The Watch Romance on TikTok - Russell Crowes amazing gift!

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I was gobsmacked. I spoke to you on the Tuesday.

Thursday afternoon there's this lovely courier man at me back door with a parcel for me.

All I know is, within 24 hours mate, you had it sorted after five weeks of herald, raising herald.

Mate, I can't thank you enough.

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Good day, good day, good day. Great to have you company.

Welcome to the EFTM Podcast. Once again, great to be here with you.

Great to try and help you out where I can. I've got a different show for you today though.

I'm going down a TikTok rabbit hole. We'll return to your calls next week.

Don't worry about that. There'll be plenty of people to talk to.

Producer Rob's working his butt off and if you've got a tech question, we'll help you out wherever we can.

But a lot of people might know that I don't mind watches.

Back in the day, if you're a longtime EFTM, listen, you might remember when we did, I think it was 30 watches in 30 days.

We gave away a Casio G-Shock watches for a whole month. It was great fun.

And I've still got some beautiful Casio G-Shocks, some Casio edifice, I think they're called.

Some Red Bull special editions, both from the Formula One team and the V8 Supercar team.

I love the look of watches. I've never been an aficionado. I don't understand the different types and terminology.

But it's definitely a thing in my life. So, you know, I get ads for watches in my TikTok feed.

The algorithm that knows it. And it sent me down a rabbit hole recently and I thought I would share that rabbit hole with you.

And the interesting thing is, I was thinking about it and you'll hear this when I introduce my next guest.

But I've done this before. We've gone down rabbit holes before, haven't we?

I think we interviewed that single Reacts. I'm going to forget his name now.

A lovely dude on YouTube and he was doing these reactions to John Farnham videos.

And I'm just fascinated by the life of a creator in that sense.

The other one was Tim the lawnmower man who's gone on to be like just a superstar on TikTok.

I should catch up with him again because remember when we spoke, if you've got a good memory,

I only remember it must be several years ago because the audio studio was over where the podcast studio is now.

So I remember sitting over there talking to him. So it's several rearrangements of the office ago.

Put it that way. And I'm pretty sure he was a fireman and he did this TikTok lawnmowering stuff in the,

because you know, firemen work like four days on four days off or five on five off or something like that.

And a lot of firemen have a second kind of job that they do in their down days because it's a lot of days to be down.

Anyway, so we've spoken. And the other one was Max Hawker. Do you remember Max Hawker? Hawker IT.

Big on TikTok. What's digging? That was his thing and he would repair phones.

I must, I will actually reach out to him. I'll do it today because he stopped posting.

And I wonder if it was social burnout, social media burnout.

I bet you he still operates a phone repair business. I've got no doubt because he's very good at it.

And he was up at like a early beach or somewhere beautiful in Queensland.

Like, why would you work hard when you got the beach there, you know?

So I wonder whether it was social media burnout that made him walk away from it all. I don't know. We'll find out.

But my algorithm has drawn me to a little soap opera, which I wanted to bring to your attention if you haven't seen it.

You might have also seen it only this morning. I suggested it to the Today Show as a great story.

And then they had my next guest on the Today Show this morning. It involves Russell Crow.

Now, what's fascinating about this is Russell Crow is on TikTok.

That's actually the breaking news. He's not on, you can't search Russell Crow.

His account is IGP366. Indoor Garden Party is the name of his band.

IGP366 is actually Russell Crow. And he talks about it because he knows that people are ripping off his videos.

They're reposting them as Russell Crow. And he says, if you're seeing these in a vertical TikTok format,

that's not real because he films them landscape old school. So they look weird on TikTok.

And he says, if you're seeing them on an account with less than 70,000 followers, then it's not him.

He's IGP366. And it's fascinating that a Hollywood superstar like that would only have 70,000 followers.

And that's grown in just a month. It was 5,000, 10,000, only a month and a half ago.

And I got in nice and early on that one. And I was very skeptical whether it was real because it doesn't look like real TikTok content.

Anyway, then he started bloody showing his watches. And he's just a happy, well-off man showing off his beautiful watches.

Turns out there's a guy on the internet who looks at videos like that and gives people ratings and rankings.

I'm going to do a watch video on maybe Andy will rate my clicks. And even though I do show him some in this interview,

which by the way, the full interview is already on the YouTube channel. If you want to watch this interview instead, I don't mind.

That's okay. You've already downloaded. So I get the click. We're good.

Go to the EFTM on YouTube, but you can watch this interview because I do show him some of my watches near the end of the interview.

But yeah, I just thought, you know what? This, it's a fun story in a world of heavy news and, you know, war, death.

It's just nice to have a bit of fun and see a fun story. So this is my catch up in chat with Andy Burke, known on TikTok as Andy's watches.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Well, I've done a few things before. I've introduced you to people of the internet that I've stumbled across.

I'm thinking of the lawnmower man. I'm thinking of that singer reacts. I'm thinking of a few times I've discovered people on the internet that just fascinate me.

And I've got to tell you, I'm in the midst of a soap opera, folks. I'm in the midst of a soap opera.

And this is not scripted home and away. This is not any form of TV show. This is TikTok versus TikTok. And I love it.

And I'm joined by one of the parties in that soap opera, Andy Burke from Andy's Watches on TikTok. Andy, g'day.

Thanks for having me.

No one knows what I'm talking about here. So let's just rewind a little talk about you first before we get into the crazy soap opera which you find yourself in.

You're obviously a watch lover because your account is called Andy's Watches.

And what I've seen is that you just love watches so much you stumble across people's content online and you rate them.

You say, that's a nice watch or maybe not so much. How did you get into this?

Well, I was trying to find my footing. I was making watch content videos for about a year with very little success.

You know, I had gained a few thousand followers, but admittedly I was running a scripted program and I wasn't really being myself.

I was more or less trying to be like the other creators that kind of inspired me to do that type of content.

And I felt stiff every time I did it. I wasn't having a lot of fun, but at the same time, I was making content that was just kind of whatever I felt like making on another TikTok account

where I was being silly and being myself and I was talking a lot and that one was getting a lot of traction.

And I was like, well, maybe I should do something like that with my watch page and not do what everybody else is doing and just kind of do what I want to do.

And one night, I was not feeling good. I think I had the flu and I didn't want to get out of bed, but I wanted to make a video.

And in my head, I was just like, you know what? You see these people put up videos talking about their watches and displaying their watch collections,

but I don't see anybody rating those. If you see a watch collection rating on the internet, it's typically somebody rating a celebrity's collection

and they're pulling video and pictures from like various sources and nobody does it for just the average Joe.

So I just started doing that and I didn't tag the people either. So it started this thing where I basically was rating watch collections without permission

and it blew up. It just got really popular.

Where does your love of watches come from?

Seeing my grandpa and my dad put on a watch every day before they started their day and then seeing them in movies. I'm a huge movie fan.

It's like another love of mine is like watches and movies. So which makes the story we're going to talk about later pretty crazy.

But yeah, I would see my grandpa. He always put his mantle and if he was leaving for the day, he always grabbed it.

He had like a manual wine watch, but it was like it was part of his kit because my grandpa was a World War II vet.

He was in the army and he fought in the Pacific and then but also he was a cop for like 30 years.

So a watch especially, you know, back in the day, they were an essential tool that was part of your kit and so he didn't leave the house without it.

And then it was something that my dad always did as well and I just I couldn't wait to get my first watch.

And I remember my dad getting me my first watch and I wish I still had it, but I don't.

Is that your favorite thing about the content that you're seeing and making now?

I was watching one earlier and it was a 16 year old.

That was it. I commented on it. You saw it. I think you saw the comment. It was that it was just while because it was 16 year old and he had watches.

And the main thing was he had a story and that was it was kind of like a little emotional moment where you go.

This kids had this watch passed down through a couple of generations and he values it because let's be honest, your average 16 year old doesn't value much at all.

So for him to value something physical that is generational is quite a beautiful thing because watches can absolutely spend time literally.

Yeah. That's that's my favorite part about it. And I think people started to catch on after the first few that I'm not like the rest of the creators where I get.

I don't have an elitist attitude because I've always kind of enjoyed every kind of watch from Casio up. I don't care the price tag.

It could be a $20 watch if I like the watch. I'm going to wear it. So I always tend to give everything a really good rating because I'm a watch lover.

I'm not a watch critic.

And that's a really, you know, I'm going to use that line because I often don't get criticism, but I often people say, well, but you don't write a bad review.

I'm like, there's no bad smartphones on my world. I review smartphones, laptops, TV. There's no bad smartphone.

It's just you've got to know the market. So a person that buys a $400 smartphone in Australia might be $200 on the US.

That's their budget. And as long as they got the right one for them, then we're on a winner here.

And what's the positives and negatives? Every watch has some sort of meaning to someone.

Some people, it's just to tell the time. But others, there's just that little bit of story to it.

It's a beautiful thing. But what was weird for me, because I probably doom scroll, you know, at least an hour a day, if not more.

And you stumble across this weird stuff. And then I stumbled across these videos of Russell Crowe,

which did not look real at all because they're filmed in 16.9. So they're not TikTok.

They're not made for TikTok. It's wild. And I'm going, someone, where's he putting this on YouTube and someone's ripping it off?

Because you know what it's like on the internet, people just steal your content and put it places.

And I'm going, it's definitely Russell Crowe, because like he's talking about indoor garden party.

And with the gratitude of Speck Russell, it's not a big thing. It's your passion, indoor garden party.

And 30-odd foot of grunt before it. He loves singing and good luck to him. But he's not a rock star.

But he's just, he's talking about this and he's up at his property at Narnaglan.

And then he starts talking about watches. And I'm like, he's just, and it's pork.

It's not a great camera work because it's shot up here and he's unboxing down here.

It's just the strangest content, if you're honest about it. And then I realized this was real.

This was his account. And there was like 5,000 followers. It was nobody.

And it's called IGP 366. And then at some point he starts talking about his watch and he goes,

and I, and I, and this, this is this Andy guy. And I go, who's this Andy guy? What's he talking about?

And then, then it just starts this, and you know, Tiktok's the most amazing platform in the world because of its algorithm.

The fact that I watched that whole video, it went, right, he wants to know who this Andy guy is.

And then this mustache guy comes on my feed and it's all about Russell Crowe is making videos for you, Andy.

What? What? Talk me through. What did you get? Text messages? Did you get tagged?

How do you find this the first time?

I was doing a live broadcast on Tiktok talking about watches. And the funniest thing is, is because I'm such a movie nerd,

a lot of the time, like we're talking about movies if we're not talking about watches.

And so I'm in the live, I'm chatting and one of my followers who frequents the lives, he came in and he just said,

hey, you should jump off your live. And I was like, why? And he was like, Russell Crowe just made a video and called you out.

And I just went, yeah, all right, sure. And I just kept going with what I was doing.

This guy. And, but then more people came in and they kept saying the same thing.

And I went, I started to like, I remember I could feel like sweat building up on my forehead a little bit.

I wasn't stressed. I was like starting to realize like, is this real? And I started to like shake because, you know, 40 years old.

And Russell Crowe is actually one of my favorite actors and has been since I was a kid.

I discovered him through seeing virtuosity in the theater with my dad.

And then for my 15th birthday, I was born on May 2nd. And in America, Gladiator released on May 7th.

And I remember seeing previews because back then it's no real internet wasn't powerful.

So like movie previews were huge. And like when you knew about a new movie coming up, that was like a big event.

And I remember seeing the previews for that and begging my parents to take me to that for my birthday.

And that's what we did. So, and I was 15 at the time. At that age, you're very impressionable.

So like that, he became just larger than life for me. And I had to see every movie he was in, all of that.

And then all of that rushed back to me on that live when I was just sitting there because I was like, what if it is him?

What if this is real? So I hopped off, I found the video, but I immediately became skeptical because I saw the account.

And I was like, it does not look like a legitimate account.

Yeah. But then the caption like even had my name. And I was like, this is weird.

And then when I got to the part where he said, don't be rating this, I was like, I was like, that's my thing though.

So I cut the first video and I even specified in it. I said, I don't know if this is the real Russell.

But we're doing it, you know, and I did it and it was a lot of fun. The video was pretty successful.

It could be AI too. I think about today, it could be completely fake the first one.

It was literally crazy what could be possible.

And the one thing is like people still hit me up and they're like, oh, those videos really haven't done too well view-wise still.

And I go, I kind of liked it. It's a little secret.

Look, honestly, when I was sitting here waiting to talk to you, I thought to myself, I mean, it's blown up in a bubble.

So I refer to a lot of these things as a bubble. And I'm in the bubble now because Tik Tok knows that I'm following him.

I'm following you and I'm watching every bit of content that creates between the two.

So I see it like it feeds it to me the minute you post it, I would assume.

But it's fascinating to me that the mainstream media and I work in the mainstream media.

Once we've done this, I'll start sharing it around, but I wanted to get ahead of it.

But the mainstream media haven't picked up on Russell Crowe being on Tik Tok yet.

And the reason they will is because it is so raw, not just the watch stuff, just everything.

It's just random. It's just so Aussie Russell because of his voice and the way he talks and what he shares in his most recent one.

We'll come back to what happens in the middle, but in his most recent one, he talks about having a box of signet rings.

And I just think to myself, dude, when I travel, I'm trying to minimize my packing.

And this guy's taking a box of signet rings to match the watch that he's choosing for the day.

I'm like, wow, this guy, this guy.

I get like that. I build my outfit around my watch every day.

And I piece together the jewelry that I'm going to wear based on the watch that I wear.

Do you think there's a male thing in that not to get sexist?

But I look at my watches and we'll get to that.

But I look at my watches and my wife doesn't have appreciation for it at all.

But I feel like I don't have anything else.

Like I wear the same thing every day.

Like I look the same, but I wear a different watch now and then.

And it's absolutely wonderful when someone goes, what's that?

They ask you about the watch.

Because you don't get that with a ring or anything.

Yeah.

It's the one thing that was really made for men, even though the very first wristwatch ever made

that was used for something, the Rolex that was given to that woman that swam that big leg.

I don't remember what body of water she did it in.

But that was technically the first wristwatch made for somebody.

It was a ladies watch, but the Cartier Santos was fashioned into a wristwatch first, I believe.

It's like the first ever wristwatch and it was a man's watch.

It was made for men.

It was made for pilots.

And yeah, it's the one thing that we get.

It's the one thing that was that it was like an accessory or jewelry thing that was originally designed for men.

Everything else like necklaces were originally designed for women, bracelets, earrings, everything else was originally designed for women.

But we get the one thing.

So Russell Crowe makes a video about you.

He talks about you.

He does it a couple of times.

I don't think he mentioned you by name though.

I feel like he just refers to you at a point where anyone who knows you knows who he's talking about, right?

Which is correct until last night.

That's right.

Yes, until the Signet Ring video.

Yeah, he finally mentioned my name.

But then he starts.

Dude, I know Casio.

I know Tag.

I'm aware of Rolex.

Like that's my watch knowledge, right?

But he starts talking about these brands.

I'm like, who the hell are these people?

And it is, I think you refer them as micro brands, but these are craftsmen to the point where he gets to this conversation about a Italian, I think craftsman who's made this watch.

He loved this watch.

He's all these different styles of watches, but then he talks about building this special edition watch.

I think it's for the 35th anniversary of Gladiator and they made 35 of them.

Essentially, he wanted them.

Grussel Crow helped craft them, design them, whatever.

And he got 35 of them.

He wanted to give them out to members of the cast and he showed this watch.

What did you think of that?

Because that's a very special piece.

That's not limited edition.

That's special.

So yeah, and in the video where he describes that, he shows a bunch of pieces from Giuliano Mazzuoli.

He is the Italian man.

It's very specific about the pronunciation.

Well, I got it wrong.

He called you out.

He did.

He's hilarious.

He really is such a funny guy.

Giuliano made the Mono Metro in the early 2000s and yeah, like Russell loved that design and that's what led to the piece that was created for Gladiator, but he never showed it until he sent it to me.

Right.

So I was the first to actually show it to him.

He just talked about having made this thing.

He didn't bring it out on that video.

And then he told you there was parcels coming.

Like he said in videos, he said, and he's obviously, you know, DM'd whatever the heck goes on there.

And he said the first set of parcels was just cool merch from indoor garden party and I'm assuming the rabbit-os and stuff like that.

Yeah.

And then the second parcel delivery comes and it's got the watches.

Two of them.

One for you and your mate.

Yeah.

I got number 30 and my friend Mike got number 33.

That's the most remarkable.

This story could have been fine.

Just as a TikTok bromance could have been totally fine.

A couple of watch dudes calling out each other on the internet, but no, no.

He sends two of 35 special handcrafted limited edition design watches to you to unbox.

Come on.

Yeah.

What?

I mean, I had to edit out a lot on that video.

Cause there's one thing it's like, I fully believe that like, I think it's okay to show emotion on camera,

but to blubber and cry like a baby on your TikTok.

Like not going to do that.

So I had to edit out some of it because it's such a big deal.

But like I've had, what, two months now where I've been like having this go on and people ask me all the time.

They're like, do you just walk around just in shock all the time?

I go, I walk around and I think that sometimes like people might see me in public and I have a look on my face.

The same look that you see on like very old people that are clearly like on their way out, you know, that look.

Yeah.

Dementia.

I know that I have the dementia face, but it's just because I'm walking around and like it hits me like a ton of bricks all the time.

Like I'm wearing a hoodie that he sent me right now.

This is the tree that's the, this is like the symbol for his farm.

This tree is like super important to him.

It's on his farm.

It's beautiful.

But like I'll go and I'll like put my jacket on.

I say my jacket because like the jacket that he sent me is like the only jacket I wear now.

Yeah.

And like when I put it on, I'll like put it on and I'll start zipping it up and like in my head.

I'm like, this is the jacket that Russell gave you.

And I'm like, oh man, it's just wacky.

I don't know how to really comprehend it.

It is.

It is insane.

And what I love about it is it just feels, well, it is genuine.

Let's be very clear.

It is genuine because he's not promoting anything.

He, he went, I mean, it is wild to think that he took two, and you have to assume there's really,

there was only two remaining.

Maybe he's got more.

I don't know, but he took two very special things and sent them to you because he loves your content.

That, that to me is a remarkable thing for someone on the internet to have an interaction with someone like that.

Does it, has it, you know, so it's been a couple of months.

Has it changed what's come to you and how I watch brands are working or dealing with you at this point on TikTok?

He helped me.

Yeah.

A lot.

I mean, I'm doing this full time now.

I was able to leave my full time job.

I was in a really, I worked at a very toxic place.

I worked for, I'm not afraid to even say it that the man that I worked for was a greedy, evil man.

But at the same time, it was, it was what I, it was the best thing I could get,

and it was what was keeping me afloat at the time.

But when I started to see more and more success with my social media,

I started to think I could do this someday for a living,

and I can finally leave this place.

It's like eating me alive.

What does that mean you do it as a living because it may be different for,

for being in Australia, we don't have to create a fun and things like that.

How do you make a living out of social media?

Because a lot of people, it used to be that kids would talk about becoming YouTubers.

Now they talk about just becoming influencers.

Like how does one make a living out of Tik Tok?

So Tik Tok does have a creator fund, which it's, it's okay.

And it, you know, it's all based on your performance.

So it's the length of your videos has a lot to do with it.

So if you want to see like some kind of multipliers,

like you can see those if your video is longer.

But in order to qualify for a video to even get you paid,

it has to be over a minute.

It has to obviously not be inappropriate and show inappropriate content.

But yeah, that is one way.

But also I do affiliation programs with certain websites.

So if people go through my link and use that,

there's like little microtransactions for that and commission payouts.

So my next watch person should come through your link and buy it.

So we say.

Yes, absolutely.

I have a few affiliates that I work with and they're all that I'm happy

because they're all brands and websites that I've been using for like a decade.

So I'm not working with anybody that, you know, I don't really know about.

I'm working with brands and websites that I trust.

And I would absolutely recommend to my family and friends.

Like I'm not recommending anything to my followers that I wouldn't earn.

Yeah, it has to be something that I just trust.

It's the right, it's the right approach for you for the long term.

Otherwise you will.

Otherwise I've seen it a lot.

Otherwise you will burn out from the sell out.

And that's what we want.

You want to enjoy it.

I mean, geez, you want this adrenaline for a long time.

That's what you want.

I would love it.

Just finally on Russell, you've got something planned for him without spoiling that.

What are you trying to do here?

You're trying to, you're trying to get him to have the same weird feeling that you had

because it is a thing.

I think I think a mega celebrity like that doesn't get that feeling a lot

because it all just comes to them, right?

But I love the idea that he may well have an anticipation

over something that you're sending him.

Like he would get emails, texts every day from a brand saying we're sending you this,

we're sending you that.

Yep, cool, fine.

But that watch he opened just recently in the big box,

it looked like he had a passion for that because he bought it and he waited for it, right?

So I think what you've created is another expectation for him

that he will get childish joy out of as a celebrity.

I don't, I guess I didn't, I didn't think of that and I'm glad that you said that

because I'm so excited to gift him something and I started to formulate this idea

before I knew that he was sending me anything and that's what makes it even more exciting

because in my head I'm imagining that he was planning on sending me something

but didn't say anything at first.

I want to believe that because that would be way cooler, right?

But for me I was in my head and also a few times in my lives with my people

at certain times when I knew he wouldn't be in there

because sometimes people told me they were like, you know, he jumps in your lives sometimes

and I'm like, I don't see that but he doesn't comment.

So like, but one night I was telling my followers,

I go, you know, because of everything that's happening right now,

I would love to gift him a watch but I just don't know how I would get it to him

but I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to reach out to one of my friends

who owns a micro brand and see if I can't get a custom watch made for him

and then I'll just figure it out after that and I got the ball rolling on that

and then all of a sudden I found out that I was going to be getting a package from him

and it just all worked out really well

and now where we're at with all of this is I've decided that I'm going to one-up him

and I'm going to send him three watches.

Well played. That's classic. That's exactly how it should be done.

You are playing the game in perfect Russell Crowe style, I would think.

The one thing I do want to say outside of Russell Crowe and everything is on watches

because I think I've always had a fascination for watches.

I don't have a generational story about it but it's just something that I think comes from my love of Formula One

and TAG being a big sponsor and then Rolex and these.

I feel like all the cigarette advertising did not work on me, I never smoked

but Jesus, the bloody watch advertising is costing me money.

But I come across watch content and I feel often like scrolling away

because it's very high-end.

Teddy, what's his name on YouTube? That's him.

I've watched a couple of his videos because it's remarkable.

He's awesome.

The joy and everything and I will say just quickly too, we're both mummies

and I didn't realize that until I was scrolling back through some of your videos

and you did a tone-seguriting and you called him Tim and I went, oh, he's a mummy.

Oh, that is wild.

Yeah, but I've been a mummy for like a decade.

I couldn't make the same.

I just couldn't believe when you did that.

I went, oh my God, and then you stopped and qualified.

Why you called him Tim because I could imagine the comments.

But anyway, so share that absolute love.

That's my Monday morning. As soon as we're finished here,

I'm going to check for an episode now that Tom's back.

Anyway, we're talking about your mum's house for people that don't know.

So I scroll away because it's very elitist.

Honestly, the watch game is very elitist.

But you said earlier, just talking to me and I've seen it in a couple of videos

where you talk about brands and it doesn't matter.

So I'm not asking for a rating here legitimately, but I did want to say to you,

firstly, is there a number that makes you a collector?

How many watches makes you a collector?

Once you got three watches, you're a collector because you're going to keep going.

I'm all in.

You're a collector.

Now, I have multiple boxes.

And most of mine are Casio.

So I love a G-Shock.

I love an impressively colored G-Shock.

I do love the edifice range.

These were all like Formula One special editions,

but I do want to show you a watch.

There's my camera.

That you've probably never heard of.

It's an Aussie brand called Bussell.

B-A-U-S-E-L-E.

And I got this.

I think I met with the guy that started the company when I was in a day job

and I haven't had a day job for 10 years.

But the thing about this is in the crown is sand, actual sand from Australia.

And I was looking on their website recently.

They've got that a Bathurst watch, which is a race over here.

And it had in the crown is some tyre rubber from a race at Bathurst.

I love the idea that they put stuff in the crown.

That's probably weirdly, even though I've got so many watches,

that's one of my favorites because it's got a story.

You know, it's Australian for a start.

Swiss made Australian heart, I think they say.

But, you know, this brand is doing very well.

But my bigger challenge or, yeah, it is beautiful.

My bigger challenge or question to you is where do you sit on smartwatches?

Because I'm a nerd, I'm the tech guy.

Where do you sit on smartwatches?

I don't like them.

I have good reasons too.

I have good reasons. I have many.

One of the main reasons is social interaction.

They ruin social interactions.

I've never had a conversation with someone that's a busy person that uses devices a lot

and they have a smartwatch on.

It's insufferable.

If I'm having a conversation with somebody and I see them glance at their smartwatch,

I know they're not 100% listening to me and I now no longer want to talk to them.

It was the worst in meetings when the Apple Watch first came out.

People just said, no, I'm just checking my notifications, whatever.

Here's the thing.

I've got every smartwatch possible, but in terms of my own collection,

I have three smartwatches, the TAG E4.

I recently purchased the new TAG F1, which has an F1 fan.

Now, I've got to tell you, it's different.

As an F1 fan, so the thing is I turn notifications off.

It's stupid. I'm not even using it as a smartwatch.

I just like to change the dial, you know?

And this watch, this Formula One smartwatch has indicators on it when the Formula One sessions are underway.

So on the weekend when the Chinese Grand Prix was on,

this lit up in a different way because the Grand Prix was on.

I don't know. That was pretty cool to me.

I love that. So I want to say this.

When it comes to horological smartwatches, I'm totally fine with them

because typically they're not made, well, they're made where you can turn off the notifications, which is great.

Frederick Constant, which is a smaller brand, it's a small Swiss brand, they make smartwatches as well.

And the ones from them and TAG, I do like them because they have real purpose.

I think because I've got the TAG Mario, I've got the TAG Mario, I've got my TAG F1 and I've still got my TAG E4.

But just finally, you know, you talk about stories, okay?

So my other kind of three key watches, if I could call them that, are TAGs.

I'm a TAG guy.

And I don't know, is that a bad thing? Is it a bad thing to be brandished like that?

No.

Okay.

Some people are very brand loyal and there's nothing wrong with that.

I have a friend that only buys Breitling watches. That's it.

Right.

So my TAGs started with this one, which I purchased at Fifth Avenue in New York.

It's the TAG Center.

It's a weird thing where I was in New York on a trip with one of the tech companies and I felt like I had earned it.

Do you know what I mean?

I just went, no, no, I've earned this and I bought this center and I've worn it maybe two or three times.

And since then I bought the TAG Indy 500 and then just a beautiful standard plastic TAG F1.

You know, there is something, and this is my thing.

It's that thing where as a man, I don't have much else to do other than going, I'm going to wear that watch today.

I'm going on a trip. I'm going to take that watch with me.

It's a cool thing, but it's unfortunately problematic as an expensive hobby. Is it not?

Yeah, it's expensive, but I'm trying to teach people how to enjoy it within their price range.

Yeah, you've done something recently on micro-brands in a lower price range.

Now I'm all in on that.

Oh, they're the best.

And that's the thing.

And the reason that I even got into them and the reason why my content is structured the way it is,

I show every price range you could possibly imagine,

but you had mentioned at the beginning of our conversation that like there's a lot of elitism around the content

and like it's the same in groups, right?

So when I first got into watch collecting, I got into like a Facebook group.

And it was just a bunch of people that basically made me feel terrible about what I could afford,

terrible about what I owned, and terrible about what I wanted.

And I was like, this is horrible.

It made me feel bad.

And like I was like, if I ever could create a space that's the opposite of this,

where everybody is just like basically lives by this like motto,

it's like if you love it, then wear it and that's all that matters.

Like that's what I wanted.

And now you've done that on Facebook.

No, I don't use Facebook at all.

Well, you talked about groups.

I just wonder whether you had created a group.

I left Facebook five years ago and never looked back.

Good decision.

I didn't leave it completely, but I stopped giving them money to promote things

because they're a horrible company for many, many reasons.

But that's another story for a different day.

What next for Andy's watches?

Is this just you just ride in the wave for a little while here and see how it goes

and just keep pumping out the content?

Does it at all labor you making the content?

Because being a content creator is hard.

It's not what some people might think.

I went from, you know, the job that I was at full time,

I was a machinist in optics.

So I worked in like diamond turning machining.

I was putting in 10 hour days, you know, 50 hours a week.

Right now on average, if I look at like my average day,

especially since all of this stuff happened with Russell,

my days have been 11 to 12 hour days and I don't get a day off now.

I don't get Saturdays and Sundays or anything like that.

There's always something.

But at the same time, I'm constantly trying to expand myself.

So it's all good.

I'm happy to do it because this is for me now.

I'm not working for the man anymore.

I'm building something for myself.

And I'm confident that I have good support.

So yeah, it's just exciting.

But yeah, it's time consuming.

One review video of someone's watch collection

takes me three hours to edit and then another hour to upload it.

Because it looks, people see these videos where it's you,

then it's them, then it's you, then it's them.

It looks like it's just, you know, you're clicking a button on your phone,

but it's not, is it?

You've got to essentially record, hit record, watch the video,

and then bring it all in and edit it somewhere, don't you?

Yeah.

And I actually, I do a lot of audio editing because I have OCD,

like diagnosed OCD.

So if I hear shifts in the audio too much when it goes from cut to cut,

it drives me insane.

So I end up, you know, extracting all the audio on all the videos

and mixing it up and cleaning it up, cleaning up the noise,

cancellation and all of that.

I do all of that.

And then I admittedly like I upscale the quality of the video anytime

there's like watches shown so people can see an HD.

So it just takes a long time.

Well, I think the passion pays off.

And I think you're building a wonderful community, as you say.

The comments are all unbelievably positive and genuine and real.

That's the best thing about it is in a community is just the positivity.

And you know what?

I genuinely think that's what Russell likes.

I think Russell, despite being a squillionaire with everything he could want in the world,

I think genuinely he's just a down to earth guy who really does connect with genuine content.

And I think, I think he, oh, no, I just assuming,

but I don't think he'd want to do a Chetty Balder YouTube video.

I think he'd want to be more mainstream.

It's a weird thing that he is elite in that in his collection is most most sort of viably elite.

But I think he wants to be seen and is still trying to reconnect and connect with everyday people

who just want to want to feel happy for the guy.

And that's the great thing about watching Russell Crows.

I've never felt a moment of, yeah, but you've got money.

I've just felt a moment of, buddy, nice watch, good on you.

You know what I mean?

And I think that's the reaction you want to have.

He's, yeah, people, there's a common comment that's in like a lot of the videos

and people are like, he's one of us.

I go, yeah, he is like, he's a watch fanatic.

He does not care about the price tag.

Exclusivity might excite him, but it doesn't mean that he sees one watch better than the other.

Like it's, he's a real watch fan.

Like I've, I've looked at a lot of celebrity collections, right?

And there's a big difference between Russell Crow and some of the other ones.

No doubt.

Well, there's a big difference between him and everyone else.

That voice, my God, every time his video starts and he's committed to the bit,

he's going for widescreen for the, for life.

He said it.

It's, it's, I make films.

I don't make TikToks.

Yeah.

It's, it's true.

And I love that.

Like I don't ever want that to change.

I love all of it.

All of it is so authentic.

And there's that saying that people always say it's like, you don't meet your heroes.

Right.

Yeah.

Like I haven't met him yet in person.

I hope I get to someday.

Right.

But I feel like I, I locked out cause one of like my heroes, like he's the man.

He did.

He really did.

Congratulations, man.

You've, you've worked towards something that, and it's, you know, it's true.

Russell, Russell's little interactions will build you into something very, very different.

And hopefully it leads to some amazing opportunities for you that it already has, but hopefully

it leads to many more for you.

And hopefully your, your bromance with Russell continues long into the future as he discovers

new watches and he shares them with you and all of us, mate.

Congratulations.

Lovely to, lovely to understand what you do and get an insight into it.

And mate, I'll be, I'll be watching from afar.

Thank you so much, man.

This is really exciting.

I, I, there's a, one thing I got to point out before I let you go and it's something

that's nobody that's, it has an American podcast or American publication has reached out to

me to talk to me about this only the Aussies.

So we're very loyal and we can spot good content.

Okay.

Trust me.

We can spot good content.

It'll come, I'm sure.

Thanks, mate.

Thank you.

Join the conversation.

Head to EFTM.com and click Ask Trev.

No, there you go.

Look, I, I enjoyed that chat.

Obviously immensely.

Could have gone on for ages.

He's such a lovely man.

Um, he was so excited to be on the today's show this morning.

He sent me, he sent me some screenshots.

I sent him the video so he could share it.

He's already shared it on, on his, on his TikTok.

Um, and he's right.

The American media aren't even on this.

An American dude in New York has been sent an exclusive watch from Hollywood superstar

Russell Crowe and the American media don't know about it.

So I'm all in.

We lead the, we lead the story here folks on EFTM.

So go and give Andy a follow and Russell Crowe IGP 366.

And if you're on TikTok and you haven't followed me, hello, Trev along, follow me as well.

Would love to have your, your like and follow as they say.

Um, I'm, I'm back next week.

I am actually going to be in America, but the show will go on.

We will line the, the balls up and knock them down or line the pins up and knock them down

again on Tuesday.

So you will hear another EFTM podcast next week.

And then yes, I'm going to America next week with United Airlines,

which is my choice, my, my favorite airline.

So excited to get a little invite and they're going to show us a few things.

I don't know about the future of flight or something, perhaps we shall see.

We'll find out.

Um, but yeah, pretty exciting to be heading back to the States once again for one of,

I'm sure many, many, many more trips this year because that's just what we do.

Um, this is the third trip in as many months.

So yes, that's, yeah, what did we do?

We did CS and then we did San Francisco with Samsung and now we're off with United.

And then the next trip after that is probably not until mid to late August, April.

We're heading, we might be heading to China.

There's visa issues to get through, but Stig and I may be heading to China to look at some,

some car factories and safety, uh, centers.

So that's, that's pretty exciting as well.

Bit coming up, bit going on, but we're here for you on the EFTM podcast.

If you want to get in touch, send me a text message.

Thanks to Vodafone.

Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

Great to have you company this week.

Let's do it all again next week right here on the EFTM podcast.

Tech cars lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

You can text Trev now.

Thanks to Vodafone on Oh, four, double seven, six, five, seven, six, five, seven.

The Watch Romance on TikTok - Russell Crowes amazing gift!

Casio G-Shock

Casio Edifice

Formula One

V8 Supercar

Jeep Gladiator

Rolex

TAG

Bathurst race

Chrysler Fifth Avenue

About this episode

Original notes