The Grey Nato - Ep 30 - Pre Basel + Q&A
Published on Tue, 21 Mar 2017 09:34:51 -0400
Synopsis
The hosts discuss their excitement and expectations for the upcoming Baselworld watch fair, including potential new releases from Rolex, Omega, Seiko, and other brands celebrating anniversaries this year. They also share their plans for covering the event through social media posts, vlogs, and a future podcast episode. Additionally, they cover topics like their preferred travel gear, music recommendations, and a movie documentary suggestion.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Jason Heaton | Hello? |
| James | Hey James, how are you doing? Good, man. I think I hung up on you on the first call there. You'd think I know how to use Skype by now. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, well, you're probably out of practice since we were in person last time we recorded. It's been a while. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. You want to get episode 30 underway? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's go for it. |
| James | So our last show was from London, you know, it was at the Bramont event, episode 29. How have things been since then, since you got back? I found for whatever reason, like that was only like essentially 48 hours I spent in London. You were there a little longer, but not a lot. And yeah, I was really jet lagged for whatever reason. I don't know. |
| Jason Heaton | It didn't hit me that hard this time. I mean, I was getting up at about 4.30 when I got back home, which is acceptable to me. It seems like, I don't know if it's that one less time zone that I get hit with when I go to like Basel or Geneva. But 4.30 I can deal with. 3.30 is rough. So I used the time well. I finished my Randall Fiennes book that I talked about in the last show. So, you know, big thick book. I had a couple hours to get through that every day. |
| James | Nice. Yeah, I just found I went to bed early every day for about like a week. Maybe it wasn't even jet lag. Maybe it's a combination of things. But yeah, it was a fun trip. And obviously, if you didn't listen to The last episode, go back and check it out. You know, it's one of the rare ones that we got to record in person. This episode is going to be a little bit of a different thing because we want to get back on the Q&A train and we're not entirely sure how to do it, whether we do it with Q&A episodes or this is going to be more of a blended episode. So we're going to give it a try and see what people think. But this episode will kind of go live on the first day of Baselworld. So it's a bit of a wash as far as There's no way for us to time an episode to come up really close to Baselworld. Like, I actually think it works fine for episode 31, which will come out, you know, two weeks after the start of Baselworld or after about three or four days after the show ends. You know, I would say that I think this is kind of the best way we can do it as opposed to taking some sort of a weird break just to time it out correctly. You know, we were able to change just a week to match up with SIHH, but it didn't really work out for Baselworld. So we thought we'd break up the format a little bit. So we're going to have some loose chat and then some Q and A's at the end. Don't worry. Like I said, we will have a full recap of Baselworld for episode 31, which I believe comes out on April 4th. So that'll be after we've had a chance to get home, sleep a bit and collect our thoughts. So it should be a pretty coherent show. Yeah. Personally speaking, I don't think anybody wants to hear me talk for an hour and a half, like right after Baselworld. Right. |
| Jason Heaton | And we're not going to have a chance to, uh, to probably record at Basel. I mean, you know, we've, we've talked about our schedule there and, uh, you know, I'm just booked solid from the time I land to the time I fly home. And I'm sure you are as well. |
| James | Yeah, it's bonkers. I mean, you, you know, you'll have a certain amount of meetings that you do at the show during the day. And, and because with the blog to watch crew, this will be my fifth Basel. I think we always stay up really late to get work done. So we don't start super early in the morning, usually just kind of just before lunch. But we go as late as we can. And that includes, you know, additional meetings into the evening. And then sometimes there's an event or whatever. And then you get back to your, you know, Airbnb and start actually working. And this year I'm going to be editing the vlog. So the few of you that followed the vlog for SIHH, I think you saw that, you know, it's not like it's hard work, but it's fairly time consuming, especially because you want to put something up every day, which is, you know, the goal. So, yeah, I mean, unfortunately, I would love to be able to do a face to face you know, a field report. But I think our best chance to actually see each other will be the day before Basel. Right. And then I'm sure we'll walk into each other a couple of times in the various halls. But other than that, I think it's going to be either in very noisy kind of dinner environments or not at all. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely not a chance to to get together and record. I mean, you know, you guys keep some crazy hours and my schedule is kind of tipped the other way. I tend to start early. I've got a couple of breakfasts with You know, some folks, Risty from Instagram and Bill Yao from Mark II watches. And those are like at eight in the morning. So I'm kind of weighing things at the early end of the day. And then, of course, that's about the time you're going to bed. So I don't think we're going to be able to record, but at least we have a couple of, we've got a couple of events that we're going to overlap on. We won't be able to record, but at least we'll see each other at Oris and at Nomos and the Tudor event that's going to be the night before the show opens. So, you know, we'll have some fun together. |
| James | Yeah, for certain. Now, where do you think we start? You want to just kind of start with what we're kind of looking forward to at Basel? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, it's kind of, you know, the brands tend to really like anniversary years, and it's kind of a big one for the two behemoth brands, or two of the behemoth brands. One, of course, Rolex has the 50th anniversary of the Sea-Dweller, and then Omega's got their 60th anniversary of the Seamaster, the Speedmaster and the Railmaster, which all debuted in 1957. So I'm sure we're going to see some really cool, some really cool stuff from those two brands. |
| James | Wouldn't it be exciting to see like a new 38 to 40 millimeter Railmaster? |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah. Yeah, it'd be great. I mean, they did a Railmaster a few years back that was kind of before they got into the sort of coaxial thing. I mean, it might have been at the very dawn of that kind of the 2500 movement. |
| James | But yeah, they had a 2500 Railmaster, a really big one, and I think a smaller one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, the big one was massive 49 millimeters or something. And then the small one was like 38 or 39. Look really good looking watches. I hope they do something with with that this year. And, you know, rumors fly. I mean, I think, you know, we've probably both heard rumors about what these brands are going to do. But, you know, we'll certainly find out probably on the first day. first day of the show next week. |
| James | Yeah, I mean, that's typically you definitely find out about Rolex. I'll try and capture this in the vlog. But Jason, you and I often end up seeing each other that first day because Rolex has this giant booth, and all of the windows into the little cases, they're all covered. And then at a certain time, that first day, all the covers lift up. And basically, that's basically when everybody knows what's happening. So last year, everybody's running from one window to another to try and collect their thoughts on, oh, this is new, this is new, that we saw last year, that we saw this year, you know, we've got this, we got that. And, uh, and, and so, you know, last year you had a lot of people looking at the, uh, Explorer one and trying to figure out, is that a different one or is that the same one? And then, uh, you know, obviously the Air King was easy to pick out with, uh, you know, a big change to the overall aesthetic. Yeah. Uh, so that, that's always kind of a buzz and you see pretty much everybody who's pretty interested in, in quick coverage. Right. We'll be right there. So you always see the guys from Hodinkee and you see the guys from Frivtello and usually the dudes from Monochrome and it's always kind of a good little kickoff to the overall pace of the week because that's on press day. Right. So it's a little slower. It's not as busy. Trying to get from one part of the hall to another in Baselworld once the public days are open, which it's all but the first day, is crazy. I mean, you're just dodging Billion people some of them have strollers. They're all carrying, you know bags from various booths and Nobody's moving quickly. Like nobody comes there to be in a rush aside from us Right, and I find from the minute I land in Switzerland. I'm 30 minutes late for everything. Yeah Yeah, I mean like it's almost impossible to keep hard to a schedule, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, we've got our we've got our new our new gear that we've talked about for about the past 11 or 12 months to test out here at Basel. I mean, we had that episode a long time ago about Basel bags, and I think you found just the right tool to take in the Tenba. And I've got, you know, I've always complained about the heat in the hall and I've got that great Uniqlo sort of comfort. I think they called it the comfort sport coat that we've talked about before. So I think we've, we've learned our lessons in the past. I think we'll, we'll hit the ground running and at least be comfortable and well-suited with our bags this year. |
| James | Yeah, I'm not at all worried about the bag. I tried a couple of times to buy one of those comfort jackets, and they're just sold out. So we clearly, I think the site wasn't prepared for the Granado bump. Yeah, right. So we definitely sold a whole lot of Blazers maybe. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. So, you know, going back to Rolex, you know, I think I saw a couple, everybody likes to do these sort of mock-ups of what they think is coming, you know, in terms of new watches and, you know, there's everything from GMT Pelagos, which is, you know, we talked about that in our wishlist episode. But the one, you know, the big one, of course, is going to be the Sea-Dweller. And I do wonder if they'll do something that everybody kind of hopes they'll do, which is like a double red text Sea-Dweller that kind of harkens back to the original. You know, who knows? Rolex always kind of keeps you guessing right up until the last minute and then typically kind of disappoints you. They'll do some sort of a platinum Sea-Dweller with a light blue dial or something like that. |
| James | Yeah, like they did with the Daytona. Yeah, right. Yeah. I remember standing outside the booth like we were talking about and that came up and everybody just kind of like deadpan looking at that. Yeah. 280 gram worth of platinum for your wrist. I actually saw one in the wild at a car rental place in Toronto. This guy was arguing about renting like 10 Hyundais. Oh, jeez. And he had that ice blue with the brown ceramic bezel or, you know, Daytona. But I mean, man, what a hit last year with the new one. Yeah. So, I mean, they must, who knows? Who knows? I mean, I think it'd be surprising if they did nothing for the 50th anniversary, but I almost wonder would, is it better for them to do it at Basel or to wait? I don't know. I mean. Like Patek waited. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. |
| James | Right. Until the fall to do their stuff with the, uh, with the Nautilus. Yeah. And, you know, it was a pretty mixed reception, but I think that was more, not so much the fact that they waited till fall, it was what they released. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see the direction that Rolex takes it because they do kind of set the tone for the show. Yeah. And I think they are the main traffic driver for blogs and all that sort of thing is covering Rolex. So I think they're kind of a linchpin, a really important aspect of the show from a coverage standpoint. But it's always exciting to see the route they go. I mean, you know, I think that I think we've talked in the past that the Explorer 2 is now six, seven years. Oh, sure. That's true. On its current look. Yeah, you're right. So, I mean, we could, I mean, last year they did a handful of models. So we had the new Daytona, but we also had a refreshed Explorer One and the Air King and a different Yachtmaster. So there's a chance that they would refresh that line. My guess is it just comes down to whether or not it's selling. Right. And I know I saw some reports on the Rolex forum that some guys had called their AD and the AD had said they couldn't get any more SD4Ks, the current ceramic seadweller. So, I mean, that's a pretty good indication if Rolex isn't going to sell them through to their ADs, that something else is coming, a new SKU. Whether or not that's some crazy limited edition thing or... Co-branded with Comex. Could you imagine? I mean, the funny thing is, anything's possible until you start talking about Rolex. Yeah, right. where it becomes a mix of there's a ton of things that doesn't seem possible that they could do. And then you add in the like, well, you might as well just roll the dice. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, can you imagine? I mean, I would just wish one year Rolex would let their hair down and just give everybody what they truly want. Like, you know, you show up at their booth and they'd have like a full on Comex, you know, diving habitat, like outside the booth and sea dwellers all around with red writing and Comex labels on them. And, you know, I mean, they'd never do that. They're just such a conservative, uh, company, but man, you know, I guess one can dream. |
| James | I mean, they must be because they want to sell watches, but they don't outwardly operate as though they care. Yeah. About the, you know, what the enthusiast really, really wants. And then they kind of go through these phases where they give them something like a big platinum Daytona and make them wait for the new one. Yeah, right. And then it comes and people blow up. So I guess it's a good strategy. Maybe we'll see some interesting but, you know, not enthusiast driven 50th anniversary model. And then in a year or two, some new... I mean, what can they really do to the SD to make it better? They can change some, you know, colors or something like that, I suppose. I have no idea. Yeah, right. |
| Jason Heaton | Matte dial. Ooh, painted dial. |
| James | Who knows? I mean, it doesn't seem like them. No, it doesn't. technically they could do just about anything. I mean, it's not a sub. I mean, they're not necessarily messing with their bread and butter. Yeah. Yeah. And then on the other hand, anything that could happen often does happen if you give Omega enough time. Yes, that's true. Whether it's a color combination or a different movement or, you know, oh, I don't want a 9300 in this Speedmaster. I want a 861 or something like that. Yeah. If you give them enough time, they seem to get to just about all of the permutations of these watches. So Man, I think a cool Railmaster, I mean, we're a little bit of a broken record on liking these kind of entry-level three-hander steel sports watches. Yeah. Whether it's, you know, wanting, you know, a more, whether it's liking something like the Explorer One or wanting something more basic from a Blancpain or something like that. So I think the Railmaster could be amazing. Think about all the technology they have in the movement now within Omega, these amazing, you know, highly anti-magnetic, movements with the coaxial escapement, they could make an absolutely fantastic new entry level to their brand that would bring in not only younger buyers, but more, you know, kind of cost cautious buyers, which I think is where the market is right now. Yeah, sure. More price sensitivity. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, one thing that, you know, of course, I think even more than the Seamaster and the Railmasters, they're playing up the Speedmaster for 60th anniversary this year for obvious reasons. And one thing that that did kind of come out early was the There's a new racing dial version of the Co-Axial, the Master Co-Axial Speedmaster with the two sub-dials. You know, it's a beautiful watch. It's got the orange hands and the orange accents. You know, it looks great. I think they're probably going to hold back on the really cool stuff until the show and hopefully we'll like it. I mean, sometimes they're accused of going a little heavy on the special editions and kind of not really I don't know, they kind of overplay the, you know, it's a, it's a panda with, you know, the, the figure of the moon or, or some sort of a mission patch or something, which is fine. They're all nice looking watches, but, uh, uh, there's really not a whole lot you can do to a Speedmaster for a 60th anniversary. I mean, it's, it's essentially the same watch that it was 60 years ago. |
| James | Yeah. In many ways, I would agree that it, it, it could be a bit of a tough watch to recreate and, and, and I dig the, uh, the new racing. But I do, you know, that's my absolute favorite Speedmaster is the 2004 LE, the Schumacher Japan LE with the flat gray dial and the orange accents. I really like the way they kind of brought the old race dial off the Mark II into the new Mark II. Certainly the possibility for some really amazing stuff there. And they always have some really cool stuff. I mean, that meeting is always kind of legendary because you sit down in a very typically quite a long room with a big table. And you know, with a blog to watch, we have at least three guys running cameras and they put like 40 watches on the table. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And so it's a scramble. Like I've left that room and had to look at my camera to realize what it was I actually saw. Cause you only have half an hour by the time you actually get in the room and sit down and you finished ordering tea or water or whatever they're bringing to your table. You have like about 40 minutes. Yeah. So, I mean, like that's one minute for a watch if you're, you know, if you're, when you factor in all the time and maybe you get three minutes a watch because you've got three people there. Right. But three minutes with some of these things isn't that, you know, it's barely enough to compose a great wrist shot, get all the coverage shots you need. Yeah. Think about which ones should go on Instagram. It's just a lot to juggle in kind of a small window of time, but it's always really exciting because they'll bring out, you know, last year they had so many new Speedmasters. with the moon and the pointer moon. And then they had the new P.O.G.M.T. in steel with the black white bezel. Yeah. And they had, I think, at least one, maybe two new colorways for the Ploprof. So there's always a lot of eye candy at these at these sort of meetings. And in some cases, they're ones that you won't see again because they're either very boutique limited or just very limited in general. Yeah. Which is kind of fun to get a chance to see them in person and take some photos. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's it's kind of a You know, going on to some other brands, I mean, it's going to be a big year for some other dive watches as well. I mean, Eterna's got the Contiki turning 70 this year, or at least the 70th anniversary of Thor Heyerdahl's expedition out of the Contiki watch. They released a bronze version of a three-hander dive watch, which is kind of cool. And then Seiko, you know, the buzz. I mean, Seiko's been kind of crushing it with the kind of the pre-Basel buzz the past couple of years. You know, this year they kind of teased out, or somebody kind of ferreted out a photo of a new SBDX 019, I think is the number. And it's almost a spitting image of their first professional dive watch, which was the reference 6215, or what people call the 62 MAS, or 62 M-A-S. And it looks pretty darn awesome. It's going to be a little expensive for Seiko, but I can't wait to see that watch. |
| James | Yeah, I mean, with something like the SBDX you'd be looking at, somewhere usually between two and $3,000. Yeah. And it's going to be everything short of a Grand Seiko in many ways, but an absolute premium from their sport lineup. If you can go online now and look up other SBDX models to give you an idea of how serious they are about that kind of family within the brand. Yeah. And for them to go back and do a direct kind of no fluff recreation of a watch that's not only hugely well-loved by the enthusiast community, but highly collectible and quite valuable is just, I think, a really fun way to go because so many brands kind of dodge the exact replica or the plan to make the aesthetic, but in a very serious tool watch. And you know that Seiko won't cut any corners, especially at this price point, you're going to have an excellent movement. And the price point will also kind of cancel out the kind of ubiquity of something like the SRPs. Yeah. There'll be a much more of a rarefied, you know, like buying a Marine Master or, you know, some of the other higher end spring drive stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. And then I saw an early sort of embargoed press release, which is by the time this podcast goes live, it'll be open to the public. But Citizen has a new ProMaster dive watch, which is a, it's an eco drive. So it's their solar family of watches, but it's a new thousand meter watch that's kind of taking over for what everybody kind of called the Ecozilla, or I don't know if they still even make the Autozilla, the automatic thousand meter watch that they made for several years. It looks like a beast. I think I sent you a picture of it. It's just a monstrous watch. It has like a locking bezel, a lot of color to it. It looks like it sits about as high as like a Big Mac on your wrist. |
| James | Yeah, if you remember the Edo with the locking bezel? Yeah. or EDOX, I actually have no idea how to say that brand. I've never actually had a meeting with them. I've never heard a Swiss guy tell me how to, so I would say E-D-O-X, EDO or EDO or whatever. They had like this big tab on the outside that was probably designed to be used with gloves or whatever. And it looked like it was kind of in the same kind of vein as that. I always have a really fun time seeing the Citizen stuff because they're so tech focused. You know, the last couple of years they've been slowly miniaturizing their like F-100 satellite set watches. Yeah. And that's some really killer technology, especially for the mass market. Yeah. For the mass market sort of person who isn't concerned with accuracy, simplicity and essentially autonomy, the watch sets itself. If that kind of matches the way that you dress and whatever for travel, those are really, really impressive watches. Fantastic bracelets for the price point with a really trick expanding clasp. They've got some really cool tech in those watches. I mean, they're not cheap and they're kind of a direct competitor to the Astron, but they're smaller than an Astron and they have a bunch of technological merits as well as being solar. Right. which is pretty cool and always a fun brand and you know these are the sorts of brands that we don't get to see at SIHH. |
| Unknown | Yeah exactly. |
| James | That literally get me really excited to actually go to Basel because it's a huge amount of work and of course it's quite a long time to be away from home and all those sorts of things and I don't mean any of that as a complaint but rather as a foil for the fact that even after four of these, it's soon to be my fifth, I'm excited to be back in Basel and get to see new Seikos and new Citizens and of course new Rolexes and Seamasters and Yeah. Contikis and I always like being surprised too. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And it's, it's, I think it's a show that, that is definitely more in our wheelhouse than, than an SIHH. And I think our excitement is probably reflecting that. I, you know, I've got appointments with Doxa and Squala and Zinn and, you know, all these, these five small dive watch brands that, that, you know, you don't see at SIHH and you just, I never see it during the rest of the year. So, uh, I'm excited for that stuff too. |
| James | So. Yeah. Zen is always one of the absolute best meetings of the entire show. Yeah. Yeah. Because even if they just give you a different version, uh, they're really, really nice people and they're really nerdy about their watches. So the, when you meet with even their, their kind of press contacts, they know so much that when you ask a question, they have the answer at hand. Like they're just very, very good at their job. It's not surprising that this is the sort of watch that they make, but they're really into it, into the product. Yeah. It's like going to a Red Bar. Yeah, exactly. It's great. And their booth always has almost all of their current lineup. So if there's something that you'd only seen, you know, on watch buys or whatever, and you really wanted to try it on wrist, that's a good chance to do it too, which is always fun. And yeah, I mean, so I think that's roughly, there's probably not a lot more to do as far as the pre-Basel sort of thing. How would you like people to follow what you're seeing at the show? Is Instagram probably best? |
| Jason Heaton | Instagram for sure. I tend to kind of Get a little crazy, a little overshare, maybe too much on Instagram, but you know, Basel's the perfect place to do that. And I'll probably just be snapping photos at every meeting and, you know, popping up photos as, uh, as I get time. Um, I imagine you're going to do the same. You're also doing the vlog though. So that's, that's kind of a daily thing for you. |
| James | Yeah. So the, the main thing would be, uh, Instagram is at J E Stacey and Jason's at Jason Heaton. And then I'll also be doing, we'll have lots of stuff going up on at a blog to watch. I try not to double things up. And we actually have this really awesome guy named Marco running our social media now. So we'll have tons of stuff, including like Instagram stories. If you're not a normal A Blog to Watch follower, now's a great time to kind of jump back in and see what it's about. I guarantee some of the best wrist shots from the show, some really good stories, an inside look. And then if you want to take that one step further, this year I'll be doing the vlog like I did with SIHH. So if you go to, it's just YouTube.com slash A Blog to Watch. And you'll see the vlogs are really clearly the thumbnail says like they want and giant 300 point Helvetica text. And you can kind of follow. And, you know, the goal is to like between five and 10 minutes. And it's not so much like hands on with the watches or a lot of details. It's to give you an idea of what the show looks like. Yeah. And what the scene is and what the workload is like and how we get to see people and the fun times and the less than fun times. And, you know, how many people are there during the open days and We're going to try and capture it all. I think if you saw the SIHH vlogs, I would say they'll be similar, but I'm going to try and devote more time to the actual products. Oh, sure. So we're hoping with the SIHH vlogs, it was a lot of like environment and less like hands-on sort of stuff. So I think with these new ones, and if you watch the Bremont vlog, I think that's kind of where I would land. So when we show a watch, I'm going to try and have more details and things, but all of that kind of has to be produced and edited on the fly. So my promise is I'll do my best, but, uh, I'm not really a professional at these sorts of things at this moment. We're just kind of learning as we go. |
| Jason Heaton | And we'll watch you and hear you get more and more tired and, uh. Oh yeah. Horse and pale as the week goes on. |
| James | By the third or fourth day, I'll just be wearing sunglasses all the time. Yeah. Yeah. And just, just so much coffee. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And then of course, uh, April 4th, we're planning to have our big sort of post-Basel wrap up here on on the Grenado, so definitely check back and get our kind of final thoughts on what we saw. |
| James | Yeah, there'll be more of a more of a fresh take that way. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. So what watches are you going to take? |
| James | Yeah, that's always a fun one. You know, I used to take a bunch. Yeah. Like a roll of watches. And then you find that, you know, you constantly kind of have them in your bag because you don't want to leave them necessarily at the Airbnb. And you got to keep one on wrist, but I'll wear it on my right wrist because you're trying so many watches on. Uh, and then a couple, maybe SIHH last year, I just brought one watch and then I really enjoyed that because there's only one to worry about. And I didn't have the stress of like, Oh, where did I put that other one? And, and you know, is it in the, is my bag okay? Is it safe? I mean, camera gear and all that is also a concern, but I mean, one or two watches could easily outweigh the cost of a whole bag of camera gear. Yeah. So I think I'll probably just take one watch. I was kind of flirting with just taking what I call my CMT, which is my lightly modded Seiko SKX007. Yeah. So it's modded with a 12-hour bezel, which is great, obviously, for managing, checking time at home. And I call it CMT. Just some of the guys on Instagram, I kind of asked what people thought as far as what would you call it and CMT. And so instead of a greenish meantime, it's a cheap meantime, as it's essentially like a $20 modification from a bezel from Yabokis. But that one's actually in for service. I took it to Roaldorf in town here and he put it on his witchy and it really wasn't running that well. It's got to be about eight years I've owned that watch. It was kind of my first decent automatic. And so it's now in for its kind of first ever service. So maybe it'll be done and that's what I'll bring. Otherwise, lean in towards the Explorer 2. It's just a really simple and easy way to watch those two time zones and it kind of suits the overall vibe of the show too. Yeah, for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | And you? Yeah, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I, you know, like you, I've in the past, I've brought kind of a roll of watches and even carried them in my bag and kind of switched between appointments and, you know, trying to kind of suit my wrist wear for the appointment, but the fact of the matter is you get to these appointments and nobody's looking at your wrist. They're everybody's so tired and busy doing their own thing and, and whatever that you just don't, nobody cares really. It's really only in the kind of in the evenings at the events when you're kind of comparing wrists with the other guys, the other, you know, journalists and, and brand folks that are there. And, and so I'm not sure. I mean, I, last year I brought my, uh, my Tudor Submariner, the snowflake. Uh, we had that kind of, first night event with Tudor where they launched a couple of the new Black Bays and I'm kind of leaning towards wearing that and then I'm either going to bring, I think I might just bring one more, I think I might bring the Orange Dial Sub 300 Doxa and or my old vintage Speedmaster just because it's kind of, I don't know, it's just a fun watch to travel with so we'll see. At most three watches. |
| James | Well, those are all good choices. And any new gear you're taking for the show or pretty much just the same kit you took to SIHH? |
| Jason Heaton | No, pretty much the same. I mean, I'll bring my Topo Designs bag and probably the Nikon DF with probably a 55mm lens on it and, you know, just some good comfortable shoes and that nice breathable unicloak jacket. |
| James | Ah, rubbing it in. Yeah, right. You're sweating in my super 130s. Yeah, some of you who follow on Instagram will have seen that I eventually did, I actually made, I bought this camera before the episode where I talked about the cameras went up. That's kind of the lag between the episode because we can get them in every two weeks. But I did end up getting another camera that I'm absolutely in love with for many things, but it's not perfect. It's the X100T, the Fujifilm. And so the F is out, which made the T kind of a real sweet spot right now on Craigslist. So I think I got it for about a thousand Canadian. And for a fixed lens that can do anything from street to my kids to watches, like it does a great wrist shot. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | It's amazing. As a photo camera, I really love it. I love compared to the RX100, I love that you really feel like you're controlling more of a manual camera. I know that largely comes down to the buttons and the dials because, of course, it's still a digital camera. But the camera's very fast. You can basically run it full manual. So you're setting everything from ISO to aperture to shutter speed and such on the fly, which I like quite a bit. And while my brains had to do some kind of remapping because the controls are so different from the Canon, a couple of them are problematic. Changing ISO on the fly is a pain. I think the camera assumed more people would use auto. Oh, yeah. But because it's a, you know, because it's an APS-C sized sensor, it does a pretty good job with noise. So I find that I when needed, I'll crank the ISO way up and preserve a decent shutter speed. But, you know, that kind of thing is the controls are just something you kind of get used to. It also demolishes batteries, uses these itty bitty little batteries, you know, maybe a roughly a third of the mass of a cannon cell, and then it just rips through them. I have four, and like in a day of normal shooting around Vancouver, which is really like some wrist shots, if I see a car I like, I'll take a picture, just some light kind of stuff, and then maybe I come home and snap a couple portraits of my daughters, whatever, that'll kill a battery. So it's good to have four, they charge in the camera if you want, so you don't have to carry an external charger. But I don't think you get away with like one battery for a whole day, whereas maybe maybe Basel is an exception. But I definitely could have done SIHH because I was shooting so much video for the vlog. I definitely could have done SIHH with just my two batteries for the Canon without charging. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Because the you know, you're not using the screen to compose the shot. You're using a regular optical viewfinder. So no real power usage there. Right. And then the flash, of course, just destroy it like a Canon 580 will just eat double A's, but you just carry like 20. Sure. And charge them at night. So I'm used to Canon, how long these last, but then I think these smaller cameras like the X100 and the other Fujis and even into the Sony A7, which you have some experience with, they can just tear through batteries. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, it's such a huge difference. I took my Nikon DF to SIHH and did that visit to Parmigiani, which was a full day of visiting three or four of their facilities and You know, I took a lot of photos there and then, you know, I got home, downloaded the photos and didn't touch the camera again until we went to Bremont. And I realized, because I realized that I still have the photos on the memory card in the camera, that I hadn't even charged the battery since the Parmigiani trip. And I did the entire Bremont trip with the same battery and it only went down like one tick. So, you know, really impressive. I mean, you can't beat, you know, full sized SLR batteries for long life. So you're taking both cameras or? |
| James | Yeah, I'll have the 5D I'm actually I'll have, we're renting a 5D Mark IV, which I'm very much in love with, but can't afford. Yeah. And then I'll have my Mark III as a backup body, a couple lenses for that, the X100 and a GoPro, like the vlogging rig. Yeah. The one that gets you all the looks when you're just talking to it in public. Right. But yeah, so I think that's roughly the kit. I probably don't even need to take the X100, but I just really like it. And you gave me this bright orange strap. Oh yeah, right. Which I'm really liking. So yeah, I think I'll bring it along. It fits easily in the Tenba and it gives me some flexibility if we go to like an evening event and I don't want to carry as much gear. Oh, perfect. But I still might want to grab a wrist shot of something cool or capture some quick video for the vlog. The video's not great. If you're thinking of buying an X100T for video, I would convince you just to use your phone maybe. But, you know, I think the reviews are quite accurate in that they say this isn't the camera to use unless it's your absolute last choice for video. Oh, sure. But in a pinch it worked. That's what I shot the hands-on stuff with at Bremont, because at least it has autofocus, whereas my Mark III doesn't. Oh, right. So that's a plus in a pinch. And it will obviously focus closer than something like a GoPro, which is a fairly wide angle of view. I think that's probably nerdier than anybody wanted as far as some of these cameras go. But if you're in the market for an X100T, now's kind of a sweet time to pick it up. And if you want to shoot things like watches and your family, it's a great little camera. Cool. I think that's where I would leave it. What are you feeling? Some final notes? You want to wrap it up? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's wrap it up and pass it on to Q&A. Yeah, yeah. So what do you got for us? Well, this was something it was a movie that I watched on on my flight on Virgin Atlantic Airline over to to London for the Bremont event, uh, what was it a couple of weeks ago? It was, it was a movie. It was a documentary called don't look down. And it was about Richard Branson's attempt to take a hot air balloon nonstop across the Atlantic. And then later he did, uh, he attempted to do it across the Pacific as well. And it was kind of coincidental timing because earlier, not much earlier, you had told me that you would listen to a, Kind of a podcast or an interview with Richard Branson kind of a profile of yeah how I made this how I made this about excellent of his career and kind of where he got to where he did and This documentary was great. And it was there was no it was really no coincidence I guess that it was on a Virgin Atlantic flight since he founded and owns the airline, but it was really excellent really well done and You know, it really focused not on so much Branson's, you know business side. It was purely about these two sort of adventures that he undertook. And I hadn't realized, you know, the, the hardships and the, the failures and the near death experiences that they had on, on both of those journeys. He, he did both with a Swedish sort of balloon expert slash inventor, um, who was kind of a crazy guy himself and somewhat controversial. And, um, you know, they, they, they both almost died, I would say two or three times during, during both expeditions. I've had trouble kind of tracking down a link to where you can watch this outside of, you know, a seat back screen on a Virgin Atlantic flight, but it is available, I believe, on iTunes. So definitely worth looking out for. Or if you happen to be on a Virgin Atlantic flight and you're kind of thumbing through the video options and trying to figure out what to watch and you see Don't Look Down, I really highly recommended it. It fits right in with kind of the stuff that we like on the Granado as well as You know, just just a good film about a really interesting guy. |
| James | Oh, very cool. We'll make sure to at least attempt to source a link to that. It might be regional for iTunes, but we'll do our best. Granado.com for the show notes and such. And for mine, I have I have kind of an absolute left field play for my final notes. You know, a couple of times I've recommended music, but this is a different band that I've just kind of gotten into. And it's not the style of music I'm generally kind of inclined to love. But I figured, you know, we're doing this kind of mixed Q&A pre-Basel episode. I'd throw something in to give somebody maybe a bit of a palate cleanser, put you in a different state of mind from all the watch news that's going to pour over you for the next week or two. So this is a band out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and they're called Vulfpeck, which is V-U-L-F-P-E-C-K. And it's anywhere from, I think it's four guys normally, and then they occasionally have Antoine Stanley, which is they're a vocalist that appears in some of their tracks, and then they have various other collaborators. But they're essentially these jazz, funk virtuosos, like some of the most talented musicians I've come across in many ways. But when you read up more about the band, they're like deep music nerds. The kind of front man, Jack Stratton, He does this series called Holy Trinities. I think it's one audio podcast and one YouTube video so far, where he kind of shares a list of the three best of what he thinks of something. But it's really esoteric. So it's the three best center hits on the snare drum. So only the middle hits, which is kind of apparently a rare play. But he knows who produced the track and who decided the mix and all these sorts of things. kind of have a deep love for any type of nerdiness. And as it turns out, these guys are so into music, kind of like a lot of us would be, you know, into watches or adventure or whatever. And it's kind of like, uh, infectious. I would say even if you hate the idea of a jazz funk fusion, it's kind of hard for me to explain in, uh, in text. I should have checked the like copyright laws. Maybe if I talk about it, I'm allowed to play some, but if you're listening, just go to YouTube, they have a huge YouTube presence. and look up the song 1612 or it gets funkier or wait for a moment. All of these tracks are in the show notes, but those will give you kind of a crash course in what they're about. It's not too jazzy. It's often very funky and the bass lines are unbelievable. And I'd guarantee that give it a chance. I think it'll genuinely make you kind of in a happier mood. They're kind of silly. They dress kind of, like they couldn't care less. There's some great performances of them on like late night where they're clearly not playing by any of the kind of established rules. Quite famously, they wanted to earn some money to do a tour. So they put up an album of silent songs on Spotify and just asked anybody who liked the band to play it whenever they didn't want to listen to music, like when they were asleep or not at their computer. And before Spotify really cued into what was going on, they made enough to do a tour that was free. Wow. Wow. So it wasn't a fortune, but it was enough for these guys to do a tour. And then, you know, like last week they put up a video, I think on their Facebook, where they were playing essentially as the backup band for Mike McDonald and Solange. I mean, that's pretty legit. Yeah. I would say anybody should check these guys out, especially if you're into music at a performance level, because what these guys are doing and their aesthetic is not like anything I've kind of come across. It's very analog in the way it looks, and there's a lot of affectation to its presentation that I find really refreshing in that it's kind of anti-glitz. Sure. By all means, swing by Final Notes or just go to YouTube and type in Wolfpack. Yeah, great YouTube videos, all of that. Highly recommended. Nice. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, with that, should we kind of segue into the Q&A and then you and I can run off and start our Basel packing for the long journey. |
| James | Yeah, for sure. So yeah, looping back on kind of that failed promise of our Q&A segments, we're hoping to continue to cut through the backlog of these questions. And I am answering all questions that come into email and saving, kind of earmarking the ones we like for eventual use. But we have a trio of kind of excellent questions for you now, so I think we'll pass you along to that, and thanks very much for listening, and if you have a question of your own, thegraynadoatgmail.com. Okay, so Ian in Singapore writes in to ask, I've recently fallen in love with retro divers. Initially I saw pictures of the Longines Legend Diver. Great aesthetic, but the lug lengths are too long for me. I also greatly lust after the JLC Polaris Tribute watches, but will likely never justify spending that amount. My current most likely candidate is an older Aqua Terra 2500 black dial with a vintage tropic strap. Do you think this would suit the above criteria? Are there alternatives you could suggest that would beat it? And then slightly separately, how do you guys feel about retro tropic straps? So Jason, why don't you take this one? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, well, I mean, you know, thanks for the for the question, Ian. It feels like since you're drawn, you mentioned the Aqua Terra, which I think is a great watch, but I have to wonder if it'll scratch your itch adequately because The examples you gave that you're really drawn to tend to be those twin crown sort of super compressor style dive watches. So, you know, you mentioned the JLC and you mentioned the Longines. I would suggest, you know, there are a couple of other options that you can mention. And I think one of them is the Alpina just came out with their Heritage Diver, I think it's called, which I think is one of the nicer twin crown compressor style dive watches that have come out in the recent years, and I think it kind of hits the right size and aesthetic that you're talking about. Also in kind of the twin crown area, I know that Hallios, which is one of our favorite brands, is coming up with something that is eminently affordable, probably less than a thousand bucks, and that's going to be the Laguna, the Series 2 or the second generation Laguna, which is also a twin crown dive watch that might be worth looking at. So, you know, those are two options I would say look at. You could also certainly go vintage if you're kind of willing to head down that route. There are a lot of smaller size super compressor dive watches from the 60s and 70s that can be found from brands that a lot of people maybe haven't heard of. I know some by Baylor and I know Hamilton made a few of these that can be found for not a lot of money. And then to address your tropic strap question. I think that, I think they're really cool, especially on these twin crown dive watches. Uh, and there are a few companies that sell modern versions of these straps. Watch Gecko has, has a version that that's out these days. Um, and, and hopefully we'll see more because I, I just think that sort of basket weave rubber is, is a really great look. There's a guy named, uh, Bill Mahoney who goes by the name Squinky on some of the watch forums and I believe on, uh, on eBay as well. And he sells the actual vintage ones. in huge numbers. I don't know where he stockpiled these from, but, uh, um, he might be worth contacting through eBay or you can just kind of surf the forums or look on watch recon for, for tropic straps. And, um, I think I've bought from him in the past and, and, you know, he's a reliable seller and, uh, and he does a pretty brisk business in vintage tropic style straps. So those would be my recommendations. James, uh, what do you have for Ian? |
| James | Yeah, I mean, if you're wanting to go vintage diver, or, you know, new vintage diver, obviously look at the Aura 65, both the 40 and the 42 millimeter versions, you have the new Halio C4 could really scratch the same itch. And if you want to have that second crown, I think Jason fully covered it. There's so many to choose from beyond the Longines. And especially when you get into vintage and then as far as the strap goes, I don't have any experience with the new ones but Jason sent me one of the old ones which I've worn on my Sylvana Diver and it's awesome. So I fully recommend the Vintage Tropic Rubber. They look great, they wear awesome, they don't feel like you're buying something old or flimsy or you know fragile or dried up or anything like that. Just fully wearable, really cool and yeah I think that's the way to go with it Ian. Thanks very much for writing in, and send us an email with whatever you choose. I'd love to hear a follow-up. |
| Jason Heaton | And David writes in and asks, I started my higher-end collecting with a couple of Breitlings, and I've expanded out as I refine my choices in style. I have dived, but I do not actively now, so my choices are running more to pilot watches and even more vintage, say, World War II military watches. For traveling, I have a Seiko Astron GPS. So that leaves me with considering getting rid of one of my Breitlings, and I'm wondering how you folks started with the selling side. Did you go to a dealer and see what you could get in trade? Did you sell on eBay or Watchuseek? James, you know, maybe you can kind of kick this off by telling David how you've approached selling watches in the past. |
| James | I think all of the watches I've sold, I've either sold directly to friends or via Watchuseek. You know, I'm a fairly longstanding member on that forums almost specifically for selling in many cases. I've done some commenting, but for the most part, not that active of a commenter. And I use the, uh, the login for selling watches. Occasionally a dealer will probably be your safest route specifically because you'll have a middle entity, but will net you less as they need to make some money in that process as well, depending on the value of the watch and how you're willing to sell it, you know, only in the U.S., only face-to-face in your city, etc. I would look into pretty much all the options. If your goal is to sell locally, then start with Craigslist. But be prepared for the problems of Craigslist. And then when you get to Watchuseek or Forum, be prepared with those, which is you're going to get way more lowballs, people who really think they know more about what maybe you're selling than you do. And then you have the issue of selling, insuring, shipping, and being comfortable with that process. And as a seller, you're at the most risk in that transaction. A buyer, especially with PayPal protection, you have almost no risk. Like next to none. Especially if you follow simple rules, like have some way of tracing the line between your money and the buyer. And if you do so with PayPal and with a normal PayPal transaction that has fees where you have buyer protection, then you're very safe. But as a seller, you don't necessarily have those same safety plays. So you do have to be fairly comfortable selling. And I don't know if starting with something, the value of a Breitling is the way to go. And also, if you haven't been selling, you won't be able to sell on watch you seek or time zone, because you'll need a certain number of posts attributed to your account before you can get access to the sales form. That's a fairly new rule. I believe it's 50 posts for watchuseek. I don't post on or sell via timezone. I just kind of committed to watchuseek. But I've had a very good luck there and I find that for the most part, I've never had any issue with people being any more or less than what they appeared to be via their PMs. They pay and then you have the money and you ship it and then they're happy. But you do have to understand that while most people feel the most risk just by sending money into the void, you're at the most risk when you send a watch in the mail, even if you already have the money in your account. So just keep that in mind. If you're more comfortable selling through a dealer, be sure that you're very upfront or they're very upfront as far as the percentage that they're going to take out of the transaction and how quickly they feel they can move the watch and those sorts of things. Jason? |
| Jason Heaton | I've sold more watches than I care to admit on WatchuSeek. I think in my earliest years of kind of getting into the watch hobby. Watchuseek was where I not only sold watches, but I bought quite a few. And so I can't really remember having a bad transaction on Watchuseek. I won't go so far as to say that it's, you know, a hundred percent trustworthy or kind of, you know, hang my name on, on recommending them entirely. But, um, I think that there are some safeguards in place that, um, that kind of help in terms of, uh, just common sense of looking at uh, you know, users that you're, you're dealing with or that are making offers, um, or writing to you kind of look at their history. You can, you can search the history of a user and find and find out, you know, have they posted before? Have they sold? Have there been any, you know, negative feedback regarding them as a seller or a buyer to the, are they belligerent on the forums when they're commenting? Have they proven to be troublesome? Um, that sort of thing, you know, what's their, what's their post count, what's their history? with what you seek. The other thing is, you know, if you insist on shipping with insurance using your own shipping method that you prefer, that you trust, whether that's, you know, I always, if I sell a watch online or if I'm shipping a watch somewhere, I always insist on doing, you know, next day shipping with insurance. And I'll either build that into my price that I'm asking or ask the buyer to pay for that because it's the safest. I don't want to watch sitting, you know, in some depot somewhere at FedEx over a weekend or for multiple days or sitting on the back of a truck. Um, and so I kind of set up the, the, the entire relationship in that way, right from the get go. Um, uh, you know, just, uh, in closing, there's another smaller forum that I've sort of developed trusting relationships, uh, on in the past few years. And it's called the dive watch connection. And, uh, DWC is pretty protective in the sales forums. They, They require a minimum number of posts in the other parts of the forum before you're allowed to post for sale. It's kind of a good bunch of guys that sort of all know each other and look out for each other. And it's just, it's worthwhile, you know, before jumping right into selling, which a lot of people kind of frown on anyway, if a guy just shows up to sell, is to kind of establish some relationships, build a track record for yourself, build the trust by maybe, you know, talking about some of your other watches or contributing to some other posts and And, uh, you know, getting your name out there before you just sort of show up and say, Hey, I got a watch for sale. So, um, you know, between James and my advice, I think, you know, we, we both wish you well and, and, uh, you know, just, just keep your eyes and ears open and, and, uh, and use your common sense and you should, you should be fine. So thanks for writing in, uh, David and best of luck. |
| James | And Greg writes in saying, I'm looking for a no date, simple three hand watch can be auto or manual 39 to 44 millimeters, but 42 millimeters is my sweet spot. Any style is considered, but dive is my go-to budget is anything up to 500 British pounds. The no date part of my request is the most important. I just want something I can throw on and go. Uh, so Jason, what, what do you figure? So, uh, For reference, I think 500 British pounds is about $615 as of the US as of the time we're recording. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So I, you know, I'm going to recommend one watch and it's one that I've talked about on the show, uh, not too long ago. Uh, one that I reviewed on Hodinkee and, and certainly put up plenty of photos on Instagram about, and it is, uh, it's from Unimatic. Now, um, the one that I had reviewed was called the Modelo Uno, which was, uh, their dive version. which I regret to inform is sold out. But I think Unimatic is a brand to pay attention to. And you might even find, you know, the Modelo Uno pop up on sales forums as people buy them and get tired of them or want to resell them. It's just a really sleek sort of minimalist dive watch that takes cues from a couple of vintage pieces. If, you know, maybe something other than a dive watch is more your cup of tea, I would suggest looking at their Modelo Due. which means model two in Italian, which is really kind of an original field watch. Um, you know, like a really sort of unique styled field watch that has a really high dome crystal and a really minimalist sort of angular case, modern dial that comes in a couple of different colors. Um, and Unimatic uses, uh, Seiko automatic movements for the watches and then they eliminate the date function. So kind of hits your, your primary objective, which is a no date watch. But one thing to note, Unimatic does only make a limited number of these watches, so there is a good chance that they will sell a lot of these, but I know that it's in their best interest to keep cranking out new creations and sell them. And if they stick to their track record of really great-looking, minimalist, affordable watches, I would definitely tell you to take a look at Unimatic. James, any suggestions on your end? |
| James | Yeah, so I fully agree with the Unimatic. And the only way that I would really bend on that would be is if you can extend your budget, even just a little, I have three new recommendations that cost just a little more. So first would be the Archimede Flyger. Just pick your size. I would go with the 39 millimeter, but you could definitely do a 42. The next would be the Autodromo Group B. It's 39 millimeters, no date. Awesome. Not like anything else on the market, really. And finally the forthcoming Halio C4 will be an awesome little diver. No date, multiple dial options, multiple bezel options, and will come in, I believe, uh, within like about $140 US of your price point. So I would just encourage you to save a little more if any of those three kind of, uh, fit your budget or, or, you know, maybe sell a watch or something. That's what I would do. And, uh, I think between those four watches, the Unimatic, the Archimede, the Autodromo, and the Seaforth from Hallios, you've got four just excellent no-date options that cost not too far above or below your max budget. Good call. Yeah, by all means, Greg, please send us an email. Let us know what you did get. Send us a photo, tag us on Instagram, whatever. We definitely want to know what you chose. Always interested in that sort of process in the mind that takes you from what you want to what you finally decide upon. And to everyone else who's listening, if you have your questions, please write into thegraynadoatgmail.com. We're going to get to as many as we can this coming year via these shorter Q&A episodes. And we're slowly cutting through our backlog. Some of these questions were from about six months ago, so we're getting there. Okay. And that about does it for this installment of Q&A. We hope to have another set for you soon. |
| Jason Heaton | And as always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram. I'm at jasonheaton, James is at jestacy, and follow the show at thegraynado. If you have any questions for us, please do write to thegraynado at gmail.com, and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts, or grab the feed directly from our new website, thegraynado.com. Music throughout the show is Siesta by JazzArr via the Free Music Archive. |
| James | And until next time we leave you with this quote from adventurer and expedition leader John Ammet. Adventure isn't hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain. Adventure is an attitude that we must apply to the day to day obstacles in life. |