Watches, Stories & Gear: Life on Venus, The Mandalorian S2 Trailer, and a new Z

“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.

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This installment of “Watches, Stories, and Gear” is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop.

The Mandalorian Season 2 Trailer

Ready or not, a fresh round of Baby Yoda memes are about to come your way. The new season of The Mandalorian bows on Disney+ in late October, and judging from the trailer that dropped this week, season 2 of the Star Wars spinoff is likely to have the same galaxy spanning, swash-buckling, mythology building adventure that the first one did. The talent pedigree behind season 2 is impressive, with Jon Favreau returning as showrunner, and individual episodes directed by Favreau, Robert Rodriguez and Bryce Dallas Howard, to name a few. If you’re old enough to have come of age as a Star Wars fan when we just had one trilogy of movies to watch over and over again, it’s literally the stuff of dreams to have a TV series like this unspool week to week. If you still feel a tingle down your spine seeing that Lucasfilm logo flash across the screen, be sure to check out this preview, and catch up if needed on the first season, now streaming.

Signs of life on Venus

Some incredible news came across the transom this week as we learned that scientists studying the atmosphere of Venus have found possible signs of microbial life on the oven-like planet. Powerful telescopes were able to detect the presence of phosphine in the atmosphere, a chemical that it’s believed could only exist if something were to be alive on the planet. There’s still a lot of testing to be done to confirm the results and figure out exactly what’s going on – and that’s no easy feat considering the Venusian atmosphere is less than hospitable to man man probes. Still, it’s an exciting discovery, and is likely to inspire some renewed interest in exploring the second planet from the sun. More details here.

Biggie’s Crown Sells at Auction

From time to time we like to bring you auction news on these pages, but we’ve never seen results quite like this. Pitchfork reports that Sotheby’s held their first hip-hop memorabilia auction this week, and some of the hammer prices are legitimately fascinating. The big news is the $6 plastic crown worn by the Notorious B.I.G. in his final photo shoot before his death sold for an eye popping $594,750. Yeah, that’s basically three Paul Newman Daytonas. The sale also included a wide range of apparel (Salt-n-Pepa’s “Push It” jackets hammered at $23,940), artwork, and even love letters written by a teenage Tupac Shakur. Check out the full results here.

Nissan Reveals Prototype for New Z Car

It’s been over 10 years since we last saw a new Z car from Nissan in the 370Z (Z34), and since the ‘90s since it’s had a forced induction engine in the 300ZX (Z32). That all changed this week with the reveal of a new Z prototype (no official name just yet) that rocks a twin-tube 3.0L V6 engine (a modified VR30DDTT) mated to a 6 speed manual gearbox. The design recalls prior generations of Z cars, from the 240-esque headlights to the 300ZX tail lights. The sleek body will likely make use of the same FM platform as before, and share a host of components with other cars in the Nissan/Infiniti stable, but all this should keep the price very competitive. MKV Supra, consider yourself on notice. More details here.

PS5 Gets a Price & a Launch Date

In response to Microsoft’s X Box Series X pricing announcement, Sony held their own digital event this week to reveal pricing and availability for the Playstation 5. The digital only version will list for $399, and if you need the optical drive it’ll cost $499. Pre-orders went live a bit early, so snagging one prior to the holiday season could prove tricky, but if you’re lucky the system will release November 12th. If you’ve ever tried scoring a steel Rolex sport watch from your local AD you’ll be well familiar with the patterns we’re seeing in electronics right now, with the PS5 and NVIDIA’s 3080 series GPU both getting snatched up in an instant, only to be found in the second hand market for exorbitant prices.

Happening Now: The 24hr Race of LeMans

The weekend marks the (delayed) 88th running of the 24 hour race of LeMans around Circuit de la Sarthe in France. The LMP1 class will be led by Toyota, who won last year’s race, with the Rebellion and Bykolles teams laying chase. We’ll be keeping an eye on the LM GTE-Pro class, where the Porsche, Ferrari, and Aston Martin teams qualified within 1 second of each other. Grab your spotters guide and strap in for the 24 hour race, which will conclude Sunday at 2:30 local time (8:30am eastern). More details here.