The Grey NATO – 177 – Pilot's Watches

Published on Thu, 20 Jan 2022 07:00:14 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discussed their favorite pilot's watches across various brands and price points. They talked about affordable options like the Citizen Nighthawk and Seiko models, as well as more premium offerings from brands like Breitling, IWC, and Zenith. They highlighted the versatility and functionality of true pilot's watches designed for use in aircraft, while also touching on the appeal of watches with an aviation aesthetic that may not be intended for actual flight use.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 177, and it's proudly brought to you by, well, you guys, the newly formed TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support of the show. Jason, how are we doing there? Doing great.
James Yeah. Just keeping on here. It's turning into a proper winter here. We've had, we've had a snow that's actually sticking around. So it's, uh, it's been a lot of fun here. I know you just got dumped on and you're having fun in it too.
Jason Yeah, we got a ton. I mean a ton for here. I granted there's people listening who are used to like for the whole winter, having snow sitting. It's not necessarily the scene in Toronto all the time, but they knew a storm was coming. There were different predictions as to how bad it, we ended up getting a couple of feet basically. So it came overnight, which is surprising. Like where you go to bed and it's not even snowing. And then you wake up and it's like, oh, this is going to be like a major part of portion of our day, keeping them like shoveling and getting neighbors able to leave their homes and stuff like that.
James Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. We've had snow sticking around this year, which is a nice treat. And the past few winters have been hit and miss. And so we went snowshoeing. We were at my parents over the weekend and went snowshoeing with them on the frozen lake behind their house. Um, I don't know. It's just, there's something festive about just being out in the snow. Even, even what you were doing, shoveling. I mean, it's like just that kind of element of community that kind of everybody finally emerges from their house rather than huddling inside. Cause you, you kind of have to, and, uh, yeah, that's good fun. So yeah. And then we, we fired up the grill. Um, once again, that's no grill that you guys sent us and, uh, we put some big slabs of salmon on it and, and grilled over, over wood fire outside. It was, uh, pretty spectacular. It was a great meal last night. So yeah. Awesome.
Jason That looked awesome on the, uh, on the Instagram. I'm glad you're getting some use of the, is it, it's like easy to use, easy to clean, that sort of stuff. Incredibly easy. Like super dirty cooking on it or anything like that.
James Incredibly easy. The, uh, the great that, uh, we'll put a link in the show notes. I think we probably did last time too, but the grill that you actually lay on top, once you've got the fire going, it comes right off, obviously lifts off and then it fits right in the dishwasher. And so, you know, you throw that in the dishwasher, you dump the ash out the next day after it's, after it's cooled off. And, and it just folds up on itself like, uh, like origami and slides into that nice canvas bag that it came with. I mean, it's literally a two, you know, two minutes set up and two minute teardown. So it's, uh, it's super, super friendly for, you know, for even bringing to somebody's house or, or taking for car camping or something. So yeah, I'm loving it. Very cool indeed. Yeah. And I noticed you have some new, uh, it's not technically a risk check, but you, you, you posted something from shoveling this, uh,
Jason you know, those, those who've been listening to the show for a really long time, way back might remember that right around the early point of the show, like I, at the time I had a, an office day job where they didn't want your phone on your desk. It was like a thing and very childish in my opinion, but still I had that going. And, and so I still wanted to know if I had notifications and was missing a phone call or something like that. So I had found at the time this thing called a me band from a Chinese electronics company called chow me. And I think it was at me band one or two, it was probably a two and I wore it for a long time. And then I left that job to become kind of full-time freelance and do the watch thing and the podcast and the rest of it. And I stopped wearing it because like I didn't need the notifications. I wasn't really at the time worried about my fitness tracking at all. I wasn't, you know, I was in Vancouver, I was running a lot. It didn't make any difference to have those metrics. So for the new year, I wanted to get kind of a little bit more in depth on keeping up with a certain amount of like, we talked about this in the last episode, working out enough, uh, for some functional fitness and some, some, the ability to, you know, maintain certain metrics for being able to adventure and hike and the rest of this. And then the sleep thing has become really nice. I really like to, uh, do the sleep tracking kind of understand how, what time I go to bed and what I eat and the rest of it might affect that, that sort of part of it. And so, you know, you can wear the garment a lot, but, but my thing is, is as much as I love the garment and it really is a perfect sort of tool watch for an activity. most of the time I still want to wear like a mechanical watch. I want to wear a Seiko dive watch. I want to wear the Explorer. I want to wear the Braymont, whatever it is. Right.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason And so I do really like this idea of, of being able to essentially, um, you know, double wrist or, or, or whatever, but where the, the other option on my right wrist is just kind of a bracelet rather than a watch.
Unknown Oh yeah.
Jason Yeah. So it turns out, Xiaomi continued making this and they're now up to the sixth generation, the Mi Band 6. and they're about 50 bucks American. You can buy them on Amazon. I bought mine, uh, through, I think Walmart in Canada, if that's helpful, Alibaba carries them should be between like 50 and $70. I think I paid 75 Canadians. So that's about 50 bucks, a little bit more. And it's this really small rectangular. So it's sort of tonneau shaped if you imagine on your wrist, but it's not very wide. And the current gen has like a full kind of borderless, AMOLED screens. You get a lot of color and it's very bright. You can read it in the sunlight. It has something like a two week battery life. If you don't have all of the health features kind of constantly tracking. And I find that I have it cranked way up with almost all the features on, and it still seems to get like five to six days before you even get a message that the battery could be charged. And because it's tiny, it charges in a few minutes. You can like take it off after a workout. And by the time you're done in your shower and dressed and everything, you've got another 70 or 80%. Wow. And it doesn't weigh anything. And then basically you get the time, you get notifications from your phone, you get several different layers of heart rate measuring all the way up to essentially constant, like what you get on the, on the Garmin's and the Apple watches and such. This will do blood ox or the SPO2 stuff. It does sleep tracking. It does. It has a nice app. The MeFit app can integrate directly with Apple health. So if you want to use this as your endpoint for your Apple health, Um, you can basically say like, I want my heart rate from the, from the me band. I want the sleep data from the me band and it passes it on to that. Uh, obviously timers, uh, alarms, stopwatches, that's all fine. Tells you the weather. And then the thing that I like, and I still use the Garmin, but now I find that I'm double wristing with the Garmin on my left wrist when I'm working out and this on my right is it has little metric little, you can put it in like indoor cycling mode. And it's not so much that it has a lot of data, but it just tracks. So you can save the workout.
Unknown Oh, sure.
Jason Right. And so I'll still wear the Garmin. So I have cadence and, and, uh, you know, the, all the, the heart rate numbers are really standard. For some reason, I just kind of trust, uh, several hundred dollar Garmin versus a $50 little tracker. Maybe that's not accurate. Remember they're all using the same sensor. I don't know that the numbers seem very similar when I'm working out within one or two beats. Um, on either side, which has to be within some range of, uh, you know, error.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason And I think this is something that not everybody wants, but a lot of people want the ability to have the fitness tracker and some of the smartwatch features, but not in place of your watch.
James Yeah. I like that idea personally that I think that's, that's really cool. Can you, can you shut off the display so that it's just sort of this anonymous sort of subtle black band or you said it's very bright.
Jason Well, the display is only on when you turn your wrist or tap the screen. Okay. Um, so you could set it to tap only and that way it would only ever come on if you touched it.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
Jason And then, but you can even like, it's bright enough that there's a flashlight setting. So like you can click it and the whole screen goes white to, you know, help you see a little bit in the dark. Um, you know, you can buy it, but it just uses these, it's, it's like a, a pebble, like a sealed unit that has a channel around it for the strap to click into.
Unknown Oh yeah.
Jason But the strap wraps all the way around it. So it's this very simple piece of, um, silicon. And I bought like, 20 more straps, all different colors on Amazon for $12. So I've got, got it on like a Navy blue, um, got a handful of colors. I'm really impressed by it. I can, uh, my wife got one as well and you're able to like friend a person so you can see how much they're sleeping, how much they're working out. You can like nudge each other to, you know, kind of like say, Hey, you should probably do something or I don't, I'm not really sure what the nudging is for, but You can bother somebody with the nudge and... Get up. Yeah, I like... Yeah, exactly. You should say, hey, how about... But yeah, so far I'm just impressed. I like these sorts of things. I grew up with a fascination for little technical widgets. I like that it's not expensive and I really like that I can have the Braemount or whatever on the other wrist and wear this and kind of have the best of both worlds where I'm not missing notifications. I'm getting my heart rate tracking and my sleep tracking, the step counts if you want it, um, all that kind of stuff. And then when you're ready for a workout, you can do it and put it in and then it goes into the apps and it kind of shares with a few different spots if you want it to. And for the money, I think it's a bit of a no brainer if you're a watch nerd that also would appreciate some smartwatch sort of stuff.
James That's uh, that's enticing. I like that. I, I, I'd be very tempted to, to try one of these out because you know, my, my dilemma always is that when I set off to do any sort of thing, cycling, skiing, whatever I switch out or have in the past. I'll get to, get to this concept in a minute here, but, um, I've always switched out for the Garmin then switched back when I get home and the Garmin just wears like a watch, like a nice watch, but a smartwatch with a screen that I'm not as keen on wearing full time. So I like this idea for, especially for, for that little money. Um, that's pretty cool.
Jason I like a nice screen. You know, I think that's maybe what was missing on some of the previous ones. Uh, I can't imagine. wearing the smartwatch full time, right? Like we've talked about this a ton that like the Garmin stuff is like perfect for maybe a couple of days when you know you want your notifications or when you're doing a big activity of some sort that you want to track. And I feel like for all of the in between the slightly less serious side of fitness tracking, I think I'd lean on something like this, which the vibrates a little bit if you get a message and can kind of keep you on top of a, on top of your day. and give you kind of a snapshot of where you are in terms of sleep and energy and stress and that kind of stuff.
James And, uh, you know, speaking of all this and fitness, that seems to be a growing theme with us this year. Um, your dilemma about a Peloton versus something else. How's that coming along?
Jason Yeah, actually really well, you know, a big thank you. So many of you probably got maybe 50 recommendations. Yeah. Right. Um, everybody's super smart. There were, there were people who went ahead and like said, Oh, you should just buy it. It's great. I, my family has one and I love it. Other people said you should start, like if you have a bike right now and you're not 100% sold, like sign up for the app.
Unknown Oh yeah.
Jason And get an idea for the app because you can do the bike rides, you can do other workouts and it's like $13 a month. So I think that's a great suggestion because where I kind of land at this moment is I definitely want to get one, but I'm not going to not buy one on sale. Yeah. The company's financials are really good currently. They should probably offer a good discount sometime this spring. I believe they were two or three or $400 off last summer. But I might be conflating that with those rad power bikes, which are also on sale. That bike last summer, I can't quite remember. But yeah, so I definitely want to get one. It's currently more question just waiting for the sale. But I do think the recommendation to go to the app makes a lot of sense. I just have to find a device. I have to try the app to see if it's something that like, is my phone enough? Or do I want a tablet to be able to see whatever the person's doing the rest of it? Yeah, so But yeah, I think I definitely pick one up at some point right now just doing the GCN videos with, um, with the, the normal spin bike that we've got here and enjoying it. It's a nice enough way to do. They've got a couple that are like as little as 15 minutes and you think like, Oh, how much are you going to get done in 15 minutes? And then it's like, if you do what they ask you to do, you'll be sweating for sure. Yeah. It's impressive.
James That's great. That's great. I guess on this end too, in terms of gear and that sort of thing, I, uh, I committed to, I think I'd mentioned briefly last time, one of my goals for, for this year was to do a little more diving and possibly get in under the ice again, which I'd done a few years back. And so I, I committed to it. I wrote to the dive shop that does this ice diving weekend and I asked to get on the list and, and, uh, he said, sure. So, um, I'm going to do that in a few weeks. And, and before I do that, I really need to make sure that my old dry suit doesn't leak because that would be a real bummer. And, you know, I've got, I've got a couple of, of dry suits, but the first one that I got was this rental return used one from this now defunct company called Diving Concepts that was based in Santa Barbara, California. And, you know, kind of dry suit nerds will, will know that name. It was, it was quite a well-known company and they made these really rugged shell suits. And, uh, I used it for years and then it kind of started to leak, I think around the zipper and I put it away and got a different one. And so there's a, there's actually a, a If anyone's needing a dry suit repaired, probably in the U.S. for shipping purposes for the sake of keeping costs down, but there's a company called Superior Diving Repair that's just up the road here about two hours in Minnesota of all places that specializes in this. And so I got in touch with them and they've been doing it for like 30 years. They bought all the old inventory from Diving Concepts and they'll fix any suit and do leak testing and whatever. So I shipped mine off to them and that'll be back in a little while. So that should be all ready to go for For ice diving and beyond and maybe some, some Great Lakes stuff this summer. So if you're going to jump into a Lake Ontario out there, you'll be ready for, for some dry suit diving. Maybe we can finally meet up in Tobermory and do that.
Jason Yeah, for sure. I mean, I'm definitely going to have to do the exact same thing with my dry suit, which hasn't been underwater in some time. My, uh, you know, I guess the plus on my side is then this is where I was going initially. And then you said that the company's not around anymore is normally you can get it fixed by the company that made it. Like I have a bear, um, dry suit. Yeah. I have a bare dry suit and you can definitely send it to them. I'm not sure what the options here in Toronto are as I've never, I haven't really gotten into it yet, but, uh, I think we might be in a similar, uh, similar way waiting for a dry suit repairs in the next little while.
James Yeah. Yeah. And I remember years ago, this is a bit of an aside, but you know, you can leak test your own informally by sealing off the, the wrists and the neck and then pumping it up with a little air from like a scuba tank. And then like, you know, if you can submerge it in water, that's great, but you risk filling up your suit with water or you can just kind of spritz it with foamy, like soapy water, um, and see where there are bubbles. But yeah, I think these guys have a more sophisticated method of doing it, so I left it to them. But, uh, yeah, that's, that's what's coming up for me.
Jason Nice.
James I don't know. Should we jump into wrist check? I guess we've got to kind of move along here into our main topic.
Jason Yeah. I mean, yours, I mean, arguably I'm, I'm wearing this Xiaomi Mi Band. Uh, I have, I have a watch on as well, but I guess, I guess I kind of already went into at least one half of my wrist check. What, what have you got on? Cause yours has a story behind it.
James Yeah. So if you remember on last episode, I was wearing my white dialed Seamaster and I kind of joked that I'd become a one watch guy and that it might be worth a bit of an experiment. And you said, Oh, you should write an article about it. So I went ahead and I did that. uh last week on my sub stack I put up a an article about called one one watch one month and I have decided to embark on this little little month-long exercise which is silly to the vast majority of the population but for a lot of people listening to this you'll you'll understand the the gravity of wearing only one watch for a month um which is unheard of to some people Uh, so yeah, so I'm wearing the white Seamaster again and I will be for the next few weeks, uh, on this, on, uh, on this show. And, um, so far it's a breeze. I mean, I love this watch and I've still got it on the black rubber sort of planet ocean style strap and. You know, haven't really even desired switching straps yet, which is probably a good sign. Uh, but I've got lots of good options and I just, I love the watch. I, I'm not bored with it yet and it's, it just kind of does everything so well. So yeah, that's, that's where I'm at now.
Jason Yeah, I thought that was a great post to kind of kick off the idea, nicely written. You're always able to pull a similar metaphor and analogy that I don't quite expect, which is something I appreciate. Your ability to avoid certain cliches is always great, but it's a good post and I think a great one watch kind of discussion. Could you imagine legitimately needing a watch nicer than that Omega? Not need... Even within the watch world, concept of need, right? Of course, no. In a more global sense, but it's just a lot. That watch does kind of everything.
James Yeah. Yeah. And I, you know, for years I ignored the kind of quote unquote Bond style Seamaster for reasons we've discussed. Helium valve, scalloped bezel, skeleton hands, wave dial. I mean, I didn't like any of that stuff, but for some reason this one ticked the boxes. And after wearing it, I mean, it's just, it's, it's just a superb, superb watch. Very versatile. And I bought this one on the Omega rubber, so I don't really care for the bracelet, which I'm okay with. You know, it's 42 millimeters, but it wears kind of flat on the wrist. And I love the twisted lugs. I mean, it's a good looking watch and then you can pretty much do anything in it. So, you know, so far so good. I think it actually kind of butts up next to the Bremont S302 in many ways. It's kind of that similar size and feel. I know the Bremont's smaller, but in terms of versatility, I think it wears I would agree. Kind of similarly. Yeah.
Jason Yeah. There's, there's also something, and maybe it's just a question of, you know, like when you see something enough, you give it a certain, you accept it as appropriate. Yeah. Um, but you've seen that watch, uh, well not the white dial, but you know, the older versions with the blue dial on the bond bracelet, you've seen those in every context, someone cutting their grass, somebody in a suit at an office, you know, bond, So like there, it's a sneaky, versatile sort of sports watch that you could just kind of wear and it's subtle when it needs to be subtle, but it's also an Omega if you, if you end up in a conversation with a watch person, you know?
James Right, right. I've got a friend who has a blue dial, blue bezel, the quartz Seamaster. I think it was actually the first one that Pierce Brosnan wore in 95, the quartz version of it. And it's, it's kind of faded out. The bezel's a little faded and scratched up. And I always think to myself, that would be, a cool, like all-arounder kind of travel, grab and go, super rugged. You know, Omega's made such high quality watches, kind of like Breitling, I think over the years, you know, whether or not you like the look of them, their watches have always just been really solid, you know, even back to the pre-coaxial in-house days. And that quartz one would be a tempting kind of budget pickup if you wanted something to kind of just knock around in and just wear all the time. So.
Jason They also made a nice small, I think they would have even called it a ladies.
Unknown Oh yeah. Yeah.
Jason I can't remember how small it might be. 34.
Unknown Yes.
Jason And I'm sure somebody in the audience is listening. I apologize. It's, I want to say it's between 34 and like 37. Yeah. Yeah. But every now and then you get people and they're like, well, what, what's a small dive watch that I could get a nice dive watch. Right. And dig up a quartz, smaller Seamaster. That's a nice everyday watch. That is. Yeah.
James Make sure, make sure you can get a couple of straps. Yeah. They had a black dial. They had the blue dial. I mean, yeah, back in the day, they, They covered all bases. Yeah. That was cool.
Jason Yeah, for sure. So, and on, uh, on, so like we already talked about the me band on one wrist on my watch bearing wrist, uh, I'm wearing, uh, the Oris, uh, Hodinkee diver 65. I haven't worn it in a while. My, my wife had, I'd sized the bracelet for my wife to wear it and she enjoyed it for some time. And then I was, I saw it in the watch case the other day and I thought, ah, I should put that on and, and I'm not sure I could resize the bracelet. The tolerances are really tight on that bracelet. So I just put it on a kind of aged leather strap, a Houdinki shop, um, favorite of mine, sort of grayish strap. And it's, it's just a really lovely, thin, comfortable, good looking dive watch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I enjoy it quite a bit. Yeah. But one that I don't wear anywhere near enough. Right.
James Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm stuck for a month here. So now my, my watch case is like, I'm, I'm just choosing not even to open it because then, you know, It's going to be so dusty. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's funny. Um, there was this news story that people started sending me yesterday and I think I forwarded it to you. This, this, uh, Royal Navy sailor who had, um, he was supposed to be the stores manager and he was, um, on the side stealing CWC dive watches and selling them on eBay for his own profit. And he was busted. He's going to jail, kicked out of the Navy, whatever. But, uh, just, just reading that article, I was like, Hmm, you know, like I'm kind of missing my CWCs now. So, I don't know if this will be a serial thing, but I could, I could actually see like, I've got an automatic Royal Navy diver and I thought I could see wearing that for a month straight. So maybe, who knows, maybe after this experiment, maybe it'll be kind of a year of serial one watch months.
Jason I don't know. 12 watches of 2022. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. We'll have to figure out a way to work that into a Christmas song at the end of the year, I guess. Right. Right. 12 watches of. Yeah. Yeah. Christmas. Yeah. No, that's great. Uh, you know, I, I think, uh, I think it'll be an interesting story and interesting followup. I do kind of wonder if like, so you wear that watch for a month and then what happens? Like you on February 1st, you're going to go to your watch box. Like, are you going to pull it something really special or something kind of more pedestrian? It'll be interesting to see what you, what you really want to wear. Or if you don't even bother, maybe it's the third or the fourth or the fifth, by the time you go like, Oh, I guess I could wear something else.
James Right. Yeah. I actually wonder, I mean, early days here and I'm obviously optimistic that, Oh, gee, I'll, you know, I'll make a month. No problem. Not miss my other watches, but I could almost see kind of going beyond the, the month because I think you kind of, well, settle into this sort of mental state where it's just, I don't even think about it. And it's just pleasant to look at my wrist every now and then, but I'm not like in that mode of every day, like, Hmm, which one should I wear? So, but well, we should jump into the main topic. You know, we're both wearing dive watches, but, but we got a suggestion from a listener last year when I was out and you'd put up that short episode asking for suggestions for topic ideas. And a couple people at least mentioned, oh, pilots watches. We don't really talk about them much. And could we do an episode on them? So we are switching gears here from our own wrist wear to pilots watches today and kind of just giving, I guess, an overview of some of our favorites.
Jason I don't know. I guess, I guess we don't talk about pilots watches that often. I feel like we probably touch on watches in the space with some frequency, but maybe not within the context of being a pilot's watch. Maybe just within... Like it's a cool watch. Being a great sport watch or a watch that we like or something like that. I mean, I think, and we come by it honestly, but our roots are dive watches in many ways. That's kind of the starting point. That's my comfort zone. I'm more attached to the dive aesthetic than I am the pilot aesthetic.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Yeah. That being said, I noticed this when we started making the list for this episode is there might be some scenarios in which I confuse pilots watch with a field watch. Um, is, is there like a strict definition? Is it when it has a bezel, is it, is it, you know, if it has North, Southeast would like some marathons have that some do some don't some, you know, Alpinists have it and yeah, some don't. And so I'm not, I'm, Yeah. You know, not, not all pilots watches are fleegers, right? And not all field watches look like one thing. So there might be a little, there might be some soft overlap in the space.
James Yeah. And I remember in a recent, uh, what is it called? Hey, Hodinkee where Jack answers questions. Someone, one of the questions was what's the difference between a field watch and a pilot's watch. And I think there's some serious gray area there. I think, uh, I don't remember exactly what his response was, but I know that one of the criteria, at least in the early days, you know, back in the thirties, forties, fifties, um, it was, it was about, high resistance to magnetic influence because of the big piston engines right in front of the pilot that would zap the movements. But, you know, other than kind of legibility and accuracy, I'm not sure there's much that separates the two. And certainly you can use one for the other. I think it also goes to why I by and large prefer dive watches. I think I'm the kind of person that likes some sort of a gadget on a watch. So I like pilot chronographs, but I think And it's funny because the Pilot's Watch comes in a few different formats. We mentioned Fliegers, we mentioned ones that are more like field watches, and then you mentioned how some don't commonly have additional complications, but then you look at
Jason One of the most famous, uh, pilots watches and one that didn't, I don't believe we even put on our list. It's just, it's hard to talk about this without it is, you know, the kind of Pan Am inspired GMT master. Oh yeah. It's much more like a dive watch essentially doesn't feel like a pilot's watch. Definitely not like a wartime pilot's watch at all. Yeah. More of a tool of industrial kind of commercialization of travel. Yeah. So, I mean, they do come in a few different varieties, right?
James Yeah. Like an avatimer as well, I guess there's a lot going on. And then, um, And then of course, Zinn, like so many of their pilots watches just have, you know, all sorts of, uh, complications and, and bezels and things. So I'm, I've completely debunked my earlier statement, but I will say that kind of the, the very first pilots watches, you know, of which, you know, like an IWC Mark 11 or even a Flieger would fall into that category. I think they're, they just become a bit, you know, like I'm kind of wanting for more if I had one of those on for any number of days in a row.
Jason But, uh, yeah. And then even, even like, In some ways, pre-Flieger, you've got like, what was the Cartier Santos? Yeah. You know, it was 1909, maybe 1911, something like that. Santos Dumont was one of the first guys to fly a plane. Yeah, true. And Cartier made him this sporty watch for it. And that's clearly, you know, that's where Cartier knew they had to take what they already did and make it kind of more robust. But they didn't really, flying wasn't a thing yet. So how would you tailor a device to it? Yeah. Right. Right. But the, the Flieger was designed based on input from pilots and those who fly and needed it. And then kind of the same thing with, with kind of the, another generation with the GMT master in the fifties. Right. So, yeah. Uh, it's interesting to see where the inspiration for some of these comes from where in some cases that's kind of general because of how early flying was. And then if you get as far as like an aerospace, it's incredibly specific or, or, uh, what was the Omega, the X 33 stuff like those. Right.
James I think too, you know, when I, when I got my first, my first watches were dive watches, my old Seiko, then my planet ocean that I got in the mid two thousands and, and those kind of led me to diving, which is a sport that you can, you can take up. Anybody can, can give a try. And, and even a dive watch is great for free diving or snorkeling or just swimming. And, you know, I think with a pilot's watch, I think one thing that's problematic to me for a silly reason that people will roll their eyes on is that no matter what, unless I actually take up you know, flying lessons, which I certainly could. Um, I always feel like, well, you know, how do you wear this watch? What is it? Is it kind of more of a generalist thing or do you feel like you should be wearing aviator glasses and you know, a flight jacket or something when you're, when you're wearing this, is it a little bit of cosplay or as opposed to a dive watch, which I can legitimately say, you know, Oh yeah, I've, I'm a diver, you know? Um, but uh, anyway, there's a lot of good watches in our list here. And I guess you and I probably even own maybe one or two of these or have in the past.
Jason Probably a handful. Yeah. Where do you want to start? You want to start with like a nice Seiko I owned once? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah. So I think the first one I would recommend is one that I think they've now discontinued because the prices are kind of crazy and they seem very hard to buy, but it's one that I wanted to highlight because I think it was my first pilot's watch. And this would be way back when I was first getting into watches. I hadn't written about watches. I didn't take pictures of watches. I was just kind of reading about any watches I could find. And I came across these sort of SNA series flight masters from Seiko. And I believe there's three versions. The SNA-411 is the one that I think most people figure. It's the black dial with the yellow chrono seconds. It's basically Seiko's inexpensive Navitimer. It comes on a bracelet. I think they're 41 millimeters with a quartz movement. And I had this for a couple of years. I gave it to my brother. He wore it for a while and then lost it. And like, we were talking about this the other day that he wished he hadn't, it was just a really nice watch. And then I want to say there's a, well, I know there's a blue, white, red one, which might be the 414. And then there's a gold one with a black dial, which is where I would go today if I was buying one, but I can't, any of the normal options they're sold out. So I think maybe these are something that Seiko's not making anymore. But these SNA ones, they're really sweet. I remember being quite young on a cruise ship on a vacation. And in the duty free, I had the 411, I think at the time, but they had the 413, which I think is the gold one. Oh yeah. In the duty free. And I was like, who would buy that? That's so, that's so flashy and gaudy. Yeah. Or I guess this would have been before I had, this is probably when I first saw it. So I probably wouldn't have even had mine yet. And now, and now if I were to buy one, I'd buy that gold one. It'd be so much more fun.
James You should source one of those. I think that would be Yeah. So didn't we see one for sale recently or someone was posting a picture? I mean, there's, there's so.
Jason I sent you a link to it the other night. Yeah. My normal, you know, pre pre bedtime. Right. Random Googling of about 15 different SKUs. Yeah. Yeah. But I think that's when to get excited about it. You know, when, when I think back in the day, the one I had, I paid 250 bucks for maybe 200 bucks. So they weren't expensive, um, at the time. And, uh, and they are nice and they're kind of fun and they have that, that like tool-ish, pilot-y vibe that like Citizen does really well also for a price point. Yeah. So that'd be kind of the first one I would highlight in case people hadn't seen it.
James Yeah. And I think I'm going to, I'm going to move on to, to kind of like you just said, Citizen, a similar crossover. And, and this is, and Citizen's always done these like really complicated, you know, busy dialed pilots watches that they're somehow just super cool. And they made the, what, the Navihawk. And then, and then the one I'm talking about here is the Nighthawk, Promaster Nighthawk. And this is the, it's the blue angels version, which they've made a number of these over the years. And, uh, I'm, I'm looking at it on the screen here. This is on, on citizens website on sale for 340 bucks. I mean, these watches are so affordable and they do so much. This is an eco drive, uh, watch with an internal like slide rule bezel. Um, you know, it's, it's, it's in this great sort of blue color way with, uh, uh, the, the 12, 24 hour time and, and then the slide rule that You can adjust with internal bezel with the crown on the left side and it's got this nice perforated kind of rally style or I guess pilot style blue and yellow stitched strap. It's, it's just sharp. It's very sporty. It's, it's, despite it's kind of busyness, it's very legible. You know, I, I was tempted to put the Navahawk in the list, which is the, the really crazy busy one with just all sorts of scales on the, on the dial.
Jason And that, that one. Typically the Blue Angels ones have had little screens as well. Yes. For some of the other features. Yes. True. You see those actually worn by pilots. Yeah. That's in my experience. Yeah.
James They're super rugged. I mean, these watches, you know, pilots watches, the one knock against a lot of them is that they're like 30 or 50 meters of water resistance. But these citizens are like, you know, usually like at least 200 meters. I know that the Navahawks with, with the screens and I'll do, you know, second time zones and chronographs and the slide rule and all of that on a, on a bracelet and kind of a dynamic, very funky looking watch that you could conceivably, if you were a pilot and you flew somewhere in the Caribbean, you could step out of the airport and go diving with it.
Jason So, yeah, I put the black dial version also on the list, not realizing you had the same one, but for anyone wondering, this is basically just the BJ 7,000 series. Yeah. So the blue angels one is the 7,007. The standard black dial one is the BJ 7,000 52 E if that helps. Um, but this is a, an analog, kind of traditional sporty watch. And then you've got, yeah, like, like Jason mentioned, a 2024 hour display. Um, that's kind of clever and adds a little bit of interest. I remember when I was first getting into like watches on the internet, poor man's watch form. These were like, you know, there was five watches that they told everyone to buy, uh, Orient Mako, SKX double Oh seven. And you know, this would be on the list as well. Yeah. Yeah. And these, I think these are like just a solid unit of like you buy it and wear it. This could be your, your grab and go quartz watch. The eco drives makes it really easy and reliable. They're a nice size. Super legible. Yeah. I think these work and there's a few different versions, which is always nice as well. Yeah. Right. I think, you know, looking at a similar aesthetic, but let's jump to a different price point. How about like a, like a, you know, you can't, you can't really do pilots watches without talking about the Navitimer. Oh, of course. Yeah. Which I think for me, you know, there's so many different versions. If you can get a vintage one, How could you go wrong? Perfect mid-century styling, genuinely sporty, quite likely the watch that is mentioned in... Yeah, the right stuff. How do I blank? Thank you. The right stuff. Yeah. There's so many years, but I think that edition they made recently, the 1953 recreation, if you could find one of those, it's not inexpensive. I think they're about eight grand, 7,900 bucks, something like that, but that's a perfect watch for the money. Yeah, yeah. A really cool watch for sure. And talk about a legacy of great pilots' watches between the Navitimer, the Aerospace. Reitling's got a lot of cool pilot designs.
James Yeah. And I think another one that you've got on the list here is the AVI watch with the 12-hour bezel. It's a little simpler than a Navitimer, and I think more of a handsome all-rounder watch. That's just... That's just so cool. And I, the link you put up is the, is the red gold version, which I don't think I've seen that. That's, that's pretty cool.
Jason Yeah. I couldn't find a steel one, so maybe it's sold out now, but there's a red gold and a platinum. Maybe there's, there was an even more expensive one with a blue dial. Beautiful, but even more expensive. I would say whether it's the Avi or a Navitimer or whatever, like the idea of like kind of a complicated looking Breitling pilots chronograph is a fun sort of vibe.
James Yeah. I, okay. My, my next one's going to be a bit of a sleeper. Um, and it's a watch that I owned briefly and I, I did a article on Houdinki about and kind of miss it actually. And this was the Glycine Airman number one. Uh, they called it the number one. I think Glycine now has been bought by Invicta or something, which everybody was bemoaning, but they've, they've, they've stayed true to, uh, what kind of the Airman and all of its modern, more modern variations. But this, The one I'm linking here that used to be called the number one is now called the Airman Vintage Unisex, which is just a horrible title. Yeah, that's brutal. They used to call it the number one because it was it was based on the original one. So this is a 36 millimeter case. Not very waterproof, they're saying 30 meters, but you know, whatever. But 20 millimeter lugs so you can it's a strap monster. And it comes in kind of a creamy dial, you can get it in the black dial. And so this is a watch that according to legend, according to the origin story predates the GMT master, um, and was cooked up by some salesman from Glycine who was traveling in the far East. And he was chatting with a pilot on, on like a tie airways or Vietnamese airline. And the guy's like, what would you put in your perfect pilot's watch? And he said, well, I'd love to have the ability to track multiple time zones in 24 hour format. So that's what this watch is. So it's a little bit. It takes some getting used to to read because it's not a standard 12 hour read dial. It's actually a 24 hour dial with an hour hand that moves around once every 24 hours with this giant arrow. But if you want to read, if you want to know what the time is in 12 hour time, you just look at the way that the other end of the pointer reads and it's pretty easy to kind of quickly read that off. But then you've got this rotating bezel with a second 24 hour time zone. So it's, you know, two time zones in 24 hour format in kind of a very mid-century looking watch. They've done a nice job with a little kind of little quaint font and, and just some of the little features. And, uh, yeah, I had this watch, it felt a little small on my wrist, but I think nowadays I might, I might like it again.
Jason When you had it, was it in excess of two grand? This is 2150 Swiss francs. No, it wasn't. This is what they're saying. Yeah, this is, this is spending.
James I don't think it was that much.
Jason Yeah. In my memory, they weren't quite this much. I do wonder, how they feel in the hand at that price point, you know? It felt solid. Because that's not an inexpensive amount of money for a Glycine.
James It felt exactly like a vintage watch, you know, for better or for worse. I mean, it didn't have a heft to it that a lot of modern watches feel, probably because it was small and wasn't on a bracelet. But yeah, that's a bit spendy. That's a bit dear for, I guess, a Glycine, but cool watch. And you can find these, I think they're probably all over Amazon and some of the gray market shops and stuff from when the pre-invicta glycine days. But yeah, that's a really classic kind of early, early pilot's watch that I am a big fan of.
Jason For sure. Oh, the other one I would bring up and we can make this one quick cause we've talked about it before. And I think this is where we like, we do kind of tread into feel their pilot's watch. This one has pointy hands. So I'm going to say it's a pilot's watch. Something like a Seiko SNK 809, the 800 series. SNKs, you know, they're on a hundred dollars. Oh yeah. Um, I, I bought one recently for a story for Hodinkee. So it was literally 90 bucks, uh, a cream dial there, 37 millimeters. They have an automatic movement. They come on, you know, like a simple canvasy sort of nylon strap. Honestly, I don't know that you can do more in the watch world for a hundred bucks. Literally like it's just, for me, it feels piloty, but it still maintains that sort of general versatility of a, of a, of a field watch. Um, so if you consider it a field watch, fine, just, you know, strike it from the record if you want. Um, otherwise, you know, I think, I think it's a great option if you really love dive watches and you wanted to give the pilots watch a try. I think this would be a great way to do it. These are still available, which is why I bring it up. I think you'd be better off with the SNA four 11. It's more interesting for the money.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Uh, if you wanted the pilots watch sort of experience, but, uh, these are actually available. I want to say there's at least four versions of black, a blue, a tan, and a green. There might even be more. And this line has been, you know, somewhat updated, replaced recently within some updates to the new Seiko 5 series. And they're a little bit larger, but otherwise have a sort of similar design. So you could also look into something from the more recent Seiko 5 line. And I don't remember the reference number, but I'll put it in the show notes.
James Yeah. That's a, that's a solid pick. And especially if, if like you said, you're more of a dive watch guy and you just want a pilot's watch, you know, and you don't want to fork out for something you might not wear that often. I mean, that'd be, that'd be a cool alternative piece.
Jason Also, it's also just become like my go-to recommendation. If somebody says like, I want a mechanical watch, what should I go for?
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Because they're available on Amazon. They're available at like decent Seiko retailers will have these in there just in the case. Right. If you walk into somewhere. Yeah. And they're just inoffensive. Anyone can pull them off. They're the right size for most risks. I could see people figuring they're a little too small for some. Yeah. Especially if you're used to a bigger watch, it's going to feel pretty small, but, uh, yeah, I think a solid option, good value, all that, all the, all the kind of stuff you want from, uh, from a Seiko only in this case, you know, no dive bezel and a more limited water resistance.
James Yeah. So you can't talk about pilots watches without the kind of the Flieger category.
Jason Um, which there's probably group these together in some way.
James Yeah. I mean, there are many brands, well, I don't want many, but several brands that make this style of watch, um, from very affordable up to, I would say that I would throw the big pilot at the top of the top of the heap, the IWC, um, in terms of price and kind of prestige. But, uh, I mean, I don't know, name your favorites. They all kind of look similar. You've got, um, Stowa and, uh,
Jason Laco.
James And Laco. And of course, Archimede. My dad's got the 45 millimeter no date automatic, which he loves and looks great. And I love to kind of check it out whenever we're visiting them. And, um, gosh, who else makes, I mean, oh, uh, you remember, um, Glashutte original? I don't know if they still have that in their lineup, but they made, I think it was called just the Navigator. They made kind of a Flieger style.
Jason Yeah. The Senator original Navigator. Yeah. I think it's something like that, but yeah, they have a Flieger style as well. Yeah. You mentioned Archimedes, obviously IWC's in there. Um, when you get vintage, then you expand even more. There's all sorts, right? From different brands.
James Have you worn one of these for any length of time or do you like these? The style?
Jason Um, you know, I was thinking about this with the list. I was trying to decide like if, if you said like, okay, now go ahead and actually buy one from this list. I would probably, I've been curious about an Archimedes Pilot 39 for probably like five or six years. They're not even that expensive. I probably should have bought one. I just got it out of my system. Yeah. Yeah. But what I like about these isn't so much that it's piloty. There's something about the style of a Flieger that's just so casual. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's like, it's like rocking up in a vintage Land Rover or it's, it's, it's the green sort of khaki fatigue style pants of the watch world. Right. Right. There's just this versatility and easy wearing charm to it. That feels kind of elevated, but not in any way fussy. Yeah. Which I really like, you know, I think you, you had said that the aviator thing, and in my mind, like the, this look, it became such like a West coast thing in, in a, in a sort of postmodern space. And maybe some of that comes from like Top Gun,
Unknown Mm hmm.
Jason Um, where you've got maybe a leather jacket or an older motorcycle or, you know, it is just kind of, there's this whole aesthetic vibe that goes with the Flieger. Yeah. And with, with them doing it in a slightly smaller size, you get a sterile dial. So there's not even any markings on it. Just kind of looks like an old, right. Very kind of focused design. Yeah. Yeah. I see, I see the appeal and I think it makes sense. You know, I think that the, the handheart stuff is also pretty interesting. especially if you're talking like into two grand or more, you know, the mono control, I'll put it in the show notes with the mono control, I think is really cool. It's a smaller take on their mono pusher chronograph. Oh yeah. And I would say not traditionally Flieger, right. Cause it's a cathedral style hand. It's a little bit of a different design aesthetic, but I think it comes from a similar era, you know, with the, with that very sort of specific coin edge bezel and specific dial load. And it's my understanding, Um, you know, from other people in the industry that the hand hurts stuff, the quality is very high, which is, uh, you know, nice to hear. Sadly, not something I've come across, uh, more than once or twice in my, in my time. Um, but definitely, uh, definitely wanted to consider.
James Yeah. I mean, pilots watches like these, especially the Flieger style. Um, they're, they're just strap monsters, but. Leather straps. Like, I don't know that I could wear a Flieger on a NATO. I just, I'm not sure how that would look. And certainly I've seen them on bracelets, but to me, they don't work on bracelets. I think leather is like the king. for these watches.
Jason You know, I had a in for review a while back, a Spitfire chronograph, the new 41 millimeter IWC version. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And that one came on a really lovely sort of mixed textile strap leather and like canvas. Oh, yeah. And I really liked it. And I did put it on a NATO. And you know what, to your credit, I think it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. Maybe if you got the color just right or that sort of thing, or it was maybe a bit thinner. But I have worn the IWC Hodinkee collaboration. that they did with the Mark 18 style with the black ceramized titanium case. I love that watch. And that on a NATO is like perfect. It's so good on a NATO. So I think it would just depend on the one. I think if you were a three-hander, maybe you have a better chance then with the chronograph or with something huge like a big pilot where the strap is gonna help to kind of balance it. Even what's the small big pilot is 43 millimeters. So not a small watch either, right? Right, right.
James You know, so, so now we're kind of moving from that, that sort of Germanic, you know, mid-century a little bit more modern to, uh, yeah. And if you kind of go across the, across the channel to kind of more of that British military pilot style, you get, you get kind of a very different vibe. I think you get something like the. The Hamilton khaki pioneer pilot, uh, which, uh, you know, came in kind of several forms from a number of brands, you know, CWC makes something very similar to this. Uh, Hamilton made this in the early seventies. Uh, this is that tonneau shaped, you know, hand wound, um, 36 millimeter watch. Just, just, uh, just very simple. And, and these watches do work really well on NATO straps. I have the CWC version, um, of this, I think they called it the six B and, uh, but this is great. And then, and then there's a number of those kind of asymmetric chronographs, uh, that were kind of in similar cases, but of course it was a two registered chronograph and, and, uh, CWC still makes one now. And in fact, they've got an LE limited edition called the Valjoux 7733 chronograph that uses a vintage movements and they will actually supply it with a tritium dial and hands if you, if you request it. So, um, and that's a bit spendy, but they're only making a hundred of them. So, um, but I do like that aesthetic, uh, almost more than, than kind of the Flieger style. And I would, I would love to get, um, for, for staying with, with kind of RAF style watches that the old Mark 11s I think are just almost perfect.
Unknown Oh yeah.
James Like for 1950s, March 11th. Yeah. Yeah. What about modern stuff? I mean, we've got like, I think you've got a Bell and Ross on the list. And then of course, Braymont, you can't, can't skip over them. I mean, these are 21st century watches.
Jason Yeah. You know, I think, I think Bell and Ross, Zinn, Braymont, Auris, right. I think those are all, all in the running for Bell and Ross. I think you go with the BR03, which is the smaller of the square versions.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason I think there's a lot of just fun aesthetic interest in the BR03 steel. line. I think they make a nice watch. I think that there's something really, this is kind of their icon.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason It does have that standout. It's got the weird wide strap and a few different dial iterations. So I think that one would definitely have, you'd have to include it on a list. It just, it feels so piloty to me.
James Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of the, you know, when you talk about automotive watches that are kind of inspired by tires and dashboards and things like this, this is like the instrument on the wrist. And I think to some, it's a bit gimmicky. they've really grown on me. And I really wonder if anyone's wearing the BR01 anymore, that just the giant first one that they did, which again, total modern icon. I mean, it really, they, to their credit, um, they, they've really kind of owned that and, and it's really become a thing. And I think, but you're right. The BR03 is much more wearable.
Jason Yeah, I think so. And what about Oris? Like anything jumped to mind? You've owned a couple, uh, pro pilots, right. Or at least one.
James Yeah, I had the pro pilot, the, um, Altimeter, which was just a cool watch. I wouldn't, um, You know, for me, it was more of a kind of a mountain sports watch. And I enjoyed using the altimeter in the mountains. I never really tried it on a plane other than as a passenger in the pressurized, uh, uh, passenger compartment. But I love that watch. I loved it. I loved the, kind of the seatbelt clasp style buckle and the great canvas like textile strap that, um, like radial turned sort of, uh, textured outer bezel. I mean, that was a really dynamic watch. It was huge, just a massive watch, but what a fun complication. And then I think if you just, you know, kind of go down the Oris list in terms of the whole pro pilot line, I think, uh, I think a lot of them had just have that, that great vibe that, that feels piloted, but it feels very specifically Oris, which I think to their credit, you know, they've done a nice job with that to not make it mimic, you know, anything else really.
Jason Yeah. It doesn't look like a Breitling. It doesn't look like a Rolex. Like they could have gone a few different ways with it. But I think when I think of a modern pilots watch, the pro pilot really does come to mind because it's in so many different versions. And while I think you and I would probably lean towards something like the standard at, you know, 41 millimeters, somewhere around there as offering a lot of value, the one that I want to call out, and I'm glad that you talked about the altimeter, because I think it's the other kind of really interesting... Oris does this, right? With the dive watch, they have the one with the sort of air capillary depth gauge system. And then with their pilots watches, they have several that are based on their in-house caliber versions of the caliber 110. And those are all worth checking out. But I really still rather like the big crown pro pilot world timer. It's a little big, it's almost 45 millimeters. Oh, yeah. But this is the one that has a secondary time display for another time zone. But you adjust the local jumping by turning the bezel one way or another. Oh, yeah. So the bezel's kind of like a trigger, and you push it one way until it clicks, and then when you let go, it comes back to center, and you get the hour jumps. And you don't see that that often. IWC has a version of the time zoner where that changes hours based on bezel rotation, but that's more of like a continuous system, whereas the AORUS one kind of goes from 12 to 1 and back to 12, or 12 to 11 and back to 12. I forgot about this watch. That's a cool watch. Yeah. I would love to see them minimize this a little bit, make it 41 millimeters. Yeah. I just think this watch is really cool. I remember when it came out several years ago, we were in Colorado to check it out when this came out, and I remember sitting at the table and just playing with the complication. It has a sort of pleasing mechanical quality to it, so a cool piece, of course. And yeah, Orista sports watches really well, and they do them in their own way, and I feel like you can't really talk about high value, cool pilots watches without getting into the pro pilot stuff. Yeah. Right. All right. What else we got here? Oh, well, Zen, you can't, you can't really do pilots watches without Zen. Yeah. We typically talk a lot about their dive watches, but have you owned any of their pilot stuff? I had a 144, which I think you could call a pilot's watch, which is either the GMT version. It was lovely. I had the 756.
James Oh, that's a great watch. Yeah. 756. That's what I had. Yeah. Great watch. I mean, I love these watches. There are so many Zinn watches that I look at. I'm like, again, we've said it before, why don't we own a Zinn? You sort of do. I mean, I guess you've got right of first refusal if the guy you sold it to sells it back.
Jason I suppose, yeah.
James And I would buy that 144 back for sure. It's a cool watch. Yeah, but they're just so cool. And they're just, again, they're recognizable across a room to like a watch nerd, but they kind of fly under the radar. You can do anything in them. Here's another Something like the 856 UTC would be like the perfect watch that if you were going to like sell everything and travel the world for three years and you wanted to swim and snorkel and fly and hike and everything else you could wear it, you know, really unobtrusive, do anything rugged, legible, um, not boring. You know, it's just a fun watch. I think Zen really specializes in that type of watch.
Jason You know, it's one of these brands where you could kind of just pick almost anything and go like, well, this is the one I would want or that one or that, but yeah. Yeah, if you mix case size and feature set, I think that yeah, the eight, the 856 at 41 millimeters, the option of a bracelet if you want it, and a pretty tidy, I think it's Salido or, you know, Adobe. So it's, it's, it's a collar style, independent 24 hour hand GMT. It's still pretty handy for traveling, especially if you just wanted to keep it on the home time zone, or, you know, track UTC for flight needs, that sort of thing. And just I'm sure we're going to miss something, but from, from this list, I think we, we did, we did. Okay.
James We did. Okay. Yeah. For a couple of divers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I still have the Raven airfield, which, which I'm enjoying. It's, it's a cool watch. Obviously not, not this month since I'm on my one watch experiment, but it's a cool watch. I think deliberately, you know, Steve at Raven has, has branded this watch kind of a crossover. Um, even on the website, he calls it, you know, this could be a pilot's watch. It could be a field watch. And certainly as we mentioned at the top, it can do both. And I think it's just such a superb value. And it comes in any number of, you know, you can get dial color combinations and, and sweep hand colors and, and bracelet or strap. And it's just a superb little value, such a great, beautiful little watch and Raven's build quality for, you know, a 400, $500 watch. I mean, this is just a, it's just such a, such a great, um, again, a step up from, from the Seiko five that you mentioned. Um, for sure. But you know, still a tremendous value. I guess it's selling for 600 on a bracelet, which is great.
Jason Yeah, that's a lot of watch for the money. You know, I've had my experience with a handful of Raven stuff and it's all really nicely made. And you know, Steve really gets kind of the heart of the watch enthusiast when it comes to steel sports watches. So I can't support that one more fully than I do. That's a great pick. There's so many of the micro brands that we could touch on, right? Like Astor and Banks does some stuff that I think you could claim is kind of in the space. Manta makes some lovely stuff that's Pilot's Watch adjacent, at least. Right. Right. So I don't think you can discredit their stuff. Really, really nice. And then obviously the other one that we talk a lot about and enjoy is Bremont and a huge piece of their identity is based in Pilot's Watches. And in my mind, they kind of have become sort of a champion of the, the modern pilot's watch. You know, the MB doesn't look like other stuff. They don't make watches that look like Fleegers or they have this sort of distinct style that, that they lean on. And I mean, most of it is most of its pilots watches. You know, I just sold my solo, which is a, was a great pilot's watch. And I had for quite a long time. And Jason, you have a, an MB with a white dial, right?
James Yeah. I've got an MB two with the white dial. And then I've also got the arrow, which is their, um, Armed forces series, uh, pilots, it's a mono pusher chronograph, which I think kind of harkens to that, uh, the old CWCs and that kind of, that kind of vibe. But, uh, the MB2 to me is, is a modern classic as well. Kind of, you know, like what we were talking about with Bell and Ross. And I think the MB2 is like a thoroughly modern kind of clean sheet of paper. Let's, let's develop a really great modern pilots watch for guys that are ejecting from fighter jets. You know, so hardcore.
Jason But yeah, they make a great product. And they've been very specific in aligning their sort of whole brand ethos with the idea of appreciating airplanes. And in some cases being pilot, then of course, you have a whole wing of the company that that interfaces with military pilots outfits. Yeah, and does all sorts of limited editions. And we'll put insignias on dials. They of course had their tie in with Boeing for many years like That's a big part of what they do. A lot of their sort of annual or nearly annual sort of limited editions, the historic collection of limited editions. Many of those have been airplane based in terms of, you know, the first couple had little bits of famous fighter planes and they've done the spruce goose and that sort of thing. So I think this is kind of a big part of their brand identity and I think they do it well and they also do it in a way that really doesn't feel like the way others are approaching the sort of same marketing world.
James Yeah.
Jason Yeah, I agree.
James And that's a good place to finish, I think. Yeah, I think so. Big long list. Cool stuff. Citizens and Seikos and Ravens and Breitlings. Yeah. Something for every price point. Kind of whets my appetite. I kind of want to pull out, you know, I've got an old CWC and I've got the Bremont. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've just made my one watch one month a little more complicated.
Jason Yeah, you'll be flying high come February, I suppose. Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah. How about some final notes?
James Yeah, let's, uh, let's jump into it. Mine's pretty simple. I've got one, uh, this, this came out of necessity and I think I touched on it in an earlier episode and then didn't bring this one up, but the, the old defender is, uh, it's great in the winter for getting through snow, but it doesn't heat very well. And I really love the seat heaters in our Volvo. And I was looking for a way to kind of cheaply and easily mimic that in the defender. And I found these, uh, car. Seat cover warmers, uh, on Amazon from, uh, I think it's a Chinese company called Kingelting. And I bought them for like, I think they were, it was like 50 bucks a piece. I thought I was buying a set for 50 and one arrived, so I had to buy the other other side. So Ghoshani doesn't get mad at me. Um, or, or, well, I should have given it to her and then I take the cold seat, but regardless, so I bought two of these and it's just a seat cover that straps on over. The vinyl seat in this case of the defender straps on over the headrest and then clips underneath the The seat cushion plugs into the 12 volt socket and it has a controller where you can set the timer and it'll just, it'll heat up and it gets pretty toasty. I mean, it's, it's great. It takes the chill off. Uh, you know, the defender, like I said, the heater isn't terribly powerful and it takes a while for it to warm up. Big cabin, a small engine, et cetera. And, um, so the, the seat heater has really done the trick this winter, kind of on errands to just kind of plug that in and click it and And off I go. And I think I've got a friend who actually installed kind of factory seat heaters and wired it all in and tore his seat apart and kind of put these things in and it took him the better part of a day and doing some wiring. And this one is just plug and play. So if you've got an older car that maybe doesn't have, you know, built-in seat heaters and you're looking for a good solution. Uh, I can't say enough good things about these for, for the price and they work really well.
Jason Nice. Yeah. I love, I love heated seats. a look. I'm a big fan, so that's a good option if it's not something that you can easily add to your vehicle or if it didn't come from the factory. Mine is also automotive themed. My pick this week is something that Henry Catchpole had mentioned when he was on a few episodes back, is that he's been writing for an outlet called the Intercooler. And I'd done the trial for the Intercooler. It's basically an app that you sign up for. It's a subscription base. It's $72 Canadian, so that's probably about $50, $55 US, something like that. And it's basically a daily story from a handful of really fantastic automotive personalities. But you know, I believe Andrew Frankel was one of the guys behind this. And he's been one of my favorites for a long time. When it comes to just kind of incisive looks at everything from new models to news from within the space to Formula One coverage. It's all that sort of thing. And, you know, obviously, we're huge fans of Henry. So I wanted to be a little bit more active in that. So I Went ahead and signed up for the year and I've been reading the daily article. I'm about to get into the podcast, which I'm pretty excited about. A new car podcast is always something to get pumped for. So my recommendation is if you're, you know, a big fan of cars and you find it a little bit hard to find the ideal site, you know, there's maybe 10 that I check daily, but there's never just one that I know will have what I want. So far, these guys have been doing really, really nice work. It's a paid app, so there's no ads. And, uh, yeah, the intercooler.co.uk to check that out.
James Nice. Yeah. You sent me an article from there, uh, that I was able to read kind of on a free trial basis. And, uh, yeah, it's hooked. It got me hooked. I, um, I don't do a lot of podcasts strangely enough, and also I don't subscribe or read many regular, uh, car publications, but, uh, this one I think has an interesting angle to it that appeals to me. So I'll keep looking at that.
Jason Yeah. It's been good so far.
James All right, and as always, thank you to everyone for listening. You can subscribe to The Show Notes via notes.thegrenado.com, or you can check our feed for more details and for the links. You can follow us on Instagram at jasonheaton, at jestacy, and be sure to follow the show at TheGrenado. If you're enjoying the show, please consider supporting us and maybe even pick up a brand new TGN-signed Grenado by visiting thegrenado.com and click support. Furthermore, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive.
Jason And we leave you with this quote from Albert Camus who said, In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.