The Grey NATO – 287 – Collection Inspection Vol. 12 // Blancpain vs. Blancpain (Sort of)

Published on Thu, 06 Jun 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss and compare two watches - Jason's expensive titanium Blancpain Fifty Fathoms dive watch, and James' affordable Swatch bioceramic version called the Scuba 50. They analyze the different characteristics and experiences of owning an ultra-luxury diver versus a fun, affordable homage to that iconic watch design. They also discuss Blancpain's history and dedication to diving, as well as recommendations for learning about the D-Day invasion on its 80th anniversary and a useful portable workbench from DeWalt.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton 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 287, approaching 300 here soon. And it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. I'm Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host James Stacy. James, uh, happy Tuesday. I guess it'll be Thursday by the time people hear this, but it's Tuesday for us now.
James Stacey Man, the weather's nice and I'm sitting in the basement and just itching to go for a nice long walk after you record this. So I'm, I'm, uh, I'm in a pretty good mood at the moment. How about you?
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's very summery here. I've stepped outside this morning to take my coffee in the garden and it's, uh, it was downright muggy and kind of felt like proper summer, which is weird because we had such a warm, weird winter and early spring. And then it got kind of cool and rainy and now it's like full on, like straight up summer feeling, which I love. It's, it feels really good.
James Stacey Yeah. We've been, we've been getting good use out of that Traeger. If you're listening and you've got one of these wood, wood fire pellet girls, don't sleep on smoking your own Pico de Gallo. Incredible, crazy easy. Wow. We did nachos last night. Ridiculous.
Unknown Wow.
James Stacey Ridiculous. And then man, I know it's not everybody's thing, but it's definitely my thing. Chicken wings, it's crazy.
Jason Heaton So you can smoke stuff. Do you like smoked salmon in there? Oh, absolutely. Oh, that'd be cool.
James Stacey That would be cool. Man, corn on the cob. Best I've ever had.
Jason Heaton I'll be there in September for the Toronto Watch event. Sign me up, hone your smoked salmon skills. I think that would be a, that'd be fun to try.
James Stacey Yeah. I'll have to learn how to do that. Cause I don't, I don't even keep, that's not part of my normal diet. I love raw salmon, but I should give that a try for sure. And yeah, Sarah and I were just talking yesterday about possibly having, cause there's some, there's going to be a few other folks in town that we know and possibly throwing a little, a little thing at the house. So we'll see how that goes, but we will have a public event. This is for the Toronto Timepiece show, if anyone's unsure. This is late September. We are also doing a public event. I'm chatting with one of our favorite Canadian brands about partnering on like a brewery hangout on the Saturday evening. So just keep in touch, but we've got months for that. What we don't have months for is Wind Up Chicago, which is coming up in less than two months now. And as you've heard on previous episodes, we have kind of shifted the TGN element So the scuba dive is on Saturday. Jason will be doing that with a group of guys. That's through wind up. And then we're going to be doing a little event for the crew Sunday morning. We're talking some sort of a breakfast scenario, a hangout with citizen and possibly an opportunity to see the show with no crowd. All of this looks pretty good. Sounds pretty entertaining. We have a call in just a couple of days to firm up those details. So expect specifics on next week's on two 88. Um, other than that, uh, you know, since we recorded the last episode, all I basically did was work. And then in the weekend, uh, the little town in Ontario called Caledonia, where I grew up, they do on the first June of every year, the first Saturday, uh, of June every year, they do like a townwide garage sale day. Wow. When I was a kid, it was probably like, at least in my memory, when I was a kid, it was 80% of the houses. Geez. I could be wrong. Yeah. I was a kid, right? I was, I was a little, but I used to just go with 20 bucks in my pocket from my dad and buy all sorts of stuff. I didn't need multiple black and white televisions, that kind of stuff. That was the kind of kid I was. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we went out, I took, took the kids out this weekend to see their cousins and, and to kick around. And I got to say, man, like first or second garage. So we went to, I scored a, a vintage Marlboro County jean jacket, denim jacket with a leather collar. Oh, wow. I will. You know, I'll put I'll put a I'll put a photo in the slack if you want to see this. I guess I'll put it in gear. I'm not sure where it would go in the gear channel, but I'll put it in slack. This thing is sick, dude. It's like super boxy. It's in really nice shape. It's got a dark leather collar. Wow. I'm pretty pumped for that. It's obviously not exactly jean jacket season, but I definitely wore it around all day on Saturday anyways.
Jason Heaton That'll be your uniform at the wind up, I'm sure.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, dude, you remember how hot it was last year?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I know. I know. July in Chicago is usually pretty toasty. It was proper warm in July last year.
James Stacey But I mean, I'm looking forward to wind up. I'm looking forward to our sushi dinner. Yeah. Our annual sushi dinner. It's gonna be good. We're gonna have a fun time. Yeah. But yeah, that's all I've gotten up to. How deep are you into the training phase? Because you're so close now. We're recording on June 4th, which means what, you're 12 days away?
Jason Heaton Yeah. We leave, um, a week from tomorrow, we, we fly over to, to the UK and head over to Wales. And, uh, yeah, it's Sunday, the 16th is the, the fan dance. I mean, geez, I've been talking about this for six months. I'm kind of getting tired of talking about it. I just want to get on with it at this point. And certainly I've been training hard for, for months and I'm kind of in that wind down phase, the taper phase, if you want to call it like in marathon speak. Um, it's, it's time to like, just not do much, too much hard stuff and let the legs recover and just fuel up. Oh, for sure. Um, but I did want to do one last big kind of Hill workout. So I did that on Saturday. You know, I had done one of these, I went to the kind of a local ski Hill. This was about a month ago. And I just did repeats up and down the ski Hill, which is as boring as it might sound. Um, you know, just like listening to an audio book and going up and down, up and down with a backpack full of weight. And, um, when I did that, um, I tweaked my knee. Um, and I kind of self-diagnosed it as either a strained or slightly torn medial collateral ligament. And, you know, doctors out there are probably rolling their eyes at my self diagnosis, but it kind of felt like that from all signs. And so I rested, I stopped running. I was kind of doing more swimming and biking and that sort of thing and let it rest. And so I thought, I felt like I needed to like test it a little bit, one more time to make sure I could actually, you know, pull this off over in Wales. And so I'm pleased to say that it, it, it went well on Saturday. I did. 3,000 vertical feet, uh, about eight and a half miles just up and down, you know, hyper boring. Um, and it was a really muggy day. I overdressed and just was like pouring with sweat, but I brought plenty of water and electrolytes and that sort of thing. So I was fine, but yeah, that felt good. And yeah, I feel as ready as I can be. I mean, we'll see how it goes. I, I still have some decisions to make in terms of, you know, clothing and footwear and, and all that. But, uh, yeah, I mean, let's, let's just move on with this and be done. So. We'll have one more episode next week and then, then I'm off.
James Stacey Yeah. We're going to have to record a couple of extras. The, uh, the Q and a just went up for April. I know. I know. Yeah. It's up. Uh, we'll do the May one before you leave as well. So that can go up, um, to cover, help cover some of that. And then beyond that, but sort of on the same topic, we are probably planning to take a little break during the summer. Like we usually do. It's usually the first couple of weeks of August. Yeah. But we'll, uh, we'll get the calendar together and make sure people are aware, but we'll, we'll take at least two weeks off. It might be more like three this year, but we'll see.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. But, uh, we've got a fun episode today. One that we, you know, we, we do these series every now and then we've got kind of a number of them that we we've done since the very beginning. Yeah. And this is one what we haven't done it in over a year. So yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. It's collection inspection, volume 12. So volume 11 was a vintage edition. and it was more than a year ago, episode 235, which I think would have been April 2023. No real reason to do wrist check for this episode because we're gonna be talking about the two watches that I assume you have yours on your wrist and I have mine on my wrist. Yeah. And we kinda kicked it back and forth, like what do we wanna do? We're gonna do Pelagos versus Pelagos, who's gonna pick two randoms. We don't normally coordinate the watches, but as you can see from the title of the episode, we decided to go with Jason's full fat, if that's the right term, 50 fathoms, and my absolute skim milk 50 fathoms, which is the Swatch Bioceramic Scuba 50. And that's what we're talking about. We're kinda comparing two watches that in some ways are super similar for obvious reasons, but in every other way, almost couldn't be more different. So I think it could be kind of a fun chat. You've had your 50 fathoms for maybe a year now?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I got it last February, February of 2023. So yeah, year and a half or so.
James Stacey Yeah. And I've had mine for just a couple months. I got it in April during watches and wonders. But and we'll get to this in a moment, a watch that I didn't necessarily see as being part of my collection. And its context has kind of changed once I had it on my wrist, and I've had a chance to wear it around. So yeah, Jason, why don't you give people the background on your Fifty Fathoms, the model, the specs, and how you ended up with it in the first place.
Jason Heaton Sure. Yeah, this is the Fifty Fathoms Automatic Reference 5015 from Blancpain, and it's quite a monster. This is the 45mm titanium version. They make a steel version of this as well with a solid caseback. This one is the titanium case, all matte, with a sapphire see-through caseback that shows this glorious caliber 1315, which is a Blancpain in-house automatic with, um, uh, it's got 120 hours of power reserve, um, anti-magnetic. I mean, it's a pretty impressive movement, even though I'm not really a movement guy, but I got this watch last February. I, if you recall from, from an episode we did back then, um, I had been invited by Blancpain to come to Rangaroa in French Polynesia to help them with, uh, first of all, it was the launch of the tech Gombessa, um, 50 fathoms that they did in collaboration with Laurent Balesta. They were launching it there, but they were also doing kind of a, a presentation of the work that he was doing with the, the mocha on protection society, which is a hammerhead shark research group over there. And so I, I had been invited and asked by Blancpain to, to moderate a panel discussion with a couple of scientists and with Laurent and with Mark Hayek, the CEO of Blancpain. And as, I guess you'd call it payment or thanks for my, my work for them. They, they surprised me actually with this, with this watch, which I, you know, I, I was as surprised as, as listeners might be in hearing that because it's not a, certainly not an inexpensive piece and it's a very impressive watch and one that I never thought I would own. And since then, you know, I got it in early February of that year of last year. And it was just a week before I did the ice diving festival, which was, was kind of, kind of cool timing because you know, the, the watch comes on this sail, sail cloth strap, which was not long enough to wear over a dry suit. So I swapped it out for a really long NATO that I had and took it ice diving. And then the next week, uh, I was off to, to French Polynesia and took a diving there. And so it was really kind of a nice early baptism of the watch. It kind of really bonded it with me. And I kind of see it now as, I guess I'd call it like my, my, my, my diving watch. Like if, if, if, if it's not like a branded, you know, press trip or something like that, like this is kind of the watch I think of when I'm going to go like diving for fun or something like this is the one I had strap on and it's, it's been, it's seen some action. You know, I took it to, to can when we were over there last fall in France and um, I've had it diving elsewhere as well in the great lakes. And so, you know, it's, it's just, it's kind of become a real core piece of my collection and I'm wearing it today and I wear it quite often on a number of different straps and, Yeah, it's just a really fun piece. I know that a lot of people find this one too big. I think for my wrist, 45 is probably the very outside limit of what works. I have a wrist that used to be seven and a quarter inches. I think it's kind of shrunk since I've lost some weight, kind of a flat bony wrist now. And, uh, it still looks okay. I think, you know, the lugs aren't super long in this watch and it, and it kind of works. It's a watch that I really kind of grown to love and I wear quite a bit.
James Stacey Yeah, they are. exceptionally beautiful things. Yeah. You know, I got, I got to see this briefly earlier this year and just, I would say if I was recommending somebody buy it, they should try on all this, whatever sizes are available. Right. And including the new 42. Yeah. But for you, like we have lots of history on this show all the way back to things like Braymont S two thousands where like you have a fondness for a big watch. And I do too, if it's the right big watch and it sounds like this one is for you.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I think the steel version, which I've tried before. I remember one of my earliest kind of diving reviews was, was the, if you remember, they made a 50 fathoms tribute to aqualung, which was kind of a small run piece. It had this big hole rally style sailcloth strap and it had the script aqualung text on the dial. It was kind of a rare piece. I don't really see them around, but I was able to take that diving in Florida. This was way back, probably 10 years ago. And that was my first kind of exposure to, to a Blancpain and I was always struck by, you know, the kind of the, calling card of this watch. Um, and, and something that Blancpain pioneered actually was this, the Sapphire bezel insert, which we see everywhere nowadays. Um, but it, it still strikes me as such a beautiful component of this watch. I think it's the standout kind of part of this watch, you know, it's these big, bold numerals at, you know, 1530 and 45 with the diamond zero marker, but then it's the slightly domed Sapphire. The numerals have this kind of, they're not super, I don't want to say bright or distinct, but they kind of almost have this fade to them. They look slightly vintage, um, has a tremendous ratchet to it. Um, it's, it's just to me, I just, I never get tired of looking at this watch. And I think I'm when, when Blancpain sent this to me, they, there was, I didn't have a clue what was coming and I would have been basically happy with anything of course. But, I was so happy to see that it was the titanium because the steel one has some polish to it and I think that the Blancpain writing that's on the case band is a very polarizing aspect of this watch. I think it just kind of disappears in this one. It's sort of hidden underneath because the case is matte you don't really notice it and it really doesn't bother me and kind of the overall matte nature of this watch just and the fact that it's titanium makes it so wearable for its size. I mean there's really nothing I don't like about it. In fact when I had it on today I was looking at it and the The date at four 30 again is another kind of polarizing design feature of it. Like even at, you know, to my 50 plus year old eyes looking down from, you know, eight inches away, like I almost can't even see the date. It actually disappears into kind of some shadow on the dial. Um, but then it's there when I need it. So it doesn't, doesn't really bother me too much. I think if there's one thing that I would change about this watch would be, well, two things, I guess it's the, it's the width of the, between the lugs for the strap. I mean, it's 23 millimeters, which is, as we know, um, you know, as, as you know, with a 21 millimeter, a couple of watches with 21 millimeters, 23 is almost impossible to find anything that's 23, unless you go to Blancpain or you kind of upsize a 22 or downsize a 24, which I do. And then the other thing is that the bars that actually hold the strap on are these, it's a very sturdy fit. Um, but it's this tiny like hex key, double sided, bar that requires, you know, two, two side, two tools, um, and, and a steady hand. And it's a tight fit. So if I want to put even a slightly thicker NATO on, I have to take the bars out and kind of feed it through and then sure. You know, fiddle with the bars, but you know, these are kind of small niggles that I've got. But, um, other than that, I would say it's almost a kind of a perfect piece. It's got a great movement, beautiful kind of aesthetics and, uh, you know, great reputation and just, yeah, I just love it.
James Stacey That's great. Yeah. I, uh, I have a handful of questions for you, uh, but let me kick off my pick, uh, and give a similar context. So, uh, as I mentioned, I'm wearing a watch that is, there's no way that you could make a watch that as similar and as dissimilar at the same time, uh, is kind of a fun thing, but I'm wearing the, uh, swatch bioceramic scuba 50 X Blancpain ocean of storms. So obviously, we had the bioceramic Speedmaster stuff, and then kind of the next act of that, obviously they did a ton of those, was to make these bioceramic Scuba 50s from Swatch, and they came in, I think, five original versions, all quite colorful. And when those came out, a colleague at Hodinkee got the blue one, and I was pretty keen on it, and then I saw it in person, and that keenness kind of evaporated. I didn't feel any way about it. I definitely didn't feel like I needed one, Fast forward several months, we're in... I think I've told this story on TGN, but I definitely have on Hodinkee Radio, so I'll be nice and quick, but fast forward a few months, we're... Danny and I are going out to buy some watches as gifts for some of the team that did a ton of behind the scenes work at Watches and Wonders, and while we're at the shop, they have everything.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I was like, well, I could use the Ocean of Storms, which is the all black model, as a, you know, could make for a good story, a fun thing, just something to try. You know, I had had my experience with the bioceramic Speedmaster, and it really didn't connect with it. I bought the Mars one. I probably should have bought Jupiter. I never found a strap that worked with the Mars one. Red didn't look right. I can't wear white straps. It's just a taste thing. I don't care for them at all. And so I wore that watch for like a couple hours. when I got it, put it in the box and then eventually sold it on the slack last year. Now, I saw that they had the black one, I figured I'd pick it up, I'd grab it. They're $400 is what they retail for versus I think $15,700 for your watch. Yeah, $18,700 actually. Oh, it's eight? Okay, I was looking at the wrong number. So $18,700 for the the real 50 fathoms and $400 for swatches version of it. Those numbers definitely hold up in my mind and I'm definitely fine with the $400. I'll get to the details of that. 42.3 millimeters, so it's the size of the new titanium, the smaller mid sized 50 fathoms that they launched after the scuba 50. 14.4 millimeters thick, and 48 millimeters log to log, it uses a system 51 mechanical movement, which means it's not eminently serviceable at all. That's kind of the only thing I don't like about the system 51. Otherwise, you'd almost swear you were using a 7S26 Seiko. The crown feels like it's connected to nothing. It doesn't feel especially sure-footed when you're winding it. I think the movement is so highly secondary I would have preferred if this was just a quartz that I could change the battery in, if I'm honest.
Unknown Oh yeah, yeah.
James Stacey I understand being a Swatch, you wanna do the System 51, it's their thing. It's almost entirely computer made movement or robot made movement, that sort of thing. And from an engineering standpoint, it is an interesting thing. It just isn't that serviceable at all, which I suppose should be a concern when you buy a watch for $400. Like if you buy a $400 Seiko, you can get it serviced, right? Yeah. If you want to. Whether people do, it's a whole other concept. I mean, we can get to that in a bit. 91 meters of water resistance, so that's 300 feet dead on. And then being a 50 fathoms, despite the swatch version, the loom is great. The bezel is loomed. The only thing that I would say I flat out don't like is the strap. Oh, yeah. You guys all know that I'm not a striped natal guy, especially not high contrast stripes like black and white or black and silver, maybe this strap is. So I just put it immediately on a 22 millimeter of our strap, like a TGN strap. Yeah, and that works fine and that's how I've been wearing it. The other thing that's nice about it is because of those lug bars, you can call them spring bars, there's no spring. Weirdly, the $400 swatch has the same bar.
Unknown Oh yeah.
James Stacey So you have to buy 2.9 hex keys, depending on where you live in the world, they might be called Allen keys, that's up to you. It's a hex key where I'm from, you have to buy two of them. Luckily, they come in a little pair because they're for Blancpain. but they have them on Amazon, which I knew because we talked about when you got your watch. The cool thing is, is they're very easy. It's not difficult to use. You're not going to strip it or threat or like have that issue. It's like a nicely made lug bar that screws into itself, but you do need to two of these little wrenches to do it. But the other thing I learned and I've talked about it and then I even told a friend the other day is the twenty two millimeter like strap from a Descent Mark II, like a Garmin, the clip-on quick-release strap, clicks right onto that bar like it was made for. Oh, yeah. Now, it doesn't do that on mine.
Jason Heaton So I've been wearing it on the... There's not that clearance. It's like just too tight to the case.
James Stacey There's a little bit more clearance in this case, yeah. Because this one I can thread a NATO very easily, like the standard TGN NATO just threads right through without problem. And I've also worn it like on the watches of espionage, like the green with the single black stripe is kind of rad on this watch as well. And that's, that's me dipping my toe in like challenging my, my, my hatred towards Nato's stripe Nato's. Um, but I, when they don't look preppy, I don't mind the look. So like the bond ones are kind of cool. The, the watches espionage ones are cool, but like the stuff that used to come on a Timex weekender in 2009, I can't do it. It doesn't, doesn't, doesn't work for my, my aesthetic sensibilities. Like I said, I bought it kind of like a bit, like I thought it would make a cool story or something like that, and then I started wearing it. I kind of fell in love with it. It's the easy way to respond, like it's so much fun to wear, and for a person like me who's worn a handful of 50 fathoms over the years, had borrowed them, that kind of thing, you look down, it's a 50 fathoms. Yeah, yeah. Like I understand that it's not, and if you're a 50 fathoms collector, I could see how these might bother you for sure, if you're like if you want, if you're going the purest route. I'm not much of a purist in most things, I, you know, there's, I think there's a diminishing returns when it comes to being a purist about something. It can help maintain a product, but it can't necessarily ever make it better or more interesting. I got this and I really, my expectations were kind of low, especially after my experience with the Speedy. And I think this feels a little bit more premium than the Speedy. Definitely when you get to the dial, it's not the dial of a $400 watch, not today anyway. Yeah. Yeah. This is actually quite nice for the money. Yeah. The legibility is excellent. It's big, applied luminous markers, big luminous hands. The date is very easy to read, doesn't need a cyclops or anything like that. I don't like a 4.30 date. I'm on record. I like them even less when the date is tilted away as it is in the Blancpain setting. But on this watch, is this a deal breaker? No, absolutely not. Yeah. As far as like the general details go, we can get into some of the finer points as we keep chatting. But I bought this kind of expecting very little and based on what I was expecting, absolutely thrilled by it. It's a little big at 14.4 when you add the NATO, but for a summer dive watch, I don't care how big it is. It still weighs nothing because it's essentially made out of plastic. They're gonna call it bioceramic. I'm sure there's something different from the plastic that goes into your office chair or whatever, but it wears and feels like a nice plastic. if that's not what you want from your $400 watch, there's lots of other watches out there, but this is, it's kind of a unique experience to have a 50 fathoms design language. That's just in, in this sort of, uh, otherwise kind of cheapest chips execution. Uh, I, uh, I dig it way more than I thought I would.
Jason Heaton I, that sounds like kind of the best, the best case scenario. And I think for, for those of us, and you know, we've, we've talked maybe about our experience in the, in the business and kind being watch collectors for a good long time, like you can get jaded to seeing so many watches and there's very little that impresses you anymore. And to, to have something that you don't have high expectations of and then it over delivers, I think is, is really the best, you know, best scenario possible. And, and I have to admit, I didn't care for the color ways of the other, um, Blancpain swatch, you know, scuba's and, and, but this one really stands out, I think, it's as if like you took the watch that I'm wearing and you DLC the case or something like that. It's, I love that, that it's black. I love that pop of color with the depth rating on the dial. It's like just this little hint of orange. And I don't know, to me, like the fact that it is properly like 50 fathoms in depth rating is something that, that I just love about it. I think it's just fun. Yeah, it is. It's so cool because you know, I guess if there's, you know, one of the things that sort of bugs me about, the one I'm wearing is it says 50 fathoms in that classic script on the dial, but then underneath it, it says 300 meters or a thousand feet. And it's like, ah, you know, a, I wish they kind of had left off that kind of the real depth rating underneath. It sort of is a little jarring and the kind of different font, but like, I love that the one you have is actually rated for 50 fathoms of depth. I just think that's kind of a neat wink. Um, really cool. And you said it's 15.4 thick. Is that what you said?
James Stacey 14.4. 14.4.
Jason Heaton Minus 15.4. So not dissimilar.
James Stacey I don't think it wears poorly, to be clear. I actually think this is quite comfortable. Would you wear a plastic watch to a formal event? I wouldn't, so the thickness becomes less important. And I see this deeply as a fun summer watch. In thinking about it, and I thought about it a fair bit, I think the reason that the black works is because the black is much closer versus, say, orange or the bright gray or the blue, the black is much closer to the way that light hits steel or deals with steel. Oh, sure. Yeah, yeah. This is just a step closer to the reality that you actually have on your wrist or somebody might have on theirs with a, quote unquote, like a real, a legit full fat 50 fathoms. Yeah. And I think the black just takes one gimmick away from it versus the bright orange, the bright green, and those are cool. And if that's the... I think the only point of these things, and I think Swatch is pretty clear on this, Blancpain's been pretty clear on this, the point of this is just to have some fun. Yeah, yeah. They're not looking to change the buyer makeup of their $20,000 watch, of their prestigious first dive watch, all this kind of stuff. Yeah. They're just trying to have a little bit of a good time, maybe expand the audience a little bit. And I think within that guise, In a world where the strap for a Blancpain is gonna be a grand. Yeah, yeah. Depending on what it... Or I don't actually know, like their sail cloth NATO, I think at one point was like about $400, $500. Right. That's with the hardware and everything, and if you've had a 50 Fathoms Bathyscaphe, it's an incredible strap. Yeah. And if I was spending $15,000 on a watch, I want an incredible strap. If I spend $400 on a watch, I want a certain experience, and I do think that this watch delivers more than that for the number. I don't think it's built like from a value standpoint. You're not getting the best watch for $400. System 51 is compromised in terms of being serviced. You're paying for a plastic case rather than a steel case. This is a little bit more disposable. But I think as a sort of like totem or a token to fun and design and the legacy of the 50 Fathom, I think this is a fun little thing. I'm surprised they did it. Absolutely. I'm still surprised they did the Speedy. And if the rumors are true and the next one might be something like a Royal Oak, I'd be very surprised if that was true. I'll just remain surprised. Right.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I think for, for a watch, like you, when you think about like, okay, let's say you were going to go on a holiday to Cozumel or to Hawaii or something like that. And you wanted kind of a watch that you wouldn't have to worry about, but like you could still take in the water. And it kind of gave you that same buzz of like looking at your wrist and seeing that you have like a 50 fathoms on like you couldn't get better than that. Like it's perfect. Like you're not compromising. You're not, You're not saying, well, I guess I'll just take my, you know, Seiko monster, nothing against Seiko monsters, but like, you know, like this is just has this like weird, you know, sort of insider wink. Like you, you wear this piece in the, in the ocean. It's like, you're, it might give you that same buzz or that same thrill. Like when, when you were a kid and like took a watch in the water, like, this is like, I've got a, like a 50 fathoms on my wrist for all intents and purposes.
James Stacey Yeah, I think where this is really gonna shine is if you're like me, you've always loved the 50 fathoms, but mentally, you're not really the type of guy that would spend 15 or 20 grand on a watch. Yeah. I've been into watches pretty deeply for a long time, professionally for 8, 9, 10 years, and I still don't know that I would spend that much on a watch. Yeah. And it's not a question of having or not having the money. Yeah. It's just a comfort zone with a price point. Yeah. 15 grand, that's what I spent on cars. Right. And I know there's people in the audience laughing at that, because that's a low number for a car, especially these days, right? Yeah. Yeah. And the other, the final thing that I would highlight in this question of like, is a 50 fathoms, a scoop of 50, that is like good value. Try and get your way out of the cognitive dissonance of like a quote unquote legit 50 fathoms, like what Jason is talking about being, what did we say? 18 grand? Yeah. Call it that? Yeah. 18 grand, What's a good titanium watch start at 600 bucks, 700 bucks, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So then this is $400. Yeah. And what does a plastic watch start at 30 bucks? Yeah. Right. 50 bucks for a flick flack. Yeah. Yeah. That Delta is a lot, a lot more narrow with the scuba 50 than it is with the full on dive watch. Yeah. And like every everyone's going to have their own opinion on things like branding. I don't necessarily find that to be that interesting. you know, I saw a lot of people say like I would on Reddit, for example, like people were saying, like I would rather mod a Seiko to look like a 50 fathoms and I absolutely understand that perspective. I do. It makes sense because you'd be getting a watch that would last. It could be serviced. It'd be made out of steel. Yeah, that sort of thing, but it's an entirely different. That's like it's like that's two different things. Yeah. Yeah. This watch also nails a difficult mix for a gimmick or a bit watch and I think of this one any watch that's mostly about color and impact, and in this case about kind of carrying on in the mode of the history of the 50 Fathoms. Yeah. I think this watch has a nice mix of maturity and kind of gimmick or whimsy. The black makes it a very wearable everyday watch. I think if you didn't know watches at all, this isn't a watch that would necessarily have you turn your head if somebody wore it to a business meeting, an interview, a hangout, whatever. Yeah, it's like it has this subtlety to it, but at the same time it has, it gets to kind of impart itself into the world of the 50 fathoms and the history of that and the diving and the aquatic and the high end nature of the kind of core product and that kind of thing, which it's a difficult thing to kind of like encapsulate into one perspective. And I do understand why some people would see this and hate it. I saw it and kind of just felt indifferent until I had it on my wrist. They just wear really well and The weirdest sentence that I might say in this entire show is it wears like a watch. And I think I expected it to wear like a trinket or a reminder of a different watch.
Jason Heaton I remember going to the swatch store when the, the, uh, the moon swatches came out and then tried one on. And I, cause I was very curious and I thought, do I want one of these? It looked, they look kind of cool. And then I tried one and it was like, this does not hit right. It didn't feel right. It didn't look right. And You know, I didn't try the, what was it, the moon version that looks very, the closest to a Speedmaster, but I think because of the orientation of the, the sub dials, um, I don't know what else about it. It just didn't, didn't feel right. This one, it's so close to, to kind of the, the actual Blancpain 50 fathoms, but not, I mean, I think even the grip on the bezel and the, and the crown are identical. Um, it's got the domed, bezel, same markers, you know, same date placement, all of that. And I think not that I'm saying that it's like an homage or a rip off or something like that, but it's, it's close enough to the real one that, you know, that might lend itself to the, why it feels more like a watch than, than the, the moon swatches did.
James Stacey I don't know. And look, I've got, we've, we've gone deep way deeper into my side of this, but I was thinking we'd go back and forth, but I have some questions for you about yours.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah.
James Stacey The last thing I wanted to add about this one is, It's a dive watch and a cheap dive watch really comes down to, in my mind, only a couple of things. And what I'm about to say will be divisive for some people. But if you're spending less than $500 on a dive watch, and let's say more clearly, if you're comparing quality to quality, I think with something like this, you're looking at a $200 dive watch maybe. And that could be coming from Timex, it could be coming from any number of sort of well known entry level brands, $200, $300, something like that. Yeah. What I will say is the bezel on this watch is significantly better than it needs to be, and that's one of the things that needs to be good on a dive watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey The loom has to be good and they nailed it. The markers and hands are bright, the bezel treatment is very bright, and the other thing is the bezel itself is surprisingly good. I'll give you a little sound because people enjoy that.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So it's a loud, very straightforward click, but the accuracy... And it could be that there's so little weight being a plastic bezel and it's easier to kind of spring or support that weight in a way, but the accuracy and the lack of slop in the way that it fits the case, I have much more expensive watches, like into low four figures, where if you grab the bezel and put your fingertips against the case, you can kind of shift the bezel a third of a millimeter laterally, so like against the circumference of the crystal. It's hard to describe in audio. This has none of that, like zero. Wow. Talk about something I did not expect from a $400 watch made of plastic. That's essentially a really cool marketing exercise for one of the first dive watches ever made. Yeah, I just expected it to be... Oh, it's there, you can turn it, it's good. But like I said, I come across way more watches from way more established concepts in the watch world, like long standing dive watch manufacturers, where the bezel has way less attention given to how it feels, how it turns, how it's connected to the case. Yeah.
Jason Heaton So like little things like that, just if you, if you really love dive watches, I think if you put one of these on and turn the bezel, you'd go, Oh, now, is it strange that, that, you know, in listening to you talk about it, looking at a lot of photos of this, like, and even though I'm wearing like quote unquote, the real deal, like I really want one of these, I really want one of these ocean of storms. Like it's, I'm not sure it would hit that much differently, but, but, There's just something that I'd feel kind of smug wearing it. I think it'd be just a blast. I might have to go. There's a swatch shop at the mall of America. I might have to go see if they've got any of these. That's really cool.
James Stacey If you, if you don't have one in the next six weeks, I will bring it to Chicago and you can borrow it for a while for sure. Yeah. But I just think it's, it's super fun. I would love to see them do this exact execution, but in dark gray, just take it up a few shades. Obviously like a, Look who's talking. Of course I want it in gray.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But yeah, that, that would be cool. But yeah, I just, it's $400 of fun. Is it $400 of screaming value? No, I'm sitting here, you know, also at the desk just in front of me. Cause I've been wearing it for the last couple of days is my marathon SS nav D. Yeah. That watch is a thousand dollars of great value. Yeah. Really nicely made super functional, super legible, really genuinely useful, subtle on your wrist. Great on other straps. everything I kind of want from a quartz watch in one watch. It's just it's great or like also right next to it, because I find them to weirdly similar watches in the way they're useful is the I've got my CWC. Those watches offer something else, and I think if you were looking for a value statement, this probably isn't the first place I'd go, but if you want some fun and you don't mind the fact that the watch probably isn't going to be a long term part of your life, I don't think you're going to get 10 years out of a scuba 50. I'd be happy to be wrong. This is a full on assumption. I just don't think you will. At least not in great running order. I'm sure you can keep it or whatever, but I think these are sort of an interesting thing. In considering comparisons, I've talked a little bit about that for this level, the bioceramic $400 option. When you get into nearly $20,000, I'm just thinking of the other dive watches you have that are largely known quantities. How do you delineate the differences between, say, your 50 Fathoms and your FXD and your Submariner? Two very well-known, highly regarded dive watches.
Jason Heaton Well, the Submariner is an easy one because I think my Submariner is... Gosh, it's a 140-60, so now it's getting pretty long in the tooth in terms of ages of high-end watches. And that one is probably from late nineties, early two thousands. I think it was sitting in the case for a while before I picked it up when, when I turned 40, but you know, it's, it's a steel watch. It's, it's slim. It has the aluminum insert on the bezel, the fold over kind of, you know, metal clasp on the bracelet. I mean, it's almost like a vintage piece now wears very differently. Certainly it's got its charm and it's high quality and the movement has always kept a good time, et cetera. But if you want to compare two watches from two different eras, from two high end brands, this watch definitely feels like this feels premium. This is like one watch. It's certainly my most valuable watch, you know, without compare. Um, I probably have a vintage piece or two that might be worth more on paper, but like in terms of retail price, like this is far and away above what anything else I own. And it feels that way. Like this is one watch. I'm not one, I've probably been on record of saying this, but I'm not one to like, sit with a loop and, you know, admire, you know, the bevels on a movement finish or anything like that. But this watch, you can do that. And I do, I do have a loop sitting on my desk here. And, and with this watch every once in a while, I do that. And I do Marvel at the beauty of the movement, which, and normally I don't care about clear case backs, but with this one, I do appreciate that. Oh, you'd want it. I mean, it's, it's just, it's a lovely movement. Um, I really like the fact that I don't care about in house on just as a, as a term or as a concept, but, I love what this movement does. I love that it has 120 hours of power reserve. Like normally I wouldn't care. I think you go from, what is it? The 28, 24 kind of categories, like 38 hours and then you get up to something, 70 or 80 hours is yeah, it's nice. And then you go to like 120 and you realize like this thing can sit for, you know, several days. Um, which isn't my usual practice, but it is pretty cool. When I take this off, if I'm gardening or I'm wearing the Garmin for a few days and like I pick it up and it's still keeping dead on good time, almost entirely anti-magnetic. It's so on paper, that's great. I think in hand, um, I love the grip on the, on the crown and on the bezel. It's just, it just feels a notch above everything. Now, the two watches that I wear the most are the ones you mentioned, and that's the Pelagos FXD and this one, and both happen to be titanium. I would say they're about as different as you can get. You know, the, the, the Pelagos is, it feels fully utilitarian. Like it's a, it's a high end watch, certainly, you know, at around a $4,000 price point, but it's, it just feels more like, like it was built for a very specific purpose. Very matte right down to the, you know, the, the bezel and the dial. This one has, even though it's a matte case, it has some gloss, it has some glitter to it with the, the applied markers and the, and the domed Sapphire bezel. Um, and it's bigger and it's weight wise, it's probably negligible, but, um, this just feels like a bigger watch, which is probably the reason I wear it slightly less, um, than the Pelagos. The Pelagos just feels like the kind of watch I would put on and almost invite, it sounds terrible, invite harm or invite, you know, like some sort of a rough and tumble activity rather than this one, which like I've said earlier, it's, it feels like a proper diving watch. And I want to pull this on over a wetsuit or dry suit and take it, you know, underwater. But with the FXD, like I feel like it sits lower to the wrist. Um, I want to take it running. Um, you can only wear it on a NATO. So it just feels like it feels like a, like a higher end, you know, CWC or something like that. But yeah. And, and a lot of it, I've tried to analyze this, whether or not the knowledge of, kind of Blancpain's prestige and the price of this watch. I've, I've tried to figure out whether that affects the way I think about it or the way I perceive the watch versus, you know, what it is on the wrist. Because that's something I've always struggled with is, um, you know, even back to my earliest days, I wrote kind of a post on watch you seek. And I said, what really is the difference between an SKX and a planet ocean? Cause I had the two at the time. And I was like, they're both in house. They both, you know, can go deep. They both have, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I got really ripped in the feedback on that post. And people were like, well, you don't know what you're talking about. And, you know, looking back, I was probably naive and young, early collector.
James Stacey Well, I also, obviously, you know, welcome to the internet where someone asks a question, AKA they want to figure something out and people make fun of them for not being able to figure it out.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton What is this? Right. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
James Stacey I know. I don't know. That's why I asked in a public setting.
Jason Heaton But I love both watches equally. I love the FXD and I love this one equally. I mean, side by side, like if, you know, the house were to, go up in a, you know, in a Inferno, like, and I had those two watches that I ran out with, not that I'm going to seek them out if that happened, but like, I'd be very happy with being left with those two. They're both fantastic watches in very different ways.
James Stacey I love the 50 fathoms. I think obviously even for TGN, but just in the general sense of the world, $18,000 for watches, a ton of money. The thing that I always found interesting was, you know, over the last several years, some brands, let's just use Rolex as the easiest example, had a huge come up in terms of their secondary market prices. That's starting to fade thankfully and go back to normal or return to a new normal, whatever you want to call it. But I always found it interesting that people were willing to, you know, let's say a sub is what, maybe 11 grand, something like that. And they were willing to spend 20 without realizing that that jump takes you to a whole other level of like, even, even for dive watches, like what's available on the market. Yeah. When you spoke with Mark Hayek, and I can link that in the show notes, the CEO of Blancpain, when you spoke to him and you talked about the possibility of a less expensive Blancpain, it was a pretty unequivocal no. And you just have to think they just want to maintain a position that's above what Rolex is up to. And I think that in my mind, the 50 fathoms is the luxury dive watch. Whereas the sub has always kind of very carefully blended whatever Rolex is capable of doing at the time with a conventional down the middle dive watch. Right. There's something unconventional about a 50 fathoms. Yeah. Yeah. It's the sapphire bezel. It's a little bit like fancy is the wrong word. They're a little bit more like elegant or even resplendent. Like there's there's embellishes that are there because they are a luxury product. But it's interesting where even with yours, even with a watch of that value, maybe it's the titanium, but I don't think I'd feel that differently about the steel. until you get into a precious metal, they still feel toolish like on your wrist, they feel like something you can take diving and not like something where the intended owner is someone who owns a boat that you could die from, but doesn't even have time to drive his boat around, right? You know what I mean? It's definitely a rich guy product for sure, $20,000 watch or whatever, but it doesn't only code itself in the experience as a rich guy thing. If you hand me a Royal Oak Offshore Diver, it's a rich guy thing. Right. Can you take a diving? Absolutely, you have, right? Yeah. And that's one of the few other watches that I kind of put in a similar head space to the full fat 50 fathoms. Yeah, I forgot about that. And if people don't understand that statement, full fat, I don't mean this watch is fat or that it's big. I'm referring to the way that milk is. Yeah. They move the fat around in milk and this is the full fat or call it table cream.
Unknown The rich one. I'm sure there's... Yeah.
James Stacey terms other places in the world, but you've homogenized milk and 2% and skim and that kind of thing. And when I say full fat, it's a product... This is the main one, the big one. And I think that's what you've got in that. I do think it's interesting that they've managed to make something that fancy, way fancier than a dive watch needs to be, both in its history and its modern execution, the rest of it, while still maintaining the ability for it to feel like a tool watch.
Jason Heaton Blancpain's brand that I've kind of developed a relationship with over the past few years. I did a live aboard trip with them. I've been to French Polynesia. We went to can most recently I was in that Oceana expedition in the channel islands that was via Blancpain and I've wore this watch on that as well. And I've come to really develop a warmth for the brand. You know, certainly being invited on trips doesn't hurt, but also I think their commitment and their interest in diving is, unusual in, in the luxury space. I think, you know, Omega, you know, they make some lovely dive watches. Of course, Rolex is very committed to environmental causes and science and, and they make a wonderful dive watch too. But like Blancpain, I think it, it truly trickles down from Mark Hayek and his love of diving. And like our, our episodes that we've done with Laurent Balesta and like his work is just, and the development of something like the tech Gombessa or the X fathoms, like there's some, they just imbue the whole brand from top to bottom to the watch you're wearing, um, with this like love of diving and this commitment to it in a, in a very serious way. Yeah. They respect their own history in it. And I hope that never changes. And I think that, yeah, that might also have a bearing on my perception of, of this watch and this brand.
James Stacey I think it's really important to consider those things because I, I think if you really love sea dwellers, it's because it has to... You have to do that because the connection to Sea Lab and what a sea dweller was. And if you really love Submariners, it's because some part of its history. And maybe Speedy, it's about the moon, even though Speedmaster hasn't been to a moon in a while. Don't get me wrong, they sell a product with a huge amount of margin and they wanna use some of that money to do something good. I don't think it needs to feel that much different than that. And even if it's not something good or bad, that's up to you to decide. everything Laurent does is rad. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And if you want, if you want me to feel, to have some sort of emotional connection to a product, I probably can't even afford in this lifetime. It's through guys like Lauren and it's through chats with guys like Mark who actually like diving and actually love dive watches and that sort of thing. And this is, we harp on it a lot, buying a watch from an enthusiast, whether that's an enthusiast brand or the under or watch that was made under the direction of an enthusiast. is cooler than buying a watch that came not from an enthusiast. Right. And I think that's one of the few things that keeps a product as expensive and erudite and upper crust and luxurious as a 50 fathoms rooted is it's rooted in is still in this in this interest, passion and educational element of the seas and the oceans.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. And I think, you know, we talk about micro brands being brands that, you know, are that grew out of an enthusiast community and they're made by enthusiasts. And I think you could at the very high level that that is exactly what I feel about Blancpain with the 50 fathoms. I mean, when we talked to Mark Hayek, I think the first question I asked him was, you seem like someone who would be happier on a dive boat than, than sitting in a boardroom or whatever. And he laughed. I mean, he was like, yeah, I mean, you can, you can just sense that. And then it trickles down through, through their products. I'm also glad you mentioned the sea dweller because I asked like, what would you cross shop this watch with? And I think the AP, offshore diver is certainly one of them. But I think like a sea dweller is that, that level higher of, of in the Rolex family of like watches that like, if you're buying that, you probably know a little something about it unless you're just looking to get the most expensive Rolex dive watch or the biggest one might go to the deep sea or something like that. But like, yeah. Um, but you're right. Like there's just an extra element of like, you know, you see someone with a 50 fathoms on even, even the, you know, the swatch, the scuba 50 that you have, like, that is something that's just a tick different, you know, a little bit left of center or something than, than kind of the standard, you know, Seiko or whatever you might see. And you might think, okay, that guy kind of gets it. He knows Blancpain, he knows like he's into diving a little bit, et cetera.
James Stacey Yeah. I think that's the, I think that's the best way I can put it. This is a brand that I feel very enthusiastic about, despite, as I've mentioned several times, so not currently being an owner, this is as close as I've gotten and I'll, maybe I'll get there someday. Maybe things will work out. Maybe we'll do something good and be rewarded for it. And that's, that's the direction. Maybe it can be my retirement watch. I don't know. I don't feel that I don't feel a sense of FOMO for the 50 fathoms partly, partly because I've got this scuba 50 on my wrist. I think it's definitely helped. And now when I see a photo of your 50 fathers or something, it makes me think of this one. And I don't know if that was a planned thing that you'd, that you'd have this sort of like connective tissue between the two, just in terms of people's experience. But if that's the way it works out, Swatch should be doing this with any brand that has a watch that doesn't have the right audience yet or deserves a bigger audience of enthusiasts. I think it makes sense. I think that the Speedmaster was a largely well known watch to begin with. The 50 fathoms is a little bit more subtle of a product and not marketed as heavily as an Omega product, that sort of thing. And I think it's fascinating to see, to think that there are people who in 10, 15, 20 years, we might be reading a watch blog where the person's first watch of any note was a scuba 50. Yeah. Yeah. Like if I, if I had to, if I had to suggest a watch for a 16 year old today, it'd be pretty cool one. I'd probably suggest one of these. It's not a bad, it's a deeply cool watch. It's subtle enough that you could wear it to school and the rest of it. It's not so precious that it, you, it would be terrible if it got lost or whatever. Yeah. I dig it. These are, these are cool things. I like them. I like both ends of this scale. It's a $20,000 Delta roughly. Let's be more fair, it's an $18,000 Delta between the two, and I think they're both a lot of fun. I think that a lot of my perceptions of the Scuba 50 were derived from the general hype cycle around the watch, both the negative and positives, but I had to get the watch in my hand to get through that noise. And don't get me wrong, Jason, sometimes you and I are part of that noise. We talked about this watch when it came out, the rest of it, but when a watch is kind of clouded with these sorts of things, or any product really, maybe the good reviews and bad reviews and people with having more of a pundent position and people having more of a learned and all these things kind of blend together, try and just get your hands on whatever it is and make your own decision. Because this is a watch that I wrote off until someone said, Oh, we do have them if you want one. Yeah. And I was like, Oh, I can literally feel my credit card calling me like the ring. Let's do it. Right. Yeah. But yeah, that was the last thing I wanted to say is I had a bunch of preconceptions and despite being quote unquote, an expert in this field, dive watches, that sort of thing. I learned something as soon as I bought the watch and tried it on.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So, yeah, I think that's where I, where I would leave it. If you get a chance to try on a 50 fathoms, hang out, get one, whether it's a plastic one or steel, titanium, gold, whatever you like, you know, we're fans. I think, I think they, they kind of represent the absolute upper crust of like what we, what we focus on here at TGN.
Jason Heaton Yeah, this was fun too. It was fun to do kind of two watches on the same you know, different ends of the same spectrum from the same brand. We haven't really done that in the past. So really cool.
James Stacey All right.
Jason Heaton How about some final notes? Yeah, let's do it. Um, I will first, I, you know, today as this episode goes live is, uh, the anniversary of D day, the 80th anniversary. And, um, I was trying to think of like a good thing to recommend for, for kind of D day viewing or reading or something like that. And certainly saving private Ryan was, was a predictable choice. So I avoided that. And I'm sure everybody's kind of seen that. but in kind of nosing around on YouTube, I came across this account called upscaled history. And I think they do, I think they kind of specialize in like colorizing old film and, and kind of upgrading them, et cetera. Um, and they have one called D-Day 80th anniversary fittingly. Um, I believe it was actually just released June 1st. Yeah. And I haven't watched the whole thing, but I started kind of scanning through it and it's, it's pretty cool. Like it's, I think, you know, when you see a movie like saving private Ryan or you watch Dunkirk or any of these, you know, band of brothers, anything like that, like the dramatization of those events can be very realistic, very gripping and very moving. Um, but to see the actual footage is it's very moving. It's kind of spooky almost like it's, it's, it's really interesting to kind of, I just like watching old movies just to like observe like what people are wearing, what their facial expressions are, how people looked back then, you know, the, the vehicles, whatever. And I think, D-Day is one of those days in history that, I mean, it's become just part of our lexicon. Like you say D-Day for almost anything, you know, uh, business-wise or anything, but it's, it's such an iconic moment. So this was just really cool. And I, like I said, I haven't finished it yet, but I just recommend people take a look at it. And certainly if, if, if people have other recommendations for, for good documentaries, I was looking for something like on PBS or something like that. But, uh, certainly let us know because I, I kind of get into this stuff. I like these old, um, kind of war documentaries and I've, I've taken a greater interest in world war two history more in the past few years than, than I previously had. Um, and it's kind of an era that, that fascinates me totally. And today of all days is a good day to kind of revisit that.
James Stacey Absolutely, yeah. D-Day, 80th anniversary from Upscaled History. It's an hour and a half long and rendered out in 4K. So put it on the big screen. I think this is a nice time of year. I always like to do Band of Brothers during Remembrance Day, which is November 11th here in Canada. Whether it's this or it's something else, this Thursday would be a great opportunity to just try and remember just what kind of hell that was. I think it's important not to lose sight of it. It was a long time ago, 80 years. Um, but at the same time, not that long ago, it's like both. Uh, yeah, this is a good one. Thanks. Uh, thanks very much for, uh, suggesting that when I saw it, I was like, Oh, should I do band of brothers? Should I do same private Ryan is like that people know all of it. We've recommended all of it before, but this is, this is a good one. And this is, I think what I'll be, this'll make up my Thursday plans. I think I'm going to try and get up to the cottage by then. So cool. Yeah. Snuggle up on the couch and, and, uh, uh, you know, get, get this up on the projector. It should be good. Nice. Alright, mine this week is actually just something I've been using for the last few months and I'm very happy with it and I finally realized I hadn't spoken about it in any specificity. It is a workbench, a folding workbench from DeWalt. It's the kind of thing that you see at Home Depot or wherever you buy these sorts of things in your area and you think like, oh, that might be useful. This is more like a workhorse, like a flat surface to cut or clamp things to. just put tools on while you're doing another job. And then it's essentially one button to pop the legs out or to put them back in.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And it's like it has a nice weight. It's light enough that you can move it around your yard or your house pretty easily, but it's heavy enough that you can kind of trust it if you've got stuff kind of clamped to it. And it's got a ton of clamping holes and shapes and all that kind of stuff. So I'm really happy with this. It's only $100. And even if you're not necessarily doing woodworking or you know, quote unquote, like construction project, construction projects. I think if you just want a table for hobbies, this could be very useful if your hobby ever requires things like clamp. Yeah. It does what a table does. It keeps it at the right height. And then when I'm done with it, I press a button and I push the handle in and the legs slam back into place and you tuck it away. If you think of like a cart, like those fold out leg, folding leg card tables that everybody's got one or two of.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey It's the elevated DeWalt version of that for a hundred bucks that when, when a, uh, you know, a four foot folding tables, 50 bucks. This makes a lot of sense to me. I use it a ton.
Jason Heaton Yeah, this is a, this'd be a worthy upgrade. I have, I mean, I have a very old, probably inherited from my dad, a black and Decker workmate, if you remember those and it works, it's not as steady. It's certainly not as big as this. And it's a little fiddly like to get the legs out. It has this like slotted thing where you have to twist these locking screws and then slide. I was pinched my finger. Um, it has these like little plugs that go into like hold, you know, you can kind of support pieces of wood between and those are always falling out and losing on the floor in the garage. Yeah. For a hundred bucks, this is nice. And it just, it looks so easy to deploy and carry and lean against the wall or hang or whatever. So yeah, I like it.
James Stacey Yeah. I would say if you, if you want to spend more than a hundred dollars, make your own table. There's a thousand YouTube, uh, like plans that you can download and watch somebody build, make your own table if you need more. But if you want to buy something that can go into the backyard that you can throw in the back of the car and take and use as a camping table on the weekends. It's just nice for all of that. And the price seems fair, which for some of this stuff, it never seems fair.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey It's cost less than a pretty low end DeWalt battery.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And it holds a thousand pounds. That's amazing.
James Stacey I have not tested that. I have stood on it for sure. So we know it can hold 200 pounds.
Jason Heaton Wow.
James Stacey Nice. Yeah.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, fun episode. Collection Inspection, Volume 12. Hope people enjoy it. 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 TGN signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. And music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote from Marcus Aurelius, who said, It never ceases to amaze me. We all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.