 150. Oh, excuse me. They're doing 200 in those prices. But yeah. Sapphire crystal, four colorways available. Not coming on a bracelet, just an FKM strap. Selita SW200 movement. Yeah. These are like, if you're going to get into them at this super early bird and early bird price, this is a good, this is a good grab.
Everett These were on our list last week and we didn't get to them and decided to bring them again this week. This is one of those watch releases that I think requires you to ignore the watches you've been excited about, right? Which is not to say, I hate it when people say this is like a circa 2015 microbrand release or whatever. because it's not. This is its own thing. It's just, I think we've become, um, I think we've become accustomed to, you know, figuring out what the spiel is, what's special. And I genuinely do not mean this as a criticism of Montoir, but this is, there's nothing special here, right? It's a 200 meter dive watch. It's looks well made. Uh, you've got some, a little bit of long pond, you've got, Uh, whatever, right? The sizing is, this is a 40 and 20 dive watch. The, I mean this, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Pricing is probably what we'd expect to be competitive three years ago, which I think maybe that's a special thing.
Andrew That's what I'm excited about is the Kickstarter pricing for the early bird and super early bird, like 400 bucks for a well-spec'd dive watch. It loses that specialness once it goes to retail. Because otherwise it's kind of a boring competitor to some of the other like actually special things out there. This is a screaming deal on a well-spec dive watch right now.
Everett And it looks to me like it's going to make, it looks to me like it's, they're going to make plenty of money. They've got $75,000 pledged. They've got 23 days to go, 187 backers. Like they're going to make it. And I think this is a nice looking, inoffensive, very nice watch. I'm not sure why you would get this versus something else. And maybe that's the question. Why would I get this? You know, it's got this Aqualung thing going on in the back. They call it a skin diver, but they've got an old... I mean, there's some confusion here. There's some confusion here. But whatever. It's cool.
Andrew 375 though. Yeah. That's that was what caught my eye. Because otherwise this is an inoffensive. Kind of bleh. Not bleh in a bad way, but just bleh. It just is. It's this is steel cutouts. No, no bracelet on these, right? No, which which does bum me out.
Everett They talk about a stainless steel strap. At some point in there, I'm trying to find it now. But I don't see any indication of that. Maybe a buckle? Yeah, they say stainless steel strap is one of their stretch goals.
Andrew All the photographs are in FKM. Yeah, that's right.
Everett Like a basket style FKM strap. Yeah. I mean, it's a cool watch. I don't have anything bad to say about it.
Andrew I also... It does have a ghost state, though, for those of you who get offended by that. Yeah, whatever.
Unknown Yeah, so this says, um.
Everett Yeah, I don't know, I swear I saw something about a quote unquote stainless steel strap, but maybe I didn't.
Unknown There you go, Montoir.
Andrew Montoir.
Everett Yeah, it's interesting. Talk me out of Montoir, I dare you. Uh, Andrew, I've got a watch I'd like to talk about. Do me. I'm going to slip this one in before you get to it. You would because this is on both of our lists. Richard Benz of Studio Underdog. You shit has unveiled his second watch. This is the second 10th watch, I think. That's right. That's right. So they're calling this the O2 series field collection. This is sort of a I'm going to think it's bank, isn't it a bank? I, you know, I can't remember. He told us how to pronounce it and I'm the bastard who forgets. Uh, I saw these, I saw these what, two months ago, a month and a half ago when Richard, my friend who I totally know how to pronounce his last name, sent me an email. Uh, this is a classically styled field watch with, it should come as no surprise, a whole bunch of surprises. Uh, you will, this is not, A stoic dive watch few tricks up this thing sleeve.
Andrew I love getting emails from him because he emails 40 and 20 and my personal email because you always see my personal email because you know I do not monitor the 40 and 20. So but it seems like like he'll have he'll he'll be emailing the 40 and 20 email address and then just kind of out of nowhere add me to the two lines. So this was one of those where I got this, there was a whole thread attached to it. And suddenly I have this embargoed photograph, like press kit. And I was like, Oh my God, this is amazing. It was such a nice surprise.
Everett So famously, Studio Underdog refers to its watches as, uh, based on the names of the colors. Uh, and, and their first, their first watch was a chronograph. really a very interesting watch, one of the most interesting watches I think we've seen. Of the year for sure. In many ways because, not because of the colors, but because of the way they were playing with color. This is no different, but totally different. I think the most interesting thing about this watch, and there's a lot of interesting things about the watch, the most interesting thing is My initial reaction was like, Oh my gosh, they did it again. It would have been very easy to take any one of the things that they did with their first incredibly popular watch and to repeat those or ruin it. And they did none of that. This is a totally unique, new idea. Um, I'll just give you the skinny on this. If you haven't seen these, take, take a couple of looks at the pictures. Uh, but what you need to know is this is a dial that has been painted with loom or in the, in the, with one exception, a black paint or loom, but, but, but for the one that has black paint coded with a one millimeter. Sapphire disc that has markers painted on top of it. So essentially what you get is a sheet of loom covered with glass with markers that float above the glass. Optically what it looks like as you look down is a loomed dial with markers floating, applied markers or sort of, yeah, applied markers. They look like they're floating markers. Floating on top. Uh, and they cast shadows like you'd imagine. Really, really, really interesting. Uh, it should come as no surprise that this comes in a few different colors. There is, I had the colors up cause I wanted to get them right. I don't know the names. I, I do. Uh, there is a pink lemonade, which is a ombre yellow at 12. It's like a tequila sunrise. That's right. Pink at six. There is a, and this is my favorite of the names, maybe not my favorite of the colors. There is a Stephanie blue.
Andrew Which I super love. Like just just middle finger it, man. I love it.
Everett There is a full moon, which is sort of a traditional sort of creamy full loomed. And then there is a midnight. The midnight is the one exception to the loomed dial. This is a black dial with loomed markers, unsurprisingly. The the Disc is attached to the dial with a pin, I guess, at nine and three that actually goes through the Sapphire, or at least I assume it does, which also gives this some visual intrigue. Other than that, this is, you know, a 12 Arabic numeral field watch. We do not have a 24-hour track, a mechanical hand-wide movement.
Andrew 37 millimeter case, 9.8 thick without the crystal. This is it. 100 meters of water resistance on it. This is dope. Yeah, it's terrific. This is a perfectly sized field watch. He took the what you want out of a field watch. This really kind of specific thing. that's a little bit boring and didn't change it and made it super creative and out there in the way that the only table at windup that has a watermelon could do.
Everett And you know, this is, I would say this is not a particularly horologically interesting watch. The case, I'm going to, I'm not going to rip on the case, but I'll say the cases on these watches on the studio underdog watches don't really blow me away. They're not bad. They're good cases, but that's not what he's doing here. He's doing something different. And we talked about this a little bit when we had Richard on the show. Um, no, he plays with color. He's making very interesting watches that are really basic. But then really interesting.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew He takes a gin cocktail and adds a poison flower to it.
Everett I guess that's fair enough. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. Yeah, this is.
Andrew Because just looking at the the not tequila sunrise version of it, the white dial field watch with no loom, you're like, oh, that looks interesting enough. There's something happening here that's different. And you get a little bit of angle on it and you're like, Oh, the, why are the, where are the markers casting a shadow? And you realize that you have floating markers in some capacity. Uh, and then you get the loom, which is super well executed. So unique. This is a really cool exercise in depth management of a dial. Hmm. That's what it is to me. He's, you know, he's got the, the tequila sunrise, but the, the way he's found a way to add depth to a dial is really creative and really cool.
Everett Yeah, I dig it. So the details you need is this is a nine hour drop. Uh, I think when we go to the website now, it says 14 days from now. Uh, but November 1st for a period of nine hours, all orders placed during that window are guaranteed to be filled with the first 500 watches ready to be delivered before Christmas. 900 bucks. Boom, boom, boom. After 500, I think there's a TBD delivery date, but this is, this is pretty good, right?
Andrew It'll probably be March.
Everett I guess. Yeah, hard to say.
Andrew Maybe April with February being time off in China.
Everett Not too many watches come out in March. Not too many Chinese made watches come out in March. So we'll see.
Andrew Yeah, it's terrific. I like the availability period too. It beats pre-orders. It's like, hey, if you want this watch, you can buy it and you must buy it during this period.
Everett That is, I think that is the way to do limited releases like this.
Andrew Or just somebody who doesn't have the capacity to do unlimited releases. Yeah. Right? Because I don't think this is a limited release. This just isn't like a bench stock watch.
Everett I think that's right. But with just uncertain quantities to be produced. So. Andrew, what's next?
Andrew Next up for me, this intrigued me and I have like a vague memory of its predecessors, but Leica, the maybe Leisha, I'm not really sure. Leica? The camera company, Leica, has dipped its toes in the watch game. I had like a soft, like when I read this, I was like, Oh, I kind of remember that happening, but just overlooked it. They've now released their third watch being the Z M 11, which is an interesting watch in that it shouldn't be coming from a company like Leica. So this is a 41mm sport watch. It comes in either a black and red or a coffee black or midnight blue. It has integrated lugs with a bracelet. 45 lug to lug, 100 meters of water resistance with the case width on it is 41mm. This is an interesting watch. It also has, and why I want to talk about it, a quick release strap system that is unique and really cool. So because it's integrated, it uses a quick release system very much the way Cartier does. But because of the shape of the strap, it uses almost like a keyhole shape locking mechanism in its strap that is metal built into the strap with a push button release. And this is what got me excited because of a company like Leica, who doesn't make watches, and is just kind of doing it seemingly for the weird collision between the camera world and the watch world. They're doing an actually fairly interesting technology watch. It's an attractive watch. There's nothing offensive or inoffensive about it. The previous models are exactly the same way. It's a 12 marker dial it very much in the way of like a dress sport simple dial but this quick release technology is out there and is doable and it means that it's doable from other brands who are looking to kind of add that thing into their repertoire. It's intriguing to me. The watch itself is like kind of forgettable, but the fact that Leica can do this means that other people can too and maybe should be.
Everett Yeah, I mean, there's a number of interesting aspects to this watch. You had suggested at some point when you were talking that Leica is doing the design here, and that may be true. I have to imagine they're working with outside consultants. I believe they're working with a German engineering firm on their movements.
Andrew No. So for the previous two, they were. They're using Swiss movements now. This is coming in steel and titanium. Steel at $6,775. 6,725 and the full titanium at 8,150. Right.
Everett So what I was going to say was I know that they were working with a German engineering firm for their movements on ZM1 and ZM2. I have to imagine that that firm is also on the ZM1 and ZM2 at least providing some sort of design advice. It could be that Leica is doing this in-house. Uh, and, and I will say that when you look at that quick release system, it is both very interesting looking and also a bit industrial looking. It looks camera Gary. It does. So that might have, they might be happening in house. I don't know. I do like the fact that there's a red dot on the button to depress. Uh, yeah, these are interesting. They're kind of thick.
Andrew Uh, I don't care so much about the watch. I'm really intrigued by the quick release technology.
Everett But even as thick as they are, I think they're neat.
Andrew I don't have... Because a male end link could take that super easily. Or any strap could take that super easily. I'm intrigued by that. I'm sure it's proprietary, but you can do something like this.
Unknown Do it. What am I doing?
Andrew I'm just suggesting that Foster do a quick release system like this.
Everett I've got another watch I want to talk about. Do me. Eric Wind has teamed up with Bamford, Rowing Blazers, and Tag Heuer. Somebody actually has to make the fucking watch. To release a Carrera Yacht Timer. This is a re-release of a Carrera. Look, it's not a re-release. It's there's some colors that were kind of reinterpreted. This is a clever and attractive watch. It's got the feel much like a lot of what Tag Heuer is doing with their Carrera releases. It's got the feel of something old. notwithstanding the fact that it's new.
Andrew Um, I like this watch. I do too.
Everett There's a couple of things that I, I find to be a bit head scratchy. So, so one, they only made a hundred. So whatever, everything else I say, forget about it because they, you can't have one. That's right. This is a watch for a hundred people. They cost $9,000. I can't have one. Head scratchy things. This is a 42 millimeter Carrera chronograph. This is not the glass box that Tag released for its 60th anniversary or that was used on the Skipper. That feels like it would be a really perfect platform for this. Rather, this is a 42 millimeter standard chronograph case. I think that rowing blazers
Andrew And actually only 99 were produced. There you go.
Everett Rowing Blazers and Bamford both really want to be on the dial in this situation. I'm a little. I find that decision to be a bit.
Andrew I don't like the font on the Rowing Blazers.
Everett Yeah, but that's Rowing Blazers.
Andrew I get that, but I don't like it. You could like. You can look past it. And and you shall. Doesn't matter. You can't have it. Right.
Everett I like this watch. I like the bracelet. I wish this was a thirty nine thirty nine millimeter glass box. I wish that it didn't say Rowing Blazers at six.
Andrew But it looks like Easter. The pastels on the sub dials are phenomenal.
Everett Love it. Love it. So you've got a green three, a smaller blue six and a red nine. But when we say green, it's actually like sort of a gingham cross-hatched thing.
Andrew It's the green that you get when you dye an Easter egg with green food dye. That's right. So is the blue and so too is the red.
Everett You've got these great blue markers. You've got fantastic orange hands. This is great. Yellow loom, yellow secondhand, everything in pastel. This is a 70s watch. I appreciate Eric Wind so much for everything he touches because it's always fucking cool and interesting and fun and not taking itself seriously.
Andrew This powder blue chapter ring. It's a really terrific watch. It is so good. I went to the Tag Heuer store while I was awa this weekend and wanted to buy all of it. I don't understand. What did you want to buy at Tag Heuer specifically? All of it. Every single thing I saw. I tried on a Monaco. There's an Aquaracer. Maybe not everything. That's what I wanted to put. Yeah, I don't understand the tag hate in the world.
Everett You know, I think that there was a lot of tag hate when you and I got into the hobby. I think that's kind of dried up. I think between Tag Heuer kind of revamping its catalog and starting to make more interesting, more neat watches. I think that it's been harder to criticize the releases. And I also just think that people are appreciating tag for what it is, you know, like tag 1000 divers in like original tag, 1000 divers right now are going for obscene amounts of money, obscene amounts of money tags, just having a bit of a moment.
Andrew I can't call it a resurgence.
Everett It's that they're having a moment. Tags in season. I did almost certainly purchase a fiberglass F1. Just like the car? No, no. Oh, Tag Heuer F1 resin slash fiberglass case and bezel. That had been super cool. They had it. There was no, no. I did almost certainly purchase one. I don't have it yet, and so I'm unclear whether this has actually happened, but... Whether it's transacted?
Andrew I believe it's happened. You've put money for it?
Everett Ish, yes. Yes. There was an F1... I'll tell the story when this actually happens.
Andrew There was an F1 car in front of my hotel this weekend because there's an F1 race in Las Vegas next month. It was shocking how small it was. I always have this idea that these cars are much bigger. No, they're just so small.
Everett It's like a fucking motorcycle. Yeah. With giant tires. Yeah. And in a V12 engine, I actually don't know what kind of engines.
Andrew I don't think V12 is big enough. It's a rocket ship. Yeah. It was, it was crazy to be in person that close to one. And I just, I just never, it never really connected with me that F1 drivers are actually the same size as horse jockeys.
Everett Uh, do you know whose car it was?
Andrew It was just a display car. It was just a car? It was just a display car. Cause there's an F1 race next month. Did it have a... I don't know. I didn't pay attention to that. I was shocked by the size. Okay.
Everett God, it was so small. Would you like me to move it along?
Andrew Yeah, I want you to stop. Being you don't ask me questions or that I'm not prepared to answer, I was just taken by the size, so Fortis has no more.
Everett No, I want to talk about the Fortis. I already did that. Yeah, but you have other watches. No, I guess I have one more too.
Unknown We both do.
Andrew Fortis has brought back the Nova not in 42. And of course Fortis famously, or infamously perhaps, provided cosmonaut timepieces for the cosmonauts. For those of you unfamiliar, cosmonauts are Russians. But this is Fortis' re-release of, not re-release, updated release of the N42. And it is a big bitch. This is a 42 millimeter case, 14.7 thick, 200 meters of water resistance. And it is cool. This is a space watch. This is a true space watch and I love it. It's a 12, nine, six, Chronograph. I'm into it. This is super fortissie. This is super tool watch. This is my jam and it's space watch. What is it that you'd like to say about it? I tried to keep it real high level cause I know that you want to talk more.
Everett I mean, I know it's fine. Uh, yeah. Fortis 1994 first official watch of the Russian space agency, which is a bummer. Russ Cosmos, is that how you say that?
Andrew I think that's the only way a non-Russian speaker could say it.
Everett So we talked about this watch. I believe we talked about this watch when we recorded our 7750 versus 5100. Because it used both movements. Because it used both movements, right? So 1994, they released this with the La Mania, 5100, what, 2003? I think they released the B42 with the 7750. When they released the B42, they increased the size by three millimeters from 39 to 42. And for that reason, there is a lot of love for the 5100 Cosmonauts. I think that the B42 is probably a more modern, sexier looking watch, I think. But that 39 millimeter size, when I saw this release, I kind of had fingers crossed that this would be a 39 millimeter. And it's not, this is a 42.
Andrew It's a 42, it's also using the Work 17 movement.
Everett Which, call it what you want, it's a 7750, it's a Collinwell 7750. Uh, there's probably some proprietary shit going on because they sent space and rockets. Yeah, that's right. So they did. So for this famously what sent this out to space for a 60 hour anyway, this, the movement is theoretically space tested. It is for what it's worth.
Andrew We've just talked about it.
Everett Yeah. I don't understand. But all that to say, these are cool. So, so they, they upgraded the, the, bezel is now or the bezel insert is now a ceramic. This is a good looking watch. It's still a 7750. I think Fortis does a great job with their bracelets. I think they do a great job with their clasps.
Andrew Bidirectional bezel too. Bidirectional is a great... I really like that. Great idea for this watch.
Everett It's got 200 meters of water resistance. You've got... I mean, this is like a
Andrew legit coolest shit to a chronograph, right? Novanot, which I don't know if that's maybe the Russian version of Cosmonaut.
Everett Yeah, I don't. Well, Cosmonaut is Russian.
Andrew I don't know. I don't speak Russian, but it's got Novanot, which is interesting to me. I'm always intrigued by watches that have its own name on the dial, but it's got a really subtle Novanot under the day date at three o'clock. With great fonts. Yeah, this whole thing. It's super Fortissie. I super like this watch.
Everett Female in lengths. I think it's a bit of a tough time to be celebrating Russian things, even if it's Russian space agency things. With that said... We're not. We're celebrating Fortis.
Andrew This is a rad watch. Yeah, it's a rad watch. Blue, black, and... Black? I can tell, I can assume that there's a difference in color between these two watches.
Everett There is a limited edition hundred piece black version of this with a like smoked sapphire case back that's being released. But the standard non-limited releases are just blue and black. All right. Christopher Ward.
Unknown Ooh, what do we have?
Everett Released a gold watch.
Andrew Yeah, this is an interesting release
Everett So Christopher Ward just released their 12 in a halo version. They're calling this the 12 Halo, which is a rose gold accented Christopher Ward 12. That's what it is that I would say with a, with an 18 karat gold bezel. Uh, there is, there are pictures of this on the website with an ambiguous, an ambiguously gendered hand and wrist model, which is that was my that was my reaction. Take away. That was my reaction to the marketing on this. It is there. Christopher Ward is being very careful to not. Gender fi this watch, which is appropriate, and I think that makes sense. I would think this is very obviously. Targeted at a more feminine audience Which is not to say I wouldn't wear it, because I think I would. With that said, this is clearly a watch that's got the masculinity toned down in favor of a bit more feminine look. Is that a fair way to put that, do you think? I accept. Dials are black and silver. Rose gold accents on the bezel, hands, logo, no numerals. Only dial markings are a Christopher Ward, they've got the British Swiss logo at 12, automatic at the middle of the six o'clock. Two thirds down. And Swiss made in this context, I think an obscenely big Swiss made at the bottom of the dial. All that to say it's a 12 with rose gold and a Movado dial. That sounds bad,
Andrew It's the first Christopher Ward I don't like.
Everett I don't mean it that way.
Andrew It is. It's a Movado dial. I just, it's the first, there's, I'm bummed out by this watch.
Everett A, give me yellow gold. If you're going to give me rose gold, give me yellow gold. I don't, I don't want rose gold. Uh, B, why the Swiss made? C, give me like a minute track or something, right?
Andrew Christopher Ward is better than this. The 12 is better than this. Yeah, this was a weird choice.
Everett I hate it. I don't think I hate it as much as you do, but I'm also like I don't hate it.
Andrew I just don't like it. If I hated it, I would be like anti Chris Ward.
Everett They only have this in 36 millimeters.
Andrew They're twenty five hundred bucks, which is super appropriate size concerning this. The precious metal that's going into it. Twenty five hundred bucks is great. The twelve is a fantastic design. I think this dial. and color way on it is an enormous miss. Use the 12 dial and incorporate yellow gold or white gold.
Everett I actually kind of hate the 12 dial, so I'm fine that they changed it.
Andrew But so the 12 is a big miss for 40 and 20. We will have Sir Michael France on again and we will discuss the failings of the 12. This is it's it's a weird release for me, for Christopher Ward. It's wholly unlike anything else in their catalog. And I'm wondering, I'm just wondering, and I will continue to wonder.
Everett These are great watches though. They are under 10 millimeters thick. Yeah. These are terrific watches. I think they did a great job, but for both the, the basic bitch 12 and for this watch, there's just something about it that I'm like,
Andrew It's the first miss for me in a long time from Christopher Ward. Andrew, what's next? I think I think it might be it. Oh, well, no, everyone wanted to talk about the IWC Top Gun watches was everywhere. I didn't really even read much about him. I'm not super excited by him. But everyone was talking about him. Uh. What else? Oh, we have wind up next week. We're not going to be there. But we're not going to get wind up. Sorry, you guys.
Everett Um. So just quickly, the IWC Top Gun watches, they're they're drab. Yeah. And they're really expensive. And everyone wanted to talk about them. That's on it. Grand Seiko has released. 36 millimeter 44 GS is they're almost 12 millimeters thick.
Andrew They are they're they're thick bitches Andrew thick, but she fire I walked by some dudes who were addressed as Mario and Luigi It's like the we're getting our photographs taken on the strip. It was their side hustle Mario had a drink in his hand and Luigi was smoking a joint and they were clearly off work because Luigi was walking by and I overheard him be like, yeah, bro, she thick, but bro, she fire. And, and I'd never heard those things like used in that, just like in that flow. But you were like, I feel you Luigi. I was like, Luigi, she was thick, but definitely she fire, man. And it was just such a, I feel you Luigi. Cause they very much look like Mario and Luigi. But like Mario was a was a drunk and Luigi was, you know, a reefer addict. Watching Back to the Future with Mark just saw the I don't mess with no reefer addict scene. So reefer addict is now top of mind. She's thick, but she fire. And these Grand Seikos are thick, but she fire. But they thick. And in typical Grand Seiko fashion, The dial is designed after the folding of a paper fan. No, these look like the cocktail time grooved dials. They're gorgeous. Um, I really like these, but they're, um, what? Six grand? Five grand?
Everett Yeah. They're almost 6,000 bucks. Yeah. They're fine. They're good. There's not bad. These are not bad. They're good. They're thick. But they fire. But they fire. Andrew, other things. What do you got?
Andrew Yeah, so I have always been like a duffel bag traveler. Same. Because they're super convenient. You can you get the stuffing action in them where you can overload them. It's great. You know, then I got a little bit older and I got a few pieces of luggage and they're just the normal like framed out. Shitty, shitty luggage that everyone else has. Uh, about a year ago, Sam, my wife got one of the clamshell hard side luggage things in a carry on size. Um, I used it this past weekend and I am a believer. I will be a convert. I am a full convert. I'm going to move away from duffel bags entirely. And by these hard side luggage, I'm going to get a couple sets, uh, having telescoping, not telescoping, um, four wheels that are fully, uh, articulating was amazing. I'm not like dragging my luggage behind me. I'm not having to lug it on my shoulder. My, the handle is fully up and I'm just rolling. Yeah. I'm just driving it alongside me. This was amazing. My packing was more efficient because it's hard sided. So yeah, I can still stuff and I can squish things, but it's the, it's, I'm not testing the, the potential of the bag. I'm just pushing air out of the things that I'm shoving it into. I have the same amount of space, but somehow more space. So we got one of the Wrangler like cheap, like $40. carry on things. It's got a cup holder built into the outside and a two end USB port. So you can plug a phone charger in to one side, like a, like a battery pack and then your phone into it in like on the luggage. I'm a full convert to hard sided luggage.
Everett I dig. I mean, actually I don't, I, my, my wife has, luggage. I have now three kids that all have carry-on sized hard sided. I don't like the form factor, but I can appreciate it. I am always going to be a duffel bag guy. I love my backpack strap, North face, face camp duffel.
Andrew I love duffel bags. I love the functionality, but for air travel, I am a full convert to hard side.
Everett So I do, I do find the USB, like plug a cable into the top of it. That is compelling to me.
Andrew I was, I saw one this weekend that you can ride on. It was like powered and had like a 300 pound weight capacity that it really intrigued me. I don't spend enough time in airports walking to make that a really valuable proposition. That's when you've given up. Um, but hard side luggage, I'm totally sold or at the very least luggage with four wheels. Yeah, I, cause I'm, I've been a duffel bag guy my whole, I'm slightly disappointed in you. Like I, I, I walked through an airport with a rucksack on my front, a shoulder pack duffel bag on my back and then another duffel bag, a top of my shoulders. Done that. And I fully believed in that methodology. But I don't live in that world anymore. What happens if you get attacked by a bear when you're at the airport? I'm faster than the next slowest guy.
Everett As long as you've got your capacity battery operated right along. Yeah.
Andrew As long as I have that. Uh, no, I'm a full convert into hard side luggage with four wheels. It was a game changer.
Everett I feel I have very, I have a lot of mixed feelings.
Andrew mixed feelings all you want because you can go in any direction you want with four wheels on the bottom of your luggage. What do you have for me?
Everett I may not even have another thing at this point. That wouldn't be surprising to me. You typically don't. Andrew, do you remember? Of course you do. A few years ago when New York Times purchased Wordle after A week? About a six-month period of, you know, maybe it was even shorter than that. Wordle came out, took the world by storm. Everybody's sharing their Wordle scores. New York Times bought them. You remember this? Yes. I shortly thereafter kind of stopped playing Wordle. Not because the game was any worse. And just to clear the air, yes, Wordle appears to have been ripped off from a game show. I don't care about that. I just stopped playing it, right? It was just kind of like, whatever. My wife, I see about a month ago, is playing a game that has the same sort of aesthetic as Wordle, and she's sharing scores much in the same way you share Wordle. It's called Connections. Have you heard of this?
Andrew This is new information to me.
Everett So there's a game called Connections. which is a New York Times game. I don't know anything of the history, so this may also be a ripoff of another game.
Andrew I'm not sure. Is it spelled the way I think it is?
Everett Yes. The game is, you get a grid, just like Wordle, every day you wake up to a new game and the game is a grid. The grid is 16 squares, four by four, and each of the squares contains a word. And the words can be grouped into four groups of four. It's not immediately parent. It's not as you start going through what the groups of four are. But that is the game. The game is to find which four words go with others. To give an example, to give an example, this last, I think two days ago, one of the one of the categories was days of the week and that means that the four days of the week would fit into a category however there were also two additional days so you had six days of the week one of those days was wednesday which went with the adams family characters category and one of those games was Tuesday, which went in a category of fat things. Fat Tuesday was the example. So, uh, that's the game, right? That game is not necessarily my other thing because I saw Kim playing this. I was intrigued. I said, how do I get that? She said, you got to get this. So I downloaded the app. I paid a little bit of money for the subscription. I can't remember how much it is.
Andrew I'm playing it right now on newyorktimes.com. I'm playing today's on the website and I'm doing poorly. I have one mistake remaining and no correct answers.
Everett I got no misses today. Just so you know. Fuck off with Ghost at the top left. Yes. So I downloaded this and and so Connections is a fun game. Wordle turns out still fun. Uh, but also what I got was every day you get the crossword. If you, if you download the app, pay the subscription every day, you get the crossword and every day.
Andrew It doesn't show you. Oh, it does show you the right answer. Yeah.
Everett Every day you get three Sudokus and they are easy, medium and hard. So I have almost every day been playing Wordle. Connections. I've been playing the crossword most days, although I can't complete the crossword every day. Some people can. Mike Razek can. Does it in pen? I think he does it on the app. And I've also been doing the Sudokus. And I just am having a blast with this app. Every day I do Wordle. I send Kim my score. I do Connections. Some days I do the Sudoku. Some days I have a long poop. The easies are usually doable in about five minutes. The mediums have taken me much longer. I'm not a Sudoku guy. I love Sudoku. So like, I think for the mediums, I've been doing them in about a half hour to 45 minutes even. And the hards take about the same time. I don't see that there's a huge gap. between the mediums and the hards. A couple days there have been.
Andrew It's because once you get into a role on hard, like the hardest is getting the first like five numbers. Perhaps. And then, and then you're there. The medium, it just is the constant effort.
Everett So my other thing for the week is the New York times games app. I've just been having a blast with it. I would say there is, easily an hour of entertainment every day, but you can, you take it in bites, right? You can do the wordle, that's maybe five minutes. You do the connections, another five minutes. You do the easy Sudoku. You can peck away at the crossword if you want to. You can do the hard Sudoku and peck away at it. It saves your progress. And then it just, the next day it's like, forget about, forget about yesterday. Here's today. And you just start it over. And I've I've been loving it. I've been loving it. Thank you, New York Times. Way to go. Andrew, here we are.
Andrew Hour and hour and three that look at us, we're keeping it short today. Anything you want to add before we go?
Everett No, I'm good. Hey, folks, thank you. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. The Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor, check us out on our website, WatchClicker.com. That's where we post every episode of this podcast, but also articles, reviews, things that are happening in watches. You can also check us out on socials, in particular, Instagram, at WatchClicker or at 40 and 20 underscore WatchClicker. That's where we post pictures, updates about what's happening on the website. If you want to support us and oh boy, we hope you do. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. For those of you who are already supporting us, we appreciate you so much. And for those of you who want to support us, you don't have to give a lot. That's how we get all our hardware, software, et cetera, et cetera. So thank you for those. And please come and join. And don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye bye.