The Grey NATO – 233 – Watches, Wonders, And Even More Watches

Published on Thu, 06 Apr 2023 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

This podcast episode discusses new watch releases and impressions from the Watches and Wonders event in Geneva. The hosts talk about standout models from brands like Oris, Tag Heuer, Doxa, Tudor, Rolex, IWC, and more. They share their thoughts on designs, specs, pricing, and which watches excite them the most. The episode also covers some other recent releases from Timex and Seiko. Additionally, one host describes an upcoming trip to Scotland and plans for a meetup there with listeners.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 223 and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support and if you'd like to support the show directly, please visit thegreynado.com for more details. All right, after a week off for watches and wonders related to busyness, Jason, how are we doing?
Blake Buettner Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, it's been a minute, huh? I mean, geez, watching you from a distance just made me tired. You were, you were very busy over there.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was a, it was a busy schedule and I'm, I'm exceedingly happy to have gotten home Friday evening, uh, laid pretty low this weekend. And now I'm just starting to dig into, I mean, all the new stuff that's even come out. We'll talk about some of it in a little while, but also all the stuff we saw there and make sure that we don't miss any stories or opportunities, you know, call in watches on loan and that kind of thing. So. It was, um, it was a show. I'll give it that. Very busy.
Blake Buettner I mean, everywhere I looked, you were, you were doing something different. It was like one at one on one side, you were doing like a longer panel discussion. Then you did the podcast and you did, I mean, it was like everywhere, every, every direction I turned there, you were, it was a, it seemed like they had cloned you or something.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I got around a little bit. Um, Ben's travel plans changed. So I, I got his seat on that longer panel with Justin. and Gary and Eric Schmidt. Yeah. And had a really nice time. That was like the Sunday morning before the show. So I actually like, because I was already in town for the tutor thing, I was relatively on or close enough to that time zone was available. And they said, you know, do you want to come talk about the new novelty? It's actually a watch I'm fairly excited about, even though they're only making a hundred in that first iteration. And I said, yeah, I mean, Hey, if you guys, if you go, if I can be, you know, if I can go have some fun with you guys, be of some value, then sure. Super. That's great. Yeah. Um, so I was able to fill in for Ben, uh, on that and had a really fun chat with, um, I'll put this in the show notes, but it was like a panel discussion put on by long, uh, with, uh, and hosted by, or, you know, led by, um, Justin Hast and then, uh, the collector Gary G from Instagram and, and, you know, the watch world fame, of course. And then, uh, Wilhelm Schmidt, the, uh, you know, standing CEO for, uh, long, uh, so it was, it was a fun chat. And then we did four episodes of the podcast from the show, which is fun. We had a variety of people on this year, more band and that sort of thing. I think they went pretty well. They were exceedingly difficult to record and then still put that together while also managing the rest of the schedule and trying to get stories up every day and that kind of thing. I think people seem to enjoy them and certainly I love podcasting. No harm on that part. But it was a lot of long days and just as we kind of planned for and as you expect. I can definitely identify with the story that you wrote for Swim Proof, which I very much enjoyed about, you know, kind of what it's like to witness these things from afar. And I'm happy to have gone and gotten it all done. And so just looking forward to some warmer weather over the next month or two and then proper summer.
Blake Buettner Yeah, we could use some spring here too. You're seeing the opposite, eh? Now we're up to the third snowiest winter Uh, in history. So, I mean, they're not messing around here. It's, uh, we had, uh, another gosh, eight to nine inches of snow, uh, just a few days ago. And then now it's shot up over, over the melting point for the past couple of days. So now it's more puddles and nighttime freezes and that sort of thing. But I, I managed to do my, my FedEx run with some, some TGN packages, uh, yesterday on the bike again. So now we're back to that. And, uh, You know, things are looking up. We'll see. They're saying it could be 60 degrees Fahrenheit by Saturday. So fingers crossed.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Fingers crossed for sure. Yeah. You know, it's funny speaking about it continuing to be winter. Um, and, and, you know, the weather wasn't necessarily incredible when I was in Switzerland, but I mentioned that I had gone for this thing with Tudor beforehand. Oh yeah. Uh, which was a couple of days and, and the trip was, you know, in no small part, you know, put together by our good buddy Cole. And that included kind of a tour of the brand new Tudor manufacturing in Le Lac.
Unknown Oh yeah, cool.
Jason Heaton So it's a couple, it's not quite a couple hours, maybe an hour and a half, hour 45 outside of Geneva. Right, yeah, red and gray building, and it's kind of split into two, kind of, or at least logically it's split into two, with one part being for Canisi, their movement division. Okay. and of course, Kinesi makes all of the in house movements for Tudor, and then also provides movements to a handful of other brands like Breitling and Norcain and a growing list that's part of their brief. Seeing the manufacturer was really cool. Seeing a modern manufacturer is always pretty interesting because there's so much of it. They wanna just keep the process super straightforward, really clean, dust free, all this kind of stuff. And this actually has the ability for all the watches to be on little trays, that move around on various sorts of belts. Oh yeah. In, in and out of people's desks. And it's all, it's, it's, you know, it's like something from a spaceship at times there's robots driving parts and watches around and, and this sort of thing. And so the kinesis side, they explain that kinesis like more than 80% vertically aligned. Wow. Where they're, they're producing a lot of the movements and a lot of the components of the movements. And then in this building, they're assembling all of them. and kind of getting them ready for use and the cost certification and the rest of it. And then on the other side of the building, they're assembling and doing QC and all this kind of stuff for the watches themselves. Yeah. So whereas the movements are vertically oriented, most of Tudor's otherwise production is horizontally organized with either companies that they own around Switzerland or partners they've worked with for a very long time. And so that's how they put their watches together. So they were showing us where... Basically, literally where their assembling watches, so cases, dials, hands, all that kind of stuff, all the way up to final quality control check, engravings, if you want to do that, are all done at this process. And it was a pretty cool thing, but the part that made me giggle about the kind of doing things and not necessarily in the right climate was part of this trip also included a little day trip to this place called Alia Bay, which is an outdoor artificial surfing wave. in the Alps. It's like past Montreux. We went and checked that out, and I'll be honest, like I didn't click on the link when they sent the thing. It just said like, hey, you know, we're going to go into the Alps and bring your bathing suit, and I was like, no, I don't think so. Yeah. And then when they said, oh, it's like a surfing thing, I thought it was kind of like the stuff you see on cruise ships or at some water parks where, you know, it's a couple inches of fast moving water and you have like a foam board. Right, right. And I've tried that before and fell and actually hurt my elbow pretty well. And I was like, I'm not going to do that before attempting to carry all of my gear for four days straight around around pal expo, but then we got there and it's like a pretty large pool. It's that's divided into kind of two triangles and if you imagine the wave coming from one vertices of the triangle and heading towards the wider side. Sure, we went it got some instruction and then went in and maybe had like 45 minutes of you know lining up for a minute or two and then going out and attempting to stand up on the board and the varying degrees of success. I didn't do very well at all. But it was certainly fun and not an experience I've ever had before. So, uh, if, if I didn't have enough respect for people who can manage to do things like surfing or skateboarding, uh, my respect has grown even, even more so.
Blake Buettner So, yeah, that's like, uh, and also the engineering feat of, of surfing in the Alps. It's like, uh, skiing in Dubai or something, you know, it's like just kind of right. Yeah. Crazy.
Jason Heaton Geez. Well, cause the, the, the air was 11 Celsius. Yeah. So I guess that's low fifties and the water was like 10. Oh wow. Okay. So, I mean, you were fine and you're also, you know, I think there's being fit, which I'm not necessarily saying that I am. And then there's being like surfing fit.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And paddling like back in was, you know, it's it's a very specific set of muscles and motion to do that. And I think a lot of us just found it like, you know, trying to do forty five forty five minute session of as many breaks as you could was was quite tiring, tiring. So it was a nice little workout and luckily I wasn't like sore, uncomfortable for for the rest of the show, but, um, definitely, definitely a strange experience to do that, you know, in the Alps, uh, you know, kind of surrounded by, you know, big mountains and that sort of thing, not where you might expect to serve. Yeah. Yeah, seriously. But yeah, it was, it was a cool trip and definitely a nice, a nice thing to get a little bit more like eyes on the whole thing that's going on with, with Tudor right now as they expand their production and kind of in some ways move away from the ancestral home there in, in Geneva. Yeah.
Blake Buettner And will there be a story coming up on Hodinkee or a video or anything?
Jason Heaton Yeah. So I shot a ton of photos. And so that whole story, which kind of explains more of this process and what their plans are for the next few years and that sort of thing. Yeah. We'll be coming out once I catch up with, uh, with kind of everything else that we've got going on, but it was fun. And, and a tutor was kind enough to engrave my, my, uh, Pelagos with a, with a little message from, from my wife on the back or on the case band or On the back. Yeah, it's a clear case back. So it's more of it. It's like a laser engraving. Yeah. Yeah. So not quite the old school look, but definitely kind of suits the watch and I'm definitely happy to have that as well. So awesome. So I got home and you have some travel coming up then, eh?
Blake Buettner Yeah, it's kind of a long time coming. Ghoshani and I have wanted to go to Scotland for a couple of years. We were kind of loosely planning to do it back in 2020 and then, you know, we all know what happened, but this is our time. We're headed over to To Scotland, actually, we'll be there for two weeks, um, starting later in April and, uh, kind of excited. Um, well, to say the least we're, we're actually borrowing, uh, a Land Rover defender, not dissimilar to, to the one we have here, a long wheelbase, a one 10 with two doors. Um, that'll be fitted out for, for camping by the guy who's lending it to us. And, uh, so we'll, we're, we're flying into Glasgow and spending a couple of days there, and then we're just going to. to kind of wing it. We, we thought about booking hotels or B and B Airbnbs or, or things like that along the way. But we just thought, you know, Scotland in late April probably isn't a, that booked solid. So we can kind of wing it. And they have this right to roam law there where you can pretty much park up and camp anywhere, anywhere you want as long as it's not, you know, like someone's backyard or something. And so we're, we're bringing some camping gear and we're just going to sleep in the back of the defender and get hotels where we, where we can and, and just see where, where the road takes us. We, we, we want to do some of the islands and definitely visit some distilleries. And, um, kind of the, the big plan is to do a lot of hiking, um, and tasting whiskeys and hopefully bring some home with us. But, uh, nice, you know, we, we talked about just limiting ourselves to the West coast down by Obon and over to the Isle of Mull and sky and places like that. But then we thought, let's not limit ourselves. I, you know, I always think in, in sort of the American terms of like what a road trip takes in terms of time. And you know, when you Google map stuff in Scotland, it's like, Oh, to go from here to here, it's two hours or three hours. You know, we can do that after breakfast someday. You know, we don't have to dedicate a full day of driving to get from one side to the other. And that opens up a lot of options for us. So we're really excited to, to get over there and just have some kind of loose open vacation time to, to, to see a new place. And, um, since we're going kind of, we'll be in Glasgow early on, we're, we're flying in there. We'll, we'll be spending a couple of nights there. And I've hooked up with, um, Louis Heath who, um, kind of oversees on ordain watch company. And, and I met Louis, I think you might've as well at, uh, at wind up in Chicago for sure. And I've corresponded with him for, for several years and he's kind of a Land Rover guy. just a really kind of neat guy in the watch industry, kind of atypical when, when you kind of line them up with other kind of CEOs from other brands. And, um, he was really gracious and keen to, to host us over there. And so he helped with some bookings and he's also offered to organize kind of a meetup in the, in the evening on Sunday, April 23rd at a pub in, in Glasgow called the Finiston. So, you know, I, I'm kind of opening this up to anybody that, will be in Glasgow or wants to come for that from, from anywhere really. Um, it's at six 30 on April 23rd at the Finiston pub in Glasgow. And I'll mention it again, you know, in the next couple of episodes, I just wanted to give enough advance notice if anyone wants to hop a train or get there for that. But it's just an informal thing. I'm not, you know, I'm not promising to buy drinks for people. It's just, we're organizing the space and it's a pretty big, big place. So, um, I'd love to, to meet some TGN listeners and, and uh, you know, shake some hands and just have a good time there, um, on the 23rd. So if anyone out there can make it, uh, do come. And I would, I guess I would request that maybe you can drop an email to me at the gray NATO at gmail.com just to say, yeah, I'd love to come. So we can get a rough idea of, of headcount for, for the room at this pub. Very cool. And certainly if you have suggestions on things to do in Scotland, I'm not wanting for, Suggestions at this point, I've done research for the past couple of years and heard from a lot of people, but if there's something I might be missing or you suggest, uh, do drop me a note or a DM on Instagram and, and, uh, and let me know. I'm definitely open for ideas.
Jason Heaton So nice.
Blake Buettner Should be, it should be a good time. Really looking forward to it.
Jason Heaton That sounds awesome. I wish I could make it out there that that time doesn't work for me sadly, but sounds like a great trip and I'm sure you'll get a solid hangout at the Finiston pub in Glasgow that Sunday, April 23rd at 6 30 PM. But as Jason mentioned, Send an email. So he has an idea of how many people are showing up. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of showing up when I got home from Switzerland, uh, had a couple of things obviously stacked up in the mail, but one I was fairly excited for, which is that post style canvas strap I talked about on a previous episode.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So I was able to order, um, a green canvas strap. It's made from a German military canvas of some sort. and it's a 21. It tapers to 18, so I can... This is for my Pelagos 39, if you didn't listen to the previous episode, but it's 21 millimeters wide. It's thick like a normal leather strap, not especially thick, not especially thin. It's kind of neater. It suits the watch really nicely, to give you some idea. And then because it's kind of laminated like layers of canvas, it has this elasticity to it that's super comfortable and feels really, really high end. and then I'm able to suit or and then I'm able to fit the buckle from the Pelagos 39 rubber strap. So it feels kind of OEM.
Blake Buettner Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, I'm super impressed with a job to do. They don't make twenty one stock or no, I don't believe he'd make stock of anything.
Jason Heaton I think it's all to order and you do right through DM on Instagram. It was very easy. I paid via PayPal and didn't take forever. I was able to, like I said, if you don't mind, if you want it to taper, you can't have the edges sealed. So this will fray, which I'm totally on board for. I like that's kind of the look. I like Yeah, but if you don't, if you're worried about the edges fraying over time, you can get just a standard one that doesn't taper and that way you'll have a sealed edge, but this feels perfect for the for the pelagos. The price was high, but high like what you'd pay for a decent leather strap from a holding key shop or similar. Yeah, I'm super happy with it. I'll probably get it on the meet at some point, but if I'm honest, I haven't taken the tutor off since I got it. I switched it to my right wrist when we're at meetings and Watches and Wonders, and otherwise I've just been wearing it constantly. It was a little weird to travel without a GMT.
Blake Buettner Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton But I mean, six hours, even I can do that math, so that's not such a big deal to look back at home from just a couple hours. And the watch, it's just comfortable. I can sleep with it on. I love the way it looks. And now, I don't know. There's something about a tutor on like a military style canvas that just kind of works for me, especially with the kind of coloring of the titanium. Yeah.
Blake Buettner Yeah. That's cool. And you sent me a picture of that strap and it looks, it looks amazing. So that's cool. I'm guessing that's a, since we're sort of moving into risk check unwittingly here, I guess that's a, that's what's on your wrist today.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I don't have anything to add. I think I just inadvertently undercut a risk check there. Pelagos 39 now engraved very much my own Pelagos. I even enjoyed this morning watches of espionage put out like a tutors of espionage. Oh, yeah. And all about, you know, kind of it's like an op ed piece on his opinion that, you know, Tudor has really found this space as like the go to kind of tool watch. And obviously he and I share a huge love of the P39. He has one as well. So, yeah, I'll include that link as my risk check watch talk sort of scenario. How about you? What have you got?
Blake Buettner I've been wearing the Vertex, the M60 Aqualine. Oh, nice. Yeah, for the past couple of days. It works on a number of different straps. I've had it on... I mean, the other thing is, too, you know, I think this came in as a question a while ago. I don't think we've answered it yet. But someone was asking our opinion about quick-release spring bars. And I'm normally not a fan, but this watch, the straps that are provided with it came on quick-release spring bars. And I have to admit, I just swap back and forth, like, Currently I've actually got it on a NATO, on a gray NATO actually, but I've had it on the stock rubber, I've had it on the steel bracelet, and it just works so well on so many different straps. I'm just kind of amazed by this watch. I actually went back and re-read your Hodinkee review about kind of its place in kind of the micro-brand scene nowadays, and this watch just, you know, it's certainly an expensive watch at about $3,000, but When I think about all the, the sum of its parts, the tremendous loom, the great bezel, um, COSC certification, ISO dive watch certification, the packaging, um, kind of what you get in the package. Uh, it's, it's a pretty hard to beat watch and I just really enjoy it. So that's, uh, That's what I've got on. It's a front runner for taking along to Scotland. Yeah, I was just going to ask. From the UK. And it certainly would be up to any number of adventures we get up to over there.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it feels like a Vortex works, a Brema, or a CWC. We're all spoiled for choice. Yeah, exactly. Great Britishy sort of tool watches. That's rad. Those are great. I still really, really have a fondness for the kind of all the C, the all black one that I had in. Well, how about you kick it off with, uh, with what you're most, most curious about? Yeah.
Blake Buettner I mean, the one I, the one I was the most keen on, uh, kind of came out of Tudor, but I think we can kind of hold off on that.
Jason Heaton I would say the one I was really surprised by and keen on was the IWC, the Ingenieur. Okay.
Blake Buettner Uh, the Ingenieur, uh, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, is a, Tell me about that. Well, first of all, I'm not sure if you had hands on time with all of these watches, but were you able to actually put this one on?
Jason Heaton I had the Ingenieur, so they're doing like a tropical blue dial. I had that one in my hand. None of them were sized. Yeah, of course. With an integrated bracelet sports watch, it's helpful to have them sized when you can. And then I tried on and shot for a story that Danny wrote all about the titanium version, which is kind of the premium spec right now.
Blake Buettner Look, I know it's all about, you know, kind of steel integrated, uh, bracelet watches, but the titanium one was, was the one that I was really, um, uh, really keen for when I saw that article. Yeah. Yeah. It must feel amazing.
Jason Heaton They're, they're definitely nice. Uh, the titanium has sort of a, a, a pebble blast, like a beat microbead blasted sort of thing. I'm sure they have a different term for it. I don't remember, but it has like a, a very matte sort of finishing. And I think I prefer the lightness of the titanium, but the more straightforward finishing of the steel one. Yeah. I don't love the dial, the kind of mix patterning on the dial. I think a straight kind of matte black dial would have worked pretty well as well. And then the big thing is the watch seems very nicely made, my guess is seriously comfortable when it's sized correctly for your wrist. It's an IWC, it comes with a nice movement, it's not... It's 40 millimeters, it's it's thick, but only in the way that, like an integrated sports watch one is, where it's thick, but it's not in any way uncomfortable or too thick. I didn't have a problem with the sizing or the comfort. The thing that got me was the price.
Blake Buettner Yeah, it's like 11,000 or something, isn't it?
Jason Heaton Yeah, and in my mind, I don't know how they go. And I think we said that the pricing felt high on something like the Bremont Supernova, And this feels high for something like an IWC engineer. I feel like the previous ones were seven or $8,000 in my memory. I could be off, maybe they were a bit more, but this is significantly more than most Rolex sports models, right? Right. This is pushing up on the absolutely impossible to find, but theoretical entry price point for a Royal Oak. Wow. Yeah. I think that there's nothing wrong with the watch, but I think that they'll have a fight because of how fierce the competition is for this sort of watch right now. Right. Cool watches though, and the titanium was really neat. I'd love to see them do more stuff in that vibe, more titanium, more kind of muted classic, not too big sort of stuff. So I do hope that it's successful and they keep going.
Unknown Right.
Blake Buettner Speaking of integrated bracelet sports watches at a more accessible price point, one that popped up so many times in my social media feeds was the Oris. the ProPilot Caliber 400, the Kermit. I mean, what a wild, crazy, out of left field watch that I don't think anybody anticipated. And that green is so bright, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly. I mean, the green is absolutely wild. I'm really, really impressed by this watch, and it's a watch I had really no attention for until I saw it at the show. Yeah. I like the Muppets, fine. I like Horus. I like the ProPilot X400 just fine as well. I think it's a great watch. I don't really understand why those two things have to come together. But that said, put this on your wrist and the green is super fun. It's like nuclear atomic green, really bright, really, really tonally suits the titanium quite well. And then once a month you get a little Kermit on your date wheel. And I think even my cold jaded heart like kind of feels some appeal to that. I think it's a fun watch and people are going nuts for it.
Blake Buettner Okay. I mean you set aside even the little Kermit that pops up on the first of the month, which is incredibly subtle. Um, the color is not subtle. It would be the color that I would have to get around, but it's cool. It's just a neat watch and to put it in that very modernist, bold or us anyway. I mean, this isn't like putting that dial color on a diver 65, which frankly I could see it on that as well. But this is just a statement making watch. It's a, whether you have Kermit on it or not, they've kept that tie in subtle enough where it's not like, Mickey Mouse hands, you know, or, or, you know, Kermit the frog is the hands or anything like that. It's you, you wouldn't notice it unless you were looking for it.
Jason Heaton No. And it's, it's an interesting thing because it connects so nicely with the tone of Oris. They are this kind of like, even the people that work there are these really lovely people. They just really adore watches and doing things their own way and independence from, from the rest of the industry and that sort of thing. And, uh, and I think that for whatever reason, the Muppets just kind of work, you know, they've got a bear that's their mascot. Yeah. you know, kind of a cartoony bear and that sort of thing. So yeah, I think on paper, this is an idea. I definitely would have fought if I was in leadership, but at Oris and I would have been wrong. Yeah, yeah, from my understanding of Oris and the Houdinki shop, like people really want these and are willing to to pay what they're asking for them, which I think is cool and I really like this line. I can't wait to see if they do this line with a complication of some sort at some point. Yeah, because there's just there is space in my mind on that dial. So yeah, I would say congrats on Oris with the Kermit. I think it's really fun. And then the other one that they had. Yeah, this is a very you watch. I saw this and thought, ah, this is one that I think you would have enjoyed, but this is the new generation. So I guess you'd call it the second gen of the Oris ProPilot Altimeter. And this time it has a very high end version of 3D printing done by a Swiss company. So the case is carbon, but it's 3D printed. It's really, really cool. It's a really cool, cool watch with a titanium bezel, a titanium case back and otherwise a carbon case. They've expanded how high you can go and what it can measure, but otherwise they took that dump truck of a watch, such a cool watch, right? But the Altimeter was a massive watch. I remember when you had one and your story about it was obviously super fun, and now it's just... It doesn't weigh that much on your wrist. It weighs in like a normal sports watch, And I think in the right setting hiking in the Alps or, you know, maybe you're, maybe you're a, uh, you know, a pilot, uh, you know, a light, light aircraft pilot or something like that. Personal pilot. It's niche for sure, but really fun. And I thought of you immediately when I said one night when I saw it at Oris.
Blake Buettner Yeah. I remember getting the press release ahead of watches and wonders. And I immediately wrote back to our, our buddy Josh at Oris. And I was like, this is, this is amazing. I love this. And it totally addresses the, the shortcoming, the one shortcoming I felt with, with the steel version, which was the weight. It was just, it's a thick watch and it was so much, very heavy on that really cool kind of textile strap that it always kind of flopped over on the wrist unless you had it perfectly adjusted. And, um, yeah, I, I'd love to try one of these on my wrist one day just, just because of the, the perceived lightness of it. I think, uh, I think it would be fantastic. It's a fun, it's a fun piece, fun complication. So, Totally. Yeah. Good, strong showing by Oris.
Jason Heaton Really cool. Yeah. No, I think they did well. They also showed us some stuff they have coming up later this year. And I would say almost no matter what vector of the brand you like, there's something kind of cool coming up. Yeah. I can't say, obviously you can't say more than that. They showed it to us to kind of in confidence, but everything that they're good at, they're continuing this year. And, and I think they've got some exciting stuff. It's going to be tough for them to top the Kermit. It's such a cool watch. I really hope if you get a chance, if you're, if you have a local Oris retailer, yeah. or if you can find out if there's an Oris Airstream coming to your neighborhood, it's worth showing up just to try that watch on your wrist because it's such a cool watch, a great titanium watch, and then this new dial is bonkers. So yeah, good job from Oris for sure. Let's see... Oh, I mean, speaking of titanium, we can chat Rolex if you'd like. So there were several new ones, but I would say the ones that kind of hit hardest for us would be that Yacht Master in titanium, the 42 mil. So cool. It's like a hundred grams with the bracelet.
Blake Buettner Yeah. I gotta say, I mean, I, I know that ahead of watches and wonders, you know, everybody was like, what, what are they going to do for the, you know, the 70th anniversary of the, of the Submariner, the Explorer, et cetera. And I know people were really hoping for something in titanium from a dive watch perspective. I think even you mentioned it as well. And, um, when I see this watch with, with the, the matte finish and the, the, the bold markers on that dial in titanium, I think to myself, This is the Submariner that we all want or that I want. In fact, I was even wondering, I never really looked at it, but like what is the water resistance level of a Yacht-Master? It's got to be at least a hundred meters and knowing Rolex, it's probably good for another hundred beyond that. Like this could be, if you wanted to just wear this watch as your dive watch, as your titanium Submariner, go for it, right?
Jason Heaton Yep. Yeah. So it is a hundred meters, but it is with a screw down crown. This one is 42 millimeters, it's grade five RLX, so it's a Rolex's proprietary titanium, but it confines to grade five. I'm not sure what one differentiates from the other, not in the grades, I've read about that, but I mean an RLX versus not. One, I think it's a really good looking watch. Sitting there with the Pelagos on one wrist and this on the other, it's way too big for me. The 42 wears in my mind like even bigger than the 42 Explorer. 42 Explorer 2, pardon me. I'm not saying it would be too big at all for me to wear, but it's in that same vibe as the Pelagos, but it doesn't have all the stuff that makes the Pelagos rad. Okay, yeah. You know what I mean? I could see this absolutely being a great watch for a wide variety of a certain niche within Rolex nerds or whatever, and I think it'll be a popular sports model. The titanium's obviously gonna be very popular and is definitely on trend. But in my mind, like even for you, Jason, it is a nice size for your wrist. It's not too thick, obviously great legibility, but between... For me, it's the effect of how big the markers are and how big the bezel is or appears just because of the 42 millimeters versus say 40 or 39. And then it's also, there's gotta be a bias in there that just for the sizing of my Pelagos, having that been the experience I had on my wrist until I was handed this thing, it just felt oversized. Yeah. but granted 42 millimeters we all know isn't. It just wouldn't be. I don't know what the lug to lug is yet. We're working on stuff like that, but I think it's good. I think it's cool to see them make stuff like this and to continue to iterate on the little formulas or mixes of things that they're working on for different layers. I think it would have been crazy, cool, but crazy if they had done a sub in titanium, right? It's always been a steel watch. But it's cool to see them do something like this. I love the name Yacht Master. Nothing really. It looks so Rolex, but also at the same time kind of on its own because of that bezel.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. So I think so.
Jason Heaton I guess this is the one we saw Ben Ainsley wearing over the last while in terms of prototyping.
Blake Buettner And I think we can staying in Rolex for a while here. You know, the 40 millimeter Explorer. I think we can probably glance past that one. I mean, it's right. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, It's the watch nobody really wanted, but maybe in the bigger market sort of commercial sense, there was a gap to be filled.
Jason Heaton Yeah, my guess is it's a question of just maybe the feedback when they canceled the 39 and went back to 36, like how could you... Like, this was a great watch, we need to make something in this vein, so they went with 40 to differentiate from the... Maybe from the Ranger 39, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. But in my mind, the Ranger doesn't make that watch irrelevant, but when the 39 Explorer went away, the six digit from a little while ago, and they went back to 36 last year, I guess, or maybe it was the year before. That was one move, and now for them to come back as there's a Ranger that's a millimeter smaller. I'm sure there's a market for it, but it wouldn't be me, certainly not over the 36, which I just think the proportions are great there.
Blake Buettner And then you got the all gold GMT Master II. I'm guessing you like that one?
Jason Heaton I love it. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's quite as much fun as a five or a four digit solid gold GMT master. Yeah, but it's pretty fun. Yeah. And I really like the black gray bezel gives a little bit more definition or like contrast or interest. And then it's the... I don't know that I would care this to the same amount if it was an oyster in gold versus the Jubilee. There's something that just feels all... Everything, all the little elements were just right for it to feel like, okay, like this is... Sure, it's very shiny and kind of, again, not unlike the Yacht-Master, kind of the maxi dial, the big markers, the big hands, that kind of stuff. Maybe not to the extent of the Yacht-Master, the Explorer II, but I enjoyed it and it would definitely make you giggle.
Blake Buettner I'm trying to think of a world in which I would feel comfortable traveling At least the way I travel. Seeing as it's a travel watch, ironically, how I would feel comfortable wearing this thing. But I guess it's for a different stratus of traveler, the private jet set, I suppose.
Jason Heaton Private jet or maybe just folks that are doing kind of like to Geneva, from Geneva, that sort of thing. Maybe that's more the vibe. Yeah, right. Not necessarily, you know, off to Scotland and to find a Range Rover and drive around for a while. Right, right. But yeah, a cool piece. You know, I thought they had kind of a crazy year at Rolex between some of the like puzzle piece and the bubble watch and the, you know, with the emojis and but to see them come out also at the same time with like a GMT Master that you'd swear they had been making for years. It's great. in solid gold, and then the new Yacht Master, the new Daytona, which I really liked, and I'm not typically a Daytona guy. They've made some kind of tweaks to the balance that I enjoyed. So I'll include those stories. It's not necessarily stuff we have to go in super far. Probably that Yacht Master is the most in the TGN space, give or take, but some cool stuff. And obviously, if you get a chance to be able to try any of it on, the Yacht Master is quite a fun experience on wrist. It's kind of like a big Pelagos 39, if that makes any sense. Yeah, makes sense. Because it's not quite a full fat Pelagos. It doesn't feel or wear that way.
Blake Buettner Before we jump into Tudor, let's talk about Tag Heuer because the big one there that, boy, everybody was talking about was this glass box Carrera, which is a really handsome piece.
Jason Heaton It's gorgeous. Yeah. I think it's one of their best looking watches they've made in a while, 10 years, more. It has a few elements of modernity that really help keep it from feeling like some limited edition that references a very early career, but it's still obviously references in a very early career and I didn't get to go to the meeting, so I had minutes to check one out at this party that he did with lucid, a buddy Nicholas was there and he had one on his wrist and I got to like just kind of turn it a little bit on his wrist and see how it looked in terms of proportions. And I mean if you like vintage sort of tags, then I think this is gonna be deeply in your wheelhouse and it's a very well executed option. This is something that I feel the brand's been trying to do for a few years to really find the zone. And they've had some good success, both in careers and in other sort of 60s and early 70s chronographs. But I think this one really, really speaks to them kind of hitting the mark this time.
Blake Buettner Yeah. Beautiful piece. And then speaking of chronographs, how about, how about Doxa? Did you go to that meeting? Did you, did you check out the new Seagraph? I'm not a huge fan of the Seagraph.
Jason Heaton But this one looked okay. Yeah. I think this will be a popular watch, but not necessarily if the core of your entire Doxa vibe is the Sub 300. Yeah. These are... Specifically, it's the finishing on the dials that feels like a derivation from the standard path that Doxa goes. So these are all... I didn't get to take pictures of the colorful dials. They had them there. They had samples, but they were changing something about the bezel before the production version. so they didn't want pictures of those, but I was able to try on and shoot the black one, the white one and I guess the dark blue one, the navy blue, the red marker, the red surrounds on the markers is strange and it's almost something you don't see until I was like zooming in on my on my the screen on my camera to check focus and you're like oh, is that a reflection of something red in the room or is the or those red markers and a handful of them have red markers, but the yellow and the yellow and the orange were the other two that they had there, and they have this very, very bright, almost like semi-polished sort of brushing on the dial, like a sunburst. It's such a weird vibe to see the Doxa... Other Doxa kind of DNA touch points in the font and the rest of it on that dial, and you're like, what am I looking at? It's not quite what you expect, because it's the same color, but it's an entirely different hue, saturation, reflectivity, all of that to say, a professional or a sea rambler or something like that. So... Oh, the one thing I did really like and now I'm really curious, I'm gonna see if I can get one for my sub 300 is they have new rubber straps and they're still FKM, they're that same sort of like very... It's almost like a dense foamy feel, it's nice. If you know the straps, I mean Zinn uses this as well typically, but now instead of having the big buckle, the fold out buckle with this and that in it, it's just a tang.
Unknown Oh, okay.
Jason Heaton And man, does it sit so much better on your wrist. Like it's for my wrist, maybe if you've got a different sized wrist or you found some comfort with those cut to fit bulky fold over clasps with the Doxa logo. Those never sit well, even when the bracelet's been cut correctly, the rubber. They never sit that well for me. There's always like a balance thing. It feels like the strap is just kind of grazing my wrist rather than like wrapping around it. Right. And with these tangs, I was like, oh man, you guys are onto something. And the person who's doing the presentation was like, I don't know what you mean. They're like a big box of the rest of them. And I picked up a sub 300 T on a rubber strap, and it has this giant buckle versus a little pin and tang on the other. It just makes it a lot more wearable. So I would definitely see about... If you want one of these watches, I would definitely say consider the rubber if you don't think the bracelet's necessarily up your alley. as it's a nicer experience than it was the last time I bored of 300 or 300T on the rubber. Nice.
Blake Buettner Cool. Well, that leaves the elephant in the room, I guess here. That's, that's Tudor. I think, I mean, you visited them ahead of the show and it just felt like... I saw where they put these watches together. It just felt like they had a incredibly strong year. I'm sure it was Cole Pennington, right? I mean, I'm sure he's been designing watches for them.
Jason Heaton He's been making all these decisions just over the last couple of months, for sure.
Blake Buettner No, really. It was a, it was a cool, Cool showing from them this year.
Jason Heaton I love the Black Bay 54 even though Everything in my head screams 37 millimeters is too small, but it just looks amazing Yeah, the 54 was I think the it's weird it hits two different crowds There's like vintage dive watch people Yeah, or folks who've been let down by by even a back way 58 or the other 39 and 40 millimeter divers feeling too big finally have a premium dive watch from a brand that watch enthusiasts are generally pretty keyed up about for a similar price point that's 37 millimeters, nice and thin. Every little detail has been finessed for that size. And I think it's gonna be a really popular watch for them. I wouldn't pick it over a 39 for my wrist, at least not until I get a chance to try one that's not black gold, like the dial. I didn't like the original 58 that came out, that was the guilt effect dial, and they've started with the same for this. So eventually, if there's a 54 navy blue, I could have a different opinion. I bet there will be, yeah. Right now, I would lean... If I was getting a 58 today, which is a discussion I put myself through a few months ago before I fully committed to the Pelagos, was would I be happier with just getting a 58? And I love the 925 and I love the navy blue, but not enough to pick it over something else. I feel like the vintage diver thing at that size, you can scratch that itch 50 different ways, right? Whereas the Pelagos 39 felt like something I couldn't get otherwise. And now at 37 millimeters, like I said, I think people who just want a small dive watch that still has 200 meters and a screw down crown, this is everything I've written about the watch so far. So it's just me repeating it, but I think that's where they're gonna have some success with this. And I'm super interested to see where they take it kind of moving forward, whether we get a line that has a date as well, whether we get other colors, I'm sure all of that is a possibility in the future. Yeah. Yeah. Really good on the rubber as well.
Blake Buettner Yeah. It looks good. It looks good in both. And, and I've never thought I was a kind of a guilt dial person, but, uh, yeah, it looks, it looks very handsome. It looks, it looks just properly retro, but also, you know, knowing how the black Bay family is, it, uh, it still works.
Jason Heaton So man, could you imagine, could you imagine if Blancpain, did something in that vibe. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't have to be 37, but make like a... It doesn't have to be a one to one recreation of an early 50 fathoms either, but take that approach to referencing your past and making a product for now. Right. And I think they do, they just don't do it with all of them, and I'm interested to see what we get for the 70th later this year, which we've rambled on about in the past. But yeah, I was super impressed by the 54, great price point, comfortable, nice size, opens up the world to a whole or opens up the market to a whole group of people who don't wanna wear something around 40, like we're 37 is maybe what 39 is to me or whatever. Yeah. They also had this new white dial or opaline dial BBGMT, it's good in person, it's fun. BBGMT still remains like a pretty solid value prop on the market for all things that it does and how well it does them. you know, good water resistance, a solid, you know, GMT functionality, and now you have your third dial option, whether you want black or the kind of two-tone root beer option, or now this white one. So I think they did well with that. And then the other one that seemed to get people pretty excited was the Ametis Master Chronometer Black Bay 41 with a bunch of little tweaks.
Blake Buettner Oh, yeah. Yeah, I forgot about that one. Yeah, it looks very handsome.
Jason Heaton Yeah. On the surface, it's a recreation of kind of one of the first black bays with the burgundy dial, but it's a little bit more red, orange now than burgundy. You get a brush dial. The lug width is now 21 and it tapers differently than the other bracelet because now there's this five link like Tudor's version of the Jubilee. Yeah, yeah. And then on top of that, you're getting your Metis Master Certification and a new finish to the jimping, the edge grip on the bezel. It's like a bunch of small tweaks and I think now we're seeing the next generation of a watch that's been around for a while. and largely set the tone for Tudor. So if this is them going back to the 40 with the BB 41 with the red bezel, kind of a signature call out piece for them, definitely was when it first came out, right? And so I think they'll have a lot of success with this. The new bracelet's really nice. Oh, just like with the 41, the 54, I forgot to mention, both the rubber strap and the bracelet have T-fit, which is awesome. Yeah. Um, so I hope, I hope to see more of that throughout tutors lineup and also just that other people follow suit. But yeah, that was the, uh, that was the tutor run. What, what, what'd you think anything else from them or, um, does the, does the, a white dial change your mind on a BB GMT?
Blake Buettner It does. Um, I think the, the, the kind of original black Bay GMT struck a little too close to kind of a Rolex GMT. Okay. And I think the opaline dial would be enough to say that'd be the one I would choose if I was going to get something from them GMT wise. And I think it just looked very sharp in the photos. I know that there was kind of a polar dial Rolex GMT master back in the day.
Jason Heaton I think it was a rare version of that, but yeah, possibly existed, possibly didn't.
Blake Buettner Yeah. Yeah. But this, this very handsome. But in terms of the black Bay, like the 41, So I'd forgotten about the 41, but on the, on that Jubilee with the, that kind of Burgundy bezel, it looks really handsome. Yeah. Yeah. The only quibble I have with Tudor is this naming. And it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's I mean, 54 is 37 millimeters, but then you've got the Black Bay 36 and the Black Bay 41, which refers to the millimeters.
Jason Heaton So yeah, it's, it's, it's a strange thing for sure, but it, it, it'll be interesting to see how the line persists over time. Cause clearly there's a huge market for the 41, the 58 hit the enthusiast market in the core of the enthusiast market in a really big way. And now the five, four will expand in a different direction. And, uh, I'm here for it. I think they're having a, having a good time.
Blake Buettner I mean, I think that kind of covers the, of the TGN scope of watches and wonders. I'm sure there were plenty of other interesting things there from Patek and Vacheron and whatever, but I think in terms of our audience and probably us, those are the interesting ones.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think that's the ones that stood out for me from the show that I was able to see. Obviously, you don't get to see absolutely everything and there's a handful of brands I didn't get, nobody from the team were able to see at all. So I'm not saying we hit everything, but that was certainly the stuff, the kind of standout stuff that we were interested to speak about. but it isn't the only new watches that I got to check out. There's one more that I definitely want to mention. So during Watches and Wonders in Geneva, there's all sorts of other brands that don't take part in the fair officially, but will set up shop at nearby hotels or otherwise. And there's another fair called Time to Watches. It's like smaller brands in this big design sort of space on just, you know, 15 minutes or so from Pal Expo. and you pay a small fee, or if you're a journalist, you can get in for free, but you can go see a handful of brands and one of them is Zinn. So I always make a little pilgrimage out to Time to Watches for the last... This will be my second time that the show's been running and to check out Zinn. And man, I really wanted to see a T50 and maybe the most impressive watch I saw during my time in Switzerland. Wow. Just... Wow. They absolutely have a competitor in almost every regard. to something like a Pelagos 39. Wow, amazing. Imagine like a tactical version of a 2254. Yeah, yeah. Really, really monochromatic, nice and thin. They've got a new two piece fabric strap instead of the big burly NATO with the Maritac style loop hardware and that sort of thing. So it's this much lower profile, fits right into your wrist, very comfortable. The captive bezel, like it's a whole generation ahead in terms of refinement from what was on the previous T Series. You don't have to push very hard, it locks up really nicely. Of course, an incredible crystal, bezel action's good. I don't think quite as nice as the Pelagos, but you're kind of dealing with watches that have plus and minuses on each when you're comparing two really nice watches together. I got a chance to see the gold bronze one, beautiful. Really? Huh. not something I would normally consider buying, but it's like this sandy golden color instead of brown or like bronzy. It's a really nice color. The rough sort of dial finish is really cool. They said they sold out almost like in a flash, but it was neat to be able to see that in person. So yeah, if you're on the fence for a T50, it does all the things that like a U50 does, but it feels lighter in my opinion. It it sits a little better on the wrist, which is saying something because the U 50s wears really well, and it feels quite premium. So I think if you wanted the techie sort of modern-y, yeah, 2254 UX weird kind of combination, then the T50 is definitely worth digging a little deeper for you. I was super impressed by it.
Blake Buettner Very cool. Yeah, I'm glad you got to handle that. That's awesome.
Jason Heaton And then we've got to... Believe it or not, we've got a couple more watches. We're not there yet. But Since I got back from Switzerland, at least two new releases have come out that are both pretty exciting. So the first one is the Timex Q Timex three time zone chronograph. That's a mouthful. And I got this email and I was like, what is a three time zone chronograph? Yeah. And we like Q Timex, it's a ton of watch for under like 250 bucks. They've done a bunch of different versions, they come in all sorts of different colorways and the rest of this. and now they have a 40 millimeter cue that's on, you can have it on a bracelet or on a rubber strap, and it has three time zones and a 60 minute chronograph. It's a pretty cool watch, especially with the white dial, with the black markings, very polar with the black bezel. At the time I'm recording this, I do not have confirmation of what I'm about to tell you. I'm holding the story because I'm waiting to hear back from Timex, the Hodinkee story. But as far as I can ascertain with all of the knowledge that I've applied forth and worked for when it comes to how travel functions, how travel complications show you different time zones, I think I figured out what they're doing with this. I found a little gif of it running and kind of corresponded to a few different photos. So obviously you have one time zone via the main hands, you have a second time zone using the 12 hour bezel, so you can do an offset, very simple. And then there's a red hand And this is where there's a little bit of a mystery. There's another hour hand, like a red, you know, 16, 570 Explorer 2 style, additional hour hand. There's no 24 hour markings. Yeah. So it's not... Presumably, I hope, but presumably it's not a 24 hour hand. It's a 12 hour hand because there's a 24 hour sub dial at 12.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So the only way I could see this watch easily doing three time zones would be the main time is one time zone, the 12-hour bezel is another, and then this GMT-style hand isn't a GMT hand, it's another 12-hour hand, but it has a link 24-hour hand to give you a.m. p.m. of a third time zone. Sure.
Blake Buettner I wonder why they bothered with that other hour hand instead of just using the sub dial then.
Jason Heaton I mean, it's a great question. Yeah. That is a question that I'd like very much. Yeah. When the story comes out on Hodinkee, maybe check there. If it comes out before this episode goes up, hit the show notes and double check. I think that's how this works. But without, I don't have confirmation in the press package from the Timex thing only had like two or three lines of specs and it didn't include exactly how you read this new one. But I'm excited about this.
Blake Buettner Well, functionality aside, It's... Aesthetically, it has that sort of zen, what, like 144 or something vibe to it. Yeah, a little bit, yeah. That sort of lugless case design, and then with the bezel and a chronograph. It's a handsome watch. And for 220 bucks, it's... 220 on a strap, 240 on a bracelet. I like it on a strap, personally, but... Yeah.
Jason Heaton I mean, it's 18 millimeter hooded lugs. You could put almost any strap you want on it. Yeah. But this looks like a simple, almost like tropic-y adjacent sort of a black rubber strap. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm super pumped for this. I've asked them to send me one as soon as they have a loaner. So if you're if you're on the fence or or if like me, you're very curious how it does all three time zones, then stay tuned for more on that and certainly a story on her dinky. But I you know, it's nice to get excited, especially after a week of ten thousand, twenty thousand, fifty, one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand dollar watches, five million dollar watches, whatever it is. Yeah. To see something fun that I think people could get interested in and talk about a great watch for like like you said earlier, I don't know where you would take a solid gold GMT master. Yeah, like there are places in the world that you might want to travel that you also might not want to take one of your more expensive watches. And I think something like this is would be just as much fun for you or me as it might be for somebody who's just starting to travel right or or maybe is doing a year abroad during school or something and is able to pick this up because it's not a crazy amount of money. Yeah, right. Yeah, cool thing. I like the white one quite a bit. All right. And then, oh, the other one, this is also kind of fun because I feel like I feel like it's something we've literally heard people ask for on the Q&A. Seiko has announced a 38 millimeter version of the SKX style quote unquote diver, like the Seiko 5 Sport model. So I think people are going to go nuts for these. They come out in four versions from the start. Obviously, I'll put those in the show notes, but they're still 100 meters water resistant. They come on a bracelet. I don't have a price point, but I'm sure by the time Uh, you hit the show notes, there'll be a story there that will have the prices. I'm still waiting to hear back from Seiko.
Blake Buettner Yeah, this is cool. It's kind of splits the difference between, what is it? The, um, was it the SKX013, which was, I think even smaller than this. Yeah, which is 37. Yeah. Yeah. This is nice.
Jason Heaton This is cool. Yeah. 12.1 millimeters thick. So there's a black one, a teal one, an orange one, and kind of a, a sandy kind of, uh, champagne-y color one as well. So. I think these could do well. Um, a lot of what we said, or what I said about the five, four kind of applies to this. Um, it doesn't get you the full dive watch thing being that there's no PIP on the bezel and it's only a hundred meters water resistance. But I would say for most people, especially with modern Seiko, you could treat this to the extent that they tell you you can, and you'd be just fine. And I think these will be super popular.
Blake Buettner Nice. I mean, boy, talk about covering all bases. I think we've covered the spectrum of pricing from, you know, the, The solid gold GMT Master II and the Yacht-Master all the way to a $220 Timex. Not too bad. And you've been able to see most of them. So that's really cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Should get a chance to see the Timex sometime soon. And then, I mean, hey, if they've got a Seiko to loan, it hasn't been that way in a while, but if they've got a Seiko that they can loan, I'd be happy to take a look at a 38 millimeter SKX style Seiko 5. That could be good stuff. Good product. I like when it's good product. You know, some of this stuff's very expensive. Some of it's kind of niche, but it does feel like stuff like the 5.4 answers a question people have been asking of Tudor, and so do things like these 38mm Seikos, or I guess the Q. I mean, the Q just feels like they're having a good time.
Blake Buettner Yeah, Timex is, they're swinging for the fences these days. They're doing some good stuff.
Jason Heaton All right, well, you want to jump into some final notes?
Blake Buettner Yeah, let's do it. I can go first. So I got kind of turned on, I believe a couple of listeners and some followers on Instagram sent me this knowing kind of my predilections for, for stuff like this. And, uh, this is a podcast, um, over that I listened to on Apple podcasts called, uh, coverup ministry of secrets. And it is a multi-part podcast, uh, about the, um, there's a famous case in, in kind of British espionage history, involving a diver named Lionel Crabbe. And some people say he was an inspiration for James Bond. I mean, how many times have you heard that? But it's a fascinating case where in 1956 the Soviets were paying a visit to Portsmouth Harbor for kind of a state visit. Khrushchev was on board. I mean, this was a big deal at the height of the cold war. And lo and behold, the British decided that they were going to um, send a diver covertly underwater to examine the hull and propulsion system of this cruiser that, that arrived and docked at Portsmouth. And the diver never surfaced, never came back. The diver was Lionel Crabb, who was a war hero during World War II, who had retired and had some personal issues and was a bit washed up and passed his prime. Um, but they recruited him to do this mission and he never returned. And then later a headless body washed up, um, that could not be identified, but it was speculated that was him. And there's never been any confirmation about what this mission was about, whether or not that body was crabs, et cetera. And the guy who put together this podcast, his name is Giles Milton, who's a bit of an investigative reporter. He's written a number of books. Um, he put together this incredible podcast with interviews with you know, old dive buddies of crabs and government officials and other investigative journalists, um, you know, other researchers that have looked into it over the years. And it is an absolutely fascinating story. And initially I, you know, I listened to the first episode, it was a bit of a teaser. And then it said, if you'd like to kind of binge all the episodes, you have to subscribe to this service called the binge for five bucks a month or something. And initially I said, no way, I'm not going to, you know, I'll wait, I'll do it. But I was so hooked that I signed up for this and then quit right after. But like I listened to all, I don't know, 10 or 12 episodes or whatever of this, of this incredible series. And the production's great. The, the Giles Milton's a great host. I'm very engaging, obviously very well researched. And the story itself, I mean, if you, if you Google Lionel crab in a British diver, like you come up with some great, great photos for one thing, but Um, his story and the speculations about what happened to him are just that go on forever. It's such a rabbit hole. Um, and if you're into that sort of stuff, this is, you can't be, you can't beat this podcast. It's a, it's really, really good. So I'll say no more about it other than just a, we'll throw a link in and do check it out. If that sounds at all up your alley, you won't be disappointed.
Jason Heaton So check it out. Yeah. I downloaded this based on the same email that you did and I haven't listened to the first episode yet. I downloaded what was available on Pocket Cast and I'll definitely get to it sometime in the next little while. Now that I'm back to my daily sort of podcast habit, as I'm kind of kicking around and doing other stuff, but that sounds... I'm even more excited for it than I was. I don't know a ton about Lonel Crab, only really as a reference. I don't think I know any of the story specifically, so this should be great.
Blake Buettner Yeah. And, and I think the, just to close, I mean the, the hook or sort of the reason behind this title, which is called cover up the ministry of secrets is the case files related to crab's disappearance and his mission, um, have been officially sealed by the British government with a 100 year kind of moratorium or whatever you want to call it, you know, timeframe on it. So there's something deeply secretive and possibly damaging to a number of high ups. Um, if this ever got out, which is why it's been sealed. I wouldn't mind if they did that for me.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Just go with a sense of mystery. Yeah. Right. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of theatric. Yeah. Well, that's, that's very cool. And thanks so much for, um, do, do you remember who sent that in?
Blake Buettner Uh, you know, I got it from a few people. I don't remember.
Jason Heaton Oh, gosh. Oh, okay. Well, thank you to everybody who sent that in. Um, I'm always nice to get another recommendation. It's the kind of stuff we see trading on the Slack, uh, as well. So that's, uh, that's great. All right. What do you have? Close us out here. Yeah, so mine this week is actually the latest issue of the W.M. Brown magazine. So one of the treats that I get each year when I go to Watches and Wonders is I get to always cross paths with Matt Horanek, a good buddy. I've had him on Hoodinkee Radio in the past. I've shot stuff for the magazine here or there, and it's always nice to cross paths with Matt. He's been nothing but generous with his time and everything else for me over the years. And he, you know, was carrying a tote and very quickly handed me the latest issue, which is the 13th issue. I remember when the first one came out. I have it here. I can't be more than 10 feet away from it. I believe they do four a year, kind of with the seasons. And I think this one might be my favorite one. I've probably read through eight, I would say, of the 13 over time. And I absolutely adored this one. There's a whole section on Scotland. hunting and kind of recreating outside in Scotland, of course, beautifully shot. There's an entire story that my daughter, my youngest daughter, was quite excited by about BMW art cars.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
Jason Heaton Which I started reading to her casually. And then, you know, we got distracted by something and I went back and finished it on my own and really liked it. There's a fantastic bit on gold watches. There's a great storyline all about cooking with mushrooms. vintage motorcycles, watches, you know, it's everything, and it's really beautifully shot. And also, I'd have to go back, like I said, and pull the other one off the shelf, but the in-hand quality, like the fingertip feel, is up on this one versus some of the earlier ones. So I wanted to give a shout out. I'm a huge fan of Matt Horanek. He'd actually be super fun to have on the show, maybe talk about what it is to make something like this. to make the magazine because, you know, it's not like he has a huge team. It's it's he and his wife, Yolanda. And, you know, they just do some really, really incredible stuff with a bunch of really good contributors. So that's W.M. Brown. I think it's about 30 bucks an issue. And or you can, you know, presumably sign up for an annual subscription. Solid stuff. And Matt, if you're listening, a treat to see you as always. Congrats on Baker's dozen.
Blake Buettner Yeah. I think Matt's like the hardest working man in show business. He's, he seems to be everywhere all at once. Um, one minute you see him in Italy and South of France and then he's in New York and then Switzerland and Scotland. And, um, and then he has somehow finds time to produce a really good magazine. That's a, that's really cool.
Jason Heaton Admirable. Yeah. And, uh, I, you know, every, every most mornings I was having my breakfast, you know, sitting there, uh, shaking off last night's sleep and, and, you know, keep getting into a waffle or some eggs or something. And I'd see him going out for a run. Before he headed off to the show, we were staying at the same hotel in Switzerland. So, yeah, I'm a big fan and I agree. What a hard worker and a guy who's just been on the move for so long, physically and otherwise. You know, his history as a photographer was a fascinating story and that sort of thing. So, yeah, a treat to see him and, you know, connect with those sorts of folks that you don't necessarily, certainly don't get to see in Toronto and if they're in New York, usually they're home and doing home stuff, right? Always nice to see people in that sort of summer camp vibe of we've all descended upon Switzerland. And that's very much like I ate my weight in Donair. Yeah. And I have no regrets really. What are you going to do? Good.
Blake Buettner Well, it's good to have you back. And gosh, good episode. Some good watches, some good solid TGN kind of adjacent to pieces here. So hope everybody enjoyed it. And as always, thanks so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is, as always, Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Albert Einstein, or at least we hope. A lot of the quotes they attribute to Mr. Einstein weren't always said by him, but it's a quote nonetheless that I'm sure somebody said. There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.