The Grey NATO - 122 - A Summary Of Summery Dive Watches

Published on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 06:00:27 -0400

Synopsis

This episode of The Graynado podcast discusses various dive watches released during the summer. The hosts, Jason Heaton and James Stacey, review and share their thoughts on several watches, including models from Mido, Blancpain, Scurfa, Doxa, Yema, Breitling, Oris, Baltic, and Seiko. They cover details like size, design, price, and unique features of each watch. The discussion ranges from affordable micro-brand offerings to high-end limited editions.

The hosts also touch on personal updates, including Jason's new newsletter platform and James' recent photography equipment purchases. They conclude with "final notes" segments, where Jason recommends the Audubon bird watching app and James shares an interesting article about the potential revival of the SR-71 Blackbird aircraft for the war on terror.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 122, and we thank you for listening. James, it feels like it's been a while since we talked. I don't know why that is. I guess we're kind of looping into this new bi-monthly format now, and it just seems like it's been ages.
James Stacey Yeah, it does kind of, and I think especially because the last episode didn't really have, you know, it was, it was amazing episode with, with Fabian and, and, and, you know, thank big thanks again to Fabian for being on the show, but it didn't have our normal, we didn't have our normal hour, hour and a half of true of chatting and kind of catching up. We, we, you know, we kind of compress that into a, into a little piece before the show. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I think the new format's going fine. I'm excited to get a, you know, when people are listening to this, that we'll be pushing in towards the end of August, certainly. And then right around the end of the month, maybe in the first couple of days of September, we'll also have our next Q&A episode, which will get us to the three episodes a month, which we had talked about in the past. But beyond that, you know, beyond the format change, how have things been the last couple of weeks for you?
Jason Heaton Oh, pretty good. It's all sort of blurring together. It's hard to believe it's the, it's the end of the summer. I mean, it's like here in the States, we've got Labor Day coming up next in like two weeks. And then that's kind of the kickoff of fall. It's, it's the August has flown.
James Stacey Sure has.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But you know, it's, it's, it's been good. We, Ghoshani and I got up north for kind of our annual visit to this shipwreck we dive up on the North Shore of Lake Superior, which was a really great day. That was last Sunday, I guess it was, and got some great photos and just enjoyed some really perfect shore diving weather. It was pretty flat, flat water conditions and a little too warm topside for suiting up into a dry suit, but hauling gear from the car down to the beach.
James Stacey You know, man, I remember a couple of times you, you, you just kind of just barely get everything on. It's, you know, maybe 90, 95 degrees as hot as it would get in, in Vancouver. Certainly not much hotter than that ever. So I remember diving Kelvin Grove with my cousin, Brendan, and several times it was one of our favorite sites. And Jason, that's where I took you as well. It's a big wall dive that you kind of start with a very shallow kind of aquarium like entry. But if you go at low tides, you've also got to get over a lot of like logs and stuff. Yeah, there's not really a beach, there's some rocks, it's a very steep. So you go down a couple of pretty steep hills and usually almost entirely fully suited because it's a real pain to do it at the shore. But I remember a couple of times I went down and you've got the dry suits really got a good hold on your neck and I would not put my hood on until I got off. So I had that kind of my arm through the hood and then my mask in there as well. You get down to the bottom, and get into, you know, enough water to put your fins on and just kind of lean forward with all this weight on you. Uh, you're not quite deep enough to, to have the BC take any weight off you. And I swear, like you just be just on the edge of tunnel vision.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that sensation though, of, of being so hot from being suited up and then you get in the water and you know, Lake Superior last weekend was 45 degrees Fahrenheit. That's nine centigrade or something. It's like immediately it just cools you right down. It was, it's nice of course. And then when you come back from the dive, you're, chilled to the bone and then you get out into that 90 degree air temp and it feels good for like another hour.
James Stacey But it really does. Yeah, it's a it's fun. It's fun also because you get the you can you can you can choose how quickly you get the chill. Yeah. If you're in a dry or if you're in a wetsuit, you can't make that decision so easily. But in a dry suit, you can just kind of you want to bring your heart rate back down so you don't breathe through a tenth of your tank on the descent. Yeah. Uh, you know, uh, so you just kind of chill at the top and let the water kind of do its thing, uh, before, before you start relying on the air and the tank and stuff. And that's, uh, what a great dive. That's one that I certainly, certainly miss. And now, now thinking of it, feel quite nostalgic for, uh, uh, a few times that, that we had some, some really, really nice deep dives. There's a great octopus in there as well.
Jason Heaton And I was thinking we, we did a couple of shore dives this summer at a couple of places where we had to hump all of our gear for a fair distance. And it made me think back to, one of your product recommendations, gosh, it might've even been last holiday season, those collapsible wagons with the big tires that you can pull around. Yeah. Mack wagons. That really would have been nice to have in the back of the Volvo to load our tanks. Although there was a set of stairs, but at least we could have gotten it close.
James Stacey They have a, like an exposed sort of framework. Yeah. So when, when you get to a set of stairs, someone takes each end. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And you could kind of hoist your way down. With that one, I would recommend spending a little bit more than I did and get the one that has locking wheels. Oh. Just so that if you have, because that's a lot of weight if you're talking about tanks and scuba weight and the gear and stuff. Yeah. And I know a couple of times I, you know, you've got a kid or maybe two kids in said wagon and you got to keep your hand on the handle because it'll take off.
Jason Heaton Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.
James Stacey Runaway tanks would not be good. Oh, yeah, for sure. But yeah, those Mack wagons, someone, a reader just wrote me not that long ago asking to clarify what those wagons were. And they're still on Amazon and still super useful for kids or tanks or groceries or whatever it is. Nice not to use the car sometimes, right? Yeah, exactly. And certainly when it comes to this scenario you're describing, it's not an option. Right, right.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so it was a good weekend. It kind of felt good to get out and have a little bit of an adventure a few hours up the road. Yeah, so I wrote that up. I started a kind of newsletter platform that you had very kindly wrote about it for the weekend update on Hodinkee this past Saturday, and I appreciated that because it's nice to get the word out. But I started this newsletter platform on a site called Substack, and I learned of this through Michael Williams. I don't know if you know him. He's from A Continuous Lean. I used to meet him occasionally on press trips for watches, and he's a He's in the PR business and he's done some work with Red Wing Shoes and dabbles in watches a little bit. But he used to have a kind of a menswear and style blog that I used to follow casually. And he stopped doing that a couple of years ago. And he recently relaunched on Substack. And I was like, what is this all about? Well, it's really kind of an old school newsletter. You get it however often the person agrees to publish. And then some of the content is free and some people pay for if they want to. And so I started doing that. about two weeks ago and published three or four articles. One of one of them was on this dive that we did and a couple of watch related things. And it's been fun. It's it's kind of neat to it to me. It feels like kind of a writing version of TGN. You know, I just sort of talk about things that I want to talk about or write about things I want to write about. So it's been fun and it's it's fun to watch the audience grow. And I've gotten a lot of feedback. It's kind of a little community with people leaving comments. And so, yeah, it's been it's been some fun so far. So thanks to everybody who who has signed up for that. I know that we've got a lot of listeners that have done that, so it's going great so far.
James Stacey Yeah, everyone, I've really been enjoying it. You know, in full transparency, Jason gifted me a subscription so I didn't have to pay the money, but I paid it forward and got a subscription for a mutual friend of ours who's a big fan of Jason's writing and Ghoshani's photography and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, I'm really impressed so far. I like it. I like that it is a little bit more TGN. You know, it's a good spot for the stuff isn't going somewhere else, but is in your brain. Yeah, right. And, uh, yeah, I was, I was tempted to, uh, I've so far not copied you by, by going down the same path, but it's, uh, I certainly don't have a single moment these days to write more than I am, but, uh, I think it's great. And if you're listening, definitely go in and at least hit the free stuff, give it a try, subscribe, see what you get for free. But the, uh, it's definitely worth, uh, the, the small amount of money that you're asking for it. So, yeah, well, thanks.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So we'll see where it goes. It's been a lot of fun. And that's great. What what's new on your end besides just tons of writing?
James Stacey Yeah. So I have by the time this comes out, theoretically, the schedule of these days is bonkers, especially with this week. We're actually going to drop this episode at a very inopportune time for growing our audience. But the core fans will know that, you know, Jason, I probably don't have a ton to say about the watches that by now will have partly been announced for Geneva watch days. You know, I think it's crazy. that there's going to be a press, like an in-person press event in Geneva with people from all over the world coming in. But that is going on. This will be a Thursday, which will be day two of three or three and a half days of the Geneva Watch Days. So, of course, if you're seeing this post on Hodinkee, there'll be posts on either side of it and all around it of new watches from all of these brands. It's been a really busy time, but certainly by the time this episode comes up, I will have had at least one of these huge pieces I've been working on come up, which would be my week on the wrist with the Seiko SPB143, which we have an entire episode on. And honestly, it also aligns with what we're talking about in the main topic of this episode. So I don't think we definitely don't need to say anything more about that watch. It's a great watch. I have it on my wrist. I like it quite a bit. But if you have any questions for me about that watch, please just read the 3,700 words I wrote for Hodinkee. I genuinely don't believe I have another five words in me about this one. It's a great watch that I'm happy with, but if you want the details, hit it there. We did the video, which was a huge labor of love to try and create that here. If you're hearing the extreme banging, that's because we had to kind of record this. during the day because my evening schedule is full with other Hodinkee work for the next couple days. So they're doing, I don't know, I think they're picking up small elephants and dropping them upstairs, something like that. I apologize for the noise. I apologize for it and I will continue to. Jason and I had been recording in the evenings and sometimes that's just not tenable. I mean, there's only There is 24 hours a day. I, you know, I I'd like to sleep for four or five of them. Uh, and, uh, and the other ones are, are, are pretty packed these days. So, uh, we're doing what we can. I apologize for some of the banging and, uh, any other sort of tool or whatever noise you might catch in the, uh, in the recording, I'll do my best to edit around it. Um, but yeah, so that, that goes up. I have another huge post, uh, even bigger than the week on the wrist that's in, in progress and has been for several months. It's a big one that we're working on and trying to source photos for and that kind of thing. It's difficult to do some of the photo stuff during this time when you can't really expect to get watches and if you can, how do you shoot them and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah, you've really had to make do with some weird scenarios. Everything from construction on the other side of the wall to a pandemic affecting watch shipments and all that kind of stuff and the video shoot and everything else.
James Stacey You'd think that the overall climate would lend itself towards a slower pace. Yeah, right. And it's just been the exact opposite. It's just been completely crazy. And then take all of that and add in Geneva Watch Days and the fact that, you know, as I'm saying this on Monday, I have no idea how many posts we will have to write kind of immediately. Oh, yeah. When the stuff comes up, some of it's embargoed and we've seen it and it's covered and that kind of thing. But a lot of these brands are kind of they're doing their own kind of video presentations and they want everything to be timed kind of with that kind of stuff. And everybody kind of has their own plan about how to launch a watch during this whole scenario. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, you have to kind of be very much responsive, uh, to that. So it's, uh, it's just been, uh, been kind of a crazy time. And I guess I'm only saying that because it's, um, I don't have a ton to talk about. Uh, like I'm not really doing that much that isn't work. I started watching Perry Mason, but I'm not far enough in into that to say, to give any conclusive. I'm four episodes in and there are four amazing episodes. Really, really good show.
Jason Heaton Good to know. I'm curious about that one.
James Stacey So far, it's really good. It's beautifully shot. It's that kind of thing. And then the other thing I will add is on a previous episode, I spoke about this Godox flash that I bought because I broke my good Canon EX flash. So I have a bunch more photography coming up in the next little while. Some stuff that's also kind of outside my normal setup where I kind of shoot most of the reviews in the same sort of format. And for that, I figured I'd actually like two flashes and some sort of a remote trigger. So I went, I figured it'd be easier at least just to price the Godox stuff. And I ended up buying, um, a higher end version of their, of the same flash I bought previously. So I had bought a TT 600 and then I bought a TT 685, which has TTL. Uh, so you can put it right on a Canon and it does all the metering and everything and gives you a good estimation. And I'm not a huge user of TTL. I like just a simple power control. But the fun thing is the way that that technology actually crosses over with their trigger and allow me maybe five minutes of geeking out on the camera. But the trigger is this kind of pod that you connect into the hot shoe of any camera, any camera that's really not a Sony. This one will work with for the most part. And the triggers essentially It's a blended kind of smart and dumb device smart in that it can see the TTL reading from the main flash, but it allows you to control from wherever I'm standing. I can put these flashes pretty far away, a hundred feet away or something. If you, for whatever reason, if you wanted to, and then you can control the power of each flash using its own little network. Yeah. And it's super easy, super straightforward, not very expensive. Certainly all of this gear. that I bought was cheaper than renting the Canon stuff for a couple of days. Yeah. Just to give you a comparison, not buying the Canon, obviously it's a fraction of the cost of buying the Canon, but it was cheaper than renting it to go this route. And the cool thing is, is you can actually take a TTL reading on the smart flash, the flash that does TTL.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then paste that to all of the flashes in the control group. And then with one button, drop them all back to manual. Huh. So that thing where you start to learn a room and where the light is going and all that kind of stuff, you skip like the first 10 minutes. Oh, sure. Yeah. So you just let the flash read the room through the camera, take a test shot. If you're kind of like, okay with it, you click one button and it puts those settings to all the flashes it can do. And then you can just click it back into manual. They all go to manual, which means you can very easily dial one up or down. to kind of change the intensity. Sure. It's anyways, a super clever, um, for not being that clever. I, I all told I'm, I'm pretty impressed. It's probably less than 150 bucks, uh, for the trigger and the additional flash. Uh, I got a couple of lamp stands, some umbrellas, that sort of thing for shooting more difficult subjects. And, uh, and yeah, that's, that's basically what I've been up to is in, in, in my quote unquote free time, uh, just kind of listening to donut media's past gas podcast. And, uh, and trying to teach myself how to use a kind of multi-strobe trigger setup. I've been impressed so far. It's really fun to learn something kind of new and kind of sample slightly different pieces of photography. You know, so much of what I've done previously is either, you know, with a supply, like a natural light or with a single flash. And I usually use like white paper, like cardstock to bounce the light around, to fill in the dark spots. This is a little bit more intense, but it also feels a little bit more customizable and a little bit more flexible and you can kind of have different effects with it, which is, which is cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. That's cool. It reminds me, I know when Ghoshani was doing more studio shooting in the basement here, she uses a, we bought a pocket wizard makes a kind of a similar. Yeah. They make a super popular one.
James Stacey Yeah. I think that's hot. That's higher end than the Godox stuff for sure.
Jason Heaton But I think we still have that kicking around, but we aren't using it much anymore, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty cool. It's almost like magic that you can trigger all this stuff and set everything from one one main unit, so.
James Stacey Yeah, and not having to walk from one to the other to check on it.
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacey It all updates. Yeah. Like there's a screen on the controller that shows you the power of every flash and you can just, you can shut a flash off from there. You don't have to walk over and turn it off. It's all, it's cool. Yeah. When you're shooting watches and everything's within about your arm's length, it's less important. Right. But, um, you know, as I've explained previously, when I shoot with one camera flash off camera, I use a cable. So there's no ability to go no elegant ability to go to two cables. Yeah. It'd be, I guess you could maybe do that. Maybe somebody makes that, maybe I could wire it myself. Um, but then you're super manual where you're, you gotta, you have to do everything at that point. And this, this is a little bit more elegant, you know, uses roughly the same number of batteries, which is always a concern and, and that kind of thing. But, uh, yeah, should be, should be flexible. I'll report back if people care, uh, if I don't hear that people care, I won't mention it anymore, but I was impressed by their stuff. This isn't an ad they've, I bought it on Amazon. It's been good so far. Normally, I'm pretty scared of the cheap stuff. Yeah. But the flashes, you know, if a flash is powerful enough, it's powerful enough. I don't need any of the, or I guess in this case, I need very little of the smart features. Yeah. So they work kind of like a normal studio strobe where you're setting the power.
Jason Heaton Sure. Well, this reminds me, you know, speaking of lighting resources or solutions, in terms of underwater photography, if anyone is interested, Uh, you know, for years we were using, uh, just kind of wired strobes on the underwater housing that we use. And, uh, we decided we would try constant video lights, um, to see if they would be powerful enough to mimic what you can get with strobes without having to fiddle around with, you know, adjusting the strobe strength underwater and the ability to focus in darker conditions. And, you know, there's some really high end, uh, strobes from a brand called Keldon or video lights from a brand called Keldon and they're super expensive. And I came across this other brand called Kraken that are just a fraction of the price and they've got a new version out that each one is a 15,000 lumens, which is incredibly bright. Wow. Like blinding, blindingly bright. And so we've used it on two dives this summer and they're fantastic. And there's even a small port where you can actually wire in a strobe cable and it will fire Not TTL or not really adjustable, but it'll fire at one and a half times that 15,000 lumens as a as an actual strobe if you want it to but that's clever they've turned out to be a really great solution for us because you can also shoot video you just crank them up on high and even a You know a couple weeks ago at you know 70 feet deep and pretty dark lake water They were I mean I couldn't even look at gashani. She was aiming the camera at me and She'd have to tilt it away or down to give me direction to do something because it was like super bright. So if anyone's interested in a fairly affordable underwater lighting solution, I would highly recommend Kraken. We've used their lights for just kind of wrist torches for diving at night and stuff, but their video lights are spectacularly good and really long battery life.
James Stacey Really good. What was that? What was the name of the other brand that they use? It's like a bright pink or purple case.
Jason Heaton The Keldons. Yeah. The Keldons. Yeah.
James Stacey There's some guys on, um, on my Clipperton expedition that were running, running Keldons. And every time I thought I had lost my team. Yeah. I just look around. Yeah. You just look around. There's somebody just blinding. You can see your own shadow at times during the daylight. Those Keldons are crazy. They, And I was like, oh, how bright are they? He's like, well, you can't turn them on if you're not underwater. Yep. Cause they just melt or light on fire or something. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cool. I like that. That's fine. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey So that's, that's rad. I like it.
Jason Heaton Well, enough, enough lighting geekery. We should jump into our main topic here, but before we do, you are correct me if I'm wrong. I think I heard you say you're wearing the Seiko SPB one.
James Stacey I am. Yeah. For the wrist check. There's not much to add. We did a whole episode on it by now. The week on the wrist is up. I think I'm actually now, just allowed to be an owner of the watch. I don't have to do anything more with it. But yeah, I'm wearing my SPB 143, a.k.a. the SBDC 101. And I actually threw it on a green Hallios strap, and it's kind of perfect. I'm not outside and sweating a bunch today. I'm sitting inside in A.C. and nice to wear something that's not a rubber strap, which is what I've been going with for a while. And how about you?
Jason Heaton Yeah, so a friend of mine, recommended this new waffle strap from Watch Gecko. It's called their Seacroft Waffle Strap. And, you know, Watch Gecko makes that great Rubbernado that you and I both like, the Zulu Diver. For sure, the Zulu Diver. So I ordered this waffle strap. It's a 22 millimeter strap. You can get it in 20, I believe, as well. But I put it on my SRP 777, the Turtle. And, of course, it's modeled after one of Seiko's original rubber straps, and it works perfectly on the watch. It's great. It's soft. You know, I had a waffle strap that Seiko used to make for that Marine Master 300 years ago and cool strap, but boy, was that stiff rubber. I remember having to boil water and like curl it and then pre-curl it. And like, if you put it in boiling water, it'll stay that way. This one, you don't need to do that. It's supposed to have a nice sort of silicone blend. It has that vanilla smell. It's a really, really, really high quality rubber strap. And I recommend it for anyone looking for a good waffle rubber. But yeah, other than that, I ordered some new straps from Haviston. So Haviston makes those kind of thicker, colorful NATOs and nylon straps out of the UK. And they kind of teased out a photo on Instagram of this one they call the Sabre, which is modeled after the color scheme of the F-86 Super Sabre jet from the 60s and 70s. And just a neat strap. I'm not usually for a lot of color on my NATOs, but this is a really, really nice sort of gray, yellow with some thin black stripes that go really well with the Aqudive Poseidon that I have. And then while I was at it, I ordered one of their kind of shinier parade NATOs in an olive drab and then a canvas. It was my first canvas strap, believe it or not. Oh, nice. They have this M1943 canvas, which is actually not a NATO. It's not a two-piece strap. It's one of those single pass straps. And so that looks really good on a number of watches.
James Stacey So I'm really pleased with that. Well, what do you think we maybe just bounce right into the main topic?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's do it. I mean, we're, we're, we're kind of nearing the end of summer, as I mentioned at the top of the show, but you know, it's a good time to kind of look back and recap all these amazing dive watches. I mean, what a year for dive watches. Just amazing.
James Stacey Yeah, I agree. It's been, it's been a crazy year for dive watches. You know, I've joked on the Hodinkee podcast and in other places, you know, hot dive watch summer is a real thing. It just seemed like there was a confluence of everybody wanting to put out a dive watch that was a little bit more realistic in its sizing, in some cases very realistic in pricing, and in some cases just kind of a special thing that you didn't expect. And I think at this one, obviously we've spoke at length about the Doxa Carbon, the Zen U50, the Tudor Black Bay 58 Blue, and the SPB 143. But there are so many more. So if you want to hear about those, go listen to the last 10 episodes where we rambled on. Me, I rambled on a lot about all of those watches. But with this, I think there's been some stuff even since the last thing we recorded. There were some fun developments in this space. Jason, why don't you pick one of interest from the list? We've got a list here. I don't think we're going to get to everything. I think that we'll, uh, we'll miss something. And if, if, if, if the dive watch of your liking, or if you're fancy of your interest is, isn't on the list, feel free to let us know, uh, the great NATO at gmail.com of course. Uh, but Jason, why don't you kick it off with a pick from what I think is a pretty solid list of what we kind of haven't covered enough in the last few months.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it is an amazing list and I'm wishing that we could see more of these. So a lot, you know, most of these items we haven't even touched and so it's a little hard to kind of do a review sort of thing, but I'm impressed with a number of these. One of them that I'm not sure I would own, but I think was a really neat and kind of bold release was that Mido Ocean Star Decompression Timer. 1961 they called it. That's the official name. Um, this is a, just a really funky watch that, uh, um, is known as the rainbow diver. I had to double check because you know smarter people than me said that the colorful dials on watches were really didn't come out till the late 60s. Well this one is a tribute to a 1961 watch that Mido released that has this funky rainbow hued decompression scale in the middle of the dial and the original had more of an engraved steel bezel and what they did with this reissue is fitted it with more of a standard you know white markings on a black insert bezel, and they pair it with this mesh bracelet. It's just cool, and I think it's popular. I think people really like this watch. I've never really been that keen about the vintage version. You know, they pop up for sale, and people, oh, you know, they go for a lot of money, and people really want them, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. But the more I look at it, it's a really sharp watch, and it's very affordable. It's like $1,250, I think, is the price.
James Stacey Yeah, I'm not sure offhand what the price is because I'm on Mito's website in Canadian dollars.
Jason Heaton No, I'm looking at the U.S. website. Yeah, $1,250. Pretty incredible. All right. Yeah.
James Stacey Well, that makes the Canadian price of $1,375 pretty good. Yeah. They have not adjusted correctly for currency. But for those who are listening and don't know the watch we're talking about, it's not going to be hard for you to find. It's got all sorts of color on the dial, certainly, but it's 40.5 millimeters wide like the Seiko that I am so in love with. It has kind of a it's 21 millimeter lugs, which especially if you like to change your straps a lot, it's going to be a little bit of a bummer. The one millimeter has never been a deal breaker for me, but I don't know that I've ever kept long term a watch with nonstandard lug sizing like 18, 20, 22. They don't, of course, nobody, no brands do. No big brands do list the lug to lug, but the case thickness is 13.4, which is totally acceptable to 200 meter dive watch a sapphire crystal. And then it uses Mito's version of the ETA CO7-621, which means you get an 80-hour power reserve, which is pretty sweet. And it also, the other one to talk about, because Mito's done a bunch of work recently on the Ocean Star lineup, which includes this limited edition 1961 decompression timer, but is not at all limited to that. The other one that I think is worth taking a peek at is the Ocean Star Tribute. Yeah. Obviously, I think at some point we should have a chat about newer GMT watches because they also make an Ocean Star GMT, which has a true kind of flyer style GMT with an independently adjusted hour hand, local jumping hour hand, but it's quite a bit larger. And I think it's one thing, it's cool that maybe Ed has developed this movement, and I assume that also means that it's gonna pop up in you know, maybe Rado's and Tiso's and that sort of thing. And we'll keep an eye on that, but we're aware of this thing. It's just, you know, the new Ocean Star GMT, I believe is 44 millimeters wide, which just kind of instantly makes it something that I'm not that interested in, even if it does have the movement that I kind of dig. You know, they're 44 millimeters. They're only 13.2 millimeters, 13.3 millimeters thick. And they're certainly very handsome watches, but I would love to see it basically in the same format they established with the watch I just mentioned, Ocean Star Tribute, which I think is 990 Swiss francs if I am doing my math correctly. I'm seeing 12.50 Canadian. It comes in black or blue. I'm seeing 11.50 U.S., yeah. Good price. Oh, there you go. 11.50, okay. So 11.50 U.S., this again is 40.5 millimeters, 21 millimeter lugs, 200 meter water resistance, and a case height of a little less than 13.5 millimeters. And I think it The thing that stands out here for me is one, the bracelet looks pretty cool. It's one of these really fine multi-links, almost a mesh bracelet. But I think the watch itself is gorgeous. The Day-Date, you get the 80-hour power reserve. I think the blue looks killer. It's got an orange second hand.
Jason Heaton Yeah, they kept it nicely restrained. I mean, there's very little text on the dial. It kind of reminds me a bit of the DOXA Sub 200 that kind of came out earlier this year. It's kind of in that same feel, same price range, same size. But I would argue this is sharper. I don't know. I like it. I really like it.
James Stacey I mean, there's less color options, but it's also it's a millimeter and a half smaller, which is considerable. Yeah. The docks being 42 millimeters is a solid watch and one that I like. But there's something that I really dig about this Mito. I think it's and it's also fun to see brands like like Mito kind of operate at this at like at this price point that they know really well. Yeah. But in a space that that is a little bit more open to more enthusiasts, a 40 millimeter dive watch. And it has a little bit of vintage styling, but it's not too overdone. Certainly on the blue, the loom and the markings are all white, which is pretty cool. I think that they did a good job with this. I'd be excited to see them take this case and put the GMT movement in it. I think you'd have a pretty compelling watch at less than $1,500 at that point that wouldn't really have any peers, like I said about the Black Bay GMT back in the day, you know, that just a strong functionality and kind of ready to go. So all told, well done Mito would be would be the kind of tone, right tone from this one, you know, between the between the the decompression timer limited edition and this Ocean Star Tribute and in some ways that GMT, the Ocean Star GMT, I think they're doing really well. And, you know, it's always nice to see more brands making dive watches that I think people would actually like to buy, especially because, you know, Mido is not a brand you see super commonly in the North American space. Yeah. So this is great. I would say well done to them. Let me see for the next one. Let's stick in a, you know, similar ish. Let's see what we got here. Actually, let's let's swing for the fences. Did you see this? The Bathyscaph Macaran? Ellie. I'm probably not saying that right. I did. This is that green dial version of the 38 millimeter. Yeah. And a green bezel.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I'm not a fan. I have to say. I mean, of course, I have I have a Bathyscaphe, the Hodinkee edition. I think what's always troubled me about the Bathyscaphe watches in general is these tiny little markers. And I'm not as keen on that hand set. The green is cool. I mean, I like it. I like a good green watch.
James Stacey Yeah, I think for me, it's the color. I wrote this one up. I do think that the 38 millimeter you know, no date option is their best one, but that the markers do look kind of weird. Yeah. A little bit too small. Yeah. Um, and it could be, it's, it's could be one of those things. I don't remember the last time I saw one of these, this size in person, it might simply be better in person, um, where you have so, so much of the ratio of the marker is the metal surround, right. Which may or may not show up that well in photos versus the, you know, the white of the luminous element is pretty much a fixed thing. Yeah. So who knows? But I do really like the green and I like the project it's supporting. It's an LE of 50 pieces, so I don't actually feel that bad talking about such an expensive watch. But $1,000 of each one is going to the Macaran Protection Society, which is a nonprofit that works in protecting great hammerhead populations in French Polynesia. And I think it's a really cool looking thing. There's something about the color of the loom and the brightest tone of the green. in the images that they shared that I thought looked pretty cool. And I like that a company kind of as big as Blancpain in terms of market share, not even market share, like just mental share, like Blancpain is a high-end watch brand by anybody's measure, is operating in French-Polynesian great hammerhead protection. It's fun. And it's got a display case back. It's got a fantastic movement. If for whatever reason your exceedingly interested in seeing one of these, getting one on your wrist. They are 15 grand. Yeah. So not the normal sphere of what we talk about on the show. But I think an interesting thing and a nice kind of, you know, we've got some high and some low happening in this episode for sure. Right. But I think this is a pretty cool watch. I love the idea of a ceramic case dive watch that has these sorts of the green is just I think it's the green. Yeah. So fun.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I love it. Well, let's go to the other end of the spectrum, um, with kind of a favorite of a favorite brand of ours. And that is Scurffa. Uh, you know, we had Paul Scurfield on the show last year, the year before he's a saturation commercial diver, uh, out of the UK. And he started this little watch brand, um, in his downtime. And, uh, every year he releases what he calls the MS edition. So the MS 20 is the one we're talking about here that came out earlier this year and it sold out. I mean, it's, it's gone. Unfortunately, I would have loved to have gotten my hands on one of these, um, This is a titanium case, 40 millimeters again, you know, the magic number that we seem to be talking about a lot this year. Looks so good on a NATO strap. He does provide it with a rubber strap, which I've seen they actually have for sale on our friend UTE watches or formerly Toxic NATO. He partnered with Scurfa on these rubber straps and they're really superb rubber straps if anyone's looking for a good one. 500 meter water resistance. You know, these watches are just They look like an old CWC or they look like, um, you know, any of the old military spec, which is what the MS stands for military spec divers, uh, for the Royal Navy. And, uh, just, just really superb. He does, um, he does mainly quartz movements, which I think for what he's making is perfect. You know, this is a proper, you know, tool watch. You can, you can bang it up and you legitimately take it diving. He's taken it in the, the dive habitat when he goes to work in the North Sea. And these are exceedingly tested watches by the man himself. And one of the few watches that probably has a justifiable helium release valve on it. So I agree.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, we had Paul on episode 90, if you want to go back and listen to that, like Jason had mentioned. And since then, I've been keeping like a closer eye. and I saw this and I was like, Oh man, do I need a, do I need to type another dive watch? I like these, but it would be like a good portion that would just be wanting to support Paul and what he's up to. So I think one eventually I got, I do really like their, the D1 500, which has a yellow dial. I don't have a yellow dialed watch. It has a steel style bezel up, which I think is pretty cool. Yeah, he makes some great stuff. It was a fantastic interview and a fascinating guy. And like you said, the only guy who I'm OK with seeing the helium escape valve on the watch. You know, it's not there for marketing. Yeah. All right, let's pick another one here. Well, yeah, why don't we get to another watch that, you know, there are versions that are both colorful and not. The new Doxa 300. So this is kind of a big one. This is one that actually, you know, was announced after we recorded the previous episode. Otherwise it definitely would have been something that we chatted about then. Um, because obviously Jason and I have, have waxed poetic and otherwise about the, uh, our love of the 50th anniversary models, uh, of which this is essentially another edition of that's not limited.
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacey I mean, you could almost say we've done hands on with this because we both, yeah, I mean, they're not going to be hugely different. Uh, I agree with that in, um, in concept, I have the list of what is different right here. Oh, yeah. So for this new sub 300 COSC, which is what they're calling it, and to be clear, what we're talking about is the difference between the new sub 300 and the sub 350th anniversary editions from 2017. So this new model has an orange fish on the crown, regardless of dial color. metric system versus the imperial system on the bezel. You get a super Luminova C3 versus what was called a light old radium in color way. So it wasn't a C3. Theoretically, that means the lume will be better on these new models, which is great because it's not exactly fantastic on the 50th. New typography in terms of the Doxil logo, where it says automatic, where it says 300 and the model name. a change of color on the seconds and minute hand, and then a new rubber strap and some new colors, including the navy blue, the yellow, and the turquoise. And I believe the Shark Hunter gets a different hour hand, which isn't down this list here, but I believe that's the case. So that's the list from DOXA. We get a fair number of messages asking us to tell you the difference between one DOXA or another. And I mean, while I think that maybe highlights a problem, in terms of the communication level at their lineup. The big thing is, you know, this is essentially an extension of what was previously a limited edition model. And, you know, Jason and I both own these models. And I guess it's kind of a bummer, but I guess I didn't buy it because it was limited. But I guess if you did, that's going to be like you have sort of a problem. I bought it because it was my favorite Doxa. Right. with the SeaRambler and have been very happy with it. And it doesn't really bother me that they're making more. They cost the same money. So it's not like I paid 500 bucks more than I had to or something like that. But yeah, I think if you bought it because it was limited, then I could see you having an issue with that. But I would also remind you that like this is fairly common among brands that do limited editions. You know, Grand Seiko does this pretty frequently where they'll put out a LE and then a little while later they'll put out something that's not an LE that's pretty similar. In this case, there are little changes and more dial colors. I still want to live in a world where we have DOCSIS, so I wish them nothing but success with their lineup. And I also think, you know, Jason and I talked about it when the watch first was announced, it's a watch they have to make. Right. It's basically the distilled, it's the black coffee. on the menu. It's the thing that almost everyone who sits down at the counter is going to want to experience what they're about. Beyond that, yeah, like I said, I guess I kind of feel for people who are upset about the LE not LE thing, but I'm not that worried about it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm not sure what they could have done differently. And while I do feel for people with the LE that bought it because of that, I also am happy for the people that always wanted one of those and because they were so limited now they can actually get one. I don't know what the solution would have been from Doxa if maybe the only thing they could have done is release all the other colors except for the three colors of the original. You know, the yellow, the turquoise or aquamarine they're calling it, the Caribbean, the blue, which I think is a really beautiful color on this watch. Yeah, I'm about that one. But yeah, it's, it's by far their most desirable model. I think Doxa has kind of a limited space in which to play. I think they might be, I don't want to say they painted themselves into a corner, but like there is only so much you can do with, with their format of dive watch with that bezel and that handset. So, you know, I'm not sure where they'll go next, but there is a fair amount of confusion around the different watches they have. They've got a, you know, the sub, 300, the sub 300T, the sub 1500, and the sub 4000, and the sub 200. And I think they all kind of start to blend together if you're not really dialed into the nuances between them. But I would encourage you to just go visit their website and just compare the specs.
James Stacey Yep. So the one that we get a lot is what's the difference between the 50th anniversary and the 300T, or now the 300 and the 300T. And in many ways, I think it's easier just to think of a 300T as being a 1200. Yeah. Yeah. The big difference is the water resistance, and it's a slightly different case shape. So it wears a bit bigger, it wears a bit thicker, and it uses a flat crystal, so it doesn't have quite the same sort of vintage effect. And then if you pull it up on your computer and just look at the two dials, the dials are a little bit different. The markers are a bit different, the colorways are kind of massaged in a different direction. They are absolutely very similar watches, but also to all the people who have written in to ask us what the difference is, it's pretty clearly stated on the website. You know, the big thing that even Doxa has said with this 300, the new series, is that the case shape, you know, is a little bit thinner and a little bit more curved, and it sits on the wrist a little bit better than you might find with something like 300T, but obviously with the T you're getting vastly more water resistance. So it is kind of up to you. It's a little bit more modern of an expression of Doxa's sort of look, while still, at least from a website level, looking like essentially the exact same watch. I would say with all that, again, if you have questions with it, you can always send them to us. I can't offer a lot more difference between the two at this point. I have not handled the T or the new 300. Obviously, we've talked a lot about the 50th anniversaries, but it is something I wanted to cover in this kind of list of summer dive watches, because I think the 300 is a fairly notable announcement for docks ahead. But with what we've just said out of the way, we can move on. Yeah. What are you feeling?
Jason Heaton Well you know there's this watch that I get questions about a lot and I'm sure you do too. It's the Yema. Yema Superman 63. It's on our list. I have never handled a Yema in so far as the current generation of ownership of that brand. I have this old Yema Bipole Duopoly Antarctica watch from the late 80s which is more of kind of a quirky vintage piece. But you know since the brand was relaunched a few years back they've been kind of cranking out some interesting dive watches. And I think the latest one is this Superman Heritage 63, which is a limited edition for, they're pricing it at $1,199 US. Um, you know, it just feels like there are a lot of watches from, uh, you know, that, that draw inspiration from this early sixties time, all kind of around the similar size. This one is 39 millimeters. So again, that, that real sweet spot, 13 millimeters thick. Uh, the dial looks, very similar to another watch that we love, which is the Oris Diver 65.
James Stacey Yeah, especially those key hour markers. Right, right.
Jason Heaton So who knows? I'm sure there were several brands back then that were doing similar stuff, but it's a sharp looking watch. I just can't comment at all about the quality or anything else with this one.
James Stacey Yeah, I've had... So way, way, way back, we're talking the better part of 12, 13, 14 years ago, I had what was called a Yema Sea Spider. which is a pretty cool watch, one that I really liked. I had it for a little while. It was one of the few times where I made an absolute killing on a watch as well. It's a Seiko-based watch in terms of its tech and where the crown is, the movement. But otherwise it was produced by Yemen. It had this kind of like complex dial design. I had a blue dial example, and I remember getting really excited about them when I first found them on the poor man's watch forum way back in the day. And I bought one, I had it for a while, really liked it. It was just kind of like this nice small, almost like a weird blend of citizen aesthetic and Seiko. I liked it, and then it had kind of a twin crown design, which was cool, and I listed it on Watch You Seek, and it sold for four times or five times what I bought it for back in the day, which it wasn't a lot of money. Yeah. It was less than the cost of a new Yema Superman 63, I think is probably what I sold it for, but it was just more than I had paid for it, and I remember thought like, oh yeah, Well, you know, I'm on to something here and then I never saw another one. I've never seen another. I don't think they were that that common. And then back in the watch report days, I remember they sent a couple of watches or their PR agency in the U.S. sent a couple of watches my way, and I wasn't super impressed with them. They sent some and a couple were OK and a couple weren't just in terms of like general build quality, fit fitment issues, that sort of thing. Yeah. And honestly, that experience has kind of led me to like not hunt the brand down a lot. But the Superman 63 seems to have a very good kind of like crowd opinion. They come up on watch, you see him. I think they're a good looking watch, certainly. So if the opportunity comes up, I'd be happy to check one out. But I knew that it would eventually be the kind of thing where we've already gotten, you know, some messages about it. And if we didn't bring it up on this episode, it would be more messages.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm just kind of looking through their features. And so this one uses the Swiss Salida movement, when I think Recent ones have also used a Miyota movement. So this one's got the Swiss movement and then it's got this slightly domed sapphire bezel, which is neat. And the one feature that is kind of distinctive about Yamaha divers that I've seen is this bezel lock mechanism, which is a three o'clock. It's like this little frame that locks down on the bezel so it can't be turned. And you know, over the years there've been so many of these kind of bezel locking gadgets that brands have used and this is kind of their trademark one, but it's kind of strange that you have to actually unscrew the crown in order to release that lock from the bezel. I mean, certainly not something you want to be doing underwater, but I think it's more of a historical nod than anything functional.
James Stacey Yeah, and then if you end up on their website, you'll notice that like the Heritage 63, the Superman 63 is only one dial variation. They have a handful of others. So if you don't want one that kind of has the Oris style 12 six and nine markers. Just the standard heritage has a pretty sharp dial and a nice look as well. Eventually I'm sure we'll get a chance to see those in person. Another one I haven't seen in person, but I can't decide if the design is warming up for me at all is the new Breitling Superocean Heritage 57. I think by the time this episode comes out, Breitling will have announced some new watches and, you know, around the Geneva watch days and the rest of it. So I figured it was worth... I remember these were big when they came out. They have that cool kind of funky rainbow limited edition one. Yeah. I haven't quite decided how I warm up to the markers on the bezel. I know that they are, you know, a direct inspiration from, you know, a model from 1957. What do you think on these?
Jason Heaton I like all of them except the rainbow one. I mean, I think, you know, hats off to them for trying that. And I think, you know, that's just personal taste. But in terms of the aesthetics of the standard black or blue dial and bezel versions, I've always been a fan. I like that really kind of concave, artsy looking markers and the big, bold pointer hand for the hour. And then that concave bezel is just so cool. I mean, I've liked that on the Rado Captain Cook as well, but, uh, yeah, great. My only quibble is, you know, why did they, why limit it to a hundred meters? I mean, you know, they're trying to make it more of a, less of a true dive watch and kind of more of a surf piece. That's kind of how they were marketing it a little bit, but like, is it that hard to make a crown screw down and, and make it a 200 meters? I don't know, but you know, that's a small thing. I mean, most people don't, don't care about that, but I love the look.
James Stacey I would agree with that. They're 42 millimeters, about 10 millimeters thick, which is great for a dive watch. And maybe that's why it's 100 meters instead of 200. I don't know. 200 would have made sense to me, certainly. I really love, you scroll through some of the photos, the way the light hits those bezels, because it's never the same. They're very sort of dynamic. And some guys I follow on Instagram have them, and they seem to be loving them. And the blue one I like quite a bit, and especially on leather, it's a 100-meter dive watch, so why not? Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a cool thing. It'll be interesting to see if they port it to a smaller size like they have with other Super Ocean Heritage, but I think 42 is probably right. It's so much bezel in terms of size. I wonder how it wears compared to something like a DOXA with that big you know, that super wide bezel and smaller dial. Um, yeah, that'll be a fun one to see eventually when, uh, when, you know, scenarios permit, uh, but a cool watch. Nonetheless, I just, uh, I think it's one of the things I might have to see in person, especially for those markers, those kind of, the UFO style markers. Right.
Jason Heaton Well, we have a couple more on the list, um, that we probably don't need to go in too much detail about because they've been covered. fairly extensively on Hodinkee and we've talked a little bit about them. I had written up a review of the Carey's Fort Limited Edition Oris. This is one that I put on the list because I want to see it. I think it looks cool. Yeah. Beautiful watch. I had it here for a couple of weeks earlier this summer and like I said, reviewed it for Hodinkee. I mean, the Aquus isn't my favorite Oris dive watch format, but the Oris, the Aquus GMT, I adore. I mean, I love this watch. I remember when they first came out with the Aquos GMT, I was just wowed by it. I love the clever kind of internal 24-hour ring on the inside of the dial with the hand. And then they also have the rotating 24-hour bezel, two-tone. This one is black and blue. The dial, you know, AORUS does such a beautiful job with blue on their dials. And the one I had was on a bracelet, but it also comes in that really great supple rubber strap. But, you know, of course you can't use any NATOs or aftermarket straps given their kind of funky, narrow strap attachment mechanism, but great watch. You know, we love ORUS and this one particularly was a real highlight for this summer for me.
James Stacey Yeah, and the other one that I think kind of got maybe a little bit drowned by other watches, other watch news and everything is that Holstein LE, the fully bronze chronograph. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I have one here which I'll be photographing and doing a hands-on so I'll save my full thoughts for that eventual post but I think it's such a cool thing to just go full bronze, like just lean into the effect of the bronze. The one I have I think has been loaned to a couple other people so it already has some kind of patina forming on it. I'm giving it some time in my environment to increase that for the photos. And I think it's such a good looking watch. It's a big watch, but I think it's big kind of like with a reason. And I don't think it's big just because that was the design brief was like we want to make a big watch because people want big watches or something like that. I think it's big, but it wears well. And I love the matching dial and the kind of all around gold tone of it. is super fun. And then, yeah, a limited edition is pretty fun. And I'm excited to kind of spend more time with that once a few of these other kind of projects clear off the slate.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Diver 65 chronograph look anyway. And aesthetically, the full bronze isn't quite my thing, but I would love to see it age. I would love to see that the whole, you know, the whole bracelet, the case, the bezel, everything turned kind of a funky blue-green hue after wearing it. That'll be really fun to see.
James Stacey Yeah, and then not trying to slow the pace at all, let's keep moving to another watch. I think the other one we've got on the list is one neither of us have seen, but is also bronze, very bronze, and that's the Baltic Aquascaf in full bronze.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah, that's a fun one. I mean, Baltic, I think you've spent some time with... The steel version of this watch, correct. Yeah, and I remember meeting Etienne in Basel a couple of years ago when he was kind of... I don't think he had launched the divers yet, he still had just the chronographs and... I really like what he's doing. He has a real eye for design. For sure. And this is really sharp and he's got it on kind of a tropic style strap. And again, you know, it's funny because I'm not a full gold guy and when you look at a really bronzy watch, it can look like a rose gold or something. But I just love the concept of bronze in general. I think it's such a neat material that this is great. And I don't know the, I guess I'm looking at the website and it's 625 euros. that translates into what looks like $739.68 US, which for a full bronze watch is a really neat price, really good price for that.
James Stacey Yeah, I think it's a great looking thing. I also think they recently did a version with a steel 12-hour bezel that's super rad, well, very much in my wheelhouse, but 39 millimeters, 10 millimeters thick, just 47 millimeters lug to lug with drilled lugs. I mean, this is like an enthusiast brand for like they get it. They hit those little points that other brands you kind of have to trade like playing cards. Sometimes you get the hand you want, sometimes you don't. With these Baltic stuff, you're just you're buying from someone who's making them because they just love a very kind of specific thing within the watch space. And they're popular for that reason. I think the bronze one is a great looking watch. The blue and the bronze work so well together. The pricing seems super fair to me. And I was pretty impressed with the with the steel one that I had. I mean, a better part of a year and a half ago, I guess.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's funny, you know, I picked up on eBay. There was a skin diver magazine from October of 67 or 68. And I bought it because it has an article in it about dive watches. It was this exhaustive review of all the dive watches available that year. Wow. And looking through the list and looking at all the photos that they had in this list, in this article, there were so many brands that I'd never heard of, all these little kind of, I suppose, the micro brands of that day. And when I was looking at that, I thought, you know, this is, this is like the era we live in now. I mean, you, you wonder, you know, Baltic and Yemen, you know, et cetera, et cetera. Um, nothing's changed. I mean, there, there were a lot of small brands making really cool watches back then. Um, and that's what I like about a brand like Baltic. I think they're kind of in that same spirit, making something affordable that someone can still go and use. And this one's great. I mean, 39 millimeters, 12 millimeters thick. That's, So wearable for so many people. Yeah, for sure. And with that great design.
James Stacey So yeah, well done with with the Baltic and for anyone who snapped one up, good on you. I'm sure there are a lot of fun. The last one that we have on the list, and like we said, this isn't like an exhaustive list. It's just what we came up with. Let us know in an email if you think we really missed out on something or there's something we should take a look at. But the last one on the list is kind of an obvious one. You know, I kind of put my flag in the sand with the SPB 143, but this is the new Willard, the SPB 151 or 153. Seiko went real hard when it came to these watches. They made a small watch that is like kind of ready for anyone, which we've talked a lot about. And then this new Willard, you know, they went for a kind of a specific thing. And for me, this is one I haven't seen in person. Cole Pennington, who we've had on the show, our colleague at Hodinkee, he has one and is absolutely loving it. And it looks great on his wrist and he's taking it spearfishing and other really cool stuff. uh, you know, real coal stuff, which I, which I like, and I'm basically kind of waiting for his review. Um, because I know that he's a, he's a, a six one Oh five guy. He's a vintage Seiko guy, especially when it comes to the dive watches. So I think he's the right guy to, to kind of take it through its paces and, and provide some perspective outside of the fact that the watch is somehow connected to a movie that a lot of people have never seen and don't understand why, why anyone would call it the Willard or, or otherwise, uh, you know, From a bird's eye view, I think it looks very similar to an SRP 777 or the new King Turtles. So I think when you're talking about the price point that doubles the MSRP, that's why I want to wait and hear what Cole has to say about it. If they kind of hit the same points that the SPB 143 and that line does, then I get it. But I think that needs to be framed by someone who has you know, kind of a, a direct understanding of, of where this watch came from and why maybe some of these changes were made from the original design.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, this is one of those watches when it was announced, I was convinced I was going to, yeah, you were hot on it. I was going to place an order. And then the safari came, which is another one we don't really need to talk about. Cause we've talked about quite a bit since I bought one, but that's another one from this summer. Um, but looking at this one, every time I look at it, um, and think to myself, should I get it? And then I put on my SRP Turtle, and I'm like, it's so close. I mean, the vibe, the feel of it is just so similar, and I'm like, eh, you know. And to be honest, when I look at this, I don't know that it's got the exact same case shape as the 6105. There's something slightly awkward about it. It's a little fat from side to side that I don't get that same vibe when I look at a vintage 6105. Maybe I'm wrong, but And on wrist, you know certainly different than press photos, but yeah, I'm also waiting for Cole's review to get the real world Lowdown on it obviously with just like with the SPB 143 and then the stuff we talked about them the handset I think they nailed it.
James Stacey Yeah, and the markers look great. The green is so cool The rest of it. Yeah, let's just wait for Cole See where he lands and if it's something that ends up being kind of fun, you know Maybe there's going to be some rivalry between 1-4-3 guys and 1-5-1 and 1-5-3 guys, who knows? Maybe we'll have Colbeck on to argue it out or chat more about this sort of interesting realm of $1,000 to $1,200 Seikos that maybe this is a space where they'll start really working. And I think they've been operating there for a little while, but with these two latest kind of model runs, I think they're really finding a stride. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Well, I think that's, uh, that's everything on the list. So we went from, you know, six or $700, uh, dive watches up to $15,000 limited editions for hammerheads. Uh, like I've said a couple of times, if you think we missed something, if there's something we should try and include in a further chat or, or something like that, but by all means, the, the gray NATO at gmail.com, we, we can't get to everything on every episode, but we, uh, we don't want to leave any hanging. If there's something you want to know about or hear more about. And certainly if you picked up any of these watches, especially if you have any direct experience with the Mido Ocean Star stuff, let us know. I'd love to hear a little bit of hands-on about that stuff, especially from dive watch nerds like many of you who are listening. That would be awesome. I will certainly follow up with a look at that Urs Holstein in the next little while. And yeah, thanks very much for listening. I think it's probably time for some final notes, yeah?
Jason Heaton I think so. Yeah. Mine this week comes from... I like this. A good friend of ours, Zach Pina, who goes by Dagbert on Instagram. Just an all around good guy and a great follow if you aren't following him already. He does a little writing for a blog to watch and he's an avid cyclist, etc. Another guy we probably should have on the show sometime because he's just really fun.
James Stacey He'd be great to have on. I agree.
Jason Heaton So, you know, it's been a weird summer for all of us. We're all picking up strange new hobbies. Ghoshani's doing sourdough bread. We're biking more. We're gardening. One of the things we've picked up is a little bit of bird watching, mainly just in the backyard here. I put up a feeder a few months ago and we're just getting a lot of new birds in the yard, which has been fun. And some evenings I just sit out back with a pair of binoculars kind of on our patio and just kind of keep an eye on the feeder and we've gotten, you know, goldfinches and chickadees and blue jays and cardinals and everything else. And so I was talking to Zach last week and telling him about this kind of newfound hobby of bird watching. And he and his significant other have really gotten into it as well. They live out in Northern California, and so they go out to the coast, and they're actually, you know, glassing seabirds in the cliffs and, you know, just doing hikes specifically looking for birds. And he said, well, do you have the Autobahn bird app yet? And I said, no. And he said, oh, you got to get it. So I downloaded the Autobahn app on my iPhone, and it's available for Android as well. And this app not only helps you identify species, and it actually, you know, pinpoints your location and identifies birds that are known to live in your area. But you can also enter your own sightings, you know, pinpoint exactly where you saw them. And it creates this sort of community where, you know, you want to kind of see what's been seen in your area. I did this yesterday, you know, there's like these different species of hawk and uh... you know water birds and bald eagles and uh... you know these kind of orioles and exotics that they're migrating through here uh... and it's it's kind of addictive it's it's really fun I turned my mom on to it as well and they live near a lake and so they get kingfishers and loons and ducks and things and it's all in there and it's uh... what's really fun is that under each in the species guide under each bird type they uh... uh... they'll have audio recordings of their different calls and they're like really good audio quality. So I be sitting up back and there was a goldfinch sitting on our bird feeder and I started playing the different calls for the goldfinch and Gishani like nudged me like, you know, telling me it was cruel to, you know, play all these like mating calls and territorial warning calls and things and confusing these poor birds. But, uh, It's been a blast. It's free, which is always good. And if you want to kick your birding up a notch, get yourself a pair of cheap binoculars and the Audubon app and have some fun.
James Stacey This is such a great idea. And I know that I can hear birds all the time where I live, but where my parents live, they have a nice big backyard and they've really set up a space for birds.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And you can sit there and like, I don't know, I know a Blue Jay, right? I know a Cardinal, like the easy ones. And I know a lot of Blue Jays because we used to have a cat, and this is the house where I grew up, and they used to just... Those Blue Jays used to gang up on that poor cat, and he wouldn't go in the backyard, he wouldn't go outside of the awning, because they'd be waiting for him. But I bet you my parents would absolutely love this. They've got a ton of different birds down there. Uh, they've got a resident rabbit. They've got, uh, they've got, yeah, they've got some, they've got a good thing going. And I think if you can do it, you know, I, I have a real obsession or not obsession. I have a huge fondness for hummingbirds, especially, um, what a special animal, but, uh, they can be super fun to watch and it's, it's certainly more relaxing than watching your phone screen. Although I guess you gotta, you gotta click in occasionally to use the app. Um, it's, uh, that's a, that's a good pick. I, it would be fun to have Zach on to see, especially like for some tips on like, I don't know what I could tell you to use for, what the good value is in binoculars, for example.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm sure he could talk about that. One would assume, yeah. He's been doing a lot of photography too, so maybe he's got a special long lens.
James Stacey He's an incredibly talented photographer and an avid cyclist. Goodness sakes, James. So yeah, he'd be super fun to have on. We should try and make that happen sometime in the next little while. Zach, if you're listening, let me know. Don't touch. Check WhatsApp. I probably sent you a message. I'm actually going to continue on in the bird path with my pick, oddly enough, but a different sort of bird. And this is a story from thedrive.com, and some of you are probably already guessing what I'm about to say. It's a story about the SR-71 Blackbird, you know, one of my favoritest things. And I actually say this is a funny thing because I saved this to my pocket back in towards the end of March when it was published. And because of the title, I figured it was going to be like 100 words or 200 words about how this almost happened. And it's the SR-71 was almost brought back for the global war on terror. And actually what it ended up being was like kind of an in depth look at kind of how the planes were retired and how when they decided in 2001 to do a little bit of research into whether or not they could be brought back to help augment the use of satellites and the U-2s. These various tail numbers were kind of brought out of you know, mothballs and in some cases, you know, we're going to be sent off to displays and they were, you know, deciding whether or not they should fly them again and how much it would cost and notoriously expensive and awesome airplane. But there was way more to this story than I expected. It's one of those things where sometimes if I see SR-71 or A-12 or Oxcard or Blackbird or whatever, I'll just throw it right in my pocket and then eventually get to it. And this took me months because I thought it was going to be a three or four paragraph story about how They considered it and then it was too expensive. And it's way more than that. So I highly recommend it. If you're into the kind of nerd level of the SR-71 program at large, I found this to be pretty interesting. There's some stuff in there I'd never read about before.
Jason Heaton Oh, yeah. Looks like some cool photos. Some great photos for sure. Yeah, the Drive has been doing some interesting stuff lately. They've been doing a lot with satellite photography, which is... Yeah, yeah, which has been... Which is really cool.
James Stacey Well, especially when they tell you, we're like, oh, three of these planes are at this Air Force base now. And yeah, they've got a... This post that I'm talking about was written by Steven Walker, who does some great stuff for them under their The War Zone header, which is great and super interesting. But the stuff about plane movements or ships and that sort of thing, and all informed by publicly available satellite photography is pretty interesting. for sure. But yeah, so that's an interesting kind of end note to both the show and to the SR71 program.
Jason Heaton Yeah, good show. I mean, I think a good kind of bookend on the summer, on a summer of a lot of dive watches.
James Stacey Yeah, and you know, we're at the end of August, but that doesn't mean you can't jump off a dock or go snorkeling in a lake or maybe even do some diving like Jason did while it is still pretty warm outside. And we encourage you all of you to do that. And obviously I will continue to promote jumping off docks as some sort of mental health strategy. Other than that, as always, thank you so much for listening. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. And you can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J.E. Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. Should you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com and remember, The Q&A is coming up. So please keep sending in those voice memos. We've been getting a ton of them. They've been great. And we want to get to a bunch because it's our kind of special bonus monthly episode. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast. And remember that Music Throat is siesta by JazzArt via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Anais Nin who said, I have no fear of depths and a great fear of shallow living.