Recent Articles

A while back, after my first purchase Grand Seiko, I had mentioned in a Member Journal that I was considering the Swiss watch market a bit dead to me — that I might go all in on Grand Seiko going forward. It’s kind of a ridiculous statement for those who think luxury watches are ridiculous, or perhaps just think having one luxury watch is enough — completely valid stand points. It’s where I was, and how I am still feeling about luxury watches today.

And as I’ve been diving deeper into Grand Seiko these days, I’ve come to realize that the way I think about watches, and what I care about in a watch, more closely aligns with Grand Seiko’s watchmaking philosophy than it does any other brand. None of this is to say that Grand Seiko is better than Rolex, Omega, or Patek — it clearly is — but rather to say that the way Grand Seiko approaches watches, feels completely unique in the market.

To that end, I wanted to talk about Grand Seiko versus the Western Watch world, and help those who have not owned a Grand Seiko, understand why those who do own a Grand Seiko may never go back to other brands.

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This past year was chaotic with my office bags. I thought I found the perfect bag for the office multiple times, and to add insult to injury, I had assumed nothing could beat my Filson Original Briefcase — wrong.

Rather than hash out all the nuances of each bag, and knowing that most of you don’t stock an entire closet in your home with backpacks as I do, I thought I would run through where the top office bags land for not only the office, but for other uses too — maybe this will help guide your purchases.

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So often the ‘Prepper’ circles focus on making sure they can survive a collapse of the government, a violent rebellion, or a zombie apocalypse. That’s certainly really fun to plan for, but it’s far more likely that what you need to be prepared for is shitting your pants at work, stepping in a comically deep puddle walking to lunch, a national toilet paper shortage, or a temporary destabilization of local infrastructure. Actually, losing your income is the most effective prep you can have, but ‘save more money’ is a pretty short article, let’s focus on the gear stuff.

To this end, I get frustrated when I see posts about ‘get home bags’ which are not focusing on anything but civil war and zombies. (If you are thinking: hasn’t he written this before — I have — past posts here and here.) As with anyone who wants to actually carry useful stuff: I rethink, analyze, and refine this bag all the time. In what feels like the right timing, I wanted to address it now as we start a new year.

If a zombie apocalypse, or civil war breaks out, I might be screwed with this gear, but for anything else — I feel pretty good.

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I’ve wanted a Filson 24hr Tin Cloth Briefcase for a very long time, but there was always two things which held me back: the first is that I already had a Filson Original Briefcase so this one seemed redundant; and the second was/is the price tag on the bag.

When I saw this 24hr Briefcase at a really solid second-hand price, I snagged it right away. And like the 48hr Duffle, this bag gives me all sorts of happy vibes, which makes talking about it objectively a lot harder. It’s a very good bag, but most certainly not something that everyone will love, or even like.

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This is the time of the year when flames are oddly comforting. It’s cold, it’s dark, and all I want to do is relax. But when you nail 1000 lumens on your perfectly daylight balanced flashlight against the ceiling — it can take you out of the mood.

Enter the Barebones Living Edison Light Stick, a silly little light gadget that is worth every penny and is a real gem. It’s an odd little thing, so let’s dive in…

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The MDV-106 is a classic, and this Casio “the Duro” is a well known, and well recommended watch for those looking for a classic design on a tight budget. When I first reviewed the watch, it was priced at about $40 — inflation has caught up with it and it’s now priced just under $50 depending on the color you choose.

This is still the same watch I reviewed in 2018, and I summarized it in the original review saying:

Overall, I’m impressed. I’m keeping it too. I really don’t understand why more people aren’t wearing these, it’s perfect in its simplicity and value. To me this watch proves you really don’t need to spend more than $40 to get a really great watch.

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If you have ever searched for military watches, or field watches generally, then you have likely come across Marathon Watch — and most likely also come across their “General Purpose” line of watches. There’s a few variants, but they can be broken down to: Mechanical (GPM) or Quartz (GPQ); and then Tritium or Maraglo. I’ve always thought they looked neat, and something to try out, but the price tag is steep for what looks like a rather plain watch.

But, I grabbed a GPQ with Maraglo from J.Crew during one of their many sales for about $80 — an absolute steal of a deal. I’ve been messing about with it since picking it up, and while I do like it — it’s not really something which draws me in.

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