The Grey NATO – 255 – From France With Love (And The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Act 3)

Published on Thu, 28 Sep 2023 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

The episode discusses Jason and James' recent trip to Cannes, France for the launch of Blancpain's new 50 Fathoms limited edition watch celebrating the model's 70th anniversary. They share their thoughts on the watch itself, a 41.3mm bronze gold diver limited to 555 pieces and priced at $32,000 USD. While expensive, they feel it is appropriately special for an anniversary limited edition, though they acknowledge many had hoped for a more affordable regular production steel model. Jason also recounts his experience diving with a vintage 1950s Blancpain on the trip and the brand's commitment to ocean conservation initiatives.

James details his lengthy travel delays getting to the event, missing the initial festivities but making it in time for the main watch unveiling. They reminisce about recognizing their hotel from the film Ronin and the overall lavish setting for the launch on a historic island off Cannes. The pair discuss potential strap options for the new watch and touch on feedback hoping Blancpain will eventually release a modern but classically-sized standard steel 50 Fathoms diver model.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 255 and it's proudly brought to you by our ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show and aren't already, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. James, here we are again. We just parted ways, it seems like a few hours ago. Yeah, it does. It does.
James It was, uh, it was a longer than that. It was, uh, you know, it was an interesting trip. Uh, you know, we talked about it a little bit on the previous episode that you and I were heading to Cannes, France for the act three announcement of the, uh, the new, um, 50 fathoms from Blancpain. Yeah. And yeah, it was, uh, the, the event worked out nicely, got to see the watch and the rest of it. And we'll certainly chit chat a bunch about that, but there was, it was a complete boondoggle, uh, getting there and to a certain extent, getting home for me. So, Sometimes that's how it goes. You know, you travel enough, you're going to eventually get some, get some run of bad luck. But I feel, uh, I feel like I might be a little bit cursed. I think I'm three, three trips in a row with pretty major kind of setbacks or complications. Yeah. So hopefully, um, I, I, of course we'll be flying in about a week's time and we'll see if that, uh, if the curse continues, but, uh, how have you been since you got back from France?
Jason Heaton I mean, good. I, you know, I had a very different experience than you and we'll, we'll get into that in a bit, but this is, this was my kind of third, third trip in a row, like over the past month. And I'm, I'm, I'm feeling kind of a little bit fried, you know, I mean, they've, they've all been good, good experiences and good trips, but, um, it's, it's just been a bit much, especially, um, you know, as we've talked about in the past, I feel like I'm still coming out of, you know, post COVID sort of isolation times and, and to kind of jump in the deep end this year with, with just what's turned out to be a lot of travel, at least for me. Um, has been, uh, has been a bit trying, although not, not altogether bad experiences, certainly, but it's, it is good to be home. And, and here we are at the end of September, which, which just seems absolutely crazy to me. Yeah. I agree on that part. Yeah. Just trying to get a few things done. I cleaned the chimney yesterday. I've got, you know, it looks like some, uh, end of season yard work to do and just stuff to do before the snow flies. So got to kind of make hay while the sun is shining, so to speak.
James Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Don't really want to think about the snow thing just yet. staring, you know, we obviously record these on Tuesdays. So we're a few days away from the end of this week, but after working, you know, the past couple of weekends straight through, um, I, uh, definitely looking forward to a weekend, but we're looking forward to what looks like at least right now, the weather's going to be ideal for just a nice fall weekend at the cottage. We always, we kind of change modes when, when the fall comes in, you spend less time down at the beach and we've enjoyed the last couple of years, like kind of going for drives in the area, stopping, taking pictures, Obviously with the leaves changing, there's, there's some pretty lovely scenery and there's a couple of like really nice sort of relaxed restaurants, breweries, that sort of thing in the area. Um, shout out Bashkong brewery, uh, which is, uh, you know, about an hour from my cottage, but it's a really beautiful drive and there's spots to stop along the way if you want to take, you know, pictures of marshes and trees and birds and that sort of thing. So, uh, looking forward to that kind of thing. But yeah, I, I got back from, uh, France, a Sunday evening caught up on F one. It was the Japan, Grand Prix, which is great. And then I haven't really done much else. It's Tuesday, so it's been a day. I tried to have a slow day yesterday. It didn't quite work out. Did a little bit of organizing in the garage, that sort of stuff. It does feel like that time of year where you go like, I got to get a few things done before it's too cold to bother doing them. Fall is a beautiful time, certainly in our part of the world, but not one that lasts all that long.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I'm, I am feeling a bit of that, uh, for some reason I don't get a, a necessarily a spring cleaning vibe, but I tend to get that in the fall. I don't know if it's because suddenly it's like you're spending more time inside and you realizing how cluttered life has become. And, um, part of that was, uh, um, I just felt the need to kind of, uh, sell off a bunch of watches that I wasn't wearing. And so, uh, actually this morning, I don't, I'm not sure it was exactly jet lag. Cause I don't think we were in France all that long, but, uh, I was up pretty early today and I just, I kind of sorted through and I found six watches to sell and I put them up on the Slack sales channel and I realized I, I'm maybe abusing my position here by, uh, by promoting it on the show. Um, but Hey, I'll, I'll take that. And I've already sold three as of this morning. So it feels really good to, that is great. It's really good to kind of part ways with a few pieces and they're going to good homes and I know that people will enjoy them and, and that's all good. So, and uh, You know, some people have been speculating that I've got a bit of an incoming piece coming that might seem fairly predictable given what we talked about last week. And I'm not going to give anything away. I'll talk about it next week. But yes, there is a new watch coming in and it's probably not a huge secret what it is.
James But yeah. Yeah. We talked about this a little bit on the trip about possibly doing a little bit of a fall sell off. I'm kind of in the same mode, especially now that I've done, you know, essentially two tax cycles in the world in which you have to claim whatever goes through your PayPal. And for the, you know, above board accountants in the audience, I know that you were always supposed to claim that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think I might do the same sometime this fall or winter. I have several here that I'm simply not wearing that I think folks would like. But yeah, we'll see. I could see it coming along, but six isn't bad. That makes a dent, I guess.
Jason Heaton It sure does. Yeah. And it's, it, it is a much more pleasant selling experience doing it through our, our Slack community than anywhere else. And I really would have hesitated to, to, to take this on if I was, you know, going back to the forums or something, it's just not, not very pleasant to kind of deal with the back and forth. And so, yeah, this has been easy so far. And, uh, you know, we'll see if, if the three others remain by the time this episode goes up, but, uh, I'm patient, it's fine.
James And who knows, you may be able to find three more in the future. Always worth at least keeping an eye on the sales forum. I like to check it at the end of the day just in case something pops up, who knows. I'm definitely not in a buying mode, but I've bought watches from this perspective before. Speaking of watches, what have you got on wrist this week?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, I guess after wearing my Fifty Fathoms for the better part of a week, since I think we even recorded last week, and then going to France with with the brand. Um, I kind of have a little palate cleanser on today. I've got a very small watch on today. This is the 36 millimeter, uh, Benruss ultra deep. Um, you know, we talked about that last week. My, my review had gone up on worn and wound and the, and the watch finally launched or was released for sale. Um, and, and when I came home, I guess last night, I, Um, decided to pop it on. I've got it on and it's, you know, it takes a little 18 millimeter NATO. It weighs nothing. Um, just, it's, it's a, it's a lovely little piece on my wrist and I'm, I'm just enjoying, enjoying wearing it. So yeah, that's what I've got on.
James And, uh, how about you? Uh, yeah. So this week I'm wearing the JLC Polaris chronograph model that came out earlier this year. I got this in on loan. They sent me an email out of the blue and said, like, hey, would you have any interest in checking this out? And usually with watches of this price point, I don't push for loans. Getting them across the border can be a complete nightmare for the brand, for me, for people who don't want to deal with import and export duties and the rest of it. But they offered and I said, hey, if you're comfortable getting one to Toronto easily, let me know. I would love to check one out. I haven't seen a Polaris in a few years, and I kinda dug the design of this. It's the Blue Dial Chronograph. It's $14,800, so it's a JLC chronograph. It's a pretty premium sort of thing. It carries a lot of the standard Polaris design language. It's a 42 millimeter steel case with a blue to black gradient double stack dial. It's a two register chronograph, so you get a 30 minute total maximum measure. It's about 13.3, 13.4 millimeters thick, 100 meters water resistant, comes on a nice steel bracelet, and then the clasp has double micro extensions. Oh, yeah. So they kind of work like dive extensions. Yeah. But they're much smaller than that. So you can actually just add a millimeter and a half, roughly, pretty easily, which is kind of clever. And it fits into a double fold over sort of signed clasp. Nice. This is a really handsome, nice wearing watch. It's got quick release on the bracelet, so you can put it right on a rubber strap if you want. So it came with a blue rubber strap as well. So I'll have a hands on, as you'd expect for Hodinkee pretty soon, but that's what I've been kind of wearing around, a complete palette cleanser from what I've been kind of into lately, just kind of stoic, simple dive watches. Yeah. And then this, the 50 fathoms, which we'll talk about, got to see that for a minute or two. Um, but yeah, I thought, you know, I'm not traveling. So, you know, when I went to, um, when I went to France, I wore the Mito, uh, which is just fantastic travel watch. Um, and, uh, and now that I'm home for the next bit, I thought I'd throw the, throw this one on. So that's what I've got on a nice little treat to try something both like a good chunk outside of the normal price zone of, of what I would call in for review. Right. Um, but also something from JLC, it's just a brand that I love that I, uh, you know, because of the cost of their watches, I don't get to interface with them all that much. And then sadly, because of how busy it was at Watches and Wonders earlier this year, I wasn't able to make it to that meeting. Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, years ago I'd spent time with the Polaris, this kind of generation when it was first released and yeah, they're cool watches. I do miss, I have to say for a while, JLC had this kind of streak of kind of the vintage inspired divers. I can't remember all the names of them, but you know, they had, you know, a vintage chronograph. They had kind of some older looking, um, I believe they were like a memo boxes and things. And I, I kind of missed that in their collection.
James I feel like there was just some gorgeous, some absolutely gorgeous stuff. Those reissues of the memo boxes and of the, the deep sea chrono. That's what it was, which was kind of like a dive take almost on a speedy. I absolutely adore that.
Jason Heaton I was sorely tempted to somehow make one of those work back then.
James They've got some really cool stuff in their past, but the Memovox reissues, and obviously they've done some incredible stuff with reversos over the years. But that, that Deep Sea Chrono has always been a fave of both of ours. I remember you liking it as well. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of vintage inspired, we can dive into our main topic, I guess. Let's talk a little bit about, about Cannes. You know, we've got, we've got the good, the bad and the ugly, and I maybe, I don't know about ugly in general, but at least the bad, you had an unpleasant travel experience. We had actually had very different trips and I felt downright guilty when I was kind of sitting on the beach, uh, awaiting the evening activities on, on Saturday. And you were sending me occasional messages, uh, lamenting from the field, from the field, from, yeah, from Frankfurt or wherever you were. And it was like, um, I was, I was enjoying my, uh, my grilled watermelon looking out at the, at the, uh, the blue Mediterranean there. And I made sure not to tell you how, how much I was enjoying myself, but, uh, yeah, what, I mean, for, for, for the listeners that, that didn't get the full scoop, uh, tell us, tell us how your trip went.
James Yeah. I mean, I look, I, I feel largely the same about complaining about travel, especially luxury travel, um, on a podcast as I do about putting it on Instagram, which is why I wouldn't. but I'll fill people in a simple, simple, you know, this is how things go. If you try, if you travel enough, your itinerary will occasionally completely fall apart. So of course, one of the toughest connections in my world as a star Alliance flyer is Frankfurt. They're always 40 minutes shorter than they need to be. Um, uh, Frankfurt is mostly a bus terminal for those of you who don't know it. Uh, they do occasionally do a few flights. I had, I think an hour and, five minutes or an hour and 10 minutes to make my connection to get to Nice. So it was Toronto to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to Nice. And of course, my flight from Toronto left two hours and 20 minutes late. So by the time I landed, my flight to Nice was also landing in Nice. So there wasn't really a good solution. Air Canada finally sorted it out where I then jumped a flight to Munich, which is an airport that I do like. And then I had a decent wait in Munich and then from Munich, I flew to Nice. So I ended up getting there. I went directly from the airport to the event, um, which, you know, started at a pier and we got on a boat and then took the boat to an island where they were doing this event for, for the, and we can get to that, uh, certainly. But, um, you see the thing was that technically this trip shouldn't have been this short for me. This is my, this was my fault. Not certainly not, um, Blancpain or, or, or even Air Canada's or Lufthansa's. Uh, originally the Tudor trip was going to be just the date was going to end the same day that this trip started. So I said, I can, I can finish and come here. And then they moved the Tudor trip forward by 10 days or whatever, um, or two weeks. And so I ended up with this kind of shorter time in France, which is okay. As long as I made it there for the main event, all good. Um, But yeah, the travel did not go well and included a lot of airport running and, uh, and you know, pouting and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton And then you were writing a story in the back of the car on the way to the pier.
James And it was just, it was like, because this is a pretty secretive launch for the brand. Um, they were, they were playing, keeping things pretty close to the chest as far as what the details were. So we had like very limited details, no assets, so no images. So I had written the story. um couple days before finish the story on the flight and then like landed and knew that the embargo was going to be 9 p.m in France so 3 p.m back home and I wanted I didn't know what the connection would be like on this um island so I wanted to make sure I had all of that kind of done and scheduled the story and the rest of it and of course like it everything was sort of last minute it all came together it was fine um and uh and I I actually you know I beat you and the rest of the press contingent to the pier. So I was just kind of hanging out and waiting. Um, and aside from being, you know, a little, maybe dried out from airport and airplane air, I was fine. It was okay. It was a little tired, but that's, that's how these things go. Right. Um, and it was luckily like fantastic weather, really nice to be in, in Canada had been a while. I hadn't been in the city since before the pandemic. And the other thing,
Jason Heaton We stayed at the hotel from Ronan, which you kind of discovered or remembered the day we were leaving. And we both just sort of got so excited.
James Yeah. We were a couple of nerds trying to talk to a couple of colleagues and be like, you know what hotel this is, right? And they're like, I've never seen that movie. And I go like, oh, this is the worst. But yeah, like we, we walked back after the event and I'm getting things out of order here, but I'll finish this, this part of the story. But we walked back from the event. back to the hotel. And when I saw it in the dark, it like, it started to trigger something in my visual memory that I couldn't quite place. And I just figured I was tired or maybe that it reminded me of a hotel I had stayed in in Monaco or something like that. And go in, you know, go to bed, wake up the next morning. I slept in because I wanted to try and drag out the time zone change. And because I thought you were on a very earlier flight than me.
Unknown Yeah.
James And I wake up to a text message, you know, a 30 minute old text message from you saying that you didn't, you weren't able to get on the first flight. So you're going to be, you and I were going to go in the same car to the airport later. I was like, Hey, great. I got a buddy. Yeah. And, uh, and I walk over to my window and I'm on the fifth floor of the majestic and can I walk over my window and like open the blinds and like, it's, it feels like I'm looking at a scene from that part and Ronan looking down on the courtyard where they fake the photo and the rest of it. or not fake the photo, it's a real photo, but where they use the photo to, to essentially, you know, surveil one of their marks. And I was just like, I was like, I'm 95% sure. And I Google it very quickly. And I'm like, I can't wait to see Jason. I can't wait to see Jason and tell him this is the, this is the hotel.
Jason Heaton It was a highlight for sure. Yeah. That whole area had that vibe. So that's such a thrill. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that was great. It was one of those little, those little sort of secret bonuses that you get on a trip. If you've, if you ever go to a place where, you know, a movie was filmed or something. And it's, and the way that you discovered it, it's not like we made some pilgrimage there. Like you sort of, it was sort of triggered a memory. I woke up there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
James That was good. Um, but the actual, the actual event, um, the Island was called, do you have that?
Jason Heaton The Ile de la Saint Marguerite was what it was called. Saint Marguerite.
James That's right. Yeah. So it was, you know, like maybe a 15 minute little ferry ride over to the Island. Then you walk up a bunch of kind of switchbacks and you get to the top and there's, It was, was it either an embattlement and a prison or?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think, I think it was a fort that then became sort of a military prison or some sort of an island prison a la Alcatraz, you know, the ultimate sort of place to, to keep criminals or.
James Super pretty, very fancy, sort of like what would be fit like a Blancpain sort of thing. It was, it was in the evening, perfect weather. There was like great cheese. And if you wanted champagne and that kind of thing, it took us a little while to realize that if you ask the right person, you could get a cold beer. a little bit more our speed than, you know, successive glasses of champagne. Yeah. And you just had a really nice evening. You know, we had some friends there. Yeah, it was a treat to see a handful of folks. The people from Blancpain are lovely, big, big fan of their team. And they had a display of watches as well, like various versions of military derived 50 fathoms. It was only like five or six vitrines and it was just like one knockout after another. Yeah. I definitely took snap some photos. So, um, I may do a little gallery or something in the show notes. So if you normally ignore the show notes, but you'd like to see some cool older military adjacent and military direct, uh, bonk ponds. I'll pull a few of those and put them together in the, in the show notes.
Jason Heaton It was quite an event and I think you know, we knew that that Blancpain was going to pull out the stops for, for this one. I mean, they'd been building this up for, for months. And of course this was act three, um, for, for them this year for the 70th anniversary, they had done, uh, an earlier one, act one was a 40 millimeter kind of more faithful, uh, version of, of the 50 fathoms that we've been used to for the past, uh, gosh, 20, almost 20 years. Um, and then act two of course, was that the tech Gombesa that, that we talked about, that I got a chance to dive with in Rangaroa, um, kind of the more modern piece that Laurent Balesta had co-patented with, with Hayek. Um, and then I think everybody was anticipating act three. I mean, this was the culmination of, of a year of celebrations for them. And, and they definitely pulled out all the stops and boy, they had, it was quite the who's who of guests there. They had, uh, it was a free diver, Jean Luca. I can't remember his last name, but he, he had helped them launch the 50th anniversary back in 2003. He was there. And of course, uh, Laurent Balesta was there and then lo and behold, we happened to Um, he'd been invited and he was kind of, uh, off duty, but he was there to support, uh, his colleague, uh, Mark Hayek and Blancpain, of course. And, um, you know, lots of people from, from the Mokaron protection society and the ocean commitment people. And so it was, yeah, it was fun to just sort of mingle and chat and catch up with people and meet new people. And then of course they launched the watch, um, with, with sort of a, a bit of an intro, um, to the, to the Mokaron protection society. kind of with some background, and then we all got a chance to stand in line to spend a few minutes with it.
James Yeah, so we have what's called the, so it's the Act 3 70th anniversary. It's a 41.3 millimeter, nine carat bronze gold version of essentially the Mil-Spec style. Yeah. So it's the same size as the original watch. It has a very similar like overall dial layout. So this is one where you have markers instead of the numerals at 12, 3, 6, and 9. It has the ingress, moisture ingress indicator on the dial in sort of a white gray format, but otherwise it's a very black with a brown or gold sort of tone version. They're making 555 of them and it's 32,000 US dollars. So it's very much a tribute limited edition celebration, expensive sort of special watch from their collection. And, uh, and yeah, I, you know, aside from maybe the NATO being a little bit bulky, which like it's a brand new NATO, I really liked it. I thought it was a very handsome kind of good looking watch. I don't understand the price, but that would go for a lot of these sorts of things, especially, you know, it's, it's, like I said, it's limited edition and we can get into some of the sort of like feedback that, that we received. And, and I think that Blancpain has received from the community that was hoping it would be something else. Um, and I don't disagree with that hope. I kind of disagree with where they placed it or where it was placed, but we, we could certainly get into that. What did, what did you think? We actually have a ton more to talk about. You went diving and that sort of stuff, but let's, we could stick on the watch for the moment. What did you think of it in person?
Jason Heaton I was actually pleasantly surprised. I wasn't sure, you know, up until the last minute, what was coming. And I think, I think they got a lot of the style cues, right? I think, um, I think, uh, you know, I had, I had concerns that it would either be too big or they wouldn't kind of lean into the kind of the vintage vibes, but then we started to see being teased out this, uh, the vintage wordmark, you know, the old Blancpain typeface that they used on the original. Um, and I think, I think they nailed it. I think even down to the case material, you know, certainly I would love to see a steel version of this, uh, and maybe we will at some point, but, um, you know, from what I was reading, the, the, some of the original early mil spec watches were, different navies, I'm not sure which Navy specifically had requested that it be made from German silver, which is a kind of a copper and nickel alloy to make it less, uh, give it less of a magnetic, uh, footprint or presence, um, for, you know, defusing mines, um, that might have some magnetic sensitivity and apparently German silver patinas to the color that is close to this bronze gold. So I think that was apparently what the inspiration for that color was. So I, you know, that, okay. That made sense to me. And then, and then the moisture indicator on the dial, I mean, come on, a modern Blancpain with that on the, on the dial is just cool to see.
James So yeah, we've only had a few of those, you know, the, the tribute, the original tribute to mil-spec and then the, the hood and key Ellie. Yeah. Um, you know, I, I think when the brand does limited edition stuff, they do a really nice job of making something that feels distinct. I thought the sizing made sense. It's the 1154. So it's a, a no date execution of a hundred hour automatic movement from them. from my understanding, certainly a solid enough movement with nice specs and that sort of thing, as you'd expect from a, from a Blancpain, uh, you know, I think I would like to hear about the rest of your trip, but we might as well just dive into, uh, I'm sure you got similar comments on your Instagram and we certainly got a wide range of feedback on the story on Houdinki. We published an introducing post, uh, which I can include in the show notes, of course, but like people, seem to be like in many ways okay with the watch existing, but we're upset that it wasn't the one they wanted.
Unknown Yeah.
James I mean, like, no, no, I didn't get any feedback. People saying like, oh, it's ugly. And I hate it. It's not the one that they wanted. They wanted a, a standard issue, non-limit edition steel, 50 fathoms that just sits in the catalog at 40 or 41 or something like that. And of course this was something else entirely. I'm curious how you, how you feel about, about that sort of feedback, like people were really upset about the price, which like, I understand it's a very expensive watch. And if you compare it to like, if you're not a Blancpain collector, if you're just a, a well knowledgeable, like if you're just a knowledgeable watch enthusiast, you're going to immediately think of all the other things that you could have for that money or like how it sits in. But then I think, you know, being a limited edition, being at one of these 70 70th anniversary LEs, this felt almost predictable, the expensive, Like I'm, I guess I'm a little bit surprised that it wasn't 18 karat gold or something like that. The bronze is, it feels a little bit more 50 fathoms. It's a, it's a neat move. Yeah. Um, but you're certainly paying as though it's assault. Like that's roughly the same price as a solid gold GMT master, which would have a gold bracelet, right?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I feel like, uh, you know, within the swatch group, they have, they have their formula for anniversary additions. And I think, you know, when you look at, uh, certainly stuff that Omega has done over the years with with kind of anniversary pieces. I mean, these aren't going to be cheap watches and I think they're definitely aimed at, at a collector community. And for 555 pieces, I I'd be surprised if, if any, if, you know, if not many are left at this point certainly there were, it was a big contingent of collectors at this event. And I bet a lot of them went straight to their, their local reps and put plunk down a deposit to get one of these. And I think, you know, to, to kind of complain about, pricing on a watch like this, uh, certainly it's well out of my, my reach and your reach, but you know, Blancpain is not the brand that, that they used to be. And I think one lament that I've had is, you know, back in the day when, when these watches, you know, back in the fifties, sixties, these were, you know, kind of the, the working divers watch. I mean, this was a watch you could get, you know, whether at the PX or was issued to you, or you could buy in a dive shop for very little money, you know, along the lines of maybe a Zodiac Seawolf or somewhere between that and a Submariner. Um, and I, you know, yeah, I'd love to see Blancpain back to those roots, but that's not the brand anymore. They, they realize they're an haute or lingerie, uh, luxury brand. And this is squarely in their, in their territory, this watch. And I think there's enough specialness about this watch in terms of the limited edition, uh, nature of it, as well as the materials used. And it's, it's a pretty stellar movement in here. And, and, you know, when you look at this as a bump up from, you know, what the, the, the regular 50 fathoms is going for, which is, you know, somewhere between you know, $15,000 and $20,000. I mean, it isn't that much of a premium for something that is only available to a very few people and will never exist again in this form. So, um, that, that's my take on it. I will say the watch itself. Fantastic. I mean, it's, I think they, they got a certain number of like little nods to the original that I think, you know, it might be lost on some people or maybe people don't notice, you know, the high dome crystal of course is an obvious nod, but, but the rotor, um, on the movement that you can see through the clear case back, it's that slotted, old school rotor with the old Blancpain writing. As I mentioned, the material that kind of mimics what a German silver case would patina to. You know, just little stuff like that, I think, makes this a pretty special piece. And who knows? I mean, if they do spin out a kind of a steel version, I'm not sure where that would come in price-wise. It would probably still be expensive. But yeah, I don't know. Complaining about price is always a bit of a peculiar move for people. I always kind of shake my head and think, well, look, I mean, If the market bears, if the price holds up and enough people buy it, then they were right on.
James Yeah, the price thing is tough. Neither of us are saying it's not an expensive watch. It's exceedingly expensive, more than I've ever spent on all of my watches combined and maybe ever will. But I don't think it's out of line for what the brand does. That's their move, their prerogative, their MO these days. The thing that I would push back a little bit against because I feel the same way, but I placed my feeling in a different direction are the comments from people saying, I really wish this was a 40 millimeter steel, 50 fathoms, like one that wouldn't really make sense for a big anniversary. You want something special. You want to do a limited edition. I think that's the natural move. Yeah. So if they had done the watch that everyone wanted and only made 555 of them, that's would be a genuine bummer.
Unknown Yeah.
James Like if this had been a 40 millimeter steel, modern 50 fathoms, right. With a no date option and you know, a 17 or $18,000 price tag, still a fortune. Don't get me wrong, but, but closer to what everybody seems to be begging for in the comments. Yeah. And they only made 555 of them. Yeah. That'd be even, that'd be way worse than them making a bronze gold one that a handful of collectors are going to go for. So I, I 100% align with everybody who wishes that that Blancpain was making a conventionally sized or, or medium sized dive or something, let's call it 38 to 41 that feels and looks like a 50 fathoms. That is part of their standard model range. Like something that would sit just, just alongside the, the titanium one that you have. I totally 100% agree. A lot of people have been saying that for years, including us, it'd be really cool if they just made a direct Submariner competitor. Yeah. Yeah. I just, If they had announced it this past weekend, I think it would have been a bummer. Yeah. Yeah. As a limited edition that no one could get. I think it was a bummer when they only made 210 of act one. So in each of the three areas, each only got 70. I'm interested to see what they come up with next. And hopefully, hopefully they absorb a little bit of this feedback and see that like kind of what people want is a conventional modern diver from Blancpain. That's just not super big. Yeah. Yeah. So I absolutely agree with everyone who got upset about it. I just don't think this was the scenario where the solution could have been presented in a way that actually fit the complaint.
Jason Heaton If that makes sense. Yeah. You know, you noted in your article, um, that, that the 41.3 a millimeter diameter is no coincidence. I mean, that is actually, um, the exact dimension of, of the original, which I think is another neat sort of hidden nod to, you know, to, to what the original was and, and, My, I guess my only thing, and I'm not sure bronze gold is necessarily my speed. I don't know that I would, wouldn't be for me, wouldn't wear this watch. Um, or I certainly enjoy it and whatever, but it won't patina, uh, like a full bronze watch apparently. Um, so yeah, I'd hold out for a steel version if they come out with one. But, uh, the other thing is that the strap, I mean, fine to go with a NATO I think is appropriate for, for kind of what it's paying tribute to. Um, But I'm curious, what strap would look great on this? And I think it'd be hard to match hardware, for one thing. But what would you swap out?
James I mean, a leather NATO, I think, would be incredible. Yeah. Like one of the Horween leather NATOs or the kangaroo leather ones. They carry just a little bit of a shine, which I think... The watch is very satin finished. It's almost entirely brushed, which I think is really nice. It has this sort of matte warmth and that really fine sort of edge case finishing, like similar to what you find on a, like a really crispy new tutor. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'd probably go that route. I could see you, you know, on a bond with it. Um, otherwise I think like, uh, a tropic would probably look incredible black tropic.
Unknown Yeah.
James Uh, preferably a vintage one. Yeah. I think like matching hardware on a NATO could be tough. So maybe go with, um, go with a NATO with a soft keeper. So you only have to worry about the buckle and then just do the buckle in to match the strap. Right. Right. Um, that would, you know, and that way you could go NATO. What, what, what, what would you wear something like that on?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think a bond would look, would look really cool. I hadn't thought about that, but that'd be, that'd be a good one. Yeah. I'd probably, I'd probably go that direction.
James So, uh, you know, obviously a very cool watch, uh, seems to have, have created a little bit of its own little, um, ecosystem of controversy for maybe not being what the the watch commenting populace was kind of keen on. And I understand parts of that for sure. I definitely hope that we see further evolution. I mean, most brands have gone in this direction of going back to offering 39, 40, 41 millimeter divers. And clearly LongPond knows there's a market for it. Maybe they just haven't gotten to the point where it's their market, right? Or a market that they want to attack head on. But I am kind of hoping that with maybe there's some obvious Lessons to be learned from brands that have essentially offered their take on the down the middle conventional diver, the Pelagos 39 leaps to mind, the SPB 143 leaps to mind, like just successes from the last few years that were nicely sized, nicely made, fit their price point. And I think there is a world in which Blancpain could you know, take a decent little sip out of Rolex's milkshake on, on a conventional everyday dive watch. I think that world exists. They just, they have to play into it. And I think the comments kind of suggest that the market's just kind of waiting. Yeah. Yeah. Or at least the enthusiast side is waiting, whether or not those convert to sales. I've never necessarily been convinced. I'm sure that some of the people commenting and sending DMS and that kind of thing are buyers that are just like, what, what do I have to do to buy what I want? Right.
Jason Heaton um whereas the rest it just might just be kind of a chorus effect right yeah i mean i think it was a fittingly celebratory watch um you know certainly uh i think it suited a limited edition for an anniversary yeah yeah i agree and and you're right the the the event was certainly over the top i mean as you might expect and and but the highlight was was seeing all those old those old Blancpain watches in in cases oh my goodness i mean truly amazing stuff like old german military, you know, kind of the one with the, the very sterile looking bezel. Um, we had, you know, lip cold, uh, co-branded ones. We had, you know, mil spec ones, et cetera. And it was, uh, that was a real treat to see those.
James Yeah. Like I said, I'll, I'll do what I can. I mean, they were in vitrines and I just had my camera against the glass. So I'm not, I'm not promising anything amazing, but I thought as I was looking at these watches and talking with you about them, I thought, well, the crew is going to dig these. So I'll try and put together a little gallery in the show notes with those photos. Yeah. Yeah. Um, okay. So aside from the watch, I steamrolled, uh, my, my, you know, 20 some odd hour trip to, uh, to France, uh, at the cost of yours. Cause you were there and had, had some other programming and even some, a little bit of adventure as well. You want to fill folks in on that?
Jason Heaton Yeah. So I, I flew out last Wednesday. So in comparison to your trip, even though it was a short visit to France for me, probably not even enough to incur any jet lag penalty. Um, it felt like a fairly pleasant time there. I, I got in Thursday morning, you know, kind of did the overnight flight, um, and then kind of got, got a chance to settle in. And, um, the reason I went early was because a Blancpain had asked me to moderate a panel, um, regarding their ocean commitment program. And they had brought in some esteemed guests, uh, myself not included in that, um, including Charles Goddard, who's from the economist, They had Andy Sharpless, who's the CEO of Oceana, which is like the world's largest ocean conservation group. Drew Richardson, who is the CEO of PADI, who, you know, just a little spoiler, you know, we, we, we planted the seed about maybe coming on TGN given our huge contingent of, of, you know, people that have taken up diving, uh, among our TGN listeners, which would be cool. Uh, Laurent Balesta and then Mark Hayek. So it was, we were all on this podium and in a conference room on, Friday evening. And, uh, it was, it was kind of standing room only. It was a real packed house of, of attendees and we had the collectors and the journalists and people that were there. And, uh, I, I moderated this panel, uh, really enjoyed kind of meeting these folks the night before we had a dinner and I had a good, good chat with Charles and withdrew, um, and good to catch up with Lauren as well. And, you know, I, I think one thing, you know, watches aside, especially, you know, this anniversary piece aside, I I'm constantly impressed by Blancpain's commitment to ocean conservation. And, you know, it seems like every brand that has a dive watch kind of has some sort of ocean conservation angle. Um, you know, I, I had that in Ecuador with the Manta trust and Carl F Bucherer, we've seen it with Oris, um, and some others, but, but Blancpain just puts a lot of effort and, and financing into a lot of different programs. I mean, they're behind Oceana. They partner with Patty. you know, obviously their support of the Gombeza expeditions and on and on. And, and, uh, you know, it's, uh, it was nice to kind of before all the hubbub over a new watch. I mean, the, the panel discussion really had nothing to do with watches. It was all about ocean conservation and we had some good questions from the audience, et cetera. And so, uh, that was, that was a real thrill for me to, to play a small role in that. Um, and then earlier in the day, uh, we, we did some diving. So Friday morning, I got up and caught a shuttle over to Antibes, kind of the next town over on the coast, and went to a dive shop there that Blancpain had sort of taken over for a couple of days. They had a small display of some vintage dive gear and some photos and explanations of their history and dive watches. They gave a short speech. we kind of piled on a dive boat. Um, Mark Hayek was diving, Laurent was diving, uh, drew from, from Patty was diving. Uh, and I think the coolest part of it was, well, for one thing, the Gombeza team was there as well. A few of them were going underwater to take photos and video of the event. Um, but I got a chance to wear a vintage watch. I got a chance to strap on like a late fifties, uh, double branded lip Blancpain 50 fathoms. It was, it was a pretty wild experience. I, When I was in the Socorros with Blancpain a few years ago, I got a chance to wear an old tourniquet, which was another special experience. And Blancpain takes its chances, uh, with, with its vintage pieces. I mean, it's, it's pretty amazing that they bring these things up to snuff and quite, um, freely strap them on people's wrists. There were several of us on the boat that were wearing these old 60, 70 year old watches, um, diving. And we got down to. you know, 25 meters and, you know, around 80, 80 some feet of depth. And, and, you know, obviously the watch did just fine, but it was pretty cool to glance down at my wrist and check that thing out while I was underwater. And, you know, certainly it worked well. And the old ones, I think what was neat, the neat feature was before unidirectional ratcheting bezels kind of became commonplace Blancpain had pioneered on the earliest 50 fathoms, this pushed turn locking bezel. And I, I love that feature. I think it's kind of a neat thing. And I was going to ask you if you, if you knew if the new one had that, cause I didn't, I don't think I played with the bezel when I tried on the one at the, at the event. Did you have a chance?
James The new one was a rotating, I mean, I didn't count, but it was, um, it was 120 click to my, okay. So it wasn't pushed my test. Cause you know, I put the pip at eight, you gotta, you gotta do the right thing here. But, uh, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was not a captive, uh, bezel to my experience. It just turned a unidirectional.
Jason Heaton So yeah, the dive was great. It was a water temp was, was pretty reasonable. I had brought my own gear. Um, I debated whether or not to, but I kind of just kind of put it in a big suitcase with the rest of my stuff and I'm glad I did. And it was, we kind of broke up into small groups. I was with a couple other divers and we went down and did about a 46 minute dive kind of around some big underwater rock structures, uh, kind of very near a lighthouse that was off the coast of Antibes and you know, having the kind of recent comparison to our, our time diving in Florida, which had, you know, a lot of fish life and very green water. This wasn't quite as densely populated by, by marine life, but the water clarity was quite good. It was very blue, a lot of seagrass and these big kind of seamounts. And, and then lo and behold, we kind of came around the corner and there was this like underwater ruins, like the structure there. And when I got back on the boat, I said, what, what was that like an old foundation of something? And I said, Oh, they were They had built an underwater movie set to film a 1950s version of the little mermaid there. And, um, apparently that version never got used, but, but the remains of this movie set or underwater, and it was kind of, kind of neat to see that swim around. Uh, I brought the, the oceanic housing again, cause I didn't want to bring a big camera rig this time. And I just used my iPhone for photos. And I'm again, quite pleased with, with how those turned out. It was the right choice for the trip. Yeah, it was, uh, it was really a good time. And I think, You know, it was, it was neat that they, that they did this. They offered a couple of dive outings. They did one, um, Friday morning and then Saturday morning, um, with a larger group of people that, that had come in for the, the event. And it, you know, it, for those that don't know, I mean, can was, is a very fitting venue for this because it's where, uh, Jean-Jacques Fichter, the former CEO of Blancpain, who kind of brought about the first 50 fathoms back in the fifties had, had learned to dive and did his diving. Um, and it's also not far from where Cousteau was, was developing the Aqualung back in the forties. So just neat to be in those same waters and wearing a vintage watch. So an experience I certainly won't, uh, won't forget anytime soon.
James Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and it, maybe it doesn't underline, but it does connect in some ways to the whole, you know, kind of direct passion for this brand and from its CEO for diving in the ocean and ocean preservation. Yeah. Like it's, there's a lot of brands that will talk about this or recycling or, or whatever. And then there's a few brands that, and you listed them earlier certainly, or, or some of them, but there's a few brands that go really seriously into like, this is, this is part of what we have, like how we operate. Yeah. Yeah. And like, if you start digging into the ocean commitment stuff, it's not like one or two things. It's this like array, this spider web of projects and people that they support. Uh, Oceana of course being one of them, uh, last November I did a chat with, Rene Capozzolo and Jonathan Frank. So Rene is a photographer and the 2021 Blancpain Female 50 Fathoms Ocean Photography Award recipient. I had to look up that wording to get it right. And then also with Jonathan Frank, who's a Director of Global Corporate Partnerships at Oceana. And it's just like it permeates kind of the entire brand and certainly the side of the brand that you and I loved, like the 50 Fathoms stuff. Yeah. So it's an interesting thing to be able to get out on a dive with one of the, you know, very early watches and, and kind of see how some of that stuff connects together. Um, you know, as, as a modern, as a modern tool for diving, this is just mostly romance, but it's still, uh, it's still, you know, does kind of speak to me and, and, and the way that I like to think of brands interfacing with, um, with the ocean and those trying to make a difference.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think, I think, you know, Mark Hayek is someone who, uh, I just get the sense, you know, having met him a couple of times that, that He would be rather, he would rather be nowhere else than, than on a dive boat or underwater. I mean, the guy, the guy just really kind of, you can sense that he's in his comfort zone on a dive boat and talking about diving. I think, you know, he he's, he's definitely chosen the right, the right brand to, to oversee, uh, given the kind of the 50 fathoms connection. So yeah, it was all fun and absolutely. Yeah. And can itself is lovely. We had some good weather. Uh, you and I got to spend a, an hour or so on the beach before heading back to the airport. And, uh, super nice.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Lovely place. Can't beat the weather. Wow.
James It was an interesting trip, but it was absolutely a treat to see you and to see the watch and to be in that part of the world, even if briefly. And hey, we got a nice little episode out of it, so that's always fun, eh? Yeah. Look, you want to put a bow on it with some final notes?
Jason Heaton Definitely. I've got one very apropos for this episode. This is the U.S. Navy's Experimental Dive Unit Dive Watch Test Report from 1958. And it's probably something that a lot of our listeners have have heard about. Um, it's, it's kind of embedded in the lore of, of dive watch history. And, and there's a lot of kind of misconceptions about kind of the developments of the 50 fathoms and about the early, uh, Bulova piece that the milships piece that, that they re-released recently. Um, and Rolex's role with the military, et cetera. Um, this is kind of the definitive document. It came out in 1958. It was a test report that, that the U S Navy, um, had commissioned to look at a watch for its divers to use. Now, in the late fifties, uh, there was this very strong, uh, desire to, to buy, um, from American brands to, to outfit the military and Bolivar was actually developing a piece for the U S Navy, a dive watch. And, um, while that was in development, the Navy decided, well, we need something to kind of get us through, uh, until that's ready. And so we're, we're going to take three commercially available dive watches from Rolex Enicar, the Sea Pearl 600 actually, and a Blancpain 50 fathoms. And they put them through some pretty, pretty trying tests. And this test report is a fascinating piece of history. And I had had a hard copy version of this kind of floating around. I've lost it since it's somewhere in my office here. But if you're familiar with Nick Aloi from Instagram, Nick sent me a link to an actual PDF download of this from an internet archive site. And it's fascinating reading for those of us that are nerds about dive watches. You really get an inside look at how the Navy was testing these watches, the methods they used, the depths they went to. They had some scary, strange criteria in here. At one point, there's a passage in here about how the Blancpain's crown was easier to pull out and manipulate underwater for winding and setting the watch. And I was thinking, I mean, no one in their right mind is doing that these days, but, uh, they, they seem to value that. Um, and, and it's kind of the, ultimately what led to the selection of the 50 fathoms for the U S Navy. And I guess the rest is history, but, uh, if you're, if you're kind of a nerdy enough to, to kind of enjoy something like that, uh, we'll throw a link in the show notes and you can, you can download that PDF and read it in its entirety. So check it out. What, uh, what do you have this week?
James Yeah, this week I actually didn't have a ton, but I did get a chance to watch the first episode of a new Amazon original series called The Continental. It's sort of like a precursor to the world of John Wick. So it's in series one. I believe there's three episodes in the first season. First episode is out now. The sort of description is The Continental is an event series revealing the violent origins of the iconic hotel for assassins in the John Wick universe set in the 1970s, New York City, Winston Scott recruits a team to take on a vast conspiracy triggered by his brother's attack on the Continental. The bloody action drama explores the collision of family, love, fate, and revenge. And it's early 70s in New York, well, in all over the world at this point in the first episode. First episode was like an hour and 40 minutes long. So it's like a small movie or movie really. And, uh, and I enjoyed it. You know, it's violent. It's very much in the same page as John Wick, and I guess it's just kind of an origin story of sorts, but in this case more about Winston, who's the proprietor of the Continental in New York, if you've seen any of the John Wick movies, played by Ian McShane. So it's more about Winston's story and probably, as the title would suggest, the sort of development and establishing of the Continental in New York. I enjoyed it. I'll watch the next episode when it comes out.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I caught wind of this. I saw it when it was being promoted and I think I mentioned to you that I had a very, uh, sort of James Stacy, uh, few hours, a few weeks back when I was returning from Ecuador, I had some long layovers and I decided I would finally dive in and watch a John Wick movie. And I watched, uh, actually watched them back to back parts one and part two. Two is so good. And I enjoyed them more than I thought I would. I, you know, I was always kind of putting off watching these kind of have to be in the mood for kind of these hyper-violent sort of, you know, films of the sorts, kind of a stoic main character. But you know what? I enjoyed it. I thought, I thought, uh, I thought they were good. I thought it would hold off on three and four. I just, you know, back to back to back is a bit much. So I'll, I'll get to those eventually, but now I have some context for, for the continental and, uh, I'll have to check that out on Amazon.
James Yeah. Obviously a huge John Wick fan. Um, on my side, I'm glad that you gave him a chance to is my favorite. Um, I think it's one of the best sequels out there. Uh, and, and just, uh, uh, just a really, really entertaining, complicated, weird, kind of messy at times, but really fun sort of movie. Yeah. And I love Keanu Reeves and then, you know, I, I really liked most of the characters and, um, I, and I like, uh, uh, like hyper violent sort of action film. So, uh, you know, it's a little bit stylized. It's a little bit fun that way. And I think the first one, the first one kind of sets the stage nicely. And the second one really just jumps on the gas. It's a, it's something else. And the third and fourth, they're okay. Yeah, I enjoyed them. I'll watch them, that sort of thing. But the second one, when if I catch a little bit of the first act of the second one, I'm kind of in, I'm stuck. Yeah, I'm busy for the next little while. But I enjoyed this one for sure. And, you know, speaking of of of, you know, movies and planes and stuff on the way back, this is, I guess, an addendum. And I'm sure this movie will eventually make it into a film club. But on the way back, I had, you know, an eight hour flight and not a ton of work to do. So as soon as I was clear, I put on First Crimson Tide, if you remember that one.
Unknown Yeah.
James Oh yeah. From the early nineties, Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. It's a submarine drama, which is a great, a fantastic genre of movie. Um, I'm definitely a big fan of this one and I hadn't watched it in probably over a decade and it's just, it's so good. And I finished that and I had not had enough Denzel. So we went for a training day to finish the flight and it ended just before we landed. So that was, that was my double header on my flight back from, uh, from Frankfurt. Very nice. Yeah, cool. But yeah, the continental and, uh, and this really cool dive watch test report, you can find both in the show notes. Of course, if you have any questions, you can drop us a line at the gray, nato at gmail.com or jump in the slack. Anybody who supports the show, either five bucks a month or the annual a hundred dollars a year, uh, gets access to the slack. So, uh, hit us up in there. We're having a lot of great conversations and certainly I'm sure, uh, things like the continental and this, uh, dive watch test report will come up, uh, soon enough. So I think we got ourselves a show Jason.
Jason Heaton Yeah, a couple of back-to-back weeks of diving or dive watches, vintage-inspired dive watches or Navy connections. Yeah, it's been quite a season.
James Yes, and hopefully the end of James complaining about travel. I promise I don't take it for granted. It just didn't work out this time. Look, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly. Maybe you can grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO. Please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this fitting quote from Al Gore who said, airplane travel is nature's way of making you look like your passport photo.
James Ain't it true. Ain't it true. All right. Catch you in a week.