Episode 53- The Objectively Best Cheap Watch
Published on Wed, 30 Oct 2019 21:20:00 -0700
Synopsis
This is the 40 and 20 podcast where the hosts Andrew and Everett discuss their one year anniversary episode. They reveal a ranking of the best affordable watches under $65 based on criteria like water resistance, size, durability, and aesthetics. The top watches include the Casio G-Shock DW5600E, Orient FUG1H001, Casio Edifice EFV100D, Casio World Time, and Guangchin GJ16034. They also discuss Everett's surprise of modifying Invicta watches for their anniversary and an upcoming giveaway of one of the modded watches.
Links
Transcript
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Andrew | Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your host Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. |
Unknown | Everett, how are you? |
Everett | Man, I'm good. I'm good. You know, we're doing this the second time we didn't burn anywhere near enough time. |
Andrew | No, usually, usually it takes us 25-30 minutes before we realize we haven't hit the green button and made it turn red. |
Everett | I hit the green button. You always blame me. |
Andrew | No, I'm just saying that's usually the cause of our restarts and not like Just general malfeasance on both of our parts. |
Everett | But yeah, man, I'm good. I'm good. I had a keto cheeseburger tonight, which is just one of the one of the life's guilty pleasures. You know, keto anything. Anything that feels like normal food is a life's guilty pleasure for me at this point. |
Andrew | And they do such a good job with that bun, man. Like that doesn't nothing about that feels keto-y. |
Everett | Yeah. You know, if you look around for good sort of keto bread substitutes, because you can find them. |
Andrew | Lettuce wraps. |
Everett | Yeah. Well, you know, uh, cabbage, uh, Jimmy Johns, Jimmy Johns does their, uh, on which, which is wrapped in lettuce and then wrapped on paper on top of that. And it, it actually works out really well. |
Andrew | Um, but more or less a lettuce wrap doesn't, no, doesn't act because you want, you need that kind of like gummy textured, like there's a text. Yeah. There's a texture with bread that is pretty important for sandwiches. |
Everett | But yeah, that was just a meat salad. weekends, chess tournaments, kid stuff, man. |
Andrew | All the good stuff. |
Everett | All the good stuff. Some Halloween stuff. We went to a little church Halloween event on Friday, which was fun. |
Andrew | We did one of those too. Well, I didn't, but the family did. Yeah. I stayed home. I don't know what I did. We like came home kind of in a hurry from something. And, uh, I don't even remember where we were. What did we do? I don't know. We did something. and uh we were getting home and saw like a bunch of costumed children wandering down the street and realized that there was a the community event going on down the street from us so oh nice threw the kid in the costume and they took off and i like got the house ready for their return love that mostly just watch tv also i'm pumped because today is our official one year anniversary episode It's true. Hit the applause button. Is it this one? Nope. Yeah. It kind of goes too long. It does. You can fade it out, though. |
Everett | Well, sure. But I mean, they just they want it to go for forever. |
Andrew | Well, we deserve that much applause. We are into our we have completed our first year and we are in our second year. |
Everett | Yeah. Anniversary. Happy anniversary to us. |
Andrew | Happy anniversary to y'all. Thanks for sticking it out. We know we're not the easiest partners to deal with. |
Everett | I'm wearing an Invicta. |
Andrew | I'm wearing an Invicta. |
Everett | An automatic. I'm wearing an automatic Invicta. Yeah. And I don't even hate it. |
Andrew | No, I love it. |
Everett | I don't even hate it. So some of you guys follow our Instagram may have seen that we got some 40 and 20 watches. Got them. |
Andrew | I don't know if that's the right word. We have some 40 and 20 watches. |
Everett | We have some 40 and 20 watches. |
Andrew | Yeah. It wasn't it was a matter of getting though. Because that was the question I asked. I probably asked you that five times before you you finally answered me. |
Everett | What did you ask? |
Andrew | Who made these? Where did you get these? Who made these? Where, like, where are these from? Who are these from? |
Everett | It turns out I just actually made them. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | Yeah. So I, uh, I, I ordered some watches. I wanted to do a little surprise for Andrew for our one year anniversary. And so I ordered. |
Andrew | And I didn't do anything for you. I suck. |
Everett | You are the worst. I ordered three Invicta 8926 watches, otherwise known as the pro diver. And I immediately Took them completely apart. And attacked them. And attacked them, yeah. So got some smooth bezels from Dave Murphy, who, spoiler alert, Dave's going to be on the show. Ooh, yeah. Dave's decided to come on the show and talk a little bit about what he does. So I think that's going to happen next week, but TBD on that. But yeah, got some bezels, some smooth bezels, not dive style bezels, but smooth bezels from Dave Murphy. Uh, I got some hands from One Second Closer. I got some crystals, sapphire crystals from, uh, Crystal Times, although that was not in the original budget. I, I wound up breaking two of the mineral crystals while reinstalling them. So I got some, I got some smooth or some double dome sapphire AR coated, uh, crystals. Uh, I did a bunch of casework. I took off the crown guards. I took off all the Invicta branding. except for the branding on the inside of the bracelet. |
Andrew | That'd be pretty hard to get rid of without compromising the bracelet, I think. |
Everett | I think maybe. Yeah, it's not super deep. I probably could have gotten it, but I just didn't want to do it. |
Andrew | It's on every link. |
Everett | Yeah. But yeah, took off the crown guards, got rid of the Invicta branding on the case, got rid of the Invicta branding on the crown. So it's sort of a big crown pilot with a 556 style bezel from Yubokis, or style dial from Yubokis, a white dial, because I printed these. I printed these myself with a water slide decal technique that I'd found online. And it wound up being both easier and harder than I expected it to be. It turned out great. As so many things are. So I made my good friend Andrew one. I made one for myself and I made a third one. I made a third one. So there is a third one of these that doesn't yet have a name on it. And that's because it is going to go to the winner of our one year giveaway. So there's three of these. They're all signed on the rotor with their number, their limited edition number. So each of these I've signed, I've signed to the rotor with 2019, 40 and 21 out of three, two out of three and three out of three. |
Andrew | 40 and 20 is kind of becoming a limited edition watch Production house. |
Everett | We're just an LE watch company now at this point. We're getting there. We're not making very much money on these LEs. So yeah, our one year anniversary, check out the Instagram, there'll be lots of pictures up by the time you have an opportunity to hear this. But yeah, our one year giveaway is going to be, and that'll be officially announced this Thursday, the day you're listening to this, or the day you should be listening to this, that giveaway will be announced. I think we might kind of do something fun with that and we haven't decided. It's Halloween, isn't it? Uh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. Spooky. We haven't decided exactly what we're going to do with the giveaway yet. So, uh, more to come on that, but certainly we'll talk a little bit about that next week. Uh, what the actual rules are. And by that time you'll already have seen the rules cause they'll have been posted online, but I think we'll probably do a two week cool down on these. Um, yeah, it'll be, it'll be something different than I think what we normally do. So. Yeah, we've got our new watches, which is pretty fun. |
Andrew | It's super fun. It's weird. And the, you did such a killer job printing these. Cause when I looked at it initially and even upon closer examination, it, it looks like it came on the dial, you know, like somebody, somebody printed all that shit. |
Everett | It doesn't tell you look at it pretty closely. Uh, you get too close and you can see that it's not perfect. |
Andrew | You have your speedy monocle. |
Everett | Uh, It's put away. |
Andrew | We'll worry about that later. |
Everett | Yeah, no, you know, there's some slight defects in it and that's fine because it totally does the trick and I printed them for basically nothing. No money. You know, I just bought the paper and then a little bit of time. It was super easy. |
Andrew | We've got kind of a pilot-y dress sport now. |
Everett | Yeah, a pilot dress sport. That's right. That's what I wanted to achieve I sort of got locked into a white dial because of the way I wanted to print these. So then the question became, what white dial? And I just really loved the 556 style dials. And so I actually found an option I really liked from Dagaz. Dagaz, the sort of well-known mod company. And when you order stuff online, mistakes get made. And he sent me, instead of sending three, I bought three, I paid for three, got an order confirmation for three. And instead of sending three, he just ordered one, or he just sent one, which in and of itself, totally normal mistake. Those things happen. But the problem happened, you know, let me just say, I had a really good experience working with multiple vendors. Dave Murphy, totally great. Crystal Times, holy shit, if you have to do business with them, they are Awesome. They are absolutely awesome. Super responsive. Answer your questions. They're phenomenal. Um, one second closer, no issues with them. Uh, nothing to say besides just no issues. Um, your pokies. Fantastic. Super responsive. You have a question. He answers it, um, answers it very specifically and, and takes time to answer it quickly. Uh, daggaz on the other hand, I sent him an email. I realized what happened. I sent him an email and I hear nothing crickets. I sent him another email. Nothing. Crickets. So, over the course of about three weeks, I sent him four or five emails just to say, hey, I really need to get this resolved. What can we do? Nothing. Zero response at all. So, about a month after I initially sent him my first request, I went to PayPal because PayPal's got a resolution program. Which is super cool. |
Andrew | I didn't realize about PayPal at all. |
Everett | Yeah, right. So, so they've got a resolution program where you can sort of, it tracks your communications back and forth. And this is what you said. Um, so I raised it to PayPal and I said, this is the story. I ordered these, I ordered three, I got one. I sent several emails on these dates, or I said, I sent, I've sent four emails. I've also reached out to other people in the industry that might know him to see if they can get ahold of him. Um, so far I've had zero response and I need to get this resolved. Here's how I'd like to get it resolved. i.e. I'd like to get my three dials. About an hour and a half after I sent that, he responded and said, I don't know who this person is. I've never heard of this person. I've never received any communications from any industry insiders, in quotes. And I'll be happy to take a look at the order number referenced, but I have no clue what this person's talking about. I'm paraphrasing a little bit there. I went through and sort of point by point, I said, well, I sent the emails on these dates. They're all dated. It's from this email address. I communicated with you in these ways. When I say I've reached out to other people in the industry, this is all I meant to say. I reached out to see if anybody knew a way to get a hold of you and nobody did. And frankly, people said you're really hard to get a hold of. And B, yes, please check your order. I think you keep stock levels. So just send me the two dials and we're good. Uh, and that was the last I ever heard from him. So PayPal, uh, you can, you can only keep that resolution process open for, I think, a month. So I waited till about the end and I, I sent, you know, a request for an update with a week left or request for an update with three days left. And on the last day I elevated it to PayPal. I think they keep that open for a week. And a week later, they sent me a message that said, we've had no luck getting ahold of him. And so we're going to refund your money. So long story short. almost two months later. Oh, geez. Month and a half, two months later, I got my money back from PayPal. I'm actually not sure I've even gotten it yet, but it was really weird. You know, here's this guy who makes awesome products, has great prices, super good website. Yeah. Some of these websites are bad. His isn't the best. Some of the websites are really good, but Yoboki's, for instance, Jesus, I hate buying shit from him just because the photobucket method is so terrible. You just rubbed your eyes with hot sauce, huh? |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | So I guess where I would leave that is the whole process. I had a ton of fun, you know, making these things. If I had any takeaway, it's that Dagaz is maybe not a great option to buy from. |
Andrew | That's a bummer to hear here. Yeah. It's so popular. There's so much there. And I don't know, I'm kind of bummed out. |
Everett | You know, I think, I think the deal is 90% of the time or maybe 95 or maybe more than that. When you order something from Dagest, it's going to come quickly. It's going to be well priced. It's going to be a super high quality product because the one dial I did get is awesome. |
Andrew | That's also interesting. I mean, how many people buy more than one dial at a time? Right. Yeah. That can be part of the issue. |
Everett | It probably doesn't happen very often. Just bad luck. If something goes wrong, you're totally fucked. he is not going to support you at all. That's my take. And maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe he has good, good times and bad times. And this was a bad time. And I don't know. And I would never say don't buy from Daggaz because, uh, he's a watch guy and I, and I think we should support people in the watch industry. And I do support people in the watch industry, but it would, I would be, uh, remiss to not say this was my experience with watch modding. And that one thing went bizarrely poor, badly. You know, it just, I mean the, the level to which he botched that transaction. |
Andrew | It's a good thing you did everything through PayPal too, as opposed to a direct order through the website. Cause that might yet still be unresolved. |
Everett | Yeah, no, that's right. I wouldn't have had any recourse. So yeah, that's why I buy most things through PayPal because I just know that they're going to help me out if it comes down to it. |
Andrew | So I might start doing that. Yeah. I never do that. |
Everett | Yeah. It's a good deal. It's a good deal. So, um, That was the modding experience, made these watches. You're going to see plenty of pictures of them. I'll have some process pictures that'll be able to post. I think they're really great. |
Andrew | I'm excited to see those too, because so everyone knows I was wholly unaware of this going on. Yeah. Some people do know that. Well, now everyone knows. I did not know this was happening as it was happening. |
Everett | Some of our listeners actually know quite a bit about this watch. |
Andrew | So I, he handed me a watch roll at dinner and I opened it up and then I asked the questions, who made these? Where'd you get these? Like who did this? Why, where did you buy these? Who made these? uh come to find out ever made them and i was like i i mean i i love the surprise but i also i i wish i could have been a part of it i'm like yeah i'm torn um yeah holy holy unexpectedness it's awesome i feel a little bad that you weren't able to be part of it uh we'll have to do some more i had to commit to the surprise and then once i had committed it was it was just too late but then i needed to talk to people about it so i'm like texting eric |
Everett | of EMG and AJ, pictures, AJ Barse, Bellingham podcast. I'm texting them pictures like 1130 at night. |
Andrew | My progress, you know. Is this going well? Is it going well? |
Everett | But yeah, so like I said, some of our listeners know actually quite a bit about this watch. |
Andrew | I know enough to know that I love it. |
Everett | You know, when I got the dials printed, it was like, just really huge because they turned out really well and I was super happy with them. So that was when I was like, I got to say, I got it. I'm going to explode. I'm going to explode. So also for a one year anniversary, my wife made us some cupcakes because I, I said that we were going to have cake. You said, I'm going to have cake. Yeah. |
Andrew | And I said, I was told there'd be cake and then Kim made it happen. It's keto cupcakes. So we're about to, sorry, we're about to embark on a journey here. They look good. |
Everett | It rolled over. It's a really good buttercream on top. I know because I mostly made it. |
Unknown | Okay, here we go. Yep. |
Everett | Those are delightful. They're good. The texture is a little different. It's a little harder texture. |
Andrew | It's kind of the texture you'd expect in like a zucchini bread or like a banana bread. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Andrew | like airy, but also a little bit crunchy. This is terrific. This is the birthday, well, anniversary cake that we deserve, that we earned, we worked for. |
Everett | Chocolate chips in those things too, man. Yeah. Delicious. So we're talking about watches today. |
Andrew | Yeah, we should get to it because we got a lot to cover today. |
Everett | We got a lot to cover. So I don't know that we've worked out the title. We'll have a title of this episode by the time it gets published. The topic of today's episode is, for our one year anniversary, for our one year special, is with what we've learned about watches in the year we've been doing watches, what the absolute best go anywhere, do anything, everyday cheap watch you can buy is. And so we initially set the price at $50 and we realized that was just a touch low. |
Andrew | It was pretty limiting to Casio and Timex. |
Everett | Pretty limiting. So we bumped it to $65. So under $65, what is the, and when we discuss this, we said objectively, best watch you can buy for under $65. And I think we tried to keep it objective, but obviously some of this stuff is subjective. It's going to be subjective. |
Andrew | That was one of the things we actually discussed as we were finalizing our top 10 is there is some, there has to be some objectivity, objectivity when you rate something. But we took a lot of things into account for each of these. And I think we made some of the biggest point indicators really, really objective. If there was a watch I thought was going to win, but because of the parameters we set, it's like number five, six. |
Everett | So we have some specific scoring criteria, and we'll talk about that. But first, I just wanted to talk a little bit about, because there's lots and lots and lots and lots of watches. that come in under $65. So I was thinking to myself, some watches, I would pull up and realize, it just doesn't work. It just doesn't work. So my, my opening, my threshold criteria was, was this, and I tried to write a list of rules. And then I realized that I didn't need a list of rules. This, this was my standard for whether it even, whether I even accepted the application. Would I wear it every day? Could I? Yeah. Would I wear this every day? So some watches, you know, Schmay, Schmay, I don't know how you say that. I'm not going to wear that. Not only am I not going to wear it every day, I'm probably not going to wear it once. I might wear it once, but that's it. So that is, in and of itself, the application process was subjective. |
Andrew | But I mean, I think that's a pretty reasonable threshold to cross. There were some Pulsar watches that I looked at and I was like, eh. I just can't see myself wearing that. |
Everett | Yeah. Some of these are sort of frequent guests, as it were. Some of these are frequent guests. And some of them we own. Yeah, that's true. Some of them we do own. In terms of scoring criteria, I had an idea that we should try to keep the scoring criteria as objective as possible. So the first, and I think that the one that affected these scores the most was water resistance. |
Andrew | Water resistance and size. Those were the two that had the biggest sway. |
Everett | And I think if you're going to disagree with our list, you're going to disagree with it in the way that we ranked size. Yeah. In the way that we scored size. And it's a fair criticism. We talked about changing it and then decided at the end that we liked it. So with regards to water resistance, water resistance was out of 11, a score out of 11, when you get One point for every 10 meters of water resistance up to 11. And that's meant to recognize that for a go, go anywhere, do anything watch. You really only need a hundred meters. Yeah. You really only need a hundred meters. A hundred meter watch is going to be solidly waterproof for so many things. Now, 200 is more than 100, but it's not, but it's not double. You're right. Yeah. No, it's not double. So most you could get. was 11. So 150 meter water resistance watch. 11 puntos. 200, 300, 500. |
Andrew | I mean 11 puntos. |
Everett | Doesn't matter. Anything above 110 meters of water resistance is going to score the same. Size. |
Andrew | This was the killer. |
Everett | Size is tricky. This was the giant killer. We picked a number 39 for our gold standard. A 39 millimeter watch is 10 points. |
Andrew | Which is unusual on the 40 and 20 podcast. |
Everett | But I think we, I think that we recognize that there's... For going anywhere, doing anything, 39 is more appropriate than 40. Now, for every 0.5 millimeters away from that, you get... A lost point? You lose a point. You lose a point. And those go quick. Every 0.5 millimeters. So a 40 millimeter watch is an eight. Yeah. A 39 and a half would be a nine. A 42 millimeter watch... You start, you really get hammered. I mean, 42, 44 points, four points, 42 is four points, 43, two points. So the, you know, it makes sense. You guys understand how this works, but some of these watches, some of these watches, you're 44, you're getting zero points in size. Movement. We movement was out of five or out of 10. And this was the hardest thing to be objective about. Cause some of these movements, we don't know anything about it. |
Andrew | Cause Casio doesn't tell us anything about any of their movements. |
Everett | Strap band system, out of 10. A general aesthetic. Now, aesthetic is inherently subjective, also out of 10. Durability, out of 10. Loom, five possible points. And then other X factor, five possible points. So within that scoring rubric. |
Andrew | Total of 71, for those of you who want to add it up. |
Everett | Total of 71 points. We came up with 10 watches. We agreed on 10 watches, and both of us had watches that didn't make the cut, and both of us had watches that the other hadn't thought about. But out of 10 watches, we've come up with a list here, and we've ranked them based on an average of our two scores. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | Based on an average of our two scores. We didn't even take an average, just a total between the two of us. of the two watches. So I guess with that, we could just jump into number 10, right? |
Andrew | Yeah. We just jump into number 10. So should we, should we hit our honorable mentions first or do we save those for the end? |
Everett | We'll save those for the end. Yeah. We'll save those for the end. So number 10, a watch you guys will have undoubtedly seen maybe more than any other watch on this list because it's sitting on every target counter in the United States, but the Timex. |
Andrew | And Walmart and Macy's and JCPenney and Kohl's. Right. Any department store really. I'm sure Walgreens. and Rite Aid have this watch. Are you going to let me tell them what it is? No, not yet. Okay. I want to really, really... Hammer it home. I'm going to take a bite of cupcake. Hammer home the amount of places this watch is at. You've seen this on the watch on the wrists of eight-year-olds and of 70-year-olds. You've seen this watch perhaps more than any other watch you've ever seen in your entire life. |
Everett | Are we good? Yeah. The Timex Expedition Scout. Yep. Timex Expedition Scout. Now, this is an interesting watch. I think this watch could do better than it does, probably for not a lot of extra money. And, and the reason I'm going to say that is because, and this is my biggest criticism of this watch, is that it is a plated brass case. |
Andrew | I think that's, I think that's a deliberate decision. I think they like it. I think, I think there's, there's something kind of nostalgic about the plated brass. Cause they know, they know how to do steel. |
Everett | I think it's cost savings. I think it's pure cost savings. I think that they probably save anywhere from 10 to 20% on overall production costs on these. Do you think? I think that their production costs on these things probably goes from about $5 to, or $6 to $5 using plated brass. That would be my guess. |
Andrew | I'm not familiar enough with metallurgy. |
Everett | Yeah, I mean, it's just cheaper. Just black brass is cheaper than steel. It's easier to, it's easier to manipulate. It's softer. Um, you know, they've got a plate it, but I'm sure it saves them money or else they wouldn't do it. It's probably an insignificant amount of money to us, but to, I mean, a company that's trying to make money. Well, you know, if they sell a million of these years, a million of these a year, it's a different, I mean, it's a million dollars. That's it. That's a million bucks. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So, uh, it's gotta be that it's got to be that, but for me, That's a takeaway. It's a major takeaway. And I think that that's the biggest sort of discount on this watch, right? Mm-hmm. It's got a nothing movement, a cheap, crappy Chinese movement. |
Andrew | Which a lot of these watches have. |
Everett | It's got only 50 meters of water resistance. Most of these have 50 meters of water resistance. Bummer. |
Andrew | Which is fine, but... Size is right, though. It's coming in at, what, 38? |
Everett | 30, uh, 40 for most of these. They have different sizes, right? But the ones we, the one we looked at is a 40 millimeter version of this. Um, mostly terrible straps, mostly terrible straps, mineral crystal, brass, but good size, conservatively sized, even, you know, uh, even sort of trend, trendy sizing as it were. Um, yeah, I dig them. And I think it's a great, it's a great option for the 10th, 10th swaddle. |
Unknown | And how many money? |
Everett | Oh, you know what? I don't know that I wrote down. I think that you get these anywhere from about 20 to 35. |
Andrew | I have 32. For an easy reader and. 60 for an expedition chrono, so somewhere between there, I would imagine. |
Everett | Yeah, I think that you can find these 35 bucks all day. Or less. So number so also tied. |
Andrew | Yeah, we had it really. We had a two way tie for 10th. |
Everett | 10 and 9 score wise was a tie, but we differentiated them. And that's because this one, we had higher marks in the X factor. Yep. So number nine on our list is the. The Bok-Dok. The Vostok, shout out to Oversteer, the Vostok Komondorski. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | Field watch. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | The Vostok Komondorski. So this one I think kind of surprises us. It was a late entry. |
Andrew | It was, and that surprises me because I actually, I looked at mine today and I was like, oh, that should be on the list. And then I never followed up on that and put it on the list until we were talking later in the day. And really the reason why it wasn't the ninth place, or potentially even a little higher, it's water resistance just sucks. And I don't get how a field watch is going to have such shitty water resistance, especially coming out of a company like Vostok, who revolutionized water resistance in watches. |
Everett | Right. Right. I mean, it has some particular low scores. Water resistance, straps on those things are terrible. |
Andrew | Oh, they're trash. I never even wore mine on the OEM strap. I felt it and was like, nope, I'm going to buy a new strap. And I went without that watch because of how bad the strap was until a strap came in. |
Everett | It's loom score is terrible. You know, it's aesthetic score, at least on my list was pretty bad. |
Andrew | 39 millimeters though. |
Everett | Perfect size. Perfect size. Go ahead, Andrew. |
Andrew | Uh, you know, I have on it, uh, it's got a, it's got a four in the X factor for me and, and I gave it a four in the X factor for the, for one single primary reason. You can get it however the fuck you want it. There is a Komodorsky out there for everyone. Everyone, doesn't matter what you're looking for in a watch, there's one out there for you. Even the new gen ones, you can get the ones with full lume, and they might be north of $65, some of them, but you can get full lume dials, you can get tanks, you can get planes, you can get ships, you can get nothing. That was the X-Factor winner for me. |
Everett | Yeah, the baseline Commodoreski comes in at price on this, Certainly there are Komondorskys. The K-34s are significantly more expensive. So we're talking about the classic, the Vostok Komondorsky classic. And its sort of variations are going to come in under price. But they're right at the top, the upper limit of this. |
Andrew | The one I pulled up on the Amazon was $49.90. But they take five weeks to get to your house, right? |
Everett | Because they come from Kistapol. |
Andrew | Somewhere. No, mine did not. Mine came from Oh, I don't recall where it came from, but it did not come from Kistapol. |
Everett | Interesting. I think they still make them in Kistapol. |
Andrew | I think so, but maybe they distributed them out of Western Europe. It crushed the X-Factor for me. Yeah. And the movement. This is one of the two mechanical movements we came up for in this price range. |
Everett | That's right. I mean, it was as high on movement as any other watch because that Vostok movement is just fantastic. |
Andrew | And pretty durable. Durable, yeah. I mean, it's meant to be banged up. |
Everett | So number eight, number eight, number eight, this was not, this got a kind of a low score from me, but it made the list. Uh, you liked it a lot better than I did. The Timex Ironman classic. |
Andrew | And I love it. And so, you know, I put that on the, on the list because I was wanting to see how it would score against these other watches. And objectively it did pretty well. |
Everett | It did. It did well. |
Andrew | Better than I expected. Uh, and, and I, I did that throughout the day and as, as I was, looking at watches, I'd score them to see how even higher-end watches that were more than 65 money would fall on this list. And they all kind of fell, and where we eventually got to in our top five list. |
Everett | Yeah. Yeah. You know, this one has 100 meters of water resistance. Size, it doesn't get great marks on because they're all a little chunky. |
Andrew | I think the one I looked at was 42. |
Everett | You know, for me, where a watch like this gets really hurt is in aesthetics. I think this I think this watch is perfectly ugly. Totally, totally ugly. Yeah. It almost didn't make my list because it doesn't pass the threshold question. Would I wear it every day? Now, I allowed it. |
Andrew | I wear mine every day. |
Everett | Because I literally wore one of these things for like three and a half years straight. So before I was a quote unquote watch guy. But still. |
Andrew | But you were also in an environment that it was appropriate. |
Everett | If the question is, would I wear this every day? The answer must be yes. Because I did. I did do so. I do currently. |
Everett | So, yeah, I mean, nothing that we can say about the Iron Man classic that hasn't already been said. Perfect scores for loom. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | Perfect scores for loom because Indiglo is perfect. Perfect. Totally perfect. Other things that got a pretty or, you know, sort of the X Factor score got pretty low durability and durability and strap. I gave this thing pretty low scores too. |
Andrew | And I disagree with you. I've, I've put mine through the ringer. Mine has been to some terrible environments on this planet and it, uh, it's survived long enough that the only thing that's been changed is the battery. |
Everett | And it's really hard to argue with that, right? Because I know some of the places yours has been, but, but I'll, I'll counter with my own anecdotal evidence, which is to say I wore mine nowhere more brutal than an office. And I break straps on these things like a motherfucker. |
Andrew | I've, I've cleaned mine. I've changed the battery, never had, shit, I've removed and put the strap back on and have had no, no issue. And maybe that's, maybe it's just anecdotal. Maybe I just got the winner, like the one that this owned at the, at the QC table. |
Everett | And who knows, right? Yeah. Who knows, right? So, uh, for our next choice, number six, this is the sixth ranked watch on our list. |
Andrew | Did you do seven? |
Everett | Uh, I did seven. That was the Ironman Classic. |
Andrew | Okay. Oh yeah, 987. |
Everett | We skipped eight. |
Andrew | Oh, did we? |
Everett | We skipped eight. |
Andrew | Oh, what's eight? |
Everett | Eight is the MDV-106, the Casio Duro. |
Andrew | I thought this was going to do way better. |
Everett | Yeah, me too. Me too. |
Andrew | The size killed it. The size kills this thing. Getting a zero in a column was a big loser. |
Everett | Well, except that our number one watch got a zero in a column and still won. So yeah, you know, the thing about this watch is really low marks on size. |
Unknown | Oh yeah. |
Everett | a zero out of a possible ten, but it kills in a water resistance. Water resistance, it gets a perfect score. Aesthetics, it gets a good score, although I downgraded it a little bit just because it's not a great everyday watch. |
Andrew | I didn't like the, and I still don't like the font on the bezel. It's digitally, it looks like it's coming out of MS-DOS. All the other font is great. It just screams really classic, really modern dive watch, but something about the bezel font is left in the eighties. And I don't, I don't like that, but all the rest, ow, ow, banged my knuckles so hard on the table. Oh, uh, everything else about it's great. The billfish that all the other aesthetics of that watch are just killer. And it, it, it bums me out that the font on the bezel is such a disastrous choice. |
Everett | Yeah, no, I mean, I think it definitely takes away from it. But notwithstanding that, it still does really well. You know, terrible score on strap. In fact, I consider these things as sort of head only. You know, you buy this thing on Amazon and it comes on a rubber turd. Yeah. You know, this is a head only watch because you're going to put it on a NATO. But notwithstanding those defects, it still did relatively well. |
Andrew | So or you put on a super engineer and really get an arm workout in. |
Everett | Out of a possible, out of a possible 7142, it came up with 88 points, which is great. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | I put it at 41, you put it at 47. So occasionally if I, if I say our scores, I'm not going to give her a score for every one of these. Um, but, but you'll note Andrew scored everything about two points higher, three to five points higher than I did. So yeah, a little bit, um, which is just sort of. par for the course, this type of thing, you know, mental rubric. But we were consistent, you know? Yeah. There was a couple of watches we scored differently, which you might expect, but pretty consistent. |
Andrew | There's one that scored pretty differently that won't shock anyone. We'll get there. |
Everett | So just to recap, we've got... Tied for ninth. Number 10, Expedition Scout. Number 9, the Komondorsky. Number 8, the MDV-106, the Casio Duro. Number seven, the Iron Man classic. So we're now officially at six because we've done three watches. Yeah. Sorry, if you're listening along and you're confused, you're probably taking notes. |
Andrew | We haven't even drank that much. |
Everett | No, I mean, this is my this is my second beer that I just cracked open. Yeah. So number six, the Gwanchin GJ16034. And shout out to Jody from Just One More Watch because he's talked about this watch a number of times. And I think his review of it spot on. Both his review of this watch and his, he did a similar thing to what we're doing right now. His words about that watch and his thing are pretty spot on too. This is kind of a surprising watch, right? |
Andrew | It's the first time that I've ever come across this watch and it is absolutely surprising. You were like, Hey man, just take a look at it. I want your score on it so that we can at least bounce it. And I looked at it and I was like, Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. I dig this watch and it, I didn't, I forget to look at the price of it that it's at, but yeah, I have a price for it. |
Everett | Uh, 60 bucks. |
Andrew | That's killer. Killer. This, this is, I'm surprised this didn't do better. And the reason it didn't is purely water resistance. This is a dress sport watch tending towards dress. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. I'd say it's a dress watch before a dress sport. |
Andrew | Yeah, but it has all the other feel of a dress sport watch, because it doesn't feel quite like a dress watch. It just isn't. It's a little too big to be a dress watch. Everything about it, it's sportier than it is dressy, but it has the one Achilles heel of a dress watch, which is bullshit water resistance. Yeah, 30 meters. |
Everett | What the fuck? And Jody says he wears this thing in the shower, which I believe. I think that almost every watch on our list today you could wear in the shower. |
Andrew | Um, who wears their watches in the shower? I do. I don't. That's like, that's my post shower routine is put my watch on. |
Everett | Yeah, no, I do. I do. I wear often more often than I'd like to admit. In fact, I one time got in the shower and I reached for the shampoo and I saw my, uh, ed 63 on my watch and I was like, Oh mother fucker. Cause that thing has zero. It's yeah. |
Andrew | It's like you get it steamy and it's, it's going to be steamy. |
Everett | It was fine, but yeah. Yeah. It's a little dangerous. I play a dangerous game. |
Andrew | I don't like sleeping in a watch. That's what shocks me. Like every night. I don't every night. I can't do it. I like the freedom. I don't like to feel restricted. |
Everett | But yeah, you know, if you haven't seen this watch, I recommend taking a look at it because it's 60 bucks. It is a fucking winner. It's got sort of a faceted bezel on it. And it's just gorgeous. Automatic movement. It's got a Seiko NH35 in it. And so it gets great marks in the movement category. |
Andrew | It got a 9 out of 10 on movement for me. |
Everett | Yeah, eight out of ten. And like I said, I was just everything a little bit lower than you were. But yeah, eight out of ten, nine out of ten. I gave it a four on the strap because I surmise without actually having seen it that the strap is a turd. |
Andrew | Maybe. I mean, I don't know. Everything, all the marketing about that watch seemed like it was you were going to get an acceptable OEM watch strap. |
Everett | But I will say, except for one other watch, except for one other watch, this watch had the highest score. in the aesthetics department. I gave it a 9 out of possible 10. |
Andrew | It got a 10 for me. Yeah. |
Everett | I dig it. Yeah. It's a really attractive watch. So, and 9 for me was the highest score I gave out. So, yeah, a 9 out of 10 and a 10 out of 10 on aesthetics. Durability, I gave it a 6 because I imagine it's not going to be quite as durable as some of these things. Lume, I gave it a 2 out of possible 5. And I think you were right there with me. |
Andrew | I got a 3. |
Everett | And the next factor, it didn't do great just because it's a Guangqin and people are going to be like, what the fuck is that? You got a two hyfe. Yeah. So, but very cool watch. Uh, I, you know, it, uh, at whatever we have this thing at, at six, I think that it's, it might as well be one, right? I mean, these next, any of these next five watches or these last six watches are going to be fantastic contenders for your one and only. |
Andrew | The top three are separated by what? Three points? |
Everett | And so, yeah, just to go through some points, just to sort of show you where we're at. Expedition Scout, so out of a possible 142, Expedition Scout had an 86. Komondorsky also an 86, although it got bumped up because of the X-Factor score. |
Andrew | It did better in the X-Factor scores. |
Everett | The MDV-106 was an 88. Ironman Classic, 93.5. And again, this is a sum of our two scores. And the Gwanchin, a 96.5, because you gave the 2.5 on the X-Factor. Yeah. So number five, this is a watch that neither one of us expected to make the list. Uh, it was sort of a late entry based on something I'd read online and I thought, gosh, we should score this thing. And I scored it and I said, gosh, Andrew, you should score this thing. And, and lo and behold, it made the list. |
Andrew | Well on the list. |
Everett | Yeah. Well on the list coming in at number five. So this is the Bertucci DX3 resin cased field watch. And we've talked about Bertucci a bunch because I own one, and I think they're very cool. |
Andrew | I like them a lot. They're limited in their versatility. |
Everett | Yeah. And normally we talk about the titanium iterations, which are significantly more expensive. I think the $150 to $200 mark for a new one of the titanium cases. But this resin-cased version did really well. Son of a bitch. It did really well. |
Andrew | I think this could be how we objectively score all watches in the future on the show. |
Everett | just incorporate this. Yeah. The 40 and 20 rubric. Yeah. And then we can update it over time and announce a rules change. So the Bertucci, this came in with a total score of 98. Yeah. 98 of a possible 142. |
Andrew | Which doesn't sound very good. |
Everett | It doesn't, but some of that is just, you know... But relative to the other scores we're landing here. At 65 bucks, if we're getting watches 135 out of 142, we're We're fooling ourselves. We're doing it wrong. Right. But this watch, I think it did really well. So, you know, marks where it does really well, obviously size. |
Andrew | You know where it doesn't, and I want to talk about it first, is water resistance. Yeah. 50 meters. What? What? Why? Why would you make a field watch with under 100 meters? And it's only a field watch. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Andrew | Anyway, continue. |
Everett | Well, that's it. I mean, right? |
Andrew | So, I mean, the size is right. We're looking at 40, 40 millimeters or 40. Yeah. |
Everett | 40 millimeters, 40 millimeters right on the dot. Yeah, that's right. Movement. They've got Bertucci uses really good solid metal, um, uh, Miyota movements. Um, so, so they do really well there. Their straps are very good. Their in-house straps are all super good durability. I gave this thing only a seven out of 10 on durability. And that's because it's a plastic case and it's going to get banged up and it's going to look dingy. So that's, that's a trend from my list is the plastic cases. Although, although they're durable in the sense that they're going to work, they're also not durable in the extent to the extent they're not going to continue to look pristine. |
Andrew | I took just the other perspective on it and I went towards plastic cases getting a little bit higher on the durability score because I don't really care if I take a gouge out of a resin case. I think it adds to some, gives some character to the watch. I really do care when I take a gouge out of a steel case. |
Everett | Yeah, but it's harder to do. |
Andrew | But it happens. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Andrew | And so that durability, mine was maybe more the inclination to treat it like it's durable, necessarily, than the functional durability. So maybe that was a flaw in the scoring system. |
Everett | Well, and maybe that's a good time to mention that we did take a little bit different tax on this. I entered this with the idea that I'm wearing this every day, and so how is it going to hold up to everyday wear? My aesthetic scores on some of these, like the Iron Man, for instance, you say, well, that's a good looking watch. And I say, yeah, it's a good looking watch unless you're wearing a fucking suit. So some of that is reflective of our different occupations. |
Andrew | Well, and just generally, like, we'll let the cat out of the bag. The 5600, the aesthetic on there is killer, but it's killer because it set the tone for the watch industry. It's iconic. |
Everett | And spoiler alert, when we get to the D5600, we'll talk about that because you gave it a significantly higher aesthetics score. So same thing happened here in the durability end of things. But yeah, you know, where does this thing do really well? It does well on size. It does well on durability. And I think if you're in any sort of blue collar environment, this is a great everyday watch. |
Andrew | Or even that collision between blue and white collar. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. |
Andrew | We sit at a desk and then occasionally have to go do some shit. |
Everett | You're a programmer or perhaps an engineer or something like that, where the dress code is relaxed. Yeah, I think that's going to work just fine. So and it hits the number five spot on our list, which we looked at a lot of fucking watches for this thing. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | I mean, I would say upwards to 50 to 100 watches a piece. |
Andrew | Probably. Yeah. So I looked at a lot that I didn't even score because it just doesn't quite this isn't just This isn't going to get there. |
Everett | It's not going to get there. Yeah, that's right. So Bertucci with a score of 98. So now we have our first three digit score. |
Unknown | Mm hmm. |
Everett | And I think you thought this was going to be the winner. |
Andrew | I did. I hoped it would early. Yeah. Well, I texted you early, early on as we were getting started. Like, I think I found it. I think this is it. And this isn't like I'd hoped it would. But this isn't. I didn't expect it to be. It did better than I expected. |
Everett | And so at the number four spot, we have the famous and beloved Casio World Time. Score of 100. I rated this a little lower, 45. You gave this a 55. But this is one of those watches, man. It's one of those watches that anytime you're talking about the best sort of dirt cheap everyday watch. |
Andrew | It's 25 bucks. 25 bucks. You can get them for like 15 bucks. The black and green iterations are like 12 on Amazon right now. I almost bought them today. |
Everett | You know, and that was one score that I had considered adding kind of late in this process. It was a price score, you know? |
Andrew | Yeah, that's a hard one, though. Maybe like inversely related, like $60 is zero points and $5 is 10 points. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. And that's how we would have done it. But it felt like that was an unfair advantage to the cheapest watches on this. |
Andrew | It's an unfair advantage to Casio just generally. |
Everett | At six. Yeah, that's right. At 65 bucks. I feel like that is just the cost of doing business. And so I think we just assumed if it came in under the price, it got a perfect score. |
Andrew | That kind of became part of the X Factor contributor for me, though, was the price. |
Everett | Sure. Sure. And that's fair. And that's fair. So, yeah. Where does the Casio World Timer do really well? Water resistance. It does really well on water resistance. |
Andrew | 100 meters. |
Everett | That's right. It gets a perfect 10 on water resistance. |
Andrew | Size. 39 and a half millimeters. |
Everett | Yeah. Yeah. So it's a 10, uh, you know, the movement gets super high marks on movement because it does so much stuff. |
Andrew | It does everything. |
Everett | And it doesn't do it in an obtrusive way. It just, here I am. Here's everything I do. |
Andrew | Yeah. |
Everett | And it's a busy aisle, right? |
Andrew | But it's deliberately so it's not a busy dial because they're like, how much, how much shit can we fit in here? It's a busy dial. Cause it's like, we got all this shit on here. |
Everett | And as busy as it is, it winds up being pretty simple. |
Andrew | And really compartmentalized. It's not just a, just a spaghetti thrown at the wall. It's here's your 24 hour. Here's your map. Here's your timer. Here's your indicator of all your, all your shit going on. |
Everett | The painted map. |
Andrew | Yeah. It's so cool. I love that. |
Everett | It is really cool. |
Andrew | And it's party time. |
Everett | Yeah. You know, you like this watch a little bit more than I do, uh, which, uh, which is fair, right? You own one and I don't. |
Andrew | And I love this watch. I saw it once and I was like, oh my fucking God. I need that. Why don't I have all of them? I need that in my life. I want to become the official distributor of world timers globally. |
Everett | You should write Mr. Casio about that. |
Andrew | I will. I'll be like, hey man, I'll sell these for you. Hey Mr. Casio. I won't even take any proceeds. I will just manage the distribution. But everyone who wants one, they got to go through me. |
Everett | Don't do that. That's a lot of work. They sell a bucket load of these things. |
Andrew | Bulk ordering, it's pretty easy. You set up an Excel spreadsheet and that's how you're going to do it. |
Everett | Yeah. So I gave this low marks. I assume I gave it lower marks on strap than you did. I gave it a three because I think the strap on this thing is, or the bracelet on this thing is just trashy. |
Andrew | It is trashy, but once it's sized, it's, it's pretty okay. |
Everett | I gave it a four on durability, notwithstanding the, uh, notwithstanding the water resistance, because you know, it's going to continue to work. but these things when they get banged up look like trash. |
Andrew | Oh yeah. They don't look good. I have to treat this like a dress watch. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. Um, but yeah, uh, does well on loom because it's got those, I didn't give it a perfect score on loom because I don't love the backlining on this. It does it with LCDs. |
Andrew | It's a, and it's a bottom lit. And now that you can see it in person, I actually only give it a three in loom because it's not a, It's still a bulb projection across the dial as opposed to an Indiglo or as opposed to a full lume. |
Everett | It lights it up from the side with that afterglow feature. |
Andrew | It's charming, but I don't think it's a... It's not a five on lume for me. |
Everett | It's antiquated for sure. Yeah. So number three, a watch, if you're ready to move on, another watch from the Casio company, And a watch that before today, neither one of us had ever really heard of. Is that fair to say? |
Andrew | Yeah, I'd never seen this watch. |
Everett | So this is a watch from Casio, uh, a watch in their edifice line. And this is the E F V 100 D. And I feel comfortable saying this isn't a cheat. Although right now you can get this thing for 42 bucks on Amazon. I think it's on sale and it's usually just a touch outside of our price range on Amazon. But you can find these things in the $60 range all the time. The EFV 100D, and there's numbers that come after that depending on the iteration. But this score, I think, this watch, 102.5 on the total score. I came up with a 50, and Andrew came up with a 52.5, which I think, notwithstanding those numbers, my score on this was a little bit higher than Andrew's. |
Andrew | I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I accidentally changed the time zone, had to switch through all 31 of them on the watch. So what are we on? |
Everett | Oh, man, it's terrible. I've just been doing a really good job. I just want you to know. |
Andrew | I believe you, but it bothers me when things are said wrong. |
Everett | So we're talking about the Casio, the Edifice, the EFV100D. |
Andrew | Oh, yeah. No, no. So I do remember answering your question. I hadn't heard about this before. I was really impressed immediately upon looking at it. The fonts were right, the markers were right. I wanted to find something about this watch that I didn't like, and I struggled to do so. I did not find anything that I really could say objectively. It's not for me. This is a real daily banger. |
Everett | Yeah, so 100 meters of water resistance, 40 millimeters wide, great sort of edifice level movement, which is to say, Not anything special, but a really sort of middle road Casio movement. |
Andrew | Universally, so all of my movements were scored sevens and nines. All the Casio and Timex courts, sevens, and the two Mechanicals were a nine. |
Everett | And I have a little bit more variety in my scoring, but yeah, basically the same deal. So it's either just a normal movement. I think I went fives, sevens, and a couple of eights on my movement score. So strap, neither one of us has seen this, but I assume it's going to be an Oedipus level bracelet, which it means- It's going to be a step up from the world time. That's right. I gave this thing a nine on look. It's the other nine I have in my list. |
Andrew | I gave it an eight and it was everything. I liked everything about it, but I, I put it below it. I put it a little bit below a couple of others because it's just, it's kind of generic. |
Everett | And you have this below the Gwanchin. |
Andrew | No, I have it above the Gwanchin in the way of aesthetic. Oh, no, no, below the Gwanchin in the way of aesthetic. Yeah, yeah, I do. It just, it seems a little less special than the Gwanchin. It just, it seems more generic. Which is not to say it's not a great, like a wear everywhere, do everything watch. |
Everett | I think where this thing struggled is in terms of loom. I gave it a pretty poor loom score. |
Andrew | Because it's only loomed hands. |
Everett | And in terms of the x-factor, because it's still just a Casio edifice. |
Andrew | Yeah, too hyfe. |
Everett | Yeah, and I gave it a three. So total of 102.5. I didn't expect it to do that well. |
Andrew | I didn't expect to do as well on my sheet. I was like, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah. |
Everett | How did you get here? So that's number three. So these are the we're in the heavy hitters here. Oh, my God. And I think that I think that if I could sort of step back from this and give just sort of my objective scores that Casio is the winner. But these next two, I don't want them to be ahead, but they are ahead. |
Andrew | They are. And they have somehow beat Casio at the Casio game of being less than 65 money. |
Everett | Well, spoiler alert, one of them is Casio being Casio, but... Nah. Okay. So number two, number two, this is an Orient watch that again, neither one of us had heard of, but we came across it in our journeys. This is the Orient FUG1H001... Baker Six. And this one beat out the Edifice by half a point. Yeah. By half a point at 103. I scored this one a little bit lower than the Edifice. You scored this one a little bit higher than the Edifice. |
Andrew | This was tied for first on my score sheet. |
Everett | Okay. And this one was firmly in second place on my score sheet. So with this watch, what you're getting, what you're getting is fantastic Orient doing its damn thing. Fantastic Orient doing it. So 100 meters of water resistance, 40 millimeter case, a quartz movement. It does have a quartz movement, which, you know, Orient has the capability to do an automatic movement at this price, but I don't believe they do. |
Andrew | I just don't think it's viable at that price. Yeah, I think that's probably right. I don't think you have the market for a $65 watch buyer to buy a mechanical or automatic movement. |
Everett | But Orient bracelet, which is going to be better than the average cheap bracelet. |
Andrew | Yeah, you're probably getting a Mako level bracelet on this. |
Everett | This is probably one of the best bracelets that you can get at this price range because it's going to beat Seiko. It's going to beat Casio. I agree with you that it looked generic, but there was something about it, and I think maybe it's the blue dial. Maybe it was just something that was a little bit different than the Oedipus, but this got a 10 for me in the way of aesthetics. This is a watch that I would happily wear and easily wear every day. |
Andrew | There was just nowhere this watch couldn't go with, especially with that a hundred meters of water resistance. This is a very dress sport watch. It's a little bit bigger than I'd like for that, for that variety of watches, but it, it fits the go anywhere, do anything. Could be your one watch. And if you only have 65 bucks to spend on a watch and you want to get into watches, this is, these are all great choices, but this, this is, this is where I go. |
Everett | So before we, before we reveal our winner, because we are, yeah, we're, we're doing good on time before we reveal our winner. Can we just agree on this point that I'm going to suggest to you for the first time right now, which is that both two and three are almost certainly better gatta or go anywhere, do anything watches the number one. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, we set the rubric and then we scored at the rubric and we sort of argued about it a little bit and we pushed it back and forth. And at the end of the day, our number one watch still is number one. |
Andrew | This is the this is a real life experience of the Electoral College. |
Everett | That's that's that's right. |
Andrew | It doesn't win the popular vote, but somehow wins. |
Everett | And so coming in at number one. With 104 points, so a full point ahead of the Orion FUG and a point and a half ahead of the Casio Edifice E-FV100D. This is a watch by the Casio company, which you disagreed with, but it is. |
Andrew | It sort of is, but it's also not. It is, but it isn't. |
Everett | So this is the G-Shock DW5600E. Ladies and gentlemen. Your winner. the greatest watch that you can buy under $65 today. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | It's the best. It's the best. And so it gets the number one spot, notwithstanding the fact that it got from both of us, or at least it should have got from both of us, a zero score in terms of size. Yep. A zero on size. It gets relatively low marks from me, at least, in terms of aesthetic. |
Andrew | It killed the aesthetics because it set the tone. It's such an iconic watch. |
Everett | But a perfect score on water resistance. A perfect score on the movement. I gave it a perfect score on the movement. No, I gave it a 9. |
Andrew | It got a 7 for me. |
Everett | Okay, so a little bit lower. Strap, I gave this thing a 6, which is a fairly high score on my strap category because that plastic 5600 strap is bulletproof. |
Andrew | I gave it a 7 for that very reason. |
Everett | Durability, it gets a 9. I gave it a 10. And I didn't give it a 10 because it does get banged up. |
Andrew | I gave it a 10 because you found a way to remove the complication or the the module and plug a new module into it and screw it back on and it's still running. |
Everett | It's true. I didn't find a way where this thing kills it. It kills it in loom. It kills it in the aesthetic, the X Factor, because it's just an inherently cool watch. This is the coolest watch on our list today, for sure. Yeah, it's the coolest watch on the list. So it gets a perfect score, but it's only out of five. The X Factor, we only get that five points. So really, |
Andrew | And only got a four for me on the X-Factor, the miscellaneous category. |
Everett | Around the board is fantastic. It scores well everywhere except for size. |
Andrew | What was your total score for it? |
Everett | So total scores on this guy. So it came in 104. I gave it a 50. |
Andrew | I gave it a 54. |
Everett | And you gave it a 54. Yeah, that's right. |
Andrew | And I think that might have been the closest score difference we had. |
Everett | It was not. No, we were closer on a couple of things. So, yeah. Oh, no. I was 49. You were 54. So, we're five spread on that. We're seven spread on the Orient. I scored it quite a bit lower. We're only two and a half apart on that Oedipus EFV 100D. Okay. 50 and 52.5. We're 10 apart on the World Time. Eight apart on the Bertucci. Seven and a half apart on the Guan Chen. And these, Andrew's scores are higher on every single one of these. I tended higher just on all of them, yeah. Iron Man Classic, we're 11 and a half apart. But then we're pretty close on everything else. |
Andrew | I just tended higher, more forgiving. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. I think you did anywhere from about four to eight higher than me. Or 11 and a half. Yeah. |
Andrew | You disagree on that one? |
Everett | So greatest watch, greatest cheap watch you can buy, the DW5600. |
Andrew | And we spent an hour basically to tell you what you already knew. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think we both kind of knew it too. I think we really wanted something else to win. because I don't think either one of us would buy that watch for our, for a true go anywhere, do anything. No, but it's in the conversation, especially if you don't have any need for a steel watch, it's gotta be in the conversation. |
Andrew | It is the conversation. |
Everett | Yeah. And I think for a lot of people, a lot of people, this watch would work. This watch would work. I just need a watch to wear every day by the 5,600. That's it. That's the answer. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | Don't buy a $20 watch. I mean, some people really probably can't afford a $60 watch, which I'm sympathetic to that because... But you have a cell phone. |
Andrew | You really don't need to be wearing a watch at that point if you can't afford a $20 watch. |
Everett | Well, maybe some people can't afford a cell phone, right? Homeless people have cell phones, bro. And so I'll tell you, you know, growing up, I think a $60 watch would have been out of the price range. I couldn't have spent that much money on a watch growing up as a kid, certainly. But I don't think even my parents really could have justified that. So for some people, it's going to push you a little bit. And I would never never, ever, ever in a million years advocate for pushing the budget to buy a watch, um, for a whole bunch of reasons. And it gets philosophical and deep really quick. But if to the extent that 65 bucks is about the same as 35 bucks. |
Unknown | Yeah. |
Everett | And you don't need a watch to, you don't ever need a watch to look good by the 5,600. Yeah. And if you need a watch to look good, if you work in an office where, you know, your business casual or, or business dress, Buy that Guan Chen or buy the Casio Oedipus or the Orient FUG because you're just getting a smoking deal on any of those three watches. |
Andrew | That was what was most impressive to me is through this exercise of looking at sub $65 watches, not only the variety that was there, but also the versatility that was in them. I felt like you're getting a lot of the same features and versatility at this price point as you are in the $300 to $500 price point. You're not getting the same value. out of your purchase, you're not getting the same aesthetics, but you're getting a lot of the same feel and, and versatility. |
Everett | And I think more importantly for us sort of watch people, you're not getting any of the, you're not getting any of that dynamic, right? That watch head dynamic, except, you know, in a couple of instances you are, you know, arguably the world time, the 5600, perhaps to maybe a lesser extent that Gwanchin, a different extent, certainly with the MDV-106 you're getting that, but by and large most of these aren't watch head watches. No. But those four, at least those four, I think a watch head could make the argument. |
Andrew | I think even the Komodorsky fits into that. Yeah. I don't think a non-watch person would ever recognize a Komodorsky. |
Everett | Yeah, that's right, that's right. So I guess that's it. We've got a couple of vulnerable mentions that we can just run through. We do. Let's hammer them. Uh, most of these are, most of these are time access shocker. And, and we didn't, we could have scored these and perhaps they would have scored in there. Um, but ultimately we just decided to strike them. But, but certainly the Timex easy reader, the Timex weekender and, and perhaps more compellingly the Timex Waterberry line. I think so, yeah. Or all made our honorable mention list, and ultimately just didn't make the list for a number of reasons. You know, with the Waterberry line, you get a steel case. Oftentimes you're getting acrylic crystals, which I think is super cool. But you're getting really dog movements, by and large. You know, the new Waterberries have automatic meal movements, which I think is fantastic. |
Andrew | I like that Timex is tending towards some automatic movements. Yeah, they're moving in that direction. I really like that. |
Everett | They're moving in that direction. In fact, we got pinged this week on a new Timex automatic that looks fantastic, and we'll probably be talking about that in coming weeks. |
Andrew | I almost grabbed a Marlin the other day, one of the automatics. |
Everett | Yeah, because they're, what, like $125 now, right? Yeah. So those three I'll name. And the other one, and some of you guys are not going to like this choice, but the Invicta ProDiver. for the 70 bucks. This didn't make the list because it was just too expensive. |
Andrew | Five money, too many. |
Everett | We set the threshold, and I pitched for this thing a little bit, and we decided ultimately it didn't make the... And we're wearing them. ...the threshold. And we're both wearing them, although we're wearing very expensive. Yeah. Very expensive Invicta ProTires. |
Andrew | They're not 70 money anymore. They're three of a kind. |
Everett | Yeah, three of a kind. |
Andrew | And pretty soon, you could be one of the three best friends anyone can have. |
Everett | That's right. That's right. You wear a 40 and 20 watch, you're a 40 and 20 team member. That's the rule. |
Andrew | We'll even get you on maybe. |
Everett | So Matt Wright, our friend who has a 40 and 20 G-Shock, a 40 and 20 limited edition G-Shock, which is not marked 40 and 20. It's not really a limited edition. It was just the seconds from my 5610 build Matt Wright has let us know that he is probably going to donate that thing to the show for a giveaway as well. So that thing's on its way back to us for the purposes of a giveaway. And yeah, we'll let you know the details on that at a time in the future as well. All right. All right. So we've done a ton of other things. I'm going to make a motion to skip other things for tonight's episode. Can I get a second? |
Andrew | I'll second it. We led with other things. |
Everett | All right. The yeas win. |
Andrew | Keto cupcakes and Invicta mods. |
Everett | The yeas win. So, uh, yeah, with that, I guess we'll cut. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. If you want to check us out on Instagram and please do, cause this is going to be a big week for us on Instagram. Uh, it's slash 40 and 20 or no at 40 and 20. Uh, also if you want to support the show, patreon.com, that's where we get all of our contributions for the show. And it's a fairly conservative amount of money, but it does help. It helps with our hosting fees. It helps with all the little things we do. That's 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. |
Unknown | Bye-bye. |