Speaker 1: Foote Force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Software Radio, Special Operations, Military Nails and
Speaker 1: straight talk with the guys in the community.
Speaker 2: Hey, what's going on? This is rad with soft Rep
Speaker 2: Radio and I have a really cool episode today. But first,
Speaker 2: before I introduce my two guests, I want to tell
Speaker 2: you about soft rep dot Com Forward Slash Book hyphen Club.
Speaker 2: That's right, we have a book club and we have
Speaker 2: put a lot of time and dedicate a lot of
Speaker 2: resources to showing you our book club. So go to
Speaker 2: soft reap dot com Forward Slash Book hyphen Club. And
Speaker 2: also our merch man. We have really been happy sending
Speaker 2: you guys out this stuff. I've been getting tagged in it,
Speaker 2: so please keep doing that and also keep purchasing the
Speaker 2: merch It keeps us going. And we love the soft
Speaker 2: Rep mafia representing all around the world, so thanks so
Speaker 2: much for that. Now I have Guy McCarty junior, one
Speaker 2: of soft Rep editors, one of soft reps editors and
Speaker 2: masterminds behind the writings and things that you guys read,
Speaker 2: and and then today's guest is going to be Barry Cohen. Now,
Speaker 2: Barry comes from a background of watches, okay, time pieces,
Speaker 2: you know, things that you wear on your wrist, things
Speaker 2: that have changed so much in since the beginning of
Speaker 2: the railroad time Okay, where we click on the little
Speaker 2: you know, round dial to see how fast the train
Speaker 2: is coming or something. So Berry, welcome to our show
Speaker 2: and welcome pro Tech your company.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks so much, appreciate you having me today. Reed,
Speaker 3: nice to see you again.
Speaker 2: Also, guy, that's right, Now, let me just kind of
Speaker 2: step in here real quick. We all had a powwow
Speaker 2: at SHOT Show of twenty twenty four and linked up together. Right,
Speaker 2: that's right, yes, sir, And how was SHOT Show for you? Berry?
Speaker 3: Shot Show is by far our most important show for
Speaker 3: the type of watches we make, and the show was
Speaker 3: fantastic for us. One of the benefits of SHOT is
Speaker 3: you get to see people from around the world, and
Speaker 3: so we were able to open up and access different
Speaker 3: geographies that we didn't have yet, like the United Kingdom
Speaker 3: and Sweden and some push into Germany and some work
Speaker 3: in Latin and South America and Mexico, and so basically
Speaker 3: it was a good success for us.
Speaker 2: Now, okay, so let's go back a little bit. Okay,
Speaker 2: so we know protech. We've just dropped that. But let's
Speaker 2: go back to what got you into where you're at today.
Speaker 2: And is it my understanding that the glowing features that
Speaker 2: we all have all become accustomed to, like luminix right
Speaker 2: on the dials and on the faces of watches, that
Speaker 2: comes from your side of the brain.
Speaker 3: Well, it certainly certainly wasn't my invention. And if you
Speaker 3: said luminis and you were referring to Luminox, that was
Speaker 3: my that well, just happy to correct you this for
Speaker 3: the sake of accuracy. So, an old friend of mine,
Speaker 3: Richard Timbo, and I both founded the Luminox brand in
Speaker 3: nineteen eighty nine. And the thinking at that that's quite
Speaker 3: a while ago, huh. And the thinking at that time
Speaker 3: I had been looking for some type of technology to
Speaker 3: be able to sustain a brand, have a point of difference.
Speaker 3: And when I caught wind of this what I'm going
Speaker 3: to call enabling self powered loom technology, I thought we
Speaker 3: should put this into watches. We're already selling watches. Let's
Speaker 3: put it into watches. Create a brand for whom the
Speaker 3: highlight or the USB of the brand will be this
Speaker 3: self powered loom. And you know this had this had
Speaker 3: existed before us. It was of course, it was in
Speaker 3: night sights of guns, and it's been another application, compasses,
Speaker 3: and a number of different what I would primarily call
Speaker 3: military applications. And in fact, there were two watches out
Speaker 3: at the time, two brands. When I went to this
Speaker 3: physicist company in Switzerland to try and acquire this, there
Speaker 3: were two that were already making watches that were being
Speaker 3: supplied to the military. But my thinking, once again was
Speaker 3: why limit it. There wouldn't every consumer enjoy having this
Speaker 3: once again enabling technology. And that was the advent of Luminox.
Speaker 3: That's how we started it and it got off and running,
Speaker 3: and you know, luck plays a role. Rat We had
Speaker 3: a good idea, we were marketing it. We were already
Speaker 3: in tons of mail order catalogs with other products, remember
Speaker 3: that was the heyday of mail order back in the nineties.
Speaker 3: And we were at a trade show, was an outdoor
Speaker 3: retailer show, and we got lucky when a gentleman from
Speaker 3: the Navy Seals happened up on our booth and said,
Speaker 3: I've been looking looking for you for you guys, I've
Speaker 3: been looking for this technology, and if you'll make a
Speaker 3: watch for us, we're not going to buy that many,
Speaker 3: but then you can go tell the world that you
Speaker 3: supplied the Navy seals and maybe that will resonate. And
Speaker 3: that definitely did resonate, and that coupled with a heck
Speaker 3: of a lot of long workdays, got us to the
Speaker 3: point of having an established brand over a few years.
Speaker 2: That's awesome and and pretty incredible too, because you know,
Speaker 2: you're just out there and you're hustling and you're trying
Speaker 2: to make it and somebody has been seeking you out.
Speaker 2: That had to feel good to be seeked out for
Speaker 2: what you were making, right, I mean, who wouldn't want
Speaker 2: to be able to see what time it was? Or
Speaker 2: you know, obviously the lens static compass for my listener,
Speaker 2: if you're not familiar with what we're talking about, when
Speaker 2: you're looking at the old school compasses and you shine
Speaker 2: a flashlight on it, they glow and you can see
Speaker 2: the course, you see north and all the different you know,
Speaker 2: points one eighty three sixty on the compass. Well, that
Speaker 2: is also now inside of what we're talking about, the
Speaker 2: watches and for sealed to be able to see underwater
Speaker 2: right a clear like glowing what time it is or
Speaker 2: what direction? Right that's what we're talking about, yep.
Speaker 3: And the benefit of this, you know, there's been a lot.
Speaker 3: If you don't mind, I'll take you back in time
Speaker 3: a little bit and give you a little discussion, just
Speaker 3: to give you a little discussion basically about loom on
Speaker 3: time pieces. You know, very often wars. Nobody advocates for
Speaker 3: war obviously would rather not have them, but wars do
Speaker 3: beget new technologies and things come from that. And during
Speaker 3: World War One it was really the first time that
Speaker 3: risk watches were worn by men. Prior to that, the
Speaker 3: men wore pocket watches, and it was pretty obvious that
Speaker 3: if you're in the trenches and you're carrying your military gear,
Speaker 3: you don't really have another hand to be pulling a
Speaker 3: pocket watch out. So that was the advent of wearing
Speaker 3: watches on the risk for men, where they strapped the
Speaker 3: watch to the wrist. Now days they were using radium
Speaker 3: paint on the dials, and nobody knew at the moment
Speaker 3: that radium was such a noxious substance, and indeed many
Speaker 3: of the people working in the watch factories died young
Speaker 3: from radioactive poisoning. Sometime between World War One and World
Speaker 3: War Two, there was a move to tritium paint, and
Speaker 3: tritium is a harmless but still nuclear substance. Tritium paint
Speaker 3: became sort of the staple of luminous time for a
Speaker 3: number of years in I believe it's in the sixties,
Speaker 3: Superluminold late sixties super luminova came about, and that is
Speaker 3: today the staple of photoluminescent loom, and all looms out
Speaker 3: there are truly photo luminescent. And what does that mean.
Speaker 3: It means light has to hit that paint that's on
Speaker 3: the dial, the hands, and it activates or charges the
Speaker 3: illumination and it gives or emits a glow until it
Speaker 3: needs to be recharged with another external light source. That's
Speaker 3: the standard, and there are plenty that are very very good.
Speaker 3: The thicker you painted on a watchhand or a dial,
Speaker 3: you know, multi painting, multiprint, multiprint, the more material, the
Speaker 3: more light energy it can absorb, and therefore it can
Speaker 3: emit and give back for a longer period of time
Speaker 3: and brighter. And there are some that are so thickly
Speaker 3: painted that you can get a solid five hours of
Speaker 3: night loom reading capability with dark adapted eyes. We make
Speaker 3: some in other brands we have. But what we discovered
Speaker 3: here was really a breakthrough in that this is self
Speaker 3: powered loom, so it is not photoluminescence. It does not
Speaker 3: need light to hit the dial again, much like the
Speaker 3: gun sights that many of your listeners and viewers.
Speaker 2: Would know about.
Speaker 3: So this is really a completely different thing from the watches.
Speaker 3: There's a loom factory and then there's a watch factory,
Speaker 3: and this is Borisilica class tubes in micro sizes that
Speaker 3: are filled with a glue, then filled with a phosphor
Speaker 3: to make sure it lines the entire inner core of
Speaker 3: that vessel. Then it is taken to a vacuum machinery
Speaker 3: where heavy hydrogen WOIBH three, which is tritium, is pumped
Speaker 3: in in a gaseous form and is sealed with a
Speaker 3: CO two laser. Now, from the moment that tube is sealed,
Speaker 3: the tritium is emitting beta, and the beta causes that
Speaker 3: phosphor to fluoresce on its own NonStop for twenty five years.
Speaker 3: And so that's what we have in the Protec brand,
Speaker 3: It's what I had in the Luminox brand, and that's
Speaker 3: how you arrive at this once again enabling capability to
Speaker 3: be able to see time at a glance, no matter
Speaker 3: the light level, including complete darkness. Now, all of that's
Speaker 3: done at this laboratory. But then these tubes that are
Speaker 3: cut with a CO two laser, so you get a
Speaker 3: nice rounded edge on the tube ends. These tubes cut
Speaker 3: into the size for minute hands, for our hands, for
Speaker 3: the indices, for second hands, for the dial, bezel pit
Speaker 3: for a dive watch, and ten thousand tubes fits into
Speaker 3: a box about four inches by four inches by one inch,
Speaker 3: and that box is then shipped to the watch assembly
Speaker 3: facility where the tubes are attached to the dials attached
Speaker 3: to the hands, and then conventional watchmaking takes over from there.
Speaker 3: So I don't mean to wax on too much, but technology.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's pretty amazing. And they're much smaller than a
Speaker 4: grain of like grain rice, very very small micro tubules,
Speaker 4: I believe it.
Speaker 2: Are mic Is it all? So you have a bezel
Speaker 2: and you have to put the the illuminescent of the
Speaker 2: loom technology on the bezel, on the second on the
Speaker 2: face and all that like, is that just done very delicately?
Speaker 2: Is that done by a machine? Is that done by
Speaker 2: a person?
Speaker 3: Well, A great deal of it is done by hand,
Speaker 3: but today they do have robotics that can place them
Speaker 3: onto the dials or on AI it's a robot but
Speaker 3: actually for our brand, they're all done by hand, okay,
Speaker 3: And part of it is we use different sized tubes,
Speaker 3: and some of those tubes aren't robotically placed. But to
Speaker 3: Guy's point, when you say micro, it really is micro.
Speaker 3: They're from three tenths of a millimeter to two thirds
Speaker 3: of a millimeter on the watch hands and on the
Speaker 3: different indusices there are bigger tritium tubes. In fact, our
Speaker 3: field watch uses tubes that are one point five by
Speaker 3: five millimeters as watch indices, and these are big rectangular tubes.
Speaker 3: Most of the tubes we use are cylindrical.
Speaker 2: It'd be cool to watch the process, you know, all
Speaker 2: the CO two laser cut up close, or seeing it
Speaker 2: put the tritium gas inside of it, or any of
Speaker 2: that kind of thing would be just magnificent to see.
Speaker 2: I love watch. I like the internal workings of watches.
Speaker 2: I like people opening them up on social media and
Speaker 2: working with their fingers on all of the different aspects
Speaker 2: of watch. So having this conversation is really like intriguing.
Speaker 2: It's really nerdy and uh, I'm sure that you know,
Speaker 2: there's so much that goes into it. Right, there's a
Speaker 2: cost to people putting things on that. There's a cost
Speaker 2: to that laser cut, there's a cost to you know,
Speaker 2: the four by four by one inch box shipping, the
Speaker 2: person that shipped it. Right, All this has to factor
Speaker 2: in to the watch. And so you know, now, guy,
Speaker 2: you got some watches, right, you were checking some of
Speaker 2: these out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if I could, uh try to to get one
Speaker 4: into focus here and see how good my my camera is.
Speaker 4: See if it'll focus on.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so that one right there, that's the Marine Corps.
Speaker 4: Right, that's the one from the Marine Corps. I absolutely
Speaker 4: love this case back.
Speaker 2: The ego globe and anchor has been embossed on the
Speaker 2: back of that or like that's raised, isn't it. Yes,
Speaker 2: that's it's raised.
Speaker 4: It's deeply raised. And way do you track?
Speaker 2: And that red that red band, that's some bling. Okay
Speaker 2: when I say bling, that pops. Okay, that's enough. It
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be golden diamonds USMC. That red band, guy,
Speaker 2: that looks good against your skin tone. It would look
Speaker 2: good against anybody's skin tone, especially in marines.
Speaker 3: Holy cow, so in the Marine collection beyond in the
Speaker 3: Marine collection, the USMC collection, we have nine models. One
Speaker 3: of them is a straight blackout because anytime we're in
Speaker 3: this type of watch, tactical style watches, you gotta have
Speaker 3: kind of a blackout look. And then we used four
Speaker 3: USMC official Pantone colors. We're not going to just pick
Speaker 3: a color out of the blue. We use their colors
Speaker 3: that include a dark blue, the bright red military green,
Speaker 3: and a desert sand kind of color. So and in
Speaker 3: those instances, those four models can be had either with
Speaker 3: those accent colors on the dole and on the rubber
Speaker 3: grip of the crown. We add a rubber grip to
Speaker 3: the crown for tactile purposes with a charcoal strap, or
Speaker 3: you can have it with a color coordinated trap, which
Speaker 3: is what guy was showing.
Speaker 2: You have you always just loved watches? Is this your thing?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: Somebody asked me that just the other day. I was
Speaker 3: on a blog with govex about this and they asked, well,
Speaker 3: how did this all happen? And I started to reflect it.
Speaker 3: I realized that my parents gave me a time X
Speaker 3: when I was ten, and I really you know, and
Speaker 3: I remember that I'd go to school in fifth grade
Speaker 3: with my little TIMEX on, and most of the kids
Speaker 3: weren't a watch. You know, most kids don't wear a
Speaker 3: lot really.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 3: When I was thirteen, my family took us on a
Speaker 3: little Caribbean cruise, and you know, on the cruise you
Speaker 3: can buy duty free stuff, so lower price, and my
Speaker 3: folks bought me, believe it or not, a Universal Zenev Chronograph.
Speaker 3: But it was thirty five bucks, you know, I mean
Speaker 3: we're talking a long time ago. Today that would be
Speaker 3: thousands something thousands probably, And I love that watch, and
Speaker 3: so I wore that like for special occasions. But and
Speaker 3: this story kind of came out that a bunch of
Speaker 3: us high school kids we went to visit a friend
Speaker 3: of mine's girlfriend at some summer camp and we're going
Speaker 3: to spend a couple days up at this place. And
Speaker 3: so one night we all went to to this country
Speaker 3: club swimming pool and hopped the fence and snuck in
Speaker 3: to go skinny dipping in this pool, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, we heard the police were coming, and so
Speaker 3: we all had to run out, grab our clothes, grab
Speaker 3: our stuff, and we're running across the fairway and police
Speaker 3: are shining lights on our naked butts as we're running
Speaker 3: across the airwork. But unfortunately I lost my watch that night,
Speaker 3: and so that's when watches started for me.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah wow, So yeah, so young age, I mean,
Speaker 2: you're in your fifties now, is that right?
Speaker 3: I wish now I'm considerably older. I mean, you got
Speaker 3: to think that I did a lumanox for twenty seven
Speaker 3: years and I've been out of there for seven years,
Speaker 3: so I'm back. And I just figured before I get
Speaker 3: to be too.
Speaker 2: Old, did you Vietnam was in your Was that in
Speaker 2: your line of sight when you were growing up?
Speaker 3: Well, it certainly was happening when I was growing up.
Speaker 3: My draft number was fourteen, but the draft was stopped
Speaker 3: at number eleven of my year as it happened, So
Speaker 3: I certainly would have been drafted. But I didn't get drafted,
Speaker 3: and I never had to serve. But you know, I
Speaker 3: have immense respect for anybody that did. Because enlist these,
Speaker 3: of course is one thing, but even the people that
Speaker 3: weren't enlisted, and uh, and we're drafted and didn't maybe
Speaker 3: didn't even want to go, but it ended up going. Uh,
Speaker 3: you know, you got to have a lot have a
Speaker 3: lot of empathy, of course, serving our country, but you
Speaker 3: got to have a lot of empathy because, as we
Speaker 3: all know, a lot of people didn't come back, and
Speaker 3: many that did come back came back less than whole.
Speaker 3: And so how can you not support those you know,
Speaker 3: that that sacrificed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so you probably have that inside of you
Speaker 2: as well, because I mean you are helping, you know,
Speaker 2: outfit seal teams with technology that can help them.
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't work with seal teams at this moment.
Speaker 3: I still have plenty of Navy Seals that are friends
Speaker 3: from the old days. Sure, because you know the the
Speaker 3: USMC and excuse me, the US Navy Seal program was
Speaker 3: part of my former brand. But today, as as you
Speaker 3: guys both already discussed, we do a watch that's tied
Speaker 3: to the United States Marine Corps instead. And if you
Speaker 3: want to know how that came about, I'm happy to tell.
Speaker 2: You, Yeah, that is a good question. How did that
Speaker 2: get to be the USMC's Marine Corps that guy is
Speaker 2: wearing which is red and popping off of his wrist
Speaker 2: in the video if you're watching.
Speaker 3: Blinky, as you said, yes, so while we were doing
Speaker 3: the Luminax. While running Lumnax, we ended up in a
Speaker 3: meeting with the folks from the Marines. The guy that
Speaker 3: had worked with me from worked with me for sixteen years,
Speaker 3: worked at my former brand for nineteen years, kind of
Speaker 3: my right hand guy, and as dependable as anyone could
Speaker 3: ever be. He was a marine, so you know, we're
Speaker 3: a marine, always a marine. And he had brought these
Speaker 3: people in and we had a discussion and we thought
Speaker 3: long and hard about it. They asked, would you like
Speaker 3: to have a marine program as well? And again nothing
Speaker 3: but respect for all branches of the Armed services, but
Speaker 3: we thought at the moment it might dilute the message
Speaker 3: or marketing message for the other brand, so politely declined.
Speaker 3: You know, i'd been when I sold my shares in
Speaker 3: Luminox at late sixteen, I had another watch company, so
Speaker 3: I was still making watches, a variety of different watches.
Speaker 3: And so this fellow that worked with me was in
Speaker 3: touch with the folks from the Marines. And I got
Speaker 3: a call one day, a couple of comments the words
Speaker 3: on the street, we're here, You're back in Tritium tactical watches,
Speaker 3: and I said yes, and then extremely complimentary. His next
Speaker 3: line was if you're doing it, we want it, and
Speaker 3: he said, give me a give me a week or
Speaker 3: so to speak to the people here and I'll come
Speaker 3: back to you. And it took just about a month,
Speaker 3: but then we had a program put together and we
Speaker 3: were underway on developing the USMC series. That's just one
Speaker 3: series within the brand. We we have four series at present,
Speaker 3: so that's one of the four series. And we also
Speaker 3: have quite a few new things in the hopper coming
Speaker 3: this year, automatic mechanical watches using a Saiko twenty four
Speaker 3: jewel movement bracelets, solid link bracelets for our steel dive watches,
Speaker 3: and solid titanium braces for our titanium field watches. And
Speaker 3: one of the automatic mechanicals will also be a collection
Speaker 3: of USMC watches.
Speaker 2: I love that. And so where would we be able
Speaker 2: to find more information about your series of watches and
Speaker 2: the collection? Is it like protech dot com? Is that
Speaker 2: the website or what's your website?
Speaker 3: Actually the website is protechwatch dot com. And I always
Speaker 3: have to or I always try to spell it so
Speaker 3: because people could spell tech different ways. So that's p
Speaker 3: R O t e K watch dot com. And there
Speaker 3: you'll be able to see the full range presently. Of
Speaker 3: course the new things are not photographed.
Speaker 2: Yet, right, and so this is someplace that my listener
Speaker 2: can go check out. You know, you can go scroll
Speaker 2: around see the probably the history of his watches and
Speaker 2: check them out. They're they're very cool. I got to
Speaker 2: see them in person, and I got to see a
Speaker 2: lot of them at Shots and I really enjoyed walking
Speaker 2: around Shot Show. And it's it's meetings like where we
Speaker 2: bump into each other or introduced through guy and his
Speaker 2: guys like rad you should go over and check out
Speaker 2: his his booth and boom, we go over there. And
Speaker 2: now you're on you know, you're you're able to talk
Speaker 2: about your story and and let our listener know about
Speaker 2: it and and hopefully it just brings positive success to
Speaker 2: your your new what should I say, shutting of your skin?
Speaker 2: Now you're.
Speaker 3: A guy has seen us before at the Shot Show,
Speaker 3: and it was great to see him come back and
Speaker 3: visit us. And as you saw how we're developing. I
Speaker 3: guess he mentioned he mentioned you to me, and I
Speaker 3: guess he mentioned us to you. Yes, And then lo
Speaker 3: and behold, the next day you happened upunt our booth
Speaker 3: and I thank you for doing that.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to meet you. See, you were talking
Speaker 2: to some big wigs. You had the president of Smith
Speaker 2: and Wesson hanging out at your booth when I came over.
Speaker 2: We even got a picture and put it up on
Speaker 2: the internet. Was that right, Yeah, yeah, he's he's the chairman,
Speaker 2: Oh chairman, Yeah, excuse me, chairman s Wesson.
Speaker 3: And he's a very nice man.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: You know I met him the year before at the
Speaker 3: Shot show once again, and you know I made a
Speaker 3: comment to him, which I meant sincerely. I told him,
Speaker 3: you know, I had just come from the scuba diving
Speaker 3: show a few months earlier, and it made me reminded
Speaker 3: me of at that show. You know, at any show,
Speaker 3: you meet a lot of people. And at that show,
Speaker 3: I happened to meet a man who started DAN, which
Speaker 3: is divers Alert Network. And you know, most of the
Speaker 3: people at the show were dressed in school, you know,
Speaker 3: thinking casually, tire and this guy shows up that you know,
Speaker 3: he's at the booth and beautifully dressed in a suit
Speaker 3: and tie and very eloquent and very dignified. And I
Speaker 3: made the comment to an associate that I said, you know,
Speaker 3: at every show you meet one person who's really obviously
Speaker 3: a really classy individual, and that was that guy at
Speaker 3: the school at the dive show. And then I felt
Speaker 3: the same way about this gentleman from Smith and Wesson,
Speaker 3: and so I made that comment to him. I said,
Speaker 3: you remind me of this other guy, and here you
Speaker 3: are obviously a distinguished gent It's a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 3: And so he ended up coming back to our booth
Speaker 3: this year a couple of times and we have some
Speaker 3: nice conversations and he happens to love what we do.
Speaker 3: So it's always a pleasure to see him and happy
Speaker 3: to have a watch on his wrist if he's if
Speaker 3: he's interested, and we go from there. But yeah, you
Speaker 3: got a chance to meet him. It's a nice man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Now, guy, what do you think about it?
Speaker 2: You're wearing the watch? Tell me what it feels like.
Speaker 4: It is extremely comfortable. I love this strap, rubber strap.
Speaker 4: You can be able to tell I have pretty big risk.
Speaker 4: I have about a seventy three quarters interest and there's
Speaker 4: plenty of like extra on the watch.
Speaker 2: I want that red rap on the on the crown.
Speaker 2: That would be awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's got the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 4: Truly sets it off. Yes, and the wave pattern on
Speaker 4: the back, if you guys can can see that, there's a.
Speaker 2: Reason it's to put a watch together. Berry, Like, what
Speaker 2: does it take from you know?
Speaker 3: Well, the process is what I referred to it as
Speaker 3: multi iterative, multi inerative because it goes back and forth.
Speaker 3: When I said out, can I back up and I'll
Speaker 3: bring you right to that?
Speaker 2: Do it?
Speaker 3: You know, as I mentioned to you, I've been doing
Speaker 3: other watches, but I sort of had this yearning, I guess,
Speaker 3: to get back to this space. This for all intentsive purposes,
Speaker 3: this space was my career with my former brand, and
Speaker 3: I sort of missed making the type of watches I
Speaker 3: always loved making, designing and making. And I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: as I said to you before, before I get to
Speaker 3: be too old here, maybe I should take one last
Speaker 3: stab at it and our brand ethos. That started with
Speaker 3: a clean sheet of white paper at the top of
Speaker 3: the page. We just wrote two things, no excuses and
Speaker 3: no compromises. And that's how we were going to build
Speaker 3: this brand. You know, anything I did before, I always
Speaker 3: had partners and it was collaborative. Sure you want this,
Speaker 3: you want that? And I found that we were very
Speaker 3: often cutting corners or just things that I wasn't yet
Speaker 3: really one hundred percent thrilled with. But now doing it
Speaker 3: on my own, I could do it my way basically
Speaker 3: and build the watch away. I thought it would be
Speaker 3: built best. And we think we've done that. You know,
Speaker 3: your consumers will have to for the consumer world out there,
Speaker 3: we'll have to think about that and see if they agree.
Speaker 3: But so what we create. So I went back to
Speaker 3: the designer that I worked with for over twenty five years,
Speaker 3: who was, for all intents and purposes, retired today, and
Speaker 3: I said, I'm going to take one more shot at this.
Speaker 3: Are you interested in joining me? And he goes, you're
Speaker 3: darn right, I am. Let's do this and let's make
Speaker 3: it the best we can. And this is a Swiss designer.
Speaker 3: He worked for a major manufacturing and design house in Switzerland.
Speaker 3: In fact, he designed some of the top guccies, some
Speaker 3: of the top tag Hoyer watches. He's no slouch tag
Speaker 3: Formula one as an example his design. And so we
Speaker 3: set about to conceive what it is we want. We
Speaker 3: both knew we wanted classic design. We weren't looking for
Speaker 3: things that were just you see a lot of watches
Speaker 3: that just have too much on them. In my opinion
Speaker 3: and in his as well. We sort of think alike,
Speaker 3: and so we wanted timeless design, things that would be
Speaker 3: cleaned for today, but good for the long haul. And
Speaker 3: I think we accomplished that together. So that process takes
Speaker 3: I mean, it can be done in six months if
Speaker 3: you spend two months on design and four months on production,
Speaker 3: but we spent more than that on design and more
Speaker 3: than that on production, and so it ended up taking
Speaker 3: maybe eight or nine months or so. But then we
Speaker 3: came out with our first three collections, which were a
Speaker 3: carbon composite case dive watch, a steel sameless steel dive watch,
Speaker 3: and a titanium field watch. And then it was after that,
Speaker 3: as I told you, when the Marines and we started
Speaker 3: discussing things, we added another carbon composite collection, that's the
Speaker 3: Marine Collection. But from the outset, I told you this time,
Speaker 3: no excuses, no compromises. From the outset, we wanted to
Speaker 3: build and create something to a higher standard, so to speak.
Speaker 3: So every watch we make, for example, has a sapphire
Speaker 3: crystal with anti reflective coding. We didn't want no mineral crystals,
Speaker 3: no K one crystals, in the case of our carbon,
Speaker 3: we're using thirty percent carbon on the cases. And it's
Speaker 3: a three hundred meter dive watch. Nobody needs that. No
Speaker 3: one goes to two hundred meters. But it's just it's
Speaker 3: a sign of building quality in and every single watch,
Speaker 3: by the way, is tested in air and every watch
Speaker 3: tested in water. Nobody does this. They usually batch tested
Speaker 3: water because if a watch fails in water, you got
Speaker 3: to toss it. And we test them, of course to
Speaker 3: the full depth rating. The strap that you mentioned guy,
Speaker 3: that's genuine rubber. That's not poly r a thing. Again,
Speaker 3: these are places one could cut a corner, but we
Speaker 3: don't want to cut a corner, so we use genuine rubber.
Speaker 3: And in the rubber we even mold a steel tube
Speaker 3: that's inside the strap for the spring pin to go
Speaker 3: through for added durability and ruggedness and strength. Again, you
Speaker 3: don't have to do that. These are just added things
Speaker 3: we wanted to do. So we really tried to build
Speaker 3: it the right way. If you turn our bezel and
Speaker 3: you can demo if you wish, but there's no play
Speaker 3: in our bezel. It's a sixty click tight bezel with
Speaker 3: no play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's no backplay, and on.
Speaker 3: Our stainless steel we use one hundred and twenty click
Speaker 3: and also there no play Titus drum. And then in
Speaker 3: the steel and the titanium watches, we built those with
Speaker 3: waterproof genuine Italian leather strap. So it's Italian leather that's
Speaker 3: treated to be waterproof. And if you know anything about out,
Speaker 3: anything about standard leather's it starts kind of stiff.
Speaker 2: You got to break it in.
Speaker 3: But if you get it in the water, it's gonna
Speaker 3: get brittle. It's gonna crack right where the buckle is.
Speaker 2: So that watch that guy's holding up right there, that
Speaker 2: leather strap, that's the Italian leather and it's been treated
Speaker 2: for water resistance. That's what you're telling us, right, I have.
Speaker 3: This strap right here.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: Italian leather waterproof. This is one of the original samples.
Speaker 3: You can even see it's got a little sticker. That's
Speaker 3: how old it is. This has been in water three
Speaker 3: dozen times. It starts soft, it gets softer at most
Speaker 3: your wrist. If you put it in water and it
Speaker 3: will not crack, that's legit.
Speaker 2: So who did the fixed bayonet testing on it? You know,
Speaker 2: like making sure that it was like able to fix
Speaker 2: a bayonet for a marine. You know, like did they
Speaker 2: have like a hand garnade test to throw the handernad
Speaker 2: while it was being worn? I mean, like, you know,
Speaker 2: what about like the recoil, Like is it gonna be
Speaker 2: able to handle the recoil? My man? Like, who's doing
Speaker 2: that testing?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 3: All that, all that type of thing's done at the
Speaker 3: assembly facility where there's about two dozen quality control steps,
Speaker 3: including abrasian resistance, including shock resistance and the water resistance
Speaker 3: that I told you about. Bracelets that are pulled and
Speaker 3: pulled and pulled and pulled thousands of times to know
Speaker 3: that it's working properly so and that it can stand up.
Speaker 3: So that's that's just the processes we go through before
Speaker 3: anything whatever ship.
Speaker 2: And then once it does ship out to the client
Speaker 2: and they get it, what is your backing like, is
Speaker 2: they have like a like a lifetime.
Speaker 3: No, we don't have a lifetime. You know, I could
Speaker 3: I could give you some humor and I can give
Speaker 3: you the reality.
Speaker 2: Yeah both Okay.
Speaker 3: So the reality is that we have a two year
Speaker 3: limited warranty. And why do I say limited, because for example,
Speaker 3: no no watch company warrants a crystal Nobody does because
Speaker 3: glass can break, even sapphire. And but the thing is
Speaker 3: they don't break on their own, you know, they they
Speaker 3: break from serious impact. So nobody warrants a crystal. Nobody
Speaker 3: warrants a strap because straps wear out. It's like nobody
Speaker 3: if it's a courts watch. Nobody warrants a battery because
Speaker 3: eventually a battery wears out. These are things that just happen.
Speaker 3: But it's a solid warranty. We stand behind our product.
Speaker 3: Remember I said no excuses and no compromises. I've had
Speaker 3: situations where we've spent a considerable amount of money to
Speaker 3: make sure customers are satisfied. I can tell you about
Speaker 3: that separately. But the humor I was going to tell you.
Speaker 3: You know, we like to have a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: So at trade shows we get around with people. Work
Speaker 3: can be arduous and sometimes boring, so why not have
Speaker 3: a little fun. And so we clown with people a
Speaker 3: little bit. And so sometimes people would say, kind of
Speaker 3: warranty you have, Oh, we offer you the thirty thirty
Speaker 3: what's that now? Thirty feet or thirty seconds, whatever comes first,
Speaker 3: And of course we're clowning another one. We would say
Speaker 3: to people, hey, have you heard about the former Rolex
Speaker 3: Wearers Club.
Speaker 2: No, what is that?
Speaker 3: Oh, we started it basically we heard from a lot
Speaker 3: of people that were wearing Rolexes, but they said it
Speaker 3: didn't keep accurate enough time and they couldn't see it
Speaker 3: at night. They put it in a safe deposit box
Speaker 3: and now they wear our watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Again, just kidding around with people, but it really is true.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting point, by the way, because it really
Speaker 3: is true. Even the people that our watch aficionados and
Speaker 3: have the high end watches, the Rolexes, the hue blows,
Speaker 3: the bright lings tags, even those folks like to have
Speaker 3: what I call a beater, and that's a watch you
Speaker 3: can bang the heck out of. You don't want to
Speaker 3: You don't want to take a high end watch on
Speaker 3: do yard work or outdoor rugged activities, take hyperbole, mountain
Speaker 3: climbing or something like that. You want something you can
Speaker 3: bang around, and we're very happy filling that role of
Speaker 3: the beater.
Speaker 2: I mean, are really gonna wear rolex on a submarine subhriner?
Speaker 2: Come on?
Speaker 3: I'm just like, well, you know, I'm not Rolexes wonderful brand.
Speaker 2: Oh I get it, one hundred percent, But you know, today.
Speaker 3: My goodness, they're nine thousand to seventeen thousand before you
Speaker 3: get to precious metals and gems. You know, our watch
Speaker 3: is under five hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: That's a big difference, yeah, right right, and that has
Speaker 2: a purpose, you know, to be consistent and to keep
Speaker 2: time for the train that's coming and when.
Speaker 3: I when I say a beat. Oftentimes this class of watch,
Speaker 3: it is a beater. But it's also what's what's often
Speaker 3: called a tool watch, and that's what we make.
Speaker 2: Can you expound on the tool watch?
Speaker 3: It basically just means a rugged watch that's used for
Speaker 3: purposes of adventure the outdoor environment.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that rubber band it's probably easy to clean. Right,
Speaker 2: So if you happen to like, you know, sweat grime,
Speaker 2: you know, anything that collect undernething, wearing it all the time.
Speaker 3: Little soap and water in hand under a faucet and
Speaker 3: you're good, by the way. Yeah, As a matter of
Speaker 3: mention that you know, any watch it has a rotating bezl.
Speaker 3: A dive watch. If you go in salt water, it's
Speaker 3: advised that when you come out of the salt water,
Speaker 3: you're run it under some lukewarm water and turn the
Speaker 3: bezel a few times. Just to get the salt out
Speaker 3: from it, so you don't get a caked bezel. That
Speaker 3: wave pattern that you referred to. Guy, it has a
Speaker 3: purpose too. It's not just for design. It's so that
Speaker 3: when you sweat under the it dissipates some of the sweat.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's pretty ingenious. And I learned that about diving
Speaker 4: the first time that I did not rinse my watch
Speaker 4: in fresh water afterwards, and it got all crusty. So
Speaker 4: you do that once and then afterwards you rinse it off.
Speaker 3: That's right, And then you know, even if you're not
Speaker 3: a diver, that style of watch, it kind of says
Speaker 3: a little something about who you are.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's obviously a more rugged looking watch. And that's an
Speaker 3: interesting thought as well, that you know, in life, women
Speaker 3: have many many ways that they can express who they are,
Speaker 3: whether it's handbags or shoes, or nail fashions or hair fashions,
Speaker 3: you go down a jewelry, there's a lot of ways.
Speaker 3: But for a guy, really, the watch has become the
Speaker 3: way that a man can say, this is who I am.
Speaker 3: Even my son who you know, when he graduated eighth grade,
Speaker 3: I gave him a nice Swiss watch from a company
Speaker 3: called review Toman, and he said, oh, this is my
Speaker 3: special watch, and of course he had some of my luminoxes.
Speaker 3: But by around eleventh grade, I noticed he wasn't wearing
Speaker 3: a watch anymore. And you don't want to push a kid,
Speaker 3: they're just going to push back. So I just asked him,
Speaker 3: I noticed you're not wearing a watch anymore. He goes,
Speaker 3: I don't need a dad, I got my cell phone
Speaker 3: right here, okay. And then I noticed, somewhere near the
Speaker 3: end of his college tenure, he started to wear a
Speaker 3: watch a little more often. And then he went into
Speaker 3: the workforce and I noticed he was wearing a watch
Speaker 3: every single day. And so now I asked him, Yeah,
Speaker 3: I thought you didn't need a watch. He goes, I
Speaker 3: don't need to watch, dad, But for a guy, a
Speaker 3: watch kind of says who you are.
Speaker 2: And he hit it.
Speaker 3: I mean, because he's right, it really does. And so
Speaker 3: that type of outdoorsy adventure style watch paints you or
Speaker 3: defines you as a person that either lives that life,
Speaker 3: aspires to live that life, or wishes they lived that life.
Speaker 2: Right right, I've had conversations. I had a nice watch.
Speaker 2: It was a there's a watch I liked to had
Speaker 2: bob wire around the bezzle of it, and it was
Speaker 2: a really fifty five millimeter dial. It was huge and
Speaker 2: it had uh. And I was at this shot show
Speaker 2: a few years ago and I was just sitting at
Speaker 2: the table and my guy's like, well, Rad looks like
Speaker 2: she moved up in the world. Huh.
Speaker 4: And he's just.
Speaker 2: Tapping on my watch. He's just tapping the watch. That's it.
Speaker 2: I just dressed like me and you've met me, you
Speaker 2: see me. I'm just me. But then there was the
Speaker 2: watch and he's like, I see, I see. And I
Speaker 2: was like, okay, so a yes, I didn't mind that.
Speaker 2: You know, I work hard. B I was like, hmm,
Speaker 2: if I'm getting off the plane in another land, I
Speaker 2: probably don't want to wear this because it's probably an
Speaker 2: expensive looking watch that might target me. I might want
Speaker 2: something that's a tool workable watch that can just blend
Speaker 2: in with just regular watches. Because you know, I've done
Speaker 2: these off sites with wargames where we work with teams
Speaker 2: who are capturing people to train their business people like
Speaker 2: CEOs on what to do if they get captured off
Speaker 2: of a path in a jungle, right, and so like
Speaker 2: say they're going overseas and the wife is going with
Speaker 2: the husband and they get off the plane and she's
Speaker 2: got something shiny on her wrist and he's got something shiny,
Speaker 2: but they don't realize it because they're used to that world. Okay,
Speaker 2: everywhere they go five feet off the jungle trail is
Speaker 2: you don't know where you're at anymore. And now you're
Speaker 2: kidnapped and you've got something shiny and somebody wants it.
Speaker 2: So what I'm saying is having something that's just a
Speaker 2: functional watch, you know, that can get the job done,
Speaker 2: that probably is not going to attract a lot of attention.
Speaker 2: So it has its ebb and flows. And I'm just saying, Barry,
Speaker 2: you can either have that pop in I'm at the Grammys.
Speaker 2: Here's my bling, bling bling, you know, I'm gonna wear
Speaker 2: this for the red carpet. Or you can have the
Speaker 2: watch that's gonna always just you know, be on your wrist.
Speaker 2: Because like you said, people put them in safe deposit boxes.
Speaker 2: Are they even wearing it? What are they wearing? They're
Speaker 2: wearing something else, maybe like your watch.
Speaker 3: Really, well, we should be so lucky that they decided
Speaker 3: to wear ours, so it would be wonderful. You know,
Speaker 3: you touched on something interesting there. You talked about a
Speaker 3: fifty five millimeter watch and commented it was a few
Speaker 3: years ago. There's been watch size is an interesting thing
Speaker 3: that we've watch watched, We've watched watch sizes. You know,
Speaker 3: about fifteen to twenty fifteen years ago or so, we
Speaker 3: saw watchnizes start to grow and grow and grow and grow,
Speaker 3: and they got to the point of the fifty fives.
Speaker 3: And again, now I was with Lumanox, so of course
Speaker 3: we took that brand up from forty three to forty
Speaker 3: four to forty five. We had a forty seven, we
Speaker 3: had a forty eight, because you got to make what
Speaker 3: what the customer wants, and at that point, that's what
Speaker 3: the customer wanted. But about eight years ago I saw Ras,
Speaker 3: a nice wisp brand, come out with a thirty six
Speaker 3: millimeter men's watch. We're at Limanox. Our women's watch was
Speaker 3: thirty eight. So this was sort of astonishing, right, yeah, small,
Speaker 3: and I thought, Wow, I don't know what's going to
Speaker 3: happen here, but maybe this is a harbinger of what's
Speaker 3: to come. And indeed it was, because I'll use the
Speaker 3: phrase that watches sizes have come down to some semblance
Speaker 3: of normalcy. You don't need a fifty five millimeter case.
Speaker 3: It's like wearing a clock on your wrist.
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you my bone right here, you
Speaker 2: can still see it's raised versus my wrist over here
Speaker 2: where it's not raised. I wore it for so long
Speaker 2: that it actually rows up high and my bone in
Speaker 2: my wrist right here. This one it was. I stopped
Speaker 2: wearing that watch. It was just too big on my wrist.
Speaker 2: It was just too much for my wrist.
Speaker 3: I'm not a doctor, so I can't opine on that.
Speaker 3: But if that's the case, so be it. But as
Speaker 3: it relates to our brand, we decided when we came out,
Speaker 3: this was a difficult decision. I didn't really know what
Speaker 3: to do. But for the dive watches, most of what
Speaker 3: I had sold in my old brand was in the
Speaker 3: forty four millimeter size, and we decided to bring it
Speaker 3: down to forty two, realizing it as a tactical style watch.
Speaker 3: The thinking was that while many watches were now dropping
Speaker 3: to forty and even thirty nine, we thought that would
Speaker 3: be going too far for this style of watch, so
Speaker 3: we took the small step down to forty two, and interestingly,
Speaker 3: at the past couple of shot shows when I took
Speaker 3: these there, and you know, the demographic of the shop
Speaker 3: show customer, which there's a lot of law enforcement, a
Speaker 3: lot of first responders, a lot of military adventures, outdoorsmen exactly,
Speaker 3: I was kind of waiting to see who's going to
Speaker 3: complain about this, and as I said, interestingly, not one
Speaker 3: complaint about the size. In fact, some of the military
Speaker 3: guys that came to the booth said, oh, I see
Speaker 3: you brought it down a little bit. This is a
Speaker 3: much more wearable size, and I think it is. Forty
Speaker 3: two is like a really good size for this particular watch.
Speaker 3: Now in our field watch, we're at forty. Intentionally we
Speaker 3: went a little smaller and there, and we're seeing a
Speaker 3: lot of it today field watches, and believe it or not,
Speaker 3: thirty six to thirty nine for men at thirty eight,
Speaker 3: but we held at forty did not drop into the
Speaker 3: thirties once again because of the profile of the customer
Speaker 3: that we're trying to appeal to, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: at the center when we started this, if there's a bullseye,
Speaker 3: if you will, the center of the bullseye was really
Speaker 3: to go after what I call what I refer to
Speaker 3: as first responders of all types, whether it's military, law enforcement, firefighters,
Speaker 3: mountain rescue, EMT. You know, there's a wide range of
Speaker 3: people that are first responders, and in fact, our brand
Speaker 3: name has something to do with that. So the name
Speaker 3: pro refers to those professionals. Tech refers to the illumination technology,
Speaker 3: and then, in a kind of a word pun, the
Speaker 3: watches were created for those that protect us. So that's
Speaker 3: the idea. And you know, I've had some people come
Speaker 3: to me. We've been reviewed by a lot of a
Speaker 3: lot of groups now and most almost every review has
Speaker 3: been pretty much stellar. We've had a few people say
Speaker 3: that you're trying to take advantage of Cassio's pro Trek series.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, And I.
Speaker 3: Said, no, that's not true at all. In fact, it
Speaker 3: couldn't be further from the truth. Of course, I was
Speaker 3: aware that proach Trek as a series exists. The brand
Speaker 3: isn't pro Tek, the brand is Cassio. Series is pro Teck,
Speaker 3: but our brand became pro Tech. And I did check
Speaker 3: with legal before we came out because I didn't want
Speaker 3: to I don't want to ruffle any feathers. I want
Speaker 3: to do things the right way, and we were advised
Speaker 3: that trek is a journey and tech is a technology,
Speaker 3: and these are two separate things that we should be
Speaker 3: fine to do it. And again it goes to the
Speaker 3: idea of those that protect us. But that's the center
Speaker 3: of the bullseye. But a targets goes much beyond that,
Speaker 3: and we're looking to supply plenty of people that just
Speaker 3: either just enjoy a non dressy world type watch, you know,
Speaker 3: and outdoorsman's type of watch. You don't have to be
Speaker 3: a first responder to enjoy that type of time piece
Speaker 3: as your preferred time piece.
Speaker 2: Well, I think this is a perfect segue to let
Speaker 2: our listener know right now that if you've made this
Speaker 2: far into the podcast and you've listened to everything we've
Speaker 2: talked about with the pro tech line, we're going to
Speaker 2: have a special offer for you that you will be
Speaker 2: able to use if you go over to the protech
Speaker 2: Watches website right.
Speaker 3: It's protechwatch dot com. That's pro t e K and
Speaker 3: the introductory offer for your audience would be a twenty
Speaker 3: percent discount with the use of the code soft rep.
Speaker 2: So you're going to do soft Rep. Make it real simple.
Speaker 2: All you have to do is if you're interested in
Speaker 2: a watch and you want to go check out. And
Speaker 2: if you're in the market for a watch and you're
Speaker 2: looking and you're considering, give protech a chance to be
Speaker 2: your source and go check them out. And for watching
Speaker 2: our show, it's soft rep. Just type soft rep in
Speaker 2: the coupon field when you're at checkout and you'll receive
Speaker 2: the discount that Baries offer to us. It's introductory. So
Speaker 2: you know this is really just through soft rep right now.
Speaker 2: You know that's really kind of you. I want to
Speaker 2: thank you, and I want to also say that, but
Speaker 2: and by no way has I've been paid or any
Speaker 2: other way to say anything about anything to you. I
Speaker 2: am just literally bringing this to you, my guest. Right
Speaker 2: he sent the watch over to Guy in Florida to
Speaker 2: check it out and make sure that it's cool for
Speaker 2: the website so we can do some articles on it.
Speaker 2: We're happy to have him on the show and talk
Speaker 2: about how he came from you know, being a sixties
Speaker 2: child to you know, the draft, to you know, facing
Speaker 2: that demon holy cow man, you know that's coming at you,
Speaker 2: the draft number fourteen, I mean and then to get
Speaker 2: into watches and have the story of your mom and
Speaker 2: getting your ten year old watch, and then your son
Speaker 2: in eighth grader getting him a watch, and then him
Speaker 2: realizing the value of having a watch. And today when
Speaker 2: I'm working in my store and people look at their watches,
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh, are you in a hurry because you
Speaker 2: came into my shop and you want to buy something
Speaker 2: off my wall. But now you're looking at Oh, it's
Speaker 2: an iPhone. You're looking at a text message. I'm like,
Speaker 2: usually back in the day, young man, that means that
Speaker 2: you have to get going. You're looking at your watch.
Speaker 2: You're like, rad, you're taking too much time, So let's
Speaker 2: get back in time. Huh. Sometimes classics just never go away.
Speaker 3: Man. I mentioned one other thing just in case any
Speaker 3: of your listeners might have any interest in this. You know,
Speaker 3: over the years, we've made watches either dual branded or
Speaker 3: branded for others that include a long list of first
Speaker 3: Responders San Francisco SWAT, San Diego SWAT atf really a
Speaker 3: long list, FBI Secret Service, DEA a lot. And so
Speaker 3: with this brand, we decided why not do the same,
Speaker 3: and we went back to a number of the people
Speaker 3: with whom we had relationships. And for example, and I
Speaker 3: think you guys saw it at the Shot show, we
Speaker 3: had an officer there from the Oakland, California Police Department
Speaker 3: and we had just delivered to them the Oakland Police Watch.
Speaker 3: And so if any of the groups that might be
Speaker 3: listening to this would like to have their own watches
Speaker 3: made with their branding on it, it's something we were
Speaker 3: quite honored to do for any of these groups. And
Speaker 3: you know, it's interesting. The first time I did one
Speaker 3: for San Francisco SWAT, they came to me and they said, hey,
Speaker 3: we want you to make a watch for us. I said,
Speaker 3: I'll gladly do it. We only have thirty five people
Speaker 3: on the team, and I said, well, our minimum is
Speaker 3: one hundred because that's not my decision. That's the factories
Speaker 3: with the dials and the cases. And I said, if
Speaker 3: you give me the art, I'll have it mocked up
Speaker 3: and send it to you. Well, lo and behold. Their
Speaker 3: opening order was one hundred and thirty nine watches. Thirty
Speaker 3: five people on the team, one hundred thirty nine watches.
Speaker 3: Because what ends up happening, there's pride in workplace in
Speaker 3: the world, first responders and so retired, fathers, brothers, uncles, cousins, nephews.
Speaker 3: They jump on it because it's a chance to have
Speaker 3: a very special and unique watch, and that's what that is. Then,
Speaker 3: it's very unique and different from the standard collection. So
Speaker 3: we have a number in development right now ATF Retired,
Speaker 3: ATF active, San Diego Squad, San Francisco Police, Beverly Hills Police.
Speaker 3: I can't even remember them all, but if any of
Speaker 3: your groups would like it, it's something we very much.
Speaker 2: Enjoyed doing, that's awesome. And they can just reach out
Speaker 2: through your website to content you And again just mentioned
Speaker 2: you heard you know, Barry talk about his life story
Speaker 2: on the podcast to say he say, hey has listened
Speaker 2: to soft Rep and I'm intrigued, and I have a
Speaker 2: department that we can get some watches or you know
Speaker 2: you're an agency, hit him up and again use soft
Speaker 2: rep on his website to take advantage of an opportunity
Speaker 2: that isn't normally out there. There's not usually discounts on
Speaker 2: his stuff. We don't really want to, you know, it's
Speaker 2: just for you soft Rep, the listener and our viewers,
Speaker 2: so we really are grateful for you. And with that said,
Speaker 2: I've had your time for like just about an hour,
Speaker 2: you and Guy, but Guy gets to wear the watch.
Speaker 2: Look it, it's so red I love it.
Speaker 3: I think you might be sending one year way.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure. Oh oh well, hey, whatever's the case is.
Speaker 2: This has been a wonderful time to get to know
Speaker 2: you better, Barry. I'm glad that we've become acquainted in
Speaker 2: better friends. Guy. I really love having you on the show.
Speaker 2: I just know that you are going to write awesome
Speaker 2: articles about what we have going on, and this will
Speaker 2: come out altogether. So on behalf of myself on behalf
Speaker 2: of Guy and soft Rep and Barry at protechwatches dot com.
Speaker 2: I just want to say, go check out our merch
Speaker 2: store at soft reap dot com. Go check out that
Speaker 2: book club. And this is rad say in peace.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to your self Rep Radio