The Grey NATO – 313 – The "One Watch" TGN Tournament (With Public Voting!)
Published on Thu, 09 Jan 2025 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
In this episode of The Graynado (#313), hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton kick off 2025 with a discussion of their New Year's resolutions, recent lifestyle changes, and tech upgrades including new microphones and desk setups. The main segment introduces a bracket-style tournament where each host selected 16 watches from their collections to compete in head-to-head matchups, ultimately determining their theoretical "one watch" choice. They conduct the first round of voting, narrowing their selections from 16 to 8 watches each, while discussing the merits and drawbacks of each timepiece. The episode concludes with recommendations for books, TV shows, and videos, including a discussion about embracing discomfort and breaking out of comfort zones.
Links
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 is episode 313, the first of 2025, 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 would like 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 co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing? Happy New Year. |
| Jason Heaton | Good. Happy New Year to you. Yeah. I was, I was just thinking how, when you said 2025, it was like in the old days, it used to be, you have to get used to writing 25 on when you write a personal check. Well, nobody writes checks anymore. I so rarely write the date out again, but it is, it is tough to get used to, to a new year as it always is. But here we are. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, it came quickly. The break went by very quickly. A huge thank you to everybody in the audience who was chill with us taking a couple of weeks off. If I'm perfectly honest, I needed the time to decompress a little bit. And yeah, it was kind of a busy break. How did it feel for you? I felt a little bit bad for my daughters because it seemed like anybody they wanted to spend time with had a cold. And if those people didn't have a cold, then my daughters did. So there must be something gnarlier going around this year. Maybe that's the case for those of you listening. But I had a good time. We were able to slow down a little bit and enjoy the holidays. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. No, I had a great break. I mean, it was nice to take the time off. It felt like a proper kind of Christmas this year, I guess. And New Year's was really fun. I mean, the only complaint I have is it's been really cold here. Like I'm sitting here like my hands are cold. I'm spending a lot of time outside these days. You know, I walk the dog twice a day and then I'm running a lot and whatever. And it's like, I just cannot crank my body temperature up, um, high enough to sustain me over the course of the day. And after we're done recording here, we're doing this on a Tuesday afternoon, unusually. Um, and, uh, I'll be headed out right after this with, with Ruby. And fortunately later in the week, it's going to get a little warmer, but, uh, yeah, it's been, it's been chilly here. How about, how about where you are? |
| James Stacy | Kind of mixed. You know, we had some snow, it went away. We had a weirdly warm couple of days, that went away. Now it's just kind of, I don't know, I wouldn't call it like super cold. It's probably like negative 10, somewhere in that range during the day. You know, cold enough that I can tell the Jeep can feel it in its joints if we have to drive somewhere. But not so cold that like, you know, you don't want to do anything or it's uncomfortable. You know, January is not my favorite month, but it's also a month that always seems to kind of blow by. you know look we're talking about january we've got some some we've got some a handful of things to talk about and then i think a pretty exciting kind of main topic that's going to span in some ways the next several shows uh with this sort of idea that you and i have wanted to do for a little while and then i complicated maybe unnecessarily with technology uh we will find out we'll get to that in just a moment But do you want to start with some resolutions or maybe some stuff you got up to over the holidays, a mix of both? Are you doing dry January? You're already loosely dry-ish, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I kind of fell off the wagon for the last few months of the year. I was kind of hitting it hard. I mean, well, relatively so around Christmas. But since the first of the year, I've been kind of moving a little more towards kombucha and, and, you know, uh, carbonated water and that sort of thing. I've had a couple of drinks, but, um, I think the new term is what damp January, I guess I'm kind of headed in that direction, but I, it does feel good to, to just scale back and I might eventually just taper off entirely, but you're, um, You're going dry, right? |
| James Stacy | I definitely took December to a little bit too boozy and and need need the break for sure. And I feel like if we go back and listen to the January episodes from the last couple of years, I'm just saying something I've said before, but I feel pretty good. Yeah, definitely. The sleep improved like that day and and that sort of thing. I definitely like miss it to a certain extent, which is probably not a great sign. But, you know, I'm fine enough to To admit it, I like, I am a creature of habit, especially when it comes to my like home life. And that sort of thing. But I think this is good. And on top of that, you know, have made a couple other changes that kind of connect into loosely into resolutions. But what else, if you're doing more of a damp January, what else have you been kind of considering as far as resolutions? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm kind of a little looser this year. I think, you know, last year it was, I had signed up for the fan dance by now, last year, and was right on into dry January, which turned into a dry six months for me. This year I'm kind of taking a bit more of a chill approach, calling them more goals than resolutions. And I think one thing I want to do is just kind of not be such a knee jerk reactor and saying no to stuff like, you know, especially like locally with, with friends, like I'm going to this quirky kind of concert this Friday night. Um, it's kind of a bunch of tribute bands that are playing at a club in town and, um, some with some people I don't know very well and whatever, but it's, Like I just thought, you know, I got to do more of this kind of thing. So I just want to say yes to more stuff that maybe is a little bit outside my comfort zone. I think that's a healthy thing to do. And then I've been thinking about this for a while too. I think a lot of it comes from having a new dog. I just, I want to be more thoughtful about travel and kind of you know, flying around a lot. I think last year I did a lot of, did a lot of travel actually. Um, and, um, so I'm just trying to be a little more choosy this year. I'm not sure how that's going to play out, but I'm just kind of weighing each one with a little bit more, um, a little bit more care before I just say yes to everything. So we'll, we'll see how that, how that plays out. But I'd like to do more kind of regional stuff. I think I even mentioned that in a past episode, I'd like to, Do you know kind of more road trips and camping and that sort of stuff? |
| James Stacy | So we'll we'll see I absolutely agree on uh on the travel front over the past little while like even even since say our last kind of major Hangout with the Toronto timepiece show like a bunch of stuff has changed in both of our lives. I have a different job Uh have some other news that i'll hold until a little later in the year But just stuff that will affect travel for TGN specifically, but even just like at a broader scope Yeah, and I you know, I think it'll it'll come it'll mean some changes for the way that we do things But I don't think it'll necessarily mean less maybe just different Yeah, but I agree on that the the travel thing especially when it's a lot of work travel and for you It was a lot of remote work travel. Mm-hmm Travel is one of those things where if you get to do it when you're in control, it's just one of life's literal best pleasures. But there are scenarios and I know there's folks in the slack, certainly in the professional channel that travel a lot for work. And it can become a different thing if it's for work, because one, you often feel like you have to go because it's your living. And two, you're often operating on other people's sort of itineraries and demands. And it changes the tone of the travel, even when it's, you know, an incredible, you know, trip with Blancpain and Oceania or something like that. So I can certainly sort of understand all that sort of stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | What other resolutions have you set? for this year besides January, you've said you've got a walking pad, which I, I've seen, I've seen those pop up lately. And how's that working out? |
| James Stacy | Well, I, you know, I've talked about on previous episodes that I really liked the treadmill that we bought. I think I bought a $200, $150 treadmill on Craigslist and it's in my basement. It's good. It's very loud. So you can't like take a phone call or a zoom call or whatever while you're doing it. And then I, you know, obviously it's not at my desk. And I started, I started, I spent a good piece of the, of the break, like kind of studying office and desk setups for productivity. The workload has increased exponentially almost with the new role. And I don't really want to get behind. And I also don't want to put myself in a position where the TGN schedule has to be, you know, the victim of the amount of work for Hodinkee. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | So, you know, just trying to be mindful about those things and make some decisions. And one of them was just, you know, if you spend a certain amount of your day reading or watching video, which I do, I review all of Hodinkee's video, I read every story, maybe consider an under desk walking pad. So I went down the rabbit hole very briefly, finally just found one that seemed to kind of have unanimous generalized praise. These all seem to come from the same five factories, that sort of thing. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | So in the end, I bought one on Amazon from a brand called Walking Pad. Pretty straightforward. It's called the P1. It's like their standard model, the P1 or A1 Pro. which is what I probably would have bought if it was available, was just sold out. And I don't need an excuse to not be active. So I just bought the one to have. And so far, I'm super happy with it. I think as of today, I've done like 35 kilometers on it, something like that. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh my gosh, that's incredible. |
| James Stacy | Wow. Not in one day since I got it. Sure. But still, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, we're only seven days into the year. That's amazing. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, so it's really not difficult. I got this in the around the 21st or 22nd. Okay of december Yeah, and yeah so far just really happy with it It folds up and goes under my desk and gets out of my way And then if I want to use it, I raise the desk to like its top position Yeah, and fold it out turn the app on it has a little hand controller that I find inscrutable uh so the app on my phone allows me to adjust the thing and see all the like adjust all the speed and everything and to see all like the the metrics of what i've been doing how long how far the steps that sort of thing and then the nice thing is is the app it's this like ks fit app which then syncs with my aura ring. So walking on the pad, even though my hands are often on my desk and the aura ring doesn't know that I'm doing a workout, or, I mean, let's not call it a workout. My heart rate barely raises, but it doesn't know that I'm walking and in doing something I might want to measure and remember. So this way it just imports it and it works really well. And it was a few hundred bucks. I paid, I don't know, I think it was $1,000. Yeah, it was probably $425 is what I paid for Canadian, which would be about 350 us something like that. I'm perfectly happy with this walking pad P one. I can't tell you how long it'll last. Oh, right. Yeah, that's but but the the delivery experience, the setup experience, you basically plug it in, turn it on, put the app on your phone, and it works. And if you don't want to do the app on your phone, if you don't want any of those metrics, there is, like I said, a little remote control. But it's not the most UI friendly scenario. It's kind of a confusing UI. That was one of the big additions. The other one, I finally bit the bullet as I, you know, I've, it's been, this would be the third Christmas season where I'm kind of on the fence about upgrading my monitors. I wanted to go to an ultrawide and one went on sale. And I went to a group of friends that I have that I've grown up with that are all nerds. And I said, hey, give me a reason not to buy this 49 inch Samsung ultrawide. And one of the guys in the group went back a year and screen-capped me asking the exact same question last year. Like almost to the word. Like talk me out of it. And they're like, sorry, dude, just buy it. This is boring. I bought it assuming I, you know, you got 30 days to return or whatever things absolutely massive. It's on my desk now and I'm just in love. Yeah, it's huge. I have three full-size web browsers currently which makes like all in one view everything big enough to read quite comfortably. So that was the other big upgrade because you know, I'm just at a position where I do kind of have to be at my desk like for 10 hours a day. And this is a lot nicer than, I had two older, one of them was seven or eight years old, but like earlier 27 inch 4K monitors. So it's technically a similar amount of screen, but it's so nice to not have the bar in the center and then to have it be OLED because you just get all the contrast. And if you want to sit and watch a movie, it's really nice. As soon as I got it, Henry put out a Hagerty video on this sort of like resto mud take on the AC Cobra, the Shelby Cobra. And so I watched that, and the nice thing about the Hagerty stuff is it's quite wide. Oh yeah, I just watched that myself. Even more so than 16 by 9. I don't know what aspect ratio they actually shoot in, but it's very wide, and so it just looks incredible on the monitor. So that was the other one. And then finally is a shared upgrade between you and I. You are listening to TGN's first mic upgrade in a very long time. Yeah. And probably our last, because these are not cheap mics. So we've both upgraded after much deliberation on my side, we've both upgraded to Shure SM7Bs. In my case, I ended up with an SM7DB because the SM7 was entirely sold out. So I have the new model with the preamps that I'm not using currently. I don't know, I'm not gonna go out on a limb here and say that this episode should sound 5% or 10% better than 312, but if you give me five or six episodes to learn how to really master the, or to get into the way of making an ideal setting for each of these mics, then I'm hoping this will be a good move for the show, so. Do you feel more official talking into it? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, and it feels solid. I love the connection and the weight of it. I mean, it's, you know, it's like anything, you know, you can kind of sense quality, whether it's, you know, you're picking up a, like a camera or a Rolex watch or slamming the door on a Mercedes or whatever. It's just, I mean, even if you know nothing about it, which is me, like it just feels better. I love the way it plugged in on the stand and, um, just, it just has a nice tactile, um, feel to it. So yeah. Hopefully people notice the difference. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Obviously, we have a little bit of housekeeping to do, as you are now in your final week, if you would like the PIP at 8 collection of merch. We have one more week. It'll be shut down on the 15th of January. This is our collaboration with Tony from The Illustrated Watch. There's a hoodie, two shirts, a coaster, enamelware mug, and there's also a standard TGN logo mug. That one will probably persist. We are in the process of warming up the print press and the design team and the rest of it for the next merch drop. And I'm hoping that'll be ready for, you know, mid next month, maybe we'll see how that comes together. But we're pretty excited about that. And we're going to try and do one of these every season, if you will. So we're working on one now for the start of 2025. So stay tuned for that one. But if you're keen on uh, pipette 8, uh, merch. Your time is numbered. This episode comes out on the 9th, which will leave you six days to, uh, get your orders in if you're interested. And then it goes into the vault like Disney or whatever. Never to be seen again. Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe release some many years in the future when we're all hard up for Little Mermaid or whatever. Finally, I had a call today with Jason Hutton from the Toronto Timepiece Show, and he wanted to chit-chat and make sure that the news was clear that the tickets are now available for the Vancouver Timepiece Show. They're selling out even faster than the Toronto one. He might be cursed by his own success here as the show appears to be quite popular. So those are available. Please check it out. There's a new website to keep all of this organized. It's just timepeashow.com Not bad. |
| Unknown | It's great. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, a little easier to remember than Toronto or Vancouver or splitting them up But this will be the last weekend in April. I think it's the 25th to the 27th and Currently, and we'll give you guys the real straight rundown, I will almost certainly be there. I would put my probability in the 90th percentile. I think it'll be fine. I'm very excited to be there. Obviously, I absolutely adore Vancouver, and we're already in talks with some known quantities for a proper little TGN get-together and that sort of thing. Jason is not as much of a sure case. I think that's fair to say, right? We're still working on the timing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I've got a possible conflict of, uh, scheduling, um, during that time period, but, um, I'd love to make this, I think, you know, I think Vancouver having visited once when you were living out there, um, I grew quite fond of the city and I think it'd just be a really awesome place for a show. And it sounds like this venue that they're going to be at is going to be pretty spectacular too. |
| James Stacy | Yep, fully agree. Stay tuned to the show for more updates on our specific involvement. I don't want to miss an excuse, a business write-off to go to my favorite city in the world. So I will almost certainly be there. For how long, I don't know. And obviously, we'd love to do stuff with Rolldorf and a lot of the local crew as well. So there's lots of opportunities, but it is just the start of the new year. If you think you can make it, probably time to look into tickets. and check that out at timepeashow.com. It's not an ad specifically, we're not paid, we're not anything like that. We just really like Mr. Hutton and what he's up to. We had a great time at the Toronto show. We'll definitely be doing the Toronto show again, assuming all the plans and everything can come together as they did last time. But the Vancouver show is a little bit different of a format and we're looking into some options as far as things like live shows and that sort of thing. Somewhere else in the city as this is gonna be more of a space just for a show but more like a wind-up But without the the Sun kind of side room for a theater nice. Well, we've got a big topic today big big fun episode All right. |
| Jason Heaton | Do you want to jump into some very quick risk check? I have on a watch I've been wearing the past couple of days and it kind of rekindled the love affair with it and it's the Omega Seamaster Professional Diver 300 meter. This is an old one, the reference 2254, the beloved 2254 that we have waxed lyrical about for many years on TGN and I moved it on to, I had it on a white rubber strap for a long time which looked great. But I've moved it on to kind of what people are calling the planet ocean style rubber strap, the black strap that was more commonly seen on the early planet oceans. And it just looks so good. I just, I love this watch. It's so good. And we'll get into it too, because it does come up as part of our main topic today. So I won't go on too much about it here. |
| James Stacy | Oh yeah, so it does. Yeah, fair enough. And so does mine, to be fair. I'm wearing my Pelagos 39. Jason, you sent me a handful of amazing Christmas gifts, which I'm absolutely adoring. And one of them was the dive compass from Watches of Espionage. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And so I wanted an excuse to wear that. So I was going bowling and I knew there would be black light at the bowling alley. So I put my Pelagos on a NATO, which I hadn't done in a little while. I wore it on the rubber. I wore it on the bracelet a ton. I wear it on the postal strap or some of the other custom stuff I have in 21 mil. But I threw it on a 20 mil NATO, threw the compass on there to go bowling. And I haven't taken it off the NATO. It's just so good. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | It looked really good in that wrist shot you posted. So I've been wearing that a ton and that's what I've got on. And that does kind of take us into our main topic, but I'll let you give people the rundown and I'll give a little bit of an explanation of the kind of format and text. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, as you mentioned at the top, this is a topic that we've been kicking around for a couple of months, um, that we're kind of excited about. It's, it's, uh, largely a riff off of, you know, the, the, the tournament bracket that comes around March Madness, if you will, the college basketball tournament with the, kind of the big bracket of I believe it starts with 64 teams and whittles down to a final four and then of course the championship game. We are doing a TGN one watch tournament so each of us is uh has chosen 16 watches from our own collections that will go head to head with each other not with our not not I won't be going head to head with James's watches this is within my own collection and James with within his own collection with the idea that we'll get down to one watch to rule them all, so to speak. So that mythical one watch that we all either aspire to or admire in other people's philosophies, that's kind of where we're headed here. And each of our watches will be going to head to head with each other until we whittle down to one that Potentially could be a one watch. And in theory, we've talked about, um, the winner actually being a watch that we will then wear, um, commit to wearing for an entire month after that winner is chosen. And we'll be doing this over the next few episodes, as James mentioned. And we want your involvement. So James, tell us, uh, tell us a little bit about the technology and how people can get involved. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, so if you're like me, you don't necessarily understand sports. It's fairly straightforward. We each have 16 watches. The first round will go from 16 to 8 watches. That'll take place in this episode. At the end of the episode, in the show notes, by all means, please go down, find the voting link where you can go in and vote for the first round as well. So we have developed a full voting bracket for both my collection and Jason's. So there's two links. And this is done through Common Ninja is the platform. It's a web platform. I think I've built it correctly. Basically, the first round of voting, there'll be a week and then it closes. The new episode comes out and we'll be into round two. You'll have a week to vote on the round two picks. So the episodes will have mine and Jason's picks for our collections, and then there'll be a public vote, and I'm just very interested to see how they differ, right, as we go through the whole process. By all means, hit the show notes. In there, you will find a link. I'm going to keep the link bare, so it's very obvious. It is a Common Ninja link. For example, for Jason, it is commonninja.site slash TGN Jason, and mine's the same, commonninja.site slash TGN James. and that will take you to it and you'll basically be able to do the first eight round the first the first round the first eight drafts or or votes immediately from when you listen to this episode and then each one will unlock as the next episode becomes available again assuming i did this correctly Basically, we're gonna move very quickly in this episode because we have in total 16 choices to make Jason, would you like to go first and I guess start wherever you want to start on on your bracket? |
| Jason Heaton | But maybe maybe we just both start at the top I think that that makes most sense and in the parlance of March Madness people might know this is this is considered the sweet 16 round So we're gonna go from 16 to 8 and it's sudden death Yes, it is. Yeah, some of these are going to be really tough choices. But yeah, I'm going to start right at the top here and with with two watches that are very different. But there can only be one out of these two. First bracket here is my Breitling Navitimer from 1954 going head to head against the Tudor Pelagos FXD. So obviously very different watches. We each are going to have our own criteria for this. So Seeing as the winner has to be a watch that we're conceivably going to wear for a month straight or conceivably could be the one watch. You have to take a lot of things into consideration. And as I said, these are very different watches. I think the Navitimer for me, it's one of those watches I have worn extensively and I've worn for, you know, a week at a time. It oozes charm, it dresses up and down. I love chronographs. It's just a nostalgia machine. And then, I don't know, every time I wear it, I think, who doesn't want to be the guy that wears a vintage Navitimer every day? You know, it's like, it's just something about it that I just love. On the other hand, it has no water resistance, basically, and minimal lume. And it's a quite a valuable watch. So I'd have to take that into consideration as well. Um, head to head with that is my Pelagos FXD, which, you know, if you've listened to TGN for any length of time, basically the past year, You know that I wear it a lot. And the pros for that one are it's a super comfy watch being lightweight titanium, pretty slim for a 200 meter dive watch. It's very rugged of course, legible, highly functional, very lightweight. If there's anything going against it, I would say that it only takes pull-through straps. So if you're going to be wearing a watch a lot, you know, non-stop, you might want some strap options. So those are kind of the pros and cons of each and I'm going to make my pick. It's pretty simple and I'm guessing people can predict this. I'll be curious to see what people vote, but In this case it's got to be the FXD, just for pure functionality and practicality. So that's where I'm going with my first pick. |
| James Stacy | There's a world in which the Navitimer could have scored higher or had a better chance. But one, FXD is very tough competition for an everyday watch. That's literally what we purport these things as being great at. It's just a watch you can wear every day. The titanium, the comfort, the size, the loom, the timekeeping, the water resistance. It's a do-it-all sort of thing for a casual style of watch, for sure. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And I think the Navitimer in a vintage category would do entirely differently. That's kind of why we drilled down on what we felt was interesting about this element, which was looking at 16 of our favorite watches from each of our collection, what one is the one that we would wear every day? And it's difficult to pick a watch that's 70 years old. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's so true. I mean, it would, it would have to be a different style of wearing. It would have to be take it off more often, you know, that sort of thing. I'd probably swap it out with, if we're allowed to, you know, a Garmin for kind of more rough and tumble stuff. But yeah, that's, that's where I went with my first, first round or from my first, uh, first duo, so to speak. Okay, great. All right. What's up for you? |
| James Stacy | Yeah, for my first round, I decided to kick it off with quite a difficult one, and that's the Doxa versus Doxa equation. I considered splitting these up, but then I was like, why? I mean, we're gonna have to do this eventually to some extent. They are very similar watches. And these are two specific watches. I'm not just saying a Doxa 300 versus a Doxa 200T. I have a Doxa 300 50th anniversary Sea Rambler, one of my favorite watches ever made. yeah certainly one of my favorite of like the the last 15 that that was created in the last 15 years these came out in 2017 i've also owned the professional version and jason i believe you have the shark hunter version of the 50th yeah these are really great watches just genuinely incredible watches and then the tough competition comes from its younger sibling the doxa sub 200t diving star now to be clear i would like to live in a world where i own both and that thankfully is the world i live in but to not belabor the point it's the 50th oh yeah it's that 10 more special and the silver dial the slightly wider case i've i have a lot of memories and this watch is like physically important to me it's a watch that really makes me feel about it's a watch that really reminds me of TGN and like yours and my relationship and and how much we both kind of love Doxa and how you could erase a lot of watch brands from the categories that we care about but yeah Doxa remains this magnetic thing yeah and I think the 50th manages to be a modern watch that I can take on vacation and dive with and I have, and I can treat like a modern watch, but it is so carefully considerate of its history in both aesthetic and size and the way that the NATO's fitted and on a rubber strap and And it's such a it was genuinely a tough decision But I don't like there'll be versions like when we get into the third and fourth like the last couple of rounds We can talk for 10 minutes about one watch versus another I shouldn't do that about doxa. So i'm going with the 50th I think that's the right call. |
| Jason Heaton | Also. You just look at versatility. I think the the silver dial Just that's a good point to on its own is a little more versatile than a bright yellow, but tough call I mean, that's a really tough head-to-head but rip the bandit off early. |
| James Stacy | So that's good Totally and now we have some similarity in in the next in the next selection. So why don't you go ahead with your kind of second battle in the first round |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, two very different watches, two very compelling watches. Also, I have a Doxa in here. This is the Doxa. It was actually called the Sub 200, but this is the T-Graph from 1969. It is a Shark Hunter version that I bought from the original owner years ago. I wrote it up for Hodinkee. I've had it refurbished. I've taken it diving. Truly, you know, if there's one watch, one of a very few watches that I probably will never sell or will be very sad to sell if I ever have to, it is this watch. It's just a incredible vintage piece that, you know, my love for dive chronographs, you know, I've stated many times and it's a DOXA. I mean, it has so much going for it. It looks great on the original rattly old beads of rice bracelet, looks good on NATO, looks good on rubber, looks good on a bun strap. I've worn this watch extensively over the years. I haven't pulled it out in a while, but I plan to soon. And it's going head to head with The Citizen Aqualand, now this is the modern one that we also have been talking a lot about over the past couple of years. This is the JP 2007-17W. It's the full lume dial with that kind of grayed out dark case. Obviously two very different watches. The docs that, you know, I've gone on about a bit. The Aqualand, the neat thing about this watch is it's it's it straddles this iconic design from the 80s with modernity you know I mean this is a watch that was just released that we were just so thrilled to see we both love lume dials it's incredibly functional it's a watch that you know you don't worry about wearing because you can just Bash it around you can wear for just about anything. It's very functional. It's got you know stopwatch and timers and a you know Dive sensor, etc. Mm-hmm. I would say with this one. It's it's limited in terms of strap choices It's got a 24 millimeter strap that did not come with a bracelet and I Also, I'm just not sure that if this is a one watch kind of scenario that I could live with a quartz watch for a full month, not to mention longer than that. So in this case, the Shark Hunter wins. I've got to go with the Shark Hunter. It's a vintage piece, but as I said, I had it restored. So it's, you know, I've taken it diving. It's got good water resistance. It is, it's got a hint of loom, which is, reasonably serviceable, but yeah, so I'm, I'm, I'm going with the T graph on this case. |
| James Stacy | That's a fun one. This is a tough decision. If I were you, because, you know, the idea that you know that you'll never sell the T graph or that you would hope never to, whereas there's something like you've, you've owned several aqua lands. I feel like you and I, anytime that I'm on eBay looking at random aqua lands and it says like, Oh, being watched by one other person, like I know who that is and that sort of thing. And like I was doing, I did this like two nights ago. Cause I was like, Oh, maybe I need like a weird one. That's not the 17 w. yeah yeah but yeah i don't think you could make a bad pick from these two and i do kind of agree with the idea that like if the if the overall goal is a one watch then it makes sense that that the aqualand might not make it because it is so And you hear this like in the car space, like, oh, that's a great second car, or like, you know, that's a great sixth car. You know, that's what you get when you get far enough into the consideration of buying a vintage Alpha. You do get people saying like, hey, look, this is a great car if it's your like fifth car. And I don't think the Aqualand has anything that would make it not a great everyday watch if that's what you wanted. But I think within the confines of like the scope of the 16 or 32 watches we're talking about, it is kind of a second. It's a great watch to back up a mechanical watch that you adore. Yeah, I totally agree. Unless you're like a dive guide, you know, yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think if I was making a three watch collection or a five watch collection, it's in there. Is it in the one? Probably not. Yeah, but that does bring me to my round, which is the Aqualant JP2217W versus the Halleos Universa. Oh, whoa. So the Universa is the smaller, like 37 millimeters steel Halleos option. I considered putting in a watch for me that is very high on the sentimental side, which is my C4th Vancouver LE from Rohldorf. But that watch will never go anywhere. So there was no reason to include it like that would actually be one of the last watches Yeah, so there wasn't any reason necessarily to the too much sentimental value to be considered a one watch option So I went with the Aqualand and the Universa and look as much as I love the Universa I do prefer the c4th more in many ways I like having a bezel that I can kind of spin around. The universe that I have is the pastel dial, the teal pastel, but with a clean bezel or a sterile bezel, no rotating assembly of any sort. So in this case, I am going to advance the Aqualand into the next round. You have to at least give a bump to things that you wear all the time. And I wear the Aqualand, I bet you a week hasn't gone by since I got it that I haven't put it on. That says something. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I don't, in this case, I don't necessarily see this as a dig. Actually with this first round, none of these are really a dig towards the watch that isn't getting picked. It just comes down to like, there's a, there's a weird sense of urgency when you're looking at these two watches and it's not that difficult for me to go, Oh no, I would of the, between the universal or the Aqualand, I would go Aqualand. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Also, you know, it's, it's like with any of these sort of brackets, you know, you're starting to predict the battles that will come out later on. And so we're already seeing my first pick in the next round, and round two will be the 50th Sea Rambler versus the Aqualand. So we're stacking up some tough picks. So why don't you go to the third bout of round one? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Okay. This one's, this one's starting to dig a little deeper here. This is my AquaStar DeepStar Chronograph. You know, first generation of the kind of the reboot of that watch against my Hodinkee LE Blancpain Bathyscaphe. This is a tough one, man. It's a tough one. So as I said with the Teagraph, my love of dive chronographs runs deep, so to speak. And I have a special connection with the Deepstar. I believe this was serial number number three. I did some photography for AquaStar when this came out. I'm friends with Rick Mirai, who owns the company. I just really, really love this watch and I wore it a lot. When it first came out, I wore that thing non-stop for probably six months with very little exception. On the other hand, the Bathyscaphe, the Hodinkee Ali, is a watch that every time I post a picture of it or talk about it or wear it, I mean, I get people just absolutely fawning over this thing. I mean, for one thing, it was very rare. There were only 100 made. It was a birthday gift for my 50th birthday. It's number 50. It's from Blancpain, one of my favorite brands. Beautiful piece of high watchmaking combined with real kind of diver cred and functionality to it. On the other hand, it's small. And when I wear it, you know, it's 38 millimeters, which for many is an ideal size. I tend to be kind of a big watch wearer. I like big watches. I'd also contend, just while I have the opportunity, it's a very small 38. Yeah, it is. You're right. Dial kind of disappears. It's a small dial, wider bezel. Yeah. And to be honest, when I wear it, I do notice that it feels small. And if I run it up against a dive chronograph, a big dive chronograph, like the Aquastar, which on the opposite end of things feels like a very big, heavy, tall watch. So they couldn't be more different. this is a really difficult call. And, and to be honest, I'm coming right down to it right now. And I'm going to make the call. I'm going to go with the deep star. Wow. Okay. And you know why it's, it's, I'm someone who when push comes to shove between, between a couple of watches, I tend to prefer something with a level of interest, something that will keep me interested and occupied for a longer period of time and flipping over the bathyscaphe and looking at the movement. Is not enough for me. I I need a bezel to spin and I need pushers to push on and whatever and I think the deep star is uh Yeah, the deep star is taking it on this one. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I mean, I I would say you're absolutely on record for wanting that fidget factor Yeah, yeah, and I I get it and and I think I look I adore the the Blancpain bathyscaphe le from houdini. I think it's a winner. I just adore all of the Houdinki LEs for the Bathys, like for the Blancpain, sorry. There's just some really, really good stuff has come out of that program. But I get it. I mean, I think that's a tough one because the Deepstar is like a very you watch for all the reasons that you listed. So that's a great matchup and a solid pick. A bit of an upset. I think people might've predicted the vastly more expensive, more rare sort of watch, but I think those were well-matched sort of watches. And this leads me to my third pick in the round one, which is a tough one, because it's kind of a natural pick for me. But the thing I wanted to make clear is I love both of these watches. And so that's going to be the CWC Royal Navy Quartz 1983, a gift from you, from Jason, for those listening, and then also my Tudor Pelagos 39. and i i did seat these together one because when i was picking the order of my of my sort of list and how they would pair up i just listed the watches i wanted yeah to talk about and that i care about and love and these ended up next to each other i said well they're both dive watches in a one watch scenario you wouldn't need both obviously because you only have one but even in a three watch scenario i probably wouldn't need both yeah you're gonna have to pick one or the other because i do think they serve similar thing and though I would say their aesthetic isn't similar it isn't that dissimilar yeah you know one is one is very much an 80s expression of a watch with the polished case and the sort of tan loom and and that sort of thing and then one's attempting to be more hyper modern while still respecting the idea of like a mechanical Tudor diver and |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And I don't need to belabor this point because I think most people can predict it's the Tudor Pelagos 39. But this wasn't an easy one for me. It's just the one I've been thinking about for the last several days. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I could have predicted that this choice and I'm I would even predict the Pelagos will take it all the way to the end. But, you know, we'll we'll wait to see that. But yeah, that's a surprising matchup. But for me, that would be tough, too. And I was actually considering putting Um, you know, I've got a 1995 issue Royal Navy diver that I was going to put in my bracket, but it actually has been running kind of erratically. And I've been, um, considering, you know, having it serviced or even swapping the movement. So I'd had to stay out, but, uh, this is a, this was a very intriguing pick, um, on, on your part. So good, good job here. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I have such a fondness for the CWC, but it doesn't outweigh the idea that, for me in many ways, that Pelagos is like the perfect sport watch. Yeah, yeah, totally. |
| Jason Heaton | Alright, pick four. Alright, yeah, so this one I've got two Tudors in my bracket, and in this round it is the Tudor Submariner Snowflake against Marathon Jumbo Day-Date Automatic. One is a vintage watch from an earlier era, 1976, a 39 millimeter, you know, Submariner with a domed acrylic crystal versus a very chunky modern 46 millimeter marathon, very tall with arguably the best bezel in the business. This is a watch that Marathon sent me to do a photo shoot this last summer for their website and for some social media stuff, and this was part of the payment for it, and I got to keep it, and I wear this watch a lot. You couldn't go very different, very much more different than these two watches. I think what the Tudor has going for it, obviously, is it's iconic. It wears well. It's very much in the Submariner. It is a Submariner, so, you know, if you like that aesthetic, this is it. But with the Tudor name on it, and it also has the bonus of that I had it refurbished like completely refurbished and restored basically with the addition of some loom on the on the hour hand and a pip and then full movement movement service and new gaskets so this is a diveable watch I've taken a diving and it you know they're just great watches it's iconic the marathon on the other hand it's just it's just one of those bomb-proof big giant watches that when you put it on it's like I just want to wear a big watch that I can bash around and like looks cool on my wrist On the other hand, it is incredibly heavy and difficult to wear on a day-to-day basis. And so for that reason, I'm going to lean towards the Tudor Sub. And that probably won't surprise a lot of people, but that's where I landed on this particular choice. |
| James Stacy | Tudor Sub, okay, yeah. That makes sense as well. I think, you know, within the confines of the last couple picks, I think that, you know, I can kind of see like a vibe. You've got the Pelagos, the Teagraph, the Aquastar, Deepstar, and now Tutor. They're going very divey. I like it. It's fun. |
| Jason Heaton | And if you keep going down the bracket, there could be a potential for Tudor versus Tudor, which would be a very difficult choice. But that's where we're at. We're not there yet. |
| James Stacy | All right. For my fourth pick in the first round, this is also a toughie. Honestly, I'm not really sure which way I'm going just yet, but it's the Arken Alterum, one of my favorite watches of the last couple of years. Obviously, we have developed a sort of friendship and kinship with Kenneth Lamb. Mr. Wick from the UK and then my Timex 8-lap, which is kind of the watch that got me into watches in the first place. I have currently the one I have that we're kind of rating against is the Abu Garcia 8-lap. So it's a version of the OG with a loom case. That's right. The entire case is loom and then it's a negative LCD. So it's a black wow a black display in there uh these are two watches i love i wear a lot i get a lot of wear out of the arkin uh the travel functionality is quite useful i like that it doesn't wear or look like anything else that i own and i love the story i mean it the same sort of buzz that i still get from like a halios is also now shared by arkin where I have a real fondness for the guy behind the watches. I like the way that these brands interface with their fans and kind of the level of taste that is applied to all sorts of parts, to all the parts of the experience, not just the final watch. So yeah, I mean, this is a tough one. I don't know, Jason, where do you land on this between the two? Is it the Arkin just by nature of being more interesting, less common than the Timex? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I think as we talked about with the, the citizen in my bracket, I think the, the Timex would make a great second, third, third, fourth watch, whatever the kind of one you'd kind of slap on for dirty work or, you know, just sort of like going for a run or something like that. I got, I got to go with the Arkon on this one. I mean, just for, for the points you mentioned, but I think it is an intriguing matchup because of your kind of nostalgia with the Timex. And they kind of wear. They're kind of smaller watches, kind of quirky. The lume case, it just kind of gives it that little extra edge. But that Arken is so cool. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, and my Arken is the lume dial version, so I thought that's kind of how they linked up. Look, I think ultimately we have to respect the genre we're playing into here, and it's one watch. And if it was one between these two, it's Tarkin. So I'm going with the Altarum. Big congrats to the Timex. I still suggest anybody that's interested, check out Timex Japan, see what they've got in stock. If the numbers are red, it means they're on sale, and it's probably worth the money. uh best price i've seen on the abu garcia is 98 wow yeah it's an there's a lot of fun for that money just want to put that out there but if we're just picking one with the possibility of wearing it like it's your only watch it'd be the all-terram the all-terram is the sort of watch that would have rewritten my collection in 2007 oh yeah right i would have sold everything i had I would have sold the Tracer Classic. I would have sold the Monster. I would have sold the SKX. I would have sold the Hamilton. Yeah. To try and get my hands on something like the Altair. Yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | My next matchup is it's an intriguing one as well. So the Elliott Brown Holton GMT Automatic versus the watch I'm wearing right now, which is the Omega Seamaster Diver 300 2254. On paper, maybe a no brainer for a lot of people. Omega's got the name recognition. It's such an iconic watch. It's arguably the best you know, Seamaster diver of the past couple of decades. Um, yeah, but the Elliot Brown, I've mentioned it. I've worn that watch a ton over the past year. I got this at wind up in Chicago. It has this beautiful kind of sandy colored loom, incredible bezel, great size, just the aesthetics of this watch, and you know, I've gone on record many times saying that aesthetics are 90% of a watch, like when you look down at your wrist, like that watch just makes me smile. I absolutely love wearing that watch, and they're built really well. I love the little, you know, the broad arrow on the GMT hand. The bezel is just a pleasure to use. It feels like a watch you could just wear, you know, to hell and back. It's just spectacular. And I really like the brand a lot. However, this Seamaster Diver, just even wearing it now, and maybe it's unfair to wear one of the watches from the bracket while we're actually talking about it because... I did take my watch off. |
| James Stacy | A little bit. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I probably should have done that. As I said though, during a wrist check, it's kind of rekindled my love for this watch and that one definitely wins. It's just, for the reasons I mentioned, I wouldn't call myself a brand snob, but kind of my nostalgia for great military-inspired Omega dive watches runs deep and this watch is such a great and versatile piece and it just wears incredibly well. I mean, even on that factor alone the Holtens is quite a chunky watch quite a heavy watch um this the Seamaster is it's so slim like I wish Omega would go back to this like it's just such a it's such a lovely little slim comfortable watch that uh that just very few watches wear like this anymore so anyway that's my winner |
| James Stacy | Man, that's a great pull. Big, obviously. It might go all the way. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, think about it. Yeah, look, I think it could for sure. |
| James Stacy | I've owned one of these watches and the more that I see pictures of you posting yours, the more I think, why did I sell it? I didn't sell it for very much money. It wasn't in incredible shape. I should have just hung on to it. I actually, in selling it, became this like incredibly fraught problem that ended up involving the police, but not in the way that you expect. it was it was a huge pain and i think that's maybe why i ended up selling it and feeling okay about it for a while yeah but we did a hangout not that long ago at triumph brewing in new hope and one of the guys that likes to show up to these things his name is fred he's a good friend of sarah's family from pa my wife's family yeah he has the titanium version which i believe and fred if i'm wrong i don't know i might have the um reference wrong between the ac and the non-ac dial his has the applied markers which just kind of like take it up a level yeah but i think it's a 2231 50 depending on the bracelet but a 2231 yeah that could be in my future oh nice yeah i i could i don't need it we already talked about the pelagos we've already talked about the ark and i i'm not short on titanium yeah cool titanium sport watches to wear yeah but i do feel like i'm missing an omega yeah and it doesn't look like they're gonna just throw sword hands back on a watch and even if they did it won't wear like one of these two twos yeah yeah whether it's the five four the three one these are great great great watches big underline on great and not take nothing away from elliot brown but i would have picked the same one yeah i actually have my beach master on on the desk here i've also been wearing it it's a fantastic watch yeah the elliot brown's really making a remarkable product for the money for me there's something about elliot brown that captures the previous generation of of braymont Oh, yeah, I don't know what it is. I can't I don't want to just I don't want to tie it to the britishiness of it all because I don't think that's fair But there's something about it that the way I feel about this beach master is very similar the way I felt about my s302 Oh sure. Yeah, I can see that. So yeah good stuff and uh a solid pick a tough matchup to be clear, but that's a solid pick and uh All right. Next up, these two I did group together intentionally as they're kind of the dressy options that I have. Yeah. Kind of difficult. Weirdly, both of these watches I bought from James Lambden. So, James, if you're listening, big shout out. It's my pink gold chronograph Swiss. So I think I paid four or five hundred bucks for this. I had it serviced, that sort of thing. It needed a little bit of work, but it is a pink gold case. It's difficult to call it solid. because I believe the lugs are hollow to make it cheaper to produce. But the case is pink gold. It's not plated. I absolutely love this watch. It's kind of my go-to dress watch if I'm doing an actually dressy event. Of course, not so dressy that you wouldn't wear a watch or any of those sorts of rules, which neither Jason or I exist in those worlds. but I do occasionally put on something where like a proper mid-century dress watch kind of does it and For a long time that has been this chronograph Swiss a watch I absolutely adore and I'm a big fan of and then my other pick is My most recent watch edition, which is the Rolex Datejust 1601 the linen dial. So this is the watch I bought to celebrate becoming Editor-in-chief of Houdini. I also bought this through analog shift and it got an incredible price on it big Thank You James for that This is, for me, it's my favorite Datejust from that era. I adore the Sigma linen dial, so you get a white gold accent, you get this gorgeous linen finish to the dial. And I think, for me, that dial makes the entire watch. It's on a nice rattly bracelet. It's in pretty good condition. And I wear it a fair bit and I really like it. And I know there's those of you thinking like, oh, it's not really a dress watch. It's significantly dressier than an Ark and Altarum or a Tudor Pelagos or the Aqualan or the Sea Rabbit. |
| Jason Heaton | In our world, it's dress. |
| James Stacy | So it's all just by reference. But within this group of 16, these are the two dressy options. And honestly, I'm not comfortable picking one or the other, which is why I put them together. I wanted to have some struggle with this. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I think the chronograph Swiss is a prettier watch. I think it's a more interesting watch, kind of in the same way. It's your only chronograph. It is the only chronograph, correct? I'm not a huge chrono guy. There's some stuff at the bottom that does have a chronograph, but isn't technically a chronograph. And I guess the Aqualand has a chronograph as well. But yeah, I don't know because I do love the Datejust and I like it has a certain sentimental value now being tied to the EIC thing and that sort of thing. But this is one where my gut wants me to pick the chronograph Swiss, but I would pick the Datejust because of the one watch rule. Like again, you're like following the tone of this argument. Of the two, I might actually prefer two hours with the chronograph Swiss on my wrist versus two hours with the 1601. But if I had to wear one for a really long time, we both know which one will last and hold up to my world, right? And that's the 1601. So I'm a little, I think this is a little bit of a bummer answer because I just adore that chronograph Swiss. It's such a fun watch, and it's absolutely gorgeous. It has this, you know, the story behind Chronograph Swiss of like it's a Swiss watch that was made essentially for duty free. So people leaving the country could buy something. Oh, sure. If they miss their chance at... So it's barely even a real brand. Like it is and it isn't, if you know what I mean. And I love the way it looks. It has that 50s, late 40s Patek sort of vibe. It has this insane seven that in my mind is probably a two that's upside down to be cheaper. It's just such a cool watch. But again, we're talking about this idea of picking one watch that we would wear. It's got to be the Datejust, right? |
| Unknown | Yeah, I think so. I think it has to be. |
| Jason Heaton | So apologies to any of you who wanted a more interesting answer, I suppose. Well, the way you presented it was interesting, and for a minute there, I was like, whoa, whoa, what are you doing here? Are you picking the chronograph Swiss over a Rolex? But, you know, I made up my mind like 20 seconds ago. Yeah. I love how that works. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. yeah i love both these watches that's the other thing to make very clear and you know maybe we said at the top these are 16 these are 16 like my favorite watches yeah yeah i only left off a couple that have so much sentimental value to me that it would outweigh my ability to weigh them properly yeah but i love these watches these are 16 of the best watches i've ever owned yeah yeah so there's not really any losers but in this case i want we're trying to maybe we'll do this draft with a |
| Jason Heaton | a different impetus someday like not picking one watch for that you like could be the one watch one watch collection collection sort of thing but yeah that that's where i landed the 1601 linen dial i'm a big fan cool well um as we've as we've seen before in this very uh bracket um i've i'm following your rolex with a rolex oh this is a tough one too this is the elephant of the room i mean this is the big one this is this is this was my 40th birthday gift um rolex submariner 140 60 m Icon, no dates, you know, neo vintage, I guess we're calling that these days from, you know, I think it was made in the early 2000s or thereabouts. So it's getting up there. It's it kind of has that classic Rolex formula and it's going head to head with a 1968 Omega Speedmaster 145.012. That's a grudge man. Watch that. with a caliber 321 i mean this is these these are the heavy hitters here this is uh this you know this both watches have their their huge fans their followings um you know in in a different space you know this would be like a heavyweight boxing match um if we're sticking with sports metaphors You know, the Speedmaster, I've had a long love of Speedmasters and kind of the whole space race and kind of the Cold War era. And for that reason, it makes the list. I love chronographs, as we know, hand-wound chronographs, you can't go wrong. It's a great size at, you know, 42 millimeters, especially for a watch from the 60s. Looks great on a bund, looks great on a bracelet, NATO, anything. However, it has very little water resistance, no lume, like the hands have become skeletonized. And, you know, it's kind of in that same category as the Navitimer. It's a watch that I love to wear a lot, but since we're talking one watch, there arguably is not a better one watch ever made than a no-date Submariner. I guess if there's a gripe against a Submariner or any Rolex, it's that it's a Rolex and that, you know, you might have to be careful where you wear it or it gives off a certain you know, image that maybe you don't want to have all the time, but look, a watch you can wear anytime, anywhere, got to be the sub. And, you know, given that it was a, you know, I got it on my 40th birthday and the back is engraved, you know, it's, it's a bit of a no brainer, kind of, kind of a bit of a ringer in this, in this bracket. So that's where I land. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I think it's an interesting one because I think if you go back, like even to when you and I started in the watch space, you would have guys on WatchuSeek who had these two watches. And look, maybe it wasn't a 145012, maybe it was a 35 whatever, like a modern Sapphire or Hesalite, but the speedies are speedies. And to a certain extent, subs, especially up until six digits, are subs. there's a lot of similarities between a 5512, 5513 and a 1406OM or something like that. And I think these are like the quintessential, like I got my two watches, these are my two. I feel like if I went on Reddit right now, you see a lot of people just taking pictures of their watch boxes. A lot of them are gonna have a Submariner and a Speedy or watches that fill those two blanks. Like they are like bedrock, they're icons yeah and and i feel like if you don't own one of the two of them which of course is fine for money or other reasons you might own a watch that is meant to fill the same role right which makes them like quintessential one watch options yeah there are people who bought a speed master or a sub x number of years ago and just never took them off yeah yeah and i think so this is i think one of the more interesting matchups of the entire thing we're doing here, both collections. The only way that I think this could be more interesting is if it was, you know, a series from a similar era, a 2010 Speedy or something like that, which would change the math a little bit, I think. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, you know, I mean, someday, who knows, maybe next year, we'll do a different bracket where we, you know, we line up very similar watches like Speedmaster against Navitimer. That'd be a tough one, but we're not there for sure. |
| James Stacy | Well, for my next one, I do have two very similar watches. They're both Hodinkee LEs. I grouped them together to make it a little bit difficult on me. And they're both GMTs. They're both Flyer GMTs. They're not that similar in size, 41 millimeters versus 39, steel versus titanium. We're talking about the Mido Ocean Star GMT Hodinkee LE and the Longines Spirit Zulu Hodinkee LE. and this is this is a tough one because these are watches that i would say i've worn a ton since i got them yeah but the more i think about it and i have been thinking about this since i since i kind of put this pairing together because at first i had them split up so they might meet later on and i was like nah don't do that these are very much watches that would cancel one would cancel the other one out in a one watch challenge yeah and with the one watch part in mind it's the longines Yeah, makes sense. The titanium makes a big difference As does this just general size difference the 39 millimeters of the Zulu is essentially perfect on my wrist Yeah, and I like that. This has an integrated or not integrated. This is a traditional style bracelet Oh, whereas the Mido has you know, like a mesh. Mm-hmm. The longines feels like a more complete package granted it is four times the price, so it should be a much more complete package. They both use a similar movement in many ways. Both I really enjoy, but in terms of things like legibility, loom, I like that there's sort of a basic quality to the Longines in that there's not a lot of flourish. The Mido has a very much like an aesthetic that it's tied to, which are these old multi-forts from the 60s. Whereas the Longines, it does what it does, and then it's kind of a matte dial. It's just titanium. Everything's nicely printed. Everything looks pretty good. I like the sort of Black Bay Pro coloring. And then it has this tiny flourish that is almost imperceptible in photos. circling slightly inwards of the dial edge is this like cut engraved little ring that is polished and actually grabs some light occasionally. And it's so delightful on wrist. I wore this a ton. I've worn it diving. I wore it diving in Costa Rica. I have beat it up for sure. And I'm very impressed by the watch. It has one flaw and that's that it has no micro adjust in the bracelet. A watch of this price absolutely should. Yeah, I'm going with the Longines. That's its only real sort of non-perfect element, but this is a watch I've worn so much over the last year. It was the watch I wore most last year and was in my video for Hodinkee and that sort of thing. I like these ones a lot. You know, the Mido I like a lot, but a little less. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and again, you know, we come down to your weighing interest and kind of visual interest or gadgety nature of a watch with versatility. And I think the Longines just is a little more versatile just given it's, you know, the Mido is definitely a bolder look, you know, it's just got a bit more bit more visually going on in the dial. And so I think the Longines is like kind of a little more subdued, but certainly not boring in any sense. So that's a good pick. And I love the titanium. I got to check that out when I was in Toronto and that's a beautiful watch. Good call. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. I'm a big fan. And I do like that the further we get into this, the more the like one watch element, the goal adds some clarity. You really are picking, like I could, there's no question I could wear that. That Longines is a one watch. yeah could wear it every day there's almost no scenario where it doesn't work and uh yeah i'm a fan so yeah that is uh that's my pick of the two uh hodinke le's on the list yeah good good matchup all right i've got two british watches next here um one with a lot of sentimental value actually they both kind of do um the um |
| Jason Heaton | It's a bit of a throwback because we haven't talked about Braemont in a long time, but I've had this Supermarine 2000 for many years since it got launched. In fact, it was featured in their catalog. I remember taking it to the Bahamas and doing a video shoot with it for the launch of that watch. I have actually, I think, prototype number three that's hand engraved on the back with that versus a Vertex Aqualion M60 diver. And... Ooh, okay. I, you know, love both of these watches. The Bremont, obviously, I have a lot of history. I've taken this thing all over the world. I mean, it's been, you know, the Bahamas, it's been under the ice, it's been to Sri Lanka, it's been to England, it's been all over, it's been underwater and, you know, I think I've climbed mountains with it, etc. I mean, it has so much of my own history in it and such sentimental value and I think it's just It's kind of emblematic of what we loved about Bremont prior to, you know, the past year or two when they just had such unique design elements to it and the build quality, the hardened steel, the chronometer movements, the handset on this watch, just a beautiful piece. On the downside of it, it is incredibly heavy. It is a big heavy watch and maybe if I had a Supermarine 500, it might be a stronger contender against the Vertex. Which, on the other hand, I have less history with it, although I love Vertex, I love Don, I love what he's doing. Aqualion, objectively, is close to a perfect watch. I mean, let's face it, if you're not looking for brand prestige or whatever certain name on the dial, and that said, Vertex has a great history. This watch is so, so good. I mean, it's 39 millimeters, and the lume is, you know, without peer. I mean, it's just the greatest lume ever. Fantastic bezel, came with a quick release, beautiful bracelet, and a quick release rubber strap, really high quality rubber strap, works great on NATO. Chronometer certified. I've actually timed this watch and worn it, you know, for a week at a time and like it hardly loses a second. It's just got a lot going for it. And this is a bit of an upset because of my long history at Bremont with that Supermarine. But in this case, if we're looking for versatility for a one watch, I got to go with the Vertex. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I have to agree based exclusively on the whole concept of picking one watch you'd wear for a really long time. I think the 2000 is one you've talked about for like, I'm going ice diving, this is definitely the watch. You ice dive for a day. yeah not not a month right it's just and look i think i think if you if you were considering an s series bremont uh whether it's a 500 or 300 or 302 something on the smaller side i think the competition with the vertex becomes more difficult but i had a vertex uh for a little while on loan from don don thank you very much for that and that watch is an absolute peach yeah every single element of the watch feels so well made, so nicely considered. It is the only one in there that would be similar in my mind is like some of the experiences I've had with Montas, where you're not paying for a brand name, you're paying to buy a watch from someone who knew exactly what they wanted to make. and the bezel's incredible, the lume is incredible, the case proportions are just right. And that's why I want that, as we've talked about several times, the M100 is definitely on my list for this year if I can get an excuse. I think, like I said, I think that's something I'd like to buy in person to celebrate a little trip or something to the UK, but really, really good stuff. So I understand this, again, based on the idea of picking a watch you'd wear every day. I would happily take, like the Vertex would be tough competition for this entire list. I agree. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And it will be in the next round. It's going, it's going to go up against some, a pretty heavy hitter watch with whatever you pick out of the next one. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And, uh, and it, you know, it's, it's not like competition for that selection. So yeah. Next up, I've got a weird one. I'm going to go a little bit quickly through this as we're a little bit tight on time. This is going to be a longer episode than we've been shooting for these days, but we're getting to two very well-known watches from my world, and that's the Rolex Explorer II 16570, my Polar, a watch I bought for my 30th birthday, a watch that I took to the top of Baker almost twice. First time, not quite. you know, made it close but not all the way up in the second time we got to the top. And the other one is a watch that really got me into mechanical watchmaking and that's the Seiko Orange Monster, the SKX781. Look, let's be clear, this isn't that tough of a pick despite the fact that I love both these watches. I love the Monster in a way very similar to your Bremont. yeah there's some nostalgia there i love wearing it for a day i took it to japan with me so i could wear it around well like touring ginza and shinjuku and places like that because it's a seiko and beyond that i mean it's up against what might be some of the toughest competition ever made for an everyday watch which is a white dial gmt with good water resistance from rolex i absolutely adore my explorer 2 and that's the one that's going on to the next one round. It's difficult to say that it doesn't take anything away from the Seiko because it doesn't, but it's just way more watch while also being easier to wear, you know, especially when you consider the orange dial of the one that I have, much more casual in terms of, or much more versatile in its scope. And I think, talk about tough competition if we're, you know, comparing back to the M60 Aqua line, it's going to be tough for anything to dethrone the Explorer 2. I love this watch so much. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah and on paper that seems like an incredible mismatch those two but it goes to show as with some of my picks as well the strength that nostalgia and kind of sentimentality and you know can really play into these sort of choices because you know a really cheap you know Seiko versus you know one of Rolex's icons is seems like a mismatch but I think to your point it's uh it comes down to a lot more than that so. Good selection. All right, I'm on to my last one here. My last of this round of 16. Tough call, two iconic dive watches. I have my, and this is actually my second Doxa of the list and my second Blancpain of the list. So we have the Doxa Sub 300 Shark Hunter. This is actually the Black Lung. So it's the the Aqualung edition that has the little US Divers logo on the dial. You know, one of the first produced, you know, back when these came out, you know, rare limited edition version up against my 45 millimeter titanium Blancpain 50 fathoms titanium automatic. So Man, this one's tough. Black dial, iconic divers, you know, these are like calling card watches for divers. You know, you show up with some old school divers and you're gonna say, okay, I'm wearing a 50 Fathoms, I'm wearing a Shark Hunter, some of the most legendary names in diving. Very different watches, kind of when you look at them, the Doxa is a steel case, Blancpain is a titanium. Docks is a little smaller, but kind of a weird sort of bulbous shape with that iconic sawtooth bezel. Blancpain's a big, you know, big bold watch with that domed sapphire bezel, which gets me every time. Love for both brands. In this case, I've got to, I'm leaning towards the Blancpain. I've already got a Doxa in the next round, so we'll see where things, you know, land with the T-Graph. But I've got to move the Blancpain onto the next list because, as I mentioned in the end of year Hodinkee video about which watch I wore the most, arguably this one was. It was up against the FXD in terms of 2024's most worn watch for me. And I just love this watch. I've got a lot of history with it. I've dived with it a lot already. I just think I'm a big watch guy. It looks good on my wrist and the titanium mitigates the weight. So yeah, I mean looking at my next bracket, it's going to be some tough head-to-heads going forward, but for now we can rest with my final eight here, which is completed with this 50 fathoms. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I had really no idea where you were going with this, because this is a tough matchup. And the titanium and your predilection, your appreciation, if you will, for larger watches, I guess it does kind of check out. For me, so difficult to cross a sub 300 off the list. So kudos for you, because not an easy decision for sure in that matchup. But look, let's keep it moving with my last one. This is an interesting one because it represents kind of two watches that are actually relatively new to the scope of my world. And that's the Momentum Eclipse Solar UDT, a watch I've spoken a ton about. And then also the Marathon SS Navdy. So that's the steel navigator from Marathon, a watch that I absolutely adore. I really like both of these watches, but without the need to necessarily belabor the point, If I was going for just one, it would be the Marathon. I think the Marathon, I really like having the tritium illumination. I love having the super high accuracy quartz. So you get really good timekeeping. You do get a date on my model, although you can buy one without a date. I prefer the strap, the rubber strap that you can get. From the marathon what I would call out there is it's three times the price if you add the rubber strap of the UDT The UDT is a solid value for the money. I think it's in the 300s right now and you know, it's it's the first version of this sort of new new model from momentum and I think both are, it's an interesting matchup. Both are Canadian brands, both start with an M, both are quartz, and both are kind of do-it-all, nerdy, field dive watches, kind of like blends between the two. But for me, it's the Marathon and the, like I said, the Movement, the Great Loom, the 12-Hour Bezel. These are all things that speak to me. I just really like this watch, and whenever I put it on, I go, huh. that is just a ton of watch for less than a thousand dollars. There's, I think, as long as you're okay, it's a very casual watch. I would argue the Momentum is as well, but just such a good watch, a watch that I wear with frequency, a watch that I, like, if I'm going camping, there's just something about that lume that I find so pleasing and kind of nice. And certainly, like I said, I don't think this is a scenario where we're taking something away from the momentum. But if we had just these two options, I would lean towards the marathon. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I would. I would definitely side with that one as well. And looking at your next bracket, you have an analog digital in there to go head to head in the round of eight. So, you know, we'll see where things end up there. But yeah, good call in the battle of the Canadians there. Good, good one. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, absolutely. So those were our each our first round picks. The outcome of mine for the next episode will be the Doxa Sub 50th taking on the Citizen Aqualand, the Tudor Pelagos 39 taking on the Arcan Alterum, the Rolex Datejust 1601 taking on the Longines Spirit Zulu Hodinkee Ali, and then finally the Rolex Explorer 2 taking on the Marathon SS Navdy. Jason, what have you got for your round two battles? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, round of eight is going to be the Tudor Pelagos FXD against the Vintage Doxa Teagraph Shark Hunter, the Aquastar Deepstar Chronograph against the Tudor Submariner Snowflake, the Omega Seamaster Diver 300 2254 against The Rolex Submariner 140 60. That's a tough matchup. That's gonna be tough. So is the next one and then the vertex? Aquiline m60 against the Blanc pan 50 fathoms. Whoo. |
| James Stacy | Yeah Got some thinking to do nice stuff Yeah some heavy hitters are gonna are gonna be knocked off of the off of the slate for the next the next one and uh to be clear if you're listening to this and you want to see the pics they will not be in the show notes for this episode as i don't want to give it away oh yeah good call what i will probably do is just list each of our 16 watches in a table um you can see the pics from 16 to 8 in the show notes for the next episode but we also want you to vote so if you go to the show notes for this episode you will find links in there both from Common Ninja so commonninja.site slash tgnjason and commonninja.site slash tgnjames where you can vote on all the picks we just made next episode we will talk about the outcome of that vote and then we will do our round two and we'll carry on like that. I think we can have some fun with this if you're listening and if you're even lightly interested in voting I made it as light as possible. I tested it you should if you're if you know what you want to vote for it should take you less than two minutes and we would love to see a good usage of the vote when you're done voting you will also get the percentages of what everybody else voted for, which is fun. But you do have to finish voting. You can't be compelled by the percentages. So I hope this was fun. I hope it wasn't too complicated. Please vote if you're interested or curious. And like I said, if you go to the show notes, you won't see the pics we made because I don't want to spoil the audio, if that's helpful. I will show these pics in next week's show notes and we'll move on from there. this is gonna eventually we won't have a an hour and 20 minutes to talk about for this topic so we'll balance it with other topics as we move forward but this is kind of the biggest longest episode uh for the start and we figured to kick off the year that makes sense but not needing any more rambling from me how about a little bit of final notes and we'll get out of here because i know jason you've got a dog that wants to walk before it's too dark |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, okay, so my final note is it's been on my list for quite a while. It was a show that I watched on Apple TV. It was actually a series. And arguably this is more Watches of Espionage than The Grey Nato, but it was just an excellent documentary series about a controversial case that many people probably have heard about. It was written up in the New York Times and elsewhere and was in the news quite a bit a few years ago. about a Navy SEAL named Eddie Gallagher who was accused of war crimes. And again, there's some politics involved here. We usually kind of veer away from that sort of stuff on TGN, but I think it's handled pretty evenly. The reporting is excellent and it's really a fascinating story that was really well reported and well filmed and I think that outweighs any of the controversy and you know whether you agree or disagree or however you come down on the issue like it's just worth watching because it's just good television um and you know I won't say any more about it I think you know a lot of people have probably already been aware of of what happened in this situation. If you want to throw a watch element in it, there is one of the snipers in actually kind of a live fire situation that who's filmed is wearing some kind of a heavy, heavy duty Breitling on his wrist. And as I mentioned, that's very watches espionage more than TGN. But yeah, check it out. It's called the line on Apple TV. |
| James Stacy | And that sounds really good. Good, good pick. It's really good. Very good. very cool yeah we have a bunch of tv to talk about um so don't let me get down that route now i watched a ton of great stuff including probably the best show i've watched in several years uh is currently running and we're talking about it on the slack and that sort of thing we'll get into that in a future episode this has already been long enough so let me get to my two picks the first one is a book that i started and read in just a few sittings over the break It is called Chain Gang All-Stars by an author named Nana Kwame Adjayebrenya. This book is absolutely amazing. It's incredibly violent. It's essentially a type of future-looking post-apocalypse, but not really. Basically, the very simple rundown is a chain gang, as decided by the title, is a group of convicts who have applied into a program of essentially like gladiator battles. And if you last through three years, you get your freedom. And the book is largely told from the perspective of people on chain gangs. And it goes into their history, their crimes, maybe how they got there, how they feel about it, how they feel about the audience, about being essentially gods. All the weapons have names. It's very, there's elements of fantasy. There's elements of like Mad Max. There's elements of Blade Runner. It's amazing. It's incredibly well-written. I adored every page of this book. I will absolutely reread it this year. I had a great time. Eventually somebody will turn this into a movie and I really hope they pick the right person to do it because it won't be easy, but it could be amazing. This book is awesome. Alright, alright enough said I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna check this out. |
| Jason Heaton | Definitely. That looks great. |
| James Stacy | It's definitely fictional It's definitely and like I said, it's very violent But anytime that they bring up like a social issue at the end of the chapter There's a footnote that teaches you about the issue as well. Oh, it's really fascinating. Really really loved this book cannot recommend it enough Wow Next up is a video. I've talked about a couple of this guy's videos last year, and that's James Pumphrey. He was with Donut previously. Now he's with a channel he created called Speed with three E's. I believe we talked about his Carhartt video, maybe his GT3 RS video. And what he did was for either the last video of 2024 or his first video of 25, I think it's the latter. He did 10 Habits I Wish I Started 10 Years Ago. And look, some of these are like very table stakes for being a functioning human being. He explains why these are habits he wished he had learned. I'll leave that to him. But there are a couple in here that I find really interesting. One being, Jason, you said that one of the things that you're thinking about this year is saying yes to more things or not being as quick to say no. It's kind of two different things. But his whole point was do things assuming you'll like them rather than the opposite. And when he said that, I go, oh, wait, i assume i won't like things yeah yeah when did i start doing that yeah that's not a that's a really crappy way of going through the world yeah and so like since this video could two or three times i go no i might have a good time let's let's assume i'll have a good time and i'll be disappointed if i don't i guess rather than just being disappointed in advance of going, you know, and I think this is also an introvert sort of thing where you might say yes to something three weeks before it happens. And then the night of you go, why did I say yes to this? I don't want to do this. And then you get there and you have a perfectly fine time. Oh yeah. I'm very familiar with that scenario. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | So like I got to get out of my head. Yeah. Right. Every single time. I don't know how many times I've said to Sarah is we were like leaving the house to go do something with people I love where I go, why did I agree to this? |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Why? And then you get there and you have a great time and you go, Oh, well, I don't, you don't ever look back and you go, that's why I agreed to it. But so that was one. And then his other one that I found really good. And I am kind of stepping on a major part of the video. So please still watch it. The one, and this is the one that really meant something to me is it's totally fine to be uncomfortable. I've thought about this a lot since I watched his video, and I've started to dig into this culture of comfort versus discomfort. And this idea, and you hear it from the Special Forces guys, including some guys that have been on TGN, is like you can put yourself in a position where you're just chasing comfort again and again. And that could be two or three drinks so that you feel fine being social, or not doing something because it's easier not to get up early. you know there's all everybody's going to have their own sort of relationship to this yeah but it is fine it's okay to be bored it's okay to be uncomfortable it's okay to sit and not have everything you want on an airplane like all of this is fine you won't even remember it once it's over yeah and i think that's a lesson i absolutely have to learn i feel like i was much better about even seeking out discomfort in my 20s. And then between the pandemic and getting a little older and that sort of thing, I think I started to really vacillate between just like, how can I medicate myself or feel a certain way to make sure that I don't have to feel uncomfortable or whatever. And that needs to stop. I think I'm weaker than I was in many ways, mentally, physically, the rest of it than I was six, seven years ago. And I think part of that is because I'm not putting myself in scenarios where I'm uncomfortable. The other thing you have to remember is so many times, and Jason, I'm sure you would reflect this, but so many times, if you look back on the great moments that you had the year before or the year before that, you did them with a considerable amount of discomfort. Doing the fan dance, uncomfortable. Spending a week on a boat, rolling in the sea, at times, uncomfortable. Not as comfortable as being at home in your own bed, right? Traveling to some far-flung place for a very short period of time and being incredibly jet-lagged. Uncomfortable. Worth it. Right? Being deeply uncomfortable and freezing and very tired to go to the top of the Grossglockner to shoot 550 Porsches and 718s. Uncomfortable. Amazing. Worth every minute of it. I don't remember any of the discomfort. Right? I wanted to talk about this kind of at the top, but then it was in the video and it's kind of informing something of like a bit of a paradigm shift for me. So I wanted to share that. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I thought it was good. Now his presentation was really good too. It's very dumbed down is the wrong way to put it. It's just, it's a very simple delivery and he does it in a very approachable way. Oh, it's so friendly. Yeah, totally. It's not didactic, you know, it's really, really helpful stuff. |
| James Stacy | No, and he doesn't produce stuff where, you know, there's a lot of self-help gurus, both on YouTube and not, where it's a little bit more preachy or it's about this or that. Anytime that he says something, he goes, here's my example. And then he tells you how he messed it up. And the one for being on time is heartbreaking. Please watch the video. I'm always on time. I can't help myself. I'm five minutes early for everything. So that's not necessarily my pathology, but it hurt just listening to the video. It's great stuff. It's great stuff. So that's, I know we're running the clock here and you've got places to go and rubies to walk. So, but I wanted to get through those incredible book, great video, start your year off with a, with a fanciful story to escape to every evening and, and a video that helps you kind of level set on. I don't think all 10 are going to apply to most people, but two or three are going to apply to most. I think you'll find, you'll find the things that might work for you. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, well this was a great episode. Great way to kick off the new year. Happy New Year to everybody and please do go and vote for the One Watch TGN tournament. I think this is going to be a really fun interactive thing with our crew. So with that, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN sign NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music Throughout a Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacy | And we leave you with this quote from James Clear who said, |