The Grey NATO – 240 – New Watch Roundup (Doxa, Bremont, Zodiac, and Aquastar)

Published on Fri, 26 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

The episode discusses several new watch releases, including the Doxa Sub 300T Clive Cussler edition, new Aquastar and Zodiac models, and limited edition pieces from Bremont. They also touch on a few other interesting new watches from brands like Mido and Citizen. Additionally, one of the hosts shares a story about the winner of a grueling solo sailing race, and the other recommends a hat brand for people with larger heads.

The Clive Cussler Doxa receives a mixed review - while the details like the case finish and dial are appreciated, the overall design is quite busy and niche. The new slimmed down Aquastar skin diver is lauded as a well-executed classic design. The hosts seem impressed by Zodiac's new Seacrown chronograph. Bremont's limited Vulcan edition is praised for its attractive military styling.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 240, and it's proudly brought to you by you, the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you're listening and interested in supporting the show and you don't already, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. James, how's it going? Speaking of driving and diving, we did a little of each. I think you had a bit of a weekend away as well, right?
James Stacey I did. Yeah, I took the opportunity. The weather was kind of mixed, kind of mixed bag around here. But we went up to the cottage for kind of the first weekend. It was the May long weekend for us. So, you know, by the time this comes out, you'll be on the eve of the American long weekend. Ours was the Monday before. So, yeah, we went up and kicked around at the cottage a little bit, got in the water. It was nice and very cold. still, but it rained pretty good on Saturday, but it was a nice year and we got to see some family and hang out with a couple of my siblings and, and that sort of thing. So it's always nice to kind of kick off the season that way and get an idea for what we want to, you know, kind of complete this year on the, on the project and, and that kind of stuff. So yeah, there's some balls in the air and some plans and that sort of thing, but it was a good weekend for sure. It just went by way too quickly, even, even with a sort of half holiday on Monday, obviously my main employment's with an American company, so. Yeah. Yeah. Not, not always. You're not offline on a holiday Monday in Canada.
Jason Heaton Right. Right. And how are the mosquitoes? They're, they're absolutely horrible here.
James Stacey Pretty bad, man. Pretty, pretty bad. You know, a green spring is looking like it's going to be tough. I'm going to be probably going into the TGN slack and asking people who've tried some of like the more military grade sort of solutions. You know, there's these ones that cost, you know, several hundred dollars and can do a certain square footage. Oh, wow. Yeah. That might be an option. I don't really know at this point. Like we've used the thermos cell. I think I've talked about it on past episodes, but it was really bad. Yeah. We came back with, um, you know, 20 bites a piece. Um, and that wasn't, you know, it w it was also one of those scenarios. It's that may thing where it had just rained and it had been kind of a wet spring. So it was all day long. It wasn't like they only came out at dusk.
Unknown Yeah. I found that too.
James Stacey They were just around.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, right in the middle of the day. We were out gardening over the weekend. It was, you know, pushing upper seventies, you know, usually in the middle of the day, they're, they kind of give you a break, but man, they're just swarming here. I think, uh, we really got spoiled last year. It was such a dry summer and there were hardly any bugs, but now it's payback time, I guess.
James Stacey Yeah. We'll see. We'll see. Hopefully it's not, um, indicative of the entire season, but you know, Man, I really hope in a decade we don't find out that bug spray is legitimately terrible for you or something like that, because it's kind of the only solution, aside from going inside, which we did the one night. We had a nice fire going and then people were just kind of like, I'm getting bit through my jeans, I'm getting bit through the whole thing, so let's get inside. Yeah. That is what it is. But, uh, how, how was the diving? You drove out to Milwaukee. How, how long, I mean, maybe an obvious question for somebody from your area, but how long of a drive is that?
Jason Heaton So the Defender is still in the shop for those electrical issues. So I did not take that, which made the trip a little quicker because I took our Volvo and was able to maintain normal interstate speeds and got there in five and a half hours with a couple of kind of leg stretcher breaks along the way. So it's really not, it's, it's a fairly boring drive, but, uh, it's, it's quick. I've done it, you know, many, many years. And I'm very familiar. Just set the cruise control. I listened to a book and before I knew it, I was there. So it was, uh, it was good. I stayed with my buddy, Chris. He's, uh, still living in the town that we grew up in and went to high school in. It's always fun to, to get back there. And, and then let's see, I got there on, on Tuesday, you know, right after we recorded. And then, and then we got up early on, on Wednesday and went, went diving. We got a friend down there who has a, a small, but, but nice boat. um, which serves as kind of a nice little platform for, for diving. And he took us out from the Marina in the morning and we had to, well, I shouldn't say the morning cause we had to wait for the wind to die down. The waves were kind of choppy and wasn't really pleasant or safe to get out there in a small boat. And so we waited until a little afternoon and then headed out and it was, it was, you know, borderline kind of rough conditions, but we, we got in the water and, and, and did the dive. And unfortunately the, The buoy that was placed on the wreck this early in the season wasn't at the right end of the wreck for what we wanted to do, but we still had a nice time. And well, I should say I had a nice time. Chris's a dry suit leaked fairly badly and he's still not sure where, cause it's a new suit. Oh goodness. So he got, he got kind of borderline hypothermia. I mean, by the end of the dive, he was in some trouble there. So we, we got out and, and, and headed back. And by that time the weather had calmed down, but. You know, it's, it's always an adventure. I mean, Great Lakes diving is, is just, it's not, uh, it's never predictable and it's, uh, but the upside is you don't really see anybody else out there. So it's, uh, it was good in many respects and just good to get down there and hang out with a friend. It was fun.
James Stacey I'm definitely looking forward to, like I've said on past episodes recently, just getting into the Lake, uh, with some of the gear this summer. So, uh, yeah. certainly shouldn't be as gnarly as kind of some of that stuff. And definitely, my guess is right now, if I attempted to use my dry suit, I would also end up very wet. So we'll see. It sat for some time. We'll have to see how that held up and if it needs new seals and all that kind of stuff.
Jason Heaton But yeah, I'm guessing the lake would be a wetsuit or even in the midsummer, probably just a swimsuit, right?
James Stacey I think unless you were really sitting still for a good period of time, the water gets pretty warm. It's a shallow lake, all things considered. Yeah. I think the average depth of the bay is about 15 feet. Oh, maybe 18 feet, something like that. So yeah, I think, I think, I mean, I'm not going to go down and just sit still. Like I'm not going down and doing, you know, underwater photography of pike or something like I'm not just going to sit still and hope they come along. Um, so finning around and stuff. I think you'd be, I don't intend to wear any sort of coverage, just throw the BC on. Yeah. That's the dream. Uh, seven mil, uh, here if, if I needed it, but I think in, in water that shallow, I'd probably rather have, uh, less to compensate for. While I kind of get my buoyancy back.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's the dream. I love that idea of kind of diving in a small inland lake where you can sort of just wade off the beach with your gear.
James Stacey So yeah, should be cool. Definitely looking forward to it. Be back up there in a couple weeks, working my way through an internet install up there as well. So theoretically, we'll have our third, our first truly remote studio. for TGN at the cabin. I'm not sure that this internet will be able to do that, but we'll give it a try, maybe. If we miss an episode sometime in the future, that's going to be why. That sort of thing. But yeah, this should be a fun one today. And we're actually, speaking of episode timing, we're going to be holding this episode. So if you're listening to it and you're wondering why it came out Friday morning instead of Thursday morning, it's going to come out May 26th. We're actually just holding it for the launch of a watch, this new model from Aquastar. Uh, so we'll talk about that watch in the next few minutes, but that's the reason that we delayed it. The embargo for that watch was a Friday morning at 9 a.m. EDT. So, uh, we wanted to chit chat about it. It's kind of a very TGN thing from a guy we've had on the show and the rest of it. We're big Aqua star fans. So that's pretty straightforward. So stay tuned for that. Uh, but before we get that far, you want to jump into a little bit of risk check.
Jason Heaton Sure. I think we've got a theme going here today. We do. Yeah. What do you have on?
James Stacey I went, you know, I went down to New York this past week for the launch of the Doxa Sub 300T Clive Kessler edition. And obviously for that I wore my Sub 300T Sea Rambler and I've just kind of enjoyed having it on. It's a little bit of like a summer vibe. I've got it on a mesh. I put a photo up on the slack of it while I was in Midtown waiting for the kind of for that whole event to start. But I went down for I was 24 hours, went down there, saw some good buddies. We saw Blau, we saw James Lambden, we saw all the Doxa folks and all of their representation, got a chance to see the watch. So we'll also get into the watches when we hit to the main topic. But yeah, I'm wearing the Doxa Sub 300 Sea Rambler. It's the 50th anniversary from 2017. I don't wear it as much as I probably should. Again, it's probably just the cost of having something new like the Pelagos that I've been enjoying. But man, it's a great watch. Yeah. Aside from maybe the loom occurs in the hands, the actual state for the loom isn't great, so they don't glow that well, but otherwise, yeah, it's a great watch, wears really nicely. It's fun on the mesh, it feels kind of specific, but a little bit different than wearing it on a NATO or even like a Tropic, which is... I was gonna throw it on that vintage Tropic you gave me a few years back, which is really fun for that watch, but I went with the mesh and I think it played out nicely and it was a fun event. I'll give people a breakdown when we get to the watch, but In similar fashion, what have you got on?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I've got, I've also got a Doxa on. This is the, the vintage Teagraph, the Shark Hunter, that I also haven't worn it in ages. I'm not quite sure why, but you know, given last week's event and was kind of inspired to pull it out and wear it and I had it on the past couple of days. I'm wearing it fittingly on, on the original old Expandro Beads of Rice bracelet that it came on. Nice. It's never been my favorite bracelet, but when I do wear it on this watch, it just feels somehow perfect. In a way that I feel like the modern Doxa beads of rice just doesn't quite hit the mark. There's like a little bit of a miss to it. But this one's got this taper and it's really soft and kind of rattly and just wears really well. And even though it's a big chunk of a watch, it supports it well if you can kind of ratchet it in just right. So yeah, that's what I've got on it. Kind of a docks a day for us, I guess. And I'm dying to hear your impressions of this Clive Cussler piece. I've got some opinions about it and certainly a lot of people have chimed in about it on Slack and elsewhere.
James Stacey So jump right in. We can kick off the main topic, which is kind of a look at a bunch of new watches, some of which are very new, like in the last couple of weeks, and some of which are just ones that we noticed that we kind of slept on over the last couple of months since watches and wonders. So the first one would be this Dockset 300T Clive Cussler edition. It's not a limited edition, it's based on the 300T, so the specs are pretty solid and well known from that standpoint. But it is kind of... It comes in a special box, it's all around kind of a special presentation, and then they've gone like an extra step with several kind of tweaks and kind of aesthetic modifications to the watch. So the main one and the one that really sat the best with me is the case, and the bracelet have this aged steel look, which is actually a PVD treatment that's then stonewashed off of the watch or partially off of the watch and bracelet. Okay, sure. In person, I thought it looked okay in the photos. Yeah. In person, I really like it. Maybe they'll find an excuse to... They said it took them two years to figure out how to get the case and the bracelet to essentially come out the same color. Like they've been working on this for some time and the bracelet would age or faux age more quickly than the case, I believe, or maybe it was the other way around. In person, I really like it. It looks like a really beat up watch with a little bit... The color is more gun metal than steel. Yeah. And it has that sort of... I know there's a term for it that I'm blanking on, but where the edges, where the wear points are a bit brighter.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
James Stacey So it has these sort of accent lines, kind of like you see with gun metal or other sort of broken down older antique metal that has a paint on it.
Jason Heaton Is this what they call in the Leica world? Isn't this what they call brassing? Is that what it's called? Or am I thinking of something different?
James Stacey Brassing is more of like a rubbing that comes off where the black paint slowly kind of is removed by scratches or rubbing. So, I mean, in a way, sure, it's a similar concept. It's just this isn't done with paint. I see, yeah. And then it's the same effect on the bezel. All of the accents for the watch are red. which I think work really well with the sort of deep gray of the aged steel effect. Beyond that, you have a dial that's sort of like aged parchment paper. It's like a yellow. It's really similar to the color of like yellowy loom, but it's the whole dial. And then on top of the dial or kind of on top of that effect, there's like a compass rose that kind of splits the dial into four and the compass rose has its own somewhat more like shiny application. So in some light, it's not there at all. Yeah. And then you turn it and it's quite bright. Yeah. And then the watch itself is signed in red. Clive Kessler and the three coordinates of his birth date are also represented as red numerals in the date wheel. That's clever. Yeah. And it's cool. It's a nice effect in the red again, like only using the red as accents is kind of nice. So Clive Kessler's in red as is the date wheel, not his birth date. And then the markings on the bezel, that sort of thing, as far as the paint And then the case back is maybe my favorite part. It's this really complicated, really... You look at it and you think like, oh, that must have been lasered, because it's so fine. Yeah. And then you touch it and it has like a full grain to it, so it doesn't feel like a laser. Or if it's done with a laser, it's done much deeper than the engraving on the back of my Pelagos, which you can barely feel with your fingertip. Yeah. But it's an engraving of all of the shipwrecks and a series of artifacts, I think, including at least one plane. that have been discovered by Numa since it was founded by Clive Kessler. And it just kind of looks complicated and like something from an antique or some sort of fact of sorts. See, when you take a closer look at it, you realize it's English and it's the name of boats and that sort of thing. But from like if you zoom out a bit, it has a nice polished medallion for Numa in the center, and then it's just surrounded by all the things that the outfit has done. It's a really cool case back. I really found it fascinating. I like that they they took all the text that's normally on the case back and they actually put it on the... What would you call this? The trunk of the bezel?
Unknown Oh, yeah.
James Stacey So like a Doxa has like a coin edge bezel that's actually thin, but it's raised up off the case a little bit by... Yeah, sure. Kind of like a trunk, I guess. I'm not sure of the exact term they would use. It's a collar of sorts. But now all... So the water resistance, the in tribute to Clive Cussler, et cetera, is all engraved along that. So the watch really feels kind of like from an engraving standpoint and a finish standpoint, like really complicated. And I think they did a really, really nice job. Like I said in my story, I don't think this is gonna be anybody's first Doxa unless you're coming at it as like a hardcore Clive Kessler fan. Yeah. At which point, if you've got another collection of cool Kessler stuff, this would look great with it. Yeah. But I also think if you have six other Doxas or 10 other or 20, like Doxa people are... It's a great cult, but it's very culty. And I think if you have If you had a bunch of these and you had this one in the collection, it doesn't look out of place. It still looks very much like a doxa. I think if it had been up to me, I would have made the dial a little bit more simple. I don't think it necessarily needed the compass rose. I mean, that's a pretty small complaint. It doesn't, I don't think it's like the wrong move to have done more or make it kind of more specific or more tied to this background. And when I talked to Dirk Kessler, Clive's son was there, he was thrilled by it. Yeah, you know, he definitely felt like they had finally settled on something that his dad would have loved. And that kind of represents not just the books and the docks, a connection to Kessler, but also to Numa. And I think within that zone, within something that's for like a specific buyer could be a Kessler nerd, could be a docks, a collector, really probably not for a wider, like a significantly wider audience than that. I think it works really well.
Jason Heaton I agree. I think, um, I quite like all of the elements of this watch. I like the case treatment a lot. I mean, I'm like scheming. I'm like, how could I, how could I turn something, a watch of mine, you know, experiment with something I have to, to make it look like this, like, you know, tumble it somewhere or whatever. I mean, they really did a cool job with that. It's, it's how I want DOCSIS to look anyway. And my T graph arguably kind of starting to get there just from, just from its age. But, um, the dial doesn't offend me. I don't mind the compass rose and I like the color they chose. Yeah. I love the case back like you, but you kind of have to separate out kind of the custler side of it. And then, then there's the watch. So as a watch, I like all the elements. I'm not sure it entirely comes together perfectly. I would love to see this case treatment done on a different Doxa with, with a different dial, maybe a gray dial, or maybe it's, um, you know, just something slightly different, something more conventional.
James Stacey I was joking with them that they should, they should take. you know, shark hunter or pro dials and just leave them in the sun in Switzerland for a couple of years and see what happens. And then put those in aged cases, right? Yeah. Right. Right. Like imagine just like a super faded shark hunter or like a barely orange pro with that dark coloring.
Jason Heaton It'd be cool. Yeah. And I love the case back. I like the, on this one, I think the bracelet looks good, kind of aged. The NATO they chose is nice. The box looks good. I have to admit, Uh, this would not be the doc stuff for me simply because, and this might be sacrilege to say as a diver and as a aspirational novelist, I'm just not a massive Clive Cussler fan. Okay. You know, I've read a couple of his books and left wanting a bit, uh, you know, just with some of the elements of the story that said, I think that what he did for kind of the thriller genre and the kind of being one of the outliers in that field with, with really good underwater kind of thriller content is something to celebrate. So, you know, and, and cool that Doxa paid tribute in this way. So, uh, yeah, yeah, I think it's a, I think it's a neat watch and definitely a conversation piece as, as we all have realized.
James Stacey Totally. And it's like, it's like meant to be for a collector, like for someone who's kind of pre-qualified into the world. And look for me, even you want to talk about picky, the fact that it's not a 300, like it needs for a custler, it has to be a tea. He had a tea pit war tea. I get it. But for me, I only like 300s. The T's a little bit too thick. I never need the HEV. I just prefer the thin case of the 67, which is... That's why I have and have owned a couple of those examples. And then as far as the Cussler thing, I'm with you. I actually have never read one of his stories. I'm a very late entrant to fiction, and I think yours is among... Yours and a couple of Bond novels are the only thrillers I've ever read, like fictional thrillers. And I have is the Titanic on my Kindle, which I intend to read this summer. So I'm going to give it a give it a swing. That's the one that Lambden suggested I check out as kind of the first check in into the Custler world. But yeah, a cool watch. I'm just thrilled to see Doxie doing anything. Yeah. And when you have a brand that's so closely tied to that core, the 300 T and the 300 is kind of what I would see as their absolute core. It's got to be difficult to think of anything that adds to that or modifies that in any way. And I think with a difficult task, they made a cool watch. Yeah. That's the way I would see it. Yeah. Beyond that, what else have we got as far as new ones? Did you get a chance? I wrote up the new eras. Yes. Yeah. They're colorways, but they popped up in the Slack. So I think the blue diver, I like even better than the black one, the previous, the first edition. And then they do this, I think it's called like moon or lunar gray for the pilot's watch. I think both successful kind of iterations. When I saw that a press release came out, I thought, oh, you know, we're gonna get a 39 millimeter version. Because a D1 in 39, I would be pretty tempted by. That's a very cool watch. I really like the aesthetic, the curved dial. But this is more of a new color way. I really like the blue. They've done a nice job with it. What did you think of these?
Jason Heaton They're so clean. I mean, even I have a hard time even telling what's a photo and what's a render. You know, they really have a just such a minimalist, very stark, you know, white on blue, white on gray. It's clean lines. I'd love to see one of these in person. I have yet to handle one, but they're, yeah, they're, they're super sharp. And it looks like, did they tweak the movement in this too? Is it?
James Stacey Yeah. So now it's a, it's a higher grade movement and it's regulated to some level from them. I think it was, it wasn't quite like the Akosk statement of, you know, like a very tight, Um, but you know, they said it was better than what was, what was in there previously, but it's a Salida movement.
Jason Heaton Yeah. This is one of these brands that, that impresses me because it feels like they came on the scene, you know, they emerged like fully formed, you know, like they're, they're less, uh, kind of early stage sort of awkwardness that you get with, with some brands where you like, you look back after they've made a few watches and you say, Oh, you know, their early ones were kind of rough. Like this, they, there's a polish to them that, that feels like, You know, they've thought everything through from the beginning and kind of launched with, with their best, um, you know, everything from the, the straps and the, and the fitment of the straps and, um, you know, the type face and, and the, the sweep hand and things like that. It just, it feels like a really nicely. Thought out, um, you know, I can't speak to the actual build quality, but, uh, you know, I'm sure that's great.
James Stacey They're nicely made. Yeah, for sure. They make sense for the price point. I don't think anybody would be surprised. Yeah. Oh, what else we got here on the list? The Zodiac Seacron.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah, yeah. Let's talk about the Zodiac Seacrown. This is a watch that I think, you know, a lot of people were anticipating and, and one that is such a, um, kind of a, maybe a slightly forgotten icon in Zodiac's history. You know, everybody kind of knows the, the, uh, the Seawolf, um, and the modern iteration, the Super Seawolf, but you know, they made some pretty amazing chronographs back in the day, you know, both dive chronographs and other, and, and I think they've done a pretty faithful resurrection of the Seacron here. It's, it's, it's definitely a bigger watch. Um, and you know, from the photos I've seen, I mean, it looks to wear fairly big. It's a 42 millimeter case. I'm not sure of the lug to lug or the thickness of it, but it's, it's a chunker, but you know, Hey, it's, you know, it's a dive chronograph. As I've said in the past, like, you know, this T graph I'm wearing is a, is a big watch too. And, and you know, the Aqua star, the deep star, and there's, it's kind of tough to get away with. with a dive chronograph with some water resistance, um, these days, um, and keep it super slim. And I, I'm quite okay with that. And I think this would be even better on, on the strap. You know, I've, I've seen a couple of pictures on a strap. Most of the ones I've seen have been on the bracelet, but I think all in all, it's a really handsome watch. They've got two iterations of it. They've got the kind of reverse Panda with the white sub dials on black, and then they've got this, this blue dial with darker, uh, sub dials. So yeah, hats off to them. I, again, another one I'd like to see in person. Uh, I, I think I'm such a sucker for dive chronographs and, uh, uh, and this one's such a classic look.
James Stacey Yeah, it's a great look. I really liked the bezel treatment, uh, quite a bit, pretty distinctive. I liked the, you know, the price point at 2495 with a Swiss automatic. That seems like it's in the market, the normal sort of market standing for something like this. You're still getting 200 meters of water resistance. Like you said, it's kind of this like nice mid century, late mid century design. kind of well iterated at 42 millimeters. It's probably a hair on the larger side of, uh, of what people are preferring these days, but, uh, a good looking watch, uh, certainly in, in, you know, we remain kind of like impressed by what Zodiacs managed to do over the last couple of years. And of course, we've got our buddy Mike there now, uh, supporting the brand. And I think these look great, uh, between the black and blue and the sort of reverse Panda, I think it probably leaned towards the Panda.
Unknown Hmm.
James Stacey Yeah. But then you see a video of the black blue and it's actually pretty, pretty nice. I like it. Yeah. I'm, I'm a little split. Handsome looking watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. It has a bit of that. Do you remember years ago, Brightling came out with a super ocean heritage chronograph. Uh, it's sort of, to me, it hits the same, like it's a very classic looking, you know, pump pusher chronograph, um, with, with big prominent pushers and then, and then a great looking bezel. And I've always liked that combination as opposed to, something that has a little bit more shrouded or something push pieces. I think I think I just like that this one kind of screams that it's a chronograph. It's a cool watch.
James Stacey Absolutely. Yeah, I think these are these are cool. Definitely something that's that's worth checking out. I should probably bother Mike for a hands on at some point now that we've kind of missed the initial launch of the watch, but a handsome thing, certainly. And I hope that the brand continues to kind of iterate upon the Seawolf and the Seacron and stuff like that.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's good stuff. Yeah. And then just a quick mention, maybe we, we jumped to these, uh, these citizen watches, the NJ015, uh, the Tsuyosa. Um, and I, I think, you know, if you kind of squint and look at them, these are colorful dial, uh, integrated, uh, steel bracelet sports watches, as we've been discussing a lot of lately. And to me, if you squint, they almost look like the PRX from Tissot or, or, you know, a few others.
James Stacey Um, but I think Rolex OP with a different case.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly. Um, you know, I guess of the ones that I'm seeing, I kind of am drawn to the, that kind of, I wouldn't call it a mustard. It's kind of a really deep yellow kind of orange and yellow hue I think is pretty sharp. And, and you know, for four 50, I think they, they hit the price, right? So if you want kind of want this look and maybe you're not full on ready to commit to, you know, a life of, of single watch where in this genre, I think this is a kind of a cool alternative.
James Stacey Yeah, 40 millimeters steel, a bunch of different colors, 50 meters water resistant. It's an automatic from Citizen. I think the light blue is quite handsome. I do think the dial design is like intentionally pretty Rolex-y, pretty OP in its execution. But then, of course, you have this integrated case, and it's not the sort of... You've got a little crown at four, and there's some distinctive elements here that feel a little bit different than a simple Yeah. You know, let's go after the OP. I mean, you also can't, but they don't do the OPs right now. So, uh, in, in those sorts of colors, but yeah, I really liked that sort of Bahama yellow. The green's pretty handsome. I can't imagine you could go wrong with the black one or like they're just a bunch of nice colors. Yeah. Um, and citizen does a good job. And I mean, this is arguably considerably more conventional, um, even kind of trendy than something like the Aqualand, but it gives you an idea of like the breadth of what citizen puts out there. And I think making the decision to go with an automatic kind of speaks to who they think would be interested in such a watch. Yeah, I agree.
Jason Heaton I think that's a that's a plus point for this watch. I'm glad actually it doesn't say eco drive on the dial for some reason. It just kind of elevates it a little bit.
James Stacey Yeah, I think it's handsome. It would be another one that I think you look at the renders and you kind of get one feel it kind of feels like there's a lot of dial. for the case. But then you look at some of the wrist shots that they provided in the press pack. You can see the photos on Houdinki, of course. And they look a little bit more balanced in real life. So I think as an alternative to a PRX, if you wanted something maybe a little bit more, what's the fairest way to say it? Something that's a little bit more Rolex than it is AP. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like wider scope vibe. I think this could be a nice option. And yeah, I agree that the yellow kind of speaks to me, uh, uh, at the most point, especially we probably be the most fun as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. What about, uh, what about our friends over at Braymont? They came out with these, these two releases, oh gosh, a week or two ago. Um, and boy, you know, one of them is a much more conventional kind of a tweak on an existing watch. And then, then you've got this Viper, which is just a wow.
James Stacey Yeah. Let's start with the MB Viper. Yeah. I'm not even sure how to contextualize this. It doesn't, it doesn't really like speak to me as like a watch that you would necessarily wear as much as it is kind of like a tech showcase for the brand.
Jason Heaton Aesthetically, I think it's a bit of a miss, but I get why they did this. I mean, we talked about the Custler Doxa and how it's, it's for a specific kind of customer, um, maybe an existing customer. I think this is another case of that where, you know, you're, you're, you're not going to be, uh, this isn't probably going to be your first Braymont. Um, you know, it's, it feels like a collector piece, you know, it's limited to 300 pieces. Um, it's quite expensive. I think in, in us it's like $6,800 or something, but, um, I, I like the story behind it. I don't care for the watch itself and I can not see myself wearing it, but you know, this came out of, you know, they say it came out of kind of a test bed time piece that they, that they, when they were testing the new ENG movements, the kind of their in-house movements, um, with Martin Baker to kind of survive all of those ejection seat tests. They needed kind of a test bed that you could anchor onto a bracket or something that you could strap onto an ejection seat for, for all the tests. And so now they've taken that and turned it into a wristwatch. And I think with that backstory, the watch makes sense. Um, it was, it was designed to be probably, you know, seen through high speed video or however they were doing the tests, whether the, you know, through the salt fog or the acceleration tests and things like that. Yeah. I mean, aesthetically that, that kind of orangey anodized aluminum on, on the black and the kind of the really chunky shape and then the handset just doesn't quite do it for me. But again, I don't think this was an aesthetic exercise as much as it was, Hey, you know, here, here's an opportunity to, to spin out something that came out of one of our test pieces. And I think collectors would dig it.
James Stacey So, yeah, I think, I think much in the same way that the Kessler 300T isn't going to challenge, you know, my, Sea Rambler or my want for a white pearl. I like that this exists. It's kind of a cool thing in general. It has this nice story attached to it. Yeah. But as like a day-to-day wearing watch, even at only half a millimeter larger than a standard MB2, I'd probably still lean towards the MB2 if I was in that zone. Yeah. But theoretically, we'll look back on this watch and see them make the leap from ETA based calibers in the MBs, which of course had to go through all the proving process. Now they've done the proving process at some level for the ENG series. And then theoretically, we'll see those movements transition into a more conventional MB design in the future. And I think within that lineage, it kind of makes sense. It's kind of a weird, quirky sort of fun thing. And I mean, 300 is a very small number. Aesthetically, yeah, not my cup of tea necessarily, but I do agree that the backstory is kind of fun. As for the other of the two new ones, this is the Bremont Vulcan, so also limited. This one only 250 pieces, inspired by the Avro Vulcan. I'll include a Wikipedia page or something about the Avro Vulcan in the show notes. It has a really cool backstory. It's also like an incredible looking plane. Yeah. Really, really cool. And then as far as taking one of the HMAF series watches, the Monopusher Chronograph, I think this is a very handsome watch. I think it's a good looking thing. I almost wish they had gone like even further in making it, you know, like the like the Vulcan in some way, but it's got a new hand set and a new dial treatment. I think these are just a good looking thing that will probably sell quite quickly. And if you are already in the world of, you know, looking for wanting a Bremont chronograph, I mean, maybe you threaded the needle and the timing worked out. What do you think of the design here? I think it's kind of fun.
Jason Heaton I think it's very handsome. I mean, I had an arrow for a couple of years and enjoyed it. And I, I liked this kind of general aesthetic that you get from the, the, the sixties, seventies RAF chronographs, you know, the CWCs, the LaManias and things. And I think those were the watches that Vulcan pilots were wearing. At first I thought, you know, it's a little too close to the arrow. They should have stretched a little bit and done some, some different stuff, you know, but, and again, going back to the Kessler watch, I mean, that's an example of, you know, taking some extra steps to really make it unique. In this case, it's much more subtle, but as I started to kind of look at the different elements, uh, I've, I've warmed to it even more. I love for one thing, I'm looking at a photo of it on this sort of textile strap that has that subtle camouflage treatment on it. And then the, the, the running seconds counter on the left side of the dial, um, has that unique sort of camouflage pattern that the Vulcans were painted in. Uh, and then of course you've got the, the radiation symbol for the right sub dial. And then just those hints of, of that kind of battleship gray or Admiralty gray that you get on the sweep hand. Um, and on the 1952, I think all of those, they come together. I mean, this, this to me is core, you know, Braymont, what they do well, they, they, they make a handsome watch as opposed to the, the, uh, the Viper, which I think is not a watch anyone would call handsome necessarily. I think this one is just a really handsome piece. Um, So yeah, I like it.
James Stacey I think it's, it's, I think it's a really good evolution of the arrows, like the, the base of the arrow. Yeah. Um, I think the hands work really well. The more, the longer I look at it at first, it was kind of jarring the skeletonized treatment on a very traditional handset. That's like a, it feels like a very Bremont sort of move. Yeah. They're only making 250. So not exactly something to talk about as like a broad product. And the Vulcan is such a cool plane in general. I think it's, it's just kind of fun to see the tribute and to see it done. And with one of their sort of military chronographs.
Jason Heaton Yeah, good piece. What are we left with here? We've got two more to talk about on our list. This Mido, the Ocean Star Decompression World Timer, that kind of slipped by us in all the watches and wonders excitement.
James Stacey This is a neat watch. Yeah, I caught like very brief wind of it because maybe it's in the Hodinkee shop, something like that. I can't quite remember. And then just recently it came up in the TGN Slack because Teddy put a video up about it and he really liked it. And I was like, Oh, maybe we take another peek at it. And I'm inclined to agree with the fellow on the Slack. And I apologize. I've already lost the message, but there's a lot going on here.
Jason Heaton A lot going on.
James Stacey Yeah. I mean, like it's, it's a, it's a seriously handsome watch, but then I start to think about it like, wait, what am I supposed to do with all of this? Right. Right. The world time bezel's gorgeous. I'm a big fan of Mido. Obviously, I have the Ocean Star GMT, the Hodinkee LE, and love it. Very similar design language throughout.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But the decompression timer always kind of held me back a little bit because of how busy it was. The colors are incredible.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey The blues, the pinks, the yellows, the greens. Which one do you like? I'd probably lean towards the blue one. The warmth. Really? Kind of helps a little bit. Yeah, yeah. But I'm not really sure. I mean, it's also one of those things that's probably helpful to see it in person. All of that said, it is busy. The rest of it at $1,300 on the rubber strap. I think this is a lot of interesting for the money, if that makes sense, right? Like you're not going to have another watch that's kind of like this. The ability to have this also be a travel watch, I think is quite appealing with the world time, depending on how you use it. Of course, it comes with two straps. I think you get to pick from two different colorways. It's very busy, but I think if that aligns with your aesthetic, there's a lot here to like. I feel like every time I put this on, I would also need like a little card from my wallet to remind me how to use the decompression timer effectively. Because somebody's going to ask you about it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Also, the diver, the standard diver version, the non world timers were crazy popular. They were difficult to find. So I think this makes sense. You've got a caliber 80, 200 meters of water resistance. It's 40.5 millimeters. They're saying 13.4. I assume that includes the sapphire crystal. And then, yeah, like I said, it's a it's a C07-661. um caliber 80 so you get 80 hours of power reserve and a date and a GMT function to track against that bezel so I think a pretty cool watch maybe a little bit busy for me and at $1,300 you're really not that far off from the Ocean Star GMT the LE from Hodinkee which I would probably lean towards just in in that it's a little bit closer to my aesthetic Yeah. But I could also see this being the one that somebody would buy and go like, this is my, this is my vacation watch. I'm wearing like a fun pair of swim trunks and this, that's my vibe for the next week. And I can't fight that. So.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's one of those kind of, I feel like a Navitimer feels like a really kind of aviation nerd watch. I, this feels like a real dive nerd watch. I mean, I think it kind of along the lines of a Doxa where, you know, any casual observer is going to ask you about that decompression, uh, scale on the, on the dial. And for sure, like you said, you better have your, your cheat sheet with you or, or the AquaStar DeepStar with, with that funky decompression bezel. Oh yeah, of course. I, you know, I look at that. I was wearing mine a couple of days ago. And, uh, I remember when, when that watch came out and I was researching it and writing about it. Um, you know, I, I, I, for a brief time, I, I knew how to use it. Um, but it's like with anything I've, I've, it's just slipped away. And I think it would be the case with this too. I used to know how these decompression scales worked on on the dial from I think a Vulcan that I reviewed years ago and it's slipped away, so I'd have to refresh my memory. But yeah, cool piece. And then speaking of Aquastar, that's the last one on our list here that actually launches today.
James Stacey We buried the lead on this one. So yeah, the new Aquastar Model 60. And if everybody listening could just picture a skin diver, that's what you get. Yeah. It is like the classic form of a skin diver. It's 37 millimeters wide. It's 47 millimeters lug to lug. It's 11 millimeters thick. It's a three-hand with painted superluminova. You get 200 meters of water resistance, a dome sapphire crystal. It's a bi-directional rotating bezel with a ceramic bearing, 60 minute elapsed time scale. Pre-order price is $9.90, so right there at the end of the three-figure sort of range. And it uses, again, like we've seen in other Synchrons and that sort of thing, the LJP G100 automatic movement, which appears to be kind of Le Jouperé's sort of evolution or take on an ETA 2824, that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah, these are cool. I mean, I think we've seen so many skin dyers over the years, and I think what's been lost, I think, in a lot of that kind of discussions about those watches is, you know, Aquastar, you know, they were one of the early dive watch producers and was actually a sub-brand of of Jean Richard, um, back in the day. And so you, you used to get kind of the originals that, that would say Jean Richard in the top and then Aqua star on the bottom or whatever. And, and it is just the, the archetype of, of the skin diver, like you said, and, and 11 millimeter height, it's, it's a fairly slim watch. Um, 37 millimeters. I mean, this is like a little unobtrusive, very simple watch that I think when you stack up the, you know, the, the, the higher grade movement and the ceramic bearings and the, and the bezel Sapphire crystal. I think you're, you're getting a good amount of watch for, for nine 90, even if it is a very simple looking piece. But, but to me, it's one of those classic sort of dive watches that hark back to the really early days of, of diving and kind of in a, in a very basic way.
James Stacey Yeah. And I think in many ways, like 900, $2,000 now is like 500 to $600, six, seven years ago. Yeah. in terms of just the watch world and what things cost, not always, but in some scenarios, you're also buying a recreation watch or like a reissue watch, a tribute watch that carries the correct, the same brand on the dial that you pay a premium for that anywhere. And on top of that comes from a guy who's pretty good at this. So my sub 300 50th anniversary was made by Rick Mori and Rick has been on the show in the past. You can check the show notes for that fascinating dude who helped kind of relaunch Doxa into the web era. He was a decade ahead of a lot of micro brands in terms of online retail and figuring out kind of the zone that people wanted when you're talking about watches that won't be made in the thousands, but in the hundreds that are made, they're precious to the people who do buy them. They're very specific enthusiast product, and I think that's partly what we're seeing here. On top of that, you're just seeing... In my mind, if you love a field watch, the diver equivalent of a field watch is a skin diver.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But in this case, you're not lowering your water resistance to 50 meters or a hundred. You're still getting 200 meters of water resistance. You get a solid bezel. I think it's an absolutely gorgeous watch. Most watches were really pretty then. Yeah. It's the right size. I think to reference a skin diver, I have a Sylvana of a similar age. That's roughly the same size and dimensions. And they just wear well on any wrist on a wide variety of straps. And I think at a thousand dollars, with aqua star on the dial. I think it makes sense. Yeah. You know, I think if, if it was coming from a quote unquote micro brand with a brand new name or a name that had only been around for a little while, you might expect it to be a little bit less than that. But between the, the Liz you pray movement, which, you know, they're very careful to say has been adjusted in four positions. And yeah, I think these are solid. I'm a huge skin diver fan in general because they are like the every man's diver. They're not too big. you're not paying for features you don't need. And they're kind of just beautiful, like you could change the straps around on these things and really change the vibe on your wrist. And outside of anything except formal dress, I just think they work and they reference that kind of sweet spot of mid-century diver without looking like a Rolex or a Blancpain, which I think goes some way in the funness, because you probably have other watches that look like those ones.
Jason Heaton Right. Yeah. Another nice release from Rick.
James Stacey If you want to see more, you want to see photos, the rest of it, swing by Hodinkee. I'll have my introducing with live pics etc etc that would have gone up roughly within minutes of when this episode went live or at least when the email for this episode went out so swing by if you have more there and otherwise if any questions that sort of thing let us know on the slack or in the comments on substack about this watch or any of the ones we've just chatted about that's a handful pretty good watches that largely are all dated after watches and wonders yeah i would say i mean any one of these i'd be i'd be well maybe with the exception of the viper i think i'd be happy to
Jason Heaton to wear at least for a little while and check out. Actually, I'd love to check out all of them, but, uh, yeah, some cool stuff.
James Stacey Look, how about we jump into some final notes?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. I, mine is, is less, uh, I guess, uh, you know, something to watch or interesting read. It's more just kind of most a news item, um, that I just didn't want to let slip by. And that is the, there was an article on outside magazine about, um, the woman who won the golden globe sailing race. Um, and you know, this is one of those arcane pursuits, those, those, you know, really intense activities that, that slips below a lot of people's radars. And that is the, the golden globe race, um, which originated back in 68, 69, when Robin Knox Johnson won the first edition and they've only run, I think this is only the third one, maybe the fourth one. Um, yeah, third, I guess it's only the third running of this race and, and what they've done with the kind of the modern equivalent of that race that was in 1969 is Um, of course it's a solo round the world sailing race. Um, but in its modern form, they are attempting to as closely as possible, recreate the original race from 68 69 when there wasn't GPS, there wasn't, you know, satellites and social media and et cetera. So the sailors are restricted to the types of technology they can have on the boat. So they're shooting with film cameras if they're taking pictures. Um, they do have an emergency beacon or GPS or sat phone just in case. Sure. You have size or even do a life raft or something. But other than that, they're not, you know, uploading Instagram photos from every stage of the, of their voyage and things like that. And so it's a really full on commitment for these sailors. And as with the first race, the majority of people who enter it don't finish. And there isn't a huge monetary award for this either. And. Um, to, to, to cut the long story short with regard to the, to the winner of this one, um, it was won by a woman, the first woman to win it. Uh, and her name is Kirsten Neuschafer and she's from South Africa. And, uh, I linked to an article in outside magazine about her and she's a really unique person. Um, really kind of, as the article says, you know, well-equipped for, for the months of isolation and kind of hard work. She's a very no nonsense, um, you know, athlete, very skilled captain. And, uh, just, it's an amazing story. I think, you know, if you've read the book, uh, a voyage for madmen, um, about that first race or seen, um, some of the movies like the mercy or deep water, uh, about that race, um, you, you can't leave, but be impressed and kind of terrified, uh, by this exploit and, uh, you know, hats off to Kirsten Neuschafer for, for winning this one. And, and, you know, who knows what will come, come out of this and, you know, when they'll run this again, but it's a fascinating story. Wow.
James Stacey Check that out. 30,000 miles. Yeah. In 235 days. Yeah. Yeah. So they're basically not allowed to stop. Right. There's no like finding a port and restocking or the rest of it. It's essentially a sprint that takes three quarters of a year.
Jason Heaton You fix everything on the fly. I'm total self-sufficiency and goodness sakes. And to complicate things, she actually had to Um, divert her course because an SOS call went out from another entrant in the race who, whose boat had broken up and was capsizing and needed rescuing. And she had to sail an additional, I don't remember how far, a hundred, a hundred miles or more, um, to, to affect a rescue on this person for which she. She was able to pass him on to, you know, a passing freighter or a ship to take him to safety. But then the race organizers awarded her some extra time or something like that because she, she went out of her way to rescue this person. So, you know, not only is she, you know, sailing single-handedly around the world, but she, uh, she had to, uh, to rescue a fellow competitor as well. So yeah, it's, it's an amazing story.
James Stacey Boy, I hope they gave her a pizza or something from that boat. Seriously, man.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey That's crazy. What a challenge. Yeah. Super impressive. Definitely a story worth reading. Um, man, that's so cool. My pick for the week is really nowhere near as interesting. The truth is definitely not as harrowing. It's the last time that I spoke about a hat that I liked. I have a big, weird head and most hats don't work that well for me. In the past, I've spoke about the Pedro and Taylor corduroy hat, the washed corduroy hat, and I like those quite a bit, but I may have come across one I like even more. And it's summer, you want to keep the sun off your face. I've now lost two of my three Pedro and Taylor hats. I just leave them places. But my brother recently gave me a hat for a golf company, a golf bag company called Mackenzie. That's M-A-C-K Mackenzie. But this hat, which is kind of a washed darker blue with a simple logo on the front, is made by a company called American Needle. And Jason and I have been kind of looking around at hats. You know, we've been considering the idea of doing like a TGN hat, like a crew hat or something like that. I do like wearing a hat, especially in the summer. It seems like obvious reasons. And I just wanted to suggest this one out there more specifically it is of they do hundreds This American needle does hundreds of versions of their hats some with logos some without you can probably find something you like they do Classic Americana, they do sports. They do beers. They do all sorts of stuff This specific style is called the washed slouch, which I won't take personally, although that's fairly accurate And it seems to be, uh, you can get it like without a logo on it, which is probably my general preference. I don't know Mackenzie from something else, but for 23 bucks and for $23, that seems pretty good. If you're curious and not quite sure you want to jump in, we're going to attempt maybe to do a TGN version in the future. So we're that that's brand new stuff from this morning. So a little teaser there, I would say compared to the Pedro and Taylor, it's a little deeper, so it sits a bit lower on my head, which I like, and it's the materials, that corduroy of the P&T, one of the benefits is it's quite light. This is a little bit of a heavier material, but doesn't feel like those wool ones, the kind of throwback to the 30s, 40s style ones that you also see. In short, it's nice. The brim comes pre curved or bent or however you would call it, and I've been super happy with it. So the last time I talked about a hat, people messaged a lot. It comes up on Slack every now and then. What was the hat that was recommended for people with big, weird heads like James's? My new favorite one is this American needle. And for $23, I thought it was perfect for a, for a final notes. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Perfect.
James Stacey And I have a hat for the summer.
Jason Heaton Yes, definitely. And, and standby for, for future TGN merchandise drops where we're.
James Stacey Yeah. If we can make that happen, I think I'd be, this is a product I would, I would be pretty happy to have the logo on for sure.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Cool. All right. Well, that was a fun show. I think, uh, you know, good crop of new watches, uh, some interesting final notes and, uh, yeah. Summer kickoff right this week.
James Stacey Yeah, this is it. We're there. And, uh, we appreciate everybody, you know, allowing us an extra day to align with the Aquastar launch. If you want to dig into that or any of these other ones, be sure to hit the show notes. And as always, thank you 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, which could even nab you a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegreatnado.com. And we leave you with this quote from the famed novelist Henry James who said, To me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.