In this episode the boys talk about the upcoming Basel show and offer some tips on collecting.

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You say that alcohol is your only friend? And you need a nice watch to wear while drinking it? The Happy Hour Timepiece is for you. While the watch itself is pretty standard – a quartz analog movement next to a Chinese LCD movement in a rectangular case – the buckle of the strap holds an important secret.

Friends, it doubles as a bottle opener. No longer will you be the guy who gets drunk on too many beers! You will be the guy who gets drunk on too many beers with a bottle opener in your watch buckle. See the subtle difference?

You can buy it right here for $49.95

Here is the official podcast version of the Help Desk show. Quality really won’t go up on these because of the way they’re recorded. Unfortunately it’s the only way we can take calls right now. Ariel and I are going to talk about how to run these shows in the future, however, her are a few questions we have for you specifically:

1. Should these be folded into the regular podcast feed or should they have their own show i.e. a separate iTunes feed for these shows?
2. Did you enjoy the concept? Was it helpful?
3. Should this last an hour?
4. When should we run the live shows? What time? What day of week?

Let us know what you think and we’ll keep rocking.

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What can you do to make the tourbillon even more precious? How about you skeletonize it until it is completely hidden in the bezel? This amazing one-off piece was made by Thomas Prescher and that little wheel in the middle there is the tourbillon mounted balance wheel. It is wound by the spinning of that flat plate on the bottom and the dials display the date. The time appears on the cylinders on the top and the ball is a three dimensional moon-phase register.

Seriously. Don’t even ask how much this costs. It’s probably not for sale and it would probably explode on your first trip to Costco. This is truly an art watch.

Don’t forget: We’re going to be trying something brand new on Friday – a 30 minute show called the HourTime Help Desk. But we need your help. On Friday at 6:30 PM Eastern/3:30 PM Pacific we’re going to run a call-in talk show we’re calling Help Desk. We’ll still do our regular show, but this second show will probably run once every two weeks, if you guys like it, and we’ll talk about your watch questions and discuss your collections, your watch choices, and your favorite brands.

Richard Mille Diver

Outland 3H

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If you’ve been following the HourTime podcasts you’ll know that I have a hatred fro three-handed watches. For some reason I’ve grown weary of divers and dress watches without complications. Luckily, the Tyndall is here to bring me back from the brink of insanity.

Designed by Jeff Kuo of San Francisco, the Xetum Tyndall is the epitome of American high-style design watches. It’s not fancy, it’s not overly beefy, and it’s made to last. If you’re tired of divers that look like pie plates and monster watches that look like manhole covers yet contain a cheap Chinese movement, this is the watch for you.

First, the Tyndall contains a Swiss automatic movement, the elaboree-grade ETA 2895, a decorated automatic that is currently quite hard to find. That he was able to source this movement is a testament to his dedication. Had he used anything else and this watch would have been far less interesting.

The design is striking. The watch has a 40mm face – just big enough to matter but not big enough to drag you down while skydiving – and is 11mm thick. It is water resistant to 100 meters but I doubt you want to the get the beautiful leather band wet. It has a small subdial at six o’clock and a date window at 3. The band has a press-to-release buckle and is integrated into the case itself. The watch has no lugs because the band is stuck under the exhibition back.

The watch is just the right size and is very legible. I wasn’t quite happy with the lume but only the 12,3,6, and 9 are lumed along with the hands, thereby reducing some legibility at night.

Now for price. This watch is $1,395, quite a handful, but when you consider most of the higher-end Swatch Group line uses the same movement as well as the Oris Artelier line, you can excuse the high price. Sourcing this movement is hard enough and the care Jeff took in designing and manufacturing this watch is evident.

This is a high-design American watch through and through, something quite rare in the horology world. Add Xetum to the pantheon of American watch geniuses that now includes Bathys, RGM, and DFreemont.

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Here’s a geeky watch that won’t destroy your budget. Cadence teamed up with designer John Flear to produce the 4-BIt watch. The geek angle? All of the time indications are shown in 4-bit binary language instead of arabic or roman numerals.

It’s not just a novelty watch either, the 4-BIT is made from stainless steel with a japanese quartz moment. It’s also only $99, so it’s affordable too. I think I might be picking up one of these up for myself when they are released in June. You can sign up now to be notified when they are available for order by going to the Cadence website.

RGM, based out off Mount Joy, PA, is launching this beautiful chrono this year.

Driven by a larger Valgranges movement, the new Model #400 is a bold statement chronograph that will feature a variety of dials to choose from.

Amazing stuff. One more shot after the jump.

A classic of silent cinema, this hands-on with the Renato Carbon Fiber Chono is full of old-timey charm. If only more watch bloggers would be this silent.

In this episode we talk about watch repair tips and some classic watch legends. Enjoy!

Mentioned this episode:

Chad the Watch Guy

Otto Frei watch repair

Tokyoflash