The Grey Nato - Ep 27 - Future Classic Watches

Published on Tue, 07 Feb 2017 09:01:21 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discuss various modern watches that could potentially be viewed as future classics or icons in the same way that models like the Rolex Submariner or Omega Speedmaster are viewed today. They consider watches from brands like Bremont, Tudor, IWC, Zinn, and others that have distinctive, modern designs representative of the current era of watchmaking. They also contemplate whether any truly groundbreaking, genre-defining watches are being produced today given the contrast between purely mechanical timepieces and smartwatches/wearable tech. Ultimately, they conclude that while few modern watches may attain the iconic status of past legends, there are still many excellent contemporary designs that watch enthusiasts will look back on fondly in decades to come.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello?
Jason Heaton Hey James, how's it going?
James Stacey Uh, hey man. Yeah, good, good. Just, uh, getting everything lined up for the show. You good?
Jason Heaton Cool. Yeah, well, it's, uh, it's the beginning of February here, and I'm, uh, I decided to make February my dry month. So I've, uh... Oh, there you go. I've decided to abstain from alcohol this month to see how that goes. And, you know, we'll, we'll see. Usually I have a little scotch going while we do the recordings, but tonight it's just a bottle of water.
James Stacey I'm enjoying a mediocre Canadian whiskey. So we'll go from there. Don't tell me about that. This is episode 27 of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. Thanks for listening. So what's new? Oh man. I mean, I think for me it's flashlights. Flashlights. Is where we'll start tonight. You know, people listening, I haven't received any emails that are saying like, James, you got to stop talking about flashlights. So I'm going to assume that there's at least like a group of people that are kind of like certainly way ahead of my knowledge base when it comes to kind of the world of enthusiast flashlights. So back when I first spoke about this Phoenix light that I bought that I like, you know, it's kind of an entry level $30, $40 thing. And this crazy Chinese 1250 lumen Zan flare. I got a handful of emails and they all said like, you got to check out Machant Flashlights. This guy in Texas is making these really amazing kind of craftsman style flashlights. And I looked at them and they were very expensive. And I thought like, I'm not really willing to shell out several hundred dollars for a flashlight. And then as it turns out, the gentleman behind Michant, Enrique, he listens to the show and he pinged me kind of via DM and said, hey, if there's something you'd like to see and, you know, to kind of compare with these other lights you've been looking at or buying, then by all means. So, you know, he was kind enough to send me, at this point, I've got four lights from him. I'm going to talk about two tonight, two I got just today and are a little bit too fresh. for me to really, like, summarize. I haven't taken them outside and that sort of thing and used them at all. But I did get a couple, and they're an unbelievably impressive product. I mean, there's only a few things that, like, are kind of one-to-one for me. If you've ever messed around with, like, Chris Reeve's pocket knives, these really kind of high-end, enthusiast, limited batch kind of creations. And then the other one is, like, Jason, have you ever had, like, a Schofield in person? Like his watches or any of his stuff. So where the packaging is like Original artwork and like there's not a single detail of the whole thing that's been forgotten.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's incredible stuff and and he does Flashlights too if I'm not mistaken.
James Stacey He did a light for the the moon moon watch the moon. Yeah, right moon glow, maybe yeah So yeah, I know he made a torch specifically designed to charge that light. Yeah, I don't know if he sold it separately I'm not sure but with with the Michant stuff The packaging is unbelievable, definitely in line with the sorts of prices they charge, but I would say even you would expect this level of packaging from like established luxury goods. Yeah. And you get beautiful paperwork, like any detail that could come with it. Oh, one little fun thing that Enrique pointed out to me, and I won't give it away entirely, but any of you who own a Machiant flashlight, Find your warranty card that came in the box and shine your light at the warranty card in a dark space. It's really crazy what he's done as far as the details in there. Really fun to unbox. I did an Instagram story a while back, although that would be all expired by now. You know, yeah, if you think along the lines of a Schofield or a Chris Reeves, so yeah, great details, really impressive packaging. And then you get into the actual hardware, if you will, and there are these very kind of you know, nice materials, and it's all milled, and very high-end sort of electronics that use for the emitter or the bulb, if you will. It's not a bulb, they're LED. So I'll break down the two lights that I've had the most time with, and we'll start with the smallest one. So this is the MAUS, M-A-U-S. And the one that Mushant sent me is the MK1 Titanium.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So you're looking at, it's a hair over two inches long. Yeah. 2.1 inches long. It's one ounce and it's a half, a little over a half inch in diameter. And it's this beautiful little tube of titanium that, I mean, roughly you could imagine like a, the handle of a lightsaber, but with none of like all the added bits on it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey It's a very simple shape and it's a, it's a very clever design. So it's operated with, with like a turn cap. Sure. So not unlike that, you know, $40 Phoenix where as you tighten it, it gets brighter. But with this one, there's actually some sort of a controller. So if you tighten it once, you get one lumen, tighten it a second time, you get 10 lumens, back it off and tighten it again and you get 60. It's a little tiny light to throw at 60 lumens. Like it's, it's great. It weighs nothing. It has this kind of really interesting design for the tail cap that allows the kind of key chain ring to actually sit flush inside the cap if you're not using it or if you don't use it. Yeah. So it doesn't just kind of flop around on the light if you'd rather carry it in your pocket or something like that. It's a really neat design. It's a sapphire crystal. It doesn't weigh anything. And I see these quite a bit on Instagram and those sorts of EDC posts, you know, where you have a watch and a flashlight and maybe a wallet and a pocket knife. And I dig that kind of stuff. I love following those sorts of things because I think you can see someone's taste in multiple items. Yeah. These flashlights are certainly expensive. And like I was saying to you, I think previously, I don't think this is going to be anybody's first flashlight. Like you're not going to be going to, you know, a Home Depot or your local hardware store and trying to decide between a $20 Maglite and a $300 Machon. But I do think that this is, you know, for guys that get into flashlights the way that you and I get into watches.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey This doesn't surprise me at all.
Jason Heaton I think it's a good, I think it's a good parallel. I mean, I think, you know, it, it surprises me to see the pricing because I'm not a flashlight enthusiast, but I, it's certainly not a stretch for me to see, you know, when I hear you talking about the quality and the materials and the packaging and everything, you know, why it costs that. And certainly if you're after that level of craftsmanship with anything, whether it's a pair of sunglasses or, you know, handmade shoes or a flashlight, it's everything has its, you know, It's deep, sort of deep nerd territory. And this sounds like, like that's the case for flashlights.
James Stacey Yeah. I think just, just like you find, you could go from a Swiss army knife to a, you know, I mean, there's, there's pocket knives from these very small manufacturers that push into four figures, but a Chris Reeves will run you five or $600 depending on what you optioned. Yeah. And I think this is the same sort of progression. Maybe you've had a Maglite or a Phoenix or some sort of cheap Chinese, whatever, and it either didn't work for you, or you've just kind of gotten deep enough in it to see what other flashlight guys are into. And I think at that point, these start to make a lot of sense. I wouldn't recommend somebody go out and buy this because they need a flashlight. I think they get, you kind of get into it for the same reason, like we're not buying watches because we necessarily have to know what time it is, right?
Unknown Sure. Yeah.
James Stacey So I think it's kind of in that vein. And so that's the Maus. And then the other one is the one that I brought to Geneva that you saw, which is the Aeon Mark III. And I have the aluminum one. And today I got a copper one as well to kind of give the copper a try, because it'll get that patina effect and such. But I'll talk about that one on a later show. But I brought the... I've been carrying the Aeon Mark III quite a bit. It's kind of one size up from the Maus. And with the Aeon, you get a knife style pocket clip. So if you want to clip it into that kind of fifth pocket on your pants, or theoretically a belt or a strap of a backpack, you could. Yeah. And it has a tail switch, which I like a lot. So there's an actual button on the back. Oh, yeah. Kind of a rubber coated. Sure. Kind of clicky button. Yeah. And It's on off, and then you kind of press the button on the back to cycle through 115 and 160 lumens. So really impressive. You have a handful of materials available for this one. So this one, like I said, is aluminum, but there's also the copper, and then there's one called the Opus, which is in Tamascus steel and another one in, I'm going to ruin the pronunciation, Mokume-gane steel, or some sort of an alloy. Yeah. And these are, you know, very fancy. You know, if you've seen Damascus, the kind of banding and color process in Damascus, you can get the same thing, but at their base, you're looking at aluminum, which is $300 and the copper is $385. So again, these are very much kind of a nerd enthusiast item. Sure. But I really like this light. I love how easy it is to quickly switch it on, cycle through brightness. I showed it to you in Geneva, and then we actually ended up using it when we went for fondue. We had to go out along this pier and dark treacherous journey. Yeah. There's no street, there's no streetlights on the pier. There's no lighting at all. And, um, you know, there were huge waves all week. So the pier had kind of iced over and like a thick layer of ice and people were sliding around and someone had thrown down some rubber mats to kind of form a line. And I was able to just pull this out and shine it down and make sure, you know, me, you, a few people around us all kind of found that.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey That was perfect. Rubber mat to get over the ice. And, uh, I I've absolutely loved this thing. It's, uh, it's, it's really cool. This is the sort of thing where like, as nice as the Mao is, you need two hands to operate it. And if the, if you don't need something quite that small, the one bump up in size, and this brings you up to like two and a half inches, 1.2 ounces. And, uh, and, and it's, it's, uh, it's pretty tough. Uh, this one, you know, on their website, it shows they, they strapped it to some sort of a low satellite. that went to 31.5 kilometers above earth. Oh, wow. And and it survived. Unfortunately, you know, when you send a product to the great NATO, and maybe this is to me, I don't know what Jason, you can presume that something will happen where I actually test maybe past its limits. And This loaner Aeon Mark III went through the wash and the dryer. So it got dinged up and the crystal was cracked. But I have a really heavy duty dryer. I got two kids.
Jason Heaton That's pretty awesome. Yeah.
James Stacey And it still works. It turns on, it runs flawlessly. I'm sold. I mean, there's no way that some of these other flashlights that I've had would survive even the washer cycle, let alone being slammed around in the dryer. for I don't know how long but it went for a full a full cycle for a big load. So what did it sustain any damage was it kind of really just just the uh just the crystal oh wow yeah so it's a borosilicate lens I may not be saying that correctly it's double AR coated and you know strong scratch resistant but obviously there's a limit for these things and the limit is letting a dummy like me borrow your $300 flashlight and put it through the washer and the dryer. And I've still been using it. It's not like the lens isn't gone. It's still there. Yeah. It just has a crack in it. And it still works beautifully. It's been in my pocket all week. These are fun. I mean, this is, you know, this is, I guess, one of the perks of running a podcast about these sorts of things is people will send you these really impressive products that I wouldn't have gotten hands on with otherwise.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's great.
James Stacey And I've had fun with it. Really cool stuff. He sent some other stuff, but I want to wait until I've had, like I said, kind of the full time to put that through its paces. You know, he sent a wallet as well. He deals with another company called Ashland to develop this wallet. I showed it to you. It's kind of passport size. It holds a bunch of cards and cash, and it's still very thin. So once I've had like a good chance to put that through its paces and see how tough it is, I'll certainly report back on that. everything I've seen from them so far, from the packaging to the details is all really impressive. So if you're, if you're into flashlights, I think this is a really interesting way to move past that kind of normal store-bought experience where it comes in a plastic container and you just kind of cut into it with a knife and throw a cheap bat at it and go.
Unknown Exactly.
James Stacey Yeah. The other thing that stands out against, you know, I have, um, I have a nice, I have that little Phoenix I talked about that UCO2. And I recently got in that Zanflare, that Chinese lamp. I'll talk about that on a later show as well. Both of those lights have kind of a bright white, nearly slightly blue emission, which can be kind of jarring or almost specular, depending on how bright and how ready your eyes may be for it. And I find with these Michantes, they have a much warmer color temperature. And I mean, this is definitely into the nerdy side of flashlights, but if you use them kind of side by side, The Michant ones are much easier to see that light quickly, like to find what you're looking for. Your eyes aren't really adapting to the strangeness of the combination of the sudden brightness in a dark room and the color. Yeah. It feels much closer to the light that's put off by an incandescent light bulb or even like a fireplace. Yeah. It's very clear and I would call it white, but it's probably closer to the 4,000 Kelvin than you know, 5,700 or 6,000. And with these, these are definitely like a warmer, much more adaptable and smoother sort of light. And they have a really lovely kind of spread. They're very easy to use, whether it's reading or looking for something in a room. But what a treat to get some time to put these through their paces and play with them a bit and really cool stuff.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's great. And I think it's neat that this came sort of organically through the Graynado and through Instagram. Um, and it just goes to show the sort of network of, you know, I guess, virtual virtual friendships that we've built relationships we've built with listeners and, and our followers on Instagram. And I think, uh, you know, that's great. And, and, you know, certainly thanks to, to Enrique and to everybody else that wrote in. Yeah.
James Stacey They were dead on very cool, very much in line with the sort of stuff that we love about watches. Yeah. Just reflected in a different product that I I'll be, I'll be the first to admit, I don't fully understand. Like I'm just getting into kind of, but. Really, really neat. And yeah, I think kind of on the money as far as the suggestion from the listeners.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and this certainly isn't a plea for people to send us stuff. But certainly, I would love to, you know, get other listeners' recommendations on other things that you think we'd be interested in beyond watches. You brought up the wallet from Michant. And as you know, James, I've been on a kind of a long-term hunt for just the right wallet. I need to upgrade mine. wallets are not the kind of thing that I like to kind of nerd out about or spend a lot of time on, but also I'd like to find a really nice one. So if, if anybody has recommendations, you know, ping us on Instagram at the gray NATO or, you know, send an email to the gray NATO at gmail.com. If you've got wallet recommendations, anything, shoes, backpacks, um, you know, we're, yeah, whatever you really love.
James Stacey I'm sure we will too. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We'll prepare the inbox for wallet recommendations. I'll get them directly to Jason. Exactly. I think that's great because wallets, I like to have more than one. Yeah. Like depending on what I'm doing. And certainly this one from Michant is great for travel because you can carry a fair amount of cash if you do the different currency. Yeah. And a ton of cards. Yeah. And how about you? What's new since we sat together in Geneva?
Jason Heaton Yeah, boy, it seems like ages ago. It was only a couple of weeks ago. You know, there's this online, used to be mail order, used to be a paper catalog, probably still has a catalog, outdoor gear company called Sierra Trading Post, which a lot of people have probably heard of, but they've kind of always existed a little bit on the margins among other, you know, better known companies like REI or I suppose in Canada MEC and Sierra Trading Post has always been known for really good pricing on outdoor gear, clothing and backpacks and boots and pretty much anything. Well, lo and behold, they opened an outlet store right here in Minneapolis, which I was excited, but also a bit daunted by because I have very little self-control when it comes to outdoor gear, as people probably know from listening to the show. And I've made a couple of trips down to the store It's truly an insane place. It's picture like the size of a, you know, one of these discount outlet stores, like a TJ Maxx or something where it's, you know, last season's colors or, um, you know, odd size runs and things like that just for, you know, ridiculous discounts. And so, you know, I walk in the door of this place and you just see this wall of, of puffy jackets and, you know, ski pants. And at the back, there's a row of, sleeping bags hanging from a rack and backpacks. I love it. It's incredible. And then they've got these big, you know, to make matters worse, they have these big push carts like you find at the grocery store right inside the door. So it took a bit of self-control. I did buy a few things that I'm pretty excited about. Probably nothing that I truly needed, but you know, I made it out of there without sinking the, you know, next month's mortgage payment. One of the things I got was a really great soft shell jacket. by Rob, R-A-B. Rob is a British company that makes outdoor clothing, technical clothing. And it's not as well known. I don't know about in Canada, James, but in the U.S., Rob is not as widely known. I don't know them, yeah. Yeah. And I'd heard of them. I'd never had any personal experience with them. But what's really cool about Sierra Trading Post is they carry these kind of oddball, I shouldn't say oddball, these, you know, European brands that we don't necessarily get in the U.S. like Berghaus, Montaigne, Robb, La Sportiva, who's a boot company but they make clothing, which I didn't know. So they had all this stuff in the racks and I picked up a jacket called the Sentinel jacket by Robb and so far I'm really liking it. I've taken it skiing a couple times, just worn it around town. I'm a big fan of soft shell jackets anyway, but I didn't really have a good one. I kind of gave one away Mistakenly a couple of years ago and was kind of looking for a good replacement. So Really pleased with this one. It's it's it's nice and kind of slim fitting. The arm holes are cut pretty high So it's you know good for arm movement big just two big pockets on the front and a good sort of helmet compatible hood And it's I'm not sure the material that it's made from but it's you know It's kind of a nice water-resistant windproof soft shell material that breathes pretty well and it's lined with kind of a grid like fleece material, kind of a light fleece material. So it's a great jacket for kind of, you know, mountain sports or around town, probably in the slightly warmer winter temperatures. Or if you're doing something really active like skiing or something, it's perfect. So I'm real thrilled with that. And then the other item that I picked up that I'm really keen on getting a chance to use is I got this massive internal frame backpack. And you and I talked about this because I know you've been looking for a backpack. And, you know, here we are back to Pax. I mean, we did a whole episode on Pax a while ago and here I am buying another backpack, but it's endless. There's a brand called Alps Mountaineering, which, uh, you know, not, not really well known, but, um, I've had a sleeping bag and a backpacking tent from Alps and I know that they're, they're good quality stuff. They had this, um, backpack, it's called the Caldera 5500 and it's, it's a, it's a 90 liter internal frame backpack and, Previously, you know, I've used 60- 90 liters. Yeah. I've used 60 to 75 liter, you know, backpacks for kind of three and four day, you know, backpacking trips in the past. And it's, you know, they're pretty stuffed. Um, but you know, they do just fine, but 90 liters and it was incredibly cheap. I think it was, you know, $119 or something like that. So, you know, as we've turned into a tradition, I'll be, I'll be bringing my old Osprey a 70 liter pack to, to, uh, Basel or, or maybe even the UK where we're both going for that Bremont event at the end of, uh, at the end of this month. Yeah, for sure. Hand me now. We'll do a gear swap in the hotel room again, because now I have this, this 90 liter pack, which I can pretty much take the entire household here on, on camping trips. So can't wait to try that out when, when the warmer weather comes.
James Stacey That's the plus of being a, like a taller guy too, is you can get away with just like that pack must be unbelievable. If, if you, if you like, I assume it has some vertical tension straps. Oh yeah. Like looking, looking at the photo, but if you loosen those up and really like you could almost like a child could sleep in that. Totally. Like, like 90 liters is massive.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I sit it on the floor empty and it's, it's like up to my stomach, you know, it's, it's huge.
James Stacey Amazing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So anyway, it's funny, you know, Sierra Trading Post was going to be part of my final notes and I'll bring it up again later, but definitely they have a great, great website and you can order stuff off the website too. So we'll, we'll revisit that towards the end of the show.
James Stacey Yeah. It's tempting to click around on there for sure.
Jason Heaton Should we jump into the main topic? Yeah, for sure.
James Stacey So we weren't really sure on what to do for a main topic today, but we did, and this was many months ago, a listener, Adrian, wrote in with an interesting question, one that I've kind of kept in a little file of questions. I know I've been really slacking on the Q&A timing, but for the main topic, it was kind of a fun question that elicited enough of a conversation between Jason and I that we figured it would be good to give it a swing. And Adrian wrote in and asked, if the standout models being produced by the big brands are either, you know, never been out of production sort of watches like the Rolex Sub or the AP Royal Oak or the Omega Moonwatch or homages and reissues from back catalog models, where are the new classics going to come from? Is there a new watch today that makes enough of an impression that we will be holding it up as an icon of the 21st century and possibly reissuing it in, say, 30 years time? Have we done it all and are destined to repeat ad nauseum or are we breaking any new ground? I think this is a pretty tough question. I think there's a few questions within that paragraph, but I do think it's fairly interesting and I don't think it's necessarily, like I think the question is phrased pessimistically and I unfortunately carry some of that pessimism into my response. Where do you really want to start with it? Do you want to talk about watches that could be considered future classics, but might not be icons? Or do you want to tackle the whole idea of kind of an icon first?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of a rhetorical or philosophical question on the one hand. And I think when you and I started sort of chatting about it, just in our chat room the past couple days, we sort of were aiming at this philosophical angle with a bit of a pessimistic eye. But I think we've put together a pretty good list of of watches and maybe the way to handle this is to kind of start in with our, you know, we'll kind of just bang it back and forth with our list of watches and then see where that leads and then maybe talk in general a little bit later about the kind of overall philosophy of future classics and why we feel like maybe, I hate to say it, the heyday of watches is kind of in our past.
James Stacey Maybe of watch design.
Jason Heaton Mechanical watch design. And maybe we'll be less pessimistic by the time we get through our list.
James Stacey Yeah, we did come up with a list of watches that I do think in 30 years, we, those listening to this, and Jason and I will look back on fondly and possibly attempt to, you know, reacquire that flame.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So why don't you pick one from the list that you added to the list? I smashed a few in there.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I think you and I overlapped on a few and I think, you know, one that One that comes to mind, and we're well-known lovers of a lot of Bremont's watches, but I think Bremont is a good place to start because I think it's a brand that does not necessarily have that back catalog of watches from the 50s and 60s to recreate. So they're almost free to start with a blank sheet of paper, and certainly there are design codes that they're going to pull from past watches from other brands. But I think Bremont has kind of had a pretty fresh take on watch design, you know, since they came to life as a company, you know, whatever it's been, you know, 10 years ago or so. And I think the one that kind of stands out as what I would consider kind of a modern classic that will stand the test of time is the MB series, the MB2. Yeah. They had an MB3 and then you could kind of spin off into the U2 and the U22, kind of the derivatives of the MB. But I think the MB2 is a real, it's a fresh watch. It certainly has, it takes cues from the past, like the two crowns, which we've seen on plenty of sort of super compressor style dive watches from the 60s and 70s. It doesn't look like those watches. And the case design that Bremont has done with that triptych case style and the kind of swoopy lugs that come down and, you know, the technology that they put into it with the anti-shock movement holder and the Faraday cage to protect it against magnetism. It's a great watch. It's from a brand that, you know, doesn't really, like I said, I think they're free of any sort of past you know, shackles of like, what is it like, for instance, a brand like Tudor, what is a Tudor supposed to look like? Tudor can't do that, you know, whereas Braymont doesn't matter.
James Stacey Yeah. I think that's what comes with maybe being maybe like, I guess you could consider them a third order brand where you have these original brands that existed through the quartz crisis and like, like a Rolex before and after quartz. So if you're talking modern watch design, that's a big dividing line. Yeah. And then you have brands that died during the courts crisis and have been revived in the last 10 or 15 years. And you have brands that only existed in a post-courts kind of world. And I think that's where we see Bremont being able to find their own path with the designs. They don't necessarily have to be tied to things they can make. vintage-inspired or classically-inspired watches, certainly like an Alt 1C or the Alt 1 with the polished case. It's a very almost ornamental, classically-inspired, marine chronometer sort of aesthetic. But with the MB2, I don't know of another watch that necessarily looks like an MB2 or a U2, or even something like the S500, which is still just a dive watch. A dive watch should be derivative just in terms of what it has to be able to do for a diver. But I think that they've succeeded from a design standpoint in making something that like you could see in a pile of watches on a table and know to be a Bremont.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Especially when it comes with the MB2 and the white one and all of these, you know, you get the colored barrels. So even from the side. Yeah. You know, the watches, you know, we may all know a Rolex case from the side, but you're not going to know what watch it is. Right. Right. So I think, I think Bremont's an almost perfect example of this. And certainly the brand, doesn't show any reason why they wouldn't be around in 30 or 100 years or whatever. So I think we'll definitely be looking at these watches when we're all in the 10th or 15th generation of the MB2 or whatever they move on to. Yeah. And looking back and remembering when that watch was new and when it was fresh and what it represented as far as its connection to the ejection seat. And I think that's kind of a full package watch, not just from a design standpoint, but inclusive of the design standpoint.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. Another one we agreed on that maybe you jump in and take the lead on is the Pelagos, the Tudor Pelagos. I think, you know, fresh design from an old brand, you know?
James Stacey Yeah, I think the Pelagos like might not be valid within Adrian's question, simply because it does refer, you know, as far as the hour hand is a direct reference to that kind of lineage within Tudor. But I think as a product, it's a very modern product. It's a very stoic product.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And the stoicism of that design is not reflected in anything else that Tudor does.
Unknown Right.
James Stacey You know, the Black Bay, in my opinion, this is just 100% my opinion, is a very romantic piece. It's meant to elicit the romance of these vintage watches. Yeah. And the way they feel on wrist and the, you know, warmer colors and gilt dials and, you know, the maroon bezel and all these sorts of things. I think that's, Aesthetically speaking, it's a whole world apart from what they've done with the Pelagos, which is... I think it's almost cheap just to call it a tool watch because I think it's almost like somebody looked at the simplicity of a stop sign and wanted to apply that to a dive watch today. So if you're making a clean slate dive watch, titanium makes a great option. And now they're using their own movement and it has a fantastic bezel and a ceramic insert. and a very, like a hyper legible dial with tons of loom. I think the Pelagos is a good example of what a brand that is mostly hinged in that vintage aesthetic can do.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think those first two are strong examples. I think Bremont and the Tudor Pelagos, and I would agree with you about the Black Bay or the Ranger for that matter. It goes exactly to what Adrian wrote about, about these are watches that basically is an homage to Tudor's past. And I don't think we can, they're great watches, but they're an homage to a past generation of watch. And I think the Pelagos is definitely new generation Tudor. It's definitely 21st century Tudor. It's not 20th century Tudor. And I mean, there are certainly other watches that, you know, if we look at 21st century, I don't know which side of the, the turn of the millennium, uh, some of these fall on that we included in here, but you know, you look at another sort of stark dive watch that that's on our list. Um, like, like the sin, uh, like the U series dive watches, the U one, the U two. Again, I don't know if this came late nineties or early two thousands, probably early two thousands. Yeah. Another very sort of stark modern watch with a lot of technology that I think Of those three, between the Pelagos, the Bremont, and now the Sin, the Sin is definitely the oldest of the three. And it's been around a while. And I think that the fact that it has stood that test of time, and it still comes up with people when you ask, you know, what's one of the better dive watches to get? Sin often kind of comes to the top of the list among those who know. And I think that says something. And I think in 30 years, sure, I think people will still be talking about the U1. It has a really, it's a very distinctive watch. And admittedly, I often overlook it. So when you, when you added it to the list, I was like, yep, sure, definitely.
James Stacey I think that series from Zinn is distinctly modern. When I hear somebody asks for a modern dive watch, I think, I think that means you're not talking about a ton of watches, even our favorite Seikos.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Typically our direct references to even watches that were like early eighties with the SKX is really like that you can trace its lineage back 30 years, like it's not that difficult to get there. Yeah. There's exceptions, certainly within Seiko's lineup. Yeah. But with the Zen, like when I think of a modern dive watch, I think of the Zen and specifically the U series. And I just think that they're very much, in my opinion, a kind of spiritual peer to the Pelagos. So you have, you know, some of them have the tegimented steel and a very kind of stark, stoic, hyper legible, toolish, appeal, good bezel, rubber and metal band options, all the from a product standpoint, a design standpoint, I think that these are watches we'll look back on as being not vintage watches, what like as in today's context, but something that we'll look, we'll be able to look back on and think very fondly of and likely see the the design carry throughs in future. Yeah, you know, ever.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think it's interesting. I was looking at my list and the next two watches I was going to bring up are both very, if not German, very Teutonic or very sort of stark and I would call sort of a German design. And I think we both had a number of IWCs on the list. Not necessarily their current generation, which I'm not sure that they'll age quite as well as the ones from the early 2000s. The 35 48, you know, the twin crown dive watches that were part of that GST collection that they had back in, might've been late nineties, but you know, early two thousands kind of straddled the millennium. I think those are, those are watches that they really, they really represent a slice of time or a moment in time, a very distinctive period in IWC's history when they were still very much a very serious high tech you know, the tool watch again is an overused term, but, um, you know, if a brand personified tool watch, I think IWC in the late nineties, early two thousands was definitely the brand. And I think those watches are as beautiful now as they were when they came out for their absolute stark utilitarianism. And I think people in 30 years will, I can almost guarantee IWC will reissue those watches in 30 years. And people will be paying a ton of money for the originals.
James Stacey Yeah, I think like you're looking at the 35, 36, people are definitely going to be collecting those. I think they're already collectible. Yeah. I just think that they're not, it's not crazy. Like it's a different sort of IWC than you have now. Yeah. And then, yeah, if you get into that just aggressively cool Cousteau LE with the blue orange. Yeah. Sure. It's integrated lugs. I don't think I would care for a moment. I'd leave it on that rubber strap. Yeah. and just wear it. I think it's such, such a beautiful design. And then I even really liked that next generation with the sapphire bezel, but the chronograph, the 376709, I believe. I thought those were really cool on wrist. That starts to be where you see the IWC design language get bigger, is in that transition from the 3536 into the 37 generations. That's going to be neither here nor there. I think size is an ebb and flow as we've seen in the last few years as we move out of kind of the heyday of Panerai. Right. And the 47 and 50 millimeter watches and we're starting to see lots of brands embrace 38 and 40. Yeah. I don't think that necessarily is part of the same thing that we're talking about in terms of watch design, the size thing. Right. Because there were bigger and smaller watches 50 years ago. I think that's just the existence of watches in general. But I think these Aquatimers they looked great when they were new. And they, you know, I think of these Aqua Timers kind of like I do the E39 BMWs.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So when they came out, they looked amazing. But now you see one on the road now or you see one on someone's wrist now or in an Instagram shot now. And they don't look like they've aged a day, but they definitely don't look like a watch today. Yes, I agree. That's I think that's pretty special. Like when I see an E39, especially like an M5. So that's a for those who aren't into BMW is quite as much. The E39 is a generation of the 5 Series, a mid-generation of the 5 Series. I think it's a near-perfect design for a sedan. And when you see them today, I don't think they've aged at all, but it's so clear that they're not one of these cookie-cutter cars that are... The headlights are all in the same place now, and the pillars are all of the same, and the belt lines all the same. I mean, if you see an E39 with the windows aren't tinted on the right wheels, that car is going to look amazing for like a hundred years. Yeah. Yeah. It's just a good design. And I think that we're going to look back on these Aqua timers, which are very accessible now.
Unknown Right.
James Stacey And I want to say predominantly ETA movements, if not all ETA movements, the ones that we're talking about. Yeah. We're going to look back on these as being the classics of the last stage I would agree.
Jason Heaton In fact, you know, as you're talking, I'm thinking about IWC in general. And I think, you know, they've taken a lot of flack over the past five, six years for sort of their sort of bloated marketing budgets and sort of big, you know, promotional stuff with ambassadors and whatnot. And the watches have You know, some have been hits, some have been misses, but I think that era, the late 90s, early 2000s in IWC, was truly a golden era because even beyond the Aquatimer, you had the Portuguese chronograph, which I think anyone would look at that watch and say, that is about the definition of a modern icon or modern classic. I think that the Portuguese chronograph The pilot watches, the pilot chronographs particularly, I think they had one like the 3716 or the 3713, I believe. The Spitfire? No, no, this was like the precursor. Yeah, the precursor. So they even had like the first doppelchronograph, the first double chronograph, like they had in a ceramic case. Ben Clymer just posted a picture. He's got one on wrist just this past weekend.
James Stacey Oh yeah, 3717. Killer. Yeah, I just googled it.
Jason Heaton Incredible watches, you know. They were small, they were really functional, really legible, and just so IWC. So that era, the Portuguese, the Pilot, the Aquatimers, you know, we're certainly not fortune tellers or market advisors or anything like that, but I'd say, you know, those watches would be worth, I think, grabbing one or two now because I think people are going to look back on those and wish that they had had those the way we look back at, you know, early 70s Daytonas or something, you know, and say, Oh, I wish I'd snapped those up when they were affordable.
James Stacey Yeah, it's certainly possible. I don't, you know, talking about watches as far as like thinking they'll appreciate is pretty nebulous, but I don't think you're wrong. All I, but I do, I think what we're both hitting on is like, they were cool then, They're still cool now, and I don't see that diminishing in any way in the future. Anything else kind of in that range? I mean, I wrote down the JLC Master Compressor Divers that, you know, they're not making them anymore.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And there was a lot of different versions. Yeah. They weren't all hits in my opinion, but I do think that unlike the Diver Chronograph that they make and continue to make, I think that these, the Master Compressor Series with the twist compressor crowns and all these sorts of things where I found those to be kind of decidedly modern. Yeah. Like the Amvox aesthetic kind of established or it was probably the divers predated the Amvox stuff. But I see those now and I love the way they look. You know, Adam Kranouts has one that he posts occasionally and I always get like a kind of a thrill from seeing them because it's JLC and on like a reel. sport tool, like tool sport watch. I mean, obviously very expensive. So whether people use them as a tool, probably not, but still that's, that's the way they were designed. I always thought they were really cool. I don't know that they'll necessarily be classics like the Aqua Timers, but I do think that we'll look back on them maybe in the same way we look back on a Ploprof. Yes. As kind of, you know, eccentric and cool and has the right brand. Yeah. And, uh, you know, they came in all sorts of different sizes and they were pretty much any of, uh, JLC's kind of, established complications represented. And so there was alarms, there was GMTs, there was chronographs and that sort of thing. The depth gauge one too, yeah. Depth gauge, yeah, some really crazy stuff. Yeah. And anything else? I mean, I've got a couple kind of more wild ones that I think are really obvious choices, but they're not really within the vein of like, Grey Nato sort of stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, I was the kind of the oddball for me was I put Lange and Zona on my list simply because if you're looking back 30 years from now at something at this era, if there's kind of a Halo brand or Halo piece or something, it would probably be something like, you know, a Lange datagraph or a, you know, Zeitwerk or something wild from from Lange that, you know, I mean, Lange You know, they've got sort of this split history. They talk about, you know, the company back in the late 1800s and the kind of the death blow of World War II and the communist era and then the revival in the 90s. And so I think the modern Lange is a very different company than the older company. And their watches are very representative, I think, of this era in time, the rebirth of not only Lange the brand, but of the watch industry. You talked earlier about the quartz crisis kind of splitting the watch industry into a sort of a pre and a post. And I think Lange is not only post, you know, Berlin Wall coming down, but it's post quartz crisis. It's a new brand that sprouted up, you know, like we talked about Bremont. I think they have certainly appreciated their past and kind of looked to it in a certain extent, but they've also been very free to kind of invent new, very lust worthy watches that nobody will ever say, aren't great now, and certainly in 30 years, people will be, you know, still seeking them out.
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. And the, you know, the only other two that I kind of wrote down are, you know, Resence and MB&F.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Because I think in the generation that is post-courts crisis, these two brands, regardless of how long they exist, even if MB&F or Resence stop tomorrow, I think they will be looked back on not only so fondly, but as icons of a new generation of design within watchmaking. So from, from the movement all the way up to what the watch physically can be. Yeah. I think the two of those absolutely stand out for me and they have peers certainly that, that do some amazing stuff. David tune, I think stands out as being so wonderfully postmodern at times.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But with Resence and MB&F, I think you really see watches that will always be loved for their design and the kind of overlap between their design and the actual core watchmaking.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I think it goes right to the very last statement in Adrian's question, which was, are we breaking any new ground? And I think those are brands that, again, are representative of a certain era. are the modern era right now. And I think whether or not those brands survive, people will look back and think this was a real high point in creative watch design. And, you know, I remember a couple of years ago, somebody had asked me if, you know, should I, should I get a Ressence like the type one? And I, I, I said, you know, cool watches, but you know, if, what if the brand isn't around in 20 years and it needs to be serviced or, repaired or will there be parts will someone be able to fix them that would be my only concern with with watches from these brands these really unique um creative watches will they you know be able to be serviced in 20 or 30 years i don't know and maybe that's a moot point uh it really certainly is outside the scope of of our discussion but um you know just something that always occurred to me i also think there are there are these kind of small brands that Um, maybe aren't necessarily design icons or modern classics, but you know, you and I have both had sort of, well, you know, brands like forgotten brands from the sixties and seventies that you can pick up on eBay or some of the forums or some of these vintage dealers like, you know, watch these and those guys that, um, carry stuff like, you know, like your Silvana. Yeah, for sure. I think there are brands nowadays, you know, that what are the Silvanas of, of tomorrow going to be? I think it's going to be brands like the, the Halios or, uh... helson or or raven or uh... you know i noticed you had like the marathon uh... like the the star watches uh... on your on your list and those watches i think that people will see in thirty years and think yeah really really cool stuff small brands uh... maybe not big name brands but uh... still desirable still still unique and uh... attractive and probably affordable exactly so i mean
James Stacey I think what we're saying is that there are product that will stand as points in generations of watches that people will look back on quite fondly. But I think from the design aspect, all of those watches, of course, are, with the exception of Cyclorescence and the MB&F, are very much like watches. Yeah. Things we've all seen before, it's a different color or a different hand or a different case or something like that. And I think that, you know, Unfortunately, what I'm tempted if you, if I really zoom out on this question is what, what does a watch today look like outside of like watch enthusiasts? Because everybody that listens to the show most likely, and certainly is going to read the sorts of sites that we write for, know most of these watches just by name. But if you zoom out, are there more Zinn U1s walking around on the street in a big city than Apple watches? G-Shocks, Fitbits. Essentially, before quartz, a watch was a fixed thing. Then we had quartz and it expanded rapidly in all directions as to what a watch could be, and its shape, and its format, and it's got a calculator, and it's got the ability to store your contacts. Then all of that, of course, that technology rapidly progressed into things like phones. Now we're at still for kind of first generation of smart watches and maybe they haven't been as successful as everybody wanted but the idea will always be there because watches existed beforehand that you would strap something to your wrist that gives you glanceable information but how that served and what it looks like and what that information is going to change rapidly and i think that you know what we just talked about for 30 minutes proves that like we're we're the types of people who who will focus on the mechanical side, but maybe to the detriment of even believing that there's something else, you know, Mountaineers used to wear Rolex, divers used to wear Rolexes, you know, these famous guys that did these amazing things, and now they wear Suntos and Garmins. Yeah. So it's not just Apple Watch, it's just the idea that what is the device when you zoom out to like a wider audience or an audience that maybe isn't a watch enthusiast? So I think there will always be watches like these ones we've talked about for enthusiasts. But I think more and more, the big generational jumps in watches will exist maybe a little bit outside of watch enthusiasm.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think that's a good point. It's something I was going to touch on too, is the use of watches that we now consider classics, the Moonwatch, the Rolex Sub, the AP Royal Oak. These were watches that were introduced and worn primarily when a guy owned one or two watches and he wore them for the majority of his activities. And, you know, you, you, you grew up seeing dad or your uncle or your grandfather wearing one of these watches when they're washing the car and going to a wedding and they show up in family photos. And, um, I think that's what has lent some of the attractiveness to collecting vintage watches or, or what's given that sense of nostalgia to the watch designs of the past is that we know that people used to wear them for doing really cool stuff or just for doing everything. And nowadays people, you know, watches are like baseball cards or something, you know, very expensive baseball cards. But you know, they collect these by the dozens in some cases and they sort of coddle them and wear one on Monday and another on Tuesday. And then they put, put them in the safe and don't touch them and obsess and fetishize the condition. And, um, they used to be worn to tell time. And I think it's just, uh, it's a different time. I think, I think the watches that we buy today, whether it's a Pelagos or, or, you know, a Bramont MB2, we're buying them with this different notion of what the watch is. We're buying it because we want to sort of capture a little bit of that, but we're not actually using them for, for those things. So like, what, what does that mean in 30 years? I don't know that people will look back on, an MB2 or a Pelagos in the same way we look back at a 1960s sub because you think in the 1960s that sub was probably used to do something really cool, whereas in 30 years you're going to look back at an MB2 or a Pelagos and say, hmm, that watch was probably bought by a podcast guy in Minneapolis or something, you know?
James Stacey I don't know. You look at the level to which watches or classic cars are fetishized? And that level I don't think existed when the big models were released.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So if you imagine, you know, like many of today's classic icon watches were released as product that somebody wore to tell time. Yeah. And none of that part exists anymore. There's so much more of an affectation or maybe affectation isn't necessarily fair or the word I'm looking for, but I think it's close.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. To what I'm trying to explain. And not only is it difficult to imagine somebody remaking a 250 GTO or a car that we think of in the same way today, because we had so long as the brain of the car enthusiast to lust after a 250. I mean, when that came out, people drove them. Yeah. They were like an F12 today. Yeah. Right. And I mean, like certainly the F12 is something that people go crazy for as a new product, but it doesn't have the same sort of like romantic notions. Right. Or like, you know, just kind of ingrained insane value and presence and beauty that a modern car has. And I'm not saying that it's impossible. I mean, look at what Ford did with the GT.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So you had a car, then they brought it out in the mid 2000s again. And I think they established a car that's appreciating, or not, I think, I mean, they established a car that's appreciating in value and is now into another generation as a race car and a road car that people are going nuts for. So if it can be done in cars, which are so, there's so many more rules to what you have to design in a car. The pillars have to be, the headlights have to be a certain height. The pillars have to be a certain thickness. It has to pass all the crash testing. It has to, you know, the belt line has to be a certain height, the seals have to be a certain like, everything's kind of like tied down if you want to mass produce a car. With watches, there's a lot more freedom. But I think that that as people have moved more and more towards not needing a watch, the brands have moved more and more towards when they when it was really successful. That's true. And the aesthetics of their the most successful aesthetics. Yeah, I'm sure we're missing like wide swaths of this conversation. So I would encourage anyone who's listening and thinks that you have like a salient point to add, please, thegreatnadoatgmail.com. I think we should like re-approach the idea of watches now versus then and how they're kind of worn differently. But I do think that there's a lot of watches being made today, or at least enough to make a list, today being a relative in the last, you know, generation or two of watches. that we will look back on with great fondness and not necessarily saying, well, you can't just like that watch because it existed 40 years before. It's just another one. Right. I think that there's some that stand as being born of that generation and existing within that generation. And beyond that, I think it gets pretty nebulous as far as the mind of the person that really loves watches and the mind of someone who really liked watches 50 years ago and all those sorts of things.
Unknown Yeah, I agree.
Jason Heaton Wow, I think this is the most philosophical we've ever gotten on the show. My brain kind of hurts. How about yours?
James Stacey I think it might be. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Jason Heaton I'd love to hear from listeners. And I'm sure everybody that listens has their own opinion about this. And we'd love to hear what you guys all think about what are going to be the future classics.
James Stacey So send us an email and we'll dig back into this in the future. I think it's a fascinating thing to chat about. But I do find that I can feel like I get lost pretty quickly in just the raw concept of like, generational watch appreciation versus its existence as a product in a technologically advancing world. Yeah, definitely. So, uh, what do you think you want to wrap it up as final notes? Yeah, let's do it. What have you got? So my first final notes this week is actually some friends launched a news service, like an abbreviated news service. So I don't know about you or many of our listeners. I'm sure many of you are much more in touch with current events than I am. I really don't like keeping up with current events. I find them generally depressing. And then certainly, if you look at the news coming out of the states over the last two years, I find it very confusing and depressing, regardless of my political opinion. Just that whole, the whole election process as a, like from a Canadian standpoint is just, it dominates. Oh yeah. So I retreat into my feedly of watches and cars and like outside online. And like hiking shoe reviews and just feel happy that I don't know about all these other things that are going on. Luckily, some friends of mine launched northofparallel.com and it's an abbreviated news service that's emailed to you in the morning. So I would say it takes about four to five minutes to read. It's very friendly in its delivery. It's not overly formal. And they just bring you up to speed on these stories and it's all curated. They make the decisions. I'm sure eventually they'll provide some level of customization, but I've been loving it. I've been using it for most of January and, uh, and, and I feel like I'm up to date on stories. There's some stuff that's kind of specifically Canadian, but I don't think that's necessarily going to pop up to the extent that if you're an American, it would bother you. But it's all sorts of common interest news. So it's not like sports. And then they, you know, they kind of kick it off with a this day. So in history, what happened on this date? Oh, cool. And then at the end, there's kind of like an option for just three or four stories that they didn't summarize that are just kind of interesting. So they called like peak my interest. Yeah. But if you go to north of parallel dot com, you can just sign up with your email. It pops right into your email in the morning. And I find that whereas I normally kind of sit down at my desk in the morning. I open up YouTube to go through my subscriptions. I go through Feedly. I now start, you know, I, I take a look at what, whoever emailed me overnight and I grabbed North of Parallel and it's a couple minutes. I mean, one, you'd know if it's a little story, a blurb that you don't want to read and you just move down one paragraph.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I've absolutely been loving it. So if you're, if you live in a non-news existence like me, where it seems daunting to try and sort and find the stories from the right place.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey If you just want some raw information and in kind of a fun and friendly tone, like imagine a friend who's kind of really keyed in on news, just kind of walking you through what happened yesterday. Sure. Yeah. So that you have some idea of what's going on in the world. That's all it is. And it's been great.
Jason Heaton Sounds a heck of a lot better than getting my news from Facebook.
James Stacey I'll check it out. I think it's much better than like, yeah, Facebook news. And we'll have obviously a link in the show notes, but it's northofparallel.com and throw in your email address.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Cool. Well, my first final note is actually a movie recommendation, and it's one that you and I both saw, and I think you're actually the one who recommended that I go see it. It's probably not news to anybody that's paid attention to the run-up to the Oscars or recent movie releases, but the movie is Arrival. Oh, man. Yeah, just saw it over the weekend. And it's interesting because I'm really picky about science fiction movies and this is a science fiction movie. You know, I have, I could probably count on one hand the science fiction movies I've liked. You know, there's, you know, Blade Runner and Alien and a couple of others, but sci-fi I usually find okay for half the movie and then usually the second half it devolves into really unrealistic looking aliens and strange weapons and just sort of absurd plots. And I think Arrival, it's like the Thinking Man sci-fi movie and it's, it's fantastic. you know, without giving too much away, it kind of, it looks at the arrival, hence the title, the arrival of these alien spacecraft in various parts of the world. But its approach, not from sort of an Armageddon style, you know, all hands on deck, you know, guns a-blazing sort of perspective. It really comes at it from the connection, the attempt to make a connection. For someone who's sort of always been a student of language and a writer, I think there's a really strong linguistic component to it that I find just fascinating because, you know, James, you're living in a bilingual country and I studied other languages in school. And I think the concept of learning how to communicate with a species from a different world is fascinating and a bit daunting. And the movie tackles it really well. I think you told me, you know, this is a sci-fi movie where a shot, there isn't even a shot fired, which is so refreshing.
James Stacey Yeah. I don't think there's any guns or anything and there's no laser beams. Yeah. It feels like about two or three years in the future. Yeah. And it's, it's largely based on a couple of people's attempt to approach the arrival of an alien group of some sort as a gift or an opportunity to understand something more about the world.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And the perspective is cool. It's done by my absolute favorite director in the world right now, Denis Villeneuve. Yeah. A fellow Canadian who did Prisoners, an absolutely amazing crime drama, and Sicario. If you didn't see that, I adored Sicario. Yeah, I did too. And he's now the guy that's been tasked, well, is now, I think, done the Blade Runner sequel with Gosling. And just announced today, as we're recording this, he's going to do the next version of Dune. I mean, like the guy must really want challenges to go from a crime drama with Jake Gyllenhaal and Hugh Jackman, a fantastic one that everyone should see, to something like Sicario, which is kind of a military thriller, and then into sci-fi, hard sci-fi, in my opinion, with Arrival. Subtle, but hard. And then on to Blade Runner, maybe one of the most loved single movie franchises in history. And then Dune, which is just, it's history is failure aside from the books, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. So he's just, he's unbelievably talented, clearly loves sci-fi and go back and watch anything he's made previously. It's all fantastic. And if you can see Arrival in the theater, I mean, the visuals are amazing. The sound is amazing. The special effects are the kind that it's so subtle. You don't realize that. It is special effects really, like it has to be because of what they're showing you at times.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But it's so not like action special effects.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. I think it's definitely one worth seeing in the theater too. I've lately, past couple years, been sort of disenchanted by movie theaters for a number of reasons. Oh yeah. And just prefer to watch at home. But this one was, you know, we sat right down in front and just a theater that had good sound and good seats and a good screen and it was well worth it.
James Stacey You and I are probably well behind most of our audience in seeing this movie. I see maybe one movie a year in theater. You know, I think the last ones I saw was Arrival.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey John Wick and Sicario.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. And, uh, and, and so I'm not sure when I'll get to the theater again, but I, I used my one time at the theater. I really don't like going to movie theaters. They're not a great experience for someone who doesn't like crowds and noise and, and, and those sorts of things. Yeah. But the, uh, Great movie. I'm rambling. It's such a fun movie.
Jason Heaton It was good. What's your next one?
James Stacey Yeah, my next one is actually something I would say I've been actually using for about a year. And I only realized like in the last week or so how much I like it. And so this is going to seem like really left field, but I've been wearing what is ostensibly a fitness tracker since it came out. And it's made by a Chinese company called Chaomi. And I'll just link to this. It's easier. Um, and it's called the me band too. And I always wear it on my right wrist. So you don't really see it in, well, you wouldn't see it in any of my wrist shots, but I don't believe that fitness tracking is valuable to me. I've seen it work great for friends and family members. So I just disable all of that. What the, the me band does is for 20 or 30 bucks, I think is what I paid for it back. You know, I ordered it off of a gear best and it eventually arrived from China and it's this kind of black rubber strap with, um, This kind of one inch by maybe a third of an inch shiny black piece that goes in the strap that has a heart rate monitor that's hilariously inaccurate and an OLED screen and kind of a single capacitive button. And I don't know necessarily how this works on iOS, but I'm going to assume it's fairly similar. I use Android. Um, I use a Samsung note five. And combined with the Note 5, I disabled all the smartwatch features. And what I bought it for is it has a vibration motor. So when I get a notification to my phone, it vibrates on my wrist. So I was able to, for a year now or whatever, I've been running my phone in full silent, no vibrations, no beeps. So on Android, you can kind of pull down from the top and get all your notifications in like a panel. And in that panel, there's a persistent icon for the band and you can tap on the icon to just mute the band as well. Huh. So if you don't want to be bothered, you don't have to like take the band off and put it across the house so you don't hear it vibrating. You can just instantly mute it. And I found what it does is it's made me much more able to turn off from checking my phone. Yeah. So when I want to, when I'm walking around and it would be too loud, around Vancouver to hear my phone beep in my pocket or too annoying to have it beep in my ears when I have my earbuds in or whatever. It's perfect because I know exactly what it is and it's a little, this little tiny screen that can just barely show you the time. So like if you get an email, it shows you an envelope. Oh yeah. If you get a text message, it shows you like a speech bubble. Um, it, I mean it doesn't have an icon for Slack, so it just shows as a text message when you, when you ping me.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But this way in situations where I may not get my, notification or my notification would be inappropriate, like in a meeting. I do know that I got something, but in any situation where I want to fully disconnect, I don't have to like change a bunch of settings on my phone or turn the band off. I actually don't know how to turn it off. The battery goes for like about a month. Wow. And then you plug it in. You just plug it in. I think once you turn the heart rate monitor off and the fitness tracking, like it only does something when it vibrates.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And you plug it in, it charges like two hours in this little cradle thing it came with. I really like this thing. I think it's a legitimate, like it's 20, 25 bucks. It changed my life a little bit because now I can come home and if I'm going to have dinner or, or spend some time with my family, I'm not so busy that my phone is just always blowing up. But occasionally that happens to us. You get in a three or four conversations at once and everybody's pinging you kind of separately. And now I can just tap one button and everything goes away. Yeah. Cause I don't have it where my screen lights up on the phone. I don't have an led on the phone. The phone looks like it's off all the time until I pick it up. And this way I don't have to deal with beeps or boops or anything coming from the phone, which I find really annoying from other people's phone, like very distracting. And then the, I don't know about you, and I think this was better when I had an iPhone, but the, um, the vibration motor in the, in my Android phones is not strong enough for me to notice in my pocket. Oh, yeah. But because the phones are so light and so thin now, on a desk, it moves the phone around. So I mean, you could hear it from 50 feet away that your phone is vibrating on a desk.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So I avoid all of that. And I love that it's just very easy to walk away from. And then at night, the app allows you like to set a no message time like from midnight to 6am. I don't get anything that would wake me up.
Unknown Sure.
James Stacey And it's, it's a, it's a nerdy device. It's a techie device. I don't really, like I said, personally, I don't believe in fitness tracking. I don't need to know how many steps I took, that sort of thing. And that the heart rate monitor, regardless of what you've read, is hilariously inaccurate. I've seen 40 beats a minute difference from a Phoenix, which is like a chest strap, an accurate chest strap monitor. So disable that. If your phone will let you on Android, you can pretty much disable all of it and leave just what you want. So if I'm not wearing a watch or I'm doing a workout, I still have the time, you can tap it and see the time. And then otherwise it just lights up when you have a, have a, have a notice. I've, I've been thrilled with it. So if you find that notifications are kind of ruining your time when you shouldn't be worried about notifications, this might be a way to fix it, uh, without, you know, going cold Turkey or, or actually having to implement times where you tell people you're not available this way, the notifications just wait on your phone until you've got the time.
Unknown Huh.
James Stacey Cool. Oh, further philosophy, I suppose.
Jason Heaton Yeah. The me band will probably not be a future classic.
James Stacey No, no, no, certainly not. I mean, it's, it's disposable, but I think that it has increased my quality of life by a few percentage.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And how about you? You got something to close us out for the day?
Jason Heaton Yeah. So, um, you know, other than encouraging people to check out Sierra Trading Post.com, uh, which I mentioned earlier. So dangerous. Yeah, dangerous. You can sign up for emails and they'll give you like free shipping and really insane deals. Yeah, I know. Anyway, all right. Enough about Sierra Trading Post. I swear I'm not like on their board of directors or getting kickbacks or anything from them. I just happen to like it. We need a gear deal with them. Yeah, yeah. No, I've got a kind of a cool YouTube video that my friend Suresh turned me on to. It's titled Military Boneyard Time Lapse on YouTube. and we'll put a link in the show notes. Uh, it's just kind of a quiet, beautiful, um, time-lapse video in exactly as it describes a military boneyard. So this is a place where like old fighter jets and, and, uh, helicopters and various military implements vehicles or have been sort of put out to pasture. And, you know, you wouldn't think sort of derelict rusting hulks of machinery could be beautiful, but just the way it's filmed with sort of the clouds moving and there's some light music behind it. It's really kind of meditative to watch, but I also think it's fascinating to see just the sheer number of old planes and expensive, you know, Military equipment is just scrapped in this place and I honestly don't know where it is I kind of did a quick scan in the in the notes, you know in YouTube about where this place is because I was thinking that'd be a pretty cool place to go like Find like an old ejection seat to use in my office or something. But yeah for sure, you know, just cool to check out We'll put a link in the show notes and hope you enjoy it. So As always thanks so much for listening hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton James is at jestacy and follow the show at the great NATO. If you have any questions for us, please do write the great NATO at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts, or you can grab the feed from the great NATO.com music throughout is siesta by jazz are via the free music archive.
James Stacey And until next time we leave you with this quote from Walter Scott, one hour of life crowded to the full with glorious action and filled with noble risks. is worth whole years of those mean observances of poultry decorum.