The Lost (and Found) Episode (361)

Published on Sun, 05 Oct 2025 09:55:34 -0700

Synopsis

In this episode of the "40 in 20" podcast, hosts Andrew and Everett begin by discussing a recent Oregon Ducks football victory over Penn State in a dramatic double overtime game. They then transition to their main topic: watches. The hosts cover a wide range of recent watch releases and collaborations, including the Precedis and Watch Observer A11 Type 44 Limited Edition, the Procedis Victory Collection, Studio Underdog and Fears' cocktail-themed O2 Manhattan, a new Timex Atelier diver, Baltic's updated Aquascaphe in two sizes, Yema's four new affordable watches, a carbon Doxa Sub-300, Tudor's first moon phase watch (the 1926 Luna), and several other notable timepieces. Throughout their discussion, they evaluate each watch's design, specifications, value proposition, and positioning in the market. The episode concludes with Andrew recommending a Cotopaxi backpack for kids and Everett sharing his enthusiasm for Ardbeg Uigeadail scotch whisky, which he compares favorably to Lagavulin 16.

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 Besides falling asleep at the wheel, I'm fine. You know what?
Andrew Sometimes that'll happen. Sometimes that'll happen.
Everett I'm doing great, Andrew. How are you?
Andrew I'm, you know, chugging on along. I'm still riding a fantastic college football Saturday high. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. A couple of things could have gone a little different yesterday that would have made the high even higher. but I honestly don't know how I even feel like I could possibly ask for more.
Everett Yeah, that was nuts. So at home, if you don't know what we're talking about, we're Oregon Ducks fans. We live in Eugene, Oregon, the home of Oregon football, and we're both Oregon alumni. And yesterday, Oregon played Penn State. Little-known football team out of Pennsylvania. The Nittany Lions. We played in Happy Valley for a quote-unquote whiteout, which is sort of Penn State's like, we're coming for you. Penn State's won six whiteouts in a row. Come to find out. Penn State has a couple of traditions. One is winning whiteout games. Yes. The second tradition they have is losing top 10 football matches. So does Oregon. Oregon's got that same. Yeah. So anyway, we go in and it seems it's a big game. And we know Penn State's really good this year and really tough. And we won. And we won. After two overtimes, Oregon Ducks won that football game. We texted a little bit after the game, Andrew, just sort of like about our... Like the release after having been tense. You know, sports are really, for me, I know this isn't the case for everybody. It's a really visceral. I was talking to a friend, a fellow watch guy. He's actually a moderator for a competitor. He's a moderator for the Slack for a competitor podcast. But we were talking. He's like, yeah, I just don't care. And I was like, no, that's better, right? Because it's literally meaningless. There's no meaning to sports. And yet, I care so much. So much.
Andrew So much. Anyway, yeah, that was fun. And so I did not watch all of or really much of any of the other big games. I followed the Georgia-Alabama game as it went on. Never in my life did I ever think for any reason under any circumstances would I ever utter the words roll tide. Roll tide. Roll tide. Took down Georgia. Yeah, that was a big day.
Everett You know, the other game I watched. Oh, in Ole Miss. Ole Miss LSU. I watched most of that game. And I got to tell you, from Oregon, we're big on uniforms out here. People know this.
Andrew Yeah, it's a thing.
Everett Ole Miss. Ole Miss maybe has the best uniforms in the country.
Andrew They looking hot yesterday?
Everett Oh, man. Oh, man. You know what? And they do the thing. They do uniform combos. They're all in. So they announced their uniform combos before the game. And I was impressed. Game respects game. They're doing it. Ole Miss, good uniforms.
Andrew Yeah, so a big day in college football. So I'm coming down off of that excitement from yesterday because I was stressed. Going into double overtime, Oregon is historically not a very good fourth quarter team and is definitely not a good overtime team. It just felt bad. It was like, fuck, god damn it. That's how I felt. Yeah, but there was no need to feel that. Yep. Yeah.
Everett So, great day. Great day, yeah. Do we just go right into it? Are we here to talk about watches?
Andrew I suppose we can do that. We're here to talk about watches, Andrew. So I've organized the links kind of into two categories today because there's two distinct categories of watches that we're going to discuss. And first up, we're going to talk about some interesting collaborations that occurred over the last couple of weeks because none of these watches really in and of themselves are new or that interesting. Gosh, I don't know, man.
Everett As new releases, right? By the way, we've got like 20 watches to talk about.
Andrew These are iterative, collaborative releases. First, I want to start... Do you think we can try to go fast and get through these? There's no chance. We don't go fast. Let's go. Well, we'll try. Let's try. Let's just have it in the back of our head. Okay. So first, I want to talk about the Precedis and Watch Observer A11 Type 44 Limited Edition. And... Proceedus does a thing, right? They do really true to form classic A11 military style watches. This watch observer collaboration is a collaboration with the magazine where they kind of came together and they just did a few little new things with this watch. And frankly, it's still an A11 type 44. There's no true deviation from that. It's these two brands bringing their own flavor together to make this really historically inspired, really lovely. And I love the Procedus line. I love these classically sized, styled, and inspired military watches that still adhere to the mil-spec idea. And they're affordable. 675 US dollars. They're only making 250 of these and they're only going to be available from the Watch Observer's website. But they're just, they nailed it.
Everett Yeah, these are really cool. 32 millimeters, right? Oh, excuse me. Sorry, 38 millimeters is what I meant to say.
Andrew Yeah, 38, 100 meters of water resistance. These are honoring specifically the U.S. Air Force's 533rd Bomb Squadron. There's some throws to the squadron in there, but it's everything you'd expect. They kind of make it the perfect A-11 because the A-11 has really stringent requirements to be an A-11. And they just do that thing. I love that.
Everett Yeah. Great hands on this. I love the, I love the way that I love the dial orientation because it's, it's exactly the same as an OG a 11, but for some reason in this presentation, it really, everything pops, right? Yeah. It's, it's a really terrific, that's really terrific. Watch Andrew.
Andrew The coinage bezel, it's money.
Everett I might have to get one of these. Well, you know, that's the nice thing about them is they are affordable. And so you can get one. I'm going to talk about another prosthetist. And this actually came out about a month ago. I was so hoping you'd follow the lead. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you. I'm with you. This actually came out about a month ago, and it's a release of four watches in their Victory collection. So they've got the Invasion of Normandy for that A11. This is actually a V-Day collection, the 80th anniversary of V-Day collection. And it's a really interesting set of four watches. I'm going to be honest, Andrew. There are only one of these that I would buy.
Andrew Oh, interesting.
Everett And the reason is I really am a bit opposed to gold PDD. And that's personal. I love the way it looks. I just think there's an affectation there that I'm not a huge fan of. And so it's like if I'm going to get gold, I'll get gold. And I don't want to get something that's made to look like gold. It's the same reason I don't like vintage loom. Okay. But there is a silver version of this for me. Black dial, beautiful. So what this is is a 38 millimeter sport dress watch. And I'm going to say sport dress because it's got water resistance and it's automatic. Okay? So if this was a true dress watch, we would have a hand wind, probably thinner with low water resistance. Now, this is 10.5. It's plenty thin. But it's got 100 meters of water resistance. We don't have a lume to dial, so it's dressy. You can 100% wear this with any degree of dress. Perhaps if you're in England at a cosplay white tie event, then you couldn't wear this. But there is no other circumstance in which you couldn't wear this watch, correct?
Andrew Yeah, with 100 meters of water resistance, this will take you anywhere your body can survive.
Everett So Miona 9039, 316 case, most of these are gold plated. And we can talk about the dial variations, but we've got wonderful sword hands. We've got a 12 o'clock marker or a 12 o'clock Arabic marker. And then everything else is either a dot or a long triangle marker. We do have every five minutes there is a tiny little minute marker at the outside of the domed dial. So as the domed dial curves down, we've got a pretty decently sized crystal. We've got these beautiful twisted wire lugs. This thing is just...
Andrew This is now like when people are like, hey, I kind of want like a dress feeling watch. Like the Bambino is typically where I go in the affordable space. And I'll still recommend the Bambino 38 first, right? Because it's under 300 bucks. But if you want to spend a little bit more and get something way much more cooler, this has now just taken the, all right, here's your first offering. But if you want to do the cool thing that does all the same things but better objectively in every single way, this is the watch.
Everett I like this better than any Cocktail Time ever released.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett There's never been a Cocktail Time release that I like better than this. um it is 580 bucks guys miyota movement 90 39 42 hour powers or 100 meters of water resistance 38 by 10 8 thick it's gorgeous perfect and with the assembled in the united states and with the colorway options you've got a gilded black on a gold pbd a gold dial on a gold pbd a white gilt on a gold pvd and then a steel and black dial there really is one for everyone
Andrew These four options are just the four most perfect color variations they could have gone with. Andrew, what's next? Oh, next up for me. We're going to take a minute because this one we're going to talk about for a second. Studio Underdog and Fears back at it with the next entry into the cocktail series, the O2 Manhattan. And I said it the first time they released it. collaboration I would never have put these two brands in a design space together and said come out with something awesome because they just don't make sense to me but when you see it together it's like holy shit what would like why didn't I think of this first these are fantastic uh fear's case feel with all the studio underdog rich color feels uh screwed down sapphire dial with this beautiful manhattan colored not manhattan city manhattan the beverage colored dial and it is fire And we're going to get to see them in person because they're going to have them at Wind Up.
Everett Yeah, so these are a limited release meant for Wind Up New York. So they're first come, first serve. I don't know if they're going to be available at Fears Display or at Studio Underdogs Display or perhaps both. I won't be any because I'm sure I'm faster than Nicholas and Rich. And these come on the heels of, they did this. They did the Gimlet. Yeah. I think the Gimlet felt to me very much like a studio underdog release, which is to say, I think that that very light dial with the Sapphire, that very light... underlayment on that sapphire. It feels very, yeah, I don't know if I'm saying that poorly, but do you know what I mean?
Andrew When you said that, it made me think of the word hymen. I don't know why. That's why I smiled.
Everett I think this one with the richness.
Andrew It is.
Everett This feels more to me like a Fears release. And I'd be curious to know like whose influence. This feels to me like a Fears watch, whereas the Gimlet felt to me like a Studio Underdog release.
Andrew I can see it. And I think it's all because of the color play, right? The Gimlet was like, it felt almost like the watermelon. Yeah. It was not by a long shot, but it felt that way. And this feels much more refined, much more... And I think it's just because of the color. Like, this is just a more dignified, elegant color structure than the Gimlet was. Yeah. Yeah. And Fierce, like, just screams, like, dignified, prim and proper to me. I don't know. I mean, I know why. But that's what the Fierce brand feels to me, just impeccable, sartorial decision-making. Yeah.
Everett So 38 millimeter Brunswick case, 42 hour power reserve on the Salida SW210 hand winding movement, studio underdog dial, $1,300. Available October 17th, 300 pieces. That's a good summary. I did good. You did. Yeah, you're welcome. Let's talk about the Timex. Yep. We're getting out of our... I know, but you have all the collabs and I didn't bring up the collabs because there was more interesting stuff. So it's my turn. We're talking about the Timex. I'm sorry, Andrew. I know.
Andrew You ruined the flow. I even told you at the beginning.
Everett We're separating this into two distinct... I know, but I don't want to waste all my time on your stupid collabs. I'm just joking. Okay, okay. Look, this is kind of a collaboration. This is Timex collaborating with a different watch brand that doesn't exist. Timex released an evolution of the Giorgio Galli mindset, I'm going to say, which is to say... Much, much higher-end Timex. And there's another reason it's Evolution. We've got a skeletonized case, which the Gali watches were sort of their iconic design language. This is a $1,000 Timex-made, Giorgio Gali-designed, whether directly or indirectly. And it's just as much awe-inspiring as it is head-scratch-inspiring. I think the general response to these has been a degree of excitement. I think the watch itself, in a vacuum... is gorgeous right we've got this great size it's a 41 millimeter dive watch 13 millimeters 200 meters uh that giorgio galley skeletonized case with the black ip coated mid gaze much like we've seen in the past it is got this bezel a loomed bezel that is It's a polished, I believe it's a polished sapphire bezel. We've got a lovely dial. Ceramic insert. We've got a lovely dial with, okay, ceramic. Sorry, Andrew.
Andrew It looked like sapphire to me too.
Everett Uh, it, it's got like a, a steel ring on the outside that kind of like frames the gorgeous markers and, and extends almost into the rehot, which is marked beautifully. I might say it says Timex Atelier or Atelier perhaps. Um, we've got really prominent and well-finished crown guards. Okay. It's gorgeous.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett It's gorgeous. It is $950 on, this is the head scratcher, $950 on a strap, $1,000 on a bracelet. It's an enamel dial too. Like what? Yeah. So what? I think I hate it when people say, oh, it's overpriced because I don't think that this watch is overpriced. No, but I think for, I think for, we generally talk to the, the value seeking enthusiast crowd, right? You at home, most likely you're a member of the value seeking enthusiast crowd, which is to say your priorities in watches are value. And for you, you're going to have a hard time with this watch because the value isn't there. When you compare this to other watches you can get, be it from Tissot or from Christopher Ward or from any number of brands, Traska, Baltic, the Baltic watches we're going to talk about later. We're going to talk about four Yema watches in just a minute that are all better values than this. There are so many watches that present a better value that for you and for me, I'll just say, this watch presents some head-scratching moments. Okay.
Andrew Why do they present a better value? I don't know anything about this Katina SA100.
Everett Okay, and I'll tell you what it is. So Katina is an old vintage watch brand. They don't make really watches anymore. It's not any that are notable. They're owned by the same parent company as Yema. So the Katina 100, what is it? SA-100?
Andrew Yeah, SA-100.
Everett Is the base architecture that the Yema 2000 and Yema 3000 movements were based on. Okay. And those movements were discontinued by Yema recently because they were so, so shitty. So this 36-hour power reserve movement is too shitty for Yema to use, even when Yema's doing its own sort of upgrades to it, okay? And I'll just say, for their part, Yema, who owns this movement, just released four sub-$1,000 watches using a Salida movement, okay? So there's a problem with this movement. Let's just be clear. It's not a good movement. It's a cheap movement, and it presents a place for Timex to make margin, but it is not a good movement. And so, now, I haven't handled one of these, so can I say the quality is there or not? I don't know. But I guarantee you this is more than a 3x margin on this. This is a 4X, 5X, maybe 6X margin, okay? If this watch cost Timex more than $200 per part to make, I would be shocked, floored, okay? So it is a huge margin. So when I say the value is not there, present this next to a Christopher Ward C60 300-meter watch. And tell me which is the better watch. That's what I mean when I say the values. No, no, I'm there. Now, if you want something fucking rad that is, if you've got $9,000 or $10,000 watches and you're like, whoa, I have an opportunity to buy this really cool, maybe once in a lifetime, best Timex ever made, I think maybe this watch is for you. This watch is for people that don't have to value, spec, compare, and get the highest value. It's because it's objectively cool. You're not getting a good value, but that's okay because it's rad. Yeah, it really is. That's all I mean by that, Andrew. I know. It's not meant to be a criticism. I mean, it is kind of. But really, I can appreciate this watch and just say it's going to be hard for me. It's going to be hard. I can't spend that much money on this watch that's not going to be a good value. Or maybe I could. I don't know. I'm getting to a place where that would be more comfortable. But you know what I mean?
Unknown Mm-hmm.
Everett So I talked a lot, Andrew. What are your thoughts?
Andrew I dig this. It has all of the telltale signs of Timex's taking up market watch making and design seriously. I know this is a galley iteration, but this watch looks good. This watch looks like Baltic. It looks like... classic kind of just tool watch, dive watch. And if you pop the movement out, even if you put a 9039 in here, the value's there. We have an enamel dial, we have a ceramic insert, great case making. Or case design, right? I have no idea what this feels like in person. A butterfly clasp on the bracelet. Maybe it's trash. And maybe the value proposition is totally destroyed when you get it in person. But the top-down imagery of this and the spec sheet barring the movement. Yeah. The value's there.
Everett I think that's right, Andrew. I think that's right. And it's a fair observation. Yema puts, or excuse me, Timex puts a good movement in here. This is, yeah, easy. I may be okay with it, yeah.
Andrew Yeah, this isn't a direct competitor with like the C600 or even the Aquascoff, I don't think. And we'll talk about the Aquascoff here in a second. But it's in the conversation.
Everett Yeah, I mean, this is a heck of a lot better than these Shinola Sea Monster watches, right? Yeah.
Andrew And, you know, at $1,000, what else are we talking about in that range? Yeah, well, I mean, I kind of said some of them, but, yeah.
Everett I pulled up a list of $1,000 watches, and there's some Seiko, there's some Citizen, there's a lot of micro-brand. You've got some Tissot stuff. Obviously, you don't get Tudor, you don't get Lejeune, you don't get that next step up, but you get so much micro-brand stuff. And then right after that, I saw that Yama article about the four new Yama releases.
Andrew Mm-hmm.
Everett And I was like, well, I don't even need this article because this is case in point, especially considering the movement choice.
Andrew Yeah. But if they pop something there, and I think if you pop in 1939 and you can even push this to $1,200 or a Salida 200, I'm like, you know, you're there.
Everett I'm probably okay with this at $1,100 with a Salida. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. What's next, bud? Let's just talk about it. Let's talk about the Aquascafe. Oh, the Baltic. Yeah. Aquascafe. Yeah. Mark two. So Baltic has dropped an update, if you will, to the Aquascafe and released it in two sizes. They've made some changes throughout, but they've kept the...
Everett Yeah, they've done lots of like one-offs. Tweaks. Titanium or whatever.
Andrew Yeah, but they've held true to what I think of when I think of the Aquascafe. And they've... Aquascafe, maybe?
Unknown Aquascafe? Aquascafe?
Andrew I don't know. I don't... It's not... I don't know. I'll blow that. It's not the one you said, for sure.
Unknown Aquascafe.
Andrew There's an E at the end. But so they've released this in a 37 millimeter or a 39 and a half millimeter case.
Everett Yeah, and the 37 is new. I don't think they've ever had that before.
Andrew So they're shrinking it down. I really, really like this trend with brands of broadening their size offerings. I don't need 18 sizes like we see with Tudor, where you can get every watch from 30 to 45 millimeters at millimeter increments. I don't need that. But having a few size offerings to broaden your appeal, I really, really dig. And I don't... I don't want to undervalue the challenge that that presents of scaling up and down a watch to look appropriately designed at two different sizes, right? If you think of, oh, which Tudor is it? there's a, there's a tutor that has like four sizes available and the two middle sizes look great. And the top end and the bottom end are, it's like, Oh, you just, you just kept stretching the corner to scale it, to put it in the CNC machine. And they didn't make the necessary adjustments on font size, marker size, hand, like they just didn't do that. And this, this isn't happening here. These are two really appropriately sized and dimensioned. really well-spec dive watches at 37 and 39, 200 meters of water resistance. They've got their multiple bracelet options, either steel flat link or the beads of rice or an FKM rubber.
Everett And that FKM rubber Tropic is...
Andrew really yeah it looks fire the texture on it is like phenomenal yeah uh and it's money and i love seeing baltic releases because i feel like baltic was pushing really hard like two or three years ago and we just never stopped talking about baltic and they've kind of they've they pumped the brakes a little bit are getting a little bit more deliberate and just slowing down and and doing stuff like this
Everett No, you know, Andrew, I think I'm with you maybe just 100%. I just want to talk about the watches for a moment. I'm actually stunned by how much better these watches look than the Mark I Aqua Scaf. whether it's the three-dimensional loom on the dial or the refined bezel or the crown, the way the crown sits in the case inside those crown guards is gorgeous. The refinement at the graining is real. I think that this is... Look at the pinion. Look at the hand stack at the pinion. This is a real upgrade in terms of just fit and finish and quality, I think. And we're seeing product photographs, so take that for what it is.
Andrew But that's what you expect in an iterative release of a brand that's, you know, the Aqua Scoff came out five years ago?
Everett I'm really impressed.
Andrew Eight years ago?
Everett I'm really impressed by this release. And the price is the same, or a little bit more, but not, I mean... We're under €700 on a bracelet. I'm fine with this. This is a really terrific release.
Andrew Yeah, it's money. An iterative release win. The finishing and the fitment of the end links with the lugs is... Just chef's kiss.
Everett Well, we talked about it a lot already, so I'll pull up the link for the four new Yama releases. So Yama, interesting company, French company, historically some quality control problems, right? We've got this morto-based company that has like... Really one foot in their history and one foot in progressive, enthusiast watch design and making. And we, you and I, Andrew, have been really, and certainly I felt this way, really high on their CMM level. in-house morto movement uh making what that's done though is that's taken yema from an affordable enthusiast brand to like a next level enthusiast brand no not expensive not not luxury but getting up
Andrew there but they're playing in the waters of like high like like top end christopher ward launching launching in in monta and certainly in that uh like you know some entry hamiltons they're playing in that in that entry level luxury zone
Everett So this week, Yema announced what I think is a really interesting and delightful. I think it's delightful. I also think it's a risk. What they've done is they've released four new watches.
Andrew That's a big lift.
Everett Four new watches with Salida 200 movements. All of these meant to present a lower cost entry point to Yamaha. Each of these are under 1,000 euro. And they're all awesome. Yeah, they're all really good. They're all awesome. Yeah. Oh, okay. So four of them. And we'll just go through. So Yamaha Diver, this is not going to be. So hold on. Stop. You're talking, I'm not. None of these are going to surprise you. None of these watches, you're not going to see any of these and be like, whoa, whoa, this is totally new. So we're going to go quickly through them. You can look at the pictures if you want. You're talking, I'm not. The Yamaha Diver, this is their Monon inspired case, 200 meters of water resistance, 39.5. uh we've got it's 11 thick 11 thick that's right 890 euro on the bracelet it looks so good though oh excuse me uh rubber 890 uh bracelet 990 euro salita 200 inside it's really good 11 thick 10.95 under 11 thick The Navy Graph Heritage, another 200-meter water-resistance dive-style watch, this time more of a flat case, not Monin-inspired. It's kind of pilot-y, dive-y. Pilot-y, dive-y. A wet pilot. 890 or 990. Again, we're at 39 by 1085 thick. with the salita 200 black available in black and blue both of them are awesome they both have yellow hands yellow and then and then fotina loom yes uh the fly graph pilot if it had white loom pop i think this is the i think this is the pick of the litter This is a beautiful pilot watch. No bracelet availability on this one, which is fine. But this is a high polish pilot watch. Oh, you can get this on their multi-link steel bracelet. I didn't realize that. But 38.5 millimeters by 8.8 millimeters and 100 meters of water resistance.
Unknown How'd they do that?
Everett $890 and $990. And it is awesome. How'd they do that? Applied markers around. Beautiful dials. Love it. And then the Urban Traveler. This is one that surprised me a little bit because they've really put their ass and the CMN movements into the Urban Traveler and marketed it as a higher-end watch. beautifully thin higher end steel sport watch integrated ish yeah ish i think is the so it's really important there here what we've got is a urban traveler with a salita that's coming in at 39 by 10.8 so clearly presenting a value entry point to this watch um And it's good. I really like it. These come, they're $9.90 on a bracelet or $9.90 on the FKM rubber and they're good.
Andrew Which is interesting. I hope that's a typo.
Everett Which one?
Andrew That it's 990 on a bracelet or on rubber. I think it's 890 and 990 universally because everything else is 890, 990.
Everett I think the reason that these are 990 is because it's a custom integrated strap. So you can get whichever you want. They're the same though.
Andrew Okay. Yeah. I hope it's a typo. Because you should get it on a bracelet. Because this is a really good flat link. It's beautiful. Yeah. It's a really good flat link. I don't dig the brown, but the blue and white colorways on that are hot fire.
Everett The pilot on the bracelet's really good. It's like a flat jubilee, a flat angular jubilee. I'm not sure what you call that style, but they've done a really good job on these.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah, so the reason that's the FKM is because it's a center link, and so it's actually a custom strap. You can get it on the bracelet, right? Just get it on the fucking bracelet. Yeah, get it on the bracelet. Anyway, I think when you look at – so the risk. I said I think this is risky. Okay. I wonder if this makes, you know, there's a reason that brands don't dilute their value, right? There's a reason that Rolex doesn't sell a cheap watch, right? Like if they want to sell a less expensive watch, they sell it under Tudor. And so I wonder if Yema's creating a, if they're diluting their own brand here.
Andrew I don't know. We've seen this before where we see brands offer their kind of like affordable products zone, right? And we see it with a couple brands that they offer the same watches in quartz or mechanical. And we've seen it with some micro brands where it's like, hey, do you want the Salida or do you want the NH movement? And you're going to pay for that Delta. And I'm okay with that. Right. It's better than brands who who give you the like you'll either get this with an NH or a Miota movement. It just kind of depends on what on what comes in the box. Yeah.
Everett Or Salida or. Yeah. No, no. That's so proud. Right.
Andrew Yeah, yeah, Slider Soprod, you know, take your pick of which movements are available. But we've seen this before where brands stratify not with the design of the watch, not with the watch itself, but with the power unit. And I think I'm okay with that, especially for a brand like Yema, who's not exactly digging themselves out of a hole, but is still trying to do some work.
Everett Well, I wonder. I wonder if maybe they are digging themselves out of a hole. Maybe they have gone too hard on the CMM movements and they're struggling to keep up with the higher prize point. And that's possible. It occurred to me when I started seeing these releases at these higher, I'm like, gosh. You're swimming in a big pond. Are you going to be able to keep up with that? And so maybe that's what we're seeing. Maybe we're seeing is an acknowledgement from Yema that they're not quite where they need to be to push that higher price point exclusively.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
Andrew Yeah, I think that's it. And I think they're also trying to appeal to a broader audience of, you like our watch and you don't care what's powering it. The cool movement that we're doing is not the selling point for you. So we'll, you know, here's a Miota. Yeah, no, totally. What's next? Or a Salida.
Everett Yeah, yeah, here's a Salida.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. Uh... Sorry, I'm having trouble deciding. Oh, this is a quick one. We'll just burn through it. Doxa with a new sub-300 carbon release in seafoam. And this is a really cool color. It's this like, it's seafoam green. It looks like mint saltwater taffy. Well, don't bury the lead. With an all-carbon case. It is cool. And Doxa has done plenty of carbon before. It's a material they're familiar with working with. So it's a forged carbon case in the 300, a Sellita SW200 movement. They're only making 100 of them. And they're exclusive watches of Switzerland. And they're expensive. They're 4,000 bucks.
Everett You know, I wonder, did... Do people know what the difference between forged carbon? I think when we talk about carbon fiber, right, which has become incredibly popular for the last about a decade ago, everything became carbon fiber, right? It's like everything in cars was carbon fiber. There is a way to make carbon where you take sheets, right? You take sheets of carbon and then you embed them in resin. And so you get this grain that looks like fabric, right? Forged carbon is almost universally made with a looser texture. So you get this like, I don't know what it, like a heather texture. And it's not the same like 2007 aftermarket Honda Civic gear shifter. thing that we think of when we think, if you don't know this, if you know, most people are gonna be like, yeah, no shit ever. But if you, if you don't know this, that's what we're talking about. This is not quote unquote carbon fiber in the way that you might be thinking.
Andrew No, it's, it's forged carbon.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Uh, so super tight, uh, thread twill pile. Yeah. Uh, and it, uh, and it, it's, it's money. The, the beautiful, the green pass through is the real winner on it for me. Ooh, maybe I should put mine on a pass through.
Everett Are these – so these are made for Watches of Switzerland. Is there an argument that these are a Hodinkee collaboration?
Andrew The next iteration that will be the same color will be a Hodinkee collaboration.
Everett Watches of Switzerland is Hodinkee, right? You know, I have one criticism here. I don't like that these say seafoam on the dial. I think that's my only criticism. Why do they say seafoam on the dock? Because all docks say the color on the dial.
Andrew Yeah, look. Does yours say professional? Yeah, they say it right on it.
Everett Right under the water resistance. So if I got a shark hunter, it's going to say shark hunter. Yeah. I feel like that's something I should have known that I didn't know. Good thing you didn't get one.
Andrew Bitch about, God, I wish this thing didn't say fucking shark hunter.
Everett It's great. They're expensive, but they're really good. Yeah, they're half again as much as a 300. Tudor introduced the 1926 Luna this week, and I am high on this watch, Andrew. What this is, so the 1926 has oft been the redheaded stepchild of the Tudor lineup, I think.
Andrew It has been, and it doesn't make sense because the 1926 base is so good. I think the problem is it falls in between kind of like the Ranger feel and the... Not the... It's the Explorer. What's the Tudor Explorer? Yeah, isn't it the Explorer? No. Or the Ranger is the Explorer. No, the Ranger and then the Black Bay... Oh, the Black Bay Pro. Yeah, but the non-diver, like the BB-36. Got it. That's what it's called? Yeah. Well, I think so. It's also like not a prince. It's in a weird place within the Tudor collection.
Everett I can remember Mike Raczak talking a gang of shit about the Tudor 1926. And the way he was talking shit.
Andrew He writes for the Atlantic, so like whatever.
Everett the way he was talking shit i could just tell like he's passionate about this and like i shouldn't i shouldn't even like don't even respond because he's like this is bait like he wants to get in a fight about this but i've always thought it's a pretty cool I've always looked at it and thought, I kind of like this. They're affordable, under $2,000. I've always been pretty okay with them. They're small.
Andrew They're not under $2,000. Are they? You can get one right now for $1860.
Everett Huh. But they're small. It's a 36 millimeter watch, which is smaller than I think a lot of people want. And so this release, this 1926 Luna, which Luna means moon. What? In Italiano and also Espanol. This is a 39 millimeter watch. So the size is better. They've released these in three dials, a blue with silver accent, a gold dial with black accent, and the cream of the crop, the black dial with the gold accent.
Andrew So you're going to bury the lead on this one.
Everett Am I bearing the lead?
Andrew It's a moon phase. It's Tudor's first moon phase.
Everett Okay, fair enough. I wasn't trying to. So they made these in collaboration with a fellow named Jay Chu, who I'm not super familiar with. But what I understand is that he is an Asian pop singer. producer, someone who grew up playing the piano and then classically trained in music and then started JVR Music, which I don't, sorry, I don't know what it is. And this is being released in recognition of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, which is something we're very well acquainted with because our kids are in a Chinese immersion school and the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is an important part of our academic calendars.
Andrew Want to know something cool? Yeah, tell me. So my kindergartner, he can write all 26 English letters and does so with regularity, but just randomly, right? He's illiterate. He can't read because he's a baby, right? Like he shouldn't be able to read. It'd be cool if he did, but he doesn't. But he has all the letters. And the other day, he wanted to show off what he learned at school, and he wrote some Chinese characters on a piece of paper. And I looked at it, and I was like, eh, neat, dude. That's not real. That's not real. And I turned to his older brother, his fifth grade brother, who's also in Chinese immersion. I was like, Mark, does that say anything? And he goes, and he says whatever word it is in Chinese. I was like, what does that mean? He goes, oh, it means Chinese. I was like, you motherfucker. The first word you ever write is in Chinese. Great. Yeah. I was like, oh, shit. Immersion works.
Everett That's my story. It's beautiful. You know, our kids, neither of our kids, I think we've had the same experience, will like talk in Chinese to be secretive. And so sometimes I think my kids don't know Chinese. And then I'm sure I've talked about this on the show before. We'll go out to like a Chinese restaurant and they'll like have a 25-minute conversation with the totally charmed server, you know. Yeah, it's really cool. Anyway, that's not what we're here to talk about. But it's a neat thing. Cost-powered in-house Tudor caliber T607-9 with the moon phase.
Andrew Really lovely, lovely moon phase. I know you say the black with gold accents is the winner, but for me, it's the gold with black.
Everett I hate it. I hate it. I can't do it. That gold dial. So this is subjective, right? That's why they release different dials. Yeah, the black with the gold. The blue is good, but the gold and black is... I think we can agree that the blue is the... It's the worst. Actually, no. I think the gold and black is the worst.
Andrew You're the worst. We can't agree. I disagree with you. The blue and silver is good. The black and gold is good.
Everett They're $3,400. Yeah. USD $3,390. I love them. I like them. Take me home. Country road.
Andrew Yeah, I'll take you home for sure.
Everett Andrew, what's next?
Andrew Next up for me. Oh, we have to get to this.
Everett We're doing good, dude. Are we? Yeah, we're killing it.
Andrew Oh, we're not doing bad. Yeah. Notice sector two, field in titanium. With a dark olive fucking cerakote? Yes. What? It's their tropical. And the olive is so dark, it's like almost ashy gray. It is fire. They color match to the dial so, so well to it.
Everett Andrew, you and I have both spent a lot of time thinking about actual stealthy things. And when I say stealthy, I mean in the context of military and or hunting stealth.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
Everett I cannot think of another watch that I've ever seen that is more stealthy in the tactical context than this.
Andrew No, because you get so many of these flat dark earth Cerakotes or like OD Cerakote or black or tan. And this is this like truly earthy mud, like clay mud color watch. cerakoting on it the the nylon on the strap is that similar like it can only be achieved by walking through a couple different varieties of mud yeah it's a hybrid tech tough coating on rubber uh which is cool i don't know what that means this is such a fantastic execution of color blending. And it's a sector field.
Everett They made 75 of them. They were sold out instantly.
Andrew Fuck off. We didn't even get one. And they were only $550. What the fuck? NH38 movement on these. Yeah, they're money. I hope to get to see one in person because they're fire.
Everett So I read about a new watch this week, and Michael Stockton from Fratello wrote this article, and he opined that... Of the major players, the big three watch countries, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Japan lags the other two in terms of micro-brand enthusiast watchmaking. Now, Japan, we've seen in recent years a number of brands come out of the woodwork and sell... really tremendous watches, right? Corona Tokyo. But almost universally, these have come in at a price point that was like... Unobtainium, but Grand Seiko money. Yeah, like your heart goes into your belly because you're like, well, that's beautiful, but... Wish I could afford it. i think that that sort of goes i think that sort of goes hand in hand what i would expect with japanese enthusiast culture it it tends to like the nicest things right uh the most beautiful weaves the most traditional techniques um dying techniques that are out of this world anyway but i think that that goes with the japanese culture of like
Andrew It costs money to make things good. Yes. Yes, that's right.
Everett Which is what makes these Kiwame Tokyo Kurozuki and Usuki so delightful. Because these, I believe, have been made with every bit... of that Japanese attention to detail. So Kuwame Tokyo is a new brand. These are their two debut models. And there's two models, but they're actually just the same watch with different dial colors. These come out of the Asakusa. which is the sort of center of Tokyo. And the brand was founded by a fellow named Masami Watanabe, who has been in the watch industry, specifically in Europe, for a long time. So he... Brought his knowledge to make a brand that did all of the Japanese things, but did it in an affordable package. So what you're going to find here is a 38 millimeter, much like the Presidus watch that we talked about earlier. I'm going to call this a sport dress watch. We've got a 38 millimeter 316L case. 9'5 thick. Sapphire, anti-reflective, of course. These both come on black calfskin. and they are enamel dial, double-layer enamel dial.
Unknown Lacquered.
Everett Oh, excuse me, lacquer dials with Breguet numerals that are gorgeous, brushed, applied Breguet numerals, rectangular loom plots at each hour, and 100 meters of water resistance, Andrew.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
Everett Miona 9039 because it's affordable, which allows them to sell these fucking things for $650 US. What is this?
Andrew I want to see a case profile. Because that's where I'm like from these partial profiles, these like kind of... Yeah, this is the best we get on a case profile. Yeah, and that's where I think they're maybe making it up.
Everett You actually don't think it's possible.
Andrew No, no, no. I think it's possible. I think they're making up their... I think the case shape and design is probably a little... We've got Fratello's quoting a thickness of nine and a half, which is typically taken at the center of the watch. Maybe they're landing it.
Everett I mean, don't these seem impossible?
Andrew little bit and that's why i say i think a true profile view would see would kind of like reveal if this is like an immaturity of the brand the other like immature design in the way of case design right they're both sold out by the way yeah they only made 100 of each yeah they're both sold out instantly yeah Because when you look at the... This looks like it may be a rendering. I think these are pictures. But they look tall. These syringe hands are phenomenal. Everything else, though. This dial design.
Everett Look at the second hand. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. The font on these markers is absolutely phenomenal.
Everett It's like a hand-drawn Breguet font.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett And not hand-drawn in a bad way. Hand-drawn in a beautiful way. In a meticulously careful way. So they're sold out. You can't get one. So they are literally impossible today. And you'll never see one. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, we got to figure this out, though. We got to meet this guy. We got to go. I agree. We got to go to Tokyo now.
Andrew I'm not opposed. I don't oblo, but I think we could find a way. Is it real? I, it, I don't see how it isn't real because it's also, it, it also seems so doable right through. It just, it just seems doable.
Everett Okay. I think we have time for maybe one more each or if we need it, do we need it? I think. Let me look. Let me look. Oh, I kind of. I mean, that could be quick. I'm OK with with cutting the rest. OK, let's let's. I think I can be quick. I can speed around some of this stuff. So Formex released the essence ceramic. They've now got like a solid dial instead of this. I didn't like the skeleton dial. Full ceramic. Forty one millimeter cost. Full ceramic. It's like thirty five hundred bucks.
Andrew It's a ceramic bracelet to everything. Yeah.
Everett Everything. Steel reinforced ceramic bracelet. I think this watch is amazing. Grand Seiko released a new UFA called the Violet Dawn. And it's gorgeous. But it's $11,000. And they used the old fucking clasp instead of the new micro adjust clasp. Yes. Fuck you, Grand Seiko. It's such a middle finger.
Andrew I think Grand Seiko is really just giving us the middle finger on purpose.
Everett It made me irrationally angry when I saw that they used their old clasp on this. It's an $11,000 UFA with the old fucking clasp. Fuck you, Grand Seiko. I just don't understand it. I think Grand Seiko is a prank. Yeah. I was like, you got to be joking me, Grand Seiko. Hold on. Hold on. Oh. The TimeStop D20, this is a brand new module digital watch that's got like a very much like a F91W vibe to it. And the complication is that it does a bunch of different random number generation. So D20 refers to a D20 dice for gaming. And what this watch does is simulates a bunch of different scenarios. Two dice rolled, a 20. It does random number generation for you. So there'll be a link to this in the show notes. Read about it. It's really cool.
Andrew 20-sided dice you wear on your wrist. For those of you who are Dungeons & Dragons players, this might be the... This might be the accompaniment.
Everett It's super nerdy, but it's really cool. The article, they're 100, 115, or 150. You can get steel for 115, orange resin for 100, or steel for 150, orange resin for 115, or black resin for 100.
Andrew I might get one of these.
Everett A completely new module. It's really cool. Zach Weiss wrote the write-up on this, which doesn't happen very often. The new March Lab is really cool. It's got a great bracelet. Link in the show notes. And is that it, Andrew?
Andrew Yeah, I can skip the rest of these.
Everett Oh, yeah. Yeah. Spinnaker and Scottish Watches did a thing. It's kind of fun.
Andrew Yeah. That's it. I'm not going to link to that because we didn't talk about it.
Everett Andrew, other things. What do you got?
Andrew I have another thing. So this summer, we talked about how in a search for a backpack for my 10-year-old, I went down a rabbit hole and got a new backpack for myself. We're now a couple weeks into school. The... Not the supermarket. The big box store, the Walmart backpack that we got for our kindergartner has blown out. Oh, no. But the backpack that we got for our fifth grader is still holding strong. And he continues to carry around sharpened sticks in it on the inside because... You know, that's what fifth graders do. What I got for him was the Cotopaxi. I'm sending you a link real quick. The Cotopaxi Chikio 26 liter day pack. What? No paste. Not autofill. Copy. So it is a, the Katadya, the Chikio 26 liter day pack Katadya comes in one, two, three, four, five, six base colors. And then for, and it's 75 bucks or for $65. You can get their surprise pack, which they make out of scrap pieces of colored material. So you get a totally random, one-of-a-kind day pack.
Everett That's kind of Cotopaxi's thing.
Andrew Yeah, but out of their scrap material. I wanted to get him the surprise pack, and he was kind of on board. And then he looked at the other colors and was like, I kind of want the live oak. And I was like... Cool, cool. I mean, that's fine, but I think it'd be way cooler if you got one that was like only yours. He couldn't get sold on it. I'll say it is just a touch big for him. So what I had him do before I got a 26 liter bag for him, we have a 24 liter photography bag and I had him put it on and he wears it. And I was like, huh? That's in the zone, right? But this is also like, this is the backpack. This is his backpack now. He will have it for 20 years before it starts to show signs of like actual deterioration. Yeah, hopefully, right? If even that. I did make him stop carrying sharp sticks around in it. But it's got a chest strap on it. It doesn't have a waist strap, and that was kind of important to me. It's got great organization on the inside. 26 liters of volume on the inside. Good water bottle holders on the outside. I love this bag.
Everett I kind of want one for me. Yeah, Cotopaxi, kind of an it brand. If you go to Vail or Whistler or whatever, you're going to see 8 billion Cotopaxi things. But they make, you know, my favorite, I recently moved to the Cotopaxi 35 liter or whatever their clamshell travel pack is. And I am over the moon about that thing.
Andrew They just make such great bags. I have a cinch top Cotopaxi. Um, like a, there's no structure to it. Just kind of a, it's not like a, a string bag, but it's got straps and stuff, but it's just a structure list. Um, that I really like. And, um, yeah, this is, this is great. And for 65 bucks, like, yeah, no, it's a great, it's a great price. This is money. And for your, I think 10 is about the zone where they're ready to have a backpack, like a real backpack. Yep. So that's what we got. I cannot, I can't recommend it enough. He's been really unkind to it, and it's just taking the punches. When did you get this for him? For his school year. He's had it a month, and he's taken it on a couple overnight trips. It's just his backpack. He takes it to school. He does all his things with it. He takes it places. Love it.
Everett You know, I'm a huge fan of L.L. Bean kids' backpacks. I think they do a really good job. But the last one I bought came dead on arrival, and we sent it back and went a different direction because that's what the kid wanted to do. And it's like, well, maybe that era is done. This looks terrific. And I can't say enough good stuff about this brand. They're really cool. Yeah, Cotopaxi does really good stuff. Andrew, I've got another thing. Do me. Dang it. So what you have not been aware of, because we haven't talked about it on the show, is I brought two bottles of whiskey today for recording. I asked Andrew if he'd be okay to have scotch. And he said yes. I can't remember what you said, but something like yes. For show. For show. So the first whiskey we drank is probably formerly... My favorite scotch, up there with my favorite scotches. It was the Lagavulin 16, which is a really, really delicious scotch. And I think sort of in sort of enthusiast, the enthusiast world, it is... a favorite despite sort of not being some of the things that enthusiasts like. So it's, it's distilled or it's bottled at 43%, which is pretty low, you know, lower than the typical 46. It is chill filter. I think it's got added color. Uh, it's sort of like a basic bitch scotch.
Andrew It's the scotch you give to your friend who's like, I don't like scotch. And then they drink it and they're like, Oh, I think I like scotch.
Everett It, It's really good. It's really good. It's smoky. It is a smoky bitch. But the smoke, it's not that iodine medicinal smoke.
Andrew It's not a Band-Aid.
Everett It's no Band-Aid, right? It is this very like almost floral round campfire smoke. And it's really smooth, almost getting towards sweet. It's the sweet smoke. So I bought a bottle of Woody. I bought a bottle of Scotch a couple weeks ago, and I got it home, and it was just floored. I've avoided this brand. Ardbag is the distillery, and I've avoided this distillery as I've sort of leaned into Scotch a little bit. I've avoided it because they do a ton of limited releases, and it just feels like the brand is gone. kind of like hypey and limited release and they do funny like they it just doesn't they're not traditional for sure they're not traditional and it sort of turned me off and and race recently my liquor store bro was like well have you tried the yuva doll And I was like, the Yuga, huh? And he was like, look, take this bottle home. If you hate it, I'll return it for you. But I think you're going to love it. Knowing you and knowing your taste, I think you're going to love it. Take this bottle home. You've got to try it. Everybody has to try Yuga doll. I was like, okay, cool. That's like a recommendation.
Andrew That's a strong recommendation.
Everett So what this is, this is Ardbeg Jugado. And it is a $90, where we're at, it's a $90 scotch, which is about the same as the Lagavulin 16.
Andrew And it's kind of the zone where you get a lot of special stuff. Yes. And a lot of trash. It's kind of a muddied...
Everett price point unlike lagavulin this stuff comes in at 54.2 percent which if you're doing the math is 108.4 proof it is a no chill filter no added color non-age stated Isla Scotch, and it is made to be big smoke. In fact, the flavors they give you are treacle, bacon, bonfires. And when I first tasted this, I sent a message to our watch clicker group, and I said, this shit tastes like a smoked pork shoulder. And I stand by that. Andrew...
Andrew I accept your position. The smokiness of it, it like coats your mouth in such a way that it almost feels like you're sitting by a campfire and took it like the wind just crossed into your face, smacked you a little bit, and you can just taste residual kind of oily smoke attached to your mouth in a good way. In a good way. Right? Because you're roasting s'mores and enjoying yourself and like, yeah, you got a little face full of smoke, but... I'm good with it.
Everett You get no meat or you get no iodine, no Band-Aid. It is pure, sweet, fatty, meaty.
Andrew Super oily, heavy. Super oily. Like kind of caramely mouth feel.
Everett Oil, fat, caramel, bacon. It's incredible. Now, we're drinking this full strength. I have watered this down a little bit just to see. It opens up a little bit. I don't find it as compelling at a lower proof. At this big concentrated proof, drinking like a high proof bourbon, I think it is amazing. I think for most scotch drinkers, it's a little hot. But maybe because scotches usually drink at 46 between 40 and 46. I am over the moon about this. That's really good. It's it's my favorite scotch now.
Andrew That's an easy. Yeah, I think it's an easy pole position.
Everett I'm not as experienced with scotch as I am bourbon. And so I'm kind of new to the scotch game. And there's one other bottle that I want to try. Someone was like, if you like this, you got to have this. I'm not going to say what it is because I think it's a future other thing.
Andrew But have you had famous grouse?
Everett Yeah, I have had famous grouse, Andrew. I do love me a famous grouse. I need to get a bottle of that. I haven't had it in a long time. I'm surprised you don't have just like a standing handle of that. You know, I think something happened. Because it used to. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It used to be the one. It used to be the one that I would drink. Something happened. You know, when you start buying nicer stuff, like, I just don't have... I just don't want to drink the shitty stuff anymore. Like, I just don't need... And I don't need to because I've got... You have way too much good stuff. I have way too much good stuff to drink shitty stuff.
Andrew And the nice thing is, like, shitty stuff, you want to consume at volume. And good stuff, it's like, oh, that one was enough. Like, I don't want any more. I'm like, my palate's blown out. I feel good. And I enjoyed that.
Everett Yeah, I drink one or two scotches at a time, one or two whiskeys at a time. There's no reason for me to have a famous cross ever. I just, why would I?
Andrew Yeah. No, no one's going to Momofuku buffet and eating their body weight in that pho or ramen, not the pho in their ramen. You want a bowl of it and you just want it like that. That's all you need.
Everett I don't ever need to drink Johnny Walker black because I've got 35 or 50 bottles of bourbon in my head. Johnny Black is super drinkable. I'm sure it's fine. It's fine. But I just don't need to.
Andrew There's no reason. You've gone up market from the enjoyability of it.
Everett Yeah, which is not to say I wouldn't. If I went to your house and you gave me a Johnny Black, I couldn't enjoy it because I'm sure I could, right? It's just I don't need to drink it at the house. I don't need to handle the famous grouse. But you could. Maybe I'll make that a weekend. Andrew, that weekend's gone. Andrew, are there other things that you'd like to discuss with me before?
Andrew No, I'm all out of things, man.
Everett Did you say that because you heard the music start? No. I'm a little bit like the producer of the Oscars or whatever. When I want him to shut the fuck up. He hates me and gives me the music. Thanks for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor. Go to our website. That's watchclicker.com. That's where we post articles and reviews and other written things about watches. With pictures, usually. If you want to follow us on social media, you can do that at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker, both on Instagram. That's where we post pictures about the watches we're wearing and other updates about things we're doing on the website or on the podcast. And. If you want to support us on Oh Boy, we hope you do. You can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's how we pay for the whole operation, the website, the podcast, hosting, etc. Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Tuesday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.