The Grey NATO - 129 - So Many New Watches
Published on Thu, 05 Nov 2020 06:00:24 -0500
Synopsis
The hosts discuss several new watch releases, including the Oris Aquis Date 400 with a new in-house movement, bronze Bremont Broadsword models, smaller Breitling Chronomat watches, the new Doxa Sub 300 lineup, Farer pilot watches, and the Astor & Banks Fortitude dive watch. They give their thoughts on the designs, specs, and significance of each model. They also touch on topics like limited editions, vintage gold watches, and Rolex's latest releases. For final notes, they recommend the documentary "Alone Across the Arctic" and a longform article "Searching for Superman" about climber Fritz Stomberger.
Links
Transcript
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| J.E. Stacey | 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 129, and it's proudly brought to you by G-Shock and their master of G line of tool-ish, tough, and tech-forward watches. We thank you so much for listening. Jason, how are you doing? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, hanging in there. It's, uh, obviously a big week here in the U S with, uh, it's election day actually that we're recording on. And, um, aside from that, I've got a lot of, uh, construction work going on here, just like you have had all summer. So we're, I think we should start just having Dewalt and, uh, Makita and companies like that sponsor the podcast here. |
| J.E. Stacey | I got no love for Makita. I'm just kidding. I haven't, I haven't used any other stuff, but I adore my Dewalt stuff, which I've used quite extensively throughout the summer. And, uh, and I really, really like it. So yeah, I actually know a guy that, uh, that manages, uh, the DeWalt contact, but I don't, yeah, I don't know if, uh, I don't know if that's just going to come together naturally, but yeah, this is a roundabout way of saying, uh, thank you very much for listening. And we're sorry if there's a bunch of like drilling and concrete cutting and everything else in the background, they're doing work on about every single flat surface and around me. And it sounds like they're doing similar at Jason's. Now, I can't hear Jason's side, so maybe we'll get lucky and nobody will be able to hear any of this. Yeah, right. But as always, we take the audio quality pretty seriously. It's something that we pride ourselves on. And I mean, they started these rentals at my place in April, early April. Yeah, that's crazy. I just live with it now. It's the worst. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And for you, it's beyond your control. And here we're having some brickwork done on a new patio addition. And so they're out there with concrete saws and those compactors for pushing the sand down and that sort of thing. And we were chatting before we started recording here that, you know, I feel like the summer was, um, you know, given how strange a year it's been, I think we've, we've really jumped in with both feet with, uh, gardening and kind of home improvements here. And it must be some sort of latent or subconscious desire to sort of line the nest, so to speak, and kind of stay protected here during, during this sort of tumultuous, uh, |
| J.E. Stacey | state that the world's in, but yeah, it's probably a bit of that. And it's, and it's probably also a bit of like when you spend enough time looking at the same painting, you'd start to see all the brushstrokes and it stops, it stops being an image as much as it is part of. And I think it's kind of the same thing where like you spend enough time in the four rooms that are available to you and you start seeing all the things that like you weren't maybe so wild about, but didn't have the time to even think about previously. Yeah. Um, so that's that quarter, but, but yeah, I feel you for sure. Uh, I, uh, construction noise. Yeah. It's a, it's definitely enough to derail a, a fine mental state, noise canceling headphones. If, uh, if they decide to take several months to do, uh, to do your, your patio, well, knock on wood, they said there'll be done today. |
| Jason Heaton | And I'm quite happy about it. Actually, in addition to the patio, they're putting in a little parking pad next to our tiny garage so I can finally get the, The Land Rover off the street for the winter, which I'm really thrilled about. So that'll be, that's one upside of all this. So yeah. That's fantastic. Good call. Yeah. We just, we just fell back for, uh, I don't know. Did you guys, uh, was your daylight savings time ending on Saturday night? Like it was here. |
| J.E. Stacey | I don't know if all of it is the same, uh, same in, in Ontario where I live. Uh, it's the same as, as much of the States. |
| Jason Heaton | Okay. Yeah. So it's dark by geez, five o'clock here now. So it's, uh, we're, we're officially into, into, you know, deep autumn. But it's supposed to be like 70 degrees here this later this week, and maybe even today. So it's, it's kind of weird. We had a cold and snowy October and now it's, it's warming up. So we're going to try to get out and sneak in a couple of last bike rides of the season here. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, we had our, we had our first snow yesterday. Oh, okay. And then it's warm today. It's going to be quite a bit warmer for the rest of the week, which is nice. I'm not, I'm not at all against this as a, you know, I'll take it warm in November versus freezing cold. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. I mean, you know, given the fact that we're all kind of homebound this year and with, with winter looming, it's, it is nice to sneak in these, uh, strangely warm days in November when it's usually like gray and cold and possibly even snowy. So I'm not upset about that. I, I will say that this time of year has sort of kickstarted my desire to work on my novel a bit more. I sort of took the summer off. I had planned to do some travel to do a little research for it and, um, with the shorter days and the colder weather, it's just feels more conducive to sit inside and, and write rather than be out, you know, working in the garden or biking or, or, you know, camping and that sort of thing. So that, that's been a good thing. And I'm hoping to get a final draft done here by within the next month or so. And I've actually got a, just signed on somebody to do some editing work for me. And I've been talking to designers about typesetting and cover design and that sort of thing. It's a, it's definitely a different, different world for me than, you know, the work I've been doing for the past decade or so. So, um, it's still writing, but it's such a different sort, um, with a lot of different factors that I'm not used to. So it's, uh, it's been a, it's been a good learning process, but that's been, that's been fun. So I'll be jumping back into that more in the next few weeks. Oh, I'm glad to hear it. |
| J.E. Stacey | That's a, that's great. How about you? Not a ton new here. Just looking at my notes, you know, it's a lot like I complained about or talked about or whatever, however you want to characterize my position. You know, there's not a lot going on. It's just a lot of work these days. You know, there's always, you know, the pace of the watch industry has been destroyed, right? So everybody's just free falling and kind of doing whatever they want. So there's kind of no methodology. to launching a watch currently. It's kind of like a new, a new space and everybody's trying kind of different things. |
| Jason Heaton | There's all, it's all ebb and no, or sorry, there's no ebb and all flow. I guess there isn't that usual cycle of. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, that sounds, that's a good way of putting it for sure. I, um, I did get, uh, quite some time ago towards the start of, um, of the, the kind of concern surrounding the pandemic, um, a company, uh, based in Maine called Rancourt, uh, shoe company. Uh, they did, um, They did a sort of like a Kickstarter, but not really. They did it through their own site. So it wasn't a Kickstarter, but they did kind of like a crowdfunded round of of orders, which were essentially you were pre-ordering shoes and their hope was that they could help survive, you know, whatever was going to come of quarantine and the pandemic and the rest of it. Of course, this would have been in April, I think. And I bought a pair of shoes. You know, this is a shoe brand that I know a few people who are really, really hot on. And I'd always seen them before. They're kind of expensive. I like a good pair of shoes. I don't mind spending the money on them. And so I picked up a pair of these ones called the Acadia Chukka, a really nice kind of classic casual shoe. Really, really, really cool. And I was excited about it. And then I kind of forgot about them for a while because it was months and months and months ago that I paid for it and made the order. And then they would send the occasional email. And then for whatever reason, I didn't get an email that they had shipped. So then I was looking back over some kind of like funding updates and they're saying like, oh, well, everything should ship by early September. And I was like, well, I haven't seen my, I haven't seen any sort of notice. So I wrote them and they're like, oh yeah, no, it shipped. They're just, they're just sitting in Toronto. Nobody picked them up. And I was like, well, yeah, but I didn't know they shipped. So I had to, you know, call FedEx and pay them $30 or whatever it is. and Really, really nice. I'm super, super impressed with them. Definitely up there with your Red Wing in terms of quality. A little bit more of a kind of a craftsman level than some of the Red Wing stuff that I'm used to, which is typically pretty polished as far as the end result. These feel a little bit more craftsman. And yeah, it's a Horween Chrome XL leather shoes with a nice sort of a spongy sole. So far, I'm impressed. Have you had any experience with this brand? |
| Jason Heaton | I haven't, although I did meet Kyle Rancourt. He was in town. I had a dinner with some folks from a local menswear shop, Asko Finlayson, a couple of years ago and Kyle was at this dinner. Um, really friendly, nice guy. And then, um, he had some twin cities connections. I'm not sure if he's from here originally. Um, but he, I had bought a pair of boots years ago from a local company called La Nona that I don't think they're in business anymore. I'm not sure. But, um, and he had some connection with Rancourt. I don't know if Rancourt made them for him or if he sort of, uh, you know, was, uh, uh, apprenticed at Rancourt or something, but I, I kind of, I've seen their shoes and they look, uh, they look really fantastic. Um, A little bit dressier, I would say, than a Red Wing type. The kind of boot that makes you want to up your game a little bit and maybe take better care of them than like an Iron Ranger that you're not afraid to just bash around. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I would agree. They are a little bit less... There's something about an Iron Ranger that kind of like crosses just a little bit into the military or even work boot territory. Yeah. Which really just kind of says like, just wear me, I don't care. Yeah. And I've certainly worn my Iron Rangers in some terrible scenarios. They've held up beautifully. But yeah, I was excited to give it a try. I like supporting a brand like this, you know, handmade and in Maine, you know, they started in 67 and it's nice to see that brands found some ways to kind of carry on with some of this stuff. What else is new? Oh, you were talking briefly about the Landy there. I picked up, like, I'm not even sure the correct name for it because I bought it off of a family friend. I didn't even go to the store. But, you know, it's like a rack that goes in your trailer hitch. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah, right, right. A hitch mount rack, I think. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, something like that. A tailgate rack, I'm not sure. You know, I think this is more commonly people might have experience with like things, methods of holding their bikes or their skis or something like that on the back of the car. But I just found that the Jeep has a lot of room when you put the seats down. But going back and forth between the project property, there was always some stuff that I didn't want in the Jeep, a bag of garbage or a maybe a spare cooler that just didn't quite fit into the sort of Tetris of packing. And so I picked this up and I wired up some lights for it just in case, because if you put something tall enough in it, you actually wouldn't be able to... A car in a different lane might not be able to see one of your turn signals. Oh, sure. So I put some... It's a little rack, the thing holds... I think it holds 500 pounds. And of course, that's more than the hitch adapter on the Jeep itself, which I think does 300 standing pounds. Oh, yeah. I've used this thing a couple of times. You just kind of throw it in there. It takes two minutes to put in. It's not so big that it can't be stored inside the Jeep if you need to. It's like a little tray, right? Yeah, it's got a dish. So it has a little wall, maybe three or four inch wall that loops around. But otherwise, yeah, it's like a big rectangle. that sits on the back. And yeah, I can put a cooler works really well. You grab a couple of bungees and then suddenly you get all that. Like a cooler takes up more space in the car than you'd expect when you put it somewhere else. But it's super handy. And then, of course, if I have to go anywhere with the back seats up, such as with my kids, then it's really handy. So that's been fun. And it was a fun little thing to get to pick up and use. |
| Jason Heaton | Do you find yourself always checking the rear view mirror to make sure stuff isn't falling off behind you? Or are you over that now? |
| J.E. Stacey | The first time I drove and it's so small and because of the shape of the Jeep, there's no way to see it. Right. So when I would pass other vehicles, I would just glance back and catch the reflection of it in their in their paintwork. So that's how I was checking. But we definitely at one point stopped, you know, for a bite to eat or gas or something. And I did go back and I thought about it less over the span of, say, a two hour drive. I started out thinking about a 50 times in the first five minutes and then maybe five times in the last 50 minutes or something like that. So I'm definitely getting used to it. I like that it doesn't weigh enough that I'm concerned that something could actually fail. But it is, of course, a concern that something would come off of the rack at speed on the highway, which is not something you want to happen. That'd be terrible, of course. I think if the whole rack came off, I might notice. It would make some noise, maybe. I don't know. |
| Jason Heaton | Maybe it wouldn't. I'm just so paranoid about carrying stuff on the back. I had a Wrangler many years ago and I had a mountain bike kind of on a, uh, I didn't know you had a Wrangler. I did. I had a 95 Wrangler. Um, I guess it was the, uh, the YJ. So the square and, uh, and I was, I was driving down the highway with, uh, a mountain bike on a, one of those racks that you mount on the spare tire and it kind of sticks out with two arms and then you put the frame of the bike over it and kind of bungee it on there. And the Wrangler was, Obviously, as you know, it was a short wheelbase one, so two-door, and it was very bouncy. The mountain bike sort of walked its way to the back of those arms, unbeknownst to me, and then just fell off the back on the freeway, on the interstate. I saw it in my rear-view mirror, just pinwheeling up, catapulting back along the highway. 18 wheel, you know, semi-truck just crushed it, just drove right over the top of it like a deer. I was, I felt, you know, my pit of my stomach and, uh, Ghoshani was with me and we got off in the next exit, looped around, parked on the shoulder with the four-way flashers on. I ran out and kind of salvaged what I could of this thing. It was just, just a pretzel. I mean, goodness sakes. So I have this weird, like, you know, PTSD about that where, uh, That's putting stuff on the back. I don't know if I want to do it again. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I know for a while with my Jeep, I noticed that sometimes when I would go over bumps, it would make quite a loud noise in the back. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | And it wasn't like a suspension bang. I know that kind of sound from other vehicles. And I couldn't place what it was. I thought maybe that something in a little cubby under the floor was maybe loose and bouncing around. Oh, yeah. That's what it sounded like. something kind of heavy, or like imagine if the speaker was loose in the subwoofer. Yeah, yeah. That's what I kept thinking it was, so I dismantled a bunch of stuff and put it back. And then earlier this year, when we started the project property, I had to pull a trailer a few times, which I spoke about on the show, the super fun experience of learning to back up a trailer, especially with an audience. And anyways, I did at that point take off the spare rear wheel. to help mount the trailer and have more room and that kind of thing. And then when I put it back on, it must not have been on tight enough. So I didn't torque the lug nuts that hold it on to the back, but they're nice and tight. And then now that noise went away. So I mean, if you wanted to have a really good time, lose the wheel on the highway at speed as well. It may go past you, physics being what they can be sometimes. Um, but yeah, it was, um, it's been, it's been fun. You know, I, I still have a, I've said this a couple of times, but I still have a few other things that I want to get done to the Jeep, you know, kind of before winter sets in, in earnest. Um, but so far it's, it's just been a, a nice thing. And this really adds, it doesn't look like it would add that much space to what you can carry around, but it does. And it's, it's relatively simple. It's a bummer if you want to kind of move things in and out of the, the back of the Jeep, cause you have to remove the, the, the hitch. It's not like putting it on the back of a pickup truck. where you still have access to everything. But other than that, it's been fine. And yeah, I think that's probably all that's new. New shoes, tailgate rack for the Jeep, pretty on board. |
| Jason Heaton | Nice. Yeah. Well, I've got one more little update. A few weeks back, I helped our friends over at Topper Jewelers out with that launch of their new Aorus Diver 65. It kind of got lost in the shuffle with a few other launches a few weeks ago. There's no format to the industry now. |
| J.E. Stacey | This is a good looking watch though. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, um, it sort of fell in between a couple of episodes that we did, um, the deep star and our interview with Rick and that sort of thing. And, um, I wanted to mention this before we move on and that's, uh, it's the diver 65 topper edition. So they, they had done a previous topper edition diver 65, but this one is based on the, um, I don't know what they call that specific dial, but it's not the, the dot and dash dial. |
| J.E. Stacey | Um, yeah, it's like the original, the original 65 re reedition that they came out with, you know, five, six years ago. It's that dial with the, with the sort of funky 12, three, six, nine markers. |
| Jason Heaton | Right, right. And what they did is they put that in the larger case size. So it's in the 42 millimeter case. And then they, um, the idea was that they didn't use the vintage style or the Fotina aged loom in this one. Um, So it's a bit brighter. It's, it's obviously bigger, 42 millimeters. So on my wrist, um, I had it for a couple of days, um, while I was helping them out with this and, and quite liked it. It looked good on my wrist. Um, I think, you know, some people like the smaller size, uh, diver 65, um, as opposed to the 42. I, um, haven't owned one. I've handled the smaller one and I liked that as well, but, uh, I think it's a great watch. It comes on that rivet bracelet with a tropic strap in addition. And so Topper asked me and a couple of other people, including our friend James Lambden from Analog Shift, and then our buddy Vijay from AORUS, we kind of did a 10-minute video about the launch that's on Topper's YouTube page. Oh, nice. You can check that out. We'll put the link in the show notes. It's a really cool watch. As far as I know, there's still some available. limited edition, but, uh, yeah, really cool. Um, you know, I think, uh, you know, our, our episode today is about new watches and we have a really cool Oris in there, but I wanted to sneak this one in before we, we move into Oris is really big news. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. I mean the, this, uh, this, this, this one would have absolutely could have been part of the, uh, the list later on in the show. So I guess a little teaser for, uh, uh, the new watches, but we, yeah, we, we had this kind of feeling for the last little while, or at least I have, um, that, like I said, because there's not really any pace these days. It's just like anything could come out at any moment. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | Um, and some of it, you know, about, and it's embargoed and you, and you have all that kind of stuff. And, um, and then some of it, you don't, sometimes the brands just, they want a cold launch and they go for it and you just have to react. Uh, and, and the end result is, is I feel like there's a bunch of watches that we haven't talked about that, that came out, like I would say just in the last few months, even. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. Yeah, I agree. |
| J.E. Stacey | You know, we didn't talk a ton about the Rolex stuff, and maybe that's what people assume the direction we're going with this. It's actually not on the list. Everybody out there knows about the new Submariner. It's basically the same as the old Submariner. That's about all of my feelings on it. If you want my favorite one of their new releases, it's that yellow dial OP 36 millimeter. I would absolutely aspire to buy one of those. Probably my favorite thing they make right now. You know, that case size is perfect. And then that yellow dial, it's like Bahama yellow. It's such a perfect, it's a great color. And I think it's one of those few colors where, and we'll get to like the diving star. Cause I have that watch here, the Doxa sub 300. We'll get to that in a moment. This is a warmer orangey yellow, which I think would just work with almost any outfit. I mean, as long as you got like blue jeans on or a blue shirt or something in that elk green, it's going to look great. So that's where I stand on those. I know I've gotten a bunch of DMs, maybe you have too, about why we didn't do an episode on the new Submariner or something like that. So I don't know that there is. It's hard for me to believe that it is a new Submariner. People got crazy upset about the size and arguably in every photo I've seen, it looks smaller than the old one because of the more shapely lugs. And my stance, and Jason, maybe yours is the same, is five digit Submariners are still better than the current stuff. You know, I love a 14-06 OM like yours. It's that smaller case. It's the thin lug. The same thing is with the Explorer. I think that my five-digit Explorer II is a vastly more svelte and elegant thing than the current 42-millimeter. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, every time I put on my 140-60, I'm always struck by how skinny those lugs are. They're just so thin. |
| J.E. Stacey | It wears so much more delicately than you expect of a sport watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And they're kind of, they kind of moved back towards that direction with the new one. I think people are pretty happy about that. So, um, yeah, I guess that's our abbreviated take on the new one. I think, you know, it's, it's typical evolution from Rolex and you know, I'm sure it's a superior watch. Like, Oh yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | No question. I mean, yeah, that's the thing with submariners. It's like, it's like, uh, uh, what, uh, Corvettes, right. The best Corvette is always the Corvette that they just made. Right. Right. Um, you know, they don't, they're not playing into the idea of remaking the Corvette from the fifties. They just set out to make the best possible Corvette every time. And, you know, they do a fine job with that as Rolex does with the Submariner. Of course, to any of that, you have a much better chance of being able to buy a Corvette than any Rolex, but good luck to anyone who's able to get one or see one or do the rest of it. So if you happen to get a chance to see those colorful OPs in person, I do wonder how they compare to the way the color comes through on a screen. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I'd love to get my hands on a couple of those. I like the coral, the coral sort of orangey one, um, as well on that, that sort of green. I mean, they're all, they're all just really beautiful. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, for sure. I think they did. I think they did well. I think it's a really, really subtle watch. And when you consider how well they make watches in general, uh, I don't think that you have to specifically go like, Oh, I'm, I kind of lead an active lifestyle. I need a Submariner or an Explorer. Like if you think like, I think the OP is, has, has for a long, and I think Rolex seems to know this too. is it's a bit of a sleeper. Um, and, and with them bringing back this sort of Stella effect dial with these bright colors makes it a little bit less of a sleeper, but I think it is still just quietly the modern day Explorer, uh, 36 millimeters, right. That as much as I like the two, one, four, two 70, the current Explorer, uh, at 39 millimeters, it's great watch. Um, I think that these are, you know, every bit is tough and capable and the rest of it, but just a little bit more, old school Rolex kind of. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, we've kind of jumped the gun on new watches, but let's, let's do a quick risk check and maybe an ad break and then we can dive into the new stuff. |
| J.E. Stacey | Absolutely. Yeah. We've got a list of a list of some new stuff that we haven't talked all that much about. So I think that should be good. And I guess we can add Rolex to that, which we just did. And, uh, and yeah, as far as a risk check goes, uh, we're wearing the same watch. So what do you got on risk? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's the Deep Star. I mean, you know, we, I think we were both wearing this when we did our interview show with Rick a couple of weeks ago. And, you know, it doesn't leave my wrist much. It's just I keep coming back to it. It's such a, such a great piece. I've got the gray dial one. I've got it. I moved it on to a NATO strap yesterday because I picked up, you know, Aquastar back in the day, actually in their earliest days, they also made wrist compasses and depth gauges. And they used to make a little clip on one that would go on the strap of their early dive watches. And I kind of wanted that look. So I picked up a little titanium wrist compass from Prometheus Design Works, which was a company in the Pacific Northwest that was founded by Um, one of the guys who founded, um, triple aught design. Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah. And, um, he left the company founded Prometheus and they do kind of some similar stuff. They do clothing and sort of EDC gear. And, um, so this is a cool little button compass that, um, has a little slot for, for stringing onto a NATO strap and it'll, it'll fit a 20 or a 22 millimeter. Uh, NATO, I kind of put it between the, the nearside keeper and the case. So it kind of gets held in there. doesn't slide around. And the only complaint I have is that it's fairly tall. I mean, it's kind of sits tall on the wrist. So it's a bit awkward to wear day to day, but I love the look of it. And this one's like water resistant to a hundred meters, which I have a little Suunto clipper, which is a plastic button compass that you can put on a strap, but I don't think it's, you know, made for diving or anything terribly wet other than hiking in the rain. But this one's really cool. And it came in a little silicone, holder with a little loop that you could kind of string through itself and clip onto your, maybe your backpack, like a D-ring. So you could use it while you're hiking. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I saw that on their, on their website. That's a clever, a clever solution. It keeps everything pretty, pretty lightweight. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's really well made. It's got good loom and yeah. So we'll see how long it actually stays on the watch. I think it's a, it's a neat look, but like I said, it's a bit, it's a bit, a bit bulbous for, for kind of day-to-day wear, but it gives it a fun look for the Deepstar, which is what you're wearing as well. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. And when I saw your photo of the watch with that PW titanium compass, I went to their site and I put it in a cart to order one, and I just haven't clicked order. So I should do that. I think it looks like a fun thing. For me, I'm wearing mine. I have the black dial, which I like just so much. I have not worn anything else. I've actually had a little bit of trouble even taking this off to wear a watch that I have to write about. I'll wear them while I'm doing the photo shoot and then while I make my notes and things like that. But it's not like a new watch comes in the mail, some of the stuff that we'll talk about in just a couple minutes. Some of that stuff came in the mail and I would have to almost, in my mind, schedule a time to not wear the Deepstar to have the space on my wrist. I'm wearing it on a Horween-style leather strap, a blue strap that you sent me. Oh, yeah. Nice. And I absolutely love it. This is so comfortable and easy to wear. I can sleep with it on, which is usually my over-under on whether or not a watch is actually comfortable. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | Do you have to take it off, basically? And I really like this. The cool little Aquastar buckle with the signed logo went right onto the strap easily. And it's a really nice sort of fall look. And I'm attempting to really become a bit of a chronograph guy. And within that metric, I'm very good at remembering to start the chronograph. Oh yeah, yeah. Stop it. Absolutely. And it could be, I could be timing something that I have to actively do. Like I could be cooking something and I'll go like, oh, well the pasta's in the pot now, so I'll start my thing. And I'll go through the whole process and be sitting down and eating the food. when I realized like, oh, I was timing to see how long that would take. Oh, yeah. So I'm learning. It's baby steps with the chronograph. I love I really, really love this watch a lot. I think it's super fun. It's it's absolutely one of my most favorite vintage watches, the original Deep Star. And I like the size of the original. And I was pretty skeptical when I first heard about the sizing of the new one. But in person, it wears like a 40 .5, 41 millimeter watch and it wears really nicely. It's not too chunky, it's not too thin, it's not too anything, it just wears well. And I've been pretty happy with it. Yeah, that's awesome. Still looking at gold chronographs on Watch Recon. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, what brands? I mean, are you looking at really old stuff? |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I'm looking at vintage stuff. I would like something kind of mid-century, galley, similar to that. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, nice. |
| J.E. Stacey | The other stuff, sometimes there's there's like discrepancies in the pricing and stuff, but like there's older Deville chronographs, um, omegas. And then of course they did gold plated Seamaster chronographs with the three, two, one movement. It would be fine, right? Oh, it wouldn't bother me at all. It doesn't have to be solid. Um, so there was, yeah, there was a, a, a plated, I think it's a three, two, one, it might be three 20, uh, whichever the movement is. It's like a speed mastery sort of movement. And it looks a lot like a speed master, but they are signed as Seamasters. Yeah, you know, you know the watch. I mean, I'm sure everybody listening does. Those, I think, are pretty cool. And the plate ones are kind of less money than I expected. You know, you're looking at a couple grand, whereas as soon as you jump to solid, everything kind of starts at four or five, right? And then goes up depending on what you want. Oh, well, we're on the topic and I'll move on in a moment to this. We got an ad break to get to. I was, I just, I have like, I don't know if you use watch recon on your phone, but you can set up the alerts. Yeah. So it just pings you. So I have like, you know, like a constant alert for the seven 50 GMT, um, and, and a few other things. But one of them I had, there was like, it was, it was for vintage gold, just the words of vintage gold. Oh, sure. And, yeah. And I got a solid goal. I didn't buy it. Sorry. I was delivered a notification, uh, for a solid gold oyster courts. Oh, wow. Oh my God. So it would have been from the early, I guess from the early eighties, right? 82, 83, maybe a little later than that on the matching bracelet. So insanely cool. Wow. Uh, it was 10 grand. So I was like, I'm not, there's no chance I was going to buy it. Um, but I looked at it many times and I just think like, what, what a hilarious way to not only go for a gold Rolex, but then to go quartz. Oh yeah. Oh man. And because you know the watch, and if you're listening and you don't know what an Oysterquartz is, this is obviously a quartz-based Rolex made famous in the late 70s by being part of the first unsupported and without supplemental oxygen ascent of Everest by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habler. And It's a really cool watch with a fascinating history. And then in solid gold, because it has a kind of integrated bracelet, the case and bracelet design is very kind of distinct within Rolex. With that in mind, you get kind of a Royal Oak vibe out of it, which I like quite a bit, obviously. So that was another fun one. I've digressed extensively from the Deepstar. So let's get into an Adbrick, maybe. Yeah, let's do that. Unless you have any big thoughts about Oysterquartz. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I think they're just so cool. And there's actually, if you're not into the Oysterquartz, they did make a watch, I can't remember the reference number, that was the automatic version or used that same case. Oh, well, let's find out. |
| J.E. Stacey | And I can't remember what that... Okay, Datejust OP, and it's a 1630 TT. Oh yeah, that's cool. I mean, I don't like the two tone at all, but I like the rest of it. It's a date just in what would be at an entry level explanation in sort of an AP format. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah, yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | So an integrated sort of case with a jubilee that mounts directly into the case end. Yeah. It's an interesting format. I think they look really cool in full gold. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | I'm less about this two-tone 1630, but still super cool regardless of the movement. My guess is the automatic would be less fussy over time than early quartz. Speaking of quartz, how about an ad break? Yeah, let's do it. So as we mentioned at the top of the show, this episode is brought to you by G-Shock and their Master of G line, which is divided into three separate categories, air, sea, and land. For this ad break, we're taking a look at the last of the three, Representing land, it's the Mudmaster GG-B100. With a carbon core guard case, solar charging, atomic timekeeping, and Bluetooth connectivity, the Mudmaster is a modern carbon-clad do-it-all tool watch. This model, the 1B version, has a blackout design that has all but the hands in a matte black and carbon finish. Fitted with a textured black strap, it's dark, surprisingly lightweight, and really stealthy. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. I mean, you know, we've seen in the past few weeks, the Gravity Master and the Frogman. What is it about the Mudmaster that sets it apart from the others? |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. So like the other two, it's kind of designed for these kind of extreme theaters, these big environments. And it's part of a longstanding line from G-Shock that offers extra resistance to things like dust and shock and, you know, mud. That's why it's a Mudmaster. It also has 200 meters of water resistance, a super legible analog digital display, an altimeter, a barometer, a compass, a thermometer. step counting functionality, Bluetooth connectivity, and a supporting smartphone app that allows advanced control over the watch's settings, GPS waypoint information, and even a mission log that allows you to track your location as you move through tough environments. |
| Jason Heaton | Wow, that's incredible. It sounds tough as nails. How does it wear? |
| J.E. Stacey | It wears really well. It's a huge watch, but it wears a lot lighter than you might expect. And the glove-friendly buttons and the legible display are also really handy when moving quickly or managing multiple kind of tough tasks. All told, this is a beast mode tool watch, and it's only further evidence that no one makes a watch quite like a G-Shock. For a closer look and more details, visit bit.ly slash MudmasterTGN. And let's not forget a huge thank you from Jason and I to G-Shock for supporting the Grenado and for making episodes like this one possible. Again, that's bit.ly slash MudmasterTGN. Thanks so much. Let's get back to the show. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, let's dive into the main topic. We already kind of hinted on a couple of new watches earlier. We talked about the Topper Horus, we talked about the Deepstar, we talked about a couple of Rolexes, but we have a list here of watches that I would say, if I look at the list, were probably released within the past two, maybe three weeks. I'm looking at this list, a couple of which you've had hands on. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, maybe with the exception of the Dockside. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. Let's just start at the top with maybe with what I think is Kind of the biggest news of the past few weeks, and that is the AORUS AQUOS DATE 400. Earlier in October, AORUS had announced the release of this Calibre 400, which was big news for them. They've done in-house movements in the past with the Calibre 110 series, but this is much more of a base movement that they can use for a variety of watches and uses over the coming years. They wanted to find one of their more popular watches to put it in, and they settled on the Aquus, which I think was a natural choice. Really, really cool watch. And it has the movement itself is very impressive for a watch that is retailing for, gosh, what is it, 3,200? 3,300 bucks. 3,300 bucks. Five-day power reserve, high magnetic resistance, just a fantastic automatic for Oris. I'm really pleased to see this. I think it got really well received by the market and by, you know, readers on Hodinkee and whatever that, that just kind of recognized that this is a big step forward for a small independent brand like Auris to, to kick off something like this. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. It seemed like from what I got in terms of feedback from both people on Instagram, and then of course the comments on the post, which is, I've learned over time that typically the comments on Hodinkee aren't even necessarily intended for the author. They're just kind of people, sometimes people are talking back and forth and other times they're kind of just saying something about a watch into the void. Right. And in this case, you know, it seemed like some people focused exclusively on the price, which is about 30% more than you might expect for your average Oris. This isn't your average Oris. This is a different value proposition than, than a Salida based Aquas, which they're still going to make. This isn't going to replace this. This is meant to expand the lineup and bring more choices to people. Um, and then the, the other side where people who were kind of very clearly they understood they could understand or at least contextualize the price point. And they were focusing more on the specs of the movement, which by almost any comparison are great. Uh, you know, the five day power service is a big step up from what you get from other in-house brands, say under $5,000 or even under $10,000 in some cases. Um, there's obviously exceptions there. Some brands offer huge power reserve for less. but not less than three grand, right? Not less than 3,500 on the bracelet. It's a quick change bracelet as well, which I really like. Display case back shows the movement off. And then, yeah, the movement is roughly like within a hair, either way, the same size as an ETA movement. So I think that this means that we'll be able to see caliber 400 you know, the five-day versions would be the easiest way. That's the only thing that they put on the dial that lets you know it's a caliber 400, is it says five days on the Aquus 400's dial. And so I think five-day models could probably happen in just about any model within the AORUS lineup that uses a conventional, I guess, Solido or an ETA, as they're going to be of a similar size, a very similar size. And yeah, so that's pretty exciting. As far as the movement goes, it's not like I didn't hook it up to a machine and test it for its accuracy or its claims. It was a very accurate movement. I couldn't actually measure any deviation over a few days visually, which is great. And then otherwise, it's just a really nice aqua. It has a gorgeous blue dial, this kind of nice navy blue sort of matte effect, ceramic bezel insert. Great crown, good bezel, decent loom, date at six, great bracelet, you know, again, with the quick change. So if you also get the rubber, you can move them back and forth pretty easily, which is nice on a watch that you can't just put any strap on. The Aquus has a proprietary lug design, but it is kind of exciting, not only to see it as a model, like I think it's one thing to look at the watch and see it for the final product. It's another thing to see it as the kind of first outlet for the new movement. And I think it's, I think it's great. I think this would be really great to see in, um, you know, put it in a diver 65. I'm sure that's coming. Uh, I think that could be great. I also think that this might be a chance for them to bring back some of, do you remember the TT lineup? Oh, I do. Yeah. Yeah. So like, imagine a titanium, you know, kind of an up market. Cause they, they still make the regulator durmeister talker, uh, which is a titanium aqueous case with a, you know, obviously a very specialized dial implementation as a regulator. Uh, really, really fun. And I think a lot of possibilities here. So I think they did a really good job. I think it's priced appropriately, you know, where it should be. And, uh, the, the, the final thing that we didn't, we haven't mentioned yet is the warranty and the service interval is 10 years. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh yeah. That's crazy. That's not messing around. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if, I mean, I would imagine Oris can spin this movement out in the future to something like the, uh, you know, implement a pointer date complication or a GMT for You know the Aqua's GMT and things like that. I would imagine that I'm sure that has gone through their minds I'm sure they built this movement with with those possibilities in mind. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, and and that's where that's where my fingers are kind of most tightly crossed is the idea that a brand that I really like and or us and Operating at a price point that I can stomach Might be able to offer a true GMT movement. Yeah, you know, this is this is one of the first directions that Tudor went when they went in-house with complication was obviously a Viaconese to go to the movement that's in the Black Bay GMT, which is a movement I really like, a watch that I find a little bit big, especially over the past two years when I've had other chances to kind of throw it on and try it on. I do find those 41 millimeter Tudors to be some of the bigger 41 millimeter watches out there. Granted, this Oris is 43 and a half and wears like 42. So they actually wear, I think, in a pretty similar fashion. And the short lugs really helped the Aquis. But yeah, I would be so happy to see Oris offer a GMT that was local jumping. You know, they do a lot of work with their GMT watches now, and they're really great watches, but they rely on independent 24-hour hand function, which isn't lesser, it's just different. And I vastly prefer local jumping. So it'll be exciting to see if that's something that we could add. I had hoped when I first initially saw that they were making the move, I kind of wondered if they would go the same route as Omega and some of the Panerai in-house movements where they have the hour always jumps regardless of whether it's a travel watch or not. I think that's actually a super clever design. This operates like a conventional movement. The hour hand adjusts kind of in circular fashion with the minute hand. not distinctly, which is of course fine. Panerai does it, but and so does Omega, but that's a lot more money. So yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. I think this just further shows that like Horace is on a good path. They've got good leadership. They've got good people behind them and they make watches that enthusiasts like. So while the bigger of the, well, it's not even the biggest, they make a larger Aquis at 45 and a half, but while the upper middle size Aquis is maybe not the one that everybody in a Hodinkee comment section wants. They want something more at 40 or the 30. There's a lovely 39 millimeter Aquus. I do think that this suggests a lot of flexibility for them in the future. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, speaking of cool brands, brands we like, let's move on to Braemont. They released the broadsword bronze in three different dial colors. Yeah. Yeah. Which, you know, this is their part of their Her Majesty's Armed Forces Collection, the HMAF collection, and the Broadsword is the 40 millimeter case version that pays tribute to the Dirty Dozen watches of World War II fame from the 12 brands that created watches to the MOD spec for the British Army. And the Broadsword is kind of the most basic of the formulas. The Arrow, of course, is the chronograph, and then the Argonaut is the two-crown dive watch. I think it's really cool that they used the broadsword for the vehicle for the bronze version. I think while the Argonaut might have made sense from kind of a nautical, you know, water marine based format, I think it looks really good on this really kind of stark field watch style. And they did a nice job with it, I think. It's got three dial colors or variations that this really beautiful kind of I don't want to call it teal. It's sort of a blue gray. |
| J.E. Stacey | I would call it a dark teal. They're calling it Sotek. Sotek. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure that is in reference to something that people will correct us on or inform us of at some point. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | But yeah, they do a tobacco dial, which I've seen all three of these in person. They originally had these for me to shoot in in March. So just actually literally days before I left New York. Oh, wow. Due to COVID, this is part of kind of a prelaunch strategy that that Braymont had. So I got a chance to see a handful of these watches, including the new iron bird, which we can get into. Maybe now I'm working on a possible interview about the iron bird in the future. So we might hold off on that one, but they've launched a handful of watches this year. And I think this broadsword is my favorite, especially in this kind of dark teal blue dial. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It's gorgeous. And then the third version is the slate, which is a dark gray. I think what's neat about this is, so you remember a few weeks ago, during a wrist check, I was wearing the Vertex Bronze 75, which is highly similar to this, at least on paper or in a photo, based also on Dirty Dozen, of which Vertex was an original brand. But the Vertex doesn't use, it doesn't have a date window, and it's strictly a black dial with those kind of chunky luminous markers. So I think You know, while the Bremont is obviously similar, and I think the pricing is pretty close on both of these as well, the Bremont, I think, with these dial color changes, modernizes the watch a little bit, as well as with the addition of the date. So I think there's enough difference between them that it's not a one-to-one comparison. But I would imagine, even though I haven't actually handled these, that it probably wears similar and kind of a similar weight to it. I'd love to see how this one ages too. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. I haven't seen, I haven't seen the bronze vertex in person. I have seen the, the, the broad sword bronze, uh, you know, 3,800 bucks. Yeah. That's, that's towards the entry side of Braymont's pricing. No real complication to speak of here, which I think is great. It's a 40 millimeter sizing. The case is really nice. It was nice when they did it in steel. It continues to be nice in, um, in, in bronze. And, and yeah, for me, the color is the standout. Yeah. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see if this is sort of a one-off for them. They made a bronze watch and this is the one, or if this is more of like a testing the water scenario to see if maybe we will see more bronze moving forward. I mean, the Braemonts used a lot of interesting metals for their watches, right? Like it's not just steel. They never use just steel. It's always hardened. and then they used, what is it, TI-46, that Boeing-based steel for their Boeing line. They've done titanium, or maybe that was TI-40, well, duh, TI-46 is titanium. Don't send any emails to the corrections department. |
| Jason Heaton | They did do the bronze, I guess they did the, they did do bronze for the NIMS watch, the Project Possible. Yeah, the bezel was bronze, was it not? |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, so to be fair, I guess not quite their first go around, but from the same year anyways, from this year. Yeah, that Sotec color. I would say even if this isn't a watch that like listening to us talk about it, you're not really sure why you would necessarily go click the link in the show notes. Go just to see this color. I don't know of another watch that uses this color. It's a good thing. I like the gray. The slate gray is really good. It's really good in person. The brown doesn't do much for me, but I'm on record as not caring for brown that much. But the gray in this Sotec is super fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | Next in the list here we have, this is one that's actually I think kind of exciting. This is a brand that I really do love when they succeed. It's a brand that has meant a lot to me for years and I've owned a couple of their watches and I've always been very happy with them. But then they went through a period where everything was really big and really kind of overdone. And I feel like they've just been kind of roping that back in. Right. And in this case, we're talking about Breitling. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. The Chronomat 36 and what, 32. 32. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. And I know specifically for anyone asking or getting upset or whatever, like that, yes, that these are absolutely Breitling has said that these are meant to be women's watches. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | So yeah, and I know a lot of people are probably saying like, Oh, that's a, it's a ladies watch. It's not what you guys normally talk about, but you know, between getting a couple ladies in, in the Q and a, um, uh, you know, thank you very much for sending in your questions, of course. And, and moreover, just a 36 millimeter watches, I think one that anyone could wear. Yeah. And, and 32 is, is definitely more, more into the ladies territory, but not so small to be unwearable. Right. Right. Um, but I think the 36 is absolutely interesting. Uh, they kind of have a, uh, that bullet-style Chronomat bracelet. |
| Jason Heaton | It reminds me of your old aerospace bracelet. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, it has a very similar overall... I'm sure it's not made to the same loose standards as my... I love that bracelet, but it was a very interesting construction. I've never come across another bracelet that used these sort of rods that connected these very thin loops together. Really easy to size, really clever, but I wouldn't say it felt sturdy. There wasn't any part of that bracelet that felt sturdy. The titanium didn't help either. Yeah. Just so light, right? It was fine, and I like that watch quite a bit. But yeah, I don't know. I love the aesthetic of the Chronomats. I like the ones that they brought out a little while ago, and I hope that they kind of continue the line. I think that there's absolutely a case for them to simply take the 36 millimeter one, do it all in steel with a black dial, and now it's in anybody's watch. Yeah. I particularly like... Definitely doesn't have to be gendered. I think it looks so good. |
| Jason Heaton | This one with sort of a pale green dial, and then they matched the date window background, which is a subtle thing, but I looked a few times and I saw that and I was like, that's... Yeah, the mint green's cool. Yeah, that's really cool. And I'd wear that. I'd wear a 36 millimeter. Like you said, this watch reminds me very much of the OP. I mean, A little glitzier, I guess, with that bracelet. |
| J.E. Stacey | We rambled for a while about Oysterquartz. This is in the same aesthetic space as an Oysterquartz. You can put, at least by looks, from what they've got here, you can put a standard bracelet on it. which is great. So yeah, another one I'm kind of excited about it. You know, I haven't gotten to see any of these. Sometimes Breitlings are super shiny in person, which isn't always my favorite. It's one thing if it's a bezel, but sometimes they'll do sports watches where the whole watch is polished. This I think looks really good. It looks very Breitling-y, you know, still has rider tabs and such, but I think that I like the direction that Breitling is going in these days with their watches. And they're still making some of the funky big stuff, but they're not forgetting the fact that a lot of people love Breitling for their history, and a lot of people love Breitling for the 90s when they were really hot. And I think that they're starting to pay more attention to all that. You see that with their heritage pieces, that those Navitimers are so, so pretty. Yeah. Such great watches. And then now I think we're seeing it more with stuff like chronomats. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and they were smart a few years ago to come out with that smaller Navitimer that was a non-chronograph, but it still had the slide rule bezel. I mean, what a great innovation. I mean, they have all of this rich sort of these design cues from a century in business or whatever, more than a century. And I feel like they're kind of hitting their stride by revisiting a lot of that stuff. And this is one more example. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I mean, if let's say somebody from Breitling was listening, what would your 36mm chronomat look like? |
| Jason Heaton | What's the dream? Gosh, I think I'd have to go with one of these colored dials. I think I really like the mint green. I think I would just take that one. My only quibble with that one, or the blue one actually, the blue one's really nice too. My only quibble with this is the crown. That crown shape isn't my favorite, but I realize that it harkens back. I mean, it's kind of looks back at the chronomat of the 80s and 90s. So, you know, but that's a small matter, but yeah, I'd probably go for the blue or the mint. I mean, they make that sort of silvery dial version that looks nice, but I think with a watch like this, I don't know, there's something about that darker blue or the teal that just would make it pop, make it a little more fun, a little less. little less dressy, I guess. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. I think in terms of dream, I like as much as I love, I, you know, I like, and I talk about, you know, full gold, gold, gold, gold. Um, I don't like it on a Brightline. I think, I think, uh, uh, give me a 36 millimeter Chronomat, uh, in with a Navy blue dial and in full titanium. I think it'd be super cool. Under the radar, easy to wear, kind of weirdly dressy, the Chronomat. These ones, these new ones, right? And I think that sizing could be really bent in a very sporty direction, which could be super fun. |
| Jason Heaton | I think it'd be a strong move or an interesting experiment for a guy, you know, you or me or somebody else to to take one of these 36 millimeter watches that is clearly aimed at a women's market and wear it and just see how it goes. I mean, 36 millimeters is not a crazy small size. I mean, 32 might be a bit extreme, a bit much, but. |
| J.E. Stacey | 32 would look pretty small on your wrist or my wrist for sure. 36, I don't believe to be a small size. I think it's the start. It's the start of kind of a modern size sport watch. Yeah. So it's small for a sport watch, certainly by standards, say five years ago, 36 would be very small. But if we're still seeing OPs in 36, I don't see why you couldn't do more with that. Very good on Breitling for that one, but we can move on to the next in the list, which is one that I know really well and Jason knows by the transitive property, if you will, because it's really not that different of a watch. It's the new Doxa Sub 300. They were kind enough to send me the diving star, which is the bright yellow and the Caribbean, which is the Navy, the kind of deep, not quite Navy, but like the dark blue with orange accents. Yeah. I had the blue was on. So the Caribbean was on the beads of rice and the yellow was on the fitted yellow bracelet, rubber strap, the fitted yellow rubber strap. And I was impressed by both of them, but I kind of already knew exactly what I was getting because they're so, so incredibly similar to the 50th anniversary. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, any difference? I mean, do you notice any even qualitative difference in terms of the bezel or the crown or anything? |
| J.E. Stacey | The bezel and the crown, yeah. It could be that mine are... I've used mine a lot, so it's just the difference between broken in and not broken in with the spring, but it's a little bit tighter and it doesn't have quite the same sound. It's a little bit less... The 50th sound a little bit plasticky, if you know what I mean. The sound is... There's so little... actual bezel material there. If you look at the design of the watch, it's mostly grip. And then you have not a lot of space for like a big chunky spring for the clicking mechanism. These are a little bit more, I think, a little bit more clicky, a little bit more positive. And then the crown, I mean, let's face it, and this is something that clearly resonated with people when they read my write-up. I said that these feel a little bit more sturdy than the crown on the 50th, which when my Rolex, you know, those ones you can unscrew the crown and they still, they feel so solid. But a lot of watches don't, and certainly my experience with Docks is that they don't. But the new sub, the 2020 Sub 300 is better at this. The one thing I will say that I think I noticed more through the photo editing process, which is typically where I learn a lot about a watch, is by just staring at photos of it for hours, is that the font difference has become Maybe this is the first time that I genuinely cared about the font on a watch. Like sometimes I could say like, well, that font is bad, but it's probably not a watch that I would own. Yeah. Whereas a sub 300, I have two now and I could definitely see myself having a Caribbean in the future. The diving star, the yellow was quite a bit brighter in person than I expected. It has like it's saturated, but it doesn't have much warmth. It's it's it's hard to describe. But when you're I again, I learned this in when I was color balancing the photos with changing the color temperature, it's a yellow that has quite a bit of blue in it. Not green, if you're going back to your primary school days and mixing colors, but the actual warmth, so that the color balance, not so much how yellow it is, but how it might move between being yellow in tone or blue in tone on two wide ends, it's closer to the blue side. which makes it a very like iridescent, very diver. It feels like the kind of yellow you see on dive fins and handles of dive knives and that kind of stuff. But yeah, the biggest thing for me that I noticed aside from that, the experiencing the diving star color in person was, you know, is the font. And I really, really genuinely prefer the font on the 50th. It's a little lighter. It's a little bit more vintage. The new one even photographs feeling like a more modern watch. And a lot of it, you know, comes down to like, I was just trying to decide like how hard, how hard in my write-up do I want to be on the fact that like three years ago, Doxa, they're not, it's not that they're a different company. They're under different leadership since then. But three years ago, Doxa launched a limited edition which we've talked about like on every episode for 130 episodes or whatever, don't have to go into that. And then three years later, now it's no longer limited. And not only are they offering the same three of the same colors, right? The, the, the core doxa colors, a shark hunter, black, a sea rambler, silver, and a professional orange, but they're offering a kind of an aquamarine and then the Caribbean and the diving star. So I was trying to decide like how hard should I be on them for making this making what is essentially the same watch by a wide margin. It's very similar. But after spending some time with it, I don't know that anyone who has a 50th needs to get too worked up over this. I guess if you bought the 50th, but what you really wanted was a So 300 Caribbean, and now you've got to flip one to buy the other, I guess it's a bit of a pain. But ultimately, I don't think that these are going to drastically devalue the 50th, which kind of holds its price. and has for some time. And I think that they do kind of offer something that Doxa has to sell, which is a sub 300. Doxa without a sub 300 is weird. It's McDonald's without a Big Mac. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't get hung up on limited editions. |
| J.E. Stacey | I think, you know, people get pretty upset about it. Yeah. Yeah. I picked up on that. I don't think you and I ever buy things because they're limited though. Right, right. Like clothes, watches, anything. |
| Jason Heaton | I think one suggestion was to maybe make this different enough by even something as simple as doing away with the bubble crystal and making it a flat crystal. I think that would have been a great idea. You know, might have changed it just enough and also would have mitigated the complaint that a lot of people have that, oh, the dial looks so small compared to the rest of the case. I mean, I think that's part of the charm of the watch, makes it look old and I love it. |
| J.E. Stacey | That's like saying, oh, my convertible doesn't have a roof. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. It's part of the whole package. |
| Jason Heaton | No, I, I, I get both sides of the argument. I, for me, it's a non-factor. Um, I think you're right. I think Doxa has to have a sub 300. I mean, it's their bread and butter. I think, um, they're leaning heavily now. I think they're just going a little bit more, you know, I think with the new management, I think the idea is maybe let's go away from limited edition so much and, and start leaning heavily on our use of color, um, and, and offering more additions and just in unlimited quantities. So we can sell more watches. I think that's just. the long and short of it, in my mind. And whatever, I mean, it's a business. They should do that, I guess. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I agree. And I think, you know, maybe this is something for a future episode, but I think I can definitely speak for myself, and I think you're probably on a similar phase as me. I don't really care for limited editions. I don't think that companies should do anywhere near as many as they do now. Yeah. I like when it's a functional thing, like we could only get X number of movements or you know, let's say you or I eventually wanted to do a TGN edition of a watch. I think by doing that, then I think you would, that's where it's limited. One, you and I could only afford to commission so many, even with the hopes that they would sell in this hypothetical scenario. But the other thing, you know, like when you're just, you're making a brand, when you're a brand and you make a watch or really anything, and you don't make it special in any way other than saying, Oh, we're only going to make a thousand or 10,000 or 50 or whatever it is. That doesn't like if the watch is great, that part will speak to me. The limited edition thing doesn't so much. A lot of times it feels kind of forced. And when you look back at watches that are classed as being rare now, it usually wasn't because the brand decided to only make 150 in a numbered edition. It's because they made 10 a year for about five years or whatever. So there's 50. Right. Um, cause it wasn't in that much demand and it's special 50 years later, the idea that you bought your, your whatever and paid the normal price for it. And, and the hope is that because it's limited, it's, it's somehow more valuable or more special. That for me is super hit or miss. Um, it would not have bothered me if the sub 300 50th anniversary was a standard model that they made for a few years. And then maybe they stopped making it when the demand wasn't there or whatever. And it doesn't really bother me that they've gone ahead to make the new 300. Um, but most of, most of that is because like, I just don't, I don't, I don't care so much about limited editions. I like when things are rare, but there's, there's some sort of like kind of marketing cheesiness to just saying it's limited. We're only going to make this many. I think it's a different thing when you're talking about collaborations. Because if let's say you're a watch brand and you want to do a collaboration with a shoe brand or something like that, that's not going to be a forever model. Eventually that needs to leave. It was made for a time basically, right? Yeah. But I think if you're just saying like, we make watches and this one we're only going to make 100 of, Eventually, if that 100 does well, you're almost forced to make something similar again. Yeah. And then it's not really limited, is it? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, limited edition's almost... If it's just arbitrarily plunking down a number, it feels like you're trying to make the watch more special based on the number rather than, like you said, we found 100... 98 old movements and we're gonna make a limited edition of 98 watches. That's truly... limited for a reason. It's a special watch. I think to do it artificially feels a little bit, I don't know. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah. I think that Hodinkee does a really good job with this. You know, they, when they make a limited watch, they make a certain number of them and then they don't make them again. Yeah. And like, I get that because it's the collaboration sort of thing. So the idea is that the, you know, the, the team at Hodinkee that works in the limited editions is identifying great watches that they just think they would like to put their own spin on and, and, and kind of iterating upon that. And that makes sense to be limited because like, Pudding, he doesn't need to stock perpetually watches forever. Yeah. Um, but I think in, in other ways, other, other times to look at it and go like, why, who can, why, why, why only, why have any statement about how many you're going to make? Right. Just, just make them. And if they sell, they sell and everybody can have one. And then when they stop selling and they slow down, stop making them discount what's left and move on. Uh, I don't, I don't know. I it's, it's a bit of a, like a soapbox thing. Uh, I don't, I don't understand why everything has to be, have this sort of like art, artificial scarcity. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | Uh, these days it's like, it's becoming the, the like tone of the watch industry. Right. And sometimes it's because the watches are very special and a lot of people want them. And other times it's just that they just want to see how many people like, like there's like a conversation or how hard it is to buy something. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't think I fully completed that thought in terms of a three-part essay or whatever. So maybe we'll return to this in a future episode. If you'd like to hear an episode about limited editions and where we stand and maybe even bring in some other folks from the industry, drop us a line at thegraynado at gmail.com. Anything more on the Sub 300 or you want to jump on to the next one? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we got two more, both really interesting, kind of small brands, upcoming brands. Let's do the Ferrer. So Ferrer with the new Pilot's Watches. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, this is, I think, a really, really distinctive looking watch, all three versions. Yeah. They're definitely Pilot's Watches, I get that. They probably didn't even need to say... The way that Ferrer names their watches is so kind of... They name the color, basically. So this is just the Pilot Automatic. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | From fair. And then it comes in three colors, which is a black dial with a kind of a blue, a hand with blue outlines called the Morgan. Uh, then they do one called the Kaylee, which is a Cali dial. Uh, blue with again, kind of a Flieger effect hands in a kind of tan loom. And then finally the Bradfield, which is a white kind of two sector dial with a sort of orange handset. I'm While they have done watches that fall into the three-figure price category, a lot of their watches are more like just over $1,000 up into the $2,000 range, and these are $900. And I think they look really good. I think that, like always, there's something just very distinctive about the fare, so you're still getting your five-year warranty and the rest of it. But for these watches, they have considerable, you know, their ISO 764 certified for 500 gauss anti-magnetic protection, which is, you know, to their copy on their website here, it's eight times the standard level. They run on a Sellita SW200, so simple automatic movement. And yeah, I think that these look killer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, which one is your favorite of the three? The white one. The white one? |
| J.E. Stacey | The Bradfield. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah, all right. The Bradfield, I think, for me, I don't, none of them kind of are kind of quiet enough in their styling. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Yeah. |
| J.E. Stacey | to really speak to me with the Bradford in terms of having kind of a conventional numeral set, Arabic numerals. And I like the pop of color from the hands. You know, 39 millimeter steel pilot's watch, that's a pretty compelling package from a brand that people have now come to like know and trust and experience. And maybe you've seen them at Red Bar or you buy your own or something like that. And yeah, I've had good experiences with the two or three that I've bought from them over the days. Yeah. Always nice to see them continuing. And I think a pilot, the pilot's watch just kind of makes sense for their brand, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think what's cool and sort of subtle about this one is that, you know, to achieve that anti-magnetic rating, they've surrounded the movement with, you know, iron dial and iron cover over the back of the movement. And I've always wondered how, you know, when watches claim that they're anti-magnetic and they do that with an iron case, Surrounding the movement if they still do a date window you'd think that would be a source of Leaking through unless they make the the date wheel Iron or whatever. However, you'd have to do that. Well, they just assured the date entirely There's just no date window at all, which I kind of admire about that. It feels very pure The Morgan is the one that I think Speaks to me the most it feels a bit the most instrument like of the three because of that navigator style dial with the hours on the inner ring and the minutes on the outer ring. I've never been, I have to admit, I've never been a fan of Flieger style hands though. And it always bothers me with, you know, IWC does the Flieger hands on the Spitfire line or the Mark line. That watch is a evolutionary, you know, the current version of the Mark 11, which had those really cool, very simple stick hands, one shorter, one longer. And I feel like the Fliegerhands take away from that aesthetic. I feel like the Fliegerhands are more big pilot or something like that, and they belong on a big pilot. But for some reason on, like, these watches, I feel like I would have preferred a different handset on them personally. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, the handset for me is kind of maybe neither here nor there. It's a little bit more stylized than your standard Flieger than what you'd find on, yeah, an IWC or an Archimedia or something like that. and they definitely don't look like IWC watches. The more I look at it, maybe the Morgan would be the way to go. Also a really cool looking watch. Kind of has an extra gauge appeal with the outer minute track. It looks like a lot of dial for that watch. But yeah, I think all in all they've done a nice job with this one. It's why it made the list for us to chat about today. And like I said, it's just kind of nice to see fair continue doing their thing. You know, I think that they, it can't, it can't be easy to start a brand. That's only a few years old and, um, and try and do something that that's different than what everyone else is doing. Like if you can't just go to the same catalog. as every other Kickstarter brand or whatever and pick the same one or two cases and pick the same Rolex effect hands or whatever, you really have to know what the plan is. And I think that every one of their watches always feels like a fair watch, which is kind of remarkable for a brand of their age. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and I love what they do with marketing. I realize you should look at the watch first, but I love I love watch marketing when it's done really well, and Farrah has done that from the start. I mean, with the dive watches, the Aqua compressors, they did a great little film. They did the same here. These guys are clearly vintage car guys, and they do a lot with those, and they use Amy Shore for a lot of their photography, and she's a great car photographer. She's incredible. Follow her. So yeah, I mean, I think the whole package from them, it feels like a more mature company than it actually is, and hats off to them for that. Yeah. What do you say we jump into our last pick, which is a watch that you actually got to handle and review? I think it's a really compelling watch. Yeah, I had it for a little while. Me too. The Astor & Banks Fortitude. Great name, by the way. |
| J.E. Stacey | I love that. A sick name. I also like, I love Mother of Pearl dials on sport watches, I think are super fun. Yeah. Especially when you're a brand like Astor & Banks, who has to compete with everybody else to make you feel special. Dial color, Hallios has done this well, you know, over the last few years. That's a great way of going. You know, hashtag team pastel and the rest of it. But the mother of pearl on this looks awesome. I think the watch is really handsome. It's roughly the same like case aesthetic as the Sea Ranger, which was their kind of 12-hour bezel watch from last year. But this one makes it a little bit smaller. It's 38.5 millimeters wide. It's 11.9 thick. 46 millimeters lug-to-lug with drilled lugs. It has added anti-magnetic protection as well. We see how much we have. 20,000 AM. I'm not sure what that is in gauss, but plenty, right? Also uses two soft iron plates. And you will see, Jason, that the date display is quite low in this one. It's probably one of my only complaints is that the date is almost always in its own shadow. I don't think it really matters. I think it's a perfectly acceptable, balanced date execution at six. But I, you know, it's always nice to at least find a couple of things that you would say, like, I noticed this, you might not notice it in the photos. The date display is very low and that would be because, yeah, you've got to clear not only the dial, but then this soft iron plate underneath the dial to get all that done. Other than that, I mean, I think the standard model, the one that most people are going to go with is the navy blue. Beautiful with a little red text. It's so pretty in person. It's super balanced. The legibility is incredible. It does not at all feel like a $550 watch, which is what they're on pre-order for. And eventually, they'll be selling them for between $650 and $700, depending on the model. The Mother of Pearl dial is the premium spec. But the steel with this nice bracelet, it's a great solid steel bracelet that's similar. If you haven't seen the photos and you have yet to click on the show notes, it's similar in terms of the link design that we would find on a Seiko Monster. It's these H-style links, but they're single-sided. They use single-side screws, so adjusting them is very simple. You have a nice flat a bezel design that actually has like a vertical grain to it. And the grain matches the finishing on the top of the lug, which I actually really like the way that works. So there's a polished facet on the lug and on the edge of the bezel, which I think that just, you look at the photos and it just connects nicely. There's this nice line of polish that they kind of come out of each other. And then when you look a little bit closer, you'll see that the top of the case is brushed and then the same sort of vertical brushing the same lines carry on through the bezel, which I like. The Mother of Pearl one is the one I'm looking at now. I love the inner circle on the dial in blue, the Fortitude text in red. And then I just, I like Mother of Pearl on a sports watch a lot. Especially from a brand like Anastro Banks. I think this is a great move by them. |
| Jason Heaton | I'm looking at your great loom shot here on the Hodinkee Review. I didn't catch this before, but speaking of handsets, now this is a handset I absolutely love. I mean, the minute hand is nice and long. The size is perfect. And then this long strip of loom on the second hand. I mean, you don't see that very much. Almost never, actually, now that I think about it. I can't think of another watch with the full length of it loomed. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, and it makes the hand a little bit thicker. For the first hour that I had the watch on, I actually confused, at a glance, the minute and the seconds hand. Sure, yeah. That effect did not last long enough for me to bother bringing it up as a weak point or picking knits or whatever, but I think that the fully loomed second hand is a real treat visually. Yeah. And the loom is just pretty good on the watch. It has nice applied markers. Everything kind of has a nice rounded edge to it. Very inoffensive, a great size, and I think a fantastic price. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, 200 meter water resistant with a mother of pearl dial and all that loom. I mean, it'd just be a fun watch to own. Yeah. Super cool. |
| J.E. Stacey | Like a bracelet that I would actually wear it on. Oh, yeah. I think the watch would scream on a NATO. Yeah. These watches were going to be photographed, so I didn't actually mess around with taking bracelets off. Like, obviously, I always photograph them, but they were going to another photographer in Toronto. Oh, sure. For some very high-level professional photography, and I would hate to put a scratch on a watch that then they have to pay someone to remove. Right, right. What, you know, in retouching, like I try and be cognizant of that point. If I'm removing the scratch in a photo for Hodinkee, that doesn't bother me so much. Yeah. But with some of these that are, you know, prototypes for small brands, I try and be pretty respectful about things like messing around with bracelets. So I left them on the bracelet and I really only did that because the bracelet's super wearable. It tapers really well. We're still looking at drilled lugs. You get, I think, at three or four points of micro adjust. All told, I'm just very impressed. There's a bunch more colors. I think there's five versions total, and at least one of them is a limited edition for a Chicago-based clothing retailer, whose name is escaping me at the moment. But yeah, and that one, I believe, has like a teal dial. Teal must be a real color these days, eh? Well, I think, you know, I mean- Oh, sorry, it's a navy blue dial with gilt accents. |
| [No speech separated from other speakers] | Oh, okay. |
| J.E. Stacey | It's a 50-piece limited edition for the Chicago clothing brand Boulevardier, B-L-V-D-I-E-R is how they spell it, if that matters. And then they're making a, it's not teal, it's a mint colored dial, which I just, they didn't have available when I, when they sent me these for, for photography and for review. |
| Jason Heaton | Nice. I mean, I think these, these watches we covered here, when I look at the brands, I mean, you know, couple of, couple of old hands, couple of favorites, Oris, Bremont, Breitling. I'm You know, I think Citizen had a new GPS version of a Aqualand dive watch. And then Ulysse Nardin came out with something that was a prototype using recycled plastics for the case. And, you know, it just goes on and on. Yeah, Accutron is back. Yeah, Accutron. We're just getting new watches announced weekly. So I guess I guess this will be a theme for future shows. We'll just kind of keep a running tally. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, I mean, and that's perfectly fair. To anyone listening, we're going to move on to final notes. I think this is probably, we've said enough about these, these specific watches, but if there's a watch that we missed or a watch that you would like inputs on, or, or, or even just a discussion about, uh, please drop us a line at thegraynadoatgmail.com. We can start keeping a little list, which is actually how I remembered most of these. I'm keeping a little Google, Google keep a note about news items for, for the show moving forward. And, and whether we make a whole show out of it every now and then, like we have with this one, or maybe we just put them in like we did with Rolex at the top of the show in our just kind of general chit-chat phase. I do think we should do a little bit more just kind of general chatting about new watches, because it's probably what we would be talking about if we were able to hang out together more often. Yeah. Or if either of us were hanging out very often with other watch guys and gals. So, yeah, I think all told, these are a stack of pretty cool watches. I think the Aorus thing is probably some of the biggest news for the sort of TGN mindshare this year. The idea that for well under $4,000, you could get a five-day automatic in-house movement with a 10-year warranty, I think is remarkable. And if you don't want to spend that kind of money, man, this Astro Banks is real sweet for $550 while it's on pre-order. That's a lot of value. So yeah, kudos to all of these brands. Uh, you know, pre apology, if we forgot something that's very important to you or that maybe you have on pre-order or whatever, maybe we can get to it on a, on a future show. But until then, uh, what do you say we hit some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do that. I, um, I can kick it off. So I had this show that kept staring back at me whenever I'd dial up, you know, Amazon prime or something. And it was a show, a documentary called alone across the Arctic, which was, Appealing to me for for reasons that I've probably discussed many times on TGN over the years This was a basically a one-man produced documentary by a Canadian named Adam Schultz and Adam I believe is Winnipeg based and okay Younger guy Writer he's written a couple of books. He must only be in his 20s early 30s and and he's he's taken on a lot of solo adventures and for this one he decided to go way up into Northwest Territories right at the Arctic Circle and you know he had a team of people that kind of helped him and some small sponsor brands, a canoe company and a few other small brands that sort of contributed to this and then a group of friends that helped with some logistics, but basically he was on his own and he got dropped off with a canoe right at the Arctic Circle and had planned a 4,000-kilometer journey from west to east to finish in a lake in, I believe, Nunavut. I'm not actually sure what the name of the lake was. I can't recall. Very long journey, and he was basically filming himself as he was going, and then to bookend the film, he had, you know, filmmaker friends that were filming him leave, and then the arrival. So it was kind of a video diary of this trip, and it's not the best produced piece. It's more along the lines of, like, what we like about Dick Pernicky. I mean, this guy's out there on his own in the wilderness, you know, dealing with weather, and lakes that are still frozen over in early July that he has to get across. These massive lakes, these Arctic lakes way up in areas that humans just aren't around. And his opportunities for help are minimal. And he has a really good sort of mindset about this and a great delivery. And it's just a kind of a calm, quiet film that I think shows his adventure in a very accessible way. This guy isn't some superhero, you know, uh, you know, this isn't Jimmy Chin or this isn't, you know, Meru or anything like that. This is a, an ordinary guy who kind of shoestrings this, this adventure and goes out and does it with, with a camera. And, uh, you know, you see his, uh, his ups and downs on the trip and ultimately of course, well, I'm not going to give it away, but, um, yeah, I just recommend it. If you, if you come across this, uh, somewhere, I, I watched it on Amazon prime, but it might be available elsewhere. I'll, we'll put in the IMDB link. in the show notes. But check it out, Alone Across the Arctic. I think it's a nice sort of inspiring piece about how you can go about just doing some solo adventures, no matter what the scale. |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, that sounds great. And despite my absolute trepidation about winter setting in here, I'm 100% on board for somebody else's winter. So yeah, why not? This is good. Good pick. And yeah, mine's one that I'm actually super excited about and all the credit goes to you, Jason. I probably only got it because I went to our show notes. I made the show notes this week. So I got to it before you did, but it's really, this one comes from both Jason and I, and I think it comes with essentially double thumbs up from each of us. Basically, this is a story called Searching for Superman by Jeff Long. Uh, it's an incredible, incredible profile of a climber and kind of a multi hyphenate, but you know, definitely a noteworthy climber named Fritz Stamberger. And, uh, basically it's a story from rock and ice and, and they have this, uh, kind of thing called Ascent, which is their annual compendium of the best writing about climbing. And this story was part of Ascent, uh, previously in, um, 2016. And I don't believe it was made available online. At least at that time, I had no, I don't subscribe to rock and ice. Uh, I don't follow the climbing world that carefully. Um, but it's now available digitally. Uh, they've started publishing various stories from ascent, uh, due to, you know, the whole COVID scenario. Uh, and yeah, so this is a really, uh, |
| Jason Heaton | I don't think I've read a story like this before it's written in something in what I would call loosely like a Krakauer style And very intellectual, I mean there's a bit of Almost it's almost poetic in some ways and absolutely Yeah, it isn't just a sort of a dry Recollection of any one particular thing, but I really kind of an ode to this character this person |
| J.E. Stacey | Yeah, exactly. So I'll read what I think might be an interesting way of teasing the article. It's just two paragraphs from a very long story. And again, I can't say this enough, just read it. It's so incredible. But Fritz Stamburger, 1940 to 1975, German expatriate, A resident of Aspen, Colorado since 1963, a printer, an extreme skier, a Himalayan mountaineer, writer, filmmaker, publisher, and local activist. And then the author goes on to say a less formal obituary might've included beefcake, lone wolf, Himalayan bad boy, kamikaze, pioneer, showboat, visionary, CIA slash KGB double agent. I don't know how much more I could say that would make you more interested in this story. If you, if you listen to those two sentences and you're not like, oh yeah, I'm going to hit the show notes and read that ASAP, then we're just cut of a different cloth. But it's this incredible profile, um, about a little bit about the life of, and then about, uh, uh, an ill-fated mission, uh, an ill-fated expedition, uh, into the Himalayas to, uh, do some climbing with Fritz as the leader. And that's used as a framing device by the author who was on this trip this previous trip, uh, to set up the next time that Fritz went into, uh, into the Himalayas, into Pakistan and, uh, and was never seen again. Um, and whether or not he was killed or how he died or if he's maybe still alive. And then there's this really wild derivation with his wife and the extent that she went to, uh, to try and discover his story and his end and how that worked. And that led to a book, which I have a husband lover spy, I think is what it's called. And yeah, I could ramble a long time. It's such a long and detailed story. I highly recommend it. It's right in the vein of the great Krakauer stuff, of really good adventure journalism, and it tells a fascinating story. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, this article is so good. It's so rare now that you get articles of this length that you can just sort of sink into and read over. I don't remember how long it took me to read, but, uh, you know, I wanted to go back and start, start it over after I finished it because, um, it's just, it's just such good writing. Um, I, I find Fritz Stomberger just such a intriguing, enigmatic character. I, I remember the, the, the reason I even started looking into who he was was because I, There was this book that came out in 2014 that I think was referenced by Adventure Journal or somewhere that I had seen called The God of Skiing. And it was this little like self-published book novel actually by a guy named Peter Kray. And the cover was just said The God of Skiing and it had this guy on the cover, this, you know, really handsome chiseled guy with kind of long sort of 70s style hair and really great striped ski sweater. And then he was wearing this Rolex GMT Master. Kind of looking off into the distance, just a great, really evocative photo. And I was like, who is that guy on the cover? Because it had nothing to do with the story. And through Google or whatever, I found out that this was Fritz Stomberger. And of course, I started looking into Fritz. And there's so little definitive information about who this guy was, other than the fact that he disappeared at some point. And the questions about his past and his work as a spy or not, and his legendary Status in in the Aspen Mountain community is just it's just fascinating and I think when I came across this article I think I had been doing my annual Googling of Fritz Stomberger to see if anything new popped up and this story this story popped up and I hadn't read it before and And I was just like blown away just so good |
| J.E. Stacey | A little while ago, a few years back, you and I both wrote a couple of pieces for a then brand new and then later didn't continue to exist magazine called Shifted. And one of the stories that I think you probably gave to the Shifted editors and then they told me to take a stab at it was one about Stanberger. And because I'm not sure how, I'm assuming you told them about it, yeah? I think so. Yeah. I don't remember. It's a bit fuzzy now, but yeah. Yeah. And typically for those that are listening, you wouldn't want to take somebody else's pitch unless they've relinquished it. So I remember checking with you about that. But beyond that, I remember you saying, you basically said, no, go take a stab at it, whatever. And you sent me what you kind of knew about him already. And it included referencing Searching for Superman. But you had said at the time, you're going to have to find the issue. Oh yeah. And actually, nope, not at all. I went through a bunch of research and basically what I found is Jeff Long, he knew as much as anybody and he put it all in this piece. I didn't, I didn't personally see a reason to write another Fritz Stamburger story that was going to be one one hundredth of the interest in the personal connection. Like I would basically be writing a story about searching for Superman. And now it's funny, you know, a couple, couple of years, few years later at this point, uh, they made it public and now we've, we both read it and I mean, what a guy. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think that's a great one. I mean, I, I can't recommend this enough. I mean, if there's one, one article, one, one reference you, you take from TGN this year, I think just read this, read the story, get a cup of coffee and like just sink into it. It's so good. |
| J.E. Stacey | And, and on, on the off chance that anybody, and, I'd be thrilled if it turns out this got got all the way to Jeff Long. But if anybody from rock and ice is listening, thank you so much. Just a simple thank you. It maybe is doesn't not a big stretch for you guys to click publish on on a story that you know that you published years ago. But this is great. We got to read it. I think this is a this is like an example of one of my favorite types of stories. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Especially from the the reliable narrator that wasn't the world's greatest mountain climber. He just got to tag along with one, right? I really I liked the position that that Jeff Long Operates from in in this post and then takes the audience you me anyone else who reads it along with him Because it is it again kind of reiterates this this idea that he was like a Superman You weren't gonna write the story from his perspective. You didn't have his perspective. Yeah, I loved it Uh, and I'll definitely be reading it again and hopefully it stays on their site for some time. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details and a huge thank you to G-Shock and Master of G for supporting this episode. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and keep sending those voice memos. We're already getting close to our, uh, Wrap up for October Q&A, which will be... Oh, dang. |
| J.E. Stacey | This is already November. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I know. Coming up soon. |
| J.E. Stacey | Oh, we got to do that Q&A shortly. |
| Jason Heaton | I promise. So please do send those in to thegrenadoatgmail.com. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. We find that extremely helpful. And music throughout is Siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive. |
| J.E. Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Julius Irving, who said, being a professional is doing the things you love to do on the days you don't feel like doing them. |