The Grey NATO – 211 – Perfect Product #5

Published on Thu, 13 Oct 2022 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

The episode is a return to the "Perfect Product" format where Jason and James discuss products they find excellent and useful. Jason shares his pick of affordable swim fins from Duffin Hawaii which he finds versatile for snorkeling, swimming, and free diving during trips. James talks about his Tenba DNA 16 Pro camera bag, praising its durability, organization, and functionality for travel over many years. For watch-related products, Jason recommends affordable ribbed NATO straps from CNS, and James highlights the high-quality bolt action spring bar tool from Hassler Instruments. They also share some updates on past TGN guests like Henry Catchpole joining Hagerty, Robert Spangle's new book, and Cole Pennington writing for Watches of Espionage.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton 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 211, and it's proudly brought to you by our ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, if you're not already, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. James, good morning. We're recording this fairly early on a Tuesday this time.
James Yeah, it's a bit of a busy schedule this week. I feel like we say this more and more, but you had some diving concerns. You're still in bone air, which is rad. This is week two of our 50% bone air episodes. It's the highest percentage of bone air we can promise to the audience these days. And yeah, you had some diving concerns and I have some meetings. Uh, they, they come up occasionally, not, not exactly my favorite part of the business, but you've got to get it done. So yeah, we're recording a little bit earlier. I probably the only, the only thing people would notice is a little bit more gravitas to the old voice. Like we've said in the past, not quite warmed up yet.
Jason Heaton Right. And, uh, Shani and I were up early this morning. So we went for a dawn dive. Uh, we were probably in the water by six 15. So that was about two hours ago thereabouts. And, um, yeah, we did a good, I think it was a 62 minute dive just cruising around on the reef. It was kind of the opposite of a night dive where it starts kind of dim and then gets darker and darker. This is the opposite. So it was fairly dark when we went down and then gradually started to brighten up. And by the time we finished at, you know, 730, it was nice and bright, the sun kind of gleaming through. It was, it was gorgeous. And then we, we, uh, encountered a green sea turtle that was hanging out at about 20 feet. I don't know if it had been sleeping. It was just, just woke up when, when we arrived, but it was, uh, it was, it was such a privilege. I mean, seeing turtles is, you know, certain places it's common, but, uh, here you're lucky if you see one. So it was really great to, yeah, it's probably made my voice a little gravelly as well. I mean, I think sucking on dry compressed air for an hour probably does something to your vocal cords. So. If I have the vocal fry going on, that's why. Yeah.
James Well, we're just getting cooler as we go here. Yeah. It's not like we smoke a lot of cigarettes. This will be a fun episode. It's a return of one we haven't done in a while. You know, we've been going back through kind of the catalog lately because there hasn't been a ton of watch news, you know, that that's been in the zone and timed correctly. So we thought it'd be fun to go back. We haven't done a perfect product since episode 148, so not too bad. This will only be the fifth one in over 200 episodes. But, uh, before we get to that, uh, Jason, aside from, you know, morning dives, what'd he been up to in Bonaire?
Jason Heaton Kind of spent a lot of time in the water. I think, you know, this trip we, um, we're, we're diving on average, maybe twice a day, which is less than what we used to do. And, you know, last night we had the tanks all set up and we were going to go for an evening dive. And then it was this perfect sunset and the, the sea was really calm right below our apartment here. And I just said, you know, what do you say? We kind of leave the tanks behind and just kind of go for a leisurely swim just down here and watch the sunset. And it was, it was just perfect. I mean, the water had that kind of silver Mercury sort of effect going on in the sun. You could just see it sink and fall below the horizon. And, and, uh, I don't know, it's one of those special things that, you know, when it, when it's Minneapolis in January, I'll be thinking back to that, that evening. So we've been doing a lot of that. And then, you know, this is probably our at least 10th visit to Bonaire and And we've never actually gone over and, and dove the, um, the East coast, which we're, we're on the West coast. All the shore diving is on the West coast. There's, you know, 60 named shore dive sites here. And there is a dive operator that runs dive trips off the East coast, which is the windy side of the island. So you get a lot of chop and waves and it's just a rougher scene over there, but we're, we're going to hook up with East coast diving this afternoon and they've got a Like a former Dutch military rib boat that they take out of a harbor over there. And, and we're going to go try to do some diving there. And apparently the wildlife is quite different. You get sharks and rays and a lot more turtles and tarpons and stuff. So really looking forward to that. So that'll be, uh, that's why we're recording a little early. Cause we got to get out of here by about noon to get over there and get all set up. So that's very nice. I hope it's a great dive that, um, weather permitting, um, you know, we'll, I'll have, uh, photos and a report on that next week when I'm back home, but yeah, that was really cool. And then, uh, yeah, I'm still, I'm still wearing the Apple watch ultra. I think yours is on its way now finally. Right.
James Uh, yeah, I believe I should see one. I don't have a tracking number or whatever, but Apple was kind enough to, uh, to reach out. I think it was, it was actually fortuitous that I didn't have mine yet. I think it led to a pretty good episode last week. Uh, certainly a lot of engagement, ton of comments. If you're not doing the comment thing on sub stack, by all means, it doesn't cost anything to come in and comment. Just make an account. And you can chit chat with folks, but there was a lot of good feedback about, you know, we, we got a bunch of emails and some DMS about the water ejection and what it's actually doing. Apparently it's actually the speaker that it's getting the water away from. Uh, I'll put that in the show notes. If you want to see like a slow mo of it, the watch actually shooting water out, which is kind of cool. Uh, but no, I think, I think we had a good one and, um, should have it shortly, uh, which I'm looking forward to. I've got a list of activities, uh, for the next few months that I'd like to put it through its paces and then hopefully put a You know, maybe it's a week on the wrist. Maybe it's a big hands on. I'm not, I'm not quite sure yet. We'll see what Houdinki wants.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I, I, I'm, I'm looking forward to your thoughts on it because I think you're a bit more accepting of kind of dipping into the lifestyle of a connected watch. You've, you've done longer term kind of wrist, uh, you know, tests with, with garments and things like this. And I think you'll, you'll kind of put it through those paces. Whereas I'm, I'm much more of a, you know, take it off right after an activity kind of guy. I just can't kind of get around, get my head around wearing it 24 seven. So I'll be curious to get your take on it. I think both perspectives are very valid. I think, um, you know, for, for Apple, for, for people considering the watch, et cetera, because we all wear our watches in different ways. And, um, I'm still, you know, just wearing it for activities and taking it off right afterwards. Um, and I'm enjoying it when it's, when it's on my wrist. I, I think I told you a few days ago that it was kind of a game changer for me when I went for a run the other morning. And you know, I always, I wear AirPods, I listen to music when I run and I've always had to figure out a way to carry this heavy iPhone with me. And the Apple Watch Ultra stores music and the action button can be programmed to do certain functions. And so I had it set so that it starts my running workout and a selected playlist of music when I press the button. And it was such a game changer for me to like, it felt so freeing and lightweight to just go for a run with just my AirPods and my watch, this very lightweight watch on my wrist. And I really enjoyed that. And that was great.
James Yeah. I, I think that's going to be one of the pluses for sure. I like that it, you know, these have, um, a cellular platform. Yeah. So I'm, I'm actually, there's, there's a piece of me that wants to see, you know, if I had this on my wrist, could I just leave my phone at home for a weekend?
Unknown Right. Yeah. Yeah.
James like and then just be very selective about how I respond because I'm probably not going to type out a lot of messages on that little screen. Right. Yeah. True. Yeah. Uh, so that's something I'd, I'd like to try, you know, I've had a lot of trouble the last all of my life, but let's call it definitely in the last couple of years, like figuring out what's a healthy way to have my phone. Right. Because as a, as a freelancer, as a contractor, like you kind of, always want it there and you don't really want to miss anything. Right. Right. Because it could, it could literally be like money or, or, you know, your chance to make money in a few months or something like that. And it does lead to this sort of inability to enjoy like a weekend. Right. And, and, and sometimes, sometimes my phone will be at 10% and I won't charge it cause I don't mind if it dies or if it has to be on a charger when I go for a walk or, or, or, or whatever. And you know, lately when, even when I go on a bike ride, I've been biking a ton since the cooler weather came back. I've been out almost every day. I go, you know, either do a few laps through high park, which is a nice, you can really find a pace and I can get a lot of like type two heart rate zone work done in 20, 25 minutes, which is nice. And for that, I usually have to put my phone, you know, in a little bag under my seat. so that I still have my podcasts or my music or whatever I want to do for that 30 or 40 minutes. Right. Uh, and I think this, yeah, that could be a cool change. So I, I've never had the, the, and maybe you haven't done it, but I've never done where you add the phone or the, the watch or something to the cellular carrier.
Jason Heaton I did do that for this, but you know, the funny thing is, is that I've been on airplane mode since we got in Bonaire because I didn't want to you know, deal with paying overseas rates or get a separate SIM card for my phone here. So, um, I haven't really had a chance to try it. I did make one phone call, uh, before we left and, and it was clear it was amazing. It was fun to be able to actually do a phone call on my watch. That is cool. Yeah. Yeah.
James So yeah, very fun. So yeah. Uh, speaking of fun, you know, sort of gadgets and, and nerdery for those of you who, you know, and it's a good chunk of you who haven't been listening to the last Q and a's we do a monthly Q and a, if you're, a supporter of the show, either at $5 a month or a hundred dollars a year. And that's kind of the main benefit for the $5 a month. And not only does it mean that you could send in questions, but every month we do an hour to an hour and 25 minutes of questions and you get to hear other people's voices and that sort of thing. And like, I find that it's pretty much once, once an episode, we have a question about accuracy or the precision of watches and like either our personal feelings about it or, you know, My Seiko movement's not running well. I want a watch that has all the appeal of a Seiko, but actually keeps good time, all these sorts of things. So I finally just broke down and bought a timing machine. That's cool. Um, you know, I, I, I consider it kind of, I'm going to try and make it part of the instrumented testing of watches moving forward. So whether it's a brand new watch or, or otherwise, I like the idea that I can just clip it into this machine. I'm still learning how to like really trust what it says, because it gives you a result in like five or 10 seconds.
Unknown Oh yeah.
James But that's only one position. It measures, you can measure it in several positions and I need to figure out how you kind of average those out and whether the machine does that or whatever. But I bought a, a Weishi, a Weishi number 1900 multifunction time grapher. It was about 350 bucks Canadian. So that's what, 250 bucks, 270 bucks US, maybe even less.
Jason Heaton That's not bad. That's not bad for a watch enthusiast kind of a gadget.
James Yeah. And I'll put it in the show notes and also put a link I found kind of explaining. I mean, like, so the classic, the one that you'd see in your watchmaker shop, or if you're very keen about this and have a bench at home is a witchy, which is I believe the Swiss one. And they're very low four figures. I saw them for $1,200. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Which if you're a professional, that's nothing. Yeah. A lot of it, it's a thing to have a little printer. Oh, so you do the test, it prints it out and you can like staple it to their seat and say like, Hey, look what I did. I don't need that functionality. Yeah. Yeah. Also from what I can tell, there's almost no difference between a number 1900 and a number 1000. So I only bought the 1900 because it was available in Canada. US Amazon and eBay have way more options than what I was seeing. So I went with what was available. It's um, how big would it be? It's probably the size of a small iPad in total. It kind of leans on your desk on its own. And then there's a microphone system that you clip the watch into. That's like a separate accessory. I'll put a picture of it in the show notes with a watch in front of it. So you can kind of understand its size. It's not big, but I wouldn't call it small either. It's bigger than I thought it was going to be. I think the 1000 has a more simple screen. So it's a little bit smaller. Maybe I don't actually know. It's hard to judge the size of stuff on, on when you buy it on the internet. Yeah. Anyways, this couldn't be easier. You plug it into power, you plug in the microphone, you clip the watch in against this little microphone. It has like a sliding spring thing that really securely holds the watch. And then you turn it on and it basically immediately starts grabbing the beat rate. And it gives you a little line to show you how steady the watch is. It gives you amplitude and beat error and then a reference for the current position of seconds per day. And it starts out kind of guess like it gets more refined as it goes. Yeah. Uh, so I am going to learn kind of best practices. The idea is to do a really fun story for Hodinkee where I time a bunch of my watches and, and just kind of say like, well, it is what it is. Like this one's two minutes plus a day or whatever it is, whatever they come out to. Uh, but I know that people will be curious. I let the, um, SPB one, four, three sit on for quite a while in three positions, dial up crown down, dial side and dial down.
Unknown Yeah.
James And it averaged about negative four for me.
Jason Heaton That's really good.
James That's that would explain why I don't have a problem with my, uh, you know, six R right movement in that one. But I will say like on a, on a single dial up on the SSK was plus 25. Oh, okay.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. I'm not sure I would mind necessarily for $500, the plus 25, because also when I went, I think it was dialed down or maybe left side case down. So how, uh, or crown down, So like your hand at your side.
Unknown Yeah.
James It was like a negative nine. Yeah. So if it's, if it's falling between, if it's averaging out somewhere between negative nine and plus 22, also not that terrible. Uh, you know, we, we really hold watches to an impressive standard. I think, you know, if you're within a minute a day, that's still like 99% accuracy. Well over really. Right. Right. Uh, but I do understand people's point with that one. So I figured this is something that needed to be done and, and I'm sure I'm going to frustrate a slash make some brands very angry. Uh, you know, when they send a watch, that's nowhere near cause. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I'm going to learn how to use it properly and then put a big story together with my own watches. I've got, uh, anecdotally my best performing watch is about 60 years old, but was regulated by Jason Gallop. Okay. So that tells you how much comes down to the person or tool or machine that regulates your watch. Yeah. Uh, so stay tuned. It'll be in, it might be a month from now by the time I really learn how to use this thing and trust the results enough to put a story out.
Jason Heaton It raises the question for me, you know, your, your comment about it being your old watch being regulated really well. And I, it makes me wonder, you know, with something like the SSK, um, when, when people talk about, Oh, affordable watches, cheap watches, not keeping good time. I, I, that would lead me to believe that it doesn't necessarily have to do with inferior materials or, or, or build quality necessarily. It's more, I think it's factory tuned. Yeah. The, the time given at the end, you know, the human touch, um, that, that makes the difference. That would be my guess, but I don't know.
James I've, I've read lots of stuff from people who are smarter than me that say, like, when you see a movement that has a very wide accuracy statement, negative 20 to plus 15 or whatever, whatever some of these SACOs can be. negative 10 to plus 25. That's usually not so much that the movement's not capable of better, it's that they're making them so quickly. And to keep costs down, they only do so much in terms of regulation. So anyways, I'm hoping to bring some more fun and maybe a little bit more detail to the review. So I bought this machine. And if you have any questions about it, I guess let me know in the comments. I'm happy to ask. Uh, but I will do a story where I'll probably time like 10 of my watches and just, we can all have a laugh at how poorly they do.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's, that's really cool. I remember years ago, do you remember that, uh, that app for the phone called the Kello?
James Absolutely. Yeah.
Jason Heaton That used the microphone from your, um, I still see, I just checked as you were talking, I still have that installed. It needs to be redownloaded on my phone. I don't know if they're still around or supporting it.
James Or sorry, was Kello the one that used a photo?
Jason Heaton No, no.
James Kello was the one that used... Kello used the microphone from your earpods.
Jason Heaton Yeah, which I thought was cool. I don't know. I remember I got wildly different readings depending on like when I would use it. So I'm not sure how great it was. It probably doesn't compare even to the WeSheet.
James But I remember you told me about one that also used a photo, right? Where you took a photo of the watch kind of laying down and it referenced the network time on your phone.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It was called, Oh, I've got it here. I've got that as well. Twixt. It was called Twixt. I have to redownload that too. I should try these again. Yeah.
James And then that one, however many, I don't know if the app told you, I can't remember, but however many later hours later, you're supposed to take a second photo. Yes. And it would compare the, you, you kind of delineated where the seconds hand was. You told it. Right. Right. And then it would compare that to network time. I think that makes a lot of sense. Like that's very simple. It doesn't cost much money and it's like practical to your watch. Yeah. And I don't really know what a fellow like me is going to do with beat error or amplitude. I guess you could know if you have a problem bad enough to take it into a watchmaker, I guess. But no, that one that used the photos I think was actually quite clever. And if I remember correctly, it also kept a log. Yes, it did. Which I like. So I think that one could be... That would be enough for me if I was buying a watch and the person included the report from that app saying like, look, dial up. This is how it's running over this span of time. Here's the results. Yeah. I think that kind of, that kind of stuff is nice. And I'm planning to possibly sell a couple of watches in the future. And this makes me feel a lot better about sending a watch, knowing how it's running rather than saying like, Hey, it's running well, no problem.
Jason Heaton You have that classic line that people use myself included. It's like, well, it ran well, you know, when I wore it for a day or something like that, it's like, well, what does that really mean? Yeah.
James With a watch, not so much necessarily, but this brings a little bit more data to it. So that's fun. I've rambled too much about my latest silly tool, but... No, that's cool.
Jason Heaton That's really cool. Before we jump into our risk check, I guess, I just want to give a quick acknowledgement to the fact that I've been sorely remiss when it comes to shipping out supporter kits that people have ordered. We've also gotten a couple of We have a few remaining extra large t-shirts left in the TGN shop, and we got a couple of orders there. I obviously have been away for now a week and a half, and I'll be getting back to shipping stuff. I put a note on the website, but I'll be getting back to shipping stuff out next week when I'm home. So apologies there, and thanks for your patience to everyone.
James Yeah, and also speaking of patience, we'll have an announcement in the next couple episodes about how the next year of the supporter system will work. It's not changing greatly, but we have a few perks that we're going to talk about. So if you're looking at re-upping, which I think we'll start around for those of you on annual on the $100 a year should start in the next two or three weeks, probably the end of October, early November. Uh, we should have some data for you about what to expect and whether or not you want to do another hundred dollars for the year to go down to five or like whatever makes you comfortable, of course, but we'll, we'll have some data on that too in the next couple episodes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm excited to talk about that stuff. I think it's, uh, we've come up with some, some neat, uh, neat perks that I hope people will get excited about. So.
James Yeah, me too. Uh, so, uh, let's jump into wrist check. What, uh, what have you got on for, um, more adventures in Bonaire?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Looking at our notes, I think we've got kind of similar, similarly inspired watches on today.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. This morning on my dive, it's still, I've got it on an Erica's strap, which is still slightly damp, uh, from this morning's dive. I'm, I'm wearing the Skirfa MS21. This is the titanium diver from our friend Paul Schofield. It's got the blue dial, the blue bezel, uh, quartz movement, um, sword hands. Uh, it's just, I, I, I keep saying to people, you know, like this is such a TGN watch for one thing, but it's also a watch that like it's, it's almost qualifies as a no brainer to get. I mean, we talked about it in the one watch draft. This is a 200 and a sub $250 watch that is, it's got a Swiss quartz movement in it. Uh, T2 titanium case tested and designed by a saturation diver. I mean, you can't go wrong with this thing. It's just fantastic. I mean, it's worth it for the domed crystal and the bezel action alone. It's just such a high quality watch. So I couldn't be more thrilled with it. So that's what I've got on. That's what I wore this morning for a dive. And I'll see what I go for for the East Coast diving today. I'll have to get back to you about that.
James Yeah, for sure. I actually just put a watch recon alert on my phone for the MS-22. Oh, nice. Is that one steel or is that titanium? I can't remember. It's titanium. It's very similar to what you could get with the D1. Yeah, yeah. But you get a fully gradiated bezel.
Unknown Yeah.
James Which I want. Yeah. Very much. Yeah. So yeah, I'm in the market. If you happen to be listening and you've got an MS-22 and it's not getting anywhere, Uh, feel free to drop me an email, you know, the great NATO gmail.com. But, uh, it looks like two or three have gone in the last month and like they're under 400 bucks. Yeah. Yeah. That's just a ton of watch for $400. And I feel like I've been like planning, whether it was a treasure seeker or a titanium diver one or something. And I think the 22, and if I can't get one by the time the 23 comes out, maybe I'll try and play my luck at, uh, at getting a 23. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I hope, I hope you can score one. They're cool.
James And then speaking of great quartz watches, uh, I'm wearing the CWC 1983 reissue. So good. I don't know, man. Like I had loaned this to my dad for a while and he kind of fell in love with it. And then I traded him. I saw him over for, uh, an early thing for kind of a little family party, Canadian Thanksgiving, all that kind of stuff on a few days ago. And I don't know, like this is pretty close to, uh, a perfect watch. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think if I was, if I was a little bit nerdier about it or, or if I had the time and the skill, I would brush it. I think the Polish case is the only thing that doesn't resonate like perfectly with me. Yeah. But I love the simple accuracy of a quartz movement. The loom is incredible. I love the aesthetic and the fact that it delineates in a lineage. So this isn't simply an homage. It follows an MOD spec and that bezel. Yeah. That's the other thing that, that I think I didn't, necessarily give this credit when you first gave it to me, because this is a gift from you. Thank you again. Yeah. This is, this might be the best bezel on a watch under $5,000. Wow.
Jason Heaton That's, that's high praise. That's, that's saying something. Yeah. Are you talking in terms of its action or are you talking about the appearance?
James Oh, I don't mind the appearance. The appearance is great. You know, it has, um, it has a, uh, sort of acrylic or, or, uh, you know, Sapphire insert of some sort. Yeah. And it's loomed at the 10 minute markings. So 10, 20, 30, et cetera. But for me, it's the action. It's a 60 click. Yeah. It perfectly aligns. It has absolutely nothing. The only sound it makes is the click. I'll do it next to the microphone. A little bit of ASMR. I just think it's like seriously impressive as far as what they've managed to do for, it's about $750 watch. Yeah. Which in some worlds you could say is a lot for a quartz. But you're buying into a really high level of specificity with this watch. And that's what I like about watches. It's what I like about pretty much anything. Yeah. You know, this one is fixed spring bars, so it's pretty much NATO only. I have nothing but praise for these. It's basically a perfect everyday watch. You can spend... They're almost always sold out, so they must also be a very popular option. You can spend a bit more. I actually don't know how much because they're always sold out, but you can spend a bit more and get a mechanical. Do you have any idea of like the ballpark for those? Is it under two grand?
Jason Heaton I think it's right around two grand for the 1980, um, reissue. I think they called that one with the same bezel and the auto. Yeah. I, I, I tested one of those when they first came out and they're, yeah, I mean, they're cool. And I have the, I guess I have the standard automatic with the, the, not the kind of the faux Bakelite bezel, but, um, right.
James And how's the action on that? The same, same.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I mean, just, just really good. I, I, The one quartz that I have remaining now is a 95, 1995. It was an issued piece and, and the bezel's a little, um, well, granted it's an, it's an old watch now, but, uh, it's not quite as good, but you know, just, um, yeah, these are good. I think the, the, the, the combination of, of quartz, um, good loom and then the fixed spring bars, it just feels like the kind of watch that like it's super tool. It's so tool-ish and it's like you throw it on a NATO and it just feels like this is the kind of watch you just, when, When you don't know what else to wear or when you just need something to work, you grab that one and you don't even have to think about it.
James Yeah. I mean the bezel thing sounds extreme, but if you get a chance to turn one, just go ahead and give her a spin. And it's the action that does it. You know, the, the Pelagos has those, the ball bearing action. Manta does an incredible bezel for the money. Yeah. And I think this is right up there. So maybe five grand is a little extreme. Yeah. But if I made a list of the five best bezel actions under five grand, which might honestly be the five best bezel actions at any price. Like I genuinely don't know of one significantly better that sits out in my mind than a Pelagos.
Unknown Yeah.
James So that might be the best bezel action out there. The Manta, like I said, is way up there. It's the ability to have like a really heavy 60 click where there's no wiggle. which is tough to do on 60. I think it's one of the reasons 120 has become popular. There's no slop. There's no, there's nothing like that. And then it's so the, the, the actual noise of the mechanism is so nice that you can set it without looking. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like you want to, you want to do five, you get five. Yeah. Yeah. No, I really like it. Uh, it's, it's been a treat to have it back and I think I'll probably wearing it for the next little while.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Good. I'm, I'm, I'm glad that's getting some wrist time. I didn't realize your dad was wearing that too. That's really awesome. What, what did you swap to him?
James Yeah, because I took back the SKX007. Oh, okay. Yeah. Uh, cause I was doing that three on three for Hodinkee. And then I also wanted it for a comparative photo with the SSK003 project still forthcoming. And then I, yeah, I, I swapped this one back, but he'd been wearing it a ton and, and, and, and that sort of thing. So he got somewhere out of it and then I took it up to the cottage this weekend and it's just, it's perfect. Like middle of the night, the loom is like just the right brightness to actually see it. Yeah. And, uh, and be able to read the time. Um, and then, yeah, being able to time things and, and, and that sort of thing, bike rides and otherwise with the bezel. Yeah. Uh, super nice. And, and yeah, I'm just a sucker for a 60 click bezel. That's well done.
Jason Heaton We should, uh, maybe that should become a new, a new part of the show is, uh, we can do holding our bezel up to the microphone and doing a different bezel every week.
James Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Bezel moment. Yeah. For sure. Well, speaking of great bezels and otherwise, you want to get into the main topic for this one?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's jump into it. I'm really happy that we're revisiting this kind of genre of TGN. I think, you know, going back and pulling out some of these old concepts from shows past, I think is a lot of fun. And when we were coming up with the topic, This was this was a fun one to dredge up. So yeah, perfect product. You know, we perfect is a I guess you could put it in quotes. It's it's more of a product that, you know, we have loved and used over the years, sometimes unsung products that maybe we, you know, you often overlook. I as I was trying to come up with something, I was looking around at what I brought on this trip. And I don't know, a dive trip is always a good way to sort of tease out what's what you rely on and what's good and kind of what gets kind of tossed back in the basement when you get back home and then pull out and it just works. And, and so that, that kind of inspired what I chose for this week. But, uh, looking at your list, I see something that I know you've, you've used a lot as well. So, um, let's, uh, let's jump right into it.
James You want to go first? Uh, yeah, I can go first for sure. Uh, so with perfect product, like in the past, we've done everything from, I actually have the list here. I went back and looked like we've picked things like camera lenses, great boots, Sunglasses, Patagonia Nano Puff. I feel like that's one we've talked about a ton. Bikes, ways to make coffee. And the last one was episode 148 was very camera heavy. It was a Nikon F3T and a Leica Q. And this one's a little bit more varied. And we're also bringing back something we haven't done since the first one, where we're going to pick two products that are just whatever we wanted, and then two from within the watch space. And I think it's been enough time since episode 76 uh, that we found some nice stuff in the watch space. And that's certainly, uh, looking at what we're going to suggest. I think, uh, I think it was a good choice, but my first one is actually something I have talked a ton about on the show in the past, but it was only in having a discussion with you recently about bags. You were packing for bone air and trying to figure out what was the right bag for the trip. And that's always a struggle. And I kind of realized I hadn't had that struggle in a long time, because I got a bag that I really like, uh, for travel and work travel. And that's the, uh, the Tenba DNA. Uh, when I got mine, it was, I think 2014 or 2015 for Baselworld. So it's like, this is the one seven or eight years old. And now they call it the DNA 16 pro and it's a messenger style camera bag that doesn't look like a camera bag. It's, it's pretty low key itself. It stands upright when you put it down, which is very important to me. Um, it's hard for me to, to really decide where to start with because I've had this bag on probably over a hundred trips around the world in that time. I would say maybe extensively over and anytime that I derivate from using that bag, I regret it. Um, it's, uh, I'm not much for messenger bags in general. And I think even when I use this, unless I have a problem where I need both my hands, I don't use the camera strap. I pick it up like a briefcase or I use the, uh, luggage handle sleeve panel on the back that allows it to sit on top of my roller case. And that's basically been how I've traveled since like 2015. I want to say it was 2014. It might've been 2015. I couldn't find the original receipt and it's been kind of my go-to bag for the, for that span of time. The, the one I have is technically for 15 inch, but it takes my 16 inch MacBook pro without issue. And then on top of that, I would say, you know, they say that you can have a full size camera system with a 70 to 200 mounted and three other lenses with room for accessories. And they're definitely not wrong. Yeah. And that's the other thing I really like about this versus a traditional backpack is when you go through security with multiple cameras, multiple camera batteries, all sorts of wires, you have to know how to take it out so that your bag isn't consistently being pulled aside. Right. Right. Because it's not so much like it adds a ton of time to have your bag secondary check, But if you're in a huge line of people that are getting their bag secondary check, because they have like 35 loose bottles of shampoo in their carry on, you're going to be like sitting and standing for a long time. And when like things at the Toronto airport are like they are now you're already in for an hour and a half worth of standing and pulling your bag around. So cutting 20 minutes out of that is not a bad idea in my world. Yeah. So there's an efficiency to this system where you have a nice big bag and this insert that very easily comes out. The insert can be arranged for specific gear. I keep it in a two-panel setup where one side holds taller things like camera flashes or on-site bags. I think I've talked about these before. They're kind of like a thin pencil case, but they have mesh on the front so you can see what's in them. Yeah. And those sit upright, as does the Alpaca Essentials thing that I talked about last week, which can slide right in. It's kind of standing on its tail. The other side, I can fit my Q, my M10, probably a spare lens. I typically travel these days with a 50 and a 90. And then the Q does wide angle or natural wide 28. And then you have all the batteries that you might need. And then on top of that, you have things like chargers, cables, you know, intermittent batteries, like a battery to recharge your phone or whatever when you're on the go. Um, and all of that can fit in there. And then you can, I can usually also do that with my toiletry bag, which is just a little leather pouch that I keep, you know, the usual stuff in. I find that there's only one airport in the world that will force you to use those clear plastic bags. And that's London Heathrow everywhere else says that you have to use that bag and then they do nothing about it. So I've stopped doing the whole moving my stuff in and out of a plastic bag. The, the nice thing is, is the, the, camera insert does not actually fill up the entire width of the bag. So you end up with another kind of natural pocket on the one side, like maybe an inch and a half, uh, which I really like. And that's another place where I can keep things like, I usually keep a plastic bag in there so that if it's raining, I have something I can cover cameras with, or, you know, like a big Ziploc, that sort of thing.
Unknown Yeah.
James And it has a weather cover, so you can cover the whole bag, but if you're supposed to still shoot in the weather, then that's not that convenient. And then you have a front bunch of organization, which can hold cables and a phone and your passport and that kind of stuff. When you go in and out of security, if that's what you want to do, I usually keep that stuff in a jacket and the jacket comes off all as one unit again, so that I have my phone. If the bag goes through security and has to be double checked. Yeah. And then finally you have a rear section, which can hold full size paper, all sorts of pens. Like it has a natural sort of little office organizer in the back. And then each side has a big, sort of expansive mesh pocket. And it's big enough for a nano puff, you can cram a nano puff in there. Certainly the vest fits without issue. I'll typically put things like the charger or something I'm going to grab on the plane, because it's going to be right at my feet. This is also where I would keep something like my Sony noise canceling headphones. Yeah, XM 1000 threes I have. The modern one doesn't look to have been markedly changed. The one they sell now for 200 bucks. I also can't believe this thing's 200 bucks given how well it's held up. Um, it's just, it's outlasted so many other bags that I've had in the usefulness of that bag. Like I said, I don't really use the shoulder strap. Um, but the other thing I realized is like now when I go to the cottage for a weekend, I just use this bag. I take the camera insert out of it. I put some clothes in the bag, I tuck a camera into it and I just put it in the Jeep. Yeah. So it works as a weekender for a couple of days. It's a little tougher when it gets cooler because you're carrying heavier layers, but definitely you want to go somewhere for a couple of days in the summer and take a little bit of gear. It's still the right bag for that.
Jason Heaton I'm curious, you know, how you use this bag, like on a typical trip, let's say it's a three, four day trip. Um, are we talking like a rolling, I don't know, do you have an away like a roller bed?
James I'm still using the away carry on size, the smaller of the two.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So, so you're using something like that or, you know, I have a Tumi Tegra light. So something that size, like a carry on size roller bag. And then this, right, this is for everything else. This is for the layer you want to put on, on the plane, your camera, your headphones, um, your laptop and your passport, for example. And then this slides under the seat and the away bag goes in the overhead bin. Is that kind of how you, how you use it then?
James Yeah. The only scenario where something would be in the away bag beyond clothing would be if I want to take, um, what I would call an intermediary bag. So that would be like my observer collection tango. Yeah. Because it can fold it, it lays flat like a, like a paper bag.
Unknown Yeah.
James I will sometimes put that first into my away and then pack over it. Oh, sure. Yeah. Especially if I'm in a little bit of a higher end sort of dressier scenario. Uh, it's nicer to have that and just put one or two cameras in it. Yeah. then have the Tenba. But the Tenba, like I said, stands when you put it down. The bottom of the bag is waterproof. So you can just put it down in a puddle. Sure. Yeah. I don't even look anymore. The new one's actually 1.5 inches of waterproof. Yeah.
Jason Heaton It looks like it looks like it's almost like a bucket bottom.
James Like, yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I love that because you can be anywhere. I've set mine down in snow, wet grass all the time, right? Like you're shooting early in the morning and there's dew on the ground. Don't care. Yeah. Won't make any difference to the bag. Nothing's ever gotten wet inside the bag. the new one, much like the old one also has, and this is a weird one that people don't understand until you kind of show it to them. It has quiet Velcro. Thank goodness. It's called like whisper quiet. Yeah. So if you, if you just pull the top, the top flap, you know, willy nilly, it makes a normal Velcro sound. Yeah. And if you're in a quiet room with, you know, 200 other people watching an auction or, or, you know, somebody's doing a presentation and you're the guy like ripping a 12 inch panel of Velcro. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton You're not going to be very popular.
James Look, quiet Velcro doesn't sound like it's important. I use it all the time. And this one, if you pull down on the Velcro on the flat, pull it down towards the bottom of the bag and then away, it makes no noise at all. Wow. It has two magnetic clips. that you can very easily manage to pop on and off at in the dark with one hand at a weird angle under a plane seat, the rest of it. They work really well to secure the flap and the Velcro, but they don't do any more work than that. So it's not a buckle. It's a clip. Yeah. Um, I think it's super intelligent because the, the combination of that and the Velcro, um, especially because the handle is sewn into the back of the bag and then is sewn across half of the top of the bag. So when you pick it up, It weights itself really nicely in terms of a balance, but it also puts all of the handle pull on that Velcro. And then, so they've re-secured that really smartly with these clips. That's actually the only thing that's ever failed for me on the bag is the stitching for that handle after seven or eight years. And it's, you know, like I said, I almost never use the shoulder strap. I'll just carry it by hand. in and out of cards, in and out of planes, the rest of it, that threading finally pulled free while I was at Watches and Wonders this year. And I briefly thought, like, buy another one. They're $200. Who cares? And I was like, yeah, but also I could easily fix this. So when I got home, I coated both sides of the area in super glue and then stitched it with some very heavy wax thread. And like, sure, if you open the flap and look for the threading, you can see it. It's like a gray interior, light gray interior with this weird ham fisted threading I did. But it's just as strong as it was. And I'll just keep using it. And from the outside, you can't tell. It hides right into the nylon of the heavy nylon webbing of the handle. So yeah. And then otherwise, like when I'm on a plane, I typically have like a costume I wear. Uh, you know, I, I preferably pants with some good pockets. So I really liked those live free pants from Dewar. I just bought another pair. Those are kind of my go-to, I can sleep in those. They wear kind of like sweat pants. Um, you know, they have a, uh, adjustable cuff at the bottom, so they're not catching on anything. Yeah. And then you have a couple thigh pockets, like a cargo style pockets. And then since I've gotten it, like I wear that planet earth shirt from Volbach anytime I travel. Yeah. Um, the way that it deals with like hot or cold is really nice. You can really adjust the neck. If you're a little cold, it has a couple different sort of clips and snaps that you get enough pockets to do the passport and everything without it ever feeling like it's digging into you or bothering you. And it's up high enough that it's not around your waist where you have the seatbelt and all that kind of stuff. So I wear that a ton. And then I have a couple of over shirts, you know, the green one that I've worn on, on video a few times, or I have one from Pedro and Taylor. I really like, and, it's all really nice stuff, but the bag is, is for me, it's essentially perfect. And I'm always tempted to buy a new one just to have it. But then this one's still going like it's, it's literally at my feet right now. I've got a, you know, a compass clip to it and a couple of those night eyes beaters and that kind of thing. But yeah, it's the right size. It's easy to go in and out of security. It doesn't look like a camera bag. It doesn't say any of the big camera bag brands on it. Like Tenba seems to be used by, people who prefer a kind of a subtle play for their camera bag.
Jason Heaton Yeah. All their products on their website seem, they have a very anonymous kind of look to them to the, to the point of being bland is, uh, sounds negative, but I mean that in the best way. I mean, they just look like they kind of just melt into the, to the background without drawing attention.
James Yeah. And I think, you know, for 200 bucks to like just to round out this rant, but like for $200, it's a bag of unbelievable quality. I've owned Filson bags that cost three times as much. Um, the only other brand that I come across commonly that makes similar quality stuff is Topo, but they don't make anything like this bag in terms of the format and how considered it is. All the touch points are really nice. The organization's great. The size is nice. It's got a top zipper. So if you, if you are using the camera strap, the shoulder strap, you can use the zipper to reach in and grab a camera or battery or whatever you need without putting the thing down. Like if you're moving. Yeah. But mostly I like that it's like a pretty subtle low key bag that has all the quality and tech that I want. And you know, they've made some innovations with the new one. One, you can get it in a different color. Mine's just kind of this grayish tech color. Uh, now I can get it in blue, which would almost be enough for me to buy another if it wasn't for being wasteful with a bag I already have. You know, I would say if they, if they did a collab and made this bag with Filson, yeah, I'd be, that'd be the only way they could make me want one more is like to give it a little bit more of a rustic look rather than a techie look. Right. But other than that, um, it's basically a perfect bag as far as I've come across. It was an easy decision for perfect product.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I love it. Yeah. I think it's, that's kind of a good model for, for what we're after with the show like this is that, um, you know, it's something you use over and over again that you don't think too hard about, but like then when you start to consider and look around your space, whether you're on the road or at home and you're like, Yeah, I use that a lot. And it's, it just, it just works. Stuff doesn't break. It's very functional.
James And it's repairable in my experience. Right.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
James Yeah. Good stuff. Tenba if you're listening, you should be very impressed with this bag. And if you could find a few more retailers in Canada, that would be cool too. Yeah. Right. Yeah. How about you? What have, what have you picked for today?
Jason Heaton Yeah. So mine's a, Quite a bit difference of it's a much simpler product in that it has no moving parts. Um, it's, it's, it's less than a third of the price. Um, and, and I happen to have it with me here in Bonaire, which is, you know, when we were talking about the show, I was kind of looking around at all the stuff I brought, which isn't a lot, you know, when you're, when you're traveling and a lot of it has to do with diving and photography. I mean, that's fairly limiting. Um, but my pick today is a pair of, Dauphin Hawaii pro classic swim fins. Um, this is a pair of, uh, rubber swim fins that I've had on many trips over the years, uh, including, you know, uh, took them to Sri Lanka, took them to Jamaica a couple of years ago, Bonaire on several occasions and, you know, abuse them at home in the lakes, uh, around home. And I, I just think these are such a minimalist kind of perfectly created product in that, um, you know, oftentimes when, when we go on dive trips, we've got all this, this heavy duty dive gear and, and we're doing, if not cold water diving here in Bonaire, you have to tiptoe across a lot of kind of rocks and coral to get into the ocean or you're, you're diving off of a boat or whatever. And I tend to wear neoprene booties, dive booties with, with, you know, fins, heavy fins. And if I just want to go for a snorkel or for a swim off a beach or off the back of the apartment here, uh, do a little free diving or snorkeling. Uh, I don't want to have to put on neoprene boots that are going to get soggy and kind of loose on my feet and have to wear big heavy fins just for kind of kicking around. And so I came across these Duffin Hawaii swim fins several years ago and they're $66. So, you know, really qualifies as a very affordable thing that, that, um, you know, can almost be like an impulse buy if you're, if you're looking for something like this. Uh, and they've worked just so well in so many different occasions for kind of just all around water sports activities. And I can't say that they would be heavy duty enough in terms of their propulsion for, you know, pushing around an actual scuba tank and gear. If you're, if you're actually scuba diving with them, although I'm sure that they might do okay. Uh, but so much of the time that I spend in water, uh, is not scuba diving. It's, it's snorkeling, it's free diving. It's, uh, open water swimming. I used it for kind of a few of the open water swims across the lake, uh, near my house in the summertime. And I just think for people, even, you know, listeners that are not necessarily, uh, certified divers or scuba divers, you know, who, who doesn't go to the beach regularly or, or do snorkeling every now and then, or, or just swimming at the family cottage or something on the lake that that wouldn't benefit from something like this, where they pull on onto bare feet. That's a really soft rubber, um, you know, they're, I don't know what the term is, not ambidextrous. I'm not sure what the term would be for feet, but they can, you can just pull them on either foot. Uh, they float in saltwater. Um, I just think they're great. They're, it's, it's just a really, um, minimalist product that I, I just hardly ever think about. I just throw them in my bag. They can, they can pack into a backpack or, or, or clip on with a Caribbean or on the back of a pack. I just feel like this is the kind of product that, or, or, or gear that you'd want to take on, any sort of a trip that you're going on, if you're going to be close to water at any point, because there's very little weight penalty there. They're very small and, uh, and they're just so useful.
James This is great. Uh, you know, it's funny because I feel like we both kind of picked things that maybe we each on the other side might need. Yeah. Uh, you know, we talked about bags and I recommended the 10, but not two weeks ago for you. And then even just yesterday I was leaving the cottage and, you know, kind of packing stuff up because it's towards the end of the season. And I brought back all the snorkel gear so it doesn't sit in, you know, negative 20 weather for no reason for the whole winter. And I was trying to decide, like, should I bring my, you know, my wetsuit boots and my, my huge Vortex V16 fins back. And I was kind of thinking like, if I go diving in the next few months, it's going to be somewhere tropical. Right. And I should look into buying like what, what the move is for an inexpensive fin that's also a good fin. Yeah. Because fins can cost a lot of money. Yeah. You know, I bought a pair for my eldest daughter earlier this year, which she used all summer and had a blast in, but you know, they're scuba pros, they're nice fins, but they're a very small size because she is, and they were like 150 bucks. And you look at a pair of these fins and I kind of like, oh man, all right, well, as soon as I have an excuse, you sold me on it. I love the way they look, the different colors they come in. I love the idea that I don't have to wear a booty. or anything with them, you can just put them on and go. And I agree with the idea that I don't think this would be something just for snorkeling. It's just for being in the water and gaining some mobility. And it really that 66 bucks is kind of like a no brainer, right?
Jason Heaton There's something very freeing too. I think after many years of scuba diving, there's something about just just going in the water with, you know, swim trunks, a dive mask and these fins. And if you want, you can clip a snorkel onto your under your mask and you're set. You know, there's all sorts of adventures you can have in shallow water. Um, for sure. In a very minimalist way. And it feels very freeing to do that. And certainly you can snorkel or you can swim around without fins at all. But these just sort of add this little bit of propulsion that is really nice if you're, you know, in a bit of chop or in the ocean or, or let's say you want to kind of, you know, do a little bit of a breath hold diving to kind of kick down, you know, 20 feet to look at something on the bottom. These are, these are just perfect for that. And there's something to like when you handle these fins, you know, dive fins are kind of made for maximum propulsion because you're, you're pushing. If you've ever tried to, to kick while wearing full dive gear without wearing fins, I, I, I've got an interesting anecdote. I, when I was, um, getting my open water certification, you know, the, during the first couple of days and the pool at the dive shop, um, I had packed everything along that I needed except my fins and I was there and we were doing some kind of a, what do they call it? The, the tired diver tow or carry or something like that where you're supposed to push your buddy along in the pool. And the instructor was, you know, a little cheeky and he's like, I had, I think I had called Gashani. I said, can you run down here with my fins? Cause I forgot them. And while I was waiting for her to arrive, like the instructor was like, well you're next. And I had to like push, my buddy around the pool wearing my dive gear and my buddy was in full dive gear and it was impossible. You can't move. You cannot propel yourself in the water barefoot wearing full dive gear. And, um, so dive fins are made with, with a stiffer material, a synthetic material to give you maximum propulsion. Now these are not made to do that. And so it's a really soft rubber. They're really comfortable. And when you handle them, they don't feel anything like dive fins. They have this really soft, almost like a child's rubber toy. Um, they, they say it's made out of Malaysian rubber, like genuine rubber and okay. And there's two different kind of composites of rubber, a stiffer one for the fin itself. So you do get some propulsion and then an extra soft version of it where, you know, for the foot pocket. So they're, they're really comfortable on the feet. They don't really chafe. The back strap is kind of flexy, so you can kind of strap it on over your heel. And, uh, they, um, I don't know. I just love these things. They have a certain nostalgic feel to them. They were developed by an Australian who lived in Hawaii in the seventies and, and, uh, was working around a lot of surfers and ocean lifeguards. And he kind of just saw a need for developing some inexpensive, effective swim fins. And they just sort of have that nostalgic kind of sixties, seventies, like free feeling tropical, you know, waterman sort of appeal to them. And I just love them for that. you know, if I were to put together kind of a kit, you know, kind of a TGN kit, it'd be like, you know, throw these in your Patagonia black hole back, uh, backpack with, you know, a dive mask and your swim trunks. And, you know, you're good to go, you know, maybe a, a scurfer or a CWC on your wrist, you know, some kind of inexpensive knock around watch that you can, you can get wet and just go have a ball. I think they're, uh, they're perfect for that sort of thing.
James Well, that's excellent. Yeah. Good pick for sure. So as far as the product, uh, the non watch products go, I picked the 10, but DNA 16 pro. which is available for about 200 bucks. And Jason picked the Daffin Hawaii Pro Classic Swim Fins, which are about 66 bucks, which feels like a steal for something that doesn't really leave anything on the table. All right, so with those perfect products out of the way, obviously, like I mentioned at the top, we're gonna also do a product from the watch space that we really liked, and it'd be non-watch, I think is how it usually works out. So Jason, why don't you continue with the good picks and give us your watch-related perfect product?
Jason Heaton Yeah, again, another simple product. I mean, this is something you can strap your SCRFA or your CWC on with your Duffin swim fins. This is a, it's the CNS ribbed NATO strap. So CNS is a brand run by a woman in Sweden. She used to go by cheapest NATO straps. Um, but as some of you may, may know, there's a guy out there who's very possessive of the term NATO for NATO straps. And, um, He likes to kind of very litigious. Yes. He likes to, uh, reach out and make people cease and desist from using the term NATO to sell straps. Um, so she has changed her business name to CNS and she sells a ribbed NATO that, you know, ribbed NATO is you can, you can get from a variety of sources. CWC sells a really nice one. Um, among many others, I happened to pick up a handful of these from CNS and they are less than $10 each, which, which is pretty amazing. Um, you know, NATO's aren't, aren't a huge outlay of money in general, but, but under $10 is pretty awesome. I like the look of ribbed straps. She's got just a ton of colors, um, which is, you know, might or might not be your thing. I, I tend to kind of not go for, I have an orange one and, uh, that I don't wear very much. And then I've got kind of a, kind of a cool blue. Um, but, uh, you know, I just like the gray, the tan, they've got a number of them. They are a bit stiff, um, which, you know, out of the box, like you put them on, they're like, boy, this thing's like, really heavy duty and stiff, but I found that like when you're wearing them for diving or for anything active, that that stiffness kind of holds up well when they get wet, they're easy to still thread and, and, and put on, um, and then they do soften up with use. So, um, you know, there's not much more to say about it. It's a NATO strap, so I'm not going to go into great detail about them, but, uh, for, for less than 10 bucks, I think, uh, you can't go wrong and they can get like four of them for, for $40. So that's killing.
James Yeah. No, they look great. Uh, you know, it's funny. The patterning is along the strap rather than across. Yeah. Uh, which is the antithesis of the, of the Utenados that we we've come to like for so long. Right. Uh, but yeah, a ton of colors that some of them like even look at the Santa Fe one, which is kind of looks like a, almost like a belt. Yeah. Yeah. Like with a bunch of different color and some pattern in it. Mezcal. Yeah. Mezcal. These look awesome. And I was happy when I saw them mentioned on Instagram that like the outcome of that jerk's lawsuit or cease and desist or legal activity wasn't that they were going away because other people just go away. Yeah. Right. A lot of people that sell NATOs online are one person. Yeah. Yeah. And that's who this guy attacks. He's not coming after, you know, the top people or the big brands or the people who make the NATOs, but just the end point, anyone who uses that term. Yeah. Um, in a capacity for the strap specifically can get, get themselves in some trouble. Right. And, uh, I'm glad, I mean, who cares if it's cheap NATO straps or CNS and watch bands? Yeah. I'd be fine if the whole community just stopped calling them NATOs. Let's call it, let's figure out another term and just end it for this dude. Yeah. You know, it's, it's just good that they're still around and at $10 they're maintaining the, you know, what CNS kind of stands for. Right. That's a, that's a lot of value.
Unknown Cool stuff. Yeah.
James Good pick. Yeah. Mine is not inexpensive. Mine's actually probably the best, in my opinion, the most perfected version of this item. We've talked about it before. I don't think I could do a watch pick on a perfect product and leave this on the table. I think we've talked about it enough. I now own one, and that's the Hasler Instruments Bolt Action Spring Bar Tool. Yeah, it is perfect. This is the last spring bar tool you need to buy. It is, uh, if you've ever come across a tactile turn pen, it's built to that quality, but it's also built to order. He doesn't carry stock. Typically, uh, Jason, you know, Tom, but, uh, I was lucky enough to meet him as was my wife in, um, in Chicago for windup. And we bought, he, he had prepared some stock, some limited stocks. So we were able to buy one face to face. Look, I I'd support a lot of people with a small business that, that, that are like in our scope, even if their product wasn't necessarily the quote unquote Rolls Royce of X. This is the Rolls-Royce of spring bar tools. Yeah. It's beautifully made. It's, you know, milled from steel. It has a beautiful clip. You can use it like a pen, like you can store it like a pen. If that's preferable for you. I just leave it on my desk and it's become, you know, an object of beauty in many ways. But I also, you know, use a spring bar tool probably once a day, maybe a little bit more on average. And this has a nice tip. it uses a mechanical sort of bolt action with a spring. So you can retract the tip into the body for, you know, putting it into a bag or your pocket and not having a sharp tip. And then the cap actually unscrews and you have a, like a, um, a pusher instead of a fork. So yeah, if you're interested in getting one, he doesn't have a website, which I love. This feels again, I love the kind of the way the internet used to be. And I feel like Hasler's right in that zone. Hasler is H A S S L E R. And you can either go to their Instagram, and send a DM to get on the wait list for one of these. These are made by hand, so it's worth waiting for. Make a fantastic Christmas gift if you get one by then. But I think you'd be thrilled to get one at any time. They're made in St. Paul, Minnesota. You can also email haslerinstruments at gmail.com. This isn't an ad or a placement. Tom has no idea that we're going to talk about these. I've just been super impressed with mine, and the more I use it, the more I've come to like like that it's often better made than half of the watches I'm using it on. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I think that we think they're about 125 bucks. I think that's what I spent on the one in Chicago, but whatever they cost, even if it's a little bit more than 125, is that a lot for a spring bar tool? No question, but one you're supporting a dude in our world, which is worth something to me. And two, it's as good as a spring bar tool could be like eat your heart out Bergeron because you're not playing at this level. Tom's doing some great work. I really like this thing and have no problem saying it's perfect. I use it all the time.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. I use it almost every day when I'm back home. And, uh, yeah, Tom's a good guy and, and, you know, just knowing him, he's, he's got a real eye for detail and, and, um, he does not put out a bad product. And if you follow him on Instagram, he puts up a lot of kind of fun videos and reels and things where he shows how to replace the tip or disassemble it or, you know, whatever. And, um, he stands behind his product too. So, uh, strong endorsement from both of us and, uh, definitely a perfect product.
James All right, well, there we go. Two non-watch product perfect products and two from the watch world. I think that's probably perfect product episode number five all buttoned up, don't you think?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think so. That was solid. It was fun to revisit our show genre there, and I hope people like it.
James Yeah, and for final notes this week, we actually have sort of a mixed bag, which was sort of a handful of like, we'll call them TGN alumni. That might be putting on airs a little bit. You know, these people are amazing long before they were on, uh, TGM, but we're very thankful to have had them on previous episodes, but there's kind of some news from the world of people who have been on past episodes of TGN that we didn't want to kind of let slip away into the ether. Uh, so these final notes, we actually kind of picked together. We both thought it was a good idea. And, uh, and I guess the first of the three is, um, our, our guy, Henry catch poll has, uh, moved from carfection, which it's my understanding. They're kind of wrapping up. operations. And he's now on the Hagerty network. So I've talked a ton about Hagerty and some of the incredible videos they have on there, whether it's, you know, the appraiser with Colin Comer or some of Jason Kamisa's stuff. And it really goes in a bunch of different directions. And they do a really, really good job of kind of covering a bunch of different levels. They're also doing a really great series right now with the fantastic car photographer, Larry Chen. And he's just documenting like car fascination around the world. They're doing such great work. And now they also have Henry.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Perfect. Right.
James I feel like that's the right spot for him. And he, I believe they're still doing some Carfection videos. I'm still seeing them show up in the feed. So keep watching those, keep liking those, keep sharing their love. I don't know the full story behind that, but that's my understanding for Carfection. And I've been listening and watching Carfection stuff since long before they were even called Carfection. They were X car for many years before that. And, uh, I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of the guys involved with that channel and I'll certainly miss it. But if Henry's got to go somewhere, I think Haggerty is incredible. And, and I think it's a good one and I'll, I'll include kind of one of his first two or three videos with them, which is a great review of the new 992, uh, 911 GT3 RS, and which even compares it to a pretty high-tech, uh, mountain bike. It's a good one and definitely worth a look. So that's the first thing we wanted to, uh, wanted to cover in final notes today was. Uh, luckily we're not in a world where we won't get great videos from Henry.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And there's, there's certainly been no, uh, no ramp up time for him, uh, moving to Hagerty. The video was spectacularly good. I watched this, uh, nine 11 one just this morning and, um, great footage, you know, typical, uh, typical Henry driving. I think he was wearing the, his, uh, MB two with, uh, with a TGN strap on it. We're happy to see that great work by Henry driving and, and, talking while he's doing both at the same time. I don't know how he drives that fast while he's actually carrying on a coherent conversation. It's a special skill.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Right. Our second, uh, sort of past TGN guest who's, uh, got some interesting and great news these days is, uh, Robert Spangle, uh, from thousand yard style and the observer collection. Uh, we've talked a lot about him. He was obviously on a past episode, which, uh, we chatted with Robert and he was, uh, such a great guest. And so he, Recently announced, he has a new book coming out called Afghan Style. This is being sold through his observercollection.com website. We'll put a link in the show notes. It's up for pre-order now. He's got a kind of a standard edition and then a special edition that will be signed by him. It comes in a slipcover and also is included with it will be like little artifacts from some of his photo trips to Afghanistan. Whether it's a snippet of a 35 millimeter roll of film or a page from his journal or a passport page. He's, he's included a few things. I guess it'll be a surprise what you get. Um, it's a collection of photos that he took on two different trips to Afghanistan, one before the Taliban kind of took over again and, and, um, the country kind of fell into its recent chaos. And then, um, you know, one after that he went back there and shot some amazing photos of Afghan men wearing incredible clothing. So, you know, hats off to Robert. Congratulations on the book. It looks amazing. I've placed my order. I know you did too, James, and Can't wait to get that in my hands. So check that out.
James Yeah. Yeah. It was one of those, I saw it on Instagram and I was like, Oh yeah. Uh, couldn't, couldn't have been easier. He had Apple pay. It was, it was over in a couple of minutes. And then even later on, I got a text message from a buddy saying like, which version did you buy? And I was like, there were other versions. So I got, I got a standard edition and I'm very excited to have it here. Um, I love having anything, you know, with Robert's name on it. I'm a huge fan of the products from observer collection. And this is, you know, I have a few other, you know, sort of menswear men's style books that I really enjoy street style books. Uh, but this is going to have a perspective that's, you know, almost unique to, uh, to Robert, which, uh, super exciting. And I just always throw the sea and be able to support folks like Robert. Right. All right. And then, uh, for the third one on a very fast, uh, sort of list through some cool stuff is, uh, our buddy Cole, uh, Cole Pennington, who's been on a couple episodes of, uh, of TGN in the past. has started producing some stories for Watches of Espionage. We've talked about Watches of Espionage, which we'll call it W-O-E, a couple times in the past, certainly. They have a newsletter, which is basically how you get the stories. And the first one is sort of an introduction to Cole and his back history in writing about watches and how he's going to be using the digital page, if you will, with Watches of Espionage to write about watches that were deemed to be too sort of controversial or have too murky or dark of a background to be on a site like Hodinkee. So that's kind of the first story. Right now, you can subscribe to the newsletter. The link to that newsletter and all that will be right in the show notes. And I really implore you to do this. They do some really incredible writing and you're not going to catch the same topic anywhere else. It's like a singular pillar of watch content. And I've really enjoyed the newsletter since Cole turned me on to it some time ago. The other plus is they're also soon to be launching a website. You know, I prefer to read things in pocket. Uh, so having the stuff only come through Gmail usually means that I put it into print mode and keep it in a tab on one of my browser windows and then read it that evening or on the weekend when I have time. Uh, but I I'm thrilled to see watches of espionage expand and to say that they're able to expand with coal is just an added plus. I think it's a great fit for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. In fact, uh, one just came through my inbox, uh, this morning. So yeah, it's good stuff. It's, uh, it's unique content and, uh, just kind of, uh, kind of fun to get in your mailbox and I can't wait to see the website and hats off to Cole for joining up.
James Yeah, for sure. So that's our final notes. We've got, uh, brand new, uh, videos from Henry are now going to be showing up on Hagerty. So if you were subscribed to Carfection, add Hagerty in there. If you haven't already, they have a ton of great stuff. but to have Henry on there's awesome. And then obviously this new book, Afghan style from Robert Spangle. And finally, Cole Pennington's writing for Watches of Espionage. Pretty good week for folks from the TGN world, I guess, finding kind of new homes and new projects finally going live.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's really cool to see. And I know of at least one that's coming up that I'll be mentioning in the near future, but there are plenty of other great folks that we've had on the show that, that, um, are doing some, some pretty amazing stuff. And obviously they always were, and that's why we had them on. But, uh, yeah, it's great to see this evolution.
James So, yeah, no, that'd be great. And as always, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to get the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, and maybe grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegraynato.com for more details. Music throughout is Siesta by JazzArt via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Vince Lombardi who said, choose to achieve perfection. We won't achieve it because perfection is impossible, but by pursuing perfection, we will achieve excellence.