The Grey NATO – 201 – Windup Chicago With Zach And Blake From Worn & Wound
Published on Thu, 21 Jul 2022 06:25:15 -0400
Synopsis
This episode features the second half of a live podcast recording with Blake Buettner and Zach Pina from the Worn & Wound podcast at the Windup Watch Fair in Chicago. Jason and Blake discuss various affordable and microwatch brands present at the fair like Formex, Astor & Banks, Benrus, and Ann Ordain. They take questions from the audience about topics like wrist size preferences, wearing expensive watches regularly, why certain models don't become as popular as expected (the Rolex Sky-Dweller), and their journeys into watch podcasting. The hosts share appreciation for the supportive community around their show.
Links
Transcript
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| Blake Buettner | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 201, and it's proudly brought to you by the ever growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you're interested in supporting the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. Jason, you're back, uh, back home after a long drive. I spent much of my day yesterday at the, uh, the airport in Chicago, but, uh, made it home in time. How are we feeling? |
| Jason Heaton | I'm recovering. My voice is coming back. I still have a bit of a, kind of a scratchy throat just from, uh, just talking so much. Uh, it was such a, such a great time. We, we got to see each other finally after a few years and, and, uh, parted ways about, uh, by my guests here about 20, 28, 28 hours ago. So that was, uh, that was good fun. And here we are back in our chairs. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, exactly. Back at the desk. It was a huge weekend in Chicago for the wind up fair. And we kind of have a lot of thank yous to start with, I think. Wow. It was a huge thank you to the turnout, everyone who showed up and shared their washes and came to say hi and check out the merch and just kind of hang out and walk around. And of course, all the same for the vendors. And then I think even a bigger thank you or maybe a different sort of thank you, but just for the opportunity from the Worn and Wound team. and the windup team, uh, to, to be able to go and have a table and, uh, and get a chance to connect with all of you. It was, um, it was way more than I expected. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, it was, uh, it was just huge. And, and it was, it was almost overwhelming, but in a very, very good way. Um, not only the, the number of people that stopped by to say hello, but also the sentiments that were expressed and, and the generosity from people, the, the bottle of the bottle of Malort that somebody left. Clark. Clark. Yeah. Huge appreciation, I think. from us. Um, that was a very Chicago gift. And, uh, and we, we appreciated the gesture. It was so much fun. And, uh, everybody else that stopped by with, uh, with, uh, good wishes and, and cool watches, stickers and nice bag from Justin. And yeah, yeah. Wild stuff. It was incredible. And, and everybody got to meet our wives too. I mean, it was like, yeah. And Sarah were there and, uh, And I don't know what we would have done without them. I mean, I honestly don't know what we would have done. |
| Blake Buettner | That's the remaining big thank you is it's just, you know, a huge thank you to Ghoshani and to my wife, Sarah, for coming out and hanging out. You know, I think, at least in my mind, Jason, I definitely overestimated how much we could record. Yeah. I didn't really expect there to be people at the table kind of all day long, all three days. But there were and when there were times where we were off recording, and I'll explain how this episode works in just a moment. But when we were off recording a variety of these sort of chats and, and, and that sort of thing, um, Sarah and Ghoshani were holding down the fort and, uh, it just, we, we simply wouldn't have been able to do it without them. It would have been a complete, um, a complete cancellation of, of events and ability to do it and the rest of it. So it was a huge thank you. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, and by, uh, by Ghoshani's account, uh, she enjoyed herself immensely and people enjoyed meeting her and Sarah and Ghoshani had all sorts of stories on our drive back yesterday. Um, you know, about various people that stopped over. And then of course we took a ton of photos against that brick wall. And it was, it was fun to see all of those go up on Instagram over the past couple of days. So, I mean, what else to say? It was incredible. It was so good. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, no, it was, it was amazing. And just a quick explanation of how this episode works. So we, one of the banner kind of things you could do at the show, aside from obviously check out all these amazing brands, was you could sit down and watch a live podcast taping with, um, Jason and I and Blake and Zach from the worn and wound podcast. And so the, the end result was a little over 90 minutes. Um, and, and I said, well, why don't we just split it in half there? Their show goes live Wednesday. So it's live yesterday. They have the first half. And then this episode, when we get through the sort of intro and the risk check and stuff, we'll drop in the second half. I actually thought we weren't, you know, cause there's, you know, rules, how many people you can have in a room. And I thought maybe, the doors had closed and no one realized they could come in. And then in the end, I heard like, no, that's a, that that was physically as many people as they are allowed to put in the room. Uh, you know, there's a good, a good deal of folks were standing and that sort of thing. So I think it was a really, really fun chat with those two guys. They do such a great job, of course, on their feed. So my recommendation would be in a few minutes when we get to the, the main recording, uh, from that chat, uh, pause this, go check out their feed. And if you're not subscribed, obviously give them a subscription. Uh, they're going to do a little intro and then drop in our, uh, the first 45 minutes, 46, 47 minutes of that chat. And then you can come back to this one and get the second half. But the idea was do a little bit of cross promotion. And, uh, and instead of just everybody getting the same file, I thought this was fun. Make it a little bit of a game. If you want to hear the whole chat, which I think a lot of you will, the next few episodes will be other chats that we recorded. So we sat down and chatted with Chase from Okan Oscar. There's several times he's been on the show the third time. And we, uh, we had an appearance from Mike Pearson, uh, with Zodiac watches and, and kind of the fellow that helped Jason and I really kick off, uh, our friendship, which would become TGN. Uh, Wesley from Standard H is on an episode. And then finally, we have a really great kind of in-depth chat with, um, co-president, co-CEO, I guess, of, um, of Oris, a fellow by the name of Vijay. Uh, so those will be the next few episodes. Uh, but if you want to be able to get kind of the full chat on today's episode, you're gonna have to go by the Worn and Wound podcast feed. I'll put a link to the show in the show notes, of course, to make it as easy as possible for you. But if you're not subscribed, now's probably a good chance to do it, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. It was amazing to sit down with people that we haven't seen for several years. And of course, Mike is such an old friend and Vijay, Chase, I mean, it's just it was, it was awesome. And then I think the biggest fun was, you know, hearing from from listeners and folks in the audience that asked a lot of great questions. It was really cool. And Zach and Blake certainly did more than hold up their end of the podcast as well. So yeah, do go check that out. It's going to be great. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. And so that was kind of the main core. Like we had a couple of these programming events, some chats, that sort of stuff. That's what we did. Otherwise, we just hung out. We got to walk around and see all these great brands. I got my hands on not only the watch, which I'm going to talk about in wrist check in a moment, a nice new Seiko, but also the new, uh, citizen JP 2007 loom dial, uh, which I really only took off my wrist. Cause I want to try and go in chronological order for these risk checks. Um, but I I'm, I'm kind of hooked on this one and on the new Seiko. It's, it was a really great weekend for, uh, for watches. I was surprised by the merch, how well it went. People were pretty thrilled by it and enjoyed it. And, uh, and I think we had a nice kind of spread and a bundle and that sort of stuff. And Jason, you can talk about what our plans are for that stuff in just a moment here. But you also got up to some other extracurricular stuff. You want to kick off there? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, sure. Um, so, you know, the show opened last Friday and, uh, you know, it was a, it was a good busy first day. And then, um, Saturday morning, I got up very early at, you know, four o'clock or something, and then wolf down some breakfast and coffee, and then got a ride from, uh, Ben Lowry. And if you're not familiar with B Lowry on Instagram or his, uh, his alternate, uh, Instagram profile submersible wrist, which you've got to check out, um, Ben has, uh, written, uh, Over the years, uh, stories about, uh, largely about dive watches. Um, he's worked for a blog to watch. I think he works for, uh, Teddy Baldassare now. And, uh, um, he's written a couple of things for Houdinki or at least one really great piece about commercial diving. He was a former commercial diver. He's just kind of an all around good guy and, uh, and a lot of fun. And he picked me up early in the morning and we drove over to Hammond, Indiana, which is the first town across the border, drove to the Marina. And got on a dive boat with a couple of other good friends of TGN and long time kind of Instagram buddies. I had never met any of these guys before. Chris Soul. He's appeared on at least one Q&A in the past with us and has written us and good friend of ours. And then Chris Scott, who's a Naui dive instructor based out of Chicago and Florida. And Chris and I go way back. He's been a good friend over the years as well. And we did sort of an informal wind up in the lake. So we Humped our gear out onto a dive boat, went out of Hammond and dove a couple of shipwrecks on Saturday morning. It was, uh, it was really good fun. And, uh, I loved the ability to kind of sneak in a bit of an adventure. Uh, you know, conditions weren't perfect. It was a bit murky and, and surface conditions were kind of choppy. I was feeling a bit green, uh, on the boat ride, but, uh, the dives were, were so much fun. The first dive was like 72 degrees, which is amazing for Lake Michigan. And, uh, and then the second dive was considerably colder. And I cut my dive a little short, uh, along with Ben, because we were the two idiots with wetsuits on, but, you know, just so fun to meet those guys. And I can't thank them enough for, for letting me tag along. And especially to Ben for ferrying me back and forth and getting me back in reasonable time to get to the show. I also want to, you know, give a shout out to Chris soul who had this, this great idea of, um, ahead of this, he had said, you know, if we can take some kind of a TGN expedition flag. You know, kind of like the Explorers Club sends its flags around the world to plant on summits and underwater and all manner of escapades all over the world. And we can take it and get some cool photos of it on our little adventure in the morning. I think it'd be pretty cool to kind of start a little trend. And indeed, you know, you mentioned our merchandise. And one of the things we did was this kerchief set with Cantonment that's been popping up on Instagram. We sold quite a few at the show. We still have quite a few left that we'll be selling. Um, as part of a bundle of TGN merchandise on our website, uh, in the near future. So stay tuned for that, but we'd love to see those, uh, those kerchiefs, uh, show up all over places as kind of expedition or adventure flags. Kind of going to come up with some kind of a, kind of a fun hashtag, or maybe you can help us with that and just tag us and show those photos of those flags all over whatever you get up to. Um, but kind of the first of that series was, uh, I took it on the dive and Chris had a camera and he snapped a photo of me holding up the TGN kerchief underwater as kind of an expedition flag. And, uh, and we'll throw that in the show notes and you'll see it on Instagram in the next couple of days. So, uh, Chris, fantastic idea. Loved it. Thanks for the photo. Uh, thanks to all you guys for, um, for letting me tag along. That was, uh, that was a blast. |
| Blake Buettner | So yeah, stay tuned to future episodes. We'll have more details about how the merch thing is going to work. Um, but it's not a ton of work for us to align a little shop and, uh, and get a chance for people to pick up a bundle. If you're keen, and that would include the cantonment, you can start tagging your adventures with the flag, which I think is super fun. I saw the photo this morning and it's delightful. It's a cool idea for sure. Beyond that, how did the drive go? I flew and it ended up being not dramatic. I had one flight canceled, but it all worked out in the end. How did it go for the drive? |
| Jason Heaton | Old Land Rover did its job? It certainly did, yeah. On the way down, we took two days to get down to Chicago. as I documented well on Instagram and got a lot of feedback on that. Um, and then we parked it in front of the venue for pretty much all the days we were there, but, uh, the truck did great. We did great. My left leg was a little bit tired from pumping the clutch pedal in Chicago traffic, but, uh, the way down, we took kind of rural backroads down through Southern Minnesota, a little bit of Iowa, and then cut over across the Northern part of Illinois and just went through some lovely, um, little farm towns, little places that, you know, I've never heard of just rolling hills, beautiful scenery. Lots of little small towns, you know, stopping. We, we, we heated up some burritos on the, on the exhaust manifold along the way. And I managed to cut my finger trying to, trying to snip off the, uh, the zip tie, but that was a minor culinary accident. But then on the way back yesterday, you know, as, as those often the case after a big event, you know, we're just like, we just want to get home. And the quickest way to do that was to hop on the interstate out of Chicago. So we, we got onto I-90. And, and zipped over, uh, up through past Madison and across the state of Wisconsin into Minnesota, up to Rochester, and then up highway 52 North to the Twin Cities. And, you know, I was a little apprehensive about that. The, the Defender, you know, it's a, it's a 93. It's, um, I wouldn't say it's underpowered. It's, I think it's under geared for high speed travel. So, you know, it tops out, I would say comfortably at 65 to 70. And that's where I had it pegged for, it took us. eight hours of kind of solid driving with a couple of stops and, and it was hot yesterday. I mean, it was, as a lot of the world and a lot of the country has been experiencing, I mean, it's been upper nineties, uh, around here. And so it, it got hot as the day went on, but man, that truck, I'm so proud of it. It, uh, it just hammered. I mean, I just had it pegged at 65 and it, you know, it was a little slower than most of the traffic, but it did just fine. So we were. We got in yesterday afternoon and I gave it a good, you know, pat on the bonnet and it's parked outside. All happy and ready for the next adventure. It was great. |
| Blake Buettner | Fantastic. I love it. Yeah. People were thrilled to see it parked outside the fair. And obviously we had some, a little impromptu Land Rover meet up with our buddies from Okanoska and Hasler Instruments. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we should get into a risk check, but like Jason, I said, just a huge thank you to the turnout, the folks that came out. Some of you traveled. as far as we did to say hi and to do a lap of the show and check out some of the cool stuff that was there and let us know that you enjoy the podcast. And I don't know, it's just really nice to get the opportunity to see some friends. Jason, of course, you and Ghoshani, it's been way too long, but even just friends that we know from emails and Instagram handles and stuff like that. So a huge and sincere thank you from the entire TGN extended crew for the warm hospitality in Chicago. |
| Jason Heaton | So true. So true. I mean, we had, uh, Alejandro flew up from Mexico for the day. We had a couple visiting from Slovenia that I'm really sorry I missed because we were doing some recording, but Kashani had a good chat. Matt flew up from Texas. I mean, we just had people driving from, you know, five hours away and further. So yeah, I mean, huge thanks. So enough said about that. It was, uh, it was, it was such a wonderful time and, uh, hope everybody appreciated it as much as we did. All right. You want to do some risk check? Let's do that. Yeah. You've got something fun that, uh, That I guess we talked about a bit It'll it'll show up when you listen to the the next little bit here with the worn and wound folks But yeah, you've got a yeah true. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, tell us about it. Yeah, I'm So some of you would have seen on my Instagram the week before last I was saying that I was having some trouble finding one of the new Seiko GMTs So the Seiko 5 GMT. It's the SSK series I had kind of put in Registered my interest or that sort of thing on every option here in Canada And I had several of these retailers convert, they would say they were in stock. And I was trying to get one to have it at wine, right. And they would say that it was in stock, I would go ahead and buy it. And then they'd say, Oh, you know, you have a pre order now. Oh, yeah. You know, like, well, that's not the same as in stock. So I did that once or twice got got a little frustrated, put a message on Instagram, which I'm not, I don't commonly do, but put a message on Instagram. And of course, our, our, our good buddy, Zach Pina, reached out and said, hey, you know, uh, toppers in, uh, in California, toppers, jewelers, who of course has helped us source watches in the past. Um, they, they had them and, uh, and we're willing to, uh, to send one. So I had it sent to Jason to save, you know, whatever the delays, the border might've been. And, uh, and it ended up being less tax anyways, cause, uh, you don't have to pay all the money for UPS or whoever to do the paperwork. Uh, if you just declared on your way back, uh, back over. So that was great. And, um, and a huge thank you to Zach. And the folks the you know, the always fine folks at toppers, jewelers, they couldn't have made it easier. And yeah, I got an SSK 003. So that's the blue dial with the black blue bezel and the red GMT hand. And so far, I'm just absolutely filled with it. It's a you know, these things are a little under $500. The bracelets pretty nice. They've drilled lugs and solid end links. I actually when I got it home because I didn't wear it on the bracelet much I had it on a NATO. for you today. But so far it's keeping good time. The loom is great. The tension bezel is weird. Everybody commented that you're just so used to a click. Yeah. Um, but it's certainly functional. I mean, you can, you can do enough, another time zone on it if you want. Yeah. It has a 24 hour Ria. So I think I'll probably put a dive bezel on it at some point, like after I've done the review and that kind of stuff. And it's, it's really just mine. Right. Um, but right now I'm, I'm super impressed. It's a, it's keep a good time. Like I said, the loom is pretty solid and the GMT is really easy to use. It's, you know, one direction changes the date forward. And the other one changes the GMT hand forward. And because it's a nice big hand, it's, you know, depending on how you wanted to use it to travel, I'm not sure that you would care which hand was showing local and which was showing home. So in that way, you could use it pretty easily to track, uh, another time zone or to move to another time zone, uh, simply because you get this nice big hand that, that, that matches the legibility of the hour hand pretty nicely. So has a little bit of a twin time vibe in that way, really easy to wear. And yeah, if you if you know an SKX or the new Seiko 5s, that's that's kind of the vibe. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's, that was a cool watch. I was I was happy to have it in my hands for a few days before I passed it on. And then I gave it to you and you immediately sized the bracelet. And I don't know for me, like, if if it's going to be hot for the next little while, I think you move it back onto the onto that cool kind of Jubilee. I mean, I think it looked really good on your wrist on that bracelet and those Yeah, it was kind of rattly Seiko bracelets. And this one's a little less rattly than the typical Seiko bracelets, but it looks tolerances are a little bit better than they used to be. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, yeah, it does look good. Yeah. And it matches the sort of piloty vibe, right? Because it, you know, right, almost like a GMT master, which has a dive watch. Look and feel maybe. Yeah. With with the rotating bezel, the big hands, the big markers, that sort of thing in the same way. I mean, in my opinion, these look a little bit almost too Rolexy. which is why I think they'll be great to mod. Especially with the blue-black bezel. I love the blue dial. I'm glad I went with something a little bit more colorful than my normal black or gray. And who knows, maybe they'll do a white one at some point. They seem to be getting pretty good at offering white dials, and that could be awesome as well. But yeah, I think that the vibe does really suit this watch and the 100 meters water resistance and the rest. And at some point, I'd also like to take it diving just to kind of prove a point. Yeah. So that's, I suppose, also on the list. We'll see how many stories I can get out of one watch. I'm pretty good at getting my mileage out of Seiko's. Yeah, right. Yeah. So how about you? What have you got on wrist? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I swapped over after, you know, days of, you know, the past few episodes, all I've been wearing is that Lume Dial Citizen that you've got on. What a good watch. You know, for much of the show, we both had the same watch on our wrists. It was funny. We had the, and it's so noticeable from a distance, this dark gray PVD watch with a big black rubber strap. And then that loom dial shows up from across the room. And, um, I've had trouble taking that one off. I took a diving on Saturday and, um, and then I kind of swapped through that and the, and the T graph, the old T graph doxa at the show, which was fun to share with people. And, um, we saw so many great watches there, but I've been kind of that Citizen and Doc's a kick lately, but I, when I got home last night, I just wanted something a little smaller, lighter, um, you know, uh, and I moved over to the. The Tornik Rayville TR660 and, you know, Bill, Bill with, uh, with Mark two and Tornik are usually at windup. Um, they opted not to, not to do Chicago for kind of a scheduling, I guess, and just time management purpose, but there'll be a New York apparently, uh, in October. And I I'd love to see Bill again, and he makes such a great watch and it's just It had been a while since I'd worn this one, so it's good to have it back on the wrist. |
| Blake Buettner | Absolutely. Yeah, good pick. Good pick for sure. You've got lots of good watches these days, right? Yeah, seriously. And yeah, thank you again for sorting out the hand-to-hand delivery of the SSK and to Zach and Toppers for making the connection for me. Yeah. Super fun. You want to figure we bounce into the main topic? Yeah, we should. All right. So as I explained at the top, we'll keep this nice and light for those of you who were listening. The main topic today is the latter half, the second half of our recording with the worn and wound podcast, uh, with Blake and Zach from the show at wind up Chicago. So if you want the first half, which you should for both continuity reasons, and because I'm actually pretty proud of how it all came together, you're going to have to go over to worn around podcast page. Uh, that's in the show notes, of course. and subscribe if you're not already. And if you are ready, then it would have showed up in your feed yesterday. And maybe you already listened to the first you know, 4045 minutes over it worked out for their edit. Our half has a lot of different topics in there and a great q&a. So you know, it's one of those cases without further ado, here's the second half of a of a conversation we had just a few days ago in Chicago. I hope you love it. |
| Zach Pina | I was going to say, especially like earlier on in this one where we're much more like stubbornly focused on like, you know, a price point of, say, sub five grand, like, you know, I'm focusing on the brands that are in this room. Like they, I think we're designing for that always. And they had a business model, you know, direct consumer business model where they could kind of keep that sort of specificity to exactly what they want. I mean, these are brands that literally designed the watch that they wanted and then priced it for themselves, kind of a thing, you know? So I feel like it is very live and well in certain groups and now You know, I think, yes, something like that Tudor Ranger. Like I was I was almost more impressed by the price when they first announced it. What changed the vibe of the watch for me? Yeah. I mean, it's just it's it's a very good value for what it is from a brand that could compete or does compete with watches that are to two point five X, you know, the price of of it. But yeah, no. So I think I think I agree with you. I think they're seeing also that the brands, you know, in this room are no longer like on the side of the periphery of the industry. You know, Christopher Ward out there selling as much as some large Swiss watch brand. |
| Blake Buettner | And well-deserved. |
| Zach Pina | And well-deserved, yeah. |
| Blake Buettner | Huge value if you're price-sensitive and you get what you want and you're buying from people who know watches, which is kind of what we all want, right? You want to believe the person at Rolex or Tudor or Patek or whoever loves watches. And the truth is, they might not. But they might know watches really well, which helps too. |
| Zach Pina | Formex is a great example of a brand that's here that's giving you a ton of watch. for the money. Astor and Banks. Astor and Banks. And I think that you see features out there, I mean that spring-loaded case that they have, and the carbon material. I mean if this was, I don't name any other brands, but if there's high-end brands could give some of these features real sexy names and be selling them for a lot, a lot of money, and people would be like, that's amazing, and I would pay for it. You know, they kind of present it as, this is what it is, and this is what you're getting, and we're enthusiastic about this stuff, and you see the value there. |
| Blake Buettner | Can we get a chrono check on the Aqualan? |
| Unknown | Uh-oh. |
| Blake Buettner | That's today. We're on the date. We're on the date. Top left pusher, please. No, no, bottom right. Oh, bottom right. Mode pusher. It's going to explode. It's got reset. Bottom left. Bottom left. Go to the chrono. This is a fun little bit, right? Maybe. |
| Jason Heaton | $42.70. Oh, we're doing fine. |
| Zach Pina | Alright, so Formex is a good example of a cool brand that's doing cool stuff. Are we talking about cool stuff from the show? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. What else? Are you talking about price sensitivity? I mean, go check out the Laurier booth. Oh, my dude. I mean, like, I don't think they have a bad design. They're like, I don't know what the new Zephyr is, the new dress watch. Which, I'm not a dress watch guy, but I've tried that on. I'm like, if I... $499. This is like $499. Buy something right out of the $30s. And you know, we were just talking about the Ranger, and I don't recall the name of their Ranger-esque watch. |
| Zach Pina | Falcon 3. Falcon. Yeah, version 3, you know. |
| Blake Buettner | Falcon, yeah. It's killer. It's gorgeous. If you didn't head over and take a peek, it's killer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, it's Miota movement. It's a smaller size. |
| Zach Pina | It's a 36. |
| Jason Heaton | 36. It's got that kind of a honeycomb texture dial, Arabic numerals. I mean, it's beautiful. And you put it on your wrist, and it's like, this feels like, OK, I mean, maybe it's a stretch, but like a 10-16. I mean, it has that vibe to it. |
| Blake Buettner | And then different lugs, you know, that semi-integrated sort of bracelet. Nice bracelets. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I really like what Laurier's doing. And then the other one that I'm really keen on, and I'm just such a sucker for it, is the Benrus. They've got a type 2 re-release, or like kind of a re-issue. Oh, I want that. I really want that. I wanted an original one, but now they've gone way too expensive. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Buettner | I mean with the horn rimmed glasses and the sort of like espionage vibe. For me, I mean, I bought the Hasler instruments, that spring bar tool. I'm a sucker for something I can play with on a Zoom call. |
| Unknown | And it's essentially like, if you imagine like, or if you know the |
| Blake Buettner | The like tactile turn. Here's a shout out for your boys at Tactile Turn. We're huge fans. But it's just kind of like very nice mechanical. Not the pen itself is a variety of inserts, but. |
| Zach Pina | Nautilus colorway. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. In the short with the space cartridge. And but they've got kind of the same vibe, like that same level. It's like a bolt action spring bar tool. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And like they're largely handmade. He makes everything by hand. He's spread across the river from me in St. Paul. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. I'm such a sucker for buying something from someone who made it in their basement. |
| Jason Heaton | It's incredible. He's probably sold out. He only brought like 10. |
| Blake Buettner | He makes them by hand and they take like a week to make each one. I asked him this morning and they're not expensive. Like for what we just said, they're not expensive. As far as spring bar tools go, it's the last one you'll need to buy. I'm impressed I bought one. I'm super happy about it. And then, oh, Noble Oak. Which we're drinking right here. |
| Zach Pina | Noble Oak. |
| Zach Pina | What about you, Zach, from the show? Oh, God. I think a watch that really surprised me, I've seen it sort of in various iterations over the last couple of years, is the Solabs Automatic. I don't know if there's a specific name for that. Oh yeah, that's the first one on my list. Oh really? Yeah. I saw them last night. They're killer. They're so great. So much fun. I love when you see a design that feels like they, in some ways, had never seen a watch before. They're like, this is what I want a watch to be. These are the shapes I want. All those numbers and stuff. I don't care about that. And then bringing color in a very creative way, using the date and day to build a color complication. Like an active gradient, a gradient that changes. Yeah, so it's constantly shifting. And then just, I mean, the tones of the colors, these beautiful almost matte ceramic pastel colors, just totally out there, unique. And then solid feeling too, like it's not just a toy, it's like a beautifully made solid timepiece. Yeah, that's on my list for sure. Did they have a black one over there? |
| Zach Pina | Yeah, BB1 is striking. The dial. It just pops off of that thing. |
| Blake Buettner | It's so cool looking. I'm always like loosely obsessed with brands that have managed to do that like MB&F like double. You're like, oh, what is that? You can still read the time, but it's something else. It doesn't look like anything that any of us probably have on in the room. |
| Zach Pina | But it's someone who looks at their watch and often isn't even looking at the time. Like there, it's like it's just art that's presented to you. And then you go like, oh, by the way, it's 3.50. |
| Blake Buettner | And please, SO Labs, I apologize if I'm wrong, but I think the quartz ones are like one hundred and eighty bucks, one hundred seventy five. Oh, yeah. |
| Zach Pina | I mean, there's the other. |
| Blake Buettner | And then the miyota ones are like under a grand. And I saw the miyota ones last night and I think they're actually solid. |
| Zach Pina | I stopped using these new ones. |
| Blake Buettner | Is that what's in them? Yeah. That's I mean, they're really super fun. And earlier today we saw a fella came by the TGN stand and had a mad one. Oh, yeah. The blue first edition mad one, which is, you know, like a limited creation from Max Booster. And I just think like Don't get me wrong. I want spinner. Yeah, exactly. Don't get me wrong. I want stuff like that. Like that Aqualand. I want stuff like my SPB or my Seiko's. But I also love the option of spending not a fortune on having something that's like only for watch nerds. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Zach Pina | And the blue one is a major flex now. It is now. Series one not being red. Yeah, exactly. Another one for me that I want to give a shout out to is the Fortis Stratoliner. I know you're not a chrono guy, but the dial on that watch I find really interesting. It looks like a I think we'll probably get to a Q&A in the next few minutes, but I think the Android name is worth checking out as well, because that's one that I've only seen online for |
| Blake Buettner | Yes. What, two years? Three years? If you can get to the booth. You've got to cut your way in. Get a machete. Enter Dane. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Real sweetheart running the show there. And the variety of dials. The one thing I would say focus on is think about what he's making there, which is a slightly reflective dial that's still hyper legible. It's not easy to do. He makes it look easy. But if you actually think about it, like if you zoom out a little bit, it's like harder to do. And that's another one I'm real tempted to be to take one home. They've got a couple of different sizes and they've got like a green field watch sort of one. That's super cool. |
| Zach Pina | Yeah. Beautiful dials there. You've got to see those in person if you haven't yet. |
| Blake Buettner | Agreed. The value of a windup. So before we get to questions, you'll say them. We don't have a microphone to share around and then one of us will repeat them at the end of the microphone. |
| Zach Pina | That's an interesting question. So he's asking if we have a reference point or a watch that we've owned as this is a size that works for me. Yes, without deviating from that, if we've locked ourselves into that size because of a watch that we've owned, basically. Yeah, I think for me, I have a Seiko 7006 that I liked and wore for a long time. And that was kind of like what I use. I think it's 41 millimeters. There's not much of a lug to it. But it took me years to kind of get out of that comfort zone. And I used to be in the same place of like, I have to have a watch that's in this, it can't be over this diameter, it has to be in this. So for sure, it limited how I thought about the watches that I could potentially wear on my wrist. |
| Jason Heaton | The easy answer would be something like a Submariner because it's so, or XKX. But for me, I'm going to spin it slightly differently. It's a watch that once I wear a bunch of others and then I come back to, it's like comfort zone. It's like, oh, and it's a Doxa Sub 300. Right? |
| Unknown | I mean, it's, |
| Jason Heaton | You wear a lot of other watches, you know, Bremont or this or a Seiko or something. Everything feels a little too tall, a little too heavy, maybe a little too small, whatever it might be. And the way that that Sub 300 fits, it's thin, it's flat. And just the shape of that case sort of sits on your wrist like a little cuff. And it's just so comfortable. Not on the bracelet that it comes with, but like on a strap or even a rubber or something. |
| Blake Buettner | And if anyone comes to that hangout, we'll do after this. I have one. It's on my lovely wife's wrist. You're more than welcome to try it on. But that is a watch that defies almost every dimension to become this weirdly. I love it. If you have a seven, seven and a half inch wrist, I think it might be perfect depending on your tastes. For me, for a long time, it was the SKX, like for years. And then the only time in my watch buying, selling career, I came upon a Rolex that was affordable at the time. And I bought a 16570 and that's kind of become my my basis, but I think there's some credence to what Jason said. Like, I think if you can, if, if it fits within the confines of a sub 300 for me, it'll probably be fine. But these days I also, I try and be a little bit adventurous, not lug to lug, but any other dimension I find is you can ignore it. If it's too thick, it's a summer watch when I'm not wearing a jacket or, uh, you know, you know, this is how I do most, you know, most of the time I'm rolled up. Um, and that's, that's why like where I might've, Let's say Seiko is still making the SKX007, I might not be that interested in buying another one. I have an older one. But add a GMT movement and I'm back in even if by today's standards it would be called kind of a thick watch, right? |
| Zach Pina | It's a tough question. I feel like I've just rotated watches so much over the years and like the dominant watch in my collection has kind of just periodically shifted. I feel like at some point it might have been like a CIN 556, which was, like, for a while, like, you're like, that's the only 38.5 millimeter watch I can find on the market, you know, and like, and now, you know. You have a Speedy Reduced. Yeah, well, you know, now I have a Speedy Reduced, and like, and that's the, you know, 39, and that is actually the Speedmaster that's like stayed in my collection the longest, and I don't intend on selling it. I love it to death. You've had other really cool Speedmasters. Yeah, and like, Speedy Pros are just the classic Moonwatch size case. I think that that's actually a really good benchmark for like, yes, something that has larger numbers does, can wear well. But I manage to never hold on to them. But I do find if it's like, it's very safe if it's between 40 and 36, I almost don't need to know any other number for me, you know. Really? Occasionally. But like, but then like you're saying, like if it's occasionally gets weird, like a lug to lug will be 50 and you'll be like, that doesn't work anymore. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah, like a Nobel's Orion is a beautiful watch. Yeah, but that does work. If you have a flat enough wrist, it works great. But it's kind of like the lugs just keep going. |
| Zach Pina | Well, the 36s, the smaller ones on those don't bother me. And I, yeah, I have a, yeah, I have a Club. |
| Blake Buettner | I love the Club 36. |
| Zach Pina | So, yeah, the 36 millimeter Club. I got that years ago. It was like my first, I think like one of my first watches, over $500. Unfortunately, it's been broken for about four or five years. Instead of getting that fixed, I just buy new watches. Yeah, everyone always does a comment like, uh, the vampire lug, like teeth lugs on that thing. I was like, really? It's like never drove me nuts. |
| Blake Buettner | Well, you know, the club's such a cool watcher. Just yeah, it's a weird thing. I'll say this to all of you. Well, I guess I'm saying it to the world, to the world screen as well. I just wish they make a brush version. Was that weird? They did brush that off. |
| Zach Pina | They did a brush version. It was barely even brushed. They did a man of. |
| Zach Pina | It was there was there was a jeweler that they worked with somewhere. And I know there's one there was there was another way they did a A bead blasted and hardened case. And they made like 40 of them. |
| Zach Pina | We need to see more of these. I'm completely on board. I've said this too. |
| Blake Buettner | I love a Campus 36. I think that's like a super wearable. It's my favorite. It's also like the least expensive thing in their lineup. But the full polish, I just, I would, it would just be, it would just look ridiculous after about a month on my wrist. It would just be half covered in scratches. After a year, it'd look great. |
| Zach Pina | Yeah, exactly. |
| Blake Buettner | Give me a brush so I can slow it down. Great question. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks so much. We got another. So we're being asked whether or not after the pandemic we're feeling a need to grow or intentionally push towards growth for. I'll speak and Jason will speak to the Grenado. I'll come out and say, like, I feel like, you know, we mentioned this when we did the 200 episode just recently. Congrats, by the way. Oh, thank you. That's very kind. No. Uh, I, I feel very strongly that communities have a, uh, fixed, uh, a happy size and we're approaching that. And if it grows beyond that, that's okay. It's fine. But we're not hunting for that. I really like that right now we're at a point where we can reply to emails. We can ship everything that people want. We can, um, we can cover all of the Q and A's that come in. And I feel like if, if it were to double quickly, which is kind of how things work, you, you stay in the game for seven, eight years, then all of a sudden you're an overnight success. And I'm not saying that's what's happened to us, it's what happens to bands, that sort of thing, right? Everybody says like, oh, all of a sudden their seventh album, they're world famous. And you're like, yeah, they've been working for 20 years. And no, Jason and I are, you know, we're not great businessmen. We're not overly commercially minded. Both of us have other paths for making a living, covering rent, that sort of stuff, which is important, I think. I would say that if anything, the pandemic showed me the value of all of you, because it was not easy. I think if you listen, if you go back and listen to the isolation tapes, there was constant construction at my house. I was going through what if I go back and listen to them, which is kind of painful now, like probably a small mental health crisis, which isn't isn't rare. I think a lot of people had that experience. Mine was maybe just focused on the fact that my house was shaking nine, 10 hours a day when I was trying to also record a podcast that I care a lot about. And I don't think, like, I don't really know where I would be if it wasn't for the folks who listen to the pod and who send in these incredibly, like, generous and kind, or the mean ones, like, the ones that tell us we got something wrong. Like, everybody's got to eat some crow. You guys know if you listen to the pod, I love to do it. It's one of my favorite flavors. But, you know, it's been a real learning experience, I think, the last couple years in just what the value of the community is. And we're not, I have less than no interest in ruining that. And especially seeing what's gone on at the table and around the scene and you guys coming. I'm having trouble making eye contact with any of you. I'm feeling emotional at the moment. But no, I've probably said too much. But I love all of you and for listening. And this isn't something that we care to make a penny more than we need to keep making it, which is where we're at. Would you say anything different? Or did I probably say too much as I do? |
| Jason Heaton | I would echo the same. And I always tell James, every company I've worked for in my whole life, it's like, They grow to a certain level and then it becomes less appealing, you know? I mean, I remember the first company I worked for, one of the first companies I worked for, I liked it because I'd go into the office and they had, there were people kicking soccer balls around and there were dogs running around between the cubicles and whatever and everyone was kind of having fun. And then they started growing and they started growing and then the rules came in and then everything kind of got too big and they tried to branch out or whatever and it just kind of got less fun. And what we do now is still fun. We're still two guys that just chat over Zoom and record our sides of the podcast James, you know, edits it. We put it out every week and sometimes it's Tuesday morning when we're recording, we're like, what should we talk about today? And it's like, uh, let's talk about this. And it's like, okay, great. We'll do it. And we just do it. And it's been fun every single week and it's been rewarding. And then, you know, the evidence is here. I mean, when people come to our table and we're telling us how much it means to them and how much they enjoy it, I mean, it's really meaningful. I don't want to, I don't want to grow for the sake of growth. I like it organic. |
| Blake Buettner | And I'd say, if you like it, keep listening. If you don't like it, at least give me a chance. Send me an angry email. I'll contextualize it appropriately, I promise. And we'll pivot. And if there's something you'd love for us to talk about, send it. Again, thegreatnadoatgmail.com. It's a real two-way street is how we operate. But the substack has been incredible. People are in there chatting. And this sounds promotional. And that's not what I meant. I meant it as a thank you. So yeah, I know that people have said in the last couple days here that they liked the show because it was this kind of calm point in a time that wasn't that calm. And that's exactly what it was for Jason and I. It was something we knew what we had every Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, get into Zoom and chit chat with a buddy. And in a way, it feels like we were chit chatting with all of you. And that's a huge thank you to the Warn and Wound and Wind Up teams for making us part of this, because it meant that we could extend that chat face to face, which I don't take lightly at all. |
| Zach Pina | This is a small world at the end of the day. We've known each other for many, many years. You know, I think we're all in this to the same end. We all have the same enthusiasm and passion for this. This is what kind of drives both of us. You know, I will say on our end, the podcast is kind of meant to be complimentary to what we're doing editorially on the site, and that's really kind of what we find interesting. I guess over the last year or so since I got here, it's really how can I incorporate more of the voice of the reader into what we're doing on the website, on the podcast, that's kind of where my head is at. And people that just think differently than me and find things interesting that hadn't crossed my mind, I think those are the people that I really want to embrace, that kind of show me more of the hobby than I realized was there. So I don't know if you have anything to add to that. |
| Zach Pina | Yeah. I could go on for really way too long as we're talking about the whole thing, but I think The pandemic was, you know, a time where we just reflect a lot as a business. You know, we went into it as a much smaller company and came out much larger and with a lot of really great talent within our team. And now it's sort of about like maximizing that and maximizing our channels. But we're still independent. We're still bootstrapped. And we kind of stick to that sort of level of, you know, ownership over everything. And that's very important to us. We really, you know, just hold like authenticity and, you know, as a core of our of our business and Whenever it starts to feel like that goes too far, we kind of were quick to rein that in. And so, yeah, I mean, we're still growing. And obviously this this event is evidence of that. You know, we would have done this in 2020, but we couldn't. But we came back and did a much larger than we would have before. New York is even bigger. And, you know, we're finding out where the kind of the limits of this are and how people want to have it, like, you know, from the audience, from the brands. And, yeah, just figuring, figuring out, figuring out that that comfortable If there's any watch that we could buy at this show, budget no limits, has to be here at the show. |
| Zach Pina | I'm saying there's a Menasseh over there with no date that they like had this natural paint on the dial. I'm not sure whatever. It's quite striking. Their cases are, they define my simple explanation. |
| Zach Pina | I'll just put it that way. Thanks for bringing them up because I, you know, it's easy to forget. There's so many brands, but like it's, those are, you know, watches that you really can't see anywhere else but here right now. And they are absolutely fascinating. So much craft and so much engineering just goes into each one of those watches. Yeah, I mean, that's a really good one to kind of bring up. It's sort of like, you know, Anardane. There's the level of handcraft that goes into them, which you're not seeing often at these price points. And yeah, what Monassi is doing is just totally out there and original. I would say, though, for me right now, and you already said it, but the Benrus Type II. That's just a watch that's been on my list. Oh, sorry. You can take that, too. Yeah, such an excellent one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I was going to have a major cop out because we've been so busy at our table that I really haven't had time to walk around and even look at what everybody's got. But the Type 2, from the ones that I knew were coming here, I made a beeline this morning and I looked and I was like, this is the one. I mean, it's, yeah, it's cool. I'm such a sucker for that watch. And the price seems right. It seems like a good, I think it's $13.95. |
| Zach Pina | It just seems like... It even came down a little for the Type 1. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. That's a tough one. You know, Astor & Banks is here. I'm a big fan of theirs. I've written up a bunch of their stuff. Montez here. I don't know if you get a better value on like a watch made by an obsessive team. They just love details. But for me, it's because it's fresh for me. It is the Ann Ordain stuff, that green dial sort of field watch, like to do a green that's reflective, but still the hands don't get lost. It's not like any other greens. And that's really tempting for me, for sure. Also Citizen. We're looking good on time in case anyone's worried. |
| Jason Heaton | We're looking good on time. Another question? He wants a dive report from this morning. And since my dive buddy's in the room, I can't exaggerate. We were talking on the drive over here that since nobody else was there, we could say that it was 200 feet deep, we did an hour of deco, and there was a shark. Three sharks. Yeah, three sharks. It was fun. Any diving is good. The first dive was quite shallow, and it was on a kind of a cool, sunken barge. We went out of Hammond, Indiana, and we went out on a dive boat there. The weather was a little choppier than we had hoped for. Visibility wasn't great, but the water was warm. And so it was kind of a shallow wreck. I think max depth on that first dive was about 33 feet. Some kind of cool swim throughs on a barge that was sunk in the 1920s. So that was fun. It was very warm. I was diving in a wetsuit today, which I was pleased about on the first dive. But then on the second dive, we had quite a long boat ride. And we went to a wreck of the Louisville, which was a wooden steamer that was sunk in the 1800s. And that was a bit deeper. It was 55, 57 feet, I think was my max. And there was a thermocline, which means the water temperature drops below a certain point. And I was quite chilly. Then I wished I had my dry suit, because I was wet. And I had this long boat ride with the wind blowing across me. And Ben and I, he was also in a wetsuit. And we kind of bailed early. We did kind of a 24, 25 minute dive. Took a few photos. I brought my old film, Nikonos, underwater camera. Took a few photos. It was fun. I mean, it was great to dive with some good buddies and people I haven't even met in person, but have been communicating with for years about diving and dive watches. And so it was great. It was a really good time. |
| Blake Buettner | Those photos go on SwimProof? |
| Jason Heaton | When they get scanned. That was my pitch. Oh, yeah. Come on, Nobel Oaks, SwimProof. I can live here. We'll see how the photos turn out. Yeah, it was a bit murky. |
| Blake Buettner | Got another one over here. Mike, my good friend in the last few days is saying it doesn't really feel like a TGN. I don't know how that happened. Obviously, we weren't meant to be broadcasters necessarily, right? Or maybe I'm too used to public radio where, you know, you get some weather every 10 minutes. Well, yeah, we're supposed to offer a weather report. I don't know what the weather is back home. |
| Jason Heaton | I can give the marine forecast. I mean, I was just out on the water. I think the winds were out of the south and east at about 16. Yeah, Chicago's pretty humid. |
| Blake Buettner | The waves were a little bumpy. Humid. It was a sticky walk over here this morning, for sure. But a lovely city. I've been impressed by Chicago. Feels a lot like Toronto. Maybe as I get to know it better, I'll find more little pockets of fun. But yeah, for those of you who are local, you've got a lovely city, for sure. So another fantastic question. Being asked if we feel that you spend more on a watch, do you feel like you should wear it more value over time? That sort of thing. We have the comparison between the SKX781 and a 42mm Planet Ocean, both obviously great dive watches, but of a different ilk, which is kind of the point here. What do you guys figure? If you spend a lot of money on a watch, do you feel like you have to wear it? |
| Zach Pina | I mean, I don't know. I feel like there are bad examples, though, because it's really a sickness at this point. If somebody watches, none of them get their, you know, enough time on the wrist. But, you know, I do like the concept of cost per wear, which for some, it was like something that I first, you know, heard of, like, with, like, shoes, you know, boots. And, you know, Grant Stone out there is, like, a good example. They're friends of ours. There was some psychological leap for me to go beyond an $80 sneaker and a $350 pair of boots. And it's like, yeah, you're going to wear them for 20 years when they're made like that. And eventually, I don't think you figure it out, but the cost per wear is going to be really, really low. So I guess you could think about that with watches. But then they're so much more precious in a certain way. And certain watches, you want a baby. I don't have a gold watch. But if I had a gold dress watch, I'd probably try not to smack it into door jams. on a daily basis. That's my, those are my biggest enemy. I think in the watches is door jams. Um, you know, so like that might not get the same sort of logic of wearing as, um, yeah, just a good steel watch that, you know, yeah, I spent a decent amount on. I just want to, I don't want to wear and be fearless with one watch at the grand Staco SBGA 375. I think it is. I picked up spring drive originally. That was going to be a watch that was going to keep pristine, but I liked wearing it too much. And then I was like, Yeah, I spent all this money on this. I gotta wear the shit out of it. And I have, and I've damaged it, and it's great. |
| Zach Pina | That's a barrier that I think you have to cross with an expensive watch. And I think this is a balance that we all probably confront of, oh, this is kind of a lot for this watch, but I bought it, and I know you guys don't like to consider yourselves collectors, which means you're not buying it to just set it there. You're buying it to use it, right? But at the same time, I spent a lot on this, so I kind of want to be careful with it, but I've got to use it. But then you cross that line, and you're like, I guess I'm using it. |
| Blake Buettner | So I mean, I think Jason might agree. But for me, I buy watch for moments. Yeah. Right. Like a loom dial. I want to go in from outside. I want to I want to be outside on the porch with my friends and walk inside to grab something cold from the fridge into a dark room. And you're like, oh, yeah. And my son, like I said, get my sunglasses on. Right. And with my Explorer, like I bought my Explorer two for my 30th birthday and immediately took it up Baker on the outside of my jacket. Right. I had a garment on one wrist and the Explorer on the other. And that's what I wanted. And for me, watches are about moments, especially now, because you don't need to wear a watch. Or you can just wear an Apple watch, you can wear anything that has time on it, right? It doesn't make any difference. Things that aren't even watches. For me, it's about moments. So if I spend a bunch of money on a watch, I want it to return these certain moments for me. And the Explorer has done that. And that's why it remains in my care and hasn't been passed on to somebody else. And when it comes to dive watches or travel watches, I like buying them about the hopefulness of a moment, whether it's diving on a new wreck or visiting a country I've never been to before or for an event or people I haven't seen in a long time, right? Some of you who we've talked to on email for years and I've never met. I haven't seen Jason for years, you know, for that sort of thing. And it's nice to have watches kind of as a sort of background, almost like the soundtrack for some of this stuff, if you're that into it. I mean, we're all sitting here in the same room, so I assume we're all into it that much. That may sound crazy to someone who wouldn't come to wind up, but I think if you come to the show, I think you'd understand, like, these things are kind of these little touch points that you kind of attach memories to. It's a very human thing for a thing that's not that human, right? And I love it. I love it for that reason. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I don't know much to add to that other than to say that, you know, we have this concept of the beater, the watch that you, the cheap watch you have that you wear for rough duty and, you know, Things that you don't want to ruin the watch. And I think, I kind of feel the opposite. I feel like the more you spend on a watch, the more you should expect of it, the better it should perform. You know, you should be able to do more with that watch because you spent more on it. And I think you should wear it more often. I mean, not because of any sort of calculation or equation. It's just, I think that if you buy a Rolex Submariner, I mean, this is a watch that was designed to do a certain thing and it costs more than anything else, you know, Seiko or whatever it is. And like, you should, you should |
| Blake Buettner | Put it to that test. And I think Rolex would like you to take it to the edge of hell and back. They'd be thrilled. |
| Zach Pina | Yeah, yeah, I think that. I'm glad you brought that up, actually, because I was going to make a comment about, you know, I think it's one thing to like, I'm lusting after a datagraph or something. Oh, it wouldn't be great to have that. But then it's just like, would I be giving myself the opportunity to experience those moments in a watch like that? Probably less so. But then it A memory occurred to me that you went running in a datagraph in Dresden, I believe. I did, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I had a loaner datagraph, and I was in Dresden, Germany, visiting Lange, and they loaned me a datagraph, and I went out for a... I was jet-lagged, and I got up at 4 a.m., and I went for a run around Dresden just for some exercise, and I used the datagraph to time my run. |
| Zach Pina | So what he just said, he actually does. |
| Jason Heaton | Probably ill-advised. I don't think they ever gave me another watch to try on. |
| Zach Pina | I posted a photo of it and they're like, no more. Nothing like a platinum weight on your arm. Yeah, right. |
| Blake Buettner | It was a good workout. I mean, it's funny you bring up the datagraph, because I mean, among my list of dream watches would be something like a Lange 1 in solid gold, maybe even closed case back, that sort of thing. Maybe someday in the future. Who knows? And it's OK if it doesn't happen, of course. It's just an object of fascination. But that would be one I would be like, |
| Zach Pina | Like cutting the grass, like solid case back because it's like a flex to not see the movement No, but this is this yeah I think you capture something there and it's about those moments you want to give yourself the opportunity to experience as many of those moments as you can in those watches and I in this is one thing that I will say about Justin you cover your ears vintage watches sometimes and I've had some really cool vintage watches that I find myself not wearing because I'm afraid of this of that so I find myself wearing a modern version of whatever experiencing more in that watch therefore it starts to mean more to me than maybe this other watch that like I might aesthetically like a bit more or like how it fits on my wrist a little bit more but I end up wearing this when I'm doing this stuff fishing with my kid or playing catch or whatever like those are the kind of things that I want to be doing in a watch and I want to watch that I can do that you know. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah I mean I feel like it's been a theme for the last 50 episodes you know over the pandemic for Greynado it's just like Don't be afraid to let your enthusiasm for watches be about your enthusiasm for watches. Don't get me wrong, I'm in some ways part of the problem. Jason, you guys are part of the problem. We all write from a perspective of proven taste and knowing the market and these sorts of things. But also, if something makes you happy, just do that. Because it doesn't matter. This is only a hobby. It's about loving something that isn't going to love you back. But should be part of, you know, some experiences. And I think that works out regardless of what you spend. If you spend a ton of money and you want to get that wear, be that guy that wears his Thetagraph for the run, right? Wears his whatever while cutting the grass. And I think that the important thing is to understand that the media side of it is just one cycle. And it's going to change every two or three weeks. The personal side of it is you're buying something that theoretically someone made, a brand made to last a lifetime. |
| Zach Pina | Yeah. |
| Blake Buettner | It doesn't have to last with you, but you should enjoy it. |
| Zach Pina | And if you're buying a watch because of the market, pause for a moment. Yeah. |
| Blake Buettner | Please. I think that's a tough position currently for sure. Any other questions? So we've got a question asking, why is the Sky-Dweller not become kind of a classic in the professional lineup? You know, it offers a huge amount of technology and innovation. It's arguably like the biggest flex in their lineup tech wise. And it's also like, aesthetically, one of the more nuanced designs they have. There's hidden things in there. And you're asking maybe why it hasn't seen the come up that others have. I have a theory. What do you guys think? |
| Zach Pina | I mean, I can speak to myself. I 100% agree with you. It's the most innovative thing they've done in a very long time. I just don't find it very pleasant on the wrist. Yeah, I guess it comes down to that for me. And a lot of the classic professional models from Rolex that I like a lot, are imminently wearable. Like, when I think of the Daytona, it's like one of the most wearable chronographs I've ever put on my wrist. It's the simple things that you don't really think about in that way. And, you know, I feel like there's a few details like that on the Sky-Dweller, just ergonomically, that just quite aren't in that realm. |
| Zach Pina | I've never thought about it too much, but I do think you could be honest with the fact that there is no historical lineage to it, so it just doesn't have those, like, long-standing roots. as much part of the like just the culture of the Rolex brand. Everything worth exploring. Yeah. There's no effort. The name is kind of gnarly though. Maybe it's also it sounds like a Bond movie. |
| Blake Buettner | Jason, you know, if you want to go one direction in my mind, it's because they went with it. They made a complicated watch and it's not something you expect from Rolex. So when you go to a Rolex boutique or whatever and you see their range of watches, it's going to be like time. time and a date and a chronograph. |
| Zach Pina | Easy to understand. |
| Blake Buettner | It's relatively easy to understand. And then they made this watch that like has an incredible array of complication that you have to have on your wrist to understand. And if you guys don't know the Sky-Dweller, I arguably I would say that Rolex doesn't explain it that well on their website. They don't know how to because they're so used to explaining very conventional watches that almost don't need an explanation. Right. If you want a Submariner, you probably know the first 10 percent or the 95 percent of why a Submariner is special. The Sky Sky Dweller is like weirdly niche. I've listened to people who know about watches on various podcasts like not understand the annual calendar display. And you go like and then I was like how is this hard. And I go to their website and go no. They made it too hard. So I think it's a translation thing. A lot of complicated watches and I deal with this because I talk with GMTs all the time. GMTs require a lot of translation. The difference between one or the other or the next or a world timer. It's down to these little specifics. And they made a very subtle watch that hides a lot of complexity. I think if you're deep into Rolex, which I know you are, and you know a lot about watches, which I know you do, that watch is very special. But they have not translated that to the 90% of their audience that doesn't really understand watchmaking or what an annual calendar is. At the very base level, right? Pretty sweet thing. I don't disagree that it is a bit of a hidden gem in there. And the only reason we're not seeing that happen on the secondary market is because people don't understand what it is. Mr. Chris. |
| Zach Pina | Wow, so in summary, what did we hope to get out of this journey when we started on it? And our careers are in the podcast. Either. I mean, I mean, Jason and I started writing for Hodinkee around the same time in 2008, 2009. Yeah. And we just did it because we like to watch this a lot. And and came across Ben in some way. You mean Eric Wind. All Wisconsin guys, by the way. So I had no expectation of it. I mean, I had my career was kind of like going like this. Hodinkee. Started to become a Hodinkee, what you know it as today. So that kind of took over a lot of shaping my career, I guess, for the long term. And here I am. And I've known these guys for a long time. So it's kind of a natural evolution. |
| Zach Pina | I'd say for me, it was born and wound. I mean, we did not have very much in the way of expectations when we first started. It was really just for fun. So very, very, very, very far beyond what I could have ever expected. |
| Blake Buettner | And I think as far as CGN goes, we talked a little bit about this in the 200th episode, like we wanted to have conversations. I wanted to talk with Jason about watches. And we had this sort of self-important concept that maybe a few other people would kind of enjoy the same conversation, much like I wanted to listen to conversations about cars and technology and new cameras and stuff like that. And I still do. And beyond that, it was just kind of a snowball. And arguably, we're still on our heels, just trying to keep up with it, especially when we come to something like this and have no idea what to expect as far as folks taking us out on dives and wanting to hang out and bring us bottles of Malort and all sorts of stuff. I don't love the idea of having expectations for most things in my life. I think fatherhood taught me that to a large point. You can't expect. what it is. They're like little microcosms that you just get to orbit around, if you're lucky. And I think that's taught me a lot about what it is to try and make something for a bigger group of people than I ever thought would listen to my dumb voice. And there's a burden that comes with that, and I hope I don't let any of you down. And I know Jason feels the same way. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I didn't have any specific expectations or dreams for TGN when we started. To me, it was like a side gig. It was like a little side hustle that There was no intent to make any money from it or do any, you know, grow it. It was something we were doing on the side purely for fun. And what has come out of it, and I still think that's our motivation, but what's come out of it, the incredibly, and I don't want to sound more noble than I am or high-minded than I am, but just evidence is the people that come by our table the last couple of days is just the impact that we've had on people. |
| Blake Buettner | And that they've had on us. |
| Jason Heaton | And vice versa. Yeah, yeah. No, it's two ways. where you hear people saying you guys inspired me to take up diving or you inspired me to you know lose weight or Start hiking or do whatever it is or doing what I love I mean It's like that that's what it's all about and we get that feedback through our emails and our direct messages and our Q&A episodes And that to me has like it's taken this little side hustle thing that I had no expectations about at the beginning and turned it into something that I'm just blown away by I'm just like this is this is actually a big thing in my life. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah It's made a huge difference to you and I. I mean, it's entirely changed our last few years. Definitely. I don't, like I said, I said this earlier. I don't know what the pandemic would have been if I didn't have this outlet to just be like creative and also complain about the construction at my home or whatever. |
| Jason Heaton | It is a little spooky when people start to, you meet people and they say, you know, how was your, how was your drive here? How was your, you know, because they know you for everything you've talked about. |
| Blake Buettner | It's super humbling. |
| Jason Heaton | It's always a very one way street, but it's nice to kind of now get it back when we're here. |
| Zach Pina | All right. Well, that's all the time we have for questions. Thank you to everybody and thank you all for being here. Old fashioned at the bar. Old fashioned at the bar. Let's do it. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, I, you know, that was it. That was our, our live podcast chat with the worn and wound folks, Blake and Zach at windup Chicago. And, uh, it was so fun to do. I loved particularly that back half with the Q and a, at the end, I think that was really fun to kind of get the audience involved, which we just don't get much opportunity to do. So, um, yeah, thanks for, thanks again to the worn and wound folks for letting us sit in with you guys and participating and sharing what was really a fun podcast to do. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. And I don't know that we could have had a better crowd. I mean, I guess I, I'm not sure I could think of many other crowds where I would have taken off my brand new to me Seiko and just kind of handed it out to get, to get passed around, but I'm glad people got a chance to be hands on with it and, and, and check it out. And certainly the, the people there, everybody was just, you know, like we say in the recording, you know, it's, it's nice to be sort of around your tribe uh, in, in, in sort of that parlance or that philosophy. And we had a blast. So a big thanks to the one-on-one guys for facilitating that and allowing us to be part of their feed. And we're pleased to have them on ours. Of course. Yeah. Uh, next up, uh, how about we put a bow on it with, uh, some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure. Yeah. Mine is, uh, it's a show that's a series that has appeared. Um, it's in its second season. This is on PBS, uh, here in the U S and I'm, I think it's appeared on other stations, maybe in the UK and in Europe, it's called Expedition with Steve Backshall. And Steve Backshall, you know, he wasn't well known to me. I'd kind of heard of him and seen him kind of in the periphery of various things over the years. And I knew he was kind of into this sort of thing. But once I started watching the show, I really, really become smitten with what he's up to. Steve is a kind of a naturalist and explorer, British guy. who has put together the series called Expedition where he each episode is about an hour long and he does these amazing kind of adventures all over the world in a very real, very low key, but very expert kind of way. And what astounds me is, you know, Steve's got this kind of humility to what he's doing and that he he's very capable himself, you know, kind of a big, strong guy, very smart. But he's always bringing in experts from wherever he is, because he's all over. I mean, he's kayaking through a frozen fjord in Greenland. He's going caving in Mexico. He's cave diving in Mexico. Oh, he did this whitewater, very extreme whitewater kayak descent in Bhutan. Wow. He was in Borneo and Suriname and like it's the breadth of skills that he's had to draw on. are amazing. And he does them all at a high level, but he doesn't claim to be an expert in any of them. So he brings in expert climbers and whitewater kayakers and guides and archaeologists and cave divers. And he's doing all of this stuff with them. And it's really fun. He's got a really engaging way of presenting. Um, like I said, there, there isn't a lot of like overly hyped editing, which really bothers me about a lot of these kinds of expedition shows where they kind of overdo the, the danger that people are involved with. You know, they don't do that. I mean, it is dangerous stuff. You can see it. And it's not overly branded. There's a lot of cool gear spotting in it. You know, you see Fjallraven pants and, you know, Rob tents and, and sleeping bags and just lots of cool stuff. Uh, jackets from Shackleton, et cetera. Um, and, and one particularly fun piece of this was. His sidekick on almost every show, if not every show, is a fellow by the name of Aldo Kane. Aldo is a former Royal Marine Commando who is a Bremont Ambassador. And Aldo is this, you know, big Viking-looking guy with a big beard, incredibly muscular, very capable, but he's got this wonderfully friendly, kind of jovial demeanor and this great Scottish accent. And, uh, and because he's a Braymont ambassador, maybe not because, but, um, he's, he's wearing a Braymont on every single episode. And on one, he's like, got it strapped to his, uh, his backpack strap. And otherwise it's almost always on his wrist, no matter what he's doing. You can just see it's getting bashed up and taken all over the place. And, uh, and it was just fun to see that, um, you know, kind of a little bit of watch spotting for those of us that are into that. I'm super pumped about the show and we're not even through the first season. We, we kind of watch. you know, an episode every few days. And, uh, and it's just so fun. I really, really highly recommend this. If you're kind of into, if you're craving a good show like this, just watching somebody go out there and, and do extreme stuff in kind of a, I don't even want to say it's an accessible way, just in a very real way. It's just a really fun show. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. So for, uh, one more piece of data for the Canadians who care, cause I'm not, I care very much. I really want to watch this now is, uh, it's, it's on Amazon prime video. but you need to watch it with a BBC earth trial, but you get the free trial for 30 days. So you could probably get through a good, a good piece of them in a month. Um, and something tells me the BBC earth package is probably pretty good to watch as well, especially if this is the kind of stuff they're working on. So yeah, very cool. Great. A great suggestion. Yeah. What have you got? Mine is also a suggestion via a listener, Chase Horner. And then Jason reminded me of it today. It came via email. It's called Raiders of the Looted Assets Inside the High Stakes Race to Recover Qaddafi's Ill-Gotten Billions. It's from Vanity Fair. It's written by Adam Suralski. Adam, my apologies if I miss the pronunciation of the last name, but I'm going to be close anyways. And it's one of the better things I've read in a little while. I'm really glad that Jason reminded me that it had been suggested. It's a long form story about a group of people, kind of a variety of people from all over the world that have taken up the task of finding all of the money and artifacts and cultural bits and bullion and cash and property and the rest of it that was essentially misappropriated or flat out stolen during the Qaddafi regime in Libya. And the story's incredible. It's super readable. Uh, it goes by pretty quickly, but it's full of globe trotting and bouncing around and, uh, law enforcement characters. You may know, especially if you're a New Yorker and these different connections and you see this sort of web that's been built up around how good these, uh, Gaddafi and his people were at, at stealing and then hiding it, you know, squirreling, squirreling stuff away. And they say billions, you know, there's a case to be made that it's three digits, right? of billions, possibly more like, uh, into the trillions. Um, it's, it's a truly remarkable thing. And it kind of focuses on a few different, a few different points. So one part is like cultural artifacts, um, you know, things that are, have been in museums, even publicly displayed in museums or things that have been bought and sold into private collections. And then the other side is like raw cash in some cases, 6 billion sitting in a that's with a B billion sitting in a warehouse. and people trying to track down where that is and estimating how much money it would be based on things like weight or the dimensions of a pallet, that sort of thing. Yeah. I really recommend this. I started reading it this morning and immediately knew like, oh yeah, no, this is going to be my final notes for today. A huge thank you to Chase for sending this in, but again, this is the Raider of the Looted Assets. It'll be in the show notes, but a truly fascinating, incredible story with a lot of different moving parts. And then it even follows some successful return of some very high value goods. So I liked that they were able to kind of tell a complete story while also kind of teasing what I imagine will be a developing story for some time if it's the kind of thing you'd like to follow. |
| Jason Heaton | Wow. Yeah, that's fascinating. I remember when Chase sent that in and I clicked on the link and I started reading it and I was like, the scroll bar was like so small to get down to the bottom. I thought I got to set aside some time to read this and I haven't actually finished the whole thing. I need to go back to that. It's just, I mean, even the title, it's like, I know this is going to be good. And Vanity Fair does a good job with this long form stuff. So that's really cool. |
| Blake Buettner | Yeah. Some great photos full, like I said, full of cool personalities and, uh, and just so many zeros. Wow. So many zeros. And you start to realize, Oh my God, like this, these like taken right out of the hands of the Libyan people as well. So not only returning like some artifacts or cultural pieces, which of course are, are crucial, right? Yeah. Um, to, to, uh, to that, to that part of the world and to their heritage, but also just like an insane, an amount of money that would make a difference for almost any population. Yeah. Yeah. And, and all just stolen by, by what, by the tyrant. So wow. Fascinating read really, really nicely done. And like I said, a big thanks Chase for sharing that. Uh, I enjoyed every, every word. It did take a little bit of time to read it, but, uh, I felt like it went by pretty quickly once I was kind of, uh, fully embedded. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Good one. Wow. Solid, uh, solid final notes, uh, to, to top off what, uh, I think is just such a great episode. |
| Blake Buettner | Yep. And we'll have more from wind up watch fair over the next few episodes. That'll be kind of a series of chats that we'll, we'll dole out. And then otherwise things like the, the opening of the show and the final notes will be current to, to that time, uh, timeframe. So that should be super fun. And you know, 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 consider supporting the show directly. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO or some forthcoming merch. Please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote by Marcel Proust who said, let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. |