The Grey NATO – 314 – Round 2 Of The "One Watch" Tournament (+ New Fundraiser T-Shirt For LA Firefighters)
Published on Thu, 16 Jan 2025 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
In episode 314 of The Graynado podcast, hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacy continue their watch tournament bracket, narrowing down from the Elite 8 to the Final 4. Before diving into the tournament, they discuss a TGN initiative to support California firefighters through t-shirt sales benefiting the California Fire Foundation, sparked by the recent devastating fires in LA.
The hosts then proceed through their bracket matchups, making tough decisions between their favorite watches. Some notable matchups include Jason choosing his Tudor Pelagos FXD over a vintage Doxa T-Graph, and his Omega Seamaster 2254 over a Rolex Submariner 14060M. James advances his Tudor Pelagos 39 over an Arken Alterum, and his Rolex Explorer II over a Marathon Navigator. Throughout the episode, they discuss their reasoning for each choice while considering factors like versatility, practicality, and personal connection to each timepiece.
The episode concludes with some final notes, including Jason's recommendation of a cold-weather skin cream called Warm Skin, and James discussing a productivity-focused YouTube channel he's been following called Ali Abdaal. They encourage listeners to participate in voting for the next round of the tournament through links in the show notes.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 314 and it's proudly brought to you by the always growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, James Stacy. Well, uh, we're heavy on the, Most certainly watches part of things this episode and last episode, but it's been a lot of fun. How are you doing? |
| James Stacy | I'm doing really well. Yeah, we've got sort of an interesting episode. I hope you all listened to the previous one. If you don't hit every episode, I would suggest going back to 313. Jason and I each picked 16 of our own watches and we did a bracket tournament to go from 16 to the Elite 8. In this episode, we're going Elite 8 to the Final 4. And I do think it's helpful to have listened to the previous episode before getting into this one. But look, before we get into the tournament, we actually have a little bit of news surrounding the terrible fires in California and an attempt to do our part and TGN's part in supporting the firefighters. So Jason, why don't you kick off that little project, which really spun up just in the last couple of days. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think, you know, this highlights why we love TGN so much. It's kind of our ability to be nimble and respond and to just pool these great resources we have in our crew. And this is a great example of that, because I had posted a story on my Instagram late last week. It was a photo, I believe, that came from the New York Times on Instagram of a firefighter. And I just said something like, not all heroes wear capes. And I got a response from a local friend, John Owada, who goes by 1010 Enterprises on Instagram. He's also on our Slack, John Owada. And John is a firefighter here in the Twin Cities, and I've met him a few times. He's a really nice guy. He travels around the world teaching firefighting techniques in different countries, which is really cool. Anyway, John wrote me and said he feels helpless and really wanted to find a way to do something to help out in the efforts for the firefighters and the victims of the fires out in the L.A. area. or, or, you know, foundation or something that, that would provide some relief. And we said, let's do it. And it was great. And it's spun up very quickly all over the weekend. Uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, John and Tony worked together and sent us over designs and we kind of went back and forth on different ideas. Meanwhile, they were pinging Asha Wagner, who's also a firefighter up in Northern California. And she provided some good input, not only on the shirt, but also on suitable resources and came up with a really good one, the California Fire Foundation, which is the ultimately the who's going to be getting our donations. And so lo and behold, we have a shirt. We have the TGN X, the illustrated watch firefighting T-shirt, which is now available in the Grenado shop. And we'll put a link in the show notes, of course. And we soft launched it on Slack just yesterday, actually. And we're already into the four figures in donations. And now we're putting it out there to our larger audience via the podcast. And we're just thrilled with the results. I think it's going really great. You know, this is just such a tragic situation. And we're just happy to be able to do a really kind of small part, but an important one in getting some donations out there to the people that can use them. And I'll hand it over to you, James, for a bit more info. But we're just pleased that we can do it. But also, I would emphasize and we would emphasize that whether or not you want a t-shirt, we don't care. Donations are great if you'd like to donate directly to the CFF or any other great resource. And we'll get into a few of those other options in a minute here. Um, by all means do it. So big thanks to, to John, to Tony, to Asha for their hard work and quick response over the weekend. Um, I mean, it's just, it just makes me proud to, to be a member of this, of this, this crew that we call the gray NATO. It's, it's really inspiring. It's great. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I absolutely agree. I think this is a nice way of going about it. If you want a t-shirt, awesome. We are able to donate 100% of whatever we would make for the shirt, so that's great. If you don't want a shirt, that's also awesome. Go ahead and, you know, divert a few funds to wherever you can and we're going to have some great recommendations in just the next few minutes because another one of the TGN Slack crew, Tripp Henderson, who also runs Loki Watches, has been a real buddy on the Slack for the last little while. He's based in LA and has previously worked with Team Rubicon and has some experience with these scenarios. And he gave us a bunch of updates because Jason and I aren't you know, Los Angeles types who don't live in LA. Unfortunately, I don't get to go to LA nearly as much as I would like. We certainly have friends there and lots of listeners in that area. And that's why we feel kind of connected to this. But trip sent us in some some kind of more simplified data. So if you haven't been following the stories, if you haven't been following the news, or if you find the news coverage, like me a little bit desperate and hard to track from a a geography standpoint. We do have some good information from Trip here, so I'm going to buzz through that for everybody. The two most destructive fires are known as the Eaton Fire, which has destroyed the town of Altadena, and the Palisades Fire, which has all but wiped out the Pacific Palisades and other areas in the coastal hills west of the downtown area. Both fires are still burning as of Monday. All of this information is from Monday the 13th. We got it yesterday. We're recording this morning. So as of Monday, they've evacuated upwards of 100,000 people, more than 12,000 structures and homes destroyed, at least 24 dead, and their search is ongoing for lots of others. And then the current projection of insured losses to property, we're talking about $20 billion. The teams that probably need the most help right now are the ones stopping the fire. And in many cases, that's where we're supporting the firefighters. The recommended nonprofits in this scenario would be, and all of these will be in the show notes, I'll make another little section, you'll be able to go in and actually just hit the links for any one of these if you want to dig in a little bit more. So that's the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, the Direct Relief Organization, the Pasadena Humane Society, Team Rubicon, the World Central Kitchen, which is one that we've donated to in the past, and we believe in very strongly. And then of course, the American Red Cross for the Los Angeles region, All of the links for those will be in the show. You don't have to buy a t-shirt. You don't have to do anything with TGN. But if you have the ability, it is nice to be able to offer some support to an area that's going through such a tough time. And certainly for TGN, you know, we have people we care about very deeply and people in the audience and people in the Slack crew that are in that area. I think for this episode, that's probably the bulk of it. I ordered my t-shirt yesterday. I'm very much excited to have it and represent it. I come from a firefighting family. My grandfather was the fire chief of Oshawa, Ontario, and I still have some of his uniforms and the ceremonial buttons from some of the garments and that sort of thing. But it's something that I understand at some level, but it's also just one of the scariest jobs. especially when you're fighting something as uncontrollable as these sort of forest fires. And certainly this isn't, you know, an ongoing issue for LA, but this is an exceptionally poor situation that they found themselves in this season. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's been tough to watch. And, you know, as I mentioned at the top, you know, John, his sentiments were echo probably a lot of ours and that we, a lot of us just feel helpless for what to do. And I think you know, donating is a great thing. And I realized that we have a global audience and that some of this must seem very remote to a lot of people. And there are certainly bushfires that happen in Australia and, and, you know, earthquakes and things around the world. And this is just, just a drop in the bucket, but we're, you know, we'd like to be able to do our part and appreciate your, your, your listening to us and any help you can offer. So thanks to everybody. That's great. |
| James Stacy | All right, I mean beyond that I haven't actually been up to that much, you know, working, sleeping the normal, playing some video games. It's kind of that, I don't know, like it's the grayest part of January for Toronto. Oh, yeah. You know, I went out last night for a dinner with a colleague, which I had a lovely time, but just it's so dreary. pitch black when I left the house at five o'clock or whatever, six o'clock. And, and, you know, I came back at least, you know, it's just, yeah, it's just kind of cold and gray. I'm very much looking forward to, to, you know, talk about something we say every year, but I'm already ready for spring. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And you know, I've become hyper aware of the, the, the number of daylight hours since I'm walking a dog twice a day, you know, at sun up and sundown. And it just feels like those, those two dog walks are so close together. Um, but they're starting to get a little further apart. You know, the sun sunrise is like seven 45 these days sets are just before 5. So We're on the way up, but it's still tough. And for some reason this week, well not for some reason, it's typical for this time of year, this week has been extremely cold here. And speaking of fires, I don't mean to be glib, but I've been sitting by the fire a lot just in the house here, just trying to stay warm because it's been running shoes that have built in studs in the, in the soles. And, uh, I use those when, when the streets are a bit slippery and, and I was running two days ago or three days ago, I guess it was, uh, and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running and I was running. and everything was kind of bumpy and snow covered and I managed to roll my ankle kind of on the edge of a of a path and uh ankle kind of swelled up and it's been sort of tender so I've kind of had to lay off the the running for the past few days which isn't such a bad thing given how cold it is um so you know out comes the water rower um been jumping on that um more regularly which is a great alternative to to uh to going outside and running, but I'm still still walking the dog with yak tracks and bundled up, uh, you know, like I'm going polar exploring or something like that. So that's, uh, that's kind of been my life the past few days. |
| James Stacy | Yeah. I mean, it, it is, it is a, you know, a thing. I'm, I'm not going outside to run at all. It is, it is certainly that time of year. And I've been loving, you know, on a previous episode I spoke about this walking pad. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I just finished another three miles on it, five kilometers, before this while I was working on a PowerPoint. Let's see, I can give you guys a few stats because I think I'm on a 10-day streak. I have done 640 minutes. Wow. 28.8 miles, about 60,000 steps. Just shy of 59,000 to be fair. And it just tracks it all. I'm enjoying this thing quite a bit. I've been using the standard treadmill on the weekends with the weight. But if I'm just working, and these days I now start my day standing, and then I try and be at my desk by 8, 8.30. Sometimes that doesn't happen. It's a little later than that. And then I'll stand for a while, then I'll walk. And then in the afternoon, I'll sit and try and do less creative stuff or whatever. So that's kind of my current mode. But man, if you're on the fence for one of these walking pads, I would say go for it if you've got the right setup to be able to use it daily because the barrier to entry is just like the walls that might be in place to get a tiny amount of exercise, just go away immediately. Oh, yeah. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. The only issue is that is you'd have to if you're using it while you're working, you'd have to have some kind of a standing desk. Correct. Yeah, I have a standing desk. Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. That's great. |
| James Stacy | And it's totally insane. I officially this morning tried to take a quick Zoom call while on it and had to turn my camera off. They're like, you know that feeling where you're parked next to a car in a parking lot and they're backing out and it feels like you're rolling back? They're like watching you bob up and down is making me feel like I'm moving Oh, yeah, even though I'm so I had to just shut my camera off, but so I don't think it's something for zoom calls I don't don't trust all of the youtubers that tell you that you can you know walk 20 Kilometers a day because you can talk through like walk through all your zoom calls if your camera off I suppose nobody seems to be able to hear it that Specifically. Yeah, which is nice, but I to be clear. I'm not gonna start recording episodes Well, I'm walking so That's what we're up to. I should get the rowing machine out. I think it's been, it's probably been four or five months since I even like tilted it down and sat it down and rowed for a little on. I'll maybe get to that this weekend. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it does feel good for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, we got another big episode. We're on to round two here of our tournament. But before we dive into that, let's let's do a quick wrist check. We both have similar watches on sort of. |
| James Stacy | I think mine is picked because you are going through such a love affair with this 2254. I just gave away yours. Jason's wearing his Omega Seamaster 2254, a watch with every passing week I get more upset that I sold mine now that Jason loves his. I felt like, you know, I had mine back in... I was in Vancouver, so it must have been 2012, 2013, 14, 15, around there. And I don't know what possessed me. I guarantee it was, you know, probably buying the Explorer II and needing some money. But yeah, what a great watch, and it's largely why I put on the watch I'm wearing today, which is the CWC Royal Navy Quartz 1983, which I do think for... whatever these go for, a little under $1,000 for a quartz version, you are getting most of the way to the Omega, but I need to be clear, the Omega case is a step up. It's a little thinner. I think it's much more elegant with the turned lugs, mostly, you know, it's very much a brushed finish. I think the bezel is better on the CWC than it is on the Omega. I mean, this is like largely the joke complaint that people have is like these, But if you've ever jumped off a dock and tried to turn the bezel in the water, it's hopeless. It's not really that bad in day to day, like you're cooking a pizza or waiting for chicken nuggets to come out of the air fryer or whatever. Yeah. It's not bad for that. Yeah. But it is tough if your hands are wet. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's funny. Sometimes it depends on I'm not sure if it's the chemistry in my hands or how sweaty I am or whatever I've been doing. Some days it's much easier than others. I cannot figure it out. Or if you push down from the top, sometimes it's easier. And what I noticed is I had this on the bracelet for a brief time when I first pulled it out a couple of weeks ago. And on the bracelet, you can actually grip okay because the end links have a little gap. There's a little gap so you can get a good purchase. Now I have it on this fitted Planet Ocean style rubber strap, which I love. I love the look of it. Um, but you just don't, you don't get that nice, um, kind of thicker part of the bezel to be able to grip. So it's a trade-off, but, but yeah, I'm loving it. And it's, it's still in the, still in the mix here, still in the bracket, um, going up against some stiff, stiff competition today. So without further ado, why don't you, um, give us a little background and where we're at with the voting. |
| James Stacy | Oh, absolutely, I can. I definitely want to get into the voting. I will add one more very quick note on that era of Omega Seamasters. If you happen to have a 2231 or the version of the 2231 that has the non-AC dial and you're bored of it, send me a DM. Let's work something out. I've got trades. I've probably figured out some cash. I don't. Let's be clear. If you don't write me, you are doing me a favor because Lord knows I don't need another titanium dive watch with a black dial and sword hands. But yeah, but yeah. yeah i might have to write this wrong to be fair and maybe a steel one would be fine as well something but i would you know i've had the steel black so maybe it's maybe maybe i need to uh stretch out a little bit it doesn't have to be titanium but the two two three ones are very very appealing yeah anyways i've said my part let's not belabor this point these watches will come back up as we move through the one watch tgn tournament So we started this one last week, it'll probably take us another couple episodes to fully finish it. This one will take up most of the main episode because we're going from the eight watches we got down to last week to four. And basically, before we get into our actual picks, and we'll try and keep it breezy and quick and not go too deep into the weeds, but these are going to be tough picks for some of these watches today. And I figure the right place to start would be in the public voting. So if you didn't take my advice and go back and listen to 313, there are links to a staged voting website. So right now you can still vote. Actually, when we're recording this, because I didn't set it to Tuesday, I set it to Wednesday, there's like 24 hours more time to vote. By the time you listen to this, it'll be a day too late. but we record these on Tuesdays so I'll provide the voting results for the bracket for the Tuesday perspective if that makes sense. Really what I'm interested in is where there's either an absolute landslide winner or where the audience, all of you who voted, voted against the outcome that Jason and I decided in the tournament. So starting with Jason's You know, Jason, you picked the Pelagos FXD over the Navitimer. That's 78 to 21 percent. So I think that's a very strong suggestion that you picked correctly. People agreed almost to the exact same percentages. Oh, yeah. One tenth of a percent. Differentiating the two for the T-Graph over the Aqualand JP2007 17W, the Lume Dial Aqualand. And then we get into, I think, kind of the first bit of controversy for you because you went with the Aquastar Deepstar Chronograph over the Blancpain Bathyscaphe Hodinkee LE. The voting was absolutely flipped. It was 76% in support of the Blancpain. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I get it. I mean, people love that watch whenever I post a photo or mention it, or if I see somebody, they say, Oh, I wish you'd worn that. I wanted to see it. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's a spectacular watch. I think, you know, for sure, you know, you'd have to go back and listen to 313 to, for my rationale. But yeah, I kind of, I predicted that, that people would vote against me on that one, but you know, this is, this is my pick, so I'm going with it. Oh, absolutely. |
| James Stacy | I also think this is literally where we find the fun, like in the next one, which is your Tudor Submariner Snowflake against the Marathon Jumbo Day-Date. It's one of the few resolutions in the entire draft that came down to a single percentage. So the Marathon only got 7.6% and the Tudor took it away at 92, 92.4. We saw something similar with Elliott Brown, which got 9% your Omega, which we just spoke about at 91. averaged out. Submariner did a good job against the Speedmaster at 76 to 23 percent. I actually think that's kind of an interesting result. And then Supermarine got more votes than I expected. The Bremont S2000 came in at almost 38 percent. Yeah, that's surprising. Vertex still won out at 62. Great results, I think, for both of those watches, really. And then finally, one of the more even fights in the game, The Doxa Sub 300 Shark Hunter got almost 42% against the standard Titanium 50 Fathoms, which got into the high 50s at 58.5. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think it kind of followed your... You were a bit surprised when I picked the Blancpain last week over the Doxa. And I think our audiences, we love our Doxas. And I think You know, I still have a Doxa in the mix with the T-Graph, but a lot of this also comes down to just size. You know, this Blancpain is a big watch. It's 45 millimeters, so that scares a lot of people away, and the Doxa is a very compelling choice, obviously. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, and I'm sure size played into it on the Aquastar versus the Bathyscaphe. Those are two very differently sized watches, right? Yeah, right. On my side, the Sub 350 has got three quarters of the vote at 72.5% over the 200T. My upset would be that the, and I think it might be our closest fight. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Yeah. The Citizen Aqualand JP2717W Lume Dial, which I picked against which I picked over the Halios Universa. The voting would suggest that the Universa eked out by just a little bit. It's at 51.3% right now versus 48.7% for the Aqualand, so that's the one where my pick didn't align. Pelagos 39 hit 87% versus 13% for the Royal Navy CWC. Again, we saw great results for the Arken Alterum at 70% over 30 for the Timex, which is going to be a fan favorite in many ways. It's such an accessible price, such a cool watch, still fun. So I think that's harder competition than it might have seemed on paper. The Datejust, the 1601 Linden Dial absolutely decimated the Chronograph Swiss, 92.2 to 7.8. Then we had the Amido, which got beat out quite soundly at 76% of the vote going to the Longines Spirit GMT Hodinkee. LE. Again, this was a tough matchup. Two watches I absolutely love, but for very different reasons. The Explorer 2 took 92% of the vote from the Seiko Orange Monster at 8%. I think that's predictable. And then we had two watches that I felt, you know, in some ways were sort of similar between the Marathon SS Navdy and the Momentum Eclipse Solar. And I think for several reasons, a lot of which we listed in the previous episode, the Marathon wins that one out at 77%. So I would say for the most part, pretty strong, resounding wins for the watch that was voted up, right? Like the margins are pretty wide on most of these. And then two watches that really aren't that similar between like the Halios and the Citizen, and they come in within just a few percent, splitting them. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, this added an element of fun that people were voting along, and there was some good discussion on Slack as well. And I think this week, the elite eight bracket is going to be even more interesting because now to go from 16 to eight, you know, there, there are some less tough choices maybe, but now we're into some, some deep territory here. So we should, uh, let's dive into it. Let's, let's get into it because I think we got some good matchups here. |
| James Stacy | This is starting off immediately with a tough pick. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Top of my chart is the Pelagos FXD against the vintage Doxa Teagraph, the Shark Hunter. One of which, well, they're both sentimental favorites. They both have a lot of kind of good history and kind of personal sentimentality attached to them. I would say, you know, when I think about any of these picks, I have to kind of reset my criteria in my brain over and over again and think what we're ultimately after here is a one watch, like potentially a one watch forever. But, you know, as we've said, we're going to commit to like wearing it for a month after this is all over. So there's a lot of factors you have to consider. And I think in this case, it's got to be the Pelagos FXD. Basically, you know, it's a more accurate watch. It's a highly anti-magnetic. It's, it's just, it's lighter weight. It's, it's less apt to get banged on, you know, door frames, et cetera. Um, you know, the FXD is a very strong contender to go all the way. And I think, whereas the, the T graph shark hunter, I think we talked about this last week. It's one of those watches that might be a great second watch or third watch or something. And, um, I think that's where. where I come down on this one. I think it's got to go to the Pelagos FXD for the reasons I mentioned. And just because it's just such a simple watch. I mean, there isn't even a date function on it. And so, yeah, that's where I'm running with that one. |
| James Stacy | Man, I don't disagree. That's how I would pick. I think this would have to be a different type of tournament to have a different result between these two. One is just clearly the everyday watch. and one is kind of one of the few not-so-everyday DOCSIS, if that makes sense. Like, because it is so rare, so difficult to service, all that kind of stuff. |
| Jason Heaton | That's the other consideration with a lot of these, and we'll see it pop up again shortly here, with anything vintage or that's even more valuable and more rare, is there is this risk, you know, and maybe I shouldn't be considering it, but I am, it's, you know, if I break a 1969 hand-wound chronograph, of which there were only 300 made ever. That's a bit of a tough one. That's a tough choice. So the Pelagos FXD, I mean, it's still under warranty for that matter. So it's got to win on this bracket. |
| James Stacy | I agree. Good pick there. And I would say largely a good result for the Doxa, all things considered. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | Alright, so for my first pick of round two, we're looking at a choice or a battle between the Doxa Sub 50th Anniversary Sea Rambler. This is mine from 2017, a watch I don't know has to be in the top three watches I've ever spoken about on the show and top five, something like that. This for a long time was the watch that I used for photos, for imagery around TGN. It has the orange accent. I actually think that the Doxa orange hand is part of what got us our blue and orange coloring as far as accent colors and that sort of thing. So this is a very important watch. And then the other one is one of my absolute favorite watches under a thousand dollars in the entire world. This is the Citizen Aqualand. It is an unbelievable amount of fun. There's a few watches in my collection that people don't wanna buy necessarily, but they are always... Whether you're at a wind up, whether you're at a hangout, whatever the thing is, if you have it, they try it on. And I think the Aqualand is so high on that list of watches that people are interested in, but it's so niche, it's so strange, it's so kind of weird, it's so also just kind of extra, right? Because you could envision... Citizen makes the tiniest derivations, hundreds and hundreds of SKUs that are similar. Yeah. and then you get to the aqualand and like they don't make this watch without the depth sensor without the bump on the side of the case they don't make this watch in a smaller size they don't make this watch that isn't anti-digital you know it it really is this kind of singular format and they just kind of mess with the colors yeah i would actually say like this this model which you can buy today as a brand new watch really isn't very different than the one that came out in the early 80s. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, it's been in constant production since 85. I mean, that says something. Somebody wrote me the other day and said, is this a reliable diving watch? I'm like, um, it's been around for, well, this is the 40th anniversary of that watch, you know, in the format you're talking about here. |
| James Stacy | It's the, for me, it's the Japanese ploprof. It's the ploprof of the 80s. It represents, it takes everything that you would have thought of with the original ploprof, a true tool for diving, worn by divers, showed up in Cousteau films, all that kind of stuff, Now just make it for the 80s. So it's got a little screen, it's got a little bit of tech. It's a little bit too much in every way. It's big, but it wears really, really well. I wear this watch constantly. In the summer, I sleep with it on. I find this watch to be remarkably comfortable in a way that its dimensions don't really support. And I think that's one of the exciting things is people pick it up off a table at a hangout, put it on and go, oh, okay. I kind of get it now, right? And I think if you're in the right mode, this is an incredible watch, and you can get it for under 500 bucks, and I absolutely love mine. It's not going anywhere, but let's be clear, between the two, it's the Doxa. Yeah, I figured. If I was gonna wear one, this is actually one of the ones in the 16 that could be my only watch. I love this watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. That's a predictable, predictable pick and a good one. And I think, you know, yeah, it's a tough call though. I mean, I think the Aqualand would be, you know, we, when we talk about watch people versus non watch people, the Aqualand kind of can be that watch for either. It's funny, you know, you see it on the wrists of, dive guides and, and, you know, boat captains and stuff. People that don't really don't care. They just want a sturdy watch and something that works well. And they've had it since the eighties. The Doxa is definitely much more of a, of a niche thing that, you know, kind of a wink, wink, um, you know, if you know, you know, kind of, kind of watch. And I think, uh, I think it's got to win out here just for pure sentimentality and the reasons you mentioned. So. Yeah, good call. Okay, there you go. I am moving on to my next bracket, which is the Deep Star Chronograph from Aquastar versus the Vintage Tudor Submariner Snowflake. Just before, I mentioned that the Vintage Teagraph Shark Hunter Lost out for a number of reasons, but one of the reasons was that it's a rare and valuable watch from an earlier era. The same would apply to the Tudor Submariner. This is a 1976 Snowflake. One that I've had for a good long time now. I've taken it diving, it's been refurbished, etc. Which sort of mitigates the vintage aspect of it, even though the Teagraph was as well. something about something from the house of Rolex, you know, it's a Rolex case. It's a, it's an ETA movement. Um, you know, the, the oyster case and the, the trip lock crown, et cetera. This watch just feels sturdier. It feels more modern than, than something like the T graph. And so therefore I almost consider it, kind of a contemporary watch. And when it goes up against the Deep Star Chronograph, now we're talking about comfort and appearance and that sort of thing. And I think the Tudor is going to win out in this round because it's just such a versatile piece. And Whereas I find a lot of kind of the Rolex, the Submariner thing predictable and maybe slightly, I don't want to say boring, but you know, it's just conventional. It's not as dynamic and interesting as some other watches. I think the Tudor with the snowflake hands, it wears better on NATO straps because of that kind of warmth of the patina. The bezel's a little bit grayed out. I can wear it diving. It's got a little bit of loom on the hour hand, thanks to the service, which allows me to kind of estimate the time even in the dark. It's still a very useful functional watch, and it's a heck of a lot more comfortable than the Deepstar. The Deepstar beat out the Bathyscaphe because it was more interesting, I guess, and it had some kind of, you know, fidgety, you know, bezel and pushers and that sort of thing going for it. I think in this round, I'm going to go with the Tudor sub, the Snowflake, which sets up a very interesting head-to-head for next time. Tudor versus Tudor. Tudor versus Tudor, man. But we will get to that next week. |
| James Stacy | I would also say for this episode that your next pick is the one. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. |
| James Stacy | That's the big moment, I think. |
| Unknown | So we'll get to that in just a moment. |
| James Stacy | Let me get to my second pick here. Mine is between two watches I really like, but it's not that fair of a fight in many ways. We're talking about the Tudor Pelagos 39, one of my favorite watches in the entire world right now, and the Arken Alterum. Two vastly different price points, both titanium, really beyond the titanium, they have nothing in common. I absolutely adore the Arken. Mine is the lume dial on the bracelet. I wear it a ton. It was among my most worn watches last year. I've already worn it a ton this year and we're only two weeks into 2025. Yeah, I'm looking forward to taking it on some travel in February and it has absolutely become part of like I don't know, Jason, maybe you're like this, maybe you're not, but there's like a nebulous sort of 10 watches that you don't even put away. They just kind of exist somewhere in your home. I've got three or four on my bedside table. I've got two or three on my desk. I've got another one, a horizontal surface watch is what I would call this. And the Arken has made it to that level for me, which is why it's in the top eight for this, but I'm going Tudor on this one. The Pelagos, In my mind, this is a modern 9401. It's a modern Tudor sub. You still get the slight nod to the history with the snowflake hand, but otherwise it's very much just make an everyday watch that's super comfortable, that looks great, that keeps great time. I'm just really happy with it. I bought this one directly from Tudor. I've had it engraved by Tudor. This is my watch. I absolutely love it. And between these two, both would make perfectly acceptable, high quality everyday watches, but the Tudor is just a plus in a few metrics for me. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think that's the right call. And, you know, simply by, you know, by looking at the number of risk checks that you did, you know, in the time since you've had it on TGN, like this watch consistently comes up and that can't be discounted because we are talking about one watch. And if there's a watch that you wear just simply that often and for And it's got this versatility to it as well with the, you know, you wear it on NATO. You recently had it on a NATO with a compass and then you've had it on, you know, the rubber strap and you've had it on on the bracelet. And I think that speaks a lot to to its versatility as well. Yeah. So, yeah, good, good, good call. |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I absolutely love it. I love both and shout out to Ken at Arkin. Congrats on hitting the top 10. Tough competition for you on this one as this is, you know, I think one of the better watches on the market right now. Again, if you have the money, but in its price category, my favorite. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | All right. On to a very challenging pick from you. And this is one where, like, I'm with the audience on this. I have no clue what's coming. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, boy, tough. I mean, this is these are the heavyweights. This is, you know, Ali Frazier, sort of territory here. This is, it's my 14060M Rolex Submariner versus the watch I'm wearing today. Again, the Seamaster Diver 300 meter 2254. You know, if I, if I consider both the sub was a 40th birthday, um, purchase it's the back is engraved with my initials and the date. It's an icon. It's a, it's a no date sub. I've had it all over the world doing various adventures from climbing Rainier to diving shipwrecks and hiking in New Zealand and things like that. But I'm finding I just, I wear it very rarely now. I had it out for about a week, maybe about a month ago and fell in love with it again. Really love to wear it. But then I've put it away and haven't pulled it out in a while. The Seamaster of course is, you know, going through a second honeymoon with it. Been wearing it a lot on this rubber strap. Incredibly versatile watch. I would say, you know, I mean, as I've mentioned before, I'm someone who's very aesthetically minded when it comes to watches. I like stuff with sort of dynamic interest and I think the wave dial, the twisted wire lugs, the kind of bold bezel, the ability to put it on a rubber strap and kind of make it more of a casual under the radar piece. Sure. Slightly less recognizable, a little more sporty I would say than the Sub if that's even possible. I'm giving the edge to the Seamaster. The Seamaster wins here. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Wow. Yeah. I don't, I mean, I don't disagree. I mean, it's, it's, it's the kind of thing where if you're going one watch, if you'd asked me 10 years ago, even five years ago, which would, which would win as a one watch, The Rolex sub consistently comes at the top of the heap for most people. I think most people would say a Rolex sub is a go anywhere, do anything watch. I think in the modern era, in the time we live in now where there's a heightened awareness of, you know, theft and being targeted and kind of a stigma around wearing a certain brand. I think an older Omega Seamaster still gives that bit of brand prestige and panache bit of connection to Bond and the Royal Navy and all of that kind of stuff. without the baggage of a Rolex. And I, I will say the Seamaster looks better on a number of straps. The sub, I like a rubber strap and the sub on rubber just never has looked right for me. I've tried it on good fitted rubber straps, et cetera, and it just doesn't work. It works well on bracelet, works best on bracelet. It works pretty well on a NATO, but, um, the Seamaster works well on everything. It's super comfortable. Yeah. That's where I land. 2254. |
| James Stacy | I think it's an interesting consideration. Again, you have to push into that idea of the one watch and you do a fair amount of travel. And if you came down to one watch, would you want the risk of the Rolex? And it does come down to how you're wearing the Rolex, but a sub is still gonna be the most recognizable option, a sub or a Daytona, I figure, right? Would be the most instantly like, that's a sub from 30 feet away or whatever, or a watch that wants to look like a sub to be fair. So yeah, I understand the choice for sure. And look, the 2254, like we've already waxed ad nauseum earlier in the episode, just one of my favorite dive watches of all time. And I'm sure when I bought mine back in 2012 or 2013, that I was buying it saying like, I don't need a 14060 at six grand or whatever they were at the time for, I'll buy one of these. And I think they were watches that competed for people's mindshare for a while. And obviously the sub continued to be this icon And I think as Omega broadened the scope of their diving watches, including things like Planet Ocean, suddenly the 2254, or really the 300 at large, took a back seat until they refreshed it. And when they refreshed it, and you had the white one, wore it almost constantly for a year. Yeah. But when they refreshed it, they didn't bring back any option for the sword hands. And I think for me, it's the secret sauce. Yeah. The proportions are great. The case is lovely. It's nice and thin. The 1120 movement that's in them is capable of keeping very good time. It's based on a high quality ETA. It can be serviced by your local guy. These are all big pluses in my mind for your one watch. Yeah. I think some of those pluses don't exist even for the Rolex, despite the fact that the movement is better in the Rolex and the the finishing of the dial is better right you have applied markers and and things like that that kind of ratchet it up a level but you get a date on the Seamaster which is nice it's also I think quite a subtle date yeah a black date wheel on a black dial nicely nicely kind of iterated There's pluses and minus to both, but I really can't argue with the outcome. I just, I'm lucky I didn't have to make that choice. I have some tough choices coming ahead, but I'm lucky I didn't have to make that one. So this is one I'll be watching the voting very carefully. I'm excited to see how people feel about this. Because I would argue that the fact that you can find 2254s, they're not that difficult to find. They're significantly less money than a Rolex. Not the same cache as telling people who don't know watches that you'd have a Rolex versus an older Omega, like a 15, 20-year-old Seamaster. But I think within the circle of TGN, these watches are very evenly matched in terms of their value statement, their ethos, their sort of... aesthetic elements, all of it. Like I do think they stack up nicely and I'm glad they came together in this round. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. It made for a fun head-to-head and a challenging one as well. And I think going on to your next round, this is a weird matchup. I'm not sure where you're gonna head with this one because they're incredibly different watches. So why don't you dive into it? |
| James Stacy | Yeah, so this is an, I would say, like an off-balance mismatch. These aren't that similar watches, like he said. So we're comparing here, or battling here, the Rolex Datejust 1601. This is an early 70s, a 73, 1601 with a linen dial, the Sigma dial. It's a watch I really love that I bought, you know, for becoming the EIC at Hodinkee, so I've only had it a little while, but it's up against a watch that I wore the most last year, and that's the Longines Spirit Zulu Houdinki LE. It's a titanium watch with a rotating 24-hour bezel, a flyer GMT movement. I love this watch. It's really good. And we could belabor this, I could stretch it out, but the truth is, between the two, if we're talking about one, it's the Longines. Yeah, yeah. It's not even that big of a fight. If I led a different lifestyle, Datejust is literally a watch designed to be the one watch. yeah it is and if it was a modern one that i didn't have to worry about a pool or the dock the cottage that sort of thing cool but like the water resistance does matter to me for an everyday watch loom matters to a certain extent especially in the summer where i'm at the cottage and you know It's just, you know, there's one plug on the other side of the room, so you don't have a nightlight or that sort of thing. The Longines really, I've put it through hell, I've beat it up, I've dove with it, I've worn it a ton. I have that one complaint, which I brought up on the last episode, which is I wish it had tool-less micro-adjust in the clasp. That's something I know Longines can do, so I don't mind harping on them about it. But really, the Datejust is a romantic, would be a romantic decision, and the Longines would be the practical decision that, for me, really doesn't leave the romantic element behind, because I find travel watches just romantic and appealing in that way. So it's the Longines. Not sure I'm going to make any friends with that one. Can't really predict what the numbers will look like. Yeah, that's going to be an interesting boat. But between the two, that's the one for me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I'm not surprised. I think when I think of you, I think travel watch. I mean, you're, you're kind of synonymous with that these days. And I think, um, your love of this Longines is, is, is well-known and it is a really versatile piece. I mean, it's, it's a, it's the right size. It's titanium. It's got the water resistance, the travel element. Yeah, the Datejust is, you're right, in another, in another life with another person in a different era. Or a more modern one. Yeah, or a more modern one. That would be the one watch, you know, more urban person who, uh, you know, still maybe go sailing on the weekend or, you know, rides a motorcycle or whatever, like that would be a perfect choice. But I think for you, the launching is the, is the, is the ticket. |
| James Stacy | And I think, you know, just before we get into the next battle here for your fourth pick of round two, I also think there's a philosophical connection between current day Longines and the era of Omega that we're talking about with the 2254. And I'm sure we talked about this in the first hundred episodes of TGN, that Omega was going up market and Longines was kind of stepping into where they used to be. Longines and then maybe you'd see Aorus also kind of in that space and kind of going back and forth. And I think a lot of what we really like about the 2254 is replicated in the modern Hydra Conquest, in the modern Spirit Zulu stuff. They're just like reasonable high quality. I mean, these aren't cheap watches. That's not at all what we're saying or inexpensive. They're actually quite a lot of money depending on what you buy. But if you want to go that step up, that used to be an Omega step. Now it's like Longines before you get to Omega, before you get to Rolex, before you get to Blancpain. And I just think there's so much value there that the attention is still largely going to Tudor. And look, we've spoken a ton about Tudor on this episode, let alone every other episode. But I don't think you can have that conversation without recognizing the strength just below the Tudor price point that's coming from Longines. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think, I think, you know, again, don't want to belabor it too much, but I do think Longines is consistently an underrated brand by a lot of people are just not, maybe not underrated overlooked. And I think it's, it's this legendary brand with an incredible history. And I mean, say what you will about the swatch group, like top to bottom, it's hard to find a watch that isn't really good quality. I mean, even like a Tissot PRX or whatever, like, you know, inexpensive, you know, relatively so. I think there's always teething. Yeah. But, but like a Longines is a high quality watch. Yeah, definitely. |
| Unknown | Yeah, definitely. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. My last, uh, my last duo, um, in this bracket in the Elite 8, it's the, the Vertex Aqualine M60 versus my big boy Blancpain 50 Fathoms Automatic Titanium. Look, I love the Vertex. It's got so much going for it. Great size, great lume. One of my most accurate watches wears well on bracelet, strap, whether rubber or NATO. I love the brand. I love Don. I love what he's doing. But it was really no contest here. It's the Blancpain. I think it's got to move on just by dint of the fact that I've got a lot of history with this watch. I love Blancpain for being a diver. I just feel drawn to the brand itself, just by their history, by the passion of the CEO for diving, the work that they do with Ocean Commitment stuff. And then the watch itself. Again, we're talking one watch. So as we get closer to the end, factors like size might come into it because it's going to be going up against some smaller pieces across the board. But for now, against the Vertex, a 45 millimeter titanium watch that wears pretty darn well. And it's just a gorgeous watch. I mean, this is a gorgeous watch, whether you look at it from the front or you flip it over and look through the display case back. I mean, it's a spectacular piece. Strap wise, I don't have a ton of options for it because it's that weird 23 millimeter lug width, which which is kind of funky to play with. But at this level, this watch is it's definitely moving on to to the final four. So Here we are. Blancpain 50 Fathoms. |
| James Stacy | Nice. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | There you go. You've got your four. I like it. So just for those keeping score, because we won't publish these results until the next week, Jason's four have settled in at the Tudor Pelagos FXD, which next week will take on the Tudor Submariner Snowflake. And then we have the Omega 2254 against the Blancpain 50 Fathoms. Two pretty tough matchups. That'll give us a Tudor versus something. Yeah, right. For the final two. So Tudor's in good shape. The outcome of next week is not that important to them. They'll get a boost either way, but it's going to be a grudge match between Blancpain and Omega. Very much a Swatch family battle there. Looking at my final, this is actually the one I probably thought the most about over the last week in preparing for this. So this is my Rolex Explorer II. It's the 16570 Polar, which I bought for my 30th birthday, so I've now owned for nearly nine years. Up against that is one of my favorite watches of the last few years, also one of my favorite watches under $1,000 in existence, the Marathon SS Nav-D, which is the steel version of the standard Navigator. way up there for my favorite watch under $1,000. Right up there with the Citizen. It's subtle. It's easy to wear. It's incredibly accurate. The tritium lume is super useful if you like being outside and away from light. It's like an amazing camping watch. It's great for travel. The 12-hour bezel gives you a second time zone. You get a date or no date, your pick, when you buy it. And if you spend the extra money, and I recommend you do, you can get one of the best rubber straps on the market to go with it. and you're looking at, you know, you're under $1,500, you're in for roughly the price of something like an SPB diver from Seiko, but you have ultra high accuracy quartz, the tritium, it's very much a tool watch made for government contracts that was a good enough watch that they've continued making it and are now offering it in steel for civilians like myself. So a watch I absolutely adore. I kind of hemmed and hawed on this because I think deep down the profile of the Rolex makes it a difficult everyday watch, but I would contend that being an Explorer rather than a Sub, Daytona, or GMT Master, and then putting it on a NATO, which is how I commonly wear the watch, makes it a little bit more subtle. Obviously, if you know your watches really well, you'd still be able to know that this is a Rolex or watch attempting to be a Rolex from a distance. I don't know, man, this is really hard because the Rolex Explorer II is like the one watch for me in many ways. Yeah, yeah. It's my favorite modern-ish Rolex, certainly my favorite five-digit Rolex. I adore the white dial specifically. I love the black dial furniture for the markers in the hands, the sort of black outline that you get. It's a watch that I became obsessed with and got very lucky in that my obsession predated the extreme kind of explosion of all Rolex in steel. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | And I was able to buy it, you know, as the GMT master and watches like the 14060 started to shoot through the roof. I still got this for a normal price. I've worn it on mountains. I've worn it on dives. I've worn it on countless amounts of travel and never run into a problem. And so while I would say this was a more difficult decision than those who love the Rolex might believe, I'm going to go with the Rolex, but it's by a narrow margin. The Marathon is an incredible everyday watch. |
| Jason Heaton | I was holding my breath. I wasn't sure where you were going to go with this. Um, and you know, I was thinking, are you going to follow my logic with, with my Rolex sub and having it lose out based on kind of brand, you know, uh, awareness and, and kind of that sort of thing. Um, and the marathons spectacular watch. And I just thought, As, as you were talking it through, I was like, at some point it'd be fun to like flip this and like, we each get to pick for the other person, you know, like which one would win for us. I, I, that, that's a tough call, but I, I had a feeling you'd go with the Rolex, but I had to wait until he actually spoke the words. So. |
| James Stacy | I think it's the right call. I think it is a watch I could definitely wear as my one watch. I did for a long time. If I was wearing a watch, I made the decision to not wear the Rolex. It's not like that currently. These days, it's probably the Pelagos, where if I wear anything else, my hand is hovering over the Pelagos before it goes to whatever. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I do think that this leads to a more interesting next round because I'm now, my final four will be the 50th anniversary Sea Rambler versus the Tudor Pelagos 39, two of my favorite dive watches of the last decade. And then the Longines Spirit Zulu GMT versus the Rolex Explorer II, also GMT, two of my favorite travel watches of the last decade. I mean, to be fair, the Explorer II is older than that, but you get my point. yeah yeah so should be an interesting i'm not looking forward to next week picking between these because these are like we're now into like my mount rushmore yeah of everyday watches a doxa a titanium tutor a great titanium long jeans and a rolex like it's a pretty good quartet there yeah it's going to be it's going to be tough to narrow it down to two and this is another one where I'm fascinated to see what the voting will be. I think people will largely align with the outcome of my four, but I don't think we're going to agree on the option to go down to two and then the final. |
| Unknown | Oh, yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I think we're going to see a lot of like 48 to 52 sort of votes. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah, I think so, too. I have to say, I find, though, this is I think this is possibly some of the most fun I've had on TGN in the almost nine years that we've been doing this. I mean, it's. |
| James Stacy | it's it's it's really been fun and it's it's it's fun to incorporate the the voting because i think you know then we're seeing you know how people agree or disagree and on slack why so it's uh let's keep it up totally agree so yeah keep in mind like i said last week and hopefully you listen to last week's episode but if not i'll give you a quick breakdown if you go to the show notes you will find two links they will be presented as bare links for common ninja CommonNinja.site slash TGN Jason. CommonNinja.site slash TGN James. These will take you to our voting brackets. And by the time you're listening to this, the next round will have opened. So the decisions that we just made, you will be able to vote on to make your own decision. The 16 to 8, that's going to be locked in. Now we're going 8 to 4. That'll be available for the next week when you're listening to this. And then we will transition into the third round where we go 4 into 2. I hope that's clear and I hope people enjoy it. Please vote. We got well over a thousand votes previously and I'd love to see even more for the upcoming round for you guys can weigh in on the Elite Eight. I think that pretty much covers it. That was fun. I had a good time. Yeah, it was fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacy | I don't know why I find this a little bit stressful. It's a little bit like picking your kids. Yeah, right. I'm power ranking, power ranking things I really love. |
| Unknown | Yeah, right. |
| James Stacy | It is what it is. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, how about some final notes? Sure. Yeah. Looks like I've got a product. You've got a YouTube video. I'll go quickly with mine. I did mention at the beginning of the show that it's been quite cold here and that I've been, you know, walking the dog and running and stuff outside. And for Christmas, I actually was gifted a tube of a product called Warm Skin, which is, it's called Warm Skin Barrier Skin Cream for Cold Exposure. And, you know, I'd not heard of this, but, you know, for, for years of skiing and running and stuff outside, I've always just kind of, if it's been bitterly cold and windy, I'll slather on like a blob of Vaseline, you know, petroleum jelly on my nose and cheeks. Oh, sure. Yeah. Kind of ward off, you know, wind burn, that sort of thing. but it tends to be greasy and sometimes you get it smeared on your glasses or you know whatever. This product does a similar thing. I mean it's made to kind of be a barrier against windburn and cold and it really works and I quite like it and it's just this really kind of humble product with you know water and glycerin and some various other things in it that seem to provide some level of protection against the cold and wind and I thought I'd never heard of it which surprised me living in Minnesota you kind of hear about all these things a lot kind of cold weather essentials but this thing's been around for a long time I mean I even their website which isn't a great website to be honest there isn't a way to purchase it on the website but you can buy it at you know local shops and Amazon has it but it's out of stock currently it looks like But, you know, it was worn by like polar explorers back in the 80s. And they've got this kind of list of testimonials on their on their homepage of, you know, mountaineers and people that work outdoors and skiers and biathletes and things like that that use it. So I'm just giving it a quick, quick TGN endorsement that it's been working for me. And if you're someone who spends time in the bitter cold, you might want to give it a try. Warm skin, barrier skin cream for cold exposure. |
| James Stacy | I wouldn't have predicted. I didn't read the script this far into the episode. Obviously, our episodes are fully scripted. I didn't realize we were getting into skin creams for cold weather. |
| Jason Heaton | This episode brought you luck. |
| Unknown | Yeah, exactly. |
| James Stacy | It's the Colgate hour brought to you by warm skin. Yeah, that's great. No, if it's useful and it works, then that makes sense. Look, mine this week is actually a simple one. I've been trying to make a concerted effort along with my walks and a few others. A dry January is going very well. Thank you for everybody who asked and worried about me. I am incredibly dry and a little bit bored, but doing OK, feeling good. And the other side that I wanted to kind of address with this year is with the new job is just working on my productivity. I'm a natural procrastinator. It's part of the ADHD thing. I like to wait until things feel perfect and then work. And that's not a good way to actually get a lot done, especially a lot done from like various if you do the same thing every time, maybe that's fine. But but for a kind of varied number of deadlines, I'm trying to learn how to be more productive. And over the Christmas break, I went through a handful of YouTube channels that were popular for business methodology and productivity and what apps to use and how to set up your computer. And a lot of them are very preachy, and very strangely, overtly, almost needlessly masculine about, get up at four and do an ice bath and then take your testosterone and then drink 45 coffees and then overthrow a small government. And you're just like, God, I literally want to know what time of day I should prioritize my emails. So that it doesn't feel like a nightmare to get into an inbox with triple digit unread. And in my search, I did find a guy I really liked, and I just wanted to recommend his whole channel. His name is Ali Abdaal. He previously was a doctor, an MD, and started vlogging the process of becoming an MD and what his experience was like. And then he wanted to start a side business for passive income, and that grew his channel. And now he largely does this channel, and he does seminars and online workshops and things like that with his wife. I would say most of this is about not how to do your work, but how to address your work so that you don't have problems with productivity or areas that you're not getting things done. And it's a lot more to think about. The guy's produced over a thousand videos, has more than six million followers. Everything that I've watched so far is very down to earth, is very straightforward. A lot of it is a promo for his book, but that doesn't bother me. uh necessarily it's nice and light in the way that he kind of deals with it he also does free seminars so i think if you wanted to do the seminar side that's not really my speed but if you wanted to i think you can try it for free like go in and he does these free weekends where you can get into different ways of thinking and that sort of thing. So, so far, I've been super happy with it. He's where I got the specific recommendation for this walking pad and got kind of an idea of how he uses it in his workflow, but also, you know, how to set up your desktop for the most productivity, how to use certain apps to remove the pain points of different things that feel daunting to the extent that you just don't do them, you procrastinate on them. So that may appeal to some of you. I know that we have a lot of people, because I'm in our Slack professional channel, we have a lot of very high functioning professional types who probably don't need any of this help. But if you're like me, you definitely do. I'm really good at writing about watches and taking pictures of watches. And that's like 2% of my job now. I'm out of my depth. And this is how I'm learning. And so far, this is my favorite channel for that sort of professional growth. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, this is great. I'm just scrolling through his channel and there's just such a variety of stuff. There's the productivity stuff. He's got tech recommendations. He's got book club. I mean, yeah, he's, he's all over the place and, and, and they're all pretty digestible. They look all to be, you know, 18 minutes, uh, 16 minutes. There's a longer one here, but yeah, this is, this is cool. I'll check some of these out. |
| James Stacy | All right. Well, hey, I hope everybody loved it. I hope you're ready to go vote on round two on the Elite Eight. Some tough decisions in there, but I think we're on our way to a fairly interesting, you know, next two rounds as we get down to the ultimate winner of our One Watch tournament. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, or a shirt in support of the LA Firefighters, please visit TheGreyNATO.com for more details. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we'll leave you with this quote from Friedrich Nietzsche who said, It is hard enough to remember my opinions without also remembering my reasons for them. |