The Grey Nato - Ep 26 - Field Report SIHH 2017
Published on Tue, 24 Jan 2017 08:56:39 -0500
Synopsis
The hosts, James and Jason, provide a field report from the SIHH 2017 watch show in Geneva. They discuss their favorite watches from the show, including the MB&F HM7 Aquapod, Cartier Drive Extra Flat, JLC Master Control, Panerai 42mm Submersible, and more. They also talk about the gear and bags they used during the show like the Tenba DNA 15 camera bag and Uniqlo's comfort sport jacket. They share their overall impressions of the show, noting that many watches were very expensive and complicated, lacking more affordable and accessible options.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| James | Hello and welcome from Geneva, James checking in. |
| Jason | And Jason. |
| James | And so this is just kind of our field report. We wanted to kind of do the show while we were still fresh and in the same room. So we're in my room at the President Wilson in Geneva, right on the lake. And, you know, it's been kind of a long week, but we did, like I said, I wanted to kind of touch base while we were still in the same place. Yeah, before we get too jet-lagged. Going home will take some adjusting. I think so, yeah. So how are you feeling? You had a couple days away from the show. I've been at the show basically since I landed. |
| Jason | How's things? Not bad. I think we both feel the same. We're both really ready to get out of here, get home. It's fun. It's great to catch up with folks and see some new watches, but it's tiring. I think you get a little dehydrated. It's hot and dry in the hall. kind of sweating a little bit all the time, walking around carrying a bag. |
| James | Yeah, how would you characterize the show this year? Did you do any writing from the show or most of it will be kind of in context later on? |
| Jason | Yeah, so I'm going to contribute to a bit of a best-of roundup for Gear Patrol, which is going to publish actually Monday morning. But then beyond that, I've got an article coming up that's going to be about my trip to Neuchâtel, which I just got back from this afternoon. I went to visit Parmigiani there, and we can talk a little more later in the show, but It was a good time. I think, you know, for me, SIHH is more about networking, meeting with people, seeing, you know, you in person and a lot of the other editors that we always are only in touch with over Instagram and meet the brand reps. For sure. You know, seeing the watches, I think you and I both kind of agree. I think, you know, you wrote me earlier today and said, you just, you can't wait to see a $5,000 sports watch. |
| James | Yeah. You know, I, I, I like the show and it's of course, like, I think the highlight is being able to catch up with people like yourself and and some other people from the industry and certainly the guys I work with at a blog to watch. I only see them for these shows. Yeah. But as a show, I think especially when it was in the context of kind of our TGN tastes. Yeah. This show doesn't make much sense. Yeah. The cheapest watches you're going to see here are still even from entry level Swiss luxury brands are still very expensive. You know, we had brands offering 7750 chronographs for seventy five hundred dollars. Right. Right. It's very much a luxury show for the sake of being a luxury show, which is the right context, of course, for Greubel-Forsyth and Van Cleef and Vacheron and these big top-tier brands. But Basel, you get this nice mix where you might be at Patek One meeting and Zinn the next meeting and Squala in the afternoon. |
| Jason | I used to like SIHH more than Basel. I've been to three Basels and about five SIHHs. I think what I liked initially, I was sort of You know wooed by the sort of the you know the way you're sort of pampered here. |
| James | You know the brands really treat you Well, there's the you know the free sushi and flowing champagne, and there's always lunch You can sit down basically there's tables all throughout the center of the hall And you can sit down and eat pretty much whenever you want as long as there's a seat right and you're in a lovely hotel With Basel yeah, you're not doing a hotel. You're doing an Airbnb. Yeah, and I kind of Yeah, I prefer Basel by almost any stretch, and this is only my second SIHH I've done for Basel. |
| Jason | My opinion is flipping. Probably last year and this year, and I think, but I had to remind myself whenever I get a little bit sort of frustrated with, you know, everything just being astronomically priced and just, you know, these far out complicated watches, that it is the SIHH. I think the HH in SIHH is the haute horlogerie, the high watchmaking component of it, and the brands that exhibit here, you know, other than Arguably Balmercier are really aiming, you know, shooting for the stars. It's like they're trying to outdo each other. |
| James | Yeah, for certain. And I think it's funny because it takes me a day or two to kind of recalibrate. Normally I focus almost exclusively on TGN sort of watches. I mean, right before I came to Geneva, they published my review of the Raven Trekker 40, which is very much the sort of watch I would buy and have really enjoyed. And then you see, you come here and you see some wonderful things and you really kind of have to shift your focus to the wider perspective of just watch appreciation because certainly I'll never be in the position to own any of these watches. Right. Even some of the stuff that made my list is far more than I've ever spent on a watch. Yeah. |
| Jason | Speaking of that, uh, you know, I saw you a couple of times this week. You're, you're of course wearing your, uh, your much coveted 6117 Seiko world timer that you got. How was that received? People love it. |
| James | Yeah. And it's funny because you, you sit down at a brand, of course Seiko doesn't exhibit here. which is one of the reasons I like bringing a Seiko here. And I showed up the first night with Ariel from a Bogd watch and David from a Bogd watch, and Ariel and David are both wearing Grand Seikos. And it's just like, this is just the kind of level of taste that exists in Bogd watches. It's very much like you don't really get that much better watch than a Grand Seiko. that world timer, especially among like watchmakers, they, they kind of like saw it and they asked what it was because it's clear it's a world timer, but you have no idea it's a Seiko. Right. And they, people kind of gush over, you know, that, that the 24 hour hand has this bend in it. So it gets up over the indices. Yeah. And then when they learn that it's not even a real world timer, it's like passive, you have to rotate the crown. Yeah. It's just charming because it's the simplicity of it. Right. And it means that it, you know, it comes in at a cost and you had, um, I mean, your, your docs must've, |
| Jason | Yeah, so it was funny. I had my Doxa Teagraph, the vintage one, and you know, it got some notice from folks, you know, Robert Jan from Fratello. I sat with him for lunch one day and he really enjoyed looking at it. But the most fun was when I was at the Vacheron Constantin booth and I was getting the lowdown on that Celestia, which is the wristwatch that they created this year. It's a unique piece, so they only made one and it's got 23 complications. And the guy who built this watch, It was a single watchmaker who assembled this, and he was really young. I kept joking, like, oh, so you started this when you were 14. I don't know if you met him, but he was a really young guy. We were standing in the booth at the display where this watch was hanging, and we're chatting. He's telling me about the watch, and I had my arms folded, and he glanced down, and he stopped everything. He said, is that a Doxa? And I said, yeah. And so immediately, we stopped talking about this, I don't know, million-dollar watch or something like that. We went on for like 10 minutes, and he pulls his phone out, and he starts cycling through photos And he says yeah, I'm a big I'm a big collector, and he said he shows me an old plow prof that he's got all night Like one of those I think they call it the grand like the thousand meters Omega diver old Speedmasters and of course I had my Speedmaster with me as well my old one And I pulled out of my bag and so we totally got sidetracked just just talking about old More affordable watches, but that was kind of a highlight that was fun |
| James | I didn't meet any necessarily collectors, but yeah, it's nice to get this kind of reception. And I think a vintage watch gets you an extra pass when you're not wearing a Richemont brand. And I don't really care about any of that. I would just wear one of my travel watches for something like this. You also brought me a new strap for my world timer, a 20mm, like a really thin leather NATO, a brown leather NATO. It got as many compliments as the watch. People asked me if it was the original strap, which is a bonkers question, but I think it looked great and I got a couple compliments on it and I'll put a picture up at some point On on instagram. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks very much for that strap and you have one in gray It's a gray nato killer. |
| Jason | Got it on a speedy as we were recording this just looks great Yeah, so these straps are they're made out of kangaroo leather Which I don't know much about the properties of kangaroo leather, but i've been told that it's very resilient It's very thin like super thin almost like a nylon nato width or thickness maybe even thinner a bit stretchy But super durable I've had another one on a watch for quite a while and it works really well and I happen to get them from a friend of mine whose name is Nick Gabaro and he lives in the Twin Cities and he provides a lot of the straps for Houdinki and for a number of other vintage dealers and folks like that. So yeah, Nick was kind enough to part with a couple and I brought one for your sake. |
| James | I very much appreciate it. And so before we get into kind of our favorites from the show, We like to talk gear and bags. Did you bring anything this year that kind of helped with the show or anything you would recommend to someone who might need to do some traveling? |
| Jason | Yeah, so earlier in the year, we had done a couple of different episodes where we, you know, one, we did the whole bag episode. And I think we both brought interesting bags to the show. Mine was a tried and true. I brought my Topo Designs mountain briefcase. Looks so good. I forgot how nice it looks. Which it came through. I love that bag. It holds a lot of stuff. you know, no complaints about that, but you know, I've covered that bag before in the past, but excellent. I think that's my, that's my go-to bag for stuff like this. And then the, the, the real winner for me was something that I've talked about on the show. And I think it was a final notes a while back. And it was this, I think it's called the comfort sport coat or comfort sport jacket or something from Uniqlo, $60 sport jacket made of some sort of synthetic material. That's very breathable, thin, comfortable. It almost wears like a, cardigan sweater but it's a sport coat in this very unobtrusive kind of charcoal gray color that goes with khakis or could wear with jeans or whatever. Fantastic. Best investment. I brought one sport coat this year and it was perfect for the show because it was really light. Last year I made the mistake of bringing this heavy tweed wool jacket and just pouring with sweat throughout the show because the hall gets hot. |
| James | No doubt. I wore a summer weight wool blazer, which is fine for the show. It wasn't as hot this year in my memory as it was last year. Yeah. But one day I wore a heavy sweater underneath it because I really loved the way it looked. And I didn't, I should have walked around my hotel room briefly with the outfit on to gauge it. Right. So then you pick up, you know, a 20 pound bag and then whatever else you've got to carry in the other hand, you know, with a blog watch, we have a ton of gear. So I usually have another bag with a tripod and maybe another camera in it. And before I knew it, I was just like, I needed a vent. Yeah, right. And at one point we were standing in the long presentation room. Yeah. And the far end of the room under the screen, there was like an AC. Oh, yeah. And I leaned back and got like a breath of cool air up my back. And I was like, oh, this is, I'm going to stay here for a little while. I will have to pick up one of those jackets before Basel. |
| Jason | You really should. I recommend it to anybody that, you know, it's great for travel. In fact, another nice thing about it is I, to get it over here. I didn't wear it on the plane. I folded it up. I folded it in my suitcase, which, you know, real purists will say it's taboo to fold it. I always do the shoulder into shoulder. Yeah, I do too. But this one's just folded up like a sweater. Tuck it in your bag. No wrinkles. Pull it out. You could iron it if you wanted to. Cool. So that was a real win. I don't do, you know, nearly the shooting video or still like you do with the show. I do all that with the iPhone just for my Instagram feed and for kind of keeping track of the watches that I liked. I recently upgraded to the iPhone 7, which I don't find that much different from my iPhone 6, other than I've got a lot more memory now, better battery life, and the camera's better. It's a good camera. It's a good camera. But I did bring my Nikon DF with a spare lens for my visit to Parmigiani, and I carried that in a little Tenba pouch. Tenba, T-E-N-B-A, brand of bags. A little padded pouch that zips shut, and it holds both of them quite nicely. fit right inside my mountain briefcase. Perfect. And it worked great for carrying it to and from the U.S. and for carrying around in general. Now you, I know, you also have a Tenba bag. Yours is bigger. It's a shoulder bag. How did that work out? |
| James | The best. I mean, I've talked about it at length. It's the Tenba DNA 15, which means that you can hold a 15 inch laptop in it. And if I like this bag, when I was speaking in a previous episode, I'm fully in love with it now. So at one point I had I had all of the random accessories. So a bunch of, you know, a dozen batteries for the flash, the flash, all the little bits, cables, a 20,000 hour milliamp battery pack, all this gear for the GoPro, for the vlog that I was doing for a blog to watch and including the tripod, the mount with the mic. And then I had two DSLRs with full size lenses, a 24 to 150 and a 24 to 70. Heavy. Uh, it was definitely heavy, but there was still room in that bag. Wow. Um, so you can put an unbelievable amount of gear in it and it's sitting on the bed behind me. It doesn't look that big. It doesn't just keep swallowing more and more stuff. And then if you want the like camera thing, not unlike what you have from Tenba, you can just take it out. So if you really only wanted a little thing, you could put your small case in there and bring probably a pair of jeans and a couple of shirts, socks. Yeah. Yeah. And you could do, I mean, if I was going to go do another trip like that Porsche one, That's probably what I would take because it's less intrusive than a backpack. Yeah, and you have more carry options You pretty much only can put a backpack on your shoulder. Yeah, you hold it right the top handle for a bit Yeah, but I found this to be great. The straps quite comfortable. It's got loads of pockets Yeah, it's got these stretchy pockets on each side and I was able to cram like a puffy vest Oh nice. So going to and from the show is a little chilly. Yeah, but then if you if take a jacket, you have to check the jacket and you have to get in a big lineup. And I don't really do lineups when avoidable. So I would just pack this little vest for going back and forth. And that worked out really well. Nice. I got a GoPro over Christmas because we had this idea to do a daily vlog for a blog to watch. So we've done six episodes. We'll do the seventh episode tonight, just after we record this. and the GoPro was great, very easy to use. The software I found to be buggy. Not in a way where you didn't get the shot you wanted, but to record video it was flawless, but to do these time-lapse shots that I did for B-rolls, it would only about 10% of the time actually go into time-lapse mode. It would say it's in time-lapse mode, you go to record it and then it would do nothing. Oh. So you had to like cycle the settings to actually get it to realize. Oh yeah. It was a little annoying, but besides that the battery life was much better than I expected. I actually never actually used a second battery cause I have a battery pack. Yeah. So it would go in the bag. I could just clip the USB in and it would charge as I carried it around. And you're only shooting 20 second little clips. Right. And then, um, I got an opportunity to shoot a bunch of, uh, like, nice high resolution B-roll macro shots of people holding watches and such. Yeah. With the new 5D Mark IV from Canon. It's kind of their premium prosumer. Right, right. Premium. It's not, it's just not a sports camera, but anything short of that. You buy the 1DX or whatever for the nine frames a second it can shoot. Yeah. But the video is unbelievable because it has a full autofocus motor controller in the camera. So you connect it to an L lens, even the hundred millimeter macro. Yeah. The L is stabilized. So I'm hand shooting. from across the table as somebody's talking about a watch and it just looks fantastic. The files are really good to work with. So, I mean, unfortunately, I'm a Mark III owner and I'm not going to spend $4,000 or whatever it would be to go to the Mark IV, but as a rental, which is what we did to give it a test for some video, very successful. That's a really impressive camera. And I didn't actually shoot any photos with it, but I'm sure it would have been lovely. I don't know how the photos would differ that greatly from a Mark III, but the software, especially because it has a touchscreen so you can pick your focus point while shooting, and the software and everything I found to be really intuitive. I kind of picked up the video within minutes of kind of playing with the camera. So yeah, it was a good show for gear. I'm really happy the Tenbo worked out because now I'm done with picking a show bag. Yeah, right. And it's unobtrusive. It's kind of a charcoal gray. Yeah. It has this... Go to their website and check it out. And if you needed a smaller bag to carry less stuff, but I need the ability to have the camera and the laptop all in one bag to get on the plane. Right, right. Which is, which is I think where that becomes the killer. Because you could, there's like even Think Tank makes some big camera shoulder bags. Yeah. But they don't hold as big a laptop. They might have a iPad sleeve or something. |
| Jason | Oh, sure. So how was your experience vlogging? Is that something you took to and found it more difficult or less than you thought it would be? |
| James | Just like with Granado, it was multiple times more work than I had told myself it would be. So pretty much every day we would shoot all day and then I would bring the files home and copy 10-15 gigs of video to my laptop and start editing in Premiere. And very quickly I realized this was going to ruin any possibility of a normal sleep schedule. So pretty much almost every night this week, I've been up till about four or 5 a.m. And then I don't, don't feel bad for me. I would still get four or five hours of sleep, which isn't that bad when you're being paid to work in Geneva, like, Oh, so sad. Saw watches all day. But you do start to like, you can see because I had to point the camera at myself, which I'm not generally that comfortable with. you could see me just get more and more tired and the bags under my eyes get bigger and my face gets shinier and puffier. So that was all, it was, it was cool. People, uh, the, the response has largely been good. If you want to check that out, the goal with that was to essentially bring you as a member of the team, as we moved through a day, one, then it became seven days in Geneva. And you get to see the inside of not only the show, which maybe you've seen a video before, but inside of meeting rooms and inside of the booths and, Obviously tons of watches. It's not in-depth. We're not reviewing watches. We're not talking about specs. We're not doing presentations Yeah, it's just kind of like a vlog like if somebody shot a snapchat throughout a day and kind of gathered it into Six or seven minute video right right so that's at youtube.com slash a blog to watch they're very clearly labeled as the SIHH vlog Check it out if you have any suggestions if you hated it and have constructive criticism, I would actually really appreciate it because YouTube's not really good for constructive criticism. People are very nice about saying that they like something and then some people just say that they hate it and they hate me, which is fine. It's feedback. It doesn't matter, but I can't fix me. I could fix editing or how I say something. So if you have some constructive criticism, by all means, send it my way, thegreatnado.com, I'm on the fence as to whether or not I'll elect to do it for Basel because it was just a crazy amount of work. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Maybe the better setup would be, um, like something like the, uh, the Sony, uh, a seven. Oh, sure. And, and then with a lens that could do the macro right on the camera. So you could do, you could talk to the camera has lovely autofocus and all that, spin it around and shoot the, and then not have to manage two sets of files. Right, right, right. And then I think maybe it would simplify the, post-processing, but you still have to bring the files in, build a story, which is what took me the most amount of time. And I like pre-selected music and all that kind of stuff, so I don't know. I mean, if the situation's right, I could see bringing it back for Basel or maybe a few days of Basel, but I'm not sure I'm really going to sign up for another week of it. |
| Jason | Yeah, it was funny. I suffered from jet lag, especially early in the week, which meant even if I went to bed at 12.30, I was awake at 3.00. Yeah, for sure. One morning, I think I woke up at four o'clock and I realized that you had posted, um, on Instagram or somewhere. I just checked the blog to watch a YouTube feed. Sure enough, there was the, the blog and I thought you, you told me you were after the drinking, you know, whiskey at the suite or something. |
| James | Yeah. Again, yeah, it's, it's definitely not a complaint. I, one, I signed up for this too. I still had chances to go drink whiskey with you or, and have some lovely dinners. It's not like all I did was work. It's just, When you keep a certain schedule and you start working at midnight on something that's going to take many hours, it's fine. It probably actually helps in the long run because I'll have less time zone to acclimate to if I'm used to going to bed at 5 a.m. in UTC plus one, right? Right, right, right. So you want to start talking watches? |
| Jason | Yeah, let's. I mean, you know, one bit of feedback is kind of a segue was a friend of both of ours, Mike Stockton, who writes for Fratello Watches based over in Germany, Hi Mike. He chatted to me briefly on Facebook Messenger or something and he said, what did you think of the show? And we were kind of going back and forth a little bit and he said, oh I was a little disappointed. He said it seemed to lack levity. And I said, do you mean sort of more accessible watches maybe? Less complicated, more accessible watches? And that's kind of what he meant. But I think that It's a good way to describe a show. It's a little bit vague, but it kind of hits the mark for me because it did feel like, other than our earlier comment about everything just being astronomically expensive and complicated, it's just kind of felt like Switzerland sort of just putting its nose to the grindstone and just like, we're going to try harder. Things aren't good. We're just going to keep trying harder. You know? |
| James | I also felt like you have that element which you could see in the product, but in the way it was presented, it was kind of down-toned. Yeah, you could tell that maybe they're taking the heart the fact that the financials aren't good and they clearly have a Problem with excess. Yeah in terms of stock and and costs and such. |
| Jason | So yeah, you know with all that in mind I mean there were a few pieces that stood out and rather than go brand by brand Let's just talk about the watches that that you and I liked, you know, yeah for sure. Well, actually what's your first? |
| James | I'll start with something kind of wild something that belies the TGN nature, which is the MB&F HM7 Aquapod, which is their kind of nod to a dive watch. It's not a dive watch. If you talk to them, they're not telling you to take it diving. It's not even that useful as a diver. But as an object of design and high-end watchmaking, I mean, MB&F, you're never bored. And I actually think that they quite routinely make very beautiful, not boring things, which I like quite a bit. And today I take a moment, when I was here last year for my first SIHH, Today I took a moment this afternoon to go to the MAD Gallery. Oh yeah. Because it just makes me feel great to know that these crazy... Sure, they're stupid expensive and I'm never going to afford one. Right. But it makes me feel kind of good that they're out there. Yeah. |
| Jason | And the cool thing about MB&F is the watches are inaccessible to the average person, but the people at the work of the brand are, without exception, they're the most accessible people. No doubt. Such nice people. Even all the way up to Max. Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned the MAD Gallery. Anybody that's coming to Geneva, passing through, whatever, Highly recommend. |
| James | You've wasted this city if you don't go to Mad Gallery and then across the street to Davidoff. Yes. I tried to go there, closed briefly today, so I didn't make it. But Mad Gallery is great. I really like the Aquapod, the luminous treatment. It's in one of the vlogs. You can see us charge it up and film it. The lume is really cool. The bezel feels great. It doesn't refer to anything in terms of timekeeping or tracking time because there's not a traditional rotational time display. It's too rotating. Well, a disc and a dome that refer to a vertical line on the center crystal. It's very easy to read. You're just not going to read elapsed time with it in that metric, or at least not simply. I'm trying to rack my brain to see if there's a way that you could use that bezel. You're not going to use it in the traditional fashion, but it's a beautiful thing. The black and gold one is very cool, but the blue one is just stunning. We're not going to spend a lot of time on a watch like that because it doesn't really fit the mold, but if I want to talk about the sorts of watches that you come to SIHH to see. I think the Aquapod is right up there and the gentleman at Mad Gallery said they have something really, really fantastic in store for March. He was very excited about it and would not tell me anything or show me any pictures on his phone, which is rare for this industry. |
| Jason | Yeah, so I'll kick it off with my own inaccessible piece and that it's really inaccessible. The Richard Mille RM 50-3 I think it is. It's their McLaren tribute watch. Crazy watch. It weighs 40 grams or actually 38 grams or something like that because it's made with all sorts of space-age products like graphene and titanium and even the strap. Did you get a chance to try it on? It's like a super elastic. It's an elastic strap. It's funny, you know, we've spent a lot of time talking about the watch. And it's interesting looking, it's visually very interesting. |
| James | I also found that it wasn't as hard to read as other ones he's had in the past. It was the hand treatment and the curvature of the crystal kind of matched the depth of the dial in a manner that allowed a lot of light into the movement. But don't get me wrong, this is a ludicrous rich guy thing. $980,000 folks. Before you pay any taxes, it's like $1.053 if you've had to pay VAT I think. |
| Jason | So I broke it down to, on Instagram I put I think I broke it down, it's like $25,000 per gram, so it's crazy. |
| James | I mean, it's a wonderful thing to get a chance to see in person. It's laughably expensive, it's ludicrously complicated. Who knows what the markup is over the raw materials that are represented there. But then you add in the skills of designing and making and sourcing the people who can make all the various elements, because they don't make all of the pieces. Getting to see it in person is a remarkably kind of like fun thing and putting it on your wrist is crazy. |
| Jason | Yeah. Yeah. It's probably like when you got to drive a Bugatti at the Pebble Beach a couple years ago. |
| James | It's like you never, you never get, you never get a chance to see this stuff. And I mean, in terms of, uh, you could imagine somebody who kind of maybe lives and breathes F1 as a high level fan or as a McLaren owner. The tie-ins with that really crazy, like 1% lifestyle is so obvious. And that's what Richard and I, you know, that's what they, That's where they operate. They don't have to sell many watches. |
| Jason | Should we move in a sliding scale going down or do you want to just pick a random one? |
| James | I'll just pick a random one. The next one I saw that I really loved, and this is a very strange choice for me, it's also not that TGN, but I think it could be a little bit more TGN, is the Cartier Drive Extra Flat. I have that too. So if I was going to pick a favorite dress watch from this week, that one is it. Unfortunately, it's only in white gold, so the price is $17,000 Swiss francs, something like that, more than I'm ever going to spend, certainly on a dress watch. If you remember the drive from last year, they had a very domed crystal, and so does the Moonphase from this year. And it's reflective. Even on the white dial, all you see is reflection. On this, it's a flat crystal, Piaget hand-wound movement, no seconds hand, no date. And, goodness sakes, it's 6.6 millimeters thick. It was on a beautiful gray leather strap. Yeah, it was gorgeous. It was really good on rest. The first card I ever put on where I was like, Oh yeah, no, I totally get the aesthetic. If I wore a dress watch every day, this would be it. And I think with a steel, if they were deciding to make a steel version, which they didn't certainly didn't say they were going to, that could be a really interesting alternative to I mean, a lot of like, if you just think, so it's a Piaget hand, right? A very high end movement. Yeah. I argue, arguably better than the movement you're getting in something like a Royal Oak, which is a very old movement, archaic design at this point. Yeah. I, maybe those aren't comparable things, but the pricing wouldn't be that far off. And if you went in steel, I mean, obviously in, in, in the precious metal, you think it would knock it by half. I would think predictably they could come in, they could come in kind of above an entry level tank and below any of the precious stuff, you know, maybe around where the car, the, Calibrated Cartier diver is or something like that. Yeah, I love that watch Yeah, if you're gonna wear a dressy piece and maybe if you're more of a TGN warrior on the weekends Yeah, that thing would be killer and I think it'd be amazing and steel so a good good job on Cartier for that normally that's a brand that I kind of like go through the meeting and instantly forget all the stuff because it's either and they have some unbelievably fancy ones you see the The one that it's all diamonds and it has a Panthers head on the dial. That's all made of diamonds Yeah, and the Panthers head rotates throughout the day. |
| Unknown | Yeah |
| James | I don't know what's up with Panthers, but Cartier is all about Panthers. |
| Jason | Yeah, yeah. The thing about Cartier to me is that, you know, I never got them for years. I mean, and I think something happened in the past 10 years when they brought in this, the woman who heads up the... Carol. Carol for SDA. Yeah. A switch got flipped and they suddenly do amazing things with their watches. I mean, that one uses a Piaget movement, but the in-house Cartier stuff is really tremendous. And when I go to their meetings here at SIHH, I'm always blown away by the sheer number of new watches and interesting and amazing creations that they come up with, none of which, other than this Drive and maybe the Diver a couple years ago, are of any interest to me. But I sit through that entire meeting, even when they hand out the women's watches, because they're like, they're the most far out, wild pieces, you know? The one with the Panther where the paw indicates the time, it's crazy stuff. |
| James | I'm not looking at it and hating it, I kind of marvel at its near absurdity versus my taste, still really impressive as far as all the technical and aesthetic attributes. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| Jason | Well, you know, there was another watch. I'll grab the next one. I think almost unanimously anybody you talk to, at least in our kind of space that was walking around the show, said that a favorite of the show, if not the favorite, was the Master Control watches that JLC kind of updated for this year. I think it's the 20th or 25th anniversary of Master Control. I'm not sure. just great watches three pieces there's a time and date just a time and date version then they've got the the two register chronograph and then the geographic which is like a second time zone piece the time and date and the geographic are both 39 millimeter watches perfect diameter the chronograph is bumped up to 42 still feels amazing still feels amazing they all have this super clean aesthetic like really clean a sector dial bright silver color silver color with these Blue accents that like when you look at it in the right light It's like really blue and sometimes it's not I didn't notice the blue until I took a photo and then I you know I click the zoom button quickly. |
| James | Oh, yeah the focus Yeah, and then I got hit with a big one of the markers on the yeah the scale on the sub dial Yeah, right blue. |
| Jason | Yeah, and I'm a sucker for two register chronographs the I'm more fond of kind of the round sort of mushroom shape pushers that would be my only gripe with that because it has kind of the rectangular pushers, but Love all three watches. |
| James | I know you're real fond of the geographic I think of the three I would I would probably just grab the the time and date automatic the 39 millimeter Well, I mean we said in that last episode in our dream watches that we wanted more pseudo explorers Yeah, right. If you look at the Explorer and you don't like it, which is fine. Sure. Yeah, this is an entirely different aesthetic Super legible, but no loom that's important to mention I suppose yeah, but it is very legible that uses these black kind of skeleton hands that mimic these are like a radiated and It looks a bit like a vintage watch where the lume has fallen out of it, which I think is going to be very divisive. I heard a few people say they really didn't like the treatment, but I think they're just either so purist that they can't appreciate something new, or they kind of missed it because I think that all three look really good and are so legible. |
| Jason | The time and date price was $5,700. |
| James | So right around that of an Explorer. With a discount, at a dealer. JLC automatic with date. If you put that on a brown leather strap, you could wear that with anything forever. And I bet you it would look real good on a NATO. |
| Unknown | Yeah, I bet it would too. |
| James | Because it has those standard lugs. There's nothing holding you back from that being easy to put all sorts of straps on. Fantastic. What an absolute winner. |
| Jason | The geographic has like a crown at 10 o'clock or thereabouts that rotates a city ring at the bottom, and then that corresponds to a sub-dial which has a second clock face. |
| James | Yeah, if you find anything, I mean you can see this on, you can see the new master controls on their website, but if you find anything with the geographic in the name, it'll have that mechanism, which has that big cutout at around 6 o'clock. |
| Jason | Yeah, and great, it's still so easy to read, I mean it's fantastic. What's next for you? |
| James | Next one for me. Um, so I had a quick meeting with the guys from Triton. Oh yeah. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| James | So this is a, these are, uh, this is a gentleman that, uh, Triton was a dive watch company in the sixties that actually was positioned price-wise above Rolex. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And this gentleman bought the Triton, the rights to Triton a few years ago as he was an avid collector. He has now re-released kind of a new vintage model. I mean, it's very, very similar. It's just a little bit bigger. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | this Triton subphotic or subphotique. Yeah. So it's meant to reference the depth in water where light starts to fade. Sure. You know, aside from being quite expensive for, you know, a micro brand. Yeah. Not unlike the Manta. Right. It's impressive. You know, it uses a SOP rod. The case is beautifully made. It has all the everything you would expect from a watch. I think it's about six to seven thousand euros. Sure. Which is a fortune for a watch. Yeah. In my perspective, especially watch where whether or not, you know, Triton matters But even if you know Triton, they don't have like a brand cachet. It's a relaunched brand. Yeah, and I think It's at least worth going to the website to look at the the watches and the aesthetic because they look really cool The crown is at 12 and now it's a screwed out like a proper the original It was like a cap that went on a smaller crown on the inside Yeah, and they've launched a bracelet, which is the new one for this year. I want to say the watch is 40 or 41 millimeters and the no crown to dig in on either side. And the crown was actually easy to access. Last year's version with the rubber strap was the one that I would wear, but now they've launched a really nicely made bracelet for a high-end feeling bracelet. And a few different dial options. So there's like a Pelagos blue, like a flat blue. There's a more sunburst blue, a black and a gray option. And all of them were really cool. I was impressed. I think they have a battle ahead of them to establish operating at that price point. And I asked him, I said, you know, who buys a Triton from you? Oh, yeah. Which is a favorite question of mine. And he said, you know, it's guys that have all the other things you would expect a watch brand to have. And they want something that they don't see every day. Yeah. Yeah. And at that point, I get it. Yeah. If you're if you're an avid kind of Rolex and Omega that like in that space. Yeah. And this would be the same as buying a watch you may have bought six months ago or something like that. And you want you want kind of something new. And this is definitely something new. It's a locked in aesthetic. Yeah. It's a beautiful reference. |
| Jason | I liked it. I mean, from the photos, I didn't meet with him, but I noticed Todinke also put up a review of it on their website. |
| James | Yeah, they got it up. I haven't written anything about it, but they got it up right away. |
| Jason | I'm really fond of... You and I, we see a lot of dive watches, and it's always neat to see one that references kind of a great name from the past or kind of does something a little bit different. You know, we talked about the Unimatic a while ago, totally different price range. Yeah, of course. People doing really creative stuff rather than just sort of regurgitating the same style. The fact that, you know, this guy, you know, he's managed to engineer that crown at the top and, you know, soap rod's a solid movement. |
| James | The case is a very complex shape too. It has a lot of faceting. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah, yeah. |
| James | It's not a simple shape. The bezel's very nice and he went out of his way to make sure it's 60 clicks. He doesn't like 120 clicks and I'm with him on that. Yeah, yeah. And it feels great. The loom is fantastic. It's a loomed bezel as well. I dig it. I mean, like I said, the price is going to be the issue for most people, not unlike a lot of watches at that price point that aren't Rolex, right? Definitely. I mean, and this is now cheaper than a Rolex. You keep in mind what a new sub costs. Right. This is a bit less. Right. But I think if you're a dive watch fan, you should at least go to their website and check out the look, because if you don't know Triton, and I only knew it because there's a couple of guys on Instagram that have the old ones. Oh, yeah. And so if you don't know Triton, I think that's at least worth checking out. Yeah. And if you can see one in person, all the better because they're cool. |
| Jason | Yeah. Cool. So, and to be clear, you saw, you met with them here at the hotel or outside of the show. Yeah. |
| James | He was just kind of kicking around in the middle of the lobby. |
| Jason | Yeah. That's cool. Back at the Palexpo, another brand that was exhibiting this year that had been absent for a handful of years. They were there the first couple of years that I started going to SAGH and then they went to Basel and now they're back. It's Girard Perregaux, GP. Their big launch this year was they brought back the Laureato, which is a famous, design from their past. I think I'm probably going to... I want to say late 70s. ...annoy people, but yeah, it's definitely like a 70s. Mid to late 70s. Yeah, with that angular, you know, bezel, kind of along the lines of a Nautilus. Genta inspired. |
| James | Genta-esque, yes. I would say it's really right if you averaged out a Nautilus, an Ingenieur, and the Royal Oak, you're going to get a L'Oreal. |
| Jason | And I don't think Genta had a hand in this. I'm not, I don't think, and people can certainly correct us if we're wrong. I don't know the history of that watch specifically. But it's beautiful. It has this sort of hobnail pattern on the dial, you know, texture on the dial, comes in like a blue dial and they make a titanium version, they make a steel version, they make, you know, I think a two-tone version. There's a 42mm version, which was a size that looked good on my wrist, but they also have the 38mm Laureato. And then they have a 34, which uses an in-house quartz movement that'll appeal to women, I think. I really like that watch. It's kind of, it's refreshing. It's okay. Yes, it's Royal Oak looking, it's engineer-like, but it's different, you know? |
| James | The only thing I would say that it's guilty of for me is I found it bland. It's beautifully made. As soon as you pick it up, it's also not cheap. Yeah, that's true. One, it's GP, so that's a higher end thing immediately. And then it's not like it's their entry-level line. At least when they announced, I don't know the price of these ones now, maybe you remember, but when they announced the Laureato and This is |
| Jason | Laurietta was great. I enjoyed that that was their big piece this year like that WWTC they put it in a 1966 case which is the first time they've done that the WWTC has gone through a lot of different That's there. I don't know what it stands for. It's the world time. |
| James | Yes. It's there like WWTC I can't remember what it's I don't remember what it stands for either, but it's their legit full world time caliber time I've been making it for years, you know for some time It was 44 millimeters, then it was a little bigger. They've made it in all sorts of case. I mean that sort of black The more sporty one, they made one that was like a black case with red accents. |
| Jason | They made tons of stuff. And I've always liked them, actually. I've always really liked them. Great movement. But this one, it's in a legit, you know, dressy case. The 1966 line is their one that really references kind of the classic era of watches. And in that case, it is fantastic. It's got a lot of symmetry to it because it has the crown on either side directly across at 9 and 3, one for turning the city ring. |
| James | Did you post a photo of it? |
| Jason | Don't think I did. |
| James | Okay, so you can go you can go to my Instagram I post a photo of it on the bracelet, which is not how I would buy Oh, yeah, but it was only 700 bucks more for what is a sensibly like a very nice like nice bracelet Yeah, I would just wear it on a strap if I was in that position, but if you were Looking for a fancier sort of world timer a step up from something like a GMT master. You're gonna wear a suit Yeah killer. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, really thin. Yeah, 40 millimeters. Yes, 40 Yeah, and a killer, you know, it has a bright kind of Creamy silver dial or just very legible still and it's not like some of the WWDC's were chronographs as well Yeah, and they got quite busy with the chronograph in the center. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that was a killer watch. No doubt Yeah, what else do you have? Well, I think this pretty much brings me to my last one that was actually shown at the show and I know this is one that would Kind of suit you too is um, this is kind of the first time that I put on a Panerai a modern Panerai that I instantly wanted Oh, yeah, actually any Panerai. Yeah, I like the brand's aesthetic Mm-hmm, but they never suit my wrist. They're often the coolest ones are often very big Yeah, and certainly that's the case when it comes to the submersible historically speaking as of SIGH 2017 we now have a 42 millimeter steel Panerai submersible and it's like there's like 12 words in the name It's a 1950s case, which is I think almost all Luminors now. Yeah Panerai heads I'm sure could prove me wrong, but the It's 42 millimeters in steel. It's a three days movement Mm-hmm. I put it on and I like I kind of fell in love instantly Yeah, all this time of trying on 44 and 47 millimeter. Yeah submersibles and being like, yeah, this is so good. Yeah. |
| Jason | Yeah, exactly And isn't it funny when when it was lying on the table on the presentation table at least when I first saw it It's lying next to all these these giant other submersibles It looks almost like it's shrunken. It had such a miniature look to it, but it's perfect Even the strap looked really narrow, I was like looking at it as I tried it on. |
| James | Did you bend that strap? |
| Jason | Yeah. |
| James | So the strap has like multiple, they're not hinges because they don't, they're not actually articulated, but there's like thin parts in the strap, like a vent. You can fold that strap all the way against itself with the vent, so comfortable. |
| Jason | It like takes the Seiko vented strap like to a whole new level and it's the most wonderful soft rubber. I mean, I've always loved the Panerai rubber straps, but great. Great piece, and it looks good on the wrist. |
| James | Sub-dial at nine with a blue hand, just for a little pop of color. I would absolutely wear that watch. $8,600 US dollars for the steel. They make a rose gold with a black bezel insert that, if somebody color corrects their photo wrong, you'd think is bronze. Man, also cool, but no way I'm buying a gold Panerai. But with something like that, maybe on the used market, it's going to be floating around the price of a sub. That's a pretty cool watch and it's super wearable. And if you've always, if like me, you've always kind of been into the aesthetic, but you're not going to wear a 44 or even, or the 47 sub. I just think I was really, really just kind of happy to see that they brought that aesthetic to such a wearable size. Right. |
| Jason | That'll be cool. There were two other dive watches at the show actually that I, that I liked. And we'll kind of close out with, with divers as is befitting our show here. You know, one, I think it doesn't bear a lot of mentioning because it's kind of a retread of stuff that they've shown before. It was the Audemars Piguet, the Royal Oak Offshore divers. They've sort of merged the original steel Rue diver, which I really liked many years ago. I got a chance to dive with one. And then they kind of moved into these different funky case materials for a couple of years. And last year they had this... The colors. The diver chronograph with all the colors. Well, now this year they've taken the steel diver and release that in a number of these funky colors. And the colors are a bit much. I mean, and the watches are, of course, expensive. So, you know, you'd have to be kind of a rich guy to... Crazy expensive. ...to kind of like... Very expensive, yeah. |
| James | ...you know, go out and buy a really... But the bright green this year is not a boutique exclusive. The green one of the chronograph was Geneva only. Yeah. I like the navy blue one with the yellow. Yeah. And then I asked, and they all come with two straps. Oh, yeah. So you get the bold color. So, like, the navy blue one comes with, I think, a bright yellow strap. Yeah. And then it comes with a blue strap. And great straps, too, again. |
| Jason | They're really great really great straps there as they should be have this little bit of a texture to them They're there. |
| James | Yeah, they're kind of like like Teflon. |
| Jason | Yeah. |
| James | Yeah, but very soft and great buckle Yeah, all the stuff that you need to yeah start to justify that sort of a price point Yeah, but really cool and then they have the only I mean it's like I Understand that it's part of the design. So this is a dumb thing to to pick at them about, but using that internal bezel is a joke. You have to back off a very difficult crown that's very inside the case. But once it's open, it's notched, so you move one click at a time, which is kind of like a Braymont's Rotoclick, which I really like. With the Braymont one, you can do it while it's on your wrist. I couldn't imagine... I think I was able to do it when I wore it. It's at 10. You're not going to do it in the surface when you're bobbing around. |
| Jason | It's not practical, but it is a fun watch. I've worn those a few times, And that color, I mean, again, it's a crazy watch. It's silly, but I liked it. It was fun to put on. |
| James | Have they ever translated the octagonal bezel to a rotating mass? |
| Jason | External, have they? Not that I know of. |
| James | No, I don't think so. If they have, and you're a big AP fan, send me a link to that, because I just don't know the watch. But that would be neat. That'd be pretty cool. Because there'd be some grip built into just that shape itself. |
| Jason | Kind of like the Seamaster's, you know, with the scalloped bezel. Sort of get that same sort of vibe to it. |
| James | Hopefully more grip than that scalloped bezel. I always wondered, you know, because even with the Aqua Timers, they have, you turn the exterior bezel and it rotates the inside, which is kind of cool. I like that. I wonder if they could do the same thing on that or simply put a scale on, maybe that violates the magenta design of the octagonal and with the screws, you don't want to mess with any of that. So, fair enough. |
| Jason | The last diver I'll mention that I actually didn't get to handle, but it was in the window, was a Ulysse Nardin. Oh, I played with this one. Did you? Diver, I think it's called. It's based on a vintage Diver from, you know, probably the 60s. But they had it in the window display that had a tropic strap on it. And, you know, really attractive old Diver, which I'm told, you know, Ulysse wasn't exactly a big brand back in those days. And there were a ton of Dive watches that were in that same case with the same look. So whatever. I mean, it almost has like a... It looks a bit like the Unimatic. It looks a bit like the Unimatic. The hand in the color. Exactly. There's the ladder hands. But it also kind of conjures to me a bit of the Diver 65. Yep, for certain look as well or kind of like the original sort of 60s Oris diver. Yep so they're they're kind of coming out with this new one later in the year that That's gonna use a Ulysse in in-house movement with with some similar aesthetics like a sailcloth strap My only quibble was that it's got a sub seconds instead of a center seconds, which I don't find is I don't know it's aesthetically nice I was told it was pre-production so that they were gonna change some things but the bezel was like |
| James | black polished, so I almost couldn't see the numerals in most scenarios, and I found the crystal definitely needed a better anti-reflective treatment. It was a bubble-style crystal, but it was very close, but the docks is nicer in terms of where you see some reflection on the curve and then none through the center. And again, it's a pre-production thing. The strap wasn't even the right width. Yeah, but cool, cool to see. |
| Jason | Definitely cool. I mean there were a few divers. It wasn't too big. If you looked, if you looked hard enough you can find a couple of sort of TGN worthy watches. |
| James | I think they said it would be 10-ish for that. Yeah, a bit much. You know, UN is a proven, very high-end manufacturer that doesn't get much attention from watch nerds unless they're UN watch nerds. Yeah. So 10 is really nothing for that brand. That's true. So you need to keep that within metric. I mean they showed us the InnoVision 2 which is not a real watch at this point. They don't actually know if they're going to make it. It uses glass bridges. Oh, really? I'll show you a photo of it. I'll get a photo up on Instagram. And then it uses a massless or a winding system with no rotating mass. So it's a circular gear set with four springs. So any motion, one spring is in recession and three rotate the spring. Googled the Ulysses Nardin grinder. Oh the grinder. Yes. Yeah, this is one of the coolest things that they showed as far as technology This is a really tech happy brand. They love innovation like this So they had a big one like a box of 10 inches by 8 inches Yeah with one of these and if you shook the box in any metric, yeah, they had a sticker on the on the winding mass Yeah, yeah that would show you that no matter what you did to the box it turned sure it turned the center gear Oh, yeah So you could shake it violently and it would turn quite quickly. You could shake it a bit and it would... So it's about the tension, the supporting tension between these four kind of leaf springs, if you will. And when one is compressed all the way, the others are allowed to reach to their next gear, but it only moves in one direction. It's, if they can, he, you know, they said they're not sure how to put that in a watch, but there's no reason they couldn't figure it out at some point. But this InnoVision had 10 new technologies. That they're putting in one watch and then they're not gonna build the watch But they were using it as a platform to show off the tech concept watch basically go to their website and check it out It's deep deep watch nerdery. Whatever you think of Ulysses Nardin if you don't know the brand that well, they're so deep into tech Yeah, and mechanical know-how right something like this is really I mean think of what they do with the freak It's still one of the most amazing movements. I've ever seen. Yeah, I don't like the aesthetic, right? I don't think I would wear a freak right I saw a couple that were kind of blacked out and like more tactical that were pretty cool yeah, but You have to respect the technical standpoint of what they're doing there, which is cool. And if they can make a really compelling diver at just a little bit over a Submariner, I don't see why that wouldn't have a market, right? If somebody would enjoy that, maybe they don't want a Sub, or they already have a more expensive UN diver, the Marine or whatever. I think there's room for it. And it certainly, as a prototype, it looked most of the way there. Anything else stand out for you? |
| Jason | You know that that's kind of it. Those are kind of those were kind of my picks Yeah, I got a quick chance. |
| James | I bumped into Robert from Fratello. Yeah, so I got to see his speedy Tuesday Oh, yeah, I saw that too. Yeah of all of it. What stood out most for you when you had it in your hand? |
| Jason | Immediately I mean there's a lot but immediately it's the the finish. It's all brushed. It's all brushed case. Yeah Yeah, like I couldn't quite figure out why I was so drawn to yeah I know immediately like I'm wearing an old speedy now, and it's great looking watch, but it's like It's so different looking because of that matte case. It looks so good. |
| James | Yeah bezels matte. Yeah. Yeah, really cool Yeah, it's in it's as good in person as those photos are. Yep. So whoever and if any listeners reserved one Yeah, send us an email just just for a congrats. I think that's really cool. I didn't and You know, whoever gets them. I think I think we'll be getting a really cool watch I was happy to see it in person. Yeah, you know white sub dials are really cool But it was that case that instantly was like, it soaks up light. |
| Jason | I just thought it was so neat that Omega did something like that. That a big brand, a giant brand like Omega is listening to its audience and its fans and this guy, this blogger who five years ago came up with this concept for a hashtag. |
| James | It's good on them. Don't overdo it. Don't water it down. Don't water down that success. Such a custom piece to this guy's tastes. And they picked a legit guy to partner up with and sold it through their site and all that. And I thought like through Omega, all the fulfillment's done through the brand. It's not being done through Fitello. I think that's a model of how you could do something like this with a brand and have it make sense. Really cool. Congrats on that. What are you feeling, some final notes to get this done? |
| Jason | Yeah, let's wrap it up so we can maybe get some sleep, get some dinner and get some sleep. |
| James | Yeah, so looking at our, well I've got handwritten notes here on some hotel stationery and glancing over at your screen, I think we're both, we've decided to go Patagonia. I think so, yeah. So why don't you go ahead. |
| Jason | Yeah, so I was kind of just killing time one day and I was looking up kind of ski porn videos on YouTube and came across one called Tantalus, which I immediately sent to James because I know it's a it's a peak in British Columbia that he's been talking about climbing for a couple of years. And this happened to be a nice wintry, you know, ski descent of Tantalus. It was a climb and then a ski descent of Tantalus, which was really cool. But it kind of took me down this rabbit hole because Patagonia has a really great YouTube channel. I mean, they've got I don't know the exact count, but they've got dozens, if not hundreds of just cool short videos, including some of the ones maybe we've even talked about on the show before, you know, snippets from like 180, 180 degrees south and some of this other stuff. And it's just worth checking out because, you know, as you know, on the show, we, you know, we love, you know, sort of this outdoor enthusiast, uh, uh, you know, skiing, uh, surfing, sailing, uh, climbing, you know, all that it's got all of that on it. So, you know, just, just check out the Patagonia, YouTube feed and let us know what you think. It was great. Speaking of Patagonia, you had directed me to a really interesting article or podcast actually. |
| James | Oddly enough, we must have been on the same wavelength as far as outerwear goes. NPR has a new podcast hosted by, I believe, the same guy that does their TED Radio Hour. Oh yeah, Guy Raz? Yeah, thank you. I like him quite a bit. I love his voice. It's called How I Built This. And it's innovators and entrepreneurs talking about how they built their company and how they made decisions along the way. Yeah. This is right up my alley. I love these sorts of stories. And I've listened to a bunch of brands I didn't know or care anything about. Actually, the Clif Bar one is really good. The guy that created Clif Bar was really interesting. I listened to one all about a woman that created a service where they drive up in a van and give you, they blow dry your hair. It's called Dry Bar, but it's like hugely successful. That's awesome. Yeah, really, really. And then the woman that created Spanx, of course, she's now a billionaire. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Great story. But my favorite of all of them, because I learned a bunch about the company and I got to kind of experience Yvon Chouinard's spirit. Yeah. In this recording is how I built this for Yvon Chouinard, the creator, founder of Patagonia. And it's really funny because at any point where business would go one direction, he goes the other. Yeah. Purposely keeps the company small. Yeah. He owns the company. They're not going to be publicly traded. He's not interested in growth. He's interested in sustainability. Yeah. When he starts saying in the interview, he's talking about how they try and make decisions based on how will this reflect on the company a hundred years from now. Yeah. And you start to understand why they go to the extent of like their wetsuits are almost entirely eco-friendly, like their whole process is. They've abandoned neoprene. Yeah. So they're using special rubber in solar panel, uh, solar supported factories. Yeah. to, uh, to make their wetsuits. It's fascinating. Uh, even if you don't necessarily care about any of these topics, I don't care about most of the ones I've listened to. Yeah. I just love the story of somebody starting a business and doing their own thing. And with Shannard, he's really doing his own thing. Yeah. |
| Jason | And he's, he's such an anti-businessman. I mean, he's become so successful, but he's, he's the ultimate kind of curmudgeon. |
| James | I love that they'll repair anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if you don't want it anymore, they'll either sell it or dispose of it in, in an ethical fashion. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | I thought it was great. By all means, it's How I Built This on NPR. It's easily Googled or grab it on the same app you're listening this to. It was great. |
| Jason | I loved it. Just an addendum to that, I heard him speak a few years ago. He was on a little book tour, which I'm sure he was very reluctant to do, for his book Let My People Go Surfing, which is a good read. Pick it up. Sort of autobiographical, but he recounts the same sorts of things about the building of Patagonia. Good stuff. Yeah, I'll close out. I've got a final note. It was a kind of a longer article with some really incredible photography. It's an article called A Gathering of Giants. Oh, right. Yeah. And it was by this underwater photographer slash writer named Tony Wu, W-U. And we'll link to this in the show notes as we always do. It was on a website called Maptia. I don't know if that's pronouncing it correctly. It was an interesting article about this guy was out in the Indian Ocean and he's very careful not to specify where because I don't think he wants people going there because part of the discussion of this article was the sort of abuse of whales in whale watching. In how, you know, there's sort of this free for all in whale watching areas where, you know, there's sort of this unrestricted sort of orgy of boats, small boats and big boats kind of harassing the whales when they're coming up from these very deep sounding dives that they do, you know, to thousands of feet to hunt for squid. They come back up and they need like 54 breaths to kind of on average to kind of replenish their pulmonary system. And when these boats are harassing them, they tend to kind of limit that and then dive and kind of escape away from all this harassment. But I think just the point of this article was this guy was in the water shooting photos on a very small scale with just like a little inflatable boat or something. He was out with some scientists and they suddenly saw these sperm whales, which I think are really fascinating whales anyway. They're huge predators. They were surfacing and exhaling And so they kind of motored over in front of them and this guy jumped in the water with his camera. And he saw this congregation of, he said, hundreds, if not thousands, if you can picture this, of these 60 plus foot sperm whales. The photos are unbelievable. Hundreds of sperm whales. Like he said, they were kind of doing this dramatic sort of swimming together and kind of bumping each other and making all sorts of noise. And it was just, the photos were just incredible. Yeah, so check that out. We'll put the link in the show notes. Good read, good photos. I guess that's probably a good way to close out the show given all of our discussion about lofty watches over here in Geneva. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. So I would say this is us signing off from our SIHH 2017 field report. We hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions about the watches or really anything else, always send us an email at thegraynado at gmail.com and we'll be in touch with a new episode in a couple weeks. Chat to you then. Thanks for listening. |