Episode 73 - Brew Watches: Interview With Jonathan Ferrer

Published on Wed, 18 Mar 2020 23:04:00 -0700

Synopsis

This is a podcast conversation with Jonathan Ferrer, the founder of Brew Watches. They discuss his background in industrial design and how he started his watch company as a creative side project that eventually became a sustainable business. They talk about the design process and inspiration behind his watch models, particularly the Retrograph and Mastergraph collections. Jonathan shares his philosophy of staying true to his creative vision rather than being overly influenced by market trends or user feedback. He also teases an upcoming watch release with a higher price point and a new movement. Towards the end, they discuss other topics like coffee, motorcycles, and books.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew, and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, why are you smiling?
Everett I'm just, I'm happy, man. I'm so happy. I'm actually excited about this booze that's in front of me. It's just been, it's just been a nice like weekend.
Andrew You just gave me like a very Dennis the Menace smile. It made me uncomfortable. It almost messed with my flow and I had to ask.
Everett But how are you? I'm good. That's what you're supposed to say to me.
Andrew I know. I was just real distracted.
Everett I'm good. You know, it's been, you know, it's weekend Sunday as usual, as usual.
Andrew Well, not necessarily as usual, but you know, it's a Sunday.
Everett That's when we record 85% of the time Sunday night. But you know, that's sort of end of the weekend, but it's been like a weird weekend, right? Like it sort of started early because the kids kind of got out of like got kicked out of their schools. And you know, so it's just been sort of like an extended weekend. I've had the ability to sort of do some of the things that I wanted to do that I've been kind of avoiding doing or not doing. Uh, so I'm just feeling like a little bit, uh, like accomplished, but also a little bit panicked that I, I'm not doing other things, you know, that means you need to go. I'll see, I'll see you next Sunday. Yeah. Okay. Um, I, I'm, I ran 10 miles today. Gross, which was nice, which is better than last Monday when I ran 19.
Andrew Why? No, not why is that better, but why? I just I don't I don't get it.
Everett Well, we're getting close to the marathon yet, right?
Andrew Isn't your long run for a marathon like your long training run? Usually like I guess 19 seems about right, but we've got a 23 mile planned. That seems long for a training run.
Everett It is borderline long. We've we've done between 20 and 21 several times, both John and I have, and we decided we wanted to up it a little bit, get a little bit extra time, just because both of us have had experiences where we sort of got glycogen depleted too early in races, so we're just experimenting. We're experimenters.
Andrew That's true.
Everett Just like you and me.
Andrew Yeah, but I would never, for any reason, run 19, 21, 23. You know, it's not as bad.
Everett I mean, it's just not as bad as you think it's going to be.
Andrew No, I know it's not. I mean, I've run long distances, but I just wouldn't do it again. Unless there's a bear chasing me, that's going to drive me to run in excess of a single mile.
Everett Well, bears can run a long way too.
Andrew Yeah, I just don't expect a bear to chase me for a full mile because he's going to catch me before I get to the mile mark.
Everett Andrew, how are you doing?
Andrew I'm good. It was awesome to have friends over, but when your household doubles in size overnight, it can be a little stressful. So it's nice, we're on that post-vacation with another whole family high, and life is settling back down, things are going back to where they belong, and it's quiet. My almost five-year-old said, I liked having my friends, but I like that the house is quiet. He gets it.
Everett Oh yeah, he gets it.
Andrew I was like, oh bro, yeah, that's what I'm talking about, because yeah, I like that the house is quiet again, and that I can just go to the couch in my underpants, not have any issues with that, so.
Everett Well, you know, one in three, having a one in three year old in the house.
Andrew Oh yeah, they split our age, like my kids' ages.
Everett It was fucking circus. Even if it's just a one in three year old, add it to a newborn and a five year old. Geez. Fuck.
Andrew It was nuts. It was so loud all the time.
Everett And how long were they there?
Andrew They were here a full, they were here six days. Okay. So they flew in on like a Saturday afternoon. I got home from work and then they got into the driveway before I was even in the house. Sure. And then they left Friday night, the following Friday.
Everett Sure. Uh, and you guys did go to the beach. Did you like caravan to the beach or did you all like pop into a single?
Andrew No, there's no way to fit eight humans into a normal car. So, especially if there's car seats involved. So yeah, we took, we took a pair of cars and, uh, you rent a vintage Volkswagen Beetle. Uh, no. So they, they, they rented a car at the Portland airport and they drove down from Portland cause it's so much cheaper to fly into Portland. And the flexibility of having your own car when you're traveling is unparalleled. Yeah. No, I understand why people don't get rental cars.
Everett I'm a rental car proponent.
Andrew So we drove out to the coast and it was beautiful, uh, which was weird that I don't think they got the full Oregon coast experience because it was, it was hot. Oh, was it? Yeah. It was like 60 degrees. And for the Oregon coast to be 60 degrees is it's almost uncomfortably hot. We did the aquarium, we did the sea lion caves, did all like the,
Everett The Oregon coast essentials. There were no sea lions at the sea lion caves though, were there? There were hundreds.
Andrew Oh, were there? Yeah, there was probably. So when we went in, they said there's 185 sea lions down there right now. And I was like, fuck off. There's not 185 sea lions down there. And you walk down and it sounds, it's just this chorus, like this symphony of sea lions singing and barking. And I was like, there's probably four.
Everett And it was just a field of sea lions. You know, we always mess the timing up every time we go there out at sea.
Andrew There was so many, I've, I've only been there as a child, and now as an adult. And as a kid, I remember being really underwhelmed. And when I walked in this time, it was like walking into a cathedral where you could just hear this choir singing. I could have sat there for hours, but my kid was like, Daddy, I gotta poop. And I was like, dude, we were just in the bathroom. And you have to ride this elevator that takes you 180 or 200 feet or something like that, and then walk up this giant-ass hill. And he's like, it's an emergency. I was like, okay, get on my shoulders. So we ride the elevator up.
Everett You put him on your shoulders?
Andrew That's a terrible idea. But you got to walk up this hill and I know he's not going to make it up this hill. It's like a, I don't know, probably a 50 degree incline and it's a quarter mile walk.
Everett Right.
Andrew So I get him on my shoulders and he's squirming up there. I'm like, he's going to shit on me. This is going to happen. And we're, I'm like jogging up the hill and people walking down are like, well, that's weird. I looked like this, like, I looked like a huge idiot. Cause I'm like, what kind of dumb ass is going to run up this hill with his kid on his shoulders?
Unknown Look at you.
Andrew That's the look I'm getting jogging up this hill and I'm up there. I'm sweaty. I'm out of breath. And he sits down and he, it was not an emergency because he's playing on the toilet before he's pooping. And he's like dancing and singing. I'm like, bro, see this sweat, get it out of you. Like this is you. Now, now you got to hold up here in the bargain. So, but it was a, it was a fun trip. And then we came home and we did the week and I still had to work, but fortunately I still work days. So, um, you know, I was home in the evenings and just hung out and got some good family time.
Everett love it yeah love it well if it's okay enough of us we're gonna talk about watches today let's do it you sure i'm prepared you're sure well in that case we've got a guest we've got a guest on the line a special guest a special guest every guest is special but i mean not to not to take away from you being a special guest right so uh we a couple weeks ago we reached out to jonathan or jonathan reached out to us i can't remember uh but we connected with jonathan ferrer of brew watches and uh And we begged him to come on the show and he agreed. And he sent us watches. And he sent us some watches. Double victory. Double victory. Jonathan, how are you?
Jonathan Ferrer I'm doing great, guys. How are you guys doing?
Everett We're doing awesome, man. We're doing awesome. Thanks for coming on.
Jonathan Ferrer Thanks for coming on. Been looking forward to this. You know, these past few weeks, it's like we've been talking about it, but now we finally get to do it.
Everett And here we are. We're actually recording. You know, this happens to us every week, it feels like.
Unknown Yeah.
Andrew I just come into Everett's basement.
Everett You guys are lucky then. And booze. So you're in New York, so it's a little late for you there. Thank you, by the way.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. Oh, it's not a problem. And are you in Manhattan? I was looking forward to it. So my office is in Manhattan and I live just on the cusp in New Jersey. So my commute is just a quick train ride into the city every day.
Everett You wouldn't drive. You, you, you have to take, you have to take mass transit, right?
Jonathan Ferrer Take mass transit. Yeah. It's pretty easy though.
Andrew Because crossing the George Washington Bridge is expensive.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh, expensive. And yeah. And a nightmare. No. Yeah. You don't want to do that. So it's pretty easy. All right.
Andrew I was there in 2011 and it was a $20 toll to cross the bridge.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh. Oh, God. Yeah. I never drive over. I don't even know what. It's up there still.
Andrew Yeah. So it was absurd. We stayed in Teaneck because we just came up for a four day weekend while I was living in. Petersburg, Virginia area. And it was, so we drove in for three days in a row and I was like, I cannot believe how much money we're paying. Nevermind this hotel. Nevermind how much we're paying in tolls. It was probably a, probably a $200 toll trip. It was absurd. Yeah. Yeah.
Jonathan Ferrer At that point, everybody just takes mass transit and we're used to it. And yeah, I guess everybody just works around that. Um, but I chose to be like located in Manhattan. Of course I live in New Jersey. Um, it just seems to be the hub of like where everybody exists. It's where everybody meets for red bar. It's where everybody goes shopping and sharing photos and, and meeting up for coffee. You know, New Jersey is good. You go there, you go to sleep, but you know, the life is in New York city.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, there's more people there than in most States in the United States.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh yeah. Yeah. Easily.
Everett And how many, like, like 7 million in, in New York city at this point, right?
Jonathan Ferrer I think it's at nine now.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. That is crazy. That's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy.
Andrew You just built, keep building up. You take out California. It's every state west of the Rockies, right?
Everett Yeah, I think that's right. I think that's right. I don't know how many people are in Washington, but it's not close to that. No, that's crazy. Well, good shit. Yeah, shit. So, so, uh, we're here, we're here talking about, uh, we're here talking about you. Obviously we're going to, we're going to talk about, uh, some of these watches you, you were kind enough to send us loners of, uh, of your beautiful, RetroGraph and Technicolor and your Black MasterGraph. So we're going to talk about those. But for those of you, for those of us, excuse me, for those of our listeners who maybe are underacquainted with brew watches, can you give us just a really brief background on you and your brand and where you're coming from?
Jonathan Ferrer So brew, the most interesting part about it was it was never meant to be a brand or business or anything, actually, just kind of like a creative venture that was like a side gig. So originally, I studied industrial design in school, product design. And my father is a jeweler for Tiffany's. His father, both my great grandfathers were jewelry designers for Cartier. So I was always surrounded by it growing up. And they always told me, don't ever get into this. It's a labor intensive industry with zero money. You'll be working till the day you die and you'll never make money. So I was like, OK, well noted. I'll never get into this. Here you are. Here you are. Here you are. Here you are. Here you are. But there's a lot of working pieces behind the scenes that I didn't know until I was interning there that got me really psyched about watches. Everything from mood boards to what people are interested in, to technical drawings, to working with manufacturers is like, I'm still in school and I'm exposed to all this. This is cool. I want more of this.
Andrew Oh, from the design aspect, working for those big companies would be the dream because that's where all the money is. And it's all it's all put into what can we do next? And for a designer, that seems like the that seems like a jackpot.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh, it was, it was.
Everett And so you were studying industrial engineering, right?
Jonathan Ferrer Industrial design. Industrial design. Similar, but exactly.
Everett Yeah. And so was watches just a natural, I mean, you get an internship at a company like Movado, were you targeting watches or was that just something that came along and it seemed like a good fit?
Jonathan Ferrer honestly it came along and it was a good fit. And I said to myself, let's, uh, we'll run for this in short term. And that was less than a year. And I thought that was it. And then the stars aligned a second time. Um, and then my next job was designing fashion watches for like licensed brands, stuff. You'd see him at Nordstrom's Macy's everything from like Coleman, Jessica Simpson to like Ben Ross, like old licensed brands, super mass market. So again, I was doing what I was doing at Movado, but I was making affordable fashion watches. And I was the guy people come to me and say, Jonathan, here's a project. Here's the brief, you need to design this, you need to present this, have it made, communicate with the manufacturers, and make sure everything is bundled up. And then you work with the buyer to make sure it gets sold. I was like, well, okay. You sure? I'm not, I'm not that experienced, but we'll do this.
Andrew How much of that was a function of like, you were just the one interested in watches versus like kind of your background, like your, your upbringing and being around it. And then your internship at Movado, or was it just, I'm curious how you slipped into that, that role.
Jonathan Ferrer That's the perfect way to say, I slipped into this role because they had a, it was a big mass market company that does everything from like clocks, lighting, um, like, uh, Goods that you see in Walmart, they like shampoos and like cute stuff for kids. And then they had this department where they design watches for like Walmart, JCPenney, Nordstrom. And they had an opening. They only had one guy and he was overwhelmed. And they're like, this guy needs help. Do you know anybody? And I said, well, I worked from Avada once that leaked through a few people. And then in less than a week, I had that seat next to this guy. And before you know it, I'm designing watches and you know how it is. If you're not experienced, then you have to learn it very quickly and you become adept. And yeah, you're, you're in that role full time.
Everett That's crazy. And you know, is this in, this is in New York, right? Yes. In a city like New York, it feels like you, it's not enough to be capable. It's not enough to be in the right place at the right time. There's got to be just this absolute alignment of the stars as it were. And is it fair to say that's what happened?
Jonathan Ferrer Oh, yeah. Yeah. And then it got one stage further of exciting. And this is where everything turned and snowballed. This is where it got extreme. Walking in Manhattan, I was with my girlfriend at the time, and I passed by a watch store like any one of us. You take a look and then you're in the watch store.
Andrew Yeah, you can't walk by it. It has this feel that just sucks you in.
Jonathan Ferrer The gravity pulls you in. And, you know, you're looking at the watches. The owner comes over and says, oh, anything I can help you with? I said, no, no, I love these watches. Small talk led to, oh, you work with watch design? I said, yeah. He goes, you know, I'm working on a few new projects. I'm actually looking for a watch designer. And this is after like a year and a half at the previous role. I said, well, I can help you. Because I don't have much money, but you know, I go to visit suppliers overseas and I go all these trade shows and you know, I could basically pay for your flights out there. I could take you to Baselworld if you're interested to help me. Oh, that's, that sounds okay. Yeah. But he was basically saying, I can't pay you with money, but I can pay you with, you know, travel and introductions. I was like, absolutely. Let's go for this ride. You know? And that was that. And I did that for about a year. That was it. And after that year, I was like, you know what? I feel like I've set other people up with brands, designs, everything that you would need to basically run the show. What if I did something for myself? And that's what Brew was. This was just like a creative like vent. Like what would I do if I had to have my own personality in a watch? What would it be? I'm not going to call it the John Ferrer watch. what is something that everybody can relate to as well as it's part of like it hit home it hits home for me and I was designing all these watches for all these other guys out of cafes. I was designing watches for this guy working for no money at the cafe. I was working for other guys um on my lunch out of cafes and I said you know what this is kind of like a place of peace for people they enjoy their time here they have their coffee it's an escape What if I could tie a moment, you know, to the watch? It's poetic. It's, you know, it might be cliche to most, but I think there's something there. And I just kind of ran with it. I never looked back. What's your go-to, like, top three cafes? New York, it's La Cologne. Blue Bottle makes a nice strong coffee if you're in and out. And Stumptown. And I go for different reasons, whether it's like a good tasting coffee or a good location to meet with people. If it has it all, then it's good.
Everett Sure. Yeah. We, you know, we know about Stumptown out here.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. Oh, they're good. Of course, you know, Stumptown out there. Right. They're big out there.
Everett Well, Stumptown, you know, Stumptown is Portland's, Portland's nickname, right? Stumptown is a Portland product.
Andrew Yeah. I was just wondering.
Jonathan Ferrer Made its way out here. What about you guys?
Everett Well, What about us? You know, I feel like we're not the stars of the show. We're just a couple of knuckleheads that bought a couple of blue Yetis and started hammering away.
Andrew I think he means cafes.
Everett I mean, I make all my own coffee these days.
Andrew I frequent a lot of drive-thrus, coffee shops.
Everett Yeah. You know, we've got... Here in Eugene, we've got a handful of roasters. And when I say a handful, I mean like 30... three or four pretty decent roasters. There's one of them in particular, Farmer's Union. Shout out to my homies Mark and Thomas, but... Who will never listen, just so they know.
Andrew Thomas has listened. We've talked about it. I mean, because you played it for him.
Everett Like, look, listen to my voice. It comes out of my phone. Fair enough. Fair enough. But yeah, I mean, about, you know, about, I don't know, five or six years ago, I discovered the joys of of roasting via a popcorn popper. And so I roast a lot of my own, I roast a lot of my own beans. Uh, I no longer use the popcorn popper. I do everything in, uh, in a, uh, in a porcelain coated cast iron now on a camp stove in the garage. Uh, but yeah, I roast, I roast a lot of my own coffee. There's a couple of roasters that I buy from if I'm not in the mood, but, uh, yeah, I, I roast my drip and I roast, uh, espresso from time to time. It's all very good.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. Yeah. You know, you share with them, too.
Everett I'm at his house a lot. You know, I figured out at some point that. Freshness and and bean quality is much more important than an exact roast, at least for me, at least for me. At some point, it was like, gosh, I can roast this thing with a pretty wide margin. And I can even have sort of a melange, you know, variation within my roast, cause roasting on cast iron. I don't know if you've ever, if you've ever had cast iron roast, Jonathan. Um, but it's very difficult to get a super even roast. You know, it's not like a big drum roaster. You get, you get burned beans and, and some, you know, kind of borderline Quakers. It's this very wide range. And I've found the, the quality is totally dependent on the, the bean origin. and the brewing method. So I use a Mocha Master for my drip and we've just picked up recently a Breville espresso machine and as long as you sort of lock in your grind, have hot water, you're good to go.
Jonathan Ferrer That's my tip. Brevilles are supposed to be like really solid machines.
Everett Easy to use, solid, it gets hot enough. Yeah.
Andrew And if you put wild turkey in it. That's right. All its sins are forgiven.
Everett Okay, so here you are. And one of the things I've noticed about some of your early interviews, which we don't need to hash, is that you're presented not as a watch company or a watch designer, rather, you're presented as sort of an industrial design or even a design personality who's sort of uh, dipping his toes or, or goofing around perhaps with watches. And then as time has gone on, as time has gone on, it seems like more and more of the focus when it comes to Jonathan Farrer is brew watches. Is that, um, based on, based on sort of your last, uh, your last few statements on the subject, it sounds like that wasn't the intent. But is that accurate? Would you say that's accurate? That as this project has become bigger and bigger, that it's become sort of the main focus?
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. So none of this was planned. I like to plan as much as I can. It was never supposed to be Jonathan Ferrer, the watch designer. That was never something I would ever put on a signature or a business card. It was always industrial designer. That was my safe. That's like, If you're a licensed architect, you put John Smith, licensed architect. That's like a safe bet. You know, it's like, sure. Everybody knows what an architect is. You say watch designer to go, Oh, well, that's unique. When I first started, you know, when I first started this, I was still, I mean, I am still young, but that was over five years ago. And I was in my mid to low twenties. And I said, I can't put watch designer. I'll never get a job after this. I'd never thought I was going to do this so long. I said, if I put myself as watch designer and I want to go design glasses, flatware, tables, furniture, then I'm kind of quartering myself. So I said, I'm going to continue to say Jonathan for industrial designer. So if, and when I get out of this, I'll, I'll be in a safe, uh, set of, um, uh, safe label, so to speak. And then it just, I guess when you look at any company, your first year is good, your second, your third, you're kind of developing, it's still slow. And then something hooks, something triggers with your audience, with your product, the market, whatever it is, it's a combination of all these things. And then something hits and then it spikes. And how you react when that spikes is you can either hold on to it, you know, double down and continue doing it. You can get rid of it, basically count your blessings and say, we're out of here now. Um, and I said to myself, wow, we're in a really good spot right now. I never ever would have imagined that would be good. It's it's there's, there's different levels of that too. There's, there's doing okay. Hobby level. And then it's just like, this is a sustainable business. Oh my God. What do we do here? This was never a thought. And then when it came to that point about a year and a half ago, I had to make the commitment and say to myself, well, you know, you're at that age now and you're at that point with your audience that not even age, you're at that point with the company that make the decision. Do you want to be with this forever? And it was a grand decision. I said, I'm not looking back. I love this. And I've done projects in the past where I get tired and I can't wait to move on. But this bit me in a way that I can't stop thinking about, you know, they say you go to sleep, your mind is turning, right? Oh, it's a terrible thing. And this is it's, it's, it's an amazing, it's, you know, people use the word passion too much, but it's, I wake up so many times and I write so many notes on my phone, because I have all these ideas, but I will never be in a similar position like this, where I can make all these ideas real. And I can share this with the people I know. And it's like, An artist that has an audience that's interested to see his artwork in a gallery. And there's there's nothing more true than people that take the action and purchase, wear it, share it. It's like this is it's a beautiful thing. And the stars have aligned. And I always tell people, I'm like, it could flop tomorrow. It could all, you know, I'm enjoying every single day just in case. Yeah. But, you know, it's been good and still taking the ride.
Andrew I think one of the big grabs for me was that your, your, your, the, the retro graph at just standing alone is a really well-designed, really eye-catching, really attractive watch. But one of my favorite parts was just this like little tiny quirk in the espresso timer. That's super subtle, but it's like a, it's, it's the perfect collision of a novelty watch and a really well-designed, really attractive watch. Cause it's got to just that little touch of personality without being a novelty watch. I mean, I don't see Disney characters on the dial, but I see, I see something that when I'm looking for it, I know it's there. And I like that. Like almost like every time I look at it, you're winking at me. And I really dig that.
Jonathan Ferrer I was thinking about that, yeah.
Andrew Yeah, just winking at me, just at Andrew.
Jonathan Ferrer Yes.
Everett I asked you a question. Well, yeah, no, we're going to let you talk because your smirk is good right now. But, you know, I had asked you at some point, I think, hey, is the espresso timer tongue-in-cheek? Because it occurs to me that it's a little bit... I'll say in advance, I think your answer to this was, no, it's not tongue in cheek. It's dead serious. But I'm sure you said it with a smile on your face, which is not to say your tongue was in your cheek. But I said, you know, it seems to me like it could be interpreted, and I think this would be a positive interpretation, as a little bit of a middle finger to The idea that, you know, we have decompression timers on our watches and we have these really very silly complications that we love and we treasure, right? A world time complication perhaps or, you know, like I said... Dual calendars. That's right. We've got these complications that don't make any sense for
Andrew for the average... Slide rules that no one knows how to use.
Everett Right. And so it occurs to me that there's a thing happening here, but in your own words, I mean, could you sort of tackle the idea of it? What are you trying to do here? And with that said, it's not a complicated idea necessarily, but in your own words, I'd love to hear about how this developed, how you got here, what the... What your motivation was to do an espresso timer.
Jonathan Ferrer So, um, like, like any design you do your research and you're looking for like a void where you can fill it with your own personal touch. And for this little moment, I have to give credit to this coffee director in New York city, where, um, I was very direct with him. We were always shooting together. He would wear my watches, making espressos. And I was taking photos of him wearing the watches. And while I was talking to him, I said, you know, this is great and all, but I feel like I had that epiphany where I want to make a product that helps people. You know, I'm not serving a greater purpose by making watches. We have watches out there. I go, is there anything I could do that would help people and would be on brand? He goes, as he's making a shot, he goes, well, why not? And he's Australian. Why not make a shot timer? I use those all the time, but we have these shitty, uh, I can, sorry, I can say it. We have these shitty, uh, digital ones on the machines and they work like crap. I go, really? He goes, you know, it might be novel. It's up to you. But, and he was actually pushing for an alarm one. He said, if you made one of those, I'd be using it every single day. He goes, when you're a barista, you make it, you walk around, you're doing something else. It's very busy. It's very chaotic. He says, if you can make that, it'd be a tool that everybody could use. And he was actually saying, you can license it to a coffee company and you could, you could do so well. I said, huh? And so I didn't take it too literal by doing an alarm and marking it to a coffee company. I said to myself, what do I want to do? What's my design aesthetic that I'd want to have? And I'm really keen on vintage watches, the kind that you imagine 50 years from now, uh, you open grandpa's chest of watches, right? And you see all these round watches in there and they're really, you know, they're all your little time X's and they're fine. Sure. But then there's these odd, unique, strange pieces. And those are the ones that always catch your eye. And I said to myself, if I develop one of those unique pieces where you open up the box and you see it and you're like, that's the one you reach for, that's grandpa's watch that I want to take and wear and keep forever. The rest kind of, you know, they sit in a box and they get sold at a garage sale later. But I wanted that, you know, that... I want that old Instacar with the plastic bezel or whatever. Yes! Exactly! Whether it's the colors, the shape of the watch, there's something in it that's unique, that stands apart. It's not being obnoxious just to be obnoxious, but it's different for the right reasons. Right. And that's what that little wink is. That's, you know, it's his idea with that wink in there.
Andrew Because that's all it is. I mean, it's in the, between the six and the seven, you've got just a just a slightly different color in your second track. And every time I see it, I'm like, Oh, he's winking at me. Yeah. He's saying something here and I dig it. Yeah. It prompted me to look up the perfect espresso pole.
Everett Well, so, and I will say, I will say 25 to 30 has always been in my mind. So 30, but you've gone 30 to 35. What do you, what's the, what's the motivation there?
Jonathan Ferrer Well, originally I asked, I said, what's the time? He said 25 to 35. And I felt, personally, it was a little too heavy on the bottom, so I went to one side.
Everett You like a nice bitter shot as opposed to... Yeah, I dig it. Overextracted.
Andrew I can dig it. I love it.
Everett It's perfect. Yeah, it's perfect. So, okay. Well, on that note, can we talk a little bit about where you've come from? I will say, worn and wound from the beginning. I kind of want to talk about this too, but we'll come back to it. But worn and wound and you have had a really good relationship from the beginning. And you can tell that because when you go to Warnaround and you look at the BrewWatches tag, they've got sort of write-ups of every iteration at this point. I mean, literally, I think every iteration of BrewWatches, you know, all of your releases. And maybe we can get back to that relationship because I think it's interesting. But why don't you walk us through sort of the evolution going from your very first BrewWatch that beautiful but big, big, giant, borderline giant, but still very elegant piece to what it seems like is maybe a more streamlined design language now, which is normal, right? A company starts off and you have ideas and you play with things. Can you walk us through the evolution? And it doesn't have to necessarily be piece by piece, where you've gone and how you've gotten to where you are now, I think with a pretty copacetic design language.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. Yeah. The evolution. And, um, there's a lot that goes with the evolution with a small brand. So, you know, investment is super heavy on every production. And on the first one, I said to myself, I really wanted even the shape. So the shape was unique because, uh, when I was working at that mass market, you know, JCPenney Walmart brand. I learned something unique from the guy next to me. He said, if you do a watch, make sure that your silhouette, your form, something is distinctive enough that people will recognize your DNA in the long term. And you know, Rolex for Rolex, you know, a Reverso for JLC, you know, what will be your factor that people acknowledge and recognize. So I said, okay, so I don't want to just do, uh, another round watch. So I actually went square, I went retro, but I went too large on the first watch. That was over a 43 millimeters. That's right. What was I thinking? So it was, it was. Um, but I'll tell you, I learned a lot from that. So would I ever produce another 43 millimeter watch? Never. No, no, no, no, no.
Andrew 43 millimeters at a round watch seems appropriate. Right. It's a large size.
Everett You square it off and now you're in Monaco. Yeah. Monaco size.
Jonathan Ferrer Exactly. It has more surface area on the wrist. So it feels larger than actually it is. And so I learned from that. I said, OK. It did well. It was too large. People tell me that they wear it, but they also say it's too large. So then I did my next square and round watch and it did OK. But everybody always asked, what happened to that square watch? I loved it. It was a little too large. If you made that smaller, I would, I would be all about it. I said, okay, okay, okay. Um, eventually I did this, the retrograph going back, it was kind of harping to my very first watch, but chiseling at it in a way that was smaller, uh, thinner, and I would say better balance with the layout, the numbers. So it was kind of like a lesson learned, you know, don't make it so large. um had the chronograph laid out well and i guess it was just chiseled to the the factor that everybody wanted and it was still different enough how can i say i've i've become the square guy it's it's yeah yeah a little bit right i can't escape it yeah um but i'll get people that always say like this looks like a monaco and i go oh sir You know, I get that a lot because people only know Monaco is square watches like that.
Andrew Exactly. Square watches are so few and far between.
Jonathan Ferrer But you know what's good about that? As a designer, the biggest thing when you want to make a product that sells well is it has to be two parts. It has to be one part familiar and then one part unique. The fact that they're familiar and comfortable with it is like, OK, they'll put this on their wrist, they'll wear it. Because to be honest, square watches are not highly sellable because they're far from the conservative route. So okay, they're comfortable. But then it's unique in that I have my whole coffee factor in there. It's an original design, everything is like spec'd out to my design. And it's to my branding. So it's the way I play with my photographs and the way I play with the designs, showcase it. So it's like, it's the perfect balance. It's the perfect size. The price point is like, it's very, it's more than fair on the price point.
Everett Super accessible price point, right?
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. And it's coming from like one guy. It's not like you're getting this from some big corporation that's just stamping these out by the millions. So it's like all these wonderful factors that if you know, you can appreciate it. And I think I'm at the right time as a micro brand where people appreciate it. They see the price and they're like, wow, that's fair. And then they understand the person behind it that is like, more honest about designing and sharing something that's, you know, not made in the millions. And like, to your questions, even, they think about these things. They go, oh, brew, is that for beer? I go, no, it's not, sir, but it can be if you want it to be.
Everett Yeah, if you can chug that beer. It's playful. Yeah. You know, I can only think of two other brands, and I've got them in my head right now, but I can only think of two other micro brand or watch brands. that are so closely associated to the person behind the brand. One of those is MK2 and the other one is... Oh yeah, Bill. That's right, Bill Yao. And the other one is Hallios, right? Where people almost say... Yes. Hallios, Jason Lim, like as one phrase, right? You don't separate them. I think that those are the only other two brands that I can think, maybe M2 Watch isn't into a certain regard. Christopher Ward. Well, yeah, but Christopher Ward, right? There's a totally different deal, right? I mean, I think that you're... He's huge, yeah. Who you are has become as much a part of your brand as just about any other brand I can think of. And that, I think, is a... I think that's a compliment. That it's, you know, John Farrer... Am I... I said it wrong the first time.
Jonathan Ferrer Say your name. Oh, it's okay.
Everett Ferrer. Ferrer, okay. I think that's a tremendous compliment. Can we talk about one watch that you glossed over? You just sort of moved past it. I want to talk a little bit about your cafe collection.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh, yes, we can definitely talk about that. I try not to talk about it because I talk about they go, what can I have? And I go, Oh, no.
Everett So tell us about the cafe collection, because that's that that watch is much different than I mean, it's on one hand much different than any other anything else in your collection. But on the other hand, it's very similar, right? You've still got the You've got your main color themes that are coming through. You've got, you know, the fonts that are coming through. I mean, the design is very in line with the other items, but... It's also so different, but so familiar.
Andrew You hit that right on the head. You can see that industrial design background, and it's something that you're like, oh, I know this, but it's so different, and I really like it.
Everett So what's the deal with Cafe Collection? Where did that come from? Where do you go with that to the extent you go anywhere with it?
Jonathan Ferrer Because maybe, you know, so that was supposed to be my everyday pickup watch where anyone can pick this up purchase wise. But that was my poetic story, too. So it was on the brand. It was all about like the coffee ripples. It was about that one drop. It hits the coffee cup and it just ripples out from the sundial. Yeah. So on brand, 100 percent. But then and it had the two piece case, just like my very first design I did. um where the top half of the case and the bottom half split to two pieces and plated two different colors. I said well that that's also nice to harp at my very first uh original collection and I wanted to keep the size slim and small that anybody could pick it up and wear it but um I would say that one didn't do well like it sold a lot but I had to pull the plug because it seemed like It didn't know what it was. It had an identity crisis. It didn't know if it was a small unisex ladies watch. It didn't know if it was supposed to be a mechanical hand-wound, a quartz watch. I think it had a little bit of a crisis on its price point. So sometimes I have an idea, I run with it very quickly, and then I don't think everything through. And that was just like an emotional design. I mean, I still have my prototypes. I'll hold on to them forever and maybe I can revisit it. But I don't think people were ready for it just yet.
Everett That's fair. That's fair. You know, we've talked to a lot of other micro brands and we talk about, you know, one of the questions that comes up sometimes indirectly, sometimes more directly is when is a dress watch in your future, you know? And it seems like that's a really, really difficult segment, especially for micro brands to try to dip into it. And I don't know if that's utility.
Andrew Or... I think it's purely a business decision. Yeah. I think dress watches will forever and always be cornered by large brands because micro brands have this really interesting opposition to other boutiques in other industries. What do you mean by that? I'm going to explain it. So the opposition is that in boutique watches or micro brand watches, they're typically more affordable. I feel like there are more affordable options in the boutique realm in the way of cool things, right?
Everett Certainly in terms of what you get, what you get for your dollar.
Andrew But when you go into other boutiques in other industries, that's when you're paying double, triple, quadruple the price. And I just, I think that's really interesting in the watch world where we have independent designers who are making super cool products, who are making some of the most affordable, super cool products on the market, where in other industries, say fashion or cars or whatever the fuck you want to buy, you're looking at paying exponentially more for an independent designer and production. And I think that's really interesting. You want handmade shoes? Give me $900. Yeah. And they're gonna look just like Converse. Right. They're probably like the only difference is that it's an overweight white dude making it versus like a child. We're off track. No, no. I mean, I think that's kind of, I mean, shit. Yeah, yeah, no. We got time. Let's touch it. Let's go that route just briefly and what your thoughts on that are.
Everett Yeah. So I guess Then maybe to sort of put that in... Give it some context. Yeah. Give the question some context. With the context of why you struggle with the cafe collection, how do you get into some of these harder to reach segments, perhaps? And why is it the microgreens maybe struggle with that?
Jonathan Ferrer I'll tell you one piece of advice that was given to me that I'll hold forever and it definitely changed my confidence with designing. I talked to Max Buser from MB&F. Sure. And I asked him one question. I said, what part of your designs are like user feedback and like statistics versus your personal passion of just what you want to do? Of course, he smirks at me. He pauses and he says, it's all 100%. a The one time I deliver something that people can predict and see coming, or if I deliver that product that's conservative, that they could pick up somewhere else, then I lose. I flop. I'm done.
Everett He goes, which is maybe more true for NBNF than than any other company on the face of the earth.
Jonathan Ferrer Right. Very super dramatic example. But that made me think I said, that's true. People are buying watches for for my design, for my thoughts, my my touch. If I give them something that they want, let's just say people, what, what bothers me sometimes these new brands, they come out, they, they have a questionnaire. What are you looking for? What size, what movement, what color? I'm like, well, then it's not your brand. Yeah. They designed the watch. If you're good at what you do, do your job in a way it's creative and exciting that people. you know, want to wear and share, you know, from the owner, the designer, the people, not some user feedback watch.
Andrew Are you letting market trends influence your design process? Because we're not getting short necessarily, but I want to start moving into what's Brew going to in the future. Sure. So are you letting trends in the market, how much are you letting trends in the market influence your decision making process?
Jonathan Ferrer a a a And, you know, I have a couple sleepless nights and I said, you know, what if, what if I made a down payment on these expensive movements? And what if I use some exotic material? I would like to go out in a bang, you know, like, so sometimes I don't, I don't listen to like the wise business part of me. And I just do what I would be excited for because if I'm not excited and I wouldn't want to buy it, how the hell am I going to share this with other people? You know, so if I make a plain Jane watch, that's not worth doing. I can go back and work for somebody else doing that and make safe money. So I said, all right, if we're going to do this, we're going to go with that whole max booster mentality. And, and I can't go with the mentality. If I make it, they will come. But my mentality is if I am excited and I enjoy it, well, you know, I'm going to run with it as much as I can. That's what I'm doing. So yeah, market feedback and all that. I'm aware of all of it. I know the numbers like pretty darn good. But does that adjust the way I think with my designs and what I execute? No, in the end, I'm just going to run with it on my own.
Andrew So you're going to make a dress watch then?
Jonathan Ferrer The next one? Yeah. Oh, the next one. The next one's cool. The next one's going to be pricier. No, I'll tell you. So the next one's going to be pricier. It's going to look like it. A beautiful cousin of the retro graph.
Andrew She's she's pretty attractive as a stance, so I cannot wait to see this cousin.
Jonathan Ferrer So but the the balance is I wouldn't want to replicate just another variation of something that exists that that doesn't excite me. So what would be exciting about it? So the variation on the size, possible bracelet custom from scratch. The dial so the dial working on this beautiful sandwich style three layers. It's a little complicated, still in prototyping phase. And we're listening. And a movement that I had to make a down payment on like eight months ago.
Andrew So are you doing so that's the Are you doing mesh bracelet maybe? Because I feel like mesh would do.
Jonathan Ferrer No, no. Mesh is cool. I like mesh. I'm a fan of mesh, depending on the watch. But no, not a mesh bracelet. So this is a bracelet I'm making from scratch. So you'll see. All right. I'm hoping to have it ready by the fall of this year.
Andrew So when are we going to start seeing some teaser pictures then? So fall was when you'll see some teasers. Like you're going to wait till a full prototype is
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. OK, so I get the prototypes and everything complete in like a month. And then I would say, you know, everything looks good. I'll photograph it. So I'll start using like three months. I could say safely every month safe.
Andrew Here's your here's your real teaser. This isn't even just the tip teaser right now. It's like just from across the bar teaser.
Everett Right. Right. Well, well, we hope we hope that we're on your potential circulation list when you when you start pumping stuff out. So we'll talk a little bit about both the Mastergraph. Mastergraph is sort of the most recent, you know, I think, what, January, you really had these in stock and ready to go. So this is a fairly new watch to your collection. You announced it, I think, what, October, November of 19?
Andrew I was going to say, I feel like it's been around a lot longer than January.
Everett Well, and what?
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah, like November of last year.
Everett Yeah, yeah. And so now these are available. They're in stock. You can find them. You can buy them. Retrographs have been sold out for some time, but I understand, based on our prior conversations, that you've got new stock coming in on the Technicolor, the Copper, all the colors, right? You're going to do another run?
Jonathan Ferrer No, not the Copper yet. I kept those limited. So the new batch I have coming are Cobalt Blue, Technicolor, and the Remington Black.
Andrew Okay. What are you seeing your best movement in? Because I would feel like, just me, I would feel like the copper is going to be the knockout.
Everett He says no more copper.
Jonathan Ferrer He says no more copper. It's crazy. Because everyone loved it so much.
Andrew Let's keep it limited.
Jonathan Ferrer The minute I say it's sold out and I'm not making any more, people's ears go up higher than ever before.
Andrew I was going to buy one.
Jonathan Ferrer So that's the mentality. So you can never hit the nail on the head all the time with the production numbers, but yeah, people, the minute I said, Oh, sorry, I'm not doing any more coppers. That's when really there's this rarity that comes with it. Sure. So I said, all right, I'm not going to jump the gun and change my mind just because, you know, X amount of people said that I'm doing this. Oh no. But yeah, some people, you know, it's good to listen to your audiences, but Yeah, they shouldn't steer your company and the business decisions that you make. Not that dramatic.
Everett You know, Chris Vail from nthwatches has talked about this at length on the forums. He's just such a wonderful personality because of the amount of feedback he gives to people. And he's sort of no-nonsense. And I think he doesn't take any liberties with this is what I'm doing. This is why I'm doing it. Right. He's just going to tell you, but he's talked about that a lot, right? People always say, well, why don't you make more of this? Or why don't you make more of that? And he's like, because I don't, a, I don't want to. And B, if you really wanted one, you would have bought it when it was available for two months on my fucking website. So don't give me that shit. Uh, go, go to, go to Crono 24 and pick one up or watch recon and pick one up, you know? Um, I think that that's a really important point, right? These brands, whether that's Brew Watches or Nth Watches or whoever, are not beholden to the whims of Instagram, right? You've got to make the watches that you want to make, and you've got to make the watches that are actually going to be a sound business decision. So I will say, I want to say one thing before we sort of shift, which is that I Um, when we started talking, I said, gosh, you know, uh, John, I really want to see the retro graph because on, on, on digital paper, the retro graph is the one that calls out to me. And, um, but I'm also interested in seeing the master graph, but master graph, you know, I was, I was kind of, uh, I don't want to disparage it at all, but my initial reaction was, I don't know if I'm going to love the Mastergraph, because it's sort of... I don't know. I wasn't as excited. You know, that Technicolor Retrograph, I was like, this is the watch I have. No, we have both the black Mastergraph and the Technicolor Retrograph, and they're both just really fun pieces, and they've both been fun to wear. But I find myself gravitating much more heavily to the Mastergraph. Is there... Um, some things that happened in between the design of those two, where you were picking up on, on design cues or, or, or, or developing, or was there an evolution? Where do you, where do we get that? The difference? I find the master graph to be such a joy to wear, which is not to say the retrograph isn't, but I, I picked the two up and I'm like, gosh, this master master graph. I want this on my wrist right now. Um, What happened there? And is that something that is in flux, or where do you go from there?
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah, so from every model, I try to get better and I try to evolve it, right? So, with the RetroGraph, that was from the original guy. So I tailored it down, the size, the movement, the balance of the index. That was my evolution. Now, to the MasterGraph, I said to myself, well, if the RetroGraph was good, what would I want to change? And I asked myself, and I said, I want more dimension, but not dimension where you have index markers that are like an Invicta coming through the glass. Who does good dimension? And reference-wise, you look at Grand Seikos. Grand Seikos, they're beautiful because the index markers are highly faceted. They catch the light, but it's not screaming depth. It gives good balanced dimension. So I said, OK, that's a good reference. I have some old vintage watches that have that similar design. And I also want the side profile to not be completely leveled off square. What if I was able to create more of a bowed out effect? So when you look at the profile from every side, it has a unique profile that curves. Whereas on the retro graph, it's unique, it's square, but square on all angles. So I'm basically trying to chisel down every model in a way that's more, I wouldn't even say luxury, but more... Elegant. Complex. Elegant. Yes. Yes. And staging up. And so if you look at the profile on each watch, the side profile on the Mastergraph is a little more complex, even more difficult to finish. So that was one part. The three dimension of the hand applied index markers was another point. I'm but it doesn't read that way. It's actually just right. If you had to ask me, I'd say, you know, it's cooked just right. Take it out now. A minute longer or a minute shorter, it would be under overcooked. Just right.
Everett You're at risk of being that kid who keeps adding shit to his, to his drawing, right?
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah.
Everett No, no, you're, you're right. You're right. It is a busy dial. It is a busy dial. There's a lot going on. You know, the loom plots in the, in those printed markers, There's just a lot going on, but on balance, on balance, it's like, oh, this is so simple. This is so simple, and then you get close. It's like, holy crap, there's a lot going on there. Oh, super simple.
Andrew A lot simple. Just for you guys who can't see whatever it's doing, he's just adjusting the distance from the watch or of the watch from his eyeball to arm's length.
Everett So John, we're going to sort of shift away here. We could talk to you for hours, I think, because you've got such a unique perspective on design and what you're doing with the watches. I'd love to give you maybe 30 seconds, a minute and a half, fuck, take 10 if you want. But can you, anything else you want to sort of talk about, wrap on about the watches, about your process, about the design, about what's coming up?
Jonathan Ferrer You know, I would say, because it is such a personal product. Think of it this way. This is a strange analogy. If you have to write a special card to somebody on a holiday, or Christmas or Valentine's Day, whatever it is for you, you want to write that card in the best mood possible, right? You want to write that card when you're feeling very passionate about that person, that moment, and that significant event. So when I'm designing watches, and I have an audience that's the the that goes into your watches indirectly, whether you know it or not, that puts you into a mindset of, well, people are really enjoying what I'm doing. It's reinforcing that factor of, I'm going to continue to do what I want, even more so in the next collection. That's why I'm also spending way too much money on my next collection. But because it's building up the confidence like People enjoy my artwork. I will continue to paint the way I want to. People are wearing this and they're sharing it. I'll tell you, it has a real mental effect on the creator and doing the tasks. Even like taking the photographs. If people tell me that they enjoy their watch, I want him taking tons of photos of the watches. He enjoys it, I'm going to share. It's a very... I don't know if people realize how direct to the creator they are and influences the entire ecosystem of that brand.
Everett You know, we totally we actually I think maybe more than some of the people listening, we totally understand the idea that that you're discussing. You know, the same thing happens to us, right? Yeah. We think a lot about, you know, what are we doing with this? What are we doing with this project? How how do we need to change? You know, I've, in fact, just really very recently, I've talked to a number of sort of creators, uh, about this thing. Cause we, we agonize, right? We agonize about it. It seems like such a silly thing to agonize, but the thing that the thing that feeds this project, the 40 and 20 project, to the extent that's what it is, uh, more than anything is just hearing from people like, this is so fun to listen to, or, you know, We love what you guys are doing. So when you say that, I connect to that on a very like significant and fundamental level.
Andrew Fully the two strangest things I've ever heard related to this project that we're working on is number one was last week I had my friend who was in town, he sat in your massage chair and he just drank beer and listened to it. And he's like, I just figured I was going to read the news the whole time. But I like listened to what you guys had to say. And he doesn't give a shit about watches. He does not care, but he enjoyed what we were doing. And when you put out the poll of like, hey, what questions do you want us to answer? Because we decided to do a Q&A, mostly because we were lazy, or because I was lazy. But one of the people who sent in a response was, do less interviews because I like listening to you guys. And that just like, I was like, what? We're doing it right? Like, this is a thing that The validation that comes along with the people you're reaching out to responding to it in a positive way is such an encourager. And like I've said, it's something that we can so directly relate to. And we're not producing the same product by any means, but that consumer feedback is what will keep us going.
Everett Even if it's not, even if it's not suggestive, right? Which is what you're saying. You're not suggesting anything. You're just saying this is awesome. Uh, and that's, that really feeds the product.
Jonathan Ferrer Right. And I think going in with no expectations, of course, you always want to do your best and share in an honest way, but having no expectations kind of leads to a better outcome because if you're doing this on a standardized, you know, we have to have, X amount of listeners and we need to have positive feedback through the months, then then you're going to upset yourselves. And and this has to be organic and it has to, you know, you have to pave your own way and it takes so much time. Sometimes having these these tight goals, it ruins the creative process. It seems like you guys go such an authentic you're flowing like a river, right? And people feel that they're driving with it. They like your character. They're here for you. You know, they're not here from for some scripted, orchestrated textbook podcast. You know, they have a countless, infinite amount of choices, but they choose to be here with you and spend their time with you. Like that is these people could be anywhere else. That's a special thing.
Andrew And that's the same with what you've got going on, man. There are thousands, millions even of watches in the market at this price point and people are still buying brew and there's a reason for it.
Everett Keep it up. It's a beer watch, right?
Andrew Yeah. Tonight it's a Canadian whiskey watch.
Everett So this is the time of the show, John. And I know you've listened to the show a few times, but this is the time of the show where we talk about other things. So Oftentimes, but not always, oftentimes our guests also have another thing that they want to talk about. We didn't talk about this before the show. We forgot to warn you. So you may not have anything, but I know Andrew has something. I know I have something, which gives you probably at least seven minutes or so. Andrew's holding a shoe.
Andrew Just a shoe. Today, my other thing is a shoe.
Everett Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Andrew, other things go.
Andrew Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Everett and I have another thing. What is it? It's a shoe. Yeah, it is a shoe. You're holding it. So I recently purchased a pair of Salomon Speedcross 4 trail running shoes. Well, shit. And so I got them at Cabela's because they were 70 money off of 100. And I've been looking at these shoes. So what I've been looking for is a pair of like kind of Salomon or Merrill or I don't know what I stepped on. of that ilk, uh, trail running shoes. Cause I want a pair of shoes that I can wear that are a little bit sturdy, but that aren't quite like running shoes, but they're not quite boots. Cause I'm also like, I love wearing Romeos, but I, I don't like the weight of Romeos. These shoes are so incredibly comfortable. They are breathable. They're not exactly waterproof. So don't run through puddles cause your tootsies are going to get wet. And that happens. They're not Gore-Tex line, but Gore-Tex line shoes get hot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for a no, and for a mild wetness weather, these Speedcross 4s are absolutely muddy. My feet don't get sweaty. That's, that's the really what I want to talk about.
Everett And, and Salomon is paying us a lot too, so that's. Yeah, we're, we're getting.
Andrew A nice pick up. So it was weird to get accustomed to the Speedlace functionality. Yeah, it's like a sort of a boa almost. Yeah, they're like the pull tab. laces. It was weird to get used to those. I had to figure out how to store the tab so I didn't feel like I was wearing spurs when I was walking there, bouncing around my feet. And as a guy who has worn spurs in his life, like I'm aware of that.
Everett Professionally, you've professionally worn spurs. Yeah, as a... One of the few people in the United States that has professionally worn spurs.
Andrew Every Friday, Stetson and spurs. It was America, man. There's nothing better than going to a bar wearing a Stetson and spurs and just boozing when you know you're supposed to be working. It's America. So, back to the Speedcross 4s, they're super comfortable. They're super light. The only thing that was a little bit weird is the tread on them. Yeah, those are some heavy lugs. I mean, they're trail running shoes, but wearing them on asphalt, you feel like Spider-Man. You're just like... Oh, right. And sticking to it. But if you're in the market for some versatile, lightweight, kind of hiking, kind of running, kind of casual wear shoes, Definitely check these out. I dig them. I've worn them a bunch over, like I bought them and I've worn them every day just to kind of break them in. There was no break in period. You got to wear proper, like if you're going to wear socks, you can't wear no-shows because they're going to, they're going to rub and it's going to not be great. Sure. But if you just wear, you know, some ankle socks, I'm wearing some Under Armour compression shocks, compression socks with them. Shocks. Yeah. Compression shocks. Super comfortable, super breathable.
Jonathan Ferrer Any hiking planned?
Andrew Coming up. So I'm going to wear these this summer on my scouting trips. When I go do some... I hunt about 200 miles away. That's where I do the bulk of my hunting. So that's my plan.
Everett That's what I figured.
Andrew About June, July. Summer scouting shoes. Yeah. Is to just go out and do some backcountry romping around in them.
Everett You know, we've got a fishing trip planned this summer too, probably about a three-day trip planned with maybe 15 to 25, depending on how ambitious we get, miles of hiking. And those will be perfect for that.
Andrew Yeah, that's exactly. And I might, I'll just wear these and like river shorts and probably fish in them too. Yeah, that's right.
Everett That's right. So I've got another thing. Do me. I've got another thing. So I finished, I finished a book this week. This is the newest book. The Stephen King. That's right. The newest book by Stephen King called The Institute. And I am a constant reader, as it were. If you read Stephen King, you'll know the reference. I am the constant reader. But Stephen King, you know, has written some of the greatest novels of the 20th century, or perhaps even the 21st century, depending on what you're into. But this book called The Institute, King's latest book, I think is one of his top maybe 10 books of all time. Did you get it hard or digital? I got a digital because I read almost everything digital these days. And it was so good. So good. I mean, I could not put it down. There was multiple like 2.30, 3 o'clock nights when I knew I had to be up in the morning. All day today, I just sort of ignored my family while I finished this thing. America. You know, I read it in about four days. I think it's not a short book. It's not particularly long. It's not like The Stand or something, but I read it in about four days, you know, while working full time and being a member of a family with... Well, an absent father, you know. Absentee father. Super good. You guys, if you read it all, if you read it all, A, please consider reading Stephen King if you haven't done so, because, you know, I think people get the wrong idea about Stephen King. You know, Stephen King is one of those artists. It's like Wild Turkey, right? We talked about Wild Turkey. I think people get this idea that Stephen King was just a phenomenal storyteller. He is. The best storyteller on earth, without a doubt, in my mind, it's him. It's him. He gives me nightmares, though. Well, this book won't give you nightmares, because it's not scary in the way people think it's scary.
Andrew No, no, no. Thrillers give me nightmares. I get stress dreams. I wake up looking like I peed in the bed.
Everett Yeah, I mean, this could potentially do that, because it's stressful. Fantastic. Wonderful. Really good. I'll also throw just an honorable mention. Tonight, tonight is Sunday. Yes. Tonight, Westworld Season 3, Episode 1 debuted. So, I have yet to finish the episode because you came over in the middle of it.
Andrew However... I came over five minutes in. I saw the timer that Kim paused.
Everett So, Westworld Season 3, Episode 1. More to come next week. John, other thing, go.
Jonathan Ferrer More recently, been a motorcycle. Motorcycle's been like my, my other way of kind of like release. That was my energy release. So if I'm behind the computer too much, or if I'm tinkering on watches for too long, I'll say, you know what? I should get a coffee. Well, let's go on the motorcycle to get that coffee. And it's been the greatest, like a release. It takes a ton of energy out of me, but it also boosts me with a ton of joy. So.
Everett 1976 Kawasaki KZ400.
Jonathan Ferrer That's a guess. No, I was going to say, is that what you have?
Everett No, it's not what I have, but I'm guessing for you.
Jonathan Ferrer No, no, they make they make nice bikes. No, I got a Ducati 1199 Panigale.
Everett That's about as different as you can get from a 1976 KZ400.
Jonathan Ferrer If you see me rolling up, you'll hear me first and you'll say, oh, I think it's a Harley. And all the Harley guys are like, yeah. And then they look and they go, That's some young kid on a garage rocket.
Everett This doesn't compute. You know, Ducati really, really straddles that line, right? They really straddle, they make a very sort of aggressive sport bike that is tuned and sounds like a traditional road bike, right?
Jonathan Ferrer It's incredible, exactly. And when you're The the one I got and just the latest models that they make now are so advanced with their technology. I've got on it like you're going quick. And if the wheel is not in alignment, or if you're spinning out a little bit, the thing will literally catch itself, align itself and make sure it's sticking to the ground. It's there's such control with the newer bikes. The computers are so advanced. That's so to the point where Oh, yeah.
Andrew It's so risky that your bike can outride you and then you're like, I got this. And then suddenly you're outriding that technology and you die.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah. So I was thinking about that. I said, you know, this is a little risky. So I bought an airbag system. So I said, well, what other technology is out there? And so I have this special suit I wear and the airbag wraps around my torso and it has a, what do you call those? The cell phones have them now where it knows how much movement.
Andrew Oh, the accelerometer, like your accelerometer.
Jonathan Ferrer Yeah, exactly. So it has an accelerometer built into this jacket that you wear, and they use racing statistics from motorbikes and they know how fast you're going to activate this suit. And it knows if because it's all wireless, if you have a sudden jolt where you're stopping, and where you're getting into an accident. So it knows when to trigger this system to deploy the airbag and it has two argon canisters in the back and it uses all this technology and its system to know when to release, how fast to release. Is this a slide out smooth crash or is this like a collision getting hit by a car? And so it uses all these statistics to know how to release this airbag.
Everett So someone's going to ask us, what's the make and model of this?
Andrew Yeah, because people are going to ask, because I've seen some dead motorcyclists.
Jonathan Ferrer Oh yeah. So the airbag system, it's made, it's called by Alpine Stars, Tech Air Vest. So you basically just zip it into your leather suit and you're good to go.
Everett All right. John, tell the people where to find you.
Jonathan Ferrer So I'm at brew watches. So it's at brew watches on Instagram, and I'm there for all the time.
Andrew All right. All right. And they're talking to you not Doris, right?
Jonathan Ferrer No, there's no Doris. Not yet. It's always gonna be me. So it's always direct to me. So I think on that note, not to go too far into this, but Every time I get people that message me on Facebook and sometimes Instagram with questions about return policy sizes, they go, I have a question. I get back to them right away. And if I don't say Jonathan Ferrer, they say, oh, thank you so much. Thinking I'm just another representative. I said, no problem. Always happy to help. I'm glad you like my watches. They go, is this Jonathan?
Everett Am I talking to the man?
Jonathan Ferrer Is it the guy? It's a little bit of a light switch that goes on. And yeah, I think people don't realize that, but it's a nice little, if you know, you know, and it's nice to know I'm always, I'm always there. Late at night, Sunday night, I'll be answering. Here you go, man.
Andrew So cool to talk to THE brew watches. Right. Not just brew watches.
Jonathan Ferrer Well, I'm talking to you guys. This is, this is special for me right now.
Everett Oh, well, likewise, brother. Thank you so much for joining us because we do really appreciate it. If we want to buy one of your watches, it's brewwatches.com, right?
Unknown Yes.
Everett All right. Well, John, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for joining us. Listeners. Listeners. For another episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on Instagram at 40 in 20. If you want to support the show, patreon.com slash 40 in 20. Check out brew watches at brew watches or brewwatches.com. Jonathan, thank you again for joining us. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Unknown Buh-bye!