Longines Releases an Instant Classic (343)

Published on Mon, 26 May 2025 21:43:40 -0700

Synopsis

In this episode of the Watch Clicker podcast, hosts Andrew and Everett discuss recent watch releases and other topics. Everett shares a story about his recent flight and family trip to California, while they review several new watches including releases from Micro Mill Spec, Formex, Longines, Stova and others. They particularly highlight the Longines Spirit Zulu Time 1925, which Everett predicts will become a cult classic. The hosts also discuss Formula 1's Monaco Grand Prix and related Tag Heuer releases. The episode concludes with Everett enthusiastically recommending the movie Alien Romulus, which he watched on his flight, calling it potentially the best Alien movie ever made.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett.
Everett How are you? I'm good. I'm a few moments off an airplane, which is disorienting. It's always disorienting. And I say a few moments. Obviously, that's a bit of an exaggeration. But, like, what, I landed a half hour ago. Yeah, neighborhood. Yeah. So, no, I'm doing all right. I'm doing all right. The flight was good. That's always a win. The flight was good, although I had two legs of the flight. You usually have two legs for being fair. Yeah, I went to California, so sometimes you can do that. I was talking about your actual legs that are attached to your body. Oh, sure, yeah, I do always have two. At the end of the first leg, I had to pee. Uh-oh, I had to pee. I had peed once mid-flight. And then as things started slowing down, we're getting ready to descend. No, I'm good. Mistake.
Andrew Always. Always a mistake.
Everett Mistake. And then, of course, we're descending, and I open the window a crack, and I can see we're still very high. Like farms are still posted stamps, and I'm like, oh. I'm in big trouble. And, yeah, we touched down in Seattle, and Seattle's a weird airport that's kind of... It's the fucking worst airport. I don't hate it, but the layout is, like, the terminal layout is weird. And I can tell we're going to one of the weird, like, the S terminal. And so we're like... We're sitting at this taxi intersection. I don't know. Technical terms, I don't know. But we're sitting at this intersection and, like, we've been held. And I see, you know... a plane go by. I'm like, okay, now we're going to go. It's making it worse because you're in your head now.
Andrew That's right.
Everett I'm way in my head, just all the way up my ass. I'm like, I'm going to piss my pants. I'm sitting here, going to pee my pants. I'm sitting pretty close to the front. I'm at the literal front of the plane and I look at the lady. And I say, I know it's not allowed, but I'm literally going to pee my pants. And she like smiles, like she smiles and she reaches back. I dare you. She's in the jump seat and she just kind of reaches back and like. slides the thing that unlocks the door bathroom door. So I get up and go and I come out and I go, I'm really sorry. And she was like, no, no, I, I saw you squirming, but she says it with this, like really, this really like sadistic grin on her face. And I'm like, Oh man. Anyway, that was my, that was my FAA violation story. Yeah, I peed, though. I didn't pee in my pants, but I peed in a toilet. Well, not much in your pants. There's some gut in there. Maybe. Maybe. It's possible. Yeah. Yeah, it's possible. In any event, flight went well. Trip was good. Went down to California for a wedding. Yeah. Trip was good. Wedding was great. It was warm down there. Believe it. It was in the 80s. It was fine. It was nice. That's too much for... Was it an indoor or outdoor wedding? I'm assuming outdoor because it's spring. The wedding was indoor... The reception was outdoor. And everything was fine. The dress code accommodated the weather and everything. So it was really good. And the person that got married is really special to Kim and I. And so it was a really cool weekend. Nice. Kids were down there. They were super well-behaved. I think at this age, they're 12, 12, and 13 now. And I think at that age, they really have the ability to be well-behaved. And it's just such a pleasure when they are. Yes. Because despite having the ability, they are not always. Yeah, they're not always there. But when they, I mean, they were just really pleasant and a joy to be around. Not just for other people, but even... Like for me, I was like, these kids are a joy to be around.
Andrew That's the real win is not just that they're well behaved and like not disruptive, but they're like socially appropriate for the environment. It's the double whammy of that age where they can turn on both switches. Yeah. And not just like brood in the corner and be like kind of weird. Like, yeah, you're not causing trouble, but you're like being a little weird. Sure.
Everett Yeah, that's true, Andrew. And they were definitely dynamic and part of the story in a positive way. But also, and maybe this is a bit of nuance on what you're saying, but I was really enjoying being with them. Which, of course, they're my kids and I enjoy being with them. But this weekend in particular, I was like... I'm really like enjoying – excuse me. I'm really enjoying spending time with them, which sounds – maybe that sounds bad. Maybe I should be careful here because I love my kids and I was just really like – But sometimes they're not fun to be around because they're being – I was taken aback at how much fun I had with them.
Andrew How are you? How are you? I'm good. We're like, I'm mid-work week. We're recording at an unusual time. Yeah, that's right. It's actually, it's my morning. So a typical reverse. You're drinking beer and I'm drinking seltzer. Not hard seltzer either.
Everett And not even hard seltzer. So you're going to leave. We're going to stop recording in an hour-ish from now. And you're going to get in your car and drive to the police station and put on a uniform.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah.
Everett So just for the record, Andrew is not, he's drinking Waterloo.
Andrew Yeah, Waterloo lemon lime. It tastes like 7-Up. It's like almost sweet like 7-Up, but it's not.
Everett Interesting.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah. I know that you've had sober episodes. Yeah. And we're, I mean, we're always. We've been a little lit. Degrees of sober. We've been a little lit a few times. But you've had episodes, dry episodes, but not many. No, we just talked about that. Dry episode. And we're here to talk about watches.
Unknown Yeah.
Everett Turns out. Unusual for us. Turns out. I want to ask you a funny question, but I don't want to give any... Is there a single watch release from this week that stood out to you as being something special? We haven't talked about this in advance, you guys. But going through the materials, there's one of these watch releases that stood out to me, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is a really cool watch. In a way that maybe the others weren't, which isn't to say yes or no. It doesn't matter. Nothing super stood out in that way for me. Okay. When we get to it, one of us will get to it, and when we get to it, I'll announce myself. But there was one for me. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just one of those things.
Andrew Andrew, do you want to... I want to start with a kind of stupid watch news slash not watch news thing. So Omega has signed Aaron Taylor Johnson as a new brand ambassador.
Everett Yeah, I don't know that this is stupid.
Andrew I think it is a little bit stupid. Eh. But so so we've seen the James Bond franchise change ownership hands. We see and you know, there's always the the five years of rumor mill and speculation on who. And we're in year four of that, by the way. Yes. Just for the record. And there's always that. Right. And everyone's like, who are they going to pick? Who are they going to pick? Specifically regarding who's going to be the next James Bond. Yes, yes. With an ownership change, we knew that there was going to be some changes to the property. And Omega has recently announced their new brand ambassador. And Omega has been a part of some pretty kind of fun, intentional leaks, like really low-key leaks. leaking of information and stuff. So there's some speculation now that this brand ambassador partnership is going to be... What's the right word? Is the first domino of the announcement. Yeah. That Aaron Taylor Johnson is going to be the next 007. And I think I'm good with him.
Everett Yeah, I mean, it's sort of, I think a lot of people are coming to the same conclusion that we're suggesting or that you're suggesting now. And for not bad reason, although we need to be clear, Omega does not have any say, as far as we know. And who will be the next?
Andrew Not necessarily, but they might know already. They might be like, okay, because you're partnering, like, hey, this is the guy we've picked. Make him a brand ambassador so we can slow roll this announcement and generate some hype and some excitement, some kind of buzz around it for the next six to 12 months before we make an actual announcement.
Everett And Aaron Taylor Johnson, if you don't know, fantastic, young. He's not that young. Well, he's 34. Okay, so that's young. That's young.
Andrew He's not a fledgling actor.
Everett Sure, but younger than, for instance, Idris Elba. Just going to go on record here. He seems to fit the mold in a way that some of the other names that have been forwarded don't. He's young. He's sort of like, I would say, A minus list and perhaps rising. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, and then they're doing the thing where they typically don't pick somebody who's at the peak of stardom. Sure. So that you're not trying to push that person into the character. You let the character of James Bond emit from them.
Everett Yes, that's right. So... I think it's really fun. I think it's fun to speculate.
Andrew It also could be an absolute nothing because they might have just formed a brand ambassadorship with him because he's like, hey, I'd like to wear Omega. And they're like, cool, here's some.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Really, really, really fun news. And to the extent we can be a part of it, exciting. Yeah. I liked him in Bullet Train. He's great in Bullet Train.
Andrew I liked that movie just kind of on the whole.
Everett Yeah, I thought the movie on a whole left something to be desired, Frank, personally. It was fun, though. It was fun. Yeah. But really good. I don't need to be moved by every movie I see. He was really good in it, I will say. No, you don't. Of course not, Andrew. But I think the movie had a lot of promise, and I think but for Aaron Taylor-Johnson, the movie was a little disappointing. What's a but for? So that is, that's not necessarily a new watch, but it is. Some interesting watch adjacent. Watch adjacent news. Black Badger. Okay. So Micro Mill Spec is a watch brand that we don't talk about much on the show or haven't talked about much on the show because I think they make watches that I don't give a shit about.
Andrew Yeah, they don't scratch the itch for me either.
Everett Yeah, that's right. I do believe we've talked about them on this show, specifically with regards to the mill graph. But again, they're sort of like an oddly... stoic brand in a way, perhaps even like tactical in a way that doesn't do it for me. But they've teamed up with black Badger, AKA James Thompson, who is a designer and engineer slash designer type, who is the chief of materials at Arcanaut. and who has got a reputation in the watch world as being sort of a loom, loom, loom guy.
Andrew Mm-hmm. I think there may be one more loom on that.
Everett Loom, loom, loom, loom? Yeah. So MicroMillSpec has teamed up with Black Badger to make a new limited edition version of the mill graph that they're calling the Sabotage. which unsurprisingly features a ton of lumes, specifically X1 grade Superluminova, both on the indices and hands. But it's more than just a Superlume mill graph because there's a lot of tongue being inserted firmly in the side of cheek for this watch. So... I'm not going to do the lore justice, so I won't get super deep into it, but it's an imagined anime. This watch imagines an anime, and it's a watch created for the protagonist of this anime, or perhaps created around the protagonist. The protagonist being Black Badger, who fights a few different villains, specifically the Kronos Syndicate, controlled by quote-unquote Grand Psycho and the Crown Guard, which, again, there's a lot of tongue-in-cheek. Sort of a space pirate thing going on here. All, of course, hypothetical, I think is the appropriate word. But really what we've got is a left-hand drive, a left-hand drive chronograph with a GMT that's got sort of a space adventure theme. Tons of lume. Really delightful hours, seconds, and minutes. Sub-dials with the seconds being small, hours being middle, and minutes being the biggest. Central seconds, I believe, keep regular time, which is atypical. Although, that can't be right, can it? Anyway, it's a grade 5 titanium case. It's a beef. This is a mill graph. So if you know anything about the micro mill spec mill graph, this is the same. So 42 millimeter case, 15 millimeter thick. This has a blasted grade 5 titanium case. Because it's blasted, that titanium coating will patina over time. We've got pushers that are sort of integrated into... like a crown guard apparatus on the right side of the case. Left side. That's what I guess. Yeah, that's right. The left side of the case. The correct side of the case, as I would say. Sure, the Destro side. And I just think this is a really terrific watch that is delightful from a brand that I think runs the risk of taking itself too seriously at times.
Andrew Perhaps, and this is, I think, evidence that they don't.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew They created an entire space opera marketing package for a 75-piece release.
Everett So it's a Le Jeu Parade movement. It's the L-121, which is a column wheel chronograph that also has a GMT complication. I must know that this movement exists, but I don't know that I've ever marked it before mentally.
Andrew I don't know where else we've seen it. I, it,
Everett It's a really cool movement, really cool watch. I'm into this. It's $3850. They're only making $75 of them. So if you really want this, I do think that the micro mil spec mil graph is relatively available if you want one. But this is special, and I think it's pretty cool.
Andrew Is this the one that you were talking about? It's not. Okay. It's not. No. Okay. I'll wait with bated breath. I'm going to let you bring it. I don't still know what you're talking about. That's all right. Okay. I want to talk. Oh, where is it?
Everett For the record, I don't think that the, so I do think that the standard mill graph has the same movement. I just don't know that I've ever tracked that it was both a chronograph and a GMT, which I think is a lot of fun. Sorry, go ahead.
Andrew May I? Thank you. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Next up, we have Gen 2 of the Formex Field Automatic. And as much as you like your... Oh, my gosh. Essence. Yes, your essence. This is my jam. I was trying to give you a chance. I couldn't grab it. I wanted to call it the reef, but I know it's not the reef. So I couldn't grab it. But this is like my level of jam. So this is... 41 millimeter titanium case, 150 meters of water resistance. This is their Gen 2, so the watch has existed, but they've added some new colorways. Charcoal, petrol blue, ash gray, mahogany red, ultraviolet, sage green, plenty of strap options. And this is just Formex kind of like... In its zone, doing exactly what Formex does, dropping really attractive, very angular, aggressive, tool-style watches. Under $1,000 on these? Uh-huh, uh-huh. It's a Slita 200 movement, so we're right where we expect it to be price-wise with this. 10.6 high. This is a winner of a Gen 2. And I dig it. Great colorways. Which one's this color? The one that looks very coppery. Is that going to be the mahogany? Yeah, I think that's got to be the mahogany. That's what they call mahogany, yes. The charcoal's killer.
Everett Which very much feels like salmon to me. Yeah. Maybe they don't like... Maybe they don't like that. I always think of mahogany as much richer. So I'll just say, we've talked about the Formex Field on the show before. Dimensions are great. I mean, I think that there are some other watches that... kind of come in really close to the Formex field in a way that always kind of felt funny to me. But the big problem I always had with the Formex field was it just felt cheap to me. It felt too cheap for what it was, the way it looked. I don't mean that objectively the materials weren't good. I don't mean anything like that. I just mean the way it looked top down, it just felt like it missed to me. There's another brand. It starts with a B. I don't want to say it right now, but I was just like, oh, I'm not going to. I can't do it.
Andrew I think a closer competitor to this is Circula. Their field watch. That's what I'm more reminiscent to me. I hear what you're saying.
Everett Let me just pull up a picture because I think I disagree. But anyway, the big thing I really didn't like, the big thing I really didn't like was... Yeah, no, I disagree with you, Andrew. I just pulled up pictures. Was the antique loom or the vintage loom. I just... And that's all gone. Couldn't do it. And here... It's gone. It's gone. So we've got a Dow. I'm going to say this is sort of like a sector tuxedo. I mean, does that seem like... Do you hate that?
Andrew Yeah, I think I disagree. I'm not sure how I would...
Everett Well, that's how I'm going to call it. I'm going to call it like a sector tuxedo, but I can appreciate that you might not love that description. With that said, I think they've fixed a lot of the problems. I still don't know that I love this watch, but I like it a lot better. And the dimensions, hard to argue with these dimensions, right?
Andrew Yeah, I mean, so they brought the case size down from 41 to 40. 1066 grade two titanium. They have applied their own hardening process to it to like get 10X the Vickers out of the hardness of this titanium.
Everett Yes, we're up to 900 Vickers. So it says...
Andrew Three times, but 145 to 900. That's basically 10 times. That's 100 to 1,000. Yeah, I don't know that your math is any good, but that's fine.
Everett You know, it's not COSC, but it's a Salida. It's SW200, so you could make it COSC if you wanted. Well, you couldn't actually make it COSC, but you could regulate it to COSC standards. And they're cheap, right? It's 870 bucks. Yeah.
Andrew I don't like the font on some of the numbers. Yeah, I don't like the fonts here. I think just the odd numbers I don't like. I'm okay with the one.
Everett You're okay with that too? No. I like the one and the eight. Sure, the one is just a bar.
Andrew Yeah, and the eight. The font, it's kind of... It's kind of... space agey like yeah yeah like if if you were it's kind of star trekky like 1980s 1990s futuristic vibe to it yeah like if if star trek the next generation had envisioned a football team this would be the numbers on i'm pretty confident jerseys somewhere in that series there is like some form of football played and i bet that's where this font is from it could be yeah I don't see a bracelet option. There's no bracelet.
Everett They just do a strap on these. And their strap here is kind of weird. It looks to me like an Erica slash Mankey type of thing. And I don't love it. I don't love it. Okay. Yeah, I don't love it. But I do think this is a better version. I like these dials much better.
Andrew A significant improvement from Gen 1.
Everett Yeah. Okay, we talked about that. We talked about this. We talked about that. I'm going to talk about a watch from Frederic Constant. That is like weird. But that I'm also like, okay, I see you, Freddie. I got to turn off my Wi-Fi because it's trying to connect to home. We're calling this the manchette, which means. I think it's manchette. Manchette. Yeah. Which means cuff. Manchette means cuffs. This is a watch that was sold by Frédéric Constant starting in 1980 that they sold until roughly 2005, at which point cuff-style, jewelry-style watches kind of went out of favor. Um... in trouble coming up with what to say about this. Coming up with what to say about it. This feels very much like a 1980s high-end jewelry company watch release, right?
Andrew But inspired by the tones and feels of the 20s.
Everett Sure. Sure. That's fair enough.
Andrew I'm totally down with this.
Everett If someone, if you saw this watch on Reddit watch exchange and it said on it, Tiffany, or it said on it, Chopard. You'd be like, yeah, it makes sense. I've never seen that before, but it makes sense. This, rather, coming from Frederic Constant, it's got this faceted, flexible bracelet, and it's a cuff, right? So it doesn't change from thickness. There's no lugs. There's no taper. There's no mid-case. It's just a bracelet with a quartz watch. with a quartz watch dial inset. The watch itself tiny, 25.7 by 20 square that's set into like this, they call it a seven link bracelet because it's got seven. Yeah, anyway, you just need to see the pictures. There's no way we can describe this thing adequately. Just pull up pictures if you want to know what it looks like. So they're selling this with a steel dial. They're selling it with a malachite and onyx hardstone dials. And they're selling it with a diamond set dial.
Andrew Prices vary. You know, even that diamond set dial isn't, I mean, you're not getting a ton of carrots because it's not much, but that's still 4,300 bucks for a diamond set dial.
Everett Yeah, so $1,400 for the steel dial, $1,900 for the malachite and onyx, and then $4,300 for the diamond set dial. These are – I don't feel bad about saying these are feminine watches, although I wouldn't suggest that only women could wear them for a minute because I think if you want to wear one, fucking wear it.
Andrew The green dial looks good.
Everett Yeah. These are interesting, Andrew. Yeah, the Malachite is great. These are interesting. Yeah. I do wish that these were a mechanical movement.
Andrew You know, you'd lose your six and a half millimeter thick bracelet feel, I think.
Everett I don't know that you would have to. I do think that you would go up in price, right? These quartz styles are probably, or these quartz movements are probably relatively inexpensive. But, I mean, for an extra 500 bucks a piece, or even 300 bucks a piece, would you spring? I would spring, maybe. I mean, to the extent that I was going to buy this watch, $500 doesn't make a difference to me.
Andrew Yeah, because I think the point there is that this is a piece of jewelry in a way that a typical watch is not. The difference between a $1,300 luxury bracelet and an $1,800 luxury bracelet. That's it. I almost feel like $1,800 is a more appropriate price for a watch of this ilk. That's right, right?
Everett So the prices would go to... So let's just make some assumptions here. That the mechanical movement that they're going to put in this... is going to be a 500 cost so that means like something like 100 to 125 uh uh material upgrade so 500 rp increase in price we've got now 1900 for the matte white dial the steel dial we've got 2400 for the stone dials and 4800 for the diamond dials That's a negligible difference.
Andrew Yeah. Well, especially when you start looking at other jewelry companies doing bracelet-style watches. Right. There's just no direct competition at this price point. That's right. It almost doesn't fit.
Everett That's right. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so anyway, really cool watch. My only criticism is that it feels like these should be a mechanical movement. Probably a delicate, tiny, hand-wound mechanical movement. Yeah. But, yeah.
Andrew So the Monaco Grand Prix was this weekend, despite some rule changes. Did you watch? I did. Okay. Your dog woke me up, so I was up, and I was like, oh, Monaco's on. I'm going to watch it. They made some rule changes this year for the race. They required two pits for each driver before they could complete the race, because Monaco is a very thin... narrow track. So there is just not a lot of passing opportunities. Last year, it was basically just a procession. There was no lead changes. It's just hard to get around people. So they forced two pits. It did not really change the... the dynamics of the race. It was still very processional, which is fine, right? It's this historic race. It's just a bummer that you, that you, one of the jewels in the crown jewel of racing is like kind of a done deal. Like if you take the lead, then that's it. There will not be a lead change. Unless you pit.
Everett Yeah, sort of a dog and pony, huh?
Andrew Yeah, very much so. And it's beautiful, right? You know, when you look at the coastline, they've done some expansions of the course over the years. And this coastline out into the marina, there's just billions and billions of dollars of these luxury yachts lining the... lining the docks. It was a really lovely spectacle. In honor of this year's Grand Prix, Tag Heuer has released three new Monaco editions. Where are they? Here we go. They're all Monaco's. I mean, honestly, they've done some new... materials, they've got a titanium, they've got kind of a carbon-y look. Where is this? TH titanium, so texturized titanium with in-house metallurgy. It's just, they're Monaco's, you know. They're cool releases. They all look fun. They're all, like, this white dialed one is their, is the special edition for this year. It's the Gulf. Yeah, so that's the big one. That's the cool release.
Everett They brought back the Gulf livery, which made famous by Steve McQueen.
Andrew Wow.
Everett I shouldn't say that. Watch heads probably will most recognize this as being sort of the Steve McQueen livery when he raced in Monaco and in some ways put the Hoyer Monaco on the map. And that one comes with the vintage Hoyer logo at 12 o'clock. Yes. As does the stopwatch, too.
Andrew 9,300 Swiss francs, right? These are... They're really getting their money's worth out of Monaco iterations at Tag Heuer.
Everett All of these are caliber 11s, automatic. Yeah, so I think two of these are really cool. I don't care so much for the TH titanium release, although it's also neat. But that golf livery is really cool. It is. Yeah, and the stopwatch is pretty cool, too. Yeah.
Andrew Those are fun. Yeah. They're just, it's a nice iterative release.
Everett Sertina. Sertina finally released a DS action diver in a good size. Yeah, they did. 40.5 millimeters. This is very similar to the DS action divers that you can right now purchase or previously purchased in 38. and 43 millimeters. It's just not a stupid size. And not to say that either of those are stupid. The 43 is arguably on the two, leaning towards the two big side. The 38 millimeter, I think it's fine. Although some people don't want a tiny diver and 38 millimeters is a tiny diver.
Andrew I want just one 38 millimeter diver. I want no more. That's right.
Everett This is much more of like, oh, this just works for everybody. This is just a good size. Like it's not giant. It's not dainty. It's just... A normal size watch. And if you... I think it's 40.5 by 48 millimeters, which is very similar to sub sizes. Some may say those are the iconic. That is the iconic dive watch size. And it's beautiful, Andrew. It is. It's beautiful. It's got a lovely ceramic bezel. It comes in several colors. It is... It's just very, very nice. A little thick, 14.1 millimeters thick, which you may say, okay, Sertina, can we get that down a little bit? We've got a Nevicron hairspring because it's got a Powermatic 80. It's very nice. And before you get too excited about 14.1, The most expensive version of these, this in titanium with a titanium bracelet. 900 bucks or 900 francs. So probably like 1100 bucks, something like that.
Andrew ISO certified diver. I can't get with the white. I don't know what is not working for me on it. But this black dial with the blue bezel. Yeah, that's scratching the itch. That's the titanium one.
Everett So I think it's actually a dark blue dial. It could be. But that is the so the titanium, I think, is the best of these. uh far and away it's just really it's really really the black steel has got like guilt which which i'm i know some people like many people like it's not for me yeah i'm okay with it i'm okay with it the white on white is is a look I'm good with it feels kind of Omega E to me I think these are really nice watches for the price very much yeah I mean I think if you are looking at for instance a SPB 143 or you know you're like gosh I just don't want to spend on the Tudor but the Seiko whatever these are really nice these are really really nice Thick, but whatever. For $1,100? Yeah, it's hard to beat. Especially if you go full titanium. 300 meters of water resistance on these, by the way.
Andrew I'll talk about something that is a little bit different size and a little bit more expensive. You're talking about me?
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Longines has the Spirit Zulu Time 1925 celebrating a 100-year anniversary with a really, really good color combination. So the Spirit Zulu Time, 39-millimeter case, 13 1⁄2 thick, 100 meters of water resistance. This, you know, is the Zulu time, right? So we've got a really lovely GMT. Little loss of legibility with the bronze GMT hand, but a bronze bezel with bronze accents on your minute track, accents in the text, on a black dial, and this is it. This is good. So for those that have been listening from the beginning. It's rose gold capped, so it's not bronze. It's 18 karat gold rose gold. I was maybe, you know, not giving it enough credit, but it's very bronzy. It's not rosy, like pink rosy. It's deep, dark rose gold.
Everett So for those that were listening at the beginning of the show, I asked Andrus, was there one watch that stood out to you as being a special release? He said no. And to that I say he's wrong. This to me... I think it's a special release, Andrew. I can't. I was trying to think about why. I was trying to think about why. And I'm not exactly certain. I don't think I can put a point on it. But I think that this watch is special. And I think that this is going to be culty. That's my guess. So there's a couple things going on here that I think bear mentioning. One, and you already brought this up, it's not a bronze bezel, although it looks bronze. Rather, it's an 18-karat rose gold capping. which we've talked about the different types of gold treatments that you can get to watch, solid gold, plating, capping. Capping is actually a process by which they actually sheathe a component in a layer of gold. That's what's happened here. So you actually get... gold here but instead of instead of polishing it as most gold is presented because it really brings out the luster they've brushed it which gives it that bronze look but instead of being bronze this is precious metal capping obviously it's not it's not a full precious metal treatment but There's something about this watch, Andrew, that just I saw it and I was like, this is special. I really do think this is a special watch. And so there's two sizes. I think they sell the Zulu time in both a 42 and a 39. The 39 for me has always been by far and away the more reasonable size of this watch. 13.5 thick, which is on the thicker side, but when you consider it's a GMT, it's really not, especially with the water resistance. I mean, this just feels to me like a terrific watch that's sold at a terrific price. The bracelet is epic. The fit and finish is great. If you want evidence of that, just look at the way the end links integrate with the case.
Andrew Oh, yeah.
Everett There is zero laziness that happens with a Zulu time. All of the, or really any of the spirit line, all of the pieces fit together deliberately. There's zero afterthoughts. The end links on watches, and I've talked about this a lot, are almost always afterthoughts at this price range. Or really, maybe just below this. But Longines does a thing at this $4,000 price range that I don't think anybody else is doing, save for Tudor. Which, of course, is Longines' closest competitor, I would say. I just think this watch is... I think this is something special. And I think that for someone that's like... looking at like a gold bronze Zen and they're like, you know what? I really love the gold bronze Zen, but it's so fucking weird and it's hard to buy a Zen. And also that watch is weird. Like all of a sudden now you've got a watch that it does all of the same things for me that a gold bronze Zen does. but in a much more... This is like, give me a Black Bay 58 and a Gold Runs Zen that made a baby that went on to be better than both of its parents. For me, that's what this is. I just love it.
Andrew It has not evoked the same emotion in me as it has you. I really dig this watch. I think it's lovely. And it's a really awesome, accessible space for a really special edition watch that's not limited. This isn't going to be impossible to obtain. This isn't going to be $10,000 on the secondary market. You're going to be able to buy this brand new in box for a while.
Everett I could be wrong, but I'm boldly making a prediction that this is a cult watch. I think that this is a watch that is not going to be around forever. And when it goes away, you're going to want to have had one. That's my thought.
Andrew You think it's going to fall off a cliff? They're going to dump it off of their permanent catalog?
Everett Yeah, I think it's going to be around for three years. I think that they're not going to move enough units to keep it in the repertoire because of the additional costs involved in capping a bezel. And that when it goes away... It's going to become special. That's what I think. That's my prediction.
Andrew I think that's totally possible. I think we see that with most watches. When the brand new inbox from the retailer's supply dries up, people get interested.
Everett Yeah, and maybe I'm suggesting that this is going to be more than that. Okay. Yeah. I think it's a special watch, and I think people are not going to appreciate it in real time, but I think over time it's going to become a cult classic favorite.
Andrew I think it's totally possible, especially with the momentum Longines is carrying right now. Yeah, Longines is having a moment, right? Yeah.
Everett Okay, the watch that surprised me the most this week, so that's the watch that I, just for the record, that's the watch. I think this is special. The watch that surprised me the most this week was from Stova.
Andrew Not a brand we've talked about in a while.
Everett Yeah. You know, Stova, I don't know. Sort of like this OG German brand that I think makes boring watches.
Andrew That's my jam. That's what I want.
Everett So Stova this week released a Nomos. Stova, I think, released the Tangente.
Andrew Sure. You know, I don't know if you're... wrong there.
Everett Is that okay to say?
Andrew I don't think it's okay to say, actually. I think it's a reasonable parallel to draw, but when you're working in Bauhaus design, you don't have very many options. Alright, fair enough. But hear me out.
Everett I guess here's what I'll say. If you at home know something that I don't know... go ahead and tell me but when i look at this watch i see these weird long lugs that angle down i see a big broad face with roman numerals i see bauhaus design i see a sub six I'm like, everything about this watch is tangente. Now, I know that sometimes these mistakes happen. Like a few years ago, Timex came out with a watch that looked very much like a Hamilton. And people were like, oh, it's a Hamilton. And then we were like, no, that's actually just like... A military watch that Hamilton doesn't own. So maybe that's what's going on here. But really, when you compare this to a Tangente... So again, it's possible that I don't know what I don't know. And this may be a design... I mean, it's a three-hand with a small seconds.
Andrew No, no.
Everett No, look at the lugs. Andrew, look at the lugs. Look at the small seconds.
Andrew Look at... I don't... I'm not saying no. Look at those lugs. And I'm saying there are...
Everett There's only so many things you can... Here's what I'll say. If these lugs have a historical provenance outside of Nomos Tangente, then I'll be like, oh, well, Nomos just stole somebody else's and Stova's getting in on it. That's fine. But if not...
Andrew Yeah, what's the profile of the Tangente? Honestly, the lug profile.
Everett Oh, I don't know, but it's also super thin. So this watch is a 6 and change millimeter. So it could be that this is a classic German design that some, you know...
Andrew This says it's a... Helmet Hoffenbrau used back in 19... It's a reissue of a 1937 model.
Everett So maybe, maybe. Okay, okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. It could be that this is a Stova design that Nomos took. And if so, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I feel bad.
Andrew You know, my favorite part of this watch, besides the drama... the Roman numeral six cuts into the sub dial. So it's not to interrupt the numerals, but, but it extends into it.
Everett The sub dial doesn't cut it off.
Andrew It just keeps going. It extends into it, into the radial circles, into the minute track of that small second, I guess the second track.
Everett Uh, no. And I guess that's the thing. This is a beautiful watch. I love this watch. This doesn't look like Stova to me though.
Andrew Yeah. There's too much color.
Everett This is very Bauhaus. I mean, this is just Bauhaus. I think this is a great watch. I'm not mad at this watch. I just prefer... Well, I would prefer to know. If there's a classic reference that Nomos took and that Stova is trying to get a bite of, I'm fine with it, but I'd prefer they tell me. And I don't see that they are telling me.
Andrew If I owned this watch, I would never wind it, and I would always leave it with that second hand perfectly splitting the V of the six room numeral. It'd never be wound. It's a cool watch.
Everett It's no doubt about it. It's a cool watch. Andrew, do you have any other watches you want to talk about? Because that's the last one that I really care to talk about. Well, in that case, other things, what do you got?
Andrew Oh, I have another thing. So I got a cookbook the other day. I was just kind of like on a little bit of a... Looking for a new book. And I came across this kind of older, a 1992 cookbook called... 1992? That's before you were born. It is not. Called The Splendid Table. Did I send this link to you already? I know about The Splendid Table. You haven't sent it to me, but go ahead. Splendid Table, written, it's recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the heartland of northern Italian food, written by Lynn, Rosetto, and Casper. And I gotta say, I read cookbooks like they're novels.
Everett Have you never heard of Lynn?
Andrew No, I absolutely have. But I finally like I was like, I'm like, I'm just looking through cookbooks.
Everett I'm like, if you've listened to NPR on a Sunday at any point in the last 30 years, you've heard Lynn. I'm talking to you at home. Not Andrew anymore. Yeah. Lynn Rosetto. Casper is the splendid table on NPR. I know voices. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to people at home.
Andrew Carry on. So I finally got the book, and it is just terrific. You don't even have to cook anything out of it. I got an older edition, not a brand new, so it's got some page wearing. It's the same book cover. Not the actual cover, but the sleeve, the dust cover. And it's fantastic. The layout of the cookbook is really fantastic. There's diagrams. There's some pictures, but a lot of diagrams, like hand-drawn, this is how to do it, this is what you're trying to accomplish. And it's just this very fun-feeling book. The recipes are all super, like, not simple. They're very well-written and understandable.
Everett I do think that that is what has made Lynn so captivating over the years. A lot of the times on the Spun the Table on NPR, people will call in with a question about something that is seemingly complicated. And the way that Lynn is able to, the way that Lynn is able to, just for the record, you may hear him clicking around. Larry is in the studio today. Larry is our third host. He's a miniature golden doodle. And he, I think, I think is the most terrific dog in the world. That's a subjective take. But if you hear the clicking, it's Larry. Larry just tried to climb into Andrew's lap.
Andrew He did. But it was like very slow. It was just one foot at a time, like oozing. And he's been at my house for the last couple of days. So that's like how he's been snuggling me. It's like, what up? One paw. Two paws, head, an elbow, like just moving like a sniper in a ghillie suit through a grass field.
Everett Anyway, I think that is Lynn's, I think that is what she does, right? She takes seemingly complicated things and like just, this seems complicated, but it's not. Here's what you need to know. Right?
Andrew Yes. It's really lovely. I've got a handful of recipes in my next... menu cycle out of this that are seem wildly achievable. Love it.
Everett Yeah. Love it. That's a fun one. Andrew, I've got, I've got another thing. I had another thing and I was settled and then something happened today and I was like, gosh, I think I need to sub it in. Um, so I'll just say the thing that I'm not going to talk about is my other thing there. There's a brand of booze called Stellum. Um, And Stellum is the house brand for barrel. Barrel makes really, really good and dynamic ryes and bourbons. We've talked about them on this show before. They do a lot of finishing. They source booze and they finish it. That's kind of their thing. Barrel's got a house brand come to find called Stellum. And Stellum Black is a line of rye and bourbon. I recently had the occasion to try a special release called the Fibonacci blend from Stellum. It's a rye. It's like 115 proof. And I picked it up for 40 bucks. Winner, winner. Cask strength, four to six year old, unfinished rye, blended. I don't want to, there's something about the Fibonacci sequence that they incorporate when they're, anyway, whatever, I don't care. But it is phenomenal. Okay, that's not my other thing. My other thing is, I watched a movie that I, that I, It wasn't necessarily avoiding, but they just didn't watch because I was like, I don't care anymore. A new alien movie came out last year, Andrew. It was called Alien Romulus. You've heard of this.
Andrew I have. I haven't seen it yet. Perhaps for the same reason I hadn't seen it. I think exactly that reason. It's not that even that I'm over it. It's just like I've kind of like...
Everett I was like, whoa, it's like the new Terminator movie.
Andrew Have you seen it? No, I might if it's convenient. If it's on, if it streams, I'll see it. Yeah.
Everett So I'm flying today and I was struggling to find something. It popped up. I was like, you know what? That works. That's perfect. That works. So I download this thing and...
Andrew Andrew, it is incredible. I have to imagine it's good, right? Because Prometheus was really good.
Everett I thought Prometheus was okay.
Andrew They did a good job carrying all the alien storylines back and forth.
Everett But it sucked. It also sucked. Prometheus sucked. It was good, but it also sucked. It sucked in the same way that any sequel, you're like, okay, I get it. Romulus is not that. Andrew, Andrew, I know everybody at home loves it when I incorporate superlatives. They just love it. It is the best alien movie. And here's the deal. A lot of people are saying it's the best alien movie since... So I read a bunch of reviews because I was like, holy shit, how did I not hear about this? And so I start reading reviews and I'm like, oh, I just missed it. A lot of people are saying the following. This is the best alien movie since Aliens. Fine. I accept. I accept. Aliens is one of those rare movies where the sequel is widely considered to be better than the original. I've watched them both recently, and I can tell you... Yes, but also no. Anyway, anyway, Romulus, I think if you can do the following, if you can view it in a vacuum, which is to say, eschew the nostalgia and, and. the og aspect of aliens aliens was it's in some ways the og and it did things that no movie had ever done and people were like this is fucking this is the greatest sci-fi movie of all time not wrong if if you can get rid of that Strip that truth away. I think Romulus is a better movie.
Andrew Okay.
Everett It is incredible. It kept me going until the very last seconds of the movie. Which is why you almost peed your pants. That happened a little bit after that. Andrew, terrific. Every time I thought it was going to get stupid... It didn't. Okay. I was like, oh, it's about to get dumb. And then it didn't. There's one problem with it. And it's a Uncanny Valley problem with it. And it's not prominent. They do a good job of not making it a big part of the movie. But there's one Uncanny Valley problem with it. If you can get over that. It's the best alien movie ever made, I think. It is terrific. Scary, practical effects. Everything that made Alien good, this is it. Better storyline than Aliens. Better storyline, Andrew. It's terrific.
Andrew Okay. Because I just did all the original three. Sure. Like, I don't know, a couple weeks ago. And three is underrated, by the way, I think. It's not very good. You don't think so? It's the worst of the three.
Everett Worst of the three, but I think underrated. Yeah. Because everybody's like, aliens, and then alien, and then... I think alien three... Alien three...
Andrew I like it. It's just like when you're comparing it against Aliens and Alien, it's easy to meh on that.
Everett My kids hated Alien. I think it's really good. I think there's something about it that I was like, oh.
Andrew I think I enjoy it more than Aliens. And I think part of it's the nostalgia of like, this is where it began. Sure. And we needed Alien to get Aliens. Very much unlike Jaws, where it's like two and three, I can kind of go without. But the original, it's like, this is one of the best monster features of all time.
Everett Have you watched Rocky recently?
Andrew Yeah.
Everett That scene, that scene where Burgess Meredith is in Rocky, Rocky's in Burgess Meredith's apartment and... I think that's one of the great... Anyway, that's an aside. Yeah. Rocky is the best Rocky movie. And if you think differently, you're wrong.
Andrew No, have you seen Creed? I have. I like that movie. They weren't bad, actually. That spinoff series was pretty okay.
Everett And as much as I like Rocky 2, and as much as I like Rocky 3, and as much as I like Rocky 4, Rocky is something different. And I think Alien kind of does that, except that Aliens is just so fucking good.
Andrew Yeah. Anyway, that's all I got. The 80s did such a good thing for cinema.
Everett Alien Romulus, really good, you guys. If you haven't watched it, really fucking good. Blown away.
Andrew All right.
Everett Anything you want to add before we get going for the day? I think I'm done. Well, hey, folks. And Larry. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20, the Watch Clicker podcast. Do me a favor. Go to our website. That's watchclicker.com. And there's probably an HTTPS thing in there too. That's where we post articles and other things about the website and watches and yeah, words. If you want to follow us on social media, you can do that on Instagram at watch clicker or at 40 and 20 underscore watch clicker. That's where we post updates about things we're putting on this show or on the website. If you want to support us, and oh boy, we hope you do, you can do that at patreon.com slash 40 and 20. That's how we keep this thing going. The website and the podcast, we're totally Patreon supported. So if you're a Patreon supporter, we love you and thank you. And if not, what are you doing? And don't forget to tune back in next Tuesday for another hour of Watches, Food, Drinks, Life, and other things we like.
Unknown Bye-bye.