Zodiac Gives us Gold; Tissot with More Carbon (307)

Published on Wed, 11 Sep 2024 22:15:37 -0700

Synopsis

In this episode of the 40 in 20 podcast, hosts Andrew and Everett discuss various new watch releases and other topics. They start by talking about Everett's recent car purchase before diving into watch news. They cover new releases from brands like Aquastar, Grand Seiko, Tissot, Zodiac, Seiko, and Longines. The hosts share their opinions on the designs, specifications, and pricing of these watches. They also touch on topics like NFL-themed watches and the return of classic models. Outside of watches, they discuss TV shows like The Walking Dead and recommend a science fiction book called Old Man's War. The episode concludes with information about where listeners can find more content from the podcast and how to support it.

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Transcript

Speaker
Andrew	Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett	I'm here. I bought a new car today, and so I'm tired.
Andrew	Yeah, that's an exhausting experience. Even when it's as easy as easy comes.
Everett	And today was easy. Today was easy, but like I knew what I wanted. I went, I drove it. And it's still just like, you leave, it's like sometimes you take a road trip, right? And you're like, I did nothing. It was three hours. I did nothing. I sat there, we listened to music. And when I arrived, I was exhausted. That's how buying a car feels like to me.
Andrew	That is, yeah.
Everett	I think there's a little bit of like an emotional, I think there's a little bit of like an emotional, to do as well, right? Just like I'm spending all this money, I'm indebting myself, uh, you know, whatever.
Andrew	There's something to that, but just the sheer amount of like nothing time. There is absolutely no reason in the world for it to take that long.
Everett	Yeah. And actually in, in fairness to the dealership, we were only there for about an hour and a half. Um, which is, which is pretty straightforward. We didn't pay cash. I was thinking about paying cash. We, We actually wound up financing some of it. Um, but you know, still it's like, well, I'm excited.
Andrew	I didn't realize you were in the market for a new car.
Everett	You know, uh, I guess this announcement comes with a bit of sad news, which is that I have sold my LS or now traded in my LS. Um, I did buy another Lexus, so I'm still a Lexus owner, but my days of of vintage Lexus owner are behind me. So, um, it's not a brand new car, but it's a new car. And, uh, yeah, it's a little weird. That's a little weird. That's been a part of my identity for a minute, but two SUV family. No, we, well, I don't think it's an NX, so it's not, it's a, it's a, I think you call it a crossover. Okay. Yeah. It's a, it's like in between, a sedan or a wagon, perhaps, and a SUV. So it is four-wheel drive, but it's a crossover. Anyway, it's a little, we got it for Kim. It's going to be, she thinks the Highlander is too big and truck-like, so she wanted something more kind of comfortable, a little smoother driving. So that's this.
Andrew	That's fair. I mean, that's a fair critique of the Highlander.
Everett	Yeah, it's a bit clunky. It's kind of noisy and it's a little bit clunky. But I really like that car. So no problems. I am now I am now a Highlander driver Yes To the LS. I mean the LS was pretty big the Highlander. I don't think is any bigger It's a little taller, but I don't think it's bigger Maybe it's just a touch wider They're about the same size.
Andrew	Yeah, give a longer wheelbase. I
Everett	Uh, you know, I'd have to look. I'm not sure that it's actually longer, but, um, anyway, got a new car. Um, yeah, that's how I am. How are you?
Andrew	I'm good. Um, I worked today and then decided to take the rest of the week off. Actually decided that last week, but, uh, so I, I only have one work day today. Uh, Sam is working late tonight ahead of an event. So we have an in-studio guest in the way of my dog, Doug. You may hear some whining and some mad dashes off because he is still just a little puppy.
Everett	He's a puppy.
Andrew	Get back here.
Everett	Come on. Yeah, you know, it's going to be fine. It's going to be fine. We will make it happen. Andrew, the wheelbase on the LS430 is 123 inches. The wheelbase on the Highlander is 112 inches. Really? Yep. Just in case you at home were wondering, and wanted to know, now you know. The Highlander is actually less big than the LS430. Yeah, I feel like that's a problem that we've solved.
Andrew	It was a problem we didn't know we needed to solve, but that's what we're about. We're about solving the world's problems that nobody knew they had.
Everett	Turns out it's actually gonna be easier for me to park. Yeah. Who saw that coming? Andrew, in any event, we are not here to talk about the length of my car. We are here to talk about watches and watches. We're going to talk about, I want to start with a weird one. Um, this is a watch that's near and dear to my heart. I've never owned one, but I think it's lovely. I also kind of pisses me off. It's a watch that kind of pisses me off because it is a very, very good version of a watch that is pretty important to me in the H-Link skin divers. The watch I'm talking about is the Aquastar Deepstar. This is a watch we've spoken about before on this show. It's an H case. I would call this a skin diver, although the Deepstar is not really a classic skin diver. Rather, this is a 200-meter real dive watch. Definitely retro styling as all H case watches are. They released the Deep Star 2 in a what they're calling Polar Star limited edition colorway. Polar Star, I think, is a terrific name for a polar dial Deep Star. And that's what we did. We have a white dial Deep Star. The details are going to be the same. This is a 200-meter watch, 37-millimeter case, which is a perfect size for this case. Lug-to-lug is 46, meaning really good. It is 12 millimeters, which could be thinner at the price this is because this is a $1,590 watch. I think retail on this is almost 2,000. These are very nice, but they do ask a premium for them. Is it worth that amount? I don't know. The full set comes with a beautiful beads of rice bracelet with a pretty nice deployant clasp. You do get a genuine Tropic strap on these because these are made by the same company that owns Tropic amongst a few other brands. And you also get it like a sort of a seatbelt weave NATO, which whatever, it actually looks terrific on the NATO. But I think the tropic strap, the gray tropic strap and, and the Beats Rice bracelet are where this thing really sings.
Andrew	Do they have any other watches? This is not a brand that I like I've seen this watch, but this isn't a brand that comes to mind ever, like I think about producing watches.
Everett	They do. So this is a zombie brand. They have a few other watches. They've got the Benthos 500 Chronograph. They've got... I've seen all of these, but... The Model 60, which is also sort of a H-Case Skin Diver. These are all sort of re... These are all sort of like re-release type re-editions, I think is the term they use. These are all watches from history. Aquastar is an interesting brand. We've talked about the history of Aquastar, but it is this actually really pretty old company with a lot of terrific history and some pretty neat some pretty neat insertions in whatever media, but really a 1960s brand that went down in the 80s and was brought back a few years back, making really cool watches. They're expensive, right? These are expensive watches.
Andrew	All by the spec sheet, it should be. This is spec'd out like a $2,000 watch.
Everett	That's relative, right? Because you can say that's an expensive watch and it might be a $250,000 watch, or you can say that's an expensive watch and it's a $2,000 watch, which is what this is, right? It's a relatively expensive, what I'd call entry-level watch.
Andrew	Yeah. I think this is like entry luxury zone.
Everett	I think so.
Andrew	Like two grand, like we're up here competing with Manta and the north end of Christopher Ward and with used, like, you can get into some Tudors used and you're in that competition zone. It's interesting, I like this.
Everett	Yeah, yeah, they're beautiful. The Aquastar is, or the Deepstar is probably the biggest, I think model or the most well-known model in this, in this brand, you know, Rick Murray, formerly of Doxa and now of Synchron Group runs AquaStar.
Andrew	Oh, that's why we talked about this last.
Everett	That's right. So I don't know, I don't know like the internal governance, but this is a, this is a Rick Murray brand.
Andrew	I like this bracelet. This bevel on the beads is really good.
Everett	Yeah, they do a good job. And the end link is nice too. Which it's actually a little tough to do an end link. It's a little tough to do an end link on a straight end link. On an H case. With Foster, the solution we did was like a sort of smooth Z199 connection, which I think works really well. They've actually done a dimensional, like a milled dimensional end link, which I think is kind of tough to do. And they've done it well. They've done it well. The engraving is nice and deep. It's milled instead of just sort of like superficially stamped. I think this is a terrific watch. It's a release of It's just a limited edition colorway of an existing watch. Don't get too excited, but.
Andrew	It's a good colorway, though.
Everett	Yeah, it's a real crispy white.
Andrew	Yeah, I love those Arctic whites. And since we're talking about Arctic colors, I'm going to talk about the Grand Seiko SBGH347 with a new dial texture inspired by a frozen waterfall that stems from Mount Iwate.
Everett	Oh, my gosh, that's terrific.
Andrew	The story behind it, I just could not care less about. But this like icy blue, really beautiful vertical texture is maybe the closest representation I've ever seen from Grand Seiko when you see a side by side of the dial texture and what inspired it. I'm like, oh, I actually see the inspiration here as opposed to just like similar colors. Hey, quit chewing on that, Everett. The dog's being just fine, but you can't be chewing on things. This this icy blue is gorgeous with these like dark highlights and light low lights. It just explodes with texture. And this is this is just. Gorgeous, as with every Grand Seiko colorway release. Absolutely lovely. This is, I think, my one of my favorite iterations that Grand Seiko does, there's no Power reserve indicator. It's just a simple three hand lovely hundred meters of water resistance. 37 millimeter case. Come on. It's got the nine S 85 movement. 6,900 bucks.
Everett	Yeah. Beautiful. It's, it's beautiful. Watch 13 three thick, which is and continues to be a problem. But, um, They don't care.
Andrew	Grand Seiko does not care. They make them thick and, and they make no apologies for it or, or really even attempts to, to lean them out.
Everett	Yeah, no, you're right though. The dial on this thing is terrific. It's like a blue snowflake. Seiko does, yeah, yeah. Not, not quite the more of a, more of a linear texture than the snowflake, but yeah.
Andrew	It has that same dazzling, like, Ooh, shit.
Everett	Seiko does light blue, does light blue well. Great movement on this. Lothar 6900 bucks. Yeah, beautiful watch. Oh boy, there's so many things, Andrew.
Andrew	There's so many things, but not many that got me that excited this week.
Everett	A lot of things, Frederick Constant. Frederick Constant released a venturing dialed Classic tourbillon this week. Uh, that's going to cost you a bucket load of money. Um, let's see.
Andrew	Two firstborn children, which means you have to go in on it with somebody else or have twins.
Everett	Uh, I, I, I don't have a price on this in dollars in right in front of me, but it's 40,000 euro, 39,995. You know what the world we live in where I just said, ah, that's not actually that bad.
Andrew	That's that bad. That's a that's a it's more than a civic.
Everett	Right. It is. It is more than a civic. It's actually it's more than a slightly used Lexus NX I can say. Definitively. Definitively.
Andrew	Confirmed today. I love a Venturine. I wish I wish somebody would pioneer a technology to make a Venturine more more accessible. You know we've seen Things like carbon and bronze and titanium, the manufacturing processes have become widespread enough that these things are usable by anyone, right? And you know, we saw D.U. Wu with Aventurine, and I don't know the route he went to go, like the route he went to make that happen, but it's not a material that is being used enough. I think it could be really easily misused. But there's such great texture and feel and soul in that dial that you don't have to design much else. You can drop three hands on that bitch and put it in a light catcher and it's going to be amazing.
Everett	You know, I think Aventurine is lovely and I think it does exactly one thing well, which is to be sort of sparkly blue. And look gorgeous. And look gorgeous. I do understand it's pretty hard, harder even than glass. So it's a little tough to tool. It's brittle, yeah. But I think for a brand owner, it's sort of like, do I want to use a Venturine? And if so, Okay, you know, I'm going to have a higher failure rate. So my price per my cost per unit is going to be higher. And does anybody want this enough? I mean, I think it's these types of questions. Now, this watch, this watch, well, let's talk a little bit about the watch. But first, I'll say, this watch is offering enough other things going on that I think it's an easy decision, right? It's just like, hey, should we use a Venturine? Fuck yeah, we should.
Andrew	Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it's icing really in this watch.
Everett	Now this watch actually exists in a few other variants. I think there's a stainless steel case with a blue dial. I think that there's like a silver dial and and maybe a limited, like, rose gold version of this watch. It's a tourbillon, right? It's a Frederic Constant tourbillon. But it's got this very, very cool in-house, what they're calling the FC-980-4 movement, which, of course, is a tourbillon. It's got this, like, curved cook that holds the tourbillon, which is gorgeous and a beautiful sort of curved cutout on the front. And that contrasted with that curved cutout in platinum or gold, I'm not sure what it is, with the yellow and this deep, deep blue aventurine dial is just a terrific look. Tourbillons are pretty rare. It's a difficult complication. It's hard to make. I think they made 36 of these probably in no small part because of the difficulty of using a Venturine for the dial.
Andrew	Um, yeah, it's got, and you know, a Turbion and you know, nevermind the rest of the, of the business, but yeah, that's right.
Everett	It's, you know, 300 meters of water resistance. And I'm just joking about that. I think it's like 30.
Andrew	It's like, breathe on it for too long and it's going to be problematic, I think.
Everett	Did I say it's a white gold? It's an 18 karat white gold case. Oh, we should mention that. Yeah. Yeah. 11 millimeters thick, but it's a tourbillon, which is a, which is a like serious complication. So this is 11 millimeters is fine for this watch. Yeah. It's gorgeous. I like it. It's beautiful. I'm not going to buy it, but maybe you should.
Andrew	And send it to us. Yeah. Diamond.
Everett	What's next, Andrew?
Andrew	Oh, next up. Get my dog back over here. Come on. Come on. Go to your place. There you go. Oh, next up for me. That's that's not your place. Next up for me. Tiso's got a new release in the PRX line. And interestingly enough, they chose a new material and they dual purposed it. Oh, you hear that whining? Yeah. Nobody cares. PRX in forged carbon fiber with a carbon fiber dial. Uh, and this, it just looks good, right? This is the kind of watch that all murdered out like this looks good. This is a kind of a cool modernization of this very vintage inspired kind of modern icon of affordable watches. The only thing that I wonder about, This is a millimeter thicker than all of the metal versions. And I'm like, I can't, I don't know enough about carbon or the milling or machining or forging process to go through carbon fiber as to why they would make it thicker. It is only 11 too thick, but I just, I wonder about that.
Everett	The carbon fiber, I think I know why it is. I think it's harder to do very, so I think if you get a millimeter worth of carbon, it's got similar strength to something like steel or maybe perhaps even more in certain applications. But if you have very thin carbon fiber, because it's a layer, you have like a sort of minimum thickness where it's not functional versus Steel, of course steel has a minimum thickness too, but I think the minimum functional thickness of steel is less than that or is more than that of carbon fiber. Does that make sense? Opposite. Sure. Yeah. You can't do thin carbon fiber. You can do thin steel.
Andrew	Right. Cause it's already, it's already brittle. I was just, I wonder how, why they weren't able to engineer their way around that and still retain their minimum thickness. Cause they're doing this really, I mean, It's a limited run.
Everett	I mean, we're talking about a tiny amount. 10.2 versus 10.2. We're talking about a very, very minimal difference.
Andrew	They're coming in at a thousand bucks. It's the most expensive PRX with good reason.
Everett	11.0 with the steel, 11.2 with the... That is a tiny difference, especially with the amount of joints you have. Is it 11 or 11.2? It's 11 on the steel.
Andrew	Oh, I thought it was a full millimeter off.
Everett	No, it's 0.2 difference.
Andrew	Oh, that's a big nothing then. Strike my complaint. I think this is a really cool edition of the PRX, right? It's like modernizing this thing that kind of got made cool because it wasn't modern.
Everett	Yeah, I will say that, you know, this is the second PRX or the second Tissot that's come out in the last year or so in carbon fiber, the other one being this Siderol, I think is how we pronounce that, Siderol. I do believe that there are a less than insignificant amount of people on the internet saying that the carbon fiber on the Siderol, Siderol has flaked. I don't know that it's a a widespread problem, but it is less than an insignificant amount. So YMMV with that material, but I agree with you Andrew. It's a very cool watch. It was also on my list. They also have, they introduced also this week to, Oh, and this has a better movement in it too, right? It's got the silicone. Oh yeah. It's got the silicone hairspring versus the Nivicron in the regular Powermatic 80, but they did also release two sort of basic bitch PRXs as well, both of them with gradient dials. One of them, I think they're identical. I think the blue at six o'clock on both of these watches is identical, but one of them has a darker blue at 12 o'clock. And the other one has a lighter blue at 12 o'clock. So they actually have really sort of a fire and ice type of look to them or a, you know, darker, lighter look to them.
Andrew	It's almost like sunrise and sunset.
Everett	But I think that the blue on the latter half on the lower half is the same blue, which I thought that's cool. Um, these are sort of basic waffle dial PRXs with power medics. They're fantastic. And 11 millimeters on those.
Andrew	I think I accept your position. That's the same blue.
Everett	I think it is, right? Yeah. I was noticing that earlier. One of these is pretty dark, the other one is pretty light, but I believe that the blue is the same, which is kind of fun.
Andrew	I thought it was fun. It's something.
Everett	It's like sort of a denim color.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	I like these. I thought they were cool.
Andrew	I like PRX releases.
Everett	Well, good because there are a lot of them, Andrew, so it's good that you like them. uh Grand Seiko Grand Seiko this all right this is cool Grand Seiko re-released a 45 GS model but it's got some tricks up its sleeve so last year or I guess uh earlier this year Grand Seiko released these SLGW models with this new caliber 9SA4 which was a a hand wound high beat movement. The first time Grant Seiko had done or the first time Seiko had done this in like 50 years since the 45 GS. It was it was funny. So the last time we did this, the 45 GS, which is one of our most favorite famous watches ever. But this is something different now. And these are in the the these S.L.G.W. are in the Evolution 9. They've now which is their like modern. They've now gone all the way back in time in the heritage collection and released what they're calling SLGW004 and SLGW005. Make no mistake about it, though. It doesn't matter what the names are. These are 1968 45 GSs, which is perhaps the most famous Grand Seiko of all time, because it encapsulates so well and so appropriately the grammar of design principles, right? So the facets and the proportions. So this thing is super cool. We've got the 9S, we've got this new 9SA4 hand-wound high-beat movement, uh these things are lovely and it is very very very accurate to the original they're both limited which is sad so what do we have we have a 1200 piece steel version of this limited to 1200 pieces um and we've got a 200 piece gold yellow gold version of this which is Absolutely delicious. Gold markers, sort of a cream dial. The steel has a lighter cream dial with silver markers, I should say. I think that these are 38 and a half by just under 10 meters thick, millimeters thick. They're terrific. These are lovely. Uh, they're limited and they're expensive, which is a problem.
Andrew	Yeah, for us. But this is a good Grand Seiko release. The case, the, the end link design on this case that makes it like a hooded lug that almost looks like an end link, great beveling on it. This is like, this is 10 out of 10 design. I want to see this like in modern stuff.
Everett	Now the bad news, 30,000 bucks for the steel, 45,000 bucks for the gold.
Andrew	That's a steal right there. It's, they're, they're giving them away.
Everett	And you get 30 meters of water resistance, which I think that's a bit of a middle finger, but whatever. Uh, yeah, maybe it's not a middle finger. I don't know. I just read 30 meters. I, when I read it, I was like, that's, this is just stupid. It's stupid that this is an at least 50 meters of water resistance.
Andrew	Next up for me, kind of bouncing all around the world right now. Breitling has done a cool thing. And I think Breitling just did a thing better than a lot of brands do it. They did a NFL collection representing all 32 teams with 104 units of each team's watch to celebrate the NFL's 104th birthday. Every team has got a good color scheme, a very, uh, Modest is maybe a good way to put it. Subtle logo of the team in the nine o'clock sub-dial. And it's just, it's a Chronomat, right? There's nothing particularly special about the watch that they chose to do it. Though the Chronomat is pretty baller. This is a cool release. Cause it's really often you see these big market teams get collaborations with a watch brand and people like Detroit's Lions fans get kind of left out. But there's 104 Detroit Lions. Breitling Chronomats out there now. They're a little expensive, but these are for like hardcore NFL fans who also buy Breitling. Where are they? They're $9,200 on a bracelet. $9,200 on a bracelet. What I really liked about this was how subtle the NFL logoing is on it. You would never, without a close examination of any of these watches, think that they were a novelty watch. They're a Chronomat, with a little logo and some color changes. I think it's a really well-executed novelty watch.
Everett	I like these.
Andrew	I mean, tell me you don't like these.
Everett	I don't like them. Well, you're an idiot. I don't know. I mean, they're fine. It's fine. I think it's tacky.
Andrew	I think it's tacky. Any novelty watch is tacky. That's what makes them a novelty.
Everett	You know, I think that there are degrees of novelty watches, right? I don't know.
Andrew	This is for the people drinking Dr. Pepper for Fansville. Mike, this is hardcore NFL fan. Have 10 grand to drop. and want to get a decent watch that's not just a novelty watch with their team's logo on it.
Everett	Maybe, maybe, maybe that's my, maybe that's my hesitation is I feel like the person who buys this watch is an asshole. Maybe. It's not. Or he's a front office guy. Sure, sure. But look, if you are a front office guy for the Detroit Lions and you want to wear a Detroit Lions watch. That's that's cool. I can dig that. But but these are being marketed to the public. Like if you're a fucking dude who lives on who lives in Seattle and you buy the the Seattle version. I don't know, man. I just I struggle.
Andrew	Are you are you telling me you you would have reservations with a subtly logoed digest, like a track town digest.
Everett	I guess that's, I guess that's where I say, I think that the person who's so heavily invested in an NFL team, I think maybe I don't relate to that person.
Andrew	Maybe.
Everett	Yeah. Or, or even a college football team, right? Even if it was like an Oregon Ducks, like I'm still a little like, all right, okay. Uh, yeah. I can't remember what the Tissot chronographs, the NBA Tissot chronographs that came out five or six years ago. They were like Powermatic 80s or something. I don't think, I think it was pre-Powermatic, but I think they were quartz chronographs. Anyway, the thing that doesn't bother, the reason I think that watch is okay is because it was like a $200 watch, right?
Andrew	And so... I think that's worse, because then you're just buying junk.
Everett	It's not junk though. It's a perfectly acceptable and perfectly reasonably. Anyway, the, uh, the execution of the logos in these is a little hit or miss. I think that's just because of the team logos. They're just the logos that have been placed on the nine o'clock register. Fine. Um, it's yeah, some of them work better than others. I think the Los Angeles one is particularly bad. Um, The colors, some of the colors are interesting. I think that the Chicago Bear has got a great treatment. That dial is like this dark blue with these. It's really like kind of a traditional color way.
Andrew	Other Seahawks is great. That dark blue with that bright green.
Everett	I, you know, as a Seahawks fan, I'm gonna, I'm gonna disagree with you. They're fine. They're chronomats. $8,800 on a rubber strap, $9,200 on a bracelet. Do you know what this bracelet is called, Andrew? I think... Ooh. Do you call this a Rouleau bracelet? Is this what's referred to as a Rouleau bracelet? I think so. I think... I have to look that up. I think it is. What I find interesting, though, is the Rouleau Bracelet. If you get the strap, the strap is like the rubber strap. It's also textured with that Rouleau. It's got the same texture. I think this is called Rouleau. The strap has the same texture, which I think is fun. Buy this on a bracelet. Don't be dumb. Yeah, obviously. If you're going to buy this, buy it on a bracelet. And I won't and I won't ever say mean things to your face if you do buy this.
Andrew	Whatever, I'm not going to look it up. I don't care enough.
Everett	Yeah, the Los Angeles Rams, I think, is the worst of all of these. Look at this. Yeah.
Andrew	Oh, God, it's bad. Rams logo just kind of sucks right now.
Everett	Yeah, that's that's not unfair. That's not the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, Rulo is pretty OK.
Andrew	Yeah, Carolinas was good. The Steelers was good, but that's not a big shock. It's black and yellow.
Everett	Dallas, I think, you know, the nice thing about the Cowboys logo is It's a star, right? Which is just like, anyway, the Dallas version of this is, I kind of like it. I would never, of course, I would never wear a Dallas anything ever, but the Cowboys version of this is good. And the Bengals version is pretty good.
Andrew	Anyway, moving on. Like I said, it's a, it's a well-executed weird, like novelty watch. That's a real watch with a little bit of novelty to it. I mean, People are spending more for, or maybe not more, but in the neighborhood for Snoopy watches, for Popeye watches, and just because it's a Speedmaster, that's acceptable. And maybe because it's a Speedmaster, it's acceptable, and this is a Chronomat and not a Speedmaster.
Everett	Yeah. Maybe I'm just kind of negative about NFL fandom.
Andrew	Perhaps. You're also a little negative about Breitling.
Everett	The deep, like that deep, NFL fandom that feels a little, well, I just find it a little bit off-putting.
Andrew	Because you don't have a team in your hometown. I mean, I'm a Seahawks fan, but... But I think if you had a hometown, like a true hometown team, not an up-the-way team, you might feel different.
Everett	Here's the thing, when I wear Oregon Ducks gear, I am most often either going to a Ducks game at Mattonite Arena or at Autzen Stadium Or I'm going to someone's house to watch a Ducks game on the television. I don't. So this is subjective and personal, and I'm not suggesting that anybody's wrong, but like, I'll see someone on like a random Wednesday afternoon, head to toe in Ducks gear. And I'm like, that's fucking weird.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Head to toe is weird. That's fucking weird. Zodiac.
Andrew	Ooh, yeah.
Everett	I love it. Zodiac releases a Super Seawolf compression diver limited edition in gold, and it's not PVD. It is not DLC. It is plated with 18 karat gold, and I love it. Yes, I love it. Gosh, look, Andrew, this is such a beautiful watch. So the Super Seawolf is a watch that I don't I don't love the Super Seawolf in the grand scheme of, oh, I'm going to go buy a dive watch. This isn't the one that I'm going to gravitate to. I think that the round case with the really angular, sticky-outy lugs, that's what they call those, right? Yes.
Andrew	That is the technical terminology for it.
Everett	And the lugs are pretty long. This just isn't my favorite. case.
Andrew	However, the lugs are long enough that they eat the entire end link.
Everett	You make this thing in 18 karat plated gold. And I'm like, Hmm, now we're talking. Hmm. It's got a Jubilee bracelet, which yes, please. 200 meters of water resistance. And this like inky blue dial with a black bezel. They just, they hit on every single fucking detail. of the watch. It's got an STP-121, which is kind of a basic movement. It's fine. It's a good movement, but a little basic. Limited to 300 pieces, it costs $5,000, which is not cheap.
Andrew	A gold-plated watch, though, I mean, the Seawolf itself is, what, $2,500? Something like that, yeah.
Everett	In the neighborhood.
Andrew	Yeah. Double it for plating it in gold. That's, I think that's in the sweet spot.
Everett	This thing is dope.
Andrew	Cause you're not, you're not going to find an 18 karat gold plated for less than this.
Everett	You know, I don't know. I don't know. I actually don't, I'm not, I don't think a lot of people are doing plated gold watches right now. So I'm, I'm not sure how much these things cost, but this thing is fucking beautiful.
Andrew	It is really good. And I'm with you on, on the Seawolf being or the super Seawolf. Cause there's a, trademarking there. The Super Seawolf not being like a go to for me. But when people are talking about like, Hey, I want to spend like about this much money on a dive watch. This is always in probably my first five or so recommendations. Like, Hey, take a look at this one. Take a look at this one. Uh, just feeling out taste and almost unanimously. Anybody who you recommend this watch to is like, Oh, I like that. Yeah. And it's got a bazillion color ways. Like there's just, there's not, not, a super seawolf out there for a person.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. Yeah. This is cool. It's very, very cool.
Andrew	And kind of out of the ordinary for them.
Everett	Totally. Totally. I saw this thing and I was like, uh, what, what, what, what changed?
Andrew	This is, this is more than a new color. Oh, right in the business. You weigh too much to be jumping on me like that. Okay. Okay, I think the thing that got me the most excited this week and the thing that's gonna cost me some money. Finally, the Moon Swatch is available online. Now, it's just the big four, which is the Mission to Earth, Mission to the Moon, Mission to the Sun, and Mission to Mars. They're only available online for U.S. and Chinese consumers, which means you're gonna have to set up a VPN or some kind of proxy or do some hacker shit if you live outside of those two countries. But they're a retail price. Yeah. They're what you would pay for it if you waited in line for the weekend.
Everett	And Andrew, have you looked recently? Are these all available?
Andrew	I'm looking right now. Chill. Chill. Both you, Doug, and Everett. 270 bucks, they appear to be available right now. Looking at the mission to the moon. Log in and add to cart. Or log in to Add to Cart. So there, that's how they're getting you. You don't have to go to the boutique, but you do have to get their emails.
Everett	The shipment of this product may be delayed. So I'm looking at Mission to Mars right now, and it says due to very high demand, the shipment of this product may be delayed.
Andrew	I bet they'll catch up within 30 days.
Everett	Yeah, I don't know enough about their supply chain and their manufacturer.
Andrew	They're making 10,000 SKUs. Yeah. I bet their supply chain is straight.
Everett	What do you mean they're making 10,000 SKUs?
Andrew	Of these watches. There's just the four available online.
Everett	Oh, you're just saying of the Moon's watch, they make a lot of them. Well, I don't know. I don't know how capable their scaling is on this. They've obviously had a few years in the saddle on these now, but maybe they don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm curious. I am curious about this.
Andrew	I'm going to get one.
Everett	Well, I have a mission to Mars.
Andrew	I think I'm going to get the mission to the Moon. Keep it clean and classic. Yeah.
Everett	Well, I have a, I have a Speedmaster, so.
Andrew	I'm not a big fan of the earth, the sun, uh, the, the Mars, I don't, I don't like all the white on the, on the bezel. I know that you have to, because I think that more red would have been problematic. You crazy. And I, I mean, I like seeing it, but it's not for me. It's not a watch I would wear.
Everett	You crazy. I would wear it and I would buy it and I would own it and I would wear it to court under a suit like I did this week.
Andrew	I've not seen you do it, but I believe that you have.
Everett	So last year or maybe earlier this year, I think it was 2023, Seiko released a Marine Master. I was like, Oh, the new Marine Master. And I was like, well, this is a cool watch, but what the fuck is this? Is this a Marine Master? I don't understand. What does Marine Master mean? What, what is this? It's just, it's just renamed. I like it, but this isn't to me a Marine Master. So what is Marine Master now? Well, look. They listened. Okay. I don't think I was alone in saying that. I don't think that I was, I said it before reading a million other people saying it. I'm not, I'm not, this was common. With that said, we're back. SLA 077 and SLA 079. These are 300 meter Marine Masters and they look like Marine Masters. So these are smaller, than the SBDX001, which is a 44mm watch. These are coming in at 42.5 or 42.6mm. So it's a more sort of manageable case, although at 44mm that SBDX wears really well. We've got 13.5mm and just under 50mm on the lug-to-lug. This is a big, robust watch. that most importantly looks like a Marine Master that's in a sort of a manageable sized case. We still don't have some of the hallmarks of the Marine Master, which are the monocoque case. These are more traditional construction on these guys, which is okay, which is okay. You've got a beautiful looking bracelet that I'm sure is kind of terrible. White dials, black dials, both of them textured. Marine Master hands, thank you. Sort of big, chunky Marine Master grip on the bezel. 8L35 movement, which is their 2800, 26 jewel, 50-hour movement. And it's got some finishing on it. It's got some pretty finishing, I would say. Some sort of machine-made Geneva striping. This is cool. They're $3,000. This is good. This is a good watch. It's expensive, but it's supposed to be expensive. It's got a terrific movement. It's well-sized. Thank you, Seiko. This is a good release, Andrew.
Andrew	I think at this Seiko zone, you're going to get a decent bracelet too. It's, it's not going to be, it's going to be better than just okay.
Everett	I mean, compared to what?
Andrew	Compared to their, their downtrace, like Prospex.
Everett	Like think about the other watches. Think about the other watches in this price range. We're talking about Aorus.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	We're talking about Tudor. At that zone, you're getting good. We're talking about Longines. Yeah. We're talking about Manta. Fuck, Christopher Ward at half the price, half the price. So, I mean, given its competition, this bracelet is going to blow. However, I'm with you. I'm with you. It'll probably be okay. It'll be good for Seiko.
Andrew	It'll be doable.
Everett	I mean, everything about this watch works, but literally everybody besides Zen that this watch competes with is going to beat the snot out of it in terms of bracelets. It's like Seiko and Zen. They're like, this is what you get.
Andrew	We spent all the money on the watch and the bracelet we found. It happened to fit.
Everett	These are cool. I am glad that they did not go with anything weird on the loom. These both have kind of a green white loom. Simple dials, we don't have any blues, we don't have any reds or greens, it's a black dial on a white dial.
Andrew	I could go for a blue dial in this though. Fine, give me a blue dial, but give me these ones first.
Everett	No extra colors.
Andrew	Yeah, no extra colors. Just drop them all, they have them in production.
Everett	Give me these ones first, these are the right ones. And the movement, I'm down with this movement. This is a good release, okay? That's what I wanted to say about it. All right. What's next? Where are we at? You know, we are at 48 minutes, so we can certainly talk about a few more watches.
Andrew	Yeah, I've got one more that I want to talk about. It's a brand we just mentioned, actually. The return of the Zen 156 with the 156.1 and 1.6.1E. So one of these is a limited edition. The latter is the E and is a limited edition of 300 pieces. And hang on. Scrolling down, we're gonna get to the money here. The E is 4,290 euros. 39.50 for the non-limited edition. The dials on these... Oh shoot, which one's the E? Doesn't matter. So we have the 156. We have the reintroduction of the 156, and this is a two-register chronograph. Absolutely tough, zen-looking tool watch. with the size to go along with it. It's not small by any means. 43 millimeter case diameter, 51 lug to lug. Hold your breath here. 15.45 thick, but there's a big but because it's a Valjoux 7750 base. So this is the Zen SZ-01 based on the Valjoux 7750. So we have this terrific chronograph movement. This is all Zen all the way. A hundred meters of water resistance. I'm, I'm happy to see this kind of making its way back into their catalog because Zen's got such a weird catalog that's like really inconsistent. I feel like you can never buy them. Like right as soon as you get an itch to buy a Zen, it doesn't work. Or the, or the mobile website doesn't work. Or like there's just, there's always, a very good reason to not buy it. Do you know the story on the one five, six?
Everett	Yeah. It's like Helmut. Helmut Zinn is like this dude in the eighties and nineties was like the watch a hustler, right? He's a fucking hustler. So we talked to last year about the Breitling Navitimer Zinn 903 and how the 903 is actually people are like, Oh, it's a, it's a, uh, homage to the... No, it's a Navitimer. Yeah. Zen has the right to make the Navitimer, and that's because Helmut Zen figured out some deal. So the 156, this is a... So there was a watch called the Leonidas, and... Or there's a brand called the Leonidas, which in the 60s was providing the Bundeswehr with pilot chronographs, These had Valjoux 222, hand-wound flyback chronographs in them. And then later at 230, the Valjoux 230. When Heuer acquired Leonidas, they took over the military contract. And at that point, Helmut Zinn started buying these watches, like new old stock versions of these watches. And at that point, they were obsolete. So he's buying them, refurbishing them, and bringing them to market as the Zen 155, and then later the 156. And these had a Lamania 5100 in them. If you haven't heard our Lamania 5100 versus 7750 episode, I recommend looking for it. It's kind of fun. But they haven't, you know, it's kind of like this limited purpose watch, right? There's like only so many of these things. Well, this is, that's the story behind this thing. So it's kind of been one of these unobtainium type of watches are hard to get and maybe not unobtainium.
Andrew	I'm close to it. Cause they're, they're like Franken new old stock sold as new in box, which is a little bit sketchy.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Um, the, the move from the 5100 to the 7750, I think makes a lot of sense. I don't think you can really get 5100s. 7750 was, I believe that 5100 versus 7750 was a true versus episode. I think I probably landed on 7750. That's a welcome move for me. I would say this is a cool watch. It's a cool watch with a cool story.
Andrew	And it's all Zen, man. I want to see more Zen. I need to pick maybe not one of these up.
Everett	It's all Zen, which is to say it's all somebody else's watch.
Andrew	So the difference is the limited edition is a beige, uh, Fotina with like a slightly kind of ghosted bezel on a black dial. And then the non-limited edition is a matte black bezel, black dial, red accents on your, uh, on your second hand, on your running seconds or on your, uh, chronograph hand and on your, uh, sub dial.
Everett	Andrew, did you talk about the price on these?
Andrew	Yeah, yeah, four thousand bucks. It's too much. I think so.
Everett	I think so. It's too much. These watches cost too much money.
Andrew	Yeah. And I don't usually. I can usually kind of get with the price and see where where we how we got there. I'm not sure I see it. I'm not sure I see it with this.
Everett	I mean, I see it. It's just too much money. I just think they I just think they screwed it up a little bit. It's too much money. Last watch for me, Andrew. Oops, I clicked on the wrong button. Where is it? Longines. Longines, which is formerly a weird brand that I didn't really know a lot about, didn't like any of their watches, that now is just... They're rolling it out. Rolling it. So this is not a new model, but it is 15 new references in the Master Collection. And these each, I believe all 15 references, have engraved dials. If you don't know what the Master Collection is, you can look. It's just this very, very classic Breguet numeral. I don't know if this is a dress watch. I think it's a sport watch. dressy, certainly by today's standards. And the coolest thing about these is these have these engraved dials that Longines sort of introduced in the last couple of years. 15 references, right? So you can get these in both sizes, both in the 34 and the 44 millimeters. They're both incredibly thin. I had the thinness up at some point and now I don't. But for the 40, I believe you're at about 10 millimeters thick.
Andrew	935 for the 40 and 920 for the 34.
Everett	There you go. There you go. You're not going to get a ton of water resistance on these, but you do get a great movement. The L88.5, which is a 2892 evolution. It's a pretty slim automatic movement, obviously. In these, we get a 72-hour power reserve with a 3.5 hertz beat rate, anti-magnetic silicone balance spring. These are coming in at between 2,500 and 3,200 on the leather and 4,300, well, these are in euros. $3,000 to $5,000, five-ish on the bracelet. Yeah.
Andrew	These more expensive ones, are these true two-tones? Is it actual precious metal?
Everett	No, I don't think it is precious metal.
Andrew	I think that they are... Cases capped with 18 karat yellow gold or 18 karat rose gold. Gold capped. So we're at least getting precious metal, like Yeah, content.
Everett	Yeah, that's right.
Andrew	We're not getting just like a PVD or or a dye or some kind of colored steel. That's right. You know, we're getting a capped.
Everett	The two tones are good. The star and some of these are some of these are got have like diamond encrusting. Yeah, these are really neat.
Andrew	A little bit of bling on some of them. Yeah.
Everett	Yeah, that that's right.
Andrew	I could actually really get down with that. diamond one, if it didn't have the diamonds, that just flat.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah. So my favorite is the all silver case and bracelet with the gold, with the gold Breguet hands. That's my favorite. I like the all silver with the blued hands. Oh yeah. That's nice too.
Andrew	Not surprising.
Everett	Yeah. It's sort of got like a nautical vibe to it.
Andrew	That's the one that's got the diamonds. Oh no, here's one. Nope. There's one without the diamonds.
Everett	In the 40 millimeter.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	I don't think I could do a 34. I like to think that I could. No, I don't think I could.
Everett	You'd want to get this in the 40, I think. Yeah. I'm wearing a 36 millimeter watch today, and this is certainly about as small as I would go.
Andrew	I really like a 36.
Everett	This is, Andrew, have you seen this watch?
Andrew	Is that the full, the final version of the full mod?
Everett	Yeah, so this is my SNK in the Lucius Atelier Explorer case, the ultra-thin Explorer case. So I think it's about 10 millimeters. For an NH movement, it's about 10 millimeters thick. It's an SNK movement dial and hands that I've put in a 36 millimeter Lucius Atelier case, the ultra-thin. is pretty terrific. I'm wearing it on a Tropic Strap, a Foster branded Tropic Strap.
Andrew	I've looked at modding my SNK like this and I've been reluctant to.
Everett	You know, for me, the SNK was a watch that I really didn't wear because I've got my Pulsar military watch and then I've also got my Hamilton and they just are both better than the SNK, the things the SNK does. So, but I, but I have a soft spot for the SNK. So I wanted.
Andrew	Well, and you've, you, this is probably the, what, the fourth generation of this SNK in your life. It's been modded. The only thing that exists is the movement and the dial.
Everett	Yeah. Well, and the dial even went away for a while. So this is all back together. Um, yeah, it is the dial off.
Andrew	Like two degrees. It's Seiko off, so it actually might not be off. Yeah.
Everett	It's within tolerable... Theoretically, the crown stem shouldn't let it be too far off, but yeah.
Andrew	It's within tolerance for Seiko. I do really like it. You see what I'm talking about, though. It's just the tiniest bit. Yeah, just the tiniest bit. Anyway, terrific. But as with Seiko, you must always check for alignment because, you know... Andrew, you got any more watches you want to talk about today? You know, I think we can go without.
Everett	Well, then other things, what do you got?
Andrew	You know, so I talked a few weeks ago about watching a new to me show. I watched the new, uh, Daryl Dixon, which is a spinoff of the walking dead, but there was only the one season available. And I was like, man, I could kind of get down with some more zombie show. And I never finished the walking dead. It lost me the season. Negan was introduced. I was just like, I'm over this. I'm not going to wait a year to wait a week to watch this, but now the entire series is available on Netflix and I'll tell you when you can watch them back to back. It is far more enjoyable.
Everett	Yeah, you gotta you gotta speed.
Andrew	Watch you get over that hump of like where it's about to lose you. It brings you right back in. I'm in the season 10 right now. Because it just plays in the background. Once you get past that hard to just tolerate storyline. It was like, there was weird montages of like, just like actual like 80 style montages of smacking zombies. I was like, what is this? They were trying so hard to create drama in a world that didn't need drama created. It was, it was, it was taxing. So I stopped watching it, but I was in the mood to watch some zombies get killed. So I started watching and I once I got over that hump, man, I am back. I am loving it. So if you were like me and fell off of the show because it was falling off, they course corrected. They for sure course corrected. We've got great villains that are super, uh, super realistic. Like you can, you can actually see it happening. There's no, there's, it's far fetched, right? We're in a zombie apocalypse. Everything's far fetched, but it's, it's working for me. So this is my other thing. Go back and revisit the shows that like, you know, that lost you when you were having to watch them live. And now that you can binge them and you can push through those, those season breaks, those mid season breaks, those kind of like failing storylines where they haven't had a chance to course correct in the writing and like production, go back and rewatch the shows that have lost you. Cause a lot of them course correct or get canceled.
Everett	And while you're at it, you lazy motherfuckers, fold some laundry because your wife is getting pissed. That's what I do. And there you go. Fold laundry and watch television. Great. You know, Kim and Betty actually just started watching The Walking Dead, which I thought was interesting. They watch a lot of dumb shit, right? They watch Supernatural. They've watched... Anyway, they have the right level of commitment, which is something in between um, aloof and like excitedly interested in what's going to happen next. It's somewhere right in the middle and it probably vacillates between those two poles as well. Uh, so I think that they're going to just watch two or three episodes at a time for the next several months and they'll get through it. So I'll probably pick back up with them. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe not full time. I probably won't watch every episode, but I will become interested when they get to the stuff I haven't seen.
Andrew	Yeah. Cause the stuff I hadn't seen before was better than like the show got bad and then it got good again.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. Um, Hey, I have another thing. Do me. My other thing is a book that I just finished. It is a book called, and I sent you a link. The book is called the old man's war. This is a two, book written by an American writer named John Scalzi, I believe is how you pronounce his last name. Looks right. Um, and it is a military science fiction book. It was nominated for a Hugo award, did not win. Uh, I was going through, I do a thing where I sort of go through the Hugo nominations for, uh, books that I perhaps haven't read. And I, I came across this one and I was like, have I read it? And then I kind of read this synopsis and I was like, I don't know if I've read it. And I was like, ah, fuck it. I didn't see it in my, um, I didn't see it in my Kindle, but it had come out before. And I was like, nah, I'll just, I'll just take a flyer. So I, um, I downloaded this book on Kindle and I started reading it. I quickly decided I hadn't read it. And then I spent the next like day and a half just cramming it because it was so good. So, um, without giving too much away, This is a military science fiction book. It is set in a Earth setting, but where the people from Earth sign up for a colonial defense force that they are enlisted in on their 75th birthday, if they so desire. It's optional. It's such a funny concept because Uh, you know, almost nothing about the colonial defense force. In fact, it's, it's, it's purposefully vague. You don't know what's going to happen except that, you know, because you're 75, there seems to be a rationale, a deductive reasoning that you're going to get a new body by the colonial defense force, which can do things that nobody really knows how they can do. For instance, there's like this elevator that goes to a sort of space station. And on earth, they don't know how the elevator works, but they know that we don't have the technology to do it. So there's an understanding on earth that the colonial defense force has technologies that we don't have. And so this is captivating and the story sort of unfolds. I won't give too much away.
Andrew	And with this, understanding that at 75 is when you are, when you enlist or, or get the option to, there's also the understanding that you're in your twilight years, right? Like there's no extended life expectancy on earth, right?
Everett	That's right. That's right. Um, it was terrific. It was terrific. I had actually, I do know that I have once or twice in the last year or so considered reading this book and ultimately passed. I was like, it just isn't, I'm not feeling it today. So I finally took the plunge. I was like, all right, it's time. I'll get this one. I am now on the second book and I'm probably going to read, I think that there's five or six of these now that are at least loosely connected. Um, I imagine assuming they stay as good or relatively close to as good, going to probably just cram through all of them. The first book was phenomenal. It was phenomenal. I loved it. I read it like in every spare moment over the course of about two days. Just absolutely terrific. So yeah, that's my recommendation. Sci-fi, Old Man's War, written by John Scalzi. It's a 2005 book. If you haven't read it, I recommend it.
Andrew	It's an interesting premise. I like it.
Everett	It's really good. Yeah. I'm, I sort of, I almost want to say more about it, but I don't want to give anything away because I want you to read it.
Andrew	If you want to know more about it, read the book.
Everett	I know that's not a super fun other thing. Like, Hey, there's this thing. Um, but that's my other thing.
Andrew	Well, most of your other things are pretty weird. Vintage golf hats. Andrew. Fountain pens.
Everett	Andrew. Say your last piece. Just say it. Vintage golf clubs. Hey, You at home, thanks for tuning in once again to this episode of 40 and 20, the watch clicker podcast. Hey, we have a podcast about watches and we do it every week. You should tune in. If you want to go to our website, you can do that at watch clicker.com. That's where we post every single episode of this show, but we also post articles and reviews and other neat written things about watches. If you want to check us out on social media, you can do that at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker on Instagram. If you want to support us, and oh boy, we hope you do, because everything we do costs just a little bit of money, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. We are still doing this six years later because of the folks supporting us. Go to patreon.com slash 40 and 20 and drop us a buck. 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.