Episode 54 - Interview With Dave Murphy
Published on Wed, 06 Nov 2019 21:58:00 -0800
Synopsis
This podcast features a conversation with Dave Murphy, the owner of Murphy Manufacturing, a company that produces high-quality bezels and other watch parts. Dave shares his background in machining and how he got into making watch components, starting with modifying his own Vostok watches. He talks about pioneering coin-edge bezels for Seiko SKX and other models, collaborations with well-known modders like Jake Bordeaux, and his process for designing and manufacturing watch parts. The conversation also covers an incredible story about one of Dave's customized watches that went to space with a NASA astronaut and the generosity of sharing pieces of that watch among the contributors.
Links
Transcript
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| Andrew | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 1420 podcast with your host, Andrew. I'm a good friend, Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? |
| Everett | I'm so good, man. You know what I did today? What'd you do? I turned in all of my OCIE to the Oregon National Guard. OCIE, for those of you who don't know, is your equipment. That's your issued equipment. So it includes everything from helmets to rucksacks, uniform components, gloves. |
| Andrew | Pouches that you have no idea what they go to or why they would even be included, but you sign for it anyway. |
| Everett | That's right. You know, it's funny because these days when you get issued military equipment, everything's modular. Everything's part of a modular system. So your sleeping bag is not a sleeping bag. It's actually a three part system. five parts all in. You've got your you've got your rucksack, which is not a rucksack. The rucksack is a rack and lifter straps and shoulder straps and a bag and multiple components. So I mean, the rucksack, I think the rucksack alone was seven line items. I think it was 11. I think it was 11 pieces in seven or eight lines. So, you know, it winds up being this three hour production to turn in your equipment. But Complete. You free. There was one item. There was one item. Uh, it's a fleece. Oh, it's a fleece. And, uh, I could probably have found one. And I said, well, how much is it? And he said, well, it's 60 bucks depreciated seven years at 10%, 10% a year. So it's, you know, 35 bucks, 35 bucks. And I said, just, just bill it. And he was like, well, we could challenge it. And I was like, Nope, I don't want to ever talk about it again. Just bill it to me. It'll be done. So I am completely cleared out. I have no issued equipment from the army. Which means, really, that's the one thing that can stop you from getting out of the army is having uncleared items. |
| Andrew | How upsetting is it how much army-related stuff you still have in duffel bags at your house? |
| Everett | Oh man, I still have a lot of stuff. Yeah. |
| Andrew | Even after today. When I cleared, I had probably still three duffel bags and one of those black, like, gorilla boxes. I was like, why do I have all this stuff? I don't want any of this. But I had it. |
| Everett | I don't have anywhere near that much stuff. I had an absurd amount. I don't have that much stuff. Uh, but I do have, I do have quite a bit of stuff. I just have, I have so many uniforms. Most of them are DX, you know, most of them are uniforms I couldn't even wear if I was, if I was staying in. So, uh, I think I probably have one more drill, at least a partial drill, because there's a board, there was a, uh, an administrative board that I was supposed to finish today that didn't, or Saturday that didn't get finished. So I'll have to go back in November. Yeah. |
| Andrew | That's, that's not your problem. |
| Everett | Uh, yeah, I mean, it is. I'm going to have to do it. I'm going to have to do it. So, how are you, man? |
| Andrew | So good. I'm enjoying a long weekend. Go to real work this week. |
| Everett | Yeah. Starting Monday, you graduated from the Academy. Yeah. |
| Andrew | You are official. I am. State certified. So, now I have a nice long weekend. I'm going to start on Wednesday. And, ooh, that's going to be a good combo. |
| Everett | Yeah, I think so. I think so. A little, a little basic, the Rainier Cherry Seltzer. |
| Andrew | Yeah, some Cherry Seltzer and some Wild Turkey 101. Yeah. That's going to be good. What else do we have? Oh, you know, the raspberry Meyer lemon might be a good combo for mine, but yeah, you know, whatever. |
| Everett | So, so you're official, you start work on Wednesday, you actually put on the uniform and, and do the job. |
| Andrew | Yeah. And I'm very ready. I'm also very excited to have effectively four days off from, from one work week to the next. Right. And to not have, yeah, to not be taking any time off for that. |
| Everett | Well, you know, you invited me to go up to that ceremony and, I was really honored to be there, went up with Kim, and it was really cool to see that. And, you know, it's a little emotional. Anytime you see someone sort of graduate a process like that and do a thing where they become something, it's a little emotional, you know, because you may stay a policeman for five years or 10 years or... Six weeks. We just don't know. Or 40 years. You know, I mean... 40 years is a stretch. |
| Andrew | I'm a little on the older side. |
| Everett | Let's call it 30 years. That's safer. It's just fun to be a part of that, you know, next part, next step of someone's life. It was really pretty cool to see it. Yeah, it's cool. Congratulations, man. |
| Andrew | Loved having you. Loved having everyone. It was cool. Had some, my dad and my aunt that I haven't seen in a couple years came down. It was, I've seen my dad, but my aunt who I haven't seen in a couple years came down too. It was fun. It was cool. |
| Everett | Yeah. And I didn't even, I didn't even say anything bad about police. No. No, cause it was kind of scary. |
| Andrew | And there was there was 200, there's probably more like like neighborhood of 300 cops. |
| Everett | Everybody was a cop. Everyone. Even like pulling into the parking lot. I was like, fuck. My license plate on the front's not screwed in. It's just sort of sitting in the window. I'm getting a ticket. |
| Andrew | Today. Yeah. From any one of these guys. |
| Everett | Well, good. Well, hey, we've got a we've got a guest on the on the phone right now. And and I just I think before we before we go any further, I'd just like to introduce him. This is a person that some of you will know. Most of you, I hope. And maybe not personally, but you'll have at least heard his name because he has been in the watch game for a number of years and is sort of a pioneer in terms of modding, doing really cool things. But we've got Dave Murphy on the phone. Dave, how are you? |
| Dave Murphy | I'm doing well. |
| Everett | How about you guys? Just doing fantastic, as you've heard. We're, we're drinking whiskey and seltzer and, uh, and you know, it's hard to do bad when you're doing that. |
| Andrew | Oh, that's good. That's like old fashioned. Sounds great. |
| Everett | Yeah, it is. So Dave, you're, you're the owner of Murphy manufacturing, which is the maker of fine, fine bezels. Yes, sir. Primarily, I think you started off making bezels for the Seiko SKX. Is that right? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, primarily I started making bezels for the Vostok Amphibia watches. Okay. That was my, that was my, you know, that's okay. Um, the, the, the funny thing about that was, is that, uh, well, let's back up. Um, I run a screw machine shop. Uh, it's a family business. Uh, it was started by my grandfather in 1946, uh, right after World War II. And generally what we do is turning. We don't really do much milling. |
| Everett | So you do rotational as opposed to top down spinny drill press type milling. |
| Dave Murphy | That's correct. And screw machine, well, screw machine work is defined as work you can do on a screw machine. It's very rarely screws. But because there are better ways to make screws now, it's just one of those funny things. But what it is, is production turning. I tell people that what I do, what I'm supposed to be doing, well with my time, is making custom pieces for my customers. And I make them a thousand pieces at a time. And when they're done, I put them in a box and send them out UPS. And it's, uh, American customers. And these days that means that it is, uh, American customers that are making more high tech stuff. Uh, scientific instruments, agricultural, optical, that sort of stuff. There's, there's not so much, uh, nobody's making toasters in the United States anymore. Let's put it that way. |
| Everett | Right. Right. |
| Dave Murphy | So my customer has a machine that they want to make, and because of its complexity or whatever, let's say they only need to make 1,000 of these machines in a year. Well, they go out and buy 1,000 boxes to put a machine in and 4,000 legs So the thing is on the, you know, sitting on the, uh, benchtop and they buy some electronics and some optics and some fasteners and some plastic parts. And that's basically what they do is they kit all this stuff out and they have an assembly line somewhere and they put this stuff together. It's expensive stuff. Um, and, and often it's fairly, you know, there's not a huge market. They're not making large quantities of these things because there's a certain market that exists. |
| Everett | And is that market, Dave, is that the folks seeking the elusive made-in-the-USA designation, by and large? |
| Dave Murphy | Oh, no. No, no. These are existing companies that have been making this stuff for years. In the case of analytical laboratory equipment, you know, if they're only making a thousand of these benchtop laboratory type machines in a year, well, there might be a shop in Asia that's interested in doing that, but maybe not. Okay. So, I mean, they find that they can do that here in the US. |
| Everett | So anyways... It's the order quantity. You're able to make things on a smaller batch scale than an Asian company is the deal. |
| Dave Murphy | Yes. And I will say also that in the screw machine business, when I told you that I'm making, let's say, between 520,000 pieces of something, there are other kinds of screw machines that make |
| Everett | uh that a hundred thousand pieces is a small order yeah okay so that's not our thing so um anyways well well one i mean can you give us an idea of what what types of things i mean i i i suspect based on the way you're dancing around it a little bit that it's a whole bunch of different stuff and that it's probably not terribly uh it's probably types of pieces that uh that one doesn't think about. That's my suspicion, but why don't you tell us? What do you actually make? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, like I said, if you're making a machine and it's an assembly of different stuff, sometimes the engineer has to have a special fastener. Sometimes the engineer has to Make some kind of widget that you can press two bearings in so that you can turn a shaft. Sometimes you need the shaft. Sometimes you need a knob. And, you know, if you're an engineer designing this stuff, of course, you're going to try to look into some catalog to find this stuff. But if you just can't, then you have to have it made. And usually the easiest way to do it is to have it made in the United States. It's just easier if you're an engineer working on this kind of stuff to just pick up the phone or send a PDF of a print. |
| Everett | Well, without giving away any trade secrets, what was the last thing you made? Give us an example of something you made last week. |
| Dave Murphy | Okay, let me tell you what I'm going to make tomorrow. Okay, I have an agricultural customer that I'm going to make the cylinder, the outer cylinder for a slide pump. And basically the idea is that if you have a small tank, let's say on your back, full of some liquid, pesticides, fertilizers, whatever. Uh, there's a hose coming out of that tank and there's a, uh, sort of a, think of a bicycle pump sort of arrangement. It's about the same length as a bicycle pump. Okay. Uh, but, and it, it, it'll throw a stream of water like 30 feet. So, um, you know, they make a thousand of those assemblies a year and there are, seven parts in that assembly that I make. So, you know, throughout the year, they run out of one of them. And it happens tomorrow, I'm going to be making the outer cylinder for that. So, you know, again, it's, it's made within 70 miles of my shop. And that's, that's all they make is about 1000 a year. So this particular customer actually owns a factory in China but it's just not you know they rather keep this particular product here so the feasibility of it makes sense yeah and you know there are business decisions behind that whole thing so anyways to get to the watches part of it I was I was just gonna say that what a perfect segue so this like |
| Andrew | Unlike a few of the people we've talked to in the past who got into machining because of watches, you were already here. So where did that, what drove you to start making watch parts with the, with the, I imagine pretty impressive amount of equipment you had already at your disposal? What, what did that look like? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, what it looked like for me is the same, probably similar to you guys. I mean, um, It was, I wouldn't, I don't know about that. Well, I'm saying the beginning of it just, just began with, I had an interest in, in watches and, um, that kind of drove me to, this is, uh, around 2007, I'd say. And that kind of drove me to some of the watch forums. And you know, when you get involved in something like, like that, that It feeds on itself a little bit. It does, yeah. You end up with friends that have the same interest. So, you know, I was always kind of a mechanically inclined guy, okay? That doesn't surprise me at all. So, almost immediately, I was interested in, let's look into, Seeing if I can do movement work, let's look into see, well, first, if I can do modding and, uh, you know, and that, and that's kind of what drove me toward, um, you know, what I'm doing now. Uh, it was, it was just the, the modification of watches and, uh, just, just like a lot of people, they, they get into it and they find that, you know, there are parts available for certain watches, and you know which watches they are. And there was a little bit of the, you know, if you have one tool and it's a hammer, every single thing looks like a nail. So I mean, I'm standing here with a couple of fairly expensive CNC lathes. And then the other hand, I've got this watch and it's like, Actually, the way the Vostok thing went was, I had a 420 case Vostok Amphibia. |
| Everett | It's a beautiful watch in its own right. |
| Dave Murphy | Yes. And I wanted it to look different. It had that dots and dashes bezel that they had at that point. |
| Everett | Plated brass, nasty. |
| Dave Murphy | Plated brass and every single, every single amphibia came with the same bezel for 25 years. Yeah. Just since the Soviet system called it quits. And so I wanted to, that was when I made my first smooth bezel to say, let's get rid of the dots and dashes around this bezel and just make it look like a pilot. And, you know, I made a couple of bezels, you know, drew it up, made a few bezels and a lot of people were just like, yeah, yeah, that's nice. You know, congratulations. I like your watch. |
| Everett | And then... But Dave, I mean, how did the... So, you know, you're going to... I'm not going to let you off the hook there because I can tell you want to move to the next idea. But that moment, that moment is important. And I want to know more about it, right? I want to know about what did you do? I mean, so you've got this Vostok, a 420, you know, those things. |
| Andrew | Before we get to that, how did you come into Vostok? So, I mean, at this point, how long had you been interested in watches? Kind of what got you there? And how did a Vostok land in your hands that you realized the dots and dashes were total shit and you wanted something better? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, the thing is, At the time, okay, I was just starting out with the watches and like a lot of guys that get into the hobby, you know, they join into the watch forum and I remember one of my first goals was in the morning, like, what are you wearing, Thread? It would be really cool if I had a different watch for every day of the week. Okay. Yeah. So when you're first starting out and you're really trying to say, ah, geez, you know, I really want to stick to these more, um, affordable watches. Yeah. Uh, the, uh, Amphibio was actually the second watch that I bought. Okay. As a collected piece, I'm going to let you guess what my first watch was. |
| Andrew | It was an SKX. |
| Dave Murphy | Nope. Oh. |
| Everett | Well, let's see. |
| Dave Murphy | I mean, for me... I've heard it mentioned on your show before, that's why. |
| Everett | It was the SNK 809. |
| Dave Murphy | SNK 809, yeah. |
| Everett | That would be my other choice, yep. |
| Dave Murphy | So yeah, 7S26. So yeah, those two watches were my first, what I would call collected pieces. Everyone has four or five watches in the drawer. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Dave Murphy | So I had those watches already, and some of them were pretty interesting watches in their own right, but... You maybe didn't realize that at the time. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's true. I had some pretty cool watches at the time that I still have, but anyhow, the Amphibia at the time was very popular as a, here's something that you can get into for, at the time it was like about 60 bucks. Right. |
| Unknown | You know? Right. |
| Dave Murphy | And so it was like, it was a natural, you know, I bought a black scuba dude like everybody else. |
| Andrew | Okay. Is it the, uh, the one with the orange, the orange scuba dude? |
| Dave Murphy | Uh, no, no. |
| Andrew | The white, the white, uh, diver. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah. Just one little white diver on, on the dial and, uh, And, uh, you know, 12, six and nine Arabic on it and a date. But, uh, yeah, I ended up, um, modifying that watch and putting the smooth bezel on it. And, uh, actually I had, um, also, uh, I, I, I cut the dial feed off of a, uh, like a military style dial that I had got it auto fry or someplace. And, you know, I was kind of delving into the modding a little bit slowly. So but stop, but stop here. |
| Everett | That sounds super deep. Yeah, that's right. I just got to dial cut the feet off. This is super simple for you. But this is the part. This is the part that for me is the most important part of your journey. And maybe it won't prove to be at the end of today's conversation. But for me, taking a watch in one hand And taking a, you know, three axis or I don't know what, what, what type of CNC machine you have, but, but going from watch to machine, I mean, what does that, what does that look like? And I know that these, these top, these details may be a little banal to you, but, uh, for the purposes of your first time on 40 and 20, uh, what is, I mean, just in layman's term, what does this look like? What do you do? What's your process? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, You have to realize that when you're in an industrial job for your whole life. Okay. And you're, you're kind of into industrial engineering. Uh, sometimes you have to reverse engineer something, you know, to get them to get an old machine running to, uh, if there are no parts available for this thing that you're trying to get going in your factory or whatever. So, you know, it was kind of that sort of process where you say, here's the piece I got to fit this thing to. Here's the piece that I want it to look like. What do those two things look like? You know, here's what the inside has to look like. Here's what the outside has to look like. Draw all those features on one piece of paper. There you have it. And you make it. This is what machinists do. |
| Andrew | And because that's your background, it was just second nature. Like, oh, I don't like this. I'm just going to make something better. |
| Everett | It's almost rote. I can tell the way you skim over this process that it's almost by rote that you do this. |
| Andrew | But wouldn't you do the same thing ever? |
| Everett | This is an absolutely fascinating idea to me that you have the ability to, you know, because I just, you know, you didn't listen to last week's episode. And that's OK, because you were sort of one of the first people that were in on this project, this 40 and 21 year anniversary watch mod project. I reached out to you, I think, about the project before I reached. I think you were actually the first one to know about the idea. And that was that was a byproduct of me sort of being really impressed by the products you make for a number of reasons. I mean, one, I just think it's super fun that you make everything in the United States. Uh, you know, Andrew and I are both sort of, uh, I would say closet patriots, Morgan, Muricans, Muricans, you know, and, and I say that because I, I think that that, you know, that idea can be misconstrued in a lot of ways and, and I don't want to buy into anyone's sort of misconstrual of that. With that said, I just think it's super neat that I can get a bezel made in Germany. I can get a bezel made, you know, for a Vostok, you know, AM diver, for instance, makes really cool stuff in Germany for Vostoks. And I think that's fun and neat, but it's so neat. The idea that I can get something made in New York by a dude in a red Oxford, uh, you know, who's sitting in his office, uh, is is pretty fantastic. So I know you want to downplay this idea, or maybe you don't even want to downplay it. Maybe you just downplay it naturally. But it's so cool to think I could just have an idea and then make this out of a fine precision fit piece of metal. |
| Andrew | David's people like you that are like that are that are re energizing the American watch industry. And we've talked to a handful of watchmakers over the over the past few months. And and you have a place among them that are reenergizing and revitalizing the American watch market. And whether or not you're going to accept that, you absolutely are. |
| Dave Murphy | Well, I appreciate that. But, um, I'm going to point out one thing to you guys. Um, the first one is, is that, um, you know, uh, American craftsmanship never went away just because you guys aren't aware of it in your everyday lives. Okay. Uh, the second thing is, Uh, and, and this really, um, is something that's, um, that I love is it, um, not so much in the watch, um, the watch parts thing, but in the EDC community. Okay. Everyday carry. There are so many, there are so many guys out there that, um, they're doing a regular job somewhere. And they get this fascination with, um, manufacturing metalworking. Yeah. And then the next thing, you know, they've got this, uh, you know, they go down to Grizzly and they buy a, a three axis, uh, mill that fits on their benchtop or a lathe. And, um, they're playing around with that thing and they're learning the tray. They're learning how to cut metal and make chips. They learn how to make chips. And then a few of them, they, you know, they go through their, uh, you know, they introduce a product or maybe do a Kickstarter or something like that. And next thing, you know, instead of the grizzly lathe, you know, they've got a lathe like mine. Yeah. Or instead of the, uh, three axis benchtop, uh, mill, you know, they've got a robo drill or a, um, You know, something like that. Something that costs $100,000 or more. |
| Everett | You know, Dave, this idea, and I'm going to let you finish this thought, but this idea is something we've actually talked about a lot. And we, we really love it. You know, uh, we, we, we interviewed, uh, the guys from Vero watches in Portland, uh, a couple months ago, and they had a very similar process, uh, where just, I'm going to buy well, they, they started with a bit more money than most people, but Darren Tiffany. Uh, and I don't know if you know, Darren Tiffany and all DM Tiffany time pieces, but same deal. You know, he literally bought like the cheapest, uh, the cheapest lathe or CNC machine mill, you know, hand mill, you know, he's doing everything with, with turns and wheels. Uh, and Grimsmo knives is another one we've talked about on this show before. Uh, you know, these guys, I love this idea that you're, that you're talking about right now. |
| Dave Murphy | So I didn't mean to interrupt you, but I'm going to, I'm going to tell you something though. Um, that guy, uh, Tiffany. Uh, any guy that can make his own lathe from scratch and I'm, you know. Fantastic. It's fantastic. It really is fantastic. And, you know, because A, you can't afford, you know, the one that was built 70 years ago and B, because you can do just as well. Yeah. That's really impressive. Okay. And, uh, to me anyways. No, and us too, obviously. Not just a lathe, but a Rose engine. Right. |
| Andrew | You're probably one of the few people who heard that episode and truly appreciated what he was talking about. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah. It's like you're taking something that's fairly simple. You know, you have a rotating piece of stock and then you have two axes to play with. Okay. That's a lathe. Now he's gone and taken you know, it's 10 steps of complexity beyond that, you know? |
| Everett | Just totally fantastic. And Dave, I'm going to say for our audience right now, we've got you on video because we decided kind of before we started recording that it might be convenient for us to be able to have sort of hand and arm signals for a couple reasons. But I do believe, I do believe with one sort of off sort of one-off exception. You're the first person who's seen the process. And I'll say, you can only see me. You can't see Andrew because we kind of sit a little bit far apart. But I think you're the first person to witness the recording. So you can see that there's a lot of nonverbal communication between Andrew and I as we record. We talk about things as we go. We point things out to each other. But you have a unique opportunity to see this. And nobody else will ever see this because we're not recording the video. Um, but yeah, we get excited about things. We get excited about things and communicate about those things non-verbally as we record. And when we talked to Darren Tiffany, uh, when we talked to Darren Tiffany, he, he was a rapper, like kind of like you are right where he just sort of, you know, we'd ask him a question and next thing you know, we were down some deep rabbit hole. And we, I think both of us had our chin sort of glued to our chest that whole time because, uh, listening to him talk uh it same way you do right where you sort of gloss over these details and we're like wait wait wait you need to go back yeah because the thing you said just completely blew our mind so we're doing a little bit of that today where we're you know like what that's crazy um and you know i think we did some of that before we started recording uh but yeah it's an incredible idea that people like you uh, Chris, you know, this sort of mastermind, uh, at Vero, you know, that you guys are able to have an idea and be confident and push forward. And, you know, these, these watches, these Vostok bezels so insignificant to you that you almost refuse to talk about the process. Uh, you know, because it was just, I reverse engineered a thing. This is a thing I do every day. It's not a significant part of this story. It's really cool. Right. |
| Dave Murphy | So, you know, getting back to that story, um, the, um, I, I told you that I, uh, I made the first smooth bezel for my own watch. Yeah. But then the, what really blew the lid off the thing was one day I was, I don't know. I'm not sure if you guys are old enough to remember this, but, uh, you remember the old commercials about how they invented the Reese's peanut butter cup? |
| Everett | Oh, ever it's old enough. There's a little dig there that happens. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah. But you know, you got one guy with a jar of peanut butter and he smashes into this other guy with a chocolate bar in his hand. And that's how the Reese's peanut butter cup was invented. I have a vague memory of it. Yeah. I had a Vostok Amphibia in one hand with no bezel on it. And I had a Seiko SKX-007 insert in the other hand. And I said, wow, it looks like it belongs on that watch. It does. And it does. It's just exactly the right inner diameter to, um, to look right with that crystal. And, uh, again, I just went back to the same. I went back to the drawings for my smooth bezel and said, all right, the bottom half looks like the smooth bezel and the top half has to hold this insert. So, um, that was the product that kind of started the snowball for me. |
| Everett | Dave, did you do the first coin edge bezel for the SKX? |
| Dave Murphy | I did. |
| Everett | Yeah, that's what I thought. You were sort of the pioneer of... I think, and you can correct me if you think I'm wrong, but I think that you probably more than anybody else in the industry are responsible for the SKX, the Seiko 5, the 5KX we call them on the show, which is a watch that I think was singularly created by Seiko to feed this fascination in the modding industry for the SKX. |
| Dave Murphy | I think that you... Are you talking about this new watch that they've come out here recently with the updated movements but no screw down crown? |
| Everett | Yes. Yes. So I'm talking about that. And I'm going to add a couple of things to the conversation. I'm going to add all of Yobokis. I'm going to add all of Dagaz. I'm going to add... the Crystal Times, CT, watch cases. I think that you, and this is my assumption based on the research I've done, I think that you individually are probably more responsible than any other individual for starting that craze. Do you disagree? And you don't have to agree with it. |
| Dave Murphy | I disagree, and I'm going to tell you why. I think that there's two guys There's two guys that are, that blew the lid off this modding thing. The first guy was Bill Yow. The second guy was, uh, Harold, uh, Yobokes. Okay. Um, back in the early days, we're talking about 2005, 2006, uh, Bill Yow made. The almost the only, and certainly the best, um, dials and hands for modifying Uh, and he had, uh, offerings for the Seiko diver. And also he made 28 and a half millimeter dials for the ADA 2824. And there were just a ton of watches, Swiss made watches that, that, uh, that those would fit. So, uh, he was supplying those dials before anybody. And then, and I'm not sure between he and Harold. who came first. Not long after that, maybe a few years after that, there was a guy, Canadian guy by the name of Noah Fuller. Yeah. And he was a kindergarten teacher in Hong Kong. Yeah. You know, if you're an English speaking person, you send your kid to the English speaking school. Well, he was He worked at one of those schools. And not long after he got his feet wet, Jake Bordeaux became acquainted with him. And they were just like best buddies. So yeah, in the early years, I'm going to say that Bill Yao really kicked things off, OK? You know, at some point, I'm taking a guess here, maybe 2010 when his, when his, uh, Benchmade and ready-made watches started sort of take hold. He just abandoned that, um, you know, the selling of the mod parts, you know, this is Harold. Yeah. No, no, uh, Billy out. Oh, Billy. Yeah. Excuse me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. From, from Pennsylvania and, um, Mark, Mark two watches. |
| Everett | Sure, sure. Yeah. MK2. |
| Dave Murphy | Yep. So anyways... Yes, I was the first to offer a coin edge bezel for the Amphibia. And it wasn't terribly long after that that I figured out the SKX007. The... Dimensions and tolerances for the Seiko cases are more than a factor of 10 more difficult than making parts for Russian watches. |
| Andrew | That makes sense. Yep. |
| Dave Murphy | Yep. But it's just, you know, kind of a funny thing. But yeah, I was the first to have a coin edge bezel for either one of those. Yeah. |
| Andrew | So, um, so, okay, so we've got, we've got your Vostok bezels, right? So we've got, we've got your polished bezel. We've got your bezel that has the ability to take the insert for the SKX. Yes. What's your decision to move on from there? How are you What's driving your decision making for the next part to provide? Actually, we'll even circle back to there. What drives you to start making this a production part, to make this available to other people and not just for you? |
| Dave Murphy | That is, well, okay, you've already hit on it. The thing that drives me, it's a little selfish. I always make the first part because I want |
| Andrew | Right. And you should because America. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah. So, you know, in the case of, um, yeah, pretty much every single project that I've taken on, including, um, more recently, uh, the movement holder, um, it's because I was dissatisfied with something that was available and I just, I wanted one. And, um, at this point it's like, if, if I want one for my watch, Uh, at this point, I'm kind of like, well, if I want one, somebody else wants one too, you know, my, my, my experience with, with the way the bezels worked out kind of showed me that. And obviously there's going to be some watches that are more popular than other watches, but, uh, uh, you know, There are watches out there that I could make bezels for. And the reason that I don't is because I don't own that watch either because I just don't like it or, you know, that, that, that seems to be the first step is me owning one. |
| Everett | Can I, can I make a guess? I'm thinking in my mind, Orient Mako. |
| Dave Murphy | Oh, you know what? I, I tried that. And, um, I tried it to the point of buying three of them. And the first one, I just had a really hard time getting the bezel off. Oh, really? Yeah. |
| Unknown | I've never tried popping mine. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah, well, I think I'm smart enough to get most bezels off because I've had quite a bit of experience. When I started doing damage to the watch case, I just said, you know what? This is not really going to be a good experience for modders to do. And at that point, I was just kind of like, you know what? I don't want it that much. And there's another watch that's on my website, another bezel that's on my website. There's a Seiko, it's a solar diver. Oh, yeah. And it is a bear to get the, uh, the bezel off of about 15 or 20% of them. And I mean, really hard. And, uh, I had to put some fairly dire warnings on my, on my website about, you know, you might want to actually see if your bezel will come off before ordering this. |
| Everett | You can try this, but buyer, buyer beware. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah, well, and sometimes that doesn't even work. You know, you get people that say, yeah, you know, I, uh, one that I'm wondering about is the Vostok Kamenderski. |
| Andrew | If you've had any experience with bezels for that, the smooth bezel specifically, the thing with that family of watches, |
| Dave Murphy | is that I believe that the old school Datsun Dash's Amphibia brass bezel will fit all those watches. And if it does, then there's a good chance that I already have something that fits the Commandeer scheme. And we're talking about the classic Commandeer. |
| Andrew | Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not the new gen. |
| Dave Murphy | What's it, K34? The problem that you come up with, though, is stem lengths. And because of the way the Vostok crown screws on in it, it has to seat. There is an end seal. inside the crown. Yeah. That has to make contact in order for the watch to be waterproof. And if the bezel is in the way of that thing going all the way, you're going to flood your watch the first time you wash your hands. Yeah. So, um, the, the fact is, is that I haven't gone out and bought every single Comandirski case to find out which fits in which do not fit. So it's, it's, uh, And the other thing is, is that not a lot of people, not a lot of people really want to do it. Uh, I think first of all, because you know, why are you putting a beautifully made stainless steel bezel on a crumb plated brass case? Right. Right. And, and, uh, The second thing is, is it, it's this, uh, this balance of costs. I mean, I know we all want what we want and we're going to build what we want, but it's kind of one of those things where you say, well, you know, I want, and I bought this thing for, you know, $55 and now I'm going to buy a stainless steel bezel for a large portion of that, you know? |
| Andrew | I mean, Ev has an SNK that's couple hundred money. |
| Everett | Yeah. You know, I, I've got a, I've got an SNK, my 809, my original 809, which I think your 809 was your first watch. My 809 was my second watch. Uh, I've got an 809 that I put in, you know, I don't know, probably, I don't know, 10 hours of finishing and another, you know, uh, maybe, maybe $50 in parts to write, You know, so I've got this, you know, I, I won't, I won't say my hourly rate on the air, but you know, what, what, what winds up being a fairly expensive watch if you, if you really are critical about the math. Um, but yeah, you're right. You know, sometimes we just do a thing because we want to do the thing, uh, not withstanding, notwithstanding the hard costs. |
| Dave Murphy | There's, there's, you know, That is a kind of a funny thing. Some companies in America are peddling experiences rather than products. Sure. And that's an example of that, you know? Yeah. It's like, yeah, you bought this thing that you can wear, but guess what? You just paid yourself $2 an hour, you know? |
| Andrew | So we've talked a little bit about getting the market. What's next? What have you got on the horizon? What do you want that isn't readily available out in the market that you're going to have to take to your mill and make for yourself? |
| Dave Murphy | You know, I don't have anything that's really staring me in the face right now that's like an obvious, geez, I really would like to tackle this certain thing. There is something that I start, well, I collaborated with a good friend of mine. You might, you might know who he is. His name is Johnny Torres. He makes custom straps in, um, and the San Francisco area. And, um, almost 10 years ago, we collaborated on a project in which, um, Uh, I was doing a little movement work at the time and he was, uh, buying, uh, Hamilton size 10. pocket watch movements, specifically the 917 and 921. So it's, it's a movement that's about the same as the ADA 6497. It's within a few thousandths of an inch in size. So you can make a reasonable wristwatch out of that. And, um, I would love to, um, sort of revisit that. and come up with a case that I can make in-house, it would probably... I'm thinking that it might resemble either a trench watch or there might be some... You know how pocket watch cases tend to have turned features rather than milled features? They usually look like round objects. They're round, yeah. |
| Everett | And... Wire lugs and... |
| Dave Murphy | Exactly. I might try something like that. I'm not sure that it would be in a production thing. I mean, obviously the first part of that is seeing if I can come up with something that I like. |
| Andrew | Have you turned any cases before? |
| Dave Murphy | I have not. As far as the process, it's not much different than turning bezels. The challenge, I think, is to come up with something that isn't huge on the wrist, something that fits well. Right. Because you're talking about something that's going to be kind of a minimum of about 42 millimeters in diameter. |
| Everett | That's exactly the number I had in my head, yeah. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah, that's pretty much the minimum that you can get into for that size movement. And, um, you know, to have something like that, that fits nicely, you know, uh, is difficult, you know, that, that's, that's, that's something that would be fun, uh, to try. And then the thing that I think that's cool about that, when I was collaborating with Johnny on this project, we were basically taking, um, a big pilot cases that you can get on eBay or someplace like that, you know, 42, 43 millimeters, and then finding a dial that would work. And then of course you have the problem of, well, on a pocket watch movement, the crown is a 12, right? Okay. So the stem is a 12 and the seconds hand is at six. So now you're having to turn that 90 degrees to get it into a pilot's case. So Now the stem is at three. And the, uh, at nine o'clock is the second, uh, sub dial. And, um, you know, that comes with a set of problems. One of them being, you have to use a different dial, uh, in order to get 12 to be at the top, like most people want their watches. And, um, what I thought would be really cool would be to try to come up with something that was very like. what you think of as a trench watch, okay, you know, like back, they say, during World War One, sure, when they when they literally they took their pocket watch to the jeweler, the jeweler, soldered on some wire lugs. And now you have a pot now you have a wristwatch. The crown is at 12, just like it always was, but it's on your wrist. And, you know, that that presents certain problems with how you wear the watch, obviously, and whether the strap is in the way of the crown and all this stuff. But it would be a fun project to play with. And whether anything comes from that, I don't know. |
| Everett | And a custom dial is an option, too. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah, okay. But what's really cool is that Hamilton, all of those watches, They go back into the 30s. Sure. They understood plating. And I can't tell you how many times I see a 50-year-old Hamilton dial, and you look at the raised numerals, and you look at that gold plating on them, and you say, man, it's just as bright as it was when it left the factory. Whether there's a little spotting on the dial or not, nobody cares. They made beautiful stuff. The movements are beautiful, too. And they're very nice to work on. I mean, every single thing, when you're working on those movements, it really just feels like craftsmen put it together to be able to take it apart and put it back together again. Everything just fits perfectly. I don't know, that's something that I would be kind of cool. |
| Andrew | Yeah, that will be a super cool project. I hope to see some of that in the future. Yeah. I have just one last question. OK. |
| Everett | Well, I'm going to cut you off. I have about 400 questions. |
| Andrew | I mean, so do I, but we got to kind of keep it to our timeline here. We'll have to have you back, because there's a lot of unanswered questions remaining. But the one that we have to get into this show, what's your personal watch collection look like? |
| Dave Murphy | Well, I've got to tell you, I have... How should I say this? Everything that I make a bezel for, I obviously have to have... A couple copies. Some quantity of those on hand to make sure that my stuff fits the watches that they're meant for. So I have every Amphibia. Some of them I have two, you know, I have a bunch of SKX007s and various Seikos and all of those are definitely the play watches. You know, when you just sort of say, ah, you know, Jake just came out with a really cool dial and I love it. And you order it and you just pick out a watch and say, all right, I'm going to build this mod and I'm going to wear it for a week until I'm sick of it, you know? And other than that, my collected watches, if I'm to say, you know, some people have a theme, I have a mini thing going on. I have some yachting watches. I have three yachting watches. One of them is a watch that my father used, uh, in the early seventies. It is a, uh, memo sale. Oh yeah. The maker is, is memo time. And it has, uh, an, uh, Valjoux, uh, seven, seven, three, seven movement, which is, uh, that, uh, seven, seven, three, four was, wildly popular at the time for chronographs, okay? So they had a modified version. And then I have a Timex digital yachting watch that was mine back in, I want to say the mid 80s. And then I have a Citizen Promaster yachting watch. Is that the sailhawk? Uh, they, they didn't call it, they don't call it a sailhawk. I think this is previous to the sailhawk, but it's, it's definitely one of these that has, um, several stepper motors inside it that make sure, make the hands go wherever they're supposed to go. It's completely analog. Um, so, um, that's sort of my mini collection is the yachting watches. And I did use to sail competitively. Um, uh, I have, oh, geez. So many just weird watches that are hanging around. |
| Everett | What are you wearing? What are you wearing right now, Dave? Because I've seen this Erika's original. I assume that's an Erika's original. It may be an MN strap. |
| Dave Murphy | Oh yeah. This is a watch. This is a watch with a story right here. Okay. Please. This is, it's a good story. There's a guy, a customer of mine, That's a kind of got the bug. His name is Dave Sutton. And, uh, this is a, this is an SKX-007. |
| Everett | Okay. And you know what? They can't see it. |
| Dave Murphy | They can't. Yeah, I know. I'm just, I'm just, I'm just doing this for a year. And I love it. I love that. So, so here's the thing with this watch is, um, Dave is one of these guys that, um, he's a real diver. Back in the day, he did saturation diving, working on the seafloor and the whole thing. He's kind of a colorful character. And he's one of these guys that he knows a lot of stuff. He knows his stuff. And if you're wrong, he'll tell you, okay? And for that reason, you know, there's a little bit of hate here and there for him. Anyways, Dave got this sort of bug that he wanted to be modding some watches, and he has some aerospace contacts. The same guy, Dave, he owns a company that owns a couple of Russian fighter jets, okay? which is just sort of another wild story, but he told me the whole story. But anyways, he decided he wanted to make a bunch of watches and he wanted to use my bezels. And he bought this very large batch of bezels and this dial that I just showed you, basically he had Jake Bordeaux reshop these dials. It's back to the dial maker to put his logo on, okay? |
| Everett | And that's Jake Bordeaux of Daggaz watches. |
| Dave Murphy | Of Daggaz, yes. Yeah, yeah. And he spec'd this whole thing out. That's the Daggaz Superdome kit. That's my bezel. You know, some, you know, sword hands. It's the... you know, big big aerobics pilot style dial. Yeah. And this Erica's original strap. So Oh, and there's a, you know, the case back has been sterilized as well. So through hit through his contacts in the aerospace industry. One of these watches ended up on the wrist of an astronaut. Okay. And, um, this astronauts, his watch wasn't quite ready when he took off to the international space station. So, um, they arranged to, you know, you know that they send resupply missions up to the ISS. Okay. They arranged to send this watch, send his watch up to him in the middle part of his mission. Okay. So the guy's halfway through is actually a little more than halfway through his mission. Um, and, uh, gets this watch it's, it's all wrapped up in a, uh, hermetically sealed bag. And it's, you know, it's been decontaminated with, with, uh, ionizing radiation and the whole thing. That's some FedEx right there. Yeah, that, yeah, really. So, um, and when he, when, when he did this, uh, The, the space agencies are absolutely nuts about any, um, they don't want to make it look like anybody is endorsing any product. |
| Unknown | Sure. Sure. |
| Dave Murphy | So they made this, they made the maker of the watch Dave Sutton sign all these agreements saying, this is not Scott tingles watch. Okay. That's the astronaut that went to, this is your watch. We're going to send it up. If we destroy it, too bad. If we lose it, too bad. And when it comes back, it's coming back to you. It's not going to that astronaut. You know, it's it's it's your property forever and you may never sell it. OK, so, you know, again, they just they just don't. Yeah, they're not going to get into the stamps thing. |
| Andrew | Even though even though it's this guy's watch that he's bought and he's like just trying to get him his watch. |
| Dave Murphy | Yes. Okay. Yes. |
| Everett | That was the arrangement. They're trying to avoid the bad stuff that happened in the sixties and seventies. |
| Dave Murphy | Yeah. So now the question becomes, when that guy came back and those two guys met each other at some convention somewhere, was there an exchange of a watch? Allegedly no. Probably yes. So anyways, the whole thing went down and, um, Next thing you know, we've got these pictures, you know, and I have this really nice picture. It's on my Instagram page of, it's that watch and it's hovering in space and outside the vestibule window is a Soyuz docked with the ISS. And so, in low Earth orbit. We were all like really jazzed about this because, you know, Dave built the watches, Jake supplied all these parts, I supplied a bezel, and Erica supplied a strap. So when all this stuff came back, very generously, Dave took that watch and he broke it apart a little bit. He sent the bezel back to me, He sent the strap back to Erica. He just picked out some piece. I'm not sure which way, you know, make it maybe a case back or something. And he sent it back to Jake. So each of us could take that piece and make our own watch. |
| Everett | So no, no, no, no. |
| Dave Murphy | So come on. So this watch that you're seeing here is a watch that I built. Uh, Dave supplied me a dial of his dial, but that is the bezel. God. That spent two months in orbit. |
| Everett | Man, this is the risk check to end all, you know, we don't do risk checks on this show, but you just eliminated any chance that we're ever going to do risk checks regularly because holy shit, that's cool. |
| Dave Murphy | It was so generous of him to do that. And what was kind of funny was, you know, it wasn't long after that I you know, I got an order from, uh, uh, Richie Harris who works with Jake, you know, and I was like, all right, I know what this is for, you know, and I ended up, you know, so Dave built Erica watch. So, so all of us have a watch that some little piece of it has been in orbit, has been in space for two months. |
| Everett | Oh man, Dave, this is a fantastic story. |
| Dave Murphy | The other The other kind of cool thing about this story is, is that the resupply mission was, um, a SpaceX. Oh, cooler still. Okay. Uh, and then it flew on the ISS and then when it returned on the wrist of the astronaut, it returned to Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule. Okay. So the cool thing is, is that right now, those are the only three ways to get to or from space. |
| Everett | Uh-oh. |
| Dave Murphy | And so these pieces of this watch have been on all three platforms. |
| Everett | You've got NASA, Elon Musk, and Soyuz. How freaking cool. That's wonderful. |
| Dave Murphy | That's a fun story. |
| Everett | Well, Dave, we would love, honestly, I think we would probably love to rap with you all afternoon. Just about that watch. And we're going to have to we're going to have to take you up on that to do something in the future, assuming you'd be willing to come back on with all our crazy antics. But, you know, this is the time of the show. Well, we're about five minutes past the time of the show where we where we normally transition to other things. And I understand you have something queued up. |
| Dave Murphy | Well, yeah. And I'm excited. I was aware that you guys do other things because I have, you know, been listening to your podcast. So I saw you raise your hand there. |
| Everett | Yeah. No, you know what? We've got... So we're about an hour six. We try to make it an hour. We're over that. And that's OK. So I'm going to give you some time to go, but we're going to just we're going to scoot along just a touch. |
| Dave Murphy | Okay, the something else that I have is that I just returned from a trip with my daughter. We returned from the Delmarva Paddler's Retreat. |
| Everett | And I knew this about you, that you're a bit of a boatsman. I don't know if that's the appropriate oarsman. |
| Dave Murphy | Well, yeah, it's sea kayaking, technically. I was right. What the Delmarva Paddlers Retreat is about is it's about Greenland-style kayaking, okay? So what that is, is trying to embrace the Inuit origins of the sport that we in America call sea kayaking. And at the very minimum, people that do this use a Greenland paddle, which is no wider than four fingers. That's at the widest point for knuckles. |
| Andrew | That's pretty narrow. |
| Dave Murphy | Uh, yeah, but it's, uh, it's kind of like one of those things where you say, uh, the last time you saw a windmill, was it long and narrow or was it big and, or were the blades big and fat like the, uh, the windmills, you know, that you think of in that logic trumps, you know, you know, so, so, um, There is some efficiency to be had by having a long, narrow blade, and we embrace that. We also build and use the Inuit kayaks. |
| Andrew | Do you build out kayaks too? |
| Dave Murphy | Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh. And the Greenland kayaks, we use traditional methods of making them. We make them with a skin on frame where you build a wood skeleton and then stretch skins. Well, back in the day, it would have been mammal skins. We use ballistic nylon usually and sew a skin on and then waterproof it. And. A few of us also in the spring. Organizing events a little closer to my home, which is the Hudson River Greenland Festival. That's in June. Where we do the same thing. Delmarva paddlers retreat, of course, is in the. Southern Delaware near Rehoboth Beach. So. There is a little bit of a Portland connection to that, OK? There's a guy in Portland. His name is Harvey Golden who. For the past more than 20 years, he's been researching these Inuit craft. And he has a little museum in your town. It's the Lincoln Street Kayak and Canoe Museum. And since it's basically his garage with fancy shelves and lighting. You have to call him in order to check it out, but I'm sure he'd be happy to show you. This is in Portland. It's in Portland. Yes. |
| Everett | Fantastic. We'll have to check it out next time we're up there. All right. So that was my something else. |
| Andrew | It says it's closed right now. |
| Everett | But it says it's closed right now. |
| Andrew | Yeah. I mean, it is. We can't drop in. 7 PM, but... Well, Dave, you'll have to... I'm pretty sure that it's a... |
| Dave Murphy | call and he'll open the door for you type of situation. |
| Everett | By appointment. Well, you'll have to send me his email address because that sounds pretty cool. |
| Andrew | The pictures do look like it's in a garage. It looks like it's a live and work facility. |
| Dave Murphy | He's a fascinating guy. He became fascinated with the whole genre of the Greenland kayaks and the Aleutian kayaks as well. And You know, the way he decided to embrace that was to just build them all. So, um, you know, back, back, well, yeah, back before he actually went, uh, on a tour a long time ago through every, uh, well, I should say every, every museum in Canada and Europe that has a kayak collected. And I mean something that a real Inuit person was hunting from. He went to those places and surveyed all those kayaks and published two really thick books with all the plans. And his whole thing was, I want to know what it's like to paddle that craft. So he would he would do the survey and then build them so that the rest of us could try those historical crafts. |
| Andrew | You know, I have a kayak and I've, uh, I've, I've had a shotgun in my kayak and I've been really tempted to try to duck or goose hunt out of that kayak and, and ultimately decided not to. Cause I've just never been real confident in its ability to keep me up. I can't imagine hunting from one. |
| Everett | I've played around with the idea of kayaking before, and I'd love to do that with Kim and I, but I'm convinced that that's the hobby that leads to divorce. |
| Andrew | That's the hobby that leads to my death. |
| Everett | Never mind divorce. |
| Andrew | That's how I die. I mean, we've almost ended it in the drift boat, and that's way safer. Yeah, that's true. |
| Everett | That's true. Super fascinating. We're going to check it out. We'll include a link to the museum in the show notes. Andrew, other thing. What do you got? |
| Andrew | You know, I was going to talk about this right before. I mean, before the episode, this is what I wanted to talk about today in the way of other things. And the fact that we're talking about a space watch and now we can add SKX to space watch SKX mod variety. Who saw that coming? |
| Everett | The Dave Murphy Space Watch. Oh my gosh. Dave Sutton, Dave Murphy, Gagaz slash Erica's Original Space Watch. |
| Andrew | That's like the coolest shit I've ever heard on like ever. Yeah. And it's for sure. Hot take on the show. It'll be the number one. I want to. So India is going to try another soft moon landing. Yeah. Go India. And we have slated a 2024 mission to the moon. The moon. It's happening. Y'all, space travel is happening again, and I'm so excited about it. I'm never going to be an astronaut. I'm too fat. No, no, you can do whatever you want to do. No, I'm never going to be rich enough to buy a private a private trip to the moon. I'm too fat. I'm too old. I'm OK with it. But the fact is there are other people going and they know they're going to the moon. That jacks me up. Fucking cool, man. That's all. That was my other thing. I'm just excited about the fact that we've got more space travel going on. We've got more deeper space travel going on. We're going beyond the ISS. We're going to the moon again. And that means that the next step is Mars. The whole reason we're going to the moon right now is just like the Gemini missions, the Gemini missions, Gemini, Gemini. I don't know how he said it, but the whole reason we're doing that is to test systems and equipment for ultimately a Mars mission. That is cool. Humans will be on Mars in my lifetime. |
| Everett | Ooh, that was a prediction. It's going to happen. That was a prediction. |
| Andrew | We just need another like 40 years in the future decade. So maybe the 2020s are going to be the decade that the 2070s come to visit and we do space travel. |
| Everett | All right. You know, I think we might have a wager and we can work it out by way of addendum to your will. I can draft all the documents. |
| Andrew | Yeah, no, you can do it. We will be on Mars in my lifetime. Fantastic. Your kids will be the ultimate beneficiaries if I'm wrong, but you know, cool for them. |
| Everett | Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I'm going to outlive you, so I'll benefit, but you know... You will. We'll work it out then. Statistically speaking. You will. We'll work it out by way of testamentary device. That's what I always say. Yeah. Fantastic. I've got another thing. I was going to say, what you got? I've got another thing. Yeah? My other thing is a series that has debuted recently that is absolutely fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I think we're only three episodes in. It's an HBO series, and we talked maybe about three months ago about the idea that it feels like all of the sort of good epic television shows are drying up. You know, like what's next, right? We had Breaking Bad. We had Game of Thrones. |
| Andrew | Westworld's coming back. |
| Everett | Westworld's coming back. But to a certain extent, there's an idea, there's a feeling that the next epic is yet to come. I hope. And I think I think that perhaps, and I don't know this for sure, but I think perhaps it has already been aired by way of the Watchmen series on HBO. Yeah, it is. So far, so far it has started off with a bang and it's been fantastic. Now, if you don't know what the Watchmen is, please stop what you're doing. Pause, pause. Just shut us off. We're almost done. We're at an hour 16. You can press stop. The Watchmen. The Watchmen is the best graphic novel that's ever been published. And I say that with zero reservations. It is perhaps one of the best novels ever put together. I'd say top 50 novels of all time. The Watchmen is a fantastic piece of art. And if you don't know what it is, stop what you're doing and figure out what it is. If it interests you at all, read it because it's phenomenal. It is a comic book, which feels a little juvenile. This is not juvenile. |
| Andrew | It's a graphic novel. There's a difference between that and a comic book. |
| Everett | It's fantastic. It is absolutely fantastic. So HBO has spun off of the Watchmen, of the source material. They've spun off, as in the material that they're creating now is original material. It's original content. It's not from the original series, but rather it's a spin off of those ideas and that story. And it has started off in an absolutely fantastic fashion, and I think it's wonderful. Also, so two other things. I'm going to say two other things. That's cheating. The original Watchmen, you can get it for like 14 bucks in a paperback on Amazon. Totally recommend it. Also, check out the new series on HBO. Is this what that movie, The Watchmen, was based on? So the movie, The Watchmen, was based on the comic book. And people, you know, this is a comic book adaptation which is bound to get panned in the reviews, right? As good as it was, it diverged in ways that were meaningful to people. And so people, it didn't get as warm a reception as it might have if it was original content. But it's good in its own right. But the book is out of this world good. The novel, the graphic novel, is out of this world. And the new spinoff series, I think, has all the right pieces in place to be our next sort of big series that the water cooler series as it were. |
| Andrew | So that statement, I'm going to get on HBO night because it's only seven o'clock. This is unusual for us to be wrapping short of 10. |
| Everett | Well, and, and, and, uh, poor Dave, it's like, it is 10, 10 o'clock. |
| Dave Murphy | It's about 10, 20. |
| Everett | So Dave, that's it for other things. Before we go, is there anything, so you know, one thing we'd love for you to do, just plug your website, plug your Instagram. How people can reach you. But anything else that you'd like to plug before we go. |
| Dave Murphy | That's great. Yeah, my website is murphymanufacturing.com. Murphy Manufacturing is completely spelled out. And my Instagram is murphy underscore mfg. you know, from my website. You can see a link to email me about anything that you want to talk about. So... Be careful. |
| Everett | Some of our listeners are really, really annoying. |
| Andrew | Not more so than us, though. So you're safe. |
| Dave Murphy | Don't worry. I've seen it all. |
| Everett | Good. Good. Anything else you want to plug before we go, Dave? |
| Dave Murphy | I'm good. I appreciate you having me on. It was a lot of fun. |
| Andrew | We loved it. We'll have to have you back. There's a lot of unanswered questions. |
| Dave Murphy | I'd love to come back sometime. |
| Everett | Excellent. Thank you so much. Andrew, anything else you need to do before we go? Nope. Just pee. Just like right now? |
| Andrew | Well, in a minute. Are you doing the dance? I'll let the music go. |
| Everett | All right. Well, thank you guys for joining us for another episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on Instagram at 40 in 20. Uh, if you want to support the show, patreon.com slash 40 and 20, that's where people, uh, give their $1, $2, $3 per month to the show, just to, just to support, uh, hosting fees and production fees and all the things that go into making a podcast. And we really appreciate it. And we're so happy to have that, uh, that contribution. 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 | you |