The Grey NATO – 301 – Slack Crew & A 2024 // Part 5

Published on Thu, 26 Sep 2024 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Gray Nato podcast, hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton discuss their upcoming trip to the Toronto Timepiece Show and answer listener questions from their Slack community. They cover topics like desert island music picks, dream travel destinations, and their thoughts on what "Swiss Made" means for watches. The hosts also share some personal updates, including Jason's plans to sell off part of his watch collection. Throughout the episode, they engage in friendly banter and provide watch enthusiasts with insights on various timepiece-related subjects. The episode concludes with book and gear recommendations from James and Jason respectively.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacy Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches this episode 301. 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're listening and curious to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and illustrious co host Jason Heaton. Jason, we're counting down. We're almost into hours before we get to hang out face to face and in Toronto.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. I've got, uh, I'm just not, not far from my online check-in for my flight and, uh, packing bags this time. No dive gear should be a nice, uh, light on my feet trip. That should be, it should be great. I'm looking forward to it.
James Stacy I'm super pumped. So this episode will come out the day before the show kind of starts publicly the show's Saturday and Sunday. There's a Friday evening event for people involved with the show. So we get to hang out at that. It's going to be great. You know, obviously we've talked a ton about the show for the last year, I think. I think we've been promoting it more earnestly in the last few months, but we've definitely been on this discussion for more than a year about, you know, wanting to be part of the Toronto Time Piece show and getting the opportunity and then kind of linking up a few different things that we'll do in terms of the live episode or some sort of a show at the show. And then this event with Marathon on Saturday night. So for anybody who listens, you know, the Thursday or Friday that the show comes out or close to, you know, just a big thank you for showing up and we're looking forward to seeing you. And we think the show is going to be a lot of fun and hopefully, you know, we are full for the marathon event, but hopefully we can see most of you at that as well. And if not there, then certainly at the show on Saturday and Sunday. So I think it's going to be really, really good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think so too. And I, you know, it's, it's cool that it's in your hometown and gives me a chance to come up and visit you. Um, you know, last time I visited you, it was in Vancouver. I mean, we've seen each other in between, but, uh, that, that should be fun and adds kind of a, a neat aspect to it. And makes me think like if there's somebody out there that's ambitious and wants to organize a Minneapolis timepiece show, uh, you know, have added, I certainly wouldn't be me. I realized what a huge lift these shows are. So hats off to, to Jason, who's kind of spearheading this one. And it's like, that's a, it's a big thing and he's got some good brands there and really it's going to be fun to see everybody. Some of our old friends are going to be there, and then a lot of really great brands.
James Stacy Yeah, we'll have to see if Jason's maybe around for a five-minute talk about the show and how much work it was, because I feel like I've been talking to him on and off for a year about this. And I do genuinely remember the feeling when I first spoke to him. I think it was like a cold email asking if I could do a call, and we ended up doing a Zoom call in his backyard. And it's just like, Almost every bone in my body said, this isn't going to be worth your time to do this. It's going to be an unbelievable amount of work and it's to thread the needle is going to be quite difficult between getting brands involved, getting people involved, getting the word out, all those sorts of things. And he had a vision and I got to give him all the props. It appears that he has brought that vision to life. I'm very excited to see what the show actually looks like and what it feels like and what the energy is. I, you know, It's at a, it's at a, like a hotel conference center sort of scenario. So I think it could have a really good kind of grassroots energy, which is kind of, I think what you and I are hoping for, for these shows. And now they're doing one in Vancouver. Who knows? Maybe Minneapolis is next. I love the idea. Also want to have nothing to do with planning or creating such an event, but would love to attend. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But yeah, no, I think it's a, I think it's going to be super fun and a big shout out to, to Jason for uh, working with us to be part of the show, uh, part of the event and to have TGN as part of the, uh, the sort of media group there. And then on top of that, a big shout out to the folks at marathon for, uh, helping us out with this, uh, hangout. So we're, we're splitting the costs on this one. And I think it's going to be a really fun time. And it's the only way that we could, you know, conceivably host 60, 70 people is, is with some support from some friends and, and, you know, the, the marathon stuff's gone really, really well. So I'm looking forward to the whole thing. I, you know, I'm probably most excited just to have you around for a few days. I think that's going to be like really fun. And I think we'll, we'll have a good time. Um, I've got, I've got some, some schedule clearing to do, but it's looking pretty promising at this moment to, uh, to be able to kind of kick back and maybe show you a little bit of Toronto and get a couple of good meals and that kind of thing.
Jason Heaton So, yeah. And it's kind of a nice time of year, at least in our hemisphere and our kind of latitude range. Um, usually it's pretty reliable. You don't get the real sweaty stuff we get in Chicago in July, which is, Very reliable type of weather whenever we go to wind up there. And of course, it's not in the middle of the bitter winter, which which wouldn't be great either. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Should be great.
James Stacy So aside from that, obviously, you're you've got some packing to do to come down in just a couple of days. We're recording this a little early on a Monday because tomorrow morning I go to New York for like six or seven hours to record for a little project and then come home for dinner tomorrow and then is just trying to get as much work done on Wednesday and then you show up Thursday morning. So what, uh, what, how has the last few days been for you since we chatted last?
Jason Heaton Yeah, pretty good. I mean, you know, we, we, we used to kind of kick off almost every episode talking about the weather and we haven't done that in a while. I don't know what, what changed, but it's, it's definitely feeling more autumnal here. Just suddenly like someone flipped a switch and the weather's gotten quite cool in the evenings, which I don't mind. I'm, I'm a little disheartened by how short the days are getting, uh, you know, yeah. six 37 in the morning is when the sun starting to kind of peak up and it gets dark around the same time in the evening. But so I've been kind of suddenly kicked into high gear about getting the house kind of buttoned up, you know, stuff, you know, around the yard and some last minute painting and that sort of thing around here. So sure. That's a, that'll be my October probably. But then, you know, we've talked about this in, in past years about how change of seasons can sometimes spur, different philosophies around our own watch collections. And I don't know, it feels like in the fall of every year, I get a little restless and I start to reevaluate my collection. And that's kind of where I'm at now. And I've, I've got, I've got the idea for what I would consider a pretty big sell-off of a lot of my watches. So I'm not, I'm not trying to shill here for myself. Um, certainly, but those of you on the Slack, uh, keep an eye on, on buy sell trade because I'm, I've got a fair number of watches. I'm just kind of ready to move on. I just kind of feel maybe it's, the opposite of spring cleaning. I'm just kind of trying to purge a little bit and clear the decks of a few pieces I just don't wear, but we'll see. We'll see how it shakes out.
James Stacy Yeah. I think, I think what happens and I don't think it's like just with like watch collections with all sorts of stuff in your life is you kind of devote, or at least maybe this is how I do it as I like, I devote a bunch of time and effort to enjoying summer, but it means putting some things on the back burner. Yeah. Right. You know, I'm, I'm very happy that taxes aren't due in September. you know, like I don't have to file because I would not get to it. Yeah. Because there's a bunch of other stuff that I just stopped doing since about the end of June. Yeah. And you quickly realize like, oh, I haven't I haven't really like tied like it's weird stuff where like you use the garage every day and I'll use it every weekend, of course, to put stuff in the Jeep and drive up to the cottage. But it just becomes a mess that you never clean up. And there's a bunch of those in my life currently. Oh, yeah. And then all of a sudden, yeah, kids go back to school and September, you know, comes in full swing and you go like, Oh, I gotta, I gotta do a couple of things, uh, stay on top of this. So I get you.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Other than that, um, you know, just getting ready for the trip and, and, uh, yeah, it's been pretty quiet just kicking around the house here.
James Stacy Nice. Okay. Well, how about a little risk check and then we can get into a, what is this part five of our Slack crew and a for 2024. Pretty good. I think we'll, I think there'll be a sixth part.
Jason Heaton Oh, there, there has to be, I mean, we're, we're, we're closing out and I think we timed it just about right. I think unwittingly we've, we've kind of, we're getting close to the end of the year and we have one more after this, but it is nice given that episode 300 was, was all about us. I think it's nice to kind of turn it around and make this episode, you know, basically all about what our, uh, our listeners have sent, have sent in. So totally excited to kick, kick this off. But as for risk check, I, uh, once again, this week I'm wearing my. Jumbo Day-Date SAR from Marathon, you know, this monster 46 millimeter piece. It's, uh, kind of hasn't left my wrist for, for over a week, you know, since we recorded last time. And, um, I moved it onto this strap and I don't quite remember where I got it, to be honest. I don't think you gave it to me, but it's, um, it's this sort of, uh, I'll probably wear it to, uh, to Toronto. So you'll be able to see it, but it's this kind of thin, canvassy looking strap with a big buckle kind of like this the ones we have on our TGN Nados with some metal hardware and it it holds the watch pretty well so I'm pretty excited but you know I've been wearing this watch on the on the set of rubber strap that Marathon provides with it and of course that's excellent and it looks like you're you're following suit today too with with a Marathon on that same strap.
James Stacy I absolutely am. I'm not only wearing a Marathon, but I am wearing it on the rubber strap. I am wearing my SS Nav D. I've talked a ton about this. I wrote a big story for Houdinki about it. It's, you know, convenient because we're doing some Marathon stuff this weekend with Toronto Timepiece Show. But I do, regardless of our beer hangouts or otherwise, having Mitchell on the show recently, I just love this watch. I think it's one of the most compelling sports watches on the market for the money. I love the 12-hour bezel. I love the high-accuracy quartz. I love the tritium. And then just recently, I realized I had one of these somewhat more new options from Marathon. I actually don't know when it launched, but I think it's new from an email that I had in my inbox. It's called a three-piece rubber strap. It comes in three pieces. You only use two of them at once. It's a very conventional rubber strap, but I will say that it's one, it's expensive, but despite the price, it is probably my favorite rubber strap on the market right now. I believe they sell for about 225 USD, which if you're buying Breitling, factory Tudor, factory Omega, it's not a crazy price. If you're buying $40, $50 or even $15 and $20 straps from Amazon, it will seem kind of expensive, but the only way to describe it is premium. It just feels really, really nice, really high end, like what you'd want from a full on luxury experience with a watch, has a nice milled buckle, really nice hardware. And then the strap, this is the OD green one that I have. So it just looks awesome on the SS Nav D. And yeah, I just, I really like it. It's, it's the sort of strap where the direction of how it curves around your wrist, it's quite soft and pliable, but then in any other direction, it's actually quite rigid. So it really hugs your wrist nicely without needing to be tight, which I just think it's a great strap. Yeah.
Jason Heaton And it's got that texturing on the back, which is.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton kind of keeps it from getting clammy. I mean, we're getting into cooler months, but I, you know, that's, that's how I wore this, this watch as well for the past couple of months. And it's straps like that, that don't have a lot of venting or holes can, can get a little clingy and they've done a nice job with that texture on the back.
James Stacy I agree. Yeah. Yeah. I'm super impressed by it. I'll have it on my wrist at the turn of time piece show. If anybody, if anybody would like to see it in the person, but Hey, let's get into some slack crew and a, so as we spoke about, this is part five. of our 2024 outing for the Slack Q&A. So for those of you who maybe don't pay for the show or don't partake in the standard Q&As, we do a loosely monthly... We do 12 a year. That's how I like to say it because I'm always behind. But we do a loosely monthly listener Q&A where people record their question as a voice memo on their phone and then send it in. And we play it kind of like a radio call-in show where you can hear the caller's voice. I like it quite a bit. But to turn that on its head and to get a whole bunch of questions really quickly, I think we got like 40 or 50, 60 questions. We occasionally, we started this last year, so this is the second year of doing it. We do a Slack Q&A where it's text questions from everybody in the Slack and it helps. I think there's a lot of people who don't want to record a voice memo. Yeah. That's kind of the very basic pitch for what the Slack Q&A is. Please go back and check out parts one through four. They were a lot of fun to record and a huge thank you to everybody who sent in a question. But let's kick this one off with one from WatchThinker who says, what watch that you own or might want to own most vividly takes you to another time or place in your mind? This can be like a memory or a full on vibe.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think it kind of fits with both of our philosophies around watches, too, that they become sort of these mementos of past adventures. And that's the way I kind of viewed this question. You know, he mentions or she mentions, I'm not sure which, but that, you know, it's a watch we might own or want to own. And, um, for me, it's all about the watches I own because they remind me of, of things. And, um, I guess a couple of that spring to mind for me is, uh, like a DOXA, like a DOXA always transports, transports me to some tropical diving location. Um, you know, DOXA to me, like I just picture like diving in minimal gear, you know, whether it's a light wetsuit or even just swim trunks and a rash guard or something and a single tank. Um, somewhere warm. Uh, I don't necessarily think of a doxa, although you certainly could use it for ice diving or cold weather diving or sorry, cold water diving. But I, I, I always associate it with someplace tropical, especially something like a, um, a diving star or certainly a Caribbean. That would make sense. Um, or of course the professional pro. Yeah. But, um, other than that, I mean, to me, like the other one that, that conjures up, uh, kind of memories or, or certain places is, uh, almost any CWC. I, I wear these watches and I always think of like really harsh weather. And I think of like a couple of the trips I've taken to Wales and Scotland, I I've always had a CWC on my wrist for those and just that sort of British Isles, you know, military training sort of thing. I wore one for the fan dance and uh, and certainly it kind of, it kind of oozes that, that sort of, you know, rough treatment in a, in kind of a harsh place sort of vibe for me. Totally. Yeah. No, I don't disagree with that at all.
James Stacy Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for me, it's probably like the ones that hit the hardest are the ones that actually predate my time as working in watches. So if you go back far enough to something like my Monster, which was just a very early expression of my interest in Seiko. So I like these ones that kind of take me back to, I don't know, maybe I was less jaded or I didn't know how little I knew, and that didn't get in the way of enjoying things, right, as it can sometimes. But yeah, it'd be that or my Timex Ironman, which takes me back to being a kid. When I strap that on, it feels like I'm eight and I've got one more tool in the toolbox or on my person to be a more complete and effective eight year old or whatever. And yeah, those kind of watches bring a lot of, I don't know, very just like approachable sort of charm to me. Yeah, that makes sense.
Jason Heaton I hadn't thought about the kind of childhood connection. Um, yeah. And, and kind of what that does, but yeah, that's a, that's a good call. And, and those childhood memories are so vivid anyway. I think stuff that happens at very formative years kind of sticks with you, whether it's, you know, you know, you watch a movie or hear a song or, or a pair of shoes or something. So yeah, your Timex Ironman is a good pick.
James Stacy I guess that that's where it went for me. Cause like I could, I could go with the Explorer 2 and talk about climbing Baker. but I think when I put the Explorer 2 on, it's kind of like the Rolex of it can even outweigh what it is for me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think to a certain extent, the Pelagos does that too. If I put the Pelagos on, I'd think about diving every time I look at it. And it's not because of how much diving I've done with that watch, I've probably done 15 dives or something, but when you factor for the multiple other times that I board Pelagos, shot in Mexico, shot with you in Tobermory, there's a lot of great memories wrapped up in the Pelagos world, but for whatever reason, it's not the same because those are professional memories, if you will. It's not the same as being a kid and going to... It was the Bay or Kmart here in Canada. On Tuesdays, they did a $2 matinee at the movie theater, and As a kid, I think I was turning six or seven, so we were talking 92 or 93, went to the Bay, got an Iron Man. It was the first or second year. It was the first series that had Indiglo. I was obsessed. Oh, yeah. And then we went and saw the movie Beethoven. Oh. About that big dog. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right. And I just like those. Those are great memories for me. And I get a little hit of that every time I put on, you know, this Abu Garcia Iron Man.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy Good one. Thank you so much for that question. Watch thinker. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Next up, we have a question from, uh, Jeffrey, Jeffrey B, uh, who has a kind of a two part question around a gift watches. He says, uh, I've been spending the last couple of weeks agonizing over buying a watch for my dad for his birthday. My fiance inspired me after gifting me a vintage Seiko chrono for my birthday. Gift giving can be very difficult and watches in particular are so specific to the person's taste. Have either of you given watches as gifts? How did you decide on what to get and how was it received? And then he says, extra credit. If you were going to get six groomsmen watches and not spend over a thousand dollars total, what would you do? Or is watches a bad idea? And if so, what's better? Uh, let's tackle it in two parts. Um, and what's your experience in giving watches as gifts and kind of how did you decide and how were they received?
James Stacy Yeah, I would say for the most part, I've avoided it unless I knew I was buying a watch from a person who knew what I knew, who understood that I knew a lot about watches, but they themselves weren't watch people. Oh, yeah. I don't think I would buy a watch for a watch person. Yeah, yeah, true. If I got a watch from you, the value of that watch would be that it was from you, right? And I think for many people who might ask anybody who listens to the show, maybe these people know that you or I or whomever knows a bunch about watches. Yeah. what they're asking for, what you might be giving them is more your solution for their watch problem, which could be very good if the stakes are quite low for them. Like if they don't necessarily actually care that much, they just want to watch and they'll get the value out of it by knowing they got it from you or through you, whatever, whether it's an advice thing or a gift thing or whatever. And I think like if your father, Jeffrey, is a watch guy, I probably wouldn't get him a watch. I might get him a watch accessory, get him a display case, get him a cool box for his desk, get him a single watch winder for one of his watches. I think those kind of things, they can always fit into the taste that somebody already has rather than if Jason and I bought a watch for somebody else we knew that really loved watches. I mean, you might nail it because you might know the exact watch they want, but that's... I would argue that's almost not gift giving at that point, just like... Yeah, yeah. at least not in the true sense of the term, where you kind of like consider the person's personality and interests and the rest of this, and you get to kind of enjoy the process of picking a great watch for them or a great anything. I just think gift giving is so much fun and can be, especially when you take it really seriously and do a good job. But I think in my mind, I would avoid the watch thing unless your dad's not that much of a watch guy, at which point I would probably follow suit with your fiance's move and pick up some cool vintage something or other. The vintage thing kind of removes the idea that this is more of a permanent commercial consideration, doesn't feel as earnest as something you bought, more as like you found something that you think they would like, which I think could work as well. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I agree with all your points. And I think buying a watch for somebody that's into watches or has an eye on something, it doesn't feel as special. And then on the other hand, when you're buying a watch for somebody that you don't know necessarily how they'll receive a watch or whether they know about watch ownership can be, can be really tricky. Um, you know, two, two cases that stick out in my brain from, from my past are, uh, you know, years ago I was involved with the program, big brothers, big sisters, and I was matched with young boy at the time. And then as he got older, And he, you know, he of course saw my interest and kind of my whole career wrapped up in watches and kind of took an interest. And, and he had, he had this idea that he would like a watch, but like his taste, I mean, it was a young kid. I mean, this is like not, um, you know, you, you take into account like a history with watches or interest in watches, throw that out the window. And then you think about like just the taste between different generations and that made it tricky. But, uh, I had this carbon, uh, Victorinox, the Inox, Um, you know, black case, the, it had the paracord strap. Um, just a cool piece and I gave it to him and I don't see him very often anymore, but when I do, like he wears that watch nonstop and he loves that watch and it just kind of fit his vibe. You know, he's not, he's not easy on watches or he's not, you know, doesn't take care necessarily, but, but he wears it as intended and it was kind of the perfect thing for him. And I've helped him, you know, I've changed the battery for him a couple of times. And, and so that was a good pick, um, for, for an, decidedly non watch person who since has kind of become a watch person with that one piece. And then the other one was a, a, a listener of the show. He was kind of a newer listener. He's a friend, a neighbor here named Nick, Nick, you know, shout out if you're here, he's turned into like number one fan here of TGN, which is great. You know, Nick and I were chatting. He loves to listen to the podcast. He got more and more keen on watches. And I said, well, why don't I lend you one of my watches like to, to wear for a while. You can see how you like it. And he was headed off on a trip to, South America with his, uh, with his wife. So I gave him my scurfa, my MS and you know, the blue titanium and he strapped it on. He wore it. He was sending me pictures from, I think they were in Columbia saying how well it was doing, how he loved it. He was asking me questions about, you know, setting and the screw down crown and all of this stuff. The excitement was just palpable. And at some point I just said, just keep it.
James Stacy Yeah, of course.
Jason Heaton Uh, he was also just recently out in Olympic national park doing some hiking just last week. And he, he just sent me this little, message through the ether out of the blue and said, the scarf is doing great. So I was like, that's awesome. So two cases where these were kind of non-watch people that had a bit of, you know, watch curiosity and, and, uh, it worked out really well. So those, those were, those were two instances that worked out well for me and for them, of course. All right. What about the groomsmen situation? Where are you headed with that? A thousand bucks total for six.
James Stacy Yeah. So we're looking about 160 bucks, 170 bucks would get you around, around a thousand dollars to buy six watches. We're not factoring for a tax necessarily. Yeah. You know, my first thought on this was like, do you get like a cool little Seiko five, like a lot of previous gen? Yeah. SNZ whatever for can you do that? And it turns out you absolutely can. I went to one of my favorite spots for genuinely inexpensive watches online. It's called Creation Watches. Oh yeah. I don't remember where they're based out of. We've definitely talked about them on the show before. I have bought several watches from these guys over the years. It's not a great place anymore to say buy like an SKX unless you want to spend a thousand dollars, which of course is not what they're worth. But I went in there and I looked up Seiko, Orient and Citizen and then just put a price cap of a hundred and eighty bucks. And there's like there's a hundred plus watches here, all sorts of different stuff. If you wanted everybody to have like a dress watch for the day, they've got a pretty nice little Citizen Moon phase. Silver dial quartz, seventy three dollars a unit. Wow. Not so bad. Right. Pretty reasonable. Cool gift. Lots of Seiko fives. So if you want an SNK series, they're slightly dressier than you have the S and Zed G series, which is a little bit more of like a pilot's or a field watch. There's tons, all different versions. You get ones with gold plating, gold accents, two tones, dressier stuff. There's a really nice four hundred and twenty four bucks. There is a citizen Ecodrive stainless steel. It's the AW178084A. Just a nice looking, simple watch. Here, I can drop it into our chats. You can see the one that I'm referencing.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
James Stacy And that's a 40 millimeter watch. It's a quartz movement, Ecodrive. Just a nice gift. It's a watch that somebody could just wear. It's legible. It's very generic, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's just one of the things that a citizen can be pretty good at, right? Yeah. And this says, to be clear, this one here that I just pulled up it says it's the last one, so you can't buy six of these, I guess. But dig around on Creation Watches is what I would do if I had $1,000 and needed to buy six watches. I think that's probably the move. And then the only thing I would do before you actually clicked buy would be when you have the reference number of the watch that you like, double check what it costs on Amazon, because you might be able to buy from somebody significantly closer to you. I believe Creation Watches ships out of China, and I, you know, just, I would have just double check that it's not like you could get it on prime tomorrow for $12 less or something. Who knows. Yeah. But that, that would be, that would be my thinking. Um, if, if you want to go the route of, of a watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I had a kind of two very different choices, um, for this scenario, one of which is a very sporty watch. And one of which is a much more classic sort of dressy looking watch. And, um, in terms of the dressier watch, I, you know, I kind of went with Timex and I thought, you know, a lot of value there. Obviously. And they've got, um, they've got so many watches. Like it's, it's, it's dangerous to let go and just like sort by price, low to high. I went through like seven pages deep before I even got to anything over a hundred dollars. And you know, some of them are kind of hokey, not watches. I would get a lot of like character watches, you know, Mickey mouse and et cetera, which is fine if that's what you're into. But I thought like, okay, groomsmen watch, like if you want something that you could wear for the wedding or, or just for a dressier occasion, They make this Waterbury classic Day-Date. It's a 40 millimeter watch with a, like a black leather strap that looks pretty nice. And it's got Roman numerals. It comes with a black dial as well, but I like the white dial. It just, it has a really sharp look to it. And this is, you know, it's just quartz analog thing. And I can, I can paste that chat too. So you got that.
James Stacy Not bad though.
Jason Heaton And under budget. Yeah, definitely. And then I've got my, my second pick is well under budget and it's, it's, you know, kind of a cult classic. know kind of cheapskate watch nerds dive watch aficionados and that is the Casio Marlin I believe is the nickname for it because there's a little jumping Marlin on the dial. They just call it the MDV106-1A and it's $69.95. So again you know it's got 200 meters water resistance, it's you know quartz movement, you know rotating bezel, it's got a you know synthetic strap. I mean to me it's like You could say like, you can, it depends on how you present these pieces to the groomsmen. Like with the groomsmen, you could even sort of do it in a very precious way and say, here's your lovely dressy timex. Or you can like say here, catch and like throw the Cassio across the room, you know, just say like wear this and beat the heck out of it. And we'll wear it for our bachelor parties these days or a groomsmen event or something like that. You know, like, Hey, let's go, let's go wakeboarding or, or let's go, you know, to the surf park or something like that. And here, where this watch, you know, kind of thing. So.
James Stacy You know, Jeffrey, I think if you're planning to give these watches to your groomsmen on a golf weekend or a bachelor party thing or whatever, then the Casio makes a lot of sense. It's sporty, it's casual, it's a no brainer as far as an inexpensive watch goes. And I think you're going to come in well under, like Jason said, like well under $150. I think more like under 50 bucks. Yeah. If you dig around and that could leave money for maybe everybody gets a special strap. So you all have the same strap and the same watch, or maybe you, maybe everybody gets, you know, who knows? I don't, whatever the other thing could be possibly. Otherwise, yeah, I think, I think this could be a great, a great option and keeps your price in a really acceptable point. Like, especially if you don't want to spend over a thousand, but it's a wedding, it's always nice to save some money. And the only people who are going to be like genuinely let down in any way by this watch are either jerks who I'm assuming aren't going to be your groomsmen. Or like if one of your groomsmen is like a huge watch nerd, I still think he'd enjoy that you got him this, like I would, and I've got a bunch of great watches, so I don't think it would have to be this or that sort of scenario. Yeah, fun question, and good luck with your choices. Yeah, absolutely, and congratulations on the betrothment, and I hope... Assuming the wedding didn't happen months ago when this question came in, and including... My guess is you did end up buying your dad something for his birthday. So let us know in the Slack what you ended up picking up and if it was a watch and all that kind of stuff. So thanks again for that question. Next up, we've got one from Joseph, who asks, if you had to switch your entire watch collection with somebody else's that you know or don't know, but obviously you know the watches they have, who would it be? Like whose collection and why? Did you come up with one for this, Jason?
Jason Heaton I mean, I don't really have watch collection envy. And given what I've said at the top of the show about me doing a major sell-off, I'm actually kind of in the mode of kind of shedding a bunch of my pieces. I did have an answer and that's you. I mean, I think you and I have similar philosophies about watches and the way we use them and wear them and largely our taste among watches. So, you know, if we were to do a swap, I'd be like, yeah, I'll just take, I'll take James's stuff. I mean, might not wear the monster that often, but you know, the other stuff would be, would be cool. Yeah. I mean, SS nav, the, you know, the Pelagos 39 you've explored too. I mean, come on. I mean, let's, let's just trade a couple. I mean, geez, I'd be happy with that. That'd be a, We can do that. I mean, we can work something out. I'm sure. I'm sure. How about you?
James Stacy But yeah, I would agree. I would agree with that. That response, you immediately came to mind. You've got some watches that I really genuinely love and also to have the opportunity to own one of your watches, especially one that maybe had some meaning to you and then was passed to me, I think would be kind of fun, like a little sentimental thing. Obviously, our connections through the show and the last decade. Apart from that, I mean, like, let's just keep it easy and I'll take like, give me Ben Climbers watches, right? a It's weird because I think this would be easier if Joseph had asked like, what's one watch from somebody you know that you would love to snag, love to have be yours or whatever. It's harder when it's like a whole collection. And I think maybe you and I both came up with kind of not totally direct answers because neither of us are really collectors. We're more of like the watch equivalent of like not hoarders, but we wanna try everything. Right. And I don't think that's really collecting as much as like we watch samplers or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. But a fun question.
Jason Heaton OK, well, we've got another one here from Nathan Wright, who has a pretty simple question. He says, what is one desert island disc for each of you? Now, for those that aren't familiar with that concept, largely based on the BBC, long time, long running radio program called Desert Island Discs, where semi famous or famous people are interviewed and asked, for choices in terms of records or songs that they would take with them if they were stranded on a desert island for an indefinite amount of time. So, uh, this one's got a bit of a twist. I guess we're assuming like one album, um, that we would take if, if that's all you had to listen to for, I guess we don't know how long it would be, but let's just say you're, you're like Tom Hanks in Castaway. You're going to be there for awhile. What did he come up with? It's a real tough, I feel like I'd go mad if I was on an island for a long time and I had one album that had a lot of like singing, you know, like lyrics, I think it would just start to drive me bonkers. I'd almost like start like going over and over and over again in my head to the point of madness.
James Stacy I hadn't thought about that at all, but I think you might be right. Like the move might be an instrumental, so you have some sound, but nothing that forms that repetitive loop. Lyrics definitely can. That's really smart. I did not at all think about that element.
Jason Heaton So I guess with that in mind, what I, I had kind of two choices and they're, they're kind of two go-to instrumental albums and both happened to be soundtracks actually. Um, and I brought up at least one of these, I believe in the past, because we had a question a long time ago about some of our favorite music and something that's affected us. I remember it was the question. And the one that I really love was an album that, uh, Peter Gabriel did for the movie, the last temptation of Christ. um, back in the late eighties. And, you know, he, he was kind of one of the early proponents of world music. And so he brought in a lot of kind of African and Middle Eastern musicians and Pakistani, et cetera, and traditional instruments and vocalizations and put together the soundtrack for this movie. And then as I've read, the movie came out and he, he just kept working on the album. So the album didn't get released until a year after the film came and went. And he just had more he wanted to do with this music. And it is just the most incredible collection of songs that, you know, I don't think I ever saw the movie, to be honest. But the music is so evocative and I love the range of musicianship that is in that recording. And so it's called Passion. I should have said that at the top. The name of the album is Passion. And it's just a tremendous, tremendous piece. I could listen to that, you know, every day for years, I think. And then the other one is also a soundtrack. And it was put together by a composer named Alberto Iglesias. And it was the soundtrack for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the movie from 10 years ago, whatever it was, with Gary Oldman playing George Smiley. And I listened to that a lot. I actually listened to that quite a bit. If I'm having a tough day or I just want to like go lie down and take a snooze or I'm trying to fall asleep at night, I'll just put that on quietly kind of in the background. I listen to it and it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous soundtrack. And I listen to that a lot. And the fact that I have listened to it a lot tells me that this would be a good Desert Island disc for me. So those are my two picks.
James Stacy Okay. I like that a lot. I really, like I said, I think that the thought process of leaning towards something instrumental makes a lot of sense. I think it's just like a clever sort of idea. For me, I really vacillated. I didn't think of going instrumental. So we're going to go with lyrics and You know, Frank Ocean, Father John Misty, obviously Fleet Foxes, who I've talked a ton about on the show in the past, pretty tempting to just go hopelessness blues and be done with it. The one I kept going back to, and like I said, I did have a tough time with this question, is from 2002. It's by The Vines. It's called Highly Evolved. It has some very kind of heavy rock and sort of punk, Nirvana adjacent sort of stuff. It has some lighter stuff, It has a lot of different, like, kind of sonic expressions in one, in one, like, I think I could have an okay time listening to this. I like all of these songs and I like these songs for different reasons. And that's, I think the other one is you don't want to pick a song where like the album has four or five songs you absolutely adore. Yeah. Like some of these Frank Ocean ones I listed, like Lawn. And then has like that Facebook song where the guy talks for a minute and a half. Oh, sure. I don't want that. Yeah. It just goes on and on for a while. So yeah, we're going with The Vines. And there's even a song on here called the homesick. Oh, oh, perfect. Yeah. And, uh, in the jungle I might, might need both.
Jason Heaton Perfect. I guess you could go around like, um, kind of split the difference and do, do something like Bon Iver, which, which has a nice variety to, to some of his, his work. And then like the, the singing can be a little bit, um, unintelligible, unintelligible. So like maybe you wouldn't get that earworm going, you know, you could just sort of like, okay, I think you're right. You could spend years trying to figure out what he's saying. So, you know, that might help.
James Stacy You know, that, that boat shows up and I'm, I'm like a raisin in the sun. Just, you know, just barely trying to remember the lyrics to Skinny Love and none of them make any sense when you actually read the liner notes and all that kind of stuff. So just as, just as Mr. Rivera would have had it. But yeah, good one. Thank you very much for that, Nathan. Next up, we've got a question from Julian. who says that visiting multi-brand ADs can sometimes feel intimidating with security at the door, being buzzed in, the dim atmosphere, all of this. How would a more TGN yet luxury watch store still work or what would it look like? What is the experience like? What's on offer in terms of product and what sort of special events would you host at the store?
Jason Heaton It's an interesting question. It is. I had fun with this. I, I kind of.
James Stacy TGN brick and mortar experience.
Jason Heaton You know, I, I don't know. I think a lot of retailers now are kind of catching on that people don't like that sort of stuffy, you know, all the salespeople are in suits and. It's not fun. You know, you get buzzed in and everything's under glass and you feel a bit intimidated. I think some are catching on. You know, I haven't visited Roldorf in Vancouver, but like I saw them on video, like that's a cool, Yeah. That's a cool place. Like I'd model it after something like that, like old building exposed brick, um, high ceilings, good music playing in terms of kind of the physical environment. I think just in terms of the overall vibe, I think I'd just do kind of that sort of clubhouse vibe, like, like a Braymont boutique or, or maybe some what Breitling's doing with a little less affectation to it. Sure. You know, you'd have like formula one and adventure sports on some TVs going, you'd have good coffee. You know, if you want like a, protein smoothie or, you know, a good whiskey or something, some of that would be on offer. We'd have sure. Some of our own photography on the walls from, from us or some of our, you know, friends of the show. Uh, and then I think like in terms of the, you know, the stuff we're selling, you know, go beyond just watches. And I think, you know, and, and not just TGN merchandise, I think I'd love to bring in observer collection stuff from Spangle or, or, you know, some of the guests we've had on the show through dark standard age, you know, kind of have a really curated selection of complimentary products. And then when in terms of the watches, I think it would, it would be brands that, you know, look, we love Omega, we love Tudor, you know, we love some of the big brands, but I'd love to have a store really dedicated to the really core TGN stuff, you know, um, Doc's a CWC, you know, be a scurf of retailer marathon, you know, some selected, you know, kind of citizen stuff, maybe, maybe Aqua land. Um, and then consignment stuff that, that might be available only from that we offer that as a service for subscribers or something like that. Employees wouldn't be wearing suits, as I mentioned, but I don't also like sort of this overly kind of uniform look where everybody would be wearing, you know, khaki bush shirts and, you know, red wing boots. Like if that's their thing, that's great. I don't want some special patch on the shirt jackets for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And then we do film club movie screenings. Uh, I think that'd be fun. Bring in some guests, uh, like we do on the show, um, to do talks about, you know, expeditions or events or their work, do that, you know, maybe monthly, maybe host a weekly runs or, you know, bicycling out outings or, you know, put in a rock climbing wall somewhere. You'd have to park like a Land Rover dripping oil somewhere in the shop. Uh, that's, that's, that's where I headed. I mean, I had fun just kind of, thinking about this in my head. And I think, I think that's the way I'd go with it. A TGN, I don't know what I'd call it. I guess you just throw up, you know, the gray NATO and see who shows up. I think it'd be fun. Yeah. I love it. That's great. Yeah.
James Stacy For mine, I saw it as more of an experience and less of a retail opportunity. So to get to the TGN retail location, it's in the middle of nowhere. It's off the grid. So you gotta get on a store in Marfa, Texas or something. Yeah, you gotta get on a seaplane. And it's like going to Twin Lakes. You swear you're going to Twin Lakes, right? Yeah, yeah. Little, little, you know, Dick Prennicky action for everybody involved. You take a little, maybe 30, 40 minute plane ride, maybe take some pictures on the plane. That's where you get some wrist shots, that sort of thing. You land in the lake and then there's a cabin and you go into the cabin. The cabin's only foyer. then you go into like a bound layer under the cabin. Oh, oh yeah, which has all sorts of stuff. You want to go for a big hike with the new watch or the new item you bought, like whatever you might buy, you can test out in that space. You can go diving in the lake. You know, maybe we have like a obstacle course or something underwater, you know, statue garden or something interesting. Yeah. And if you wanted to get a kayak in and get some photos, you could do that. Maybe, maybe it's you know, something, you know, some hiking, some camping, maybe there's a, you know, we'd have the kit for all this sort of stuff and it'd be more of like a lodge experience that had in my mind. It's, you know, like like the the appeal of your like shopping on a cruise ship. Oh yeah, is your you're kind of relaxing and enjoying your time and spending time with hopefully with people that you like spending time with and occasionally you walk through a mall like to get to dinner. It'd be like it'd be that but elevated or shifted towards TGN where maybe what you're actually paying for is like a weekend or a week in this remote area with this very cool lodge, and there's a retail side that's included with that, so you can take home a watch, or you could take home a new camera, or you could take home a great new bag, or if you got there and found out one of your pieces of gear wasn't what you needed or wasn't gonna suit the need, we would have other options, that sort of thing. Yeah, I like that. So in my mind, it's like cross Dick Prenike with like a bond layer and then like with like an R.E.I. Oh, man. Oh, that's pretty sweet. Dick, I don't have like a like a boutique.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. That's inside like a shop in a shop. That is a mashup. I like it. Yeah. We have a good time. Yeah. All right. How about one from Matt Hogan, who I guess it sort of ties in. Good follow up here. Dream travel destinations. Specifically, he wants to know one metropolitan city and one adventure slash nature centric trip. All right, why don't you take this one first? Any, where are you going to go?
James Stacy City I think, yeah, city I think we've talked about quite a bit before. It'd be Tokyo or Mexico City are the two on top of the list. Haven't even had the, I mean, short of, you know, planning a trip and doing it myself, haven't had the opportunity even to go to Mexico City, but I know people who've spent a lot of time there. I know people who have lived there and they just like, everybody says the same thing. It's just absolutely an amazing city. Um, I really like Mexico. It's a part of Mexico. I've not been to, I've spent most of my time on either coast and yeah, so probably Mexico city or certainly Tokyo probably will get to Tokyo in the next little while. Uh, cause it's very high on my wife's list as well. And then as far as like adventure nature centric trip, I mean, we've talked, we both, both you and I have spoken about wanting to drive the West coast of, of Canada and in the U S yeah. you know, drop all the way down into Baja, I still think that would be a bucket list for me. And I don't mind if I do it in my 60s, I'll still have a good time. I'm going to spend most of my time in a car anyways. Yeah. So maybe we'll get there at some point, but the other one would be essentially the same thing, but let's do Chile and Argentina. Oh yeah. I would just love to get to that part of the world. And I, you know, it would not be for city stuff. I would love to do like an overlander or, you know, like the, the adventure rigs where it's like a motor home. but it can go over bad roads. Yeah. I mean, just, yeah, let's do Chile for sure. Maybe pick it up in La Paz and head South. Yeah. Yeah. How about you? If you've got either, you've got your possible city and your possible adventure outdoor spot.
Jason Heaton I think what I would do is I would be inclined to combine these two. I have said it before, and I think as I'm getting older, I'm even more staunchly in this camp, I'm just not a city person. And so for me, if I, if I want to go to a city, it's gotta be someplace that's like a jumping off point for, you know, getting outdoors, getting away from the city. So, you know, you spend a couple of days maybe getting your bearings, adjusting your, you know, um, body clock, um, stocking up on supplies, et cetera, and then heading off, uh, outdoors, getting out of the city. So, you know, a place that I've been that, that still, resonates with me and stays with me that I would love to go back. It's, it's one of the few places in the world I've talked about that would be really cool to live is a Queenstown, New Zealand. It's on the South Island. It's, um, kind of considered an adventure capital. There's stuff like right, you know, right in the city limits and just above the city and the mountains and you know, there's water and there's, um, you know, good mountain biking and hiking and, and et cetera. And then it's, it's kind of the place where you fly into and then take off for Fjordland, the big, the big area in the South Island with all the mountains and the fjords and the ocean. Uh, so I, you know, I think Queenstown, I didn't get much time there, but I'd love to go and explore that a little bit more and then, and then just head off into the woods. Uh, similarly, I think, you know, um, you know, Reykjavik, I've been to Iceland a couple of times. Reykjavik is another one of those cities that it's, it's, it's a, it's a big city. I mean, sort of when you think about it, I mean, Iceland is, I think their population is their total population of the country is still smaller than Minneapolis, It's, it's an accessible city. It's a beautiful city. It's very walkable. And of course you've got all that nature and raw adventure, just, just out, just outside the city limits. Chamonix is also on the list. I know it's not a metropolitan city, so to speak. Um, certainly not, but it's a town I've wanted to visit. And then I think back to my visit to you in Vancouver. And when I think about Queenstown, it kind of has that similar vibe. Like you look out, you can see mountains from the city. You've got the ocean. you know, just drive a fair bit out of town and, and, you know, dive and hike and that sort of stuff. I just feel like that would be a city that I could see spending more time in as well. And so I realized this like eliminates the usual sort of city exploring that a lot of people like to do. And fair enough. You know, I get that. It's just not for me, like walking around, you know, Paris or Rome or something for days on end. All I think about is sore feet and, and dodging traffic and lots of concrete and that sort of thing. So.
James Stacy I'm sticking to my guns. I like it. No. And it's, I also think it's like genuinely really helpful to have that kind of clarity if you're going to go ahead and make a big trip happen.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy It's like, I don't want to do cities. So don't. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The closest you need to be is probably the airport, right? To a big city. Um, if, if your goal is that, and certainly, certainly now when I go back West, yeah, I work to get out of the city, even Vancouver, my favorite city in the world. Like I, I love Squamish. I love even just getting into North Van, like into, into a Lynn Canyon or up into the hills. And I think for me, that's why Vancouver is, will always be something entirely different than a Toronto or a New York is I think that what what's being asked here in this question, you can, you get both in, in Vancouver. Yeah. It's a pretty dang good city, but it's not that big. You can walk across the downtown pretty simply. The food is awesome. The weather stinks if you don't like the rain, but I loved it, so it worked out for me. At the same time, you're 30 minutes from almost any cool activity you want to do, maybe an hour, right? Or if you're planning to ski and you want to do Whistler, it's a couple hours, but you could get to the North Shore Mountains, Seymour, and those to go skiing. You can do all sorts of hiking, diving, basically any water sport you can imagine can be done out there. It's just, you get both in that city, and I find the city part of it to be very not oppressive, and the nature part of it to be really, really intense, which is the right mix for me. Yeah. Cool. Good question. But yeah, that's a fun question. Thanks very much for that one, Matt. Next up, TheK33 has a question for me, and he says, has James ever crossed the equator? And if not, when will he do so and where will he go? My clairvoyance is on the fritz currently, so I'm not really sure when I will and what I'll be doing. But the closest I've ever gotten was Costa Rica, just in January of this year. That's the furthest south I've ever been. I thought for a moment that Clipperton was further south. Yeah. But it's not. I believe Clipperton is essentially west of Nicaragua, which is just north of Costa Rica. But Costa Rica or Clipperton are probably as close as I've gotten to the equator. And yeah, I mean, if we're going back, you know, similarly repeating something from the previous question, you know, yeah, set me loose in Peru, Chile, Argentina, those sorts of areas. I'd love to, every time I watch movies from that part of the world, like documentaries or the rest of it from that part of the world, I'm just enthralled by the way it looks and how rural it still appears to be and just how kind of edge of the world sort of stuff that you can kind of get into there. Yeah. Thanks very much for that question, K33. Hope that gives you the answer you like. We probably got time for a couple more here. So let's jump into one from Mike. He says, here's a nerdy watch question, but perhaps one with a tinge of controversy. What is your take on the reality behind Swiss Made, which Mike offers up in quotations? Where are our favorite watches actually made versus assembled? Are there tiers of watch brands that actually produce their cases and components in-house, like say Rolex and above, and naturally charge a premium versus brands that outsource the brunt of production to the Far East and therefore cost less while still being considered swiss watches that could be on again his his mike's examples are doxa oris swatch group etc and then finally he adds is a tutor made alongside rolex just like a longines is produced by an omega that last sentence i don't fully understand tutor definitely produces their own watches and they're not made in the same place as rolex but it's also my understanding that omega and longines don't share production facilities um it's possible that they do if there's overlaps in the swatch world But I think as those two brands stand, I've at least, I've definitely seen where Omega makes their watches. And it's, I don't believe it's also where Longines are made, or at least I don't think so. Am I dead wrong on that, Jason, or?
Jason Heaton I think you're, I think you're perfectly correct on that one. I don't think Longines shares any facilities with Omega except maybe, you know, I don't know, the odd hairspring or crystal or something like that, but yeah, certainly not, uh, not assembled together or using even the same parts.
James Stacy The other thing I would say is like when it comes to, I'm kind of going backwards through this question. I promise I'll get to the point in just a moment. But when it comes to like the Swatch group, that's a pretty wide Delta, that Swatch, which is, you know, not only made wherever they can in the world, but also made by robots like the System 51. But at the same time, we're also talking about Blancpain and Breguet, which are not, you know, those are made. Many of their watches are made by hand. Certainly they have options where the hand finishing is done by hand. you know, when it comes to like the broader discussion of Swiss made, I've always found myself to be quite comfortable just assuming that everything is made in China or on the same machine in Switzerland that they would use in China. I just don't, it's, it's not the same line in the sand that I think it was 15 or 20 years ago where an inferior product was coming out of a certain part of the world. And I think this is largely why the there's rules as to what you can and can't call Swiss made, right? And if you cross that line, Switzerland says, we're fine with you saying this, as long as you hit a certain, certain number of things. But there's a few, there's a few that have always surprised me. Like I saw Victorinox cutting cases in Switzerland. I did not assume at any point, and it wouldn't have bothered me if they said, oh, the cases are made in, in China. And then we finish them here and assemble the watches here. And you go, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Do I need to spend $600 more on a watch because of where the case is made when it's a Victorinox? Probably not. right? Who cares? And then obviously there's been long standing forum rumors and the rest of it about where Tag Heuer cases are made or where Doxa cases are made. And I'm just gonna assume most of those are made in China, simply because it's cheaper and they're using probably the same machine, right? So who cares? Yeah. In my mind, where the Swiss side of it matters is when you start to apply handcraft of any type or assembly. I would love a movement designed in Switzerland. I don't really care where the movement's made. You know what I mean? Right. But I'd like a Swiss guy with an incredible amount of training or a huge team with an incredible amount of training in Switzerland to have designed the movement. Where it's made, I think, is a little bit less important to me. For me, I don't know, Jason, this feels a lot like in-house. Right. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have an in-house watch, but does it necessarily mean you're getting a better watch or better value for your money? I probably want some of the watch to be made in China or somewhere that's cheaper to make it. Yeah. Especially the parts that don't require a person.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly. And it makes watches that we really like, um, more affordable to us. They can sell the sub 200 T for what they're selling it for rather than, you know, double that or whatever it might cost to, to have somebody, you know, hand milling it in, in, you know, Lausanne or whatever, you know, La Chaux-de-Fonds or something like that. And I think this, topic comes up regularly among watch enthusiasts. And I think it is controversial certainly, but I think it's less important nowadays. I think the, the, the levels have been equaled a bit. You know, I think watch quality is largely pretty high across the board once you get above a certain price. And I think, you know, the reality is the global sourcing is, is just a thing now. And, and so, you know, you get Land Rovers built in Eastern Europe and Volvos in China and BMWs in the U S and I think when it comes to watches, it's, it's kind of similar. And your point about, you know, the machinery making these, these pieces, and it's probably the same machines that are making them somewhere else as well. They might be Swiss machines that they're setting up in China to make them or Chinese machines in Switzerland. I don't know. So it just feels less important. And I can really only speak to, I don't know the insider details of this, and it would be interesting. I've often thought it would be interesting to interview or talk to somebody high up at a brand, maybe even a smaller brand, maybe, you know, Rick from Aqua star would be willing to divulge a little bit or, or somebody, and just be like, what is the supply chain here? And how does this actually happen? And a lot of brands, you know, are just reticent about talking about this sort of thing. But all I can say is from my personal experience, having owned too many watches over the years is I've rarely had quality issues with watches in general, but quality issues that I can directly attribute to like where it was made. And so, you know, Elliot Brown, for instance, you know, British brand, British owned brand and based brand, but they're, they're quite upfront that, you know, their watches are largely produced in, in Asia and they don't put Swiss made on the dial or British made or anything like that, but they're great watches. I've, I've had three of them. They're all great, really high quality, no problem with that. So unless you have a bit of a hangup about, Yeah. All of that. I don't think that's necessarily where Mike is headed with this question. I think it's more basic. I think he's just asking like, where is the stuff made and what does Swiss made mean?
James Stacy So avoiding that whole other side of it, I think it's more basic.
Jason Heaton I don't think that's necessarily where Mike is headed with this question. I think it's more basic. I think he's just asking like, where is the stuff made and what does Swiss made mean? So avoiding that whole other side of it, I think it's more basic. I think when it comes to just quality, I don't have concerns these days and I just, it doesn't really trouble me. So.
James Stacy Yeah. And I don't disagree. I would also, I'd also want to say like, let's make it really clear what Swiss made, what the parameters are currently, because it's very specific when it comes to watches. So a watch is considered considered to be a Swiss made watch, but a watch is considered to be a Swiss made watch when it's technical development is carried out in Switzerland. So that we want, right. It's the home of watchmaking. It's movement is Swiss. Its movement is cased in Switzerland, the manufacturer carries out the final inspection in Switzerland, and 60% of the manufacturing costs are incurred in Switzerland. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say those five bullet points are the same whether you make a $100 watch or a $100,000 watch. Yeah. And we're definitely putting a magnifying glass on China here. There's lots of other places to make watches in the world. Yeah, Germany.
Jason Heaton A lot of the Swiss brands, I think, get
James Stacy cases made in Germany, which, you know... Well, I mean, like, this is a joke we laughed about with the people at Victorinox. It's like, there's no such thing as Swiss steel. Yeah, yeah, right. So, like, a Swiss Army knife is a Swiss-made thing. A Swiss person made it. Largely by hand, and if not by hand, then a Swiss person designed a machine and supports the machine that makes your $25 folding knife, right? Yeah. But at the same time, And so it's not being made from Swiss steel because it's not a thing, it's German steel or wherever they're sourcing the metal. And I think like, does it bother me if like a $1500 Doxa is $1500 because the case is made somewhere else and then it's assembled in Switzerland with a Swiss movement? Doesn't bother me at all, not a little bit. Would it bother me if I spent $40,000 on a Blancpain and they were cutting costs to try and eke out an extra percentage point or two of margin? Well, yeah, probably. It doesn't feel like a luxury experience. But the really important part is, am I able to notice? Like, is the watch in any metric worse because of it, or is it just made somewhere else? But it's definitely a contentious kind of topic, Mike, so I appreciate the question. And I hope we came somewhere near an answer there. I'd love to continue this conversation in Slack. I think we had one kind of large thread a little while ago about Swiss Made that I found quite interesting. what it was 20, 30 years ago is not the same as it is now. And I'd say in that span of time, watchmaking has changed a ton, right? Yeah. But think about every great micro-brand watch you've ever gotten, almost certainly, not always, but almost certainly a case that wasn't made in Switzerland, for example, or a dial maybe that wasn't made in Switzerland or whatever.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Interesting question and certainly one that would merit further exploration and discussion and could go on for an episode or a whole Slack channel or not channel, but a whole discussion or special guest, et cetera.
James Stacy I do agree with what you said. I think it'd be fascinating to have somebody on who's willing to actually talk about it. Like someone who knows.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacy And yeah, I'd be fascinated to speak with someone who has like a more, you know, quote unquote material connection to the world of Swiss made watches. Yeah. So thanks very much for that question, Mike. And let's close it out with a final one from Graham Likes Watches. He said, Jason becomes a great guitar player this year and you both decide to start a band. What do you call the band?
Jason Heaton Well, to address the first part of that question, I have not become a great guitar player this year, despite the fact that you gave me a guitar back in April. But I'm planning on making that my winter project. But let's say I Let's say I do master the guitar or just turn over the reins to you. And I'm just kind of that, that singer who, you know, hits a tambourine on his hand while he's singing, um, or the triangle or woodblock or something. Uh, we started Brent band. Um, I mean, what do you think? I think the gray NATO is a pretty good band. It has that sort of edgy, obscure thing, you know, I think, uh, the Nate tones.
James Stacy Oh, there you go. It would be kind of fun. Uh, You know, so it would still be NATO and you could do N A T O as capital and then N E S. Yeah. But to be fair, that does kind of feel like, um, what was that awesome movie from a few years ago? That thing you do, uh, you know, their band name was the wonders, but it was spelled O N E and everybody pronounced them like would call them out on the stage as the O'neaters. And so I don't know if, uh, Natones would, would come to bite us in the end, but you know, What I'm trying to remember, there was a really good band name in a fake movie band that they play in that movie. And it was something like Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters. That's a great movie. I highly recommend if you need an impromptu outing of a film club here for that thing you do. But yeah, I think the Natones or yeah, the Grey Nato does just kind of sound like a cool punk band from the 80s. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Heaton Tusker and the Knuckleheads. Tusker, oh it's perfect. the dock jumpers. Uh, I could sort of see sort of doing like, sure. Oh, dock jumpers. This is great. You know, like beach, you know, like with that sort of beach rock music, you know, with a buzzing guitar, you know, sort of a real sort of summery retro sound. I, it is important to pick a good name. I remember, wasn't there a band years ago, I think that they had no idea who Reinhold Messner was and they called themselves Reinhold Messner. And then somebody said, this is like the most famous Mountaineer of all time. It was Ben Folds five.
James Stacy Was that their original name or was it an album? They did an album, a great album called The Unauthorized Biography of Reinald Mesner Without Knowing Who He Was.
Unknown That was fun.
James Stacy It was a great album to be fair, but I believe that is the oral history provided by Ben Folds, you know, in the years after that album was that they picked the name. essentially, and went for it. Great, great album, to be fair, though. Great band as well. So good stuff. But thank you so much for that question. Graham likes watches. And to everybody else who threw in a question that came into part five of the Slack Q&A, we really appreciate it. And we will get to the final. Let me count them out here. One. We got eight questions left, which is about perfect. And we'll get to the final eight sometime before the end of the year. Let's call it more like end of November could be nice, couple months from now. Yeah. And, uh, and we'll go from there. So thanks. Thanks again to everybody who sent that in and let's, uh, let's do some final notes and put a bow on it. Yeah, sure.
Jason Heaton What have you got this week? Well, we talked about a couple of films during the questions here and I've got a, I've actually got a book recommendation. Uh, I started the most recent nonfiction book by the stellar author, Ben McIntyre, who I've liked everything he's, he's written and he has this in-depth knowledge and, and all the research he does into all of his topics, but he has this wit and this, this great writing style that keeps you very engaged. I mean, he's done SAS rogue heroes. He's done a spy and a friend, a spy and a traitor operation mincemeat. I mean, his stories are tremendous is that his topics. And so his latest is called the siege and it is all about, um, the 1980, um, hostage taking at the Iranian embassy in London. Ooh. Okay. And, kind of how that catapulted the special air service, the SAS, uh, kind of to, to more prominence and fame because of their role in, in, uh, countering that hostage taking. And I'm about a third to a half of the way through. I'm listening to the audio book. That's actually read by Ben McIntyre. And, uh, it doesn't disappoint. It's great. I recommend it. I put it in our book club channel on Slack and a few other people commented that they'd read it and loved it. And you can't go wrong with anything McIntyre's written. He also had another book about cold. It's prison that he wrote. I mean, it's endless. Like if you just wanted to sit down and like build a collection of books and just be happy for the winter, reading one author, nonfiction, that is Ben McIntyre would be my, my pick, but the siege is, is a, is a good one.
James Stacy So check that out. That's awesome. That sounds really good. Yeah. Good, good option for sure. And mine this week is actually just a little bit of camera gear I bought recently. I bought it based on the recommendation of a YouTube channel. And it's essentially like a clamping arm that you can mount a camera to. So it's like two fixed bars that have like a geared interchange between them, like an elbow. Yeah. And you can clamp that down. And then on either end of the bar are tripod mounts, which you can then thread into like a clamp. And that way you can kind of clamp a light or a camera, a video camera, whatever, to all sorts of different things. I bought it for a specific project that I'm not comfortable talking about yet because I want to wait until it's actually done. Of the stack of things that I bought, this one I'm the most instantly impressed by because it wasn't that expensive. It's made by a company called SmallRig. If you're into sort of run-and-gun video stuff, then you'll know SmallRig, but it's $40 Canadian, so it should be about $30 US. And this is the 10-inch model. Very easy to use, nicely made, looks pretty cool. And so far with some of the very light testing I've done with the camera and the rest of it, it's it's just a very handy smart sort of solution that allows you to essentially turn any fixed element in a room, a vehicle, whatever, into a tripod.
Jason Heaton I love how the kind of the trickle down effect of, of kind of consumer grade, you know, camera gear and people, you know, photography enthusiasts are able to get their hands on really, really cool stuff nowadays than, you know, even going back to the, What those old, you know, sort of gorilla tripods and then we move into, you know, selfie sticks that, you know, for GoPros and I mean, drones and all this stuff. It's just, it's really created this incredible market of, of fun and affordable tools for, for people that want to start, you know, being content creators and producers and even on an amateur level. It's a, it's really cool.
James Stacy This is neat. Yeah. I'm, I'm pumped about it. I'm pretty excited to dip into this project in the next little while. And if anything comes of it, I will be sure to announce it on the show. But look, until then, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes and get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegraynado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Epictetus who said, it is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.