The Grey NATO – 133 – November Q And A
Published on Thu, 10 Dec 2020 06:00:10 -0500
Synopsis
This is a Q&A episode of The Gray Nado podcast where the hosts, Jason Heaton and James Stacey, answer questions submitted by listeners on various topics related to watches, travel, and gear. They discuss recommendations for watches suitable for different activities like mountaineering, travel destinations around Vancouver, dress watch trends, setting watch times, favorite handset and caseback designs, dealing with magnetism and watch repairs, and more. The questions allow for fun, insightful discussions filled with personal anecdotes and opinions from the hosts' extensive experience in the watch collecting world.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 133, our monthly Q&A episode, and we thank you for listening. James, here we are again. Another month. This is actually our last Q&A technically that we'll record in 2020. |
| James Stacey | It sure is. Yeah. And it's been a really good year for the Q&A. This has kind of been the big development for the show this year. You know, we went weekly when quarantine and everything kind of kicked off. And I really liked weekly. And as soon as I think we can find a way to do that again, I'd like to go back to just making it weekly. But we have been able to keep up three episodes a month, which I'm pretty happy about. And that includes, you know, the two normal ones and then this Q&A. And we've got some really fun questions. Folks who sent questions in, thank you so, so much. And before we jump into the questions, this is that one time of the year where I make a specific point of bothering people about leaving an iTunes review. So I know that at the end of every show, for those of you who actually listen to the end, all the way to the end for a quote, you'll hear me, you'll hear Jason or I say, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast. But to be a little bit more specific, reviews are the kind of the general algorithm currency of podcasts. So not unlike liking or commenting on a post that you like or comment on on Instagram. This is the like and comment of of the podcast world. And in many ways, you know, we try to only ask in earnest maybe once a year, but it makes a huge difference to the way the show is ranked. Specifically, five star reviews do it. You know, it's definitely weighted, much like those customer service surveys. You know, it's kind of like everything that isn't a one or a five doesn't really count in the metric as much. We want a five star review. If you feel it's a five star show, if you've been enjoying the show, please take a couple minutes to leave a review. Uh, if we can grow the show, that means we can do kind of bigger projects. We can get bigger guests. We can return to things like weekly episodes or more special episodes or, or shows that require more production, that sort of thing. But, but regardless, you know, I would say that you're stuck with Heaton and I for now, certainly. Uh, but if you'd like to add some variety, pop into your iTunes, uh, and, and you'll click on all five stars and leave us a little review. We'd really appreciate it. I don't need to go into it at any more depth than that. Uh, thanks to everyone who has left a review in the past and you know, we'll probably ask again in about a year's time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we really appreciate those. |
| James Stacey | Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Uh, how do you feel about, uh, you know, popping right into the first question? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's dive in. We've got one from Evan who's asking about a good watch for mountaineering. |
| Evan | Hey James and Jason, this is Evan calling from San Diego, California. A huge fan of the podcast and everything you guys do. Uh, my question is about, What watch I should wear on an upcoming trip. I'm going to be taking an alpinism course in Washington in the Cascades in late April. There's going to be ice climbing, rock climbing, camping on the side of a mountain, in the snow. Kind of just an amazing trip and opportunity that I'm very excited for. It's going to be about 12 days long and I'm trying to figure out what watch I want to bring on this trip. I recently just got a Garmin Instinct watch on Amazon Prime Day and I'm absolutely in love with it. The battery life is absolutely insane. It tells you so much information. It's so comfortable and I feel like it's going to be so helpful on this trip. However, I also have a Yima Bipole Duopoly. Sorry if I butchered that name. That's on the original like red Velcro strap. That is super cool. And this watch has so much history when it comes to alpinism and mountaineering. I think it's a really good watch to bring on this trip. and associate so many memories, you know, being on this mountain, looking at this watch with so much history. I think it's very romantic. So help me decide. You know, on the one hand, you have this digital watch that tells you so much information, useful information, that maybe, you know, I want to associate these memories with or like look down at it and be reminded of being on the mountain. Or on the other hand, I can bring this watch that was designed to be worn during exploration that doesn't really do much except tell the time And acts as a compass if you know how to use it, which I don't, if I'm being honest. So which one would you guys choose? I'm really excited to hear about your answer. And last thing, Jason, I know you have one of these. Where do you get the battery replaced? I know it's a very weird process and I don't think any watchmaker can do it. So I'm really curious to see where you send yours to get the battery replaced. Thanks. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, Evan, thanks for the great question. That sounds like an amazing experience for you and a good, good way to come out of some sort of COVID lockdown here to get out in the mountains. You know, in terms of watch watches, James and I are obviously big fans of the instinct. We've talked about it here on TGN. But you know, for me, it would come down to, you know, what are you, what features are you looking for when you're out doing this course? Are you in it more for, or, or in terms of your watch, Uh, do you prefer something that will kind of carry memories forward for a very long time that you'll pass down to a child perhaps, or, you know, look at in 10 or 20 years, or is it more important to you to have, uh, you know, altitude barometer, uh, heart rate, um, things like this that you can then look at on your phone later. Um, if it's both of those, then, then the answer would be to double wrist it where both watches, I would not be ashamed to do that myself. Um, and, and did that when I climbed Vernier, I wore a Rolex on one wrist and a Sunto on the other. Um, But, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm a sentimentalist. I, if I were to pick one or the other, I'd probably go with the Yima. I think, um, you know, there are other ways to tell altitude, um, and weather and things like this without, uh, wearing the Garmin. Um, so also I guess battery life would be a concern if you're there for 12 days. I'm not sure if you're going to be camping the whole time or have an opportunity to, you know, charge the watch, uh, and depending on how much you use it, if the GPS is running, if you'll, run into any battery charging issues up on the side of a mountain. Uh, something to think about. Uh, I'll just close with, with my thoughts on changing the battery. I did it myself, uh, on my Yima. Uh, it was pretty simple. I, you know, popped off the case back and then there's a little disc in the middle, um, that sort of suspended, um, between the two crystals and it's just three or four tiny screws. So I have a little set of jeweler screwdrivers and a loop and I just very carefully removed those screws, lifted off the, the plate and then just popped out the battery and put a new one in, sealed it up and kind of reversed the course there. I would think any watchmaker would be able to do it because they're actually more adept than someone like me with tiny things, tiny screws and screwdrivers and tweezers. So you might just want to take it to a watchmaker and just have them take a peek at it. But it really wasn't a problem for me to do. So I hope that helps. James, any thoughts? You've had your share of time in the mountains with watches as well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, my feeling is The same as I did when I went on Baker, I took my Explorer 2 and I took a Phoenix 3. I wore them both. I think that there'll be times when you're at camp or operating in a zone where you don't want to either watch on your wrist, you know, ice climbing, things like that. You may want to tuck one into a pocket or around a loop on a harness or something like that. But I think if you're out, you know, doing some mountaineering, it's nice to have both. That way you can have the memories, you know, kind of stored in the Yima and you can have the data and everything that the instinct offers. you know, charging, it's not too bad. Bring, bring yourself a little external battery pack and charge it overnight if you want. But it's, it's nice to have a watch with a loom and maybe an alarm if you've got to wake up at 1am or something like that for an Alpine start. It also depends on, on kind of how, how dependent you want to be on other people in the group or the team or your leaders for various bits of data. Whether that's, you know, route finding or yeah, biometrics or altitude or heading or all those other things. So in my mind, you take both for sure. And then you can kind of at times I would wear both when I was on Baker and sometimes I would just have the Rolex because I wasn't doing something that I felt needed to be tracked or kind of recorded in some way. That's how I would see it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Good answers. I think a great question to Evan. And that sounds like a great trip and have a great time. Stay safe. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Enjoy it for sure. All right. Next up, we've got one from Mark. which is a question about watch sales sites. |
| Mark | Hey guys, Mark from Philadelphia here. We all probably have sites that we check for watches, maybe daily, but certainly with some frequency. I'm obsessed with RetroWatchGuy and those watch guys, particularly for their selection of affordable, fun watches. What sites do you find yourselves turning to or recommend? Both sites for fun and affordable watches, and some for watches you may not be able to afford but love seeing the selection condition and price of. Thanks guys for producing TGN and all of your other work. |
| James Stacey | All right, Mark, that's a great question. And certainly, um, you know, from my standpoint, it's, it's a variety. I love retro watch guy. I've had a couple of watches come my way through, through Jordan and his business. And, you know, it's fantastic. And, and yeah, he, he really nails the charming, but not too expensive zone, you know, analog shift. Hodinke does a weekly drop now on Wednesdays. which includes up to 20, uh, vintage pieces. And lately they've really been just, just offering some really, really cool stuff. Uh, and then, uh, you know, at a more hunting level, I, you know, I remain a huge fan of watch recon where you can kind of see everything and set up your own little kind of reminders. And, and that's kind of the same way I would use eBay. So that's probably the, the list for me, if you want, yeah, big retailers be like, you know, podinky or analog shift and such. And then some of the smaller guys, like you mentioned, And then, yeah, if you want to find it yourself, I'm a huge fan of everything from eBay to WatchRecon. And depending on your comfort level, right now mine's fairly low, but in other times I've also used Craigslist and there's another kind of buy and sell throughout parts of Canada called Kijiji that sometimes you get lucky or sometimes you just see some interesting stuff if you just want to, if it's more about seeing what's out there than it is actually buying something. What do you think, Jason? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I would agree on all of those except for Kijiji. Um, but I, you know, I think that's a pretty regional, um, I'm, I'm a massive fan of retro watch guy. I just, I enjoy his feed on Instagram. Um, I bought, uh, I think I've bought one from him a long time ago, but, um, I'm just a big fan of Jordan and what he's doing. Uh, another one that I like is hub city vintage. And I've talked about them on the show before. Um, he's based out East. I can't remember where I think North Carolina or something. And he's, He specializes in vintage Seikos and he's actually a watchmaker. So, um, you know, he, he gets all these really amazing old ones and then he does these, I wouldn't call it weekly drops. I think it's like a monthly drop where he kind of announces what's coming. Um, and if you sign up for his newsletter, he gives you a little behind the scenes heads up beforehand and you know, it's everything from cool old pogues to, you know, old Seiko divers and chronographs and, and everything in between. And it's, uh, it's a fun follow, uh, if you like old Seikos and most of it's pretty affordable. And then, um, you know, Hodinke's vintage stuff. When I see that come through, I just like browsing it. I, uh, most of it's outside my price range or, or, you know, actually I'm not really in the market for vintage watches these days, but it's a fun read. And then another one I'll throw out there is one called the finest hour and they have a nice little Instagram feed, but it's a really cool website. It's based in the UK and it is specializing in, uh, vintage, mainly British military watches. So dirty dozen stuff, Mark 11s, uh, old, um, you know, Omega and Rolex divers. Uh, and then they have this kind of interesting memorabilia section of the site where they sell old RAF flags and union jacks and RAF, you know, uh, radar room wall clocks, you know, really authentic stuff, um, from kind of mainly the, the world war two and cold war era. And, uh, for, if you're into that sort of thing, it's, it's a really cool follow. It's, it's a really niche and unique set of products that they carry. So, um, those are kind of my typical browsers, retro, Hub City, Finest Hour, Hodinkee, Analog Shift. Yeah, all good fun. A little dangerous, but it's great to check it out. |
| James Stacey | The other one that I would suggest before I lose my opportunity here are some guys who really helped me with my piece about the early Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendars, and that's A Collected Man. Oh, sure. Um, and they carry, it's a lot of like dream stuff. They had lots of lovely images of these perpetual calendar Royal Oaks. So it's not the typical, you know, maybe sub five or sub $10,000 space that, uh, TGN exists. But, uh, if, yeah, if you want to be able to scroll through some really lovely photography and, and the team behind them are all really great people. Uh, a collected man is another one I would add to, uh, to your watch list or that, you know, collection of tabs in your browser or what have you. I think collectability too. Yeah. That's it. That's great too. A lot of oddities, which I like. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And he's got a good little video series where he's, he talks about, uh, you know, really cool old paddocks and, um, and he's a knowledgeable guy and really friendly. So, um, a good one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. John's done a great job with that. All right. Let's grab another one, uh, from Charles, who's a question, uh, a very common one now about, uh, water resistance meanings. |
| Charles | Hi guys. It's Charles from Michigan. Really appreciate all you've done with this podcast, especially during the, uh, lockdown periods where any kind of entertainment is certainly appreciated. After listening to older podcasts, I ran across what not to do with your watch, and then I bought a moderately priced quartz watch so I didn't have to worry about my mechanical watches during my activities that have a lot of vibration. Then the other week you commented that you wouldn't buy a watch only rated for 30 meters of water resistance. So to celebrate, I immediately went swing with my new watch, but it's only 6 millimeters and it's only rated to about 100 foot depth or 30 meters. I'm thinking if I'm not going deep enough where I have to equalize my sinuses, then the watch should be okay. Can you elaborate on watch water ratings, what they really mean, and why a watch that's rated for 100 feet should never go for a swim in a 10 foot swimming pool? And along those lines, can watch caskets really not take the hot tub water or shower water that's maybe 10 degrees hotter than my body temperature? Thanks guys. |
| Jason Heaton | Thanks for the question, Charles. Um, water resistance, boy, that's a question that comes up fairly often, both in Q and A's and just, uh, you know, we talk about water resistance with watches all the time. Um, you know, cause we're, we're big diver fans and that sort of thing. But, uh, I would suggest that you have a listen to our last month's Q and A in which a question from Cedric, um, came through about, um, kind of a similar topic about how much to trust water resistance and kind of the whole confusion around those ratings. Um, You know, personally, I think 30 to 50 meters is usually okay for swimming. I would say if it's your primary water watch. And if you spend a lot of time in the water, maybe go something a little, a little higher than that. Look for something with a screw down crown and case back. Um, but otherwise just get the pressure checked regularly and you know, don't worry about it too much. It's a, it's a confusing topic. And I guess I'm not sure James and I ever will have the full answer for this. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think it's a really difficult question. I would say the important thing to keep in mind is that these measurements actually mean next to nothing. unless you know how the company involved is testing them. If Zinn tells you it's 100 meters, you know it's 100 meters. If Rolex says it's 100 meters, it's 100 meters, or it's 200, or it's the bottom of the ocean, or whatever they've created, right? But if you buy... I would say it depends on how much you trust the company. If you buy a G-Shock and they say it's 200 meters, it's going to be 200 meters. They're built like tanks. But the other thing I would introduce is that the idea of water resistance is an established concept. in that they establish it when they make the watch and then maybe they test one in 100 or they test every single one or whatever the process is. But that measure isn't the same a year later, 10 years later, whatever. It's kind of like tires. They provide a certain amount of performance the day you put them on the wheel. And then as they're used, that breaks down. And I think that's where we come into concerns about the watch itself may be designed correctly, but the user might not be operating the crown correctly. So they cause damage and that causes water ingress. Or perhaps the gaskets, of course, are fine when the watch is brand new, but they wear down over time. It's a rubber replaceable part. And I think that's where you want to run into some more consideration is at what point in this life cycle of the watch am I at? If I was spending my weekends driving a car on a track, I would keep very careful watch over the wear and tear of the tires because there's a point where they're not going to be helping you anymore and might actually get you into some damage, right? And I think that's kind of the same thing with the general concept of water resistance is with a new watch, I don't even think about it. If it's a watch I just got in and I'm going to go swimming, I'm going to go swimming and I might glance down at it once or twice to make sure it isn't full of water or showing condensation or something like that. with an older watch, I become much more reticent about exposing it even to the amount of water that the company originally said it was ready for. So I think that the ticket here is to have an understanding of what the company in question, the manufacturer, believes of their water resistance, because it's going to be different from one watch to another, from one brand to another as well. And then also, if the watch isn't something that's brand new, if you've put some life on it, just have it tested before you decide to commit it back to a world where it's getting submerged a lot. A brand new, uh, you know, moderately priced quartz watch should be able to go as deep as they say it'll go with without issue. Um, where I run into some doubt, like, like Jason highlighted in his responses, you know, watches that are a hundred meters water resistance, but the crown doesn't screw down. And I'm not saying they're not resistant to that level from the factory. It's more that without having the screw down crown, I just don't trust that over time they'll continue. And I actually don't even know if that's a fair assessment. That's just the way I think about it. Um, I've never had a watch, uh, flood, you know, Jason, you recently wrote, uh, a piece for your sub stack. I'm not sure if it was on the paid side or the, the open side. Um, but you wrote a piece on the sub stack kind of highlighting just a few watches that you've had in, in a pretty considerable career of diving with watches that flooded. Ultimately they're, they're probably watches are probably more water resistant than we, than Jason and I give them credit for. Certainly, Jason's statistics would show that they're very reliable in their water resistance, but it is something, you know, nobody wants to be told. Of course, you can jump in the pool with your whatever and then jump in the pool and have a flood. The only major concern I would put forth is just be really careful with vintage watches. Yeah. I mean, like not even the pool or the hot tub or the shower, but even like the coming inside from a very cold day, like you need to treat them like like they're not airtight, uh, even if they are in some cases, but that would be the main consideration for me. I've certainly not had this issue or an issue with a modern watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And just to put a button on it, Charles, you'd asked about, uh, hot tubs and, um, you know, I don't know. I mean, this is, this is one of those, uh, those great myths or perpetual questions that comes up on forums a lot is with the saunas and hot tubs. Um, I don't know. I don't even know if a watchmaker would know this, maybe, uh, an engineer, Um, or a watchmaker who actually built this thing might be able to answer that. But, um, I guess in my mind, if it does kind of seem like a bad idea, given the temperature variance going from submerged in a hot tub to maybe going into the locker room and then showering and then leaving and going out into the colder air. Um, if, if there's even that level of doubt, you know, do you really need to wear a watch in a hot tub? I just think it's easier to just take it off. Maybe that's, that's just a better idea to do. |
| James Stacey | Yep. And I think it comes down again to the watch, right? Yeah. Uh, the watch in question, you know, You're, you're essentially purposely heat cycling a watch that has an operating range, an ideal operating range. Like even companies like Zen will state this operating range, um, in, in, in, in what they expect the watch to be, you know, continue operating as they designed it. I, I'm not sure. I'm not sure what kind of damage it places. It's, it's again, it's the kind of thing I probably wouldn't question with a brand new sports watch. and something I absolutely wouldn't dare with something that has 5 or 10 years or 30 or 40 years on its back. I just wouldn't bother. So Charles, I hope that helps. It is kind of a nebulous, problematic topic within the watch industry, which is something we spoke about on the October Q&A last month, which came out in November. So yeah, this is, I think, probably an ongoing issue. And anytime that we can find any clarity in that topic, we certainly will. And maybe some of this needs to be passed on to one of our watchmaker buddies or something like that. But thanks very much for the question. Let's grab another one from a fellow named Rob. |
| Rob | Greetings from Michigan, gentlemen. This is Rob. I've got a question for you regarding a Bathys watch I bought about four years ago, and it's their Greenwich Mean Time. And I've always found it kind of a nice, well-wearing watch. But I've heard absolutely nothing about the company. And after Googling them, I can't find any information either. I'm wondering if you all have heard of them and if you have, what's their status? Hope you're having great days and take care of yourselves. Stay well. Bye. |
| Jason Heaton | Thanks, Rob. I don't have any personal experience with Bathys. I've always liked the brand from the old forum days, though the aesthetics never really appealed to me. But James, you used to own one, right? |
| James Stacey | This is true. Yeah. I had a hundred fathoms with the PVD case and the ruthenium dial. This is back when Bathys was, you know, one of the earliest sort of micro brands. It is almost like, like it was a hobby brand at a certain level. And then they were, so they were based, the owner's name, I believe is John Patterson. And he, they were based in Hawaii. And I think that they ran the company for some time and even found some retail opportunities. but from the looks of it, and I haven't looked for a Bathys in a couple of years, you know, it doesn't, it doesn't look like they're still operating. I can't find a website for them. It looks like they, you know, they might've run a Kickstarter a little while back with, with the hopes of producing a sort of wrist mounted atomic clock. Oh yeah. A watch sort of thing, which I remember seeing that design. Yeah. I really enjoyed this watch. It's actually one, if I, you know, if I had gotten one of the purple UV ones, I'm not sure I ever would have sold it. That was such a weird watch. They made them with this really cool UV PVD coating, which was kind of this shimmery purple color. Oh yeah. Uh, I loved these watches. I was a huge fan back in the day. It was one of the first brands I really attached to. I liked, I thought they had a really, uh, specific aesthetic and connection to Hawaii. And this is, you know, way, way back before my days of the blog to watch is when I was with watch report and I was just getting into watches. I was buying ocean sevens and stuff like that. And I remember I made a complete fool out of myself with the owner, John, the owner operator of Bathys. It's a story for another time. I was definitely high on my own supply at that point in time and a little bit too green to understand how unprofessional I was coming off. So I know I've said this on other public recordings, but John, if you're listening to this by any chance, I offer yet another apology. Uh, you know, you can't, you can't always get things right, but I'm not, uh, I, I know when I get things wrong, certainly. And, uh, and yeah, I, I like these watches a lot. They are hard to come by. Uh, but I, you know, I believe them to be perfectly reliable, nicely made, you know, micro brand watches with movements that can be serviced and otherwise, even if the company's not, uh, not up and running these days, I can't quite tell from, uh, from the way the internet's going. So if anybody from Bathys is listening and there's a story to tell here, uh, the great NATO at gmail.com, we'd love to hear more. but cool watches and one that I kind of miss. The one I had was super stealthy, black on black with the, you know, when the sun hit it, that gray dial was really fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, uh, congrats on that cool watch, Rob, and, uh, just, uh, wear it and, and enjoy the hell out of it. Uh, let's move on to a question from Zach who has a question about gentlemen's watches. |
| Zach | Hello, Jason and James. My name is Zach. I'm coming from Denver, Colorado, huge fan and longtime listener of the show. It's always a inspirational and fun time to Listen to your guys's adventures and your talks. Uh, but lately I've been thinking about what I call, and I don't know if anyone else calls it, but a gentleman's watch. Uh, I just enjoy the idea of back in the day, they didn't have sport watches and dive watches. They just seemed to have a watch and that went with them on any type of adventure they were going on, whether it be in world wars or driving cars or anything they were doing. It was just a watch that looked more like a dress watch. And I was wondering if you guys have any perfect ideas of what the, uh, the modern gentleman's watch would be, or one you would get if you were going to be a, a guy that just had one gentleman's watch. So, yeah. Uh, interested to hear your answers and thanks again for your show and all you guys do. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, James, I'm not sure if anyone would ever call. either of us a gentleman, or at least speaking for myself, but I've got some ideas here. How about you? Do you, what would you, what would be your choice as a gentleman's watch if you were a gentleman? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I don't like a modern, a modern gentleman's watch is kind of a different thing because I think the idea of what it is to be a gentleman's a little bit different. It was a little bit more, you know, kind of Don Drapery back in the day. But of course, if you watch Mad Men, there's not a lot gentlemanly about his behavior most of the time. Uh, so that's kind of a tough, a tough thing. I think that, um, to what you said, Jason, I hope people might consider us gentlemen at some level, maybe not the sartorial, uh, you know, you know, dandies about town or whatever. Uh, but we, we both have our moments with when, when the tweet calls or whatever, but yeah, I think for a modern watch, I think it could be anything from like a Tiso Viso date, you know, kind of a mid century, um, watch, but that's built to a modern standard with reasonable water resistance and a great movement. Now I think there's probably like an almost limitless number of these. I think of things like the, uh, the Mito commander ocean star, uh, which comes in both the, the kind of silver and gold. And again, I think the, the ticket here would be to try and find something that has sort of a fifties feel to it, fifties or sixties. Uh, so that the Hamilton and traumatic, uh, absolutely would make a good option. Uh, the other thing I would say that that might've changed in, in, you know, not might have changed. It absolutely has changed since, let's call it the mid-century. But even in the last year, just the way that people approach dressing casually has changed. So I think back in the day, yeah, you might have had an Omega Seamaster or Constellation again, something that would make a great gentleman's watch or gentlewoman's watch, gentleperson's watch, whatever you prefer. But the idea of coming home and taking off your jacket and tie and rolling up the sleeves of your dress shirt and mowing the lawn with your Omega Constellation, just not really the way that people operate typically anymore. True. Right? It's romantic and it's fun. It's kind of like, in a way, I kind of see it like if I see a movie from the 50s or the 60s and Jimmy Stewart smoking 20 cigarettes or whatever throughout the film, that doesn't bother me. But if you saw it today, it would be like the sign of a problematic individual. Right. Right. Right. You know what I mean? Like it's just context kind of change. So I think with that, we also have to change the context of the watch. I think any watch could be a gentleman's watch in some way, as long as the watch itself is, is subtle. So maybe, maybe not a G-Shock or a Casio or a big Seiko Tuna or something like that. But I think there's a lot of, a lot of watches, maybe a Seiko Alpinist would make, make a great sort of modern, a Snowflake. I think almost anything from, from Grand Seiko could be like a great gentleman's watch. These are watches you could wear every day with a suit and people certainly do, but also they don't look even remotely weird, you know, sitting by the pool in a t-shirt in your swim trunks. Like they're just a nice, really well-made kind of, um, man, it's a word I absolutely hate and try not to use that often, but I think it works here. A kind of fancy item. Right. Um, that's not, that's not so fancy as to be showy or like braggy. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There's some, it hits that balance. That's that gentlemen factor for me is like, you, you want it to be something that's nice and kind of subtle and elegant, but also not in any way like a, we'll look how rich I am or look, look how much I could spend on this watch or, or, or something like that. You know? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think it's that weird balance. I think you're spot on with the, the, the talk of, you know, times have changed and you have to look at things through a historical lens. I mean, back in the twenties and thirties, you had guys climbing mountains and jackets, ties, tweed, you know, knickers and that sort of thing. And, uh, you know, they, they probably would have had a pocket watch at the time, which is fairly strange and inappropriate these days. Um, but I think there are a few that, that kind of can strike that balance. Like, like you mentioned, grand Seiko is a good, good call. Um, a lot of things from launching these days, um, would, would show the bill. I think two that come to mind for me, are both the Bremont Airco line, which is kind of their dressier pilot, um, vintage pilot. |
| James Stacey | I was just about to add that. That's a good call. And, and that's a, that's like an even more classical version of a gentleman. That's like not mid century. That's almost like that almost refers to the thirties. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Uh, so maybe, maybe that's a little bit more of the British gentleman. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And similarly, I would say, um, something like the Oris pointer date, you know, Fratello just released that really cool. It's a great point. that really cool collaboration with Horace that they put on a NATO strap, which I wasn't quite sure it worked well as well as on leather, but what a beautiful watch with that sort of coin edge, prominent bezel and the pointer date and some interesting dial colors. I think that to me always feels like maybe in a parallel universe, if I were a bit more sartorially minded and less water oriented, that would be a watch I would wear quite a bit because it's so versatile, it's elegant, casual enough that on the right strap, I think you could go for a hike in it or whatever. And, uh, and kind of pretend you're that, that old timey, you know, Mountaineer and throw on a tweed jacket to go for a hike. |
| James Stacey | So, yeah, the, the Fratella guys were kind enough to send me one of those. I actually still have it. It's sitting on the desk just above me here. Um, we'll talk about it on the next episode. We have a bunch of watches to catch up on, uh, on, in, uh, episode one 34, which would be the last of the year, uh, due out in about a week. I won't get ahead of myself on that one, but, uh, a great watch. And I think that's, you know what, Jason, I think that, um, the, the Bremont, the Airco side of it and the Oris Pointer Date. And even in some ways, maybe on the right strap, that Vertex that you have. Yeah. Right. I think those all qualify as sort of elegant things that would suit maybe, maybe less so a guy in a suit every day, like a Grand Seiko might. Yeah. But no less so in effect. I don't think so. Right. Yeah. Good question. I like that one. Yeah, I do too. Thanks for that, Zach. Next up, we're going to hit one from Mark, who has a question about kind of touring and hiking in the Vancouver area. |
| Unknown | Hi, James and Jason. This is Mark from Cambridge in the UK. During the recent, obviously difficult months, I've really enjoyed your discussions about normal outdoor activities. So thank you very much for that. My wife and I are now just starting to plan three, three and a half week trip to Vancouver and surroundings, maybe next year. What we'd really like First any ideas for driving routes out of the city for maybe a week on the islands and a bit longer, maybe seven to ten days, doing a loop inland. And while on those loops we'd be looking to do day hikes and landscape and wildlife photography as well as the usual sightseeing things. We don't really much like moving often between bases, so do you have any ideas for perhaps one or two good areas to look to places to stay on each of those loops? and we could then do day trips out from those. We're not quite as young as we were, but we like day hikes of maybe six to eight miles circular on good trails, if possible. Particularly, have you got any ideas for photographically interesting trails or any good resources where we could find recommendations for those? Many thanks for any pointers and keep up the good work. |
| James Stacey | Okay, Mark, thank you very much for that question. That's an exceedingly complicated question to answer. I didn't do any mainland driving in BC outside of what I will call the 99 loop, which I highly recommend. It depends in some metric what car you're using, but that time of year shouldn't matter too much. You want to make sure you're not crossing into the snow line and not being ready for But it shouldn't be an issue if you if you go during a warmer time of the year. I'll start with the island. So if you want to spend seven or eight days on the island, you can probably see a lot of it. But if you start in Victoria, you could easily kill a couple of days in Victoria. There's some great hiking nearby. As far as the specific hiking route, you're going to have to design that based on where you're going. I don't think it's going to be worth it to be two or three hours from a hike. Drive all the way there. Do an eight mile hike, especially in an area that will probably include a not inconsiderable amount of vertical element. That's the defining feature of hiking in and around the Pacific Northwest is access to the mountains. So you typically will get pretty high. But if you make it to the island, yeah, Victoria to Duncan, to Nanaimo, up to Port Alberni, cross on the four to Euclid, And then you have Tofino and when you're, you QLIT and Tofino are kind of edge of the world scenarios. So you have long beaches out there. You've got a ton of amazing hiking, some really great restaurants. Uh, Tofino and you QLIT both have options where you can stay more like hotels, but in you QLIT, I used to pick up off of, uh, of, uh, VRBO, uh, vacation rental by owner. Cause there's a lot of vacation properties there that aren't used that often. Uh, so I think there, the options are pretty, pretty locked in. The hiking is incredible and typically pretty flat, especially if you want to avoid some of the higher areas. You have Pacific Rim National Park is in there and all pretty lovely. And you can basically just explore, but you are kind of at the end of things. So unless you take 19 all the way up to 28, which gets you into Gold River, that's very remote. If you have the time and want to, you can take 19 kind of all the way up to Port Hardy, which is super remote. I mean, that's out there in the range of where they filmed like Naked and Afraid, I believe, was filmed out that way. I'm sure it's incredible. I've never been up that far. I always wanted to make it to Telegraph Cove, which is a very considerable drive beyond areas like the Naimo and Port Alberni and such. But that's all there. The island, there's lots of options and tons of hiking. You really want to design the hikes based on where you plan to be. in and around Vancouver, any of the, uh, like the standardized huge hikes are all incredible. So that's everything from St. Mark's to the three pumps of Seymour to, um, some of the smaller ones, dog bluffs, uh, tunnel bluffs is great. Uh, be careful crossing highway 99 to get to the little hockey stick entrance. Uh, nobody hikes tunnel bluffs. I used to do that occasionally cause it was a nice short hike. It ends with a nice lookout over, um, how sound. which is fantastic that as does St. Mark's, St. Mark's is a little bit more involved in terms of verticality. Uh, if you have the cardiovascular, um, uh, ability, then, uh, absolutely the, um, the, the, the run up the grouse grind, and then all the way across Thunder Ridge, down into Headley Valley, and then to the top of crown mountain. I can't think of a better hike. It's, it's just absolutely one of my, my most favorites. It's not quite the highest. If you want the highest, you'll have to head out to Lions Bay and make the run up Brunswick. But Brunswick will terminate above the tree line, which makes it a little bit gnarlier. There's some scree, there's some genuinely large exposure, and that's the highest point in the area. So those are all incredible hikes that all continues when you get to Squamish. There's waterfalls and you can do the Chief a number of different ways, all of which are really great. That's kind of endless. I could list hikes for a long time. As far as a drive out of the city of Vancouver, um, I would do the loop to Lillooet, uh, but that basically takes you from Vancouver all the way through Whistler on your way to Pemberton. You get to drive past Mount Curry. There's, if you get up that far, don't skip on Joffrey lakes. Cause you can kind of only go, you only go as far into that hike as you want to, you turn around and come back. Joffrey lakes is incredible. It's three Alpine lakes that, uh, exist kind of off of the glacier from Joffrey mountain. Uh, continue on to Lillooet and then head south along 12. Uh, it's kind of like a, it's a mix of kind of, um, Pacific Northwest slash Canyon sort of style roads. It's incredibly beautiful. And that's going to bring you down through Kieffers and Boston bar and Hell's gate, and then to hope. And then on hope you kind of come back across, uh, from there. Um, but if you make it all the way out that far, there's, you can always check out, um, Mount Cham, which is one of the higher peaks in the area. It's a good distance. from Vancouver, but if you want, if your goal is to do the drive, then do the drive. Uh, beyond that, you can of course, always dip into, um, into the Northern Cascades, uh, kind of down closer to Seattle. You'll have to cross the border, but there's some incredible hiking in Glacier, uh, Glacier, Washington, which is very accessible from, uh, from Vancouver in that area. And, uh, and really, really beautiful. And you can kind of hike all around Mount Baker. And it's kind of endless as far as the hiking goes. I would say all of it is photographically interesting, especially with the more remote that you get. But if you need more detail than that or whatever, I think it's probably best if we just do it on email, because I could do another 30 minutes and maybe not even help you kind of pare down to what you'd actually like to be doing on that trip. So if you need more detail than what I've been able to provide here, drop us another line at thegrenadoatgmail.com. Cool. Well, thanks very much, Mark. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Thanks Mark. Enjoy that trip. Yeah. Sounds great. Next up we have a question from Travis who's kind of asking about philosophical words of wisdom from us. |
| Travis | Hey James and Jason, this is Travis from Indiana out on a brisk and cold walk with my dog. I don't like to do well on things too deeply, but I guess at my core I would, kind of latched onto this phrase about life. You should do many things and some of them well. And we'd just be curious to hear if you guys have 10 or so words of wisdom, something that maybe guides you or points you in a, in a direction that brings true to yourself. Thanks. |
| James Stacey | All right, Travis, that's a fun question. Jason, any words to live by anything that's engraved on the, you know, the lighter you pull out of your pocket in the trenches or whatever. |
| Jason Heaton | Actually, that would be a good place to put this little phrase. It's not even 10 words, Travis. It's something a former boss told me once and it kind of always stuck with me. And that is the phrase, it's all one life. She told this to me back when I was in my late twenties and going through a tough time and kind of trying to figure out how to juggle work and personal life and that sort of thing. And, it stuck with me because it really made me realize that there's, there is no separation between your work life, your leisure life, your passions, um, you know, your obligations. And I think when you really kind of see that more clearly, it allows you to blur those lines, get rid of those lines and kind of enjoy everything to the fullest. So your, your workmates become your friends, your friends become your workmates. You start to collaborate differently. You don't mind, you know, working weekends and evenings, if it's something that you're passionate about. Um, and it, it kind of set me on the course to where I'm at now, where, you know, you, you develop a, um, just a more holistic mindset rather than trying to switch off one part of your life when you move into another part. And, um, so, you know, it, it kind of helped me realize that I can pursue, you know, living and doing the things that I want to do to the fullest, you know, without having to, independently separate how I make my, my living and the people that I know there versus you know, what I'm really passionate and interested in. And so by merging those, it truly did become one life. And I think I've tried to live that to the fullest. So those are, that's my sort of pithy phrase. That's my lighter engraving, which which I think is a great analogy. James, how about you? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, Jason, I love that. I love that a lot. For me, some of these, people who've heard me on other podcasts or probably even on this one will know. I kind of have three that I go for, all of which could likely fit on a lighter or a flask or a tattoo, whatever you've got. The first one is the one that I genuinely believe changed my life at some level. It's a quote from a guy named Mark Andreessen who helped create Netscape, the original kind of web browser, among many other things. And he always said, strong opinions loosely held. So he liked the idea that, and I like it too, that you operate with conviction and make decisions, but always remain open to new data, new perspectives, new ways of thinking about things, new solutions. The thing that gets all of us is our natural aversion to change. And I think that this helps with some of that. And it also makes allowances for you to be wrong and to grow and to pivot and to move on. And people chastise politicians for changing their mind or flip-flopping on an issue. And the fact is, you have to synthesize what you know, make a decision and make a step or two, and then you might be given more data. And that's okay. That's being human. That's adjusting. And I think that's what evolution is. Taking some input, taking a few steps, taking some input, taking a few steps. And I think that's how it works. The other one that I absolutely love and has become quite important to me, and at one point my brother did have engraved on a lighter, was you are owed nothing. And I see this in a lot of people from my own generation, but as I've gotten older, I see it in people in general. I think it's a human thing to believe that you are somehow owed an outcome. And the important thing to remember is life is random. All of it is random. Not random in the like, oh, that's so random that you called me when I was thinking about you or whatever. Just like it's actually random. It's a dice roll. You're not destined for anything. If there's something that you want, you can go out and get it. You might have to make hundreds of sacrifices along the way or whatever, but you're not owed it. At no point are you owed it. And I think that's a pretty important way to just kind of frame the way that you approach the world and especially when things aren't great. I find that's when people seem to have it the most is like how could this be happening to me and and knowing this saying doesn't help me from thinking that way. I still feel that way for sure, but you take a deep breath and you go all right. Well, I wasn't owed this outcome. I was working towards it and I wanted it and it was important to me, but I wasn't owed it. So I think that's important and then the last one is one I've learned only recently and it's helped me really process some some difficult things in my life. And also to kind of highlight my own level of privilege, perspective privilege especially, is they aren't thinking about you. I think that so often we attribute things to malice and actions, other people's actions against us or towards us, to malice when what it is is ignorance. Yeah. Uh, I think that it's a natural, it's a natural and effective thing to believe that if you're thinking about someone else, they're thinking about you, whether that's, I love this person and I've always hoped they love me back, or I don't like the way this person treated me. And I'm sure that they did it on purpose because it, you know, it dug another knife into my back or whatever. Those are, you know, that's a wide ranging perspective, like 99 times out of a hundred, they're not thinking about you. They're thinking about themselves. Mm. And, uh, and I think that's always like a really key way to go is just because you think about you a lot and you should, you should think about you, you should care for yourself. You should love for yourself. All of those things. It doesn't mean that anyone else is right. And that's what makes really great friends so special because they are thinking about you. It's what makes a really great partner in life. So special and so rare is that as much as you might be thinking about yourself, this person might be two or three steps ahead of you. So I think it's one of those little things, you know, they're not thinking about you, is one of those little things that has multiple connotations where it allows you to appreciate the people who are, but also understand that when things don't necessarily go your way or when someone does something that upsets you, it's often not personal. Sometimes it is sure it happens, but it's often not. Usually it's just everybody's kind of self-absorbed and operating within trying to keep their, their own lives together. And at times that will seem like an affront to your life, but it isn't necessarily, it could just be the outcome of multiple scenarios. Yeah. So I know that's a, that's a lot of talking, but those are the three that I think about a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and I think, you know, listening to yours, it makes me think that, um, of another thing that I, that has occurred to me over the past few years. And that is, uh, you know, as our culture gets more polarized, less tolerant in many respects, um, it's important to keep in mind that everybody is just trying to do their best in the world. Everyone's trying to make their way. And oftentimes, um, to what you said, James, they're, they're not thinking about the other person. They're not, it's not things they do aren't out of malice. They're just trying to make their way in the world and they're focused on getting ahead and the challenges that they're facing, whether that's, you know, personal anxieties or financial stress or health problems. And, um, we need to all just kind of cut each other some slack sometimes, you know, and just realize that, okay, we're all, we're all getting ahead. And if you can do that without harming the people around you, you know, great, that should be a goal. But, um, you know, just, uh, just put your head down and, and, toughen up and try to be, be kind and compassionate and, uh, and realize that everybody else is just trying to make their way in the world. So, um, we certainly don't have a monopoly on wisdom here. And a lot of this has learned from other people. Um, but I stole everyone, every bit of it, but you know, it's the sharing of all of this wisdom that, that perpetuates it and moves it forward and helps everybody else. So, uh, thanks for that question. I think it really, uh, got us thinking and hopefully it will get others thinking as well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, a good question. Thanks very much for that, Travis. Let's jump into one from Patrick, who has a pretty fun kind of quandary on his mind. |
| Patrick | Hey, Jason and James. Pat here from Pennsylvania. Huge fan. Watch flipper on Instagram. Quick question. I have a Rolex sub ceramic with a date and a Rolex 41 millimeter Datejust with a Jubilee. And I love them both, but I am just really considering going all out, going big and trading them in on just a solid yellow gold sub. I don't know. What are your thoughts? Is it worth it or keep the two stainless? Hmm. Let me know what you think. Thanks. |
| James Stacey | All right, Pat. That's a great question. And yet another yet another caller from the great state of Pennsylvania. Well done. Jason, what do you think on this one? Sell the two Rolexes that he likes that are lovely watches for the the kind of baller spec solid gold, uh, sub, what do you think? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, this is far be it for me to, to, to tell you how, you know, this is a big watch decision. Um, and it's so subjective, but so all I'll do is I'll speak from what I would do. Uh, and for me to have two versatile Rolex is like a Datejust and a, and a Submariner would beat out one truly blinged out cool one. Um, but I do understand the appeal of the gold one. I personally couldn't wear that watch, but when I've handled an old, 1680 all gold. It, I was like, goodness, it was such a cool watch. It was, it was something I never realized I would like, but I loved it. Um, so I get the appeal. Um, and I do love the, the one watch mindset. So if you plan to get that gold sub, you better be prepared to wear that thing nonstop for everything you do and get it totally dinged up because I think nothing is cooler than, than a blingy gold Rolex Submariner that, that is just truly worn and beaten. Um, so that's the way I would do it. I would, if I did that, if I did make that move, I would just wear it for everything and be, be so proud of it, but also not precious with it. Um, but, but just knowing myself, I still think having two versatile, uh, Rolexes would be going with one. I would say slightly less versatile one. Where do you come down on this? I think I know your answer for this. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, my thing is like at a, at a me level, I would go for the goal, but I don't have, I don't have the same, attachment that, um, that Pat has to that sub or that, um, they just, uh, so I think you just have to decide it's, it is one of those things where like, sadly we, we can offer some, some kind of personal perspective, but not really anything in the way of buying advice, like these three great watches that'll all run forever and hold their value really well and et cetera, et cetera. I love the gold sub. I think it's super fun. Um, I, I absolutely support the idea of going from, two watches to one or 10 watches to five or whatever, whatever your, uh, kind of division factor is, but ultimately it comes down to what's going to make you happy. If, um, if those two watches combined into one gold sub and that that's what you really want, then I think it's absolutely what you should do. But I agree with Jason in doing it, you should also be making yourself a commitment that you'd be wearing it, you know, not knowing Pat, uh, beyond this lovely voice message, I would worry that he's maybe a little bit like me and he would get the gold watch and it would become the special watch, uh, or the safe queen or something like that. Cause I could see myself doing that with kind of my first, if I ever, if I'm ever fortunate enough to be able to buy a modern gold watch, uh, you know, and a solid gold sub is not a small expense, even though like it's a, it's a, in the world of watches, a pretty stable way of spending your money. That said, And you just kind of got to follow your heart on this one. And if your heart says gold, I think, I think it's telling you to do the right thing. Yeah. That's how I feel. Great question. Good luck with the trade or maybe not, but let us know. And certainly if you get the gold, a wrist shot would be lovely. The greenado at gmail.com. Next up, we've got a question from Austin, who has a question about whether or not his new Seiko is a real tool watch. |
| Austin | Hey guys, this is Austin from Oakland, California. And this question is regarding my new Seiko SPB151. So I'm very much into hunting and fishing and hiking and camping and shooting sports. So, you know, lots of time outside, lots of time spent in the elements. This is now my one watch. And I'm just curious, I understand the lineage of which this watch comes from. And, you know, everything that the Captain Willard has seen. And I'm kind of wondering if this watch is able, you think, to stand up to that reputation and to, you know, go the long haul being possibly used and abused. I really like the idea of this being a tool watch that I'm basically just going to wear all the time and have no problems beating it up. But I just want to make sure that I'm not, you know, going to put it through its paces if it can't handle it. So anyway, um, enjoy the show. Let me know what you think. Thank you. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, thanks Austin. Um, you know, it sounds to me like you really like this watch and you really want it to be your one watch that you can wear for everything. And I'm all for that. I think, uh, you know, mechanical watches, yes, they're precision instruments, um, and, and slightly less, suited for a lot of things than maybe a cheaper quartz watch. But let's face it, mechanical watches have been through far worse than most of us will ever subject them to, you know, wars and mountain climbing and, you know, sailing around the world and this sort of thing. So I say wear it, enjoy it. You know, it'll more than likely do just fine through whatever you put it through. And if it, I mean, this sounds a bit callous, but if it breaks, get it fixed. I mean, I think, I think this watch will stand up to pretty much anything you want to do with it. And if you don't wear it for that stuff. And you have this lifestyle and you really like this watch. Um, lately I've come to this mindset of what am I saving stuff for? What am I, what, when, when will I wear it? If not for the things I love to do. And I think, um, that's philosophy I would encourage others to take. And I think, you know, if anything, a proper Seiko dive watch is, is more than up to the task. What do you think you have an SPB? So, and you've worn yours for, for quite a bit of rough duty. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I would say wear it, wear it and good luck. Uh, I'd like if, if you break it to my, in my opinion, like if you're able to break something on an SPB, one, five, one, then you deserve to get it repaired. You did, you, you wore it, right? Like it's the same thing where like, if you're, if you go out and buy a brand new Land Rover defender, the 2020 and then drive it to the mall and to work and use it, how most people use it. And occasionally it breaks, you might be like, well, this sucks. Like I bought this tough vehicle and you know, the, whatever the reliability hasn't been exactly what I wanted. But if you buy a new Defender and then take it off-roading all the time, a couple of pieces are going to break and you're not going to care. You're going to replace them. You're going to put a new wheel on, or you're going to fix that under pan that you bent or whatever. It comes with the territory. And what I will say about, you know, I haven't had a chance to even see the, either of the new Willards in person, but they look absolutely incredible. And the 151 is a gorgeous, really cool watch. I can speak more concretely about my 143, I can speak more concretely about my 143, which is a similar watch in price and movement and, you know, at least presumably build quality. I wore that watch all summer while working on the project property. And that included everything from hammer drills to impact wrenches to hammering to all sorts of vibration and hard abuse and knocks and hits. And it's held up beautifully. I'm not sure I've actually treated a brand new watch that poorly ever. I mean, I wore it to bed. I wore it. It was just on my wrist for about three months straight. And that included, you know, every other weekend was like fairly substantial labor. Yeah. And certainly near all sorts of electric motors from saws and the rest of it. It's been great. And I would not hesitate to use the watch in the exact same way. I think you bought a well-made, tool watch that's ready to use. I've certainly abused and dove with and ran with and hiked with an SPB 777, which is a less expensive kind of iteration of the same concept. Yeah. I say use it and enjoy it. And if you break a crystal or pop the bezel off, it's replaceable and serviceable. It'll be okay. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yep. There's a hearty endorsement from the TGN guys. I think go out and get after it for sure. All right. Onto Gus and a question about how to set a watch. |
| Unknown | Hi James and Jason, it's Gus here from Hackney in East London. My question, I suppose, could almost be filed under things you always want to know about watches, but we're afraid to ask. It's essentially, how do you set the time on your watch? I've been collecting watches for a few years now. I've put together a nice collection of about 10 watches that I wear on a regular basis. And so most mornings I am setting the time on that day's selection. I pretty much just look at the time on my phone and set the watch's hands to a minute later than what it says on my phone and sort of hope for the best from there, really. But I just wondered if you had any kind of tips or daily habits as regards setting the time on watches. It's obviously a fundamental part of owning a watch, but something that seems to be not talked about very much. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. Thank you very much and love the podcast. |
| James Stacey | All right, Jason, what do you think? How do you go about setting, uh, setting, if you pick a watch up out of your case and it's 2 12 in the afternoon, how do you set it? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You know, it really depends on kind of where I'm at with my day or, or, and what the watch is. Um, and it is funny how rarely we for, for all of our obsessions about watches, how rarely we talk about precision and, and our focus on accuracy. Um, but, but if I pick up a watch from my box, let's say it's I'll give you two scenarios. If it's, if it's a Bremont Supermarine or something, which is a rated chronometer watch, I tend to think a little bit differently than I do about maybe my vintage Speedmaster. And what I'll do is if it's not running, I'll wind it until the, I'll just keep winding and winding and winding. And then as the sweep hand comes around and hits 12, I pop the crown. And then if I'm sitting at my desk or have my phone handy, I'll just look and wait for the next minute to come up and I'll, you know, hack it and pop it in when it, when it zeroes out. If it's a vintage piece like my Speedmaster, which doesn't keep great time, I will do as Gus said, I'll do something similar, but for one thing that watch doesn't hack, but I'll set it a minute or two ahead with the idea that if I'm wearing it for the next couple of days, it won't lose time too badly and it'll kind of stay within the general range. But that's kind of my usual procedure. I'm not super focused on precision, but I do find that with watches that purport to be chronometer certified, like the Braemonts I have or a Rolex, I do tend to care a little bit more about syncing the time just right, get a small thrill if two days later I manage to check the second hand against my computer and find that it's only drifted a couple of seconds, or if I'm testing something for review. But that's my procedure. How do you do it? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean, if I'm testing something for review, I'll use the little seconds indicator on my laptop in the top right hand corner to try and get it zeroed. Certainly, at least probably the first time I put it on, I'll care that much. If we're talking about one of my own watches, I'll be lucky if I'm within a minute. I'll pick a watch up off my desk, walk into the kitchen, glance at the clock on my stove, which is never correct. Certainly not at any NASA level. Uh, and just kind of quickly set the watch and throw it on and wear it like my, yeah, especially now, uh, my life doesn't really revolve around the, the, the, uh, resolution of minutes. Uh, you know, I, I've got time, uh, in, in, in many of these ways, you know, and, and I'm already late to every zoom meeting in existence. So that is what it is. Uh, we've talked about the fact that a 10 minute warning from Google calendar is, is essentially just permission to forget about it twice. Um, So we're still working on that. But yeah, I don't really put that much thought into it. Yeah. With a new watch or with a watch that I've just gotten in, I like to try and assess at a purely visual level, its accuracy. But typically, I don't worry that much about it in any way. I might get more specific if the watch doesn't seem to be running that well. But yeah, for the most part, I just click on the screen on my phone and set it to whatever that time shows and that's close enough. |
| Jason Heaton | It's an interesting question. It raises something in my mind about how we value time or how we check the time. Uh, I'm one, I'm a person who I never use my phone to check the time. And there are a lot of people that collect watches and are passionate about watches that only use their, their phone or their computer to check the time. Um, I never do. Um, but also I guess these days we aren't out and about as much and certainly not traveling. Um, in which a watch is arguably more valuable for checking the time. Like if you're in the airport and your flight leaves at a certain time, you, you glance at your wrist and you want your watch to be pretty darn close to the actual time. So you don't miss your flight. Um, but at home, yeah, it's, it's just not that important these days. But, uh, do you, do you check the time on your phone or do you, are you a watch checker? |
| James Stacey | If there's a watch on my wrist, I go for the watch. Um, you know, a lot of times these days I've been, I've been like, I do some yoga or a workout or something in the afternoon. I take my watch off then. Yeah. And I don't always remember to put another one on. Um, and I recently switched from Android. I'd been on Android phones for, I don't know, not, not quite a decade, maybe eight years, something like that. I switched back to an iPhone. And, uh, the weird thing is, is on most Android phones, I've been on Samsung for a while and very happy with the phone. So it's more just a curiosity switch. the Samsung has an always on display. Oh yeah. So there's the clock is always there. It's not, it's there at night when it's charging, it's just always there. If the phone is out and visible, the, that uses a sensor to know that it's in an open space, not in your pocket or whatever. And it always shows the time. And I miss that with the iPhone, but I do find that because it's not on, I have to hit a button or tap the display to wake it up. I lean even more heavily on my watches than I did previously. Oh, okay. But no, I'm at a certain point. I think I default to checking my wrist, but in many ways I'm an equal opportunity. Like the one on the stove is okay. Uh, the, the, you know, the, the one in the Jeep nav system is okay. Like, I don't know. I'm not that not, not super picky, but if I have a watch that I think I kind of instinctively do, do a little risk check. Well, cool. Fun question, Gus. And, uh, let's jump into a one from, uh, Liam. |
| Unknown | Hi James and Jason, Liam here calling from the UK. Big fan, long time listener, so thanks for all that you do with the pod. I've got a super straightforward question about watch straps and I'd love to know your current up-to-date top three watch straps each that you have either bought or experienced or owned that you would recommend. I've bought straps in the past that you've talked about on the pod over the years, the Toxic Natos. I've got a Oyster Bracelet from Uncle Seiko for my SKX that's worked really well. I've got one of those Zulu driver rubber straps So really keen to know anything else that you would recommend or yeah, just your top three current straps. |
| Jason Heaton | Thanks Thanks, Liam. Boy a lot of questions from the UK today. Yeah. Yeah for sure. Yeah We got them covered right? Yeah |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I can go first for sure. So, I mean, it's pretty simple. As far as a NATO goes, it's the UTE, the toxic ones, though that shop is not open these days so that you can't go out and buy that. If you're looking for an alternative in a similar sort of range of quality, Crown & Buckle, we've been very impressed with their Supreme NATOs and now the Matt Supreme. Both are lovely. Both are great. I still have a preference for the UTEs. or the UTAs, um, simply, uh, in terms of the thickness, the combination of thickness and the material and how easily it wears and how soft it can get and, and all those sorts of things. But I've, I've been very impressed by the stuff from crown and buckle as well. Uh, my next step would absolutely be like, like, uh, like you mentioned, Liam, the Zulu diver three 28 rubber NATO. I think it's literally like a perfect sports watch strap. Uh, it's a little on the expensive side, but I think worth it if, uh, if you're on the fence. Uh, I, I do think it is worth the asking price that, uh, you know, it's watch geckos who we've, uh, we bought those from before they come in a lot of colors. I really like them in gray. They're great pretty much year round. And once they're kind of like at home on a watch, they're, they're pretty sweet and they, they run really low. They're super easy to clean all those sorts of things. And then when it comes to leather, um, I'm, I'm not like, uh, a huge fan of leather watches or a leather on every watch. I like NATO's typically. But for the watches that have a leather strap, I haven't found better straps than what they carry in the Hodinkee shop. I really like the reed strap, which comes in several different colors and has the contrast stitching as with the Bedford, I think is quite a lovely thing as well. And the strap, the combination of the coloring for some of the stitching is a little bit less contrasty, but still offers a little bit of texture. And I like these ones. The Barrett is also really nice. They all kind of follow a similar theme. So I think you can just kind of pick Pick one that they're expensive. The, the stuff from the hood and key shop is expensive, but I've always been impressed with the quality and they're, they're like legitimately beautiful handmade straps that, that come in a lot of different colors and variations. So I think that those would be the, certainly the three, uh, from me, Jason, where do you land on, uh, straps these days? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, as I was thinking about this, I realized I almost never wear a rubber or bracelet anymore. Um, You know, I haven't worn a Rolex a lot this year. That's the one watch I tend to wear on, on the bracelet. And I think it's kind of the perfect choice for, for an oyster cased watch. Um, but I just haven't worn one lately. Um, rubber straps. I never wear, uh, I tried to warm up to those, those rubber Nados that you'd like. And I have one, but, um, they're slightly short for me. Um, so yeah, I could see that for sure. I tend to not, not wear it very often. So it's for me, it's either leather or it's, uh, or it's NATO and, Lately, this crown and buckle Matt Supreme, as you mentioned, is just a winner. I absolutely love the strap. I think it's my favorite NATO strap these days. Currently, I'm wearing a CWC with that, I think it's called blonde is the color. It's that light, creamy, kind of yellowy tone. And it's just such a wonderful strap. It really shows the texture really nicely. I also like Haviston's NATOs. They do a lot of kind of stripey, colorful stuff, which doesn't appeal to everybody. And I'm not a huge kind of overly striped strap guy. They make a few that are a little more muted, I guess. Uh, they make one also, they make kind of a cool pull through single layer canvas strap, um, that I've got an olive green and it looks really good on, on kind of military style watches or retro style. I've got it on a vertex or, um, uh, on my, uh, uh, Bramonts, I wear it quite a bit. Um, and then leather, uh, you know, as, as people probably know, I'm a big bund strap wearer and, uh, I've got several leather boon straps and I think, you know, they're not for everybody, but man, I don't know this time of year, I, I, they, they do so much for so many different watches and I love them on a, on a cool kind of vintage chronograph or on, you know, vintage doxa or something like that. So, um, yeah, I'd say like, like a Haviston canvas crown and buckle, Matt supreme or a, a leather bone strap would be my three top picks. |
| James Stacey | That's great. Actually the only one, it's interesting that you brought up rubber and the only rubber that strap that I wear consistently and like, is the vintage tropic that you gave me. Oh yeah. I don't remember what watch you gave it to me, probably my skin diver. Yes. Yeah. Several years ago, but I actually liked the strap more than I liked that skin diver. The skin diver's great, but the strap, the vintage tropic is just a fantastic thing. The modern tropic stuff is lovely. Yeah. I do like it quite a bit, but there's something about the material and I'm sure it's because it's not environmentally friendly, the way they made rubber straps back in the day. Right. So they could use all sorts of terrible chemicals and things like that, but the strap is something else. And it's just lovely on a vintage dive watch. It really, really is. So yeah, rubber, I definitely think if you want a two-piece rubber strap, try and track down a 60s Tropic for sure. They usually can find them on eBay. They can get expensive, but they do still pop up. Yeah. All right. Solid question, Liam. I hope that leads you to another strap or two. Next up, let's grab one from Michael, who's a question about kind of |
| Michael | Spring Bar Specifics Hey guys, this is Michael from New York. I love the show and have listened to it from the start. I have a question about spring bars. This may be better suited for Jason because I know he owns an SRP Turtle, but would love to hear from both of you. I recently bought a Tropic Strat for my Turtle and love the look and feel. The only problem is that Seiko uses fat bars that don't fit a standard Strat. Using normal sized bars creates this annoying clicking sound that just doesn't feel secure. I've done some research and even bought diver spring bars from places like Watch Gecko that are skinnier, but have thick tips. Unfortunately, these still do not solve the problem. My question is, have you ever swapped a strap on your turtle that doesn't use Seiko fat bars? And if so, have you discovered any spring bars to fit it? Thanks so much, Michael. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, Michael. Thanks for that question. I know exactly the scenario you're talking about. Um, and, and kind of here's, this has been my solution. over the years. And I know exactly what it's like to use one of those, those tropic style straps on a, on a turtle or any, um, Seiko with the big fat spring bars. What I do is, um, I lube the spring bars. So I'll, this sounds kind of gross, but sometimes I'll just, uh, I'll suck on it, spit on it. Um, or I'll put just some sort of a light, you know, grease or oil or something on it. And then they slide right into the slot, the hole on the strap. Uh, and then I'll fit them on the watch and typically, you know, wear it that way for a while. If I take the strap off and it's a strap that I'm wearing on that watch quite a bit, I'll just leave the spring bars in place in the strap and just, you know, store the strap away with those spring bars in place. And then, you know, if I have a second set of spring bars, I'll just put those in place to switch straps. If I need to remove the spring bars, what I do is I will use a needle nose pliers and carefully sort of compress the rubber of the strap till I can grip the fat part of the spring bar and grip it firmly, but, uh, and sort of gently and slowly pull it out of the strap. And that has worked for me as long as I can remember. And so that's kind of been my technique in terms of getting those replacement spring bars, uh, toxic NATO used to sell them. Um, as James mentioned, he's not in business anymore. So, um, but I believe you can get them from, you know, various, uh, watchmaking supply shops, uh, possibly watch Gecko or crown and buckle might sell them too. Um, and usually they're just called Seiko style. 22 millimeter spring bars. Um, so that's been, that's been my technique. Uh, James, does the SPB 143, does it take those fat spring bars? |
| James Stacey | It does. Yeah, it does. And, um, I, the, the, the little click that, uh, Michael's talking about where the spring bar is, the, the tip is kind of moving around in the gap. That doesn't really bug me that much. And it could be likely cause I typically wear with a NATO, which isolates the bar pretty extensively. Mm. from moving around. But I do know the thing that you're talking about, and my suggestion would be to grab a caliper, a nicely accurate caliper, and measure the bar in a few different areas, and then go compare that with some of the measurements on Esslinger.com. That's E-S-S-L-I-N-G-E-R.com. They're like a retailer for all sorts of watchmaking kit, and they have a lot of spring bars. So if you want one of a very specific level of thickness, it just might take a little bit of hunting to have one that's not so fat that it won't fit in the, in the, the, the strap hole, but also not so thin that it wobbles around inside the, the, the actual pin hole. That'd be my suggestion. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, there you go, Michael. Uh, good luck with that. Um, should be a fairly easy process and, uh, yeah, hope you hope you can make it work. Let's move on to a question from Jeff about hands and casebacks. |
| Jeff | Hi Jason and James. I have two hopefully fun questions on specific elements of watch design. First, what are a few of your favorite watch handsets of all time and their best execution on specific watches in terms of aesthetics and or legibility? You have both touched on classics such as the Tudor Snowflake, sword hands of the great military watches and your Omega 2254, as well as the unusually functional Doxa set. Two of my favorite more esoteric choices include syringe and cathedral hands, and I'm looking to find a great example of cathedral hands to add to my collection if you have any ideas. Some of my favorites so far are the vintage JLC, MOD, Dirty Dozen, and Mark 11 pieces. As a bonus question, what are some of your favorite solid caseback designs? As dive watch fans, I'm sure you've come across many over the years. I personally love the Omega Seahorse or Hippocampus logo, as well as the more Hey Jeff, thanks very much for that question. That's an interesting one and a little bit on the complex side as far as hands. Hmm. I've always liked the kind of stubby IWC pilot hand. So the same one that Hodinkee used on the LE. |
| James Stacey | You know, they have the Flieger style hands that are a little bit more pointy, a little bit more sword-like, and then they have the one where the hour hand is kind of short and with a 90-degree cut at the end. I always thought those were pretty handsome and super legible and fairly distinctive. Obviously, Doxa is not even that dissimilar to what I just described from IWC, but even smaller and weirder, which is fun. I always thought the Seiko Monster had great hands. uh, the kind of the rocket hand when, you know, when they would overlap at noon. Um, I thought we said that was pretty fun. Yeah, I'm not sure. You know, I, I, I like, uh, I like dressy hands on a dressy watch as well. That's why I, and I don't, I've never had a huge love for cathedral hands. Obviously you'll find them on things like the Seiko Alpinist or the, uh, the Oris, um, big crown pointer date. Uh, but yeah, I think those are the ones that stand out for me. How about for you, Jason? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, one of my favorite handsets of the past decade or so would be the ones that were on the original supermarine dive watch the Braymont. Oh yeah. The lollipop. Yeah. So it's got that sort of lollipop hour hand that, that looks like it maybe would be a Mercedes hand without the Mercedes symbol in the middle of the circle. And then this very exaggerated sword minute hand that is divided as sort of a ladder style. piece in the middle. Um, that's great. I love sword hands. I'm big fan of sword hands, you know, whether it's a CWC or, you know, a mil sub or something like that. I think those are just great. Um, for sure. The unordained that I've been wearing has a unique set of hands that, that they say was modeled after like old map dividers or a compass or something like that. They're very needle, like very precision sort of instrument like, and my only gripe with them is that they lack any loom, but then it's not, not really supposed to be a watch that has loom. But, uh, a lot of, um, a lot of watches, my gripe would be that they just use kind of those very slim, slightly boring sort of pencil style hands. I think even like a Speedmaster Pro, the standard Speedmaster Pro is far less interesting to me than, than say the broad arrow, uh, configuration on a Speedmaster. Um, but I would say the, the, the Bremont Supermarine hands or, or swords would be my favorite. I do like those Mark 11, kind of pilot hands that you mentioned, James. I think that's cool. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And what about case backs? You got a favorite? We'll do one case back each. You got a favorite. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. I had a few pick, but if I was, if I was, Oh no, no. Do a few then do a few. You're okay. Well, um, you know, the, the military kind of code engraved case backs that are on military watches is, is really cool. I do like the seahorse that Omega does that, that you mentioned Jeff Aqua stars kind of Star logo, um, which has come out recently on the deep stars is really cool. Very iconic. But I think the ultimate kind of show of, of confidence in a, in a watch case back is, is Rolex. It's completely blank. It's just a blank slate. And, uh, I like that it leaves room to engrave something, but it's, it's, it's, it's both recognizable and it's, uh, it just doesn't, doesn't need to shout. Doesn't need to put a logo or anything fancy on the back. And I like that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think that's a great pick. You know, the, the Aqua star was the only one on, on my list that, that we have some overlap there. I think it's some really great case back design, very distinctive and beautiful. And the other one that will always stand out for me is just the standard Seiko diver case back with the wave. You know, that wave case back, I think is beautiful. I love, I have this weird thing where I like leaving the blue sticker on as long as possible. It's like the blue, it's got to fall off on its own. So that's kind of fun. Yeah, I like those quite a bit. And yeah, a good case back is always a lot of fun. And certainly, I'm sure I'm forgetting as many as we might remember of really great ones. But there's some good ones. I just love the way that Seiko does it. Rolex is great. And like I said, the Aquastar is a great thing as well. So fun question, Jeff. And then we'll move on to one here from Brandon, who has a question about a trend towards dress watches. |
| Brandon | Greetings, Jason and James from Charlotte, North Carolina. This is Brandon. Hope you're well. I've been drawn to more classic men's dress watches lately, and I'm wondering if that could become a trend since we've been locked up, not able to dress up, not even really needing to shave or comb our hair. When we come out of all this, we'll be drawn to more of those classic styles where we actually have to iron our shirts and put on leather-strapped gold watches. I ended up landing on a Longines Presence Heritage, reference LR7858732, which is a 38.5 millimeter solid pink gold watch at an incredible value. You can find them all day online for $2,500 or so. I actually ended up finding mine for significantly less. And the great part about it is, and I never knew this, you can go to Long & Sheen's website, put in the serial number, and they'll send you the paperwork for free. Check it out. Thanks, guys. |
| James Stacey | Okay, Brandon, that's an interesting question. I don't know. I think we spoke with this a little bit in the sort of retrospective on gentlemen's watches. I think that if we see a trend towards dress watches, it won't be because of the... It won't be reflective of the 2020 scenario, the quarantines, the lockdowns, the casual dress wear, because you don't leave your house. I think it'll be more... I think it takes more time for that sort of a trend to play out. And I think it's more of a response of just a lot of people have spent the last, a lot of folks who are really into watches have spent the last decade just looking at steel watches, steel sports watches. That's what people want to buy at auction. That's what people want from Tudor and Rolex is that just more steel sports watches, right? And the vintage stuff is expensive. The new stuff is expensive. It's all really hot. And I think that the people turning their attention towards anything else is simply a reaction to some fatigue. in, uh, in the space, maybe you've owned all the ones that you really like, or you kind of feel, I don't know, like there were some good watches this year, some good steel sports watches this year, the, the, you know, the Xenu 50, the black bait blue 58 and, and, and the rest. But, uh, a lot of these, I just find at least maybe I'm just projecting my own kind of general, not disinterest, but waning interest in steel sports watches after having owned, you know, a hundred of them or whatever it is. Do you think that makes sense, Jason? |
| Jason Heaton | I do. I mean, I, I wouldn't say that we're necessarily trendsetters, but I think there must be some sort of collective unconscious, uh, that we're tapping into in the kind of watch enthusiast community. And that is, um, we've, we've kind of gone over the top of the arc, uh, when it comes to, uh, interest in, in steel sports watches. I can't say I'm quite over it entirely, but the fact that we did an episode on watch discomfort zones and that I've actually set out to start wearing a dress watch more, uh, says something about me and my own tastes. And, uh, maybe that's a larger sort of, uh, cultural thing that's going on. I do wonder if there will be any sort of a boomerang effect after a year of us all being shut away, not only in terms of watches, but you know, clothing, I wonder if we'll see sort of a Renaissance of men and women dressing up more when they go out for dinner and things like that. It could either be that, or it could be, you know, we, we, we go completely the opposite direction. I, I hope not. But, uh, |
| James Stacey | my guess is there'll be a certain amount of buzz when, when, when, when people, people get to go back to having a wardrobe for work or for events or for things like that. I could see that, but we might also get a lot of people, you know, having to, um, having to buy new clothes because they don't fit into the stuff they wore before, uh, before they spent a year inside. Right. Uh, and, and that's okay too. Yeah. That's okay too. |
| Jason Heaton | I do think that dress watches are kind of a, other than, pretty hardcore collectors that have been kind of interested in watches a long time. A lot of us that came to it in the past decade have really focused on sports watches. And, and I think that dress watch market, um, we're starting to see some dressier offerings that are gaining more, um, interest from the average person. You mentioned the Hamilton Intramatic under the earlier question from Zach about gentlemen's watches. And I think that's a, that's a good example. Like that's a watch that I wouldn't have even looked at, um, five, six, seven years ago. And now it's like, okay, that's a nice looking watch. That's a watch I could see myself wearing. Maybe it's a maturity of collecting. And I think as a community, we've all maybe gotten to that point now. We'll see. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I mean, like the whole tone here, I think the tone for a lot of us is that this is about exploring and trying things and experiencing a lot of different watches and And I think within that zone, at a certain point, you have kind of experienced maybe just to the limits of your own personal curiosity, and you have to keep moving to build that and to maintain some sort of speed. So it's not that I have a negative bone in my body when it comes to steel sports watches. It's still the most accessible, approachable part of the watch industry is a simple steel sports watch. It's just that at a certain point, I think you get into this because you're following your own personal curiosity and your own kind of journey through the world of watches. And at a certain point, I think you, you, that playing field, that steel sports watch playing field that ends up feeling kind of limited. Right. And people, people start to find other options, whether it's vintage stuff or smart watches or whatever. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, thanks for that, Brandon. And a really cool about the, uh, the launching resource. That's a, that's awesome. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah, good tip on that one, and for sure, congrats on that. A beautiful watch. Next up, we've got one from Chad, who's got a question about what a certain celebrity might wear. |
| Chad | Hey, James and Jason. This is Chad from Driftwood, Texas. Got a holiday question for you. What watch combinations do you think Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, and the anti-Santa Claus, Krampus, would wear during the holiday season. I've always envisioned Santa Claus wearing something like a vintage Glycine Airman 24-hour dial while he's on his missions and then maybe wearing also Garmin Tactics to help him out. Interested in what you guys think. Thanks for playing along and I love what you do. Thank you. |
| James Stacey | All right, a seasonally appropriate question, I suppose. One of the weirder, you know, watch hypotheticals we've been offered. Jason, let's start with Santa. What do you think? What's Santa wearing? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I like Chad's thinking in terms of a pilot's watch, but my immediate thought went to his purported home base of the North Pole. And so I was going to say something like your white dial Rolex Explorer II or something like a Sin Arctis, something that's cold tolerant and fitting for that space. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I like to think if we're going to imagine Santa as anything, he likes watches. He's been around a long time. Uh, and I like to think he got in early on the like speedy project, Alaska. Oh, it's red and white. It's got that huge button extender. So you could wear it on top of the red suit while operating the sleigh. I think it's a project Alaska for Santa, um, for sure. And, and it's like, it's a little bit of like a flex. Like, you know, it's like if somebody sees him, he's got on the right stuff, you know, |
| Jason Heaton | I was stumped on that one. I don't know of any sort of women's specific sort of cold weather type watches. So I went with like the Bremont solo, like the women's version. I think it's either 32 or 34 millimeter, preferably with a kind of a white mother of pearl dial that would go well with some very sort of Northern hemisphere, cold weather clothing. You got a good one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think that, I think that Mrs. Claus, I like to imagine Mrs. Claus, you know, she's, she's in at a hundred percent. She's behind and with Santa a hundred percent, but also she's waiting for Christmas to be over. Cause that means it's time for a vacation and some kicking back time. And I think she's wearing like one of the Oris ocean additions. Oh, okay. I like to think that she's kind of over living in the North pole. She comes with the territory. It's fine in the off season. they use the sled and it's incredible traveling abilities to visit warmer climates. And I could see her being like pretty deep into scuba diving, maybe some, some like a spear fishing or something like that. You know just some, some that really makes you kind of balances out how much time they spend in, in the bitter cold. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, maybe like a, like the, the Clipperton Ellie or the, the ocean one of the ocean, uh, Ellie's from Oris, I think. And the, and the, you know, they come in a bunch of different nice colors and sizes. And I think there's kind of a wide range there and, and it, you know, it, it supports the, the causes kind of couples, uh, you know, watch an artery. |
| Jason Heaton | I like that as something tropical, but that's so, you know, against type, but it works well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And she likes the bear as well. Who doesn't. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Uh, all right. And the last one was Krampus. uh, the anti-Santa, the Northern, I think Northern European, uh, sort of evil Christmas demon. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It wasn't, it wasn't part of my, it wasn't part of my, uh, my upbringing, uh, Krampus, but I kind of get it. Uh, and, and I just decided he he's got to wear something like an all black G shock, preferably the ugliest one. They make, um, something very curmudgeonly, some big giant mud master or, or something with, uh, lots of buttons and gigantic, uh, that would be, That would be my pick. Not really knowing much about Krampus, but I figured it's about as least Santa-like as you can get. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think, um, you know, I think, I think, you know, Krampus, I don't know. I don't know if he's stealing from Christmas. I don't know what his, uh, well, his financial scenario is, uh, you know, how much money he's got or, or, or how he spends it or, or where he lives in the world. I don't really know a ton about Krampus. Uh, like you said, you know, he's a character in a television show. I like quite a bit. And in that he's kind of like a half, uh, Horse half deer, you know, like, wow, he's got like animals legs. I don't really know. I don't know if that's cannon or whatnot, but I kind of see him like in with, um, like one of those big early two thousands Royal Oak offshores with the big carbon case and like a giant, giant rubber strap, something that, that kind of suits like a big risk. And then, yeah. And then otherwise it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, you know, maybe it's got a little bit of gold or something just so that you know, that he's Krampus, he's the king of I guess not Christmas. I'm not really sure. Yeah. We don't know enough about Krampus is what we've learned, uh, from this question. So thanks very much, Chad, for that, uh, Santa, uh, Mrs. Claus and Krampus. Uh, I hope they all have a good year when it comes to, uh, to watches and that, uh, Mrs. Claus gets her vacation, uh, you know, as soon as possible, we're, we're approaching Christmas, uh, pretty quickly these days. |
| Jason Heaton | So next up from Nick, uh, it was a question about his, uh, Tudor Black Bay that he's waiting for. Mm. |
| Nick | Hello James and Jason, my name is Nick from Munich and I have a question concerning the waitlist for a blue Tudor Black Bay 58. So I had put my name down for one, where the deposit on the day was released. And as of today, I still haven't received any call. So unless the watch is truly in high demand, I can't help but feel cheated since it has already been 5 months. In addition, I've had had some purchase history with this particular AD. So my two questions are, one, do Tudor ADs have visibility on their upcoming supplies? And two, how would you confront the seller on what I perceive to be a very abnormal wait time? Thanks in advance. Bye. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, Nick, thanks for the question. I'm not sure that I have any insights into the functioning of an authorized retailer for Tudor or any other brand. It seems more like a question about how you handle customer service issues at a At any shop, in any case, I think if you have a relationship there, your best bet is to just have an honest chat with the retailer. And if they're not giving you a satisfactory answer, maybe seek a different dealer or maybe try to contact a tutor or something that you can ask. But I'm not sure what sort of visibility retailers have into tutor supply. But all I can say is best of luck with that, James. Any, any insights? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, the, the, the first side I, my guess is, is that, uh, an authorized dealer and I don't know this to be a fact. So if, if you know the answer and you're listening, drop us a line, of course, but my guess is that an authorized dealer commits to buying what they can get their hands on when it comes to something like a Tudor Black Bay, um, something that people really want. Um, and then they get sent what's available based on various allocations. So it could be that the store that you're dealing with, isn't getting allocated as many models as other stores. So they don't have that many watches to actually sell through to those waiting on the wait list. But I actually don't mind. I entirely don't know how that worked. I can't imagine that there's some portal that a dealer can log into and see how many are sitting in a factory warehouse in Switzerland. I doubt that's the way it works, knowing what we know about Rolex and Tudor. But yeah, I would say the other side of this is you might want to consider managing your ad, you know, give them a call, you know, talk, talk to them directly about the, the concern. And if, and if, and if the, the answer from them is we're doing what we can, and this is what we can, which is essentially, we can't get you a watch find another ad for sure. So in, in, in central Europe and certainly in Munich, I'm sure there's more than one tutor authorized retailer. So it might be worth putting in a couple of calls, see if you can find someone who kind of actually, you know, has some watch enthusiasm and understands the sort of scenario you're in. But if you're not happy with the service you're getting at that current AD, I would start by having a conversation with them and letting them know kind of where you stand. And then hopefully they can reply with some reality of their scenario. And you two can either move forward, whether it's waiting a little bit longer for the watch or going to a different AD entirely. I'm not sure. But good luck with that, Nick. I know a wait list can certainly be frustrating, especially because it doesn't seem equilateral the way that watches kind of hit the market. And I'm sure in many ways it isn't. I'm sure it requires some management and some of the quote unquote playing the game. So good luck with the eventual pickup of that watch. And I think it'll be worth the wait. One of my favorite watches of the year for sure. Next up, we're approaching the last couple of questions here, so we're doing pretty well on time. I didn't know we'd get through this many questions this quickly, so I'm pretty happy, but this will round off all the questions that we've gotten here shortly. So we have a question from Matt about straps for a specific watch. |
| Matt | Hi, James and Chase, and this is Matt in Denver. I just recently purchased a Tudor P01, and I'm thinking about straps. I really like the rubber strap on Omega Planet Ocean. I was wondering if you had any recommendation on a shop store for rubber straps similar to that. and also any thoughts on leather straps from the Houdinki shop. Thanks for your time and stay well. |
| Jason Heaton | Thanks Matt for the question. Wow, cool. P01. We just don't hear of many people buying those and I think it's such a neat watch that initially was a bit controversial and polarizing but I think people are warming up to it and I think it's a great pickup. I'm really jazzed for you to get that. It's an interesting strap connection on that watch and I think it could be challenging to find just the right strap. I'm not sure which planet ocean strap you're talking about. The planet ocean I had in the early ones came with that fitted rubber straps. I'm not sure which one you're, you're thinking of, but I would have thought that, um, something like those flat, more basic rubber straps, um, that come on marathon dive watches. I think for some reason that struck me as a strap that would be pretty good on that watch because there isn't a lot of, you know, texturing or sort of, uh, beveling or anything like that on the strap, I think it would work well on that sort of flat-edged connection point to the watch. I think Watch Gecko might sell something similar. And then I just think, you know, one of the aged leather straps, whether it's from the Hodinkee shop or elsewhere, you know, anything that kind of has that rough and ready sort of look in leather, this is one of those dive watches that I think looks really good on leather, would look really amazing on that watch. James, what do you think? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I don't really know what the challenges are with fitting the strap. From my remembrance of the P01, you know, it has this sort of integrated lug thing that then has kind of an adapter that then takes a normal strap. So I guess as long as the strap is short enough, it should work fine. Otherwise, of course, you'll end up with a lot of excess material. For a rubber standpoint, that's something in, you know, I'm thinking of the Planet Ocean ones that had kind of a V. Yes, in the rubber, that kind of tapered down the wrist. I'm not sure how you would make that work because those were curved and meant to fit the case specifically. But to Jason's point, the ones from a marathon, the other option would be the Hirsch Pure, which is a rubber strap that you can trim. There you go. Might be perfect. I do believe that on this strap, you would install them upside down. I also don't know if you would be able to adapt And what I mean is I believe on this watch, you would want the tail to come under your wrist rather than over. But I also don't know if you'd be able to adapt any strap to use the deployant clasp, the fold-out clasp that it came with. And if so, that would add another layer where it's even now more specific of a strap. It might even be worth, depending on your outlook, pick up something like a Hirschpurer or similar, give it a try, see how that works and learn from a $40 rubber strap. and then maybe break into either customizing your own leather strap or seeing if you could have one made. I just don't know how that additional metal will change the way the strap balances, and I don't know how quickly we would want to suggest you go buy a $170 strap from Hodinkee and then take a pair of scissors to it, right? Yeah, true. I would say low and slow on this one. Maybe just buy yourself a simple, straightforward black rubber strap and see how well it kind of adapts to the watch and what some of the struggles are in terms of balancing where the clasp is going to sit on your wrist. Because it's really integral to how the watch is actually going to fit and how it rotates as you move around is where that buckle is. So I think there's some discovery there. I am finding a few kind of random posts on time zone of people modifying and changing straps to suit the watch, including installing a bracelet into that end piece. And here's another one where a guy used a modern tropic with a straight link and fitted it. So if you search Tudor Black Bay P01 straps on a Google image search, you'll see some results there. So good luck in your hunt with that one. Really, really cool watch. I think, like Jason said, it's one we don't hear about that much, but it is kind of their plow prof. It's super fun, very distinctive, and congrats on the pickup. I hope you can find at least a couple straps that you like because I think it would probably make the watch all the more wearable to have a strap that just kind of suits your wrist. All right, last question, and this is a special one. This is a fun way for us to end the 2020 Q&A season. We'll be back sometime in January with another Q&A episode for your December questions. So if you have questions for us, of course, Send them to thegraynadoatgmail.com. Make them about a minute long voice recording on your phone and then email it to us. We absolutely love these questions. We got a solid chunk of questions for this episode and I would love to keep that up. They don't have to be about watches. They can be about all sorts of stuff. Anything that you think might be either fun or entertaining or in some way we could kind of help point you in the right direction, please let us know. And also in the next episode, the last episode of the year, which is due out next Thursday, We'll also talk about kind of the timeline for how the show will come back in January, because we want to make sure that we're not pumping out a bunch of shows that people can't get to because they're busy with holidays and stuff like that. So we'll have a plan for everything, but I do kind of want to leave the Q&A on a really nice high note. And it's this incredibly fun question from a listener named Fabian. Fabian, thank you so much for this. |
| Fabian | Calling Mission Control. Calling Mission Control. Yes, this is Fabian from Stockholm around the Baltic Sea. I have a question. Jesus! The waves are insane this time of year. I have a question around magnets. With the new iPhone 12 with its magnet packed back and the iPads riveted with magnets, how do we as a community react? How should the industry react? I guess everyone else except Omega. I had vintage watches. Should I just don't buy new technology? What are your thoughts? I'd really like to know. I need the answers. Oh my God, it's a polo bag. |
| Jason Heaton | That is spectacular. So creative. |
| James Stacey | Isn't that so great? Man, Fabian, I love that. Thank you so much for taking the time that I think you put more work into, you know, that 51 second recording than We probably put into the editing of most shows. Uh, I absolutely love it. Uh, Jason, what do you think? What do, what do you do? How do you, how do you kind of approach the fact that magnets are part of everyday life, but also a huge issue for mechanical watchmaking? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I mean, you know, we read so much about it. It's kind of like water resistance. We read so much about the magnetic influence on our, on our mechanical watches. And, uh, I I'm aware of it. Um, but I don't really pay any attention to it day to day. I wear all of my watches, vintage and modern, and I don't give them a second thought about, um, using them with my big flat panel monitor here, my laptop or my phone. I certainly don't set my watches on my laptop or my phone if I can help it, but I'm also not super careful about keeping them out of close proximity. So, and I have yet to really have any serious problems. I think I've had a magnetized watch once in about the past 10 years. So, Maybe that's just me and it's unusual, but, uh, I don't think about it that often, but I think your article recently about how to use a demagnetizer is a good one. And I think, you know, that would be a very simple solution for someone who is concerned is just to have one of those know how to use it. |
| James Stacey | What about you? Yeah, no, I, I agree entirely. Uh, you know, I, I, way back in the day, I listened to a podcast interview with, um, a couple of the fellows from Metallica, the band. Oh, wow. I don't think you have to say Metallica and then the band. I just listened to a podcast that that had it was James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich and somebody asked James Hetfield a question and I for the life of me can't remember the question, but I will always remember his answer and he said, well, you know, when life you've got two options, you can try and carpet the whole world or you can just put on slippers and he's like I got old enough. I just started putting on slippers. I don't really care anymore. And I think that's the way to look at it. You can be concerned about the magnetism all around us, which is an issue. And it will definitely get one of your watches at some point less. So if you're, uh, you know, rocking an Omega, of course, or any other watch that has, you know, considerable anti-magnetic property. But I think the more important thing is just get a D mag. They're like $12, $10. They're not that hard to use. They're not that much of a pain to have around. You can also use them to magnetize the tips of your screwdrivers so that they hold onto screws, which is super fun. That is cool. Feels a little bit like having a superpower. I mean, not like a great superpower, but a tiny superpower, a power. But yeah, I would say just get a D-Mag and D-Mag your watches. I'll include a link to the article I wrote, but it is super simple. You'll either know your watch is magnetized because it will become very strange in the way that it operates. Either stopping or running very fast is the common. But your other option is to use a compass. You can definitely do so with a Garmin or any of the ABC capable watches. And when you move the watch past the compass, if you see a huge swing in the heading, then you have a magnetized watch. And there are cases where a part of the watch can be magnetized that doesn't affect the timekeeping, like the case. But more commonly, we're talking mainspring, and which causes the edges or the sides of the actual flat spring to bind together. And then you have a really problematic sort of outcome with how the watch runs. Mainspring, hairspring, certainly, these are all concerns for magnetism. And your best case is to just have a way of measuring whether or not it's magnetized. And if you have an iPhone, there's an app, which I can also include, that will allow you to judge some level of magnetization. Of course, now that means you're putting the watch close to your magnetic iPhone. Um, so maybe that app is less useful with the new iPhone twelves. Uh, anyways, I, I would say just have a demagnetized, you know, it's kind of like, uh, you, you have a couple options. You don't want snow on your car. You can move somewhere warmer. You can buy like a big thing to scrape all the snow off. Right. There's only a few ways of going about it, but, uh, yeah, I think in this case, get a pair of slippers by a D mag. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Good one. And thanks so much for that, uh, creative question, Fabian and, uh, watch out for those polar bears. |
| James Stacey | Super fun. Best question of the year. certainly in terms of production value. But a huge thank you to everybody. This brings us to 153 questions that we served this year through the Q&As. And as much as Jason and I like to think our answers were helpful, really, this is you guys. You made the episodes. They're our most favorite episodes. They're super fun. And we really, really, really thank you. And if you're listening and you have a question, that you'd like to hear played on the show. It's a voice memo into your phone and then email it to thegranadoatgmail.com. Keep it under a minute, nice and pithy. It doesn't need sound effects, but as Fabian showed, it can be helpful. And yeah, a huge thank you to everybody for this year of Q&As. It's something that we wanted to kick off this year and it worked out and I think we found a format and it's a team effort at this point. So I couldn't be more thankful or grateful for the audience with these with these questions and the thoughtfulness and taking the time to record them and the rest. So thank you so much. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And as always, thanks so much for listening to this and all of our episodes this year. We'll have our last episode of the year next week. 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 for us, please write thegraynado at gmail.com. And of course, keep sending those voice memos. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. As James mentioned at the top of the show, we really value those reviews and ratings. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Leon C. Megenson. It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change. |