The Grey NATO – 259 – New Watches From Lorier, Bremont, IWC, Baltic, and More
Published on Thu, 26 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
The episode discusses recent new watch releases, including:
- The Bremont S302 with new colorways, moving from a dive GMT to a more travel-focused watch
- The Laurier Hydra Zulu, a blackout version of their popular Hydra III dive watch
- The Serica 6190 field watch and Baltic Hermetique Tour, both modern takes on vintage sports watch designs
- The new 41mm IWC Top Gun Mojave ceramic chronograph
- The Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility, with design nods to vintage Porsche Design watches
It also features personal stories about Jason's high school reunion trip and recommendations to check out TGN community members Tom Place and Chris Soul's recent podcast appearances talking about their watch collections.
Links
Transcript
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| 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 259, 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, how's it going? |
| James | I would say I'm in a bad mood. Pretty happy to click record on an episode, but it's Tuesday morning and sometimes it's just like I want to wake up and just kind of have like a slow morning, couple cups of coffee, get ready, you know, look over our notes for the show. We're prepping a pretty exciting show for about two weeks from now. So was working a little bit on that. Can't say more about it at the time, but at this time, but still. And then it's just one of those ones where like How many small crises can I, you know, kind of leapfrog between? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Happy to be here. Happy to be chit-chatting, but it's one of those Tuesdays where you go like, wait, did I even have a weekend? Yeah. How am I this uptight after like 48 hours of, or not even, you know, 36 hours of it, of, you know, being back in sort of the Monday to Friday flow. But yeah, it was, you know, largely fine. Had a good weekend up at the cottage, you know, nice fall weekend. Still going up there. |
| Jason Heaton | The weather's still good, huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You still getting in the lake or is it beyond that now? |
| James | You know, we brought the bathing suits, but didn't jump in. It was it was, you know, it was kind of hovering in the in the 10 and below Celsius scenario. So I think the water probably would have felt kind of warm at that point compared to the air. But yeah, just ended up kind of going up and relaxing and trying to do kind of as little as possible for for a couple of days. And, you know, watch the Formula One and then came back home and tried to get back into the spin of things, but it is that kind of feeling where I stepped into a river that's moving faster than it looked, and I'm just kind of in the tumble setting. |
| Unknown | Yeah, right, right. |
| James | Yeah. How about you? You spoke about on the last episode that you had a reunion, a class reunion that you're kind of pumped about. How'd that go? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, it was a blast. It was really fun, and I drove down to Milwaukee, suburban Milwaukee, where I went to high school. Ghoshani came along, which Looking back, uh, you know, I, I felt bad for subjecting her to it. I thought there were going to be more spouses there, but, uh, her partners and, and, and she was one of about three and had to kind of suffer through a lot of, you know, do you remember this? And do you remember that? And, you know, but, uh, it was a lovely drive. I mean, you know, as you're probably getting as well, the, the, the fall colors have been really spectacular this October, a little bit later than usual. And, and the drive between here and Milwaukee goes through basically the entire state of Wisconsin. And it's just a beautiful. Um, just the interstate was just lined with all sorts of color and, and, um, yeah, it was, it was a good, it was a good evening on Saturday. I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in, in decades, you know, since, since graduation, a few that I've kept in touch with to a certain degree. Um, I was a little, I have to say I was a little disappointed. There weren't more TGN listeners among, among my former classmates, but there were, there was one guy who said that, that he and some buddies were, they, I think they went and stayed in the cabin or something somewhere and they decided they'd they'd pull up TGN and listen to it as a group while they were like playing cards or something like that. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that's hilarious because they weren't like, man, I hope they picked a fun episode. Avid watch people or TGN people. They just, they just wanted to kind of pick a random episode. I don't know which one they listened to, but I think they were just kind of curious about what I'm up to. And, but yeah, it was, it was a blast. It was, uh, it was really good. And of course there were several people that, that, you know, we made promises to keep in touch better, uh, than we have. And so we'll see if that, that actually happens, but it was, uh, yeah, it was great fun. Really, really good. Good to see people who, you know, it's, it's funny, you know, I did a lot of squinting at, at name tags because there was a lot of people that have changed their appearance, so to speak. Sure. Yeah. |
| James | But is this, have you done other class reunions over the years? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, the last one I did was the first one they held, it was like the five year and it was kind of, Oh, okay. I mean, it was fun, but it was kind of worthless. I mean, you know, people don't change that much in five years since high school. A lot of them are still in college or still kind of in that mode. And so this one was, you know, people with adult children and, you know, have gone through, you know, a few spouses and jobs and moves and things like that. So, yeah, this one was worth making the trip for. It was good. |
| James | Good fun. I'm glad you enjoyed it. For me, when the idea of a class reunion strikes fear, Oh yeah. In my heart. But I'm glad to hear that it was like a positive thing. It would be the kind of thing I think I would find like fairly stressful. Yeah. Especially, yeah, I don't keep up with maybe more than two people, three people. Yeah. From something like high school and probably about the same from university, maybe even a little less. But yeah, I'm glad you enjoyed it. That sounds like it was a good time. And yeah, the driving, this is peak driving time of year. It really is. Yeah. Because I would make the case that a hat and a good jacket, I can still take the freedom panels off the jeep. Oh sure, it gets almost unbearably cold at about six or seven celsius. That's where you start going like I'm not gonna take the highway. Oh yeah, right. I got I don't need 120 km an hour wind and but and that's also the thing where you start to think like well, maybe gloves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, it's funny, you know, since I took the top off the old land rover, I've been like wondering to myself, like, just how long can I push it driving this? Because, you know, it doesn't even have door tops on it. I mean, it's, you're, it's like being in a boat, you know, I mean, it's fully exposed. And, and, uh, so I've been thinking to myself like, okay, if it's a balmy winter, like I could put it in four wheel drive and kind of bomb around on a snowy street with the top down. If I'm wearing, you know, goggles and mittens and that sort of thing, we'll, we'll see how ambitious I get. Yeah, exactly. Right. Right. |
| James | But, uh, I've also seen stuff on, on YouTube of people like, you know, they buy these seat heated things, like the layer you put on top of your seat. Like my Jeep has heated seats, but they only like, if it's not cold enough, it just shuts them off on you. Like they're okay. Yeah. If you turn it on and it doesn't, and it's like, you don't need seat heaters right now. Whereas like the ones I miss, maybe you've owned, did you ever own like a VW with seat heaters? The little dial? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. want zero through five and run those, you could run those all summer. If you wanted the car, didn't care. Yeah, those I really liked. I had a friend with with at the time, a semi modern Jetta that had them and I thought this is great. Plus you could because it wasn't like a click when you turn them on, you could you could turn your buddies on when he wasn't looking. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh sure, yeah, yeah, warm them up a little bit in the summer. That is one bit of luxury that, uh, between that and like a heated steering wheel, which I've never, I've never owned, but the heated seats are such a must in a newer car. And I think I told you, I might've even done it as a final note. I put those aftermarket strap on seat heaters in the defender. I'll do that again this winter. Um, they're not as great as, as you know, the built in ones, but they, they, they do take the edge off on a really cold day, but totally heated steering wheel. |
| James | I've had it only in a couple of like press cars. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, so cool. I remember when we had the Alfa Romeo and I, I would drive it right up until the bitter end in the, in November, unless there was snow on the ground. And I would, that car actually had a really good heater. It didn't have heated seats, but the heater just blew. Like, yeah, I mean, it was like a, like a flamethrower and it was, it was really toasty. And I'd drive with the top down and pair of gloves. And it was like, just the very top of my head would get cold, but the rest of me, it was nice and toasty. That's a lot of fun. |
| James | It is a lot of fun. It's a great feeling. The drive to and from the cottage and then up around in that area, the trees have all changed. It all looks incredible. And it's just like the colors are insane, the yellows, especially this time of year in this part of Ontario. It's just oppressively yellow. It's pretty great. Yeah, nice. Well, look, let's jump into a little bit of watches. What have you got on wrist this week? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, no change here. I've still got the Pelagos FXD. I mean, no big surprise. And probably for the foreseeable future. But I, I think one thing that I just have realized about this watch is, um, you know, I've talked plenty about it over the past few weeks, but it's just nice not having to think about a watch. You know, I, I just wear it 24 seven and the strap is so comfortable and I do, I do change the straps around occasionally. Um, but I, I keep coming back to the, the Velcro that it came on, um, which is just so comfy and I kind of keep wearing, keep, I kind of keep waiting for it to wear out, you know, like I'm just always fiddling with it and readjusting it and getting it wet and all that. But yeah, it's just such a comfortable, versatile watch. And I know it's keeping good time. And, um, so I'm really not even thinking about my watch these days, which, uh, which in a way, I mean, you know, for a watch related podcast, it seems strange to say, but I'm sure a lot of people can identify with that. |
| James | Yeah. I think I understand exactly what you mean from a personal level, like my watch. But yeah, I totally agree with that one, and it's a good feeling, and it does make you go... This is maybe part of what I was saying back when my Pelagos, the P39, was kind of fresher for me, and I was saying this makes a lot of my watches feel irrelevant. Yeah, true. And that part hasn't really gone away. I think once I get a chance, maybe this fall or in the spring, we'd maybe do a little bit of a cleaning house with some solid deals for the crew over on the slack, but... Yeah. I certainly there's a dozen plus watches that I haven't worn in a calendar year or more that could probably go to better homes than mine. Right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Good stuff. What are you wearing today? I'm guessing not a Pelagos today? |
| James | Not a Pelagos today. I actually, in honor of what we're going to talk about, which is kind of a stack of new watches that have come out recently, I've been wearing my Bremont S302. It's a watch that once the Pelagos kind of came into the rotation, it kind of took a back seat. Yeah. but I am doing a lot of working from home and tracking either a colleague or an event or something in another time zone, and that caller functionality is really useful when you don't change time zones. Yeah, yeah. And I just really... The watch is so comfortable, the lume is good, I had... That's what I wore up to the cottage this weekend. I think it's a great looking watch. And then with the new version, the S302, we'll call it the Gen 2, coming out and then making some kind of significant changes to what the watch, what the goals of the S302 are. It just kind of brought me back around to my 302, to the first gen, and I've been wearing it all week and just really, really enjoying it. I put it on a few different straps. I've actually... It weirdly has enough of a military vibe to it that it works. I've been wearing it on that Five Eye NATO from Watches of Espionage, but this one that's like green with a black stripe yeah yeah and look i'm on record don't really like striped nato's these ones are working for me yeah not on every watch not in every scenario um but i do like it and and it was kind of see you know i was wearing a bunch of you know doing fall stuff i'm wearing plaid and the birkenstock or the uh the blundstones are back out and everything and it suited that vibe really nicely so yeah yeah that's what i've been that's what i've been wearing and what i'm wearing now so a great watch that i'm still very happy with yeah but speaking of great watches i mean we got we got a stack to talk about we like doing these episodes every now and then where it's just Hey, did you guys catch all of these new watches? Right. And I think we only got a slice of what came out recently. It's the slice I wanna talk about. Yeah. But there's been a lot and it's the pre-buying season or the prep for the buying season for the end of this year, and we're starting to see new stuff come out from kind of all different layers of the watch world. But we've got six watches here that I think are probably worth knowing about if you're a TGN fan, and a couple I think are probably worth putting on a short list. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, definitely. Yeah. And then boy, they really span the price range. I mean, just, just looking at our list, I think we've got, we go from gosh, just shy of $600 all the way up to, to 13,000. So, uh, you know, name your budget and we've got something pretty cool. I think these are all, um, really cool watches. And I think, you know, it's, it's the kind of watch where we might write each other pops up on Slack some, someday. And someone says, Hey, check out the new, you know, well, we're going to talk about the Baltic or whatever it is. And, and yeah. people get excited about it. So let's dive in. |
| James | Yeah, why don't we start with the Bremont because we already kind of bridged there with my S302. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, you wrote this up for Hodinkee. What's the rundown on this one? |
| James | Yeah, it's essentially the same watch, which I think is great. They're offering it in new colorways. So there's a blue-green version. There's a double gray limited edition version made with Ocean Ramsey. Um, if you follow ocean on in her partner on Instagram, you'd probably know them as, uh, the woman that's constantly free diving with giant sharks. Yeah. So they're doing an Ellie there. And then there's a new sort of, um, uh, black version as well. |
| Jason Heaton | And, and I guess the most significant difference with this one is that, um, it's, uh, it kind of replaces or, or does away with this notion that it's kind of a dive watch first and a travel watch second, or, or kind of |
| James | Doesn't have that elapsed time functionality that the one you're wearing has yeah So despite still being a supermarine which at its core is a dive watch these three new versions Which are still just called s302s and at least from Bremont's website. The gen one is still there. Hmm Okay, so that's still an option. I guess I'm not I don't really know Maybe that's an end-of-life scenario and it'll go away But these new ones use a 24-hour bezel with a 60 minute reut Whereas the original one was a true dive GMT where you had a dive bezel with a 24-hour RIAT. So these are much more travel tuned in that you can track three time zones with a 24-hour bezel. Whereas with the standard, the original spec of the S302, you were stuck with a second time zone via the 24 hour Ria, which is the little circular. Some people call them chapter rings. Yeah, that's a little ring that circles the dial and kind of bridges to the edge of the bezel. And in this case, that has a 60 minute measurement, and then you have a 24 hour measurement on the bezel. And like I said, there's a blue green one with a blue dial and orange accents. There's a double gray one with tan accents and an orange GMT hand. And then there's the S 302 jet, which I think it's actually hard to pick between the three, the gray and the black versions. I really, really like, I think they're both like gorgeous. There's only 400 of the ocean limited edition. So I mean that that could be hard ish to get depending on your Braymont retailer. And then the jet is a standard model which is black with tan accents and an orange GMT hand. I think all three are quite successful. The blue green doesn't speak to me at all. I think it would have I would have almost preferred it to just been all blue would have been quite handsome, yeah, but the gray and the jet, I mean an s three or two jet is a legitimately cool idea. Yeah, yeah, I really like the coloring the tan on the black looks really good. Yeah, I think they're locked in these are the same size, so I can I can skip some of this and like include my original sort of hands on with my s three or with the loaner that Braymont sent me before I bought my s three or two. because they're largely similar watches. The difference here is it's a Super Marine, but it's no longer really a dive watch, if you'll allow me to be quite pedantic. But without a dive bezel, it's certainly no longer a dive watch. This still has 300 meters of water resistance and a screw-down crown. It has a date, same movement, same collar GMT. But of course, like I said, with the 24-hour bezel, you can set your local time, your main time display, then you can set the GMT hand to UTC time, and then you can rotate the bezel to give you a third time zone. So you would always have UTC time based on the hand, and then you would be able to read a second time zone by choosing to rotate the bezel. So it's not three instantaneous, it's similar to basically every other watch that has a 24 hour bezel should be able to give you essentially three times but you're referencing those based off the offset of UTC. Sure. Yeah. So when you see something and it says, oh, this is UTC, you know, plus two, then you would rotate the bezel to represent plus two or minus four or whatever, and then you'd have your time zone coordinated. So really, really handy for tracking a time zone that you're not in, which is the point I was making earlier with my S302, but a huge derivation, both from kind of the general concept of a supermarine, and from what was originally outlaid by the S302. And I've seen exactly what you'd expect on Instagram, 50-50 maybe. People saying, oh, I love the new colors, but really wish it was a Dive GMT. And other people saying, like, I don't dive. This takes a really great sports watch and kind of turns it into something even more useful for me. So, I mean, yeah, this is why there isn't 10 flavors or however many flavors Ben and Jerry, but there's millions of flavors of watches. this comes down to it. I prefer the dive GMT format, but that could also come from the fact that I'm fairly spoiled with the number of GMT or, you know, travel watches I have at my disposal. Uh, so you can, you can be very like finely cut. I think the standard of a, of a GMT watch is to this format essentially. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I guess a couple of things hit me and I'm, I, I saw it in a comment somewhere, but I'm also just looking at the kind of the roster of these new ones on, on Bramont's website. And it looks to me like, There's only one version of the limited edition that comes on the bracelet now. And, um, yours, for instance, the, the, the gen one, you could get any of them on a bracelet. I mean, I'm sure you can buy it after market. Um, but the other thing is too, is, um, I, you know, Braymont has taken a lot of criticism over the years for, for being overpriced, you know, for, you know, whether you believe that or not, but to me, the basic one on the rubber strap is 3750, which, strangely doesn't strike me as that expensive for what you get with a Bremont. It's, you know, they've, I think people have often said, Oh, you know, they're, they're, they're getting beyond like Tudor territory or they're aiming for Omega and IWC. I think, you know, 3750 for a chronometer spec hardened steel triptych case with, with Bremont's quality is pretty reasonable actually. |
| James | I think so. I mean, I was not bothered by the original price of the S302. I think that that watch, I bought one. I mean like, yeah. I think that watch suits its price point, it makes sense. I definitely start to very much echo people who go like, does Bremont need to make a $9,000 watch that isn't necessarily limited? I think no, but I do think that watches like this, S32, Gen 1 or Gen 2, the standard S500s, Alt-1Cs, Alt-1ZT, all these, I think these ones have pushed towards six grand basically for years. Are all of the watches this great, incredible value? No, I don't think that represents really any brand. But the S302, I've always been very comfortable with. It's the right size. You now have more rubber options. They make now a fitted rubber, which I very much would like to snap one of those up for my S302 if that was possible. And I think adding the jet version gives you an entirely different vibe from the blue-gray one. The LE is very cool. These make really quite a bit of sense to me. You know, they're 3159 chronometers, and yeah, they start at 3750, 4200 on a bracelet. You know, I'm fairly vocal in the past about I don't know that Bremont bracelets are necessarily worth it, simply because they feel like watches that were designed to be on straps. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. If that makes any sense, it's how I feel like I've probably said that 50 times in my time in talking about the brand. But if you're a bracelet person, get the bracelet, whatever. unless you're really steadfast in your GMTs have to be flyer, then I think this sits nicely in the space. You can get flyers, which we can, we can jump to a flyer that costs less than 600 bucks. Yeah. Um, so I don't think that's the derivation anymore. I think it's just, you're, you're kind of picking the, the sizing, the brand, the coloring and the functionality. And this gives you more options, which I can't really complain about. Right. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think, I think people like big, bold 24 hour scale bezels. I mean, I think travel watches are in these days. And I think that's, uh, it was probably what, what was on their mind when they decided to kind of reconfigure the S302. Yeah. But speaking of travel watches, I think, you know, you hinted at, at our kind of next, uh, next watch to talk about. Uh, and that's the Laurier Hydra Zulu, which I believe kind of debuted officially just this past week at, uh, at windup in New York. And, Boy, is it a looker, huh? I love this watch. |
| James | Yeah, it's gorgeous. I mean, the standard Hydra S3, we've talked about it a ton in the past. We talked about when we first saw it at Wind Up Chicago, and then I did a hands on. I can include all that kind of stuff. The thing to know here is they basically stuck to the same formula, but went with that sort of 80s vibe of the full black case, a black dial, tan accents on the dial. It's an entirely different vibe for what is essentially the same watch, right? Yeah. And I think it looks incredible. St. Similar price to the, uh, to the standard model. And, but I think on this flared rubber strap that they have it photographed with looks real good. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I know. Oh, it, it looks tremendous. I mean, I remember seeing the other Hydra at, uh, at wind up in Chicago over the summer and it was pretty smitten and we talked about it then, but, uh, boy, this one really hits me. And I, you know, looking at it, you know, sometimes it's, it's the little things. And with this one, they, they sourced this, uh, strap from Bonetto Centurini and it's, uh, You know, it's straight out of the seventies. I mean, this is a strap that I think it's a version of something that used to be on a fair number of watches kind of in the, probably the late seventies, early eighties. And, and you know, the, on their website, they even talk about their inspirations for this watch, which are, you know, the predator watch the, um, the top gun watch, um, the Tom Cruise war, you know, a few others from kind of films of that era. Um, and, and I, I get that. I see that in this watch, it does have a certain vibe from that era. But it's such a wholly unique watch with that bright loomed 24 hour scale. It's really a smart, it's a smart layout. I could see this being a really versatile, useful watch, very functional. I mean, you know, it's got the flyer functionality from that Miyota movement, but then it's got the dive bezel. It's a great size. It's got the date at six, which looks good. Great loom, cool handset for $599. It's just, Yeah, this is a tempting watch. I mean, if I wasn't so smitten with my Pelagos and wearing it 24-7, I might be looking really hard at maybe making one of these my own. |
| James | Yeah. Yeah. No, I don't disagree. I think it's great. I also just think it's awesome to see Lori just continue to really nail it. I think this is another watch that people will be very excited about, will sell well. and we'll like further kind of expand the brand. And I think looking at this, it just, I get, I get vibes of like all the great micro brands that I've loved since 2005 in that you're getting something like this is not a watch from any other brand. Yeah. Yeah. This is a cool thing. I guess it's a little bit like, like the jet coloring from, from Bremont with the black and some tan, but it's just so successful in this design and yeah, that rubber strap just rips. Cool watch. Yeah. Yeah. Really well done. Good on them for that one. So you can hit the show notes for that one to take a peek. Which one do you want to jump to next? Another one that's not super expensive? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure. Yeah, let's go to... what do you say? The Serica. So Serica came out with the 6190, which is their field watch, which is kind of a refresh of the first watch that they came out with. which I believe you got to spend some time with, right? Or was that the diver? |
| James | I've spent time with all of them. The one I had the most time with from this format would have been the WM Brown edition they did several years ago. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I got a chance to see those and shoot them. These are like love letters to mid-century field watches, but in ways that don't feel like the designer's only love was Rolex. Yeah, yeah. And they do a really nice job. There's three different dial ways, but for this one, it's automatic. Now, the case is thinner and it's chronometer certified. So it comes as the Denali, the California and the Commando, which are just slightly different versions of sort of the dial spec. It's on pre order. And let me see as far as pricing. Is it 990 euros? So I think that must be inclusive of the VAT. So I think if you're not paying VAT, you'd be looking at 830. With this, you can still pick between the nine hour or the nine o'clock or the three o'clock crown position. You can get an extra long bracelet, which is something that comes up occasionally on the TGN slack. 37.7 millimeters wide, 10.4 thick, 20 millimeter lugs, comes with a cool bracelet, cost certified, 200 meters water resistance. It's nice. I don't know. How do you argue with something like this under a thousand dollars? |
| Jason Heaton | Absolute killer package. And, you know, just looking at the the image. I like the commando myself. It's, it's just so handsome. And I, this kind of strikes me as, you know, one of those brands, the other brand that leaps to mind when I look at Serica is like a unimatic in terms of a real eye for detail and design in a very understated controlled kind of way. Like, like unimatic has clearly taken inspirations from, several kind of mid-century watches, uh, but, but put it in kind of a fresh modern package. And I feel like that's what Serica does as well. And they also have that, that restraint when it comes to overly branding it, like the name isn't on the dial similar, you know, unimatic has a name on the dial, but again, it's down at the lower side of the dial and it's very small. There isn't like a big logo, you know, they aren't naming these after, you know, sea creatures and things like that. I mean, this is, it's just a, it's got these beautiful swoopy lugs, uh, Yeah. These are, these are great. I mean, and how can you argue with, you know, cost certified something that's sub 11 millimeters thick, um, for, you know, sub thousand dollars. Incredible. Yeah. |
| James | Really, really amazing. So a big fan of these guys have, you know, obviously experienced a bunch of their watches over the last several years. And as far as them refining something that I think people were largely already happy with, which is one of my favorite things, like when somebody takes something that's already pretty dang good, and has an audience and they're happy with and just makes it a little bit better. And in this case, I think, yeah, thinner and chronometer and automatic. These are all great things. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think it provides kind of a nice segue, because one thing I was going to say is that Serica is also a brand that I don't really know who's behind it. I know, I know the folks at Laurier, we know the people at Bremont, et cetera, like Serica's almost kind of popped up and kind of become a thing in the watch world. People know the brand, but you know, I don't see the, you know, the, the, the people behind it, uh, upfront, there aren't like a lot of interviews with them or whatever. It sort of feels like this brand that lets the watches do the talking. And that leads me to, uh, kind of, I guess the next kind of affordable one that we have on our list, which is from Baltic, the Hermetic tourer, which in many ways feels a bit like in the same spiritual space as, as the Sereca, albeit for $580 instead of, you know, getting creeping up closer to a thousand. |
| James | Yeah, so this is a classic, again, another kind of take on a mid century vibe, maybe a little bit more JLC and the sort of scientific phase, which I think is referenced in the case name and the rest of it, maybe more of an homage to something specific than what they're dealing with on the Serica. But yeah, I think these look good, 37 millimeters, really hard to throw any shade at 550 pounds. or 550 pounds for a new automatic watch. It has this really clever, fully flush fit crown, which I think is enough weirdness to be kind of cool. String hands, really beautiful dials. I'm a big fan of Baltic. These are 37 millimeters, 46 lug to lug, 10.8 thickness, but that's 8.3 without the crystal. So the case is actually thin, 20 millimeter lugs, so you're not messing around with a bunch of different straps. They come in four different colors and they come on Tropic FKM straps, which I think look really good on the watch. It has sort of a nicely... 20 millimeter lugs on a 37 millimeter watch has this sort of squared stance. That cuts a little bit of like a more modern profile, but then the rest of the watch is kind of anything but modern from an aesthetic standpoint. It's a very classic. The tan one really speaks to me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I was going to ask you which, uh, which color way you really like and beige to be fair. Yeah. |
| James | But yeah, beige, I think would be, that's pretty fun with the tan and the black elements on the dial. How about you? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I mean, I keep coming back to the Brown one, which is strange because I just wouldn't picture myself wearing Brown. I mean, they're all good. They're all really good. I think I would, I would, um, in fact, I'm looking there, there isn't even a black option. I mean, it's all color. There's green, there's blue, there's beige and Brown. And you know, now they're going to this, this 3d, sort of blocky numerals in full loom, which, you know, kind of pulled from the, the vertex playbook in many ways. And then that amazing kind of case design. I think we've, we've, we've come to this maturity in the so-called micro brand space, if we're even using that term anymore with, with brands that are really design and, and aesthetic driven brands. that are marrying that to the availability now of really high quality components, whether they're coming from Asia or Switzerland or whatever, like with, with the movements and the case design and the ability to make a watch like this for this price with that flush fit crown and a domed crystal and the 3d loom for, you know, for this price is a, it's pretty remarkable. I mean, I've said it before, but we live in fortunate times for, for a really good looking, well-made watches now. |
| James | Yeah, I also think the thing that captures me about something like the Baltic and indeed elements of the Serica and other stuff that Serica has done in the past, specifically like the bezel inserts, is if you've been into... We'll continue the term micro-brand, if anybody ever comes up with a better one, I'm down to trade. But if you've been into micro-brands for a long time, there was definitely a time where you would buy one and go, oh, I know this case, it's the same case from this watch that I own two months ago. or, Oh, I recognize this crown or I recognize this strap or, you know, because some of this, not some of it, a lot of it was being pulled out of catalogs, right? Because that's what kept the price low, which meant that if the right person went through the right number of catalogs and tastefully put together a package that people wanted, it could be made for a price where that one person could make a living off the 800 people who were willing to buy their product. Yeah. Cottage industry at its best. I love it. where we are now with the maturity that you're talking about is, I don't think that you would pick up this Baltic and go like, oh yeah, this is the case from this catalog. It feels so much more mature than where we were a decade ago, which I think is kind of what makes this brand exciting and what gets me excited about, like you said, Unimatic and Baltic and Serica and brands like that. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I want to give a little shout out. We don't usually talk about brands' websites, but I got to say, just looking at the really slick product page for this, uh, this hermetic. Great job, beautiful photography. Um, they've got a little video, um, the photos, the renders, the text, I mean, really crisp, really well done. And that, you know, that all, that all comes from, you know, comes off the bottom line, uh, on the budget sheet too. So, you know, that's, that's not anything to sniff at. So hats off to them for the watch and for the presentation of it. |
| James | Yeah. Another solid pick, man. It's so cool to have. Cause we're going to get into some stuff that's pretty, pretty great. I think in the next two, pretty interesting anyway, stuff that I would kind of pine for, but like the Laurier, the Serica, the Baltic, like you could go out and buy for less than a Seiko that I love. Right. True. You can actually get two of them. You could get the Baltic and the Laurier and decide later or just have both two different vibes entirely for what you would pay for a SPB 143. Yeah. give or take, give or take like a hundred dollars depending on where you get it and how. But yeah, I just think it's, this is like so much the reason that I like having TGN and why we started is just to talk about what feels like a good deal in the watch world, like something you can get excited about because you don't have to, you know, worry about the finances necessarily. And we'll get into the next couple, have larger numbers, five figure numbers, you know, but these ones that, you know, I do, I do want to offer like a solid shout out to Like we said, Laurier and Baltic and Serica and the brands that are operating in that space, because I don't think the value statement is getting worse as these brands get slicker at offering, you know, quote, unquote, micro brand product. The value seems to be getting better. Yeah. Especially from brands that seem distinctly focused on, on what the end price is. Yeah. Yeah. Fun stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, well, and if you are someone who, uh, you know, you want to kind of a sub thousand dollar watch, maybe it's time to go get a cup of coffee and skip the next two because we're going to distinctly upmarket. |
| James | Yeah, we got to decide if we want Swiss with a decidedly German option or German with a side of Austria. Yeah, right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Where do you want to start here? Well, let's go with the IWC because I think this is actually like kind of big news. Yeah. I think this is sort of a grail aesthetic. within the sort of space that TGM would exist. So the brand now has the new Top Gun Mojave, they're making a 41 millimeter version, which I just think is like... Yeah. |
| Unknown | Dang. Yeah. Good idea. Yeah. |
| James | Should have done it three or four years ago. Sure, I get it. Whatever, things take time. Yeah. But talk about a watch that I just think is so cool and way too big. Yeah. Right. Right? Right. Yeah. So yeah, now you can get a 41 millimeter Mojave. It looks, I would say, identical. it's on their websites as limited availability, it's $11,700. And the other thing that's fun, the other thing that I giggle about, because I don't think it would bother me, because I don't feel like 42 is too big for my wrist. But when they say a Top Gun Mojave 41, it's 41.9. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. But ceramic case, 15.5 millimeters thick, 100 meters of water resistance, it uses the brand 69380, which is a four hertz chronograph movement with 46 hours of power reserve and comes on the right strap. It's got the soft iron inner case for magnetic issues, sapphire glass up front with AR coating on both sides. I just... I think this is a very cool watch. It was immediately a watch that like several of my colleagues at Houdinki were like, oh wait, I would buy this. Yeah, yeah. I think now is definitely the time for every brand that can to push as hard as they can to make a competitor to a Daytona. And I think in my mind at 11.7, I wanna say that the current price on the Daytona is a few grand more than that, let alone what street market is. Yeah. But the idea that you could get something this cool, if you're already in that market, this isn't gonna seem expensive, it is within the range of what we generally talk about on TGM. But when you look at some of the watches shared on the Slack, this isn't more than some of the folks listening do spend on watches. Yeah. And I think Just a really cool thing. I'm a fan. I love to see IWC return to increasingly smaller case sizes. |
| Jason Heaton | And IWC was kind of, for lack of a better term, sort of wandering in the wilderness there for a few years. They kind of lost me. I just wasn't paying much attention to them because they got kind of expensive and big and just not... And they were kind of focused on different things. And I feel like this is a legit sort of return to form for them. I think, you know, ceramic is, they have a long history with that. And, and of course their, their pilots line is arguably their most iconic. I'm sure actually it is for sure. Um, and I used to have a pilot chronograph back in the day, just the standard steel with the black dial on the 77 50 based movement. Um, and I loved that watch. It felt, it felt very versatile. I think, you know, this one with this size and you know, I'm sure that in this ceramic case it, it weighs nothing, probably feels really good on the wrist. And I love that it's this high end, really well-made proper Swiss chronograph from, from a big brand in this wild colorway, this like really sporty, fun kind of thing. This would just be a blast to wear. I mean, it's such, it'd be such a talking point and it's just, uh, yeah, this is cool. I, I, I'd love to see, uh, you know, maybe this is a colorway that's, uh, going to really take off and we'll start to see some of these micro brands that we just talked about kind of go in this direction too, because I think it's, uh, I think it's really cool, kind of that desert vibe. |
| James | Yeah, I like it. I was a fan of these watches when they first came out in the larger sizing. And even beyond the Mojave, I've really enjoyed things like the crazy Top Gun Perpetuals. They're too big, but they're so cool. like a sports watch that's also perpetual, then there'd be the boutique editions that were bright red or green or yellow, and they're just really, really fun watches that didn't skip what you want from IWC, which is a really great case and an excellent dial in this sort of complicated flight adjacent aesthetic. And I think these hit it and there's a warmth or a casualness to the Mojave that I feel is kind of replicated in some of the older or is like mirror some of the older stuff like the 3705 and the Flieger Chrono and the Doppel and those ones. I will always be the guy that when it comes to IWC watches prefers that blocky hour hand. Oh, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Same here. Yeah. |
| James | I don't know. On the Mojave, the twin sort of sword or spear hands look really good. I mean, these are cool. Yeah. I'm a fan. I don't have $11,700 to buy one certainly, but I think that this will be a watch that in a couple months when people start talking about some of the best watches of the year, this is a very conventional because this is a smaller version of something that's around, but I think it's gonna be noteworthy. This takes something that I think a lot of people really like and opens the door for a more conventional wrist presence. Yeah, yeah. And speaking, I mean, it's adjacent to I W C. The brand has built. I W C has built this brand's watches in the past. As of a few years ago, the brand is now fully owned by Porsche, and we're, of course, talking about the new Porsche design chronograph one utility. It's my understanding they went with utility because it has different connotations than military, which is the model that this this new watch actually references is sort of the twelve hour riot of the original military from the chronograph one. You know, these are titanium carbide sports chronographs. They use a C.O.S. certified flyback chronograph movement that Porsche Design has designed and kind of implemented upon. It comes on a slate gray bund, which I thought you would like, Jason. Oh, yeah. And this one especially is limited to two hundred and fifty pieces. and even has, you know, in an attempt to kind of replicate the balance or the aesthetic balance of the military, even has a little logo below Porsche Design right between four and five that says Monkai, which if you follow along with Ferdi Porsche, who has an involvement with Porsche Lifestyle and, of course, Porsche Design. I saw Ferdi a couple weeks ago. They do... Monkai is a marmot, Oh, and it's, it's kind of a signature element to, to the, what was the GP ice race. And then moving forward, it will be the FAT international ice race or the FAT ice race. And Mankai is also the name of, uh, you know, a hut that they've built up on Grossglockner, which is kind of a, a feature point for, for sort of what Ferdy's up to, uh, both in the world of architecture and in automotive and watches and all that kind of stuff. So there's little references throughout. |
| Jason Heaton | That's a crazy design element. to add to a $13,000 watch. Kind of a strange little, it's almost like an Easter egg. You have to kind of know what it's about. |
| James | Yeah. And, and, you know, in the past they've done GP ice race ones where there were a bunch of little Easter eggs, little engraved icons and stuff on the back that kind of referenced things that would mean more to someone who had been to ice race or followed really closely. And then with, with this one, it's, it's, it's very much a similar design and implementation to the other chronograph ones, but the big change being that 12-hour Riat, which was a direct reference to the previous military that was made by the brand in the past. I'm a massive fan of these watches. I don't know about this one specifically, but a kind of standard model with the bracelet is absolutely on my very short list of watches I would like to own in the foreseeable future. I've really fallen in love with Porsche design, and then the history of this model, the chronograph one was designed by F.A. Porsche in 1972 after he had left the company, started his own company called Porsche Design in Zelle. And then that company has persisted and of course designed things for pretty much every brand you can name, like a prolific design house from industrial and product design. Everything from train cars to sunglasses and lighters, mice, blackberries now, you know, like you name it like that. It's it's really fun sometimes just kind of sift through their catalog or or go on ebay and and look up Porsche design and see what you get like a lot of it's like polos and stuff, but there's some wild sunglasses, some really cool pens what I'm trying to think of what else I saw at their design at the studio and sell when I was there a couple of years ago. |
| Jason Heaton | I think I've got like an external hard drive that's from Porsche. |
| James | Oh, hard drives for sure. Cooled office chairs, motorcycles. Take your pick. You've probably done it, right? They are sort of like, in my mind, when I see like a Porsche design product, I kind of give them the same vibe as like Zagato. Like if Zagato got involved, they kind of put their own spin on something that already exists to a certain extent, but then that's almost not fair to Porsche design because so much of it's ground up designs that they're licensed to do. Sure. So it's not their spin on something, it's like their take, their total take. But I've just become a huge fan of these watches and it's like 90% of the appeal for me is how they wear. If you get a chance, I don't know how you necessarily get a chance, but if you're at an airport and you walk by a Porsche design store or there happens to be one in your city or something like that, swing by and try on any of the chronograph ones, preferably on the bracelet. They just wear perfectly. and they're really gorgeous, and they have an incredible background designed by the same guy that designed the 911 and the 904. Yeah, yeah. Like no slouch here. Yeah. Right? And then now fully now reintegrated back into the fold, Porsche went ahead and set up a manufacturer in Solothurn, which I've seen, where you can get these watches customized. And if you order a watch on their website, you go through the same sort of configurator that you would a car. and you can get a bunch of things made like customization elements made for you. You can have them tied to a car. If you're doing a car, you can add a Porsche design, all that kind of stuff. I just find to be cool, not necessarily a Pete, like directly appealing to me, but I would very much like to own one of these one day. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, they're, they're so cool. I remember when the campaign for this broke and it was on social media with, um, I can't remember his name. The skier, um, was, was kind of rock climbing or something. And I was like, what is this watch? And I looked and You know, the fact that they put it on a Boone strap, of course, uh, warmed my heart immediately, but, uh, I've always liked the historical version of this and, and then to, to, for, for a, a brand like Porsche design, and then at this price point. To do all these kinds of quirky nods to the historical one with a, with a Boone strap, but then they replaced the three H, uh, circle, uh, red logo or, or symbol on the dial that used to indicate use of tritium. um now they've replaced that with a TIC for titanium carbide for the case material and then that the marmot symbol and I mean just the shape of this thing and and and the look of it is just so again it's in that same vibe as IWC it has this very tactical kind of 70s sort of look yeah I'm really smitten with this and I you know like like you I think this is on a short list even though uh it's not a dive watch which is a real departure for me I mean this is the first time I've really like squinted and looked long and hard at something like this that's like a modern chronograph and thought, I'd love to own this. And it makes me think that maybe in the interim, you should try to pry your old Zen, what was it? A 144 from the guy you sold it to and get that back. |
| James | 144ST? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's around. I know who owns it currently. That's a good one as well. And definitely like so much of that, the Zen thing. Yeah. played off on the same aesthetic pretty directly, and definitely some beautiful watches. I don't know that I would need titanium carbide, I'm fine with titanium or steel, like whatever, but the real dream would be a raw titanium. Oh, yeah. So the standard black with the bright orange accents, the 9-11 derived clock face, as they like to call it when they're German, and then You know, normally the titanium ones are black coated, which is of course a reference to 1972's Chronograph I, one of the first black watches ever, all black watches. And I love the idea of that, but in raw titanium. So the case and bracelet would be non-coated. That would be basically the dream spec for me. Just so, so cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, good roundup. Gosh, six incredible watches. Wow. I'd take any one of them and be happy. |
| James | Agreed. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| James | Yeah, so we kicked it off with the Bremont S302, which is now more of a GMT and slightly less of a diver, but possibly that means it'll have a bigger audience, which would be great for Bremont. We had the Laurier Hydra Zulu, which is a black version of the already excellent Hydra III. Then we had the Serica 6190 and the Baltic Hermetique Tour, two excellent takes on sort of different takes on mid-century sports watches. And then finally, the new Top Gun Mojave in 41 millimeters. I'm wearing like 42 IWC. And the Porsche Design Chronograph 1 Utility Limited Edition. Yeah, I agree. All of these, like, I kind of like these in all a similar way. Obviously, I gravitate more to something like the Laurier or the Baltic or the Serica because of the price. But I'm definitely a fan. I'm actually pretty excited to see that the new S302 in the jet, like in person. Oh yeah, yeah. I'd like to see that quite a bit and see that. And they announced this week that they'll be at Watches and Wonders, which I think is a fantastic move for the brand. Yeah, they need it. Under new leadership with Davide at the lead. So I'm excited if they're gonna be there and that'll be fun. And yeah, six cool watches. I'd be thrilled to continue the discussion about these on the Slack, as I'm sure we will. You can find the episode chat channel or their watches. So it could be in a handful of channels. Right. What do you say, put a bow on it, some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. I'll kick it off with kind of a reference to a couple of other watch media spaces that featured a pair of guys from our TGN audience, big time supporters, longtime friends of both of us, and specifically Tom Place, our resident stuntman, who was in a video feature on Teddy Baldassare's uh, YouTube channel, uh, in which he talks about, um, kind of his watch collection. It's sort of a, sort of a talking watches, uh, adjacent podcast where he sits down with Teddy and literally dumps a bag of watches on a table. I love the bag. Yeah. Really fun to watch. Uh, and it's titled the watches of a, of a professional stunt man. There's some great clips and photos from, from Tom's work, uh, in the film industry. Uh, and, and I loved his collection of watches. There were just some, Some quirky choices that I didn't know he had some, some great stories behind each of the pieces. Uh, Tom's just, uh, he's such a, such an original, such a great guy. And I'm so, uh, so happy to know him and for him to be part of our community and, uh, definitely a fun, a fun viewing. It's about a little, a little under half an hour, uh, to watch and, uh, yeah, I should check it out. And then the second one is our good buddy, Chris soul, who was on the whiskey and watches podcast. Uh, and it's just titled diving into Tudor Benreus and Oros with soul. And, uh, this was fun. I mean, Chris soul, again, great friend, got to dive with him a couple of times this year. We, of course, we both saw him in Florida and at a wind up back in Chicago. Uh, you know, great friend, uh, trusted colleague, and just, uh, you know, Uber moderator on our Slack, uh, Slack community, which, uh, which, you know, we're so grateful for. And Chris got on and he talked, um, For a little over an hour, actually, uh, with the guys from whiskey and watches and, and they talk about, uh, a lot of it is about diving and about the trips. And he recounts the trip we took to, uh, to the Gulf coast of Florida, which now is starting to fade, um, quickly into the end of summer. Uh, it seems like a long time ago, but it was fun to kind of re re recount that, uh, via Chris's talk with, with these guys. So yeah, check both of them out. Really, really proud of these guys and happy to see them getting the recognition that they deserve. |
| James | Yeah, I absolutely agree. You know, huge, huge fan of both these guys, Chris and Tom. I hope you're listening. Love you both. Super cool to see you pop up in these spots. And I've been through the Teddy video with Tom, but I'm only partway through the Whiskey and Watches podcast. So I'm still looking forward to finishing that maybe with, you know, a much needed third cup of coffee in the next few minutes now as we're approaching lunchtime. But it's awesome to see them out there. And a huge shout out to both of those guys. Big part of the community and just like the watch community in general that we're all in the same sort of world. These guys are awesome and definitely I think we should push as many people to go check out these two pieces of content and leave some nice comments. Let people know that from Teddy and the guys behind Whiskey and Watches that we appreciate seeing these sorts of things. It's cool to see them out there chit-chatting and dumping bags of watches and that kind of thing. All right. What do you have this week? Mine is a boredom purchase. It's become a real thing. I like to tell myself it's like a mental health purchase of some sort, but I bought a lens for my M10. So I have a Leica M10P, which is sort of an old-ish, the previous generation of Leica's like hardcore sort of mostly manual camera. And I bought a new lens for it simply because the thing I found was I was using my phone for a lot of images that I kind of wish I'd used a camera for, but both the Q and the M10, because of the lens, really aren't something you drop into a pocket. You have to hang it on your body or bring it in a bag. Oh, yeah. And I had been kind of digging around and I bought a 21 millimeter color Scopar from Voigtlander, which I think I spoke about previously. And it's a very thin lens, but it still sticks out like, let's call it an inch and a half, two inches from the body of the camera. Yeah. So you again, you're not like dropping it into the pocket of a barber jacket or something like that, which is kind of what I what I'm hoping for. And I've seen this lens pop up on Instagram and YouTube and the rest of it. And then, of course, I was in Germany with like and it's kind of like, man, you know, I love the lenses I've got, but maybe it's it'd be fun to try something else. And I was looking into possibly making my own lens. Yeah. So there's folks where you take the like a body cap. So like if you remove a lens on a camera that has interchangeable lenses, there's a big hole if you remove the lens, so they make like a plastic cap that covers that hole. Sure. And you can buy one of those, drill a hole in it and then install like with hot glue if you want the lens from like a disposable winder, like a disposable film camera. Sure. And then you have something that has no focus, no aperture controls, it's just a lens and for kind of fun. And I was like, well, I love that idea and I'm sure I will do it, but I don't think I don't think I would be thrilled with the photos. Yeah, it might be fun for pictures of kids or like quote unquote artful sort of stuff, but maybe less so for things that I would like to look back on and enjoy for their clarity. And so I picked up this lens from a brand called Seven Artisans, who I'm sure many of you know, and they make a 35 millimeter F 5.6 pancake lens. It's called a pancake lens because it's very flat like a pancake. And this would be probably a little bit less than an inch in total off the body. So with this on, it also has a built-in cap. So if you extend the, it has a little tiny lever to focus, it's a fixed aperture. So you have no aperture control. It's 5.6 all the time, which makes it very much more of an outdoor lens on something like a, an M10. So the 5.6 isn't a big deal. I have other lenses that go down to 1.4. not that big a deal. But the size is really the selling feature here. And then if you extend, like there's a little detente on the focuser on the little focus lever. And if you go beyond that detente, a little like cover goes over the lens element. So it's like perfect for dropping in your pocket. Yeah. And sure, it's still much bigger than a Ricoh or an RX100 is a great pocket camera. Like I could list 20, 30 options that are better, but I already have an M10, a ludicrously expensive camera that I worked very hard to afford. And I would just like to always have that on me as much as possible. And for snaps of my kids, kind of lifestyle-y stuff, walking around and see a cool plant or going on a hike, it's a really nice option. It's not a lens that I have to worry about. It has a built-in cover. So far, I'm happy with it. I've had it for a couple of days. I ordered it while just hanging out at the cottage, and I was in a good mood, and I made one of my, you know, sort of boredom or stress purchases, and these are... I paid a hundred and... I paid the equivalent of about 120 US for it. So in the realm of lenses that mount to an M and take a reasonably sharp photograph, basically free. Yeah, yeah. A full on Leica lens is gonna run you several thousand dollars or more, So it's always kind of a thing and then many of you will remember if you go back to the very early days of TGN, I had a real love of putting weird lenses on my 6500, my Sony Alpha. Because you could buy the lenses for nothing, the adapters were even less on Amazon and the format of the 6500, you would always be focusing using like a focus peaking setting where it outlines or shades in red or whatever color. So you could use any lens on those cameras. And with the range finder of the M ten, it's a little bit different. You can't use any lens. Some of them won't support infinity because of the depth from the sensor. Other ones are not range finder coupled, which this seven artisans isn't. But the seven artisans basically you only focus between point three of a meter, which is close focus and point five of a meter. And after that, everything's loosely in focus. Oh, Yeah. So you're not really thinking about it. It's a little bit more point and shoot. Yeah. And so far I've been enjoying it. I went out on a nice walk yesterday evening with my wife and took a few snaps and I'll publish some of them in the next little while. I'm actually... I've got photos from Leica and from other stuff that I have to actually sit down and put on Instagram at some point that does... It can feel like too much work to bother, but I've been enjoying the lens and if this might possibly be in your world, they make models that mount to things other than Leica? There's a Sony, there's a Canon, there's a Nikon. And if this means that you could grab a camera, throw this on, and know that you're just going out to, I don't know, coffee with friends, visit some family, whatever, go on a walk, like outside it's great. It's pretty sharp, especially sharp in the center. The edges aren't anything you're going to write home about. But again, we're talking about, I think this lens in the States is on sale for $100 right now. |
| Jason Heaton | $99. I see kind of a similar version for Nikon, for the Nikon Z, that's $47. I mean, that's like an impulse buy. |
| James | Get it and have a fun time. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't do... For those of you who are really nerdy, I will fill in a small blank, it doesn't do what like the Asahi Pentax stuff does. So you don't suddenly get a look that is unachievable with a different lens. Yeah. They were my favorite thing to shoot with on the 6500 because of the way that the bokeh in the background was like swirly. It wasn't this sort of ocular miss formatting of focus. It had this like life to it, and you could take a picture of a flower and it looked like it looked like it looked like it had been processed. It didn't look real, but instead it was this, you know, 40 or 50 year old lens, and I think I've got two or three of them here. I think I might have given one to a brother at some point, but but let's be clear. I've derivated pretty pretty decently at this point. I got a new lens and I'm enjoying it. It's fun to mess around with this kind of stuff, especially when you don't have to spend a fortune to do so. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the seven artisans, 35 F five, six pancake. And if you can get it for 47 bucks for an icon, you're going to have a good time. Yeah. Plus if, if that's the lens that you drop the camera in the lens breaks or you even just use this as the body cap. Yeah. True. Like if you're switching lenses to another camera and this is just the one that you go, that you put on, right. |
| Jason Heaton | It's a great idea. I just like knowing about this, uh, this brand, this website, this is cool. |
| James | Yeah. Seven artisans make some wild stuff. Nice. Fun show. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Had a good show. Always nice to talk about new watches and camera lenses and all that kind of stuff. And then I think your final notes was great. Both of those pieces of content with Tom on Teddy and Mr. Soul on Whiskey and Watches brought me some joy this week. So I'm glad we got a chance to share that. Yeah. But hey, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you would like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or even consider supporting the show directly. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO or access to the Slack |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Franz Kafka who said, I don't feel particularly proud of myself, but when I walk alone in the woods or lie down in the meadows, all is well. |