Episode 29 - Chronographs

Published on Wed, 15 May 2019 23:34:00 -0700

Synopsis

This is a transcript of a podcast episode where the hosts Andrew and Everett discuss chronograph watches. They cover the history of chronographs, going back to the early 19th century pioneers like Louis Monet. They discuss different types of chronographs like quartz, mechanical, split-second, and digital. They then recommend several affordable chronograph watches like the Casio MTP4500D, Citizen AT2400-81A, Gavox Squadron, Brew Retrograph, and Stratton Watch Company chronographs as options for listeners to consider.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm great, man. Today was an exciting day. Well, yesterday was an exciting day. I got a shipment, a large shipment of watches. Yes. That's kind of exciting to say.
Andrew What else do we need for the week?
Everett Right. Month maybe even yeah, I mean i'm i'm just as happy as happy can be because i've got new watches Especially because and because it wasn't a shipment of like f91s Yeah, that's right. It was a it's a full-on shipment of legitimate watches. So courtesy of uh, instagram user mgm maze I don't know how you say that. That's my maybe maybe maybe mega maze. Oh, I kind of like that Anyways, just a great dude. He's been a friend of the show since we started uh genuine, dude, uh always has positive stuff to say, great feedback. And he just sort of out of the blue last week was like, Hey, I've got a bunch of notice divers. Uh, I think that you guys haven't looked at, do you guys want to take a, take a couple of weeks with them or have them is what I understood that. Right. Do you guys want to have them for free for forever? Um, so I of course said yes. And so now we've got sitting not five feet away from me. I'm touching them. You're touching them. That's right. All three. You should get them out of your pants. Those are not yours.
Andrew So yeah, I mean, you mark territory. This is what we've just became. It's a battle now. I've started a war.
Everett So yeah, I mean, that's how freaking cool is that? So, you know, that's been the nicest thing about doing this show is that you have this credibility. And so people do this trusting thing and people are just so generous. I'm always blown away. getting these watches in last night. I got home from work, or actually, I didn't get home till dang near 10 o'clock last night, maybe even a little after that, because I was working in another town that's, you know, many miles away. But Kim had sent me a text message and said, hey, there's this box. What's in here? And I said, don't open it! No, I told her to open it. I did tell her to open it.
Andrew Send me pictures. But she didn't. Whenever I get watches that arrive to the house when for some reason I'm not home, And I know it's a watch delivery. I tell my wife to open it, put it on and take a picture. Right. And she does that. Usually, yes. Yeah.
Everett Usually, yes. Yeah. So, I mean, how freaking cool. And then I think I sent you a picture. I sort of opened at least one of them up and slid it way up on my arm and put the other two down below. And I took a picture and sent it to you last night. You didn't know they were coming.
Andrew No, I did not know they were coming because I'm not good at checking the Instagram. And I saw that picture and I said, Do you have these? Is this real?
Everett Is that your arm? Yeah. Or no, you said, are those on you?
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. That's what I said.
Everett Are those on you? Yes, they are. So yeah, we've got three watches from Nodus, and these are the three Nodus divers that we haven't had yet, that we haven't tried on yet. You're right. So actually, User, the right wrist, did send us a Nodus Avalon. He did not send us a Monta Triumph. uh a brief a brief correction i said last week the right wrist sent us a uh monta triumph he did not that that was the notice avalon that he sent us so jw i think it's 19 shoot i should get that right uh we will we will for sure shout you out correctly at the end of the episode um but yeah so the the right wrist actually did send us a notice avalon his blue notice avalon that we have on our you know featured on our instagram page several months ago quite a few times Um, and now we have the Trieste or Trieste. I, I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent. I'm not even going to venture it, but we also have the Contrail. The Contrail, the, the Contrail with the, with the dive style bezel, as well as the retrospect, the OG retrospect. So, um, we have now hit the grand slam of notice divers. We've, we've at least touched all of them. I've spent a little time with the Contrail today. Cause it was the one I was probably most excited about. Um, but I mean, really have just. only touched and looked at the other two. So I'm pretty pumped. I hope we can hang on these for a week or two at least to let us each get some time with them. But yeah, what a fun day. You know, new watch day. Not that there are new watches, but to play with new watches. I'm pumped. Probably try to hook up with Wes or the Notice guys just to maybe chat with them at some point. Get some information from them and and we might even do a notice episode here coming up in the next couple of weeks I think I think we now have Enough experience with them that I think it'd be reasonable for us. We will certainly at some point very soon. So When I knew the contra was coming I in my head it was the sterile bezel no contra and so not that I'm disappointed that it's the dive bezel contra but I I think I was a little bit excited to play with that sterile bezel contrail. So maybe have to try to get my hands on one of those at some point. Shit, I might just have to buy one. But yeah, so this is pretty, pretty cool. I'm stoked about it.
Andrew And they're all just terrific. Beautiful. I can't wait to spend some more time off air funneling these. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. You know, I think our biggest complaint about the Avalon when we had it, we didn't have it for very long, but I think our biggest complaint Our biggest shared complaint was just the size. It's a pretty big watch.
Andrew It's a legit sort of... Yeah, it's in a bullshit chunk.
Everett That's right. And so two of these, in particular that Trieste and the Contrail or the Retrospect to a lesser extent, are pretty chunky. They're pretty big watches. The Contrail is smaller. I think it's a 40 millimeter case. And it feels like a 40 millimeter case, but I will say, and your first comment was, holy cow, that's tall. The bezel on that thing is substantial. And the crystal comes up above the bezel even then some.
Andrew I think the one on bracelet, it would be more manageable than on this Blue Shark, even though it looks so good on this kind of copper colored Blue Shark NATO. It just complements that kind of sandy cream dial color so well.
Everett That's right. That's right. It really does. I mean, even off, even off of the strap, it's got some, it's got, oh, it's got some, some thickness. She's thick, thick, thick. Uh, so yeah, that's right. I, we definitely, we have bracelets for all of these. So I think next stop is on the bracelets. Um, I think talking to, Talking to the fellow who sent us. I think he's not particularly fond of bracelets. So he does not wear these on the bracelets, but he did. He does have them and he did send them to us.
Andrew My first thought about the Contrail was based on its size. It is a straight boats and hoes watch. That is a watch I would feel so good about wearing to the lake, wearing to the beach, because I know I'm not going to hurt it. It's going to look good. And it feels good.
Everett It does. Yeah. I mean, the size of it's really the size of it's really good, even with that sort of added thickness, which is kind of probably probably a little bit off putting at first glance to me, but it just wears it really well. And that loomed bezel, dude, it's it's dope. I'm into it. Yep. All of them. I'm into it. So we'll give these we'll give these guys some more attention soon, some specific attention. We won't talk about it too much more today, but just a preview. Check out the Instagram. These things will be on the Instagram. As we move through these next couple of weeks, because I'm going to be I'm going to be taking pictures of them. They're all three pretty photogenic watches. I can tell you that much already. So, yeah. How are you doing, man? Good. Busy. Tired. You sound like you've had a week.
Andrew I have had a week. We are in our first week of firearms training, which is I joked with my my family this last weekend at my uh after my son's birthday party that i'm i'm basically living like teenage andrew's dream right i'm driving cars i'm shooting guns and i'm getting paid to do it right and not getting paid poorly no uh so yeah it's been tiring though i i was i was telling you right when i got here i was like i feel bad complaining about this but but damn i am tired yeah so i got some blisties on my hands that's a good sign i'm just gonna keep keep plugging away as it were
Everett I like it. Yeah. I like it. You're complaining about your elbows.
Andrew Yeah, everything hurts. You know, when you, when you learn, uh, you go to a new organization who does something, uh, that you've done in the past at other organizations, but they do it a wholly different way. Uh, I think it brings in a whole new layer of challenge to learning it as opposed to starting with a blank slate. You have to break some of that muscle memory, a lot of muscle memory, break a lot of, uh, They weren't bad habits before, but they're bad habits now. Right. Yeah. So break a lot of habits and relearn all kinds of mechanics that I was otherwise pretty comfortable with. But I'll do it. And is it 9mm that you're shooting? Or .308? All 9mm this week. All 9mm? Yep.
Everett Okay. And then you move into .556 next week?
Andrew So I'm told.
Everett Cool, man. Yeah. And just M4 or AA or 15? Whatever their variation is, like variant, yeah. I assume the shooting mechanics are going to be exactly the same. I sure hope so. Dude, you can't break that.
Andrew Yeah, but I'll learn it. Yeah, it might be slow, but I'll learn the new mechanics and I'll do it the way they want me to. Because they're paying me to.
Everett Nine mil is one thing, right? Because it's a pistol. You don't learn that, even in the Army, right? You don't learn shooting a 9mm the way you learn shooting the M4, the AR, the M16. The mechanics of that are so specific for the M16, for the 5.56, .223, and they're the same at every place you go. With the 9, there's quite a bit of variation, I found.
Andrew Oh, yeah, because the first time I used an M9 in the Army, uh, I was handed it and said, uh, here's your tables of qualification. Godspeed. Unfortunately, I'd had a pistol shooting background. I mean, I've shot in leagues. I've shot, you know, at low level competitive levels, but I've done a lot of pistol shooting and through YouTube and trial and error and through coaching, I've, I've developed mechanics that worked well for me. Um, but they're not a suitable organizational mechanics for
Everett organization i'm a part of now so uh relearning it but in the army they just handed me an m9 they said here's what you got to do go forth and conquer right and i did here's how many you have to hit good luck yeah yeah well good well good that's exciting yeah so i can't really complain but i will complain watches and weapons yeah i like it man well i think we've got a fun topic today i i don't know i i suspect we should get into it because i think we might Yeah, I think so too. We might go long. This is a topic that we've already discussed at some level, right? A facet of it. A facet of it. So we're going to talk about chronographs today, and we're going to talk about, you know, I think the title today might be Chronographs Revisited, which is not to say we've talked about chronographs specifically, because we have. But I don't think we've ever taken sort of a comprehensive look at chronographs, and there's a few reasons for that.
Andrew And I think to call this comprehensive might even be a misnomer, because I don't know if we can do a comprehensive look in the time period we have allotted for ourselves.
Everett That's right. So maybe a comprehensive summary. OK, I like that. Yeah. So, you know, as we do with these sort of watch category type episodes, I think we're going to talk about some history, maybe a historical watch or two, but then our favorite part. We're going to give you guys some options. If you're buying a chronograph today, what are some watches that you maybe haven't thought about that you should? And as usual, there are a ton of watches that we would buy that we're maybe not going to talk about today because we just have talked about them so many times.
Andrew And there's so much diversity. I mean, you look at, let's just take Seiko, for example. You could find a new Seiko, a new modern iteration currently produced Seiko every day for probably the next 50 days and still not exhaust everything that's out there. Right. Right. That's right. I mean, shit, that, that pilot's chronograph that we talked about a couple of weeks ago, I'd never seen that before. And I've looked at a lot of Seiko chronographs.
Everett Right. Right. You know, and there's just so many, there's so many options, right? Seiko, Citizen. I mean, there's Citizens, that Citizen chronograph field watch, uh, I can't remember what it's called, the Eco Drive Field Watch. It is the Chandler. The Chandler, that's right. It's such a cool watch. We're not going to talk about it because we've already talked about it.
Andrew Yeah, there's the Chandler and then there's another variant that's not the Chandler. It's something really similar to that.
Everett I'm thinking the one with the sort of late 19th century, early 20th century Roman, or not Roman, but serifed font.
Andrew Yep, I know. I can see it. I'll yell it out in the middle of the episode.
Everett You know, Nighthawk, some of these watches that we've talked about so many times, we're not going to talk about today. But so, Andrew, can you take me back to 1815? 1815.
Andrew I can. A renaissance man, a man whom I strive. A true renaissance man. Right? A man who I strive to have a Wikipedia page like. It'll never happen. I know that. But maybe. Perhaps. Maybe tonight in my dreams. Perhaps. A fella named, um, Louis Monet. I'm going to say Monet.
Everett Monet. That I is going to change that.
Andrew Louis Monet. Uh, and I wrote a French Renaissance man because he really was, he was a neurologist, uh, an astronomer.
Everett An accomplished astronomer.
Andrew Quite. And, uh, a writer. I mean, just the whole package. So anyway,
Everett He also had like 17 kids.
Andrew Didn't care about that. I made that up. He might have though. And maybe syphilis. We don't know. Perhaps. That was common then. Anyway, so this fellow was such a renowned urologist. Just to give a little peek at his credentials, he made clocks for the likes of Napoleon, the Tsar Alexander I, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, the King of England, And a whole other list of European monarchs and nobility and all these folks. This guy made clocks. And for example, the clock he made for Thomas Jefferson had all kinds of cool features that Thomas Jefferson was like, you know, I want it to be beautiful, I want it to be durable, and I want it to be utilitarian in true Jeffersonian fashion. And he lived up to it. So this guy has some orological chops. Now he was also an astronomer so he set out to create a better timing device to perform more precise measurements of astrological movements and what he came up with was a what was the original the birthplace of a chronograph and it was a tape chronograph a sliding piece that you could mark where time was moving on, right?
Everett Well, I don't think so.
Andrew No, no, no. The tape was the was the later that was the commercial. That's right. Yep, you're right. I'm sorry. His chronograph was the birthplace. And it evolved much later, actually, like a significant time passed over 100 years later.
Everett So so this, so the cool thing about this, so there's a couple cool things about this one, We didn't really know about it until 2013. So, so there was some rumors and some theories, but it wasn't until 2013 that they were able to sort of pin this guy down. And, and that is an episode in and of itself. And I, and I, I'm not sure that we ever get there because of the format that we're here, but that is a story that is absolutely fascinating. The, the folks that sort of got together, these museum curators and these or, or orology experts. So they pin this guy down, they find this, they find this watch and it's not a watch. It's not a watch or a clock because it doesn't tell time. It is purely... Only a time measurer. A chronometer. That's right. Or not a chronometer. A chronograph. Pure chronograph complication. No time. But this thing is like the most accurate, complicated, advanced chronograph that came out for over a century. Nothing even approaches this thing. So this is, these are the specs of this thing. 216,000 beats per hour measures time to 1 60th of a second. 1 60th of a second, which is an incredible number considering we're in 1815 and we're not, it's not going to be until the mid 20th century or early 20th century until someone meets it or even gets close to it.
Andrew crazy and this is not this is not a commercially available piece this is a one-off he made it for him for his study of the skies wonderful cool story yep uh also it's included in his uh trait neurology the two volume encyclopedia that he wrote about urology uh that included his self-drawn designs for watches uh and It's something I'd like to be able to get my hands on an English translation of. Yeah.
Everett Shouldn't even exist. Yeah. I bet we could. Well, very cool. So, so a few years later, this fella, Nikola Mathew Rusek, I think is how we're going to say that. Yeah. He makes the first, what we're going to call a commercial or what I'm going to call a commercial chronograph.
Andrew In the 1820s.
Everett That's right. That's right. So this is commissioned by King Louis the 18th to measure horse racing.
Andrew Yeah. Because he wanted to know how long the horse race lasted, not just how far they were running but how long it lasted and one of the components that he was looking for was the timing of the finisher and the ability to time everyone all the horses that finished after him yeah that's right so build an entire ticker tape if you will thanks king louis of uh of horse racing and and who would have thought that that horse racing would be the the driver behind uh this this development um i would have i would have expected It to be have been like a military development and not a Recreational development.
Everett Well, you know really we see that that the chronographs are developing not so much in military but in sport so First horses then people running people and then and then cars. These are the places that are pushing the development You know, it's not airplanes. It's not Timing mortars or munitions. It's It's sports.
Andrew Yeah, which is which is pretty interesting and obviously those applications Become important along the way but it's integration of a currently available Technology as opposed to technological advancements and development for that purpose.
Everett That's right You know, we're so used to the military industrial machine. Mm-hmm that we just assume that if something's getting better It's getting better because of the billions of dollars being poured into the military That was not always the case. In fact, probably before the, probably before the first world war, it was just not even on people's brains. Um, and then obviously first world war, we're, we're pouring all of our industry into the war effort. And then once again, the second world war, we in the United States are, but, but not just us, everybody internationally is really sort of ramping up. And I think that creates an industry that wasn't there before, but certainly in the earliest parts of the, of the 19th century and into the earliest parts of the 20th century it was sport.
Andrew And the horse racing chronograph that was commercially available was the tape that a pen was dropped on it and it was just a running tape you could mark.
Everett I think there were a couple of iterations of these. There was a paper disc with ink that dropped on it and then there was also tape. So these it's almost laughable how unsophisticated these commercially available chronographs are when compared to the Monet chronograph.
Andrew I mean, it's night and day. Yeah, it's not even the same product, not the same technology, not even close. I mean, like you said, the technology that he even dreamt of, again, for a hundred years. That's right. That's right.
Everett So I think it's 1844 Breitling. Breitling develops a resetting chronograph movement. The British company Breitling at the time comes out with a chronograph that by way of a button or a pusher or something resets. And then slowly throughout the 19th century they make incremental... And it's Breitling making the innovations on this who are the
Andrew the ass behind these big jumps in chronograph development.
Everett Including all the way to 1969 Breitling is right there in the game for the first automatic chronograph.
Andrew And they were part of the team. They were part of the big caliber 11 team. And they were in 1934 the ones who unveiled the chronograph as we know and see it today a two and four o'clock pusher to manipulate the chronograph complication. Good old Breitling, man. Who would have thunk it? That wouldn't have been who came to mind for me without diving into it.
Everett You know, Hoyer makes perfect sense to me. And I don't know if I said Tag Heuer earlier. That's habit. If I did, forgive me. But Hoyer is making development makes perfect sense, right? Uh, you know, Longine is sort of driving some of this stuff. It doesn't surprise me terribly. Breitling being there in the mix of it. Oh, that's weird. That's interesting. Kind of surprising.
Andrew Yeah. Especially with the, uh, type of profile they keep now. Um, yeah, but glad they did it. Cause I sure love the chronograph. Yeah, I do too. Uh, and then in the, like, like you said, in the sixties, the introduction of the first automatic chronograph with the caliber 11.
Everett 669 which is controversial right but probably true right so so that's right i mean i think that it's controversial because there are three companies that basically drop their automatic chronographs at the same exact time seiko drops their 6139 zenith or zenith drops the el promero hoyer drops the caliber 11 the hoyer team right drops the caliber 11 and all of a sudden Everybody's got an automatic chronograph. So they're gonna fight about who did it first I think that the popular opinion is that it was caliber 11 frankly I don't care that much who did it first because they were all right there.
Andrew They were all making them.
Everett That's right.
Andrew That's right and now so so we're up to up to the modern era of chronographs and there's a handful of styles and a handful of Movements behind our current iteration of chronographs and the way I see them and the way I'm comfortable breaking them down into quartz, mechaquartz, automatic, split-second, and digital. Do you think we're going to come up with more than five?
Everett No, I think that's right. I mean, there are certainly other ways to use a chronograph that wind up creating a genre in and of itself, but I think in terms of what's the technology behind the chronograph, I think that that's as good as you can get. And split seconds feels to me like a little bit of a throwaway because realistically there's not a whole lot of split seconds watches out there.
Andrew And not for people like us. Certainly not for people like us.
Everett I wonder if you could make one. You know, I know I could not. Probably not. You did sort of ponderously look out the window like you were thinking about it.
Andrew Yeah. Maybe. Yeah, no, I don't think I could.
Everett I mean, perhaps. I'll give you that. I'll give you a solid perhaps. Thank you. You're welcome.
Andrew I think you believe more in me than I do. But I think it's important also to recognize the digital chronograph in this conversation.
Everett And you know, I don't know enough about the difference between a digital quartz chronograph and an analog quartz chronograph to know if the technology is significantly different. I don't know. I wouldn't think so. I'm just not sure. I don't know. I mean, obviously, the digital quartz chronograph isn't doing any moving things. It's just giving you a readout. So obviously, the digital chronograph is having to move hands. So I assume there are some pretty major differences there. But in terms of how it keeps the time, I don't know. I should have looked at that. And maybe there's a distinction there that actually isn't a distinction. I don't know. But it'd be interesting to know. Something to look into for next time.
Andrew Yeah, that's how I see the five current chronographs breaking down.
Everett Yeah, I think that's reasonable. And then in terms of styles, you've got everything, right? You've got these sort of slide rules. You've got driving chronographs or, you know, racing chronographs with the tachometer.
Andrew Aviation chronographs. I've got the dress, air quotes, dress chronographs, which really just come down to I mean, all of these just come down to design cues that are made by whoever's making that watch and whoever they're trying to market it to. Yeah. Because there's a good number of chronographs that I think you could wear as a dress watch.
Everett Well, I'll tell you, I've got that.
Andrew And there's a shitload that you can't.
Everett That's right. I've got that HCAD Ed 63 that I've seen the package. I've seen a picture of the package in my Instagram DM. So I know that's coming back to me. I'll have been, about seven weeks without it, which has been tough.
Andrew I sent Ed my address though, so... Oh, dang it.
Everett Sorry. So that is a military watch. That's not a dress watch at all. Air Force. That's a Chinese Air Force. Utilitarian military watch based on that old seagull design. I'll tell you, it's probably the most dressy watch I own. Put that thing on leather and it is very dressy. It's reasonably thin. It's got good polish to it. Those markers, those polished markers just glow in the light. They sparkle. It's the dressiest watch I own, for sure.
Andrew How do you think it compares against the Saab in the way of dressy? Dressier.
Everett I do think it's dressier. You know, I think maybe a notable difference is I almost always wear the Saab on the bracelet. And if it's not on the bracelet, it's probably on rubber. Uh, so that in and of itself takes away from it. But I think that even on the same style bracelet, it's, it's got a smaller lug width, so I couldn't wear them on the same exact band. Uh, but even if I put both of those things on a, you know, say a, uh, a nice pebble calf or, or a croco grain, something or the other, I still think the HKAD's probably going to take the edge.
Andrew I think you're probably right. I wonder why. I'm trying to think of the design pieces to it. And I think it's just because the SARB is designed as a sport watch. It's got a sporty case style, which is drastically different than that very round case shape that you're getting with the HK ED.
Everett That's right. I mean, I think you nailed it, right? So the ED63 has kind of got that vintage style. It's round. Everything's polished. It's got the polished markers. And the SARB has brushed finishes too, which I think lends it some sportiness that the ED63 doesn't have.
Andrew Yeah. Well, so we've covered some, some styles, some ground, some ground, and then, then you start diving a little bit deeper into design cues and into how the, uh, how you're keeping time. Cause that, that's going to come into not just, not just powering it, not the style of it, but are you keeping time with a, with sub dials only a combination of sub dials and a primary secondhand, like with a racing chronograph? Um, do you have running seconds?
Everett do not have running seconds this is it's such a varied option for a watch that there really is one to fit everyone's every desire i think yeah well i mean if you read watch you see you you can tell that people always want something i think if you have unlimited budget you can get almost exactly the thing you want but it's that guy who wants to spend no more than 200 bucks and wants uh you know, a flyback split second, no running hand. Well, I mean, I don't know. I've had those moments too, where I thought, gosh, if I only could find this thing.
Andrew If I could only find a Maserati for 60 bucks.
Everett Well, you know, I think that there's a thing there, right? It's like, for me, I think it makes very little sense that there's no affordable automatic GMT movements. And there really aren't. There's a DG, there's a Chinese DG something or the other that's got very suspect reliability, has been used in a number of sort of micro projects over the years, and the folks that use it are like, never again. There is the Orient. Orient has an affordable-ish movement, GMT movement, that is not available to anybody else besides Orient. And then other than that, you start getting pretty expensive pretty quick. There's the, there's the movement that's in like the Bernhardt, um, Corsair, I think is the name of the watch. I can't. That's the one. There's an ETA. I think it's a 28, 24, 20. Anyway, there's an ETA variation that is, but they, they start, I mean, the watches started about $650, $700. So I think the movements are $300-ish realistically. which is a bucket load of money. You take a $350 watch and you put a $300 movement in it, and all of a sudden you got a $650 watch. So I think that's been a thing. I know this is a little bit of a sidetrack, but I think that's been a thing that I've always thought, this is not an unreasonable thing for someone to think should exist. It just doesn't.
Andrew No, I think you're there. And there has to be a reason that it doesn't. Either the market isn't there, or the profitability of the R and D to make that a less expensive movement isn't there?
Everett You know, I've talked, uh, I say I've talked to, I've never actually talked to the man, but I've, I've sort of chatted back and forth online with Chris Vale about this many moons ago. Um, he thinks the market's there. He thinks that it's a, a, a gap in the market and, and that if it was available, it could sell. Um, and I tend to think if someone would know it would be Chris Vale, um, If I could peg someone to know, that's who I would peg.
Andrew But I think the question is, is the market there to make it... Someone like Chris Vale. I think the market exists. I think for a smaller brand, that market could exist. But I don't think that market exists for a larger company like Seiko or Citizen.
Everett Well, Orient's got it already. They've already got the movement. I know Orient doesn't do a sort of mass market They've got limited resources.
Andrew And they also, they limit their distribution. I mean, what's it, Royal Orient? I've never seen one in person. No, I haven't either. And you have to really dig on the internet to find them.
Everett That's right. Well, you know, I think their movement factor is in Akita, and I think that they're basically at capacity. So Orient's going to have to figure out how do they ride this sort of, I would call it a wave of popularity they're having right now. And maybe I'm overstating that, but Orient's got to figure that out.
Andrew I think we're seeing some definite growth, and I think they're going to start to try to fill the void that Seiko's leaving with their consolidation of lines.
Everett So anyway, I guess the point is, these chronographs, to the extent that you can't find what you don't want, maybe just hang on for a little bit. You probably will be able to find it someday.
Andrew Or just keep digging. It's probably already out there.
Everett Well, what do you think? Should we, should we talk about some watches or do we have, uh, do we have some more, some more chronograph background that we can give?
Andrew Let's, let's jump into a few watches. Let's give some time to these, uh, to these watches that we've pulled up. Cause I think we've got some really, really cool ones. Yeah. Uh, and I'll start it out. I'll start it out with a, with one that I've never seen before, which is not surprising because it's from a brand who has 10 million watches. Uh, and it's a Casio and I'm going to read the, uh, I'm going to read it. Do it. MTP4500D-1AV. And it's on Amazon for $39.17. U.S., American, under 40 bucks. You're going to get a slide rule chronograph to your home in two days. And it's so cool. Not only Not only is it a $40 chronograph, which until today, I would have laughed at you if you told me there was a $40 chronograph that had anything besides three pushers, but it also looks cool. Casio does a really good job with all of their very inexpensive offerings and making it look like a watch that you'd want to wear. It doesn't look like a piece of junk you're going to throw on the wrist. I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is the MDV. a $40 diver, you think you're going to put it on and laugh at it. Like you're going to be wearing this plastic piece of shit on your wrist that will rot away on your way to work that day. Yeah. And that's just not what you get.
Everett No, that thing's fucking tits.
Andrew And I imagine this is going to be a really similar feel. It's going to feel big and heavy. Although the case is only 42 millimeters.
Everett So I'll tell you, I've worn this thing. I tried this thing on at a Walmart and it's not as good as the MDV.
Andrew I would be surprised if it was. It's very good. Not that good. It's disappointing to hear, but it's also 40 money.
Everett 40 money? No, for 40, I think I almost bought it. I think I almost bought it that night when I tried it on. I'm almost positive I sent you a picture of it. We text message way too much to eek this out, but I'm almost positive I sent you a picture.
Andrew I'd believe it. I have to delete our text thread every once in a while because there's so many watch pictures. So many watch pictures. I text you certainly more than I text Yeah. Oh yeah. Me too. Me too. Oh, you shouldn't be texting my wife. So, um, anyway, uh, it's close and I get that. Uh, but what you're getting on here is, is just a really classic aviator style chronograph that if you're on a bracelet, yeah, on a bracelet with a slide rule, uh, really great black dial, uh, with concentric white circles on it, uh, between your, your 12, nine and six o'clock sub dials, the appearance of applied markers. Yep. Which is all you want. All you need is the appearance. You don't need the actual applied indices or markers or any of it. You just need it to look like it. It's like buying a fake Rolex. If it can pass the eye test, you're good. Maybe not. That's not true. Don't, don't, don't do that. But if you're just looking at dipping your toes into a, uh, into the pilot chronograph, uh, with a slide rule, or do you just want to try a slide rule and not have to drop a good chunk of change on it? I think this is a reasonable option. I think it's a cool offering from a cool brand.
Everett It's not a watch you're ever going to regret buying. I think there's probably some major finishing issues at $40.
Andrew Of course there's going to be. It's a Casio. But it's going to keep perfect time. Yeah, it's a quartz chronograph.
Everett It's going to keep perfect time.
Andrew And it's only 10 millimeters thick.
Everett Your soft-boiled eggs are going to be perfect every single time. What else? I don't know. Some other stuff. Uh, it's got black multifunctional dial with three sub dials. It's got a fold over push button clasp with safety closure.
Andrew You're probably going to hate the bracelet. Yeah, no, you're going to hate the bracelet. Almost definitely. It looks like a cheap bracelet. I, I, I, and I use the word cheap and inexpensive very differently.
Everett This is a cheap bracelet. No, it's fantastic though. I really dig it. Uh, great choice.
Andrew And a good size. 42 millimeters for a chronograph. 42 is good. 10 thick. That's a win.
Everett Yeah. It's a great size watch.
Andrew Oh, you know what? I lied. There's not a date window, is there?
Everett It does not. It does appear that there's a date window right at the six o'clock. Nope, that's a 30 second. No, you're right. No date window.
Andrew I lied to you guys. I'm sorry.
Everett We're sorry. It's not the first time, not the last time.
Andrew No, certainly not the last time. What have we got next? Watch number two. We've covered our inexpensive,
Everett dip your toes in the chronograph world dip your toes in the slide rule world watch you know it's getting a little bit more serious options i think both of these next two watches are watches that you could buy as a first watch someone who had never really considered how much watches cost could buy either one of these next two watches so next up h kid ed 63 we've already discussed it today i have one i haven't seen it in a long time it's coming back to me i've pulled up the black version h kid ed has a fantastic website. He did not, it is not always the case. He has not always had a good website or a website.
Andrew Yeah. He has not always had a website at all.
Everett He's got a website. It's fantastic. You can see what's in stock. Ed is the best customer service I've ever run into. Um, you know, Ed being one third of EMG, this is his pain in the ass customer.
Andrew I'm the worst.
Everett I'm the worst. And in fact, Ed, Ed can back me up on that. I'm the worst customer. However, there's his service is so good. I mean, I had a problem and he just said, send it to me, we'll fix it. And that's where we're at. I haven't seen it. Everything is in China, right? So it's, it's taken some time, which is literally China, literally China, uh, Northern China. So I think that he does all his stuff in China. And I'm guessing on some of this and extrapolating on others, but, um, you know, this watch 38 millimeters, 46 long, 14 millimeters thick, and that includes that big and it's because of the domed crystal domed crystal yep so i'm probably looking at 10 11 no i think probably 12 and a half you think without the crystal uh 18 millimeter lug width good size perfect super dressy right this thing winds up being super dressy uh there's several options of this that you can find your your colors are uh your colors are many your colors are many um oops that's the 42 i want the Well, heck. So yeah, he's got a, he's got the traditional sort of red secondhand, blued, blued minute and hour hand, seagull version. No red star. Really Chinese looking. Very Chinese looking. He's got a panda dial with gold markers. He's got a green dial with silver. He's got a cream dial with gold, blue, blue panda, green panda. I guess those are reverse pandas. The all black, which I think right now is the one I'm feeling the most. I love that black with gold. I've tried to get him to come out with a green, like a dark emerald green with gold, and he's been reluctant because I'm just one person.
Andrew But you can promise him one, one sale.
Everett I will buy it. Uh, you know, the, the options are there and he changes it. He comes out with new versions. Uh, when he sells one out, I think he gets some more in. So, um, I think it's a great option. 260 bucks ST 1901 mechanical movement. I think that except for the alphas. There's a brand called Alpha, not with an F, but with a PH. The Alpha chronographs, they also have an ST-1901 movement, and it's like a Daytona ripoff, and they're very homage-y. In my mind, the worst kind of homage-y, which is to say... There's no uniqueness.
Andrew There's no design cues. It's a fake watch. That's right. Without being derogatory, it is a...
Everett not an homage it is a recreation a copy yeah that's right so i'm not a huge fan of that uh but i think the value is there so for 150 bucks you know under 200 bucks you're getting a mechanical chronograph and that's cool in and of itself yeah uh ed does the ed does this at 260 so you you save a little bit more money and all of a sudden you're getting something very cool.
Andrew And these are done in conjunction with Siegel. And he's even got a better price on them than Siegel. That's right.
Everett That's right. So I think this is a great option. I think that anybody who's looking for a chronograph ought to think about these. That ST-1901 movement is tried and true. I don't have a good grasp on reliability of it, but I think it's going to be as reliable as the next best option would be my guess.
Andrew I have to disagree a little bit with you and say, I don't know about this as a first and only watch purchase. I just don't think it has the versatility for someone to have it on their wrist as much as they would ideally want to. I think this, if you're, if you're a first and only watch, if you're going to buy a watch that you just want to wear to work Monday to Friday, and you work in an office job, then I think this is a good option. But I think if you're looking for a first and only watch, that you're going to wear all the time, this probably isn't it.
Everett Yeah, and perhaps I misspoke. I guess I'm, and I don't remember what I said, but what I meant to say was if you're looking for your first sort of chronograph.
Andrew Okay. And I can buy that. I'll accept that. And I think, I think you're right on the nose with that because this is a terrific option.
Everett You know, the lugs on this thing are super long. Uh, the only other watch I've tried on that had really long lugs like this was the, um, Boulder, the Boulder. That's right. The Boulder venture. And, and I did not like them on the venture. On the Ed, they were.
Andrew Well, it's because on the Venture, they had fixed lugs. No, no, no. Yeah, they were fixed lugs, weren't they?
Everett No, it was, uh, they were lugs. I mean, you could put, maybe they were fixed. No, they were fixed lugs. Yeah, you're... No, because I think I had a, I had the, uh, I had the, uh, some sort of rubber strap on there at some point.
Andrew Oh, yeah, yeah. There was an odd gap. Yeah.
Everett It had to be a pass-through. These these don't these aren't like that the the lugs on the ed are not are not that way or on the seagull They look long and it feels like the gaps gonna be gonna be Conspicuous, but it's not it Workplace just fine.
Andrew I love it. I love it. Yeah, certainly not in the same way. I now I'm now I'm remembering fully the venture What do you got next next up another one? I'm actually really excited about hadn't hadn't seen before my, my hunt for this, for this episode. And it's the Citizen AT2400-81A. And you can pick it up on Joma Shop today for $149.99. And it is really cool.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Uh, it is an eco drive chronograph, sapphire crystal, 41 millimeter case, 10.1 millimeters thick. And this is an, Another really good option for someone who's looking to dip their toes into the chronograph world, but wants to have a little bit dressier appeal. And this has a very, it's not exactly a Bauhaus style, but it's really reminiscent of it. It's a really, really simple dial. We have up the white dial with black markers. black hands and they're they're kind of skeleton hands like everything on this watch is just very minimalist i would describe it as scandinavian i know that that's not necessarily a thing i think that's the only way to describe it i think you're 100 on on that uh really really subtle pushers uh and i think that could probably be could maybe be not probably but maybe be problematic when you're trying to uh to actuate your your chronograph but like it looks like the throw is small right yeah yeah yeah but i mean it's It's an eco-drive movement, so you're not going to really need to actuate a whole lot. It's not like you're actuating a mechanical chronograph where you really need every bit of that push. But yeah, I mean, this could fit as the dressable chronograph that you want to wear to work Monday to Friday. And I think if you put it on a NATO or if you put it on leather, it'd be a good weekend watch. This is a really versatile option, I think, for for someone who's looking to get a chronograph, looking to try it out, or just wants a little bit something different, something fun to wear, to enjoy in the chronograph realm.
Everett This looks to me like a gift for a graduation from architecture school.
Andrew Yeah, or design school. I could see a whole office filled with graphic designers wearing this style of watch. It's really unique. It's it's a it's design cues. It's something that I that I haven't seen outside of brands like Triwa or Triva. One of those two. Like we or outside of these very Scandinavian design houses. And it's and it's by a brand that we all know and love. And it's eco drive. And it's got a sapphire crystal for 150 bucks. You're going to be hard hard pressed to find watches in the $150 category with Sapphire. I like the hooded lugs. I mean, the whole, everything about it, it's just, it's simple, it's clean, it's dressable without being overly so.
Everett You know, we looked at something recently that had a lug connection like this, and I can't remember what it was. Um, I, I want to say that one was executed a little bit better than this one, but, uh, I do dig it. I think you've got some good edges.
Andrew One thing that I like is the, uh, the, the six o'clock sub dial. is not a a traditional sub-dial it's a hand with just a black crosshair yeah crosshair same thing with the same thing with the two o'clock is it the two o'clock also it looks oh yeah it all it the the angle i was looking at it looked like it made it look like a sub-dial so you really only have a nine o'clock sub-dial and the other two are just crosshair sub-dials a four o'clock date window which i really like i i like the the four o'clock date window i don't i don't know why i can't tell you anything other than I like that it's a little bit unique. I like having a day window. It doesn't have to be at three or six for me.
Everett You know, this is good. I think you're probably, you know, you're probably going to get a slightly higher quality bracelet on this than you did on the Citizen that we talked about earlier.
Andrew The Casio we talked about?
Everett Yeah, that's right. The Casio. I hope so. You know, this is going to be, I think, just a much better all-arounder. And I dig it. Yeah, I think I think you're right. It's inoffensive. And I know that doesn't sound complimentary, but it's just totally inoffensive.
Andrew Yeah, it is an accent and not a conversation piece. Right. No one's going to look at you that watch and say, Oh, cool. Watch besides watch person. And then we've we've circled all the way back to our early episodes where suddenly you found a friend. Right.
Everett You know, do you know what these even number markers are? So it looks like it's got pads, and I don't know if those are loom, uh, if those are loom pads or what those are, but at each of the even numbers, there's a pad. Uh... Like a gray, silver... I think it's just the marker. Okay. I mean, it's interesting. It's just an accent, I think. Yeah. Okay. Well, interesting. I dig it. And I think that... I think that you should buy one so I can wear it.
Andrew I was going to say the same to you. So... Well, all right. We've reached an impasse.
Everett all right well cool i'm going to talk about my next watch and i'm excited about it yeah this so this is a watch i i looked at this one too it's a watch from a company called gavox that i don't think we've ever talked about on the show before no we've certainly looked at a lot of their watches and we've talked we've talked about them that's right uh you know gavox i think is sort of a um flight inspired brand although i don't think every single one of their watches is what i'd call a pilot's or an aviator's watch they're and they're a step up from
Andrew Aviate, I think yeah light inspired. That's very Very style driven. This seems more watch driven.
Everett Yeah, I mean they're gonna be They're gonna be a step up. I would guess in terms of quality I would guess in terms of service and also and also in price, right? Yeah, you're gonna pay a little bit more for these watches Some of their watches tend to be sort of outside of the affordable range even This one is not. This one's firmly unaffordable. This is a $383.40 watch, which is a very specific amount. Yeah. I think it's a converted amount, but this is the Gabox Squadron Stainless Steel. This comes in two iterations. There's the Stainless Steel and there's also the PVD version for a little bit more money. It's a Ronda Quartz. So you're getting a fairly simple, Swiss, slow back, courts movement, which is fine, which is fine.
Andrew I mean, we didn't talk about flybacks or snapbacks and slowbacks, which we maybe should have. That was maybe irresponsible, but whatever.
Everett Whatever. I mean, I think that there's something to be said for mecha courts or mechanical, you know, that, that actuated, you know, you know, either cam or sort of that, that quick movement, you know, it's like, bam, bam, that's fun. This is going to be quartz. So this is going to do a more traditional slow sweep back, which is, which is fine. It, you know, chronographs are the one place where I feel like you, you don't get quite as much, um, you don't get quite as much sort of feedback from the mechanical movement in when you jump up to automatic, right? If you're wearing a three hander, you get that, that feedback and visual, you can look down and see that sweeping secondhand versus the You know, I felt like, gosh, I got rid of my eco drive, but when I, every time I put it on, I felt like it was just, you know, this thing, you know, when I'm wearing a quartz watch today, uh, you, you know, you're not going to experience, I know I'm the worst. You're not going to experience that with a chronograph. So I think that if you're, you know, unless you've got billions of dollars, you're really in quartz anyway, whether it's macro quartz or quartz or a mechanical, a Chinese mechanical. Very cool. Very cool watch. I love the way it looks. This is a, obviously an aviator inspired chronograph watch, but it's got sort of what I'd call a dive bezel. Um, and I don't know that this thing is a unidirectional or bidirectional. I'm not sure. 60 clicks, 120. I'm not sure. I don't care. Um, it, it's a a hundred meter, 10 atmosphere watch, and it's just groovy, man. I dig it. The, the,
Andrew I love the cut out hour markers. That's something I really dig in chronographs when they cut out the numerals for the sub dials. Right. I don't know why, but I dig it.
Everett I like this thing how they have not, they knew it was busy and so they just, they just threw everything on there. Like Ronda movement, normally when, when the movement type is on the dial, it's in like almost imperceptible script, you know, this tiny That's like a size 14 font at the six o'clock Rhonda movement. Uh, you know, I like it. I like how they've just sort of embraced it. And the busyness works really well for me, for my eye. And some people are gonna look at this and say too much, you've got too much happening on that dial.
Andrew And so that one, I feel like that's, it's no more busy than any aviation inspired chronograph. One thing I will say is I wish when, when, uh, product photos were taken, the date matched the, our location that it was so like with a four o'clock date window i wish it was set to the fourth i don't know why it was instead of the 30th i just wish it was the fourth look look baby we've all got theories i like that i think it's fun just like the the casio world time the uh t4 on it is set to paris so it's par t4 so it looks like party time party like that i i really like that I want more of it in my life. Like, I want dad jokes in product photographs.
Everett I like your style, man. I like your style. So the other cool thing about this watch is it's got a 12-hour alarm. 12-hour chronograph, 12-hour alarm. I love a watch with an alarm. Hell yeah, because you don't get analog watches with an alarm. That's right. I mean, my Dan Hunter 1972 has an alarm. The only reason you bought it, right? That's right. 41 millimeters by 12 millimeters thick, which you look at this thing and you think, that's going to be a chunky watch.
Andrew Immediate look, you're going to think 44, 45.
Everett 41 by 12, 51 long, so it's going to run a little long and those lugs are a little bit long. It's got a sweet looking bracelet. No firsthand experience, but it looks great. The bracelet looks great. The connections are screw connections. Love that. You know, you can get this version with sort of roundel sub markers.
Andrew Shout out to Brad Holmes for schooling us like we deserve.
Everett And that's it, man. I dig it. I really do like this watch.
Andrew I really like it with the roundel, with everything else blacked out. Yeah. I'd like to get my hands on one of these.
Everett You know, I think I've got a plan here for this. So stay tuned. More to come. All right.
Andrew And everything about it seems like it should be more than a $380 chronograph. Blast on it. My last watch. A company we haven't talked about before, I don't think. Yeah, we talked about them a couple times. Have we? Yeah. Okay. Maybe in passing, but maybe not a watch with profile.
Everett I think one of you, wasn't one of your $600 watches a Brew?
Andrew Possible. Who knows? The Brew Retrograph. On the Brew website, $350 money, and I chose specifically to have up the copper, and it is Beautiful. Brew is kicking out some really awesome watches. They're a really cool company based out of New York. They've done espresso timer chronographs. Uh, but this, what you're looking at here is a 38 millimeter by 41.5 lug to lug square chronograph reminiscent of the, uh, Monaco, uh, in that, in that shape. And that too, that, that, no, no, no. In the shape. I'm not, it's okay. Everett's shaking his head no, he can eat dicks. It is a rectangular, tending towards square chronograph with a nine and a three o'clock sub dial. Also rectangular, maybe square actually, tending towards square chronograph, or, uh, sub dials, which to me, my, my head immediately goes toward the Monaco in that shape and sub dial, uh, layout. Um, on the case, you're out of your fucking mind. You've on the case, on the case, you've got this really great shape and finishing and a, just a terrifically executed accent black around the dial. Uh, it's a little bit thicker at the, that on the, uh, top and bottom, and then a nice narrow pinstripe on the left and right sides. Really appropriately sized and angled even, pushers and crown. And this is beautiful. It's coming on black leather. And it, I might have already said it, but it's 350 bucks. And it's powered by the VK-64 Mecaquartz.
Everett Mecaquartz for days, man.
Andrew I love that movement. And I love Mecaquartz. Love that movement. I wore my SSB tonight in Mecaquartz in honor of our chronograph episode. Uh, and I, I love Mecca courts movements.
Everett It's the shit. It's it's the total shit, man. Mecca courts. That's the truth. If you're looking for an affordable chronograph and you want it to feel mechanical Mecca courts all day long.
Andrew Yeah. And, and they're being used by some of the, some of the, the biggest players in the game. And this is a, you know, it's, it's a little bit more on the expensive side for chronograph. I don't think this is a. Try it, watch. I think this is a, see it, fall in love with it, get it because you know it's going to be shit hot chronograph.
Everett And you know, if you want to see pictures of these in life, Chad Wright, I think it's at Chad Wright on Instagram, takes wonderful photographs. Better than we do. The best, I mean, some of the best photographs on Instagram and he's got a, he's got a brew retrograph that he takes just stunning pictures of about once a week, maybe twice a week. And you can see this thing in all its glory. He does a better job than I think Brew has done on their website. It's just a stunning watch. Super photogenic.
Andrew Yeah, but the pictures on their website are... They're product photos. They're appropriate product photos. Yeah, totally. And he's taking lifestyle photos that are just beautiful. I mean, dude's a killer photographer.
Everett I love this copper color. You know, maybe it's just because I know that this watch has sort of got coffee inspiration, but it looks to me like it's about the color of a coffee filter after
Andrew You've run it through. I was going to think a latte, but you went ahead and went with, uh, it's maybe a little less flattering.
Everett I love it. So that's not meant to be a criticism. Uh, it is stunning. Watch that sunburst is.
Andrew And the markers are just beautiful black with white accents. I mean, this is, this may, this is on the list.
Everett Sapphire 22 millimeter strap, uh, 10 and a half millimeters thick beauty. Yeah. Only 50 meters of water resistance. Would you?
Andrew It's it's yeah, it's a little bit on the lighter end But I don't get my watch. I don't even shower in my watches. I put them on after I shower.
Everett I dig it, dude Good call. Thank you My last watch. Okay. Ah, this is a watch that I feel like we should have talked about on the show if we haven't I feel like we have I really feel like we have we maybe have and so apologies if this is a repeat I'm gonna come back to it because I think it's such a great option if you've got a little bit more money to spend So this is a $500 watch not cheap This is a watch from the Stratton Watch Company. They are a driving inspired company. Their Instagram is full of cool old cars. They also make driving gloves. They're a racing company.
Andrew How dope would it be to wear one of their watches and driving gloves? In an old Porsche.
Everett Yeah, in a classic. In like a 1970s air-cooled Porsche. Yeah. That's my dream.
Andrew We'll never be there. I'm more likely to be able to develop a split-second watch than we are to be able to execute that photograph.
Everett Perhaps if I lose a leg in a grocery store related accident, I'll be able to afford an air-cooled Porsche.
Andrew While you're representing another grocery store. Right.
Everett Right. So, you know, there's a number of different color variations. The one I like the most is the black or sort of slate dialed sunburst with the yellow and orange markers. I think it's fantastic. They've also got a brown version with similar color. They've got blue. Black on black on black is dope. Murdered out. Yeah. So they do also have a not PVD, but a DLC coded version of this watch for the same price. 500 bucks. They come in two sizes, 39 and a half millimeters or 42. 39 and a half is going to be perfect. That's what I think. You know, the one thing I have to say about this watch, and it's the one thing that I think has probably kept me from buying in the past because it's the only thing that makes me feel a little anxiety bad. It's chunky. She's a chunky monkey. Yeah, she's thick. She's thick. So without the crystal, before you get to the crystal, she's 14 millimeters thick, 13.9. And that's the 39.5 version. So she's thick. Thicky thick is what we call that. Um, you know, with the smaller version, you get 20 millimeter lugs, which I think is perfect for this. It's a square lug. So, you know, this comes on a Milanese, but Milanese, Bolognese, uh, it comes on a Milanese strap or a number of pretty, pretty neat looking leather versions. I really like this with their gray rally strap with, it's got an orange piping on it or orange stitching on it. These watches are just phenomenal. Uh, if you can get back past the chunky, the, the best video I've seen of these on YouTube is by just one more watch Jody from just more, more watch. He does a good review of this watch. And I think his is the 39 and a half millimeter version. So. Phenomenal V VK, 64 Sapphire. You can get the DLC if that's your deal. Um, just super duper cool. Love them.
Andrew Yeah. And that rounds it out. That rounds it out. Man, they have some good straps though.
Everett Yeah. And they come with, you also get a NATO and there's just a number of really neat NATOs that they sell too. So, uh, and they're branded Stratton. I don't know who's making these. Um, but I assume they're going to be a fairly standard, upper quality, standard NATO.
Andrew So that's a good list. Go on by chronograph y'all. They're fun.
Everett Chronographs are fun. It's my favorite watch to wear as a chronograph. So whether it's my Ed or my. or my Dan Henry 72. I just have fun when I wear them.
Andrew I time so much shit. Me too. Stupid stuff. The amount of silence in a conversation. How long a person's been talking.
Everett How long it takes my wife to respond to me when I ask her a question.
Andrew I use my phone for that. I time how long people have left the classroom. All kinds of stuff.
Everett Well, I think we can put a cap on it for today. We'd love to know if we've missed any big ones. Obviously, there's a number of watches that we've talked about in the past that we kind of skipped over today. Any other great options that we missed, let us know. We'll shout you out. This is the time of show where we talk about other stuff, Andrew. So I was just wondering if you have any things in your life that aren't watch related that you'd like to talk about.
Andrew I sure do. And I have. I saw an article the other day that was titled um why being busy shouldn't be a badge of honor and i was thinking about that uh this week about how how we we as a culture uh really pride ourselves on how busy we are and how much shit we take on um and there's dozens and dozens of articles out there and one that i one that i read over the the last in the last week or so uh was this uh research article that outlined the fact that peasants in the Middle Ages had more time off and a better work-life balance than we as the modern American do. And I read a Vice article a few weeks back that was photos this photojournalist took of Japanese businessmen sleeping in all kinds of random places. And he, I don't remember how long exactly he, uh, he worked on this project and it was about 10 years ago. Uh, and he, he had all these photos like, like daytime slash evening and even nighttime photos that were clearly of a dude who'd been at the bar and had just passed out. But there was also a good number of them of guys who were like on their way home from work and like sat down at a bus station and just went lights out. Um, And it got me thinking about how we take so much pride in our work and how much pride we we take in spending time at work. And it it has kind of brought me back to this place where I'm going to be much more diligent about valuing and enjoying my time that is not allocated to work, that is not already allocated. And I'm going to be for the this isn't exactly a New Year's resolution or maybe even turning over a new leaf, but I'm going to be much more protective of the time that I don't have allocated to work, uh, or to other obligations. And I'm going to be much more protective of that time, uh, because I don't want to be the guy who, Oh man, I'm just so busy. I'm doing this and this and this and this and this. I don't, I don't like that about me. And I want to, I want to improve on that.
Everett Is this the way you tell me that you're quitting the podcast?
Andrew Uh, this is the way I tell you that we're going to fish more.
Everett Okay. I like that. Let's fucking fish more, man. I need to do that.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett I haven't caught any fish in 2019. Not one, not a one.
Andrew Me either. And I've, I've taken the boy fishing quite a few times. That's another problem. Well, I mean, I haven't taken my rod out in 2019. I've had the PAW Patrol rod out. I mean, 10 times easy, but, but my rod is not, uh, has not broken, broken the case.
Everett Well, let's get out there, dude. Let's get out there. What you got? You know, so this is a thing that, uh, this is a thing that's photography related because I'm sort of on a photography kick. Um, but, but it just occurred to me how useful this thing is. I've got two of them now. The, the, well, the item is, this is a, uh, an L bracket and I'm going to talk about a specific L bracket. And the reason I'm going to talk about the specific L bracket is because it's super cheap. So if you don't know what an L bracket is, an L bracket is a bracket that is L shaped mostly. This is an item that's going to screw into your camera if you've got, except for the smallest mirrorless cameras, any SLR or DSLR camera, this is going to work with. This is a universal L-bracket. Now they make two types of L-brackets. One of the types is an L-bracket that's made specifically for your camera. So Really Right Stuff makes these specific for all sorts of DSLRs, whether you have a D7200 or a D850 or You know, one of the Canon model of cameras that are the same type of thing. You can find one that's got cutouts for your camera. So you're going to be able to use the microphone and whatever without taking the thing off. I've never worried about that. I just get the universal ones. This is the MPU-100. This thing is $4.36 with free shipping on eBay right now. I've got a number of these things.
Andrew I don't even know what it does and I want to buy one.
Everett I'm going to tell you what it does. So these things are made out of aluminum. It's cheap aluminum. This is for a quick release plate. So if you've got a tripod, which many of us do, and let me tell you, if you're not taking your watch pictures with tripod, fix yourself, bro, fix yourself. So, you know, as I've gotten into film photography, I realized, you know, sometimes I want to have a digital camera. I want to have a film camera. I might also have another digital camera. And a Polaroid just for funsies. It's nice to be able to use the quick release the way it's intended. So most quick release systems now are compatible with Arca Swiss or Benro perhaps. You unscrew the thing, you slap your quick release plate in there, you unscrew it and you're good to go. I like to have a number of these things. The nice thing about an L-bracket is it gives you on the left side of the camera a plate as well. So you've got plate on the bottom. you've got plate along the side. So you can switch from landscape to portrait. So for less than five bucks, you can get on eBay, pick one of these things up. And for me, I find it so incredibly useful. Um, you know, I remember the first time I was out taking a picture on a tripod and I realized I wasn't going to be able to get the shot I wanted because even with the ability to turn my ball head all the way over, I couldn't get the angle right. Um, you know, having the ability to just unscrew your plate, turn the camera over on its side and plug it back in is huge. Uh, so kind of a weird thing, but I love them. I think that probably some very high percentage of our viewers take pictures. I would imagine.
Andrew So I think this is a super, super easy, but mostly our listeners, not our viewers.
Everett Yeah. You know, you don't want to look, they might look at us too. You never know. Maybe they listen to us and just look at pictures of our Instagrams, our personal Instagrams.
Andrew Maybe.
Everett And think about us talking.
Andrew I hate that for you, y'all. I'm sorry.
Everett All right. That's it, man. I'm not going to talk about this thing anymore. Get an L bracket, get two, get three, put them on every camera. I never take them off my cameras. People always say, what is that on your camera? Oh, it's an L bracket. And don't get an expensive one. Get one of these $5 ones. America. America. That's it. For me too. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Fornian 20. Don't forget to tune back in next week for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.0 license.