The Grey NATO – 209 – The 'One Watch' Draft

Published on Thu, 29 Sep 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

Jason and Jason discuss their "one watch draft" picks across different price points - under $500, under $1500, under $2500, under $5000, and over $5000. They share the watches they would choose if they could only have one at each price range, explaining their reasoning and preferences. The conversation covers various brands and models, including affordable options like Seiko and Scurfa as well as luxury brands like Omega, Bremont, and Vacheron Constantin. They also mention backup choices they considered for certain price points.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado.
Jason Heaton It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 209, 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'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. Hey, Jason, how you doing?
Jason Bickford Good. Good to be, uh, good to be back chatting. We, uh, we had another kind of extended time away, uh, due to your travels, but, uh, yeah, here we are. How was your trip?
Jason Heaton It was good. It was good. It was a long, it was kind of a long trip. It was nearly a week. Uh, I did a little stopover, flew to Zurich and then took the train up to Solothurn, which is kind of this beautiful, small Swiss town. Um, but it's also the kind of manufacturing home base for Porsche design and where they both design and kind of implement upon several different watches. hung out there, kind of got a feel for what they were working on and what their pipeline is and all that kind of stuff, and tried to figure out if there was any interesting stories, because there are 50 years of the Chronograph I, which is, at least from my viewpoint, probably their most interesting watch. Just a gorgeous design that has really sort of informed German watch design in several ways for the past 50 years. You look at it and you think like, oh, Zen, Right. Bell and Ross, that kind of thing. And you realize, Oh no, these guys came beforehand and had this kind of pretty special watch. You know, they also say it was the first watch to be full black, black case and black bracelet. Right. So we, yeah, we saw a few things from that. It's funny.
Jason Bickford That's a brand that we, I don't think we've mentioned it more than two or three times on our entire history of TGN, but I was curious whether it's, it's to your taste. I mean, I remember going to Basel a few years back and sitting in on some meetings and they had the once they'd kind of revived the brand in the past, I don't know, five years or so, they've really come out with some interesting stuff with that kind of very architectural skeletonized kind of lugs. Yeah. Kind of the, their usual DNA to the, to the design. But, uh, I, I like it. It's just, it's, it's not my thing. It feels very, you know, black turtleneck kind of architect sort of wear more than sporty outdoor stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think that's why the chronograph one works to my liking, you know, just it's 1972 sports chronograph looks pretty good. Um, and, and I think the thing that I find found, I mean, now I've now had a lesson in it, but found difficult about under understanding the brand is, is, I mean, to put it simply, I didn't know who owned the brand or why they existed. And the interesting thing is, so I can give you a very brief timeline in the early seventies, I want to say 1970, uh, the Porsche family, uh, sold Porsche cars, AG, Porsche, AG, et cetera. And part of that sale was that the the current family that was in place would leave their role. Oh, it was now going to going to go to a normal sort of, you know, Germans have German and Austrian. You know, there's very specific ways of doing business.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And when that happened, F.A. Porsche, he started Studio F.A. Porsche. And that's the studio that would, you know, previously he had designed the 911 and the 904 and then moving to the studio. That eventually became the impetus to have Porsche design. So not just designing cars, but designing all sorts of things. Yeah. They've designed trams, boats, cars, you know, electric razors, sunglasses. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Like a backup USB drive that's designed by them. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So there's, there's a licensing business there and there's a full on design business. And then on top of that, you have Porsche design making their own products. And one wing of that is Porsche design time pieces, their watches, which is again, um, kind of homed in Solothurn, uh, since I want to say either 2011 or 2014, it might've been the changed hands in 2011. And by 2014, they started the new watch line, but I could have those dates a little bit off. That's when Porsche, the Porsche took over that brand as well. Um, so it is, these are watches made by Porsche. They say Porsche on them because it's the same company and comes from the same family.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And so that helped clear up a little bit and their, their modern stuff. I think it all comes down to your, your taste. I think some of it's really cool in person. It's a little bit harder to understand just from a photo. Uh, but the chronograph one, I think is, is very straightforward. You know, technically it was fully relaunched in 2022 for the 50th anniversary. They've done three to four iterations of it, including one for the GP ice race, which is, uh, you know, uh, a whole function and It's like a brand. Community and brand all on its own, partly, partly co-founded by Ferdie Porsche, who is F.A. Porsche's nephew. Okay. So he's now a working architect. What a last name to have, huh? Yeah, right? For sure. It's very cool. And I didn't really know what to, I spent several days with Ferdie and I didn't really know what to expect.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Right? Like, could just be weird, could be not really interested in talking about watches or talking with some Canadian who's got a ton of questions or whatever. Nope, just the nicest dude. No pretense, really, really affable, super sweet. We had a really nice time. He's a nerd about a lot of stuff, huge nerd into cars, obviously, but not just Porsches and watches are a big deal. We did some fun stuff in that world as well, which you should see soon. And yeah, I, uh, I had an interesting trip and then it kind of ended with, um, Porsche designs, you know, has a connection with GP ice race because they made a special version of the chronograph one for the 2022 running of the race last year. And the brand does other events. And one of the events was actually happening this past week in Austria at the Grossglockner, which is this incredible road. If you've listened to TGN for a long time, we, I I've driven it before in a Bentley continental GT. And this time we were able to go there for this really wild event that brought a bunch of Porsche 550s and 718 RSKs, these very valuable, vintage, super rare Porsches, along with their whole community kind of up to the, one of the high points on the road for a cars and coffee event and a bunch of photography and a really cool hangout. And yeah, it was, it was a kind of a wild couple of days. There'll be a photo report on Hodinkee that kind of explains this in a better chronology than I'm providing now, uh, should be up by the time this episode comes out. Uh, but yeah, it was a, it was a bonkers couple of days up in the mountains and then I flew home, uh, Sunday and we're recording Tuesday morning. So not feeling too jet lagged, but who knows when I edit this, this may sound completely incoherent.
Jason Bickford So far, so good. I mean, you're, you're, you're doing fine. I, I've, I always find with a jet lag, the mornings I'm the most kind of alert and then, and then it just fades by, you know, two in the afternoon. I'm just worthless. So.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I found that at least yesterday would help was just like leaving the house. Oh, it was like, they're always busy days, but for whatever reason, a Monday coming back after seven days, kind of away from slack and proper email and six hours difference time zone from work can kind of stack up. So yeah, just getting back into the spin of things. But yeah. Yeah. Aside from that, you know, like that, that was the whole of the last six days. I didn't really do anything or, or, or kind of get up too much else. Uh, what about you? How's your last week been? What's uh, what's next on the calendar?
Jason Bickford Yeah, it's been a busy week. We've, um, We've had some out of town guests, you know, after years of not seeing some, some friends, uh, that they flew in from Australia and, uh, uh, knowing that they were here, some other friends flew in from the East coast. And so we kind of congregated at our house and the weather is cooperated to the point where we've been, you know, it's this kind of classic great Midwestern fall weather. So we've been building fires outside and grilling and, you know, pulling out the whiskey and lots of good food and, uh, Not enough sleep, so I feel slightly jet-lagged today, too, for different reasons. But, yeah, it's been good fun, and then things kind of calmed down a bit for the next couple of days, and then on Saturday morning, Ghoshani and I fly to Bonaire. You know, every time we've gone there, we always go Saturday to Saturday. We go for a week, and then by the time Friday night rolls around, we always tell each other, you know, what would it be like to stay here for two weeks? Given the demise of our two cats last year, we, uh, we decided we would take some advantage of, of not really having anything at home to come back for immediately. And we, uh, we booked for two weeks, so we're, we're, we're going for two weeks. I just cannot wait to, um, just kind of slow the pace down and just kind of get into that rhythm of diving two, three times a day. I'll, you know, Gashani is going to work, uh, kind of during the middle of the day, we'll dive in the mornings and the late afternoons, and then We'll certainly still continue to record our, uh, our regular TGNs. I'll, I'll do it from there. And I'm going to meet up with some, some friends down there, um, to, to have a few adventures, um, both topside and diving and, uh, taking some fun watches. I'm taking, um, taking a couple of citizens along kind of new ones to try out, get some photos of, um, I've got something really cool that I can't talk about that is going to be released, um, in the next few months from a different brand, one that we're both very fond of. And then Apple, uh, has promised me that the, uh, the Apple watch ultra is on its way for me to, to check out, uh, underwater and maybe I'll take it running and do some swimming and that kind of thing with it and kind of put it through its paces. So yeah, it should be kind of a mix of quote unquote work and just hanging out, just having a good time. So I, if anyone happens, I know it's short notice, but if anyone happens to be headed to Bonaire over the next couple of weeks, or if you're lucky enough to live there, uh, drop me a, direct message on Instagram or shoot an email to thegraynadoatgmail.com and let's see if we can hook up for a dive or something.
Jason Heaton That's awesome. Yeah, we had hoped to be able to come down at least for one of the weeks and it just didn't work out this time, sadly. Yeah. The closer we've gotten to the date, the more I'm kind of kicking myself that I couldn't make it work.
Jason Bickford Get a last minute ticket.
Jason Heaton Yeah, true enough. Yeah. I'd have to get out of a few things, I think. Yeah. Right. One of the reasons it didn't work out is I still like I'd have to get all my dive gear service checked over before putting that kind of money into a trip.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Um, so yeah, like I think I said last year, uh, you know, maybe next year. Yeah. Um, but I, I'm excited for you to get a chance with the ultra. I also have one that should arrive theoretically this week. I delayed it because I was going to be out of town last week, obviously. So I'm excited to try it and use it for several more sports. Now that we're getting normal cooler days here, I'm going to get back to running. for whatever reason, I just didn't keep it up over the summer. And, uh, and so I'm going to have to restart. And if you're going to restart, I prefer to do that in the fall. Yeah. If I'm starting from zero. Uh, so yeah, I think that could be fun, but otherwise, obviously I've got my, like my entire running history with Garmin. So yeah. Easy enough to use those.
Jason Bickford Yeah. And, um, I thought we'd, I'd give a quick shout out or thanks to, uh, Teddy Baldessar. They were kind enough to include both TGN and my, my swim proof sub stack newsletter in their list of top 52 watch-related, they call it blogs, and certainly TGN is a podcast, but they had an article about the top 52 watch-related blogs. And we made it twice, I guess, you know, by association. iSwimProof and TGN made it, and we're really proud and happy to be there. And thanks to the gang over at Teddy for including us on that. So go check that out. We'll throw a link in the show notes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's super cool and very sweet of them to include us. Definitely think you're Swim proof deserves a, you know, hit on that list. And I'm obviously thrilled and very happy to see TGN included as well. That's always nice when someone takes the time to be that like 52, like almost anybody's going to find something new from that.
Jason Bickford Right.
Jason Heaton Right. I know I did there three or four in there and I'm like, all right, I'll, yeah, I'll put these in feedly and see, see how they work out. So yeah. A good product from Teddy and the team there as always. Nice people. Yeah. All right.
Jason Bickford You want to get into a little bit of risk check? Move into watches. Well, I guess we talked a little bit about watches, but yeah. What, what are you wearing?
Jason Heaton You know, I didn't have, obviously I don't have, I don't have a Porsche design and like a modern ones, 10 grand, give or take, uh, for a chronograph. One used ones are in like the four to six range. So I don't, I don't know that that's necessarily on my horizon, but I did think I'd want to take kind of a vintage inspired chronograph. So I took the Aqua star deep star chronograph, the one that you got me as a gift, put it on a gray NATO. Um, you know, I also had the Seiko with me for when I was actually changing time zones on the plane, it works really nicely, super simple, but for kicking around and even for, know, testing how long it took to get up the Grossglockner as a passenger in a fairly modern GT3 Touring, it's pretty good for something like that. So, you know, it's a watch that for whatever reason, I kind of think this time of year, I like it more. I don't really know why, because it's a perfectly sized watch. I would say that if you're used to a standard Black Bay or a Black Bay Chrono, it basically wears exactly the same.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton But yeah, I wore it and just kind of fell in love with it all over again. Just a really sweet watch. It's a, I might, I might think a leather strap suits it even better than the NATO. Um, so I might have to play around with the right strap.
Jason Bickford Yeah. I was wearing mine yesterday or the day before I, when we had these friends over, I was kind of pulled out some of the collection and was passing watches around. And when I saw that, I was like, yeah, I don't wear this often enough, but you're right. I don't know what it is about this time of year, but kind of a big chunky chronograph.
Jason Heaton Just feels like a fall watch.
Jason Bickford It does. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton it kind of sticks out a little bit from a glove or a puffy cuff or something like that. Some good stuff there. What have you got on today?
Jason Bickford Well, I dusted off one I haven't worn in a long time. I've got my Unimatic U1 on. So this is a watch, gosh, I don't remember when I first wrote that up for Hodinkee, but it's when they first came out and it's a sweet watch. I mean, it's just kind of perfectly sized. I love the kind of very subtle, almost sterile dial. certainly the cool bezel. I mean, Unimatic's such a designy sort of watch. I mean, I guess if you squint at it, you know, you can almost imagine that somebody like Porsche design would come up with this. I mean, you can tell the guys that run Unimatic are real design geeks and they've put a lot of thought into, you know, making something really simple, um, look really cool. And, uh, yeah, it wears well. It's, you know, without a date, it's just, you know, pull it out, give it a few spins, uh, you know, Seiko movement, put it on a, on a ribbed gray NATO and, uh, just look sweet. I love it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I really like the unimatic stuff. And the thing is I've, I've handled so many of them at that at this point, I want one, but I want it to be a limited edition. Like I want it to be a little bit weird, a little bit colorful or whatever. And, and I, you know, I've seen a few people in Instagram posting the, the limited edition they did with bait called the inquisitive Explorer pack. So it's like a lemon gold dial is how they describe it with a fixed bezel.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton They only made 50 of those and they're gone. So that's, that's what it is. But I think I might need to like kind of get on the train for one of these. Right. Right. And, uh, and, and give it a spin because I don't want one with a fixed bezel. I definitely want the timing bezel. Cause I like their bezel in it, but I do really like those like, um, super minimal ones.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So like the U1 classic UC1, I think is what they're selling now. And it's like 525 bucks.
Unknown Right.
Jason Heaton And I think that's like a ton of wash. There's no markings on the bezel, just the pip. I think, I think those are pretty rad. And then, yeah, I guess the U4 is the fixed bezel version of the U1. Do you see this U1SM, the Swiss series?
Unknown No.
Jason Heaton So it's just, it's, it's like almost like a Movado museum, but as a dive watch.
Jason Bickford Oh, that's, oh, that's wild.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. So there's no markings on the dial. There's just hands and then a floating kind of unimatic made in Italy and the, and, but like the hands, the pip and the bezel on the otherwise sterile bezel, and then the word unimatic are loomed. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Yeah, that is cool.
Jason Heaton This is kind of cool. I could definitely get into something like this.
Jason Bickford Like I was saying, I mean, they're, they take this very deceivingly simple design and they've spun it out 50 ways. I mean, and every one of them looks fresh and slightly different and then it's like kind of irresistible. They're just so cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Maybe, maybe this would be a good one to, um, to kind of scratch a certain itch either with a blue dial or something more colorful.
Jason Bickford Yeah. Well, and speaking of, uh, affordable kind of cool watches, I mean, we've got, well, Not everything we're talking about today is affordable, but yeah, let's kick into the main topic.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So this is what we're going to call the one watch draft. We've been kicking this idea around for a little while. It comes up in the comments like fairly frequently. Anytime we do like watch selection episodes or challenges or stuff like that, people go like, Oh, could it, you know, could you go a little bit more broad? Yeah. So the idea here is if we had to go down to one watch that we do actually believe we would wear, we've set out several price points. So you have under $500, under $1,500, under $2,500, under five grand. And then we just called it over five grand. Jason and I don't, don't frequently spend over five grand on a watch. Uh, so this is, you could call this the dream option, but there could be stuff in here that is the kind of thing where let's say you did sell everything to kind of upward consolidate. Maybe you'd crest five grand.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Your collection could be different than ours, but the idea is we've picked things that at their price point, we would be happily wearing. as our one watch. So this is the one watch draft. I don't know Jason's picks. He doesn't know mine. And, uh, and Jason, I think you were kind enough to let me go first on the Omega challenge episode. So I think I will give you the benefit of going first. Uh, and, and would you want to go by value? We'll start at 500. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Yeah, this one is, uh, it's well under $500 and I, I think it's, um, I think it's probably worth double that if not triple that. This is the scurfer diver one titanium in blue.
Unknown Okay.
Jason Bickford This is a watch that weighs in at a whopping $220. I mean, I, I, wow, that's a lot of watch for them. I was like, I thought this watch was, um, like a $400 watch, but it's, it's 220. I mean, this thing's incredible. And, uh, You know, I have a version of this watch, a very similar version of it. It's in blue, it's titanium, it's what he calls his MS or military spec version that I got. I guess I have the MS-21 that Kashani got me for my birthday last year. I wear it kind of in fits and spurts. You know, it's a quartz watch, so it's very grab-and-go. It's got a Ronda quartz movement in it, so, you know, reliable, accurate. It's always exactly on time when I pick it up. I put it on an Erika's elastic band, kind of a gray band with a white stripe. the hubbub about the Pelagos recently, you know, made me put that on because I don't have really any titanium watches besides that one. And it just, it was, it was kind of fun to pull it out and like experience like a really well-made titanium watch. I mean, the finishing is good. It's got the helium valve. It's got big kind of chunky hands and markers glows really well. The bezel is spectacularly good. If I had to give, my most ringing endorsement to anybody for a watch to get. That's like just a no brainer. Go out and spend $220 and, and, and buy this watch. I mean, this is, this is just, it's such a good watch. Paul's such a good guy. We've had him on TGN years ago now, very early episode. And he's a good guy. He's a, he's a watch nerd. He's a commercial diver. He tests these watches in saturation, you know, environments. It's the real deal. I can't say enough good things about this watch and for, If your budget is under $500, I don't think you can really do much better than this.
Jason Heaton Man, that's a great pick for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Just killer value. You never really see anyone saying that they were unhappy with the watch or whatever. And I think part of that comes to the price. Yeah. They're just so reasonably priced. Yeah. And to buy into something from kind of his mind, I also really like. Yeah. So yeah, that's a super pick. Yeah. Skirfit Diver 1 TI Blue. Very cool.
Jason Bickford Cool one. What's your affordable pick?
Jason Heaton So mine for under $500 is $495. This probably won't come as a big surprise to anyone, but it's the Seiko SSK GMT, the Seiko 5 that they launched a little while ago. I think for $500, you can't do a lot better for one watch. I obviously love a GMT and actively use them most days. So that's kind of where my mind goes, regardless of the price point. And for something like this, you know, the easy thing is like, if you're used to an SKX007, it's that. but with a few refined elements, solid end links, I would say a better crown, arguably a better movement, but certainly a movement with more features. And then you still get the great loom. You get enough water resistance for, I think, pretty much anything. It's a hundred meters. And the only real thing that I think takes some getting used to, and Jason, I think you pointed this out very quickly upon playing with the watches, the tension bezel is kind of strange if you're used to clicking sort of ratcheting bezel like that of the SKX. But now that I've had it for a while and have worn it a bunch, I don't even think, granted I don't use the bezel, it could be fixed as far as the GMT is concerned. I do think that this is one where I may try and find like an elapsed time and 24 hour bezel and see if that could work maybe for the uses or see where people go with kind of modding the bezels. But I've got the 03, which is the black blue with the red It's Rolexy, but not too Rolexy. It's definitely less Rolexy if you take it off the bracelet, but the bracelet's a big jump up for what I was used to on the SKX007. And I would argue it's hard to get as much watch for $500. I mean, the Skirfa definitely offers a ton and is a great pick and leaves you, you could buy two for the price point if you wanted a black one and an orange one or whatever. But if you were looking for the one watch option, Um, I think this offers a ton super usable. You can wear it on straps and NATO's as well. So pretty flexible as a one watch platform. And then you get the GMT. No, it's not a flyer, uh, but the color works really well. It's super simple. And, uh, and, and I just did a trip with it, you know, with a six hour time change and used it most days. Um, when I wasn't wearing the Aqua star to, to kind of fill the vibe of vintage Porsches.
Jason Bickford Yeah, that's a good pick. I mean, I, I kind of knew we'd have at least one Seiko in this episode, if not more. And, uh, I mean, think about it a hundred meter steel sports watch with GMT, um, with kind of that classic Seiko look for less than 500. I mean, this is, this is kind of filled that sweet spot that, you know, whenever people would say it, I've got X budget, what would it be? I mean, I think in the early days of TGN, this category, we would have both said, um, SRP triple seven.
Jason Heaton I still think you could. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. They're under $400 pretty much all day long. For me, the slightly smaller width and the add of the GMT makes all the difference. Yeah. But if you don't want the GMT or you want something that's like actually a dive watch. Yeah. Everything we ever said about the Turtle is still true. It's still a really killer, super fun to wear watch for the money.
Jason Bickford Yeah. Good pick. Strong start. I have a feeling that in this case for this episode, I think the stronger watches, I think the strongest watches are at the lower end. And then as you get higher and higher, the competition gets stiffer, but I don't think the choices are as compelling. That's just my feeling, but we'll find out.
Jason Heaton I mean, I definitely had trouble like breaking 2,500 on something that gets you a lot more than what's just below it. Right, right. You know what I mean? Like the value, the kind of like over under for great value seems to be like around that 2,500 point. Yeah. Maybe even less, maybe the 1,500. So I mean, that's what we're going into now, 1,500 bucks. And Jason, first pick's yours.
Jason Bickford Yeah. So, um, I'm sticking with Seiko. Um, I am going with the SPB 313. This is the kind of, I don't know what, what they're calling, if it's got a nickname, the slim Willard or something like that.
Jason Heaton Like this is the, yeah, this is the one based on the 6150 8,000. Yeah. The 6105 8,000. So it's 05. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Yeah. So this is kind of that, um, the slimmer case version that, that preceded the Willard, um, historically back in the, you know, 1970 ish or before that, actually, with this case shape. And this particular one is the white dial one on the bracelet. I, you know, I can't say I would wear the bracelet a ton with it, but I have to admit in the photos, it looks good. It looks like a nice bracelet. It doesn't look like my usual style bracelet, but you know, as people always say, like, if you're going to buy a watch, get it on the bracelet, because some of these, the rubber straps that are on these SPBs, I'm not that keen on anyway. So I'd probably just either wear it on the bracelet or throw it on a NATO or, or Yeah, my own rubber or leather or whatever you want, but I think, you know, I've got the white dial Omega and I'm kind of, I'm kind of digging white dial watches these days. The, um, the docks, a white pearl, certainly, I don't know, something about something about a white dial diver, that kind of stark contrast you get with a black bezel insert is, um, it's pretty bewitching. And, you know, like your, your GMT pick for the under 500, I think this one comes in at 1100. And I think it's, it's just a lot of watch for the money and it's classic, you know, Seiko looks and quality. And anyway, that's my Seiko for, for the whole episode. I'll just, you know, spoiler alert. Um, that's my, that's my one Seiko. And I think, uh, I think it's a strong one.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I think the interesting thing is that like, since we started TGN. Yeah. Seiko has really successfully moved from that 300, $400 price point to, you know, a thousand to 1500. Yeah. They're making some really compelling product and it is a lot if you're used to spending $60 on a Seiko 5 or $185 back in the day on a SKX or a Monster. Yeah. This does feel like a, like an order of magnitude, but I feel like the same people who were buying those 10 years ago when Seiko was kind of owning the under 500 price point really nicely. Yeah. Are at the point now where, yeah, like I didn't question spending a little bit more. Well, not a little bit, a multiple more on a Prospex when the opportunity came up. I love the 313. I still haven't seen one in person, but, you know, 41 millimeters, 12.3 thickness, 70 hour movement. It's got a date, a pretty inoffensive 430 date, not my favorite, but it's at least a white base with black text. So it does kind of nestle in between the markers. Yeah. Yeah. I think this is a good pick. And this is another one I would just love to see in person, or maybe I might have to buy one at one point if I could find one used here in Canada.
Jason Bickford Yeah. So that was my pick, you know, had to have a couple of Seiko's in here. Um, where are you at for 1500 or under 1500?
Jason Heaton I mean, for under 1500, it's a Seiko and it's one that I've spent my own money on. Like a lot of these, I think that I just went, I kind of considered what I already had and it's the SPB 143. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you could have come in under, we don't have an under a thousand category, but they make a model. I don't remember which one it is. 147 maybe that, that has a rubber strap and it's like 995. I would really want the 143. The colorway means a lot to me or the version that has the white dial and the bluish bezel would also be pretty rad, not too much more. Certainly could suit the price point. But look, like I've written a ton about this watch. I wear it all the time. I really, really enjoy it. And if I lived in a world where I wasn't in the watch world and I also wasn't traveling a ton and didn't need a GMT, I'd probably just wear an SPB 143 all the time. I probably would. Yeah.
Jason Bickford It's a good one watch. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And like maybe if I was leaving the watch game and all that, I might convince myself to buy something a little bit more like with a, with a flashier name on the dial. Yeah. But I'm not sure that it would mean a whole lot more to me. That watch really, for me, hits a sort of special area that it costs enough that I feel like I have a nice watch, but it still gives me all the Seiko stuff that I like.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I'm, I've been very happy with mine. It's, you know, I've got it currently on an Erica's and wear it quite a bit. Uh, and, uh, and I don't think that would change if I had to make it my one watch for sure.
Jason Bickford Yeah. I thought you'd, uh, I thought this watch would sneak in here. I mean, I think even when we were kind of talking about this episode, I was like, you know, I think you'd even mentioned it and it's like, yeah, I mean you own one. So it's like a, it's a perfect endorsement for it. And, uh, price is certainly right. So now we're, we're up to three seconds for this, but probably not a big surprise, but not a huge surprise.
Jason Heaton I don't think, yeah, I really didn't know necessarily which way you would go. Yeah. Um, uh, with your, you know, 1500 price point. But like I said, I think that they, the brand has kind of successfully widened their scope. Yeah. They're still really great at 500 bucks or even less for a Seiko five that doesn't have a GMT. Um, but there's, there's something a little bit more mature about the SPVs that I do really, really like.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Very good. Good pick. I, this is one I'd like to see in person. You're a three one three. That's a, that's a solid choice. And for, if you have anything else on your list, Uh, like as backups, let's say I picked the three, one, three or something like that. Let's get to all those at the end.
Jason Bickford Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, so we, we can fill in any blanks, uh, so you can kind of follow our, our, our thinking with all of this. But, uh, I think that brings us to $2,500 and there's, there's a couple really good watches at 2,500. Wow.
Jason Bickford This was, this was my hardest category. And you talk about backups. I have four choices for this one.
Jason Heaton Um, Oh three, I have three. I wonder how we'll find out after how many of us overlap.
Jason Bickford Here we are right at the gun here and I'm like, I don't know which one to pick. So I'm just going to, yeah. All right. This one actually, I cheated a bit. It's over by $20. So forgive me. Um, it's the Sin U50 on bracelet. I wanted to have a Sin so badly in this list. Again, I don't know why neither of us has a Sin currently.
Jason Heaton I wish I had never sold my, uh, 144 GMT ever.
Jason Bickford Yeah. Classic regret. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, I've had a few over the years, 756 and a U1 and I, you know, okay. So, Speaking of the U1, I mean, the U1 was a big, heavy watch. And I loved that watch. You know, I love the look, etc. Build quality, spectacular. It was just big and heavy. And after a while, I just, I would wear it for a day or two and be like, all right, I got to switch to something a little smaller and lighter. Well, here, you know, Sin kind of answered that, that wish from probably a lot of people. Now we've got a 41 millimeter watch, 11.2 millimeters high with 20 millimeter lugs. This has 500 meters of water resistance, so it's still a you know, solid, uh, dive watch. Um, I kind of go hot and cold on the kind of that H link bracelet from sin, but I think there are very, very well made bracelets and they're very comfortable. And you know, if you're going to, if you're going to buy, might as well go for, for kind of as much as you can get. And certainly I'm going over by 20 bucks, but maybe I can get a discount or, you know, whatever. So yeah, Zen you 50, I would have loved to get the, I think it's called the U50S, the Schwarz, the black bezel version, because I really like that, but it's actually a little bit more. So I'm going to stick with the standard steel bezel.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I mean, the nice thing about the U50 is it starts at like $2470, I want to say. Oh, on rubber. Yeah, in the US on rubber. So it just depends. I think that you're right in going for the bracelet, because one, the rubber is kind of like how I feel about the Doxa rubbers. They work They feel great and are beautifully made, come with a nice clasp. The rest of it, they just don't work on my wrist.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Don't have enough wrist for the way that they're kind of shaped into force. Right. Right. Yeah. The U 50 is, is just an absolute banger of a watch. It's so, it is so good. And then you sometimes just forget that it is like $2,500 thereabouts. Right. And, and I do think, especially with our lifestyle, like we don't put a suit on, we don't ever go to an office. Like you could one watch a U 50 for 30 years. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's a nice, easily serviced movement, um, made by an absolutely fantastic company with that are fastidious to details. It works on a ton of straps. It's great on a NATO. Uh, it was on my list. Yeah. So you, you, you, you took it from me, but you also made my decision a little bit easier, but since you picked us in, uh, I'm going to go with the DOCSIS sub 300.
Jason Bickford Ah, okay. All right. That was one of mine. All right.
Jason Heaton Yeah. 2450.
Jason Bickford Oh yeah. Oh, you're not going on steel.
Jason Heaton No, I don't like the bracelet and I don't like the rubber.
Jason Bickford For $40 more, you're not going to go on steal?
Jason Heaton No.
Jason Bickford All right.
Jason Heaton Um, I won't wear either of them. Oh yeah, I know. I know. I would either wear it on a tropic strap. Yeah. A mesh bracelet looks incredible on a Doxa like crazy good and are super comfortable or I'd wear it on a NATO. Sure. And this is another one where like I have one, I, you know, I, I have the sub 350th anniversary Sea Rambler. Yeah. That would be one of the last watches to leave my collection. And if I did pare down, maybe let's say we're talking one watch today, but let's say I made it to three. One of them is going to be a sub 300. I could easily just be a guy that owns a Doxa and that's it. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Yeah. I don't know if it was you that said maybe in one of your articles or maybe even talking about it on TGN, we were talking about when you're, when you're bumping up against the top of kind of your price budget, like you, you kind of aim for the best watch in that, category. And I think in this case, there are certainly, as you said, better watches, you know, on paper.
Jason Heaton The Zint, the U50 is a, is a, uh, like in hand and on wrist and every, in every metric, except maybe aesthetic, a better watch.
Jason Bickford Exactly. Yeah. But Doxa is, is there's, there's that, you know, intangible sort of aspect to it.
Jason Heaton It's the Cousteau thing. It's the classic look. It's the way it sits on your wrist. Like it's, it's really tough to pick between these two watches. These are the two, in my opinion, the two best dive watches. These are the two, most appealing dive watches at $2,500. Yeah. 50 in the 300. And they come from polar opposite thinking. Yeah.
Jason Bickford Great stuff. Well, it'll be interesting to hear what our, our other choices were, because I think this was for me the hardest category, but well, we'll see. All right. Now we bump up to five grand. Now we're doubling it. Okay. So under five, I mean, we, we went back and forth, like, where do we go with these categories? And I think we just decided that these first three were actually good ones, you know, kind of solid TGN. Like, you know, I could conceivably if I'd had a couple of bourbons late at night, like I could be convinced to like pick up one of these from each of these categories and like kind of feel mildly resentful or regretful the next day, but maybe not. Anyway, under 5,000, you're talking more money here.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's bigger money. We're now into entry level luxury, essentially. Yeah. Yeah. And the thing about picking the ranges, we had to pick five that worked. If this proves to be a popular episode, if you guys share it with your friends and and get into the comments and the rest of it. I'd be more than happy to do one watch drafts that are different prices than this or are specific to certain types of watches. Yeah, we can dial these up and down. Like the one watch, but it has to be a pilot, the one watch, no divers allowed, that sort of thing. Because so far we've picked mostly divers. Yeah, definitely. So I'm keen to do more of these if people end up liking them. This is kind of the basic option. And I know there's a huge jump from $2,500 to $5,000. There's a ton of watches in that space, so I think it'll be interesting to see where we land for these ones. But why don't you take it away with your 5,000 pick?
Jason Bickford Yeah, so again, I'm cheating slightly, but I'm going with a watch that I have. This is the White Dial Seamaster Diver 300M on rubber. I don't like the bracelet on Seamasters, so I would never wear it, literally never wear it. So easy choice for me. The rubber is spectacular on this watch. To me, it's like under 5k or okay this is a $5,100 watch but to me this is you know Omega is at the top of the the heap when it comes to kind of in this price point that the sheer quality of the watch I mean the movements that are are just amazing these coaxial completely anti-magnetic movements they're you know beautifully decorated you know certainly um machine and mostly machine finished but it's uh you know just a beautiful movement to look at The build quality is great. If you can overlook the helium valve, which I certainly have, and I think, you know, they make a number of them. I mean, black dial, green dial, blue dial. I'm really happy with the white dial after wearing it for a year now. And the watch works on a number of straps. You know, like, okay, we've done Doxa and Zyn and some Seikos and, you know, Skirfas and things like that. I feel like this is like This is like the big boy watch, you know, this is the, this is the, um, now you're moving, like you said, up into entry level luxury. And I think Omega is just firmly planted in that category. So that's my pick.
Jason Heaton That's a good one. Yeah. I kind of guess that's where you would go. I thought there was maybe one or two other options. I'm sure that's the list at five. Yeah. This is the hardest one for me.
Unknown Oh, okay.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Because I feel like a lot of my, what I write about is sits about this price point and down. Oh, so it's instantly like four or five watches jumped to mind for me because we're talking one watch.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton It has to do a lot at five grand.
Jason Bickford Oh, I know where you're going to go with this.
Jason Heaton You can probably guess, you know, there there's, there's, it's this, it's tough. There's three brands in my mind that operated the space that I would, I would very much like to have as a one watch.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton But again, I'm going to go with something I own and really love. It's the Braymont S302. Oh, okay. I didn't think that. All right. All right. You know, we'll get to the ones, the other ones on the list in a moment. It was tough. And even in saying it, I kind of, I'm looking at this list going like, what if I should have gone a different direction? The extent to which the Braymont S302 checks all the boxes in the same way that the SPB does at $1,200. I absolutely love this watch. It's really good on wrist better than the other two watches I have in this price point. It's a diver. and a GMT, not a GMT that with 200 meters of water resistance. So I still get a bezel. I can use to time something. I could still take it diving. It still has a excellent, you know, 300 meters water resistance. I love the way it looks. No, again, at, at this much money, I would, you would want it to be a flyer that would make it an incredible watch in my, in my mind, even better than I feel about it now. Um, but the fact that it's a collar doesn't really bother me. I travel these days. you know, less than I used to. So just being able to keep it on Geneva time or UTC is helpful enough. Right. Um, but the mix of build quality, which is just simply fantastic. The, the fact that it's, uh, at a base, so it can be serviced by anyone down the road. Uh, we're talking one watch. Maybe I don't want to always send it back to England or have to find a, you know, an ad to deal with or whatever it is. Right. Uh, once the warranty's gone, you get a date that's very, subtle. You get the GMT, which works really well. And then I really liked that this watch can be, can kind of go in different directions depending on the strap you put it on. So if I want it to be a little bit more fancy, I just have to pick kind of a fancier strap. If I just want to rock it on a NATO or a rubber strap, it's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of flexibility here.
Jason Bickford That's a very good pick. And, and it was not the one I expected. I, I considered Bramont for, you know, at least two of these watches at five grand. I think In the past, they have struggled a bit with kind of perception from people thinking that they're overpriced. But I think when you start talking under $5,000, yeah, they do have some really solid picks in there. And I think, you know, I also have an S302 and it being that it's 40 millimeters, I mean, Ghoshani wears it quite nicely. And because of that case shape, it actually amazingly works on her wrist really well, even on the bracelet. Yeah, good pick. I like that. Nice to see some different brands in here too. Yeah, for sure. Got a good smattering of, you know, small, big.
Jason Heaton Yeah, cool. All right, so we've come to the big boy price point, $5,000 plus. For a little while, I was thinking I'd go kind of hardcore, Patek 5164A, like a Dreamwatch, but I think that's disingenuous to what we're talking about here.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton As much as the Dreamwatch was kind of a fun thing to do, and for a while we had like a plus 10 grand option, and I had some crazier stuff in there. A lot of you can guess what it would be apart from the 5164. Um, but I, I think this is a fun one and it's also really hard. It, this isn't my zone. I don't think you're getting like a ton more watch by spending over five grand than you are at spending say around five grand. Yeah. But it does open up a handful of other, uh, brands, right?
Jason Bickford I, well, I may have misinterpreted our over 5k. I did shoot for the moon on this one. I went, I went really high.
Jason Heaton Oh, I love it. Okay, cool.
Jason Bickford I changed my picks on. Yeah. All right. So, um, I will go first. Uh, it's the AP. Royal Oak Offshore Diver. Um, no way I did. Yeah. I figured that's a good pick one watch. Um, they make a couple of colors. I wasn't even sure if they still made kind of the steel. I, I got a chance to dive with one of these years ago when they first came out and absolutely loved that watch. Um, absolutely loved it on the rubber strap. It's a spectacularly good rubber strap to me. This, this watch, I mean, okay, we're talking, wildly different categories but you know the the appeal of of the unimatic that i'm wearing now there's this minimalist sort of architectural simplicity to the to the diver um other than the tapisserie um patterned dial which is you know expertly done and beautiful and and all that but like if you just look at that watch it's just this is brutally simple and just and just so beautiful and and then it's a 300 meter dive watch Not terribly practical with the internal bezel, but who cares? I mean, this is like a proper high end sports watch and it's 29,000. I don't know if I mentioned that $29,000. So a lot of money.
Jason Heaton Man, I love it.
Jason Bickford I aimed high. This is, this is what I'm going with.
Jason Heaton All right. Then I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to go back to where I was when we were, when we were talking about more like dream watch options. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Like, like I said, a 5164A is like so crazy tempting. Yeah. But a hundred grand. Oh, Oh. is what they cost now on the secondary, like to get one. Wow. Yeah. I mean, if we're talking big money, I would start hunting for the Vacheron Everest dual time.
Jason Bickford Yeah. I thought that's where you'd go. Yeah. That was tempting too. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I just, I absolutely, it's a watch I've never forgotten since I got to be hands on with the original. Yeah. You know, after Corey got back from Everest and yeah, it's the right size. The color way is like perfect. Yeah, man. The Royal Oak Offshore Diver is a fantastic pick. That's such a good watch. And they've made so many, right? Like you can go back into the one that you had originally, the black dial. Yeah. Yeah. And then they did those boutique editions that were all colorful. Right. There was like an orange and navy blue one that was like, perfect. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, for me, and we'll get into what I had like as a more realistic pick, but they were all pre-owned and I guess with the Vacheron, you have to be pre-owned as well. They made so few and they all sold. Right. But I got to see Zach Pina's in January at Watches and Wonders. Oh yeah. Yeah. I remain in love with that watch. Uh, you know, and yeah, if you're going to go, you know, full out, I think that's where I would land for sure. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's, let's run back the picks. Uh, so for your $500 option, you pick the scurvy diver one titanium and blue for 220 bucks.
Jason Bickford I still can't believe that price. Yeah. And you went with the Seiko five SSK GMT, um, the blue and the four 95.
Jason Heaton Yep.
Jason Bickford Four 95 under 1500 with your beloved SPB one, four, three.
Jason Heaton And you picked the SPB 313, kind of sibling watches in that case, both kind of killer value at $1,100 to $1,200-ish. At $2,500, you went with the Zinn U50, an absolutely incredible pick. Man, that was definitely on my list. That's a lot of watch for the money for sure, especially when we talk so much about Tudor Pelagos or Black Bays that are all $3,800 and up. The Zinn really offers a lot.
Jason Bickford And you went with the DOCSIS Sub 300. Now, which which dial color did you go with?
Jason Heaton I'd be going SeaRambler. SeaRambler. SeaRambler or SharkHunter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think those are the two winners. And then for under $5,000, you went with the Omega Seamaster Pro, which you have with a white dial, black bezel. I think that's a great pick.
Jason Bickford And you went with the the Bremont S302. Great, you know, well-sized, very handsome, very well-made GMT diver. And then over $5,000. You are going with the Vacheron Constantin Everest dual time, just incredibly limited watch. I mean, this is a watch that sticks in the memory, uh, as one of those kind of unobtainium, like, you know, out there, like kind of came and went in like a, like a shooting star and you just can't forget about it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that was cool. Yeah. And there's just something incredible. Like I know I've talked about this in the past. I've written about it in the past. Like I am a sucker for a brand like Patek VC AP, Yeah. Doing a sports watch on a sporty rubber or textile strap, like, like you picked with yours for the over 5,000, the AP Royal Oak Offshore Diver. And, uh, those are the 10 watches that we picked, you know, look, looking back, what, what do you think we left off the board? You know, for me under $1,500, like any Hallios.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Right. I've had so many and I've been happy with all of them. Uh, you know, if you could dig up a C4 GMT. Yeah. You're doing really well.
Jason Bickford Under 500 is tough. They're, they're far, fewer I think solid like really good quality picks because you get a lot of really kind of poorly made watches under 500 but um once you start to move up the category that under 1500 under the under 2500 like I said was my my toughest and and I think we knocked off two that were on my list of course the U50 which I picked and then the sub 300 but I had two others on the under 2500 that I've got to mention because I'm just I was like so torn on which to include and one is the The Oris Aquus Date, 39.5 millimeter, $2,200. It's a ton of watch. Such a cool watch. Again, probably, like we were saying, and probably, well, not probably, I think definitely better made than the Sub 300, maybe on par with the U50. I'm not sure. And, you know, at that point you're kind of splitting hairs, but yeah, that was another one. And then I had the original kind of Longines Legend Diver at $2,400.
Jason Heaton Oh, I didn't even think of that.
Jason Bickford They make a few kind of cool ones. I haven't looked at that in a long time. I used to have one like the first generation, like the no date version. And now like they make these kind of neat sort of burnt looking kind of patina looking dials on interesting straps. And, um, you know, they're long lugged big 42 millimeter watches, but if it fits you like that is a fun, beautifully made watch and, you know, launching good quality.
Jason Heaton So yeah, nicely made the lug to lug was, would be too long for my wrist. If I remember correctly from back in the day, uh, the other one that I had, I had the Oris as well. So much watch for the money. And I think just a really nicely wearing option that's distinctive. It doesn't look like other dive watches, which is nice. And then the other one I had was the Zen UTC 856. Oh yeah. Good one. 40 millimeters with a really clean design, 200 meters water resistance, and you get a GMT. So you can see there's kind of a GMT theme through the whole thing, but that, yeah, those are the four that I had, the sub 300, the U50, the Oris Aquus Date, and the Zen 856 UTC. a lot of great watch at 2,500 bucks.
Jason Bickford The tricky thing about these categories was, um, and self-imposed certainly, but you know, to jump from 2,500 to 5,000, like if there was a watch at 2,900 or you know, whatever, it's like, okay, that fits under 5,000. But then I always kind of felt like I wanted to push the high end because you tend to sort of see better and better watches the closer you get to that upper limit. Um, so you do get things like, you know, some of the Aqua stars or, um, you know, whatever that are occupying this, this space that are kind of halfway between the two categories, but it's like not quite up to the same spec as like a Omega or something, you know? Right. So that made it difficult. So I would love to, to revisit this, this challenge in the future. So, you know, certainly if people have ideas or suggestions for a future version of this, we can, we can dial the cost limits up and down. And even like you said, skip the, skip the dive watches or whatever. Yeah. Cause did we do all dive watches? No.
Jason Heaton Sort of, we did. Not quite, no. Not quite. Pretty close. Yeah, yeah. Did you have others at 5,000?
Jason Bickford I did not. Not under 5,000, although I thought for sure you would have a Pelagos. I thought for sure you'd have a Pelagos in there.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so Pelagos 39, standard Pelagos. Black Bay Pro was the one I was really hemming and hawing about. Oh, yeah. That's a good one. And the only reason, because I think the Black Bay Pro is every bit as nice as the Bremont. Obviously, you get an in-house movement if that's important to you. you can add more value to that. I I'm happy that the tutor movements work, but I'm not, I don't really care where movement comes from. It just has to work. Especially if it's a one watch scenario. Yeah. But the black Bay pro is the one that I really had stacked up against the S three or two. Cause the pro you don't get the bezel that makes the three or two so useful, but you do get a flyer style GMT. Yeah. So those two were neck and neck. And I just literally like I have the S S three or two sitting on my desk and I like that it's a bit thinner. Yeah. for an everyday watch, but the Black Bay Pro BB 58 Navy is one that I just absolutely adore. And then the Pelagos 39, probably, you know, who knows really, but you know, I'd like to say that's probably my next considerable watch purchase.
Jason Bickford I just kind of say, I think I've mentioned before over the past couple of years. Okay. So my last, my last big watch purchase was the Seamaster, the white dial that I actually included here. And I got a really nice discount from my guy over at Continental Diamonds here locally, thanks to him. So, but it was still, it was, it was a hefty amount of money to pay for a watch. And, and I, after that, it's not that it spoiled me on anything. It's just, I don't have the same, I feel like watches over $4,000 feel expensive to me now for some reason. I just look and I'm like, I can't see myself playing in that, at that end of the pool anymore. It's just, there's so much good stuff in that Doxus Sub 300, the Sin, the Aquis, you know, the Seikos, that space to me is so much more exciting. That's where I kind of landed. I just don't look at much above that now.
Jason Heaton Yeah. 1500 to like three grand. There's just a lot. Yeah. There's a lot of good stuff. Uh, that's kind of in our zone. Um, I, I'm trying to think what, I don't think I had anything else at 5k or under 5k. Um, and, and you know, if we recorded this again, I might pick the black Bay pro. I don't know. Yeah. You can't go wrong with either of the three or twos, maybe a more, more of a me watch.
Jason Bickford And the dream watch was such a limitless kind of category that, you know, I had, Yeah. Yeah. My mind was just kind of spinning through. And then I thought, I'm going to go with something new, something I've, I've tried something that I kind of stayed in my mind for years. I thought about going vintage. I thought like get an old plow prof, like a 1971 plow prof or something like that, or, or a mil sub or, you know, but then I thought, you know, I want, I want, I want something new that like if, if, if I truly did consolidate trade everything away or sell everything and, and went with one thing I could wear for everything to, That AP diver is the way to go, I think.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I had also on the list, I mean, again, if we want the realistic answer, it'd be a 16, 570, Polar, Polar Explorer, Explorer 2 Polar, which I have. They're about 10 grand now, which is crazy. I mean, you, you, you want the other dream options, like a 1665 Sea-Dweller. Oh yeah. Yeah. I don't think I would ever take that off my wrist. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, they're just kind of perfect. If you could go double red, we're talking 40 to 50. Right. Right. Right. But like, I would never not smile looking at that watch. I love that it has a date and no Cyclops. I love that it's not a Submariner. Yeah. They came in a lot of different versions. I mean, the 16660 is another one that I'm surprised you don't own or have. Oh yeah. The, the, the Sea-Dweller 4k. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Uh, that's just a ton of watch. Yeah. You know, not for the money now. They're quite expensive of course. Right. Um, I guess it's more realistic than whatever you'd pay for an overseas Everest, a dual time. Um, but yeah, I, I love your pick. I think that AP, those are such cool watches. Yeah. And they don't quite have the same like, um, yeah, baggage is the wrong word, but the same like connective tissue as a Royal Oak. You're somehow saying less with more watch, you know what I mean? Right. Right.
Jason Bickford Yeah. And you're right about, about like a super high end watch or a high end brand, like releasing a sports watch on, on a watch
Jason Heaton selection-based episodes, but this one we wanted to see what we would pick if that was going to be the watch that we could get at a certain price point and go for it. Obviously, we want to know what you all would pick, so feel free to let us know in the comments at thegraynado.com on Substack, and just check it out. Take a look. If you haven't been into the comments, we're having a really good time there each week. We always get good feedback, always constructive, and we often have a chance to chit-chat a little bit or clarify stuff, stuff like that. With one like this, I'd just love to know what, what all of you might pick at 500, 1,500, 2,500, 5,000 and over 5,000. And then, yeah, like I said, if this works out, we'd be happy to make kind of thinner slices of the watch world and turn them into a one watch draft. I also think this would be a great format to start bringing in some guests. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Right. Get a few more picks in there. Good call. Yeah. All right. Well, how about we get into a final notes? Yeah, sure.
Jason Bickford Um, I, Stumbled upon this one, I don't remember where, probably was fed some kind of a social media ad at some point. And I was a little skeptical at first because, you know, anything that says it's free always seems to have a catch. But this is a platform, kind of an online streaming platform for content, good films. It's called WaterBear. And it's, you know, the way they describe it, the home of captivating films and thought-provoking series that empower you to lead a meaningful life. So it's kind of right up our alley because a lot of the films that they show that they offer, um, streaming are, you know, great kind of environmental films of the type that you see, uh, Patagonia supporting or, you know, um, uh, you know, damnation, things like that. But, you know, there's some, some cool kind of environmental documentaries, uh, things about, you know, the milk industry and, and water conservation. There's an interesting story about an old, very old, um, Islander who, who kind of lives nomadic life on a sailboat, uh, racing extinction, shark water, all these like movies you might've heard of over the years that, that are, you know, about adventure and outdoors and the environment. And it's, it's free. So like you, you create an account, you sign up, but you don't have to put a credit card in. And, uh, you can, you can do it, you can, you know, stream on your phone or on a laptop or, you know, on a, on a smart TV. And, uh, it's all kind of underwritten content. I'm looking at their, kind of founding partners and it's, uh, it's Nikon and it's Jack Wolfskin kind of the outdoor brand. And then what is this? Something called five. I don't know who five is, but, uh, and then they've got a ton of NGO partners, et cetera. So how can you go wrong with free? Good, good content. Um, you probably take a long time to get to the end of all their offerings. I've actually just learned about it and I've already kind of created a little bit of a queue that I haven't really delved into yet, but, uh, Definitely looking forward to getting into this and I just thought our listeners would be really keen to find some good free kind of documentaries and series to watch.
Jason Heaton Man, this is a great suggestion. This is really cool.
Jason Bickford Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I'm excited. I'll be making an account as soon as we're not recording. I like this a lot. Good pick. Yeah. So mine this week is actually a video. which is a tour from the Air Zoo. It's an aerospace and science experience in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Oh, cool. And it's a video tour of the engine from an SR-71. Oh, wow. So it's the Pratt & Whitney J58. Yeah. And it's this fella, clearly, you know, a docent or somebody from the museum just kind of walking you through this engine that's the size of a small car. Yeah. I've seen this video a few times. I really like it. I had it saved in pocket and just because of how busy my last week was, um, I don't have, I didn't have anything else, uh, to kind of lean on. I'm, I had something coming in the mail and I think it'll come here just after we start recording. That's what I was going to have as final notes, assuming I like it. Yeah. Uh, but I ended up going with this. It's um, it's a 25 minute video, so you have to really care about the J 58, but I like this one a lot. I've, I've watched it, uh, like I said, a couple of times in the past and, uh, it's a, it's a great one.
Jason Bickford Oh, that's great. I'm going to check that out. I love, um, kind of when, um, and interesting technology is explained in an accessible way because I certainly was more of a liberal arts student than anything engineering or science based. And so, and yet I have such an interest in stuff like this. So it's nice to get, you know, kind of a tour given by someone who can convey it properly. So that's great.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I kind of, you know, when you watch this, you'll see it's like, it's a, it feels kind of like a grassroots video. The dude's name is Arnie Gunderson. So Mr. Gunderson, bless you for, uh, standing in front of the camera and talking about the J58 for, for so long. This is a, It just feels like you're standing at the museum kind of getting a lesson from someone who's, you know, who's really devoted a lot of time and effort into getting in deep on these details of such a marvelous thing. The J58 is something I've read a lot about, and I think this is one of the best sort of videos I've come across about it online. Nice. All right. Well, I guess that's an episode, eh? That was a good one.
Jason Bickford Yeah, fun.
Unknown Yeah, yeah.
Jason Bickford Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, and we hope you do for this one for sure. And we leave you with this quote from TGN quote alum Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, money often costs too much.