Episode 8 - Field Watches

Published on Thu, 20 Dec 2018 00:35:00 -0800

Synopsis

This episode focuses on discussing field watches - their history, definition, and various examples. The hosts explore the origins of military field watches like the World War II-era A11 and G10 specifications, as well as modern interpretations from brands like Hamilton, Manchester Watch Works, Lorica, and Bertucci. They share their personal thoughts on what qualifies as a field watch and highlight specific models they find appealing. Additionally, they briefly mention other topics like essential oils, bulletproof coffee, and Duke Ellington's jazz rendition of The Nutcracker.

Transcript

Speaker
Speaker 1 Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Speaker 0 Man, I'm good. It's rapidly approaching Christmas. You know, so everybody's life takes on a Christmas light tinged cast. And in the midst of chaos. In the midst of chaos, you know, and life goes on as usual, right? All my work responsibilities, all the family responsibilities. Someone still has to wash the dishes and do the laundry. And so it's just, you know, normal. It happens every year, but it always sort of grabs hold of you in ways you don't expect. I had my work Christmas party this week, which is a blast. They do a really good job. And then last night we went to a Christmas ballet, which was fun. Babes in Toyland. We took the kids and they were into it. I was blown away. Really? How long was it? You know, maybe an hour and a half, hour, hour and a half, something like that. It was, it was two acts, uh, an original, an original piece by the local ballet company here. It was phenomenal. And the kids were engrossed the whole time. I would look over at them a couple of times and they were just eyes open and focused, which we were nervous, right? Cause they're five and seven. So attention spans are not strong with them.
Speaker 1 Yeah, it was good. It's a new environment. It's something that's like really visually striking and it captures all your senses. You get this really, really great artistic background. You get people dancing, you get music. It seems, I mean, it's like taking a kid to a movie the first time you're nervous about it, but it engages all those senses and you can get about 90 minutes out of a kid.
Speaker 0 No, totally. And the colors and all the sets were very juvenile. Not to say they weren't professional, but they're targeted at kids. You know, you've got the Candy Cane Forest. They dress up. They did not. And in fact, I think when we got there, they kind of wished they would have because there was a lot of the actors around and the the dancers. And I think they felt like it would have been a fun opportunity or whatever. So missed opportunity, but whatever. It was cool. Always next year. Yeah. You know, it's funny going to the ballet in a big city. You see, you know, folks are in evening wear, you know, semi-formal evening wear. And if you're in a polo shirt, you feel like an asshole. Not the case in Eugene, Oregon. You know, you know, there were people that were that were dressed very nicely and But then there were folks that just come as you are, you know, there's this one dude he was wearing. Northwest casual. I mean even worse than that sometimes there was this one dude in particular that I'm picturing he was wearing a t-shirt basketball shorts and flip-flops, which I don't think is acceptable wear for the grocery store not that I'm high style but i was like dude you you have gone out for the evening and that is that is your uh that drives me nuts yeah it is what it is he drives me nuts little pirate joke i like it i like it how about you man i'm good i'm on the mend i was sick all week i had this like just weird kind of out of nowhere i can't tell if it was like round two of that cold i had or if it was a whole nother disease that my kid brought home from school right uh
Speaker 1 And it just, it took me out this week. So I'm finally feeling better. I don't know if I sound better. You said I sound okay, but I think you sound fine.
Speaker 0 I, yeah, I just, I was, I'm always, I'm always transfixed by your silky smooth, sultry, sultry tone.
Speaker 1 Uh, so yeah, I just, I pretty much just lived off of DayQuil and NyQuil for the last week, but I'm feeling finally feel better today. Yeah.
Speaker 0 So did you do any, uh, scissor, like the, the grape cough medicine beverage?
Speaker 1 No. Just DayQuil and NightQuil. And I went to, my family went to Zoo Lights last night in Portland. And my sister was like, oh, you should have been using Elderberry. And then told me how it'll like magically cure you, which I don't know for sure. I mean, I've never tried it, but I was like, well, now finally that I feel better, thanks for the heads up.
Speaker 0 Well, I mean, if you just did Elderberry and put some essential oils on your head and put crystals under your pillow, you would never get sick, I think is the Is that the answer? That is the answer, yeah. Crystals, essential oils. And those essential oil companies, my wife, she's not a full-blown subscriber to the magical properties, at least I don't think she is. But those companies, doTERRA, they sell these essential oils and they are not cheap. I mean, they're not expensive. But I mean, if you listen to some people, they are... The cure-all. The answer. Prevent-all. And then, you know, obviously crystals is maybe a little bit different.
Speaker 1 Yeah, I don't know. I pretty much just swear by DayQuil and NyQuil extra strength or severe cold and flu.
Speaker 0 You know, Western, traditional Western medicine. Yeah, it's a thing though, right?
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 Magical properties.
Speaker 1 And you know what, to be fair, I've never tried it, so.
Speaker 0 Yeah, it's easy to be skeptical. I do feel like There's two type of medicine. There's medicine with proven clinical trial testing, and there's medicine with largely anecdotal... Placebos. Yeah, I mean, I suspect that's probably most of what you're getting, which is not to say there's not a place for non-traditional Western medicine, but it's telling to me that the results are... The support for that is largely anecdotal. Versus clinical. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. What are we talking about today?
Speaker 1 Field watches. We're doing, we're going to start our first series here. We're going to have some connected episodes and what we're going to do is we're going to go through different styles of watches. We're going to talk about them. Maybe not in a ton of detail, but we're trying to capture here is talk about these different styles of watches. Maybe not pros and cons, but just give a better definition to these terms that you hear thrown around, whether it be field watch or pilot watch or driver or chrono. Just answer some questions about them, talk about a few examples that we like of each of these styles of watches, and just dig in a little bit to each of them.
Speaker 0 And I think it's important to note that neither Andrew or I are experts.
Speaker 1 I mean, we're not... Or maybe even qualified to be having the conversation.
Speaker 0 Yeah, right. That's right. We're probably not qualified. This is going to be, uh, layman's exploration based on our, our respective one to two hours of, of research and, you know, otherwise just commercial experience with these watches. So we're going to mess stuff up if we do feel free to write in. In fact, I would love it if you corrected us on this stuff, because that gives us an opportunity to a, uh, round out our knowledge base and, and B to, to have the conversation be more comprehensive. Uh, cause you know, some of this stuff, you know, especially with field watches, what I found is there's so much variety, so much, uh, kind of ambiguous, very ambiguous, very ambiguous. You know, there have been a number of. Well, and we should clarify when we're talking about field watches today, we're kind of talking about something specific. I think, and feel free to correct me, um, because we don't coordinate our, our research efforts. But when I think of field watches. Uh, I think of something kind of specific, a military spec or style, you know, or a style based on a military spec field watches. So, but, but really the category. At least colloquially is a lot bigger than that. You know, folks will throw the, the Seiko Alpinist into there or, or appropriately, I think folks will throw G Shock or Suunto watches into there. And, and they're, they're worth mentioning in the conversation, but I think based on, based on our, our sort of. pre-rambling that we're both, we're both targeting ours at like the military style field watch. Is that accurate?
Speaker 1 I think so. Yeah, that's because I, we even, even when I came in, I said, you know, I think the F91 fits the field watch definition and in the, in the traditional sense of a field watch, it doesn't because it's a digital watch. But when you think about what a field watch is, it's something that's sturdy. It's lightweight. It fits on a nylon canvas leather strap.
Speaker 0 it's shockproof and it's easy to read and that captures most digital watches like you said g-shock it captures the f91 it captures sport watches which honestly are the modern field watch right i'm well and i think the way we think of a field watch is a little bit anachronistic in that you know you have overseas experience i've got military experience we you don't see folks wearing marathon you know these infantry style field watch nsn number field watches in in a service environment which is not to say it doesn't happen you know every time this conversation comes up on a forum or something people will say oh no they do and they still issue those and there's always going to be anecdotal disproof of general ideas but my experience is that folks in the military are wearing sub 100 g shocks because they're cheap they're affordable they're going to get banged up or soon toes you know um you know a little bit more purpose-driven. ABC watches sometimes, if there's a real need. Ironmans. Totally. Lots of Ironmans. Yeah. Right? Because like we discussed last week, an Ironman will do anything, anything you want it to do. You know, water resistance, lume in the Lumibrite, or not Lumibrite, in the glow. You know, so people aren't wearing CWC or Marathon, GPQ, or whatever. They're just not.
Speaker 1 Or they're wearing garments. You know, now the smart watches are coming into big play. I mean, they're a real popular watch for military folks.
Speaker 0 But within that context, it's okay for us to have the conversation about what a field watch is, but not be married to this idea of a of an MOD number or an NSN number field watch. I think the conversation has evolved beyond that and we're going to evolve it beyond that. With that said, our focus is on the military field watch today or the military style field watch.
Speaker 1 I think a better way to capture it is within the watch world definition of a field watch. Because I think when you say the military field watch, I think that shifts the conversation towards what service members are typically wearing. I think we're sticking with the watch world definition of a field watch.
Speaker 0 Absolutely, yeah. Good sort of clarification there. That's right. All right. All right, man. So do you want to, you know, I think you and I both looked at some like historical, the story of what is the field watch. Do you want to start there?
Speaker 1 Yeah, let's talk about it. So I actually almost bought an A11 on eBay yesterday. I opted not to because it was, it was a little smaller than I think I would have liked to wear. I think it was like a 34, 36 millimeter.
Speaker 0 I think that's the spec.
Speaker 1 16 millimeter band on it. And it was just, it's, I wasn't in a position to buy a watch that I didn't feel like I would ever wear. And I think that's just a little bit smaller than I would, than I would really ever want to wear.
Speaker 0 You know, I'm looking here at the specs I wrote down. I don't know if this is right or not, but I'm looking at the specs I wrote down for an A11. 32 by 39 by 16 is what I have here, which makes that very little. I mean 32 millimeters is smaller. I don't think I've ever tried on a men's watch that was smaller than 34. I can't think of any off the top of my head. That's tiny. That's tiny. I don't think you would be happy with it.
Speaker 1 No, I don't think so. It would be a cool collector's item, but I'm not really in a position to be adding collectors display box items.
Speaker 0 I'd rather use that money for something that I'm going to wear. Yep. Well, so yeah, my, my research into this, into this, like I said, incomplete for sure. But, uh, military watches, I think the idea of a military wristwatch, again, caveat, correct us if we're wrong. We're going to talk about this as if we're confident. I'm not confident.
Speaker 1 I'm confident to the point of, I'm not going to say anything that I didn't read. Right.
Speaker 0 Yeah. Right. This is what I read. This is what our research So 1879, Kaiser Wilhelm I, German Kaiser, purchased 2,000 or so Navy watches for his Navy service members. I say his, for the German military forces. These are interesting. Did you take a look at these? I didn't. So it's one of the very first wristwatches. It's pre-trench watch.
Speaker 1 I mean, this is Were they the pocket watches that had the conversion band that were holding a pocket watch on your wrist?
Speaker 0 Basically, yes. And they have a closed top like a pocket watch would have, but instead of it being opaque, it had been cut out into like a grill. So you could see through it, not very well. It's obviously obstructed view, but still had the effect of protecting the crystal. Super interesting watches. I don't know anything about them. And in fact, There's a kind of a dearth of information. I suspect there was only 2,000 of them made. They were made by Gerard Perregaux. I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. Probably. Anyway, Gerard Perregaux. That's fine. Yeah. Close enough. And, you know, they're cool. They're cool. Very little information about them. I couldn't... The models I saw all seemed to have leather, but I also read anecdotally maybe they came with a chain. Interesting. That you wrapped around your wrist as opposed to actually leather. So your mileage may vary. Interesting watch. The next sort of iteration in military watches, and I know you and I have already talked about this, but World War I, the advent of the trench watch. I don't know very much about trench watches, and it seems like, I don't know if it's time or whatever, but a trench watch is kind of an amorphous term that refers to maybe something sort of specific, but did you take a look at any of those?
Speaker 1 So all of my research started at like the World War II kind of proliferation of field watches.
Speaker 0 And I think that's really where the term field watch starts. But just in terms of background, this World War I trench watch, these were not being ordered by and large by the services. They were being ordered by individual soldiers and officers um who were actually fighting in the trenches so they were picking these things up for their own needs they're being sold by the company marketed as military watches trench watches campaign watches number of different things but these generally from what i've seen these all have arabic numerals in different styles styles that you would expect um and small seconds at six wire lugs onion crown like you'd expect to see on a on a pocket watch And right, this is, I think, famously in our sort of modern culture, the watch that Christopher Walken, this, you know, I lug this uncomfortable piece of metal around. So that's, yeah, I mean, smaller, more diminutive, 34 millimeters, I think, maybe 32 to 34 millimeters. These are small watches, but kind of a neat thing. But that takes us into the modern field watch, what we think of the modern field watch, which came about World War II, I think.
Speaker 1 Yeah, with the A-11 starting to be issued to Allied forces, Bulava, Elgin, Walden, Hamilton. Hamilton, yep, last one. All making this pretty standard issue, similar appearance, easy to read, lightweight, small watch for use by service members in the field. I mean, with the intention of surviving austere environments.
Speaker 0 And right at the same time, there was the british military defense g10 watch that i think similar in a lot of respects but those were the two watches at the time that sort of came about and there were other watches obviously german watches and japanese watches that are less prevalent now i i suspect some of that is because it was in it was kind of bad form to have a nazi watch or uh probably so yeah rising sun kamikaze watch you know uh post Pearl Harbor or something, right? Yeah, probably so. But those watches are pretty cool watches. If you can take out any of the emotion from what they were, also cool watches, but don't really, I think, make it into discussion of field watches as we think of them today.
Speaker 1 No, I don't think so. Because I think field watches have tried to remain true to that very simplistic form of, I mean, this entire line of just black dial white numerals, stainless steel case, canvas, nylon, or leather band.
Speaker 0 And I think that's the biggest difference between the trench watches and these more modern 1941 World War II spec watches, A11, G10, whatever the spec is, is that they formalized it, you know, black dial, Arabic numerals, you know, the size, the specs were formalized. There were certain things left to the discretion of the manufacturer. But certainly, this is a military spec in the way we think of it today, which is we're going to tell you basically what it needs to look like. And within those, you, manufacturer, can give us a product that we're going to like. Because by and large, in a democratic or capitalist economy, the military is not making anything. The military is using contracts. And I think that's what happened here. those four american companies that you mentioned earlier and then the the g10 was made by is it 12 the dirty dozen swiss and german yeah makers making these g10 watches but that you get this consistency that's fun and attractive and cool when we talk about the a11 watch which is not a watch at all no it's it's a it's a description of a number of watches a whole a whole variety of model numbers and makes and manufacturers that
Speaker 1 made a watch that fit certain specifications.
Speaker 0 Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So the A11, hand wound, hacking, 15 joule, center seconds, outer minute track with 10 minute marks, 32 by 39 by 16. Again, caveat, there may be differences to that, but I think that's right. Notched crown, acrylic crystal for obvious reasons. And I think that basically sets us up for you know, what we now think of, minus the size, obviously, but what we now think of as the base parameters for a field watch, you know, when you have these online discussions, some people are very, very specific and militant to use a, an appropriate term, I think, but what makes a field watch that, that always annoys me because right in the field, people are wearing garments and soon toes and G shock. So, you know, Fuck all that. Also, looking back, there have been so many iterations of these things that there's no definition of what a field watch is. But there are some things we can look at to be informative.
Speaker 1 Yeah, there's some things that make a field watch a field watch and some things that if it has, it could still maybe be a field watch, but it could also fit into some other categories. And we'll probably we'll touch on that, I think, a little bit.
Speaker 0 But well, why not? Why not? I mean, for you, what is it that makes a field watch?
Speaker 1 What I'm looking when I think of a field watch, I'm thinking some sort of metal case i'm thinking although these resin cases from marathon or cwc i don't i think are inclusive i would include those in my definition i don't think you're wrong but when i'm imagining a field watch i'm thinking a metal case i'm thinking a high contrast dial and hands arabic numerals and that's it i'm thinking as as simple bare bones needs to watch as possible. There's no, there's no frills. There's no extra complications, you know, maybe a date, maybe a day date complication, but as few complications, as few frills as possible, because this is a purely utilitarian watch.
Speaker 0 Yeah, no, that's, that's right. And I think I'm basically right on board with you is something small, small, not big,
Speaker 1 40 millimeters, like 36 to 40 millimeters.
Speaker 0 And that's my idea too. Something that's not, and I will say, I consider my Bertucci BT2, it's the titanium, their B model, which is, they're more rectangular. It's bigger than 40. And it's not a small watch. You've worn that, I think. It's a big watch. It fits the mold for me, although I would say it's a touch big. So, you know, exceptions. Exceptions to the rules are all over the place.
Speaker 1 It still falls into a field watch category, but when I'm imagining a field watch That's not that's not where my mind goes and it's got it's got you know what I look for in a field watch although The titanium helps it more field watch Mentality for me it cut the titanium case makes up for the fact that it's a little big Yeah, because it meets that need even though it falls out of the parameters in another category And it's obviously constructed in a way to be not blocky or obtrusive on your wrist so
Speaker 0 Um, but yeah, you, you had said metal and I know you caveat of that. We're going to say exceptions to the rule. One of the NSN number current issue, quote unquote issue military watches is the, the marathon, their general purpose courts. They make this in a resin case. They also make the pilot. Um, and I'll pull that up. They also make their pilots navigator in a resin case. Uh, and these are both without a doubt. military field watches. I mean, these are military, actually military spec models, not that they're issue, issuing them in any, in any practical sense. Um, but so, so I think for me, it's not necessarily metal, but sort of a subdued finish. Uh, and I know some field watches, my SNK, I've polished the bezel on it and brushed the case sides. Cause I hate, I don't hate, but bead blasted kind of irritates me sometimes, especially Seiko bead blasting. And I think I wanted that thing to look a little bit more Hamilton khaki. But within, if it's a true field watch, I think it should be a subdued metal and not something high polish. So yeah, right with you.
Speaker 1 Did I not think of anything? Is there anything that stands out for you in a field watch that I didn't touch on?
Speaker 0 No, I think you nailed it. It's such an anachronistic term that I think we can use effectively here. But yeah, no, I think you nailed it. keep your parameters a little wide, especially if you want to have fun with your collecting. If you want to be an anal retentive collector, that's maybe a different thing than what we do.
Speaker 1 Well, yeah, but it's also, I think feel watches is almost a catch all term for a watch that maybe doesn't fit well into any of these other categories.
Speaker 0 Yeah. Well, I guess, I guess maybe I do think you missed something and it's not, it's not a specification, but it's for me, uh, a requirement and what I want for a field watch. It's something I want to be able to wear outside, have some level of water resistance and not feel bad when I bang it up. Yeah. You know, my Bertucci, I bought that thing used and it was in very bad shape when I bought it and it hasn't gotten better over time. So when I am working in the yard or I know I'm going to be hands in the gravel or whatever, that's the watch I put on because I'm not going to make it worse. That titanium patinas and ages really well. So yeah, that would be my other requirement for a true field watch. Something that can be bumped and scratched and wear it well. And banged on. Not bumped, banged up. Yeah, that's right. So A11, World War II era. That evolves into, at least in the United States, the A17 sometime in mid-Vietnam, I think is when the A17 model came out. I don't know for sure if the A-17 was the first model to have that 24-hour ring on the inside, or, you know, the alternate 24-hour time on the inside ring. But based on my research, that's when that became a thing. So sometime in the Vietnam era, because you'll hear some people talk about that, and that is, for a lot of folks, maybe I'm included, a standard criteria for a field watch. Because when you're, we've talked about this on the show before too, When you're in a briefing above or something at, you know, 1900, it's nice to be able to... 7. Right, aka 7 o'clock for normal assholes like us. It's nice to be able to look down and reference that, especially if you're not very, very used to 24-hour time. And some people are. I'm not. You're not. Because we live in Oregon as civilians, by and large, most of the time. But yeah, so A-17 adds a 24-hour track. This is what I think of when I think of a field watch, is that A-17 dial with 12-hour Arabic big on the outside, 24-hour Arabic small on the inside. And that evolves right into these modern CWC or marathon watches. CWC being the, I think, maker of choice for British military.
Speaker 1 I think so. I don't know.
Speaker 0 I think so. And marathon for United States. I do like marathons watches. They're cool. And you know, it's interesting. I don't know that these are for what you pay for them. I don't think that they're terribly well specced. Um, like this, I'm looking at this pilots navigator with Tritium. This is a watch that I think Michael from two broke watch knobs owns and talks about pretty frequently. I don't know if he has exactly this model or not, but you know, it's a military for sure. You know, these maybe even have us government written on the dial or some of them do anyway. Marathon Pilots Navigator with Tritium WW194001SG-NGM which I remembered that I said that from memory. I didn't read it off the computer. No, he didn't. You know, this has got a ETA F06 three jewel quartz movement. You know, I don't know these this isn't a This isn't really a watch that's got a modern specification. It's not cheap. It's a plastic watch for 231 bucks. 232 bucks. I'm not sure you're getting a ton of value here. You are getting that military pedigree.
Speaker 1 You're getting something cool. Yeah, that's right. I don't know if it's 232 bucks of cool though.
Speaker 0 Well, and you know, we sort of eschew that rational thinking at times. Um, and I think we should, we should eschew the rational approach to watch collecting. But if we don't, if you get wrapped up into the, oh, well, it's not a great value for what I'm paying for, you know, I think that that can, I think that can make it harder to be a watch collector who really identifies with the pieces they collect. Some people are able to identify with a purely spec based collection. I know I'm not.
Speaker 1 Yeah. I mean, maybe it's $232 a cool for someone. Yeah.
Speaker 0 Not for me. I don't own one. And I probably won't. I might pick one of these up sometimes.
Speaker 1 If I find one used, I'll probably buy it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 150 mark i'll probably i think i could pay 150 bucks for it you know one of the uh friends friends of the show as they say a fellow named thomas here in town um picked up a uh jsar or a seesaw or one of these search and rescue watches um not too long ago we were talking about it he said yeah i'm gonna get one of these uh it's not a military watch or even really a field watch and you know they're a thousand bucks how how great is the specification for that he got he just didn't like it i think he sold it And I think that's what happens if you if you wind up getting super into specs or buy watches you like I think that's the point I'm trying to make. Yeah, buy watches you like And sometimes you have to buy something to figure out you don't like it But yeah, if you're chasing if you're chasing something and not being thoughtful about Which is not to say Tom wasn't thoughtful when he bought this, but you know if you're buying something based on spec or some ideal and and not thinking about overall what works in your collection then that can be a pain in the ass to have to buy a watch and sell it because you don't really like it and i think his objection to it was it was tall in a way that he hadn't expected and oh yeah it just didn't work for for the way he wears watches i'm pretty sure he sold that and got a palagos which is freaking sick um but yeah i mean that's what can happen so that's part of the game yeah so i know we've got we each picked some some options here for oh yeah so we we
Speaker 1 pulled up some examples of field watches that either we like because we own them or field watches we're interested in. Just for those of you who are listening who are in the market for a field watch or just who are listening to learn about these types of watches. I mean, learning right alongside us, but we pulled up a couple of options that we think might fit. What do you got first? The Vostok Komondorsky.
Speaker 0 Cool choice, man. It's not, you know, throw everything we said out the window because this isn't a, not a military or at least, you know, allied forces mil spec watch, but totally fits, right?
Speaker 1 It absolutely fits. The only thing that it's, that stands out against a field watch for me is that it's got the, it's got a rotating bezel, which is functional. It, there, there is value to a rotating bezel in the field watch application. It is inexpensive. It's, I mean, relatively well built. I have yet to have any complaints about mine. We can't get the bezel off, so that's noteworthy. But it fits it. Mine's 40 millimeters. It doesn't wear big. It's an 18 millimeter.
Speaker 0 No, in fact, you saying it's 40 millimeters right now blows my mind. I can't believe that.
Speaker 1 Yeah. It's comfortable. It's easy to read. The lume sucks. Yeah. Vostok lume sucks. But that's, that's just kind of the nature of the manufacturer. It's, it is a, I think it fits perfectly into a field watch category. I've got it on a, on a Bond NATO. I've got the, the tank dial and it's, it's a cool little, it's a cool example I think of a, of a field watch with a little bit more personality that doesn't, it doesn't quite fit into my, my self created
Speaker 0 self-imposed parameters for a field watch but i don't see that it could be anything else other than a field watch yeah it's certainly not a dress watch it's not no i i mean but on that note the you said one thing works against it being a field watch the other thing that works against it being a field watch polished oh my god they do the way the russians do and they just like took a a polishing wheel and hit every single surface of this thing until it bleeds it oozes reflection um you know Before we started, Andrew mentioned this, but before we started today, we both tried and failed to get this bezel off because we wanted to see if my AM diver bezel would fit onto it.
Speaker 1 Because I hate the bezel that's on this thing.
Speaker 0 It's so stupid. As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking, what if you bead blasted this thing? Would you be into it? Yeah.
Speaker 1 We should do it. I mean, you can pick these up for between $25 and $65. Just depending on where you're picking it up. If you want to buy it off Amazon, you're going to pay about $65. You go to eBay or some other vendor, you're going to pay $25-ish. There are hundreds of dial options.
Speaker 0 Maybe not hundreds, but certainly quite a few. I don't know, man.
Speaker 1 I think there's got to be a hundred, at least. I've watched a good handful of modding videos on these. for the most part, really easy to change. All the Vostok parts fit each other. Right.
Speaker 0 I mean, it's the genius of that Vostok model is how they've been using the same shit for 40 years, 50 years. And it all sort of works together. Right. Obviously, they've modernized.
Speaker 1 And it's an inexpensive field watch. I just I don't think that it could fit in. I mean, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. Tell me if I'm wrong. I think this is a field watch. I think it's a good example of a field watch.
Speaker 0 Yeah, no, I think you're right. I think you're right. Um, you know, with those, with those few sort of exceptions, I mean, it fits, it fits the mold perfectly. I'm kind of stoked about this bead blasting project. I'm not sure you're actually going to offer it up when the time comes. I watched a YouTube video on bead blasting recently, and they just basically got a compressor and made like a bottle fitting that fed sand into the I'm like, I'm like ready to go.
Speaker 1 I'm into it. Well, we'll just we'll do a we'll do a mod on this.
Speaker 0 I mean, you're gonna have to pull the crystal or mask off the crystal. You're gonna have to pull the movement.
Speaker 1 I'm ready for it. It costs not a lot. Not a lot. Yeah. And if we fuck it up, it's it's not heartbreaking to replace it. Right. I mean, we're I'm gonna mod it anyway.
Speaker 0 Does this have Vostok sort of patented ring? style case back i say patented but they're you know the the same water resistance system from the amphibia i don't think so what kind of water resistance do you have with this guy i don't know right off the top of my head it's not much it probably says right there at the bottom in cyrillic and yeah not english no cool watch man i and i i love that watch you even as much as i hate it you know i've we've had this conversation a bunch of times but you know When I see it, I'm like, this is cool. And then you take a picture of it, and I'm like, that sucks. I don't know. It's a really enigmatic design, as are all of Vostok's offerings. They're enigmatic to a point.
Speaker 1 Yeah, they're quirky.
Speaker 0 They're Soviet. They're Soviet. And you know, the Soviet model was so different than anything else in the 20th century. you know they're reinventing the wheel in a lot of places sometimes effectively and sometimes less so but yeah no it's very that's right it's soviet yeah and a good example of a field watch great what you got great i think the first one i'm gonna talk about today is the manchester watchworks rattler this is a newish watch so this was a kickstarter i think middle of this year that is still in pre-order i believe It's a $329 for sure field watch. It's titanium. It's classically sized 37 millimeter, but with a 47 millimeter lug to lug. So I think it's going to wear a little bigger than that 37 millimeter, um, dimensions going to indicate, uh, 20 millimeter lugs, which we love. I need to get more 20 millimeter watches. Every time I get a 20 millimeter strap, I'm like, what the heck do I wear this on now that I've got it? Um, Manchester Watchworks is a cool company. They are a company that, like, or Ryan Watches, in some respects, where the fellow who started it got into the industry by modding his own watches. And now they make these, they make this line of watches or several lines of watches that are interpretations, reinterpretations of either classic watches, or, you know, watches that are just hard to get. I put them in the same category as I would put Dan Henry watches, you know, where they're making modern reinterpretations of hard to get watches. This watch is a, is an homage. And if you look at the two watches side by side, you'll see it immediately of one of the Seiko S U S watches. The S U S was a line. It's not a military line of watches, but rather it was Seiko's aim or Seiko's efforts to target a young audience post quartz crisis in the in the early 90s they introduced this line of watches that were specifically targeted at 19 to 22 year olds um and and it's hard to tell you know it's hard to put yourself back in time and see look at these sus watches and see how did that fit in that mold but obviously seiko has got a fantastic history of of providing people the watches they want but the the sus version this is based on i think is referred to as the 4s 15 And it is an incredibly accurate, um, re-imagining of that. If you put the two side by side, you'll see it immediately. They've got that same whitish, but sterile bezel. Um, that, that original 4S15 is 35 millimeters. So this is a little bit more modern, a little bit modernized sizing, which I think is great. If this is a 35 millimeter watch, it'd be too small. I think, um, a hundred meters, a hundred meters of water resistance, NH35 movement, which is good. It's got a, you know, it's called the Rattler, and the logo is a sort of coiled snake in an S shape, which perfectly... Oh, cool. Yeah, yeah. It's a perfect reinterpretation of the Seiko S that was at the 6 o'clock region on these SUS4S15s. It's a really cool watch, and it is for sure a field watch. You look at this thing, you just tell it's a field watch. They come in black and silver, which is true to the original. Right. Great movement, NH35, nothing to say. about that that hasn't been said over and over again. Um, a little bit expensive, not expensive, but, but you know, it's $329. So you've got a little bit on the higher end of the affordable, you know, you've got to give it the, the value hand scale. Um, yeah, I, I dig it. I think it's a really cool watch. Oh, I, I was going to pull this thing up and I haven't done it so you could see it. I assume you want to see it. I do. Yeah.
Speaker 1 Oh, I've seen that. Yeah. I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 0 You know, these are just really simple, really easy to like watches. I love the fact that it's titanium. Titanium works so nice. The weight of it is good. The way it patinas is good. This is a blasted case. I think titanium and blasting work really well together.
Speaker 1 The one thing I don't like about it though is that I feel like the case is a little bit thick relative to the dial size.
Speaker 0 That's true. I mean, it's got a pretty hefty bezel. For me, that's part of the appeal. That's part of the reason I like this so much. Uh, I love that, that wider bezel reminds me of, uh, the Monta triumph for, you know, some of these, this is not a gentle watch for sure. But when I see that wide bezel, I think of my head gent to design. Uh, I like it. I really is attractive to me, but that's why we have 8 billion different watches because we're all different.
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 Yeah. So I think that's it. I mean, I don't know that there's a lot more we need to say about it. All right. Cool watch. Yeah.
Speaker 1 Next on the line, Loris, the RXD425L8.
Speaker 0 Is there a nickname for this watch or it's just, I gotta say the whole damn thing.
Speaker 1 I don't know. Um, it's a watch that I just came across when I was looking at these. Um, cause I was looking for titanium cased watches and this is one that I came across and it's a, it's a cool color scheme. It's just like a slightly off white with like a, with turquoise accents in there. Uh, and then the titanium case, and it's got four strange recesses in the, in the case, like where the bezel would be that I'm not a huge fan of, but it's definitely a cool field watch. And it's, is it a loom dial? It looks like it. I don't know a whole lot about this watch. I found a titanium case. It's a, it looks like a full loom dial, but everywhere I've been able to find it doesn't have a lot of information about it.
Speaker 0 Yeah, this says it's a cream dial, which makes me think it's not loomed. That's a feature they'd sell. It's a cool watch.
Speaker 1 And it's ringing in at $61, $67 here at Watch Shop.
Speaker 0 As always, we'll include this in the show notes, so feel free to pull up a link.
Speaker 1 I have had trouble finding marketplaces that do ship to the United States, though. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 0 Will this one ship to the US?
Speaker 1 This one says EU only. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 0 Um, but it's, I mean, if, if you're looking for field watches and you're outside of the United States and you're in the EU, um, which some huge percentage of the folks who are listening are, I know, um, you know, we, we've got some of these shout out to our Scottish watch listeners. We've got a bunch of folks in Scotland, a bunch of folks in the UK, uh, who listen and, um, it's a great option for those guys. I'm not sure that we can get it.
Speaker 1 If we can, it's, it's certainly on my list of, it's on my watch list. See what I did there?
Speaker 0 I do see what you did.
Speaker 1 That was good. But anyway, it's a titanium field watch. I mean, it's, there's nothing special or really all that different about it. But what I liked about it was that it's a titanium cased watch for a really reasonable price.
Speaker 0 Yeah. You know, Loris and Pulsar both are branches of Seiko or brands of Seiko. And I think that they do this thing really well. This. Very affordable, but well put together. Attractive. Not, not bombastic. Uh, just really easy to digest. Uh, styling.
Speaker 1 This is a great, uh, titanium for, for under a hundred bucks. Cause you're going to pay that much for a Timex Weekender. And it honestly doesn't look a whole lot different than a Timex Weekender or an Expedition, but you're getting a titanium case out of it.
Speaker 0 Will I take this over an Expedition any freaking day of the week? Every day of the week. Yeah. Yeah. for a similar price. Yeah. Yeah. And, and a hundred meters of water resistance. I, I don't think you can say enough about that. That's, uh, for me a feature I really like. And one of the watches I've looked at over time, um, is the, this, the Hamilton khaki King. I love that watch. I love that we've talked about, I can't remember what episode, but I love their, the big day window at 12 o'clock. Uh, you know, I guess that's a field watch not not a not a real traditional field watch, but it fits in the mold Uh, but that thing's 50 meters of water resistance, which just irks me.
Speaker 1 I want It's cause for concern.
Speaker 0 Yeah, if you're what I mean really a field watch should be Capable of doing the things you're going to do on the field and and I know you and I have both had experiences where we got wet When we didn't otherwise expect to get wet really wet, uh, you know wet enough that if I was wearing a 50 meter watch I'd be concerned about it um you know we have 50 meter watches on our lists today but looking at this watch seeing that 100 meters of water resistance i think that makes it really attractive if you're really using this in a field environment that's a that's a watch and at that price point that with titanium case that's a watch that i'm comfortable wearing in any environment that i'm going to be in yeah right yeah i'm into it good looking watch too those weird dots on the bezel we talked about that this week they kind of bug me i'm not sure what what the idea is there. I think it's decorative, but you might be right. It might be some sort of ability to take the bezel off. Why you would want to take the bezel off of this, I'm not sure.
Speaker 1 For funsies.
Speaker 0 For funsies, right. It's a cool watch. I like the crown guard too. Yeah, crown guards. I don't, crown guards are controversial. I'm not sure why. I always like them when I see them, especially they're well done here.
Speaker 1 On a field watch, it makes sense.
Speaker 0 Yeah, totally. You're going to bang it against stuff. Might as well protect that ground.
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 You got anything else? I do. So my next watch, is a watch that I think embodies, for most people that are watch collectors or watch snobs, I think this watch really embodies what a field watch is. It's the Hamilton Khaki Mechanical. This is their newer, I want to say 2017, mechanical hand crank or hack watch is what I'd call this. Oh, did you read about the evolution of the term hack? So hack is a term that I've always been confused by, like what does that mean? What is hacking? And maybe this isn't the evolution of it or the start of it, but I was reading about this anecdote from commander giving his soldiers, U.S. commander giving his soldiers instructions. And what they would do is they would pull that crown out at 12. So everybody would pull the crown out when the second hand got to 12. They would then adjust their time to 2100 or whatever the the time was at the time and at the command of hack they plug them back in so then they're all synchronized they're all at 2100 and 00 seconds and the and the order was hack and so they plug them in now that could be a misinterpreted evolution of that but it's such a it's such a cool thing it's something we would never do today because everyone's got a damn g-shock on Um, or, or whatever, right?
Speaker 1 Sounds more legendary than true.
Speaker 0 It might be, I don't know. Maybe someone knows you can let us know. But that was my understanding is that is the command that was given to all be synchronized was hack. Uh, and it makes sense. It makes sense. At least that that would be possible in, in the way that watches were wristwatches in particular were really came to be, wasn't a military setting. It would make sense that you'd have this term that referred to a military practice.
Speaker 1 Oh, absolutely. Because that was, I mean, that's really where wristwatches gained traction and momentum was in military application.
Speaker 0 At least for gentlemen, right? Yeah. Prior to that, women wore wristwatches, wristwatches, but it was more masculine to have your watch in your pocket, I guess. So yeah, yeah. The trench watch, right? That's the first sort of modern general appeal wristwatch. And whether you were in the military or not, I can see Well, this is what the guys are wearing in the trenches. So I'm going to wear that too. You know, if you're a young kid or whatever, you could see the appeal of that. Absolutely. Or even if you're an adult who you, you bring the habit home. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. So not, yeah. Great war, right. Everybody fought in the great war. Uh, you know, everyone fought in World War II. I mean, that's right.
Speaker 1 I'm talking about a watch. Yeah. We're talking about the Hamilton Kaki King.
Speaker 0 Yeah. Or Hamilton Kaki Mechanical. So this is a Vietnam era field watch. So this is that, 24 hour inner dial. I think the specification is GGW113. I think that refers to the NSN specification. Again, this is going to be a Vietnam era. Modern sizing on this. This is 38 by 47 by 20 millimeters on the lugs, you know, versus 34 millimeters of that original GGW113 spec. They have this thing with an ETA 2801-2. I don't know a ton about that movement. It is a 28,000 or 28,800 beats per hour movement, which is great. People love that little bit smoother sweep of the high beat 28,800 movements. Blasted case, great size, classic dial. Not a whole lot of reason not to like this thing. It's just such a cool, simple interpretation of this watch that everybody has, uh, or that everybody has done. I really dig it. You know, I think the one thing I probably don't love about this watch is the strap that comes on. Um, it's got the leather nylon combo.
Speaker 1 That is an interesting choice to have leather keepers on a nylon strap like that.
Speaker 0 I think it's actually got even a little bit more leather. I think the end of the, of the strap is, is leather bound as well. I would definitely pull it off this strap, but no reason not to, right? Because this watch is going to go well on any of the NATOs we talked about last week. You know, I would put this on an A2 from Haviston in a second. Oh, yeah. I'd put it on there 1936 and it would look killer on it.
Speaker 1 It would. It was made for that.
Speaker 0 That's right. Yeah, I think maybe actually literally made not for this watch, but this style of watch. Yeah. Yeah. You got one more?
Speaker 1 One more. What is it? A ladies watch this week.
Speaker 0 Whoa! Hey ladies!
Speaker 1 Something I thought worth talking about is the ladies Bertucci reference M-1S and it is a stainless steel ladies field watch reminiscent of the Bertucci that we've already talked about this week. It is a 30 millimeter case and ringing in on Amazon at $89.99 in the brown dial with a with a brown strap on it. And I showed this to my wife in preparation for the show. As I was talking about, I was like, Hey, what do you think about this watch? And she saw it and she was, she was, she was struck by it. She liked it. Um, and it's a, it's another good looking field watch. And I think in, in the realm of, of women's watches, there is typically a lot of unnecessary bling that goes along with women's watches or unruly size. And I think this is a really good option for a field watch. If you're looking, if, if, if you are a woman or you have a woman in your life who likes wearing watches, um, this is definitely worth looking at. It's a good looking watch. It's simple. It's clean. And field watches look good.
Speaker 0 Almost always, almost always. Yeah. That's, that's actually something we've talked about before, I think, but the field watch has the ability to, to dual purpose better than, than some watches. You know, it's, it's great on a weekend. It's great out in the, out in the field, obviously. But if you wear it with a suit or a dress shirt, it's not going to look terribly out of place, obviously, depending on the model of watch or the specific style.
Speaker 1 But by and large, these things, I think they're one of the most, if not the most versatile, overarching style of watch that you can buy. If you have to buy only a watch, I think a field watch is probably your best bet.
Speaker 0 Yeah, you could do a lot worse. You could do it lower. So I think there's some overlap with what I think of as a modern sports watch, whether that's the Rolex Explorer, you know, if you're pulling in six figures or, or, um, you know, uh, Seiko Saab 035, if you're a humble watch collector, such as ourselves. Uh, but there's, there's an argument to be made that those are our field watches, you know, maybe not the Saab 035, but the Saab 017, the Alpinist. or the Rolex Explorer, you know, those were watches. Those are purpose-designed Alpinist or mountaineering watches, you know.
Speaker 1 I'm much less emotionally prepared to bang up a $500 watch than I am a $100 watch.
Speaker 0 Sure, sure. No, this is a cool watch. I obviously own a Bertucci. We've talked about it a bunch on the show. I don't own this watch. It's 30 millimeters, so it's diminutive. It's going to be small for most men's wrists, uh, unless you're going for something really specific. But outside of the size, I don't think that there's anything terribly feminine about this watch. The hands are kind of, I don't know, flower petal shape. What would you call that?
Speaker 1 Yeah. Almost kind of, kind of pedally shaped. Yeah. But not, not feminine really. They're just, they're softer.
Speaker 0 Yeah. I like it. I think if you had really small wrists, um, which I know some of our listeners do. Um, this, this is something you could get away with. And certainly like you said, for that, the woman you love in your life that you want to buy a watch, but who maybe isn't going to appreciate a, an automatic or a mechanical watch who doesn't want to have to deal with that. This is a really great option.
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 And that case is cool too. The, the Bertucci cases are cool. The lugs on this are pretty long.
Speaker 1 They're really long. And I think I, I don't think they're as long as they look in the photo. I think that 30 millimeter case makes the lug look a lot longer than it is. I think they're probably standard length lugs.
Speaker 0 Do we have a dimension on these? Yeah, I don't see, it's a 16 millimeter bandwidth. I don't see a lug to lug on this. Based on the 30 millimeter side to side dimension.
Speaker 1 35 lug to lug, maybe 40 lug to lug.
Speaker 0 Oh, I was thinking 45, but yeah, maybe, maybe between 40 and 45. So cool watch. Yeah. And I like the, I like the gilt hands and that simple printed dial. Neat, neat font, font that you don't see very often.
Speaker 1 And actually I just noticed it, the four o'clock date window. Love it. Yeah. People freak out about that four o'clock date windows. It's really well hidden in there. Unless you know it's, I mean, I've looked at this watch half a dozen times this week and that's the first time I'm noticing a four o'clock date window.
Speaker 0 I really like Bertucci's second hands. They're They've got, I don't know, a shield shape where a lollipop might be on the short side of the second hand, the balance side. It's a little detail that they do that I think is pretty neat. It's unique to Bertucci as far as I know. I like it.
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 Bertucci loom blows. Does it? I think that they fixed it. My B2T, I think is the reference on that. is one of the very early models with their shield logo on it they don't make it anymore but the loom blows i think subsequently they've started using better loom uh and and i don't know looking at this if this has better loom it doesn't say uh but my experience with vertucci loom has been less than less than positive but whatever you you get something you win something you lose some yeah what about other things you got any other things you like i do we talked about it when i came in because i brought in a big
Speaker 1 Yeti tumbler today. Oh yeah. I think it's a 32 ounce that I have, but I've had a 20 ounce Yeti tumbler for several years now. 20 ounce rings in at 30 bucks. And it is the most fantastic coffee mug that I have ever owned. It, and this, this doesn't sound like a complaint, but my one complaint about it is if you pour fresh coffee out of the pot, right into that mug, you can't drink it for half an hour. it's still too hot and they they are just terrific and and initially when they released them they didn't have a a fully sealable lid but now they've got the sliding closed sliding closeable lid so it can be tipped over and not spill but if you're looking for a coffee mug if you do if you drink if you just drink coffee it is such a good coffee mug they keep your coffee so hot they keep cold drinks and ice. I mean, it's a Yeti product, so they're, they're designed to keep ice for basically eternity. I absolutely love mine. I can't recommend them enough to somebody who's looking for a quality stainless steel coffee mug to keep their coffee hot when they're driving, going to work, keep their beer cold at night. And it, and that's the nice part about it too, is it can transition from keeping your coffee hot, keeping your soda cold to then keeping your beer cold. It's a full day of drinking in one mug. And I absolutely love it. And there's other companies like Arctic and, and a handful of other companies that make probably pretty comparable mugs. I've never tried them personally. What I can say is that the Yeti tumblers that I have in now the 32 ounce and the 20 ounce are just, they're perfect.
Speaker 0 I love it. And this is a thing that became ubiquitous a number of years ago, um, with everybody, people who were drinking ice drinks or, or hot drinks or whatever. I haven't personally, I haven't personally owned one. Um, but, but like you said, right, I think that they were so good that everybody and their mother decided to make their own version. I've got a, uh, tumbler, what I'd call a tumbler. It's a little bit smaller than yours from sort of pre Yeti tumbler days, or at least my awareness of Yeti tumbler days. It's a clean canteen clean, the clean canteen, their vacuum sealed coffee mug. It's got a pretty simple plastic lid. It's not at all water. proof, nothing like that. Um, if you, if you tip it over, it's going to leak, but does the same thing in terms you were talking about. If you put a hot, hot coffee in it, you can't drink it for a period of time. Mine's the same way. If I want to drink a cup of coffee before work, I have to put it in my coffee cup, do some stuff and then pour it into my mug so that it's cool enough to drink on my way to work. Uh, really cool. What, what is the price on those things? Uh, the 20 ounces, 30 bucks. That's not terrible.
Speaker 1 No, If we're talking Christmas gifts, it's still the season. Sure. Buy it for the coffee drinker in your life. Buy it for you. Drink beer out of it. Drink anything out of it.
Speaker 0 I like it. You know what I like about that versus the Contigo coffee mugs that everybody really likes? Those things have their, the drinking mechanism on those.
Speaker 1 It's not good. You either get not enough or you get that air bubble just right that it launches coffee into your mouth and you burn not just your mouth, which I do anyway, but it burns your throat. I had burned my esophagus. And then your stomach lining.
Speaker 0 Yeah. Well, and there's a lot of moving parts too. It just seems like a liability in terms of cleaning. You know, if you can't, if I can't see inside of the drinking mechanism and see where microbes or mold is likely to build up, then I don't have quite as much certainty. I like the fact that you can open that thing up and see everything that's going to touch what you're drinking versus that Contigo I don't know what it is. I have one of those also. You know, you certainly don't want to drink anything with milk or something that's going to tend to go bad. Definitely no bulletproof coffee in that. Even if it's just, what's bulletproof coffee?
Speaker 1 Coffee with butter. You've never heard of this? It's like butter and coconut oil. And then there's another oil that people like to put into it. But I tried it for a long time. And the whole premise is that you're getting a big blast of fat in the morning that helps your brain wake up. And it's like this grass fed English butter that people like to use and then coconut oil and a couple other things that gets healthy fats into your body first thing in the morning. How have I missed this trend? I don't know. All right. It's years old, but the one thing I didn't like about it was that you had to put your coffee in a blender with those other, and maybe I'm wrong. This is what I found to be the best method. I had to put it in the blender to get everything well emulsified and mixed in to the coffee and then re-microwave it because it's tripping and the blender cooled it down so much that I was drinking lukewarm coffee, but then also your last sip of coffee, pure garbage. It's just butter slick.
Speaker 0 Interesting. Well, that's, that's different. You know, one of the things I like about morning stuff is ease of use. You know, I know people that do smoothies in the morning. I have a really hard time getting into that because it's so much that goes into making a smoothie. It doesn't have to be difficult, but it winds up being just difficult enough that I don't stick with it. So certainly putting coffee in a blender to add butter. is not something that's going to work with my morning routine. So not mine either. So I don't do it. Well, so I only have one thing, uh, other thing I like to talk about this week. Uh, this, this actually wasn't in the original plan, but, uh, I added it. I mentioned, I went to the ballet last night with Kim and the kids and they, the ballet was Babes in Toyland, but they, the music they used was Duke Ellington's The Nutcracker. I was stunned by how much I enjoyed the music, you know, Duke Ellington, obviously, is is one of the the most famous names in jazz music. And he composed a full album based on Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. And it is wonderful. It's terrific. Terrific. So we were listening to it before we started recording because I was like, you got to hear this. You know, in my house, and I assume there's a similar story in your house, we start playing Christmas music because my wife is a Christmas music addict. So, you know, come November 1st, 20th or so, my wife will start playing Christmas music in the house, which I'm fine with. It doesn't bother me. Uh, I'd probably personally start a little later if I had.
Speaker 1 December 22nd.
Speaker 0 But you know, it's, it's a lot of Mariah Carey. Yep. A lot of Michael Buble. Yep. Both of whom I really love. Mariah Carey, man, I'm into it. That's sort of my jam. I don't know if you're picking this up, but Andrew's stomach is making a ton of noise right now. The wildest noises. So this is Christmas music. Tchaikovsky, Nutcracker. There is no doubt about it. This is Christmas music, but it is Duke Ellington jazz, no vocals, or maybe there's some really limited vocals, but it's Duke Ellington jazz album that you could listen to any time of year. Tchaikovsky, brilliant composer. with a Duke Ellington spin, his great sort of full jazz chorus, really cool. And such a different option from the standard fare. You could put this album on and just play it and enjoy it and not have to be encumbered by the trappings of... But it still feels like Christmas music. It is Christmas music, but not in that sort of saccharine Nasty. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Uh, really neat, fun, fun option. If you're getting tired of listening to all I want for Christmas is you for the 4 billionth time. Super cool.
Speaker 1 Yeah.
Speaker 0 Do it. What else have we got? I think that's it for us. All right. Well, I wish you well, you know, we don't usually see each other during the week or if we do it's for a, uh, a small period of time. So these weekends are our main time together. So. Andrew, I wish you a good week. I hope your sickness gets better. Me too. And to you as well. Thanks. And all of you, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Please have a good week as you go about your Christmas shopping or pre-Christmas or holiday activity. Godspeed. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.01.
Speaker 1 Bye!