The Grey NATO – 267 – The Deep Track With Blake Buettner
Published on Thu, 11 Jan 2024 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
The episode features a conversation with Blake Bettner, a watch enthusiast and founder of the new project called The Deep Track. They discuss Blake's background in the watch industry, his experiences working at Hodinkee and Worn & Wound, and his motivations behind launching The Deep Track. Blake shares his passion for exploring different enthusiast communities, such as mechanical keyboards, diving, and cars, and how he aims to delve into these spaces through The Deep Track. The conversation touches on various topics, including the appeal of watches, finding new hobbies, and the importance of understanding different perspectives within enthusiast circles.
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 is episode 267, 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'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I am joined as ever by my friend and co host Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing today? |
| Jason Heaton | I'm doing pretty well holding my own here in the midst of, uh, well, it's actually turned out to be a proper winter here today after, I think last time we were talking about how warm it's been. You got some snow? Yeah. It's actually snowing out my window, which is quite pretty, but I feel like the, uh, our brief, uh, sort of Cinderella long fall is now over. And I think we're in for, in for some proper winter here, but, uh, I would think so. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I would think so. I'm, I'm fresh back off vacation. This is my first day back. So I'm feeling a little rusty if I'm honest. That's right. I've been off for a couple of weeks, had a nice time being off, and I genuinely appreciate the TGN audience being okay with us taking that time. We had last week's episode, which I think went pretty well. It was a fun episode and a nice way to kick off the year. But we get to do this one with a guest, and we have already recorded that just a few minutes ago. It went really well, so I'm really pumped For everyone to have a nice sit down with Blake Bettner and you know his whole new arc with the deep track But before we get into that How's the last week been for you, man? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's been pretty quiet. You know, I've had one of those weird weeks Gashani Flew to to Florida last week to spend some time with a couple of friends down there and Kind of left me here in bachelor mode and it's you know, it's kind of weird like I always feel like okay this is my opportunity to get some things done and do the sort of stuff that I like to do that, you know, she might not be that keen on. And that always just goes away immediately. And I just ended up being terribly unproductive and like watching a lot of movies and just sort of, you know, I don't know. I kind of threw myself into some exercise and just, uh, man, I watched a ton of movies over the past few days. Um, it's kind of a fun feeling though, right? |
| James Stacey | To have that latitude. Cause you don't want it all the time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I watched salt burn. I watched, uh, the killer. How was that? Saltburn was great. Really kind of creepy and good and well acted. |
| James Stacey | I heard it compared to The Secret History, which is probably my favorite fiction book. Also one of my wife's favorites. So that's definitely on our list to watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I remember many years ago watching the series Brideshead Revisited and then I think they did a movie of it or maybe it was a newer series, but kind of reminds me of that. And then what else did I watch? Oppenheimer finally. So I've just been kind of ticking off all the all the ones I've been wanting to see. |
| James Stacey | So yeah, it's been good. And the Golden Globes were last night. It seems like Oppenheimer looks like a front runner for the Oscars if it matters. It really doesn't to me these days. Yeah, right. And I'm sure it doesn't to most people. You just watch movies that you know, you like you watch movies and you enjoy them or you don't. Yeah. I finished Oppenheimer. I liked it. I would say. I mean, like the performances were jaw dropping. Yeah. Yeah. Genuinely like just a lot. And also it must just be like a flex for Nolan. to just have characters in his movies that are played by pretty famous people, and they don't even have a line. Yeah, right. Like Jack Quaid is in a good piece of that movie, Dennis Quaid's son, who's like one of the leads for the show, The Boys. Yeah. Unless I missed it, I might have left to grab a drink or something, but I don't believe he has a single line in the film, and he's like a famous person. You know, like I think it's outside of my norm. I really have become a pretty big knucklehead for like 90s thrillers. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's kind of like 90s thrillers and weird paramilitary stuff. Yeah. Like yesterday, what did I, I had a weird two for yesterday. I've been going through pretty much all of Denzel Washington's career because I totally miscredited him. Obviously he's charming and he's talented and I, in my mind like his, his strength was mostly shown by playing Alonso in a training day. Yeah, yeah. But it's so much more than that. And like Crimson Tide really opened my eyes to like there's a... He can do a lot more. And I watched one last night called The Siege, which is Denzel Washington and Annette Bening. It's basically... It's 1998, so this exists in a world before 9-11, obviously, and it's about a series of terrorist attacks based in terrorism cells in Brooklyn. |
| Unknown | Huh. |
| James Stacey | And Bruce Willis plays a general who's basically given martial law over Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah. And it becomes this whole thing where the military is roaming the streets and they're putting people in cages. And if you look at what the world has become since 1998, you go like, this is weirdly prescient. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Something could have gone this way, just didn't. Yeah, but the movie itself kind of falls apart in the third act, if you ask me. But yeah, I've been doing a bunch of that, and then I finally got around to finishing. I saw it the year it came out, the movie Black Hat, which is a Michael Mann, and I'm trying to satiate the fact that I really wanna see Ferrari, but I really don't wanna go to the movie theater. I've talked about how little I hate that, or how much I hate that experience, going to movie theaters, and I wish we had a good one. In LA, they have the Alamo Draft House, and everybody's on the same page. But I find like every time I go to the theater, last time I went was for Dead Reckoning, one of the worst Mission Impossible films. You can't change my mind. And it was just like, I'm listening to people chew. People are laughing when something isn't funny. They're on their phones. It's still a better experience in my basement. Yeah, I agree. And I really, genuinely, I will break down and see Ferrari in the movie theater. I just need to find the theater that's empty, the time of day, the earliest thing on a Tuesday or something like that and go see it. I'm really pumped to see it. But I watched Black Hat and it's a messy sort of film, but I did really like it. Chris Hemsworth plays an imprisoned coder who they break out to help with this very complicated sort of plot about technology and hacking in the Chinese government in Asia, kind of at a wider scope, it's something else. If you haven't seen Black Hat, it's a bit of a maze, but I do really, there's a few things that are happening in it that are done at such a high level. It's very Michael Mann. I'll have to check that out. |
| Jason Heaton | I haven't heard of that one at all. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, and then with Saltburn, I'm definitely interested in seeing that, and so is Sarah. She's brought it up a couple of times, and it looks like a, you know, kind of a standout, a little highlight for the start of the year for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Other than that, I mean, you know, I've, I've been, you know, as we talked about last week with the kind of our new year's episode, it is dry January for apparently millions of people observe this now, which is quite an interesting trend. Um, you know, not drinking for the month. I know you are as well. And I am, you know, every time I do this or something like this, go an extended period without drinking much. I, I just find that there's so many benefits to it that I'm like, I really need to like, think hard about like, you know, re reconfiguring kind of my, my sense of moderation going forward because I'm sleeping better. I don't have like weird joint pain anymore. Like exercise is more fulfilling. Like it's, it really does make a difference. And I'm not here to preach. I mean, look, I'll come February. I'm sure I'll be back to kind of enjoying my whiskey, but uh, yeah, so far it's going really well. And I don't, I don't really feel the urge to like have a drink at all these days. So yeah, so far so good. How's it going for you? |
| James Stacey | Uh, you know, it's, I would say it's more of a mixed bag. I'm still in the phase. I don't mind not doing it. And after eight days, I don't even think about it that much. But when I do think about it, I have to find like a replacement. Oh yeah. Yeah. Like I'll be, I'll be, we have a drinks channel on TGN and somebody like last night, someone posted that the only dry January for me is a dry martini and that martini, I got to tell you, it made my mouth water. Oh yeah. But no, it's been, it's been fine. And it's also been pretty interesting to like see the numbers from the aura ring Also tied with the fact that I'm back to essentially doing some sort of exercise six days a week and have since about a month from now. And my heart rate's way down, like my resting heart rate is now back at like overnight is into the high 40s, low 50s is probably where it should be. And even things like my heart rate variability has almost tripled in eight or nine days. So you can definitely tell the cost of of that lifestyle, especially if like like I think I was in a similar mode to you, maybe even more so, especially when the winter months come in, like I would drink every day. Yeah, yeah, it was just an it was an easy thing to kind of do. And if you do that enough, you don't really start to consider like, what does it feel like when I don't? Right. And then it takes it's not one or two days. It probably took seven or eight days. Like it's probably today that I'm actually feeling like I'm actually kind of disconnected from it. So, yeah, I agree. Like it's like probably like I said on a previous episode, the solution is just I don't I wouldn't have anything at home. Right. So if I want to drink, I have to go out. I have to be social. It has to be part of something else. It can't just be like a habit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can't be like when I switched from, I'm done drinking coffee, so we'll move on to whiskey. Right. Right. I'm going on vacation next week and I think that'll be kind of a weird experience. Right. To do vacationing without any sort of alcohol. So we'll see. I mean, if I, if I don't observe the whole month, I'll be honest and talk about it on the show for sure. Um, but yeah, that's kind of where I am with it. I think it's, I think it's been good and I do kind of like it. Like I, I think it makes sense as a sort of reestablishing of some controls, if you will. Um, you know, resetting the playing field or whatever. Uh, and, uh, definitely sleep is better. Workouts are a lot easier and, uh, and that sort of thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Um, there was someone on Slack who wrote me about dry January and he sent me a DM or maybe it was Instagram. I can't remember, but he said, you know, his strategy is, or one thing that he suggested was maybe going a week, dedicating a week, a month, every month to not drinking. And by the end of the year, that's, you know, what, uh, 12 weeks of the year that you have abstained. And then that's, uh, three, essentially like three months off, um, which is, it's kind of a better strategy. I'm, I'm a little dubious about like, like very strict sort of guidelines instead of just sort of paying more attention. But then again, these, these sort of strict months and things are, are to kind of more like a reboot or reset. So I'm, I'm quite welcoming it. |
| James Stacey | But yeah, so other than that, I've kind of gotten more into the, like I talked about on the previous episode, the woodworking sort of thing. So I was gonna build a workbench with my last week of vacation, but then I started looking around. I spoke to my brother who works professionally in this space, and I think what I needed more than, say, an out, something to catch pieces of wood from a table saw, which I don't own, or that sort of thing is more of like just an organizational footing for my garage. Oh, yeah. So I ended up going store bought Canadian Tire, which is a retailer, obviously, here in Canada. Had a nice sale on an all metal with a big butcher block top, 72 inch, build it yourself rolling workbench. So I bought that and put it together in a couple hours, only had like one or two small mental breakdowns when like things didn't line up and then I realized I was reading the instructions wrong. It was a little bit harder than Lego, but not much and now I have it and it's like it's transformed the garage. Suddenly all my stuff has a little home and it has a bunch of drawers and has a huge amount of storage inside. It has a nice workbench on top and once I had that built the next day, I went out and grabbed some wood and I did a project that I've wanted to do for a while, which was design, I can't even say design, I just built a very simple box for the back of the Jeep. Yeah. So for a long time, I've had this Dewalt tote, it's a plastic bin with a handle basically that carries my air compressor and my lithium jumper and a tow hitch and some ratchet straps and all the stuff you'd keep in the back of the car, OBD2 scanner and road flares and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. And it was just like it was never the right shape, you know, like where you have the wrong, it's the wrong Tetris piece for almost anything I put in the back of the jeep. And so instead of having something kind of cube ask in its shape, this is a lower, longer, thinner sort of box that goes right against the seat back. And then I mounted a little clip on it to hold my snow scraper. Cause there's, that's another thing where like the snow scraper that I have, which was given to me by my last landlord, who used mine and it broke and I couldn't have cared less, but he is a very nice guy and he bought me another one. But it's like if somebody 3D scanned the inside of a Jeep and then had a supercomputer create something that didn't fit anywhere. There's no good place for it, there's nowhere to tuck it away, there's nowhere to tie it up, it's always in the way, it's always a centimeter too long for where I wanna put it. So I finally, I mounted it, it's basically the length of this box and I mounted it into the box, and I'm pretty happy with it. It looks good. I think it's gonna work really well, and it comes in and out easily enough without too much stress. So it's nice to be able to see these problems and be able to just go, oh, I can just make something very easy. Yeah. And I had a good time doing it. It was very simple. I made it out of pine, and I did pocket holes for all but a few of the screws, so you can't see any screws, and then just kinda sanded it down and threw it in the back of the Jeep. So we'll see how it holds up. Yeah. Nice. But as a V1, I'm pretty happy with it. And this is a fun little new hobby to explore. Yeah. And I've been getting some really good advice on the Slack as well. |
| Jason Heaton | As always. I mean, that's such a resource for pretty much anything. It's amazing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it really is great. But yeah, that's everything that I've been up to kind of since we recorded the last episode. I've got some travel coming up, a little bit of a vacation with some family. And then after that, I'll be in Florida for a little while. for some watch news and announcements, and then I'll be in New York for like hours, I think. I don't have the total itinerary yet. One evening is probably the maximum to do some stuff with the Houdinki team and for a certain brand to do their forthcoming like watches and wonders announcements. They probably wouldn't appreciate if I said what brand, but you'll hear about those watches as soon as we're allowed to talk about them, I'm sure. Yeah, that's kind of how the rest of my January is looking. It's off to a slow start, which I like, but it's going to ramp up. Yeah, pretty quickly in the next 10 days or so. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, it's not a bad month to be kind of busy. It is kind of a long dark month, traditionally this time of year. So it's it's nice to have something to get you out of the house flying around doing some interesting stuff. So that'll be great. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I agree. Well, what do you say you want to jump right into this recording with Blake? Yeah, let's do it. |
| Jason Heaton | It was a it was a fun chat. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we had a great chat with Blake, and we did a wrist check and final notes with Blake, so you get them for the rest of the episode. I kicked this one off with an intro because I know Blake really well, so why don't we just get to the tape and keep it easy? Okay, today we are joined by an extra special guest who's been on the podcast before but is returning today in a brand new context. You'll recognize him and his likely absolutely correct pronunciation of one of our shared favorite watches from the likes of our live recordings from Wine Up Chicago, but that's far from all of it. He's a Hodinkee alum, the former managing editor of Worn and Wound, and the founder of a brand new project called The Deep Track. It's Blake Bettner. Welcome back to the show, Blake. How are you? |
| Blake Bettner | I'm excellent, James. Super excited to be here. Appreciate you and Jason. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, absolutely. No, it's a, it's a treat to have you on. It was, uh, you know, late last year we were chatting about, uh, the deep track and what your plans were. And we thought, well, Hey, Jason and I are always a little short on show ideas. Uh, in January, this is when we, we start to really kind of get philosophical or pull, pull it a few buddies to come on the show. So it was kind of perfect timing to have you on. Um, I guess probably the natural spot to start because we didn't do a risk check to open the show, which we normally do. It felt weird to do it without you. Why don't we jump into a risk check and then we can learn all about the deep track and chat about probably about a thousand other things. What have you got on risk this morning? |
| Blake Bettner | I am wearing a Zinn U50 watch. I think it's called a grey NATO strap on there, fittingly. which is construction type stuff down in Florida and managed it. So it is like grimy. It's like every time I see him, I take the strap off and all that and like clean it off for him. So it gets properly used. But honestly, I tell you when I do it, you know, a quick cleanup and it looks like brand new. These things are no joke. Whatever submarine steel that they use for this, it's pretty legit. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, they do. They do good work. That Tegiment, the hardening stuff is pretty solid for sure. Well, that's a great pick. And obviously, Jason, I appreciate the NATO. It's always good to be on brand Jason, how about you? What have you got on today? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, yes, I have my FXD, you know, it's still on the same Cincy strap company, Graynado, as I had last week. And yeah, this watch is tough to take off. Blake, I'm actually surprised you're not wearing yours. I thought it would be a Palagos Trio here today, but apparently you've taken it off your wrist for a little while, Blake. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, I normally do. That's normally a safe bet that I would have one of those on. Yeah, but it's nice to switch it up from time to time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. And James, what are you wearing? |
| James Stacey | Oh, yeah. I mean, I also was a little bit concerned that it would be three Pelagoses. I'm going to attempt to go with the Bettner pronunciation, as it's known in the horological lexicon for the whole of the episode. We'll see if I slip back into my terrible ways. But Out of connection to our fine guest and a good friend, I actually wore the Citizen, the BN022725X. It's the loom beast, the big square. Oh, yeah. I think Blake, you coined that term. |
| Jason Heaton | You don't share that nickname. |
| Blake Bettner | Well, it was a windup in Chicago a couple of years ago, a few years ago or whatever. I had one on and I was like, I don't know what to call this thing, you know? And so we each came up with a couple of names. I think you had Blue Brutus because the one I have is a blue camo dial. It's totally gnarly. I love that watch. And it wears better than like it has any right doing, I swear. |
| James Stacey | So much better than you'd assume. I mean, one, it's super titanium. I mean, actually, as I load up the website, and this obviously could, it depends on how quickly you also load up the website. It's currently on sale, which is nice. Wow. But yeah, the thing is absolutely massive. They say it's 46 millimeters wide. It's gotta be every millimeter of that, but it wears kind of not unlike the Aqualand. It just wears really well because it's so square. Yeah. You can get away with quite a large watch. This is probably how some of the bigger Bell and Ross stuff wears, because you look at it on paper and you go, there's no way that's not going to look like I'm attempting to wear an iPhone on my wrist or whatever, like a big rectangle and you put it on and you're like, Oh wait, this kind of makes sense. And then you think like, Oh, if this was, if they originally sized this to go on top of a sleeve, it makes a lot of sense. Like it would actually be kind of perfect even on a normal wrist. But yeah, I figured I'd throw on the loom brute or the loom beast or whatever we've decided its nickname is, but it's in the show notes if you want to see it as our links to the U 50. And of course the, the FXD is a stalwart in our show notes these days. But I guess the next place to go, Blake, is I don't know, I don't remember if in the couple of episodes we've done live from Chicago, we actually talked about how we first met. I think it's always kind of fun when we have on like pals, industry folk, that sort of thing, like to go back, like obviously the show started because Jason and I met through Mike Pearson, who was at Bremont at the time and is now actually with Christopher Ward starting this year. And it's kind of fun to go down memory lane. I believe And I'd love for you to correct me. I believe that you and I first kind of touch base face to face at an Armand Strom F1 trip in Austin in what must be 2015, 2014? I think it was even earlier than that. Yeah, it might have been. James, I think... I'm getting younger, so it's hard for me to remember. |
| Blake Bettner | It might have even been like 12 or 13. Yeah, it might have been 13. |
| James Stacey | 13 might have been right. |
| Blake Bettner | This was Marusha. They sponsored the Marusha team. And this was, I think, a year or two after they had started the race there at Circuit of the Americas. I think it was only like its first or second year. And one of the drivers, of course, was the late Jules Bianchi for Marusha. I still have a hat signed by both of those drivers. I was going through my pictures the other day that I got there just because the cars look so different. uh, from, from then to, to now, um, and then, and I, and I remember like distinctly thinking about chatting with you while I was, while I was there and, uh, and how you and I kind of just hit it off, like naturally right off the, right off the, right off the bat, talking about cars and. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, cars and watches. We were both, we'd been loaned, you know, it was one of those trips where you get there and we were, it was, it was a high low trip is how I would describe it. Cause we were staying at a red roof inn. I don't think Austin had really understood how many people would come to the Formula One yet. And this is even F1 before Drive to Survive. So this is old audience F1 or pre-Netflix F1. And we were staying at a red roof inn, which is fine, except that if I remember correctly, my shower was not connected to the wall in any way. Like the surround that you stood in was essentially just hanging on the pipe that was the shower head. And the whole room smelled like they just painted it. So it was all fine. Everything was fine. Those two memories stand out. But I remember we went for a genuinely on 6th Street, we went for a genuinely incredible meal. I don't remember what the place was called. I want to say the restaurant was bird themed or had like a bird name. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. And I do remember that it was a cloud and cloud grizzler, I think, who's still around and doing his thing. And shout out to Armand Strom. They're still doing awesome things these days, of course. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean the smaller version of the watch they announced they showed earlier this year, and then they showed a few more versions of the Fiume dial at... I'll put it in the show notes, the exact names escaping me, but they showed it at Dubai as well. Really awesome in 38 millimeters, super fun watch, and obviously we had the collective special presentation all about the Armstrong they made in partnership with the collective. It's a really fascinating brand, but the one thing that sticks out in my memory was we went to order drinks from the bar And you or I had never heard. I didn't. You had to fully explain to me what a Sazerac was. It was entirely outside of my understanding of any drinks at all. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. |
| Blake Bettner | I went through a kick back then. Look, we all go through these like phases, right? And in that that was a that was that was my, you know, I was in that period of time, like I get a Sazerac and especially if I'm in different areas or kind of like foreign places, not foreign, but, you know, like out of my usual grind, you know, you had to try it. So Uh, did you try one? Did you have one? |
| James Stacey | Do you remember? I don't remember if I had one. I don't, I don't typically, my guess is if I, if I had to, you know, retcon history, I didn't simply because I have such a general like distaste for mixed drinks, uh, at a, at a high level. Um, but I, I think if I remember correctly, I probably had a sip of yours and it was probably great. But yeah, I think, I think that was kind of our, our, our Genesis as, as buddies. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, absolutely. No, I didn't feel like, yeah, we were pretty fast friends, um, uh, there down in, down in Texas. So That's a great memory. We'll have to confirm the year, though. I'll have to pull up those photos. |
| James Stacey | I don't know if it would still be in my email, maybe. Because I wasn't with Hodinkee at the time. That would have been in the blog to watch years, so I probably don't even have that email. |
| Blake Bettner | Was it even a blog to read back then? |
| James Stacey | It might have been just after the change. But yeah, for those of you who don't remember, say, what would that be, pre-2012? Around 2012, a blog to watch started as a blog to read and became a blog to watch. |
| Blake Bettner | Oh, James, it was it was November of 2013. Okay, there you go. |
| James Stacey | 13 felt right. So almost 11 years, definitely a full 10. Yeah. How about? How about you and Jason? Do you guys remember where you first cross paths was also like on a press trip or at a Basel world, something like that. Early Hodinkee days, we were the |
| Jason Heaton | first two, I think probably freelancers with Houdinki back. And we probably met in 09 or 2010, Blake, I think. Um, and I remember we were, Ben Clymer of course, uh, invited us to, to come to New York, which was kind of a big deal. I remember, I don't remember where you were living at the time, St. Louis maybe. Um, and, and we flew to New York and he put us up in a hotel and he had like this little brief itinerary of stuff we were going to do. And Houdinki didn't have an office back then. I think I remember, Do you remember that video we filmed on the roof of Ben's apartment building that never saw the light of day? |
| Blake Bettner | Yes, that's probably a good thing. I wonder if it's still somewhere. |
| Jason Heaton | I'd love to see that. I wonder if Ben has that hidden away somewhere. He had a studio apartment and we were filming on the roof of his building and it was scorching hot that day, I remember. But we went to a steak place with John Reardon and you and me and Ben and yeah, good times. That was way back. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, I remember feeling kind of totally out of my depth there. I was like, oh, these are like real watch guys, and I'm in New York. I think I was living in San Francisco at this time, Jason, so I came in. And because I wasn't married yet, it was just like this, like working my first like kind of like full legit job out of school. And then yeah, Ben got on my radar somehow. But yeah, and I didn't know like you or Or Eric Wynn was another one of those those early guys. I mean, it was just kind of like happenstance that we were all from Wisconsin. That's true. We figured out like after the fact. So, you know, it's a it's a running thing. And now it's like we're all over the place. Eric, Mark Kosler. |
| James Stacey | The Wisconsin contingent is powerful. Yeah. Yeah. Was your was your genuine start? I'd like I'd like to do a little bit more history. Like, was your genuine start in the watch game as far as a producer with with Hodinkee, with early very early days, Hodinkee? |
| Blake Bettner | It was actually with, I don't know if you remember this brand, Zetum, X-E-T-U-M. |
| James Stacey | Oh, sure. It was like this lugless watch. Like the automotive lugless watches, carbon fiber dials, stuff like that. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, there was a carbon fiber dial. He was based in San Francisco. His name was Jeff Kuo. And he and I got to know each other through some work that our companies were doing together. And I had always really been into watches, so I started helping with his Facebook stuff and social stuff. It was a very different world back then, you know. So and then he's the one that actually knew Ben and put us and put the two of us in touch. And he's like, oh, I know this guy who's got this thing that he's starting. And, you know, maybe you could write right for him as well. So, you know, I'd never really like written or anything. I went to school for design, multimedia design. And so, you know, creative stuff, but not like uh, but not full on like writing, you know? Um, so I, I tried my hand at that, uh, for Ben and apparently it was good enough to start helping him out every now and then. Uh, I think the very first thing I ever wrote about was a Panerai, an old Panerai that was coming up. So I'm sure it was over the top and overdone and all these kinds of things. So Ben kind of helped rein in my writing a little bit and how I thought about it, which was all super helpful. Um, and then that was kind of like what kicked me off. And then, I mean, it was right out of the gates that, that, you know, we were going to, |
| James Stacey | Basel and send me over to what year would this have been like 2009? |
| Blake Bettner | I think it was 2010, like early 2010. |
| James Stacey | So Panerai was still huge. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. I think like April of 2010, if I'm not mistaken, was the first was the first article that I had published. And then and then, yeah, like visiting manufacturers and all this kind of stuff, really just kind of like learning on the fly as we were going. And back then, you know, it's weird. I mean, you'd be at Basel and, you know, it was you were kind of like not cast offs or anything like that, but it certainly lacked the prestige of a lot of the other second class. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. Legacy media. |
| James Stacey | And I remember like watching Ben going, not only was it online, you were English only. Yeah. Right. It wasn't, it wasn't something where you were like producing something in Switzerland that was being translated. Also just an entirely different world. Yeah. Only, you know, a little over a decade ago, the internet, the internet really hadn't been accepted at all. I mean, Ben talks about this, you know, when he talks about early days of which you guys would have been around for just being like, you guys do what? You write on the internet. Okay. Yeah. |
| Blake Bettner | I remember being like a really big deal seeing him go into like a Rolex meeting. Oh yeah. Whoa. That's, you know, that's, that's really cool. And you know, kind of watching. And then of course me being like, I always felt like this gigantic guy that was obviously from a place like Wisconsin, you know, not being in like a, some really fancy suit. And you know, I always felt like a little bit of a fish out of water. those first few years. But, um, you know, you eventually just kind of embrace like who you are and, uh, enroll with it, you know? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I, I still feel almost identical to that. Like I know where I'm going now when I'm in Geneva. Like if somebody is like, Oh, it's near this, I go, Oh, I know where that is. But that's as far as I've come in a decade. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And Blake, you've had, you've had quite a, a kind of a meandering path. I mean, it's been fun to kind of, we cross paths, then we kind of drift apart, then we cross paths again. And I remember for a while you were with a StockX. Um, and that took you to Detroit, I think, right? You moved there and then. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, it's, it's been a, it's, it's been a ride for sure. And I, I look back and I think, you know, my, my son is 11 now and, and I feel bad for putting him through, he's lived in four different States or whatever, whatever it is. So he's got these like little friend groups all over the place. Uh, you know, and I want him to like have some consistency so he can, you know, have, have like friends that he can grow with and get to know. So he starts middle school this year. Um, So hopefully we'll stick around New York for a little bit. But yeah, Detroit was was a really interesting experience with StockX. And, you know, I was one of the early employees there. So that was a whole interesting experience in and of itself. And being a part of a company that went through such a rapid growth phase and kind of being pulled in a lot of different directions. You know, at the end of the day, though, I'm not, you know, like marketplaces and salesmen, that's not really my jam. So I ended up just kind of spending most of my time kind of like writing descriptions and writing about the watches and doing the kind of stuff that I that I wanted to as well as kind of like helping, you know, fulfill orders for sneakers late at night or whatever needed to be done at StockX as they were growing. Like I would hop in and do. And of course, by the time I left, it was gigantic. So, you know, and it's kind of grown into a different thing now, which is great. But, you know, it's it's it's not really like where my the core of my interests lie, you know, lied. So I didn't I didn't want to Yeah. I knew that I wasn't going to be like super long for that role and in Detroit, but it was interesting getting to see Detroit and live there during that phase. So yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You know, you mentioned that, you know, in your initial kind of work at Hodinkee and kind of getting into that space you weren't a writer by training or by background. And I'm curious now, as you've been through some different career iterations and now you're onto something new now with the deep track, where are you at? Like in terms of you, what's your comfort zone? Are you, do you plan on doing more writing now? Or, I mean, I don't want to jump into the deep track discussion here too quickly, but I'm just curious, like what is your comfort zone and what, what's ahead for you? |
| Blake Bettner | So actually like, that's a good question. And honestly, even, even with my kind of hesitancy, but I knew I was like maybe a little out of my lane when I, when I started doing it, the more that I did it, the more that I really kind of fell in love with it. And, and now I, I really enjoy, I truly enjoy writing. And if I get something that I'm really curious about, like I really like jumping into it and getting my thoughts out, I feel like I can articulate myself much better through written word than I can, you know, talking to someone. So it's a process that I really enjoy now. And it kind of forces me to slow down. You know, when I'm talking, it's all just kind of there. When I'm writing, it forces me to kind of stop and think about it and formulate different things that I'm trying to say or want to say and why. So it's a process that I've really come to enjoy. And I don't know if I'm any better at it or anything like that. I think I've gotten better than I was back then. But it is something that I enjoy and kind of embrace now and kind of look forward to doing. So, yeah, I don't know how else we justify, you know, taking a sensibly, you know, relatively uninteresting three hand watch and writing six thousand words on it or something like that. Like that's not a normal thing, is it? Like what do we do here? What is this? So now I really embrace it. I also I've always really loved photography as well. And so that's something that I've always kind of worked on and enjoy myself. Again, I don't know if I'm any good at any of this stuff, but it's something that I really enjoy. And it's like something that I can use to help kind of tell the stories that are on my mind and explore the areas that I'm like really curious about, which is kind of what the D track is about, you know, in total. |
| James Stacey | So, yeah, I also think that like your, your career arc is not like necessarily an uncommon one where you're, you've moved around a little bit, you found a couple avenues. It wasn't only watches. We saw the stock X thing and now you've kind of settled into starting your own thing, seeing, seeing your own sort of vision, having your own sort of girl. I guess maybe we just kick it off with what's the elevator pitch for Deep Track if you had... You've got lots of time, we'll get into more depth. Well, let's say you only had a few seconds to explain like, hey, what do you do? And you go like, well, I'm a podcaster and a photographer and I talk about watches and sometimes I write about... It's the same sentence we all have learned to avoid. Yeah, yeah. But what's the current pitch on the Deep Track, on the new project? |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. Honestly, it comes down to it as It's a reflection of my own curiosity and how I look to explore the spaces that I find interesting, be it cars, watches, keyboards, diving, photography, gaming technology, all of these areas and discover what makes those enthusiast spaces tick through a cross section of different perspectives, which is really why, like, which is kind of at the core of what I want to do there. You know, I have my own lane that I'm pretty good at staying in, but I'm curious about all these other areas and how they impact, like, my own thinking in terms of, like, not only just watches, but about all these other areas that I'm kind of really interested in. Of course, watches are kind of the core of that. But I have, you know, the longer I've been around watches and longer I am around watches, the more I realize, like, the gulf of areas that I don't have any knowledge about. And that's okay. I realize that I'm never going to, like, completely close that gulf. What interests me is how different other people experience this hobby and why. So those are the things that I really enjoy kind of digging into and in learning more about and kind of helps me think about how I experience this hobby as well. It's just as much about the people in the experiences at the end of the day as it is the things themselves. In fact, maybe even more so. Right. That's what makes it interesting. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, these are things that we we don't need, of course. But, you know, there's an undeniable appeal here. And a part of that is the community around them and the things that the inspiring things that I see people doing with them. And it's the same with cars. It's the same with photography. It's the same with, you know, mechanical keyboards. I've got all these kind of like nerdy hobbies that I find like a lot of commonalities within the enthusiast spaces. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. I've got to ask, you know, I remember you just jogged my memory. I remember seeing I was probably on your Instagram. You used to post these occasional photos of keyboards and look, I'm not one to judge. We're all, we've all got our deep nerd, you know, enthusiasm and I've got some weird ones as well. But like, tell me about the keyboard thing. What, what, I don't get, what is, what is that all about? |
| Blake Bettner | It's Jason. Honestly, it is a deep rabbit hole. So, um, so as we record this tomorrow, the next podcast that I have going live, um, is with Matt Farah and we're, we're talking about cars. But next week, it's with this guy from in the mechanical keyboard community who's been in it for a while. And we nerd out on all this stuff and talk about kind of like the why. So if you're if you're curious about it, like I'd recommend listening to that and give some insight. But, you know, I think for people like us, if you think about it, it's what we do kind of all day, every day. We sit in front of this thing and we're using it. It's a tool that we're using, you know, that it deserves like some attention. And it's it's something that like I can kind of make my own. and how I build them, even by, you know, taking the switches apart and putting a different weight of spring in it so it gets just the way that I like it. But then you start typing paragraphs, you know, and if you're writing all day, you notice it. So there is an aesthetic component and all that kind of stuff, which is fun, but there's also a practical component that's, you know, this just feels good for me to type on. But it defies simple explanation, Jason, just like watches to some people, I'm sure. |
| Jason Heaton | You do not need to explain yourself or keyboards or whatever. I mean, I, I was just at, uh, I last, uh, last week I went out for a round of pub trivia with our fellow Wisconsinite, uh, Matt Ludvigson, uh, and his, and his wife, we were at this, this place up in white bear Lake and we were doing a trivia night and we got on this discussion about nerdy pursuits and how I just fully embrace this stuff. And I think it's probably where you're headed with the deep track. I think it's. It's this kind of celebration of nerdery, right? I mean, and it truly can be a celebration. I think we all have these things and it's what really makes people interesting. It's what makes, you know, you form communities around them and you're right. It transcends the actual item itself and it becomes about, you know, what the people bring to it. So that's really cool. It sounds like you're, you're on a good path with the deep track and you'll, you'll start to explore this stuff. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, I hope so. And I hope that, you know, the similarities between some of these communities in different spaces, like it's hard to ignore. So I think there's a lot of people in our space that could be just like a step away from, oh, I really enjoy this. And I found something new that I'm going to discover, you know? |
| James Stacey | I mean, like literally anyone who's ever dipped their toe into modding a Seiko should should get into mechanical keyboards. Yeah. So it's just a very basic. And you should check out the deep track and whatever in this episode you have coming out. It'll be episode seven. |
| Blake Bettner | It will be episode six or seven. Yes. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. But you can basically like you buy the frame and you get to pick the size. So there's like percentages of sizes of keyboards. And then you can pick the switch, the spring, the cap. It can be all customized. It could be any color you want. It can have no writing on it. It can have just icons. It's an entire canvas for like a very specific type of expression. And I have fallen down that YouTube rabbit hole with a bunch of guys that do like, you know, sort of like desk makeovers and things like that. And the core is never like, you know, I'm typing this on a decent logitech keyboard that I'm happy with. But every time I watch one of these, these videos, I go like, Hey, you know, if only maybe I would Blake, we might have to take this offline because I might be in the market for something more interesting when I have to do when I have to do four or five thousand words. |
| Blake Bettner | Look, There's a parallel here to watches, too, because Jason, I know you and I know me for sure, James, maybe you, probably none of us would have learned how to dive if it weren't for the watches first kind of getting us into that space. I can say that for sure for myself, wanting to experience these watches in that kind of a context. And then, of course, being kind of pushed over the edge by guys like you and Chris and Matt and And Jeff, but with keyboards, like now I know how to solder because I got into it and like do a bit of programming. And like it's because I wanted to take that into a step deeper and kind of learn why I want to customize it that way. Well, then I'll learn how to do it. And now I have a soldering iron and I know how to solder and how to put together a circuit board and all that kind of stuff. So it's the same kind of a concept that and that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about. Those are really incredible things to experience. You don't know how those doors will open to you as you get into a space. And if you're curious about it, you might be shocked at what you end up doing by the time you get to the other side, like with diving or soldering. If you had told me at the beginning of last year that I would be a certified diver going into 2024, I'd be like, I don't think so. But here I am. And it's because of the people, like the community around it and like wanting to have that experience of this hobby in a different kind of way that I didn't have access to before. |
| James Stacey | So I think, Jason, you've used a phrase that came from our buddy Ben Clymer, who we've all had a past and current with, that it's nice to be a civilian sometimes. And like if the deep track introduces people to brand new, whether it's keyboards or diving and they've never done the first five percent, that first five percent is so much fun in any hobby. as a guy who's just getting a little bit deeper into woodworking. Now that I have a garage, this first 5% I get to make all my own mistakes. The stakes are really low. I can't really ruin anything because it's none of it's important. You just look, you just learn by doing and it's this, I think it's what brought me into watches. That's what brought me into photography. It's what brought me into audio editing and podcasting and everything I like. It's that, that like that special little like mental hit that you get from starting a new difficult process. and whether it's finding a YouTube video that teaches you how to test an alternator for a dead solenoid, which I did and felt like, like I felt like I should have earned an engineering degree just by following this Chris fix video. I felt so accomplished by the end of it. It's such a fun thing to find a new hobby, to find a new interest, to find an even just to have an interest. Like I remember the first time I found As something of an SR-71 Blackbird knucklehead myself, when I first found one of my favorite Instagram accounts, which is Romig21, it was just this nice moment of like, oh, there's so much more for me to learn now, even when you get really deep into something. Or now in watches, if somebody puts out a new book or starts a new project, like the Deep Track, you have a new avenue for finding little expressions. Because sure, we've maybe been around long enough to be part of the trunk of internet watch enthusiasm, But the branches go in so many directions, we haven't seen a tenth of them, right? |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, absolutely. And I like that is interesting to me. And seeing like a whole young generation of people come into this space is really interesting to me and encouraging to me. And how they are experiencing this hobby seems it's very, very different from how I experience it. And that's OK. You know, it'd be pretty boring place if everyone just kind of thought the same way as as we did. So engaging with these people and starting a dialogue and like saying that you know, hey, you're welcome in this space, you know, and, uh, you know, what, what you're bringing here adds value. Um, you know, I think that's an important thing. And like, we see these, these people in this generation of enthusiasts coming in and they're going to like lay the groundwork for the future of it, hopefully. So, you know, even if it's not exactly how I go about this hobby, you know, I think it's okay and it's still okay to understand it. And, um, you know, and vice versa, uh, they can kind of understand what makes guys like us, um, tick. You know, and there's always watches like that. That first five percent, I think you're always kind of looking to, like, recapture that almost. And I'm sure you guys come across watches that kind of spark that. Oh, like that brings me like this nostalgia of why I got into this in the first place. Maybe it's an old Seiko or an old Zen or whatever it is like. I love kind of coming across those watches and it puts me right back there. |
| James Stacey | And those like what is it that Zuckerman calls it? Like a taproot, the taproot car. this is on spikes car radio. Paul Zuckerman talks about like that moment where you're screwed, whether it was he got a ride in a three fifty six or something, or I remember the first time I saw like a Breitling Pluton just kind of changed me. I remember the YouTube video where I saw somebody wearing an Explorer to a video I've been hunting for for six or seven years and explore to in a gray NATO again kind of changed me. |
| Blake Bettner | I mean like this is this is this sets the lane right that we live in that we end up living in. Yeah, yeah, exactly. |
| Jason Heaton | And I, but I always think, I always think I always tell people that every new watch I acquire or look at or whatever is always trying to live up to the very first watch that I, that I bought or that I, that I had, that I had memories of. And 99% of them fall short. You know, like that, the, the special feeling I had from that first Seiko diving watch that I got in the eighties was like, I, I, I still remember how that made me feel. And, and every single watch that I put on. is trying to recapture that. And some come close. I think this FXD clearly, given how much I wear it, is one of those. But yeah, yeah. And I suppose that's the case with, you know, your first mechanical keyboard or your, you know, your first, you know, your feeling of first car or whatever. Yeah. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. Yeah. Things just have a way of getting like more complicated from there, don't they? |
| Jason Heaton | Right. |
| Blake Bettner | Before you know it, you're into like way more expensive watches and way fancier things. But you're still always looking for that same feeling. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right. So true. But I think it's also reflected in the content and even in the content strategy. I've been obsessed with this for a really long time, basically because just before I got... And right around the time that I started university, podcasting kind of clicked off. It wasn't quite in iTunes yet, but if you were really part of the tech scene, you knew that... And I've talked with this before, like Leo Laporte or Kevin Rose, whether it was Dignation or the screensavers or RevZilla or This Week in Tech, there was stuff out there. that was like these little communities that felt like you were part of a bit of a moment. And then I think the internet, and this happened to watches later than tech, it happened to tech much faster with CNET and then and gadget and then into the verge and then how the verge has split into 40 different sites from people who have worked there and that kind of stuff. But with watches, I think we're starting to see that arc where we're starting to see people split off of the big ships and start their own little navies out in the water, out in the big ocean where there's lots of room to do whatever you want. Because Blake, I think you're a couple of years younger than me. I'm 37, almost 38. I'm 40. Oh, okay. You're a couple of years older than me. So then you guys would both remember there was a time when pretty much everything on the internet was tiny. If you love dive watches, you had one area of watch you seek to talk about dive watches. If you love Seiko, you had one area on watch you seek or time zone or whatever. Yeah. And I kind of Lament, I don't, sorry, I don't kind of, I absolutely miss that and I feel like the big goal of TGN is to bring some of that back. I don't think that everything needs 50,000 people talking about it. I think you need like a thousand buddies basically. Yeah, yeah. In a space and Blake, bless you, you're in the TGN slack and participating and posting some genuinely wild watches into the buy sell. I'm trying to do a tone in there that totally blows the roof off the tax bracket of the normal DGN space. |
| Blake Bettner | I put an article in there this morning that I think has ruffled a few feathers, maybe. So hopefully I don't get in too much trouble. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that was Cam's story about not how a lot of like watch guys don't set their watches. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Which like I mean, I can't identify with that at all, but I am a big fan of Cam and what he captures. So he found an avid like he found a slice of our world that just isn't |
| Blake Bettner | us and that's fascinating to me. That's why I put it in there, because I was curious, like do do you people like maybe I'm just missing something? |
| James Stacey | No, I like man, I put on this citizen today and it wasn't set up for DST and not only did I count it back an hour, I also matched it to the zero because it's courts like why have a court's watch and not and not hit zero. I got it right here on the corner of my screen. Maybe occasionally I will pick up a watch put it on and forget to set it. And then an hour later I'll go to check the time and I'll go like, well, that can't possibly be the case. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I don't want to, I don't want to out our buddy, Matt Ludvigson again here. Uh, but when I was spending time with him last week, he had his polar Explorer two on, um, at the trivia night. And, uh, and I, I did a double take because it said some odd hour and he, he's one of those people. He doesn't set his watch. He's a, he's a dyed in the wool design guy. I mean, his, his head is in that space and that's, That's the way he appreciates watches and I cannot relate to it at all. But, um, so yeah, that article was very timely and I sent it over to him, but yeah, good, good stuff. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. That's, that's interesting. Yeah. And if you can vouch for the author, I don't know the author James, uh, but yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm a big fan of cam. I've been on a couple of press trips with cam. He's, he covers all the GQ stuff. So it's a, it's like a perspective that isn't mine that I really appreciate that he does. And I've spent some time with him. you know, around on the watch circuit. A nice guy. I think he does a nice job. I don't necessarily agree with the perspective of the article, because I think you should set your watch and use it to tell time. |
| Blake Bettner | That's what makes it interesting, because I'm not that way, you know, and I don't mean to come down on anybody who doesn't like, you know, you do you. And but I like that's what I'm curious about, like, right, like people, how they experience it differently than I do. Um, so yeah, shout out to, uh, yeah, to, I guess, uh, the cam guy. I'm sure I'll meet him at some point here if he's in the New York, um, uh, area. |
| James Stacey | So, but if you vouch for him, yeah, I think you guys would get along cams. Cam's a good dude for sure. But yeah, aside from that, I am fairly curious, you know, you, you were the managing editor of worn around for quite some time. How long was the tenure a few years? |
| Blake Bettner | Uh, it was a three and a half years. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Okay. And I'm curious, like in your mind, jobs come and go. It's a job. You work until you don't want to do it anymore, and then you move on to something else. That's how I would see it, at least. Because I know you well enough, and you're a very thoughtful guy. In your thinking about your time with Warner One, what were your major learnings? What did Blake that started there not know that Blake that is starting the deep track does now, or has an appreciation of? Because that's quite a team to work with. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, and it was a great experience in many ways. and really getting to work with people like Zach Kazan and Cat Shoulders and Zach Weiss. You know, these are people that maybe see things very differently than I do. And I think, you know, collectively our differences like balanced out like very, very nicely. So that was what always like was a huge motivator to me and kind of learning about their approach and their taste levels, I think, was was always fascinating to me. You know, even if I didn't always agree or whatever, just kind of like seeing how they operated in this space was very interesting. So, you know, I think for me it was really kind of like an eye-opening experience of just the like breadth and diversity of the people in this space and learning that there are other people that are different than me that offer like a lot of, you know, that I end up appreciating at the end of the day. And like I do every single one of them, you know, Zach, Blake, Zach, Kat, all of them, you know, brought their own differences to the table that were really fascinating for me to be a part of. And I think I learned a lot just being around them. You know, of course, kind of Kat, how she thinks about gear and photography was super insightful. And then just some of the funky things that both of the Zaks were into, like they're just a kind of an endless source of like, wow, you know, how did you find this? Or, you know, this is a watch that never really would have crossed my mind. you think this way about it and in learning that way. So it really kind of exposed me to a lot of new areas of this space and not just through them, but also through the events that we would hold. Of course, the wind up events were great and getting to getting to interact with such a huge cross section of the community was always just my favorite part of that. And as I'm sure you guys can vouch for having been a part of them as well. But seeing some of the people come out, some of the not just like awesome watches that that you can gush over, but even watches that you weren't aware of existed or a watch that maybe you, you know, just kind of like skirted over and didn't really give much thought to, but you see somebody wearing it in a different kind of context. It's like, oh, that looks awesome. Or I never thought about that watch. Or I didn't know there was this version of the watch. And then meeting their families and really kind of getting a sense of their own enthusiasm and why they're in the hobby, what motivates them. uh, was just like an absolute favorite thing for me. And that's kind of like the foundation of what I want to like keep exploring, uh, here with the deep track. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I think as like an extension of that is as far as like things that you're currently into, you know, you and I hung out quite a bit and it was really nice to hang out with you in, uh, in Dubai. And we talked on the show quite a bit about Dubai watch week, but you extend it and actually did like some genuinely TGN-esque sort of stuff. Yeah. Cause you stayed, you stayed in, in that area for a little while. What else did you get up to? Cause I saw you, uh, after at least one of your dives, you went on for some more excitement. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. I did a few dives while I was there. I stayed on an extra week and in the, my initial thinking was, Oh, the final race of the F1 season is in Abu Dhabi, which is just down the coast. Um, you know, uh, maybe a hundred kilometers, uh, maybe a little more, um, about 60 or 70 miles, uh, south of Dubai. Um, so I thought, you know, I'm not in that part of the world very often. I have to take advantage of this. It's so close. So I bridged that gap and I started looking at, you know, other things to do around there. So, uh, so it, of course being right along the coast of the Persian Gulf, you know, I thought, uh, that we could be some good diving opportunities there. So, you know, I hopped onto Patty and found an outfit that I could charter a boat with. and did that experience, which was which was really remarkable and a really good learning experience for me. Some very rough C's and unit conversions that I wasn't used to having to make and kind of going to PSI scenarios. Yes. Yeah. And like how you signal the difference in that, you know, from how I was taught. And I'm still a pretty fresh new diver. So this is kind of being thrown into a situation that, you know, maybe I didn't fully appreciate before. I booked it, but it ended up being a really good learning experience. And, um, you know, a few potentially safety hazard things came up that, uh, are now kind of, will be top of mind the next time. Like having an SMB clip to my BC, um, at all, at all times. |
| James Stacey | Always a good idea for sure. |
| Blake Bettner | Yes. And, uh, and then doing the deep dive Dubai, uh, thing, which was, uh, honestly a very relaxing experience after diving in the Gulf there. |
| James Stacey | So for folks who don't know, fill in on, we'll put it in the show notes, but give them the pitch on what the Deep Dive Dubai is. |
| Blake Bettner | The Deep Dive Dubai is the deepest pool in the world. And it is, what is it? I think it's 80 meters deep. And a lot of free divers will go there and train. And it's also a facility that you can go and get your certification. 60 meters. It's 60 meters? Okay. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So it's. 14 million liters of freshwater. |
| Blake Bettner | It's, it's, I mean, it's crazy. It's a, so the top, like down to 60 feet, which is, I guess the bottom of what, like recreational, just open water diving recommendation is that they have, kind of these rings of things that you can go around and see. So you go down to 60 at first, obviously, and then you kind of make these rings around as you go up. And then each layer has like, you know, like a pool table or a motorcycle or, you know, all these kind of like weird things that you can go and, you know, play with and pose on and they'll get your picture and all this kind of stuff. So, and there's, you know, there's an instructor that's following you around with a little GoPro. Yeah, it's a fun experience for sure. If you're looking for like, you know, a true kind of like hardcore diving experience, it's definitely not that it's it's more of like Disneyland type level of experience. But like I said, after diving in the Gulf, it was a welcome kind of like relaxing diving experience that, you know, and since it's it's a pool, there's no like currents or other things, you know, a million other things you have to have your head on. Like it was it was good for me to kind of practice like trimming out and like keeping my knees at a 90 degree angle, like little things like that, that are generally maybe like further back in my mind when I'm diving in, you know, in the ocean or in the gulf or something. But there, like it really allowed me time to do that. So the instructors were amazing. It was an all around, like really incredible experience. And I would highly recommend to anyone in that area or passing through, like go give it a go give it a shot. the guys around there. I brought my whole kit with me, but they don't let you take your BC in because of regs. No, the regs you could, it was just the BC in a dive suit that they didn't want you to take in because of potential contaminants. So I brought my fins, my masks, and my regs and they gave them all like kind of a once over cleaning and then I was able to use those going down. |
| James Stacey | I guess it must be the possibility that there's water that has other microorganisms in it that's in the bladder of your BC or maybe in a wet, wet suit, something like that. Interesting. |
| Blake Bettner | But all the BCs that they had there, which was great, they're all backplate and wing stuff. So it was very similar to the setup that I use anyways, so it worked out really well. |
| James Stacey | Killer. Yeah, that's very cool. I've always been curious about that. I was glad that you checked it out. And then look, if you've got the time, we'd love to invite you to save for final notes, the sort of end segment of the show, which we can get to if you've got a few extra minutes. Yeah, absolutely. But I would love to know, what did you think of the race? I have a strong opinion about Formula One, that it's best watched at home on a television, kind of like UFC. Yeah. It's just a lot better if you're letting the camera do most of the work. Yes. Other than your feet. |
| Blake Bettner | But yeah, it's very different from like a baseball game or a football game or something like it's very hard to follow. And so I got just general admittance so I could like walk around to different areas. And if I like I had to go out of my way to go find a screen to actually see what was going on. You know, if if it had been a season where it was like a very tight race to like the championship down at the end, it would have been more frustrating for me. Uh, but since the season was pretty well wrapped up, um, and it was just kind of, uh, uh, you know, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, which ended up being pretty tight, um, down at the end. Um, but it's, it is, there's something about seeing the cars in person and watching them go around a corner and hearing them go around a corner that is, uh, does not come through on the television. So it's worth doing, but I 100% agree with you. The best way to watch an F1 race is, is from your couch. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, I've raved about it before, but as far as services for a specific type of content, that F1 app, the F1 TV system for, I pay 80 Canadian, so I assume that makes it 50 bucks a year in America or about, is an insane amount of stuff that you get for your money. The season's over and I get two or three notifications a week from the app saying like, hey, we posted a new video about the regulations for the upcoming season. You could just keep going all year round. Agree. Highly recommend. Same. Look, before we get into final notes, I was curious, like what are the deep track is off? It's running. You've got four or five episodes of the podcast up as well, which I highly recommend some TGN friends on their Wesley and Asher and all that kind of stuff. It's great. What's the what's the next year kind of look like? What are the goals for the platform just to continue exploring or |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, I will continue exploring. I think opening up the video element will be the next kind of bigger thing on my on my plate. So hopefully here within the next month, we'll get that set up. That's it's a little less straightforward to do just because, you know, you need the right surroundings and the setup is a little more involved than just audio. So but that's something that I'm working on right now. |
| James Stacey | And the plan would be to take the podcast and go video or do videos about certain topics? |
| Blake Bettner | I think just videos of me talking about the watches that I have in or talking about the hobby in general, maybe once a week. I think I've got 10 minutes worth of things to say. So I think I'll go that route and then just continue building the community here. It's reader supported. So it's on Patreon. And I feel like I want my first responsibility to be to the reader and to the listener. |
| James Stacey | That's the way it should be. |
| Blake Bettner | So it'd be kind of like building that community, getting feedback from the people that end up there and taking it in the direction that we all want it to go. Nice. |
| James Stacey | Well, that's great. Well, look, we'll jump into final notes. So in your mind, if you can consider something you'd love to recommend to folks, could be a book, could be a movie, could be a YouTube link, could be an activity, a product, who knows, whatever you're into at the moment that's on the line. But I would be keen before we get to that. What's the best way for people to connect with you and to keep up with the deep track these days? |
| Blake Bettner | Yes. So you can just go to the deep track dot com. All one word on Instagram. It is the deep underscore track. And you can hit me up anytime. It's Blake at the deep track dot com. If you've got a suggestion, comment, criticism, I'm here for it. Don't don't hesitate to reach out. And of course, I'm on the the great NATO slack. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, there you go. So we can, you can definitely find Blake in there and otherwise be sure to check out the show notes for the links for all of that, or just hit the deep track.com. Congrats on the launch of that. I think this is awesome. It's been super nice to have you on the show. And I don't know that there's been many times that we've just said like, Oh, I want you to stay on and, and give us some final notes. But we can, we can jump into that, put a bow on the show, as I like to say. Jason, you want to go first? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, sure. Mine is one that is near and dear to my heart. And it's one that a lot of people have shared with me because they know me well. Um, this is, uh, a guy on, on Instagram that's worth following. And he has a series of videos that he's putting up. His name is Casper Hoagland and he's, uh, lives in Norway, I believe. And I followed him for quite a while because he's, um, he's, uh, he's a Land Rover guy and, and he spends a lot of time in his Land Rover touring around, uh, kind of remote areas of Norway, like living out of his Land Rover. I think he's, he's kind of a creative. a person by nature and maybe by past career. But now all he does is he posts these amazing videos of his heavily modified LR4 kind of traveling around and camping and stuff in it. But more recently he bought a series three Land Rover. I believe it's a 1974 that he found somewhere far West from where he lives and, and actually drove it back across the country in the winter in Norway. And now that he's got it back home, he's rebuilding it. And he's posting a series of videos in which he's slowly kind of disassembling this, this vehicle piece by piece and discovering, you know, a rotted section of chassis and, and, you know, just removing the engine and taking the windscreen off and things like this. And, you know, I love videos like this. Anyway, my YouTube feed is full of, you know, kind of Land Rover restoration and disassembly and repair stuff. Um, as you might expect, but, um, he has a really nice, very calm delivery and he doesn't come across as. Anything went expert. He's clearly an enthusiast and someone who's learning as he goes. And, you know, for anyone that just likes to watch people take stuff apart, whether it's, you know, um, a lot of kind of the watch repair stuff that a lot of us like to watch or, you know, restomod stuff with cars. Um, I think he's, he's particularly enjoyable to, to listen to and watch. And his videos are very, you know, kind of short enough that you can easily digest them, but. He does a nice job. So yeah, that's mine for for this week. It's casper.hugland on Instagram, and we'll put a link in the show notes. |
| James Stacey | That's great. I think that's a solid pick. It's funny how much of also my YouTube is also just people rebuilding vehicles. I haven't overlapped into the Land Rover world so much. I used to do a bunch of the Jeep ones. I got kind of tired of those, especially because like every time I modified the Jeep, with any actual extents, it broke it in some way. So I finally gave up and just kind of removed all that stuff and moved on. But yeah, I think these are these are great, and I don't know why. I don't know why it's so compelling to watch someone work on a vehicle. Yeah, like if I would Jason, if I went over to your house and you're working on, I would want to help like I wouldn't just sit there and drink a couple of beers in your driveway. I mean, I might, but I would also like hold a flashlight for you. Yeah, right. Help you pick up the 10 mil that bounced across the driveway, that sort of thing. But yeah, Yeah. I, uh, it is great content. It's always, it's always very, very fun. Yeah. Yeah. Blake, if you've got one, please take up the, uh, the, the middle one. If you've got a suggestion for the final notes. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah, I've got, uh, the book I read before, um, Sweetwater, uh, was a book called the scout mindset, uh, by Julia Galef, uh, which I really enjoyed. Um, so I would highly recommend that it's, it's a nonfiction, uh, book. Uh, it's, uh, why some, why some people see things clearly and others don't, um, motivation to see things as they are, not as we wish they were. And then the book that I usually go back to once a year is The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. Science is a Candle in the Dark, which is kind of an all-time favorite of mine. |
| James Stacey | So... The Demon Haunted World? |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Wow. Billions. |
| Blake Bettner | Another great one. Carl Sagan. |
| James Stacey | Oh, fantastic. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, those are great. I've not read either of those. I like the title of both, to be fair. The Scout Mindset is a good one. For The Scout Mindset, what's the sort of, like beyond the byline, what's the sort of perspective of the novel? |
| Blake Bettner | So it's nonfiction, and it's really kind of her talking about like kind of a way to see the world and like process information, uh, to kind of build out a clear picture, uh, of the world and kind of using this, like, like how a scout would go out and kind of survey the, the things around them and incorporate it into their knowledge, uh, and kind of like building strength through that. |
| Jason Heaton | So, so it's not specifically like boy scouts or girl scouts. It's, it's scout in more of the general sense. |
| Blake Bettner | Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | All right. So for mine this week, I have a very short YouTube video, which I'm going to share in our chat here. Jason, you've already seen this because I sent it to you on Instagram, but I did find the original video, which allowed me to pull the audio. I thought this was apropos of dry January. I'd find us a song about whiskey. And to be fair, this song about whiskey found me. So this is from Hosier, who's a singer and a songwriter. He's had some huge hits in the past, but this is basically like a warm up, I guess, for a set that he did with The Current, which is a YouTube channel and a radio station, kind of in the same vein as a lot of these radio stations where they're capturing live music and promoting it as like a great video. And as part of that set, he essentially recites a piece of the Humors of Whiskey, which I'll just, you know, rather than belabor the explanation, I'll play it now. |
| Hosier (audio clip) | Come guess me this riddle, what beats pipe and fiddle? What's hotter than mustard and milder than cream? What best wets your whistle? What's clearer than crystal? Sweeter than honey and stronger than steam? What can make the dumb talk? What can make the lame walk? What's the elixir of life and philosopher's stone? And what helped Mr. Brunnell to dig the Thames tunnel? Sure wasn't it whiskey from my old inner shone? So stick to the crater, the best thing in nature For sinking your sorrows and raising your joys And boys, I'd half wonder if lightning and thunder was made from the plunder of whiskey me boys. |
| James Stacey | And so, yeah, it's just a short video. I kind of like it. It's pretty. His voice is obviously incredible, like almost ridiculous. And I thought for dry January, if I can't drink whiskey, I might as well think about it in some sense. So I sent this to Jason as soon as I saw it, because Jason, I know you have a love of sort of like ship shanty songs and the folky side of it. Yeah, this was great. and the Irish and then I went and found in my apologies to the Irish among the audience. This is actually part of a very long, like this song's probably 15 minutes long. If you sang the whole thing, the text looks like Deuteronomy. It just keeps going, but it's an ode to the history of whiskey and its importance to the Irish culture. So I'll put all of that in the show notes, but please, I hope people enjoyed the audio and the current. If you don't appreciate me using the audio, give me a heads up. I can fix that, I guess, as well too. So, but yeah, that was my pick for, uh, we're now eight days into dry January. It's going pretty okay. Blake, are you, do you, uh, do you do the dry January thing or has it skipped you this year? |
| Blake Bettner | Not this year. Um, I have done it in the past, uh, though I think my general one this year is instead of the dry January, it's just like overall drinking a little bit less throughout the entire year. |
| James Stacey | A somewhat drier 24. Yes. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | probably a better strategy, actually. |
| James Stacey | A lifestyle rather than just a month of denying yourself something. Yeah, I think it probably is smart. But yeah, so that's an episode. Blake, I can't thank you enough for coming on and chatting with us and just kind of shooting it for a little while. I'm really proud to see you take what is kind of a scary leap to go from a sure thing with a team that's working and doing a great job with worn and wound and decide to jump into your own thing with the deep track. I'm really excited to see where it goes. I'm really pumped to learn how I should spend my first 100, 150 bucks on a mechanical keyboard. I haven't owned one in probably 15 years. And back in the day, that was because there was only one or two that even worked with Apple. If you go back that far. But yeah, I'm pumped for this, and I'm really happy to see how things have been progressing for you in the last little while. |
| Blake Bettner | James, Jason, the pleasure. It's been my pleasure. It's just always a treat to get to talk to you guys. Longtime friends, and I really appreciate you having me on. |
| Jason Heaton | Absolutely. Yeah, best of luck, Blake, and thanks for coming. And I'm definitely going to tune in for that keyboard episode. That sounds like something I need to learn more about, for better or for worse. Alright, well as always, thank you so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from LM Montgomery who said, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? |