watch influencers are idiots
Because I just bought a new watch, of course I had to dive down the rabbit hole of watch influencer videos just to see what's up.
Heh, yeah. About that. Kinda comical.
Before diving deeper there, here a few truths when it comes to watches.
The overwhelming majority of people who actually wear a watch are either going to have one of the following on their wrist: In smartwatch space, it's either made by Apple or made by Garmin. In the fitness space, it's all Fitbit. In the traditional digital watch space, Casio or Timex. In the traditional analog watch space, Invicta, Movado or Citizen.
I'll explain the traditional analog brands a little more.
Invicta and Movado both have dedicated stores in many midsize to larger shopping malls.
Citizen is also found in the mall, but also somewhere else most people don't think about unless it's pointed out to them, the casino gift shop. If for example you visit one of those large Native American run casinos and visit the gift shop area, chances are you'll see a Citizen watch display case in there. And those will be the nicest (if not the only) watches in the shop.
Ultimately, the watches that get sold most is where the foot traffic is. Casio, Timex, Apple, and Garmin are all at Walmart. Invicta, Movado and sometimes Seiko are at the mall. Citizen is also at the mall and in some casinos.
For luxury brands, same thing, except people only know one name for a luxury watch, Rolex. That's it. And just like "lesser" brands, yeah they have storefronts too. I don't have to travel far to find an official Rolex authorized dealer with that familiar green ROLEX signage on the storefront.
The only other luxury brand that some guys who know a tiny bit about luxury watches would recognize would be TAG Heuer. And again, the fact some guys know that brand even exists is because it's accessible where there is foot traffic. Maybe not so much with freestanding boutiques but rather luxury jewelers.
Where online influencing is concerned, internet does not have any real influence in the watch space and arguably never has.
Using myself as an example, I stopped consuming internet watch content for a while. Probably almost a year. I start watching watch videos again, and come to find out Casio released a watch with a real deal automatic movement in it, the Edifice EFK. Is this a new model? Well, technically yes for this year, but it's been out for over 6 months. My point is I had no idea at all this watch even existed until literally now because I had stopped consuming internet watch content prior.
For the curious, the Edifice EFK is... fine. Priced right, to be sure, because it's Casio. Built right, because again, Casio. I think it's best said that if it were the choice between the EFK and the Tissot PRX automatic (not the quartz one), yeah, Casio all day just for price alone. I'm not dumping $500+ more for the Tissot because "Swiss". To hell with that.
I guarantee you're going to have the same reaction to the EFK I had, as in, "Meh, it's okay." But as far as the watch influencers are concerned, it was OH MY GOD HUGE NEWS, CASIO HAS AN AUTOMATIC when that watch came out. No, not huge news. Yeah, I obviously like Casio, but the truth is that I can still get a Seiko automatic all day for south of $200 and it's decent for what it is. So if I gotta-gotta have a new automatic movement watch, I'd just get a Seiko and call it a day.
Or, if I were willing to dump a little more cash to have "the good watch", Seiko Presage, any model. Well, almost any, as I'd have to get a model that would fit my smaller wrist, but you get the point. A Seiko Presage is absolutely and totally a-okay for a fancy schmancy looking thing that genuinely looks, feels and operates like a luxury watch should without the luxury price tag. That's a watch to wear to the office, the golf course or whatever. And it's guaranteed what's on your wrist will look better compared to everybody else you know because Presage does that minimalist luxury style 100% correct.
You won't hear those watch influencers talking about Seiko Presage, however. Not a peep. And that's really telling, because what they try and hock instead are all these worthless microbrands selling a watch for over a grand that's tacky, boring, or both. And as always, the influencer says the Microbrand Whatever watch is Best Thing Ever. Yeah, sure pal. Sure.
Another thing watch influencers never talk about is the return policy.
With just about all microbrand return policies, if you have to send a watch back for a refund, you get stuck eating the shipping cost almost every time along with import taxes and/or duties every time.
And the straps... ugh.
Once I bought a specific strap because so many watch influencers said they were oh-so awesome, and I bought direct from the company since the the price was good. Okay, fine. For the strap I got, yeah, decent enough quality, but definitely not some life-changing experience. What soured me? A barrage of marketing emails right after purchase. That company immediately started blasting me with messages in email and it took me something like two weeks to finally get them to stop.
That was the first and last time I bought a strap direct from a company. I bought that strap because I fell for the online hype like an idiot. These days I'll just get a strap from Amazon or eBay. Strapcode still has some of the best replacement bracelets out there, and plenty of those super comfortable stretch straps are out there too, most of which are totally unbranded. Fine, whatever. They work. I don't need branding on my frickin' watch strap.
Then there's the whole thing about analog.
As I've said before, I don't even like analog watches. Yes, I own a few, but don't wear any of them. Okay, that's not true. I own two that I genuinely like, but only because they're ana-digi. Two Casio AQ230 models. One in stainless steel with black dial, and the other a gold with linen dial. The black dial one has a slightly wonky bottom left button, but still works. Very small watch, but elegant, super lightweight, super comfortable to wear. Great little guy.
As for my all-analog watches, nope, they never get worn. Out of what I have, only two are worth keeping, and I should throw the others out.
I do have to remind myself when watching watch influencer videos that I do not like analog watches. Yeah, those influencers make that microbrand analog look all sorts of sexy with lighting and close-up angles and whatnot.. but I know I'd never get along with it. Not now, not ever.
Influencers will, of course, shill the analog timepieces most because microbrands don't do digital. This means whatever microbrand watch you get will be one of Fifty Flavors of Seiko NH35 Movement. One microbrand will be Flavor #37. Another will be Flavor #49. Whatever, doesn't matter, all the same movement. Some microbrands even make "time-only" watches where the date complication is actually still there but not present on the dial at all because it was cheaper to build that way. L-A-Z-Y.
If it's all Seiko NH35 anyway, um... just get the Seiko for under $200 instead of the same thing in a microbrand for over a grand? If I actually liked analog, which I don't, that's what I'd get.
So yeah, watch influencers. Still as stupid as ever.
i bought a casio w221h
This might be the ultimate watch for a Gen X, because what it does get right it does very well.
The last time I talked about this watch, I said nope, I'm going to wait because the price at the time was way too high. Since then, the price has now dropped to something much more reasonable, so I went ahead and bought one. Now I can talk about what I got right and what I got wrong in what I said about it before.
Blocky shape? Yes.
Appears bigger than it actually is? Yes.
Strap will work its way loose from the strap keeper? No. The strap is thin and chintzy, no question, but it does stay in the keeper, so I was wrong on that one.
Forced to wait when going mode-to-mode because of that flash alert SYNC feature? No. There is a pause, true, but you can "cheat" the pause just by pressing the button you want to do the thing you want before the display refreshes.
What saves the W221H from being an unwieldy top-heavy mess is the fact it's a 35g featherweight. I did not take weight into consideration when researching this watch, but it really matters. The W221H may not be as light as the W217H at 32g or F105W or F-91W both at a very minuscule 21g. But the W221H is the biggest digit display in the smallest possible package. You can't get anything else with digits this large in a small case that weighs lighter. Absolutely no top-heavy mess going on here.
Yeah, I'm definitely keeping this one. Having a big-digit digital that fits my 6.5" wrist and weighs next to nothing is lovely. The fact it has full time, day, month and date all on the home screen is even better. And the fact it has a countdown timer with auto-repeat and 3 alarms? Icing on the cake. This watch has everything I want in a digital.
The reason I say this might be the ultimate Gen X watch is because over-50 people will absolutely love this thing. HUGE day-of-week, HUGE time, smaller month/day at bottom left...
...which is my only complaint. The month/day should be the same size the seconds are, but they're not. If that month/day was at that seconds digits size, it would be perfect. But even with the month/day slightly smaller, The W221H is still really good for what it is.
I think the only real drawback of the W221H for most people is that it isn't simple to set up due to the advanced features it has (flash alert, countdown timer, time zones, advanced alarm settings, and so on). To that I would say if what you want is a truly simple and highly legible digital, then just go F108WH, W217H, W218H or W219H. Or for something with a metal bracelet, B650WD. Every single one of those is "F-91W style" in the way it works, meaning it's stupidly easy to set the time/date on them.
I'm familiar enough with Casios to where I got everything set up on the W221H without needing to read the manual. But for others, I could totally understand the desire to have something simpler.
But for me, yes, W221H is one I definitely like.
watching social media implode
I sincerely believe the future of internet communications is going to be email, IRC, tight-leashed forums and nothing else. And for everyone else, text messaging, which technically doesn't count as internet communication since it can operate outside of internet.
The last time I actually cared about social media was about 15 years ago. At that time, I was giving it a genuinely decent go. But then my brain kicked in and said, "Wow, I really don't give a shit about any of this", and that's when my posting slowed, then after a while stopped altogether. And by that I mean a 100% stop, which included posting no replies to anything on other profiles, because I seriously do not care about the crap other people post on social media. I should wear a nobody cares t-shirt. Or maybe a Breaking News: I Don't Care shirt. Either would work.
Before getting into the whole social media implosion thing, I need to describe the internet communications I was talking about above.
Email: You know what this is.
IRC: Old school chat like Undernet or DALnet.
Tight-leashed forums: Independent web sites with discussion areas. Each one of these sites is usually run by one guy (meaning not a company/corporation) with a small team of moderators, and all have semi-strict to very strict rules one must go through before being allowed to post anything regularly. Why? Mainly to avoid bots and spammers.
Now as for the social media implosion thing, this gets weird, but at the same time not.
The entire point of social media was to connect and make friends.
Nobody does that anymore.
There are only two things people use social media for these days. A contact list i.e. address book, and as a swap meet. That's it. And concerning that swap meet thing, it doesn't matter if the platform has an area to sell things or not, because even when it doesn't, people will still use it to sell their crap.
People are really quick to blame AI for social media being such a dismal thing to use.
It's not AI's fault.
Social media just got old.
When you've got a platform designed for human connections and making friends where nobody talks and all anybody cares about is selling their garbage, that's when the whole thing crumbles in on itself.
I've read a few posts in forums where people have said social media should just drop the whole social thing and solely concentrate on being a swap meet. Said honestly, that's not the most terrible idea I've ever heard. If you've got this giant-ass network with millions of users who are literally not talking, not connecting and just want to sell junk, um... yeah, cut the social crap completely (except for the contact list since people use that) and go all-in with the swap meet thing.
eBay is a great example of this. Did you know that eBay Live exists? Yes, eBay has social media style streaming, done the right way. That right there is what social media platforms need to do, except not a little bit. Go all-in with the commerce like what eBay is doing since that's all anybody cares about.
What's the Next Big Thing with social communications on the internet? There won't be one. This is why I say email/IRC/forums/texting is the future of internet communications. When people want to actually communicate with each other using something that isn't a bot/spam-infested nightmare, it's either going to be email, text chat, old style forum or a text message conversation on a phone.
And yeah, that means you might want to update your phone number and email contact list if you haven't done so in a while, outside of social media. If that means you actually need to physically write that stuff down in a real address book, well, that's what you do.
Enjoy the growing piles of dust on social media, because that's the only thing truly growing in those places now.
traffic reporting is starting to suck
Late last year, I said I stopped using traffic reporting. Changed my mind on that. And now I'm about to change my mind again.
Took a drive into a large city recently. My Garmin is directing me as usual, it gets a traffic report and automatically reroutes to get around it. I go where it says to go, and I realize that yeah, this isn't exactly a good route. A few turns later, I did get back on track and got to the destination.
I didn't start using traffic reporting with automatic rerouting until the late 2010's. Sometimes it has saved my bacon, sometimes it sorta/kinda works, and other times the rerouting is just straight up goofy. It's a crapshoot every time. Does the traffic reporting and rerouting get any better if a phone app is used instead? No, and I'll explain why in a minute.
For that most recent trip I took, this was one of those sorta/kinda worked moments. It technically did get me around the traffic, but the alternate route was a little goofy. Not big time goofy. Just a little.
Something that all traffic-capable Garmin DriveSmart models have is the "Optimize Route" option. If set to "Automatic", that means the navigator will automatically reroute you whenever it knows about significant traffic delays on the current route. If set to "On Request", then it means the navigator will alert you that upcoming traffic is ahead on the current route, but not reroute unless you specifically give the go-ahead to do so.
I went ahead and set mine to "On Request", because I do want to know of upcoming traffic, but I'll make the decision of whether the navigator should give me an alternate route or not.
There's a big reason traffic reporting and auto-rerouting on the phone isn't any better than a Garmin DriveSmart. A couple of reasons, actually. First is that "I'm going to reroute you whether you want it or not" approach that map apps have, with no way to turn that off. Not cool. Second, most (all?) map apps have no way to define custom no-go zones, whereas you can on a Garmin DriveSmart, along with enabling/disabling them at whim.
I've also found custom no-go zones (technical name: Custom Avoidances) really nice for avoiding things like specific alleyways in parts of suburbia. An alley obviously doesn't have a street name, so it's not like you can set that kind of specific avoidance by text input. But it's not a problem on the Garmin. Just draw a box.
For now, I've made the switch to "On Request" for traffic reporting. I'm still on the fence concerning whether I should just disable all traffic reporting (again) outright. If this way of traffic reporting is less goofy, I'll stick with it. But if the goof level doesn't change, traffic reporting gets turned off.
Either way, it's nice to have the option of whether I want it or not.
$8 fix that's probably impossible on new cars
A lot of "advances" in car tech absolutely suck, but a genuinely good one that's been around for a long time is the fast click when one of your turn signals is out. Some genius figured out that hey, all we have to do to alert the driver one of the turn signals isn't working is have the click inside the car run at double speed when engaged. This is genius because a) it did not require adding a light to the gauge pod, b) it alerts the driver visually with a fast blink, c) it audibly alerts the driver with a fast click. Like I said, genius...
...unless you own a new car, then you're screwed.
Before getting into that, the passenger side front turn signal went out on my car, which of course I was alerted by from the fast click. I get back to the house, take the bulb out of its housing, then turn on the signal to make sure I have the correct one that's out. The stupid bulb started working again. Okay, that's good, but I'm not about to trust that. I went out and bought a pair of replacement bulbs anyway, which are now in the trunk in case I need them. And from what I could tell, the wiring looked okay, so, yeah, I'll just keep on keepin' on.
Most turn signal bulbs are about 8 bucks for a pair. That's highway robbery since they were under $3 for a very long time, but at least it's something that can be bought without taking out a loan for it. Yes, I did spend almost 8 bucks for the pair I bought.
Changing a turn signal bulb on a car used to be stupidly easy up until around the mid-1990s. After that, changing a bulb became annoying but doable. And that's the way things stayed until the late 2010s.
From the late 2010s to present is when factory installed LED exterior crap started appearing. Now instead of just replacing a bulb, the entire assembly requires replacement.
And for super stupid cars, dealer service is "required" because the internal computer of the car gets all sorts upset if you dare disconnect a wire anywhere just to replace a stupid light. Gotta "reset" the computer for that stupid light, don'cha know.
Thankfully, the car I have doesn't have a single LED lamp anywhere on the exterior, and that includes the CHMSL a.k.a. third brake light. Every single light is a regular bulb.
I may seriously consider going with something pre-2012 for my next car for whenever that time comes. And this is not just to avoid LED, but also to have a car where I can, y'know, be able to actually fix it myself. I'm obviously not a master mechanic, but I do know how to do bulbs, lubricate the window tracks with the right stuff twice yearly, and so on.