In the 260th episode of 40 and 20, The Watch Clicker Podcast, we are joined by the Big Daddy himself, Will. We chat with Will about his experience and wind up, the highs, lows, and standouts.
Will’s Wind Up 2023 Photographs
Other Things:
Will: Tenba Fulton V2
Andrew: Immersion Blender and Curried Butternut Squash Soup
Everett: Traxxas Slash RC Car Kit
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This Episode’s Sponsors:
Escapement Media: https://escapementmedia.com
Foster Watch Co: https://fosterwatches.com
Frank Affronti Photography: https://www.affrontography.com
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Intro/Outro Music: Bummin on Tremelo, by Kevin MacLeod (incompetch.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Creativecommons.org/licenses/by.3.0/
Episode Transcript
| Speaker | Text |
|---|---|
| Everett | Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify.You’re listening to 40 in 20 The Watch Cooker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett and Daddy.Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.Big Daddy, how you doing? |
| Andrew | It’s good to be back again.And this is the first time that I think I’ve been back in the same month.I don’t think we’ve ever done that before.This is a first. |
| Everett | Oh, maybe not.Yeah. |
| Will | A hundred percent not. |
| Everett | Yeah. |
| Will | It’s usually, it’s usually been months apart.When we recorded the Seiko episode, we had a couple in pretty close proximity to each other, but I don’t think it’s not anywhere near this close. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Cause we did the, the travel watch episode.I want to say that was only like two or three episodes ago.Cause it was after my vacation, which was at the end of September. |
| Will | You were still, you were still on the, on the mend from COVID. |
| Andrew | That’s right.Yep.It was about a week off the wagon. |
| Everett | When it’s just, this is just barely October still.Cause oh no, I guess next week is it’s I guess no, whatever.I’m high. |
| Andrew | We’ve got a week till Halloween. |
| Everett | Yeah.I’m broken.It’s fine.You didn’t share.I, it’s really not cool.I’m not, I’m just, I, my brain don’t work too good.Cause I’m excited to see you.I didn’t get to see you last time around.Thanks for filling in for me.I appreciate it. And so here we are tonight.Everett, how are you? |
| Will | Man, I’m doing great.The, uh, we were in that like fall period where it’s, it’s blustery outside right now.Yeah.It’s starting to get cold, but it’s not cold.And it’s, uh, starting to be like winter, but it’s not winter.So we like intermittent rain, but when it’s like today was beautiful and then it was raining and then it was beautiful again.And I, I actually kind of like this.It’s, uh, it’s, it’s, uh, What’s the Starbucks drink that everybody likes?Pumpkin spice latte season. |
| Everett | It is pumpkin season. |
| Will | I don’t like a pumpkin spice latte, but I like the spirit of that.You know, it connects with me even if I’m not drinking the drink. |
| Everett | I saw pumpkin spice odored trash bags. |
| Andrew | Odored.That’s a key choice of word there. |
| Everett | Well, they’re not flavored.You shouldn’t lick them. |
| Andrew | But yeah, I would go with scented. maybe? |
| Everett | Nah.Odored. |
| Andrew | Odored.I think it’s pumpkin spice garbage bags.Yeah, we’re going with odored. |
| Everett | Yeah.It is pumpkin season though.We had pumpkin beers.Was it last week? |
| Will | I think so.No, it was a couple weeks ago.Yeah, and they made me real drunk.They were hard hitters.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Do you guys get uh trogues out by you at all?Never heard of that.Doesn’t sound familiar.They’re brewed in Hershey, Pennsylvania.Um they’re They’re pretty big, I’d say, in the Northeast, but I wasn’t sure how far reaching they go.But their pumpkin beer is, I think, my favorite. |
| Will | Do the Amish make beer?Or are they teetotalers? |
| Andrew | I have no idea. |
| Will | I feel like if they’re not teetotalers, they probably make great beer. |
| Everett | I bet they do.They can’t be teetotalers because rumspringa is just wild. |
| Will | Yeah, but isn’t rumspringa like when they’re breaking all the rules?Yeah.So, I mean, anyway. Long story short, if the Amish bake beer, I bet it’s good. |
| Andrew | If they do, they’re not selling it to anybody. |
| Will | Just just their furniture, beer and Adirondack chairs. |
| Everett | You support a whole economy that way.That’s right. |
| Will | Works for them.No, we drank Anderson Valley, which is out of California, which was really it.And there was another one, Hopworks, which also got out of Portland.Yeah. But the Anderson Valley, I think, is the one that was fucking us up.Yeah, something got us. |
| Andrew | They’re all pretty strong.I feel like whatever they do to ferment pumpkin beer makes it heavy. |
| Will | A higher gravity.Perhaps.Fair enough.Will, how are you? |
| Andrew | I’m great.I’m in much better health than I was last time. which which worked out to my benefit and the topic of which we will be talking about today, because I didn’t have to worry about anything.Other than that, I’m good.I have no complaints.Life is life is all good in the watch clicker world these days. |
| Everett | So we’ve covered the groundwork.It has been laid.You kind of alluded to it a moment ago, but we are going to be talking about something that you got to do and something that we didn’t get to do this time around, at least, which was attend wind up New York 2023.Uh, and just judging by the pictures that have come out of it, it looked like a very fun time.You got to be there.Um, you didn’t cross paths with Frank, did you? |
| Andrew | No, he was, I was there on Friday this year and he was there on, I think just Saturday, but maybe Sunday.But yeah, unfortunately this year we didn’t get to meet up. |
| Everett | Well, that is a shame.Tell us about wind up. Let’s get the big picture and then we can kind of drill down onto some of the finer details.Same venue, correct? |
| Andrew | Yeah.Same as last year.So back at the Altman building again. |
| Will | Which is a really, that’s a really nice space. |
| Everett | Yeah, it is.Did they expand into the second floor?I know they were using like the basement level, the first floor.And I thought last year there was talks about expanding into the second floor.Did they do that this year? |
| Andrew | They did.Um, so the, the, I guess it would be the first floor of the basement, whatever we want to call it.Uh, they had, if I just think of mentally, probably 20 brands down there.Um, maybe it’s smidge less than that, but I mean, pretty good amount, which I think brought the total up to like 80, something like that.It was, there was a lot there.Um, I mean, you guys remember from last year, how much there was on the first floor.Um, and you know, a, a pretty good showing down on the, the basement level too.You know, I wouldn’t say that anybody, you know, that was like new to the game was relegated to the basement.Um, you know, like Bravaire was down there, South Baltimore was down there.Um, Seiko had a, a for sale place down there selling like wall clocks and stuff.But I mean, I don’t know, there’s pretty good, pretty good showing down in the basement. |
| Everett | Great.And so then we’ve got first floor.Did they expand upstairs? |
| Andrew | No, if they did, I totally missed it, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t. |
| Everett | Okay.I don’t remember.I feel like someone was talking about that last year that they were going to expand into the next level up.Yeah. |
| Will | I think we talked to Zach Kazin about it and he had suggested that was a possibility, but I, you know, as these things go, right.You, you, you, what do they call it?You, you shake and move. |
| Andrew | Adapt and overcome. |
| Everett | So 80 brands last year, there were 50 something. And it was packed like a sardine can.Did it feel like that again this year or with the extra space of moving brands downstairs?Was it a little bit more hospitable environment? |
| Andrew | Sure.So it was kind of interesting because so first of all, I went on Friday this year, which I’ve never done.I usually always go on Saturday.So I went in Friday and it was raining, which I think probably kept some of the foot traffic away, you know, that might just be rolling by.I think anybody that wanted to go to the show on Friday was going to go regardless of the rain.Cause it wasn’t that bad, but I do think that it helped kind of spread people out just a little bit.Um, I would walk around and kind of wait for a booth to have an empty spot before going in, because when I go to wind up, I try not to take away from people that might be there to learn more about the brand and that kind of stuff. Unless I am, because there are some brands that I don’t know a lot about there, but like, I’m not going to go up to the Manta booth when there’s five people there and try and talk to Justin.You know, I know about Manta.I know what their deal is.I don’t want to take away, you know, from like a potential customer that they might have or something like that.Um, but with the, with the basement level, it was kind of a nice retreat because there were a couple things down there.They had like a little seating area where you could kind of sit down for a minute, which. For me, I was there seven hours was great to just chill for a minute, uh, get off my feet, you know, because it’s all the hard floors.Um, but this, this won’t apply to everybody that they had like a little press area in the back of the basement.So you could go back there and they had some setups where you could take more like staged photos of watches.If the brand would let you take it, um, you know, but that, that wasn’t open to everybody.Um, but it, I do feel that having that basement area kind of lightened things up a little bit, but I’m curious how it was on Saturday. |
| Everett | So for that media area, just my memory of wind up like 80% of the people there were media in some capacity.Um, whether it was people like us, um, Mike or Frank, like that was what it felt like was the majority of the population at the Fair.Cause it’s, it’s closer to a trade show than it is like a true watch and clock fair as, as much as they’d like to brand it as such.Uh, so was everyone in the media room?Cause that’s where everyone was allowed to be.Or were there, did you have credentials?Did you like make them? |
| Andrew | Um, I, they had press passes.Um, I’ll be honest in that I did not get one.Um, The only reason I didn’t was because I’m obnoxious and I wear a shirt with a watch clicker on it.So I’m kind of a big deal.You’re a big will.Yeah, exactly.There we go.But the other thing was I wasn’t going to be there all weekend.So I didn’t feel the need to get one because I wasn’t going in on Saturday for press hours early.So I’m not going to waste their time signing me up for press stuff.Because they didn’t do that on Friday because brands were setting up. Um, but you know, I, I ran into, you know, Zach and Kat and all them, and they just said, you know, use what you need to, um, you know, goes with the territory.We all kind of know each other.Uh, but I didn’t feel that it was overcrowded.There were people able to put their backpacks down there, which I thought was nice.You know, if you have some stuff, you just want to offload for a minute.Um, you know, because of the nature of the show, there’s security kind of buzzing around everywhere.You know, you saw them. in their suits and I’m sure they had some people that weren’t in suits.Um, but I never felt, you know, like that room was packed to the gills with people.Like I went down with Mike a couple of times to just go shoot something and we were the only two in there a bunch of the times. |
| Everett | Just how you like it.You know it.So leading up to wind up, what, Were there any brands there or any new releases or what were you most excited to get to see in person that you hadn’t before, maybe hadn’t gotten to yet? |
| Andrew | Yeah.So this, this I felt was a weird year because I’d say this is the first year where aside from a few brand owners, I didn’t go there to meet anybody specifically.Like last year you guys were there.Um, you know, I met you and Frank for the first time and, Uh, you know, Mike was there and like all the guys from notice that I know and some other people that I know, everybody was there this year.Like aside from a few brand owners, I felt like I was just kind of going as a regular enthusiast, which was nice.Um, I didn’t go in with any expectations, but the other thing is.I also didn’t do a ton of research going into, I didn’t know about the, some of the big releases, which we’ll talk about, but I didn’t think that there was anything there that blew my socks off.Um, there were a lot of things that I saw last year.Um, so I, you know, some brands had some new releases, but there were a lot of brands that just didn’t release a bunch and they kind of had the same things as they did last year, or they had iterations on certain things.Um, and I, that was the one downside of the show this year is, and I think that’s just kind of how the watch market is right now is I don’t think we’re seeing a lot leaps and bounds and releases.A lot of things are iterations or small steps.Um, I think there’s very few brands in 2023 doing some crazy stuff.And maybe that means we’re going to be up for a really great 2024.I’m not sure.Um, but I think it was the, the first time I’ve went to the show and felt slightly underwhelmed by the showings, but that doesn’t mean that it was bad. |
| Will | Mm. Do you think, um, do you think that has anything to do with, uh, just your experience having gone to a number of windups at this point, or do you think, and, and, and, and your familiarity with the industry, right?So I’ve, I’ve gone through some of your pictures and there are a lot of interesting things in there.Um, but, but also, Like there are things that we’ve talked about, you know, Andrew and I have talked about them on the show.You and I have maybe talked about it when you were here the last time.Do you think that’s part of it?Or do you think actually objectively this was a less novel show in terms of the watches that were there? |
| Andrew | A little bit of both.And part of the reason I say that is some of the things we’re going to talk about are watches that, um, left embargo after the show by a couple days, which I think is kind of strange.Um, for some of these brands, I think wind up is probably a pretty big deal.The weekend itself, there’s a lot of buzz around the show.And I almost feel like, why didn’t you just unveil the watch on that Friday or Saturday?Um, there were, there were a few brands that had it kind of tucked away in someone’s pocket and they take it out and be like, here, look at this.Um, don’t take pictures of it because it’s, it’s under embargo until Wednesday. And it’s like, okay, there were some brands that had that stuff out and they would just, we’re releasing this on Tuesday.Here it is.Take a picture of it.We don’t care.Um, I was, I was just kind of like, well, why don’t you just put that stuff out?You know, show it off.Why not?What’s, what’s the big deal. |
| Everett | It’s not like we’re upsetting your stock price.What better time to do it than when you have the majority of watch enthusiast media present in one place. |
| Andrew | Yeah. Absolutely.You’re 100% right.And that varies by brand a little bit.I don’t want to name specific brands here to not upset anybody, but there were some brands who were very open about what they were releasing, not next week, but like a year or two from now.And I had a couple of brand owners take out their phone and be like, let me show you all the renders of stuff that we have coming out.And they weren’t just doing that because I’m a media person.I saw them doing that with people that We’re just like, Hey, I’ve never heard of you guys before.I was standing next to someone in that conversation happened and a brand owner took out his phone and say, if you don’t like anything we’ve got here, here’s what we have coming out.And I thought that was really cool.And that’s more of like what I feel the show is about is here’s the stuff we have today.Here’s what we have coming tomorrow.Let me establish that relationship with you and kind of talk about the things that, you know, we’re doing today and doing tomorrow and maybe that is what pushes you over the edge to buy one of our watches is that connection. |
| Will | You know, not to navel gaze too much, but when, when Christian and I were kind of rolling out what we were going to do with Foster, it was one of the things that I had remarked on.I say, you know, the great thing about this world, this micro brand world is that you get to know the owners and information is freely shared and you don’t have this corporate veil of secrecy.Sometimes you do, but, but oftentimes, right, people are just excited about what they’re doing.And so you share, you know, there were some things we talked about in some of our early podcasts that Christian was like, do we want to talk about that?And I was like, yeah, we want to talk about that.You know, and I, I really float renders that, you know, things that Foster is working on.And sometimes it’ll be a little coy, but generally speaking, someone will be like, what’s that?And I’m like, Oh, here’s what it is.Take a look.Here’s everything we have.This is what we’re thinking.You have any thoughts.Um, and, and, and we don’t do that. necessarily because, um, it’s, it makes sense in, in terms of business.But I think we do that because that’s the way I want to interact in the business or in the industry, right?I want to interact with the owners that way.That’s what’s special about this space, this micro brand, this wind up space, uh, whatever, that’s what’s special about it.That’s what people love about it.That is the appeal to wind up as you, as you state.And, and it’s always weird to me when you see companies, acting like, like, look, you’re not fucking Rolex.So let’s bag it with the secrecy.Like, what are you doing?What are you working on?We’ve had people on the show come in and be coy.And they certainly, you know, I respect their decision to be coy. But I always kind of wonder what are you gaining out of this? |
| Everett | More often than not though, once we hit end record, they’ll show us on their phone renderings and stuff.They just don’t want it to be big public knowledge. |
| Will | And that’s true. |
| Everett | We’ve had some people who, who just play the Koi game though. |
| Will | And that’s true.But, but also I think what better time to get people excited.You know, we’ve got maybe any given, any given week between a thousand and 2,500 people will listen to our show in the first, you know, 30 days or so. what better way to connect with a diehard than someone who’s listening to episode 263 of the fucking Watch Clicker podcast.You know, like these are the people listening are your people.Uh, you know, give people a treat, right?It’s not like, it’s not like anybody at Hodinkee is listening to our show for nuggets on industry news, right? Uh, right.This, these are our people.Uh, and I think the same thing is true of windup.These are your people.So I, I do love the fact that brands, I think I generally speaking are pretty open. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Uh, and I think another draw to wind up that it’s almost like it’s a nice surprise if that’s what you’re going there for is it’s a fun place to buy a watch because I’ll explain why in a second. Because you do get to buy it directly from the brand owner most of the time, which is interesting.That’s different than buying from an AD or a boutique.Right.Um, but there also might be brands, um, like Jack Mason, who has the Dr. Pepper watch, which I think is now out, um, officially for ordering, but they brought 10 of them to the show to sell to people at the show.If you just walked up and wanted to buy one, they had 10 available.You could get it a week before everybody else. which i think that’s kind of neat um they sold i was talking to peter and he sold them i think within two hours something like that so sucks if you went on saturday and sunday because you didn’t even have a chance but uh you can buy them online early bird you want to leave with it that day um you know but there’s opportunities like that too and i think that kind of stuff also makes the show exciting um but it also opens up you know, for brands like Formex, for example, that, you know, they’re not in any ADs in the U.S.They have one in Arizona, but, you know, most people aren’t going to be trying on their watches in person.You know, for brands like that, where they’re able to, here, try this watch on, let me show you all the stuff that makes it cool, and then you can buy it and leave with it that day.It’s not a, I liked it at the show. I have to go online and buy it and wait a week to get it sort of thing.You’re getting it direct from the brand owner right then. |
| Everett | And you can give them an envelope full of money in order to receive it. |
| Andrew | Exactly.Cash cash discount. |
| Everett | Yeah.I know a guy who did that.I’m familiar with him. |
| Will | This is an envelope full of bills. |
| Everett | Will you take this?I believe this is accurate.Please count it for me. Uh, I’m wondering if some of the underwhelming experience you had was because so many, um, windup is almost prohibitive for new brands, young brands.Yes, they can make it there.But windup used to be this like welcome to the market environment.And it is not so anymore unless it’s a really heavily backed, uh, company because it’s not cheap to get a table at windup. Um, so I’m wondering if that’s part of it is, is it that sort of new company excitement is tempered by the fact that everyone there is an established brand.Everyone has a portfolio.You’ve seen most of their watches before they might have one new release to introduce rather than here’s a new brand.Here’s three, we have a three watch catalog. |
| Andrew | So that’s interesting.Um, when you walk in the front doors to wind up the first Two brands you see are Oris and G-Shock. |
| Everett | Oh, interesting.I guess it was like that last year, too.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yep.And Oris has been a lead sponsor for Windup since the beginning, so that one I understand.But I did have a few conversations with people, and they said it’s a little off-putting when the first thing you see when you walk in is a full metal G-Shock.It’s like, I’m here to look at the micro brands.And not that Oris is a micro brand, but at least a few years ago, they were certainly not a large brand, you know, that you would consider, you know, on the level of like long jeans, for example, I think they’re, they’re pretty much there now.So it’s a little bit different, but you have, um, you have them at the front, those two brands, and then, um, citizen and Bolivar.And then off to the right was Christopher Ward and Zodiac was in between Oris and Christopher Ward.And I would say that Christopher Ward, Zodiac and Auris kind of fit the bill I think a little bit more than like Citizen, Bulova, and G-Shock.But I think that kind of speaks to the point where that’s what you’re seeing when you first walk in and it’s like, jeez, do I need to talk about G-Shock?I did not spend one second at that booth.I’ve seen one G-Shock, I’ve seen them all.I wonder, and I know that wind up and worn and wound need to do that to get the sponsors and the money to keep this kind of stuff going.I wonder if there’s a different way to do it, uh, to get some of the younger brands back in.Um, but I don’t think it’s hurting the show by not having them there, if that makes sense. |
| Will | Yeah.Yeah.Well, I think that there’s a fair criticism and I think you’ve made it at the end of the day, the appeal to wind up is different.Uh, it’s a much more polished operation.You know, we’ve got sitting areas and, uh, press shooting areas and you, you know, you got food and drinks and, uh, and, and you don’t have the young startups, right?Like I can remember my first windup, there’s the, the Aloha watch, you know, there was a handful of brands that were there with six watches on a table. And it’s not the most, that display is not the most interesting display, but at the end of the day, I’m at Chelsea market and here’s this dude at a completely blank table with six of these beautiful watches that he’s made and wants to talk about.And that’s exciting.That’s part of the appeal at that stage for me.And that’s gone.That aspect of windup is, is effectively, I think probably forever gone, you know, to the extent where you know, I can tell you, uh, anecdotally, small brands have emailed Blake Bettner handfuls of times and never gotten a response because they’re too, the demand is too high.They cannot be that show for all the people anymore.Uh, they just can’t be, they’re too big.There’s too much money involved.Uh, and so it’s a fair criticism, which is not to say they’re doing it wrong.I think for everybody at Warner Wounds, paycheck, they’re probably doing it right, but there’s something lost there. |
| Andrew | Yeah.And I think to close the loop on this and then maybe, you know, we can talk about some of the individual watches that were there.Um, I, I wonder if it would be beneficial for them to utilize some of that space to have a dedicated section for first year brands or brands that are just starting up to bring some of that kind of magic back, if you will.Um, cause I don’t want to make it seem like we’re harping on the show at all, because I go every year because I really love that show.It’s a lot of fun, almost regardless of who the brands are that are there.I just think it would be interesting to see if there’s a way that they can incorporate some of those younger brands back into it. |
| Everett | Or find a way to be pulling brands into the fold. |
| Andrew | Yeah, yeah, absolutely. |
| Everett | Send us a watch and we’ll feature it in our new brands watch case. Yeah.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yep.Yeah, absolutely.I think there’s a way to do it and man, you know, if they, if they do it or not, I’ll still go to the show.Um, I just think it’d be interesting if they did.Um, let’s talk about watches.Yeah.So I don’t want to put you guys on the spot, but what I was thinking is, so we’re not talking about watches, uh, individual watches for three hours straight.Cause there were a lot of watches there.I don’t have any problem with that.You know, 80 brands, I think that were there.Um, I did not even get close to visiting every booth.I was there for pretty much seven hours straight, just trying to visit booths and I didn’t get close.So I’m going to start with one that I think a lot of people are probably curious about.And then, you know, maybe you guys want to ask about another one that you saw from the pictures that I took, um, is the studio underdog, their new three-hander.Um, so everybody knows studio underdog for those, those you know, fruit food themed chronographs, which I think are really cool.This is a little bit of a departure for them.Um, I would, I don’t want to say they’re toned down because they’re not, they are still fun.I think that they are a more approachable release from studio underdog to maybe capture a little bit more of the mainstream audience that maybe doesn’t want a watermelon on their sub dial of their chronograph.Um, I got a chance to spend a little bit of time with these outside of the booth and even, well, I’m not even going to say my photos don’t do them justice because the lighting there sucks so bad. |
| Everett | Um, you did, you, you have one photo that really captures the, kind of the idea, but I can’t imagine that photos are going to do this justice because it’s such a unique optical experience. |
| Andrew | It was one of those watches where when I got there, I picked it up and I looked at it and I go, Oh, this makes so much sense now. Uh, it is very captivating in person, the way that they’ve done the, for lack of a better term sandwich dial, um, where everything looks like it’s floating.It kind of gives that mystery dial effect, but the it’s not with the hands, it’s with the numerals and everything else in between it.Um, he just did such a great job with these.The color combinations are really good.Um, the, the case is. Beautiful on the wrist.It fits really well.I think there’s going to be knockouts.Um, I think the only thing that I’m not hung up on it, I think some people will be, is that I think these are about $300 more than the chronograph.I think some people are going to look at that and be like, this is a less complicated watch on, on just looks.Why is it more?Um, but I think once you see it in person, you’ll be like, this is a three hand watch. that is leaps and bounds more complicated than the chronographs that he’s put out before.So, um, and it has an extra sheet of sapphire.Yeah.When we put this show out, uh, we’ll have a link to the photos that I took.Make sure you go look at them.Um, I forget which photo it is.I can’t count them, but I have about four photos of them.There’s one that kind of shows it from the side a little bit, and you can see the numerals floating. I think that will show it off the best that it can, but also go look at their website.They’ve done some cool renders that you can see that, that show it off really well. |
| Will | You know, we talked about this a couple of weeks ago and it was, I think my comment was the watch.If you just looked at it, like from a case profile or, or a finishing standpoint, there’s nothing here that’s going to blow your mind. And yet, you know, you’ve got the screwed down Sapphire dial.I mean, you’ve got, there’s actually so much going on.I was actually really impressed with this release because it seems like such a easy, boring watch.And then you spend any time trying to understand what’s going on and it’s borderline mind blowing.I think this is actually a really, really. glorious second release from Studio Underdog.I’m into it, and I’m glad you got some pictures of it. |
| Everett | Yeah.Yeah, he did a good job capturing the layering, the sandwiching of the dial. |
| Will | Will, I want to know about the moonshot.This watch actually, for me, I feel like RZE.I feel a little bit like Circula.This is from Isotope.You got some great pictures of this.Tell us about the Isotope moonshot. |
| Andrew | So the first, when there’s a, there’s a, the first picture that’s on there is that’s actually Mike’s wrist.Um, that was the first photo I took at wind up and I felt it, it set a really good tone for everything because I looked at these and I was like, damn, these are so cool.And they’re cool for a bunch of reasons.Um, they, they look big when you’re holding them.I forget the case size on them, but it was a big watch that I put on and I was like, yeah, I could definitely wear this every day. But one of the things that I loved about it, if you look at the sub dials, they’re discs instead of pointing hands.And there’s a little arrow that points to, you know, so you can actually identify what you’re looking at there.And I just thought it was a really cool execution of a sub dial. |
| Will | Sort of a peekaboo. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Like I haven’t seen something like that on a, on a modern chronograph.And I think it’s just a super interesting way to do something like that.And it, it keeps it, kind of symmetrical, but asymmetrical at the same time, if that makes sense, because they can be in different positions.Um, but another thing that I thought was really cool is you’ll see, there’s a picture of one of the watches laying on its side with the bracelet.I took that picture for a very particular reason.The tape, uh, the taper on the bracelet, you know, like a traditional taper taper.So I think it’s from 20 to 16 down at the butterfly clasp.But if you notice, if you look at the sides of the links, they taper down and get thinner too.The links themselves, the thickness of them from the side gets thinner as they taper down.And it’s terrific.I can only imagine how hard that was to execute.And it made it a super comfortable bracelet because it, it kept that balance between a heavy watch head light underneath.Like it didn’t feel like you were wearing a puck on your wrist, you know, weight wise.Um, I, Isotope is one of those brands that I feel doesn’t get talked about a lot.We’ve covered them, I think a couple of times on the website.I think Mike’s done a few reviews of them, but when these come in, I think these were all prototypes, if I remember correctly.When these production models come in, I definitely want to see if we can get these in to give it the full review treatment, because these are awesome, awesome chronographs. |
| Will | You know, Will, between this and the the studio underdog.I asked you a question earlier.I said, how, how much of your unimpressedness with the novelty at windup is just because you’re an old jaded watch nerd?Uh, and, and this is the reason why it’s these two watches in particular, which I look at both of these and I’m like, holy shit, people are still doing amazing things.And they’ve in these two companies, isotope and studio underdog, both of them, not rookies, but, but young brands are, I think, pushing the needle in really interesting ways.And that was the, you know, and maybe these are actually the only two that I’ve seen that I’m like, you know, it’s like, Oh, Zodiac released a Super Seawolf in another color.But these two watches, I’m like, Holy shit.These are cool. |
| Everett | This watch reminds me of like 1984 projecting what a 2023 watch is going to look like. Yes.This is, yeah, this is 1980s futuristic watch. |
| Andrew | So before you get to what you want to talk about, Andrew, you mentioned Zodiac Everett, and I want to talk about them for a second.That pineapple dream watch, when Mike handed me that watch and said, take a look at this, this is what’s coming out next week.I was like, okay, it’s green.And he goes, no, turn it around a little bit. And I think it’s the first watch I’ve ever seen that has a, um, sunburst dial, but where it’s not centered, you know, typically the sunburst radiates out from the center of the watch.This one goes from the 12 o’clock marker down.Um, I, that’s why there’s like three very similar looking photos because I was trying to tilt it to show that off.Um, I hope that they have like a reel or something on their Instagram where they show that off, but it’s something I’ve come to appreciate from Zodiac that I don’t think I did before is that. They are starting to lean into what I would call the fairer-isms of watches, where they’re taking advantage of color and putting it on watches that, you know, they’ve previously released like the Super Seawolf.They have a whole bunch of those, that’s fine.But I think they’re doing it in a, in a pretty cool way.And it’s something I didn’t appreciate until I actually got to see a bunch of them next to each other.And I was like, well, if you really want a Super Seawolf, you can kind of get what you want.If you want to, black dial boring Super Seawolf like I would like, you can get that.But if you want this totally crazy pineapple dream that comes on this weird pineapple NATO to wear all summer and just hang out in the Florida Keys doing a weird stuff, I think this watch is for you. |
| Everett | Cause they have really good platforms to work with.I think they’re comfortable with their platform and the way to improve upon it is to make it more accessible. |
| Andrew | Yep, absolutely.Yeah.Sorry to, digress on that a little bit, but I thought it was something cool that I didn’t appreciate before.So what do you got, Andrew?What do you want to talk about? |
| Everett | You should be super sorry.I’m really intrigued by this Dr. Pepper.Yeah.The Jack Mason.The Jack Mason Dr. Pepper. |
| Andrew | I want to talk about this for a second because I talked to Peter for a while and I was like, why did you do Dr. Pepper?I said, it’s my favorite soda, so I’m all about it.But why Dr. Pepper? And he goes, well, you know, uh, you have the Pepsi and the Coke and the bezels and all that.And I go, I’m such an idiot.I didn’t even make that connection between the different sodas and bezels of famous GMTs with this. |
| Everett | And I was like, first time you’ve made that connection. |
| Andrew | Yeah.I feel like such an idiot.And I was like, dude, man, I’m so sorry.I didn’t get that.And I was just like, Okay, I get it, but why Dr. Pepper? |
| Will | The point, the question remains.I think it’s a great, I think it’s actually a really interesting colorway.I don’t think your question’s unfair, notwithstanding how obvious the answer was. |
| Everett | Jack Mason’s a really interesting brand to me, too. |
| Andrew | They are.I feel like Jack Mason was almost fashion brand that realized that they weren’t tapping the right potential in what they had and kind of switch that up.Um, especially, especially with the, the GMT, the straddle liner, which, uh, we reviewed, was it this year or last year?Whenever it came out, I don’t remember.Um, it had to be this year cause it was the first one with the, uh, Miyota 9075.Yeah. |
| Will | It was like the watch the first one.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Um, But he told me that it was kind of a perfect storm of a couple things.Um, Dr. Pepper was, you know, what we just talked about another soda that didn’t have a watch, uh, 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper and the year 2023.So it, that kind of stuff worked out really well.And the numbering of the watches, there’s 230 of them.Um, two, three, you know, zero, if anybody didn’t get that, like I didn’t for a second, because Once again, I’m dumb. |
| Everett | What?2023.Yeah.That’s a missed opportunity there.It’s seven less.They did it.23.No.Did you say 2030?No, 2023.The year.The year.Current year.I thought you said 2030. |
| Andrew | I was like, why didn’t they do 2023?No, no. |
| Everett | There’s 230 watches total in the run that they’re doing.Or 2020 available. |
| Will | Well, as we sit here today, there’s a watch that I have pictures of in front of me that’s under embargo.However, by the time we press publish on this episode, it will no longer be.So can you talk to me about the Christopher Ward Moonphase watch?Yeah, this is an exclusive access situation.I think this will be I think this will be first talked about in the public sphere the day this episode.We’re scooping it.Publishes. |
| Andrew | Yep.We absolutely are.So this was one of the watches that I talked about where it was tucked away in someone’s pocket and they took it out. |
| Will | If you were the right person or asked the right questions, Mike France opened his trench coat to you. |
| Andrew | He said, he wants to come back on the show.So we got to call him up and we can talk about the watches that he’s got in his pocket.Um, so this Mike’s pocket watches. This I would just call an evolution of the, oh, is it C1 or C3?I don’t remember.The Moonglow.Another watch that we reviewed a few years ago.That watch was very much a, I would say a more traditional moon phase watch where it had, you know, markers between 12 and 11 going around the dial and running seconds hand that you could see very clearly and all that kind of stuff. This I feel is a very, I don’t want to say statement watch because that’s not the right term, but I think this shows off a lot of technical prowess from Christopher Ward that, um, you would almost equate to like a proof of concept type thing because it’s essentially a double layered adventurine dial with a moon phase disc.Um, that is. you know, going around and the moon on that is so highly detailed.If you zoom in on one of the pictures that I took where it’s facing kind of more straight onto the camera, you can see how detailed that is.And it wore really nicely.It’s a very well-sized case.Looks great on the wrist.Like this is one of those watches that I feel you could wear almost anywhere.And if that moon is showing, someone’s going to ask you about that watch.What the heck is that?Why is there a giant moon on it? |
| Everett | And why is there nothing else? |
| Andrew | Yeah.Right.Why, why is there nothing else?And, um, it, it, it just glimmers in, you know, the, the light, you know, that, that dial just shimmers and it’s absolutely drop dead gorgeous.I’m sure they’ll sell out of however many they make of these. Um, and it, it makes me curious to see if Christopher Ward will start doing something where, um, they incorporate moon phases into other watches.Um, kind of like long jeans and Omega do, uh, where they’ll put like a moon phase on a chronograph, for example.I’m interested to see if Christopher Ward will start doing something like that, because I, I think that this is them showing off the moon phase complication, not the timekeeping aspect of the rest of the watch. |
| Everett | They’re doing some interesting like high horology stuff while not losing momentum in their like totally normal run of the mill doing cool shit watchmaking.It’s a, it’s a really interesting two pronged approach that they’re taking to the business model right now. |
| Will | Yeah.When, when your, when, when they had released the, the Bel Canto or they were just about to release the Bel Canto, I was talking to your, uh, at Christopher Ward about, um you know the direction sort of the seemingly almost split directions that that it seems they’re heading and you could tell that I wouldn’t say your had or expressed any disdain for the c63s and you know their their mainline watches but you could tell that he was less interested in that aspect the probably dollars and cents aspect and more interested in the orologically significant aspects of the business and his excitement and talking about the Bel Canto and what they were doing.And, and, you know, other Moonphase watches, it’s Christopher Ward has said, you know, you can just tell that that’s what he wants to be doing.And I think a company like this, which has a ton of resources at this point, I think Christopher Ward has, um, you know, acquired assets in, in watchmaking, uh in watchmaking ventures and and so they’ve they’ve really opened up their capabilities and they have the ability to on on a medium scale perhaps not on a large scale but on a medium scale to do some really interesting shit and so it’ll be cool to see what they come out with.Andrew and I talked about the the new, uh, the 12, the gold, the 12.And we made a little bit of fun of it.Not, not, not harshly.And I don’t think harsh making fun of would be fair, but yeah, you know, there, there, I think that there’s a bit of an identity.The 12 in and of itself is sort of derivative watch in some eye for me, notable ways.And then they released the, the, this gold 12, which, It just, it seems like maybe they don’t know quite where they want to go with this whole stuff, but they are, they’re definitely experimenting and they’re playing, which is just going to increase the viability and the quality of their other watches. |
| Everett | I’m looking forward to annual, super cool, super high horology releases like this.We have the Belcanto last year.We’ll have the Moonphase this year. |
| Will | I think I’m probably more inclined to be excited about this stuff for what it means for their, their mainline watches.Cause I don’t get the feeling that they’re, they’re, they’re ignoring the other aspects.Certainly not.I think that they’re doing this in a way that’ll improve their ability to make really stunning thousand dollar watches.Like who doesn’t want the best thousand dollar watch in the world?And Christopher Ward probably has a claim to that space.Yeah.Especially with the training.I think they do. |
| Everett | Yeah. Or the C63.The C63 comes in at 900 something.Yeah.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yeah. |
| Everett | You got to pay a little extra.Go ahead. |
| Andrew | I have a funny story.That’s real quick.And then you can ask me the next one.So there’s a couple of photos of the Spinnaker 50 phantoms, which, you know, released at the right time, right around Halloween.Right.And it’s got a bunch of ghosts on it. |
| Will | It’s got a bit of Super Mario Brothers feel to it. |
| Andrew | Absolutely.When I was standing there taking pictures of it, I overheard the best conversation of the show.This guy comes up and they had two of them there and I was looking at the one and the guy picks the other one up and he goes, what’s with all the ghosts?And one of the people working in the booth says, oh, well, that’s our play on the 50 fathoms.And we call it the 50 phantoms because it has, you know, 50 ghosts on it. And the guy goes, what’s the 50 fathoms?And I was like, man, I didn’t even think for a second that this was such an inside joke that people who don’t know what that watch is would be like, what the hell is this about?Go right on their head.It brought me back down to earth for a minute where I was like, you got to remember that we are in the minority of people who are interested in watches. And that most people probably don’t know that.But I also thought it was kind of cool of Spinnaker to release a watch like this with that type of kind of inside joke to it.Now, I will give credit where credit is due.The person working the booth went on to explain the history of the 50 Fathoms to the guy who was asking.And I think the guy left feeling stupefied, if you will. after having this conversation and I’m sure he’s not going to buy that watch.Fucking watch nerds.Probably left this show right after that.What the hell did I walk into? |
| Everett | The crown on this thing is like making me drool. |
| Andrew | Oh yeah, it’s great crown.It’s beautiful.Yeah. |
| Everett | How was the execution of the rest of it? |
| Andrew | Um, really great.Uh, say what you want about Spinnaker.I think that they do a pretty damn good job executing on their watches. Um, I was trying to in the, there’s the third photo there where I’m kind of holding it at a pretty sharp angle to the camera to show off that those ghosts are applied.They’re not just printed on.Yeah, they’re stacked.Yeah.It’s, it’s a pretty cool effect in person.Um, which I, I haven’t seen a lot of their marketing around this, but I don’t know if they show that off, but if you love Halloween or something like that, or the 50 fathoms and you’re never going to buy one. This might be an interesting piece to pick up. |
| Will | You know, we had Vishal Telani on this show a number of years ago at this point.And it, it, it, it seems to me actually much like, uh, Jack Mason, this feels both at 88 and Spinnaker feel to me, both Dartmouth Browns brands feel to me like, like brands that are kind of stuck in between their orological aspirations and their fast food aspirations.And, and, you know, I don’t think that they need to live in either space, but I do think like, for instance, maybe less so than Spinnaker, but, but Aviate could, I think, be benefited by a little bit more emphasis. On horologically, maybe not, maybe not horologically, but just enthusiasm based appeal, you know, aviate will occasionally drop a watch and people like, oh, that’s cool.But there’s always something missing.I feel that way about Jack Mason and, but for this Jack Mason GMT release. I don’t know that there’s a whole lot going on there.I’m always curious about what brands like this that have incredible production capabilities, what they’re going to do with that.And this seems like a fun, this seems like a fun release from a pretty legit brand and a nod in the right direction. |
| Everett | Yeah. |
| Will | Yeah.Well, I wanted to ask you about, Oh, another, speaking of another brand that I didn’t really expect to see, but it was featured prominently Islander Mark. from Long Island Watch.You’ve got a picture of a number of Islanders here. |
| Andrew | So I had not met Mark before this year’s show.He, I tried to meet him last year, but it was one of those booths and it was the same at this year.That was busy. |
| Everett | Always busy. |
| Andrew | Yeah.They were stacked up.When I was standing there talking to Mark, I think he sold five watches just in the 10 minutes I was standing there.And I think it’s because his watches are affordably priced and they look good.They’re hard to miss.But I had also not really experienced Islander watches since the initial release of his brand.I think it was the first, you know, kind of SKX themed watch that he released a few years ago at this point.That was the first time I really had any experience with it. And I didn’t really get to have hands on with some of his other stuff that he’s doing until this year.And I didn’t take pictures of everything, but I picked up a few things and took some pictures of them.And I have to say that from where he started with Islander to where he is now, I’m pretty impressed.I think he did a really great job of, in some ways he still is in the Seiko homage kind of space with the cases and the dials and that sort of thing. But there are other watches that he has now, and this is where I think he’s done a great job of breaking away from that and creating his own identity.I’d like to see Islander do more of that.I think there’s definitely a market to be served with the SKX case with some funky dials and all that kind of stuff, because that was what I saw him selling when I was there. |
| Everett | SKX that everyone wanted. |
| Andrew | Yeah, right.Exactly.But man, I just got to say, Mark, really nice guy.He had about five people there working with him and every one of them were just as nice as he was.And I feel like you see something like that and, um, it makes you happy about the brand success.Uh, cause you could, you can argue that success has gone to some people’s heads in this space and maybe they weren’t the nice guy that everybody thought they were, or they, didn’t turn out to be that way because of that.Um, but I, I would say that, um, in, in Mark’s case, the success has only enabled him to, uh, kind of bring out his true personality even more.So that that’s part of the reason why I have some photos of these watches is to bring a little bit of awareness to that kind of supporting the good guy, if you will.Um, but I mean, they’re great watches that, I mean, for what they charge for them and what you’re getting, it’s like you said, Andrew, it’s kind of the, you know, the SKX everybody wanted, but there’s also other things.Um, there, there was, uh, there was one guy who was standing there and he had, um, one of the Marine master two hundreds.It’s like the S B D C 1 0 1 8 7 or whatever.Um, that came out about two years ago.And he has a watch. Mark has a watch that looks very similar to that in terms of its case and the guy was was very generous and kind of let him compare the cases and stuff and that’s $1,000 watch and marks was a $250 watch and man, I thought it held up pretty damn good next to it and the the guy who had the more expensive Seiko was not Upset at that.I think he was actually there to buy an Islander So I think that that speaks to you know, kind of what he’s offering |
| Will | You know, we, we, I don’t regularly do the math when folks are on the show, but I, you know, with certain people, I kind of think about these things.I think we’ve, we’ve talked to, you know, I don’t know, 50 brand owners over the years, maybe a hundred, if you include people that haven’t been on the show.I think probably the most successful of all of those was Eric Wind.You know, this is a guy that is making, big dollars.I think Mike France probably makes a lot of money.I think the third guy, without a doubt, at least in the top three, he may be, you know, he may, he may even make more than I think is Mark.And the reason I say this is not because I care about the money, but with Eric, Eric is a very humble, very kind, very easygoing, but he exudes money.Like he’s the guy, if you met him on the street, you’d be like, Oh, he’s rich. Same with Mike France, right?You know, between like the clothes and just like, you know, this is a wealthy dude.Mark from Island Watch does not have a single bone in his body that is ostentatious or, you know, I’m wealthy.Fuck you.He is just humble.He was almost embarrassed by it.And then you stop for a second.You think about how much money this guy must make. I bet Island Watch is probably in the United States one of the top five, you know, highest grossing watch retailers.Maybe that’s a little bit aggressive, but it’s certainly up there.And then you include the Island Watch stuff that he’s getting, you know, that guy is making big money and he does not, you would not know it.If you met that guy in the street, you would think he was an it professional and employee, not an owner, like an employee at a small it company or a surf shop employee.Right.He’s so chill.It’s so easy. |
| Andrew | Go engineer by trade. |
| Will | If I remember correctly, doesn’t surprise me that tracks.Yeah.Yeah.Andrew, you got any more watches you want to talk about? |
| Everett | Uh, I mean, I got all the watches I want to talk about, but I think we’re, we’re probably in the space where we, where we got to, uh, just talk about a single final watch.Uh, as featured on your own wrist, Will, in the way of this. |
| Andrew | Before we get to that, because we were talking about nice guys in the watch world, I do want to give a shout out to Paul from Ferrer, who’s the owner.Man, I finally got a chance to talk to him.And let me just say that I was expecting the, you know, I make a lot of money selling watches.I’m a little stuffy sort of person. Or I’m too busy for you.He was probably one of the most down to earth people I’ve ever met in my entire life.I had such a great time talking to him.I probably talked to him for a half hour.And, um, I, I can’t think of another like watch brand owner that I’ve hit it off with as well as I did Paul.Um, he, he was just extremely nice, very cordial. he was one of the people that was showing me some stuff that they’ve got coming out, wasn’t shy to show any of that, was very confident in, you know, what, what they’re doing.Um, but it was, you know, it was also willing to kind of, Hey, well, what have you seen here that you like, or what have you seen that you don’t like?He was very realistic in his approach to the show.And, um, some of the conversations that we’ve had, he would be able to slide into this very well and, and kind of, you know, talk to it.And I, I just, He was one of the people that I talked to that was very memorable as I walked away from it. |
| Everett | And Farrer is like nigh on experimental in everything that they do.That’s one of the brands that I was really intrigued by really early on in my watch exploration.I finally got to get my hands on them last year at Wind Up and I was just, I remain smitten.And I feel like a lot of times like you see pictures and renderings and read reviews and do all this stuff.And then you finally see it in person and you’re like, okay, cool.But Ferrer held up for me.Uh, and I’m really pleased to hear that, that he’s also just a homie.Cause when I went by last year, it was slam packed.It was like five people deep.I like, fortunately I’m skinny and I like snuck in between some people and looked at them and I picked a watch up and I was like, yes, this is the validation that I needed.You’re as good as I’d hoped.Um, but the, Yeah, I can’t.I’m glad you got to have a good experience with him. |
| Andrew | Yeah.He would be, uh, he would be a good one to get on the show.And I think we should make that happen.Cause I think the listeners of this show, I think would appreciate his views on the watch world. |
| Everett | I like it.Uh, so, uh, Bolivar made an interesting, uh, appearance in the photos you sent us.Yeah.Yeah.So, and subsequent photos. |
| Andrew | The windup show ended at six o’clock.At 540, I was having a conversation, or maybe it was about an hour before that, with Brodinky.And we were kind of talking about what we talked about at the beginning of the show.I said, man, there’s not a lot that’s really like blowing my socks off.You know, what’s it going to be?And then Mike, Mike Scott watches, came over to me and said, hey, come back over to the bowl of a booth.I want to show you a couple of things. |
| Will | Have I ever, have I ever talked about when I, when you first told me that Mike Scott watches was going to be writing, I thought that the name of the Instagram handle was Mike Scott, like from the office, like Mike Scott watches.And I’ve often thought about starting an Instagram called Mike Scott watches and just having pictures like memes.Anyway, I’m not going to do that. of, no, of, of Mike Scott talking about watches, but, but saying things that Mike’s got watches has, has said in his reviews. |
| Andrew | You should do it because these meme accounts are making the big bucks these days, not dumb asses like us.All right.So, um, Mike, Mike pulls me over to talk about, uh, these Bolivar Jetstar watches.They had, they had just come out.Um, they were pretty new and they’re a, they’re essentially a reissue of the bull of a jet star, which was, I have no clue from the sixties, something like that.And the silver dial one really stuck out to me.And, um, it’s actually a collaboration.It’s a limited edition with complecto of a hundred pieces.And I got to talk to some of the people at complecto about kind of what they’re about.And between that and how much I actually liked the watch itself, That was the watch I left wind up with.And I do want to plug complecto for a minute because I think that they would fit in really well with what 40 and 20 and watch clickers about, which is, you know, kind of the inclusiveness and not being stuffy about watches.They want to make sure that essentially.Someone can come into windup, regardless of what they look like, what background they come from, how much money they make. uh, coming to wind up or anywhere else and feel accepted by the community that’s around them.Um, and I, I think that’s something that we’ve kind of always shot for with this and what we’ve been doing even before we joined forces.Um, so I mean like between that and how much I really like this watch and I mean, you know, that movement’s cool as hell.It’s got the smooth sweep like a grand Seiko, but it’s a battery.Um, it, that, that’s a, That’s a banging watch, and I was really happy to walk away with that one from wind up. |
| Everett | That purchase surprised me.This watch is so out of your normal wheelhouse.Because it’s also out of my normal wheelhouse.I saw it and I was like, wait, there’s angles on it.Not in English, there’s angles on it.I’m confused, but it’s a gorgeous watch, man. |
| Andrew | So the case. If you go and look at the pictures of this, the case reminds me of the 44 GS case from Grand Seiko.A lot of polished angular lugs.The sunburst on the crystal, I thought, played really well with all the polish.And you’re right.This isn’t a watch that I would typically buy.It is a little bit more blingy than I think I’d normally get.I usually don’t go for light dials. I don’t know what it was.Maybe it was, you know, the, the, maybe they were pumping something in the air at windup that said everybody needs to buy a watch 20 minutes before we close.But I, uh, I’ve been wearing it for, I don’t know, since Saturday morning.So, and I still like it so that they did a great job with it.And it’s even, even the, uh, non limited edition versions, there’s a couple of good looking ones.Um, if you check out the bowl of a jet star, I think you’d be pretty happy with how these look, any of them. |
| Will | Okay.Okay.We’ll speed round Colorado field watch. |
| Andrew | A little too big for me, but I like what they’re doing. |
| Will | Furlan Mari. |
| Andrew | They need to release something new. |
| Everett | Every time I hear their name, it sounds pornographic. |
| Will | Bravo Chronograph. |
| Andrew | Absolutely awesome.Once you understand why they are the way they are, go look at their website and you’ll get it. |
| Will | Circula. |
| Andrew | I did not realize that they had as much heritage as they did. |
| Everett | Right?Yeah.Blew my mind.Do you not listen to the show? |
| Will | Laurier. |
| Andrew | Uh, we will be getting the Astra for review tomorrow, and I’m very much looking forward to that review. |
| Will | Baltic. |
| Andrew | Flat in all the wrong ways. |
| Everett | Bad thing to have happen. |
| Will | Uh, Maine. |
| Andrew | Very underappreciated doing some super cool shit. |
| Will | Uh, let’s see.Uh, gosh, I don’t know what the brand is.I’m sorry.The bolt timer world timer bolt pilot world timer. |
| Everett | Yeah.I’m not ball.It’s the, it’s the dual. |
| Andrew | Oh, that’s a, that’s, that’s how Baltimore, um, Uh, every one of their watches was cool as shit.I loved every one of them.They have art.So what was there on display was very cool.They have some super cool shit coming out in the next year that if you even remotely like those chronographs, you’re going to love what they have coming. |
| Will | All right.I think final one, although I’ll give Andrew an alibi, uh, Yama. |
| Andrew | They surprised me in the complications that they could actually stick in a watch.Right?Blew my mind. |
| Everett | Yeah. |
| Will | Yeah.Good shit.I love that micro rotor. |
| Everett | That’s bizarre.Like it just doesn’t make sense to me.And they have a tourbillon.Yeah.Weird, but cool.My guess is that it’s in the realm of affordable too. |
| Andrew | I tried to get one for review.They said no. |
| Will | Really? |
| Andrew | They only have a limited number of them and I kind of get it so that’s fine. |
| Will | That anodized or I don’t know what the finish is that those sort of like they almost look like circuit board plastic discs on their micro rotor plates.The plates on their micro rotor movement.I’m like it’s so different than anything anybody else in the industry is doing.When they came out with that movement I think there was some skepticism and some groans.Uh, and I’m like, no, this is the shit.Yeah.Yum has got some quality control problems I think cause they’re making small scale brands, small scale watches on a large scale or relatively large scale.Uh, but yeah, I’m into it.I’m into what they’re doing.Yep.All right.Andrew, my friend, other things.What do you got? |
| Everett | I have a thing.Uh, so, It is fall, obviously, which means we go to the pumpkin patch.Uh, when we go to said pumpkin patch, we don’t just come back with pumpkins, right?Uh, we, we came back with a, with like a proper grocery bag filled with canned pickled goods, gourds, and what are you guys at Dietering? |
| Will | You guys go to Dietering?Yeah, that’s, that’s the one. |
| Everett | And way more butternut squash than any family should ever have, which is like two. |
| Andrew | I think I just heard my wife made a lot of noises right now because she really loves butternut squash. |
| Everett | She’s squealing and coming in.So anyway, I’ve got all these butternut squash on my counter.I had five butternut squash on my counter and these weren’t like modestly sized butternut squash.They were big fucking- Like blue ribbon butternuts.Yeah, they’re big.I’m like, okay, well I’ll roast them and I’ll make a butternut squash soup.But I like, that’s super boring.So I was like, I know what I’m going to do. curried butternut squash soup.So I roasted it.Put them on the smoker.Got it.I, that’s, that’s, I’m going to do, I’m going to smoke one, uh, next weekend.Put it in your pipe.So I roast it and get it nice and caramelized, hit it with some coconut milk, bunch of curry paste and powder.And now I’m like, I’m sitting with this pot filled with chunks of squash and my liquid, in it and I was like fuck and I’m like trying to like find a way to get it into the blender but it’s too much for the blender and I was like I know I have this thing in my kitchen that I never ever use in the way of an immersion blender.So my other thing this week is the like this is for the people who have all of the kitchen stuff and you need something to do just one thing and to do it perfectly.I have a Cuisinart stick immersion blender.I’m not going to link to it cause it’s old.It’s probably like an eight year old kitchen item, but I am going to link to one of like the best of options and they’re all affordable.They’re like 60 ish bucks.This is what that tool is for. |
| Will | Yeah. |
| Everett | And I was so pleased.I was like in the middle of this, like, Oh, I’ve made a, I’ve made an error.What, how do I solve it?I have the solution.The solution is deep in the cupboard and I had to dig it out and I got it. hit it with |
| Will | Uh, I feel like this is one of those. |
| Everett | I have a, but I have a Blendtec, right?You should be able, like, that’s what your Blendtec’s for.It has a soup setting, but the squash was so big, the squash and all of the things wouldn’t go into my Blendtec. |
| Will | I love it, man.I love it when you like discover a thing that everybody has discovered. |
| Everett | But I’ve had it and I just never use it.I never use it.Yeah.And I finally got to put it into use.I subsequently made another round of said soup because I need to get rid of these squash that are on my counter.And you want to use your immersion blender.I want to use my immersion blender. |
| Andrew | Yeah.So it’s funny that you mentioned this and I talked about my wife really liking butternut squash soup because a couple of weeks ago, we also went to the pumpkin patch, brought home some butternut squash and she wanted to make butternut squash soup.We do not have an immersion blender, but she wanted to make butternut squash soup.She went out and bought one to make the butternut squash soup and she was So happy with how it turned out that my wife is one of those people that will use something and be like, I’m never going to use this again.I should just return it because we don’t need to spend the money on this.She kept the immersion blender because she was like, next fall, I’m going to make this again. |
| Everett | And that’s what it’s for.I’ve, I’ve never, I’ve only ever used it for that application.It’s been in my, in my cupboard for maybe 10 years. |
| Andrew | Spaghetti sauce.So yours, yours is old and we just bought one.She got, The one that they sell at Target, whatever is the most popular one that they sell at Target.That’s the one that she got.She was very happy with it. |
| Everett | The Smart Stick Hand Blender from Cuisinart.Or did she get the KitchenAid 2 Speed? |
| Andrew | It wasn’t Cuisinart or KitchenAid.It was something… I could look at our purchase history and figure this out.Hamilton Beach? |
| Will | No, that’s Walmart.We will link this in the show notes.You owe me that text. |
| Everett | That’ll be Will’s save. |
| Will | Yeah.We’ll be in the show notes.Uh, we’ll, we’ll Gillis other, other things.What, what do you got? |
| Andrew | So I feel that this would have fit in actually a little bit better with last time I was on the show, but I’m going to talk about it now. |
| Will | Um, it’s a COVID treatment. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Yeah. |
| Everett | I told you about next now.Is that the, that’s the horse medicine, right? |
| Andrew | Invermectin.Yeah.That’s my other thing. Uh, no, mine is the Tenba Fulton V2 photo backpack.So I have had a Lowepro photo backpack for a very long time.Um, and my problem with it has always been that it really looks like a photo backpack.Yeah.Uh, so I went looking out for another one before we went on our cruise.Um, and I settled on the Tenba Fulton. And it comes in three different sizes, 10 liter, 14 liter and 16.I went with the 14, which is the midsize there.The reason I went with it for a couple of reasons.I wanted this to actually be a photo backpack that I could bring to vacation in multiple places and not feel concerned about what I had in it.So the nice thing about this is, is that it only opens from the back to get to your camera equipment. So obviously no one can steal your camera if it’s in your backpack and strapped to your back.They would have to steal your entire backpack, which I think is rare.Or you just don’t go to Mexico. |
| Will | They’d have to actually abduct your body. |
| Andrew | The other thing is the top pouch is not a zipper pouch like a lot of other backpacks that have the back access panel.It rolls down and then it has a little clip that you hook in um that goes on the back of the backpack also like where you would go to the center strap to like pick it up or hang it on the wall so i mean if someone wants to steal your shit out of this backpack they really got to be knowing what they’re doing um or the nice thing to take all of you yeah yeah exactly super secure stuff so if you look at the pictures of it the pannier it’s sort of got that ortlieb pannier design yes exactly and um the front pouch that’s on this They say it’s a laptop sleeve.I’m, I’m not a laptop person.When I travel, I edit my photos when I get home.If I need to do something, I’ll just do it on my phone.Um, so that’s the, I would say that’s the only security vulnerability in this is that the laptop sleeve is in the front of the bag where someone could steal it.But I actually found that more beneficial for putting like brochures and maps and pamphlets and shit.When we were traveling, I would just shove all that in there. Because it’s a thin pocket, right?And it has two pockets on the side.I was able to stick a water bottle.You could put a tripod on the other side.It is not expensive as far as photo backpacks go.I have an f-stop bag that I bought many years ago that was exorbitantly more expensive than this and gets used extensively less than this.Will be.I know it will. Uh, because this is pretty easy to carry around.It’s a lot smaller.It’s a lot lighter.Um, it’s easier to put my stuff in because I don’t have 10 million lenses anymore.Um, I’ve been really happy with it.I think it kind of.Fits that doesn’t look like a photo backpack looks more like just kind of a regular backpacking backpack where someone’s going to assume that you just have some dirty underwear and socks in there. |
| Everett | Um, messengery with the roll top.Yeah. |
| Andrew | Yeah.Yeah.Especially with the roll top.I think that’s the big thing. Um, so just, just to give a little bit of context too, for anybody who might be like, well, what if I have something I want to put in it, like a laptop?Um, when we went on the cruise, uh, my two kids, they both have iPads that are in those cases that have the handle on the top and are fully surrounded by like foam rubber that I’m sure everybody who has kids knows what I’m talking about.I was able to fit two of those in the top pouch and still roll it once and hook it without losing capacity.So, um, if, if that’s what you’re concerned about, you can stick some iPads in there and still be pretty safe as far as, you know, someone being able to steal shit out of your bag goes. |
| Will | You know, I think between, between your Temba and my Billingham Hadley, uh, I think we’ve got the range of acceptable camera bags, like almost exactly bracketed, right?Yeah.I think the two opposite ends of high end.Yeah.And right.You’re a Sony guy.I’m a, I’m a Fuji guy.And it just seems like the, it’s like almost perfect.If you’re a Fuji guy, get the Billingham Hadley.If you’re a Sony guy, get the Temba or perhaps the F-stop. |
| Andrew | Yeah.I mean, the thing is my F-stop.I feel that I could take that thing and slam it against the wall 700 times. step on it, scrape it across rock and it would be fine and everything in it would be fine.But it’s just freaking big.It’s so big.I can’t carry it everywhere.It’s great for backpacking and, you know, doing an overnight, but it is not a day bag. |
| Will | All day bag.Yeah.Yeah.So I’ve got another thing.Do me.I, in the way we do, I have inexplicably started I inexplicably started watching YouTubes about remote control cars.There’s no good reason for it. |
| Everett | It’s the rabbit hole, man. |
| Will | I found a rabbit hole and I and I jumped into it.I decided I decided at some point that I needed to buy a remote control car.I decided that not only did I need to buy it, but I needed to buy one that was completely unassembled and from scratch build it.I bought a remote control car. I bought a remote control car from a company called Traxxas, which, if you know anything about remote control cars, is a company you’ll be familiar with.I did not, and I was not, but now I am.Now I do, and I am.So I just on a whim.So first you find out remote control cars aren’t cheap.Remote control cars are expensive.Proper remote control cars.Proper remote control cars.That’s right.And there is, like with all things, there’s a range.I bought a Traxxas Slash two wheel drive, unassembled kit.I built this thing over two days.It felt ridiculous at every step of this process.Buying it felt ridiculous.Building it felt ridiculous.My wife was disappointed in me and I could see the disdain in her eyes when I came home with this thing. |
| Everett | Uh, so to be clear, Mark, my eight year old came home and said, Ev got a remote control car.Kim is annoyed out of her mind by it. |
| Will | And he nailed it.He nailed it.With that said, so, so the building process was fun.You know, this is like putting together a model, right?But it’s like putting together a grown up model.With electronics.With electronics.Have you painted it?I painted it.I did the full meal deal and then I, I put it all together and it worked.A, it worked. |
| Everett | There’s the one.Yeah.And B, |
| Will | That’s not that expensive.I do not.Well, but it’s not everything.And then you’ve got batteries and you’ve got chargers and yeah, uh, that’s, it’s not that expensive.I think I paid 300 bucks for everything.With that said, I put this thing together and I don’t really care about it because I’m not really interested in it as a precious.It’s all about the process.And so I’ve had, you know, we’ve talked about our neighborhood on the show a number of times.We’ve got live on this tiny little street with 35 kids. Um, and so I took this thing outside and I started running it and immediately 16 kids showed up and I just started passing this thing out and they’re able to like, and they were like the first time there’s one of the kids in the neighborhood is named Kingston and he is, he’s a really nice kid, but he’s like kind of the big aggressive menace.He’s a menace.Yeah.Within 10 seconds he ran this thing into the curb and it was this kind of traumatic, like, Like, and he looked at me with these eyes and I was like, that’s what it’s for, man.And so the kids and everybody, you could see everybody was like shocked and they were like, Oh, this is actually cool.So I think every single kid in the neighborhood, including the three year old has driven this thing.Everybody’s running into a curb and or the tires on Andrew’s truck.Uh, it’s fucking incredible.It goes so fast and it’s not that fast.It’s like 27 miles per hour, which in RC car terms is slow. |
| Everett | But it’s lightning fast for something of that size. |
| Will | It feels like a rocket and the kids love it.And it’s been the most fun.It’s so fun.And it’s beat to shit.I’ve had this thing for literally three days and it looks like it’s been run for years.Like if you saw, it’s all scraped up. |
| Andrew | It’s what literally everybody talks about when they’re like, I use my watches.That’s what they’re actually talking about. |
| Will | I go out of my way to hurt it.We have gone out of the way.And I’m jumping it.I put some plywood together and put it on the street and the kids were jumping it in the air and it flips over and lands on its back and scrapes.And the kids are like, yes!It’s been the most fun thing.And in our neighborhood, it’s just been perfect.I’ve had such a blast with it.So stupid, borderline embarrassing, totally worth it. |
| Everett | Nope. You don’t have a pit crew yet, so it’s not embarrassing.I do not.Not yet.I do not.That’s my other thing for the week.That’s a great other thing. |
| Andrew | I don’t have another thing.Hold on.I don’t have another thing, but I have an other thing. |
| Everett | An additional thing. |
| Andrew | So for people who don’t… An other other thing.Yeah.For people who don’t know, I think we’ve mentioned it on the show before, but we now have episode transcripts if you are not aware.So they are not on… like where you might go to Spotify or Apple Podcasts, anything like that.But if you go to the WatchClicker website and you go to the episodes, we have episode transcripts for each episode.I have to give a huge shout out if we haven’t already.I’m going to give another one to Paul Hubbard, who developed this transcribing technology for us.These are usually available the day after.So on Fridays, we have the transcript available. And he’s recently enhanced it where it’s even better in that it identifies who is speaking.So it won’t just be a wall of text.It’ll say Andrew Everett, or in this case Will, and what they’re actually saying.So if you need a transcript because of a disability or you’re hard of hearing, something like that, and you still want to follow along with the show, we have those available at WatchClicker.com. I have to update them manually, so I try to do them every week.So if there’s one that’s missing, you don’t see it, you can message me and I will make sure it’s there.But we don’t have those going back forever.But if you need one, let me know and I can get it for you.I’d be happy to provide a transcript.Paula has provided the ability for us to do that. |
| Everett | Might be a coffee table book in the future.Yeah, it’s pretty rad. |
| Will | It’s pretty rad tech.We were talking about it on the discord recently and I was like, this is just so cool. |
| Andrew | It is.It’s unbelievably cool.Especially with the, it can identify who’s talking.It’s wild. |
| Will | Yeah.And it replicates, I mean, what would otherwise be hours and hours and hours of work? |
| Everett | Yep.Axon has a transcription technology also.It’s not super accurate. |
| Will | I would say this one, Paul’s tech is pretty, I mean, you can tell in context that some of this stuff is, you know, every once in a while I’ll miss a phrase or something, but it’s really great.It’s incredible. |
| Everett | And we make up a lot of words here. |
| Will | We do.That’s true.It’s a totally fair thing to say.Will, thanks for doing this.Thanks for joining us.Appreciate you. |
| Everett | And thanks for going to Windup. |
| Will | Sorry we missed you.You know, I kept getting pictures all weekend. Uh, you know, first, the first picture I got was from Jonathan for air.And he said, miss you.And it’s like Debbie from case and crown and Andrew Perez.And I was like, God damn it.And then I get picked.Then I get pictures of you and I get pictures of Mike and I get pictures of Frank.I feel like, uh, very, I feel very sad. |
| Everett | I, I, I just couldn’t be on vacation three weekends out of four. |
| Will | Anyway, we missed you.We’ll see you next year for sure. |
| Everett | Or in San Francisco.Come to San Francisco. |
| Andrew | Come to the West Coast.That’s the next step.And the reason I went on Friday this year is I got a young family and it was it was hard to make it on Saturday this year because we had a bunch of family stuff going on.And I think that’s to close it out.I think that’s something that a lot of people forget in that we’re all kind of doing this stuff to have fun.But, you know, when we when we go out, you know, I’m talking about us three. to do something watch related, you know, that’s, that’s without our family.And sometimes that’s a bummer.Sometimes it’s not, you know, depending on what your current situation is, how fun your kids are being in that time.But, um, we always just take advantage of the time that we get to do this, this fun hobby that we have. |
| Everett | Well stated. |
| Will | We love you guys.We miss you.We’ll see you soon. and out of wind up in the future.San Francisco, I think that’s the that’s for sure.We’re going to be there.Well, you talked about the possibility you might be there.We’ll see.But yeah, San Francisco wind up.We didn’t see in New York this year.We’ll see you there.We’ve now committed.Hey, you guys, I want to thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20.The WatchClicker podcast.Do me a favor.Check us out at WatchClicker.com.That is where we post every single episode of this podcast, as well as transcripts of those podcasts.If you’re so inclined, you can check us out on the socials at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker on Instagram.That’s where we post articles, reviews, things that we’re doing.Um, you can also support us and, and, and, oh boy, we hope you want to support us.You can do that at patrion.com slash 40 and 20. That is where we buy things like Will’s new microphone.It’s hot.Which hopefully you can hear how much better it is.And that’s how we pay for hosting, etc.All this stuff costs money.We really do appreciate you guys that are supporting us on Patreon.And don’t forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. |
| Andrew | Bye bye.Bye bye. |
