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Seiko Releases an Awesome Dive GMT and a Less Awesome Dive GMT (374)

Published on Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:07:26 -0800

Synopsis

In this episode of the Forty and Twenty WatchClicker Podcast, hosts Andrew and Everett reunite after Andrew's two-week absence. They discuss their holiday experiences, with Everett reflecting on a meaningful trip to California where he noticed his teenage children becoming more independent and enjoyable travel companions, while Andrew recounts a busy Christmas season visiting divided families.

The watch discussion covers several new releases, including Seiko's Spring Drive ProSpex GMT SNR508 and the more favorably reviewed SPB534 Sea Shadow. They examine the Pragma P1 Perseverance with its tantalum case, the Fortis Stratoliner S41 space watches in new colorways, and the Autodromo Group B Pegasus Edition. Everett provides an enthusiastic hands-on review of the Kowame Tokyo watch borrowed from writer Mike Razak, praising it as potentially "the nicest $700 watch on earth" with exceptional finishing and build quality. The hosts also discuss brands that captured their attention in 2025, particularly Kowame Tokyo, Serica, and Yema, with Everett noting how these brands have rekindled his original enthusiasm for watches from when the podcast began. Andrew recommends watching the final season of Stranger Things, while Everett closes with a detailed review of his new Oak Street Bootmaker Trail Oxford shoes, describing them as a long-desired purchase that exceeded expectations.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to Fortyand20, the WatchClicker Podcast with your hosts Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, I've missed you. How are you?
Andrew I'm doing well. Thanks for having me back.
Andrew Um I left the front door unlocked and the lights on. Uh yeah, no, it it was uh it was it's always i interesting. I think I've only taken two weeks off now.
Andrew They've both been in the last couple of years.
Andrew Um and there I think there was a
Andrew time Oh, Andrew's never around he's always missing episodes.
Andrew I think there was a time where it would have felt bad. But I um it feels nice now. It it's not not like uh well god glad I didn't have to do that. But it was like it's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. We did publish a little late. That is not on Will or Andrew, that's on Everett completely. Oh, entirely on Andrew. Uh because I couldn't send you my audio. My computer wouldn't read the audio off of the card. Well,
Everett if it's it recognized there was a card
Andrew there, it recognized there was audio on it, but it would not do anything with it. Well, it's like a dog looking at a piece of food it didn't want. Like I think maybe there was uh uh two days on you and and a day or two on me as well. So I don't know when when we published, but I know when it became available to you. So I'm gonna take the blame.
Everett In any event, um yeah, no,
Andrew you did really well on the board. Your outro was artistic and I liked it. You know, I'm known for that. I've just learned that I've just learned that maybe that there was an audio break. I haven't listened to the whole episode. There is. You'll know. You'll know when you hear it. I've just learned that maybe
Everett there was a uncorrected audio break, which is fun. You guys get us
Everett get to hear a little bit of sausage making. We we
Andrew showed you inside of my kimono. It was very small.
Everett I I will say that this episode, although
Andrew we are recording this on
Everett Monday night, this episode will likely go up sometime later on Tuesday because I'm not going to be able to publish tonight. So um probably Tuesday morning, maybe Tuesday midday for this episode. But it will be on Tuesday.
Andrew It's the holidays. Give us a break. Yeah. We're a little overweight and we're just a little sluggish.
Everett The holidays are tough, man. Yeah, the holidays
Everett are tough, you know, you know, just with all the moving around and moving pieces. So um, I don't feel bad. This one will go up Tuesday. I'm sorry, Joe, specifically, he's the one who's going to tell me that it's late. Um,
Andrew but yeah, uh other than that, I'm doing really well, Andrew. Um Joe, if you want us to publish faster, give us more money.
Everett Well I don't
Everett know that that would do it, Joe.
Andrew It might. Yeah, I can't say it won't. be I guess
Everett it depends on how much money.
Everett Um no. Um uh I was gonna say I was gonna say something. Oh, I took a trip to California, which is why I wasn't here to record. And um man, I'll tell you, it was it felt really different. I think
Everett I've hit a new season in life, Andrew.
Everett My kids are all pretty old.
Everett They're all, you know, teenagers now except for the youngest, and he's months away. Um
Andrew and so they're really, you know, a
Everett couple things. I'll say a couple things about their age.
Andrew One, they're all pretty independent.
Everett They can all do almost everything, right?
Everett And and for a prolonged period of time
Everett everything would go to crap because they're still kids. But on a day-to-day basis, they're relatively self-sufficient. But but the second
Andrew part of that is they're all just
Everett so delightful to be around. Um traveling
Everett with quote unquote kids has in the past always caused a little stress for me because you know there's just a
Everett lot of moving pieces and then and then you know you're
Everett managing these kids and they've got you know
Everett I need I need a snack or I, you know, you need a nap or you know, whatever, whatever it is. This
Everett trip, more so than any other
Everett trip I've taken with my kids, felt
Everett like, um, hey, do
Everett you want to go do this thing or do you guys want to do this thing? Um
Everett not like they're friends, but like they're humans
Everett and like I'm interested in doing those things with them and I'm not doing it for them because they're kids to entertain. I'm doing it with them. I'm doing it with them. And uh you know, that means obviously that they're you know becoming the people they're gonna be, but
Everett also means they're growing up. So that's a little bittersweet to have that thought. But
Everett um yeah, it was a really interesting trip and really fun for me. Uh I'm I'm sad to think like, oh, well,
Everett I only have a few years of this. Uh
Everett but you got a good few though. I do. I do. And of course, even after their quote unquote adults.
Everett I'll have some more years, even then. So yeah. But it was an interesting trip. I definitely felt that for the first time, like in a r I was like, whoa, this is weird. They were like off
Everett with the cousins doing things a few, you know, at one point my daughter went to goodwill with her cousin and they were like
Everett gone for a couple of hours and it was like well
Andrew whatever yeah whatever let us know
Everett it was cool it was it's fun I'm
Andrew not living that not yet.
Everett Not quite. You're a few years out from that. Andrew, how were you? How was your uh how was your Christmas?
Andrew It was busy, man. Uh with a lot of divided families. We did Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, day after Christmas Day, uh, and then Saturday we will have or no no Friday. So today's Monday on Friday we will have one more. So the kids love it because they're like, man, we get four days of Christmas. It's like yeah. Yeah.
Everett I guess that's a I guess that's that's the that's
Andrew the world we live in. Uh but good. Uh you know, kids obviously out of fun. Uh they're exhausted, but because we don't live near to our uh families it was a lot of time in the car it was like wake up get dressed get breakfast get in the car drive do the thing drive home, go to sleep. Repeat.
Everett I'm surprised you guys didn't stay up in
Everett the Portland area. Well, so we didn't
Andrew actually go to Portland proper. We spent one day in Dallas, one day in Forest Grove. And then and we you know, we had our Christmas Eve here. Uh so
Everett there wasn't enough period of time where you were in
Everett kind of the same place. Yeah. Yeah.
Everett Well. And and you know the
Andrew kids sleep well not at home. You need like two nights. Night two is normal. And then you can go home.
Everett Yeah. So we're in different stages
Everett of kid life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Night one is tragic anywhere we go. So uh yeah, it was it was fun, it was busy. It was uh kind of like a a bittersweet um Christmas celebration. Both of my wife's grandparents are uh like every time we see them could be the last kind of age. Um so getting to see them is really special and uh yeah it was just
Everett busy and I'm I
Andrew lament that it's over because I love how much joy Christmas and the holiday season brings to kids and brings to my kids. Cause my wife like really cranks up the heat on Christmas. Uh but I'm also really glad to like slide back into the status quo and like stasis.
Everett I get it. I get that. Yeah. Well that's you know, normally this is when I say we're not here to talk about those things, but I actually feel like those are pretty uh
Everett two pretty uh sentimental feelings.
Everett And so I I would hesitate to say we're not gonna talk about those things. But uh in any event, we are gonna talk about watches at this point of the show.
Andrew We we are gonna get there. Can I start?
Everett Well, it'd be weird, but I guess just this once.
Andrew Okay. Uh has Seiko done this before? Had they dropped a spring drive and a ProSpecs? I can't
Everett I do believe they have, but not very many times.
Everett So so we have a new
Andrew spring drive powered Pro Specs GMT, the US Special Edition, the SNR 508. I feel like they could have done USA O58 if it's gonna be a USA special edition, but that's not for me to decide. Uh and it's kinda so so we have a
Everett so the SNR oh two nine is a spring drive, which is like a Marine Master. Sorry, carry on. I'm just having thoughts in life in real life in real
Andrew time. As always. So what we have here is a um
Everett 4orty four forty-four
Andrew point eight millimeter case, fifty point nine lug to lug, and in classic spring drive fashion, 14.7 millimeters thick, which based on the case width and length, I think is finally an appropriate thickness for a spring drive watch. They've nailed it. They finally got the proportions of thickness right. 100 meters of water resistance. So this is a 5R66 manual winding automatic hacking quartz regulator 72 hour power reserve, thirty joules, plus or minus a second
Everett day movement,
Andrew titanium case, titanium bracelet, root beer esque definitely colored
Everett bezel with kind
Andrew of a reverse I'm gonna call this a reverse root beer, like an upside down root beer, because the uh color scale on the dial looks like if you turn it upside down, the top of your root beer kind of fuzzing. This texture on the dial is like really fantastic. That almost looks like a carbonated beverage, power reserve indicator, uh bronze, uh on the bezel bronze crown. This is for everything but size, really cool. And unfortunately it's still spring drive money. Sixty six hundred bucks.
Everett What's the thickness on this? 147. 147. Okay. Well, you know, the SNR029. I'm looking at these two watches and they are very, very similar, but I don't think they're exactly the same. Um, the SNR29 is also 44.8, uh, but it's 15.7 high. So I think these must slightly different. Um you know I just gotta say uh I I don't like either of these watches um and either of these meaning the older SNR 029 or this US market sort of root beer um you know uh i it it's beautiful. I think it's interesting that
Andrew they're pushing Spring Drive outside of Grand Saco and and dabbling in the prospects realm, which is especially weird because prospects are more often than not, well sized, and spring drives are not. I'm confused by it. As much as I like looking at this watch, this is never a watch I would wear.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. I mean it's a it's a big, chunky
Andrew watch, 100 meters of water resistance is kind of weird for a
Everett dive GMT, um, especially one that's this thick. Uh you know, frankly, I I just don't I just don't there's nothing about this that is calling to me. Spring drive is cool. Uh but sixty six hundred bucks is an expensive watch. It's you
Andrew can get thinner Gram Secos. A big
Everett yeah, well they're yeah. Um yeah, uh yeah it, it's interesting. It is uh undoubtedly interesting. I'm just having a hard time thinking this is something I'd ever be interested
Andrew in. I really do like the dial. It does look like an upside down cup of soda.
Everett Yeah, yeah, I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it. Yeah. Okay. You know that they don't drink root beer in j Japan.
Andrew I'm sure they do. Uh well they
Everett don't. I mean it's like uh I don't know. Name a Japanese thing that we don't have here. It it's i they think it the the
Andrew Oh man A
Everett we do that here and B please don't ever do that.
Everett Please don't ever say that again. That's
Andrew what you put on the rice, right? That's right. Yeah, that's right.
Everett Oh boy. It is uh it is medicinal in a way that does not uh that does not sit well with the Japanese audience.
Andrew You know what sits well with the Japanese audience and us. I'm I'm fearful after your last contribution. Uh go ahead. Furikaki. Oh no. Egg salad sandwiches. They do soft boiled eggs for their uh
Everett I like how you're pretending it was just they
Andrew do soft boiled eggs for their egg salad sandwiches and it is magical. I made some uh day before last and
Everett so good.
Everett You're kicked off the show. Now for a Seiko GMT Prospex that is not terrible. The Seiko Prospex 1968 Heritage Diver GMT SPB 534
Everett Sea Shadow, not Spring Drive,
Everett but rather a six R 54 Marine Master
Everett ish GMT. And
Everett this watch, unlike the other one, has
Everett lots of water resistance, 300 meters to be
Everett specific. Um, and it is gorgeous and
Andrew beautiful and delightful.
Everett Uh unfortunately it is limited to five hundred
Everett pieces, which in Seiko terms is
Everett extremely limited. Uh yeah,
Andrew it's like non-existent. I I
Everett do think that this is got some similarity, if not
Everett being very,
Everett very s the same as the um oh what
Andrew are we calling these hold on i have it i have it it's right the
Everett spv 381 383 models the black and green that came out um last year. This is uh golly, I think that this one is really, really, really gorgeous. So 13.3 thick, 48.6 lug to lug, 42 millimeters
Everett across, not including the crown,
Everett four o'clock crown, as you might imagine, for all of
Andrew these, for both of these watches.
Everett Uh we've got a gold tone bezel, just like the other one, but this is a yellow gold bezel. This
Andrew is better executed. Gold
Everett tone hands, obviously a great stoplight secondhand um subtle gray in in the mix here. So we've got uh black ceramic insert,
Everett which has dive graduations,
Everett uh, and a pretty glossy, shiny black dial. Um, and then the 24-hour hand comes in in gray, which sort of contrasts with the rest of what we have here, this gold brushed, and gives it like, I don't know, it gives it a little I'm gonna say a French phrase, uh, gene sequoi. This is a really, really gorgeous watch, and it is on paper. If you
Everett just describe the watch without talking about dimensions is very
Everett similar to that root beer, but it is just
Everett excellent where
Everett that root beer is not. Yeah.
Andrew Um, and pricing, we're
Everett looking at, I think US prices are like
Everett 2200 on this. Look at this case profile.
Everett It's a classic Marine Master profile.
Andrew Yeah. It it and and the
Everett good style. The good type.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. This
Everett is unlike that other watch that we
Everett just spoke about. This
Everett is a great watch. And I really like it and I would wear this. It's not six thousand six hundred dollars. It's not absurdly sized. Um I do think it's not a
Andrew spring drive either. I do think it's sold
Everett out. Oh yeah, you can't. I do think it's sold out.
Andrew You couldn't have gotten one even if it is
Everett something that you're gonna be able to get on the secondary market and I think it's terrific. This is a watch that you should buy in secondary market anyway.
Andrew You know, this this is an interesting release in that it has it looks like it's brand new in box new old stock.
Everett It does feel very much like everything about
Andrew it feels like new old stock.
Everett And I think that was also true of the SPV381 um watches that came out, although I'm not sure what the difference is, but those had a slightly
Andrew different vibe
Everett to them. That's the 381. Oh,
Andrew yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, very,
Everett very similar. You know, in fact, I don't I don't want to say they're the same because they're not. I'm trying to find the differences though. Um you know, obviously we have gold here in a way that we didn't um and maybe that's it, but maybe that's what gives it that new old stock vibe, Andrew, is the gold.
Andrew Maybe. Either way, this
Everett is an excellent watch. I feel like if they did
Andrew a two-tone uh five-link. That would have just
Everett you know I think that's I think that's too much for me.
Andrew That would have made it like actually new old stock. But I I I like this bracelet choice on it. This just very subtle gold addition like as a as an accent rather than a component. You know, but is a good execution.
Everett But for the movement, this feels like an all together but for better watch than the Spring Drive. I mean, it's just I
Andrew mean, I think even with the I I think even with the movement, the limit, like as cool as Spring Drive is, the limitations that it presents almost.
Everett I don't know what those limitations are. What are the limitations?
Andrew It has to be 19 millimeters thick to execute.
Everett Well, maybe there is. Maybe there is a thing. That's
Andrew what I mean in the way of limitations. It's sizing. It's a big old bitch. Every single watch that Grand Seiko produces requires the internal space to house a 7750. Uh and it shows, right? You get these beautifully designed, sleek felt refined watches that are way too thick. And as cool as the spring drive is as a movement, it's perhaps Grand Seiko's only limiter. If Grand Seiko was working at purely automatic and mechanical movements and just just askewed the spring drive, they could be making the best watches in that price segment.
Everett Well, you know, Grand Seiko has 9S spring drive
Everett watches that are like under twelve.
Andrew Under twelve is not impressive.
Everett Well, but it's I mean with this is a hundred
Everett meter watch I I
Everett don't know. Yeah, I I I don't know. I maybe don't understand I don't understand all the things that are happening here. So
Andrew for for a sport watch to be north of eleven, you gotta be doing something really interesting. And they can't get anything under twelve, really.
Everett Yeah. And I and I
Andrew mean, whatever. I mean, the the spring drive is exceptionally
Everett cool. But it creates
Andrew a limitation in in design that Grand Seiko just can't seem to overcome or maybe just accepts that exists.
Everett Yeah, but oh okay so what we've got here yeah this nine the nine RA5 spring
Everett drive caliber is in the SLGA007, which is a hundred
Everett meter watch, and it's sub-12 millimeters.
Andrew So it can be done, they just don't do it
Everett there. There.
Andrew Thank you.
Everett Next Tantalum.
Andrew Tantalum is back. We're seeing it again with the Pragma P1 Perseverance. I saw this watch and I was I was immediately interested because it's it's a stunning watch top down. So it's a titanium case and a tantalum case, like dual metal, and it looks like it should be a 12 and 6 bicompax chronograph. It is not. It is a 12 o'clock date window with a subdial and a six o'clock running seconds with this really lovely purpley blue. I'm gonna leave it to you to name the color. You're you're a better pantone three two five name
Everett is feels like a light corn flour to me okay
Andrew corn flour that's where we're gonna go with I would have said periwinkle I don't know what that means just when I look at it, I I think of periwinkle, so I assume that that's probably an adequate description of the color. And you will probably get with me on that. So this is
Everett aeriwinkle's a bit more purple, but keep
Andrew going. Okay. It's a 39 millimeter case, 47 and a half lug to lug, 10.4 thick. The case is solar stainless steel and tantalum for the intermediate case, case back and crown. The dial is an azerite blue brass.
Everett Oh, Azerite. Yeah. The
Andrew chemical composition, C U Zn28, with white gold indices, superlum luminova, BGW9, and rotating subdials. The movement this is unclear. So it's a pragma one zero three dash or zero one 1 zero031-1. It's a four hertz 60 hour power reserve movement. So what I'm getting is that this is all done in-house. It's chronometer certified, 50 meters of water resistance. And here's where it gets kind of interesting. This is a wild case composition. So as I'm looking at this and I see rotating subdials to indicate date and running seconds, I am like I'm I'm kind of I'm intrigued, right? Everything about this says it's either going to be wildly affordable or wildly unaffordable. This brand is using 82% recycled materials to make their 100% Swiss made watch. So then you get to the bottom. And this is wildly unaffordable. It's 34,000 and a half Swiss francs. I was like, oh, all this makes sense. What blew me away was that they could achieve a 82% recycled material bill. Uh and if you go onto their website, they're like, this is where we source this, this. is This where we source this. This is where we source this. They're really proud of their very ethical recycled material sourcing methodology. And boy, you gotta pay for it. Ah, this is a cool watch. I'm never gonna see one. I think it's really cool to see a uh a brand in this price segment
Everett because Being so beholden to
Andrew responsible manufacturing methodology, because that's not always the case for luxury items. Uh really lovely watch, and also really cool their uh making it out of junk.
Everett So I don't know. I I don't know anything about that. I don't know where we
Andrew get recycled tantalum. Maybe that's where the 9% comes from.
Everett Anything about this brand. Um nor do I know anything about the manufacturer. This feels to me like a Japanese watch. It does. Uh though it's Swiss, so I don't know if this is a Japanese company. I, you know, whatever. It doesn't matter to me. But it feels to me Japanese. It does not feel to me to be particularly sensical. I think
Everett neither the case construction.
Everett You said titanium at first. I was like, why the fuck did you use
Andrew it's titanium and tantalum? It's steel and tantalum. What?
Everett Um but it's
Everett got titanium in
Everett the movement. Oh yeah. Um
Everett which is probably because they
Everett added a bunch of weight to the case. I I don't know. It
Everett I it just it it almost seems like they're
Everett doing things to do things. I don't find it particularly appealing aesthetically.
Andrew They're dumpster diving for materials. They they get what they got.
Everett Yeah. This really feels
Everett uh l like a a
Everett watch that was made for a person. And maybe some of the best watches are that way. I don't think this is gonna
Everett I don't think this is a hit for me. I think
Andrew I might be the person. Okay.
Everett Yeah, it is a weird watch. And and it's
Everett too expensive. And based on the photos we're
Everett seeing, I don't think the finishing
Everett justifies I don't think the finishing justifies the price either. The movement looks nice, but the case has these like it's got like joinery, which I think is part of the reason I think it's Japanese or feels Japanese. It's got
Everett like joinery in it. And the joinery
Everett is not good. Right? Like it's not
Andrew These are renderings though. No,
Everett this is a photograph of a wall. This is a photograph.
Everett Yeah. I mean maybe this is a prototype. I don't know. This isn't very good. This isn't very good. You
Andrew you if you're gonna take product photographs, photographs.
Everett Photographs? Photographs. Get the dust
Everett out. I know. Yeah. This is not for me. It's interesting. But maybe not in a good
Andrew way. Oh, that's a weird.
Everett The movement looks great. I'll get the I will say that much.
Andrew That's a manufacturing defect. That that bend. This has to be a prototype.
Everett Yeah. I don't see what you're saying, but
Andrew you can see there's a gap right in the middle.
Everett And there's not at either edge.
Andrew That's not something that should be gapped.
Everett Uh the movement looks terrific.
Everett And the dial color is great, even though it's more cornflower than whatever you said. Periwinkle.
Andrew What's periwinkle? Um,
Everett yeah. Yeah, it's interesting. I it I I hate yuck in someone's yum, but yuck.
Andrew Uh I think you can go fuck yourself.
Everett H No.
Everett That's like from the from the like rotta painting.
Everett What what is Lumicore? Why'd you present it as if it was meaningful?
Andrew It's a website. It has a dot com behind it. It's the same color.
Everett Fortis Stratiliner S forty one,
Everett this is the watch that Fortis sent to
Everett space despite We just talked about
Andrew this. Uh despite
Everett not having anybody to take it to space or just the
Andrew balloon took it.
Everett Has been released in new colors and
Everett I like all of them.
Everett Um it even though I
Everett was kinda like, what what what are we doing
Everett here? So first let's talk about the Strataline S forty one. It is a spacewchat. They sent it to space. It's done G forces and other spacey things.
Andrew Exitry. Reentry.
Everett That's right. That's right.
Andrew Um Vacuum of
Everett space. Which is cool. They
Everett can't put you know the only watch
Everett qualified for space travel or anything like that on it, but they can say we actually did space things.
Everett Which is cool. Fortis has like this, I think
Everett Fortis has a bit of a culty following. The people who talk about uh the people who talk about Fortas talk about it in if you know you know tones. Um I think this is a cool watch. I
Everett think it's an expensive watch, but I do
Everett think it's cool. With that said, it is a 7750 architecture watch with a Le Joupre movement, which means it's thick. This is a 15 millimeter watch, 41 millimeter case, uh 200 meters of water resistance, which is better than some
Everett space watches that exist, and
Andrew an entire luxury brands ratings.
Everett Um, and yeah, it's cool. Also made of recycled stainless steel, Andrew. I
Everett will just say. Um where are they finding
Andrew all this space junk? This thing
Everett is pretty co So there's three new
Everett dials. One of these dials is a natural titanium dial that's been heat treated to sort of mimic heat staining on the titanium parts on spacecraft upon re-entry. So you get
Andrew heat shield. Yeah. You get like purples
Everett and bronze hay colors. And
Andrew they do a good job focusing it. So it's it's high unlike the previous edition, that the kind of the whole dial was that burnt heat applied
Everett this just kind of is in certain places.
Andrew It's just in in it's really concentrated.
Everett And they're all unique. So each one of these you get is going to be unique and different. Um
Everett and then they've got a a black
Everett dial that is in a DLC
Everett case. And I think of these three, this
Everett is maybe my favorite, especially given the price. Um
Everett but it's got like a blue. I'm gonna
Everett say uh perhaps a cornflower, but not a periwinkle blue. Um not
Andrew lumicore periwinkle.
Everett And uh I think it looks great. It's a matte black
Everett dial with a sort of very light sandy texture that doesn't really come across as sand, but more just lightly textured. Lightly textured uh matness.
Everett The pushers on this thing are great. If
Everett you've seen an S41, this is the same, but this colorway in particular, I find really
Everett attractive. And then the third new dial
Everett which is almost certainly the most attractive is a gray
Everett and it includes um
Everett it includes gold markers,
Everett a gold crystal gasket, um, a
Everett gold colored gasket,
Everett and the gray and the gold
Everett is two tones of gray, a lighter and a sort of medium gray work with the gold really well. This thing is very, very cool. Uh, I think. The
Andrew darker gray has uh tricompacts black subdials and lighter gray with white subdials.
Everett Yeah. Um
Everett flat three link. This is I
Andrew I like this darker gray and black.
Everett So the DLC does give us some extra hardness if you like that sort of thing. Uh if you like
Everett it really diamond hard. Um 4500 Vickers on that one. Um and that comes on an FKM. The the Stratoliner supernova, this is the cool gray, or excuse me, this is the cosmic gray. Um, with the gold accents, comes on a three link. Um all of these have the work 17 caliber, which is an in-house caliber for uh or a manufacturer's caliber for Vortice by Le Jou Pre based on 7750 architecture. Um
Everett 5150 for the
Everett black, 5,500 for the re-entry edition, uh, and eight thousand four hundred and fifty for the cosmic
Andrew red. And and if I understand it correctly, the reentry and the gravity aren't limited to thirteen pieces or they are they're not
Everett limited, unlimited. So the so it's just
Andrew the supernovas that are limited to thirteen eight.
Everett The sou yep, the supernova cosmic gray and cool
Andrew gray. Is it because those are the ones that actually went to space?
Everett No. You can only send so many I think it's because
Everett they have gold. Yeah. Why are they like making
Andrew thirteen? Well, I don't know,
Everett Andrew. I don't know these things. I think I think this is a cool watch. I think it's expensive, so you kind of gotta like what you're getting. Um, I think the other thing about Fortis is that it doesn't for me feel
Everett you you're not gonna get that sort of
Everett like blang blang risk.
Andrew These are my favorite Fortis for that reason.
Everett You've got to know. Well, even for I mean,
Everett it it's more just like nobody's gonna like you can't go
Everett to the bar, nobody's gonna be like, oh, is it so to Fortis? There's nobody's fucking heard of it. So um you've gotta be like
Andrew You're not gonna have that happen to you at wind up.
Everett Very comfortable with your
Everett 'cause this does not scream luxury to
Everett me. You know No, not by a long
Andrew shot. So uh which is not to
Everett say it's not excellently made and s just a superb watch. And I I think it probably is those things. But um yeah.
Andrew This screams to me like reach back into 1965, grab a brand new one in box and pull it forward and put it on your wrist.
Everett Perhaps, yeah. And it's beautiful,
Andrew it's fantastic. I I don't people don't know Fortas. Even watch people don't know Fortas. They should. This is the best Fortis.
Everett Yeah, I I mean there are other they had other watches that I really
Everett like. I I like this one. It's
Everett just a it's just an expensive watch and
Everett they don't get a lot of play in our enthusiast world. But the people who have them and who like them have that like if you know you know feeling about it.
Andrew Because they're great. Yeah. And they're they're an interesting company they can like in the way I think even Monto or Christopher Ward are in that they're they're on the cutting edge of technology and development and are just doing cool shit. And kind of
Everett what edge is Monta on the cutting edge of?
Andrew Monta is doing so much proprietary shit in their manufacturing processes to to manufacture better. Right. Like you're not seeing Belcanto. You're not seeing space watches. You're seeing, hey, we've
Everett kind of we we've invented this way
Andrew to make this bevel on our handset better. Right. I'm
Everett not gonna I I think they're doing some stuff with the bracelet. It it it's hard for me. I I don't see I don't see Monta in that way. I think Monta is doing existing things as well as you can do them. I don't feel like Monta's pushing that needle. But I but I hear what you're saying. I know that certainly they they do talk about those things that they're doing.
Andrew And they're not presenting in the way that Christopher Ward,
Everett For Max, Fortis, you take
Andrew your pick of cutting-edge brands, uh, in the in the way of pushing technology into the watch R. I agree. My microphone is blocking my phone, reading my face. Uh next up for me Oh Autodromo. So brand we've talked about a few times.
Everett Sure. Yeah. Does
Everett cool stuff. Yeah. Auto world
Andrew inspired stuff. We have the mobile one group B Pegasus edition, which is a feel of the 1980s Racing World. So this is a 39mm case, 9.9 thick titanium inner core surrounded by a stainless steel case with a black DLC coating, fifty meters of water resistance, just this amazing integrated flat link black DLC bracelet, Miyota 9015 movement. Uh man, I just don't I don't have a single thing to say about this watch that isn't really positive. This feels like a watch you would see featured in Stranger Things, in Alien, in any 1980s movie, but is still modern enough to fit. The colorway is great. So it's this amazing black DLC case that's uninterrupted into the bracelet that's almost like
Everett almost like alien-esque like
Andrew fingers wrapping around your wrist with a really good contrast with the stainless steelel bez, a white chapter ring with red red font around your chapter ring at your five-minute intervals, great fat minute track at your five-minute intervals with thin uh minute markings, good handset, the uh auto dromo logo at the 12 and the six, half red and half white.ond Sec hand, this thing is just like perfect. Under a thousand bucks. They're only making 70 of them. Uh, man,
Everett this is good. The only thing that
Andrew I would uh have a little bit of question about is how that bracelet sizes with that interesting butterfly clasp. Um, but I I do think that would be worth the risk.
Everett Cause this thing is good. Yeah, I don't know.
Everett I think that this is you know, they came out
Everett with the the group V, the type series two group B's a few years back.
Andrew Four years ago or so. Three, four years ago.
Everett And and I think this might be
Everett the same watch. I don't want to s say that and be wrong, but I maybe just have to at this stage. Um I think this is just the
Everett same watch. 39.5 by 50 by 9.9 with 20 millimeter lugs
Everett miota ninety one oh five
Everett inside so we've got thirty-nine
Andrew it might be there, it could be it. Yeah,
Everett and I mean there's there's some differences in the DLC
Andrew coding and the steel, but like it could be it.
Everett Yeah. I I I'm not sure. This actually maybe looks like it's slightly less angular than than that series two.
Everett Anyway, I really like this watch. I
Everett think it's gorgeous. I'm with you, Andrew.
Everett I have a hard time saying anything bad about it. The dimensions are so good. The shape of
Andrew this is really good. Um, I do think this
Everett watch, I've tried it on. I I I've tried on the series two, and it was a little long. Um and I also felt like the bracelet
Everett was not as comfortable as it looked like
Everett it was gonna be. Um it's
Andrew really hard to nail that flat link that way.
Everett I think so too, but I I understand why uh he's he's doing it this way.
Everett Um but yeah, I I
Everett uh I really like the type C's. I think their monoposto is about as cool as a a watch can be um so i i yeah
Andrew that red loom on the bezel is cool it almost looks like LEDs
Everett and I don't know when the monoposto
Everett Mobile One came
Everett out. Let's
Everett see. That's
Andrew about January of 2020
Everett of this year. So January 2025 that,
Everett watch came out. Um, I like
Everett some stuff about that watch. I think it's a really, really cool watch,
Everett also a mobile one. So uh uh
Everett this watch is more modern to me, but that watch is maybe a little cooler. I don't know. They're great watches.
Andrew This watch is also less modern, right? This looks like it could just as easily be a squishy rubber case straight out of nineteen eighty four.
Everett They're well priced. I I have
Everett a hard time criticizing these. His he's nailing dimensions. Um
Everett Yeah. Good good good watch. It was on my list
Everett as well. Uh which I think is
Everett why you sniped it. Um
Everett yeah, I'm gonna talk about the JB300 Pool Pro, which is
Andrew my list. Which
Everett is a watch we talked about recently. Um we talked about this in the context of
Everett the deep C.edc uh collaboration, which
Everett I want to say um which I want to say was more expensive than this watch. Uh, this is
Everett a I want to say eleven
Everett hundred dollar version of that watch.
Andrew It was more expensive, and you said if it was eleven hundred dollars you would have bought it and this is one thousand and seventy nine Euros.
Everett I think it's about eleven hundred US dollars too. Um I've talked I've talked about this watch with a few people because I th I find it a really interesting watch, but there's something about it that turns me off. I figured out what that thing was.
Andrew It's the stone tumbled titanium case.
Everett Yeah, it it's that it's
Everett that stone wash. I think it is a bit crude.
Everett Um I think it's done that way
Everett on purpose. But for me, it maybe just reads slightly too crude for me to jump on this watch. Um because I really,
Everett really like this watch.
Everett And I want to just Give a full throated endorsement, but I struggle with that. I I think I think you have to really like this watch to get it. And that includes that finishing. For me, I think the finishing is a turnoff.
Andrew It it doesn't do it for me either. It it looks you know, Doxa has done this with some of their Clive Cussler editions. Uh you see this um worn uh
Everett distressed design
Andrew from time to time and it it it doesn't do it for me because I'm gonna fuck up my watch. I don't need your help.
Everett In fact, I don't
Andrew want your help. I'm gonna be able to do it myself. Um and as cool as it looks in pictures, I think the moment you get it and you put it on your wrist, you're gonna be like, uh I it I really should have less left the acid wash jeans behind
Everett it unlike ashab wash jeans they're not actually ruining it by doing these this and and I think in fact this finish is probably gonna hide scuffs and dings really, really well.
Andrew But you're not gonna get very m much of in brush titanium.
Everett Well, I think you might. In
Everett any event. I I really like this watch. For me, the finishing is takes away from it. But I think for some of you at home, hey, so that thing that you've got in front of your face, it's a microphone, and if you bash it, I just thought,
Everett you know, since the third time you've done it in the last 10 minutes, that's
Everett that's closer than usual, I
Andrew think. Uh
Everett yeah, I I I like this
Everett watch. I really want to love it and I just
Everett don't I just I'm
Andrew I'm with you on it I everything uh everything about it says I should like it and
Everett I'm sorry Jacques Bianchi I do like
Andrew it. I just I just give me a brush titanium. Don't don't put it through the dryer first.
Everett Andrew, I think you're too young for this, but there
Everett was an Oregon lottery commercial, I want to say in
Everett the late 80s. Um it and it was just zoomed in on a cocktail drink and the like a tiki drink. And the tiki drink had a scuba diver and a mermaid,
Andrew and someone was holding them, like you could see
Everett fingers holding them, and it was talking and and i can't remember
Andrew what the mermaid said but she said you know oh
Everett and then someone the school driver
Everett the person held him up and says i am jacques
Everett famous oceanographer and tv star
Everett And then the mermaid went, Oh, shock. Do you remember this? I think it's too
Andrew I don't know. I I think I I think it it's reasonable that you want to attribute it to age. Uh I I think you that commercial was just really informative to you in a way that it wasn't to me.
Everett Golly. I still think about that commercial. I brought it up to my mom recently.
Everett I was like, Do you remember this? And she's like, Oh yeah, I remember that. Uh
Everett no, I am Jacques. Anyway, when I hear when I s this brand always makes me think of that commercial, although he was clearly Jacques Cousteau and not Jacques Bianchi. Uh moving on. If you're listening and you remember that commercial, please, please, for the love of God, message us.
Andrew Okay, I I I will cease my hunt to watch that commercial. Uh monochrome is teaming up with Habring Squared or Habring Habring. Did team up.
Everett All sold out. Half Tumbed up.
Andrew Uh for their montre de souscription for second morte. so
Everett we're really sorry. Uh
Andrew monochrome has been in a uh collaborative effort through this year uh with independent brands to make cool watches. And this is the final of the year, presumably. I can't imagine they're going to drop one in the next uh two
Everett days. They might. Th'eres
Andrew always room to be surprised. Um, they won't. So this is it. This concludes 2025's monochrome collaborations. And it is goodod. Thirty-eight and a half millimeter case, nine thick, thirty meters of water resistance, the Habring and Habring A1-1S movement, 48 hours of power reserve. It's a hand whining only, not chronometer certified. Um, these are coming at 6,000 bucks, and honestly, everything about it I think makes perfect sense. Really good Roman numerals at the one, three five four one
Everett two four six
Andrew eight ten cool like uh spade markers at your odd numbers, really good handset, just this perfect long spear second hand, this lovely,
Everett lovely, almost like lacquer
Andrew appearing finished dial. Man. It's a they call it the glossy black, but it looks almost like lacquer. It's lovely.
Everett It is lovely. Can I make some additions
Everett to the things you've said? Please. I hope you don't
Everett mind. So I just I just want to clarify for everybody at home. It's
Everett got Roman numerals at the evens.
Andrew That's what I said. And it's got But I can't count, so I had to amend myself. And it's got
Everett markers at the odd. Okay. I just want to make
Everett it. But the markers are like these lovely spades.
Everett They are. They're they're beautiful, but they're at the odd
Everett numbers. Um as I said. It
Everett was okay. One, two, okay.
Andrew I was distracted, man. I was still trying to look for Oregon lottery at the same time.
Everett Uh it's cool, man. It's cool. They're sold
Everett out. You can't get them. They
Andrew only made how many do they make?
Everett Seven. Oh yeah. So they were available for
Andrew two weeks. Yeah. So 33 individually numbered. So they were available for two weeks or 33, whichever comes first. 33 went.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know,
Everett it reminds me a little bit of the kawame Tokyo
Everett kind of watch
Everett that came out a few months ago,
Everett which is 38 millimeters, nine and a half thick, uh, a hot hell of a lot cheaper, and just as beautiful. And
Everett and Andrew, and Andrew, and Andrew guess who has just guess who has an Iow Sumi
Everett Kwame Tokyo black dialed watch.
Everett Guess who's got one in his hands and' hes holding it up right in front of you?
Everett Who we know who famously
Andrew writes for The Atlantic. Mike Razak. Uh yeah. Mike
Everett Raizak came into one of these and then he sent it to me. Uh he did
Everett not say everything, you can keep this, but I believe he should
Andrew insist that you send it back. He has actually
Everett insisted exactly that. With that said, I don't
Andrew deleted that text. I don't believe
Everett he has I don't think he knows how
Everett to like sue someone, for instance.
Everett I don't think and I think he would have struggled to figure that out, especially in Oregon.
Andrew Well, and and from the Atlantic.
Everett I got a Kowame Tokyo, you guys. I don't own it, and I do have to send it back, but
Andrew probably won't quickly. So I know
Everett you and Will talked
Everett about your sort of highlights of the year,
Andrew not necessarily your favorite watches,
Everett but highlights of the year for you guys. I I can sum up my favorite watch and brand of the year with just this watch that I'm holding in my hand. I think Kwami Tokyo is the coolest brand on earth today. I think they make nowhere near enough watches, which is hopefully something they change in the relatively near future. Um, and I
Everett gotta say, Andrew, you've had
Everett some time to uh fondle
Everett this watch as my fingerprints are
Everett all over it. As have I.
Everett Um, I gotta say, it it lives up to the hype for me
Andrew in every way. So, reminder:
Everett this is a $700 watch. The first thing I noticed about this watch was the really, really
Everett thoughtful pinbuckle.
Everett It is sort of curvy, a bit Gary esque, uh, has some sort of it and the printing is really good. Um, the strap is not wonderful, it's fine. Um, but reminder, this is a $700 watch. It is tip to tail
Everett the Very well made.
Everett Um, we sort of poured over this thing,
Everett Andrew and I did. You can't really
Andrew find where they cut any corners.
Everett Yeah. You know, I I I can criticize a few things here, as can you, but they don't feel to me like major problems. There is the transition at the very tip
Everett of the lugs is
Everett the tiniest bit soft.
Everett Just and when I say the tiniest
Everett bit, I mean the tiniest bit.
Andrew But that's the difference between a really well-made $700 watch and a really well-made $2,000 watch.
Everett That's right. I mean, I I don't feel any reservation saying this is
Everett the nicest $700 watch that
Everett I've ever laid hands on. I
Everett don't feel all
Everett that much trepidation saying this is the nicest $700
Everett watch on earth. Um, I cause I think it
Everett probably is. And and I'm thinking that you may be able to come up with some arguments and we may have to do a competition, and it'll
Everett include, you know, daily,
Everett daily immunity challenges, et cetera. With that said, I I think it would be pretty hard to argue too hard that this doesn't at least deserve to be in that compet. It's
Andrew certainly in the competition. I I think when you think of the that sub thousand dollar category, is the C sixty three still under a thousand? I
Everett don't think so. It's over a thousand. And this is nicer
Everett than the C63. I mean, this is just better finished than any sub-thousand dollar.
Andrew The Alpinist is still sub-thousand.
Everett This is the a billion times better than an alpinist.
Andrew I think when we're talking about the conversation of like what's kill
Everett the fuck out of the way.
Andrew Space. Uh, I think you have is in in that space specifically, and that sport, like that dressy sport watch, you have uh
Everett 995 on a C63 on a bracelet.
Everett So okay, so I think you get the C63,
Andrew you get the Alpinist, you get the um what else is coming under a thousand? I think you put the uh
Everett And just to be clear, this is nicer than those watches. And it comes in an under 10 millimeters. The finishing on this is,
Everett like I said, we found one place where we both agreed it's a little soft there. But everywhere else, the grain on the brushing is
Andrew phenomenal. I went through all my watches.
Everett I went through all my watches. The grain on the grain on the brush surfaces here is as good as anything else in my collection. And that includes Mata, Formex. Um you know, I don't have my my Speedmaster of course the uh I don't have anything outrageously good in my collection. I don't have Panamatic Lunar or something to compare it to. But I I mean we're talking about a very well put together watch. Now I don't think there's anything, you know, the markers we talked about this a little bit. They have it
Andrew next to the triumph, the brushing side by side.
Everett It every bit is good. Every bit is good.
Everett The hands and the markers aren't
Everett fancy. And you can
Everett tell that that's pr I
Everett think the dial is where they save money here, but the fact that they were able to but also
Everett it's probably where they had to spend all their money. I just think that
Everett this watch is it the fact that they were able to even be in the conversation is the C sixty three. I
Andrew think where they're saving money. Much less
Everett lose it is crazy. Is this thick
Andrew bezel. Right? This is a really easy to execute bezel.
Everett But it's still under 10 millimeters for the whole but
Andrew relative to the case like if if you're if if they're trying to make this razor thin i it's
Everett just it's just proportional dimensioning though
Everett you you can put the thickness anywhere you want
Andrew yeah, I'm i i'm confused
Everett by how this is so good. And we talked about it,
Andrew right? This is this is like uh like GM Lang. Except they actually went to production and made watches and it's still confusing.
Everett Yeah. And GM Lang folded because they're
Andrew like, oh wait, we are actually losing money well in the in production.
Everett And the GM Lang was I I mean, a cool company, not I mean that just wasn't that that those two watches don't compare with one
Andrew another. But but I mean in the way of like a watch that we were really confused by.
Everett Like how did they do this? How did they do this? This
Andrew is a watch of how are they doing it? And and and i i like kind of hoped to see it in person and have the thing jump out and be like oh there it is there's the problem this is where they're
Everett nope this is how they're making it possible.
Andrew That's not happening. This is sorcery. This is actual if you're watching and you're like,
Everett what's GM Lang? Don't Google it. Don't, it just doesn't matter. It's fine. If you're really curious, go ahead. But they were a company that prototyped, Garrett Lang was the guy, seemed like a very nice fellow. And then they just sort of
Andrew They just couldn't make it to production. They weren't We
Everett don't we don't know what happened, but we know that that brand kind of poof and we never heard of them again.
Andrew Yeah. Uh yeah, it's crazy
Everett good. I do have to send it back to Mike. I'm gonna get some pictures of probably get a review up on the website, but it's crazy good. It's gonna
Andrew get lost between your house and the mailbox.
Everett It might. You need to just can't know where to predict these kind
Everett of things. No. Packages get intercepted
Andrew by reverse porch pirates all the time. All
Everett the time. All the time.
Everett Um Um yeah. I think that's all I have
Everett for watches. Did you have any other favorite
Andrew things of this of this year? I
Everett had a few. I had a few other things. You know. I I of course that Geraldenta, single lug, gold watch just is maybe the watch that has captured my curiosity more than any other watch that's ever come out, at least since we've been doing this. Um another sort of obscene, expensive watch, those Ralph Loren watches with the with the hand carved silver, hand and grade silver. The buoy watches.
Andrew I forgot to mention those last week.
Everett Yeah, m maybe not the thing
Everett that interests me the most. Um although th they they are cool. Um yeah, you know, I it was a cool year for watches. Uh uh I I I think the brand that sort of showed up on my radar
Andrew although they've been on my radar before,
Everett but the brand that sort of like nudged its way into my consciousness. Two brands that nudged their way into my consciousness in a way um that kind of took me by surprise. The the first is Sarica.
Andrew Mm-hmm. Serica has
Everett without really changing anything um bumped its way into my Yeah,
Andrew they're going elbows out yeah and
Everett and and I'm here for it Sarica
Andrew was the mailman this year I'm here
Everett for it uh but then also Yemma
Everett I am just I'm when
Everett people write me or text me or even call me and say, Everett, what do you think? This is kind of where
Everett my head's at. I find myself
Everett going back to Yemma so often.
Everett Um you know they
Everett came out sort of been a few months ago, maybe October, maybe September, they came out with their new solito watches.
Andrew Yeah, I talked about that last week. I think that's one of the coolest things they've done.
Everett And you did talk about that last week.
Everett And I just thought, you know, this is
Everett great. This is great. Here's a brand that is cutting ground, breaking ground with its CMM in-house manufacturer. And then they
Andrew micro rotor, like coolest possible thing. Yeah.
Everett And and you know, ultra-thin, super
Everett sexy, um, and really sort of defining a new space for itself in what I think is like the coolest in space for enthusiast watches, doing someone in an affordable, cool way for that brand to also then at the same time say, and also, hey, look at these Salita versions of our watches. They're a little
Everett thicker, but they're very
Everett similar. And you know what the trade-offs are. And you can get them for under a thousand
Everett bucks. And if you don't care about the cool
Andrew movement stuff we're doing, here's all of our cool design stuff.
Everett Here's our yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Um, so yeah, between
Everett uh, you know I think between Kwame Tokyo, Sarika, and Yama, for the reasons just discussed, uh I feel really confident saying kind of that's where my head's at in watches. Obviously, I found an appreciation for some neo vintage stuff this year, and I've talked about that over time.
Andrew And Jacques Bianchi.
Everett No, I'm shocked. Um you know the the Neo Vintage Seamaster that I picked up this year and how much I've appreci I've to admit that since I bought that watch early summer, I've probably worn that seventy percent of the time compared to all other watches in my collection. And that includes the speedy,
Andrew right? Uh, it has just
Everett dominated my wrist, and it sort of has me looking at other watches of that ilk, I think that the nineties, despite the nineties really being a weird time for watches, we have some really cool dimensionally cool watches that came out in that time. You know, you can't get a Peter Blake today because if you go get a Seamaster today, it's gonna be a coaxial and it's gonna be thick and it's not the same. It's cool.
Andrew That's kind of what has held me off from getting a C Master is the coaxial movement, is it makes it big, it's like the spring drive, right? It makes it it's it's not just like dim case width and lengthwise a big old bitch. It's thick. Yeah. And you know that's a that's a consideration.
Everett And so I think that experience has kind of changed the way I think about watches and the watches that I might look for in the future. Um you know, like I I want an IWC m but not a Mark 20. I want a Mark fifteen, you
Andrew know? And it's just kind of it which is
Everett kind of hard to get, right? It's kind of hard to get a good condition Mark fifteen on a bracelet. Um it's not hard, but you know they exist, but they're they're expensive, right? It's probably more money for a mark for a good conditioned Mark 15 on a bracelet than it is a mark twenty. So um it's it's been an interesting year
Andrew for me the way I look at you know
Everett uh oh the way I look about watches and what it what interests me and um but those three brands have kind of brought it home Kwame Tokyo feels like a a return to to what I really really liked about watches in the first place. You know, look look at this look at this thing that is really giving you what you're what you'd get from a much much nicer watch
Everett it and and maybe it's because
Everett like the brand is really like understated um you know nobody's heard of it, you know, and still you're getting this just really
Everett terrific thing. They wrung out
Andrew every single bit of value out of every dollar of that watch.
Everett I think so. Yeah. This feels to me, you know, like a bit of a return to the days of the objectively best watch. You know, if we did what we've talked about for a long time, which is to put that to put price considerations on the objectively best. Um, you know, w if we were to reintroduce that or bring that back into the foray, we'd make changes. I know we would, because we know more about what we like and what's interesting, what's good. And when I mean good, I mean like objectively
Andrew good. Um
Everett with with that said, like
Everett this watch, this watch crushes
Andrew it. That's a hard watch to beat. It crazy. It's got a hundred meters of water resistance.
Everett And it's ten under ten millimeters. I mean, that's
Andrew the only point that it gives up.
Everett And then, you know, X factor, it's a you
Andrew know, it's it's a five out of five. Yeah. So um shoes suck. That's a two.
Everett It the shoes aren't great. But this make
Andrew the class brings it back. That's why I get the the two points are derived from the fact that it's got a great
Everett three all on itself. Because you can get I've got a strap at home that I could swap this out and all of a sudden. Anyway, long story short, I f that this was a cool year. And I think my appreciation for this watch, but also Sarah and and maybe even Yemma, I I think has me back to maybe where I was in 2016 or 2017 or 2018 when we started the show. Oh.
Everett It and and not all the way back
Everett there, right? It's dewy skinned and starry-eyed.
Andrew I'm different than I
Everett was then because I've been around longer and I've seen more watches and I know more about watches, but it has me
Everett sort of back in that place where I'm like,
Everett there's value that we're not talking about out there.
Everett And maybe we're talking about it, but
Everett it's we're not talking about it enough. If you go on watch a city today, you're still gonna see most of the things that
Everett are on Watchicity
Everett or Hodenkey or name pick your poison. These are
Everett watches that people don't won't ever
Everett buy. Yeah, a lot of sponsored
Andrew posts too. No one you're gonna ever
Everett know. Zach Kazan wrote an article
Andrew and and published it. You can go find it, but
Everett it was sort of aboutbout how watch media has changed given AI. And he made some good points, right? He says, you're not coming to us, us being worn and wound, to read about the best watches under 500. You're you're writing that phrase
Andrew into Google and
Everett reading the results that the AI is giving
Andrew you. And
Everett it's an interesting thought, right? It's like
Everett what do we, you know, Andrew, we're we're
Everett we're uh stuck in time,
Everett right? We're still doing the same thing that we were doing in twenty eighteen, you know, we've seen people come and go, you know, obviously
Andrew by design. We did that on purpose. Mike
Everett and Kaz are are still doing their thing, not quite as frequently as they were back then. And uh uh the Greenado guys are still doing it. The cats are not gone. They're still with us, but they're nowhere. Yeah, they're not dead.
Andrew They didn't die. I've talked to them both recently. Yeah, I saw them both.
Everett But you know, we're this
Everett is this format is antiquated already. Like
Everett in the time that we've been doing this, this format's antiquated. And so it's fun for me to feel in 2025, seven years later that joy of watches so for for me that's been the biggest callback uh the biggest thing that's happened i i'm i'm enjoying watches in a way that I didn't maybe last year or the year before. Right. Which is cool.
Andrew I like that. Feels good.
Everett I like it too. Yeah. Well uh we'll
Andrew maybe next year's episodes will be informed by that reinvigoration.
Everett Andrew, other things, what do you got? Oh shit.
Andrew I have another thing. Uh oh my gosh. Y'all,
Everett y'all. Stranger
Andrew Things season five. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. First
Andrew four episodes drop.
Everett What a month ago? On
Andrew two weeks ago.
Everett Is it that recent? Yeah.
Andrew Uh maybe a month. Cause then on Christmas, the next four episodes drop. Three episodes or however many it is. Yeah, it's four. Uh three? I think it was three. Yeah, I think you're right. And man, I have been on a roller coaster, not because of the story, but because of the execution. I'll go through an episode, and it's just like the last episode of Game of Or last season of Game of Thrones, where it's like, I know you're trying to wrap it up, but what did this episode accomplish? Where are like, how are you getting me to the end? And then the next episode, I'm like, okay, I get it now. I get it. You guys are freaking geniuses. And I I'm on like a roller coaster of enjoyment. And the whole season so far, then last episode drops. Two days from now. And I thought it was gonna be four more episodes when I realized I was actually about to watch the finale in a couple days. I like had this deep disappointment because this is a show that uh very much like Game of Thrones where, I've been watching it as it came out for years, excited for the next release. Um and I was talking to my in-laws about it over Christmas. They're like, oh yeah, we just never we never watched it. And they're not like media uh avoidant people. They're typically up with pop culture things. Like, oh yeah, we just never watched it. I was
Everett like, Are you did you watch
Andrew Sopranos? Like, how have you never watched this? This is a global phenomenon. Have you did did you watch Squid Game? Like, oh yeah, we watched that. I'm like, then watch this. It so it my other thing is both that I'm gonna share in my uh community, my like sadness that this thing that I've loved for a lot of years is about to come to an end. And I'm gonna say, if you're out there one of those people who just has never gotten into it, do it. Binge this show for the next several days and just enjoy this like really, really well done look back into 80s Americana where they just they hit everything right on the head. They bring like these 80s ideas forward and they make them modern without compromising this really good classic 80s
Everett feel of modernity
Andrew and modernism. Uh
Everett watch this show. And this
Andrew season has been so fun.
Everett Andrew, I've run into this a few times in the
Everett last month in different contexts, but there is this thing
Everett that people do sometimes where they they like where having not done something like a badge, right? I think for years it was like I've never seen any Star Wars. And maybe it's still this, I don't know. Or let's say, you know, Mike Razak, oh I've never watched The Sopranos. Like he's proud of it. And uh like oh I'll never watch it.
Andrew He's like teetotaler. Like what like why?
Everett Why just it doesn't interest me.
Everett Like well, you're that's fucking
Everett dumb. So and this guy writes for
Andrew The Atlantic. He's not dumb. He's being
Everett dumb. I don't wanna say you said you should watch it.
Everett Like I'm not gonna say that. I'm just gonna say that if you're not watching it because you're like
Everett it's just I too many other things shut the fuck up. That's what I want to say to you. Just shut the fuck up. Watch it.
Everett Jesus Christ. Pay the $1 a
Andrew month. You have Netflix. Or whatever or
Everett don't I don't care but like the
Everett like that thing I was talking to this guy he lives I was talking to this guy online he lives in Detroit and I brought
Everett up Sharon Moore recently and he's like who's
Everett that I'm like you're fucking lying. I just you're lying.
Everett You just want you're like, I don't even know who sports
Everett ball is. And it's like you're a liar.
Everett You're a liar. You just want you're wearing the badge that you don't care about sports. And you're lying. And you're lying.
Andrew That was on CNN. Yeah, that's
Everett right. I was like, it's been on the front page of every fucking newspaper in the country. What the fuck you talking about?
Andrew Like a division. Yeah, yeah. Like you live under a rock and you know nothing about modern like truly
Everett online too, by the way. Perpetually online. So
Andrew he knows who Sharon was. He knows who it was just
Everett a lie. It was like this is a blatant lie. Anyway, shut the fuck up. That's what I want to say. Uh
Andrew that was wild. I've really liked
Everett the shut the fuck up. No, no, the Sharon
Andrew Moore thing. That was wild. It was wild. I I It like
Everett developed like in real time. You're like, whoa. One
Andrew of the the the one of the fantasy leagues I'm in, it was like somebody sent a a a a Twitter link and then for the next like four hours was just like deep cut internet sleuthing Reddit X like links. So before the news broke, I was aware of what had happened somehow.
Everett And look, if you're like uh you know, if you're like
Andrew And Harbaz is like whatever. I
Everett if you like live in New York
Everett or Florida and you don't care about sports and you don't follow it at all, like maybe you missed it. But this guy lives in fucking Detroit. Yeah. It's like you know who Sharon Moore is. Shut up. Yeah.
Everett Uh I have another thing. Detroit
Andrew is in Michigan. Sharon Moore was the head coach of the University of Michigan football team. He was recently arrested.
Everett You're in the Mint and you know what I'm talking about.
Everett Um, I have another thing. Oh, do me.
Andrew You didn't send me a link, so I
Everett didn't. Um, I'm gonna leave you to Google. I have been looking at a
Everett shoe for a long time and it's something I haven't
Everett bought because just because
Everett it's kind of expensive.
Everett Um it is the specific shoe that
Everett I've been looking at for a long time.
Andrew Is that it? That's it. Is
Everett the is the Rancourt
Everett Ranger Mock. Andrew, you should not Google yet. Um
Andrew I'm already Googling. And for
Everett my birthday, my
Everett wife said, hey, I spoke with my
Everett folks and we want to get you that
Everett Rancourt shoe that you've been looking at for a long time, the Ranger Mock. And
Everett I was like, shit, yeah, I'm into it.
Andrew Well if you and your parents are buying, then we're going
Everett up. That's really cool. Um
Everett and I'm into it. I want to get that. And
Everett thank you so much. And this is a wonderful gift. So
Everett we went to we went
Everett to get it, and I found that I could not
Everett find my size in the
Everett color I wanted, and I
Everett was talking to some people uh about
Everett this and they said, well you should get I I'm kind of a Rancor
Everett guy, right? I've got a bunch of Rancords. And
Everett they said, really, you should get the
Everett Oak Street Bootmaker trail Oxford instead.
Everett It's slightly more expensive shoe,
Everett but it's they do a better job, the fitting is better, and their leathers
Everett are slightly better. And so I said, well, you
Everett know, Oak Street Bootmaker is a company that's grown a lot recently. And I think their customer service has gone down slightly, but they still make shoes in the United States. They still make really high quality shoes. Um, let me look
Everett at them. And I started looking at these shoes and I was like, yeah,
Everett I really like these. So I picked up for my birthday, November 30th, a pair of Oak Street Boom Maker Trail Oxfords. They came in about the time of my birthday and I had ordered them a half size small because that's what everything on the internet said to do and when I
Everett put them on my feet they were a half size small so I
Everett sent them back. You fuckers. And
Everett then this week the appropriately
Everett sized, which is not a half size smaller than my normal size, but just my normal size, Oak Street Bootmaker
Everett Trail Oxford came in and the brown chromexels. In the brown chromexcel,
Everett uh, which is a whoreween product. It is luxurious. Uh, really, really
Everett nice leathers. And uh, I got them and I put them on my feet, and I thought, you know what? I love these.
Andrew Not that much more expensive. And I've been wearing
Everett them. And then I saw Andrew today,
Everett and he said, I really like those shoes. And I thought
Everett hot damn.
Everett Mission accomplished. Uh, I love them. I love them. I want to wear them every day, and you can't. You can't wear leather shoes every day, and you can't wear any shoes every day because then you look like an asshole. But um
Everett I love them. I love,
Everett love, love them. They are a rubber soled moccasin, lace up moccasin.
Everett Um, and they are just beautiful. The
Everett leather is really nice. The silhouette is really nice.
Andrew I feel like the laces are a touch long.
Everett They are a touch long. And I actually cut
Everett an inch, two inches off of each of the laces and they're still a touch long. So I'm probably gonna take another I think
Andrew I think in I think two inches
Everett more. And and and that's fine too, right? You'd rather have leather laces come in too long.
Andrew Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and
Everett so of course I can just cut them until they're the right size. But uh I love these shoes. They're super comfortable. They're rubber sole which is great. It's a it's a rubber case.
Andrew How's the uh arch You
Everett know, I don't know. It's fine for me. I've
Everett got kind of flat arches. Let's see. Um
Everett I've got kind of flat arches.
Everett Um which is to say it's not something I think about, but I think if you were in need of more arch support, you could sort of like get an insert for them. Um if that's what you wanted. I don't think that they're uh an orthopedic shoe if they're not. Well obviously
Andrew not. You're not they're not okay. Yeah
Everett acceptable like lo the loafer
Andrew arch support. It's i they're they're uh
Everett yeah, sort of a um a casual loafer with terrific American
Everett construction. It's a Blake Stitched
Everett shoe. Gosh, dude.
Andrew They're lovely. These are so nice. I'm
Everett so happy with them. 325,
Everett I think. Which the website is
Everett 328. Okay, there you go. And and the uh
Andrew ran courts are f 288,
Everett I think. So you're not really
Andrew going that much up. I don't
Everett think that these are, you know, of course I, haven't
Everett had I haven't had the ranquourts in hand to compare them one to one. I've got three or four pair of ranquourts at the house, and they're built, I would say comparably. I don't think that they're a d I I do
Andrew think that they're chrome XL
Everett that they use is slightly thinner
Andrew maybe feels a little less
Everett sturdy. Um but I
Andrew mean those look every bit a fantastic
Everett shoe. Those look every bit as durable
Andrew and wearable as my Danner work boots.
Everett And they're resolable and
Everett um recraftable and Oak Street bootmakers will do
Andrew that for you and I I mean it's
Everett just a great shoe and I'm so happy about them. It's I I've
Everett bought shoes in the past where I'm like ah I love this but this is
Everett a shoe that probably for like years two years I've like been like, I should get that, I should get that, and I haven't for whatever reason. And I'm just so happy now that I got them. I would wear them every day if I could.
Andrew That's a that's a real bang for your buck. Like everything about that is wingtip or not wing tip, uh red wing, daner, super durable, super wearable, uh, but more befitting of the shoes that you need to wear.
Everett It's more of a trad. It's more of a trad casual than a work. It's not work
Andrew wear, but it all it has it has all of the characteristics of durability and build, which is often lost in uh business-esque attire.
Everett And you don't have to spend $330 to
Everett get a shoe that looks like this, at least for a period of time. Someone said, Oh, I I like those shoes, someone at work. Are those sperries?
Andrew Yeah, because sperries will look like that out of the box.
Everett And I tried not to have an offended look on my face. And I said,
Everett oh no, but they're they look like some sperries. Um yeah, so from a company out of Chicago, really cool company, and I kind of left it at
Everett that. Uh but there
Everett are other shoes that look like this, and these
Everett are more than that. If you wanted this look and didn't want to spend 330 bucks. I think sperry would
Everett be a great place to start. I wore a pair,
Andrew a couple pairs of sperries, wore them right out.
Everett Yep. And then I just bought a new one because they're 60
Andrew bucks. That's right. You're gonna spend 100 bucks
Everett on sperries and when they go bad in three years, you just t chuck 'em.
Andrew And you Yeah. Versus these,
Everett which I need to put shoe trees in and then in three years when the I wear through the souls I'll have to send 'em out and won't have 'em and pay a hundred plus bucks
Everett for hour to get a new soul.
Everett So I I you know the economics don't necessarily work out. The
Andrew math doesn't quite math. Uh with that with
Everett that said, they're are great and I love them and I'm very happy to have
Andrew them. They look good thanks man
Everett yeah yeah I'm I'm I'm happy and that's all I have
Andrew good um
Everett is there anything you feel
Everett like we should talk about before we go?
Andrew No? Well, it's good because it started the music.
Everett Uh, hey folks, thanks for joining us for this episode of
Everett 40 and 20, the WatchClicker Podcast. Do me a favor, go to our website. It is watchclicker.com
Everett that's where we post articles
Everett and reviews and written things and also pictures to go along with those written things.
Andrew If you would like to follow us
Everett on social media, you can do that at WatchClicker or at forty and twenty underscore watchclicker. Both on Instagram. That's where we post pictures, but
Everett also updates about things we're doing
Everett on this podcast or on the website.
Everett If you'd like to support us and oh
Everett boy, we hope you do, uh, you can do that at patreon.com slash 4920. That is how we get all the money to pay for hosting for the website and for this podcast, uh, which turns out is a lot of money. Uh if you haven't checked it out, just check it out.
Everett Feel free to kick a buck. We
Everett appreciate all of you who do support us on Patreon.
Everett And don't forget to tune back in next Tuesday for
Everett another hour of Watches, Food, Drinks, Life, and other things we like. Bye-bye.