The Grey NATO - 128 - Aquastar, Doxa, And Hayabusa Swaps With Rick Marei

Published on Thu, 22 Oct 2020 06:00:16 -0400

Synopsis

This is a transcript of a podcast episode discussing various topics related to watches, cars, and diving. The hosts Jason and James interview Rick Mirai, the man behind reviving watch brands like Doxa and Aquastar. Rick shares insights into his passion for vintage dive watches, the challenges of bringing back iconic models, and his philosophy on design. They also discuss Rick's love for unique and rare cars like the Mazda 323 GTX rally car. The episode covers the newly released Aquastar Deepstar chronograph, Rick's encounter with Jacques Cousteau's personal Doxa watch, and his future plans for Aquastar.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a Houdinki podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 128, and it's proudly brought to you by G-Shock and their Master of G line of tough, toolish, and tech-forward watches. We thank you for listening. James, you know, we sneaked in a Q&A between this official episode and our last one, but it just feels like it's been a long time since we talked.
James Yeah, especially because with the Q&As, we don't do any kind of chitchat. Yeah. And I don't really know what it is. I think like we still talk a lot, you and I, on Slack, but there's something about quarantine that's kind of like slowed down. I feel like we keep more things to talk about for these two calls a month. Right. Right. I'm not really sure why, but yeah, it's it's a treat to be here. I thought that Q&A went really well. People seem to be digging it. I like this format of being able to drop one in a bare week somewhere. Right. So that timing worked out well. And then this episode, this is one that's a pretty long, long time coming. Yeah. You know, it's featuring an interview with Rick Mirai, who helped create the relaunch of Doxa and I should just start recording this and dropping it in as a canned almost like an ad. Here's an ad for the construction company that's working above me. They're very loud, and I'm doing my best to try and work around it, but my apologies to anyone who can hear the sanding and impact hammers and the rest of it happening just above my head. We're doing our best, but sometimes schedules are what they are, and I can't always work when these guys have finally gone home for the day. my apologies there. But yeah, like I said, I'm excited about this episode and, and just kind of those sorts of stuff in general. And kind of like what you said, where it kind of feels like it's been a while since we did this, despite the fact that it hasn't been, I don't really have that much going on. You know, just kind of a lot of work that the time of the time of the year when you're kind of doing 20 things a day is sort of subsiding. I'm slowing down a little bit playing a little bit more video games. I don't really have like a I don't know, I don't have a ton to share. What have you been up to?
Jason Heaton Well, I mean, we're just out of the most recent weekend here and, you know, they're predicting like several inches of snow here tomorrow, which is just insane. Goodness sakes. For mid-October. So I was kind of scrambling around getting some of the herb pots off the patio and in the house and cleaning up the garage and doing some raking and check the fluids on the Land Rover one last time and that sort of stuff. But, you know, I was looking at kind of a recap of what I've been up to. And I hadn't even talked about this cabin trip that Ghoshani and I took way back. This was over 10 days ago that we got home. And, you know, it just feels like ancient history now, but it was basically, you know, I'm not going to go into too much detail about it. It sort of was like, um, remember our, uh, how we fall episode, uh, about, uh, you know, autumn, uh, it was kind of that episode come to life. Cause it was just a lot of hiking and, fires and whiskey and I managed to read a couple of books while we were up there. It was a well needed getaway up to an area called the Gunflint Trail in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. About as close to Canada as we can get these days without breaking the law and crossing the border. It was all good fun and now we're back and hunkering down here for some new cold weather. Other than that, it's just been you know, staying warm. I mean, we're, we're into that season now. So wearing a lot of that, uh, great that we've switched into the proper Nerona, uh, clothing weather. Getting a lot of use of it. Yeah. Yeah. That big puffy jackets come out a couple of times.
James I, uh, yeah, it's speaking, speaking to keeping warm. That's probably my only update is we were able to finish. Essentially we had two big check boxes for the project property as I've come to call it. Um, and we were able to finish both kind of just in time. The place is winterized now, so I'll, I'll probably keep going up. Yeah. Um, uh, and you know, in just, uh, just kind of working around some of the winterization until it starts being absolutely too cold. But the next week, two weeks, even the next little while that the outlook looks, looks okay. Uh, but it, it will become, uh, uh, you know, the, the, there will require some specific strategies to keep warm, uh, in this spot, you know, we've got a couple, a couple of small heaters and we're working on, you know, kind of finding a line for, uh, a, uh, wood burning stove, I think would be perfect. for this space, and we keep everyone pretty roasty toasty. But I think until it's probably just flat out too cold to be in a tent, I'll at least keep that going. It's a nice way to get out of the city, because Toronto has a lot of cases right now, and you really can't do that much. I've been doing some geocaching with my kids, which is nice, because I haven't seen anyone else. You don't really deal with other people when you're out doing that. And they get a kick out of it, and there's tons of it in Toronto. Uh, so that's, that's a plus, but other than that, I mean, I think it's just kind of nice to have somewhere to go. Yeah. You know, it's, it's not something that you and I have talked about a lot, but I think like the lack of adventures on the horizon is starting to weigh on me, especially with winter right here. And you know, a lot of times the things that you like about winter are the socialization aspects. There's more. sitting inside, catching up with people over a nice cup of coffee. There's more, you know, maybe you get to go skiing a couple of times, maybe you get to enjoy building a snowman or something like that. And while sure, some of that will still be able to happen, I think this is going to be a pretty weird winter. Yeah, I see winter as being, you know, largely the packaging around Christmas. And and in many ways, Christmas is when you get these great moments with your with my kind of extended family. And I'm sure this is the same for A lot of people, even those that do and don't celebrate Christmas specifically, it is still a time where the world kind of accepts a different pace and you can kind of make kind of special moves. And then as I've gotten more in tune with an American flow of life, you also have, you know, Thanksgiving, which is kind of like a nice pre-Christmas and all of that. And, you know, this is all complicated this year. And I don't think there'll be nearly as much sitting or sitting around, you know, cups of hot chocolate or whatever and catching up with people. It'll be little bit more on Zoom, it'll be a little bit more in text message. And I don't know if I'm, I don't know how I feel about it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I've been feeling the same way. In fact, what really changed was it's getting dark so early in the evening here and it's just colder. I mean, we went from, you know, 70s and 80s just a little over a week ago to, you know, there's literally snow flurries falling out the window that I can see right now. Um, so the biking season is kind of abruptly come to a bit of a halt. Um, hiking, all the leaves have fallen. I mean, you can still go hiking certainly, but there's this weird, um, no man's land between, between summer activities and hanging out on the patio and hiking and biking. And you know, when there's enough snow to get out and kind of have some fun in that. And so we go from the desk to the fireplace to bed, you know, and it's a little bit more of a, I don't want to say sedentary, but I hate, I mean, I hate to use that word, but it's kind of feeling that way. And I don't, I don't like it. I, I'll have to, you know, fire up the rowing machine here pretty soon if I want to get some decent exercise or, or get out and brave the, brave the colder weather. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's a real change very abruptly.
James Yeah. I feel like I used to, especially with this time of year, I used to just envision kind of how many projects. or how many trips and chances I got to see people that I love between now and Christmas. It was just kind of that that's kind of the pace of the fall for me, fall and winter. Yeah. And now, you know, there's there's no trips on the horizon, really. Like there's some there's some day trips and that sort of stuff. And I'm always moving and shaking. But there's no there's no like whatever the big kind of fall trips might have been. None of those are happening. Yeah. Right. Certainly not for me. And yeah, it's been it's been kind of weird to just kind of see it as like, oh, so now I just kind of mark the flow of my week from my work.
Jason Heaton Right. Right. Just a few years ago, I mean, when we first started TGN, our first episode was a post SIHH episode, which traditionally used to happen in January all the time. So I remember years ago it was always Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then, you know, New Year's, I guess. But then SIHH was like mid to late January. And then you were into February. And even in the past few years, when SAHH kind of became a different sort of show, you had, you know, we did that Aura ski trip in a couple of winters. That won't happen this year. And so, yeah, all of those milestones of winter have disappeared. And you're just sort of looking at this long, dark period. Not to get too morose about it. I think we can find ways to have fun. But it's going to be very different.
James Yeah, I think it is going to be a weird winner, probably a little bit more insular than maybe most people want, even the average introvert among our probably extensively introverted audience. Yeah, I don't know, it feels like maybe quarantine or even just these new protocols kind of better align with summer when you're kind of out and about and filling your days anyways. And now when you hit this time of year where, like I said, it's kind of a I don't know, I see it as more of like a fellowship time of year, whether it's this or otherwise.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we'll see. I guess we'll keep the home fires burning here on TGN and try to keep people company as best we can. I think it's great for us, for me, to chat with you every week, every couple of weeks and get updates. It feels like some semblance of normalcy, so we'll keep on keeping on, I guess.
James Yeah, for sure. And where there's maybe some things that aren't so great about, you know, looking at a more kind of insulated version of a fall and a winter than maybe we would ideally have. It is nice to know that we now have some time to plan for next year's adventures and that kind of stuff, and maybe start to iterate within the scenario that we have now. But certainly TGN will continue in earnest, something like three episodes a month, and we'll go from there. What do you say we maybe jump into wrist check before we hit main topic?
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's a really exciting one this week. We're both wearing new watches. This is the Aquastar Deepstar. And what's really cool about this is it ties in, obviously, to our guest for today's interview. But, you know, just I think what really puts a cap on a great year for dive watch launches. And I couldn't be more thrilled. I did a pretty long review of this watch on Hodinkee way back When it launched 10 days ago, I can't believe we're only first talking about it now. Um, but to me, this is just the, one of the great releases of the year and one of the great, uh, dive watch reissues of the past, uh, past several years. So, um, I've got the gray dial one on and I've had it on my wrist pretty much nonstop since, since July, when I first got the sample to take diving, I took a diving a couple of times and, uh, you know, I, You know, we usually do this, this wrist check every week and I couldn't talk about this watch, you know, ever since July, I've been wearing this thing. And it was always like, Oh, I'm wearing my CWC. I'm wearing a Seiko. I'm wearing this. And to be honest, I've been wearing this thing almost nonstop for, I don't know how many months that is four or four months or so. And you've got the black dial one.
James Yeah. I'm lucky enough to have a black one on wrist. So this is, you know, they've, this is a watch that I think probably a lot of people would have already seen on our Instagram. It was of course, like you mentioned, it was on Hodinkee. but it's, um, you know, essentially a recreation of a very famous, I think one of the best dive chronographs, uh, I've ever come across a watch that the few times that I've had a chance to see in person, like an original deep star is really a, it's just an absolutely gorgeous thing that wears really well. And, uh, a lot of that has been captured with this new model, uh, by Aqua star by the now relaunched Aqua star. Uh, but yeah, you know, it's an automatic chronograph now versus being hand wound. So it's a little bit thicker. but it uses a modern Le Jupre column wheel chronograph movement and you still get that big 30 minute counter. I love it. I love a skin dive style watch and this is a 40.5 millimeters wide. It's a hair over 50 millimeters lug to lug, so it's a little longer. But again, because of that case shape, a lot of it balances out really nicely. And I've actually found four What would be a larger watch lug to lug for me and my collection? It wears beautifully. I actually think it wears largely in the same vein as an SKX007. Oh, yeah. It's very similar in most of its proportions. Yeah. But the lug shape and length makes it, I would say, it sits more flatly on my wrist. I find my 007 always kind of moves around depending on the strap. And yeah, 22 millimeter lug, so I actually had to like dig through my bucket of straps. to find something with 22. Most of what I wear now is 20 or 18. And I've got it on a sort of sand colored two-piece nylon strap that would have come with an earlier version of a Hallios Tropic, the blue Tropic. And yeah, I think it's perfect. And like you said, I've I've had mine since just before the kind of embargo launched, I had this one and it hasn't come off my wrist really. There was a couple of times where I had to make sure it wasn't in a photo as a watch that's not out yet, but I've been wearing it. It's comfortable enough to wear while I sleep. We spoke recently about chronographs and how I don't really love chronographs. This definitely fixes the legibility problem. It's only a 30-minute measure, so you kind of have to be very specific in what it is that you want to measure. I can't say measure the drive up to the cottage, which is something that I always kind of like to keep an eye on. I'm not really sure why, but that can be fun. But if it's 30 minutes or less, it does a beautiful job. And then, of course, if you want a little bit more than that, you still have the ability to track something with the dive bezel. I think it's a home run. I think it's a pretty solid price for an automatic column wheel chronograph, you look at some of its competition, even something in a similar general methodology like a Longines Big Eye, another watch that I absolutely really like, but this is way easier to read as far as the chronograph goes. And this is just an aesthetic that I prefer to almost pretty much anything else at the price point. So I've been thrilled so far. I think they did well.
Jason Heaton I think with the steel bezel and these sort of exposed pushers and guardless crown, I think It has this, it doesn't scream dive watch to me, and that's kind of what I like about it. I think, you know, being such a dive watch fan as both of us are, it feels a bit more versatile, I guess. It's slightly dressy with those kind of polished surfaces and those kind of funky big markers, applied markers. And I don't know, it's almost like has a Speedmaster or Hoyer aesthetic to it, and yet 200 meter water resistant. take it anywhere. Um, you know, uh, I, I had written in my review that I didn't specifically say that the pushers couldn't be used underwater, but I found out actually after the review that, um, the pushers can be used underwater. So, you know, if, if that's something that's important to you and you're doing a lot of underwater timing of things, uh, you know, have at it. And, um, yeah, it's, it's just fantastic. I think the only negative feedback or critiques I've gotten about this watch is the size, the, the lug to lug. Um, But, you know, I'm, I guess I'm fortunate. I've got about a seven and a half inch wrist and it kind of, it certainly spans my wrist, but it's, uh, it's not overly huge, um, like, you know, a 45 millimeter or something or other. So, um, yeah, I couldn't be more thrilled with it.
James Yeah. I think it wears pretty well. I, you know, some of that dome is in the crystal. Um, I think it wears a small, the other, the other chronograph, automatic chronograph I had recently was that, um, the black Bay chrono. which is another fun watch that wears pretty big. A lot of the black base stuff wears pretty big just because of the thickness. And I would say this wears a bit smaller. It's a little bit easier to wear. I think that definitely I get less kind of interference from the pushers and the crown against the side of my wrist. So it may just wear a little higher on my wrist than I might with the Tudor, but yeah, a solid piece. And the blue looks great too. There's the three that they have in pre-order right now. And as much as the gray is probably the coolest one, it might have been a little bit on the nose if I had ended up with a gray one. The black, I think, is killer and it looks so good on a rubber strap. And then the blue, especially for people who already know the Aquastar Deepstar, the blue is almost too weird. Yeah, it takes a minute. You have to let it kind of settle in. But I think at least in it, certainly in the photos, it's a deep sort of radiant blue. And I think it suits the kind of aesthetic, the the kind of memory of the of the aqua star in a way that that's less referential to the actual original deep star. Yeah, I think all three look great. And I'm pretty pumped to get a chance to to try one out, which is always super fun, especially with a chronograph, you know, testing the waters on those discomfort zones. And the other fun thing is it's fun to be able to talk about a watch like this. And then in just a couple of minutes, we're going to have on Rick Mirai, who created the watch and in many ways worked with the Aquastar brand to kind of, you know, rethink it as a modern version of a vintage watch rather than simply kind of a laser scan and a recreation. And I think it'll be interesting to dig into that interview in just a few minutes. But before we get to that, we're super proud to have yet another episode supported by the great folks at G-Shock and their Master of G. Yeah, and the Master of G is divided into three lines.
Jason Heaton We've got the air, the sea, and the land. And for this ad break, we're going to take a look at a model from the sea setting with the new Frogman GWF-A1000, specifically the 1A2 configuration. With a carbon core guard case, solar charging, atomic timekeeping, and Bluetooth connectivity, the Frogman is the most modern of the long lineage of legendary Frogman G-Shocks. But what stands out the most with this latest one is that it's the first analog version of G-Shock's diver's watch. The watch features a second time zone for diving travelers, whenever we can do that again, a tide graph for timing shore entries and currents, and dive and surface interval timers. And it's all controlled easily through the G-Shock smartphone app.
James Yeah. And Jason, given your kind of long history with dive watches, is there anything that sets the Frogman apart from a more traditional dive watch? I've had some experience with Frogman, but they were always had a digital screen and they always basically wore like an everyday G-Shock kind of crossed with a dive computer. Is that the same with this kind of latest model?
Jason Heaton I think this one's it's a little more versatile with the shiny metal surfaces that are on the bezel. But, you know, the biggest difference with this one is that it's it's the analog version, which is their first time. And I've long wanted to try a Frogman, but unfortunately, given present circumstances, I get my chance now, and I haven't really been able to go anywhere to take it diving. But I think their take on the typical functions of a dive watch, like tracking elapsed time, is really unique here. Because what you do is you press a button to put it into dive mode, and the second time zone dial, which is the smaller sub-dial, switches to display the current time of day, which then leaves the main hands and the sweep hand to track your dive time. So that's, that's a really kind of cool way to do that instead of turning a bezel. And then it saves all of this information to be added to a dive log via the Bluetooth connectivity and the app. So it's a, it's a really clever approach and you know, the watch is, is also as you'd expect from a G-Shock, incredibly ruggedly built.
James Yeah, they sure are. And this is the case with the Frogman. It ends up being quite a large watch, especially judging from the photos, How does it wear in person?
Jason Heaton Yeah, this is, I mean, it's easily the biggest watch I've ever worn. But in typical G-Shock fashion, it's just super light. And this Fluorastomer band really hugs the wrist. So I found it quite comfortable, actually. You hardly even know it's on your wrist. And it also just gives this feeling of invincibility. I've never actually owned a G-Shock. And so wearing this has been a bit of a new experience, kind of feeling like I can just sort of, you know, bash it around without having to worry about damaging it. The blue strap with its double pin buckle, this asymmetrical case, which is very unique to the Frogman series, and the huge buttons mean it definitely isn't a dress diver and makes no allusions that it is. It just feels like a pure kind of tool watch.
James Yeah, and that's great. It's absolutely a treat to have the Frogman kind of featured on the show. I think it makes a pretty ideal ad for the general TGN world. We talk about all different types of dive watches, and maybe we don't talk about stuff like the Frogman as often, but now we've had a chance to see it. And if you want to see it for a closer look and more details, visit bit.ly slash TGN frogman. That's bit.ly slash TGN frogman. And let's not forget a huge thank you from Jason and I to G-Shock for supporting the Graynado and for making episodes just like this one possible. Let's jump into the main topic. What do you think?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's do it. Rick Mirai is a bit of an enigma in the watch industry. He's been behind some of the most successful brand revivals and reissues of the past two decades. Doxa, most notably, but also Aquadive, Tropic, and Isofrane Straps, and most recently, Aquastar, and the new Deepstar Chronograph, which launched last week. He was also at the forefront of internet watch sales when he started selling Doxas online in the early 2000s, before anyone else was doing it. But unlike so many other watch brand executives, he seldom puts himself out there publicly, making his watches speak for him. But he's an incredibly interesting man who went from working for Microsoft to the watch business, along the way amassing an incredible collection of vintage dive watches which are his passion, and he's a car guy. In fact, if you have a conversation with Rick, you're apt to go on longer about cars than about watches. Rick has agreed to come on TGN this week to share some of his story, his undying love for vintage dive watches, what it's like to wear Jacques Cousteau's own Daxa, and his rare Mazda rally car. So without further ado, here's our chat with Rick. Rick, thanks for joining us on TGN.
Rick Mirai Hey, Jason, thank you so much for the intro. It's a pleasure to be here.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, this is super exciting. I mean, I think we've been working on this, uh, putting this interview together for probably over a year now, I think.
Rick Mirai Yeah. Yeah. I think we had the thoughts and, uh, uh, we wanted to, we always like it was, Oh, let's do this sometime. So the time has come.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Good timing though. I think, uh, I think we've got some exciting stuff to talk about. I think prior to this Aquastar release and this big excitement of late, you're best known for your work with Doxa, which you kicked off back in the early 2000s. You were one of the first people to start selling watches online. Just kind of curious how that brand got started and how you kicked off what has become a really iconic dive watch for a lot of modern collectors.
Rick Mirai Oh, well, uh, it started back in the late nineties. Uh, I used to collect dive watches, um, put them online, buy and sell what used or secondhand, uh, dive watches online. Uh, I'm not, I'm, I can't say I made a fortune, but I was buying stuff for $50 selling it for the equivalent of 50 selling it for 500. The collection got bigger and bigger and dive watches were very interesting to me personally because they were not only about what's inside. A dive watch has a lot of functionalities on the outside, so whether it's a bezel, a screw-down crown, stuff that you don't find in the class, in the everyday dress watch. So, uh, that, that collection got bigger, it got out of hands actually. And, um, uh, I started, I started to, to, to, you know, like got a lot of beaten up watches, wanted to find spare parts for them. Um, contacted the companies that I used to collect their watches. One of them was Doxa. Um, to cut the story short, I found myself two years later, um, convincing the owners of Doxa to remake the Doxa Sub 300. And that is if I were to commit to buying a thousand pieces. And that is how it all started. It started on a forum that was before social media. There was a big collector base for Doxa back then. I remember there was a drawer full of envelopes, full of letters from Doxa customers for over 20 years asking if they had parts, if they have this or that model. That is how it all started. It started by collecting watches, trading them online, and creating 1000 pieces of the Sub 300T, then moving on to the 600, the 750, and it continued to evolve and grow. And Rick, with that original run with the 300T,
James It proved to be successful quickly. People got understood what you were attempting, what was being done, and why it was appealing. Within that group of people who were writing letters and still kind of knew something about the brand, did you find that you had to convince people of the technology, of your presence, of the legitimacy, any of that kind of stuff? Or was it kind of a different time for the internet?
Rick Mirai Actually, it had everything that we love today, The price was moderate, but people online were not used to a watch company selling their watches online. So their biggest fear was, is this legit? Is this really a Swiss company? Because if you would go to any other Swiss company online, first thing that you probably, there's like a pop-up that would come and say, do not buy watches online. They talk about gray market, black market, and so on. So if you're a watch collector or a potential watch buyer back then, and think of buying a watch. You go online, see a company, claims to be a Swiss watch company, selling its watches online. That was new. And that was one of the biggest hurdles that I faced in the early days.
Jason Heaton You had some early, um, a real boost, um, fairly early on when you had contact with Clive Cussler and then they made the Sahara movie, which, you know, was controversial for, for Cussler devotees, but still, um, that must have been a big win to get, uh, one of your docks of watches in the movie and get Clive Cussler, uh, interested in the brand again.
Rick Mirai Absolutely. Uh, Clive Cussler is always, he, when I met him in 2004, He still had his sub 300 T. Wow. So he, he, he got it. He received it from the dive shop that he worked for when he, when he, when he wrote his first jerk bit novel back then. On his leave, he got this watch. He got a Sub 300 T and he wore it from that, from the 70s until 2004 continuously. So first thing that he wanted me to do, just to take it and service it. And I remember, uh, I didn't take it with me when I met him. He sent it to me and it almost went around the world and we received it like six months later. Everybody was talking about it on the forum. You know, Clive Cussler's watch, you know, the watch is lost. But we received it and he was one of the most pleasant people that you can imagine as a writer. It was a pleasure to sit down and talk to him. I remember him complaining that the movie or the script was not what he actually wanted, but yeah, that's the way it is. you know it was Matthew McConaughey Penelope Cruz so it was a good good cast but you know as a writer I think it's always difficult to see your um to see your writing in a movie uh because so he was not he was not happy he was he was not very happy about it but um still it's uh a lot of people back then used to write us or to call and say you know we didn't we thought that Doxa is a fictional watch like Dirk Pitt Yeah. And we were trying to explain, no, it's a, it's a watch. And we used to tell the story, the Clive Cussler story and how he got his first watch. And, uh, yeah, so it was very interesting. It got me to know, to know him. And, uh, it was a pleasure, uh, meeting him and, you know, getting into the movie world, getting to know Matthew McConaughey, who I remember him saying, I'm not a watch guy. And I was like, I was devastated. Come on, but he wore the watch obviously. And, uh, it was for us, it was a success. The movie itself. Yeah.
Jason Heaton That's a big win for a, for a small internet selling brand at that time to have a major movie appearance. I mean, that's, that's a big deal.
Rick Mirai Absolutely. And I can, I swear to God, it was with Paramount Pictures, just a small company. They're, they're like huge. And we figured out, we figured out a way of doing it.
James And it worked. And Rick, do you remember that it translated to sales? Was there a big bump in people talking about the watch, people writing about it in early blogs, that sort of thing?
Rick Mirai James, that's a very good question. And the answer is absolutely yes. I myself didn't think it's going to be that way. because I thought back then it's like, it's a very, it's a very, it's a, it's that tool watch that has that enigma to it. It's more for the serious collector. And all of a sudden you're getting such an exposure and all those people, whether they liked the movie or not, a lot of people who read, read Dirk Pit novels, they were all over it. Even if they were not watch guys, they just wanted to have it. And it had a great impact. It had a big impact that I did not expect myself.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And you know, I mean, Dirk Pitt being a fictional character is one thing, but then obviously Jacques-Yves Cousteau was possibly the biggest proponent or wearer of a Doxa. And how did you come to own Jacques Cousteau's Shark Hunter? I remember wearing that or seeing that on your wrist at Baselworld one year, many years ago. I mean, how did you come by that watch and do you still have it?
Rick Mirai I absolutely, I still have it. And I cannot, I cannot shorten this because the story is so, is so, it's so interesting that I, uh, I've told it so many, I've said, I've told it so many times, but, uh, it was, um, a gentleman by the name Bruno Capello, um, called our hotline or our toll free number and, uh, said, I have Jack Cousteau's watch. He's French and he speaks fluent English. My staff on the phone thought, you know, like a lot of people refer to this watch as Jack Cousteau's watch, like it's Dirk Titt's watch or Clive Cussler's watch. Yeah. And you would say, well, okay, yes, yeah, great. So, and Bruno would tell him, I have Jack Cousteau's watch. the guys on the phone, like my, my, my, my assistant was like, yeah, sure. What can I do for you? And he almost like got mad at him and said, you know what? I have his personal watch. Wow. And he was like, okay, now, now I get it. Gave me a call immediately. I told him, you know, get that gentleman's phone number. I want to talk to him. Called him. And it turns out Bruno Capello was an engineer on the Calypso. He was a welding engineer. So when they had those cages that they put into water and sharks would, would, would, uh, bite them or damp, like definitely, uh, destroy them. He would weld them back. And he was, he was, he told me he was like 20 in his early twenties. They were sitting at dinner on the ship back then. Jacques Cousteau, him, and a few members of the team. And they were making jokes. And Jacques Cousteau asked Bruno, do you have a decent watch? He said no. Jacques Cousteau said, a decent man Got to have a decent watch. It took that watch off.
Jason Heaton There's your tagline for your future brands.
Rick Mirai Absolutely. Jason, I've been using it for 20 years. So, and that is how we got, we got Jacques Cousteau's personal watch that he took off his wrist and gave it to Bruno. And Bruno gave it to us. Uh, he said, that's where I think it should go. And, um, uh, I remember he actually took the time to create a box out of aluminum that he welded together, you know, basically as a, his personal touch with the watch that he sent to us. Uh, and in return we gave him a, um, a, uh, I think back then a sub 5,000 T and he was very happy about it.
Jason Heaton That's amazing. That's like having Buzz Aldrin Speedmaster or something. That's, that's, that's truly incredible. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I mean, I think, you know, Doxa obviously, um, was, was a big part of your history, but then since then you moved on to, you know, kind of resurrect another brand, Aquadive and then Isofrane and Tropic. I mean, these are, these are iconic brand names in the dive watch space. Has the formula for you been similar from Doxa to these others where you approach or you look around for a, maybe a brand name that either isn't owned, that you can, um, trademark yourself and start up again, or, you know, have you kind of applied the same, same technique for each brand?
Rick Mirai Not really. I think it all began when I was collecting watches, uh, especially dive watches. Uh, and I didn't have enough money to buy like the, the known brands. So I had to, I had to, I had to buy all the stuff, all the watches that that was for, had a lesser value because they were not well known. Um, and that make me actually, explore a complete new world of watches or watch brands that were not known back then, but they were cool. So they were like fantastic pieces that I kept thinking to myself, why aren't they being made again? So, and that was my formula back then, back in the late nineties, early two thousands, I would find call every one of those companies that I think they have made a watch side that looked good, had some significant feature or function, um, and, um, try to convince every one of them to recreate their, their, their diet, like, uh, dive watches from the 60s and 70s and that's how and you know it was like everybody I wanted a tropic strap on each watch came on a tropic strap if they didn't come on a on a bracelet or an isoframe and I was thinking why is this type of strap that everybody wants that everybody wants to have on his vintage watch why doesn't somebody have it you know Why doesn't somebody produce it? And, uh, it was the Synchron group that actually took over Isofrane and Tropic, um, at some point. And, uh, yeah. And I thought it's a no brainer. They have to, they have to come back. Doxa has to come back. Aquadive has to come back. The others that I've tried to, um, talk into basically either working with them or buying the brand or sharing or whatever, That, you know, the ones that didn't work just didn't work. And, and the thing is, I was doing this, again, late 90s, early 2000s. Nobody trusted what the internet is going to be. Nobody actually trusted the, you know, they didn't know me. There was somebody coming to them, explaining to them, they can do this and that online and they can sell watches. And they would think, you know, yeah, we can sell watches, your method, but we're probably going to lose our network, our retail network that we built over decades. So that is why most of them, even if they somehow liked the idea, they were like, it's not the right, it's, it's not the right approach for us. Um, yeah. And, and, uh, Aquastar was one of the companies that I just looked up the phone number and in a phone book called and talk to the owner back then.
Jason Heaton The rest is history. I mean, incredible. Here we are today. Yeah, a week later.
James Yeah. And Rick, I wonder, you know, when you were looking at any of these brands and you could use Doxa or Aquastar, we definitely want to talk a bunch about the Aquastar relaunches. That's the most recent one. But with any of these brands, especially if you look back to when you did this work with and for Doxa as sort of an entity, there wasn't a playbook at the time for how to do a vintage reissue. That wasn't really a thing. you know, some companies still made watches that were similar to the ones that they made, but it wasn't this idea that what was old had become kind of new and cool again, as much as you had kind of found a couple of brands that you liked. What did you kind of learn along the way about what people expected from a brand that kind of wasn't operating for a while, but suddenly it was back? And how did that kind of tie in with the early days of the watch internet?
Rick Mirai James, that's a very good question. I actually was talking about this a few days ago, trying to explain that it's not just about finding stuff, finding brands, finding watches that you just put the name on them and just bring them back. It's not about, it's not this. It is what, what, what made me, what made me start this was I was a collector until today. I am a watch collector. So I started this not to make money, not to recreate a brand. I started out of my own need that I thought, that's a great look and watch. Why isn't it available again? So, and everything that I have done to summarize the whole journey of DocsNet, everything, every model that I worked on, it was what I wanted to see on my wrist. It was never about, okay, will this sell better than this? Yes, sometimes the question would be asked, obviously, but it was like, okay, now we have a sub 300. What is it that you like? Was it, what is it that you don't like about it? As see it from the collector's point of What would you prefer? What would you like to see next? This is, this was, those were 20 years of my life. Basically thinking to myself, what is it that I would love to see next for myself, for me? Probably that was the authenticity of, or the thoughts behind it that made it successful, that basically grabbed people's attention, attention and Probably there were people out there thinking the same way. So maybe the combination of this, my thoughts with their thoughts, made it successful. Because I don't see, I didn't have a formula. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know whether to go into retail, to stay online, or a combination of both. There was nothing out there. There was nobody out there who would tell me, you know, this is the way to do it or read a book about it. Nothing. And the other part of it was obviously the community, the great community, the people, the people behind it.
James Yeah. Well, it's an interesting thing. You know, looking back, you've done this with a, with a few different companies, with a few watch, you know, very successful sort of watch and watch adjacent, um, products. And, uh, and are there, are there lessons that you learned from Doxa that you're still using when you relaunch an Aquastar? Are there kind of, do you have a playbook now that you get to reference, uh, when you approach one of these companies?
Rick Mirai I wish, I wish I had that book. I wish I had, I wish I had those guidelines myself, but, uh, The thing about it is I approach every brand in a different way. So it's always new to me. And that makes it very interesting to me because otherwise I would just get bored. If I do it all, it's all the same again and again. Every company has its own character. Every company has its own type of customer, type of audience. So, and I would have, yes, there are basic sets of rules, how to deal, how to do business online, what to promise, basically when to start your campaign, when you do this, when you do that, how to reach out to people. Well, that's, that's, that's, that's something that probably everybody who's doing business online know by now. I didn't know it. Nobody knew it back then, but, but that's, but that's not related to the nature of the watch or the brand or the model itself. It's just about basic business in terms of the brand itself. It's all unique. Every brand is unique and I have to deal with every brand in a unique way because I need to speak the language of each of the, of the customers. who are interested in that brand. And they're different.
Jason Heaton Okay. I think, you know, now we've reached Aquastar time and I think, you know, your, your time with Doxa, you could see this evolution of the watches. And I think James and I are both huge fans of what was, uh, arguably your, maybe your swan song as you were, as you left Doxa, the sub 300 and black lung reissues, which I think were just the, there's still some of the best watches of the past couple of decades. And I think with the deep, with the deep star, you've kind of hit the ground with something as good. I mean, I wrote in my Houdinki article that I thought this was the best reissued dive watch of the past two decades. And it's just everything about it is so spot on. And, um, but with Aquastar, you had this weight of history. I think, you know, Doxa has great history, but Aquastar had this incredible history with Frederic Robert and, you know, with its use by Jacques Mayol and, um, you know, all of this and Cousteau and, Did you feel additional pressure launching a brand like Aquastar because of that history?
Rick Mirai Yes. There is a lot of pressure and I feel like living in a time machine right now or the past few, few weeks. Cause basically the inventor of the deep star, Mr. Mark Jasinski is a great man, 87 years old. He's been, telling us how he created this watch. The Deep Star is one of the very few pieces, if not the only watch, that has ever been patented as a whole. So it is not part of the watch that has been patented. So not a screw down crown, not a pusher, not a gasket, not an o-ring, a bezel, whatever. It was patented as a, as let's call it an analog dive computer back then, as a whole. So a combination of a few things, water resistance, obviously, an indicator for running that is very important to divers back then, which is on a different chronograph would be the seconds, the running seconds. In the DeepStar, it's a running indication only, because you don't need the scale for the seconds. Then you have a 30 minute timer. Then you have the bezel, which gives, which back then was a breakthrough because it gave people or the divers the possibility to calculate multiple dives, something that has never been done by an analog watch since then, and only today's dive computers or using the tables would basically replace that watch. We're talking to the man who filed the patent while he was the head of R&D at Aquastar back then.
Jason Heaton That's a rare opportunity. That's pretty incredible actually.
Rick Mirai It's basically, you know, I know you have a Land Rover and, you know, I'm a car guy too. So if you would imagine sitting next to or talking to the man who designed the original Land Rover from 1948 and he's giving you advice. why he did this and why he did that, why this vehicle was capable of doing this and that and what his idea behind it. That's what I'm, that's, this is the time machine that I'm living in. I feel like I'm in 1963, he filed the patent and I'm responsible for basically extending this to today. So if that is not a responsibility, Oh God, I don't know what else. So I have to carry on my shoulders. I have to make this, I had to make this, uh, release as authentic as possible and true as possible to its origins. Um, and I hope I have succeeded.
Jason Heaton Well, I would say I speak for both of us. I think, I think you have, I mean, I think it's, um, right out of the box. It's just a tremendous watch. Any, Um, any future plans for either the Deepstar or Aquastar you're willing to share with us? Any new colors you would want to bring out or, or different models or is that all top secret?
Rick Mirai Obviously I love colors. I'm a very visual oriented guy and I love colors and I think it would be unfair just to stop there. So yes, colors are an option and there is a color that has basically been out of, out of fashion, if you can call it that way, in the watch business for decades and now it's coming back. Uh, and that is probably going to be the next color that we're going to be using. Um, and, uh, there are, what, what, what differentiates AquaStar from other companies or other watch companies is that, uh, every product family, every watch family at AquaStar was based on a patent. Um, when I think back about, when I think back about Doxa, we had one, basically we had one model.
Jason Heaton Right. Yeah. I always wondered how tricky that was. I mean, to have, you know, the sub 300, And subsequent families was just kind of the one piece that you could kind of keep reimagining. Aquastar gives you a little more to play with.
Rick Mirai Absolutely, Aquastar. And especially that every piece of those was not just a release of a watch, it was a patent. uh it was based on a patent there was something new about it something like groundbreaking about it so it gives it's probably going to give me years of pleasure creating those those pieces hopefully uh i'm sure about that and and yes but it's also a big responsibility for me to try to make re-editions of watches and maybe sometimes even hopefully like something completely new from aquastar um that meets the expectations of those who know Aquastar. And in regards of the Deepstar, there is something that I, that was really one of the biggest, one of the biggest, one of the longest time we spend thinking about, about this, about the Deepstar was in terms of size. In the watch business, we do not sell technology. We use technology to create timepieces. I've seen trends from, oh, it has to be 50 plus. And I've seen the opposite trends, like it has to be 36 minus. And what I think differentiates a watch from a smart watch, if a smart watch is really smart, from an electronic device, let's call it that way, from a RIC computer. because it's not smart and it's not a watch. The only thing that differentiates us, our watch, from this type of device is that in 10 years from now, I want you to look at your DeepStar, take it out of the drawer, put it on your wrist and look at it and think, oh, wow, I love this watch. Yeah. And that only can happen if you do not follow trends. If you go in the 50 plus, obviously in 10 years from now, you're going to think it's hideous and ugly. If it's a 36 millimeter or 37, you're going to think, oh, it's too, yeah, it's nice. Nice looking watch. It's not small. What I'm after is creating a classic, creating this, what differentiates us from what's so-called a smart watch. something that is that it's a size that does not follow trend. It's not too small, not too big. And I think that 40 or 40.5 as the deep start is, is the wristwatch size that everybody can wear. Probably 90% can wear this watch. 90% of the watch buyers, collectors, enthusiasts, can't uh, at in 40 millimeter. So I think, and, and I use that as a, as a gauge for, for our size. Uh, we didn't want to go with a 37 millimeter. We made it a 40.5. Um, but to me it was most important to keep or retain the proportions. So I want you to look at this watch online and do not know whether this is the vintage or the 2020 Deepstar. And that's, that's, I think we've, we've succeeded to do this, but obviously you, you see the 2020 and it's just a, I would say our size that is, that is very agreeable to be the modern watch diameter.
James Rick. I mean, that makes, certainly makes sense to me. And I think the size, the sizing is good. It's, it's big enough that you notice it's on your wrist and you can see all the elements of the dial very clearly, but it's certainly not so big as to feel oversized or difficult to wear. I've got, I'm wearing mine as we record this on a chunky mesh, and I think it might actually, the mesh might be a touch too much for the actual size of the watch, but it's a fun look that kind of lines up nicely. I had a question for you about the forthcoming bracelet. It's something I've gotten a few DMs about since I you know, publish some photos of the watch, uh, and anything you'd want people to know about the bracelet at this point. Cause I know that there's plans to have one essentially.
Rick Mirai Yes. I just, uh, received samples and I like them. We put them on, on a deep star, um, probably a little bit of, um, tweaking and it should be available in, In January 2021, and it's, it's the type of bracelet that I love that I because I, you know, I want to, I want to basically have, I want to offer what I would like to wear myself. And that's a br like a separate piece of rice bracelet. And, uh, I think it matches the, the, the, the looks of the watch very well. It goes very well with it. Um, next to a, uh, a leather or a tropic or a Tyson frame maybe.
Jason Heaton Did, did the Deepstar, uh, historically come with any sort of a steel bracelet?
Rick Mirai Yes, it did. It came with, um, it came with a small, very tiny beads, call them links, tiny beads. They're not beads of rice. They're just very small, thin links. uh this was an option as well probably maybe sometimes down the road uh but i thought you know the beads of rice is is is very very looks very authentic for for the for the 60s and 70s watches yeah and it looks very good on it yeah cool can't wait to see it how about the uh the movement i think that was a big surprise for a lot of people a lot of
Jason Heaton brands, when they do these reissues, they go to Salida or, or ETA for, for a movement. And, um, you kind of came out with this Le Jouperet, which is a really welcome surprise. I mean, it's, it's an automatic, so it makes the watch slightly thicker, but I think it, um, obviously has the advantages of being able to screw down the crown and never really have to wind it if you're wearing it. And, uh, and then of course it's a column wheel movement. So how did that, how did that decision come about?
Rick Mirai You know, the, the original, the Deepstar, the, the 65 Deepstar came with a Valjoux 23. A lot of those watches were slaughtered to repair Daytonas. So that's why you don't find any in a decent condition and almost in the price range of $10,000 to $15,000 because a lot of them are gone. Now, if you think about the Valjoux 23, which was a column wheel movement, it was basically, it powered most of the chronographs of the time. A great movement that we don't have anymore. So, thinking about creating a re-edition of this watch, I just couldn't go with a standard. I just couldn't go with a, you know, EDA makes great movements, obviously Solita as well. Others too. Um, I just wanted something special. I just wanted this to be like the, the let's call it whatever you call the founders edition or the first edition or whatever. I want it to be special. That does not mean that the next ones are going to be less special, but for the first time, I just wanted to have something special. I love column wheels. I think this feeling that you get, this crisp feeling that you get when you push the pusher is so technical, so mechanical, and I love it. And I think it is a great feature in a chronograph. Although it had blue screws, Geneva stripes and column wheel, you can't see it because you don't have a see-through case back. But as an owner of one of those watches, you know what's inside and that's what counts.
Jason Heaton Well, I love the choice of the solid case back personally. And I think the Aquastar case backs have that just very well-known sort of geared tooling for removal that I think people recognize from the old ones. And I think it just looks incredible.
Rick Mirai Thank you. You can actually, it's one of the few watches that you want to look at from the back.
James That's what I used to say. And Rick, I know, um, I know, so we we've gone over kind of, I think, I think like we have a pretty good idea for your taste in, in watches. And certainly we've, it's exciting to hear about the start of something like what we've got with Aquastar and that, but, uh, I would be remiss, especially given the general topics that we cover, uh, to not, not, you know, have you chat at least a little bit about cars and your history with cars. Cause I know there's some pretty interesting stuff in there. Is your taste in cars, does that align with your taste in watches? Is it a lot of interesting and esoteric 70s stuff? Or is it some more modern stuff? Or where do we go with cars?
Rick Mirai Well, probably you're right. My taste in watches matches my taste in cars. You know, I'm always for, you know, the common is, you know, everybody can get. There are so many good products out you see in watches, in terms of watches, in terms of cars, and in so many fields that were not commercially successful, but that does not mean that they're not as good or not even sometimes not even better than the known pieces or the big names.
James Right.
Rick Mirai Obviously, Porsche is a big name and it's a company that always produced very, very small quantities of car. That's a common taste, obviously. I love Porsches, but I also like stuff that like Mazdas. Mazdas are not well known for their sports, for making sports watches, sports cars, except for the RX series. But Mazda made Raleigh cars, and they made actually the first Japanese car that participated in the WRC. This is a very small family hatchback called the 323, and they made it back then with a It's the predecessor of the GTX.
James Oh, fun. Okay.
Rick Mirai So there was a car in 1980, they made it in 1985, uh, and it was a four wheel drive power, um, turbo, turbo, turbo charged. It's, it's an amazing car, 140 BHP. And if you look at cars back then, um, 1985, so if you consider the golf GTI, like the, the hot hatch or the back then in Europe it's like the Peugeot 205 GTI and all those all those all those cars in the same price range same size or similar size they were all not as good and as fast as a four-wheel drive driven turbocharged car and I don't know why this continued for a while I think the GTX was the was the successor of this model And then the whole thing just died, like with watches, like many, many brands that just died and they just didn't have a commercial success, although they were good. And sometimes, it's sometimes actually in the car business, Companies put a lot of focus on quality. Sometimes it doesn't pay off and they're not commercially successful, as Porsche has been from 1955 until I think the 1990s, late 1990s. There were all the time, like throughout the decades, they were always on the edge, you know, like of bankruptcy. And until they brought Toyota in, Toyota engineers and technology to streamline their manufacturing stuff. So they're also one of those examples, putting a lot of research, putting a lot of effort, a lot of resources in making a good product, but not being able to be commercially successful. This is something that probably, as you know, this is what I was always faster in terms of watches or cars.
James Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting thing because, you know, Mazda had to return to selling essentially just economy cars, not even fast or hot economy cars to make everything work. And then, yeah, the RX-7, you know, when it hit its fourth gen, wasn't really the same as the third, the FDs. And then now the company's starting to come back. They've got some faster options, some stuff with turbos that are you know, designed to make more torque rather than than to to impress on, you know, a calf regulation test or something like that. And same with Porsche. Porsche had to do the Cayenne to survive. And, you know, and now and now that, you know, their their SUVs and SUVs, the Macan, of course, you know, represents a huge portion of their business and really the only reason that the world still has 911s and Carrera GTs and 9 18s and the race programs and the rest of it. So it is a pretty strange world. I had a buddy way, way back in the day when I used to sell computers to get through university that had, at the time, a pretty beat up 323 GTX, but mechanically it still ran. This would be the early 2000s, and that was a legitimately hilarious car. It didn't make much power, like you said, but it didn't weigh that much either, and it really liked to be driven at the top 20% of its power band. Those are very fun cars, especially in Ontario, here in Canada, you get light snow with some frequency, and that was a fun car in the light snow scenario.
Rick Mirai Absolutely, it is. And over here in Switzerland, Austria, it's one of the best cars. I actually ran into this car while I was driving on a snow lake, snow-covered lake or ice lake ice lake and then a kind of a private race that we that we have every once a year and I had a Subaru which was a great car it's a modern car back then like 2001-2002 very capable car most of the cars were either back then Subarus, Mitsubishis or Quattros, Audis and I remember my My Subaru that I took from Canada, actually, back to Europe, it was a 400 BHP car. So fully blown 2.0 forged internal engine, big turbo, everything, like two fuel pumps and like a real fast car. Lots of boost. Absolutely. And in the bends, a small car that I didn't even know what what it is would overtake me and it kept it kept happening and again and again I didn't even know that this car existed and that was the Mazda so that is basically when I just went crazy and I started looking into its history and uh and and you know finding out how many they made and what the idea was behind it and so on and um It's an amazing car for back then. Over here in Europe, people at my age, back in the late 90s, nobody knew what a turbocharger is, but you won't be proud to own a car that has a small engine and a turbo. So it was all about V8s. So if you had the real deal, you have to have at least a six cylinder or a V8, a V6 or a V8. And if you, you know, among, again, it's the same story with me. I always, you know, I didn't have, I didn't have that financial, I didn't have the financial capabilities to buy like V8, whatever Mercedes or Corvettes or whatever. So I had to always try to find a way to work around the situation. And I remember my car. I don't know if this ever came to the US. It's called Innocenti. It's a three cylinder. It's a small car. It's at the size of a Mini Cooper of the original Minis. Japanese, Japanese in the drive train, I think Italian box on the outside, three cylinders, which were laughable. Nobody would buy a car with a three-cylinder engine and a turbocharger. And my car used to make 240 bhp. And I would overtake everyone, everybody. There was no car on the road that was faster than my car. My car had 700 kilos and 240 horsepower. horsepower. So, um, and, and I always looked for stuff like this, like the very, you know, exceptional, different, uh, not common stuff. And it's very, it was very fulfilling to me. And, um, yeah, so that's one, one of those, I used to own a, um, a mini that I have rebuilt myself, I think seven times. The last iteration of the engine was a Suzuki Hayabusa. That was a fast car.
James The motorcycle engine? That was a deadly fast, yes. Yeah, it's a 1300cc turbo motorcycle engine. Exactly.
Rick Mirai It was a fast car.
James Did, I mean, did it ever, did the tires ever stop spinning at any speed?
Rick Mirai No, no, no. It's the fun of having it. It's not, it was, it was absolutely not drivable. No, no way to drive it on a track. No way to, to get a quarter mile time. No way, nothing. It was just so fun. It was just so fun. And the sound of it, this, you know, this squeaking, like high pitch sound. It was amazing. Yeah.
Jason Heaton A mini that revs to about 14 or 15,000 RPM.
James I love that. Yeah, that's great. High boost of swaps. I'm on board for forever. Even if they make the car genuinely less drivable. What's your, what's your day to day? What's your, your everyday car?
Rick Mirai my everyday car is a golf that's what you that's that is the the the everyday car for almost every that's a volkswagen that's uh where you drive for years i never touched one of those just lately i i thought you know what i'm getting older i just want a car to drive I don't want to, uh, have the smoke coming out of the exhaust. I don't want it to stink like fuel inside. I don't want, I don't want all that stuff anymore, but I still, I miss it. So every once in a while I go and get my, whatever, if it's a M3 E30 or, or a, or an old Porsche to drive it, but driving around, I do that mostly in a Golf, but it's tuned. So it's a Golf.
Jason Heaton Oh, and Rick, you're a Land Rover guy too.
Rick Mirai I do have a Land Rover, but I don't have the time, Jason. I just don't have the time to get into it and drive somewhere. The kids always tell me, you know, dad, get us, let's get the Land Rover and let's drive somewhere. But you know, you know, we have Corona, so we cannot drive anywhere anyway. And, you know, but by the way, this, this Golf GTI, and I'm sorry, GTD, that's a 90 BHP car. that I have tuned to make 250, so it's still fun.
James Well, there you go.
Rick Mirai I'm one of those people. I'm one of those. I will never grow up. And I think it's all like toys for me, the watches and cars. And I'm Yeah. I'm annoying to a lot of people being like this, but, but it seems to be fulfilling. It is, it is very fulfilling to me. And I consider myself a hardcore piston head, but the biggest engine that I can get my hands on in the smallest car that exists. This is what I, this is my next project.
James It's the, the Carroll Shelby formula.
Rick Mirai Absolutely, and Colin Chapman. I'm putting an N54 engine in an M3 chassis of an E30 BMW. I'm actually working on it right now. I just don't have enough time. I got a mechanic who's helping me. That's it. Until they ban everything, I need to just put the biggest, the most powerful engine in the smallest car I can get my hands on. Um, yeah, it's fun.
James Well, that's great, Rick. Uh, you know, I, I think that that pretty much rounds out the majority of what we wanted to talk about. The one, the other thing that I kind of, I like to ask pretty much anyone we get a chance to have on the show, or even when I just meet people in general is, you know, you've had a long standing career in, in several things, but certainly the watch industry is, is kind of the, the core of what we were talking about today. What do you wish, uh, you know, if you, if you could talk to Rick in the mid nineties, if you could send a message back to yourself. What lesson would you pass back that you've learned and you know that kind of guided you to where you are today?
Rick Mirai Well, the answer is not really car or watch related, but it somehow is. And that is, be careful what you wish for. Sounds like a movie title or whatever, but it's reality. This has been my life. And I wish somebody would have told me this back then. If you believe in yourself and what you do, if you work hard, fail hard, fall and stand up again, never stop, you will make your dream come true. It might take time, it will sure take effort, it won't be easy sometimes, but you will get there if you believe in yourself and believe in what you do. I think that energy and your energy, subconscious power, will help you along the way. And many people just give up. And my advice, you should not. Just continue. If I would have known this back then, I would have been a lot more confident in doing what I've been doing. you know, it's, it was a lesson or lessons that I took with me along the way and they just made me stronger and yeah, hopefully successful.
James Yeah, that's great.
Jason Heaton Well, that's a great answer, Rick. Rick, I think we're going to, we're going to leave it there. I mean, this was a, this was a great chat, a long time coming. And I know we're going to have a lot of, a lot of people just thrilled to, to have you on TGN and to, to listen to what's behind all these amazing watches that you've brought to us. And we want to thank you for joining us and all the best of luck with the DeepStar launch and the future of AquaStar. And we can't wait to see what's next for you. So thanks a lot, Rick.
Rick Mirai Gentlemen, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure for me to be here. Thanks so much, Rick. See you soon. Thanks. Take care. Bye. Have a great day. Take care. You too. Bye-bye.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, I mean, that was a that was a rollicking discussion with Rick. He certainly has a lot to talk about. Very interesting guy with a really interesting background. I mean, Microsoft and vintage watch collecting and his passion for cars. I think we just scratched the surface. I think we could have talked for hours with Rick.
James Oh, I would agree. And I thought it was fascinating. I could definitely talk for hours and hours about cars with him. He has such an incredible background. And the funny thing is, is we got to a little slice of it in the chat. There's so much more. I mean, some really remarkable kind of crazy enthusiast only sort of cars. And it's not really surprising that he went down kind of a similar road in watches as well, whether it be Doxa or now with Aquastar.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. Well, it's been a long episode. Maybe we should jump right into final notes.
James Yeah, let's do it.
Jason Heaton I think yours is particularly fitting. given our car discussion with with Rick, why don't you go with yours first?
James Yeah, so mine is a new book from our good buddy Matt Horanek. Matt, of course, is well known for a number of things. If you follow him on Instagram, you know him for his sartorial endeavors, you know him for his Negroni endeavors and for his ability to kind of always pose in a really fantastic way while holding a big plate of meat. And believe it or not, he can do even more things than that. And that includes books. He's pretty popular and well-known for A Man and His Watch, which I highly recommend if you haven't written it. It's these kind of personal stories about people and watches that became kind of defining elements of either their style or their story, or maybe the watch itself encapsulates kind of a fun story from their history. It's a great book. It's been around for a while. I'm not really saying anything new at this port, but now we have the followup to a man and his watch and that's a man and his car. Uh, so this is, uh, you know, celebrating cars and those who collect them is the kind of tagline. Again, this is one that I absolutely recommend. I preordered it as soon as it hit Matt's Instagram. And it just arrived a couple days ago. I think I got mine kind of late, but that's sometimes how things goes with Canada and shipping and our Amazon versus others. But so far I've been absolutely thrilled. It's a really good port of the same sort of aesthetic and treatment that we saw in a man and his watch, but now with cars and obviously it's all collector vehicles. It's got a great set of folks represented in there, including Ralph Lauren, Jay Leno, Bruce Meyer, Ben Clymer, Mark Newson, Matt Jacobson, Magnus Walker. I mean, there's a lot of stuff in here, and it's not all Porsches. It's not all Ferraris. It's not all of anything. It's just people who have these kind of interesting stories about their past cars or cars that they still have or just cars that were meaningful to them. And I absolutely love this kind of stuff because these are the sorts of little conversations you have when you're at a car show or maybe out for a drive with friends and somebody brings a car you haven't seen before and you kind of get the background. And it's all part of the world. It's how the world around cars kind of supports itself is with these sorts of stories. And I think Matt did an absolutely lovely job. The other plus is it's being carried by Hodinkee. So you can get it right through the shop. Nobody at Hodinkee Shop knows we're mentioning this. It's not like an ad or anything like that. It's just supporting people who are doing good work. And we like the shop a lot, obviously. And yeah, it's on offer. A man in his car, it's $40. And I highly recommend it for the money. Great photography, great stories, and yet another great project from the inimitable Matt Hranek.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, as someone who has photographed extensively both watches and cars, as you have, you know how difficult it can be to photograph both. I mean, with watches, they're tiny, shiny objects, and with cars, they're big. And I don't have the book here in front of me, but I saw a bit on his Instagram about behind the scenes and how he set up a big fabric backdrop and backed the cars onto them to shoot them against a backdrop, at least some of them. Um, that just had to be incredibly difficult to do and to get the right angles and the right, you know, right settings for these things.
James Yeah. I have to imagine the photography was incredibly challenging because these aren't cars that, you know, this book was produced pre COVID and the rest of it. So it's not like these cars came to Matt's studio or, or even a big garage and they were able to set up like a lot of the stuff was just in the field. Yeah. So they, yeah, he had a big kind of seamless, which is what you'd call that kind of a background that you don't notice. Yeah. Um, that's all kind of one, one flat color or shape and the rest of it. And I think it all came out just so well. It's these cars, you know, obviously they've been shot with a large kind of soft box from above. So it's, it's a really easy way to, to appreciate the lines and the design of the car. It takes out some of the, um, some of the, kind of the, the, the more difficult aspects of sunlight and the rest of it. Uh, so you get this very uniform look to the art through the book and I think it's, it's well supported by the stories.
Jason Heaton Yeah, really cool. Yeah. I want to order a copy of this. I think, uh, I've seen a man in his watch, and it's fantastic, but admittedly, I'm actually even more keen on a man in his car. And if I'm not mistaken, the front cover is an old Land Rover, Simon de Burton's old Series 2A.
James It absolutely is. A beautifully patinated, if that's the word, Land Rover. Really, really fantastic. Whatever's left of the paint on it is perfect. Nice. But yeah, well done with that, Matt. Maybe we can have you on the show sometime to talk about some of the background of this story and in the watch book as well. That'd be pretty fun. Yeah. Uh, but until then pick up Matt's book, they've got it on Hodinkee. I'm sure we've, they've got it everywhere else. Uh, at this point I'm doing, you know, we're doing what we can to maybe not always suggest Amazon. Uh, so find it at your local retailer. If you don't have a local, grab it at Hodinkee. Uh, I think that's probably a easy enough way to go about it. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Well, my followup is, uh, I suppose it's equally somewhat fitting for today's, uh, dive watch episode. This one came via a listener of ours, Max, who sent over a link to it. It's a video that's showing on Vimeo, a short film called Underground Movement, Cave Diving in Jämtland. And it's about some cave divers in Sweden. Now, gosh, it was a couple of years ago. We also talked about another Scandinavian cave diving film, Diving into the Unknown, which was from 2016, which was just a An incredible movie, you know, the movie starts with these guys towing all their diving gear and sleds to a frozen lake, then chopping a hole in the ice and then diving through the ice into a cave, et cetera. This one is also in Scandinavia. It's the, I hope I'm pronouncing this right, the Dolensjø cave, which was an underwater cave system that was discovered in 1979. And this small team of expert cave divers has been conducting an annual expedition that they call Bjulralven. I thought we had a hard time with the Neruna. Here we go with further Umlauts and Scandinavian pronunciations. But Bjurralven is what they call their expedition. Apologies for the butchering of the name. Which they've been exploring deeper and deeper into this cave system. And so far they've gotten through 1.7 kilometers of this cave. But they still don't know where this thing ends. Um, I don't know, it's, there's something, you know, as, uh, as, as an avid diver, but someone who doesn't do anything inside caves, it's, uh, it's always so fascinating and kind of, um, a little bit terrifying to, to watch these, um, to watch these kinds of movies, just because, you know, you know, what can go wrong, just diving in nice clear open water. And then you add that, that extra element of doing it, um, you know, in the winter, uh, underground, um, with, you know, really no quick access to the surface. So, um, really, really amazing film. Um, interesting team of divers. There are actually a couple of women on the team and, uh, um, just, uh, good stuff. So I want to thank Max for sending that over and, uh, you know, it'll be, it'll be a nice, uh, Nice evening by the fire thing to watch while I'm thankful that I'm warm and dry while I'm viewing.
James Yeah, the cave diving really is a thing. I know we've talked about this a lot before, probably even, you know, on the heels of that, of diving into the unknown. But, you know, cave diving, those videos, like I can watch videos of just about anything you want. I can watch those Isle of Man TT, you know, POV films of people going into 200 miles an hour over some old, you know, UK road. And then, you watch this and yeah, I get you get tense. My heart rate kind of gets kind of weird. Yeah. Bruce start breathing kind of funny. You're holding your breath for them sometimes. And the rest of it, uh, it, it really is a, an insane skillset that has only a sliver overlap with normal diving. It's a whole other pursuit that happens to piggyback on top of being able to breathe underwater. Right. Yeah. It's a, it's a thing. So this is a super fun and definitely something that I'll check out Thankfully, I didn't make it my pick, so I didn't have to pronounce any of those names. Well done on that. You certainly did better than I would. I should start every episode with a disclaimer about the construction noise and also my inability to pronounce the name. Pretty much anything else in any other language. But that's great. So we got, uh, yeah, a man in his cars and the underground movement, uh, both, uh, look like, uh, yeah, a great way to spend a weekend or an afternoon or, or whichever, especially, uh, as we start moving closer to, uh, to winter.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. You can hit the show notes via hoodinkee.com or the feed for more details and a huge thank you to G-Shock and Master G for supporting this episode. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at JE Stacy, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and keep sending those voice memos. Additionally, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts and music throughout is Siesta by Jazz Art via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Ernest Shackleton, who said, men are not made from easy victories, but based on great defeats.