The Grey NATO – 265 – Our Favorite Watches of 2023
Published on Thu, 14 Dec 2023 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
The episode begins with James and Jason reflecting on the year 2023 and announcing that this will be the last episode until January 4th, 2024. They discuss their upcoming holiday break and plans, including Jason's dental appointment and gym routine, and James' woodworking project.
The main segment of the episode focuses on their favorite watches of 2023. They go through an extensive list, discussing notable releases from various brands such as Omega, Blancpain, Tag Heuer, Rolex, Oris, Chopard, Ming, and more. They highlight trends like titanium watches, smaller case sizes, and value-driven GMT options.
In the final notes, James recommends a UV flashlight for watch lume photography, and Jason shares his annual tradition of listening to "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsythe, read by Al Maitland from the CBC. They express gratitude to their supporters and the TGN community for another successful year.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches this episode 265. And it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you're listening and would like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co host Jason Heaton. Hey, Jason, how's it going? |
| Jason Heaton | I'm doing okay. I'm dragging a little bit today, but, uh, you know what, this is, uh, I guess we might as well announce it at the top here. This is going to be our last show of 2023. So we're, we're taking a break here between now and in the end of the year, other than, than I guess, remaining Q and a episode that you're going to produce here shortly. And we're going to record. Uh, but other than that, it's, uh, it's a bit of a break for us, isn't it? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, exactly. So for those of you who have your calendar open, this episode goes live on December 14th. We're taking the 21st and the 28th off, and we'll come back on January 4th. As Jason alluded to, there will also be a final of our three Q&As to catch up. So, quote unquote, November's Q&A. We'll come out about the 18th of December, so keep an eye on that. I put out October's yesterday on the 11th, so we'll have that, and then we'll come back on the 4th, and then the second week of January, we'll have December's Q&A. We actually have been getting questions in more reliably again. Maybe the cadence of Q and A's equals getting questions in. Duh, James. But that's great. The questions are really fun. Actually, the one that went up yesterday, we had such a good time recording it that I was like smiling and giggling throughout the edit, which is not a normal, necessarily a normal thing for me, unless we have like a really great guest on. I had a really good time with that. So if you haven't, like if you're on the supporter side, but maybe you haven't been keeping up with the Q and A's, Maybe go back and check out these three that we've done kind of back to back. So it's September, October, November to, again, to catch up. They've been good. And we've, we've had a really good time. We had some really fun hypothetical questions about cars and time travel and that kind of stuff come in. So it's, it's always fun to kind of not necessarily always talk about the same thing that we always talk about. Uh, granted, I'm saying that at the top of an episode where we're going to talk about what we always talk about, which is our favorite watches of 2023 should be, uh, should be another fun episode. One we always look forward to and a nice way to kind of round out the year, I figure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, you know, going back to the, this most recent Q and a, we've had some spirited discussions on slack around a couple of the subjects around, you know, the, the fun and dumb car question and the, and the musical talent one. So, uh, it's, it's fun to dip in there and see what people's responses are to, to that Q and a, that one really seemed to resonate. And, and, you know, just briefly as we're taking these next couple of weeks off, I'll just remind you that slack never closes. It is a 24, seven. environment. So if you're missing TGN chatter over the next couple of weeks while we take some time off, and if you're part of that Slack group, dip in and contribute and read up. It's a fun and lively group. Other than all this kind of housekeeping stuff, what have you been up to? I saw you built a kind of a cool end table, which I'm kind of jealous of your skills there. That looks amazing. |
| James Stacey | Oh, it looks better in the photo, to be fair. I shared the photo on the Slack. I have somebody who I can't figure out how much I should say, because they might be listening. I'm making a gift for somebody. That's as much as I'm willing to say on this episode. I have two brothers who are very talented carpenters, and it's a skill set that I do really enjoy. And it's also something where, like, if I'm doing that, I almost can't do anything else, which usually I really like as well. I came across a one board table on Instagram, and I can put the Instagram story in the show notes if you wanna check it out. But you literally buy one eight foot board, and honestly, that's probably like a foot too long. You probably need about seven feet of board to do this. Wow, yeah. But the idea is that it's essentially a little like end table sort of thing that only requires one board in mostly simple cuts. And so I made the first prototype, hopefully the only prototype, we'll see. I'm not I'm learning just how bad I am at a certain few things. Made the first prototype and it came together pretty nicely and I photographed it in the right light, so it looked... It looked pretty good, but it was... There's a couple of bad cuts and I don't... I should have the pieces arrive from Amazon today, but I had an issue where it's... I have an eight inch miter saw, chop saw, but the board is 10 inches, so I can't do a 45... I can't do the 45 cuts using that saw. So I've been using my circular saw, like a DeWalt plug in circular saw. Yeah. And the problem with that is, is to cut a 45 on those saws, you're leaning way over the guard or the cutting plate. Right. And it fouls against the clamps that I use to establish the cutting line. Yeah. So I had to cut the 45s by hand, and of course, they don't come out perfect. One of them came out pretty close. Yeah. But not perfect. Yeah. I have really enjoyed the process and I went and got the ability to do like pocket holes for the screws. So the version that's on Instagram has just like drilled out holes and then they countersink the screws and fill them with wood glue, sand them down, stain them to hide them. Yeah. The way that I was able to... With some trial and error, there's several more holes than there are screws. I was able to hide almost all the screws in pockets. Wow. Which is kind of... Feels kind of cool and looks neat. And I just absolutely... I did that all Sunday afternoon, it was great. Really, really enjoyed the process. |
| Jason Heaton | That sort of activity is so fun that it's just totally absorbing, isn't it? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. It's like working on the car. Like you just, you're constantly just kind of doing little problem solving, especially when you're not even remotely a professional. Right. Right. And so I did the first, this first one out of like knotty pine for 12 bucks or something. And I'll probably do the final, uh, I think out of Oak. I haven't quite decided yet. |
| Jason Heaton | Very cool. I mean, that's good cheap fun other than unless you have to actually buy a bunch of expensive tools like it's Yeah, it's it's fun to play with wood wood isn't still isn't that expensive depending on what you buy and you know, if it helps you build your skills and it passes the time I mean, you'll look up and like four hours will go by and be like, what have I been doing? Yeah, that's cool. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean, there's technically there's a pretty tight limit on how much I'm supposed to spend on this gift, but the wood is less than that. The several hundred dollars in tools and other things I bought aren't, but I can pay those forward on other projects conceivably. And other than that, I've just kind of been working and doing kind of Christmassy stuff with the fam. What have you been up to for the last week? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, it's been a pretty kind of consistent quiet week. I mean, as I've been doing for about the past month, I've been packing and shipping copies of Sweetwater and signing a lot of books and And, uh, the response continues to be great. So thanks to everybody that's supported that and ordered books. Um, today, you know, right after we record, uh, this afternoon, I have a fairly lengthy dentist appointment that I've been putting off and kind of dreading. I I'm, I'm guilty of neglecting my, I shouldn't say dental hygiene. I've always been a brusher and flosser, but, uh, in terms of going to the dentist, it's not something I enjoy. So I've put it off for several years and I went about a month or so ago and then they said, Oh, you've, you've got some issues here. You need to come back. So I'm, I'm off there this afternoon, which I'm not looking forward to. But, uh, other than that, it's, I recently joined a new gym actually in town. I'm not a big fan of going to the gym, but this is looking like a winter where we're not going to get a lot of cross country skiable snow, which is kind of my go-to exercise in the winter. And I really enjoy swimming laps. And so, uh, I found a new facility here in town with a, with a nice pool and it's a really nice place. And, um, So Ghoshani and I both joined as kind of a family unit and it's, it's pretty affordable. And so we've been, we've been going there regularly and, and, and swimming and between that and using the rowing machine and running once a week, I think I've got a pretty good kind of winter routine lined up, which I'm pretty pleased about. |
| James Stacey | Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | But, uh, yeah, other than that, it's just, just keeping on, keeping on here. |
| James Stacey | Sarah and I started going for a couple of short runs. I think we did two or three and had best intentions. And then it got like properly cold for a couple of days and we slowed right down. So I think that's probably my sign that I'm moving. I need to take that energy that I wouldn't mind going for a run here, there, and just, yeah, getting on the rowing machine. But a gym with a pool is a great idea. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, because I'm not a big weightlifter. I don't care to do that stuff with machines or free weights. I've just, I've never been that way. But a pool... Weights keep you young. Yeah, I know. I know. I should. I should embrace that. But for now, you know, kind of I do the push-ups, planks, rowing machine, and then the swimming. I just love swimming labs. |
| James Stacey | I feel like I would need to enjoy swimming. I would need to learn how to swim. Like I can swim and like I'm actually a fair, like a powerful swimmer, but my technique is terrible. Sure. Just like, like world class. Oh yeah. Yeah. I have to be in the 99th percentile for, for, for like technique when swimming, I just get in the water and kind of, kind of cart around. If I don't have fins on, it's pretty hopeless as far as a speed or efficiency goes, but it's a, it's a real skill set like running. Yeah. Right. Yeah. you start and you slowly refine over time and that sort of thing. But I guess the plus with swimming is it's unlikely that you're gonna hurt yourself or your body in any way. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Well, that's great. |
| James Stacey | I hope that proves to be valuable and easy throughout the winter months. I've been eyeballing a treadmill. Oh, really? I don't think I'm gonna do it though. I don't know. I have room now and I like the idea of these ones that you can walk on while you work. They have less of a screen and the rest of it and you just They've like, you know, you could control incline and speed and the simple stuff, and then you could have your laptop there. So if I was working or wanted to watch some YouTube videos, I could at least be walking while I do it. It's a good idea. Yeah. So I started looking into a little bit of those, but I haven't really made a decision. They also make ones that like aren't even treadmills. They're like walking pads that you can put under a standing desk and just walk against them. Okay. So you're, you're moving a bit, which could be good. I definitely don't want this winter to be a sedentary as last winter was for me. Yeah. Oh, sure. Because the few times that I did get out last year, I had an amazing time being out and moving around, but I could tell that I was the dullest I had been. And the rowing machine helps, but you have to stay on top of that. And I haven't been with the current workload. So that's the other side of taking the time off. I'm just really excited to not think about work, not TGN necessarily, because we still got the Q&A and then we're back only about a week later for uh, the next episode, but I, uh, I am looking forward to just like unloading a certain amount of stress and focusing on like time with the family, sleeping correctly. Uh, you know, the aura ring score really, really puts it into sharp, sharp contrast, just how poor my sleep can be when I don't make it like a priority to go to bed at a certain time. Yeah. Yeah. So learning my way through that. And I think we're at the point with the ring where it starts, it has like enough background data. It's been like, I guess a month at this point, a little bit over. Right. I also like maybe when you use the rowing machine, do you take your ring, like whatever ring you wear, do you take it off? |
| Jason Heaton | I don't know, but I know what you're getting at. It is a bit of a little niggling sort of problem. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, I still have it like a pretty solid callus from where the ring is interacting with kind of the, I don't know, the meaty part of the underside of my knuckle. |
| Unknown | Yep. |
| James Stacey | Yep. But now that I've got, now that this is the fitness tracker, normally I would just taken off my wedding band when I was rowing, but now I don't know, maybe just wear a garment or something. Right, right. Anyways, we could not have derivated much further. You want to jump back into some watches? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we've got a ton to talk about today. But before that, let's talk about what we ourselves are wearing today. I've got... I pulled one out of my box. I wrote a sub stack last week about kind of revisiting my collection. And one of the pieces I pulled out is my Bremont Supermarine 2000, which is a watch I just just had not forgotten about, but just, you know, every time I'd see it, I'm like, Oh, okay. You know, another time, but I've been wearing it, you know, several days straight now. And I did on a NATO. Now I've got back on the original rubber. And it just reminds me how, how good this watch is. You know, it's a big heavy watch, but, uh, I don't mind that I've never been one to, to mind a big chunky dive watch. And it's just, uh, it's just, you know, this is the first gen. I mean, this was from 2011, I believe, or 12. And it's, it's still, to me, my kind of my favorite iteration of this watch. And I was on Braymont's website the other day and it looks like, and I could be wrong, but it looks like it said that the S2000 is discontinued or out of stock or something. So maybe they're planning something new for, I know that they're kind of revamping the Supermarine line, but I guess it remains to be seen what, what will become of the kind of the big deep diver, the S2000. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. They are rethinking kind of that entire lineup for Braymont. Yeah. So I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot of what is currently has been on the, on the lineup and previous kind of go away or change fairly substantially in the coming six months. So we'll have to see how that settles out. |
| Jason Heaton | We're kind of seeing this, this trend or newfound interest in smaller watches. And I think, you know, Braymont has such a strong collection now with the Supermarine, they've got some great S 500s and of course the S 302, the S 300s. Um, maybe, I mean, this is a complete guess, but maybe the S2000 just is the least popular of that whole supermarine lineup. And maybe they'll either abandon it altogether due to the size or, or, or do some things differently with it. Who knows? I'm again, I'm completely guessing on this, but, um, that's kind of my anecdotal or, or sort of observation. |
| James Stacey | You know, I was chatting with a buddy recently about the like, kind of, and we've talked about it before on the show, it comes up in the Q and A's like the disparity between the whole of the watch buying world and enthusiasts. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, there's a long standing joke in the car, like the car journalism world that like if car journalists had their way, every car would be a brown wagon. Yeah, but there are no brown wagons. |
| Jason Heaton | You know what I mean? |
| James Stacey | Like they just canceled the Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, the wagon version of that discontinued for next year. They don't sell enough of them. Oh, my guess is the tie can will follow. Yeah. Anyways. But yeah, we were just joking that like maybe the idea like this current focus on 38 or 37 or something doesn't necessarily reflect what people are, like people outside the world of watch enthusiasm are actually buying. Right. Bremont wouldn't, let alone something as big as the 2000, but they probably wouldn't continue pretty much focusing on 43 being their core. Yeah. If they weren't moving enough watches to make that work. Right. Right. Anyways, speaking of slightly smaller watches, I'm still wearing the Longines Spirit Zulu Time Limited Edition for Hodinkee, which I really like. As it turns out, the three folks, myself included, who were part of the campaign were gifted a watch. So I thought I had one on loan and then another one showed up. So I've got one to call my own. Currently, I'm wearing it on the 21 millimeter tropic that would have come with one of the deep star chronographs. |
| Unknown | Oh, sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And it's simply awesome. I just I'm super happy with the watch. I like the way I really like the way it looks. It doesn't weigh anything. It's a nice sort of like different option than the Pelagos 39, same size, also very lightweight, but a totally different aesthetic. And I think it's nice, I haven't owned a Longines or had one for quite a long time, and I was pretty seriously eyeing the Hydra Conquest GMT. And I think this is obviously gonna scratch for most part that itch and anything where it wouldn't, I'd have the Pelagos. But it gives me a nice option where I still get all the titanium stuff, but I'm traveling. And then obviously being a Houdinki LE makes it a little sweeter for me as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah I mean Longines just makes such a high quality watch. They've got such a deep lineup and yeah that one really hits or ticks a lot of boxes kind of in our world especially. And now you know you've got that and you also have the Mido LE for Houdinki which is also a travel watch. Sure is. Any early early thoughts on, I mean, there's such different pieces, right? Is it the same movement? They're both part of this watch group. Is it the same movement? |
| James Stacey | Yes and no. I would say the answer is yes and no. So this is an L844.4, but it has a 72 hours of power reserve. I think it's, I would say it's probably largely similar to the movement that's in the Mido. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I think this is one of those ones where it comes down to one, there's a, they're aesthetically very different watches, especially the Mido really genuinely feels like its own little thing from the Mito world that has that multi fort chronograph look to it. Between the two, I would say by the Mito, it's $1,400, not $3,800. Both of them are still available for purchase if you're in the market for a travel watch for kicking off 2024. If money is part of the main concern, like if a budget is part of the main concern, just buy the Mito. I absolutely love it, but it wears a little bit bigger and it wears quite a bit heavier. That would be the difference, being 41 instead of 39. Sure. The Longines feels a little bit more specific, a little bit more sort of luxurious. Some of the dial elements I really like, it has this engraved ring just interior to the minute track that's on the Riat. Yeah. And if you take a close look at it, it disappears in most light, but it is a high polished ring that encircles a couple of millimeters into the dial, basically the same track that the hour marker not the Arabic markers, but the hour pull markers land on. Yeah. There's little details that I really, really do genuinely enjoy about it, but there is just a thing where you pay more for long jeans than you do a Mido. Right. And that's the same case in this one. Yeah. I honestly don't know that either one's necessarily better than the other. If you want the long jeans enough to spend the extra money, I think you'll enjoy it. But the Mido's such a good watch. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. The big difference here would be, I guess the main one would be the bracelet. outside of aesthetics, similar movement, the rest of it. The Longines, you get a full titanium bracelet, it's grade five. With the Mido, you get three straps, but the bracelet is like a steel melanase mesh. Oh, sure. But yeah, I think for the money, it's the Mido. I feel like that's a really obvious call, like this is still the Greynado. Right. Watches at that $3,000, $4,000 are kind of at the upper end of what I buy. Alright, you wanna get into our favorite watches of the year? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. We've got a very extensive list and who knows if we'll even get to them all. It's a big list. Yeah, and we've covered most of these in some respect on past episodes, so this will just be kind of a greatest hits. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we're not going to spend a huge amount of time on any one watch from the list and we may or may not get to all of these, but we wrote down everything that kind of we had a reaction to this year. Yeah. Jason, you want to kick it off right at the top? That's one from earlier this year. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, this is a pretty special one and it definitely blows the top on the $5,000 budget. This is a $14,300 watch and it's the Seamaster Ploprof 1200. So, you know, earlier in 2023, Omega kind of made a big splash, so to speak, pardon the pun, with a Seamaster celebration. I think they did an event in Greece and they kind of did some special stuff with the whole Seamaster line from I think even from Aqua Terra all the way up to to Ploprof and to the Ultra Deep um and the one that I'm calling out here is the Ploprof because you know they they it's a watch you and I both love um the Ploprof in general vintage modern etc um and and they kind of went back to the original formula in terms of size they made it the exact size of the of the vintage one so it's a little bit flatter, I guess. The case proportions look a little bit more like the vintage, and then they did something kind of special with the kind of that faded deep blue dial and bezel. And remains a watch that is kind of on my short list of Grails. I just think they've done such a great, great job with this really strange, quirky watch. |
| James Stacey | So my question, I guess, would be with your Grail, do you want this one, the anniversary with the kind of four different blues or three different blues, or do you want something like the titanium or that gray one with the orange, or what would be the move for you? |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, I think titanium would be... I've really grown to really love titanium. I've got the Pelagos FXD this year, and titanium is just such a wonderful material, especially in a big watch like this. I haven't tried it, but I think it would just be... Well, I take that back. I remember trying a titanium plow prof a long time ago, but Like I think when a big watch like this, I think titanium would, would be pretty special. But then again, I haven't tried this one yet. So who knows? Steel kind of harks back to the original and is kind of the traditional material of the blow prof. But, um, I don't mind the blue. I do, I do quite like the blue on this. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And no date. |
| James Stacey | I don't like the blue at all really. Um, and it's something, it's something about like if the hands were a different color, I might feel different. Oh yeah. Right. Um, but it's just, it's a lot of blue and there's, There's just something about a ploprof with a big orange minute hand. Yeah, true. That's true. I feel like I need that. That's part of what I would want my experience with a ploprof to be. And I would be largely, I think, indifferent to steel or titanium. When you're wearing a giant watch, just wear it. I think the titanium is probably the best and most wearable of the two. But if it was a black dial, black bezel, orange button, orange minute hand sort of ploprof, I'm in very much. Such a cool watch. also celebrating a whole thing this year, came in three different acts. How about some Blancpain? Before we move too far down the list here, we had the Act One, which kind of resonated for me as probably one of my favorite watches of the year, simply because of the sizing. We always say that you want smaller sort of take on the 50 Fathoms, and this one's 42.3, which connects with the original model that came out And yeah, this... I mean, I think they made very few of these. I wanna say it was like 70. Right, yeah. And... Or... Yeah, I think it was something like 70 and it was divided up to... Across a couple of different categories. So I think these are deep collector sort of fodder, but I do really hope that they take this format and just make something loosely similar that's standard. I would say it could even be smaller. Yeah. Um, but I guess we'll see what, what next year holds. Uh, but that was only act one of, of three. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And then, then we had act two, um, which was launched in, uh, in February, actually, that was a trip that I was on over in Rangaroa and French Polynesia. And it was, it's a neat watch. It's the act two that the 50 fathoms tech Gombessa, uh, which was a, is a very unique and specific watch that, that Blancpain developed with input from Laurent Ballester, the, the superstar marine biologist and underwater photographer that works with them. Um, and it's a watch that was developed for, uh, closed circuit rebreather divers that, that need to measure longer intervals of time than just the hour that you get on a, on a standard diving watch. And so they, they kind of tweaked the movement, uh, with a hand that'll, that'll run for three hours and a bezel that is marked to correspond to that. And it's, it's a big piece. Um, I got to, I got to dive with it, uh, with it, with a rebreather and, and wore it and it's titanium. And it's got this amazing integrated rubber strap, very lightweight, uh, sits remarkably well on the wrist because it doesn't really have lugs. Look, we, we did our, our interview with, uh, with Mark Hayek. We've talked to Lauren Ballesta twice. Um, you know, not much more needs to be said about this watch or Blancpain in general this year, but, uh, it was, it was definitely a high point, uh, in the year for me, um, being, you know, being able to try it out, you know, |
| James Stacey | I just think a deeply cool watch that feels like something that could have been made in the 70s. Yeah. Like we approached a diver who's working literally on the cutting edge of the activity. You can't even call it a sport when he does. Yeah. It's akin to climbing mountains without oxygen, like it's the hardest part of diving. Yeah. And for them to go down and be like, oh, well, let's make you something and come out with this thing that literally is just a tool for tech diving. Right. Is pretty cool. Yeah. And I think that makes it collectible to a very small group of people, which makes perfect sense for a limited edition. One quick clarification on Act One, they made 210. It was 70 for the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Oh, okay. Okay. So that's what it was. It was 210 total. Yeah. And then there was an Act Three, you and I got to go to Cannes. Right. And hang out and check out Act Three, which is kind of a recreation of the original Fifty Fathoms, but in bronze gold. or gold bronze. I always get it wrong. And I, you know, I think we, we did a whole episode on that one. So how about we just leave that one to the show notes so we don't end up with like a two and a half hour long final episode of the year. Um, but I, yeah, I think Blancpain had an incredible year. Let's not even forget the swatch collab. Oh sure. Um, which I think still continues to be essentially unbuyable, a huge success for the brand. Um, but yeah, great year for Blancpain I think. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, and you know, moving on to another kind of You know, we saw the, we saw the glass box Carrera, which everybody, I think unanimously loves that watch. I think it's incredible looking. I have yet to see one in person, but you know, to take a really good, to take an old design, you know, a classic, like the kind of classic that you just, you'd say, don't mess with it. And they messed with it. They tweaked it. They, they adjusted it to for, for a very modern audience. And, you know, it's, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, And it just looks spectacular. And I think the Glassbox Carrera, and then they followed that up with the Skipper version, which isn't my favorite Skipper version. I think that still belongs to the Hodinkee LE that came out a few years back. Me too, yeah. And then there was that gold version, right? That was kind of a tribute to a past piece of theirs. |
| James Stacey | Typically, I'm pretty hard on tag. It feels like a lot of what they make isn't meant for enthusiasts. Yeah. and I feel with the glass box, it's like they said, no, you're wrong, we got this, here it is. Yeah, yeah. We'll make a bunch of different versions, it's not gonna be impossible to buy. It's such a good looking watch and it fits... It wears really well. The numbers might suggest that it's kinda big, but so much of it is crystal. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | On wrist, it wears like a smaller vintage sort of watch. I thought the Skipper was really cool. I love the 1158 sort of inspired gold version. that's very rad in my world. Yeah, I think they did a great job with this and with stuff like the solar graph, which I guess specific. I can't remember if that was specifically 2022 or 2023, but shout out to tag. I think they're doing well. They've got some really, really good people on their team, and I think they're starting to understand that a brand as big as tag kind of like Omega brand is biggest tag kind of has to play two different games, one for the mall and one for the keyboard warrior who knows every dimension, every price point, every other chronograph that they might get. And Lord knows that Rolex has had, and we'll get to this watch because they did it again this year, Rolex has had a really long time of essentially having the go to luxury chronograph. And I think it's really important for brands like Tag, for brands like Omega who do the Speedy, to consider that and find ways to give people really good alternatives, preferably at less money, Also, I don't even know what the street price of a ceramic Daytona is currently. High is the word I would use. Yeah. Maybe not what it was two years ago, but still way over list price. So I'm just excited, even though I'm not necessarily a huge chronograph guy. I absolutely think these are great product and that these are gonna hit home for a lot of people, especially if they just keep iterating upon the format in terms of colors and materials and that sort of thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. All right. Well, you know, look, we've, we've talked about some fairly spendy watches right off the bat here with the Blo Proff, the Blancpain, the Tags. Um, let's, let's, let's shift gears a bit and move on to something definitely more affordable, uh, with a couple of fun picks that we both enjoyed. And, uh, one of them is the Laurier, uh, the Hydra, uh, the Hydra S3, uh, the Hydra Zulu S3 in particular, which is kind of the blacked out version with the rubber strap, lots of loom. Uh, we first saw this back in July at windup. Uh, it goes for a whopping $599. Uh, you know, it's a, it's basically a dive GMT, uh, with a, with a, uh, flyer, uh, Miyota movement in it. Um, this is just such a, such an amazing watch. And, uh, you know, I mean, hats off to Laurie again, you know, I mean, we bring this brand up quite a bit and, and, you know, it's always fun to, to bump into them at wind up and whatever, and just see what their latest, uh, creations are. And this, I think this was a real highlight. in watches in general this year. I think the design's very fresh, and yet it harkens back to some of the pieces that we know and love, kind of that 70s action hero vibe that they're definitely hitting on with this. Oh, yeah. So yeah, that was a real highlight. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I got to spend some time with the steel model. We did a story for Hodinkee. I can put that in the show notes, of course. And then we saw the more recent model come out since then. Value champion, for a GMT under a thousand dollars, nicely made, looks great, doesn't look like a Rolex or a GMT master, which I really appreciate. And it was really tough for me, because like Hodinkee just put up our budget watch of the year. I set the budget at 1500 bucks, which felt like tons of money to spend. And I had a really tough time of deciding between the Laurier Hydra S3, which I absolutely adored, and the Marathon Navigator in steel, which I think might be one of... Aside from the Pelagos, probably the watch I wore most this year. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's because I had the Mido that I didn't go in on the Laurier Hydra, like I didn't get one for myself or haven't yet. I think that if I was scoring both of these watches, I'd give them both a 10 out of 10 for what they offer. Yeah. Super high accuracy, 10 seconds a year quartz movement, along with now the option of a no date, which really looks good. I adore the case. It gives you that Benris Type 1 military but kind of more stealthy sort of feel, tritium tube illumination, good water resistance. I couldn't be more of a fan for... Now you can get the no date for 770 bucks. Wow. And if you watch, there's often sales. I'm not saying you're gonna save $100, but you'll save a bit. Yeah, yeah. And I just think for the money, it's a watch that could compliment just about any collection. You love vintage watches, it's always nice to have a quartz watch that's dead on. Right, that's true. You set all your watches by you want to watch that you can do literally anything with, there it is. You want to watch for knowing what time it is at night, throw it on a NATO and you've got the Tritium. I just, I really, really, really love this watch. And I really love the Lori. I was so thrilled to have a little bit of time with the, uh, the first version. And I think these two just stand out as, as like, if you've got, if you want a great watch that was made and came out in 2023, um, and you'd like to spend, a good, a good chunk under a thousand dollars. It's hard for me to go suggesting much else. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's funny, you know, I have, I have the Benris type two and the modern kind of reissue of that. And it's, it's very close to kind of the Navigator formula. I mean, they kind of came out of the same background, but like the Navigator is very tempting for all the reasons you mentioned. And I think what I like about these watches that this kind of platform is they feel like a watch that, you know, you, you set aside, baggage that it comes with, with a brand name or, you know, prestige or anything like that. And it's, it's just a watch you just wear and you can wear for anything. You could travel the world with this watch. And like you said, I mean, it kind of does everything. It's, it's highly accurate. Um, you can, you can bang it up, you can get it wet, 12 hour bezel. You can, you can, you can read it at night. You can, yeah, it's got a second time zone. Um, yeah, that's a, that's a winner. That's a real winner. And that's, I hate to say it. That's a, that's a talk about being more prudent with our purchases. Uh, that, that is a very tempting, tempting one, if only for the price. I mean, just, you know, you kind of can't go wrong with that. So good pick. |
| James Stacey | There's at least one, unless it's old, but there's at least one for a really good price on the TGN Slack, the Buy, Sell, Trade Slack. There's been some, there's some incredible watches in there right now. Sometimes I go in and I just immediately leave. Yeah. Yeah. No, James. Yeah. Yeah. Step away. Yeah. Have some self control, you knucklehead. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. You know, we've got a couple others on here that are again, like value champions for the year for sure. But for me, the two that really stand out are the S3 Hydra from Laurier and the Steel Navigator, which again, now you can get no date, so it's up to you if you want the date or not. The no date one looks so good, but I also really like the functionality of having a date, especially wearing the Pelagos 39 so much, like a date almost feels like a treat now. Yeah, yeah. If I have it on a watch. Yeah. True. All right, where do we want to go next? Speaking of Pelgos, you want to dip into another pretty good year for Tudor. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, really good year for Tudor. We've had that wonderful trip in September to Florida with Tudor for the launch of the Black Dial FXD, which a lot of people, I think, were disappointed in only that because it was just, quote unquote, a new dial color. But I think this watch, to me, hits hits so much better than the blue version, which was kind of the first version of the FxD that came out. And, uh, I ended up with one, of course I wear it a lot. Um, and I think that was just, it was just such a highlight for the year in my own kind of watch journey, I guess the Pelagos FxD, uh, not only because of the memorable trip, but because, you know, like we just talked about with the marathon, it's such a do anything watch. It's just, it feels, it feels indestructible, uh, and made even more so by the fact that you know, it doesn't even have spring bars that can fail. It's just a, it's a chunk. It's just a one piece, you know, little unit that sits on your wrist with a strap running through it. And I just love that about it. The titanium is great. It's lightweight, you know, corrosion resistant, et cetera, et cetera. Great movement in it. Um, the, the bezel, you know, you and I were just talking or chatting over text a couple of nights ago because I had just discovered that little Easter egg, um, that is the detent on the bezel, uh, at 12 o'clock. So, you know, I'm not a particular stickler for aligning a bezel at the top of the hour on a watch like a lot of people are with dive watches, but I was spinning the bezel just kind of absentmindedly and it kind of kept catching at a certain point and I wasn't even looking at it. And then I glanced down and it was a 12 o'clock and I thought, wow. And then I quickly Googled it and found that, you know, several people had written, written about that. But what a cool little feature. I mean, they didn't have to engineer that into, into the bezel. And it's just one more little thing about it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, they didn't. It's super cool when... Yeah, because you can turn it back, you can zero it like essentially without looking, you just end up hitting this point of resistance and it's at midnight red at 12. And I think the other thing to keep in mind for the FXD is I like to think of like Tudor, fairly conventional watchmaking company, but if you think like a BB 58 or a 41, maybe that's a one or a two of convention, and let's say 10 is when you get to really wild, we get a P01. or maybe you would score like the Alinghi carbon clad Pelagos stuff like an eight, and I think the blue FXD was like a strong eight as well. Unconventional bezel pinned directly with a French commando diving outfit, just not their normal vibe, right? Yeah. And very, very much still a Tudor thing because of the Pelagos' kind of precursors, but like its own thing all on its own. And then if you just think like the P39 and the FXD are just fives, they're right in the middle. The titanium makes them a little bit weirder, the sizing might make them a little bit more uncommon, and then the fixed lugs on the FXD really do it. But by taking that sort of unconventional platform of the blue one, going back to a 9401 color way with a conventional bezel, I just think they made, kind of like they did with the 39, they just made a very conventional watch that's just so appealing. I don't think it's necessarily the most exciting watch that came out this year or the most interesting, but it might be one of the most buyable at its price point. Man, Tudor and Titanium, they're really doing it. It's so cool to see... We've been harping on Pelagos nerdery for years, and at this point, this is arguably like... This is jokingly, of course, some sort of a Pelagos fan podcast. Yeah. you know, love the product and everything, but it was a good year for them otherwise. They had the Alinghi chronograph and the time only model. I'd still very much like to see the, especially the chronograph in person, hoping to do that early next year and spend some time with it. And then the one, again, it's so easy to forget what came out at Watches and Wonders, it feels like years ago and it wasn't, it was months ago. And with the, you know, with the Tudor BB54. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh man, that watch. Yeah. It's funny because, you know, we were on that fxd trip in florida when you know for the launch of the fxd and i i was so smitten with uh christoph who was there from tutor he was wearing a black bay 54 and he let me wear it around during one of the evening kind of dinners and i was like oh man that watch i mean it's a watch that i shouldn't i shouldn't like you know i mean because it's just a smaller size it's it's a bit kind of retro and kind of really feels a lot like an old rolex sub of which i have one Um, but man, that watch is, it was so tempting and it was just, it's such a beauty. And I think, you know, had, had the Pelagos FXD not come around for me, um, I think I would have been sorely tempted to pick up a Black Bay 54. I think it's, it's such a versatile piece that did such a good job with so many different elements of it. Yet another kind of feather in Tutor's amazing cap for 2023, really a good year for them. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm, I'm very excited to see what they do with P39. with BB54 with maybe the Pro, the Black Bay Pro for next year as they're ones that have been out for a couple of years, but haven't gotten a second colorway. I guess the BB54 is brand new, so it may not get a color like a blue one after just one year. But beyond that, let's dig into something a little bit more like Indy. Maybe some Aquastar had a pretty nice year as well between the Model 60 and the Benthos H1. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, they sure did. Yeah. I mean, early in the year it was the Model 60, which, um, Is it, you know, talk about a, like a Black Bay 54. I think this is actually a good followup to that because you know, the, the, the AquaStar model 60 is, you know, a 37 millimeter little beautiful little kind of very simple dive watch harks back to AquaStar's very first piece that they made when they were still under the Jean Richard name, you know, affordable watch and, and one with, with some legitimate history to it. And we had that wonderful interview with the now late great Don Walsh, the one of the first men to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, the deepest point in the ocean, who was wearing an Aquastar model 60, uh, inside the Trieste when they went down. And, um, I think it was just kind of interesting serendipity that, that it was kind of a Don Walsh year, not only on TGN, but you know, with his, uh, with his death recently, um, that, that the model 60 came out this year and, and just a neat little piece. And then of course they followed that up just boy, just a couple of weeks ago with, the Benthos H1, which is a watch that was highly anticipated. One of the great Aquastar models in history, you know, along with the Deepstar. I mean, Aquastar has such a great history and Rick is just doing such an amazing job kind of reviving the brand and teasing out or spooling out these watches one after another. And the H1 is one that, you know, in person, it's just a lovely piece with a lot of attention to detail that really looks like the original and yet has these contemporary elements like 904L steel and the ceramic bezel insert and a good movement. So yeah, good, good year for AquaStar. I can't wait to see what 2024 brings for them. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I agree. I'm excited for that. I think, I think they had a solid year. It's also, it's hard to have any sort of like a cadence of moments when you're so like a really small brand, right? Like you put a watch out, it gets overwritten by 20 other stories or whatever. So it's interesting to be able to look back on it and see that they had a pretty solid year. Let's shout out a few ones more quickly. We spoke a little bit when it came out, but you can now do the IWC, the Mojave is now in 41. I think that's a rad watch that I can't wait to see in person. Yeah. But talk about just a platform that for me, just make it a little smaller and then maybe make it a little smaller and then make it look like it just make it a wearable, put it right in the middle and let people enjoy it. I think the Mojave colorway is rad. I think that the sort of pilot chronograph thing is a really nice sort of alternative to something like a Daytona. |
| Jason Heaton | Mm-hmm. |
| James Stacey | And then we had the Rolex Le Mans Daytona as well, which we've talked about in the past. That's, you know, both impossible to buy probably by the time you listen to this ending its production. I would assume they're not going to continue when it's no longer the hundredth year. I have no actual data on that. It just would seem not very Rolex for them to do that. Yeah. But a cool watch nonetheless. And if you have no clue what we're talking about, I can put it in the show notes. but we definitely talked about that when it came out. What about the Benrus Ultra Deep? That's one you've spent quite some time with, and I saw only briefly at Windup. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, again, a July release. I mean, it was a good summer for watches, and back in July at Windup, I participated in the Windup in a Lake dive that was actually sponsored by Benrus, and we were out in Lake Michigan diving a shipwreck, and it's when they introduced this watch, and then it took a few months for them to kind of make final kind of QC changes to the final product and now it's available for a little over $1,000, $1,095. Another small watch. So here we go in kind of the same vein as the BB-54 or the Model 60. This is a 36 millimeter twin crown super compressor style dive watch with beautiful sort of cathedral-esque hands. Very faithful to the original. Comes on kind of a a Jubilee style bracelet with a NATO, just a fun piece. And, and, you know, we've, we've talked about it when it came out and I've certainly written about it and talked it up quite a bit, post a lot of photos. So we don't need to go too far into that. But, um, you know, Benrus, uh, another brand, another small brand that's punching above its weight and releasing some fun stuff. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I think following that, I'd say, uh, the Bulova Oceanographer GMT is a standout for me this year. Yeah. I think they top out at about $1,500, which is pretty impressive. I think they start at more like $1,295 for the Lume Dial, and hey, we're saying Lume Dial, so you know I'm in. But it's another watch that benefits from this 9075 Miota movement. On top of that, it's actually sitting here on my desk, I have to photograph it later today, is the Series 8 GMT from Citizen. Also a very impressive option, under two grand, I think it's about $1,700 for the Citizen. It's an integrated bracelet sort of mode. The Oceanographer really follows the format of the watch. So if you're in the mode of the Devil Diver, the Snorkel, or even into the Doxa realm, this all will make sense from an aesthetic standpoint. But I think definitely worthy of a shout out to both Citizen and Bulova. Obviously, Citizen owns Bulova these days, and they're Citizens had an incredible year across all these brands that are part of their portfolio. The one I wanted to bring up specifically for a citizen for this year is one that I believe we don't know a ton about because it's not in the American lineup or the North American lineup. So I had to read about it on monochrome, but I'll put this in the show notes in case you didn't see it. It's called the Challenge Diver Automatic Collection. Essentially, it's like Citizen decided that they would pick up the torch of offering a watch into the space that used to be where the SKX007 was. Oh, yeah. So it's 300 euros. Wow. And it's a Citizen automatic movement, 21 jewels, 21,600 vibrations an hour, 45 hour power reserve. It's a 41 millimeter steel case that's available in black, green, gradient blue, or gradient orange to black. which is kind of neat. It's on rubber. Looks like very much in the same kind of mode as the Titanium Challenge Diver, but maybe a little bit more retro in its appeal. Big markers, Mercedes hands, day and date, which I know to people who love day and date, it's like crucial. Yeah. It's like a real thing. And on the strap, it's €270 and on the bracelet, it's €300. I really hope that this is something they decide to bring here to North America, to the North American market. Could be that it's not eco drive, we've seen that be a hold up before, but they've been more and more open to automatic movements. It's 300 euros, that means it could be about 300 bucks US, and I think at that price point, the world does need a watch that could kinda slot into where the SKX007 was, and one with a more modern citizen Miyota derived movement is not something to complain about. So this is one that, yes, it came out just at the end of November, so it is a 2023 watch, but it's one that my excitement will carry over directly into 2024. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I think this is one... If there was one weird gripe about the Challenge Diver that we got, it was that it felt so light that it almost It almost felt like a toy. It was, it was just such a lightweight piece in titanium. I think having, having not held this one, I'm guessing it might feel even better even though it's not a gargantuan watch, like in steel, it might just have a little more heft to it that I think this watch could actually benefit from. So yeah, that's cool. Now you mentioned, um, Seiko SKX and one brand we haven't talked about is, uh, is Seiko actually. And we have one on the list, which is the SPB 381 Prospex GMT. And that's a watch that you spent, a fair amount of time with and actually did a video of in a week on the wrist for Binky. And I'd forgotten about this watch, but pretty, pretty good release for this year for Seiko. |
| James Stacey | Yep. And I think if you want a dive GMT, so that means it has a 60 minute bezel and 24 hour markings on the Ria of the of the dial. I think this is still a great option. It's a collar GMT. So it's going to be more I would say it's most useful for tracking another time zone from home, which a lot of us do. I do all the time. It's very handy to have the ability to simply change that 24-hour hand rather than resetting the watch. On the inverse, it's absolutely less handy to travel with said watch. But as an everyday watch that has a second time zone or as a great vacation dive watch, that sort of thing, I think they hit the nail on the head with this one. I think the bezel action could be improved. That's kind of the only thing. I went back over my review just to freshen up. And I remember the action being light, a little vague versus kind of super clicky. But yeah, I liked it about 1500 bucks. I think they're pretty solid. I would probably lean towards the 383, I think it is. I could have them backwards, but the black one versus the green one that I had in the review. And other than that, Seiko has put the same movement in a handful of other watches. I just haven't had any hands on time with them. I'm sure that the other families that they've put this GMT movement into have been nice. I know there's an Alpinist and at least one other. So yeah, I think as always, Seiko doesn't really have bad years, all things concerned. I think they've got a lot of challenge at the price point now where they want prospects, like call it $900 to $2,500. There's a lot of competition in that realm, but I think it was good and I was thrilled to see a dive GMT at a price point that's really nice, because we talked about the Longines at the top, and we talked about the Mido as well, and those have good water resistance. I'm conceivably sure you could take them diving, but they're not dive watches with their 24-hour bezels. I do like that you've got the Dive GMT locked in there for a price point that's under an S302, that's under some of the other options by a pretty wide margin. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. All right. What's left? Our list is getting shorter here, and we've got some outliers and some high-end stuff here. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I got Three super expensive shout outs we can go through real quick. Go for it. The first one is the ceramic Royal Oak that looks like the original, the first Royal Oak. Yeah. That one is super cool. I think they're like $70,000, something like that, maybe more. I actually don't remember the price from when I was there. That was at the start of the year. I was in Le Brassus with AP and got to see that. It's just such a cool watch. Not something that I'm saying that we should all try and endeavor to go out and buy, but a really neat thing to experience. Very much in the same vein for me, is also the Lange Odysseus chronograph, probably the coolest quote unquote sports watch I saw this year. Like just crazy high end, super Lange. I'll never probably ever see another one or outside of a Lange meeting or possibly, you know, maybe someone I work for has got one, something like that. But other than that, just a really, really, really cool thing. One of my highlights of watches and wonders, so I didn't necessarily want it to go by. And then maybe the sleepiest watch of the whole year. One that's been in my mind, but I don't even think we spoke about when it came out, because there's so many other things coming out. Over the year, I've really come to enjoy the Alpine Eagle collection from Chopard. I really love the smaller double gray. So I think it's 37 millimeters, no date, gray dial in the lucent steel. But the one I'm actually talking about today, I don't even know the price of. We wrote up a story when it came out in March. It is the Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF. It's a grade five titanium version of the Alpine Eagle in 41 millimeter. It's a little under 10 millimeters thick, and it has a black dial. It's 100 meters of water resistance, and then it has this Chopard 01.12-C movement, which has 60 hours of power reserve, is automatic, and it ticks at 57,600 vibrations an hour, so eight hertz. Yeah, wow. It's so cool. I just think it's like the sportiest sort of it's, you know, a red or black dial with like orangey red accents. I think this is a neat watch. It's one that I'm including in a roundup for Hodinkee of kind of some outlier watches from the year. And it's just been on my mind for a while. The XPS got a lot of shine. Obviously, the return of the 1860 LUC also got a lot of attention. And I've seen that watch in person recently and goodness sakes, is it gorgeous? But for a genuinely sporty, uh, Alpine Eagle with a, with the titanium thing and the high beat movement, that's, I think it's pretty fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think Chopard is one of those brands that, you know, we never talk about for several reasons, but I think also it's, um, it's still a bit of a sleeper for a lot of people. I think it's name doesn't come up as often as you, you know, you get the long as in the paddocks and the shore, some of the others APS, but, um, yeah, this, uh, this family, the Alpine Eagle, has done really well for them. And this one is, yeah, it's probably the only one, now that you mention it, I didn't even look at this one. It's kind of the only one that makes me sit up and take notice. And I think because of those little flashes of color, the titanium that they use, yeah, yeah, really cool pick. |
| James Stacey | I think, you know, two, three, four years ago, when suddenly several brands decided to have, we'll call them Genta-esque, like integrated bracelet steel sport watches. When everybody decided they needed one of those, I think we all kind of looked at the lineup of what was in the market and said, well, who's actually gonna make a dent in the Nautilus Royal Oak sort of scene? Yeah. And I think Chopard's weirdly done it. Yeah, yeah. They've always been kind of an insider's brand. They make an incredible watch. The LUC stuff is world class. But I think they've always, kind of like you said, it is a big shadow cast by a Patek or an AP. or a Vacheron. And I think that they're showing that they had a perspective on this, they had an IP to pull on in the Alpine Eagle. And sure, it's not the normal... I think the 37 mil I spoke with earlier is probably a $12,000 watch. Yeah. So you know your boy's not... I'm not just trying to decide which credit card to put it on, but I do really like them. And when I see them and I get to put them on my wrist, the 41 wears really well, the 37 is a knockout on my wrist. and they feel really special and really luxurious and really fancy and everything that you'd want, I presume, if you spent that much on a watch. So I guess that's why I wanted to bring it up. But a super high, high beat titanium one, it fits the vibe of 2023. It's a big year for titanium. Yeah. Yeah. True enough. Yeah. Probably my favorite version of the Aorus 400. The PPX 400 yet is the laser. It's really something else in person. It mostly shows in photos, to be fair. A good photo does capture it. Yeah. But the combination of the stealth fighter-y sort of vibe of the case and bracelet with this truly wild dial, which in my mind... You know the way that oil looks on top of water? Yes, yeah. It's like that, but then remove any obstruction, so you just get the color. Right. It's really something else. There's no... I think we said this on just a... Or I said this on a recent episode, this watch has no real competition. There's other watches at that price point that you could spend your money on, sure, but there's none where you'd put this watch next to it and go like, oh yeah, these are direct competition of the same ethos, the same design, the same plan and thought and the rest of it. They've just got something interesting on their hands, and I think putting a wild dial in such an otherwise sort of stealthy watch is a really neat way of going about it. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and, and it's Oris is a very interesting brand because this watch is, it feels like such an outlier from, for their, from their typical kind of design language and ethos and history. But I think you, you, you get this and then you get like a big crown pointer date something and it's like, or a, or a diver 65 and then you get this, which is so stark, so two tonic, it feels more like, you know, something you'd get from, IWC back in the day, or not even. I mean, it's just so modern and so angular and so minimalist. And I say this without criticism. It feels like there's kind of a lack of warmth to this watch. It just feels very technical, which is kind of a newer development for Aorus. And I think they're really playing up the caliber 400 and kind of that push into that space. And this one really, really highlights that, especially with that wild dial. That thing is just crazy. |
| James Stacey | And I think it's hard to come back after the Kermit. Right. I think they knew they had a hit on their hands in the current, but I don't think they knew how much of a hit. Well, you know, we also saw like I mentioned it and I don't want to lose the chance, but we also saw the Hydra conquest GMT from Longines. I think that's another like right down the middle product that could apply to a ton of people. It's the right size, has a great movement, looks pretty good, better than I think I'm like, I think we've been, you and I have been honest to our feelings, but kind of negative towards the Hydra conquest in the past as being a little bit bland. Right. and I think these address that, kind of in the same way that we kind of praised Tag Heuer for figuring out the glass box. I think the Longines has really figured out what the non mall crowd wants from their... Right. From their... From the spirit or from the hydro conquest, and that's worth shouting out. Yeah. And then the other two that I had on the list here, I guess these are both mine. The first would be the Ming LW.01, So this is an 8.8 gram manual move like it's just like the manually wanted ones, it's less than 10 grams, the automatic weighs 10.8. Yeah, you know the that's a tenth one, the whole watch raise one tenth what the fully sized and weighed out version of the long jeans that I've got on my wrist with a bracelet. Incredible. It's just remarkable. Sure, this is a $20,000 watch, but like This is another brand where anything Ming puts out, I'm gonna pay attention, because they're just only doing what they wanna do. Yeah. They're not playing by other people's playbook or rules. It's a little bit difficult to buy their stuff, but they are on that short list that I have in my mind of a brand I would love to own one day. Yeah. I think for Ming, for me, it would be more of a dress watch, but that's where I think I would get the value out of it. The dive watch is really cool, but they're hard to come by. Yeah. And quite expensive. But I think a dressier one would be really fun to have sometime in the future. So I have started paying a more specific attention to them. And just for a tiny brand to come out with something that is, you know, a record breaker, right. It's just so cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's also a really neat looking watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, it's harder and harder to, to kind of be an individual and stand out. And I think what Ming has done is kind of just put their heads down and put his head down, so to speak, and blinders on and just like pursue a vision, uh, and kind of ignore naysayers and commenters and just be like, We're going to keep making cool stuff. And now they're, they're really like people are sitting up and taking notice and you know, to case in point, I mean, I don't think the name Ming has popped up ever in six years of TGN. |
| James Stacey | So maybe just the dive watch. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Right. But, but yeah, it's definitely gotten our notice really, really, really cool stuff. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And then, you know, I think it's worth a shout out. Like we saw continued sort of line extensions or, or like refinement from brands like Serica. Yeah. And then the other one that I really liked this year, but I didn't really know how much I liked it until I got a chance to borrow it, is another Houdiniki LE, and it's that Unimatic Modelo Uno U1S Carbon GMT. Yeah. And that one, it's expensive for a Unimatic, but it's inexpensive for a carbon cased watch. It's $2,900. 41.5, and I think it had been more than two generations of the U1 since I had had one on my wrist, and they've refined the case. It's still 41 millimeters or 41.5 wide, but they've refined the way that it sits, whether it's a lug shape or a lug kind of trajectory consideration or something like that. But I've just been really, really happy wearing this around. The carbon looks incredible, It has a brightness to it that isn't necessarily the same in other carbon watches I've borrowed in the past. And I mean, if you compare it to a Doxa, I think the Doxa is 4,800 bucks. But I liked both of those and I'm still borrowing from the Office, the U1S carbon and have enjoyed wearing it. I think it's another one that kind of stood out for me. I think I had maybe hit a certain level of fatigue with Unimatic. Yeah. You know, there's a new version every couple of months, new LE with somebody, Hodinkee or otherwise, every now and then. And it's hard to keep up on what's the difference between a U1 and a U4 and this bezel and that bezel and this one and that. And then I got a chance to actually spend some time and travel a bit with this and just really, really enjoyed it. It's a fun watch. Another one that kind of stuck out for me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's a brand that, you know, we've been around long enough now that, you know, we've seen several of these brands that have appeared in this list today. It's been fun to watch kind of the evolution of some of these brands, you know, Aquastar, Unimatic, Laurier, et cetera. And yeah, Unimatic's definitely a big one in that space. Well, I think that takes care of our list. What do we have here? I mean, it's a couple of dozen. I mean, it was a solid year. I mean, it was a big year for watches. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I would say the other thing to keep clear is that you and I are not saying that this list was exhaustive. This was everything we could think of over the last two or three days. Yeah. um, that really stood out to us. And I would say if there's something we missed or, or something we slept on, that's, that's something great to start a thread on the slack and we can get into it and, uh, and keep those all in our mind and that kind of thing. But yeah, these are the ones that, uh, at least, you know, over the last 72 hours really stuck out in my mind as, as kind of watches or great moments from, from 2023 and watches that kind of captured the vibe of this year as well, which for me, uh, I think is increasingly as titanium. But definitely, the list isn't exhaustive. Let us know in the comments, let us know on Slack, that sort of thing. And hey, if you're listening and you're on the supporter side and there's something we missed and you wanna ask us, you can always record it into a voice memo app on your phone, send it to thegrenadoatgmail.com and we'll get to it in a future Q&A. Happy to weigh in on a watch that we might have forgotten, but at this point, if we've forgotten it, I don't know yet. So let me know one way or another. I think that's a... It's always a fun episode to look back on the year and I think I don't know that in our time of doing the show that there's been like necessarily a quote unquote bad year for watches. Right. Watches largely survived the pandemic, certainly the watches that we like did, but this feels like a pretty strong year for product. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely a high watermark, I think, at least in the past decade, I would say, of writing about watches and talking about watches. Yeah, yeah. |
| James Stacey | from 500 bucks to, I don't know, 60, 70, 80,000 probably on this list. Yeah. Crazy like that. Yeah. But you've got your, you've got room to spend money or not in, in, in almost any way you want. And I think the, besides titanium, the other trend that kind of stands out for me is a continued push for a more value driven GMT options. Like we talked about the Laurier, the Mito, the Unimatic. Yeah. These ones that cost significantly less than even a BB GMT, which previously would have been your entry point to a certain type of GMT, to a flyer. Yeah. And I think that world's just been turned upside down by Boliva, by Citizen, largely with the 9075, and Miota there as well. So yeah, I think that those are kind of the two major macro things that I saw in our world were titanium and more GMTs. And if you'd asked me what I wanted at the end of 2022... Yeah, right. True. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And kind of a continued push into smaller watches too. I mean, we've got the Black Bay 54 from a big brand like Tudor. You've got the Benrus Ultra Deep at 36 millimeters, the Model 60 Aqua Star, you know, a couple of Citizens, Longines at 39. And yeah, we're not necessarily, you know, focusing on specific trends or making predictions, but yeah, if you had to point out commonalities, I think those are the ones. |
| James Stacey | All right. Well, nice long episode. You want to jump into some final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure. Yeah. Uh, I'll go first. This is a story that has been making the rounds. Uh, I shared it with you. I've seen it pop up a few times on slack. People have sent it to me on Instagram, et cetera. And it's a, it's from the New York times and a writer who I respect greatly. Uh, John branch, who is the, the times is, um, I guess he kind of covers mountaineering specifically and kind of adventure sports. He's written a book called side country, which has gotten a lot of acclaim. Yeah. Uh, the article is called ghosts on the glacier and it's about a, kind of a mountaineering mystery that I wasn't aware of, um, that took place back in the, the 1970s in South America and Aconcagua, uh, the highest mountain in the Western hemisphere and a group of amateur mountaineers, amateur, but avid mountaineers, uh, from the U S that, that went down to, to climb the peak. And, uh, in the end four went up to the, to the summit on the final push and only two came back and the, you know, there were, there were mysteries that kind of swirled around what caused the, their deaths. And, and there were, you know, complications with body recoveries and then autopsies and things like that. And, and I mean, that just scratches the surface. That's kind of the, the, the short version, but this is a long article. In fact, I read it and then I wanted to kind of tell Ghoshani about it. And I realized there was a link for like, listen to this article and you can actually click on that. You get John branch reading the article and it takes over an hour. for him to read it aloud. And then if you actually look at the article, there are videos and graphics and kind of, it's a very dynamic piece in, in a way that only, you know, kind of top journalistic outlets can, can produce and just a really, really impressive piece. And yeah, you know, very much in kind of the TGN space, you've, you've got an old camera that was discovered that was kicked out by a melting glacier which is kind of the Genesis of how the story started to take shape was the discovery of this camera with some undeveloped film. Yeah, just a tremendous piece of journalism. Great, great story. |
| James Stacey | I found this jaw-dropping from the presentation. I mean, this is exactly like you said. This is everything you want from top-tier journalism. This story took more than three years of work to report. Yeah. And the photos are amazing. The writing is impeccable. The storytelling is so good. There's a watch reference in there, there's camera, that's got everything. This is great. Yeah. One of the best stories I read this year for sure. Yeah. Um, and uh, and yeah, if you need an excuse to pay for whatever a month, whatever you can get the trial for New York times, this is the one to do it if you're not already on there. Cause you sent me a gift link. Yeah. I, uh, I let my, my Apple news subscription laps. Uh, so I, I haven't had a New York time, but you sent me a gift one and, and I've read it twice now and it's, it's wonderful. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And then you can also go back and just read, John branches. Uh, he's had a couple of other really good ones lately about, uh, a couple of mountaineers that, that pulled off a climb of John who over in the Himalayas that even Conrad anchor is saying is, is the most significant Alpine climb in history, which is saying something. So check that one out too, while you're on the, on the times and reading John branch. |
| James Stacey | So I'll put both in the show notes. Thank you. And yeah. And Jason, thank you for setting that to me. That was a nice way to, I guess it was Sunday morning. I got into that and it was a nice way to get into it for sure. All right. What do you have? Yeah, mine's actually... It's a flashlight. This is like gift guide material. This could have been last week too. Yeah. Yeah, and I slept on... Or sorry, I didn't have it in last week. I had ordered it from Amazon, but I didn't have it in. But a little bit of a back story, when I was in Dubai, I met a buddy of Cole Pennington's, his name is David Jumpa, and David helped out with Watches in the Wild in Thailand, and he's an incredible watch photographer. I will find his Instagram and put it in the show notes, so check him out. But he had with him, just looks like a conventional... You can buy pretty tactical looking flashlights on Amazon or otherwise for nothing these days, but it's a UV flashlight, and it's the only one where... He shined it on my Explorer 2 where the lume isn't that good, and it was so crazy bright, I said, Oh man, that like wildly expensive, because I need one and he's like, No, they cost nothing. Wow. And turns out he was right. They are on Aliexpress for $9 for one of these. And it's a larger sized flashlight, but you could still probably get it into your pocket, has one button, turns it on, it's UV, charges your loom. If you're like me and you like to do loom photos or you just like to I've had it on my bedside table, and when I go to bed at night, I just hit my watch for two seconds and go to bed, and it glows all night, and that's been great. And for $9, including the battery, I'm not even sure how they make it for that much. I paid $18 Canadian from Amazon, but if you don't mind the weight from AliExpress, $9 feels like a good buy. And these are good, maybe you're into vintage watches and you like checking the loom, or you just want to charge up a loom for a cool wrist shot, at $9, you know, if it makes my loom shots 50% easier than fully charging a flash to one-to-one power and then firing it against the... having to close my eyes and the rest of it, I'm pretty thrilled by this. So a big shout-out to David for telling me this. It is called an Alone Fire SV38. Alone Fire is one word, and SV38 is all together as well. UV torch, really simple, USB-C charging, comes with a rechargeable battery. No complaints, no notes, really like it. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And they don't even mention for torching up watch lume. They actually market it as a flashlight for pet dog and cat urine detection. |
| James Stacey | So, you know, multiple use. There you go. Just in case you need that as well. Yes, exactly. That's something where if I can't see it, I'm going to stick with not seeing it. It's probably my preference. I have neither a cat nor a dog. Yeah. That's mine for this week. We have one final. Anyone who's been listening to the show for the last several years can probably predict, but Jason, why don't you take it away with your annual recommendation? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, this is one of our favorites. I listen to it multiple times every holiday season. It is from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the CBC, and it is their late great newsreader, announcer, Fireside Al Maitland reading Frederick Forsythe's The Shepherd. The Shepherd's just a great kind of short story written by Forsyth kind of based on some of his experiences flying for the RAF back during the cold war. And and it, it rolls in some sort of holiday warmth with a bit of a ghost story. There's, you know, some piloty stuff. It's, it's in a, a, a vampire fighter fighter jet over the North sea back in the the 1960s. And, um, you know, I won't say any more about it. You just have to listen to it. And his reading is terrific. The production's great. It's a, it's an old recording and the CBC plays it every Christmas Eve if you want to try to catch that live, but we're going to throw a link in the show notes. You can listen to it. Um, and just a note here, um, many people have made me aware of the fact that there is now a movie version coming out about this or based on this produced by and featuring John Travolta in one of the smaller roles in this story. I'm a little dubious about the film version. I've seen the trailer. I probably will see it, but for my money, I think the audio version with Al Maitland reading it is still the way to go. And so we're going to put that in the show notes as we always do during our last episode of the year. And It just makes for a kind of a nice little holiday tradition in our house to, to kind of put this on, on Bluetooth and listen to it on a speaker and just, you know, sip something and listen to it by a fire or something. So yeah, the shepherd by Frederick Forsythe read by fireside Al Maitland. |
| James Stacey | It's a good one. And yeah, did we get a lot of messages about there being a movie? We must be like for, for, for, for the shepherd, for alone in the wilderness and for titanium, Pelagos, like this is the fan cast, I think. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. Thank you to everybody who sent in that, that email. I eventually stopped responding. I don't, I don't know about you. You said you watch trailers. I don't watch trailers cause they ruin movies. Yeah. I just looked at kind of who is involved and I was like, I'll check it out when it comes out. But yeah, it's, it is kind of one of those things where I'm like, well, what are they going to do? They're going to make it better than the one we got. Right. Yeah. Might be fun. |
| Unknown | I'll give it a try. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, definitely. So man, that's 2023. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | From me to you, Jason, thank you so much for another year of the show. I absolutely love this. It is my favorite creative outlet. It is my favorite community in the watch space. I just love it so much, and I appreciate everything that's come this year. We've grown, which I didn't necessarily expect. We got a chance to speak with some truly outstanding guests. Right. Yeah. It was a really, really good year, and I wanted to thank you. And then, of course, thank the whole audience. Thank the supporter crew, first and foremost. Shareholders, as we like to say. Right. But yeah, it's, it's been a great year. Couldn't be more thankful for, um, for having TGN in my life and that it's persisted and I don't take it for granted. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. You know, we talked about being a high watermark for watches this year. I mean, equally so for TGN, it's been truly, I would say without a doubt our best year yet. Um, and so much of that is, is down to our supporters and just our community. Just they remain such a bedrock of, of kindness and support and loyalty and, helpfulness and so much has come out of it well beyond our talking to each other once a week here. So, yeah, thanks. Thanks to you, James, for all your hard work on the production side and for, you know, every week having our enlightening and sometimes funny chats and also to our audience. So great, great year. And we do wish everyone very happy holidays and we'll catch you again first week of 2024. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we'll be back January 4th. If you're on the supporter side, you can expect another Q&A just before Christmas. I'll get that out to total us out. But otherwise, we will chat to you next year. Looking forward to it. Probably don't have to say the whole outro, but hey, I can't leave it out. Music Throughout a Siesta by Jazza via the Free Music Archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Mark Twain, who said, keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too can become great. |