The Grey NATO - Ep 101 - A Proper Q And A Megasode
Published on Thu, 27 Feb 2020 06:00:20 -0500
Synopsis
This episode featured a Q&A format where listeners submitted audio questions on various topics related to watches, diving, gear, and lifestyle. Questions covered sapphire bezels, being content with one's collection, dry suits for diving, pilot watches, everyday carry items like knives and wallets, watch servicing intervals, exploring one's existing collection, and more. The hosts provided insightful answers drawing from their personal experiences and expertise.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey (co-host) | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 101, and it's proudly brought to you by Alps and Meters. I am of course joined with my co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how you doing? Great. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, doing really well here. Kind of getting a little, winter's getting a little long now. Kind of ready for Ready for something new, but you know, holding, holding my own. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah. I'm, I'm very much over winter. I was in New York for a little while before this recording and over the weekend, Sunday was just, or Sunday or Monday, the long weekend was just this gorgeous sunny day that like was very much like a spring sort of day. And I was like, I need this to come back. But I mean, we are most of our way to March. So that is what it is. But I got home to Toronto and it's, it's chilly. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's been a good winter. We've had decent snow and we've gotten a bit of skiing in and plenty of sunshine, which is always nice. But yeah, it's time. It's time to move on. Ready to get on the bike and do some hiking and kind of get outside a bit. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I want to take the top off the Jeep. Definitely want to do a little bit of hiking, some camping, some stuff I'm pretty insanely excited about for the cleaner weather, if we'll say. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. Are you going to go full topless in the Jeep? Are you going to take the whole thing off, do you think? |
| James Stacey (co-host) | You know, I have the I won't go too deep into this. I have the Jeep or the one that I bought has both tops. Yeah. So I have a black soft rider, sun rider, whatever they're called. And when I bought it, it had several pieces in cardboard boxes and Ziploc bags. So, yes, I would like to at least try one summer with the soft top on. Yeah. And the ability to put it down. But, you know, when I'm out driving, I'm often with my kids. They are two of the palest little girls. you would come across. So I don't know how much sun time they actually need while we're driving around. But the other thing is, is I'll need to find on one of the Jeep forums, I'm sure it exists, some sort of manifest. Yeah. So that I know that I have all the little bits. Oh, sure. Before before I take apart a pristine and from what I can tell, never removed from the vehicle, you know, painted hardtop. Yeah, right. But but I think definitely for the for the for the the opening season of spring and summer, I'll just use the, those freedom panels, the two panels just above the driver that pop off, uh, no sunburns for, uh, for the little ones. And, and I can take those off in just a couple of minutes. And if it starts to rain, it's just a couple more minutes to put them back on. |
| Unknown | Oh, cool. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | When I, I had an old Jeep with a soft top many years ago and, and I remembered that the top was a bit of a puzzle. It was, uh, slightly, slightly easier than building the Lego defender, but, uh, it was a bit of a, bit of a puzzle. So that'll be a good afternoon project for you. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, the YouTube videos I've looked at say that it's a lot harder than you could possibly imagine your first time. And they basically said, like, you need to find someone else who has done this. Or like watch a video where just the just the videos describing how to do it in order is like it's like 50 minutes. So like you have to imagine this will take me several hours the first time I do it. So I'll pick a weekend with like really good weather where like once the panels are off and packaged correctly, I can yeah. I can deal with the fact that I won't have a roof for the next six hours or however long it takes. But yeah, I think it'd be kind of fun. As long as I have all the pieces, I'm excited to do it because I know that is sort of a modular approach to the system. And I think, you know, kids will get a kick out of it. But yeah, that and some camping. I mean, the easy stuff. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. So, I mean, last episode, 100, was obviously our big milestone episode. And we announced our big event in New York on March 18th, which we've got a lot of great response from people on social media and, uh, I've got a lot of DMS about it and certainly, uh, in the comments on, on Hodinkee and elsewhere. But, you know, just, just a reminder to everybody to stay tuned for an RSVP signup on Hodinkee and probably coming in a week or two. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I can, I can fill in a little bit of a blank there for people. So I did get some messages about this. If you're, if you're planning on traveling an extensive distance or like where you would be booking flights or, or, um, accommodations or both. drop me a line to thegraynadoatgmail.com. Just let me know. A couple people were kind enough to do that. The RSVP is like very much within our control. So if it's a scenario where you're going to a really considerable extent to be able to hang out, you know, on the 18th with us, then we want to make sure that you don't go to that level of trouble and then not be able to join in. So just let me know. Give me a heads up so I can kind of manage that. I would expect the RSVP to go up just a few days before the event. This is something that Hodinkee's learned really well, like how to fine tune when these things go up so that the people who RSVP actually show up. Because there's a huge contention of people who just live in New York and will go to these events, whether they're from us or Analog Shift or whatever. Yeah, right. But in our case, because there are some people who are going to fly in and because this isn't something we do that often, we want to make sure that this is something that we can get all interested parties within reason to, to, uh, you know, come hang out. So if you're, if you're in a scenario where you might be making a little vacation out of it and you want to tie the 18th into that, just, you know, drop me a line. Uh, let me know. I want to make sure that people get what they need. And if you end up trying to get on the RSVP and you're external to New York and we're planning to travel in and it doesn't work out also let me know. I, you know, I don't think people will stay necessarily for the whole amount of time. And we've got room for, I would say, a considerable number of people. So unless the response is much more than we could have expected, I think everything should be fine as far as RSVPs. But we're insanely excited for that and looking forward to just kind of hanging out. It's going to be really chill. We're not doing any special presentations. I don't think we're going to do any giveaways or anything like that. We just kind of wanted to Hang out. See you guys, you know, say thank you for listening for a hundred. Anyone who can come out and hopefully we can kind of do the same thing in a couple other cities, you know, throughout the year. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. Yeah. I'm really excited for that. I'm just excited to come to New York. It's been since last fall and we'll get to hang on. I'm sure we'll record an episode and get some good Thai food, meet some people, get some Thai food. Yeah, it'll be fun. Just before we jump into the main topic, I just wanted to mention I I'd written this article recently on Houdinki about not buying my 50th birthday watch. And, you know, a hugely |
| James Stacey (co-host) | popular article. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, and that's why I wanted to bring it up here. Well done. Certainly, thank you. I don't want to, you know, be here promoting my story here, but I did want to just acknowledge the overwhelming response that I've gotten from people on the comments and on social media and all the early birthday wishes. My birthday's in April. And, you know, I've sort of shot myself in the foot now. I don't think I can actually buy another watch without being scrutinized by people. But it was a fun piece and I just want to acknowledge all the great comments and the well wishes and thank everybody for the feedback on that. So that's all I'll say about it. You can check it out on Hodinkee. But yeah, it was a fun one to write. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I think it's a great thing. I also think it's one of those angles that's missing from the sort of overall scope of Hodinkee. It's just kind of these open-ended editorial opinion pieces, personal, like you know, not necessarily about a product. In this case, this is about a watch, but not necessarily a product. And I think it's something that I hope that the response to that will spur other editors to kind of drop in their experiences with a watch over the past decade. Or, you know, I wrote that piece about my first little Timex. People love these kinds of stories. I mean, it's the stuff that I want to read, you know, like, like, don't get me wrong. I like an introducing post as much as the next guy, but they're also, they take a minute and a half to kind of absorb. And there's no real like cultural connection to watch enthusiasm or to getting into this hobby or that sort of thing. And I think these things that speak more to the passion and the kind of ridiculous love of these, these products and these items versus the product and where they stand in the market. But I think we need both sides. But I was just happy to see that, you know, when you pop up on the site, you often get these great responses. And it's because you connect with things just that are kind of encircling the, yeah, the kind of like core product concerns or branding concerns. Yeah. And I think it was fun. I really enjoyed the post a lot. And certainly the response from within the Hodinkee team was huge. And then we saw this kind of explosion of comments as well, which is very supportive. I'm glad to see that fun stuff, fun stuff gets loved. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | And I think the, the neat comments were, were, there were several that said, you know, this is very TGN and, and, uh, I, I couldn't agree more. I mean, it was, uh, it came from the heart and I think it really spoke to kind of what, what we're all about here on the, on the podcast. So absolutely. Yeah. So, um, without further ado, maybe we, we jump into kind of the bulk of the show, our main topic here, which is, uh, Q&A episode you had mentioned on the last show James that We've got a new format. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | So maybe you can kind of recap that and then we'll jump into some some questions Yeah, for those of you who didn't bother listening the last episode because it was kind of more of a news and update episode We didn't actually want to do something Specific for 100 so we made this kind of update kind of give you a run of where we started and what we were up To and some plans for the future one of the plans for the future was to bring back Q&A because we get so many emails and DMs and all these things, but they just don't translate that well to audio. So in copying the format of another podcast that I really love called Jordan Jesse Go, they accept voicemail calls from all over the world to ask them questions or to make comments or to share fun stories and those sorts of things. we thought that would be fun, but I didn't want to, I looked into it quite extensively actually to set up a voicemail number where it would store the MP3. And then as I'm sitting there, I'm like, all I want is that MP3. And you could just email it to me. You don't have to remember a number. You just open up the voice memo function on your phone, talk directly into your phone, you know, maybe 45 seconds, a minute, whatever. And then just email to thegraynadoatgmail.com. And we threw this out there. I thought maybe we'd get four or five, And we got 12 really quickly. So we're going to try and do 12 in this episode. They're still coming in. Thank you so very much for doing these, for recording these, for sending them in. We've got people from all over the world. And I'm really thrilled. I think that I don't think that we're always going to do big Q&A episodes, but we thought this would be a fun way to show the format and what was possible and kind of lean into it being audio for audio, which I really love. If you don't want to send audio, you can always send us a text message. via thegranadoatgmail.com. Otherwise, yeah, I say let's dig in. We've got the first one is from a gentleman named Miguel in West Palm Beach. It's a very long message that he sent us, so I will truncate it for the purposes of the recording. But Miguel had a question kind of surrounding Sapphire Bezels. |
| Miguel from West Palm Beach, FL | First off, congratulations on the 100th episode, Jason and James. I've been enjoying your podcast for the past year or so and really, really enjoy what you guys do. James recently in his Hodigi podcast, which I thoroughly enjoyed as well, mentioned Ocean7. I was not familiar with it, so I checked them out and I saw that they have a pretty cool looking watch. The LM5, which has a domed sapphire bezel. So I've been looking for something with a sapphire bezel and it seems I can only find micros. Houdinki and I had seen some Astor and Banks stuff before and Houdinki did a short write-up on the I believe was the Sea Ranger with also a Sapphire bezel. So the question is if you guys have had the chance to handle both of these watches in your hands which one would you go with? And while we're at it might as well ask I have not seen a lot of the you guys or the the worn and wound guys talking about, you talk about, I've heard you guys talking about micro brands, but I never heard anybody say anything about Weiss watch company. So I wanted to know if you guys have had a chance to see the Weiss watches, can handle them, if you have any personal opinions about them. Those are my questions. Thank you for what you guys do. Keep it up. We really enjoy it. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | All right. Great. Uh, you know, thanks Miguel for, for that question. Um, Sapphire bezels, you know, we were just, uh, you and I were just talking about this recently, um, with regard to, to that DOCSIS sub 200, which is an incredibly affordable watch that has a sapphire bezel. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, that would be the, that would be the one that jumped to my mind. Uh, the funny thing is, is I think probably, uh, I probably wrote one of the first pieces about the Ocean 7 LM5 a very long time ago, maybe even for watch report. Oh wow. And that's a watch I just haven't seen in eight or nine years. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. I wasn't actually sure that Ocean 7 was still in business. I'm happy to hear they are. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, if they are and if they're still offering watches, Mitch certainly made a fantastic watch back in the day. I own several Ocean 7s. And I can only assume that he's still creating a perfectly great watch. What's special about the LM5, like Miguel mentioned, is it's a domed sapphire bezel, whereas normally the insert is flat. Yeah. And essentially applied like a sticker. So the LM-5's bezel is a much more complicated thing to create and implement in a way that works. So that's a watch definitely worth checking out. More recently, I did write the write-up on Hodinkee for the Astrobank Sea Ranger, which I absolutely recommend. That's a really cool watch for the money. I like the sapphire bezel. And finally, I would say your other option, which we didn't list, but Jason mentioned at the top of our reply here, is the Doxa Sub 200, which It does have a sapphire bezel insert, a flat bezel. It's a flat insert with luminous markers, which is probably the most of the reason why you would use sapphire versus something like ceramic is you can put loom beneath it. And in this case for the Dockside, that's a sub thousand dollar watch, not unlike the Astor and Banks with a bracelet. The Dockside also uses an ETA 28242, the Astor and Banks, which is about a hundred bucks less. uses a SW-200 from Sellita and offers a little bit more water resistance and of course comes in a white dial. The Doxa comes in six different colors. The Aster Banks is either white or black with a 12-hour bezel. So I think it's a question of do you want more of a dive watch or would you like more of a travel sort of inspired watch with the Sea Ranger. I think both of those are really solid options and I've really enjoyed the Doxa Sub 200 which I finally got to check out. And by the time this goes up, my review will have been about a week old on Hodinkee. Cool. Finally, Miguel had asked about Weiss watches and Weiss watches. It's Cameron Weiss's company based in California, I believe. It's just a brand where I've seen a couple of their watches on people's wrist, but I've never taken pictures of them. I've never tried to go any deeper into them. They do look to be making a great sort of field, like American inspired field watch. So definitely worth a check if you don't know their name, but it's not something I have any specific experience with yet. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. I've met Cameron and his wife and checked out the watches kind of informally. And, um, I think they're, they're fantastic. Nice, nice design. Um, but, uh, you know, that's, that's the extent of my knowledge. I just wanted to add something quick about, uh, Sapphire bezels. Another option that, that you might not have thought of is you can actually source, uh, loomed Sapphire bezels on, you know, I suppose eBay and other places, um, from third party options that can fit onto a number of Seikos. So yeah, and I've actually seen there's a local guy that did that, that I've seen, and it actually looks really quite good. And it's such an interesting option, given that Sapphire bezels have only been around for 10 or 12 years. It's remarkable that they've trickled down to the kind of aftermarket Seiko space. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Agreed. Yeah. So Miguel, if you've got a Seiko, maybe go online and find a suitable bezel and start there and see if it's something that you like. I would say that in the world of aluminum, ceramic, and sapphire, typically sapphire will be the most susceptible to chips or full-on, you know, breaks in the material. So you want to keep that in mind. Aluminum is going to be the hardest wearing but of course is the cheapest material and will take on scratches. and stuff, but I think in terms of longest lasting, that's probably ceramic these days, unless you really hit them hard, because it is, of course, still ceramic. Yeah. So keep that in mind. But Jason, that's a great idea. Maybe start with, I don't know, whatever the bezel could cost for an SKX or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So next up, we've got one from Ryan, and he's asking about our perfect TGN day. |
| Ryan from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada | Take it away, Ryan. Hey, fellas. This is Ryan Clark from beautiful Victoria, British Columbia. on the far west coast of Canada. Here's my question. What is your perfect TGN day? Where are you? What are you doing? What are you wearing? And what gear are you taking? And most importantly, what watch or watches are you bringing along on your adventure? Note that this is a dream scenario, so feel free to weave in any grail options for the day as well. And I'm curious to hear from each of you on this one. Congratulations on reaching 100 episodes, and I'm looking forward to seeing what's next for TGN in the future. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | All right, Ryan, that's a great question. Jason, you want to take it away with what you figure your dream TGN day would be? |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, that's tough. I mean, I have to admit, I've had a number of these days in the past, and it's almost like a rinse and repeat sort of scenario for me, not to minimize the element of it, but a day like we had Um, or, or a weekend we had when I came out to visit you in Vancouver, um, kind of encapsulated a lot of what I like to do, which would be combining a few different, I like the idea of a multi-sport day or a multi-sport weekend where you maybe you do some hiking in the morning and some diving in the afternoon or, um, some combination of that. So, you know, it would be something about in a, in a picturesque location, not necessarily tropical, but, um, great lakes, North shore of Lake Superior or, uh, West coast of Canada or the U S. Wake up, good strong cup of coffee, get out early, load up the Land Rover with some dive gear, drive to a cool shore dive site, go do a neat wreck dive or wall dive somewhere, have some lunch, rest up a bit, and then maybe go take some photos on a nice hike somewhere. And then follow it up with a great sushi dinner and finish off the day with a good scotch. That type of sort of mix of activities is what I like, a sort of combination of, you know, refined, you know, things like consumables, like a good cup of coffee, maybe a good sushi dinner and some whiskey with a bit of rough and tumble. You know, like I said, multi-sport days are always kind of my preference to kind of mix things up. I feel a little smug doing that. In terms of a watch, you know, I'd probably wear Uh, you know, something like a Bremont or a Doxa, um, maybe my old sub, um, you know, something that could kind of handle both and that I really wouldn't have to think about. And, uh, you know, in terms of clothing, it would probably be like some Fjallraven pants and, and, uh, uh, you know, tuck a nano puff in a, in a Topo Designs backpack and Randolph, Randolph, uh, sunglasses and, uh, off I go. That's, uh, that's kind of, that'd kind of be my day. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah. I mean, I think that sounds. Incredible. I actually wouldn't change any of the activities. I was going to answer the same thing. Put me in Vancouver on a nice day in late August, early September. Give me sunny, clear skies. Dive in the morning. A nice hike. I mean, I'd like to take Jason back on St. Mark's Summit on a day where you could see more than 20 feet. So let's do that hike again. I mean, you can do that hike if you're quick and just a couple hours. And or maybe go do the three three pumps for Seymour. There's three peaks there. That one's pretty great. If you're feeling really zesty, then no question. Do your dive at sunrise or close to on Kelvin Grove and then drive directly to the in route for Brunswick Mountain and do Brunswick, which is the highest peak in that North Shore range. Seventeen hundred and eighty meters, something like that. Back in the day when I was uh, West coast mountain fit. I was able to do that in about five hours. I think that would take me essentially till about sunset now. Um, and just, just one of the most fantastic hikes, uh, very, very topography. And then you end in a true pre Alpine sort of setting and you can be back at the car and yeah, give me oysters or give me sushi and a decent glass of whiskey. I'd be hard to think of a better day, really. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. I would, I would have to just interject here too, that You might want to flip the activities just so you don't run into any sort of decompression sickness issues, hiking too high after diving. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | True enough. So then, yeah, you could, you could start at sunrise on Brunswick and maybe end with a night dive. Um, at which point I would go to like Whitecliff park, which I've, I've done a little bit of night diving there, uh, back in the day when I was getting certified for that sort of thing. And it's, um, yeah, it's a nice vertical scenario, but you still get some like anatomy gardens and that sort of thing. So cool. Uh, pretty, pretty rad and not too hard for navigation sake and that sort of thing. If you do run out of sunlight, you know, you get a fair amount, uh, that time of year on the West coast. So yeah, as far as watches. Yeah. I, if I'm diving, it's probably going to take the Doxa, uh, one of those. Um, otherwise I just pop on the Explorer two and go for it. Nice. Keep it easy. The classics and, uh, clothes, not that much. And for clothes, I mean, no different than Jason, really the standards I'd throw on a pair of hiking pants, maybe those ones from Dewar or, uh, or otherwise. And, uh, and. something that would breathe and just go for the day. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. Nice. Thanks, Ryan. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Thanks very much, Ryan. Next one up we've got from Tynan. Let's hear it. |
| Tynan from Maine | Hi, this is Tynan from Maine. I just wanted to see if you guys could talk about contentment with a hobby, whether it's watch collecting or being into boots or denim or whatever the case may be. I know it's something I've struggled with, especially with watches, the flippability of them makes it easy to always be looking at the next thing. And of course, we're reading different watch blogs, looking at the forums. It's really easy to never be content with what you have, never be happy with it, and always be looking for the next thing, trying to flip what you already own, et cetera, et cetera. So I was just curious if you guys could talk about how you've been content with what things you have, whether it's watches or boots, or if you're having issues with it yourself. I just thought it would be something interesting to hear about. Thanks. Bye. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Wow. That's a, that's a great question, Tyne. And, um, and I, it's sort of something I addressed in, in my post that I talked about earlier on Hodinkee. Um, and it's something I struggled with, you know, for years. I think that the consumability of, of all of the blogs and the forums, uh, at least when I first got into, to watches, um, does sort of drive this desire to continually flip and, you know, look for that dopamine hit of the next cool watch you get, um, which, which seldom comes anymore. Uh, if I'm, if I'm honest, And I think I've reached a really comfortable point in watch collecting where I'm able to now appreciate something that somebody else has without kind of having to figure out how to get it for myself, whether that's borrowing or just, you know, reading about it and sort of letting it sort of marinate a little bit before I make a decision. You know, the other thing too is expanding hobbies has really been helpful too. You know, ever since I got the old Land Rover, It sort of switched my focus a little bit and allowed me to quote a phrase coined by, I think, Ben Clymer, be a civilian about something. You know, watches are something that I've gotten so heavy into that I was almost becoming like it was a job. Well, it is a job for me, but, you know, to kind of switch focus and kind of get into something, learn something new, allowed me to kind of start afresh with something new. And certainly with cars, you can flip them like you can watches, but it's a little more difficult. Um, so, you know, I'm, I'm happy with what I have and just sort of varying my, my outlets has, has really helped in that regard as well. How about you, James? |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I would say, first of all, thanks. Thanks very much, Tony, for such a thoughtful question. I think this is a, this is right in the alley of what, of where we, you try and balance the like consumer mind and the, the like self-awareness of knowing like these things aren't things that we necessarily need. How much time should I really be spending? applying to these, and I think in my case, and this is a very personal assessment of that metric, but in my case, I got lucky where from the time I could start to read, I was reading about things that I would never be able to afford. So even now, when I see things that I want a lot, whether it's a supercar or a great house or something like a Royal Oak in solid gold, these things that I would aspire to own, if I take even a moment I think like, ah, when you actually start to think about it, I don't think I actually want it. I like it. I think it's really cool. I like to think about having it. I like to maybe borrow it or experience it for a little bit of time. But ownership feels like a burden for a lot of these things. I already have too many watches. So, you know, there's there's certain clarity to to kind of dialing down on some of that. And when it comes to Most of these when you're talking about boots or clothing or something like that. It's it's I'm very much responsive to need So if I need boots I will start reading about boots and getting back into something like that topic or the same with a jacket or And anything a phone like I used to grow like before I got into watches I lived for just general like tech blogging. I wasn't a tech blogger I consumed everything that you could find and gadget the verge, etc And I used to know all the different phones and cameras and this or that. And now I just dip back into these areas when there's a need. So if I need to know about a new camera or research something like that, then I'll go back in. I keep tabs on a few brands and that sort of thing with, you know, just you kind of using Feedly and running headlines. But for the most part, I just kind of try and do the buy once scenario. So if it's boots, maybe consider spending the higher amount so you don't have to think about boots anymore or worry about boots for some time or something like that. And I think in many ways this is a very personal metric. I've met friends that had to back away from hobbies because there was such a sense of what other people had and what they didn't. And I've never once been able to, that's a perspective I can't quite absorb, Um, I don't have that much when it comes to watches. I mean, you guys all know, probably know the majority of the watches I have there. None of them total. Even one great watch from many of my own colleagues or even some of Jason's watches, for example, but I guess I've always just been wired to easily separate between things I really like and things I really want. And I just don't want that much. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. Good. Uh, really great, thoughtful question and something that I'm sure a lot of listeners can relate to. So thanks a lot for sending that in. Our next question comes from Hugh, and he has a question about Seiko SKX. |
| Hugh from Moscow (originally from Scotland) | Hi, it's Hugh calling from Moscow, although I'm originally from Scotland. Last year I bought my first mechanical watch, a Seiko SKX007, and I have two questions. First, I'd like you to explain why I should upgrade and spend up to, say, $2,000 on a new watch. And second, I'd like you to explain why I shouldn't upgrade as you just stick with the SKX. For further background to help you explain, buying a dive watch helped get me back into scuba diving. So I've taken the SKX on about 10 dives so far. And while I've obviously had a dive computer on the other wrist each time, I've really enjoyed wearing a mechanical watch while 20 meters or so underwater. So thanks in advance for some contradictory advice. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Hugh, I think this is incredible. Congratulations on getting into diving and picking an excellent companion for that diving. Glad to hear you are relying on a computer as well, of course. But yeah, we all like to enjoy the mechanical watch underwater. There's a weird funness to that. As far as your question, I don't know what position Jason would like to take. I would tell you don't bother. Me too. If your money is... I can provide a counterpoint in a moment that if Jason would go with don't bother. But if you're talking about two grand, I don't think you're going to get that much more. I think you'll get another watch, and if what you want is another watch, you want to experience another thing, so be it. I don't know that two grand is going to get you much more than what you get in an SKX if you zoom out a bunch. It won't get you the kind of visceral appeal of something like a Rolex or most Omegas, certainly if you wanted to continue in the dive watch space. I think two grand is probably where an Omega, like even a two, two, five, four worth having is probably right around where that starts. And that's a, that's going to be a well-used watch. Um, on top of that, I just think you can't get into any of the brands that we often talk about, especially when you start to think about something that would add a complication like from Oris or a DOCSIS sub 300, it's going to cost more than two grand. And I think it comes down to what your goal for that two grand is. If it's to experience a couple more watches or another watch, super. If it's to buy something that you will have a lasting relationship with, I'd say chill, spend it on an experience. Maybe put a camera in your hand or try and pick up a new skill, learn a new sport that requires some gear. Two grand, of course, would get you into diving, but could also get you into skiing or cross country skiing or many gym sports like could cover you a year of boxing or something like that with a trainer. I think that there's a lot that you could do for the two grand that would expand your perspective beyond just having another watch. But if your goal is to have another watch, then I think there's a ton of really fun watches under two grand. I just don't know that they offer drastically, like considerably more at a high level than the SKX. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, I would agree. And I also think just judging by your tone when you were reading that question, it kind of sounds like you're content with your Seiko and you're almost looking for someone to kind of argue for upgrading. And I like kind of what you've done with it. I like that it got you back into diving and that you've worn it diving. Uh, and, and to me that, that imbues the watch with, with extra meaning. And I think to be able to wear that watch and continue to wear it and be content with it, uh, is fantastic. And I, I, I'm not even going to argue to upgrade other than, um, for around two grand, you could get kind of a dynamic, colorful Doxa sub if you just wanted something kind of fun and very different from a Seiko. Um, but if you're, if you're kind of staying in, in dive watch space with, you know, black dial and, you know, big luminous hands and a rotating bezel, you're, you're, you're not going to get that huge of an upgrade to a Seiko SKX, uh, you know, even up to two grand. So, you know, stick with it. I love, I love what you've done with it. And I love that, uh, that you've been happy with it and that it has that extra meaning to it. So, uh, I think we both kind of come down in the same, same answer for that one. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | The only thing I would add to that in listening to Jason's response is look at other people who have been in a hobby, in this case watch collecting, for say a decade and look what they might be aspiring or what they had, what they eventually got to. So instead of thinking about your value in terms of two grand for your next watch, think about what you might, if you did that several times, what you might spend over a period of time and maybe just plan for the end point. You have a watch that it appears you really enjoy wearing and using as it was intended, which is Awesome. But consider the end point. If the end point would be to eventually work up to a Rolex Sub or a Planet Ocean or something else entirely different, maybe start making small steps towards that so that you can just kind of have a nice goal somewhere down the line, a birthday or a job thing or something like that. Cool. All right. So before we get on to more questions, we are going to dip into a quick ad break and we're still polishing the way that we do these ad breaks, but This week's is brought to you by Alps and Meters. It's the second episode that they've sponsored in the last little while. They also had episode 99, where we took some of their gear skiing and had a really good time with that. And for this episode, we thought we'd look at kind of the other expression. You're not always skiing. You're not always out in the mountains. Sometimes you're just around town or even at home, not even leaving the couch. And in that scenario, how do these clothes perform? You're spending a nice amount of money on a properly made jacket or shirt or sweater or something like that. And in that case, where does Alps and Meters kind of stack up? |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, so I've got a couple of pieces that I've been wearing for actually the past couple of years that I thought I could talk about. One is the classic waffle sweater. Alps and Meters is known for obviously their outerwear, but also they've got a really great line of sweaters. And this one is actually one of my favorites. It has this sort of asymmetric line of buttons that kind of snaps open at the neck. It has this nice waffle, square hobnail almost looking waffle pattern with sort of articulated elbows and shoulder seams, so really great for kind of moving around. I've worn it skiing, I've worn it out hiking and things like that, but it just looks really classic. I think when I got this, James, you said, oh, it has sort of a James Bond look to it. And, you know, the sweater really does kind of put you in a certain, it's a bit of a commando kind of sweater. really gives you that alpine lifestyle but it also works really well with a pair of khakis and some red wing boots going out for dinner or something like that. It's definitely very warm, really snug fitting, just a really fantastic piece. So I'm a real big fan of their sweaters and then I also have their touring Henley which is a wool blend base layer with the Henley neck that just has about three or four buttons coming down the front and then These sort of reinforcements on the, on the elbows and one of the shoulders for, you know, presumably carrying skis or something like that. But, uh, that's worked out to be a really great base layer, um, or just, just, uh, a shirt to wear around the house, kind of in a casual setting. So, um, yeah, I would say off the mountain, um, just back home, uh, Alps and meters really, uh, great lifestyle products. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah. And I, I have to agree. Uh, in, in my case, I'm going to talk about something called the touring Oxford. I've had some experience with their touring flannel. for the last almost couple years now, but with the Oxford, it's so much more of a casual shirt. Uh, you can even tuck it in and, and wear it with a, like a, a tidy pair of pants and look pretty put together. But for the most part, it has this really fantastic material. Again, like, like a lot of these, their touring series, you've got the, the, the sunglasses pocket on the chest, which is in kind of a nylon. And then you have the same coverage on your forearms, just in hot kind of high wear, uh, parts of the And I kind of can't take it off, like whether I'm just moving kind of things around the house or going inside and outside where you kind of transition from warm to cold or, you know, just having it unbuttoned over a sweatshirt as sort of a work shirt sort of scenario, an outer jacket, something like that. It's been perfect. I really love it. I love the way it fits. I like that you get a useful pocket. That also means that when I lean down to tie up my shoes, my sunglasses don't fall on the floor, which happens Pretty much all the time and just about anything else that I wear, which is a, you know, a very low, low concern pain, but a pain nonetheless. And I really liked the way it looks. I would say it's, you know, it's a piece of clothing that I've had. I basically got it just, just before the Oris trip and I get kind of constant compliments on it. It looks really good. It's one of those things where you can tell that it's not just a basic shirt that has two different colors of blue on it. You can tell that there's, there's more happening there. And I've been super happy with it, and I think it's a really impressive and useful shirt. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, so we're both pleased with Alps and Meters, and thanks to them for supporting this episode. And be sure to check out alpsandmeters.com, and currently they're having a complimentary two-day express shipping offer on all orders, so be sure to jump on and take advantage of that. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Thanks very much for supporting the show. And let's jump back into some more questions. So we've got one here from Rafael in Budapest. Rafael, take it away. |
| Rafael from Budapest, Hungary | Hey, Jason. Hi, James. It's Rafael here speaking from Budapest. So congratulations on the 100th episode. Really good to see you guys going strong after so many. And I really hope and can't wait to see what the future brings to the show. Really good to hear. So my question is more for you, James, as the car guy in the show. I know that you, Jason, also have a really nice Land Rover. Congrats on that. But it's more regarding if you can see and trace a parallel between the quartz crisis that the watch industry suffered back in the 70s, if you can trace a parallel between that and what we see now with electric cars and the brands basically investing massively on that and leaving gas-powered engines to the side. Do you see like gas-powered cars as more like an enthusiast choice in the future? Do you actually see us, you know, a possibility on us keep driving gas-powered cars in the future due to all the concern with pollution and all? So could we just maybe call Tesla the new Seiko? So, yeah, have a nice one, guys. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Well, you know, thanks a lot, Rafael, for that question. And as you mentioned, this is more of a question for James, so I'm just going to turn it over to you. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, Raphael, this is a cool question. It's also a super complicated question. At its most simple form, I would say absolutely what has happened to the automobile is they are now hitting something like what happened to the watch in its quartz crisis. But you have to remember the quartz crisis came along due to raw technical innovation. So we were able to produce these quartz movements that were vastly less expensive, vastly more accurate at a time when they were also fashionable. What's happening with electric cars is a little bit different because we have top scientists in the world telling us that we have a lot of problems with global warming and the need to reduce the carbon footprint of these vehicles. So you have companies responding to that and responding to various other regulations by promoting vehicles that maybe haven't technologically matched up well with how we use cars today. And I think there's a disparity in the technology versus the need for that technology, where what happened in the quartz crisis was very much in tune with a time, the 80s, and also a birth of a new technology. Electric cars have been around for a long time and they haven't taken off... Electric cars have been around for a long time and they've taken off so slowly because charging them is an issue. And keeping them charged is an issue, as in how long they can... how much... power they can store in the batteries. And I think a lot of it comes down to, we're going to have to see a drastic expansion in both the infrastructure to charge cars and also the flexibility of charging them. So right now, if the fastest thing you could get in the absolute best charger is 20 minutes, that's still 15 minutes longer than it takes me to put gas in my car, which matters to a lot of people. And sure, you could probably add a few percentage points at home, But really until you can drive it to work, charge it at work, drive it home, charge it at home, and it's not this big stress where you're waiting in line for a certain type of charger, there's some growing pains. And I think it's very important that we go through these growing pains because it will mean that we will have electric cars and it will mean that we can lower the general, eventually, the general carbon footprint of automotive. And hopefully that would also inform technologies into other sectors, aviation would be the big one. If you really want to talk about making a difference in the general amount of pollution and burning of fuel, then we would need some sort of an electric plane eventually. But more to the point of your question, I definitely think that if you look a few generations from now, the way that we treat gas cars would be similar to the way that we treat race cars now. They're kind of special things that are really cared for. This might be 50 years. It might be a hundred years. Maybe even it's fair to say the way that we treat horses is the way that we would treat a gas powered sports car. So you would keep it somewhere specific. You would ride it somewhere specific. It would need handlers. It would need to be, you know, cared for in a very specific way, insured carefully as a different sort of asset class. I think that's where we will eventually go when, when cars, uh, Kind of complete their ascension into being appliances. And the ones that are left, um, are driven because it's fun to drive them. We, we ride horses because it's for the most part fun to ride them. And I think that's maybe the easier way to think of it. Um, but all of that of course comes down to what happens with fuel, what happens with, um, you know, the, possibly the ability to modify these vehicles and in ways that we can't really imagine at this point. And. I don't think that the enthusiast gas-powered car is going anywhere, but I think its context will change over time, for sure. I hope that's helpful. Kind of rambly. Next up, we've got one from Tom, and he's asking about a Cartier. |
| Tom | I was wondering, now that Cartier has discontinued its Colibra collection, how will we look at the collection in 10 years? Aesthetically, I thought it was a great look from a great brand. And in the pre-war market, I think they represent an even greater value. But when I pulled my millennial daughters on this, it really didn't inspire them in the same way it inspired me. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | So Tom's asking what we think will be the kind of future perspective on the Calibre de Cartier, which is a recently discontinued sportier line from Cartier. And if I'm brutally honest, I'm happy to apply an opinion to this. I never paid much attention to the Calibre de Cartier when it was available. They were a little bit too big for me. I always thought the dive watch was cool, but not something I would buy. And for me, Cartier always will come down to the tank. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, I didn't actually realize that the caliber to Cartier was discontinued. It's true. Neither did I. I'm going off Tom's words here. But it's interesting. I also think that Cartier has a tank and the Santos and some others that it's much better known for. And I will always associate with that, which is a shame. I mean, brands should be allowed to expand out. And I think that was a valiant effort. I got to spend some time with the Calibre Diver, took it diving a couple of times. Very neat watch. It felt a bit maybe placed in a certain time frame. It didn't seem quite as timeless and classic as other Cartiers, obviously, and that has been borne out by the discontinuation, if that is indeed the case. But, you know, I think in the future people will look back and view it like they do a lot of other watches that were of a certain era. more like |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Cartier's Ploprof or more like Cartier's Baum and Mercier Capeland Diver. Yeah. You know, something that's only remembered by a few watch nerds that were around at the time or something that kind of endures because it was so different from that brand, from within the scope of that brand. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah. Tom, hard to read the, you know, the glass ball on that one, but thank you very much for the question. And I think if you dig that watch, you should keep wearing it. Millennials tend to come around. I certainly have on a lot of stuff. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | All right, let's move on to the next one from Brandon who had a question about everyday carry. |
| Brandon from Louisville, KY | Hey guys, Brandon Lowry here. I'm at ticks and sticks on Instagram. My question really is about everyday carry. What I wanted to know is if you guys have come across a very unique or useful pocket knife that maybe you could recommend for everyday carry and kind of the same question for a wallet. So appreciate you guys insight and keep up the good work. I'll be listening. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Hey Brandon, thanks very much for your question. I'm going to weigh in on the knife side of this as I carry a knife and Jason typically doesn't. Depending on your local state or provincial or you didn't mention where you live, you want to make sure you don't break any of their rules as far as the type of action or opening the knife has, the length of the blade, etc. So I'll start you off with something that should be compliant just about anywhere, which means it's a slip joint. So there's no locking mechanism. You kind of open the knife by force and then push it closed with no kind of mechanical action. And that would be from the James brand and it's called the Elko. It starts at about 60 bucks. And this is what I carry when I'm in New York. So I don't have to travel between Canada and New York. I don't ever check a bag. So I don't move a knife back and forth. My typical pocket knives in Canada are a little bit bigger. Options from Benchmade. But the Elko I think would be a knife that applies to just about anyone. I mean my kid sister carries one. She really likes it. I think this is a perfect knife. It has a little Kind of pry bar bottle opener that you can also loop your keys or a lanyard through they look really nice I like a knife that doesn't look intimidating Because otherwise I don't like to open it in front of people that you know a lot of people aren't knife people Which I've learned more every day your other option if you'd like to spend less than 60 bucks is just buy yourself a Swiss Army knife They're basically perfect. They don't bother anyone they are routinely ignored by the TSA, etc. So if you happen to have one in your bag, you don't typically get in trouble for it or get it taken away at the airport. I've lost maybe one in the last two or three years. So that's another great choice. We even sell a Hodinkee branded one on the shop, were you interested? If you want something a little bit nicer, a little bit more expensive, the other two knives that I've been carrying for a few years would be the Benchmade Mini Grip 556S. So that's a split blade partially serrated, partially standard kind of edge, and then it's just a black sort of plasticky style handle, and it has this thing called an axis lock, so you can operate it with one hand. With a bit of practice, it's not fully assisted, it's not like a switchblade, but that's a really excellent knife. I've abused mine for probably six or seven years. I have the deep pocket clip on it, which makes it really easy to handle, but that is the sort of knife where if you open it in front of someone who doesn't like knives, doesn't understand that sometimes people carry a knife in their pocket. This is an intimidating knife. Uh, so I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily say that's your absolute best choice. And then the last one is also from Benchmade, probably my most expensive knife at this point. And that is called the Benchmade Proper or the 319 Proper. And it's the brand's only slip joint, which again means that there's no mechanical locking scenario. It's basically like a grandpa knife. if that's easiest to think of it, but it's a little bit on the bigger side as far as the blade. It's super useful. It's also a slip joint that offers a really high-end steel, or at least a higher-end steel than what you'd commonly find in a lot of more entry-level knives. And I would say you can go online and actually see a pretty good review of the 319 Proper from Aaron Shapiro, a friend of the show, certainly. So you can go on that and check out YouTube. So there's Four options, go from your Swiss Army knife to a James brand Elko to something like a Benchmade, those have mini grip or the 319 proper. So lots of knives out there. Those are the four that I typically would have somewhere near me. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Nice. I'll weigh in quickly on the wallet choices. You might remember if you're a longtime listener, I was going through a bit of a wallet crisis and I tried many, many wallets about a year or two ago. I finally settled on a couple of options. One that I carry all the time, which is from Bellroy. Bellroy is a fairly well-known wallet company. And the wallet I've settled on was their Hide and Seek, which is a simple bifold wallet that has like five or six card slots. But what's really neat about it is it has these sort of hidden little pockets that you can put I keep like insurance information and a photograph of my wife and whatever in there, you know, it's not something you access regularly. And then it's RFID protected. But the reason I really settled on this is it holds exactly what I need, but it's also really slim. I can't stand a really thick wallet in my pocket. And the Hide and Seek is really nice and slim. It comes in some nice leather choices. And then the other wallet choice is from sort of a friend of the show, Fraser Kit Company. He makes a bifold wallet. It's sort of this like soft leather, and then when you open it, it's actually lined with wool, which sounds really strange, but it really has a neat look to it and this sort of interesting sort of webbing that holds the cards in place. And that's a really fun one as well. I don't carry it as much, but it's another nice option. So I would say top choice, Bellroy Hide and Seek. which comes in at about $89 and we'll throw a link in the show notes. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Killer. Thanks for the question, Brandon. Moving on, we're going to hear from Jim in Tucson about watch service. |
| Jim from Tucson, AZ | Hi guys, this is Jim in Tucson. I've got a question for you about maintaining or servicing watches. I'm lucky enough to have a nice little collection. Thanks for all your input and influence on it. It's Helios, Autodromo, Nomos, a couple of Seikos, the usual suspects, all of which I've acquired in the last five years. I've heard that there's sort of a three-year recommended service interval for automatics, or I guess mechanical watches in general, and that a full service is probably going to run me around $300. Is that sort of the cost of owning a collection? Is that you sending in a watch every, what, three or four years, maybe five years? What do you recommend, and what do you do with your own watches? Thanks a lot. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Thanks a lot, Jim, for sending that in. It's a good question. It's a question I get, and James probably gets as well, fairly regularly from people, given, you know, the fact that we do a collection inspection on TGN means that we do have several watches. To be honest, I think I have, other than having a couple of old doxes actually restored, I think I can count on one hand, maybe even two fingers, the number of watches I've actually had serviced, which is kind of shameful, actually. But on the other hand, You know, having a set of watches that you kind of cycle through means that I think the service intervals are just longer. You know, with cars, they say, you know, it's mileage or time in terms of getting oil changed. I know things have changed a little bit with modern vehicles, but with watches, I think unless a watch is sitting for years and years and the oils actually, you know, pool or dry out, I think if you're kind of cycling through three, four, maybe five watches over the course of a year, I think you can probably wait until you just start to detect a little bit of a poor timekeeping, maybe it doesn't hold a wind as long, maybe if it's a chronograph it's not functioning properly. So I don't want to say wait until it's broken to fix it. But I would say three years is very ambitious. I would almost push that to five or six years if it's part of a collection that you're wearing in cycle with other watches. So that's kind of my take on it. I think your $300 is probably about right for the watches that you have. If you're talking Omega, Rolex, the higher end brands, they're probably going to charge a bit of a premium, probably looking at closer to like $800, $900 for something like a Speedmaster or something like that. But yeah, good question. James, anything to add? |
| James Stacey (co-host) | I would just say that I, you know, in my, in my experience, I've had watches serviced for as little as maybe $150, $180, maybe even less. It just depends on what the, what the service is, right? It's like asking like, Oh, what's it going to cost to fix my car? Yeah. Obviously there's less variables, but if you're just wanting to get the movement serviced, but the movement appears to be running fine, I would, I would forget that. for now. I think that as long as the watch appears to be running and keeping time correctly, then it doesn't require service. And then lastly, I would say maybe swing back to episode 52 of the show, where we had on Jason Gallup from Rolldorf & Co. in Vancouver. He answered a ton of Watchmaker questions, and he would also be a great resource. You could probably fairly easily DM him on Instagram and ask him a question if you ever needed to. But this is what he does. This is a big part of his training and his living is watch service and repair. I think he would be the, he's certainly the expert in my world when it comes to it. Great. Sorry. The next one, we're moving our way through all dozen here, comes from Frederik. Take it away. |
| Frederik from Watches Through My Lens | Hi, this is Frederik at Watches Through My Lens, and I want to get an opinion from you on buying watches. If you prefer buying a couple of more watches for a bit less money, or if you prefer to buy one or two watches for a bit more, At the moment I'm studying so I don't have that much money at my disposal so I'm struggling to either buy one or two watches on eBay for a bit less money or to save up for a better watch. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Thanks for the question Frederik and also for the background music. I was listening to the recording and I was trying to figure out where the music was coming from so thanks for that. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | So what do you think on this Jason? Do you buy He's studying, so I'm going to assume he's maybe on the earlier side of his watch appreciation journey. At that point, do you figure you recommend buying fewer, better or more on them, but less expensive? |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | I kind of feel like you either go, you either go low, um, and kind of scratch an itch or you go, you save and you go really high. Like I absolutely agree. Um, you know, we took that earlier call from Hugh about his Seiko SKX. I mean, we're talking a two to $300 dive watch that just packs so much punch. um, that can be a very satisfying watch to wear for, you know, a couple of years, even, even two, two or three watches kind of in that range, you can get, you know, several good watches. Uh, the, the Newmark chronograph that I talked about is a $250 watch. You can get, you know, two or three watches for less than a thousand dollars. That'll sustain you for years and kind of scratch a lot of itches. Um, or I say, you know, go, Go for the grail if you can afford it or save a little bit and go for it and then hold on to that for a long time and it'll probably sustain you for the better part of two, three, four, five years until you start to get another itch to get something else. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I would fully agree. Basically, I would say at this point, buy one of the entry-level classics like an SKX if you don't already have it or if you don't want a dive watch, then go to the forums, find out what people are into. We've talked about a lot of these watches before, but there's you know, just Google best watches under 500 bucks or something like that and pick an affordable classic and then just start saving. Sit back and read, learn to kind of filter feed for enthusiasm rather than need to capture something and have it be your own. So I think in many ways you could have a really good time and certainly this is how I started was I bought and sold something weekly. I constantly had say $1,000 moving back and forth in the mail so that I could see as many watches at once. And I think at that point it wasn't about the watches, it was about the experience. And I totally respect that if that's the route you'd want to go. But if you're really talking about the watch, like if what you want is a watch and you'd like to buy a watch and keep a watch, then just wait. They're not going anywhere. I would argue that right now we are seeing like a continued growth in terms of the general value of some very I'm many years of earning potential ahead of you. And with each of those years, your taste will change. So you will end up buying things now, watches and otherwise, that you don't care for a couple of years later, or even days later, who knows? I've had both of those things happen to me. And the more expensive they are, the harder it's going to be to sell them. So while I would recommend saving up and buying something, it's not so much the time that you need to save up. I'm not that worried about how you make your money. I'm more worried about giving you a buffer to learn what you really want to spend it on. That's all. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, that's a good good advice. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | So thanks very much for that question. And let's bounce on to the next one, which is from Chris. Yeah. |
| Chris from Louisville, KY | Hey, guys, this is Chris in Louisville, Kentucky. Love your show. I've been with you since episode one. My question for you is about dry suits. I know you're both cold weather denizens and dry suit divers, and this is something I'm looking to get into myself. But as I'm researching it, I see that there are a whole lot of options to consider. So I was wondering if you could give me some insights from your personal path into dry suit diving and how you went about selecting the suit that was right for you. Also, side question for James, what watch should I buy? |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Wow, Chris, that's impressive that you've been with us since episode one, and we both really thank you for being a loyal listener. Yeah, thank you so much. And I'm just thrilled with the questions from today that just really cover a wide range of topics, you know, watches and knives and wallets, and here we are in drysuits. And I can kick this off, you know, when I started drysuit diving, my first drysuit was actually a rental suit from the local dive shop where I did my coursework. Um, and you know, every once in a while they would turn around and sell off the dry suits that they were using for rentals. And it was just a great way for me to get into it without spending a ton of money. And I still have that suit. And, um, I think that's a great recommendation for anybody that's just getting into it is to, uh, if you have a shop that, that rents dry suits, maybe they're doing dry suit courses or cold water diving courses. Um, maybe they'll let you take it for a spin in a pool or in a lake. Um, maybe if you take a course from them, you can, you can use their suit and if you like it, uh, you know, you can seek out a suit of that type. Um, I, I do know people that have gotten, you know, custom fit, uh, tailor made dry suits, which just costs upwards, you know, $2,000. Um, I've never spent more than, I think, you know, $700 for a, for a used suit. Um, and I've had four or five, uh, in my time here. Um, I guess the considerations. Are there really kind of two basic styles of suit? You have what's called a self donning suit, which has a diagonal zipper that goes across the front that you can actually get in and out of the suit yourself without having to have a buddy zip you up. Or you have the back zip style, which has a zipper that goes across your shoulders, which requires that you kind of shimmy into it and then somebody zips it up from the back. I've had both. I don't find it a big deal having a back zip on. In fact, I kind of like the, the clean sort of front on a back zip suit and I'm always typically diving with somebody so it doesn't really matter if I have to have somebody zip me up. And then the other concern is the material that it's made out of. You can get really heavy-duty suits that are called like a tri-laminate suit that have sort of an outer protective coating that's almost like some are even almost like a Cordura or a heavy nylon that is a very abrasion resistant. So if you're doing any wreck diving or anything around some rocks or anything sharp You don't puncture the suit. Or you can get kind of these heavy-duty, almost hazmat-type suits that are made of a polyurethane or really, you know, sort of like a thick rubber. It all kind of comes down to where you're doing your diving and the type of diving you're doing. Typically, the entry-level suits are not going to be sophisticated in terms of material or features. But I think as a good way to start, you can easily get, you know, several years out of your first suit, and I would encourage you to go on Craigslist, hit the local dive shops for rental returns, and just kind of go that route to start out with. The other thing I would mention too is I know that a lot of the diving instruction organizations like PADI and NAUI, they offer actual dry suit certification courses. I actually never took one of those courses. When I bought my suit from the dive shop, this was many years ago, they told me just, you know, why don't you go in the pool? With a tank and, uh, I'll give you a kind of an overview of, of some of the features and things you need to know about. I certainly watched a lot of videos and read, read up on it and, uh, that, that suited me just fine. I didn't need to go and plunk down money to, to take the course. Um, so I guess that's my take on it. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I would say take the course if your intention is to rent dry suits, because you will need, you'll need that card. Um, otherwise my feedback is almost identical to Jason's. I bought a rental, the dry suit that I own now. And I paid, yeah, like six or $700. And that included a couple of shakedown dives where they let me tag along on another dive. And at the end of the dive, if I had any questions or wanted to try anything, I could have someone kind of sitting right next to me. But at the time I was already fairly into diving in the, in the Pacific Northwest and was fairly comfortable with that process. And I moved into the dry suit. And then in this case, I also adapted it for some dry gloves, but you can do either with these bear suits, which is nice. Um, so I, I 100% agree with Jason, um, buy something off rental that fits you properly and then just take really good care of it. Buy the stuff to coat the zipper, buy the stuff to coat the rubber, understand when it's time to send it away to get the rubber, the seals redone, that sort of thing. They're, they're very much meant to last a long time. That's why they work as rental items. And if you treat them well, they will last that long. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Great. Well, thanks Chris. And, uh, good luck with the diving. Certainly tag us on Instagram if you do any. Any fun stuff, and let us know when you get your dry suit. For sure. Moving on to Gary, who wants to ask about rediscovering our own collections. |
| Gary | Greetings, Graynado. First, I'd like to say, Stolat, congratulations on 100 episodes, and cheers to the next 100. My question for you both, is there a watch in your collection that may have been your first watch or a grail watch that you used to wear all the time, but later was replaced by other watches as your collection grew? Maybe you even stopped wearing it for a time. Then later, you rediscovered the same watch and remembered why you fell in love with it originally. Take care. Love your show. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Hey Gary, thanks so much for your question. That's a very sweet question and certainly one that I know that Jason and I both have an answer for. I'll jump in quick on this one. For me, it's my SKX. About every two years, I put it back on, usually on that jingly-jangly Jubilee bracelet. And just realize like, oh, like this is still just as sweet as when I got it like 10 or 11 years ago. It's a killer piece. You know, I recently did a week on the wrist with the new SRPD series, the kind of not quite effective, but close to replacement of the SKXs. And in that process, I wore my SKX for a while. And I was like, man, this is a great watch. The other one for me is not a watch that's still in my collection, but it's one that I talked to Jason about it quite a bit. I've mentioned for years that I plan to get another one. It's the Seiko Monsters. One of my first watches was a 779, a black monster. It's one of those things where every now and then I catch a photo of one and I remember how good that bracelet is when it's sized correctly. And I think, I want that loom and that weird bezel. And that bracelet on my wrist at some point. So I definitely rediscover stuff. And for me, it's almost always like an inexpensive Seiko. I just come back around on them. I wear them for a while. Then I go back to something else. And then you complete the loop again, for sure. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. And for me, it's the Rolex Submariner. It's my 40th birthday gift. I'm now coming up on 10 years of ownership for this. And it's the watch I think I've had the longest in my collection. You know, the thing about Rolex, kind of the blessing and the curse, is they're so well made, they're so classic, but they're also so ubiquitous, and I think when I got the watch, it was kind of in the early days of getting into this hobby, and then you discover so many other watches with color and internal bezels and straps and great rubber straps and leather straps, and Rolex kind of starts to become, I don't want to say boring, it's not a boring watch, it's just such a boilerplate watch. It just works well on the bracelet and you kind of put it on and it's like slipping on an old pair of jeans. So I did set it aside. I didn't wear it for a long time. Consistently I'd pull it out every now and then. But lately I just find myself wearing it more and more and frankly it's the one watch I'll certainly never get rid of. I appreciate it so much now for its versatility and its comfort and It just does so many things so well, especially in comparison to a lot of other watches that are either too thick or too expensive or too fancy or too whatever. And so, yeah, definitely have gone through rediscoveries, not only with the Rolex, but with others as well. But that's kind of the one that pops out for me. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | All right. Great question, Gary. And we're going to jump into our last one with this from Gareth. |
| Gareth from London | Guys, this is Gareth here from London. How about a conversation about pilot watches? a tool watch for people like me that can't actually swim. We've got everything from historic models, my IWC, JLC, and newer ones from Stower and Stover, I think it might be pronounced, and Sin. It's a really interesting subject. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on them. Thanks guys. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Thanks Gareth. I think, you know, we both like pilots watches. I mean, you've, you had a Sin 144 for a long time. You've, you've got a Bremont Solo. I've got a Bremont, the Arrow and an MB2. I love pilots watches. I think I always just kind of err on the side of divers, you know, simply because I, it's kind of become my calling card and I just spent a lot of time in and around the water. Um, but man, there are some great pilots watches and it's arguably the next great icon, uh, on par with, with diving watches. And certainly you get some really cool stuff from IWC. I love the spitfire collection and kind of their mark series and the, and the top gun stuff. Uh, Braymont is one of our, you know, favorite brands here on TGN and they might make some of the best, uh, best modern pilots watches. So, you know, with, with, even with good, uh, with good water resistance these days, I mean, you can pretty much do anything with a, with a pilot's watch that you can with a diving watch, uh, short of, you know, some sort of deep technical wreck diving, um, you know, get a, get a great pilot's watch and, and wear it. I still think one day I'd love to end up with a Navitimer. I think it's one of those, those great icons of, of aviation that, uh, that one day I'd like to own. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | It is kind of weird that you don't have a Navitimer, uh, you know, especially with your love of the right stuff. Yeah. And, uh, but yeah, I would say if you think of it just across like a Strata, I see them kind of like you can get incredible stuff at Archimedes price point, which is sub $1,000. And then I think from there you're into Zen, from Zen you're into Bramont. And then after there you're into kind of luxury watches in general. And you can definitely look at stuff like, uh, yeah, the Mark 18, I think at 39 millimeters is pretty killer. I think I think there's a lot. There's just a ton here I like I do like pilots watches and certainly the 144 st that I had Was a GMT chronograph from Zen is probably the nicest example. I've owned of a watch with more than one complication it was a really incredible watch and one that I vacillate between regretting selling and not regretting And then the Solo is one that, you know, I don't wear it that much. It's 43 millimeters. It's a bit big. You know, I've been eyeballing some of the 40 millimeter Bremont stuff, which I think could be a little bit more to my modern taste than, than, you know, I got my Solo 43 back in 2012, but then I put it on wrist and it's really good. And currently it's on, it's on kind of an extended loan to our buddy at Michant Watches. Enrique's got the, the Solo and has been enjoying it, but I'm sure I'll get it back soon enough and, and get a chance to wear it again. I think Pilot's watches are great. I do find I use the bezel a lot on my dive watches. And so that comes into consideration, of course. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah. So thanks, Gareth, and thanks to everybody for the first round of kind of what are quote unquote live Q&A episode. We'll definitely do more Q&A in the future. And so please do keep the questions coming. Obviously, as James mentioned, just record a voice memo on your phone, send that that file to thegrenadoatgmail.com and we'll sort through them and, you know, we'll either include one or two in future episodes or do an entire Q&A episode at some point again. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, I would say with that almost let us know, do you like an episode like this? We're at almost 80 minutes here before even getting to the final notes. Would you prefer an episode where we tackle a chunk of questions or just do two or three questions every episode? kind of in a revolving format. So if you have an opinion, if you don't care either way, don't email, but if you have an opinion, thegrenadoatgmail.com. And if you have a question, record it, you know, say 30 seconds to a minute, and then thegrenadoatgmail.com. It's all the same address, you'll hit Jason and I both. And we can't wait to hear from you. So a huge thank you to all of our question askers today. We hope that your questions were answered at least to some extent. And Jason, you want to pop into final notes? |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | Yeah, let's do a quick round of those. Mine is actually an easy one and it's on theatlantic.com and it's just a piece called Top Shots from the 2019 International Landscape Photographer of the Year. And you know, there's any number of photography competitions out there that you can find and I love looking at these. I've never been a huge fan or follower of landscape photography so much. I always kind of like people and action and critters and you know, shipwrecks and mountain climbing and that sort of thing. But, uh, a good landscape photography is just spectacular. And these are some of the best photos I've ever seen. Um, there's just some great stuff. You've got to look at this. Don't look at it on your phone. Uh, please look at it on as big a monitor as you can and make it full screen. Uh, there's some great stuff from, you know, Fitzroy down in Patagonia and the, the salt piles in Bonaire, which, which I've actually had the pleasure of seeing in person. There's some great aerial stuff in Alaska. just incredible color, incredible photography. It's very inspiring. It actually kind of makes me want to put like a nice wide angle lens and, uh, you know, just go out with a tripod and just, uh, just try to emulate some of this stuff. Cause it's, uh, it's, it's really good. So like I said, look at it on a big screen. Um, and this is on the Atlantic, uh, landscape photography of the year. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Okay. So for my pick, I'm picking a Kickstarter project and I, I really did battle with whether or not to do and to talk about a Kickstarter project, but these guys are already backed. So I think that that helps. And I'm really close to buying one on my own, which I think is also a sign that it's at least worth talking about. I'm not saying you should give them your money, but I do think you should look at it because I think it's, it's cool and it's deep in the watch space. And if you have, Oh, if you've got a kid that's in like a watchmaking or that's in a watch appreciating age. Yeah. This could be something else. So what this is, is called the solid state watch. And it's these guys from Brooklyn. I'm going to try and talk to them for Hodinkee. We'll see, but I wanted to cover this now. So it's a solid state watch. So it's a Casio F91W movement, a movement from like maybe a 15 to $25 watch. I actually have an F91 right next to me. And they put the movement in a 3D printed case, and then they encase the movement over with clear resin. So there's no buttons. There's no changing any of the settings. There's no changing the time or adjusting the time. There's no backlight. It's just this and it'll run until the battery dies. It comes on, it's essentially like a clear resin case and it comes on a, um, it comes on a, uh, like kind of a gray textile, uh, independently adjustable strap, which actually the strap looks just as interesting in some metrics as a strap nerd. The strap looks as compelling as the watch. The entry price point for this, if you want one solid state watch, which they say will ship anywhere in the world in May of this year, is $160. So it's not a cheap watch. And if you want the functionality, you should go out and buy a $25 or $20 F91. But This is a... I'll read it right from here. Solid State Watch is a Casio F91 movement permanently cast into a transparent resin case. It's in there forever. No buttons, no function, no light, fully waterproof, and no changing its 10-year battery. It just tells time. I would add, and this is why I'm suggesting it as a final note, click on the link just to see it, because I think it looks really cool. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | And... I can't decide if I like this or hate it. Um, but it's definitely an art piece. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | It's a little bit of an art piece. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | They set your, you define the time zone and they set it and then they case the watch and then that's it. Yeah. And it's, it's an interesting concept of like, uh, the, the permanence of or impermanence or, or, or something like that. I like it. I think they look really cool for one thing. It's a 35 millimeter case. So it would work for a kid. It would work for just about anyone. Yeah. Um, I think the strap is killer. I love that the case is kind of a clear resin and plastic. And then I like that you buy it and then there's nothing. And that's all it does. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | They put an orange dot over the date because they can't adjust it. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah, exactly. So there's, there's this weird and kind of cool looking orange dot over the date. Um, because it doesn't account for leap years. Yeah. Uh, so I mean, and you would have been safe and you know, for another four years by the time this actually ships, but still, um, I, I, um, |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | I want the strap. I've decided I don't like it. You don't like the watch? I don't like the watch, no. I've decided no. I get it. It's art. I like the strap, but you should get one. I'd love to see it. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | I want to go and see them in Brooklyn. And for that reason, I think that's enough of an interest to cover it. I think it's fair to say that you're paying $160 for a watch that at best will last you 10 years. And I know that there's people listening who have mechanical watches. that they bought saying, Oh, the mechanical will last forever. And it's been in a drawer for the last half decade. So keep, keep all of that in relative. And I would say, go with an open mind and take a look at this because what these guys are doing aesthetically, I really like it. And I think as a comment on, I'm not even sure what the comment is on. I want to talk to these guys first. In my mind, it's about the kind of impermanence of one position in your life. Yeah. And that's how I see it. Right. It's like, what, where are you going to be in 10 years when, when the, I can't, I just got excited thinking with this. Imagine wearing this and it's 2030. Yeah. And you, you look down at your wrist and it's blank. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | Yeah. Then you just, I don't know. Do you frame it at that point? I probably would. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | It says, what about daylight savings time? And it says, we hope it goes away soon. It says get two watches if you want to account for it. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | It's a fair point. It's a fair point. And it's not a travel watch. No, it's certainly not a travel watch. It doesn't account for DST. It's a crazy idea. But I like the format in which they've approached it. And I don't think it's, I'm not saying it's worth your $160 because it's way over the amount of money we normally talk about for final notes. But I am saying it's worth you clicking the link. That's all. Take a look at them. They're already funded. So they don't need you. They don't need me. They're not going to get Jason. But I like that these guys are doing something to, to make something feel different and fresh and silly, and I dig it. It's cool. Yeah. The DST thing is admittedly a bummer. You'd maybe not wear the watch year round. You know, DST being DST. But otherwise, I think that this is... I don't know. I think it's cool and creative and kind of fun. So we'll put the link in the show notes. If you feel really strongly one way or another, send us a voice memo. I'd love to hear your feedback on this project. I'm sure the guys behind the Kickstarter might as well. But I'm hoping to be able to see them the next time I'm in New York and take a closer look at what they're up to. You can see videos of them like actually hand pouring, squeezing the resin into the little case. I think it's hilarious. And it's the kind of it feels like the kind of thing that you might buy from the MoMA store. Yeah. Like it's this intersection of design and philosophy and watchmaking all in kind of one. And depending on your perspective, that may seem like not a ton of money, or it may seem like way too much because you know it's an F91 and that bugs you. And it doesn't bug me at all. I'm thrilled to see that they're already, uh, they're already funded. And, uh, I'm hoping I can get a better look at this. So, uh, for now click the link. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | This should be my 50th birthday watch. I'd have it till I'm 60. That'd be, yeah. And then we'd revisit it then. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | I like, I like that idea. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | It's crazy. Yeah. |
| Unknown | All right. |
| Jason Heaton (co-host) | All right. All right, well that ends our episode 101, our Q&A episode. Really great. Thanks again for everybody who sent in voice memos and we'll do this again sometime. Thanks, it was fun. As always, thanks so much for listening and thanks to Alps and Meters for sponsoring this episode. Be sure to visit alpsandmeters.com to read their excellent journal stories and to check out the entire collection of Alpine-inspired clothes and outerwear. Hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, as we've mentioned, please write or send a voice memo to thegraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout a siesta by Jazar via the free music archive. |
| James Stacey (co-host) | And we leave you with this quote from T.E. Lawrence who said, all men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, Wake in the day to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. |