203: Choosing ONE vacation watch for two weeks. Also double NWA!

We decide to go on a two week vacation to Portugal with just one watch each, and talk through how we chose what we chose, why they were the right watches for this trip, and how that ended up working out. Also, we have two new watches to discuss! Vu decides that one watch might be fine, but asks Delugs to help out with additional straps so he can keep changing the look.

Habring2 Erwin Pilot

Kurono 34mm Star Dial

Delugs straps for Vu’s watch (provided by Delugs):

- Black Epsom Slim Strap

- Olive Green Sailcloth Signature Strap

- Black Pilot Rubber CTS Strap

- Orange Pilot Rubber CTS Strap

- Delcro Woodland Tri-Weave

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Bum, bum, bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum, bum, bum bum.
Welcome to this watch life. Hi, I'm Lydia Winters.
And I'm Boo booey and we're we're not in our studio.
No. I bet you can really tell from.
This we're recording on the road.
On the road well OK, we're recording from a it's not a
hotel. What would you?
No, it's called Turismo. Rural.

(00:22):
OK, A. Farm.
Yes, we're in a little farmhouse.
OK, We're not. In a farm hotel.
OK, no, there are adorable animals outside.
There are llamas, alpacas. Uh huh, uh huh.
Donkeys, horses, horses, baby horses, literal baby.
Look, I know they're called fools, but I don't care.
They're a baby horse to me. I think we've had this talk on

(00:43):
the podcast before. It's a baby horse.
There was also a baby goat. The baby horses were born a few
days before we got here, yeah. Yeah, that was pretty amazing.
OK, we should start off by Oh yeah, we've been on vacation.
We're on vacation. In Portugal we are still there.
We planned to record last week. You may have noticed that there
was a lack of episode. Maybe.

(01:03):
And look, we have excuses a lot,but I feel that these excuses
are very strong, very strong excuses.
Much better than our typical excuse.
Yes. OK, so the excuses are #1 an
international emergency, Yes. Power outage.
So we were here in Portugal, Yeah, when the power was out in
Portugal, Spain and a small partof France.

(01:25):
Yeah. And it was.
It was a big deal here 'cause the entire, almost the entire
country lost power. We were.
That's a big deal. We were in Lisbon, I was getting
my hair cut, Which? Were mid haircut.
I was mid haircut, which luckilyI don't know why the guy was
using Clippers that were batterypowered, but I'm, I think I

(01:47):
thank him very much because he he was mid like mid buzzing the
sides, the sides were getting clipped and then all the power
went out and he was so apologetic but kept going in the
dark. And I did not care because I was
like, at least we're still going.
Thank you. And you were at the hotel?
I was at the hotel. I was, I had just turned on the

(02:09):
water for a shower. And then I was like, oh, well,
that's annoying that the power has gone out in our hotel.
Yes. And I was like, well, that
shouldn't affect anything. However, immediately water
started losing pressure. OK.
And for me, I was thinking it was just because I was in this
tiny little little, you know, hair cutting studio.

(02:30):
Yeah, like just tiny. And then all the neighbors were
coming over is like, oh, it's out for everyone.
So I was like, oh, this little St.
Yeah, yeah, in this little. It's hard to just quarter.
Well, OK, our power goes out fairly often at home.
We live on on a small dirt road and you know, 3-4 times a year
the power goes out and goes out for a few hours and then it
comes. And then it's always like a

(02:50):
little neighborhood chat and yougo, oh, your power is out.
Oh, my, yeah. OK, everybody, you know, you're
like, it wasn't just us. So I'm texting, I'm trying to
send a message to you to say like, oh, it's the power out at
the hotel. Because as I'm walking back,
it's like everyone's outside. And so then I started to think,
oh, it's like the city of Lisbon, just like a like a big

(03:11):
city. And then, you know, as I'm
walking back, then it starts to be like all of Europe.
So you know that this is what this is what people are saying.
So it starts to get a little more like nerve wracking and
like nothing's working. I was very close.
So I'm walking back, I meet you out because our our hotel room

(03:32):
had an open window like to the street.
So I just knocked on the window and you're like, the power is
out here. Well, the weird thing was that
all cell service itself wasn't working either.
So we couldn't message, couldn'tlook things up.
Obviously some people were able to get through, but we weren't.
No, and I'm not saying I rely onmy phone completely and utterly,

(03:54):
but I rely on my phone completely and utterly.
Well, this, this whole experience, I think, well, we've
talked about it multiple Times Now.
It was also a little wake up call of like being a little
complacent and reliant on the Internet for everything, for
sure. Direct access to the Internet,

(04:15):
you know, like we kind of live lives where we we need
information often, but we don't do a good job of saving it
offline. So we had to leave Lisbon that
day to go to our next hotel, which was over 300 kilometers
away. Should have been a 3 1/2 hour
drive up into the mountains and we had no way to navigate there

(04:37):
because Google Maps wasn't working.
Nothing was working. Nothing that we needed direct
access to the Internet was working.
So we were actually like, it felt very old, old, old timey,
I'm going to say, because we were like walking up hills to
see if we could get some. Receptor.
And it really felt like the old commercials, like, can you hear
me now? Yeah, We're just holding the

(04:58):
phone. They're like Oh my map is is 10%
downloaded. Yeah, so we downloaded offline
maps on Google Maps, got in the car, and we're like, all right,
let's hit the road. 3 1/2 hour drive.
It wasn't quite that simple. No.
First of all, at the hotel they had to go and manually like drag

(05:19):
these the garage doors open. Yeah, that's when you start to
feel. And you're like, wait, no, this
is there's no power in Portugal.No.
So that started to feel weird. You don't have a lot of access
to, you know, the like any information.
So we start driving, and I wouldsay we start driving, but we

(05:40):
start being in traffic. And our main thing was like, oh,
we need to get some gas. And that's where you're like,
oh, this feels like that part isgoing to be.
Yeah. It did end up feeling tricky.
I for some reason in my brain, Iwas like, not gas stations are
going to have generators, which did end up being true later.

(06:03):
But the main thing was because all power was out in the entire
country, payment systems were also down.
So like you had to go to a placethat had generators, which many
of the gas stations, but not allof them did.
Then they still had to have gas because there was immediately a
run on gas and all of the city and close to the city, they were

(06:24):
out of gas. So we had gone to seven gas
stations and still had no gas. And we were.
We were, you know, it was starting to get to the point
where we actually had to think like maybe we have to find, like
we can't get to the we didn't. Have enough guests to get to our
next destination? And so then we need to find a
place to stay without using the like door not door knocking

(06:49):
hotel, which is a very interesting it it was a it was a
weird day when we finally found gas.
It was very exciting. It was, we did luckily have cash
because we are like. Portugal is still a a partially.
Yeah, and we're a, we're cashless Swedes.
So typically, honestly travelling back and forth to

(07:09):
Germany every other week has been my first time, like
actually using euro. Yeah, I.
Mean, I would say having cash because for those who don't know
like Stockholm had the goal of being cashless society and like
they are accomplishing it. It's like a lot of the cash has
been retired basically differentcoins and also.

(07:32):
Many places do not take care. Many, many places.
I mean, even when my mom came tovisit, I think in, you know,
2017, I remember her saying like, oh, I have a lot of cash,
I'll pay for this. And I was like, you can't pay
for anything in our hipster neighborhood.
It is card only. So we did have cash.
We got the gas. We also OK, this is just

(07:54):
something for all of you to knowabout Vu and I, we bought so
many snacks. That's that's.
We would have survived the apocalypse on snacks.
Except we didn't, because we ateall the snacks because we're all
so stressed eaters. I promise.
We were half hour into the drive, snacks were gone.
OK, OK, here's the thing. This was the, the, you know,

(08:17):
Portugal and Spain both declarednational emergencies.
This was probably quite terriblefor a lot of people.
However, for us, we were on vacation, so we had no
responsibilities. We just wanted to stay in a, a
place that felt nice that night.And we had already booked and
paid for a hotel. So our biggest stress was can we
make it to our hotel or do we have to go and just find a?

(08:40):
Local. That's a very privileged stress
during a national emergency where other people were like
couldn't get home to their families, buses and all kinds of
transit was down. Like there were huge problems.
Also, it took us 4 hours that the entire drive that should
have gotten us to the mountains,we went 5 kilometers and got out
of the city. So like it, it was not good for

(09:04):
a lot of people, but for us it was mainly an inconvenience and
we were slightly stressed because we're in a country that
we haven't spent much time in anyway.
Why did we come to Portugal? But wait, so then that day then
then that felt like 3 days. So take that for the first
excuse. Second excuse is that we got

(09:24):
terrible food. Poisoning.
I was going to save this conversation.
I wasn't going to go from disaster to disaster.
Well, I'm just saying these are the excuses why we didn't
podcast. OK, so we we will not go into
any detail, but essentially we did end up making it to our
hotel then making it to our nextH3 days later.

(09:46):
Which is where we are now in thecountryside.
And then? On the coast, the.
Day we arrived, everything went bad for us and we had three days
of, let's just call it, downtime.
So I will say we don't know how to vacation, but that in summary
that is why we did not podcast last week and I hope you accept

(10:12):
those reasons those. Are those yeah reasons we won't
call? Them OK, but happy now is that
we're in Portugal. Exactly, I love Portugal.
So you love Portugal and it was your birthday?
Yes, And we put those two thingstogether and created a Portugal
trip. Yes, I've been to Portugal

(10:32):
twice, once to list and once on the Algarve coastline and.
And I've never been. You've never been.
And I just, I don't. There's something about Portugal
I just absolutely love. It's one of my favorite places.
And we wanted to kind of like doto call it an experiment sounds
so silly, but I, I feel like we're in a safe space.

(10:54):
We're talking to other watch enthusiasts right now, so maybe
they'll understand what we mean.The big experiment was can we
each just choose one watch and bring one watch on this trip and
this? Was your experiment and I wanted
no part of it leading up to the trip.
That is true. You did not commit to it it.
Was just something else that happened that forced me into.

(11:17):
My idea was I would reach out toKen at Deluxe and say, hey, I'm
getting this new watch which wasgoing to arrive Friday before we
left Saturday, and I would like to bring only this watch on this
trip. And I would like to bring
multiple strap options. And instead of having multiple

(11:37):
watch options, just have strap options.
It goes against kind of everything that I've known for
the past 1314 years when I started like collecting.
I'm air quoting collecting because let's not get into that.
But like once I had multiple watches that I always wanted to
have with me. I always traveled with multiple
watches. This is 2 week trip that we're

(12:00):
now right at the end of that we did not have multiple watches,
or at least I didn't. Well, neither did you, but your
your plan was different. But I OK, so if we if we back
up. Oh, is that your backup sound?
If we go back in time, so my watch collecting really started

(12:23):
during the pandemic. So when I pre prior to the
pandemic, when I was travelling all the time for work, I
travelled with one watch only, typically my Rolex date just on
the Oyster bracelet. Like I, that was my exclusive
travel watch. So I, I went all around the
world with that one watch. Then pandemic happens, there's

(12:44):
no travelling and I get super into watches, I get all these
new watches. So then when things started
opening up after COVID and people started traveling a
little more, I would say I like overcorrected as an enthusiast
because I wanted to bring all the watches to every
destination. So at the height of my watch

(13:07):
travelling, especially when I was going to Florida, because
that was quite easy because it was a, you know, in a safe
place, single destination. But then I was bringing a watch
roll with three watches plus a watch on my wrist.
I over time it's been paired down, down, down.
And then now when I'm travellingback and forth to Berlin, I

(13:28):
typically have a watch. And so that's also helped
because what I realize is especially when I'm staying in
hotels, like I don't want to leave a bunch of watches in the
room. Have to think about it.
Oh, where is that watch? Where is it going to be?
Even Geneva this year I only brought one watch, which
compared to last year, I think Ihad two or three.

(13:48):
So I am recovering from needing all the watches.
I, I mean, I did bring all the clothes on this vacation.
Vu told me that if I didn't wearthem all, he was going to.
This is a quote, leave me here in Portugal.
So I am wearing like a suit jacket that I brought for some
reason. Plus, a little like now, the

(14:10):
past few days I've been wearing basically the weirdest outfits
in the evenings when we're at the hotel just to prove I'm
wearing everything. In my defense, what I actually
said is if you want me to carry this suitcase around because you
wanted to check a bag, true, true, true.
And you packed it so heavy and Isaid, and you said you don't
have to worry about it. It's my suitcase.

(14:30):
So I said I know that I will carry this suitcase more than
you will. So if you want me to help you
with this suitcase, you have to wear these things.
This is my life, so you're everyone understands that.
I, I feel like that's totally fair.
I was like, I'm totally willing to carry this suitcase if you're
willing to wear all the things you bring.
OK, but, but all of that to say,previously I was my I was

(14:55):
picking a lot of watches to travel with.
So the choices didn't, the choices weren't that important
because I typically had like a maybe dressier watch and then a
bunch of sports watches. And I yeah, yeah, not even I
typically don't travel with my Tank because it has too much
sentimentality to me. You had travelled with a few
times, but. Shows we do and that kind of

(15:16):
stuff. Yeah, I got pictures.
I got receipts. I think he's wrong.
We will double check. This little picture see you at
the next episode. And so for this trip, I had been
thinking I would bring, you know, maybe 2 watches because
it's a two week trip and then that gives me some versatility.

(15:39):
But you had your plan, so we'll go with your plan first.
Yeah, no, my plan was, I mean, it's basically one watch,
multiple strap options, different colors and different
styles for the different things we're going to do.
This vacation was meant to be part relaxation, part adventure,

(15:59):
part beach, part, you know, like, so it's we had all these
different things we want to do and instead of bringing multiple
watches for those things, I wanted one watch that would fit
all of those things. And then kind of have a little
kit of these deluxe watch strapsand all of them have quick
release, right? So I can just pop them on, pop
them off. And I have changed straps like 2

(16:22):
to three times a day, which is abnormal for me.
I because I don't usually travelwith many straps.
I usually travel with many watches.
I'll choose the strap for each watch or the bracelet or
whatever I'm going to put on it and then that's it.
But on this trip it was like no one watch head and then many
strap options. And I thought that was far too
extreme to do so. Instead I ended up with one

(16:45):
watch head and one strap only. OK, so the the whole point of
this episode is to actually talkabout this plan and the success
or not success of it. And also both watches that we
wore are NWS new watches. So we wanted to also talk about
our new watches. But one of the things that I

(17:07):
thought ended up being cool about bringing multiple straps
and it this ties into something I said earlier is that I
realized that our preparedness strategy for travel was
inadequate. This trip taught us that on two
big occasions, 1 was the national emergency where we
hadn't downloaded enough things and I just didn't feel ready for
everything. And then and the afterwards we

(17:29):
got really sick. And then I realized like we
didn't even bring like a first aid kit or like the basic
medicines that I used to travel with all of these things.
But COVID did disrupted my thoughts on having a travel kit
and all of that. And I just.
I don't even know how to travel anymore.
I haven't put it back together, but now that is not to say I

(17:49):
brought nothing on this trip. I did bring.
It is Boo, after all. I did bring a few things and
they have come in quite handy. So one of the things I brought
is my small Rovi Vaughn A 80. Did you hear the donkey was just
spraying? I didn't even hear it myself.
OK, but I so the I brought the Robyvon A8 and that flashlight

(18:12):
came in super handy when we werein a blackout, both when we were
leaving the hotel because insidethe hotel it was super dark, but
also when we arrived at our mountain hotel where there there
was no power. So that was really cool.
I also usually travel within Europe at least with a tiny
Victorinox like a tiny Swiss army knife.

(18:34):
But lately I've been taking the jet setter which doesn't have a
blade on it. Now in within the EU you are
technically allowed to travel with blades under 6 centimeters,
but you're also not allowed to travel with a weapon, so it it
is up to the agents to decide. Whether or.
Not what you have is a weapon and I think that's a good thing.

(18:56):
But I also bring this VictorinoxSwiss card light and it has a
tiny blade on it. It's like a 2cm blade, like it's
a very small but mainly what I care about is the scissors and
then does it have a tiny? Magnifying glass on it, it does
also. Because mainly you'd use that
with the tweezers to be able to like let's say you, you get a

(19:17):
splinter, you can wait, I can use it.
As a loop, well, you can use. It as a loop and look more
closely at your watch yes you can has a pen on it I mean and
it it's like a credit card it fits in your wallet so I love
that one that one's cool. And it's fairly.
Inexpensive it's like €30.00 so if it ever does get confiscated
I will replace it. But I've brought it probably on

(19:37):
maybe 10 plane trips without it being an issue.
So I, I think that most agents don't even it's never even
they've never even pulled it outto look at it.
They're just like, it just goes through it sits in my wallet no
problem. And then the other kind of EDC
ish thing that I brought is everyday.
Carry for those of you who don'tknow my.

(19:58):
It's it's it's. The what?
It's the way that it's the way that people have now branded,
you know what moms have been doing forever, which is just a
purse full of supplies. The original.
The original EDC errs are moms. I love to say that because when
I was younger or every I've everknown has always had a big bag

(20:21):
with them, at least one, maybe multiple, and it has everything
they need because they've got these kids.
Yeah, right. And so, you know, we have now
adopted that without the kids and just have the EDC part.
Well, no, no. No, you, you have because I have
like as much as I've packed, I have very little that could

(20:42):
support us in any sort of crisissituation.
I did bring some medicine, yeah,but you always have a.
Pad and you always have a pen and you always say so you do
have EDC, you just they're just not.
Used brand to life. No, they're not useful to a
crisis. That's what I was saying.
You had the more crisis A. Little bit and I so I have these
Knifex pliers, they're the cobraexcess that everyone loved for a

(21:04):
while. I keep them in my wallet and
I've used them twice on this trip, once because our license
plate on our rental was falling off and the other time to fix
the table that we're recording on right now.
Yeah, Yeah. So I'd say success on those
things. OK, it's time.
What is your new watch alert? What is your new watch?
Oh, what? Is my new and then wait, have I

(21:26):
not even said no we haven't. Said it.
Oh, OK. Yeah.
All right, building. Suspense.
You must keep listening if you want to know.
Are you intrigued? Listener, my new watch is the
Hobbering to Irwin pilot. OK, if you don't know anything
about hovering, which I didn't afew years ago, I've only been

(21:46):
looking at them for maybe two orthree years.
It's a husband and wife team, Maria and Richard Hobering,
hence the name Hobering 2, whichI think is a really cool name.
I like Maria came up with it. They were, you know, trying to
figure out the name. But like Maria and Richard
putting all that into a name seems like a lot.
Hovering 2. It looks like hovering squared

(22:07):
the way that it's written, but they say hovering 2 I really
love. That because it is when you have
the one name, especially in watches, then everyone would
only assume that it is the watchmaker.
Yeah. Yeah.
And then you would in in watchesyou would then assume it is the
man. Now they have the name have.
Worked in watches for a long time and I think they met while

(22:28):
both working at Lange, but I believe that Richard is the main
watchmaker and Maria is the mainbusiness person in their
interviews. That's what it sounds like.
That doesn't mean that Maria isn't at all a watchmaker.
I don't know if she is because Isaw an image where she was doing
watchmaking. So I I don't know.
I I haven't spoken to them in enough detail to know all the

(22:48):
details of it. But I do like, part of what I
love about Hovering 2 is that kind of story and their brand,
this story of the two of them. They worked at Lange together.
I believe that's where they met.But also, Richard worked at IWC.
He is kind of famous for developing the IWC doppel
chronograph. Like that was a really big deal

(23:09):
during his tenure. This is 30 years ago at IWC, and
they founded Harboring 2 in 2004.
So it's been around for 26 years.
Yeah, right. Wait, no, 21 years.
I was like that. Math Whoops 20.
One years and like I, I've learned a lot about them and

(23:30):
what they're about by watching this one talk.
It's on YouTube, it's on the Horological Society of New
York's YouTube channel and they,they did a talk there maybe 5 or
6 years ago really great talk talks about how they develop
their own movements. It took time and finding the
right partners and suppliers andthey are like they talk about

(23:53):
their partners as though they are part of the same company
like you. Know they.
Make in house movements but theyhave partners and suppliers who
help supply those parts. But those partners aren't making
the movements. They are making parts and then
they are doing assembly and but that also.
Is more important, I think like outside of the Swiss industry.
And so we see it a lot in in German watchmaking and Japanese

(24:17):
watchmaking. And they're they're making
watches in Austria, in Austria. And so.
You know, you do have this different sort of community feel
because you know, that you're the underdogs, British
watchmaking, you know, like you're like, we're not Swiss and
we're proud of that. And how do we build on it and
build more, you know, techniques?
And especially because I was actually passively listening to

(24:40):
the the talk as you were actively, as you were actively
watching it. And it was really interesting to
hear how they're trying to develop things.
And then the other, you know, small watchmakers can also use.
And I think that is a maybe a different spirit than you see in
some of the more. OK, we'll see if you can hear a

(25:00):
donkey. That's the donkey break.
It does it about once an hour. I love it.
I love the donkey like. Would you like to be on our
podcast? It's called this watch live so
their. Suppliers and partners are
mostly within Austria, of course, Germany and Switzerland.
And you know, these are three countries that are all right
next to each other. So when they show a map of all

(25:23):
of their partners, it is really nice to see it's it's not local.
Local in the way that sometimes you think of local when you
think of local food, usually you're thinking with maybe 100
kilometer radius, but you also. Need a specialization?
Exactly. It's different when you're
talking about manufacturing. And so then that local becomes a
little bit bigger, but still fora watch company quite small

(25:45):
right in, in, in terms of distance.
One of their signature conference complications is the
deadbeat seconds. OK.
Which has. Please.
Explain this, because I did not know what this was.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, OK.
So deadbeat seconds is also sometimes referred to as jumping

(26:06):
seconds and essentially jumping.Stuff now.
Are you in your jumping era? I don't know.
I have jump. Hour jump seconds, No jump
minutes. OK.
That's my next. Complication.
So the the the easiest way to say is like if you've seen a
quartz watch, then you know whatjumping seconds looks like.
It moves once per second. So instead of, you know,

(26:28):
depending on the the beat rate of a movement, it'll go any
anywhere between as low as like 4 all the way up to 10 or even
more times per second. And so you see that when you
zoom in as these little, tiny little as the second hand moves
around, which is what Spring Drive is totally different from
Spring Dr. does not stop once per 8 seconds or one 1/8 wait

(26:54):
one eighth seconds per time. And this is the.
First time you're massing? Really instead?
It's just a smooth sweep. And then you have quartz, which
once per second it just goes tick there.
Now there are, you know, differences like Grand Seiko,
it's kind of two ticks. But anyway, it it looks like one
tick per second and that's what this watch does.

(27:15):
So when you look at it, it's very funny, I think to buy a
very nice, a not inexpensive watch beautifully.
Decorated and and everything is amazing about it.
And then it ticks like quartz and I kind of love that food
the. Contrary so like.
I first became interested in this complication when we went

(27:38):
to visit JLC Jeje Lacoute in 2015 and they had just released
their Geophysic True second. They did decided not to call it
the Deadbeats second. They call it second.
In second, yeah, Nice branding. It's good branding, yeah.
And so that watch had come out in like 2015 Will Halbering to

(28:00):
release their deadbeat seconds movement in 2007.
So they've been doing this for areally long time.
Wow, I didn't realize that. They're not the.
First ever deadbeat seconds, butI do believe I read somewhere
and so. But that.
They were the first essentially like a scale manufacturer of

(28:20):
deadbeat seconds movement and and obviously their scale is
also. Quite a reasonable.
Scale, yeah. And this model, the Irwin pilot.
So the Irwin is their deadbeat seconds line and the pilot is
essentially a pilot's watch in design.

(28:40):
In the look of it, the dial. This was released in 2020, which
I also thought was interesting because I've had multiple people
ask me like, oh, that's like thePatek, the 5226G and actually
actually the this watch, you didn't see it.
Babu kind of pushed up his glasses and he said Now listen

(29:01):
here, you. Listen.
This one was. Released in 2020 the Patek was
released it's in 2022. So I I you know, not that
there's a lot this also this design has been around forever
like this design Harkins back tothe flieger, you know pilots
watches of old. So it's, but it's a beautiful
dial. It's black, it's textured.

(29:23):
It looks kind of like a leatherette covering on the
camera, right, but on a smaller scale.
And then the only text on the dial besides the numerals, the
Arabic numerals is hovering 2 and Austria, right like up at
12:00. I have to.
Say I love that. Could we?
Could we? Could we have more?

(29:44):
Have more watches? Where people get rid of all the
stuff. I I prefer the look, honestly,
of just a logo. Yeah, that, that's my
preference. Yeah, I get.
It sometimes it balances out a dial no I.
I don't need to. See that it's 200m water
resistance on the dial. Or that it's.
Automatic. But.

(30:06):
However automatic, if it's a vintage inspired watch,
automatic might make sense because back in the day that was
like a big feature. You know.
You'd still didn't need it on the dial, right?
It reminds me of when you buy ATV and there's the stickers in
the corner that have all the features.
And like in my dad's Asian community in Southern

(30:31):
California, a lot of people would still just leave those
stickers on. And it always annoyed me.
You couldn't see in the corner, but they're like there's the
specs you want to. Know you want to know what this
what this does exactly my. Dad's Vietnamese friends.
So it's got cathedral hands, it's got Arabic numerals,
they're printed. It's just a railroad minute
track. I like the radium colored hand

(30:53):
hands and the dots at the hours.I just I really love it.
It's a pilots watch, but I I guess technically the way I've
been thinking about it and even using it is more like a field
watch. There's not terrible differences
between pilots watches and fieldwatches.
They both kind of do the same thing.
I mean, pilots watches, maybe the crown will be a little

(31:16):
bigger so you can utilize glovesand, and still operate the
crown. And you know, there are a few
differences on on some, but on these more basic ones where
there's only the numeral, the our numerals, then field watch,
pilot watch, they do the same thing.
They tell the time and they're made to be, you know, like tool
watches. I, I love the size and the feel

(31:39):
of the watch. The case is 38.5mm, which for me
is a great case size. It's only 9mm thick and that
makes it just fit. Yeah, it's beautiful.
Well, on the wrist. I love the thinness of it, but
not it's not overly thin. It doesn't feel dressy.
It's just like this great balance at 9mm and about 47 lug

(32:00):
to lug. I did measure it, but I don't
remember. I don't have the measurements
from home and the whole case is brushed.
So overall it's just got this like what you'd expect out of a
pilots watch, except for the ticking seconds, which is white.
It's really beautiful. Yeah, it has that.
Look okay. So that's that's your new watch,
that is. The the new watch I, I should

(32:22):
say it also has an open case back and so the the in house
movement totally visible. It's a very, very interesting
architecture and how they've made it.
I need to share pictures of thisonline, but it's like a really
beautifully decorated movement for the price.
Has some polished bevels, reallynice details in it, but also the

(32:45):
the I think the architecture hasthis central bridge with three
prongs that I don't know how to describe perfectly, but that's
where the seconds ticking mechanism is.
And it's just yeah, I, I, I really think that's cool.
Another thing that I thought wasreally cool is that they ship it
with your first service kit. So what?
What they ship. It with the all the gaskets you

(33:08):
need for its first service. Oh, that's.
Cool. Yeah, so.
That you don't have to send it back to them necessarily.
I mean, you know, for, OK, we live in Europe, so maybe it's a
little easier. But like, let's say you were
buying one of these watches in the US or in Vietnam or
somewhere else. Like then you could technically
just do its first service locally, but have the exact

(33:29):
gaskets and everything that you need in order to maintain the
water resistance and put it all back together.
O and the packaging was a a woodbox like I I just yeah, I I've
loved everything about this experience.
Also, I bought it from Infinity.You know, you can't find these
everywhere There, there, there are a DS out there, but the

(33:49):
stock has been tough to find. So I found one at Infinity
watches in the Czech Republic. They, they have a small shop in
Prague which we have to go and visit and they were super
helpful. They held it for me for a little
while, like it was an awesome experience with them as well,
but then I finally got the watchright before we left.
Yes, so. You got the watch.

(34:10):
Actually when I was, I went on atrip to Berlin for work and that
was during my birthday week and you had decided you would save
one of my birthday presents tillwe got back.
You got this watch and then I was getting back Friday
afternoon. We were leaving Saturday morning
to go support. Present.
Yes. But you didn't know what it was.
No. And so my present from you was

(34:33):
the Korano Tokyo 34mm star dial.Which I had.
Actually seen in Geneva when we visited HCI and got to meet
again Hajimya Sooka, who I just personally love.
I think he's just delightful. We're never speaking English
together. But he just, I don't know.

(34:54):
He has that presence and humility that you can just feel
through, like how he interacts with people.
And I just find it so lovely. And I saw it and tried it on and
I was like, oh, man, I actually missed buying it.
And you were like, well, would you have bought it?
Like, it's really cool. And I was like, I, yeah, maybe I
would. No, I don't think I would have.

(35:15):
You know, I don't, I don't thinkI would have bought it when you
said that part. That was, you know, as as
someone who got you one of theseand in that moment, the the
thing that made me happy was youloved it.
The thing that made me not happyis then you were like, yeah, but
you know, I don't think I would have ordered it, but.

(35:36):
OK, so I'll start with you. I bought you a Carano Yeah in
20/22/2020. Two, I thought that.
The I thought that it came out in 2021, The Toki.
Maybe it was announced in it wasannounced.
In 2021, because I got it for your birthday.
Yeah. And that one was the toki.

(35:56):
It was based on a crested Ibis, The color.
It was really beautiful. You fell in love with it.
For me, I haven't been a Carano.The fan is the wrong word
because I I think I think the brand is super cool.
I'm a fan of the brand. Because I.
Actually, to me, I don't tend Art Deco in anything that I own

(36:21):
or any style, you know, like that's not my style choices.
So for me, because of the pairing that Jamie Osio has in
Corona, one of the things is ArtDeco opulence with Japanese
minimalism and how you mesh thattogether.
And so when I opened this watch,luckily, because I had seen it

(36:41):
already and tried it on and actually had looked back at some
photos of it and thought, wow, that is really cool.
The stars are really cool. I was super excited when you
gave it to me. And I just decided, you know,
the, the, the water here off thecoast of Portugal is very cold.
It's very unlikely that I'm doing a lot of swimming, even
though I could swim in it if I wanted to.

(37:04):
And I just felt that it was, it's so beautiful and different
from anything I own. And sometimes I even though I
have like wild color watches, I think getting the buying my
first show part skeleton, that was the first time I kind of
branched out in a way of like something that was, you know,

(37:26):
outside of the Lydia Winters watches that people would think
of with me, which was like sports watches.
Yeah, Rolex. Yeah, Rolex sports classes.
I mean, if you look at your photos, yeah.
But that was also what I typically wear day-to-day a lot
of times for years, yeah. And.
So with this watch, it's super different.

(37:46):
It's a sector dial, which I don't have one of.
It has blued like almost needlepoint hands.
Is that what they call them syringe hands?
Yeah, I think they're. Called syringe hands.
Not the most. Appealing name we we could
workshop that the blued hand, the second hand that actually
you know is curved at the end soit can go over these * indices

(38:08):
which are are the star of the show.
And then you have the 1236 and 9numerals and those are in an art
deco style made by Hachi Maya, Seoka.
And it also has a blue around the inner ring because this one
is called, they call it copper, but it has a little more pink

(38:29):
tone to it. It's not the same color as your
toki, which is more salmon. I think this one has a little
more pink which then the pink blue goes together super well.
Funny enough, it also has a railroad minute track.
So our 2 watches, yeah we. Both have railroads on it.
Probably where the similarities start and end.
No, because they're also steel. They are so and then it has a

(38:54):
step down case, which is really beautiful and honestly, I have I
absolutely loved wearing this watch I.
Have been surprised because you know you do have an extensive
collection it's a broad collection in terms of like the
types of watches that you have and even though you didn't don't

(39:15):
have a sector dial yet and you don't actually have a lot of
watches in the 34mm size no I think I.
Forgot completely to say it's 34millimeter.
Oh yeah, it's which? Is a great size.
On me SO. And you don't wear a ton of
watches on leather straps, no. And this one was more
interesting because I didn't love the strap that it came on.

(39:36):
A black leather strap it. Was too big for you?
Yeah, it did not fit and. So then I, we just kind of
looked through like what straps do we have that are 18mm?
And the answer was not that manyof mine.
And so I had one that I felt like I at first I was like, I
don't think it fits perfectly, but I'm just going to try it and

(39:57):
see how it looks because it's one of the ones.
And so this is a strap that Deluxe sent to go on my normals
Tetra. I wasn't going to say no else
today, but now I did normals Tetra and it is a dark brown 2
tone strap. It also has the tan like

(40:18):
contrasting stitching, edge painting and tan and the keepers
are in tan and. It has.
The brown the dark brown is kindof a bit textured and so it
looks a little more like antiquish to me, but I have
found that I love it on this watch.
I think it really suits it superwell and it it almost makes it

(40:41):
look like maybe I'm wearing a vintage watch, especially when
it's 34mm. It's also the.
Design of the dial has a vintagevibe.
It's not like some vintage copy look.
It's more like there's just a language there that evokes a
vintage feel. Yeah, well.
I. Mean The thing is the the star
dial is taken from the 1930s and1940s.

(41:05):
One of the most famous star dials is actually Rolex.
That's their Stelling named now like people call them the
Stellen dial Rolex. They were made in the 1940s and
it was about this sort of post dwar optimism and artistic
expression. They're also like Elgin did star

(41:26):
watch styles and then lawn jeansdid a pocket watch with stars
called the three star caliber 37.93.
And so these, like, stars aroundmostly not doing them
everywhere, but again, some numerals and stars is something
that goes back to the 1930s and 1940s, which is really cool.

(41:50):
And also because this watch, like I mentioned, is Art Deco
inspired. So then I've been doing like, I
actually did like a full deep dive on everything, which was
really fun to, like, look up more about it.
And it only makes me love it more.
Yeah. So as I said, Hajimi Asyoka
wants to blend Japanese minimalism and Art Deco

(42:11):
opulence. And Art Deco, some of the key
things, you know, it was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s
and it was four kind of key points, which were geometry,
luxury, modernism and glamour. And I don't know when I'd like
the more I started reading aboutArt Deco.
And then also I started reading a lot more about Carano and that

(42:37):
now. And I did all this after wearing
the watch for a week straight with nothing else.
And it makes me really like it more because Hachi Miyasuoka is
first of all, like an incrediblewatchmaker, very celebrated
watchmaker. And he made last year 4 watches
and wonders. He made a personal piece.

(42:59):
So it's it's his own for his atelier, but he just wants to
show something interesting each year at Watches and Wonders.
And that was the first time you and I went to AHCI, met Haji
Mausseka, saw the watch, which was called the Tsunami, and it
was called As Time goes By. And it was a purely personal

(43:21):
project, he said. And since it was just for
myself, he had no concern for whether the design was
marketable. But then because people liked it
so much, he really thought like maybe be he could, you know, he
wanted to bring it to the chronoline.
And the interesting thing is he originally wanted that watch to
have these stars, but the manufacturing process was too

(43:45):
difficult for them for the quality level that he wanted.
And so when he did this star project, it was like bringing to
life the original design idea. So this one is actually called
the the Carano special project star dial, which is very cool.
And it has these high polished steel applied stars.

(44:08):
And then the font was designed by Hajimiya Seoka.
And I don't know it really, it made me feel very delighted for
it. And also with Carano, I mean,
you had talked to me about it before, but the idea is that
Hajimiya Seoka has his atelier. And so that's where he's making
his like much. More €100,000 watches, Yeah,

(44:29):
yeah. Watches and what he knew is that
there's watch enthusiasts who, who also appreciate the design
language that he has. And so he wanted to make
something that was more accessible and which obviously
as someone who, you know, both of us actually, we love
community and the feeling of accessibility and how can more

(44:49):
people get into watches and how can more people appreciate
different designs. So I really loved that that
premise a lot. And just thinking about when
they speak on the website about his design and like what he
wants it says Hajima Asuka's significance lies in his ability

(45:11):
to reconcile contradictions, tradition and innovation,
machine precision and human imperfection, Western technique
and Japanese soul. He represents a new paradigm in
Horology 1, where craftsmanship is not about technical mastery,
but cultural storytelling. And I was like, chomp, chomp,

(45:34):
chomp, Yum Yum, Yum. I love, I love what you're
saying here. This is like Lydia Catnip.
You know what makes me actually cats?
Don't eat catnip. I think they just sniff it.
Or do they eat it? I don't.
OK, chomp, chomp, chomp. You've owned a lot of.
Cats. I would think you'd know.
I thought they just. Smell and kind of roll around.
No, I'm serious. I I do.

(45:54):
Not know, but OK. Here's what makes me happy is
that you spent over a week with this watch and every couple days
you would say things that made it clear to me that you were
truly falling in love with the watch.
I knew you'd like it because even at first sight, you really
liked it. I didn't know you'd love it as

(46:17):
much as you do. And what I love is that you fell
in love with the watch before you got into all this cool
storytelling, which even only enhanced your view of the watch
and the design and what thought went behind it.
And Haji may also because, like,plan and what he's trying to do,
but you already love the watch as an object on its own without

(46:38):
really knowing much about even the brand.
And that's not typically how we get to know watches.
But in this case, it was nice seeing it happen in that order.
Yeah. And I mean.
For me, I've always been, I am afan of any brand that has a more
like singular vision, even if it's a vision that I don't like.
I think that strong point of view, especially like in design

(46:59):
is really interesting because then you can explore a lot
within that. But you don't, you know, you,
you still create restraints. Like for me, restraints are
always adding more creativity. I think if you just have like,
oh, here color anything, that's very hard to do.
As soon as you kind of box yourself in and create, what are

(47:20):
the restraints of this, you get the best design and the most
incredible things. And so like learning about the
his work is restrained, poetic, deeply human.
I, I was like, all of this I love so, so much.
And they even have an artisan's code that they have on the
website. And it's that every Asayoka

(47:44):
timepiece is a solo performance,even for his accessible Krono
Tokyo brand. Each Krono is personally
designed and prototyped by him. The dial paints and finishes are
mixed by hand, The fonts are individually created and
lettered by him, and the necessary movement modifications
are prototyped on his tool bench.

(48:05):
His watches are not tools. This is speaking to me, but
wearable poetry blending precision with the soul of
Japanese aesthetics. Yeah.
So my love for this watch and Haji Maasuyoka, which next time.
I've always had a little even. I think it was just like the

(48:25):
reverence you showed for him. The first time we met him, I was
like, OK, Vu really likes him. And then also, you know, he had
his beautiful tsunami watch in the case and I was like trying
to photograph it and then he took it out and like put it on
the table so I could take photos.
And I was like, and it was so beautiful.
And so Art Deco. And so then to Fast forward a

(48:48):
year and think of like how much my life in watches has just
changed. And I mean, and in life and how
watches, you know, through both last year at Watches and
wonders, that was our first timeto watches and wonders.
It was our first, you know, we had just started this little
daily project with a podcast every day, and now we're just

(49:10):
seeing now we're in this, like, next iteration of ourselves,
which is cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So to have the star dial based on this watch that I saw last
year, I see the poetry in it, and I really, really love it.
And I also, even though I do nottypically care about the
movement, I do like that it is aMiota 90S5, which is wholly made

(49:37):
in Japan. And so that's something really
important to them. And you know, specs is never
really the thing that I'm like, I mean, I I actually didn't know
what the water speaking. Of that.
You're really going to use it I.Have a little clip that I I did,
I did tell Lydia I was going to play and I thought.
You would forget. Actually, here we go.

(49:59):
Did you just ask me? I just asked you what the water
resistance is of my new watch because I actually don't.
I never looked it up or thought about it but I'm collecting
rocks in the water but I OK. To me, this is like, that's a
dream, to live life without thinking about water resistance.

(50:19):
But OK, we're at the end of our trip and just now you're
thinking about water resistance for your watch.
Yeah, OK. Well, it's. 30 meters.
OK, so. I can jump in the water.
It's too. You can dive.
Down 30 meters underwater, it's too cold.
So I think that Corona. I'll have to look it up, but I
think Corona. Says that you can only.
Wash your hands, rock collecting.

(50:41):
I'm going to look it up. We have different reactions.
But I would like to say because I don't typically get to say it
and it makes me a little too delighted to say it.
You are wrong. Wait, was that?
Wrong it. Is 5 bar.
I looked on the back 5050. But what does Corona say you can

(51:04):
do with 50? Oh, no, I didn't look that up.
Well, OK. So Speaking of water resistance,
you were. Gonna All right, so Speaking of
water, wait, this is always Boo.He's just in any conversation
people are talking about, not atall about water and booze.
Like, oh, Speaking of water resistance water.
Resistance. Someone's like.
How about that sports ball? I'm like, Speaking of water

(51:26):
resistance, OK? This was choosing a watch to
wear on an entire vacation for two weeks.
And this sounds silly to some people, probably, but for not
anyone? Who's listening to this podcast
if you're listening to this? Podcast.
You get it. Maybe Deirdre.
Deirdre thinks it's weird. Choosing one.
Watch for two weeks is a big deal to me.

(51:48):
And so like you know, like I said for 13 years I've traveled
with multiple watches. Maybe on a very short trip, I, I
would do it and going to watchesand wonders was only four days
and it was a big deal that I only brought 2 watches on that
trip, right? And so I also usually just kind
of miss my watches when I'm traveling.
But anyway, I talked to Ken at the legs about these straps,

(52:10):
right? And the the criteria I had for
both the watch and thinking about the straps was kind of
there's two parts to it and one is versatile looks and the other
is like go anywhere, do anythingcapabilities, right.
And the looks, obviously the watch head itself needs to be

(52:31):
somewhat versatile. However, on this trip we talked
about it that we probably weren't going to go out to any
fancy and nothing fancy. We weren't dressing up.
We didn't bring well, you probably brought a lot.
I did I. Wear them sometimes when we like
have well, you're wearing them. Right now as we podcast one of
your very nice jackets and this is just her trying to get
through all the clothes. But anyway, so or else.

(52:54):
I'll be left in Portugal, which there's worse things, honestly,
I I live in Portugal, you just want to live in.
Portugal with the donkeys this watch, I think you know, you
could dress it up. You could, but mainly I think it
fits almost everything except for dressy and you know, maybe
with the right straps. So when I talked to Ken, I was

(53:14):
like, I want 4 straps, but I already had one and then we also
decided to do four more. So I I actually got 5 straps for
it and I've used all five of them in different scenarios.
So the one that I already own from Deluxe they gave us last
year was the Epsom black leatherstrap.
I love this strap. It has contrast white stitching

(53:35):
on it. It's a simple, very thin style
of leather strap. I just think it matches the
style very well. It just looks like it was made
for this one I think. That's the most technically
perfect pairing. Yeah, yeah.
Because it. Just yeah, it just works.
Yeah, it's just the watch reallyWell, yeah.
And it looks that's off the dialtoo, because with like the

(53:59):
pebbling of the leather and thenyou have the texture on the
dial. I think it really matches I.
Love that pairing and if I couldonly choose one like that, I was
going to just put on the watch and just like that's the that's
the watch for it. There's the dunk it again.
It's. More than every hour.
Yeah, it is. More than every hour.

(54:19):
It turns out that that would be the this watch and I just think
it's a fantastic regular wear strap for this watch.
And then the second one was the CTS, which is the cut to size.
So the rubber straps that you you cut it to size and then it
has this kind of butterfly spring loaded clasp deployment

(54:41):
clasp. And this one is the pilot style.
So with deluxe, they have a bunch of different styles for
their rubber straps and this one's the pilot style.
So the way it's cut and the proves that it has in it looks
kind of like pilot style. And I got one in black, which
was meant to be the go anywhere,do anything.
If that strap is on it, then I can do anything I want in this

(55:04):
watch. And then I also got the same
exact thing in orange and that was meant to be like it's
summary here, it's fun, we're going to the beach, like what's
the fun strap? And that's what I meant it to
be. But I ended up OK, I'll give you
more thoughts on that. And then I also got this olive

(55:24):
green. Olive green.
Sailcloth strap, which is actually a rubber strap but
looks like sailcloth and has real stitching in it.
I love these. That's my.
Favorite pairing I think, because I think just the green.
I mean, I always love a sort of more military olive green.
It's such a great pairing and then also an olive green Delcro

(55:49):
strap, which is their stretchy fabric straps and that one also
has Velcro on it. That's why it's called the
Velcro Deluxe Velcro. And that one came in really, you
know what? You know, when I used that one
mainly 'cause I use this style strap, if I'm like working out
right, you know all the work we did not.
Do any work did not do. Any I would say it wasn't.

(56:10):
The food poisoning took down theactive vacation, Yeah.
This has not been that active, it's been more.
Relaxing, but. One of the things that this
strap was really nice for was when we were sick and we didn't
leave the room for three days. Then I wore the watch on this
strap and it was just very comfortable because Foo wearing.
A watch, my watch sat nicely on the table and I you picked it up

(56:33):
and you're like. The time is wrong.
I'm like you haven't worn it in two days although.
Like day day three I was like I need something beautiful to look
at. So I did wear it that day so.
That was looks and then there's the Gauda capabilities to go
anywhere, do anything capabilities and here is where
things got a little bit different.
So this watch is rated for 30 meters water resistance and I

(56:58):
specifically asked Maria Hobringon Instagram.
Like what does 30 meters mean toHobring?
To buoy investigative journalist, Yes.
So, investigative, I asked a single question and to the
direct. Source She.
Answered it immediately and she said it means 30 meters so go
swimming with it. Do whatever you want with it.

(57:20):
It's a 30m water resistance watch and they're tested and
meant to be used up to a depth of 30 meters.
So more like Omega Mega Patek, right?
It's like what it says that's what it is and that is how you
should use it. So I thought, you know, back in
the day when I first started collecting watches and I wasn't
at all in a watch community, allI was was someone who had bought

(57:43):
some nice watches and really loved them.
I wore those watches everywhere.The first watch you bought me,
which is A tag Hoyer Carrera heritage, right, Caliber 6, it
didn't have a screw down crown, none of that stuff.
But it said 100m water resistance and I wore that and
my Bell and Ross BRO 3, which also said 100m water resistance.

(58:04):
I wore them jet skiing, I wore them swimming, jumping in the
water, anything. Did not matter.
Didn't think about it. I did all that.
With my Cartier rose gold tank. No, I didn't.
I didn't. Everyone calm yourself.
I did not. I did not.
It is. Just.
And. So just a joke.
You know what this is what hovering is saying.
Hovering too is saying that thisis a water resistant watch up to

(58:25):
30 meters, use it for whatever. And I did and I will say it is
so freeing and it brings me backto that older time where I just
didn't think about about it as much.
Now, I'm not saying don't test your seals every year, don't you
know like maintain your watches.But I do think that we can
sometimes be too precious and have too high of standards of

(58:46):
what is this supposed to mean? So 30 meters means swim with it.
And I have swam with it. I've been in the pool, I've been
in the sauna, We've gone out a really cool.
Photo of you in the pool that istrue.
That's really cool. And I have a nice little reel
because we've been using a lot of sunblock.
I've been having to clean the watch off and I just wash it

(59:06):
under the running water in the sink with soap and just get that
off and or the mine just. Has the sunscreen still?
Well, yeah, but you. Have a leather strap on.
Yeah. And so I do that when I have one
of the rubber straps on. So that.
That's that's fair. Or or I can just pop it off and
just I will. Say I actually the only thing

(59:27):
that I, I thought like I yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's weird for me that I only have a leather strap because I
typically mainly wear bracelets when you're traveling.
Especially or. Some kind of water resistant
strap. I almost never, never, never
wear a leather strap yeah yeah, yeah.

(59:47):
So that's been different, but I really like it too.
It gives such a cool look and also unless you're going.
In the water it kind of does it,and also I.
Have to say, sometimes, many times when I'm traveling with my
Rolex, I'm just hyper aware of my watch all the time when we're

(01:00:07):
traveling because I'm, I'm, I just feel like if I roll up my
sleeve, does someone see it? Do they notice it?
Like, you know, OK, we're, we'reluckily we're not like ever even
out after dark. Very old people.
But it I I always feel a little more just self-conscious
depending on where I am or just like a lot of thoughts.

(01:00:28):
It takes up a lot of mind space.This takes up none other than oh
so pretty every time I look at it and wow, OK, I like I it
will. It makes me rethink a lot about
my collecting. I mean, we we can dive into this
another episode, but it it has given me a lot of things to
think about for my future of collecting.
I mean, I've said. This for years, but this trip I

(01:00:51):
felt it more than usual. Is that so?
This is not an inexpensive watch.
My hovering right. And I put it on this orange
strap multiple times when we were out later at night and I
didn't it's not Portugal feels so safe and wonderful and
everything has been lovely. Nothing.

(01:01:11):
But I think about security. Yeah, I'm, I'm just, you know,
I, I, I have been robbed before,not in Portugal, but I have been
robbed before. And so it's just something I
think about and like, I don't want someone.
It's not even about like, is it expensive?
You know what is the loss? It's like I don't light a gun
pointed in my face again, you know, it's not fun.

(01:01:34):
I don't like it. So I'd rather no one even
approach me. And and So what I've found is
that if you wear a watch, no matter the watch, even if it's a
Rolex OP. But if you put it on a fabric or
a bright colored strap or a bright colored fabric strap, it
immediately looks less like a serious watch.

(01:01:54):
And unless it's very recognizable, I would just say
that having seen many videos online and non watch people
reacting to expensive watches and all of this stuff and like
even the Ulis Nardin that we gotto play with the the the diver
air right when it was on that fabric orange strap.

(01:02:16):
It just tones it down and makes it feel a little more playful, a
little less fun, and possibly because I don't know the.
Statistics. Or yeah, a little.
More fun. I was like, wait a little.
More fun, less of a target. That's what I think and I I
can't prove that, but it's how Ifeel and that the feeling

(01:02:37):
matters. But.
Someone who is stealing something, not to go super deep
into the psychology of it, but it is like a risk versus reward
and you need to know that it's areward.
You need to feel. Confident, so that feels.
Nice when it's like this, doesn't feel like a reward even
when it's something bright orange.
Strap bright bright pink or bright yellow or anything that

(01:02:57):
just feels my. Favorite, but actually over
time, I really I really like, you know, orange is a.
Very military because it's an emergency color.
And so, you know, there's, there's a deep history of orange
and the military wearing that. Day it's wearing the emergency
Day I don't even remember, No. No, I didn't.
I was wearing the leather strap.You're like, look.
I can put my flashlight on this orange and but OK.

(01:03:18):
To wrap up the whole go anywhere, do anything.
The other thing that's importantto me that this watch, it's like
it has an A magnetic escapement because it has this Carl Haas
hairspraying and it's like really cool and it has Kiff
shock resistance. Like almost all watch movements
these days have some sort of shock resistance built in.
And this one is tested to a few different standards, DIN 83O8-A

(01:03:42):
and NIHS 91-10, which is mainly when I try to look them up
because these standards aren't just out there and fully
published. You actually need to buy the
papers to understand the standards, but like what they
simulate because they're done with hammers that you know, that
are at 4.43 meters per second and they hit the watch at from

(01:04:04):
two different angles. And all of this, they're meant
to simulate a 1m fall onto hardwood, which I never knew
until I look this stuff up. Remember when I dropped my
Explorer 2 just a few weeks after owning it when we were in
Nepal, I dropped it from about aactually it was maybe a meter
and a half onto a hardwood floorand it survived fine.

(01:04:26):
And I'm like, oh, maybe it was tested to this.
Standard, but what it's? Been like with this one watch,
number one, it's been a better experience than I expected and
my daily choice reduced to just like, what strap am I going to
wear? I will say I change straps
multiple times a day, but like Ilove that as a choice as opposed

(01:04:47):
to what watch I'm going to wear.Is that such a bigger decision
on a trip? At home, I don't mind it at all,
but on vacation it's like, oh, and then what watch am I going
to leave in the room? Am I going to put it in the
safe? Am I going to hide it somewhere?
Like you have to think about these things.
And so, yeah, I have enjoyed immensely wearing just one watch

(01:05:09):
on this trip, but it's also a new watch.
And So what I really enjoyed wasgetting to know this watch and
having the the lack of choice means I didn't get to go to
something else that I'm more familiar and comfortable with.
It's like, no, every day this isthe watch I'm wearing.
And it's just like, how do I want to dress up that watch?
And it's been. Lovely.

(01:05:30):
I have well also I love this watch.
I am so in love with this watch.I have said multiple times on
this trip why do I own other watches and I know I said that
you didn't. Mention, though, that when we
were in Geneva, you got to see it for the first time.
Oh, yeah, at dinner. And you have to shout out Zach
Weiss because he had this watch.He was where you've been wanting

(01:05:51):
to see it, and it's one of his favorites.
It's one of his favorites. He says.
It's very easy for him to put on.
And now I understand, like it's going to be a watch I grab all
the time. It's just so easy, easy to wear
the size, the shape, it fits on the wrist so beautifully.
I love this watch and I really love the whole story of Richard
and Maria hovering and hovering too.

(01:06:13):
And they have a little comic book about how they met and
their dog and all this stuff on their website.
It's just so cool. And then to have also very
fortunate that Deluxe was, you know, willing to send these
straps for this. I call it an experience.
It's for this vacation, I guess,but like to try out what I
wanted to try out and photographthem in all these different

(01:06:35):
things. Like to have these five
different straps. That has also been wonderful
because if it was only on one leather strap, I couldn't have
gone swimming with that. I couldn't do certain things
with it. And so it would have been more
limited or I, I, so I would havehad to, I know because.
I'm limited. I have a leather strap.
I would but. Which is fine.
You just take the watch off and you leave it in the room.
When we went down to the pool, like that's what you did and

(01:06:56):
that was totally fine. But I like having my watch with
me at all times and even on vacation I want to know what
time it is. And so I like to be able to just
wear. I would not wear my watch in the
sauna all the time if I was saunning every day.
But like saunning on vacation like a few times every couple of
years, then I'm fine with it. I I do not condone constant

(01:07:18):
sauna for watches. OK, OK.
Just I want. To make that clear as a public.
Service announcement from Foobooey.
I have actually really enjoyed it.
I think that this watch particularly gives a lot, It
gives a lot to look at it really.
You know, the size of 34mm is different for me because

(01:07:40):
typically I would have said 36 is my perfect.
Wearing this, I'm like, it mightbe 34 just in terms of
proportion and feel and like, it's very lightweight.
It has, you know, it has a beautiful case design.
But I just really have fallen inlove with the look of the dial.

(01:08:01):
And I just find, yeah, the stars.
I find that I just continually look at it and it makes me
really happy. And I look at it almost never
for the time on this trip. I look at it for the beauty of
it. And isn't that the poetry that
Haji Miyasuka is trying to accomplish?
I think that I just look at it, it makes me feel so happy.
And actually I wanted to ask you, 'cause I thought it would

(01:08:24):
be really nice if you got the case back engraved for me on it.
That's how much I love it. I wanted asking.
Live on the podcast. So I have to say yes, yes.
Of course I will get it. Engraved.
I don't know, I. Just on this trip, I was like,
oh, I want I, you know, I want this to be a forever watch, OK?
I just, I really love it that much.
That makes me so. Happy, I admit.
OK, you also do that with. Just like beaming.

(01:08:46):
Yeah, yeah. But I, it really has been so
nice to wear one watch. And yeah, the getting to
research it for the podcast actually made me love it more
and appreciate all of the details more.
And as someone who really cares about and loves design, in the
process of design and the, the thought and care that someone

(01:09:09):
puts into it, that really this watch speaks to me even more.
And I think I mean like at the price point, which is like you
said. It's under $2000, under 2. 1000
USD, It's just a it's just a great watch.
Yeah, I I'm so happy with it. That that makes me happy.
You happy equals me happy. And I'm happy with my watch.

(01:09:32):
I bought it for myself, but I'm still happy.
Yeah, that's OK. Yours is more expensive.
Much more expensive much? More expensive I.
I hope you all enjoyed this slightly extra long episode.
Watches watches. Watches, yeah, but we.
Skipped a week, then we. Did a slightly extra long.
Episode this week and then next week we'll be back in the studio

(01:09:53):
yes and. We I will fire up the old
Instagram account, OK and post aphoto of both of us wearing
these watches and we would love to know and our Instagram
account is at this watch life podcast.
Oh yeah. And it would be awesome to know
like what watches you bring on vacation.
Any any thoughts that you have. You can also always, always

(01:10:14):
e-mail us. I don't remember what I do OK.
Don't e-mail us, you get questions at.
Thiswatchlife.com OK. And for a while it wasn't
working. So if you sent something, if you
sent something for many months. It was broken then.
Recently and our contact. Form was broken too.
OK, we're getting everything back together.

(01:10:35):
Yeah. And and.
Professional podcast. We're so pro.
Yeah. Pro level and with that have a
great day and Bah Bah Bah.