Episode 267 - Nodus x Watch Clicker Collaboration

Published on Wed, 06 Dec 2023 22:28:21 -0800

Synopsis

This podcast episode features a conversation with Wes Kwok, co-founder of the watch brand Notice Watches. They discuss the details and design process behind Notice's collaboration with the Watch Clicker podcast, resulting in a limited edition Dive GMT watch. The discussion covers the origins of the collaboration, the design lab platform Notice has started for creating unique watches with partners, and other collaborations Notice has done with various individuals and brands. They also talk about Notice's future plans, including upcoming releases and events like Intersect, their watch enthusiast meetup series expanding to more cities.

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Transcript

Speaker
Andrew	Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 and 20 The Watch Clicker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett	So good, man. So good.
Andrew	I hear noises in the microphone.
Everett	I'm drinking a beer, which is one of my favorite things to do. It's unusual. I'm drinking a beer. A bit of a follow-up from my, how are you doing last week? The Ducks obviously lost the biggest game of the year. It hurts. I'm still not quite over it. It's some pain.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	There is a lot of salt and there's a little bit of hope in that.
Andrew	I do think Washington has a good chance of taking it all this year.
Everett	But yeah, so that's, that's been fun. It was a fun ride. I'm a little sad, but other than that, I'm doing really well. It's still college football chaos though. That's right. Chaos.
Andrew	That weekend just like threw all the wrenches.
Everett	I feel bad for those Florida State folks. I feel bad for you, Florida State folks. If there are any of any of you Florida State folks listening, I'm sorry. It seems like even the committee feels bad. Yeah, they got screwed. But yeah, no, I'm doing really well. Thank you for asking, Andrew. How are you? I am adequate.
Andrew	I am good. Also drinking beer, still feeling a little sting from college football, but mostly excited because we have a Terrific evening ahead of us.
Everett	Do you have something planned? I thought you did. Oh, boy. Actually, I think I do have something planned. I called a guy. I called a guy. I called Wes from Notice to come and join us for tonight's episode. Wes, are you there? Can you hear us? Are you OK?
Wes Kwok	Loud and clear. That was that was the most last minute uh, invitation I've ever gotten to a podcast.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	That's how we do real quick. We've, we've done same day invitations before. So just, you know, count yourself lucky that, yeah, that's what it was going to be a same day invitation.
Wes Kwok	And I was like, uh, let me, let me sleep on it and get some rest before I hop on a, on a zoom call with you guys, but I'm here. I made it. I'm drinking wine, not beer.
Andrew	So that's okay. We all can't be perfect. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the last time you were on, and I think it was in the post covid realm, but I think the most like memorable. Time we've had you on, you were in Macau, weren't you? On your parents were stuck.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So I remember that I was on the show, I think one more time after that, but I remember that show in particular because I had to do it at an ungodly hour. Uh, and I was also in Macau of all places. So yeah, I don't know. I think most people look back at the pandemic with like a weird, weird perspective, but I look at it fondly because I was in a little bubble that had no COVID on that little Island in Macau and all the restaurants were still open. I never had to go through the lockdowns or anything, but obviously I came back to California.
Everett	Yeah. Well, you were like locked down for a period of time legally, weren't you?
Wes Kwok	Well, yeah, it was two weeks. I mean, it was a quarantine kind of lockdown. So it was two weeks. And then after that, it was pretty much I was free to roam and do whatever I wanted to do. So I got lucky. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I got super lucky. Got to hang out with my parents for a little bit.
Andrew	Yeah. I'm trying to think of I think we've had you on a couple of times since then, but that was always the most memorable for me. I was like, how you're like. Stuck. In another country. Yeah.
Everett	Yeah. Well, not to bury the lead. Uh, and, and I think we're probably going to mention it and then, and then move on to some other things and come back to it. But we're here because I think we approached you or you approached us a little over a year ago and about the possibility of doing our very first collaboration, uh, ours being watch clicker and not your very first collaboration, because Notice has done a ton of really memorable collaborations in the last handful of years. Uh, but for us, our first collaboration, uh, there just did not seem to be a brand better than notice for this collaboration. And so we talked to you guys about it and you guys were game and here we are on the Eve. We are on the Eve, but for everybody else we're live, our watch clickers, very first collaboration watch, which is. the Notice Sector Dive GMT, the first of its kind, I believe.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I mean, honestly, all, all it was, was that Colin and I were already good friends with all of you. I mean, we, we are friends with Will before WatchClicker was even a thing. And then, you know, you guys and, and Frank joined the fray and we were all friends outside of all this like weird watch shit. And we were hanging out like regardless of, um, You know, like, obviously, we met up during the windups and stuff, because that brought us together. But post windup shows, we were hanging out and just having fun talking about life. And I think that's, those are the types of collaborations we like, right, the ones where we're able to like, actually be friends and hang out and throw ideas back and forth in a in a much more organic way than Instead of thinking, Hey, what do you think is going to sell? What resonates with your brand? What, what resonates with our brand? This is literally, this is a collaboration that was born out of a, of a friendship than anything else.
Everett	Yeah. Well, and, and I think I, I'd wholly agree that I feel like we're more friends than business associates at this time. Yeah.
Wes Kwok	Yeah, for sure.
Everett	For sure. So it, so the watch, uh, just to talk about it really briefly. And then I want to ask you some more about the notice and your life these last few years. Um, but the watch is a sector. It is a sector dive watch, which, which was the very first sector. And I would say famously for us was inspired by an episode of this podcast, an early episode where we lamented the lack Of skin divers in the market.
Andrew	True affordables because there's some, there's skin divers, right? That's all of Zodiac, but there just wasn't much else.
Everett	I think that's right. Yeah.
Andrew	And you all agreed.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. Um, like you mentioned earlier, we, I don't think this was the first option that we talked about, but when we, you know, like it's part of the iteration process, we design something and it doesn't quite, sit right. And then when we landed on this, it just made sense because of, well, pretty much exactly what you said. Um, and then on top of that, Frank, he's a diver and he had been talking about how, I mean, at the time when we started talking about this, there weren't a lot of dive GMTs out there. Uh, I think this year kind of changed that a little bit, but at the time when we started talking about this, there weren't any dive GMT watches out there and it's something that he himself really wanted. So to me, it just, it feels like, Watch clicker and 40 and 20 are, are like at, at its core enthusiast, um, podcast slash media outlets and notice at its core is an enthusiast brand. So it just felt like us doing a watch like this. It's, it's almost like the ultimate enthusiast watch. You know what I mean? So it just, it just kind of makes sense to do something like this.
Everett	You know, the, the design process. So, I, having designed a watch for myself, this was a bit of a different design process for me. To start with, one, this is an existing platform. And so working within the parameters of an existing mid case, for instance, is a different experience. The first question I think we had was, how do we work with this existing platform? and create something that we really love and that feels like us. And I think that you guys were really helpful in that regard. Working with you guys was a lot of fun. But I think we probably shared, I don't know, 11 or 12 renders along the way. Some of them, the earliest renders, very different than what we wound up with. You know, a completely different watch, I'd say. And then as we got closer and closer and closer, you know, the changes become little things. And I think that's the same, but that initial phase where you're kind of thinking, what, what is this watch going to be? What do we want to achieve with this, um, aesthetically and, um, and, and maybe more than just aesthetically, how do we want to incorporate what we are into this watch? That was different for me. It was, it was fun. I thought it was a lot of fun. It's, it's a, a little bit different process.
Andrew	It was like very much pimp my ride, right? Like we have a platform and we want to do all the cool shit, but we're also not limited or restricted, but we want, we don't, we wanted it to also be representative of notice, right? We wanted it to be representative of us. We wanted to all come together and do this cool thing. And it was, it was cool to have a voice in that. And it was, it was, I mean, I'm sure wholly different than, than your experience with Foster. And I imagine even really different from your collaboration experiences prior to working with us, because we're, um, whiny bitches.
Wes Kwok	Uh, uh, but I imagine like the, uh, design lab program is a new thing. Uh, and, and we can dive into that in a sec, what, like what it's supposed to be. Um, so collaborations are actually quite new for us. Uh, 2023 is really the first year we did like real collaborations. We, we'd done some stuff in the past, but there were much smaller scale collaborations for like, like way more niche groups. The Matic blog, I think was the first one I saw. Yeah. And, um, yeah, we actually had only ever worked with Matic and again, exact same thing. They were just friends and, and they had a enthusiast group in Kuala Lumpur, um, in Malaysia. So for, for us to launch a design lab was basically our way of opening up a platform for I not anyone, but opening up a platform for people that we get along with or have something to say or something that they want to design or put out, but not necessarily want to start a watch company because every, you know, this, it fucking sucks. It's a very hard thing to do to run a watch company. So that's, that's essentially what the design lab was supposed to do. So working with you guys there. Like there, there are a couple of ways that you can design a watch. Either you design a watch from the ground up, which has its MOQ requirements, or you could do something like what we did, which is build on a platform that already existed. And it's fitting for, for this watch in particular. And actually the other two collaborations we did this year were also based on the sector series because the sector series is literally supposed to be that a super versatile platform that you can build anything on top of. We've done that six times of six different sector models, and we want to open that up for other people to do whatever they want with that platform.
Everett	Yeah. So let's talk about a little bit more about the design lab. We've seen a handful of iterations, but it does seem to me like with the design lab, we've sort of hit the next A phase is the wrong word, but perhaps the next level of notice that you guys have leveled up in a pretty serious way. Um, but how did the design lab, how did the concept come to be? And you, you referred to what the intent of that project was. Talk a little bit about that.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So the way it started was it, I mean, to be honest, it's always been kind of the plan since the beginning. We just haven't really talked about it because it's a hard It's not easy to explain to people, Oh, design lab is just where we do collaborations because yes, it is that, but I think it's a little bit more than that. Um, and, and Everett, you probably know this from our conversations off offline, but we, we were always set up to be a third party service as well. Right? So we're, we're trying to supply parts for the industry. And what that did for us is it opened up doors for customization at lower quantities at a higher level of quality. And when, when this started happening, a lot of our partners were asking for essentially lower quantities of custom made custom design stuff. And no one could really deliver it. At least they could, they could deliver it at like prototype level, but never at mass production level. And we could do that. So at that point, when we were ready to start doing that for our own brand, that's when we launched design lab. And last year, pretty much the entire of 2022, we were setting up gearing up for a big 2023, where we're launching the design lab program. And then we, you know, we started off with a bang with, with Red Bar Atlanta, when we did the Red Bar GMT.
Andrew	Yeah.
Wes Kwok	And then after that, we did a collaboration with a military charity called the anti watch watch club. And then obviously, the the big one that I think Probably most people that would listen to this would probably know us from the Canyon project that we did with, uh, with the smoking tire, Matt Farah from the smoking tire. Um, so it, so yes, it is a platform for collaboration, but really the type of collaboration we can do with these groups, it's, it's a lot more custom than just a watch collaboration where they change the case back, change the dial, change some colors here and there. Um, and I think that the watch clicker watch is a good example of that where this watch, we were making 50 of them and there's nothing that we're ever going to put out that looks like this ever again, you know, and it also doesn't look like anything else that we've ever done before.
Everett	And the watch, I think it's important to note, this is not a, uh, this is not a watch that you guys make. I think you just referred to that, but yeah, this is a different movement, which, you know, I think that for folks who have never perhaps taken a watch apart or really significantly modded a watch, you don't necessarily understand the dimensional limitations of putting a, for instance, a GMT movement into a case that's designed for another watch. There's engineering that has to happen. There are clearances, you know, uh, uh, the height of the dial to the crystal is a fixed dimension. And when you change the pinion height, Uh, sometimes you have room if you're going to a smaller opinion, but if you're, if you're bulking up your opinion or if your case sticks down further, sometimes, you know, you're making actual adjustments. There's metal that needs to be moved to make a watch like this work. And, and that's, uh, that's a process and it's a process we had to deal with.
Wes Kwok	In the case of this watch, it was a Sapphire that had to be moved. But, but yeah, your, your point is, yeah, your point is that the, customizing a watch is not always as simple as it seems. And especially when, like you said, we're the prior version of the sector dive was a three-hander and we moved to the, to the GMT version of that movement. The, the core of the movement is essentially the same, but the hand height is different. So that's why we had to adjust for the, for the crystal, which, you know, it takes time. It takes money. It takes engineering. And, um, but you know, when, when you, end up with a watch that looks like this. I have it in front of me. That's why I keep looking down. But when you have a watch, it looks like this. It ends up always being worth it.
Andrew	Well, I want to see it. Put it up to the camera again. Oh, I haven't seen one in person yet. Yeah. So your blurred background is.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. No, I've tried to turn this off. I have no idea how to.
Andrew	Are you embargoing us with our own watch? So of course, I'll send, I'll send you pictures later. We've seen all the photographs and, and participated in all the copywriting and every step of the way.
Everett	The one, the one party, Eugene, a prototype never made it to Eugene.
Andrew	Cause Will wouldn't let it go. And neither would Frank.
Everett	But we do have, we do have watches coming to us soon. It is pretty exciting. Andrew, I think you were about to say something.
Andrew	I was going to say, I mean, imagine dropping a V8 and a little four-banger Corolla, right? That's what we're trying to do here.
Everett	And it wasn't just... That video exists on YouTube, by the way.
Andrew	You guys, as partners in this, weren't like, oh, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. And I think that's an experience a lot of people have, not just in collaborations, but in watch design where where the people they work with like, no, sorry, can't be done. And then the attitude you guys had was just like, yeah, yeah, we can do it. Let's, let's figure out a way. Like, and that's the, I think that was the collaborative environment that made this so exciting and so awesome to be a part of was everyone was bought into doing something cool, doing something different and just making an awesome watch.
Everett	You know, I think I think I'm OK to say here, Wes, you know, you and I have talked a lot about about just the industry and making watches. And you've helped you've consulted with watch with Foster about Foster's watches, obviously more than even consulted. And I know that you've had that experience with other brands. Do you say do you think that you have developed a bit of a customer service mentality? when it comes to these kinds of projects? And if so, how do you handle that? How do you handle that aspect of this? You know, not to say you treated us like a customer at any time, but you certainly, as we worked through the process, were willing to accept our challenges as if we were customers.
Wes Kwok	How would you describe a customer service mentality? Like what does that really mean?
Everett	You know, for me, I think it means, you know, You have this request.
Andrew	It means like working on engineering to create a 48 click bezel.
Everett	Yeah. You know, or, or just, or just, you know, you've got this request and let us, let us figure out if that's possible. Right. Cause that was, that was your guys's response to us when we'd ask you goofy things. You'd say, you never said that's goofy or, or said, you know, I don't think we're going to be able to do that. You always would say, let's take a look and see if that's possible.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Well, you know, when, when it comes to questions like that, like these are more on the technical side of, uh, you know, of the types of issues that we deal with. I don't really see that as customer, uh, you know, customer service to me, customer service would be, Hey, my watch isn't keeping time. And it's something that, that, you know, we, we would have to fix. But the types of things that you, you guys would ask, like, for example, on, on the, on the foster watch, right? Like there were a lot of issues that you guys were dealing with that we had to kind of work our way through. And we had to like, actually go down to the nitty gritty to the technical drawings and figure out why was this happening and how can we stop that from happening? And how do we stop that from happening across the entire batch of watches? It was, I mean, it's pretty much the same thing with, with what we did with this collaboration where we, okay. We decided we want to do a GMT and we were like, okay, it's, it's possible to do it, but we need to figure out at that hand clearance. And once we got to the point where, okay, we know we need to build out a new crystal shape so that the hands can clear. Now when you figure out the dial, right. So like, these are like technical things. I think I just see that as all part of the design process. I don't really think about it as like, you're not really a client. You know what I mean? You're not a client or a customer at that point. You're just, you're kind of like a design partner. You have an idea. We see if it works, if it works, awesome. If it doesn't, then we'll figure something else out.
Everett	Well, you know, as someone who's experienced with talking to OEMs out, you know, in the industry, I would say, I don't think every manufacturer or OEM handles all these things this way. You know, even with something like a collaboration watch that's going to sell 50 copies, probably make you guys next to no money. Even with that, you treat it in a way that is, and I say customer service, I don't know, you seem a little reticent to accept that. And I certainly don't mean that as an insult. I mean, just the opposite. You treat it in a way as if you're, like we're a client, like we're someone that you value, and the goals of the project were something that you valued, and our design ideas were something that you valued. That speaks to a level of service, I think is what I'm saying, and it was really kind of, it was a really pleasant experience.
Wes Kwok	Yeah, I mean, we know, obviously, we're a brand, so we know what it's like to be a brand and have all these ideas that we also want to do, I mean, like if, if I could open my book and show you the number of experiments we have going on now, it would, I mean, it's crazy how, how many like weird ideas that we have that our factories initially are like, I don't know about that. We've tried that before, you know, it won't work because of this. And we push back and we push back and, you know, luckily now we're at a point where they kind of understand the type of brand that we are. We don't want to just sit here and just make a watch with whatever, fill in the blank, all the spec sheet. We don't want to just do that. We want to like do new things and try to innovate a little bit more than they're used to. At least more than they're used to from a small brand like us. So that puts us in a position where if we know what it's like to be asking for these things and being said no to for so long, when we do these collaborations, now we understand both sides of it. I mean, like working with Matt Farah, he has all these crazy, crazy ideas right now, and we're going to try a lot of them. We're more than likely going to fail at most of the crazy ideas he has, but we're willing to at least try it because we hate being said no to. So we're not going to turn around and say no to our collaborator.
Andrew	So with you as a brand, when you say you're pushing back on these manufacturers and factories who are basically saying, who are either saying, no, it can't be done. Or we've tried it in the past and failed. What, how are you overcoming that? Are you overcoming that with like technical drawings with engineering with, or is it just like at this point you've had enough successes? Like you had a small success in the beginning and they're like, Oh, okay. These guys maybe know what they're doing or, or what, what's that? How are you doing it? Because you're, you're able to accomplish things that a lot of brands aren't.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So it's a few things and I think the, the most public kind of accomplishment that we've had is node x, the, the, our expansion class. And I mean just getting that done was a pain in the ass, and you guys know you've seen it before it. It's not like the first one we did was perfect there, and to be honest with you it's still far from perfect there are a lot of things that we're trying to do with it. That's going to take it to the next level. I mean, just getting that project started was extremely painful because it costs a lot of money. The MOQ is in like the thousands. It's not, it's not something that a brand like ours is really set up to do. And at a certain point, Colin and I were just like, you know, if, if we're not the ones to do it and we're not able to get this across the finish line, the likelihood of another brand that's similar to us doing it is probably slim to none. So we need to push this as hard as we can, even if this is the only thing that we accomplish. And so, so this was back in 2020, which was like, it was a very strange year because we had a very like existential, I think pretty much everyone did on in their lives and in their businesses and in their careers and everything. Everyone starts to question their existence and like, is this what we're meant to do? And I'm stuck at home now. And right. So, so we, we went through the exact same thing and, in 2020 was when we decided if we don't get this done, we might as well just be another micro brand. And that's not, that just wasn't good enough for us. So now with the success of that, like the fact that we actually got a product done and we've successfully licensed it to some of the biggest American brands. And we have a couple of big Swiss brands now that have licensed it for next year. It's I guess it's part of our resume now. And If these factories come back and continue to say no for any of the other crazy, wacky ass ideas that we have, we just have to pay them and then they'll do it. That's, that's what it comes down to.
Andrew	It's always money. You said something that I find really intriguing and I think is really, um, is really telling of the brand. You said, if you don't do it, how can anyone else? And I think the fact that you were, you guys are being driven as like this, this, like, tip of the spear torchbearer for watch brands as enthusiast watch people driving a brand. And the fact that you didn't say, if we don't do it, somebody else will is so telling of the DNA of notice. And it is, man, I love that. That like almost that, that gave me goosebumps when you said that.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I mean, I, I don't, I don't mean it in like a, like an arrogant or it's not, no, it's certainly confident way.
Andrew	When I say things like that, it's an altruistic, like, like we're the ones positioned to be able to do this. And it's almost like you feel like at least in the, when the, when you say something like that, it's, it feels to me like you feel like you have a responsibility to do it for the rest of us so that everyone gets better.
Wes Kwok	Yeah, I mean, that that's always been the goal. I mean, that that's why we launched intersect as well. You know, I think I think a lot of American brands have lost leverage, either on the supply side, or on the media side, or just however, however, it is like, American brands are either shinola and fossil, or their micro brand, and there's no in between. And I think it's because we lost leverage, we're not able to make decisions for ourselves anymore. So For us, we, we needed to figure out a way to get that leverage back by a being innovative on the supply side, doing cool things that no one else can do. And then on the, on, on the flip side of that, we also need to basically be able to tell our own stories on our own home court. And that's essentially what intersect is supposed to be. I mean, notice, notice literally means intersection. You know what I mean? So it's almost like we were meant to do this from the day we started the company.
Everett	Tell us a little bit about working with Matt Farah. So Matt, Matt Farah is someone, uh, we've talking, we've talking, we've talked about on this show, uh, with regards to, you know, I became acquainted with Matt Farah because he drove a, uh, LS 400 that had a million miles on it or, or was approaching a million miles. I think I can't remember. Uh, and I do think it eventually got there. Uh, but he is someone that's incredibly well known in the world of cars. Always kind of been a independent guy. He obviously did a podcast with, with Cameron Weiss. With Cam, yeah. Also out of, also out of Los Angeles. And I want to say, was that, was that a Crown & Caliber's podcast?
Wes Kwok	They, they sponsored the show, but it was still independent. And that's what I love about Matt. Like he's always walked to the beat of his own drum. Um, Cam, Cam as well, uh, which by the way, he no longer lives in LA. He moved out to Nashville. Okay. Um, um, but yeah, I think that that was one of the main things that really made our, our relationship with Matt easy to just like, we became friends real quick and it's because we're pretty much the same people. We love watches and cars obviously, but we also love cooking. We love music. We love guitars. like when, when we're hanging out with Matt, we're not really talking about how many more units can we sell? What other colors can we do? We're like, we rarely talk about that after obviously the design process is done that. And honestly, the design process on that watch was maybe 20, 30 minutes. It was so quick because he knew exactly what he wanted. All the other times that we saw him, it was just hanging out, talking about life, um, out outside of our, our collaboration and outside of, our notice and his smoking tire, he would probably be someone that we'd be friends with. We'd probably go get dinner and go to each other's houses and cook Chinese food together.
Everett	Matt Farah's famously got this pretty big personality. He's got this big voice. He speaks in platitudes, kind of a bombastic dude. But at the end of the day, he's also a fellow that that will personally buy and drive a beat to shit gold 1994 Lexus, uh, because he thinks it's cool. Uh, which I think there's that all of us in, in this hobby have something that's there, right? Even if you're buying, even if you're buying more expensive luxury watches, there's something about the anachronism there to, to be able to appreciate that. speaks to you. He's clearly a watch dude, uh, has great taste in watches. Uh, if you, if you've ever listened to, um, him on the podcast, he, he, but, but also he's not really, I wouldn't say he's a prototypical watch enthusiast. It's a little different. And, and to, to that end, I feel like the Canyon is a little bit different, certainly different than what you guys normally do. Um, And just different. Can you talk a little bit about that? You know, that watch is bigger, obviously. That's I think the most notable feature.
Wes Kwok	Well, when, when we first met up with him, the, uh, really the, the underlying question that we had was if you were to create a watch from the ground up, what would you do? And he said, I mean, he, he loves the idea of an everyday watch. just a fixed bezel obviously had to be water resistant, had to be automatic. Um, he had his spec sheet out with like the 41 millimeters, the, you know, 12 millimeter thickness or under and all that stuff. Um, but the one thing that he couldn't find for, for himself was something that had like big, bright colors. And, you know, I mean, I don't know if anyone knows this, but he's, he's actually colorblind. So the initial idea that I had for the, the Canyon was, To make the canyon, but in the same color as his car, the, the strawberry, like weird Orsha thing that he has. Right. And then at a certain point I start to realize he isn't really seeing that color in these renders. Like to him, it just looks like silver. So that's why the colors that we ended up doing are like the biggest, loudest colors that, that were on the, there were, there were probably like a dozen or more different variations that we had on, on the illustrations.
Andrew	And in that like rendering meeting, were these the colors that stood out to him as like, yeah, that's the big one. That's the one that I want.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So he picked a few, um, and we went through a few rounds narrowing it down and then he went home, thought about it, asked his wife, Hannah, Hey, what do you think? Which one do you like? Um, asked us for our opinions. He sent it to a bunch of his friends. Um, he actually, so he's really good friends with Tom Segura and, um, Tom Segura helped him narrow down to the two colors that we ended up doing. And, uh, you know, it, it, honestly, this was probably the easiest collaboration we ever did because he, it was essentially him spelling out in an email, what he wants to do. We drafted it all up, got all the engineering drawings done, sent it over. He said, fix this, change that, change that, change that, sent it back, changed it. And we were good. It was like, it was that quick. So yeah, I mean, I guess.
Andrew	Is this you like low key complaining about it taking a year and a half for us to get ours done?
Wes Kwok	Well, no, so the issue with ours was a technical issue, right? Whereas with Matt, so that that's almost the benefit of doing a ground up build where we could build around exactly what he wants, as opposed to how you guys did it, where there was a plat, a preexisting platform that we had to build around. And like, you would think, Oh, all the work is done because the tooling and everything is, you know, it's already done. It's kind of like the opposite. The fact that the tooling was done made it a little bit harder for us to kind of work around the criteria. Uh, but, but yeah, with Matt, it was easy just because it was a fresh build. He knew he could sell 300 watches. So, Oh yeah.
Andrew	His name alone could sell 300 watches.
Everett	Yeah. How has that been? So, so you guys are, are now, um, I would say in an, in a completely different niche market, right? So the, obviously this is going to be some people that are inclined to listen to both watch and listen and smoking tire. And not just because they follow Matt Farah. But by and large, I'd say the Smoking Tire audience is not the same. So you've now reached into a completely different world. How has that been? How has that experience been?
Wes Kwok	The customer service requests we get are more interesting now.
Everett	Describe?
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I mean, it's like, it's like things like, Hey, my watch stopped. It's like the typical stuff that you would think.
Andrew	Oh, I went to put it on and this bitch isn't running kind of thing.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. Date doesn't change or whatever.
Andrew	So it's, it's the first, but it says the 31st kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was like, uh, yeah, I don't know. It's just, it's funny watching the transition happen this quickly. Um, you know, but, but working with Matt, we got invited to quite a few pretty cool events. I'm getting in front of, you know, obviously a lot more auto enthusiasts. And, um, we recently had an event with icon four by four, who's known to be doing these like crazy rebuilds of, of vintage, um, vintage automobiles.
Everett	And did you meet the owner? I'm blanking on his name, the owner of Jonathan. Yeah.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I was going to say like, that was a bit of a surreal moment for me because I've, I've known about him through, friends and I wasn't super familiar because like entry-level product from Icon is, you know, $300,000.
Everett	Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Um, I think that they, they are actually, they are actually changing the wool market in the United States. Icon because of the amount of wool they've purchased has shifted the market for like plaid wool in the United States.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So, I mean, it was a bit surreal, just, I mean, emailing him and then getting to meet him and him coming to the booth and hanging out. And, uh, yeah, it was just, it gave us exposure to a whole new world of, of people that love watches that don't really know anything about our little corner. Like it's funny. Cause we did that event with icon and it's the most subs and speedies I've ever seen. And it like it in one place. And this is coming from like windups. all across the country, doing our own events all across the world. You would think you would see the most iconic watches, like the sub and the speedy, but nothing. I mean, like literally every other person was wearing either a sub or a speedy at icons event. Right. So they're obviously watch guys, but they're that type of watch guy. That is only really into the watch to buy. Yeah. Yeah. Like they, they probably just don't know any better. Like they haven't put the time into researching brands like ours or brick having, sorry.
Everett	He said, or brick or brick.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, having, having guys like that come over and be genuinely interested because they, yes, they are watch guys, but they're not the watch guys that people like you and I are kind of acquainted with.
Andrew	What's that first meeting with Matt like? Because you obviously know who he is, right? I mean, he's a super famous dude. He is aware of you guys in the way of you're going to make a watch for him. Was he under the impression that you're making a watch with him or are you doing it for him? And then what's that first meeting like? Yeah. For you as like, just a dude, not as the brand owner, but like as just like a dude.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So the first time I met him, it was, it was weird because I went in with like a weird expectation that, and you know, that there's that saying like never, never meet your hero or, um, or like a hero with clay feet or something like that, where like you meet your hero and they're not at all like who you thought they were or how they portray themselves at least in interviews and media and all that stuff. Well, Matt Farah is literally the exact same person as he is on the car reviews on all of his interviews on the podcast. And that was really refreshing. And in a weird way, it made me let my guard down really quickly, because I felt like I already knew who he was after all the years of listening to his podcast. In a good way, right? Yeah. We pretty much went immediately into a friendship because I, we were already talking about things that we knew he was into because we were into that stuff too. Um, like we, we ended up talking about his kitchen, you know, like the way his kitchen was built by Guy or designed by Guy Fieri and the type of food he likes to cook or the places in the world that he's traveled to. Like it ended up becoming a really, like he was a real person.
Andrew	You can skip all that, like, like, initial meeting you stuff. Yeah.
Everett	So, uh, Matt Farah, I think it's not a secret at this point that you guys have a pending release with Raven. Uh, the Red Bar Atlanta GMT came out. Of course, the biggest of the year is us. Uh, you guys, I believe in 2023 or either late 22 or 23. uh, announced and released the unity watches. That seems like a lot, but what else do you guys have going right now?
Andrew	Can I, can, before we get into that, can we talk a little bit about what a watch brand to watch brand collaboration felt like?
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Working with Raven. I mean, it was another one of those very, very similar to, to working with Matt Farah, where Steve, uh, for anyone listening, Steve is the owner of Raven. He's been a friend for, for many years. Uh, he actually, in a weird way, Steve was more of a hero to me than, than even Matt Farah was because we literally started our company because of people like Steve and the Bill Yow's and the Jason and, and, you know, all, all you guys, everyone who paved the way. Yeah. Yeah. So getting to finally work with him after doing all these shows and all these intersects and, and, and all that stuff, getting to design a watch together, It was, it was really a special experience for us. Um, I think what made it special was not just that he knew what he wanted and we also wanted to kind of build, build our watch around the Raven image. Basically something that notice couldn't do notice, couldn't get away with. It's also just awesome hanging out with him, sitting in a brewery and talking about like the craziest ideas. Like, like it's a Sarah coded watch that's engraved and ink filled. With a gray DLC, like these are all ideas that we had literally after the day after intersect last year, Everett, when, when you were here in long beach, we were at that restaurant. Yeah, we, we literally went the next day back to Beachwood, got a bunch of beers. And that's when we started designing the, uh, the, what is now called the trail tracker. Um, so now a year later, all these crazy ideas that we had that we weren't sure, Oh, is this going to work? Is that going to work now? It. sure enough is working. Um, and we're accomplishing these things with, with someone that we consider a friend. That to me is very special. Um, and I'm actually, I'm going to be seeing him tomorrow or, uh, on Friday, I'm, I'm flying down to Kansas city to throw a holiday party in, uh, in Casey.
Andrew	Thanks for the invite.
Wes Kwok	Hey, I mean, if you want to, if you want to drive over to Casey from, uh, from Oregon, more than welcome.
Andrew	Yeah. That's a little bit longer than I'm ready to commit to, you know,
Everett	Steve talks about watches, Steve Laughlin of Raven, talks about watches different than anybody I think I've ever met. First, Steve is just a great dude. He is one of those people that you meet, and you said he was one of your heroes. I think Steve is someone that I've been familiar with as long as I've been interested in watches, because when I was getting into watches, 2015, 2016, Raven was one of those brands. Yeah. Uh, and Steve was one of those guys. Uh, and so when we started our show, I don't think Steve is someone who goes on a lot of podcasts. In fact, I don't think I've ever heard him on a podcast and I know I had reached out to him with mixed results. And so I didn't know, I didn't know what to expect when I met Steve. I met him at a restaurant in Los Angeles, just gotten off a plane, still kind of like light weary. And he's sitting there drinking a beer and I sat down and it was just like the way he looked at me and talked to me was like, I was someone that was, that was supposed to be there. And you know, I always got this imposter syndrome and he, he never made me feel that way. And instantly we're talking about, not just watches, but, but in particular watches in a way that just blew my mind because the, the way he thinks about his designs and the way he thinks about what's good in a watch. Meanwhile, he's wearing a OG MarineMaster 300 and not wearing a Raven, which is, which is, I think normal. I think a lot of brand owners wear other watches. But just seeing the way he appreciates and Steve is a guy who says, you know, watches have gotten too small. Uh, you know, he wants bigger watches. He wants more aggressive sort of like prominent watches, but, but seeing how his mind works and, and then looking at his watches and understanding, oh, this is a guy that wants to make the watches he wants to make. And then in fact does that, he just makes the watches he wants to make. And they're so good. Uh, really terrific experience.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I mean, that's the true spirit of what a micro brand was back in the day, you know, and we, we look at Steve with, with a lot of respect because of that. He stayed true to what he did back then. He still does that today. Arguably it might to some degree, it might be to his detriment because he still doesn't like sending his watches out for reviews. He's no, he's not into making small watches. He doesn't. follow the trends, but that's almost like, that's almost what makes me love what Raven does. You know, it's, it reminds me of why I fell in love with the micro-brand scene as opposed to just buying the Seikos and the Omegas and whatever.
Everett	These people that are making the watch that they wanted to see.
Andrew	Cause Raven is Raven and Raven will always be Raven.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Andrew	So now to, to go to the question that you were asking before I interrupted, What else could you guys possibly be doing? You've got five collaborations in the last 16 months. You've got one wholly new release.
Everett	Yeah. So the unity is the newest watch in your collections. A little bit different for you guys, I'd say, but certainly within the realm of what you guys have done.
Andrew	And I don't know, 150 to 200 iterative releases along the way. What, what are you guys up to? What are you, what are you doing besides just like sitting down in the workshop and just tinkering?
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So a lot of things have changed this year for Notice. You know, not, not just in the terms of, of our releases and all the collaborations we've done, but the way the company is run has also changed a lot. So I probably spend more time doing things like the design lab, uh, and working on intersect than anything else. Uh, those are kind of my two, two main projects. Whereas last year I was still doing all the comms, like the emails and use the, uh, the newsletters, the social media, um, kind of like the strategy of the business. Uh, I think Cullen and Jake Wittgen, um, I'm sure you guys know who that is. I'm sure a lot of the listeners probably know who that is at this point too. Long time for end of the show. Yeah. So, so Jake, Jake took over a lot of what I used to do, uh, on, on a daily basis, which freed my time up to think a little bit more about what notice needs to stand for as, as a brand and as a business. Um, and kind of the, the two main, the two main efforts that I think are going to take notice into that direction are intersect and design lab. So I've been spending most of my time on those two projects lately. So I mean, who would have thought event planning would be so hard, right? Yeah.
Andrew	Yeah.
Wes Kwok	It's probably the single hardest thing I've ever done in my life.
Andrew	Jose Cuervo and just call it a day.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I wish man. Um, but yeah, those are probably the two main projects I spend most of my time on now and moving forward into next year. Those, so we're going to be doing four intersects next year. Instead of two that we did two this year, we're going to do four next year. Um, we have some pretty massive collaborations coming out, so we're going to continue working with Matt. I think he, he has a lot of ideas that he's kind of been stewing on for many years. We're going to try to release all of the ideas that he's had. Um, we have another pretty big collaboration with a. Well, I can't say it yet. I'll tell you off air, but, uh, yeah. And then we're, we want to work a lot more with local watch groups as well. Uh, I think the, the main thing that I I've been telling everyone on, on the notice team is that we can't forget that we're still an enthusiast brand. We need to go on the notice tours. Again, we need to get to watch clubs, watch groups, and all over the country, all over the world, ideally, but definitely all over the country. We want to go to Nashville, Cincinnati. Um, the Carolinas, you know, Boston, and we want to get to know these people as real people, figure out what they like. hopefully make a watch for them that they want to, that they actually want to wear. Um, so that, that's what 2024 is going to look like for us.
Andrew	Are you ready to release the four cities Intersect is going to be hosted at?
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. So, um, March 23rd is going to be Atlanta. Uh, we're going to do Seattle in June. Uh, we're actually moving LA from November to September and then Dallas will be in November.
Everett	The only thing I disagree with is moving. Everybody wants to be in L.A. in November.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. September. Yes, but no one wants to be in Dallas in September.
Everett	Yeah, that's fair.
Andrew	That's true. That's fair. Having lived there in that period of time, it's not so great. November is lovely, though. I learned recently that people call Dallas North Texas. I think I disagree with that assessment. Just as a former Texan? No, just as like a person who can read a map. Um, but yeah, so I, I said, Oh yeah, I lived in central Texas. And this lady's like, Dallas is North Texas actually. And I was like, are you stupid?
Everett	But it's fine. I think people disregard that the top, the North half of Texas is disregarded.
Andrew	There's nothing out there. That's no, that's fine. Um, but yeah, she made me think, made me feel like I was the asshole. And I was like, you're, you're wrong.
Everett	Yeah. It's like the Midwest is in the Eastern half of the country. We make compromises when we talk about these things. Um, so, so you, so unity, obviously a huge shift. Uh, how was the response to the unity Ben?
Wes Kwok	Uh, it was, it was great. I think the, uh, the first two that we launched the pink and the blue was probably a little bit more like people approach that watch with a bit more trepidation because they're kind of wacky colors.
Everett	Small and sort of, I think it's okay to say feminine colors.
Andrew	But way more color than you've ever had with the color matched bezel, way more color than is in most any other watch.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. I mean, the reason we started it with those two colors is because those two colors are the hardest two colors to make with ceramic, right? So that was basically us trying to flex our manufacturing muscle a little bit. Um, and funnily enough, I remember when it came out, I was telling a lot of our, our inside, like our close friends that, you know, when this comes out, you're going to see a lot of big Swiss brands start to use these colors in ceramic as well. And sure enough, there were like two or three Swiss brands that ended up using it. Uh, and funnily enough, we recently released the black and yellow one. And I mean, yellow also is kind of like a wacky color, but when the black one came out, the sales on the pink and the blue one actually picked up a lot as well. It almost, it almost feels like people needed to see, Oh, the black ceramic that everyone can make. Now I can appreciate how hard it is to make the pink and blue one. So I'm going to go for that. Like it almost feels like that's what happened. Yeah.
Everett	Right. Yeah. And I guess for me, the biggest question I have about notice right now is when is the next duality going to be announced?
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So it's right now it's in prototyping. Um, we're probably going to unveil it next spring. I want to say April ish. Um, it it's tough because we have the contrail coming out around the same time, like January, February, March, uh, timeframe. And those two watches are very closely related. Um, I think if you look at it side by side, you'll kind of see the resemblance. Um, and so, so there are both big heavy hitters and it turns out that the, the wait list that we have for the two watches Uh, they've grown massively, but the number of emails that are shared between the two wait lists are, there's a lot in common. So we don't want to release it back to back, but we'll, I mean, we'll see, we haven't gotten the prototype yet. So we're going to see if it, if once we get it, if it's good to proceed to mass production.
Everett	So for those two watches, we're aiming for April for those two watches, duality and control should folks expect to be surprised or expect to be comfortable with those releases?
Wes Kwok	I'd say for the Contrail, be surprised. For the Duality, be comfortable.
Andrew	Okay. I like that. Yeah. All right.
Everett	Good. I like it. We're getting a little bit long in the tooth here, Wes. I do want to take a moment just to talk a little bit about the Dive GMT, the Watch Clicker 1420 Dive GMT. So this is essentially a Uh, sector dive watch with a GMT movement inside. I think there's just a tiny bit of dimension on the thickness that we've added. Um, like 0.3 millimeters, I think. Is that right?
Wes Kwok	Less than that. I don't have the tech drawing in front of me, but it's like, it's negligible.
Everett	Yeah. So we've taken a GMT movement, shoved it in a dive case. Uh, looks fantastic. Obviously Sapphire crystals. It's a different Sapphire than you'd get in another GMT or in another sector dive. But outside of that, we've got some pretty fun details. One of the ones that we were the most proud of was the greater than or equal to 110 meters at the six o'clock.
Andrew	And this is the most important component. That's where you can lose the most points.
Everett	We played with that a lot. I think it's important to say for anyone buying this watch, It is still 150 meter water resistance watch. Yeah. Obviously a nod to our objective watch rating scale. We do have the watch clicker camera at the 12 o'clock. I think small enough that it's subtle and will not interrupt your wearing experience. It's not Kermit. We've got the C3 loom on the minutes hand and and BGW9 I think everywhere else. Um, some fun elements that I think we were really happy with anything else about the watch that you've Oh, and the case back.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So my, my favorite part is the case back where, so the design is four circles, um, that kind of intersect into a Venn diagram. And the idea was that it represented. Well, at the time it was four different models that were all based on the same, uh, same kind of platform. Uh, obviously now it's, it's more than that. But for this watch in particular, one of those four circles is the cog that's in the watch clicker logo. And I like it just because it still keeps with the notice theme, but it does it in a way that brings in the watch clicker theme in like a cool, subtle way. Turned out really nice. I'm pumped about it.
Andrew	The most collaborative collaboration you'll ever see.
Everett	So these things will be available. As you're listening. To be purchased today. Today. if in the future, but today, if you're listening to this, you can go get one. There's only 50. We don't know how, quite how fast they're going to sell out, probably about 13 minutes. So be online at the right times. Get your bot made. Um, they're going to ship, I think mid December, a couple of weeks from now is, is when shipments are going to happen.
Andrew	So I mean, are you guys are doing QC on them now, or are they, are you still waiting on them?
Wes Kwok	They're pretty much done. Actually. They're probably going through, uh, maybe pressure testing there. They're on their way up to Washington where we ship out of, um, probably this week.
Everett	So, so these things are going to ship pretty quick, not a long way for these, uh, $500. Oh, excuse me. Five 50 for the DLC 500 for the steel bezel.
Wes Kwok	Uh, yeah, something like that.
Everett	And I'm I'm partial to the steel bezel. I'll just say for anybody listening, we designed this around the steel bezel and then decided along the way to make the DLC available as well, because I think that's a really popular and it looks so good on that platform.
Andrew	But this was designed around.
Wes Kwok	It's the one I like. It's one that I have.
Andrew	Yeah. And I noticed that. And and but to be fair, everyone on the team did choose a steel bezel. That's right. Yeah. All the watch clicker team did choose a steel bezel.
Everett	And I think that's it. So this feels like a really appropriate time to ask you an important question, Wes, which is other things. What do you got?
Wes Kwok	You guys, you guys know the dating show Love is Blind? Yes, we do. Are you on it? I'm not on it. I know another brand owner that was asked to be on it who said no.
Everett	Lame ass. Say who? Say who? Yeah, do it. Drop names.
Wes Kwok	Spill the tea. You know, the, the Dallas season. So read between the lines, there's a Dallas brand. Yeah. But what I love about the show is that, I mean, the show itself is great, but after the season is done, go on the Reddit. It's like an entire world just opens up. Oh yeah. Like the show itself, you're really just scratching the surface.
Everett	Yeah. My wife is in there. My wife is in all the chats.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. Yeah. But I, I really recommend you watch it. It's like, yeah, it goes deep, man. It goes deep.
Andrew	And there's what, three seasons or is it the fourth season available now? Five seasons. Five seasons. So you've got, there's a lot of backlog of people that you can just despise.
Everett	So it's your other thing. You got to tell people a little bit about what the show is about. Give people the concept of the show.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So basically you're, uh, you're a single person and you're cast to be in this dating. Like it's not really speed dating, but basically what it is is you're in two rooms with a wall in between it. And you can still hear the other person on the other side and you have to get to know each other to a point where you have to propose to them and you get to like date around. So it's not like the person you're matched with is the one that you have to marry, but you date around a bunch of different men or women. And, uh, you end up proposing to them sight unseen. And then once you propose is when the fun real starts, the basically you propose and then you get to see each other right after. Um, that's when things get really juicy. They go to Mexico on a honeymoon. Uh, they get to meet each other's family and the entire show happens within four weeks. So it's not like, you know, it's not like they can prolong this and like get to know each other and then turn around because once they get to this point, they pretty much have to go to the altar, even if they don't want to get married. And a lot of the times they get to the altar and one or the other ends up saying no, when, you know, when you asked you marry this person and whatever. Um, so, so yeah, that's the premise, but just, I just, I love the way the, the relationships kind of open up and the, again, the Reddit. Just the Reddit is the best part about the show.
Andrew	I saw a headline the other day that the first Love is Blind baby was just born.
Wes Kwok	Yeah. So that's a big deal. Cause ever since season one, the host would always ask, they have a reunion show. Oh yeah. That's another thing. The reunion show of Love is Blind is the best. That's the one I watch every season. Yeah. Yeah. And they always ask, is there a baby coming? So, so it's a big deal that there's a Love is Blind baby now. Finally.
Andrew	Yeah. Four years it took.
Everett	Yeah. So you've heard it from Wes. Love is blind. Check it out. Andrew.
Andrew	Ooh, I got another thing. I got one. Got to pull it up. My other thing is a thing I've been using for a super long time. Hubert's shoe grease. We talked about this recently. H-U-B-E-R-D shoe grease, and it is a weatherproofing and leather conditioning slime that you apply to your leather products. I love it. And I actually brought it in here because you said you've never seen or heard of it before somehow.
Everett	It's a top five shoe grease. Oh, yeah, I've seen this. I've seen this can before. Give it a sniff.
Andrew	OK, so one of the you can just sniff the can. It's pungent. So one of the complaints of Hubert's, I say Hubert's, I think that is how you would say that, right? H-U-E-B-E-R-T. It's aroma.
Everett	On a lot of the pros and cons... It's got a real petrochemical aroma.
Andrew	But a lot of the pros and cons reviews are like, smells like bacon, pro. Smells like bacon, con. It, to me... There is a bacon smelter. Smells like... leather conditioner. A little bit petrochemically, but that's what I want.
Everett	You know what it actually reminds me of? The smell is something I can identify it exactly. It's if you took bacon grease and poured it into a Cape Cod cloth bag. So take bacon grease, pour it into a Cape Cod cloth bag. This is what it smells... That's what it would smell like.
Andrew	Pine tar and beeswax. Now, here is the one true con. So I love this thing at Weatherproofs. Weatherproofs your leather boots really well, and that's what I've primarily used it on the entire time I've had it, is on leather boots, right? Not brushed leather, because it's not going to work on rough side out leather, but leather boots. Here is the universal complaint, and I totally agree with it. It darkens your leather. Sure. As with any conditioner, but more than most. So this is not a good conditioner for natural leather or even like your kind of light Browns, even into like tobacco Brown, any darker than that. It's perfect. I use it on almost the like blood red Thursdays that I wear. I use it on my Brown Clarks. I use it on my Danners. I use it on any, smooth side dark leather that I have. I love it. Smells great. Conditions great. Super waterproofing. This is my other thing. This takes care of your leather. And for those of you who wear or even don't wear your leather, all leather boots or shoes very often condition your leather, take care of it. It's going to last forever if you take care of it.
Wes Kwok	And you use it on watch straps.
Andrew	Ooh, yeah, you definitely could.
Wes Kwok	So you can go swimming with it?
Andrew	I mean, yeah. I don't know how it does with like inundation.
Everett	If you used it on a rubber watch strap, you could go swimming with it for sure.
Andrew	I, I am going to get a couple leather watch straps and test this theory and see about permeation on it. Cause the beeswax and pine tar is supposed to, create a waterproofing layer. I mean, you can get leather wet. This leather is just skin, but I'm going to try it. I like it. I'm going to get a couple for it. Actually, I might even use some of my black EA8. It's not going to darken it. Just going to shine it a little bit. Yeah. So this is my other thing. I love it. I love the smell. It smells, I mean, it's like, like this smell, is akin to CLP and gunpowder for me in the way of just like dirty man hobbies.
Everett	Yeah, no, it's got that same, it's got that same sort of appeal to it. Yeah. Andrew, I've got another thing. Do me. So I recently learned of a podcast that felt like a major miss in my pop culture sort of acumen the Reply All podcast, which is a podcast that was really popular. It was eventually, eventually kind of went away due to circumstances. That's not what I'm here to talk about. The host of Reply All, or one of the hosts, a fellow named PJ Vogt, has just recently started a new podcast and the podcast is called Search Engine. The concept is things that you may Google late at night or, or, you know, in the privacy of your own home, because you, you know, it's a question that you either don't have the inclination or too embarrassed to ask people about, right. A question that's on your mind, something that you type into a search engine. That's the concept of the show. And each of the episodes, each of the episodes are a theme that's like that. So Uh, the one I started today was why don't we eat humans? Uh, which is a, is a great, is a great concept. Uh, the, the one that I listened to that I was like, holy shit, this is good was, uh, I think it's called what happened to Elon Musk or what's happening with Elon Musk, uh, something like that. And it's sort of about the zeitgeist that is the richest man in the world. And, you know, they talk a lot about his purchase of Twitter. And in fact, they talk a lot about Twitter slash X itself and what it was and what it's become and perhaps even what it may be in the future. Ultimately, I think concluding that it's likely to be much different if even in existence in a very short period of time. But it was it's fascinating. And he's he uses guests. It's a guest based interview show, sort of not quite stream of consciousness, but but a little bit less than sort of like hardcore investigation. So more conversational than I think reply all but but also but also very well produced, obviously well funded. PJ Vogt, I think, is someone that's got a huge audience, an audience that I didn't even realize existed. And it's been terrific. I think I've listened to four or five episodes of Search Engine now, and they've been really, really incredible. The production quality is there, but it's not over the top. You know, we're not talking about this American Life or Radiolab type production quality. It's much more akin to what we do here, which is two people or three people perhaps sitting down and having a conversation. But they do it in a way that feels more like Radiolab. These are knowledgeable people talking, unlike us. These are knowledgeable people talking about a subject that they're comfortable with and have researched. It is really terrific. I think for me, this is my favorite new podcast discovery in quite some time. And that's excluding sort of episode, you know, like, like miniseries type podcasts. But for a podcast that I'm going to put into my feed, subscribe and listen to the new episodes, I think this is my favorite new to me podcast in quite some time. And it's relatively new. I think they're on like episode 25-ish, maybe not quite that much. Terrific. Really, really good. If you were a listener of Reply All, and I found out after learning about Reply All that... So a friend of the show, Joe, Captain Sano, alerted me to this show actually by way of a connections clue, the New York Times Games connections. I said, I don't even know what that was. And he was like, how do you not know what that was? And I was like, I don't know. I feel like an idiot now.
Andrew	Told my father-in-law about that game while I was struggling through it, and he was like, I'm done. I'm like, God, fuck. It is a terrific game. Why are you so smart?
Wes Kwok	I do love that game.
Andrew	It's a good game.
Wes Kwok	I just lined up that Elon Musk episode for tomorrow morning.
Everett	It's terrific, Wes. You're going to love it.
Wes Kwok	It's really, really good. This is like right up my alley.
Andrew	You know, I think a dude, if a guy were to like commit I don't know, six months to me of search engine searches after 11 PM, like between 11 PM and 4 AM, he'd have about nine years of good podcast material. I go to some like, not yucky places, but weird places in the way of like, Oh, Oh, Ooh.
Everett	Oh yeah. Yeah. That's right. Wes, can you see who the co-host on or who the guest on that Elon Musk episode is as you're looking at it? So yeah, it's not someone I was familiar with, but Casey Newton, Casey Newton, he's a social media journalist, and specifically someone who spent a lot of time thinking about and reporting on Twitter. And his perspective is unique in that regard. You know, someone who was in love with the platform, maybe is in love with what the platform was, but is is really transparent about what's happened with the platform and where he sees it going. Really terrific insight from someone who was obviously very well-versed on a topic. And that seems to be the trend with these episodes. Really terrific. I recommend checking it out.
Andrew	Like almost people who are appreciative of what a thing used to be?
Everett	I think that's right. Yeah. Okay. I'm in. I'm going to start our outro here, but I do want to just take a second to say the Notice collaboration is online right now. So what we'd like you to do is go to either WatchClicker.com or Notice.com and if you go to NoticeWatches.com, excuse me, NoticeWatches.com, go to the Design Lab link. It will be there. We'll also have a direct link on our website. Just check it out. You guys, just check it out. Tell your friends.
Andrew	Hide your kids. Hide your wife.
Everett	That exact phrase was just run through my head. Hide your kids. Hide your wife. Go check it out. We love you guys. This was, I think for us, it felt like an opportunity to provide something to the folks who love us and appreciate us. Obviously, you're going to have to pay for the watch. With that said, we felt like this was an opportunity to kind of share what we do with you and give you an opportunity to express your love for 40 and 20. And get to like have it as a part of you. That's right. Limited edition numbered one through 50.
Andrew	The 0069 was not available when I asked about serial number customization.
Everett	The 00 is going to be available by way of an auction. Yeah. By way of a raffle. That's right. Yeah. And the proceeds of the 00 will go to charity. So more information on that will be released shortly.
Andrew	But there will be a link to the charitable organization that we're supporting in the show notes.
Everett	That's right. That's right. Wes, anything you want to add before we wrap it up for the day?
Wes Kwok	No, just it's good to see you guys. And this collaboration is a lot of fun. Hope to see you guys in real life soon.
Andrew	And I'd like to get you to verbally commit now to come back and talk about Intersect for an entire episode.
Wes Kwok	Well, let's get you guys up to the Seattle show. It's a short drive from you guys, right? Yeah, we'll be there.
Andrew	It's a longer drive for us than it is for you a flight. But I'm pretty confident we're going to make the Seattle show. Yeah, we'll be there for sure. Yeah.
Everett	Cool. Cool. All right. Thank you, Wes, for joining us and thank you at home for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20, the watch clicker podcast. Do me a favor, check us out at watch clicker.com. That's where you can find every single episode of this podcast, but also articles, reviews, including articles about our brand new notice collaboration. You can also check us out on social media. which is at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. That's where we share announcements about things we're doing on the podcast or things we're doing on the website, including things like our notice collaboration. If you want to support us, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's how we get all of the money that supports things like hosting and hardware and software for all of the supporting us already. We appreciate you. And if you want to check it, check us out, just go to patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life and other buh-bye.