The Grey NATO – 257 – Hamilton

Published on Thu, 12 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

The podcast hosts discuss Hamilton watches, a popular Swiss brand known for its affordable and well-made timepieces. They cover various Hamilton models across different categories like field watches, dress watches, dive watches, and vintage pieces. They explore the brand's rich history, extensive archives, and its ability to cater to enthusiasts and mainstream consumers alike with a wide range of offerings at reasonable prices. The discussion also touches on potential watch designs Hamilton could introduce, such as a dive watch or a travel watch with additional functionalities.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown 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 257 and it's proudly brought to you by the ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show and aren't already, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. James, we're recording this on 1010, a big day for you on the Hodinkee side of things. How are you holding up?
James Oh, chicken with its head cut off, I suppose, is probably the right visual for everybody involved. Yeah, no, we're just doing a lot right now, and I've got three hours until I head to the airport for Laika. I've got to deal with a furnace service call between now and then. I think this is my only travel, at least until mid-November or something like that, so. Yeah, yeah. How have you been for the last week? You had a little trip down to NYC?
Unknown Yeah, that felt like a sort of a blink of an eye sort of trip. I was, it was just an overnight. I think I was there from midday on Wednesday until evening on Thursday. So it was, uh, not sure it was the most necessary trip for me to take, uh, you know, work wise and nothing really came out of it other than sort of networking and catching up with the folks from Carl F Bucherer who are a delightful group. And, uh, But I got to also catch up with some old industry friends. I got to see Mark Bernardo for the first time in man, years. A few other people, um, that, that I just hadn't seen in a while. So it was, uh, it was good in that respect. And then, and then I had a, almost a full day of just walking around Southern Manhattan on what turned out to be probably one of the last late summer days that, that they're probably going to get. And certainly that we, we will get here. Um, but I'm happy to be home and happy to be done traveling. It's been, been a pretty intense couple of months kind of going all over the place. And it feels good to be rooted here for a while. So totally. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
James Yeah. I got down to the city. Um, probably last each other less than 24 hours, significantly less than 24 hours after you left. Um, I got in first flight on, on Friday, um, working on, you know, we launched this, new podcast called Ben Clymer Presents. So I'm helping produce various elements of that. It's a lot of moving pieces, but the audio side and the part that goes on Houdini and all that falls to me. So we're working on that and additional episodes of that as you're listening to this, we're prepping one that'll come out the day before this episode, I guess, as confusing as that could be. But yeah, so just went down to the city to oversee episode two and some other business. And then on the weekend, Hodinke did like a little VIP event sort of thing with Fruity Porsche and his sort of FAT group and Porsche design.
Affirmative utterance Yeah.
James So there's maybe like 15-ish cars. Weather wasn't great on Saturday, but we went out and had a pretty fun drive sort of in the area north of the city and some lunch and got to hang out a little bit and see a race car, that was kind of shipped in from Rensport the weekend before out in California. So that was pretty fun. And then went and did some, you know, Thanksgiving dinner with my family, which was awesome. Absolute highlight of the last little while was, you know, seeing all those folks and that kind of thing. And then, like I said, in about three hours, I head to the airport to fly overnight to Frankfurt. So I got my neck pillow and just kind of hoping that the seat kind of works out and I'm comfortable enough to get some sleep before I land tomorrow morning. Then it's a fairly busy schedule for like two days with Leica. And then I fly home Friday morning. Yeah. Yeah. So back for back for this weekend. But I think I gave most of these details in the, in the previous episode, so we don't have to go too crazy on it, but yeah, that's the, that's the schedule. It's a, it's, it's one of the busiest weeks of the year. Wow.
Unknown Wow. I don't know about you, but sometimes when things are hectic at home, once you get on that flight and everything kind of shuts down, you put everything in airplane mode, so to speak, including your brain, there's a certain sense of relief almost like you can exhale and be like, all right, well, I'm committed to this and I really don't have any other option other than just to be on the road and do my thing and live out of my suitcase.
James Yeah. I mean, in my case, the only thing that I can do on the flight that isn't working is maybe try and sleep. Yeah. Like I said, just kind of a busy season. But sadly, this one will be kind of packed. Any free time will be emails and phone calls and that kind of thing.
Unknown Well, let's jump into our main topic. I mean, let's move things along here. But before we do, what are you wearing? Do you have a watch on your wrist that you'll be heading to the airport with?
James I do, yeah. Actually, when I was in New York, I grabbed one of the new Unimatic Modelo carbon GMTs that Hodinkee made, the LEs. Oh, yeah. Super cool. Yeah, exactly. I've been kind of, you know, carbon curious for some time. And this one kind of sits at a new price point. It's kind of a high price point for Unimatic, but a low price point for a fully carbon watch. Yeah. And so I figured I'd give it a test run and I was going to do some traveling. So GMT makes some sense. So I'll take that with me to Germany and I'm looking forward to it. It's been good. I wore it this weekend and it's just like super comfortable, crazy legible because it's just it's white on black. And, you know, the bezel is pretty nice. And I really like the carbon case. I just threw it on a great NATO and have really been enjoying it. So, yeah, that's the Modelo Uno U1S-Carbon GMT Limited Edition for Hodinkee. I had to write that down.
Unknown I caught it on your wrist. I was kind of squinting when I was watching the teaser for the Ben Clymer Presents that you did with Ben. And I'm assuming that was the watch you were wearing. It didn't look familiar. It didn't look like something from your existing collection. So that's cool. And is this the watch that I believe Was it Zen was wearing it when we were in Florida with Tudor?
James Yeah, Zen had one on him, Zen Love, on the Tudor trip. Shout out Zen if you're listening. Yeah. It was nice to see you. And we sat next to each other on the plane and he had it on his wrist and then just kind of get the bug. Yeah. And then last week talking about the Carbon Doxa and that sort of thing. So definitely I'm going to, you know, put it through its paces and see how it holds up and that sort of thing. But, you know, it's a unimatic. They're pretty solid. Yeah. And this one being a fairly premium unimatic at that, but should be super handy for the travel and that sort of thing. The other thing is they just recently added, this is a little bit nerdy and I talk about flighty maybe too much on this podcast, but they recently added a apple watch app for flighty. So now I can have all the flight details right on like in the main face for the watch, you don't have to click into anything. Yeah. So that's what I've been doing the last, the flight to and from New York this past weekend, and then like to manage the flight. So I'll probably wear the Apple Watch for the flight, and then once I've landed and I'm secure and that sort of thing, I'll switch the other watch. So I have something a little bit more watchy than a smart watch, but it's pretty hard to deny the functionality of having that right on your wrist, especially if it's kind of a... This is a pretty straightforward itinerary, it's one flight. but for a busy flight, it's pretty nice just to be able to have that and for long flights where you might like. I'm sure tonight I'll wake up six hours into a seven and a half hour flight or whatever, and you can just glance down and it gives you a little graphic for how soon until you land and what gate you're landing at and all that kind of stuff. Very cool. Yeah, pretty handy. I like I continue to be very impressed and find flight to be quite useful. So that's a plus, but possibly not something that's going to surprise the audience. But what I'm guessing anyways, what are you wearing this
Unknown Uh, well, yeah, you're right. It's, uh, I'm, I'm being boring. I'm, I'm wearing the, the Pelagos, uh, FXD. I've been trying really hard to say Pelagos, uh, I think ever since our trip to Florida and kind of kicking around like different pronunciations, but, uh, I'm going to stick with Pelagos for now. Pelagos FXD, uh, just having fun with straps over the past couple of weeks. Um, I, you know, I really like the. The stock, uh, hook and loop, you know, Velcro, whatever you want to call it, olive drab strap that it came on, but now that it's sweater season here, it's not the perfect choice anymore because of the stickiness and it, it, it, it gets so full of fuzz and kind of sticks to my sleeve. Uh, you know, the Velcro part of it. Um, so currently actually I moved it onto the, the rubber, the single piece rubber that, that comes with it. And you, you, you seldom see photos of it or hear about people wearing it on this strap, but it's a, it's a pretty great, uh, rubber strap. So that's, that's where I've got it now. But nice, you know, Tom place wrote me the other day and he said, you know, you might want to consider even trying 20 millimeter straps. It looks okay. It looks better than, than like an understrapped conventional watch with standard spring bars. So I've tried that and we'll see. It certainly would open up more options, but... Oh, I mean, that's for sure.
James Yeah, yeah. I probably have like a Ziploc bag of 22 mil straps I could send you. Oh, no, no, no.
Unknown I have a lot. I have so many, yeah.
James Single pass straps that would be okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. All right, cool. Well, Carbon Unimatic and A New Pelagos, not exactly a bad pairing for today's episode, but neither is the brand that we're talking about. The main topic today is kind of our return to what we used to just call like a brand spotlight. We've done, I guess, about four or five of these in the last several years. Right. Doxa and Seiko and Citizen and Rolex, I believe, are all covered. And we're trying to think of like, you know, you want to do another brand spotlight, a brand that we enjoy, a brand we have a history with. And we wanted to stay away from some of the brands that we've been talking about constantly in the last little while. And you came up with what I think was a really good idea to talk about Hamilton, one of the most lovable brands out there. And I think a really good idea on your part. So there's tons to talk about when it comes to Hamilton.
Unknown Yeah. And it's strange. Hamilton is a brand that sort of slips off my radar. I don't think about them. They're not top of mind regularly. And when I was scrolling through uh, kind of our Slack community to, to look for kind of photos and risk checks and what people are selling and buying and things. Um, I didn't see a ton of Hamilton's, maybe people, you know, keep them, uh, or maybe they don't wear them much or whatever. But I, you know, I see a lot of Zins, I see tutors, I see Seiko's of course. Um, but Hamilton is one of those brands that it feels so core and it feels very TGN and you know, it's, it's kind of one of those, Brands that spans like just the kind of the sweet spot of price ranges that, you know, you can make it your first watch or you can make it your 20th watch. And they've kind of got something for every price, well not every price range, but kind of in that, I don't know what you'd say, you know, $1,000 to $2,500 range, so.
James Yeah, even probably like 800, yeah, like 800, 2,500 bucks, something like that. And you know, the last one of these we did was 199, which is for Citizen. I find that Hamilton is a brand that's kind of similar in many ways to a Citizen or a Seiko, where they're just... They make a very lovable product that has a really strong enthusiast footing, but within that guise or on top of that, they make like a thousand other watches that feel a little bit more just run of the mill that you would find and maybe see in a display case at a decent department store and that sort of thing. So they have a pretty wide variety. Yeah. I actually went through before this, I took what I thought would be a few minutes and wasn't, to go through essentially the entire current lineup. And they make a lot of SKUs, 53 pages. Unbelievable. On their website. Wow.
Affirmative utterance Wow.
James And I couldn't say, show me 50 watches a page or 100 watches a page. There's just the one default option is maybe 20 watches a page. Yeah. But that's still a lot. And I know that was like, that's literally showing every version of every Jazzmaster, but I wanted to go through and get an idea of where they were right now versus what I remember and that sort of thing. You can definitely go online, there's no reason for us to sit here and tell you the oral history of Hamilton necessarily. It's a brand that a lot of people have written about, we'll include some of that in the show notes. But I think it is interesting maybe to talk about our history with Hamilton, because I think when you get into watches, they're kind of maybe that first premium step, like maybe they're your second, your third sort of watch on your radar, or at least they were for me. I don't wanna say that, I don't wanna project kind of my experience to others. But certainly when you get into watches, I think it's a brand that you find pretty quickly. If you read up on a list of the best watches under X value, there's probably a Hamilton in there. Even if you want a dress watch, there's probably a Hamilton in there. They've done some great work in the last several years on kind of neo vintage stuff or vintage inspired stuff, whether it be the Jazzmaster line, the Intramatic line, right up into the khaki mechanical stuff. So I think there's a lot there, but I'm curious, do you remember either the first Hamilton that kind of landed on your radar, so to speak, or maybe that was the first one that you got or something like that? Because I remember getting into it pretty early on, 2006, 2007, when I was first getting into watches.
Unknown Yeah, I kind of skipped over that whole... I'm not skipped over, but it was a blind spot for me and I never really bought a new Hamilton or even a pre-owned one when I was getting into watches. Um, my history with them goes way back and it's because I actually have both of my grandfather's Hamilton railroad pocket watches, one of which is from the 1920s. And, um, you know, one of them still runs, it's, it's a beautiful old, uh, uh, caliber nine, nine, two, you know, uh, railroad grade, um, with a, uh, Montgomery style dial. And, you know, it's the kind of thing I pull out and take the back off just to admire the movement and whatever. And that was kind of my first exposure to the name Hamilton. And, you know, I remember back then kind of digging into the history and, and, uh, uh, was, was very impressed with it. And then back when I was writing for gear patrol in my early days, this was way back 10 years ago, actually 2013, I went out to. Uh, Pennsylvania and I did a pocket watch servicing class at the, uh, the watchmaking school that's out there. Uh, and then right across the street, of course, at the museum, and then just up the road in Lancaster is, is the old Hamilton factory that is currently an apartment building. And so I wrote a story for gear patrol and it kind of really sort of sunk in, uh, this, this history of the brand. And I think maybe it was subconscious, but I, it almost sort of built this bit of, uh, not resentment, but the sense of like, Oh, you know, Hamilton is this classic old American brand. And I have these two family heirloom watches from them. And now they're this like Swiss brand that is sort of, uh, you know, co-opting this, this American history. And it always used to bother me. But of course, in the late 60s, they moved operations to Switzerland and were making Swiss made watches. So it wasn't quite that black and white of a story. But I never really bought, kind of got into the kind of the khaki field stuff, the mechanicals, like so many other people have done. Did you own one of those? I don't remember you saying that you've had one of those.
James Oh, I've owned a lot of Hamilton's at this point. I actually had to go back and find like a list I used to keep just to see. But I remember when I was first kind of getting into watches, I was obsessed with the cross wind or the X wind. Oh yeah, you tell me how I've asked Hamilton before and you get two different answers from two different PR people, but it's the letter X dash W I N D and it's these cool flight chronographs with slide rules and lots of cool crowns and they come in a ton of different versions and I just remember thinking they were so cool and I got one in and it was, it was just too big, right? Like even in a time when I was, I was wearing 45 millimeter Benares and stuff like that. This was kind of an extra chunky watch. And I think I ended up like selling the X wind or the cross wind for an SNA 411, which is a not that much. It's a little bit smaller. I think it's like 41 or 42, but that's the, those Seiko flight chronographs. You know, they made a black one with the yellow seconds hand, they made one that kind of had like Tommy Hilfiger colors, like blue, white and red, and they made a gold one with a black dial.
Unknown You were really into that sort of Navitimer slide reel style back then.
James Yeah, I enjoyed that kind of stuff, but there was something really rad about an X-Wind crosswind. I'm gonna call it a crosswind because it makes sense for flight, I guess. Yeah. There's something really cool about the crosswind on like a double rivet leather strap because it It's obviously modern, and it has that sort of Breitling appeal of like a modern tool watch, but it had... It also encapsulated a little bit of like the big pilot, Flieger sort of look at the same time. And I just remember really... And I still... I have one up on my screen as I'm talking, and I still find these to be quite like handsome, good looking watches. They're just too big for me at 45. Yeah. I had an Intramatic. I think I had two Intramatics.
Unknown Oh, I didn't know that. Those are cool. I love those.
James Yeah. Yeah, really just beautiful. One came in for review, and then after that I bought or traded in for one with the gold, the gold tone case. It didn't last very long. I think I just moved on to another dress watch. I bought a Gerard Perregaux, like a vintage GP hand winder. It was a long time ago and traded out, if I remember correctly. And then on a more common or a more modern sense, I've gone through a couple of the khaki field mechanicals or khaki field in general. Like I had, this is again, before I lived in Vancouver, so we'll call it 2011, a like the titanium 42 millimeter. Sure, yeah. Which was really good and a watch that they basically still make and that they're now making in 38, which has to be really, really good. I remember even back in the day, like being low key obsessed with the idea of the khaki king automatic, which has the day and the date because Hugh Laurie wore one on house. Oh, okay. There were... I think I could have this wrong. I'm sure somebody listening loves house even more than I do. It's been a long time since I watched through it, but I think he starts wearing a G shock like in the first season and then switches to this or it's the other way around, but I'm pretty sure there's like a good bulk of that show where he's wearing just that standard khaki king automatic. I remember looking at it on like, you know, gray market retailers thinking like, oh man, three hundred fifty dollars. I don't have three hundred fifty bucks for this watch, but like house has this watch. It's pretty cool. I remember really liking that kind of stuff, but yeah, I've gone all down the road. The only Hamilton I have now is the more recent hodin key limited edition khaki field. Oh sure mechanical, which I really like and and you know it's it's it's a just if you want that one, I if you want that one, I like the white dial a lot and I think I like the hodin key le a little bit better. It just feels a little more special. Yeah, Like you, and I think maybe your way of putting this has kind of rubbed off on me, but I do like having a watch that has a bezel or a chronograph or something to kind of a function beyond... I've never really deeply connected with a field watch. It's probably why I didn't buy a Rolex Explorer when I could afford one, but I went with an Explorer II. Yeah. There's just something like a little bit extra complexity or a complication, a function, whatever, And I think that's maybe the only thing that would keep something like that khaki field mechanical from being like a more commonly, a more commonly worn piece on my wrist. So just I'm a dive watch guy, and I'm sure we'll get into this, but I just think it's that's kind of the whole that the brand has. They don't make a great go to dive watch.
Unknown Yeah, I was gonna say that. I mean, I've warmed up a bit to their more recent Frogman, the Navy Frogman. It's got this kind of sort of crown protection sort of bracket that goes around it, which is, which is kind of cool. You know, those, they're neat watches. I find them slightly bland, but I think I bet, I bet if you own one, I bet they're pretty satisfying because you know, in my experience, Hamilton's are, they're well-made, um, you know, they're definitely well-made, reasonably accurate. They're, they, they wear well. Um, the strap selections are usually pretty good. So yeah, I mean until I actually try one in person, I should withhold judgment, but, um, you're right. I think, I think that is kind of a hole in the collection is the, is the dive watch, uh, segment. And I, I, you know, we, we put on our list of things to talk about, um, if there's a Hamilton that we wish they would make. Um, and we, I was thinking we can save that till later, but I, if, if there is one that I would love them to make, it is, uh, it is a dive watch. And specifically back in the sixties, they, they made this, this, uh, twin crown. I'm not sure if it was actually an EPSA super compressor case, but it was in that style. with the internal bezel and they called it the Cape Horn and I love that name it's so evocative and they made a couple different versions of it they made one with kind of a cream or white dial and then the timing ring was was dark gray or black just a really cool watch I would love to see them bring bring that back in some form you know they could modernize it a little bit or kind of go the you know Longines with Legend Divers kind of part of the same swatch group maybe they can piggyback on that or borrow some technology there and make something similar. But, but those were cool. I think that would be a neat sort of hole to fill in their collection. Who knows? I mean, I, I wouldn't be surprised if they do. They seem to keep pulling stuff out of their archives and they, they have a deep archive. I mean, you know, when you look at, when you look at, uh, at old Hamilton's, um, the ones that speak to me have always been, you know, of course the pocket watches. Um, but also, you know, they did these great field watches, these kind of, all the way back to the, you know, forties and fifties and into the sixties, these, these just basic sort of army field watches. And then they, they went into the late sixties and early seventies with, uh, the ministry of defense over in the UK making that sort of tonneau shaped, uh, what they call the W 10, which, which is kind of a soldier's watch, like the army watch. Um, and you know, CWC still makes something like that to this day, but, but Hamilton has re-released that and people love it. Um, they've also made the, kind of the, what they call the asymmetric or fabulous for a style RAF chronographs that, that say Hamilton on them. I mean, those are great too. Those are the ones that, that kind of call to me. And, and you know, you mentioned the intramatic and I remember a couple of years ago they released the intramatic chronograph H, which has some of that styling from the dive watch.
James You mentioned the super compressor.
Unknown Exactly. Yeah. And, and, you know, back in the day, this was when I was first getting into, into watches and was on the forums and, Um, kind of my first foray into vintage was actually a Hamilton, what they called the chronograph C, um, that had a, it was a twin register, you know, lander on two 48 driven chronograph with this sort of sunburst silver dial. I think some people call them like a poor man's Hoyer. And to this day, I kind of still wish I had that watch cause it was just beautiful and it was the perfect size. And that intramatic chronograph H is, is almost a direct sort of reference to that. So they've been pulling some stuff out and, and you know, other brands that we've talked about, like a Longine, or some of these brands that have these deep, deep archives that they pull from. I think Hamilton's one of them.
James I would absolutely agree. Yeah. Great, great archive and a lot of options for watches that I think would work now. And obviously they've made some pretty interesting stuff. You can go out and buy a very authentic to the original Ventura. Oh yeah. right? Well, it isn't really my style, but if you're that hard into the idea of a mid century look, or if one of those hits you, or maybe you just really love Men in Black or something like that, you could pick up something like that. And then they make more modern ones. And then there was a couple of years ago, they brought out the PSR, which is that digital quartz with the red display. Oh, sure. Right, right. And I think those are really cool. I think for a certain person, the idea that you can get... Maybe not for me, if I'm gonna wear a watch with a display, it's either gonna be something like a an aerospace or a smart watch. But I think for a certain type of person for $1000, the fact that you can get something that looks like this, that's made from a great brand. So it doesn't feel like a $15 watch at all. I feel like I've seen these in person, they're really fun. It's really cool to see the breadth that they're able to put together. I think we know them for their field watches, right? Yeah. And then I think there's a whole group, if you've been in watches long enough, you know them for their ability to make a pretty classic kind of dress watch that has a name on it that you don't mind wearing even at a dressy function. The Jazzmasters come in a litany of different versions. There's so many out there. And I owned a Viewmatic 40 a while ago. I was always kind of tempted by the GMT Jazzmasters, and they still make versions of that now. Honestly, the line, they have a lot of winners, but the one that stands out for me most recently are these 38 millimeter khaki field titanium automatics. That feels like it doesn't leave a ton on the table, aside from again, we said like not being a dive watcher or chronograph or something with an additional function, but as a platform, one, I think this could vary, you could put a bezel on this, keep it at 38, keep it at 39, turn it, make a khaki diver. It's a weird idea, don't get me wrong, but I also think that the dive watch version of a Jazzmaster in the Sea View is also a weird idea. Yeah, that's true. Doesn't mean it couldn't work. I remember this. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and they still have a couple on their site. They're really actually quite handsome. They have a little bit of like the Zenith Rainbow Diver aesthetic to them, kind of this light touch, elegant dive watch. And I think that they've really nailed what they're able to make at like 37 to 40 millimeters in the khaki. And I'd love to see them just kind of even... Just give me a khaki with a 12 hour bezel. Yeah, yeah. Would be so good.
Affirmative utterance Yeah.
James Well, speaking of that... And then it would make a great travel watch.
Unknown Well, and so what do you think of their latest sort of release, which was this Field Expedition Auto, which has a rotating bezel. It has this compass bezel, and it comes in a number of sizes. There was kind of a big push. I saw a lot of people went on the press trip to Banff and got to try it out, and it kind of popped up on a lot of Instagram feeds in the past couple of weeks. Does that one appeal to you?
James Not really. Like not to any... The bezel, the compass bezel, what am I supposed to use that for? I would either clip a compass onto the strap, whereas that could have been an elapsed time bezel and you'd have a pretty nice looking dive watch, or it could have been a 12 hour bezel and you have a pretty nice looking... These are good looking watches for a fair price. I'm seeing 1300 bucks Canadian for the 37 millimeters. The website, of course, is not loading right when I need it to. But yeah, I saw these and I thought like, well, the that screams like a bezel. We didn't actually intend on you using, whereas I want so I want them to make a bezel where they go. Well, we put this on exclusively because we want people to use it. So it's twelve hour bezel on our laps time bezel. You take your pick. Otherwise, I think these are nice looking watches. I think that the standard khaki automatics and mechanicals are kind of a better looking watch in terms of proportions in the hand design. Yeah, but I think all told, these are nice, handsome looking watches. I just don't really understand compass bezels as an enthusiast product. I get that it speaks to the idea of exploring and using a compass, but I don't think to the people who are actually exploring or wanting to use a compass. I just think there's other things they could have printed on the bezel for exactly the same money that would have been more useful. That's all. Nothing wrong with it, and I certainly can't blame somebody getting excited about it. Nice sizes, good looking watch. I think the price makes sense, but I would have trouble buying this over a titanium 38 millimeter.
Unknown Right. Right. I'm looking at right now, I'm looking at the khaki field mechanical, they're all called the same thing. So it's hard to distinguish, but, um, it's, uh, it's the one with the, the, the blacked out case. I'm assuming it's a, you know, PVD or DLC or something, but on a gray NATO with black hardware, I mean, it's, it's a pretty serious looking watch. It has a bit of fotina to the hands and markers, but it's, it immediately kind of, when I look at it, it reminds me of an IWC I like, and that's like the, you know, it's like a mark, whatever they're up to now, mark 18 or something in a black case. And just with that stark sort of white on black, you know, dial markings with, with a black case, it's, it's a very serious looking watch. I, I think the, the field mechanical, I think going back to that earlier discussion about having something to play with, I think I would get bored with this. And I, I agree with you on the compass bezel on that expedition. I think that wouldn't quite do it for me. I mean, you can sit and spin the bezel, but it's just, I would never use it. And, and in this day and age, nobody's using, uh, you know, kind of an analog compass at all. But it does go to show what they could do with a bezel on the field mechanical. So, you know, hope springs eternal. We'll see.
James Yeah. I mean, anything's possible. And also the other thing that we talk about with some frequency when we're suggesting what we think a giant brand should do, and Hamilton's just that, a huge brand. Yeah. We'd only be suggesting what a small group of enthusiasts really want. They have market research that would suggest that what people want is this sort of aspirationally exciting, adventurous watch. And that includes, in this case, the compass bezel. But I've seen Alpena go down this route with the 360 degree bezel on the Alpener stuff in the past. I just look at it as a bit of a missed opportunity to just either put a dive bezel on it and give it 200 meters of water resistance and let people just beat on them for the next decade, because they're nice mechanical watches, or put a 12 hour bezel on it and just have a great watch. You gotta travel, maybe in this current climate, you don't wanna take one of your other watches. There's nowhere in the world where a Hamilton's wrong. Right, right. They're cool watches. If I see Hamilton on somebody at a airport bar, I go, like, I must like watches or, you know, at least, hey, you picked a good one.
Affirmative utterance Yeah, yeah.
James Good brand. It's a brand I like seeing on my wrist for sure. Right. And I just think the value statements arguably maybe never been stronger for the brand since they really figured out what people wanted in the khaki field mechanical. Yeah. And now it feels like they're just kind of leaning into that and finding new alternatives. And some of them I think will be for kind of core enthusiasts of Hamilton and watches, and some will be more for more generalist audiences.
Unknown Are you a fan of... I see so much about the Murph kicking around, people want it, people have it. Are you a fan of that one? Do you like that one?
James People go crazy for it, but it doesn't really do that much for me. I think in that vein, I would lean towards that cool 36 millimeter Pilot Pioneer Mechanical. Yep. Yeah. With that sort of CWC style case and the bright dial and the rest of it. I think the Murph is a neat watch, but maybe just from an aesthetic standpoint, it's not exactly what I'm looking for. Yeah. I like the simplicity of the field watch and the Murph with the cathedral hands feels a little bit... Instead of being, say, mid century, it's kind of before that. Right, yeah. It feels like a watch that came before World War II in some ways. Yeah, yeah. rather than during or shortly after. Right. And I mean, a great watch and people just went nuts for the original, and then now you can get it in 38 and people went nuts all over again. So I get it, and anything that people are going crazy for, I don't have to... It doesn't necessarily have to be for me, I'm just happy people are pumped about watches. Yeah, yeah. And watches that, one, you don't have to get in line or wait two years to buy, or spend three times as much on the secondary market. I think if you want a Murph, you can probably just call around and find one. would be my guess anyways, right? Yeah. Yeah. We see them, you see them on forums for sale and that kind of thing. So I think they're out there and around.
Unknown Um, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't put that in, you know, my top five, uh, from the brand necessarily, you know, we talk so much about, you know, it often comes up in Q and a, like I have this budget, I'm buying a watch for a groomsman. I, you know, I'm looking for a second watch or a travel watch or whatever. And so often the knee jerk reaction is, you know, go Seiko, go Seiko or go micro brand. Um, I've overlooked these. I mean, when in those discussions, I often neglect to think about, uh, Hamilton. I think you're there more in your line of sight than mine, but I'm just looking at this, uh, the pilot pioneer mechanical, the one you just mentioned, you know, I've got the, it's a cool watch. I've got the Malora, the CWC Malora, which is a very similar watch, but like this is $895 and it's a solid Swiss made, you know, watch from a, from a well-known brand that you, you can pretty well count on it. It's going to do well for you. And if it doesn't, um, don't probably stand behind it. So, um, Yeah, these are good options. I hesitate to use the term Seiko killer, but it's a nice alternative to what Seiko is doing these days.
James And if Seiko wants to operate in the $1000 to $2000 space, they have to keep up with Hamilton, who's been there for a while and has actually started to almost push down a little bit with the mechanicals. The other thing is you don't have to want a field watch or a chronograph or a dive watch. They actually make a really gorgeous... It was in the most recent Indiana Jones, I think, the Dial of Destiny. Okay. It's called the American Classic Bolton in quartz. And if you're gonna get a dress watch, I don't know, like buy a vintage one that you wear for an evening and you don't care if it runs plus 10 minutes or just have a nice quartz one that you could put a bunch of different straps on. I'm not wild about the stock strap on this watch, but if you want a sort of tonneau style tank adjacent sort of pre-war dress watch, and I think the fonts on the markers or the indices are really nice, the Arabic markers. Yeah. And the kind of curvy case is cool, and the very minimal dial text is great. They make one with a silver dial and the rest is gold. It's a nice look. And again, like under $1,000. That may be a little bit heavy for quartz, but really for a nice brand with a cool looking watch, with kind of a vintage vibe, I think you could spend similar on an old, you know, a vintage watch and then, you know, have to pony up to make sure that it keeps running, which is also part of the charm. I'm not saying one's necessarily the right decision and one isn't, but I think this is a viable option. Nice looking watch.
Unknown Yeah. I remember, you know, years ago, whenever I would kind of write these articles, especially for Gear Patrol about alternatives or, you know, entry level watches or dress watches, the one that would pop up was always the, the intramatic. Cause I remember when that came out, I was quite smitten with it and I was very tempted by it, but I know, you know, knowing myself now even better than I did back then, I know this isn't a watch that I would wear very often. So I think your, your idea of finding something vintage that would look largely the same as something like this is a better route to go. But you know, I'm looking here and even the one on the bracelet, which isn't the aesthetic I would prefer, but it's just a hair over a thousand dollars on the, on the leather strap, they're like, you know, 945 or something. And they're, they're just so simple. They have that bit of, um, bit of a Max Bill look. Um, but, but really what they're hearkening back to is just a Hamilton from the sixties. Um, really, surely sharp.
James That intramatic kind of dropped right when people were in like full madmen fever. Oh yeah. Yeah. And all of a sudden we had the Viso date from, from Tiso. Yup. Yup. And we had the intramatic from Hamilton. It was 38 millimeters. It was light. It was thin. you could put any strap on it, it was $800. And I feel like that maybe the focus on the Don Draper of it all has changed, but those watches are still great. Yeah. If you need a dress watch or something dressy, or even just a dressier, more elegant take on a watch that could go on almost any strap, pretty good option. Yeah. I also really like... I'm sticking with quartz because this brings us down to... It's 500 CHF, I'm on the international website. Yeah. but the Jazzmaster Thinline Small Seconds Quartz is a good looking watch. Great sunburst gray dial, polished markers, sort of has a JLC vibe to it, but a little bit sharper, a little bit more 60s. I like these a lot and it feels like there's a lot of... Just a lot on offer in general with a watch like this. Again, it's quartz, so sure, whatever, it's a 40 millimeter case, 50 meters of water resistance, 20 millimeter lugs. You can kind of do whatever you're looking for. And then it's 7.3 millimeters thick. Yeah. Like if you're going to go courts, at least get the benefit of it. Right. Not too bad. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And again, you could put that on a few different straps. Oh, maybe the other watch that I'm thinking of is it's a little bit Portugieser. Oh, sure. Yeah. IWC with the sort of defined Arabic numerals on an otherwise sort of dressy watch, the sub seconds, the sharp hands.
Unknown Yeah.
James I'm a fan. Yeah. They really have, like I said, like I kind of teased or even derided them at the top for having so many SKUs, but the outcome is they have a lot of gems in there, some of which I don't think people... You don't ever see kind of in watch Instagram or otherwise, at least not in my view, right?
Unknown Yeah. And as I'm scrolling through them, I look and most of them are handsome watches. I wince a little bit when I see a lot of these kind of skeleton ones, I think they don't have the appeal.
James I think that's not the trend right now, but these things come and go, right? The skeletonized thing. And I'm sure that they're not necessarily people that would listen to an episode of TGN about Hamilton, but my guess is there are people out there who got out of university, got a Hamilton, and just kind of stuck with the brand. Yeah. Because you can go in almost any direction you want. If you're happy with Hamilton, you have a retailer you like, that sort of thing, you could be done and have four Hamiltons in your lifetime. Maybe you've got one that's a dress watch, it's a little bit older, you got it as a graduation gift, you have your everyday, and then maybe just recently you came across, oh, the Khaki Field Mechanical, this is great. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts recently, it's a comedy podcast called Are You Garbage? A fantastic title. It's literally one of my most favorite pieces of media. If you listen to it, it's not family friendly, so keep it to yourself. It's probably not for the kids, but it is great and The one of the two hosts, he always wears a citizen, and then he was on vacation recently and spoke about picking up a Hamilton. I was like, that's perfect. Yeah, yeah. I like when I see these things pop up. I like that they show up in Christopher Nolan movies. I like that they show up occasionally on things like this podcast host with H Foley and that sort of thing. But I do like Hamilton maybe more than my collection of Hamilton watches would suggest.
Unknown Yeah. And you talk about you could start and finish with Hamilton if you were of that mindset. And it's... Just like you could say go, right? Or citizen. Yeah. And, and, and this is a brand that, you know, you, you can go dress watch, you can go beater, you can go field watch, you can go whatever, chronograph, and then you can go vintage. And, and the vintage options are just massive. I mean, just absolutely massive. I mean, they were founded in 1892. You can go pocket watch, you can go, you know, British military watch, you can go world war II, you can go, I mean, I personally have had this long-term sort of quest or interest in, in finding like an affordable Marine chronometer in, in its wooden box to kind of keep on my desk. You know, the, the, I think they were called the model 21, um, that, that were on so many of thousands of, of ships during world war II and earlier. Um, our, our buddy Tom Boucher, uh, from Hassler instruments has one. And I think when I first actually met Tom in person, uh, he invited me over to his house and he has his, he built like a little jig or a little stand that He can actually, you know, remove the movement from the box and like display it on the tabletop. And it's, I mean, there are things of beauty. And I think, you know, with, with these old pocket watches, you could go Marine chronometer, you could go British military, or you can go like, um, my buddy Myron who, uh, collects the, what he called the, um, the confusing fall warbler collection. That was his kind of term for the, all these that looked alike, but they were all old Hamilton's that were great story, you know, co-branded with. um, LL Bean and Orvis and some other, other companies over the years. And like, like you don't have to put a lot of money into it. And so you can, you can go modern Hamilton, you can go vintage, uh, you know, across the board. So yeah, really, really great brand. I'm really glad we, we settled on Hamilton this week because it kind of reawakened my interest in them as well. Um, but I haven't just scrolled through their website in, in ages. So this is, this is fun.
James I, you know, I don't want to be just praising them. I do really like Hamilton. I think they really own a price point in a certain type of watch. I do really wish that they would make a great dive watch. Yeah, yeah. I don't think that we need Hamilton to make an SKX competitor or a Seiko 5 competitor, but I think there's no reason that when we talk about something like an SPB 143 or a Citizen Challenge diver, that we shouldn't also be saying, oh, and also the new Hamilton Frogman whatever. Right, right. I just think they're so close, right? And for a long time, Longines was so close and it feels like they're starting to hit.
Affirmative utterance Yeah.
James on a certain type of watch. And the new Hydra Conquest and GMT is very promising. And I really hope we see something with the same kind of level of execution and style and the rest of it from Hamilton. And I really genuinely... I'm sure there's people who are rolling their eyes or laughing or saying like, this is an insane concept, but I do think like a khaki diver of some sort would be great.
Unknown Yeah. And they've got the name. I mean, Frogman, what a great name for a dive watch. It's the best name. Like, yeah, we can hold out hope. Yeah, that'd be great. So is that your... Is that your dream watch? We had that kind of a talking point here. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
James Yeah, I think so. I think I would love to see something like... Basically, I'm saying they should make a Pelagos 39 that... Just follow that formula. Right. And I could not be a bigger broken record to everybody who's saying like, wow, it only took him 48 minutes to say Pelagos 39. I get it. I do. But it is also like a formula that I think any brand could essentially exercise. Yeah. Tudor did it in their way. And I think Hamilton's already doing it with that 38 millimeter khaki auto in titanium. It just needs a bezel. And I don't even know that it necessarily needs to be a dive bezel. I think they could ease their way into it. Give me 100, 150 meters screw down crown and a 12 hour bezel, and I think we've got like a pretty banging watch. It would still feel like a field watch, right? You've got the Marathon, you've got the Benris, There's lots of field watches that have great water resistance and 12-hour bezel. Right. So I don't think they'd be defying anything, but I do think... Just give me one more thing that it can do. Make it a great $1,200 travel watch. Yeah, yeah. Right? And then I think you have something undeniable for a certain type of enthusiast, myself included. Yeah, yeah. Hamilton, man. Yeah, good one. But we definitely didn't get to absolutely everything, and I'm sure you guys know what I'm about to say. I would love to continue the conversation about great Hamiltons, old, new, ones we maybe didn't see as I clicked through 53 pages of watches or whatever. Let us know on the Slack. Hit us up. We'll start a thread in the episode chat channel. You can always send us an email if you've got a favorite Hamilton, one that you think we missed, one we should know about, or if there is a One with a 12-hour bezel in the past that I should have on my radar and maybe snap up secondhand, you let me know at thegreatnadoatgmail.com or in the Slack if you're a supporter. We're having a good time. We're well into over 1,000 people in the Slack. It's kind of like my treat at the end of the day to go through and try and catch up a little bit. I keep on top of the threads, like when people mention me, I'll go in and reply and do that kind of thing during the day. But at the end of the day, when I'm kind of winding down, I'll go through and just look at everything that's highlighted as having new posts. I'm always learning something. I'm always finding something new. The perspectives are great. We're having some fun in there. So I highly recommend it if that sounds like a good time. If you want yet another social media platform, I promise you this one is kind and loving and full of very supportive people. And if you occasionally want a great deal on a watch, the buy sell trade channels is really popping off these days. So swing by the Slack or send us an email if you have a big thought about Hamilton or otherwise. And I guess with that in mind, we just jump right into some final notes.
Unknown Yeah, I think you should go first. I think it might be Hamilton adjacent. I'm guessing your final note might even feature some Hamiltons in it, whether obvious or not.
James Yeah. So this is one I'm actually pretty excited about. I saw the news come out about three weeks ago that Band of Brothers had been added to Netflix US. So if I would say I'm a Band of Brothers acolyte for a long time, I basically watched it once a year. And then for a little while, for a couple years, right until kind of the first or second year of the pandemic, I would watch the entire series on Remembrance Day. Oh, wow. That's a commitment. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's 10 hours. So, I mean, you've got to, but like, I mean, remembrance day is a whole day and really there's only one point in the day where you have to do something. Maybe you go down to the Cenotaph and check out one of the proceedings. You know, obviously in Canada, Remembrance Day is November 11th, which is... Jason, you guys have two days, right?
Unknown You have... We have Memorial Day back in May. Then we have Veterans Day. And then, yeah, Veterans Day is the one that we have coming up here.
James Obviously, Veterans Day is for appreciating veterans, Memorial Day is for appreciating those who pass in a war? Correct, yeah. Right. So I think your Memorial Day is closer to our Remembrance Day? Sure, yeah. And Canada takes it pretty seriously. It's actually something I genuinely... It's one of my favorite things about being a Canadian and living in Canada. The huge proceeding that would go on November 11th in the morning with a moment of silence at 11 o'clock in Vancouver was great. Occasionally, they would do a fly by, they would fire a cannon. I feel very strongly about this being something that once a year, everybody can do, and it's a nice holiday of observance. As a kid, I would go with my dad to the Warplane Heritage Museum in Hamilton, and they would do different events, and there was a local... I grew up in a little town called Caledonia in Ontario, and they would do an event at 11, that's in attendance and that sort of thing. I think very strongly about this, and I think that there's something about Band of Brothers, especially that doesn't sugar coat anything about war, but also gives you a slightly different perspective on the camaraderie, on the experience, on a certain element of World War II. And obviously, it does follow a very narrow path of one outfit, the 101st paratroopers, but I couldn't recommend this more, and I don't think it's something that's been on Netflix before, so you would have otherwise needed I don't know if you remember what the DVD set was like. It came in an ammo can. I've got that, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Your option in Canada is to have what's called Crave, which I believe is just called HBO Max pretty much, or Max everywhere else. We call it Crave. I don't know why, but it's on there. If you're in Canada, you can get a Crave subscription, regardless of whether or not it's Crave or Netflix. I would just say if you've never seen Band of Brothers, sign up for one month and watch Band of Brothers. It's October 10th today, which means you have a month before November 11th to get in on it. I don't think it's too much for any person to watch in a month. I mean, it's easily one of my most favorite pieces of media ever made, and the number of people that are in it that have become huge since then is always entertaining to go back and see Fast Bender playing a role with six lines, James McAvoy with five lines, Jimmy Fallon with one line. You see some... And then, of course, where Damian Lewis's career is gone and Ron Livingston's career and you know, it's endless. The show's full of incredible actors. So I can't recommend it enough. Strongest possible recommendation from the James side of the show to check out Band of Brothers. And if you're in the U.S. and have Netflix or just check your local Netflix, I had to check and make sure it wasn't on Canada, but it might have been added somewhere else. But if you're in the U.S. and on Netflix and you haven't seen Band of Brothers, I highly recommend it. And it's the right time of year to watch it.
Unknown Yeah. I'm actually glad you brought this up and I'm glad it's on Netflix now because I do have that, that, uh, uh, ammo tin, uh, set of DVDs that it's just, you know, it, it, it takes that extra step to swap the discs every time and whatever. And I actually, I think I bought it from my dad years ago. Um, dad, if you're listening, you can have it back anytime. Um, and I sort of reclaimed it and, and had started watching it years ago and then just sort of set it aside. So being on Netflix sort of removes an obstacle and, uh, Yeah, I could see, I could see kind of binging through this one between now and November 11th.
James So good call. Totally. And the pluses, I don't even have a DVD player. Yeah, I still have those DVDs somewhere, but I don't have a DVD player. There's not one on my computer. So yeah, that's my suggestion. I think everybody should watch it. Crucial, crucial viewing. It's a beautiful story. And if you're not crying at the end of episode 10, there's something wrong with you for sure. What have you got this week?
Unknown I also have a Netflix suggestion. Um, this is a movie that just popped up in my feed and I watched it immediately. Uh, and it's called, I think the title is rather unimaginative. Um, and it's a, it's a translation from German anyway, but it's, um, race to the summit. Uh, this is a documentary about, um, this rivalry that developed between the now late, uh, great, uh, mountaineer and speed climber Uli Steck. And, you know, Uli Steck was this, they called him the Swiss machine. He was known for setting all of these incredible climbing records, uh, both kind of rock climbing and, and mountaineering. Uh, and then this young kind of upstart, uh, guy who, who wasn't really well known and still isn't, I hadn't actually heard of him before this, uh, named Danny Arnold, D-A-N-I Arnold, uh, another, uh, Swiss climber who kind of idolized Uli Steck. Um, and then sort of, he w he was a mountain guide. He also, he had this kind of a day job as well, but he was a mountain guide. And he just decided he was going to start kind of speed climbing himself. And he ended up, uh, beating, uh, Uli Steck's record up the Eiger. Um, then he ticked off the Grand Juras, which is another, um, epic kind of North face climb in France, uh, as well as the Matterhorn. And he currently holds the speed records for, I guess, a bunch of North faces, uh, climbs in the Alps, uh, with the exception of the Eiger, because then, uh, Uli Steck actually went back and reclaimed uh, the record for himself. And we're talking, uh, bottom to top of the Eiger in a little over two hours.
Affirmative utterance Goodness sakes.
Unknown The Matterhorn, I believe the record is now, if not under two hours, just a hair over two hours. I mean, it's, it's unfathomable to consider these times when you think about what, what you might do in two hours time.
James Isn't there something kind of beautiful about the fact, like, let's say like we didn't look this up or I didn't look this up. Yeah. If the, you said it was Matterhorn is two is roughly two hours. Yeah. Yeah. So, so is the fastest possible marathon. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Like that. That's what's the, I know it's just coincidence.
Affirmative utterance Yeah.
James And I'm attributing more to it than, than maybe there needs to be, but that's kind of interesting.
Affirmative utterance Yeah.
James This sounds fantastic.
Unknown Yeah. It's, it's really, really amazing. And, and there, there was a bit of controversy between the two, um, you know, that came out of, came out in the media and of course Uli Stek, uh, you know, died tragically, uh, over in the Himalayas. Um, and it was, it was interesting to watch because I had become friendly with, uh, a very good friend of Uli Stacks years ago, Ghoshani and I went over to Switzerland and took part in this mountain sports photography workshop that was run by a husband and wife team, Dan and Janine Patitucci. And Dan Patitucci was a good friend of Uli Stacks and was on the expedition where, where he died and he was interviewed a couple of times in this movie. And so it was interesting to see him pop up in it as well. But, um, you know, if you're into, As we are, and as we talk about quite a bit, these, these climbing documentaries, whether it's, you know, Valley Uprising or Free Solo or Meru. Um, you know, I'm not saying this is on the same level as a Meru, but it's a fascinating story and it's some great climbing footage. And I, I still get chills. I remember years ago watching this, this footage of Uli Stek just like running up the Eiger with two ice axes and crampons unroped incredible, um, up this big kind of steep snow field. And it's, it's, it's just a awe inspiring. So. Race to the Summit. So yeah, check it out. A couple of good Netflix suggestions from us this week.
James Absolutely. Race to the Summit and Band of Brothers. I think obviously Band of Brothers is fairly well known. I'm sure many of you have already seen it, but Race to the Summit is brand new to me. So I'm going to see if I can download that before I jump on this flight. I think that's an episode, eh? I think so. Yeah, good one. Well, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, And we leave you this quote from Seth Godin who said, A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another.