It's episode 6 of this. Watch live.
Hi, I'm Lydia. Winters and I am Voo Bowie.
And I got to sleep in all weekend, so I'd say I'm
refreshed, but I'm not. I'm very tired.
It was kind of weird to record for five days straight and then
just not record for two days. Yeah, we missed you all.
Yeah, we're excited to be back and today we.
Had a good weekend. Today with a hot topic.
A hot hot topic. Yeah, a topic so controversial.
SO0 Stakes so high drama. High Drama 0 Stakes Lydia's
favorite Type. Of drama it is.
Well, let me set the stage. It was a Friday afternoon.
I opened my personal inbox to see a new Box and papers, which
is a newsletter I subscribe to from Cam Wolf who's a senior
style editor at GQ. And it was talking about
something that I knew would spin Boo's head around and around.
And I was like, we must talk about this.
The article is titled Why True Watch Heads Never Set the Time
on Their Watches. Is That I?
Have issue with multiple things about this title.
I don't know Cam. I know you've spoken with Cam.
You said he's a great guy. You've been on his newsletter.
I don't know Cam. I only know him.
It's meant to. It's meant to provoke and and
also let's show some of what Cam says here.
So he says. When I shared this quirk about
not setting the time with two editors here at GQ last month,
they were aghast leaving 1:00, so concerned that he messaged
me. I'm afraid to ask, but can you
tell the time I can? He says.
So I so I set out on a mission driven by the purest of
intentions, vindication and the ability to say I told you so.
And he also talks about this whole thing kicked off from
seeing a video by Mike Nouveau, who is a vintage watch dealer.
He's doing a lot of tik toks, and he interviewed Cartier
Ambassador, who is a YouTube fashion icon, Emma Chamberlain.
And neither of them had their cartiers set to the right time.
OK, Vu, you're unleashed. Go.
I have a different take. So this is VU versus Lydia.
I want to be clear. People do whatever they want.
That is true. Like I am not saying it.
Is your watch. Yeah.
It's your watch wear how you want wear multiple watches I
double wrist who am I to talk about like oh you should follow
the rules right. So I think people should do
whatever they want. That said, you don't it's more
it's not that I think you're doing it wrong.
It's that I actually don't understand it.
I cannot understand it it and it's it's because OK, so if you
read the article, which I I suggest everyone do this,
whether you're on Lydia's side or on my side, read the article
there, there's all kinds of good points.
And I I actually there were two points that I thought were
really, really compelling. Well, should we start, I think,
with our personal view, like what we personally do?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
OK, so every time I have a watch on my wrist, it's set to the
second. But.
To the. I'd just like to repeat that to
the second, yeah. But not all of my watches are
accurate enough to stay to the second, you know, for multiple
days in a row. OK.
And if I wear a watch, let's say 3 days in a row and it's off by
5 seconds, I allow it. Oh, yes, I will allow.
You're OK, little watch. I don't.
I'm not like, oh OK, I need to
fix this because it's 5 seconds off.
However, I change watches almost every day and when I do that, I
just set it to the second. Why wouldn't you?
What would you like? Name that genre of person who
sets it to the second? I don't.
Know like, decent. OK.
OK, decent. Decent humans.
I'm going to say that my My Watch setting category would be
Loosey Goosey. Yeah, I agree with that.
You know, I I do set the time, you know, 60% of the time it's
set every time I think it's more than 60, I know it's more than
60. It's probably like I would say
88% of the time that might. Be pretty.
Accurate. Pretty accurate.
I think 'cause I don't. Think it can be accuracy?
That feels pretty accurate. Because just to illustrate this,
I think a lot of times one of the problems for me is I when I
take a photo and then I set the watch to 10/10, which is a great
way to show off like the happy face of a watch with the the
hands pointing up. Then I put my watch back on and
like hours later I'm like it's only 230.
I'm like no it's the night time. Like it doesn't it just doesn't
make any sense and I just throw it back on.
So that happens quite a bit to me, I.
Also set my watches to 10/10 when I photograph.
Them, but then you just reset them to the second.
To the second, I think. I feel like if you're already
setting the time, might as well spend it.
It does cost about a minute typically.
Yeah, mine cost no minutes because I'm like ±5 minutes
usually. But it it it takes a minute.
But OK, I think that that time that you spend setting your
watch, aside from the fact that it's touching your skin and
being on you all day, that time that you spend setting your
watch and you're like waiting for the second hand to come
around and then you stop it. And then you're waiting for the
second hand on whatever your reference time is, and then you
click it and you wind the crown back in.
Like, to me, that's like a fun little moment that I actually
spend interacting with the watch, not just wearing it.
He's a romantic. I I just think that.
But also, you're dead to him if you don't say you're watching.
No, no. People can do it.
I will not hold it against them. I don't think if you don't set
the time it makes you like some kind of bad watch person.
No, I think in the article one of the things that a lot of the
people talk about like JJ Owens who has Daily Grail and has been
in watches for years, it's like that she sees them as an object
like of art style. You know, it's this beautiful
thing and like that's its primary purpose because you
could just have a digital watch. And I will say, I am a little
less concerned about the time on my wrist because I do have the
Apple Watch on the other wrist hiding under his sleeve.
And when I look for the time, it's usually the digital I.
I don't even understand. That when I want beauty, I turn
to the left wrist where there is a gorgeous mechanical watch, and
when I just need a quick, accurate time, that's not off by
5 to 3 hours. But you've only been wearing an
Apple Watch for a year. Yeah, so it would have probably
got my. Excuse it.
Before, Probably my phone. Probably just my phone.
Just your phone. Yeah, so, so as someone who
keeps it very accurate on my mechanical watch but also wears
an Apple Watch on my other wrist, I don't look at my Apple
Watch for the time. It's not enjoyable to look at
that one for the time. So I am trained to look at my
left wrist for the time. That is just what happens.
I raise my left wrist. That's where my mechanical watch
is. I look at the time.
OK, is there anything you can agree with for the loosey
goosey's? Well, no.
I agree that people should be allowed to do whatever the heck
they want. Of.
Course, I do think there are two kind of there are two good
reasons to not set your watch. One, and this was mentioned in
the article Watches That Are Broken.
You know, either you don't have the money to repair it, or maybe
you know, for some vintage watches you can't even.
Find the parts. You know I've heard of watches
being with the the repair person for years, right?
And you could have just worn it during that time.
If it's a watch you love and and and wear it just as a piece of
jewelry, that's totally valid, right?
And the only other thing I could think of as being a valid reason
is if you don't care about the time, which is totally valid.
Some people they're like why do I need to know the time?
At least you know I need to know if it's day or night, you know I
need to know when I should go to sleep.
But some people are are fortunate enough to live a life
where like, minutes don't matter for most of the day.
Whereas I use my watch all day. I I need to know what time I
need to get to a meeting. I need to know what mainly
actually. That's, yeah, you're like,
that's that's full stop. Period.
That's it. That is the the main thing.
I mean, I do use it when I'm making food and you know,
timing, other things, but mainly I need to know what time I need
to be at meetings, which is also why I like it to be to the
second because I never want to be early and also do not want to
be late. OK.
So you said something and I want to circle back on it.
If you don't set the time on your watch, you know daily or or
even just for a few hours let's say.
Is it jewelry then? I mean, I think it's jewelry
either way. Yes, but is it more jewelry than
a watch? Then yeah, I I.
So I the watch can have a function.
It is what they were designed for.
But we don't need watches anymore, right?
Like that. That has been proven by the fact
that most people don't wear watches and they still survive
like they're not all dying on the streets because they don't
own watches. We don't need watches.
To me, the part I don't understand is if you have a
watch on your wrist, why not use it to tell the time?
To me, flipping the wrist to see the time is way faster than
digging from my phone, which is usually in my pocket.
That takes more time, more effort, and is more obvious O if
I'm in a meeting, it's way worse to pull out the phone to look at
the time than to just. Slide it over, you know just.
Glance at the watch. I'm just admiring the beauty.
I it's not that I want to get out of this meeting.
No, I'm just looking at this jewelry.
Jewelry. I'm just.
Looking at my jewelry. I was thinking about this
because I was like, well OK, but the watch still could.
If it's a functional watch, it does still function as a watch.
But then I thought about if I took that further and I said,
you know, can I run? Yes.
Am IA runner? No.
Like as a person if I'm not running like my legs do run,
they they are capable of it. So, but I wouldn't say I'm a
runner. Would that be similar to wearing
a watch that is not set? No, I know I I I I-100.
Percent disagree with that. Instead, I say this reminds me
of I've seen this meme a bunch of times because it's been
recreated many times, because it seems to always happen at
American baseball games. There's some dude and it's a
sunny day at the baseball game and he's wearing a baseball cap,
but he's got it on backwards and he's using something, either his
hand or one guy with this big piece of cardboard to provide
shade for his eyes. He is wearing a device that was
designed to shade your eyes from the sun, but he has it on
backwards and so he needs to put his hand there to shade his
eyes. That's not the same.
At all. No, because I have a digital
watch that's more accurate. But you don't always.
Yeah, but if. I only had it for a year, so you
already were not setting the tide before that.
So to me, it's just the part that I cannot get on board with
in terms of understanding is if you already have the watch and
you like watches, so it shouldn't be something you hate
to just turn it, you know, like just, you know, spend one to two
minutes setting the time. I don't understand why you
wouldn't just do that so you can have the time.
Well, if people want to do that, that's fine.
They are free to be just beyond my comprehension and that is.
OK, well luckily for you, in the article there was someone who we
know and love, Perry Dash, who is one of the founders of Risk
Check Pod and he says I always set the time.
And I completely thank you, Perry, for being the one voice
of reason in this whole article. When I was trying to look up
things about this, first of all I went down a really long like
watch you seek and that was very clearly not on team Loosey
goosey. But I also found this what I can
only say is a rumor because I could like it really seems like
a rumor and I'm not even sure how it would work but I thought
it was so funny that I wanted to bring it up.
So Mike McDonald McDaniel, I know nothing about football, is
the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and he when he got the
job, he went out and he bought a Rose Gold Breitling Navi timer.
The 1952 Quantum Quantum. Yeah, perpetual.
So like a gorgeous watch. He then put like a gold bracelet
on it. Not sure where that where that
came from exactly. It gave it its own look.
It's like this very iconically known thing now in in the
football community. And the rumor is, but again
could not confirm, that it is set to 2:46 PM and does not
change because that is the time he got the call from the Miami
Dolphins owner for the job. And then I thought that was a
really interesting, weird thing to think about if you used it as
a piece of jewelry that symbolized a specific time.
Again, date and year. Exactly.
That's kind of cool, right? It's actually.
I tried to, I tried to zoom in on so many images of him to look
at the time and then I was like I OK, I.
You couldn't find a. Good example.
I found one that did look like it was that time, but I found
other ones that didn't it. You know.
It's like a TikTok rumor, but I liked it because it felt cool to
think about if it was, yeah, symbolic fully, cause a lot of
people do buy a watch for a special occasion.
And then, you know, Mike McDaniel was like, oh, I'll see
your submariner for your daughter's birth.
And I will go with a full perpetual calendar marking the
exact date. Time.
Minute. Yeah.
I I I think there's something really cool, yeah.
I thought it was kind of cool. Because the romanticism of that
Trump's the romanticism of setting your watch every day.
That's true. Well, with that we would love to
know what you think. Are you a decent person on the
side? Of a little.
Bit Are you a little more, a little more?
Loosey goosey like me? Are you all the way over to just
like, wearing it? Whatever.
I could guess where we're going to be on the scale today, but
we'd love your thoughts and have a great day.
Yeah, a wonderful. Day A wonderful day.
You are decent even if your watch is not set to the second
by. Everyone who's listening more
than decent. More than decent.
More than you. Are more than decent.
Bye, bye.