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Tudor Goes Full Middle Finger (396)

Published on Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:17:56 -0700

Synopsis

In this episode of the Forty and Twenty podcast, hosts Andrew and Everett discuss watches, life updates, and notable industry news. The biggest revelation is that Born and Wound (Worn & Wound) acquired microbrand Laurier in February 2026 for an undisclosed sum, a transaction that went largely unannounced and only came to light through a mergers and acquisitions law firm newsletter. The hosts express surprise at the quiet nature of this acquisition and speculate about the future of Laurier under new ownership, expressing hope that founders Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega remain involved but suspecting they may have exited entirely.

The watch discussion covers several new releases: Rado's summer-toned Diastar Original skeleton watches with distinctive floating hour markers; Presage's D-Day 82nd Anniversary A-11 watches featuring materials from WWII Jeeps and Utah Beach; Tudor's new 39mm Black Bay Chrono available only in yellow; Glashütte Original's stunning reverse panda 70s Chronograph XV Limited Edition; Squale's 2001 Marina Militare military collaboration watch; Micro Mill Spec's damaged-aesthetic Black Badger collaboration; and Timex Atelier's first chronographs in both quartz and titanium automatic versions. The hosts praise several releases while questioning some brands' color and sizing strategies, particularly Tudor's decision to launch the smaller chronograph in only one colorway.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. You're listening to Forty and Twenty, the WatchClicker Podcast with your hosts Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you? I'm
Everett terrific. We are I'd say we're full on summer at this point.
Andrew Feels that way. Yeah. Um I
Everett have had to start watering my lawn in order to keep it green and there's I've got a little bit of trepidation at the at the responsibility of that given the winter that we had. So I haven't quite I I I feel like I'm w watering right now just to sort of hold the status quo.
Andrew Maintenance. You're not looking for lush and green. You're looking for not dead.
Everett Yeah. You don't want consequences. But I think I think at some point I'm gonna have to make a real like assessment and maybe maybe we don't try to keep it alive this summer. Um but you know, I I I don't I don't know. I don't know.
Andrew Yeah, we'll see. I I mean we're we're like right on the we're in the the the opening salvo of fire season, I feel like is this weekend. Right. We've had a couple little little sparkups that have been resolved pretty quickly, but I think this is probably the opening salvo weekend.
Everett You know, Andrew, I was thinking about that. We are in a really weird place. We have uh we're we're right across the street from a wildlife preserve. So, you know, what a hundred yards from us right now is wildlife preserve.
Andrew Yeah, you can see it. Thousands of acres
Everett of wildlife preserve. But because of the way it's developed over time, I think we have virtually no fire risk right now.
Andrew None. Yeah. For us. Yeah. Yeah. A fire is not going to get hot enough in that in that grass. Because it's wetland also. So even in the summer, when it's super dry.
Everett Well there's no trees. I mean we there's not enough
Andrew fuel load over there to jump the street. That's right.
Everett Yeah. So it it it feels it'd be
Andrew smoky and hot, but it's not gonna jump the street.
Everett It it feels it it's a little bit of a weird you know, it's like w we really live right on the edge of the city and uh
Andrew we live in what's called a wooy. What's uh
Everett a wildland urban interface. Oh interesting. Okay. Yeah, which means we get, you know, coyotes on our porches and other rare
Andrew turkeys, weird shit. But also
Everett we're we're like sort of immune from the
Andrew inoculated. Yeah, we're inoculated
Everett from a lot of the worst of the you know, the worst risks. So uh anyway, I I'm more worried about like water. Is it is it a valuable use of our of that limited resource this summer? But I I don't know. We'll we'll see. I'm not worried about it catching fire, obviously. I'll keep it short. But um yeah, I'd I would like it to be green if possible, unless that's just obviously irresponsible. TVD on that. How are
Andrew you? I'm good. Uh fam's gone. So I rolled solo uh and I was like, oh, you know what I want to do for dinner? I want to have a steak. Uh and I went to the grocery to buy a steak. Where'd you go? Fredmeyer. Okay. It's close.
Everett It is close. Yeah. They do not often have the best meat.
Andrew Uh they don't. But I felt like if like the my worst case scenario was that they would have a tri-tip. Like that was my worst case scenario.
Everett And it looked like you got a ribeye or a New York. I got a
Andrew I got a bone in ribeye. Okay. There you go. So anyway, I'm walking in and they have their fancy little cheese section. For those of you unfamiliar with Kroger family brands, they've got their little fancy cheese arena. And And they had dried bucktini pasta. You never see bucottini in like grocery store shelves. And I was like, man, I love bucottini. So I'm not doing steak and potatoes
Everett tonight. So I
Andrew uh grabbed the bag of bucottini and I went and found a bone and ribeye and I was like, oh shoot,
Everett here we go. It's gonna get good. Cause
Andrew now I can cook like whatever I want because it's just for me. So I made like a spicy assassin spaghetti sauce, but with Yeah,
Everett tell me what that is. I saw I saw your message, but it's just
Andrew it's just really spicy, uh effectively like marinara, like spaghetti or assassin's spaghetti is the uh this spicy marinara esque sauce, but then you cook you you cook the pasta dry in that sauce and then you just let it cook and reduce down and kind of char and caramelize. I played with it a little bit because bucottini, I wanted to keep nice and moist and let the sauce soak up and inside the noodle, which is why you get bucottini. So I did kind of like a just a play on assassin sauce, but like a really nice clunky spicy red gravy with the bucottini, sliced up my steak, got some cheddar jalapeno sourdough. Holy shit.
Everett Sounds delightful. It was exactly
Andrew what I needed. What the doctor ordered.. Yeah Well, he didn't order much this week. Uh but uh it's it's what Matummy wanted. And uh I ate early on purpose so that when we're done here and I'm a little hungry, I'm gonna have some more. I'm gonna go back for it.
Everett Nice. Nice. I appreciate that. I appreciate that move.
Andrew Yeah, that was uh that was my signature move for the night. So it turned out really fucking good.
Everett Well, good for you. Hey, that's a that's a that's a well played that's a well played maneuver, Andrew.
Andrew Yeah. And it was total pivot because I was I was just gonna make like some baked potatoes and a steak. But I saw that pasta and I was like, nah, oh we're going we're going a different direction. I got better
Everett plans. Yeah. Good, good, good, good.
Andrew Felt good about my pantry contents too. Like I got steak and
Everett pasta. And you were able to find a legs.
Andrew Everything everything else just came from
Everett nice. Came from the pantry. Nice.
Everett Yeah, no, it's nice to have a pantry that
Everett you you know you can work with. I'm like, I I cannot work with this pantry today.
Andrew Often you text me. Yeah, well,
Everett uh that's usually when that happens, it's like w when I have sort of prematurely decided that I could work with my pantry. That's I'm like, Oh yeah, I got the I got what I need and then I get halfway through and I'm like,
Everett son of a bitch. Hey Andrew. And you
Andrew and you I I don't think I've let you down yet. I I
Everett mean there's been once or twice where it was
Everett like, yeah, I I can get you close but I can't get you there. Uh
Andrew oh yeah, there was something. Yeah, and
Everett I can't remember what it was recent, but it was it
Andrew was kind of obscure. Like it it beggars
Everett can't be choosers, right? No. Yeah. I think oh it was like elbow macaroni. I needed elbow macaroni.
Andrew Oh yeah. I had like I
Everett do not have that. Yeah. And I was like, well that's it that's the only thing that will s that will that will do this. Yeah.
Andrew Well um sorry. No.
Everett That's that's obvious that's like a thing that like I should have known I didn't have elbow macaroni.
Andrew Dumb thing is I always have elbow macaroni. Well, that's
Everett what I felt. I was like, we always have elbow
Everett macaroni. No, we don't. That's why I played. That's
Andrew why I was shocked when you s when when I had to say no. I was like, I know I have a pound of it in the no, I don't.
Everett Nope. Nope. Sure don't. Well, in any event, we're not here to talk about uh pantry pastas or uh or or potential droughts rather we're here to talk about watches and andrew uh I was wondering if you would mind if you'd be so kind if you would if you would be kind enough to take us away tonight. In fact, you normally start with watch news, and I feel like that is what you're gonna start with tonight, but I don't know that
Andrew well well we didn't confer. But I sort of feel like it's it's very public knowledge and it's something that we have maybe been remiss to have just not known about.
Everett I don't think anybody knew about it. I mean unless
Everett unless I'm uh unless I'm really missing the boat. I I didn't know and I don't think anybody
Andrew knew. Um where I don't have the link pulled up. If you give me a minute. So here's here's the if you pull up the link from from the
Everett Oh, I I would say just ignore the link. We can just
Everett talk about it. Okay. We can just talk about it.
Andrew Uh this week we were sent a a link from a mergers and acquisitions law firm news website.
Everett Yeah, the the mergers and acquisition law firm did not send us the link.
Andrew No, no, no. Somebody sent us a link. So this MA law firm has a like a little newsletter that just like
Everett hey we did this. Hey, we did this.
Andrew It's almost like low level marketing. Like they I
Everett don't I don't think you guys at home, I don't think we're purposefully burying the lead here. Or maybe we are.
Andrew No, I'm not purposely bur burying this lead. This is how unassumingly this news came to us. Born
Everett and Wound bought Laurier.
Andrew They did for a undisclosed amount of money.
Everett Yeah, we don't know how much. And Laurier
Andrew is now owned by Warrenwound.
Everett Yeah. As of February. Not Lauren and Lorenzo Ortega.
Andrew Yes. Ostensibly. There are no further details from this little press release from February than Warrenwound has acquired Laurier for an undisclosed sum and is now the controlling interest in
Everett Laurier. Yeah.
Andrew No one has said anything about this. This should have been this feels like it should have been Earth Shattering in February.
Everett I don't know about Earth Shattering, but it does feel like it's something that I was surprised that we we didn't know anything about. Yeah.
Andrew And why?
Everett Yeah, I don't know, Andrew. I don't know the answer to that question. I I mean I you you know the my brain m my brain instantly sort of goes to goes to n not why we didn't know, but w why did this happen? And and I can come up with lots of um you know lots of sort of branches and uh intersections of theory, and I'm maybe reluctant to do that, but it is it it is an odd enough transaction that I found myself sort of head scratching for for a long time about that when I when I heard that news. Like
Everett what? What wait? What?
Andrew Wait, what? And and I'm
Andrew still waiting wedding, just for the record.
Everett And and look, I I I really, really like the Warren One folks. I really, really like Lauren and Lorenzo um personally right like uh not not just in a watch sense I I think they're all good people um you know and I can speak I can speak personally to that um so anything else that I think or say about it, uh y you know, that I I I would like to lead with that. But you know, they're both New York companies, that makes sense. Um Warner Won and and the Ortegas have worked together over the years in in a number of ways, some some very obvious, some maybe less obvious. Um, there's a relationship there, obviously, and I've always I've personally always got the sense that Lauren and Lorenzo were very uncomfortable in, and maybe that's not maybe I maybe I back up the very were uncomfortable in that forward-facing public role. They just always, you know, very kind and very easy to talk to, approachable even, but also it I always got the sense like this is not you you guys you guys stick out like sore thumbs.
Andrew That's not what they signed up for when they started this.
Everett Maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. And and maybe maybe the the success of the company and the demands of running a company like that, the public demands, um were were more than they had signed up for, like you suggested. Yeah.
Andrew I'm just curious. I think my my biggest head scratcher is we're now in June. There's been no anything about it. And why
Everett well right like we haven't seen a
Andrew like a bunch of a huge like pump up of Laurier inventory we haven't seen uh it it's just been this quiet thing.
Everett Well, I I I mean I think I think a c a bigger company consuming a smaller company is almost never sexy, right? That is not a sexy move, right? We we have purchased this company and they're now going to be run by us, especially a company like Laurier, which I think Laurier perhaps more so than many watch companies I can think of is so tied to the people, right? When I think of Laurier, I think of Lauren and Lorenzo.
Andrew Yeah. And so I I so
Everett so this is my first part of my theory. One, I don't imagine that Warren and Wound is totally comfortable with the public relations aspect of that. And and so maybe they're slow rolling it so that they can have an announcement or at least a grand opening as it were, that will that will mitigate any sort of potential fallout in that regard. But also it really doesn't make sense to announce it without a product, right? So what we know is that Laurier has been slow to release products in the last several years, and but for a um you know, their their sort of collaboration, watchmaker collaboration that released late last year or yeah, then
Andrew and they did like 50 of them. Uh
Everett but for that, there's not been a lot of announcements. So who knows how long this has been in the works? My guess is, and if you think about if if you think about a production cycle, you're looking at 1080 to you know maybe two hundred and seventy days uh to actually get a watch to market. So it it could be that it could be that that announcement is right around the corner.
Andrew Yeah, but this was a transaction that was finalized in February.
Everett Sure, but but but that's not enough time to have brought a watch to market.
Andrew Ah I just feel like that would be a component of the like and I don't know anything out about mergers and acquisitions.
Everett I am guessing this will be a wind up
Everett release. This will be a release that's tied to a wind up show and and that it will be it will there will be a appropriate level of fanfare. But why
Andrew not why not do the wind up release of your renderings in March in San Francisco. No,
Andrew because that's that's lame. Because that's lame,
Everett Andrew. Because that's a dumb idea. That's why. Because nobody wants to see what's going to come out next year. But have a watch. Hey, we got a watch. So we got to watch and you're gonna be able to see it. Not only see it, but you're gonna be able to buy it in two weeks. We have San Francisco
Andrew March. Uh May is Dallas, right? And the next windup is October in New York.
Everett Is is Dallas? Dallas is in
Andrew May. It just happened. Oh, okay. I missed it. Isn't it?
Everett Shoot, I don't know, man. Yeah, Mike and I were
Andrew texting about it. You're asking me to oh yeah, that's right.
Everett Yeah. You're asking me too many questions. I don't know. I I just don't I I don't think that it makes any sense for them to s to announce anything before they're ready to before they're ready to roll.
Andrew It's weirder to bury it. I don't
Everett think it who who who who says it's buried? They just haven't talked about it.
Andrew So if you just ignore it, it doesn't exist. There are millions of men paying child support who who are like can tell you that that's not a reality.
Everett Yeah, I I mean I guess I just look at this totally like I wouldn't announce it until it was ready to go. So m maybe you would do something different. But I I just don't that to me, if it were me, I wouldn't announce it till I was ready to
Andrew go. I think you have to announce it with a tease, like something, like more to come. Like, hey, this exciting thing is happened, and we can't wait for this relationship, like for this new chapter in these two organizations to be a thing. Like, look out. Things are coming.
Everett Yeah, I mean, time will tell. Obviously, we don't
Everett know what conversations they're having or or whatever, but I I actually when companies do that, it just drives me nuts. Like y you know uh uh w what's the
Andrew But this is different. This is this is a a truly beloved. I mean, frankly, two really beloved brands.
Everett I don't know if Warnerwan is beloved, but
Andrew But Laureate absolutely is, right? There's no reservation there.
Everett Well, maybe, maybe I'm wrong and you're right. They should
Everett have they should have announced it. I just don't see any benefit for them uh in announcing it. There's just seems like zero upside and all de all downside. So
Andrew maybe. I don't know. It feels weird that that just like It
Everett feels weird because you wanted to know and you didn't know, but it doesn't mean that it's but it feels it feels weird
Andrew that you find out like via a newsletter from uh mergers and acquisitions for
Everett Yeah, and I wonder if that was something that Warner Want like I I I I would be like I would actually be a little irritated uh with my law from announcing that. But
Andrew yeah, because that's that is maybe also the weird part. Like that that's where the announcement is coming from, just this like. Oh, by the way.
Everett Yeah, and I don't know if this has made the news cycle before now, if people have talked about this, but this is the first I'd heard of it. And I mean, I think our our ears are pretty close to the ground on this.
Andrew We pay attention to things sometimes. Yeah.
Everett So uh anyway, interesting. I I mean we'll we'll see we'll see what
Andrew happens. More to come. Yeah. More to come. We might get a cease and desist from Warnerwound, who knows? Um probably not, but yeah, yeah.
Everett I'm a fucking trial lawyer. Let him try. Um
Andrew the I
Everett I think the opportunity for excitement is there though, right? Yeah, you know if if yes Warren Wound if Warren Wound picks the right people to run this thing I think it could be awesome you know um but but we just we just don't know. I think about I I I love like Warner Wellm's like Timex collabs and um I I th I think that they have a really cool vibe with their collabs, but if they treat the brand the same way they've treated their collabs, I think we'll see a it it's a different if it it's a different Warner Well, or it's different Laurier if they treat it that way. The Laurier deserves a certain level of
Andrew But that's that's because the collaborations that they've done have been intentionally fun, limited runs, meant to be novelties.
Everett Yeah, maybe. And I I hope I just I hope
Andrew to see some some discipline and restraint exercised with Laurier.
Everett I I don't know. I mean does Warner Wound own any other I don't think they own any other watch brands. I know they own like ADPT and they've got a couple other side hustles, but I don't I think this this is their first I think so. Watch brand. I
Andrew don't I can't say that with super confidence, but I think so.
Everett And you know, it's been a long time since Warner Wand was just a publication, right? They're a much bigger thing than a publication at this point. But I I also can't think of any other house brands that a publication runs. And maybe I'm just maybe I'm missing something obvious. But uh as I sit here right now, I can't think of any other sort of publication house watch brands.
Andrew It it is certainly I mean brick. Facebook's a publication ish.
Everett Sure. Uh no, I'm sorry. I
Andrew brick and Laurier are in no way related. I just I like mentioning brick because I'm at this point I'm totally good cool given I'm free free press because it's such a shit show. Uh no, I I think it's novel. And I think there's a it is I don't know maybe maybe an interesting sign of things to come. Or just maybe a thing that we now have to accept as our new reality. Um I just I hope Lauren Lorenzo don't vanish into the ether.
Everett We will never, never hear from them again. That's my guess. We will they are gone. They are in a beautiful condo in New York somewhere. They take their dog for a walk in the park and we will never hear from them again.
Andrew I hope that's not the case. I it's
Everett my guess. I believe you. I I
Andrew that th's what I also suspect. I just you know I'm hoping that's not the case.
Everett And and I will say um we don't know we don't know the number of the acquisition, but um chat
Andrew gpt has made some opinions yeah yeah
Everett mike has done some i'm gonna put finger quotes up and say research and
Andrew mike famously works for the new yorker
Everett right right and and based on his quote unquote research, he suggests without any good reason to suggest it that it might be in the two to five million dollar range. So, you know, two to five million dollars is not, especially in New York City, is not enough to do nothing for the rest of your life, probably. But it could it could make you cozy, I think, for a little bit. I
Andrew think for a long bit. It could give you it gives you some
Everett options. It opens up all the breathing
Andrew room. Yeah. That's right. That's right.
Everett So um and and and again, it could be that they're being held on as managers. That happens in an MA type of situation where you retain the prior owners as managers. But we we know nothing. So I can't, yeah. I we can't speculate any further. We should probably move on because as always we know nothing. Yeah, anything further is just wild speculation. We are so
Andrew we are Jon Snow. Uh like that that was that's a a deep cut callback. Nobody talks about Game of Thrones anymore.
Everett Um, can we talk?
Everett Okay, so wait. I've got a whole bunch of things. Well, not a whole bunch of things.
Everett I've got several watches that I was like,
Everett this is really cool. That doesn't always happen.
Everett Sometimes I'm like, nah, okay, okay,
Everett okay. I hated your list. I
Everett think all it's a good list. Look at we're look at your stupid list. Um
Andrew I hated my list. This is a kind of a honestly a little bit of a bummer week but not but for the the Laurier I don't think
Everett so I don't think so okay so first I'm gonna talk
Everett about a watch that is just so weird and I shouldn't like it. But I do. But I do. Okay.
Everett So let's let's start with the first
Everett part of this. Rotto makes it. Okay, okay, yes. So that I was going to I was going to slow roll this. Rotto makes this, but but it's a skeleton. It doesn't have a bracelet. Uh it's a skeleton dial. It doesn't have a bracelet. It's got weird colored loom. Um Um all things that suggest if you said uh okay here there's a there's a new watch, it's got a skeleton dial and weird colored loom. Everett, what do you think? Pass, pass, every time. But
Everett these are so charming. Rotto
Everett introduced a trio of what they're calling summer toned diastar original with the skin in the skeleton format. Uh and
Everett I think these are delightful. These are
Everett three hand watches with a skeleton dial.
Everett Uh and they've all
Everett they have is a minute track and then hour markers, and they're pushed all the way out because it's a true skeleton dial. There's no dial except for until you get up to the minute track, right? And so the the minute hands are like pr like just barely perched, or the hour markers are just barely perched upon this minute track and then sort of suspended. Just dangling off. Dangling over the skeleton dials.
Andrew And the shadows are cool from that. And
Everett golly, I like it. Okay, so what we have is three versions of this. We've got what they're calling a
Everett green dial,
Everett which is actually just a green minute track with red loom, with red loom, and a and a PvD gold and a PVD gold case. Steel uh or serachrome case. Seracrome? No, that's not what they call it. What do they call it? They call it ser. Where is it? Sarah
Andrew Sarah Oh boy.
Everett Saramos. Yeah, not
Andrew even a real word. Uh these are
Everett helmet. These are helmet watches. If you don't know what a diastar looks like, it's a it's a helmet-shaped case. Um, and golly, I find these so charming. Okay, so there's the the green with the PvD gold, but there's also a red and a blue version, and these actually don't have wildly colored loom. The blues got sort of a yellowy green, and the red's got more of a green green loom. Um
Andrew I think that's just an illusion. It
Everett it may be. They either way it's green, it's green uh loom. Pretty vivid green loom, I would say. Uh not like Kelly Green, but loom green. Um Yeah and and
Everett with these floating these floating
Everett markers and we still have the the swinging anchor logo that's pushed all the way over to the nine marker uh these all have
Andrew it's on the movement these all have
Everett the R808 automatics which is uh it's an Eda skeleton movement with an 80 hour power reserve it's it's an interesting movement. It's not beautiful, uh, but it works in a skeleton. Um, and they come with a color-matched rubber strap. I think it's great. 38 millimeters by 45 long, 11, 9 thick. You know, these this type of watch tends to be a little thicker. 100 meters of water resistance. Um, and yeah, they're limited to 555 pieces. They're kind of expensive for for this novelty, I would love to see this at like 1300-1400. That felt that feels right for me. 2500 feels a little like a little bit of a push for what you're getting here. Um but y you know, who am I to say? I I just think these are delightful releases.
Andrew Uh this to me looks like Bulva and Swatch got together and said, You wanna make a love baby?
Everett You know they I mean maybe Rado Rotto and Swatch? I it's just No
Andrew Bulova. This has like a lobster
Everett sort of Yeah, this just has like space
Andrew view kind of vibes, this case shape kind of like th this looks like an unintentional skeleton to me. And I don't know exactly why I I can't quite put my finger on it. I think it's because the movement is so unadorned on the top. And it it looks like it was not a movement designed to be put in a skeleton watch.
Everett Well, and I don't think it is, although they've used this
Everett for their skeleton diastars in the past.
Andrew Right. But it's not the prototypical
Everett skeleton. Yeah, it's not a
Andrew skeletonized movement. It's just the movement.
Everett Well, and it is skeletonized, but it it you're right. It's not the it's not like the standard. It's not
Andrew sexy. It's not like it's this weird mash of like 1975 dive watch and 2016 Steve Steampunk.
Everett Yeah, right. There's no Geneva striping. There's no hand chamfering or anything.
Andrew It is uh it's gr I mean frankly, it's it's growing on me. I ca this blue is uh I don't I don't know it's scratching an itch somewhere. Now
Everett bold like I didn't have. Rotto at twelve and diastar at six six uh are printed on the undersides of the crystals because there's nowhere to put those logos on that there's no dial. So uh they're printed on the other side of the underside of the crystal which uh another shadow opportunity. I really like these watches. I I'm not wild about the price. I think it's priced just a little bit high for what this is. I think it's
Andrew kind of rottoe though. I I you know
Everett like I and I'm not sure you could make this watch for fifteen hundred dollars from you know I'm not sure
Andrew I never feel good about rotto pricing.
Everett They are priced a little bit high, yeah.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah, I
Andrew just I I don't know I don't have enough trust in the brand to trust their pricing. I maybe should.
Everett Yeah, I mean I don't I don't have any reason not to trust Rado. I I I think this is a really fun release. And for it, you know, like it if you're like,
Everett you know what, in 2026 I'm bored of
Everett watches. This is like And
Andrew I'm not gonna get a moons watch. What about what
Everett about this? Oh you don't want uh you don't want a Nautilus pocket watch. Um,
Everett this is cool. I I really like this release. What about you, Andrew?
Andrew Okay, I have a commemorative watch from Presetus, the 82nd anniversary of D-Day with some AN A11 LMUVs featuring this is this is a fun thing. And I I'm always curious about like the sourcing methodology. But these dials are sourced from Willie's MB Jeeps. Uh and these are just A11s, right? You know, the the these are Procetus A11s that we know. The case on these are to scroll to the bottom. Come on. It's a long article. Uh 38 millimeter case, 12.5 thick, Miyota 90 39 movement, 100 meters of water resistance, brown leather or green canvas, or they can come on rubber. Uh 500 bucks or 600 bucks for the LMUV. Now, the the A11 Utah Beach 82nd Anniversary also features uh sand inside of the case or inside of the. Actually, don't know how they would protect that, but it also features um sand from Utah Beach. Uh I think just cool commemorative watches. Uh Prasetus is a is a brand that has made making historic military watches their bread and butter. And I uh they're never
Andrew wrong, right? They're just always like
Andrew a little bit novel, a little bit cool, and always very affordable.
Everett Yes. I have I have no real
Andrew complaints, no real praises to sing, but I do think these are really cool commemorative watches for somebody who uh has a connection that's six or five hundred dollars worth of value? They're attractive watches too. There's one that's like yellow, kind of like uh tropicalized tropicized tropicalized
Everett is the idea that these have been like
Everett these is this is like original paint I don't were there yellow jeep
Everett willies in the middle. I'm not sure if
Andrew if maybe they've uh aged or like I I don't I I don't I don't know.
Everett Yeah. Oh hang on. These are these are really interesting. I I mean I I I actually don't like the beach ones.
Andrew I I don't like it either. I think it's a little bit too novel. Um
Everett I I have it in my head that all
Everett of the Jeep Woolies that existed were some shade of olive drab. But I can't I can't attest to that. Um maybe there's a camo pattern or something that included yellow. I don't know. I don't
Andrew know. Maybe uh maybe they're the maybe they're the tan ones that were used in North Africa.
Everett Yeah, I I don't know.
Andrew I don't know either, and I'm not gonna do any more research into it. But I think the uh LMUV ones are cool, the Utah Beach ones are less cool, but I think it's a cool I I I I just w toanted draw some attention to Presida's doing a a D-Day anniversary that is uh attractive and not like immediately douchey.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. No, these aren't douchey. These are these are neat watches. Um yeah.
Everett Cool, cool. What you got? Um I would like to talk about let's just talk about Tutor just quick.
Andrew Let's just do it. Yeah, let's get it out of the way. Let's
Everett do let's do that. So Tudor has released
Everett the Black Bay Chrono. Okay.
Everett This is such a weird release, Andrew.
Everett Uh it it it's not a
Everett weird release. Cause Tuber
Everett released the Black Bay Chrono, previously only available in 41, in a 39 millimeter case. Not weird. That is not weird.
Andrew That's amazing. Yeah, that's
Everett cool. Okay, that I like that. Well done. Thank
Andrew you, Tudor. They released
Everett it in exactly one color. And
Everett it's the one you don't want.
Everett Yella. Wait, I don't
Andrew I don't understand. I mean, th they're trying to recreate that moment what four years ago when they released blue and the fucking internet broke.
Everett But that was their second I mean that was
Everett the second version of that watch. This is it if you want a 39 millimeter black
Everett bay chrono, you can get it in exactly one color. When
Andrew they released the when they released
Everett the blue Black Bay 58, it was the
Everett second option, right? It's like,
Everett oh, you used to be able to get it in black and now you can get it in
Everett blue. So but that's not the same as this. They said we're gonna make a watch and we're gonna give it to you in one color and and which that's not crazy, right?
Andrew We're gonna get it in all the other colors. Oh I maybe. Fuck, I don't know.
Everett Tutor's been weird with colors.
Andrew They're doing it they're doing a marketing
Everett thing right now. I'm gonna call it a marketing thing, although I'm not sure it's pure marketing. But they are they are doing a thing which is to say this is the version of this watch that you get. You get this version. You've talked about how many skews Tutor has, but I beg to differ.
Andrew They don't have a wild amount. Tudor
Everett is very conservative. You know, they say, oh, well, here's the here's the Black Bay Pro. Uh uh
Andrew four sizes of four colors. No,
Everett it's just one color. And then two years later, three years later, they're like, oh, well, here's a second color. It's like, well, okay, tutor,
Andrew how is are is paint getting expensive
Everett in Switzerland? I don't understand.
Andrew They they're smarter than we are because otherwise they would have been breaking down our doors to get us to come work for them for how much shit we have talked about them. Like boys, you get it. We don't. Come on, we'll sponsor your visa.
Everett Now look, I don't hate this. Watch, I don't even hate
Everett the yellow. Like, this is a really good yellow. It's got red accents.
Andrew I kind of like it, but I hate that it's only in yellow. If they gave me yellow, black, blue, white, someone I think the yellow would maybe like still stand out for me.
Everett Someone at Tutor, some one or someone's at Tutor have decided that you're getting too many options and that's bad for sales. Someone at Tutor has decided that. And they say, you know what? We don't need to give them all these options. Let's give them the options. Let's give them very few options. And they are maxing that that they are they're maxing that theory with this.
Andrew Until the sales in a dip and then they drop the next
Everett perhaps perhaps, yeah. I mean, i i I I I imagine Tutor is in a place where they feel very comfortable with their sales numbers. Um, for them to do this, they are they' theyre like, this'll be fine? This will be fine. This isn't an experiment. This is this is them saying this is how we're gonna run our business and we're gonna be okay.
Andrew No, they're excited about this. A company does not put to market something they're not jacked about. Yeah. Maybe unless you're Omega.
Andrew Fuck you, Omega. Um
Everett yeah, no, I like this. I don't, I don't,
Everett uh, I don't hate it. I do think it's a really weird release. Um I mean it's really interesting. It's not weird bad, it's weird interesting, right? Like, whoa. What what? Okay, it looks gorgeous by the way.
Andrew Yeah, they're they're making decisions that we
Everett just can't understand. Yeah. Now the 'cause
Andrew it's it's a banger. Bringing it in in 39 fixes all of the problems. Not even problems. It just is an improvement.
Everett Dimensionally it's really good. You got thirty-nine millimeters, uh 39 millimeters wide, 131 thick, 47 lug to lug, um, which is way better than the 41 by 144 by almost 50. Um 200 meters water resistance with the screwdown crown sort of Daytona light uh fixed tachometer scale black aluminum fixed tachometer scale which is uh another decision uh it's another sort of tutor saying we don't have to do anything we don't want to do because we're selling just absolutely tons of watches. I like this. I mean, this feels like a very, very modern watch with a lot of sort of retro with a lot of retro uh or or sort of neo vintage sort of styling i think it's a cool release i i it it's six thousand seven hundred bucks, which
Andrew tutor prices. It's a fucking automatic
Everett chronograph. So I mean, yeah, this all makes sense. Everything here, everything here makes sense to me, besides the d
Andrew the decision to release with one color and being yellow.
Everett Yeah, I mean, so the in this hodinky article, James Stacey compares it to, you know, competitors, Speedmaster, uh, Moonwatch Pro, the which is 7800, the Career Chronograph, which is 7550, IWC Pilots Chronograph, which is 8500. So yeah, I I mean they're uh they're very competitively priced. The dimensions are fantastic, two hundred meter two hundred meter dive chronograph, uh cost certified silicone balance spring.
Andrew Not cost plus I think that
Everett this is uh a B O one.
Everett I think this is a Brightling movement that they've that they've sort of tweaked in house. Do you know? Do you know the answer to this? I don't remember
Andrew that. Let's see if James says
Everett he he probably does. He must. He must say. Uh Tudor MT5813. 5813, which is a column wheel vertical clutch chronograph movement derived derived from Brightling's caliber BO1. So yeah, it's a it's a Brightling movement. But they they put in uh uh silicone balance spraying, I think their own regulator um and then they finish it and make it cost certified. So it's it's a really cool movement. Uh yeah, it's a cool movement. This is a really cool watch. I don't think anybody's doing that. I mean we I don't think we've seen a a the rash of watches.
Andrew We should. Yeah, I don't know. I I
Everett mean thus far we just it it's not I I I think it was
Andrew like a weird money grab for whoever's
Andrew doing the certification. Yeah, it's pretty early
Everett to say that it's that that's not happening, but yeah. What's next? Finished my yawn real quick.
Andrew Uh squale. Squale.
Everett So there is a historic
Andrew watch from Squale. The 2001 Marina Militare.
Everett Space Odyssey. Yes. Developed
Andrew for the Italian Navy. Is now available for the public. So this watch was re-released and distributed throughout the Italian Navy in two thousand and twenty-four um and this is a really cool dive watch. It has a 430 crown that has it's not crown guards, but it's certainly crown guards because it's recessed fully into the case. The color, like this, this like really ocean-y blue with the orange minute hand just like works. Uh what I can't and and still struggle to wrap my head around is how brandsike how these these military uh relationships work with brands. Like, I I spent a not insignificant time in the army and was at no point approached about even buying like a unit watch. Like w who who who is in in the room doing development with squale for this for this watch and who's it going to? Uh that's just a that's a that's a a curiosity I have. So it's a 41.5mm case. It's 13 thick, 47.2 lug to lug, uh 600 meters water resistance, Salita SW200 movement. Uh they're only gonna release 500 of these to the public and they're going to come in at about two grand in US money. But these are these are really attractive watches. And everything about them is squally, right? Like you, you look at this watch, if there's no visible logo, you still know exactly who made it. Uh, it's just a little bit different. And I don't know why. I don't know what the Italian Navy men, the Italian seamen did to influence their uh decision making to to make these adjustments. But it's an attractive watch.
Everett Yeah, no, I I think, you know, I I think it's really cool. For a long time, I feel like I'm gonna sneeze, but it's not there. It's like an underdeveloped sneeze, but it's keeping me from uh so for a long time I had it in my head that Squale was really sort of like on that homage. They were on that homage bus. And that they had kind of It's
Andrew an easy opinion to take. You know,
Everett and I think I think maybe that was more true in the
Everett late teens than it is now.
Everett Really, what we've seen is Squale be in squale and they're not they're not homaging anybody else. They've found a space in the last you know half a decade or decade perhaps um to really stand on their own two feet again. And maybe I'm being unfair to them. And you might be at home screaming, saying, No, you just weren't looking at the right stuff. Maybe, maybe. But as a as a consumer of watches, that was the opinion I had formed. And so this last couple of years, you know, some of the watches they release are weird. I'm like, that's interesting, but weird. This is not really weird. This is just cool. This is just cool. Now, Andrew, you asked it you you you brought up a a a a thought about, you know uh I never got a unit watch. Well, you know, I think really sort of uh that territory is reserved for elite units. Not to say that you weren't in an elite unit. Oh,
Andrew I was not in an elite unit. Uh but you weren't.
Everett Yeah. Um nor was I, obviously. I wasn't but I
Andrew didn't have even access to marathon. That shit has an NSN.
Everett I know. Well you know, I I think that those are sort of publicity sort of things. And so like for the day-to-yda soldier. And you know the Amer,ican military is
Andrew huge, right? Compared
Everett to the Italian Navy. How many people are in the Italian Navy? Sixteen. Maybe, maybe a baker's dozen, right? So uh right, uh it it's a different sort of financial commitment, you know. Um but I I don't know are are these are these are the people in these units actually getting these? Is they just available? I I who who fucking knows.
Andrew 29,300 active personnel.
Everett Uh well, that's actually more than I would have thought.
Andrew Takes a lot of people to run a ship.
Everett Yeah. But how many are in the in the US Navy?
Andrew Oh, I don't know. I'll I'll Google that as well.
Everett I'll beat you to it. 340 active duty personnel. Okay. So uh yeah.
Andrew Three hundred and forty thousand. Yeah. Three hundred and forty
Everett thousand. Yeah, did I say three hundred and forty? Yeah. Yeah. Three hundred and forty thousand.
Andrew More more than more than that.
Everett Um no, I I just I I think this is just a really
Andrew that's actually seems small to me. Clever,
Everett uh cleverly designed watch. It's it's both classic and modern looking. It's very squale, which I find I I find it weird to say as I sit here in 2026 to say this is obviously a squale, but it is
Andrew square. I like obviously squale. I like seeing the um nationalism isn't the word that I want to use, but it's but it's the
Everett word but it's the right word to use in
Andrew this. That like it's that Italian pride of this Italian watch company partnering with
Everett patriotism is is the word you're looking for, I think.
Andrew That's the yeah, I guess that's a different
Everett than national. Yeah.
Andrew Different Better.
Everett We live in charged times. Uh
Andrew yeah. I appreciate seeing that patriotism and that that unified Italian spirit of an Italian company doing something with the Italian Navy and then making the product of that something available, even if it's a really short run. Like 500 is is nothing. This is a drop in the bucket. No one will ever see one of these.
Everett Yeah, well, and and and these aren't cheap,
Everett right? We're talking about uh uh 1750 francs. Two
Andrew grand. Or yeah, two thousand bucks,
Everett which you know puts them in sort of doxa territory, and and and we don't get a bracelet, as is often the case with squale. Um, so you know it,'s not an inexpensive watch, but I think it's worth it's 600 meters of water resistance on this thing. Yeah,
Andrew it's a big old bitch. Yeah. Um yeah,
Everett these these are interesting. Salita 200 ones, which is um yeah
Andrew that that's the that's the movement still in that price range
Everett like if you get up to three thousand then a solita two
Andrew hundred you can scoff at but you
Everett you you've said that a couple times. I I I think I I think you know you it gets a little uncomfortable for me at that price, but it it's fine. It's a fine movement. I don't I don't have any problems with it. So um well
Andrew good because you don't have to buy it. Fucker. Was that your
Everett watch? I did pick that watch. Oh okay I picked that watch too. So I'm gonna talk about Glashuta. Glashuta Original or maybe just original uh has released another version of their 70s chronograph. This is the 15 or XV Limited Edition. So they released a version of this watch. This is this is Glashouta's sort of TV dial that they released last year, I believe, in a white panda. They've released it, and that watch, I don't know if we talked about it on the show or not. We definitely talked about it. I thought yeah, this is cool. I I really like the format, but I think the white dial made it look kind of big and flat and And unappealing to me. Well, they've now released this in a reverse panda, so which is to say black with sort of silver subdials, uh, or a whitish silver, a real pale silver and this watch has gone from
Everett meh to holy cow
Everett glassuta where have you been all of my life um I love this watch, Andrew. I love this watch. So this is very much uh a watch that is stylistically grounded in the 70s. Um, it is a limited edition for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, which is to say we probably are going to struggle to get it here, which is one is fine because it's it's an expensive watch. This is a 17,000 euro watch, which is probably about the same in US in US dollars. It is the same structure as the watch they released last year, which is to say it's a 40 by 40 TV with a 46mm lug to lug, a thickness of 14,
Everett which is but not crazy,
Everett um, and a hundred meters of water resistance. Uh we've got a matte lacquered dial, which you can just disappear in.
Andrew You can you can almost taste it.
Andrew It's so like dark and consuming.
Everett Yes. And silver galvanized totalizers. So the real the real story here has to do with the dial. Uh and it is a wild dial. In fact, when you look at it at first glance, it's not wild. You're like, okay, by context. But it's so much more than that. It's it's amazingly legible for what they've packed into it. Um
Andrew Yes. But you really have to
Everett like look like three, four, five times to see what they've packed into it. So we've got um we've got central hours and minutes, a subdial for running seconds, which include a power reserve indicator, which includes a power reserve indicator. We've got Glasshuta's signature panorama date, which has two discs, two discs placed next to each other that rotate, I believe, in opposite directions, uh, which give you your date. We've got a chronograph with central seconds and a 30-minute counter with an arched window that has a 12-hour totalizer.
Andrew Yes. Um one could think that it was maybe a power reserve indicator and be like, I don't super like that. And then you realize it's exactly what you want.
Everett Totalizer, yeah. Um so
Everett it's got an in-house integrated automatic
Everett flyback chronograph. It's the I think the oh, it's the 3702. Uh beautiful movement with glassuda stripes, skeletonized rotor, um seventy hours of power reserve, silicone hairspring, integrated bracelet. This thing's great. It's a $17,000.
Andrew I mean, I was I was gonna say, you're talking about all these features, but it's a $17,000 watch. That's the what I expect at this level.
Everett And look, Glassuta's uh old school badass company. They've been making watches forever. They're one of the survivors. This thing is coming from a real watch company with real chops, but it's terrific. It's super playful and also beautiful and really sort of horologically well done.
Andrew Agreed on all fronts. I love it,
Everett but it's an expensive fucking watch. Yes. That's all I have to say about that.
Everett Okay. Uh we're we're we're at a
Andrew time now where we can decide. There's there's one last watch that I wanted to talk about. Um I know
Everett what I know what it was and you should talk about
Andrew micro mill spec. That's
Everett that's not the watch I thought you were gonna talk about.
Andrew That's the watch I want to talk about. So micro mill spec uh and black badger have part two of their partnership. So Micromill Spec is a brand that we've talked about a few times on the show. Uh, it's a brand that's really fascinating to me uh because of the care in the development of their basically bespoke watches. Uh getting to talk to the owner and hear his design process of sending an initial prototype and then sending like making upgrades and sending the next prototype and and letting the end user really develop the watch is just a really weird and and seems like untenable business model, but it's what he's doing and is creating really cool watches. But this is not Black Badger. Black Badger is a comic book that is in partnership or graphic novel, pardon. Um this iteration, uh the watch has sustained some uh some damage and it's done in such a fun way. So what we have here is it almost looks like the date window is like cratered out, the the markers around it are kind of askew. The hour and GMT hand are bent and twisted, kind of like if if you imagine the crash, if you can't like look this up right now, uh imagine the Cartier crash, just like that kind of twisted damaged uh design language. This is fun. And it's the the case is hang on. Microblasted steel, 42 millimeter case, 50.3 lug to lug, 12.5 thick. Uh the SW330-2 auto GMT movement, 200 meters of water resistance, comes on either a rubber strap or a H-link bracelet. Two
Andrew thousand bucks.
Andrew I this is like fun and novel in a way that's not typical fun and novel.
Andrew How many are they making? Yeah, I think Micro
Everett Mel Spec sits in a really interesting
Andrew place where they can be playful in this way.
Everett Um, you know, I think that gets harder to do. You know, it it looks to me like a brand that could be in the you know, five digits. Um of course they're not, they're not ten thousand dollar watches.
Andrew But but it's the type of brand that could shoot for that kind of thing. Um
Everett but instead they're at this relatively accessible, you know, $2,000 and they get a they get to just do fun things. This is fun. And they're not making so many of them that it's you know, a huge commitment, right?
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. These are cool. Uh
Everett this is this is the one I want to
Andrew talk about because it's fun. And it's like it it's low-key fun. Right? You you're wearing this watch and people aren't gonna notice the fun on your watch. They're gonna see the orange strap and like the very like crispy, icy white dial and the orange minute track. And then that'll be
Everett it. Yeah. But
Andrew then you're wearing this fun like crash landed dial that is still super legible uh and fun.
Everett Well, it it's again not
Everett the watch I thought you were gonna talk about. Well, then you
Andrew talk about it. But I just have noticed that
Everett that the watch I thought you were gonna talk about is not on your list. So uh Timex Atelier has released I think two new models. I think there it's four SKUs, but it's two new models. And they are Timex Atelier's first two chronographs. They are which which add to the diver and the GMT. And they've done an interesting thing. They've released both a quartz and an automatic chronograph in a Timex Atelier case, uh fixed bezels, fixed tachometer bezels, um, but the automatic version comes in a blasted titanium with a black IP coated steel mid-case and the and the quartz is a blasted steel with a black IP steel mid-case. You know, if you've never seen an Atelier, this is sort of, it's got this like sandwich.
Everett Is it a sandwich? Yeah. Uh
Everett basically this yeah, not quite a sandwich. It's something like that. Uh it you we can't describe it. You just have to look. But these are these are
Andrew great. Yeah, they're good. These
Everett are so attractive. Um
Andrew This is the void that we were hoping Timex would fill, except the the mechanical version is 2,000 bucks and the quartz is a thousand. 800.
Everett Dude, I am totally fine with that. Look, I uh this is a two thousand dollar timex and you're gonna be like, holy shit, I'm gonna am I gonna pay 2000 for a Timex? But it's grade five titanium.
Andrew I mean there there's no reason to not.
Everett And it is absolutely stunning. Now the case is a bit more, I think.
Andrew Yeah, that I think that's been the artelier problem from the beginning.
Everett I think the case is a bit more right. With that said, the mid-case, specifically the side profile, with that said, the top down on this, this watch is totally stunning. Now, there is I I recognize a problem, and maybe not everybody is gonna agree with me that this is a problem. I think that because of the movement they've used, and I think it's a Landron movement, Landron L72 automatic chronograph. Because of the movement they've used, well, but it's the same in both of these. Interesting. Um, the subdi-als are heavily concentrated in the middle of the of the watch. And so that's not a super balanced dial, right? Because of the size of these, and I want to say they're 39 millimeters. Andrew, help me.
Andrew Oh wow. 42 millimeters. 42
Everett millimeters for the titanium, 40 for the quartz. Because of the size of the dial here, and it's quite a bit of dial, the the chronograph the the registers are really concentrated towards the middle. I am not a huge fan of that. Maybe you don't care, and if so, take a look at the stuff. I think
Andrew actually your bitch is at the the subdials are are kind of small.
Everett I don't mind that they're small. I wish they
Everett were just pushed out a little bit. And and correct me if I'm wrong and But
Andrew that's a that's a big minute track. Then there's another
Everett correct me if I'm wrong, but these are just north of the equator, right?
Andrew Yes, definitely. Um so in
Everett in fact they're they're not
Everett a los uh no they're they're
Andrew seventy percent north of the equator.
Everett Yeah, I don't know if it yeah, anyway. I I'm
Everett not I'm not gonna do any math. But yeah. I mean, they're on the equator, but not totally on it. So they're just just north of that. Um the pushers on these things are great. The the quartz, the forty millimeter quartz, I think they're a little bit more proud on the titanium. They're sort of sucked into that mid-case. And oh my gosh, this 42 millimeter automatic in titanium. Golly. You
Andrew know what's interesting on the courts, the uh the subdials are center.
Everett Yeah they're to so actually looking at a top down I think you're right the problem that that subdial problem is just with the quartz. W theith lander on automatic, they're much better spaced. Still north of the equator, which is
Andrew fine. Just though. Um,
Everett this 42, the expensive one, is terrific. The proportions are all better. The crown size is better. The dial is better. This gioche on the dial is terrific. The titanium gives it this sort of like warm industrial hue it's it it the the quartz version is much brighter but that titanium oh my gosh this is a really really lovely watch.
Andrew Couldn't agree more. Perfect.
Everett Um, and and if you think about what you're getting, 2000 isn't crazy. The only thing that's gonna give you pause is that it's a timex.
Andrew That yeah, that's it. Am I gonna pay two thousand
Everett bucks for a timex? Well, maybe not, but
Andrew but you should maybe be okay with it. You
Everett should think about it. The blued screws and the movement and the slander on movement, not uh an objectively beautiful movement, but they've done a lot to make it pretty. Um yeah these are great I really like these
Andrew yeah the quartz is okay 2250
Everett on the bracelet for or twenty one hundred on the strap for the titanium. Uh man. This is crazy. This guy says I can't imagine they'll sell more than two or three of these watches at the point at the price point buyers are looking at. Uh that guy's an idiot.
Andrew Yeah, he's not as smart. Not
Andrew a smart guy. Hey, far stool man 1127,
Everett you're dumb. God, that's fat Zuckerberg,
Andrew I bet. Wouldn't
Everett that be the best? He's out
Andrew fuckinging troll Timex
Everett it's fucking portnoy. Uh
Andrew He knows from experience. That's the
Everett best joke you've made on this show of all time. Oh my god.
Andrew Andrew, other things, what do you got? Oh,
Andrew so um I have another thing. I meant to bring it upstairs with me, but I didn't. I've been using a shitty tripod for a spotting scope for a long time. And I finally decided, and even for a camera, like I've just been using a shitty, like like the tripod that came with the kit that had the PVC pipe backdrops and the light bouncers and the perfectly adequate lights. That's what I've been using for a tripod. And about a month ago, I was like, you know, I'm done with this. I'm gonna spend a little bit of money. And I'm gonna buy a tripod. So I bought the Vortex Mountain Pass tripod kit with panhead. Um, first of
Everett all, it was so much
Andrew better than the shitty uh tripod that I had that I I couldn't figure out how to use it initially. I'm like, well, why can't I? Oh, oh, because this is that's what this handle does. Um so it's a hundred and fifty bucks. It's not lightweight. Um it weighs forty-nine point six ounces. Uh, which which makes it a little beefy, and that's okay. It comes with its own carrying case, it locks down super tight and then traverses like every movement you want to do because of how precise the manufacturing is, you can be super precise in your positioning of it, such that when I had it locked down, I was totally fine with my 11-year-old getting behind the spotting scope that he wouldn't mess with it. Uh also because it's meant for uh because it's a it's made by Vortex and is an outdoor company, it has a fourth leg in the middle from which to hang weights to counterbalance if you're like really yanking around on it. So you can hang some heavy shit, like the the bag that is on your back, you can hang that off of it and even better counterbalance and stabilize your your viewing platform. This thing, I I I regret going so long with a shitty tripod.
Everett Yeah. No, you it's a mistake. It's a huge mistake.
Andrew Because 150 bucks is not much for the amount of comfort and convenience that this immediately contributed to my life.
Everett No, you know, Andrew, I I think about
Everett 20 years ago. Mabe ay little bit more
Everett than that. No, probably about 20
Everett years ago. Uh, there was when it came to tripods. So what what would that be?
Everett Yeah, that's right. So I would say in the
Everett uh let's say in the year 2000, let's say 26 years ago, there was the the the prevailing theory was that there was a couple of brands of tripods that you could buy. You could buy a Manfrotto if you were if you were scraping if you had the money you should buy a ghetzo or if you're in videography you should buy a sackler and anything anything besides those was going to cause you pain and misery. That changed in some time in the Odyssey,
Andrew right? When a handful
Everett of companies started releasing, really, there was just two or three manufacturers that started coming out with both aluminum and carbon versions of the same tripod. And it was like for the first time ever, like you could get an affordable like hundred dollar tripod.
Everett Well, it now here we are
Everett in twenty twenty six. And I think that there are more if if you were spending a hundred bucks, you're gonna get a tripod that you really, really love. And so you have uh probably you might not love it, but that is gonna serve you well. It's not like the 90s where you had gizzos and then trash, right? A hundred dollar tripod is going to serve you super well today. So if you're using a shitty tripod,
Everett don't go, you don't have to go get the weird hunting vortex
Everett one. But you can. But you can. You can
Andrew walk into a Cabela's today, that's right, buy it off the shelf for $150. It's all aluminum. The one thing that I would say I was kind of reluctant about is its flip-locks.
Everett I think that's okay. That's okay. I I
Andrew think I would have preferred like twist locks. The
Everett twist locks. Yeah. I think flip locks have their utility.
Andrew But flip locks actually absolutely do. And for my application, I don't need it to be super quick adjust. Yeah. Like I I'm I'm using it either like with a spotting scope on the side of a hill or next to a bench. Yeah. I don't need a really versatile, quick versatile tripod. But I it's uh it's fantastic. It's heavy, it's it's a bit of a clunker. Uh but it was I just immediately I was like, oh, you're a fucking idiot. Yeah. Like, why did you do this to yourself for sure? If
Everett you're still using a shitty tripod, stop doing it.
Andrew Yeah. 150 bucks is not much.
Everett No. Stop stop using a shitty tripod. There's no reason in twenty twenty six to be using a shitty tripod. You don't even have to spend that much. You could spend eighty bucks I'm sure and get a really good tripod in twenty twenty six.
Andrew Yeah, certainly read a couple reviews and
Everett and get a better tripod. What'd
Andrew you find on Etsy? Um, you have to say a thing.
Everett Oh, uh I've got another thing. Do we? Um So I don't know how many weeks ago now it is, and it doesn't really matter. One of my other thing was the quote unquote icon meme tool from Harbor Freight. And I got this thing. I said kind of late to the kind of late to the party on this thing, but I just love it. You know, it's got this tiny little pass-through ratchet. If you don't know what I'm talking about, the icon meme tool is a quarter inch hex driver set that includes this little teeny, just this adorable little teeny baby ratchet, and a bunch of quarter inch hex bits and some uh yeah, that's it. That's what it includes. And a really great case. Uh, over the last two or three years, people have spent a lot of time thinking about this product, and in fact, a lot of companies had come out with competing products, um, and so there's hacks, there's mods that you can do to this thing to increase its functionality. Well, on red, I was on Reddit about a week ago on the Harbor Freight subreddit, as you do, and I saw a post, someone had purchased a Etsy mod for their icon meme tool. And what what it what it was, what it is, is a 3D printed attachment. It is a precisely printed attachment which comes down over the size side of the meme tool and attaches to it and allows you to add things. Now, I love one of my new favorite things is to shout out Etsy makers in our other things. And so that's what I'm gonna do. And in fact, this is an Etsy maker from Oregon. He's from Ben. He's not from Eugene. We don't know this person. Uh, never met him. He's not paying me to say this. High Desert 3D Prince. So we'll be a link in the show notes. High Desert 3D Prince is the, I believe, designer and maker of this thing. And what a
Andrew seller. I believe
Everett that he is the designer and maker, but you're right. He is at least the seller, but I believe he's also the designer and maker of these. Uh what this does is it allows you to on top of the original small icon means. So there's new icon meme tool. It's got sockets and stuff, but it's not as good. It's bad. What this allows you to do is take the original, the best version of the icon meme tool, and it allows you to add six sockets. I've got a thirteen,
Everett a fourteen, a twelve,
Everett a ten, an eight and a seven millimeter socket, which are like ninety percent of the socket sizes you're gonna use in everyday life. Sure. There's no nine. There's no eleven. Anyway, it allows you to clip on this
Everett teeny little O-light.
Everett What is the model here? And you b you bought
Andrew it just because that was what was in the It is the
Everett I3T yeah, but it's fift thirteen bucks.
Andrew Yeah, they cost nothing. I3T two
Everett EOS. It is a triple A, single, triple A O light that's got a high and a low function, and that's it, nothing more.
Andrew Reversible pocket clip, which is baller. Or like the two-way pocket clip is
Everett two-way pocket clip. And and I don't have it, but it also allows you to attach a four-inch Kanipex Cobra. Uh the XS four-inch Kanipex Cobra, which goes right under the O light. Uh, I don't have that tool and so it's not here on mine. But in theory, you could uh also attach that and it just it's tiny. Like this thing is about the size of
Andrew but it's getting bigger. It is getting
Everett bigger. That's true. But it drops in my back. It drops in my briefcase, no problem. I just bloop and it drops in the briefcase.
Everett It's a you know, it's about the size
Everett of a um, you know, not a tiny, but a medium size point and shoot camera. That's what it's about the size of.
Andrew It it's it's actually it's I'd say pretty close to the size of your Fuji.
Everett It it's too big to put in
Everett a pair of jeans, like in the pocket of jeans.
Andrew Yeah. But not too big to put in
Everett the like a cargo pocket. Don't do that. That's weird.
Andrew Wear Zons or cargo pockets? A cargo. Both actually. Don't do either of those things.
Everett Put this in a in a cargo pocket. Don't don't do that. That's weird. Um, but certainly if you wanted something in the glove box of your car. Um also, it's just so cool. It's just I don't even know what I need this for. I don't need it for anything. But I just love it. It's so cool. So anyway, high desert 3D prints. Um
Everett yeah, go check them out. And if you've
Everett got an icon meme tool, get one of these things and put it on your icon meme tool because it just makes it cooler and i love it i'm very much in the ecosystem and i am i'm excited to have purchased this thing and i just love it. And it's got my it's got my cat branded
Andrew It's got your white label snap on perhaps out the backdoor snap on tools.
Everett Sockets inside of it, which I think just makes it even cooler.
Andrew I I I do accept your position.
Everett Anyway, that's my other thing.
Andrew That's a okay other thing.
Everett Do you want to talk about anything else? No, I'm
Andrew out of things. Folks, thanks for joining us for this
Everett episode of 40 and 20, the WatchClicker Podcast. You can go to our website, WatchClicker.com, or you can follow us on social media at Instagram at 40 and 20 underscore watchclicker or at watchclicker. Those are the those are the things you should follow
Everett if you want to support us and oh boy
Everett we hope you do you can do that at patreon.com slash forty and twenty like that is how
Everett we get all of the money we need to keep doing this.
Everett So if you don't give us money, we don't keep doing this.
Everett And maybe we will. I
Everett don't know. We will actually. And
Everett don't forget to tune back in next Tuesday, Wednesday,
Everett or Thursday or some other day for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew Bye bye.