The Grey NATO – 162 – New Watches And New Grails

Published on Thu, 30 Sep 2021 06:00:16 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Great NATO podcast, hosts Jason and James discuss several watch-related topics. They begin by talking about the newly released Vacheron Constantin Overseas Everest limited edition watches, expressing their admiration for the designs while lamenting their limited availability. The hosts then share details about their own recent watch acquisitions - James has purchased a Bremont S302 GMT dive watch, while Jason has acquired a white-dial Omega Seamaster Professional. They discuss the features, aesthetics, and wearing experiences of these watches in depth. The episode concludes with the hosts sharing their picks for interesting content, including a vintage expedition video crossing the Sahara by truck and a series about driving unusual classic cars.

Transcript

Speaker
James Hello and welcome to another episode of The Great NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 162 and we thank you so much for listening. Hey Jason, how you doing?
Jason Heaton I am doing just fine. It's a very cool morning. We slept with the windows open last night and man, it's like in the forties here. Atta boy.
James Yeah, yeah. 40s. Yeah. We're not quite that low. We had some rain overnight, but it's definitely, you know, it's fall and it's kind of nice. I was at the cottage this weekend and it was right on that line where you actually get kind of cold getting in and out of the water. It's not cold to swim or anything. Like it's a little chilly your first jump in it's, but it was still nice. And then in the afternoon it was actually just on the warm side. So, I mean, September in, in this part of the world, it's pretty nice. It's my favorite month.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I love it. And, uh, yeah, there you go. You know, we, we, um, went out for a bike ride the other day and I was like, you know, every year I, when fall rolls around and then it slips past, I always think, ah, I didn't get enough out of fall. Um, you know, years ago we used to do like an annual Labor Day weekend cabin trip and we do a lot of hiking and stuff and we haven't done that in several years and, or go camping or whatever. And I'm like, you know, it just slips by. Fall is the fastest season. And then late October comes, all the leaves are down and it's kind of ugly and it's cold. And, um, so I just thought to myself, you know, I can get the most out of fall. close to home if I have to, you know, like if we don't even get out of town, like there's plenty of nice color changes. We, we, there's plenty of good hiking around here. We can just get out, just be outside as much as possible. I think that's kind of my, that's going to be my, uh, my motto this, this fall is just, just soak it up because, uh, it's, it's the best season. It's the best weather I love kind of, you know, I think we've talked about it shorts and a sweater kind of thing. I love that combination.
James And so, Yeah, I've been out on the bike a fair bit lately. Enough that I'm now learning on this bike what needs to be fixed. And I need to make a few modifications. You know, I'm used to a certain sort of setup on my indoor bike. And then I've got this great outdoor bike that my father found for me. And it's really nice. It's a better bike than I've ever owned in any condition. So it's probably the first one that ever really fits my kind of weird frame. I've got a lot of leg. So it's a huge bike. But it needs new tires and it needs an adjustment to the way that the derailleurs are working. And the, the handlebars are like, you know, those really wide ones.
Unknown Yeah.
James It's almost like a straight bar across, but the, the grips are like significantly, uh, outside of the, the like range of motion of my, where my hands would fall naturally with my, where my shoulders are. Right. It must be for a lot of control on trails. These like longer, cause it has a soft front shock system of some sort. Yeah. So I'm going to either go to a horn or like a drop bar or shorten these bars by a couple inches. And I think that'll bring my comfort level up quite a bit.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You could just hacksaw them off. Yeah.
James Yeah. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's exactly what my dad said. That's like, well, I mean, if you don't feel precious about them, you know, peel all the stuff off and make a couple of cuts and slide it all back on.
Jason Heaton They'll be shorter. Well, and when they're really wide like that, it's like using a tiller on a boat, you know, it's like these big motions. you know, from with your arms to steer. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I guess the season's getting short now too. You probably only have another month of month and a half of riding at best. Yeah.
James Yeah. And so I'm, I'm on vacation next week. If you're listening to this episode, when this episode drops, I will be away from home for the first time in some time going to, uh, uh, on, on a little bit of a trip. And I'm super excited to have some time off and to actually do like TGN will be covered. And, uh, and I'm not going to have, um, I'm not gonna be doing emails or any of that kind of stuff. So that'd be pretty good, but I'll probably send the bike in for service during that time. So then when I come back, I might have, ah, who knows? I mean, if, if, uh, global warming really leans on this fall, you know, I might, I might be able to bike into November, November. Yeah. Um, you know, we were just looking at photos earlier this week. And we made it at the cottage until pretty, pretty almost December. Oh, wow. Before it's too cold to kind of keep the building warm enough to be comfortable when sleeping, that sort of thing. So yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, should be should be good. I too am a big fan of fall. It's a it's a you know, a time time of year that makes me think a lot about like, kind of spending a little bit more time with with family and and and yeah, nice walks. And I, you know, always look forward to the leaves turning. I'm sure that's as basic as fall gets. But I'm okay with that.
Jason Heaton And the, uh, the day after this episode drops, uh, Ghoshani and I will be headed up North, which will be a proper kind of fall color getaway, but it's for that. Uh, I don't know if you remember back in the spring, I had signed up for this off-road skills course. Um, Oh, of course.
James Yeah. Driving class.
Jason Heaton You ended up missing it. Yeah, we, we had to postpone it. I don't even remember why, but, um, it's, uh, it's now the first weekend in October and it's up on the, What's called the iron range here in Minnesota. So it's where they were doing all the iron mining. And so it's a lot of craggy rocks and old mine pits and forest. It's going to be so fun. So the color should be nice up there. And I, I actually think it'll be much better for driving. I think cars do better when the air is a little colder. It's, it'll definitely be more comfortable than kind of, you know, kind of a sweaty, you know, I mean, it's low speed driving and there shouldn't be any bugs left. And, uh, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I I've been, you know, I had gotten the defender already for the course back in May, you know, I got all the kind of equipment that they, the recovery gear that they recommended for the course. And, um, you know, I'll just go through and check all the fluids and make sure everything's up to snuff, but yeah, it should be, uh, should be a lot of fun. I'm, I'm looking forward to it. It seems a little daunting. I hope I don't break anything, you know, important on the truck so we can get back home. But, um, I think it'd be, I think it'd be great.
James Yeah. Well, I mean, you'll be out there with other, like, uh, four by four enthusiasts. They're a type that likes to be saving each other from mud and other inclement conditions. I think that's going to be super fun. And I would say that not only is it kind of a nicer time to be out driving in an older vehicle, but it's going to be better for photography too. You'll get a much wider window of, you know, highlight angle and colors, and especially like a white defender kind of snaking its way through a leafy, you know, uh, you know, unassumed road. That's, that's going to be a good look. Yeah. I originally back when you're looking at this, you were talking about taking the drone and shooting a little bit of video of the experience and that sort of thing for Instagram. And yeah, I think if you end up doing that, it's probably, this is probably a better time of year to do it. It'll be a little bit more compressed in terms of a shooting cycle. You get better light.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I think so too. I can't wait. So I I've been driving the, uh, the old truck, the old series three lately, and I, Yesterday I was out and it's, it's running so well. And I had this, uh, this crept into my mind, like maybe I should take this one instead. This could do pretty well, the short wheelbase and whatever, but I think getting up there, it's a good four, four to five hour drive. And I think that would pretty much kill me, you know, just.
James And I think it's like the, I think it's a little bit, I'm sure both of them are more than capable of doing whatever they have planned. Yeah. But I think there is something kind of extra cool about doing it in this, in the, the one that you plan to do all the adventuring in it, it'll build some confidence and, and build your relationship with the vehicle mechanically and otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. I think that'd be great for sure. Yeah. You know, I keep saying this and I was saying to you before we started recording that it's, it's getting a little embarrassing. I don't have anything to chit chat about because all I do, all I've done is work for, for the last several weeks. You know, I ride my bike a little bit. Or the one after that. 164, I should have some experiences to chit chat about. But no, I mean, the big news around the Stacey household here is I got a new microphone arm. So if you hear a little bit less squeaking or maybe my general on mic talent, you know, my ability to actually keep my face pointing towards the mic will be a little bit better. Yeah, just upgrading little pieces of kit. The one I had was one of those $10 ones from Amazon.
Jason Heaton It's probably the same one I have, this Frameworks thing that sits on a heavy base on your desk?
James It was just one of those ones that clamps on. Oh, it clamps. Okay. And then I had modified it over the course of owning a few different microphones, and it was just covering the bases with the current mics, which I changed to this mic a few months back, the Shure MV7. The big thing was if I made little adjustments, which I tend to do quite a bit as I'm moving around, if I made little adjustments, it was starting to squeak. And so I put some lubricant on there and then it was just kind of messy. Whenever I went to reach a joint to move it, I would end up with oil on my fingers and that sort of thing. So I just figured it was time, you know, I'd probably had that last one since we started the show, you know, so several years. Yeah. But yeah, so that I got our, for those, for those of you who are into podcasting or streaming or whatever, I bought the Rode PSA1. It would be kind of the de facto premium boom arm. And it's nice. It even has like a fully threaded mount that you can drill a hole in your desk and then mount it in there. And the spike at the bottom drops into that rather than using a clamp. But I'm always impressed with this brand and it seems to be a pretty good match for the microphone. So that's the big news. Cool. from my part of the world, but it makes it... Doing a lot of podcasts these days, so it's nice to have gear that doesn't just suddenly fall off my desk or squeak throughout an entire recording or something like that. Yeah, right.
Jason Heaton Well, we've got some exciting new watches to talk about today, two of our own and then one that we wish was our own.
James Yeah, so this is... We probably won't bother doing a wrist check. I have a wrist check on here, but this whole episode is kind of a wrist check. It's not common that Jason and I buy watches, let alone, in this case, kind of pricey watches. And then on top of that, last week's episode, we had a film club, which was kind of tied up in terms of what it would be covering and the time range. It ended up being a long episode anyways. And a big thanks to my brother, Tim, for coming on. But we didn't end up with a lot of time to chat about the new Vacheron Constantin Overseas Everest limited editions. And I wanted to get to those too, because Honestly, that dual time is easily my favorite watch of 2021. I just absolutely adore it. I think it's mega cool. I wish it wasn't a limited edition, but let's face it, if it was limited or not, I'm not that close to getting one. So I think it would have been cool to have seen... And maybe this is a step in that progress. They made the prototype, then they made these two new ones. as LEs, and then maybe they'll eventually be a titanium, like a standard overseas titanium line. Who knows? It certainly seems to be a popular metal this year, doesn't it?
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, since you brought that watch up first, let's dive into that.
James Yeah, let's start there.
Jason Heaton For sure. I'm curious about... So let's say it either wasn't limited or you had... You ponied up the... What was it? $37,000 or something? $32,000 or $31,300 for the dual time.
James and 37 for the chronograph. Oh, okay. But I can do, I can do a little rundown before we get to the hypothetical, if you'd like. Yeah, sure. So for those of you who have your head under a rock for the last, this would have been two weeks. This news is now kind of two weeks old. Um, by the time this episode actually comes out, um, on Monday, the 20th, uh, somebody broke the embargo, which was set for later in the week for a new set of Vacheron Constantin overseas sports watches that were both in this, um, Everest theme. Um, and, and so they're derived from the prototype model from 2019 that Corey Richards, and we had Corey on episode 85 of the show. If you don't remember that, if you weren't a listener, then go back and check that out. One of my favorite interviews I've ever done on the show, I've never really met anyone like Corey's like insanely open and, um, and like very kind and warm and also has this really incredible, um, push to do dangerous things and take a camera with him. It can't be overstated. He's an incredibly talented photographer and a very talented Alpinist. And, uh, it's interesting to see his connection with Vacheron continue. And, uh, and so inspired by this one of one prototype that they made in 2019, which was a titanium dual time overseas, which is one of my favorite watches in that, in that sort of, uh, Genta-esque space. Um, and it was on a textile strap. really, really cool thing. I got a chance to see it and take photos of it. They later auctioned it off for in support of the National Geographic Society. Now they've made a limited run of 150 watches in the dual time and 150 in a chronograph. So the chronograph is 42.5 millimeters, just under 14 thin. It's titanium, has a steel ring under the titanium bezel, but the rest is basically titanium in a mix of finishes. 150 meters water resistant. And then they do the dual time Everest is 41 millimeters 12.8 thick, the same sort of mix of titanium with this steel ring under the bezel to add I guess this kind of pop of brightness to it. And then both have these really incredible matte blue, gray dials, orange accents, again, 150 meters on the dual time and they come with a gray Cordura fabric which is quick change, a tool is quick change, and then you can swap it for a gray rubber strap. So it includes both. The chronograph uses an in-house chronograph movement, as you would expect. It's a four Hertz movement with 52 hours of power reserve. It's a column wheel chronograph and it's Hallmark of Geneva certified. Again, this is all kind of normal for what you'd expect for an overseas chrono. And then this one, like the, um, or both of these watches, like the prototype have, an engraving of Everest on the pink gold oscillating weight, which is based on a photo that Corey had made in the Himalayas. Yeah. And then, like I had mentioned, 31.3 for the dual time and 37,000 for the chrono. Those numbers don't matter because by literally every report from commenters, from people I know in and around New York's boutique scene, these watches were all pre-sold. There's 300 of them and they were gone before the press release ever came out. So, I mean, that's a bit of a bummer, but that's also how a lot of these limited editions go. Like I said, it'd be exciting to see if we end up getting more titanium down the line. To be honest, in many ways, Jason, what do you like better about this? This is my first opening question, I suppose. What do you like better about these? Is it the titanium-ness of it or the general coloring? Because for me, it's the coloring. I could deal with it being in steel. I don't think it would matter, especially because there's no bracelet. But it's this blue gray textured dial with the orange that kills me.
Jason Heaton It looks so good. When would you ever have considered putting Vacheron Constantin and Everest in the same title of a watch? You know, I mean, it's, it's like, it's like an upscale TGN, you know, we're, we're, we're kind of like the every man podcast, you know, like we talk about backpacks and sneakers and Seiko's and like, it's like, if there was like this alternative version of, of TGN that was like, high end and whatever. I mean, it's like G wagons and this and that, but like, like the fact that they made this watch, I think is, is just really cool. I just love the fact that it exists. And, and also that, that they partnered with a guy who, um, you actually interviewed for TGN, which was, which is really cool. That's a, that's a cool link for us. But, um, you know, hats off to Corey. He's incredibly talented, very accomplished, but like in terms of name cache, Like this isn't, you know, Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold, um, you know, Mike Horn, you know, the, the, the kind of the usual suspects that kind of are on the cover of the time or, you know, making documentaries like Corey's like a mountaineer's mountaineer, a photographer's photographer. And he's, he's so committed to his craft and his work. And the fact that, that Vacheron, I don't even know how that relationship came about, but like the fact that they went with him, um, for the prototype. And then he actually wore the watch, uh, is just neat all around. I mean, I think, you know, watch aside, which is ultra cool. Like the fact that, that they made this watch with Corey Richards is, uh, is just, it just blows me away. I think it's really neat.
James Yeah. And if we can get Corey on again, uh, sometime in the future, we will, it was something I had, I had, uh, you know, made, I had put the request in, um, for, for this episode. Uh, cause I thought it'd be fun to chat, to chat about the watches and what his involvement is, but it'll always be fun to talk about that with him and This is probably a busy week for him, all things considered, and I came pretty late to that request. Hey, everyone, James here with a quick editor's note because minutes after we recorded this episode, I got the calendar invite for a chat with Corey. So instead of making this episode even longer, we're going to release that interview as a surprise episode tomorrow. If you listened on day one, you're officially in on the secret. And who doesn't like a free extra episode? OK, back to the show. And thanks so much for listening. It's unexpected, but if you, if you pay attention to what Corey does I would say that he does the mountaineering and the photography thing under the guise of fine art in many ways. And I think in the fine art spectrum, Vacheron makes this really weird amount of sense, right? They, they do, they do watches with the Louvre. They do watches, you know, inspired by pieces of music and, and and you know, Yeah. These things with incredible engravings and very art forward sort of, um, in, in a European, a classical European sort of way. Yeah. And with Corey, it's, it's like the mountain climbing is part of it, just like the photography is part of it. But he has having met him and chatted with him. He has more of an artistic approach to all the stuff that he does. And I think that's where the, the sort of Asher on this almost, it works, it works kind of really well. And I do like that at no point are they really saying like, this is the watch you should wear to the top of Everest. Right. Right. But this is more, this is an overseas that's inspired by Corey's sort of path through life.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think somebody, somebody, uh, commented on your Hodinkee article that came out yesterday. Well, a couple of days ago now when the, when the watch came out, but, um, said, you know, mountaineers are not wearing 30 or $40,000 watches to climb Everest. And it's like, that's, that's not the point. I mean, that's, this is, this is a watch, like you said, inspired by his work and Mount Everest in general and climbing it's, it's
James if another brand did this, like imagine if you had this come from a Bremont or a Bell and Ross or a Tag Heuer or even a Seiko, you'd go like, Oh, I kind of get this. But the truth is, is if this watch was two or $3,000, it's no closer to being a watch that somebody would likely to wear on an expedition. It's like, it doesn't matter that it's $30,000. I guess what matters is that it's a Vacheron Constantin and not a Garmin or a Suunto. Yeah, like at a certain point, any of these, the ideas that it's the mechanical watch that an Alpinist is going to take into the, into the field, like maybe as a backup for sure. And even then, like you'd probably take a marathon or, you know, a solar Seiko or something like a great citizen or something like that. But, and more of the comments were people upset about the fact that it was limited and sold before Like there was no way to get them. I think I saw one person in the comments who said, I'm fortunate enough to get, to have gotten an allocation.
Unknown Yeah.
James I do absolutely understand that when they make 300 of something and they, they absolutely have an Excel sheet of their best clients. Yeah. Those folks get an email before the rest of us. Right. That's how, that's also how cars are sold. That's also how, you know, a limited edition fine art is sold. Like clients are clients for a reason. Sure. Yeah. And if you're an enthusiast, you're not necessarily a client. You can be both, but it's not guaranteed. Right. And so as much as I would very much like to see one of these in person, to have owned one at one point, that's all something that would have to be tied to a down the road scenario. Like I said, even if this was a $15,000 watch, I wouldn't be that much closer to getting it. But man, I do really like them.
Jason Heaton So I've got a question. uh well i guess it's a multi-part question but you know these watches are based on existing overseas watches um that were previously or are still available in steel with i guess i don't know if they're lacquered but you know shiny black dials um in steel with bracelets how much more maybe that's a silly question how much more do you like this version than that like for instance have you ever been tempted by or would you ever consider the steel version uh say on a bracelet or on a strap of the dual time.
James Yeah, I do. I do really like the dual time in general. Yeah. It's not so much that it's titanium or this different strap. It really is that dial treatment. I like the idea of one that's a little bit more on the sporty side. I love the punch of color from the orange on the Everest. I like the kind of tonality of the titanium, and I really like that dial. especially because the brand is much more better known for doing these kind of lustrous, luxurious styles. And then to see it implemented in sort of a matte, no fuss sort of way, I really like. But this is a watch that the model in general, I think, is not only a bit of a sleeper, I mean, less so now as they're making watches like the Everest. But I think people don't give the overseas the same credit they give to the Aquanaut or the Nautilus or the Royal Oak. And it makes them this very interesting sort of sleeper offering that really doesn't make any concessions to any of those counterparts. Like it's as well finished as anything from those other brands. It has a fantastic movement. I think the functionality works really well. I saw this in, in some of the, um, in some of the comments and, and I had a memory of how it worked when I, when I had the overseas dual time for a few days, but I went back and double checked. And, uh, basically you have, um, the, In short, if you're looking at a photo of it, the pusher, which is at about four o'clock, that corrects the date if you have to make a date correction. And then everything else is controlled by the crown. So if you pull the crown out to the first position, the local time, so that's your main handset, jumps hourly. And then if you pull the crown out to the second position, you adjust all the hands together. So it's really similar to the way an Explorer 2 works.
Jason Heaton Overseas, when I look at the kind of that trilogy of Royal Oak, Nautilus, and well, to a certain degree, Aquanaut or the Overseas. I mean, personally, what speaks to me more is the Overseas. There's the shape of it and the overall design, especially on the strap. It's just a little bit less, it feels less old money kind of dressy to me. It feels more like, okay, I could, I could strap this on and go, kayaking or hiking with it.
James Good water resistance. Yeah. Super wearable. You know, they all come with multiple options. Like if you buy one with a bracelet, you get the leather and the rubber. Yeah. Right. Which I think is clever.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Now, if you had the, if you had the money and the watch was available, uh, and, and let's say you, you sold everything except, you know, I don't know what SKX or something, you know, just to, you had one other watch, would you be inclined to, to just, I mean, would you, would this be a daily wear piece? Would you just wear this for anything and everything kind of thing?
James I guess you wouldn't really have a choice if you sold everything, right? Yeah. I know. Yeah. I think I would want to wear it as much as possible, but man, you'd be doing it knowing you're taking value off the table every time it gets a scratch or a dent. And the funny thing is, is like, this would be about $45,000 Canadian. So let's say, let's say I was in the position to spend 45 on a watch. I wouldn't be in a position to not have that watch be worth 45 grand, X number of years later. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's one thing to maybe have the money to get the thing. It's another thing to not have the thing anymore and have lost the value in it in some way. Yeah. Or to have seen this massive... This is why I'm very careful what cars I buy, because I think depreciation is kind of a sneaky way of things costing you twice. Yeah. And so, yeah, I don't... This watch will not depreciate, so you have a different sort of scenario in which do I wear this every day? And this is just like now my one watch. I deal with the expensive service every several years. It's probably quite a long service window, but it wouldn't be cheap. Right. And then you just wear it and you kind of forego the fact that it's worth something as a, as a collector's piece.
Unknown Yeah.
James I'm not really sure. And I, what I know for certain is in the several different ways that I've used this watch as a thought exercise to my relationship to watches and finances, I'm not in this world. Even if I had the cash sitting in an account.
Unknown Yeah.
James You have to think of all the ways in which that cash now isn't being used for something else or the fact that you're putting the money into a product that you then might destroy or devalue in some way. And if you don't have to worry about that, then perfect. That means you're in the right world to buy a watch of this value, but that's not the world I'm in.
Jason Heaton So maybe this is a good segue. This watch is probably 10 times more than kind of the watches that you and I have just just acquired ourselves. So you with the Bremont S302, me with this Omega Seamaster Professional. Let's just continue that thought exercise and say that, you know, in order for a purchase like this and the way of wearing this Vacheron like we would our Bremont or my Omega, um, would be, you know, you'd have to make 10 times what we make. Like I always think about like, who's buying a watch like this, who can just pick up the phone. I'm looking at Vacheron's website and it says, purchase your new Vacheron Constantin timepiece by phone. And like, there's a link, like I could click that and buy a watch now, like to, to make that sort of purchase or make that sort of decision or the sort of decision you made with the Bremont or I did with the Omega, you know, I guess there are plenty of people out there, maybe some TGN listeners, maybe not, but you know, who, who do make 10 or 15 or 20 times more than, than we do. um, as a, you know, corporate lawyer, CEO, whatever it may be, um, that I guess for them that this is that watch and they, they own far more expensive pieces that they, they do kind of baby and keep away. But this would be the one they take kayaking or hiking. I don't know.
James And that's fine. I mean, the thing is, is, and I I've had this conversation with friends and, and, and, and stuff in the past. And then I, I think you and I think very similarly about this, which I think is why we can talk about $30,000 and $40,000 watches on TGN. I have friends who have a lot of trouble essentially with FOMO because they can't buy something.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. And I've never really interfaced with watches in that way. I'll miss out on something or want something and then not be able to get it. And then just kind of like, I forget about it. It doesn't matter. Yeah. But I have people who they worry, they don't want to go to... I knew people who didn't really like going to Red Bar because they didn't have something that could flash hard enough on the table compared to what other people were bringing. Yeah. And when people say it's one of those things where somebody says something to you and you realize that you have a, like, you don't, you don't even, you haven't even tried to adopt somebody else's perspective. Yeah. Cause that, that had never come like, I'll just show up with a Seiko on my wrist. I don't care.
Unknown Right.
James Right. As much as I love a really fancy watch or a really impressive watch or the same with cars, I have much less pressure to own them. Yeah. So maybe at some point in my life, I'll be in the position to get something really, really genuinely cool in like from the deep core of watch enthusiasm, something that says Vacheron Constantin or Patek Philippe on the dial or a Lange, something like that. But if it never happens, that'll be okay too. I've already owned more watches than I was ever owed by life. You know what I mean?
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I've come to, I've come around to, uh, maybe it's a level of maturity and watch collecting. Uh, and I'm now coming to terms with, with saying that I do collect watches because let's face it, I do. Um, and, and that is, I can, I can appreciate something without having to scheme or, or, or feel that I need to own it. You know, whereas I think, you know, you know, in this business, uh, as you know, you know, we, we see new stuff come around all the time and those that are on Hodinkee every day or the forums, you know, you see the latest, whatever it is, Rolex, Seamaster, Bremont, whatever. And you think, Oh, how can I make that happen? Oh, it's just outside, you know, the new bond Seamaster it's eight, $9,000. Like if I do this, I could get it, whatever. And it's like, no, you know, I tried that on. It's cool. It's very light. The mesh bracelet's awesome. But do I need it? No, I can admire it on somebody else's wrist or appreciate that they made it without having to, to own it. And, and I finally kind of, in the past couple of years kind of come to that notion. And I think you've been there for a long time, especially given your work with, you know, in the car writing space years ago, like driving McLarens and Bentleys, where it's like, I will never own this $200,000 vehicle. But, you know, to even get a glimpse of it or even take that a step further, drive it, like it's just a privilege. And it's cool that they exist.
James Yeah. I think that's how I've seen it for a long time is like, And maybe what the difference is, is other people come to the watch enthusiasm world kind of by buying things and their enthusiasm is tied with having the new thing. And mine absolutely is at times. But I think so early on in my watch kind of development, I realized like, I don't have the buying power to operate as a sole unit in this world. I need an edge. And that came from, you know, finding my way into getting loaners. Right. And in many ways, this is the exact same for cars. I've loved cars since I was a little kid, and I really wanted to drive fast cars as much as possible. And I still do. I miss it pretty much every day.
Unknown Yeah.
James But I had a few really great years with Nuvo, and I'm very thankful for those experiences. And someday I'll get a normal, what the straight pipe guys would call dad fast, a sort of normal fast car. And I'll enjoy that. But right now, yeah, you just I don't... My enthusiasm isn't tied to the ownership experience. In many ways, it maybe is distinctly disconnected from the ownership experience. Yeah. Because I know people who own some watches that I would consider dream watches, and they're in a drawer because they know it has a $3,000 repair bill that they just can't stomach. Yeah, yeah. When they have 40 other watches they could be wearing, or five other watches, or even one. Yeah. Yeah. Even one other watch. And I look at that and I go, I don't have any watch that costs as much as your repair bill.
Unknown Yeah. Right. Right.
James But no, I love these VCs for sure. And we can move on to our new watches. But I love these a lot. I will, these will always be a full-on grail for me. One of the commenters was very smart and said, this or a 5164 tech. And to be honest, I'm still wrestling with that. I think this is a better looking, more interesting watch than the Patek. But the Patek is like, there's something about the Aquanaut on a rubber strap that I do genuinely love. So I'm not really sure. I mean, I guess at one time they were, they would have been in a roughly similar price point. The Patek stuff is of course insane. And then who knows what these will cost when they hit, you know, a reseller. Yeah. I would say congratulations to Vacheron for that. But yeah, how about we chat about our new watches? You let the cat out of the bag a few minutes ago. Well, on a previous episode, last episode, we spoke about how you had picked up the truly gorgeous white dial Seamaster Pro. And then I don't have it on my wrist today. I'm actually wearing the exact same watch that I wore in last week's wrist check because it was just yesterday that we recorded it. I still have the Aquastar. a look.
Jason Heaton you know, fingers crossed you have it in time for this, uh, this, this trip you're taking.
James I'll get a chance to actually use a GMT for the first time.
Jason Heaton GMT. Hopefully you'll be out in the woods hiking or in the mountains or something. Yeah.
James Yeah. Do some kayaking, get it a little wet.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. No, that's awesome. I mean, that's a watch that, you know, you talk about, you know, financial scales or, or kind of, uh, different tiers of, of watches. And I think, you know, the Vacheron, Everest edition is, is a, you know, titanium dual time outdoorsy kind of watch. Well, the, the Braymon S302 is the kind of watch that, okay, it's steel and whatever, but it's, it's a dual time watch. And you, you, you can certainly, as we know with Braymons, you can, you can certainly beat the snot out of them. And, and I'm sure you will do your best with this one, but what a, what a gorgeous watch. And I, I keep coming back to the photos you took on your, your, uh, your earlier hands-on piece with this. And I think it's so cool that you got this one. you know, what, uh, you know, what, what kind of finally tipped you over and into the purchase of this one?
James So I basically had like a handful of watches kind of stuck in my mind, uh, over my, over the past experiences, you know, uh, the, the Zen U 50, uh, the Cartier tank, uh, I'm always on the edge of buying a Tudor Pelagos like forever, which we've talked about before. Um, and then the opportunity came up to, uh, to pick this one up and, the price was right and the rest of it. So I went for it and I'm really excited. It's one of my favorite watches that I've come across recently. I even went and looked at the photos that I shot last night and realized it was only May when I had it. It feels like it's been gone for longer than that, which I suppose is a good sign. And to make it work, I'll probably sell my Solo to level out. But the Solo is a watch I've had for the better part of nine years now. And I think for at least the last three years, it's either been, you know, for a little while, Enrique was borrowing it and then you've had it for the last little while. Yeah. It's in the US. Yeah. So, so that's a, yeah, exactly. Yeah. If you're, if you're keen on a 43 millimeter white dial solo, the early with the screw down crown I have everything here in Canada for it. And then the watch itself is in the state. So drop me a line if you're keen, but that's, you know, that's a watch that I enjoyed and I've had, I've had my time with and and you know, and very much a watch that I like, but I probably don't need multiples. And I think if I want to wear a Braymont, I want to wear my favorite one. And that's the, the 302 at this point, you know, the brands certainly evolved in the last decade since I bought the solo.
Jason Heaton Yeah. That's that to me that that watch is, is it's a format that you and I both like that the GMT diver but it's also kind of a distillation of, of, you know, Braymont's maturity in terms of its diving watches. I mean, I think they read out of the gate with some really stellar kind of pilots watches early on. And then when the supermarine line came out, I have an early S 2000. Um, but then when they came out with the S 300 line, you know, the, the, the smaller size and slightly slimmer and just, I don't know, they've, they've, it's kind of a pitch perfect watch in terms of the markers. I love the 12 o'clock marker. The handset is just great. Um, and then that little splash of color on the GMT hand, which, uh, which version are you getting? It comes on a, Is it a leather strap or you can get a bracelet, right?
James No bracelet offering to my understanding. I would like a bracelet for it at some point. And of course they make the bracelet for the 300 and the 301, same case. So that should be possible. But the two options are the striped NATO. Believe it or not, I actually have plenty of NATOs of my own. And then your other option is a sort of a tan leather. Oh yeah. Yeah. Um, and that'll be fine. I'll probably make a little jig to hold that leather around a tennis ball or a piece of foam. They're very kind of stiff and springy when you first get a Braymont leather strap, but they are amazing. Once they're broken in, I have one or two that are broken in from my solo and they're just, they're excellent. But Braymont actually has like a pretty wide range of straps. So I wouldn't be surprised if I, the wallet takes a hit in the next little while finding an extra strap or two. But honestly, this is one that I want to wear on a NATO, on a gray NATO. I want to wear it on nice kind of rustic leathers, things like that. So this would be an easy, very easy watch. It's like most watches that I love. It's something of a strap monster. And yeah, like you said, I really enjoy the color. I love that they went with the yellow and red, which kind of calls back to the Terra Nova, which is the GMT Supermarine they made for Ben Saunders when he did his incredible expedition. The other thing I really appreciated with the watch is that it forces me to bend my feelings about some things as well. Cause typically I don't like guilt. Oh yeah. And this is like as close to guilt as you could get before it's actually gold and the hands and everything are silver lined, but the bezel markings and the color of the loom is very sandy. And I think if it was proper shiny gold or even like the little bronze ring on the crown, is probably the one thing that I'm not wild about, but it didn't bother me in person. Yeah. Cause I don't like two-tone, but I do really like the mix of the matte kind of dark black or nearly dark black with the tan coloring. And I like the date display a lot. The loom is really good. The bezel feels incredible. It's a great size for those of you who, for whatever reason, have missed the several other times I've talked about this watch on here. It's a 300 meter dive watch. It's a dive watch first that adds a GMT system via the standard sort of collar format. So I have a nice traveler GMT in the Explorer 2. This is essentially like a perfect mix of a dive watch and a GMT. I really like the dive GMT format versus the 200 meter capable watch that has a 24 hour bezel, which is not that useful for me. You still get the triptych case, you know, DLC treated middle barrel, 40 millimeters wide, it's 13 millimeters thick, lug width is 20 millimeters, you put any strap you want on it. And then it's also chronometer rated and ISO 3159. So sort of a different level of movement compared to your Omega, although arguably almost every brand in the world is operating at a different level than Omega when it comes to mass produced amazing movements in sports watches. Yeah. Like they're absolutely the leader for that sort of thing. Yeah. Um, but for aesthetics, man, I'm so excited to get this watch. I think it's really beautiful. I think I'm also super excited. Like Braymont has the wing is up and going, they're making more and more interesting things and the company's moving in a direction I like. And for a brand I followed basically since I got into watches, uh, it's just exciting to, to have, it's, it's, it's a lot like buying a Seiko. Like I have this sort of emotional root tied to seeing that brand name on my wrist. Yeah. And it just, it just makes me happy.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. So I'm, I'm very excited and it'll be super fun to be able to take it on, um, on a trip and actually, you know, use the GMT and it'd be a great watch for that. I have to take, um, uh, the trip is to Vancouver. I'm surprised, surprised, but I have to take several watches to Roald Dorf that I want to get fixed up. I mentioned that I had been looking at getting a, a, a tank, a Cartier tank. And as it turns out, I inherited an older Boliva. Oh, that was my great grandfather's watch and it just needs some work and otherwise it'll sit on my wrist just like a tank. It's this beautiful art deco white dial, uh, Boliva. Uh, so I've got that. I've got, uh, the, the Buren's movement seems kind of locked up and I think I overwhelmed it. So that's on James. You know how that goes. Um, so that's going to go in. I think that should be like a two second repair. And then the chronograph Swiss needs a new crystal and a little bit of a tidy up on the dial. There's some, detritus on the dial. So that should be also a fairly... Mechanically, that watch is running beautifully, and I'm really excited to wear it a lot this fall, the rose gold chronograph Swiss. But yeah, so it should be fun. I'm really pumped for this watch. I know that Bremont isn't everyone's cup of tea. I don't care, even a little bit. This is a watch I love because I love it, and a brand that I love because I feel I understand them at a very high level, and I love the people that work there, and I really like that they're continuing to move. forward and make new things and do some exciting stuff. So I'm pumped for this one, depending on when it arrives. And when we record episode 163, it should arrive the same day that we record that episode. But none of you will hear that episode for about 12 days after. So yeah, we're doing some confusing tenant-esque timeline stuff to you here. But yeah, I have this watch coming. And normally, I wouldn't talk about a watch like this at length. without actually having it here, but I spent the better part of a month with it in May. Uh, so I feel at least qualified to, uh, to get on that. And if, if you have no idea what watch I'm talking about or why I like it, I'll, I'll throw the hands on. I did for Hodinke in the, um, in the notes and, uh, and we can go from there, but, uh, Jason, is it on wrist right now? And if so, what strap are you, are you picking?
Jason Heaton It is. So I've got the Seamaster Pro on wrist and I'm wearing it on the stock rubber. I had it, tried it on a couple of other straps over the past week. I got it, I guess, nine or ten days ago now. And, you know, like the Bremont, this watch is a strap monster, especially with the white dial. You can really Sure is. Really use it on a lot of different stuff. And, you know, I, as I'm looking at the photos of the S302 on, on Braymont's website, I, I, I kind of tend to think that the, the appeal of the Seamaster is kind of similar. It's a slightly bigger in terms of diameter, but it, but I think it would wear similarly. It's kind of a slimmer dive watch. Um, and, uh, I, I, I just plan to wear the heck out of this thing. I think it's, uh, um, the, the fact that it moves from strap to strap easily and it, and it just, You know, what I've come to realize in, I don't know, the past few years is that when it comes to dive watches, especially comfort is really king for me. Uh, I had the black dial version of this one for a week back in 2018. I took it to Bonaire for a Hodinkee story, uh, along with a couple of other watches. Um, and you know, even though I was having to kind of swap around and we were doing some underwater photography and stuff with the others, every time I'd get out of the water, I'd like come back and I'd I'd put this thing on because it was just, it just wears so well. It's just, it hugs the wrist nicely. And I firmly believe that that nobody's doing kind of OEM rubber straps like Omega. I think they've kind of mastered that for, for years. I mean, we've been back to, you know, I had my, my first planet ocean back in 07 and that, that came with that really cool planet ocean rubber strap. And, um, so yeah, I've got, I've got this one on, On the stock rubber, which, which, you know, for those that aren't familiar with the strap, it's what's really cool about it is that it's, it's plenty long. I've got it on the third to smallest hole and I've got a seven, seven and a quarter, seven and a half inch wrist.
James So you normally don't have anywhere near enough when it comes to a rubber strap. Cause we we've chatted about rubber straps before, and I've recommended some and you get them in and it's like, you're on the last hole and there's not even enough rubber to get it to the first keeper.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly. No, this one's amazingly long. In fact, I don't know if they sell a shorter one, but I think anybody with a smaller wrist than me might be very close to the end of it. But what's cool about it is that it has, it has a great, you know, kind of signed buckle, but, um, the, the two keepers are pretty, pretty neat because the, the one that's closest to the, the, the pin buckle, um, has like a metal, like under the keeper, under the rubber keeper, I think it must be some sort of rigid metal. that holds the keeper open so that you can easily slide the tail of the strap in. And then the second keeper has a little rubber nodule on the inside of it that will kind of clip in place to any of the holes on the tail. So it kind of keeps it from sliding around or flopping or from the keeper from moving. You know, it's just these kind of small details that are really great about it.
James Yeah, I've come across that, I guess, probably an earlier generation of that rubber strap on the 2500 base Planet Oceans. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I briefly loaned my 22542 friend and he loaned me his 42 millimeter 2500. I think it was a 2500D, you know, with the orange bezel. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Classic look. Really, really remarkably nicely made watch. Like, yeah, under 10 grand there with anyone else. Yeah, for sure. And at the time, these watches were maybe 4,400 bucks. Right. Maybe. Right. I don't remember. Maybe even a little bit less. Thirty eight hundred bucks. I really like the the current thirty nine point five millimeter with the gray bezel.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. I think that would also be a sweet spot. But honestly, I think you bought I think you bought the best one that they make right now because they don't make that black and the tacky one in the forty one millimeter size and you have to go to forty three or forty three and a half. Right. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. So I think that white with the black bezel really rocks. And the funny thing is for me, my mental image of the Omega rubber strap is from Top Gear. Oh, really? Because for years and years, Jeremy Clarkson has worn an earlier Planet Ocean with the orange bezel on that rubber strap all over the world, covered in dirt, covered in mud, doing all their weird driving adventures and everything. They do all sorts of stuff that would be legitimately tough on watches. Yeah. And, uh, and it's just in, you just constantly see him with it on. There was a couple of, I think there was a brief period of time with the early Amazon stuff where they were more careful about brands that weren't Amazon brands or whatever, but it seems like he's wearing it again. You see it in Clarkson's farm and the rest of it. And that will always be a look that, that like, I look back on as being like, I just really liked those watches on a rubber strap and Omega and Omega diver on a rubber. They're really cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And, and, you know, I have, I have kind of a, I don't want to say love hate cause I I've long loved rubber straps. So, you know, my, my old Seiko in the old days was kind of the very first kind of glimpse of, of what a cool long rubber dive strap can be. And then my, my first planet ocean had that rubber strap on which I just loved. And I remember thinking back then when I first got that, I think what was eyeopening about that 2,500 series planet ocean was the, the fact that you get this really high end, beautiful, glittery luxury watch, but on a, on a killer molded rubber strap that just like, I don't know, it looked so sporty, but then like, it's this really incredible, incredibly made watch and that sort of high low element of it. Um, or the fact that you can put such a solid, really good rubber strap on a, on a luxury watch was like really eyeopening to me. And I think that's always stuck with me. That said, I'm not like typically a daily rubber strap guy. You know, it's, it, to me, it's, Um, a NATO actually, strangely, even though it's even more dressed down, it's a little more versatile. Um, cause you can kind of change colors and textures and you can get the mat supreme from crown and buckle, or you can put it on a, um, on a ute, you know, or toxic, whatever you want to call it. Um, or, you know, anything. And, and it kind of really changes the look easily. Leather of course is leather and then, and then bracelets. But, um, you know, rubber to me is very specific. It feels summery. It feels sporty. It feels like you should be out, you know, hiking or, or especially diving. Yeah. Um, so I can imagine that I'll be moving it off of this strap in short order, especially with fall coming. It just feels like it needs to be on, on leather or NATO.
James Well, and I think when, I think one of the photos you sent me was on that Artem sailcloth, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Which works really well. And I had, that was actually, you know, I've seen a few people post and Artem has a nice Instagram feed that, um, they post a lot of, uh, kind of owners pictures and they had posted a few photos of, of the same watch on one of their black sailcloth straps. And, And it was actually one of the photos that kind of tipped me over. I was like, I kept seeing that, that watch on that strap. And I was like, I've got that strap. Cause I bought it for, for the Blancpain and, um, and it does, it just looks, it looks amazing on this watch. And I have got the longer length version of that sailcloth and it just, it fits really nicely. And then I just this morning, I actually saw a photo. I don't know if it was on Forstner straps or bands, uh, Instagram feed, but they had a, a photo of somebody that put one of their flat link metal bracelets that they've made to fit the Speedmaster on this watch. And it fit. I mean, it has the kind of the rattly hollow end links, but the flat link bracelet, I have that for my old Speedy. And I might have to try that just for kicks to see how that looks, because I think I will never, you know, this watch obviously comes on the bracelet or the rubber. And there's no way I was going to buy that bracelet. I would never wear that bracelet. I just, I, I know it's a very high quality bracelet, the, the stock, uh, Seamaster bracelet, but I just can't deal with all the, all the intricacies and kind of blingy look of that bracelet. So I passed hard on that one.
James Yeah. Well, I, I absolutely agree on the bracelet versus the, uh, the rubber strap. I am, I am now enforcers, uh, Instagram and yeah, these look pretty good on those on the flatland. They got a two, two, five, four in here. They got like a, 2538 or the, you know, the blue, uh, electric blue sort of bond, uh, bond look. Yeah, those are good. I mean, Forstner's doing some great business these days as well.
Jason Heaton You know, I used to have, like you, I used to have a 2254 many years ago and I think I had it on a bracelet, but I immediately found that, that rubber, uh, molded rubber Omega OEM strap that, that they sold for that. It was kind of a, miniaturized version of the big chunky one that was on the planet ocean and had that little kind of angular cutout up near the watch. Yep. I know the exact.
James I love that strap. I love that strap.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I love that strap. And I, I can't get it out of my head that it might fit this watch. I don't know how well it would fit it. If the, like there's a little bit of a tweak on the case and it'd be pretty sweet. If anyone's, if anyone's done that and knows where to source one or has pictures, I would love to, I'd love to see if that strap works on this.
James What's the spot that sells all of the Omega, like, it's real stuff, but it's like, you know, for repairs and such?
Jason Heaton Autofry. Yeah, I checked that site. I used to get some Omega odds and ends from them. They have a notice on their website that they can't Omega has pulled the plug. They don't allow them to sell aftermarket stuff.
James So it might be an eBay thing, eh, to try and find one. Might be, might be. Because back in the day, I remember when I had my 2254, I'd priced that out. I wanted a different, I wanted a new buckle. The one on my bracelet had worn, had been refinished to the point that you could almost not see the text anymore. Oh yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and then I wanted the rubber and I think it was like, it was not cheap. It was five or 600 bucks if I remember correctly. But they did carry it at the time with an Omega buckle. which is I think where some of that price really came in. Right. All right. So here's my questions for you. Is the plan to make this like an EDC or something that's a little bit more special? You're going to wear this and take it all over the world sort of thing or not so much?
Jason Heaton I think so. I mean, I like to do that with, you know, when I kind of commit to a watch, you know, I never buy, you know, kind of dress watches or kind of I don't really kind of veered away from vintage lately just because I want stuff that I can read at night and, and get wet. And, You know, when I commit to a watch, it's, it's always in my plans to like, Hey, what, you know, I almost look at it as like this, this burgeoning sort of potential on my wrist. Like, where can I take this? What can I do with this next? You know? And, uh, uh, I'd like to get out sailing one more time this, this fall. I'd love to, you know, maybe take it on that off road course. Um, you know, I mean, there's gotta be a dive trip in the future. I've dived with the black dial version of this and it was fantastic. And I, I, I have a kind of an open invitation from a buddy out in Monterey. California who, uh, does some dive training out there and various projects. And he said, Oh, you know, open invitation winter is a great time to come dive here. And so hopefully, uh, hopefully this winter may be good out there, man.
James That sounds great. And it'd be super fun to take it diving. It's definitely something I'm looking forward to doing with the Braymont as far as the overall watch goes after, you know, you've got a note here says you've been wearing it for the better part of 10 days straight. anything bug you about it? Where are you with the helium escape valve? I know it's not your favorite feature on most watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm coming around to it. You know, I had it on the Planet Ocean years ago and the 2254, so it's not something I can't live with. It's certainly, you know, just as I look at the watch, if I hold my finger over it, I mean, I would prefer this watch without it, but you know, it's a feature I don't agree with necessarily, but then again, uh, you know, I've got other watches. I've got the S 2000 has a helium valve and um, you know, whatever. So it is what it is. I, I find having a manually opening a helium valve a bit silly, but uh, there, there's definitely a history to it. And I think what, one thing I like about this generation of Seamaster is that, you know, Omega's made this kind of general format since the nineties and it's kind of slowly Not only grown on me, but it's, it's become kind of a modern classic. And I think it's different enough from the usual format of, of what we're used to. Um, and doesn't lean so hard on, on history that, that it's kind of become its own thing. And the helium valve is part of that. The skeleton hands are part of that. And especially this bezel, you know, I mean, I think the big gripe about this scalloped bezel is, Oh, you can't grip it. You can't turn it. I actually found that not to be the case when I had the black dial one diving, I was surprised. This one, you know, you have to kind of, you kind of push down from the top and turn and it works fine. But when you're not using it to time stuff, like, which is probably 99% of the time, like it lends a really beautiful kind of profile. Especially if you look at the watch from the side, you get all of these kind of different alternating angles. And I think, I think it actually lends a bit of a, you know, certainly it's a dressier dive watch than, than most. Yeah. So.
James Yeah. No, I agree. And, and, and, you know, one of the big differences between my Bremont, which is used as an ETA base caliber, pretty standardized thing that we all understand and know it's great to have a chronometer certified with yours, you know, you're, you're a much more tech forward sort of movement. What's the accuracy been like, you know, anecdotally.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I said it when I, when I got it a week ago, Monday and it's holding it like plus eight seconds. So we're now we're, we're over eight days out. So it's, it's, it's within a second a day, uh, at least, um, which is, you know, about as good as you can get. And yeah, for sure. You know, I do like, I'm not a real movement nerd, but you know, this watch has a clear case back and Omega is doing some beautiful stuff with the movement decoration. It's got this radially, you know, decorated big rotor and just a beautifully done movement. And then, You know, you don't need a solid back or an iron inner case. I mean, this thing is pretty well immune to any magnetic influence as they've been crowing about for a few years with their Metas certification. And I think that, you know, it does play into my decision about the watch. I mean, I think it's great to have a really rugged watch that you can do pretty much anything with, even if, you know, it is a dressier looking watch. It's that combination of all of that that makes it just such a cool piece.
James Yeah, I agree. And, you know, that's probably as good a spot as any to, uh, to wrap up this chat. So we had, uh, the latest in what I think the greatest from Vacheron Constantin and the new Everest overseas line. Uh, Jason's got a brand new Omega Seamaster Pro and, uh, in the next few days, I'll take delivery of a, of a new Braymont S302. It's been a pretty fun couple of weeks as far as, uh, you know, getting to look forward to new watches and seeing you get this one and the rest that's been good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I would say so. You know, we did a kind of watchy episode, which it's been a while. So this was fun to talk about new watches of our own and then this exciting Vacheron.
James All right. Well, let's do some final notes as I was hoping to keep this episode to more like 45 minutes and we're at an hour five so far. So as usual, the usual. You want to want to get into yours?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. This one actually came to us from a listener named Richard who sent us an email. with a link to this roughly 45 minute YouTube video. Um, it's called crossing the Sahara by truck and you know, fairly generic sounding name, but, and I was not aware of this expedition. I, it just, it just feels like to me that the fifties and sixties and seventies to a certain degree, we're just full of these vehicle based overlanding rugged expeditions, you know, London to Singapore, the Darien gap, Alaska to Argentina. Um, in this one, Uh, these, I think it's three guys, they, they took an army surplus truck. So this isn't a Land Rover or a Jeep or anything like that. This is like a, I don't know if Bedford was the name of the truck or something, but it was, it was a big old kind of surplus military vehicle that they bought for a couple of hundred pounds, uh, and, and fitted it out for overlanding. And it was sponsored by, they were sponsored by mobile fuels, mobile gas or fuels, um, who took care of their fuel expenditures and helped them get across some borders. but they drove from the UK down to South Africa and, and kind of a big piece of that was crossing the Sahara desert in this big wild off-road truck. And the, the, the YouTube video is, is fairly long and it's, it's mainly, you know, there's a, there's a voiceover, but there's some, uh, kind of subtitles that explain what's going on. And, and, uh, there, there isn't really video per se, as much as there is, it's kind of almost like a, uh, a slideshow. Um, Autoplay kind of slideshow.
James Ken Burns.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Of all the, exactly. Right. Um, of these, you know, these beautiful old, you know, grainy, rich color photos that they shot on their trip. And, and I, I just, it's like flipping through someone's, uh, photo album, um, from that era. And it's just, it's spectacular. I mean, it's very inspirational. I love, I love seeing stuff like this. These are trips that you just, you know, nobody could do these days. I mean, for various reasons, it's,
James Absolutely.
Jason Heaton The world has changed. And I think it's, it's this little bit of nostalgia, you know, it's like sailing around the world in the sixties or whatever. I mean, to, to see this stuff, you know, you're dealing with very, you know, much cruder vehicles than we have nowadays and having to make roadside repairs and talk with people that probably hadn't seen, you know, a Westerner before and kind of navigate, uh, navigate a very different world. So yeah, proper adventure. So thanks Richard for sending that over. And it's definitely just worth, it's a very peaceful watch and yeah, I would, I would definitely recommend checking it out.
James I look forward to it for sure. My pick for this week is a video, the continuation of a series of videos that went away for a little while and probably due to COVID and are now back. It's called Jason Drives. So it's a, it's a Dilopnik series with one of my absolute favorite editors from the site, Jason Torczynski. And in this, he goes to, uh, an automotive museum and it's a series they've been doing for some time. He goes to an automotive museum and he drives some weird old car. And some of them are really weird fan cars, uh, you know, single seater stuff, like none of it's race cars or these are like weird, quirky things that didn't really survive the progression of technology and design and the unification of the automotive, uh, you know, sort of concept in America. but in this one he drives a 97-year-old cycle car called a Micron Monocar, and it's a single-seater. It kind of looks like a cross between a 20s Bentley and a Model A, Model T, somewhere in there. It's got sort of pontoon fenders on open wheels, but it's this little tiny thing with a very strange sort of system for the steering. I really love this kind of stuff, and I think if I think I might not just watch a video of the historical recap of a car like this, but it's Jason's personality in driving the car and experiencing it. It's a great series. I'll obviously put this one in the show notes, but if you enjoy these things, go back and watch some of the other Jason Drive stuff on the YouTubes. They're super fun to watch and the cars are really weird and strange and they're not all you know, like a lot of the, the car enthusiasm thing is cycled around Ferrari, Porsche, and you see kind of the same cars are very similar cars again and again. Yeah. And this is, this is like the, the complete opposite. This is the weird stuff that didn't really survive. And, uh, him learning how to drive it in the parking lot and, and it being terrifying and that kind of thing. So I love these and I'm a huge fan of Jason. So I'm thrilled to see, uh, Jason drives returned to a Jalopnik.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's crazy. That's so cool. Well, we've got two, two, uh, interesting school driving stuff. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.
James Yeah. And I, uh, just, just started, uh, last night I got the first, maybe 40 minutes into sorcerer, um, which is another, you know, from which we spoke about on the last episode and, uh, I'm very much enjoying it. So I will, uh, I'll get to it in, in, it didn't take me a week as it will seem due to podcasts. This is actually, we talked about this yesterday afternoon and I watched some of it last night before I Tuck myself in and try to get some sleep, but yep, enjoying it. And it's another driving something old across a place. You shouldn't drive it sort of scenario.
Jason Heaton We've got a theme. Oh yeah. All right. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. You can subscribe to the show notes via notes.thegrenado.com or check the feed for more details and for links. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J E Stacey and follow the show at the grenado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and keep sending in those voice memos. We will be having a Q&A episode here in a couple of weeks. And if you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music Throughout a Siesta by JazzArr via the Free Music Archive.
James And we leave you with this quote from the always wonderful Dick Van Dyke. Just knowing you don't have the answers is a recipe for humility, openness, acceptance, forgiveness, and an eagerness to learn. And those are all good things.