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Episode 20 - Digital Watches

Published on Thu, 14 Mar 2019 01:41:00 -0700

Synopsis

The podcast features two friends, Andrew and Everett, discussing affordable digital watches. They go through their personal recommendations for digital watches from brands like Casio, Timex, Seiko, and Luminox. They discuss the features, price points, and wearing experiences of various digital and ana-digi (analog/digital) models. The conversation also touches on topics like durability, illumination, water resistance, and straps/bracelets for digital watches. Towards the end, they briefly mention some other interests like audiobooks, YouTube channels, and machining/making.

Transcript

Speaker
Everett Hey watch fam, Everett here. Those of you who've been paying attention will know that Andrew's gone on a vacation, a government vacation. So we're going to give you this week an episode that we recorded back on December 17th. There's some chance that some information may be outdated, but I think that it's a pretty fun episode and I hope you guys enjoy. Looking forward to getting back to regular programming in a couple of weeks.
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 I'm good, man. I'm feeling a little warm. It's, uh, you know, obviously winter, it's pretty cold here and I've been, uh, I've been layering.
Andrew I love this part of the year where like you're just You're just layering up, getting cozy, sweatshirts, wool socks.
Everett And one of the things I do before we record is I use like Vicks menthol rub on my chest. And so I've got like a long sleeve t-shirt on. I've got a flannel shirt over that. I've got Vicks on my chest, which gives you that sort of cool heat. So I feel like really wintery and warm. Uh, so outside of not being able to find my show notes, uh, I'm, I'm good.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Well, we got that. We've found them. We found them. We found them. You know, gosh, uh, I'm a, I'm a stacker. Uh, I'm a, I'm a, I think my mom, I think she says you're a setter and not a placer. Oh, that's a good way to phrase it. I set things places instead of placing things places. I'll be appropriating that. Right. And so I, you know, you walk through the horizontal surfaces of my house and many of them are loaded with things.
Andrew I'm responsible for part of it. We have beer bottles and a coffee mug and my things.
Everett And so, I mean, I wouldn't say we're hoarders. We're certainly not. I mean, no one's going to be interested in the episode of hoarders on us because we're not like that. But certainly there are more surfaces in my house than I'm comfortable with. that have a pile, you know, whether it's the mail for the week or, you know, shit, the month sometimes. Yeah. Or... Because we get so much damn junk mail. Oh my gosh. And you don't want to just throw it away. I don't know why. Why mentally. That shit stuff should not even come in the house. Take that shit to the recycling bin.
Andrew My mailbox is right next to my recycling bin, but I still bring it inside. It still comes inside. Why do we do that? I don't know.
Everett And then it sits on the counter for a week or two or twelve.
Andrew Mine moves from, so we have a table right by our front door. You've been in my house, you come in, there's the table with the lamp and the key bowl, and about once a month, we do our purge. But unfortunately, in that interim, the mail moves from there, next to the key bowl, and then moves to the kitchen table.
Everett It's got a life cycle.
Andrew Yeah, and I made this kitchen table.
Everett The metamorphosis of the junk mail.
Andrew I think it's like an eight foot long dining table. Which is great.
Everett It takes real nice pictures.
Andrew It does. But we also, we don't need eight feet of dining room table for us. There's three of us. I'm sure Mark loves it. Oh yeah, he does. But the issue is it creates a lot of horizontal space to set things. Set things. And it takes, like, we're in about a monthly cycle where all the horizontal surfaces in our home have become, have reached critical mass. And either one of two things happens. Like, I go into a tantrum clean about two days ahead of our normal life cycle of things. And I just end up- That's such a relatable idea, the tantrum clean. Oh my gosh. And my wife sees it. She, like, I'm like, I get to pacing. Or like, she comes home and I just look up and I'm throwing stuff in the garbage. Like, I've got everything stacked out and organized. Like, to then, unfortunately, I call it mess relocating. We take it to our pit room, which could be and is so close to being an office, but for mess relocating. Everything just gets stacked together. Like, I don't want to see this shit. And it lands in there.
Everett It's modestly organized, but not in a functional sense.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a reasonable way to describe it. But the horizontal surfaces is always a pet peeve of mine. And it's a pet peeve of my wife's too. But over the course of life, Horizontal surfaces are just so convenient to set things down on. Totally. And we, as a result, have a similar issue where, and I'm, I'm very, uh, very routine based and habit based. Like I'm a, I'm a pure creature of habit. So my organization system makes perfect sense to me and to me alone.
Everett Right. And that creates tension when you're trying to clean too, because. Or find shit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm the same. I'm the same way. So we actually wound up having to, The kids have a art table in our house and for a number of reasons we placed the art table in our sort of front room. I've got a pretty big front room. You have a great room. It's a great room. Yeah, I guess that's what you'd call it. But the size of it and our sort of general inclination to be co-located in the house when we're goofing around or whatever means that we set up this art table for the kids in the front room. for better or worse, but it is it just wound up being a Storage location for their various art projects and and and really not functional. So I spent about two hours I think yesterday, you know a making sure that I wasn't gonna throw away anything that would have been Devastating to the kids or to my wife, you know an art project or a school project Um, cause I'm more inclined to just say, well, that's, that's pretty, let's, let's recycle that now.
Andrew It's at the bottom of the pile means you haven't seen it in a while. It's gone. It's gone.
Everett That's right. Uh, and you know, Kim is too, but I think there's some things you want to preserve. You don't want to lose those memories. Uh, and, and I feel the same way, but, but there's a, there's a fine line between just keeping, you know, between hoarding stuff. So we try to be selective, but, so we wound up spending about two hours, you know, organizing that stuff, keeping the stuff we want, get rid of the rest. But also, you know, every birthday you get like a hundred markers, marking pens. 10,000 maybe. Right. So, you know, without opening each one and sort of writing with it, just sort of trying to consolidate what we have and get rid of some stuff. But yeah, that's, I mean, it's, it's really liberating feeling to, to do that, to run through that process. But what happened is I lost my show notes, but I found them. Yeah. Here they are. Here we go. What are we talking about today? What are we talking about today? Today we are talking about a subject that I think is pretty near and dear to Andrew and I, but digital watches. Yeah. Digital watches, affordable digital watches. And the nice thing about digital watches is a lot of them are affordable.
Andrew I'd venture to say most. Most, yeah, I think that's right. And they're going to keep good time. So they're obviously a courts movement. And I think people frequently look down on digitals. Like they're not, they're not watch enough.
Everett It doesn't feel like a, it doesn't feel like a collector's watch. Most digital watches don't. I mean, with, with a few, with a few really notable exceptions, I think you're not seeing a lot of high-end digital stuff or collector, collection-worthy digital stuff. You know, I will say G-Shock makes a digital watch that is as good as anything out there in the world. And there are a lot of people that collect just Digitals. And I think by and large, most watch collectors give G-Shock a nod. We're not going to talk about G-Shock, any G-Shocks today, I don't think, right? I don't have any on my list. And that's not because we don't love G-Shock. I think both of us have a soft spot for G-Shock watches. But I think that G-Shock probably deserves its own episode and we'll probably give it that treatment at some point in the future. But for today's purposes, we're not going to talk about those.
Andrew No, we're just going to talk about a handful of Digitals that we've either owned currently own or wish we owned um and give a give a nod to um to some digital watches because I I like them I think they're cool I think you get a lot of cool features out of digital watches that you're not going to get out of out of non-digital watches um and I feel like they all have such a unique a unique personality it's a unique character to them yeah that I like that I enjoy uh and there's you know there's the there's a very fair argument that there's not the the craftsmanship or the artisanship that goes into them, uh, to, to some degree. Um, but I think it's just a different, different category of, of watches that there's no shame in liking them, wearing them, wanting them and enjoying them.
Everett They have a place. Uh, I will say in preparing for this episode, one of the challenges that was posed to us from good friend of the show, uh, watch you seek user over steer, uh, was. You know, you're going to come up with a bunch of Casio's. You're going to come up with Timex. But outside of that, uh, there's really slim pickings and he kind of challenged us to, to go outside of that. And I will say, I think we both tried, but at the end of the day, Casio and Timex make 95% of these things that are, that are out there. And so much diversity in them too. So much diversity. Yeah. So, so, I mean, A, the inclination to go outside of there is maybe a little bit artificial in that I want to know about things I haven't heard of. But, but B, um, I'm not sure you need to do it, uh, unless you really, really are motivated to get outside of those two ecosystems. I'm cool with those ecosystems. I am too. Yeah. By and large. I know, I know we do have some options that are outside of that. Yeah. Yeah. Shall we start? Yeah.
Andrew What do you got, man? First up, Casio F91. F91. And you've got, you've got it. I've got one sitting here in front of us. It's the F91W with the silver, uh, the silver case. What do you think this thing weighs? I mean, I bet we could- Six ounces?
Everett Six ounces, no way.
Andrew It weighs next to nothing, man.
Everett What, next to nothing? No, that's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking it weighs less than that. Does Amazon tell us what this thing weighs? It doesn't. I mean, I bet this thing weighs less than that. I would be surprised if it weighed an ounce. I mean, without the strap on it?
Andrew It weighs absolutely next to nothing. You can put it on and forget that you're wearing it. And it's featherlight. I really dig it. I picked it up on a whim, honestly. I was at the store for a wholly other purpose. What were you shopping for? I remember you- Christmas lights. Oh, that's right. And the jewelry section was on the way to the Christmas light section and I picked it up and I was like, well, I mean, I've been thinking about one of these. I like it. It's 15 bucks. Like 12 bucks, I think. I mean, it was, I mean, cheap and I think that's I would typically hesitate to use the word cheap and use the word inexpensive instead, but it's cheap. No, it's cheap.
Everett Yeah, that's right.
Andrew And it is a cool looking watch. Uh, it's like a, a very retro looking watch. The cool thing about the F91 is that it's never changed. It's never really changed price. It's never, it's never gone through design overhauls. It's, it's, it is what it is.
Everett And these were like 12 bucks when they came out in 87 or whatever.
Andrew Yeah. Like the, the, the, they've not, They've not increased in price with inflation of everything else in the marketplace, and they're globally ubiquitous. I mean, a good example is that there is a picture of Barack Obama, before he was president, wearing an F91, and Osama bin Laden wearing one. That's the reach that this watch has had, and it is, I think, a really important piece of watch history. And it's something that I, I like wearing and because it's so cheap, I don't care what I do when I'm wearing it. I put Christmas lights up in it. I cook in it. I don't shower in it because I typically just, I don't wear watches when I shower typically. Um, but it's, it's a stocking stuffer watch. It's a, you know, non-watch people I think are going to look at it and laugh and make fun of it. Because it it's not gonna feel special enough for them. No, it just it looks super funky and cheap It looks straight out of the 80s And I I mean I bet if you were to go back to look to watch 80s movies You're gonna find an f-91 and most of them man.
Everett I guess I gotta say this beer you brought So some of you guys might know Andrew is a professional Seller of beer. That's what I do for money. He works for a company Anheuser-Busch, right? Mm-hmm say that. Yeah, she's a German company no no it is right it's brazilian is it brazilian okay i was thinking german brazilian uh which is funny a little bit because i think budweiser feels very america but it's now brazilian on uh but he brought this over this budweiser copper logger jim beam and he was it says aged on real barrel staves so is it it's aged with jim beam barrel yeah it's a collaboration between anheuser-busch and jim beam uh
Andrew I believe the brewers just bought a bunch of Jim Beam barrels and chipped them and aged this beer on them.
Everett Well, you were telling me about it and it sounds a little like, I don't know, gimmicky or whatever.
Andrew Sticky.
Everett Yeah. Sticky. I took one drink of this stuff and was like, holy cow. Uh, I don't know what it is about this. This is really delicious.
Andrew It's good. It, I mean, I've, I've described it as pretty okay. I've bought it. I mean, and I think that's a, that's a big indicator. I get a lot of beer for free. Uh, and I've, I've purchased this beer. You paid cash for this? Uh, no, not this one. Okay.
Everett But I've, I've bought it before. Oh, you have bought it before. Okay. You know, it's got a, I described the flavor as chocolate chip cookie flavor to it, uh, which I don't think is going to be appealing to everybody, uh, chocolate chip cookie flavored beer. And I will say it does not taste like chocolate chip cookies, but there's something about, it's got like a caramel flavor or something to it.
Andrew It's a copper lager aged on oak barrels. So you're getting a little bit of that, uh, just like a little bit of that oaky, dark,
Everett whiskey flavor um the copper lagers in and of themselves are a little bit a little bit sweeter i mean bro it's blowing my mind it's a it's a good drinking beer delicious and i like the i like the stubby barrel bottles what do you call that just the stubby bottles stubby yeah like like what you get session in or cord's banquet i mean it reminds me of uh beer beer did you ever have beer beer back in the day there's these like i think they were 10 ounce like generic It just said the, the label of them just said beer.
Andrew I, I've seen, uh, Kirkland's, uh, Kirkland brand beer. They have a, uh, lager that they sell and it's just Kirkland light lager and they sell it in like a 30 pack. And I've always been tempted to buy it. I never have, obviously, because otherwise I would- You think it's just Miller Lite? It's probably not Miller Lite. It's probably a, it's probably just a lager, not a Pilsner, but I've always been, been very tempted to buy it and just see what, see what they're doing. It's probably not bad, it's like 20 bucks for a 30 pack maybe.
Everett I mean I've never had any Costco branded anything, Kirkland branded anything that wasn't better than anything else you can get at the same price.
Andrew Yeah, I mean Kirkland has a craft variety pack that's also pretty good.
Everett Have you heard the story about Kirkland's tuna fish, how it came to be? No. So, and I'm going to mess up some of the details, so if there's any Kirkland experts out there, feel free to send in our corrections. Kirkland was looking to, Costco was looking to make a Kirkland branded tuna fish and I think they reached out to both, what are the two big brands, Starkist and, I want to say it's Honey, no, Bee, something Bee. Bee, yeah, Bee, Bumblebee or whatever. Bumblebee, yeah. And they reached out to those two brands and had them send in samples. And I think they both sent in samples that Kirkland rejected. And so asked for more samples. They sent in more samples, which were their like top of the line labeled Starkist or bumblebee tuna and Kirkland, Costco rejected those as well and said, we want higher quality. So I want to say that it was Starkist, uh, made a higher level of tuna. That's the tuna fish, you know, canned tuna fish, just tin can tuna fish and send it to Costco. And that's what Kirkland uses for their Kirkland label tuna fish. So if you go to Safeway and buy Starkiss tuna or bumblebee tuna, it's not as high quality as what you'd get from Kirkland labeled tuna fish. And that's the approach that Costco, or at least this has been many years ago now, but that at least at the time, that was the approach that Costco was taking to its labeled products, which to me is a testament. And I've experienced that as well. I'm not pitching to Kirkland, or I guess I am a little bit. But we've just had such good experience with their products, and I think that story, maybe it's not, you know, it could, that sounds a little bit mythological to me, but... A little bit. I think it's a testament to what they do, you know, that they're making really good products, they're competing, they're not usually cheaper. I don't think that thing is, Kirkland 2 is cheaper.
Andrew Nothing Kirkland is especially inexpensive relative to its competitor brands. But it's just good.
Everett It's just good. You're getting good stuff. So we, we shop at, we shop at Kirkland. Uh, all, all the time or Costco all the time. And we buy a lot of critical products that work for us. So I'm sorry, dude.
Andrew Where were we?
Everett You guys gave me that look. Yeah. So, uh, I guess we could move on.
Andrew F91. That's where, where we were. I don't know where we were on it. Yeah. It's a, it's a good watch. It's, and it's, I think if, if you haven't owned one at any point as a watch person, I'm a little surprised. Um, but it's, it's a great little digital watch to throw into your lineup.
Everett Well, for me, I think the benefit of a digital watch, and this is going to be true, I think of most of the watches that we talk about today, but, uh, in part, you know, talking about the F91, the amount of things you can do with it. It's got an alarm on it. It's got a, uh, a chronograph on it. It's got 24 hour time or 12 hour time. With a one button press transition. Yeah. You know, you can find the date. Um, you can. I don't know if that one has multiple time zones that you can.
Andrew OK, now you have to you have to manually manipulate that time zone. But the only the only two things that I'm not a huge fan of the light. Number one, the illumination on it is just a single light bulb that illuminates from one side. So it's a little bit funky.
Everett Where is the light? Oh, yeah, I see it.
Andrew It's just it's a little bit. And at night, it's not a big deal. It's just a weird little
Everett little bit to it. Does it light, I mean, does it light it up enough that you can see it? Enough that you can read it, absolutely.
Andrew If you wake up in the middle of the night? Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's enough that it does its job. It's just a little funky. And then number two was putting this thing on, taking the, the, the plastic strap off of it and putting it on, I put it on a, a nylon cheap NATO. Was it, was a pain. Oh yeah. It's got a steel, it's a steel band, isn't it? No, not on this. Oh, okay. It was, it's just like a cheap plastic strap.
Everett Uh-huh.
Andrew Uh, but it's, it's got pass-through, uh, locking bars, um, that you press out and it's a, a complete right angle in that, in that housing to get the, the strap in. So what I had to do was pull the bar out, push it just slightly in, wiggle the strap underneath it and then slide it closed, which, which is nice. It doesn't slide around on the, on the strap at all.
Everett But it was just, it was not what I'd refer to as a pass through at that point.
Andrew No, it was, it was certainly a challenge to get it on there. Um, it was probably, probably 10 minutes. Yeah. But once it's on, it's on, I won't take this NATO off until it rots off.
Everett Right. And it's nylon, so it's going to be there forever.
Andrew Yeah. And it, it looks good on it. It, it really, it looks like a watch that was designed to be on a nylon strap as opposed to that really cheap plastic, um, that cheap plastic strap that it came on.
Everett I agree. You know, I think this is a good candidate for a bobbed, what I'm going to call a bobbed NATO, where you cut the second piece of fabric off. I don't know that you need to, but it seems like a good candidate for that. A good NATO candidate for it, for sure. I mean, because this is an inexpensive NATO, and I think it would lend itself well to the overall thinness and lightness and smallness of the watch.
Andrew Yeah. A good digital option as you're dipping your toes into digital watches. If you're not particularly a watch person and you're looking for a watch that you can abuse and not feel bad about, and if it doesn't survive it, shucks, you go to Walmart and pick a new one up, this is a good option for you.
Everett Totally. Yeah, and we've talked about this guy in the past too. At least before I was a watch guy, I was the type of watch wearer who would put a Watch on and keep it on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I'm not ever taking it off unless maybe I'm lifting weights or something. But you know, that would be my only concern about that is that the water resistance wouldn't be enough. But even, I mean, as long as it could, as I could get in and out of the shower with it and not have it break, I think it would be great for that. That would be a major deal breaker for me. If you couldn't wear that thing in the shower.
Andrew I'm pretty sure you can. I think you could. It's got the water resist on here. Now there are some folks who do. It does say WR right on the watch dial. Yeah. Yeah. And it, and, and water resist. It's got them both just to make sure that, you know, um. How's the alarm? Haven't tried it. Don't like it. Don't like alarms. So haven't tried it, but the beeps are noticeable.
Everett They are noticeable. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's the only time I've ever used a watch alarm really regularly was at, uh, like an army training.
Andrew Right. I just rely on other people waking me up in that environment. Right.
Everett That's true. That works. I was, I was like to be up about five minutes before everybody else, especially if you're, you need to be, but yeah.
Andrew I just rely on other people. All right, good. Um, now there are people who do what's called hydro modding to this, this watch. Yeah. Tell me about that. Uh, I haven't done a whole lot of research into it. Um, but my understanding of it is that the, the watch is basically filled with oil, like, like olive oil from what I read, uh, just briefly. And what it does is it increases the, uh, it increases the legibility of the screen and it makes it more water resistant. Uh, and I, I'm not smart enough to understand exactly why, but kind of intriguing. I might, I might try it with this one just to see. How do you do it? You just take the case back off and fill it? I think so. I haven't, I haven't watched any tutorial videos on it. I saw it just briefly in passing and I was like hydro modding. I saw an article that said a hydro modded one of these went to like 900 feet or something and survived. And, um, I mean, I would be intrigued to watch a video about that. Um, but it's definitely something I'm gonna look into a little bit further. A cool little mod that takes this $12 watch and makes it just a little bit cooler, a little bit more unique. Um, and, um, frankly, the legibility on the screen is perfectly fine as it is. It's fine. Yeah. I don't know. I can't imagine how much better it's going to get, but worth looking into for me, at least. I wonder if it makes the light better too. Maybe the oil might grab the light a little bit better, make the loom a little fuller.
Everett So I guess that whatever oil you're using is non-conductive, so it's not shorting. Yeah. All right. Well, now we need to know more. You've intrigued me. You've intrigued me. Yeah. All right. What have we got next? Next one I have, so this is, so I've actually got a series, a couple of my choices today are not, are not available new. And this first one that I'm going to talk about is a watch that I own. Uh, you may have seen it pop up on the Instagram from time to time. And I think we've probably talked about it on the show as well, but this is the Casio AMW320. And this is a watch that's changed over the years, but, but it has basically looked the same. This is the, the kindergarten cop watch is what I call this thing. This is the watch that Arnold Schwarzenegger famously wore in kindergarten cop. Uh, there's also some, there's also a picture of Denzel Washington posing, uh, very thoughtfully with his hand on his chin. It must have been a product shot because it's such a ridiculous posture. I don't know if Denzel wore these things. I'm going to say he did just because it makes me feel good to own. He did in that picture. He did. Right. Right. And you know, Denzel Washington and Arnold Schwarzenegger in my head, I don't know if they've ever been in a movie together, but they're always connected in my head because of the famous Salt-N-Pepa line, body like Arnold and a Denzel face. Yeah, the perfect man. What a man, right? Anyway. Salt-N-Pepa. Call it back. Uh, so this watch is a very old school watch. I mean, it doesn't even have, I've got mine here. Where is it? It doesn't even have a light. Uh, you know, there's no illumination at all. It is an analog. It is an analog timekeeper. So it's an anodigy. An anodigy. Yeah. Right. I like that phrase. Uh, so it's got a regular three hand module. In addition to that, it's got a digital. readout at the bottom, which you can put all sorts of stuff on there. I use that sometimes for 24 hour time, depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes I use it for a second time zone. Oh, they work independently? They do, yeah. That's a nice feature. The 24 hour time module works independently, so you can have your second time zone 24 or 12 hour time. And I think it actually keeps three different time zones. It's got the date, it's got a stopwatch, it's got an alarm. I think that's every complication that I can think of that would be useful to me besides maybe a moon phase. Not that a moon phase is useful, but I might think that's cool. That's the only thing on here that I think would be cool in terms of complication that isn't contained in this watch. The loom is terrible. I think you probably get about an hour and a half to two hours of legibility.
Andrew Is that a function of age of the loom or just poor loom?
Everett No, this is a new watch. I mean, I bought this thing, this was a store model. This is the most current iteration and these have been discontinued. I don't think you can buy them at all new anymore. You can still get them on eBay, brand new, in box for under a hundred bucks. Used, you can pick them up for 50 to 75 usually. It's a big watch. It's a big watch. I think it's my biggest watch. It's 45 millimeters. It's pretty low profile, but the lugs are fairly long.
Andrew It doesn't look big though. I think that's an interesting part of it. I haven't worn it, but I don't know if it wears big, but it doesn't look gaudy.
Everett It wears pretty big. I will say that. In defense of this watch, I love it. However, it wears pretty big. 46 is what I'm seeing here. It's got 22 millimeter lugs. Uh, obviously mineral glass. This isn't a fancy watch. There's nothing fancy about it. It's got a, it's got a steel bezel. It's a 60 click two direction thing. It's not nice. The, the bezel insert is the least usable insert I own. Um, you know, whatever. It looks cool. I like the way it looks. I mean, really, that's why I'm wearing this watch. Um, and that's why we were any watch. That's right. The, the grab and go ability of it is, is great. Uh, it, it's aesthetically pleasing all brushed on the top. So the bezels brushed, the, the top face of the cases is what I'd call radio brush. Is that right? It's brushed in a circle. Yeah. Um, this case sides are polished and it's a nice polish. Um, the crown, the crown is polished. Every, everything on the sides is polished all the way brushed on the top. So you get some nice, variation in surfaces. The bezel is a little funky. I don't think this is an original design. I think that Casio was aping a Seiko design at the time with this thing, which probably isn't surprising. There's a mid-size Seiko quartz diver that's got the same coloration. It's a little bit smaller. I think it's about 40 millimeters. Patrick Marlette actually talked about that watch recently on his don't buy an SKX YouTube video. That was a little controversial I think he's right about everything he said But he talked about that the Seiko version of Of this, you know, and they look remarkably similar I'll put we'll put a link to both of them in the show notes But it's just cool. It's and it's got that Annie Digi Thing which is attractive to me. I really dig it.
Andrew I like the the multi time zone keeping the independent times that it can keep multiple that's a that's a nice function for a good price for a good price when you start looking at gmt watches that not to say that's a gmt but i mean it's serving the same function well i mean you get that same function i think with any g-shock or or any sort of iron man well you don't because you don't have the analog that analog feature so i guess yeah that's a good point yeah that's a really good point you get totally independent
Everett The digital module and the analog module are totally independent of one another. Oftentimes mine aren't synced. It'll say... Oh, does one keep time better? I don't know. I don't know. I just know that sometimes I'm not precise with the way I set them. If I go into daylight savings time or whatever, I'll set the analog hands and maybe forget to set the digital. So one of them will say 1228 and the other one might say 1232 or whatever. I don't know. That's an interesting question. I don't know the answer to it.
Andrew I would think they keep the same time because they're running off of the same. That's it. I'm intrigued now. Yeah, me too. Interesting. We could take a rabbit hole right down this.
Everett What else do you got? What's your next watch?
Andrew Next up, next, the Timex Ironman. And I have, I've had this watch for a long time and going through the Timex catalog, this is the one that looks right. The Ironman original 30 shock. Full-size with the resin strap.
Everett I item number item number tk item number t5k 1959 j is what this is coming up on amazon.
Andrew Yeah, and I I think that's it everything everything looks right This the one that's up looks a little bit just a little bit updated But this watch has gone through some abuse uh-huh, uh, and it has it's I mean it's got funk worked into the into the strap and around the the case back and it it's I mean another one of those options that if you want to buy a watch that you're not scared to destroy for different reason than the F91 you're not scared to destroy the F91 because it's so inexpensive you're not scared to destroy this this watch because I don't know if you can and I've I've put this thing through the absolute wringer and it has prevailed I mean early on I talked about liking the eco drive because I'd have to change the batteries right and I'm I'm now okay with changing batteries, but this is the only sport watch type watch that I've had that I have put the effort in to change the battery and it's super readable. It, it's just a, it's a really great, most of the time purpose watch.
Everett I mean, we've both worn Iron Man. I I've had a different version of that and I, and I don't, I don't know what it is and it doesn't matter. Um, uh, a version of this Timex Ironman that I've worn. I've had three different versions of them or three different copies of the same watch that I, it was my, the only watch I wore for probably about five years of my life. Wore it every day. Like I said, that daily 24 seven where swam with it, uh, swam with, swam with it, showered with it. Uh, all the things that you would ever do with a watch, uh, or in life with that thing strapped to my wrist. haven't had a single failure where I do get failures is in the strap the lug connection and yours is obviously holding up I think that that is a weak point of that is a weak point of these watches but outside of that you know it's bulletproof you know you're gonna scratch it it's gonna get damaged right because it's this painted resin case so it's gonna take wear over time but It wears the patina really well. And you can do anything, anything that you want to do in terms of timekeeping, you know, short of something really, really sort of specific, you're going to be able to do with this. You're going to be able to time your food at night. You're going to be able to time your sleep if that's something you want to do.
Andrew Lock times, drive times, anything. It's a really reliable, really resilient watch. And even with, I mean, When you catch the light just right on the cover, it's covered in scratches, but it does not affect the visibility or readability of this watch. And it's got the great Indiglo function.
Everett Yes, Indiglo. Let's talk about it because there's no better illumination. I know we've talked about Indiglo before on the show, and I've actually written about that functionality. the best way to see time at night absolutely is timex has and they've got they've got a a real hold on that technology and i don't know if if that's a legal thing or whatever nobody else is doing that it's the best if you want to be able to see time at night reliably uh and and having a green light on your wrist is not a problem and it can be in certain circumstances but if that's not a problem there's no better way to see what time it is in the middle of the night nothing
Andrew And this watch obviously isn't for all occasions. This is an everyday, normal life watch where it's going to get banged up. It's going to get used. You don't have to worry about taking it off to mow the lawn, clean the gutters, swing a hammer. It's a, it's a chunky.
Everett Slick Willy one wore an Iron Man in the White House, man. Okay. Famously. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. So I'm wrong. Bill Clinton. Yeah, he did. He did it. He, I think, famously wore a Timex Iron Man in the White House.
Andrew This watch will always have, the day this watch dies will probably be an emotionally challenging day for me because it's been with me through a lot of years. I think I probably had this watch seven years. Yeah. And it's taken its knots. Yeah. And it is still kicking. The Indiglo still works great. I don't know if Indiglo is known to lose its lose its strength over time.
Everett I don't think so.
Andrew I mean, I've not, that's not something I've ever experienced, but every, the, the buttons are, the buttons in the paint are a little bit harder to read cause it's just worn off. But I think it's a testament to the durability of this watch. And if you're looking for a sport watch, if you're looking for something that you just, that you don't really care how it looks, cause it's not especially attractive watch, but it's a, it's a sport watch.
Everett Yeah. It's well, and I'll, I'll say that, you know, that, I think the watch nerd probably tends towards a Casio G-Shock, a DW-5600 maybe, or one of the round G-Shocks. I think this watch is significantly more comfortable than a DW-5600 even. The buttons are easier to push. Look, don't get me wrong, DW-5600 is a cool watch. It's cool, way cooler than this. But they're a pain in the ass. The buttons are uncomfortable, they're hard to push. They're just not as comfortable to wear, in my mind. I can run in this and feel like it's not there. Versus a DW-5600, it's clunky. It's harder plastic.
Andrew It just doesn't mold to your wrist. No, this is an extremely comfortable strap. Super comfortable. Yeah, it's soft, but it's got very real structure to it.
Everett And easy to do all the things you want to do. All those buttons are easy to push. Yep. Maybe sometimes too easy. I don't know that that's a feature of the G-Chucks that they're, they're not really prone to environmental, you know, or incidental pushing of the buttons. But that, that takes a toll on your fingertips.
Andrew I've never experienced incidental pushing. There you go. You heard it here. Yeah. I, I like it. I dig it. I dig it. It's a, it's a great option. It gets regularly worn. and I'm never worried about what's going to happen to it.
Everett You know, a really similar price point to that versus the DW-5600. I think if I want to look cool, I'll probably take the DW-5600 because I think it is maybe just, in my mind at least, a little bit cooler. Watch person cooler though. That's right. If I want a functional watch, I'm picking that every time. If I'm interested in a watch to do what it needs to do, I'm picking that every time. If, for instance, I'm deploying overseas I'm going to take that versus the DW-5600, I think.
Andrew Yeah. Or if I'm swinging a hammer and doing a renovation in my house. Totally. This is the watch that's going to be on my wrist.
Everett No, I will say the DW-5600 has, or you know, G-Shock in general has probably conducted more research than just about any other company in the world on how to make a really shockproof watch. I think if you're going to, I don't know what circumstances, You need that. This is, I know shock resistance, and we obviously have not done any sort of testing or anything even close to testing to compare these two. My gut is the G-Shocks are probably a little better in that regard. I would be astonished if that watch broke because of some environmental shock in everyday, average, even very hardware.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've put it through the wringer and here it sits.
Everett As we do. Yeah. As we do. All right. What's up next? So this is a watch a little bit more expensive than the things we've been talking about, and maybe a little bit tricky to find. I don't think it's particularly tricky to find, but this is the new... I mean, it's on Amazon. Right. So this one is on Amazon. There's a few iterations of this. This is the new-ish Seiko Prospex Fieldmaster. This is a watch that's made in conjunction with a designer or a company called Lowercase. I know nothing about them, so I won't talk about them. The reference I have pulled up here is the SBEP005. I hear these watches get referred to as the Digituna, and that's probably what I would call it as well. The Seiko Digituna. I'm not sure what it looks like. Yeah, it's a digital tuna Seiko. If you had an analog dive watch on here you just call it a tuna but this is a full featured digital watch in a tuna case with a i think this is an ion plated platinum shroud not platinum ion plated titanium shroud uh so it's gonna take a licking i've pulled up the 005 which is all black uh black ion plating with gold pushers and gold text on non-existent lug extension.
Andrew As absolutely minimal as it can be and still have a lug to push.
Everett So I think the lug to lug on this, I'm not seeing a stat on it. I don't really care what the numbers are. I think it's about a 49 or 50 lug to lug profile and a 49 or it says 49.9. I think it's 50 by 50 basically is your overall dimension. So it's going to wear wide on your wrist, but it's also not going to work particularly long, what I'd call the vertical dimension. Horizontal? I would think horizontal would be like elbow to knuckle and vertical would be... Wrist to wrist? Yeah, side of your wrist to side of your wrist. So either way, it's not the lug to lug, the relative lug to lug on this, which is about the same as the case width, I think is going to make this thing wear very nice. And in fact, when we hooked up with a guy recently that had a modded... Gosh, what was it? Oh my gosh. I wish I could remember. Cause it was in a tuna case. It was in a tuna case, but it had been modded. Oh, I know what it was. It was an SRP 777, but that had been custom modded by a fellow who, who takes modern Seiko's and fits them to shrouds. He machines the case and, and fits a shroud on them. Uh, and this, so it wound up having this pretty big 48 or 49 millimeter case width dimension, but because it had that original SRP lug to lug, It wore really good on the wrist. I think you're going to find something similar. So this is not going to be a small watch.
Andrew No, it's going to be a big watch and it's going to be another banger watch.
Everett And totally wearable is in my mind. It's probably going to be totally wearable. Um, and it's Seiko Prospex. So you're going to have 200 meters of water resistance, shock resistance. You're going to have all the good stuff you want. Uh, it does have a silicone band, but this one of these Seiko silicone bands, it's going to be very nice.
Andrew I'm guessing. They make such great silicone bands. They're so comfortable.
Everett Totally totally in fact. I don't remember what we recently were goofing around with a vintage Seiko Rubber, I don't think it was silicone. I think it was rubber but a vintage Seiko rubber band Rubber strap. I was like god dang. This thing is freaking great The flexibility was was phenomenal Yeah, anyway, so this thing's gonna be in that same sort of that same sort of world. It's big, but super cool. I don't think there's been a digital watch that's come out in the last several years that I liked better than this. And obviously, this thing is aimed firmly at that higher-end G-Shock, Mudman, Frogman demographic, you know. Oh, yeah.
Andrew It's ringing in at, what, $289? Yeah, I think anywhere between that $289 and maybe $300 or so.
Everett or 350 or so is where these things are coming in. They've got them in three. They've got a Pepsi version. They've got a more traditional black and white or black and steel version. And this is the, the gold version. I'd probably go for the gold version. I would too. Um, you know, obviously it's not going to be actual gold. It's going to be plated or, or, or PV or something. I'm not sure what, and I don't care, but I dig it. I dig it. And I, we don't own it, so I don't know the functionality. I'm guessing it has, every single digital function you'd ever want. Yeah. So if you don't mind, I'll probably take just, uh, I'll just blast through my last, my last option. Then we can get to your last one. Cause I actually really like your, your final option. This is a watch that came to us via a friend of the show. Watch You Seek user Pete Worrell, I think is how you pronounce that. Maybe Pete Worrell. Um, this is, I think the most expensive watch that we're going to talk about today. This is a watch from an American company called Luminox. Mm. American company, right? I don't know. No, I haven't in my head they are but now I'm doubting myself. From a company called Luminox. A company called Luminox. Maybe American, maybe some other.
Andrew Some of their products are for sure in America.
Everett For sure, for sure. You know, I think about Luminox as sort of the military focused company. I feel like a lot of their watches are really targeted at service members or folks who are folks who are in a military environment.
Andrew First responders are just tactical needed needs.
Everett Yeah, that's right. And they do a lot of tritium. They're one of the one of the modern companies that incorporates tritium into their modern watches. I don't think you see a ton of that these days. I can't think of a whole lot. And you know, tritium versus, you know, luma bright, you know, standard lume. I think that there's some pluses and minuses for both of those. And I, I don't really have a strong opinion one way or the other, but this is the Luminox 5421X. Nope. Nope. 5241. This is the Luminox 5241 X-Core or X-C-O-R Aerospace Anadigi titanium watch. Um, when I look at this watch, I think Breitling Aerospace. Yep. Um, And this is clearly targeting, at least targeting the same demographic. And I think it's possible that this watch is even an homage to that watch. You know, I've found these things at between 500 and 600 on eBay. I don't believe this watch is in manufacture anymore, but within that, I think pretty stinking cool for a titanium, and a DigiWatch that looks the way this does. Has a really sort of aesthetically pleasing face. I really like the high contrast white and black dial.
Andrew Nothing... And stainless bezel. I really like that with only the... The only color on it is the numerals and markers. Everything else is what looks like a brushed titanium.
Everett Yeah, and I suspect that it... It's going to be super functional. It's not going to crack. It's not going to scratch the way aluminum will. My experience with titanium watches, I've got that titanium Bertucci. Titanium just wears differently than steel does. It wears in a more sort of, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Je ne sais quoi. It's got a certain something. That's right. But it doesn't scratch the same way. stainless as you know day-to-day wear so my experience is that you're gonna get a little bit different patina than you would with a steel watch and and I know that they harden titanium in different ways or they play titanium in different ways I don't know much about this watch except that it's freaking cool and the the font that they used for the dial versus the font they used for the bezel is a really cool contrast and I I really like that font it
Andrew It really looks like a watch you'd see in space.
Everett Yeah, that's right. I mean, it looks like, I mean, obviously this is targeted at someone who thinks jet airplanes are pretty cool. You know, just the whole styling, it's got a little, the logo has a little jet on it. You know, within that, I feel like sometimes this stuff is a little silly. Is this a watch for fighter pilots or pilots of jets? I don't know. And does it have some functionality that's particularly useful in that setting?
Andrew Or is it just a watch for me?
Everett Right. Right. For me when I want to feel like I'm going to fly a jet airplane.
Andrew Yeah. I dig this watch. It's got the two, it's the Anodigi. It's got the same placement digital readout as the, as the Casio we talked about. And then it's got another reader on top that's showing you the, the digital function that you're seeing from, from what we can glean from, from reading about it is it's, it's showing you what you're seeing in that second digital readout. Yeah.
Everett I mean, it's, I, I've looked at a number of, of pictures of this online. I haven't done a ton of, of in-depth research, so maybe there's some usefulness to that second readout that we're, we don't know about, but in any event, I suspect this thing's going to be similar to the, to, to most of these other anodigies we've talked about today in that it's going to do an alarm. It's going to do a chronograph. This was, has a 1-100 chronograph, which is, is nice, precise and precision. That's right. Um, you know, and, and like with anything else, unless we've tried something, we're not going to be able to give you a really good idea on how it works. I will say this watch is a little bit bigger than, um, some of the other watches we've looked at. Uh, it is, it's 45, 45 millimeters. So about the same size as the, as the AMW 320 in terms of width, but it's just, Bigger. I mean, it's just, it looks bulkier. It looks a little bit beefier. Um, not as refined as the aerospace, uh, Breitling aerospace, the most obvious comparison I can make. Uh, not as refined, not as, as well cared for.
Andrew I think deliberately so. Yeah. I think it's meant to look like a tactical design.
Everett It is pretty tactical. 24 millimeters on the lugs, which is, That's a big strap. A big strap. Um, this, this leather strap looks like it's pretty nice. I wouldn't, I wouldn't know that it is nice, but it looks pretty nice. I'm not sure you'd want to change this thing. It fits really well with the, with the dimensions of the case, but this one came in on a recommendation and I thought, gosh, I've never even looked at that thing. Um, and I checked it out a little bit and I was like, yeah, that's cool. I'll, I'll, I'll give it a, give it a nod on the show.
Andrew I wonder how the, how you manipulate the digital functions. It's got to be because there's only one crown. There's no additional pushers that I can see. It looks like it's all being manipulated through that single crown.
Everett Yeah, I think you're right, which is an interesting thing all by itself. I think you're right. I don't see any buttons on it that make me think it could operate any other way. Cool looking watch. Yeah, I dig it. I dig it. I'd wear it. I'd buy it for 600 bucks. I mean, it's not high on my list right now, If you really wanted a Breitling Aerospace and it was just outside of reach, I like this a lot better than the Titanium Tissot T-Touch. I don't know if that's a watch you've looked at. I think they're not a particularly attractive watch. Not for me. I think this is a lot more attractive. This fits in with my personal style a lot better. Shit though, if I had the money, I'd buy an Aerospace because that watch is super cool.
Andrew And if you don't, this is a good one to look at.
Everett Yeah, I think that's right. I'm excited to talk about your third watch.
Andrew Me too. Number three, Casio World Time. So freaking cool. It is. It's such a cool, weird looking, but fun looking watch. I mean, it looks so weird. It, it looks like, uh, like a, like one of the faces you can download for one of those like garments or, or an Apple watch, like a, like a, a downloadable face, because it's it's just it's got a lot happening. And so the bottom half is your digital readout with your time, your a.m. p.m. indicator, your date and your day. The top half of the watch is got a 24 hour, an analog looking readout with a with a three hand read, but in digital. And then the top right corner is a world map. on that world map it has highlighted, so it's grayed out, and has highlighted in black the time zone that you're observing on that digital readout. And it's a quick change from time zone to time zone. And this watch, as I've worn it, even non-watch folks like it. They look at it and they recognize, like, that's a cool watch. And I have it in the silver on the bracelet. And the bracelet is funky. I had to go to the YouTube to figure out how to adjust this bracelet. Because when I opened it up, I had an idea. It's got the arrows and everything that you would expect out of a bracelet, but it has instead of pins, basically keys that lock the links together. And then when you pull that key out, you then have to kind of like fold and bend and twist. And the two links that I had to remove to make this watch fit are not usable anymore. They are bent and destroyed. There's no reusing them if you sell it. No, that those are, those are lost. Um, but nice thing about, it's got a nice, like a really steep, it's not a gradual taper at all. It's a, it's an immediate, all the taper happens in those first two links. And then it tapers down from, uh, I'd say about 20 wide to, uh, 14 probably at the bottom.
Everett Yeah, it looks to me like a 20. It might be an 18, actually.
Andrew An 18 at the lugs.
Everett Oh, yeah, that's right. Oh, right. So, yeah, I think it's about... I would say it's 22. 22 at the top, maybe 24 at the very top.
Andrew And then it tapers down quickly and significantly. And it's a comfortable bracelet. It has yet to pull my arm hair. It is cheap. It is... How much did you pay for this? 32 bucks, maybe? Not much. It was so insignificant that I didn't ask my wife. I just mentioned it in passing. Oh yeah, I picked up this watch on Amazon. It'll be here tomorrow. Um, but it's a cool watch and it looks, it is, it looks good. Um, it's a, it's a fun watch to wear because it's just so quirky and strange. Um, it's got the very square, square, uh, face to it. Um, like I said, there's a lot happening on it, but it's, It's a cool watch. Definitely one worth looking at. I mean, you're paying less than a dollar a time zone, what it comes down to.
Everett Less than I like that. Less than a buck a time zone. I think you'd be forgiven for thinking that this watch is going to be super similar to the F91W. I'm holding them both in my hand. Seeing pictures of these online, if I put up pictures of these side by side, I think you'd be forgiven for thinking that these are going to be the almost exact same watch in your hand. The first thing I noticed about these is that the world time is half again, maybe twice as big, you know, twice as big an area. I mean, it's just a, it's a modern size versus the F91W, which is really dainty. And I'd venture to say it's even a little big. Yeah. Yeah. Perhaps it's got that square case. So, so it winds up taking up a lot of real estate, uh, on your wrist. But super similar style cues as the F91W. You've got both of these in that painted resin or silver tone resin case. You say a little big. I don't know. I think it works super well on my wrist, about seven and a quarter. The dimension of the dial is very interesting. It's interesting, right?
Andrew It's a quirky, weird. Watch for not a lot of money. Another thing where it's, you're, you're not gonna, I mean, I wouldn't wear it to do yard work in.
Everett Um, yeah, no, it doesn't feel bulletproof the same way. Some of these watches we've talked about.
Andrew No, and it's a little bit more money than the F91. So I'm not, I would be a little, a little hurt by destroying it. Cause I'm, I would certainly replace it. Um, but, uh, a cool digital watch that is, if you're, if you're into watches and you're looking at dipping your toes into the, into the digital world, Um, another one with a weird light, but, um, but a good addition to your digital, your digital collection inside of, uh, inside of your bigger watch collection.
Everett You know, I, I know you, you don't like that bracelet, uh, and the bracelet's quirky and it's, it's light and it's jangly and, and manky, but I think it really works well with the, with the watch.
Andrew It does. I, and I, I haven't yet put it on a nylon strap, but I, I don't know that a nylon strap is going to do this watch any justice.
Everett Yeah. And it's too, it's too light and plasticky to put, uh, you know, a more substantial bracelet on, I don't know, maybe a shark mesh or something. We had talked about a Milanese. Yeah. Uh, might look good on it, but I think for what it is, that bracelet that it comes on is almost perfect. It's aesthetically pleasing.
Andrew Yeah. It does look good for being as cheap as it is. And I did very little damage to it when I was resizing it, save for the links that I did remove. Those are, those are lost. I didn't even save them. Those are in the garbage.
Everett Well, uh, I love it. Um, I think between the black versions and the silver versions that you see most often, um, I probably slightly prefer the silver version that you picked up, but I don't, I don't think you could go wrong with either one. I know, I know this gets called, called the bond. Casino Royale. The Casino Royale, that's right. Is that?
Andrew It is a tribute to a similar watch that is no longer in production and is, uh, when it, when they do come up is, is quite expensive.
Everett Also a Casio?
Andrew I don't recall.
Everett Okay. This is something we should know as hosts of your favorite watch podcast, but we don't, so.
Andrew Yeah. Sue us. Yeah. Or don't, maybe don't do that one. Don't sue us, please. Yeah. But I mean, a cool watch for what's it on Amazon at $14.45 in the black. $15 bucks, man. Cripes. Yeah. I mean, it says 10-year battery on it too. It does. Right at the bottom, right below your readout, it says 10-year battery. On the top of it, it's got world time and on the bottom, it's got illuminator.
Everett I'm going to say that's a stupid thing to put on your dial, but to the extent that that's an actual feature, I'm stoked about it.
Andrew Yeah, we'll see. We'll see if in 10 years it's still kicking.
Everett So episode 500 something, 500, 525.
Andrew All right.
Everett Yeah. I love it, man. Really cool watch.
Andrew Um, it's getting a lot of wear and, and the cool thing about this is as quirky as it is in the silver, it, it will work in almost any environment I can,
Everett I can wear it in. I think so. Yeah, I think so. I don't know that you're you're ever going to feel weird in that watch. It is a little bit. It is a little bit of a throwback. The design is so I think you've got it. You know, if someone is noticing your watch, they're going to notice that you're doing something with your watch, right?
Andrew Yeah. In the way of digital watches, it's it's probably one of your most dress up able. Yeah, no, I don't digital that are available on the market.
Everett You know, I'll be curious to see how it how it wears because I those painted resin cases I'm a little bit apprehensive about how it wears after sustaining a little bit of abuse How long did you have your f91w before you marred the case on that thing? 16 minutes I mean, they're ultra soft. It's a resin case and that painted silver is just going to wear over time. I mean, every time you put it in your pocket, you're going to take off a micron or two of paint.
Andrew I marred mine setting it down against a towel on my tabletop to press the pin through. Yeah. And I sent you a picture of it and you zoomed in. You said, damage? I was like, yeah, apparently so. And on a towel against the table to extract the, the pin.
Everett You really got to get some nicer towels. You should check out the options from Kirkland. Yeah.
Andrew Apparently I have Walmart towels. They're so comfy, but they're terrible for watches. Evidently. Yeah.
Everett All right. I think, is that it? That's all of our digital watches? That's yeah. That's everything that I have on my, uh, my, my Safari window here.
Andrew So I guess we'll jump right into our other things. I've been on an audio book kick because I spend so much time driving. and I've exhausted the inventory of all the podcasts that I like to listen to. Isn't that the worst when you run out of podcasts? It is. So now what I like about audiobooks is one, they last for a while, and two, it gives my podcast time to backlog. So I can watch, I can listen to two or three, because that's how I like to do it. I don't like to listen to just one podcast a week. I like to listen to someone talk for my whole day. Anyway, a book I just listened to Blitzed drugs in the third reich by norman oehler Published in 2017 and what it it is the story of Kind of 1920s to end of world war ii Drug culture inside germany and then with a special focus on drug culture inside the third reich and then with a special focus on Adolf hitler's use of drugs or other chemical substances throughout the course of his rise to holding and then loss of power inside Germany. And it was it was fascinating because I was always somewhat aware of the of the chemical induced or not the chemical induced, but the the intoxication of German soldiers during the Blitzkrieg. During the course of the war that was always something that was kind of kind of kicking around in my brain But this book exposed the full extent of not maybe not even the full extent but it offered a great view on just how pervasive the use of uppers were as a culture throughout the the Wehrmacht or the Wehrmacht and Then the the high chancellory And what it comes down to is that Hitler was on like one of the most horrifying drug cocktails I've ever heard of. Hitler himself. Yeah, himself from through his personal doctor. And it started out with just vitamin injections and then moved up to vitamin injections and opiate injection or maybe not opiates, but but all kinds of drug injections. And going back a little bit. Like amphetamines, right? So that was how the Blitzkrieg, when they were planning the operation, they were told Hey, we need a drug that's going to keep you guys up for four days. And the Blitzkrieg was so successful because these tank crews were just hopped up on methamphetamines and could they could just fight and never sleep. They the reason it was successful was because they just just drove like they just they did their thing totally uninhibited by normal human requirements. And then they reached the limits of their advance. And that's how I play Call of Duty, man. Yeah. Just get some Adderall in me and just go. And it was absolutely fascinating to see just the depth of the drug facet of the initial German success of their invasions.
Everett Well, and I know that's a phenomenon that's not unique to the German military or the Nazi German military. It's something I know the United States forces have used over time. It's crazy to think about, uh, the tactical advantage, uh, that can be gained by, by these things that are kind of scary and, uh.
Andrew Of not having to sleep. I mean, they, the, the, the sentiment was drive as far as you can in these four days and then you'll get follow on orders. And they just kept going and going and going because they didn't require rest. They didn't need it. They were just hopped up and good to go. And when they reached to the coasts, they were. They could go no further and they realized that they had just effectively conquered Western Europe because allied forces who were trying to respond to this assault were under this mindset, it was like, you can only travel so far in a day. You can only travel so far in two days. And one of the stories they talked about was, um, this panzer division coming upon two or three bivouacked, uh, French and British infantry divisions. And they just drove on through because they expected them two days later. So they were just totally caught by surprise by the speed at which these tank divisions were able to travel across the countryside because they weren't sleeping. They were just moving. Crazy. And then it goes into Hitler's own drug addiction, ultimately, that led to his health decline and ultimate suicide.
Everett You know, I don't have a ton of experience with with uppers, I'll just leave it at that. But, you know, I think that that sounds like just a crazy way to live. And I know we do things for the purpose of military endeavors. But yeah, interesting. I'll have to check it out.
Andrew I haven't read it. Yeah, absolutely get into it because it also talks about German drug culture preceding World War Two, where Germany was the number one consumer and exporter of all of these designer drugs that were being used throughout the entire culture. Uh, everyone was using them.
Everett Well, and even today, Germany, uh, Germany and, and, you know, I think of Germany, Austria, Switzerland as, as this sort of big group. But even today, a lot of pharmaceuticals are coming out of that region. So cool.
Andrew Yeah. Read it. It's worth it. I think it's 15 bucks on audible or use your next month credit for it. I love it.
Everett I love it. Yeah. So I'll just, uh, really briefly talk about my, uh, other things I've been into this week. There's a YouTube channel that I follow called This Old Tony. The subject matter of This Old Tony is really not all that interesting if I were to tell you what it's about. He's a machinist. I think perhaps an engineer who does machining, metal making things in his workshop. And he makes these YouTube videos about If you looked at the list of the things this old Tony does, they're not going to be interesting. He makes metal vices and clamps and machining apparatus. And it's just on paper, not interesting at all. But this guy is so hilarious and funny and interesting. And his videos are really tongue in cheek and entertaining. So my mom is a very typical mom, someone who appreciates funny things, but is not into machining. You know, she's not doing machining, right? But I sent her occasionally these old Tony videos, and she's very entertained. She's entertained by them. We've talked about him. His delivery is really tongue-in-cheek. Everything he does is funny. His transitions are hilarious. He throws in sort of gags that make this really sterile and technical subject matter interesting to a layperson, I have almost no interest in machining. I have almost no interest in the processes and the things you need to do to machine, but within that, within that context, I watch these videos and I'm consistently entertained by them, and you know, us being watch people, I think, are naturally inclined to know about these processes, but If you look at his list of videos, it's hard to see, you know, which one am I going to want to watch or which one am I going to be interested in? He's recently, uh, made a set. He's part of the way through a set of videos on using CNC, like doing a DIY CNC setup. And he starts with, uh, um, what do you call the magnet drawing machine? I don't. Etch-a-Sketch. Yep. He starts with a, you know, he he's using an Etch-a-Sketch. as the foundational principle. So how do I make a CNC machine that can draw on an Etch-a-Sketch? And really, an Etch-a-Sketch does the same thing. Most CNC type machine, an Etch-a-Sketch does most of the same things that a CNC mechanism will do. It's got an x-axis, it's got a y-axis, you turn it. And so he's made this, or designed and engineered this CNC device. So he's walking you through how to do it. It's fascinating and it's interesting and his presentation is so good that even if you have zero interest in the subject matter, you'd find the processes and his delivery fun and entertaining. I'm not going to say that you're going to maybe learn anything on a day to day basis that's going to change your life, but it's entertaining. It's entertaining in a way that me, as someone who doesn't care about this stuff, loves. So this old Tony, we'll put a link in the show notes like we do for everything. Check it out.
Andrew It's so weird. I know, I'm spending the rest of my day.
Everett Yeah, check it out. I mean, you'll love it. You'll love it. It's right up your alley because it is funny. He does, you know, like I said, gags and the way he puts this information out is really digestible and fun. I like it. Yeah. One of the things he did that you might find interesting is he made a brass knuckle shop blower, you know, shop duster. with, um, with Jimmy DiResta, who is this YouTube personality who, who does a similar thing makes, uh, he just makes things. He's a maker. Jimmy DiResta, I think is probably the, one of the most popular makers on YouTube and he's turned his YouTube channel into this, I don't know, international phenomenon, but yeah. That's another good thing to like. Yeah. Also Jimmy DiResta, we haven't talked about him. If you haven't checked out Jimmy DiResta, do it.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Cool. I got nothing else. I got nothing else, man. 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. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative comments by attribution 3.01.