Called: the Best Watch of 2024 (276)

Published on Wed, 07 Feb 2024 22:51:28 -0800

Synopsis

The podcast discusses recent watch releases, including the Orion Sylph based on the Hellcat platform, the Seiko Prisaj inspired by the Nausicaa movie, the Grand Seiko SBGX355 quartz Snowflake, the Tornek Rayville Type 7B Blackjack diver, and the new Piaget Polo 79 in 18k gold. They also talk about Andrew acquiring a salt pig container for his kitchen and Everett getting a sterling silver Zippo lighter as an heirloom item.

Links

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Transcript

Speaker
Andrew	Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 1420 The Watch Clicker podcast with your host, Andrew, and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, what is wrong with your face?
Everett	You're just making so much noise on the microphone. I like the noise. Yeah, man, all sorts of hand-holding noise. I'm doing a roll. Oh boy.
Andrew	Oh boy. I like the noise.
Everett	I'm doing really well, Andrew. That's a nice background. Oh yeah, you've got horses on your computer monitor.
Andrew	It cycles through nature pictures.
Everett	Are those mules maybe? Those are wild horses. Okay, well look at that one on the right. I think that's a mule.
Andrew	I agree with your assessment. So it's not wild horse. That one's a donkey.
Everett	Yeah, okay. Andrew, I'm doing really well. I think it's just a season, you know? work sort of ebbs and flows in terms of how much I'm doing. Uh, I'm in a season where I'm working more than I normally do. And I'm- Making that scratch. Are you planning a vacation or something? I am making a lot of scratch, but I am not getting caught up. I like, it feels like the pile of, or the stack of, on fire poopy bags on my desk is growing.
Andrew	That's it. That's adulthood. I came to like, I came to that realization really recently that, you know, I used to like kind of set out to be caught up and like feel good on a Friday afternoon that I'm done with the week and everything that needs doing is done. And that's, that's stupid. There is no getting caught up and especially in the world of Email and text messages where nobody has to plan for anything and nobody has to like have any kind of foresight. Email is the destruction of planning like text message. Like if, if email didn't destroy our ability to plan things, text messaging was the final nail.
Everett	Yeah, no, I, I mean, I, I hear what you're saying, right? That the instant communication is, Oh, I fucked up.
Andrew	Can you fix this real quick? No, no.
Everett	But I will say sometimes I feel a little less like I have got these 10 major projects all coming up within the next four days. And each of them is going to take, you know, four to eight hours. And it was like, well, that's 80 hours in four days. Uh, you know, bill it. It usually doesn't turn out that I, that I go that way, but you know, I always talk to my wife about my hours because my hours are. And she does the numbers. Yeah, that's right. She's, she's the bookkeeper. And so she's, uh, she's apprised of that stuff. And she, I had logged my hours for the day and she sent me a text message and she was like, I've got you at 38 hours build this week. And I was like, yeah, that sounds right. And she was like, it's Wednesday. Yeah, that's right. So it, which is good. Let's go to Cancun. Like you said, it is good. But, um, you know, when you're a business owner and you, you bill hourly, that's, that's a great thing. But it is like, Oh my gosh, how have I done that? And I don't feel any reprieve. That's not true though. Yesterday morning I had a moment where I was like, I have a moment to breathe. And I took that moment and then I was like, no, I didn't have that moment. It was brief. I didn't feel that way for a second. No, I'm doing really well. Andrew, how are you?
Andrew	I am good. I'm also kind of tired. Uh, Sam is in Los Angeles this week. She sent me all manner of photographs from yesterday at Disneyland. Her and a coworker went to a, there's a national conference that she's at. They went a day early to go to Disneyland. Uh, jokes on her. There's an atmospheric river hitting California right now. Yeah. Um, Jokes on Disney because she walked right on to every single ride in both parks. Dude, that's cool. She was very wet. She was wearing a poncho and was still saturated underneath the poncho. Whatever. She sent a picture of her holding a churro and I swear to God it was like bent over and soggy. Um, so I don't know who won that. I think that that comes out as a, you know, as just a wash. But that means that I'm a single parenting this week. Which isn't usually a problem until you incorporate four days of swim lessons into the equation.
Everett	Wouldn't it be sick if you had people that lived right across the street that could take your kids for long periods of time?
Andrew	For sure. So I did that today, finally today, Wednesday, third day of swim lessons. I did take advantage of that opportunity, uh, cause it was like, I just couldn't make everything happen, uh, without that. So I do appreciate that. Uh, but it's just been a little hectic. So I'm like, I'm appreciative of the silence, everyone. Both the kids have had early bedtimes and neither of them know it.
Everett	So that that that luxury does go away.
Andrew	Yeah, well, it's starting to go away. Mark, look at his watch. He's like, it's only eight o'clock. And I was like, yeah, you're tired. It's time for bed. And he's like. OK, get in bed. Oh, it's only eight. Yeah, it's eight. So that's good. Yeah. Calvin can't tell time I could put him to, that's the nice part about winter, right? Is you can put your kids to bed at five o'clock and they don't really know any better.
Everett	Did you read that Oregon is, uh, there was a bill introduced in the Oregon legislature today too. So five years ago, Oregon passed a bill basically eliminating the time shift. So permanent standard time instead of switching to daylight savings time in the summer.
Andrew	Mm.
Everett	So that is that that bill gets passed, but then it needs United States congressional approval.
Andrew	It also needs the five surrounding states to agree to it too. All of those states have put theirs onto the floor too.
Everett	So that's sitting in Congress, but it's really not doing anything. The state of Oregon legislature today introduced a bill, a bipartisan bill, widely supported, uh, to bypass that, to basically just say, yeah, we're going to do what we want.
Andrew	We're going to Texas it, huh?
Everett	Yeah. So there is a, there's a few, like Malheur County in Eastern Oregon, which is closer to the mountain time zone might stay switching, but for the Western part of the state.
Andrew	It kind of makes sense for them because they do most of their business in Idaho anyhow.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. That's right. And so we'll have, we'll have maybe a split in the state, but it seems like there's some momentum we may, and if, And if this thing goes the way the bill is introduced, we will not switch this year. That's like three weeks. Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. It could happen. It needs to get some, it needs to get some legs, but it definitely has little sprouts. There's sprouts. This could be national news. You might hear about this.
Andrew	We're going to be doing some interesting stuff.
Everett	We're not here to talk about, uh, potentially, uh, seditious acts of time management. We are here to talk about watches today, which I guess are potentially seditious acts of time management in and of themselves.
Andrew	I got to listen to a case study of the primary negotiator from the Malheur County incident. For those of you unfamiliar in Malheur County, oh God, what 10 years ago?
Everett	Yeah. It's been, it's been, uh, maybe 15. No, not that long ago.
Andrew	Maybe eight years ago, Ammon Bundy staged a, uh, they took over a facility on, in national forest land. And then they had a bunch of armed homies show up. Uh, I got to listen to a case study on it from the primary FBI negotiator who did the negotiation to get them all off of the, uh, federal property. It was like, I don't know. It was a whole weird thing. If you're not familiar with it, look at the Malheur County, uh, incident.
Everett	I believe I could say, I believe I can say, and I'm saying it on a podcast. I did have some income related to consulting, uh, in that matter. Obviously can't say for who or what I did or what I looked at, but, uh, I did make some money consulting. Way to go. Directly related to that incident. It was a fascinating incident.
Andrew	And I've never worked for the federal government, so. Interesting. So you're, you're a better judge of time than I, uh, but there's certainly an interesting, uh, weird kind of sovereign citizen thing that, uh, Oregon is kind of famous for. That's sort of our jam is, you know, hosting, uh, Al Qaeda training facilities and weird sovereign citizen. What was the name of the, the, the. That was also in Malheur County, wasn't it? The Rajanashi? What was it? No. Oh, the Rajneesh in Deschutes County. Yeah. That's a whole other thing. But then we had the Al Qaeda training facility and I think it was Mel here.
Everett	Fucking A, Oregon. Man, we're a cool state, you guys.
Andrew	This place is bitching. Al Qaeda even likes us. That should be a testament to how great this place is, is that as much as Al Qaeda hates freedom in America, they love Oregon. Andrew, tell me about a watch. I'm going to tell you about a watch. So first up, I want to talk about Orion. Orion. I wrote Orion. I typed it several times today. Um, And as I typed it, I was like, Orion, Orion, Orion, Orion. Like, I wasn't sure I was spelling it right, but I was like, no, you're definitely spelling it right. You're yielding the results that you want. So Orion, from our boy Nick, the like mad genius of precision. I'm not like his precision is so good. I think it could actually be a fault. has a new release in a word that I'm not super comfortable even attempting. The Silph? Silph. Yeah.
Everett	Self? Silph. Sliff? It's like a milf.
Andrew	All right. He returns with the milf based around his Hellcat platform, which we have both gone on record as saying one of the most perfect mad scientist creations ever. Concur? Yes.
Everett	Concur. It's fantastic. The Hellcat is fantastic.
Andrew	It's so good. Though there's a weird, um, on the case back, it's a strange like series of stars and I can't really figure out what it means. Uh, we have a new release of the Sylph based on the Hellcat. So, um, we have, three limited edition options. There is the burgundy, which is just like burgundy is usually not my jam, but with this kind of racing stripe minute track around the outside, the great script on the sylph, I'm pretty down with the burgundy. The graphite though is, is it for me? It's black and it's the checkered flag, right? That's, All this watch screams to me. And the last up is a black mother of pearl with a kind of tealy baby blue. I'd go more towards baby blue.
Everett	I think it's sort of a Tiffany blue. Honestly, I don't, I don't mind calling this Tiffany blue. Cause I think that's what it is.
Andrew	All right. I accept a second hand, which is absolutely gorgeous. And for those of you who don't know, I am a huge sucker for mother of pearl. I know they're typically ladies' watches, which is why I don't own any, but man, they just sing to me. Limited edition on these. Oh, shoot. The numbers are eluding me right now.
Everett	60 burgundy, 50 graphite, 80 mop.
Andrew	725. These are gorgeous.
Everett	This is the best 725 bucks you can buy on a steel sport watch period, bar none. Look, I don't care what you hear on any other podcast. Because they're wrong. They're wrong. This watch, Nick Harris, Orion, this watch is an absolute marvel at $725. Like Anders said, the tolerances are so good as to even be potentially problematic at times. Fitting a bracelet can be a chore.
Andrew	Yeah, don't take it off because you'll not get it back on. It's that perfect.
Everett	It is a tight fit, which
Andrew	You know, it's like unachievable. I don't know how he's doing what these, what major Swiss brands are unable, maybe unwilling to achieve in the way of tolerances. This is.
Everett	So from what I know, this is just a Hellcat case and, and I could be mistaken. I don't think that there are any significant refinements to the case, but there are some things going on here. So the first thing you'd be forgiven for looking at this and being like, okay, It's a racing track. Uh, okay, fine. Uh, but there's more going on here than, than that. Uh, the markers, stainless steel markers, and they're really, really attractive stainless steel markers. The handset on this is fucking brilliant. I don't know if I've said this on the show before. Uh, actually, let me, let me correct that. I don't know if I've said this on the show 10 times, uh, but Nick Harris once told me ever the world doesn't need more watches. And what he meant by that is you don't need to just make a watch. The world needs interesting things. Good things. This is interesting. Nick always is thoughtful to the nth degree when he does things. And you can see that here. No, I would like to have him on to talk about some of the decisions here, because I think that there's a lot of stuff going on and it, it's going to take some time to unpack this, um, which we're not going to take today, but really, really brilliant execution on all of the stuff. Now I do, I do believe that this is probably a love it or hate it style.
Andrew	This, no, this is the perfect sub $1,000 sport watch.
Everett	Well, I do think the style of the dial is love it or hate it. I don't know that this dial is going to appeal to everybody. That's my point. I think that there are people that are going to be like, nah, that's not for me. With that said, if it does appeal to you, I do not think you can do better than this watch.
Andrew	The checkered minute track is prominent and subtle all at once.
Everett	Yeah, I think it's fantastic. This is a great watch.
Andrew	This is so good. the black though. What's granite? Is that what he's calling it?
Everett	Uh, graphite.
Andrew	Graphite, not granite. Granite's not that color. Uh, yeah, the graphite is money with that orange secondhand and the red font on the sylph.
Everett	So I've got one of these unfortunate watches. I want to talk about Andrew that I don't know how to say the important words. Um, sorry. Uh, so, I do want to talk about a new Seiko release. This is a Seiko Prisaj release. And I thought it was really fun. And in fact, the more I read about this watch, the more I was like, this is really cool. So there is... I knew you were going to talk about this. There's a Miyazaki movie from the early 80s. And it's called... Nausicaa? Godspeed. Of the Valley of Wind. It's a movie that I'm not super familiar with. I've sort of seen it get brought up, but I've never taken the time to watch it.
Andrew	Didn't just a couple of weeks ago you say that you saw every single one of his movies?
Everett	Well, so this is not a Studio Ghibli movie. This is a pre-Studio Ghibli movie. And I think I said, I don't know if I've seen them all, but I've seen a lot of them. I haven't seen this one. This is Miyazaki pre-Studio Ghibli. Reading about this movie, I'm sort of intrigued. It's sort of a post-apocalyptic environmental story from what I can tell. It might be stupid. With that said, I love this watch. So it is a blue enamel dial. It's a really sort of lovely presage case with a bit of a twist in the lugs. Big, big, huge 13 millimeter crown. I made that number up. That's probably not the actual statistic on it.
Andrew	It might be 20.
Everett	It's big. And it's got just this done so first the enamel dial on this is stunning the handset is Borderline perfect. I don't know what you call these hands. Are they leaf hands Andrew?
Andrew	I think leaf is the I think that's an acceptable Assessment because they're unique.
Everett	It's got this sort of I want to say this is a turtle Logo, that's a flying turtle at the six o'clock Which is from directly from the movie. It's got a blue tip crown and it's got, this is my favorite part about this. So it's elegant, elegant, elegant, elegant stonewashed case. Yeah. Which is perfect for, for a post-apocalyptic set movie. This is perfect.
Andrew	With a, with a, is it gold plated or is it just gold?
Everett	Yeah. You've got a gold plated detail on the case back.
Andrew	With a gold rotor and the way the blue print on the sapphire case back interacts with that movement is phenomenal.
Everett	Now I will say the painted sapphire case back is my one. I'm like, Nope. Oh, I super dig that. Don't print a case back. It's glass so we can see through it. Get the fuck out of the way.
Andrew	But no, that's just me. It adds to the, it almost creates an illusion of like a highly, highly decorated movement that is not. Hmm. Yeah, we'll agree to disagree. I'm super down with it.
Everett	Uh, but the rest of this thing, including this gold case back, I think this is a terrific, super interesting release. And if you're a Miyazaki fan or whatever, um, you know, check it out because it's really cool. They're a bit pricey. So it is a 6R55 movement, which is great. It's actually a, a new iteration of 6R55 with no date complication. Really cool. Um, So they're calling this the 6R51, 72 hour power reserve. So it's a good movement. Uh, I do believe that these are going for a bit more than I want to spend. Limited edition of 1500. It's a 40 millimeter case. Andrew, why can't I find the damn price?
Andrew	They maybe not have released it.
Everett	Yeah, we maybe haven't.
Andrew	So we're looking at like probably like 17.
Everett	Uh, yeah. 1,750 euros. Oh wow.
Andrew	That's a good guess. Yeah. I feel good about that.
Everett	So with the movement, I think that that makes sense. It's probably, you know, that's one of those, one of those, you're going to have to think twice. You really got to want this, but I thought it was cool and I wanted to talk about it.
Andrew	Uh, since we're in the, in the mode of talking about Seiko choices, right? Cause that's a choice doing like a pre famous, famous guy watch. I want to talk about the Grand Seiko SBGX355 Seiko Quartz.
Everett	Snowflake Quartz. Yeah.
Andrew	Tell me more. I, I'm kind of confused by a Grand Seiko Fully Quartz coming in at 4,000 bucks. You know, when we talk about Grand Seiko money, we're talking about spring drive money. We're talking about high-end Grand Seiko automatic movements. And in fairness, this is their 9F movement, which is cool. When you look at the movement, it's lovely. I'm wondering who this is for. This is an interesting move by Grand Seiko. When they have this awesome spring drive technology, I'm wondering what the market is for pure quartz. It's a beautiful watch, right? It's a snowflake. It doesn't have a power reserve indicator, which is objectively for me, an improvement, but the rest of it's kind of confusing. It's a grand Seiko. It's got all the, all the finishing, all the look, all the shit that you want in a grand Seiko with quartz at the same price point. And I'm kind of confused. Buy it, not by the price, because I accept the price, right? You know, when we look at Tag Heuer of 10 years ago, we're seeing a similar price point with straight quartz movements. I accept. I don't particularly like, but I accept. I'm confused by this decision to go with a pure quartz movement. And I'm wondering if they're trying to like get onto the cutting edge of a quartz revival in the luxury watch space?
Everett	Well, Andrew, I have a few thoughts. One, as to your last point, I do think we're in a quartz revival. I don't think that it's hard. I don't think it's all that hard to take a look around at, in particular, Japanese horology right now and not suspect that we're in the midst of a quartz revival. With that said, I do think that the 9F is a bit of, I do think the 9F is a bit of a marvel unto itself. So, you know, you mentioned Tag Heuer and I understand why you did it, but I don't think it's a particularly apt comparison. It's not. And I accept. The 9F is not an ETA quartz. This is a hand-built, handcrafted quartz movement that does things that very few movements, mechanical or otherwise in the world do. So you've got instant day change. Uh, you've got extremely high torque, which has always been a problem in courts, right? You wind up with these dinky hands. Um, not so here. These things have incredibly high, high torque. Uh, it's got a mechanism within it to, to adjust for backlash. I mean, it's the perfect courts movement. It's fully sealed. Um, you know, And it's also got this, so it's not, it's not comparable to some of the like real serious high accuracy courts in terms of accuracy, but the display, it's got a compensation for the second hand to make sure that it lands exactly in the middle of the markers. It's a really, really interesting movement. And so I think combine those two things. One, this is Seiko being Seiko, right? Like this is to have a hand built and finished quartz movement. Plus you're mining 10 a year. The most fucking Seiko thing. Um, and then, and then you combine that with like the incredible precision that this thing is able to put out. Um, yeah, it makes a lot of sense to me actually, Andrew. And this watch is so gorgeous that I do, I think you're probably, uh, I'm going to have a really hard time believing that this watch isn't going to be incredibly popular because it's going to sell out.
Andrew	And there's a ladies version with a diamond crusted bezel.
Everett	I think this watch is going to be a fucking hit, dude.
Andrew	It is. But I. I don't know, it kind of scares me.
Everett	Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of here for this, actually.
Andrew	I think they're targeting the the luxury the pure luxury purchase market.
Everett	Did you mention that this is titanium?
Andrew	No, I forgot to mention that. Because it's titanium.
Everett	It is also titanium. Yeah. 37 millimeter 40 under a sub 45 lug to lug 10 six thick, which is great. I mean, it's, it's perfect. Yeah. I'm having a hard time finding anything to criticize about this watch. Oh, I found it.
Andrew	No, it's not. It's a titanium crown. It's not a titanium case. I think the whole case is titanium. No.
Everett	Oh, it is titanium. Yeah. I, I have something to criticize. The crown is 10% too small.
Andrew	I think I'm okay with the crown size. All right. But, but I, I, I see, I see your position. Uh, I'm just, I'm, I don't know. I have, I don't want to relive the quartz crisis. I don't want to, well, maybe if we live in it, then we're going to get some cheap automatics, but bring it on. Quartz, quartz, quartz, 10 plus or minus 10 seconds a year.
Everett	Do it. Uh, Formex did a thing this week and they did it with, uh, our, uh, I won't call them friends cause I don't think they know us. Uh, Warnemound, the people over at Warnemound, they did a collaboration with Formex. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, Oh, what? What? What is this? FormX, a brand really, I think, known for more than anything for their sort of like, not quite experimental, certainly not avant-garde, but their sort of like dedication to function and high function, right? They're like EDC wet dream kind of thing. They're just like, we're going to do elegant and beautiful and Swiss, but also make it fucking neat in a technical way. This is technically neat. With that said, I don't think Formex is a company that could be accused of being frivolous with their design. You know, pretty stoic. I think that's a fair way. Yeah. You know, modern.
Andrew	I think functional. I think maybe stoic isn't quite right. I think, I think functional is the way to better describe it. I'm fine with that.
Everett	Modern. Uh, you know, sort of design forward, but also functional. It's gotta look good, but it also has to work. It has to work gooder. So they released a Form X Essence. This is just a Form X Essence, guys. They're, this is a Form X Essence case, Form X Essence bracelet. This is a Form X Essence Three dials with three handsets. And these things are 1960s sector dials. They with weird colors. These things are borderline whimsical. So there's a whole shtick that they came up with. And, you know, I always wonder when I read these things, like, did you come up with this? At the beginning or did you backwards? Did chat GPT help you? Um, so there's these three dials and they're all sector dials and they've got sort of art deco lettering, uh, and they've got weird colors and they've got this pencil hands. Uh, these feel like, and so the, the, the concept is what if design had developed differently than it did? So. modern, but also.
Andrew	This is a 1980s scheme masquerading as a 2020 release. That's right. They perfectly captured the modernism ideas of the 1980s and dropped them into a watch and made them not weird. Cause some of the things that happened in the eighties and like, this is what's going to happen in 2020 those were weird.
Everett	This is not that this is if they got it right. Ostensibly, they took inspiration from a few films. Gattaca and Blade Runner are the ones that I saw referenced, which I'm fine with those movies. They're great.
Andrew	Gattaca contains one of the best murders of all time. That is true. With the keyboard. Yeah, that is true. Yeah. One of the best, the best kills ever in cinematic history.
Everett	I'm going to say something, Andrew. They nailed, they nailed the fonts. They did. That chronometer font at six o'clock. Hmm. Uh, one of the longest balances I've ever seen on a second hand.
Andrew	It's, uh, it's, uh, it's full second.
Everett	The three colorways here. Um, I'm sure they're named, but I don't know the names. There's like a blue, silver, and black. Yeah. Well, the, this is the black is more of like a brown bronze bronze. Yeah. Uh, graphite thing, but it's got these yellow tones. Uh, the blue has these red and salmon tones. Uh, the white has like, silver, white, with like this sort of salmon red. I'm cool with this.
Andrew	Blue, white, and gray are the colors. The white and gray are the ones that confuse me because one is definitely not gray and one is definitely white.
Everett	And you know, these are 1600 bucks. They're the same price as the regular Form X Essence. So I don't know. I think that these are limited. 150. Okay. Of each. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and, you know, gosh, I, I haven't been to the website. I don't know.
Andrew	They might not even be available. Cause that they're all stunning it for, for my money. The blue is where it's at though. That's a good blue.
Everett	These are terrific. These are really, really terrific watches. I kind of, I saw a few of the marketing photos from this and I was like, what the fuck is going on here? But when you see, when you see the marketing, all put together, it starts to make sense. Um, it's a little tongue in cheek and, and I think they did a really good job with it. Beautiful images. Um, yeah, I'm fucking eight weren't around. You did it. This is my favorite worn around release of all time.
Andrew	This is your, your best color yet.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	I'm in, I'm into it. It's, it's also the most unique to worn and wound collaborations. I think, I feel like a lot of the worn and wound, Color schemes are super, um, I feel like it's really you unique to the worn and wound collaborations that we've seen in the past. Cause so many of the worn and wound, uh, collaborations have been a really, um, unique color palette to that, uh, that collaboration. And this is not that right. I feel like the worn and wound collaborations. have been really earthy tones, have been, uh, like almost mil spec for, for a lot of them.
Everett	You know, it, you say this, but I, I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna argue with you. When we talked about this a few weeks ago, I identified two discrete Warner one on colorways. They've got that white and silver and then they've got that sort of blue red roulette
Andrew	But they've got both of those colorways here. This doesn't feel the same.
Everett	It feels unique. I have no clue how you could possibly justify that, but I'll let you have it.
Andrew	I'll let you fuck off. I want to talk about something else that has a way too big balance on their second hands in the way of another collaboration between Seconde en Seconde and I'm not super comfortable with this word either. We went way off the rails today. Basel. Basel. Basel. I don't like that either. Uh, so Basel, Basil, Basel. It seems like it ought to be French in, in, in actuality. It's, um, oh gosh, it's, um, a kind of like amalgamation of words to represent the, um, what's beyond the outback Australia. or beyond Australia. Uh, so Bozel is, uh, a watch brand, a fairly young watch brand, about 10 years old, based out of Australia. Um, doing some cool stuff kind of based on the nature of Australia. Uh, he, they include he, I'm going to say he, The fella who owns it, they include a little bit of sand in a hollowed out crown kind of vessel. Christoph Hoppe. Right. He sounds super Australian. So Chris Hoppe, he, they, in their brand, they include kind of a vial of sand from various beaches around Australia, which is super cool. Uh, so they have collaborated with second or second to create a dive watch that I think is super fun. This is a, Ooh, gosh, is it DLC or is it resin? I don't know. We're going to screw it out. Scroll down real quick. Uh, cause I didn't think to look that up. So it's stainless steel with a black IP coating. Dive watch, and this is your classic asymmetric dive watch. And it's asymmetric for so many reasons. Number one, the case is asymmetric and that's important. It's a black case, black bezel, steel crown. But here's where, here's like kind of what caught my eye when I first looked at it. I thought there was something weird about the second hand. I was like, Oh, that's an interesting logo. It's not a logo. We got a, we have a sandwich dial with blue underneath your white dial. Uh, there's another option. It's um, it's black and blue, but here's, here's what gets interesting. It's a full dial diameter secondhand with a fin. the center of the dial. So when the fin's on the north half of your dial, it looks like a shark fin. And on the south half, it's a surf fin. So this is a watch celebrating the surf culture of Australia in conjunction with its symbiotic relationship Mm-hmm. With sharks. And I think it's super fun because barring that fun little novel fin at the 12 o'clock, this is a really, really attractive skin dive watch. And I super like it. That fin is obviously going to constantly traverse and be varying degrees of shark or surfer. um the the logo at the six o'clock just says deep in lowercase letters with an exclamation point this is just a fun kind of novelty watch that doesn't look novelty from a from a distance like you're the only one who's going to be knowing you're having fun it's like wearing fun underpants like unless for some reason you're showing it These are limited editions to 100, so 100 total, 50 of each, 1400 bucks. And I think it's super appropriate from a brand like Basel. It kind of exists in that novel space of some, like a good chunk of what you're paying for is the fact that you have in your crown. sand from a famous beach, which this watch does not have. But this is fun. And this is super in that vein. And it's a very attractive watch. And this got me excited because it's a fun, a fun way to play with your rotating seconds hand.
Everett	Yeah. You know, the, so the, this, this watch case, this case has been around for several years, I think several years. Uh, this is a standard Sydney diver case. Uh, but I do agree with you that this watch is super fun. I personally love the Sydney diver case. The, you know, And, you know, this is super Benris looking. There's several companies doing this, but the profile in this case, it's got a fantastic sort of wrist hugging curve. The way the case back integrates with the case is really pretty interesting and attractive. I'm a huge fan. I do not love Basel's like bracelets that they sell on the Sydney Diver. I'm not.
Andrew	No, I hate them. I hate them so much. I appreciate that they took the time to not do a straight link on a mesh, but fuck they are not attractive.
Everett	It's not my favorite. It's not my favorite integration. These, these are really neat though. The way they've done the strap is fine with me. Um, and yeah, I, I agree with you. That secondhand is pretty fun.
Andrew	Yeah, that's the, that was what, What got my attention and what holds my attention?
Everett	Uh, Piaget. Piaget released on what will undoubtedly be the most important watch release of 2024. You've heard it here first. I think a lot of people agree with me, so that doesn't feel particularly brave. Um, Piaget released, uh, a Polo 79. This is based on the original Polo watch from the 80s famously worn by Robert De Niro in Casino as well as numerous other high glam celebrities IRL. I mean this watch in so many ways epitomizes that feeling that 80s Gordon Gekko feeling. Gold and big and gold. Primarily gold. You know, this wasn't a big watch when it came out. It's still not. This is a 39 millimeter watch. But what this is, is a callback to Piaget saying, you know what? We're, okay, fine. We'll do quartz. We'll do it. You want a quartz? We'll do quartz. But we're not. Yeah. Yeah. Gold's expensive and fuck it. We're doing it anyway. They released a full gold watch when everybody else was plating and it was a stunner. Uh, I mean really, really different than anything you've ever seen with these like really prominent horizontal sort of bullion as it were that go across this watch.
Andrew	It's the highest level of bracelet integration into a watch that has ever been done.
Everett	That's right. It's a fully integrated bracelet. Yeah. Um, so this is an fully 18 karat gold, yellow gold watch. It, it, it weighs in at 200, which I think is about 60% of a gold, uh, Royal Oak for instance. So a relatively light watch.
Andrew	I wonder if when you size this bracelet, if if you can sell the links to recoup some of your cost.
Everett	Yeah, maybe. I think it weighs even a little bit less than the Vacheron Constantin 222. So this is a watch that's going to be comfortable, notwithstanding the fact that it's all gold. It has a matte or a satin brushed finish to it. The case, which is these polished and brushed, alternating polished and brushed sections, integrates directly through the dial. Everything's gold. You know, this is not a boring watch. This is the furthest thing from boring. And it's not tiny either, 39 millimeters. But I think this thing is like 13 millimeters thick. So this is a prominent watch. It's a, it's a bit, this is a fuck you watch, man.
Andrew	This is as fuck you as a watch gets.
Everett	And it's gorgeous. It is. The original Polo came with a quartz movement, a really cool quartz movement. Not so. They've said that we're going to do a 25 jewel micro rotor. Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful. Oh, guess what? Gold movement.
Andrew	What?
Everett	Well, the rotor is gold. Yeah.
Andrew	That's a beautiful stamping on it too.
Everett	God, this thing's terrific, man. And I think we're in a moment where gold is king. Gold prices are high.
Andrew	This is only $73,000. So buy one, send it to us. Let us take it for a test drive. The only problem I have with this watch is that every time I got it near something, I would be concerned about shaving off value. Like leaving gold behind.
Everett	That could happen. I think this is, I love it. I don't know what more to say about it. I'm not qualified to talk about it and so I feel like I need to stop. I just want to say I love it and I think it's the coolest watch of 2024 and I don't care what else happens.
Andrew	It's the only watch that's ever been integrated to the bracelet. I love it. It's super fucking cool and also ridiculous and the ultimate fuck you.
Everett	It's rad. It's rad. I don't know. I mean, these aren't limited. This is a catalog item for Piaget. They probably don't make a ton.
Andrew	They'll make like thirty five.
Everett	So it is inherently limited, but man, if I had a seventy three thousand dollars looking around, I might be.
Andrew	But you know, if we're talking about that, like six figures zone watch. This is kind of like in the space of a top three.
Everett	I mean, assuming you can get them, it's cheaper than a 5711, right?
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Assuming you can get them.
Andrew	It's in the zone of a Daytona.
Everett	I don't know what availability is actually like on these, but. You gotta call. Assuming you can get your hands on one, you'll spend more on a 5711. If you want it this decade. And I think this is cooler. Or a 5811, whatever.
Andrew	calling it 50. Yeah, they just discontinued one, which one that is.
Everett	57 was discontinued.
Andrew	Yeah, nice. Discontinue another one.
Everett	All right, whatever. Any, any, any other watches you feel like you want to talk about?
Andrew	Um, yeah, I want to briefly talk about the Tornek Rayville Type 7B Blackjack.
Everett	My man, Bill Yao.
Andrew	Mm-hmm So the first time I saw this I I I'm kind of in a little bit of a diver mood for my next acquisition And I want I want I want a diver what I don't want like a 36 I want a 40 to 44 a big old bitch You want a big watch? Yeah, and and what feels silly about it is I said, I know that I'm not going to wear it that often. Because I don't typically want to wear a big watch. Today I wore my, uh, my world time. This feels big and it weighs nothing because it's just plastic. And I saw this and I was like, Ooh, this is my jam. So this is it consistent with Tornik Ravel's military inspired. watches a classic military dive watch.
Everett	And it's based on a stalker and Yale watch.
Andrew	Yeah. So stalker and Yale, it's based off the Sandy six 60. It has all, as they say, all of the creature comforts. I'm going to link to this cause we'll wrote a, an article on this. I didn't even know we'll had this. I will get so many watches through that he doesn't even send us all pictures and He's just a revolving door of reviews. He just churns them out. So the, so the Blackjack's 42 and a half millimeter case, 49 lug to lug, 13 to thick. It's a 11 millimeters Rista crystal, which is a proprietary measurement that we have developed here because of the shape of the case, the, the actual objective thickness of the case is not a great representation of how it wears against the wrist because of the curvature of the case, the lugs. Um, so 11 isn't that thick for a watch that's ringing at 13 two and being as prominent as it is with that very like SKX indented, uh, bezel shape toward the crystal. This thing is, gorgeous. My one bitch, 22 millimeter lugs, uh, NH 36 movement. The not my one bitch is the 22 millimeter lugs. We have an NH 36 movement, Sapphire crystal, all the things you'd expect out of a military inspired watch. This is, this is a, uh, you know, not a reissue, but a reissue. This is it. This is so good.
Everett	I love it. A couple, I've got a couple of thoughts about the details. So one, I normally agree with you regarding 22 millimeters. I think we're sort of proportionately are appropriate when you look at it, but we're famously pro 20 millimeters, uh, as everybody knows. Um, but when I saw this thing, I, I, I thought to myself, I'm really glad bill went with 20 millimeter lug because that's the right size for this. And it wasn't until I, scrolled down and I was like, Oh, that's 22, which the point, my point in saying that is I think that you're right, Andrew, the proportions are perfect. And so it didn't, it didn't feel to me like that. That was a hard bitch. The other point I want to make about the details is that, um, uh, well, that's it. The details are perfect on this. Like when you, Will's got some great macros of this on the, on the website, the chapter ring is got this, like intermittent, like existence that allows for a loomed.
Andrew	Ring.
Everett	Ring.
Andrew	Chapter ring. Yeah.
Everett	God. And the printing on this thing is. Phenomenal. Absolutely stunning, but perfectly military stoic. I mean, this thing is, it's exactly what it's trying to be. It is doing, it is doing the thing it's trying to do perfectly.
Andrew	Right down to the no radiation, Yes. Symbol at the 10 o'clock.
Everett	Yes. I mean, it is just, it just exudes the qualities of, you know, if you're, if you've ever been, ever been in the military, you've seen these things that are like anti-design and that anti-design thing, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It has this aesthetic appeal and this captures that exquisitely. I think this is a home run by Bill. I love the size. I love the, case profile, you know, the case profile, this looks like it's going to be a really chunky watch, but the actual mid case is really elegant. Yes. I think that this is a fucking hit. I'm super into it. The, the bezel's fantastic and appropriately big. It's very SKX feeling. It does have an SKX vibe, but like an SKX that has been doing keto for the last nine months.
Andrew	And really hitting the gym. Yeah. This is a, this is a beefed up SKX.
Everett	Yeah. It will obviously three o'clock crown on this. Uh, unlike an SKX. Yeah.
Andrew	Yeah. That's where a crown ought to be.
Everett	I think this is absolutely terrific. Um, yeah, this is good. Really good. Andrew, assuming you're done talking about watches, uh, do you got any other things you'd like to talk about?
Andrew	Do you have another thing? So I fairly recently acquired a salt pig. I don't know what that is. So I had hoped you'd say that.
Everett	I saw your look. You had an expectant look.
Andrew	So a salt pig is nothing more than a container that you keep salt on your counter. Do you have a vessel near to your stovetop? Like just a, like I used to have a glass, like just a little glass dish filled with salt next to my stove. You have that? Yes, that's what we have. So I have had that for years, uh, sometimes called a salt cellar. more colloquially as a salt pig. Um, it's just a vessel that you keep salt in next to your stove because salt is such a commonly used seasoning in everything. If you're not salting everything, you're doing it wrong. Um, that it should be kept in a container next to your stovetop because it's just so commonly and frequently sought after and reached for that you're throwing it in everything as you cook. at different times while you cook, that you keep it by the stove where you're doing your cooking.
Everett	And having the ability to be able to reach in with your fingers and sprinkle means you can measure it more accurately. Yes. As opposed to using a shaker or whatever where you.
Andrew	Yeah. Or a grinder or a shaker. Yeah. So the tactile response to, I don't know what a teaspoon of salt actually looks like. poured out. I know what a teaspoon of salt feels like in your hand when I pinch it. Um, so anyway, I'm, I'm like, I was kind of grossed out by the buildup in my glass bowl. Cause I, I don't, I didn't really ever wash it. I just like would pour more salt in and kind of stirred up with my finger. And I was kind of grossed out by that. Uh, and I had seen an article about salt pigs and I was like, Well, this is a new idea because I've only ever seen just a dish of salt. Which is kind of gross. So I, uh, I got a, just a super simple, like a, a $10 salt pig with a hinged, like, so it's a bamboo cylinder. Yeah, the hinge is clutch. With a little hinge on one at, we'll say the 12 o'clock of the cylinder. You just push the little magnetic lid aside. and you grab your salt and then you seal it back up. And then the moisture is not affecting your salt. Cause what I would find is I was refilling my salt before it was empty because the moisture was starting to affect it and kind of degrade it or it would like grind up. And like, and then I had like iodized salt though. I'm not, I had like super fine kosher salt at the bottom, which is not what I want. I'm wanting some course salt to be hitting stuff with. Cause I'm like, it doesn't matter. Yeah, sure. Um, So anyway, I got one of these. I got this. It's $14 on Amazon and I'm going to link to two things. I'm going to link to, um, an article from the daily meal. It says, what is a salt pig and why it's time to throw away your salt shaker, which I, I, I do disagree with cause I think there is a place for, uh, a salt mill. I don't have a salt shaker and I haven't in, in a very long time, but to be able to like grind sea salt and have like a couple of varieties of salt that get ground on top of things as a finishing salt. Um, but my bowl of salt that now sits by my, or that has always, and, and now newly sits by my stove is covered and it doesn't get moisture infected. And it's, it's a great $10 investment into your normal cooking activities. That's only going to make it better. There is no loss here. And there's a bunch of varieties. Well, the one that I wanted to get is kind of this like 45 degree PVC pipe with a little cork lid on it. And I was like, oh, that's really fun. But it's also 30 bucks. I could just get this bamboo one that's like 14 bucks. And I don't care. I've seen some really there's some elegant ones out there. There's some like there's some shit, but that's not what I want.
Everett	I've seen some Japanese ones that are like hand lacquered ceramic that are that are pretty fun, too.
Andrew	But that's kind of like counter to the salt pig idea. Right. It's just this dirty thing that you put your fingers in and you grab salt and you throw it on your food and you make it better?
Everett	Yeah, I don't know.
Andrew	Okay, fine. Right, like a hand carved and lacquered bowl is kind of a counter to it. I kind of think it's fun.
Everett	Andrew, I got another thing. Do me. So I said a few weeks ago, like I've been on a kick of Like, you know, I want this thing and I want to, I want it to be kind of an heirloom thing. Um, I, I don't know if I talked about this last week or even two weeks ago, but I've got this idea that I want to have things. I want to procure things that I'm going to use for the rest of my life and that my kids will be interested in when I die. I want to stop buying disposable things and buy things that your kids are going to fight over. That's what I want. I, and, and not because I want my kids to fight. but because I want to have things that are special to me that can provide joy to someone after me, both by remembering me or just by that, like, Oh yeah, this was his thing.
Andrew	Um, is that all we're going to get for it on eBay? Is that super vain? I'm not sure. Uh, no, I think that's, that's kind of a, um, That's legacy building, right? That's like trying to establish.
Everett	Is legacy building in and of itself vain? I'm not sure.
Andrew	No. Deep thoughts. Right? Like does Bezos think about his legacy of Amazon as vanity? No, he's thinking about it as like, no, this is a representation of what I created.
Everett	Yeah, maybe so. Anyway, so I've picked some things. There was a that I decided I wanted, and there's absolutely no good reason for me to want this thing.
Andrew	Besides that there was a rabbit hole to be followed.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. There was a rabbit hole and I went down and I was like, you know what, I'm going down this one. It's a weird thing. I wanted a lighter, Andrew. And there are a lot of different ideas about lighters. There are really sort of functional lighters. I Talk to some backpackers, and I think backpackers widely agree that the best backpacking lighter is a Bic. Because it costs a dollar. Well, not only that. And they're super light. Not only that, both of those things, affordable, light, but also incredibly functional. The Bic lighter is one of the most functional, disposable things that you can get. Uh, but of course that doesn't fit the theme. I don't want disposable. I want heirloom. And so then you have like, you've got some like really nice, like a lot of these cigar lighters are like expensive and sort of highfalutin. But the one that really appealed to me is the classic Zippo lighter. There's something about that design that's virtually unchanged for the last 8,000 years. It was actually invented sometime around Moses. Uh,
Andrew	The Bic lighter has been around for forever. Jesus famously lit a cigarette with a Zippo before he walked on the sea. That's right.
Everett	I've heard that. Uh, yeah, I think they talk about that in, uh, in Matthew. Oh, okay. It's in John. Okay. Yeah. So that's fine. Uh, anyway, I was like, you know what? I want a Bic or not a Bic. I want a Zippo. And, and then I started to sort of like, okay, well Zippos are Zippos. Uh, okay. So there's this thing called a armor Zippo, Zippo armor. And essentially what it is, it's a heavier gauge metal than a standard Zippo. So a little bit heavier, a little bit more durable. And then I was like, you know what? I actually want a silver Zippo. So it turns out there's a silver armor Zippo. They're kind of expensive, but if you're savvy, you can find one for about a hundred bucks. I will tell you that right now.
Andrew	And Andrew, you can get them on uncrate right now for 400 bucks. Listen, you know, my stainless steel, uh, ones make that same sound.
Everett	No, it doesn't listen to this ping. So there's something about sterling silver. I really love this material. So I picked this up. I don't smoke.
Everett	I don't have any need for fire.
Andrew	Not only did you buy the Zippo, but you also bought Zippo brand lighter fluid. I didn't buy Zippo brand lighter fluid.
Everett	It's just... It's Ronsonol lighter fluid. But yeah, I bought the Zippo and I love it. I play with it. I don't have anything to light on fire, but I can light it and it's fun and I like it.
Andrew	Have you learned any Zippo lighting tricks? Like the flicking it on your pants or like the snap or... Nope, I haven't and I will not.
Everett	The lighter is enough for me. Did you buy extra flints? I don't, I haven't needed more than the one. I don't know how fast I go through them yet, but they're widely available. That's the good news. I'm kind of really satisfied with this purchase, even though, you know, it's inherently an EDC item. I have been carrying this. I don't have any use for it, but if I do need fire, I'm going to be so excited someday.
Andrew	So the weight of it. is the selling point for me.
Everett	It's a really nice feeling thing.
Andrew	Yeah. And the brand new spring in the, in the mechanism is good.
Everett	And silver is, there's something about silver. It's the like whiteness of the metal and the way it glows and the luster. So I, I, I'm not going to keep this thing polished. I don't, I'll take care of tarnish if it tarnishes, but I'm going to let it get scratched up. I'm going to throw it in my bag. Uh, I'm going to try to keep fuel in it. I do understand that Zippos are notoriously sort of evaporative. Yes. And so, you know, maybe I'll keep some fluid in a container or something in my, like a little bit of fluid, but I'm not super worried about it. Really. I'm just enjoying having this new thing. It it's, it's so stupid. I don't need it. And I just instantly loved it. I got it. And I was like, this is my lighter.
Andrew	So I smoked for a good time. while I was on an all expenses paid safari.
Everett	And I carried a Zippo. Did you smoke cigarettes?
Andrew	Yeah. Oh. I smoked while I was dipping, while I was non on Redman. Sure. I was working like 30 to 36 hour days and then like taking a quick nap and getting right back to it. I have definitely army smoked.
Everett	That's the thing.
Andrew	Yeah. So I had a Zippo at the time and I loved the feeling And while I was doing that, I immediately understood every single military movie where they would crack open their Zippo and get nothing and then furiously throw the cigarette down. So I also kept a BIC in my pocket for when the Zippo inevitably needed fuel. Yeah, because the evaporation of a Zippo, and I don't really understand the mechanics of why, because it's such a small space for it to evaporate out. But in my Zippo experience, it needed like weekly fueling.
Everett	Yeah. I understand that they, that they do sell a rubber gasket that you can put on the bottom of this, which makes the fluid last much longer. Yeah, I don't know. It's such a superfluous thing in my life. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. But I wanted it, and I bought it, and now I have it, and I think I'm gonna get some metal stamps and stamp my initials into it. And this is my lighter.
Andrew	I've got my lighter. I appreciate that. I just re-watched Band of Brothers and thinking about that in the scene Albert Blythe catches one in the neck and Harry's there trying to light his cigarette. I was like, dude, I know your pain. I've been there. Just light on fire. I just need something good to happen to me. And it doesn't light. Fortunately for me, I could then retrieve my Bic out of the same pocket. But yeah, the Zippos, I have a couple. I love them. And I hate them all at once. That's a good pickup, though, because that's a good heirloom. That's dad's lighter.
Everett	Even though dad didn't smoke.
Andrew	But that's what dad, you know, occasionally lit firecrackers with.
Everett	Hey guys, thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20 of the Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor, check us out at watchclicker.com. That's our website. And that's where we post every single episode of this podcast and also reviews of things like the Tornok Ravel Blackjack. You can check us out on Instagram at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. That's where we post pictures and occasional updates about what we're doing on the website. More importantly, and this is important, you guys, if you want to support us and we really hope you do, we don't bog you down with too many ads. We, we generally try to keep this thing clean, but we need support to pay for things like hosting and hardware and software. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. All of you guys who are already supporting us, we thank you so much. And if you, if you haven't checked it out, just go check it out. It doesn't cost a lot of money and it really helps us keep doing this. Uh, and otherwise check us out next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things you like. Bye bye.