The Best Sub $2,000 Chronograph? (279)

Published on Wed, 28 Feb 2024 22:00:27 -0800

Synopsis

The podcast discusses recent watch releases, including models from Louis Erard, Casio, Tissot, Meistersinger, Unimatic, and collaborations between Bremont/Bamford and Frederique Constant/Seconde Seconde. The hosts also review the TV show Ted Lasso and a $15 made-in-USA tool roll.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, The Watch Cooking 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 don't know what you're doing over there. I'm just chilling, man. Just getting comfy. I'm just chilling. Uh, no, I'm doing well. Thanks for asking. Uh, I actually, hold on. I'm not, I'm not quite, not quite ready. I'm not quite the new flavor. Yeah, we'll see. Um, yeah, I'm doing all right. The, it's the, the leap. It leap year, leap left here. Left leap day is tomorrow or today.
Andrew Yeah. For, for all of you listening, it is, it's a car, it's occurring. You're leaping.
Everett And so as, uh, tradition demands, I am not working on leap day because it's an extra day. And when you get extra, extra time, you should do something good with it. And so I'll be on the philosophy. I'll be on the mountain in a matter of hours. I will be heading to the lift in approximately 12 hours from right now. from the car, hopefully, or maybe still putting on my skis and my accoutrements. Your cozies. My cozies. Yeah, yeah, that's right. For, you know, a little sausage making here. We're going to have to figure out recording for the week of the 14th because I'll be gone that week. So we'll have to blast one in the weekend. Yeah, we will. Uh, if, in fact, if you are listening to this from the state of Utah, I will be in Salt Lake on Monday the 11th. I'll go from the airport relatively early to Alta where I will be for the better part of three full days.
Andrew Everyone likes free beer.
Everett And I like free beer. Bring a beer and I'll have a beer with you. Bring two. Bring two. Or bring your credit card. I think there's a bar. Good stuff.
Andrew Yeah. How are you, Andrew? I am good. I had a really weird day. I, uh, I was in back to back meetings all day, so I didn't get to do my job at all today, which was really annoying.
Everett I mean, do you do anything important?
Andrew No.
Everett Okay.
Andrew No, nothing of consequence, but like, It was brutal to just sit in one meeting after the next all day. Very few of them even applied to me. One of them the whole time I was like, why am I even here? Like, why did you invite me to this?
Everett What, what do you need from me?
Andrew Nothing, nothing. They needed nothing from me.
Everett No, I was asking, I was pretending to be you.
Andrew Yeah. I didn't get it. So it was just a weird day where I think it was kind of nice to just fuck off work and still be working.
Everett Yeah, that is nice. But, uh, yeah.
Andrew Oh, it's a little weird day. That's okay. Tomorrow will be better probably. It won't be worse. So we know that. Hard to say.
Everett Yeah. Um, okay. Well, that's, that is what it is. Yeah. I think we should talk about watches because we have a list. We have a list. A robust list. We didn't have a ton of overlap today.
Andrew I was actually really surprised. I left some things off of my list expecting you to send them to me and then you didn't.
Everett Which was surprising, but we still came up with a... Did you put them back on your list? Nope.
Andrew Because we have too much to talk about. They wouldn't make it. We had one overlapping watch that I absolutely knew would be overlapping.
Everett I think it's more than one. No? Yeah, just one. No? No, two. We got two overlapping watches. Well, Andrew, I'm going to start. Go ahead. Light it up. The two of yours are the same. No they're not. I'm going to start, actually, that's not where I'm going to start. I'm going to start somewhere else. I am going to start with a company that I am almost entirely certain we've never talked about on the show. Louis Erard is a Swiss company. They make watches. They make relatively high end watches with a focus on sort of that affordable horology. They also make fun watches. This watch, I'm not going to call this watch fun, quote unquote fun, although certainly it's fun. And it's part of their existing line. So the Excellence Petite Seconde Guilloche, two new models. So Louis Harard has unveiled two new bicolor versions of its entry-level Excellence Petite Seconde. This is like a sporty dress watch that comes in at a sort of like accessible price. That's kind of why I wanted to talk about this. So this is one of those companies that makes watches that are often four, five, ten, thousand or more. This is a watch that comes in at a not a not shocking but also not cheap twenty three hundred francs which is something like twenty six hundred U.S. dollars and for that what you get is a beautiful sort of haute horology guilloche dialed watch from a company with with real bona fides I think the thing that fascinates me about this watch is this is one of those brands that you can tell is just oozing with style and sort of that old world Swiss luxury that is remarkably affordable. If you're a person who is dipping their toes into that, you know, you've got your Manta, you've got your Formax, you've, you know, maybe got a, a used Omega and you're like, you know what? kind of want to get something a little bit more with a little bit more like drip of that drip. Yeah. Uh, I think this is a really fascinating watch. So we'll talk a little bit about the watch. There are, there are two of them, uh, as stated, they're both, uh, they're both automatic Salida SW two six one caliber watches. I don't know a ton about that watch, but it's obviously a Salita 200, which is kind of the going, that's the movement in that price range. Well, I think the 200 is, well, and again, I don't know what the 261 is and I did not, I was going to look it up and I didn't. And so maybe there's something different there. And this is a signed rotor. I mean, it's a beautiful looking, if not somewhat utilitarian movement. Uh, but the magic here is all in the front of the watch. You've got this just crazy sort of like sector guilloche with three different textures and a small second sub dial. Uh, crazy markings. These, I think they're calling them like evergreen or fir tree, uh, hands. Uh, this watch just looks drippy. That's to use your phrase. And I saw this thing and I thought, you know what? This is a watch that if I had like the right combination of coffee and vegetables in any given day, I might be sitting on the couch and go, I'm going to buy that. I'm going to buy that. So retail price on these USD 2600, I imagine these are used for under the $2,000 mark. Um, and the colorways are fantastic. There's like a gray and anthracite and then this really like rich because it's gilch, right? So you get these like, like more a starburst and these things are fucking rad.
Andrew They are. And I haven't said a word because something is bothering me. I can't find a profile, like a true profile view of it. Ooh, there we go. Finally. These lugs are terrific. You can see if on the underside photos, you can see there's a step. Yeah.
Everett It hooks down like a bathtub claw.
Andrew Yeah. And I was looking to see what that would look like in profile. And it's even better than I expected it would be. These are fun. And it's, it's interesting. This is the most tame watch, uh, in their catalog.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. They do some wild shit. They do like these squiggly secondhands on some of their watches.
Andrew Some real goofy shit. And this is, this is a really refined, this kind of reminds me of like a, like a real upgraded cocktail time. Right. Still sporty, but it's got that, that little something extra to push it towards the dress watch category. These are dope and crazy affordable for what you're getting out of this. Um, 2,600 bucks. This is, I mean, you're not going to do a lot better.
Everett Yeah, that's, that's right. And this feels to me like, I know that this is more expensive than a club campus, but you know, it sort of falls in that Nomos, in that Nomos tangente world, right? Uh, where you're getting something from a really cool company. You're not getting in-house like you are with Nomos and that's, you know, that's one of the big appeals, but it's, it feels to me like it's in that world of this like small boutique, semi-affordable Swiss hoterology. 39 millimeters on the blue dial, 42 on the black anthracite, which is maybe a little bit big, but that's kind of a thing. The Swiss still do these like oversized dress watches. And these are pretty sporty for dress watches.
Andrew There were a couple of other, and I'm not going to talk about them, but there were a couple of other interesting, really small brand releases, like 300 piece runs. All kind of in this zone over the last couple of weeks, that like $2,000 to $5,000 zone that were interesting. None as interesting as this, I think.
Everett Yeah, and look, come for the small boutique Swiss brand, or maybe Louis RR is not that small. I think they've got to be pretty small. And stay for that guilloche dial. You've got like a basket guilloche on the raised sector portion and then I don't know what you call that swirly. Dude, this thing's fucking right.
Andrew I think the technical term is the swirlies. The swirlies. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Cool.
Andrew A lot of texture on that. That's cool. What do you got? Oh, first up for me, a fun anniversary release. The Casiotron TRN 50 limited edition. You swooped. This is.
Everett You swooped.
Andrew No, I sent this to you. I know. I sent it to you. I sent it to you first. Uh, this is everything I want in a anniversary re-release watch. It is every single bit of this Casio 80s era
Everett And then they put all of the cool modern shit in it. Hashtag 70s, not 80s.
Andrew Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. Yeah. 50 years. Geez Louise. Keep going. So we have this, this 50 year anniversary and it is dope. They held that style and design. They incorporated Bluetooth, they incorporated all of the cool modern stuff without compromising anything. This is, this is cool. I might get one of these. 500 bucks, probably 550 bucks. 39.1 millimeter case, 42 lug to lug, 12.3 thick, only 50 meters of water resistance, which is, you know, whatever. World time. This, this is so cool. 4,000 piece limited edition, so I don't think it's going to be that hard to get your your mitts on one of these.
Everett Yeah, no, I think these I think you can get these. The the watch needs to article that I'm looking at has has photos of the original and the new one, and it's remarkably similar. I understand the dimensions are the same. This was so this is a remake of the Casiotron QW02, which I understand not only holds the the title of the world's first digital watch with an automatic calendar. But also this was Casio's first wristwatch ever. So you've seen pictures of this. If you're listening to this show, you've seen pictures of this. And yeah, so it's now solar. It's automatic calendar, but it also syncs to the time on your phone. It's got like multiple radio. It's got like multiple time setting functions. and won't need to be reset until 2100, I guess, which is 76 years from now. You won't have to worry about it.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, I'll be dead. Very dead. And the, I mean, everything is, is true to form. The case back is a, is a remake. There's some additions, right? They added the technology and stuff, but they still have that. Um, what do we call it? A triangle shape. What are you talking on the case back? Oh yeah. The logo on the case back. That's right.
Everett That's right. Yeah. You've got more pushers.
Andrew Um. Cause you got all the technology.
Everett It's like a truncated triangle, right?
Andrew Yeah. Yeah.
Everett So actually a hexagon, but a truncated triangle is what I call it.
Andrew I accept. In the middle there's a real triangle though.
Everett These things are pretty rad. You know, when I saw this and I saw the price, I was like, the fuck are we talking about? But. I think that they do a lot. I do, I do wish, and you, you mentioned it already. I do wish that they had injected a little bit of G-Shock into this because, you know, they, they, they included the Tough Solar, the Multiband 6, uh, this Bluetooth connectivity or this phone connectivity. Um, like they have enough size on this thing at damn near 13. I think they could have injected a little bit more water resistance into it. Probably. Yeah. And so I'm surprised, maybe a little bit surprised that they didn't do that. Perhaps that's the deal with the pushers. I'm not sure. Um, yeah, 15 years, water resistance, full auto super illuminator, led backlight, five daily alarms, world time. That's cool. So this is the Casio Casio Tron T R N 50 dash two a 4,000 pieces starting today, starting on the 29th of February on Leap Day. Today for you, tomorrow for us. Is it good? 500 bucks.
Andrew I like it. That's a good release.
Everett Link in the show notes. What you got? Dame Dala. Oh, swooper. It is. Listen, it is. Dame time. Yeah. Because it's a watch.
Andrew Oh, oh, I didn't get it.
Everett It's so Powermatic or excuse me, the PRX, the first ever PRX collab done with none other than Dame Lillard, who, although he's an although Dame is not no longer my guy, he's still a dude. He's a bro. Damian Lillard famously played the bulk of his career, 11 years in Portland before going to the Milwaukee Bucks last year, sadly demanding a trade. In fact, getting traded, leaving Portland as probably the worst, maybe the second worst team in the NBA. Thanks, Dam. You know, I wish him the best. Dude wants a ring. But I'm going to say something about this watch. So this is a gold PRX, collaboration with Damian Lillard. It is not a green dial. And it is also not a red dial. It's a black dial. Black is a color that could do many things. You can do many things with black, including coordinate with a red, gray and black blazer motif. Um, you know, it's just a PRX. It's a Powermatic PRX, right?
Andrew No.
Everett No. Okay. I mean, it is, though. Yeah.
Andrew Okay. With a D for the second hand balance.
Everett Yeah. So there's some stuff going on here, right? D for the second hand balance. You've got this really cool dial texture. You've got some good stuff here. And it's an affordable watch. And it's Damian Lillard.
Andrew Uh, it's all pretty subtle collaboration, uh, insertions. So the, the balance on the second hand is a cursive D and that's the only thing that stands out here as definitely different.
Everett Well, you've got the zeros on the dial.
Andrew Those are really subtle, though. Super. So without knowing what you're looking at, you're not going to see it. Yeah.
Everett Yeah, there's some engravings like the rehaut has engravings for his kids. Yeah, this is Dame time. This this is this is fun. This is fun. It's a it's a good it's a good collaboration because it's not over the top. I'm going to be honest. The balance I could maybe do without. I think the balance is a little bit much, but it sort of fits his aesthetic and style.
Andrew Yeah. I think it's, it's cool. It's, and it's, I mean, it's their first collaboration with Dame.
Everett How cool is that? And Gold with a Black Dial is fucking rad. Yeah. Black Dial will watch. Yes, sir. Yeah.
Andrew That's a good one, but it is still just a PRX. Well, since we're on the subject of things that are maybe a little overdone, I want to talk about our brand, Hamilton, and one of what I think is the most interesting watches, the Ventura. Famously featured in Men in Black, and it's just a fun watch.
Everett And Elvis.
Andrew Yeah. And now Dune. So Hamilton, uh, I think without being able to do anything to substantiate this opinion, Hamilton is one of the more featured watches in film, at least prominently featured.
Everett Certainly. And Hamilton works really closely with Hollywood to get, yeah, for sure. You see Hamilton everywhere. Space movies in particular.
Andrew space movies, war movies, uh, science fiction movies. You know, we're talking about men in black and we're talking about dune.
Everett So Hamilton designed to, and, and the, the Matthew Damon Martian movie and, uh, and, uh, the, the, uh, movie interstellar interstellar. Yeah. What's the name of the mat? Is it called the Martian? It is called the Martian.
Andrew Yeah. Many features in for all mankind. Um, A lot of Speedmasters and For All Mankind 2, as to be expected. Talking about astronauts here. They designed some watches for Dune costuming and have now released some versions to the public. And they are going to be limited, not super limited, I don't remember how many, let me look. It doesn't matter. Not super limited, not impossible to get your hands on. They are super sci-fi looking black and blue Venturas. One with a digital display, the other with a anodigy look, but it is not anodigy.
Everett It's just an analog watch. It's an analog digital, right?
Andrew Yeah. A little expensive, kind of to be expected, and they're big. So 52 millimeters across for a triangular watch. The analog is super cool. It's like very Star Trek control panel-y lighting on it. $1,750 for that. And the pure digital, $2,500. But these are cool. If you're a Dune guy or gal, you're a Dune fan, what a cool opportunity to own a piece of the story.
Everett Yeah, you know, I feel like this is a missed opportunity by Hamilton. I think they could have done some cool mechanical movement work here. It might have made this watch inaccessible in a way that they didn't want. You know, you look at companies like Ativac or whatever. These are, you know, Chinese companies that are making these really accessible, these really accessible, like cool movement functionality watches. And I feel like, I feel like there's an opportunity here for Hamilton to have done something really neat and interesting. And instead they're, they focused on design.
Andrew And I think this is a, this is probably a tricky, watch to do cool movements with because of the case shape.
Everett Yeah, but, but I mean, look at the Autovox or, or look at, uh, you know, any of these barrel hand, I guess is one that I think of, but MBNH, right. All those watches are weird shapes that have these, I feel like this is just doodads.
Andrew I'm cool with the doodads though. This is fun. And I love seeing more Venturas in films. Because what a weird watch to be highlighting. Yeah. Every time I see it, I'm like, I think I want one of those. I just don't know that I'd ever wear it. I just want it. Like, I just, I want to have it. I want to know it's close by. And that's, that's about the extent of my, my love for it.
Everett Seconde, seconde. We've talked about these guys before. The, the, the sort of, Romaric Andre company, former, I believe he was like a tax auditor, turned designer, known for his sort of playful, quippy, cartoon, meme, life collaborations with Timex, amongst others, has teamed up with Freddie, with Frederic Constant, on a slim line, which is not perhaps the most obvious collaboration opportunity for Seconde Seconde. But with that said, I think they've done well. So what this is, is a Frederic Constant slimline moon phase date, which is a beautiful watch, a really, really elegant watch. And from about 18 inches away, perhaps even 24 inches. This looks every bit a Frederic Constant slimline Moonphase. Gorgeous finishing, beautiful crown. Moonphase, terrific. But as you get closer, you don't even have to get all that close, you realize there's some things amiss. So the first thing you'll notice is that the hands, the hour markers, baton markers, or batons, people love it so much when I say. These baton markers are askew, and not just askew, but actually it just looks like someone picked the watch up and shook it. Spilled. So they're all kind of in the right place, but not at all, certainly not lined up. And then as you get even a little bit closer, You notice that all the pad printing appears to be handwritten. And furthermore, that the moon phase, the details within the moon phase also hand drawn. So then the markers are a little funny shaped, they're in the wrong places, everything's handwritten. The marketing materials, Frederic Constantis said, we gave artists seconde seconde a brief. tell the world how handwork is the soul of our products."He went too far. Clearly giving a little bit of goof off, which is fun for a company like Frederic Constant that I think is pretty stodgy.
Andrew They're stodgy even in their funnest watch, which is a collaboration with somebody.
Everett You know, the one thing I haven't been able to tell is when these are available. They are both $32.95, which is a bit, but there are only, there's two models. There's a steel with silver markers that they've made a hundred of, and then a steel with rose gold markers and a rose gold crown. I believe that's all plated for the price here. And there's only 10 of those. Uh, and so I know I have, I'm having a hard time figuring out how you get them. Are they already sold out? I don't know. Um, I think this is pretty fun. This is actually maybe my favorite Seconde Seconde collaboration at this point. Hmm. I think to the extent that you're willing to drop 3,300 on a novelty joke watch, um,
Andrew I think this is so much more than that. It still fits all of the FC things. It still has all the look, all the refinement, that beautiful case, even the, the like hand script kind of sloppy font isn't sloppy. It's really well done. This is, this is the equivalent of wearing like ridiculous socks. under a tux.
Everett Yeah, maybe so. Yeah.
Andrew I mean, I'm good with it, right? I'm totally down with it.
Everett So we've got an FC-705 movement, power reserve of 28.8, it's a four hertz movement. 42 millimeters, this is a big Moonphase watch. 47 and a half millimeter lug to lug, which is nice. I've actually had one of these on and it wears pretty nice for being such a big watch. 11.3 thick, so it's, you know, despite the name Slimline, it's It is not a ultra thin watch, but thin enough. Slim.
Andrew Right. It's a transition period.
Everett Right. It's like when you see someone and you're like, oh, hey man, you're looking slim. It's like, thanks. I'm working on it. You know, it's like that.
Andrew Like you weren't always. Yeah. But now you're getting there. Right. Yeah. Buying new belts and shit.
Everett Yes, this is cool. These are neat. This is cool. I, but I can't figure out how to buy one. So I, I'm sorry if you're, if you're hearing this and you're like, Oh, that sounds interesting. I don't know what to tell you. We're going to put a link in the show notes, but you can't buy it there. Um, yeah, I don't know what to say.
Andrew Just throw up, start throwing your money at people. You can find it. Ooh, I have something. Uh, we have a new release from Unimatic. in the way of their Modelo Cinque U5, coming in now at 36 millimeters. And Unimatic is a brand that I don't think we talk about very often. We talk about it from time to time. Occasionally. Because they just are. They're making really utilitarian stuff, generally squarely in the affordable range. They're all attractive. And that's kind of it. They're not boring. They're just, they just are. This one got me excited because this is a, this is their design, right? This is the, the U5 super simple kind of ghost markers. We have a steel with black dial, white markers, a black with charcoal dial.
Everett It looks to me a little OD, but maybe it's charcoal.
Andrew maybe OD, somewhere in between, like in that, in that, you know, forest green toward charcoal color. And I dig it. They are everything you'd expect, right? I don't know whole much more to say than this is a unimatic now in a 36 millimeter case. Um, the DLC black, these are, Coming in at $840 for the stainless, $960 for the DLC. Here's the problem. 22mm lugs. And appearance wise, I think the dimensions are great. I don't want 22mm lugs on this. Not on a 36mm case. Big ol' crown. This is great.
Everett So regarding the lugs, um, because I, I think that was the very first thing I saw about this watch. This has the look of that watch, you know, sort of like a 34 millimeter, um, air King perhaps with, with the 20 millimeter lugs, although more pronounced that, that look where really the strap sort of runs completely across the dial as it goes across. There's a proportion there that has relevance in watchmaking. I, it's not for me. I will say, I will say that confidently. The proportion here is not for me. Uh, 36 and 22, I think it's too extreme. Um, but there's, there's an aesthetic there. I'm, I'm totally good with it. There's an aesthetic there. I also think the crown on this is oversized, but that's unimatic, right?
Andrew Yeah, that's their, that's their jam. It's using a, it's using a Salida 200.
Everett Like this is great. It's a watch that feels to me like it should be more, slightly more elegant than it is, but really that's unfair to unimatic. They're, they're not doing elegant.
Andrew No. And not even trying to be. I like it.
Everett They're cool. And 36 millimeters. I think they're going to be super like easy to wear. They do look thick, though. Well, I don't think Unimatix are ever thin.
Andrew No.
Everett And I don't have a dimension.
Andrew I don't have a thickness dimension either.
Everett So. They look to be about 13. Yeah. Maybe even slightly more than that.
Andrew Yeah. A little beefy. With a really low lug on them. So they are more pronounced, I think, than even their girth. But I dig this.
Everett Say what you will. Say what you will. Obviously not a dive bezel on this. It's just a pretty thin, sterile bezel. Yeah. Cool watch.
Andrew What else you got?
Everett Meister Singer.
Andrew You're in a small seconds mood today, huh?
Everett Well, Meistersinger is not a small seconds. Meistersinger is a no seconds. Or for that matter, minutes. So Meistersinger has its number three single hand automatic watch. And they've also got the number one, which is a hand wind version. Um, they've just added a 38 millimeter of 38 millimeter version of the number three, uh, which I think so I've never tried on one of these, but in 43, uh, these are pretty big stinking watches. It sort of feels like a, It sort of feels like an old school stopwatch, especially at the size 43 and it's all dial and it's a watch that I just, I was like, you know, uh, but now with 38 with 38 millimeters, uh, at only 10 and a half thick on this for an automatic, I'm like, maybe I ought to try this. We've got a Sellita SW300, which is a very, very thin version of the SW200. We've got a tan dial, a beautiful blue dial, a white dial, water resistance to 50 meters. So you don't have to worry about splashing it. Yeah. 18 millimeter lugs, which is kind of, it's on the thinner side for this watch.
Andrew Especially for the larger platform. It makes the dimensions look kind of funny. It really, like it, it makes it look like a, uh, a pocket watch converted.
Everett You get some great sort of finishing in the see-through case back. Um, I don't know, man, this is interesting. I don't think we've ever talked about Meistersinger.
Andrew I don't think so either. I can get down with a single hand watch.
Everett These are about 2000 bucks. Um,
Andrew Yeah. 38 and 18 I can get with.
Everett So the way, the way this works, obviously it's just an hour hand. Everybody kind of knows how the hour hand tells time it is. It breaks each hour into five minute increments. Five minutes. Yeah. So 12 sections each equaling a five minute increment. Uh, so in that, in that our hand goes all the way to the outside. And it's, it's needle thin, it's like a second hand. So really, as long as your watch was set fairly accurately, you're going to have a pretty accurate within five minutes, probably within a minute or two, which is good enough for me every day. There's no day in which a minute or two isn't close enough.
Andrew You go whole days with an unwound speedy on your wrist. Correct.
Everett Correct. So, you know, it's interesting. It's a different, it would be a different way to wear a watch. And I think that interests me. And also it's something to talk about. If someone, you know, someone's going to be like, what, explain where, where, where are the parts of your watch? Your watch is missing things. Um, let me tell you something at 38 millimeters. This is a pretty interesting watch.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett I do think 38 versus 43, you're going to give up something in legibility. You know, part of the reason that this works is because that dial is so big and you've got so much room to see where it's happening with that hour hand. I think the smaller dial will constrict your ability to see it. If you're like in your, at that point of your life where you're up close vision is going to poop This might not be the watch for you.
Andrew Maybe. It's, it's also not going to be the, the type of watch for somebody who's looking for precision time reading. Sure.
Everett And maybe this is like generally the time of day and maybe don't use this for like 200 meter repeats at the track.
Andrew Yeah. Or do just see how it goes. Uh, yeah, this is cool. This is fun. I have, long said that I would be totally down with a single-hand watch. You had said that before.
Everett Yeah. Now is the time. Might be. You don't think so? I like that blue. I like the, I think I like the white tile the best. 2,000 bucks, 1,990 euros, so 2,000 bucks, you know, again, it's a lot of money for a novelty. Yeah, unless it's not a novelty. I don't know. I'm I say that it sounds like a derisive when I say that.
Andrew I don't know. It's not a novelty. It's it's breaking the mold. Are you going to watch this? What do you got next? What do I got next?
Everett Oh, no, I see one.
Andrew Oh, I just I want to talk briefly about the Bremont and Bamford Aurora Supermarine.
Everett OK, well, this I guess it was time we had to do it.
Andrew This is super fun. So this is a Supermarine, the new version of the S-502 Supermarine jet. All black case with neon radioactive green loom, a radioactive green south half of your bezel. California dial. This is fun. This is, this is fun. I really like it. I don't typically get down with these kinds of colorways. I'd never buy this. I'd never wear it, but I really like looking at it.
Everett Yeah. I think I hate it. You would. I think I hate everything about it.
Andrew What? Yeah. I know you're not a California Dial guy.
Everett I don't mind California Dial. I mean, honestly, I don't hate it. It's $4,500 for a 17 millimeter. No, it's $5,400. That's what I meant. For a 16 and a half millimeter thick giant, what are we going to call this, a dive GMT, I don't
Andrew No, it's definitely a dive GMT.
Everett I mean, it's like, I think it's fun.
Andrew I like looking at it. I would never buy one. If somebody gave it to me, I would wear it occasionally.
Everett I don't really know a lot about Bamford. I know Bamford is kind of like a hot commodity and watch collab world. Um, so maybe there's something there. I don't hate the colors. The colors are interesting. So blacked out with that. What would you call it? Radioactive green. Is that what they call it? That's what I call it. Yeah. Um, the bezel's interesting. You've got like, you know, like a Sapphire bezel. Is it Sapphire?
Andrew Looks that way.
Everett Um, I hate the fonts. Like actually every single one of the fonts I hate. Uh, I don't hate the font on the ReHot, the London font, but the rest of them I hate. Looking for that. It's like at six o'clock in the rehab. I like that font. Uh, I think it's fun. And like the case back just looks like a fucking 2008. Maybe that's why I like it. It's because it's just, it's 2018 micro brand case back.
Andrew Yeah, I don't know. No, I'm, I'm, I'm here for, for this kind of thing at being released as a, I mean, there's only 500 being made.
Everett I don't really get a Bremont, frankly. And maybe that's part of what's going on. I see Bremont and I'm like, I don't get you, Bremont.
Andrew Maybe. I don't have a good answer for you on that one.
Everett Maybe we should get, uh, maybe we should get, uh, uh, what's his face Mike from Christopher Ward on the show to talk about Bremont. Um, tell us all about why they're not fucking stupid. Uh, can we be done with that one? Yeah.
Andrew I just wanted to, that's why I said briefly mention it.
Everett I think it's a fun release. Oh, a watch that's not stupid is a Tissot PR516 mechanical chronograph with a evolution on a Valjoux 7750 with a big old box shaped sapphire crystal. Uh, and you know, uh, a three, six, nine, 7750 layout in a, a really neat, really neat case. Uh, it's, this is like a sports chronograph and shit.
Andrew I'm here for it. That's going to be a super comfortable watch.
Everett 41 millimeters, only 13.7. I say only 13.7. We're talking 7750. That's right. with 100 meters of water resistance, tachymeter and pulsometer on the bezel, sort of this bi-color bezel with like a silver white portion at the 12 o'clock to three o'clock. But the thing I like about this is they've done a really good job with judicious colors on the dial. So you've got this section on You've got this one section on the three o'clock sub dial that has, uh, 10 minutes of blue on it or 10 seconds of blue and a, and like a red and then a red marker down at the 15 seconds. This is, I just think it's attractive. I think that they've done a really good job with the layout on this thing. Um, yeah. I don't know what else to say about it. It's not a tiny watch. It's not a particularly complicated watch. It's a hand-wound 7750, um, with an extreme level of anti-magnetism, I guess, and a Nivicron balance spring. $1,850. And that makes me want it, right? It's an under $2,000 rad, hundred meter, well-made, thoughtful watch. Super attractive. I'm a little nervous about the bracelet. I think the bracelet looks like it could be okay. And it also looks like it could be just annoying and uncomfortable, but it's quick release. You've got this huge, huge, um, see-through crystal on the back. So you can see the entirety of the movement, which is a lovely movement.
Andrew I'm interested with the way they chose their end links.
Everett Yeah, there's like an H case or like a you know that curved H case Yeah with like a just a slight bevel up At the lugs And a weird kind of spacing on the on the end links against the top of the case Well, so they did so one of the things I like about this end link. I'm I am I'm a guy who hates an engraved faux link. Yeah, because it sucks. So much so that on my own watch I just made it flat, right? Don't give me a fake link. Tissot has done an actual sort of milled dimensional end link here that tracks. It may be one piece of steel, but it's milled in such a way that it dimensionally tracks the links. I think that is a really, really beautiful touch in a watch at this price range. I mean, we're under $2,000 here. Also, we haven't touched these. I haven't touched one, at least maybe Andrew has. Nope. The finishing on this thing looks... Looks phenomenal. Phenomenal. The ribbon chamfers are like beautifully thin and skinny and sharp. You get ribbon chamfers on the bracelet. You know, I'm not a huge Tissot fan. I haven't ever been a huge Tissot fan, but I think this is like a really good watch. I don't really think people are talking about this, but this may be the best sub $2,000 chronograph of the year.
Andrew I think this bracelet's going to be dope.
Everett The bracelet is the thing, right? Yeah. Beautiful finishing on the movement that you can see the entirety of. I mean, I'm not really hearing people talk about this watch, and I think that's because Tissot's a poo-poo brand.
Andrew Well, it's because everyone talks about the PRX, and that's the end of the Tissot conversation.
Everett Right. It's like Tissot makes their nicest watches a $900 watch, and this is twice that. And I know that's not true. I'm saying that somewhat sarcastically, but I think that this is a hard world for them to live in. But I can't think of another sub $2,000 chronograph that looks to me as like it's as nice as this.
Andrew Are you familiar with the Citizen Nighthawk? Yes. Yes, I am.
Everett I think this is probably better. And you know, secondhand, these are probably going to be like $1,300, $1,400. You know, Andrew, it's not a bad, it's not a bad comparison. There's some Some Nighthawk vibes here. It's a smaller watch. The bracelet is what really... But the bracelet feels like a Nighthawk bracelet to me, at least in pictures. Yeah. And good colors. I mean, I think maybe the thing that I pick up with Tissot is just a level of generic. Right?
Andrew This is not... Well, that's why the PRX did so well. It had this mass appeal because there was nothing... Everything about it was familiar, but nothing was... exciting. Yeah.
Everett Nor was it boring. And nothing's exciting on this watch either. It just looks like a really well done entry-level mechanical chronograph. Yeah. With a design that's been used with a, with an overarching design that's been used on 8 billion watches, nothing particularly special. I mean, well, the Tachminer pulsation combo is, I know that they're not the only ones who are doing this, but they've done it in a way that is novel, I think.
Andrew And I mean, they've done it in a way that's really attractive too.
Everett Yeah. I, I don't love the handset on this, the hour and minute hand at least. Uh, you've got like a big, there's gotta be a name for these, but these big blocky rectangles syringes. Yeah. You, yeah. Um, but I do like the rest of this.
Andrew I could do without the T on the, the T so bound on the second hand balance, but it's black. So it's almost, you know, that's what they do.
Everett Perceptible. They do a T-balance. This is one of the best display backs I've seen, too, just because it goes all the way out to the edge and you get to see you see the entire 77-53. I keep saying 77-50. This is a hand wound. It's a 53. All right.
Andrew That's it. That's it. We've done it.
Everett Andrew, would you? Good, sir. Do you have another thing?
Andrew I have come prepared with another thing, and this isn't a new other thing, but it's new to me. It's something that has been another thing on here before. You've, you've prepared this as another thing. And I, I got a new phone recently. And as a result, I got a free three month trial to Apple TV, which means that I have been taking full advantage of all of the Apple TV programming that was previously unavailable to me. It's not Apple TV+, which is kind of a bummer because there are some things that are not available to me still. However, I have now completed Ted Lasso two times. You've gone through it twice? Twice, yeah. Why twice? Because it's that good.
Everett I mean, admittedly, I can't disagree with you.
Andrew It is phenomenal. This, so for those of you who were like me and were being cheap because you didn't want to get Apple TV, uh, Ted Lasso alone is worth a couple months of subscription. Nevermind all the other great stuff that's available on phone on the floor. Nevermind all the other great stuff that's available. This show was so beautifully written. Uh, the reviews are, There's some poor reviews out there, but it's in the high eighties, low nineties, universally across all platforms. Every show, the writing in this show was phenomenal. The character arcs are beautiful. Every single line feels like a joke and to be able to stitch together just a bunch of one liners and carry on a story was really, really impressive. And it's the only show that has ever pranked me. Do tell. You get rickrolled. Actually rickrolled by the show. I was in tears laughing at how good that was.
Everett I think you kind of said it, right? If you've, for whatever reason, been avoiding it, you really ought to watch Ted Lasso. The first season in particular, uh, is just some of the best TV that's ever been made. I, and I think the subsequent seasons are really good as well. There's, you know, the second season they get a little experimental and then, you know, but they really, they bring it back and they put a really subtle but elegant bow on it at the end. Uh, well some parts of the bow are, are not so subtle, but you know, there's, there's several layers. to that bow. Um, yeah, it's hard to overstate I think how good that show is and was.
Andrew And it's not just a pure comedy either. It's like some heavy storyline like shit. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. And the actors are really, really, the acting is some, some of the, the younger actors, art can be a little stiff or a little funky at times. I think that's intentional. You might be right. Yeah. That's kind of where I was going with it. Like it works, it works in context of what they're doing. Um, because, because you, and you hit the nail on the head, the writing is so good that when they're presenting these like somewhat intentionally clunky characters, it works given, given the dialogue and given the context of the scene. Yeah. I think the only episode and I didn't hate it, Andrew, but the only episode that I still think back and I'm like, I don't know if I liked that, but maybe I loved it was the beard, um, drug trip, psychedelic, uh, in season two where it's a beard focused episode and he's like out wandering the world.
Andrew Yes. Yes. I, yeah, that was an interesting episode. I, I, Couldn't stop laughing at the pants though. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And in the, in light of what that character was going through, like it was, it was the weirdest episode for sure. But, uh, within the context of the show was it, it worked for me.
Everett Yeah. Well, and not just, not just weird, but really sort of like, What? Was that part of the series? Like what happened here? It was like, you know, when you watch one of these like anthology things and there's like an episode that sticks out like a sore thumb. It felt like that, but it's in the context of this serial. Yeah. Non-episodic. Yeah. Andrew, I'm going to switch gears. Okay, do it. I'm not going to talk about I'm going to I'm not going to talk about you don't have another thing to show. I'm going to talk about a $15 made in the USA piece of canvas and leather. Yeah. Does that work for you?
Andrew Yeah. So you gotta send me a link.
Everett Oh, I can do that. So what this is, is a tool roll. I don't know if it's made by or for a company called Harry Epstein, which is a tool company. I ought to know more about Harry Epstein.
Andrew It's different than Harry Weinstein too, just to be super clear about that.
Everett And as far as I know, no relation to Jeffrey Epstein. Hopefully. But we've got some, we've got some naming issues here. Yeah. With that said, harryepstein.com. Navigate at your discretion. This is a $15 tool roll that I bought on a whim because it was made in the USA and I was looking for a tool roll. I've had this thing for about a year and I just really, really, really enjoy this. So this is the most simple construction you can get. It's a piece of canvas that's got trim on the edges. And it's finished with a top grain leather at the bottom to sort of support the things that you put inside of it. It is a single stitched, heavy duty stitched on the tool dividers. But I mean, really, it's just like you take a piece of canvas, you fold the bottom over itself, you sew some lines in it to create little pockets. It's an unpadded watch roll. It is an unpadded watch roll. This is one of my favorite things. It's one of my favorite things. It's just like tactile and fun and quality, but without being cheeky, uh, or trying to do too much. It does exactly as much as it needs to, to be like elegant in that, in that way that only something it's elegant in that way that something needs to have been used and get a little dirty to, to actually be elegant.
Andrew It's so elegant that its name is the TR9. Tool roll nine.
Everett It's $15. I, there are not very many made in the United States products that aren't produce that cost $15. I mean, made in the USA means a buku bucks, but this is, affordable even for a tool roll. Yeah. And not only is it a tool roll, it's a well-crafted tool roll using good materials that works as intended.
Andrew If you wanted to make your own, you couldn't do it for $15.
Everett I'm just enamored by this thing. I'm enamored by this thing. And actually Harry Epstein has a number of made in the USA Tool Rolls on their website.
Andrew Made especially for Epstein's by Leatherworks.
Everett There you go. So there's a company called Leatherworks that makes these. I mean, it's not complicated. It's a simple machine. But it just works so well. And I love it. That's what you want. I love it. I was playing with it this week. And I was like, this thing is just great. What is this is just the best $15 I've ever spent. I mean, if you went to Home Depot, you could buy something similar to this for probably 20 bucks that was made in China and is not going to last as long and is not going to look as good doing what it does. No. It might work. It's going to be like by Kobold or something.
Andrew It's Lowe's.
Everett Okay. And it's going to, you know, fine. Made in China, that's fine. It's not a bad thing. But one of the things One of the reasons that we buy this offshore stuff is because it's cheaper. It's not cheaper. This is 15 bucks.
Andrew Not in this specific example.
Everett Now, I will say when I ordered this, it took about two weeks to get to me, I think, because they hitch it to a donkey and the donkey only passes by Eugene once every six months.
Andrew It rides on the Pony Express.
Everett Yeah, that's right. With that said, it's pretty neat. There will be a link to this in the show notes. Just do me a favor. Order one, get it, put some shit in it, and tell me how much you love it. That's what I'd like you to do.
Andrew And if you don't like it, you can send it to Everett.
Everett He'll cover postage. Probably not. But maybe. You can DM us. Andrew, that's all I've got.
Andrew That's all I've got.
Everett Well, I guess in that case, I'll just thank all you people at home for tuning in to this episode of 40 in 20, the WatchClicker podcast. Do me a favor, you can go to our website, which is watch clicker.com. That's a place on the internet with pictures and links and other internet things. And it's where we post every episode of this podcast, but also reviews and articles on a more than weekly basis. Uh, if you want to check us out on social media, you can do that at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker or at watch clicker on Instagram. 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 where we get the money that we need to keep the wheels on this bus a turning. Uh, it's how we afford things like hardware and software and microphones and tools. 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.