The Grey Nato - EP 16 - "Collection Inspection Volume 2"

Published on Tue, 30 Aug 2016 09:03:40 -0400

Synopsis

This episode covers a discussion on Jason's Bremont Supermarine 2000 dive watch and James' Halios Tropic dive watch as part of their "collection inspection" series. They talk about the features, design, and personal experiences with these two watches from smaller, independent brands. They also share some new watch acquisitions - Jason has the new Doxa Sub 300 50th anniversary edition, while James got a vintage Silvana dive watch. For final notes, they recommend an article on minimalism, a podcast on marketing psychology, and the documentary "Blue Water White Death" about filmmakers attempting to film great white sharks in the 1970s.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Welcome to episode 16 of the Granado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches.
James Stacy I'm Jason Heaton. And I'm James Stacy. Before hitting our main topic today, just a quick note that our logo design giveaway is now over. We received a ton of excellent submissions and we want to thank each and every one of you who sent in a design. Jason and I will be taking some time to select our favorite and the designer in question will be announced on the next episode. So please stay tuned. For today's main topic, we're actually doing another installment of the collection inspection. So if you remember, our first installment was in episode 10. Jason spoke about his Rolex Submariner. I spoke about a Omega Seamaster. And today we've got, we've picked two new watches from our permanent slash semi-permanent collection to chat about. And I think they're both really interesting watches. They're both fairly different watches, both dive watches, unsurprisingly. Jason, you think I kick it off with mine?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's dive in and I'm curious to hear which one you picked this week.
James Stacy Yeah, so my choice is actually a watch that I wear, I would say probably between three and four days a week, sometimes more than that. It's been a pretty much constant presence on my wrist for a long time. It's the watch I'm always taking off to put something else on for an Instagram photo. And that's the Halios Tropic. The Tropic is an absolutely fantastic watch. I reviewed it back in December, January 2014. And I absolutely love it. It's a great 41 millimeter dive watch. The version I have is in steel. They also came in bronze. Halios, if you don't know, is a small Vancouver-based brand. It's a one-man brand. And they've made a series of dive watches, generally in limited productions, so the Holotype and the Blue Ring, the Laguna, the Puck, and then we got up to the Tropic, and since then we've also had the Delphin. The Tropic was kind of their first really approachable, everyday design, not too toolish, not too chunky, not too big, not too divery. It's very much a middle-of-the-road overall archetype. It's very much kind of, if you were to ask the guy that runs Hallios, Jason, it's very much his spin on a Submariner's archetype, which is a watch you can wear essentially all the time. It's a very approachable design, but of course it's still very sport ready. And that's certainly been my experience with the watch for two and a half years, I guess. And it's just an absolutely fantastic watch. Jason, you saw it when you were here for the Summit.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think, you know, one thing that you and I mentioned about the Tropic is that it sort of feels like it's the watch uh, at which Helios has sort of come into its own in terms of design. I feel like, you know, some of the earlier ones, uh, the blue ring and you mentioned that the holotype, um, were, you know, maybe a little bit more derivative, um, based on some other designs, um, a little rough, I guess. I feel like with the past couple of the Laguna and I think especially now the Tropic, I just, I kind of feel like Helios has hit its stride and, and this is kind of the design language that I can see. Jason going forward with. And I'm a huge fan of this watch. I hadn't actually seen it in person until I came to Vancouver and then got my hands on it. And it's a really cool watch. And I love that it has the versatility that, like you mentioned, it can be had in a steel, you know, pure sort of dive watch style. But then there was that blank bezel bronze version of it with the different colored dials. And it was just, you know, it has this versatility to it that kind of straddles a few different categories. Really a neat watch.
James Stacy Yeah, the design works works fairly well. And they've done a series of iterations, a few in steel, including a black dial, black bezel, the blue dial, blue bezel, which is what I have. And then my blue bezel was swapped out for a steel bezel because I kind of like the more vintage-y, 60s, early 70s sort of steel bezel diver. And they're not made in a huge supply. I mean, I think there's 100 blue ones in existence. So they are like, I guess you could call them rare or uncommon is probably the right way to put it. And they also went ahead and made a series of bronze versions. I think I want to say, and I could definitely be wrong in the bronze, that there's been six different dials in the baton and a few using an Arabic, a mixed Arabic dial, which is also really cool, almost has a field watch vibe to it. And all of those are really cool. We did a giveaway on a blog to watch where we gave one away and I got a chance to spend a little bit of time taking some photos for the giveaway post of the bronze watch and the way that material, the way that bronze, which is a very bright, um, alloy in the Hallios usage, uh, captures light is fantastic. And they have a series of different dials. There's also a white dial version of the steel, which is awesome. And I think might actually still be available on their website, but otherwise the tropics overall life cycle is kind of winding down at least for the time being. And, uh, and, And I would say, you know, I've, I think I've reviewed, reviewed, or at least spent a fair amount of time with all of the watches they've made so far. I didn't review a Delphine, but I did take one diving in Mexico and the Delphine simply sold out kind of too quickly for me to bother doing a review. I mean, they just all went really fast. The black Delphine is really cool. It's a beautiful design, but the Tropic for whatever reason, I just love wearing it. I wore it on the bracelet for a long time, about a year after the steel watch was released, they released a bracelet for it. And I wore it on the bracelet for a long time. And then recently I've switched it to a leather strap. And then in the summer I wear it on the Zulu Diver, the rubber, the 328 rubber that we talked about in the past couple episodes. It looks so good on that. On the rubber strap, I'm sure it's on my Instagram, but on that rubber strap, it's just the perfect everyday sport watch because it's an unassuming style, great bezel, really comfortable. You know, you're looking at 41 millimeters, the crystal has a bit of a dome in it. So you're 14 millimeters thick, and then 48 millimeters wide, and or 48 millimeters lug to lug, which makes it super wearable. I mean, like I have fairly bony wrists, and it works beautifully. And on that you get a Miyota 9015 movement. The date is nicely placed at 6pm. which is awesome. And it's a 300 meter water resist with a screw down crown and a solid case back. It's a real, real sport watch. And one I took diving for the original review and have had diving a couple times since. I absolutely love it. Mine has this kind of nice saturated blue dial and then the steel bezel. And like I said, I just wear it. I just wear it all the time. You know, between that and since the Explorer came in, that's typically what I what I'll average swapping back and forward.
Jason Heaton They kind of complement each other. I think those two watches sort of, uh, I don't know, to me, they sort of speak to the same sense of, um, minimalism or sort of purity of purpose. I, I feel like the, the Hallios, uh, what, what he's accomplished with, especially the Tropic and the Dolphin as well is, and it's hard to do, I think at that sort of boutique or micro brand level is to come up with a design that is fresh and not derivative of any other watch that came before it, which so many of the micro brands are trying to emulate, you know, an old Blancpain or an old Rolex or an Omega or something. And that's fine. They do a fine job with it, but you know, it's hard to come up with something brand new. And I feel like there's this minimalism and this really clean, modern feel to the Helios that doesn't fall into any one category. Like you said, it's not, it's not a pure sort of tool diver, Um, it could be just, you know, an everyday sort of slim sports watch that you can still, you know, wear to the office or something, which I really admire about it.
James Stacy I think especially with the Tropic and the Delphin, there's a strange kind of timelessness where, I mean, if you, I'm sure that like, it's difficult to kind of pick what era its design is informed by. Yeah. Uh, you know, I think the, I think the Laguna, you know, a previous Hallios model was a little bit more, directly pointed towards the kind of popular Inacar, you know, dual crown internal bezel diver slash sport watches. And I think it was a very successful watch. And I have a Laguna or I should say I had a Laguna. My brother has that Laguna now and I'll probably never get it back. But yeah, the Tropic for me is just I think it's just the right size. The bezel is excellent. I really like the Hallios brand, I like that it's very much an understated kind of branding, even when you go on their website, the website really only functions to sell the watch. And you'll go on their Instagram and they'll repost watch photos from other Hallios owners. And then they'll repost just kind of random things that Jason likes. It's not even necessarily a Hallios thing in every post. It's fun. And I think Jason's I've known Jason long enough that he's into making these watches because he genuinely loves watches. And I think that shows in the design. They're very thoughtful. They're very informed by watch design in general.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy You're looking at a watch that says 650 US when it came out. I think maybe they're 680 if you were to get one now, give or take, but that's applied markers and it's loomed, it's BGW9 loom. and you get a lovely bezel on all but the steel bezel. It's a ceramic insert. So it's not like they're cutting corners at any point. The 9015 has been super reliable for me. I mean, I've used this. I've used this watch in a number of situations where I would be scared to wear a more expensive watch, especially like biking. Yeah. And it shrugs off the vibration. It doesn't seem to matter. It certainly doesn't matter getting hit against the pole at the park, diving or whatever. Like it's just a really great everyday watch that you don't really worry about. And, uh, and then on top of that, it's, it's, it has such a pleasant aesthetic. If they were to ever make a GMT version, man, that would just be, that would just be the watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it really would be. I think you're right. I think also when I came to Vancouver, I had that chance to meet Jason Lim from, from Helios and it meeting him sort of, um, put this sort of backstory to what I've seen in the watches. And he himself is a very, he's a well put together guy, but he's very humble and he's just sort of, he's just a very pleasant guy. And that those are almost words you could use to describe the watches. They're very clean and very, very humble watches. I almost think that you and I have talked about how are the smaller brands of today, The Halioses, the Okanoskers, the Steverals, these brands, they're almost like what we envision the small brands that many are gone or the little ones that we find that pop up, the little quirky ones that pop up from the 60s and 70s when you go out to find a vintage watch. And I think Halios is one of those brands that it's going to have this lasting quality to it that people are going to look at in 20, 25 years and say, wow, you know, those were some cool watches in the mid you know, the 2010s, I guess. It just has a real, it doesn't feel dated. It also has the quality that I think will last. And yeah, just really versatile. And that size is really perfect as well. You know, it didn't ride the big watch trend. I think 41 is just about the perfect diameter for a watch.
James Stacy Yeah, I was chatting with Jason recently and he joked that 40 millimeters is essentially the new 44. You know, we're seeing Raven watches has a new 40 millimeter watch, which looks, I think it looks really nice. It looks like a nice clean design. I can't wait to kind of see an actual version in the steel rather than the, uh, the drawings. And they make really nice watches. Uh, but I definitely think that these, these small brands are able to go in a direction faster than some of the big brands. Yeah. So they kind of clear away towards the, I mean, 41 isn't even necessarily a small watch. in the world of watches. But for a sport diver, it was a while where like, even the micro brands were all huge, you know, the for, you know, early mores were 44 and 45 millimeters wide from Benares. Yeah. And the Laguna was 43 and a half millimeters, I think. And, you know, they were just watches were larger. And I think we're seeing we're seeing a little bit of a balancing of that equation and where we're falling back into this kind of proven size that To be honest is I think really well informed by watches like the sub, which have been around for so long that they've become this kind of archetype, even when other brands use it. I mean, like how many watches out there essentially use a sub case, like not Rolex's case, but I mean that design like hundreds. And I think there's a direct reason for that is because it has essentially just been slowly shaped by time. And not unlike the Speedmaster case, you know, you, you look at the history of the Speedmaster and they made little tweaks to the case here, there to make it better and to change its aesthetics. But overall, like they nailed something in that design. That's where I think we're seeing some success with watches. Like Helsin makes a 40 millimeter shark diver. That's awesome. As is the 42, but the 40 feels special almost because it's smaller. And, uh, I had a, a Benares 40 millimeter Moray in for review. And I have a 42 millimeter Moray and inexplicably the 40 seemed like a more upscale watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And I can't specifically describe why, like there's some sort of an error in the programming in my brain. But I would hold the two of them and be like, well, I could tell that they're of a very similar quality, but for whatever reason, there's more appeal and kind of an upmarket feel to this smaller one.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, it was like the, I just, I just got done reviewing the Oken Oscar Sanford, the new GMT watch that, that Chase Fancher's come out with. And that too, he's downsized from 42, which was his first watch, the Burnham. And the new one is a, is 40. And when I put it on, I mean, I'm, I'm a bigger guy. I've got big wrists, but 40 is it's just, it's spot on. I mean, it's a pretty, it's pretty tough to beat a 40 or 41 millimeter watch. I mean, your, your Seamaster is also 41, correct? 41. Yep.
James Stacy My 144 is 41. And then of course, yeah, like it's, you know, about 40 millimeters for the EXP-2 for your, your subs. There's something about that size. And I think the Halios, as much as it is any of its other elements, the Halios really nails the proportions. Yeah. If you check out my review or go to the site and take a look and you kind of dig the style, see if they have any left. I honestly don't know if they do, but You can also just jump on WatchRecon. There's usually a couple trading hands. The bronze seem a little bit more common to be moved around. They're selling for within $50 of what they sold for brand new. Yeah. Like Hallius really holds their value well, and it's because there's a kind of a proven respect for the brand and for what they're doing. And, you know, compared to their early watches, they've made a lot of tropics over the past few years. And even that didn't seem to fill the demand. You know, there was always, it always seemed like I would, I would write the review and then I would get a bunch of comments saying like, dude, this watch is sold out. Why'd you tell us how good it was? And, and, you know, I think that's kind of the tune is you, you pretty much have to with, with brands like Hallios and, and probably with, with like an Oak and Oscars, if you're not tuned into what the brand's kind of doing, you might miss your chance. I mean, like the Oak, that Sandford, the, the, the PVD gun metal one sold out. Yeah, pretty quickly. So that means that there's definitely still people who wanted that watch, right. And there's definitely still people who wanted a black dolphin or wanted a blue tropic. And it makes sense just to kind of keep these brands on your radar. If you're a sport watch enthusiast. Yeah, I mean, I guess the shorthand is this is among a collection of you know, I'm very blessed to have some nice watches. But among that collection, I absolutely adore this Hallius. I love wearing it. It feels way, like the on-wrist experience way outweighs the cost of the watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's a really satisfying watch.
James Stacy And certainly follow Halleous Watches on Instagram and you'll see what they're working on. They have a new version of the Laguna and they have a new 40, likely 40 millimeter diver in the same vein as the Tropic, but with a much more kind of straight line case. called the C4 should be a pretty interesting design.
Jason Heaton I'm very excited to see that. The renderings that I've seen on Instagram are pretty cool.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure. But I think that's probably enough on the Tropic. If you can get one, you should get one. I think you'd really like it. And I absolutely adore mine and it holds a really solid spot in my collection. So, Jason, you've got a diver for us, but in many ways quite different than the Tropic. What do you got?
Jason Heaton It is different, but it's interesting that the first collection inspection episode we did, we both picked pretty iconic watches from big brands. And this week, we kind of took a left turn and picked some slightly different ones, smaller brands, certainly Helios being very small. But the watch that I picked for my collection is the Bremont Supermarine 2000. And it's a watch that I've had since early 2013. And it was, I actually came by it because it was, uh, the one that I have is actually a prototype piece. It was, um, I think it was like the third or fourth one off the, off the production line at, at Braymont. And, uh, it was January of 2013. And I got an email from Braymont asking if, uh, I'd be willing to take the, the super, the new supermarine 2000 diving, uh, with them at their launch event in Grand Cayman. Um, but I had already made plans to, to, to go on a dive trip in the Bahamas at the same time. So I, I told them that and they said, well, why don't we send you the watch and you can take a diving in, in the Bahamas and can you shoot some video and some photos? So, uh, I got the watch, took it to the Bahamas for a week and I just loved the watch. I mean, I had tried the, the supermarine 500, which was the predecessor to this watch and really liked that watch a lot. Um, but the 2000 just, you know, sort of just blew things up. you know, I guess fourfold, I guess if you consider the depth rating and then they added some size to it. And, uh, just, you know, I just love the watch and we've got some great photos, great video. And, you know, we, while we were still in the Bahamas and I was editing some video and finalizing some photos and we sent those over to from the Bahamas to Grand Cayman so that they could show this stuff at their launch event. And, uh, it was really, really a satisfying watch to wear and to kind of be the first to, to take it diving. And then like a month later, I was back here in Minnesota and I, I put it on a different strap. They have, uh, they sent me a really long Velcro strap and I put it on that strap and wore it over my dry suit and took it, um, ice diving. So it got, it got a good workout, you know, right away after I, after I got the watch. And, and for me, that's, that's kind of important. I think other than a few of the vintage pieces that I've got, any watch that's going to stay in my collection, I really want to make my own by kind of doing some some interesting stuff with, and the Braemont has certainly been through a fair amount with me. I've taken it kayaking and skiing and a number of hikes with it, as well as the diving.
James Stacy Yeah, my first experience with a Braemont was actually with the Super Mean, the S500. Yeah. And when I was kind of weighing out my decision to buy a Braemont, the one that eventually led me to the white Solo, I really, really loved the S500. It was easily my number two option. It wears beautifully despite being very thick. It's a very tall, burly sort of watch. It has all these beautiful details. Yeah. I mean, a fantastic dial treatment, a really good bezel on the S500. I don't, I've seen your S2000. I played with it at Basel a couple of years ago when you had it on that cork strap, which was pretty rad.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy I don't specifically recall. I don't see why the bezel would be any different. I just don't remember, but it was amazing on the S500. Huge loom. I love the hand design. on both watches. You know, a lot of just fine details. I think that that that case, the triptych case looks really cool on a diver. I would definitely lean towards an S500, but they're very similar watches at their core. Hugely over engineered, like legitimate luxury tool watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree with you. I think the Supermarine 500 wears better. I mean, frankly, this watch is it's a big watch. I mean, it's it's 45 millimeter case. So really talking the outer edge of size, you know, it's kind of, it was early 2013. So we were kind of still in that era when, you know, the big watch was the thing to do. It's 52 millimeters lug to lug. So it's, it's, you know, it's pretty tall that way. And then it's just monstrous. It's 17 millimeters tall. It's got this domed crystal, big thick case back, 22 millimeter lugs. It's, it's a monster. I think the S500 wears a little bit better. Frankly, the, the, um, The S2000, I don't wear it as much anymore because I'm, I find that I've been wearing a lot more vintage pieces lately. And when you switch from, you know, an old sub or, or an old bull of a dive watch or something, and you put this on, uh, if you feel it, you know, and it, it wears well on the, I think it probably wears best on the kind of this textured rubber strap that came with it, that fits nicely tight to the case. But right now I've got it on this thick leather Toshi strap that you gave me actually.
James Stacy Oh yeah, sure.
Jason Heaton And it works really well. I really wanted to find a good leather strap for this watch. And I think this one kind of does the job. It's a straight 22 all the way down, big holes, big buckle, big beefy keeper. And it's kind of a Panerai style strap. Yeah. And it fits the watch perfectly. So I think the rubber that came with it works. It doesn't work as well on a NATO. I've tried it, but it's just kind of a top heavy watch. So it kind of flops around when you put it on a nylon NATO strap. But you're right about the details. I think, you know, we talked about the Halios having some of these really subtle, sort of minimalist details. And I wouldn't necessarily call the S2000 minimalist, but there's an originality to it that is refreshing. And I think it's a fun watch. It's one of these, even though it's big and heavy, sometimes you just kind of want to put on a big chunky watch. And this one has this pop to it that I can't quite explain, but the way that the dial markers have these polished surrounds, they catch the light really nicely. And then there's this section of dial, you know, the kind of the inner circumference of the inner disc, has this sort of pinstripe pattern that was made to kind of mimic the metal cladding on the supermarine airplane that the watch is named for. And it just, the whole watch kind of catches the light in such a neat way. The bezel, you know, has this little pop of red at the zero marker and then the tip of the second hand. It's so well thought out. It's such a maturity of design that I'm always amazed by when I look at almost any Bremont watch that this company's only I don't know, they're less than 20 years old and that triptych case and some of these details, I just, I can't believe how right they get their design almost every single time.
James Stacy Yeah, certainly that's my experience with my Solo, which I'm sure will be a watch in a future collection inspection, but they just nailed the design. And when I saw it in white, that was pretty much my decision. I just, you know, I like a nice crisp white watch, especially with something like a pilot's watch or the Explorer.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But the Supermarine really is like a compelling design. I love the loomed bezel. I love that they give it all the technology from the MB2 because it was one of the early branches off of their core lineup.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And so you get the anti-magnetic case, you get the shock absorbing movement mount. You know, it's just it's kind of classically Bremont and then with the 2000 on a bigger scale. Yeah.
Jason Heaton I mean, it's probably the most rugged watch sort of on at least on a specification sheet that I own you know it's it's it's kind of the ultimate braymont when you really kind of step back and look at it whether or not you can pull off the size is a different matter and I'd be curious to know how the S2000 sells compared to the S500. I don't know yeah it's it's it's just a really fun watch and and then you get this this chronometer certified movement inside so it's you know it's been a really accurate watch for me. I did have some kind of weird quirks being that it was a prototype watch, the, it was interesting. I couldn't quite figure it out for a long time. Um, the, the strap was actually popping off, popping out of the lugs. And I realized that the, the lugs were drilled, uh, slightly too shallow, the, the spring bar holes, because it was the tooling must've been set for an S 500 case or for a 43 millimeter Bremont. Cause that's the size of most of their other watches. And so the, The lug holes were just drilled slightly too shallow so I couldn't get a 22mm spring bar to kind of hold in there properly. So the straps were always popping off and to this day I'm amazed that I didn't lose the watch when I was ice diving or diving in the Bahamas. But it just happened like randomly the week after I had gone ice diving with it. I was cross country skiing and all of a sudden I feel this flopping around and I had this empty strap on my underneath my jacket and I looked around and the watch had somehow dropped off into the deep snow and uh you know dug around and find it found it but uh that made me a little skittish and then also the stem it must have had a stem for an S500 as well which of course is a shorter diameter watch and so every time I would unscrew and pull out the crown the stem just being slightly too short was always kind of catching the date wheel and spinning the day and date around when I was trying to unscrew the crown and wind the watch So I, just earlier this year, I, right after Basel, I sent it back to, to Bremont and they, they fixed everything for me and now it works just great. But, uh, you know, it, to me, it's kind of what makes this particular one really special to me and one that will always stay in my collection is because, you know, it's sort of provenance as a, as a prototype piece and all the kinds of stories that I've got embedded in it. So, yeah, for sure. It's a different brand than Helios. I mean, certainly they've got. They've got a lot more behind them. There's a lot more marketing. They've got some big stories. They've got, uh, you know, the Jaguar, uh, partnership, the Boeing partnership, but yet I still feel like they're kind of one of these small brands that is sort of still very energetic and kind of doing a really original stuff, which is kind of, kind of, if I'm not buying vintage, that's the kind of stuff that kind of interests me these days.
James Stacy Yeah, I think both brands are, are fighting to establish their presence in the market. you know, neither are operating as the kings of any one tier.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy I mean, I think Braymont's done some amazing work in their few years. And I think for Hallius to achieve what they have in terms of customer respect and general reputation and, you know, kind of the varying model designs and continued flow as the result of one man's efforts. I find to be hugely respectable and impressive. I think both watches are very much great NATO sort of watches. You know, on one side you have the Hallios, it's very much from an entry level price point for an automatic, great dive watch, great everyday watch, great for adventures. And then you have something a little bit more aspirational like the S2000 or you could say the S500 too. I don't think they're vastly different watches. But with the S2000, of course, you've moved up into the luxury space, but with a brand that's still very much focused on adventure. I mean, say what you will about any brand's marketing or even Bremont's marketing if you want, but they've put their watches in some really impressive places like the ejection seats, which should destroy a watch, let alone a person. And to the South Pole on foot. And, you know, they've done some really fantastic things with their watches. And maybe that is a ploy for marketing. And honestly, I don't care if that chicken is the egg or the egg is that chicken. It just is what it is. And I think the watches are really cool. And from a product standpoint, I think that they offer something that other brands aren't offering in each of their space.
Jason Heaton I'm glad you brought up the marketing, because I do think that, you know, a lot of brands do like to tell those stories about how tough their watches are. But when you do have a watch on the wrist of guy who's, you know, skiing to and from the South pole. Or currently there's a guy, Jake Meyer, who I'm not sure if he's done yet, but he was trying to, uh, to summit K2 and he's wearing a, an MB two, the white dial one, which I happen to love mountains in the world.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Um, you know, they've, they've done any number of these things, the ejection seat stuff, but what comes down, you know, what it comes down to for me is you can tell all those stories, but those stories, behind your watches are what inspire guys like you and me to want to do our own adventures wearing watches, whether it's their watches or anybody's watches. And I think then when I strap on my S2000 and I go diving under the ice in a lake in Minnesota in winter, it enriches the experience for me. And I think it's that type of encouragement and that's the value of that storytelling. And for them, maybe it's to sell the watches and maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. I think it happens to work quite well for Bremont. But I think for me, I'm someone who really kind of buys into the lore and the stories behind watches. And I think, of course, you talk about a brand like Rolex and you look at all those old National Geographic ads, you read about all these explorers that wore Rolexes doing some pretty incredible stuff. Bremont's a young brand. They don't have that backstory. They came around at a time after which you know, a watch was kind of an instrument that guys wore to navigate around the planet in a sailboat or, you know, you know, tell the time underground in a cave or something like that. So they kind of have to do things a little bit differently. So by aligning themselves with an ejection seat company or strapping it on a polar explorer, you know, it comes from a different place, but yet it still pulls from that same spirit that I think really resonates with me and is one reason why I really like a brand like Bremont is because they do that kind of stuff.
James Stacy Yeah. And I don't think you can be, I don't think you can be any more honest than simply to say it's marketing. Sure. But it works. Yeah. I think it works on guys like you and I, whether it's Ed Veesters with an Explorer 2 or Ben Saunders with a Terra Nova. I love the story there. I love what it does to lend a certain legitimacy to a product. And I like the idea that the product has this other meaning, even if that meaning is essentially not fabricated, but external to its physical qualities. Right. And maybe that's because that's just the extent to which we love adventure. Like I think you and I would both probably and maybe even have bought watches because we saw them in a Cousteau movie or in a random documentary about diving from the 60s or 70s. That's a big part of how watches speak to me. And I think that's what you're saying.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And it doesn't matter to me if it's, if these quote unquote ambassadors for brands are famous or not. I don't care. I happen to really like Ben Saunders. And if you get a chance to listen to his TED talks, you'll see why. He's a cool guy. I mean, and the stuff he does is just cool. But regardless of whether you've never even heard of these people, the fact that people are out there doing cool stuff with their watches on, I mean, it's what the Grenado is all about, you know, and we hope that we can kind of inspire people to do the same. It's that same spirit that I think I draw from when I, when I see, you know, Bremont's marketing and, and kind of see what, what their watches do. And it's really what their brand is all about. And that's what I like about it. They aren't, they aren't a company that makes a bunch of dress watches and then, Oh, here's our dive watch. And, and look, here's, you know, Billy Baldwin, you know, sitting on a beach, uh, with some scuba gear around him, even though the guy doesn't dive. You know, this is the real deal. I guess that kind of closes my story on the S2000, but I think it also kind of ties into a bigger sort of sense of what we're trying to do here on the Greynado, and I think it kind of goes to where we're coming from when we talk about our collection inspection. I mean, all the watches we talk about are watches that I think resonate with us and are watches that we're able to do cool stuff with.
James Stacy And yeah, that's about where we land on the Bremont S2000 and the Hallios Tropic. If you've had either or similar and would like to weigh in, maybe you sold yours in one event as to why, or maybe you've also had yours through a lot of adventures, thegreatnadoatgmail.com, we'd love to hear your stories. If you have questions, please send them in, especially if they're about the watches that we cover specifically. If there's something you want to know that you can't find in a review or something like that, then let us know. And of course, If we spoke about something during this and you're trying to find it, just swing by thegrenado.com, click on the show notes and you'll see all the links to anything that we spoke about. We'll be back in just a minute.
Jason Heaton It's time for new business. This is the portion of the show where we discuss new things that we've acquired, new adventures we've taken, upcoming trips. anything of that nature. James, you had a pretty exciting experience this past week. You did the Breitling jet team ride, which is something we talked about in our last episode. How did that turn out? How was that?
James Stacy Unbelievable. Just really, really cool. And if anyone follows me on Instagram, I put up some photos and a video of the flight. You know, I'm writing up a piece for Nouveau magazine, which I'll tweet when it's available. In short, I mean, it's just one of the flat out coolest things I've ever been allowed to do or take part in. It's about a 20, 22 minute flight. You get a GoPro directly in front of you and also on the belly of the lead plane because you actually fly in a seven plane formation. And we went out to Abbotsford, which is kind of east of Vancouver on essentially on the way to Mount Baker and then went for a flight. It was a beautiful, like crystal clear blue day. We went right, right by Baker. And it was just absolutely fantastic. I had an unbelievable time. You know, these planes that are L-39C Albatrosses piloted by, you know, the only civilian jet aerobatic pilots in the world, like jet aerobatic team pilots in the world. And it was just wall to wall really cool, you know, flight suit and helmet and radio and you're strapped tight into this cockpit and you're doing loops and barrel rolls and all sorts of stuff. It was just, it was awesome. I get a little bit speechless when I try to describe how cool it was because it was just very much a unique experience.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I got to do that last summer and I'm in the same boat as you. I just, I get speechless and I still pull out the USB drive that has the GoPro video footage from my flight and I just watch it all the time. It was just, I sometimes can't even believe I did that. You're sitting on top of this very sleek, fairly small training jet in this bubble canopy on top of the plane. And you're kind of sitting perched slightly above the pilot who's sitting in front of you. And to look left and right while you're flying and see a plane just a few feet off of each wing tip is pretty, it's surreal. And then, I mean, the maneuvers themselves, you almost don't get a sense of what you're doing until you sort of just look around and suddenly realize, you know, the ground is above you and the sun is below you and you see your shadow sort of moving around and, um, just, just a really wild, crazy experience. I will never forget that. I'm still looking for an excuse to wear that flight suit. I don't know if you've come up with any good opportunities to wear a flight suit around the house, but I haven't yet.
James Stacy Oh, I guess Halloween. I don't know. I'll find an excuse if I can. You know, it was kind of these cool black, Breitling flight suit, which is kind of the giveaway for the event. And yeah, I mean, the planes, the pilots are amazing, and the planes are gorgeous. The thing that surprised me the most about the experience is how much the planes move around in the air. Yeah, kind of slippery feeling. Very slippery, very much like they're constantly kind of buffeting like a small boat, or if you've ever been on like a jet ski, they're constantly reacting off center.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy being adjusted for all the time, especially in like level cruising flight. As soon as you tell the plane to do something hard, it seems to like really appreciate the, the tension.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But otherwise they kind of, they kind of buff it and each wing kind of grabs the air differently. And then the thing that I really loved, but was disconcerting was the, um, the amount of yaw. So kind of, if you imagine a vertical pull through the plane and it's spinning kind of on its center.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy That's your yaw. And the plane's just, so if you've ever had like a car on ice, that's kind of, it fights as each corner kind of gets some grip and then loses it. The plane, especially when you're just kind of floating around or maintaining a formation, there's some yaw always happening. And it feels a little bit like that instant when the back gets loose on a car. And then they make some really wild noises that sound like the plane's breaking. To my eyes, you know, I'm not an aviator. I don't, I don't know. I've been in a couple, you know, I've been in, uh, you know, commercial jets, but otherwise you get in this thing and it's making all sorts of very strange staccato repeating sounds that would suggest like, well, something's about to break. If a car made this noise, you're pulling over.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And the engine's like right, like what, three feet behind you where you're sitting?
James Stacy It's below you? The inlet, the, the, the channel inlet for the single turbo fan is, is essentially right over each side of you.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Like it's a bummer because I can't just say like, if you can do it, do it. Cause you can't just do it. Yeah. The privilege is, is so remarkably high to get a ride in a jet. Like, I don't know. I don't know what to say. Maybe there's somewhere, I'm assuming there's somewhere in the world where you could pay to get in a jet and have a ride and maybe it would be a faster jet. Like you could go supersonic, but yeah, I can't, I can't thank Breitling enough for the opportunity. and for Nuvo Magazine for connecting me with that sort of event. And it was absolutely fantastic. Really, really cool experience. Yeah, yeah. You're off for another trip coming up with a cool watch. Let's hear about that. People are going to love this watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I got my hands on the new 50th anniversary Sub 300 Doxa, which is a watch that I first saw at Baselworld back in March or April. And it's due to be released this November. And they're making three versions. They've got the professional with the orange dial, the silver with the C-Rambler has the silver dial, and then the Black Shark Hunter. And they're making 300 of each. And the reason they're coming out with it is because in 1967 is when they first introduced the Sub 300, which was DOCSIS' first dedicated dive watch, and the one that everybody knows with the Nodico bezel, you know, the famous orange dial, the crosshair dial, those fantastic lume markers, the big oversized minute hand, you know, all those iconic features that everybody's come to associate with DOXA started in 1967. And so yeah, I've got the 50th anniversary version, which has, they built the exact specification of the 1967 version. So slightly thin case, I think the most distinguishing feature of this as opposed to any of the other modern DOCSIS, which still look very vintagy, is the dial looks almost too small for the rest of the case because it's kind of a burly case. I mean, it's like a 42 millimeter case, which would have been pretty big back in 1967. But the aperture for the dial is, it's quite small. I think it's, I think I read somewhere it's like, you know, 20, 20, maybe 23 millimeters across if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, that's a small dial. Yeah, and then it's got this domed sapphire crystal that mimics the domed acrylic that would have come on the original. And when I saw it at Basel, I remember telling Rick, the guy from Doxa, that he was asking me, like, do you think we should have done a plastic crystal? I was like, yeah, do plastic if you can. But he was kind of thinking sapphire is preferable for all the reasons why most watch companies use sapphire these days. And I didn't think they could really get it just right. So it looks like an old plastic crystal, but you'd swear this thing's an acrylic crystal. I mean, it, it, it's domed just right. And it has very little reflection. So it has that sort of warmth to it that you get on, on a plastic crystal. And then the dial has kind of that same really kind of skinny old school font that they used on the, on the first doxes.
James Stacy Yeah. And you've got photos on your Instagram. So, I mean, if you, if it's actually kind of a difficult watch to get a sight of, a couple places posted about it during Basel, but like it's not on Doxa's specific website. There's a pre-order page that you can find through their Facebook, which allows you to pre-order one of the three versions of the 50th anniversary that they're making. But I would swing by Jason's Instagram to get like kind of a real life shot of the watch or a couple, just a really, really cool looking piece that is obviously like super Doxa, but has the same sort of like, um, That new vintage aesthetic of like an Aorus 65, which is probably attributed to the crystal in my eyes. You know, the 65 had a very dramatic sort of domed crystal as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so it's pretty cool. I would say my only sort of misgiving about the watch is the bracelet, which it's a nice bracelet. It's the same bracelet that they fit to the 1200T. And it has the individual beads of rice. It has a nice fold over clasp. I just feel like it should have had a slightly more of a taper as it comes down to the clasp, but it tapers from, it kind of widens out as it approaches the case, which is cool. It comes to about a 22, even though the lug width is 20. It kind of flares out to meet the case, but then it narrows down to 20 at the clasp, and I kind of wish they had gone a little narrower down to like 18.
James Stacy Yeah, a good taper really, really sets off a case shape. Yeah. Otherwise they just end up really chunky, like visually and on wrist.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. And so the bracelet on it's fine, and it looks okay kind of from the front, but I just wish it had a bit more of a taper. And when I first got the watch, I didn't have enough links for the bracelet, so I actually just threw it on a NATO strap.
James Stacy Sure, and then because it's an exact copy of the original form, you'd be able to use the bracelet from your T-Graph.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I tried that. I have to tweak the end links a little bit. But it's pretty close, at least. It's pretty close. It's pretty close. It's a little sloppy, but, you know, it's cool. I'm not quite willing to dive with it on that old bracelet, um, just, you know, for obvious reasons, but yeah, for sure. But yeah, speaking of diving, so I'm taking it, I'm leaving, uh, actually in a couple of days here to, to go to Mauritius, which is a pretty small island. It's in the middle of the Indian ocean. Um, I think it it's was, or maybe still is, I should do my homework here. Uh, uh, like a British protectorate. But there's a fair sized Indian population. So, you know, a really interesting sort of history and diversity to the place. And given its location, the diving is supposed to be just spectacular. It's east of Madagascar, kind of near the island of Reunion. And there's supposed to be pretty healthy shark populations. Nice. Reasonably warm water temperatures. So this is a trip I'm taking for a review that I'm writing about the watch for Revolution Magazine and a shorter article for their website. I'll be definitely posting photos next week, which will actually be the week prior to when this episode airs, so you can check my Instagram for plenty of good docs of photos and some shots from Mauritius. So, really excited for that. Should be fun.
James Stacy Nice. Very cool. Well, I mean, speaking of dive watches, that's my other piece of new business is I actually got a new watch in today. It's on my Instagram. I picked up from the guys at 1025 Vintage through Analog Shift. a um a kind of cool old you know you'd say late 60s i'm sure yeah i think so late 60s perhaps early 70s uh dive watch from a brand called sylvana pretty old if you go through their history pretty old swiss uh clock and watch manufacturer uh one of the oldest on record and like so many they just didn't make it through the quartz crisis uh fully intact a lot you know some patents and branding and stuff did but the actual watch production didn't. And, you know, it uses a kind of very distinctive case shape, similar to the Von Buren style cases that would lead into the Squala designs. But with this one, it has drilled lugs as this kind of nice, almost bathyscaphe-esque dial layout, but with sort of a longer, more organic shaped hands rather than the syringe style hands on the bathyscaphe. You'd be, you know, swing by my Instagram for a photo, And then the other thing that I actually didn't notice until after I put the watch on wrist, you know, I bought it, it was shipped here, is that the bezel's not a dive bezel, it's a countdown bezel. Really? I didn't notice that. So it starts at 50, 40, 30, etc. I went to time something, you know, I've had the watch for a few hours, I went to time something and then glanced at it a little while later and I was like, no, that's definitely counting down. I wasn't planning on diving with it, so now it's just a little bit more strange. I'd rather I rather like that I found that afterwards. You would think that somebody who claims to be into watches would notice that sort of thing before they bought it, but I suppose not.
Unknown That's incredible.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's really cool.
James Stacy Really cool watch, you know, you're under, well under $1,000. Basically, you know, I joked on Instagram that I blame you, Jason, for watches like this because you send me these videos, whether it's the Cousteau one that we've talked about in the past or one that you're going to mention at the end of the episode in final notes. But I watched some of these. kind of late 60s, early 70s dive epics, pseudo documentaries about diving and about, you know, kind of the world of underwater exploration. And these guys always have these cool watches and there isn't a huge market for these watches. I mean, they're worth something. I paid something for this watch, but like I said, it was less than a thousand dollars. You can get that aesthetic in a very legitimate, like this watch looks like it's had a couple lifetimes. It's a little bit of a rat rod, but I'm, I'm really just by the minute, loving it more and more. I've got a, um, got it on a gray NATO as one would expect. And then I also, you know, you, you sent me a really nice black tropic that makes it look fully the part. You know, I, you know, I need to, I need to find a shorter pair of shorts and just tan up really hard before the end of the summer. Uh, I don't know how much summer I have left on the West coast to get that, like that really dark tan line that's right up the thigh.
Unknown Yeah, right.
James Stacy Right. And, uh, and just spend as much time out on, out on the deck of some boat as I can. Uh, but this is a really cool piece. I'm just thrilled. If you want to see a picture swing by my Instagram, but otherwise it's a, you know, just something I bought because I, uh, basically because of, you know, kind of silly love of these, uh, of these watches and the, this timeframe and, and, and this history of diving. And because you can pick up these watches for a song. I mean, I'm sure you can find them for cheaper than what I paid. for the uh for the sylvana but just uh there's so much strange really lovable old dive watches out there and it's so heavily marketed by the brand on the dial that there's opportunities for people who just want the cool stuff and maybe aren't necessarily worried about its investment potential or its auction potential that sort of thing and thankfully that's one of these things i've learned uh from my time getting to know jason better is there's just some really cool stuff out there if you keep an eye on it yeah i i think these old dive watches are just the real deal i mean i think
Jason Heaton You know, you talk about the Rolexes and Omegas, which maybe back in the, in the sixties, they were bought for as much the name on the dial as for using it for diving, or at least a good number of people were doing that. But I suspect a watch like, like your Silvana or I've got that old sports ways that uses the same case. You know that these watches look like they've been through something. And I, I, I think like you said, when you watch these old videos or you look at old photos and books, you know, these are, this is what the guys were wearing. They, they probably weren't out, Spending a ton of money on a Rolex, a lot of the real divers, the guys that were working divers, they were buying something like the Silvana. You know, we talked about Helios being sort of the Silvana of the 21st century. Another small brand that I brought up earlier in the show is Okanosker, and that's my other piece of new business. My review for Okanosker's new Sanford GMT watch will be on Hodinkee next week, which will be already posted by the time you listen to this episode. And I spent a good week with the Sanford. And as I alluded to earlier in the show, it's just a really pleasing watch. I find very little fault with the watch. It kind of does a lot of things well. The size is great. It's a 40 millimeter watch. It has two crowns, one of which controls the internal bezel, which is a 24 hour ring. Of course, it has the GMT hand and it has this unique soap rod movement that Chase Fancher, the guy from Okunosuke says isn't being used by anybody else at this point. So it's just a really unique, well-designed, nice wearing, high quality watch. And I really enjoyed my week with it. And, you know, if you listen to our interview with Chase that we ran a couple of weeks ago, you know, you can tell the guy's got a real passion for watches. You know, he was a watch geek before he was a watch company owner. And I think it really shows in his in his work. Who knows, maybe by the time you're listening to this, all the Sanfords will be sold out because he's only making 300 of them and the PVD ones are all gone. So I suspect this is going to go as quickly as the Burnham did, which was his first watch, which was also nice. But I think the Sanford kind of kicks it up a notch. It's a really cool piece.
James Stacy Yeah. And we launched that interview as kind of a separate episode. So part of a new thing called TGN Chats, where we're going to cut off the interviews and put them on their own episodes, gives the audience another episode to listen to and it kind of gives the interview its own space to live. So if you skip that or didn't understand why it was in your feed, go back and listen to it. Chase is great and the watch is really cool and I think it's neat to have kind of an inside perspective on one of these tiny, tiny brands that's having some success and to see, you know, to find some of the insight from the guy at the helm of the brand, which I think is pretty cool. And while we're speaking about, you know, cutting things off into other episodes, normally we would move into a question and answer. We're getting so many questions that we actually can't get to them fast enough. They're just backing up in my inbox. So we're going to start doing Q&A as its own episode. So occasionally you'll see in your feed a Q&A episode. That's where we're going to do the Q&A stuff. So please, please keep sending your questions. I love the questions. thegraynadoatgmail.com and the favorite questions that that we think have kind of a mass appeal or aren't crazy specific, which a lot of the questions that you guys send in are, which is awesome. But the ones that aren't too specific will make it into the show. And yeah, I think this is a better way to do it. It keeps these episodes a little bit shorter. And it means that we can offer a third episode a month with some frequency, which should be which should be pretty cool. But without any further ado, I suppose, Let's move on to final notes. Jason, what's your first final notes today?
Jason Heaton Yeah, so the first one that I've got was an article I saw in the New York Times titled, Why Self-Help Guru James Altucher Only Owns 15 Things. And it's kind of a topic, it kind of made me laugh because it's a topic that, you know, my wife and I and James, you and I have talked about at various times. And that is this notion of sort of simplifying life or minimizing the stuff you own, the watches in your collection. And so I read this article and I wasn't familiar with this guy, James Altucher, and I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing his name correctly, but the gist of it was here was a guy who had made a fair amount of money in the tech space and he'd kind of reinvented himself several times and made fortunes and went bankrupt and sold out and started over and, you know, had successes and failures in his life, but was You know kind of a go-getter younger guy who had some some successes and at one point he just decided I've got too much stuff. I'm too busy. I'm just doing too much I'm gonna just shed all the excess baggage in my life and only own 15 things and basically what he has is he you know, he carries around in like a duffel bag and couch surfs on friends, you know in friends living rooms or You know, uses Airbnb when he travels and, you know, rents places for a week at a time. Doesn't own a car. You know, I think there's this kind of general sense with a lot of people that, you know, are very busy and kind of of the, you know, the kind of the age category that you and I are, James, that, you know, when things start to sort of pile up, you have this urge to sort of just purge and clean out your closet, take your stuff to goodwill, sell all your watches. You know, we did our one watch episode, um, you know, where we talked about if you had to get rid of everything and kind of keep one watch, which one would it be? And I think that there was something about that article that really appealed to me. I can't certainly imagine stripping back to only 15 things, but you know, I think you can take a little bit from this guy's philosophy and he does, do a fair amount of writing on the topic. And I think he has a blog and does some videos about this topic of sort of simplifying life. And it's just a really intriguing concept. So take a look at the link, you know, see what you think, see if you could, you could pull it off. You know, like I said, I don't think I could, but I could take a little bit from this and maybe sell off a few watches or something like that.
James Stacy So, yeah, I read that post and I found it to be pretty interesting. And I've always liked the ethos of like, if it's, if you have things that you don't touch every year, get rid of them. And lately, I've been thinking like, could I bring that down to six months? Oh, yeah. You know, you I live in a condo in Vancouver, I don't have an unlimited amount of space. And I you know, I think people who listen will know that I probably buy too much things like gear and backpacks and stuff like that. It all has to go somewhere. And I love the I love the you know, reading that article, you kind of get the idea like this guy's living a certain type of freedom from what we're all experiencing otherwise, as people who buy a lot of stuff and own a lot of stuff. And he's otherwise just right down to the essentials and a pile of cash and just dealing with it. I don't think it's necessarily an efficient way of going through life, but I think there's a bunch of things you could learn and apply it to a normal person's life, person who has a home and things. And I think there's an efficiency in the center between the guy that only owns 15 things and the person who has a garage full of things that they never touch or a storage unit full of things that they never touch.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so that's my first one. What are you listening to or watching?
James Stacy Oh yeah, my first one's actually, you know, we spoke briefly previously in this episode about kind of the effect of marketing. the way that we feel about watch brands because of how they market into adventure and adventure athletes and adventures and things like that. And mine's actually an episode of the TED Radio Hour, which is, you know, TED Talks we talk about all the time. And they do a podcast through NPR called the TED Radio Hour. And they recently pulled out of their archive an episode I hadn't heard before called Brand Over Brain. And it's about an hour long episode that covers a few different TED Talks that discuss the manner in which marketing affects our perception of things, whether it's experiences or people or food or physical products. And I actually just think it's something you should go ahead and listen or at least listen to the TED Talks that are referenced within the episode. So swing by the show notes and click that link and it'll take you to the main page where you can kind of see the breakdown of the episode. But just some really fascinating stuff that has a lot of footing in the watch space. Like there's a lot that could be applied to the watch space as far as the way that humans appear to search for an item's essential qualities when they pick what items they like or don't like. It's called the TED Radio Hour. It's a podcast you should definitely be listening to. And they recently did Brand Over Brains. You either pull that out of their feed or click the link in the show notes to jump to it. and check it out. I think if you're interested in watches and why some people like some watches and others like other watches and this and that and the marketing of the whole effect, take a look. It's pretty cool.
Jason Heaton I'm curious which one people should listen to first or read first, your first suggestion or my first suggestion. It seems like they're two sides of the same coin.
James Stacy Yeah. Oh, I think for certain. I mean, this one definitely made me realize like, oh, I'm very susceptible to very specific types of marketing, but that span multiple types of product. Yeah. You know, and they talk about things that I found really interesting. Like if you prep somebody that they're going to like this very good bottle of wine, it matters less if the bottle of wine was good. Oh, sure. So like the more the person essentially has been educated that they'll appreciate something, the better it will probably actually be. And like the fun thing is, is like the perception is a reality. Hmm. So just because I perceive this glass of wine to be the best I've ever had, that's as legitimate as it being the best I've ever had, right? Because it comes down to like a very personal perception of something. Sure. Which I think is really fascinating and helps explain or at least frame some of the ways that people move through the very personal and emotional decision of attaching to various products, whether it's from products that are previous family members, you know, parents or grandparents used or products they got at a certain point in their life that is linked with a nostalgia or products that are aspirational in some metric like maybe you and I really like some adventure products because we like to adventure but know that we probably won't ever attempt to walk to the South Pole and back. It's just a very interesting discussion and it's very kind of open-ended in its scope in that this is the reality of the way that marketing affects the overall reality of product. Which is, I thought it was really cool. Hmm.
Jason Heaton I'll give it a shot. Yeah, so my second suggestion is completely different, but it's related to something you talked about earlier with your new Sylvana watch. And that is, it's a documentary film from I think 1971 called Blue Water White Death. It's a movie I've seen several times and actually wrote a review of it on Gear Patrol a couple of years ago. It's a movie that was kind of the brainchild of Peter Gimbel. And Peter Gimbel, you know, you've heard us in the past talking about books and deep diving and the Andrea Doria wreck off the east coast of the US. Gimbel was the heir to a department store fortune. There used to be a department store chain called Gimbel's in the US and Peter Gimbel was an heir to that fortune, that family fortune. And he was an adventurer and he had this money and he wanted to go out and do cool stuff. So in addition to being the first guy to dive the Andrea Doria, he decided in the late sixties that he wanted to set out and be the first person to take photos and film the great white shark underwater, which is something that no one had done up to that point. So, you know, he took a ton of money and he chartered like this big fishing trawler or this big, you know, freighter, this big boat, uh, and had custom built underwater diving cages that had their own means of, uh, ascending and descending in the water via compressed air and set off with this team of kind of superstar divers from the, from that age. And they, they basically went around the world for like seven or eight months looking for great white sharks. And they, they started out in South Africa. They went east of Madagascar, they went to Sri Lanka, and they ended up in Australia. And, um, so this, this movie, it's this wonderful, very seventies documentary with, you know, I mean, the team even had a folk musician as part of their, as part of their team, which is just awesome. It's like Tom Chapin, who was the brother, I think of Harry Chapin, who was a fairly famous folk singer back then. And he's along and his whole, his sole purpose on the trip was just to strum his guitar and sing songs. And then they had these two kind of superstar spear fishermen from Australia. They had Stan Waterman who happened to be a Doxa guy and you can catch sight of his, his orange dial Doxa in the movie. Um, and then of course Gimbal himself and some other camera people. And it's just this crazy. Adventure, I mean they just do stuff in this in this movie that you wouldn't think of doing nowadays, you know guy gets lost at sea Gimbal gets decompression sickness You know, they're diving in open water around a whale carcass with you know, a school schools of hundreds of oceanic white tip sharks swimming around them It's it's just really crazy and it's it's got that beautiful sort of warm You know 70s film luster to it that I just love. And of course, you catch glimpses of really cool watches. So, James, did you finish that movie? I know you were watching it last week.
James Stacy Yeah, I've watched it twice so far and I absolutely adore it. It's really strange because it lacks some of the political correctness, especially around the environmental concern of like whaling.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy You know, this would have been filmed in the very late 60s and there's a scene where they're watching a whale get killed. Yeah. And it's all they're all pretty chill, but they're definitely saying like, oh, they're going to hunt these things to extinction. But like, it's not at all like if you were if you were to film that today or I mean, there's a whole show on like Discovery Channel or there was about like catching whalers. And it seems like they're existing in a world of complete lawlessness.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Both in the way that they dive. I mean, like, yeah, the speed at which they ascend makes you nervous as a diver and it's It's a really fantastic film. It's also surprising watching that you realize how much that film must have informed the Life Aquatic. Oh, sure. You know, with the folk singer that was on the Life Aquatic, like on Steve Zissou's ship. There's no way that's not a direct like nod to Blue Water, White Death. Really, if you're listening to this podcast, you should go and watch this. This video, the whaling scene is a little bit disturbing, but if you either just jump past that, if you don't like seeing that sort of thing, or just get through it, the movie really kind of opens up and you see, you see some very early diving, sport diving, and they are pushing limits that would still be considered limits today. And they're breaking a bunch of rules that of course we know a little bit more about today. It's, um, it's fantastic. It's really, it's really exactly what you want from that sort of seventies, big money adventure lifestyle. Really, really great.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's worth at least an annual viewing on my part. For sure.
James Stacy And then my, uh, my final one is this one is actually going to, it'll cost you a few bucks. So in the past, we've spoken about night eyes, the brand, they make those, uh, S beaners that I really like. Um, the kind of two channel carabiners. But I actually found another product that I really like for general kind of backpack use. And they call it the Cam Jam Cord Tightener. So if you imagine a very fine length of like bungee cord connected to a carabiner that has a cam built into it. So you can actually connect either end of this and then just tug on the line and the cam opens and then you hook it into into a jamming set in the cam and then it grabs. And it's essentially like a fully adjustable bungee cord and really handy. I've used it a couple of times for some light backpacking use. I took a couple to Baker and secured a sleeping bag to my bag for the hike in and out. They're only a couple of dollars. They come in different lengths. And if you're just kind of looking for a really handy item that I think you could use for about a hundred, maybe a thousand different uses when camping or adventuring. These cam jams are cool. I really like the, I bought a couple. I'm sure I'll buy a few more, maybe some longer ones would be pretty cool. And I could see them coming into use, not only backpacking, but just general camping or car use and certainly boating and things like that. And anywhere where you're kind of packing, stowing or lashing. It's a, it's cool stuff. Nice.
Jason Heaton I'll check it out. For sure. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details and you can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton and James is at, at J E Stacy. And until next time we leave you with this quote from Herman Melville who said, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.