Watch Clicker Mini Review - Nodus Sector Dive

Published on Mon, 18 May 2020 00:55:00 -0700

Synopsis

Two watch enthusiasts, Will and Jason, engage in a conversational mini-review of the Nodus Sector dive watch. They discuss the watch's design, features, and overall impressions, covering aspects like the case, dial, bezel, and bracelet. Will has the watch in for review, while Jason owns the watch personally. They compare it to other Nodus models like the Duality and speculate on the brand's strategy of offering an affordable entry-level option. Overall, they both appreciate the Sector's well-executed design, comfort, and versatility.

They plan to do more of these mini-review discussions, with Will potentially reviewing an Oris watch for Jason in the future. The informal format allows them to share insights and banter in a casual, conversational manner.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello there. Welcome to our very first ever mini review with 40 and 20 and the Watch Clicker. I'm sitting here with my good friend, Will, the Watch Clicker.
Will How's it going, everybody? How you doing, Will? I'm doing pretty good. How are you?
Jason Heaton Doing really well, man. So what are we doing here?
Will Well, first of all, it's good to be back. So a couple of weeks ago when I was on the show, after we wrapped up, we were talking about Uh, you know, some fun stuff that we could probably do with, you know, a podcast, you know, us or anybody else. And one thing we talked about was doing a mini review or an audio review of sorts and kind of using that as an adjunct or an add on to something that might be written or a video review. So seeing as you own the sector, the notice sector, and I have it in for review right now, we thought this would be a kind of a killer place to start. Cause we can both look at the watch as we're talking about it and, uh, you know, share some thoughts.
Jason Heaton Yeah, absolutely. So I assume that this is going to be coming out on Monday, Monday, following our, uh, thick watch episode, 1420s thick watch episode. So I think to the extent that we might do these in the future, um, be kind of a midweek release for us, uh, for us. midweek in our publishing cycle. And yeah, you brought this idea up and I thought, man, that sounds like just a ton of fun. A ton of fun. A way to sort of do something a little different, both for the people listening and your people as well, who don't get to hear your voice all that often.
Will Yeah, that's true. Pretty much anybody who reads the website is not going to hear my voice unless they tuned in a couple weeks ago.
Jason Heaton So yeah, I've got my, I, I, I've got my notice sector in hand. Uh, and you know, we get a lot of watches through here. Well, as I know you do as well, this is one of the watches that I was inspired for, for a number of reasons, but really one of the watches that I was inspired to put my money where my mouth is, as it were, um, a cool enough watch that I, I sprung, which we don't do all that often. I mean, I can't buy all the watches I want to buy.
Will Yeah, I think that's something that I mentioned when I was on the episode was that there's a lot of watches that come in that I, you know, I'm like, Oh man, I want to buy that. But first of all, my wallet doesn't allow that. But yeah, I know what you mean. There are some watches that come through where you have it for a little while and sometimes you get over that honeymoon phase while you have it in for review and you're like, okay, I'm fine sending it along. to the next person. Uh, but yeah, sometimes you don't want to let it go. And the only way to do that is to pick one up.
Jason Heaton You know, I liked this enough that when we had it, I was all, I mean, I was really sort of weighing the thought in my head of reaching out to Colin and saying, Hey, I just want to buy this from you. The, the review model that you sent me, I just want to buy it from you. But I don't know. I thought maybe that would be awkward for them, but, um, Yeah, so you've had this thing now for a number of weeks. What are your initial thoughts on this guy?
Will So when this watch first came out, I actually saw it before it released at Windup. I met up with Wes and Nicole in there in New York, and I got to see it was the one that you have, the black dial dive. And I forget which field model it was. I want to say it was the Vapor, or it might have even been a dial color that didn't release. I don't remember. But when I got my hands on it, it was right before the duality came out, I believe. And after handling duality and then handling this, and it was real quick, I was like, not quite, not quite measuring up the duality, but having some time away from it. And then when it came back in for review, my initial thoughts, I think changed quite a bit. Cause I, I had a good amount of time with the duality where, you know, I fully kind of got the feeling of that watch and what it was meant to be. This watch is something very different. Um, I don't know that notice actually markets it this way, but I think it falls more into their slightly more affordable category, I guess you could say.
Jason Heaton Sure.
Will And I think it's accurate. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it's meant to suit a number of tastes because first of all, you have the dive and the sec, uh, the field. So for those who aren't familiar, uh, it's the same case. And same proportions pretty much all around. The main difference is how the bezel is incorporated and the dial layout. So the dive is going to have, it's got a three, six, nine numeral dial and everything's printed. And then just regular, you know, markings all the way around otherwise. And the field has one through 12 Arabic numerals all the way around. each one comes in its own configuration in terms of dial colors. So there's I think three or four colors in each one. And if I didn't mention it, the dive obviously has a dive bezel on the field has a fixed stainless steel bezel. Sure. So notice is doing something nice there where they're kind of catering to a lot of different tastes. You know, if you like, you know, numerals on your dial, all the way around, you can get that. If you want a dive bezel, you can get that. And there's a lot of colors. It's a very colorful lineup, I guess you could say. You know, we're noticed of this quite a bit, you know, but some other brands where they release different dial colors, you know, you might get black and blue and maybe that's it. You know, this has some outliers, you know, like a radiant green and a deep blue that they call tidal blue. I think that is very reminiscent of the color of the ocean. Yeah, totally gorgeous. So they've, yeah, they've got some, uh, some nice colors. And the one that I have, um, I forget the name of the color itself, but it's, it's a sand colored dial. Uh, I want to say it's Laguna. I forget if that's the contrail, but it's very similar to the Laguna sand contrail, uh, that had the texture. This does not have that texture.
Jason Heaton Yeah. No texture, but similar, similar color.
Will Yep. And. Well, I do like the dial color on this. Uh, I'm curious to what it would have been like with that Sandy dial. And I know it probably would have been difficult to accommodate because of how this dial is laid out, where you have the step down from the middle, you know, to the outer ring of the dial that I don't know if the texture would have worked, but it's almost one of those things where I'd like to see it. Cause the, the green shield has, I don't know if it's actually has a texture to it or if it's just the way that it's printed, but it does have a little bit of a texture look.
Jason Heaton Right. Right. Not not quite sand like that, like that, like that Laguna, but but something there's some some teeth there. Yep. Yep. So, you know, I think it's an interesting thought. You had said that this might be maybe an entry level. We've talked to Wes and Cullen both about that. Not quite in those terms. But it seems to me that with the sector series, right? So not just the dive in the field, but also eventually the pilot and the dress watch as well. It seems to me like they're looking to have sort of a baseline, um, a baseline, uh, platform for, you know, I, I think it wouldn't be unfair to call it a loss leader perhaps, but something like that, you know, this sort of, uh, I know it, I love it. it feels good, but a way for people to continue to click on the link and get to them and see what they have, you know, because, right, you would sort of compare this implicitly to the duality and thought, well, it's maybe not quite up to that level, right? I think that they want an opportunity to continue to shop with the affordable, the true affordable folks, you know, folks that listen to our podcast, are right there, you know, 400, you know, that's where we, that's where we live. Uh, so the opportunity to be able to get in the door and munch on and munch on something for that price is a great opportunity, I think for them. And as long as they stay there with these, they're going to have those customers who then someday say, gosh, you know, I love my sector dive. Maybe now I try a duality.
Will Yeah. That brings up a good point too. Uh, two things. If you look at like, you know, the larger brand Seiko or, you know, Tiso, any of those guys, right? They have their models that are on the more affordable end. And then they have stuff that is, you know, stepping way high up, you know, Seiko has Grand Seiko and even high-end, you know, their high-end Seiko dive watches. But they have things that you can get, you know, like the new 5KX or 5Sports, whatever they're calling it, you know, that can get you into the brand for not a lot of money. And there's a lot of other brands that do the same thing. And I think that's where bringing my second point that notice is trying to go to where they want, they want to be a brand that is, um, you know, known just outside of the micro brand world. You know, it's not just the Instagram folks who know about them. It's anybody who's into watches is going to know who notice is. I think that's what they want. And if you're going to have, that sort of credibility in the marketplace, you're going to need to have that entry-level price point for folks to get into.
Jason Heaton Well, why don't we talk about the watch itself a little bit? Because it's a pretty dynamic watch, I think for a number of reasons, but just in terms of size to begin with, right? 40 millimeters on the diameter, 20 millimeters on the lug width, Is that a 48? Am I remembering a 48mm lug-to-lug?
Will Yeah, so I've got the specs up in front of me. So it's a 38mm case width, 39 with the bezel. It's just under 13 thick and it's 47 lug-to-lug. So those are pretty good, you know, overall dimensions to fit a good amount of wrists. Even if you have a larger wrist and you don't wear a 38, 39, that 47 lug-to-lug will still make it you know, feel comfortable on your wrist, that it's not going to feel small. And if you have a small wrist, it's not oversized either. Right. And the one thing that I think really turned me on to the sector after I got to actually play with it for a couple of days, when I got the review piece in was not that notice has, in my opinion, has ever made a bad case, but this is one of their best cases in terms of how it's designed, how the lug slope, how it fits on your wrist, how the bracelet tapers off of it. I'm going to talk about something with the bracelet a little bit later, but I think that they just did a fantastic job of making this a very uniquely designed case in terms of how it looks when it's sitting on your wrist and comfort. It's really well done. And it, you know, that's, that's something that's I think kind of difficult to do. And I think notice has, has done that very well. You know, they're not going to fit everybody's risk, but their watches have always had some unique aspect to the case. And I think they've, I think they've done just a really great job with this watch in terms of the case.
Jason Heaton You know, and nothing feels like an afterthought either. When we first got our review model of this thing in, uh, one of the things I noticed was sort of the, um, I, I, Discordant is the word that pops into mind, but it's not the right word. But when you look at the lug transition, the transition from the case to the end link into the actual bracelet itself, it's not a smooth transition, right? But what it is, is really well thought out, or at least that's how it occurs to me. That transition is, is special and copacetic without being, you know, it's almost like the smooth transition is, uh, is easy, right? They've done a not smooth transition here and it's executed really well. I think it's hard to pick up how well executed this is on pictures.
Will Yeah, I'd agree. And I think it's because they have on the inside of the lugs, that kind of inner bevel that they put on. And the bevels on the case just overall are really well done. They're very pronounced and you can't miss them. The one thing that I would say, and I disagree with you just a little bit in terms of how the lugs go into the bracelet, I think I would have liked it to be just a little bit smoother. And the reason I say that is because the Duality's case to bracelet transition was, I mean, butter. It was so good and so smooth not that this was jarring, you know, or anything, but it was, it was a little bit different. And I think I would have liked it to just be a little bit smoother. It doesn't bother me, but I think that's something that maybe could have just been designed a little bit differently. But with that said, uh, the way that the bracelet falls off the case onto your wrist, you forget all about that. And it's just super comfortable as soon as you put it on, because you have that female end link. So you don't have it protruding past the lugs at all. And it, the bracelet just articulates so nicely as it goes around your wrist that it, it's just a pleasure to wear. It's really nice.
Jason Heaton And the bracelet, the bracelet's fantastic too. That H-Link bracelet, the clasp is really, is really well executed, uh, in terms of comfort, which is the word I think you keep sort of coming back to in terms of comfort, it's top notch. Um,
Will With the clasp too, I think this is the first time that Nodus has just used a double push button as opposed to a flip lock. I wish more brands would just use a double push button, because I think it slims it down. It makes it a little more streamlined on the wrist. I mean, you know, you got to just keep it slim and keep it comfortable on the wrist.
Jason Heaton Yeah, you know, we've talked about this recently, but I think that less is more in a lot of instances, and I think with this application, that was a good decision. They're deliberate in some ways with this that maybe are hard to notice, but 150 meters of water resistance is not an accidentally achieved number, right? That's the number that they wanted, and I love that aspect of this watch. This is a This is a desk diver. This is a skin diver. This is a beach watch or a weekend watch or a Mexico watch. This is not your Mariana Trench watch. Uh, but it's, it's actually practically pragmatically designed for, for guys like us.
Will Yeah. And that brings up a good point about the skin diver. I think that Wes has even said that's kind of what they were going for with us. Um, so I think transitioning a little bit, uh, cause, I'd like to keep this short and kind of, you know, let people go read the written review too, you know? Sure. So I think what I'm gonna do is I'm going to hit on a couple points that, cause I didn't talk too much about the dial, but a couple of things that I like and a couple of little quibbles, I guess you could say that I had. So I think I've covered kind of the case and the bracelet and what I really like about that. With the dial, I love the layout. The 369 I think looks really good. I'd be interested to see what it would look like if the three, six and nine on the dive model were applied or all the markers were applied. I know that might up the cost a little bit and I'm sure they're trying to keep that down, but be interesting to see if you took this design and added a little bit more depth to the dial, what it would look like. And maybe they tried that and maybe it didn't work. I'm not sure. I love the date window, the circular cutout with the color match date wheel, I think is Fantastic. But what I don't like about it is the date is very small. It's almost too small to read. I found myself like putting the watch right up to my eyeball to see the date. Sure, sure. So that's not a huge deal, but I like the way it's executed, even if the numbers themselves are a little bit small. I like the accents with the different colors that you get. depending on which dial color you get. I think maybe just on the dive models, you get a different color minute hand. Um, and on the dive model here, I love the DLC bezel. It doesn't have any numeral markings. So if you're using it to time something, you kind of have to pay attention to that white pip, you know, to see where you started. But I think it just looks really good and it adds some contrast.
Jason Heaton Yeah, absolutely. Uh, the, I think the bezel is probably the coolest thing about this watch. It's just beautiful and rugged, but, but without being, uh, rugged for the sake of rugged. Yeah, absolutely. And the, and the knurling, you know, we have, we haven't gotten there, but the knurling all the way around what, you know, I, I don't know that you'd call the texture on the side of the bezel knurling, but, uh, certainly that crown is knurled. The textures on this thing are just really, really... they nailed it.
Will Yeah, that brings up a good point too about the crown. For not being a huge watch, the size of the crown is really nice. I love big crowns. They're just easy to unscrew, easy to wind, easy to set the time. You don't have to worry about, you know, nipping your fingers up trying to get that thing unscrewed.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's totally right. Totally agreed.
Will So I'll try and give Let me see if I can get it up to the mic here. I'll try and give some clicks of the bezel. Who knows if they'll come through.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. I gave a few turns. We'll double up on that.
Will Yeah, it's got a good sound.
Jason Heaton Well, any other points that you want to hit on this thing before we wrap this up?
Will Well, I know that they're bringing it back in July because they're currently sold out. Yes, sir. So if you go and read the review, you listen to this, you're interested in buying one, they are going to be back in July. I don't know if they're going to introduce any more colors. I know that's something that they do when they reintroduce a watch is usually some more colors that come out like they did with the Retrospect this month. So if you're looking to get one, I know they have a sign up on their website because I'm looking at it right now. You can sign up and get notified if you're interested in one. And of course, keep an eye out on the used market. I'm sure these are easily in the low 300s if you're trying to pick one up used.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think that's right. Right around 300 is where I've been seeing them.
Will Yep.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, Will, this has been a blast, man.
Will Yeah, I had fun. We definitely need to do this again. I think it'd be interesting to try again with a watch that you don't have and I have to sell it to you, I guess I could say.
Jason Heaton That sounds awesome. That sounds awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Any ideas of what that next watch might be?
Will I probably got an Oris coming up. I've got the GMT timer, I think they call it. It's one of the pro pilot models. That'll be one of the last watches that I'm reviewing probably in June. So maybe we could do one of those for June.
Jason Heaton Love it, man. All right. Sounds good. Thanks for joining us. I'm not going to do any outro music. I'm just going to go ahead and out us right now.