The Grey NATO – Ep 109 – The Isolation Tapes // April Q and A
Published on Thu, 30 Apr 2020 06:00:38 -0400
Synopsis
In this episode, James Stacey and Jason Heaton discuss the recent releases from Doxa and Seiko, as well as answer a variety of questions from listeners. The questions cover topics such as writing processes, the impact of the Apple Watch, watches that got away, colorful watches, collecting habits, the romantic side of watch collecting, bracelet recommendations, and more. The hosts also provide homework assignments and final notes related to stock trading, planning future adventures, and demagnetizing watches.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 109, and it's kindly brought to you by our friends and colleagues at The Hodinkee Shop. More on that in a bit. Hey, Jason, how you doing? Oh, pretty good. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | You had a busy week last week. A lot of new watch news. Other than that, just sitting here watching the show from a distance. |
| James Stacey | Watches and Wonders. Yeah, that Watches and Wonders digital, so you get a few days heads up with that sort of thing, it's all embargoed. Yeah. And then just the whole editorial crew scrambling to get, I don't know, it must have been 50 plus watches written up in relatively short order. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, a little different than doing it in a jet lagged in Geneva, isn't it? |
| James Stacey | It's very different because the other thing is, is they all kind of roughly speaking came out at once. Right. Unlike being at a show where you can only take seven or eight meetings a day and then maybe you write up three or four watches total each in a day and you get to edit the images and you get to hold the watch. This is all this like remote. And when you remove like holding the watch and taking pictures of it and walking from one meeting to another, then you can write more. But it's all from this very weird kind of satellite perspective where it's just so many introducing posts. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Well, sorry to jump the gun here, but I mean, I didn't even ask how you were doing, but, uh, I imagine it's much the same this week as it was last. |
| James Stacey | I am still an inside boy. I went on the porch a couple of times this week. Uh, you know, the, the outside world is still there. It's somehow still noisy. Um, yeah, I'm becoming very crotchety in, uh, in my reclusive state. Uh, but yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm filling my days. Uh, I'm filling my days with kind of small projects around the house. I, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, clearing out some clutter and that sort of thing, and just kind of getting things back to the way that I think it probably always should have been if I spent this much time in the spot. And then beyond that, yeah, just I'm playing a little bit of video games and I'm reading a lot about high-end audio, so that that loop has come back around, I'm down that hole again. Probably not in a buying context necessarily, but certainly in a high-interest context, the Reddit has a few kind of audio focus. They have budget audio file. They have audio file. And these ones are quite a lot of fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, cool. Yeah. I imagine we're, once we all come out of this, we're going to regret that we didn't do things that, that we might've with the time we have here. And I need to get out and clean out the garage and just kind of get, you know, classic sort of spring, spring cleaning time. If I don't do it now, I mean, what's going to happen when things start to get busy and we can all You know, fly the coop, so to speak. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. You know, the longer this goes, the less of a grasp I feel like I have on what it's going to be like when we attempt to become a normal. I don't know what normal will be really as far as the scenario. You know, there's a lot of factors at play, not only time, but also the conditions under which various countries open up and things like that. And it'll be interesting to see how that goes. But I think it's going to be a while. So you've got time, I think, to get to that to get to that garage. And so I'm I'm kind of very slowly mental. I'm at a mental planning stage now, but, you know, working my way through some camping ideas and that sort of thing, which would, you know, in this case, thankfully, would be on private property and very, very remote, which I'm excited about. But it's a little bit too cool still here. in Toronto to make that leap. I didn't pre-plan and get the proper kind of cooler weather sleeping bags, of which I have only one. Oh, sure. So I think I'm going to wait till it's a little bit warmer. But otherwise, I think, you know, yeah, it's the same as it was the last week, especially with the shows. They're only being seven days between each show. The difference is like this is still a hot time of year for the watch industry. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So while there's maybe not a ton going on for you and me between bed and the couch and the garage and the computer desk, there is still a lot going on in the watch space. And while watches and wonders didn't really have much in the way of kind of TGN watches, like really great sport watches, I would say like Vacheron Constantin had some really incredible stuff, but nothing that I think would apply to the philosophy of this show. You know, it's not like they decided to make the overseas GMT titanium a production model or something like that. But we did get a couple of great watches. One which launched literally minutes before we started recording. So we're recording this on Tuesday, the 28th of April. And just this morning, Doxa launched a brand new, not new, but also very new sort of watch, the Sub 300 Aqualung US Divers Carbon. Yeah, really neat piece. Yeah, it's a really kind of a cool thing when you consider all of its context, because obviously the brand makes a modern 300T. That's their standard, you know, 42 and a half millimeter dive watch. It doesn't have an HRV, sort of a normal amount of water resistance and that sort of thing. But the big thing with this is they took the case and almost it's just a hair thicker, which I assume is the titanium case back. But they took the case and the entire format of the watches that you and I arguably love the most of these from their recent one, which are the 50th anniversary models, which are, you know, laser replicas of the original 300T from 67. But they've rendered the whole watch in or at least the entire exterior of the watch in forged carbon. So that's the bezel and the case. The crown and the case back are titanium, the inner case structure, which everything kind of mounts into like the chassis of a car. is also titanium. It's like 87 grams. It's black and yellow. It has a carbon fiber dial. It has, uh, an aqualung, a black one, a black lung logo. And it's, uh, it's also like five grand it's 47, it's 4790. So, you know, that's a big, that's a big jump from the 20, let's call it $2,500 roughly where the sub 300 steel, uh, Ellie's kind of topped out. This is limited to 300 as well. Like I said, it's in black and yellow. I think it's gorgeous. I think it would look incredible on a NATO, um, or possibly like a black mesh. If you're able to find, you know, like a PVD coated mesh shark mesh sort of bracelet. Um, what, what, what do you think of this? You know, it's, it's $4,790 for, um, a kind of high tech materialed, you know, version of a very old school kind of funky steel, every man dive watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think it's, it's a cool mashup of their very first dive watch and a very modern material that is becoming more, um, I guess popular or better known to watch enthusiasts, you know, AP has done them. And, uh, I think Breitling has done some carbon and of course Omega and others. Um, but I think it's neat to see that small 1967 format rendered in this really cool high tech material. And I'm usually not one for all black watches. Doxa did a few years ago, they did that sort of military line that I was never super keen on. But in this smaller format with that bit of kind of random carbon texture you get on the dial and on the case, I think it looks, I think it looks really neat. And I love that pop of yellow against it. I'm glad they did it with a Shark Hunter. I think to do it with like an orange dial or, or, you know, a silver dial just wouldn't have looked quite right. This looks very mean. It looks very tactical. |
| James Stacey | Um, I didn't even think of a sea rambler. You'd like that man, a sea rambler. I think so. Yeah. The silver against the, yeah, I think I'm going to do a little bit of Photoshop and put that together. That could be really cool. Obviously the dial wouldn't be carbon fiber at that point. You, you could literally take the sunburst dial and then you'd have black, orange and silver, which might be kind of cool. I'll do a Photoshop and see what I can come up with. Maybe something for the, uh, the Instagram. Yeah, right. |
| Jason Heaton | In the coming day, but... It's definitely expensive. It's pushing five grand, it's almost twice as much as the steel version. Hard to say, there's only 300 pieces, so maybe the docks are faithful, the collectors will snap this up. We're pushing into high... Geez, high territory. You can get a Seamaster Diver 300 for that money. Yeah, you get a Pelagos. Yeah, so tough call, but... Obviously one of the most unique watches around, and if you're into that aesthetic, this is a rare and very, very cool edition of it. And so if you have money to burn, you know, go for it. I think it'd be a really cool piece. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, and you know, the nice thing about these stocks is in general, and I would say you can easily go on WatchRecon and confirm this for yourself, but in general, they hold their value nicely. You know, I don't, I don't know that it's going to hold its value at 4,800 bucks. That's, that's yet to be seen if, if, and when some of these start to be flipped down the road, they don't ship until August. Yeah. So this is essentially a pre-order, um, you know, get, get your slot, get one of the 300. I love it. I would absolutely adore being able to wear one. When you start to factor for things like the currency and the taxes to get one into Canada, um, you know, uh, uh, what looks like a sub $5,000 watch becomes a, you know, eight, possibly even more like $9,000 purchase. So that's a whole different sort of math at that point. I could buy a sports car for that much money. But I do really love the way it looks. And as long as this isn't a direct, and I don't think it is because it's a limited edition, but as long as this isn't like a direct indication of where the brand is taking beer watches, then I love it. I think it's demonstrably less silly than the $70,000 solid gold chronograph. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. |
| James Stacey | And you know, it's a little bit less than the cost of the current chronograph, the steel, which is also limited edition. And, you know, I think it is kind of on the pricey side for a Doxa, but I don't think it's crazy for what it is or the fact that it's limited. And and time has looked really, you know, looking back, time has done really well for the 50th anniversary stuff from 2017 and 2018. Yeah. And all the more so for the aqualung black lung stuff. Right. So I would say kudos to Doxa on that one. I think they've done something interesting and they certainly timed it nicely after Watches and Wonders. So they get a bit of a new cycle and I've been enjoying the comments on Hodinkee so far. So that should be good. Yeah. The other one I like came out just before and I was pretty excited about this. I made it pretty clear in the post. I wrote it up. It's these new Seiko prospects, sort of a premium mid-range offering from Seiko. It's the SPB14X. So there's four SKUs at this point. So these new ones are basically a direct suggestion of the SLA-017, which was a, you know, a $4,000 plus LE from a couple of years back. So you're looking at a 40.5 millimeter steel case. It's 13.2 millimeters thick. It's 47.6 millimeters lug to lug. It uses Seiko's super hard coating. So it has some hardness treatment to the surface of the watch case and bracelet and such. But mostly you're just looking at, it's not exactly the same size or the same proportions, the bezels wider, more in line with Seiko's modern offerings, but it's now a Prospex with a 6R class movement, 200 meters water resistant in a really nicely sized case. It's a kind of I would describe it as being sort of skin diver adjacent, and I think they kind of hit it right out of the park. This is one I cannot wait to see in person. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I like it. I'm still smitten with the SLA, just I like that thinner bezel. I think that's my one part of this new one that I'm not as keen on. I'm still holding out for the Willard reissue that we talked about I think one or two episodes ago. |
| James Stacey | Oh, so good too. What a winner. |
| Jason Heaton | It's just the string of hits lately. I mean, it's just one thing after another. And then I think there was the, a new couple of, uh, uh, tunas, you know, uh, quartz tunas that look very much like the original. They're going back to that old handset, um, which I love and they've got it in a black case and then the steel case. And, um, yeah, I mean, you know, Seiko dive watches. I mean, how, how can you go wrong? |
| James Stacey | They're just so lovable. And, and I think this may be as them, realizing that they've bolstered a certain aspect of the entry level with the new Seiko 5s and wanting to offer something a little bit more elevated to the people who have already owned the 5s, the SKXs, the SRPs. And I think the big story here is you pay more money than an SRP, but obviously you go from a 4R to a 6R movement. But on top of that, you go from a 43.5 millimeter case, which wears beautifully in the SRP, but is definitely a large watch to a 40.5 millimeter case, which I'm going to assume also wears beautifully, but as a much smaller watch, you know what I mean? Yeah. I don't know that I would wear it on the bracelet. You know, it looks like a nicely tapered steel bracelet. Maybe it's great. I really like obviously my Seiko dive watches on NATO's or leathers. That's fine by me. And they've got four different versions. And like you said, the tunas also look killer. So hit the show notes for all of that kind of stuff. You can get all the details there. You know, there's some great stuff coming down in the very near future from Seiko for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | I think what, just to put a button on that one, is we're starting to see these pro-spec Seikos going for, you know, pushing the $1,000 level. And while that definitely seems like more money than what we're used to paying for a lot of Seikos, including the Turtles, is, you know, this is money that a lot of the micro brands have been charging for watches that are using Seiko movements anyway and don't have the, maybe the, the reputation, uh, the background, the, the, you know, quality assurance, et cetera, et cetera, of Seiko and, uh, hats off to Seiko. I mean, they should, they should claim what's right, rightful, uh, in terms of pricing for them. I mean, this is, this is, this is definitely still good. Um, good value. Um, good, good money for, uh, still considered an affordable watch. And, you know, I would imagine they're, they're worth it. I haven't handled any of these new ones yet, but I can't imagine they're not. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, Seiko doesn't really drop the ball when it comes to enthusiast-derived models. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I mean, they obviously rave about the SRP, rave about the SKX. These are just gonna be more refined, is what I'd expect, and super wearable, and I like the sizing. I also like that, unlike an SLA-017, which is basically a perfect Seiko diver, it's not $4,500, so that's a plus too, right? At 1,000, I think they started right at 1,000 bucks on a rubber strap. Right. And go up only a little bit if you want the bracelet and then there's a special edition. But yeah, I think good, good enthusiast product and something that we really like to see, especially in this world where everything else that came out in the last, you know, since we did the last episode was so much more kind of extra big game watchmaking, Swiss, you know, powerhouse stuff, Piaget and Vacheron and IWC and this kind of stuff. So I was thrilled to have the whole kind of Watches and Wonders digital book ended by two very interesting, and I think certainly with the Seiko very approachable and accessible as a nicer kind of update. And then in the Doxa, just like a bit of a flex from a brand that's kind of refinding its own these days. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, well, what do you say we jump into our small company spotlight and a risk check and then get into our main topic? |
| James Stacey | We've been trying to highlight small brands that we love that could definitely use a favor during these times. And if you're looking to score a new T-shirt or possibly a great mug or all sorts of stuff, we really recommend swing by KillHubers.com. KillHubers has been the most longstanding supporter of TGN, one of our earliest collaborators and run by this really great guy named Sam. And absolutely, you should be checking them out. It's a T-shirt I'm actually wearing now. It's almost the only thing I wear when I'm around the house in a casual scenario. It's this washed pocket tee that they make. It's almost logo or branding free. and has a nice pocket for your sunglasses or something like that, and just a really comfortable, nicely made, easy-wearing t-shirt, and one of my favorites. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and every morning I have my coffee in the Latin mug, which is something I've had since the early days when Kilhubras was our first sponsor on TGN and appeals to my former Latin student. in me and I love it. And yeah, the site just has some great stuff. I mean, he's got caps and he's got some NATO straps and leather cuffs and just, you know, that sort of little affordable odds and ends that you can either keep for yourself or give as a gift. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Free shipping on orders over $50. This is not an ad. They're not aware that we're going to talk about them at all. It's killhubris.com and I've been wearing their shirts for years. Jason's been drinking out of the mug for years and you can too. Jason, how about a wrist check? What's on wrist today? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so apropos to our discussion about Doxa, I've been wearing my old Teagraph Shark Hunter, the black dial one that I got from the original owner about two years ago and had completely restored. I've had it on the leather bund strap as I've been known to wear for a while. And yeah, it's just a great watch. You know, it's one of those things that we talked about a few episodes ago where you pull out a watch that doesn't have a quick set date and the date's pretty close. That was kind of what sealed the deal for me. I just advanced it a couple of days and here I am. So I just love wearing this watch. It's just it's big and chunky and kind of makes a statement and just fun. |
| James Stacey | How about you? Yeah, I'm actually wearing in this. Believe it or not, it wasn't planned. I, you know, I had known that Doxie was announcing something this morning, but yesterday afternoon I was going out. I find when I do get tired of being inside, I go for drives. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | and it was a nice kind of sunny day and the traffic's really light in Toronto, so I went for a little spin and I threw on one of my easy wearing swatches, which is the Doxa Sub 300 50th anniversary professional, and I have it on a gray and orange Erica's original paratrooper style strap. Yeah. And yeah, it's perfect. It absolutely clashes with the red plaid Jacket I'm wearing at the moment, but this is not a video podcast. So it's only my problem Yeah, I just literally a perfect watch. I've been really wearing almost everything I've got these days just because it's kind of fun But I definitely am reaching for a lot of a lot of docks It's just you know, you're either outside kicking around in the yard or sitting on the couch. You look down at your wrist It's a little smile. So yeah, it's fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Good Yeah. So now let's jump into our main topic today. We're revisiting Q and A. So we did this three or four episodes ago and you know, we've had really great response from listeners who've gone ahead and sent in those voice memos that we've asked for. And I think it's lent a nice new element to the show, you know, get some other voices involved and some really good thought out questions from people. And so we got another crop of them that we'll try to try to forge through here. And I don't know how many we'll get to, but let's give it a go. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I'm not sure we're going to get to all of them, but the one thing that I would definitely like to highlight before we get into it is, you know, Jason and I have done several like remote interviews with people where you get them on Skype or you get them on a phone and you record their voice and then you patch it all together. And I've got to say that, you know, I find it remarkable the audio quality that people are getting doing a voice memo into their phone. Maybe a couple of you guys are low-key pros and are plugging a mic in or recording on your computer or something, and that's awesome. I respect that at such a high level because that's exactly what I would do if I was sending in such a message. But I do find it really just remarkable that we've worked so hard even to send audio equipment to people to do recordings, and the recordings come back kind of like five out of tens. And then some of these sound like radio recordings. It's incredible. So a big thank you to anyone who took a minute or two to talk into their phone and send us a message. Some of you are out on walks, some of you are kicking around your house, and we love all of it. So let's jump into this first one, which is from Charlie in France. |
| Charlie from France | Hey guys, my name is Charlie. I'm calling from France where we're on lockdown, obviously. I wanted to ask about your writing process, both of you, both in terms of the mechanics of what tools and software you use and your workflow and writing routines and how all of that differs between fiction and nonfiction. Thank you guys for the podcast. Stay healthy and I can't wait to read DepthCharge. |
| James Stacey | All right, Charlie, thank you very much for that message. That's certainly an interesting one. And I'm actually going to go out on a limb and say Jason has a much more interesting answer than I do. So Jason, why don't you give up your option first? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, why don't I talk about the fiction part of it? Because I've been slogging away at this novel since October. And admittedly, I'm new to fiction writing. This is my first attempt at a novel, actually my second, but the first one that's proceeded past 50 pages. And, you know, I just, This time around I outlined kind of a general plot for my overarching story and then just started writing. I'm kind of a person who just likes to sit down and just start hammering out words on a page rather than doing too much planning. I did need a general outline to kind of see where a story was going to go and make sure that I had a logical end point to where this was headed. But I like to write scenes. I like to sit down and write what comes into my mind just using my imagination. Um, and I did that as a first pass and I got through, I'm up to, you know, well over 200 pages now in the book. And then what I did was I went back, uh, and with the help of Ghoshani, um, just started reading all of these aloud and then making meticulous notes on oversized sheets of paper, sort of working backwards to create an outline from what I did write and then identifying where the gaps are. Um, and also making notes as to where I need some, help in terms of continuity. Maybe there's something in Chapter 16 that doesn't mesh with what I said in Chapter 3. Making sure characters are staying consistent throughout, doing some research on the various more technical aspects to the book. So that's how I've been doing it. I've gotten some good advice from the Masterclass sessions that we subscribe to and we've talked about in the past. I've been following a few of the thriller authors that are Uh, doing classes on there. There was a guy, um, obviously well known to people, Dan Brown, who wrote the Da Vinci code and a few others that admittedly, I haven't really been a fan of his, his books. I haven't really read any of them. Um, but he's a wonderful teacher. And if you're aspiring to, to write a novel or a thriller, he's fantastic. He's he, I think he was a teacher or something, or his parents were or something, but he's, he's really good. So that's been really helpful. But, uh, yeah, I think, you know, just to, to sew it up here. I mean, the, um, the nonfiction element for me has always been the same. I sit down and I just start writing, which might run counter to the way some people do. A lot of people like to do outlines and do a lot of notes, but I just like to kind of write forward, so to speak, just sit and start putting words on the page and then deal with what's there after it's all done. How about you, James? When you are working on a story like about the doxa or something longer and more thoughtful, like an essay or something. |
| James Stacey | So if the story doesn't require any research, like I'm given a PDF and I need to write a watch up, I literally write stream of consciousness within Hodinkee CMS, within the publishing platform. Oh, wow. I can do this very quickly. I can probably, like, assuming it's a relatively straightforward watch, an intro takes an hour, including the photos and the spell checking and everything else. So that's not necessarily that interesting to anyone. Anything else, anything that requires research or notes, things where I'm measuring the weight or the size of the watch, that sort of thing, I do all of my writing in Google Keep. Actually, the only thing I use outside of Google Keep or Hodinkee's own CMS platform is to do the show notes with Jason, which we do in Google Docs. Other than that, I really keep everything in Keep because it's all searchable on a single platform. I also used to write a lot of stream of consciousness sort of stuff directly into my phone. Usually while the phone was offline on planes. And that's really helpful with Keep because it won't go anywhere. It's safe. So if I'm writing offline or if I'm writing anything that requires research and notes and that sort of thing, it's in Keep. Otherwise, I just open up almost all the stories on Hodinkee. I open up the CMS and just start writing. Huh. And it's as long as it's going to be. I used to do more writing in docs and then copy and pasting it over. And it's just it's slower. So. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, cool. Well, thanks. Thanks, Charlie, for sending that in. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, absolutely. All right. Next up, we have one from Mark in Santa Cruz. |
| Mark from Santa Cruz | Hey, guys, this is Mark in Santa Cruz. Love the show. Love having one every week, too. Now we're in day 12 of shelter in place and it looks like it's going to go on for quite a while. Here's my question. I want to know how you might help stimulate the economy and particularly what you would do if you theoretically took your $1,200 stimulus check and invested it in a watch or watch accessories and maybe what you would do with $2,400 if your wife was kind enough to also offer up her $1,200 stimulus check. And I realize James is going to have to bend the truth a little bit and claim to be an American to take part. That's it. Stay safe. Wash your hands. And I'd love to hear your answers. |
| James Stacey | All right, Mark. That's a good question. You know, that's not exactly the scenario we have in Canada. So I can definitely adopt an American perspective for this one. Jason, where do you think you'd spend between $1,200 and $2,400? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, you know, having just discussed those new Seiko releases, I definitely had my eye on the new Willard. I'm not sure when that's being released or when I could actually pull the trigger, but that's a strong contender for $1,200. I think it comes in right around that price. I'm not sure if that's stimulating the American economy much, but that's a good pick. $2,400, gosh, that's an interesting category to bump it up to more like the $2,000 range. I might still do the Seiko and then maybe push the rest of the money towards maybe something interesting and vintage. Look at retro watch guy or Hub City Vintage that I talked about an episode or two ago and pick up something interesting that, you know, if we see this as sort of found money or something that we weren't expecting, it's kind of a good opportunity to grab something that you might not otherwise get. |
| James Stacey | What about you? Yeah, I would agree. If you're in a scenario where this money could go to a watch, I would just say, you know, if it's a Seiko, buy it from a Seiko retailer, your local Seiko retailer. So it does go back into your business or your businesses. Um, and otherwise, yeah, I think if you're talking about 1200 bucks or, or even up to $2,400, uh, I would definitely look at a Seiko from a local retailer. I would look at something special from retro watch guy. He had one of those Walkman, uh, you know, gold plated, uh, Kronos on recently. And you know, that would, that would get you to your 1200 bucks, maybe with some room for a strap or two. And if you want to go $2,400 and you want to spend it all, get an AORUS 65. You know, buy one from your local AORUS retailer. Maybe give them a call first and work it out if you want to do this during, you know, otherwise, you know, non-essential businesses. But commit to it, get the money in their hands. And I think that's how you could keep that money in your local community, in your local retailers, maybe even with people you've bought from before, which is probably the point of a plan like that. Nice. Good call. Next up we've got one from Billy. Hi Jason, hi James. |
| Billy from Ireland | This is a message recorded in Ireland in a time of lockdown. Do you choose your watch based on your mood or does your watch set your mood? Like for example when I grab a G-Shock it's usually the weekend. I'm usually busy you know hammering something or doing a bit of garden work. And when I reach for, you know, some type of electronic type of watch, it's maybe because I'm doing some exercise and then, you know, that governs how I feel. Once again, guys, Jason and James, thank you for all you do. It's greatly appreciated. |
| James Stacey | All right. So, Billy, I shortened your question there as the recording was several minutes long. But, you know, the gist of the request is, of course, How do we choose what watch to wear? Are we basically picking a watch in the morning? His point is, you know, this is kind of a strange time for everyone. Are you kind of picking your watch based on your mood or is your mood kind of created by the watch that you're picking in the morning? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that's an interesting question. You know, I would say, you know, it is a weird time. If I'm, you know, in normal mode and traveling, going out in public, uh, going somewhere, it definitely, the watch I choose is, is driven by the activity or what type of event I'm going to, or if it's a dive trip, I'll pick, you know, whichever dive watch I want to take. But around the house these days, um, I just kind of, I've been wearing kind of whatever strikes my fancy that morning. And I don't know that it's actually changing my mood. but you know earlier you mentioned wearing the orange orange dial Doxa and I'm wearing the Teegraph today I think I've been sort of gravitating towards visually interesting watches just because it's something when you look down at your wrist you want something that's pops a little bit maybe is a bit of a distraction from what's become a very routine oriented existence these days yeah I would agree I'm not really there's no rhyme or reason I think there's no way to pick the watch and it not be based on your mood I think that's |
| James Stacey | like a autonomic process in some way. Yeah. No, uh, no real rhyme or reason. I'm definitely just picking whatever makes me happy, which is I think mostly how I normally do it, unless I'm doing a lot of traveling, at which point I'll pick something that makes me happy and also will make travel a little bit easier. |
| Jason Heaton | Nice. Thanks. Uh, thanks for that one, Billy. Uh, next up is Jake and he's got a question pertaining to the Apple watch. |
| Jake from Vancouver | Hi guys. It's Jake from Vancouver, Washington. My second question would be, do you think that the Apple watch is kind of like a hidden motivation for people to want to buy vintage inspired pieces? Or do you think it's a motivation for Swiss and even Japanese manufacturers to, you know, kind of go back to the romance of mechanical watches? So, you know, I think, I think yes, personally, but I'd love to hear your opinion on it. |
| James Stacey | So thanks for that question, Jake. I think it's actually both of these things. I think from a consumer side, there's a lot of people that have been introduced to actually wearing a watch by the Apple Watch. I have lots of friends where they didn't wear a watch or maybe they wore one in high school, then they moved out of it. And then when the Apple Watch and all this functionality came out and all that functionality was matched by something that was clearly made by people who understand both design and watchmaking, it feels like a watch, despite the fact that you could argue it's not. Um, they really are a remarkable product. They're beautifully made. Uh, they're super functional. Uh, you know, I'm not even an Apple user and I have lots of, uh, lots of, you know, nice things to say about them as a product. So I think they absolutely have brought a lot of people into watches, into the format of having a watch on your wrist. And they do it in a way that's decidedly different than the other great things at that price point. So different than a G-Shock, so different than a Seiko Diver. And, uh, and I think that's where they succeed from the consumer standpoint, from a manufacturing standpoint, from a business standpoint, from an industry standpoint, I think they've absolutely put most of the industry on its heels. I mean, I believe the Apple watch as a concept outsold the entire Swiss watch industry, uh, last year. And, and I mean, it's, it's a lot to, it's a lot to fathom, but I think it's, it's creating, obviously a lot of brands are looking back at their past to try and make things that feel less digital, feel less like smart watches, are maybe a relief from that. And I think just like there's a market for, um, super functional things that maybe aren't, aren't enthusiast driven like minivans. And then there's also a market for the exact opposite, whether it's a sports car or a kind of very agricultural SUV or whatever. I think it's just, uh, the market is simply growing in terms of the number of people who might want to have something on their wrist. |
| Jason Heaton | That's an interesting perspective. I, I don't have much to say about it. I'm fairly Apple watch agnostic, uh, other than the fact that it's, uh, uh, it's come to compete for risk to real estate with, you know, other watches that people might buy, but it also might be a motivation. So, um, I think your answer was, uh, was pretty on the nose. So that's great. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Uh, so thanks again for that question, Jake, we'll move on to one from Matt. Who's asking about, uh, watches that got away. |
| Matt McDonough | Hello Jason and James, this is Matt McDonough, sometimes known as MattMcD underscore GMT. Hey guys, just a question for you. Over the years, following the podcast pretty faithfully, tuning into the collection inspection episodes and kind of paying attention to your Instagram feeds over the years, I think a lot of us have a sense of what your collection consists of now. And maybe some of the watches that have historically been in your collections, but maybe you're not anymore. And I'm curious if you guys ever regret any of the watches that you've passed on. Are there any sort of ones that got away that you really regret parting with over the years? For myself, I really miss a Rolex GMT, a 116710 reference, one of the more modern watches. Had to part with that due to circumstances, told myself I'd get it back and just haven't been able to do it yet. And I really miss that watch. I'm curious if you guys have any watches that you really regret having parted with. Please let us know. |
| Jason Heaton | Take care. All right. Well, thanks. Uh, thanks Matt. You're a longtime listener and an old friend of ours. So appreciate your sending in that question. |
| James Stacey | What a voice too. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Great voice. Um, sorry to hear about your GMT. You know, prices are going up. Uh, that might be a tough one to, uh, to, uh, to get back, but, uh, I don't have many regrets. Uh, I've got a couple of Omega regrets. I used to have a 66, uh, Seamaster 300, which, uh, I really loved and I sold it, uh, way back many years ago. Now of course those are astronomically priced. I also got one of the the new edition 1200 meter Ploprofs when they first were released like within the first month of availability way back. I'm not sure what year that was 2009 or something. And I wore it on a trip to Sri Lanka. I took it diving. You know I loved that watch. I bought a couple of rubber straps for it. And I sold that one. These were all in the in you know fits of flipping that I used to be subject to back in the old days, and I do regret those too. And I also had a 1675 GMT Master with beautiful golden lume that I got rid of as well for whatever reason. But regrets, I can't say I'm looking back with too much regret, but I guess I would say that if I still had those, I would still be enjoying them. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I don't have any regrets. I've never owned anything that was drastically more expensive after I'd gotten rid of it or that I couldn't simply go out and re-buy. So maybe for the purposes of these questions, I'll have some regrets over Jason's 1675. That sounds pretty good. All right. |
| Jason Heaton | Moving on to Ryan from Southern California. He has a question about colorful watches. |
| Ryan from Southern California | Hey guys, this is Ryan from Southern California. My current watch collection consists of mostly monochromatic watches. I have a square G-Shock as well as an Explorer 2 with the black face. Lately, I've been thinking about getting something that's fun and colorful with a decent water resistance for the summer. Would love some recommendations from you both. Keep up the good work. Thanks. |
| James Stacey | All right, Ryan. So you're looking for some color in your life. I feel you there for sure. A couple easy picks right up the top for me would be a secondhand Hallios C4 of some sort. There's several different colors, Bahama yellow, Nimbus Grey, Pastel Blue, and they're a little bit more readily available in the second-hand market than they used to be, and the prices have stabilized somewhat, so that's a plus. Your other option, of course, would be the DOXA Sub 200, which you can buy directly from the brand for less than a grand. And, you know, they come in six different varieties, I think four of which are quite colorful. What do you figure, Jason? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, DOXA's the obvious choice. We've talked about it many times. And, you know, looking at my own collection, most of mine are black dialed watches as well, with the exception of of a Doxa, an orange Doxa. Orient makes a nice orange dial diver. There's a Seiko Monster with an orange dial. But yeah, you can look to the micro brands. I think the Helios, I've got one of those with that beautiful pastel blue dial that is such a unique color. And if you're looking for something just a little bit left of center, that's a good one as well, if you can find one. |
| James Stacey | So good one. Yeah, so just take some hunting, go and watch Recon, set up your alerts and just, you know, send some emails, see what's out there. Next up is Tom, and he's got a question about a sub that he lost, he hopes to find, and he's not sure if it'll still be water resistant. |
| Tom, a stuntman from New Jersey | Hey, guys, my name is Tom, big fan of the show. I'm a stuntman from New Jersey, and I often like to wear my watches for various types of stunts, whether it's crashing cars in my Submariner or getting thrown down the stairs in my Panerai. This little fun thing I like to do being such a watch-a-phile. So, 1996, I was 18 years old, spent my life savings on a Rolex Submariner. Summer of 1996, six months later, that watch sunk to the bottom of a lake. So it's been in 30 feet of water for 23 years. I'm starting an expedition this summer with a bunch of my buddies. We have a dive team. We have a plan. We're calling it Expedition 16-6-10. And we're gonna go on the search for my lost watch. My question to you would be, after 23 years sitting in the muck at the bottom of a lake, do you think that this Submariner is still watertight? Or do you think that something's got to give after so much time in the water and it's filled with water? That's it. That's my question. I'd like to hear your guys' thoughts on that. All right, keep up the good work and I'll keep you guys updated on the expedition. Bye-bye. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, Tom, really cool little project you've got there. 30 feet of water for 23 years. Interesting. I'm certainly no expert, no watchmaker or engineer that would be able to authoritatively answer that question. But I would suspect without much disturbance, it might not be running anymore, but I would suspect that If you pulled it up, as long as the crown was screwed in and the case back was intact. I can't imagine that, especially if it was a lake, that it wouldn't be any subject to any sort of salty corrosion or anything like that. So good, good chance that it's still running. And from my perspective, James, any insights there? |
| James Stacey | I'm going to guess that again. Yeah. In a freshwater scenario at 30 feet and a watch that was quite new when it went down. My guess is that watch is still water tight. Yeah. That'd be my guess, certainly. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, good luck, Tom. I'd love to see how that comes out. |
| James Stacey | Good luck finding it. Sounds like a great project and if you can get to it this summer, a fantastic way to kill some time this summer. Next up, we have Long from Pomona asking about building sentimental value into watch and when you might want to avoid it. |
| Long from Pomona | Hi guys. This is Long from Pomona, California. And I was just wondering if either of you have ever gone out of your way to not wear a watch for a certain occasion, just because you were worried you would form an emotional attachment to it and therefore not be able to sell it down the road, or at least make it harder to sell it down the road. Love the show. Love what you guys have been doing and keep it up. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, Long, no, I can't say I've ever had that issue even cross my mind. You know, I usually don't buy watches with even the thought of selling it later. And typically when I buy a watch, I am usually buying something that I think I'll have a while and that will have some function to it. So I tend to want to use most of them for the purposes in which I bought it, whether it's a dive watch or a chronograph or something like that. So that's never occurred to me. |
| James Stacey | How about you? Yeah, same here. I've never had that thought come across my mind. I kind of just wear watches in the moment. I don't do that well at selling them, even less so now. It's just so time consuming. So no, I've never been too worried about that. I like to wear my watches and have them around for everything that I do. And I've never had anything like that slow me down if I did decide I needed to sell said watch. Thanks very much for your question, and we're going to move on to one from Daniel from Nashville. |
| Daniel from Nashville | Hey, James. Hey, Jason. My name is Daniel, and I come from Nashville, Tennessee. Shout out to the Nashville Watch Club. And I've got a question about some collecting habits that I see and experience in the watch world. The other day I was talking watches with a fellow enthusiast, Skyler, if you're listening, and we were talking about prospective acquisitions. See, I like the idea of the perfect three watch collection, and he likes the idea of a C space pilot and dress watch collection. We both have a certain expectation for the ideal collection as a sort of goal to work towards, but what I'm finding is that no matter what I have, I always gravitate towards the same one or two watches that I've always worn instead of actually wearing everything that I think makes a good collection. I love new watches and trying new styles and brands, but when it comes to grabbing a watch for the day, my Seiko always wins. I was wondering if you guys have any experience with this in collecting or any other collecting habits that you've dealt with. All right, that's all for now. You guys are awesome. Thanks for making the show happen. |
| Jason Heaton | So, Daniel, thanks for that. I'll take an early stab at this one. You know, my collection, as nobody probably is too surprised about, consists heavily of diving watches. I've got a couple of chronographs and a few other things, but I don't know that I've got a particular strategy when it comes to collecting, but when it comes to what I wear day to day, especially now that I'm homebound more, as we discussed earlier from that earlier question, I just kind of grab whatever suits my fancy. Uh, I, I don't think that I'm wearing watches to kind of, uh, I don't want to say show off, but, uh, for other people around me, unless I'm going to like have specific, you know, watch get together where, you know, you want to bring something interesting that, that you think others might be interested in. But, uh, no, I think most of my watches are pretty utilitarian. I expect them all to be able to kind of work for, for what I want them to do, whether it's a Rolex sub or a, or a Seiko diver. Um, So, no, I don't really consider that I'm... So, no, I don't think I can relate too much to your issue with wearing mainly your Seikos and not the others, but it might tell you a little bit something about your own collecting habits and maybe even your own psychology. I don't know, maybe that's a little too deep for TGN, but who knows? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I would say that, you know, Daniel, I think maybe you're just a Seiko guy right now, and that's fine, I think. it constantly avoiding a watch or really only going with one watch, I would kind of consider getting rid of the stuff that I'm not wearing and see if there was something that really called to me at a theoretical level and see if you could get it on wrist. I think that's pretty much how I operate. And if something really catches my eye, I try and see how long that feeling lasts. Sometimes it's a day, sometimes it's years. And with the absolute idea of a collection, if you're always going for the Seiko, maybe Maybe it's time to rethink how many watches need to be in your collection or maybe the overall strategy. But it's not something that affects me as I've never really been concerned with how many watches I could have or even in some cases having several very similar watches. But thanks very much for your question. |
| Jason Heaton | You know in the past TGN has done some supporter pack campaigns and we've had show sponsors of course to keep our lights on or mics on. But the fact is the bulk of the support for TGN and for James's and my work for Hodinkee is underwritten by the efforts of the Hodinkee shop. So if you appreciate the work we're doing or any of the content you're enjoying on Hodinkee, ours or other people's, consider visiting the Hodinkee shop. These days when it's really tough to get out and buy a gift for someone, you know, or hunt something down online that you can't really get your hands on or see, Or maybe you just need some retail therapy during these kind of odd times that we're all living through. The Hodinkee shop is a great place to find anything from a cool strap, you know, a leather strap or a book. They've got some interesting books in the library section. Or my personal favorite, which is this heavy brass embassy pen, which makes for a really great gift, by the way. On up to any of a huge variety of vintage or new watches that are in the shop. And by doing so, you're directly supporting us at TGN and all the work that you see on Hodinkee. So you can check it out at shop.hodinkee.com and we do thank you for doing that. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. All right. We've got, we're at about 50 minutes now, so I think maybe we see how many more we can get to in the next 10. Yeah. And then we hit off into homework and final notes. So our next up, we have one from Jacob in Toronto. |
| Jacob from Toronto | Hey, James and Jason. This is Jacob from Toronto. I have two questions for you guys. First, do either of you have a so-called white whale watch? You know, one that you've had your eye on and you've been looking for for years but never been able to get your hands on? And second, have you guys considered doing a meetup in Toronto? You know, it'd be great after all this social distancing is over that we would have a chance to meet up in person. Anyway, thanks again for all the great podcasts over the years and hope to hear from you soon. Thanks. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, thanks Jacob. Uh, you know, short and sweet from my end. I, my, the concept of a grail watch has diminished over the years to the point where I don't think I have one anymore. I used to, uh, I used to always say it was a Rolex mil sub, but you know, I've, I've had watches that, um, that just please me to no end and I enjoy what I have and I can't say I'm on the hunt for any, any white whales anymore. How about you? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, for me, it's also a no, but only due to funds. There's lots of watches I love that I would aspire to own, some vintage stuff. A 1655 would be really great, the early Explorer IIs. Obviously, a really killer old Submariner would be really fun. Solid gold AP. There's a handful that I would absolutely aspire to own, but if I have to go my life and I can't spend that kind of money on a watch, I won't miss it. It'll be okay. I've certainly been very fortunate, but these days there's literally no watch that I can afford that I'd want to buy, which I think means I pretty much have the collection I'm supposed to have, the group of watches I should have. And there's some stuff that's inexpensive that's exciting. So that's fun as well. As far as TO meetup, the short answer is sure. Philosophically, I would love to have a meetup and a hangout in Toronto. The actual answer is that The metrics of such a meetup would have been difficult in January or even say October of last year. And now they're downright impossible to predict. So sure, when things go back to normal and people are actually going back out and doing things like meetups, then I would absolutely be open to the idea of a meetup in Toronto. You know, it would have to coincide with heat and being around and that sort of thing. But it's definitely not a no, it's just definitely not right now or probably any time in the foreseeable future. But thank you very much for your question, Jacob. And if you're hunting a grail, best of luck with that. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, let's move on to Leo from the UK, who has a question about demagnetizing. |
| Leo from Venezuela/UK | Hello, James and Jason. Hope you guys are doing OK with the current lockdown situation. First, I would like to thank you for the Great NATO. I've been a fan since episode number one. I am from Venezuela, but I'm currently living in the UK. And I would like to ask you guys, now that we are working very close to PCs, speakers, et cetera, if you ever demagnetize your watches. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward for the next Q&A. Thank you. |
| James Stacey | Leo, thank you very much for your loyal listening of the program. We appreciate that to no end. And then as far as demag, I'm sure, Jason, we've talked about this before. I demag my watches with some frequency. Do you really? Wow. Yeah, it's not that difficult. It's actually, if you're interested in doing it on your own, I have that covered in final notes, a little hint for the end of the show. But yeah, it's something where you can use any watch that has a compass. I used to do it with my Casio Arrangement, now you can do it with Garmin. You can turn the compass on and point it towards the watch, and if you see a big spin of the heading information, there's a good chance that your watch is at least in some way magnetized, and demagnetizing it is mostly technique and about a $10 investment. So sure, anytime that I notice a watch isn't really performing the way I would expect it to, that's usually where I start, and it's usually the outcome. I think the only one I haven't had to worry about that on is the Explorer 2, which has the higher-end hairspring. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah. Yeah, I remember hearing from someone at Omega one time years ago that the number one reason watches come in for any sort of servicing at a retailer or otherwise is for due to magnetization, which is not surprising given what Leo said about speakers and laptops and iPads and that sort of thing, so. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, the amount of interference that we experience on a day-to-day and then like the crazy thing is that you see that new, the new iPad, like all of the accessories mount using very strong magnets. Yeah, yeah. And think about the way you hold an iPad kind of underhand against your wrist when you walk around. We're magnetizing all of them. And I don't think it necessarily always affects its performance. If you've ever tried to magnetize the head of a screwdriver, you'll know there's varying degrees to how magnetized something can get. But certainly, given the cost, and now you can't just go to a watchmaker. So if this is something that's affecting a watch that you're wearing now, stay tuned for Final Notes. I think I've got you covered. And thank you very much again for that question, Leo. Next up, we're going to have one from Sam. |
| Sam from Oxfordshire, UK | Hello, chaps. This is Sam. I'm just speaking to you from the beautifully sunny Oxfordshire in the UK. Just one very quick question for you both. I know it's been talked about previously in your show that changing the strap can have a dramatic effect on your watch, essentially making it like a new watch. Obviously, In times such as this when people are thinking about money and not necessarily in a position to purchase a new piece for their collection, I just wanted to get your opinions on other straps. Now I'm specifically talking about bracelets, so stainless steel bracelets. Just wanted your opinion on different brands and manufacturers that could potentially rejuvenate an old piece in a collection. Thanks very much. Here's to another 100 shows. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, thanks, Sam, for that question. James, you've got more experience with aftermarket bracelets. I don't think I've actually bought one other than the Forster JB Comfit one, which I highly recommend, but you've bought a few. |
| James Stacey | I have. I have, for sure. So, I mean, the easiest spot to check your options out online would be eBay, typically, and Strapcode. Those are two great resources. Strapcode carries straps for all sorts of stuff, way more than you might think is even available on the market. And then the only other one that I have experience with is a 20 millimeter bracelet from Hadley Roma, which has kind of curved stamped end links and suits my Explorer 2 in a nice way. So yeah, I think there's a ton of aftermarket bracelets out there, more and more by the time. And then the other thing is, when you start to get to know some of the micro brand watches, Some of them option bracelets separately. I believe Baltic does this. And sometimes the Baltic bracelet works on a different watch. So if you kind of get into the right forums, you'll see guys mixing and matching. This is pretty popular with the Halio C4 because it was never offered with a bracelet. So just for an example, if you're looking for a watch that has 20 millimeter lugs, maybe Google Halio C4 bracelet or Halio C4 bracelet mod. and see what people have come up with because there's, you know, there's all these different tiers. There's your normal Hadley Romas, there's your online brands like Strapcode, there's all sorts of like watchmaker drawer options on eBay. And then you have these kind of ancillary options where you might have to do a little bit of filing or this or that to make it fit. But there's certainly a lot of options out there. And I'd say my favorite one is likely that really simple mesh that I bought on eBay. You know, more than 10 years ago now, I had to cut it with a Dremel. back in the day to size it, which I'm sure that they've maybe sorted that functionality out a little bit better. But yeah, there's a ton out there for sure, Sam. Thanks very much for the question and for listening since the start of the show. We appreciate it. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, let's take two more. First up, we've got one from George in Washington, D.C. |
| George from Washington D.C. | Hey, Grenado. This is George coming to you from Washington, D.C. And here's my question. Where do you draw the line between the romantic side of collecting watches and the utilitarian side? For example, Sir Edmund Hillary took his Rolex Oyster Perpetual up to the summit of Mount Everest. However, most people these days would not take the Rolex up to the mountain. So where do you draw the line between just collecting a watch to have it in your watch box versus taking it with you on an adventure? Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Love the show. Take care. |
| James Stacey | Well, George, I think you'll find that Jason and I have a fairly similar answer on this, but I'll let Jason step in first because I know that there maybe isn't, there isn't maybe even a line to be drawn. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I think, uh, you know, it depends on what type of a collector you are. I, James and I both are definitely watch users. I think we probably both come from, uh, you know, from early days of wearing a watch just to, to wear something as a piece of kit, you know, an extension of the gear you're wearing for the adventures you go on. So, That certainly does lend an aspect of romance to it because these watches, in many cases, are not necessities for what you're doing, but by wearing them, you're imbuing them with kind of the memories and the romance, I guess, of what you're doing, whether it's climbing a mountain or diving a shipwreck. But there are other people that collect vintage Pateks or beautiful Longines dress watches, and that might be more for the romance of it, for opening up the watch box and seeing this beautiful collection of of shiny 1940s watches. That's certainly not what I'm about, but, you know, there's no right or wrong way to collect. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. I see the romance as being part of wearing the watch. Yeah. I think that maybe Jason and I aren't collectors. Yeah. As it stands, we're appreciators, we're users. I see all my watches as something I use. I mean, the most expensive watch I've ever bought, my Explorer II, I bought it and then immediately put it on a rubber NATO so that it would fit on the outside of my a heavy jacket and went and did Baker twice in the end, or we'll call it 1.9 times as we did not make it to the top the first time. But yeah, no, I use my watches. I like scratches. This is how I find them to be romantic. There's certainly elements of watch design and creation that I think are standalone objects, but the types of watches that I buy, and I think this stands for Jason too, are watches that are meant to be used. They're literally tool watches. So that's where I see it. If I was ever fortunate enough to be that Patek guy or similar, I might have a slightly different opinion, but I still think I'd be wearing an awful lot of them all the time. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. All right. One more from John in San Francisco, who's got kind of an interesting two-part question for us. |
| John from San Francisco | Hi, Graynado. This is John from the San Francisco Bay Area. I usually listen to your terrific podcast when I'm hiking in the hills. Anyways, I have two quick questions. First one, what's always in your refrigerator? The second one is, what was a moment where you pushed yourself too far and were in danger? For example, driving a car, mountain climbing, diving in a sketchy part of a city you're not familiar with, etc. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, thanks, John. And also thanks for being a longtime listener and I'm glad you're doing it while you're hiking. That's that's great. Boy, always in your fridge. Let's take that one first. James, you know, I don't know. I mean, I almost always have eggs and and milk in the fridge. I'm a big cereal eater, so you can't really do cereal without milk. And I love apples. I like them with peanut butter. I like them with cheese. Year round, I'm always trying to seek out some good like honey crisp or something or good crunchy sweet apple. What about you? What's in your fridge all the time? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, the two things that I could really, or let's call it three things that I know I'm going to have to go to the store if they're not in there would be Diet Coke, Red Leicester, what's called Red Fox, which is a Red Leicester cheese, a kind of crumbly cheddar cheese with like salt flakes in it. |
| Unknown | Oh, nice. |
| James Stacey | It's absolutely incredible. It's the best. And for a while it wasn't that easy to find. Now it's at most grocery stores. So try yourself some Red Fox. It's great. It comes in varying varieties. If you have a dope cheese shop, If you live in Vancouver and can go to Les Amis du Fromage, then please do that. They have the best stuff. But the stuff at the grocery store is pretty good too. And you just cut it and eat it. You're not like melting it or anything like that. It's ready to go. And then cured meat. I eat a lot of cured meat. So meat, cheese, diet coke. That would be my move. |
| Jason Heaton | And then the second part of his question is times when we've put ourselves in danger. And I can't say that I've done it deliberately with the intention of cheating death or anything like that. Um, you know, countless times I've been in situations that are definitely fraught with hazard, whether it's, um, diving under the ice or, or, you know, climbing a mountain or, um, these days even, you know, riding a bicycle or, or going to the grocery store for that matter. But, uh, um, yeah, I would say, you know, the, the, the times that I've probably felt the most on edge were, um, uh, I've done a couple of deep technical rec dives that have involved, uh, decompression stops where you can't simply. go to the surface if you run out of air or you have an emergency you have to decompress otherwise you risk getting the bends. I guess in that case it's a very controlled situation where you plan very well for it and that mitigates a lot of the factors of danger. You know you carry a lot of backups and you work with a partner who also has good training and a process as well. I'm not an adrenaline junkie or a huge risk taker, but I guess a lot of the things I do involve some element of danger. How about you? Driving cars fast. You're driving these cars. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I've made some pretty big mistakes driving cars when you look back and you just, it's luck. It's happen chance. When you realize what the, you get older and you start to realize what the existence of like just that there is an edge and you were lucky enough at the time to stay on it. I've driven really fast in cars and places where you shouldn't. I think the only thing that was maybe drilled into me at a younger age was not to do it around other people, but lots of remote stuff and then lots of stuff where just over driving the road, that's something you learn and lucky I didn't have to learn via a crash or a hospital. I learned via a couple of kind of scary moments or, you know, those kind of scenarios where you pull over and you go like, well, you're going to take a breath here. I mean, we're kind of seeing red. And then, yeah, I mean, I've definitely been in in scenarios diving where mentally I was in over my depth, but I was not in an unsafe. I don't think I've ever done any unsafe diving, but I've definitely gotten to points where, you know, I realized that I would I would you get into that scenario where the overall scenario isn't that bad, but you can make it a lot worse with how you approach it mentally in diving. And then I've done... I did some pretty stupid things hiking alone in Vancouver, in the mountains around Vancouver. I was once very far off route trying to get to the peak of Crown Mountain, and I misjudged the terrain and thought I was on trail, and if anyone's done the Crown Mountain trail, there's no scrambling. And what I ended up was climbing about a 40-foot ledge, pretty difficult. Certainly for me, I'm not a climber, so it was a pretty gnarly scramble. And I got to the top and realized I had basically boxed myself in. I wasn't... I was a whole... Essentially a whole valley set or a ridge peak line over from where I needed to be, and it led to a pretty sketchy down route that required some big jumps from one tree to another, and then a down climb and that kind of thing. And that's not something I would repeat, certainly not something I would do twice. I broke a rangeman in the process. Oh, wow. That's something. Yeah, snapped the bracelet right off at the clasp. There's just that much kind of like torque on my wrist for a moment, but no actual damage, certainly. Yeah. You know, you, you get into those scenarios occasionally. I would say that you can mitigate it like you do with diving by not being alone. Um, if, if you find that maybe you don't always make the best judgment calls out and out in the back country, you don't go alone. And then the rest is training. You know, all I had to do at that moment on, on the route to crown mountain, which is really not like a dangerous hike, even remote, it's just a hike. It's an Alpine hike, um, was slow down and look for the next trail marker. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | rather rather than assume where I was going. And then all the other times I did crown, I didn't run into that issue, but I always went past that point and said, like, wow, I walked up that that ledge like a complete psycho. So, yeah, I've witnessed some very scary things diving. I've been involved in some scary things while hiking and and I've certainly done some really dumb things in cars. So I would say try and learn from it and know your limits as much as possible. If you're looking for a tip, if you're just looking for a fun story, I'm sure I'll share more at some point in the future. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, well that's, boy, we've went through a good crop of them today. Thanks to everybody who sent in voice memos with those really thoughtful questions, and keep them coming. We left off a few that we are going to hold till next time, but do send in those voice memos. Just use the voice memo function on your phone and email the resulting sub one minute file to thegraynado at gmail.com and we'll include it in our next Q&A episode. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, and I think we'll try and do these now that we're on weekly episodes for the time being. I think we'll try and do these once a month. So you've got another month, give or take, to get your questions in and to the four or five questions that we didn't make it to this round. My apologies. Your answers will be in the next episode. You've got priorities. So it's just a running list. We really appreciate this level of interaction. And it's so nice to hear all of your voices when we're kind of cut off from the greater social environment. I think it's time for some homework and to get through this show. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. Well, I've got one that might be come out of left field here. |
| James Stacey | I love your pick. This is such a good pick. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So I'm going to suggest that everybody go out and buy some stock. This is a weird time. The markets are very volatile. I'm definitely not a financial planner or a stockbroker, as anybody who knows me would know. But it's something I remember learning back in high school. I took like a social studies class where the teacher, we did a session on, you know, the stock market and how it works. And it's always kind of stuck with me and the connection between what happens in the news and how that drives financial markets has always fascinated me. And even though things are pretty dismal and volatile in the markets these days, it actually is a very good time to get some bargains on, uh, on stock. And, uh, Ghoshani and I have been dabbling a little bit lately. And if you know where to look and you read the news and you, Don't have to invest a ton of money if you're just kind of dipping a toe in this. We're going to put up some links to a couple of sites that have advice on how you can start investing in stocks. Often it's just a matter of opening a brokerage account with any number of sites, Ameritrade, Vanguard, etc. and putting in as little as a few hundred dollars to get started and you can just buy one company's stock and maybe it's a company that you have a particular interest in, an industry that you're keen on, whether it's the car industry, aerospace, LVMH, or any of these publicly held companies that might offer stock. And you can watch it go up and down, you might be able to make a little bit of money, and hopefully you're not out too much. But if that's a little too daunting for you, you can also do virtual stock trading. So it's kind of like make-believe to practice. This website called nerdwallet.com give some tips on how you can sign up to a lot of the same brokered sites that that allow you to invest real money to use their stock market simulators to pretend that you are and just kind of see how it works. Then you can watch the ticker and see if you would have made money or not. Yeah, this is a super fun idea. Yeah. So, you know, give it a try. I mean, obviously, I'm not suggesting that, you know, in these uncertain times, you take money that might be paying your rent or buying groceries and gamble it away on the stock market. But it is an interesting time and one in which you can potentially make some money. And if nothing else, it's a good way to learn how another aspect of our world works. So try it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I would for sure definitely stick to, you know, poker money, weekend money, whatever you want to call it. Maybe this is something that a little slice of that stimulus check could go towards because it can be feel a little bit like a game. Yeah. Which is super fun. I used to do a ton of virtual trading. uh, just cause it was, it was really enjoyable. We used to have like an office, uh, growth chart. So you could kind of manage this portfolio. Uh, you know, back in the days when Netflix was $11 and Amazon was 30 bucks and it was 87 something for Apple, that sort of thing, you know, pre splits and all that kind of stuff. But it's a really fun thing to learn about. And it was also one of the first, um, adult is the wrong word. The first like mature gifts I was ever given as a kid, um, was I had shares in a company purchased for me. And I had the little certificate and I would go to the newspaper and see how it did that day. And it's really fun and it's something that you can get into and you can learn that there's different classes of stock market and you can mitigate various risks with what you choose. And I don't think you have to spend a penny to enjoy it. But if you're the type that likes to put a little bit of skin in the game, and I do mean a little bit, And I think Jason does, too. And this is something that you've never done before. Maybe identify five or six companies you already know and like. I used to only invest in tech companies because I was obsessed with it when I was in university. And and that used to be fun to track. And, you know, you try and learn how to do some forex stuff like track stock markets outside of the norm and that sort of thing. And it's it's this is a great choice, Jason, because it is something you could do for free. It's something you could do for twenty five dollars if you want, depending on the fee structure of your of your brokerage simulator or brokerage system. But yeah, I think this could be super fun. It's something that's an interesting point to say that you can watch things happen in the news and see how they reflect on your portfolio, both simulated or otherwise. Yeah. A really, really fun pick. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And you've got something that's entirely different, but equally cool. |
| James Stacey | Entirely different, but I would say in some ways, focus on future gains. So I'm saying that we hear this a lot, that when you make the transition between wanting to go on an adventure to going on an adventure, there's all these planning stages. My suggestion is try and identify what you think that next adventure will be. It could be a year from now. It could be two years from now. It could be a mountain in two years. You could be wanting to go do Baker or Rainier or Aconcagua, but it could be a long time from now. The timing's not that important. You can get through the planning now. Open up a Google note, a doc or whatever, and start learning. Start learning about what you'd have to do if you wanted to climb a great mountain or go diving to some great location or go cage diving with great whites or whatever and just start planning what you would need as far as a budget and the locale and restaurants that might be involved along the way or vehicle needs or visas or whatever you could get all of this out of the way you've got a little bit extra time in the evenings maybe you're tired of watching the same things on Netflix or you're not even going on Netflix anymore because it all seems kind of boring at a certain point There's sort of an escape to starting to develop this planning, especially if you already own some of the gear. And you could even start laying that out and taking a look at it and assessing whether or not you have everything you would need for a mountain bid or dive or something like that. And you can start looking into guide outfits or charters. And I think there's a ton to do here. And you could sink a lot of hours into planning it. And it's an investment like or possibly not like the stock market, depending on the performance of your picks. But it is an investment. And I think it's a great way to mentally think to a time when things are going to be going your way. And I think that there's some value in that. So I'm doing the same with some plans, both for the foreseeable few months, theoretically, and then something kind of bigger on the horizon. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's a great idea. I think I do it in daydream fashion all the time, but to actually sit down and make a spreadsheet or just start bookmarking websites and reading up on the skills you need or the gear you need, Uh, is a great one, you know, whether it's like you with climbing Baker or, you know, when I went to dive Hermes, I had to take a tech diving course and, and, uh, build up my gears, a gear set for that. And, uh, um, I look back on that with incredible memories and, and I'd like to do that again, whether that's an overlanding road trip in a Land Rover or whatever it might be. Um, yeah, yeah. Both, both good, solid homework ones today. I like that. |
| James Stacey | For sure. And both are going to require some, some research and both are theoretically investments in, uh, in some future, some future dividends. So, uh, that's great. And Jason, you've got kind of a fun one for final notes, so let's get right to it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So I'm suggesting that you check out Peninsula Kelp Company. It's a husband and wife team based in Northern Ireland. I think they're on the Ard Peninsula, if I'm not mistaken. Graham and his wife, I think her name is Anna, they actually free dive and harvest ocean greens. So kelp and another sort of seaweed called dulse. And they go out almost daily and they hand harvest all of these. And then they have a small shop where they sell this, but they also sell it on their website and they sell dried kelp and dried greens. And they do like sea salt that's mixed with dried greens. They have Dulse crackers. They do, Graham had just told me last week that he actually is roasting his own coffee and they sell that on the website. So it's, it's very much a small home-based business that, that they've really grown into something neat. And I have actually, we've tried their product and I've got another order on the way. The, the, the sea salt mixed with chili flakes and dried sea greens are really nice sprinkled on like scrambled eggs. Or, you know, you can cook with it. I ordered some of the crackers this time and I want to try some of his coffee You know all for like 40 bucks, and he ships it from Northern Ireland I got one of his t-shirts last time which is really cool. It's got like an old dive helmet on it and Graham's just a good guy. I've communicated with him a lot there on Instagram, and he always posts some really neat photos of Of their their daily outings to to dive for stuff. I mean if you've ever considered you know, where your food comes from. This is probably the most unique, where you get a guy actually out there free diving in the cold water off of Northern Ireland for kelp and then drying it and selling it and packaging it on his own. So neat stuff, Peninsula Kelp Company. It could also be a small brand spotlight, if you will, but check them out and give them some business if you feel inclined. |
| James Stacey | Great pick. I love that. |
| Jason Heaton | And you're revisiting demagnetizing. |
| James Stacey | I am, yeah. So I have a video and I have the demagnetizer unit, a watch demagnetizer as it is. So that's about 10 bucks for the unit, which you can also use on screwdrivers and other stuff like that if you want. But you need the video as well because there's a technique to using it. You don't just put your watch on it and press the button, that will actually magnetize the watch. further or to an extent that you probably don't want. There is a technique to using it, so you do need both parts. It's a $10 little thing you plug into the wall with a button on it and a light and a little pad, and then you need a video which shows you how to use it. So I've got both of those in the show notes. There's not that much more to say about it. Obviously, if you don't think your watches are magnetized, then who cares? Don't bother. But if this is something that you've got a watch in the drawer and you're like, this thing's magnetized, or you do the compass test and it seems pretty crazy, I would give this a run. It's not that difficult. I think the risk is pretty low. I've certainly done it with a lot of my watches for years. And yeah, it's a cheap little tool that can come in pretty handy and especially at a time when you can't get to a watchmaker anyways. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, big episode. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks to everybody for sending in the voice memos and do keep them coming as we mentioned. And thanks so much for listening. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you do have any questions for us, you can also write to TheGraynado at gmail.com in addition to sending voice memos. And please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music Throughout is siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote, which I'm actually just reading while Jason was reading that previous paragraph. And it's a little bit prescient to to what we were talking about with the, you know, the danger we've put ourselves in in the past. This quote came to us from listener Rob Hilson at Pacific Navigator. It's from the American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher Albert Hubbard, who said, every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes a day. Wisdom consists of not exceeding the limit. |