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HoustonHorn

Burnt Ends
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Posts posted by HoustonHorn

  1. Stumbled across this on Reddit.
     
    If you're interested in an Arcanaut, I know those guys personally. Just hung out with them a few weeks ago. They will show you the dials that are working on and you can pick one out. They have some that are linear and then some that are ripple milled and are 3D looking.

    One of the main guys is James Thompson who is known as Black Badger. He is kind of a mad scientist and works on some crazy lume shit for some super high end brands.

  2. Yeah, RGM has a location right down the road in Mount Joy, near the old Hamilton Watch Factory that closed down when Hamilton shifted operations to Switzerland.
    The museum has some cool exhibits, including a large model of a watch movement for kids to play around with, an exhibit on old Japanese pocket watches (in traditional Asian watches the dial rotates as well as the hands), and an exhibit on James Bond's watches that was unfortunately undergoing renovation when we were there. They also have a large pocket watch collection, as well as a fully reproduced 19th century watch shop.
    They also used to have an intricate handmade wooden clock, but some idiot destroyed it.
     
    Very cool. They took one is their guilloche machines to WatchTime and demonstrated how it worked. Amazing stuff. I would like to get one someday.
  3. I was critical of Jack Mason before. They were basically a mall brand. But they have recently been really working to reform the company. A few people I know have been very impressed with the Strat-O-Timer GMT and I was able to check that out along with the new Ellum last weekend. While neither is for me for different reasons, they are impressive. The linen dial on the Ellum is excellent.

    Credit where credit is due.



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  4. I received an email from AnOrdain this week for a show in Atlanta.  My email said the event was free entrance, but I had to RSVP.  If you get email from AnOrdain, you want to check it if you are in the area.  If it were in the HTX, I'd figure out a way to go. I find the Arcanaut brand is piquing my interest.  Here's the link.
    Atlanta — Intersect (intersectwatchshow.com)
    I'll be at the Atlanta show and I'm going to talk with them about having a show in Houston in the future. Several great independent brands at the Atlanta show including anOrdain, Arcanaut, Vortic, and Fears. Great microbrands as well. The Dallas show last year was good but only microbrands. I know the guy who runs the Atlanta Watch Society and he really busts his ass for that group.

    I didn't have a Vortic, but I want one. Not inexpensive though. Here's the other three though.

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  5. A great affordable titanium watch, the RZE Resolute Pro. Love the angular case, fantastic bracelet, solid and clean design. Nice applied indices with good blue superluminova with green this at the end of the cardinal points. I think it's under $700.2024_0224_09131800.thumb.jpg.8ed9d236991b5ad298b6659a7aeb479e.jpg

    • Hook 'Em 1
  6. Looks like a tank, love the colors, metals, and screws. If they had used a different font for the numerals, I'd be sold. I'd just look at that and think it's "G o'clock", which sounds like a rap lyric.
    I'm kind of in love with it. The sandblasted case, the circular brushed bezel with the screws. Really domed bezel. Fat lugs. I like the font and the sandwich dial has lots of lume. I see the G instead of the 6, but that doesn't bother me because it's a unique font. It's a great looking watch in person. Under $1500, although I went with the acrylic crystal instead of the sapphire because I prefer it. I think sapphire adds a couple hundred dollars.

    Seriously though, and it isn't at the same price point and closing in on 3k, this Vertex M100A is one of the best watches I've come across. Everything about it is excellent.

    The 3D like blows anything else out of the water. I toned down the brightness on the second photo because it was too bright.

    This one isn't mine but it's definitely one I've added to my list for the future.2024_0227_22564700 (3).jpg2024_0223_23224000 (2).jpg
    • Hook 'Em 1
  7. I don't have a problem with Stewart leveling criticism at #bothsides, where warranted.  Gig Biden for the Afghanistan withdrawal, for instance.  (Yeah, I know, Trump's plan.  Biden pulled the trigger.)  Gig him on, I don't know, still too high fuel and grocery prices.  But for goodness' sake, don't feed into the "too old" angle, because (a) he's not much older than Trump and (b) it's not clear that Biden is particularly deficient when it comes to running the government.
    I think he attacked both for their age sufficiently and it was subtly very clever in basically making it known that Trump is also the oldest to ever run besides Biden. Slant the commentary slightly more against Biden early on to keep the people who need to be engaged, engaged. But still put Trump in the in the same boat without having to call him out specifically.

    Plus it's a legitimate issue and I don't think he's going to gain credibility by ignoring it. Afghanistan is in the distant past and people aren't tuning in to hear about that. They could talk the border and I imagine that will be the topic soon. It allows him to #bothsides that as well.

    He's trying to cozy up to the center right, not the center left. That's who needs to be swayed eventually. Can't do that without a bit of a rope-a-dope which means taking some shots.

    I think over time he'll start shifting slowly towards more attacks at Trump. He already leveled a more serious attack on Trump in the first episode. That will continue. But he still has to #bothsides where he can to not be seen as only demonizing Trump/Republicans.

    It's a fine line to walk for sure, though.



    • Hook 'Em 3
  8. Just exactly how many MAGAts do you think are watching Jon Stewart?
    Not too many before but I bet a fair amount tuned in for the novelty. If they missed it but saw that Evil Libs are upset at Stewart they may have decided to watch on YouTube.

    They get something that's not simply Trump bashing and maybe they stick with it for a while. If he had only focused on Trump for his multitude of treasonous actions they would immediately turn the channel. Instead, they saw something relatively funny, and not solely focused on Trump is evil. He hasn't been on The Daily Show for a long time and is relatively forgotten on Apple it wherever he is by people not actively searching him out.

    And it isn't really hardcore MAGAts that need to tune in. It's independents and Republicans who are tired of Trump but only hear negative things about Biden who might be swayed.

    Everyone here attacks FattyFlatty over and over again and nothing changes with his idiotic opinions. This isn't geared towards changing the minds of people like that. It's a clever way to become regular viewing for people who might not be so ingrained in their beliefs. But if the first thing they see is Fuck Trump, they'll immediately change the channel. Now they might stay for a while if the message is somewhat split between going after both candidates.

    In a few months, the economy will likely continue to be humming, hopefully inflation continues to go down, and Trump will be involved in several court cases. Then the messaging can skew and hopefully start to alter some minds.

    I could be wrong and maybe Jon Stewart is simply in it too make a quick buck and attack both sides equally. His history has shown a much more nuanced and reasoned approach and I think that's what this is.

    Give people an offramp from the craziness. There are people out there who don't like the current Republican party, but only get messaging about how bad and evil Democrats are. They might actually listen if they aren't feeling attacked from the get go. It's hard enough to get people to change their thinking, but just attacking their beliefs outright, no matter how wrong or misguided, only causes them to dig in. But using humor to change the messaging they are hearing might get some traction for some of those people.

    My $0.02. I probably shouldn't have used the term MAGAts in my original post.
    • Hook 'Em 3
  9. The people who most need to watch Jon Stewart would simply turn it off if he spent 20 minutes attacking Trump.

    It's a fair discussion. Biden is old as shit and has gotten noticeably older in just the last couple years. It's an issue and this was a good way to promote discussion AND more importantly not have MAGAts simply turn the channel. I imagine this will be the strategy for a few months. Get people hooked and then start increasing the focus on Trump's traitorous actions as the hearings get going.

    I think having some of the left wing pundits come out and attack him about bothsiderism is just part of the bigger plan to increase interest from the right.

    Jon Stewart is incredibly sharp. Some of y'all are playing checkers and Stewart is playing chess.


    • Hook 'Em 3
  10. Another one. And sounds like he might be able to reach the green on 14. Bogey probably takes 59 out of the discussions, but maybe not with the way he's putting.

  11. Thanks for the info. I mostly stopped paying attention to major brands a few years ago. I wasn't aware that Seiko was trying to move more up-market.

    One of the things I like most about watches is the creativity and craftsmanship. It's why I really don't like homages... Its just someone stealing a known successful design for commercial gain. No real skill or creativity so I'd personally prefer to buy the original is it's something I like.




  12. Check purple off the list.  For fun, I order a couple of NATO straps.  If my wrist were any larger, I couldn't get it through the Velcro strap.   I'll use the Velcro for a week or so, and then change over to compare fit, feel, and looks. 
     
    Formex1.thumb.jpg.3494529bd873a9281a221e9a76ce6b8e.jpg
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    Formex3.thumb.jpg.e317e8aeb44af14ebec9f28a35473c56.jpg
    Straps.thumb.jpg.01acc1167cd5910a7a5cae164335d216.jpg
    Very cool. Super lightweight on the Velcro strap. I really love mine in the Petrol Blue.

    I love how NATOs look, hate how they wear.

    I recently bought a couple Nick Mankey Hook Straps. Incredibly comfortable and don't add any height to the watch. A perfect solution, although more expensive.

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    • Like 1
  13. For ~$300-350 you get a seiko movement, solid link bracelet, good glass and plenty of lume.

    Anyone purchased one of his models?
    Mark seems like a good guy and I used to watch some of his videos. But for the life of me I can't understand why anyone would want to buy an homage of a cheap watch. Just buy the Seiko. There are millions of them, even the ones that are discontinued.

    And this isn't directed specifically at you.

    But I really can't even imagine buying an homage of an expensive watch. Is it just a desire to announce you can't afford the real thing?

    There are so many watch brands out there making some extremely cool watches using a variety of Japanese and Swiss movements. Most for under $1k and many for just a few hundred dollars. These people have actually spent time designing, creating, developing and manufacturing a watch, not ripping off someone else's design and using off the shelf parts from China to create a knockoff of a mass produced watch.

    Seriously, what is the reasoning?

    And a caveat, I don't know what Long Island Watch is selling these days. Just responding to the post of the homages.




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