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Episode 15 - Omega!

Published on Wed, 06 Feb 2019 22:38:00 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts Andrew and Everett discuss watches, including reviewing the Nodus Avalon watch sent to them by an Instagram user. They talk about the Omega brand, sharing their perspectives on various Omega models like the Speedmaster Pro and Seamaster, and whether the brand's offerings are worth the high prices for them currently. They also discuss getting into fly fishing on a budget, recommending affordable starter gear. Andrew shares a story about someone who went fishing without a license.

Transcript

Speaker
Everett 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. Everett, how are you?
Andrew Man, I'm good. I'm really great. You know, stressed in life. I think that, you know, these lives we lead are stressful and there's a certain attractiveness to being stressed out. you know, putting yourself into a stressful situation is, there's something that calls.
Everett Oh yeah, you get to put the victim hat on, be like, I'm so tired, I'm so stressed.
Andrew I don't think that's it. I mean, I think that there's something more, you know, growth all comes from stress. Oh, okay, no, I take that, yeah. And, you know, the things that are important and accomplishing things that feel important is a byproduct of stress usually. Yeah.
Everett So, well, no, no, no. Stress is a byproduct of, it's a byproduct of ambition.
Andrew Yeah. Success is a byproduct of, of the situation that typically is stressful, you know, normally by and large. So, um, I always have to, when I'm feeling stressed, I always have to remind myself that, um, you know, unless I'm stressed because I've, I've boned something up, which happens to, you know, uh, if I'm stressed because I'm, I'm working or there's high pressure, I have to remind myself that the stress is good. The stress is good. A, it brings you to another level of efficiency, and I think sometimes it can increase your capacity for doing good things, but it also hurts.
Everett I've never been stressed as a function of messing something up, because I've never done that, but I do understand the stress.
Andrew And when you mess something up, you don't care.
Everett No, it's somebody else's fault. Somebody else did it. I always tell my wife, I've only been wrong once and it was because I was trying to say that I was wrong when I wasn't actually wrong.
Andrew Right. Yeah, no, that's fair. That's fair. So, you know, I'm sort of in sort of an occupational transition point and that stressful. And, you know, sometimes everything just sort of seems to stack at the same time. Oh, yeah. And especially the way I do things, I tend to push a certain number of things back. That's just how I operate. But when you do that, when you backload things, you don't count on the thing popping up. Simultaneously, yeah. That's right. And when everything's already sort of backloaded to the last minute anyway, and that last minute you add more things.
Everett I think part of that is perception though. I think your perspective affects so much how stressed you are. Because when something bad happens, your first inclination is that the next something that happens you have a negative lens that you view it through. I think our perception really affects the amount of stress that we have in our lives.
Andrew Yeah, no, certainly it does. Certainly it does. And I'll tell you, I'm sort of, um, I'm sort of easily stressed out too. So it doesn't take a whole lot to get my sort of stress level up, you know, add a couple of things and all of a sudden I'm, I'm kind of a crazy person. So, but I think right now I'm reasonably stressed. I will look back at this moment in life and think, oh yeah, you were stressed because holy cow, that was stressful.
Everett Stress is healthy.
Andrew You know, the year I graduated, or the week I graduated from college, so 2006, that week I graduated, I got married, and I started a new job with Sherwin-Williams. Nice. All in the same week. And you know, I think a lot of people do that. They sort of graduate and start work, not everybody throws a marriage into there or a trip to Mexico uh so there was all these things happening and we were renting our first well for me renting not my first apartment my first I guess grown-up apartment where you're on the lease and you're not just like some dude who shows up and pays cash once a month right right and I had rented apartments individually before that and and Kim at the time had rented apartments before that too so she was comfortable with it but it just it's like god there's a lot there there's a lot here happening in my life. And all good things. Yeah, they were all good things. But I remember being stressed out and thinking, gosh, I'm not handling this very well. And now I look back and it's like, well, dummy, you were trying to do a lot, you know, and I think I'll look back on this sort of period to my life the same way. Like, oh, yeah, there was a lot going on. And that's why you were stressed. But yeah, other than that, I'm good. How are you?
Everett Great. Staying busy. Obviously also the same. Not stressed out by it. Powering through my books. Just plugging away, man.
Andrew You start anything new or interesting?
Everett Well, book number four. Yeah, so I haven't started it. So next up on the list is Gang Leader for a Day. I figured who wrote it. It's by a sociologist who I don't really know the whole premise of it. It's a book that Sam read in college and had on the shelf in our office. So I said, hey, what better time than now? Yeah, right.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. Well, good. You know, you say you're through four. I'm not sure that you people, you people, and I mean that, I'm not sure that you people are going to hear this, when you're going to hear this, right? We know that you'll hear this at least a week and a half from today, but more likely two and a half weeks from today, but possibly even longer than that.
Everett Yeah, we might just, we might just put this one in our pocket.
Andrew We're recording this on the same day that we recorded our our bull of episodes. So we're we're going back to back Um, and the reason for that is because we're going to mexico in holy shit We're going to mexico on friday. Today is sunday. God, it's awesome Uh, so going to mexico and we don't know that we're going to be able to upload so we are going to no We don't know that we're going to be able to record I don't think recording is going to be an issue. Recording is going to be fine.
Everett I think the transition from record to upload. I think the whole purpose of it was to have an episode ready to go, ready to launch.
Andrew So if any number of things go wrong, we've got it already in SoundCloud, already ready to publish. And so if you're hearing this when we're in Mexico, when you expect to hear a Mexico episode, that's why. It's because we've had terrible, terrible diarrhea or some technical difficulties. Probably both though. I think the diarrhea is inevitable. Andrew has got third-degree sunburns and Everett's been in the toilet for two hours. I thought you were going to say third-degree burns.
Everett Like that's not out of the realm of possibility. Like who knows what's going to happen. Third-degree sunburns, right? Well, I was thinking of diarrhea third-degree burns. That's bad diarrhea, man. I mean, I'm sort of emotionally preparing for Mexico to do a number on my delicate digestive system.
Andrew Speaking of which, those Carolina Reaper, that Carolina Reaper hot sauce, you doing okay? A little rumbly. I got worked a little bit earlier. A little rumbly, but I'm good. So we went and there's a place here called Toxic, I always want to say Toxic Nato's. Oh, let's go to Toxic Nato's for dinner. It's called Toxic Wings. Terry, we're on the way. It's called Toxic Wings and they do a couple of hot sauces that are hotter than their other sauces. And realistically, they're not all that hot. I mean, they're spicy, but they're not going to wreck your life.
Everett Well, I don't know. Some people they may. Some people they may. They've got some punch to them. And I don't like not spicy wings. So these are right on the cusp of where I want them. And we were talking about it last night. I don't know if wings can be as spicy as I want them, because it's such a razor thin line from not spicy enough
Andrew to too spicy right you get over it and it's too much yeah and i could have i could have eaten a whole i mean i had 12 of those wings i could have eaten an easy 20 of those wings with that flavor any hotter though 12 would have been i would have been done you know there's a hot mama's another wing place in town has a uh a hot sauce that they add the bomb to i think it's their regular franks um their franks with butter buffalo sauce and they add Da bomb to it to make it to upscale it and I haven't tried that but I'd like to I think I'd like to I thought about buying a bottle of it of da bomb If you guys don't know, uh, we've talked about on the show before but hot ones is both andrew and I's favorite sort of ongoing uh youtube interview show and uh The premises they interview people with increasingly hot I think second to last or third to last depending on what season it is is da bomb, which is such a stupid name And this hot sauce is almost universally despised by everybody that eats it. But I think it's probably just ridiculously spicy and painful.
Everett I don't know, because when you watch Dalton Brown, Alton Brown, watch that fella eat it. He just ate it and was like, yeah, this doesn't taste very good. Well, I think he's kind of a freak. He might be a freak, but you can't even attribute it to his palate just being blown out. Right. Because he has a very discerning palate.
Andrew Right. You and I, I think, both like stuff a little bit spicier than the average bear, but I'm pretty sure that we'd get hammered. Maybe. Working up that scale.
Everett Mixing up some butter. Right. I mean, I'd get through it. I would certainly be uncomfortable.
Andrew You know, the nice thing about wings, wings being my favorite food, is wings are keto-friendly. Mm-hmm. Wings are keto-friendly, so I can eat hot wings. All of them. All of them, yeah.
Everett I mean, by and large, they are. And most hot sauces are going to be keto-friendly because they're not going to be adding sugar. It's all going to be chili paste. That's right.
Andrew Most of them are, and you got to be careful. You just have to know what you're eating because some, certainly some do add a lot of sugar. Sriracha's got a lot of sugar in it. Sriracha's got quite a bit, but even then, usually it's in a manageable amount. The amount of hot sauce you're eating is manageable and the amount of sugar in the hot sauce is manageable. So you just have to know what you're eating and be conscious of it.
Everett Did you get the chili garlic sauce from the same company? From Sriracha? No, I haven't. No sugar. That's the only difference. It's different. It tastes different, but it's chili garlic sauce, no sugar.
Andrew a we've got a watch that we want to talk about before we get started we do you're you're holding on to it for dear life i might not let it go in fact i might take it to mexico and not return i keep uh i keep sort of vaguely threatening on instagram that i'm not going to send this thing back watchuseek or excuse me instagram user the right wrist uh sent us a copy of his notice avalon just to take a look at maybe not a copy probably his notice avalon uh oh yeah right yeah no it's not a copy i don't know what i meant when i said that I don't know either. It still sounds right when I say it back in my head. But yeah, no, it's not a copy. It's just actually his Notice Avalon. And this is a production version of the Notice Avalon. It's the blue dial with the steel bezel. We've posted this thing on Instagram at this point. You certainly have seen it. Also, check out the right wrist. He's got great photos and, you know, great, great Instagram page. And he's just a generally super nice dude. Obviously, he sent us his watch. Right. So nice and maybe not super smart.
Everett Well, I mean, he did ask for one of our children as collateral, so we won twice. Mark's super cute, too. I bet they're having a blast. Yeah, maybe, or I might be having more fun just wearing it.
Andrew So, yeah, you know, gosh.
Everett It is a beautiful watch. Just right from looking at it, the polish is right, the brushing is right, and what stands out most to me is this dial color. This is not a a blue dial color I think I've in memory seen before anywhere else. What would you call that?
Andrew I mean it's blue.
Everett I don't know but it's it's matte finish is you would think would contrast but is gorgeous.
Andrew It's sort of dusty uh and kind of leaves purple.
Everett Yeah a little bit but it's it's what's striking to me is is so many dials it either they're black and have kind of a glossy finish or they're a color and have a glossy finish, or they're sunburst. There's all these variations. And this blue, you just don't see colors very often in such a flat finish. Right. And this is, it is great. It just, it grabs your eyes and it pulls you right into that watch. Really big markers, really big, bold hands with really, what I imagine is to be great loom, because that's a lot of surface area on that thing. It's fantastic.
Andrew Yeah, it's really good loom. It is. It lights up the closet at night.
Everett I imagine it's just like you have a glowing orb in there. The only thing that I'd say that that I'm not the biggest fan of is is the size. It's a little bit bigger than than I would personally wear. But barring that, if you if you like that style of diver, it is it's terrific. I love that watch.
Andrew It is a little big, you know, but it fits right in. We've talked about this before. It's got that cushion case. You know, I'm not sure if you'd call it a barrel case, but a cushion case, you know, like the like the turtle or like the the doxa i mean it's not it's not exactly like either one of those things it sort of holds its own uh without being too much like either one of those things but it does have it is reminiscent of those things and so i think it fits the the size is reasonable knowing that that's um that it's in that world it is this comes in at 43.2 so it's not it feels more metal but it does feel big when you put it on the wrist. Bigger than I thought, and I gotta admit, probably a little bit bigger than I'd hoped. It's got a 20 millimeter lug width, which I love. I think some people would probably want a little bit, wouldn't want 22 on this thing. I think the 20 fits great.
Everett Oh, it's a great ratio size. I mean, the dimensions on it are tremendous. It's just not necessarily for me.
Andrew Yeah, no. And I get that. And I think that's fair. I really like it. I think that I could see myself buying this. You know, this is outside of, I think, either yours or my easy buying range. So this thing's coming in at $625. And I think this is Nodus' most expensive watch. I also think it's Nodus' best watch. And it's, yeah, it's pretty good. These guys, Nodus, they're probably the coolest, I think, in my mind, the coolest young micro brand there is right now. I mean, the owners are really cool. Wes has been on several of the podcasts. He did the podcast circuit, as it were. That's right. And he seems just like a really gracious, fantastic, eager to talk about his product. And he's just a watch guy. He's just an entrepreneurial watch guy who hooked up with his best friend and they started making watches. And you know, Notice has made some great, great watches. The Contrail, or not the Contrail, Oh, what's their, uh, the retrospect. So the retrospect is their, um, the diver they came out with before the, the Avalon. And it's more of a traditionally shaped dive watch, but it's got this, you know, this excellent steel, uh, bezel that, that slopes down. I mean, everything that they're doing is just cool. They're.
Everett The accents they put on their second hands are phenomenal. the retrospect that just little, little flash of red, the almost inverted shape of the second hand on the Avalon. It's got like a, it's a triangular tip, but it's, I don't know, probably, probably a millimeter, maybe a millimeter and a half shy of the end of the second hand. That's a triangle pointing in towards the center of the dial.
Andrew Sort of a reverse trapezoid or something. Yeah. It's excellent. And that's actually, I think that that's a detail that they've, that they've cribbed from Classic Design, and I'm not sure who it's from, but I've seen that detail before, but it's really well executed.
Everett And they don't have to do it. That's the thing. When you're doing those small details like that right, everything else you can trust is being done right.
Andrew You know, I love the knurling on this bezel, on the side of the bezel. It's sort of an interrupted knurling. I think that the bezel itself, the sides of the bezel are blasted, and there's brush surfaces on the cases, and all the transitions are smooth and just fantastic.
Everett And even with it being so slim a bezel, it's really easy to manipulate.
Andrew Yeah, that's right. It is slim, you know, the up-down, the Y-axis, it is really slim, but yeah, it feels great in the hand, it clicks well, you know, unlike the MDV-106, there's no play. we're looking at a vastly different that's right we're just at the same time sort of looking at those two watches uh although you'll hear us talk about them in different episodes um it's it's super cool you know the buckle and clasp is an order of magnitude better than than something you're going to find on a 250 300 watch unless of course you're buying a an emg nemo or something where you're getting just a crazy value you know just about everything about this watch 39 millimeters 20 millimeter lug width it's right there in that golden zone that knurled crown that big wide bezel that i love and i know that you're you know but again this one is this one is appropriately proportioned yeah yeah it's it's great i i like this this one the the notice control reminds me a lot of the monta whatever their whatever their sterile bezel watches and i'm blanking on it triumph uh this reminds me a lot of the triumph at a lot more accessible price point 550 versus i think 1250 or whatever for the monta i'd take one of those months in a second if i thought i could afford them i love i think that's the best watch that came out in the last two years but this is a lot more accessible much right much so they're killing it we just thought we'd give them a shout shout to the right wrist for um sharing the love for sharing the love it's so great and you know these folks sent us watches and we're just sort of like Why? Well, you guys are awesome and we love it, but it's, I think it blows our mind a little bit. It blows our minds that people even listen to us.
Everett Yeah. The only thing, and we talked about it earlier, that I would, that I would change about this. So I'm not a fan of the end link. It's a weird detail.
Andrew It's a weird detail. So the, where the, where the bracelet meets the case, um, I think the brushing goes in different directions, you know, whereas the brushing on the case is sort of radial. It's that vertical brushing on the end link. The fitment is suspect.
Everett It, it looks deliberate, but it's a design that I, I don't quite fully understand. It's not flush with the edge of the case. Not to say there's a space, but there's a, there's a cutout, you know, that, that arc that you expect in a, in an end link, but a not court, it doesn't correspond to the shape of the case.
Andrew It doesn't. And I think that you either have to go with. extremely flush and make it line up or or break it there and they've sort of just let it sit in the middle between flush and and and different um and that's it's my least favorite detail of that watch and maybe it's something they should look at when they move forward but you know we're certainly grasping at straws though to find a complaint very much so that's the only thing on that watch that even slightly bothers me yeah that's it case back is awesome too yeah that great engraving of excalibur You know, these case backs that have the matte surfaces on the recess get scuffed up really easily. I'm always amazed at how quickly they get scuffed up and this one's no exception. This one came to me in very good condition from the right wrist. And then we destroyed it. But even as well taken care of as it has been, you know, that case back was already, we did not mess up your watch. Not yet.
Everett uh but that case back was already already had a significant amount of damage and that was not your watch falling on the ground uh i am interested in the in the um tool mechanism method to remove the screw down case back it is as opposed to what i've seen which are edges like cutouts on the on the very exterior of the case back these are
Andrew uh round like drilled out indentations recessed dots yeah you know i think that that would work fine with the sort of prong style case back opener i use one of the two prong one of the bars that has the the two prongs that go in and out and so those are flatter and wider and i don't think it would fit in there so you'd need to have one of the prong style um case back tools to get that off i think but super cool watch is this is this uh
Everett Triangle at the 12 on the bezel loomed. It sure is. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, it sure is. It's great It's beautiful and it's like a torch at night too.
Everett If you if you charge that thing Beams all the little details as I said, I was gonna not do that. I'm There's a lamp right next to me that in order to see a little bit better details on the dial I leaned over to and then started talking the the details on this dial are just Just phenomenal. Such a special watch.
Andrew Yeah, it's incredible. Thanks to Wright Rose for sending it. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for making some cool watches. And we will send it back. So although I've been threatening not to. So we're talking about a weird one today. And we're 23 minutes in already. I think that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Because I don't think we need to talk about this brand for forever because it's a stupid brand.
Everett I thought there was going to be a lot more to talk about with this brand. But hot take. You heard it here first. We're not fans of Omega. Omega is a stupid brand.
Andrew I think I concur. It's not true. I mean, they're this wonderful brand. They're this wonderful brand that makes excellent watches. They're just expensive. And I don't know, for me, where they possibly fit in terms of my watch buying story. I'll say, caveat, take out everything else we said. I always said, if I got hit by a car and got car hit settlement money, I'd buy a Speedmaster Pro. Now, assuming that happens, I may someday show up with a Speedmaster Pro. But if it doesn't, this brand is stupid.
Everett From the research that I did and looking into this brand, looking at the history of the brand, founded 1848, had a pretty rocky life cycle. In the 30s, they merged with, or maybe were bought out. It was kind of fuzzy when I was reading into it.
Andrew So go back to the beginning. Go back to the beginning. So 1848, brand started by Louis Brand. and Le Show de Bon in Switzerland. 1879, he dies and his sons take it over. This is... They're kids.
Everett They're like, the oldest is 24.
Andrew That was a little bit later. That was a little bit later. That's when the sons die, when the kids take it over. So the two sons take it over and then it becomes Brandt and it is Brandt and son, then it's Brandt and brother. And so they have this brand that's making sort of At first, in that first 30 years, just a sort of run of the mill, we're making watches, kind of not anything spectacular. The sons take it over and they start innovating right away. And they come out in the late 19th century with the Omega Caliber. So prior to that, Omega wasn't a thing. And they come out with their first movement that they titled the Omega Caliber. And this movement's special for a couple of reasons. It's special because it's one of the very first movements that's sort of interchangeable parts. Prior to that, movements were, you know, You set down, you make the bridge, you make all the parts, and they work together, and that's your movement. And you're not going to necessarily be able to take a part from the movement that you made 20 minutes ago and put it on this watch now without tuning or tweaking or remachining. So 1894, the Omega caliber comes out, kind of as a big deal. Kind of as a big deal. And that's when their brand sort of becomes Omega. This movement's popular enough that they rebrand themselves. 1903, they register as Omega. And that's when the story of Omega really begins, although it begins, you know, whatever, 60 years before that, 50 years before that, uh, as that Branton and sons, Branton brother. And so you're right. When the second of the sons, the brothers die, it's the brand is run by 24 year olds. The oldest of which is 24. Yeah. Running a giant at the time. I think the biggest watch brand in Switzerland. Yes. I think, I think that, yeah. 24 year old kid. That's the dream. You couldn't tie my shoes when I was 24. I used Velcro.
Everett I like Velcro shoes. It seemed ironic, but it was really a lack of skill set. Even now, I just tie a knot. You can't tie a knot, tie a lot, and that's what I do. Just a mess.
Andrew I haven't heard that. I take that approach with fishing sometimes. Yeah, tie a lot. Okay. So Omega, I mean, really their story is this fantastically gilded history. I mean, they're from the get-go, you know, really from the time they introduced that original Omega caliber, I think the 19 line. Yeah, that's right. I think that's right, at least. They really cemented this tradition as the best watch company in the world. At the time, they were innovating better than anybody else. They're making cool, you know, in particular in the movement side of things. They're just doing the best work out there. And in Switzerland, they quickly become sort of the accuracy kings. They quickly, 1905, they're named the official sports timekeeper for all of Switzerland's sports. So curling? Maybe. You know, I think that they do all sorts of sports in Switzerland. Yeah, probably those things. Okay. Yeah, I think maybe basketball, ping pong. I don't think I don't know about ping pong. Probably not basketball. I don't know. No, I don't think so. I don't think I mean, when did when was basketball invented? Yes. So, in the 30s, the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, makes Omega the official timekeeper. And I think Omega has largely been the official timekeeper of the Olympic Games, at least the Summer Olympics. From then on, I know that well over 20 olympic games at this point including winter olympics now omega is the official timekeeper it's sort of their one of their most prominent roles so is that the key to getting a free speedmaster like i i feel like i have but one option to get one for free and it's to become an astronaut you know i don't know i don't know if they get them for free or not their government property but i'm gonna keep it You get a lot of free shit when you go to the Olympics. You know, a friend of mine, or I guess a colleague of mine, his daughter has gone to the Winter Olympics now a number of times. What? And she comes, she just gets free shit, tons of free shit. I'm not good at anything. Well, you're certainly not that good. And I'll tell you, to get that good at something, it's an incredible investment of time and money. You know, you invest time and money to the detriment of everything else, school, and friends and Everything right? So she's an Olympic skier and that's all she does from the time. She was 15 I mean really you're not you're not even educating yourself. You're just skiing and I think that they're being tutored and Getting degrees or you know diplomas or whatever, but all they're doing is skiing my statement stands I am was never nor will I ever be good enough at any one thing to be an Olympic athlete well, that's right you have to have both the skill and then you have to have the the dedication to that to that thing you've got to have both and and neither one of them is easy no they're both you know it's it's a combination that's you know quite a bit less than 0.1 percent of the population i think i could be on olympic curling team with the proper application of effort i don't think you could i think i could okay i'll play shit on a shuffleboard that's true this is the larger scale
Everett to be able to walk on ice in the funny shoes.
Andrew Even on that weird table at Sonny's.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Yeah, you're pretty good there. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, I mean, it's really in the late 40s that that Omega sort of hits its stride as the king of wristwatches when they come out with the Seamaster, the Omega Seamaster, which, gall darn, that's probably one of the greatest watches that's ever ever been made.
Everett I mean, it's still to this day one of the A top 10 recognizable watch, you think?
Andrew Well, and you know, Seamaster is tough because it's a family of... What do we got here? Deaf Leopard Pale. You know, my very first concert was Deaf Leopard.
Everett This is appropriate that you're giving it a taste. I'm going to drink it though, because you're doing keto. It's a small taste. I won't tell. That is good. Yeah. Elysian Brewing out of Seattle did a Deaf Leopard Pale in honor of their final tour, I think is what it was for. It's good. It's fantastic. Yeah, I got some from work.
Andrew My very first concert, I think 1985, I was four years old. My mom took me to see Def Leppard at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland.
Everett I was going to say, you're not that old.
Andrew 1985. My mom was, I think, 24 at the time. So she was a very young woman. Were you in baby earmuffs? Earplugs, the little squishy earplugs. Yeah. And I went with her and her three best girlfriends at the time. Nice. Yeah. I mean, as a four-year-old kid, I was like, this is the coolest thing that's ever happened to me.
Everett Probably was the coolest thing that happened to you for like 10 more years.
Andrew I mean, maybe, maybe it's all I like got married. It's still cool. So yeah, um, little beer. So I'm actually drinking, uh, I'm actually drinking, I think this is a, you know, like a select batch from, it's a, this is a, a small brewing company called Michelob. Uh, this is from their, this is from their health line. It's called Ultra Michelob Ultra.
Everett Really good beer. Yeah. It's a win.
Andrew so we just buy a bottle of whiskey and store it back here that'd be easier for everyone dude i can drink whiskey i know that's what i'm saying um so so yeah the seamaster you know i think it's a i think it's safer to call seamaster a family of watches yeah the seamaster was debuted it was the seamaster and now we have the seamaster pro and and the seamaster railmaster and seamaster is sort of this large swath within the family that they kind of keep tucking
Everett watches into uh you know the aqua terra i wish anyone but me could have seen the hand gesture imagine like a bowling movement but in in a very small space that's what that's what he's doing with two fingers pointed directly tucking tucking it in yeah yeah so sea master and and you know go from there Speedmaster moon watch the full meal deal
Andrew they have some iconic watches is what we can agree on yeah iconic the most iconic watches i mean potentially so yes yeah i mean they're up there with rolex right in terms of you know and i think most most searched like google analytics most search watch brand are rolex omega and tog tag hoyer uh you know those those three brands are like like two times the next the next lowest brand probably like the next five Yeah, no, that's what I mean. I mean, it's a huge drop off almost almost two times the next brand. So these three brands are just killing it. And, you know, Rolex, we know, makes fantastic mass produced watches. Omega, we know, makes fantastic mass produced watches. Tag, I think, makes maybe less fantastic, but also great watches. You know, I don't know as much about them.
Everett I think they do a better better job with their ambassadors. and their marketing. Like they did a Tom Brady branded, the TV 12 watch. I think they do a little bit better job of commercialization. Like they're... Than Omega? Omega's got, I mean... They have tons of brand ambassadors. They've got placements everywhere.
Andrew I feel like... I think they do it about... My take is that they're about the same in that world. Maybe it's just my perception.
Everett So yeah, what is the... What I'm seeing is that I feel like Rolex and Omega are marketed purely as luxury watches, where watch people and non-watch people buy them in the same way, in probably similar ratios. Whereas I feel like TAG is appealing through their sports marketing is appealing to people who want a luxury watch with that football appeal, with the golf appeal, with the a little bit just a different market I think that they're specifically targeting and maybe I'm wrong maybe that's just in purely like an ill perception but I feel like Rolex and Omega are marketed as purely luxury brands to people with a shitload of money to spend on watches and I don't feel like that's exactly what what TAG is doing.
Andrew You know I think that they're doing really similar things but but TAG is doing it I think they're coming and I think TAG's goals is to pick up the slack from folks that go to the jeweler to look for a Rolex and realize they can't afford it. Totally possible and pretty reasonable. And I think that, you know, Rolex doesn't market. At all. At all, right? Rolex's idea of marketing is putting a billboard in a prominent location with just a crown on it and nothing else. And whether that's good or bad or whatever, Rolex doesn't have to market. You know, there are some things about the way Rolex markets, or specifically the way Rolex rolls out watches, They're questionable for me as a consumer. What's the point of this? Everybody wants their sport watches, and they have low volume of sports watches, but they know what they're doing.
Everett Oh yeah, they're generating demand.
Andrew Omega and TAG are marketing themselves much more traditionally. And Omega's got a ton of ambassadors. Cindy Crawford has been- I know they have a ton of ambassadors, but I don't think the same- And their PGA Tour. They're doing really similar things. I think Omega's just doing it at a little bit better, at a little bit higher level, which is not to say that there's not other brands that do the same thing. Hublot obviously is doing similar things, but they're coming in at way higher. Entry-level Hublots are 10 times as much as an entry-level Omega.
Everett Related, since we're talking about brand ambassadors, who wears a Speedmaster? Tell me.
Andrew Stone Cold Steve Austin. Oh, really? Yeah. I can see that. He seems like a Speedmaster guy. Yeah. So, yeah.
Everett Joe Biden did too, but Stone Cold Steve Austin I think is cooler than Joe Biden. I mean, I like Papa Joe. So do I, but if you say, hey, you get to sit down, have wings and beer with one of these two people. I'm Joe Biden every day of the week.
Andrew Really? I'm Stone Cold Steve Austin. I don't care about Stone Cold Steve Austin at all. Me either. I can't imagine he would have anything to say that I, well, I mean, everybody has interesting things to say. Joe Biden every day of the week. I would, I would actually pay a lot of money if someone was like, if you have 500 bucks, you can have lunch with Joe Biden. I'd be like, I consider that. He knows more about the machine than, than.
Everett And that's fascinating to me. And I love it. I'm just going to read his book. Yeah. I don't know, man. I would much rather have wings and beer with Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Andrew Yeah, I could see, I could see, I could see being, being there depending on what kind of mood it is. And it's, it's Joe Biden for me. We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one. We're going to have to. Brother.
Everett I'm gonna call Steve and he'll fix this right up.
Andrew So let's, let's talk about watches, man. We're babbling. Uh, you know, first, first and foremost, your first watch. And if it hadn't been your first watch, it'd have been my first watch.
Everett Mine is, and it's, it is unique in the line. It's the Speedmaster Pro, uh, 1969 20th anniversary edition. And 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11. Yeah, the Apollo 11. So reason I picked it's twofold. One, This is such a cool watch. Number two, is this is the only Omega that I could reasonably see myself purchasing because it's a birth year watch.
Andrew Oh, it's a birth year for you. Yeah. Okay. All right. Now you guys know how old Andrew is. Now I know how old he is too. Yeah. No, this is sort of the quintessential Speedmaster Pro. This one comes on leather and I don't know if these have a bracelet option. I'd certainly want a bracelet. Apollo 11, 1969, engraved into the case side. Hesalite crystal. This is the moonwatch.
Everett Yeah, it's the one.
Andrew Is this that 1861 movement? I didn't look that far, but I think so. This is the... It doesn't say because it's chrono 24. I think it's an 1861 movement. Oh, it's the 861. So it's the predecessor to the 1861.
Everett No, it's on chrono 24 right now. with no price listed. It says price on request. Right. And I know what that means. If you have to ask. You got to ask. You definitely can't. But looking through Omegas, I have, without ever having handled one, I'm struggling to find the value. I'm struggling. And maybe it's just where I am, like where I am financially, where I am in the watch world. I don't know. I don't know where Omega's place is in my life.
Andrew Well, and you know, this argument is as old as watches, as old as anything. But right, you're buying the brand as much as anything. Omega has a fantastic history, and they're to this day, unlike Bulova, which we talked about recently, Omega has continued to be at the forefront. They're continuing to develop, and they're developing the staples. They're not developing on the fringes. They're developing at the heart of watchmaking, you know, traditional mechanical movements, traditional automatic and mechanical chronographs. They're continuously innovating both in terms of decoration and in the mechanics of the movement itself. And they're making it in a really great, in a really great watch. The case work and everything is up there. But with that said, how much more time, attention, and detail goes into a Speedmaster, a modern-day Speedmaster Pro, say, then goes into a, you know, a Notice Avalon or a Manta Triumph, you know, something that's going to come in at a tenth to a twentieth of the price. Where does that value go for you as a consumer? And you and I continue to come back to this point. Watches are not about the movement you get or You know, the amount of water resistance or the brightness of the lume. It's what it does for you.
Everett It's something else. There's not an Omega in the catalog that I've seen that when I see, I say, without looking at the price, there's plenty of watches that I've seen without looking at the price and be like, I need this watch. Nothing in the Omega catalog does that for me.
Andrew Well, I'll tell you, you know, as well as I do, I'm in love with the Speedmaster Pro and I'll get one someday. $3,500 is your your walking point for a Speedmaster Pro and a bracelet. And that's with the Hesalite crystal, you know, their plastic crystal and a non-sandwich dial. You know, that's the sort of run-of-the-mill Moonwatch Speedmaster Pro. And less for a Speedmaster Reduced, which is the smaller, the 39 or 30, the little bit smaller, you know, $2,500 or so for a Speedmaster Reduced, if you keep your eyes open. So that's a bucket load of change.
Everett Yeah. For a watch that, is it special to you because of the iconic position it has within the watch world or for some other reason?
Andrew Well, and I'll have to admit, I really liked the idea of putting on a speedy and going out and having someone be like, Oh, is that a Speedmaster? Oh yeah it is. Oh yeah, I'm wearing my speedy today. My Seiko has been getting a lot of wear, you know, but is that a good reason? I don't know. When I say that it feels vain or, or yucky. But I don't know.
Everett There's something to it. There is. There absolutely is. And it's not to minimize the pleasure that you would undoubtedly get from this watch. Yeah. Because this is not a watch you're going to put on and ho hum about. No. This is obviously going to feel great. And it's going to look great. But outside of the prestige that comes along with it,
Andrew Well, and you are getting quality mechanics, and so I think there's some value there too.
Everett I mean, you can get chronometers for quite a bit less than this. Yeah, that's right. And they're hitting the same specifications. They're still getting that chronometer certification. You're not getting the Omega.
Andrew Well, so my first watch is a Seamaster, from their Seamaster line. This is actually the Seamaster Railmaster, which seems like a regrettable name to me. I think that they, Poseidon, I think when they re-released the Railmaster a couple years ago instead of giving it its sort of own space, right, because I don't think that there are, are there any underwater railroads? The Chunnel. The Chunnel. Is it the Chunnel?
Everett Yeah, I guess it is underwater. It's just not, I mean, it's underwater.
Andrew It's dry, yeah. So, you know, I think that they probably in sort of a marketing decision tucked this under the Seamaster because it's it's it's got the um you know a Seamaster case it's got a similar style case to the Aqua Terra you know these twisted lugs which Omega is known for and it's a gorgeous watch this is one of one of the watches that comes up in best this field watch discussions and I probably wouldn't call this a field watch but hell no the the Well, but the point you made is why isn't it a field watch when we were talking about field watches before? And I think the same could be said for this. This is a classic sort of painted dial with markers all the way around, just four markers. You going to bang it up? I would probably wear this. If I bought a watch like this, I'd probably just wear it. Because you'd never be able to buy another watch again. Yeah, well, maybe. Maybe that's true. this thing's gorgeous it is there's no debate about it they're all beautiful and you know they're not even out of this world money you know i think that you can get one of these um for about 3500 bucks um brand new brand new on jumbo shop i think you can get one of these for about 3500 bucks so you know that's not where you or i are at in terms of our watch buying right now but i mean i don't see any reason why either one of us or both of us couldn't be there in the future so It's in there if I was going to go just buy a watch. Let's say I'm just a guy and I want to buy a watch and I want to spend, you know, a couple weeks salary on it. And I know what my salary, I know what my budget is. I love this thing, man. And I love the price and I love the size. I think it comes in at about 40 millimeters with a 20 millimeter lug width.
Everett I'm not disparaging the
Andrew beauty of these watches. Now, when the Realm Master came out, it was intended to be a, uh, like a really highly anti-magnetic watch. And I think the original Realm Masters were like leaps and bounds above anybody else, right when it came out. And then, and then right around the same time, Rolex has their Milgauss and there's other companies doing really similar things right at the same time. But it's this laboratory environment watch that's meant to withstand, you know, high magnetism and, uh, and be really sort of durable in that sense. Um, and I think it's cool. I think it's a great reissue. I think that they did it right. I don't love vintage loom ever. I love vintage loom even less on a $3,500 watch. Um, that is a, you know, that is a purely aesthetic feature that I think is kind of tacky, you know, like buying $200 jeans with tears on them. Uh, if I buy $200 jeans, I want it to, I want the denim to be raw. and fresh and conform to my body. And this is a little different because this loom isn't going to conform to your body. But I want to be responsible for the patina. I want to age it. Yeah, that's right. That's right. So that's that's an aesthetic decision. And it is what it is. And lots of people love this watch. That would be my one sort of not don't like.
Everett The case shape is brilliant. I think modern loom would look weird on this watch.
Andrew I mean, you wouldn't know. It would just be white and not brown. I think the brown looks right. There's something about it that's really attractive. So yeah, I love that. I love that. And you know, this is a weird episode. We usually give you guys options for shit that you might buy. You might buy this. I don't know. But these aren't, these aren't really, we're not really looking at these as affordable options. What can you buy now? Go to Amazon.com. So this is a little bit different for us. We're having fun with it. We wanted to look at a brand like Omega because they are such a cool brand. I don't think so anymore. Even as much as they suck.
Everett Next up for me. is the Seamaster Bullhead, the coaxial chrono. And it says this 43 by 43, which is hard to hard to grasp because it's kind of a, it's an interesting case. I mean, it's a bullhead case shape. It is slimmer at the bottom and then tapers out as we go towards the 12 o'clock of the dial. And I picked this because it's, it's a unique watch inside of the Omega collection with the chronograph functionality between the, 11 and one o'clock as opposed to the uh three or the the two and and four o'clock positions that you typically see pushers at and i'm sure those pushers are just they probably feel so good to i if i had this watch i would never stop timing things everything would get timed and it's beautiful it is gorgeous yeah uh we have right up right now up the the steel case white dial um red white and blue accents over the entirety of that dial and everything looks
Andrew terrific on it the references on this on these are nuts so we're not even gonna read them we'll put we'll put links to these in the show notes but you know this this is not a watch that's available online right now i'm sure you could get it in boutiques uh boutiques boutiques man you're on fire today is it like bo peeps uh you know i i'm sure you can still get this watch new um you know whether it's it's dead stock or or whatever i don't know or or galleries but it's 9600 bucks But it's not a cheap watch, that's right. I bet you can pick this watch up for closer to five or six. That's better, yeah. That would be my guess. You know, which is, I know for us, I mean, it's all just, I'm not gonna spend it money, so it doesn't really matter. Whether it's a $30,000 Nautilus or a $10,000 Bullhead Omega, we're not spending it, so it doesn't matter. But, I mean, the difference between $5,000 and $10,000 is a lot.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew I could buy this double. That's right. That's right.
Everett That's a lot of SKXs.
Andrew And so, you know, this watch big, uh, but it's got that sort of bullhead classic stopwatch look to it.
Everett I really like this. It's a cool watch. When I looked at the, as, as I'm looking through the Omega catalog, this is the one watch that when I saw it, I was like, Ooh, you're kind of cool. Yeah. I like you. You, you, you don't, you break the mold of what I expect from Omega. Because most omegas, you can look at it and be like, oh, omega, omega, omega. And this one, this stands out from the crowd of what they offer.
Andrew Well, and you know, I think it's also offering the best in timekeeping, too. So this coaxial chronometer movement is maybe one of the best sort of traditional mechanical movements around. And I looked into a little bit about the coaxial movements. Did you do that at all?
Everett I did. They pioneered a couple things that are huge. One of the things that they pioneered is a tourbillon wristwatch. Right. The first one, right? The first one. And then they did a coaxial escapement, which, not dissimilar from an atomic clock, is a little bit beyond my understanding.
Andrew My understanding is they add an extra gear, the coaxial gear, which allows the watch to compensate for different viscosity,
Everett uh lubrication and also lack of lubrication yes so it makes it less reliant on the viscosity and the presence of lubrication and makes it less expensive and less frequent to service that's right i sort of understand why and but at the same time i i would have to go back and read it a couple more times and give myself like a couple days to digest through it and figure it out because it's
Andrew Well, and you'd probably have to start to be able to understand that you probably have to start with a foundation in watchmaking knowledge that I don't think either one of us at this point has.
Everett Or maybe we'll never acquire.
Andrew I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's not something that I've been extremely motivated to acquire at this point. And that might change as we go along the way and we need to figure out new things to learn about and think about. But as of right now, I'm satisfying having a relatively surfacy knowledge of these mechanics.
Everett Yeah, I'm okay with it.
Andrew Yeah. So yeah, the that's a great it's a great watch. Check it out. We'll put a link to the show notes as usual. Do you know what this this crown at the bottom does? Pass. Okay, so that's so the last one I picked this is the Omega Speedmaster Mark II. This is a watch that came out in the late 60s and was around for a few years. It's in the Speedmaster mark series what I'd call the mark series. They've got mark 2 3 4 5 And they're all they're all a little bit different. This is the mark 2 This is a barrel cased Chronograph and I think that these originally had that 861 or 1861 movement, which is that let one of the legendary One of the legendary Omega movements I love this watch this reminds me of that Tag Heuer, that Tag Heuer, Portia Orfina, really classic barrel cased chronograph. I mean, it falls right in with those and the Dan Henry 1972, you know, is in this lineage. They've got shared ancestry, shared DNA.
Everett I don't remember if I said this already since we've been recording because we talked about this before. I feel like Omega is a bunch of engineers slash designers and they are just looking for, which is why they have a fairly limited catalog. What they do, they do really well and they're making what they do better. There's not a whole lot of branching out from the design cues that they are, that they know and are comfortable with.
Andrew Well, and they do, you know, they've got their, their Aqua Terra Seamaster series, which have some really fantastic dial choices, but I think you're right in terms of you know some of their staples they have probably one of the most identifiable dial uh dial dna you know you see an omega dial it's like oh that's an omega without without necessarily knowing it is and and you know people refer you've got your new seiko ssb chronograph and and i've heard people refer to that watch as a as a speedmaster homage and and i think And I don't think that's true, but I think that what it is, is the gravitation of the brain to go to this as the iconic racing chronograph.
Everett Yeah. I mean, in that vein, any black dialed racing chronograph would be a Speedmaster homage, which I don't think is the case.
Andrew And maybe not totally fair. But I really like this watch. I think that if you're sort of looking for uh a dip into a dip into a luxury world you can get these uh there so there's an the original the 1970s uh mark twos and then they re-released these a couple years ago um probably about 2,000 bucks for the original uh 2,500 for the originals and as much as 3,500 used for these the new versions they're really close in shape 40 41 by 45 millimeters for the OGs and 42 by 46 for the new version. So pretty comparable. You know, I think you could do a lot worse than this. I think that they're really cool for 2K if I had 2K laying around. Something that I wouldn't be totally, you know, find objectionable. I think it's beautiful. And I think it would fit the same part of my collection as that Dan Henry, my Dan Henry 72 or a Porsche Orfina.
Everett Oh, so here's what we can do. You can get this. And then whichever one you like more, give it to you. And then you give me the one that you don't like. Fair enough.
Andrew Fair enough. So, you know, that's that's our last watch. We're not going to, you know, obviously there's no, hey, go buy it now on Amazon.com for this episode. And sorry about that. You guys will survive. But we just wanted to talk about this brand because I think it's I think Omega gets some of the most love in terms of affordable collectors. I think that it seems like one of the most obvious choices for your first step into the luxury watch world. And I think that there are a lot of good reasons for that. I think Omega as a company is right there where it's supposed to be, where I would expect it to be in terms of innovation, finishing, the models they offer, the sizes that they're offering watches in, are all where I, as a watch enthusiast, want them to be. I just don't know that I can justify the extra money. You know, when I'm looking at this Notice Avalon, and I don't know that there's anything in the Omega catalog that's a direct correlation to this, you know, maybe the bigger Seamaster Pro, but when I'm looking at these things, I'm wondering, this Omega or a Tudor, for instance, you know, one of my friends got a Pelagos that I wear, uh, I've worn recently. And I'm thinking, what, what more am I getting here besides the name?
Everett I wonder that too. And that's, that's why, that's why we opened the show the way that we did is because there's, if you gave me $2,000 and said, you can either buy a Mark II or three, four other watches that aren't, that aren't going to fill the void. I don't know that I would, I don't know that I'd pull the trigger on the Omega. Maybe it's just because they don't resonate with me. Maybe it's because they're just so far out of my price range that I can't even conceptualize purchasing one. But yeah, I'd pass.
Andrew Well, and you know, we're both pretty young watch collectors too. I mean, not that we're either one of us particularly young, but just in where we land in the collecting world So, you know, our palettes may, our palettes may develop. And, and I think I've already seen it happening in my own collection is that I, as I get more watches through the door, I'm more inclined to, to slow down on the purchase and buy the thing that's a little bit more expensive. So, you know, it seems like it's a pretty big jump to get here though, when I could get a, a Monte Triumph, uh, which is a watch that I think probably, um, really is on par in terms of finishing with some of these watches. For half, you know, between 20% to 50% of the cost, I think it becomes harder to make those decisions. You know, I've got kids that are going to go to college someday, hopefully.
Everett Unless you buy one of these. But then you start to think about, okay, well, the finishing's great. You know, you're looking at the polish, but we'll look at the movement. You could buy a Casio Atomic watch for $30 and have a more accurate movement.
Andrew So can I wrap up the Omega conversation with one thing? Yes. The Bond style Omega Seamaster Pro bracelet is the greatest bracelet ever made.
Everett Yeah, I'm willing to accept that without ever having handled one.
Andrew It's the greatest bracelet ever made. Somebody on Instagram posted the other day or sent me a DM of they had purchased a Seamaster Pro. the Hesalite Speedy Pro and had a, had an SMP bracelet that they stuck on there. And they sent me the picture and I was like, is that an SMP bracelet on that thing? He was like, good eye. And I was like, that is literally my sort of dream Omega watch is the SMP bracelet on a Speedmaster Pro. So I had a little, I had a little Twitter patient heart fluctuation, but I'll get over it. I hope so. Other things.
Everett I just got one other thing to talk about. Netflix has a show called Friends from College. Okay. What is this? It is a kind of a dramedy. Keegan Peel is in it. Those are two people. No, no, no. Keegan Michael Key. Yeah. Keegan Peel. Sorry. Suck it. He's in it. It's got a lineup of folks you recognize. The whole premise of the show is that it opens with two people in a hotel together, and then you come to find out they've been friends for 20 years and are also married to other people. And then, you know, this whole college group of friends consolidates down into this party, and it's all the drama of exposing affairs, and that's season one is exposing the affairs, and season two is kind of them putting their lives back together after they have come to the light, come to the surface. Uh, and season two just dropped, which is why I'm talking about it. So I've, I've watched a handful of episodes on it and that season two is a little bit more serious, I think. Um, but Netflix has just had such good content in their original series.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett It's a Netflix original, or maybe it's one they bought. I don't know. Sometimes Netflix doesn't do a good job telling you what shows they bought versus what shows they created. I'm not sure it's in their interest to tell us. Well, it's in my interest because I'll watch a lot less shows that they bought, uh, versus show.
Andrew Well, I don't know.
Everett Yeah, I just, I'd like to know. I'd like to see the exclusive tag versus the original tag. Sure. And maybe they do. I don't know. No. So this is good. It's good. It's absolutely worth a watch. Uh, 20 episodes are live and streaming right now. Um, get some good laughs out of it. Sometimes it's a little bit heavy. Sometimes you're just like, Ooh, is this like a, this is us heavy or no, no, not like this. Well, excuse me. I never watched. This is us. Come on. I haven't. Come on. I've watched, I watched about 10 minutes of an episode and left the room. You're like, nope. It's, it's pure drama for drama's sake. I'm out. Yeah. I'm not interested. This is at least funny. There's good stories. They do really good character development. Um, absolutely worth a watch if you're looking for any Netflix show. Okay. Cause by now you should be definitely through Norseman, definitely through last kingdom. Right. Catch up people.
Andrew Yeah. It's going to be a big sharp line on our, it's going to be on our audacity. Sorry. Uh, Can we talk about fishing? Yeah. Can we talk about fly fishing? We should. We should. Okay.
Everett So, you know me. Because we do so much time watch podcasting, we don't talk about fishing as much as we ought to.
Andrew And a couple of people asked us, hey, when are you guys going to talk about fishing? Well, we'll talk about that. So you know me. I do. When I buy things, I do the full sort of set up my tent in the front room with my laptop and figure out what I'm going to buy. And so I have purchased at this point, literally thousands of dollars worth of fly fishing equipment. And I fairly regularly, and that is not to say that I have bought all the expensive fly fishing equipment or even that I have all that much fly fishing equipment, but it adds up. Fly fishing equipment adds up. And so I will say that I am a resource for people in my life who want to get into fly fishing. So I have on numerous occasions received messages from folks that say, Hey, I want to get started with fly fishing. What should I buy? I've gotten that message from me, my good friend, Andrew. I've gotten that message from, from other people in my life.
Everett I didn't say, what should I buy? I sent you this and I said, what are your thoughts? Oh, come on.
Andrew Continue. I want to say, I want to say this. You do not have to be afraid of cheap fly fishing gear. That's my take. Where I'm at now with medium level equipment. I would say for someone who wants to get into fly fishing, if you have $2,000 to spend, if you have $2,000 to spend on fly fishing equipment, don't come ask me what to buy. Go to your local fly shop and say, what should I buy? If you've got $500 to spend to get started with fly fishing from scratch, you can do it. You can probably do it for less than that. And you should, and you should now, I did come up with some options because I want people to feel comfortable with buying these things to get started with fly fishing. First, I'll say fly fishing. I'm going to go on a little tangent here. Do it. We're going to go a little long. It happens. Fly fishing is something that's very cool for people who like gear. You like gear because you're listening to us talk about watches, knucklehead. Who does that? Who listens to me talk about watches? I do. Yeah, I do too. uh so fly fishing is perfect for gear people it is it's there's a lot of gear involved um there doesn't have to be there can be a lot of gear involved that's right but fly fishing is best here's where fly fishing is best on the water fly fishing is best in a river that's between 15 and 100 feet across for trout now you can fly fish for salmon you can fly fish for steelhead you can fly fish for bass you can fly fish for carpen in the Caribbean, which we're going to try. Uh, you know, you can do, you can do any kind of fishing you want with fly fishing and there's spay rods, which these big two handed rods, there are switch rods. There is any number of gadget that you can do to catch other fish. But what I'll tell you is that you can, with a piece of bamboo, make a rod. And with with just a basket to hold your line, go to a 15 foot river and catch a fish on a fly exactly the way you were intended to fly fishing. Now, I'm not going to recommend that because I think that's probably it wouldn't be as much fun in today's day and age, maybe not the best way to get started. But what I am saying is you can go. My wrists pop. OK, you can go to Cabela's and spend $125 to $150 on a rod and reel and enjoy the shit out of that for a very long time.
Everett I paid $89 for my combo because it was the previous year's model.
Andrew And so I've got some options depending on what your prices are. Piscafun is a brand that makes very cheap fly fishing equipment and not all of it's great, all of it's serviceable. You can get a rod and reel for $80. Cabela's you can get I think I think it's three creeks or I can't remember what their Sort of low-end stuff is they have a few tiers and all of it is serviceable Echo is another company that makes serviceable Some of it's even better than serviceable. They have a line called the echo carbon or echo carbon XL, which is just sort of above Um, the, the entry level, you know, if you have 120, 130 bucks, you can get into an echo carbon rod, which is a killer rod. It's as good as 250, $350 rods. Great action. I've fished on them. They're great. Okuma Okuma in particular, the SLV line of reels. Fantastic. They're cast aluminum. Um, but they're, but they're solid and they're great. Um, For wading equipment, I really like a brand called Reddington, and you can get into Reddington waders and boots for under $200. You can also go to Cabela's and buy whatever, and it will work.
Everett Cabela's has a pair of felt-soled boots for $50. So my point here is... Which you can't use in all 50 states.
Andrew You can't. Some states are rubber only. I have rubber with studs at this point, but I think if I was going to do it again, I'd buy felt. So my point is this. My point is, Fly fishing on a 15 to 100 foot river is done very well with a medium action, not fancy schmancy. You don't need a, uh, you know, one of these high end, uh, super light, super fast rods. Get anything and go out and get going. If you want to fly fish and you do want to fly fish, do it on the cheap.
Everett Yeah. Cause you could spend $5,000 on fly fishing gear. and going to do you a lick of good if you're not on the water. You can spend $300 on fly fishing gear and that's a lot of gear between rod, reel, flies, waders, boots and you get it out on the water, it'll be worth it. And if you're in the Willamette Valley and you want to fish, let us know. We'll go fish with you.
Andrew We'll go fish with you for sure. You know, if I lost all my fly fishing equipment today, I'd go buy an Echocarbon, a 5-Way Echocarbon and a Kuma SLV, Reddington waders, Reddington boots. That's what I would buy. I would buy exactly that setup.
Everett I would do same rod and reel setup, but I would go get the Cabela's special wader and boots.
Andrew And you know what, that's someone, these are two people who fish a lot and we have better equipment than that at this point. But we don't need the better equipment. You know, it's just like cameras. If I lost all my camera equipment, I'd go buy a dirt cheap Nikon, you know, either a 5000 series or a 7000 series. And probably a lot of the same lenses I have right now, but the lenses I have right now are used and cheap. And I'd make killer photos with them.
Everett You might even buy your stolen lenses off of eBay.
Andrew Right, I might. Unwittingly. So, I don't know if that's a diatribe or whatever. Folks have talked to us, have asked us to talk about fishing. I thought that was a good sort of segue into fishing because I get this question a lot. What should I buy? Should I buy, do I need one of these expensive Z-axis rods? You know, here's the thing. If you can afford it, you might get joy out of it. Just like if you can afford a, you know, a Nikon D810 or whatever, you might get joy out of that. Or Sims gear. That's right. I'm never going to wear it. Well, I'll tell you, I've got Sims waders and I love them. And, you know, I think they were a great upgrade. Where I was at the time, I was like, this makes sense for me to get it. I've got the money for them. And I love those. And I've got Sims boots too, and I love them. And so those were good upgrades for me. But if I was just getting started off, if I was having to buy everything at once, I would buy lower equipment. Yeah. You know, but just buying waders, if that's all you need is a new pair of waders, then think about upgrading.
Everett Don't do it when you're buying everything at once. Unless for some reason somebody gave you a blank check.
Andrew And save a hundred bucks for flies. And a license. Yeah.
Everett And you know. I went salmon fishing a few months ago. My company sent me out on this guide that we keep on Retainer. And they said all you need to do Just buy your license and tag. Cool. We got out there and there's this fella that is known for making some questionable decisions. He didn't have a license. He pulled a fish on and the guide says, all right, uh, species, whatever area, whatever. And he goes, what do you mean? What do you mean? He goes, write it down. And he's like, on what? No license, no tag. I made the joke. It was funny. I pulled a fish on 20 minutes prior and he said it and I was like, Oh, what am I supposed to write that on? I'm pulling my license out and he laughs and then this guy says it and I was like, really? I just said it. Like, we got it out of the way. First fish on the boat. He just didn't have a tag at all. He just, he didn't have a license or a tag, nothing. The guys didn't let him fish anymore. No, he just sat there and drank beer. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. So anyway, we'll talk more about fishing.
Everett Sorry for... When we fish more, we'll talk more about fishing. So I guess we wrap it up, right? I guess it's that time. Yeah. Next time you hear from us, we'll be in Mexico. Hopefully. Well, no.
Andrew Oh yeah. Hopefully we'll have already gotten back from Mexico, assuming we don't have technical difficulties. Yeah. Yeah, this will be the week or two weeks after Mexico.
Everett Well, sucks to be back from Mexico, y'all.
Andrew Thank you for joining us for another hour 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. you