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Episode 11 - Skin Divers

Published on Wed, 09 Jan 2019 23:46:00 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts Andrew and Everett discuss skin diver watches as part of their "watch type" podcast series. They talk about the characteristics that define a skin diver watch like smaller size, vintage styling, and moderate water resistance. They share some modern affordable options that could potentially qualify as skin divers, but ultimately determine that skin diver watches were more of a fad from the 1960s-70s that has been replaced by "dress diver" watches today. They also consider buying a vintage skin diver watch as an alternative way to get an authentic example from that era. Other topics include Andrew's New Year's resolution to read 60 books this year across different genres, as well as a recommendation for learning off-camera flash photography.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Thanks for joining us. Everett, how are you?
Everett Gosh, darn, I'm so good. I, uh, I've had a, I've had a fun gear acquisition week.
Andrew Yeah, you have.
Everett Yeah. Yeah, I really have. You know, uh, I started off the week and we talked about this last week, but started off the week. getting my Emperor Diver. This watch that we've been waiting for now for 18 months or thereabouts, about a year and a half. For those of you that don't know, we've talked about this, I think, on the show. A bunch.
Andrew We'll talk about it again. We for sure talked about it when you had the prototype.
Everett Oh, that's right. So, Watch You Seek, one of the most prolific watch forums, does their F71. affordable diver or their F71 watch projects. So the F71 is the affordable forum and they do project watches every number of years. And this 2017 HKED proposed a project watch which was a sort of svelte retro or vintage style diver. You know that's a vintage versus retro. I think we use vintage in the watch world incorrectly sometimes. I think vintage is something that's actually old, and retro is something that's like old. And maybe I'm wrong about this.
Andrew In my head, retro is, retro and vintage are time periods of the past. I think retro is, in my head, when I think of it, I would think of retro as near past, versus vintage being well past. Like, retro is the shit that my dad wore, vintage is the stuff that my grandpa wore. Interesting. That's just in my head. That's made up.
Everett That's how I think of it. Realistically, we're probably both partially right, partially wrong. It's this retro style. We've called it the Emperor Vintage Diver. You guys have seen pictures of it, I'm sure, or if you haven't, do a Google for the HK Emperor Diver. If you haven't seen a picture of this watch, There's a good chance you've seen a picture of its cousin, which is the EMG Nemo diver, uh, EMG. So I'm going to caveat this, uh, vignette because I don't know all the details here. I've spoken with Ed about this and we've talked about this on the show, but my understanding is that when we were trying to get enough people to buy into the Emperor diver, we were just falling short in numbers, but HK Ed, being a seller of watches and being connected to a couple of companies both his own and the EMG company decided you know we can we can soften the blow of these short orders you know because you when you order things uh from an OEM there's minimum order quantities and so we were struggling to get to those numbers so I believe what happened is in an effort to mitigate that that possible damage EMG said well we'll just take these elements and make our own watch. So EMG designed and has now produced their Nemo Diver, which I think is going to wind up being one of the best watches of 2019. Um, and we'll talk about that later, uh, a little bit more for reasons that will become apparent soon. But so, so if you haven't seen the Emperor Diver, you've probably seen the Nemo. These watches aren't particularly similar. I mean, if you look at them, You wouldn't look at them and say that they're the same. I mean, there's some notable differences, but they are close cousins. They share a case. They share a wonderful beads of rice bracelet and now award-winning beads of rice. If you listen to two broke watch snobs annual awards, they gave the EMG Nemo, the best beads of rice bracelet for 2018. So big, big time awards right there.
Andrew Yeah, that's a win.
Everett I think their, their awards were a little tongue in cheek and they kind of threw the watch out.
Andrew Right. I'll take it though. You can keep the bracelet. I'll take the watch off your hands. It's not a big deal.
Everett Well, and it really is a superlative bracelet. I mean, beads of rice or anything else, it's by a fairly wide margin, the nicest bracelet I own. Not only in terms of quality, but also in comfort. And the beads of rice lends itself to being a really wearable, comfortable bracelet. But, you know, we've talked about this. We won't rehash a ton. Uh, it's just fantastic. I'm super excited about it. We've posted a couple of photos of that watch on the, on the Instagram this week. And, uh, there's going to be many more to come. I'm so enamored by just about everything there is to, you know, just about everything about this watch. I'm really in love.
Andrew So it is a really great bracelet. I'm wearing it right now.
Everett Crazy comfortable, right? I mean, it's so flexible. It's just, uh, it's soft. without being soft at all. Um, it's great. I mean, it feels like a leather or something, you know? Yeah. Really wonderful. And you know, I suppose maybe Milanese or, or shark mesh even might be softer or have a softer feel, but this has that real structural look, but also has a jewel reappearance with those, all those facets and the comforts just out of this world.
Andrew And the clasp on this bracelet is something else. It is the absolute thickest closure I've ever seen.
Everett Well, right. And so it does add a little bit of bulk to the bottom of the watch.
Andrew Um, I talked to, I think it counterweights the watch nicely. I think that it keeps it from rolling.
Everett I think you're probably right. You know, I talked to Ed about this a little bit this week and I had sort of shared the opinion that I'm not sure it actually totally fits with the overall aesthetic of the watch. Um, because it is, it is pretty substantial. But I'll tell you, it's worth it. Uh, it's such a nice, well-executed bracelet. Uh, it, all the clicks are really, are really great. Um, it snaps in really nice and it is substantial. I mean, it's all the machining is phenomenal. It's, it's fantastic. Uh, but it is a, I mean, in terms of this watch, the overall aesthetic of this watch is really very refined and thin. And that buckle is not those things. I mean, it is refined, but certainly not thin. It's a beefy clasp. So, you know, I told Ed, gosh, if I had to pick something to criticize, it might be just that imbalance. But, I mean, I'm not really criticizing it.
Andrew I'm just, I'm really... You're grasping at straws.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Andrew This $20 bill has got a wrinkle on the edge. And this is unacceptable. I'm sending it back. So... You can send it to me.
Everett So yeah, got that man. And now I'm just going to wear it. And you know, it's one of very few and you know, I suspect this is going to be one of those watches that, uh, everybody had the opportunity to buy. Um, a lot of folks didn't buy it there. And I will say there are a few, a few of these left. So check out EMG's website. Uh, oh no, they're on HK Ed's website, his new website. Uh, there are a few of these left and I, and I don't know how long they'll be there, but, but certainly check them out. 350 bucks. is a goddamn steal i'm tempted for this watch you know it's one of those things the timing is hard sometimes right i want that watch i i i would pay for that watch i just can't pay for that watch right now so especially with emg doing another run of their um of the dl63 that's gonna be a hard decision for me to make yes what's that dl63 coming in at um this new one they're they're dropping in um
Andrew Dome Sapphire and the ST1901 coming in at $375.
Everett Oh, that's great. Yeah, that's great.
Andrew But I can't buy both.
Everett Well, we were talking about this last night over text. You just can't buy all the watches. And you certainly can't buy all the watches right now. No, that's right.
Andrew But you know what I did buy and I would happily buy again? The SSB031.
Everett Fuck, it's so good.
Andrew It absolutely lived up to everything I was hoping it would. This bezel on it, one of the things that drew me to it was just the way the bezel reflects light in photographs, and it absolutely does that in person.
Everett This thing is... Well, and it does look ceramic. We talked about this when we talked about this last, and it's just incredible. I will say it's a little bit chunkier than I expected it to be.
Andrew It is a little bit taller than I expected it to be, but it doesn't wear like it is.
Everett No, it doesn't. And the bracelet's really comfortable. Uh, nice feeling.
Andrew It's a little, little squeaky. I, uh, I haven't put it on, uh, anything but the bracelet yet, but I've, I've worn it a ton this week. I think I wore it every day. Nice. Yeah.
Everett Yeah. Well, it doesn't look like it got a beer bath.
Andrew No, I didn't either. So everyone won.
Everett How's your, uh, how's your illness coming along?
Andrew Pretty good. I think I sound much better. I still got a little bit of drainage, you know, when that, like you get sick, it just feels like it takes forever to, for your body to just finally evict all of the, all the shit that was living inside of you. Sure. Um, but good. I'm back. Your voice has recovered. Yeah. I can drink beer. I never stopped. Maybe that was part of the issue, but yeah.
Everett Great. And we are drinking beer. I don't know that we're drinking. nice beer tonight. And it's a superior light beer. It is. It is a superior light beer. And you know, I know that. It says it on the can. It says it on the can. So we're drinking Michelob Ultra and I've got to admit to you guys, um, I, I've been, uh, I've been roped into doing a, a keto diet, the ketogenic diet, I guess. Um, I don't know a ton about it yet. I'm learning as we go. I'm sort of, we're, we're building this plane in the air cause you know, there's only so much preparation you can do. One of the things we learned to make an podcast was, you prepare to an extent, but the best way to do it is just to start.
Andrew Take off and then build the landing gears as you fly.
Everett Right, exactly. So build the plane in flight, as the saying goes. And we've done that a little bit with this keto diet, you know, figuring out, gosh, what do we do now? What do we eat? So it's been interesting. You know, everybody's body reacts a little bit differently from what I have understood. My body has acted a little violently.
Andrew Well, when you cut out bread, for the most part.
Everett I mean, just about all carbs. And you're really eating a lot of fat too, so.
Andrew I did pure carnivore for a week. The premise of pure carnivore is one step.
Everett I have a feeling what you're about to say, but keep going.
Andrew It's one step beyond keto in terms of the dietary restrictions such that you're eating only high fat meat, animal products like eggs and cheese. I did it for a week. And I was staring down another dinner of steak and eggs. I can't do it. I can't do it anymore. I just I need I need more variety. So I should have rather than just quitting and going back to eating spaghetti and garlic bread should have gone towards a keto like which is allowing for a lot more diversity in your diet. But instead I just went back to spaghetti and garlic bread. Right.
Everett Because those are great things.
Andrew Amazing.
Everett You know, one of the things that's happened to me is I've been craving like leafy vegetables or broccoli. I had this craving for broccoli.
Andrew That's weird.
Everett It's super weird, especially for me. You know me well enough to know that's not something that happens to me. So it's a better craving than spaghetti, for instance, which is not to say that I haven't craved carbs, but it's been pretty mild at this point. But I had this intense urge for leafy greens, which makes me think that maybe there's some sort of vitamin imbalance or at least there was. I've really upped my my green and vegetable intake, and I think that's helped. It hasn't helped the violence of my digestive tract, but- It will. It will. We'll get there. So I understand everything, all in good time, that stuff cures itself. So yeah, we're drinking Michelob Ultra, so fuck it.
Andrew Low carb, low calories. If you gotta drink low carb- Shit, man. This isn't the worst thing you could do to yourself.
Everett No, it's tasty. 95 calories, 2.6 carbs. We could drink like 30 of these.
Andrew And not even be drunk. Well, maybe.
Everett We might get there. So yeah, the other thing that I got this week, and those of you who follow me on Instagram will see it, I got my macro lens for my Nikon. And it looks good. You know, I was looking for a macro lens, and I buy all my lenses used. I don't buy them all used, but by and large, I like the savings you get in a used lens. You know, glass, well taken care of glass will last forever. And so I look for used lenses, but I also look for quality lenses. You know, the, the new newest lenses have a lot of advantages. Um, you know, new Nikkor lenses oftentimes have, you know, their ultrasonic zoom motors, they've got vibration reduction or their, or their VR, you know, or image stabilization is what some companies, some companies call that. Um, but with a macro lens in particular, uh, by and large, if you're zooming up close, you're using manual. And I think you and I, for all of our, Watch shots are using, for the most part, are using manual. Um, really what I wanted to get was a really sort of purpose watch shot or, or perhaps product shot lens. Um, I picked up a used Nikkor 105 millimeter 2.8 D uh, if, if you know these things, you'll know that that D lens, it has been out of production for a number of years. I think 2007 or 2009, one of the two, that Nikon stopped making it. So they don't have them new anymore. They've subsequently released their newer 105mm 2.8 lens. I think it's the VR, which has vibration reduction. So this lens is older technology. It's not their modern style, but it's a metal case, you know, metal bodied lens. It looks good. feels great
Andrew Now it looks like it could have come out of the box.
Everett Yeah, well, and the threads on the mount are all in really good shape. There's not a single scratch on it. Yeah, I mean, it's been babied. Someone did not throw it in a drawer. I'm promptly going to ruin all the care that they've taken. Let's do it right now. So yeah, I'm excited about that. It's been a good week. Anything else for you?
Andrew No, I missed the new year. You missed it? No, I mean, you were there with me. It is a new year.
Everett I thought you said you missed it, and I was like, no, I mean, were you on drugs? I was there with you.
Andrew Champagne hits me. It gets me weird. But no, I was there, present, as were you. You didn't miss it. No, I was present for it. It is a new year. But it is a new year. Happy 2019.
Everett You know, when I published Thursday's episode, I wrote in 2019 into the metadata on the MP3, and that felt kind of cool.
Andrew I haven't had to write the date yet, but I know I won't get it right.
Everett until june right until october yeah it's time to start cycling through i don't think i've messed it up yet which is nice but you know i do a lot of three days this week well that's true but but you know i make a lot of documents for my for my living but most of those documents for now the last three or four weeks have been oh yeah documents that were going to be executed in the new year so i've i've already sort of gotten in the habit I don't know if I'm all the way there yet, but it feels like I'm a little closer What are you looking at there? I was just looking at the case back of the Emperor It's nice, right? It's great great case back I mean guys if you if you aren't curious at all go check out HK ads website once these are gone people are gonna want them so And you know the Emperor diver is a nice little segue to what we're talking about today Yes, yeah, you know I've been off topic this whole time.
Andrew We just you just thought we were right
Everett We've been perfectly on topic, you know, I always feel like this is an announcement we make like they're Waiting with bated breath about what we're gonna talk about even though it's titled They know eventually that we're gonna get to it Hopefully one of these days we should just title it something and then never get to it Wait till 1023 when we announce our topic. Yeah, so we are talking this week about skin divers as a episode 4 5 4 I think in our Watch type series.
Andrew We did field watches. We had pilots watches. We did racing Chronos So this is episode 4 of it.
Everett Okay, so there we go So episode 4 of our watch type series and I don't know we haven't really discussed how long the series is gonna go It seems like we're maybe reaching a natural breaking point, which is to say might take a pause and yeah Maybe move on to some other stuff at some point here. Sprinkle some more in eventually. Yeah, you know, this is I mean We're sort of in a, this is sort of a weird week and I'm not sure we knew this when we started or we had talked about it when I proposed this topic. You know, Skin Divers is not necessarily a watch category, at least not today. It's not a watch category like it was back in the 60s or the 70s perhaps.
Andrew It was the hardest for me to find, episode that we've done, to find modern affordable examples. Or modern examples for that matter. That was a bit of a stretch because it seems like going back into the history of what a skin diver is, it was basically an ask of the skin diving community to strip divers of all their ultra tool functionalities and just give a stripped bear lightweight dive watch that also looks good. Um, which to me kind of feels like most modern dive watches, right?
Everett Cause nobody's, nobody's by and large scuba diving with these things. Uh, modern dive watches. So, so it seems like there's a similar overlap, but I do think that a lot of folks want, you know, these real tool-ish dive watches, which is cool, but that's not a skin diver. You know, I've sort of created, I think mentally in my imagination or just in my thought process thinking about this, what I think maybe the evolution of the skin diver was, but I've based that on what skin diving was. Skin diving is a sport that I think is, it's maybe a little bit of an antiquated term. I'm not sure people really skin dive, or I know that there's skin diving groups, but I think it's something that happened in the 60s and 70s as sport, and I think that that's less now.
Andrew I mean, I think snorkeling still qualifies as skin diving, doesn't it?
Everett Well, I think they're a little bit different. I think skin diving is the act of free diving. It's, it's like a hybrid, right? So it's usually done with a snorkel, but it's the actual act of sort of going underwater as you're snorkeling to, um, investigate things closer and to observe things closer. So it's done with goggles, right? Like it's, if you're snorkeling and, um, they do make some, some manufacturers make sort of skin diving specific snorkels that are easy to clear. But yeah, so it's a hybrid between free diving and skin diving. And this is often done in, you know, perhaps just bathing trunks or a swimsuit, maybe in a warm area. Birthday suits. Birthday suits, man. So, you know, I'm imagining vacationers who have this fairly sleek watch that doesn't need, you know, doesn't need 200, 300, 8 billion meters of water resistance.
Andrew Um, but still has, you know, maybe a, a, a bezel, a rotating dive bezel, something they can wear during the day after they leave the beach.
Everett Yeah, that's right. You know, if you're on vacation, maybe you want to take this thing and throw on a blazer or a linen blazer or whatever, and go out to dinner and still have it look acceptable as opposed to, you know, a big plow prof or something. Uh, you know, something like that. So, so imagine what a skin diver is. I think that there's, you can, reach back to that now and you can tell me what you think about this because i think that there is this colloquial idea of a skin diver being maybe a lighter smaller um perhaps less water resistant or less tool-ish dive watch but there's also a thing that i refer to that's a very specific style of watch uh called a skin diver which is a 70s style watch with that arched main case the squared integrated or not integrated but semi-integrated lugs But when I think Skin Diver, I think of that. I don't think there are very many, if any, modern versions of that Skin Diver.
Andrew I think you're right. I think that that style of watch, carried with it all the characteristics we talked about, it's not going to be big. It's not going to be big because it's going to be veering towards a dressable watch. It's going to be strip bare of all of its tools. It doesn't need 300 meters of water resistance because a human doesn't have 300 meters of water resistance in their lungs. I mean, obviously like skins, whatever. Anyway, so we're going to be moving towards a dressier, still functional watch, but I think this gave way to the modern dress diver. And I think that's why looking for modern examples, you're going to have to dig deep And they're going to be not nearly as, they're going to be not nearly as, um, ubiquitous or permeated through the culture. I think, I think skin divers have kind of phased out. I mean, if we're looking at styles of watches, I mean, the 55 millimeter pilots watch has also phased out because it's, it's lost its necessity, but it's also just kind of gone out of style. And I think that skin diver was the Genesis of. the modern desk diver.
Everett Yeah. No, I think that that's I think that's a super fair. I think that's a super fair comparison. You know, we I don't know that we argued, but earlier in the week we had a back and forth. In fact, we probably talked about this topic more than we have any others, because I think we were both a little stumped, like a little bit. Yeah. What is this? Do we know what it is?
Andrew We were struggling that we even do. We can we can draw up some examples. Yeah. But does anybody really know? Because it's also it's another really ambiguous term. that in the true-to-style original Skindivers, what you're looking at is a dressy-ish. Yeah. Relatively small. And that was really, and not, you know, in excess really of 300 meters of water resistance. So you're not getting any of the tool functions of a dive watch.
Everett Well, and in trying to figure this out, I think we, you had said, you know, I think maybe the Dan Henry 1970 and the 40 millimeter iteration is a Skindiver. And I said, I don't know, that's a super compressor. I think they're different. And so I think it fits. I don't think you can, besides the fact that it's a super compressor style case, I don't think you can tell me why it doesn't fit. And I ultimately think I agreed with you there. What we did is we reached out to you folks by way of Instagram and said, Hey, what do you guys think? What are your favorite modern skin divers? And I'll tell you, I was amazed by the responses, you know, with the exception of a couple of these responses. They were sort of what you'd expect out of a dress diver. You know, I think if we had substituted the term skin diver, dress diver for skin diver, we'd have got similar responses. Very similar responses, I think. Somebody came up with the, the scurfa. I think the very first response we got was scurfa. And I assume they mean the scurfa diver one. I don't, I don't, uh, I don't even remember who proposed that and I don't mean to call anybody out. Um, on one hand, I guess I can see it. I think that that watch is elegant. It's appropriately sized, but I also think
Andrew it's it's almost uh the opposite of a skid diver that's a purpose-built tool diver but it also i mean beyond that so why it was built because all these all these watches are purpose-built divers why is it not the size is right i don't know i don't know if maybe it's as refined as what we've talked about i think i think that could be the only exclusionary characteristic is that it's not as refined as the other watches that come to mind or have have kind of percolated out
Everett during the discussion. Well, and I think I'll sort of go through here. Um, so, so just w we don't need to read through these in detail, but, um, Zodiac Seawolf came up and I think Zodiac Seawolf very much fits. That's a 39 or maybe a 40, 39, 40. It's this beautiful, very refined dive watch. The Yima Heritage Superman, super cool watch. It's got that, I don't know what it is, but that indicator on the bezel, It looks like it rotates, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe it stays put and the bezel rotates. Anyway, if you haven't checked that watch out, super cool. Ball Skin Diver, which is kind of a spendy watch, but obviously they think it's a Skin Diver, and certainly it's a heritage reissue of their old Skin Diver. Christopher Ward C65 Trident Diver, such a freaking cool choice. That's kind of a new watch from Christopher Ward, and it's gorgeous if you haven't checked them out.
Andrew I hadn't seen it, and I had to look it up when I saw it, and I was like, oh, look at you.
Everett You should come home with me tonight. Uh, I, these are the one, the only guys that I named dropped when, when we reposted these, but two broke watch snobs said the Vostok Amphibia. Um, and I think, you know, I kind of joked and said, you know, folks are going to get their pitchforks, uh, referring back to Skunk Works criticism of our choice for the Commodore Ski.
Andrew But it so fits.
Everett It totally fits. And it fits in the same exact way that a Commodore Ski fits as a field diver, uh, or a field watch. You know, these, these Vostoks, some of them are very, um, simply. sized, you know, or very conservatively sized. Um, you know, I said, gosh, I think the 420, 110, 120 would all, all maybe, uh, qualify. And if you leave them on that Vostok die, that Vostok bezel, you know, it's a polished steel bezel. Certainly they're dressy enough. I think for some people, maybe a little too blingy, uh, but it's a great choice. Squalor 1521 really interesting choice. Squalor being one of these, originators of the Skin Diver type and certainly Squala's 20 Atmos case was used by tons and tons of Swiss manufacturers.
Andrew I think they were the they were the ones providing cases during one of the one of the ones providing cases during the Skin Diver explosion.
Everett That's right. That's right. So Hoyer certainly provided some and they were maybe one of the biggest names. Squala also a fairly big name providing these. Also a Swiss company called Monin, which is a company I haven't heard of and maybe I need to look into more because it seems like there may be a sort of Epic One of these really legendary companies and I may be mispronouncing that apologies, but also how could you mispronounce that? And also EPSA famously, you know, you know EPSA provided the world with with dive watch cases for years and years and years so Yeah, Squalla was right in there. If not the most ubiquitous Skin Diver case, certainly right in there. So that Squalla 1521, also a little bigger, 42 millimeters, certainly fits that mold. And it's based on that iconic square lug. I mean, really fits. And in fact, I think that Squalla 1521 might be the closest modern iteration. Oris Diver 65, great choice. Outside of my price range, Most of these are outside of my price range. Most of them are too. Yeah. I mean, that was the thing. So we got these responses and I was like, gosh, I'd love it. But, uh, the Seiko SLA017, which is a very expensive watch. They also made the SBP051053 iterations, which are a more affordable, uh, a more affordable version of that SLA, which is that 62MAS homage. Um, notice retrospect. Yep. Rado Captain Cook. Super cool watch. Very expensive. Not familiar with it. The Rado Captain Cook? Oh, check it out. It's gorgeous. Maybe I'll pull it up here in a second. This new Baltic Diver, the Aqua Scaff, fits. Totally fits. And the one I find most interesting and most compelling of all these suggestions we got, a couple of folks suggested this, was the Helios Seaforth. That is maybe, in my mind right now, the best option for a semi-affordable, you know, they come in 700, 750. Oh, I mean, certainly it's, it's right in there, um, as being one of the best options for most affordable or affordable, true skin diver. Those watches are beautiful. Every time I see one, I think, God dang. And I think it seems to me like Jason and Halleos have sort of caught up to the demand and they're, they're a little, a little bit better prepared to handle, the amount of volume they've gotten. I don't know that you could go to Halio's website right now and buy one. I still think that they're on pre-order. I think you're right about that. I looked recently. And probably going to sell out very quickly once they're available, but great choice. If you're comfortable with pre-order type deal, I think, I think it's a fantastic way to go. $6.50. So, or maybe even more than that, $6.50 to $7.50 every time I've looked. So I think that's a little bit outside of the Price range of watches that we really like to bring you. So great choice. I'm not sure it totally fits our motif.
Andrew But what this did was help us frame out what other people think of as skin divers. Because this was hard for me in that I had trouble really clearly defining a skin diver against a non-skin diver. Obviously some are going to immediately stand out and say I'm not a skin diver. And some kind of, they, they flirt with it. And some are like, I think you, I think you fit. I think, I think you work.
Everett Right. And to that end, maybe that Dan Henry 1970, 1970? Yeah. The, that 40 millimeter version is a, is a perfect example.
Andrew It's refined. It's, I think I got about 200, 200 meters of water resistance. Sounds right. It, it's a small case. I would have no, Qualms wearing it to the beach in the water and then getting out of the water getting dressed and going to dinner Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that seemed that's to me the Identity of a skin diver Yeah, no, I think that's right.
Everett And I think we both said or came to that same conclusion So well, I I think that's a good probably a good time to maybe jump right into Choices with I know we each picked a couple. Um What would you have first?
Andrew Let's let's start with the Nizumi, the Nizumi Studios Baleen reference BA1-101. And these come in at 40 millimeter case, 14 millimeters thick, and they're $408.10 coming to the United States. And they are, I mean, they're clearly a a vintage inspired watch. Yeah. With the very deliberately vintage coloring on it. This feels, this says, I will say no vintage loom, no vintage loom, but this says seventies, which I, which I say, I think that's a, an advantage.
Everett No vintage loom. Yeah. No, very seventies, very seventies.
Andrew And it's, uh, the coloring on it is it, it doesn't look patina, but it looks, I don't know how to describe it. It like, It's not quite gold, nor is it brass.
Everett It's kind of a bronze tone.
Andrew Yeah, kind of bronze tone, uh, accents to it. Uh, a really, really well polished, just, just bright bezel on it. Um, a really simple design, but very, very elegant, super elegant.
Everett I love the twisted lugs, you know, twisted lugs are one of my very favorite. features possible on a watch and there's a couple really great watch modern watches that have twisted lugs obviously Omega's famous for its twisted lugs Bernhardt does twisted lugs on on a couple of its versions the one of a prior watch you seek project watch the Commander 300 which is is a Seamaster homage made by NTH made by Chris Vail at NTH watches is one of those watches that I've always regret the fact that I didn't pick up when it was available. Twisted lugs, you know, it's such a cool, interesting look, um, and adds refinement in a way that's, that's maybe not what you expect. They're done really interesting here. They're thin. They're not, they're not very prominent. They sort of hide under that bezel. This is a great option, dude.
Andrew And it's, it's definitely a saver watch. It's a watch that you can't buy today. I mean, you can buy it today. If you can buy it today, I would recommend it, I think, and then send it to me. Let us borrow it for the next three years. But this is a watch, if you're looking to buy, if you're looking to get into a smaller size, very vintage looking, very elegant diver, this to me absolutely fits the bill. And with the sizing on it, I feel like this is a skin diver. I feel like it touches everything that to me, from how I think of a skin diver, it checks every box.
Everett Yeah, no, I I can't criticize you there it is it does have some brushing on it, which I don't think is is an eliminating feature a Really fantastic watch great choice. I don't know. I don't know what else you can even say about it that the gold hands I think really add to the refinement and and probably add to the wearability Outside of outside of outdoor activities. I think we're going to Mexico. This would be a super cool watch to bring to Mexico We can have it delivered. In Mexico. Yeah. And then wear it on the beach.
Andrew Do you think it's cheaper if we buy it in Mexico?
Everett I mean, we might be able to find something that's close to it in Tijuana for... We're not going there, though.
Andrew We could stop. It's not... I mean, it's sort of on the way, but not really.
Everett No, you're right. It's not at all. Yeah. Super cool.
Andrew Love it. And they... Nozomi, as a company, makes some really really beautiful watches. Just refined, very vintage feel without being ostentatious about them. They're just so classic.
Everett You know, when we were prepping for our racing chrono episode, we talked about both the Lowes or the Lowes chronograph and the Voiture chronograph. Both of these are obviously race-inspired chronographs and they're beautiful. That Lowes or Lewes, Has this really vintage red and blue markings on the case, or at least one of them does.
Andrew It's like a rounded out Monaco. As you think, when you think of a Monaco, you think of the blue, you think of the blue dial Monaco, because I feel like everyone does, but I maybe I'm wrong in that, but that's what I've imagined when I see it. That color scheme looks like a rounded out Monaco.
Everett Yeah. No, great, great choice. I think. I think you could do a lot worse than this one. And at $400, it's not a super cheap watch, but it's a reasonably priced watch.
Andrew It's a, yeah, if you plan for it, this is a watch you could buy this year. You could buy it in 2019.
Everett So my first watch is the, we've talked about it already today, but it's the EMG HKED slash EMG Nemo Diver. This is for sale for, I think it's still on pre-order. Probably set to ship in February or March is my understanding.
Andrew I've seen some photos of some in the wild there So they're already shipping them In fact somebody's selling one on watch you see right now Nice, so they are out in the wild.
Everett Yeah, you know the the price on these This is a little bit more than the Emperor, but these are for-profit watches I want to say these are 450. It doesn't say that how much it is here That sounds right to me though. Right around there. But it's a 40 millimeter, 47 lug to lug, super wearable, 13 and a half millimeters thick. One of the biggest differences between the EMG Nemo and the Emperor is the movement. So the Emperor has the NH35. We built this by committee. At the end of the day, the folks that had bought in were interested in saving money where they could. And I think that the NH35 is such a Fantastic movement. The folks like, gosh, we'd really love to save that money. The Nemo has a 9015 or the, um, what, what is it? The 9OS5, which is, which is like a 9015 without a date window movement, which is famously thinner. It's a 28,800 beats per hour movement. Uh, so, so a little bit, a little bit more refined.
Andrew And this is a thin watch anyway. So to make it, make it thinner.
Everett Well, and if you, you know, you're wearing it right now, if you take it off, you can see the back does protrude a little bit. The Nemo back protrudes a lot less. And I was really hopeful for that. Uh, ultimately the committee, you know, vote by committee wanted to go with the lower price movement. I think that would have been such a great addition to that watch, but you know, you win some, you lose some. Uh, but this Nemo diver does have that very thin movement. So it comes in about 13 and a half millimeters thick, amazing, beautiful box Sapphire. Uh, just the whole thing's incredible. The, the markings on this are really interesting. Uh, it's got this, you know, the, the inner, this inner, uh, what do you, what do you call the chapter ring? Um, with these markings, really cool colors, powder blue, green, you know, I think that they're pulling on some of the design cues of, of the Hallios Seaforth in, in making these, at least in terms of coloration. award-winning pizza rice bracelet what more to say right yeah and i don't know that we need to talk about this a lot more because we've talked about it a ton but really super cool watch um ceramic on the bezel i'm pretty sure that's what i got you want to move on to your second one let's go on to number two so bear with me for a moment here folks what are you gonna do what are you doing next up the timex navi harbor i see you okay coming in at
Andrew $35. You're coming, you get, uh, I want to say a hundred millimeters of water resistance. 38 millimeter case though. A very traditionally styled dive watch, uh, round markers at one, two, a triangle up top rectangular at, uh, three, six, nine, a really cool hour hand. I mean, take a look at that hour hand. It's got a, what looks like it, it should have a Mercedes hand, but it's empty. It's just a window through the hour hand that still comes full circle around with a point to point at the hour hand. I think to be able to read the 24 hour inner ring that you've got there.
Everett That is what it's for. Yeah. I mean, it's a really neat design thing. And I don't know if that's a throwback to something historical. You see it and you're like, no shit. Why doesn't that happen?
Andrew I've never seen it before. I can't, I'm sure I have. It would be weird if I haven't, but I, it doesn't stand out in the memory ever having seen it. I don't think I've seen this ever before. And it, it's a, it, I forget the thickness on it. Where are we at here?
Everett Uh, yeah, let's see. Uh, this doesn't give me a thickness because you know, Timex, right? They're not Timex.
Andrew Yeah. Regardless, we're still looking at a 38 millimeter dive watch that it's coming on a nylon brake on a nylon. Uh, I think it probably is. Zulu strap. Yeah, a pass-through. Probably just a garbage pass-through or who knows maybe it's a great pass-through But if for a budget Watch that you can put on anything you want put a black NATO on there put a black shiznit on there That's a watch that you could wear under a button-up.
Everett Yeah, right, you know You could wear this watch anywhere. I will say it's not quite as Elegant as some of the watches that we've looked at definitely not quite as elegant
Andrew But what I was, what I, what, what drew me to it was that size was being a 38 millimeter with the water resistance you want and affordable 135 bucks. This is a watch that isn't obviously going to be able to take the place of an Iron Man that you can take to the same depth, but you can't wear your Iron Man to dinner.
Everett Well, you can.
Andrew Yeah, but it would look like you should be a jerk. You maybe shouldn't. This is a watch that you can wear on vacation. You can. go to breakfast in it, you can spend the day in the pool in it, you can swim in the ocean in it. I prefer colder vacations so this Mexico trip is going to spend a lot of time under a shaded swim-up bar for me. I have this supple alabaster skin that the sun does not agree with.
Everett We did confirm that there was swim-up bars, that was my one requirement. I sort of left it to Kim to pick the venue and I said my one requirement We can go to any city, any of the resorts in any of the cities that you've listed. My one requirement is a swim up bar.
Andrew Yeah. So we've got that, but this is a watch that I would not be embarrassed to wear to dinner. No, it's a watch that I would not be concerned about in the ocean, in the pool. It is just refined enough that I could feel like I could wear it to dinner. It wouldn't quite fit, but it wouldn't be out of place.
Everett Yeah. Well, and you know, at about half the price probably than SKX013, if that's a little bit too much to pay. Now, I wouldn't call the 013 a skin diver. I'm not sure I'd call this a skin diver either, but it certainly fits the bill without that refinement. And like I said, at about half the price of that SKX013, it's a really great deal. You know, if you're thinking, I just want an inexpensive watch to get.
Andrew But I don't know why this wouldn't be a skin diver, barring that it's not quite as refined.
Everett Well, and I think that that's what it is for me, is that instead of being... Which is not to say that it's not, it's just not as polished. Well, I don't think there's any polish on it, is there?
Andrew It looks like a diver.
Everett Yeah, right. You can get, there's a couple of these, well, the prices have all changed. So I think the Navi Ocean was $89 when I checked last week, but now it's $140. So, yeah, I bet this is the type of watch that if you keep your eyes open, you could get it for under $100 too. Oh, yeah.
Andrew And this is the Timex website, so I bet on Amazon it would be less.
Everett Yeah, I checked and didn't see it for less. So, hard to say.
Andrew But this isn't like a hard and fast, this is a Skin Diver, but I just, like we said, barring the refinement, That's really the only, the only piece that's kind of missing for me.
Everett It meets enough of the, it meets enough of the, the design cues that it certainly works. You know, if the goal is to have something that fits under a shirt, a shirt sleeve, what does it say? Shirt collar? A wrist collar. A shirt sleeve. This is definitely going to accomplish that.
Andrew Yeah. Maybe. I don't know. I'm not a hundred percent sold on it, but I, Insofar as I understand, Skin Divers, this, this meets enough of the criteria for me.
Everett Well, you know, right before we were recording, I threw out another option, which is that Seiko 50 fathoms. Um, obviously 50 fathoms is a Blancpain watch, but they're, I think it's the SNZG or SNZH one of the two with that, um, acrylic bezel, or maybe it's a hard Lux bezel. Um, I think maybe that fits too. I know it's too big. Uh, but, but barring the size, I think it really fits. I think it's refined. I think it's gorgeous. You know, it's based on the Blancpain 50 fathoms or, or at least it's hearkening back to that, which certainly would not have been a skin diver in the seventies or the sixties when that watch was, was really in its in its heyday. But now I think you could you could wear a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms with anything, you know, wear that thing with a tuxedo because God damn it. It's a, you know, $20,000 watch. I'm going to wear whatever the fuck I want. Exactly. So, yeah, I mean, so I think that there are options here, you know, and I think the biggest thing we've discovered is maybe there's no rules. A skin diver is something that you're going to wear in light Light swimming activities, so no 50 meter water resistance activities or 50 meter water resistance watches. And we're just going to cut it out. So no 50 meter or no water resistant watches, you know, but certainly something with a hundred meters of water resistance that fits.
Andrew Seems like a hundred meters plus. Yeah. And to me, it's got to be smaller. It's got to be 40 millimeters, 40 and a half or less.
Everett And I think maybe in our modern world, you might be able to get away with up to 42, depending on the overall field.
Andrew But see, then you start getting into what we were talking about earlier, where the modern desk diver has replaced the need for a skin diver. I mean, given that, the SKX would fit, the Mako would fit, the Ray would fit.
Everett I think the Ray or the Mako are a better fit than the SKX, just in terms of their sort of jewelry or elegance feel. But yeah, I mean, I can see the argument. So, okay, okay, I'll take it back.
Andrew Reel it in!
Everett 40 millimeters, hard and fast reels. So, what was there more you wanted to say about that watch?
Andrew No, just that I'm not 100% sold, but I think it fits. I think it might. Yeah, no, it's 135 bucks. So can I do really go wrong?
Everett Either way, you're gonna get a cool watch that you like.
Andrew Yeah, with an open our hand on the on the marker or on the on the hand for when you need that military time for when you need to be at that like, damn, it's right at 10 o'clock. But what time is it in 24 hour time? I got to wait a couple minutes. Give me a second here.
Everett Okay, so I told you earlier this week that I was thinking about going rogue. on my second pick dude you haven't even pulled it up so that's how rogue you've gone well and the reason i haven't pulled it up is because there's not really anything to pull up so you made it up it's an imaginary watch i've made up a watch oh yeah i have not i have not made up a watch no you know i think that for me my the most frustrating part about this week was the dearth of options of a true skin diver for poor schmucks like Andrew and Everett.
Andrew Because it's antiquated. It's not a real thing anymore. It was, but it's not.
Everett I'm not going to buy an Auris 65. I want it though.
Andrew If you want to send us one or two, send us two if you want to send us one. If you can afford to send us one, you can afford to send us two.
Everett Yeah, you know, even the Zodiac Seawolf, that's a $1,200 watch. Beautiful, gorgeous. I want it. I want it. Again. I'm not buying it. I can't afford it. Send it to us, y'all. You know, I can't do it. So, um, and when I say I can't afford it, right, I could maybe afford it, but I'm not gonna afford it because I want to do other things with that money.
Andrew So spend it in Mexico.
Everett So I was feeling a little sort of frustrated at the dearth of options. I thought, well, why, if I really wanted a skin diver, wouldn't it be smarter to go find a vintage skin diver, some sort of vintage piece. So you didn't go that rogue. It's not super rogue and I'll tell you the reason I think this is a little rogue is because I'm not gonna actually suggest a watch Instead what I'm gonna do is suggest the idea of buying a Vintage skin diver watch I've pulled up a number of these things so we can look at literally the brand is skin diver, right? So this is a this is a skin diver. I think made by deluxe You know some of these are Luke say Some of these brands are going to be a little bit hard to figure out, you know. And when I say a vintage skin diver, for me, what that would mean is to find that that arched case, 38 millimeters or less, probably a steel painted or polished steel bezel with with maybe, you know, I might even try to limit myself to an EPSA case, perhaps, or a I'm on in case maybe that'd be cool. Fine. Yeah. Or one of these squalor super 20 cases, you know, one of these classics can never cases with the square lugs, the squared semi integrated lugs, find a case with, or find a watch with maybe an edit movement, something that is got some history, um, get something, try not to pay a ton for it, get it serviced. If it hasn't already been been there, spent, spend a little bit of money on something vintage, cool and sexy that's actually going to fit the bill of a skin diver now because it was made as a skin diver when skin divers were definitely a thing that's right that's right so so i think that sort of outlines two approaches to this one buy a modern mid-size dress watch or two take yourself back in time just diver or just watch what i say you said dress watch i mean dress diver okay i mean yeah i'm sorry
Andrew I wasn't sure. I talk stupid.
Everett I thought you were saying like maybe by two watches. You know, I do most of the editing. Uh, we split the, we split that, that chore, but I think it's fair to say. I do, I do more of it. You know, I listen to these episodes and sometimes I'll say like diving watch when I mean chronograph. It's like, what are we, how did we not catch that? Uh, you know, when you're talking, you're having a conversation, you just say stupid shit. I do it all the time.
Andrew Cause that's what we're doing. We're having a conversation. Yeah. We're just two dudes drinking beer.
Everett Drinking beer.
Andrew Megalovoltron. With blankets stapled to the walls.
Everett It's one quilt and one beach towel. They do the trick though. The beach towel is going to have to come down.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Well, we will be recording on location. Yeah. That's what I mean. It's going to have to come with us. Dual purpose. So yeah, our sound dampening that first week we recorded, we had this, we sort of sit up against a wall in our guest bedroom when we record and there's a flat painted wall in front of us with nothing on it, and a flat painted wall behind us with nothing on it, and we were getting just some echo. We hung up this quilt and this beach towel, which now just live there. I don't even see them anymore. I think our family, when they came for the holidays, were probably like, what the heck is this? Tapestries. They're cheap tapestries. I want to get some 1970s tapestries, but they really do help the echo. They change the game. Totally. It's really incredible. Where were we?
Andrew I was talking shit about you.
Everett Okay, so I pulled up some ebay options. So this is a somebody pooped on that It looks like they did. Yeah, this is a $399. It's branded skin diver.
Andrew I think it's made by a company called deluxe There's some strange corrosion on the back that is suspiciously poopy fecally.
Everett Yeah Yeah, I think there was a medallion that was glued there Is what it is, but that looks more right So, you know, not a ton of money. This is probably a 1970, 37 millimeter dress diver. It's really attractive. It's, it does everything that I want it to do. Arched case, thin bezel. Um, I'm not sure I'd buy this one. It comes on a cool vintage tropic strap. This is neat. Uh, I think, well, I like this Elja, I think is the name. This is 17 Rubis. That's a cool watch. I wouldn't buy that one though. You know, it's got this really neat, uh, domed acrylic crystal, but again, very Vostok, uh, bezel on it though. Yeah. The, the teeth on her kind of Vostok like, um, what was the other one? I like, Oh, this, uh, Xylox company. I don't know these brands. This sort of has a 62 MAS or an SLA 0 1 7 field to it. Uh, also super small. Um, 20 20 atmos so this is a 200 meter watch 255 um you know i probably won't even put links to these in the show notes but but the point is well my favorite is this one this is an elgin very patinated skin diver watch that's 25 jewel movement it's got this sort of pepsi bezel uh but but the colors are showing green and red and i don't know if it was originally green and red or if they've just faded uh but this watch is freaking dope. It's cool. Uh, you know, I, I think I looked, it was 38 millimeters, maybe 37, just gorgeous.
Andrew And the Pepsi is East West. It's not, it's not, uh, uh, three to nine. It's, it's right.
Everett Six, right. Yeah. 50% red, 50% green, or perhaps blue at some point. Um, it's fitted with this. Uh, I don't know. It doesn't look like it's, uh, an Elgin bracelet, but it's got this sort of, Brushed beads of rice style bracelet.
Andrew That's cool.
Everett We're really attractive You know and the point of these is not to buy these watches the point of these this My second pick quote-unquote pick here was to say, you know, this is a really reasonable a Really reasonable place for me to maybe look into my first Vintage watch I think I could justify a vintage skin diver if you want a skin diver This might be a reasonable place to start, right?
Andrew The financial risk is significantly less than buying any of the modern examples we talked about.
Everett Well, I think the financial risk is that you're going to get an old automatic watch that doesn't work, that's DOA or that's got significant mechanical problems and that needs, you know, several hundred dollars in servicing, which is reasonable. I think it's reasonable to think that might happen with these. And obviously you're not going to want to wear this like you'd wear a watch with a 7s26 or an NH35 movement because it's not going to have that type of, you know, utilitarian durability. It's not going to be quote unquote bulletproof. These are old movements and they're antiques.
Andrew But, but they look so good.
Everett They look really good. Now, I don't know that if you buy a vintage skin diver, you're going to want to use that for this stated purpose.
Andrew I probably wouldn't.
Everett Yeah. I mean, it seems like that might be a mistake. Uh, but you take your, your Iron Man on vacation, wear that for all the, all the wet shit. And then you put this on a night and you still look cool.
Andrew I don't even like putting my Mako in the water.
Everett You know, you read about folks. So they have like these 300 meter water resistance watches. And I don't wear that in the shower. I told, I wear all my watches in the shower. That's not true. No, you don't. You can't. I don't wear my HK Ed in the shower. My 1963. I don't wear, let's see, what else? I don't wear any of my watches in the shower. If it's a hundred meter watch, I wear it in the shower.
Andrew But I don't take the time to, I just, I don't, I don't do that. I don't get it. I put my watch on after I shower. I can put it on when I'm getting dressed.
Everett You know what I do with, um, like my SKX gets so much wear that it's always getting a little grubby. I wear that in the shower. To clean it. And I clean it when I'm in the shower. I use my shaving brush. That's what I used to do with my boots.
Andrew I just wash them in the shower. Shampoo does really great for rough side out boots. Yeah, that's right.
Everett Yeah, I've done that before too. Then they're wet for a couple days. You gotta let them dry out.
Andrew I wear them dry.
Everett I put them on a boot dryer. Cabela's, yeah, the boot dryer. So I gotta get one of those. My boot dryer broke. That sucks. Eh, 40 bucks. I need to just go buy one.
Andrew It still sucks.
Everett I mean, it's... I think I might buy one of the four boot versions because when we come home with wet boots, it's always four pair of wet boots.
Andrew There's only one pair of wet boots I care about.
Everett All right, that's fair. So, yeah, yeah, my second pick, not really a pick at all, but more of an idea.
Andrew It's a pick. I mean, in the same way a pick of the Timex Naviharbor is. I mean, there's a NavOcean. There's a whole series of it. I mean, usually we recommend watches. They're from a member of a family.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that's right. So that's the family being that traditional skin diver style. Now, what I like about that is you do get that traditional styling, that nice squared
Andrew Because that's what it's from.
Everett That's when it existed. Yeah, that's right. So and I think you could be as creative as you wanted. I think that you could certainly, certainly spend $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 on this project if that's what you wanted to do. But I also think you could get into something for under 500 bucks serviced that fits the bill, maybe from an obscure Swiss brand. Uh, or, or maybe, uh, a French brand or an Italian brand, you know, something you've never heard of before that, you know, well, this was a small known house that was buying EPSA cases and it's got kind of a junkie movement in it, but it'll run and wear it and love it. So yeah, that's what I have, man.
Andrew What matters is that if you see it, you like it. Yeah.
Everett I cannot believe we're at an hour and two minutes right now. Me either. Other stuff you like. Andrew, go.
Andrew Here's the deal. Since it's New Year's, and in honor of that, I'm going to talk about my New Year's resolution. I suck at New Year's resolutions, because I always say something dumb. This year, my New Year's resolution, I just had a smart goal. Okay. Planned it out. I'm going to read 60 books this year. That's a lot of books. That's a lot of books. I'm going to listen to 12, at least.
Everett Do the 12 count towards your 60?
Andrew No. Oh. We're doing two at a time. So I'm going to read 15 biographies. I read 15 historical fiction or non-fictions, 15 novels and 15 classics.
Everett I like it. Yeah. So what do you do if you get behind? Read more. You don't have a contingency.
Andrew No, I don't have a contingency because who has a contingency for their New Year's resolution anyway? Most people are like, I'm going to lose weight. And then they pick a McDonald's hungover on New Year's Day.
Everett I want that right now.
Andrew So do I. But, so this is the first year I'm setting a very deliberate annual goal. I won't even, I don't know if it can be a resolution, but I'm setting the goal this year to read 60 books.
Everett What's book number one? I mean, I assume you've started already.
Andrew Yeah, so I started already. Right now I'm reading American Lion by John Meacham. It is a biography of Andrew Jackson starting at, I mean, there's obviously like early life, but it's primarily focused around his presidency. And I'm listening to the Hamilton biography by Ron Chernow. Fantastic. Yeah.
Everett Fantastic. So I suspect that if you get behind, like come November, I'll be like, what book are you reading right now?
Andrew American Lion by Jon Meacham.
Everett I'm reading an Archie comic book. It's a classic. It's from the 70s. Yeah. I should be able to finish it this afternoon. But that's my goal. All right. Great. Have you started to outline what books you're going to read?
Andrew Started to. So next book in line is the George Washington biography, also by Chernow. I like his writing style. I'm listening to Hamilton. I love the way he writes. So I figured I would read one of his books and then figure out the next biography in there. My wife got the Michelle Obama biography for Christmas. So that might be book number three. Love it.
Everett Haven't read it. I don't know. No, I love it. I'm excited. I think she's awesome. Um, is there a book that you're the most excited to read?
Andrew No. So my, what I want to do with this is books I've never read before. Okay. Which sucks. Cause I got some really good books on my shelf that I, that I've read a number of times. That you want to get through again. That I want to get through again, but I'm going to do all books I haven't read before.
Everett So, so is there, is there a book that you've thought about that you're, you're just stoked about coming, coming down the pipe or? Audiobook.
Andrew Yes. I downloaded, uh, Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court. Nice. by Nick Offerman. Very good.
Everett Yeah. Very cool. Was it you that was telling me about the Nick Offerman fireplace? Yeah.
Andrew He did a Yule log a couple years ago for, everyone's seen the Yule log on Netflix. It just is a fireplace that burns. He did one a couple of years ago in partnership with Lagavulin. Lagavulin? Lagavulin? I don't know. It's one of those two. I've never heard someone say it who I can say with confidence that they're saying it right. Anyway. I think LeGoblin. LeGoblin. Anyway. He did a Yule Fire. It was like 60 minutes long and he just sat in silence next to a fireplace sipping scotch. I love it. It was genius.
Everett I love it. Well, good. I'm stoked about your resolution.
Andrew continually probably proud you about your progress because right you're at 1.2 books a week or something like that is what you have to do neighborhood yeah i watch a lot of tv i know so uh that's what it's it's phasing out television all right that's smart i mean i'm a third of the way through the i mean i've been reading for three days i'm a third of the way through the i also read fast so that's part of it is i'm a quick reader um so i'm about a third of the way through the American Lion.
Everett Okay. Well, you'll have to keep us updated. We'll have to bring a couple to Mexico. Reading fun books. Yeah. Cool. So my, my other thing, this is not a new thing in my life. This is an older thing in my life, but it's something I thought about this week. David Hobby is a fairly famous photographer. He was for many, many, many years a photojournalist, I think for the Baltimore Sun. And in the late 2000, in the late aughts, as it were, uh, the Baltimore sun was sort of winding down at staff. And I think David hobby knowing, or maybe, uh, reading the tea leaves took a buyout from them before he got shit canned and dedicated his life to being a blogger. And he started a blog called strobus.com. It is a blog dedicated to flash photography.
Andrew Okay.
Everett Flash photography. Now, um, it's maybe not what everybody's thinking about, or maybe it is, but his approach to flash photography is, is a couple of things. One, it's cheap. Two, it's incredibly easy. Three, uh, figuring out how to do it manually is easier than you think it's going to be. Uh, and it's so much fun. It will totally open the door to, uh, taking pictures that you never thought you could take. He's got a couple of online classes, I'll call them, and I think he calls them lessons or classes, which are a series of blog posts. So there's Lighting 101, Lighting 102, Lighting 103, and there's a couple of others in his set. I have probably read through Lighting 101 at this point 15 times. And I know I've recommended it to you, and whether or not you've read it is your own business, but he does manual off-camera flash photography in a way that is very approachable, in a way that's cheap. You know, TTL lenses for Canon or Nikon or even Fuji, our entry level for each strobe is about 400, but you can get, and that's entry level, for not a great strobe, But in today's day and age, you can get, Yongnuo is a company I really like, I think there's a company he likes called LomaPro, that make these manual non-TTL flashes, where you're forced to figure out, how much light do I need to light this subject, and you know, if you're in a studio environment, you can Yeah, right, which I think which I think lighting is, I'll tell you, for me as a photographer, it totally changed the way I approach photography, open my eyes to just how much fun you can have. I now at this point have I think, two cheap Yongnuo Chinese flashes that have never let me down not a single time. They're extremely well powered. And I think I paid for a remote and two flashes less than $150 for the full setup. $40, you know, I've bought more than this stuff now, but started with a $40 sort of lighting stand, umbrella kit, all in one, you know, two stands, umbrellas, everything you need to get started for under $200. All of that stuff's usable with my Nikon equipment. And it totally opened up the door to taking so many cool pictures. You know, I've taken family pictures.
Andrew Lighting is a game changer for photography. It's a game changer. People, for people getting into photography, it cannot be emphasized enough how important lighting is.
Everett And it's so fun. It's so fun to go from taking snapshots that are, that are really very blah or, or amateurish looking from going to that, to having, you know, maybe you can get a Nikon D3300 for, you know, or 3100 shit for 150 bucks. Get a nifty 50 for another 150 bucks and get $200 worth of lighting equipment for 500 bucks right now tonight on eBay. That was fast math. You can get a full setup and take amazing professional level portraits in your living room immediately right now tonight.
Andrew Well in two days when it comes from Amazon. Right, right.
Everett Two days. Free shipping. Amazon Prime. They pay us a lot for that. I wish they did.
Andrew I've earned my, like every year, but usually by about February, I've earned my prime value.
Everett If not in TV shows, certainly in shipping. I mean, yeah, we were, we, we buy stuff on Amazon all the time. So, but the, why I'm recommending this lighting one-on-one class from David Hobby, you don't pay a dime. You don't pay a dime. He had advertised this traditionally. It's just a blog. So you can go and read it today is that it gives you so much confidence. He says, try this thing out. You load up your prime lens or whatever, you know, even if you just have a kit lens or, or, or shit, even if you just have a, um, uh, maybe, uh, a point and shoot, you know, something with a hot shoe, you can get started for almost nothing under 500 bucks or, you know, under 200 bucks. If you already have the point and shoot and take these pictures in your front room that are going to blow your mind doing these really simple things, he tells It's been so much fun for me. Uh, and, and I think if you have any interest in it, you should just do it. Check out, go read Lighting 101. You can get through the whole series in probably about an hour. Like I said, I've read it 10 or 15 times at this point.
Andrew And skip the Skin Diver. And skip the Skin Diver.
Everett Cause we don't know what a Skin Diver is. Yeah. Go buy, go buy some off camera flash equipment and really have a lot of fun because a Skin Diver is not going to be as fun as flash equipment. Probably not. No, no, definitely not. Do it. Or send us your Skin Diver.
Andrew Just donate it, write it off, buy some flash photography stuff.
Everett Right. You know, I would give someone all of my lighting equipment if they had like a, like a service. Big Mac. Vintage Heuer Skin Diver. You can have all 200 of my lighting equipment, $200 worth. So used, conditioned by, you know, Stored in a drawer. As is.
Andrew I think that's it, man. Send me your advice on books. I'm going to run out of my ideas pretty quickly.
Everett Oh, yeah, that's that's a great idea. So for next week, we need to hear some of you guys send some advice for Andrew what to read next. I want to see lots of Mishner.
Andrew I created four categories, but I'm open to other categories. The four categories made sense to me. Hey, you can fit all of these. Historic nonfiction, classics, novels.
Everett Everything that's ever been written fits into one of those four categories.
Andrew Truth. So, send me your advice. I'm getting illiterate this year.
Everett I was really impressed when you learned how to read last year.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett And now you're reading novels.
Andrew Yeah. That's a good job. Right?
Everett I listen to most of them, but... Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Bye-bye. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.01.
Andrew Bye!