The Grey NATO – 268 – The Watch List Vol. 1
Published on Thu, 18 Jan 2024 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
The episode begins with Jason and James chatting about their plans for the week, including Jason attending an event in Aspen. They discuss James' fitness routine and his positive experience with a chiropractor. The main topic is making a "watch list" of 3 watches each that they are interested in but haven't purchased yet. Jason's picks include the Breitling UDT Chronosport/Pluton, a vintage Bulgari Diagono chronograph, and an Orange Monster Seiko dive watch. James' picks are the Sinn U50 SDR, the Tudor Black Bay 54, and the Fears Archival 1930 dress watch. James ends up spontaneously purchasing a rare Breitling Pluton watch that was mentioned. For the final notes, James recommends the book "Hands of Time" by Rebecca Struthers, and Jason highlights a versatile multi-tool keychain from Nite Ize.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 268 and it's proudly brought to you by our ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegreynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host up in Canada, James Stacy, James, how's it going? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, you know, I, uh, we're doing, uh, to this is actually a triple record week because we did the episode with Blake. We did a Q and a, which is now up. If you're on the subscriber side, that's in your feed. And then this one, which is going to cover us for next week. And I'm, I'm off. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I'll be honest, man. I slept in today. It's a, it's a Friday when we're recording this, which is not usual, but definitely fun. We should bring probably a slightly different energy than our normal Tuesday recordings. Yeah. They launched a recent update to Call of Duty mobile, which I'm still playing a ton. And it included a gun that I really wanted to get and play with. So I played a lot of Call of Duty last night after work and the rest. And then I found out that... Do you know the comedy show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | it turns out they have all of it on Disney plus. So I was like catching up on the last four or five seasons and it's like maybe the most easy watching nonsense. Yeah, I still think it like it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen at times. So anyways, I blinked and it was like you know one a.m. Oh sure, so yeah, I slept in a little bit today. So you guys are actually like you're listening to me become caffeinated in real time. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I'm in kind of the same boat. Yeah. I'm, I'm dragging today. I, I didn't, uh, stay up late for any particular reason, but, uh, I just did not sleep well last night. So I ended up kind of like finally when I did go to sleep, I got up quite late too. So we're, we're both kind of in this weird half, half awake, foggy mode, which might lend an interesting energy to the show. But, uh, and then you're off, uh, next, uh, well, by the time this episode goes up, you are out of the country for, for a while. And, uh, so yeah, some of this might be a little old news, I suppose, but yeah, |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I don't think that anything we're doing today is going to be especially timely, like yeah, this episode will be recorded almost a week before it goes live, but I have a family vacation coming up, and so I'm going to be offline for several days with my wife and my father catching up on a family wedding that's out of Canada. Yeah, other than that, not like a ton happening. Like I said, it was a triple recording week for us, plenty going on at Hodinkee, working on a couple of cool stories. The one thing I would give folks a heads up is that I'm going to be at Ice Race in Aspen. So FAT, formerly GP Ice Race, they're doing an Aspen version, which runs February 8th to the 10th. I don't know what tickets cost or that kind of thing, but if you happen to be around and see me, please do say hi. I don't think I'll be able to do, like I just got the itinerary and I'm obviously there for Hodinkee, so I don't know that I'll be able to do a hangout or like a get together. Obviously, if it turns out that I have entirely spare evening or a couple hours free, I will organize that on the TGN Slack. So keep a lookout for that if it's able to work out. But otherwise, if you see me, go ahead and say hi, as long as I didn't just crash a car into some sort of a snow bank. Are you driving as well? Just give me a minute. I'm hoping. I mean, fingers crossed. Yeah. I don't know. Oh, that'd be great. Nobody has told me much about it. I was given an itinerary, when to get there, when to leave. I booked my flights in my hotel. So I'll be there. That's a February 8th to 10th in Aspen. It's a very tight trip. I get in the morning of the 8th. I would leave the evening of the 10th. Sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. You know, I was in Aspen. The only time I was in Aspen was several years ago and it was with Richard meal. They do the, or at the time they were doing the snow polo stuff in Aspen and uh, right. Okay. And that's the, that was actually the trip that Gashani came along and we hiked into that remote hut and I was wearing that Sylvester Stallone Yeah, it went full Rambo. That's kind of survival watch, that crazy kind of Rambo Richard Mille. And I enjoyed Aspen. I thought it was a lovely city, but I'm trying to think where... Is there a lake that freezes there that they're doing the ice race? I can't picture much water there. |
| Jason Heaton | I don't know that they bother doing it on a lake. I think it's probably on a compacted snow surface. Ah, okay. Like I've done two other winter driving courses, I guess, like multiple day courses. I did the Mercedes-Benz one. Those of you who've listened to the show for some time, when I used to work specifically in the car and automotive sort of journalism world, I did the Mercedes Benz AMG performance driving ice tour. I don't remember the specific name that was in Gimli, Manitoba, and that was on a frozen lake on Lake Gimli. And then I've also done the Porsche winter driving experience, which is a... That was a one... I think that was a one day... Yeah, it was a one day event in like, you know, studded tire, nine elevens and just outside of lemic antique in Quebec in Canada. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I've done a little bit of this sort of driving before and I don't think you necessarily need the lake. I guess it's called ice race, so maybe it is. I actually don't. I haven't looked at that closely into into the event. Yeah, I don't know why, but in the past years, like I used to kind of overly try and sort things out, but in this case, this isn't my event or even hoding keys event. Yeah, so it'll be very much like a responsive sort of just follow along, take some photos, that sort of thing, see what's going on. So if I get a chance to run a left seat and, you know, try and keep the car out of the snow wall, I will, but maybe it won't happen. Yeah, that should be fun, though. Yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. How's the training going? |
| James Stacey | Uh, it's going well. Yeah. I'm upping my running mileage. And yesterday I went for a six mile hike with, uh, you know, kind of rocking, I guess you'd call it a dive weights and a backpack and went out in the woods and hiked around a bit. And, um, yeah, that's going well. And, and, uh, you know, kind of fitting and rowing and swimming when I can, but, you know, I, back in the late summer, I tweaked my, my lower back just on one side. Um, embarrassingly enough, I was, I'd spent three days like fixing the wiring for the wipers on the, on the defender. And I was sitting in this awkward position for like three days straight and it kind of tweaked my lower back so I couldn't cure it. And I started, um, I finally sought out a chiropractor and it's actually a friend of Gashani's and uh, she runs a clinic in town here. And I started going to, to her and I was going weekly for awhile and now it's kind of gotten to like every two or three weeks and I had never been to a chiropractor before and I didn't really know what to expect. I, I just kind of pictured like a loud banging table and kind of a cracked neck and that sort of thing. Yeah. Like that's scary stuff from Instagram. But you know what? It has been an absolute revelation and I, I, you know, I don't, I can't speak for all chiropractors everywhere, but I highly endorse the kind of this therapy that I've been getting and to the point now where it's, I'm kind of in maintenance mode, the pain is long gone and, whatever. But like, it's, it's become almost a part of my kind of just self care. You know, it's like going for a massage. I go to the chiropractor for half an hour and, and it's so much more than like just adjustments. She really works with me on flexibility and, and kind of teaches me about, you know, stretches and connective tissues. And it's really been eyeopening. So, you know, again, like I'm well into middle age and I've discovered something brand new within, the past several months that, that has really kind of changed my life for the better. And so, yeah, it's been a, if anyone's on the fence about chiropractic and if you can find a good one that comes with a good reputation, that's been kind of a good thing. I think, you know, it goes kind of hand in hand with, with, you know, training as I'm kind of ramping up towards the summer and doing the fan dance. Uh, I'm going to have to pay attention to, you know, kind of connective tissues and kind of staying injury free. And I think, uh, I think that's going to be a big part of it. So yeah. Other than that, I haven't been, I haven't been doing much. I mean, as you've said, we, we, this is our third record of the week. So, uh, there's not much that I can say that that's happened in the past, uh, what, two days or whatever it's been, but. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, cool. Well, that's great. Well, I'm glad the chiropractor is working out. That's it's always, um, uh, nice when like you hear somebody tries one of these things where like, you don't necessarily know it could be chiropractic, it could be acupuncture. It could just be getting a massage. Like I'm always on the fence of like, I think I would like a massage. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And then I just, I never go through the work of actually doing it. And, you know, I have a kind of longstanding borderline phobia of like the medical world in general. So, you know, granted, I understand that that's not necessarily the same as a massage, but I don't even want to necessarily like go in somewhere and answer a bunch of questions or be given a clipboard. That's usually enough for me to be like, I'm out of here. I'll see you guys later. I don't want to fill, I don't want to fill in any paperwork. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Well, I think the revelation for me was that you know, when you go to see a doctor for physical or any sort of ailment, there's very little hands on time that they actually do very little with your body. And you know, if you're not comfortable with that, then that's a different matter. But it's, it's, it's, it's blood tests. And then, you know, usually like a worksheet that tells you what you can do or go get physical therapy or take these pills. And the thing about the chiropractor and this office has a massage therapist that I go to as well, like every other time, And it's, it's great because I feel like I'm actually getting my body's getting the attention that, that it kind of craves, you know, someone to kind of manipulate joints and work out knots and muscles and that sort of thing. So, um, I've really, really appreciated that. And it's kind of made me wonder about what else I'm missing out on. Like, should I, should I talk to a nutritionist? Should I, you know, do Pilates or get a personal trainer or that sort of stuff? I think I've always been hesitant to kind of spend money on, on some of these things. But, um, |
| Jason Heaton | Self care is important when you're yeah and I mean the big plus with Pilates is obviously the complete lack of impact in a standard Pilates routine, but also you can just you don't have to go anywhere to do it like my wife does Pilates every day just from home with her laptop. She like signed up for someone's course and you get a video every day and then you just follow along with it. Oh yeah, I figure a dollar spent on a decent personal trainer pays huge dividends like it's just a nice investment. But I think probably and I'm sure we have personal trainers in the slack. My guess is you already know your goals. Um, so I have, I do wonder like how much necessarily, uh, uh, like a personal trainer, especially beyond like advice you might've gotten from a guy like Lerwell or, or similar. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I've, I've really pulled a lot of, um, good information from a number of trainers, whether it's on Instagram or YouTube or, Or, you know, Sean Lurwell kind of his kind of consulting. Um, and I think I don't necessarily feel the need to, to have an in-person trainer, but I do find that there's a lot of good resources out there. You turned me on to the row 20, a series of videos on, on rowing on YouTube. And I started following Austin, who's the guy that kind of hosts that. And he goes beyond rowing. He does, you know, weight training and flexibility stuff and whatever. And I follow him on Instagram and he always has good videos and you can put that in the show notes, but he goes by training tall because he's like six foot eight, but he's, he's got a really nice cheery, friendly demeanor. It's not intimidating. And, and he's been, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So, and I, I don't know, I have a, you know, this is why, like when I, when I tried, you know, I had originally had a, a, like a, an exercise bike and attempted to get it. Like a friend gave me a, like a code for a month free of Peloton. Oh yeah. And it like, as I really like Austin because he's not always talking. |
| Unknown | Mm. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, true and there's no there's not like aggressive music. We're not essentially in a dance class that happens when you're on a rowing machine and like I could not find. I spent a month. I probably did twenty sessions. Yeah, fifteen to twenty sessions of the peloton. I could not find one that kind of like matched my mental energy. It was all kind of like being in an annoying store. Yeah, yeah, or or or whatever and like look, it definitely works for some people and they really enjoy it, but like whether it was, I didn't really vibe with the, the, the trainer's energy or their music choice or the combination they're in. Sure. You know, when I was first getting into the biking stuff, we found that, um, global cycling network where you can watch videos of people like, you know, riding over a pass. I like that quite a bit. And there's still a guy talking and saying like, all right, you should increase your thing. Cause we're going uphill, like just offering us like more of a spin, like less of a spin class, more of like a bike exercise sort of scenario. So it's, I think it's like a really difficult thing to find the like video YouTube or otherwise sort of workout that really works for your personality. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I used to do a ton of like YouTube yoga and that's pretty tough. Yeah. Yeah, because a lot of it's like very spiritual, which I'm that's not what I'm looking for from my right from my yoga workout and then, but I you know, I eventually found a guy who was just like He would go out in his backyard, he lived somewhere pretty, put a mat on the ground and walk you through what you were doing. |
| James Stacey | Was he the guy with the dog that ran around in the background? |
| Jason Heaton | He was great. Yeah, that's the exact one. His name is Sean Veague. So it's Sean Veague Fitness, V-I-G-U-E. I'll put it in the show notes. He's been kind of my long standing favorite because there's almost no pretense. He's just kind of a positive dude who's very fit and we'll just kind of do yoga wherever he is. Sometimes like some of my favorite ones were like in his garage, some were in his backyard, somewhere he was like traveling and at a friend's house and in their backyard. Yeah, and it's like very it's not flashy and I don't I don't know why I have definitely got to this point with my there's probably a term for it or some you know psychological study, but like I am weirdly doubtful of very flashy videos now. Yeah, Like like if they've spent, it's like sometimes you're like, oh, you spent more time on the camera and everything else, and then you didn't have a plan for this workout or this cooking tutorial. Um and and you know, sometimes I feel like you just the people who might really know what they're up to just put a camera down right and don't really sweat some of the details because that's not the the outcome isn't you know the outcome from a workout video isn't how much you enjoyed the photography true. Yeah, at least in my mind. But yeah, Sean Veague Fitness is great. Austin's incredible. I'm a big fan. And Row 20 is really nice, because any time now, since he has that program done, it's 20... Each one is 20 minutes and he does... He's done 20. And now that the program is there and on his YouTube, you can just go in and pick one. Yeah, yeah. And so I have a couple that I really like, depending on their pace and that sort of thing. And I'm not touching the rowing machine much these days. It's actually in its vertical position. But I am absolutely loving my treadmill. Oh, good. The only difficulty I'm finding and maybe maybe some people in the audience can can you know align with me on this? But I'm trying to stick to like zone two so like moderate heart work heart rate Workout yeah as much as possible. Yeah, but I get bored and I want to run. Oh sure if I run then we go right into zone three Yeah, sometimes into zone four depending on how long so I kind of go up and down where I'll walk And it's you know I'm walking at a grade at three and a half miles an hour, so it's a pretty quick walk |
| James Stacey | Yeah. At some point now we're getting some bitterly cold weather here. I think, um, I might have finally begrudgingly have to start going to the gym and using, um, I've never really used a Stairmaster, but you know, given, given the nature of the fan dance, I think, uh, it might be some good, good off season training here to kind of even, you know, even throw a backpack on and you, and use the Stairmaster at the gym, despite all the strange looks I'll get. |
| Jason Heaton | You will be that guy at the gym, but, uh, you know, when obviously you train for Rainier, so it's not your first time, you know, planning to carry some stuff up a hill. But yeah, with Baker, I had access to a bunch of mountains around Vancouver, so training was pretty straightforward. But definitely, if you don't or if you're going right through winter like you're going to, the StairMaster is perfect. StairMaster with weight or a treadmill with weight and just try and avoid hurting your knees and some of the stabilizers with the weight, I think, I think you can do, you can do a ton and definitely get a lot sharper. That's my, that's my next phase. I wanted to complete whatever it was, 30, 30 days of working out on with the, with the treadmill. And then I'm going to add a, one of those weight vests, like running shirts. Yeah. Yeah. Or, um, between that or just, uh, like one of those plates that you can put in the go ruck. Right. Right. I'm not sure which makes more sense. Yeah. I have to do a bit more research slash ask the guys in the Slack, which is how I research stuff now. It's a good resource. Certainly stuff like this. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | That's great. Speaking of the Slack, uh, I put this up on, on the subscriber Slack group, uh, yesterday. Um, and I'll throw this out there to all of our listeners. Now, uh, I've been late in the past couple episodes. I've been talking up some, some NATO straps that I got from since he strapped company. And, um, it turns out we've got a few fans among the TGN crowd and, and, uh, the folks at Cincy Strap Company have now offered a discount code to our listeners, a 25% discount, which is, you know, substantial if you enter the code TGN and this is not a limited time code. I'm not sure if it will expire or when it will. So, you know, don't, don't wait too long, I suppose. But if you're in the market as we probably all are strangely for straps and they don't just sell NATO straps, they sell other stuff as well. But I'm, I'm a real fan of their Admiralty gray, uh, SF two straps, uh, as well as this, this woven cotton strap, which is strangely a lovely thing. I've got it. And when are we going to get into risk check? I've, I've got a watch on it today, but, um, I, I highly recommend that one too. And a word is that, that since he does have, you know, limited inventory sometimes. And so you might find that some other stuff sold out, but you just have to keep checking back. But yeah, thanks to since he strapped company for offering a really generous discount to our listeners. So check it out. Yeah. Super nice. And solid straps for sure. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And with that, let's jump into wrist check. What are you wearing? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, actually, in honor of today's main topic, which is kind of the kickoff of a series I've kind of had in my head for a while, or one of these ones that we can come back to as we have more ideas, I decided to dig out my watch box, my Pelican, and pull out my Black Monster. I was actually fortunate enough to be included on a little bit of a sort of, not a group buy, but So I don't know who, if people want their name out there, so I'll hold off and then I can fix it later if people want, but some people through the slack helped connect me with a black, a really tidy black monster on a bracelet a couple of years ago, and I have worn it maybe ten times. Yeah, it's something I'm very pleased to have. It didn't cost a ton of money. I really like these. They were one of my first sakos and returning to it. I'm very happy with it and but I don't wear it very much. I've got it on the bracelet. it's a big chunk of a watch, and I don't actually necessarily know why I don't wear it a bit more. I put it on here and it's just making me grin. I've got my UV flashlight, I keep charging the loom and just kind of sitting here and enjoying it like a child. But yeah, this one, it comes up in the topics later in the episode as I have a possible solution for what might make me wear a monster a little bit more than I wear this one, so I guess we'll see. But yeah, that's what's on my wrist today is the Black Monster. It's a V1, an original, and I like it quite a bit. Such a sort of weirdly iconic, other people don't do it sort of design. |
| James Stacey | How do those watches wear on straps? I always see them on bracelets. Is that how you wear it, on the bracelet? I've never seen one on a rubber strap, I don't think. |
| Jason Heaton | It's on the... I have it on the bracelet, yeah. Do they even take a rubber strap? I've seen them on Z22s, which is just like way, way too stiff, if I remember correctly. And then back in the day, you know, we go way, way back to the early day, early days of my watch fascination. Yeah, I was probably buying like any big baseball sort of leather. Oh, sure. Panerai adjacent strap I could find for these sorts of things. Yeah, and I think they're okay on a strap. I think they just it's so much kind of steel around the dial that it almost makes sense on the bracelet. Yeah, but I think with the right strap, it could be great and certainly occasionally you see them on nato's, which is sort of a It looks very two-piece, like the case is very different than the strap in that scenario. But I don't think it would be bad on a NATO as much as, you know, it all comes down to those kind of strange little lug adapters that wrap around the bezel. And how about you? What have you got on today? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I was wearing my CWC yesterday and I had it on until this morning and then I switched over to my Omega, the Seamaster, the 2254, which turns out, you know, As I've said, I've been wearing the FXD like 95% of the time. And it seems like whenever I reach for something else, it's, it's often this watch. And, uh, as I mentioned earlier, I've got it on, on this woven cotton NATO, which is just kind of a weird, fun, comfortable combination. It's the super light kind of feathery, soft, very soft strap. And then this incredibly thin watch and it's, uh, yeah, it's kind of perfect. So that's what I've got on. It's great. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Awesome watch, beautiful, aging well. Yeah. One of those like the TGN top tens. Definitely. A 2254, I still think a great buy. They seem to only be getting a little bit cheaper. I'm seeing, I've occasionally seen them around 1500 bucks now. Yeah. And you know, with it being 1120, which is essentially just a mod, you know, like a lightly modified ETA, it should be serviceable. Yeah. Much more readily than an 8,000 or a 9,000 series, you know, in house Omega movement. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Big fans in the ergonomics are incredible. |
| James Stacey | Really, really nice. You know, it's funny. You just said this is kind of one of our TGN kind of top 10 and it makes me think we should, we should, it makes me think we should consider, um, like a hall of fame episode. We do have a series of watches that kind of pop up, uh, yeah, for sure. The TGN cannon, so to speak. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I don't know. I don't like I've flirted with the idea of having like another page on the website that was kind of like, you know, like Oprah's book list or club or that sort of thing, like a, you know, a T the TGN by list, like something, if you can get it right. And the price is good. We think this is a great watch. Yeah. But I think that could be a fairly long list. We might have to pick something more like 10. Right. Right. Yeah. Otherwise these are 50 or 60 watches later. There's a lot of great watches these days to be fair. |
| James Stacey | Well, speaking of watches and lists we've got a kind of a fun main topic for today? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I've been mulling on this topic for a little while because I feel like most watch nerds I meet have a little note on their phone or whatever, wherever they keep lists and jotted down ideas of watches that they're interested in, but for whatever reason, they haven't pulled the trigger. Yeah. And so that's basically what we're talking about today. It's called the watch list. We'll call it watch list one, I think this could be kind of cool. Like you remember back, we did our, our watch discomfort zones and then each like eventually tried to conquer that discomfort, whether it was dress watches or chronographs. I think those were the two that we had picked. I think in this case, it gives people sort of a fun thing where, you know, maybe we talk about it today and in a couple of years, maybe we end up with one of these when the timing's right. Or when, you know, often I find that watches kind of find us in some ways, you know, not always, but some ways like with your Breitling and certainly like with this black monster, I just managed to have mentioned that I was interested in one. And then lo and behold, someone pings me and says, Hey, you know, I can, we can make this happen. It's pretty easy. So, uh, that kind of stuff can be fun. Uh, I figured, you know, just for simplicity and not burning our entire list, I have a fairly extensive list of watches that I'm always kind of curious about, but haven't bought. But for this one, each of us will have three picks. And if you'd like, Jason, why don't you kick it off with one of yours? Uh, what's a watch that you're interested in, but haven't really gotten to like dusting off the credit card, so to speak. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, I, you know, when you suggested this topic, I thought, eh, I'm not really in watch buying mode. I don't really have a list. And then you said, well, let's pick three. And like these three came to me in like 30 seconds. So clearly I do have a list. Um, I do have a mental list. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, yeah, the first one is, I think the list is longer when I'm not in buying mode. Cause I spend more time in like reading or looking or, you know, watch recon alert mode. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And I think for me, the, these three, um, that I've got for today are not ones that I've necessarily been researching to buy, but they're ones that whenever I see them, whenever I see someone post a photo of, or I think of it and I read a story about it, I think I really liked that watch. Why don't I have one of those? Like I could, you know, I'd love to have one. So yeah, I'll kick mine off with one that is a bit of a darling, at least in some, some version of it for both of us. And that is the Zinn U50. And specifically for me, it's the SDR. uh, on the, on the bracelet. Nice. You know, the you 50 it's, it's, it's kind of that sweet spot. It's, it's, it's you one aesthetics with those blocky, very modernist hands, high legibility, uh, Tejament steel, um, typical high quality sin, but then it's in that the more modified, more wearable size of 41 millimeters with an 11 millimeter height. So just, just kind of a sweet spot of, I don't think I've actually, I'm trying to think if I've actually seen one in person, like I've actually been able to handle it or put it on, but every time I see them pop up and I'm, I'm, I'm really kind of a, I really kind of have a, a, a thing for the, the black bezel, uh, on these Zins. I know that I think you're more of a fan of the steel bezel and for some reason I am, you know, the black kind of against that very matte, almost like Not quite bead blast, but it's it's just that matte toolish case With that black bezel just has a certain menace to it. It's just it just looks just right to my eye Yeah with all those uh, those flashes of red, you know, strangely enough All the watches that I picked for today are all within a couple of hundred dollars of each other. This one goes for on watch buys 3340 yep, and I think you know, this is a watch that I think I probably It would be one of those superfluous picks that I would you know, either buy after a few whiskeys or if someone wanted to make a trade for something I have that I want to get rid of or whatever. But it is a bit redundant with the FXD. I think in some respects, I think it kind of occupies the same modern high quality diver space. So yeah, probably not a near term purchase for mine, but it's definitely one I come back to and look at a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | And you had the you did a great dive review of the U1S. |
| James Stacey | The U1 Professional. The U1 Pro, which has the 10 o'clock crown and no date. Yeah. It was, yeah, I, that, that watch still haunts me. I wish I had pulled the trigger on that. Cool watch. But then again, this is, this is more, more wearable. And I think as someone who doesn't mind big watches, I think still, I think for, for this formula, for these, these sins, I think the U50 is the way to go. I don't think I'd go U1 anymore. I used to have one and I remember it being a big, big heavy watch. So. Yeah, not small for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah, yeah, not small, large watch for sure. But I love the 50, obviously big fan of the T series as well in that sizing. And yeah, between SDR and standard, I mean, it's six and one half dozen the other. I would prefer the kind of more color matched bezel, but I definitely can see that the SDR stuff is popular and that's why they continue making it and all that kind of stuff, which is pretty fun. Yeah, yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's my number one. What are you gonna go with? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so my three are largely stem from my current position in watch fascination, which is I feel like my home, my headquarters are pretty much locked in around the Pelagos 39, the CWC, the Aqualand, stuff like that. I'm pretty well sorted when it comes to sort of core functional sort of dive watches, even stuff with some weirdness to them. Yeah. But I have a long standing, and we've talked about it on the show before, And I would even extend it into other analog digital watches of a similar ilk. The love and fascination for the UDT Chronosport is so high and remains. I have an alert on eBay, I have an alert on Watch Recon, I pretty much try and see whatever's around. And for whatever reason, maybe it's a fear of the whole problem with the movement is essentially non serviceable. So there are some realities of owning a watch. If you get a good one, like with my Aerospace, if you get a good one, you're good. But if it needs to be serviced, it has to be serviced by someone who knows what they're doing so they don't disrupt the screens and that sort of stuff. But yeah, a UDT Chronosport or... Because they're roughly similar prices, and I think especially if you get one with the dive style bezel, pretty much as cool, not quite as cool, but pretty cool. Yeah. The Breitling Pluton. Yeah, yeah. I think both are way up there for me. I'm not a huge fan of the Pluton with the compass bezel, only because I'm not gonna use it. Yeah. I like the idea of the other bezel, and I prefer the UDT because it feels like the most original take on that watch. Yeah. That like special forces, it's black, we were just before we started recording and I'll include the link in the show notes, but we were linking back and forth a couple examples of the U D T and we found one, the one, the single one that's currently fully available on ebay is just like drop dead gorgeous, like perfect patina, a bunch of the steel case coming through the sort of black PVD, you know a bit of a tint to the loom and that sort of thing. And then the thing when you get into the Pluton side is you get a bunch like if you just look up Breitling Pluton on eBay, there's a Swedish Air Force model in there. There are all sorts of more interesting ones that maybe you didn't always think about or remember. We even came across a Jupiter, which is like an earlier Pluton's formula, if you will. And it's an analog digital Breitling with a gold case. There's one in there for about 2300 bucks Canadian right now, which is pretty dang cool, if I'm honest. So the Jupiter could be added to the list as well, but there's something really that really, really rad about the Pluton in general. And then I think it's taken a full step further in terms of like just raw sort of special forces adjacent appeal with that UDT. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. They're so, so good. And this one, I'm staring at the photo now and we, we obsessed over it before we started recording. It's, it's the perfect patina. And then of course they have it on a gray NATO in the, in the wrist shot, which, which just brings it out even more. And there's so many elements of this watch that I love these little details, like the, the super long sweep seconds hand with the, like the red flag on, I guess it's the, the counterweight end of it. That's like, it's the full width of the dial itself. Almost. Yeah. It's great. And then the stepped dial. And then I liked how thin the bezel is like the bezel insert. Like it just has so much going for it. It's they're just so cool. I had a, a Pluton years ago with the steel compass bezel. And I think that was the kicker for me. I just, it didn't stick because of that bezel choice. But other than that, it was, yeah. And it's, it's that same, roughly the same case shape as a, as the CWCs that we love, you know, that I'm not sure if they were actually made by Monin or whatever, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah, really, really cool. I think, you know, you've, you and I have talked about these for so long. I think one of us needs, needs to kind of fully, finally pull the trigger on it. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, here, I've got something to share you. So check your, check your messages. All right. What about this weird one? We're doing this live. We'll keep this in the cut. So I sent Jason a link for a BrightLink Pluton for DWP Diavoli Rossi, the Red Devils. Oh my goodness. Oh, my gosh. So it's jet black with a weird red insignia on the dial. The markers have yellowed out. That wild bezel too. Pardon? Yeah, the bezel looks insane. Yeah. Yeah. And then on top of that, I can't quite tell. Well, definitely the crown is not steel as it's worn away and it looks to be some sort of a base brass of some sort. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | This is the kind of watch that I think people probably buy to take the movement for $500 is what it's currently selling for. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Should I just buy it? Oh, man. Let's see. An 80s Breitling Pluton for DWP military special edition watch to honor the partnership with six Italian Stormo Caccia. My apologies to the Italians in the audience. The sixth fighter wing Diavoli Rossi, reference 8-0-191. That's so cool. Yeah. Watch measures 42 millimeters for the crown, Breitling movement, excellent condition, was serviced in December 2023. Everything works without issues. And that's a third of the price of one that just says Kronosport or Breitling on it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, pretty tempting. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, man. That logo's kind of cool, too. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm also looking at... This one isn't the PVD, so a little less appealing, but kind of a friend of mine, Ollie, who runs Patina Nationale out of the UK, he has a a new Pluton 3100 as well with a dive bezel, and he's a big fan of these as well. So his site is a good one to bookmark and keep an eye on. Oh my goodness, look at that, it's so pretty. |
| Jason Heaton | Man, I like these so much. I know, I know. Man, I'm going to include the link to that Red Devils one in the show notes, but I can't promise, one, that it'll still be available, and two, if it sells, that it's not me who bought it. Yeah. I'm really genuinely trying my best not to buy watches. I'm I've sold five or six in the last couple of weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Yeah. So that that's my that's my first pick in the watch list. I'm just I love these the Plutons. I love the chrono sports like whatever it is. They're rad. This weird one might have to be mine to be honest, especially just that it's like fully functional working. Yeah. Case looks to be in largely good condition. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a bunch of That must be color cast. It looks so gold in the wear and tear. Ugh, come on, James. Why do you do this? Anyways, I love these watches. They're always on my list. And that's my first pick for the watch list number one. |
| James Stacey | You know, I think as we've talked about, I think we talked about it on the last Q&A when someone was talking about rationalizing a watch purchase. And I think I mentioned that I know roughly if something is a pretty sure bet, if I've been thinking about it a lot for a long time, And it doesn't fade, it doesn't waver my sort of enthusiasm for it. And I think the Chronosport UDT, I think it's definitely, you've passed that test. We've been talking about them for a long time and occasionally you and I share good examples with each other. So yeah, I think that's a good one for you. |
| Jason Heaton | I would say, I tried to ballpark the, if you want a tidy UDT, I think you can expect to spend, let's call it in the neighborhood of $2,000. $1500 to $2500. And this is a $500 fully functional, but it's a Pluton, but otherwise it's very similar. Same movement, same sort of dial layout. You get the black case, so it is very UDT-ish. Yeah, yeah. Oh, I like it so much. |
| James Stacey | Well, who knows, by the end of this episode, we might have it on the way. |
| Jason Heaton | PayPal sent, yeah. Oh boy. All right, give me your second one so I can stop looking at this one. |
| James Stacey | All right, my number two Um, I'm sure I'll lose you here. You won't be listening anymore. You'll be like, you know, checking your bank account. Um, yeah. Um, second one is, uh, it's not a big surprise. Again, this is a watch I've mentioned before, um, that I've been interested in. And frankly, if, if the FXD hadn't found its way onto my wrist, I might actually have pulled the trigger on one of these and it's the, the black by 54, which I think might surprise some people because it's, it's, it clearly, I mean, it's calling card or it's a kind of claim to fame is it's, it's small. I mean, this is a 37 millimeter dive watch. Um, but there's just something so appealing about this watch that, that, you know, I haven't really thought about a black Bay 58 or, or, you know, the black Bay 41 or anything. I just, uh, this watch, when I tried on Christoph's at our tutor event in Florida in September, um, I wore it for a dinner, just kind of for fun. And I was just, I just kept looking at my wrist thinking like this watch is so perfect, the size of it. And I think I largely lately, you know, for someone who has always been partial to kind of vintage style or retro watches, um, lately I feel like maybe the FXD kind of cured me of that, but I've kind of moved away from that space. And so this one would be kind of going back to that very clearly, but I don't know. It's just, it's kind of a perfect little watch. And, uh, So yeah, Black Bay 54, $3,900. So, you know, a few hundred bucks more than the, than the U 50 that I mentioned. But, uh, yeah, I could, I could see myself, uh, moving with a Black Bay 54. Although again, it might be more of a long shot simply because it follows the roughly the same formula as a Submariner, which is something I own. You own. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, but it's one that I look at a lot. Um, especially, you know, I, in a final note, I, I mentioned that that guy, true patina, Greg, who had put the big crown on it and replaced the hands and that sort of thing. I mean, I just think it's, it's an, it's a neat little watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Um, you know, and I think they're great. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm like, I think we've said this on the past, uh, on past episodes, but I also think it'd be really interesting to see what they do in terms of other colors if they do others. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the 58s had several versions, including like the core blue. Right. And I think it'd be interesting to see a 54 that was maybe a little bit less vintage in coloring. like the gilt style coloring. But the watch itself, the proportions, the size, the fact that it's everything that a 58 or 41 is just smaller, it's exactly what people have begged every company to do, and they've done it. And what do you know? It's good. I don't know that I would put it in my top three. I guess it might be number three for Tudor right now, or like the Mount Rushmore of their current catalog. I think one of the BBs, either the 58 or the 54, for me would probably land a spot there, but there's something really sweet about the way it sits on your wrist, especially like weirdly, especially with the rubber. Oh sure. I was just very impressed when I saw it and got to play around with it. I'll include my hands on from watches and wonders last year in the show notes, but this is a great pick and in a different world, if I wasn't so just flat out appeased by the Pelagos 39, to the extent where it's difficult to put on another dive watch, I could definitely see it. I love them. I think they make a lot of sense. Yeah. Hopefully they keep iterating on that format and maybe offer another colorway this year, maybe next. Right. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. All right. What's your number two? |
| Jason Heaton | All right. My number two is also one that I've talked about, I think more recently on the show, but it is a constant watch list for me and I've come pretty close to buying three of them. They're not especially hard to find. I think you would expect to spend between 1200 and 1800 dollars, and that would be the Bulgari-Diagono quartz chronograph. Yeah. So this is the one that is worn by Al Pacino in the movie Heat, which is my favorite movie. You can see it very clearly in the film. I'm being... To the extent that I can be essentially influenced by Al Pacino to buy a watch, This is it. Yeah, yeah. He is my version of an effective watch ambassador for a watch that Bulgari no longer makes. But what I also like about this is it's so left field for me. It totally is. It's a chronograph, it's quartz, it's from Bulgari is another one. It has an entirely different style than I'm used to, and I think I like the idea of pushing my boundaries a little bit while also being able to go like, That's the watch from Heat, though, which I like quite a bit. Both the... I like the movie more than quite a bit. I love that the watch was from that movie as well, but... Yeah. And then I also like that the quartz doesn't have bulgari on the dial, which kind of makes it an... It's the CH35S, and it doesn't have bulgari on the dial, which I think kind of increases my interest. Yeah. Because it says bulgari at least twice on the bezel, In the right price point, I think it would be one that I would impulse buy. There's always one or two for sale out of Japan on eBay for around $1,000, maybe a little bit more USD. Yeah. And I bet you I've spent... I've had my mouse cursor hovering over that buy button. That's as close as I got, but I've hovered. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As I'm currently doing with that DPW Pluton. Well, |
| James Stacey | I hate to disappoint, but you know, as I, I'm such a strong endorser of the, the UDT chrono sport, but I, I just, I, this is a watch. This Bulgari is just, I don't see the appeal of it. I mean, personally, it's just, sure. I think it would be a wild left field purchase for you. And I'm given your passion for it. And the fact that you've looked at it for a long time, I think it's, it would be a good choice. And I'd love to see you wearing this. I'd just love to see anybody wearing one of these. Definitely not my aesthetic at all. But it's, uh, yeah, it's a wild thing. I mean, it's, uh, I'm not sure. I think once you own it, you would, it would be, it would be yours forever because I think it feels like a watch that would be very hard to sell again. I think so. It's a very specific taste. Um, but Hey, you know, and it's 35 millimeters. So, you know, Sarah could probably wear it if she liked it. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, Sarah's go to sports watch is larger than any of mine. She wears a 41 mil. Right, right, right. It's that and a panther, which is a real, yeah, yeah, real plus minus in terms of, you know, probably like 20 millimeters. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | No strap choices with this, right? It's bracelet or nothing, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Bracelet or there's a rubber. Oh, okay. Sorry, there's bracelet, rubber and leather. Oh, wow. Okay. Like, and it's not the bracelet that he's wearing in heat. Okay. but he is wearing about 40 other bracelets next to the wall. Oh yeah. But yeah, I mean, this is all part of my plan to figure out a way to social engineer slash, what's it called? Where like you write down your intent and put it out into the world and then it happens, that thing I don't believe in the secret or whatever I secret it secret my way into the the premier of heat to. Oh yeah, I want to be there. I want to be wearing basically this like an oversized suit jacket, you know, like like De Niro and I want to have this watch on. Oh yeah, and yeah, I need I need I need to get to that as well. Yeah, I need I need to be part of that. I need to be there. |
| James Stacey | So we'll see. Well, if you wear this, you'll have to start doing episodes in the Pacino gravelly voice. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, exactly. Just a lot of shouting. Yeah. Keeps me sharp. And yeah, I just... Yeah, I feel like I need to really make a concerted effort now that Heat Two is moving into production to become the number one heat influencer in the world. Yeah, right. And part of that, I think, I need to move into that realm of the weirdo that buys the same things as the movie, or maybe I could get some props or... Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so That's my second pick. So two weird chronographs. That is so far. Both of them I'm in love with. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so that's the Bulgari Diagono CH35S quartz chronograph, just like in the movie Heat. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Give me your third one and we can close out the list. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, you had a left field one with the Bulgari I feel, and this is my kind of oddball one that people wouldn't expect. And it's the Fears Uh, archival 1930. So for those that don't know, fears is a British brand, um, kind of an older brand name, um, from the early 20th century that was revived by a descendant of the original founder of the company. Uh, his name is Nicholas and he was at wind up in Chicago recently. Super nice guy. The watches feel good. He's fun to talk to. He really has a respect for the history of the brand. And although, Most of his watches do not resonate with me. Um, this archival 1930 is, is there's just something so simple and beautiful about it. I mean, this is straight up like art deco era dress watch. Like it's rectangular, it's small. It's on what looks like a, like a Horween strap, like kind of a blood red or oxblood strap. Beautiful dial. Like totally not my style. Totally not a watch that anyone would imagine me wearing. And frankly, if I owned it, I probably wouldn't wear it much. Um, just because I know myself, I don't wear dress watches, but every time I see this, this is one of those watches that when I see photos of it, I like scheme and almost try to justify like I would wear that. Wouldn't I? You know? Um, and I probably wouldn't, but I think you could probably wear this. I think I probably could. And I did try one on it, wind up and just love it. And what's neat about it too, is this archival 1930. Well, for one thing, it's a limited edition. They only made 136 and apparently They're sold out on the fears website, but I know that our friends at collective, uh, are, are fears, uh, retailers as well. And they, you know, I'm sure I could find one source one if I was really desperate to, to get one of these. But, uh, what's neat about them is that, that this very limited series uses, um, old movements there. It's a manual wind at a 2360. So it's, uh, it's not a movement from 1930, of course, but it's, uh, it's a, it's a vintage movement that they've had. refurbished and they put in this watch and it's just, it's a neat piece. It's sort of, you know, in the same vein as a, some kind of a Cartier tank or a Reverso or something like that. But there's just something about, you know, the little word England on the dial, that kind of creamy color. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. These are, these are neat. I also kind of get like vintage AP and Vacheron from this. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know, just, It's such a crisp sort of look and feel, you know, only 136 made. Yeah. I could see, you know, you with the right sweater, maybe a pipe. Yeah. This is the pipe watch. Yeah, true. Manual wind. Or the few times a year where you're, you know, going somewhere a little bit fancier than, you know, a lighthouse or whatever it is you do with your free time. Yeah, right, right. It's a lighthouse or a brewery. Yeah, exactly. |
| James Stacey | And I feel you for both, for sure. And again, as As with the other two, this one comes in right around $3,500. So I guess all three of mine are kind of in that space. I guess that must be my kind of price bracket for my comfort level. |
| Jason Heaton | But yeah. Yeah. These are great. And Fears is another brand just worth watching. Even if this isn't to your liking, they make a lot of other watches and styles. But that one that you've highlighted in the archival 1930 is definitely a favorite of mine from them as well. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Good pick. All right. |
| Jason Heaton | You have one more. What's it going to be? I've got one more, which I kind of teased out earlier in the show, and that would be an orange monster. So the 781 SKX is the orange version of the series one monster. I'm wearing the black one on my wrist, and I guess as long, kind of as long as I've been into these watches, so we're talking 2005, 2006, something like that, I've wanted an orange one and just never bothered to pull the trigger. Yeah. And even when I bought this black one, I wasn't sure which one I had, which skew that I had provided to the folks making the connection there. And I ended up getting the black one, which I'm perfectly fine with in that deal. But yeah, I think an orange monster would be a lot of fun. You know, I we were people were teasing me and I was teasing back on on the slack recently about, you know, someone had posted a, you know, like the perpetual diver, the smaller one with the courts, the high accuracy courts movement in orange, and it doesn't have mismatched coloring for the hands and markers there. It's but then the bezel is guilt. Yeah, I was like we got to start that bezel though. Yeah, yeah, and and somebody moments later posted an orange monster, which is, you know, just orange and the markers and I was like, you know what I think I might still need an orange monster, which is so much to say that if you want to get in on the game of this episode to some extent and maybe maybe you could get in by buying this Diavoli Rossi Pluton, so I don't have to but something tells me it's going to be sold by the time this episode goes live. But if you've got an orange monster and you're interested in a tidy black monster, drop me a line. I might be up for a trade. Yeah, I can keep the bracelet from this one. I can make it easy, whatever works, but I wouldn't mind trading the black, which I've now experienced twice for an orange one that might get a little bit more aware, especially throughout the summer. I kind of miss my my docks of pro. It went to good home and I'm happy, uh, you know, with its new owner and all that kind of stuff. But, uh, yeah, an orange watch could be fun, um, in, in, in the forecast, especially if it ended up just being a bit of a trade. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we, you know, we talked about the monster at the top with your, your black one and the orange is what I always associate with this watch. So the black one is strangely more appealing to me just because it's not the kind of the, what comes to mind when I think of a monster, but the orange is definitely the kind of the iconic one of this bunch. And I think, uh, I know several people that have these. I think, uh, I think it's Chris soul's go-to dive watch. I think he's told me he wears, he wears it for every dive he's done. I think ever since he started diving, which is kind of cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And Chris was part of the crew that connected me with this. Okay. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Through some other good guys. Yeah. And this one's a low barrier to entry. I mean, you know, the pricing you have listed here is like 400, $800. So, and especially if you can make a trade, I mean, this is, this isn't something that you need a lot of vacillating on. I think, you know, if you found the right one, I'm sure you can make it happen. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, the, you know, the world where the monster was $170 or whatever. And I think I might actually be saying $170 Canadian, which is probably what I paid for my first one. Yeah. That's over. And the series one, the original ones have become a little bit more collectible. And then if we start talking about like the rare stuff and you can see some of it in the first episode, you can like, you can see some of the more wild limited edition versions in the first episode of watches in the wild, which I'll put in the show notes with that was hosted by Cole and he met like a, you know, a super collector, which is super fun and I don't need to get into the yellows or some of the rare stuff. I just I thought the orange would be fun to try and granted trading a watch doesn't actually change how many watches I have, but yeah, I think an orange one could be super fun for whatever it feels weird for me. Like once I had this watch, once the second one came in the one I'm wearing now, It felt a little bit like, Oh, I've restored a little bit of my, the foundation. Oh yeah. Like just having this in my, in my watch box kind of makes it, it's like a reminder of right where I started with dive watches. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think, you know, again, going back to stuff we've talked about before, I think there's a point where if you've looked at something long enough, it's probably the right thing. But on the other hand, there are watches that, as I've said, I can look at and admire from afar without having to own. And I think the Black Bay 54 is probably that watch. The sure the U50 is one that it goes a little beyond that like to the point where you know in a moment of weakness I could see myself making that happen. The fears is probably a bit more of a long shot just given that I probably wouldn't wear it much and it's a bit outside the price of something that's impulsive and wouldn't get worn much but uh yeah I mean this this is a this is a fun theme I think I'd like to revisit this uh in the future because I know there are more and as we were talking I'm already thinking about other watches so Definitely this was a this was a fun exercise. Good episode. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, no, I had I had a good time with it as well. And well, let's be clear. I am going through the process of buying that. |
| James Stacey | Ah, good. Good. |
| Jason Heaton | Just updating my address. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let me fill this in. All right, I bought it. |
| James Stacey | Congratulations. Here we go. |
| Jason Heaton | So The watch list ended up being a little expensive. |
| James Stacey | Oh man, this is gonna become a new thing on the episodes. Live purchases. |
| Jason Heaton | 500 bucks later, but you know, that feels pretty good. Yeah, yeah. Cool watch. I guess that means I'll sell something else. Yeah, right. I guess if you're in the market for a Black Monster and you don't want to trade, let me know because I've got a hole to fill or a spot in the stable that's now double booked. However you want to consider it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm not sure what's in your coffee this morning, but you know, I might need some of that. Maybe I'll just buy the U50. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm having a good time. Apparently, maybe not enough. I've only had my two espressos. I need two more. Yeah. Yeah. All right. You want to get into some final notes before I buy another watch? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Let's get out of this episode without draining our bank accounts here. Okay. Well, yeah, mine's a quick one. And it's probably not news to most people listening. Rebecca Struthers, the watchmaker from Birmingham, England, really phenomenal talent. She and her husband, Craig, run Struthers Watch Company. And She wrote this book, uh, within the past year, I would say called hands of time, a watchmaker's history. And I had the book actually the, the hardcover version of it here at home, um, for, for probably close to a year now. And I finally just got around to reading it. I finished it a couple of nights ago. And you know, for those of you that maybe are familiar with the title, just because it's popped up on various watch blogs and things, uh, but haven't decided whether you're going to read it. I highly recommend it. It's really, really a good, a good read. There's a good mix of kind of horological history, um, interwoven with some kind of personal anecdotes and history of her own history and watchmaking and kind of a unique take on the concept of time throughout history and how it was tracked and how people viewed it. Um, and then kind of the evolution of timekeeping and of clocks and then into pocket watches and then into wristwatches and then her own work in, in watch restoration. And, uh, she's a really compelling writer. There's some kind of really sort of, uh, personal stuff in there that, that lends a warmth to the book. So it's not just kind of a dry history. And, uh, I, I just can't recommend it highly enough. I think, uh, uh, Rebecca would actually be a great guest on the show. I think some at some point, uh, if we could get her on, but, uh, really a wonderful book and, and I highly endorse, uh, hands of time, a watchmaker's history by Rebecca Struthers. So check it out. And actually, um, I might've, yeah, it was on a final note a while back that I think I had posted, uh, there was, The BBC had done some excerpts with somebody reading a few excerpts from chapters. That was quite good. But I do remember that. Yeah. But the book itself, the full book is, uh, is really worthwhile. |
| Jason Heaton | So check it out. That's excellent. Good. A good suggestion. And I, man, I would kill to have Rebecca on the show. That'd be fascinating. Uh, I don't know her. I don't believe that we've ever met, uh, but so talented. Yeah. This is a yet another book. I guess I've got to add to the stack and maybe get to sometime this year, but it sounds great. |
| Unknown | Yeah. All right. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, so I've got two for mine today, but we're going to close one of them as a song and we'll close on that. But if you want to click that link and listen to it while I ramble about a cool little thing from Night Eyes, feel free. In my further efforts, we're now 268 episodes in, in the further efforts of eventually becoming the main promotional wing of one of my favorite companies, Night Eyes. I've bought so much of their stuff over the years and I'm a huge fan. We've talked about their S Beaners and the Kam Jams and the rest of it. But a little while ago, as they often get me, I was in checkout at a store. I don't actually remember what the store was, maybe Canadian Tire or similar. It could have been a Home Depot. And I came across this thing called a Doohickey Plus, and it's spelled D-O-O-H-I-C, like Doohickey, like a thing, an object or whatever, but then K-E-Y is like capitalized. So it's a key ring mounted like little multi-tool. and I for six and a half dollars. This thing's amazing. Wow, yeah, that is cool. You should buy twenty and just give them out every time you like meet someone or come across a kid. It hasn't it's never been taken away. I wanted to use it several times through TSA. Yeah, it hasn't been taken away. It has a phillips screwdriver, a carabiner clip to, you know, click it onto stuff. It has three different sizes of like a little wrench. So if you if you need to turn like a small boat, Yeah, has a bottle opener, a serrated edge that makes really short work out of boxes. It's great. Yeah, especially in those scenarios, like if I'm traveling and I don't, I can't travel with a knife, obviously, and then it has a sort of flathead screwdriver, a ruler and then a sort of pinched prying edge that has a nail puller in it as well. I don't know how much you're really gonna pull nails with this, but you could probably get one out of a wall or something like that pretty easily. Yeah, I just absolutely love this, and I was trying to think of what I could throw in today that was a little bit more actionable than check out this cool song, which I'll get to in a moment. And I just really, really like this. And then we see things like this pop up in the Slack as well, these sort of like pry bar tools. And a lot of those are more expensive. Giant Mouse makes an incredible one that I really like. And if you have the money for the premium option, obviously go with the Giant Mouse. but this has a few more kind of features and is a little bit more. I mean, I don't want to be unfair to night eyes, but at $6 and 50 cents, it's a little bit more disposable. Like if, if I'm going through security and someone decides to make a problem out of it, I'm not going to feel bad. If I lose the, the sort of pry bar tool from giant mouse, I'm going to be pretty bummed. So it typically stays home with me. Right. Um, and, and I, like I said, I like it a lot, but for these where they can, if I need to have them taken away, if I want to just, if I just on a whim decide to give it to somebody, six 50, who cares? Those are the coffee costs in a major city. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I do like the idea of something this affordable that you do buy several of and give to a young, like a teenager or, or, you know, a relative or someone you don't see regularly. It's, it's a thoughtful, truly useful tool. And I have that giant mouse tool as well. And, And they do come in handy, like these, these weird little uses for it. And, you know, typically around here, it's, it's mundane stuff, like cutting open an Amazon box or, you know, pulling a staple out of something or whatever. |
| Jason Heaton | Opening some non-alcoholic drink that you're trying because you can't get your fix because it's January. Yeah, right. But the move, in my mind, the move is to buy at least two, put the other one in your wallet or whatever, and then when you use this in front of somebody and they go like, oh, that's amazing. And you give it to them. You go, oh my God, I got an extra. Yeah, I love that. You just made their day. That would make my day anyways, right? Yeah. Especially if it was like a kid, right? Yeah, yeah. A niece, a nephew, son, daughter, whatever. Yeah. So yeah, that's the Doohickey Plus key tool from Night Eyes. Big love for Night Eyes. They have no clue like I don't have any relationship with them at all. I'm just a massive, massive fan of their of the it feels like it must be such a fun company to work for. Yeah, but yeah, big fan there and and for my second, which I'll close the show on it. It's actually a new song from Wolf Pack. It's called letting things go and it features guest vocals by a woman named Evangeline, who you might know from several other popular songs that she's done. I don't know how much we have to say for this to be considered commentary so that we don't you don't get in trouble for playing the audio. But Jason, did you get a chance to preview a little bit of that? |
| James Stacey | I did and I wished it was longer. It's a two and a half minute song, but just a lovely voice and it's just it's so like stripped back and simple and just like really pleasant. |
| Jason Heaton | Super minimal, still a little bit funky, but really fun and soft. And I've just I found myself going back to it since it came out. Like I listened to it once and I go like, oh, it's a new Wolf song. I'm going to like I'm going to enjoy it. I like probably ninety five percent of what they do. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And then I just keep kind of like that little that little bop in the, it's like it's stuck in your mind and then I'll just keep kind of replaying it. So we'll leave you with our quote, of course, but the closing audio is going to be a little different. Today, music throat will not be siesta by jazz, the free music archive, but it was through the intro, I guess, before we get to the song, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit the graynado.com. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Seneca who said, It is not the man who has little, but he who desires more that is poor. |
| Jason Heaton | Those are great words and here's a solid song from Wolfpack and Evangeline, Letting Things Go. |
| Song lyrics | Got so hung up on something you said I should have guessed you would mess with my head You got up and I stayed in bed I was about to say something said nothing Getting good at letting things go But you're somebody I want to know So if you love me then let it show I've been getting good at letting things go |