The Grey NATO – 176 – Watches, Adventure, And More In 2022
Published on Thu, 13 Jan 2022 09:05:08 -0500
Synopsis
The hosts Jason and James discuss their hopes and plans for 2022 across various topics like watches, travel, diving, driving, creative projects, and self-improvement. Some key points:
- They discuss watches they'd like to see from brands like IWC, Doxa, and more affordable options with interesting materials or complications.
- Travel plans include potential dive trips, road trips camping/exploring remote areas, and finding new adventures closer to home.
- Car projects involve upgrading Jason's Land Rovers and James sorting maintenance issues with his Jeep.
- Creative goals include Jason writing a new novel and potentially an audiobook for his previous book, and James doing a new photography project.
- Self-improvement aims include meditation, getting fitter, and finding more work-life balance.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 176, and it's proudly brought to you by the newly formed TGN Supporter Crew, which is now, gosh, what are we, about a month and a half into its existence, and we thank you all for your continued support. James, how's it going? |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah, things are good. Uh, you know, it's getting cooler here, but still getting a chance to go outside and walk around and, you know, take a few photos and that kind of stuff. But, uh, yeah, the, the supporter crews, uh, continuing, um, you know, we, we always do a little pitch at the top of the shows. We're still trying to iron out how to do this best, but, uh, if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com. There's a couple of different levels, including the top one, which is a hundred dollars a year. You can get yourself a strap and some stickers. It's a signed TGN UTA NATO strap, which we're pretty pumped about. I've really been enjoying mine. So if you're interested, that's all we need to say for this episode, but you can support us at thegraynado.com. If you don't want to, maybe just share this episode with a friend. It should be a fun one. Kind of talking about what we'd like to see from 2022, kind of maybe some resolutions, but also some sort of goals. Right, Jason? Or even just some wants. Putting it out there. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, true. I mean, look, I mean, all bets are off these days. I mean, the past two years have been a bit of a bit hit and miss to say the least, but, uh, you know, I'm, I'm optimistic going into this year. I think, uh, despite a surge in, in the virus, I think, uh, you know, hopefully with, with the days getting longer and spring coming, we, we can all look forward to some fun times and new adventures and I'm, I'm ready for it. Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. And the days are getting longer, which I'm happy about. It's, it's, it's bitter cold here these days, but it's, uh, it's brighter. So I'm happy about that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You posted a shot with the Hallios the other day. And, and I think on, on your stories, you did it with the, with the temperature and it was even considerably cooler than in here in Toronto. I think today it's about negative 18 Celsius. And I think that's about what it was when you posted. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cold. It was a cold stretch. Part of me likes the kind of element of, you know, surviving it, dressing right. And, uh, I was wearing that eight 50 fill Neurona, a big puffy jacket that I got. last week and it's impervious. Um, you know, I, I need that driving the defender, which doesn't have much heat to speak of. Uh, and I've got a, I've got a final note related to that. So I'm just going to drop that hint now and I'll talk about it a little bit later. |
| James Stacey | But, uh, yeah, that's been great. We mentioned this last episode that Neurona had sent us some stuff. So this isn't an ad per se, but they did provide some really nice clothing to us. So keep that in mind. But I've been living in this, I think it's just the seven 50 version of the, of the one that you've got. So it's this heavy puffer. Yeah. And the fun thing about this one is it's the first kind of big, thick, heavyweight puffer that I've ever owned that isn't that heavy. Oh, yeah. It wears like a sweatshirt. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I was out yesterday was negative 10. I went for a walk for about an hour, like a slow walk. I was taking photos. I'll talk about the camera in a moment. It's a camera that comes out the day this episode comes out. And I was just so nice and warm. And even I could put my hands in my pockets and keep them warm, because when you're running a camera, you don't want to wear gloves. I have really cold hands and cold feet. I just, I lost whatever, you know, Ontario boy edge I had when I lived in Vancouver for nearly a decade and didn't have to deal with real winter. Uh, so I, I get cold quick, especially like hands, hands and feet, especially. And, uh, this jackets, it's the nicest one I've ever owned. It's so warm. It's so easy to wear simple pockets, nice hood. Uh, yeah, no, it's making a difference and it just makes it a little bit easier to be like, I don't care that it's negative, whatever. I'll still go for my walk. I'll get my steps in or, go for a little hike or go take some pictures. So yeah, it's nice stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, and kind of speaking of being outside, I've been, uh, I've been running, um, since November. I used to be a fairly avid runner back in gosh, my early twenties and I kind of burned out on it. Um, and, and kind of gave it up after that, other than a couple of brief forays and, and, you know, the, the trouble with our weather here sometimes during hit and miss winters is we get a dump of snow, then it'll kind of melt down and then freeze and, be kind of this crusty ice. It's not great for cross-country skiing, which is kind of my go-to winter exercise regimen. And so I decided this year I was going to get back into running just to kind of bridge those times when I can't get on skis. And the problem with that is this, this hard pack kind of ice and crust and snow that's all over the place. And so I finally bought a pair of, um, winter running shoes. These are from a brand called ice bug. It's a Swedish brand and they make a shoe called the Arcus GTX and It's a, it's a Gore-Tex shoe. And it has that kind of, I don't know, a few years ago, the few brands like Hoka One One came out with these running shoes with the really thick cush kind of midsole, lots of, lots of midsole cushioning. Yeah. And this has that it's got, it's Gore-Tex. So it's keeps my feet dry. But then the, the sole is actually studded with little carbide studs for, for grip. And it, it, it's a huge difference. It's like night and day I've, I've worn, Like strap on yak tracks and those sorts of things that you pull on over running shoes. And they always kind of felt wrong to run in. Um, but these, these ice bugs are fantastic and it's, it's made all the difference. And I've been actually enjoying kind of just getting out once or twice a week for like a three mile or just to kind of keep some modicum of fitness in between, you know, rowing and any skiing I can do. And, and, uh, and yeah, I've Neuron has sent me a pair of tights that I've been wearing and that's been, uh, That's been working well too in the cold too. So it's, you know, I, I, I firmly believe in this kind of getting into, you know, 2022 and kind of a fitness element. I think, you know, the more you can get outside and do stuff is, uh, just makes such a big difference, even mentally to see the sun. |
| James Stacey | So I used to run a ton when I lived in Vancouver, which I really liked and I enjoyed it. But I, once I moved to Toronto, I realized that what I liked about it was the setting in Vancouver. Yeah. I never really got bored of how beautiful it was. And I gave running a good two or three month spin here. Yeah. Just five K's, maybe the occasional like seven, eight K sort of run around High Park, that sort of thing. And like, I just, I never wanted to put my shoes on and I loved doing it in Vancouver. Yeah. Do you have a route that you like that's beautiful or do you approach it kind of like a different way? Because I would love to kind of crack this code and get back to enjoying running. How do you approach it? What's your route like? |
| Jason Heaton | I, um, I've got a couple of routes. What I kind of have two approaches. One approach is to make it kind of a functional run. So the other day, you know, we're still getting, um, orders for the, the TGN supporter kits with the strap and the sticker. And I just put those all in kind of slim FedEx envelopes to ship off. And I'm doing that daily. And last week I did my FedEx run, literally running, and I have this small mountain hardware, uh, backpack. That's like really, it's like made for running. It's like fits really kind of snug to the back and it has like a pouch for a water bottle at the front and clips across the chest in two places. And it's perfect for this sort of thing. So I put this pack of envelopes in there and I kind of walk and rent, walked and ran to the FedEx place, which is a couple of miles away. And then I ran home and it kind of made this like mission out of it. It's like I'm doing something, uh, you know, purposeful as well as getting my exercise in. So that was kind of like double value. So that's kind of like one thing I do. And then the other one is we, we live not too far from this kind of meandering Creek. that we kayak on in the, in the summer, but in the winter it's frozen and you can actually walk on it. But, uh, there's a trail that runs alongside of it for quite a ways. And I kind of make that part of a three mile loop. So it's really pretty, you know, you see, you know, animals and not many people and there's not really traffic, uh, little bridges occasionally that go over the Creek that you have to cross and that sort of thing. So yeah, scenery makes scenery makes a big difference. And then I listened to, um, I listened to music. I, some people listen to, you know, podcasts or audio books and things I need kind of some sort of a beat to keep me going. So I use my AirPods, uh, which have helped as well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Maybe I can make it back. You know, the other thing I've been eyeing and this is later on in the show as well, maybe we're kind of overlapping a little bit here, but a Peloton. Oh yeah. Uh, you know, I've, I've enjoyed having the, the like very simple, I actually, when I got it, I got it for free, this exercise bike I use and I like it. I've been using, you know, I've, I've talked about it before. We're all, push it up to my desk where I have a couple of big monitors and I'll put on something from Global Cycling Network and kind of ride along with them. I use the Garmin to kind of do the cadence and the heartbeat measurement because the bike doesn't have any smart features at all. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Um, but yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Like in, in my past, whenever I made kind of a big investment, uh, whether it was, you know, buying the Bowflex weights, which I have and haven't touched in, you know, during pandemic for whatever reason, it's always kind of the impetus to push forward. And I don't know if like a couple thousand dollars, indoor bike is the right option. If you're listening and you love Peloton, you don't have to be a spokesperson, you don't have to try and sell me on it, but if you really like it and it has some staying power, if I knew that I would get three or four great workouts a week from it, then I think that the money is almost secondary, third even. I don't know, definitely a focus for 2022 is I let the pandemic kind of paused a lot of my movement in life, both functional and experiential movements. Yeah. And, and I think I need to find that functional movement back. Cause I've just, I've lost all my edge that I, that I would have had kind of beforehand. So. Yeah. Well, it's a good, it's a good time. That's okay. I mean, things come and go. Right. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James Stacey | And luckily, you know, I think we're both lucky. Jason, you know, you had a rougher, healthier last year than I did. Certainly. Yeah. I'm just thrilled to hear that you're out, out and moving around these, these ice bugs look cool though, don't they? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, they're, they're awesome. And I think I was just going to mention with, when it comes to the Peloton now, I realized that a, you know, $200 pair of running shoes is a little different than a Peloton. But you know, sometimes you make that investment that little bit and it's enough to trigger, you know, when I got that, that hydro or water rower that I talked about. I was looking at those too. |
| James Stacey | Don't have anywhere to put one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Space is an issue. Although they do stand up and look kind of nice against the wall when you're not using it, but it's made a difference. I use that once, maybe twice a week in between the running and you know, like, sometimes it just takes that little bit to, you know, even, even a new pair of shoes or a new pair of tights or kind of a cool jacket. Um, often I wear that, uh, Volabok glow in the dark shell that we got. I wear that, uh, for running as well. And it's like, sometimes it's that bit of motivation that you need. And I think I'm going to table my, the second thing I was going to talk about here until we get into our, our kind of meat of our 2022 chatting. |
| James Stacey | You want me to pick up with, uh, with what I've been up to? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, in fact, I want to hear about this camera that's launching today. Why don't you tell us about that? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, so for those of you who were waiting for the show at 6 a.m. ET, my apologies. This is one of the rare opportunities where we had a chance to publish alongside a press embargo. So we held the show until 9 a.m., which I know is a bit of a pain for some of you who use it for specific uses the morning it comes out, whether it's a drive to work or whatever. So my apologies on that. A little while ago, of course, I traveled to Germany to see the Leica HQ and do their celebration of photography, the Oscar Barnack Awards. And a little while ago, they sent an email and they basically said, like, they didn't say what it was, they sent an email with an NDA. And they said, you know, sign this and we'll send you something to take a look at. And so I signed it, you know, why not, right? Yeah, right. I get a lot of cool watches, but the idea of some camera gear on loan is still very excited. That's like borrowing a car. Yeah, it's so much fun. And and so I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know if it'd be a lens or, you know, maybe maybe it was the new Q2 reporter, which came out while I was in Germany. But what arrived is the brand new M11. Nice. Which is their, you know, flagship kind of photojournalist style camera. It's they did the M10 several years ago, and then the M10R was kind of the high resolution. I have an M10P. a bit of a departure from some of the classic elements of an M. It doesn't have a bottom plate uses a cartridge style battery now, similar to like an SL2 or the Q2. Really, it's something else. So I got a black one, which means it has an aluminum top plate. So it's a little bit lighter than my M10, which is all brass. Controls are similar, but streamlined. It's a 60 megapixel sensor. The sensor is one thing, and this is easily one of the nicest cameras I've ever shot with. It's easily the most simple and straightforward M I've ever kind of messed around with. really easy to use, really fantastic for focusing. If you want to use the screen on the back, that's great. They're going to sell an EVF as well. But the USB-C charging is a big thing for me because when I travel with my Q, I have to travel with a couple more batteries because it's easy to go through them. And I have to travel with a little charger that has to plug into the wall. And the idea of just being able to plug it into a USB battery or the same connection that my MacBook uses, that my headphones use, that my phone, well not my phone, I have an iPhone, Come on, Apple, get your act together. The same thing that so many of my devices use is like, that's a huge feature set for me. I'm sure that there'll be some purists who want the original kind of a bottom plate that you take off, but you're not loading film into this thing anymore. And they, they tuck the, the SD card slot right in there next to the, the magazine style battery. So it's really easy to use. It also has onboard storage, has 64 gigabytes of storage built into the camera. |
| Unknown | Oh, wow. |
| James Stacey | So if you run out of space on your card or if you want to split file sort, so The sensor is really trick in that it uses something called pixel binning, where you have different sizes of file, but they, regardless of what they are, they use the whole sensor. So it's not like if you want a 30 megapixel image, it only uses the interior 50% of a 60 megapixel camera. It actually bins the sensor elements together to give you the resolution that you kind of want. Let's say you want it less than 60 for size or speed, or, or even in some ways lower the resolution, you actually get more sensitivity. So you get more dynamic range. I think it tops out at 15 stops. So if you know something about cameras, that's remarkable. You know, this one operates up to one 16,000th of a second, has a 64 ISO noise floor, which is incredible. You can set it to 64 on a really bright day and then still use, you know, an F1.4 lens. Wow. Wow. 64% larger battery than an M10. It's just like it's a huge, huge update over the over the 10. It handles very similarly has a very similar set of features and buttons and that sort of thing. I'll find and link a more camera review than what I can provide. I'm not a camera reviewer. I'm working photographer in some ways. And I just got to say, you know, one, a thank you to Leica for sending this and by the time I've recorded this, this would have been sent back. But thank you very much for sending the camera and When I eventually have, say, a spare $9,000 for that body, it would be an easy sell on my part. I'm very impressed by it. I really enjoyed getting a chance to shoot some frames with it. If you want to see the images or a selection of images that I shot with it, swing by my Instagram, at J.E. Stacey. I'll have a little post about the camera and such ready The handling of an M thing is kind of different. You know, being a range finder, it's a little bit more classic in terms of its manual focus. And your closest thing to autofocus is focus peaking. So it feels kind of old school in its handling. If you don't know your way around an M, there's a bit of a learning curve. But once you're there, it feels like natural. It's the camera equivalent of a manual transmission. And in this case, it's the camera equivalent of a manual transmission in a V12. I mean, it's just it's all of it. It's so fun. |
| Jason Heaton | I'd love to try a Leica M of any sort. I, the only, um, Leica I've actually handled was an old, uh, I don't remember what it was. M gosh, what would it have been? M5, M6, like a film range finder. Yeah, sure. M6 is the, is the classic. Yeah. I enjoyed borrowing it and using it. Um, I didn't spend a lot of time with it, but I'd love to try one of the modern M digitals. And, you know, I guess in my mind I'm thinking, okay, $9,000 is a lot of money, but it's, uh, And it's way more than I or we, you know, speaking for Ghoshani and myself, have ever spent on a camera. Now we've probably spent close to that once you add underwater components and that sort of thing. But like, this is a tool, something conceivably, especially the M footprint, that you'd be using quite a bit because of the ease of carrying it around, the quality, et cetera. But I guess I have to ask, like, strip away the Leica name and what that adds to a price tag. Do you think this camera's, it's hard to say, but worth $9,000? I mean, is this Rolex Submariner kind of territory? |
| James Stacey | I would much sooner spend that kind of money on a camera than a watch. That's easy. Okay. Um, way, way sooner. Uh, and then the only, the comparison is you'd have to look at the most, like the peak bodies from any other camera system. But the big difference is with the Leica one, you get Leica lenses or the option to use Leica lenses in a native environment. And you say what you will about a body, uh, you know, this is a very high end camera, but there's other companies that make very high end camera bodies like a remains. And I don't know that it's all that, like that there's all that much like argument in the space. They simply make the finest lenses in the world. I mean, this is a $9,000 camera and the lens on it is another five grand. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So it's just, it's, it's, it's this very like specific perspective. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | on how to make a camera. And don't get me wrong, Leica makes cameras at the other end of the scale as well. Of their scale, you could look at something like a used Q is going to cost you a few grand, maybe even less than that. And then they have the crop sensor stuff, the smaller sensor units that can sometimes share sensors and things like that with Panasonic or have in the past. So It's difficult to characterize like exclusively on the M, but the M is their 911. Okay. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And in many ways, this is a 911 Turbo S or a GT3 RS. This is the top one that they're going to offer. So it's hard to look at it and go like, Oh, but you could have, um, you could have a whole queue for $4,500 or whatever they cost. Right. And you go like, yeah, absolutely. And if you're, if you had one camera and you had my job, you would want the Q or the Q2 before this, because you want autofocus, you want the macro mode. Yeah. You want the simplicity of the handling. And I think the Q is, is the one that I would have the longest, but if you're, if you have the ability to have something on top of that and, and you know, I, I I've, I've been through Canon, I've been through Sony and then I got to like, and Canon and Sony both gave me reasons to leave. Yeah. And I have yet to find that reason, mostly because of the Q. The 10 for me, and I'm fortunate enough to be able to borrow one from Hodinkee and have for a couple of years now, it's not mine to be clear, but the 10 is an amazing camera, but I don't know how it would apply to taking photos of watches typically. Oh, yeah. It would slow me down, whereas the Q speeds me up. Yeah. But for all types of other photography, if I'm walking around on a Saturday and let's say I'm going to a coffee shop and later gonna hit a brewery and maybe some trinket antique stores in between the back in the day when we could kind of do that kind of stuff pretty freely. Yeah. This is the sort of camera that I want with me. And for that, I really like it. It, I totally understand that it is that like upper echelon of, of, uh, of an already expensive world, but Hey, I, one, I didn't pay for it. We, we made that clear up front. It's a loner and it's gone back. Uh, but Hey, if, if you've got the money or, or really if you're living is in this space, it feels like a no brainer for me. Decent write-off too, right? Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. Yeah. Well, cool. That's awesome. Oh yeah. Always like some, uh, some new camera gear. Oh, uh, speaking of new gear, I cut this out of the last episode cause it was like a rant and it didn't go where I needed it to go. So we're going to try this again. Um, I'll keep it short because what I'm asking for some advice from the listeners. I bought a Wacom tablet. One of my goals for 2022, and this will lead us into the main topic is to get like faster at, I think I'm like a decent photo editor. I'm good at a few things, but the faster I could get me and I would have more free time. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I'd like to find like some sort of a new balance. 2021 was like one of the busiest work years of my life, and I didn't love many parts of it. And I would like to try and buy some of that time back. And I spent a lot of time on my photo edit. So I bought a Wacom tablet. It's just an Intuos. It's like a relatively entry level tablet. But if anyone listening in the audience uses a tablet and has like a preferred YouTube video about how to get over that first learning curve, Because when I pick it up now, it feels like I'm brushing somebody else's teeth with my left hand. And I found a BH photo video that's on my list of things to get to and go through. But if you have your favorite, it can be a long video, it can be short. I don't even care if it's paid. It could be a masterclass on using the Wacom. It doesn't bother me if you think it's good. But if you actually use one of these Wacom tablets, most likely if you use it professionally, use a higher end one than this. But if you have some tips, or video to suggest, uh, drop it in the comments or, or, you know, send me an email at the great NATO at gmail.com. I'd appreciate it as that's something I'm, uh, I'm working on for, uh, for the year. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Wow. Your real estate on your desk must be getting, getting, getting pretty packed in here for sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I, uh, I changed my monitor layout, uh, to try and make a little bit more space, but I ate it up quickly. Need a bigger desk, I guess. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, we should, uh, jump into the main topic here, but before we do that, what, uh, what's on your wrist? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, on my wrist, I have the new DOCSIS SUB600T, the steel example, the production version, and this is in Diving Star Yellow with the steel bezel insert. I also have a professional version on an orange rubber strap with the ceramic bezel insert. So I've had it for less than 12 hours. I've maybe had it on my wrist for an hour, maybe less than that even. It just got in yesterday and just getting to it today. Nice. Wow. I like it so far. I like the color. I like the steel bezel. Uh, this, the, the diving stars on the bracelet, the bracelet's pretty nice. Yeah. Uh, it's the right size. It wears really well. |
| Jason Heaton | I think it's just nice to see them branch out a little bit. I mean, you know, we were all kind of waiting for what's, what's the second act. And certainly this isn't brand new territory for docs. I mean, they, they made this watch in the eighties, but, but it's, uh, it's new for what we've seen in since, you know, 2000 or 2001 or whatever it was. And, and hats off to them for doing it. I have a few quibbles about it, but I think by and large that case shape and just kind of the overall aesthetic are just really cool. Kind of riding that trend these days, right? With the FXD and the PRX from Tissot and that kind of integrated bracelet look, kind of a more edgy case. |
| James Stacey | I think it's a neat direction for them. Yeah, it's definitely a nice angular case. What I do like is the way that they've done the end links. It looks almost like it's integrated, but then you could put a standard strap in this. Yeah. It just has... It's not even a hooded lug. It looks like a hooded lug, but that's actually the face of the link. Oh, sure. So it is like an open sort of lug design. It's just this very strange... You'll see it in the photos when I get the piece up. But if you're listening to this on Thursday, I'll probably have my review on Hodinkee within the next week. So just pay attention for that if this is a watch you're interested in. I'm really happy with it. I think I would lean towards a black one, which is a weird thing for me. That's not usually my go-to. but I think the black with the orange hand and the steel bezel for $1,500. Yeah. Yeah. I got to tell you, Jason, I have nothing but dive watches these days and I still want one of these. Like I have a straight up problem. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. There's been so many dive watches that have come in in the last year and a half where they're within a price point that you can kind of just excuse, even though maybe I shouldn't like $1,500 for the Seiko or for this or, or whatever. And like, I got to slow down or I got to sell something. I don't know, but I like this one a lot. Uh, I think we're like, we've been saying this for about two years, so I guess it proved out that we weren't dead wrong, but this has been a good time for dive watch fans. They're getting a bit smaller. Uh, the variety is up. You can go with, you can get great stuff from brands that most people have never heard of, which I think is kind of sweet. You can get great stuff from brands like Doxa and then you can still get stuff like your, um, like what, like what you've got on your wrist for wrist check. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm wearing the white dial Seamaster. Big surprise. I, uh, if anyone's following me on Instagram, I just, I wear it like nonstop. I've pretty much become a one watch person and I've actually been tempted to like try a little experiment where I just go for like even a month or more, um, only wearing this because it's just, I think that'd be an interesting story for Substack. Yeah. It's kind of the perfect, uh, it's kind of become the perfect piece. I mean, it's comfortable, it's dead accurate. It's immune to magnetism and shock and this sort of stuff. And it's, it's kind of classic looking, but also if, You put it on a NATO or rubber, it just, it wears like a proper kind of tool watch. And to your point about dive watches, I mean, I think, you know, you're right. I mean, we live in such a great time for, to be a lover of dive watches. And I, I don't know what else I can say about dive watches that, that reflects the, the appeal. I guess that's why, you know, we've been doing this for the better part of a decade is, is writing and talking about dive watches so much. They're just, they're, they're endlessly fascinating to me and just so appealing. And, uh, Yeah. I mean, we both have very different ones on our wrists right now, but, but they kind of, you know, touch that, that core of, of interest for both of us. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, for sure. And in your mind, because this is what I'm going through with the Braymont is I'm trying to find the perfect strap because that watch for me, kind of like your Omega, it's kind of like, like with the 302, I could just wear that. Everything else could stay in the box. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. It kind of covers all the bases. It does everything I want from a watch and it's easy to wear and on the right strap, it's so comfortable I can sleep with it on. Yeah. Which makes it kind of like a perfect day-to-day watch. Right, right. But I can't, you know, I've had it on the Hirsch Pure, I've had it on that cheap mesh, which ended up kind of bothering my wrist after a couple of days. And then, you know, I kind of like, I see your Seamaster on that Omega rubber. Yeah. And I think like, ah man, something like that. And I know Bremont makes the Temple Island and I have one of those for the Solo, It's a great strap, but it's not the same thing. Right. There's something about the integration of that, um, Seamaster strap. |
| Jason Heaton | I wonder if, um, you know, my, my S2000 came with a wonderful Bremont, uh, molded or ribbed one. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | The ribbed one. The S500 used to have. |
| Jason Heaton | Did they not make that style for the S300 series? They don't. |
| James Stacey | Not according to their website. I think those are for 20 and then whatever the lug distance is on the 2000. |
| Jason Heaton | I'm not, I'm not a, I'm not usually a long wearer of, of rubber straps, unless like I'm on a tropical trip or actually diving. Um, I just find they chafe and they don't go with everything. You know, they're, they feel a little too sporty. Like, you know, my garment has a rubber strap on for obvious reasons, but, um, I put that kind of planet ocean style rubber strap on, which fits perfectly and it transformed the watch. It kind of had that high low thing going where it felt, you know, this with the ceramic dial and kind of the glossy bezel, it has that sort of upscale feel, but then you put it on that strap and now you're, you feel like. You know, you feel like Daniel Craig and casino Royale. I mean, it's that strap and it's, it just, it, it was so comfortable and I was wearing a lot on that. Um, I, I did put it on a gray NATO, uh, a couple of days ago now, and I'm loving it on that. I also have that old 1171 bracelet from like from speedmaster days, like seventies speedmaster bracelet that I made work with uncle Seiko end links. And that looks terrific. So, you know, to your question. I, I found a number of perfect straps for this thing and I think that's part of the problem or, or maybe it's a, it's a good problem to have, you know, like what it is with the, with the brain, like it's like, there's so many that look good on it, but like which one is going to be the one I probably would say for summer, maybe that rubber or the NATO. I don't know. Yeah. But it's, it, it, it continues to just be a blast to just change looks and change the straps around. So. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. The rubber thing, I'm curious, you know, this is the funny thing where if we were in the same country even, or able to travel more frequently, we could now, I would loan you my M10 happily. And I would ask if I could borrow or at least just try the 20 millimeter Omega strap. I almost want like, there's a chance that it would fit. It's the same lug distance. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, true. Similar thickness. And yeah, I should try it on my S302 and just see if it even fits. |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah. Then I would know if I needed to hunt one down. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. It's a very Omega branded strap. I don't know if that bothers you. It does me. I don't like wearing straps that have like Omega buckle on them. And it's a very specific kind of buckle. It's that kind of squared off little pin. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I really liked the Hirsch Pure on the S302 and I'm still hunting for a green one. So maybe that would be kind of the ideal. The watch looks really good on green, the S302 with the orange accent and the kind of tan, tan coloring on a lot of it. But yeah, otherwise, I mean, it just works so well on a NATO, but what doesn't? I like some, I like some variety. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right. Right. All right. Anyways, how about now that we're well in, how about some main topic? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. We were, we're doing 2022 now. We're, we're, I guess an episode late with this, but you know, we're, we're, we're well into, into January by the time this goes up about halfway through. |
| James Stacey | And I think, I think everybody had like a chance to kind of digest the idea of January now. And now we can kind of, uh, we can, we can come to the idea with some clear heads, but, uh, yeah, the goal here was kind of to break into the normal kind of TGN, um, categories to travel, diving, driving gear, all that kind of stuff. Um, but, and then just say what either, if we have plans or kind of hopes or whatever for those spaces, uh, and, and see if that led to, uh, to a kind of interesting set of topics. And I hope it's something we can continue in the comments on this, uh, on this post at, uh, at the substacks. Yeah. Yeah. Jason, you want to kick it off with kind of where we think or what we want from watches for 2022? Yeah, let's do it. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, you know, I just got done saying that the Seamaster is kind of my one watch, and I see that being the case for the foreseeable future. But that said, my interest is no less, and I'd love to see some interesting new stuff from some of the brands. You know, I've been watching IWC recently and over the past year. I feel like there's a bit of a resurgence. I feel like, you know, with all respect to George Kern, you know, he took some flack at the brand for kind of focusing on, on big changes and kind of marketing and things. And I feel like they've come a little bit full circle to their, what made them very appealing in the nineties in a good way. And I'd love to see them kind of continue these sort of modern retrospective references that like they've done with, with their pilot segment. But, somebody posted, I don't remember who it was. Um, one of those early engineer types that was like Genta design. Oh yeah. It looks so good. And I thought like the engineers do, I always liked that line of watches from them. And then they got kind of really big and really angular. I always kind of still liked them. I liked the idea of that family. I'd love to see them kind of reinvent that. Maybe make it a little smaller, a little more kind of nostalgic, but, but, but modern. And then the aquatimer aquatimer is a perfectly fine watch. It's it's it's done some cool stuff, but Maybe it's time for them to kind of do a twist on the old Porsche design. You know the one they made for the German Navy or the I think it was the three five three six that that one with the It was very no-nonsense. It was it was like part of their GSD line or a twin crown something. I don't know. I just I I'm watching IWC with with great interest. I've had a few over the years and And I love the brand and I'd like to see them come up with something interesting. And I bet they will. So that's kind of my first stab. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I, you know, I, I think a rebirth of the GST would be really cool. Yeah. And I think it's the right time for it. Yeah. You know, one of my thing is I would love to see more titanium in the market. Right. Right. Especially at budget side, which of course IWC wouldn't be, I guess that depends on your budget of course, but yeah. Yeah. I still think that, In some ways, they do make budget-friendly, really good watches, like Mark 18s and that kind of stuff. And again, it depends on your budget. That's at the top end of what we like to talk about on TGN typically. And so this will be the 50th anniversary this year of the Royal Oak, which would be a good time to also lean in on the Genta and redo the Ingenieur, right? |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James Stacey | I think it might be a little bit toe-steppy of a move with APs enjoying the anniversary, but I want to say the Engineer is 76. I was thinking the same. So maybe it'll be a few years, but it could be kind of fun to see something like that. I don't disagree. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, a good time for the integrated bracelets. I mean, they're so hot right now. We were just talking about it and the Engineer would be a really nice piggyback on that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think this is a prescient kind of choice. They are at a great spot. And it's interesting that you brought up Kern because I think Breitling is also at a great spot now under his direction. It might have just been kind of a brand alignment, like maybe Breitling aligns better with kind of Kern's vision than IWC did. Yeah. And it could also be the difference between one Swiss country, one part of Switzerland and another, right? Yeah, right. You know, I don't think it's the easiest thing to be to come in and take over and work with one of these brands, especially these traditional longstanding brands, like the ones we're talking about. So yeah, I would agree. I think that could be pretty good. You know, for me, I would love to see pricing slow down. We're seeing just a balloon in terms of pricing, especially, I think we're seeing a lot of things too expensive in the sub like five to $6,000 space. Yeah. So things like where maybe your Seamaster is the ceiling. Right. And then all the way down to, say, a $1,500 Seiko. I think that the SPB143 is a great thing for the price, but I think it would absolutely destroy at $995. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not even saying that they need to do a lot because I think the version, maybe the 147 that's on the rubber strap is $995. Just offer all of them on the rubber strap. So you can say that we have this great watch, the skin diver, modern skin diver at a thousand bucks. Um, and I just think I would just love to see some of it slow down. There seems to be this belief that like, while the market's hot, we can charge whatever we want. And I think it's true. I don't think that they're necessarily wrong in their, in, in, in their planning, but I think we are seeing a lot of price, uh, right now. And, and I think it's just, it's causing people some kind of value dilemmas. Where do they put the money and for how much? And then certain brands kind of own a price point and don't move that much. I think of Tudor and of course Rolex, right? They kind of pick a price point and they just kind of rock at that price point. But other brands need to get creative in terms of how they either overvalue, like how they under promise over deliver on what the watch actually is at a price point. Because your price is kind of a promise to the customer. Yeah. And then On the other side, how they can undercut brands that don't move their pricing very much. I'd like to see kind of more of that, more of where we can start talking about how good of a deal a watch might be given its peers. Like, look what Grand Seiko has done with their pricing. It's just more expensive than it was when we were all talking about Grand Seiko five years ago. Yeah. No most is a similar thing. We've seen just pricing kind of change and grow. And I'm not saying that it shouldn't or that price doesn't change over time. Of course it does. I'd just love to see a slowing of that, like maybe we've reached the kind of top for a while. Let's wait for the next generation before we start to expand again. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, value used to be much more part of the conversation when it comes to, uh, um, you know, the quality of a watch. I mean, you used to look at, uh, you know, a new watch that would come out even from, I don't know, IWC, I think a few years ago when they came out with a kind of a smaller, more basic version of kind of the, in the Mark 11 or Spitfire line, it was like, this watch is only, you know, whatever it was at the time, 3000 or whatever it was. And it's like, that's, that's, I mean, that's something to get excited about as much as a new movement or, or a new design is. And I think we're getting to this point where there's this growing gap between if you want something that's a good value or, or in a attainable budget, you're, you're looking at micro brands. Um, and then the rest of them, you know, everybody else's, you know, skipping above five, 6,000. And then if you want something that's closer to one or 2,000, you're, you're still that low end Seiko or micro brands. So I agree with you. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I mean, next up on mine, I would love to see kind of like more, I don't even know if field watch is the right term anymore, but just like, give me a sporty watches that don't have to have a bezel or, or another feature or, you know, give them enough water resistance that I can jump off the dock. Yeah. You know, if you want an example, this is one that is relatively brand new. Um, this is another one that I'm probably going to buy. Uh, but that new, the new treasure seeker. So the treasure seeker from skirf has been teased for a while, the dive version with the bezel and such. Yeah. But now he has another version that's kind of like in the Nautilus mindshare. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right. And it's a 37 or 39 millimeters, a bunch of different versions, including one in kind of a Goldie tone, which I'm, I'm pretty about. |
| Unknown | Mm. |
| James Stacey | on a rubber strap. I think these make a lot of sense. Like make watches that don't have to lean so hard on this promise of being so sporty. Right. Just make a really nice, like everyday, super wearable watch. And I think check out that new treasure seeker. I'll put it in the show notes in case people missed it, but I'm, I'm very excited for that kind of thing. And I hope we see more of it, especially in, in this sort of price point. I think CWC is well aligned. They've got a ton of these things. I just think they need to get, get, get them in front of more people's eyes, that sort of thing. So, yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was wearing the, it's funny, you know, I was wearing the, the Raven airfield for awhile. And then over the holidays I visited my, my folks and, and my mom saw it on my wrist and she likes color. You know, she's been wearing my Seaforth for gosh, the better part of a couple of two, three, four years. I don't know. And yeah, and we switched, we traded back. So I've got the Seaforth back. She's got the Raven and loves it. It's got that, it's kind of deep green, dial. It's a very interesting watch. And it's, I think it fits well into the space you're talking about here. And so does the C4. I was wearing that and I was like, this is refreshing. This is like, it's a watch without a rotating bezel. It has some interesting color and you know, 200 meter water resistance. Like you could do anything you want with it. So yeah, I agree. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I think the same with the, with the Universa is a great example, right? Yeah. This is a $750 watch, 37 millimeters strap, nice bracelet comes with it. Lots of color. uh, still very sporty and eminently wearable, but like just less fuss than a dive watch in many ways. Right. And I think that's kind of refreshing. And along the same lines as the, the field watch, the Scurfo with the gold tone, I would love to see more gold plated options, you know, sub thousand dollar, uh, watches. Like in, in my mind, I just keep thinking of imagine like a brew metric with all that color, but in like plated yellow gold. Yeah. it would just be the most fun. And because it would be, you know, $500, $550, whatever it is, when the dust settled, you wouldn't feel bad about like getting a scratch on it or having a laugh that it was gold. Like it would just be, it's just fun. It's the watch equivalent of like a, of a convertible that doesn't ask anything from you except to be driven on sunny days. Or a group B now that they have a bracelet. Oh yeah. And I'd love to see one of those in gold. It'd be so fun. Yeah. So yeah, maybe we'll get a little bit more gold plated. I don't, I don't genuinely know what the general, what the, like the wider watch enthusiasts view on gold plated is. I don't like gold, solid gold is very hit or miss because the price is insane, right? I think it's coming around. |
| Jason Heaton | It probably always will be. I don't know why. I never thought I would be talking about gold as well, but I, you know, I I'm, I'm warming to it as well. So something's happening. |
| James Stacey | I think popularity is up. I just think that, that like actual, like just because of the price of solid gold. Yeah. Um, it keeps most people out of it. It would keep me out of it in most scenarios. I'm lucky enough to have one solid gold chronograph because James Lambden sold it to me for what he paid for it. Cause he's a sweetheart. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, I think more, more gold plated stuff would be fun. I think, I think that the whole, the whole Cartier, the rise of Cartier that we've seen in the last few years, the popularity of the tank, other brands are going to be able to see that and go like, wait, we can make kind of like lightly wearing deco-y sort of even gold plated and we could do it for, like fair would be my guess. We could like destroy this. They could make something for $1,200. Yeah. That would have a beautiful dial, maybe a cool gold plated case and be kind of their most dressy thing. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people who have, uh, a black Bay 58 or a Pelagos or, uh, uh, some other, you know, a nice Omega dive watch that like occasionally they want to put on kind of a grandpa watch and a big sweater and sit and listen to music and with a gold watch on their wrist. I know I do. And then, yeah. I think that could be kind of fun. |
| Jason Heaton | I've got something that kind of riffs off of that, uh, that grandpa watch kind of a fun thing. And I think, and this is going to be a shocker. Um, I want to see a return of pocket watches, whether it's, whether it's an appreciation for, you know what, I'm putting a stick in the ground. I mean, you've heard it here first. I maybe not first, but one of the first, I mean, I feel like pocket watches, um, we will see a resurgence eventually, I think. And I think both in terms of appreciation for vintage ones, at auctions, et cetera. What if a brand IWC for instance, or somebody came out with a new pocket watch. Um, and I'm not, I'm not joking here. I mean, I think given the prevalence of people that have this dilemma of like, I've got an Apple watch that I want to wear, but I don't want to, you know, double risk to like, where do you carry your watch that you want to appreciate? People don't wear watches generally for diving or rough activities. If it's like a luxury product, what better place to have it than on a, a fob in your pocket. And, To, to that end, I think you'd also need to see a bit of a resurgence in, in, you know, the way clothing is structured to kind of carry a pocket watch, but you know, then there's waistcoats, um, like people used to wear and I could sort of see the, the style set kind of, uh, bringing waistcoats back and with the little pocket dedicated to a pocket watch. Um, I've got both my grandfather's pocket watches. I don't, I don't wear them, but, um, I pull them out and wind them up, look at the movement every now and then. And I think, uh, I think there's a niche. I don't think it would be hugely popular, but I do think, at least personally, I would love to see them come back in some respect. So I know that's a very odd, odd thing, but I'd love to see it. |
| James Stacey | That is an odd thing. |
| Jason Heaton | I gotta be honest. |
| James Stacey | I don't, I don't, I don't know. Yeah. Pocket watches. I don't know. I've just focused kind of extensively on a pocket watch story for the last little while for a Hodinkee radio episode about that lost JP Morgan. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I will say the one thing that I think leans in your favor is pocket watches were, of course, the seat of all watch engineering for a long time, so deep horology, and they have yet to be even remotely re-respected, if that term makes any sense. Yeah, so by and large. They have had no come up, right? Yeah. You can find pocket watches at just about any antique or junk dealer that'll be from great brands, maybe not like, maybe not J Players or, or, you know, Patek Philippe or like really top stuff, but like the American brands for sure. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to see Walthams, you're going to see, you know, a bunch of names that you know. Right. And, and I think that I think that there's huge value there. As long as you find pocket watch interesting. I think that for the people who, who like pocket watches now, they're going to have to do some work to share with everyone else to make that kind of wave where suddenly that's what people want, whether it was, you know, 15 years ago, it became steel, uh, sports watches. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, I could, I could conceivably see it, um, among a certain kind of group of enthusiasts and yeah, we're, we're now you have a, uh, a piece of horological excellence that doesn't even have to be on your wrist, which I do kind of see the appeal for that. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So anyway, that's, that's my left field, suggestion. I don't know if it'll be 2022, but I'd love to see it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'll follow that up with my left field one. I would love to see more brands work with carbon. You know, I still, I still want one of those carbon docks. Yeah. Yeah. Someday I'll make one of those mine. I think they're super cool. I love the material of the way it looks all the way it feels. I don't know how well it holds up. That's everyone's big question. Someday I'll be able to answer that question when I make the purchase for my own. But, um, yeah, I would love to see more brands work with carbon. There was a little while where we saw a handful of, where we saw like a handful of micro brands, um, kind of dipping their hands into different types of working with the carbon, whether it was forge or layup or, you know, internal structure that was wrapped in carbon, that sort of thing. Um, and, and I think it'd be fun to see more of that kind of come back around. I don't know how hard it is to work with it. I don't know how many suppliers there are out there, but like if doxa can do it, I mean, docs is kind of like, a huge micro brand at this point, right? Yeah. They were more of a micro brand when it was under Rick's tenure. And now they're operating more like a larger brand, but there's, I would, I would contend that this probably isn't outside the reach of a lot of brands. I would love to see a Hallios in carbon. I would love to see a Raven design, you know, redone in carbon, maybe a limited run, like the way they did a bunch of the, you know, the first run of the docks of stuff, see what people think about it. Yeah. But I think that could be kind of exciting. And I like the idea that it wouldn't necessarily have to cost a lot more than steel to my understanding. So you would have this nice alternative. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | You might already know X watch in steel or titanium or whatever. And now, but I got the carbon one and then that, you know, it's just, just more variety. And I think it could be kind of fun and exciting to see some more designs using that material. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I love that idea. And I, you know, I think regarding the, the fragility or perceived fragility of carbon. I mean, I think, you know, we're all those of us that love and wear and collect watches. I mean, we know that it's not good to be bashing around a watch or dropping it, especially dropping it. Um, you know, I can't remember the last time I dropped a watch, but like, you know, even, even wearing, wearing a watch in anger, whether you're, you know, diving or running or, or, or playing around with your kids or whatever, like, the odds of you smashing it are fairly low, and probably worth the risk to wear something that cool, you know, around. I think, yeah, that Doxa, it has grown on me more and more, and I could totally see, if not me wearing it, I could totally see you wearing one of those. I just think they're great. |
| James Stacey | So, yeah, good suggestion. And then finally, and we can leave watches after this, we have other things to chit-chat about, but I would love to see more brands in the Swatch stable. use the ETA C07 GMT movement. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | So right now we have a few watches from Mido, the Ocean Star GMT, which is a little bit larger. It's a 44 millimeters. So that's, that's going to be out of the running for my wrist, but I would love to see a reasonable sized line of GMT watches that use the, if you want to look it up specifically, we're talking the C07661. But there's several different versions, the C07 8XX has the silicon balance spring. They have one with a synthetic escapement. So there's a few different versions, but it's there. It's this watch brand sort of in-house flyer GMT movement. And I just think it needs to be in like vastly more watches. I would love to see it in a sweet Hamilton. I would love to see the Ocean Star Tribute, which is the smaller vintage style Mido dive watch. Put it in that. Give me a cool vintage dive around the GMT movement. I think that and then we could start seeing, like I remember when the BBGMT came out and we were like, look, you get GMT master two style GMT tracking, but for half the price, and this would be a quarter of the price of a BBGMT. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | No, that's a good one. |
| James Stacey | I think that'd be exciting to see. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | All right. How about, how about we do like some ideas for adventure and diving for the year? Anything, anything you've got on the list, hopes? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, so much of this is dependent on restrictions lifting, COVID abating a little bit. But, you know, I, I managed to, Kashani and I managed one dive trip last year to Bonaire in August and it was, it was, it was delightful. I mean, it was so wonderful. And, and My that's become kind of our default. It's an easy place for us to go. I would love to, to go diving somewhere new this year. Uh, I, I have a couple of leads, um, in a couple of places, one being, uh, Dominica and the other in out in Monterey, California, I've got friends with connections in both places. And I'm like, you know, uh, I need to make something like that happen. So, you know, COVID permitting, uh, get somewhere kind of new and interesting, uh, rather than kind of play it safe with, uh, with, uh, With the usual dive trips. Um, and then, and then locally, I mean, I love great lakes diving. I didn't do, I don't think I did any last year. Um, but then I'm down thinking about going under the ice again this winter. There's a local session that happens in February that I might, uh, be emboldened if it's not too frigid that weekend to, to join them for that. But, uh, we'll see. Yeah. Just gotta, you know, get back, get back underwater a bit. So, yeah, I know that's a, I know that's one of yours too. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, exactly. It's funny. It's the first one on my list is to get back into diving this summer. So I've taken years off since my, my second daughter was born. Uh, you know, it's just, it's just, it is a hobby that can take up all that time. And it's great if you, if you have a partner that, that also does it like in your case, Jason. And, and I think we'll, we'll get there. My, I think my wife is keen and we'll do that eventually, but I would like to get back into it, get my gear all checked up. Um, and I gotta buy a new mask, and that's easy. It's all the easy stuff. It's just driving it around and spending the money and then actually committing to getting underwater. So hopefully, I can do a couple of fun dives in Lake Ontario, get my gills back, as it were, and then maybe splash around a little bit at the cottage. And I would love to make it up to Tobermory, whether that's with, say, Ewan Gashani or Cole. Pennington's always keen. Yeah. uh, for, for a dive trip. So yeah, a little bit more of that kind of stuff would be great. Uh, thankfully the most of the burden is just getting stuff out of the garage and taking it to a store and making some new friends and that sort of thing. So not a big reach, but hopefully the world's, uh, in a slightly different condition by the time the warm weather comes back to this area and we can, uh, we can do a little bit more of this kind of stuff. Although diving is kind of a COVID friendly, um, sport in general, you're pretty much on your own. Uh, and you don't have to worry about breath underwater. Certainly. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Right. I was gonna say my next one is kind of, kind of, uh, overlaps with, with that to a certain degree, at least the Tobermory part of it. And I, I, I feel like, you know, regardless of, well, not regardless of, of how the world shapes up this next year in terms of travel, um, I'd, I'd love to do more of a full on defender road trip, like somewhere a little, little further, a little more remote kind of get beyond kind of the five hour radius that we've, that we've done so far. You know, camping, et cetera. I mean, I remember years ago when Kishani and I did the trip around Lake Superior, going across the North shore, across some remote areas in Northern Ontario. And, you know, you swing around, you actually get, uh, kind of over there close to, or within striking distance of, of the Tobermory area. And, uh, that'd be pretty cool to throw some dive tanks in the back and meet you over there. You know, after doing like a. going across the top of Lake Superior and camping and, you know, kind of just doing this, doing this full on like multi-sport, you know, a little bit of hiking camp out of the back of the truck, have dive tanks, you know, I don't know if I trust them strapped to the roof rack, but you know what I mean? Like keep them kind of stowed in the back and like use them just, just kind of a rollicking old, old fashioned kind of road trip that would be, you know, more COVID friendly than trudging through airports and sitting on long flights. Uh, border crossings notwithstanding. I mean, I think, uh, I think something like that could happen. So fingers crossed, that'd be really fun. I'd love to do something like that. That would combine interests, you know? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, no, I agree. The next one on my list was to kind of explore more of the GTA, the greater Toronto areas, outer reaches stuff. That's like say three, four hours from where I live. So some of that's the cottage, which is two hours. And then there's a whole kind of area of influence around there that we could check out more often. But I feel like the, When I moved to Toronto, it was 2019, early 2019. And at the time I was traveling, you know, half, maybe more than half of my year. So when I was home, I was like home, home. I wasn't here to then, I wouldn't come back on a Thursday and go out on a Friday and try and find some adventure. I had just gotten back from travel and the rest of it. And I think because of that, I kind of have this generally negative opinion of this part of the world. Mm-hmm. I haven't given it a fair shake. I know it's me. It's not Toronto or Southeastern Ontario. I do miss Vancouver, but that's fine. Not a bad thing necessarily. So I would like to just kind of explore more of this. So some of this is, you know, we went to Rockwood recently, which is a great conservation area. We're going to try and find some off-road driving, maybe some more legit like backcountry camping, that sort of thing. You have to go fairly far to get to parts of Ontario that are, you know, not owned by somebody. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, that's also another goal and I think would be a nice way, depending on how much work we decide to do on the cottage property this summer, there might be some chances to dig a little bit further. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think we both have this road trip driving theme and I think it leads a good segue into car projects. I think in order to tackle that full-on Defender road trip, I think I've got a few things I need to Kind of get squared away, sort it out with, uh, with the defender. Um, I'd, I'd like to, to kind of redo the headliner inside, get some new rims. And then if there's any further off-road adventures, like I had last year, um, kind of outfit the bottom, maybe protect it a little bit with some skid plates and covers. Um, and then in terms of the old Land Rover, the series three, it's been in the shop for a couple of months now. Um, I'm not in a hurry to get back cause it's winter and I don't really have a good spot to park it. But I think it's going to need a new clutch, which is good and bad. It needed it. Um, I'll be happy to have it back with that. Um, but then I'm thinking like as a, as a second, more of the hobby Land Rover, like I'm thinking it'd be fun to take off the roof, you know, it's got a hard top and, and get a canvas canvas roof or just leave it roofless and park it in the garage. Um, I think, uh, I think those might be kind of the two big, uh, kind of vehicle related projects for, for 2022. |
| James Stacey | What about you with the Jeep? Yeah, it's funny. I would also like to take the hardtop off. You know, I think it's summer. Yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know, this past summer season, I didn't take it off because we'd filled that space in our storage unit in the garage here with bikes. A family's worth of bicycles takes up about the same space as the Jeep's hardtop. So I wouldn't mind being able to put the soft top back on it because it's fun to just throw it back at a stoplight and have sort of the convertible experience. I've got a problem with the rear gate on the Jeep. So there's a little arm that actually isn't what stops it. It's the shape of the hinges that actually gives it like a point where it stops, a detente. Oh, yeah. But there is this catch and the name of it is failing me. It's a part. It's not that expensive. Last summer at the cottage, I was parked perpendicular to an incline, so when I opened the door, it overextended. The gate on the back of the Jeep also has the spare tire on it, so it's very heavy. And I just didn't have my hand on it like I normally would, and I extended and actually popped this arm out of its little mount. And trying to restore the arm to the mount was a fool's errand. There's people on YouTube that do it with two or three people and a bunch of weight and the rest of it. It's like a $50 part. So I'll probably just buy the part and install it and not worry about it. But I just haven't gotten around to it yet because on the level surface, the shape of the hinge actually stops. But if you're not careful or if wind or the lean of the vehicle catches it, the door overextends, it bends the hinges and it smashes your rear light. And actually can cause some substantial damage if you don't keep a hand on it. So I need to sort that out. Handbrake needs a little service. Um, so some simple stuff. Yeah. Uh, considering going back to the factory exhaust, uh, I had put a, uh, axle back on it a little while back just cause the, the one that was on there was failing and I got it on my mind that I needed one that sounded better. And what I got was one that drones on the highway, uh, which for an actual back is probably the only way that was ever going to go. There was just some, um, Poor decision-making on my part, we'll say. So I haven't quite decided yet. I would love something that's a little bit quieter at say 2000 RPM on the highway in sixth gear. But I like that when I downshift in this, I can hear the blip. I can hear, it's a little bit more sonorous. You do get a little bit more feedback. And the one that was in it originally, all you kind of get is the friction of the motor, the strain. Oh yeah. Yeah. So I'll see if maybe we can split the difference. I don't know. We'll, we'll work on that. It's not a, not a big deal either way. You, you end up not even noticing it on the long enough drive, but it is there and it's loud. These are not quiet vehicles, older Land Rovers and 10 year old jeeps. Right. Right. But yeah, I think that's probably it for driving. I would love to drive more, you know, like, like if we're using the cottage as like a home base and, and start to explore more of the outer reaches. But I think that more in ties, I think that more ties with what we'd spoken about previously. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. What about, uh, like creative outlets? Uh, where, where do you see, I mean, if you, if you get a little bit more of a breather this year than you did last year, work-wise, what, what ambitions do you have in that area? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You know, I've been wanting a new project, kind of like something to focus, um, especially the photography. So I, I, I'm, I'm hoping to, I'm not sure if it's going to be more of like a digital presentation or a book. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I would like to do something in photography. That's not watches or cars. |
| Unknown | Hmm. |
| James Stacey | And even if it ends up being something I don't publish, that I don't turn into a book or whatever, I would like something to take an idle mind and give it a little bit of an aesthetic output. So that's still on the plan. I'm not sure if that would be film or digital or what. I haven't quite worked that out. But some sort of a photo project, I think, for the year would be fun. Something kind of a little bit more grandiose than I've done in the past. And then to tie in with that would be this, what we spoke about with the Wacom tablet, would just be to specifically kind of develop my photo editing skills to be faster and more repetitive and kind of at a more professional level than they are now. And then for TGN, I want more guests. I want deeper topics. I would love to find a way to pour a bunch of extra value into the supporter crew. Right. Kind of level, whether that's the occasional fun post, you know, if we all get together and do like a drive dive kind of weekend or something, like turn that into a little video element and a photo report and some words and this or that, and just kind of lean into a little bit of that. And I think a lot of that will come naturally as soon as, as soon as we kind of ease our way into whatever the life is going to be as COVID kind of becomes more of a daily normal. thing versus the only thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Right, right. I think we're, you know, here we are entering our sixth year of TGN and I, um, or is it our seventh year? Anyway, um, sixth or seventh year. And I'm actually feeling more excited about, um, the future of TGN than I ever have in the past, what, five or six years. And I think that's really exciting. I think, uh, I think we've just got a lot of opportunity and a lot of that comes down to, uh, to our, our supporters. So I agree. I think we can do some big stuff here. you know, the big push for me this year, I I've committed to, to writing that followup novel to depth charge and, and, uh, I'm, I'm working hard on it. I've, I've kind of adapted my, my work structure. I was finding it hard to, to do much creative writing during the day. I was always just getting caught up with, you know, FedEx runs and, uh, you know, writing my sub stack and, you know, recording TGN and then errands and just doing household stuff. And, and I was getting a little frustrated with like, when can I build in that time? But, Um, what I've found is that I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm getting up so early these days that I've taken to, to doing my writing first thing in the morning, like talking like five 30 and I can put in a good two hours of creative writing, knock out a thousand words or more. Um, you know, before Shani wakes up before the world wakes up. Um, so I have, you know, bowl of cereal, a cup of coffee and I'm, I'm sitting there writing by, you know, by 6am and it's, uh, it's, It's been nice. I've, I've been fairly productive and I think that's my big goal for the year. I really would like to at least have a final, you know, full on draft manuscript done by the end of the year. If not, if not done and ready to publish. So that's, that's kind of my big thing. And then in terms of depth charge, it's continuing to sell reasonably well. I'm still getting good feedback from, from readers. Um, and I know people have been asking, make that audio. Yeah. People have been asking me about the audio book and I did take steps yesterday, so I'm, And I'd love feedback from you and from, from listeners in terms of an audio book, first of all, is there interest? I think there is, but also I I'm torn between whether or not I should be the one reading it. There's definite advantages to that and appeal. I know of having an author read his own work or hiring an actual professional audio book narrator of, of which there are many very talented people that do this for a living. And to, to, to, you know, pretend that I can do it as well in terms of accents and inflections and that sort of thing as somebody that does this for a living. Um, it was frankly probably a little insulting to some of those people. Um, so I've been, I actually opened it up for auditions on, uh, on audible. They have a program where you can, you know, put out a sample script and listen to, to some auditions, audio book auditions. And I've, I've gotten some, some good ones, some not so good ones. Uh, So I'm still weighing it. Ghoshani and I listen to them every day. Uh, I'm surprised at the number of auditions that have come in. Um, so, you know, there, there's a production element to it, which I don't think is, is too daunting if I decide to do it myself and you've offered your help and, and a few others. And I've got the theme music from my, my friend Oren who, who composed that wonderful theme song. So I think all the elements are there. I'm just trying to decide whether or not it should be me doing it or, or hire someone to do it. So. |
| James Stacey | Here's where I would weigh in. And here's what we can do. We can actually also involve everyone who's listening, who's part of the sub stack, paid or otherwise. You just need an account so you can make a comment. In the notes for this episode, I'm going to put a, should Jason make an audio book comment? Yeah. Yeah. Just click like, if you think yes. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. |
| James Stacey | And we'll see how many people go like, yeah, I would listen to it. Good idea. And And we'll go from there. Maybe it'll cost a few bucks in the end, whatever it is. In my opinion, Jason, I look back on my history with audiobooks, which is in the pretty early days of Audible. And I remember on a standard iPod, I went and got a bunch of Chuck Klosterman stuff. And he's a fantastic writer. I think I've talked about him on the show before, but if you don't know Chuck Klosterman, he's a pop culture and sports writer. He's written a handful of really incredible books. I highly recommend them. They are kind of funny, not like comedy, but they are funny, kind of prescient, in-depth looks at various elements of popular culture and media in the Zeitgeist at the time. And he's an incredible writer, and he does the voice for at least all the audiobooks I listened to, you know, 15, almost 20 years ago. This would have been when I was in university, so not quite 20. The thing is, I think you have a great voice. Obviously, I could be biased, but I have to listen to it a lot, so I think I might actually be the opposite. I think you have a great voice, and Klosterman doesn't. But after a few chapters, I would have been so bummed if I had gone from Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs to Chuck Klosterman 4, and for 4, they had a professional. I really came to love that I knew that it was his voice, that his voice was kind of imperfect, that it wasn't necessarily the most... It was professionally produced. He did nothing wrong. In many ways, I think they did everything right by going this direction. But it's my two cents that we could record it, I could produce it, and we could just decide where to distribute it and how, and then go from there. But I also understand it takes a huge time and effort thing off your plate if somebody else records it, especially someone who's probably done a bunch of books before. So it comes back cleaner and faster than if you and I do it kind of over Zoom. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I I'm a, I'm totally on board if you want to give it a try. I think, I think we could make it and I think people would love it for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | I think I, and this is a drilling down to a more specific question. I don't want to bog us down here, but the, The real question is accents. There are a lot of accents. For those of you that read the book, you'll know, um, a lot of different nationalities pop up in the book and my comfort level doing a Northern English accent versus a, you know, an Australian accent versus a Sri Lankan accent is, is low. So, you know, whether or not I attempt those or just kind of change inflection or kind of do it half heartedly, um, is, is, is where I'm kind of stumbling. So, uh, I don't want to bog us down here too much with this, but if you do have comments about this, uh, definitely, you know, respond to James's comment and also, uh, feel free to DM me or even write to the great NATO at gmail.com and just let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Cool. So, yeah. Uh, I think that's a good one. I also think that, you know, this is turning out to be a pretty long episode. We've got a lot, lots of chit chat about looking forward to the year. I think a year in which, you know, we're able to do some adventuring, I can get back into diving. Maybe I get a little bit fitter. Maybe it's a Peloton. And you put out an audio book. That sounds like a pretty good 2022. I would say so. Yeah. Well, how about some final notes? You put a bow on it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. |
| James Stacey | Why don't you go first? Sure. So mine is a movie that I've been told to watch so many times by my brother. You know, my brother, Tim, who's been on the show and has done single serving cinema with Tay, which you guys should definitely be listening to if you're not. It's a fantastic movie podcast. But my brother kept recommending this movie called Pig. It's from last year. It's a Nick Cage movie. You know, I think the trailer is maybe a bit misleading. At first, you kind of think, like, is this a John Wick? But instead of a puppy, it's a pig. Yeah. And you know that that isn't what it is. This is directed by Michael Sarnosky. And it's it's this really incredible story about this sort of Dick Preneke type, Nick Cage. I will preface this by I think You say whatever you want about Nick Cage. I think if you have a negative opinion of him as an actor, I would just encourage you to expand your horizons on his work. Go back and check out Moonstruck. Go back and check out... What was the one that Ridley Scott did after Gladiator? Matchstick Men. Go check out Matchstick Men. Obviously, the classics, Face Off, The Rock, Con Air. I think most people kind of know those. but I think it's easy to look at that movie and see that some of his personality is huge, but his talent I think is very subtle. Um, to say, to make it short is like, you look at this guy, he's a filmography of 109 actors credit at this point. I think he's one of the, the talents of his generation. Um, no exaggeration. I don't mean that as like a joke in any way. I know that like, it's funny to make fun of Nick Cage when he's kind of going like swinging for the fences, the big shouting acting, you know, I didn't like, in fact, I absolutely hated, um, uh, the remake of wicker man. So I'm not saying like everything he's in this great, but my goodness, this pig good. He plays like a, like a Dick Preneke type. Who's kind of withdrawn from society after some tragedy. He lives in the woods in Oregon, not that far from Portland. And his only friend is a pig that helps him find truffles, which is how he supports his living. He interfaces with, um, a restaurateur or I guess a truffle supplier in Portland who comes out once a week and picks up some, some truffles. Um, the story, uh, which you can get from the trailer. So I'm not giving you anything away. Somebody decides to steal this pig, um, uh, to try and, you know, make a power play in the Portland restaurant scene. And it's about cage kind of traveling back to Portland, having to kind of confront things that he ran away from at a time in his life when he left. Uh, and it's a really, it's beautifully shot. The dialogue's incredible. The music is great. Everything about this movie is fantastic. It's not especially violent, so if you don't like a violent movie, I think this would work. It has a heart. It has a soul. If you imagine a John Wick, I guess there's a similarity there, but replace all the violence with cooking, I guess, and talking about food. I can't say enough nice things about this. Pig's a great movie, and everyone should check it out. Nick Cage is a wonder. Um, and, and there's a handful of other great actors in there. I don't really want to give anything away. Cause sometimes they give you an actor in the third act and you're like, Oh, look who that is. That's fun. |
| Jason Heaton | I wonder if sometimes not to spoil that. I wonder if sometimes filmmakers and the marketers, you know, they, they, they're, they're, they lack the confidence that a certain theme or certain storyline will be popular. So they try to like brand it differently because the lead photo that just this brooding face of Nick cage and, and yeah, the title and everything, it's just like, I, unless you'd told me, I just, there's no way I would have watched this, but now, now it's on the list because, uh, it just doesn't look like anything that you're describing. |
| James Stacey | But I think like pig is a movie, like even my mom, my parents would like, huh? Uh, I think it just has a nice story and, and, and I, I want to, I want to see Nick Cage come back. Yeah. You know, if you read a little bit about his personal life and what happened with, um, with his financial scenario, the guy got dealt a bad hand and all he's ever done is put out like every performance is a hundred percent of what he had in him. Yeah. Uh, and, and whether it's, you know, I'm a huge fan of the rock. I think he's great in that. I think that movie's great despite, you know, not being one, even one of my remotely favorite directors. Uh, but yeah, I'm just thrilled to see him in, in movies like this. And I think this is a, like a, a quiet, thoughtful, patient sort of movie that I just didn't know what was going to happen next, but it was never like, it wasn't a horror film. It wasn't an action film. It wasn't a thriller. Like it's this different sort of thing. It's great. |
| Unknown | Cool. |
| James Stacey | Going to give it a, don't trust the trailer. Yeah. I mean, you could say that for almost any movie these days. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right. Um, where you're like, I don't, I don't know that this trailer really sold me on what ended up being kind of the gold in the pan at the end of this movie. So pig is, is great. I highly recommend it. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, I, my, uh, my final note is, um, kind of, kind of pertinent for our, the theme of today's episode. Uh, if you remember our former TGN guest, Sean Lerwill, uh, kind of fitness expert, uh, ex Royal Marine watch guy. |
| James Stacey | Fantastic Instagram follow. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Um, so Sean also has a YouTube channel and he posts kind of short videos, usually just him kind of talking about a subject that's occurs to him that week. And, uh, recently I saw him doing about a five minute chat about how he he's taken up meditation recently and it kind of resonated with me. And, and, you know, I think particularly in winter, you know, we, It's kind of a time of year when, you know, it's dark and cold and we're starting to get cabin fever, anxiety kind of creeps in, you start to worry about stuff. And, and I don't know, at that time I was like, I might give this a go. And, you know, look, Sean's a good endorsement in my mind. I think he's a, a lot of what he says is smart and true. And so I gave it a shot. And he said that he'd been using the, the Headspace app. Now Headspace has a series of programs on Netflix. With, uh, with Headspace as founder, kind of guiding you through various meditations and topics around meditation. Uh, the app is similar. They have, you know, hundreds of. Um, kind of guided meditations with, with various people doing it, you know, depending on what voice appeals to you or, or you can read the bios of all of these, uh, these people that are part of Headspace and, um, it's, it's a subscription. So I signed up for like a free trial and then it'll ultimately go to, you know, six, seven bucks a month or something. And we'll see how far along I keep that subscription before I maybe just keep doing this on my own. But I've been doing it for about a week. And as I mentioned earlier, I get up quite early in the morning, uh, you know, five, five 30 and I usually eat and have my coffee. And then I come in my office, it's kind of dark and warm. And I just sort of sit here and I do these 10 minute guided meditations that really aren't, aren't, you know, religious or spiritual or whatever you want to call them, but they're more just kind of focused on mindfulness and kind of settling you. Um, without any kind of judgment or, or, you know, lofty goals. And it's, um, I've already noticed a difference in the, in the week. I think it's even the small acts of doing something positive in your life and kind of changing your mindset can make you, um, set you on a good course for a given day, a given week, you know, given year. And it's led to, you know, as I mentioned, I've started, uh, I do this 10 minute meditation. dropped down to a few pushups. Then I sit at my desk and I write for an hour, an hour and a half. And it's just, it's set me off on, on, on really a good course for the day. And by the time it's, you know, three, four in the afternoon, I'm, you know, I'm feeling content. I feel like I've done something that day and I'm feeling calmer and you know, I've tried meditation in the past and it hasn't quite worked for me, but so far this is working great. And I'm not saying you have to use the Headspace app. We'll, we'll throw the link in the show notes. I guess that's my, That is my final note for today. So, so give it a shot or at least, uh, check it out or, or the, the programs on Netflix. But, uh, yeah, thanks to, thanks again to Sean for kind of, uh, keying me in on that and, uh, and making aware and it's, uh, it's been a lot of fun. It's been great. So give it a shot if it's for you. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I've, that's been on my mind for a while. You know, I, I'm, uh, I like to listen to a lot of the podcasts and, and kind of stuff that Kevin Rose puts out and he's a big proponent of this. I think he has his own app called Oak maybe. Huh. And, um, and then there's calm and then there's a headspace. I think headspace is the like big market piece from that. My brother's used it before and really likes it. And it's so weird that, cause we haven't talked about this. There's, there's aspects of things that we talk about constantly on our Slack and then we leave other stuff and it just kind of shows up in the notes. And this has been on my mind for the last few days. I'm doing a dry January and fixing some diet stuff. And then I was thinking like, well, maybe, you know, they say it takes 28 days or whatever to start a new habit, like to make it a habit. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So maybe when I make it through dry January, as sad as a month as it makes me, maybe February, I'll get your impressions from your January with meditation and maybe February can be a meditation month. I think that's great. I think it's awesome. I certainly have a lot of kind of noisy brain chemistry, I think. Maybe everyone does. I don't know. Yeah. So maybe that could be helpful. I know I have a few people in my life who are big, big fans of it and are always talking about it. Yeah. Which sometimes makes me want to less and sometimes makes you want to more. But with the start of a new year, the idea that you might see the benefits, you know, pay off from, from learning a new practice. I like that feeling a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And sometimes it, it takes years and multiple people telling you about something before it kind of registers with you, or maybe it's just the right time in life for it to try it. And for me, um, that's been, that's been now for whatever reason, I think 2021 was kind of my year to, for physical fitness. And I think you know, I'll continue that on, but, but 2022, I think is, uh, it's shaping up to be kind of a good year to kind of take, take better care of my brain, my psychology. And I think, uh, this is a big step in that direction. So, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Fantastic. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | All right. Well, there you go. That's an episode. It was a long one, uh, this week, but, uh, you know, I think it's going to be a long year and I hope that we're able to find every kind of moment that that's available to any of us, Jason, myself, and anyone who's listening and, and kind of make the most out of it. And, uh, And I think our goal with this was kind of lay it out and see what we can, what we can kind of make happen. Um, and, and hopefully inspire a few people to, uh, to do the same or to make a change or who knows, it could be headspace. It could be a Jeep. It could be also good, good decisions, bad decisions, whatever, but I mean, keep moving. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Right. |
| James Stacey | Pocket watches stay sharp. Yeah. Pocket watches. Exactly. We're all going to be talking pocket watches by 2023. |
| Jason Heaton | I know it. |
| James Stacey | I can feel it. Yeah. Uh, you know, Hey, we've, we've predicted weirder things, I think on the show in our, in our many years, but, uh, You know, as always, uh, you know, thanks so much for listening and you can subscribe to the show notes via notes.thegrenado.com or you can check the feed for more details and links. You can, uh, follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at Jay Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. And if you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting us, uh, maybe even picking up a brand new TGN signed NATO. Just hit graynado.com for that. And, uh, you know, furthermore, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcast music throughout a siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Winston Churchill, who said, to improve is to change. To be perfect is to change often. |