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Episode 22 - Watch Modding With AJ Barse

Published on Thu, 28 Mar 2019 18:23:00 -0700

Synopsis

This is a podcast episode where the hosts discuss watch modding, their experiences with modifying watches, and various vendors that offer aftermarket parts for popular models like the Seiko SKX. The guest host AJ shares stories about building custom watches, including one for his son. They explore the world of watch modding, covering challenges like working with tiny components, sourcing dials, bezels, and movements, and tools needed for the job. The conversation also touches on recent watch releases and other topics like home improvement YouTube channels.

Transcript

Speaker
Everett Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast with your hosts Everett and a very special guest, AJ Barse, co-host of the Bellingham podcast and creator of the Analog Explorer magazine. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. AJ, how are you?
AJ Barse I'm doing good. How are you doing?
Everett Man, I'm good. It's been a crazy week. I'm flying out of Portland tomorrow. down to Anaheim for a little Disneyland vacay, gonna meet up with the fam down there. So I've been crunching at work to get everything in and make sure that the fires only smolder when I'm gone.
AJ Barse Dude, that's killer though, man. I mean, being able to get out of town and, you know, kick it with the family in the land of the wonderful dreams of Disney. That's awesome, man.
Everett Right. You know, I'm pretty pumped about it, but I'll say when If I were to plan a Disneyland trip, the first thing I would do is I would look up slowest weekends of Disney or best times to go to Disneyland because the difference between a weekend that's a good weekend at Disney is 45 minutes in line versus the weekend before spring break is like an hour and a half in line. It's just a tremendous difference. I didn't have any role in planning this, my wife and her twin brother planned it and I think that they are awesome for for making it happen and getting it going but it's not for me it's not the ideal time to go to Disneyland.
AJ Barse Yeah I feel you there man like yeah but you know it's our wives right like and and unto them we follow.
Everett Yeah and and you know this it's for the kids and they're gonna have a blast no matter what so it's and I'm gonna have a blast no matter what because it's Disneyland and it's freaking fun no matter what but And there's going to be a lot of damn people.
AJ Barse There's going to be a lot of a lot of damn people. But there is a watch hook there because Citizen is now the official timekeeper of Disney.
Everett I heard that. Yeah, I heard that. So what's the deal with that connection?
AJ Barse I have no idea. I just heard it that it happened like this last year. And basically Citizen, like all the clocks are now like powered by Citizen or something like that. I mean, full disclosure, like I've never been to Disneyland or Disney World, which makes my wife just totally go, ah, what do you mean? Like, I've never done it, so I don't know what it was like before, but I just heard that, you know, in the Watch Fam side of things, you know, Citizen, Disney powered by Citizen.
Everett Well, you know, I think it's too bad that you've never been to Disneyland. It's actually pretty fun. You should get down there. Your boy's getting old enough that he's getting there where he's going to be in a good age to go.
AJ Barse Yeah, no, we're planning it, probably in the not too distant future, which will be cool because you know, I'll, I'll be, I'll be a kid again as well. You know, I'll be able to experience Disney.
Everett How old is your boy now?
AJ Barse He's two and a half.
Everett Okay. So you've got a couple of years before he's really going to be able to get the most out of it.
AJ Barse Yeah. But I'm looking forward to it. It'll be cool. It'll be cool also just to see him light up, right? Like, you know, half the fun is like being at Disney. The other half is like, if you're a dad, you get to see them light up at Disney, right? Like that's how I see it.
Everett Yeah, no, totally. I mean, it's, it's about the kids and they just, uh, Light up, I guess that's the phrase you use, and it's as good as any. It's a blast. Yeah. So this will be my kid's second time. They're five and seven now. They were four and five the last time we went, and I'm stoked to see the next sort of iteration of how they consume it.
AJ Barse Right-o.
Everett Yeah. Well, anything neat going on with you in your life?
AJ Barse Just like you, just work, work, work and more work. I've got a couple of projects I've been working on, client projects. So I've been doing a lot of different photo shoots around town. You know, I also have a project that came across my desk, watch related, which I think we'll talk about in a little bit. But, you know, just keeping tinkering and kind of keeping trying to, I'm trying to go with the season, right? Like here in the Pacific Northwest, our winter has just been like brutal with a capital B. And then finally this last week, spring got here. And so, you know, camera in hand, I'm trying to get out and about as much as I can, but you know, trying to get into the vitamin D kind of get the happy, happy vibes and, uh, kind of just keep moving forward.
Everett Right. You know, sometimes it's, uh, sometimes that, uh, you know, one foot in front of another is, is, all you can do. Right. You know that if you just keep biting, you know, taking bites at the elephant, it's going to get gone eventually.
AJ Barse But yeah. Yeah. No, it's just I just like you, man. Like, you know, work, work is work. It's you know, it's cool. But no, like all the all the fun stuff in my life is kind of like the side projects, you know, Bellingham podcast. We're on a five part miniseries for the watch fam.
Everett And, uh, actually I'll give, well, let's, let's talk about it. I mean, this is a good time as any, I I'd like to talk to, you know, I've, I've been keeping up. I've been keeping up with you. Um, and you know, as you release those, those new episodes, you know, why don't you tell us what it is? Yeah.
AJ Barse Um, yeah. So the, so the belly and podcast typically we're a variety show. So, um, it's our hook is, uh, we bring you the news and views of the city of subdued excitement. And, uh, myself and Chris Powell, we run the show and we've been doing it for, um, as you just reminded me before we lift the mics off, uh, this is our third year. And, uh, as such, once you've done, you know, over a hundred episodes, you start to kind of realize like, Hey, we need to kind of branch out a little bit because as a creator, right, you want to do something a little bit different just so that your creative chops kind of keep being, you know, sharp. And so I had this idea of doing a watch fam, um, series. but I wanted to kind of do it a little bit different. I didn't want it to be just a normal, you know, episode where it's discussion or anything. I kind of wanted to weave it into a kind of a theme. And the theme is why watches? Um, because if you talk to anybody in the watch fam, that simple question, sit down, grab a couple of pints or a cup of coffee and you can talk for, well, we've been talking on, on the mic for at least 30 minutes and, You know, we just have the gift of gab when that question gets brought up. We'll talk about our origin story. We'll talk about our fathers, our mothers or whatever that led us into watches. And it's always different. And so I kind of wanted to capture that and put it into kind of our type of routine because on our show, we kind of take a different track with most of our episodes because we're both a podcast and we're also over the air. We broadcast two slots on our local KMRE 102.3 FM here in Bellingham.
Everett Right. So no fuck word.
AJ Barse Yeah. Yeah. So like hearing that, like immediately I'm just like, oh shit, I can't say that. But wait, here I can. This is great. It's almost cathartic.
Everett I think it's hilarious that Chris refuses to say shiznit.
AJ Barse I know that's a long standing joke. um he takes he takes rules very seriously and then it's like dude shiznit shiznit is the word a like that you can say that he won't he refuses to it's it's it's endearing but uh but no man like we uh so anyway we we kind of came across this idea and chris being a unicorn he's a one watch guy um he was just like dude like i'm out like there's i have one watch you modded it i'm out like there's there's not much more discussion that can come from it. So I kind of ran with this different idea of inviting different people from the watch fam that I've either connected with or I've been following for a while and kind of bring them into different elements of that concept of why watches. So we had Dan who's a part of the British military. Um, that was the first episode. Second episode was Dan.
Everett That's uh, what at Dan C 21 C Y 21 C Y. That's right. And so, you know, those, Those of you who are listening may know him from, he was on, I think two broke watch snobs, kind of early on talking to them about military watches. And then, uh, and then, you know, I'll say when we did our field watch episode, he reached out, I made kind of a big boo-boo in the episode. And I can't remember what it was. I think I'd referred to. Well, I can't remember now what the error was, but he, you know, he sent me a message on Instagram and basically talked me through the mistake I'd made. And it was really just a vernacular mistake, but it was pretty major. And, you know, he just talked it through and he's just got this really sort of generous soul when it comes to the information he possesses. And he has, he possesses so much information. It's crazy. And, you know, seeing him on Instagram, he looks like a pretty young dude. Yeah. And he sounds pretty young, too. I don't know how old he is, but I can't imagine he's he's much older than than 26, 27.
AJ Barse Yeah. No, he's no, he is the goods. And yeah, like he's he's avid in the watch fam. He's he's active in military and military watches and stuff. And no, he's just an all around good guy. And so and we've like I said on that episode, like Um, and a lot of us in the watch family, we, we make these connections and so often it's never like face to face or voice to voice. It's always like through DM or, you know, and so, you know, like Dan and I, we've been talking on and off for, I don't know, probably a year or two. And you know, and he's also like, he's also chimed in on the show cause we, on our show, we have like a voicemail box that you can leave messages or, or stuff like that. So we've had them like on the show, but I've never actually talked to him until that, that, that interview. And seriously, like it was just like we sat down and even though we're, you know, yeah, I think he's GMT from us. So like, you know, the, the time difference is eight hours. So we just both had a cup of tea and just had a conversation as if we were, you know, here in the Pacific Northwest talking about watches and stuff. And it was great. So we had that. Um, I talked to Terry from toxic NATO's, um, and he's always the goods.
Everett um eric from ea8 uh for the ea uh ea leather goods who does watch straps and any all things all things leather and you know that that guy is so freaking cool one of the things you talked to him about is when you were modding i can't remember what you were modding um but you you were struggling with some internal movement part that had slipped out as you as you were making a move and he reached out to you and was just super generous with his information yeah and and i've had that experience with him too you know um doing leather work, I'm sort of a on the side leather guy. I think kind of probably more the way you do on the side leather work than the way he does on the side leather work. Yeah. But I make straps. I've even sold a couple straps, but it's not something that I dedicate any portion of my week to. But just having sort of little questions come up or whatever, He's such a great resource. He's just willing to talk about it. And you would mention his story clips when he's making a strap. He plugs those story clips in and it's like, gosh darn, this guy is providing such a service without any request for compensation. And he makes awesome straps.
AJ Barse He does, he does. Chris and I both have them and they're killer. You look at it and you're like, why would you go anywhere else to buy a, you know, uh, something that was handcrafted, uh, made in America. And like, you know, the dude that made it, like if this was not imported from somewhere or anything like that, like, you know, you literally interfaced with the guy that created it for you and your watch. Like you look at that and it's like, for what he's charging, you're just like, Holy hell. Like, hell yes. Take my money. Like, you know, I just, it's,
Everett And yeah, he's great, you know, and, um, Well, you know, he's not, I mean, he really, he's not charging enough. It kind of broke my heart to hear him say he spent seven hours and then charges 65 bucks. And I know it's a labor of love, but it seems like there's a sustainability issue there. Um, you know, he, at some point you either have to, to gain some efficiencies or you have to figure out a way to charge a little bit more because, because at some point you're going to say, gosh, this isn't worth. this isn't worth the $8 an hour or whatever it is I'm billing today, and then it's not worth it tomorrow, and you know, I think that that's, you know, to each his own, and certainly I'm not judging him, but it seemed to me like that's a little worrisome. He's charging 65 bucks, which is a fantastic price for a strap, but those things are worth so much more.
AJ Barse You can't put a price tag on that. It's just, it's being appreciated for the work as opposed to just being paid for the work. And that's my two cents.
Everett I'd admit that I do a podcast every week for free.
AJ Barse Yeah, same here.
Everett You know, so the truth is we do that and we all have that sort of in us. And so, you know, like I said, certainly no criticism, Eric, on that point, but it sort of makes me sad to think that he's putting this work in and being undercompensated, but I realized that that misses a huge portion of the of the point. Yeah. Well, all right. You know, I think we had sort of talked about a theme for today's show. And then I messaged you earlier and said, gosh, I'm kind of waffling because you're doing so much cool stuff that I kind of want to talk about. But, you know, we're actually pretty good on time. And I think that if you'd be so inclined, we might talk a little bit about watch modding.
AJ Barse OK. Yeah, I would be so inclined.
Everett All right. So I know you have done modding in the past, and I know you've written about modding. Yeah. You've made pieces for your co-host, Chris, and I think you've made a piece for your son, and I assume you've made pieces for yourself as well. Yeah. I mean, what's your favorite piece that you've ever modded for AJ?
AJ Barse For me? So, I don't know, for me, it's always about what I call the PNW-001, which is the original piece that I'm you know, I I wear but it's actually intended for my son when he's older and I mean, obviously you have a copy of the analog Explorer so that you know a little bit of the backstory, but basically I have a sign Yes, you you you did you you've got a free ordered version No, so the whole the whole story behind that was When basically when when my my wife announced to us that we were pregnant rewind maybe like a couple of months earlier because she was kind of, we knew that we're going to start a family and stuff. And so we have the, you know, the talk that most couples have. And she asked me, you know, cause I've been into watches and stuff. And she always asked like, when, when would you want to get like a Swiss watch, a nice Swiss watch? And I go, you know, hun, I, you know, if we, if, if I became a dad or I got like an Uber promotion or something, like I would have to be monumental. I'd want it to represent something, not just be another watch. And she goes, okay, cool, cool. So fast forward, um, Christmas time rolls around and we're about ready to take off on the road. Uh, kind of do the grand tour to the families, you know what I'm saying? And, um, she, uh, she wanted to open, wanted me to open up one of the presents early and I was like, sure, whatever I'm packing. Right. I'm like, ah, I'm going to see the in-laws soon. You know? So I thought she was doing that to make me chip her up. Right. And, uh, so she, she handed me this envelope and I opened it up and it was a gift certificate for, any Swiss watch of my choosing in parentheses, as long as it's not the same cost as the mortgage. And I look at this, I go, yeah, I know, honey, eventually, whatever. And she goes, right. You know, when, when would you want to pick one out? And I go, well, it'd have to be something monuments. Like if we, are we pregnant? Like, she's like, yeah, we are. And I'm like, and so like, I'm like, what? Of course. Right. I'd kind of lose my, I lose my shit. Right. And so anyway, from there, like, of course, I started the hunt, right? And basically I could have picked anything.
Everett We talk about the hunt on 40 and 20.
AJ Barse Yeah. So the hunt, right? So I started diving into what I wanted. I looked everything from Seamaster to Speedmaster to Rolex, because the sky was basically the limit. You know, it's the one, the one and only shot. Right. And I finally narrowed it down to what I, at the time, I thought was kind of a little bit more subdued brand, Frédéric Constant. And, uh, before they got acquired and, um, they have the series called the, the runabout additions where, um, they're the Riva edition where they, um, they actually are the official timekeepers of the Riva society, which are the wooden Italian boats, like, uh, the Italian job, you know, the cool or the James Bond, right. If they're in Venice though, the wooden teak style, uh, racing boats.
Everett Sure.
AJ Barse And so I'm half Italian and I was like, there's the tie right there for me. And they have this addition called the moon. There was an addition that they did was a moon phase. So the reference is an FC 330, which is the Frederic Constant 330 movement, which is an SW 200, which that'll be important here in a second, with a in-house made moon phase module they put over the top of it. So it's a modded movement. And I was like, dude, I like that concept. It's, you know, Swiss movement, base caliber, and then they do an in-house module over the top. Cool. Moon phase, even better. Pointer date, even better. And it's also water resistant, 100 meters, screw down crown, and it's a luxury watch. And it's more of a dress watch, but it, it kind of spoke to both worlds that I thought I would be straddling as a dad, right? I need it to be robust, but, you know, stylish type of thing.
Everett And so I, I'm looking at it now. It's, I mean, it's, it's a stunning watch. I like the, the numerals transition at nine o'clock. Oh, there's that outer sort of that inner, um, that inner bezel or that chapter ring with the numerals that switch. I mean, it's just super duper class.
AJ Barse Yeah. So the, yeah, so it is, it's super classic white dial with kind of a gucci, um, um, effect on the top. So that's the FC three 30. And then RM for runabout moon phase. I, that's the other thing I liked about very constant, like they're, they're like some reference numbers just don't make sense. And theirs is just very logical. So it's like, okay, you got the caliber. Cool. You got what it is. RM runabout moon phase. And then mine's the six B six, which is the, cause they only do it. It's limited edition. It's less than 1900 pieces made. And I like that aspect as well, because you know, you're only a dad, you know, your firstborn child once, right? So anyway, so I, I, I had to hunt for it because it was discontinued or even sold out. Of course, went on the gray market, found one, got it. Awesome. And as I'm wearing, I wore that thing everywhere. I wore it. Um, some of the hardest shoots, like I, I, there's a picture of me, um, shooting a wedding on the top of a sailboat. And if you look that watches on my wrist, like I went everywhere with it. And so nine months later, obviously baby is about due. And I started thinking to myself, you know, man, like I liked knowing my dad's watch. Like I lust after my dad's watch. Um, I won't probably ever get that watch until he dies. Like he has one watch. Um, and so like for me, like I thought the Frederic Constant would kind of be that, but I was like, you know, when he gets older, man, I'm going to be like my dad, I'm not going to give him my watch. If I'm alive, I'm going to wear the crap out of it. And so that made me think like, I want to make a watch for my, my unborn son. And so, that got me thinking, you know, I asked myself, self, how hard could it be to make a watch? The answer is, it's really hard. Right. So, I, you know, got some books, did some reading, and did some digging. And I really liked the SW200, or so I thought, in my Federico Constant. So, I was like, well, cool, I should be able to find that movement. you know I'm a professional technologist by day. So I'm, I'm used to sourcing parts and you know, off the shelf parts and building any type of technology. And so I sourced an SW 200 out of Switzerland, imported it in. Cool. Found a case. I was, it was a kind of a black Bay knockoff style case cause I wanted to start with an homage so I could kind of figure out how things go together. So I could look at a picture and see what, how one looks and you know, I figured I could get some hands, a dial, slap it all together and boom, it'll tick and work, right? Wrong. You learn quickly about like, oh, hands actually have like, um, the size of hand for the whole specific to a movement, the actual indexing, how long it is, like hands come in different lengths and right.
Everett And if you get too short of hands on there, it sticks out. Everybody on Reddit says, Oh, the hands are too short.
AJ Barse Right. So like, I'm, I'm learning all of this thing. And meanwhile, baby is almost due. Right. So I get it all put together and, um, I got it on wrist and worked with a local leather maker. Um, cause I wanted to even make the leather strap. I was going to go all out. Like this is a watch I made. Right. And get it on wrist and it worked. It didn't work great. It was out of regulation. Like I needed a lot of love later. But I had it on wrist and literally dude, like that prototype. And I mean, as a prototype, like it worked, it functioned, it was on wrist. My wife never knew what a diving bezel would be ever good for in the real world. And now she sings a completely different tune to any dive watch. She loves anything with a bezel because it timed her contractions. And that thing basically saved her a lot of mental agony because I literally can go, okay, like, You know, you only got a couple more seconds and then you'll have a break. And she would just hear that click, click, click, click, click. And that meant that she was good for a little bit. And you know, that tool watch served its purpose. It was a tool. So baby was born, you know, 10 fingers, 10 toes, two heartbeats. We were good. And so anyway, of course, in the delusion of being a new dad, I was like, you know, he's, he's down. Mom's getting some sleep. I'll start finishing up this watch. Big mistake. And so I had... Newsflash, new dads, if you ever go into tinkering, don't do it in the first six months of a baby being born. You do not have the mindset I'm telling you right now. So I decided to get out my tools. And one of the things I wanted to do is I was learning about waterproofing, like what makes a watch waterproof. And I was reading about Rolex and the Triplock crown system and So I'd gotten an aftermarket Rolex crown and tube, and I was going to re-tap the case, cutting new threads into the 316L case that I got, and also reseat the crystal because, oh by the way, if you ever get an homage case, pop that crystal off and make sure there's a gasket because a lot of these Asian-built ones, there's no gasket. Waterproof is a joke. Yeah, it's a joke. So I was learning about waterproofing and I was like, okay, I'm going to re-tap this case. So I got a tap and started cutting it. And there was this one point where I could feel the threads and it was perfect. I could put my tube in, everything was great, dude. And then that lizard brain kicks in where you're just like, you know, you could put maybe one more thread in there and it'd be even better. And of course, like as a delusional new dad, I'm like, sure. So what do I do? I set my tap up again and I take it to just that one, that one quarter twist because I thought in my brain it would be just that much better. And literally the tap, which is a carbon hardened, I get, this is a hard thing of it as a drill pit, but a drill bit, but harder and like high speed steel. Yeah. Yeah. I sheared it into the case. and it fused into the hole because I'm cutting threads. What else is it going to do? And there that case sits at the bottom of my parts bin because to this day, to this day, because I can't, I can't get it out unless I drill the entire case out. But the reason why I share that part of the story is, is that like after that I was decimated. Here is, here's the watch that I had originally built in my mind. I thought it was, even though it was rough, I thought it was perfect, right? It was, I timed my son's contractions, like whole nine yards. And I didn't touch watch modding or watches for probably another six months after that. Cause I was devastated.
Everett Right. That'll lock you up.
AJ Barse Yeah. And I finally came to my realization, like, you know, I didn't wreck the watch. Um, I still have the memories. Like I was, I was, I was torn. The fact that the memories that I had was tied to that piece of metal and it's not, I have the memories. And I kind of, you know, Marie condoed it, thanked it for its service and like realized like it kind of led me to like, Hey, let me, let me do this again. Now that I've learned things and I've gotten better tools, now let's start really doing something. And so that led me to the second prototype where I got a new old stock case for, um, Um, the watch and come to find out casing diameters are important. Uh, when you pick movements, not all movements fit in every case, even if, um, on eBay, they say that it fits into 28, 24, they lie. And so I got, I got a new old stock, uh, skin divers case and a 28, 24 will not fit in it. Well, it will if it didn't have the automatic rotor on the bottom, because it was meant for a hand wind movement. Didn't know that new lesson learned. So third iteration, and that's the iteration that currently is in my watch box. And that's, um, I got a, another Asian built case, but well-built it's, um, kind of a Seamaster inspired watch, uh, watch case with the twisted lugs. It's, um, about 41 and a half millimeters in diameter, black kind of Seamaster bezel. And that was the case. It actually does have gasketing. I should know. And, um, you know, I think I, I think I've rated it at about a hundred meters of water resistance, which is fine. It's good for bathtime. It's good for dad life. And I got a dial out of Germany. Um, and I got hands out of, uh, Austin, Texas. There was a, uh, a watchmaker down there that had the handset that I was looking for. And I got another SW 200 movement being in my existence and I got it in, got everything encased. And this is the part where everybody goes, Oh, So I got the crown, I got the tube, I got everything lined up and I slide it in and that crown and stem slides completely right out because I learned about this thing called the keyless. And that's the thing that allows for the castle and crown gears to engage that you can set time so you can wind it, that whole thing. And I'm just devastated again. I'm like, how, how is it I got this far and I've, I've blown it again. So I go up to any, the only place that I knew that I could at least get answers. And instead I got support. And that's how I met some of these people that are on, that I brought onto the show. I'm like, yeah, eight and Terry, you know buying on time and you know, all these guys jumped in and just like, dude, just hang in there. Like it's happened to all of us. The key list is the bane of all our, all of our existence, you know, and the SW two hundreds, especially the worst, you know, just pull it apart, you know, reset it, put the dial back on and you'll get it. And, you know, that's what I ended up having to do several times. And even to this day, it's a little bit, it's a little bit slick. Sometimes it'll disengage, but I can just kind of wiggle it just right. Cause I know every bit of that watch inside and out. And that's, that's the story of that. That that's the, the mod and build that I'm the most proud of, even though it's not perfect, kind of like the first one wasn't perfect. but it's it was my gateway drug because at the end of the day like it all adds to the story of that one watch if it wasn't for that first homage that i blew up and then the second one that well doesn't fit i wouldn't have the third one that i'm so proud of now did you wind up actually getting into the movement taking off yeah movement parts i mean that is that's next level right yeah you know i think when when most people think about modding uh and myself included
Everett We think about, you know, perhaps a bezel or a bezel insert. You know, we think about maybe if we're feeling ambitious, hands or dial. But doing, you know, and I think sort of the pinnacle of the average modder would be to, you know, Eric of EA8 was talking on your segment about He swaps out all the 7S26s for the NH36. And I think that's such a, I think that's, you know, the 4R movement, you know, which is essentially 7S with hacking and handwinding. But I think that's sort of the pinnacle of modding for most folks, you know. Stuff beyond that, I think, by and large, is next level. You go beyond watch modding to watch making, I think, at that point.
AJ Barse I always say on our show, I'm not a watchmaker, nor do I play one on podcast. Um, but I tinker like that. The thing is, is I wanted, I I'm one of those guys where it's like, once I get something in my head, I've, even though I might sink several hundred bucks in it. And in the case of the first prototype, I totally sank a couple hundred bucks in that thing. And, but I gotta see it through. Like if I start, I got, I gotta get to the end.
Everett And how many of your hobbies have started with a desire not to spend money on something and ended with you spending five or six times that amount of money?
AJ Barse All of them. Right. All of them. Motorcycling.
Everett I mean, it's. We talk about this. Andrew and I talk about this quite a bit. You know, we don't talk about on the show all that often, although we have. But, you know, for me and I know the same as for you and Eric talked about this, too, like the reason that all of us got into leatherworking was because we wanted, we didn't want to spend a hundred bucks on some item when it's really just, it's really just a fairly easy to obtain textile that's been glued and sewn together. Well, I can do that. I can put a hundred stitches into two pieces of leather and the rest of it's just sort of practice and being careful and And the reality is, you know, I know you and I have sort of exchanged wallet pictures. Yeah. You know, we're making wallets and we've exchanged strap pictures and I can do this. And the reality is we can do it. Yeah. You've got to do it, which sometimes is more effort than some people are willing to put in. But if you have the effort, you can do it. But the problem is the goal, the sort of internal mental struggle is almost never achieved, which is to save money. Tying flies, I've tied my own flies for years and occasionally I'll buy a fly if I want a specific fly or something with two hooks or maybe something with a tail on it. I realize I don't want to get into it, but by and large, I will just tie. You know, if I need some healthcare caddis, I can make 10 of them for free in maybe an hour and that's 30 bucks. But what that doesn't include is the $700 worth of hackle that I have in a toolbox in my garage.
AJ Barse It's totally true. But like at the end of it, yeah, you may have spent $700 on that damn fly, but at the end of the day, like you're still proud as hell that you made that fly. Like it's the same bit that I was saying earlier. Like there's something about when you see something and either somebody makes it for you and you know who and how it was made either for you or you spend the time and you do it. And for me, like me, I get to blame my, my pops. Um, my dad growing up, um, he's a master builder, like, I was not one of those kids that if you ever said, Hey dad, I'm bored that, you know, that you'd say, you know, shoot, get away from the kid. You bother me. My dad would be like, Oh, you're bored. Cool. Go grab a hammer. Go get some, some wood out of the barn. We're going to be building. And then whatever he had in his brain. So I dare not say the B word of being bored.
Everett Um, and even if I wasn't on today, we're making a antique.
AJ Barse Seriously. No more. It was more like actually we're going to be building because you did large construction. So it's like, we're building a balcony this weekend, you know, but and it's cantilevered good luck actually that's exactly what it was it was cantilevered um but no like here's the thing is like growing up what i didn't realize at the time because i thought it was lame my dad's making me work right um my dad basically forced me anything in my life if you look at it do you like it build it that was that was it if you can see it some other person had to do it had to make it so ask yourself how was it made and how can you do it and that led me to much of what i do in my life like if i see something know i can do it i just i can do that yeah it may not look i can do that it may not look the greatest for the first stab or you may drive a tap right through that 316 else case but you learned a little bit more that you didn't know at the beginning um so anyway like that's and and it makes you and it makes you round right yeah and i don't and i don't mean round around the belly i mean dude dad bod dad bod dude dad bod right right uh and because it maybe does contribute to that but
Everett It creates, you know, this sort of ability, you know, people call, you know, oh, you're a jack of all trades, or you're a renaissance man, or whatever. Well, I don't think those things are true, you know, and I don't think it's pejorative, and I think it's meant as a compliment, but I really just think this desire to sort of learn, learning this, what, skill set acquisition syndrome, I think is sort of what I might call it. I like that. It does not make me better at things that are practical in my life, but having the skills generally makes me better able to tackle problems, gives me the ability to, you know, and I think the biggest thing is it makes me not scared of anything. I'm not scared of getting into a project, and certainly sometimes I can be, but by and large, it's like, well, I already know the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing that can happen is I fuck it up and I have to get someone to fix it. Right. And that's okay. I mean, having that ability to know that that's okay, you know, lots of people have fixed their dryers. And in fact, all of our dads fixed their dryers, all of them, because you fixed a dryer, you didn't replace a dryer, you fixed a dryer. And so a couple of years ago, our dryer broke and I had to get screwdrivers and little wrenches and take it apart and figure out what was wrong with it. And, you know, we're better equipped to now than our dads were because we have fucking Google and YouTube. That's right. I mean, they didn't, my dad didn't have that and he always fixed the washer and he did it. You know, he figured it out. I don't know how the fuck he did it, but he always did it. And so this, I had this fear at first, you know, like, gosh, I don't think I'm going to be able to do this. And then I was like, what, what could go wrong? That what, what is the risk in trying? Because I got right now, I got a broken dryer, AJ. And if I don't, If I don't do anything, it's going to continue to be broken until I spend a thousand bucks to get a new dryer. And, and so I fixed my dryer, uh, you know, and it's an older dryer. It doesn't have a computer or anything. And so it was all mechanical, but it was such that it was just this proud moment, you know, and I think the reason I was proud is not because I had done something. Cause I do things all the time. It was because I had done something that my dad had done that amazed me as a child, you know, watching my dad, you know, with his, with his butt crack hanging out and You know, sweating and cursing.
AJ Barse Lots of cursing. Lots of cursing.
Everett You know, it was so impressive to me, you know, not because it was graceful in any particular way, but just because it was this feat of, you know, man versus machine and him coming out on top every fucking time. And that was always, you know, this sense of, I always had this sense of sort of amazement Yeah, you know, he's not good at it. I can tell he's not good at it because the amount of curse words. But he did it anyway, you know. And so I had this like sense of pride, you know, like, here's this thing that amazed me as a kid that I've done now. I've fixed the dryer. And it was a complicated thing. And I did it. Yeah, you know, so.
AJ Barse Totally. No, yeah, I can totally, I totally empathize with that man. Like, and to answer your question, how did our dads do it before the internet? Because dads know everything. True story.
Everett Well, you know, and I think my kids think that about me. Yeah. And you know, and I know it's not true. And certainly my dad knew it wasn't true. Right. Um, but, but right. There is that, there is that thing dads have dads have this ability to know the things that they're supposed to know and to accomplish the tasks that they're supposed to accomplish. And that is universal, right? No matter how, no matter how ridiculous or false it is. No, totally. But it's it's it's it's tangibly true.
AJ Barse It's tangibly true. And it's it's repeatedly true. But but no. So like, yeah, like that. That's kind of how I. Yeah. So getting back to your question, like, yeah, no, I totally deep dive into the movement. And at first, you're right. I was totally petrified because I didn't know what this keyless thing was. And so I And I was dumb. I did not consult, uh, the Google as far as I should have. I just knew that, Hey, everything is pretty much through the rotor. So I can just, you know, undo the rotor and go to this thing called a base plate. Cool. Not realizing that on the SW 200, the key list is on the dial side. So I disassembled like, you know, I just took every little screw out and organized it so I could go backwards. And I started getting farther and farther. And then I lose a click spring. I had to go order a replacement part because that's the benefit of mechanical watches. You can get replacement parts. Right. Longboat from Switzerland, just saying. And so I got a click spring and lost the second one because those things are small. Did I mention how small this stuff is? And so ordered like five more from Esslinger. Like, you know, you go through the process. And yes, I totally wrecked this project several times. But out of it, like, I can, I feel comfortable working on at least the SW 200 so much so that I will not work on an SW 200 ever again. Like it's not worth it to me, but what I will work on is Seiko. Um, out of it, like I have a whole new appreciation for just the watches that I kind of glom onto because, because I've kind of, I don't know, like I've been able to take apart the inside of like, um, I'm a geek. So everything is to me is like the heart of the Tardis. Like, I'm a Doctor Who fan, okay? David Tennant for the win. But like, I've been inside the TARDIS not just as the Doctor, but actually seeing the heart of the TARDIS, pulling apart the actual movement.
Everett And for me, like, I don't... Are you allowed to say TARDIS on the radio?
AJ Barse TARDIS is totally cool! TARDIS is an acronym. Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Duh!
Everett It just sounds like a dirty word to me.
AJ Barse Only if you say it like in a dirty way, like TARDIS. Are you showing your TARDIS? Yeah, like, no, no, none of that. But anyway, so like, I look at things and I go, you know, I can appreciate in-house movement. I can appreciate a lot of things, but I don't have that pedestal look at certain watches.
Everett Yeah, fuck that. Right? Fuck that. Hey, you know what? Look, so if you want to buy a luxury car, right? Most people are going to think BMW, Mercedes, and you know, there's a few other brands that sort of come into the mind. But I'll tell you, I drive a 25-year-old Lexus. Awesome. And Lexus is made by Toyota.
AJ Barse Which is also awesome.
Everett And it's Japanese to its very core. And I will get more miles out of that. I've already got more miles out of that Lexus, not me personally. But the vehicle has already gotten more miles than, you know, most people get out of their S-Class, right? Because at 150,000 miles, S-Classes literally start falling apart. They start falling apart. And, you know, when I was buying that car, and I may have talked about this on the show a couple times, I looked at Mercedes, you know, and Mercedes is the, you know, say, you know, perhaps it's the Rolex of the car world.
AJ Barse It's the creme de la creme. Yeah.
Everett Right. You know, it's this, it's this thing that everybody wants, you know, people rap about, um, that you buy when you get your first job, your first real good job. I mean, it's the same fucking thing, right? You can buy, you can buy old ones and some of the old ones are, are totally affordable and dime a dozen. Cause there was a bunch of them and some of them are incredibly rare and, and without respect to their actual objective value or worth. you know, a million dollars. It's the same fucking thing, but they don't, they don't do the job better than anything else. You know, Seiko is Lexus, right? They've been doing this. They made a whole bunch more of them. They, they did them. They did them right from the very get go. And they just fucking work. They work, they work right. And, and when they stop working, you can fix them because there's a billion of them and the thing that broke wasn't that big of a deal and everybody knows how to fix it.
AJ Barse Yeah. No, I did. Yeah.
Everett Uh, as we say on the show, preach, um, no, the one, the one use the engine is the seven S two, six moves. They're the same. I mean, well, it's all, um, one's better with engineering, right?
AJ Barse But no, like, but they, they're the same. No. And that's the thing that drives me a little bit bonkers is like, I, Let's take the word in-house movement, right? Seiko has in-house movements, the 7S26, the 4R36, like these are all made by Seiko, like they're just Seiko designed. And yet they don't get the love and adoration of say like, you know, we got Basel going on and, you know, Rolex and Tudor will inevitably have some new base caliber, right?
Everett Gosh, I haven't been able to work because I've just been following Basel so, so closely. It's just taken up my every moment. I actually have, I know,
AJ Barse zero about what's happened at basil besides the fact that they released that uh martin sheen watch oh no well also there's also the uh what a lot of people on on the dink are calling um the the tutor skx have you seen that oh no i haven't there's the yeah so tutor announced their uh i think they're calling it the po1 uh don't quote me on that one but basically it's this prototype this um uh unicorn status prototype that apparently only got a handful made and never really saw the light of day and it's like one of the most frankened
Everett Oh yeah, it looks like a fucking SKX with some weird hooded lugs on it.
AJ Barse Maybe it's not hooded. No, it's not hooded. Those are actually locks for the bezel. It's the actual patent. I guess that was Tudor's prototype for the patent lock for the bezel.
Everett It's like a snowflake SKX.
AJ Barse It is, right? And a lot of people, if you read the Hodinkee post, a lot of guys were just like, SKX? Tudor SKX? And funny, because like, it's true. Like a lot of us have done that same mod, what's commonly referred to as the Flake mod for the SKX. You get, you know, a 7S260020 case, which is the normal size SKX case. You go up to Dagads or you can source, I think even Yabokis even has a Tudor Snowflake-esque dial that you can source. uh snowflake hands you can get them from dw uh dlw or yeah like there's uh a ton of guys that make those handsets and you know you're you can keep the 7s26 movement in there um if you want and you don't even have to really take like anything else off if you didn't want to put it you put a silver a stainless 12-hour alma like you have on your sdx i think yep exactly and there you go like that's it it's funny it's it's funny and yet at the same time it's not funny because also that watch got a lot of like hate because a lot of people immediately had the same knee-jerk reaction whereas like I can see kind of both sides like this was the this was the impetus to what Tudor was doing way back in the day.
Everett Well let's I mean let's say AJ that they're so I'm looking at this right now I'm looking at this at a whole dinky and I'll put this in the show notes you guys so if you want to take a look and you haven't seen it you know that that bezel lock system find whatever. I think it's probably overkill. It's probably a lot of to do for a system that doesn't need it. Right. But it's this thing is lovely. This thing is lovely. The finishing on it is like Grand Seiko level. I mean, as far as I can tell, I'm obviously don't have this in my hand.
AJ Barse Yeah. No. And it's a beast. Like this thing, I think comes at clocks in at like 44 millimeters. Like it's a huge or something like that. But regardless, like if you look at it in the timeframe to which Tudor was originally designing it, you know, they were, if you think about it, they were trying to iterate based off of the Seamaster days, right? Like this has a crown at four o'clock as opposed to three, they were trying to do a, it's a, it is a true tool watch. Cause I think it was intended for either our Navy or some, some Navy somewhere, you know, they were trying to figure out, you know, a locking mechanism, you know, like, and I kind of see that bezel lock system. The same way that I look at a Panerai, honestly, like that whole crown locking system on a Panerai. Look, if you're a dad, all you need your watch to survive is bath time and pool time. That's it. You don't need 200 meters of water resistance, honestly.
Everett Yeah, I mean, it's nice for peace of mind, but I think you're right. Yeah, no, I mean, this thing is obviously, it also looks like a prototype too, so I don't know. I haven't read this article and I'll read it. this is
AJ Barse only only only only but like so so taking that right like i see that and the thing about modding that's super cool is is like if you like that aesthetic you can turn to an skx um case and you can make one similar you know you're paying homage to those design cues um but what's cool is is that you're doing it like you you know what you're modding inside and out And it gives you that skill set and stuff.
Everett There's something about that. There's something about doing it yourself.
AJ Barse Yeah. And the thing is, is like, again, like getting back to the pedestal remark that kind of went us down this huge rabbit hole, right, is I don't look at most watches as, you know, an item that is to just be Instagrammable and in my watch box, like every one of my watches from the Frederic Constant to um, the, the zero three one that I have on my wrist that I rebuilt from sourcing original parts short of the movement. Like I like what these watches represent for me and my life. Like I can, I can fix them. I can repair them. I built a third of them, you know, like, and to me that makes, there's, there's, there's a value inherent to that, that I couldn't just get by just, you know, I bought the, the Frederick Constant because of what it meant for that moment in time. but all the other watches that I typically wear, which is my modded SKX007 with a 12-hour and minute bezel. So it's got both markings on the bezel with a coin edge. I've got my SKX031, which is commonly referred to as a Seiko Submariner because it's basically, I wore it today in honor of this recording actually, because it's the closest 40 and 20 watch that I own. It's 40 millimeters.
Everett getting it yep 40 millimeters and 22 inch or 22 mil lug sorry it's it's not 20 but it's the closest thing i had for today's recording no you know we're we're gonna forgive you because 40 40 and 22 also respectable i mean less respectable aj yeah so less respectable but i'll give it to you yeah i tried you know you know Uh, well, well, why don't, why don't we, I mean, I didn't mean to cut you off. You, you got a thought to finish.
AJ Barse Oh yeah. No, I just think like, uh, so whether it's, whether it's that Seiko or this one, you know, like I look at the guts and I look at the aesthetic and I go, you know, I put it together and it serves my life the way I live my life and not some other advertisement, you know, that just the way how I see a lot of my, my collecting.
Everett Sure. No, I think that's right. You know, the only, so I talk about bonding a lot and I tell you, I've spent a lot of time reading about morning and thinking about dive into it at the end of the day. Um, at the end of the day, I sort of am reluctant to change these watches that I like, you know, the one watch that I have modded, I've got, and I think you've seen this watch. I've got an SNK 809 that I'll tell you when I got my SNK 809, I was like, this watch is cool, but it's so flat. And what I didn't like about it, I didn't like the bead-blasted case. And I think that the bead-blasted case works for some watches. For me, on the SNK, it just didn't work. It's sort of cheap on the watch that didn't need to be cheap. And I remember seeing at some point, you know, Seiko's got their SNDA line of chronographs. And if you haven't looked at these, they're pretty cool, very simple chronographs, cheap. One of the SNDAs is, the SNDAs by and large are blasted, but they had a version of the SNDA that was brushed. And I thought, fuck, if you could get an SNK that was brushed, that would be a game changer. And then I thought to myself, well, this is a mod I can do. It's a $50 watch. I'm not going to hurt it. And so, and so then I brushed the case. I just brushed the case. I was careful. I used an SOS pad. And I just brushed it. And when it was done, I was like, this thing is super cool. Super cool. And then I saw Hamilton. Uh, I saw Hamilton khaki on Instagram one day and it was a brushed case, but it had a polished bezel. And I was like, that's pretty sure I can do that. I can do that. And so I polished the bezel on this thing. And so that is in my mind, a mod. But it feels like it's, it's a free mod. So there's something different about it, but I'll tell you, this watch is one of my very favorite watches. And it's one of the only watches that anybody's ever called me out in public and said, Hey, is that a, and someone saw it and they were like, is that a polished and brushed SNK? They knew what it was. They were like, that's an SNK and it's polished and brushed. It's just some dude at a bar. And I was like, yeah, it is. And I did it myself. And he was like, man. That is super cool. Right. And it just felt good. It was like, you know, and you know, like, yeah, not only is it it's it is and I feel really good about it. I like it. I like to wear it. So, yeah, I get that. You know, we're actually running a little long in the tooth here, and I think that's OK. We can go long and people can listen or not. I was hoping to, you know, before we get into other things and everybody I know is excited about other things, mostly just my wife, probably. I was hoping we could sort of run through some of these vendors, you know, because there's a bunch of them. Really, right now, I think is the best time. It is. If you wanted to mod an SKX, there has not been as good a time in the last, you know, five or six years for trying to do that, you know, which is interesting because I think everybody's sort of predicting the decline of the SKX. I think you can get more SKX mods right now than ever before.
AJ Barse You can.
Everett So, you know, when I think of modding, when I think of modding, where to buy, the first name I think of is Yabokis, right? Yes. Seiko Boy, spelled backwards, everybody knows this. Yeah. But Yabokis is so old school. But I'll tell you, I think, I know people still buy stuff from Yabokis. I just did. I cannot use this photo bucket. It is, I think probably the least effective way to sell things I've ever seen in my life.
AJ Barse I'm Hey, I want this. Um, specifically the photo that you send, send him, what specifically are you looking to purchase? Because like sometimes there's dial and hands, there's dial hands and a chapter ring. Like what specific parts are you looking for? Um, when you send that email and then he hits you back what the price is. And then at the bottom of his email is the PayPal. You PayPal him the amount that he tells you and it gets shipped in the mail. It's that it's, it's, it's no differently than a store. It's just not a traditional store front. Um, but no, all of his parts are killer. Um, I'm looking forward to the dial enhance that I just got off of them. Um, and, uh, yeah, I don't know. I mean, beyond that, like for me, like you were, you kind of made a good point. Like, let's say, let's say somebody wanted to get into modding, but they didn't want to totally screw up a watch that they have. Like, let's say they wanted to learn. Um, and you're right. Like they're not minting SKX, the zero zero two zero case anymore. Well, That's where Crystal Times comes in in my book. I just ordered one of their cases where it's there.
Everett Oh, that's it.
AJ Barse That's a new thing.
Everett Yeah. This is like in the last month. Crystal Times has introduced this.
AJ Barse Yep. I have been I've been following them because they have two cases that they're working on one that they've already released, which is a I think millimeter to millimeter replica basically of the 0020 case. But to me, this is like Mark two version. Like literally, they were just like, what if people wanted it with drill lugs. Cool. They got the drill lugged version. If you don't want the drill lug version, they've got it. And it's spec for spec. And anecdotally, like, you know, we've always known like Seiko overbuilds their cases. 200 meters is the standard SKX. I think on their site, they say like, anecdotally, if equipped properly, it can surpass 300. Like, so if you are really bonkers about waterproofing, you know, if you crystal it out and gasket it outright, like you can really make a burly burly ass case and, and make a killer watch. So I just ordered one of those cause it's going to be the base of, of this watch I'm building.
Everett Have you seen one yet?
AJ Barse Well, I've seen it on, I think Terry has one. Yeah.
Everett I've seen it on his Instagram. Yeah.
AJ Barse I ordered mine. So it should be here in a week or two. And,
Everett Well, cause they're not, they're not, they're not inexpensive. I mean, the, you know, you know, the, the case I think can be as much, you know, if, if you get it with, with a bezel fitted and drilled lugs, um, it's 114 bucks, 115 bucks, which is, which if you're doing the math is like two thirds of the price of a, of an SKS.
AJ Barse But again, like it's also Mark two, right? Cause if you get the drilled lugs, there is no SKX stock that is drill lugs. So if that's, if that's, if that's something that you want, and let's say you did have an SKX, you're gonna have to find somebody who can drill it out for you. And you're going to pay the cost of that anyway. So, you know, if, again, if, if you're coming from it at the perspective of making a watch that is unique to you, like I would totally start with there. And because like you just said, it is never been easier to get in source parts, quality parts. Um, then now. So I would start with that kind of case. And it also comes with a sterile case back, which I'm a huge fan of because on both the PNW-001 and on both my SKXs that I've built, I have sterile case backs.
Everett And you've etched those, right?
AJ Barse Yep. I've etched them. I've got a local guy, Bay Engravers here in Bellingham, that I've worked with. And I created a vector illustration of basically the compass rose of the Pacific Northwest. So it's got the North, Southeast, West, but on the Cardinal, uh, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest is, um, elements of the Pacific Northwest, like the great wave for our oceans, um, the lighthouse, um, like I just, I incorporated a lot of the Pacific Northwest on that design because it was originally for my son's watch, um, Pacific Northwest. Yup. from the Northwest of the Northwest.
Everett But well, so so we've talked about so we've talked about Crystal Tides and I think that's a good draw. We've talked about Yobokis. You know, the other sort of real like old school godfather of the modding world that I think about is Dagass. And he's gone back and forth. Also a terrible website, I would say. slightly better than Yaboki's system because he's actually got e-commerce set up, a storefront. I think of Dagaz and Yaboki's as having very sort of similar stuff. They've got the aluminum inserts, very high quality stuff. Dagaz has done, I think, probably more modding than Yaboki's does. And what I mean by that is he actually sells finished watches, you know, the Dagest Thunderbolt was came out a few years ago and it's fucking killer. You know, so but these guys, right, these are these old school guys. And then, you know, in the last few years, I think a number of folks have come out and said, we can do what you're doing. Not only can we do what you're doing, we can do really cool shit. And the first one I saw, well, one more old school guy, and I won't talk about him because everybody knows. But Murphy Manufacturing, right?
AJ Barse My SKX. So, yeah, Murphy has the coolest product that I think he's got is the new 7S26 and NH36 movement holder. Immediately when he made it, I said, I don't care how much it is. Let me know when it comes out because I need this thing. What's cool about this movement holder is that you can set the 7S26 or the 4R or anything like that into this movement holder. It's round and it'll fit it exactly. And it'll fit it with the either black or gray spacer ring that Seiko comes around the movement. Or if you like pinch it down, it'll hold it without the movement ring. and you can flip it dial side, you can flip it rotor side. It is such a super handy tool to use.
Everett I've got this up on my computer right now. You know, these are beautiful and they're hand machined, so they cost a fortune, right? No. All of $31.
AJ Barse No, like, yeah, that's the thing. Like, literally. Crazy, man. This guy makes shit.
Everett Take my money. With equipment and he's an expert in what he does. And I mean, you can get, it's all super affordable. Yeah. So, you know, between, I think that those sort of brands, Crystal Times, Gaga's, Yaboki's, and Murphy have been the most reliable. You know, there've been other people that made bezels, but they come and go. You know, obviously there's the, oh, who makes all the great straps or bracelets?
AJ Barse Oh, are you talking about Uncle Seiko?
Everett No. Well, Uncle Seiko obviously makes fantastic. No, I'm thinking of, they make them in China, but they're great. They make like the Angus Jubilee and Oh man, it'll come.
AJ Barse Let's move on.
Everett Uh, but, but everybody who's listening is going to be yelling at their radio right now. Like, uh, strap time strap. No, sorry. Anyway. So yeah, Murphy, but you know, DLW comes out a few years ago. DLW comes out and it's like, uh, oh my gosh.
AJ Barse Yeah, no. This is freaking cool.
Everett Yeah. They make, I think, so DLW got to start really just making ceramic bezel inserts. And there's sub-style inserts, which I don't love. But then they added sort of the insert with the SKX text that's flat, a ceramic SKX font insert to match your original, plug and play. And I thought, well, these guys are sort of really onto something. And since then they've introduced dials They have a double dome chapter rings. They, they started making 12 hour, uh, brushed steel. They've got a gun metal, uh, a sort of gun metal, uh, engraved stainless 12 hour bezel. Uh, that if you haven't seen it, it's freaking incredible.
AJ Barse Yeah. They also have a stealth one. That's the, the bezel that I sourced for Chris for his mod.
Everett Fantastic. Right. You've got Loom Ceramic Bezel Inserts, LCBI.
AJ Barse Yep. I just reached out to them for this project as well.
Everett Making just, you know, just wonderful products, right? And most of these companies are making, most of these companies are not just making SKX parts, right? They're making parts for the SNZHs.
AJ Barse Some of them are doing also for Orient, like the Mako and Ray.
Everett And the SNZF, well, and finding an orient or may insert or orient or ray insert is cool because they're not they're not round, right? So it requires extra work.
AJ Barse Yeah, you have to usually have to swap out the bezel so that you can put in a clean bezel or a bezel insert. But yeah, no, like the other one I would throw out also is one second closer.
Everett Right. I've got them up here. I know you've talked about them in the past. Yeah. So I pulled them up as well.
AJ Barse Yeah, I believe they're based out of Poland, if I recall. Um, killer bezels. Uh, the, he moved into making hands. Like if you want a really cool seconds hand, that's unique and got a pop of color. Totally take a look at those. Um, he also has stuff for Bostock. So like if you've got, you know, uh, it's something that you want to trick out for like a new bezel or bezel insert. He's got parts for that as well.
Everett Um, Oh, look at these final fantasy hands.
AJ Barse Yeah.
Everett Right. On one second closer.
AJ Barse Oh my gosh. Those are sick. Yeah, no, he, yeah, he, he has some pretty cool designs that he does. But yeah, so those are kind of the roundup that I usually kind of immediately hit.
Everett And what's... You know, the other one, the other one that I'd throw into this group is Namoki Mods, which I think that they're basically a brand new company. And I'm not sure that they're doing anything that's sort of out of this world, but they're right in there, right? They've got loomed ceramic, they've got great aluminum bezels. So that's the other one that I'd throw in there.
AJ Barse Oh, cool. Yeah, I don't think I know them.
Everett It's N-A-M-O-K-I, and you know, as with everything, you guys, we'll throw a link in the show notes. Drink.
AJ Barse That's a joke on our shows. Drink.
Everett Uh, that that's right. And I, and I will. So, you know, uh, I think, I think at this point, maybe we could wrap up. You, you got anything else about any of these companies or just modding in general, you want to throw in there?
AJ Barse Uh, the only other thing I would throw in, because we, we mentioned the, the, the movement holder for, uh, from, from Murphy is if you are going to do like, like two things, really like one, if you're going to do the movement, like get in your mind, like, Hey, if I mess this up, you can go buy another one for $40. Like you can find them on eBay. You can find them. You know, some of these vendors even have I think Crystal Time sells them for like 50 bucks. Like you can learn. And but when you learn, get good tools like the holder for the movement from Murphy. Spend. This is going to sound weird, but send spend a little extra money. Don't get just the watch repair kit on Fleabay for twelve ninety nine. Go to somewhere like.
Everett I mean, get that, too.
AJ Barse Well, yeah, yeah. Get that, too. But like, you know, I made the mistake of buying cheap tools to get started. Go to somewhere like Esslinger, and I don't know if that's actually how you pronounce their name, Esslinger. That's how I would say it. Yeah, I don't know where the enunciation is. Esslinger! Esslinger! And buy actual Swiss-made tweezers that are anti-magnetic. Keep thing, anti-magnetic tweezers. It'll save you a lot of tearing your hair out.
Everett Um, I think dude, my SKX has been magnetized for like six months, right?
AJ Barse But if you're going to work on parts, the worst thing is like you reach for a screw and it just like clicks to your, your screwdriver and then it goes everywhere. Um, get, get, get some quality tools because that'll help, uh, the mod and that could save you. Like we were just saying earlier, like it could save you a ton of money, um, from screwing up because you went into it half cocked with bad tools and so much heartache.
Everett Yeah, it's so much harder.
AJ Barse Exactly.
Everett Well, well, all right. All right, so this is the segment of the show that everybody will know and love where we talk about other things that we're interested in, you know, things we're watching, things we're reading, things that caught our eye. AJ, so this is your first time hosting 40 in 20, hopefully not your last, but do you have any other things that have come up for you in the last week or so? Let's see.
AJ Barse Well, as long as we don't talk about fly fishing, we'll be good.
Everett So you're not anti-fly.
AJ Barse No, I'm not. So I was listening to last episode and stuff and I was like, you guys know much more about fly fishing than I do. I have my fly fishing pole from when I was a kid. I think it's a Shakespeare. It's not anything fancy. And when you guys were talking about double-handing, whipping, and all this other jazz, I'm just like, wow, this is... This is like two broke fly snobs. I have no idea what they're talking about, but it made me like consult the internet of trying to understand what you guys were talking about. It was cool. I just like, I have no idea what you guys are doing. Like I like fishing.
Everett Maybe you learned something. I did. Maybe you learned something. I did. I think it's fun for us to be able to sort of get out. You know, we actually have people that sort of bug us. They're like, You know, one of the things you say about the show in the literature somewhere is that you talk about EDC. Well, you guys are fucking liars because you never talk about it. You know, and hunting and fishing are things that people have sort of said, hey, you guys should talk about this more. You know, realistically, we talk about this stuff in our real life all the time. Yeah. You know, Andrew and I will have, you know, three day text message sort of conversations about, you know, a stupid five weight fly rod or whatever, you know. You know, something that everybody has in their garage, you know, but we're always a little reluctant to sort of go off that, you know, sometimes we talk about stuff and it's like, that's so out there. We're going to disenfranchise some people. And, you know, certainly I'm sure you guys, you and Chris deal with your own sort of host of complaints. People complain about us for being sort of off task and they complain about noises and professionalism and whatever. No, this is it. This is the way we're going to do it. And I know it's the way we're going to do it because we've done it the exact same way since we started. You know, we don't move. This is where we are. So yeah, I hope we don't push anybody away with that.
AJ Barse No, no. I just, I find it fun. I just, I just don't know. And so I have to like, I have to like pause you guys. And it's like, what are they talking about? Like, what's a switch? That's exactly what I had to Google. I'm like, what the hell is a switch rod other than like some punk indie band name? It is a good band name, Switch Rod. Switch Rod, you know, but anyway, no, like, I don't know, like, let me think, what is something that's, like, I've been doing so much gig work lately, I just don't, do, do, do.
Everett Well, I'll tell you, I've got a thing, and while I'm talking about my thing, you can think about your thing. Cool, thanks. Everybody who knows me knows that I watch a lot of YouTube and I sort of, YouTube's nice because it's this algorithm-based thing, right? So, you know, you watch some things and then it says, hey, you should watch this video. And if it looks interesting, I'll click on it. And then, you know, it's this really sort of organic process in a way that Google and or YouTube should be commended for, although it's problematic in some ways. But this fairly new page popped up for me recently. He's got about 112 subscribers. Johnny Builds, J-O-N-N-Y space B-U-I-L-D-S. And he's this, I would say probably amateur carpenter. He's probably professional, but he's only got a handful of videos at this point. It's not all that many videos. But what he does is he builds table and interior furniture, and he plays with resin a lot. His, his videos are, are fun. He's not overly serious. You know, in fact, I would say sometimes he's a little cheesy. Some, some of his jokes fall flat, but he, he makes a lot of these sort of counters or desks that he either builds like a yakisugi, sugiban yakisugi method, you know, where you torch, um, where you torch the surface and you stain. He just does really sort of fun kind of contemporary. Art, you know, he incorporates, uh, manufactured steel and some of his, his stuff. And a lot of his most recent builds have incorporated resins, uh, colored. Resins, you know, he's not stabilizing the wood per se, but he's taking wood that has natural voids in it and filling it with pearlized colored resin. And then finishing that, you know, he's just, it's, it's super inspiring. It's one of the, it's the type of video you watch where you're like, A, I could do that. And B, I need to go to Harbor Freight right now. Yeah, right now. So, super cool. Link in the show notes. Drank. Drank. Johnny builds. Super, super fun. You know, his latest video is the ultimate DIY dream desk and iMac stand.
AJ Barse Oh, that's killer.
Everett And it's just a fun video. The desk turns out super cool. He made an epoxy cutting board a couple of weeks ago. Super cool too.
AJ Barse So, all right. Well, the thing that I've, I, cause as you were doing that, I was like, man, what have I been watching lately? So I had to, I had to fire up, um, uh, my web browser. And so funny story. So this last year, my, my wife and I decided to cut the cord. Um, not in the sense of like cutting cable. We already did that years ago. We cut the cord and we're not doing Netflix anymore.
Everett No, it's been great.
AJ Barse Um, so no, the reason, the reason why I say that is, uh, bro, I got Netflix.
Everett Holler at me. You need to borrow a password. I got you.
AJ Barse Wow. I did not think I was going to get that type of response from you, but okay. Um, but no, uh, no. So we've, we, we pay for Amazon prime annually because, uh, having a kid diapers, just saying have it delivered to your door. It's wonderful. Yeah, so anyway, I kind of decided to jump in the deep end and be like, hey, we're not going to do Netflix. We're just going to go through Amazon Prime. And out of it, like, yeah, it's not... I'm getting anxiety just hearing you talk about this. You're making me anxious. The first step to acknowledging that you have a problem is to say that you have a problem.
Everett I have a problem.
AJ Barse Anyway, so I've kind of been kind of going down the rabbit hole and now like I wouldn't say Amazon is like toe-to-toe better than the Netflix, but it's different. They've got like originals and stuff just like Netflix does and also you can pay all a cart like if you need HBO because Game of Thrones is coming up and stuff like you can Yeah, totally. We do that. There is a benefit if you're in need of getting add-ons. Netflix is just Netflix. You can't just add on HBO, you know what I'm saying? But there was this series, and I got to Google it here because it's called... It's a long title. It's like this... Oh, there it is. This, the name of the entire series is called this giant beast that is called the global economy. Uh, and it's got an actor by the name of Cal Penn, also known as Harold or Kumar. I can't remember which one of white castle it's that actor. Uh, anyway, it's a series. He's great. Yeah, he is super great. Um, and so anyway, the series, um, basically shows the economy, the global economy, of like for instance episode two i'm just going to say like if you want to get started on this uh the series start with episode two which is called are rich people dicks or do dicks get rich which i could never say on my show so i'm totally going to capitalize right now and say it on yours say it again man episode two are rich people dicks or do dicks get rich and fuck that Start with that episode and then you'll you'll start picking and choosing because you can watch him out of order. But it's really interesting what he he brings to light with regards to money and money and culture and money and culture in the economy. And he just does it in in a in a great way because he also has like guest stars like Galifianakis pops in on it because they do these little segments like a member like in high school. It's just like that you teach you learn about the economy or just like Hello kids, this is a checkbook and you're going to be paying what's called the rent someday. He, they take that tact in certain segments to describe really big concepts, um, so that you can understand things like compound interest or whatever. Um, in like, uh, a snarky sense. So it's only like eight episodes, but there are eight episodes totally worth watching.
Everett Well, and it's put together by Adam McKay, uh, who is the director of Anchorman.
AJ Barse Yeah.
Everett Talladega Nights, a whole bunch of just funny ass shitties. And I think a former SNL writer. So it's going to be.
AJ Barse They're great.
Everett There's going to be great tongue in cheek comedy, I assume. Well, you know, I've seen this. I haven't checked it out, but but that's that's a good that's a good place for me to head.
AJ Barse Yeah, totally. Check it out. They're only like 45 minutes a piece there. They're great.
Everett Sick. Well, I think I mean, we've done it, dude. We're we've recorded 80 minutes. At this point, worth of 40 and 20. You know, those of you who are paying attention will know that in spite of, despite the fact that we've released two episodes in the last two weeks, or the last three weeks at this point when you're hearing this, Andrew's out of town. Andrew's at JRTC, which is one of the worst places on earth. I assume he's cold and wet and sleeping on the floor somewhere at this point. You know, he'll be back. So he'll be back by the time I record the next episode. And unfortunately, A.J. won't be back next week, but we'll have him back at some point for sure. A.J., you've been awesome. Thanks, dude. And thanks for thanks for filling in. Thanks for taking that torch. Really appreciate it.
AJ Barse Anytime, man. Love you guys show.
Everett Thanks, dude. All right. Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 and 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches food. Drinks, life, and other things we like.
Everett Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech.com, licensed under creative commons by attribution 3.01.