Watches, Stories, & Gear: Magnet Fishing, the Year’s Best Needle Drops, and Fake Birds

“Watches, Stories, and Gear” is a roundup of our favorite content, watch or otherwise, from around the internet. Here, we support other creators, explore interesting content that inspires us, and put a spotlight on causes we believe in. Oh, and any gear we happen to be digging on this week. We love gear.

Share your story ideas or interesting finds by emailing us at [email protected]

Magnet Fishing in NYC

Did you pick up a new hobby during the Covid-19 lockdowns? Many of us tried our hands at baking bread, taking on arts and crafts projects, urban (and rural) hiking, and a thousand other things. James Kane, profiled recently in the New York Times, developed an interest in something a little more obscure, but unlike many of the would-be sourdough experts among us, Kane has stuck with his new pastime. Magnet fishing involves, well, dropping a magnet into a body of water and seeing what you can pull up. Kane has been doing this all over New York City for the last few years, and is hoping to build a YouTube following. It’s not the most ridiculous idea. There’s plenty of junk at the end of those magnets, but sometimes Kane finds something valuable, or interesting, that sheds light on the city’s history. Like that time he found a live grenade. Who wouldn’t want to watch that YouTube video?

The Paré Paré Podcast

The Paré Paré podcast is a new venture brought to us in part by the guy behind the popular Longbeach Watch Club Instagram account, featuring focused discussions on watches, as well as all things design related. Early episodes have covered a wide array of topics from architecture, to cars, to home audio. There’s even an extended discussion of the films of Paul Thomas Anderson in one episode. Recent episodes have introduced guests into the mix, but mostly it’s co-hosts Trevor and Stephen talking through a given topic, and they have a great rapport, which is really the most important factor in a podcast like this, if you ask us. We know there are a lot of watch podcasts out there, but this one offers something genuinely different in its scope, and it’s worth checking out if you’re interested in the connection between watches and other design disciplines. 

Television’s Best Needle Drops

There are few filmmaking choices that leave as visceral an impact on the viewer than a well placed needle drop. When a recognizable song hits the soundtrack at just the right dramatic moment, it can leave an indelible impression. This year saw a ton of great musical moments in the year’s best TV shows, and Vulture has compiled this list of the ten best. The picks range from the obvious (but undeniable) use of a Fleetwood Mac classic in Daisy Jones and the Six, to an unforgettable, ecstatic Taylor Swift moment in The Bear (a show that could have easily filled this entire list). 

The James Webb Telescope Amazes and Confounds

The James Webb Telescope has been in operation for two years, and in that short period of time, scientists and the world at large have gotten a sense of the incredible potential of the telescope to answer all kinds of questions about the nature of the universe. But there’s a flip side to that huge download of knowledge, as this article on space.com points out. It all goes back to the potential rate of the universe’s expansion, hinted at in new James Webb data. It could throw years of cosmological research out the window. 

Vollebak Opens the Vault

Vollebak is one of the most compelling apparel brands in the mix right now, and they’ve just opened their vault to close out the year. This is a rare chance to snag some of their ingenious, tech forward pieces at a huge discount. Some of the items that have been brought back are the Blue Morpho jacket, which recreates the iridescent wings of the blue morpho butterfly by incorporating tiny blue glass spheres in the construction of the jacket’s shell, and the 100 Year Sweatshirt, which adds insane durability (it’s flame proof) to a casual staple. Check out the sale here. 

Never Trust a Bird

For a while earlier this year, it felt like everyone’s job was about to be replaced by A.I. The technology became dramatically more accessible this year, and for better or worse it’s become easier to imagine a world where artificial intelligences simply do all the heavy lifting. It’s natural to have some concern that your daily work tasks could be taken over by a machine, but while we were freaking out about the coming of Sky Net, nobody was thinking about the birds. In a weird development, it seems that A.I. has been responsible for creating many images of birds that simply don’t exist, causing all kinds of confusion among both casual and serious birders. Sign of things to come? Slate digs in, here. You’ll never trust a bird pic again.