The Grey NATO – 245 – New Watches! Summer Blue Omegas, Carbon Tudors, and More

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

Synopsis

The episode begins with a discussion about the hosts' recent busy schedules and travel, leading to a skipped episode last week. They talk about upcoming events like Chicago Windup and a TGN meetup with Citizen. The main topic covers new watch releases from Omega, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Seamaster line with several blue-dialed models including a revived Ploprof. They also discuss Tudor's surprise release of carbon composite Pelagos FXD models in collaboration with Alinghi Red Bull Racing, featuring a unique blue colorway. Finally, they briefly cover the new third-generation Ocean King from Monta.

Transcript

Speaker
James Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nato, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 245, and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you're listening and interested in supporting the show, please visit TheGreyNato.com for more details. James, well, we're back after a sort of an impromptu skipped episode last week. Um, how are you doing?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm okay. Things are busy. I'm in the middle of a move and uh, and some travel came up and then travel came up for you and we thought, we thought we kind of had like a narrow, you know, two hour window or something where we could put it together and it just didn't work out. So a huge thank you to everybody who uh, on the slack, like we, we put out a message and said, sorry, we're, we're not going to make two 45 for uh, the end of June. So now it got pushed to, You know, I think it is what it is. Sometimes it doesn't always work out. But a big thank you to everybody for the understanding for the skipped episode last week. It's not something we take lightly. I actually, you know, pretty pretty bummed to have to skip an episode just because the schedule kind of fell apart. But it does happen every now and then. I mean, on that topic, but with more of a plan just so people have it and so that there's no surprise, we're going to be taking a summer break for the weeks of August 10th and 17th. So no new episodes. during that time. I think that's roughly the same time we did last year, a couple of weeks in August, just to kind of get our head on straight and do some summer stuff. And I know both Jason and I are also planning some travel around that window of time, so that should be good. What else we got here? Oh, speaking of summer fun, we'll be at Chicago Windup July 15th and 16th. We'll be camped out for office hours at the Citizen booth on Saturday afternoon from 2 until 4 p.m., but we'll be at the show. But if you want to come chat Citizen and such, then Please feel free two to four on Saturday afternoon. We'll also be recording a live podcast early on Sunday with guys from WarnWound. That's going to be super fun. I think that's a good kind of two day programming. We always look forward to chatting with those guys and putting out kind of a team episode or a two, two team episode, which should be good. And then kind of the main event for us is we're going to be throwing a TGN meetup with Citizen. Saturday evening, that's the evening of the 15th after wind-up closes. So that's 6.30 to 8.30 at Great Central Brewing. It's not too far from where wind-up is held. Walkable, short Uber, etc. Come have a beer or two and hang out. We've got a little bit of programming and some fun in the works. Stay tuned, but we should be, you know, less than 10 days away at this point. So we'd love to see at Great Central Brewing. Yeah, yeah. Jason, no RSVPs needed.
James No RSVPs needed. Um, we've got the space. It's, it's going to be a very informal thing at, uh, at great central. And it's, it's literally like two blocks away from venue West where windup is. So. Should be a, should be a good location. We got a few recommendations on that place and, um, we're all set up. We're going to be, um, offering some, some free beer to, uh, to people who show up, uh, you know, early until we run out of tickets, I guess. And then, um, citizen. Yeah, I suppose so. Um, they're putting up a, uh, a bit of a special giveaway. So, uh, I'm not going to. divulge exactly what it is, but let's just say, uh, you might have a chance of walking out with a, with a citizen watch of your own that evening. If you, uh, if you come to great central, yeah, not too bad.
Jason Heaton It should be cool. Yeah. I'm really looking forward to it. It's, it's kind of snuck up, eh?
James Oh, totally. I mean, it's, uh, we'll be leaving in 10 days. Um, and, uh, and then that Saturday morning, there's a bit of a, kind of a pre event before wind up called wind up in the lake. Um, there's a group of, of divers that we're going to go out in Lake Michigan and dive the so-called mystery wreck. This is through a kind of a friend of the show and a long time kind of dive buddy I've known through social media, Chris Scott, who lives in the Chicago area. He's a dive instructor and he and his local crew discovered a yet unnamed shipwreck off the coast of Chicago. They're in Lake Michigan that, uh, that, uh, Ben Ruess is underwriting a bit of a dive charter to go out, um, and dive that wreck and I'll be joining them for that. So that should be fun. And hopefully if all goes well, make it to the show, um, in time for kind of the opening that, that day on Saturday. So action packed weekend.
Jason Heaton Absolutely. Yeah. It's going to be a good one. It's a, it's a busy, busy time. Uh, by the time the next episode comes out. So the episode that we'll record and send just before we leave for Chicago, I will have moved to a new place. So much of my life is in boxes currently. and anything that isn't will need to be shortly. So I have a laptop, a charger and my microphone in a room that's somewhat more echoey with no carpet.
James I really dislike moving and we've lived here for close to 20 years, so I'm not envious of your situation here this week.
Jason Heaton Yeah, this one had to happen. It's going to be more space. I'm actually pretty excited because it means for the first time since Vancouver, I'll have an office. Oh, nice. Like an actual office with its own space and where I can set up a more permanent recording solution. Right now, I'm just kind of sitting on the couch in one of the rooms of my current home. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. You know, I'd put it out to the crew, like I'm probably going to go and do kind of a clean slate design for the whole production, the mini studio, the desk, the rest of it. If that's something that might be of interest, I guess, let me know on Slack and we can see if there's a cool way to kind of cover it. It's only like tangentially in the TGN space. I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to desk setups and monitors and IO and that kind of stuff, but I'm not sure that it would necessarily ring true for everybody.
James Was it you? I remember a final note or something from several years ago about like a website or a social media account with a guy who posts photos of desk setups. Was that you that did that? Turn me on to that. I remember seeing something like that.
Jason Heaton I'm not sure. I mean, I probably brought up, uh, like Reddit battle stations. Maybe that's one option. And those are pretty good. There's also, um, actually just blanking on the guy's name. Uh, there's a YouTube channel where the guy he's, he produces a bunch of different content. Uh, but he, most of the content for his channel is about his like work set. That's what it was. Yes. Uh, so that was probably the one that I sent you and his videos are great. I, it's stupid that I'm blanking on what it is. I'm clearly under or over caffeinated, but I'll, I'll include that video. Cause I might, I'm thinking about going that direction rather than the multiple monitor. He uses one single large television that can kind of be divided up into several like soft spaces for work. So I haven't, I haven't fully decided yet, but I I'm excited to use a little bit more of the gear I own rather than have it be a little bit more transient as it has been for the last couple of years, since we had that audio problem where my desk used to be. Yeah, here at the house. So yeah, that's good. Um, I mean, other than that, I'm looking forward to moving and just kind of having this part of it over with. I want to get back to the part of summer where I just go to the cottage. Yeah, really. That'll be good. Before that. I mean, it's, it's funny when you skip one episode, you realize like how much sometimes a busy, like you were busy enough to have to skip an episode, but it also meant there's a bunch of stuff we didn't talk about.
James We were both traveling. You were down, uh, down in Rhode Island, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I went to Rhode Island. I had never been to Newport before. I've been to Providence once in the past, like on a drive between Boston and New York. Yeah. I went to Newport for a photo shoot that involved the Intrepid, which is the America's Cup ship that won in 67 and 70. Yeah. Such a cool experience. I mean, it's just shooting photos on a boat. It's for a watch. You'll see this all comes out fairly soon. The boat was just really cool. The captain was this fascinating guy that's been you know, captaining this boat for 20 years and still races it. It's owned by some, you know, rich guy that just loves, I guess, sailing or, or having the boat still exist. And it was, yeah, it was just really, really cool, fun day. Learned a lot. I don't know anything about sailing, like zero. Uh, so I was just trying not to get knocked off the boat while holding my cameras. Uh, we were able to find some wind and get going and we had a really nice time. That was, uh, that was one day. So it was, you know, like shot all day and then had dinner, got in a car and drove back to New York. Uh, the next day was a shoot in New York that I cannot talk about without losing my job, but that will come out sometime in the future. And it's a very, very big thing for, for Hodinke in the, in the team. Um, so I would assume sometime later this summer, very early fall, uh, for something like that, but stay tuned. It was, it was pretty fun. And then I left. So that was literally all day that, um, Tuesday. Wednesday morning came home and worked a couple of days. Friday, drove to Philly for a wedding and came back Sunday afternoon. So that was a, you could see where, where the week kind of made it tough to put an episode together.
James Well, and it makes me think I was having a conversation with Kashani, uh, last night or the night before about how fast summer goes and why winter doesn't go equally fast. And I think it's because summer ends up being full of just due to the the friendly weather and that sort of thing. Like you tend to do more road trips. You have more, we had a lot of out of town guests for like six weeks straight, uh, just up until this week. And, um, you know, we've done a couple of road trips and just travel and things. I think that's the kind of stuff you pack into the summer and you're going from one thing to the next, to the next, like every two weeks. And then the time in between is just almost like you're just biding time until the next event. And then before you know it, it's September. And I think in the winter, know, we just kind of hunker down and don't do as much of that. But, uh, yeah, it's, it's already flying by. I mean, here we are, we're recording this on, on July 4th. I mean, where did June go?
Jason Heaton Geez. Yeah. And I mean, we had, we had to take a holiday to record an episode. It's, it's, it is, it's, I don't want summer to be not busy. Um, but I definitely had hopes this year that like work would be less of an issue during the summer. Yeah. Like I could dial back a bit and it's just the, it's just the opposite. And I don't mean TGN. I absolutely adore TGN. I was very bummed to have to tell y'all that we were skipping an episode. I mean, just like the day to day with Hodinkee. Um, it's just, there's just so much to do and it feels like, it feels like, like I'm out of phase with the new cycle. Like I want to step back and Omega launches 11 new watches or, or I want to, I want to go sit at the beach at my cottage and Rolex decides to launch a Daytona during Lamar.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. It's great. I'm enjoying all of it. And I will, I'm very excited to be done moving, but it is, it is busy and I know I'm going to blink and it's going to be, I'll be ending my vacation in August and realize that it's, you know, then it's back to school and so forth. So yeah, you would just want to make the most out of it. And I think if you attack summer by making the most out of it, it goes by really quickly because you're busy all the time. Good busy, but busy, right? Yeah. Yeah.
James Yeah. And on the flip side of that, I mean, we've had a lot of hot, really sunny days, which is, you know, haven't minded it. The mornings, the evenings are cool. And then the middle of the day, we just sort of stay in the shade and lay low. But, um, you know, I was also thinking how every once in a while, it's nice to have a rainy day. It almost like is an excuse to stay inside and do some quieter activities. And lo and behold, uh, today I was, uh, the reason we're, I jumped on our recording right at the last minute here. I was, I was out for a bike ride this morning. I was, I always try to get out before it gets too hot and As I was coming home, I was about a mile and a half from home and you could just see this wall of weather coming, like this massive storm blowing in and the wind started picking up really strong. And I felt like, do you know that scene in, um, secret life of Walter Mitty where he's in Iceland and the volcano is encroaching behind him and he's like pedaling like crazy down the road on his borrowed bike. And that's how I felt kind of looking over my shoulder as this wall of weather descended on me. And I just made it home and got drenched. But, uh, Yeah, it's nice to nice to have a good summer storm. So that's what what's blowing through right now.
Jason Heaton Yeah, no, I think I saw an Instagram. I haven't been using Instagram all that much. But I think I saw in there that the defenders back up and did the lights are working that sort of thing.
James Oh, just in the nick of time because I you know, we're kind of we're kind of short a vehicle and I wanted to drive that one to Chicago for windup. So Ghoshani would have kind of our reliable Volvo here for for what she needs while I'm gone. And yeah, the you know, the shop I had it there for a couple of couple of months actually, it was just after we got back from Scotland that the brake lights and the indicator lights at the back stopped working. And I was kind of at wit's end. So I went and left it at the shop where I bought it and that they were going to get around to it. But finally, you know, the guy's like, you know, you might as well just come over here and fiddle with it and we can lend advice where we can, but we're not, we're not going to get around to it. Cause they're, they're not a repair shop. They, they, they fix up and sell, you know, $80,000 defenders. They're not in the business of like fiddling, uh, fiddling with some guy's old, uh, old, corroded lights. So I ordered a set of, of LEDs for the markers and the, um, and the brake lights and tail lights. And, you know, after a lot of frustration, the, the advice that the guy there gave me, he said, just unplug everything at the back and start from scratch and use a multimeter and test every wire for power. And then he had this great cheat sheet that was just the, the color codes for all the wires and what they go to. And then I just plugged stuff in one by one. And got it all working, got it all back together.
Jason Heaton So it was a bit of a triumph. Did you end up finding like an obvious problem or?
James You know, I mean, I think just cleaning up all those connectors and I put all new bullet connectors and kind of the hubs for those and new ground wires and all that kind of stuff. And now it's all buttoned up pretty well. So yeah, knock on wood, it's all solved and running well. So happy to have it back. And, uh, with, uh, with any luck, that's what, uh, that's what will be parked outside of venue, venue West again, like last year.
Jason Heaton Um, uh, looking forward to, yeah, that's going to be a fun weekend.
James Yeah. Right. And then I had some travel myself. I was in, um, I was in California. It felt like a blink and you miss it sort of trip. I was out in, in Monterey last week. Um, and that was kind of the main reason we had to skip is I just couldn't make it back in time to record a decent time. Um, I was out there for a project that I can't really talk about. In fact, it's a long-term project that I think won't see the light of day until probably late next year, but it involves some diving. And what was fun about it was I got to meet up with an old, old chum of mine and my kind of mentor from when I did the Alcatraz swim, gosh, over a decade ago. And I haven't seen him since then. Uh, Kevin, who's, uh, was also a TGN listener. His wife said, our voices help her go to sleep. So, you know, there you go. Yeah, right. Hope you're sleeping well. Yeah. So, uh, so we had a great time. It was really good to see him. And, and we did, uh, we did a great dive off the breakwater at San Carlos beach, uh, right in Monterey, uh, hooked up with, uh, another guy from, from backscatter photo and video right there in Monterey. And he came along and shot some, some video for us, uh, underwater. It's that great California cold water diving. You've got, you know, loads of kelp and an enemy and starfish and Lingcod and, um, just all sorts of interesting stuff and otters on the rocks and things. And so. It was, uh, it was a good dive and, and, you know, we got some good footage and it was good to see him ate some, some good, uh, Trepino at a, at a seafood place. And then, Ooh, nice. And then as luck would have it, my, um, my old buddy, uh, Chris, uh, my great lakes dive buddy from, from way back. Um, he and his wife were actually vacationing, uh, in that same area, um, during that week. And he texted me and said, you know, you around, we're, we're having dinner at this Mexican place. So I drove over and got to see him there. So it was, you know, for a three day, trip, like a 72 hour door to door trip. Um, I packed a lot in and got to see some old friends and do a little diving and, and kind of have a fun time. So it was, uh, it was great. And you know, California, I mean, we went to Point Lobos, uh, if anyone's familiar with that, it's just the most stunning, beautiful, beautiful place. I think probably in the whole, uh, lower 48 States. So really, really good time.
Jason Heaton Yeah. That's one of my favorites. I mean, I definitely have said this on the show before, but that area is just about as good as it gets in, in my opinion, in North America. Yeah. Yeah. Well, are you feeling some, a little bit of risk check after we've got people kind of up to date on the last couple of weeks?
James Yeah. Well, um, it's, uh, it looks like it's all, all, all dive watches today. I mean, even looking at our main topic, it's a lot of, a lot of kind of dive water sports watches, which is, seems appropriate. And, and today I'm wearing, uh, my Bathyscaphe, the Hodinkee Blancpain collaboration from a few years back. Yeah. I've, I've been, I've been wearing it a lot, you know, it's a small, comfortable watch, good for the hot weather. And, uh, and I've been wearing it on this, um, I think I mentioned it once before this, that new Artem kind of the thinner more supple sailcloth and I've got it on the fold over clasp and it's just it's easy to snap on and off when I just you know take it off or on and super comfy so yeah just it's kind of become a bit of a go-to summer watch so that's so good yeah yeah and how about you
Jason Heaton Yeah, I have been wearing just a ton of the Pelagos, especially because once my... I don't know if anybody else likes those. Once your mind is kind of in the packing mode, I stop going and retrieving things. My watches went into the cases, some of them went back in their original boxes, whatever's gonna be most convenient for the actual transit, which isn't... It's less than an hour from where I live now, so it's pretty simple that way. But I've been wearing the Pelagos a ton on the rubber, which I talked about in a recent episode. But in honor of my week on the wrist with the new Seiko SPB 381, the GMT Pro Specs, I figured I'd throw that on. I've been wearing it for the last couple of days as I was kind of tuning up and finishing the written side of the review. I did also wanna make a big shout out, because that story's live, I'll put it in the show notes. There's a video, it's like a full week on the wrist. I'm really happy with the watch. I think Seiko made a lot of great decisions with it. I'd love to see them spin it off into maybe different sizes, maybe put this movement in a few other watches as well. But as far as a starting point for a $1500 dive GMT that's really nicely made, definitely more complicated finishing than on an SPB 143 or something like that. It feels like a more modern with the ceramic bezel. I'd very much like to see the double black version, black bezel, black dial. I have the double green as it stands. I was really impressed with it. You know, Dive GMT, I went into fairly deeply, and this is what I was going to say thank you about, but I went fairly deeply into the idea of like, I talked to a few people about this watch and they said it was too expensive at $1,500. And I was like, I don't know, I spent well over double that for the Braymont. Yeah, right. It kind of offers the same functionality and I really like that. I think it's, you know, it's $70 more than the Mido, which is a flyer, but doesn't have a dive bezel. Like I think it's only the only competition that really makes it seem like it might be $100 more than it needs to be, is the standard Mido Ocean Star, which is 44 millimeter. And I wouldn't buy that ever because of the size, right? So it's a really weird kind of impression of what people feel. I think what we're seeing isn't so much that people think it's too expensive for even a collar GMT. I saw some of that in the comments on the story, but a lot of people seem to think it's like 1500 bucks is too much for a Seiko.
James Hmm, that seems a bit baseless in my mind.
Jason Heaton I mean, it's I guess it depends. Maybe other people are having different experiences with Seiko's. Yeah, maybe it's the fact that I've owned like for I've been fortunate enough or nerdy enough or Problematic enough in my monetary spending that I've owned like 40. Yeah, and I've kind of enjoyed all of them They all have this very specific charm to them and and I think that watch it fits right in there It's a little bit Marine Master. It's a little bit Grand Seiko like I think if what you always wanted was the Grand Seiko's and they're too big, as long as you don't, you won't miss the Zaratsu polish and an eight series movement or better than a nine series movement. This one's pretty good. Um, I will say that it's the 6R54 and I put it on my timing machine. I actually did it twice just to make sure that like, depending on where it was in the, cause it's a 70 hour power reserve on the new movement, which is also really nice. but I put it on the timing machine and I got about three, between about three and a half. I had one, one time in the power reserve where it was like plus three seconds a day and one where it was about plus four over six positions. Entirely acceptable. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, it's very good. Way better. Like I think my SPB is about plus 11 right now. Yeah. My one, four, three, which I also don't mind. I wouldn't mind if it was minus 11. I just like, who cares? Right. I don't care that much. Right. I understand if you do, at which point I would say, all right, maybe not the watch for you. But this is only one point of data from one guy's machine, mine, but it is at least data rather than saying, oh, it ran pretty well or it was accurate enough or that sort of thing. Yeah. Kind of all things totaled out, there seemed to be in the comments and then in some of the things that just people feel like it's not a $1,500 watch. And that's where I kind of felt a very strong disagreement. Like if the SPB 143 is a $1,200 watch, this is easily a $1,500 watch. Yeah, yeah. Definitely a more expensive execution of details and the ceramic bezel, the GMT movement, the longer power reserve, all this kind of stuff. So yeah, I was super impressed with it. I think it's well-priced in the market. I'm excited to see them put this movement in other stuff. The thing that I didn't bother getting into too deeply because the GMT market will change in the next two months is the only problem in my mind that the 6R54 has, the new Seiko GMT movement. is that the Miota 9075 is just starting to hit citizen brand watches, like the citizen family of brands, and also others, like Vare has a G5 with the 9075 in it that's less than $1,000. Yeah, yeah. But if we're now talking about a flyer GMT, whether it's the Miota 9075 or the CO7 Eta being less than $2,000 and you have several options, some of them less than 1,000, It's a whole new world. Yeah, yeah. So I didn't get into the 9075 kind of series of it all, but I think that's also a really interesting thing on the pipeline for GMT watches, for travel watches. So yeah, I think between some of the stuff we've seen, like what's coming out with the new Arken, and then the sort of... And some of this is on the TGN Slack, I just... Out of respect for the company that hasn't announced these watches yet officially, I'm gonna be fair to them, but there are other brands that make watches that are quite popular that are gonna have this 9075, just stay tuned. And the price point makes a lot of sense, and the watch looks really good in person and all this kind of stuff. So I'm really fascinated by what's happening with GMT watches because we're so close to essentially being able to have whatever we want at what I would call an accessible enthusiast price point, because you could still buy the SSK for 400 bucks. That's a great watch, right? Right, right. Yeah, yeah. There's just so much out there now.
James Yeah. It's nice to have the, it's nice to have those, those options at those two ends of kind of the Seiko spectrum, um, with, you know, similar functionality, if not, certainly if not, uh, you know, quality or, or what, but that argument about something not being worth something is it always feels very almost rhetorical where I just think, what is this based on?
Jason Heaton Is this, are you saying that it's not worth it to, to the, to me, the commenter, right?
James Yeah. And is it, is it because they have that budget and it's just a little beyond that, or they're truly saying like the materials that make up that watch and the build quality does not merit that price. And then I'd be curious to say like, what should it cost? And, and, you know, kind of why, you know, why do you feel that way? It always feels very theoretical sort of armchair quarterbacking, like how a company prices their products. And I guess I always think price is based on what it's not based on. A lot of it isn't based on an intrinsic. mark up on a cost of a watch. It's what they think the market will bear. And I guess you wait and see if they do sell. And if they do, then maybe it was worth that price.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I also think there's what it would be naturally priced to in the market, which is where the Seiko falls nicely, I think. Yeah. I mean, keep in mind that brands like Bell and Ross, Bremont or Tag Heuer are doing collar GMTs for $3,000, $4,000, $5,000, $6,000. Yeah. So it's tough to say that a $1,500 Seiko that offers, in many ways, a very similar execution, fit and finish, you know, the Bremont is a higher quality overall execution, but it better be.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Because it's like five grand, right? Right, right. All said and done. So I think the pricing thing is weird because you have to see how it sits in the market. And then I think what you get with, at least with commenters, is you get kind of a gut reaction based on the last experience they had with Seiko. So maybe they just don't like Seiko right now or they love Seiko, but they, they, they think that collar GMTs are trash. Yeah. Yeah. And like, it's, it's like, it's the second book in my Bible of writing about watches is like one GMT movement or one GMTs function is not better than another one. It just depends on how you plan to use it. Yeah. Yeah. There's a reason brands still persist in making the collar style is they're super handy for just understanding when your call is in another time zone.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Flyer or collar. I prefer flyer because I travel a lot, but it doesn't make collar less useful. It might actually make it more useful if I'm at home and I know that, you know, let's say a close colleague is in Japan for a week and then going to Paris. Yeah. Yeah. I can, I can adjust to those between those two times ones very quickly with something like the SPB 381. Right. So it's all just the right tool for the right task. And I've really started to just despise people calling flyer GMTs true GMTs or otherwise. I also think GMT is a problematic term, because technically the Seiko isn't a GMT. It doesn't have a 24-hour bezel that can measure offset. So there is no Greenwich Mean Time of it all. It's a travel watch of some sort, or a two-time zone watch, a dual timer. Yeah. It all comes down to these crazy terms, but I think it's a great watch. I'm really happy with it. Like I said, I'm excited to eventually see the full black one, as that's definitely what I would buy. I have no special affinity for a green watch, but a black Seiko Diver is my zone, right? It's where I started. Yeah, yeah. We didn't have any of this planned when we started wrist check, but I guess I've spent so much time kind of thinking and talking about GMTs recently, and the crew really came up. I put out an ask on Slack saying like, Hey, here are the parameters, a thousand to $2,000 collar or flyer, but it has to have 200 meters of water resistance and preferably be a dive GMT, but a quote unquote GMT diver is also fine. And they came up with like three or four watches. I hadn't even considered it. It was great. And there's, I built out a little list. So if you want to see, and you can, they're all linked. So if you want to go to the story, Yeah. And actually just see the list of what I think is most... Not all, you can't capture every... I couldn't do 25 watches, but I did like 12 or 13 that are kind of in that price range. Yeah. And I think would appeal to the same sort of person who would like the Seiko or the same sort of taste that would like the Seiko. So... Right. I guess I turned this into a mini topic, but I... Yeah, I just wanted to say thank you to the crew for helping me out.
James Yeah. And it feeds well into our main topic, which is kind of a new watch roundup. Every I don't know, I'd say probably every sixth or seventh episode, it feels like it's time to kind of take stock of what's, uh, what's come out from, from some, some brands, you know, we get some big announcements from time to time and we'd done a few kind of less watchy episodes lately with, uh, you know, Don Walsh and Sylvia Earl and a few others. And so, yeah, just kind of seemed like a good time, especially given last week's, uh, kind of launches between. you know, Tudor and Omega. And then we, we've got, uh, a new Manta Ocean King that we threw in as well for, for kind of some small brand love. And, uh, so yeah, I mean, I think, I think the discussion of the Seiko, it's, you know, it's certainly a new-ish watch and it's one that you've spent ample time with. So it was, uh, appropriate to chat about it a bit.
Jason Heaton Look, we do have some new watches, some more new watches, which I'm pretty pumped about. Uh, where, where do you want to start with these? You want to kick it off with Omega?
James Yeah, let's, let's start with Omega because this was, um, the 75th anniversary of kind of the Seamaster line. which was introduced in 1948, and they had this event in Mykonos in Greece and invited some watch press. Neither of us were on that trip, unfortunately, because it looked beautiful. Yeah, I mean, what do you think? What do you think of the watches? Do you see more here than just blue dials?
Jason Heaton So I think there's kind of two sides to it, maybe three for me. The first one is a new ploprof in Omega steel that returns to the original dimensions of the watch, the vintage dimensions. It's still a huge watch, but like If you have listened to most TGNs, you know that the greatest big watch of all time is either a Ploprof or an Aqualand. Yeah. Those are your two choices. Yeah. So to see it come back, I think that's awesome. I can't wait to see them iterate beyond the summer blue palette. The other element, I guess, is the summer blue of it all. I think it's the better part of 10 or 11 SKUs. So there's the Ploprof, the aforementioned PO in 39.5, an Ultra Deep, and a 42 millimeter Seamaster Pro, a Seamaster 300, and then three Aqua Terras, a 38 millimeter, a 41 millimeter with like that teak style dial, and then the world timer.
James Which one are you going home with? Ploprof, I'm guessing, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, probably the Ploprof out of these ones, but the truth is I don't really like the summer blue coloring on almost any of them. Oh, okay. Yeah. I think as a dial color, it's good. I like it quite a bit. where it has to be also the color of the loom plots and the hands and the bezel. It's too much blue. It just doesn't quite hit me. I like elements of it. I actually think the coolest of the dials is the ultra deep. Yes. Yeah, I agree. Which has this like rocky, I guess it's.
James It's the contour of the bottom of the ocean. That's the Mariana Trench. Okay. Well, there you go. I like, I mean, I, you know, um, Ploprof for me, for sure. I even liked the blue. I think it looks amazing. Although I'd, I'd put it on a different strap.
Jason Heaton I like the blue. I just don't care for like the hands. It's like, there's not enough contrast there or something. And for me, a Ploprof, I should have an orange minute hand.
James Yeah. Yeah. Um, but the ultra deep, you know, I tried one of those on when I was in Scotland, uh, David from Scottish watches had one. Um, and it was the first time I'd actually handled one and, and I put it on and that watch, you know, I think again, I've not tried the, the deep sea challenge, um, from Rolex. I think you have, but that one looked fairly unwearable. The ultra deep. I, when I put it on my wrist, it actually, um, it actually felt pretty darn good. I mean, I, I quite liked that watch and like if as a statement piece and kind of given kind of the history and the connection that Omega has with Vescovo and that stuff, I, I quite liked this one, but, but I think you know, if I was to pick something out of the new Omega releases, it would definitely be the, the blow prof. I think it looks great. I do wish they'd gotten rid of the helium release valve. I mean, I've always, it's always bugged me because the original was built to not have to have a helium release valve, but they felt the need to put it on this, which makes me kind of, it makes me frustrated, but it's, it's definitely cool.
Jason Heaton It's a, it's a, it's a bit of a weird move. I do hope that this means that we'll see like a norm, I want black dial, black bezel, orange hand.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Like the classic, just fill out the line a little bit. What I will say is the, all the blue tones and then the blue rubber strap work really well. They look great. Yeah. Every live photo I saw from the event looked pretty cool for that watch. And the dial seems brighter in sunlight than it does in the, you know, the, the images on the website. Yeah. The 39.5 Pointed Ocean, all of the blues go from like a darker blue to more like a Navy and then with a light blue highlight. And I think it's more successful because of the steel blued hands. I like this one quite a bit. It's a good looking watch. I would love to see one of these in person. I feel like I've been asking for, or I feel like I've been interested in seeing the 39 five for some time. Uh, next up, I mean, we've got the, the one that I think at least in on, on paper works the least for me weirdly is the 42 millimeter diver 300. Yeah. Same like the SMP. Yeah. Yeah. And it's maybe because the 60th anniversary Bond looks so good with the white.
Unknown Yeah, yeah, yeah.
James I ended up selling my... It's the blue markers, they're throwing me off. I ended up selling my white dial one. I love that watch. Oh, I didn't know that. I did, yeah. I loved that watch while I had it and I wore it quite a bit, but as soon as I got the 2254, it kind of blew away, the white dial one, because it was what I liked about the Seamaster, it felt a little more, no nonsense than, than the white dial, the white one, the white dial with that ceramic kind of complicated, very high end looking dial just didn't quite, it wasn't quite working for me anymore. And that's the way I feel about this blue one, as well as the, you know, the, the, the bracelet people for a long time, I've been asking for a more tapered, uh, different style bracelet and Omega kind of sticks with this, uh, kind of complicated bond, uh, bond style straight. 20 millimeter bracelet, which, you know, I get it. It's a trademark for them, but, um, I would love to see a tapered one. In fact, I've, I've always managed to put an 1171 vintage, uh, bracelet on my sea masters and it looks, I think just looks so much better.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I don't, I don't necessarily disagree there. I, I, I really liked the modern three hundreds, obviously two, two, five, fours, a hero watch, but, uh, this one, the coloring, I think it's, it's either going to hit you and it's like, oh yeah, that's what I want. Or you'd just go with one of the other, like 20 variations. right And it could just be that it doesn't work in renders, like you have to see it in person for like the depth of the color and the tone and the rest of it to work, and that's fine. We could be dead wrong because we're looking at images on the website. As Jason said, neither of us were at the event. To be honest, the Seamaster 300 has never really called to me. I liked the Spectre LE with the 12-hour bezel. But I've said this before, there's something about the depth of the dial. It seems so deep in the case that there's always a shadow on it. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. And it could just be like an impression from someone who takes photos of watches more than they own them, where the light on the watch kind of bothers me. But they're very pretty in terms of a design and obviously have a fantastic design legacy. But so that's the other one at 41 millimeters. And then just for those curious who didn't go through it, the pricing, Omega seems to be moving up a little bit in pricing as a lot of brands are. So the new Ploprof is 14.3. I think I want to say they were 13.7 or 13.8. with the previous steel ones, but it might've been like 11, eight. I don't remember specifically.
James Yeah. I feel like when we did that challenge where we were trying to pick some money, I think it was slightly less than 12 if I remember right.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So maybe it was like 11, eight. So this is a bump. Yeah. Yeah. And, and maybe that's the, the, the cost of the Omega steel. Right. Who knows? Right. Yeah. Or just watches or people, everybody's making the watches go up in price and they kind of across the board over the last couple of years. So yeah. 39 and a half millimeter PO is 7,400 bucks. So obviously if you're cross shopping with a, with another well-known 39 millimeter watch, like a black Bay, that's a lot more money. Um, I want it, you know, uh, a black Bay is a little over four grand, right? Yeah. Ultra deep is 13, which I think is in the same range as the others. Uh, 42 millimeter semester pro is 6,300. That also seems, feels like they're, they're moving up a little bit. Uh, although that's still well less than the number for the titanium bond. Seamaster 300, $7,400. And then the Aqua Terra, which is in 38 millimeters at seven grand, 41 millimeters at 6,600. I don't know why. And then 10,100 for the world timer.
James I'm actually surprised that, um, given that this was commemorating the anniversary from 1948 of the release of the Seamaster line, that they didn't do a, kind of the, the, the dressy Seamaster, the, you know, kind of an homage to the original Seamaster, which wasn't a dive watch or even a water sports watch at the time. I mean, I know they've come out with, I think it was called the Seamaster 1948, that commemorative one from a few years ago, which I thought was a very beautiful watch.
Jason Heaton Um, and the one from the trilogy before that.
James Yeah. And I'm surprised they didn't, uh, I guess they could have done a blue version of, of that and, and kind of really tied in the 1948 date, but they chose to go all kind of divers or kind of nautical watches here.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I think we could also see them do two more activations. Yeah, true. Before the end of the year. Yeah. So we could have a crazy white gold platinum Seamaster, something with some extra special elements for the hardcore collector of the original, that sort of thing. Right, right. And I mean, they are a brand now that has really leaned into the idea that you take a really good lineup of watches and just iterate new colors. Yeah. new colors, new case backs, new connections to pop culture, new connections to this or that. And I think these fit that, that methodology very strongly.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I think a big release for them, but also not like a surprising thing to see them do. It's cool to see the plow prof come back and Omega steel. And I just hope they iterate, continue to iterate on, on that and give us a classic version of it.
James Well, speaking of water sports probably a good chance to flip over to a The other big brand launch from last week. Yeah. Did you see this coming? No, not, not a bit. I had no idea. It was, I remember they teased out some kind of boat wake, uh, sort of video clips on, on Instagram. Um, so I figured it was sailing related, but, uh, no, this was, this was out of left field. I mean, as tutors want to do, I mean, sometimes they just have these oddball, uh, releases. Um, and this is just wild. Um, these, these are the, uh, the Pelagos FXD, um, Red Bull racing watches. So there's a, yeah, Olingey Red Bull racing, Olingey Red Bull racing, which is an homage to kind of their, or a tribute to their, um, association with the, uh, the Olingey Red Bull racing, uh, America's cup, uh, sailing team, which, uh, which is really cool. I mean, Tudor is really branching out. They've got the pro cycling team, which has done some, some really neat stuff lately. And then, and then Tudor getting into sailing. I mean, that wasn't something they were doing a couple of years ago and here they are. And, and they've got these wild watches. I mean, these are, these are really. forward, you know, aggressively kind of forward thinking kind of techie watches, um, which, which I think is really cool for, for Tudor.
Jason Heaton Yeah. They announced the partnership with Alinghi last year, and this is kind of the first actual crossover product. And for those of you who, who didn't catch it or, or maybe didn't look that deeply, maybe it didn't, you didn't love the look of them to start or something like that. It's two versions of a Pelgos FXD. One is very, very similar in size to the standard model, to the current FXD, like the MN, and that's 42 millimeters. But here we have a carbon composite case with a carbon bezel insert. So it's kind of a black gray case with a bit of a, like a finish to it, a carbony finish. The crown is titanium, the case back is steel. The inner case, where I'm gonna make an assumption here things like what the dial mounts to, what the movement mounts into, that's stainless steel. And it's a blue kind of a matte... It's an entirely different blue than the standard FXD. It's a different blue than the Navy 58. It's a purply matte Navy sort of blue with red accents to connect with both the materials and the coloring of the Red Bull boat. And then you have a Lingy Red Bull racing. So if you know on the FXD has a very thin Ria like chapter ring, and it's printed there. So that's your kind of only front facing nod to the fact that this isn't just a cool version of the FXD, like that it has a push to another connection in yacht racing. And then in a very similar execution, but in 43 millimeters. So again, the stainless steel intercase carbon composite outer case, carbon composite, bezel insert, titanium controls, that sort of thing, and the same coloring, we now have a Pelagos FXD chronograph. Very surprising, very cool in my mind, and yeah, I think those two come together, they both come on like blue Velcro straps. Someday, I hope we see the Pelagos 39 get some version of that strap. I think that would be super fun to have and wear, but I think the combination of the blue the gray, black, the titanium aspects. I think it works really well and they look great, but I would love to see one again in person, kind of get a feel for it in the light pricing for the 42 millimeter 3675. So that's a thousand almost within $75 of a thousand dollars less than a P 39. Yeah. So an aggressive price point, I think for a carbon composite watch, they could have leaned on the fact that it's carbon and made it more expensive because of it, because it's kind of like a hot, interesting material. My guess is it's less expensive to make than a titanium case. And then the chronograph is $5,075. And for reference, a standard titanium FXD is $4,100, and the standard 42 millimeter Pelagos is $49.25. So it's right in the mix, despite being sort of a special edition and with the carbon composite case.
James I'm looking at this. the, the chrono and I just adore this. I love the interplay of colors. Um, yeah, that, that really matte, um, surface on the, on the bezel, you know, very prominent bezel. I'm such a sucker for dive chronographs anyway. And then that kind of mix of materials is, is just fantastic with, with the, uh, kind of the fixed, you know, you don't even call them strap strap bars. It's just a kind of a one piece case that you run the strap through and it's just, I don't know, to me, it's got, it's got kind of everything I love. I love that utilitarian. the watch.
Jason Heaton red bull fxd i thought oh that's pretty cool like i get it it's just and then and they're like oh and there's a chrono and i was like whoa jason's gonna be about this i think yeah this might be your this might be the the pelagos for you yeah yeah it is i've been looking at fxds lately just the standard one there's so cool yeah yeah really up my alley love it i i like the fxd when it came out i i wrote about it i enjoyed it i liked it but now there's like there's a side of me especially now that i have a pelagos i'm kind of like Well, the standard, standard FXD would be pretty cool. Yeah.
James I think the LHD kind of standard Pelagos has been, been upstaged in my mind by, uh, by the FXD. I just think that it's got that extra, like a little bit of quirkiness, kind of like, um, what is it? PO one. Um, just, just, just a wild kind of weird looking thing. And, uh, this is cool. I don't have any affinity for Red Bull racing or specifically for the America's cup, but, uh, um, I think the tie-in and then years later, if you had something like this to kind of you know, look back and remember their involvement. I think it could be pretty cool too.
Jason Heaton So, yeah, I don't, I don't find, I definitely don't find it. Like I saw lots of people in the comments and even some folks on Slack saying like, yeah, the, the Olingy Red Bull racing is like a, a non-starter for me, a deal breaker. And a lot of people, and I saw this again on Instagram as well saying like, why would I buy an otherwise very cool techie modern chronograph that's named after a sports drink? Yeah. And I guess it's always a question of, like, everybody has their own own perspective. I don't even remotely think of Red Bull as making a sports drink anymore. Like, obviously, I know they do.
James No, that's a small part of what they do, I think, actually.
Jason Heaton But they're like, for me, I see them as a media house and an F1 team, and they make some of the coolest, like, action adventure sports, and they support way more weird, esoteric sort of sporting endeavors, whether it's... What's the one where they ski down the luge thing and fight each other? I don't even know what that's called. I don't remember what it's called. Like it's four guys on hockey skates. Yeah, right, right. Crash dice, maybe that's it. And then, of course, all the racing, whether it's F1 or, you know, trophy truck or stadium truck stuff. Right. And then you get stuff like Danny McCaskill, who we've talked about several times before. Travis Rice, like for me, they're just... Man, I wish I could say Coca-Cola had gone that route. Yeah, right. and become this huge presence that supports really cutting-edge videography and a sort of whole world of athletes that are always kind of in demand and build out weird esoteric sports. And they were kind of at the forefront of supporting, yeah, various elements of the X Games. Like, yeah, I guess they are a drink company, for sure. But in my mind, the only reason where my watch saying Red Bull, especially as small as it says it on this, would bother me is if I was like an ardent Ferrari fan. Yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't possibly wear a watch that says Red Bull on it. Right.
James So a question, you know, for their pro cycling team, I guess I can look this up, but maybe, you know, um, they, they did do some kind of a release commemorating or for the cycling team. I don't think it's even for sale publicly, but that was a chronograph as well. That was a black Bay chronograph.
Jason Heaton Yeah, correct. Yeah. It's a black, black Bay chronograph, similar to the one they made for the all blacks. but this has red accents, and it's only for the team. I see. All right. Not for sale, or maybe you could make a good bar bet against a team member someday, and that's how you could get one. I'll race at the end of the block. Yeah. But yeah, the Red Bull thing, I feel zero about it. It's not a plus or a minus. I like that it's relegated to a very small part of the watch's dial.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton and it would be a deal breaker for me if it was like a big red bull logo on the front of the watch just that it says olinky red bull racing i don't know it suits the watch the the whole impetus of the watch is it contained within the explanation of that branding yeah that's fair enough i i think these are great i could definitely see you uh picking up the chronograph at some point um and i also just like and i say this a lot but i like that tutor they'll play the hits. They'll give you Brown Eyed Girl with a 37 millimeter Black Bay, but they're also not... I use Van Morrison, that's a bad example, because his most recent music's really terrible. I'll try to think of a better... I can't think of a better example off the top of my head. And they're also not afraid to try something new, go to the concert, play some of the new album, and show something off. And I think an FXD chronograph, I think if you had told me about it, I think I would have been pretty lukewarm on the idea. But looking at the images, I haven't seen it in person yet, looking at the images, I really like this idea and I would kind of like to see it iterated back into a blue version or maybe a black version with a titanium case, that sort of thing. So I think this is a great move. I also think that if you really go around and check your price points, they're being very careful about how they price these watches. And it's not only the first time that Tudor's ever used carbon composite, it's the first for a Rolex family. Oh, yeah. Good. So if you're, if you're a collector looking way down the barrel, an early one of these could, could mean something as far as a footnote for, for the brand, right?
James Yeah. True. Well, let's, let's quickly kind of wrap things up with a brief look at kind of the third brand and a much smaller one that we have on today's list. And that is a Manta released their new Ocean King. It's a third generation, Watch for them, um, a brand we've known since, uh, since way back, gosh, I remember early days hearing from them when they were still, you know, kind of Everest straps was kind of their bread and butter. And then they said, lo and behold, we're launching a watch line and the ocean King was their first. And now they're, they're coming out with their third generation. Anthony did a nice write-up on how Dinky, if you want more details about that, but, uh, you know, I mean, at first glance, it doesn't look that much different than, than the other ocean Kings, which is probably a good thing. I mean, it means that they've, they've got their following. They, they know what people like. Um, but they've, uh, they kind of shrunk the lug to lug now. Uh, it's still a less than 41 millimeter case, uh, diameter wise and less than 12 millimeters thick. And then they've, they've tweaked the, the, the bezel, um, rotating mechanism, which is a kind of a, you know, which was already excellent digging into the details.
Jason Heaton Like it's one of the best bezels out there.
James Yeah. Right. Right. Yeah. As well as the bracelet. I mean, people know them for the bracelets and the bezels. I think the only kind of thing that people get hung up on. And if you read comments, you see a lot of inevitable comparisons to you know, Submariner homages. And certainly, you know, from a distance, uh, across a room, you wouldn't be, uh, you wouldn't be blamed for, for thinking someone's got a Rolex on, even though the markers are different and whatever, but it does follow that general formula, but it's a, it's a handsome watch and certain I'm sure it's high quality.
Jason Heaton Oh, no, no doubt at all. And I would say that the Rolex thing, it's clearly not something they're afraid of because the, the move and I'll include both. Uh, you can take a look back at like Orin did a great review for gear patrol of the gen two. Yeah. And the move from the gen two, the gen three is very much more Rolexy. It's a wider bezel, similar in style to a current sub. I think I might prefer the two, but that's also because I'm an old man at this point. And I remember just adoring the first one, the original. And I remember taking an incredible amount of heat on a blog to watch because I said it was like, it felt at least as good as at the time of Black Bay 41, but wore better and was thinner. Yeah. And people didn't like the idea that someone would, someone in my position would feel that the Manta offered a level of quality and fit and finish and feel that was equal to that of something like a Tudor. And I think that they did and that they probably still do. So we both currently had in two other modern versions of their watches, the SkyQuest and the Triumph. Did you get a chance to play around with much? I found both to be as impressive as anything else I've come across from the brand.
James Yeah. I mean, same here. I mean, there were, really nice to wear. Everything feels good. The crown, the bezel, all the kind of the touch points. Yeah. They, they make a really, really nice watch. And for the pricing, like even with this, uh, this generation three ocean King, I mean, I think the price is like 22, 25 or something. I mean, for what you get, I mean, and that's the advantage of going with a smaller brand. That's why these brands exist. They, they, and if they come out with good quality stuff, uh, you know, that you're, you really come out a winner.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think that, uh, Monta is continuing to be Monta Dave. made an impressive product for several years, and it looks like the Gen 3 will suit a lot of their customers looking for, you know, that sort of well-known convention of a dressy, but plenty tough, black dial dive watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Yeah. And same to Tudor and Omega. I mean, I'm guessing that the Manta guys listen to us a little more than the folks at Tudor and Omega, but hey, you know, congrats to all of them.
Jason Heaton We've got a couple of folks from Tudor who are probably listening. Yeah, true. Hi to those folks, of course. And well, that was a fun one. I mean, some good new watches. I'm really pumped about the new Tudor stuff. I mean, at this point, I like almost everything the brand does. And I think neither of these are really ones that necessarily I think I would question my love of my 39 or maybe want to figure out a way to get, but I could definitely see you rocking that chronograph sometime in the future.
James Yeah. I bet it wears nicely too. I bet with that strap and kind of the lightweight case. Oof. Yeah. There's a good summer watch for what's left of it. Yeah. All right. Some final notes then.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. Um, you can go first. Uh, we both had planned or I went to the show notes and I was like, Oh, is that the same one from Tom? And it was something else. So, uh, kick it off with what's what was a really, really good suggestion from, uh, from a listener of a very cool video.
James Yeah, this was, um, uh, from a listener named, uh, Tom vote, uh, V O G T. Um, thanks Tom for sending this over. Um, it's a YouTube video, um, from Caledon oceanic. from a little less than a year ago. And it's entitled the deepest wreck ever located the destroyer escort Samuel B. Roberts. And, you know, given all the discussions of deep sea submersibles in the past few weeks, for obvious reasons, this, this seemed like a kind of a fitting video. Um, and, and one of a very different tenor than, than the news lately. And it's about the, uh, the mission or expedition to, to hunt for lost, uh, American naval vessels lost during world war II in the, I guess the Philippine sea. Um, during some battles with the Japanese Navy. And, um, these were led by Victor Vescovo, you know, of Omega and, and, um, his, uh, deep sea exploits, uh, on the limiting factor, his, uh, his incredible submersible that's gone to the Mariana Trench and all the different points in the ocean. And, um, and they set off to find some of these deep wrecks using this, uh, this submersible, um, as well as, you know, sonar and ROVs and things. And. It's really amazing. It's about half hour long and it is, um, kind of gives a behind the scenes glimpse of what it goes into to this, uh, these rec hunts and, and their, their, their efforts to find, um, a couple of, of ships that did go down during a particularly, uh, pitched naval battle, um, during world war two. And, um, and they ended up finding this destroyer escort, the Sammy Roberts, uh, which was quite a small ship and made it a bit of a needle in a haystack search. Um, really, really incredible when they, when they finally lay eyes on it. And, um, and of course that, that high definition footage is just a spectacular. So, um, really a fascinating. Um, video and Vescovo is a really interesting guy. He's a, I never get tired of watching him and learning about all the stuff he's doing nowadays. He just, he's definitely a modern day kind of barren explorer, um, kind of rich guy who's off there doing really cool stuff. So if we ever going to have him on the show to kind of keep up with our, our deep sea Yeah, series. That'd be really cool.
Jason Heaton So yeah, there's something kind of like a modern day Peter Gimbel about. Yeah, I think so, which I like quite a bit. There's also a little bit of good watch spotting in this. Um, the one thing I would say is like pitching it and it is, it is a YouTube video. It's on YouTube, but it's like, this is a documentary. This could be on Netflix. This could be on any other platform. It's really nicely shot. Uh, like I said, there's some good watch spotting and a huge thank you to Tom for sending that in. I enjoyed every minute of it.
James Yeah. Same. What, uh, what are you going to wrap us up with?
Jason Heaton Uh, mine's actually a movie recommendation, not something we normally do on final notes. Sometimes we save them for, um, for, you know, a film club or something like that. But this was an Amazon prime release. And I went in with very low expectations. I didn't watch the trailer and it's, uh, the, the official, this is the official title. It's the guy Richie's the covenant. Let's just call it the covenant guy, but okay. And 2023. So it's brand new, uh, like it's from guy Richie's obviously, uh, We're talking Lock, Stock, Two, Smoke and Barrels, and more recently, Wrath of Man, and The Gentleman, and stuff like that. So he's been cranking out some movies lately. I didn't like Wrath of Man much at all, which is why my kind of views on this film, I went in with sort of low expectations, but a huge Jake Gyllenhaal fan, I remain. And obviously it's a movie, or not obviously, it's a movie about something that happened during the Afghanistan war. And Dar Salim plays an interpreter working with Jake Gyllenhaal and his, you know, outfit and something happens and, and Salim as, as the interpreter essentially saves Gyllenhaal drags him across some untold distance back to safety. And then it's about kind of the repercussions of all that and what kind of position it puts him in, in his local territory. And I, I, like I said, I went in just kind of expecting. Hoping for the best. And I really loved the, loved it. Had a lot of heart and was really well done overall. And certainly if you want to get in there for some sort of war movie action, it's got that in spades. I thought Jake Gyllenhaal did a great job as he always does, but I would say Dar Salim kind of steals the show in many ways.
James Yeah, this one looked good. I've definitely hyped it up. I've seen a lot of trailers and ads for it. And, um, and I was curious about it. So, uh, that's a good, good recommendation. I'll definitely be checking that out. Maybe even today. Good one.
Jason Heaton Yeah, a good one if that's sort of in the mode. But I included the trailer. If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch it. But I figure the trailer will at least give you a hint if you like trailers. I typically try and avoid them. But if you if you enjoyed, you know, some of his other other work, I think you can get into this one and the story is great. And it's from what I understand, not based on a true story or anything like that. So it's just just a fun movie and a good story and kind of has some some nice human elements to it as well.
James All right. Good episode.
Jason Heaton Good to be back. Absolutely. Yeah. Take a week off. Felt kind of rusty. Yeah. Well, hey, 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. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO and access to the always growing Slack supporter crew. Please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazar via the Free Music Archive.
James And we leave you with this quote from WB Yeats, who said, The world is full of magic things. Patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.