The Grey NATO – 191 – More New Watches! (Doxa, Timex, Hamilton and More)

Published on Thu, 05 May 2022 06:45:44 -0400

Synopsis

This is an insightful discussion between two people, discussing various topics and products related to watches and travel. They review a new Timex GMT watch model called the Q which is inspired by the brand's earlier watch designs. They also discuss a new Hamilton watch that pays homage to classic pilot watch designs, as well as a new Bremont watch with an interesting dial style. The speakers share an appreciation for the aesthetics and craftsmanship of these timepieces.

Additionally, one speaker mentions a recent article he read about the Rough Stuff Fellowship, which is a group that publishes photos and books related to vintage bicycles and bicycle culture. The other speaker talks about having recently discovered this group's work and found it fascinating.

Overall, the discussion provides helpful context about the latest watch models being released as well as interesting background information about classic watch and bicycle design influences.

Transcript

Speaker
The Narrator Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 191, and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. Jason, how's it feel to be back back in your own bed?
Andrew Oh, man. I mean, the bed, the bed feels great. I'm just not spending enough time there. I'm spending time there in very strange doses. It's this jet lag is fierce. I won't lie. It's tough. Yeah. Yeah. Good to be home. Very good. Yeah. Although I could have asked for a little warmer weather. I mean, it's still feels like when we left in March, it's like in the low 40s Fahrenheit here still. It's been a very unseasonably cold. So I'm wearing a sweater and Sleeping with two comforters and a heat pad. I mean, I realize I just came from the tropics, but it's, it's time. Come on, man. Let's, uh, let's warm things up a bit.
The Narrator Thankfully, it's starting to warm up here. Uh, we're getting mostly days up in the, almost into the double digits, but we've had a couple of weekend days nicely. Like I was at the cottage last weekend and it was like, you know, 17, 18, 20 in the sun. Uh, pretty nice. Pretty nice. You know, I was really, really eyeballing the lake for, for a jump in. If it was maybe a little bit less windy, I might've considered jumping in. Um, cause that's the, it's one thing to get in. It's another thing when you get out. Right.
Acknowledging Response So yeah, right.
The Narrator On those cold days. But, uh, you know, it's, it's a pleasure to have you back and, uh, and to notice, uh, currently no lag in, uh, in Zooms, uh, connection between the two of us.
Andrew I don't miss, uh, trying to tiptoe around those electrical power cuts we were having in Sri Lanka and then, uh, Yeah. Just a more reliable connection that I'm not always eyeing the, I think there was one point in, in one of the, in the show we recorded while I was there where, um, where like I was just chatting away and suddenly I realized you weren't even on anymore.
The Narrator I think we just lost the connection, but, uh, I've also been having a thing with a thing with zoom, uh, because I'm now on a, an M one Mac as are you. Yeah. I'm also having a thing with zoom where occasionally if I don't kind of restart my computer for several days and I do a zoom recording, Yeah. And I might be conflating two different things. It's really hard to tell with software. So this might not be cause causation, causality, the rest of it. But it seems like if I don't restart my computer in the morning before I want to do a zoom recording, which luckily is not how we do this podcast.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator But if I want to, the recording will function. And then after a certain number of minutes, sometimes it's a few minutes, sometimes it's 20, it just disappears. The whole app disappears. And if I go back, if I click on it and reload it and jump back into the same link, everybody's still there. and it has passed the recording to somebody else and then it will pass it back to me. Wow. But still terrifying when you record podcasts for like a decent amount of your work life. Yeah. But it seems like restarting my computer occasionally seems to fix that. So yeah. Geez. Yeah. So there's that. But what are you doing to to fill the fill the jet lag hours? Because I find I was lucky. I come back from Geneva. I just stayed up And I'd been up for so long that I made it to like eight or 9 p.m. here and my time zone fell asleep. And then I didn't, I ended up with no jet lag.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator Yeah. I was just kind of wiped out for a couple of days, but no, no like weird hours. But sometimes those hours when you're up at a really weird time, they seem to take a lot longer than other hours.
Andrew Yeah. I mean, you know, that like Europe trip jet lag is, is a little more predictable. It's like you're, You either sleep at close to a normal time, but then you're up at like three or four in the morning, which I find acceptable. But like string lock is almost, you know, it's like 11 hours difference. And so it lends this really weird kind of jet lag. Um, like the past two days I've fallen asleep at, I'm able to stay reasonably alert all day, but then I sleep at 5pm and then, and then I get up at 9pm. This was last night and I had dinner at 9pm and then About an hour and a half later, I went back to sleep and got up at 1am, which is the worst. I mean, 1am is like no man's land. It's, it's, it's late enough that the world has gone to sleep, gone to sleep. And then it's just too early to get up and be productive at anything. So, and then I was up till 5.30am and then slept again till eight. I mean, it's just weird. But fortunately Ghoshani's on the same weird schedule almost to the, to the minute, which is really helpful.
The Narrator Cause you're not just roaming the house in the dark.
Andrew Yeah. So like, you know, at, uh, you know, midnight, I'm like, I'm going to go down and make myself a cup of tea. Do you want anything? I was just like, Oh, can you bring me my dinner? And it was like, you know, so then we're like eating, eating in bed, binge watching, you know, Netflix shows or, or, you know, which is great because the whole while I was in Sri Lanka, I kept seeing, getting these notices of these shows that I was keeping an eye on that came available. And I was like, this is great. This is perfect jet lag, um, kind of filler. And so, That's what we do from like one in the morning until, you know, five in the morning is we just binge through a ton of shows. So we plowed through this show anatomy of a scandal, which was really quite good. That was, I believe on Netflix and then switched over right after that. Like this is two nights in a row. We plowed through two whole series, which is crazy. Um, and then we binged a slow horses, which was just tremendous. I mean,
The Narrator I'm on, uh, we're, we're at the third episode and I'm, it's really making me want to add the books to, to the, to the Kindle at some point.
Andrew It's just such a different kind of spy genre show or story because there there's, there's humor and the characters are not, you know, they're, they're very fallible and, uh, and, uh, the plot is good and there's some great actors, you know, Gary Oldman and Kristen Scott Thomas.
The Narrator And, uh, did you, um, did you catch the, the BBC chat between Oldman and Chris Harris? No, I didn't. Chris Harris is in the car guy. Yeah. So it turns out he's like a massive fan of the books. So they slotted him into the press junket for the show. Wow. He and Oldman get along really well and they talk a little bit about cars and the accuracy of cars in the show and the books and the rest of it. It's hilarious. I watched it during a workout yesterday. It's like maybe 20 minutes. I'll put it in the show notes. I considered making it a final note, but I didn't I didn't know how many folks in the audience had already had time to maybe ingest a little bit of the show or have read the books. Yeah. Yeah. So consider this a precursor to the final note. It's a pre note. It's worth watching. There's no spoilers or anything. It's a typical press junket. It's, you know, they play a bit of the trailer, but it's really fun to hear Oldman talk not only about the cars that he has in L.A. but also his perception on that character. It's pretty great. And Harris is just like His enthusiasm is great. It's the same way for cars as it is for talking to, uh, Oldman. So it's very watchable.
Andrew It's, uh, it's fun to watch Oldman, you know, while, while I was in Sri Lanka and fighting jet lag on that end of things, I had saved a Tinker Taylor soldier spot on my laptop. And I I've watched that movie so many times, but like to watch that there and then come back here and watch him in this playing kind of a spy master in both was like, he's brilliant. I mean, he's so good. So yeah, absolutely. Quick note here too, in terms of getting caught up on things. Yesterday was my kind of first day back in the seat here at my desk and I managed to plow through all the pending TGN supporter kits. So those of you that were patient enough to sign up to support the show and are waiting for your strap and stickers and kit to arrive should be winging its way to you today. So I got, gosh, there were close to 20 kits that I shipped out that had kind of been waiting for me all month. Appreciate the support, of course, and for your patience. So those should be on their way. Absolutely.
The Narrator Yeah, since we recorded the last episode, I've been to New York and come back. Yeah. I went for the Doxa Army watches of Switzerland edition, you know, 100-piece ceramic dive watch sort of launch that went down and had a really good time. We're going to talk more about those watches as kind of the main topic in the show. I won't dig too far into that, but it was amazing to be back in the city. Um, if you're listening and you sent me a note, seeing if you might be able to hang out or something, it was a really compressed schedule along with a press launch and, uh, and, uh, some other plans. And I actually ended up leaving the city a little bit early because the option came up to go do a little bit of driving. So I got to go drive some vintage cars, uh, the day before I left the city, which was super fun and, and, and a great surprise.
Andrew How vintage are we talking here? Like, uh, eighties, nineties or earlier?
The Narrator All 60s, essentially 60s and very early 70s. So I got, um, um, I, I got, uh, invited, uh, by Ben, uh, you know, founder of hooding key to, uh, to come take a look at some of the cars and do a little drive with some, some of his buddies and, uh, and other people in, in his sort of car circle. And, uh, Cole and I went with us. So we got to drive some legitimately bonkers stuff. I mean, one of the most beautiful BMWs I've ever seen. It was, um, uh, I want to say a 68 or 69 and now I'm blanking, but it was a 2,800 CS You know, Geneva plates, Sahara beige. Wow. Much easier to drive than my Jeep, for anyone curious. Just a really beautiful kind of light touch car that the moment you kind of give it any sort of big input, a lot of throttle, a lot of brake, a lot of steering, it just responds. Like you can tell where BMW came from with something like that in the lineage for sure. And just gorgeous, like jaw-droppingly beautiful. Great interior, smelled incredible, all that kind of stuff. Ben has a very rare 356 Zagato Sanction Lost, a Porsche with a Zagato body. So I got to drive that pretty extensively actually, which is probably a privilege I shouldn't take for granted. That's a super rare car and a pretty kind of unique driving experience. I would liken it to driving a little tiny hornet's nest. It's loud and it's kind of scary and it really likes to move. But then it has drum brakes, you know, manual drum brakes, which if you're used to even, even a loosely modern brake, even something like in the BMW, you kind of put the pedal all the way down and you go like, Oh, and then you push a little bit harder and then it starts to break.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator So super fun and incredible. And also like, you know, I'm not used to driving little tiny stuff. Even when I was in, in the automotive world, you know, cars are big, modern cars are huge.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator And with this one, with my shoulder, I can hang, I could drape my arm out my window and I could reach the window on the right side. So it was one far side shoulder to fingertip was the interior width of this fantastic little car. Um, loosely addicted to that experience. You know, I joked when I got out of it for the first time, it turns out money maybe can buy happiness. Uh, and then, and then Ben, Ben being Ben, I'm just an incredibly generous guy. He, he also, uh, we all got, uh, to take a spin and he's got a three 30 GTC Ferrari. So that's my first kind of vintage Ferrari experience. My first V 12 vintage Ferrari experience. Wow. Really kind of jaw dropping stuff. Um, uh, entering another kind high up dude at Hodinkee and a friend, he brought up an absolutely gorgeous 911 S, which was a treat. I hadn't driven a long hood before, so got to check a few things off the box. And it is one of those things where only for the generosity and general chill nature of, you know, I guess my employers in some ways, and certainly my friends, that I get to drive stuff like this these days. And I got to say, It could be, it could be that I had a chance, you know, over those several years with Nuvo to drive a lot of the new stuff. So you can become a little bit anesthetized to it. Yeah. The vintage, the vintage stuff really speaks to me. Yeah. I've been eyeballing old triumphs and stuff like that. And if you're listening and you've got, you might want to be selling something, something small and kind of buzzy. You know, maybe drop me a DM. I could be in the market. I could be convinced to be in the market. Maybe, maybe.
Andrew I think you're due. I mean, you know, we've, we've talked about it for so many years and, and You know, like you said, I think like your experience with that BMW to kind of see where these brands kind of came from, it is, it is like a reset, you know, to like, you're right. Modern cars are so big and you do get sort of anesthetized to, to kind of the really raw driving experience. And, you know, I mean, it's cliche at this point to kind of talk about old cars in that way, but it's so true. You know, the, the, the braking, the shifting, the, you know, the steering, everything is like, it's such a, involving experience. And it's just, you know, for someone who's enjoys not just cars, but just driving. Yeah. It's, it's fantastic. Uh, I was mentioning to you that I've got a cars and coffee thing coming up this weekend that I haven't been to in a long time and that won't be driving other than getting my own vehicle there. But, um, just, I, I, I've kind of missed it. I was telling you while I was in Sri Lanka, I missed driving, but I just sort of missed that sort of walking among cars and kind of chatting with owners and stuff. It's been too long.
The Narrator Yeah. Yeah, that was on my list to try and figure out for Toronto kind of what the cars and coffee scene is like here. Yeah. And because I think my kids would probably also enjoy that to some extent. Yeah. You know, you're obviously not going to replicate the experience of any of those cars for the amount of money that I might put into my first vintage sports car or something like that. But I could be keen for the right car. It's kind of a weird time to buy a car. Most things are pretty expensive right now. But, you know, if the right opportunity came up, I'd be open to it. My issue is less the cost of the car. and the like headache slash cost of storing the car, if that makes sense. Cause I have one parking spot and I know that if the car is too far away, I just won't drive it. It'll sit there forever. And, and, and I won't get what I paid for out of it, which would be using it. Right. Right. So if I can find a solution that works, that's kind of comfortable and not so far away that I, that it becomes a hindrance on, you know, it's like, it's like when you don't live that close to a dive shop, And you've got to make a big trek just to get your tanks and then head out somewhere else. And you're like, well, you know, maybe not this weekend. Well, maybe not this weekend. And then before you know, you haven't dove in years or you haven't driven in your, your, you know, whatever in, in years and that sort of thing. It's so nice when, when you have the option that if you're privileged enough to have the option to, you know, have the car right, right nearby, or at least within, within range. So that's kind of a bigger concern than the specific car at this point. Right. But if Ben or Henry are listening and really for everyone who was on that drive, thanks so much for the vibes and trusting me for a few minutes in the cars. And it was, it was a really fantastic day and a lot of great miles and, and an experience that I can't, I certainly can't replicate in, in my past experience with cars. This is a, it was a unique kind of day for me. Wow. Yeah.
Andrew That's awesome. Sounds awesome. And certainly a bit of, um, Welcome to the nicer weather ahead. And actually now would be a great time for you to get kind of a cool little open top thing. You'd have months of months of dry.
The Narrator Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, uh, and then, uh, I mean, speaking of being outside and hopefully going faster than normal, um, I got my bike all tuned up. I think, I think I've probably mentioned this a dozen times on the show that like, uh, my dad got me a bike that actually fits me and it has nice hardware and, and at least within, within my experience of bikes, it's the nicest one I've ever had. I like it quite a bit. Yeah. And the big thing is that it fits, so it's comfortable to ride for a long time, but it needed to tune up. The derailleur was offset in some way. One of the brakes was... The rear brake was pretty splashy and it needed new tires. And thankfully, I found the shop not far from my place here, Wheels of Blur in the West Blur village, not super... Certainly within a biking range of my place. Yeah. I took it in there. And, uh, and so a big shout out to Dave, who's a listener of the show kind of set me up and, um, and getting the bike sorted out. It's got new tires. It's definitely as fast as that bike has ever been. Uh, so I'm really keen. I may, I may try and go like immediately after this recording, cause it's supposed to rain all afternoon. So I'm going to see if I might have the time to go out this afternoon. Otherwise, hopefully tomorrow for a proper, a proper spin.
Andrew Yeah, I was out riding yesterday. It was my first time I'd managed to get a couple of rides in back in March before our trip. And then yesterday I used the, um, the FedEx run as a, as an excuse to get my bike out of the basement. And I had aired up the tires and, and, and rode that and then I dropped off the FedEx stuff and it just felt good. I think also some good fresh air and exercise kind of helps with the jet lag recovery. And, uh, and then after I dropped off the FedEx stuff, I wrote over to the Land Rover shop that I had where I uh, dropped off the defender back in, in late March for, for some work and pick that up just through the bike in the back and drove home. And, uh, just, it felt good. I mean, all around, it was, it was kind of just a good sort of a therapeutic day to be on a bike. And even though it was kind of cold and then, uh, and then to drive the defender home and it's just, the truck is just driving better than ever. They had done a fair amount of work to it. I mean, they did timing belt, alternator, starter motor, lift pump, um, They'd found a small coolant leak that they were able to patch. And then they, um, they did some tuning, which, you know, I, I don't know exactly what they did. I should get more details about that, but it's, it feels downright peppy. I mean, the turbo sounds a little louder and maybe that's just my imagination, but man, it was like, I was, you know, for a defender going 70 on the highway, it kind of felt, felt pretty, pretty good. And it had a little more to go. So, uh, nice.
The Narrator Yeah, it was great. Yeah. That's great. All good, man. That's a good, that's a good feeling too. Yeah.
Andrew Yeah. I had noticed, um, just, this is just a quick note. Um, I've been, you know, I follow obviously Bremont on Instagram and then, um, they recently, uh, you know, we did that interview with NIMS a couple of years ago. He was a former now former Bremont ambassador. He's going over to Mont Blanc, uh, sadly, as far as I'm concerned, I thought it was such a stupid move. Yeah. But, um, they've got a new ambassador now. Her name is Kristen Harila and she's a Norwegian athlete who, Is tackling what I gather is kind of a similar quest to, to Nim's is project possible. She's, uh, embarking on, on the, the 14, 8,000 meter peak. Um, kind of speed project. I think she plans to do it in six months, which I, I had to read that several times and like, is this really what you're up to? Because it's crazy, right? She, I think her first kind of big mountain experience was Kilimanjaro in like 2017 or 2018. So she's not a really experienced mountaineer, but she's an accomplished cross country skier. Um, and kind of Arctic explorer and she's a Bremont ambassador and she's a really enthusiastic Bremont ambassador. And, and so she's knocked off, uh, I think three now, I think she's done, uh, she did Everest and Lhotse in record time, 12 hours, 12 hours on, on those two, which is a world record. And I believe she did Dhalagiri or something, or maybe I, anyway, she's, she's on her way. Um, she's got good energy. Give her a follow for sure. Yeah. Give her a follow and, and, you know, hats off again to, to Bremont for, for, for picking her up as a, as an ambassador. I think that's a, it's a good fit. It's good to see, you know, uh, strong women ambassadors with watch brands, uh, doing cool stuff like this. And, uh, that should be fun to watch.
The Narrator So yeah. I mean, obviously she's going to be busy for the next six months. Yeah. Right. But, but you know, if at all we can make it happen, um, I'll save you guys sending me the emails. We'll, we'll absolutely be asking to have her on the show. Um, I mean, there's a chance Jason, who knows you and I might end up in, in, in England or something, if they end up doing an event after this. Yeah, true. Right. To celebrate it, and then maybe we can do it in person. Yeah. So that'd be super fun. And I know that the English brothers and the wing and all that kind of stuff came up in... I went through that thread of question suggestions recently and saw the Bremont interview being among the requests. So those are all in the works. It's something we would love to do in person, especially with the new space. and that kind of stuff. And I mean, lots of great new watches as well that they've announced so much recently that it's hard to keep up with. We have one on the list to chat about in a few minutes here. But yeah, I think this looks awesome. Give her a follow. It's Kristen with a K dot H-A-R-I-L-A on Instagram. She's got 11,000 followers, so I think we can definitely add to that number. I mean, what an audacious, fantastic project. And I think it's awesome. Very cool. Yeah, it's great. What are you feeling? A little bit of wrist check?
Andrew Yeah, let's do it. What have you got on? I see on the notes here, it's something I haven't even seen written for a long time.
The Narrator Yeah, it's something I haven't worn forever. It's the the Sylvana Skin Diver. Wow. I wanted to write a story for Hodinkee's, like they call it, like Watch of the Week. Yeah. So they had asked me to pick a watch that I kind of had fun feelings about or opinions about or something like this. And this was my first kind of foray into vintage watches and certainly vintage dive watches. And I remember I bought this... Actually, a recurring theme on today's episode will be the kindness and generosity of one James Lambden, a friend of the show, who got me to New York for the Doxa thing. The watch was partly within his arc with watches at Switzerland, which is super fun, an analog shift. And I bought this back in their 1025 days. Remember where they had the sub-brand? Oh, yeah, right. For less expensive stuff. Yeah. And so this was like my... I wanted a dive watch. I love skin divers. and I saw this and thought it looked great and picked it up and I still have it and it's one that like I wouldn't say it has like specific sentimental value to me, but I just I still like it today. Like I did before I put it on and I go, why what did I do to stop wearing this? So I've been wearing it for a couple of days. Now I'm going to write a story about it, which will probably come out of the week at the Monday after this episode goes live. Yeah and yeah, that's what I've got on. It's a little peach of a skin diver. I mean these are one of those like dime a dozen ones right where the case was made by this company and the movements were these ones and the dial was made by, and you just got your name on it, right? Yeah.
Andrew I remember that being just a really, really charming, cool little watch. And it actually reminds me a lot of, of another one of the watches that we're going to be talking about, uh, on today's show, the, the Aqua star. So, um, Oh, absolutely. Good call on that one. Yeah. I, you know, I, after a month of largely wearing one or two watches in Sri Lanka, I came home and I can't say I was like chomping at the bit to get, uh, get to another, Uh, another watch, but I did pull out the, the, my collection and, and gave my white dial Omega arrest. And I pulled out this, uh, Seamaster racing that I got, I don't know, just a couple of months before, before the trip.
The Narrator That's the, the larger regatta timer.
Andrew Yeah. So it's, uh, what is this thing like 43, 44 millimeters, uh, dive chronograph with the regatta complication, you know, chunky black rubber strap. I mean, It's a handsome watch. I mean, this, this watch is so fun. It's so cool. It's a, it's a little bulky, but you know, it fits fine on my wrist and, and I'd love, I just love the strap and I love the handset. I mean, it's, it's such a unique piece and um, yeah, I'm just, I'm kind of having fun wearing it. So, and I'd bought it on the bracelet and then I sourced the strap afterwards. So, you know, when summer comes, who knows, I might pop it onto the steel for a little more kind of hot weather comfort, but uh, absolutely. Yeah, that's what I've got on. You know, I was thinking while I was, while I was gone. Um, you know, when you're traveling, it's kind of a one or two watch sort of rotation and you're, you know, you're not thinking about watches that much. But, um, then I came home and I thought, you know, you're bringing out the Silvana kind of makes me think, eh, maybe I need to dig into the collection a little more and kind of pull out stuff that I haven't worn in a while. Just, just for the fun of it, because it's there, you know, I mean, I, lately I've been thinking of kind of paring things down, selling off a fair number of watches and kind of just refocusing. But, uh, in the meantime, I want to, I want to enjoy a couple of these ones that I don't wear very much. So, We'll see, check out my Instagram, I guess. And, uh, uh, you know, he might see a bit of a rotation over the next few weeks.
The Narrator Yeah. I, you know, I I've been really feeling the same way that it might be time to sell a handful of ones and, and the stuff that isn't worn and isn't necessarily worth, um, you know, a big bucket of cash, um, or even, you know, the amount that you would want to put towards something else.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator You know, just give it away, find people who might, might, might be keen on it or that kind of stuff. Uh, you know, family, right. that sort of thing. But yeah, I'm a fan of these ones. And it is kind of fun to go back into the box and be like, oh, I haven't worn this. And you know, this Sylvana has probably been about a year since I wore it. And the nice thing is these still aren't that expensive. So I don't have to feel bad that I don't wear it. It's just it's there when I want to throw it on and they're still fun. And it's the right size. I've got it on a nice mesh strap or a gray NATO. It works kind of either way. Yeah, they're fun. And it's I've been thinking about this more and more often though, like the idea that it might be time to try and consolidate upwards into something. I just figured, you know, it's a chicken before the egg. Do you want to find the thing that you're going to consolidate towards or start selling and just kind of have a kitty towards what you might want to use? I'm not really sure the best way to think about it.
Andrew Yeah. And I guess if you're, if you are contemplating a vintage roadster of any sort, you'll need, you'll need to, you'll need some, Cash for, uh, for parts and service every now and then, not to mention just buying the car and all that. So, you know, who knows, it might just be a sell a few watches to kind of move into something different, like a car or whatever it is, but, uh, Yeah.
The Narrator Well, we'll have to see if I could make that kind of trade.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, but you know, put the word out if anyone has a spitfire that they want to trade for.
The Narrator Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Right.
Andrew Speaking of watches, I mean, we've got an interesting list. We were kind of talking about what topic to do today. And, you know, since we haven't really connected kind of about watches for several weeks, it seemed like kind of a good time to catch up on what do we have, like five watches that are interesting stuff, like an interesting mix here. So we can dive into that.
The Narrator For me, the starting point is probably the new Doxa Army in ceramic.
Andrew Yeah. Tell me about that. You were at the event. I mean, I've only seen the photos kind of from a distance, but you actually got to handle it and wear it, I guess. Right?
The Narrator Yeah. Yeah. I had it on my wrist. It's my photos and Cole's piece, which I'll put in the show notes, of course. And there's a nice wrist shot on my Instagram, if you want to see it that way. I'm really impressed by it. I'm not a purist when it comes to the idea of remaking military watches necessarily. Also, the fact that they made it in ceramic doesn't mean they couldn't make it in something else at some point. Right?
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator you know, as a commemorative edition to kind of highlight the fact that the original models were black. Uh, I think the ceramic makes sense. It also feels a lot more luxurious as a sort of totem to the original than I think a steel one would. Yeah. And then the other side is we're talking about a hundred and they're sold out. Yeah. Yeah. So these are $4,500, which like by all means, leave it in the comments. If you think that this, that there's another four or $5,000 ceramic watch that has this much appeal, would be made to this level of quality. I was really impressed by the fit and the finish of the bezel and the case itself feels fantastic. It's like matte and almost feels like Teflon, like a really high end, like a frying pan almost. Oh yeah. But then it weighs so much less than you're expecting.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator And I very, you know, they've got it on this really fun camo color, NATO and or like camo pattern paintbrush pattern NATO. And I put it, I of course had my great cause I had, I wore my 300 C Rambler and so I put it on a grenade immediately and I was like, yeah, this is great. And for the money you're paying largely because it's ceramic and because it's 100 pieces, not 500, not even 250, like 100 is... I think they could have done more, which is kind of what you want if it's an LE, right? Yeah. And especially if it's an LE from a brand that still remains largely niche, right? Yeah. Maybe not among the folks that listen to TGN, bless all your hearts, that's why we're all We're all, we're all pals in this endeavor, but like, you know, there were people at the docs event who didn't really have any handle on what made the special, like other, other journalists, other members of the press, other, other people who are going to write about the watch and such. Yeah. But I think that, um, for commemorative model, what it's made out of is less important to me than if they tried to make one, you know, specific that ever anyone could go out and get. And, uh, and it's kind of connected to a pretty interesting history. I really recommend you read Cole story. He has a good download on, on what the background of the watch is and why bother doing this and what the significance of the timing is. Obviously, it's easy to say like, oh, but Synchron did their thing, which we talked about. I have one. Synchron did their thing earlier and at a different price point. And I think they're two different things that look almost identical. The fact that there is such a price discrepancy from the two makes them two very different things. But if you're a collector and very much a doxa diehard, I think it's very obvious that this is the one. And if you're more of a fan of just the overall look or the original connection to Synchron itself, then I think you would see the Synchron the Military as kind of an interesting sort of derivation therein, if that makes any sense.
Andrew Do you think the use of ceramic for this one? I don't know the history of the development of this one. I know this one was in the works when Synchron released its military.
The Narrator It would have to have been, right? Just think about how bad the supply chain's been for the last couple of years. You don't just snap your fingers and get a hundred custom ceramic cases.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. True. I was just wondering if this was, I think it's good that this is ceramic because it's a twist. It's not a direct sort of quote unquote response to the Synchron, which I know there was some, Controversy around the releases and all that sort of stuff. And so I, I think ceramic sort of moves away from that argument because this is just different enough from that.
The Narrator And, and it says docs on the dial, which I think is if you're talking about who's is what and why Synchron has a claim to the design and the look and the feel and the rest of it due to a historical connection. But like the original did say docs on the dial and does say docs on the dial. And I think that means something. I also don't know that that either would be exclusive. Like if you're a huge, um, army fan specifically, I could see a case where you might want both. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And, and if you're really just a Doxa fan, then you would have seen these synchronic and been like, Oh no, thank you. Right. Right. So yeah, in some ways they're kind of exclusive while being complimentary. Yeah. I, you know, I don't have any background between why would Doxa want to talk about this to me certainly. Cause then I'm going to talk about it on a podcast. Um, but I don't have any like special background as to, you know, whether or not the timing of the Synchron mess with the timing. Like, I think that it's pretty clear if you go through the 50 years and the declassification of the information from the Swiss Army. I think it's pretty clear that the timing for this one was specific to that piece of information being open. Yeah. Rather than chasing something that Synchron did earlier. So like I said, I kind of think there's room for both of them. And this is also like one of those things that's almost like uniquely the watch space, or unique to the watch space. The idea that, oh, but there's this connection between Synchron and the Army, and then they made a military one, and now DOX has done one. And this is the world we live in. And considering that I don't have any financial stakes in one or the other, I get to take it as lightly as I see. And in my opinion, they're both kind of fun watches. The DOX is significantly nicer made, as you would expect for the price point. The case is fantastic. The crown's really good. The dial's lovely. The lume is great. The bezel's great. I'm on record not loving FKM straps, so I would definitely go with the NATO, and then I'd just put on a gray one anyways. Yeah, right. I'm a big fan. I think they did a great job. I'm really proud of James because he's a huge Army fan and has a history with these watches and understands what makes them special, and I think that's where you get something extra special like this edition that they've done. You know, I was impressed by the watch, but the other thing I want to make really clear is how for years, like Jason, how long have we been sitting and talking about Doxa with guys like Lambda? Like a decade? Yeah, at least. More, maybe? Yeah. Doxa just had a big launch in New York City. That wouldn't have happened a few years ago. Yeah, true. Right. Like as just a consummate fan, not a critic, not necessarily anything else. I just really like the brand itself. And obviously a huge fan of James and what he does and that sort of stuff. But to see it come together where a brand that five, six, seven years ago was an internet brand that a few of us knew about and had kind of thrown some money at to try and see some of their coolest stuff. And obviously they had this incredible year in 2017 with some of their best models. To see them get to the point where they're doing a release where people are being flown in and there's press appointments and just the officialness of it to see the brand kind of expand and grow and find the audience that I think it's always deserved is almost even more special than this watch in my mind. It's a twofer for me.
Andrew Yeah. It's funny, you know, when, when it comes to kind of really niche products, there's this ambivalence of like, I want to keep this all to myself. I want this to kind of be this underground. Oh, like it wouldn't be cool if everyone knew it. Yeah. And I don't know the docs is ever going to be in danger of that as long as they keep making weird stuff like this or their standard dive watches. Cause they're just, they're bizarre. They're, this is, I mean, I'm looking at it on the screen. It's, it's not a watch for everybody. It's a strange looking watch. Just like, I mean, just like the sub 300 that the standard dive watch with they're just weird. Look, a bigger audience for stuff like this isn't, is never going to be huge. It's never going to be an Omega or Rolex. Uh, no, no, no. Thankfully. Um, so I'm just glad stuff like this exists, I think.
The Narrator Yeah. And in my mind, it's less about whether or not everyone else wants to buy a Doxo or even talk about them on their podcast or write about them a lot. But I would love the brand to be able to be in a room or on a table at a Red Bar and nobody be wondering like, what's that weird dive watch? Yeah. Yeah. Like they deserve to be seen and known as an entity. Right. Next to a Submariner. Yeah. Next to a Fifty Fathoms. Next to a TR. Yeah. They have this incredible history and they're wonderful. I know that people were upset, you know, that they didn't go with a steel version, that they didn't, that they went with the ceramic because it's, you know, it's a military reference and a ceramic watch and the rest of it. None of that really bothers me because if you look at a different way, if this had been done X number of years ago, like if docs was a bigger brand, this would have been a gold watch as the commemorative edition, like the way Omega does with a speed master. Yeah. And I think that's almost how you have to look at it. It's meant to be to capture all of the vibe. And I think the ceramic and black does a better job than say a gold speedy does to reference kind of how special a steel speedy is, if you can understand where I'm going there, just by being a huge fan of the gold speedies. I think this just works and it makes sense. And like I said, you know, it's only a hundred pieces, so I wouldn't get too worked up if it wasn't exactly what you wanted. And the brand certainly got lots on the horizon. I still remain kind of hopelessly in love with the carbon white pearl.
Andrew Well, I'll go on record as saying that this one, It's a near miss for me in terms of aesthetics. I, the, the, the matte ceramic isn't quite my taste, but what I would love to see and, and, you know, I'll put this out there as my wishlist would be a titanium version of this, either a black titanium or just, just straight titanium. I think it would be again, a bit of a twist and very tactical, very kind of in the, in the spirit. I think that would be pretty cool, but anyway.
The Narrator Yeah. I mean, you do kind of wonder because And I'm not saying this because anyone talked to me about this. I'm not hinting at anything. This is, this is off the top of my dome in the moment as we're recording, you do kind of wonder because the brand's really good at kind of taking a color or a dial design and then putting it across the entire range and a bunch of different versions. Like imagine just even for fun and maybe they would, maybe they won't, maybe they wouldn't call it the army if they did, but the titanium with a matching up bezel and then where the tan, the kind of tan coloring on the dial has been replaced with gray. Yeah. Yeah. To match in with the titanium, like maybe call it the new army or don't call it the army at all. Just call it something else and have it kind of reference a similar aesthetic, but in, in sort of a modern.
Andrew Yeah. Or like a Caribbean version, like, or like a French blue or kind of a more slate blue. I mean, yeah, yeah.
The Narrator Yeah. No, it's a good idea. The titanium, I hadn't thought about that at all.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Let's move on to another weird twist on an existing formula. I think this, uh, and very TGN as well, at least brand wise, um, this, this Braymont, this new Supermarine 500 Bamford special edition. What, what do you think? Well, first let's kind of just go over what it is. Um, this is, you know, it's a black case version, uh, Bramont partnered with, uh, Bamford watch department, which, you know, if you've been paying any attention to watches in the past, you know, five years, uh, you've seen them do stuff with everyone from tag Hoyer to, I don't know, I think Zenith and a number of other brands. I mean, they just, Bamford is just doing some quirky stuff with, uh, you know, dial configurations and cases and, um, kind of the whole package. And, and I, I, this kind of came out of left field for me when I first heard about it, but it seemed like a logical fit. They're both, you know, the English brothers at Bramont and George Bamford or they're both English. They have, or all of them are English rather. They're all, um, you know, kind of car guys. I'm sure they, they meet up regularly to kind of hash out watches and cars and that sort of stuff. So this, I guess in that respect, it seems like a logical overlap, but somehow I hadn't seen this coming.
The Narrator Yeah.
Andrew I don't know. It's a, it's a unique piece. I'm, I'm, I'm still looking at it. I can't decide if I like it or not.
The Narrator Yeah. So it's a, it's a, it's a Stan, it's essentially a standard supermarine, but all blacked out in a mostly matte sort of matter, semi matte finish, a black bezel. And then the dial is like a Cali dial. So 10, 11, one and two are Roman numerals. And then you have sort of bar markers for, 12, 3, 6, 9, and then 4, 5, 7, 8 are Arabic numerals. So, you know, it's their bigger burly dive watch, but then it's a totally new take on the dial, brand new take on the hands. All the hands, including the seconds hand are all very stylized. And you know what the thing is, is if I look at it for five minutes, every two minutes or so, I go back and forth between, I get it. And then I don't. Yeah. And thankfully, Bremont's going to send me one to check out, take some pictures and do a little hands-on. So that should arrive at some point. I actually thought it was going to be here by the time we recorded this. That's one of the reasons I put this thing on the list for today's episode, because it's been on my mind. I think the watch is kind of a divisive take, which is perfect. It's 250 pieces. For people who get it, it's going to seem like super special and fun. And for everyone else, it's pretty easy to just move on and kind of ignore it, right? I like what Bamford does to a lot of the stuff, and obviously, they've done LEs with Hodinkee and many others. But with this one, obviously, we're huge S500 fans. I'd be keen to see what they might do together with an S300. And with this one, you get the signature light blue accents. That's pretty much the only color on it. It's on a black textile strap with light blue stitching. I understand why they would do this. It's too British. groups kind of connecting up and doing something that feels like super distinctive and very them, like both sides of the party kind of being represented here. And I'm excited to see it in person.
Andrew I think, I'll admit, I have never really cared for many, if any, of Bamford's stuff. It just doesn't register with me. And I think in this case, for a limited edition, fine. If this was part of the core range of Bremont, I think I'd be, you know, sharpening my pitchforks or whatever. Cause I just think it's, I just, I feel like, um, one thing I love about Braymont and I go whenever people ask me what I like about the brand, it's not only the build quality, but the design. And I think Nick and Giles who are behind and have been behind all of the designs to date, I think have a real knack for it. And I think they have a real eye for great design, not only in case shape and the triptych thing and every little element. Um, but they do great dials too. And I love the, I love the dials on the standard, Supermarines. And I think to farm it out, that's a terrible way to put this to, or even just to share, to share the space, to share it or to turn that element of it over to, to another designer who has his own style and feel and whatever, like it or not, that's, it's his thing. It feels like it doesn't, it's a miss for me. It doesn't work. I find the oversized kind of markers on this. And then those hands don't work for me at all. Kind of pilot hands. Yeah. I just, I guess I'm not a fan. I mean, I love the, I love the S 500. I like the strap on it. Um, you know, if I had to pick something, the blacked out bezel is kind of cool, but the dial and hands just don't, don't work for me. I much prefer, um, standard S 500 stuff, even if they tweaked that with the blue or something like that, but it's right.
The Narrator Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I, I totally understand that perspective for me. I'm, I have the luxury of just waiting until it shows up and then I, and then I can just make, make a decision once it's on my wrist. And with 250, they really don't have to convince that many people. I think, I think that's one of the, one of the fun things of kind of taking a risk with an, with an LE is that you can, you can find the people that it genuinely speaks to rather than, you know, a standard model that kind of has to, has to make, make sense to a wide audience. You know what I mean?
Andrew Yeah. Oh, I agree. And I think, you know, take, take the risks with the LEs and if they don't work, move on, people will buy them or not. And then you're not altering your core collection. And I think this is, definitely the way to do this sort of thing. And 250 is just such a tiny number. I mean, well, and you said there were only 100 of the docs. So like, look, if you don't like it, move on. There's plenty of others. So, um, one thing I will say is the kind of the launch campaign they had for this was so clever. It was so fun. Yeah. Like these kinds of posters and little video animations that they put up on social media. They did a nice job. Really cool.
The Narrator Yeah. And Bamford does a really good job with that kind of stuff. They have a real sense of humor. Yeah. Speaking of something, um, you know, seeing often, I hope we see them a lot more often. And in several more versions, we got a Timex Q GMT.
Andrew Yeah, that one. How about that? It really hits me. That is a cool watch. And I mean, more than anything, I mean the price, this is a $200 watch. It's amazing.
The Narrator Yep. And they're doing it in a, like a dark case with a red accent on rubber or the kind of Pepsi vibe on, um, on a steel. Give me a, give me a ring when you do the full yellow gold vibe. I could absolutely see my, you know, I came pretty close to the last time X. I just don't need another time only watch. I'm, you know, I like the idea of sticking as closely to GMTs as possible. So yeah, for $200, it's a, it's a quartz movement and it uses, it's a 24 hour independently adjustable hand. So it's a collar style GMT rotating bezel. So you've got lots of flexibility there. If you just wanted to leave the GMT hand on like UTC and then just run the offset on the bezel. which makes that super handy. I think they're really handsome. I think it's less than maybe it's one millimeter or around that thicker than a standard cue. So like 12 and a half millimeters, 38 millimeters wide. I think this kind of mirrory black one with the, um, the dark bezel and the rubber strap for 200 bucks makes a lot of sense.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator But the cool thing is, and again, we're, we're, if we're predicting looking at what Timex has done with cue in the past, there'll be a bunch more versions. Like if you're not down for the kind of, all black one or the kind of vintage inspired Pepsi one, just sit tight and wait and see what else comes out. I think this is super clever. That's a ton of watch for $200, like a ton of watch. And the cool thing is, is because they've already established that the Q is kind of insidery cool, like it has a place in the community, then the GMT only adds to that kind of appeal, right? Make a great travel watch.
Andrew Yeah. And actually I'm, I'm seeing this, uh, there was a Batman version I could have sworn. I remembered, but I'm not seeing it on the, on the Timex site, but in the Hodinkee article that accompanied the release of this back in April, um, it's this blue and black bezel one on the steel that, that I'm particularly drawn to.
The Narrator Yeah. I, it's a little bit confusing, but I think that was a, like an uncreate exclusive. So the, the, the site uncreate.com, I think that was theirs to sell. So that's why I'm not seeing it on Timex his own website. Yeah. It's hard to explain, but there's definitely the Pepsi, the black, and then you're right, there is a normal steel version with white loom and a blue black bezel, which is super handsome. But from what I can tell from the Hodinkee slack, it was sold out and it was available on Uncrate. So maybe they had a little deal, who knows, right? Sometimes these things are kind of needlessly confusing, even if you're not necessarily all the way on the outside. But man, you know, Think about all the straps and bracelets that will fit this. If you buy one, cause the cues out there, the same size case, right? Yeah. 18 millimeter lugs. It's an acrylic crystal, 50 meters of water resistance. And like I said, I, you know, this, uh, uncreate one or the one that's on uncreate was two 20. So it's a little bit more money, but we're still talking like two 20 with a bracelet, 200 on a rubber strap. Um, I don't know. These make a lot of sense to me. I think this is clever. It doesn't have like the raw functionality of a, of a flyer GMT. But you're not losing that much by having it being a collar, especially when it's costing you, you know, $200 as much as a really nice leather strap, right?
Andrew Yeah. I mean, this, you know, Timex has been, I think I said it on a few episodes ago, but they've just been doing such amazing stuff lately. And, and they've kind of occupying the space that it's, it's this kind of fun, functional, nostalgic sort of vibe that, you know, it's, it has a bit of a swatch feel to it, but like it's Timex and it's, especially this Q line, I could see this when this came out, I was still in Sri Lanka and I was like, that would be such a perfect like travel watch with 50 meters. Water resistance is plenty for most anything you do. And then with this GMT functionality and then the, you know, not that you'd need it on even a month long trip, but like it has the user replaceable battery hatch, which, which is super handy. Yeah. I love this watch. I think this is, this would be just a fun, kind of knock around summer travel watch. I think it's, I think it's great for $200. It's, it's like no brainer territory. And I think I'd go if I were to choose an addition, assuming that that a special blue black one is unavailable, I'd go with the kind of the one on the rubber and sort of that darked out version because I don't know, the Pepsi is a little too close to kind of homage territory or even, you know, 1675. Yeah. Or like, you know, black Bay GMT kind of thing. I think I'd just go a little bit different direction, but yeah. Yeah. So fun. Yeah, very cool. And then the next one we've got here on the list is one I think you have or had. I have it. Yeah, I have it right here next to me. This is the Aquastar Deepstar. They were calling it kind of the midsize, but this is the 39 millimeter version of the Deepstar that you and I have. The kind of the original one that they released a couple of years ago. What do you think now that you've had it in hand?
The Narrator Yeah. I mean, if you like the 41, it's largely the same. Yeah. It's a little bit smaller at 49, but it's the same thickness. You go down to 19 millimeter lugs, which is gonna be a bummer. If it fits a 20 mil NATO, I got one in there. It comes with a great rubber strap. That's probably how I would wear it. I have yet to size the bracelet. I usually wait until just before I do the photos so that if I put any scratches on it, it's after the photos, which I haven't shot the photos yet. But I have a gray one in from Rick, who's kind enough to send that in. And after having, you know, you got me a 41, which I love and wear with some frequency, especially when I want to chronograph, I would say that the difference between the two, because the thickness is the same, if you knew the 41 wasn't to your liking, take a look at the 39. I think it wears pretty well. It's a big, thick watch, right? Yeah. But the width helps bring that down a little bit. It's really, the thickness starts to really fade if you put it on the rubber. On a NATO, it's almost exaggerated. It sits too high. It's not a NATO watch, which I think I said on a previous little chat about it when it first came in, but it really sings on the rubber. And what I would compare it to in terms of wrist feels, if you've ever owned one of the smaller Zinn chronographs, where they're not especially wide, but they always have some thickness to them, whether it's crystal or bezel or case or case back, all of it, these are kind of the same thing. And if, if you, if you had the 41 and you just felt the width was the issue, this fixes it. If on the other hand, you checked out the 41 and you're like, this is simply too thick. You're not going to feel that much different about the, uh, about the 39. Yeah. I think this is the most wearable of the two chronographs simply because you do get the benefit of it being a little bit smaller, but it is one of those things where the, where the two millimeters doesn't make as big a difference as it might in a, in an entirely different watch, right? Like it's not as much... Okay, here's a good example. So here's a better example. The difference between a Black Bay 41 and a Black Bay 58, which is the same difference as these two watches, it's more noticeable because the watch also gets thinner. Oh, sure. Right? A 58 is like a couple of millimeters, maybe even a little bit more than that, thinner than a standard 41. Yeah. With this one, the difference is nice. And I think in a perfect world, I'd go 39, But the difference isn't so different that it's going to make me not want to wear my 41. I still think my 41 is like one of my favorite t-shirt watches. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause the only reason the thickness ever bothers me is if you're trying to get a winter jacket cuff or something over that. Right. Right. And then with gloves and the rest of it, it's just not an all year round watch for me when it's, you know, 16 plus millimeters, but it's great in the summer. And that one I wear on the NATO a lot or on a rubber strap a lot. You know, it's a perfect dock jump in.
Acknowledging Response Yeah.
The Narrator cooking something in the cottage sort of, uh, sort of, uh, a vibe, but yeah, I'm a big fan. Absolutely.
Andrew Yeah. Cool. I mean, I, you know, what, what more to say about this? I I've loved the, the deep star. It was kind of my watch of the summer, I think two years ago. And it's, uh, I mean, it's, it's got a great movement, the LeJou Paris column wheel chronograph movement to just killer aesthetics. Um, you know, I haven't tried the 39 millimeter. I'm still very happy with my, my 41, but, uh, Yeah. Bravo. I know that this was something that people were calling for. And then now there are actually three deep stars you can get because there's the deep star two, which is the non chronograph and the 37 millimeter. So which was the original size of the, of the 1960s version spoiled for choice when it comes to, to Aqua stars these days, which is something, you know, we couldn't have said even, uh, even three years ago. So great.
The Narrator Yeah. And, and for 2,700 bucks, I guess it's 2790, you know, they're making 300 of these a year is what they're saying. And it uses the same sort of Le Jouperé movement that we saw in the 41. So you get this great action and it works really well. I think it's open. It's kind of in a pre-order phase now. The eventual price will be $35.90. So that's a big difference. Yeah. So if it's something you're really keen on, it's probably worth checking out before that sort of price range goes up. But yeah, like I said, it kind of wears square and chunky, but not in any way bad. I'll have a full, um, a full sort of review, uh, for holding key, uh, sometime in May. Uh, so just keep an eye out, eye out for that. But, uh, I've been enjoying my time with it. It's there's so much fun to wear. Yeah. Just gorgeous, gorgeous mid-century sort of design. Really fun. Yeah.
Andrew And we got one more as well. We've got one more. This one, I think just came out within the past few days. Uh, this is, um, Hamilton, uh, released this khaki aviation pioneer mechanical chrono. Very, yeah. Very sober title for this one. It's a, it's a sober watch, I guess you could say, but definitely one of my favorite, um, aesthetics in, in watches similar to kind of in, in the dive space to the, what I like about the deep star. This is, this is a watch that, you know, Hamilton was one of the original makers of, of 1970s chronographs for the Royal air force. And, and there were four companies that did that and they were nicknamed the fabulous for the fab four. And, you know, Hamilton has kind of come close to. to mimic in this over the past few years, and they never quite did exactly this one, but this one's pretty dead on with a few small differences. This is a mechanical chronograph, that asymmetric case that so many made, including the one that I have, which is a CWC. It has kind of tan markers and hands, dual register dial. They've increased the size from the original, which was 38. Uh, with 20 millimeter lugs, this one is actually 40 millimeters with disappointingly 22 millimeter lugs. I think, uh, I would have preferred that's too wide. I think so. I mean, I, I just, I think even just kind of looking at it, it just looks, the strap just feels a little too wide. I think it kind of takes away from that really C shaped kind of roundy case. Um, but you know, wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. It's probably a little thicker than, than. kind of the original, but, um, you know, not by much. And this is a, it's a chunky tool watch. I mean, this is a, this is a pilot's watch. And, you know, I think a lot of people were kind of waiting for a Hamilton version of this. You know, if you really wanted one of these, all you really could get over the past decades has been CWC version, which I own and love. Uh, I have the, um, the, the re-edition version from the early two thousands, um, And CWC currently has a very expensive re-edition that has actual vintage movements in it and provides some kind of goodies with the package. I think that one goes for upwards of $6,000. So if you want the same vibe from an authentic maker, you can opt for this Hamilton. But yeah, I like this one. So it's just a hair over $2,000. It says available soon on their website. If you know Hamilton these days, they're making super high quality stuff. So I have no doubt this would just be a great watch to own.
The Narrator Yeah, I totally agree. I think these are gonna be super popular. Yeah. And I think we'll see other versions and hopefully they sell enough of these, but at 40 millimeters and a little, I think it's just a hair under 14 and a half. Yeah. Yeah, 14.35 millimeters thick, according to a blog to watch. So I think it makes sense. I think it looks really good. It kind of does the vintage thing in a way that makes sense for the original, but also has like a nice modern 60 hour powers or movement with the silicon balance spring and all that kind of stuff. And, uh, I think they threaded the needle with this one. I, you know, I personally would love to see one in full black with white accents rather than the tan kind of guilt coloring. Yeah. Yeah. Make, make, make the modern one. Um, but I think for 40 by 14 for an, uh, an automatic chronograph, uh, makes a lot of sense. You know, it's, it's a 30 minute register. So it's up to you if there, if that's like not unlike the Aqua star, if that's kind of enough, I think it's still pretty useful to have the 30 minute register, and you can't argue with the aesthetics. It's just beautiful. It's great. Makes sense. I think the pricing's fair, especially... Maybe not now with the watch having just come out, but when things settle down, Hamilton is sold in places that have sales. So you could conceivably count your pennies, bide your time, the rest of it, and get a pretty buy on it, which makes sense as well. Yeah, I like it. I think these would be super fun to try and get in and wear around. I think somebody else on the hooding key team already kind of claimed, you know, getting getting one in for review. So I'll take a backseat and read that review when it comes out. But yeah, I'm a fan for these, you know, Hamilton just has been doing some incredible stuff in the military style space for a few years now, right? The mechanical hand winder at 38 and then a ton of great khaki fields. And then now we're starting to see even more of these aviation pioneer stuff, you know, which is a line we've seen make a handful of pretty beautiful chronographs in the last little while. But this one feels kind of like almost where they could have started it. Yeah. Yeah. It just works.
Andrew Yeah. Yeah. Cool piece. Yeah, it is fun. And I think, you know, this is kind of a under the radar sort of design that a lot of people might not be familiar with unless you're kind of an avid reader of the military watch resource or whatever, because there just weren't many made. There weren't many around. These were strictly made for RAF issue. And, um, so it's, it's kind of been the province of military watch collectors and fans over the years. And, you know, like I said, I mean, if you, if you didn't get one of the kind of the rare CWC ones that has, uh, you know, fixed spring bars in a, in a 38 millimeter case and in very small quantities, uh, you could have gone with Newmark, which was another one of the fab four brands that recently kind of resurfaced in the past within the past five years with kind of a Mecca quartz version, which was really well done. I had one for awhile for far less money if you, if you want to go that route. But, uh, but I, I love the kind of the jet age hat tip to Myron Erickson, my buddy at Rover Haven for that, for that terminology. But, uh, that jet age logo, um, that, that Hamilton used to use. I love seeing that on the dial again. Um, so yeah, for sure. Cool. Fun, fun watch. And, and, you know, looking at the, the ones we talked about today, I mean, just, This is like core TGN stuff. This is fun stuff. We've got, you know, funky docks, a dive watch, which, you know, is just so niche, the, the, the Braymont Bamford, which is, you know, a bit divisive or polarizing a design, but from a brand we love. And then this travel and budget-friendly time XQ GMT, um, you know, the Aqua star deep star, which, uh, which we both know and love in a smaller size. And then, and then this kind of RAF, style reissue Hamilton khaki aviation mechanical, which, uh, you know, just, just cool stuff. I mean, all, all within probably the past four or five weeks.
The Narrator Yeah. All, all stuff that we needed to cover at some point. So it makes sense just to package them up and do a nice watch heavy episode. I think these are all going to be like five watches. I don't know that we're going to see the docks and the Braymont or even the Aqua star, like other than on Instagram, or maybe if you're lucky at a red bars event or something like that in the future. But I mean the, the Timex, the Hamilton, I think those are going to be big watches for this year, for sure. Yeah. You know, a nice, a nice drop to kind of bring the heat back into the scene after a watches and wonders and, and both, you know, you could, you could say the Hamilton is fairly expensive. I think for what you're getting, it's priced where it needs, where it would be priced, where you'd expect it to be priced and certainly great, great value at the time. It's like we said several times, so a solid list of watches. Obviously, if you have anything to add, maybe you think we missed a great watch from the last five weeks. We don't see everything right. Yeah. And even if we see it, remembering it's even harder as you get a bit older or jet lag, right. Yeah. So let us know in the comments, get in there, you know, the great nato.com, jump into the sub stack, get right into the comments. You certainly don't need to be a supporter to comment. We more than welcome everybody to come check it out, be part of the conversation. There's a great crew of, uh, of guys and gals on there, uh, you know, leaving their opinions, filling us, filling in blanks for us when we miss stuff, keeping us honest, all that kind of stuff, which we, uh, which we love and you can check out, um, on the sub stack. So if you're not sure, swingbythegrenado.com and click on notes and it'll drop you right into the page and it's all searchable. Everything's linked out and you can even get it delivered to your inbox if you want, including a player, if that's how you prefer. So Thursday mornings, you can get a whole breakdown of the show to go with your morning listen if that's how you do it. Jason, a nice long show here. You want to jump into some final notes?
Andrew Sure, I can do that. I'll go first here. This is a fairly long article from outsideonline.com. And, uh, it's entitled the rough stuff fellowship is a celebration of doing hard things together. And I was really, really pleased to see this article pop up. Uh, I guess it's from late March, but I first read it, uh, last week. And, you know, I've been following, um, the, what they call the rough stuff fellowship, uh, archive feed on Instagram for a couple of years now for anyone that's kind of into off the beaten path adventure and cycling and kind of you know, just, just kind of, again, a lot of the stuff we talk about on TGN from, from Dick Pranicki to, to mountaineering, to kind of just overlanding. I mean, I think this sort of would appeal to anybody in that space because this is a throw in a little bit of my, uh, my anglophilia as well. This is, um, a group that was formed back in the, in the 1950s, uh, in, uh, in great Britain, um, these, these kind of bicycling enthusiasts that had a different take on cycling. They, they felt that, Cycling was headed in a direction that was getting a little too soft. Bikes were getting kind of sporty and fast and it was all about racing and riding on tarmac. And, uh, and this little club formed over there, it was kind of a touring club with a real mishmash of, of socioeconomic levels and backgrounds and people that decided they were going to take their bikes and just kind of Trump off the beaten path all over the UK and even all over the world. And what's really special and cool about it is that while they were doing this back in the fifties, sixties, seventies, a lot of them brought cameras along and we're, we're just taking these, these awesome photos of guys riding very retro to our modern eye, uh, retro bicycles wearing tweed and sweaters and, and you know, like deer stalker caps and smoking pipes and, and dragging their bikes up and down over mountains and rappelling down cliffs with their bikes over their shoulders. And, It's just a fun read. It's a, it's a, it's a fun concept. One that I fully embrace, you know, I've done some bike touring in my past and, and just kind of love this, this culture of, you know, not necessarily focusing on fast and racing and that sort of thing, or just kind of using a bike as a, as a means to explore the world. And, and so the author heads over to the UK and visits with one of the guys who's been active in reviving this photo archive. Uh, and then published a couple of books with, with this huge collection of old, great old photos. Um, and he's kind of kept the, kept the club going and, and meets up regularly with a group of guys that, that takes their bikes and just kind of does bicycle overlanding across the UK through muddy fields and over mountains and staying in, uh, in huts and camping and brewing up tea on the roadside and that sort of thing. So, um, I just love it. It's a great, great long article. Well-written. Um, the photos are awesome and certainly. You should check out RSF archive on Instagram just for the full-on collection of great photos from this group. So check it out. It was really cool to see. Yeah.
The Narrator Yeah. That's great. Yeah. I thought it was great. Yeah. Like you said, the photos, especially like you can, if you're not sure if you want to read this, just get to the article and do a little scroll. My guess is you'll get, you'll jump right back up.
Andrew The guy with the skin in the pipe. I mean, it's just, it's fantastic. Perfect.
The Narrator Yeah. Yeah. And even, even the modern photography that's in this sort of, Yeah. Ancient sort of space. Yeah. Yeah. No, this is great. This is beautifully done. Um, uh, Ben, Ben Reed is the photographer on this and, uh, for the modern stuff and it looks great. And it was written by Tom Vanderbilt. Yeah, no, I enjoyed this quite a bit. I've been, I've been getting good value out of my, um, my outside online, uh, subscription to, I don't know if this story is behind any sort of a paywall or not, but, um, I don't think so on this one. Yeah. I've been enjoying their, their stuff quite a bit. Always happy to support, uh, an outfit like outside. So yeah. Good call. I need to send this to my dad. He'd dig it. Oh, yeah. All right. What have you got? So, earlier in the show, I spoke about how I was wearing my Sylvana Skin Diver on a mesh bracelet, and it's actually a mesh bracelet that I've shared on my Instagram a few times, and now I've had it long enough to kind of collect all my thoughts and see if I would recommend it. So, it's the... Jason, you recommended this to me because I was saying that I wanted a sort of No Time to Die style bracelet for the Braymont, but considering that It's a little weird to wear like one major brand's bracelet on a different major brand's watch. Right. I didn't feel the need to go out and spend whatever it is on a steel Omega mash, you know, a thousand dollars or whatever it would be. And you recommended this. It's from a company whose name I'm almost certainly going to mispronounce in some, some metric Heimdallr. I think that sounds about right. Yeah. I'm in the ballpark, maybe not in the kitchen, but H E I M D A L L double R. And it's called the Heimdallr Mesh for NTTD. And maybe you know Heimdallr, maybe you don't. I didn't previously. They seem to make a lot of like clones of SMPs. Yeah. And so within that vibe, they also made essentially a clone of the Omega bracelet itself. It's $39. And honestly, as far as like a tight knit mesh goes, like a shark mesh is one thing, which I've worn for years and do really like, but for a more polished sort of tight knit 20 millimeter mesh, This is as nice as I've come across for 40 bucks. Looks amazing. So it's, it's a two piece mesh, uh, like fully disconnected if you want it to. And then it has a pass through fold over buckle. So the tail of the mesh is actually under the outer layer of the strap. So it keeps it all kind of tidy. The clasp is a little on a little bulky visually, especially if you're wearing a smaller watch, like the clasp, I would say on, on with the Silvana is maybe a little bit much. If you look at your wrist sideways, the clasp is about as thick as the watch, etc. But with a heavier watch, like I wear this mostly on the Bremont S302 and it's kind of perfect.
Acknowledging Response Oh, yeah, I bet.
The Narrator Yeah, I'm really impressed for the $40. You know, like I said, the clasp and when you have the layer of the metal strap, the mesh metal strap and then the hinge of the fold over and then another layer. So there's some bulk on the underside. But I would say that it kind of just balances out in terms of weight. And it's one thing to look at it and feel like it might be a little bit bulky or too bulky. In actual wearing it around, it didn't bother me that much. So I've been wearing it a ton on a handful of different watches. It's really nice on an SPB, on my 143. It just works really well. And it fits this Sylvana really well. And I've had it on the Explorer II. I've kind of put it on anything that I had with a 20 millimeter. Yeah, I don't know. Is it as nice as the Omega? Absolutely not. I mean, just no. It's $40. It scratches the itch. I'm not a huge bracelet guy, so it's really easy for me to spend $40 on something and then not have to feel bad if I only wear it two or three times a year. Yeah. But I do really like a mesh bracelet when I'm in the mood for such a thing, and I think this is a good example. I've had other options for similar money that I've talked about from Amazon, from legit no-name brands. And this is definitely nicer than that. Uh, it has a standard sort of, uh, tube links at the end. So you fit your own spring bars, whatever fits and works, but it'll take a nice thick spring bar. I'm, I'm, I'm very happy with it for the money. And, uh, if you're in the market for a mesh strap or you want to do the mesh strap thing without a lot of risk, uh, go nuts.
Andrew Yeah, it looks great. I I'm, I was tempted to buy one, you know, I'll go on record. I'm always happy to admit when I've. Made a mistake. And I wish I had bought this one instead of sprung for the expensive Omega one, even though I got a great deal from, from Andy at the local Omega shop here, you know, to get an unbranded version for something like the S302 or, or any number of 20 millimeter watches I've got. I was really tempted to pick one of these up. The only, the only issue is right now, when I look at the website, the, the no logo clasp is not available at this point. The only one with a shark on it and I just can't get myself to wear it.
The Narrator Yeah. I have the shark one. You do. You don't mind it. I don't even notice it. Oh, okay. I don't spend that much time looking at the strap. I actually, when I bought this, I didn't even see one that didn't have the shark on it. I'll see if I'll put, I'll put whatever I've got in the thing. And that way you get to the website and you can click around and find whatever you like, but yeah, cool. But not a big deal. And yeah, so we've got the rough stuff fellowship of off-road cycling to check out, and we highly recommend that you do. And like I said, if you're in the market for a mesh band, check out the Heimdallr mesh for NTTD. And as always, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly and getting yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegraynado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzer via the Free Music Archive.
Andrew And we leave you with this fitting quote from Lin-Yu Tang who said, no one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old familiar pillow.