The Grey Nato Ep 25 - Dream Watches 2017

Published on Tue, 10 Jan 2017 09:07:59 -0500

Synopsis

The podcast hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacy discuss their dream watches for 2017, sharing the specific models and features they hope various brands will release this year. They express their desire for a more basic and affordable Blancpain Fifty Fathoms dive watch, a Tudor Pelagos GMT, a Jaeger-LeCoultre pilot's watch inspired by the Mark 11, a Lange & Sohne sports watch, and a revival of Seiko's vintage World Timer model. They also touch upon New Year's resolutions, minimalism, new gear acquisitions, and recommendations for a movie, documentary series, and fitness equipment.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacy Hello. Hey man, how's it going? Good. Good. Happy New Year. Yeah. Happy New Year to you. You feeling fresh?
Jason Heaton I do. I feel, I feel really good. Um, what do you say? Should we do a show?
James Stacy Yeah, let's do it for sure.
Jason Heaton Welcome back to the Graynado with Jason Heaton and James Stacy, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thank you so much for listening.
James Stacy So this is episode 25 of the Graynado. We're into our second year. We changed up the schedule a little bit to synchronize with SIHH, which starts kind of in the next little while, depending on when you're listening to this in a week. And yeah, so we took an extra week off. Jason, was that time off good for you? You feeling good? I know you're battling with a bit of sickness, which I was too. It's just that time of year, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm feeling good now. I'm fine of kind of a day or two past the worst of it and I've since passed along the sickness to my wife, but, um, I, you know, I was sick pretty much from Christmas through New Year's, but, uh, you know, it was a good excuse to kind of just lie around and, and, uh, sit by the fire and relax, which is something I really kind of was craving anyway.
James Stacy So, yeah, you got to charge the batteries. You've been in a lot of trips too. So I ended up, uh, I ended up, you know, flying home back East towards, uh, the Hamilton area of Ontario, Canada.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy and visiting family and friends, and it was awesome. It was a really fun time to see everyone, but it was really wore me out. Yeah, I can imagine. So I'm just kind of catching up a little bit on that, and then I'll just get my batteries kind of charged up in time for SIHH, which is good. Yeah. So, you know, it's New Year's, so I think the, you know, anything you're feeling as far as resolutions, are you a resolution guy? I don't know.
Jason Heaton I used to be. I'm not so much into resolutions anymore, although it's always a good excuse this time of year to kind of check, check in on what worked and what, what you want to do differently. And I'm for sure, I think in our last episode, I was telling you how I was just kind of ready for some downtime and you joked that, you know, we'd start to see a lot of fireplace pictures on my Instagram feed, which I'm sure you already have. But, uh, sure. That's kind of what I want to do. I mean, if I have any resolutions, it's to just kind of do stuff a little closer to home, maybe travel a little bit less. I mean, I love to travel, but you know, there's plenty to do if not within a driving radius of home, uh, in, in Minnesota where I am, you know, even in the U S or Canada, I mean, just get out. I'd love to get into the mountains a little more, you know, do some more great lakes diving, maybe some backpacking, some road trips, that sort of stuff. Um, I'm sure dive trips will come up and, and some adventures. We'll do a TGN summit at some point again this year, but, uh, you bet. I just, I don't know. I, I, I like home. I like, I like to kind of do, um, you know, little adventures that you can get away on the weekend and do stuff. So We'll see how that goes.
James Stacy How about you? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm in a fairly similar position, actually. I'm just looking at the notes and we're saying roughly the same thing. You know, 2016 was a pretty great year. We launched TGN. Freelance stuff went really well for me. So I'd like to kind of maintain that pace if I could, but kind of learn how to better manage that workflow.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy To be less admin time, more just actual working and then more just actually enjoying the spaces between having to work. Right. Definitely. And then, yeah, all I wrote down is more peaks. Yeah. Yeah. If I can get to the top of more mountains or even just on the side of more mountains, that'll be a great year. I'm slowly amassing like a good weekend camping kit. Oh, yeah. Largely in part with your help, Jason. And I just got a new sleeping bag, which I'm really excited about. Nice. And I think once that kit is done, it'll just be kind of planning a week or two in advance. I'm going to go out and do this or that. And just trying to do as much of that as I can. And pretty locally, I think, because there's just so much nearby that I haven't really experienced. And I always dream of hiking in the Alps or coming with you to a trip to Bonaire. And I think I let some of that boil over the pot in my brain. And I don't necessarily pay attention to the fact that there's tons of great stuff to do like an hour from where I live.
Jason Heaton Oh, yeah. You're so lucky. And I realized that when I came out and visited you. And, you know, at some point, you know, you'd hate to look back in 10 or 15 years if you're not living there and think, man, you know, I had that right on my back door, you know? So, um, I, you know, for me, 2016 was almost unwittingly, it became a really heavy kind of diving year for me, which, you know, I certainly love diving and, um, but I'd like to balance it a little bit more. I'd love to, uh, to get in a little more mountain shape. I think there was a year when I did some more, um, mountain climbing, like the Mount Rainier year. And I just, I felt so good, you know, it just feels good to be in the mountains and, and you get that fitness back and of course it's beautiful and, and you can have some really cool adventures. So I'd like to kind of do more of a, if not a 50 50 split of kind of hiking and mountain adventures and diving, um, you know, at least do a couple more trips this year.
James Stacy So, yeah, I think, I think having that, that sort of mountain goal, at least for me, cause I had Baker this past summer really focused. my attention to like very specific things for a span of time, you know, three, four months. Yeah. So my workouts got really good. I really enjoyed going out because it had this training aspect to it. Just being in the hills was, had an excuse of like, Oh, it's good training for Baker or this or that. As soon as I finished Baker, I found that kind of just fell apart. And I've kind of been scrambling since then, like for probably six months to try and find like a new goal that I'm pretty pumped about. So I'm still kind of on the hunt for that, like whether that be a peak or maybe like a, I'd like to do one of those, like a longer through hike. Yeah. Or not even longer, because I think longer would suggest weeks. Yeah. I would love to do just a multi-day hike. Right. Even just the full of the Howe Sound Crest Trail, which is kind of like where, when you were here, that's kind of from St. Mark's roughly to Porto, where we dove the second dive. Oh yeah, right. You can actually take a route that whole way. Obviously someone has to pick you up at the backside, it's not a loop. Yeah. I think that would be a lot of fun. And it's not a huge distance. And I've done a good portion of it in pieces. But I don't know at this point. Just I think, you know, if I could keep up the pace that I established in 2016, but maybe lessen the amount of time I wasted on stuff. Right. Right. Like learning how to do books for a business or whatnot. I should have a little bit less admin time this year. Yeah. Yeah. And then more more peak. So just more focused on what I do with my free time, whether it be You know, just kind of more, not necessarily challenges. And I use peaks, like to represent any sort of kind of adventure. Sure. Uh, so hopefully, hopefully you just kind of amp it up. I think it, I think it should be a good year.
Jason Heaton I think having a goal like that, it doesn't have to be huge. I mean, Baker was a big one for you, but I like your idea of a through hike of some sort or, and what's neat about that is there are different aspects to it. There's the fitness aspect, but there's also the logistical planning aspect. There's the gear piece of it. You know, it's just even the weather and all of that sort of thing that you have to research and dial in. And that can be half the fun. So for sure. No doubt. Yeah. I need something like that too. You know, funny, I think in the last episode I told you that I was a bit daunted by this Oris press trip that I did in Zermatt just before Christmas and how it involved some downhill skiing. And I hadn't been on downhill skis since, well, longer than I'd like to admit, but it's been Probably the greater part of your lifetime, actually. So I went over there, I took a lesson and I really got hooked. I don't know if it was, you know, skiing with a Matterhorn kind of over my shoulder, but, uh, I came home and, um, I've taken a couple of lessons locally and I started, um, skiing. I bought some gear. I've, I'm, I'm kind of all in. I'm, I'm really, really, I've rediscovered the, this kind of dormant sport that, that has been in me for, for quite a while. And, uh, I'm pretty excited about it. I mean, we don't really have mountains here that, you know, to speak of for skiing, but, you know, there's some decent sized ski hills around and it's fun to just get out there and do that. So, you know, that's kind of a short term resolution for the next couple of months at least. I think it'll help me really sort of enjoy winter more.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure. I used to ski a fair bit when I was younger living in Ontario, which is probably not that different a skiing scene than where you're at. You know, the funny thing is I moved out west where now there's actual mountains and some of the best skiing in the world and I've not been on a pair of skis, you know, it's probably been 10 years. I've been out west for, you know, about five or six years and I should really get back to it. I actually got a really solid invite for March for a weekend in Whistler. And of course, my brother is very much into skiing and is a very strong skier, so he'd be a good resource that way. yeah i always told myself like oh one day i'd love to ski a big mountain and now it's been on my doorstep for so long and i've just not pulled the trigger i have no real excuse it's just it's just the way it worked out but that's that's exciting that you've uh you've gotten back into it and i'm glad that you survived the the alps without any uh any injuries because that's always the the risk with skiing especially those first few times when you get back to it yeah yeah and that's not to say that you know in the next couple months i'll
Jason Heaton not tear a knee up or something like that, but I'm just kind of keeping it easy. I've just been doing kind of the blue runs locally and, and, uh, I don't have any big ambitions just to kind of get out and have some fun. I mean, I I've always been into cross country skiing, but the snow has been very hit or miss in the past few winters. And if you don't get decent snow, you just can't, you can't ski. And whereas with downhill skiing, you know, all the resorts and hills and stuff, they make snow. So it's pretty reliable.
James Stacy So very cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and you got a GoPro this year around Christmas, didn't you?
James Stacy Is that something you've been playing with? Yeah, I actually just got a handful of accessories for it today. Oh, nice. But I finally, you know, it's one of those things, and I know we've talked about it before, like you and I on Slack, that I like was always in my mind of like, I think I need one of these between the diving and driving a fast car somewhere cool. And there's always like maybe 10 reasons that I had in my mind where I thought it was awesome for having kids because they can't hurt it. Yeah. All these sorts of things. And finally, through a mix of having one Canadian electronics retailer match another one, I got it for very cheap and they threw in a gift card for like a hundred bucks. So the deal was great just before Christmas and then I used it all through Christmas too because I was hanging out with my young nieces and nephews and and my kids and it's a really hilarious camera to play with because you really have, it's weird because it is a five, $600 item, you really, it's weird just to hand it off because you know they can't hurt it. Yeah, right. Like even some of the stuff like the lens or whatever can just be replaced. Yeah. Like it comes off the camera and you could, if they were able to trash the lens somehow, or the lens cover, I suppose, you can just replace it. But the, yeah, I got that new, the new five. I don't think they call it a black anymore. I think it's just the hero five. Yeah. And it's got a kind of touch screen on the back that works pretty well. And this one has the ability to change the like width of the view. Sure. The perspective. So you can actually go from like a fairly tight shot to one that's more linear to various stages all the way out to that really blown out wide shot that GoPro is kind of known for.
Unknown Right, right.
James Stacy And I've been playing with it and editing some of the footage in Premiere. And it's cool. The microphones are really great on this one. And so I bought a little like Joby Gorillapod.
Jason Heaton Oh, yeah.
James Stacy That has a specific mount for the GoPro.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And I bought like a spare battery. And I think I'm going to talk myself into one of those suction cups so I could like stick it to a window in a car. I think that'd be fun. The monitoring on your phone is pretty cool. So you can just kind of put the camera down anywhere like on Christmas morning. I put it down in the corner of my family living room and there's like, you know, 20 people in my family. Yeah. And I just put it on a time-lapse and it's just people going berserk on GIFs. Oh, that's great. There's a bunch of people were like, and you know, you shot for an hour or something and it's a four minute clip. Yeah. And you don't do any of the work. Like you just say like, I want a time-lapse video. Yeah. And that's it. And it like does all the metering and exposing as the sun came up or whatever into that room. And it was cool. I'm, uh, I'm enjoying it. I haven't used it for anything like, Really cool. I think its first main use will be at SIHH. We're going to try and do some like vlog style coverage to bring people more into the show because it's like a space that not a lot of people get to walk around in. Yeah, right. Not really sure how that's going to shape up and I don't want to over promise because I'm not like a video editor creator. It's just something I'm interested in, but we'll see. The GoPro is cool. Did you come across any cool stuff, you know, Christmas gifts or Just that time of year where like I find little excuses on boxing day to buy stuff that I always kind of had my eye on?
Jason Heaton Well, you know, for me, the big thing was I got a little money for Christmas and I went out and because of this recent sort of rediscovery of skiing, I went to REI and bought a ski and boot package, which I'm not going to go into the technical details about what I got, but it kind of made a quick difference from the rental gear, which is pretty trashed, as you can imagine, to something that's properly fitted. And the other thing I got was a jacket that Oris provided us, went on this Zermatt trip. And I hadn't really heard of the brand, although the name was familiar. It's Tschüss, K-J-U-S, which was named after this famous skier. I think he was Norwegian, named Lasse Tschüss. And I guess after he retired, he started his own clothing line or technical outerwear line. And it's their sightline jacket. And it's, it's, you know, it's funny because I think you can relate to this. You get into a new sport or, Or, you know, you go from diving to hiking or something and it opens up this whole new door of incredible niche gear that goes with this specific sport. And this jacket's one of those things where I thought, how can, how can a ski jacket be any different than any other soft shell or hard shell jacket that I've had before? This jacket has some really great features. It has like those internal cuffs that go over your thumbs, like thumb loops inside the jacket. like a little zipper pocket on the left forearm where you put your ski pass for, you know, scanning it at the lift. Um, the hood comes off or folds away. It's made out of this really stretchy material. It's got just the right level of insulation to kind of keep you warm. You know, when you're like coming down the hill or sitting on the lift, but like it's breathable. And I'm like, you know, why haven't I run across a jacket like this for mountaineering or cross country skiing or something like that? It's, it's a dangerous path because, Suddenly my eyes opened to this specific piece of gear for downhill skiing and I'm like, what else is there in this area, you know? Oh, for sure.
James Stacy Yeah, no, it's always one of those rabbit holes with any of these, really any outdoor activity, right? Yeah. So whether you, whether you're into cycling, like that's a whole different type of clothing than cross country skiing, despite the fact that at their base, they seem, you know, in both you're moving your legs and you're theoretically, you could be doing it in the cold and you're going to be sweating a lot with either. And you think like, oh, the gear would be fairly similar, but it's not, it's, it's cut differently and it's meant for venting differently and dealing with wind differently. And yeah. And then, yeah, mountaineering is like, you need to own three of everything if you want to go out all year. Yeah. Because you need so little in the summer and you need so much extra in the winter, just in case things go bad.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Right. So you have, that's where the shells come in. And then like, uh, I remember the second time I was on Baker, we, the guy we were with, one of the guys we were with had done Acongagua and he, he was like unloading his bag and we thought he had this giant sleeping bag. Yeah. And it turned out it was like a puffy jacket that was bigger than a sleeping bag. Like the, the, the cells in the puff must've been five or six inches deep. Oh yeah. Like you couldn't have gotten to him with a knife. Yeah. Yeah. Through this jacket. And like he put his hood on and like he could have just been alone in the coldest place in the world and just been roasty toasty in this jacket. And then he had like a regular sleeping bed, like a summer, you know, like a proper summer weight sleeping bag. And he's like, ah, I had space in the bag. So I brought the warm one that I didn't have to bring like a medium puffy for when I wanted to sit around at the camp. So.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, speaking of rabbit holes, I mean, last time, last episode, we were, you were talking about, uh, the little bit of a flashlight rabbit hole you went down. What about you? Any new flashlights for Christmas?
James Stacy Yeah, maybe. So I still don't have the Zanflare F1. I don't even remember how long ago I ordered it, but like the tracking number is with some tracking company I've never heard of out of China. Oh boy. And it's not like this is my first time buying stuff even from GearBest, but it's like a tracking, a courier service I've never heard of. And the last update was like on its way to Toronto, but there was no spaces in the update.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Oh, no. So I have no idea. Maybe I'll see that flashlight. Maybe I won't. I also haven't seen the batteries yet, which is seems like a bad sign because I bought that from an entirely different person on eBay. But in the interim, I did want a flashlight. Want is a strange. Yeah, want is fair. I didn't need it. I was buying a flashlight as a gift for a friend of mine, and then I ended up buying one for myself. But I figured the Zanflare is kind of a larger light. What could you find on the really small side that was still like a fair amount of power?
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy I came across the, you know, Phoenix makes, they're a very well-known flashlight manufacturer, and Phoenix has these UCO2s, which are these really tiny rechargeable flashlights, and they come in aluminum. I want to say they're about, they're between $20 and $30. U.S. in aluminum, and then they make a stainless steel version that's maybe like eight or nine dollars more, something like that.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy I bought two of these and it's tiny. It's maybe a little bit more than an inch long. It's so small that, you know, there's that little pocket in your jeans.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy It gets lost in that. Oh, wow. I would say it's roughly the same impact in your pocket as like one of those classic Swiss Army knives, the little tiny ones.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy So I like put a piece of lanyard on it so I could get at it a little bit more easily in a pocket or clip it to a bag. It's this really nice milled stainless steel casing, has a built in like a replaceable but included rechargeable battery. And you actually just to turn it on, you just tighten the head cap. Oh, yeah. And the first phase is like 10 lumens, I believe in the second phase is 110 or 130. It's just much brighter. Yeah. And the bright phase is really awesome. You could easily walk at night with it. look around a car in the dark or find the light switch in a hotel you haven't been in, whatever, whatever little reason you might need a flashlight.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And then the, the lower setting, you could easily read something with it without like, you know, squinting in the dark. Yeah. Or waking somebody up. I would say it's roughly the same brightness as like the, the lamp on your cell phone, maybe a little less. Yeah. And, uh, and then if you take this, if you screw the cap all the way off, it has a mini USB port and you just plug it in. to charge it. Oh, I see. Sure. It's a killer design. It's really simple. It's all water resistant. You get many hours of runtime before having to charge it. And then it charges. Of course, the battery's tiny, so it charges very quickly and it doesn't cost much. So I've never actually just carried a flashlight. I've always resorted to the one on my phone. And now that's changed. So I bought this kind of on a whim. I didn't do a lot of research. I just saw that it was rechargeable and I paid the extra for the steel because I liked the way it looked and I figured steel would take a scratch a lot better over time. This is going to be floating around in a pocket. Yeah. But the alumina one is probably the better buy. It comes in black, blue and purple, like anodized and all the exact same features. Really, really killer if you want a tiny, tiny, tiny flashlight, like there's no, there's no option for like a pocket clip. It's too small. Huh? Like if you took a lid off a pen, it's probably about that tall and maybe, maybe the width of two of them. It's itty bitty, really bright. Um, and if you're, even if you're a flashlight guy and you've got the light that you love, a really nice light, awesome gift for somebody throughout the year. It's probably one of these things where I'll see them on sale and I'm going to buy a handful of them and then just have them to give out as a gift or a thank you, something like that. Cause it's not enough money. It's the same amount of money that you would spend on like a gift card for Starbucks or whatever. Right. But it's a real thing that somebody could put in their purse or in their backpack or to keep in their keychain. I think they design it as like a keychain light. I don't like that. I don't like stuff on my keychain. Yeah. But I absolutely love it. I've now talked for a few minutes about a little flashlight, which is crazy, but I really, really like it.
Jason Heaton It's cool. You've talked me into it. I think I need one. Yeah. So cool light. Nice. What else?
James Stacy Anything else? I bought something that I know you bought before and bought and used before I did because I got it for Christmas and I think you took it to Bonaire, that Bestech charger. Oh, yeah, that's great. Yeah. So I'm always looking for a solution for a travel power that's kind of more or less one piece, like it's a lot of stuff. And it's also so let me try and quickly and Jason, I know you'll you'll know this pain, but Any of us who travel, especially I find to Europe, their plug doesn't stay in the wall if you put a bunch of weight on it.
Jason Heaton Oh, yes, definitely.
James Stacy So like the Swiss plug is that two prong, they're kind of wide set and sometimes they go deeper into the plug and that holds pretty well. But generally they sit kind of just barely in the plug. And then when you put a little mini power strip or even just like a multiple USB charger, on the end of that and connect all your cables, they just fall out of the plug. Yes. Hugely annoying. Anyways, the result is you kind of use a plug adapter, then it goes to like a little power cable and then maybe a power bar. So now you're carrying a bunch of stuff and it's all kind of home-sized, not travel-sized. Right. So, you know, you go on amazon.com and you very quickly find this Bestek charger. And it has one of the highest number of reviews I had ever seen. Thousands of reviews, people are very happy with it. And it would be, how would you describe it?
Jason Heaton It's a little smaller than a VHS tape. Yeah, there you go.
James Stacy But I would say it's roughly that thickness, not quite as long. Yeah. And it uses a separate wire, so there's no weight to put on the plug. The wire by default is the Swiss port, which is great for people who go to Switzerland. And then it plugs into this little power bar that has three grounded standard ports. I think they're grounded.
Unknown Yes.
James Stacy Yeah, three grounded standard ports. And then it has four USB ports, two at 2.4 amp and two at one amp. So if you're charging something like Bluetooth headset, you'd use your one amp. If you're charging something like a phone or an iPad or something like that, you're 2.4. And I used it over, you know, I got it for Christmas and I used it over that break. And it's really, really great. It, uh, it has a built-in 220 to 110 converter. So if you're in a place that has kind of a varied power, like traveling, it can handle that too. And you don't have to worry too much about what you're plugging into it. That's less of an issue with a lot of modern gear, but some gear will still be pretty temperamental about the voltage. And I don't know if you found this, but certainly mine has a little fan in it and the fan is quite loud. It's quite loud and it's an odd pitch. Yeah. It's very noticeable. So I very quickly like unplugged it from where it was directly next to my bed.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy And put it somewhere else. I put it in a different room, but when I travel, I'll probably try and put it on the other side of the room and then just use a small plug over by my bed for like a cell phone.
Jason Heaton Right.
James Stacy But the, uh, The overall form factor, especially when you think about being able to travel and not carry the plug adapter, because it's Swiss by default, really handy. And it's 40 bucks Canadian. So I don't know, it was probably 30 bucks US on Amazon.com.
Jason Heaton Yeah, this was one of those things that made a big difference. You know, there's these small things, these sort of unsung heroes with travel that can make a big difference. And you're right. I mean, the first trip I took that on was was Bonaire back in the fall. And, you know, I had an underwater torch, you know, charging. I had, um, the Sony a7 camera charging, uh, cell phones, charging, um, computer. I mean, everything was charging, you know, at the same time. And it was, it just makes such a difference. You just leave it plugged into the wall and you're right. Stuff isn't falling out of the wall. And, um, yeah, really one of the, one of the best purchases of at least the second half of 2016 for me, that was, that was a good one.
James Stacy So that'll be really handy for SIHH, no doubt. And, uh, Yeah, it was, uh, just another kind of thing that I enjoyed that I got, uh, got for Christmas and, uh, and, and turned out to be as good as I kind of hoped and wanted it to be. So nice.
Jason Heaton You can charge your new GoPro and your, and your new flashlight at the same time.
James Stacy Oh, so much stuff. So I just need all the cables. You got to keep so many cables. Now the GoPro uses its own cable. Yeah. Like a USB-C cable. Yeah. And so I'm, you know, I'm going to lose that at some point.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, Hey, I'm, I'm sure people have, I'm sure people have noticed that, uh, We kind of switched up our format of the show. We started out with our new business today. But just before we launch into the main topic, James, we've got some news. We've got the winner of our Seiko giveaway. You want to announce that?
James Stacy Yeah, for certain. So most of you remember that we were doing a giveaway with our buddy Max to give away a Seiko Paddy, an SRPA 2.1. And that ended at midnight, December 31st. So our winner, chosen by a random number generator, based on the comments on that post over 230 of you posted thank you very much but our winner is drumroll Instagram user I got the funk I got the funk nice yeah so I know who that is yeah nice Jason P Funk as your name is on Instagram we'll be reaching out to you roughly when this episode goes live maybe even a little bit before but we will be in touch you just won a Seiko we couldn't be happier about this again a special thanks to Max and then again to everybody who kind of entered the giveaway. We will have more giveaways in the future. So this is just the first of many. And congratulations to Instagram user I got the funk. We'll be in touch. Congratulations. Great. All right. You feeling some main topic? Yeah. Let's let's jump into it. So for our first episode of 2017 we kind of wanted to start with a new idea, which is our dream watches So that would be it, you know, if we had our way, what would we see announced this year? what what would we be actually excited about maybe even want to save up and buy or You know review or whatever, but what would we we be excited about for? Watches in 2017. So we've got a little list going and I'll let Jason take it away
Jason Heaton Yeah, well, it wouldn't be a list on the Grenado if we didn't kick it off with a dive watch. For sure. You know, one watch that I've always kind of hoped to see is just a more basic 50 Fathoms from Blancpain. I love the old ones. I think they had a certain really functional aesthetic. I mean, obviously it was arguably the first, you know, purpose-built dive watch back in the 50s. But I just feel like Blancpain over the past You know, I don't know what it is, what it's been 10, 20 years since they kind of were reborn under this watch group. You have, they've kind of gone really upmarket. They've kind of branded themselves as a really high end luxury brand, which is fine. I mean, they make some, some beautiful watches obviously, but the 50 fathoms to me, it was kind of one of those watches that you, you just almost, it's not that you shouldn't mess with it, but I feel like they should at least have one in their, in their lineup that is really back to basics. And by that, you know, I'm not talking about like the bathyscaphe, which, which I think Blancpain probably would argue is their basic 50 fathoms. I'm talking about one that, you know, is, is more reminiscent of, of the very first, you know, matte dial painted markers, um, smaller case size, you know, simple steel, you know, a good, a good movement, good automatic movement, maybe even a no date, um, kind of along the lines of what, uh, You know, what Omega did with the Seamaster 300, the master coaxial, that's even maybe a little more upmarket than I'm thinking of, but it's, it kind of went a little more back to basics. I think the Planet Ocean, I don't want to get off topic here too much, but the Planet Ocean kind of has drifted further upmarket. Whereas I think that Seamaster 300 sort of manages to capture what I'm thinking about for a 50 fathoms, you know, matte dial, kind of real retro styling, decent size.
James Stacy Yeah, I think they could even maintain a lot of the styling they have in the current 50,000 line and just make it a little smaller, brush the case and simplify the overall aesthetic. Because right now it is very much kind of a flashier iteration of that original aesthetic.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy So you're getting more polish, you're getting a little bit more shine, you're getting a lot of metal surrounds on the markers and this and that. And I agree if they focused on let's say a 39 to 41 millimeter case somewhere in there, brushed steel, no bracelet, just make a simple rubber strap with a buckle. And I think you could put it at a price point that would really challenge watches like the Omega and the Rolex Submariner. You could slot it right in or just below those and make a case that there's still that heart for... I think it's so watered down to say a tool watch, especially when you're looking at something at the cost of a Blancpain bath, a scaff or something, but stick with a simple metal, stick with a simple dial, make it a cool size, drill the lugs, lots of loom and just... promote it as a real dive watch, like a true sport watch that is kind of no fuss, no muss, back to basics. It worked for the 911 last year. Well, not arguably, probably the car of 2016, that 911R.
Jason Heaton That's funny. I was just going to mention that. It's a good, it's a good parallel. I mean, it's, I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think Blancpain has the, I think they still maintain a bit of the credibility because their CEO is a very avid diver. And they have a real strong connection with their ocean commitment program. So I think it wouldn't be out of left field for them to do that. I mean, certainly I like the, the one 50 fathoms that I've liked, uh, that I had a chance to dive with a few years ago was the tribute to aqualung, which had some of these cues that I like, but I think it's like a 45 or larger millimeter watch. And, and again, just, just too bright, too flashy. It's got like this propeller rotor. You know, it's just, it's just too much. And, um, I think they could do it. I think they could pull it off. I don't know that they will, but one can hope that's what this is all about.
James Stacy Yeah. I think, I think, yeah, if we're dreaming, I think that would be a really cool watch. It would be the type of watch, not only because I really like Blancpain as a brand and I like what they're about. And I really like that. They've become kind of a technical house within Swatch, you know, big movements and ceramic cases. and all sorts of like higher-end stuff. I think that's all fascinating from a watch lover's perspective. But as an owner, I would really like the 50 Fathoms R. Yeah. Or the 50 Fathoms Original. Call it whatever you like. Right. But I think you could make like a flagship that was also... Now, this is where the connection with the 911 R doesn't work. But you could make a flagship that was also roughly your entry-level sports watch. Sure. Yeah. You know, I'm not saying it would have to be at the price point of an Explorer.
Unknown Right.
James Stacy But put it around a sub and I think you could make a statement if it was even a thousand dollars less than a sub. I don't know if that's possible for a Blancpain. I don't know what their like entry level is.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But if you put this roughly in your entry level lineup, I think you could bring in new people to the brand. You could restore some of that diver credibility to the, just to the aesthetic. Yeah. Cause I don't think anyone questions the fact that like Blancpain can make a dive watch. Right. Obviously, no question there, but I think that their aesthetic has slowly drifted away from their, from that original design. Whereas some of their competition has stuck to that design or like you said, with Omega has kind of rediscovered it. Yeah. And I think it would be really exciting to see something like that, uh, from Bonk Pond. And I mean, probably the closest we'll come to this being possible is the fact that it worked for Omega. Right. And maybe they'll want to apply the same, framework to something from Blancpain.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So you've got a, uh, you've been talking about a dive watch, uh, wish for, um, for some time. I don't know if you've mentioned it on the show specifically, but I know you've told, told me about it and this is in the, over in the house of Tudor. Um, why don't you jump into that one?
James Stacy I would, um, I'd be really excited, uh, to see a Pelagos GMT. Um, I think it's where, I think it's where I would start to see value, like personal value in their, in them running their own movements. Right. Yeah. Because you don't have, there's no natural option for a jumping hour GMT movement that isn't in-house. Oh, sure. Yeah. You know, you can, ETA will supply you with an additional 24 or 12 hour hand, but not separately set and not jump set. Right. So if you want to follow the format of a Rolex Explorer II or a GMT Master, which I think is the nicest way to do that, that functionality. You need to do it kind of on your own or with a specific modification, you know, like a module to a movement. And while all of that is fine, I don't really care how it's done. Tutor has their own movements and could definitely develop a GMT version of the 5612. I feel like it kind of has to happen because right now they've got the black, they've got the blue, they established the new movements. And I think for that watch, especially because it is like very much touted as their tool diver. I've dove with it. You've dove with it. They're fantastic dive watch. It's simply great. Yeah. One of my absolute favorite watches on the market. But I know that if I bought one, I would think like what this is missing to be kind of the perfect watch for me, which is why we're talking about it in dream watches to K17 is the GMT movement. And then the, you know, the other thing is if, again, if we're dreaming, let's go wild here. Everybody I know that's owned or used or had a Pelagos for some time kind of wishes it was steel. Like I think the titanium is as big a selling factor. Yeah. In its usability as it is a detraction for watch nerds that like to have their watch look a certain way. Right. And I think with titanium, there's a tipping point where like it's new. Then it has a couple of bad scratches because it's titanium. And then eventually it has enough scratches that you're not that worried about it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But I've only ever had that not that worried about it phase with like two and $300 citizens. Right. Not $4,500 tutors.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Which is a whole different game, right?
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy I don't think it's going to happen, but a steel Pelagos I think would really expand the Pelagos as an offering in the market. and a GMT Pelagos would really, you know, that's just being, that's just me being really selfish.
Jason Heaton Yeah, but I like the titanium. I think there's, I think we stand a better chance of seeing a GMT Pelagos than a steel Pelagos in any form.
James Stacy Most certainly. I would say that it's absolutely not going to happen that we'll see a steel one.
Jason Heaton And I think it's kind of a logical next step for Tudor because I feel like they need a complication in their in-house lineup now. I mean, they have this in the North Flag, of course, they have a power reserve meter, which, you know, ho hum, I mean, it's cool, but You know, I don't even know if that's considered a complication necessarily. I guess it is. On an automatic?
James Stacy I don't know.
Jason Heaton I'm not sure. Yeah. But, um, you know, a GMT hand is, it's logical. And I think, I think a, a GMT dive watch just takes that utilitarian nature that the Pelagos does so well and just amps it up. I mean, I think it, it would make it such a, such a great, um, addition. You know, I just think I, you're right. I mean, I think it would almost be the perfect, the perfect sort of watch, you know?
James Stacy So back in for Baselworld last year, the great watch site Monochrome did a really awesome kind of mock-up or like Photoshop of what they believe a Pelagos GMT looks like. And to be honest, just on that mock-up, that's why I've wanted one. I think the mock-up looked awesome. It has a 24-hour bezel. and it has a color, a white, essentially GMT hand. Oh, yeah. And the only thing that I could imagine Tudor maybe doing differently is adopting some of the coloring from the Heritage Chrono. Oh, yeah. So maybe you'd have black and orange, which would be gorgeous, or that blue with orange would be crazy. Oh, yeah, yeah. Then you start talking about a watch that would be really hard not to start saving for, just a really cool, Super usable wearable on that rubber strap. It'd be killer. Yeah, and the pricing wouldn't be wild Like if you it's how it would probably be half the price of a new GMT master to right around there I would expect sure.
Jason Heaton I'm probably charge about five or well, yeah, five five five.
James Stacy Yeah, right. Yeah, and I think it could be really cool. I'll actually link the The monochrome piece because the the images still look really cool. I'm looking at them now and this I just want this watch to exist the blue with the GMT looks wild and yeah i think if you tweak this a bit to have like some orange on the GMT and maybe on the scale yeah it could look crazy on on either watch it could look really good but uh yeah i mean maybe i'm just like maybe this is fully the sort of watch that's just for dream episodes of uh of TGN but what a cool watch and if you're going to talk about kind of a a higher-end watch that would appeal to, I think, the kind of TGN crowd. Yeah. It's something like a Pelagos GMT. Yeah. Just a neat idea. So I hope we see it this year or soon, but it'll be March by the time we find out.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So I'll jump in too. I mean, these were two brands that we'll see at Basel and, you know, who knows, maybe they're listening. They've still got time to mock something up in time for Basel. For sure. So jumping over to kind of the Richemont side of things, I've got a wish list that I'm pretty convinced we'll never see. But, you know, that's what this show is all about. It would be a Jaeger LeCoultre, like a new version or a kind of a reissue of the Mark 11. So sort of a JLC pilot's watch.
James Stacy Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.
Jason Heaton You know, okay, I mean, here's why I think they won't ever do something like that. I think because being in the same stable. The Richemont stable is IWC. IWC clearly has that pilot sports watch arena covered, and so I don't think they would ever compete. But, you know, I've heard that JLC is kind of shifting away from sports watches, and we've seen that in the past couple years, kind of de-emphasizing the divers. We really haven't seen anything new at SIHH or otherwise in that area. The geophysic was kind of their most recent foray into what, you know, you might consider a sports watch, but especially with the true second and the, that world time version. I mean, those are, those are pretty dressy watches. I mean, they're, they're, they're pretty shiny. They're pretty, you know, nicely faceted on the, on the dial and markers. And, um, I just, I just want to see, you know, I visited Jaeger LeCoultre's factory after SIHH last year and just walking through their little museum. I mean, they made such cool tool watches. I mean, really neat old stuff. I wish they would kind of dust off their archives and come out with something, you know, anti-magnetic, no date, you know, just like something that guys that listen to TGN would aspire to, you know, something a little more along the lines of where they were headed with the vintage diving chronographs that they were doing, except maybe on a more simple level, like a pilot side of things.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure. It would be cool to see that. that line kind of develop if it existed. Yeah. Because there's, like you said, there's so many watches for them to look back on. Yeah. And while I think the Mark 11 is a great choice, it's very much kind of the iconic pilot style. Yeah. And you could make it a touch bigger and obviously JLC would be an unbelievable movement, would hold its value very well. Yeah. There'd be all sorts of pluses to that happening, but I'm with you, it's probably unlikely due to their proximity to IWC. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And, and even, you know, it would undercut even, even if it was several thousand dollars more than the 40 millimeter was a Mark 17. Yeah. Yeah. That came out last year.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Even if it was, you know, 40% more, I think it would still undercut. I think you'd still have people going like, well, I love the IWC, but I could have the JLC. Yeah, I agree. Um, there's just something, you know, there's that amazing draw that that brand has. Right. I hope that, that them dialing back their focus on sport watches is eventually reversed and we see a big wave, like it's ebbs and flows, right? So I just hope it's not permanent.
Jason Heaton I agree. And I think with that geophysic, kind of the original one that they came out with a few years ago, it was kind of like the tribute to 1958 or something. For sure. That one was actually the one I preferred over the more recent one, the true second one, because, you know, it had those sword hands, that crosshair dial, and it was just, it was much more of a sports watch. And I don't think JLC necessarily has to you know, pardon the pun, but jump into the deep end with, with a lot of dive watches. I mean, I don't necessarily think of JLC with dive watches, even though they've had some, some great ones over the years. Um, just some sort of a, kind of a more sporty, elegant, sporty watch would, would just be kind of refreshing. Cause you know, I go to SHH and it's all this Duometra stuff and the Hubris Artistica and, you know, Reverso's and which are all well and good, but it's, it's, I don't know. It's not my cup of tea, I guess.
James Stacy I would love for them to find their Explorer.
Unknown Yes.
James Stacy Yeah. I would love almost any brand to find their Explorer, right? To have an entry-level steel watch that the working man could save up and buy and then just wear. Yeah. Right. And there's no question that what Rolex is doing with the Explorer, there's no question that while that Explorer, the new one is great. Yeah. It's not like every brand couldn't have that watch in some fashion. And we're kind of saying the same thing now. that we said about the idea of a 50 fathoms R or whatever we're going to call it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, a back to basics, everyday sport watch with the 50 fathoms, it's got to be a diver. But I think with, like, like you said, with JLC, it could be, it could be something more like a field watch or just an everyday sports watch that doesn't necessarily have to have a bezel or a crazy amount of water resistance, right? Obviously we're going to want to screw down crown. You're going to want to be able to take it in the pool or on the beach or whatever, but yeah. Beyond that, like I agree, I don't think it needs to be a dive watch. I just think it has to have those sport watch characteristics of, you know, anti-magnetic and, you know, good loom and a nice legibility. And I think if they went from the aspect of a pilot's watch, you pretty much achieve that immediately. And they preserve something from their heritage, which is not only very much the way to go in the watch industry, but it's very JLC.
Jason Heaton Right. Right. Okay. So along those lines, I'm going to take Take the next one as well. Staying in kind of the Richemont area and talking about sort of an entry level steel sports watch. This might be even a greater long shot than a JLC Pilot's Watch. And that is a Lange & Söhne sports watch. I've heard people sort of talk about this over cocktails and whatever. Will Lange ever create something that competes with the Patek Nautilus? Part of me thinks they could. Part of me almost doesn't want them to do something like that because, you know, Lange is, they're just one of those unimpeachable brands that sort of just exists out there. You can't, you can't complain about them. You can't say anything bad about them because they just make such incredible works of art. But the other part of me wants something a little more, I don't know necessarily if accessible is the word, but a little bolder, you know, something a little bit more sporty. Let's see what they can do.
James Stacy You know, something less ornate. Yeah. Yeah. Something that feels like you're, you're still within the folds of their aesthetic. Right. But not necessarily like you need to make sure that watch doesn't come out from under your cuff. You definitely don't want to like run with it on or. Yeah. Yeah. Or go through the airport and be forced to take it off at security or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. It'd be crazy to see that happen. But I don't think it's necessarily impossible to dream for something like this. Like, I think that this may be even more possible than something like JLC making a pilot's watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Simply because Lange at some point will, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I just, I have no, maybe I'm just flat out talking about something I don't fully understand. Cause I'm not a Lange owner or buyer or aficionado or, you know, I've, I've seen a few in my time. That's about it. Yeah. But I mean, you've got to think They want a piece of that market. Yeah. I mean, who else is there?
Jason Heaton AP is there. So well with AP. Vacheron. Vacheron is the overseas. I mean, there's a market there, you know.
James Stacy And with AP and with Vacheron, those are peers in many metrics. Certainly peers, they sit next to each other at SIHH. Yeah. So while maybe Patek is the only like is the shortest line to draw between Lange and another brand as far as a peer. I think Patek has made it clear that they do very well with steel watches. Maybe that's inflated by the vintage, but certainly they make steel watches and new ones and people get very excited about them. And they have sportier versions of a few of their watches. It's not just the Nautilus, but I think the markets there, it'd be really interesting to see what they would make. Yeah. How it would look, how it would translate some of their, like, you could tell a Lange from a Lange with the possible exception of some of the JLCs and the Montblancs, which for some obvious reasons game some of that style.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But you could definitely tell a Lange aesthetic. You know, it's very much that Glashutte style. Yeah. And I would love to see that in a sports watch. And in many ways, I guess we have with Glashutte original, they have a line of a long-standing line of sport watches, some great watches in there, so I think it'd be interesting to see it from a king brand, like ALS. Yeah. Good dream, good dream, no doubt. What do you have? And, yeah, I've got one more. You know, I've waxed poetic on past episodes about my Seiko World Timer. Oh, yeah. And I think that's a watch that Seiko could easily remake today and sell a lot of them. Oh, it's so beautiful. Yeah, I don't think it would have to be expensive because it doesn't even have a true GMT movement, it's just a 24 hour hand.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
James Stacy And in a dial, a dial, or in this case, a bezel that can be rotated. So there's not a lot of complexity there, you wouldn't need to find new movements, you'd just be picking one of their movements that has a 24 hour hand that's locked to the hour hand. Yeah. And then building a dial and you could do it in a very similar case style, they could really address this like they did the SRP and its connection, you know, to the 6309. Maybe this won't happen simply because the Astron line is their traveler line, but it would be exciting just to see them kind of make a nod back to some of these watches. And it could be that I view that Seiko in a bit of a vacuum because I have one and I hunted for one for some time, but it'd be cool. They have so many different case options and the crown is still at four. Yeah. It's a very Seiko design. I think the size would still work today. It's 40, 41 millimeters. And you could do it in a bunch of different dials, like they have the SRP-77X. Right. And I think it'd be really an exciting watch. It could come in well under $1,000, like well under. Yeah. And would give you that same sort of fun value that you get in an SRP, but in a watch that you could put on a leather strap, you could theoretically wear with a suit, and you could travel and just kind of do whatever. This watch changes it entirely when you change the strap. Yeah. So you go from NATO to leather and from leather to, you know, something a little bit shinier or something a little bit darker. And it just takes on a different tone. I was wearing it for a while and kind of a suede strap, which made it feel very luxurious and like almost too fancy for me. I dig it. And I think they could make something very true to this design that you see on the 6117 6400s. I think it'd be cool. Yeah.
Jason Heaton I think also there is a bit of a gap or a dearth of good, well-sized, handsome world timers, whether true world timers or not. I mean, I think a lot of them are just, they're big, they're too big. You know, Alpena, IWC, I don't know if they still have that pilot world timer that they were making for a while. Bremont has the Globemaster world timer, which again isn't a true world timer, You know, these watches are big, they're expensive. I think a good, affordable, sort of retro-styled world timer would be quite a hit. I think you're right. I think Seiko could easily come in well under $1,000 and just kill it.
James Stacy They could also go the same similar route as Frédéric Constant and make an actual world timer. Yeah. The Frédéric Constant one is gorgeous. I don't like the sub-seconds. It kind of sits right where you're going to read part of the dial. Oh yeah. So it's a kind of problematic placement of the sub-seconds. If it just needs central seconds or no seconds, then I think it would be a better watch. Yeah. But otherwise beautifully made, excellent price. And, uh, and, and, uh, you know, it's, it's their movement. It's a, it's a real world timer. And I think, uh, I think Seiko could go either route. They could pick a simple movement with a 24 hour hand and be done with it. Or at Seiko, I mean, they could make a movement and they could, they could put it in the presage line. They could make it a little bit more higher end. You know, they had that beautiful enamel,
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Dial chronograph last year. And people went bonkers for that. I believe they all sold out. They're only just starting to show up on watch recon now. And I think that that would be another way they could go, make it more like 1500 bucks.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But who knows really with Seiko, it's always hard to predict what you'll see. You always know that you'll see more versions of things they already make. Yeah. But I always find it very difficult to predict what will be new. Right. If it's a sport watch, then it usually leaks at some point. Like we all saw the 777 and the 779 and such before.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But other than that, it's, you know, it's pretty random. Like they'll come out with nine new Astrons. Yeah. In different colors. And you'd be like, well, these are obviously cool. I think the Astron is still a little big, but it's a very cool watch. Awesome usability. Yeah. And if you travel a lot, the functionality is pretty solid, but I would love to see them make an Astron retro or just call it a world timer or a 6117. I don't get like, it doesn't matter what you call it. Right. I think that they could do it. And because it's Seiko, I think they should.
Unknown Yep.
James Stacy I agree. So I think that pretty much wraps up, uh, you know, I think that's five dream watches for 2017. We'll be able to, uh, laugh come, uh, you know, early 2018 when we look back on this list or, or who knows, maybe, uh, between, SIGH and Basel or some of the later year releases will be vindicated when Lange comes out with a killer sports watch and I've got a Pelagos GMT. Who knows? But I don't know. What are you feeling? Some final notes then?
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. And before we jump into that, you know, if any of our listeners have any dream watches for this year or have any inside intel on stuff that's coming out that we all should know about, certainly Drop us a line at TheGreyNado at gmail.com or ping us on Instagram at TheGreyNado, or tag us as well.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure, please. And any and all input or questions, we're always around and always reading the emails, so we'll be back in just a moment with some final notes to kick off 2017. Okay and we're back for some final notes for 2017. So this is just kind of little things that we either liked or saw or read or watched or whatever that we think you should check out to get you through the next couple weeks until episode 26. So Jason why don't you kick it off.
Jason Heaton Yeah well I think this one might be appropriate for kind of a New Year's episode of TGN. I recently kind of got a recommendation for a documentary on Netflix called Minimalism. And I started watching it. Um, I haven't finished it. I'll, I'll admit that fully, but I like the concept. It's a kind of talks to a couple of the guys who started a blog and a podcast, uh, and a website called the minimalists.com. And we'll link to that in the show notes. Um, but it's, it's, as the name suggests, they're, they're really talking about how to kind of streamline your life, how to strip back possessions. Um, you know, kind of the cut that through the noise of everyday life, whether it be, you know, constantly checking how many Instagram followers you have or likes, um, how many watches you own, how many, you know, how many puffy jackets do you have to have?
James Stacy None of these things are making me feel good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I know. And I think that's, I think that's why I'm mentioning it. And I think it's almost like, uh, you know, you get to this time of year and you've, you've kind of overindulged for the past 12 months or at least the past couple months with Christmas and with, you know, just buying watches and all this sort of thing. And I almost feel like I need a little bit of self-flagellation, a little bit of, you know, self, you know, a bit of introspection. And the minimalists kind of, they've got like six years worth of podcasts and blog posts to check out. So I think I'll start delving into that. I can't promise that I'm going to change my life overnight, but I think I think minimalism is something you and I have talked about offline quite a bit. And I don't know, even if you adopt a few of these sort of tenets, I think it can't be a bad thing.
James Stacy Yeah, I would agree. This is that time of year when I start to try and replay my rule of if I haven't touched it in a year, I should throw it out or donate it. And I think that's probably the way to go. I should probably sell a few watches that I'm not wearing that often. and uh and just kind of just pare down my footprint my like my local in my house footprint just feels a little bloated by the end of the year and i mean like a gopro and accessories that doesn't help and a new travel charger doesn't help and like it's it's like you're fighting a stream at a certain point as like a bit of a gear nerd right and that kind of thing but i think it helps to at least keep it on your mind as a process yeah uh so i i added that minimalism documentary to my uh to my netflix the other day And I nearly watched it last night, but I ended up watching the movie that I'm going to recommend now. So we'll move, we'll move on to my first. Yeah. So this is a movie from New Zealand called Hunt for the Wilder People. And it's from 2016. I, I remember briefly seeing a, um, a trailer for it, like back in maybe March. And basically, uh, uh, it's about, um, a young boy who's adopted by, uh, two folks way out in the bush in New Zealand. One of them played by Sam Neill. Oh. Good. And through a series of events that you have to watch to understand, I'm not going to give anything away, they end up spending a huge amount of time in the bush, living in the bush. And the environment is beautiful. New Zealand's forests and jungles are unbelievable. The setting is really cool. The writing's very clever. It's like very natural, but has that maybe 10% of like a Wes Anderson feel to it, some beautiful camera work, and some excellent just overall storytelling. I absolutely loved this movie. It's got a 7.9 out of 10 on IMDb, and I want to say it's even higher up in Rotten Tomatoes. The reason that I caught it last night was it was holding five stars on Netflix, which I've never actually seen before. Wow. It was unbelievable. I loved this movie. Like from the start to finish, I was tired when I started it and I got more and more energy as I watched it. They spend a huge amount of time just in the woods, walking, talking, you know, it's Sam Neill at a later stage in his life. And this young boy that he, you know, through some circumstances is essentially now fully in charge of or caring for. And they're definitely opposites. And it's funny, but it's also beautiful in a lot of ways. And the setting, like I said, is just unbelievable. It's based on a book, which I'm now kind of beholden to check out. I enjoyed the movie so much. The book must be outstanding. And I highly recommend it. If you have Netflix, hunt for The Wilder People and watch it immediately. I think it's a perfect thing to watch in these sorts of weeks that we have now that have a lot of night time, which is a nice time to watch a movie, and are maybe leading for people to be more cooped up than they would prefer. This will help you feel like you at least got outside, even if you didn't. And it has some adventure, some comedy, and it's a great story.
Unknown Nice.
Jason Heaton Can I add that to my queue?
James Stacy Yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so I've got kind of a binge-watching extravaganza here as well. It's something that I stumbled upon on the Apple TV. I don't know if you've ever seen this. Red Bull TV. So it's like this Red Bull channel and a lot of it's, you know, kind of extreme sports and cliff diving and snowboarding and stuff. But they produced this series called the horn, which is like an eight episode series that follows the crew of air Zermatt, which has an obvious connection to a place I've just been. And in fact, the helicopter ride that I took to get from Zermatt was with air Zermatt. So it kind of struck home for me. Um, But Air Zermatt, in addition to kind of ferrying tourists up and down from that town in the Alps, they're also responsible for a lot of the mountain rescues that happen on the side of the Matterhorn and a lot of the ski areas up in that part of Switzerland. And what they've done is, through a series of interviews with pilots and paramedics and doctors that work at Air Zermatt, they also put GoPro cameras on the chests and helmets and the helicopters of all the guys in the and the gear and equipment that Erzsermont uses and followed them on a number of their rescues. And it's, it's a lot of it's, it's pretty gritty. I mean, there's, there's a, you know, there's, there's kind of some blood and gore and some kind of real world, like the opening scene of the opening episode is a guy repelling into a hundred foot crevasse. Um, and you can hear this poor soul who has fallen down there. He's moaning and he's like calling out for help in this, this mountain rescue. specialist is rappelling down to find this guy. And that's how the episode opens. And it's kind of all about how these guys work. And I don't know, it's kind of a perfect show for TGN. It's mountain sports, it's helicopters, it's a lot of cool gear, you know, it's a lot of, you know, mountain hardware and Scarpa and there's some cool watches that you see. And it was just a fun kind of show to binge watch. I wouldn't say it's necessarily, you know, high production value or, you know, great writing or anything like that. But, you know, it's a documentary and it was in a cool place. And so if you happen to get Red Bull TV or maybe they stream it on their YouTube channel or something, I highly encourage it.
James Stacy I just checked on redbull.tv and you can stream it. So it's working in Canada anyway. So if it works in Canada, it would probably stream anywhere. Oh, there you go. They have all the episodes. So I've just loaded up Nice. S1, E1, the crevasse.
Jason Heaton Nice. Nice. Okay.
James Stacy Yeah. This looks, uh, this looks great. That'll be, uh, that'll be, I think I'll watch one of these tonight. That sounds, uh, perfect. Exhilarating. Yeah. Fun stuff. It's cool that Red Bull would, would move to kind of that side of it. Yeah. Maybe they just have a decent reputation or a decent relationship with, uh, some search and rescue places due to the work they do. Yeah, right. Requiring, you know, support helicopters or even a rescue here or there. Yeah, definitely. That extreme lifestyle. Yeah. So you have another one? I do. Yeah. So, uh, on episode 24, I spoke a little bit about, um, uh, fitness and exercise and, and, and, uh, I think using a lacrosse ball to kind of, uh, roll out my, my foot, uh, to help with an injury. And nobody emailed me to say, James, please shut up about that. So I'm going to double down with, uh, something called the rad roller. which is, um, a rolling device, rolling, uh, literally you, you sit or place a muscle on this and roll it back and forth to kind of break up adhesions.
Unknown Oh yeah.
James Stacy And it helps speed up recovery and increase mobility and flexibility and circulation to those areas. And the rad roller in medium is $25 and I've already in 10 days got $25 use out of it. So I was staying, Back East I was staying at the family place, it wasn't like a perfect sleeping scenario, so my back was kind of tight and my shoulders, still trying to stick to a workout routine on vacation, so I was kind of adding in with the RadRoller, especially on the feet, it's great. It basically is like two roughly hardball-sized balls that are connected in the middle. So from profile, from 2D, it's kind of like an 8, and that way you can put it on either side of your neck. Because you can't put like a lacrosse ball on your spine. That's quite painful. Yeah, right. But this will bridge that and get those kind of harder to reach areas. And for the price, you know, they basically say it's good for forearms, upper arm, chest, your full back, your neck, legs, quads, all of it. And it's great for feet. I think that's probably where the design started. Yeah. And I've really enjoyed it. It's small enough to travel with. So I think I may make that part of my like hotel care when I'm doing a Basel or an SIHH and you're just kind of moving around all day and carrying bags and you just feel kind of stiff from the flight. Sure. I think I'll give that a spin. So I'm only a week, two weeks into using it, but I've been pretty happy with it. And at $25, I would certainly recommend it if you were looking for a way to get into rolling that doesn't require one of these larger rollers that are more designed for maybe IT or quads. Yeah. And you want something more for feet or arms. or something like a heart or like a, like a chest, check out a Rad Roller. I'm happy with it. I think it's cool. And it fits into kind of my hope for this year, which is to, you know, continue to get stronger and such, but also respect the fact that I'm not 20 anymore and I'm not old by any stretch, but I am at the point where like, you can either learn to care for yourself now, or you can learn to care for yourself after you have an injury or have taken it too far or lapse and spend a couple of years on the couch and then try and get back into it. So trying to build some good habits, and I think this is a fairly cheap way to get into something that appears to be a pretty strong cornerstone for not only rehabilitation, but also just kind of protecting yourself and ensuring that you maintain a certain amount of mobility. Cool. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Well, I've got one last one. This is from our old friend, Erica. Oh, these are cool. Yeah. Erica, you know, If you don't remember, she is a Dutch woman living in Spain who makes those really cool Marine Nationale style elastic watch straps, which it was about a year ago. Well, no, I guess it was more around Basel time that we kind of lit things up with her drab olive parachute straps for watches. Well, Erika has a new version out. It's called the Black Ops line of straps, which As the name suggests, instead of just the drab olive color that she was offering before, the elastic material is actually black. And she sent one over to test, one for each James and myself. And the ones she sent have a red stripe down the middle. So it's a black strap with a red stripe and standard metal hardware. But Erica, who is about to release these on her website is also going to be offering these with either black or bronze PVD hardware and either polished or sort of a patinaed, just, you know, plain bare steel. So I think, you know, it's a subtle difference, but I think the black with the red, I posted a picture on my Instagram of it on my Seiko SRP777. And I heard somebody else immediately chime back and say, this would look awesome on my Pelagos. Someone, a friend of mine got the left-hand drive Pelagos with the red writing on the dial. Oh, it'd look killer. Yeah, yeah. I thought it would look really good on that. I think black and red are just, uh, you know, it's a great color combination. It goes with a lot of different watches.
James Stacy I think it'll look really cool on the, uh, the Explorer too.
Jason Heaton I think so too. So I'm going to hand yours off to you at SIHH, uh, when we see each other in a couple of weeks and, uh, yeah, check it out. I think Erica's already gotten a few, you know, some good responses on Instagram, both on the photo I posted and on her own, uh, Instagram feed, Erica's Originals. So go check it out and you know, give it a try if that's your cup of tea.
James Stacy So yeah, we'll report back Certainly, I'll mention how it looks on a couple watches. It'll be on Instagram. So that'll be in the next Week to two weeks from the time this comes up and Yeah, I you know, I think that pretty much does it for the show. Don't you think I would say so. Yeah All right. Well as always, thank you so much for listening hit the show notes for more details You can follow us on instagram at Jason Heaton and at je Stacy And you can follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com. Please review and subscribe wherever you can find your podcasts or grab the feed from TheGreyNado.com. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzer via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And until next time, we leave you with this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who said, perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.