“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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Header Image Via: Blake Buettner
This week, we had the opportunity to witness the launch of the RB19, Red Bull Racing’s Formula 1 car for the upcoming 2023 season (well, kinda). The car was launched in New York City, and is the only F1 car set to be revealed in the US, a sign of both the raising popularity of the sport in the States, as well an opportunity to spotlight their just-announced engine partner from the 2025 season on, Ford Performance. 2023 will the second year of the new regulations, which saw a shuffling of the regular order of a prior generation, and catapulted Red Bull’s team to the top of the heap, where they brought home the World Constructor’s championship, as well as the World Driver’s championship, won by Max Verstappen.
Joining the team for the reveal were both drivers, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, as well as their newly announced reserve driver for the season, fan favorite, Daniel Ricciardo. All three were sporting the teams newly designed apparel, and there wasn’t much in the way of watch spotting, other than this TAG Heuer Monaco on the wrist of Verstappen. The car itself doesn’t appear all that different from last season’s car, but there are sure to be plenty of small aero updates in hopes of retaining their dominance over Ferrari and Mercedes teams who will look to be more competitive with a year of learnings from the new regulations under their belt.
Head over to the Red Bull Racing website to see more, as well as to learn more about an opportunity to design your own livery for the RB19 to be used at special races this season.
The Surfer’s Journal is not just a publication dedicated to the sport, lifestyle, and culture of surfing. They’re also putting out some really good content in the podcast space. Soundings is already in its third season and the list of guests that has graced their show is a remarkable one. They’ve already had the likes of Laird Hamilton, Kelly Slater, and Joel Tudor to name a few. What separates Soundings from any other regular surfing podcast is that they dig deeper into how surfing bleeds into the other aspects of the guest’s life and the larger impact that they’re making outside of the surfing world.
In their most recent episode, they hosted outdoorsman, environmental conservation pioneer, and WSG alum, Yvon Chouinard. The episode takes place shortly after the Chouinard family announced that they would relinquish ownership of their 3 billion dollar outdoor apparel and gear company, Patagonia. In doing so, they’ve fully committed the entire value of their company towards conservation programs across the globe, ensuring that their original mission to leave the world better than they found it, continues. Chouinard is definitely one of those people that when they talk, everyone quiets down to listen. The episode is a fascinating conversation between Yvon Chouinard and host Jamie Brisick, ranging from invention versus innovation and principles of industrial science, to his heroes and what inspired him to make the world changing business decision to give Patagonia away. If you have the hour to spare this weekend, the episode is worth the listen. Check out The Surfer’s Journal presents Soundings wherever you listen to your podcasts.
We’ve seen Artificial Intelligence intersect the world of horology a couple of times within the past year. We dedicated a post to the strange watch related images created within the DALL-E generator and we’ve seen entire watch stories generated from thin air. Now could AI be used for more productive things? Sure. But the idea of an ever-evolving computer intelligence involved in high-stakes decision making is kind of scary if you ask us. I mean, have you guys ever seen Terminator or I, Robot?
We’re sure you’re in agreement that we should continue to use the power of AI for more light hearted things. And it doesn’t get any more light hearted than a never ending episode of Seinfeld. That’s right. Running live on Twitch as we speak, is an AI generated Seinfeld show that has been going since December 14th of last year. It is entitled Nothing, Forever. You get the same characters in the same familiar locale, except everything has this old-computer, pixelated effect to it.
The show is as advertised. At the time of this writing, we watched a scene where Seinfeld walks into the apartment, and George and Elaine are breaking the news to Seinfeld that they’ll be moving to Florida. Seinfeld proceeds to dissuade them by saying that Florida is an undesirable place to live because women don’t work in lingerie stores. He goes on to say that they get hypnotized by all the lace. The scene goes on and then cuts to an image outside of their apartment before another brand new scene continues. It’s hilarious and the perfect way to kill some time.
If you tuned in a couple days ago to watch Punxsutawney Phil give us the weather report for the next month in half, then you’ll know that we’ve got a long, blustery six weeks ahead of us. Groundhog Day has been an annual tradition since 1877 and has been our barometer for how long we’ll have until the weather will start to turn for the better. Believe it or not, Mr. Phil has only been correct about 39% of the time, so don’t get too bummed about the woodchuck seeing his own shadow.
The North American tradition also serves as the main plot of the 1993 film Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, where cynical TV weatherman Phil Connors (Murray) finds himself reliving the same day, in which he’s tasked to cover the big reveal in Punxsutawney, over and over again. And what better way to understand what Connors goes through than to actually watch the movie, Groundhog Day, every day, for a year. That’s exactly what Adam Daniel does in an editorial piece for the Conversation. Reading about his approach and progression of his thoughts are, let’s just say, interesting. We’re just happy that Adam Daniel did the research for us.
For the sneakerheads that have made it to this last WSG story, do you remember the Diamond Supply Co. x Dunk Low Pro SB ‘Tiffany’? At the time, limited edition SB Dunks were highly coveted, and the one that really broke the internet (before that was an actual thing) and necks if you saw them out in public, were these Tiffany blue low cut sneakies. The toe box and midsection was wrapped in a shiny black crocodile textured material, the swoosh adorned with this metallic silver, and the rest of the shoe colored in the iconic Tiffany blue.
Although called the ‘Tiffany’ dunk, this was not an official collaboration with the exemplary jewelry, Tiffany & Co. Fast forward to 2023, we finally do have a sneaker that we can officially say is a collaboration between the two juggernaut brands. The Nike x Tiffany & Co. Air Force 1 1837 takes the classic silhouette of the AF1 and wraps it entirely with suede. Of course, the swoosh is hit with the Tiffany & Co. blue. The limited edition sneaker will also be packaged with sterling silver sneaker accessories including a show horn, shoe brush, and a whistle. The Nike x Tiffany & Co. Air Force 1 1837 is expected to retail at $400 and will be available at Tiffany’s two NYC flagship stores, select Nike retailers, and the SNKRS app. For those looking to snag one of these, expect long lines and a lot of luck.
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