Re Releases Done Wrong (and Right) (270)

Published on Wed, 27 Dec 2023 21:55:40 -0800

Synopsis

In this podcast episode, Andrew and Everett discuss recent watch releases and news. They talk about a potential legal ruling in France that could force Rolex to allow online sales from authorized dealers, and how that could impact the Rolex market. They review new watch models from brands like Nevada Grenchen, Aviate, Ebel, Breguet, Maine, and EC Anderson, sharing their thoughts on the designs, pricing, and whether the releases are hits or misses. They also discuss Andrew's new Solo Stove firepit and Everett's experience watching the new Studio Ghibli film "The Boy and the Heron" with his family.

Links

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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	I'm doing well, Andrew.
Andrew	Besides fucking around with buttons over there. And I think before I ask the question, I should apologize. on behalf of all of us. I don't recall wishing everyone a Merry Christmas at the conclusion of our episode last week. Should you be a celebrator, celebrator, observant of Christmas? We didn't do that. We are now post Christmas and I'm sorry. So Everett, how are you?
Everett	You know, I'm doing, I'm doing well. I, um, I had a nice Christmas. I ate entirely too much food. No, you didn't. Uh, no, I did objectively. Uh, but it was good food and I was happy to do it. I was happy to contribute to the family in that way.
Andrew	Somebody's got to do it. You know, nobody, nobody likes throwing out leftovers and there, there are those heroes like us out there who will dispose of it before it becomes old leftovers.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. And I will say, I didn't eat everything. We did have leftovers, but I did eat quite a bit. Like the 25th when I went to bed, I felt packed tight and packed full of stuff.
Andrew	And a little sweaty.
Everett	Yeah, Andrew, I'm doing well. How are you?
Andrew	I also am good. I also had a very good I had an interesting Christmas. This one was a little weird. Uh, my sister typically hosts Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Christmas day. Uh, but they all got the COVID. So we went through all of Christmas Eve. We host my wife's family, her parents, and grandpa here on Christmas Eve. So I had a great Christmas Eve celebration, big dinner. Uh, and we went to bed not knowing what was going to happen the following day. What do you mean? Not knowing what we were going to do if we were going to do anything. And we, you know, we made it work. We, we made a couple, uh, we, we went up and saw her parents with her aunt and, and her cousin. And then we went to my dad's house and just hung out with my dad for a little bit, but it was a very low key Christmas day with leftovers instead of like a Christmas Eve dinner and then like Christmas day meal, which was kind of nice because we have no more, no, we have like one lunch worth of a smoked chicken.
Everett	It's perfect. Left.
Andrew	It's perfect. It, it turned out really good. I made duck fat potatoes. Have you, have you done that before? Nope. Never. It was phenomenal. So I gave him a little boil. softened them up a little bit, threw them in a cast iron with some duck fat, let them roast for about an hour, gave them a couple little stirs to really crisp them up.
Everett	Holy shit.
Andrew	They're like mashers? No. Cause they were nice and crispy, but soft. They were, they were like home fries, but I used fingerlings and just like soaked up all the duck fat and yum. They were,
Everett	delightful. Well, much as we could. We're not here to talk about the culinary delights of the holiday season. We are here to talk about watches and talk about watches. We will. Andrew, we are going to be talking about some of the neatest things that have happened in this last week. And this is a slow week for watches, but there were enough neat things that we decided to go about it this way. Anyway, do you do you mind kicking us off, Andrew?
Andrew	I'm going to kick us off with something a little different and which is why I'm going to kick us off with it because it's something that I just want to get out of the way and move on from. Um, so in the last couple of really in the, in the last year, we've seen some interesting, uh, legislation come out of Europe, uh, specifically with the Apple watch or with Apple, uh, in mandating USBC. and Apple having to abandon their lightning cables in Europe, which caused them to do it the world over. Uh, we saw some, uh, copyright infringement with Apple basically since its inception. We've seen some specifically with the Apple watch in the last year with medical devices and heart rate and oxygen monitoring capabilities. Um, And here's where this ties into what we actually care about, is in the last couple of weeks in France, their version of the Trade Commission. Yeah. What's the name of it? I have to find it. Autorité de la Concurrence. Yeah. The authority who decides if you concur or not. It's the FTC. The FTC. The French version of the FTC. So basically like our animal control is what I'm assuming. Um, so the French FTC has basically said, no Rolex, you can't prohibit your authorized retailers from online retailing. We're not okay with that. And the, the intersection of these two, and I'll link to the article, the intersection of these two ideas is if France says Rolex, you can't ban online sales, how Rolex is anticipated to respond globally. And what that could mean is we see an actual availability of authorized retailers selling through the internet of Rolex watches. And go ahead and pause us for a minute and go to walmart.com and you'll find that there are Rolex's listed at MSRP. And me as a person who doesn't want to risk divorce for this like working, uh, haven't ever tried it, but I'm wondering if it would work if you buy through Walmart to, to, to buy the watch. But yeah, I'm not sure. But, but that's kind of just like a, you know, a, the downstream wondering here, pondering if you will. But this is a really interesting FTC equivalent ruling that says Rolex, you have a strange monopoly in the market and you can't prohibit the people who are buying your stuff from you from selling it in the manner in which they want to. I think this is interesting and I think this will, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how this plays out over the next year because we've already seen a much bigger retailer than Rolex succumb to this kind of regulation. And in fairness, it was from the EU and not just from France, so it was a bigger regulatory agency. But this is a really interesting legal case that I'm kind of excited to see play out, because it could really change the landscape of watch purchasing for Rolex.
Everett	Yeah. I think it's a little tough to understand. I think it's a little tough to understand how this is going to play out because you can assume that there'll be similar decisions or maybe differing decisions issued in other parts of the world based on this. And I don't know how it's going to play out. You know, I think what we've seen, I think the best example of this is the NIL, the decisions that have led to the college football NIL, you know, when a company sort of exhibits, a company or a corporation exhibits maybe an unnatural control, an artificial control over a marketplace, once that is altered or changed, the marketplace that arises in its wake can be a bit chaotic. And so I think that a lot of people are excited about what NIL is doing for college football. And I think there's a lot of people who are like, this is fucking crazy chaos. And it doesn't make any sense. And the things that are happening are kind of bad for everybody, which is clearly not true. But I think we're going to have to see how this plays out. I'm not suggesting this is a decision on the scale of the college sports, amateur athletics decisions, the NIL decisions. But I do think that what I don't know that we can really predict what's going to happen to the market in the wake of this.
Andrew	No, it's it's going to have an interesting impact because the NIL decision was, you know, the whole the whole idea of it, not to talk about college football and college athletics, but the whole idea of it was all this money is being made on the shoulders of these people who aren't truly being compensated for it. They're the product. And it changed the landscape. And it will continue to change the landscape. And I think if the French FTC and American Animal Control say you can't prohibit online sales, what does that do to the kind of false supply shortage within the Rolex ecosystem?
Everett	Yeah, we'll see.
Andrew	And I don't know that the supply shortage is actually false, but... But it is in the way of if you go to an AD, you've got to have a purchase history and you've got to build that relationship and sit in a three-year wait list after having bought two shitters.
Everett	Yeah, I don't think there will be more watches, but there may be more access to the watches that are available.
Andrew	And simultaneously less access. I think what it'll do, and here's my hot take, it's going to further the demand for subs for explorers and we're going to see a more availability of the balance of their catalog because they are not going to be grabbed up by people looking to build a purchase history. I think we're going to see just more availability because you, you're not going to have to buy a date chest and uh, What's the super magnetic one? The Milgauss. You're not going to buy those to develop a purchase history with your AD to be shortlisted. You'll be just medium listed online.
Everett	If you are listed.
Andrew	I think it's, it's interesting. And I kind of look forward to seeing how this plays out, especially in someplace like France.
Everett	Yeah. So watch that came out, it was actually announced a few weeks ago, but we didn't, we, I haven't had an opportunity to talk about it. Nevada Grenchen. This is a, I think it's fair to call this a zombie brand or perhaps a revived brand sort of reintroduced in 2020, kind of, kind of came out swinging hard, released a bunch of really cool watches. Their price point is really appealing. A few years back, they released the Antarctic or the Super Antarctic, which is kind of a modern watch. Nirvana seems to me like they're trying to figure out where they're comfortable in terms of their history, their historical releases, and the modern interpretations. I'm not sure they've quite figured out where it is they want to be. Yeah, they're zeroing in. on that spectrum. They have, uh, I think with the super Antarctic released a perfectly modern watch with the appeal and aesthetic of an older watch. Uh, this last month they did, they did something a little different. They released the Nevada Grinch and Antarctic 35 millimeter. And this is a watch that is almost to the angle, a recreation. of an old 1950s 35 millimeter Nevada Grinch in the Antarctic. It is a slim Art Deco mechanical hand wind watch that is a sport watch of old.
Andrew	Yeah, it's not a sport watch of old. It's the watch of old. This is your watch. This is the one watch. This is dad's watch. It's the watch he always had on. It's the watch he wore for everything. He stored it in his butt when he was a POW in Korea. This is it.
Everett	It's just so good. Yeah. It's a pretty terrific watch, I think. And it really does share a lot of the lines of that watch that came out back in the 50s to serve as a U.S. Navy Antarctic Expedition watch. Um, razor thin. Case size. 10.6. I think it comes in at 10, almost exactly 10. So 35 by 10, really, really, really beautiful dimensions. Um, the markers, I mean, you, I've seen these compared to the, I've seen these compared to the original and I mean, they are dang, it's dang near, one to one, um, in terms of size, in terms of the profile, you know, interestingly, you can find the original of these for about the same price, uh, as, as you can find this watch for. So it comes with an L 21 movement, which I think is like a, at a 28 or four clone. Um, from, I can't remember who makes this, Landeron, L21.
Andrew	But as produced by Depa Swiss Movements Company. Yes, that's right. Yes.
Everett	Who also makes Etta. Fair enough. Um, you know, these are, I think.
Andrew	Well, they're clones, but they make them.
Everett	They're fine movements here. And hand-wide movements are actually really pretty stable. I think it's really terrific. Three colors, they come sort of, I think they're calling it eggshell. It's like an off-white, a white, and a black dial. I probably slightly prefer the white dial of this watch. The white's so good. Because it's really clean. You do get some fotina on it, which whatever.
Andrew	It's so minimal though. Yeah. That's so like, it's just tiny loom plots at the tips of the markers and in the hands. It has the very like angular cut pyramidal pyramidal pyramid shaped. Markers? Parametal. Parametal? Jesus. I don't know. It's, it's just. Have you been drinking again? Always. You caught me. I'm trying to use good words right now. I've been chatting with ChatGPT who uses really good words and I've, I'm in lieu of a thesaurus, I'm just making them up. Yeah, fair enough. I love these marker shapes. These really, like, almost floating angles. The way the angles are cut almost make the markers look like they're floating on the dial.
Everett	And super, super deco feeling to these. Now, according to the website, these are sold out. And so I don't know what availability on these is like. I think that they were in pre-order. And so I'm unclear until the 23rd. I'm unclear what the availability is going to be like. With that said, the price on these is terrific. $850 at retail. Yeah. I think this is a pretty clever watch. Fully polished, no like brushed polished facets. It's just like the least pretentious watch release I've seen in some time. Love the size. I love the bracelet options. Good dome on the crystal too. Yes. So the case is actually only seven millimeters exclusive of the crystal. So really, really thin. I think we should see more watches like this as a as a size queen. I would like to see more watches like this, not necessarily a watch that's super faithful to an older watch, but just something that is doing
Andrew	doing 35 millimeters, like 34 to 36, right?
Everett	Yeah. Or, and, and 10 millimeters, right? Uh, the case sides on this are terrific. Find a, you know, there'll be a link in the show notes, find a link on the profile of this because it is, it's razor thin, beautiful.
Andrew	It's, it's like the, the Bulgari ultra thin and just, and just a beautiful profile too.
Everett	I'm very into this watch. Um, Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have to worry about buying it because I didn't see it until they were gone.
Andrew	Now you're going to be able to get them for a little bit less.
Everett	Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I'm not sure what these will look like on the secondary market, but blue seconds hand, this is just terrific. Terrific, terrific watch.
Andrew	I want to talk about a release from a brand that we're all familiar with, Aviate. Aviate did a Sektor 40mm Mecha Quartz in a limited edition in two colors. Their colorways are a really good kind of gray. What are they calling this? I don't care. Slight gray and deep blue. And what first caught my eye about these Uh, cause I saw a picture of him as I'm scrolling through and I was like, Ooh, that's kind of intriguing. This watch so beautifully incorporates the text and marking on the bezel into the dial that you lose it. This looks like a pie plate dial when in fact you're getting a sector dial with a 60-minute bezel all wrapped up into one. An aviate does interesting things. Some of them are really great, some of them are not so great because they have really good financial backing. They can throw it at the wall, trust that they're going to sell a big chunk of their watches, and be able to do some really interesting stuff. And because they throw it at the wall, sometimes they miss and sometimes they don't. And I think they landed on this. And the problem that I have is that these are limited edition. I think they're making, ooh, uh, not many of each, um, 400 pieces of the gray 400 pieces. So for 400 of each, what really got me was the integration of, of the design language between the bezel and the dial, because so, so, I mean, by design, the bezel is independent of the dial. They need to, being in concert with one another, but you need to read the bezel independent of your dial. And the integration of these two things is so good. It kind of like when I first saw it, I was like, Oh, that, that, what, what's happening with this enormous dial? Um, yeah, it almost looked like a slide rule, like the way a slide rule integrates and eats most of your dial. I think like a Navitimer where, where your dial is, you know, would be appropriately sized for a 36 millimeter watch because there's so much bezel happening. Uh, this is not that this is an appropriately bezel to dial ratio sized watch, but it is good. It comes on a, on a nylon strap sizing on it is pretty typical for aviate in that it's a little, what was the weird thing on it? Why is this all not in English? What's happening?
Everett	Well, so I understand that this watch is actually a collaboration with a Korean YouTube channel. I don't know. This is not a channel that I was familiar with, but I want to say Sangwhal is how that's how I'm going to pronounce this, which is a Korean watch YouTube. Uh, again, not a channel that I'm familiar with, but they've done other collaborations. They did a collaboration with Maine. recently. Um, so I think this is kind of an exciting thing for, for them, but I agree with you, Andrew, that this is a pretty terrific watch. 88 is such a compelling brand because it's $180. Yeah. It's $180 40 by 20, uh, Mecca courts pilot. I mean, this thing's just kind of, yeah.
Andrew	Crazy. It's just it's super intriguing. It's one of the hand Mecca courts. It's one of the cooler designs that I've seen come out of it. It's also interesting in their Flyboy line and that it's wholly unique to the rest of the Flyboy line. It's yeah. This is a cool release. I like it. They threw this one at the wall and I think it I think it landed.
Everett	Do you know what mecha quartz means in the context of a three-hander? Because I don't.
Andrew	I don't. I don't know why you would use mecha quartz in a three-hander. I don't think you're going to get a smooth sweep, but I'm kind of okay with like, who cares?
Everett	Yeah. It's a weird one, man. It's a weird one. It's a beautiful watch, though. I'm with you. I think it's terrific.
Andrew	Bottom line is that it's a cool release from Aviate, who does sometimes cool, sometimes questionable things. Yeah. What a cool place to be in as a brand. Just throw it at the wall. They're going to buy it.
Everett	Unlike Brick. That's right. Unlike Brick. Well, I've got a watch from a brand with a history much like Aviate, and by that I mean nothing at all. Uh, there's a small brand, kind of an upstart out of Switzerland called, uh, I think it's, uh, Bri- Briquet? I think it's Baguette. Baguette. You know, I don't, we, we've talked about Breguet once or twice, but it's usually in like a bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh bleh I think pretty terrific. It is a watch that will cost as much as many homes, particularly in the Southern United States. Um, this is not a, this is not what I would call accessible. This is not a starter watch accessible. This is a pretty serious watch, but I saw it and I was just kind of, I was taken by the pictures and then I was taken by the macros. And then I was just kind of taken by the watch.
Andrew	So Breguet's... I'd let this watch take me.
Everett	That's right. Breguet's got their Classique line, and they've just released a new Minute Repeater. Now, the Classique line isn't new. The Minute Repeater is not new to Breguet. In fact, I think Breguet was one of the earliest innovators of the Minute Repeater. They've released their reference 7630 seven minute repeater just this week. And it is a really weird watch. It's 42 millimeters. By all accounts, the classic line, it wears, if anything bigger because of the straight lugs. So 42 millimeter, and I think it's like a 49 millimeter lug to lug, but it probably wears more like 43 and 52 Yeah, those straight lugs are... It's thick. I think it's 12 and a half millimeters or 12.6 millimeters. It is... This is a big, chunky, 18 karat gold. Rose gold. 18 karat rose gold, 12.35. This is a big, fat, fucking 275,000 minute repeater. But every single... piece of this thing calls out to me. So really, really classic, traditional Breguet hands. This gorgeous, almost impossibly deep black enameled dial. I can't remember what they call this. Grand Feu enameled. Yes. And the pictures are just, oh my gosh, the way enameled dials dip under the pinion. is one of those things that just gives me the wiggles.
Andrew	It's a six to twelve kind of activity there.
Everett	That's right. That's right. Or not. Yeah. Yeah. Lacquered dial. This is just coinage on the case. The coinage on the case. So this is an absurd watch. It's a minute repeater. I do understand that you can get very similar Breguet Classique watches that are not minute repeaters. for just, you know, $30,000. That's right. For way less money. But then you go and you look at the pictures of the hand engraved movement. This is insane. And it's like, well, I wonder how much we could take out on the house.
Andrew	It's almost irresponsible to not design this as like a Reverso style watch. because I would I would rather look at this movement all day. You just flip it. Yeah. It would, it would live case back up.
Everett	Yeah. So you can get rid. So yeah, that's right. For about 10%. So about $27,000 you can buy a 38 millimeter glossy with the grand view. I think you can get a 40 as well.
Andrew	But if you're going to do that, just go for the minute repeater.
Everett	Yeah, well, I mean, we're talking about a quarter million dollars, but I hear you. So 42 millimeters by 49 by 12.3. It's huge. It's rose gold. I'm never going to buy one.
Andrew	I'll never see one in person. Holy cow. This is absurd. The engraving on every single visible component of that movement is
Everett	Just the picture of the rose gold clasp for the black alligator strap is like. Oh, my gosh.
Andrew	This is a very watch porn article.
Everett	I really want one of these. Of course, I'm not going to buy one, but I really want one.
Andrew	But we could we could get reckless. We can both mortgage our homes. Mm hmm.
Everett	I think we could come up with the money right now.
Andrew	Yeah, we may happen. We can make it happen. We would also probably be sharing a studio apartment. That's fine. But we'd have this watch.
Everett	But we'd have the watch. Yeah. Two guys in a breguet. That's a new sitcom.
Andrew	Two bachelors in a breguet. And gonna be our new OnlyFans handle. So, you know, be on the lookout.
Everett	It'll have sort of like a Larry Balki vibe. What's the name of that show? Cousin Larry? Perfect Strangers? Yeah. Oh, Perfect Strangers.
Andrew	Moving along.
Everett	Andrew, what's next?
Andrew	I have a Breguet Reverso. No, so next up for me is another brand related to AV8, Spinnaker. with their Whole Pearl Diver. So they've released three variations of a Mother of Pearl Whole Dive Watch. They have a blue, a green, and what they're calling a white, but what is actually a rainbow Mother of Pearl, because it's not, it's Mother of Pearl, right? It's not actually white. What intrigued me about this is how unique it is to the rest of their whole diver line. It's similar to the, oh gosh, to one of the other SKUs, not SKUs, but families in their whole diver line. But here, here we see another example of a brand that throws it at the wall. And if it works great, and if it doesn't, it doesn't. They two-toned the crowns on these things. The only one that isn't a gold crown on a steel case is the green. And I am a sucker for Mother of Pearl dials. These are sized very much the way you'd expect a Spinnaker. I think they're 42 millimeters. I have to look real quick. Yeah, 42 millimeter, 14 millimeters thick, 50 millimeters lug to lug. So they're, they're big, bulky prospect divers with mother of pearl dials that are gorgeous. I know you don't feel the same about mother of pearl that I do. The blue is gilted with a gold crown. The white is fantastic with a gold crown. I just, I don't get why they did that because this is the first Mother of Pearl dialed watch that I saw and was like, Oh, I could do that. Cause they're 400 bucks.
Everett	Yeah. A terrific price for it. You know, I'm not sure, as you say, you don't feel the same way about Mother of Pearl as I do. I'm not completely sure.
Andrew	Every time I talk about Mother of Pearl, you're like, Oh, Pearl.
Everett	I like Mother of Pearl in certain applications. I think it's got to be well done. I think sometimes it's not fully incorporated.
Andrew	Sometimes it's definitely not. It's like, here's this watch and now we threw Mother of Pearl in it.
Everett	You know, I think some brands have done really well. I think Brat from, or Tool Watch Company has done a relatively good job. You know, sometimes I like it. And other times I don't. And so I, it really.
Andrew	It's just the mood you're in the first time you see the watch.
Everett	That's right.
Andrew	That's right.
Everett	All of my dress shirts have mother of pearl buttons.
Andrew	You're a pearl snap guy. All of them, huh? All of them.
Everett	So I quite like it in that application.
Andrew	Bolo ties and pearl snaps. He's, he's doing the Texas attorney thing here.
Everett	No, they're, they're just regular old buttons. You wouldn't even know. They just look like, but they're mother of pearl.
Andrew	Bolo ties and pearl snaps. That's what we're sticking with?
Everett	No, they're just regular old buttons. You wouldn't even know, Andrew. I do know. You've seen these things and not known they were Mother of Pearl because everybody just assumes they're white plastic, but mine are not. They're Mother of Pearl.
Andrew	I like this. I like this release. I like that they did a slightly different thing. Uh, and I like that they threw it at the wall. They're experimenting with two-tone and Kind of missing.
Everett	I don't know. I really like the blue with the yellow. I, I, I don't know about the white with the sort of rosier gold. Maybe it's yellow and it just looks rosier.
Andrew	If you go to their website, it's yellow. Uh, but the green, I, I, I liked with the, with the not two-tone it's got Fotina, but I, I, I like this green.
Everett	Well, can I talk about another two-tone watch then Andrew, since we're on the, since we're, we're, I,
Andrew	Yeah, I think we have to. Sorry.
Everett	So king of the two-tone, perhaps circa 1986, a Swiss watch brand, Ebel. Ebel, if you, if you can picture, just close your eyes for a moment, picture an Ebel watch and it looks weird. It's two-toned and it's got screws on an otherwise on a Jordan bezel and that wave bracelet. Uh, Ebel had a moment and I think that this is a great time. This is a great time for Ebel to be looking back at that moment. This is a perfect time, I would say. They owned the 80s and perhaps the 90s in a really, really cool way. So when I read The Ebel 1911 chronograph brings back an iconic form on Fratello.com. I was like, wow, that's really cool. I'm excited. This is a chronograph, a Tricompax 369 chronograph. And from the first picture, I was like, okay, what are we doing here? We've got a black two-tone and a blue steel. screws on the dial or screws on the bezel, excuse me. Here we go. Let's do this thing. I look just a little bit closer and instantly become very, very disappointed. So the Evo 1911 chronograph, if you don't know, is one of the coolest watches from this era. It uses a Zenith El Primero movement, which is really, really fucking cool. They look just 90s. They just look so 90s, but in a way that I can relate to today.
Andrew	In the way that the 80s survived into the 90s.
Everett	That's right. That's right. So you get, you get like sort of the organic, uh, the organic, like alien curved or, you know, metal, um, You get some industrial, you get some Roman numerals, like it's just a mishmash of design. Oh, okay. Yes. The Ebel 1911. Of a design committee. The Ebel sport chronograph from the 80s, 90s is terrific and ugly and amazing and awful and great. This new watch is not that. You do look at it and you say, okay, that kind of looks like an Ebel, but it also It doesn't. Is that a Breitling? What, what is going on here? Is it a fossil? Why doesn't it have a wave bracelet? Why is it just circles and not any weird shapes? Why? Holy shit, it's 44 millimeters. It's 44 millimeters by 14 millimeters in 2023. And it costs, oh God, oh God, almost $4,000. And it's got a Salida movement. This is a really good time. It's got a three-year warranty. This is a really good time for Evo to be releasing a watch that's kind of like this, where everything is different. Maybe you can't get a Zenith El Primero movement in 2023. Fine. Fine. But a Salida? Yeah. Look, a 44 by 14 giant sport chronograph with no wave bracelet and a boring ass fucking bezel. This is a complete miss for me. I think this is like the most disappointing watch release I can remember seeing. I saw this thing and I was pumped and then I instantly was like, no, this sucks. This is a terrible release.
Andrew	It removed all of the novel parts and tried to distill it down to what would work. Yeah. While also not giving a shit about what would work. It's, it's bizarre.
Everett	I mean, this could be a fucking Raymond. Wow. I, this is just, this is a shopping mall. Watch is what this is.
Andrew	This isn't even in a locked case shopping mall. Watch.
Everett	That's right. This is the one they have on the counter in sales.
Andrew	Yeah. because that wave bracelet, I don't know, like I hate the wave bracelet. I kind of hate most of this watch.
Everett	Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't call this a wave bracelet.
Andrew	No, the original Yeah, that's being based off of because the current is not it's not even remotely. They did keep some two tone parts to it. But this two tone wave with It's a two-tone wave in that if you're unfamiliar, the connecting points are where the gold tone is. So as this bracelet flexes and bends, it exposes the gold between the links. And this is just kind of a slightly curved faux, what's that, five-link?
Everett	Yeah. No, I think it's a, well, yeah, it might be a five. It's not a true five link. It might be, it might be for what they're charging for it. I think it's possible. It's a real five link.
Andrew	I'm, I'm willing to guess that it's not hard to say, but I could be wrong. I'm open to being wrong. Uh, there is an option for a two tone five link.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	Yeah. But it's just,
Everett	This is I like the two tone. So the black, there's a black dial with a two tone and then an all steel version of this. Um, I like the colors, but it's just not, this isn't, it's not the watch. It's not the watch. The only thing, the only thing that says this is an e-bell is the five screws. The, the sort of that I think they're trademark five screws on the bezel. Everything else about this could be anyone else. anyone else. Fossil. And I don't mean fossil group. I mean fossil proper.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	This is a weird watch, dude.
Andrew	This is a weird, this is a bummer release from the source material.
Everett	I got pretty excited about it. And then I instantly was like, no, this is fucking terrible.
Andrew	Kind of bums me out a little bit.
Everett	This is the time, right? If any, if someone's going to like, if they just took, the e-bell chronograph sport and just dropped that right now, people would go ape shit. I mean, like I said, maybe you can't get an El Primero movement, but if you're going to charge 4,000, find a good movement. Yeah. I mean, there's the Lido movement's fine. I'm sure it's fine.
Andrew	There were better chronograph options out there. Yeah.
Everett	Yeah. Lame. Lame, lame, lame. Andrew, what's next? Bummer.
Andrew	Uh, we're going to talk about Maine again tonight. Oh, Maine. Oh, Maine. We're going to talk about the Maine Manhattan with a new size release. So for those of you who weren't super pleased with the 37 millimeter case in the square watch, hope has come. The answer is here in a 39 millimeter watch. Uh, and that's, that's a little big for me. Right. But that's okay because now all of the rest of you have your size option and this 39 in the square watch is thinner. It comes in at. Ooh, what's this? The 6.9 millimeters thick, 47.8 lug to lug. So this is going to wear. probably smaller than your 37 millimeter Manhattan. Because it's razor thin.
Everett	I'm not sure it's gonna wear small, but I do think it'll be nice despite the diameter.
Andrew	That is crazy. So I saw this and I was like, okay, that's interesting. Why would you make it bigger? I've often been told to make it bigger. It's whatever. It's this thing that people care about. I, uh, as you know, I'm a Santos medium guy, the large, which is similarly sized to this. 39, right? Or 38 and a half. It was just too big. It's just, it, it just, it didn't do it for me. Um, this is going to wear so good. That thickness is insane. Coming in under seven millimeters, still holding a hundred meters of water resistance. This is the shit. And it's the Manhattan, right? It's a, it's a beautiful watch. It, it kind of exists in a world of its own in that it's not exactly a square. It's not exactly a rectangle. It's not exactly a tonneau. It is just a thing into itself.
Everett	And this is based on a, like a Vacheron from the sixties or something, right?
Andrew	I don't remember what the, what it is, but yeah, it's, it's based off of that. And then the design language is, is inspired elsewhere. But, um, Yeah, this is beautiful. And I really like to get my hands on one of these. They are nine hundred and fifty dollars on preorder right now. If you skip the preorder, you're going to look at eleven hundred and twenty bucks like this is.
Everett	And at a seven thousand one manual, I don't know about this movement, but for them to be able to do this, I think it's a three Hertz movement. obviously a three-hand movement from ETA. But to be able to do this as thin as they have, it must just be a wispy, razor-thin movement.
Andrew	And a razor-thin case. I don't know how you can hold 100 meters of water resistance wrapped around a movement.
Everett	The Constantin Royal 2215 Chronometer. I'm looking at it now. Beautiful watch. This one's $42,000 for approximately 1 42nd of that. You can buy not a Vacheron. Yeah, brand new. I mean, aesthetically, these are really similar. And I think it's a terrific, gosh, Andrew, I think I might need to pick up one of these. That slate gray dial. Yeah, right. Ooh, it's hot. Not the Vacheron. Although I may need one of those too. This crown is just gorgeous too. I love the case back. The case back is just like, This is a really attractive watch. What a kind of a surprising watch, I think.
Andrew	It surprised me when I when I first saw it and I looked at it, I was like, oh, so I'm thinking about it.
Everett	Pre-orders are open now through January 2nd. If you want to get this for under a thousand. I got to imagine this is a great deal. Having not actually handled or seen one, I got to just dimensions alone.
Andrew	suggest. I think at this price, you might be looking at some imperfections in the finishing, but the finishing looks great. And all the, all of their photography of it, you've got a great, like kind of denim textured and vertical line texture dial. All right. I got one more watch.
Everett	I'm with it. All right. Do me. So this is a weird watch that came out this week. I saw it discussed in pretty much all of my watch group discussions. Some people loved it. Actually, I don't know that I saw anybody that loved it. Some people hated it. Some people were open to the idea. Some people were open to the idea. I'm going to put myself in that latter camp. I'm open to the idea. So EC Anderson or ECA is a Swedish micro brand. that's been releasing watches here for a handful of years. I think we've talked about them on the show twice now, not a brand that I would say is knocking it out of the park, which is not to say I dislike any of their releases up to this point. Um, they released a, they released a new watch this last week and they're calling it the, I believe, Midlas.
Andrew	I'm going to agree with your assessment. Midolas.
Everett	Midolas. Uh, and this is, oh, okay. I don't even know where to start. So this is a four millimeter block of aluminum that's been machined to house a movement. It's got a Sapphire crystal that is screwed directly to the top of it. I understand it incorporates, like 23 gaskets. I saw this referred to politely, I think, as avant-garde. I think that's a great word for it. And I think avant-garde is a great word for what EC Anderson is doing in general. I like this because it's different than anything else I've seen.
Andrew	The brand is describing it as retro futuristic. Yeah. And it Dick, I think I agree with their assessment. This watch looks like it was designed in the eighties to look like it was being featured in a film set in the 20 twenties.
Everett	Sure. Yeah. I, you know, honestly, I don't know. I don't know what the design process was and I wasn't able to find anything about the design process on this and so that might be, you might have sort of a hermit owner here. Retrofuturistic sounds fine. I'm really curious about the mechanics here. You've got these six screws in the sapphire that look to me like they're connecting the sapphire directly to that sheet of milled aluminum. I'm having a hard time hating this watch, Andrew. The bezel is the crystal. The bezel is the crystal. That's right. The bezel is incorporated into the crystal.
Andrew	It's got weird dial markings.
Everett	60 meters of water resistance. Its total thickness is under 10 millimeters, 38 millimeters thick. It's got some weird machining marks. I hate that word weird. I think that's what they are. It's got a bit of like a tonneau shape, but not really. I like it cause I don't, I can't think of another watch that's anything like this.
Andrew	There might be a reason there's not.
Everett	Yeah, certainly this is not, this is not going to be a watch for everybody. I'm certainly intrigued by it. But at 1200 bucks? Yeah. With a decent movement. I mean, I kind of, I'm good with this.
Andrew	This, it wouldn't surprise me, so this is handmade. It wouldn't surprise me if this is a dude in his garage. With a CNC.
Everett	Who's, well see, when you look at their other watches, this is, so when you look at EC Anderson's other watches, you can tell that this is small batch and that, They're making, so supposedly they're hand making this in their Gothenburg headquarters, which I think maybe means that we're looking at maybe similar to the operation that we saw up Vero when they were still manufacturing.
Andrew	Yeah, they're sure, they're surely not like hand milling these chunks of aluminum.
Everett	That's, that's right. With that said, um, you know, it doesn't look to me like quite as rudimentary a, factory is Darren Tiffany when we talked to him a handful of years ago.
Andrew	Who was truly working out of his garage with handmade, with tools and machines that he milled from his CNC machine.
Everett	That's right. I mean, this has got a sapphire crystal with six functional holes in it that are able to support enough torque to create water resistance. So this is not a This is not a slapdash watch. With that said, I think you're right, though. This is certainly the product of one human's brain, I think. Yes. Which is, you know, that's probably what makes it interesting.
Andrew	It is interesting. I don't not like it. I'm intrigued by it. I would not buy it.
Everett	Twelve hundred bucks.
Andrew	Wouldn't kick it out of bed either, though. So it's an interesting position to find myself in.
Everett	If I got this thing on loan or I'd wear the shit out of it.
Andrew	One hundred percent. Yeah, I would I would wear this because it's just it's there's no curvature to the case. All of the interesting stuff of the case happens top down. From from the side, it kind of looks like something out of a Star Wars movie. It looks like it should be flying. alongside the Millennium Falcon.
Everett	That's right. Andrew. Andrew. Yes. Other things. What do you got?
Andrew	I have a good other thing this week. Doubt it. You always doubt me. Uh, so I, I've always been intrigued by these things and I've never really been able to justify the purchase. I got a solo stove for Christmas. I got the solo stove bonfire size, which is their medium, right? It's still portable, but it's big enough to have a good fire in it. So for those of you unfamiliar, a solo stove is basically a, um, if you imagine a top loading washing machine basin, convert that into a fire pit, which is people do that. You know, this company has taken that idea and properly engineered it to have multiple layers of wall to create air and heat flow. So what you get is a virtually smokeless fire pit that burns hot enough to totally incinerate all of the wood that you put into it. such that you're not dealing with actual chunks, you're just dealing with an ash pan. And I've never bought one, because everywhere I go where I can have a fire, like I have a fire pit for my yard, but I don't really have a good place to use it, so it just sits. I typically go to campgrounds in the trailer, which have like a ringed fire pit, but I've always really wanted to get one and not really been able to justify it. So I got one for Christmas, that's amazing. I'm super excited to use it. These are like 230 bucks ish for the size that I got. You can size way up and go into like the $600 range with a 30 inch diameter and a 19 inch height. The one that I have is 19 and a half cross, 15 tall, super portable. And I might start a fire tomorrow. I was going to say, have you fired it up yet? No, it's still in the box. Cause I, Had to go back to work. So I haven't been on vacation, but it's, it's in the box and I think I'm going to start a fire on it. Uh, my in-laws got it for me and they said that they, they, their friends had one, they got one at the beginning of COVID so they could light a fire in their driveway and bring all their friends over so they could stand in the cold around a fire and interact at six foot increments, which I won't have to do now cause COVID got canceled. But, um, I really like these and I've been to several people's houses who have them and they are as smokeless as a fire can be. It's insane.
Everett	That's fun. I'm excited. I like fire pits and I like smokeless.
Andrew	Yeah. Cause I hate having to just like circle the fire around to get out of the smoke. Yeah.
Everett	So that's my other thing. That's exciting. That's a fun one. I do feel a little disappointed that you haven't used it yet.
Andrew	Yeah. You know, sorry.
Everett	Andrew, did you know that studio Ghibli is not pronounced studio Ghibli in Japanese? And it's also not pronounced studio Ghibli in Japanese.
Andrew	I, Didn't know any of that.
Everett	It's actually pronounced Studio Jiburi, which is one of the most insane things I've ever heard in my life. So I'm going to say for the remainder of this conversation, Studio Ghibli, and probably for the rest of my life until at some point I decide that it's socially acceptable to say something else. But just know that there's a pronunciation. Don't at me. So I went and saw The Boy and the Heron on Christmas Eve with the family. Didn't really know what to expect. I am a pretty, I would say in, in terms of Studio Ghibli fans, you've got like super fans. The, the, the us in terms of watches version in studio, you've got those people, right? They can, they know all the shit. You've got, Like another level of people that have seen all the movies, know the characters, but they're not quite at that level. I'm just below that, right? So I'm pretty sure I've seen most of the movies. I've seen some of them a handful of times, uh, generally like them, but I'm not an expert. So anything I say, if you're, if you're a Studio Ghibli person, just forget it. Okay. Forget it. With that said, I was into it. I saw the trailers. I wouldn't watch this movie, wouldn't watch it with the family. And that family right now includes a 44 year old, a 42 year old, a 12 year old, an 11 year old, and a 10 year old. I've seen none of these.
Andrew	Really? None, not a one. I just looked at the named works.
Everett	That is bizarre. You've never seen. Not a one. All right, we're gonna move it along. I went and saw the boy in the hair. And all of us, I think, walked away from the movie with a different idea about what the movie was about. Which is not to say we saw a different movie, but I think we all just took different things from it. So if you know Miyazaki or you know Studio Ghibli, you'll know what to expect here in terms of tone and surreal characters. There's nothing There's nothing crazy about this. I will say the animation is next level. This is probably the most beautiful anime I've ever seen in my life. The plot was really terrific. The American dubbing cast is next level. Great. The characters are so good. At one point, Batista shows up and you're like, holy shit, that's Batista. Um, you know, it was just so beautiful. And it was what I really was shocked by it is how we all, like I said, five people, we all walked away with a slightly different idea about what had happened in the movie. Why would things were happening? What was happening? You know, there was a scene that I found really like impactful and kind of weird and sort of centered the whole movie. around that scene. And the rest of my family was like, I don't think that was a big deal. Like I didn't even think about it again. You know, it was one of those types of movies where the things that are happening are fun, but also like they don't really make any sense. And so you're able to sort of fill and you want to fill in the gaps. You're actively as you watch the movie fill in gaps. Anyway, I don't want to give anything away, which is why I'm being so vague. So I'll just shut the fuck up and just say it was gorgeous. It was really well made. And the acting, at least in the dubbed American version, is terrific. If you haven't seen it, just go see it. If you know what to expect, just go see it. It is perfect. I would say a masterpiece. Really, really, really good.
Andrew	I am intrigued.
Everett	Have you ever seen Totoro? Jesus.
Andrew	No, I feel like an asshole. Like in my in my brief overview of reading about it, I was like, how do I how is this totally? It's a big knowledge gap.
Everett	Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, I think it is.
Andrew	Everybody at home judge Andrew publicly or join me in joining Everett publicly for making me feel like that's somehow a knowledge gap that Japanese anime house is not in my wheelhouse. Sorry, I played sports.
Everett	Sorry, I didn't have time for stupid stuff. Yeah. Hey, I want to thank you guys. I want to thank you for joining us for this really, really good episode of 40 and 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor, check us out at watchclicker.com. That's where we post every single episode of this podcast, but also articles and reviews. We've got some good stuff go up lately. Check it out watchclicker.com. You can also check us out on social media, really Instagram at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. If you want to support us and oh boy, we hope you do. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's how we got these new microphones and how we pay for hosting and all the stuff that we need to buy. And there's a lot of it. Go ahead and support us patreon.com slash 40 and 20 and Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another Hour of Watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.