The Grey NATO – 281 – Slack Crew & A 2024 // Part 3
Published on Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
The podcast covers a wide range of topics related to watches, travel, adventures, and gear. Jason and James discuss their recent trips, including James's upcoming diving expedition with Oceana to the Channel Islands off the coast of California. They share their wrist checks, with Jason highlighting the new Sport Strap from Serica Watches and James showcasing the Elliott Brown Beachmaster. They also answer questions from the TGN Slack community, covering topics such as book recommendations, hypothetical adventures, career paths in the watch industry, and watch features like countdown bezels.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 281 and it's proudly brought to you by our ever-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you aren't supporting the show already and you'd like to, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacy. James, you over the hangover and jet lag from our big week last week? |
| Jason Heaton | I am, yeah. I think the jet lag was weirdly chill this year, the easiest I've had in years. And I'm gonna be honest, I think it comes down to the change in alcohol. Oh, yeah. I think I just left Geneva much less rundown than I might have previously, and I drank when I was in Geneva for sure. And then coming home and just going back to not drinking very much, I just didn't find the jet lag to be a considerable element. I was able to stay up until bedtime on the night I got back, which I think makes a big difference. I was staying up so late in Geneva to begin with that I was, you know, kind of padding the, the Delta between the two times zones anyways. Uh, we're recording this a little early cause I'm going to New York tomorrow for like 36 hours to shoot a project, uh, with Hodinkee and, uh, and connect with some colleagues. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. And going back to the jet lag thing, you know, I found I did these two, not quite back to back trips, but I did the England trip, uh, less than a month ago. And then And then the Geneva trip and both times the jet lag was far worse going the other direction. And I'm sure there's a lot of science behind this, but coming home both times, like you, I was able to stay awake until bedtime the first day and then kind of sleep solid nights, uh, ever since then. So there must be something to, you know, gaining time on the way back and arriving in the mid afternoon versus, you know, the, the overnight stuff flying that direction. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, I also find it a little bit easier to, to do the, the jet lag like figure it, figure the jet lag out when the days are longer. Yeah. When, when you're going to the airport in the dark, getting home in the dark, all that kind of stuff, I find it a little bit more difficult on my system, but now with it, you know, it's light by 20 after six in the morning and it's, it's, you know, it's light until fairly, fairly late in the evening. And we're not even, you know, we're not even all the way towards the longer, longer days of the year. But I find that helps too. It's probably just that, you know, circadian rhythm or the sunlight cycle, that sort of thing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And as for my weekend, I, uh, had a real kind of blitz trip down to Milwaukee, um, and back within a couple of days, um, for kind of a function with a friend of mine and his wife down there, uh, on Sunday. And yeah, it was, it was, it was a good trip. I, I kind of knocked out an audio book on the round trip. It's, you know, a good five and a half hours each way. And would you listen to took the Volvo? Um, you know, it's actually relates to one of our, our crew and a questions today about, about books. Um, I read, a book called Moscow X. It's a kind of a thriller novel by David McCloskey who has come highly recommended from several people, including our buddy, uh, over at watches of espionage who knows a little something about, uh, ex CIA guys writing books. And, um, so it was kind of a good espionage thriller, very kind of gritty and realistic. And so that was good, but it was a long one. And so I needed, you know, just that solid drive time to just, just plow through it on an audio book. Cause it was a borrowed, borrowed audio book. So good to get that out of the way. And then, yeah, I'm, I'm headed, uh, out of town. I will not be on air here next week. Um, you'll be having a special guest cohost as I'm headed out to California for a kind of an exciting project. I've, I've hooked up with Oceana, which is a conservation organization, uh, for a four day diving expedition in the channel islands. Not, not the UK channel islands, the California channel islands, uh, in which I'll be living on board. Um, what's called the peace boat. It's a, it's a charter dive boat out of Ventura. And for four days and nights, we will be diving around the various Northern channel islands. Uh, there'll be doing some science. I'll be doing some kind of social media stuff, uh, filming and shooting photos and, and, you know, hopefully writing a story at some point about this, but, um, it's pretty exciting. I've, I've dived Catalina Island a couple of times and I imagine the conditions are similar in the rest of the Channel Islands, but they're a little wilder. They're kind of undeveloped and, uh, we'll get, you know, sea lions and giant sea bass and, and all sorts of critters and kelp forest. And apparently it's a white shark nursery. |
| Jason Heaton | So I was just going to say in there with the baby white sharks. Yeah, exactly. |
| James Stacey | So, yeah. And, and as for the kind of the social media side of things, I'm, I'm connected with oceanographic magazine. And if you're not a follower of theirs or a subscriber, I highly recommend it. There's kind of a dearth of good underwater focused publications these days. And I think Oceanographics is kind of the best in the business. And so, uh, I've been in talks with them and I'll be doing some stuff on their social media, mainly Instagram stories, uh, around kind of daily activities on the boat, you know, interviews with scientists and gear checks and dive footage and that sort of stuff. So tune into Oceanographic underscore mag on Instagram and also, uh, Oceana will be putting some stuff on their feet as well. And they're just at Oceana on Instagram. So. Check that out and I will definitely try to tune in to TGN from afar while I'm on the boat. |
| Jason Heaton | So... Yeah, we've got a couple of ringers I can... Second strings we can pull in for an episode. But man, I'm pumped for you. I just love the live aboard experience. Obviously, did a good stint several... No, several, several years ago for the Clipperton Project. And it's a unique experience because you're your whole world shrinks to the size of the boat, basically. Yeah. And it's a nice chance to really focus on a certain set of tasks. I'm excited to see the content that comes out of it and to follow along on those accounts. So if you're driving or whatever, I'll put all of that in the show notes, of course, but be sure to follow along with that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a ton more since we recorded the last one, which was a long episode. It sure was. It took me quite some time to edit it and all that kind of stuff. The response has been great. People seem pretty good on it. But yeah, other than that, I don't have a ton. Like I said, I'm heading down to the city tomorrow. So by the time this comes out, I will be all the way home. It really is just a quick there and back to get a video done. I want to make sure that I'm home enough to get the Q&A up. So if you're listening and you're like, where's March's Q&A? It was due a week ago or whatever, which it was. It should be up within a week of this coming out, so pretty soon. Um, we just have to record it before Jason leaves. So I'm going to make sure I'm still home for that. And then I'm hoping this will be the first weekend up at the cottage. |
| James Stacey | I guess we'll see. Nice. Has it been closed up all winter? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rodents don't take over. |
| Jason Heaton | That's what you go up and check. Make sure all the walls are still standing. Make sure that it's not now, you know, a fully functioning raccoon colony, that sort of thing. Uh, I have to figure out how to turn the star link back on cause I disabled it. So I didn't pay for it all through the winter. So there's a few things like that, but If the weather is nice, that would be a really nice thing to get to this weekend, because it's still early enough in the season. I could have a fire going for most of the day. Yeah. And if I don't have tasks to do or if I decide I don't feel like doing them, then I can just sit and look at the water, which is also pretty nice. Oh, very cool. But look, we've got we've got the part three of the slack crew and a so we've already done parts one and part two. Highly recommend checking those out if you haven't, including because there's a part three will start in just a few minutes with a follow up from a fun question from part two. two truths and a lie scenario. So we'll get to that in just a moment. But before we do that, why don't we rip through a little bit of wrist check. |
| James Stacey | What have you got on today? Sure. Yeah. I've got a watch on that. I'm not sure I've ever talked much about Elliot Brown on TGN. I had one of their Holton Nevos years ago. Oh, that's the one I remember. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And when I was at British Watchmakers Day over in the UK about a month ago, I went to their booth and checked out some of their watches and they have a new piece out now called the Beachmaster that is a pretty unique watch and they sent me one to check out and it is actually the Nevo edition again, which has a PVD case and then this kind of gray green dial that has a bit of history to it that I won't go into here. But what's unique about the watch is they developed it based on a request from the Royal Marines or a unit of the Royal Marines in the UK that wanted a watch that could not only count down uh, 12 hours to a kind of a go time, kind of a mission timer. But then also once that activity begins, it then counts up in hours. And so what they did is they, they developed a, I mean, it's, it's a, it's, it's a very simple solution as most of them are, you know, as most good kind of inventions are. Um, they used a 24 hour hand that not only tracks a second time zone, but it has a double arrowhead on it that, uh, the inner arrowhead tracks the, the second time zone. And then the hour arrowhead points to a dual 12 hour scale. That's on the rotating inner bezel that you turn with a second crown. And so half of that inner timing ring, uh, is a countdown from 12 hours to zero. And then the other half is count up from zero to 12. So that once that arrow hits the zero Mark or the hour time, the H time, which is go time, it starts to count up. So you can pivot that one way or the other to count down and then count up and It's, it's just kind of a unique, really clever. So it does a lot of stuff, you know, does second time zone. It doesn't, then it has a countdown rotating bezel as well. And it's, I believe two or 300 meter water resistant. It's, uh, I opted for, they said, you know, which one do you want us to send the automatic or the courts? And I don't know, to me, the courts kind of fit the bill in terms of, of a good kind of military inspired tool watch. And so that that's what they sent me. And so it's got a Swiss courts movement in it. And, uh, I threw it on one of watches of espionage is, Glomar Explorer Velcro straps. And yeah, I've been wearing it quite a bit. It's a great watch. Really fun piece. |
| Jason Heaton | The two 12-hour scale. So it's a 24-hour RIA that's adjustable with the other crown. That's how that works? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. That's so clever. And it's split in two. So it's like count down from 12 to zero and then count up from zero to 12. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, and I love that because that means that you wouldn't have to go 12 to zero. Like you could time two hours or a six-hour flight. Exactly. Right. Right. Yeah. Really clever. 40 millimeters. Let's see, I clicked away from the price. What's the price point? I see $788. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's the quartz version, which is like the one I would go for. I mean, the automatic, I got to play with it a bit, and even that's not terribly expensive, but $788 US, and that is on kind of a cool rubber strap, the kind of Tropic-inspired fitted rubber strap. |
| Jason Heaton | Man, that's such a good idea. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Because then you get two full functions. Right. With very little complication. |
| Unknown | Mm hmm. |
| Jason Heaton | I like the offering of discourts makes a ton of sense. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely need to check this out the next time we're in the same place. That's awesome. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I believe they will be at windup. If not, if not all the windup shows, I believe they said they will be at windup Chicago. So, you know, if you make it there or any of the windups and you see them on the list, definitely go check out their booth and ask to take a look at the at the Beachmaster. So yeah, nice fun stuff. And as I said, it relates to a question that comes up later today in the crew. And so I'll get to that later. But before that, what, what do you have on? |
| Jason Heaton | I am wearing the Aquastar model 60. Oh, wow. I had, I had it tucked away in, in the watch case for some time. I think my wife has worn it a couple of times. I put it on. It just feels like, you know, I love everything about this watch. I think it's absolutely gorgeous. It's the right size. It's easy to wear. Uh, you know, obviously we have the, the episode that we recorded with, um, Don Walsh kind of keeps this watch in kind of a special place for me, but weirdly, uh, I'm actually wearing it more to talk about the strap. Those of you who've listened to the show for years know that I can get very obsessive and excited about a new strap, whether that's a ZD328 rubber NATO, or, um, I mean, the list is long. It's not always gray NATOs for me. They're definitely in my core, the backbone. but I get really excited about watches, about new strap options for dive watches, especially ones that do the rubber thing, but differently than how everybody else is doing it. And when I was in Geneva for Watches and Wonders, one of the brands I always try and see, it usually happens kind of on the side, whether it's just at a table at the thing, or this year it was actually just at the hotel. On the last day I was there, as I connected with Serica watches and their guy, Jerome, And I'm a big fan of their watches, big fan of the brand. We've talked about them a ton. There's a ton of them on the Slack. It's everybody's kind of aware of that. I think they make a really genuinely great, super wearable product that is very minimal on its branding, but really nicely designed. Those are all good things in my mind. And one of the things that Jerome had to show me along with some stuff that comes out later this year is a new strap that they have. I'm actually not sure how new, but certainly new to me. And he described it as new. So I'm going to say new. It's called the Sport Strap from Serica Watches. I'll put it in the show notes if you can't check it, the Serica Sport. It's a natural rubber strap that you would swear is somehow also leather. It's as comfortable as a vintage tropic, which in my opinion is the most comfortable rubber strap I've ever come across. It has a beautiful taper, it's a 20 millimeter. Obviously, it's designed to pair nicely with their watches, but if you have any sort of mid century or even mid century later, Like I wore it for a day or two on my Sea Rambler. |
| James Stacey | Oh, beautiful. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it has a tropic style holes in it. So it has a little bit of venting, which is nice as a texture that's very leathery, but it's really thin, really soft, really supple, doesn't hold its own. Like it has a shape, but it's shaped like a leather strap. So it doesn't have any curvature to it. I really can't say enough. I mean, they're 150 euros, so they're not a cheap strap, but if this might suit the watch in question, yeah, And I think if we're talking smaller dress, dressy sport watches or vintage watches, I think could be a really good application. Like, I think this would be kind of a weird strap on, say, something hyper modern, like a Pelagos. Yeah, yeah. But on lots of other watches, I think this is perfect. And I'm just genuinely excited about it. You can buy it with or without a Serica buckle, which I guess would make it a little bit cheaper. Let me check that. 120 euros without a buckle. You can also then buy fitted end links if you own a 5303, a 61 90 or an 8315, which are the kind of three main models from Serica. I have it in a sage green color, but they also do a brown, chocolate brown they call it, and black. I mean... Yeah, this is cool. It's not a cheap strap, but it's really, really nice. I love being able to get excited about this kind of stuff, and for a vintage watch where a modern rubber would look ridiculous, this is gonna look perfect. And it wears so similarly to a nice high quality leather strap. |
| James Stacey | tapers from 20 to 14. That's crazy. That looks so good. I love the buckle too. Very retro. Wow. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. No, I'm a big fan. This is like just something I will definitely use a bunch. We'll probably pick up another one at some point if I want to have the brown as well. But the sage green really covers me for a lot of this. In your hands, it's just kind of a remarkable thing. I feel like I know a fair bit about the world of watch straps. It's been an obsession of mine for some time. And every now and then I do you know, hold in my fingertips something I have not come across before, and that's one of these. So big kudos to Serica for this one. And I genuinely believe whether they offer it or their supplier maybe moves on and offers it, this would be great in other sizes and other colors. I think gray would be killer, of course. Yeah. And for all I know, Serica's got that planned. But for something like this model 60 or my vintage skin divers, or I mean, you could go on for quite some time. It's just a really good summery pairing because it's super thin and light, but still rubber. I can jump off the dock at the cottage, not think about it. |
| James Stacey | Perfect. Yeah, no, it looks amazing. I might have picked one of these up. I think the docks of choice or the model 60 are both spot on. Yeah, I'm trying to think of other other pieces. I'm not sure it would even work on a I mean, a Rolex sub I think just looks so good on a steel, but but I think like docks are just so good. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think it could because it has that tropical vibe. And I think any classic dive watch of 50 fathoms a sub Yeah. They all look great on... What I haven't tried, but I will and I'll post a photo at some point, is this on the Explorer 2, which I think just because of the sagey color might be really good, but sometimes the Explorer 2, you put it on a strap, then it should work and it just doesn't. Yeah. They're so good on bracelet, the Rolex stuff. Yeah, they are. Yeah. But I think for lots of different styles of watches, but definitely anything that was sort of a mid century, really just anything that's in the same sort of aesthetic spaces the serica stuff it makes a lot of sense they clearly designed the strap to work with their watches yeah that's my wrist check for the week and a really cool strap so again that's the serica sport and uh they uh gave me the strap but it's not like they asked to be on the show or didn't pay for it or anything so i've got a sample of the strap it's pretty nice if you have any questions let me know on slack i'm happy to um elaborate further as needed |
| James Stacey | Nice. Well, let's, uh, let's jump into this crew and a, I mean, it's, it's part three. I'm sure there will be a part four because we will not get through all the questions, but that's, that's the whole point of this. It's fun to chip away at these. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think we might be able to do eight, seven or eight questions, something like that today. And for those on the off chance that this is your first one and you picked a slack crew and a sorry, cause this is a little bit of a confusing explanation. Uh, but for anyone who pays for the subscriber side of TGN, whether that's $5 a month or a hundred dollars a year, you get a monthly Q&A, which uses audio recordings from the crew, from everybody who listens and sends in questions, and we kind of edit it together, kind of like a call-in show where you can actually hear the person's voice. Every now and then, roughly once a year so far, this is our second overall time doing it. We did it in 2023, and now we're doing it again in 2024. We do the Slack Q&A, which is where we just have text questions from the Slack. So it kind of takes the whole format, flips it over on its head. But basically, these are Questions directly from the TGN community on Slack. If you're keen on getting in on that, swing by thegreatnado.com for more details or certainly drop me a note if you need any further explanation. So we've got a bunch of questions that we'll get to in this one. This is part three. We've already done conceivably part two and part one not that long ago. It helps us fill in some weeks when there's not that much going on. And obviously with a huge episode last week, it's not like there's a ton of watch announcements this week. So we're dipping back into a Q&A. To kick this one off, we are actually going to start with a follow-up from a question from Part 2, which is our Supreme Moderator and good buddy Chris Soule sent in a question asking Jason and I to tell two truths and one lie. We're not going to go over all of it again. I highly suggest you go back and listen to Part 2 if you don't remember it. But Jason, why don't you reveal which of your three was a lie, and then I'll do the same. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, sure. So, you know, a quick recap, my three were, um, I, one of them was, I acted in a German play when I was in college, uh, had the, with the lead role and forgot half of my lines. And my second, uh, statement was I once led a life of crime in which I was, uh, stealing newspapers out of the corner box, uh, until I got caught by the police. And then the third one was I was actually born right-handed, but an injury when I was a child forced me to switch over to my left and I never went back. |
| Jason Heaton | Alright, so should I make my guess then? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, what's your guess? I mean we had a lot of people guessing and a lot of people got this right. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, my guess and I think you told me on a phone call what the actual one was and I've already My listening skills are unparalleled, even when I actually need the information. My guess is that you were born left-handed. Yes. That's my guess. |
| James Stacey | That is correct. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. That one I felt should be fairly obvious, but you never know. I mean, we often hear about people in previous generations to ours that maybe were forced to write with their right hand. Totally. Which wasn't the case with me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yours was smart because it You want to lean on the idea that you weren't stealing newspapers for no real reason, right? Yeah. Yeah. But as it turns out, sometimes, you know, truth is greater than fiction. Yeah. So for my three, I had said that for the first one was that I absolutely despise lasagna. It's my least favorite food in existence. And the second one was that I knew the lyrics to every Lana Del Rey song. And then finally, the third one was that I was at one point a very talented and possibly competitive pool player. Jason, which of these three do you figure is probably the lie? |
| James Stacey | It's got to be the pool playing. I mean, I've played pool with you. I mean, you're good, you're better than me, but I wouldn't have put you in like a semi-professional status. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm a pretty weak pool player. And to be fair, like going back and listening to that on the tape, I said too much. You know, you shouldn't make a lie the most complicated aspect of your story. Yeah. But yeah, I do genuinely despise lasagna. |
| Unknown | Really? |
| Jason Heaton | Wow, just so oh just so much yeah and then beyond that, I probably do know the lyrics to every one of don't worry song or at least i'm in i'm in the running yeah and that you know she releases some some collab music here or there that maybe I wouldn't know that well, but anything from the core albums i'm a big definitely a big fan and and you know what i'll even i'll even look turn a blind eye to the the recent, you know a photo of her wearing a jacob and co astronomia Which is certainly, let's be clear, a pretty wild watch for anyone to wear. I would have maybe picked something a little bit different for my own, but it is what it is. And yeah, I would say that I'm a solid two, maybe three out of 10 in terms of pool. But that was two truths and a lie. So a big thank you to Chris for that one and for giving us something to kind of branch parts two and three together. I'll take this first question from Michael, because it's about Call of Duty Mobile. Sure. It says, James, how's COD going? Why don't you play with me anymore? I'm so sad. Actually, after Michael sent this, we set up a little... It reminded me... I play a lot of Call of Duty Mobile, but I don't play with other people almost ever. I just play solo. That weekend after we took these questions, we started a little COD channel on Slack. So it's a private channel. If you're a Call of Duty Mobile player and would like to connect, just drop me a DM on the platform. I can add you in, no trouble at all. But as I told Michael, COD's going great. I'm still playing a ton of it. I'm trying to get my competency in Warzone, which is the new game from the similar group of people, Call of Duty Warzone. I'm trying to get my competency up there, but I'm having a lot of trouble with it. So I'm still playing a fair amount of Call of Duty Mobile when I need, you know, 30 minutes or an hour or whatever to, to kind of, um, not really think about anything else. I find the games like just the right level of intensity that like, I'm not considering anything else while I'm playing. I'm just focusing on, you know, that six or seven minutes of game. |
| James Stacey | Is that what the time you need? I've never played before. I mean, is it like that short? You can dip in and out that quickly and kind of get your around is probably like six or seven minutes. |
| Jason Heaton | Maybe some of the game types are a little more, some are a little less. And then if you get into what's called battle Royale or the way this war zone, this new war zone game works where you can have 120 people playing on a map. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | That one, they tell you it'll be more like 10 to 16 minutes, 16 to 25 minutes. It just depends on the people. Yeah, I've been doing a bunch of that. Thanks very much for that question, Michael. And by all means, let's keep the games going. It was fun to play a couple rounds of that evening a little while ago. Next up, we've got one from Beer Nye, who said, what's the best book you've read or listened to in the past three months? Sweetwater accepted, of course. He says his is The Wager by David Gran. I don't know that, but I'll put it in the show notes and check it out. Do you know that one? |
| James Stacey | I do, I read it. It's excellent. David Grahn was the guy that did Lost City of Z. I believe he did one about the Shackleton Endurance Expedition as well. He's such a fantastic writer. It's a book about a shipwreck and kind of mutiny and that sort of stuff. It's really, really quite good. Yeah, I guess since I've read that, I'll jump in and I will agree that that was a fantastic book and recommend it. And then as I said at the top, I just finished the audio book of Moscow X by David McCloskey and I can recommend that as well. Um, I'd, I'd read his previous one, uh, Damascus station, which also is, is an acclaimed book that a lot of people have recommended and that's good as well. But, um, I've been kind of plowing through a lot of books. I consume most of them, uh, on audio, whether it's on an airplane or driving, uh, or dozing off in the evening. Um, And I guess I'll give one fiction and one nonfiction. And, uh, in terms of fiction, I've really grown to like this author, Peter Heller, who's written a series of really excellent books and he kind of marries outdoorsy kind of adventury, uh, stories with intrigue and mystery and sometimes murder, which is kind of a weird overlap, but he is or was a senior editor at outside magazine and he's, he's kind of, written a lot for that space and so um nice he this book called the last ranger uh takes place in a national park with with as the name suggests a ranger who um kind of you know gets in a little deeper on uh some nefarious doings in the park and and whatever and it's it's just his turns of phrase and his descriptive language is just really beautiful um in terms of his writing and i can't recommend peter heller any of his books i would recommend and then non-fiction it's kind of an easy one and one We've talked about and we've both read, and that was Hands of Time by Rebecca Struyves. Oh, yeah. We've talked at length about that book, and we, of course, had Rebecca on the show. So we don't need to say too much more about that. But between those two, I would say it's been a solid, say, past three, four months of reading and listening for me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, that brings me to mind, which is the only book I've read in the last few months and finished was Hands of Time. Yeah. Rebecca was an incredible guest to have on. The book is incredible. It's really worth your time, especially if you're interested in even just like the wider world of horology. Like I think you could almost listen to this if you even didn't care about the specifics of one generation of Rolex to another. It's like nerdy, but in a different way. Yeah. And there's so much of this is about kind of the cultural history of time, which I found really fascinating. It's great. I highly recommend it. And then next on my list is probably Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Okay. Um, my wife, uh, Sarah, uh, read it not too long ago and certainly I've never heard a bad review, uh, for that one. And then the, I have a, I have this whole stack, of course, I have a bunch of books I got for Christmas that I have to dig into at some point, both from this year and last year and probably the year before that. But the, the other one that's really high on my, on the radar is, um, is Chain Gang All Stars. And I can't pronounce the author's name, so I'd rather not butcher it on tape, but I'll put it in the show notes. I'm a huge fan of JRVP, which is the Jessalynick and Rosenthal Vanity Project. It's a podcast from comedian Anthony Jessalynick. And they talk about all sorts of content on the podcast, but they're both avid readers. I mean, it's their main stream of content in their life, the two hosts. Yeah. And they both read that Chang Kang All Stars and said it was the best thing that came out last year. So that's way up there on my list as well. I tend to get more reading done in the warmer months. Oh, really? I'm not super sure why. Yeah, just up at the cottage, you're already kind of disconnecting to begin with. Yeah. And as nice as it is to watch a YouTube video where I might when I'm at home, if I'm outside at the cottage, I can't see the screen anyways. So it's just so much easier to sit at the beach and read than try and absorb other media. So yeah, those are kind of the two on my list, but the best one I've read in the last little while was, was definitely either Sweetwater or, uh, which we, which we're not allowed to pick according to Beard and I, or, uh, Hands of Time, which was a lovely book indeed. |
| James Stacey | Speaking of past guests and book recommendations, you'll have to stay tuned for my final note because it's a, it's a pretty exciting one related to a book by another past guest of ours. So you'll have to stay tuned for that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | All right. We've got another question, uh, here from Chris P, uh, who asks if you had a clear six months off to adventure, you can choose solo or with a partner or family. How would you spend the time? Let's say no real budget, but nothing too crazy. Like a Titanic dive might be a stretch, but Antarctica, Antarctica is not. Um, and also you can take one watch and what would it be? So, you know, James, we've had versions of this question, I think later on, might, maybe next episode, We have another one similar to this. And I'm not sure if we're refining our picks or kind of revisiting the same ones, but what's your call on this? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, they could be totally in competition with each other. Yeah. Just totally making it up every time we get asked. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of works for adventure though. How about you? If you had six months, work was going to be covered. You weren't going to fall behind on the mortgage or whatever people are concerned about when they, you know, don't do these sorts of things. What would you do? What would you like to do? |
| James Stacey | You know, in the past I've said, drive to Tierra del Fuego, um, you know, kind of an overlanding sort of trip. And I think that's still very high on the list. I, I, you know, I, a lot of the content I consume, whether it's, you know, YouTube or blogs or, or social media involves people doing just this and might not be specifically Tierra del Fuego, but a kind of long overlanding trips in old vehicles. And there's just something about that that's very attractive to me. Um, and South America, you know, I've, I've been to Ecuador, uh, a couple of times and, and whatever, but I've never really spent a lot of time in South America. And it's just, it holds such a lure for me. And it's like, not quite out the back door here, but you know, not, not out of reach. And so that's very high on the list. And, you know, after talking with Alex Bescoby over in London and you know, the London to Singapore guy, um, who kind of teased that his next adventure is driving the Pan-American highway, it just kind of tweaked my, my interest in doing something like that even more. Um, but you know, as we've said, it's a long, it's a big commitment, um, a lot of time away and, uh, you know, making stuff like that work is, uh, is part of the big, the big challenge of it. Um, but you know, totally Chris gave us some, some guidelines here that, that all that's covered. So if that's where the case I'd, I'd probably say, uh, that's still on the list. Oh, and in terms of one watch, I think, you know, I'm wearing the Pelagos FXD so much and it's just such a perfect, kind of bang around, do anything fun watch that I never bore of. I think, uh, I think that's what I would pick. I think it's, it can do anything and that's what I would take. I like it. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Um, yeah, my, my answer is actually not like markedly different, I guess in my mind, there's like two different modes. If I could do it with the entire family, my wife and my, my two daughters, then I think I would love to do like a family trip from like Juno to Cabo San Lucas. Oh yeah. So from the entire Western seaboard. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I love Cabo San Lucas. I really like the Gulf of California and, uh, and certainly Baja is, is wonderful, but there's a ton of the West coast that I've only seen kind of pieces, little, little slices of from the cities. And I think being able to take six months to do what is about 80 hours of driving 4,000 miles would be really exciting. And it would allow me to see parts of BC that you'd have no excuse to see otherwise. You know, I love BC. It's one of my favorite, it's probably my favorite place in the world, but I know 3% of it. Yeah. You know, the area around Vancouver, maybe as far North as, um, you know, Whistler, Pemberton, that sort of thing. And then maybe if you want to go West as far as Tofino or Euculate, uh, that sort of stuff, but, and everything else is kind of still out there to see. Yeah. And, and I would love to see it. I think that'd be really fun. And I think As an alternative, if we're talking one just for me, it would be a big mountain, a proper... Like one of the big ones, Aconcagua is there, right? And I think the push on Aconcagua takes about a month total to acclimatize and the rest of it. I'm sure people do it faster than that, but for somebody like me, which would give me five months to train, and let's be clear, five months to train with some direction, that's probably about what it would take to get me into shape for this. Yeah. uh, for something like that. So that would be really high on the list as well. But, uh, I, I'm the older I get, the more I'm like, well, mountains are mountains. If I have a chance, I would definitely take it, but I'm not going to let it like control the way I go through the rest of my life. Yeah. Just cause they were, they require so much commitment. Yeah. Whereas, you know, there'd be a ton of planning to make a drive from Juneau to Cabo San Lucas, but it's doable. And I think that could be pretty exciting. I've never been to Alaska, so that would be fun as well. And I just love that part of the world where you'd be starting the trip in the middle of nowhere, and then progressively just getting more and more closer to civilization as you come down the Western, and then you're in Baja, which is just, it's heaven. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And which watch would you wear for this? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm pretty torn. I like the idea of having something with great loom, but I also want my Explorer II. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, it would probably be either the Explorer Two or the Marathon SS Nav D, the steel navigator. Oh yeah, good pick. That's a good pick. Which is kind of like a perfect watch in many ways. I think that every now and then I put that watch on, and I have a few watches like this, but every now and then I'll put that watch on and I go like, you know, if I wasn't into watches or if I just liked watches the same way I enjoy other things at a non obsessive level, this would be one of those lines in the sand where like, I don't need more watch than this. Yeah. I love the way it looks, has a 12-hour bezel, has tritium tubes, good water resistance, super high accuracy quartz movement, and it's not that expensive. Perfect. It's a great sports watch. So that's probably where I'd lean. It'd be cooler to look back on images and have more of an heirloom watch, like the Explorer II in it, in the photo. So that might sway me. But yeah, I think it'd be something in that zone, something nice and sporty. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's a good pick. And I liked that idea of it makes me think of a possible topic for a future episode. And that is what you just said. Like for, for a non obsessive watch person, like if you were to kind of head down that road, what, what are the top 10 or top five watches that kind of fit that bill? And there are a lot and we both own them and, and Oh, absolutely. It's, it's a good thing. You know, in terms of like the road trip versus kind of more of a physical challenge, I I'm, I'm getting more torn. Um, these days in terms of like road trips as adventures, because, you know, having just done this, this kind of 10, 11 hour round trip blitz to, to, and to, and from Milwaukee, um, this past weekend, like I just find that I get restless and kind of antsy driving. And I think your idea of taking six months to do a trip that could be done far faster is the way to do it. Because I think at some level I'm in this routine now, you know, I'm Probably because I'm doing a lot of kind of running and training and stuff these days, but I long for kind of that kind of physical activity. And I think sitting in a car for many hours a day would kind of start to grind away at me. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, yeah, I think, um, I, I feel the same way when, when I do long trips because I'm so focused on getting to where I'm going. Yeah. And I want to do it in the right amount of time and at the right fuel mileage and the smoothest with the fewest number of stops. It brings out the weirdest side of my perfectionist. Even just driving down to PA, I get like... And I say this out loud because I need to keep myself honest, because it doesn't matter. But if my family wants to stop before we get into the fuel window, which means that I'll have to stop again just for gas rather than combining bathroom snack and gas. Oh yeah, yeah. That bugs me and it shouldn't. A normal human being would not be bothered by that. Like a high functioning person with a healthy brain chemistry wouldn't care that they're gonna have to make an additional stop because if I know I can go 520 kilometers on a tank of fuel, then I have to get within the window of the next refill so I can get all the way on one top up. Yeah, yeah. But if my one of my daughters has to use the bathroom, I also can't be like, well, we're only 95 kilometers from the refuel window, just wait. Yeah, right, right. So it's all that kind of stuff. But I do find in the few times where I've gotten to drive places where I really didn't have to be there for a specific event, like where the drive was as much the experience as the location that you're heading to, that's very freeing and I think would be fun. And I love the idea of having Don't get me wrong, that drive from Juneau to Cabo San Lucas is huge. Yeah. Very, very long, fraught drive, lots of complications, the rest of it. But I think in being focused on the daily goings of the experience rather than like, I need to be in Cabo San Lucas in 75 hours, which you couldn't do anyways. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think it would be a lot of fun to do something like that. And I think super fun to do it with either friends or family, right? Yeah. Like get a little crew together. Right. All right. Next up, we've got one from Ian Larson, who says, how did you make the switch into watch journalism? How was making a hobby your career changed how you feel about the hobby and your career? That's a good question. I mean, this is one that we cover, you know, with some frequency on past Q&As and that sort of thing. But Jason, you want to give the condensed version of how you got into writing about watches? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Well, you know, I got my start in about 2009 writing for Gear Patrol. still going strong, uh, you know, gear patrol.com. And back then it was a much smaller publication and I was, I had a day job and they were looking for freelance writers. And I answered kind of a call for writers sent in some samples. They, they picked me. And in the early days it was gear writing, it was backpacks and jackets and stuff like that. And I was writing kind of short blurbs and, and you know, watches kind of fell into that. They started dipping into watch coverage more and more. And I was kind of new into the forum scene and getting into watches myself. Uh, and then it was around the same time that I learned to dive as well. And it all came together around the same time. And so, um, kind of being someone who can dive and, and, you know, my wife was taking the underwater photos and we enjoyed going on these trips and taking the pictures. It all just kind of the timing was very serendipitous and, and kind of came up around that time when those sorts of websites like gear patrol and how dinky, et cetera, we're, we're kind of just on the up and up. And so it was really good. And then in terms of how it's changed, how I feel about the watch hobby, you know, for a while, I will admit a full, full disclaimer here. I mean, it kind of ruined watches for me for a while. I was always, I was just seeing so many of them that it made me a bit jaded and I kind of lost interest in the personal collecting side of things and looked at watches through a different lens along the lines of, of how, when I was studying English lit in college, I just kind of stopped reading for pleasure as well. And so I think I've kind of come around a bit now and it's, I'm able to enjoy watches a little more. I think our take on it with, with TGN is, is different than, than it was when I was kind of kind of cranking out reviews on a regular basis. And so I think it's, uh, it's improved, but, uh, yeah, it definitely, definitely had an effect. How about you? You were kind of in the same timeframe, I think. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Around the same time I got out of university and what I learned was that one, I didn't care for school. You'd think it maybe would have known it by then, but I kept trying, you know, different types of school every few years and university was fine. But I learned that I really enjoyed writing and the whole kind of mental process of thinking your way through and kind of communicating in that fashion, that sort of thing. And I got out of university and was killing a lot of time. You know, I had, I had a job, but it wasn't a, It definitely wasn't 40 hours a week, and I was doing a little bit of traveling. I was playing a lot of Minecraft at the time. It was a brand new game at the time, not quite what it is today. And along with that, I was listening to a ton of podcasts and just reading as much as I could find about nerdy stuff on the internet. And I had a Columbia Field Watch that died, and I went to get a battery put in it at the Bay, like a department store here in Canada. And while I was there, they said, Oh, we need 20 minutes. We'll put a new battery in no problem. And so I went and started looking at other watches and they, you know, I was looking at Seiko dive watches and citizen pilots watches and stuff like that, and went home and Googled a few things and found a couple of sites. This is before the era of putting key in a blog to watch and Fratello and monochrome. And so at the time there was, there was a, you know, obviously like time zone and watch you seek. And there was, and there was another one called watch report and a Christian, this guy who ran watch report had posted just as I got into it, and I think probably read or at least scanned every article on the website over the course of a few weeks, he had posted that he was looking for some contributors and to send in some stories. So I wrote up a couple of watches I was interested in at the time. The first one they published was a little short consideration of Panerai. This is 2008, so Panerai was real, real hot at the time. And I was, I remain very much a sucker for the Radiomir and its backstory and the watches themselves and that sort of thing. So I did that and it all just kind of snowballed. I worked with them for quite some time and then Christian sold the site. I didn't get along with the new guy who, it just didn't work out. So I moved on to a blog to watch. That was also when I moved to Vancouver. So it made sense to align with a West Coast in terms of time zones. And so I was with a blog to watch from 2012 to 2017, and then I've been with Hodinkee ever since I switched over to Hodinkee in 2017, and it's been good. But that's basically how I got into it. And then, yeah, I mean, how has making a hobby your career changed how you feel about the hobby and the career? Yeah, I vacillate in terms of my interest. I find that the watches that got me into watches, Seiko dive watches, the sort of stuff we talk about on TGN, Seiko Citizen, Marathon, some Rolex, that sort of thing. I feel exactly the same way about that stuff as I did in terms of excitement. My opinions have changed, modified over time. You learn new things, your position changes, but my enthusiasm remains very high. But I would say that that enthusiasm comes and goes for the wider world of watches. It's a lot of the working in this industry, and while I wouldn't call myself a journalist, I'm not trained as a journalist, I'm a writer, an enthusiast writer, Working in this industry is dealing with a lot of people asking you to do stuff for them, basically just constantly. And it's just not really the way I'm wired. A lot of you who have gotten to know me better or like a very internal sort of person, I like to just kind of work at my own pace and do my own thing. I tend never to ask for favors because I don't also want to give them that often, that sort of thing. So I mean, it's a learning experience. It's hard to remember how I felt about this industry a few years ago. So much of the positivity that I gleaned from this world comes from TGN. Yeah. It comes from having this outlet to chat with Jason every week and for several years to be able to do this. And then with Hodinkee, I get to explore other things. I get to help other people explore the things that they want to do. Um, as sort of the senior role I'm in now, a lot of it is to help develop guys like Mark and Tony and Malaika. Uh, so it's, it's a treat, but the treat kind of changes every couple of years. And I really, I really come and go on my legitimate interest in another $400,000 handmade dress watch? |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Are they beautiful? Absolutely. Are they great? Are they interesting to think about? Really fun to photograph? All that kind of stuff? Of course. It's all great. It's super fun. Is this like a meaningful addition to the world if we zoom out even a little bit? Not at all. None of us need any of this stuff, so it should just be fun, is how I see it for the most part. But yeah, that's basically where I land. There are definitely days where I go like, yeah, I'm not feeling watches today. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I think it comes and goes, both for hobbies and certainly for careers, just because you take the enjoyment of a hobby and add the pressure of life, and that can suck some of the fun out of it at times. But I find it comes and goes, and it's always been a really good outlet for just creativity, because the space has always provided, not unlike, say, automotive press versus something like working for a newspaper, there's a lot more freedom in terms of how I might want to approach something. Which I like quite a bit. Yeah. And I'm always learning, which is kind of crucial for me because I get bored very easily. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. I think the challenge too, of like finding new ways to present watches to, you know, after doing it for so long and have having, you know, knowing that the audience has read so many reviews and things over the years that like coming up with new ways to present it, I think is also part of it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, there's a good question. Uh, Ian, thank you so much for that. And, uh, Ian has a second part to his question, which we can try and be quick on here. He said, if you had to relocate outside of North America, where would you set yourself up? Jason, where do you figure you would go if you weren't going to live in a beautiful state of Minnesota anymore? |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, the two places that still stick out for me, and it's probably changed actually, I probably would have said Bonaire or Sri Lanka at some point in the past, but I think now I'm still drawn back to Scotland or I think, you know, if you want to go to the other extreme or the other side of the world, the South Island of New Zealand, Um, it was there years ago and both places just have this wild, um, sort of windswept, like the elements are, you know, you've got to like live with the elements and you're, you've spent a lot of time outside and you need good, good rainwear and have to put up, be able to put up with cold and wind and stuff. And I think that's kind of part of the attraction for me. I just love the kind of rugged rawness of both places. So, um, yeah, Scotland or the South Island of New Zealand. Um, more similar than different probably, although they're on opposite ends of the world. How about you? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, those are two very, very different options for sure. Yeah, I would... Europe and the Alps is probably the way I would reply. I don't know if I would necessarily... Like I like Switzerland, I don't think I would wanna live in a Swiss city. I like the idea of more of a rural sort of setup, Northern France, Northern Italy, Just put me near the mountains, basically. Yeah. And there's an accessibility to Central Europe, Central Western Europe, that is pretty hard for a Canadian to understand because I'm 17 hours from the next province. Yeah, yeah. If I wanted to go to Manitoba, for example. And if I wanted to go to Quebec, it's six or seven hours of straight driving on a highway, that sort of thing. So I think the idea that you could be in, say, Switzerland or maybe in Western Germany or something like that, and be not that far from France and not that far from... I mean, so many countries are all there, they're connected by trains, they're connected by reliable... The ability to really explore speaks to me, which I kinda like, and there's so much of Europe I've not seen. Fun to think about. Yeah, maybe call it... Put me somewhere in Bavaria. I like that part of Germany. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Fun questions, Ian. Thank you so much for that. Next up, we've got a question from Ed H., who says, if you had to work for a watch brand or somewhere on the product side of the watch industry, where would it be and what would you be doing? No job is off limits or too big or too small. So Jason, if you, quote unquote, hopped the line, or maybe I can go first, if you'd rather. Yeah, go for it. If we hopped the line, where will we land? I mean, I would love to work in, like similar to the work I do for a Hodinkee or even a TGN, but for a brand that I love, like whether it was in creative direction or content production or that sort of thing for probably not a brand as big and as complicated as like a Tudor. Yeah. I do like the idea of like a mid middle level sized brand that has some flexibility and knows their audience like a marathon would be great, the Canadian as well, which helps. But yeah, I love the idea of taking what I know from content production for audiences and turning that essentially, I guess, into marketing rather than communications. I think that could be pretty fun. And certainly the few times that I've gotten to do sort of branded content, the ability to really focus on the quality, on the output, on the aesthetic, on the art direction is really just super enjoyable and fun. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. It's funny you say that. I wasn't sure how you were going to respond, but it makes perfect sense. And it's oddly very similar to kind of my take on it as well. I've dabbled in the past with kind of behind the scenes, you know, photo, video shoots for different brands and writing ad copy. And I find I really enjoy that. you know, I'm a writer at heart and I think I like storytelling and I think, um, to kind of do it on, on this side of the wall, um, there are limitations that you have to consider in terms of objectivity or subjectivity, I guess in some cases, but, but just kind of being transparent or whatever. And I think if you're working for a brand, you're kind of, you're able to kind of tell that story from their perspective and kind of the story that they want to tell. And I think that's, it's so fun. And I, my only hangup would be, working for a specific brand because I've come to find that, um, and we've talked about this before, maybe more offline than, than during episodes. But, uh, I'm finding as I progress through this hobby that I tend to like watches more than brands, you know, um, individual watches and, and to, to harness myself to a single brand and have to do this is less appealing than, than maybe doing something along the lines of like a creative agency where, you know, I'd be kind of open to consulting and doing ad copywriting for any number of brands. would be, I think, a little more appealing to me. But yeah, I guess we're kind of in line, both of us, in the answers for that. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I guess we should start an agency. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. A fun question, Ed. I hope that's what you were sort of looking for in terms of a reply. Yeah, who knows? Maybe that's the mode we get into sometime later in the career arc. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, next up, we've got one from Matt, who says the Laurier Hyperion is the first watch he's had without a quick set date function. What is the best way to advance the date after a period of non-wear? Will using the jumping hour function cause extra strain on the mechanism? All right, so the Hyperion, Jason, you look this up, it's a 9075 automatic, so it's a GMT movement with local jumping. Yeah, right. Honestly, I doubt either one matters, like whether you use the just jump the the hour hand forward enough to get the date to go, you know, two revolutions per date jump. That's what I would do. It's what I do with my Explorer 2. It's what I do with Longines. So yeah, it's what I do with all of them. If I needed to correct the date, I would do it using the Kwikset jumping local hour hand. You could definitely do it by advancing the time. The thing that I would want to say, and Jason, maybe you feel a different way about this. I don't think that the method of what you do, like the actual, whether you use the jumping hour hand or rotate all the hands, really matters, but I do think the manner in which you personally deal with the crown does just be gentle. Yeah, yeah, like I'll see people absolutely crank on these things, but like I just think a little bit of like mechanical sympathy in managing the crown and maybe not do five other things while you're also trying to set the date, like just focus on that, be nice and smooth, don't fight the movement in any way, don't fight the crown threading or all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I don't mind at least in my mind, I have no problem using the quick set local hour feature to jump the date as quickly as possible. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I'm, I'm in total agreement. And I, I think it was designed this way. Um, my grand Seiko GMT does a similar function and that's, uh, that's how, you know, they spell out how to do it. So, um, but, but like you said, you know, be gentle. Um, one little tidbit that, you know, that I've always observed is, is make sure you take the watch off your wrist when you're manipulating the crown. You don't have it at a weird angle of the stem or anything like that. But yeah, I think no problem. |
| Jason Heaton | It's always a bit of like a fingernail on chalkboard for me when I see somebody winding their watch on their wrist. Yeah. Please don't do that. Definitely. Here's a better suggestion. Again, do whatever you want with your own watch. Don't grab somebody's watch at a Red Bar hangout, put it on your wrist and then wind the crown. Oh man. Yeah. definitely some watches can deal with that and it doesn't matter, and definitely others can't. And I can't imagine necessarily something that feels kind of more stomach turning than breaking somebody else's watch at a hangout or something like that. But yeah, it is weird when you start to deal with watches that don't have a quick set date, like a standard quick set date where you rotate just based on the crown. Um, but I think with these nine Oh seven fives, that's a modern movement. I think you'd be just fine doing whatever it says in the manual. And certainly I wouldn't even question it. And I would just use the, um, I'd be nice and smooth and careful and gentle, but I would just advance the hour hand. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Cool. Um, all right. You got time, I guess we've got time for one more. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. One more. And it kind of ties nicely with my wrist check today. Um, this is a question from Scott. who asked, uh, I may be completely lost at sea here, but why isn't anyone offering a count up and countdown bezel? Hear me out. I just think a bezel with a zero 15, 30, 15 set of indices would be great for my first 30 minutes. I want to know how far along I am into something. And then once I hit the bottom of the hour, I want to know how much time I have left. He says, maybe someone offers this and he doesn't know about it. Maybe he's missing something. It just seems like a useful way to measure elapsed time. or go full chaos and have a count-up bezel and a count-down Riot. Well, Scott, I'll just jump in and say, you know, the watch that I'm wearing today that I mentioned in wrist check, the Elliott Brown Beachmaster does this. It's not quite to the 30-minute count-up, count-down kind of level of increments that you're hoping for, but it does, the inner bezel does have kind of half-hour clicks, so you could track kind of at a less fine level, Um, you know, counting down any number of hours to a zero hour and then counting up from there in, in kind of half hour increments, as long as you're following along with that, that 24 hour hand that's, uh, that's on a, a separate gearing. So I think that's kind of my best tip. James, do you know of any that, that have count up and count down like he's suggesting? I can't think of anything. |
| Jason Heaton | I don't know of any where they're on the same bezel. No, certainly you get into watches that have timers and chronographs. which I guess is kind of what we're talking about, but not on a... I don't know of a watch that has two equally competing scales. I don't know of one. Nothing comes to hand, and certainly the closest would be that, like you said, the Elliot Brown we spoke about earlier today. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting one though. Yeah. Look, this could be one for the slack sleuths, who knows what could come up. So Scott, swing by the slack, maybe folk Scott, other bezels that we're not thinking of. I can certainly think of, you know, commercial iterations of Elapsed Time and 12 Hour from Tag Heuer, for example, and Serica and that sort of thing. But the two, a Count Up and an Elapsed, or a Count Up and a Count Down bezel on the same bezel, I don't know of offhand. All right. Well, certainly fun questions. Didn't get to quite as many as we thought, but we are over an hour now. We've still got final notes to get to, so we've got plenty. Uh, for the next, uh, maybe two, um, uh, follow up, maybe, maybe we'll get five parts or six when I'm scrolling through these today. Uh, lots of parts for the slack crew and a, so, uh, stay tuned for that as we, I'm sure we'll get into the summer and need another, uh, kind of quick episode to, uh, to get into as far as a topic, but, uh, so, and a big thank you to, uh, Michael and beer Nye, Chris P, Ian Larson. and Ed H and Matt and Scott for sending in questions. And we will kick it off with one from Sean P when we get up to the next one. But until then, how about we jump into some final notes? Sure. Jason, you've got one from a familiar name on the TGN world. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, this is pretty exciting news, actually. And I can't necessarily recommend it because I haven't read it yet. But as I alluded to in our book question from Beer Nye, uh Kim Sherwood's uh second iteration or kind of sequel to her first Bond continuation novel is now available um as of tomorrow we're recording this on a Monday and I had put in my pre-order for this months ago with the promise that it would be shipped on maybe delivered I'm not sure on on April 23rd I guess I'll find out uh it's called A Spy Like Me I really liked Double or Nothing, her first kind of take on the Bond continuation thing. She did this with the blessing of the Ian Fleming kind of family foundation, I guess, or kind of the publishing house that kind of oversees the Ian Fleming archives. And she's an excellent writer. Of course, we had her on TGN. If you didn't catch that or you want to re-listen, we can throw that in the show notes. But A Spy Like Me comes out, and it promises to be good. I read an early review of it, and it seems like kind of following suit from Double or Nothing. So check that out. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. I'm looking forward to it. Like you, I really enjoyed the first one and having Kim on the show. So yeah, great to see another one coming out. That's awesome. All right. And for my final note this week, I actually have a great video from one of my favorite kind of camera focused YouTube channels. It's Kai W., who's been around for a very long time in this space talking about cameras. And it's a great one that I think really hits on a topic that I'm seeing a lot on the Slack, which is the new Fujifilm X106. And this is a pretty fun video looking into what makes the X106 so good, but also looking into all of its competition. So they have 11 alternative options and what the strengths and weaknesses are of any of those options versus the Fujifilm. I thought this was a great video. It's like 26, 27 minutes long, nicely shot. These guys are funny. Kai's definitely a watch guy. I catch his comments every now and then and see him show up in the Houdinki feed and that kind of thing. So really great stuff. If you don't follow his stuff, I highly recommend it. You know, it's a very popular channel. I have nearly a million subscribers and they do a great job and they've been doing this for some time, but I like this camera. I also just, we consistently see people approaching photography as a hobby in the Slack, both from huge amounts of gear like myself and some of the other knuckleheads in there. This is like something we're really into to folks. You just want to get a step beyond their camera phone. Yeah. And I think within that guys, this is a fantastic video. It also goes like if you're a, if you're an X 100 owner, let alone a six, but if you've got a recent X 100, they go through a ton of great accessories as well that are available on the market. That's a great video. I highly recommend. |
| James Stacey | Oh, that's good. And I, You know, I will admit I've kind of fallen off the camera wagon in the past couple of years. I think I've just gotten lazy. Um, we used to talk a lot more about photography and, and I think I just used to do a lot more shooting with an actual camera and now I just fall back on my phone all the time. And you know, as I mentioned on this, this kind of dive expedition I'm doing next week, I'm going to be doing a lot of shooting underwater with a Sony a seven in a housing. But in terms of like topside photography, I kind of need a kickstart. I need something and maybe, maybe summer and everything leafing out and greening up a bit will, will inspire me. But, uh, yeah, I'll watch this and see if there's, it kind of kickstarts my interest to get back into cameras and photography with a proper camera. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, look, far be it for me to go for a hard pitch. That's not really my zone, but I might know a guy who might have a spare, like a cue in the next little while. If you want to give him a try. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm sure we could, we could at least set you up to it, to kick it around for a little while if you wanted to check it out. Yeah, definitely. All right. Well, there you go. A couple of good final notes to keep you entertained, and we'll be back soon with both a Q&A and a special guest episode next week. So to cover for Jason being away on his super fun trip. |
| James Stacey | All right. Well, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TG Unsigned NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music throughout is Siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Franz Kafka who said, The truth is always in abyss. One must, as in a swimming pool, dare to dive from the quivering springboards of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again, laughing and fighting for breath, to the now doubly illuminated surface of things. |