The Grey NATO - 130 - October Q And A
Published on Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:25:24 -0500
Synopsis
Jason and James answer a variety of listener questions about watches, diving, hiking, and travel. They discuss topics such as the Omega Ploprof titanium dive watch, affordable one-watch collections under $1,000, engraving watches, dream road trips and vehicles, and recommendations for a $500 watch from a boss as a sales incentive reward.
Links
Transcript
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| James | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 130 and we thank you for listening. Jason, you ready for some Q&A? |
| Jason | Yeah, we got a big crop and we're inching further into November, so we should probably jump right into it. |
| James | Yeah, I know. I'm lazy. I'm a little bit always behind, but we'll slot this in between I guess 129 and 131, obviously, so it should fit okay. We've got a good crop of questions. And for those of you who maybe haven't been doing the Q&As recently, or maybe this is your first time subscribing, these episodes don't show up on all the various feeds. They don't go on Hodinkee. They just show up in the main GreyNado feed, and they're meant to be kind of a discussion between Jason and I and all of you. Anyone who's listening, Uh, there's no advertisers. There's no, uh, there's no anything. It's just, uh, it's just Q and a, we don't do final notes. We don't do chit chat at the top or whatever. If this is your first time listening to a Q and a episode, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. If you're interested in getting your question in, of course, record it into the voice memo app on your phone, try and keep it light. And, uh, you know, around a minute, nice and pithy. And, uh, then email that file to the great NATO at gmail.com. Thank you so much for that. With that in mind, what do you say we get to the first question? Sure. |
| Jason | Let's go to Bruno from Sao Paulo with a question about the Ploprof. |
| Bruno | Hey guys, Bruno coming in from Sao Paulo, Brazil. So my question is about the Omega Ploprof in titanium. Curious about you guys' opinions. I've been interested in it recently. I know it is not a true rendition of the Ploprof because it's not in steel, but I work as a landscape designer and I'm really interested in this ultra brute watches. Is this a watch you can actually wear? Why don't you guys have an opinion on it and maybe some other recommendations for these ridiculously overbuilt watches that can take any type of beating. Thanks for taking my question. I hope you guys stay. |
| Jason | Wow, Bruno. Thanks for that. We're both big fans of the Ploprof, especially this titanium one. James, you want to jump in with your assessment? |
| James | Yeah, for sure. I absolutely think that's something you could wear. Your only risk factor really is if you're gonna hate the scratches on titanium. I personally, with titanium, I hate the first five or 10, and then it's just scratched. And that surface, they take on a gun metal... Once there's a lot of scratches, you see this on citizens and things that really see a lot of time on people's wrists. Oh, yeah. Probably less so with $12,000 titanium dive watches, but I really like the Ploprof. I have to assume it would be among Omega's toughest watches. And that's a modern, very tech-forward movement, really, really well protected by, you know, a couple pounds of titanium. Yeah, no, I absolutely think you could wear it. Jason, what do you think? We can get to a few alternatives once you weigh in. |
| Jason | Yeah, you know, I had a steel Ploprof years ago, probably the first year they came out, and I loved the look. I mean, the watch was one of those watches you can turn over in your hand and just look at every angle and there's always something interesting to see. The bezel was great. The movement finishing was cool. The push button was fun to operate. Um, the only thing is it was, it was so top heavy. So I think this, um, you know, the titanium really solves that. I haven't actually had a chance to wear one. I think I might've tried one on at Baselworld whenever that first came out and I don't remember. But, um, you know, this is just such a goofy, impractical overbuilt watch, but it's exactly why I love it. I think nowadays are the needle is sort of swinging back towards more sensible sized or smaller, slimmer watches. And I certainly have a lot of love for, for watches in that category. But sometimes you just want to put on a massive watch and it's just makes a statement. It's just fun. And there's nothing wrong with, with liking that. I'm not sure about, you know, if you're going to wear it day to day in your work, if, if the kind of the thickness of it or the shape of it would be a liability, but you know, you'd be better off determining that yourself. Um, But it's not a terribly versatile piece, so if it's like your one watch, it doesn't dress up very well or whatever. But I think it also works well on a beefy leather strap if you're into that sort of thing. Obviously, the mesh or the rubber. Maybe not a NATO on that one, but otherwise, go for it. Cool watch. |
| James | I agree. I think if it's safe for him to wear it at work and all that kind of stuff, I can't imagine this watch not being very reliable and nice on wrist and super fun and the rest of it. It does seem like a tough watch to do manual labor with on your wrist just because of the profile, like you said. What do you think for some alternatives? Other kind of big burly tough watches that could also stand up to like legit manual labor? |
| Jason | I've got an oddball one that just occurred to me and that is it's similar in size and build. It's the Oh, what was it called? It was that Citizen... I think I termed it the Kraken. Oh, the Ecozilla? The Ecozilla, and it was the big monster. Oh, the later one. The later one that they just came out with a couple of years ago. With that locking... The big ProMaster. Locking bezel ProMaster with a massive strap. The thing sat really high on my wrist and it was titanium, so it was actually surprisingly comfortable. That would be on the budget side of things. I think it was, you know, less than $2,000. which is a lot for a citizen, but what a cool watch. Something like a Deepsea Sea-Dweller from Rolex would fit the category. That's a good call. That's a good call. Bremont Supermarine 2000 is another big, chunky watch, although... Yeah, or the 500's pretty chunky too. |
| James | Yeah, right. So... Neither are anywhere... I would assume the 2000's not as big as a Ploprof by several millimeters. |
| Jason | Yeah, especially just the shape of the Ploprof, it's just so square. |
| James | Yeah. And the nice thing with the Bremont, I had that written down on my list here, the other nice thing with the Bremont is They're legit crazy tough. The 500 or the 2000 or the 300, but the 300 is definitely not going to be a plow prof comparison. I think a Seiko Tuna, of which there's many different sizes and shapes and specs, those are probably you want that big wrist kind of presence, but maybe a little bit less angular and getting caught on things. That shroud is very much designed to live on a wetsuit and be worn in kind of rough areas. So that might work out really well that, you know, they share excellent legibility and huge amounts of water resistance and toughness. You can get them in. I think they make them in eight series, like, you know, the almost Grand Seiko level movement. If you want, they also make them, of course, in courts, which is a good call. You know, you could say just about any G-Shock. Yeah. My cheap plow prof was always a Rangeman, which is the 9400. And I absolutely adored that watch up until I kind of got into the garment space where you could track everything. Right. But just providing raw data, it'll tell you when bad weather's coming, which I bet she's kind of helpful in the landscaping industry. The low pressure or the low pressure drop warning, all that kind of stuff I think could be pretty useful. And they're so wearable. It's a huge watch, but they really... And I like the full digital display. I think in the same vein, the full-size Garmin would be an option. If you're looking at the ProPoff, you really don't want any features, you just want effect. And the Garmin would be all features and very little effect. It's a little bit faceless when it's on your wrist, certainly compared to something with the the character of a Ploprof. What about like the Inox, the Victorinox Inox? Yeah, yeah, that'd be cool. That's probably the unkillable one. They make them, I think, up to 47 millimeters. They do them in carbon. They do them in titanium. They do them in steel. They do them with a bezel. So if you'd still want that, like some dive watch chops to it. |
| Jason | Yeah, right. |
| James | Yeah, very. And I think they're really, really good looking watches. I don't know that they would fit the same, you know, aesthetic as a Ploprof. A Ploprof's a very distinctive thing. Yeah. But yeah, I think probably an Inox if you wanted to kind of give it a run because you get into an Inox for five or six hundred bucks and then and then you just have like a perfect knock around adventure watch, even if it's not one that you end up wanting on your wrist every day. But that's you know, that's a significant fraction of of what titanium blowprop costs. |
| Jason | Well, and I think, you know, if you're talking about big indestructible quote unquote watches, You have to consider things like the movement build and the materials, obviously a big, thick titanium. Ploprof has the appearance of being indestructible. I don't know that it's empirically more indestructible than a similarly built Omega Seamaster or something. Seamaster, yeah, for sure. Which being slimmer and a little lower profile might actually be less, uh, less prone to being damaged simply because it slides under a sleeve or just doesn't bang on things. So, you know, I'm not sure if, if the appearance of, it's sort of like a Hummer or something like that, that has a lot of plastic body cladding, you know, as soon as you bump into even a curb or something or a tree, you know, you lose half your bumper. Um, so, you know, I'm not sure if, if that's the case with a blow prof, but, uh, I say, you know, if you're going for a blow prof, if you'd love it, you won't regret it. It's, it's just such a fun, cool watch. And I'd, I'd love to have another one and this time I'd definitely go titanium. |
| James | Yeah. No, I agree. I would, I would also love to have one. I think they're super cool. I've only ever, the only one I've seen in person or the titanium ones are the one they make with the orange bezel and the gray dial, which is gorgeous. This is one of those weird times where like, I think I would just want the most stoic version, you know, black bezel, black dial, orange button, please. Of course. But yeah. Bruno, let us know how this goes. If this makes any sense, drop us another email, a follow up, if you end up getting the watch or something else. And good luck with what's left of the landscaping season. Hopefully a warm November means you can keep working and enjoying some time outside. All right, let's get to our next one, which is from Lucas. And he's looking for tips on how to spend more on a watch. |
| Lucas | Hey, James and Jason. Medium term listener, first time Question asker. I'm turning 30 this year and in just a couple of weeks and I want to buy myself a Rolex. I can afford it. It's not an issue of that. I just have a hard time getting over the hurdle of spending that kind of money on a watch even though it's something I've wanted for probably the last 15 years. Any tips. Again love the show. Really cool. Hope I get to meet you guys someday. Thanks a lot. |
| James | All right, Lucas, thanks very much for that question. And of course, happy birthday. By the time we're recording this, your birthday has passed. So maybe you've already figured out the watch and how much you want to spend. But Jason, I don't want to be disingenuous from my side of this answer. I've never spent modern Rolex money on a watch. Yeah. So I would actually, I think, maybe be in a very similar position. Let's say I had seven, eight grand or whatever to spend on a watch. I'm not sure how quickly I would want to, even if it was a watch that I really, really wanted. Where do you stand on this? |
| Jason | Well, I mean, I think a watch is such an emotional purchase and a 30th birthday is obviously a big one. These decade birthdays are big ones. And it sounds like Lucas has wanted it for, you know, he says 15 years. I mean, that's a long time. That's since he was a teenager. And, you know, if you can afford it and you've wanted something that long, I tend to think that if you've thought about a big purchase, whether it's a vehicle or, you know, a new jacket or a pair of boots or something like a watch, If you've thought about something that long and probably tossed it over in your head and considered every angle of it for a very long time, odds are that if you get it, you're not going to regret that purchase anytime soon. And I think with a watch, what's nice about especially a Rolex is, um, they hold their value and they're the kind of thing that you, you almost literally can own for your entire life and somebody else's lifetime as well, if you happen to pass it down to somebody. So it's, it's not a, it's not, it may be an emotional purchase, but it's not an impractical purchase because I think it will serve you well. You will wear it. It's the one thing that you can buy that you can wear all the time, like everywhere. It's not like even a nice, you know, collectible car that sits in your garage and you polish with a diaper and drive, you know, two months out of the year. I mean, this is something you could wear every single day and you know, I don't want to be hyper enabling here, but um, you know, I've been in this situation and I think, uh, I say go for it if you can afford it. Now certainly, you know, if you're jeopardizing your roof over your head or your family's meals or whatever it is, then that's a, that's a math you need to do. But I think if you can't afford it, um, and you've thought about it that long, it doesn't seem like an unreasonable decision. |
| James | Yeah. I'm for my 30th. I got my Rolex. I spent the most money I've ever spent on a watch and I got a really good deal on it. So it wasn't even enough to start even bragging about. And now the watch costs, the extent that like we've talked about this before on a previous Q and A, like, would you replace your Rolex now if it was lost or stolen or whatever? And I'm not sure I would, you know, the price has just gone up that much. And I have really good time with $1,000 Seiko's and $500 Garmin's and the rest of it. Like, I'm not always sure, you gotta be in that right zone. But I think once you know, you know, I knew I wanted a 16570. And I don't intend to sell it, you know, Lucas, maybe the thing to do would be to buy it. See how you feel like it's a Rolex. They have a very much a fixed price. You can tell today what that Rolex will likely be worth in a year. It's gonna be roughly what you paid for it, give or take, right? So there's not a lot of risk in buying it. Maybe just wait a year until you engrave it. Get it engraved for your 31st birthday. And then if you know you love it after that year, then it's kind of a done deal. I've been telling myself for years, and it's actually coming up in a future question today, uh, telling myself for years that I would get my, uh, Explorer II engraved. I just haven't gotten around to it. |
| Jason | Yeah. I mean, I, you know, one thing I can relate that's similar, I suppose, um, and goes slightly against what I was saying earlier is, is, you know, you and I were discussing this latest, no time to die Bond Seamaster. And when that first came out, I was smitten and I really, really wanted it. And I had my 50th birthday coming up and I thought, you know, this is it. This is the watch. I'm a big Bond fan. I love the look of that watch, et cetera. But it's over $9,000 and like you, um, that ship may have sailed for me, you know, spending that kind of money on a new watch these days. I, you know, there was a time in my life when I could justify those sorts of purchases, purchases, but I, I'm not sure I could do that anymore. And I ultimately passed on it. It's just, uh, just not in the cards for me, but, um, you're turning 30, you've thought about it for 15 years and, uh, Rolex is kind of a can't miss, I think. So it's a pretty safe bet. |
| James | Yeah, happy 30th. And if you get it, be sure to send us a wrist shot, please. TheGrenado at gmail.com, of course. We'll see we get to the next one here. We have Jeff asking about a vacation watch. Yeah. |
| Jeff | Hey guys, this is Jeff from Northwest Arkansas. One of the things that I love about watches is how you can pour memories into them and really be connected to a special place or event just by looking down at your wrist. In that light, I'm looking for a watch that I can wear when I vacation and travel with my wife and my family, so that I can keep those memories with me throughout the years. I'm leaning towards a Black Bay GMT because it's so versatile. It could fit in anywhere from a Michelin star restaurant to a snorkeling trip. Plus, Tudor has the brand equity where I'm confident that I can be proud of it for a lifetime. What are y'all's thoughts on the Black Bay GMT specifically, and what watch would you pick if you had to wear the same watch every time you travel? Thanks for everything that you do. Love to talk. |
| Jason | Well, thanks for that question, Jeff. James, I'll let you respond on the Black Bay GMT specifically because you've had ample time with it, but I'll chime in a little later about travel watches. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. I mean, when it comes to the Black Bay, I don't have a lot more to say. I wrote several thousand words. We shot a huge video. I think it was a I actually think from a market standpoint position, it's still a groundbreaking watch. It's an in-house. uh, GMT movement, you know, it's, uh, there's some confusion about this brand Kinesi and who's involved with that and other brands that get to use the movements. So it's, uh, you know, it's a Rolex, uh, and Tudor created sub brand that makes these movements for them. And then they, they've found other partners in the industry that can use versions of those movements with the BB GMT. Uh, you basically get the functionality of a, of a 10 or 12 or $13,000 Rolex. Um, at, say, about, what are they, $4,300, $4,400, something like that, around there. I really like them. The only reason I didn't probably pick one up back when it came out, if I could have gotten myself an allotment, is simply because I own the Explorer 2, which offers a very similar functionality for me, and the Explorer 2, to not mince words, wears just vastly better on my wrist. The 41 millimeter case sizing from Tudor, It's a big 41. It's kind of a blocky 41. I don't think it's too big to wear. I don't think that the watch is poorly proportioned or out of balance. It's just that's the style of the watch. It's kind of a thick, tough tool watch. They offered an alternative to that with the Black Bay 58, which has yet to become a GMT. If it ever will, we're not sure. I'm absolutely pro Black Bay GMT, as long as you put it on your wrist and you think it suits the size. and comfort that you want. I think they work really well. Those watches work really well on all sorts of different straps and the OEM straps and the bracelet from Tudor are excellent. So I think strong value all around there. My only concern is it would depend a little bit. It depends on where you vacation, whether or not wearing a Tudor or something from the Rolex world, something with some color that can be seen from a distance. Most places you're going to be fine, but you'd want to at least know Uh, if that was ever going to be an issue, if you were, you know, if let's say to answer the question about what I would wear, what watch I would wear, if I had to pick one for travel, I would want to say my Explorer two, but like if I had to go to Paris, I don't want a Rolex on my wrist. And, and if I, if I have to go to other places where there's a lot of pickpocketing or where there's a high level of kind of nefarious knowledge about watches and their aesthetics, I would want something much more under the radar. Yeah. Uh, so that, that would be the only thing that came to my mind. I don't think it matters for most watches, but a white dial Rolex is pretty easy to pick out from a crowd. And I don't know how much I would want to... Not so much that I'm worried about, oh, the watch is so valuable, just the experience of being robbed, I'd rather avoid at a very high level. The watch is a watch, it's okay. It can be replaced or insured or the rest of it and such. But yeah, Jeff, I absolutely think you could do really well with the BBGMT, but I think just because I find that a certain portion of people, my wrist included, it feels a little bit big for everyday wear. It just feels like a big kind of chunky watch. My recommendation would be to try it on. What do you think, Jason? |
| Jason | Yeah, I mean, I don't have any specific thoughts about the Black Bay other than it's a really handsome watch and obviously built well and it hits the right criteria for a good travel watch. I think, you know, the GMT complication is obviously handy and having good water resistance is a An important thing, I think, for travel. That's one of my criteria. But I also think, you know, one thing that's become more important to me than almost anything else with a watch for travel or for even winter when it's a lot darker is good lume. Oh, yeah. You know, I have this, I've talked about it before, that Grand Seiko GMT that has no lume. It's very much a dress watch with, you know, faceted polished hands, which could catch a little bit of light and you could see it in sort of dark conditions. you know, middle of the night traveling, jet lag, you're in a dark hotel room, kind of disorienting. You want to glance at your wrist cause you're sleeping with your watch on, of course. And you know, I want to be able to tell if it's three in the morning or, you know, or whatever. And so I think good loom, it's a shame that we have to think about what's on our wrist for, for travel due to safety, but it's definitely gotta be a concern. And you know, I, I, having said that I've probably traveled with my Submariner more than anything else, uh, not to particularly dangerous places, but, uh, But also, pretty much any watch in my collection has been a very suitable travel watch with the exception of the vintage ones for the lume reason. But I think water resistance and good lume and also a reputation for reliability, which is something that, you know, something from the Rolex family or Seiko or something meets that criteria. I think, you know, the last thing I want to be is, you know, two weeks into a really epic trip and suddenly I look down and a hand has fallen off or my watch is running super fast or something. I always pack a quartz backup like a CWC in my dop kit, but I don't want to have to think about the watch on my wrist, you know, failing or, or just keeping really poor time. Um, so, you know, as much as I love to support a lot of micro brands, um, you know, ones that don't maybe have a reputation, a longterm reputation for, for anything, for reliability or not reliability. It's like, uh, I always kind of default to a watch that I kind of know will work. That's fair. So that's kind of my general advice for a travel watch. |
| James | No, I agree. And I think that makes sense. And Jeff, whatever it is you decide, I hope you take it to some great places whenever that's possible again. I guess we'll find out. But I guess that gives us all a little bit of extra time to save up for our preferred travel watch of choice. |
| Jason | Right. Let's move on to Rob, who has a really interesting question about going the one watch route, but inexpensively. |
| Rob | Hey guys, Rob from Salem, Oregon again here. This is a second question that I'm sending in. So my question is based around a one watch. And when you talk to a lot of watch collectors about a one watch, it's always an expensive watch. And I've owned a Gen 2 Halio Seaforth for a while, and it's really become my go-to watch. I adore it. It's my least expensive watch, but I wear it more than anything else by far. I would be perfectly happy with just this watch. And so basically my question is, if you had to choose one watch, but it has to be under $1,000, it has to retail for under $1,000, what watch would you choose for each of you guys? And, you know, keep in mind that this, it has to cover all of the, all of the basics, you know, you have to be able to dress it up. You have to be able to, it has to be rugged enough for you to do everything you're going to do in it. And it has to keep you interested. So I'm curious to hear on both of your guys' sides because you only hear people talking about a OneWatch in a much higher price range. So that's my question. |
| Jason | All right, Rob, thanks for that question. Good point. You know, people talk about OneWatch and they always err on the high side for some reason, thinking that this is going to be kind of your heirloom piece or whatever. But I think it's almost more practical to think of a watch that's inexpensive. We had a question, I think, last month about you know, the, the, the wisdom of servicing and repairing like a cheap Seiko five. And this kind of is along the same lines. It's, you know, if you can find a watch that that's really affordable and inexpensive and just wear the heck out of it forever, um, you're winning. I mean, that's a really cool, cool thing to do. Um, again, I think, you know, as with Jeff's question just previous, I think the key is, is reliability. And, um, You know, if this is a watch you're going to wear for everything, you want something that works and has a proven kind of track record. But also, for me, a watch that I'm going to wear as my sole watch, whether by choice or by necessity, I need it to be something interesting and inspirational to me. I don't want something I'm going to get bored with in a month and look down my wrist and think, oh, I wish I had something orange or I wish I had something with a bezel that I can manipulate or a chronograph or something. And at lower prices, that can be tough to find that that combination of interest and inspiration with, with reliability. And I think, you know, fortunately we have a brand like, uh, it sounds like a broken record, but like Seiko who makes so many watches under a thousand dollars that you're kind of spoiled for choice when it comes to color and, you know, whether it's a complication with something like a Mecca courts or a, um, Arnie or, you know, something like that with, with different complications and features, um, or just simply like an SRP, Tuna, which is, you know, sub $500 and, um, you could wear that for, for anything. And, and to me, I, I, every time I still put on that watch, I'm still, still brings a smile. I still, you know, feel kind of invincible and, and just fun with it on. |
| James | I agree. I think probably, probably a Seiko or a citizen. If you want, um, some more advanced features, uh, as far as tech, I'd go with the citizen. You know, you might be able to get atomic timekeeping. You might even be able to at a thousand dollars, you probably can't get a satellite timekeeping. Yeah, but you could get atomic like radio sync. You could do, um, you know, chronographs and backlights and dive complications. They, they offer all of that kind of stuff. Sometimes a lot of it for under a thousand dollars. I also think that if you, you just want something, you know, I think there's two routes. If you want a classic dive watch, you're going to go with an SRP 777 or similar and SRP something and SRPC, you know, there's now 50 or 60 skews. Um, so when we say an SRP, you know, a turtle, there's a lot to deal with there. Um, at, at, at, At the strict ruling of a thousand dollars, I'm gonna break the rule a little bit, because my absolute answer is the new one, the SPB 143. It's a perfect everyday watch that can also do all of your scuba diving, your travel, your strap changes, the rest of it. And let's say we wait another year when the heat's died down on these watches, the street price for a 143, if they ever make it available on rubber, would be 995. which is the version, the brown one that comes on rubber starts just under a grand. So I'm only loosely bending the rules, but they'll eventually be a street price correction on these watches, which, you know, if they land in line with other SPBs, we'll be talking more like 750 to $900, depending on bracelet. And I think at that point, goodness sakes, I just, I just simply adore mine. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a good call. I was, I was thinking as well. I mean, There's nothing to say you can't get lightly used, you know, a pre-owned version. Absolutely. What was the retail on that $1,200, $1,300? I mean, I would think... Have you seen what they're selling for pre-owned these days? I haven't. I mean, we're still... I would think it'd be right around $1,000. |
| James | I'm not sure. We're still getting listeners writing me to find out where to buy them. So I think... Oh, to answer that, if anybody's asking, I bought mine, as I've said on previous episodes and in my write-up for Hodinkee, I bought mine on CAE Japan. You'll pay the top price for it. but the service is excellent. They are a long standing retailer. You're not buying garbage. You have people who would listen to you. If you have a problem with the delivery, the rest of it, like it's a real business and it's right out of Japan and that's how I got mine. I don't know who else has them. Your fastest route these days would probably just be to start calling all of the department stores that carry Seiko, because there's a good chance that like, what am I thinking? A Macy's. Yeah, right. Would get hundreds of watches for the holiday season. And the store employees may or may not be watch people. They may or may not know that these are kind of hot watches. And it might just be a question of calling and saying, hey, can you look up these three or four skews for me and tell me if you've got anything? That might be how I would go about it. But I've clearly digressed quite extensively. But yeah, I think for me it would be a Seiko diver. And if I needed any sort of a complication, if there was something I used my watch for as far as a complication beyond a date, I would lean towards Citizen. I mean, their value statements are just absolutely incredible, both brands. And that said, the Hallius you've got is a great, great pick. I adore mine. |
| Jason | Yeah, I agree. You know, since you mentioned Citizen, one watch came to mind that hardly gets talked about, but every time I see one, I always think, oh, I wish I had one of those, or I wish I would have owned one at some point. |
| James | Oh, can I have three guesses? Okay, sure. Yeah. Let's see. The 5250, the chronograph, the solar chronograph. No, no. Titanium. All right. Not that. This one, I'm going to get the name of it wrong, but it's a it's a monoblock titanium dive watch. It's 39 millimeters. I think it's the PMX 56 2800. No, no. I don't think you're going to get this. I think it's a bit of a man. This is fun. Let me think. Like a loom dial aqualand from 15 years ago. |
| Jason | No, you know what it is? It's, it's, uh, I don't even know if the official name, it was like the Nighthawk or, Oh yeah, the Nighthawk's great. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like a blue angels version of it. And, uh, I see these on everywhere. I mean, I see like pilots on commercial airlines wearing them. I see dive on dive boats, people wearing them. Like these things are so cool. They're kind of like that mix between they have the appeal of, you know, these geeky kind of Casio watches. I think you've owned or talked about these, the world timer types and then but then they also have this really burly sort of almost Navitimer look. You can get them in kind of interesting colors, but there's a little digital screen as well as some big hands and lots of complications. |
| James | Oh, you're, you're, oh, you're talking about, um, um, oh, with the Navihawk or Nighthawk or something. I think you're talking about a Navihawk. The Nighthawk, the one that I'm thinking about, it doesn't have a screen. It has a GMT display that uses a single sided axis. So you have two pointers. Right, right, right. that one was always a hugely popular watch on like poor man's watch form. Oh yeah. And they make them in steel. They make, they did make a blue angels version, thus compounding my confusion. Yeah. I think the one you're talking about, which you absolutely is the number one watch I would see on pilots wrists in lounge. Are these citizen, let's call it, let's check Navihawk. Skyhawk. Is it the Skyhawk? Oh yeah. The Skyhawk. Skyhawk AT is the one that I've had before. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Oh, you've had black. Yeah. And with, I had, it was a black orange one, which I had in for review with man, would it be Booneman watch report? So 10 years ago. Yeah. These are great watches. And I like they're, they're very complicated to learn how to use. Like I had to use the manual to get the most out of this watch. But once you get the manual in your brain, once you become a certified citizen help desk support agent, They are really cool. They work really well. They offer a lot of features and they're super piloty like yeah like deeply, but if you didn't if you wanted to go stay with eco drive and courts and the rest of it, but go with this somewhat more simple solution that night hawk. Oh yeah, I think is another is another great one. That's water resistant to 200 meters. You get a GMT display a date a really good loom. That was always a loom a loom shot champion back in the days even before we were doing this with cell phones and stuff. Yeah, really cool watch. That's the BJ 7,052 E. Yeah. Man, Citizen's got some real sweet stuff. They've been making this one for a long time, much like that BL 5250, which looks like a little Breitling. Yeah. And has a perpetual calendar and a chronograph and the rest of it. That's a great watch too. I've owned two of those actually. Oh, yeah. |
| Unknown | One I gave to a friend. |
| James | Let's get one of those just to scratch the itch someday. And it's titanium, it's so nice. |
| Jason | Eco drive, like water resistant to 200 meters. I mean, geez. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, killer stuff for sure. That was a real digression there, but I think it still fits the topic a little bit. |
| James | There's several inexpensive sub $1,000 watches, Rob, that I think you could wear and would suit a lot of people's every day and would make great one watch watches. In my world, that would still need to be a mechanical watch, so I'd lean towards a Seiko, but you really can't discredit Citizen at this price point at all. Next up we have a question from Will about actually wearing and using a pristine watch. |
| William | What's going on Jason and James? I'm William from Silver Spring, Maryland. Heavy as the wrist on Instagram. I'm a big fan of the show and I appreciate all you guys do to keep it up and running. I've got an interesting conundrum and I'm wondering if others have been in the same situation. I purchased a watch from an auction that definitely needed service once I received it. But after getting the watch back, it's so perfect and pristine that I haven't even taken the stickers off of it. And I haven't put it on my wrist either. The watch is a perpetual calendar 18k with not a scratch on it. And I'm finding it hard to pull the bandaid off and just wear it. My normal rotation of watches are stainless steel and generally have some kind of water resistance. So I don't worry about wearing it, but this one is, uh, the complete opposite. Have you guys ever been in a situation like this before and how did you handle it? Thanks for all. |
| James | Well, first up, we'll congrats on a solid gold QP that's insanely killer, a milestone that I would like to hit someday. Jason, have you ever owned a watch that was so pristine you wouldn't wear it? |
| Jason | I don't think I would keep it, right? No, I haven't. Yeah. No, I always think, and for some reason lately I've been thinking about this, you know, what am I waiting for? Like with something, whether it's a car, you know, driving into the winter or, you know, for fear of rust or wearing a nice watch, I think to myself, you know, if not, now like when when will i wear this and and better that i i lose it scratch it break it while it's on my wrist doing something then kind of lose it in a house fire or something um when i haven't worn it at all um again i've never owned a solid gold perpetual calendar in my life i have owned some valuable vintage watches but i i think uh no i i come down on the side of of put that thing on and just start wearing it. You'll love it. You'll love it even more when you start to wear it than you do sort of babying it and looking at it. |
| James | Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree. Well, if your intention is to keep this watch and not sell it now that it's been serviced and it's ready to go, if it's value isn't burning a hole in your proverbial pocket, I would put it on. If you're so uncomfortable with the concept, which maybe you are, you did send us a question, maybe treat it like a... Who's the guy that came home and put his cardigan on and his inside shoes? Mr. Rogers. Maybe treat it like your Mr. Rogers watch when you get home and you're gonna sit by the fire, watch some TV, put a few miles on the watch in relative safety, and then maybe that'll just bring your comfort level up to the point where, oh, you could leave the house with it and then you'll eventually kind of move up. Because I actually think if I was able to put myself directly in Will's shoes, I think I might experience some of this if I was able to get this watch that I saved up for or whatever. And you know what, even a very inexpensive 18 karat QP is going to be a very expensive watch by TGN standards. And so I think I would probably start by wearing it around the house. You know, maybe under a big chunky sweater that could safeguard it from all sorts of hard edges and door jams and the rest of it. But no, I think absolutely wear it. Wear it in a scenario that makes you feel comfortable. And then just start putting miles on it. If your intention is to keep it, it'll be way more fun to have it on your wrist than in a drawer. |
| Jason | Yeah. Good question, though. And congrats on that watch. Let's move on to Dave who has a question about, it's an interesting question. It's about coffee. So give it a try. |
| Dave | Hey, James and Jason. My name is Dave and I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of the things that I got into in quarantine has been exploring the nuances of watch photography. And I actually started an Instagram account dedicated to sharing some of those pictures that I take at the watch underscore box. I found that some of my favorite posts often involve my watch near a cup of coffee. And it got me thinking about what some of those watch coffee type pairings elicit. So, for example, a gold Casio A159 next to a cup of classic drip coffee makes me think of my grandfather at his favorite diner. A Junkers GMT with a French press really makes me want to travel. An espresso with a Seiko Samurai SRPB53 screams adventure. I'm curious what some of your coffee slash watch combos might be and what they evoke. Jason, I know you're a big tea drinker, so feel free to sub tea and for coffee if you'd prefer. Thanks for everything you guys do. Keep up the great work. Love the pod. Can't wait to hear your answers. |
| James | That's certainly a creative question. |
| Jason | Very creative question. And creative theme for photography. Really, really great idea there, Dave. I'll check out your work on Instagram. I'll go first. You know, I am more of a coffee guy at heart. I kind of had a background in coffee and drink coffee in the mornings. I guess I do post some photos of cups of tea every now and then, and I think tea's sort of my afternoon drink of choice. And I think, you know, what is it about hot beverages that are so evocative? I can't put my finger on it, but there's this concept that I've learned about in the past few years called adventure coffee, which is, you know, go out of the house, go somewhere with your little camp stove, whether it's on a bicycle or in your car or hiking and like pause and like brew up a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. I think there's something really, Romantic about doing that wherever you might be and I think especially these days when we can't really go out for coffee much It's kind of a fun fun thing to do and we went out with in the Land Rover after a recent snowstorm here with a little Primus camp stove and a kettle and some tea and just went to like a local state park and sat by a lake and brewed up some some tea and sat and looked at the scenery and There is something Ritualistic about it that I like and very evocative and I think I You know, with tea particularly, it has a very British feel. This notion of the, you know, the Brits of yore, you know, pausing in the middle of climbing a mountain or, or going to battle, like stopping in the middle of the afternoon to brew up a pot of tea is really, um, something that, that speaks to my, uh, sensibilities as well. So I think I would opt for something British and classic. If you're going to do like a cup of Earl Grey at home by the fire, maybe something like a vintage, you know, Smith's or, you know, one of the dirty dozen watches. Um, something a little more kind of, I don't know, a little classic and civilized. Um, but if I'm going out with, uh, with my camp stove and a, and a kettle or a flask of tea or something, I'd probably do something a little more rugged, like, uh, and stay in the British vein, go with something like a, like a Braymont or, or maybe the, the bronze vertex I just got. I think that kind of, kind of fits the mood. James, you're a coffee guy. What's your watch of choice for coffee? |
| James | Yeah, I'm a coffee guy. I've never, I've never really thought about it in terms of like, pairing a watch with a scenario of drinking coffee. So I'm not really sure how to answer the question. I think of coffee in very similar manners as I do to transportation. There's the functional level, like my Jeep or the second cup of coffee I probably just finished off Mike a moment ago. That's just what I have every day. It's my in and out. It's a tool to allow an effective level of mobility throughout the world with some level of effectiveness. Where it becomes something a little bit more special to me is when I'm in a place that's more special. Like, there are a few cups of coffee that I'll never forget. When I got to go as a guest of Lange to Concorso della Ganza on Lake Como in Italy, we were staying at basically the hotel that helped inspire the Grand Budapest Hotel. Yeah. And it is a really fantastic place, the Hotel Gran Tremezo. And I had I think I had three mornings total. I had at least two because I remember each morning, but I was sitting out and it was that it was like as a Canadian who grew up in a farm town, you know, surrounded by hockey players and cows. It was one of those those those seminal moments of I was experiencing, you know, La Dolce Vita. and this sort of very high level leisure, and sitting out on their patio in the morning, overlooking Lake Como, one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and having just a fantastic cappuccino. And then with that, the watch that I won't have to forget, because it's an unforgettable watch, I had a Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon. |
| Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| James | Yeah, sure, why not right? So I guess that would be a pairing, but I guess I think of it more in terms of the number of times that I had an airplane coffee, like not a not an airline lounge or at an airport, but the one that give you on the plane. Oh yeah, you know, while changing the time on my explorer to that, that'll always be kind of very much memorable for me. You know, I had cups of coffee that saved me after long nights at Pebble Beach or car week or something like that. Basel, certainly. You don't forget a single cup of coffee you get in Basel because you need each one to take another. Basically, you're just chaining 40 or 50 steps from one cup of coffee to another after about the third or fourth day. So I guess that's how I see it in many ways. But there is something really special to being in a disparate location, somewhere that's not your home. Right. and having that moment to yourself. Sometimes you have a newspaper, sometimes you're reading something on your phone that's not toxic or problematic, and for a moment there's some peace, and the peace includes the whole scene. It might be the sunlight, it might be the coffee, it might be the watch, and I think it's 5% of each of those things, and sometimes you have a really great source of company or a guest or a really lovely waiter to tell you a little bit about Italy or whatever, and I think those are the ways that my brain works on this question. What I'm more fascinated about is just the idea. You know when somebody asks you a question and you're like, oh, your brain just works differently than mine, like your creativity works in a different... I would never think of pairing watches with coffee because to me, in many ways, coffee is just coffee. It comes in different cups sometimes. it comes in different formats, right? Kind of like cars and stuff. But Dave, I'm just impressed by the question, if I'm honest. I apologize if this was a rambly and not really that helpful of an answer, but in my mind, I can remember these great cups of coffee because they often are surrounded by moments of serenity. And I think that also comes with a great watch. It doesn't have to be a quarter of a million dollar Lange. |
| Jason | Yeah, I mean, and Dave, I feel you on this question. I haven't thought about pairing watches with coffee or tea for that matter, but I do... You do watches and books? I do watches and books a lot. And I think watches in like a bottle of whiskey or a flask or something, but... For sure. I like this idea. I like what you just said, James, about the it's a moment of serenity. And I think that is what I like about a good cup of coffee in the morning, um, or a cup of tea in the afternoon. It's, it's a, it's like a reset or like a pause that you take for yourself. |
| James | Yeah. And I think definitely for the morning, like the, it's that, it's that moment that hopefully it's, yeah, it's yours. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and you get, you get to shape it. It's 20 minutes. Nobody should be able to take it away from you. Hopefully. I mean, obviously there's a lot of worlds in which your first cup of coffee is at a job site or, uh, next to a ringing phone or whatever. Uh, Not everybody's as fortunate, but I, yeah, I think that there is something about, um, it's these, you know, these little moments of control where some of that background noise gets a little bit quieter. |
| Jason | I guess the easy answer here is, uh, is a chronograph, right? Because a T usually is like a five minute steep, four or five minutes steep. And then like, even with, um, the arrow press, right. There's like a 32nd steep or something before you. push it down like you could use your deep star for that. |
| James | Yeah, absolutely. Sure could. And yeah, I think the deep star would like imagine waking up at a, you know, next to the ocean, go and diving in a couple hours or in an hour or something and starting your day off with a cup of coffee. These are all nice little dream moments, visual dream moments. It's good stuff. Great question, Dave. |
| Jason | Thank you for that. Speaking of interesting questions, this is a great question. This was one I had to scratch my head about a little bit, but let's go for it. It's from Greg, who talks a little bit about time travel. |
| Greg | Hi, James. Hi, Jason. This is Greg from Toronto. My question is going to get a title. It's James and Jason's Excellent Adventure. In this question, You two dudes just stepped out of a phone booth time machine into the year 1930. Of course, your first thing is to go out and find yourself some 1930 TGN-esque watches. Think the adventure watches of the day. Perhaps a Cartier Santos, a Reverso, or maybe an early Oyster-Cased Rolex. Of course, don't limit yourself to those options if you feel there's something else out there that fits the bill. As a bonus point, Which historical figure are you going to bring back from that time period to be a guest on the next episode of TGN? Thanks for playing along with me and I hope you have fun answering this question. I look forward to hearing the answer. |
| James | Greg, what a hilarious question. I like this quite a bit. Jason, you want to start with watches and then we'll get to personalities to retrieve? |
| Jason | Yeah, and he picked a tough year, 1930. I mean, this is before dive watches. I mean, this is tough, but I think I found a good one. Okay. You know, he mentioned a few good choices, but I did a little research, looked into it, like what was available in 1930, and I'm going to go with a Breitling single pusher chronograph. |
| James | Oh yeah, sure. The precursor to the RAF watch. |
| Jason | Yeah. You know, at that time, I think, you know, Breitling invented the double pusher chronograph later. So most chronographs at this point in 1930 were either in the crown itself or a separate single pusher, which is another thing I think Breitling invented. But regardless, some of the Breitling chronographs from 1930 were, you know, they're probably tiny by today's standards, but still tool-ish and kind of cool. And I'd say if we were a couple of, you know, 1930 dudes, I could see myself wearing a Breitling single pusher chronograph for TGN. |
| James | How about you? I love that answer. My gut, my first response when I listened to this question, when I was making notes before we started was, is a Santos. Oh yeah. I think it would have been, it would have been like the character driven adventure watch of the thirties. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And then the more I started to look around is of late, I've been very fascinated by a vintage Audemars Piguet that just is such a wild brand that was so tiny up until the nineties, like really, really small brand where they had to almost double their manufacturing size just to keep up with perpetual calendars in the 80s, and when almost nobody else was making them. But if you go back as far as the 30s, they were even making some really beautiful watches. Tank style, these are in the same aesthetic vein as a Cartier tank, but I've got one here. I'll put it in the show notes. It was from a Christie's auction in 2012, It went for $62,000, so I'm sure that's worth significantly more now. You know how the world has changed since then. But it's a 1930s tank with a full calendar. So I don't believe... Not a perpetual calendar, but a full calendar. And I think it's absolutely gorgeous. Breguet numerals, this beautifully patinated dial. I think... And when we start to talk about who we're bringing back, I think this choice being somewhat more dressy than I might have gone with something like a Santos. is, but I think that's the direction it would go, because my guess is at the time, especially if I go, I guess, I don't know how does it, like if I go back with a pocket full of money, money doesn't even look the same in 1930. How do I, how do I buy it? I guess there's some of those metrics when you go back that far that like none of my money is going to look the same, my credit cards won't work. |
| Jason | Well, and I love how like if we're talking sort of TGN-esque for that era, I mean the watches of that era were largely pretty I mean, we were barely on the wrist by that point. It was mostly pocket watches still, um, even up until then. Um, so, but the watches that were, people were wearing to do adventurous stuff are vastly different than, than what we do today. What we think of today, you know, our earlier question about the plow prof being indestructible. I mean, back then somebody probably would have worn this, this beautiful Audemars Piguet to, you know, try to fly a plane or, or climb up, you know, climb the Matterhorn wearing, you know, tweed suit and tie with, with this watch, you know? So who knows? |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | So that's where I go as far as a personality either to hang. Let's extend Greg's question a little bit. Someone you would either hang out with in set to in its time in the thirties, or I guess to bring back, let's say we record the episode in the thirties and just bring the file back. It would be a jarring to bring a person back, I think. Yeah. Yeah. We'll take, we can take our recording gear to the thirties or we can use their cool old microphones. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. Yeah. |
| James | It'll sound, uh, yeah, it'll sound like, uh, like a radio show from, uh, I don't know, Brother Where Art Thou or something like that. |
| Jason | Yeah. The person I picked was, it was actually a pretty easy choice, Amelia Earhart. Oh, very cool. A real, you know, obviously adventurous figure from then. I'm sure she would have made for an interesting interview. She was pretty PR savvy from what I understand at the time. And obviously she did some amazing things. I've seen pictures of her wearing like a hard hat, you know, diving helmet, you know, obviously all of her flying exploits. Great sense of style for a man or a woman at that time. She just looked the part. So yeah, I'm going to go with Amelia Earhart. I think she might have worn a longine, but I think my Breitling single pusher chronograph might have gotten a nod from her as well. |
| James | Yeah, I think that's a great call. I went with... I've got two different methodologies. If I was looking, I think that the most interesting would have been Hemingway. Oh yeah. He and I would be about the same age in the mid 30s. Yeah. And I think you could talk about anything, right? I very quickly, as soon as I heard 1930s, I thought like, well, Midnight in Paris is basically what we're talking about. If you guys haven't seen that movie, it's a really fantastic Woody Allen film where Owen Wilson goes back in time at midnight to 30s, you know, roaring 30s Paris and Hemingway's part of that, as are the Fitzgerald's and Dolly and the rest of it. But I thought Hemingway would be pretty fascinating. The other one I thought would be interesting, but this would be more if I could tag along, you know, become a bit of a Ansel Adams groupie. He would have been in his late 20s at the start of the 30s. So I think that would be another great one just to kind of hung out in a couple of national parks, maybe record the record the episode by a babbling brook in Yosemite or something like that. |
| Jason | Yeah, yeah. That was a... These past two questions are... People are really thinking about this stuff. I love it. Good stuff, Greg. |
| James | Yeah, super fun. Yeah. Yeah, great question, Greg. Next up, we've got a question from Treyton and he's asking about a big budget watch collection. |
| Treyton | Hi, James and Jason. Treyton here from the UK. After listening to the Houdini podcast with the collection challenges, My question to you guys is, if you won the lottery and there was no budget limit and no categories to complete and you could literally buy whatever takes your fancy, what would be your five watch collection? Or the first five watches you'd buy anyway. I suspect if you'd won the lottery, you'd buy a lot more than five, but what would your five watch collection be? No holds bar. Thanks for everything that you do and really enjoy the podcast. |
| James | Cheers. All right, Jason, five watches. No budget. |
| Jason | Tough one. I mean, five watches, that's a hard number. Five is tough. I could probably do three. I came up with three pretty quickly, actually. |
| James | I got four. Yeah. I was going to let inspiration find me my fifth. Yeah. Do you want to do one at a time, back and forth, or do you just want to list yours? |
| Jason | Well, yeah. Let me just start. So the first one, this is so painful. The first one is a longtime grail of mine. I remember seeing it. Somebody was wearing this at at Baselworld. It's a MilSub. So Rolex Military Submariner. You know, cliche watch, one that looks like so many other watches anyway. But for some reason, MilSub just is. It's always just grabbed me, taking my breath away every time I see one in person. And yeah. So, you know, there goes you know, a hundred grand at least just to get that thing on my wrist. But that's, that's my first one. And I'm going to call that kind of my vintage category, grail piece. So. |
| Unknown | Okay. Okay. Why don't you take one? |
| James | Am I throwing one out there? My probably, I would start immediately hunting a, an early Audemars Piguet Royal Oak QP. So if I could, the goal would be to find a 25554 in yellow gold with the yellow gold dial. They made a very slight, you can actually read my ridiculously exhaustive post on the history of these early QPs on Houdinki. I can put it in the show notes if you care. I find them to be incredibly cool and kind of unknown watches. And at least at one point, I found an auction result where somebody got a slightly later version than a 5554. So it's a hair thicker to maintain its water resistance than the truly original spec. But they were as little as 12 or 13 grand at one point. I mean, these just weren't like AP wasn't that popular in the early 2000s. The Royal Oak was a thing, but nothing like it is today. And they're vastly more expensive now. They, of course, made them in steel, pretty limited watch in total. You know, these are the ones that exist before there was a leap year hand, which came about more like 93, 94. So these are the ones that kind of 10 years or so uh, before that. And, uh, and yeah, I think that that's where I would start. I would expect that would cost, uh, 60 to 70, maybe $80,000, something like that. Uh, the steel ones or the steel ones are the ones everybody wants. Um, I, I would like the one in yellow gold, very fun. |
| Jason | All right. Second one is also from AP. Uh, And this is a bit out of left field for me. It's the Royal Oak Offshore Diver in Steel, the very first one. |
| James | You were just taking stuff off my list. |
| Jason | That's such a good one. We can share that one because this is this is tough. I don't know why. I mean, you know, I got a chance to dive with this watch and wear it that first year when it came out and kind of impractical as a dive watch that that screw down extra crown that operates the internal bezels. Not great for diving or whatever, but the watch wears really well. I adored the strap, which is kind of a weird thing to obsess about, but the straps on those watches are just great. The tapisserie dial. They're so cool. It's just a fun, cool watch. So, you know, if the Mill Sub is kind of that vintage grail, this watch is the kind of almost an everyday steel, everything watch that you could just wear and just kind of you know, go crazy with and have fun and travel around with it and that sort of thing. It's, like I said, a little out of left field, but I'm going to put it on my list because it's one that I loved, but I would never really be able to afford at this point. So here we go on my no budget list. That's what it is. Going really well. |
| James | Yeah. All right. Second pick for me is one I just wrote about. This is a watch I've loved for a really long time and actually learned a bunch of new stuff thanks to John Reardon. when I was researching for this post that went up. It'll be earlier in the week once you're listening to this, but I'll of course put a link to it. It's specifically a series two, probably in 1962, Patek Philippe 2597. It was called the Crass Country, and it was their earliest attempt at a travel watch. So in the 30s, they worked with Louis Cartier, who had apprenticed under his father, Emmanuel Cartier, to make the first world timer in a wristwatch, along with Vacheron. Vacheron, the same functionality, Cadillac made it for their pocket watches. But you have 96HUs and things like that, these very early, super collectible, expensive world timers. And they're gorgeous, and they have closed enamel dials, and they have to be kind of functionally set for your time zone. because this was kind of the 30s. This is pre-travel in many ways, pre-big travel. And then by the time the late 50s came around, they realized they needed something or what they wanted to make was something a little bit more for the jet-set crowd, people who were actually changing time zones, maybe people who worked in LA and New York in the late 50s and moved around enough that they would actually have to change the time. And they made this fantastic complication via Cartier where there's a button, two buttons on the left case flank that you just press with your fingernail and it jumps a second hour hand that's hidden underneath the first one. That's so great. And it's this gorgeous 37 millimeter that came in yellow and pink gold. I would go yellow gold. And a really clean example is they are egregiously expensive. It could cost six or $700,000. Oh my gosh. He gave us... They said no budget, right? No budget. So I think these are one of the most likely fantastic watches of all time. It's a very early take on a GMT that the brand still makes. It's the exact same functionality that's in the 5164. It's in the 6300 Grandmaster Chime, if you want to spend millions of dollars. It's in the 5542... Am I getting that wrong? 5524, the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time, which I think is an incredibly cool watch. I know that it was divisive among Patek people. Maybe I'm not that much of a Patek person, certainly never owned one. But the 2597, I think, is one of their cool... This is a brand that has a lot of very cool watches, obviously, especially if you're talking about mid-century. But the 2597 is... A Series 2 where you have two hour hands is... Please. |
| Jason | All right. I tried to go with just one vintage and the rest sort of modern, but it's hard to do. But I've got one more modern watch here. I've always wanted a Lange & Söhne, and the one that always catches my eye... Are you gonna take my Lange? I doubt it. I bet you have a different one than me. No, no, this is just a straight Ricard Longa in white gold. Three hands. |
| James | I think that's the most you of urology watch. |
| Jason | Marine chronometer styling, you know, just, yeah. |
| James | Is this the one with the little, with the gray black dial and the, or no, that was the one with the stop seconds. Yeah I mean that was the cool one too. |
| Jason | That family is probably my favorite of the Lange's but this one is just the the blued hands. It has a very instrument look to it and usually I don't like Roman numerals but on this watch it's just uh it's just fantastic. So it's it's a white gold case with um uh kind of that silvery white dial um and and just kind of a perfect perfect dressy watch but I think one you could wear you know maybe lose the crocodile strap and put it on something a little, you know, maybe, maybe not like a rough vintage style strap, but something a little more casual. I think you could pull it off pretty much any, every day. I would agree for sure. Yeah. That's, that's my number, I guess my number three. |
| James | All right. For my three, I'm going, I'm going to Rolex and it's going to be the tidiest, sweetest 1655 Freccione I could find. The birth of the Explorer II. Yeah. And I think one of the most beautiful sports watches ever made, definitely among my most favorite watches in existence. And certainly of the two that I've already picked, kind of inexpensive. They still trade hands for, you know, $25,000, $30,000 to $40,000. Again, we're talking no budget watches. Please don't get the wrong idea. I don't have the money for a watch, let alone I'm up around probably, you know, $700,000 or $800,000 at this point. But yeah, I absolutely adore these watches. I've had a chance to try them on and wear them around a little bit, a couple times, you know, via the Hodinkee shop. I remember they had one at the UTA pop-up a couple years back, and I was just absolutely obsessed with it. Yeah, really cool watch. You know, I love the Reinold Messner history of that watch. It's been on some pretty cool people's wrists. That's the winner for me, for sure, as far as I think it's currently the only steel watch in my list. Wow. Because I think I could wear that pretty much every day. Yeah. I just feel like I have four very special watches that I occasionally wear. Yeah. Yeah. Super cool though. |
| Jason | All right. My next one, I'm starting to get thin here. I'm starting to run out of options here and I had some question marks by some of these. And so this is one that I've always loved. I'm not sure it would make the final cut, but I'm going to go with an IWC Mark 11. Pilot's watch used by the RAF from 1948 up until I think the 70s or 80s and in some fashion. some form. Just a little steel, you know, three-hand pilot's watch. But, you know, descendant from the Dirty Dozen, just stark military styling. I think, I felt like I wanted an IWC on my list, and the Aquatimer family has always been kind of a near miss for me. I love a lot of them, but not quite enough to put it on this list. And IWC obviously has a great history of pilot's watches, and a few brands made Mark 11s, but I don't know, something about the, you know, international watch company styling. It's just, to me, that brand at that kind of middle era from, you know, fifties through the eighties was just, just spot on. I loved so many IWCs from that era. So I had to put, I had to put one on the list and Mark 11 gets the nod. |
| James | I think. Fantastic. Great call. Yeah. I like that one a lot. Next up we're going, we're going very specific. with this one, and it would be... This watch sold in 2008 with Christie's for about $4 million. I've no idea what it would go for today, but it's a Briggs Cunningham's 1526 Perpetual Calendar. It's a Patek Philippe. So it's kind of a white silver dial with black markers, black hands. It's their earliest series produced Perpetual Calendar, but it's steel because we're talking Briggs Cunningham. If you don't know that, I'll put the story. There's a great story that Ben wrote years and years and years ago for Hodinkee. It's one of my favorite on the site, and I just... The guy was so incredibly cool. A true sportsman, a true American sportsman, and a huge watch collector, a huge car collector. And he has some... There's some... Genuinely, any of the watches in here are flatly wild. But you look at a 1463 with a black dial, steel chronograph, Pretty cool, worth like a third of the 1526. I just think it's one of the coolest watches in existence. And if you're talking like money is no object, I would like to be the steward of this watch for a little while before it moves on to another person. Absolutely, a really, really rad watch. |
| Jason | Alright, well, I guess now I'm at number five. I honestly don't know. We have a Ploprof. Ploprof. I forgot about the Ploprof. I'm gonna go vintage Ploprof. There you go. I'm going to go vintage blowprop. I mean, I love the new ones as we discussed earlier. |
| James | Like there's one worn by Cousteau's gang or something like that. |
| Jason | Some provenance. Frankly anyone. So when I was in Japan a number of years ago on a Seiko trip, I was with Robert Yan from Fratello and we managed to track down that kind of area of Tokyo that has a lot of vintage watch shops. And we were window shopping there and I saw this This area, if you know Tokyo, there's this area called or this shop called Jack Road. It's in this like weird multi-level like marketplace that has everything from trinkets and junk and you know party supplies and clothing and then out of the blue you happen upon this open corner store with glass cases just chock full of the most incredible vintage watches and you know like four plow profs kind of lined up and Um, I remember trying a few on and of course the pricing is in yen, which made it seem so much more expensive, even when I translated the amount into dollars. But, uh, and, and the prices have stayed down. I think they're going to start to creep up. We're seeing more stories about Ploprofs and, um, you know, they're just, uh, they're just such cool watches. They're, they're just kind of the ultimate of their era. Um, Gonzo kind of pieces with, with obviously the, direct connection to to so much pioneering diving. So yeah, I'm glad you I'm glad you filled in the blank for me because I think Blowproff would be. Yeah, I was trying to stay away from too many dive watches. But hey, yeah, might as well might as well lean into it. |
| James | Yeah, I don't I don't have a dive watch on here. I'm having trouble with my last one. I'm trying to decide between another Rolex or something kind of adjacent. I think I'll go with I would like a longer one. |
| Unknown | Oh, OK. |
| James | I think that they're just such gorgeous things. I would have a really tough time picking, but an early yellow gold example with the closed case back. But then you don't get to see the movement. The closed case back makes it vastly more cool, but just as an enthusiast, I want to be able to see that movement. |
| Jason | Are those screw-down case backs or are they snap-on? I'm assuming they're screw-on. That's a great question. Because if you could easily take it off every now and then, I think a closed case back is such a strong move. I love like an old paddock tourbillon or something with a closed case back. |
| James | Oh, for sure. Yeah, it's wild. But yeah, so I think it would be a Lange 1. It's a watch that I've just... I've adored every... If you've never had a chance to just put one on, they are just... They are so distinctive and special. Yeah. And I mean, you gotta be hard fought to know... Unless you know enough about Lange to know kind of their history. How do you know when a Lange 1 was made? yeah right when it was designed the watch exists kind of it's it's that it has that mid-century value that just makes it feel like a classic watch even even if you went on and bought one today a brand new one |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James | You know, they're gorgeous. They come in lots of different versions. They come with different complications. I don't want any of the anything too wild. Yellow gold. If you got lucky enough to find a honey gold, you know, something that they do in a very limited extent. Yeah. And then the largely to long of people, the cool grail option would be the service steel one. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| James | So it was a loaner given to people. when they're long as one in for service, a steel Lange one. And a steel one would be legit pretty rad. I think the gold ones, they feel a little bit more special to me, but I think if you're in the watch world, the steel one would probably be the swing. There's some really cool ones. And I still think when I see them, they're coming up, they're getting their due, but they're still not as expensive as you expect. And it's probably because Lange, their manufacturing history just isn't that long. compared to some of the brands that they've been able to compete with. You know, the Pateks, the Vacherons, the Audemars. So yeah, I think that would be my five. An AP2554, Patek 2597, a Rolex 1655, a Lange 1, and then yeah, Briggs Cunningham's 1526 Patek. Those are solid picks. It's funny, you know. I gotta be in for That's got to be about $8 million there. Well, we'll call it an even six. |
| Jason | Yeah, right. I chose a Rolex Millsub, an AP Royal Oak Offshore Diver in steel, Ricard Lange, IWC Mark 11 and an Omega Ploprof. Now, it's interesting if you look at our picks, I've come to realize that you really You like gold and you like dress watches and complicated watches. |
| James | Yeah, I just can't afford a single one that I... I have my Buren, my Minstop. Yeah, yeah. And that's scratching the itch at the world I'm at. But no, the absolute sweet spot, especially what I think... I feel like you and I... Have you always been this way? |
| Jason | Or is this more of an evolution, would you say? |
| James | I think it's an evolution just based on I've had the good fortune. Exposure, I suppose. Yeah, and I've had the good fortune to experience pretty much all of the great steal sports watches in the world, right? In some manner or another. Right. And I love them, but at a certain point I do feel like, well, I've been down this road. Yeah. If we're talking no budget, it would definitely be these sorts of watches that existed before watches became what they are now. Right. It's these mid-century things that I think are kind of very special things. I think there's a lot of that charm if you eventually get through the possibly too many words of my write-up about those AP QPs, the Royal Oak QPs, there's a lot of that is dragged out from their history in the 30s and the 40s and the 50s, and their very slow, progressive development of a complication that a lot of brands weren't doing, let alone putting it in steel in the early 80s. That might be only AP. My research would suggest it's only AP. You don't really want to make that kind of claim in print, as it were, but nobody like There's just some crazy stories behind these watches. I think they're really beautiful things, and I think that I could check all of my steel sports watch needs off with a 1655. Sure. Or in many ways, my modern Explorer II would scratch that same itch. |
| Jason | Well, it goes back to our show about comfort zones, and I think this idea, this throwback idea that you wear kind of a nice watch Most of the time during the day and whatever and more sedate things. And then when you go to do something adventurous, climb, hike, run, dive, you swap it out for that sports watch. That's what people used to do. Like we put on a Garmin to go for a run or a bike ride nowadays. So I think the watches that you picked are kind of that classic gentlemen's watch. And I think my favorite of your bunch is that Travel Time Patek. It's just the most wonderful thing. It's just so cool. The size sounds great. I mean, looking at the looks, it's of a certain era. It's very subdued Patek, but with this really cool complication. |
| James | So, yeah. Yeah. And I think even short of Patek guys, watch nerd, collectors, vintage collectors, nobody would have any clue what that watch is. It's just so cool. a relatively nondescript sort of 50s dress watch. Yeah. But it's so much cooler than that. And yeah, I mean, this list could have gone 10 other ways for sure. But this is definitely where my mind's at now. You know, I'm investing a lot of time in researching on interesting vintage complications and the birth of complications. I find that to be really fascinating. Some of this is exposure. I've had exposure to a certain level of watches, the steel sports watches, both big and small and expensive and not expensive. And the gold stuff remains on the horizon. It feels like a new world to kind of kick around in. So I think that's where it comes down to, especially with the vintage side. |
| Jason | Well, Trayton, you obviously lit a fuse here. We went out with this one. |
| James | We're chewing the fat on a lot of these questions, but I like it. We're getting through what we can. I don't mind making it a long episode. So how would you say we hit the next one? |
| Jason | Yeah, this is from Chris, who had a question about engraving a watch. |
| Chris | Hi guys, this is Chris here from Newcastle in the North East of England. I hope you're all doing well, staying safe and I just want to send a little thanks for the podcasts and all of your content on Hidinki. I really enjoy it and have been doing so for a good few years now, so thanks for that. I just want to reach out to you guys with a question about watch engraving. Last year With some contribution from my now fiancé and a little bit of inheritance from my parents, I bought a Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39mm with a white dial. Slightly smug in that it's now been discontinued. But anyways, the idea behind my partner's contribution to the watch was that it was effectively an engagement slash wedding present. We're getting married in April, provided we're able to due to COVID-19 and all that. And we've toyed with the idea of getting the watch case back engraved. I haven't really settled on with what yet but something just to kind of add to the sentimental value of the watch. Now it's not something I have a plan on getting rid of. Obviously the watch carries a lot of sentimental value and it's a beautiful watch so I have no reason to ever get rid of it. But I just want to hear your thoughts on watch engraving, whether you think it's something that can sort of add to the sentiment and that sort of special feeling around a watch, or whether it's something you tend to steer away from for whatever reason. Just interested to hear your thoughts on that. Cheers, guys. Take care. |
| Jason | Thanks for the good question, Chris. Engraving. You know, James, earlier you talked about getting your Explorer 2 engraved. I have my Submariner my 40th birthday Submariner engraved, and then my Blancpain gift from the Hodinkee crew that I got last year is engraved on the case band. Those are my only two watches that are engraved. I'm all for it. I mean, I think it's kind of an old-fashioned thing to do. It's cool for future owners of that watch. It's cool, really personalizes it for you. I wouldn't go ahead and engrave every single one of my watches, but You know, so choose carefully what you engrave on the back and also, you know, which watches you do it to make sure it's something you're going to keep. But, um, I'm all for it. James, you seem to be as well. I mean, I assume you are. |
| James | Yeah. Get it engraved for sure. You know, congrats on the engagement of course. And we hope that things go well as far as planning out a wedding. You know, I've got a couple of friends that are also hoping to make that happen next year and a lot of it's up in the air. So that's tough, but, uh, absolutely get it engraved. We said this about the, you know, the company watch. that was in a previous Q&A, definitely get it engraved. It's special. It's fun. I don't think it really affects the resale value of the watch if you're ever in such a position that you had to let it go. Case backs can be replaced as well. Since it's your wedding watch, you should definitely get it engraved. I'm 100% on board. |
| Jason | Yeah. Well, thanks, Chris, for the question. Move on to Tom, who has a question about Ultimate Adventures and the watches to wear for them. |
| Tom | Hi, guys. It's Tom here from an autumnal UK. So my question is about Ultimate Adventures in a world without travel restrictions. If you were to do a fantasy draft of diving, climbing, road trips, or expedition adventures, what would be your top pick? And of course, what watch would accompany you? Look forward to your thoughts and thank you for all the work you put into the episodes, in particular the Q&A sessions. It's great you guys are so up for engaging with all your fans. Cheers. Take care. |
| James | Okay, Tom, that's a great question. Jason, you want to say we pick a couple places each and a watch with each one? |
| Unknown | Yeah, sure. |
| James | Yeah, you can start. As opposed to a big list. Yeah, I mean, if I could travel anywhere right this minute, I would, you know, I'd probably head towards Baja, especially with winter coming for, you know, Canada, a lot of the West. Yeah, I would head down to Baja, you know, do a little bit of off-roading, do some scuba diving, do some camping, you know, maybe make my way down to Cabo San Lucas and kick around, go up to Cabo Pulmo, Uh, you know, this is a fantastic part of the world that I've seen only a tiny sliver of and I bet you would be just, um, just such a fun thing to, you know, maybe rent a jeep in, in San Diego or Tijuana or something like that, and then head south, uh, to the end of the point and then maybe fly back from there or take a boat trip back up or something like that. I'm not sure. Um, as far as a watch to go with that, it'd be probably the Explorer too, right? Like it's the one I like to take when, when I know I've got memories to build. I'd probably do a lap of Baja for a few months or something like that. Like really, really get down there. Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah. That's a, that's a great pick. It's on my list as well. Not, not for this particular discussion, but I've, I've been to Cabo Pumal a couple of times, but I'd love to do that road trip that kind of spent an extended period of time driving up and down there. For me, the first one I'm going to suggest is, you know, before all this came about this year, I had plans with Ghoshani to, to go to the UK and get up to Scotland. And we were going to rent a Land Rover Defender with a rooftop tent and kind of drive all over the Highlands, get over to, to some of the islands and, you know, taste some whiskey, do some peak bagging and some hiking and maybe hike and stay in some of the bothies, um, kind of out in the wilderness there. Um, but couldn't do it. It's still on the list. I probably will be the first place we We go depending on the time of year, once all the world opens up again. So that's going to be my first choice. And for that, you know, going to the UK, we went to Wales last year and I wore a Bremont MB2 and I think that wouldn't be a bad choice for a trip like this as well. If I was going to do any diving up in Scapa Flow on any of the war wrecks that are sunken up there, I'd maybe opt for a Supermarine. But I think both of those choices would be would be great for a trip to Scotland. How about your second pick? |
| James | Yeah, I would go... Since I got to do that Clipperton expedition, which is several years now, I missed that feeling of being on the absolute, the end of it. Yeah. And I think I would try and make my way down. I'm not really sure how, maybe get into South America and then drive, see if I could drive the entire spine. But just to say, I'm heading to Tierra del Fuego. I'm going to the end. Take me to the bottom. I think that'd be just such a huge adventure. I've never been to South America proper. Yeah, I would absolutely love. Imagine you had the time and the resources to do Peru all the way down or Chile all the way down. you know, have your own, have your own Yvon Chouinard moment for a summer or a sabbatical from work or something like that. I think that that's definitely where I'd be headed. Something like that. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. You should mention that. It was on my list, but for a future question or one that somebody submitted about road trips. So I'm going to, I'm going to hold off on that one. But you know, in terms of kind of getting up high in the mountains, Uh, I've, I've been to Zermatt, Switzerland a couple of times and looked at the Matterhorn and I know it's, it's a doable climb. At least most of the way up, you can get up to one of the high huts and if you are gutsy enough, you can go for the peak, um, with some training and with a good guide. And, um, that would be just a really cool thing. I love that part of the world. I love the Alps. Um, the Matterhorn is just so picturesque and so classic and has so much history. That I would love to, uh, I'd love to climb the Matterhorn. I, for that one, I'd probably wear, I feel like a Rolex would be good. I've got, um, I've got one of the 36 millimeter Explorers. That seems like it would be a fitting watch killer given. I think there's even a, a vintage ad for it, for the Explorer. It's something to the effect of there are no watchmakers at the top of the Matterhorn. So make sure you're wearing a good watch and that would be a good pick. Um, stateside, if it were kind of a similar adventure, I'd probably do the same. |
| James | uh and try to climb the Grand Teton out in Wyoming but we should still do that someday yeah yeah yeah all right so well that's a great question uh Tom thank you very much for that and yeah that's four four pretty varied spots uh Central Europe uh the bottom of South America the the the kind of weird side of Mexico, of desert Mexico and of Scotland. Lots of good in all those spots. Man, it'll be nice when we can put some of these actually on the calendar. I'm fine waiting. I've adapted to this existence as it is, but it'll be nice to be in a different place and to make some new memories and beat up some new watches. Good picks all around. Let's jump to another one from Cedric about water resistance ratings. |
| Cedric | Hi, James and Jason. This is Cedric in Bishop, California. I've got two questions. The first on water resistance. And my question is, how did we get to the point where the water resistance ratings are so wacky that you need 50 meters just to go swimming? It seems like they really should be recalibrated. So something rated at five meters. which is pretty deep, should be good enough for surface water activities. I compare that to rock climbing ropes, for example, where if a rope is rated for 10 falls, it's definitely good for 10 falls. And so you don't have a situation where the rating is 10, and then if you read the small print or know the inside scoop, it's actually only good for three. That would never fly in other industries. And the second is, what are your thoughts on giving your cars names? I've never really been into that, but I know a lot of people name their cars. So anyway, thanks for all the good work and enjoy the show all the time and take care. |
| Jason | All right, good one. Good couple of questions there, Cedric. Good to hear from you again. I can't say I disagree about the water resistance thing. I think The water resistance ratings are actually pressure ratings that are given equivalent water depths. So these are empirical sort of objective measures that are done either using air pressure or actually a water pressure tank. And then it's the brands or maybe it's the legal team or something that then assigns the depth ratings and the activities they're suited for after the fact. you know, in the old days, people just wore their watches for doing more things without, without a thought. And watches were called waterproof, even if they were rated for 30 meters. But, um, you know, I remember watching, you know, the first few seasons of Bear Grylls man versus wild, and he was wearing a Breitling emergency, you know, free diving and jumping off of waterfalls and that sort of thing. And that, that watch is only rated for 30 meters. I've seen people swimming with Speedmasters. So, you know, what really needs to happen are, are people to do a real world, real world testing. with watches You know, but you'll you'll never you know, you're not gonna Have somebody take a 50 meter watch to 50 meters deep and see if it actually leaks But I think it's just a it's just a caution thing. I suppose brands are you know, just making sure that you know, once a couple months goes by and Seals start to deteriorate or you use a watch the pushers a few times Maybe it's a little more prone to to a possible leak. I don't know James too many insight on this |
| James | Insight, no. Like how we got to this, my guess is it's marketing, right? There was a phase where people want to dive watches and those metrics meant something, especially when it was backed by a screw down crown. And then since then, I mean, even just look at like the last 10 years, like a lot of watches are just coming out of China. They're not being tested. I'm not saying that you can't get a perfectly finely made watch out of China. It's obviously not the ancestral home of fine watchmaking at any level, but I think a lot of times there's just an assumption made. We're like, well, we put a gasket in it. It's good to five meters. Um, but then I think they also assume like how many people buying a Daniel Wellington are going to, are going to go down 16 feet or whatever with it, with it on probably, probably none. Um, I, I tend not to trust water resistance ratings. If this crown doesn't screw down, I don't think that's a rational position. Um, But it is the way that for whatever reason I'm wired. If a crown screws down, I feel a lot more comfortable getting said watch wet and the rest of it. But yeah, I do wish that the... I do wish that there was maybe a more easily understood standard. With dive watches, we have ISO and DIN standards that would suggest that they are over tested and they're tested with water pressure, not just air pressure. So like if Zinn says a watch is good to 200 meters, it's probably good to 300. And they tested it with water to 300 in the design phase. And that's how you would ensure things like 64, 25, or I think it's DIN is 83, 10. But yeah, I think a lot of companies aren't testing them. And I think if they do, it's an air test. It's an air pressure test. Like we always say, and we learned to, we're parroting this from our good friend, Jason Gallop at Rolled Orphan Co. in Vancouver. Just get it tested, if you're not sure. But at a standardized level, Cedric, I absolutely agree. I really wish that there was a better way of doing this and a way that we could all just kind of agree. I assume when a brand says a watch is good to three meters, they mean do not get it wet. But you have to keep in mind, like to Cedric's point, There's a huge difference between being dry and being nine feet underwater. Right. Right. You know what I mean? That's an insane idea to say that your watch could be a quarter million dollar split second chronograph with a QP and they say it's for three meters. What they should say is it's for zero meters. Right. Take it off to wash your hands. We have lots of other things that we've standardized in terms of size and thickness and lug width and the rest of it. we definitely haven't figured out a way to really translate this into a metric that's understandable. Like say a shoe size is pretty much understandable and it's transferable from different cultures and things like that. So maybe we should, you know, dream of a world in which you, you know, your, your grandmaster chime has a water rating rating resistance of zero. Yeah. It cannot get wet. You cannot wash it, wash your hands with it on. It can't go anywhere near a shower. You should probably be scared if you're going near a sauna. And then a dive watch that goes to 200 meters would have a water resistance rating of 20. And we could go on from there and maybe make it a little bit easier for people to understand. Because I agree with Cedric, the number doesn't really mean anything at a certain point when it doesn't assure you of anything. Like why say there's any water resistance when it adds more vagueness to the scenario? |
| Jason | Well, and another point too is water pressure is an interesting thing and it's a very real thing. If you If you even jump in a swimming pool at your gym or at the Y or whatever, and you have swim goggles on, not a dive mask that you can equalize, but swim goggles, and you decide you're going to free dive down to the bottom of the 12 foot deep end of the pool, you can feel your goggles pushing into your eyes. You can feel the pressure. If anybody out there dives with a dry suit and you put it on and it's kind of baggy and loose, and then you step into the water, even up to your waist, you feel that the dry suits suck onto your legs due to water pressure. I mean, it doesn't take much to really exert pressure on your body and presumably on a watch as well. So it is good to be careful with this stuff. We don't want to trivialize things and it probably is better to err on the side of caution with something expensive. Absolutely, a flooded watch sucks, right? And then in terms of your other question, Cedric, naming cars. I absolutely do not like to name cars. I have this Land Rover that a friend of mine, when I bought it, he said, you got to name it. Let's call it. And I said, well, maybe Giles, cause it's a very British name. He said, yep. So then he actually started this Instagram feed for Giles the Rover and it kind of stuck, but I do not call, I do not call my truck Giles the Rover. I find it very kind of awkward. I find, I find it strange. Then what, what sort of pronoun do you do with it? Like, well, I'm going to take Giles to the grocery store. He has gas in it now. I mean, it's, it's, It just feels very uncomfortable to me. He's all gas. Very gassy, Giles. Exactly. So that's where I come down on that. But it's fun. Some people do it. How about you? What's your Jeep name? |
| James | I've joked that his name is mean Joe Green after the football player. Yeah, but that's just because it's a big green vehicle. It doesn't it doesn't connect. I don't know anything about me, Joe Green, aside from that commercial. He was famously in. Yeah, were you throwing throwing his jersey or what? I actually was he did he play for the Packers? Steelers doesn't matter. It's Burke Steelers. There you go. So anyways, no, I'm not much for naming cars. I've given cars names that are not human names. non gendered. I had one of my first and possibly best car was a 94 Cavalier wagon with the 3.1 V6. Oh yeah. And it was a metallic blue, like a very flaky metallic blue, like a bright color. Yeah. And we call that the blue lightning, just stupid stuff like that. Oh sure, yeah. And my brother has had great success and he names... I actually don't know if his current... He's a van now, I don't know if his van is named after a woman. but he had several cars that all had women's names, and in my mind, cars are all boys. I don't know why. I do like referring to various things in my life as my son. I don't have a son, so it's like a personal running joke. It's not even funny, but I would probably call my Jeep my son. Sometimes I call like my favorite backpack my son. Just anything that's like, I don't really know why I do it, but for whatever, and Donut Media says this too, where they say all cars are boys. I'm not sure why it matters, but I'm trying to think of a couple. Grant had a An 80s Pontiac sedan that was gold with a gold interior. Oh, wow. It would have been after the Caprice and the Parson. It's embarrassing. Anyway, so that was named Beatrice. Oh, OK. He had a black. This is the best one, my favorite one. I hope you wouldn't mind me saying this, but he had a black mid 90s, maybe 97 Volvo V70. Nice. That was named Sharon, which is just perfect. Um, so sometimes it's kind of fun, but no, I'm not in the habit of naming, uh, any, anything like that. Uh, I do, I totally understand why people do. Um, uh, but no, it's not, uh, not something that I've, I've really found that I need a name for the Jeep is just the Jeep. Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah. Well, thanks Cedric, uh, for, uh, calling in again and, uh, let's move on to Cameron. We're getting a little long here. Should we do maybe two more? |
| James | But we're getting through most of what our backlog was, which is the goal. Cameron with some about watch selling tips. |
| Cameron | Hi, James and Jason. This is Cameron from Vancouver, Canada. I'm a huge fan of the show and I love the support that James gives for Vancouver. And I've become a Hallios fan and a Roald Dahl fan through you. So thank you so much for that. My question for the two of you is, I learn a lot about the buy side of buying used watches, whether it's through the forums, eBay, looking at other outlets. But what I've found now that has been a bit tricky is the sell side of if I'm looking to sell a watch, I'm finding that my collection is getting to a point now where I almost feel guilty in buying new watches because I'm recognizing that there's stuff in my collection that's not going to get anywhere, and I don't really like that. So I would like to start selling some more of my older watches, but I find the whole selling process overwhelming. So would really appreciate your insights onto that. Thanks so much. |
| James | Hey Cameron, thanks for calling in. Thanks so much for the question. Congrats on living in the greatest city in the world for sure. Yeah, as far as selling watches, I guess we're gonna have slightly different answers, because it's a little bit harder in Canada. Yeah. Depending on the value of the watch, I always found that... It's probably one of the things... We spoke earlier about how I haven't ever spent like... There's a ceiling, how much I've ever spent on a watch. Yeah. And it's because if you wanna sell it, you'd have to find some way of insuring it when you ship it. which gets really sloppy when you cross the border. Parcel Pro is typically the one that people like, and I have friends that deal in much more expensive watches than I do. But your goal, I guess, would be to find a buyer in Canada and not have to worry about taxes and importing and insurance. You still have to insure it, but it's gonna be a little bit easier. Even better off if you could find somebody in Vancouver. I sold a couple of watches face to face in the city. I would say, you know, if I was forced to sell a watch today, I would do so through Watch You Seek. I still have an active account that has enough posts. I was quite active on the forum for a long time, but I have enough posts to allow me to use the sales forum. I don't know what that number is today for new people. When Watch You Seek kind of changed hands a couple years ago, they made it 30 posts. So you had to have 30 posts of a certain caliber, I guess, to have access to posting in the sales form. And that's probably how I'd go about it. If I didn't have access to that, I would go for eBay and just see what kind of... You can cross shop or look for comparables and that sort of thing. And then your other option is to go specific to Canada, and that would either be Probably canwatchco.ca, the Canadian watch collector forum, is pretty popular. It's not like a ton of users, but it's definitely active and good and full of people who know a lot of great stuff, and they have an active sales forum. I guess the other option, you could reverse engineer it by searching out maybe the word Canada in WatchRecon. and see where other Canadian watch guys are selling, what platform they're selling it on. But my guess is a lot of it is gonna be watch you seek. |
| Jason | Yeah. For me, selling a watch can be a painful process and not a very pleasant one sometimes. Such a task, yeah. And lately, in the past few years, if I've wanted to sell a watch, I've tended to really try my hardest to do it locally. Not even just within the US or in the state, but actually in the city or in this metro area of the twin cities. And, you know, we don't have a huge watch community here, but we have a pretty robust one. And there's a few retailers here that, that will be pretty fair on, on buying watches. Cause there are a couple here that do pre-owned sales and it's not as much as I could get selling privately, but, um, for me, it, it more than makes up for the hassle of, you know, taking a bunch of photos, posting, dealing with, you know, people that, you know, Yeah. Ask a lot of questions and then go away and don't reply or commit to something and then don't pay, et cetera. Um, so I like to do that or, or just spread the word, whether it's via social media or forums are fine. I, I haven't been on watch you seek for a very long time, but you know, if there's a smaller forum that maybe you, uh, visit more regularly, like let's say you're a Seiko guy, like there's the Seiko and citizen, watch forum, you know, a smaller, more niche or focused group of people that you are familiar with that, that can be a little easier. Um, or if you have an Instagram following, you know, you can post something up there or just sort of spread the word, Hey, I'm selling a watch. Um, that's the way I go. I, I, that sort of scattershot approach of, of just putting it out there to, you know, many, many thousands of people and then fielding lots of questions and difficult selling situations is, is, uh, something I don't want to deal with anymore. So. |
| James | Willing to take a hit if I go local. Yeah, and I know I bought my Explorer II, my 16570 from Roldorf on consignment. Oh, yeah. So depending on the caliber of the watch that you're looking to sell, Cameron, it would be worth just checking. There's a handful of guys that are doing buy and sell work in the city. So you'd have Roldorf, that's where I would start. If maybe it's a watch that they don't know how to... I mean, they're gonna be able to at least tell you what you should be able to expect. And it sounds like you know those guys, so that's a good place to start. There's the spot in the basement of the Hotel Vancouver, and then there's the German over just on the edge of Yale Town. And these are all great options. I would go to Roaldorf. That's where I had my great experience, buddies with those guys and such. But I don't think you're going to have trouble with any of them. Roaldorf is now in a pretty great location. They're in Gastown. So if you are consigning a watch with them, I think that's probably, you know, that's good foot traffic in the right part of town to buy and sell, you know, premium goods, that sort of thing. So that's probably where I'd go if you don't want to try and do the whole thing online with the photos and the rest of it. I agree that depending on how busy you are, how much of a hobby you want selling watches to be, working locally with somebody who's already equipped to sell them might be the way to go. |
| Jason | Thanks for the question, Cameron, and good luck. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. Let's jump into one from Alexander about how we got into hiking, diving gear and the rest. |
| Alexander | Hi, James and Jason. This is Alexander. I was wondering how you guys got originally into hiking and diving and also gear. Thanks. Thanks for all you guys do and love the podcast. Bye. |
| Jason | Well, what do you think? Wow, pretty broad question there, Alexander, but I think just generally, when I was a kid growing up, I remember doing a book report on a book about Shackleton's Endurance Expedition and I always liked, I subscribed to Outside Magazine and I just liked reading about adventures, um, whether it was mountain climbing or polar exploration or sailing. Um, and then round about college days I started working at a, an outdoor shop and, uh, you know, met a lot of people that were doing more interesting things than, than I was. And kind of, I wanted to do that. It was very contagious. And then in terms of diving, I, I got a dive watch and it inspired me to take up diving. Cause I thought if I'm going to own this thing, I really should know, or I should really use it for what it was intended. And so I took up diving and obviously really got into it. Uh, in terms of gear, I mean, gear is, it's, it's all part of it. I think that's, that's endless. That's part of the adventure. That's part of the fun of adventuring is the gear and maintaining the gear and finding the best piece of gear that suits your experience. And, um, you know, reading about gear. And as I was doing that, I came across gear patrol, the website, This was back in 08 or 09 and they were looking for writers and then I started writing for them. So, you know, you can see where all this heads if you're passionate enough about something and really interested in it, it can lead to career changes. Um, and that was, that was the case for me. But I think it's been a lifelong thing that's been honed by being around like minded people and just the, the exposure to it. And also, um, You know, I don't, I don't seek to be an expert in everything I do, whether it's mountaineering or diving or, or riding a bike. It's, I just like to be able to speak intelligently about a number of things and to be able to relate to something without having to be the best at it. You know, if I'm reading a book about sailing around the world solo, I don't have to have done it myself, but I like having had the experience of crewing on a sailboat or, you know, when you're reading about cave diving or something. I don't necessarily need to be a cave diver, but I like to know what the terminology is and the experience of being cold or running low on air or, you know, whatever it is. And I think all of these life experiences add that richness to, you know, what you read about and see in the news and that sort of thing. So, um, that's been my experience. James, how did you, uh, how did you get into this? |
| James | Um, hiking came to me pretty early. I mean, as a kid, I was always encouraged to be outside. You know, we had a limited amount of time. We were allowed to spend playing video games and watching cartoons and stuff like that. And I had, I have three younger brothers. Uh, so we were outside a lot. I used to spend a lot of time kicking around conservation areas in Ontario with a slingshot in one hand and, you know, a sleeve of saltine crackers in the other, like just, just out kind of just, just kind of killing time, right? Like you're waiting for the sun to go down, go back and have some dinner. Uh, if you had, if you'd used up all of your game boy time or whatever. And, uh, and yeah, I, I, I think that kind of carried over and then I got way into it when I was in Vancouver because of the level of access. I mean, if, if you live in a town like Memphis, you're going to check out some live music. If you live in, in New York, you're probably going to know a good spot or two for pizza. And if you live in Vancouver, you can go hiking really easily. And I absolutely ate it up. I love the verticality of it. It's what I miss It's what I don't really care about Ontario hiking is there's no extreme challenge There's some perfectly tough hikes here, but you know, it's the climb that's the tough part in most cases and I loved leaving the city at sunrise and by 10 being on top of the you know highest peak near Vancouver. That was always fun. The risks were very low. The trails are lovely. You occasionally meet people and have an adventure, but maybe you just be alone for the day. I absolutely loved it. And that's how it was for hiking. And then diving, I wanted to scuba dive since I found out you could go underwater as a little kid. And when I moved to Vancouver and suddenly I was near an ocean and I was lucky enough to have my cousin, Brendan, was also in the city at the time, still lives in Vancouver. Uh, and he wanted to, he wanted to dive as well. So we, we did it together and, uh, it was, uh, like a premium experience in my entire life was, uh, you know, getting in there and diving and getting to the point where I was self-sufficient and could kind of operate at a higher level. I know, I know it was never a great diver. I don't think I ever will be. I can't wait to get back to it. Um, in the next little while, maybe next year, it's been a bit for me with kids and the rest, but, uh, Yeah, that's definitely how I got into hiking and diving. It's just stuff I always wanted to do. And as a kid, we were outside running around all the time, a frog in one pocket and a slingshot in the other and the rest. But that was always fun. I grew up around the same property that we've been fixing up this summer. So we had lots of forest and access to all sorts of adventure and throwing a scuba mask and swim around in the shallows like I did this summer 30 years later. And then as far as gear, man, I think, I think my, you know, at least as my parents tell it, I was obsessed with oddities and trinkets and tech and all of it as, as you know, since my very earliest days. Uh, so yeah, I think I came to that just cause I just kind of like things, you know how it is. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Hard to explain. I guess I've never really tried to explain an interest in, in gear. Um, but yeah, I always liked, uh, any, anything from cars to pocket knives and, uh, specialized tools and that kind of thing. It's all fun. Yeah. Well, good one. Well, great question, Alexander. Thank you very much for that. And what do you say? One more? Yeah, let's do one more. And we might even get a bonus one because the one after Jeff's isn't too long. I don't think it'll be too long of an answer, but let's jump into Jeff, who has a question about a dream road trip. |
| Jeff | Hi, Jason and James. Really enjoying and appreciating the Q&A shows in addition to the regular episodes and all of your other work. I agree it has created an even better sense of TGN community during these more isolated times. I have a question today that lends to some dream armchair adventure travel. You are both deep in the automobile and watch enthusiast spaces and have shared some incredible experiences around the world over the years. From Angela's Crest to Snowdonia, from the Milford Sound to the Austrian Alps. If you could each pick a dream road trip, where would it be, what specific car would you be driving, and what specific watch would you be wearing? My personal favorite so far has been driving the Ring Road in Iceland during the winter wearing my Polar 16570 EXP2 in a BMW X5. However, a dream trip would be to drive the Swiss Ferca Pass in a Toyota S2000 GT wearing a 6541 Milgauss. I think the history and connection with the CERN lab in Switzerland, along with the Bond tie-in from You Only Live Twice, would make for a really fun mix. Feel free to dream and consider both past experiences and potential future adventures. Thank you both and take care. |
| Jason | Well, thanks Jeff for the question. Uh, as we touched on earlier, this is kind of similar to Tom's question a few questions ago about our ultimate adventures and watches, but this one is more specific to a vehicle based. Um, and, and you mentioned a trip, uh, then that, that I had written in my notes for, for this question and that is a Tierra del Fuego down to the Southern tip of, of South America. I think that would be my dream road trip as of now. And I think what's, partially inspired that is I've always wanted to go to Patagonia and see that area. But I've been watching this Apple TV series Long Way Up with Ewan McGregor and Charlie Borman and they're riding electric motorcycles from the tip, from Tierra del Fuego back up to Los Angeles going through South America. And just watching it, you know, the scenery and their experiences there have kind of lit that fire again in me and I'd love to do a trip like that, not on a motorcycle, Uh, you know, my love of Land Rovers, I'd probably love to do it in like a Defender. Um, you know, something somewhat low key, but very capable, uh, not fast, but, uh, you know, able to, to, uh, get, get through some of the conditions and get fixed easily on the road. Um, I think that would be very, very fitting in terms of a watch. Uh, you know, I probably wouldn't do a Rolex for, For reasons we touched on earlier with travel watches, a Rolex would be a great choice durability-wise and versatility-wise, but maybe a little too blingy, or not blingy, but too ostentatious. Maybe not a Rolex because it would stand out a little bit too much and could make me a potential target. But something, you know, a Seiko Turtle, a Shark Hunter Doxa with the black dial, you know, something like that, definitely on a NATO strap and maybe tuck in a quartz watch as a backup. James, what's your road trip of choice? |
| James | Man, you know, I got it down to two, so I'll pick one that's a little bit different, but I will add on to yours. I think if I was going to do the dream trip all the way down to Tierra del Fuego, I would want something fast. I think I'd like a SVT Raptor, the Ford, the Baja truck from Ford, the factory Baja truck from Ford. I think that would be pretty incredible just because you get a ton of space, it'd be super comfortable. But then if you wanted to drift around in the sand a little or or you had to outrun some bandits or something like that. You've got a, you know, a twin turbo, you know, very powerful motor and a long travel suspension. I think those are pretty probably pretty fun things to own. I would lament not being able to shift, you know, to shift my own gears all the way down. I think that would that would add to it. The other thing that would be probably pretty pretty rad depending. I don't know how bad the roads would be like if a defender that means the roads could be really bad. That's like Wrangler G-Wagon, that sort of thing. But if it was, let's call them primitive roads, unassumed roads, but they were still kind of like fire roads, then maybe one of those Safari 911s, the Keen Project Safari 911s, put everything on a roof rack and a rack on the back and put it on big KO2s and go That way you could have a manual transmission and an air-cooled engine. And I think that would be probably pretty fun, probably less comfortable than a big modern pickup truck on a very soft suspension. So that kind of stuff, I think, would just be killer. But to offer some variety from your answer, because mine would be very similar, I would definitely love to just run down to the bottom of the world there. I would probably say, give me a car without a roof, and I don't necessarily mean a convertible, give me a roadster, a car that doesn't have a roof, and put me in the Alps on a sunny day. Swiss Alps, okay, I feel like I would have a better chance of maintaining my license in Italy or Austria. than I would in Switzerland. But once you're out of metropolitan areas of Switzerland, the traffic scenario becomes a little bit less insane in terms of the enforcement. If we're talking full-on dreams, like a 550 Spyder, just one of the most beautiful cars ever made, uh, very early, early Porsche racing car. Yeah. And then, and then let, let me maybe, maybe, uh, maybe you and Gashani are in a defender pulling a trailer and we just kind of, we, we just trade back and forth. Yeah. Sometimes you're in the defender making a cup of coffee, listening to me, you know, really give the tires a workout, uh, on, on some pass. And then other times, uh, you guys get to be in, in, uh, you know, in, in milly milia mode, but yeah, it'd be something like that. The Alps milly milia, like a classic, classic racing scenario. Preferably, you know, even some of these hill climbs, I think, would be a really good time. I know factually that I'm not a good enough driver to operate at the level of some of these hill climbs or really any of these hill climbs, these invitational ones. But if I could get my skills up to that point, running a, you know, a vintage, a really incredible vintage car up some mountain pass, timed and with no fear of hitting a cyclist or coming around a really hairy sort of hairpin and to find a tour bus or something in front of you. I have to think that's probably about as good as it gets in the whole world, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny you mentioned both. Until your spine is turned into dust. |
| Jason | It's funny, both trips you mentioned air-cooled Porsches. And I remember hearing years ago that for hot weather and for mountainous driving, air-cooled is actually better because obviously at higher altitudes, water boils at lower temperatures and So in terms of especially Tierra del Fuego, where you might be crossing the Andes and you're up at 15,000 feet or thereabouts, I don't know if that makes a difference anymore with modern cars, but rear-engined, air-cooled Porsche might be the good pick. |
| James | What about a watch? Or something like if the Raptor, you've got turbos, right? So they can change their kind of parameters as the air gets thinner. Right. You don't get as much parasitic loss. And then as far as a watch, man, yeah, a Daxia probably. I think I agree. Oh, if I'm ripping around in the Alps, I'll wear the Explorer. That's a OK. Yeah. Just right. I just adore that watch. But yeah, I think it for like a proper out there in the middle, nowhere be a Seiko diver or like a Doxa. Yeah. Something I did not have to want for one moment worry about. Yeah. because you're going to be taking wheels off and changing tires and having like proper roadside adventures. And it would be that or just be I might even in these scenarios, especially just for a double safety, I would have some sort of garment, whether it's an in reach or an in reach and an instinct or something kind of paired up. And then a mechanical watch with good loom, like you said previously, something with good loom and water resistance. Yeah, it's nice and tough. So it could be an SPB, it could be one of the 300s that I've got. Those are all winners in my book. A fun question. I feel like we're doing a lot of dreaming on this episode. Yeah, it feels like it. All right. And let's do one more question. So we're only leaving two on the board. If you guys sent your questions in very recently and we didn't get to them, we will for the next episode. If for whatever reason, I don't think this is the case, but if the question in If your question is of a priority or there's a time sensitivity, just send us an email and we can get you a text answer and we'll save the recording of the question for the next time around. But I think we can do this next one really quickly, because I think we're going to land in the same vein. I don't think this game has changed that much. It might actually have just gotten a bit cheaper, maybe in the last year or so. But we have this question from Chris, and I think it's an interesting one and a good place to end after we talked about several million dollar watches throughout this episode. |
| Chris | Hey guys, this is Chris from Charleston, West Virginia. I am reaching out to you because my boss has agreed to purchase a watch for me up to $500 if I hit a sales goal this year. And it's looking like that's going to happen. So I just wanted to check in and see what good bang for the buck watches you might be able to recommend for the $500 or less price point. |
| James | All right, Chris, I think that's a great question. Kudos to your boss for offering some flexibility when it comes to that reward for sales. I think that's a great way to exist as both a salesperson and somebody who hopes that their salespeople are selling, is to offer these sorts of incentives and picking something that speaks right to your interests is a good way to do that. So, Jason, I'll let you drop the veil on this one. $500 watch, what are you recommending? |
| Jason | I still go back to the SRP 777 or some version of that. Still years after it came out and years after we've both tried it in many occasions, it still stands to me as the best sub $500 watch and one that you could, you know, in 20 years when you look at it, you'll still be happy with it. |
| Unknown | Absolutely. |
| James | Yeah, it's definitely an SRP, a turtle. We'll just call him a turtle diver. If I were you, I think it's got to be about $300 for a 777 these days. Yeah, I think so. The list price on an SRP 777 is $495. |
| Jason | Yeah, I'm seeing one for sale at Helzberg Diamonds, which is kind of a mall jeweler here in the US, or Joma Shop for like $330 to $340. Okay. |
| James | Yeah, so in my opinion, go with that one. Get the version that comes in a few different versions. You can spend a little bit more money. I don't actually know what a King Turtle would be going for right now with the more refined dial and the Cyclops. I kind of like it without the Cyclops, but this is basically a perfect watch and you'd leave a little bit of money on the table, assuming your boss was amenable to the idea for maybe a personal modification, maybe a different bezel or a special strap something like that. I don't love the rubber strap they come on. This watch really does a really nice job on something more like a Tropic, something a little bit less rigid, a little bit less long. This is such a dive specific rubber strap that these come with. Yeah. Really good on leather, incredible on a NATO, and then Strapcode actually makes a series of bracelets. So if you're more of a bracelet guy, you might be able to afford the 777 and one of these nice solid steel bracelets, which might give you exactly what you want from the watch, as long as you like kind of a I actually wouldn't say it's a big watch, but it's definitely a larger dive watch. It wears smaller than that case will ever that case measurement will ever suggest. It does not wear like a forty four millimeter watch at all, but it definitely wears bigger than, say, a forty or forty one millimeter watch, but they come in a ton of different versions. Yeah, I think this is the way to go for sure. It's an SRP or or another Seiko diver from roughly the same spot in the market. |
| Jason | Yeah. And I think, uh, coming in with a Seiko, you're going to, you're going to appear frugal and smart. And, uh, that that's a bonus for, uh, for getting a watch from your boss. |
| James | Oh, that's true as well. Yeah. So, uh, congrats on, on, you know, the future, you hitting your sales targets and a huge thank you to everyone who sent in questions. We had a lot of questions today. I think we got to 14 of them. Uh, we left two on the table. We're at two hours now. Once I edit this down, it'll be a little bit less, but this is probably among our, our longest episodes. Um, so if you don't like them when they're this long or you think we should have done every single question, could you just let us know so we can start refining the expectations? We try and shoot for more like an hour 20 hour 30 for a Q and a and more like an hour for a standard show, but they never land that long. They kind of, they kind of go where they go. And I think we, this, this one had some more dream style questions. So it's a little bit longer, but if, If you guys like the length, let us know, and that's just how we'll continue to produce these Q&A episodes. And of course, if you have a question for us, thegreatnadoatgmail.com, just record the file into the voice memo app on your phone and then email it to us. You don't even have to say anything in the message. Your name is very helpful. Obviously, we always try and attribute a name. And if we don't get back to you immediately, please know that we got it. We usually only send the sort of like, thank you very much for your email. Please stay tuned for our response. Uh, once we process the files, which we really don't do that often, really more kind of once a month. Uh, so a huge thank you from my side, uh, and Jason, anything to add? |
| Jason | No, uh, it was, it was a great one. I really enjoyed the mix of questions, the high-end watches, the affordable watches, the couple of travel questions. Um, good stuff. Keep them coming. |
| James | Yeah. And, uh, other than that, we will be back to chat to you next week, next Thursday, as always with episode, uh, one 31, no idea what that's about at this point. So I can't tease it. |
| Jason | Yeah, and as always, thanks so much for listening. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions, as always, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com and send those voice memos for future Q&A episodes. Please subscribe and review over your Find Your Podcasts. We find reviews very helpful. And music throughout is Siesta by JazzArt via the free music archive. |
| James | And we leave you with this quote from Ernest Hemingway, who I might have brought back from the 1930s if I had my way via an earlier question in this episode, who said, there is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your former self. |