The Grey NATO – 261 – Blancpain CEO Marc Hayek On Dive Watches, Swatch x Blancpain, Ocean Commitment, Rebreathers, And More

This week, we continue a great run of episodes with a special chat between Jason and Marc A. Hayek – the CEO of Blancpain (ever heard of it?!). Marc is an avid diver, a huge fan of watches (especially dive watches), and has been guiding Blancpain since he became the CEO in 2002.

Image credit: Mark Strickland/Blancpain

Jason and Marc get into his start in watches and diving, his outlook on the future of rebreather diving, the realities of the recent Scuba Fifty collab between Blancpain X Swatch, and the importance of the Ocean Commitment program. It’s a fascinating chat, and we couldn’t be more thankful to Marc and the team at Blancpain for making it possible.

From the start, Jason has officially launched his latest book, Sweetwater, and James got a new TV and possibly a new hobby (it has been a week!). Stay in the mix for a Final Notes that will have you checking out a great new podcast from Adventure Journal and contemplating the merits of some motion sensing in your life.

Click here to play episode 261 from your browser – Thanks so much for listening.

---

00:37 Sweetwater! 
1:59 Collective TGN Special for Oris “Seventy-Five” collab
5:58 Triumph Brewing (meetup 2-4 pm, Nov 11)
11:00 Dewalt Orbital Sander 20V
16:46 James’ Pelagos 39 
19:00 Marc A. Hayek 
19:07 Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Act 3
19:40 Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Act 1 
20:00 Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Act 2 Tech Gombessa
25:21 Fabien Cousteau 
32:17 700 Sharks In The Night (Fakarava)
35:00 Re-breather diving
36:42 Dive tables
38:49 The first dive computers
44:11 Blancpain x Swatch Scuba Fifty
46:22 Swatch Scuba 
51:50 Blancpain Ocean Commitment
55:01 Rangiroa 
55:46 Maldives 
57:00 Socorro 
57:20 Silfra diving
59:29 Laurent Ballesta on TGN (First, second, and third appearance)
1:00:02 The AJ Podcast (via Adventure Journal)
1:02:55 Wiz Motion Sensor
1:05:15 Blink
1:05:17 Eufy 

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” ― Charles Darwin.