Episode 52 - Poor Man's Datejust

Published on Wed, 23 Oct 2019 21:16:00 -0700

Synopsis

This episode of the podcast covers suggestions for affordable alternatives to the Rolex Datejust and Day-Date watches. The hosts discuss various watches from brands like Seiko, Orient, Citizen, and Christopher Ward that capture the style and sportiness of the Rolex models at a lower price point. They also mention the challenges of finding a true homage watch that replicates all the key features. In addition to watches, they talk about one host's new hobby of bowling during work breaks, retrieving a dropped phone from a storm drain, and recommendations for the movie "Yesterday" and the Armchair Expert podcast episode with Tal Ben-Shahar.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Everett, how are you? I'm good. I'm good. Just a simple good today. It's a simple good. It's a Tuesday. It's a Tuesday. It's a work day. So it's like, how good can you be? You can't be that good.
Andrew You can't be that good. Hang on. Sorry. I forgot to un... On Dolphin Killer, these beers. Oh, yeah.
Everett Well, you know, we like that Dolphin Killer. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I'm OK. I I've picked up a little bit of a new hobby. So I bowled today in the middle of the day. I had a lesson even.
Andrew You know, you when you texted me about that, I to be clear, I didn't text you about it. No, no, no. But we were texting and it came up in the conversation and I had
Everett I thought you were maybe joking at first. Well, cause it seems like the thing I would joke about.
Andrew Yeah, but then you remained committed to the bit and today you showed me the blisties. So yeah, one of them could be a golf blister. You know, maybe you're hiding that you're golfing without me, but the outside of the thumb is not something you would get golfing. So no, I'm inclined to believe you that you are in fact a bowling and taking lessons. Yeah. Why? No, no, no. Why? What prompted it? Cause I get, I mean, bowling is whatever, like it's a decent, decent hobby. I would question bowling in the middle of the day because it seems like a sport that, much like cornhole, requires beer. So you can't really do that during the day.
Everett What? You know, it's just something I had done in the past. It's something I had done in the past. And so, but it's been many, many, many years since I've done it. And I wanted to have something to sort of get out of the office in the middle of the day and do. In my mind, golf is perfect sport for that. But golf is, You don't go back to the office after that. That's right. That's right. It's a really long commitment. It's kind of expensive. Not that that's a major concern because bowling's also expensive, but it just is too long. I can't commit, you know, it's actually probably three hours that you're out of the out of the seat at the very least. Yeah. And that's if you're golfing fast. At the very least. So there's a bowling alley right by my work a couple blocks away. I can sneak in there. I can bowl a little bit. But then I was like, I don't really know. I never learned how to bowl. I mean, I, I understand the basic physics behind it. Uh, I surface knowledge of those physics. I had an idea about how to do that thing, uh, which was all wrong. Come to find out, uh, which I think it's, it is true for most people. You see someone who's not a bowler and they try to do weird things and you're like, why are you trying to do that? But, uh, I, in my head, had thought, well, I'm different than that, but I wasn't. Everything I was doing was all wrong. So it just seemed like something fun and physical and out of the office that I could sneak away for 45 minutes to an hour and do occasionally when I just have an itch to do something that's not in the office.
Andrew So I'm imagining your instructor is in his 70s. He's younger than I am. No. Is he 16? and works at the bowling alley?
Everett I think he's 32. He's, uh, you know, the club pro quote unquote. Oh, okay. And I think he is, uh, a amateur pro or a semi pro bowler.
Andrew You know, I, one of my accounts when I was slinging beer was a bowling alley and I would get to chatting with the owner and I learned more just about the, uh, the technology in bowling, like more than I would ever care to know about most things. And his passion for it was, like, odd. And it was a family business. Like, his parents owned it before him. And, like, he spent an hour talking to me about the different types, finishes, and styles of floor. Oh, yeah.
Everett It's a thing. Evidently. It's a thing. You know, I don't know. I don't know anything about that. I've learned a little bit about cover stocks because that becomes, like, the first sort of important decisions. What kind of cover stock? And it's dependent on the oil conditions. And so I've learned a little bit about that, but honestly, I just wanted to have something that was a little bit physical, a little bit stupid and kind of cheap and kind of quick to do in the middle of the day.
Andrew And if you suck at something, it's not really very fun to do.
Everett Well, yeah, no, I'm not going to just go huck a ball down the lane as hard as I can for an hour. I mean, I could do that and that actually might accomplish all the all the goals, but it's not me. Yeah, no. Right. No, I'm a guy who taught myself how to juggle and how to solve a Rubik's cube. And, uh, the thing about bowling is I could teach myself some of this, but you get a lesson or five or 20 or whatever, and you're going to get better at it. So I, you know, me, it's, it's, it seems like a fun thing to kind of learn. So that's it.
Andrew I can dig it. If a Topgolf was, was a half mile from work, would you have
Everett been taking golf lessons? Perhaps. Yeah. I mean, although again, same, same issue with that, but you, you know, you could go to the driving range.
Andrew I mean, top golf, you know that they're the driving ranges that have all kinds of like virtual integrated games and yeah, no, I suppose that I could do something like that.
Everett Um, and that would perhaps be less astounding to people, but golf is more prevalent. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe there's something about golf that makes it a little bit more, uh, socially acceptable for someone in my position, but bowling seems like a fun thing to kind of learn.
Andrew It's a dying art. If your kids take up bowling, they are more likely than not to get college scholarships. Yeah, that's a really good point. The pool of competition for bowling teams is pretty low. That's a really good point. I went to high school with a kid who was making money bowling and as a result didn't bowl in college, but that's what he was doing. I guess that was his sport as a, as a child was bowling.
Everett You know, that's interesting because the pros, the best pros in the world. Make like two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Andrew And they've been making that for like 30 years. That's right. And they never the prize money didn't increase with with inflation, which is insane. I mean, because those schedules are nuts and they bowl in like weird places. Some of the best bowling alleys in the country are in like backwater. Who knows where? There's a really good one in Bend that hosts some regional championships.
Everett I think the best lanes in Oregon are in Medford.
Andrew Lava lanes in Medford, which is... Why would you go to Medford for any other reason?
Everett So, yeah, anyway, we're going to change the name of the show to Two Broke Bowling Stops. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, although it's just one.
Andrew Or Two News You Suck at Bowling. Yeah. One's Getting Better.
Everett Yeah, I am modestly, modestly. You know, it's interesting because someone said, well, what are you scoring? What, you know, what, what, what are you scoring? You know, what are your average scores? But I'm not really keeping score because I'm just sort of having so much fun. No, that's not it. It's just that I'm working, you know, um, cause I had, like I said, I had ideas about what I was supposed to do and the, my coach, my trainer, I really just broke it all down. He was like, nope, nope, nope, stop, you know, uh, try doing this. But it was really fundamental, the things that were changed. So it's like Tiger Woods, uh, coming back from swinger recovery, you know, it's just, there's no, I have no, I'm not going to score because I'm doing everything so poorly still. you know, little things. I can feel, you know, a little thing. He says, do this. And I'm not going to be able to do that, but let me, let me try. And then eventually, you know, you do throw the ball 10 times and eventually it clicks and you're like, Oh, I can do that. I can program that muscle memory now. Um, but yeah, so I mean, I'm just sort of now, uh, after, you know, really a lesson and a half, basically starting to feel like I'm not just going up there and doing completely foreign odd things. So,
Andrew No, you didn't inquire. You weren't just there bowling and he didn't approach you and say, hey, man, you need a lesson. That is what happened. You inquire. No. So you didn't inquire like he approached him was like, hey, man, you kind of suck at this. And since you're here in the middle of a workday dress like you're going to be here quite a bit because it's pretty obvious you work just down the street. We're going to have to fix that.
Everett That is oddly close to what actually happened. Yes. Uh, there was a guy getting a lesson next to me in the, like two lane, lane and a half over. And, um, I can't remember. So somebody mentioned something to me or said something to me, but it's just like four dudes, you know, five dudes in the whole place. He's giving a lesson to one guy. And, uh, I think the, the pro said something like, Oh, you know, you throw it just like this guy here, you know, you're, you're twirling. He's kind of sarcastic and a little bit like, uh, making fun of you for doing things that you shouldn't be doing, uh, but in a really sort of productive way. He's like, yeah, you're doing it just like this guy. If I could get the two of you to stop twirling the ball, we could have a couple of good bullies or something like that, but just sort of start engaged with me.
Andrew So he advocates for a straight throw.
Everett No, it's not straight. He, in fact, he hooks the ball so much crazy hook. And I'm like, how does he do that? Because it's such a, it's such a casual thing anyway. Long story short. Yes. He kind of approached me and was like, are you, what are you doing here? Why are you here? Yeah. Well, lessons are cheap. You should take some lessons. And then I signed up for lessons.
Andrew All right. That's I'm glad that's how I imagined it. Even though I, I, even though I feel like after three or four visits, you, you, you would have sought them out. I think perhaps.
Everett Yeah. Perhaps I was looking for something.
Andrew Yeah. And you've, you found this, the love of bowling.
Everett I don't know. I don't know if there's a love yet, but I found some appreciation for it.
Andrew So next time I come over, you're going to be in a league bowling shirt. You're going to be on the team, the lane blazers, the lane blazers. How are you? I'm well, I am just plugging away a little bit on autopilot right now. Had a, had a kind of long day that I didn't, I should have expected it because my day is scheduled, but I forgot that I forgot that I was going to be at work a little bit later tonight. So rushed home, gave the fam a kiss, threw the baby in bed, and then came this way. So I'm, I'm excited. I, I'm excited for a lot of reasons. Number one is, is I love talking watches with you, hanging out and drinking beer with you. I like watches. Number two is that we are completing our 52nd episode. As of right now, as of today, this is, we are recording number 52. This is,
Everett the completion of our one year when this thing publishes, we'll have a year under the belt. Yep. Which means the following episode is our one year anniversary, our one year anniversary of the podcast. So we've got some fun stuff planned. I don't want to reveal anything right now, but there's some fun stuff planned. I want you guys to tune in next week. So you're listening to this on Thursday morning because you're a diligent listener. One week from now, tune in and check us out because the one year episode we're going to have You know, the standard fare. There may be a giveaway. Probably some cake. There may be some fun topics. I was told there would be cake.
Andrew Well, I'll get to eat it. I'll bring cake for me. I'll share it with the kids too.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Keto weirdo. So check us out next week, but this is kind of fun. Yeah. If we, as long as we don't die. Yeah. As long as we don't die in the next 48 minutes or so. We'll have completed a full year of the podcast.
Andrew I thought you were going to go so far as seven days.
Everett Oh, I was like, woof. No, we just have to make it 48 minutes and then someone's got to be here to publish. But that seems reasonable. Yeah. Unless we die in a fire and it all goes up and then we'll be dead at 51.
Andrew Oh, I was like, I'm not 51. You're not 51. No, 51 episodes. That would be a bummer. Maybe they would do a documentary about us. Yeah, it seems reasonable. The 52nd episode. I'm going to roll with titles tonight.
Everett Yeah, that's a that's a good title for. Yeah, for the. Yeah, maybe not.
Andrew No, I like it.
Unknown Just because you have the womp womps doesn't mean that I that I got a womp womp.
Andrew Well, that's not very good either. Can we reprogram those to make any other kind of noises?
Everett We totally can. I keep meaning to put Scottish Watch's horses on there, but it's just one of those things that I haven't had time to do. I can't remember what they all are.
Andrew Time to bowl.
Everett Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Andrew I don't know what that one is, but it's going to have a use someday. It's for announcing a winner.
Everett Is that what it is? I think so. I was thinking it was like a pretty lady.
Andrew That's what you should play when I introduce my good friend Everett.
Everett Yeah, that is right.
Andrew It is right. I do still have applications out for a good friend replacement for any of those of you who may be interested.
Everett It turns out nobody wants to be your friend. No. So you better keep me around, fucker. Seems that might be just saddled with you. So we're talking about watches today.
Andrew Oh yeah. Yeah. We'll get back to it.
Everett We're talking about watches. We never really got to it yet, but here we go. Not at all. I mean, it seems like a lot of times when I say that, uh, I don't know that I say that every episode.
Unknown Oh, you do.
Andrew Every, okay. Yeah. You gotta, you gotta bring me back on track because I can go down those rabbit holes and fuck the fur right off that rabbit. Jeez. You're welcome for that.
Everett Okay. Uh, it seems like, uh, oftentimes we've actually talked about watches, but today I don't, we have not even gotten close to watches. No.
Andrew Is there any watch news we should mention first?
Everett You know, there probably is, but man. Pass.
Andrew Total pass. Tune back in next week for some watch news from the latest four weeks.
Everett Yeah. We're listening to Scottish watches because when they talk about something that has anything to do with watches, it's usually newsy. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Those guys are super funny and very good. They don't spend a ton of time talking about watches. The 17 episodes a week they publish.
Andrew They publish 17 episodes a week. I mean, yeah.
Everett You kind of run out of things to talk about. You know, I listen to almost every episode of Scottish Watches. Every once in a while I'll miss one and not get back to it. But almost every episode, because they're quick, you know, they're pretty quick and digestible. But a lot of times I'm like, what are you guys talking about? You're just hanging out. Yeah.
Andrew Is it the accents or is it the actual content?
Everett No, no, I can understand. I mean, it's just they're, they're, you know, oftentimes not, not super watch focused, which.
Andrew They're just doing what we do, but they do it so many more times a week that they can afford to have a couple.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Andrew A couple of non-watch.
Everett And glass houses and all that, right? We have an entire segment of our show dedicated to other things. Yeah, but we only do one a week. But today we're talking about, we're going to continue this poor man's series. Now, is two make a series?
Andrew It's the beginning.
Everett A mini series? A limited series. We're going to talk about another sort of very popular homaged watch.
Andrew That most of us just can't afford.
Everett Yeah, that's right. So we're going to talk about the Rolex Datejust. Or Day-Date. Or day-date. That's right. I was going to say we're going to incorporate that. We're going to call it the poor man's day-just, but just before anybody freaks out, there are some day-date, some president homages here too. So don't freak out.
Andrew Or do.
Everett Stay calm.
Andrew Whatever. Stay calm.
Everett Road rage is a thing. You know, the day-just and the day-date are so similar in many respects, and obviously they have different, uh, different names and different dials and things are different, but, but in many respects, that fluted bezel, that iconic fluted bezel, uh, they're very similar watches, different bracelets. You've got the president bracelet, or you've got the, the Jubilee bracelet.
Andrew If there weren't, if there wasn't the tradition associated with them, they would be lumped into the same family, the same way, like the Mako and the Ray or I think, but there's the tradition and the, Heraldry, maybe? Heritage would probably be a better word than heraldry. The heritage associated with Rolex. It gives them each a unique identity. You do you, boo. Yeah, I like heraldry. We'll stick with that. Yeah, so. I don't know why that word popped in above heritage.
Everett You know, and it's totally inappropriate. It's a totally inappropriate, inappropriately applied word.
Andrew Yeah, yeah. I apologize.
Everett Yeah, you really, you really. We're going downhill, guys.
Andrew We're a year in. You're stuck with us. Well, you're stuck with me. I'm definitely stuck with you. I haven't even gotten one application.
Everett Yeah, no, you're stuck with me for sure. So I guess it's important to talk a little bit about what the Datejust is because I'm not sure the Datejust is what you think of when you see it. I think it's something more. It's something more than what you think of when you see it. And that has to do with Rolex. Rolex is unique identity, historical identity, as a maker of sport watches. So Rolex famously introduced the world to truly water-resistant watches. And maybe that's a little bit of an overstatement, because there were other people sort of in that game. But the invention of the Hermetic Oyster case was a big deal, you know? Before that, really, we weren't seeing a lot of watches that had that level of water resistance. And these things that had become axiomatic, or perhaps sort of pedestrian at the time, you know, the bezel screws into the mid case, the case back screws into the mid case, the crown screws into the mid case, making for this extremely resistant, hydrophobic, case, that at the time was pretty novel. It was a big deal.
Andrew And now we take it for granted, but... So now we get weirded out when that isn't what's happening. That's right.
Everett That's right. You know, it was a big deal and it continues to be a big deal, but perhaps with a little less need now. So I think it's important to sort of start there. The Datejust, on first glance, is this sort of antiquated looking, you know, that fluted bezel, it's not, not antiquated, but very sort of vintage looking.
Andrew It only remains in style because the, that family of watches remains in production. Yeah. It is wholly unlike anything else that is in the current marketplace and kind of stands out as almost like a, the word I'm looking for is, Icky.
Everett Icky. Yeah.
Andrew If anybody else were to drop that bezel on a watch, you'd be like, what the fuck?
Everett That's ugly. Why'd you do that? That's ugly. Uh, yeah, no, I think that's right on. I think that's right on. Uh, so, so iconic because of, of what it looks like.
Andrew And the heraldry.
Everett And the heraldry. Um, and, and with just a ton of, with a ton of, um, its own thing going on. But when you look at it, it's got this vintage-looking dress watch appeal, I think. But it's more than that, right? It's a sport watch. It is intended to be a sport watch. When these came out in 1887 or whatever it was... 1843. a sport watch. It wasn't a dress watch. It was, it was actually intended to be a very sporty sort of, uh, movement watch. And so it's interesting to think that, that this case that looks nothing like a sport case now really, um, has its roots in being a very capable high water resistance sports watch. So for me in exploring this episode, I wanted to be able to, think about what is it that makes a Datejust? Because I think a lot of the options out there for a poor man's Datejust don't necessarily achieve those goals.
Andrew I do have to do a quick correction. It was 1945. I was going to guess the mid-50s for the original release, but 1945. I don't believe that.
Everett I just looked at Google. It's definitely 18... What did I say? 43. That's what you said.
Andrew Yeah, no, I figured it was sometime in the 50s too, but... Which is more surprising to me that this could be getting, being developed in the 40s amidst all the other shit that's happening.
Everett But it's got that style, right? It's got that style. Oh, it absolutely does, yeah. So, you know, in looking for watches for this episode, I thought, what is it that makes a Datejust homage? I think it needs to be, you know, a poor man's Datejust, perhaps. I think it needs to be sporty. Yep. It needs to be dressy. Yep. It needs to probably come on a bracelet.
Andrew And have a gold option.
Everett And have some, yep, there may be- Or some two-tonage. There probably needs to be some gold, some blingage in the repertoire. And it also needs to have water resistance. Yeah. And we don't see that.
Andrew No. I don't see that. I went back to our sport watch episode looking for, um, like to our dress sport, uh, episode to, to look for some, some similarities and kind of, and, and distill it all down into what I was looking for. Cause you can find plenty of day date or day just rip offs that don't have one of the key components. They're too big, which is common when we're looking at, uh, the style of watch, they're too big. They don't have any water resistance. They are shit. Um, You got like... They say alpha on the front. Yeah, or they say, you know... Sendao. Omega. Oh, wow.
Everett And they have a... And they look just like us. Yeah. And they're from Mexico.
Andrew Or worse. Yeah. Oh, no, sorry. We're going to have to cut that one.
Everett I'm not editing. It's staying in. OK. Yeah, just own it. Yeah. So, right, these are hard to come by. It's hard to come by.
Andrew Yeah, done right, they are. And it's the same thing we kind of ran into with the Speedmaster, like finding things that hit all those key boxes that the Speedmaster fills and stays relatively true to the design, relatively true to the intent, and still looks good. Yeah. and is a value. That's the other thing, is finding a watch that fits this void and still has value. Because you can buy plenty of cheap rip-offs or homages and they're not going to have any value. You might like the way it looks. People are going to go, oh, cool watch, is that a Rolex? And you'll be like, no, it's a Semdow.
Everett Yeah, it's a something, right? You know, and I think maybe perhaps this is an appropriate time to say that Maybe the best poor man's Datejust is an actual Datejust.
Andrew Yeah. No, that's possible.
Everett Um, at 4,000 ish dollars for, um, for, for a 1980s Datejust, uh, that's a hunk of change, but you're getting, um, a very, very, uh, high value retain item. You're not going to lose money on it unless you thrash it. Uh, you're going to have that gold bezel because, you know, some people don't know this, but the fluted bezel on steel Datejusts is gold, um, white gold, uh, or, or yellow gold. Um, so you're going to, you know, in these two tones, they've got gold links. Um, so you're going to have the ability to have a watch that's going to retain its value very well.
Andrew Just in precious metals.
Everett That's right. That's, that's right. Um, but realistically. $4,000 entry-level. You know, you can find them cheaper if you really, really scrape. But for something that's been serviced from Bob's, for instance, you're looking at $4,000 entry-level.
Andrew Which you should. And that's a chunk of change. And that's what you should be spending on that. And honestly, I would be more inclined to buy a 1980s than I would be right off the production line.
Everett Yeah, I think I would, too. There's something about that vintage charm. Rolex has it. Seiko has it. You know, some of these brands have it, certainly. Hoyer's habit, that vintage charm.
Andrew I would also feel weird buying such a antiquated watch that was made in the modern era.
Everett Yeah. They still sell a fuck ton of them.
Andrew Yeah, but it's because it's got the Rolex logo on it. And people dig these watches, and I'm not to disparage it, but they haven't evolved at all with, I think, modern design cues. And plenty of watches have discontinued a watch and said, hey, we're going to we're going to move in in the modern era. Not these. Not these. Holden Strong.
Everett Yeah. And I guess we we could we could sort of move into our first watch, which we're not going to spend a ton of time on this. And in fact, it's just going to be really at all. Yeah. Partially on the list. And part of the reason is for that. Part of the reason for that is. is that it's a little too easy. It was the first watch on both of our lists. And it's going to be the first thought in everybody's head too. But the Seiko Saab 033, 035, this watch is such an obvious choice. And frankly, if you're in the market for one and you've got 500 bucks and you don't know... 400 bucks, 400 money on the Amazon right now. 400 bucks. And you don't know that you don't like something about the Saab This is your first stop. The Sarabow 3.3 or the Sarabow 3.5, either one of them. That's your first stop. It's a little bit bigger than the classic Datejust.
Andrew Datejust is... And it doesn't quite fit it perfectly. That's right. But it has... It is the modern iteration of a revolutionary dress sport watch.
Everett Yep. 100 meters of water resistance, beautiful markers, super classic and refined style. It does have a smooth bezel. Which Datejust comes with smooth... Datejusts have smooth bezels. Should I stop? But you'll edit that? Uh, but, but really the Datejust in everybody's mind is that fluted bezel. So, uh, with that said, this is probably where you stop and, and, and probably where you are, you know, probably where you start, probably where you stop. Um, unless you know, there's something about the Sarib you don't like, or unless you want to get something that really looks very much like a Datejust, cause there's options out there. So I think we're going to start with our first watch here.
Andrew I mean, I know that they come with smooth bezel options. I just feel like if somebody's going to go that route, they go the Explorer route.
Everett Yeah, well, and they're super similar watches in many respects, but yeah, no, that is an option. I think some people do that. They go with smooth bezel Datejust. If I'm going to get a Datejust, I'm getting a fluted bezel. It has to be because that's what it is. Two-tone, fluted bezel, blue dial, batten markers. I think I'd go straight gold. Straight gold? You pay a lot for a straight gold.
Andrew But I think that's what you do. I think if you're going to, if you're going to go that way, you might as well go all out. And this is a watch that I'll, I mean, I'll never own that. And I'll never own any of those watches because they're just not, they're just not for me.
Everett For, for me, all out is two-tone. Yeah. And I think that's grown up in the eighties and.
Andrew Cause straight eighties. I, I. Straight eighties. I work in proximity to a guy who, uh, has a two-tone from, and he's, he clearly has had it since the eighties. Um, yeah. And it just, it fits. He still dresses like it's the eighties for the most part.
Everett And it works. I had a construction mediator that I used several times. Um, and he wasn't an attorney. He was just a, a construction dispute mediator, uh, old contractor, and he wore a Datejust from the eighties. And I, that's when I fell in love. It was a blue bat marker. It was my baby. And I just, he just wore it so well. He wore it pretty loose. Oh, of course.
Andrew You know, and... Can't risk losing one of those links.
Everett Like, fuck, that thing is so stinking cool. And to this day, if I buy a Datejust, that's the one I'm going to buy.
Andrew I can dig it.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew Shall we shall we stop talking about Rolex? Stop talking about Rolex?
Everett Yeah, because you guys are going to buy a Rolex. I'm not. But you might buy a vintage Bulova Super Seville. Automatic. Seville. Automatic. date and date men's dress watch.
Andrew You may, and frankly, you should. I was gonna turn the labels towards you so that you could pick which one you'd prefer.
Everett You take whichever one you want, boo. So I'm gonna shake up one of them. You're going with the, ooh, okay, good choice. What is this? Pineapple and passion fruit. So these are more of our seek out basic bitch drinks. But we did start with some Miller Lite. That feels a little less basic. So this thing is very much a Rolex President homage. I mean, down to the bracelet, the bezel. I mean, just very, very true to the source material. And it's stunning. You can't find them new. Nope. You can't find them new, but you can find these things on eBay. They get up there. They get up there. 500 to about 800 in that range for a good.
Andrew Oh, when you're looking at a service vintage watch, that's pretty appropriate.
Everett That's right. That's right. And the one I've pulled up on eBay, this one's available now. It's got three days left. 21 bids. It's at 265. I suspect this thing will end up at about 500, but it has got this gorgeous purple dial.
Andrew It's like the like that limited edition Challenger purple black. I don't remember what they call it. because I'm not particularly a car guy, but that's exactly where my mind went when I saw that color. And you said, is that purple? I'm like, kind of. Yeah. It's as purple as you can get before you get to black.
Everett And it's beautiful. Beautiful. It's a sunburst dial, just like you would expect. It's got a minute track around the outside, stick hands, stick markers, a little bit of lumen there, that big curvy day window. up at the top. It's got a Cyclops. It's got that great tuning fork logo on it. This thing's gorgeous. And if it wasn't such an homage, I would say absolutely just fantastic watch. But it is an homage, and I think that takes away from it a little bit.
Andrew I think it gives it a little bit, too, because they look at something that somebody is doing really well and say, I think we can do it as good or better. Yeah. And then lets you be the judge.
Everett This watch is killer. This purple dial is killer. Just stunning. This will be done when they hear this. I was just going to say, you should check it out, but it'll be done when you hear this, but... No.
Andrew Three days? It'll be closing. Oh yeah. It'll close on Thursday night, Friday. Get in on it.
Everett If it's still 221... It's three days, zero, zero hours. So Friday at 9.05. Yeah. Yeah. Till Friday at 9.05, come pick this thing up because somebody should buy this. And then send it to us for a month or three. Yes, it is. It's stunning. We'll take really good pictures. I think I like this one. I think this is probably the best president homage out there. And it's an automatic. It's an edit 2834 movement, 36 millimeters, 20 millimeters. I think it's actually coming in at 19 and a half on the lugs. You're going to be able to stuff a 20 in there. No problem. Uh, this thing's great. Totally, totally great.
Andrew And I think somebody should buy it. I miss the days when Boliva was putting watches out like that. Like just, that was their thing.
Everett So watch number two. This is one of your babies. Ooh, yeah. This is a watch you can buy brand new right now today on Amazon.
Andrew For what, $136? $136 bucks. $35 money and 99 cents. It is the Seiko SGF204. And here we've got exactly what we're talking about. We've got two-tone bracelet. We've got two-tone, well, yeah, we'll go to, it's, it's a two-tone watch. It's obviously if it's two-tone, you're going to have a two-tone case and bezel combination, but you've got a gold fluted bezel. It's not real gold though. So you're not, you're not getting that precious metal out of it. I'm sure the links aren't real gold. Um, you call it a Jubilee? I think it's, it's a straight Jubilee. Uh, and again, it is just, it is, exactly the homage you'd expect out of Seiko for this watch. Just the, the, what you'd expect Japanese day date in the dual window at the three o'clock, the three letter, uh, abbreviation for the, for the day, your date window. And it's just, it's classic looking and this is the true poor man's option. It's 136 money. You're getting most of the characteristics of the Datejust. All of the reliability out of Seiko. And it is a quartz.
Everett It's quartz and it's got shitty water resistance. So 30 meters.
Andrew Yeah, but you know what? For a sport watch, for someone who's not looking to bang it around, I mean, and I don't know, I've never had one of these. I don't know if you're going to run into the issues of fogging with such low water resistance. I would imagine with modern technology, you're probably not. And especially out of Seiko, you're probably not. I mean, what more could you ask for? It has all the cues, everything that you'd expect out of a homage to it.
Everett And how big are these? How big is this guy? I think they're 38. 38? I could be wrong about that. So 19 and a half on the bandwidth, 35. It says 35. I suspect it's bigger than that, but it may be that size. You know, the one thing about this that I don't love, it's got something interesting going on with the lugs. There's a little bit of protrusion at the lugs. They don't the lug opening doesn't sit flush to that rounded case dimension. But you win some, you lose some.
Andrew I think that's what you're going to get when you buy a $135 homage from Seiko.
Everett And it's quartz, which again, again, that's fine.
Andrew I'm just glad it's not part of the 5 Series.
Everett That's right. But if you like this, but you do want an automatic.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
Everett And you do want something in the Seiko 5 Series There's a discontinued watch from Seiko that you can still find. Uh, I've pulled up a bunch on watch patrol.net and watch patrol is like a watch recon where they aggregate listings from other places. Um, this is the Seiko SNXJ89 quote date, date, day, date, quote, date, just. These things have a number of different dials. There's a full loom version of the dial that's really stunning. Oh, that's cool. Jubilee, 4 o'clock crown, which is, it is what it is, I suppose. But automatic, 7S26, Seiko 5 branding, because it's a Seiko 5, see-through case back. It's just beautiful. It's like an SNK. It's like an SNK that looks like a Datejust is really what it is.
Andrew And for only $150 money on this posting. And they're all in the neighborhood of $150, $250 bucks.
Everett Great, great case shape. Great contouring on the case. This thing's fantastic.
Andrew And I think what makes this the homage is the fluted bezel. Because everything else screams Seiko.
Everett Well, the markers are clearly, the markers and hands are clearly a call to the source material. But yeah, you're right. It's clearly a Seiko. It's got Seiko things going on everywhere else. It just has that fluted bezel.
Andrew The case shape is what really said Seiko to me. I dig this. And for maybe $20 more, you're getting that 7S26 as opposed to a quartz movement.
Everett And these come in anywhere from 150 to 350 in good condition. So, uh, you know, just be patient and look for one that works for you. This one I think is so cheap because it's a six and a seven, 6.75 bracelet, uh, which isn't going to work for many people. Um, but yeah, I think this is a great option for Seiko, uh, a Seiko 5 version. Boom time. Next watch.
Andrew Andrew. Yeah. Uh, this is a watch I've actually looked at on a number of occasions and just never, never quite had it in me to pick up, even though I would like to eventually just have one of these, if for nothing else, there's to just to turn it, just to try it for a little while and then put it back out into the wild. Uh, we've got the, the Orient president classic automatic, uh, reference E V 0J003B. And on the Amazon, what's this? 341, 314. And it is terrific. If, if you're, if, if the SARB doesn't do it for you, if you want a closer to the source, date, date, date, just, this is it. 36 millimeter case, which is, or is it 35? 36. 36. Yeah. 36 millimeter case. Uh, Which is unusual for Orient, because usually they go just a touch too big, but everything else you want. It comes in a black dial and a silver dial. The 11 to 1 date window. The Cyclops date window, which is really unusual for Orient. You know what I don't like though? The diamond markers.
Everett Yeah. And they're clearly not diamonds at that price.
Andrew No, obviously not, but I don't like that. You get the 100 meters of water resistant and sapphire crystal for 350-ish bucks.
Everett Yeah, this is the blingiest option that we've picked up. I like it for a number of reasons. They have sort of combined elements from the Datejust and the Day-Date. It's got a full Day-Date dial, a diamond Day-Date dial, but then it's got the Jubilee bracelet.
Andrew uh which i think is a neat uh a neat sort of mix mix up of those of those styles i love it man it doesn't it doesn't seem like an orient watch to me it seems like a peripheral of their catalog they're like hey i guess we make this you know some people are gonna buy it um and i'm not a fan of the diamond markers like why but everything else i mean if that's if you want some bling on it this is kind of it
Everett I really like the case finishing on this thing. They've, they've really, uh, done a very sort of vintage Rolex case finish. And I don't think the quality is going to be up there with, with Rolex. Certainly not at the price point difference, but they've, they've sort of done away with any extraneous curves or whatever in a truly Rolex fashion. I love this thing. I love the, I love the minute track around the outside. Um, Yeah, this is neat. It's got great, it's got a great logo, that Orient logo, which love it or hate it.
Andrew Colorless in this, in this iteration.
Everett It's got Orient's EV automatic movement. It's got a nice big crown, which I like. A big substantial crown. I'm trying to snag this thing so I can stretch it out a little bit.
Andrew Comes in all gold too.
Everett Yeah, yeah, it comes in all gold. Which is, it's a good looking watch too, the gold version. 383.
Andrew And against the gold, I think the diamond markers would be a little bit less apparent and maybe more forgivable.
Everett It looks a little cheaper in gold to me.
Andrew Because it's not real gold.
Everett Yeah. And I'm sort of reticent to pick up plated gold unless it's like a vintage Heuer or something that's got a little bit of patina.
Andrew Yeah, no, gold jewelry doesn't do it for me.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew It's love it or hate it. I think that's right.
Everett I think that's right. So at this point we're going to transition and we're going to transition in a way that I think is fun but may not be for everybody. We're going to transition away from Um, you know, you know, we had the Saab 0 3 3 0 3 5, which is not a true, uh, Datejust Day-Date homage. Um, we're going to transition to a couple of other watches that may not be in your, at the top of your consciousness when you're thinking of these things. But I think the intent was to, or at least the intent for me was to capture what you get with that. But in a truly premier, uh, very, very, uh, quality product, that's going to have all of the, all of the features. in the Datejust, minus this fluted bezel. That's what I was hoping for.
Andrew Yeah, you're going to fill that void with something similar, not necessarily identical.
Everett And so for me, my pick was a Christopher Ward. This is the current iteration of the C65 Trident Vintage. It's their Mark II. I think that there are Mark IIs that came out before this one. This is the newest version, and I love this thing. because it's got Christopher Ward's new light catcher case. Um, and if you follow Christopher Ward at all, you'll know that this case was kind of a big deal for them. Um, they spent a lot of time developing it and you know, some of that's just marketing, right? But it is truly a stunning case. I think that Christopher Ward is doing as much for case design and finishing as anybody, uh, in the sort of, Um, non micro brand watch world right now. I think that perhaps they're second to only Seiko in terms of their production pieces on quality of finishing, polishing, uh, bevels. But this watch, this watch for under a thousand bucks, you can get on a bracelet for I think nine, 10, and you can get it on a, on a leather for seven 95. Uh, this watch, holy shit, man. Uh, everything you'd want in a sport dress watch. 150 meters of water resistance. Yeah, 910 on the bracelet. 150 meters of water resistance. 38 meters. Great bracelet. Millimeters. What'd I say? 38 meters. 38 millimeters.
Andrew It's a 38 meter watch, y'all, so you are going to need a truck.
Everett 20 millimeters lug width. Mm. It's got a date. It's got just a simple date window. It's got Christopher Ward's sort of finish line logo at the 12 o'clock and Christopher Ward's love it or hate it 9 o'clock.
Andrew Match date wheel. That's important for me.
Everett Match date wheel. The one thing that this watch doesn't have and the one thing that almost caused me to strike it from this spot on my list was the lack of steel markers. It does have applied markers, and they're raised applied markers, but they're fully loomed. I like that. And it's an old radium, which is not going to be for everybody.
Andrew I like that. I think that adds to the sportiness of the watch. And that's what we're looking for. We're looking for a collision of dress and sport. And I think Rolex has created this luxury idea that it doesn't matter what they put out, everything's dressy. And I think this hits the sport really highlights that, and it makes this a watch that you would want to wear in most environments.
Everett Yeah, no, I think that's right on. I think that's right on. And it's got a certain amount of playing close to that line, that razor's edge. Is it stressy? Is it sporty? Which,
Andrew On black leather, I have no second thoughts about wearing that with a suit.
Everett Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Andrew Not even a moment of hesitation.
Everett They're thin. I can't remember what the I can't remember what the dimension is, but they're relatively thin. Eleven, I guess.
Andrew Yeah, eleven. That's just a guess from looking at it.
Everett Eleven was the number that popped into my head as well, but I'm trying to confirm that. Eleven point five. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to fit under your sleeve. Have I ever said how that's kind of a pet peeve of mine? When they don't? No. The idea that you need to buy a watch to fit under a shirt sleeve.
Andrew You can just put it over your shirt sleeve like a bouse with a W. You could. I saw somebody wearing a Suunto over their long-sleeve t-shirt, and I had a lot of thoughts.
Everett Here's why it bugs me. Here's why it bugs me. There is no simpler clothing modification that you can do at home than to move the buttons on your barrel cuffs. I mean it, it would take you literally five minutes and stuff that you almost certainly have in your junk drawer. Uh, and that's what I do when I have a shirt sleeve that's too tight. I just, fucking sew the button on a little further down the cuff. It is literally two and a half minutes. Yeah. I mean, it's a piece of cake. Uh, so that's why it bothers me when people say that, but it's such, no, I, I agree completely, but it is a thing. Could you tell? Yeah. So, but in any event, this is going to be nice and thin. I think what people mean to say when they actually say that is they want it to be thin and wear thin and not be chunky. And I get that.
Andrew But when it starts grabbing your jacket, that's when we start coming into issues with how thick that watch is. Right.
Everett That's right. But yeah, I think this thing is super cool. And I think if you're in that, if you're looking for a truly sort of classy, perhaps heirloom piece that captures everything that was good about the Datejust, this, for me, does it. Put it on black leather, it's dressy as shit. Put it on the bracelet, it's sporty as shit. It's perfect.
Andrew Put it on brown leather, you can wear with a t-shirt.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Andrew More on rubber.
Everett Yeah. And this thing comes on a, I can't remember if it's rubber or sailcloth. I think it's like a faux sailcloth. Is it a hundred meters on this? This is 150. Ooh. Yeah. 150. So it's a, it is a true sport watch. You're going to be able to wear this in the pool. Um, yeah, it's great. This is hybrid strap. I don't know what that means.
Andrew Well, it's two things bred together.
Everett Cordura and rubber. Oh, interesting. Yeah. So pretty cool, pretty cool watch. Which brings us to your off the cuff choice.
Andrew Yes. And this is another watch that I've looked at quite a bit and is on the shortlist for next year. It is the Citizen Corso EcoDrive, reference BM7330-59L. And I'm typically not a fan of integrated bracelets. And in this instance, I really, really dig it. I think they've done such a good job. You've got a, uh, probably not a true five piece, but maybe a true five piece bracelet on a, again, killer citizen case. All the angles on it are there. subtle, but also really noticeable. A polished bezel, that great citizen blue dial. You've got just all the classy bits that you want in a sport watch that can lend itself to a dressy. I don't see a lot of taper, if any taper in that bracelet, which is a little bit bothersome because that's what you're stuck with.
Everett I think it's got a taper to it. I think that it's at least a two millimeter taper.
Andrew I would hope so because it's coming down. Ooh. I want to say 20 on it, but the case is 40 millimeters. Uh, so a little bit on the bigger side to replace this, uh, I would hope for 38, but if, if we're being real about $140 watch 40 millimeters is, is pretty damn good. And I dig this and it's, it's eco drive. You've got, great markers on it that really pop against that blue, because I love, love, love that really, really dark midnight blue, maybe towards the navy side. Sword hands.
Everett Which is the one thing I don't love about this watch. You don't like the swords? No, I wish it had batten hands.
Andrew Or stick hands. I could go for that, but I like the swords in this application. Case finishing exactly like you'd expect it.
Everett I think the case finishing on this thing is, at least in the pictures, just looks fantastic.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew It kind of AP feel on the angles and the integration with the bracelet. Uh, man, this might be the first watch I buy next year. Yeah.
Everett It's $140. It's a great, it's a great pick. And, and I like how we sort of bracketed with our picks, which I think we often knew without even trying, but we sort of bracketed the range there. $140 for the Citizen EcoDrive, which is a stunner, 900 for the Christopher Ward. There's an option here for you, no matter where you're at. And I think we've highlighted some of the goodies.
Andrew Yeah, if you want to go a real true to form homage, a homage, or if you want to go to the modern iteration of it, there are tons of options out there. And there's a bunch of options out there that we haven't even that we obviously haven't mentioned because we've talked about what five, six watches today. Yeah.
Everett And there's so many of these out there.
Andrew Let us know your thoughts on them. We love, love, love dress sport watches. That's kind of our obsession right now. Yeah. If you can't tell. I think that's right. And so many good options out there. So you don't have to pinch pennies to buy a Datejust or a Day-Date because there are a lot of, I mean, you can, I'm not going to advocate against that and then send it to us for three to six months, so we can get a full feel for it. But there's so many options out there that fill this void and are going to make anyone super happy because these are all fucking great watches.
Everett So we've got an honorable mention. Yep. We've got an honorable mention. This thing didn't make the cut because it's just not close enough. Right. But the Hamilton Khaki King, I think, is a great choice for someone who is looking for a sporty but perhaps dressy modern sport watch. it's it's definitely on the sport and I think it tends towards field even of this spectrum yeah and it is certainly a field watch it this is certainly a field watch sort of pilot field feel to it and and only 50 meters of water resistance which we've talked about this watch in the past and that's always been my criticism is there's no good reason for this watch not to have a hundred meters of water resistance nope and that's what kept it from making a list and why it gets an honorable mention because it's worth mentioning yeah but it's it doesn't
Andrew hit enough of those key components to fill the void.
Everett It's got both the day and the date at 12 o'clock, but that sort of ribbon day window. Definitely less polish on this thing than I think you'd want out of a true Datejust homage. But something to think about if you're thinking, I want a Datejust, something like a Datejust, but I want it to be more rugged, more outdoorsy. This is a great choice.
Andrew Yeah, but you only have 50 meters of water resistance on it. do consider that when you wash your hands.
Everett You know, this watch, I think it's such a, such a stupid watch. I love it. I love it. And I really am inclined to get one, but that 50 meters of water resistance, everything that this watch purports to be is ruined by that.
Andrew It's a limiter. It's, it's rare that you get a watch that seems so versatile, but has such a glaring deficiency.
Everett Glaring. Not that I'm even, uh, yeah, no, I am a bit of a water resistance whore.
Andrew I want a hundred meters. Yeah. Unless it's a pure dress watch. I want a hundred meters. Me too. Cause I don't know. Oh, uh, as, as an example, uh, I went out with some friends last Friday to celebrate a birthday. And as we pulled up into our parking spot, we were parked behind another one of the friends and we got out of the car and she looked at us with this horrified look on her face. And we're like, what the fuck's going on? And her girlfriend had gotten out of the car with her phone in her lap and her phone had fallen through the graded storm drain alongside the road. Done that. Did you do this? We pulled that thing off. We pulled it out, like pulled the grate up out of the earth and felt the bottom with a shovel because I had a shovel in the bed of my truck. Couldn't find it. Got a net, her dad showed up with a net, like a pool leaf scooper, and we scooped 20 gallons of leaves and sludge out of the bottom. Went across the street to the bar, said, hey, can we have one of your five-gallon buckets? We lost a phone in a drain. We bailed it out, 30 gallons of water out, and then someone hopped down in, felt around on the bottom, pulled the phone out. The iPhone 11 is still working after spending north of an hour underwater.
Everett That's awesome.
Andrew So speaking of water resistance, it's a real thing. You might not think you need it, but you just never know when you're going to drop your phone. Watch who knows what into one of those storm drains. But we did it.
Everett That's awesome.
Andrew It was more fun than drinking.
Everett Right. That's awesome. That's a good story. It was a good story. And the iPhone 11, you know, she dried it off.
Andrew She called me on accident because I've been calling it to see if we get some light. But somehow, obviously, it's a 50 percent chance. But if you drop something underwater, it's a 100% chance the light upside is going to land in a way that will obscure the ability to see it.
Everett Right.
Andrew It's like peanut butter toast. Yeah. Always lands peanut butter side up. No, peanut butter side down. Yeah, precisely. Uh, so it, it landed screen side down in the corner. Uh, and I was like, is it, does it, is it on vibrate? Is it on ring? And she said she didn't know, um, it was on vibrate. So anyway, she's drying it off and accidentally called me back. And it worked. It just immediately. Yeah. Yeah.
Everett Modern technology, man.
Andrew Yeah. And no needles at the bottom of the storm drain, which was, I think, the most impressive part. Not that we got the phones to work, but there was no needles or anything. We're worried about detritus. I mean, any number of diseases that would come off of a used needle.
Everett Well, well, good. I think I think we can wrap it on the on this the content for this episode or the topic on this episode. You know, as Andrew suggested earlier, reach out to us if we missed some good ones. I'm sure we did. And if you send us something good enough, we'll drop it in in the next episode. But yeah, Datejust, you need one. You probably don't need a Datejust, but you need something like a Datejust. A dress sport watch. Other things. Andrew, my man. Go.
Unknown Okay.
Andrew So I heard, I listened to an episode of Armchair Expert today with a fellow named Tal Ben-Shahar, and he is a Israeli born American professor, or was a professor. He taught at Harvard and now owns a... That's a lame school. Yeah. You know, it's whatever. It was at the time. of its offering, the most popular course in Harvard history. He's written a whole shitload of books, but his whole, now he's kind of an IO psychologist, an institutional and organizational psychologist, and his whole thing is making people and companies more productive. But his shtick is positivity psychology. His whole thinking behind it is Uh, there's all these studies done every year on depression, on anger, on sadness, on all the negatives. Uh, which is really typical to American medicine is we treat symptoms. We treat the issue as it arises, but do very little on prevention. So, uh, literally 10 times more articles were written on these negative side effects, negative conditions than there were on the positives. Uh, so his idea. was to start addressing psychology and kind of the philosophy of it and organizational leadership from the positive side. How do we empower and improve what's working in order to stymie the negative? So he is, that's, that's his whole thing is focus on the positive. Uh, and he, one of the things he said was that he, uh, if he were, or when he, when he goes and gives presentations, cause now he runs a consulting company, When he goes and he talks to managers, he doesn't ask about what needs to be improved. His first questions are, what are we doing well? And it's focusing on improving things that are already working to raise up the level of the things that you might be struggling in.
Everett Sounds like negative bullshit. It's never going to work. Maybe.
Andrew Yeah. No, no, you're definitely right. But it's an interesting perspective change and kind of a paradigm shift in if you want to improve something, we'll focus on the negatives. There's positives there. Even, even when something fucking sucks, like your car's broke down, but it's a classic Corvette or it's a classic Mustang. Like just, you start from there and that's, it's just a slight paradigm shift that gives you a little bit of a boost to start focusing on the positive sides of it and improving the positives rather than like, well, you know, this is broken, this is broken, this is broken, this is broken, you know, nevermind. I'm, you know, all these great things are happening, but just a little bit of a paradigm shift. And it was really fascinating to hear him talk about how he uses that in management and in leadership seminars and in improving organizations as a whole, which is something that I've done professionally, uh, and wish I would have tried to employ some of those methods. I think it would have gotten me further.
Everett It sounds super interesting. I'm as a general rule, I'm very skeptical about, uh, you know, motivational self-help type stuff.
Andrew Oh, so my, and which is fascinating because he's also pretty anti self-help because it, it creates this environment where, uh, I'm trying to think of the way he phrased it. It was, um, uh, so you're focusing on the symptoms and, and it, it, it's all focused around achieving something that's based on willpower. So if you want to, uh, one of the questions he posed was how many people have made a new year's resolution? And how many people have gone through with that New Year's resolution? No one raises their hand. How many people brush their teeth every day? And it's all about incremental change. Like it doesn't have to be binary. Self-help is all focused around changing kind of a symptom rather than addressing the root cause and building from there. Incremental, non-binary,
Everett It sounds super interesting that idea that paradigm shift in the way we think about self-help is powerful. So the other thing then is Tal Ben-Shahar himself, but also perhaps this Armchair Expert episode. And is that a Dax Shepard?
Andrew Yeah, that's a podcast I've talked about probably a handful of times on here, but he's got a huge catalog. When you're done with us, look him up. He interviews a lot of great people and it's interesting to hear a pretty vulnerable interview with folks who are otherwise not humans to us. Right. So getting the human side of it and the Tal Ben-Shahar was one of note worth giving a listen to.
Everett Very good. I like it.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett What you got? I've got a movie. I watched a movie this week.
Andrew Oh, in a theater or in your residence?
Everett No, I watched it at the house. I think it was on Netflix. It's on Netflix or perhaps Amazon. No, I think we've hit we rented it on Amazon actually, but this is a movie called yesterday And it was One of my favorite movies I've ever seen I believe it.
Andrew It's one of the first Like it's rare. You come across a movie. That's super original. Yeah, it's not just an action movie or a rom-com But it's it's a around a truly original idea and I I dig it
Everett So, so no spoilers. I won't give anything away, but this is the basic premise of the, of the movie is this guy is in an accident. He wakes up in a world where everything's the same. No, no, no, uh, major shift in the way the world operates. He's still the same guy. He's in the same place. Uh, his girlfriend is the same or, you know, uh, his not girlfriend. Uh, but a few things are different. A few things are different in particular of note to the story. is that the Beatles never existed. The band, the Beatles, never existed.
Andrew That's winning the biggest lottery in history.
Everett And so this fellow is a musician and he fairly quickly figures this out, but it's hard for him to figure it out because it's such an odd thing. And the title of the movie is Yesterday, which is obviously a Beatles song. And he sort of realizes this when He's recovering from his accident, and he plays this, and the people are like, that was so good. When did you write that? And he's like, I didn't fucking write it. It's yesterday, you idiots. But anyway, so this is a Danny Boyle movie. Danny Boyle's semi-famous director, not Spielberg quality, but has made tons of great movies. 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours. Very, very good movies, but perhaps not blockbusters. All those were blockbusters. Okay, so fuck me. Also in this is Lily James from Downton Abbey. Ed Sheeran is in it, and he's great. Sorry, what? Ed Sheeran, the musician? No. No? Sheeran, maybe? I think, okay. I think it's Ed Sheeran.
Andrew Are you sure? Because I'm, I'm saying with conviction, which now makes me unsure.
Everett Well, why don't we just agree to disagree? Fucker. Uh, yeah. Ed Sheeran, Ed Sheeran, whatever, however you say that fella's name.
Andrew I don't know that guy. He's got the voice of an angel. Except when he was in Game of Thrones. I hated that. Oh, I thought that was kind of fun.
Everett I hated that. So this movie, this movie, uh, I, Loved it. It made me, like, laugh with joy. Like, genuine. I'm not laughing because this is funny. I'm laughing because I'm having so much joy watching this. Like, sort of that emotional, teary-eyed, lump-in-your-throat laughing. I just loved it. It hasn't done super well with the critics. You know, I think this is, like, in the 60s on Rotten Tomatoes. I do not feel like that's indicative of how good this movie is.
Andrew There's a lot of hundreds on Rotten Tomatoes that I wouldn't even watch alone and drunk.
Everett Oh, you know, so I sort of feel like Rotten Tomatoes is a flawed system, but I think you're much less likely to get a false positive on Rotten Tomatoes than you are a false negative. I think that there's a lot of movies that don't do well with the critics that are pretty enjoyable. The one that came to my mind the most recently is that movie Spawn. This is a Tom Hardy movie about... I didn't watch that, but... The Spider-Man nemesis Spawn. And people didn't like it for a number of reasons. I think comic book nerds didn't like it because how can you have a Spawn movie that does... Spawn? Not Spawn. Not Spawn. Spawn is a totally different character. Yeah. Jeez Louise. If I remember to edit this, I will, but you guys are going to be screaming at me.
Andrew It's not Spawn because he is not in that world. It is, um... Here we go.
Everett Venom.
Andrew Venom. Jeez, love. I had to see him to remember.
Everett I'm going to turn in my comic book card. You're going to remember to edit this episode. This is Comic Bird. I'm not even drunk tonight. No. No. So yes, Venom. That movie got destroyed by the critics and it was so enjoyable. I loved every minute of it. So I think Rotten Tomatoes is flawed, but I think you're more likely to get false negatives than you are false positives. By and large, if something's sitting at like 95, 96 on Rotten Tomatoes, it's going to be pretty fucking good, I think. OK, you're looking something up. So in any event, I love this movie.
Andrew I think it's interesting is his diversity as a director to go from 28 weeks later to Slumdog Millionaire and 120. I mean, that's that's a pretty impressive portfolio.
Everett It is. It is. And I think that I think that the quality of the movies that he makes is is pretty up there. But there's there's also some some odd ones in there, too. So. Did you find the movie that you thought was going to prove your point?
Andrew We'll have to talk about this after. We'll mention it next week in our Euroversary.
Unknown Um, yeah.
Everett All right, you guys, we're going a little long, so we'll probably cut out now. Andrew, is there anything else that you're dying to tell these people before we hang it up for the night? I don't. If it's 9.30 on a Tuesday night.
Andrew I have nothing else.
Everett You have nothing else? Nope. Well, Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday. If you want to support us, we're on Instagram at 40 and 20. You can also check us out on patreon.com slash 40 and 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.
Unknown Bye-bye.