The Grey NATO - Ep 106 - The Isolation Tapes // A Refreshing Watch
Published on Thu, 09 Apr 2020 06:00:23 -0400
Synopsis
In this episode, Jason and James discuss various ways to reignite their interest and passion for watches during the isolation period. They talk about affordable and quirky watch options from brands like Seiko, Casio, Orient, and CWC that can serve as "watch refreshers." They also suggest trying watch modding, collecting a specific niche of watches, getting into desk clocks, or taking up new hobbies like writing or planting a small indoor garden. The goal is to find activities that provide a mental break from the monotony of isolation while still engaging their love for watches and gear.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nado, a Hodinkee podcast. A loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 106, and we thank you for listening. A quick note up top, this episode is kindly brought to you once again by our friends and colleagues at the Hodinkee shop, and we'll be chatting about them a little bit later. James, how's it going this week? |
| James | Good, man. How are you? Nice to hear your voice. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. This has become kind of a weekly thing that I'm looking forward to. We don't really talk the rest of the week. We certainly chat a lot on Slack. But this is... Yeah. You're one of the few people outside of my wife that I actually speak with regularly. |
| James | Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know what you mean. You know, there's a lot. There's a lot more kind of conference calls and that sort of stuff with Hodinkee. Yeah. But this is definitely a call that I look forward to. You know, it's on literally on our terms and Uh, we haven't, we haven't quite gotten to the point of, um, of, uh, you know, zoom calls just to hang out. Um, you know, I think we do, we do pretty, like we've mentioned before, we do pretty well in this, uh, relative mode of isolation. Um, I know that you, um, you actually did get out of the house this week. How was, how'd that work out? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, it was great. You know, we've had this kind of up and down weather one day warm, one day cold and cloudy, and now we're back to cloudy today. But last weekend was the timing was perfect. It was spectacularly, sunny and reasonably warm. And Ghoshani and I went out for a hike. There's a regional park, a 20,000 acre regional park, just about 20 minutes south of us. And we drove down there and there, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot cause I think everybody had a similar idea, but, um, we kind of aimed for the, the more muddy trails that are back in the woods. And we hardly saw anybody, um, except a few dog walkers, but we went for a good five mile hike and, um, you know, just saw birds and deer and we kind of were looking for mushrooms, although I think it's a little early, a little too early here. There was still some snow in the, in the shady patches, but man, it was, it was just so therapeutic. We went for a long bike ride on Sunday as well, but boy, that, that hike on Saturday was just what the doctor ordered. And I think we're going to do the same this weekend. Maybe I'll take a film camera out and make a bit of a project out of it. But it was, it was, it was really nice to get out in the woods. You know, we, we go for walks around the neighborhood, but it's, yeah, nice to get off the pavement and just kind of be among the trees. You forget about everything that's going on. |
| James | So it was, yeah, I'm lucky. I live near a pretty big park in Toronto. Um, so we can, we can go through stroll there, but again, you know, there's a lot of people out and they've, they actually got to the part where they've essentially closed off the, the driving road. There's like a road that laps through the park and they've closed it cause there's so many people coming on the weekends. Yeah. And kind of filling the park and hanging out in the grass and the picnic tables. And now that's essentially illegal in Toronto. And they've got kind of people telling you, you can't get out and do that. And they're kind of saying like, if you want to go for a run, you want to go for a walk, obviously this is fine. Keep your company to those that you already live with, which is obviously smart. And then Other than that, you know, I thought I could probably do something similar to what you just suggested, which is, you know, visit a conservation area or like kind of a, an out of the city park, uh, and went for a drive last weekend to what I thought was a fairly remote choice. And it was, uh, like barricaded and chained up, fully closed down. So I get it. They don't, you know, they don't want to encourage people. Um, Toronto is not really the kind of thing where you'd have crown land. It's not like being in BC where you could go a certain distance and you're so far from people that you could just get out and walk or go for a hike or something. You kind of have to stick to things like provincial parks and that sort of thing. So yeah, there's not a lot of outside activities going on. The weather looks quite nice today, so I might get out for yet another walk around my neighborhood. I'm growing tired of looking at the same houses. Maybe the key is to, you know, drive to another neighborhood and walk around there for a while. I'm not sure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I hate to rub it in, but thinking back to my visit to Vancouver, I can't imagine, you know, certain people are luckier than others in these isolating times. If you live near some mountains or a coast where, um, I just think to myself, boy, it'd be great to go for a shore dive or bag a peak or something. I mean, you probably, if you lived in Vancouver still, you could probably hike to a hike, to a trailhead and get up a, up a peak or something. |
| James | I would think so. I mean, I know that, There's been some problems in... My brother still lives in Squamish, which is between Vancouver and Whistler. Yeah. And I know that he was saying that they've been saying quite openly, like, we need people to stop going on adventures because we can't help you if you get hurt. Yeah, true. So there was kind of an explosion of outdoor activity in Whistler, which also means an explosion of broken ankles and beat up arms and that kind of thing coming into the hospital. And they basically said, like, you guys need to chill out and stay home, like actually stay home. Yeah, I suppose. So, I mean, I think it depends. A hike is obviously a less dangerous sort of scenario. But if you need to, you know, if you need to get rescued or something, that's going to cause a problem because these people, you know, the health workers and the medical professionals are busy with, you know, very pressing things. Yeah, true. So I think, yeah, you know, try and stick to the same maybe level of exercise as a run or a walk around your block. But Yeah, it's been kind of a weird time. I've been really dedicated to staying inside. That's where I'm finding myself to be most comfortable. I got a set of weights. Actually, just before this happened, it was a birthday present to myself before the kind of health crisis kicked off. And I picked up a set of these. I've talked about them probably a long time ago on the show, but I talked about them previously, the Bowflex 552s. This isn't an ad, Bowflex. and I have no relationship of any type, but they are a very kind of expensive, but really nice weight system that has a companion app. So you, you end up with kind of two, two barbells that can go anywhere from like five to 52 pounds per hand. And you just rotate these dials. They're super easy to use. And, um, and then when you kind of get the, the app up and going, it kind of initiates you to the whole program by walking you through this six week workout plan, which is three workouts a week. So I've been doing that and loving it. And they slowly ramp up. So they start you with like 20 minutes a day. And I way overdid it. You know, it had been a year since I had picked up the same weights and I way overdid it. I was like, like wildly sore. Like the kind of sore I used to be after a 20 kilometer hike that did, you know, three or 4,000 meters of elevation, uh, change in, in Vancouver where like your quads, you couldn't really like, there's no steps in my house, which I'm lucky. I don't have to go up or down a flight of stairs. Um, And then I also think like it was funny because I did that and then I was like, well, I'll take it easy for a day and get back on it. And it was ended up being four days until I felt so I was really sore. But I think that the general level of sedentary otherwise only made it worse, like the amount of time I'm spending sitting in a couch or sitting in bed or resting, kind of not moving around as much. Muscles turned to concrete. I probably should have like at day two or three gone for a short run or something like that to try and like get the blood flow going. But I'm, I'm, I'm really excited to be back into weights. It's something that I like legitimately missed. I did the first workout, um, you know, a couple of weeks ago and really loved it. And, uh, and that that's been nice. And then on, uh, on the other side of it is I, I, you know, I can, I can see another thing on our, on our notes here that you mentioned is, uh, some, some audio books and a way to get away from a screen. I actually went the opposite direction. Um, after, um, after a solid, oh man, it's gotta be, um, 13-year hiatus from video games. I bought a Nintendo Switch and I've been playing that quite a bit. I like it a lot. Two of my three brothers have a Switch and constantly play Mario Kart in the evening online. So we can get a call going and then we can get a couple people on the projector here and then also play against them. It's really good. It's super fun. My girls like it. And then I got, I'll talk about this more a little later in the show, but I got, or I am, I'm not God, I am currently quite addicted to a game called the Stardew Valley. So this is what I like. I only have a couple of modes for video games and they're all borderline addictive. It's why I stopped playing, uh, years ago. I, it was, uh, there was like a turning point where I realized I either needed to stop playing call of duty with all of my free time. Um, or. you know, I could stop and get deeper into watches or kind of give up watches and just enjoy video games. And I gave up my Xbox 360 at the time and didn't really look back until just recently, um, you know, being a little bit more inside and feeling pretty tired of like watching a passive thing, um, or, or, you know, reading more or something like that. And I finally was like, maybe this is kind of cool. And I found one for a really good deal and I'm liking it. And as starting value, basically just a farmer, um, you, you tend to this kind of, not complicated, but like rule based farming system and grow your little town. And it kind of looks like a game from 1995. And it's, uh, it's fantastic. It's, it's really, really good. And what I'm finding is like, it's, it's, uh, it's a really nice distraction. So if I finish a unit of work, um, I can play, you know, a day in started in the, in the, in the world is maybe 20 minutes. Yeah. Um, so I can do a farming cycle and water my plants and harvest some weed and make sure my chickens are okay. And that kind of thing. And I know it's silly. And this is something I gave up, like I said, like a long time ago, like in a much earlier stage of my life. Um, but I, I don't know, like it has this, there's, it's not cathartic as much as it is just this like really nice kind of mental distraction that, um, normally I would just apply directly to work. Um, but currently doing a lot of work, you know, I have a daily post that I'm writing for Hodinkee, which is a big lift. Um, and then keeping up with other stuff, uh, you know, we just published the review of the Bremont Argonaut, uh, just before we recorded this. So yesterday, Um, if you're listening to this the day it comes out and yeah, it's been a nice sort of like escape and it's, uh, it's really fun to play Mario Kart with my kids, uh, because they, they just get really into it. And, and, uh, I get into it to the extent that I get, I'm furious when I lose. So it's, um, it's a nice distraction from, from not just being able to go outside and do anything you want, like we normally would. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. Yeah. And it's cool that you can interact with your brothers who presumably live, live in far-flung places. I don't know if Grant plays with you, but it's pretty cool that he's on the West Coast. |
| James | Yep. And then I have another brother that's, you know, like an hour and a half away in St. Catharines in kind of the wine country. And so it's nice. I mean, it's an absolute treat to be able to sit there and kind of trash talk or be trash talked at by my brothers. It takes me back to, you know, this used to be our most favorite thing when I was a kid was playing video games on a Saturday morning. Oh yeah. Um, so it's, it's fun to go back to that and get a little taste of it. I need to obviously make sure that I keep, um, keep this addiction in check, especially, you know, when, when, when life needs to go back to how it was previous to this kind of health crisis. Um, yeah. Uh, and, and have this not kind of, uh, take over too much of my time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As you mentioned, I, I, I've been kind of going the opposite direction, trying to get away from the screen for a few hours and, um, So we talked last time about, you know, library apps and kind of downloading books and things like this. And, um, my latest thing is I've got a few audio books that I'm kind of powering through on my phone. And, um, I had a bit of insomnia last night, got up at three o'clock, came downstairs and just put on the current book that I'm finishing up, which is called rogue heroes, a history of the SAS, which I highly recommend, by the way, it's by an author named Ben McIntyre. And it's just a kind of a, almost more like an adventure story than anything about the, the SAS and its birth back in world war II. But, um, that's kind of been my escape. It's, it's something where you spend enough time looking at a screen for, for work and Gushani and I certainly do enough binge watching of series and shows and things on Netflix and Amazon prime and things. And so to kind of even be able to close my eyes and, and just listen to a couple of chapters has been just kind of a nice escape for me. Although inevitably I end up falling asleep and then have to rewind and go back to where I think I left off. Uh, Which, you know, isn't such a bad problem to have. |
| James | Yeah, I do that with podcasts and I actually found, I don't know what app, is it Audible? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I have Audible, but also I've got this, it's like this proprietary app that was developed by the library system. I'm sure it's not just the local library, it's probably some national thing, but yeah, you can just play it right through it and it's got all these good kind of features for swiping back and forth to kind of bookmark and pick up where you left off and that sort of thing. |
| James | Does it have like a sleep feature? It probably does. I should do that. Yeah. That's what I found out from my podcast is when I'm dealing with some insomnia, I find that as soon as I get a podcast and I start investing in what they're talking about rather than whatever's zipping around in my brain, I fall back asleep. But then I realized I was missing whole podcast. I mean, I'd fall asleep in five minutes and these people would talk for two hours or whatever. So Pocket Cast, which is my preferred podcast aggregator and playing tool, has a sleep feature, which is dope. You can tell it, you know, give me 20 minutes and fall asleep. What I really want is something that would like integrate with the Garmin and it would just know that I was asleep. And shut off my podcast for me. That'd be pretty good. Or wake you up. |
| Unknown | A little podcast butler. |
| Jason Heaton | Shout at you when it's time to wake up. Turn up the volume. |
| James | Yikes. Yeah. Wake up to a really loud podcast. That'd be fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, hey, before we jump into our main topic, Let's do a quick wrist check and then we'll do our kind of small company spotlight. What have you got on today? |
| James | So with the Bremont Argonaut review posting this morning, I'm still wearing the Argonaut. I've got it on gray toxic and really enjoying it. It's a weirdly kind of magnetic watch. I think, especially in images on their site, it looks a little bit on the bland side. Yeah. And then on your wrist, it just kind of like, it feels kind of cool. It has this weird like kind of, I don't know, it's kind of like a plow prof. from their lineup, because it is so much different, even not only just in layout with the two crowns, but even in the use of colors from anything like the S300 or the S500, which are much more almost like gentlemanly divers with much more kind of detailing on the dial and the case. And this is a little bit more like a straightforward tool watch. It's a two piece case, it's a really good crystal, it's a matte black dial, it's a big orange minute hand for the dive timing or timing in general. And I've really enjoyed it. It's a watch that I was kind of on the fence about. I mean, like, I think the arrow is incredible, the Mono Pusher Chronograph, which I reviewed last August. Yeah. And I like the broadsword, especially because it's 40 millimeters and is the entry point to Bremont, you know, at a little over three grand is pretty sweet. But this one at, you know, less than four grand on a strap, 3,700 bucks, I think it says, I think it offers a lot and it's just not really like anything else, which is why I felt kind of drawn to try and put a review up for it. |
| Jason Heaton | That's really cool that you're actually able to have a loaner watch during these sort of isolation times. I don't know if you had it before this all started or if it arrived at your house during it, but that's kind of fun to be able to try out something new. |
| James | I picked it up when I was in New York the week before. It was when Graymont was in town to do some other product launches, the NIMS Special Edition, the Project Possible S500. GMT was kind of just pre-launched, so I was there to photograph that and some other stuff very early March. and grabbed this with the plans of reviewing it at some point and then it actually worked out pretty well because yeah, my guess is it's probably not impossible to get watches now, but it's gonna be hard. It might be a scenario where you're gonna see a few less higher end things being reviewed simply because nobody's gonna be shipping them around. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right, right. Yeah, coincidentally, we're both wearing British divers. I've been wearing my CWC Royal Navy dive watch. Oh, killer. I have to admit, This is almost a 24-7 watch. This is kind of my go-to default watch the past couple of weeks. I know when we've talked in the past, I've worn, I think I was wearing a Doxa one week and something else. But yeah, this, by and large, I would say 80% of the time, this is the watch that's on my wrist simply because, I don't know, I can do anything with it. I can go wrench on the Land Rover. I can run to the store. I can, you know, clean the house. It's got good lume and I'm someone one of those weird people that sleeps in my watch. And when I'm waking up in the middle of the night and I want to know the time, I just kind of lift my wrist and open an eye and it's there. And it's just, it's kind of a no nonsense piece and, and, uh, and I love it. |
| James | So yeah, that's what I've got on. That's killer. I think, I mean, a great looking watch certainly. And, uh, it's, it's, you know, CWC is a brand I still haven't had my hands on. Yeah. Um, but you speak so, so fondly of them. That's something I might have to, uh, consider adding as, as kind of a daily, a daily wear, a beater, or something like that. I don't really like that term, but I think it suits every now and then, and they certainly look cool. I feel you. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I think today I've got, if this episode is indeed going live on a Thursday, I believe, according to the editorial calendar that I was privy to, my review of their Melore 72, which is their hand-wound field watch, goes up on Hodinkee today, so we'll have to check that out. |
| James | Yep, should be up probably right around the time the episode goes live. Um, certainly, but if you're listening to this, it's most likely on the site. So definitely. I'm looking forward to reading that. Uh, I, I've, I used to, whenever I saw your posts, um, in the, in the system, I would go, uh, kind of read them on my own, uh, before they went live, but now I wait. It's like, it'll be like a little treat tomorrow. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, if you ever do pre-read please edit or, or let me know if you find anything, uh, a miss. |
| James | I don't think I'm editing yours. I usually have you edit mine. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, hey, before we jump into our main topic, let's kind of do our little small company spotlight. Absolutely. Yeah. We'd mentioned when we started these isolation tapes that we want to do our part to kind of aim a spotlight at some of the smaller companies, brands that are maybe having a tougher time during our current health crisis. And today we want to just shed a light on Erika's originals. So Erika Optin-Kelder, I believe is her name. She is a woman that we became acquainted with several years ago. A Dutch woman. I believe she lives in Spain, if I'm not mistaken. And she started making those elastic parachute retention strap watch straps several years ago. This was right around the time when Tudor, I believe it was when they first came out with the Black Bay that had the the webbing strap and everybody was gaga over that. And she came, she came out with these authentically sewn elastic straps that use the same material. And I got in pretty early with a couple of those and people might remember that I was actually selling them on her behalf or I kind of bought them from her at wholesale and then was selling them here on this side of the pond to anybody that was interested. And I haven't done that for a few years, but, but she's just taken off. I mean, she's, She's done a great job with the straps. She's got, um, I just checked her website today and it looks like a new website. It's really, really nice. She's got a lot of really cool colors and some great photography. Um, and she's gotten a lot of, uh, a lot of attention over the past year or two from a lot of people. And I think she's even done some collaborations with, with brands, uh, on her straps, which is great. So congratulations, Erica. And, uh, there's no notice on her site that she's not shipping straps. So if you need, kind of a cool tactical strap that you can put on your, you know, your dive watch and, and just kind of wear and, and be comfortable. Uh, definitely give Erica's originals a check and, uh, we'll put up her link in the show notes. |
| James | Yeah, I have, um, I have a gray orange one, uh, that I was given that is just so good on a Doxa. Oh yeah. And because it's all elastic and once you figure out that it doesn't actually, it's not like a belt, it doesn't open. |
| Sound cue | Yeah. |
| James | Um, you basically slide your wrist through it and then use the, the, the kind of the excess to fold over itself and draw the elastic tight. It's such a comfortable strap. Um, definitely one of the most comfortable straps I've ever come across. If you imagine the kind of aesthetic of a NATO, but with a little bit more, a different sort of hardware and, uh, and all the stretch that you could possibly want, it can really make, um, make it, uh, super comfortable. And then I'm just seeing On her site, she offers a version for the Apple Watch, which is probably something a lot of people would find interesting these days. And yeah, a cool idea. Who doesn't like another strap for their Apple Watch? I know that seems like a popular thing among Apple Watch owners. I think they're great straps, and I definitely think if you're looking to kind of, yeah, jazz up one of your sport watches or maybe your Apple Watch, this is a great choice. |
| Sound cue | Yeah, great. |
| Jason Heaton | Congrats Erika's on all your success and certainly give her a look if you're in the market for a little change these days. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | So for today's main topic, it's kind of this thing that I've been thinking about for a little while. I'm not, I wasn't, I still am not really super sure how to approach it as a, as an overall topic, but it's this idea of like, um, watch refreshers. Like there, there's been times in my kind of collecting, buying, selling watches sphere where I've run out of steam. And then I come across something that's still in my kind of general milieu, but not one of my wheelhouses. And it kind of reignites the whole thing all over again. I've had this happen quite a few times with various Seikos. Like a well-timed Seiko will re-kick anyone's love of a good steel sport watch. But I thought we'd kind of talk on this idea, considering these not necessarily ruts that you get in as far as thinking about watches. But just this idea that at times when you kind of phase in and out of the hobby at an interest level, sometimes a fairly kind of a weird choice in your buying history could kind of bring it all back. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think if you spend enough time poring over all the blogs and, you know, especially reading Hodinkee, which certainly has, you know, multiple features a day, often on some of the bigger, more quote unquote important brands and new releases, you can get a little I don't want to say discouraged or fatigued with kind of this high stakes game of collecting the big, the usual suspects. And I think with our current situation where, you know, going to a retailer is maybe not an option or, you know, money's a little tight, maybe you're being a little more careful these days, you know, you might be a little in need of a bit of a boost. And while this isn't a talk about, you know, any budget recommendations, I do think that a lot of the watches that we're talking about here tend to fall in the more affordable category. just because they're the smaller, lesser known brands, or maybe it's a kind of a quirky vintage piece, stuff you buy more for fun and kind of get you back to, when I think back to the early days of buying watches, what excited me was not any sense of provenance or collectability or importance of a brand. It was always just how it looks, you know, how it looks on your wrist, what, how it makes you feel. And I think maybe that's where this comes in is this idea of, You know, buying something just cool and maybe a little out of left field that maybe it's even a guilty pleasure. You know, like one of those JaJaro, Seiko alien watches, you know, the ribs or whatever, you know, like I eye those and like, I've never owned one. I've never even, I don't think touched one, you know, seen one in person, but you know, like I've always been intrigued by it. Like they're going up in price. So maybe it's a little less of an impulse buy, but you know, to get something like that would be maybe an example of this, where it kind of kicks off a new, avenue for your collecting and your interest. |
| James | Do you have any examples from your early days of a time where you remember buying something that you weren't really sure about? I think back on the first few times that I ventured out of the idea of a steel dive watch with a black face. Yeah. I bought... This is a watch that I've... Man, I have not thought about this watch in over 10 years, but it was an Orient dive watch called the Red Beast. |
| Sound cue | Oh yeah. |
| James | Is what it was termed. So this was kind of a big citizen sort of puck of a watch. It actually physically wasn't that big. Yeah. But it had a power reserve. I actually don't remember. It must have been some sort of a citizen Miota style movement, but it had a power reserve and this like rich but bright red dial. So there are some pictures online which I'll drop into the uh show notes but it was called yeah the orient red beast this is the earlier one with the steel bezels kind of has a partial shroud on one side um i remember buying it i think it was like 90 bucks and uh and i definitely bought it on a whim it was one of these like uh the the sales forum on poor man's watch forum way back in the day yeah and i remembered getting it and being like opening the box and be like, I've made a mistake. And I sized the bracelet, you know, $80 was a fortune to spend. Like that was, I probably owned maybe two or three watches at the time and 80 bucks was a lot. It meant that I probably had to sell one of the other ones or pause, you know, kind of hit pause on the whole thing for a bit. And yeah, I remember this watch and the put it on and then I kind of like I got a hit of the loom and the dark and then You start playing with the hand, you start seeing the power reserve move around and then I got it. And I remember thinking like, this is so much fun. And it kind of opened up this avenue of like weirdness that didn't have to be an SKX. And then when you had the SKX, then you bought this $2,000 dive watch. And when you had that, then you could start looking at the, at the time $5,000, uh, you know, used, uh, uh, Rolex. And then, you know, this kind of like cut and dry. Yeah, it's these kind of like weird branches that you can dip into. And then, I mean, the other one that comes to mind is a watch that I recently sold to a friend, but it was the Breitling Aerospace, which I largely bought because you liked your emergency to such a high level. And I didn't care for the overall vibe of the emergency, but I did really like the idea of having these sort of like like true tool pilots watch. Um, and, and I thought, you know, and the aerospace that I got, I just, I absolutely adored it. I'm sure I'll end up with another one someday. It just wasn't getting enough wear in my Garmin outfitted lifestyle. Um, you know, I only really kind of have room for one, uh, quartz watch for the most part. And, uh, so that, that watch did get sold to a buddy of mine in Vancouver, but What a cool watch. I remember getting it and thinking like I had found a secret. Nobody was buying these. They weren't that expensive and it was beat to hell. It was just a really, really fun watch that doesn't wear like anything else. It was super refreshing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah, it's funny you mentioned Orient because I had their Big Bad Saturation Diver with a red dial. And what an incredible watch. I mean, I haven't thought of that watch since you just mentioned Orient. I haven't thought about that watch in years. What a spectacular watch. I don't know if they still make that, but, um, what a great piece. And I think you mentioned Seiko and Seiko is the obvious choice here. I think when you, maybe you're trying to aim in a new direction, Seiko is a very logical place because they have such an incredible range of looks in their watches. So, um, you know, I mentioned the Giugiaro chronograph. I mean, talk about a weird watch. Then you go SKX and you go the whole Tuna family. And I think a Tuna, is one of those watches. I had the Emperor Tuna, kind of the high-end Tuna, but boy, and I sold that because it kind of wore funny. It was kind of tall and small, like a puck, but it sat really high on the wrist, like a gauge almost. But I kind of have a craving for another Tuna and you can get those really cool like kinetic or solar GMT ones with a nice colored dial and a cool shroud and it would just be kind of a great watch. Maybe these aren't watches that you're wearing, you know, regularly but you want to kind of just keep it in the sunshine and you put it on when you head out the door and it's keeping perfect time and just a fun, fun watch. You can wear it doing anything. |
| James | And yeah, the one, the other one that's been on my list for a little while that I thought I might buy for almost this exact reason, like just to kind of like a little pump up on, on the, the general watch enthusiasm is have you, have you caught these, um, you know, Warren and Wound wrote about them. We haven't, I don't think written about them on Hodinkee, which is good because if I buy it, I could write about it. but it's these S.U.S. Seiko re-editions. It's a J.D.M. collection of, I think, seven models. |
| Sound cue | Huh. |
| James | No. But it's these... They're these really gorgeous, really simple, date-free, quartz, 100-meter water-resistant Seikos that come in black and blue and green, a lume dial, a kind of cream dial, a black on black, and then this black... Or this PVD gold with like a silver dial. Yeah. And I really like the looks of these. They're not especially large. I think they're 36 millimeters. They're 35 millimeters. It's a hard Lex crystal. It's a simple quartz thing. And they're like under 250 bucks. Oh, man. Yeah. And they're like a JDM thing. They come on a NATO. I've been pretty tempted for something like this. I've actually been pretty tempted for about like 10 different watches these days. And I'm not really sure why, but I'll end up picking the one that feels like it will give me the biggest kind of like kick. Yeah. That hit, you know, that nice, that good dopamine rush. But yeah, I think there's a lot of great stuff. And Seiko is a super cool option. Do you remember those, the Rising Sun models? |
| Jason Heaton | No, I don't. I probably would recognize it if I saw it. |
| James | Yeah. So it was like a, I want to say it was in, you know, like 37 millimeter Seiko with a kind of Nomos-esque case. Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes. I bought one of these back in the day when I lived in Vancouver, this was maybe five years ago, I bought one. Yeah. Yeah, an SCVE-003, the Seiko Spirit, it was the technical line. People called them the Rising Sun because it was kind of like a Nomos-esque concept, loosely, and then it had a sub-dial kind of placed at like between 10 and 11, which was a 24-hour sub-dial, I'm what led me to sell it but I went back to look for one of a different color later on and they were turned out to be pretty hard to find at the time but there's just some some really fun really weird stuff again this is like a couple hundred bucks And these watches, like as soon as I start thinking about something outside of the, you know, like the SRPs, the SKXs, the Rolex Submariners, the stuff that everybody knows about and loves and wants to buy and appreciates. And like once, maybe once you have one or two of those, you kind of want something else, a different mode. But you don't necessarily want to spend like a ton of money. There's so much fun to be had with some of these brands. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I think we tend to get into a bit of ruts with our personal tastes. I mean, I mentioned what I'm wearing. most of the time these days, it's this CWC dive watch. It's, it's the usual formula. It's a military inspired spec'd black dial, you know, rotating bezel dive watch, like, like a sub or a Seamaster, anything Blancpain. Um, and I think for me often something that kind of reboots or, or channels me in a new direction is a little bit of color or an interesting case shape or something that isn't close to what I'm wearing. And I think, Lately I have been looking at, and this is starting to sound more like a Seiko focused episode here, but you know, I check out Hub City Vintage is a guy, I think he's based in like North Carolina and he refurbishes old Seikos and has these like teasers that he puts up and says, you know, Monday evening at 5 p.m. we're going to launch these six models for sale. And I'm always like hovering over the buy now button for so many of them because vintage Seiko is just another Category that you know you had that that 6117 GMT, and I still like those or world timer rather Lately my interest is I keep looking at that yellow dial Pogue 6139 chronograph Mm-hmm and those pop up every now and then that I used to hate the look of that watch, but I borrowed a friend's And it was on a leather strap and boy did it look great And what a what a you know truly important watch if you're aiming in that direction and just so much color it has this like iridescent gold dial with a pepsi bezel tech emitter bezel um just fun a little more expensive than again like an impulse buy but like you can get these these vintage seikos and king seikos and and even some grand seikos and seiko fives for very little money that give you just a lot of interesting stuff so yeah i agree the other one that i saw recently was a citizen and it was posted on divewatch.com's instagram feed and it was this uh Japan only so far, Citizen GMT dive watch that was, I believe it was an eco drive. So, you know, I love this idea. I talked about this, the Seiko kinetic or solar GMT tunas, and this had kind of a similar idea. I mean, a GMT dive watch that is solar powered is the ultimate kind of travel watch. It's, you know, beat it up, take it wherever you want. It's always running. It's always accurate. Second time zone dive capability. You know, Seiko and Citizen are obvious categories, but what about, What about some other areas that you can look to kind of refresh your interest? |
| James | Yeah. I mean, like I would probably consider like if I wanted right now, if I had like a budget in mind and I wanted to find something and let's say your budget is more than say 200 bucks, I would probably start with RetroWatchGuy.com. Yes. It's also going to sound like an ad, but like I'm a customer of Jordan's. I think he does an incredible product. All things considered, even just like the photography on Instagram and the way that he curates watches. But if you want something outside of almost anyone's normal, he's the source. Yeah. That's where I got my really cool and now very much beloved gold-plated beer in Minstop, which is a weird watch. Uh, but it's, you know, uh, gold plated, a really nice gold plated case, um, a gold tone dial. And then Jordan was able to help me source a gold bracelet for it. And now it's perfect. I wear it all the time. It doesn't weigh that much. It actually wears similarly in feel to the, um, the aerospace, which I previously mentioned. And that whole package could have been, you know, yours for the cost of maybe a little bit more than an SRP or something like that. Yeah. The other one that comes to mind instantly is the Casio A500 World Timer, which is a watch that now several of my family members and friends have. Yeah. I wrote a review of it for Hodinkee, so it's quote unquote gold, but it's a Casio A500 WGA-9DF World Timer. And it's that kind of like 80s style, digital screen, plastic case with a gold finish, and then a really thin, uh, metal bracelet. I'm not even sure that it's steel necessarily, but a metal, a metal bracelet, it weighs nothing. It has a, it has the kind of old school side lit backlight in orange, which I adore. And, uh, I think it was like $42 and it's, they're, they're like an insane amount of fun for 42 bucks. Um, and if you don't have 42 bucks, I mean, there's like several versions of the Casio F91, which I've seen for as little as $10 on Amazon. Wow. Wow. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, I've never owned a Casio. I've never owned a G-Shock. |
| James | You've owned Mudmasters, right? So my G-Shock of choice is absolutely, back in the day, was a Rangemaster. A Rangemaster, okay. Which was the 9400 was the model. So that was their ABC watch that kind of looked like super military, but didn't have kind of one feature that stood out over another. It was almost into the range of being a Pro-Trek. Yeah. And I had a bunch of Pro-Treks as well. Man, if you're buying a Casio now, it's got to be that what people are calling the Casio. Oh, yeah, which is the 2100 series. Yeah, there's some pretty cool versions of that kind of yellowy gold one with a black dial. There's the green one with the black, which I think is the direction I would go. And I've actually made some offers on eBay in an attempt to get one of those. I think those look pretty cool and would be pretty wearable. But for me, it's always going to be hard to beat the core G-Shock, what would it be? A 5600? Yeah. In that range, you can get them where they're not that big and they have atomic timekeeping, you can get ones that will sync up in some way with your phone if you want them to, whether that's just for time setting or there's a few different ways that Casio does the phone connection. Yeah. But yeah, I've owned a handful of 5600s, I've had some of the the, um, I think it's an 8,600, which is the, the kind of like street style one. That's pretty popular now. They just did, you know, Ronnie feet just did one with Kith, um, in, in that form. I get some of the reference numbers a little wrong. And then, yeah, my, my, my go-to hiking watch kind of pre Garmin was, uh, uh, Casio Rangeman, which is a 9,400. And, and, you know, the other fun one depends on the size of your wrist with a Casio, right? Yeah. Cause if you've got the risk, go with a frog, man. Yeah. Yeah. In bright yellow, so much fun. Um, and if you don't like a 5,600, there's, there's probably like 200 versions. Yeah. And there could be a version with your favorite band or from your favorite childhood cartoon or whatever. And the other thing I like with some of these, and this goes with that $40 gold Casio or an F91 is if you have kids or nieces and nephews, that sort of thing, you could buy this and appreciate it for a month and, and learn everything you want to learn about, uh, the 5,600 or an a 500 or whatever, and then give it away. Yeah. I wrote a piece recently for Hodinkee about my first watch, which was a Timex Ironman, which I still have. And in that, I went out into Amazon for 40 bucks or whatever, I bought the new version of that watch, a simple Timex Ironman. Yeah. and compared it. And then when I was done, I gave it to my nephew and he loves it. I saw him on zoom a couple of days ago and he gave me an update. The watch is still working. Oh, that's great. And I said, yeah, it's always going to work. That watch will never, will certainly never die, but there's so much fun to be had at like $50 on Amazon with a, with a digital watch. So yeah, I think there's, and then if you get into Casio and you're willing to expand your budget, you can get some really cool watches. in terms of color and feature set and the analog Digi, the anti-Digi stuff that they make is crazy. And then if you want to, you can get into like actually super high-end stuff that they make, you know, with MRG and that sort of thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, these are all great suggestions. And before we move on with a few more ideas, let's take our quick ad break. |
| James | Absolutely. So this episode of The Isolation Tapes, like the other ones, are brought to you by The Hodinkee Shop. Like Jason and I have said in the previous episodes, we can keep this fairly simple. The Hodinkee Shop is what allows Hodinkee and the Grenado and Hodinkee Radio and all of that to kind of keep existing, especially during these kinds of economically problematic times. And if you want to show your support of the show or of Hodinkee Radio or of Hodinkee at large and all of the staff, please do so via the Hodinkee Shop. Find a strap or a book, could be a watch. There's actually quite a wide range of things offered on the site. And, uh, but Jason, I would just encourage you to swing by, click around, find an item or two that you like and, uh, and go that route. If you want to support, uh, the continuing, uh, work of the Granado or any of Hodinkee's other kind of ancillary products and, and right down to the posts that go up, you know, that today a post goes up from Jason and that's made possible via the Hodinkee shop. So, uh, by all means visit shop.hodinkee.com and, uh, do so, uh, knowing that you're supporting, uh, the overall team and, uh, certainly Jason and I, so we thank you very much for that. And that is your ad break. Let's get back to it. |
| Jason Heaton | I think, you know, in terms of, you know, sourcing fun, colorful, funky, affordable stuff, uh, is one route to kind of reboot the collection. You can also do simpler things like with your existing watches. If you're not ready to pull the trigger on a new watch, you know, you can even the, the well-worn, uh, sort of advice that, that everybody gets is to, you know, try a strap change, put Put a leather strap on a diver, you know, people seem to be horrified by that. I don't know why, but. |
| James | I've never understood why people get so, so upset about that. |
| Jason Heaton | I don't, I have no idea. Who cares? Putting a colorful NATO on it, or, you know, you can do these. Yeah. You can do so many mods on Seiko's, you know, bezel swaps. We talked about getting like a loomed Sapphire bezel for an SKX or, you know, your, your 12 hour mod that you've got on your SKX, like that can give a watch an entirely different look, if not functionality. So that's. Yeah. |
| James | That's the other route you can go. The other thing I would suggest is if you're looking for essentially almost a new hobby, not just into the same watches, is I have a couple of friends who went online, bought the tools required, and do their own mods to their Seikos. Oh, yeah. Sure. So it's not something I've ever gotten into, so what I'll do is I'll do a Google search for everyone and I'll see if I can put something in the show notes, if there's like a beginner's guide to this, or I'll reach out to a buddy or two. My buddy Aaron does this, and But this could be everything from changing a dial. So now you want a cool orange dial on your gold SRPCC. That's perfectly fine. You can definitely do that. To installing like a higher end domed sapphire crystal. You can kind of go nuts with it. Like, I guess you would need a hand press. You need something, you know, a crystal press of some sort to kind of re-secure all that. some case tools, it's probably not a huge investment. But if you've got a Seiko or two lying around and the budget to kind of play with them, that could be a really fun way to have kind of an evening activity that's not a screen and is very much internal. If you live in a world where you're spending all day on a Zoom call or listening to two other people ramble on about watches and their podcast, This could be nice because you could, you know, put on a favorite album and sit down and swap out the crystal on one of your watches. And when you're done, you get to put it on your wrist and like, be like, Hey, look, I did this. Yeah, true. Um, which is, you know, that's, that's a, a bit of play. It's funny. You know, I get that kind of pleasure from, you know, making a mod to the Jeep or, or, or something like that. But for whatever reason, I haven't gotten into that. And maybe that's something I should rectify. I should, I should, maybe buy a Seiko that I'm willing to damage. Probably not my SKX that has some pretty strong sentimental value at this point, but maybe buy something that I know can be modded, buy a couple of mods and put it together and maybe it'd make an interesting story. I'm not sure. It would if I destroyed the watch, I suppose. |
| Jason Heaton | The other thing you can do is find a narrow niche and make it a bit of a hunt to collect certain variations of a specific watch like you know some people go that route with like you said you know DW 5600 Casio or Swatch collecting you know my friend Myron I wrote an article for Hodinkee of a year or two ago about his collection of Hamilton field watches he focused on oh yeah you know like 33 millimeter hand-wound Hamilton field watches that were often co-branded with Orvis and L.L. Bean and some were military issued etc etc and you know like He liked that because he has like 17 of them, but it's because they're so cheap. You know, you can find them on eBay for next to nothing. And although now I think the price is going up a little bit, but like you can, you can go that route and you can find some obscure model that was made for many years and kind of just look for all the variations of it. Um, you know, so that's certainly a route you can go. And I think, you know, these things that sort of short circuit your, your usual, uh, tastes and watches can be, can be kind of edifying, kind of fun. |
| James | Yeah, I agree. The other thing I would suggest is if maybe you're not in the world of buying another watch, maybe it's not time to add something to your collection or that sort of thing is, maybe you're sitting at home at your desk all day and it's time for a new desk clock. Oh yeah. You can get a ridiculous amount of clock for not that much money on eBay. Yeah. I have this great 80s Seiko GMT pilots clock, which was, you know, from Japanese pilots lounges for Boeing. Oh yeah. And it's a, this kind of wood thing and it sits at sort of an angle and you can kind of imagine it surrounded by, um, uh, ashtrays and it has this big display in the second hand has a little Boeing on it. And, uh, it's a, it's, I think I paid 25 bucks for it. I mean, like you can, you can go a long way. I'm sure they cost more than that. I've had it for, um, for a long time. My buddy Paul was in on the kind of desk clock of interest from Seiko for a while, and he found out that the movement in this one is also insanely accurate. And it's powered by a great big battery, so it lasts a long time. It's usually the last thing I remember to change when the DST switches is this clock. But yeah, it sits on my mantle. It doesn't make like a loud humming sound, which is important to me. You can have it in a room that's otherwise fairly quiet. Uh, but maybe, maybe if you're not in the world where you feel you need another watch or, or in certain extent, we are suggesting buying a watch because you're a little bit bored of watches, which is a hilarious concept, uh, for anyone, maybe outside of the watch enthusiasm world. Uh, but if you're, if you're kind of scratching your head at that one, uh, maybe, maybe try a clock, like get, get into find a new Avenue, I think is what we're suggesting. Yeah. um and and in many ways if you already know a bunch of what watches it might be easy to find that next avenue within watches versus picking up a brand new hobby yeah i agree well what do you say um i think you know we kind of covered the hype yeah i would say hit the show notes for more detail i'll i'll try and find as much as i can for the stuff that we chatted about and if you have a weird watch avenue that you've gone down recently or otherwise, or something you might want to suggest forth either to Jason and I, or to the listeners in general, by all means, send us an email, thegraynadoatgmail.com. And if you have any questions for an upcoming Q and A, as always, record them as a voice memo on your phone, no more than a minute and send them to thegraynadoatgmail.com. That's easy. And yeah, I think it's probably time to talk about some homework. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do that. You know, last week I, for my homework, I, sort of assigned people to go and do like a photo hike, take a camera, take your phone, you know, post up some photos with some interesting backdrops, find a theme. This week I'm going to suggest something similar but a little bit different and that is to write something. You know, sit down and write something every day for a week. And I'm not talking about the writing maybe you do as part of your work, you know, certainly James and I do, we're writers by trade, so we do a fair amount of writing anyway. I guess I find this isolating time to be, it's been fairly fruitful for me on a creative side of things. I've been, I've been writing every day and I think you, you get this time where ordinarily if you said, Hey, you know, let's go out for eat and let's go out for dinner or, you know, let's go shopping or let's go do this or that. Like when you don't have those options, um, you have a little bit of that extra time where maybe you can just sit for half an hour or an hour and just do some sort of stream of consciousness writing. Maybe it's poetry. Maybe you've never tried poetry. You know, this is all really low risk stuff. No one even needs to read it. But I also think that keeping a journal during this time might be of value to people that, especially maybe even those that have kids and eventually will have grandkids and whatever, to look back and say, you know, I kept this journal during this global pandemic. of which no one had seen before, you know, it's, uh, something that kind of records what you were doing and what your thoughts were during that time. And that might be a value as well, or maybe it's short stories or start a novel or, or start a blog, you know, open and establish a website and start a blog, write about your, your watch mods or whatever you want to do. And, um, you know, writing can be one of those things that if you're not accustomed to doing it regularly, it can be a little bit daunting. You sit down and you think, Oh, I've got writer's block. I'm getting a little distracted, but, uh, It's a little like meditation, you know, the more you do it, you can, um, you kind of find a rhythm and you settle into it and you realize there's, there's no risk of this. So, um, just start putting words to the page and move forward with it. |
| James | I think that's a great idea. Certainly a great mental, mental project. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And this isn't something that you can necessarily share. So unlike last week's, uh, photography assignment that we had a few responses, people that went on some hikes or took some photos of their watches and stuff and tagged us, that was really cool. Um, the writing piece, uh, there's no obligation to, to share this. Um, just thought it would be something that, that people might, might enjoy. |
| James | Absolutely. How about you? And, uh, yeah, so for mine, it's, uh, you know, last week I suggested you change up a room in your home. I don't know if any of you did that. Nobody, nobody provided any feedback, but I hope maybe you at least thought about it. A little mental exercise, um, some visual planning, that sort of thing is always good. This time, I think I'm going to suggest you bring some outside inside and plant a little garden, a window garden. You know, the seeds you can get if you're out on your weekly grocery shop or whatever, lots of places would offer seeds. Otherwise, it is something you can buy online. And I don't know, it's something that, you know, I'm kind of passively watching in my own home. I love having plants around. And since I'm not normally home for this long, whenever I would get plants, they would die. Um, but now they're thriving. I, you know, there's plants all over the home. There's the small tasks to water them. Um, and, uh, the, the actual seeds and planting in these little containers, um, it's something that I've appreciated kind of secondhand, uh, as my family's been, been working on, uh, some window gardens, but it's been, um, it's been great. I find it like weirdly uplifting and, you know, eventually you end up with a, you know, flowers or some spice or maybe a one mouthful of arugula or something like that. Uh, or on the other side of it, uh, you know, as summer progresses, uh, maybe you, you, you take it and, and, you know, cross plant it outside and, and start, uh, start growing a larger garden. But I think having, having another little kind of daily ritual of watering and caring for a little collection of plants is a, is a pretty nice way of, of, you know, just kind of expanding the scope of a space that isn't going to change in size that we have to, you know, you kind of have to deal with, uh, our living rooms the way they are these days. And, uh, you can rearrange the furniture or you can bring a little bit of outside inside. So let's say, uh, get some seeds and plant some stuff, see what happens. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, that's a great idea. I like the idea of planting arugula too. I love arugula. Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. Hey, how about, uh, some simpler final notes for folks? |
| James | Yeah, absolutely. I think it's always good to provide something for people to click over to. So you've got a couple, I just have the one. So by all means, why don't you kick it off? |
| Jason Heaton | Okay. Yeah, my first one is something really exciting. Yeah. There's a film called Mountain of Storms that was made in 1968 or 69 by the Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard and a couple of his buddies when they did this road trip that has become something of legend, I guess, among people that are into road trips in Patagonia. Um, they, they got on like a, an old van, like a Ford van, loaded it up with surfboards and climbing equipment, and then drove basically down from like Southern California all the way down to Patagonia to climb a mountain down there. And, uh, one of the guys on the trip had like one of these little 16 millimeter Bolex cameras or something that he took along and he documented the whole trip. And the, The resulting film is called Mountain of Storms and it's been around obviously for decades, but it was almost like one of those things that people talked about but had never seen. I've seen snapshots of it in books and Patagonia's website. Well, anyway, Patagonia is now offering it for free. They've actually put it up on a YouTube channel and Adventure Journal is where I got tipped off to the freebie. I had seen the movie before, but now's a great time for people to check it out if you haven't seen this before. Um, we'll put the link up to the adventure journal story because I think it explains a bit about the, the background for the movie, but, um, especially in these times when we're all kind of homebound, the, the notion of, of doing a, just a rollicking adventure sort of trip like this is just so appealing. Um, it might give you a little bit of, you know, FOMO to, to sit and watch this, uh, 50 year old movie, uh, of these guys that just kind of packed their bags and loaded up a truck and just went driving to surf and climb their way down the West Coast of North and Central America. But it's just a wonderful story and it has this great soundtrack and great kind of 60s warm film look to it and the van they drive is great and the gear they're using and it's just, I don't know, it's very inspirational. It makes me want to plan a big road trip, which I've been thinking about for a while anyway, because the last thing I want to do is jump on an airplane after all this, I kind of want to get in a car and drive somewhere and do something fun. But yeah, this was this is great. And I think it's almost required viewing if you're a regular TGN-er. And yeah, so give it a give it a shot. |
| James | I absolutely agree. It's actually something I've only ever seen a part of. I've never seen the the whole film. So I think that's either tonight or tomorrow night, whenever I have an evening legitimately free. I think that'll go on the projector, put up the good speakers and give that a watch. I'm excited for it. So my pick actually links up with what I talked about kind of at the top of the show, and it's this game Stardew Valley. It turns out that you don't need a several hundred dollar Nintendo Switch to play it. I could have actually just bought it on my phone for about eight bucks. Um, which is fantastic. And I, that's what I'm recommending. If you're, if you're the type to be into video games, you've either come across this game and you know about it and it doesn't matter. And I don't really need to speak to people who know a lot about video games on this, on this podcast. This is more for people like me who've been kind of entirely out of the sphere. Um, but do like the idea of maybe, uh, trying this out. And so it's not that expensive. It's less than 10 bucks. You can play it on a tablet, iPhone. Google Play, phones, like whatever. You can buy it for almost any platform. You can play it on your computer as well. And I just think this could be a really strong way for people to deal with kind of maybe the increased stress or anxiety because it is this really chill, you know, kind of colorful environment of just kind of farming and tending to a home and taking care of some animals and that sort of thing. I think you'd get an idea of the aesthetic by just going to the website, which I'll put in the show notes, Stardew Valley's website. It is kind of a weird suggestion for me. I think for Final Note, we would normally suggest a piece of camping gear, get some paracord or something. But if you're inside and we would like to encourage people to be as inside as possible, I don't think that this is any less of a way to kill some of that time. kind of manage a little bit of the boredom, but also a little bit of the stress with, uh, with kind of a complete right turn. You're not going back on Instagram and seeing everybody's kind of lukewarm memes about, uh, isolation. And, and, and this is what it is, man, it's getting real tiresome, um, going on Instagram. Uh, but in this case, you don't have to, you could pick up your phone, click into Stardew Valley, do a couple of days in the, in the city or in the, uh, on the farm and then into the town and buy some seeds and that kind of thing. And if you don't want to plant your garden on the window sill, you can plant one in a video game. I think that at some level, like in terms of brain chemistry, there's a similar effect. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Interesting. Your theme this week is definitely agricultural and the psychology of self-isolation time would be an interesting thing to look back on after this is all over and figure out how we all changed and what our interests went towards, you know? There must be something about growing, um, and, and having greenery inside the house and kind of that act that is, that is appealing to you. And it also is to me. And I like that idea. That's really great. |
| James | Yeah. I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm fighting some, some like, um, we'll call it light agoraphobia these days. Uh, which I don't know how that'll change when, you know, the powers that be say everything can go back to normal. Um, I don't know how long it'll take for that kind of general sense of dread to fade. Um, but I, I found that this has been quite helpful along, along with, I've been kind of, like I mentioned in a previous, um, in a previous, uh, homework, uh, specifically listening to albums, um, is, has been a really nice way of like relaxing with, you know, my family and, and just kind of unwinding in, in a more specific manner than, than the normal pace of the day. Right. So I think this works in the same, in the same sort of mode. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, I've got a rather time-sensitive last final note. It's something I got alerted to just yesterday, actually. Peak Designs, one of our favorite brands that makes some great camera gear, specifically packs and straps and kind of unique clips that you can attach cameras to various backpacks and straps and things like this. They last year released via Kickstarter their Travel Tripod, which came in two varieties. They had an aluminum one and a carbon fiber one. Really game-changing, innovative design. Tiny, lightweight. Long story short, I ponied up for the carbon fiber one on Kickstarter and it arrived in December. And I've only had a chance to use it once. But it's very promising. It's really spectacularly designed. In any case, they're offering free international shipping these days and all profits that they make on, uh, either version that they sell in the next basically two days, uh, go to the CDC fund and climate neutral. So that's through April 10th, which is Friday. Um, I believe when they say through April 10th, they mean all day. So if you've been hovering over a, um, buy now link on their website to buy that, I think, um, or if you need a new tripod, this would be a great time to do that. Profits go to some good causes. And you get a really great product from a really, really cool company. So yeah, check it out. Peak Designs Travel Tripod. I heartily endorse the company and the product. Although I have no specific relationship with them, I've never actually worked with them on anything, but I just love this product and I've got a couple other straps as well and really can vouch for them. So give it a shot. |
| James | Yeah, Peak Designs is, like you said, a great company. They make some really incredible product. Actually, at their very most simple level, the little loop clips that they make is the basis of how I safely attach paracord straps to my Leica Q, and that's worked out for a really long time. They never come off the camera. They didn't come off... It's the same system I used for the previous camera I had, a Sony 6500, and also my 5D Mark III. You know, it's just a nice, a really nice system. They make incredible straps. And if I had, man, if I had any excuse for a tripod, I would very much go this route. I know that I remember sending you the video, or maybe you sent me the video back when they launched it and you can watch the kind of, it sounds crazy to say like, oh, they reinvented a tripod. Like a tripod is a three-legged thing that holds a camera. But they really thought about the rest of it. Yeah. Um, so there's, you know, there's a, a way of hanging your gear, which also means that it works as a weight to stabilize the tripod. It has this really clever leg extension system. And if you've ever owned, you know, I've been a Manfrotto user for years. Uh, the leg, the leg extension systems can be good or bad depending on, on how you have to move the tripod and use it. And this one seemed very thoughtful for a lot of different scenarios. It has a built-in head. Again, if you've ever gotten into nicer tripods, you typically are buying legs. and then a head separately. And you have to tune that head to your specific camera and uses and that sort of thing. And then you're dealing with special plates. This is a one, a start stop solution. You could buy this and be done. I think with most tripods, unless you're trying to do over table work or that sort of thing that needs extensions. I love it. I think it's really cool. It's something that I've looked at several times. It's been in my pocket, you know, camera gear list for a long time. And, uh, like I said, if I had an excuse, uh, now it would definitely be the time, uh, given, uh, the profits going to the CDC fund. So yeah, really good on, on peak designs for that. And I hope a handful of you are able to get a tripod that you can use and expand your, uh, kind of photography ability, uh, there in. |
| Sound cue | Yeah. |
| James | Great. Well, good episode. Yeah. And as always, thank you so much for listening. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J E Stacey, and you can follow the show at the gray NATO. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and please keep sending those voice memos. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts and music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from the Greek philosopher, Epictetus, who said, first say to yourself what you would be, then do what you have to do. |