Episode 39 - Straps and Bands: the Definitive Ranking

Published on Wed, 24 Jul 2019 23:00:00 -0700

Synopsis

This is a transcript of a podcast called "40 in 20" where the hosts Andrew and Everett discuss various topics related to watches, food, drinks, and life. They talk about their experiences with running, fasting, and different diets. They also review a watch called the Nighthawk and rank various watch bands and straps from their least favorite to most favorite. Additionally, they discuss other topics like parenting, potato chips, and custom leather watch straps.

Links

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Transcript

Speaker
Andrew	Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? I'm hungry. I believe it.
Everett	You can't eat anything. I'm hungry. Yeah. I'm still, I'm still fasting.
Andrew	So I'm like, Oh, I thought you meant just like keto wise, you're hungry. Cause you can't have garlic bread and all the good stuff.
Everett	Oh no. I mean, I eat lots, but I guess I'm, I guess I'm kind of broken my fast here with a creamy coffee and some chips and some chips but uh yeah no i didn't i haven't had a meal yet so i'm feeling a little uh hangry hangry is the is what the kids say you know i started uh intermittent fasting a little bit by necessity because i was working such weird hours and then i just maintained it and i don't get hangry anymore yeah no i don't usually uh sundays i do my long run and so that that sort of kicks my metabolism into overdrive uh so long run fasted and then i'm theoretically waiting um but i i snacked a little bit this morning just because i didn't want to go into the show with my stomach screaming into the microphone and a long run for you is like a mile mile and hife yeah yeah at least 15 minutes okay minutes yeah okay so it would be a long run for me for me to run a mile and hife is like
Andrew	That's a once a year occurrence for me. And, uh, I run two of them, two miles and don't like it. And then wait again until the next year.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah. You know, we fluctuate, um, we're in the, we're on a down cycle, so it was just eight. Oh, only eight. Just, uh, it was just eight, eight steps or eight miles. Yeah. Eight miles. Uh, and I feel bad when we're down cycled. So I, I also ran eight this week too. So that, but that's not my long run. That's my intermediate run. But it's the same length as the long run. Pass. Someone hit me up. Oh, I know who it was. It was Eric from EA this week. And he was like, dude, congratulations on your running goals. Uh, I hate running.
Andrew	For survival purposes only.
Everett	He said, I think he said he ran 200, 400 in high school. And then he was like, yeah, no. And I was like, oh yeah, you're in good shape. Andrew, Andrew is this is X and Y. Yeah.
Andrew	That's the nice part about like at one point I was in good shape and I have done, I've taken measures to, to not like totally trash my body. So I've, I've been able to capitalize and really leverage that one time being an athletic type to not being a, a pile of fat now. Um, so I can still stay pretty active. Like I can, I can do things and not regret it for months.
Everett	You know, I'm such a calorie stacker that I have to be, I either have to be all in or I'm just a slug, you know, um, and, and I don't think I lose weight by way of exercising, but I'm more motivated to eat well when I'm exercising. So when I'm running and I have running goals and I, that, you know, 20 minute 5k is, is around the corner, you know, where I want to run 20 minutes or whatever. Then I know if I don't eat well, I'm going to gain 10 pounds and I'm going to Blow that, I'm going to blow my time. So I'm just naturally all, all, all around more motivated to be healthier.
Andrew	Well, and the nice part for you specifically, you have a pretty sedentary job, so you have to have to have goals set. I mean, in the last three months, I've lost like 12 pounds, just not sitting in my car all day, counting beer, drinking beer, counting more beer and going home. Just like getting active again, I've lost quite a bit of weight.
Everett	I bet your sort of passive beer consumption has gone down quite a bit.
Andrew	Oh, yeah.
Everett	Yeah. And that's a ton of calories.
Andrew	Oh, man. When I had my wisdom teeth removed, I existed on beer and soup. I got 90% of my calories through beer. Because when they did my surgery, they hit, they warned me that they might hit the nerve beneath the gum line. And they're like, it could be permanent if we do that. But just on where it is, like we, it's a risk that you should be aware of. And it took me a month to be able to eat again.
Everett	Oh my God.
Andrew	I was bruised in my collarbones. I like, cause I woke up a lot cause I'm a ginger. So the, uh, I have the ginger, I'm a day walker. I'd call you a toe head. Okay. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a day walker just for, for everyone's, uh, FYSA. Uh, so there, uh, the anesthesia was not, um, It wasn't doing it for me. I woke up several times during the surgery and as a result, they did hit that nerve. So I can't like this whole right side of my chin. There's just nothing there, which is kind of cool. Um, but it also meant that there was a lot of, um, bruising and it took me a month to be able to eat again. Most people were like, Oh yeah, you know, two days later I was back to eating. No, I couldn't even open my mouth wide enough to get a spoon in there for two weeks. So I was drinking soup and beer to exist. So I don't eat soup anymore, but I didn't have that same reaction to beer. But I worked nights for the last few weeks, so like I didn't drink at all because it feels weird to come home at 3 in the morning and have a beer when all you want to do is go to bed. And it feels even weirder to wake up at like 10, 11 and have a beer before you're back at work at 5. So I just wasn't drinking.
Everett	Yeah, I mean a beer is just a lot of calories for 3 o'clock or a lot of volume for 3 o'clock so that you got to really dial in your whiskey.
Andrew	And which I try to avoid because I drink whiskey and beer the same way Yeah, like I treat Whiskey, I mean any liquor the way I treat beer like I should be able to drink it at the same pace and which is problematic for you know Life so yeah. Yeah. No, I you know some some Irish coffee in the morning That's good because I'm not gonna want to have nine cups of coffee Man this stuff I could drink this stuff all day. It's so good It's such a, such a great way to enjoy two terrific things. And you've got really good coffee. Uh, and the Dew, the Tillamore Dew, it's complimenting it well.
Everett	Yeah, no, it's perfect. And I put a little, a little sweetener in there, a little sugar-free sweetener, mind you.
Andrew	Some baniya.
Everett	Uh, it's caramel this week actually. Uh, I put a little heavy whipping cream. God, do you really say caramel? Yeah, I probably do. Yes. Okay. Sorry.
Andrew	I don't know. I mean, all the time I've known you, that's the first time I think I've heard you say caramel.
Everett	Caramel. Yeah. I think I probably, I go both ways, man.
Andrew	Oh, I like that. Yeah.
Everett	Such is life. Uh, yeah. Yeah. So I'm, I'm good besides being hungry. How are you?
Andrew	Good. I am enjoying a nice weekend. We're going to do a crawfish boil this afternoon.
Everett	You were not enjoying a nice weekend. You were just telling me how stressed out you are. But it's still a weekend, right?
Andrew	Like I'm still not at work. I, yesterday I went into today. with a certain idea of how it was going to look. And then last night at about eight o'clock, I was reminded of a legal obligation that I had to fulfill today, which didn't throw a wrench in my, in my day, right?
Everett	I'm still- You had your immigration hearing.
Andrew	Yeah, exactly. Though I was born here, I'm still being considered for deportation. That can happen, y'all. So anyway, I had to go to drill today. I had it in my calendar for next week and I'm kind of in this weird, No man's land of no one really wants to claim me, but someone still has to so I don't have any responsibilities But I still have an obligation to show up. So anyway, they texted me last night. They're like, hey missed you today Like oh great. So my day didn't get a wrench thrown in it my expectation of the day did and i'm a very expectations-based thinker And when I have a plan I want to stick to that plan because that's my safe place when it when it starts to roll into ambiguity and and some gray areas, I I often um Get a little uncomfortable, especially when I had expectations set. If I'm going in expectation free, I'm good, whatever. But if I have expectations, I get a little weird about them getting thrown out of whack. So I went through that this morning. Now we're here and we're going to a crawfish boil this afternoon, which is going to be so fun. We got four pounds of shrimp, four pounds of crawfish, some corn, red potatoes and dewy sausage. Get in me. And it's with folks who have never done one before or never been a part of a crawfish boil. So it's going to be entertaining seeing children trying to manage crawfish.
Everett	You know, people, people get so weird about, I love just pulling the guts and legs off of shrimp. I love it.
Andrew	People get weird about it. I think because most people are really used to their food being already, uh, dismembered, like there's no articulating parts of food. So. Like even when a whole row, like when people get Cornish game head and they have a whole, like a headless little, little chicken sitting like, people get weird about that because we're so detached from where food comes from. You know, people eat meat and be like, well, heck I can't, I don't know how you'd kill something. That's just so barbaric. Like, what do you think happened to what, what is in your Big Mac?
Everett	It'll grow that shit. Timberlands and eat McDonald's.
Andrew	Get out of here. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I think people's detachment from food is what, what leads to that.
Everett	Yeah. You know, uh, my, my wife is, is a little bit, uh, not squeamish, but she doesn't love it. She doesn't love chicken on the bone. She doesn't love, but she killed a pig. Yeah. But she killed a pig. Yeah. Yeah. She's, she's stud. She knows, she knows that it's a thing and she wants to overcome it. But notwithstanding that she doesn't love the guts and, um, you know, bones and, and body parts, visible, non-edible body parts. So,
Andrew	It's just the greens of the carrot. You got to dispose of it. Yeah. It's the same thing.
Everett	I dig it. I dig it. I love, I love eating, you know, first of all, don't ever come at me and say, would you like a boneless wing? Motherfucker. There's no such thing as a boneless wing. That's a chicken nugget for a grownup. Come on. That is a breast filet or whatever. Or puree. That isn't, or puree. That is not a wing. You know, my whole family is like, I really prefer boneless wings. A. A. Not a wing. But more importantly, B. You don't get the flavor. If you cook a chicken with the wing, with the bone, you get so much more flavor. You get that gelatin that crisps up. You get all the flavor that comes out of the bone. I mean, there's a reason we use bones to make broth because that is where you get flavor. That's where you get that richness. That's where you get
Andrew	Creaminess all kinds of good stuff When I used to go to client meetings at Buffalo Wild Wings because I may have sold beer so that was a appropriate place for meetings I would get boneless wings because I didn't want to get all covered in wing sauce.
Everett	Oh, yeah, and then go back to work you know, I my very first job I ever applied to a It was a management position with a Fortune 500 company and spoiler alert, I got the job, but the regional manager called me and said, Hey, um, I know you interviewed at this career fair and I got the message that they want to hire you, but I don't hire anybody into my region unless I talked to him first in a management position, pretty reasonable. And, uh, so I meet with this guy from Cleveland. He's got, you know, I didn't know this at the time, but he's, you know, wearing a suit and he's kind of fancy and He goes, well, you know, I was a college student, right? I was a college student. He goes, well, where do you want to eat? And I was like, gosh, I'll meet you anywhere. And he goes, no, honestly, I'm not from Eugene. I don't know anything. Where do you go? Well, at the time I was living in the dorms at the University of Oregon and there was a Mexican place called Muchos Gracias. And I said, well, you know, normally when I eat lunch, I walk up to Muchos Gracias. And he goes, perfect. I'll meet you there. Well, Muchos, bless its heart. is the probably lowest rent Mexican in all of Oregon. It's fantastic. It's lovely, but it is not a classy operation. No, not a classy operation.
Andrew	And you're lucky if you only get one hair in your burrito. That's right.
Everett	This one was in a old Burger King and it still had all the Burger King fixtures. Um, yeah, it, it was looking back. probably both a brilliant decision and a terrible decision.
Andrew	It turned out to be brilliant.
Everett	It was a bad choice going into it though. It was a bad choice going into it. Um, and, and he was fine. He, he kind of, he made a face and I can't remember what he got tacos or something. And, uh, yeah, you know, the type of business it was, uh, it was a paint business and the type of business that worked out. Okay. But so, yeah. So we're talking about watches today. Sort of. Yeah. I guess that's right.
Andrew	We're not talking about watches. Well, first we can talk about this, uh, this Nighthawk.
Everett	Oh man. Yeah. Uh, Instagram user out at SouthpawSTL15. He's a, he's a watch dude. He's watch fam. He posts sick watches. He's a fun guy.
Andrew	And he's a lefty.
Everett	And he's a lefty. Uh, hence Southpaw. Uh, wears it on the right wrist. Sent us a care package this week. Such a good one.
Andrew	One of the best care packages I've ever received.
Everett	I think it's the best we've received. I think it's the best we've received because he sent us hot food.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	So not only did he send us a watch and we've received watches and we love everybody that sends us watches to play around with and try on, but never before have we gotten not one, but two big bags of chips. I'm going to save that. I'm going to save that. We can move on for now. Yeah. Never before have we gotten consumables.
Andrew	No.
Everett	in a care package.
Andrew	Besides from Terry, but everyone gets that from Terry.
Everett	But he sent us a watch. He sent us this watch that both of us have lusted after, I think since even before we started recording in earnest, right? And it's so good. Oh my gosh, it's good.
Andrew	I've tried this on before, but I've never been able to play with it, like in the privacy of my own home. Yeah. And I mean, frankly, I'm not now. I'm in your home, but it's basically my home. I have a key. I can just kind of come and go as I please.
Everett	Well, it was weird, but you asked for 15 minutes along with it and I said, okay, I'll close the door.
Andrew	I only needed three.
Everett	Yeah, it was quick. I was surprised.
Andrew	It's so good. It's super duper good, man. The one thing that I don't think I recalled from the last time I tried this on is this internal rotating bezel. How smooth that crown is on the slide rule. It's fantastic. It is so money. I could just sit here and play with it all day.
Everett	You know, it turns and it's sort of, uh, I mean, it was weird when I got it. I was like, well, where is straight up?
Andrew	Like, cause like, you know, well, you gotta know how to learn how to use a slide rule.
Everett	You know, OCD, I kind of wanted to set it to zero. Um, and it took me a little while to figure out where zero was. I mean, there's just a lot of information that I have no clue what it means. Um, and, and I'd like to, well, we have this thing, maybe get a feel for that, but. Yeah, it took me a little while to figure that out. But yeah, that turn is fantastic.
Andrew	It's so clean. Everything on this is, I feel like this could be a watch that you'd be comfortable spending $400 on. The construction is great. The bracelet lives up to it. It's got the weight that you'd expect out of a really well-made, well-designed watch, which is not to say that light watches are cheap or heavy watches are necessarily high quality. It just, it feels right.
Everett	You know, I wonder, I wonder how, how Citizen is able to, you know, I assume this is a loss leader for, for Citizen. Um, I don't know that, but I assume it's a loss leader and maybe not a loss leader in the literal sense of the word, but I assume this is one of the watches in their catalog that they, they drop a lot of time and attention in. in order to stay in the tiny little market segment that is us that you know and maybe that's maybe i'm way off way off on that and and how do we know right they'll never tell us they would never tell us but my assumption is they're like you know we probably don't sell a billion of these but we continue to sell them and this is a hit people love it um the finishing is so good i mean it's just everything about this watch is just sexy the the angles on the case it's not a
Andrew	necessarily unique case shape, but it's not a beautiful case.
Everett	It's not a beautiful case either. I mean, the case is a little slabby, um, and it's, it's a little tall and it's kind of chunky. I mean, certainly not elegant. I would never, ever, ever call this watch elegant, but it is sexy, but it is sexy.
Andrew	That's right. We're looking at the, at the swimsuit line right now of the, of the Miss America pageant, not the evening gowns, you know, a couple of niggles.
Everett	for me at least did you say nipples nipples a couple nipples niggles i said a couple little things that kind of that kind of caught me off guard maybe don't bother me um but but well one of them bothers me this is the one that bothers me the solid end links protrude at a different angle than the lugs so there's this there's this gap and i think it's deliberate uh they follow the slope of the end links, but then they continue to go down after the end links stop.
Andrew	Yeah. They're not, they're not especially well integrated, but I kind of like it. We're looking at it from above. It adds just kind of a little bit different texture, a little bit different geometry than say you get like out of like an AP where everything is all perfectly integrated. I think it just breaks up that shape a little bit.
Everett	Well, and they've done a thing where the grind it flows. So, so the grind on the end links and especially like you said, looking above, it makes sense. And they've done a good job in working that. I still don't know that I love it because it pokes out from the lugs. I would rather they had shaved those sort of points. And, you know, we talk about this stuff and we're looking at it and we can talk about it. You can't see it. But if you have an opportunity to look it up, I think that's a weird thing. And I don't know that I love it. That's a tiny thing. The other thing that caught me off guard, and it doesn't bother me, But I thought, gosh, that's a little weird, is the, the links themselves are not, are not oval. Rather, they are sort of. Oh, teardrops. Teardrop shaped. Yeah. And the teardrops flow, the teardrops flow towards the watch as opposed to away from the watch. And again, talking about this on a podcast, you're going to, you guys are going to be like, what the fuck are you talking about Everett? Well, I'll tell you, I don't know. You'd have to look at this thing or touch this thing or play with it. It's a little bit awkward. What it means is that the fat ends of that teardrop on the links, the fat ends are up as opposed to down. I probably popped that P, sorry guys. And I don't know. I don't know. It's a little weird. I don't hate it. I wore this bracelet and gosh guys, People say, you know, the best affordable bracelet, this, this always comes up in the conversation. And I, I agree with it. I agree with it wholeheartedly. This is the best affordable bracelet I've ever touched.
Andrew	Yeah. With absolutely no reservation. For 200 bucks. The only weird thing about it is it is a long buckle.
Everett	I think it's average.
Andrew	It seems long. There's, there's what, three links, four links on one side and five on the other. It just, it, it seems like there's a lot more buckle to bracelet ratio than
Everett	You know, I don't, I don't know. And you said that when you looked at it, you know, this is obviously, so we've got your SSB 031 and that's got a much smaller buckle, but the, the, the, the, what do you call the scissor, the scissor class, the scissor part of it, the underneath hidden part is the same size. Um, I get it. The visible, the visible portion is, is less on the SSB, but I don't hate it. I think it's fine. I think it gives you micro adjustments, although I think they've sold themselves shorts on the micro adjustments too.
Andrew	But, um, that said, it's still, those are, those are our complaints people. How hard do we have to grasp for them?
Everett	The taper on this thing is so good. It's per, I mean the taper on this thing is epic. This is a wonderfully engineered watch.
Andrew	Everything about it says it should be North of 300 and it's a, $200 watch.
Everett	Well, right. I mean, if this was a Seiko or if this was a, I mean, shit, if this was a, and Breitling could just take this watch. Assuming it didn't exist. Breitling could take this watch, add it to their catalog with a solar movement or whatever Breitling decided to do for that. And this thing would be a $3,000 watch in its current state without any changes. And that's the other thing.
Andrew	It's eco drive. It's so money. The only difference you have to do, the only different thing you have to do for this watch is don't put it in your watch box, put it on top of your watch box and it's going to keep its charge. And it's a GMT and that GMT is one of a kind. Yeah. This thing is money.
Everett	Kim says to me the other day, she goes, Hey, I don't know if you know this, but there's three watches in the window sill. Cause I've never had an eco drive watch before. I'm aware. I'm aware. I got it. You know, I recently picked up, uh i recently picked up that that um casio that multi-band that vintage multi-band which i still haven't synced folks sorry it's not gonna sync i've gotten a lot of messages oh can we talk for a second about this multi-band watch let's my vintage casio uh lineage um i say vintage it's probably not vintage but you know that jdm it is you can't find that watch anymore that's right it meets our it meets our expectations for vintage um I've gotten a lot of messages, people saying, Hey, you know, if that's JDM. It might not sink outside of Japan. Well, the whole idea of multiband six band should, it should, it should sink anywhere, right? It should sink to any of the atomic clocks, including Colorado or Alaska, or I wonder if in the last 30, 40 years, the frequency has changed and well, no, it hasn't. It's it's no, it has not. It should sink here to our 60 Hertz. atomic clocks. The frequency on those hasn't changed. Are we within range then? We're in range, because my G-shocks sink.
Andrew	Okay.
Everett	Yeah, my G-shocks sink. So I think it's probably a bum movement or the movement's just gone bad over time. Old. Yeah, it's old. So no expectations that it'll sink, which is sad. It's a little sad, but I got that, I got that watch for a song, um, and it's beautiful and it keeps good time. That's the other thing. I haven't gotten any time loss on it. So that's really impressive. I manually set it and it's been just fine. So it's a little bit, it's, it's not easy to set. I will say that because it's not designed to be manually set.
Andrew	You're only going to wear it six months a year, right?
Everett	Well, yeah, perhaps. It's your summer watch. You know, I haven't gotten it to sync, but, um, I've never had a solar watch. And so now I've got the G-Shock. Three. I've got the Casio and this Nighthawk came in and Kim was like, why, why do you have watches in the windowsill? Well, because I was trying to get them to all sort of play with the sun.
Andrew	Artificial light works too.
Everett	You know, I don't think it works quite as, quite as efficient.
Andrew	It's not as efficient. No, but as long as, as long as it's exposed to artificial or natural light, like my, my, uh, citizen aviator, I just leave it on top of the dresser. And it is, it has never been reduced to low power.
Everett	Well, that's, that's good to know. Uh, I think that even, uh, you know, LED lights have gotten a lot better in the last five years. Anybody who goofs around with flashlights, and I assume a lot of you do, um, you know, we've gone from pretty modest LEDs five years ago to all of the lightsabers. That's right. And so even, even now with the ultra powerful, you know, anchor has got like a $30 10 billion lume or 10 billion, what do they call it? Candle power. Candle power.
Andrew	Or lumens. I don't know how they relate, but.
Everett	Same thing, right? You know, whatever. 10 billion candles in Anchor's $30 flashlight. You know, even that is like a hundredth of the power of just walking around in the sun on a cloudy day. So the sun, man, it's big. How big? Hard to say. And opinions differ.
Andrew	Ooh, let's not open that can of worms then.
Everett	So, yeah. Gosh, the Nighthawk. And the bag of chips. Bags of chips. Bags of chips.
Andrew	We'll save that.
Everett	Let's get back to them. Can we please?
Andrew	We'll save those.
Everett	Because, man.
Andrew	Okay.
Everett	You know, we only have so much time to prepare every week. Okay, so we're 26 minutes in. I love you guys. I'm sorry about that. Thank you for sticking with us through our ramblings. We're going to talk about something kind of stupid today. But kind of fun.
Andrew	I think fun and important.
Everett	We're going to give you the definitive ranking of watch bands slash straps.
Andrew	Hardware. This is it. Shoes for your watch as it were.
Everett	The shoes, right. The watch shoe definitive ranking list. And this is it, you guys. This is it. I mean, you could put this on stone tablets and bury them in your backyard and someday Some dude named Joe from Brooklyn is going to find them and it's going to be the new thing, man.
Andrew	Why will Joe from Brooklyn be digging in our backyards?
Everett	Maybe we won't live there anymore. Okay, moving along. So should we just start at the bottom? Let's do it. Okay. And to preface this, a couple of prefaces. One, I made the ranking and Andrew is going to be able to disagree with the ranking and I suspect he will. Two, This ranking is made without regard to what watch these are for. If you've got a calatrava, you're probably going to wear that on black croc or something of that ilk.
Andrew	I like the ilk word.
Everett	Thank you. And so with regards to your calatrava, you're probably not going to put that on a beads of rice or a razor wire because it doesn't make any goddamn sense. We've done this ranking without regard to what you're wearing it on. These are just in general on their own merits rankings of watch shoes.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Right.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Okay. So starting from the bottom, I think we might be in agreement here.
Andrew	I haven't seen the list just so everyone knows you're going to get live and unfiltered reactions. Sorry if it gets a little sporty.
Everett	So the bottom is actually a set of bracelets, bracelets, metal bracelets. Uh, that I think are just stupid. And if you love them, I'm sorry, don't be mad. Don't, don't turn us off. We still love you. You can still love us.
Andrew	We just don't like your watch bracelet choice. Maybe. I don't know if I agree yet.
Everett	So number 10, any sort of razor, razor wire or ladder bracelet. Now that last one is going to piss people off because the ladder bracelet has some heritage and it's got some, some OEM. um lineage and people are going to be attracted to that but i'm gonna i'm gonna dump it in there those are going to be the exception because there are a few places where it's well executed but generally speaking yeah i'll agree with that as the rule those suck those suck and if you got it on your watch take it off not really please continue to wear them maybe you have the exception on i don't know but but likely not so any so i see these razor you know the ones that have the top link that's shaped like a like an old safety razor cut out I'm not into it, man. Pass. Pass. Hard pass.
Andrew	Why? Not why do you pass, but why? Why does it exist? Why is it a thing?
Everett	Some of the ladders can be well executed, but generally in terms of a vintage application. So I'm wearing this on an old Elgin, which can't, or it wasn't an Elgin. I think, um, Technos, maybe there, there was some brands that executed a ladder bracelet historically. Um, and people like those. That's fine. You get a pass. But anybody else, you got a ladder bracelet on your, um, on your SKX. Come on.
Andrew	There was also a time when it was appropriate to wear a bowler hat and duster jacket. Like that time has passed. Although as great, as great as it would be to be able to do that again, I'd love to be aware of duster and a bowler. I can't pull it off. There's no purpose for it. You're the outlier. Don't be the outlier.
Everett	If you're the only one doing it, you're not right. Don't do it. Don't do it. So, uh, number 10, razor, razor wire ladder. Moving on.
Andrew	Concur.
Everett	Number nine, I've put a bracelet that doesn't get a lot of play, but I've myself purchased one, a super engineer, a super engineer bracelet.
Andrew	Now you went right down to the bracelet, not a style.
Everett	Well, I pulled this one out specially. I pulled this one out specially. We're going to have several bracelets, styles, and some things like leather straps. I'm going to kind of lump together.
Andrew	So even though there's a million of them.
Everett	Yes.
Andrew	Okay.
Everett	Okay. Super engineer bracelet. I pulled it out because I bought one and I hated it.
Andrew	You know, it was so good on the MTV though.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	There's a, but again, you know what? A time and place, generally speaking, that is too much bracelet. It's heavy. You need it on a heavy, clunky, big ass watch.
Everett	Yeah. It's heavy and it's clunky and there's no taper to it. You know, some of them do have tapers. I've seen versions that were tapered, but here's the other thing I don't like about the super engineer. You cannot find an OEM super engineer. They, they don't really exist. So they all have straight bars and I don't love that either. Those straight end links that bothers me. And I realized that's maybe a little unfair to the super engineer style, but.
Andrew	Uh, I mean, I, I think there's bracelets and we'll get into them. I, I'm going to reserve my. can't
Everett	Well, I'm two distinct styles. They're not distinct but but they're uh, they're they're different and i'll acknowledge that they're a family.
Andrew	Come on, you're wrong Milanese no and shark mesh Is number eight and they're terrible and fuck them Disagree But not knowing what's coming above this there is a time and place for both of those bracelets Not i'm gonna get hate i'm gonna get hate and and you know what contextually there's there's times where there aren't I saw a picture of a Uh, of an F91 on a shark mesh? Wrong. No, don't do that. It was, it was a, it was a black F91 and a gold shark mesh. Why? No.
Everett	Why? I hate them, man. You know what? They feel really nice.
Andrew	They feel so good.
Everett	They're, they're really comfortable. They're really comfortable, but they look like poo.
Andrew	No, they don't.
Everett	In my mind. IMO.
Andrew	They, they don't. A, a, a skin diver on a shark mesh? Come on. Poop. Come on. No. No, but that's their application to me. I don't see him really fitting very well outside of a dive style. You know, one of the, uh, the Nighthawks comes on a shark mesh and it looks good.
Everett	The MD, uh, the, yeah, the, uh, I'm going to, I'm making the emoji with the green puke face.
Andrew	The DLC one comes on a black shark mesh. It looks right. Yeah. Make, make the puke face. Make the, it looks right. But that's, that's the context that it fits in. Not on F91. Not, I don't think it would fit on an SNK. It, it needs a, a large metal case dive style. And I think it especially looks good in vintage application. But again, we can circle back to my earlier statement of bowlers and dusters aren't appropriate anymore. Out of context. Right.
Everett	And the context is, um, So, you know, I mean, the thing is we've started it, we started at 10 and I think 10 was, the sole the sole um entry on this list which was like don't ever do it so you know going to number nine super engineer even i who have made these definitive rankings that shall forever forth be known in the watch world uh even i will admit hey maybe a super engineer works and you're right we put it on mdv 106 and it was like this is kind of tight i wore it for a week like that my arm was tired
Andrew	I got stronger in just the right arm.
Everett	I know it was weird. You came over and I was like, what's wrong with you?
Andrew	I'm like, I'm yoked on one side. Don't, don't, don't, don't make a big deal out of it.
Everett	Like that, that, uh, that arm wrestler guy. Yeah, that's exactly what it looked like. Okay. So shark mesh number eight, you're going to disagree, but the rankings are what they are. People. We don't make the rules here. Number seven. Now there's a slight distinction. There's a slight distinction, but number seven, any, any leather, any leather strap period goes in the number seven slot but here's the one distinction retail leather cheapest native straps hersh hadley roma i don't care retail leather goes in the number seven slot i'll accept that i don't like it man they they meet a specific need there's nothing special about them so this is the nothing special leather list i'm assuming a little bit higher up we're gonna get special leather that's right So, so, so number seven is that Hadley, so, so look, a Hersch Liberty.
Andrew	I'm going to swap seven and eight in my mind.
Everett	Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. So you're, you're going to actually demote leather below the Shark Mesh.
Andrew	I'm going to demote OEM cheap leather to below Shark Mesh.
Everett	Fantastic. So, so the Hersch Liberty is, is actually a wonderful strap. And I wear, I wear a Hersch Liberty on my SKX or not my SKX, my SNK from time to time. It's, it's actually a pretty lovely strap. um and and that's fine but at the end of the day if i sweat it gets kind of manky and slimy slimy ew ew i don't want it i don't want it and and it i don't get enough of that special feel from it for me to rank it any higher it's in terms of my in terms of the preference i don't want to wear that i don't want to wear anything that's going to feel slimy if i wind up having to run to court
Andrew	Which happens, you know, the only OEM leather that I've, uh, retained, um, actually two, I've retained two OEM leather straps. Uh, one of them being on the citizen aviator and that took hardware. It's extensive where it's still holds up. It doesn't get yucky. It looks good. Uh, and the other is what came on my, uh, Seiko Recraft. I don't like the shape of it. Uh, it's a flat end as opposed to a tapered to a point end like you'd expect in a leather strap. But again, it's, it's holding up. It still looks good. It's comfortable. But for all the watches that I've had that come on leather, that's, it's not speaking well to, to OEM leather straps.
Everett	Now, now again, guys, remember if you've got a Calatrava. Yeah, obviously. Put that motherfucker on Black Croc. If you've got an Alpinist, you might want to wear that thing on, on a, on a Hersch Liberty or something of that ilk.
Andrew	But we're, I'm, like I said, we're going to get further up to nice leather straps, right? As opposed to OEM leather straps. We're talking just OEM, like it came out of the box.
Everett	I'm going to say we're already in the category of things that I like in certain applications. So, so although it's got a low placing, it's in the range of things that I think are acceptable in certain applications. And number six, we're going to even get further into things I like. Okay.
Andrew	Did we, are we going to get Leatherman bracelets in here or is that going to... Leatherman goes in category 10. Okay.
Everett	Yeah. That Leatherman tool bracelet goes in number 10. Concur. Okay. Okay. So number six, this was a little bit of a tough choice. Beads of Rice. Beads of Rice is the, is the, is the sexy pony right now. But still only number six. He's so hot. He's so hot right now. He's so hot right now. Uh, yeah, you know, I think Beads of Rice is better than Shark Mesh.
Andrew	It fits the same place in my mind for the most part. I don't, I think there's few applications where either wouldn't be appropriate.
Everett	So, so two things have inspired this episode. One of them came after we picked the choice, which is Scottish watches released a watch bands blog post. Oh, and I thought, Oh, that's interesting. And actually, you know, those guys, Rick and Ricky, I don't, I don't know what the hell they're doing, but the, the article was terrible. Um, I'm just joking, we love you guys.
Andrew	Yeah, don't listen to that, listen to us only.
Everett	Scottish Watches, and that kind of got my brain, kind of got my brain going. But the other thing that happened is Chris Vail, Nth Watches, and I, and I, because I kind of do most of our social... I suck at it. Social media stuff. We're talking on Instagram by way of comments, so you guys can see this stuff if you really want to search it out. Chris Vail and I have been talking online and he told me the other day that he thinks a jubilee is the man bun. He thinks that a jubilee is the man bun. You know what that is?
Andrew	Maybe he's right. Because a man bun is something I'm not cool enough to pull off.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. That's right. So you've got to be pretty cool. I think beads of rice for me fits that category better than Jubilee, I think a jubilee in its in its most sort of simple form is a pretty straightforward watch watch Bracelet choice beads of rice on the other hand. It's a little a little cooler to me It's a little cooler, right?
Andrew	Yeah, and it's got it's got to be done right and it's got to be in the right Context well, you know you say that it's got to be done, right?
Everett	I've never seen a bad beads of rice there You know, but you could put a beads of rice on something doesn't fit on.
Andrew	Oh sure. Oh sure I don't mean I don't mean the actual execution of the beads of rice.
Everett	It's got to be a little vintage.
Andrew	Yeah
Everett	It's got to be a little vintage or it's got to be a little dressy. One of those two things.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	If not both.
Andrew	Yeah. Oftentimes both.
Everett	Oftentimes both. So, so yeah, I'm going to put Beads of Rice in the sixth slot. I think that's a fine place for it. And again, we're already in, in choices that I think are great. Cause I love a Beads of Rice. You know, I have a Beads of Rice on my Emperor Diver. Love it.
Andrew	I was just going to say we have one on our Nemo, but we don't have a Nemo.
Everett	We don't have a Nemo cause those fuckers took it back, Eric.
Andrew	Talking to you, man. I want one. I saw the white one that came out.
Everett	I was like, Oh, I want you. I posted a picture of a Nemo this week. And I was like, Oh yeah. Remember that one time when we had all those fucking awesome watches or maybe it was, uh, it was 1963 DL 63. Um, but you know, same, same difference for me. I thought, gosh, remember that time when we had all those EMG watches. I was happy to hang on to those. And eventually he was like, please send those to Washington right now. Yeah. Like, all right, Eric. Okay.
Andrew	Gosh, we've only had them for two months.
Everett	I think I had them for more than that. Uh, yeah, sorry, Eric. But yeah, but thank you. So the beads of rice, especially on a skin diver. Oh, love it. It goes in the sixth slot. Cause it's a little, it's a little quirky.
Andrew	It's limited in its application.
Everett	Okay. Number five. Do it. NATO straps. Generally period NATO straps. Number five. I love the idea of a NATO strap and I love the pictures of them on Instagram. in their actual day-to-day use and application.
Andrew	Meh. It's hard to find a watch that has the right contour for a NATO to really, really work.
Everett	And I think it's hard to find a watch who looks better on a NATO than it does on their OEM. I don't know about that, but I love NATOs. You've worn your SSB on a NATO quite a bit, right?
Andrew	Yeah. The problem is that it's so fucking tall already that if I add any more height to it, it's like I'm wearing Big Ben on my wrist. I can't get it. I can't even get a jacket over it You can always gild your NATO which I think is a totally reasonable thing which I've done but it's still that little bit is the difference between that being a Tall watch and that being a towering watch, right? right, and I think when you when you look at something like the I like the Emperor diver a nice slim watch and Those, those watches work great on it.
Everett	Wow. With the crystal, it's not actually, it doesn't wind up being that slim.
Andrew	The SNK is money on a NATO.
Everett	Uh, I wear the SNK almost explicitly, almost exclusively. What is explicitly wearing it? If you have to know, if you have to ask.
Andrew	Pictures to follow. Uh, the Mako spends a lot of time on the NATO. Yeah. Uh, cause it's, it's, and even that, that's just a little bit taller than I'd like. You need a nice slim watch for a NATO to really fit.
Everett	yeah no i think i think that's right i mean i don't need know that it needs to be a slim watch but it's got to be a watch that can compensate for the the extra girth the girthiness i actually this week put my dan henry 1972 on a toxic shiznit and i put this thing on a nato when i very first got it but i'll tell you it is a pain in the But to get on a NATO because the the it's got hooded lugs and they're really tight I had the same issue with the f91 you have to you have to you have to put the NATO in place and you kind of have to shove the the strap into the crevice and then and then put the The spring bar on top of that and and just apply force until it finds the hole Just like my youth I hope that that segment is listened to out of context by so many children um but golly i put it on this thing and i was like so a it's a black shiznit a black shiznit everywhere everything we've talked about this before right the black shiznit maybe maybe the best version of a nato strap that exists and and really quickly followed by the admiralty gray yeah that's right i think i think black Probably a little bit more conservative gray sexier.
Andrew	Mm-hmm.
Everett	So so black more conservative gray sexier And and so one and two probably shifting places in terms of NATO application Look, I even wrote down here bump to a high-quality SB NATO. So we've put NATO's in the five spot a Bump to a high-quality SB NATO seatbelt NATO I love a seatbelt, Nato. Some people like the OGs. I know Terry from Toxic personally has said he prefers the OG sort of ribbed Nato.
Andrew	But you get a little bit durability. And I think for a daily wear, I think you should go the traditional. But for a... I disagree. I disagree. But for folks like us who wear a watch like maybe three days in a row, you're gonna get a long life out of that seatbelt.
Everett	I love it, man. I love it. I love it. And again, I posted a picture of this. I posted a picture last week of this 72 on the, on the black NATO. I'll probably post another one this week just because I'm so enamored by it. And when I take it off, it's going to be a while before he gets back on there, but golly.
Andrew	Oh, and yeah, that watch looks like it was meant to be on a NATO and the Speedmaster. That's a watch that I think looks better on a NATO.
Everett	You know, I've got this 20 millimeter. I've got this 20 millimeter, um, SB NATO. I suspect if I ever. uh get a speed master like i said if i ever get in a car you know get hit by a car in a crosswalk and get some huge settlement that i will that speed master will send spend time on this on this shiznit yeah but you know when does that happen right getting hit by a car and getting a settlement so rarely you just it's all about right place right time we've said it on the show a number of times so i'm telling you if i ever get hit by a car and get a settlement i'm getting a speed master we'll cross our fingers
Andrew	Hopefully we're in the same crosswalk.
Everett	We can get matching date tests. Someone, someone messaged us recently to say you snort every once in a while. I can't remember who it was.
Andrew	You snort less now that you're skinny.
Everett	Oh, do I? Yeah. I do. It's true. I snort. I'm a little bit of a snorter. It's just my, it's just who I am. Well, and less now that you're skinny. Fair enough.
Andrew	Fair enough. It was a health issue. It was, it was an indicator.
Everett	But I still snort and I think I'm pretty skinny.
Andrew	Yeah, but it's rare now. It's uncommon. All right. For those of you who listen to us, I listen to Everett a lot more than you. So this is your primary function or your primary snorting venue.
Everett	You're saying I snort more on the podcast than I do IRL? Yeah.
Andrew	That's weird. I can't explain it.
Everett	Number four, we're into good shit now, right? We started with the Beads of Rice at number six. Good shit. Five NATOs. This is good shit. Rubber straps. And I'm going to give you a specific order of rubber straps. Okay. And there's one rubber strap that's been excluded. Stay tuned. Uh, one is a ripple rubber strap. And by one, I mean four. So the lowest ranked ripple wave rubber strap, the classic, you know, with the depth rating rubber strap, those are my least favorite of all, but there's so many. If, if you get a good one.
Andrew	Yeah. You know, obviously there's a lot of shit. The one that's going to come on your Timex is not going to be a good one.
Everett	It's shitty. The Casio, the Casio ND limit rubber strap is garbage. Uh, however, if you get a rubber one from that Italian company, who's also... Bertolli? No, it's like Bonato, Centorini.
Andrew	I know.
Everett	But they also make the Zulu Diver, right? So they're rebranded as Zulu Diver. Those are good. Uh, a waffle. Okay. Number three. Two is an isoframe or an isoframe style because Terry has his Magnum version. There's also the, um, Borealis version, you know, there's some very good affordable versions of that isoframe. And then, and then the, the, the bees knees in the rubber strap world is the tropic. Okay. So filling the number four slot is rubber straps, generally ripple waffle isoframe tropic in that order.
Andrew	Okay.
Everett	Arguments?
Andrew	No, I agree with that assessment. Although you had the order backwards when you just gave it.
Everett	Well, I went from the bottom up.
Andrew	Okay. Okay. Yeah, no, I agree completely. Rubber straps are the shit. They're comfortable. They're super adjustable. They're great to wear all day. It doesn't matter what you're doing that day. If it's a pool, it's a golf course, maybe you can't really wear it as evening wear for the most part, but you can make it work. Fuck it, man. It's 2019, homie. For a nice black. You could make work. Yeah. I don't know. A tropic strap. Yeah. A tropic strap on a skin diver. Dude, what else do you need? Sick. Do it all day. Comfortable. They smell nice.
Everett	They oftentimes do smell nice. That's right. That's right. Mine always smell terrible. Yeah. I don't know why. I'm disgusting. Are you just dirty? Disgusting. Okay. Totally disgusting. So no arguments. Number four rubber strap. I agree. Okay. So number three, this is actually two distinct styles of bracelet again. but I'm going to lump them together for the purposes of our definitive rankings because I think in terms of the ranking, they're indistinguishable. They have their merits, each of them individually, but a president slash oyster style. These are both historic Rolex bracelet styles. So the president slash oyster now grab that SB, grab that SB. So, uh, the SB, Uh, what, what is the reference? The SSB031. SSB031, uh, is a Speedmaster style chronograph. And it comes on what I would call, uh, an oyster, which is a flat three link, uh, bracelet. The Nighthawk comes on what I would call a president style. So distinct because of the curve. You're not getting flat.
Andrew	That's right. That's right. You're getting some texture to that bracelet.
Everett	So, and there may be some middle ground, which is like a 3D oyster, um, in between a true president and an oyster. Sometimes they're polished inside. Um, you know, I'm not distinguishing there. I'm saying the president slash oyster, the three link piece.
Andrew	Okay.
Everett	The three link bracelet comes in at number three. It is. I hate to agree with you. Ubiquitous. It is ultimately functional. It's comfortable. It's attractive.
Andrew	They're, they're versatile, versatile.
Everett	It's boring, right? I think that's the biggest deal. It's kind of boring.
Andrew	They're blue jeans. They're blue jeans, dark blue jeans. Cause you don't 2019.
Everett	And that's why they hit the number three spot.
Andrew	Right. I hate to agree with you. Cause I'm not a big fan of them. Typically a lot of them pull my arm hair and they're boring. They're boring.
Everett	They're boring, but, but great. Yeah. Right. I mean, think about how many watches. live on an oyster.
Andrew	Oh, and how many watch decisions are made based off of the quality of bracelet that it's attached to? People buy watches because they like the bracelet, not just because they like the watch. And people don't buy watches because they know they won't like the bracelet.
Everett	And so that, that gets the number three spot because it's just cool.
Andrew	It's cool. It's not cool.
Everett	It's just good. I think it's cool. Even I think it's cool. The same way Levi's are cool. 501s are cool. They don't ever look great. But they always look good.
Andrew	Okay. Yeah. I don't know if that's, if that's cool. They're perfectly above mediocre.
Everett	What about James Dean?
Andrew	Yeah, but that's, that's, that's what's wearing them. That's because of who it's wearing them. I can, I can put on James Dean's pants. I can put them on and I'm not going to rise to his level. I mean, I don't think you'd fit in them. No, I, of course I wouldn't, but I can still put them on and I wouldn't be cool. It would be cool to wear them, but I, they wouldn't. I hate to agree with you.
Everett	I'm picturing you jumping up and down. trying to get James Dean's pants on.
Andrew	I know. I am too, but I just, I hate to agree with you, but I think, I think you're right. I don't like him at number three, but I can't move them, but you can't move them.
Everett	Okay. So number two, and this, I think this is going to surprise people because this is kind, this is the most specific, but also pretty open the most specific category we have, but I think it leaves a lot of room for, for, um, play and movement. An integrated rubber strap gets my number two. Any and I wrote actually it's integrated slash fitted rubber, which is to say a curved end or a fitted integrated rubber strap. So that is, you know, imagine a. Anywhere from a Nautilus on rubber. To or a Rolex on an Everest strap to. the wonderful stuff that Strapcode does for the SKXs. What's the Crafter Blue? The SKX looks killer on those Crafter Blues. There's another company called SkinX that makes a fitted rubber strap. I love that. I love that. And I think that for me, that goes at number two. People are already mad about one.
Andrew	Here's, here's where my challenge is. I disagree. I think that goes on par with a nato for me but the the problem i have with that so much cooler than a nato the problem i have with that cooler yeah but i don't know that it's it's so specific super specific right but but think about like a nautilus for instance i know it can't be i know 15 25 a 15 to 25 000 dollar nautilus and rock it on rubber and it looks fucking sick the problem i have with it is if i move it down it puts oyster at number two and i'm not comfortable with that how many how many how many
Everett	watches do you see where you think, gosh, if only I could get a tight integrated made for this watch rubber strap for me, I love rubber straps.
Andrew	I love them. Rubber silicone straps. They're so comfortable. They're, they look good. They fill that spot that you want leather to fill when you don't want leather.
Everett	Yeah. I mean, the more and more rubber straps I get, the higher they go on this ranking, but
Andrew	I just don't know if I can buy the number two.
Everett	What I want for like, for instance, I'm trying to think of my, uh, my, uh, Saab. I want a rubber strap for my Saab, but I don't want, I don't want any rubber strap. I don't want to wear it on a Tropic. I want to wear it on a fitted rubber strap. That'd be, that'd be really, really good. You know, um, I agree. I recently was looking at. I've kind of been just looking at, you know, what do I buy? Say I ever buy a high-end watch, what am I going to buy? And so kind of looking at watches in terms of their ability to take a rubber strap. Does somebody make a fitted rubber strap? Does the OEM make a rubber strap for this? And that's been a thing that I've kind of come up against and there just aren't enough of them. I want that.
Andrew	There aren't enough affordable options.
Everett	There's not.
Andrew	There aren't. That would be a good market to break into for anybody who's looking for a watch company idea. We'd be your first customers. Maybe only, but first.
Everett	Well, you know, Manta is a company. Manta is a company that was born from the Everest Strap Company. And anybody who's ever played around with rubber for Rolex knows the Everest Strap Company. And they come in, I think they're like $230. The baseline models are $230. That's a Nighthawk. That's right. That's right. Why is this $230? You know, they're making money on that. And that's good for them. Good for them.
Andrew	But it's a good strap.
Everett	You know, I've never handled an Everest, but I assume it's wonderful. Couldn't not be it.
Andrew	Right. Like there's just no, you're not going to get into Maserati and be like, and so Monta gives you the option.
Everett	If you want a fitted rubber strap for this, you got it. You got it, boo. But that's all you get. You don't get the bracelet and bracelet. So killer. Give me both. Give me both. Well, you can get both, but then you pay 200 bucks.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	Then you, yeah. Yeah. You know, cause they are making the best rubber straps in the game, but, uh, I am really sort of excited for Crafter Blue to get enough momentum that they can make a rubber strap for the Orient Make Array line. And I think they do actually now. I think perhaps they do. But there's so many watches that I look at and I think, gosh, couldn't they just make a fitted rubber strap for this? So number two on the list, a fitted or integrated rubber strap, right? Because some of these high-end watches that come on rubber are actually integrated, you know? And they're watches that we don't talk about and we don't think about and don't care about, but you know, AP.
Andrew	We don't care about it, but it's just so far out of our, out of the realm of reality for us. We're just not going to talk. It's like talking about dinner with Trump next week. Like it's just, there's no reason to, cause it's not going to happen.
Everett	So number one, do it. The man bun of the watch bracelet world, the Jubilee. You look so disappointed.
Andrew	I don't agree. I think that's evident in my body language right now. I don't know how I would adjust the rankings to better reflect how I feel. I don't, I don't think you're necessarily wrong. I don't know if you're right, but if we're having to chisel these into stone, I think I'm comfortable with that ranking barring the placement of shark mesh and OEM leather. I think I swapped those two and I think I'm okay with it. I mean, we're, we're making rules for a whole lot. right now. So I gotta, I gotta put my personal feelings aside a little bit and look at it objectively. And I, I don't think you're wrong.
Everett	I think it's perfect. I love it. Get the chisels out folks. And I'm going to, I'm going to right now before you get your chisels out, so hold on for a second. I'm going to make a, I'm going to make a slight condition. I'm going to put an asterisk cause here's the, here's the other number one slot, a custom leather strap. from somebody you know or at least that cares about watches like EA8 or EA Leather Goods you know or someone who is handcrafting.
Andrew	I was worried you were you were gonna put REM StrapCo in that position. I was like ah disagree. Not to say that I don't love my REM StrapCo. No no.
Everett	REM StrapCo some of you guys will know REM StrapCo is my quote-unquote watch brand that isn't a brand because I've never sold any straps but I oftentimes make uh, straps for people that, that I know and love. Um, but no, I I'm talking about EAA or someone else, you know, there's so many wonderful artisanal leather strap.
Andrew	Concur, completely concur.
Everett	You're going to spend between 70 to $200 on a custom leather strap. And if you do that, you're going to love it. and it's going to be wonderful and you're going to be able to choose the leathers you want.
Andrew	You know, I'm more comfortable spending $200 on a custom leather strap than on an Everest rubber. Mmm. Without, without any hesitation.
Everett	I mean, I want both, but yeah, no, I'm with you. I'm with you and you don't have to spend 200. Call Eric at EA leather goods and say, this is kind of what I want and he'll make it work. And he's going to be under a hundred bucks.
Andrew	You're going to make promises for him.
Everett	You're well, I think that that's what he's charging is. Oh, is it? Yeah. I mean, he's, he's You know, I have engaged in conversations with Eric on multiple occasions, and I'm not joking, multiple occasions where I said, dude, you don't charge enough. You don't charge enough. He needs to charge more. And I think we talked to AJ, or maybe you weren't here when that happened. Yeah, I wasn't here when you talked to AJ. I've talked to AJ about, you know, this exact topic. And AJ's bad about it. He's like, oh, well, Eric does it because he loves it. Fuck that. Sorry, AJ. Drink. No, he's doing this thing. He's a, you know, he's full time law enforcement. He's kicking ass, uh, raising a family, uh, and, and selling these wonderful, carefully crafted, sourced leather, beautiful straps for a song. And, uh, and that's wonderful for everybody who gets to buy them. But good Lord, man, you need to charge. Take my money. Take my money. Yeah, no, I'm right. I would pay him. I would pay him twice probably what he charges for a strap.
Andrew	We're ruining everyone's day right now. Who's going and waiting?
Everett	I actually just commissioned a strap from EA Leather Goods and I don't know when I'm going to get it. And there's some specific things that I asked for. And he said, well, I don't know. And I said, well, just take your time whenever you get it to me. That's good. But I commissioned a strap from Eric and I don't know when I'm going to get it. It might be next month. It might be Uh, uh, three months from now. And I told him that was fine with me, but I don't know what he's going to charge me, but I assume it's not going to be enough. It's not going to be enough. And I'm going to pay him the minimum amount. He charges me just to be clear. But I'm also going to pimp the shit out of this stuff because wonderful. So that's going to share number one with the Jubilee.
Andrew	I'm on it.
Everett	It's too broad a category. It's too broad a category to, to actually include in its own place. But there's something to be said about that artist, artisanal, you said was the word you use. And I think that's a good one. Uh, something to be said about that process where you say, this is kind of what I'm looking for. Is it possible to do that? And someone to say, Oh yeah, let me, let me take a look.
Andrew	Bespoke just a hundred percent. That's right.
Everett	Yep. That's right. And you know what? I think if you go through someone like Yale leather goods, you're going to get a strap that you love for, for not very much money. I think if you go from someone else who's charging more, you're also going to be happy. You're going to pay more, but you're going to be just as happy. And there's a ton of makers, and we don't know them all. We couldn't. We couldn't possibly. Eric is the one that is in my consciousness, and I wouldn't think about going anywhere else just because I know him. I know the work, the quality of the work he does, and I'm totally confident with that. So that's sub one.
Andrew	Break out the chisels, folks. That is it, the definitive ranking of watch straps, bracelets, and everything shoes for your watches. Other stuff, what do you got? Number one, well, number one of one. I've been following an Instagram page this last week. My wife introduced me to it. It is called Dad and Buried. Dad and Buried at Instagram.com. Instagram, Dad and Buried. And this guy's thing is that he loves his kids, but he hates being a parent. And it is memes, thoughts, everything related to all of the terrible things that your kids do to drive you crazy. And one of the ones that stands out the most to me just as an example is there is a, one of those texts in front of a picture, not really a meme, it kind of looks like it's an inspirational quote at first and then it's not. It's something along the lines of you spend all this time not feeling like a grownup and expecting your kids to be one. Yeah. Anyway, it's, very funny lighthearted like for those of you who have kids uh we we've all been in that position where you're you're just like man i like just you yearn for the days where where they just go away or just quiet for 10 minutes uh this is a good a good little lifter upper pick me upper laugh at instagram page that even if you really love being a parent which i mean i love my kids but like there are days i don't i don't want to be a parent i just want to be in I just want to be me. I just want to bro down, I want to sit on the couch, I want to watch TV, I want to watch my TV, and I want to drink beer, and not have to worry about the well-being of another human being. And this guy nails it.
Everett	Yeah, no, I feel that so intimately some days, that exact thing, right? And, you know, anybody who's a parent will know the conflict there, because I also am deeply sentimental about the days, you know, I've got six and seven-year-olds, And, uh, my six year old is still a cuddler. He's a cuddler. Uh, and, and how wonderful is that? And so I get so mad at myself when I get annoyed. Cause I get annoyed. He's like, dad, can I sit in your lap? Go away. But just be quiet for five minutes. Oh my gosh. How much am I going to miss that? So I, I get, it's such a, it's such a human thing. Right. Uh, and so it's good that we can poke fun of it.
Andrew	Yeah. And he does.
Everett	So what's the name of the dad and buried dad and buried yeah okay i've got i've got a fun i've got a fun other thing this week do it there's a company in st louis that i'd never heard of before this week called old vienna old vienna makes sausages potato chips oh very different old vienna makes potato chips and supposedly if you're in st louis you know these potato chips well but they make a red hot riplet Hot barbecue flavored, ribbed, ridged. Ribbed is different. Ultra ribbed for your enjoyment. So these are the potato chips that SouthpawSTL15 sent us. And what a fucking care package, man. They're so good. They're so good. So here's the thing. Being on keto, I have to really limit my carb intake. And so I'm sending these with Andrew, but they won't make it to drive home. I have sacrificed some carbs on multiple occasions to get these. I opened a bag and then I carefully rubber banded them up so that they would. And they're fresh. So that they would make it the week while I was waiting for Andrew to come. But good Lord. In terms of potato chips, maybe top two or three. Top two or three. We've got a company called Tim's in Oregon. I think they're actually a Washington company now, but there's a company called Tim's Cascade. In Oregon, they make some Hawaiian chips, but they also make a jalapeno potato chip that is totally fucking killer.
Andrew	We've got Juanitas, the best tortilla chips on the planet earth.
Everett	So we do chips in Oregon. I mean, I assume all states have their sort of bespoke chip company, but some of you guys will know of the brand name Kettle Chips. That's a Portland company. You know, Portland and Oregon generally is sort of a industry hub of the chip world, which is kind of weird, right? Because if people know us for our beer, they don't know us for our chips because chips are like whatever. But Oregon's always had this history of great chips. I've never had these before. I'm so glad I've had them now. I've had multiple New York brands. You know, New York has got their own sort of chip world. St. Louis apparently makes some pretty damn good chips. At least one. And they're fantastic. The spice, man.
Andrew	It's a little bit less than I want. I want just a touch more heat, but like we talked about, if they were any hotter, they'd be selling them to Andrew and Everett only and not to the general public.
Everett	That's right. I think this is a good, and maybe Southpaw STL 15, you can tell us if there's a extra hot version.
Andrew	If there's an extra hot version, I'm going to switch off extra Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
Everett	But that's what they need, right? They need like an extra hot version. These are the, that everybody get these, they'll be hot and you'll love them. Yeah, you will. But I need an extra hot version.
Andrew	These are so good. They're nice and like back-end heat, like warmth in your throat, not front-end spice, just back-end heat and warmth. Really great barbecue flavor. They're nice and thick. One of the complaints I usually have about ridged chips is they're too thin. These are like thick cut, ridged, delicious. I mean, definitely the best barbecue chips I've ever had, bar none.
Everett	Best barbecue chips I've ever had, no doubt about it.
Andrew	Some spice to them, great texture. And the nice thing about these bags, they're the, the combination between personal and shareable size. So they say on the back of the box or box bag, there's 2.5 servings per container. So it tells you what a serving size will do to your body, but then it also warns you about what a full container will do to your body, which, because they know you open this bag, you're, you're self-control. is inspiring because when I open this bag today on my drive home, it will not make it the 12 minute drive back to my house.
Everett	Yeah. And I mean, I could eat, I could eat all of these. I mean that, that bag, I know it looks like it's not full, but I've had literally like 10 of these things, but I had to stop myself because they've got a ton of carbs. They're just full of, they're all carbs.
Andrew	They're potato chips.
Everett	They're all carbs. And sugar. They're potato and sugar.
Andrew	They're so good. Thank you. Thank you.
Everett	So that's my other thing for the week. I don't know if you can find these things. I didn't look them up. I'll look them up and see if I can find something. I'm dropping in the show notes drink. Uh, but wonderful old Vienna, red hot replicates flavored Louisiana hot sauce.
Andrew	Get it, get it, get in me.
Everett	All right, man, you got anything else?
Andrew	I do not.
Everett	All right. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. Feel free to check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20. If you want to support us. Go to patreon.com. We are patreon.com slash 40 and 20. You can contribute any amount of money and we would love that. And that will continue to allow us to host and buy equipment, et cetera, et cetera. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew	Bye bye.
Everett	Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.01.