The Grey NATO – 224 – Collection Inspection Vol. 10

Published on Thu, 26 Jan 2023 06:00:00 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discuss two watches from their collections as part of a "collection inspection" episode. Jason talks about his Omega Seamaster Racing from 2006, which features a unique regatta timer complication useful for sailing races. He appreciates the thought put into the design details to accomodate the regatta timer display. Blake then discusses his Bremont S302 GMT dive watch, which combines a GMT function with 300m water resistance. He values its versatility, attractive aesthetics, and the right mid-sized proportions for his preferences.

Transcript

Speaker
Blake Buettner Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 224 and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you're listening and would like to support the show, please visit thegreynado.com for more details. Hey Jason, how we doing?
Jason Heaton I'm doing pretty well. Yeah, bright sunny day, midwinter, you know, what can I say? You take what you can get. When we have a sunny day, it's a good day.
Blake Buettner You certainly do. It's been plenty gray, plenty kind of dreary, just kind of hovering around zero. We got a little bit of snow and now it's gone again. But I'm definitely looking forward to the bright, you know, kind of crystal clear blue days. Yeah. As soon as possible. You know, definitely some sunlight is a welcome thing this time of year. It's nice and bright, certainly. It just It's just cloudy. It's just overcast in this, in this neck of the woods.
Jason Heaton So yeah, that's rough. I mean, we've had, we've had quite a few cloudy days and it's a kind of weighs you down after a while. So today it's a blue sky and sun. And this weekend is the big ice diving festival. I've been talking about that a little bit lately and, and uh, excited for excited to do it. But then, you know, I looked at the forecast and as, as one might predict, like the bottom is going to drop out on the thermometer for Saturday. Like we're, we've got like near, You know, zero centigrade, just slightly below temperatures all week and sunny and kind of nice winter weather. And then it's supposed to get brutally cold on Saturday morning. And that's, that's just when it kicks off. So it's like, ah, I mean, you know, the, the diving part's one thing, but then like when you're standing around on the surface of the ice, like it's the wind blowing on a Lake, it's just going to be, it could be rough, but you know what, I've been there before and it's, uh, it is what it is. So they've got warming tents and they've got some fun activities planned. So. Yeah, it should be cool. I think there's one or two folks from the Slack group, our TGN Slack community that are going to be attending and maybe a diver or two as well. So yeah, looking forward to it. Should be fun.
Blake Buettner That's great. I'm glad to hear it. I hope that it ends up being a fun weekend and the weather cooperates and the rest of it.
Jason Heaton You've got some very different sort of activity going on this weekend, right? You're flying out?
Blake Buettner Yeah, I leave on Saturday for a trip to Switzerland, which will go until Wednesday of next week with Audemars Piguet. They've got some new stuff to talk about. So far, everything's under NDA, but that NDA will be lifted by the time the next episode comes out. That said, because I'm away through Wednesday of next week, I would expect next episode, so 225, to be a day or two late. We can probably record it Thursday. I can't promise that I'll be able to edit and finish it by Thursday evening because we'll have hands-ons and other stories and stuff like that from the trip, but I'll push to have it out by the end of next week. So if 225 is a little bit late, you have my apologies, but sometimes this sort of stuff happens. Normally we try and record on Tuesdays and when you have now a seven hour time change and a full day schedule looking at watches and taking in press briefings and that kind of stuff, it can be difficult to find time to put the show together and I'd rather just you know, the audio quality and the rest of it work out when I, when I get home.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Well, I hope it's a good trip and I'm sure we'll hear all about the, at least some of the new APS when you come back, we'll be curious to see if, uh, come out with anything, uh, remotely TGN adjacent, any, uh, cool offshores or divers or anything like that.
Blake Buettner Yeah. We'll have to see how that all kind of sorts out. Uh, obviously I can't say a ton as I've signed a lot of papers, but, uh, that's how these things go. If you're feeling like you might be short on an episode and you're a supporter, I know that the Q&A for December, which is slated to come out sometime in January, it should be out this coming weekend. So this will drop on Thursday, the 26th. And I would expect the December Q&A, which is a great one. We had a blast recording it a little while ago. I would expect it to come out Saturday or Sunday. So keep a watch on the feed for that. And that should help tide you over for a slightly later show next week.
Jason Heaton Yeah, good point. I want to give a quick shout out to, uh, to Adrian Barker, um, who's obviously got his own YouTube channel. Um, but he's also a member of the about effing time podcast along with Andrew McCutcheon and George Bamford. And, and I was made aware of a, a little shout out that Adrian did to us on a recent episode of their podcast, um, where he was wearing the TGN t-shirt and, uh, talked a little bit about, um, his love of the great NATO. And he said, he's been a listener for quite a while. So. Adrian, if you're listening to this one, much appreciated. And thanks for the, thanks for repping us and for the shout out. That's really cool. And then we also have some, some kind of cool news from another kind of friend of the show. Uh, our old chums over at Alps and meters has offered a discount code to TGN listeners. So if you remember, um, a few years ago, uh, you and I were, we're trying out some Alps and meters stuff. We've got some great sweaters and I've got a jacket and just, they, They make such cool kind of Alpine inspired sort of nostalgic clothing, do a really nice job with it. And, uh, and we're big fans and they've offered a 10% off code that you can enter at checkout if you're a TGN listener. So you can enter TGN 10, uh, when you check out, if you buy anything on Alps and meters and they'll, they'll knock 10% off your entire order. So, um, huge thanks to, to Alps and meters for extending that discount for our listeners. And I hope people do take advantage of that because it's, uh, It's some great kit. And I know we're, we're getting into kind of late winter. I'm sure they're, they're starting to maybe even mark some stuff down. I'm not sure, but you know, end of winter is sometimes a good, good time to look for, look for stuff. Cause there's, there's at least around here, there's plenty of time left to still be wearing it. So check it out.
Blake Buettner Absolutely. Yeah. It's not a brand that you necessarily commonly see discounts on. Yeah. But when the option came up, you know, it's not something that they're paying for. I wouldn't call it an ad. It's literally just, can we pass on some savings to, the TGN crew, and this way it's whether you're a supporter of the show or not, TGN 10 will get you a discount. And I mean, look, if you get a couple items in your cart, that's not an insignificant amount of money. Their product is kind of premium and it has a premium price point and a premium experience as well. And if you all really kind of like the idea of us occasionally tracking down discounts on stuff that we like and talk about, let us know, put it in the comments or let us know in Slack, whatever works. sub stack or slack. It's something that we could approach more often, but I feel like discount codes are so commonly tied to sponsorships and it's something that we don't like to do. We don't really like the sound of it on the show, but if you all would enjoy discount, that's fine. That's something that we could start to remember when we kind of speak with brands that we like and that sort of thing. So let us know if it's something that we should do more of or or maybe we start to maintain a little list of deals corner or something like that. Yeah. But yeah, thanks very much to our friends at Alps and Meters for that. I've been wearing their clothes all winter, so I highly support it. It's good stuff and it's nice to get a little deal every now and then. Yeah, definitely.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, I think when we move into our risk check here, it kind of segues well into today's topic.
Blake Buettner Yeah, this is an episode that probably doesn't need a risk check.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And looking back, you know, we've done a series of these collection inspections over the years. I think we started probably one of our first 10 episodes was a collection inspection. And we're now up to volume 10, but it's been about a year and a half since we did our last one.
Blake Buettner Yeah. You know, we don't do them that commonly. When we first started, we did them a little bit more frequently cause we were, we had plenty of watches we hadn't spoken about yet, but really like, I think Jason, you feel the same way that it's not so much that we would pick watches that we think we're going to keep forever. If you actually look back at the previous nine, a couple of those watches I don't own anymore, but it's ones that kind of represent something important in your collection in the moment that the episode is made. Yeah. And I think that's kind of a fun, it's like a snapshot, a collection inspection. So it works out pretty well that way. But yeah, there isn't a whole lot of reason to do risk check because we're both wearing the watches that we're going to talk about for the main topic. So, you know what, Jason, I'm keen. How about you kick it off with your watch and then I'll follow up with mine. I think that we've got two very different watches for the show today.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we do, I think. So this is a watch that I got on trade a little over a year ago. I did talk about it on TGN when I first got it. briefly, but I'd love to go into more detail about this one. It's the Omega Seamaster Racing. So this is, for those keeping score at home, this is the reference 2569.50.00 in Omega's nomenclature. I checked on the serial number and this watch actually was produced in 2006. So it's from that era of Seamaster, you know, kind of just at the cusp when Omega started moving over to the coaxial movement, they were launching the Planet Ocean, Seamaster Pro was changing, you know, some big changes at Omega and this is from just before that. And I think it's a watch that represents an era of Omega and Omega dive watches that I particularly love. And, you know, it wasn't a watch that I was seeking, but I've always had a soft spot for regatta timer watches. I had an Aquastar regatta years ago and it didn't stick. I sold it for better or for worse. But I've always kind of kept the corner of my eye open for more of these types of watches. So I was visiting a local retailer, a guy who sells pre-owned watches, a good friend. I, I was actually shedding a couple of my own watches, uh, looking to, to trade them in or sell them. And, uh, and I saw this Seamaster racing that he had, and we just did an even swap. It was actually two of my watches for this one. And I walked away with it and I'm so pleased with it. It's, uh, it's a big watch. So this is, this is a watch from Omega had done. They've always been really involved with. with sailboat racing since, you know, the, the late nineties and we're heavily involved with team New Zealand and the America's cup. And this kind of came out of that, that collaboration or that, um, kind of passion of omegas for, for regattas. And they had done a titanium version of this watch for team New Zealand back in, in like about 2004, 2005. And this is a steel version and. just to kind of describe the watch. It's a 44 millimeter case. So it's a, this is a big hefty watch. It's 44 millimeters by 51 lug to lug. It's 16 millimeters thick. Um, stainless steel with a bracelet came on the bracelet. I have, uh, I have the rubber strap for it as well. Um, but the, obviously the, the kind of trademark feature of this watch is the regatta timer, which is a series of apertures in the dial. It's kind of an arc of five, Um, kind of holes, if you will, in the dial that, um, there's disc underneath it that rotates once you start the chronograph and those discs slowly fill a minute at a time, um, going from, from black to blue to red and then black back to black, um, counting down five minutes, then 10 minutes when it goes to red and then, you know, finishes going back to black. And the purpose of that is for, for sailboat racers. You know, there's a countdown to when the cannon goes off and a sailboat crosses the start line. And so a sailboat not being able to kind of start from, from zero needs to maintain some momentum under sail, uh, to cross the start line at the appropriate time. So they, they synchronize the watch. Um, when they get the five minute mark or even the 10 minute countdown mark, they'll start the chronograph and then use those colored discs on the dial to count down to zero. So they're crossing the line at the right time. And it's such a niche. complication for a watch and a number of brands have done it, you know, back to Aqua star and Hoyer and, and some others memo sale. Did it kind of a cool one? But what I really like about this is that Omega like committed to making this watch and a big brand like Omega committed to making a, a regatta countdown complication on a watch for a number of years. And since that time, uh, even though they've continued on with their America's cup, uh, collaborations and sponsorships, They've kind of moved to more conventional chronographs with just sort of colored segments on the sub dials. And what I like about this is it's kind of the last of that era when they were still doing a proper kind of regatta countdown. And in addition to that, it's a 300 meter dive chronograph. So this watch is water resistant to 300 meters. It's got a wonderful rotating bezel. It's the scalloped bezel familiar to the kind of Bond Seamaster family. This one's particularly kind of thick and chunky, very easy to grip, ratchets really well. There's no date and no helium valve. So it's kind of the best of all worlds in my mind. It's just a really funky, cool, interesting watch. You know, I love interesting watches and this has just got it in spades.
Blake Buettner Yeah, there's something really fun about this specific sort of visual indication of the regatta timer, like the Heuer and Omega had this sort of function where it was really front and center.
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner as one of the most important features of the watch. It wasn't something tacked on. Bremont did a lovely job of also doing some versions where it was front and center with the AC models. Yeah. And I think if you're going to have something this esoteric... Look, you may have something in your life where a five minute phase is something you do commonly or multiple five minute phases, at which point, really handy feature. Yeah. Kind of like a weird egg timer sort of thing, it just does what it does. Otherwise, it really is just about the kind of interest in the esoteric nature of the complication and how it's connected to a sport. And I always wondered with, especially with something this specific, gotta be one of the most specific complications there are for sports watches, right? Yeah, so true. Were there more people who bought this watch because they loved America's Cup or because they wanted a regatta timer? You know what I mean? Because I think If you're a watch guy like you might just want the like you might buy this and have no like I don't know if you follow sailing very closely. I know you've done. Yeah. America's Cup series stuff in the past like experience being on a boat and that kind of stuff. But like I don't know if it's something you follow the way I would follow F1.
Jason Heaton Yeah. No it isn't. I'm very much an armchair sailor having you know been on sailboats a number of times. But it's it's definitely a sport that I like to read about and kind of you know learn more about. But you know, with, with certain watches, you know, certain complications or certain kinds of connections don't really resonate with me. But for some reason this one does. And as you said, I mean that, that five minute countdown really is useful. I mean, when you, when you consider looking at a tiny little sub dial on a chronograph, typically it's kind of hard to read off.
Blake Buettner Like if you're trying to count five minutes and especially the boats moving around, maybe there's water droplets getting tossed about like who knows, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah. But I mean, even around the house, like, like a five minute countdown or a chronograph that'll do, I mean in this case it's actually more like 10 or 15 minutes if you consider it goes from blue to red and then back to black. Like you can time, you know, if you want to, for instance, steep a cup of tea for four minutes, like it's easy. Like when, when four of those discs turn blue, like you're done, you don't have to like squint at a little tiny sub dial. So it's, it's really cool. And I think what I admire about this watch is that they put a lot of thought into the visual design. This wasn't just tacked on as kind of a, Okay. We're, this is our effort at a regatta piece, which I think they've kind of done since then. I think they've kind of phoned in some of their America's cup stuff. Like I said, just with some color ways and things like that. But this one, like the hands, um, it has these kind of really unique skeletonized hands that are different than the bond skeletonized hands. These are actually quite legible. They're very polished and catch light nicely. And there's a decent bit of loom at the tips, but they really serve a purpose that, that skeletonized frame of, of each hand, because, You know, if you see a photo of this watch, you'll notice that the skeletonized portion of the hour hand and the minute hand exactly frames the aperture cutouts for the regatta countdown. So it never is obscured. So no matter what time it is, you can always still see the countdown function as well as on the minute totalizer, which is the left sub dial on the watch. That's a 30 minute counter, but the first 10 minutes are actually color coded to sync up with the blue and red discs. So the first five minutes of that are blue and the second five minutes are red. All of the chronograph functionality, all the time elapsed time keeping portion of the watch is all red. So the sweep hand, the 12 hour totalizer and the minute totalizer are all red. So you kind of can see that at a glance. It's like someone really like considered this and really thought this through. And I think every time I look closely at this watch, I think about that.
Blake Buettner Yeah, I think it's a great design. I also just... It is an oddball expression of the 2254 with the black dial, and this has applied markers, so I assume they have a metal surround, which is nice. Right. A little bit more luxurious. We saw that on the non AC dial, as they're called for the 2254, there was a later generation that wasn't painted. It feels a little bit less military, but a little bit more like Omega-y in that way. Right. With the, with a little bit fancier, the applied markers, that sort of thing. I like the red accents throughout on the minutes. Yeah. Obviously a great bezel aesthetically. I don't know. You have a two, two, five or four there too. And obviously that's the one I've had and not so great as far as a grip.
Jason Heaton And this one is, it's similar, but it's, it's, it's so much thicker. The bezel on this really stands up and it's, it's quite easy to grip. Yeah. So, you know, I haven't taken this one diving, but I wouldn't hesitate to, I think it's, uh, it's great. And then the bracelet has a dive extension. And without an HEV, without the helium valve that, that is so common on the Seamasters, it's just a different sort of dive chronograph. It kind of slots somewhere between, you know, the Seamaster pros of that era with, with the planet ocean, kind of that bigger, chunkier, heavier, kind of more serious look. And then you get this regatta timer function and you and I have talked a lot in the past about this era of Omega and how it's one of our favorites. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's, you know, I don't want to say it's before they moved up market because they certainly were a luxury product then, but there was just something less pretentious and less, I don't even want to say less ambitious. It's just almost like they were made more for purpose. They're a little bit less luxury.
Blake Buettner Yeah. Well, I also think like, it's a question of, of like the philosophy of a brand. And at the, at this time, Omega was largely using, I don't want to say off the shelf movements because they would have been going over them. And a lot of times, like in this case, there's a modification that would have been made with the, the module for the timer, the regatta timer, you look at a 2254 and they built that watch to make the most of that movement. Those 1120s are 2892, so they keep great time, they're super thin, and the watch in the end is accurate and very thin. Yeah, yeah. Right? And when they went to 2500s, with the Planet Ocean, the watches were a bit thicker because the movements were thicker. And then when the 2500 became an 8000 series, 8800s, 8500s, et cetera, even thicker. Right, yeah. Because the watches had all this incredible technology, but you have to package it somehow. Yeah. And I do really hope that the next generation of Omega, we see them blend this era with the technical ability that they're at now. I mean, they are like the crown jewel of Swatch, right?
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner Yeah. But I would, I would still prefer to see a 40 to 41, like just make a 2254 again, but do it with a coax.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think everybody's kind of holding their breath, waiting for Omega to come up with a slimmer watches. I think, you know, they've, they've never been, I mean, the 2254, whenever I wear that, I'm always struck by how thin that watch is. And I think Omega's got to be able to make something like this again. I mean, it just wears so nicely. And certainly this era, this regatta piece, um, the Seamaster Racing, Omega chronographs back then, especially the dive chronographs were not known for their svelteness. I mean, we're talking, uh, this is a, so it's got a 2892, which is a slim movement, but then they, it's a modular chronograph. So then they, for lack of a better term, they sort of bolt on or, you know, build the sandwich, you know, stack on this module, but that was made by, uh, Dubois Dubois de Praha. And, and that provides the chronograph functionality as well as the regatta functionality. So this is, you know, as I said, this is a, this is a thick watch at 16 millimeters thick. I think what keeps me from wearing this watch more often is the size. I mean, every time I put it on, you know, 44 millimeters, I can kind of pull off 51 millimeter lug to lugs fine. Then you add 16 millimeters of height and then this bracelet. And even if I wear it on the strap, it's still a big heavy watch that I haven't quite found the right. I think I put it on a bund and it didn't look right, but it wore the best. I think it's a watch you have to wear snugly to be comfortable, but then You know, I don't like to wear watches really tight. So it has to be just the right strap. So, you know, this is, I waited this morning on a, like a kitchen scale and it's, uh, it's on the bracelet currently and it's, it's 206 grams. It's like over seven ounces. So we're, we're pushing half a pound.
Blake Buettner Yeah. Yeah. I find the interesting thing about sizing is like, obviously it's subjective and even it changes over time. Like what your preference is. Yeah. And I, you know, I think a lot of people find that you spend enough time in this hobby, your preference lands somewhere around a certain zone. Like let's say for me personally, it's like, 37 to 41. And then if anything's much bigger and much smaller than that, it kind of becomes a frivolity, something you wear for a day, but it wouldn't necessarily be your daily. The 44 millimeter on that is one thing. The 16 means that it's not gonna... For me, it wouldn't work on a NATO.
Jason Heaton Right, exactly.
Blake Buettner Yeah, I haven't even tried it. Yeah, right because it'll lift the whole watch up off your wrist. It's too thick like for me right now. I don't mind a watch. That's a bit on the thicker side 14 14 and a half, but I like you like when it's over 14 and a half. I know I can't do a Renato anymore. Otherwise, it's just gonna you get that pad of the fabric and then the case back and usually when you're into a dive watch, that's 14 plus. Yeah, there's a lot of case back. So it lifts the whole side of the case off your wrist.
Unknown Yeah,
Blake Buettner Not always, but it depends. Every watch wears a little bit differently, so that's always something you have to try to take into context. But I do constantly kind of think about thickness in terms of not whether it's too thick or too thin. I've stopped being obsessed with that to some extent, but whether it's going to match nicely with the way I like to wear my watches. Yeah. I don't mind something a little bit thicker. The Aqua Star is a fairly thick watch. It works nicely. but it is a little bit too much on a NATO at times. It just works better on a two piece strap that you can get a little bit tighter to your wrist and it doesn't move around the same way. And I think I would say the same thing about a Black Bay GMT. It's not that the watch is too big, it's that there's a specific way in which I wanna wear it so that it suits my wrist in a specific fashion. And I think with something like these, that becomes a consideration. I think it probably is best on the bracelet as long as you can get the bracelet kind of perfectly sized. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And, and the other thing I think about when I, when I wear this watch now is I keep an eye out for the titanium version of it because I just think then it might be pretty cool, really comfy. I, I, I'm not going to make a move. I mean, this isn't a watch that I'm going to make my life, my life's goal to seek out and find different versions of, but I do wonder, I'd love to even just try the titanium version of this cause I bet it wears beautifully. I bet even though it's, it's big, I bet it just, it has that sweet spot of, of heft and, and lightweight that would just wear really nicely. Sure. And then just one other note too, that, you know, this, this functionality or this complication, every time I post a photo of this watch or talk about it at all, people always bring up another watch that Omega made in the Seamaster line around the same time. And that was the apnea. And the apnea was made for, um, breath hold diving, you know, free diving. What they did for that watch is they actually eliminated all of the chronograph sub dials and then they just use, they put seven a minute apertures, um, like a disc that would track seven minute countdown on the dial. So you get this big sweeping arc of, of sub dials on, on an otherwise kind of empty dial. And that is a really cool watch. I mean, if, if we're starting to look at like, derivations of this watch that would be kind of desirable. Like that would be a really neat one to have. I've seen one in person, uh, years ago at like a get together. And, uh, and that one kind of stuck with me. So it's, it's just, it's just a fun watch. And I think, you know, as kind of a transition to, to your watch this week, I feel like there's a certain kinship or similarity between this era of Omega and, and what Bremont has, has done well over the years. I think it's this, It's a luxurious watch that inspires you to go do stuff with without being overly concerned or, you know, it inspires you to go and do cool stuff with the watch. And I think that's, that's a really nice blend for, for what Bremont has been able to do and the omegas of this era.
Blake Buettner For sure. Yeah. And we can definitely get to the Bremont in a minute, but I don't want to miss a chance to go a little bit deeper into the apnea. Yeah. Because it is such a cool watch. Yeah. So the major differences between the Apnea and the Apnea came in a couple of versions, but the one that will always stick out in my mind was kind of the full metal. So steel case, steel bezel, kind of that steel effect dial. Yeah. So it's all red and silver. It has a really smart looking design. And then on top of that, this is 41.5 millimeters. So you're back down to the two two five four sizing. It's the twenty eight ninety five thirty. I'm sure there were other versions. If I remember correctly, there was a black dial, maybe even a full white dial or it could be the silver one depending on how it was photographed. Yeah, but these are deeply cool watches. I mean talk about specific as far as the the complication goes. Yeah, this is almost like a dive can be a mechanical dive computer for breath hold diving. Yeah diving. Yeah, which makes it kind of maybe the final evolution of a skin diver.
Jason Heaton Right. It's a cool thing though. And you just have to salute Omega at that time for, for building watches like this, like the Seamaster Racing, like the Apnea, like to devote something, you know, to build something like the Apnea, which is just so specific that so few people understand. Like you said earlier, like I have to wonder how many people bought these watches, like, and why were they buying them? Did you walk into an Omega dealer and say, Apnea. Sure. Yeah, I need that. All right.
Blake Buettner I like that. And the other interesting thing is and I do recommend you go to the show notes on some stack and click on the link that I'll put in the show notes to the watch because you Jason you spoke about the way that they modified the hands on on your racing.
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner to not obscure, especially the regatta timer, but also the minute counter of the chronograph. Yeah, the hands on the apnea might be even wilder. Oh yeah, I'm looking at has this short little hour hand with a long pin on one on the on the pointing side so that you have that's the only part that would possibly obscure or or overlap with uh with the apnea timer yeah and then the minute hand is even weirder where it's about like half of a minute hand then it becomes a silver bar again for the part that would reach over the displays the apertures for the apnea display yeah and then it has a little like um arrowhead and it's it's it's an exceedingly strange watch and then you have this um red hand, which is skeletonized for that function as well. I mean, on rubber, they're just such a cool watch. Yeah, I don't know offhand if I've ever seen one in person. I must have maybe years ago, but I can't recall where or when, but definitely a cool thing. And then I would say a lot of all of this spirit in my mind that made this watch and made your watch, I feel like the part of that that's still alive, that deeply nerdy, highly specific element, is now what we get in the X-33 Regatta that they made for, was it ENTZ? ETNZ?
Jason Heaton ETNZ. Right, the Emirates Team New Zealand, yeah.
Blake Buettner It's a larger watch as well, but it has specific I think a lot of people thought it was just a color way of the normal X 33, but it has specific software, like fairly complicated specific software for regatta racing built into the chronograph and into its digital displays and the rest of it. I remember this is one of the first watches I covered when I made the move to Houdinki. Omega sent me one, they had one and they loaned it to me briefly. And not only was it maybe the first digital watch in my life where I had to go download the manual, Yeah, I'll link my story. You can you can read in on on how it actually measures like what it's doing and why yeah and there's a bunch of charts and diagrams and things to tell you where your boat is and what you should be pressing. My guess is that once you're if you're a sailor, you would understand these these stages that you're essentially marking yeah and it would become kind of passive, but but if you don't understand sailing, which I don't and you don't really understand regatta timing, which I don't And you also don't really understand how, like combining all of them, I would fall off the boat. I think I just lose track of my own balance, like staring at a, at a watch, but the fascinating thing, but I think that's where some of the passion that made like the apnea and the regatta racing and the rest of it kind of has gone. Yeah. Yeah. More and more toolish, like the, to the extent where it's not even a mechanical watch anymore.
Jason Heaton Right. Very toolish. Yeah. You mentioned kind of segueing into your Braymont. I, you mentioned that Braymont made that regatta piece when they're, they were involved with the America's cup. And I still, That watch still kind of haunts me because I remember wanting that watch when it first came out. I remember seeing it. We were at pretty cool. We were at the palace at, at Baselworld and they had one of those watches and I was like, Oh, I've got to get one of these. So I finally got my regatta piece. I don't wear it often. Um, but I've had it on the past few days and, and I do love it. I don't know. Maybe I'll take it ice diving this weekend. I'm not sure.
Blake Buettner But anyway, cool thing. Yep. Uh, I'll, I'll include a link to some of the regatta, the Braymont AC pieces that they made. I think all of them were pretty cool. That was in the same era when they were doing the collaboration with Boeing for the TI series. It was a cool time for them to be like branching out just from doing the solo, the super marine and the alt ones into something a little bit different, a little bit more exciting. And I thought the watches, yeah, I agree being super excited about them when they came out. I mean, it was years and years ago at this point, but pretty fun for sure. And yeah, I think that's a solid pick. A watch that When I see it pop up on your Instagram or in the Slack, I do, I do, oh, yeah, I forgot that you had that. And I can kind of see why, you know, maybe 10 years ago, that's a watch you would have worn all the time, right?
Jason Heaton True. Yeah, I was much more into bigger watches. In fact, my S2000 on bracelet kind of feels the same way. Big, heavy, like, I don't know if I'm just getting wimpier, but yeah, these watches don't get worn as much.
Blake Buettner Still fun. Yeah, it's tough. Like your opinion kind of changes over time and that sort of thing. But we can make the jump. We've mentioned Braymont a few times. We can make the jump into mine. So on a previous episode, probably would have been collection inspection two or three, maybe four. I did my Braymont Solo, which is a watch I sold a little while ago because I bought a Braymont S302 GMT. It's my favorite watch in their lineup, and I've had it, what, since about It's got to be late spring, early summer 2021. So moving up on two years. I wanted one as soon as I saw it. I really liked the S300 when they first launched it, but I have lots of dive watches and I don't think when it's a dive watch, like I become a little bit more price sensitive when I have ones from Seiko that I really like say or from any other brand, like it's just nice to know that you're getting something a little bit more. And for me, it's always, you know, can you do the dive watch part and add a GMT? have. So with the S302 adding the GMT and it also being... And this is pretty crucial to my appeal for the watch. It's a dive watch that has a GMT function. I've talked about this on previous episodes, but it's a dive watch with GMT function rather than a travel watch that has 200 meters of water resistance or more. Yeah. It's about still having the dive bezel. So if I wanted to travel and dive when I was away, I would have all those features in one watch, and it just makes it more of a one watch option. Sure. And then to have it in 40 millimeters, it's about 12 and a half, 12.6 millimeters thick, 49-ish millimeters lug to lug. It just wears really well. The S500 is a large watch at 43 millimeters, but it also wears long lug to lug, as do a lot of their chronographs. There was a time when I probably would have sold a part of my body for an Alt-1ZT, the kind of chronograph GMT that they still make, but have been making for some time. and I really liked, and I think the only thing that held me back was it just felt a little bit too big for my wrist. Yeah, it's up a little high, it's a little bit long. And then when you get to the 300, and I remember the first time we saw them at the Bremont townhouse in London, I remember this just thinking like, oh, these are all great, but could we just do one with a complication? Yeah, specifically like with a GMT. And so they came out with this, it's 20 millimeter lugs, it's 300 meters water resistance, it's a solid case back. Obviously, you know, a ceramic bezel insert, sapphire crystal. It's all matte, which I really like. So it's painted markers, nothing applied. It's a matte black dial with a kind of tan accents, a matte back bezel with tan accents. And then otherwise it's the kind of standard Bremont like Triptych three-piece hardened case with a black center barrel. There's, there's mostly, it's a watch that I really don't have any complaints about. I guess if I were to change something, I would love to have the option of a cool color for the barrel. Oh, yeah. You know, because they've offered that on other watches, specifically on MBs. Yeah. It's less of a thing, but you know, maybe if you could order something kind of special, it would be neat to have a color for the middle barrel, which is black. It's anodized aluminum and it's black or just to have it in silver, I think would also look pretty cool. You know, their military watches have a full silver flank. They're not triptych, which is why, but they're not three pieces. They're two piece cases, but I think that'd be fun. And then, you know, the only thing that if I really dig deep, the thing that bugs me and I just, I choose to ignore it is that there's a little bronze ring on the crown. Oh yeah. But I don't like, yeah. And I've even come as close to like considered painting it and then just didn't wear the watch for a week and forgot about that idea. But if there's ever an option through Bremont or whatever to buy a crown that didn't have that little bronze ring, it'd be perfect aesthetically speaking. And then it uses an ETA GMT, so it's a 2893-2 cost certified. So it's a collar style GMT. Definitely think this is on the more expensive side of what I believe to be a pretty solid collar style GMT. It's 4,200 bucks is what they sell these for. And if it was a GMT watch, it would have to be like something like my Mido or even my Explorer. Those are travel watches. It needs to be for me, it needs to be a flyer GMT where I can locally update with a jumping local hand, but for something more blended like this where it's a dive watch first and then they add the ability to track another time zone, I'm fine with it as a caller. It would be perfect as a flyer. It would be a great watch made even better, but it wouldn't be that much better in my mind. I still find this exceedingly useful when I wanna be at the cottage for a week and pretend that I'm home and working. And And you don't wanna miss this or that time zone, phone call, that sort of thing. It's really easy to just jump the second hand around. I normally leave it on UTC and then just try and do the plus minus based on the reading. But if there's something specific, if I have a colleague that's traveling, that's in Geneva or wherever, then you can just update it really quickly without changing it. So from a home standpoint, which is where I often wear a dive watch, It makes a really handy sort of combination of having the second time zone for all sorts of business reasons, and then having the bezel for everything from timing the phases of a TGN episode to cooking to, you know, making sure that I keep certain things on schedule or track how long something takes. Could be a workout, could be a walk, who knows? Yeah, yeah. The dive bezel is just like infinitely useful, and I hate having to give it up for a 24-hour bezel.
Jason Heaton And how do you wear this watch typically on a NATO?
Blake Buettner Yeah. So being a 20 millimeter lug, it basically you could wear it on anything.
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner I don't wear it on any of the Bramont straps. It comes on like an almost white leather. And I believe there was a rubber option or a striped NATO. None of those work for me. But being 20 millimeter, I have a green canvas, which came with a Hallios years and years ago, which is perfect. Oh, I bet. Like it looks incredible, really comfortable. It has a leather lining, so you can get a little bit sweaty if that's the scenario. And then, I mean, like a standard, simple 20-millimeter rubber is incredible. The Hirsch Pure is really good on it. It looks awesome on a mesh. But look who's talking. I wear it on a grenade pretty much all the time.
Jason Heaton It definitely is a very... It leans hard into kind of the military aesthetic without going overboard, without feeling like you know, you're wearing a CWC or something like that. This, I think it has enough. Yep. Okay. Discounting the, the, even the GMT part, like yes, the bronze ring on the, on the crown isn't my cup of tea either, but it's, it, it elevates it a little bit. It separates a little bit without going over the top. It's got painted markers, but yet, you know, those, those hands are, are, there's a certain whimsy to the shape of the hands. And I've always loved what Bremont has done with hands. They've always been spot on with their choices, especially in the supermarine line. Yeah. And even little things like that 12 o'clock marker, kind of the upside down arrowhead, it's... I don't know, it's like these little cues that it feels like a very serious kind of utilitarian, almost military watch, but then you're wearing something a little bit special, and that's what I like about Bremont in general.
Blake Buettner Yeah, and I think we were talking Omega and previous Omega generations, and for me, this fits a very similar aesthetic vibe and wrist presence and sort of quality as the 2254. Yeah, definitely. Because the 2254 feels like a modern expression of an MOD watch, but then you have this wave dial, which is just whimsy, right? And on the S302, you've got a little bit of Fotina, it's kind of a tan coloring, which I actually wasn't sure about when I bought it, or sorry, when I got it in on loan for my review, I thought I would kind of just say like, why not just make it all white, guys? Yeah. But I think if they made it all white, they'd have to make the bezel and the dial actually black. rather than this really nice, flat, super dark gray. Yeah, yeah. And I think the dark, dark gray and the tan, and it's a light touch. I mean, it's the markers, it's the pretty fine printing, except for the minute track on the bezel, which is white. I think it works well. Then you get the orange of the GMT hand. It all works better in person than maybe I first expected, especially when you put it on a strap you like. And the green, like a green strap brings out some of the orange, the gray, NATO brings out the gray tones in the bezel and the dial. It has this sort of flexibility that I remember from my 2254, where I agree it has sort of the positioning of some military watch, but none of the baggage of like, I'm not part of the military. There's a certain poser vibe to me owning a lot of military style stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the baggage is mine to be clear, it just this watch doesn't activate it in the same way that like maybe the one of the H math ones would, or you know a watch with a crest on the dial or a watch on a camo strap or something like that. And yeah, I absolutely love it. The other side of it is I have a deep fondness for Bremont. They were one of like my first introductions to a kind of new brand that was doing something that wasn't what the micro brands were doing.
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner So they were new, kind of in the same age range as a Hallios or whatever else from the 2000s. But they were going after IWC and Omega and Panerai, and they were making something that felt different than all of those, but still felt kind of traditional, but had like a two-ish vibe that was also kind of gentleman-like at the same time. They had a certain class, they have a certain class that isn't the same with necessarily any other watch. And And sure, they are expensive, but you have to decide what you're paying for when you get a watch. And this is a very expensive watch to have an ETA movement. I couldn't care less. The movement is nice and thin. It keeps good time. I actually timed mine today before we did this, and it's running about plus five over six positions. Yeah. And if I measure it on wrist, which I did before I loaned it to a friend recently, just to make sure there wasn't something wrong, it's even closer. It's about plus one and a half if I use that app on my phone, like mixed use on my wrist versus averaged out on a machine. So definitely within or very close to COSC timing still a couple of years later, and I have not babied this watch at all. I've worn it while working on the Jeep, I've worn it while swimming and jumping off the dock of the cottage and biking and I just... Whatever, it's my... I bought it for it to be an everyday watch, and it's been excellent. And I kind of thought, I hemmed and hawed, do I talk with Amito on this one? Do I talk about a vintage watch like the Buran? What do we wanna do? But then this week, Braymont announced a pretty considerable cash infusion from Hellcat LP, which is Bill Ackman's company. And I thought this kind of lined up nicely. I think it's cool that they're at the stage where they're taking on some money to cover their business as they're growing. And while I think it's nice to be able to say in-house, and for some watches that would matter a lot to me, I wouldn't want to buy a watch from a prestigious old world Swiss brand that didn't have an in-house movement. that wouldn't work for me. But for a young brand like a Bremont, it didn't bother me when Omega was using ETA movements as the 1120 and so on and so on. I don't know why it would bother me for Bremont. And I've just been so very happy with this watch. It's lived up to my expectations. It largely doesn't have anything that I would change. I mean, if I was designing the watch, like I said, maybe one or two colors would be different, one or two accents. I'd probably fight for a 60 click bezel. But really it's the CWC that that kills me on the bezel, like nothing that I own is kind of that good. Yeah, so yeah, I can't hold any fault to it. I find it very useful. I find it pretty flexible. It never really seems out of place. You put the right strap on it and it works. It's kind of classy and simple on a leather nato or something like that, but then you can put it on a two piece and just kind of become subtle. It's not a dress watch by any stretch, but it has a nice versatility to it. And like I said, I've been just really, really happy with the functionality, the way that it kind of complements my other travel watches or GMT watches where I can decide like, is the dive element more important or is the jumping time zone more important? And you just pick one. Yeah. And, uh, I would say, you know, I, I travel less than I don't. Right. So I wear this watch quite a bit. It was probably my most worn watch of 2022. Yeah.
Jason Heaton I, I, I agree with you about, um, that sort of kinship or, or connection with, with Braymont. I mean, you and I kind of came up around the same time with, with them and, and I think to have watched them grow as they have. And then with this recent news and kind of looking at where they're headed and their aspirations, it almost gives me this warm, nostalgic feeling to, to look at watches, you know, like, like the Braymonts that I own. And then, and then this one, and you think, are we going to feel the same way about like the S302 that we, Like we were waxing nostalgic about the, the two, two, five, four from Omega. Like, is this going to be the era that we'd look back on in five or 10 years and say, Oh, you know, that those sort of, I don't want to say more innocent days, but those, those more humble days of Braymont when, um, they kind of hit that sweet spot. And I think this watch really represents that there was a maturity to the brand when this watch came out, they'd had a couple of supermarine iterations already. And then when this came out, it felt like they'd hit their, hit their stride. Yeah.
Blake Buettner Yeah, I mean like my the first like large-scale watch hangout I went to that had more than two or three people was a great month thing in Toronto Yeah, before I moved to Vancouver like a long long time ago, right? when I was doing this out of Hamilton and like my first home with a light box from eBay for $40 and a camera that I could barely afford like they were just around at the same time. I timed into the industry as they kind of got out of just the UK space and had people like Mike Pearson putting together connections for them in North America and kind of showing, like having the time and money and resources to put their watches in front of people. So yeah, it's a bit of an origin story play. I think I'll probably always try to have a Braymont in my collection. And this is, like I said, my favorite thing that they make. Is it a cheap, inexpensive, great deal on a GMT? No, you can get largely the same function set from a $500 Seiko, but that's way beyond the point for me. The GMT does one thing and this watch manages to do a bunch more. It's what I like from a watch. It's the right size. I think it's quite handsome without being too fussy. I would buy it again. If my watches were stolen or destroyed or whatever, this would be on the list of one I'd wanna recover. I really like wearing it and it makes me happy in a very similar way to the 2254, just with more features and a little bit more refinement.
Jason Heaton Good pick. Yeah, kind of a good, worthy return to collection inspection today, I think.
Blake Buettner Yeah, I didn't realize it had been so long. Yeah, geez. You know, in my mind, we had done nine not that long ago, but I think it was like 146 or 147, something like that. So it was a good clip ago. So yeah, I'm glad to take a look at it. I also like that maybe Maybe if we're doing less collection inspections, we're picking up less watches or... Yeah, I don't... Like, I was trying to read between the lines, like, what does that mean? Because I don't know that... I don't necessarily feel like you and I are getting fewer watches, but maybe we're finding fewer that are staying. Yeah. Like, we're still trying stuff. I'm not sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And a lot of my acquisitions have been sort of accidental, and admittedly, this one was as well. But, you know, like that Speedmaster Mark III or a 6105 Seiko, like, these are watches that Sure. Kind of came in, they're vintage. I'm not sure that there's more I can say about them that, you know, I can't talk about in chit chat. I think these really merit kind of a deeper dive.
Blake Buettner Yeah. You know, the collection inspection, it's something that has a personal kind of connection to us. Yeah. Yeah. You want to dig into some final notes then?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's do it. I just learned of this this morning. Mine is, it's a new album that was dropped by our kind of watch industry chum Oren Hartoff, who over the years, you know, bumped into him on press trips and he's written, did a good amount of watch writing for gear patrol, a paratrooper with the Israeli defense forces. Um, just an interesting guy, a really talented musician. Very. Yeah. Today he, he dropped some, some, some new music on Instagram and, and put up a link to an album that he said he spent more than a year putting together with some friends and a band. Uh, it's called shaky Eddie. And it's kind of a jazz or jazz-adjacent style of music. Oren plays the guitar. There's some saxophone, keyboards, obviously some rhythm and percussion.
Blake Buettner And yeah, as an extra special little treat, Oren gave us permission to play some of it. So that's what you're hearing now. It's a track called Mirror Juice from the Shake Yeti album. Give it a listen and we'll be back in just a moment.
Unknown you
Jason Heaton And I listened to it once through this morning and it's, it's really good. Like I'm, I'm a, I'm a jazz fan anyway. And like, this is that kind of really pleasant guitar heavy jazz that, that I really like. It's, it's, it's great to listen to. I'm going to play it when we're done here while I'm working today. And, and it's really nice. And, and we're going to put a link in the show notes where you can check out some, some links where you can get it on any of your kind of favorite streaming music services, you know, Spotify, Apple music, et cetera. So. Congrats to Oren and be sure to check it out because it's really good. Really good. And he's a good guy.
Blake Buettner Yeah, Oren's the best. Such a sweetheart and a crazy talented guy at pretty much anything he sets his mind to. And when I saw you drop this into the show notes, I went and listened to a couple. I'm not a big jazz fan, but I was tapping along with it. Pretty fun. It sounds great, certainly. And it's really cool to think that it's someone we know who kind of put that all together. So congrats to Oren for Shaky Eddie. That's very neat. And yeah, we highly recommend people give it a Give it a listen, maybe sit down with your best speakers or headphones and crank it up a bit. Yeah, and what are you gonna bring us home with? Yeah, so mine is actually... I don't wanna use the word primer, because that's also the title of the magazine that offered, but Primer Magazine did a sort of how to on using what's called the OODA loop, which is a sort of decision making matrix that was originally founded by fighter pilots or military pilots. And the idea is using a sort of repeating loop of kind of mindset decisions to make better decisions moving forward so that the OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. And I had read about it in the past and heard it referenced by pilots and by military strategists, and I just never looked into it. And then I came across this piece from Primer, and I'm a Primer fan, especially their ability to kind of synthesize something like this into the part that you want to know in the first hour of learning about something. Because there's books and other things you can read online and everybody's opinion on ODA or some of the other kind of decision making matrices that are available. But I'm finding that I'm constantly feeling overwhelmed. by my task load between work and vocation that I love, like TGN and then a personal life and being a parent and be a partner and all these things. And when you package that all together, there's just days where I fail at all of it. And I don't say that as a joke. There's days where I end my day and I feel like I failed at pretty much everything I tried to do. So I was trying to look into some of these options. And I like this one because it kind of reflects on the idea that we spoke about on some previous episodes about stoicism, about how much of the way you feel about something is actually in your control. Like the actual catalyst isn't the thing that started the feeling, but your response to it is. And obviously the first, really the all four stages of the OODA loop are, in my mind, feel very stoic in that you're observing. So you're really trying to give the widest possible, understand everything that's happening around you and feeding input towards you and then orient, you know, decide your position within everything and what your options are, make a decision and then do it and learn and then start the whole process again. So I've read through this sort of article a couple times and I think I'll kind of go a little bit deeper and see if this maybe helps me feel like I can see my way through some of the more complicated things that come up in life. But yeah, this is what's been on my mind. Like I said, I read it a couple times, so I wanted to put it in the final notes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a good one. It's really interesting. I'm just kind of scrolling through this. And then I wasn't aware of Primer either, and it just looks like an interesting site.
Blake Buettner So, yeah. Primer's great. It's a lot of like, I don't want to say something that would be mean because that's not at all what I mean, but imagine they took kind of the best side of a lot of like what men's magazines used to do.
Unknown Yeah.
Blake Buettner Yeah. Right. So maybe not the sleazy side or the, you know, the rest of it, but they kept the part that was kind of density. And so it's a lot of product recommendations, it's a lot of self care and grooming and all this kind of stuff, but then they also dig into philosophy and decision making and negotiating and different things like that. And they do it without succumbing to some of the modern pitfalls of... I'm not even sure what you'd call the community online, but these... The crypto guys that were... It's a quote, it's a picture of Tom Hardy and something he never said about how to make money.
Unknown Sure.
Blake Buettner and you see this kind of stuff on Instagram and the rest of it, and they don't go that cheesy or hardcore or whatever position you might have. It's a nice take on a lot of different topics. I feel like I've been reading Primer for, I don't know, several years anyways. Huh. Nice.
Jason Heaton All right. Good recommendation. Absolutely. Yeah. This was a fun episode. Felt old fashioned. Felt like a proper old TGN. We hadn't done a watch episode yet this year. We'd done a couple of other kind of topics, some fun stuff, but good to get back to collection inspection.
Blake Buettner Always a treat to kind of get into the nitty gritty of one specific watch that means something to you and kind of explain your thinking and the rest of it. But if you would like to kind of follow up on anything that we brought up or you have any questions, you've got a couple of different options. You can go to our sub stack. You can make an account for free. You don't have to be a supporter of the show. You can leave a comment. Those go to our email. We reply, read the comments, the rest of it. On the other side, if you're a supporter, then you'll have access to the TGN crew Slack. which is 800 plus people strong, and we have a whole channel in the Slack that's for episode chat. So pretty much every Thursday, that channel suddenly becomes active again. There's a few cool conversations, and then people move on and wait for the next episode. We got a lot of channels these days, so we're doing what we can. But if you have any feedback, anything you'd like to apply, and if you don't wanna do either of those, we always have the email, thegrenadoatgmail.com. You can drop us a line pretty easily. But yeah, I would say, you know, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show, like I mentioned, to get those show notes, to get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, which could even score you a new TGN signed NATO, and would definitely score you access to the Slack, just visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is, as ever, Siesta by Jazzer via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Ada Louise Huxtable, who said, clutter in its highest and most organized form is called collecting.