The Grey NATO – 279 – Hot News From Doxa And A Chat With Chris Sohl, Avid Diver and Slack Mod Extraordinaire
Published on Thu, 04 Apr 2024 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
The episode features a conversation with guest Chris Sol, a long-time member of The Grey NATO community and the moderator of their Slack group. Chris discusses his passion for scuba diving, including his favorite diving locations, approach to gear, and connection to the history of underwater exploration. He talks about how diving and his interest in watches developed around the same time after being inspired by collecting stories and experiences. The hosts also discuss new dive watch releases from Doxa and other brands being showcased at the upcoming Watches & Wonders event.
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Transcript
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| Intro Voice | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nato. |
| Jason Heaton | A loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 279 and is 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 and aren't already, please visit thegreynato.com. My name is Jason Heaton. I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host in Toronto, James Stacy. Yo, yo. And today we're excited to be joined by a long time TGN crew member, a good friend and our fearless slack moderator and everyone's scuba daddy, Chris Soul. Chris, welcome to TGN. |
| James Stacey | Hey Chris. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, just look at the scuba daddy in here. Thanks guys. Uh, it's an incredible honor to be here. Um, yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. |
| Jason Heaton | By all means. We're really excited. It's been, it's been a long time coming and I think, um, after, You know, the last couple of weeks when we had some, you know, a minor crisis in our slack group and you played a, obviously a huge role in getting things back up and running and helping us kind of write the ship, so to speak. Uh, it seemed like such a great idea to just have you on, um, to talk about happier things anyway. And, um, here we are. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, for sure. I mean, as we say, it's not an adventure until something goes wrong anyway. Right. So that was, that was a nice little adventure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Woke us up a bit. |
| James Stacey | Well, look, we got, Tons of stuff to get into this episode, including some brand new dive watches that have released only the day before this episode, which I'm pretty excited about. Before we get to that, a quick update. Obviously, one, the Slack buy-sell trade, largely thanks to Chris and to Jake TS, is back online and up and running. I couldn't believe the number of posts. It was almost immediate. I can find the Slack difficult to keep up in general, but it feels like the BST, we now have BST2, is its own whole environment. And I was really surprised by the speed at which people absorbed the majority of the new rules and regulations and just started posting stuff. So no love lost there, it seems among among the crew. And lastly, just a little bit of a heads up for anyone who has been paying a huge amount of attention over the past few episodes. We won't have a show next week. Jason and I are both in Geneva and tied up with other work. There will obviously be lots of other podcasts happening about the wash world at that time, but we'll be back the week after with an episode all about watches and wonders 2024. So we're recording this on a Tuesday. It comes out on Thursday, and Jason and I are both flying out Sunday, getting there Monday, that sort of thing. Jason, I'm looking forward to seeing you. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I hope I do get to see you. You're going to be pretty buried with running around and doing podcasts. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it's a bit of a mess this year. Well, look, why don't we jump right into this with some brand new dive watch action. So yesterday morning, a brand new dive watch from Doxa release. This has been honestly a tough one for me to keep under my hat. Uh, you know, the last couple of years, Doxa has kind of been trying to find a new zone or, or expand the lineup. And in some cases, I think those are watches that a lot of us really enjoyed. And in others, it was kind of for a new audience and maybe not for the original core. Uh, as of yesterday, they did release a brand new sort of entry level to the classic sub design. It's called the sub 200T. So as you would know, if you love Doxa, there's been a 300 and a 300T for a very long time. There's been a 200 for a few years, and now there's a 200T. And the 200T doesn't have that much to do with the 200. It's much more like a smaller 300 or 300T. If that's not confusing, my apologies. I do recommend you start by hitting the story in the show notes. It might make it a little bit more clear, but this is essentially a 39 millimeter take on a sub 300. So it's steel, comes in 13 versions. Uh, we can get to some of those details in a moment, but it's steel, it's 39 millimeters, it's 41.5 millimeters lug to lug and 10.7 millimeters thick, 200 meters of water resistance. And it, like I said, 13 versions. So they've added an eighth color. Doxa has seven of their core colors over the past several years, certainly three from kind of the get-go. And then they've now added an eighth, which is sea emerald. It's a green. Um, but the other thing is, is the way that they get to this many versions is several of the core versions, the Professional, the Shark Hunter, the Caribbean, the Diving Star, and the Aquamarine all now have two dial iterations, one being the Iconic, which is the standard kind of flat color, and then one being a sunray version of those watches. These are selling for $15.90 on a bracelet or like $15.50 on the FKM rubber. What do you guys think? I'm pretty pumped about these. I think the Diving Star looks awesome in yellow. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, I agree. I think you know, look, I mean, what's not to like about, uh, about any docs. And I, but I guess my first question is like, I never really realized that we needed a smaller sub diving watch. I mean, the sub 300 is already a really compact, nice wearing watch on a variety of wrists. And, and, you know, going back to the old days of, of the, what they used to consider the ladies diver back in, in the seventies, the Coraline, et cetera. Um, Gashani had one for a while. I believe that was also called a sub 200 and, That was just a tiny watch. So this sort of splits the difference. Eight millimeter. Yeah, it was small at 32. Maybe I can't remember, but I'm very strange little piece, but fun. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it was 28. We actually own that one. So yeah, it's yeah, it's, it, the measurements are really interesting here. Obviously, you know, checking the box for 39 millimeter matters a lot to folks. I think that's a fantastic, you know, width for the case, but then DOCSIS have never played by the rules when it comes to dimensionality and numbers. Just like you say, Jason, the 300 wears so well as it is. So it'll be really interesting to see how this thing wears on wrist. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, if it manages to follow the 300, even the current 300s, let alone the 50th anniversaries, which had like the C or at least visually had sort of a smaller dial proportion. If it follows that format, I think it'll be interesting because I think it may wear like 36 millimeters. Like it may feel genuinely small. Yeah, because the standard 300 is 42.5, and I swear it wears like any 40 millimeter watch in existence. It does not wear large, it sits very low, it's the way that the case stacks with the bezel. I'm really pumped to see these in person, that'll be next week. I think I see Docs the next Thursday or Friday, so a week from when this episode comes out, and I'm pretty pumped to be able to put one on my wrist, see what it's like, At $1,500, I can't imagine why I wouldn't get one of these if they're available and not that hard to come by. Even just for the fun of experiencing like a new color. I've owned a Pro, I still own a Sea Rambler. I have a growing kind of ever-expanding itch for a Shark Hunter. But now, like I said, in the photos from Docsa, there were very few like wrist shots, but they had a few that were of the Diving Star. And I just, I don't know why, but the yellow is really speaking to me. It just looks like so much fun. |
| Jason Heaton | I think you're in a summer mood. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Probably it's just summer. Yeah. I need summer pretty badly. I think the other thing that's notable here is that the price point is a thousand dollars less than a standard 300. I, you know, I, I feel like I'm on record as not loving the proportions of the 300T. So yes, you can save 700 bucks by going with a T instead of a standard 300. I would spend the extra money even just for the slight, slightly thinner proportions of the 300. but now with this, assuming weirdly, this is such a strange sentence, but assuming it doesn't wear so small that it loses some of the appeal, this might be the move. It's so thin, it's under 1600 bucks and you get a ton, you can go in 13 different directions, at least eight different directions in terms of the coloring. I think this could be a pretty remarkable move for the brand simply because the the price point has largely been defined as being more like $2,500, $2,600. And if they're going to put a really genuinely appealing model at $1,500, $1,600, I think that changes the scope. I think that this gives a lot of people the chance to put one of these on their wrist experience, like that core Doxa design language with a thousand dollars less in the game, which like, don't get me wrong with some watches, a thousand dollars difference. What are we talking about? But like with a $2,500 watch, that's a huge difference. |
| Jason Heaton | It is huge. It's huge. Yeah. And how do they do that? Like, I'd love to get a glimpse behind the curtain and, you know, find out like where, where did they manage to shave off that amount of money? Are there corners cut? Is there some new supplier they're using? We'll probably never know, but I'm just curious. |
| James Stacey | I mean, I don't want to be unfair to Doxa, uh, both their current leadership or the previous, but like it, I think that there's a chance that the 300 was had some prestige pricing. Oh, sure. It was, you were paying for a 300. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Unknown | I think so. |
| James Stacey | And I think when the T came out, like when they relaunched the T, they put that at what they felt the market could kind of bear for another model. And I think it just undermines the original price point. And look, I'm a guy, like I said, who've owned two of the 50th anniversaries. They were not inexpensive watches. They were kind of actually quite expensive as far as a Doxa goes. I absolutely adore my Sea Ram, but I have no problem with the price point. But I do really like the idea that this is a Doxa that I think we'll see a lot in the sort of dive watch nerd space because it's now a little bit more accessible. And where most watches are getting more expensive, even from value oriented brands, I think this is a really strong move for them. But I think on whole, if you came to the site, this feels like where a lot of people would land in terms of like sizing, pricing, spec. I mean, it's doing the same thing. It's a Sellita SW200. So you're getting a nice reliable, simple to service Swiss automatic movement. The dive watch doesn't need more than that. Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm very, very happy that, that this is kind of the start of the, the really confined sort of announcements from watches and wonders. Cause I know like the rest of the week, I'm mostly going to see things that I'll never see again and would never be able to afford. And this on the other hand feels like something I hope I'll see a lot and is in a price point that is so much more accessible. I just think under two grand is such a nice trigger these days. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah. I got to agree with your point about the accessibility, James. It's, uh, you know, it was kind of a bummer when it was this, uh, the sub 200 notes, uh, was a totally different design. It was something way back in the docs archives. It wasn't even really commonly known or understood to, to be what everyone loves a doxa to be. And, uh, this is that file appearances. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And this price puts it kind of almost head to head with like SPB Seiko territory. Yeah, it's gonna... I think it'll draw in a whole kind of new crowd of people that were kind of doxicurious, but maybe were kind of priced out of them or couldn't make that justification. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's an interesting point to put it next to the new, like the 24 mass, the most recent kind of updates to the SPB line, because these are now within shooting distance of each other. This is a Swiss automatic movement, there's the main kind of dialogue around Seiko right now is like, how accurate is the movement actually going to be? Like among enthusiasts, to be clear, I think people still really enjoy the designs and the rest of it. But if you've owned 20 or 30 of them, there's a good chance that you've come across, you know, a couple that maybe didn't keep great time. And that's anecdotally what you'll hear from folks. And I do genuinely believe that it's not like an unfair thing to say that an SW200 that's been properly installed and regulated in the watch should keep very reliable time regardless of what Seiko's are doing currently. And if that's available at the same price point, I just think there's a huge amount of appeal to this watch. Yeah. For all I know, it's gonna wear essentially right alongside like a BB 54. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I see the appeal as being largely similar, maybe not the generalized like brand attraction, like Tudor has so much brand power, but like I would own both and think of them in very similar ways. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, you know, this, like you said, this is, this is kind of a fun, exciting, smaller brand release on tap for watches and wonders. And it's nice to get this news the week before the frenzy begins and we can start, you know, kind of dig into it in some depth, so to speak. And, uh, it's great. I, you know, kind of as a segue, like I've been kind of buttoning up my schedule for next week and among the usual suspects at watches and wonders proper. I'm also excited that, that I got a couple of appointments with brands that I've never met in person before. And one is marathon and another is, uh, is brand. I don't think we've ever even spoken the name on, in almost 300 episodes on TGN and there's Delma. I see them kind of come across, you know, I get press releases from them from time to time and they've got kind of some interesting dive watches that I'm kind of curious to see in person. And then, you know, appointment with, with, uh, docs and of course sin. So, you know, it's, I think it's those brands I'm almost most excited about seeing. |
| James Stacey | Oh, no question for me. One, I don't know Delma, but I just hit their website. These are some nice looking watches I can see. Are they're at Time to Watch or Time to Watches? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. No, they might be at the Beaux Rivages. |
| James Stacey | Oh, okay. So you're in there with Baltic and that sort of thing. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I wear my heart on my sleeve here. I'll see a bunch of stuff I'm very excited about, but probably won't ever own. As far as the stuff that I'm personally excited about, it's Dehuxa, it's Zen, it's Tudor. Yeah, right. And then there'll be there'll be 10 other brands very close on the circle outside that. And then we'll get into like, stuff that you just get to be a kid when you see like Van Cleef, like whatever Van Cleef has got will make me feel like I'm six, six again, and everything's fine in the world. Yeah, you know, for the four or five minutes that and then I just won't see it ever again, which is that's fine, too. But they just there's so much really variety available now because we're down to one show. Yeah, super pumped to see Doxa release what feels like a core product at a price point that don't get me wrong. We're not all sitting here saying like 1500 bucks is nothing, but in the docks of world, that's less than a, a lot of like a, like, I think a used 300 is probably about that much money. And here you could get a brand new one, or maybe, maybe you've got a smaller wrist. Maybe you want to try and share the watch with your partner and they have a smaller wrist. I think there's a lot of like kind of fun, fun, uh, you know, solutions that this, this watch provides to folks that maybe have been docks or curious, but didn't get into the full cult of it. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah. I know my first quote unquote, nice watch. I think we've all been there. Uh, was the OXA sub 300, uh, uh, professional 50th anniversary. So, you know, to lower that entry point to a great brand. |
| Unknown | Yeah. Yeah. Love it. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Well, speaking of watches, um, you know, why don't we move into, to some risk check, uh, Chris, you, you want to take the honors and tell us what you're, you've got on today. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, there was really only one choice for me. Um, I had to go with my most TGN watch. which is that DOCSIS sub 350th anniversary professional. Um, you know, it just brings me right back to good old 2016. This, this brand new podcast was getting off the ground. I thought, well, I'll check that out. Getting into diving at the same time. Um, yeah, this is, it's just been such a marker in my life to, to look back at this piece and think of all the adventures I've been on since. And, um, you know, listening to you guys since then. So, uh, it's, uh, it's one of my favorites and I love to come back to it. |
| Jason Heaton | It's a good choice. And that's good. I mean, I'm coming into today's recording. You didn't even know that James was going to mention this one. So it was a very, uh, very serendipitous, uh, choice on your part. So really cool. Yeah. Good one. Yeah. I'm wearing a Doxa today. Actually myself, I've got, uh, also a sub 200. This is actually a 1970 sub 200 T graph. So it's, uh, it's the shark Hunter vintage Doxa, probably the Doxa in my collection that I wear the most. And, uh, Yeah. I mean, what, what more to say about it? It's, uh, it just kind of felt like the right day. I knew James was going to talk about the new one and, uh, you're right, Chris. I think DOXA feels very TGN, especially kind of early days, TGN. We, we talked about DOXA a lot back, you know, probably in the first few years, um, maybe less so more recently, but, um, still obviously a, a favorite of ours. So I had to pull this one out. I've got it on the bracelet and fortuitously, since it has a date, it's a hand wound. Vintage movement that doesn't have quick set date or a proper kind of easy quick set date. Fortuitously, the date was set on like the 30th. So I only had to advance it a couple of days to get it correct for today. |
| James Stacey | That's the best feeling. I've definitely I definitely have a couple watches were like if let sometimes I'll just wear the vintage with and not correct the date. But sometimes I'll go to the box and be like, which one of these vintage watches is close to the date? Yeah, yeah. So I can get there without doing you know, that much, you know, that were awful tunnel thing going. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, exactly. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah. Yeah. Do you guys ever get that thing where you're, you're doing that day trick, like the 12, nine, 12, nine on a vintage watch, uh, but it still has an old gasket in it. And so the more you have to do that, the more the gasket kind of melts on you a little bit and it gets harder as you go. |
| Unknown | That's the worst. You don't want to go more than like five days. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I, I, I totally get that. Yeah. In fact, that happened to me yesterday. I was, I actually grabbed a couple of vintage watches out of the box and was kind of spinning through dates and I was like, is it my imagination or is it getting harder to turn the more dates? And I'm thinking like, it's just going to seize up at some point, but, uh, Yeah, I think you're onto something there. Yeah. Well, James, you aren't wearing anything vintage today. You've got, uh, you've got something brand new. |
| James Stacey | I have something brand new and something that doesn't really even have, I mean, it has some hints to past models from the watch world, that sort of thing. But this is a sort of a brand new concept for me. It's a watch I've been really excited about. And it actually, it's nice that next week, you know, obviously is watches and wonders. Cause the first time I, I kind of experienced this watch and the man behind the brand was at watches and wonders last year. and that's... I'm wearing the Arken Alterum, so I've been pretty keyed in for this watch for a while. I was as patient as I could be, and the other day, shortly after we recorded the last episode, a package arrived, and I thought it was a sweatshirt or something like that that I had ordered, but nope, it was a watch that I wasn't expecting. And yeah, so I met Kenneth Lamb of Arken Watches at Time to Watches last year. I finished at Zinn, Went to get a roast beef sandwich and a beer and I was just sitting down and there's a guy just next to me started saying hi and turned out to be Ken and we've kind of kept in touch since then. I'm a huge fan of Ken and what he's up to. He's got a great podcast all about design. You can check this out in the show notes. But he gave, as soon as the Altarium was officially announced, I said, look, I don't want to take anyone's slot or whatever, but I'd love to get one when the option is available. And a little while ago, he wrote me and said that uh, he could, you know, find a slot for me and that the, um, uh, if I wanted, I could go with one of the like, quote unquote, kind of, um, rarer models, the non, non sort of sale models. So they have the Arkin armory, which is like a club or a group of, for owners that, that have the watches. And he occasionally does special versions in for that. And one of them is this one called the vision for the Altair room. And that has a loom dial with kind of black markings. And that's what I've been wearing. It took me a little while to understand how to set it. Uh, cause it is kind of a complicated or not a complicated, but, uh, uh, you have to think your way through both time zones kind of in a separate fashion so that you can line up the day night indicator for AM and PM. But once you get it set, all the hands move in one direction. So you can set the 24 hour or the second 12 hour hand. And then if you go the other direction with the crown, only the local time changes. So you kind of set one and then catch the other one up based on the differential of the two time zones. It sounds complicated at first. You do it once or twice and it's less of a big deal. I even just obviously had to, in just the last two days, update the watch again because Europe finally caught up on DST. So we're back to six hours instead of five. This is very interesting podcasting, of course. The watch itself is 40 millimeters. It's about 13 millimeters thick. Very, very short lug to lug because it's an integrated sort of lug setup. so the lug to lug distance is only 46 millimeters. The bezel itself is 38, and I would say it actually wears a little bit closer to like a 38. The interesting thing is the watch visually is really quite thick because of how short it is, but because it's such a sort of modern design, the lugs are very, very short, tight to the case and go almost straight down. It wears really well, like considerably better than I thought. The titanium helps, the thin, Um, sort of nicely made bracelet is also, uh, a big step forward in the wearability. Um, and obviously this one has the quick release system, so you can take the bracelet off and put on straps or even a NATO or strap adapter. Amazing. We'll have a good quick release. Yeah. I've only got it on the bracelet right now. I haven't bothered changing it because I just find it super comfortable. It's got micro adjust like push button micro adjust that you can do with it on your wrist. which is really quite nice. Uh, and it makes it really easy to just kind of change the size a little bit throughout the day. If you need to, uh, single sided screws, always one of my favorite signs of, uh, uh, into indie watch brand that gets it. Uh, so very easy to size the watch. It's super comfortable. It doesn't weigh that much. The loom dials pretty solid. It's like, uh, I would say it's something in the BGW nine family. So it's a blue white sort of a mission rather than like the really bright sort of green of, of the citizen and that sort of thing. But yeah, I'm, uh, I'm absolutely loving it. It's got a little corrector for the date, uh, cause it has a date, like a separated date wheel or date display at, um, at six o'clock. And then you have two AM PM indicators, one for local, one for the away time. It's, it's a clever kind of fun little thing, and I'm looking forward to getting a lot of wear out of it. Uh, big, big fan of what, what Ken's up to. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, for, for the feature set you just described, I mean, the quick release, uh, bracelet, the micro adjust in the class, the proprietary movement that he helped, that he actually developed with Miyota, which is pretty amazing. I mean, all those things, like for, I'm looking at the website, you know, 600 pounds, whatever that translates it to in dollars, sub thousand dollars easily. That's like 750 bucks. Yeah. I mean, it might just be the best deal for, for kind of a feature set that you get in a micro brand these days. It's really amazing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, this was a watch that where the movement was, uh, like Ken's adjustment to the classic Miyota, the 9015, um, predates the existence of the 9075, the GMT movement. So I don't know if we would actually... This is sort of a flash... Not a flash in the pan necessarily, but this is very... Like a snapshot of a moment in GMT fascination where folks were looking for solutions that didn't have to cost a ton of money, but there wasn't the option of the 9075 or the CO7 ETA, that sort of thing on the market. So as a travel watch nerd, I really like it and I just still... I talk about it a lot on the show, but just a huge fascination for these one man brands that managed to do something different. And this watch doesn't have a hint of like mid-century 60s design in it. So it's a, it's a real separate sort of experience to wear this versus many of my other sort of micro brand watches, which are deeply referential to sort of the golden era of sport watches. Whereas this has a lot of influence from IWC in the GST line and, and, you know, elements of Vacheron's overseas lines, certainly through the bracelet and that kind of thing. But it's, it's sort of, comes together in its own way. And, and I don't think looking at it, you'd guess it's a $750 watch at all. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, cool choices. I mean, I think, you know, between the new Doxa launch, uh, Chris and I wearing Doxas and James with you, uh, wearing the new Arkin, I think, uh, pretty solid opening here. I think, um, without further ado, why don't we kind of segue into our main topic, which is, uh, our guest, uh, Chris Sol. We've wanted to have you on the show for a while, just procrastinated, put it off, whatever. Um, but here you are and, I think, you know, the majority of our listeners have heard your name before. A lot of them know you from moderating Slack. Uh, but for those listeners that maybe don't know you very well or don't know you at all, uh, why don't you give a little background? Like where do you, where do you live? What do you do for a day job and what's your, your sort of history with, uh, with TGN? |
| Chris Sol | Sure. Yeah. Um, again, guys, completely honored to be here. Um, I am, uh, in Louisville, Kentucky. Uh, that's, that's how you pronounce that, right? People say Louisville. It's not the way. Louisville. Okay. Um, Louisville. Yeah. You have to say like you have mashed potatoes in your mouth. That's what they tell you when, when you move here. So, so my day job, I lead software development teams, uh, for a, uh, finance company. And, um, it's a great company to work for. I love doing it. Um, but I also love to do other things when I'm not at work involving a lot of, um, TGN stuff, but primarily, uh, scuba diving has been a great hobby to get involved in. Um, such a incredible life changing passion really, um, that has developed out of this. And, uh, that happened right around the same time, uh, that I started listening to TGN and got into watches at the same time. So it's all one big ball of wax for me. Um, and it's, it's been a great ride of what, eight years now. That's incredible. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it is. It is very kind of, um, your journey, I think sort of mirrors, I think what I've at least anecdotally I've heard from, from other TGN listeners and that is, you know, they kind join our community. And then, and then we all sort of rub off on each other with our, our interests, whether it be watches or hobbies and that sort of thing. I think it was our own oversight at first, uh, when James and I started Slack or we're thinking about starting a Slack or any sort of an online community. And you had been pretty persistent in your desire for us to do that. And you, and you even volunteered your services. Like I will help you guys set this up. I will moderate. And we're like, yeah, yeah, we'll get around to it. And boy, it is, it has changed our world. I mean, it truly has. And we do owe that to you. Um, Like what, what is the, what is the community element of TGN mean to you? I mean, what kind of in a nutshell, what, what are your thoughts on, on where Slack has been over the past couple of years? |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, that's such a great question. Um, you know, I think like a lot of people, I discovered Slack at work. Um, and it really changed the way you could relate to people and communicate with people in real time. And you can immediately see, you know, ways that you can apply this to other people, groups that you're a part of. Um, I quickly started using it for sort of a proto red bar group that I had started here in Louisville called the Louisville watch crew. Um, and you know, we loved it for that. And so I just thought to myself, you know, we have a built-in community, a listenership of TGN that if only we could connect because we can't talk to each other, we can DM you guys to death on Instagram, which I'm pretty sure what is going on. Um, I just thought it would be a great place to gather together with, with like-minded folks. And really, um, after you've watched the social dilemma, the world is never the same, right? You realize what's going on here. Um, which we all knew anyway, but then somebody shows you just how awful it is and you've got to change something. And so, um, you know, we all started out as this. Decentralized body of folks who love the same things and want to be able to connect mostly on Instagram. Um, and then. kind of spinning off of that into our own sort of walled garden, our own, our own community, um, has just, it's been a dream. And, um, the, the people that are on there, you just meet the nicest folks, uh, the most earnest and I've said all along, you guys have set the tone so well with your exchanges on the podcast and your, uh, exchanges in whether that's messaging folks or whatnot, but the community has reflected that ethos very consistently. Well, now with one exception, but we've handled that. And that's just, it's been a dream. I'm super happy that the community has come together, that you guys put your faith in that as a project, and that it has turned out the way that it has. And it's an incredible privilege to be able to shepherd that group and to steward it and to keep things on the up and up and organized and all that. I'm real type A about that stuff anyway. So it's probably cathartic for me to engage in all of the rules and whatnot. |
| Jason Heaton | But, uh, yeah, well, and we've, and, and we've, we've been able to sort of spin off even what, what's been built in Slack and through the podcast itself with, with actual face-to-face meetups. And now we've actually had a chance to dive together. I mean, we, you know, the, the three of us among several other TGNers were diving Uh, off the coast of Florida last fall. And, and Chris, we've done similar in Lake Michigan around wind up in July last year. And I'm sure we'll do that again sometime soon. And, and you've, you've had a big part in both of those things. And it's, it's, it's just been fun. I mean, when you step back and look at that 30,000 foot view at where we've all kind of come from and where we are and doing these meetups and actually doing stuff together that we've talked about for so many years that everybody's been doing separately has been just so rewarding, such a thrill. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, it's been super gratifying. You know, I, I always say that for all of the time and energy that we have poured into these platforms, um, that, you know, we're really just using this for the algorithm, right? You have to redeem that in real relationships. And I really feel that that's what we've done. Um, that has been my main driver for a couple of years now. And I could not be more blessed by the real friendships that I've formed with you guys, with the ships crew, with, um, tons of people on the Slack. Um, it is real and that's, um, that's the whole idea. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You know, diving, you said started around the same time that you, you started listening to TGN and talk a little bit about, you know, some of your favorite places to dive, maybe where you learned and, um, kind of what, what drew you into it. And maybe, I guess, you know, where you've been and kind of what your main interests are in terms of diving. You're sort of known as, as I mentioned, as our scuba daddy on Slack, because we have a diving sub channel and you were. You're very active there and people do often come to you for advice on, on diving skills and gear. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah. Um, yeah, that's scuba daddy name. I'm never going to hear the end of that. Uh, I, I, yeah, I probably earned it. I mentioned my type a, uh, personality already. That's, that's probably where that comes from, from my first scuba dive out of certification. So, you know, you do your, all your training locally. Um, or at least I did here at the little dive center is where I was trained. And, uh, but my first dive after certification was in the North Atlantic off the coast of Atlantic city, uh, in New Jersey. And, uh, speaking of, you know, timing everything in, in a, in one TGN world, I was also reading shadow divers at that time, probably on your recommendation. So I'm in Jersey reading about epic, you know, world changing Jersey diving going on, um, getting ready to take my first giant stride off of a dive boat. The next day, um, that was incredible. I was born in New Jersey and we have a family place down there on the South coast, um, in a town called Avalon. And, uh, you know, grew up there every summer, just wondering what is beneath those waves. Right. And so, um, finally getting to see that was incredible. And the culture of that region is very different to, um, Jersey wreck diving is its own thing. It has its own cast of characters and legends. These days I'm diving out of Cape May, uh, with Atlantic divers, Gene Peterson. Um, strongly recommend that to anybody in the area. He's a, he's a real legend that has populated museum upon museum in the area with his recovery of local artifacts and history. Um, and then I've also done a lot of diving in South Florida. So like, um, Boynton beach, uh, Pompano beach, Fort Lauderdale area. Uh, as well as the Florida panhandle, which, uh, you also mentioned before, I was, um, really blessed to get the opportunity to dive with you guys there with tutor, um, hitting the, uh, the Jeff, a hovercraft that was incredibly memorable, but, uh, Panama city has been one of my favorite places to dive for years, just because of the history. And, uh, they've got great wildlife. The Goliath groupers are all over the place out there. So, um, I'd say that's. most of the diving that I've done, very little internationally. I've done, you know, maybe a week in Cozumel, um, which was fantastic. Love to do again. |
| Jason Heaton | But, um, you haven't mentioned the great lakes. I mean, that has to be the top of your list. |
| Chris Sol | I'm very remiss. I am very remiss. Uh, yeah. In fact, I hadn't dove into the great lakes until, uh, just a couple of years ago. I think my very first, uh, great like dive was the very first wind up in a lake that we did two years ago. And that was, Something that I had wanted to do for a long time. Um, something that has its own culture. I mentioned the Jersey culture being its own thing and the great lakes is very much that way as well. Um, I have a lot to learn still with the great lakes and I take, uh, your strong example there, Jason, as well as, you know, the, the historical love of the area that really permeates there. Um, I think that's outstanding. |
| Jason Heaton | And I would say, you know, you're kind of, we joke about your, your nickname, which I won't even mention again. But, um, you know, I think people come to you for, for gear recommendations, because I think you have a particularly kind of, I guess I'd say a rigorous approach to gear or, or a keen interest in it. I think the big part of diving, and this will be a good segue into dive watches at some point here, but your approach to kind of the gear, um, is a, is a very passionate one. And I think that's one of the things that draws a lot of people to diving is not just the adventure of it, but the, the gear, right? |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, that's true. I do come about it with a very, what was the word you used? Rigorous, I think was my, my word. Yes. I would say I do come, come at the sport with a lot of rigor, um, with a lot of intent to really pursue the most excellent path through, um, through the sport. Um, I've come with a technical diving mentality to recreational diving. I'm not a certified technical diver yet. I've, uh, I have intro to attack if that counts, right. But I haven't taken, uh, advanced nitrox decompression procedures yet. The it's not just the, the act of diving that I find so fulfilling. It is the study. The skilling up the, um, discipline and the mastering of those skills. Um, it it's learning, you know, it's a, it's another very deep well of learning and application that you can apply yourself to. Uh, and it's, it's. been so fulfilling that way. I don't, um, I don't spurn anybody who would, you know, focus on just purely vacation diving or getting into the Caribbean. I mean, don't get me wrong. That is some of the best feeling, uh, underwater is warm water, beautiful scenery, great visibility, but there's also really something deep and wonderful to be said about very low visibility, very cold water, something that people don't line up to do because it's hard and you've studied for this and you've prepared for this and you're still nervous about it, but you're ready. Um, I love that feeling. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think that also probably lends itself to your keen interest in the history of, of kind of C lab and man's adventures, uh, exploring, uh, kind of the, the, the cutting edge of diving technologies. And you've had a role in, with the man in the sea museum down in Florida. You know, we talked about your diving in the panhandle and when we were on that tutor trip, I believe you were sort of a facilitator or liaison, so to speak, between the man in the sea museum and tutor for that trip. And you've done some work there. Where does that come out of? And tell us a little bit about that. |
| Chris Sol | Well, that's probably too kind of a description, but I appreciate that. I, you know, I mentioned diving in Panama city beach. One of the things, um, If you're from around here, everybody vacations down in the panhandle. That's, that's basically Kentucky speech, right? So, uh, we, we, um, started going down there for family vacations, maybe 10 years ago. And it was a really transformative experience as somebody who's used to the Jersey shore with the chilly Atlantic waters, you know, wading into the golf is very different. And so, um, being able to dive there a whole different scene and then While I'm traversing the road from the place where we're staying to the dive site, I'm looking around and I'm seeing all of this incredible history. I'm passing the Naval Diving Salvage Training Center, the Navy Experimental Dive Unit, and the Man in the Sea Museum is right there. All of this history is right in that area. And over time, I just got curious enough to go into the museum and see what was up. And this whole new world opened to me. And I think that was Dr. Bond's whole idea there, right? Yeah. And so, uh, over the years I've continued to come back there. Um, you know, gotten to know those guys a little bit, Steve Mulholland, um, Brian Thompson, these guys are, are just the salt of the earth, but they are so, um, thoroughly accomplished in what they've done, these master divers. Um, and now they're devoting, you know, they're part of their retirement to telling the story of, of the people that have come before them. And I, I just think that's awesome. C-Lab in general, as the second space race that America doesn't even know about, I think that's criminal. I think we've got to correct that. Scott Carpenter, as I know you guys have referenced often in the past, the first astronaut and aquanaut, I mean, arguably world's greatest explorer, right? I mean, so this is, this is the stuff that really gets me going. I collect a lot of sort of ephemera and just memorabilia from the golden age of underwater exploration from that time. as well. So, uh, I have volunteered at the museum a few times. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And you've shared a few of those things and that's, yeah, I, I'd love to do more of that. |
| Chris Sol | I have, um, I have a half debt Instagram account, uh, deep star 4,000, where I've tried multiple times to be consistent in sharing those things out, but it's all just stored away in this desk of mine that I've got to, I've got to get back to pulling them out one by one, take a shot and say what it is, because what's the point of having it if I can't share it. So true enough. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, you mentioned Scott Carpenter and he was a bit of a watch nerd as well. I mean, he, I think he was in ads for Aqua Dive and, and Bulova for a while. And of course, uh, he was a Rolex guy and a Breitling when he was an astronaut. I mean, he was truly like if, if he were alive today, you know, God rest, may he rest in peace. Um, you know, he'd be, he'd be like the ideal TGN guest, right? |
| Unknown | Absolutely. Oh my gosh. |
| Jason Heaton | And then you yourself, uh, would you say that diving led you to watches or was it vice versa or was it a completely kind of separate track? |
| Chris Sol | You know, I think it was really separate. I would say watches predated diving by not quite a year. Probably. I'm not sure what kicked it off. I mean, I think like most of us watch nerds, we, you know, I, I would say that I have always liked watches in some way growing up. I remember I would wear, I would double rest for no reason just because I had two watches. I liked two watches. You know, people would always ask me why I didn't have a reason. And then fast forward to early 2000s, I'm watching reruns of House M.D. and then I spot Hugh Laurie's wrist and I can't take my eyes off of it. And do a little googling, find out it's a Hamilton khaki king. |
| James Stacey | And so early was a khaki king. Then he moved on to a G-Shock and he had a handful in the run of the show. But that khaki king was pretty sweet. |
| Chris Sol | It is. It is. And it was my first mechanical watch. You know, you get on there and you're like, how many hundreds of dollars for a watch? This is crazy. And then you find out why everybody knows the story, but still have that Hamilton that'll never leave. It's, it's just, uh, that's the whole start of the thing. So, um, but then after a while, you know, you get into the diving aspect. Um, and since that Hamilton, I would say almost every single watch, uh, that I own, It has been a dive watch with a few, uh, just a very few exceptions. It's become a very melded, uh, pair of hobbies for me. |
| Jason Heaton | And that's part of the fun, right? I mean, you know, the, the, the watches reflect this incredible history of, of the days when, when the watch was an integral piece of kit for, for these divers that you've read about Scott Carpenter included, and then for you to be able to collect them and take them diving and kind of be a companion in your own diving adventures. It's just, there's just something so special about that that has very few parallels in other arenas or hobbies, I think. |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, that's absolutely true for me. In addition to collecting the watches, it feels like I'm collecting stories as you say, but also people, um, you know, every, every watch in my collection is, is related to, you know, emotionally or, or in my mind to an experience that I had with, with some other folks, whether that was diving or just meeting them in the hobby or, you know, somebody I dealt with, you know, to make a trade here or there. Um, all of those things, um, become baked into that. And it's not about the object. It's, it's always about the story. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I, the, the, the few times I've died with you, I think we can say the thing twice or maybe three times, I guess, to wind up in the lakes and then in Florida, um, you have, always worn a particular watch that I believe you have a story behind or that, that you have taken on all of your dives. Am I, am I, am I getting that right? And what is that watch? |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, that's true. So, um, you know, I, I'm a total hypocrite when it comes to putting the stories into the watches themselves, right. And from a diving standpoint, um, another way to look at it is that I have all of my diving concentrated into a single watch. which is a Seiko Black Monster second generation. So, um, I've never breathed from a regulator without this watch on my wrist, including in the pool, in training dives, what have you. And, um, I've, I've, I'm coming up on 200 dives. I thought, um, you know, maybe that's, maybe it's a good stopping point. Maybe I should retire this guy, but I haven't made that decision yet. So we'll see. I got my eye on that, uh, Pelagos FXD Black still, so who knows what'll happen. Oh, yeah. Be a good one. Yeah. Yeah. But the story behind this particular one is that right after I had done that dive in Jersey, I was just sort of cruising the streets downtown in Stone Harbor and popped into a little jewelry store that doesn't specialize in watches. They just had a few in the case. But I stumbled upon the Black Monster. And having been into watches, I was aware of the monster, as we all you know, are in some way, especially around that time. Um, and for whatever reason, I think a lot of people can identify with this as well. I went from hate it to, Oh my gosh, I love that so much in like a split second. I can't explain it, but that's just how the black monster works. So, um, I was, I was in the store and you know, at the time I didn't understand how like, you know, street price versus gray market versus 80 price work. And so I just suffice to say, I did not leave with that watch. Um, But I was telling that story to my brother, who is also interested in diving and who is a diver occasionally nowadays. And lo and behold, he surprised me with this watch that Christmas. And it was the most incredible gift. And I've just chosen to honor that by making it my only actual diving watch, despite the fact that my box is full of nothing but divers. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. No, that's a great story. I love it. Yeah. Do you have any engravings on it or? |
| Chris Sol | You know, I should, I absolutely should. I don't have any engravings on the back of this one. I do have a few engravings on other ones. But that would be a great idea, especially if you retire it. Yeah, I agree. |
| Unknown | Especially if I do put this one on the shelf or in the box, as it were, that would be a wonderful thing to, you know, put the number of dives on there and to and from and such. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, yeah. You know, you mentioned the to the Pelagos FXD and any other dive watches these days really, really kind of capture your fancy. |
| Chris Sol | That's a great one. I am I'm slowing down overall, to be honest with you. I mean, I most recently definitely recently completed Oh, no, it doesn't at all. Um, I most recently completed a long quest that I had to complete the doxa trifecta. So owning the sub 350th anniversary and professional shark hunter and sea rambler. So that satisfied a deep urge. That's tied me over for a while. |
| James Stacey | And then I was the pro the only one that lasted through the the trials? |
| Chris Sol | No, I've got all three. Yeah, I find it very difficult to let go of things. Which is the reason that I'm Not so much in a buying mode, but yeah, you gotta, you gotta have all three, man. Gotta catch them all. |
| Jason Heaton | And you got some weird Hoyer recently, didn't you? |
| Chris Sol | Yeah, Jason, there were a couple of other exciting purchases from earlier this year as well. The Hoyer that you mentioned was a 1985 Hoyer 3000 Professional. Super cool, 37 millimeter piece, super funky, pre-tag. I love everything about it. And then there was another one, the Icapod Sea Slug. Both of these, yeah, both of these were inspired directly by, uh, Greg Lowry, who is an incredible, uh, OG collector, uh, father of our mutual friend, Ben Lowry. And, uh, we're going to have to find some more time to hang out with him in Chicago again this year. |
| Jason Heaton | So, yeah, we're pushing up against an hour here on the show and man, time flies. I think, uh, you know, we need to do this more often clearly. Um, and, and Chris, you know, we, we certainly hope that we get to catch up with you again, this summer, what, what plans do you have coming up in the next few months in terms of diving or travel or, or watch shenanigans and all that sort of thing? Anything you can talk about? |
| Chris Sol | Uh, yeah, absolutely. We are working on, uh, dives, uh, to coincide with wind up. We haven't, uh, finalized those details yet, but, um, that's something that has been great to do with, uh, wind up the lake in Chicago. And, uh, we're kind of putting those plans together again for this year. Um, We're going to see what else is there. Also, I'll be down the week following that right away, heading straight to the panhandle for the 60th anniversary of the STELAB program. So if you guys can join, you know, it's going to be a great opportunity. And it's going to be probably, you know, the last opportunity to see these living legend aquanauts and to honor them and to celebrate their legacy of the program and what they've accomplished. So that's coming up back to back. And then, uh, I don't know, we'll see if we can get a little more great lakes diving in there and do a little Jersey diving in the summer. Um, you never know. Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Tobermory's Colin. |
| Chris Sol | Oh yeah. Tobermory's definitely Colin. In fact, my good buddy, Tim Edlin, my close dive buddy. Um, he's doing that this year with his fam for sure. |
| Unknown | And I might, uh, let's see if I can work that out. |
| James Stacey | Oh man, let us know. I will. Will do. Alright, man, it's an absolute treat to be able to be on here, chat about some of the diving, chat about the development of the slack. We definitely wouldn't have it at all without, well, we might have a slack without you. I think it would be in shambles is the word. If it had been left just to Jason and I, but it's an absolute treat to dig in a little bit on this kind of stuff. I definitely hope we get to do some diving and some more hangouts this year, but Uh, it's probably time to jump into some final notes. And with that, you had mentioned that you've got a couple four. So, uh, why don't you kick it off with, uh, you can do the first and the last one, if that works. |
| Chris Sol | Sounds great. Yeah. Uh, my first one is, uh, for divers. Bolt snaps. Everybody needs them. Everybody loves them. Oh yeah. But in my opinion, there's only one that you need. There's only one that you should have. I mean, you know, multiples, you have to carry multiple bolt snaps. I'm definitely airing on the Christmas tree side of things. Uh, everybody will tell you, but The OMS big grip bolt snap is my recommendation. If you're not familiar with these, go check them out. They are pricey. They are OMS, right? But they are so well designed. I don't know if you've ever fiddled with like a bolt snap that has sort of a short button on the gate and the action is really crunchy and kind of sticks. This is the exact opposite of that. So there's a really nice big sort of lever that goes perpendicular off of the gate and the action is super smooth. Can't recommend them enough. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that's a good one. And, you know, I mean, look, this fits perfectly with final notes because, uh, well, for one thing it's diving, but, uh, you know, you mentioned they're pricey, but 12 bucks. I mean, you know, a couple of those don't set you back too much compared to, and everything's relative here. When you talk about diving gear and dive watches, uh, 12 bucks is not, uh, not too bad. So that's a good one. |
| James Stacey | I mean, I think when I was first putting my kit together and I bought a BC and I knew that we were going to be hiking up and down Hills in outside of Vancouver to actually get to the water's edge, I bought, two really big carabiners, climbing carabiners to hold my fins on my thing and just be able to release them really easily. And they were definitely more than 20 bucks a carabiner back in the day. |
| Unknown | Yeah. So that's for sure. |
| James Stacey | Not not an unreasonable price for good, good kit. And the deeper you get in, I think this is a great suggestion. And it's very, it's very you Chris to go with, um, with bolt snaps. I, they are one there. It's super true that they're not made equal. You can sometimes even buy a decent piece of kit that comes with one, and it'll be the cheap one. And you just want to immediately swap it out. And they make such a big difference underwater. Are you going to notice the difference in the clip on the shore or even in the dive shop? Maybe not. But I'll tell you, if you've got one bad one on your kit and the rest are good ones, you'll find that bad one during the dive and you'll hate it. Yes, you will. |
| Chris Sol | Jason is famous for saying you can even use the wash bezel with dry gloves on, right? And this is true for the bolt snaps. It is even more important probably because you've got to have access to what's on your body, especially if you're running like a stage bottle or whatever. |
| James Stacey | Um, it's a perfect, and you don't want to fiddle with stuff. You just want to be able to grab it, do what it does and stop touching it. So you can get back to diving. |
| Chris Sol | Exactly. So that's my perfect product recommendation. That's fantastic. |
| James Stacey | Good stuff. Yeah. Uh, Jason, you want to throw yours in? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure. Yeah. I've got a quick one. This actually came, um, via a listener of ours named Stuart who rightly so thought this would be one that would interest us, particularly me, given, given, uh, my trip to Scotland last year. Um, and this comes, uh, it's on YouTube, but I believe it was kind of produced or sponsored by Expedia and it is, uh, Ewan McGregor and his brother Colin, uh, in a short film, I believe it's about 15 minutes traveling around Scotland in Uh, kind of a VW camper bus and just kind of taking on some like small adventures, little hikes. Uh, they visit, uh, a guy who, you know, takes them, uh, hiking and fishing and they go to a pub and, and it's just, they're looking for the Northern lights and it's beautifully shot. And I don't know, I don't know about you guys, but I, I'm, I'm so drawn to Ewan McGregor. I think he just has, he's the coolest magnetic personalities, the kind of guy you just want to hang out with. And he just seems fun and down to earth and. His brother actually, Colin was a, was an RAF pilot and they've done TV series before. They, they did a great one on kind of the history of the RAF and, and where both of them end up going flying together. And, uh, they just make kind of a fun duo as brothers and they've great personalities for this. And of course the, the footage and the scenery in and around Scotland where they are is, uh, is really cool. So thanks Stuart for sending that in and we'll throw a link in the show notes to that, uh, that YouTube video. Really cool. |
| Chris Sol | I'm definitely going to chase that one. Reminds me of, uh, have you guys seen Long Way Round? That's a Ewan McGregor travel original. |
| Unknown | So good. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to look no further than the fact that they just keep giving this guy TV shows. Yeah. Yeah. Like there's a very specific reason. One, obviously superfiously handsome has been for a long time. That's fine. But he's just a real, like, he is really good at bringing a certain type of energy that isn't intense. But it is really just simple and likable. And yeah, I mean, from the first frame of this, I clicked on the YouTube link that Jason dropped into our notes. And from the first frame, it's beautiful. It's right out the windshield of a car going down a dirt path. And I'm definitely looking forward to this. So a good one for sure. Yeah. James, what do you got? Yeah, I can throw mine in and then Chris can round it out with his second. Mine this week is actually a TV show that's been out for a little while. it definitely got a lot of attention on the slack. And I sat down and kind of buzzed through the episodes over the past 10 days or so. And that's The Gentleman on Netflix. So, uh, if you're confused as I was, yes, this is, um, from the same world and director and et cetera, as the movie, The Gentleman by Guy Ritchie from a few years back with, uh, you know, Colin Farrell and, um, and I mean, it's, it's a Guy Ritchie, so we could be here a long time if I list everyone that's in it. The Gentleman TV show, I actually really enjoyed. It's essentially, it follows a similar plot line or storyline to the movie, but Theo James, who you'll know if you got into White Lotus season two, he plays essentially a man in his, I would assume his 30s, maybe late 30s, that his father passes, his father's a Duke, and he ends up inheriting the landed gentry scenario into his life. And it's all about finding out that there's actually a marijuana grow up on his father's, you know, massive estate, and then dealing with all of the shady sort of people and world that comes with that in the UK, where this is illegal and very much a, you know, a crime sort of syndicate scenario. I really enjoyed it. If you're not a Guy Ritchie fan, because a lot of his stuff in the past has been quite over the top, visually, content wise, the rest of it, this is the most reserved Guy Ritchie Maybe with the exception of The Covenant, which was another recent one that I really enjoyed. I believe we talked about it. Oh, yeah. Could easily be on a future outing of the Film Club. But I think if you want something that's a little bit more relaxed than Lockstock or some of the wilder stuff that he's done in the past, I think this is a good option. It's very watchable. It's a little bit gimmicky. It's still a Guy Ritchie. Tangentially, like just as props or as costume, there's some really great watches. but there's also some watch plot in there as well. Oh, I love that. Granted, it's for a watch that clearly they couldn't get because they don't show it to you, but there is a conversation between two of the characters about a very, very specific Patek Philippe. But there's some awesome Panerai, there's some really good F.P. Journe, there's a... Theo James is consistently wearing a Nautilus in rose gold. So it's definitely whoever, whether it's a Guy Ritchie thing or the people that helped put the costumes and the rest of it together, they did kind of understand the assignment of the sort of watches and watch conversations I think that might exist in this part of the world. |
| Jason Heaton | Nice. Cool. Yeah, I've been curious about it. And I have to admit, I enjoyed the film version of it. So I'll definitely, definitely check this out. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I think I might've enjoyed the film more, but I would say the film was in some ways funnier than the show. The show is called a comedy series. Yeah. You watch it and make your decision. I don't know that it's necessarily... I would say it's a little bit more in a blended scenario of a sort of crime thriller, Breaking Bad sort of thing tied in with the sort of humor that is common to something like a Guy Ritchie film. Sure. Great. |
| Chris Sol | All right, Chris, you wanna bring us home? Absolutely. So this one goes out to all the other daytime desk pilots out there. I don't think I've ever heard a business book recommended on TGN before, and that's probably a good thing, but I thought I'd throw this out there. It's by a captain U.S. Navy retired L. David Marquet. It's called Turn the Ship Around, a true story of turning followers into leaders. So basically, if you want to know what great leadership is and how to practice it, and you think a submarine is a pretty OK setting for a true story, I can't recommend this book enough. It is a must read. It's a, it's the type of thing where it goes deep into, you know, his role, um, as captain, um, when he was going through a submarine school being qualified, uh, for, for captaincy of, uh, one of the boats that he was starting out with, uh, that he was not super excited to be inheriting command of basically, it was one of the lower performing submarines in the Navy. And then, uh, some of the things that he learned in the choices that he made really did turn that ship around, if you will. Uh, it became one of not only the best performing submarines in the Navy, but it became sort of a factory for leaders, um, to then go from that boat and then permeate the rest of the sub fleet and the Navy. It's an incredible story. Again, it's true. Um, and I've taken untold value from this book, uh, in terms of my day job. So if you, if you lead people, um, this is for you. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. I mean, I think business books are, are not talked about a lot because a lot of them, let's face it, tend to be a bit dry and not that interesting or well-written. And I think to find a good one is, is definitely well worth recommending. And so this one's a gem. Hopefully it'll resonate with a lot of our listeners. That's great. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. Sounds like a good, uh, kind of double header. If you just got through breathe by Rick Bedua. Uh, maybe lean even more into the whole like leadership and development side of it and, and, and dig in to turn the ship around. This sounds great. Absolutely. That was a great one too. Yeah, really, I really enjoyed that one. It's super I've recommended it so many people just as like, I think a universal appeal of like, scary job guy that was clearly built to only do this one job and then a great career of cool, scary stories. It comes together really well. For sure. So yeah, thanks so much for those ones, Chris. Those are great. My pleasure. Well, Chris, we're going to leave you with the quote, but I think that's a whole episode. So as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode or consider supporting the show directly, which will get you into the TGN Slack, which is moderated by our good guy, Chris. Please visit TheGreyNado.com and music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| Chris Sol | And until next time, we'll leave you with this quote. It is a proverb of Solomon, as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend. |