The Grey NATO – 320 – New Watches From Sinn, Omega, Nodus, Vertex, & More
Published on Thu, 27 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0500
Synopsis
In this episode of The Graynado, hosts James Sacy and Jason Heaton discuss recent developments in the watch world. James shares personal news about expecting a baby in June, which has affected his travel plans, including a recent resort vacation in the Dominican Republic. The hosts then dive into several new watch releases, including Zinn's submarine steel diving watches, the Omega Seamaster in bronze gold, Mark II's Fulcrum 39, Bulova's 150th anniversary bronze mil-ships, and Notice's Obscura collaboration with Beers and Cameras. They also discuss the upcoming British Watchmakers Day event on March 8th, highlighting limited editions from various brands including Vertex, Studio Underdog, and Christopher Ward.
The episode concludes with "final notes" where both hosts share tech recommendations: James discusses a high-quality screen protector from Flowlab that successfully protected his iPhone during a drop, while Jason recommends DuckDuckGo as a privacy-focused web browser and search engine alternative.
Links
Transcript
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| James Sacy | Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This episode 320 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 Sacy and I'm joined as ever by my co-host and good buddy Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing? I'm doing pretty well. |
| Jason Heaton | We're back to our regular recording time here and I'm back on my good mic. Apologies to those of you who commented or heard my strange setup last week. I was away from home using a handheld mic of a different sort. So hopefully my voice sounds a little better this week. For sure. Yeah, I'm doing well. That's good. I'm glad. |
| James Sacy | And you're back from a trip. Yeah, exactly. Got away for a few days down to the Dominican Republic, which I'd never been to before. I guess we're finally at a point where like some crucial context is needed. I don't talk a ton about my like deep personal life on the show, but obviously between this vacation and then the fact that I won't be at Wind Up Chicago, we've actually had a couple people guess and offer DMs. So I'll share the news today. Jason, you've known for a little while. Sarah, my wife, is pregnant, which will be my third, her first. We're very excited, but of course, it changes the whole kind of makeup of a year, right? Normally, we just, yeah, of course, we'd be in Chicago. Of course, we'd be here. Of course, we'd be there. Yeah. But really, I'm limiting my travel kind of as much as possible, especially once we hit essentially June. Sarah's due towards the end of June. And then I'm kind of protecting July, August. With my first two, I didn't take any time off. We didn't have the ability or the finances. And in this scenario, I'd like to take some time off and enjoy it, especially with the kid coming in the summer. So that does change some of it. And I thought it allowed me a little bit of wiggle room because it was very much a not TGN sort of vacation. We did almost nothing. Sarah really wanted, I really wanted a break. I've been working kind of like a maniac for the last little while. The new promotion has been incredible, but a ton of work and Sarah wanted a chance to sit in the sun and read a book. Not really that unfair of a thing to ask. So normally, Sarah and I like road trips and we like diving. If we were going to fly somewhere to an island in the Caribbean, we would dive. Currently, that's not an option, which is fine. So we just went down and hung out at a resort for four or five days. I read a book. I laid on the beach. I walked on the treadmill. It was nice. I had a good time. It was nice and restful. I would say that I wasn't super impressed with the resort, so I'm not going to share its name. I wouldn't want someone to necessarily do the same. But if you're looking for a resort out of Punta Cana and you happen to see one that shares a name with a fantastic Austrian mountain town, maybe pick a different spot is my only suggestion. The facilities were excellent, the service really wasn't, and the food I would call unremarkable. which wasn't really kind of what we were, we were almost in many ways looking in some ways to the opposite of that. But it was super nice to get away and get a chance just to kind of kick back. Got a bunch of really nice messages from folks. So I put up, I think, one Instagram just saying that I was like, you know, out of office for a bit. And people were very kind and that sort of thing. So if I owe you an email, I'm getting to it. But yeah, and if I sound a little rusty, it's because I absolutely am. I had a solid bout of like insomnia on the trip. I just wasn't sleeping super well. So I got back late afternoon yesterday and I was asleep by about 8.30 and slept for like almost 12 hours. So I'm a little weird at the moment, but I don't feel bad. I feel fine. Yeah, yeah. So that is what it is. But yeah, I'm not a great vacationer to begin with, to sit still, but we had a really nice time. And, you know, certainly looking forward to eventual vacations when we can go back to diving. But for now, obvious reasons, the schedule for the year has kind of changed for that sort of stuff. And certainly for some of the watch travel as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean you've you've Talk about a big year. You're um, I mean with the new job and then a baby coming it's uh, 2025 is shaping up to be a pretty momentous one for you. |
| James Sacy | That's that's really that's really cool Yeah, if I if I could find the brakes i'll let you guys know but right now right now i've only managed to find the gas pedal So, how have you been things are think did you get the big change in weather that we did here I left and it was really really cold. Yeah Yeah, and I came back yesterday and it's it's still covered in snow because there's so much of it, but it was nice and warm Yeah, that's right. |
| Jason Heaton | You guys really got dumped on we we've had a really sparse snow winter. Um, i've only been out skiing twice this year and You know from one week to the to the next I remember when we recorded last week with with tom place Um, we were still kind of just coming out of this really frigid period like really really cold I think I even mentioned you guys it was you know minus minus 20 and What a difference a week makes it's yesterday I was out on my bike in minimal clothing and I'm gonna get the the topless Land Rover out later today and take the dog for a little cruise I mean, it's it's legitimately warm. It's in the Was in the low 50s Fahrenheit yesterday. That's it's gonna be a little cooler today, but the Sun's out I mean it Sometimes this happens, I mean, the past few years have been so weird, but to get this kind of weather in February, it like accelerates that spring mindset and then we get slammed, you know, like mid-March, we'll be back to cold and snow, but I'm enjoying it and it makes it kind of hard to, when it warms up like this and it gets, sort of sloppy and muddy and yet the sun's out and you get that warmth on your skin it makes it kind of difficult to be inside like I kind of just want to be out like enjoying it like you do in April or something but uh yeah it's been it's been pretty wild. |
| James Sacy | Yeah, I I'm definitely looking forward to to the weather change. I mean, we definitely said this for the last several years that we're we've really become spring and summer sort of fans. Yeah. And and yeah, I'm looking forward to but I think this weekend if it holds if we stay loosely into the positives could be a good option to get up to the cottage, especially if it's sunny. So go trance around in the woods a little bit fly the drone that sort of thing. But yeah, |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, well, and I'd been waiting. I had this project in mind for a while. In the Defender, what they call the top rail of the dashboard, which is kind of the padded vinyl component. If you can picture an old Defender, it's sort of just a square flat, you know, panel for the dash with a binnacle for the hinges, but it's the top bit was pretty lousy. I think someone in the past had tried to recover it with some kind of cheap aftermarket vinyl and it was kind of rippled and puffy and torn loose in some sections and whatever. So I was going to recover it with vinyl myself, but then there's a company out of the UK called Mudstuff that kind of manufactures aftermarket Land Rover bits. Like molded plastic and they'll do, I don't know if they do 3D printing, but they'll do some bits out of aluminum and things. I've used them over the years for various interior components and they came out with this really nice replacement dash panel or dash pad and I ordered it and it came while it was really really cold and I wasn't about to be out fiddling with small screws and tools and stuff in the frigid cold. I finally got a chance a couple days ago to put it on and it was a satisfying project it makes me yearn for summer to get out and Start tinkering again in the garage and do some of that sort of stuff. So that was a satisfying project but Yeah, other than that, I mean, you know since we talked to to Tom in episode 319 last week. He his final note was for Redux that company that makes the They've done watches in the past that they do a nice collection of different straps And and I went ahead and like right after we hung up with Tom. I went and ordered three straps I got the leather the Horween and then what they call the I don't know if they call it extreme, but it's extrm which is this synthetic I hesitate to call it rubber because they call it like a hypalon synth strap with titanium hardware and I think what's neat about their straps is that they're all with titanium hardware which I was aiming to get for you know for some options for the new crew watch number one which to preview our wrist check is what I'm wearing and have been wearing and so I just wanted a few options and so I ordered a few of these straps and currently I'm wearing it on the the Horween but this EXTRM strap is is a really intriguing option. Did you check that one out? Did you get one of those? |
| James Sacy | Yeah, so like you, we finished the chat with Tom, and I went immediately to my phone, checked out the site, and I bought one of their leather single pass NATOs. Yeah. Not the Horween one, the less expensive one. And then I also bought one of their paratrooper straps in yellow, which is sort of, it's in the same genre as like an Erica's, but it's a different format. If you know your way around an Erica's, you'll see it immediately. It's a fully disconnecting strap with sort of a double channel buckle. and it's but it is still infinitely sizable and i love the yellow it's such a quiet sort of watch the cwn one and the yellow kind of speaks to me in a fun way um but i got home yesterday and had a package from from Redux and was very excited to open it. When I opened it, they just packed in a bunch of other stuff. So huge shout out to the team at Redux. I also got a note from somebody on their team is based very close to me, just in a neighboring town. So I need to look into that. They didn't leave an email, but I owe you guys an email. Thank you very much. But yeah, they included that X term strap or extreme strap and the horween yeah and also like a little clip together i'm not sure what it's made out of sort of watch roll which is quite nice yeah i got that too that's really nice i love the format of that totally unnecessary to to add more but you know more than happy to to just but the thing i'm most excited about is i didn't really give the Xterm, it looked a little bit too modern for my taste. And I've got it on my wrist now and I absolutely love it. It's thin, it's super light. I think it suits the watch really well. It's almost black, but not quite. And the titanium hardware is really good. Honestly, all four of the straps, for the money, are incredible value. So a big shout out to Redux and a big thank you from, I would say, both Jason and I, certainly, for throwing extra kit into the bag. I'm really impressed by it. |
| Jason Heaton | I love the the little feature that the kind of asymmetrical perforations on the on the extreme strap that they remind me of gosh even before I was really into watches I remember going to like a local department store like Macy's if people know that name and they had in the in the jewelry and watch department they had Tag Heuer Carreras that came on the black rubber many, many, many years ago. And they had this also, they had this sort of perforated sort of venting on the rubber straps that always struck me as kind of cool. And that's what this reminds me of. But yeah, these are great. Yeah. |
| James Sacy | Nice stuff. But we have already derivated. We've kind of done a little bit of risk check and the other stuff. we can get through some of the the top line stuff. So I've been talking about the Vancouver Timepiece Show for the last several weeks. You can check out the tickets and scenarios at timepieceshow.com, April 25th to 27th. We do now have confirmation that Jason will not be able to make it. So if you're coming to Vancouver, you're hanging out with me. Hope that's okay. If you if you want your fill of Jason, what are we thinking, Jason? Wind up Chicago? |
| Jason Heaton | Go to Chicago. Yeah, I'll be diving with the Wind Up in the Lake crew and walk on the show there too. So yeah, should be. We're dividing and conquering this year. We both have sort of different stuff going on in our lives this year and we're just trying to make the best of it. |
| James Sacy | and I'm not in a scenario to be able to make it, sadly. That's a tough one for me, if I'm honest. I have a real kinship both for the folks that show up at Chicago, like all of you listening, but also for the team behind that. So it stings a little bit, but it's a sting I can accept, given the scenario. So I hope you all have a great time. This was going to be my year to jump in with the crew on the wind-up in the lake, but I'm sure you guys will have a great time. Last year was certainly sort of iconic. from both that trip and the trip to the Bond exhibit and a great hangout and the rest of it. But we've got plans developing for both Timepiece Show and for Chicago. So just listen to the show. That's your home for all of that information. But if you're interested in coming to the Vancouver Timepiece Show, like I said, it's the 25th to the 27th, and I'm sure that ticketing will be in demand. I don't think in this scenario, we probably won't do a traditional episode of TGM because Jason won't be there, but I've got lots of buddies in Vancouver. I think we can find something fun to do, maybe a guest show, maybe a group guest show. I was thinking like, you know, maybe I can put it out there in the world and everybody can apply some pressure, but imagine if we got a couple of the other Jasons, a Gallop, a Wim. and kind of got them all into one episode for a fun chit chat some evening. So if there's a scenario where we can make that sort of a live hangout, that sort of thing, maybe at Rolldorf, maybe not, I'm not sure yet. I'm working on that. I'll let you guys know. But if you're a listener and you're not going to make it to Vancouver, we'll have some sort of content from the show as well. And then we're in talks with, you know, one of our good sort of buddy brands to do sort of a hangout, a beer, beer, you know, chill event one evening as well. So just pay attention to the show for the next little while as those details kind of come together. And yeah, I guess largely the same thing for Chicago. Yeah, definitely. |
| Jason Heaton | Also in talks with another brand partner that we worked with in the past to do something there possibly. And then, yeah, I'll just be wandering around and meeting folks and that'll be a good time too. Look, it's only February and certainly the Vancouver show is sooner, but July will be here before we know it as well. |
| James Sacy | Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm blinking it like it's March at the end of this week. Yeah, exactly. Which is very problematic for me. Yeah. I'm running out of time here. Yeah, right. Yeah. But look, that's, that's great. And then the other thing is, Jason, you've got an update on our firefighting t-shirt. So by the time this episode comes out, you will be into the last minutes. If you would like to support the firefighting t-shirt program we've been having going for the last little while, but Jason's got an update on the totals and that sort of thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so as you're listening to this, it is the last day to order one of these shirts. I'll be shutting this down by 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the 28th, so Thursday, the day this episode comes out, and we have hit our goal. We were... loose goal. We really just wanted to raise as much money as we could for the California Fire Foundation with these special t-shirts that were designed by Tony at the Illustrated Watch, conceived of by John Iwata, and with input from Asha Wagner. Thanks to everybody that helped with that, and then to everybody who ordered. And I'm really happy to say that, you know, we had pledged to donate all of the kind of after-cost profits from the sale of this shirt to the California Fire Foundation, and encouraged people to donate directly. But through the sale of this shirt, we have raised over $10,000 in profits that will all be donated to the California Fire Foundation. So pretty incredible. We had some costs obviously involved with the fulfillment and shipping. that we do through Printful, our fulfillment partner. But so many shirts got sold and $10,000 is a significant chunk of money and I'm just so proud of our whole crew and the folks that made this happen. I'm just so pleased to be able to be making that donation. Thanks to everybody. And if you're if you still want a shirt and you're listening on Thursday, you know, before 5 p.m. Eastern Time U.S. or North American Time, you can still get one. But after that, we're going to shut that down. So thanks to everybody. |
| James Sacy | Totally. Yeah. A huge thank you, everybody. And if you're listening and wondering what's the next thing for merch, sit tight. We've got some designs in the inbox that I'm super excited about to see how they translate. We're going to continue what we did previously by working with some of the talented designers in the Slack to make cool merch. And we've got a whole sort of plan coming. It's just a question of getting pen to paper and getting it pushed through. Once we've got the firefighting shirt kind of wrapped down at the end of the month, I think that's our next focus. And yeah, so this is good. We got through all that kind of stuff. We had a nice chat about Redux. Both Jason and I are wearing our CWN ones on various Redux straps. So there's wrist check handled. The main topic today is actually just, you know, we're finally into new watch season. It delayed about two weeks later than expected for me this year. We're starting to see brands that we really love kind of say what this year is going to be about for them, and that includes some great brands. And then we also kind of will piggyback at the end, a kind of quick consideration of British Watchmakers Day, which includes at least 25 limited edition watches, which we're not going to talk about each one. Some of them, there's only like four or five. but there are some pretty cool ones in there. So we wanted to do kind of a classic little like roundup of watches we hadn't talked about yet, because it's really easy when you do... What did we do? Four episodes for the tournament, and then we did a film club, and you blink and you go, wait, what came out in January? What did we forget? What did we miss? All that kind of stuff. And there's been some pretty good stuff, but I think for me, I'm trying to decide where we start on this list. Maybe Zen or Vertex are kind of the ones that really stand out for me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, sure, we can do that. I think Zyn was just announced just a few days ago, and as you mentioned, we're at the very starting point of this new watch season. You've got Watches & Wonders coming up here very shortly. I remember, it didn't seem like that long ago, just a year ago, going to Time to Watches in Geneva and visiting with Zinn and seeing the new stuff last year. So for this year, they've got some kind of quirky and exciting stuff that almost feels a little bit fresh and unpredictable from Zinn in some ways. So we've got a set of new diving chronographs, which are very exciting in terms of the complication and layout of those. And then maybe before we jump into that, let's talk about this this limited edition series of U-15, U-16, and U-18. These are watches that, you know, follow Zinn's usual kind of U-boat derived steel diving watches, like the U-50 and the U-1 and the U-2, that traditionally have been made from the same steel as German submarines. But in this case, these limited editions are actually made from the steel of decommissioned submarines, which is something that Normally, I wouldn't get that excited about I find kind of repurposed stuff, you know kind of ho-hum or I just you know, they sort of I don't really give much of a second look but for some reason with these like It does seem special Yeah, and the u15 is the one that is it's a 41 millimeter and then the u16 and u18 are the bigger guys the 44 millimeters so they're kind of following the the format of the the u50 versus like something big like the u1 and in addition to the steel that they're using for the cases, they have these unique dials, which I would say is a little bit of the polarizing feature on these. They're kind of a glossier dial, kind of a deep blue that sort of transitions to a lighter blue, and then they've got this sort of bubble effect coming up through the middle, which is obviously supposed to be evocative of of the idea of, you know, a submarine releasing, you know, some compressed air or something like that. But what do you think about that feature in particular? Let's start there. Do you like those dials? Would you wear something like that? |
| James Sacy | I do like the dials. I would say they're like, it's a little bit hyper-literal for me. In many ways, it feels a little bit like the celebration dial. And I think people have said this online. The bit that I caught on Instagram while I was away is, you know, this kind of has this direct reference to something that feels, it doesn't feel especially zen, but also think about how many cool versions of the You series they've made over the years, like a lot. So I kind of commend them for trying something that feels, a little bit less serious. But at the same time, that less serious part does kind of butt heads with how serious the metal is being taken from German submarines and that sort of thing. So I'm a little surprised. And it could be just that this is their novelty wave, like that'll be other waves. I think it makes sense to start in this format, like with something that's interesting and gets people's attention and whatnot. But it would be cool to see them do this series with a more standard dial in the future, like to give people both options, which I think feels very zen to have more than one option there for that sort of thing. But I mean, there's definitely nothing about it that I don't, that I think doesn't work. The sizing makes a lot of sense. The U15 is in many ways a U50 in terms of its sizing. And then with the two larger ones, they seem very similar in many ways. You've got a little bit more of a UX look on the U18. And then a few other tech, you can see like one of the little AR capsules down at six o'clock on the dial. So it's a slightly different sort of consideration there. But yeah, I think these look really good. I'm interested, Jason, for you also, is the bubbles too... Cartoonish is the wrong word, because it sounds like a negative, and I don't feel negatively about it. It just doesn't necessarily feel like a Zen thing to do for the serious dive watch made out of submarine steel. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and as I said earlier, I mean, these feel like kind of really fresh takes from Zen, which I'm not used to. And in a way I like it I'm not just not sure that that I like that as you said kind of a really kind of literal interpretation of what we're talking about here, but It's it's subtle enough. You know, I guess it probably plays at different angles like when I'm looking at a few different photos in Some cases it shows up quite quite prominently and then in others if you tilt to watch a certain angle It doesn't so it could be a fun feature and I think in a way it does offset the starkness especially looking at the u16 with those blocky very modernist u1 style hands and markers it does add a bit of a playful element to what is otherwise a very stark watch so um it definitely presents like an entire story which is something that zin their story has traditionally just been all about function and in this case it's like okay the steel is from a submarine and then we've got these bubbles on the dial and it's it's this whole package that tells the story and then What I've read about the markings on the dial, like for instance, under U-16, it says Klasse 206, which is the class of submarine. And then they actually list the number of nautical miles that that submarine traveled during its commissioning, during its lifetime of service, which is kind of cool. Yeah, it is. It's fun in a very German, very zen sort of way, which is kind of what makes these neat. |
| James Sacy | I mean, like, to be fair, like these are LEs. There's 1000 units of each, the U-15 and U-16 are named as such. To be clear, the reason these aren't called a U-50 and a U-1 is because they're named for the submarines that the metal came from. And then with the 18, it's metal from the U-18 and has a slightly different vibe. So yeah, I think they're interesting and cool. And I love the amount of attention that they're getting. I think that makes a lot of sense for an LE. But in my mind, these are going to guys that have a couple other U's. Yeah, this probably, or actually, you know what? Maybe these would also appeal if you were like, I like Zen, but they're a little, they're a little kind of hardcore for me. Right, right, yeah. Suddenly you got a fun one. Yeah. But it's almost like a little wink, like them saying like, we know what we do normally. but we also we like to laugh every now and then you know right right and and it's still and they did it without without like violating their connection to the submarine steel thing or the dive watch thing like all the all the other parts are still represented the other thing is like this steel in the photos yeah looks really good yeah yeah the the the sort of jimping or grip profile on the bezels has like a polished facet to it which i think comes off really nicely and the steel definitely it could just be how they treated the photos i mean we'll see i hope to see these in in april at time to watch but Yeah, I think these look really great. I'm definitely reserving any actual deep yes or no sort of opinions once I see them. Because these could look so much cooler in person, and I think they already look really good in the photos. |
| Jason Heaton | One thing I noticed, you mentioned the steel that's used, and they do say that given the history of the steel that they used, each watch will be slightly different because you might get some um i suppose patina that came from you know traveling in this case uh looking at the u15 200 000 45 nautical miles you know i mean under the ocean uh as part of a submarine's hull so you know another cool thing like you might find a little Slight scratch or a little discoloration or whatever they might have that indicates that which is a also adds to that story And you even get a blank of steel from the submarine. |
| James Sacy | Oh as well, which is really I mean, that's a desk That's cool. Just have on your desk for sure, right? Yeah, and then let's be clear as cool as these are The 613 is incredible, which is kind of the other novelty. Pilot's dive chronograph, if that makes any sense. These are 41 millimeters. Jason, in your reading, were you able to find thickness? I couldn't find it. Zinn redid their website and I'm a little lost to find like the core stats. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I did. So on Watchbuys website, they list the watch height as 15 millimeters. So 41 and a half diameter, 15 high, lug to lug, 47 and a half. Bravo for including those details. That's great. The weight head only is 98 grams. Another kudos for including that feature. You know, very, very German to put all the stats on the site. That's awesome. Watchbuys always does. I don't know why I went to Zinn's website. And then 500 meters of water resistance on these. So, you know, who cares? I mean, nobody's going that deep, but it's just a testament again to Zinn's, you know, commitment to kind of making these very robust, 80,000 AM, anti-magnetic, you know, the copper sulfate capsule, et cetera, et cetera. I think, you know, I don't know how recently we've talked about this. I'm sure we did in earlier episodes, you know, years ago. Uh, we both have a soft spot for, well, I do particularly diving chronographs. I know you're not a real chronograph person, but I think in the case of this watch, like it's legitimately useful chronograph format for diving because of that 60 minute timer. So, you know, you could be timing one thing like your bottom time using the chronograph and then intermediate |
| James Sacy | things like swim distances and whatever with the bezel for instance and yep and then if you throw in the UTC with a day date function like that it's it's a really useful really nice watch at 41 and a half millimeters so it's not overly gigantic yeah it's not too big you know in in my mind it's it's like a neat expression of what i really liked about my 144 SC GMT which is the chronograph and the GMT i love the kind of smoked out GMT hand on these i love that if you go with the non-UTC you have the day and date yeah which is like kind of rare yeah i have a couple buddies that just really like day and date watches and they end up buying zen 105s yeah yeah because that makes sense and i think this is this is another great option i think it's also just a really really handsome looking watch where there's not too much going on i'll admit the utc is busy but in a way that i really like yeah but i think the clarity of the chronograph is really nice i love the black red sort of coloring of that you would expect from like an ezm And 15 millimeters isn't too thick. It's thick. I mean, you're going to notice it, but it's also a 500 meter dive chronograph. And movements are both based off of their SZ-02 caliber. And then if you've still got watch buys up there, do you want to let people know, just run through the pricing quick? |
| Jason Heaton | Alright, so the standard 6.13 diver's chronograph on the silicone strap is $2,860. If you get it on the bracelet, it's $3,270. And then if you bump up to the UTC version on the silicone strap, it's $3,460 versus $3,870 for the H-Link Quick Adjust Bracelet. Which, you know, look, a lot of money, but especially with the Dive Chronograph UTC with the bracelet, 3870, you're getting a lot of good, good watch for that money on a good bracelet. And then those now have the quick adjust clasp as well that they introduced a year or two ago. So, you know, it's good bang for the buck. Zinn's always been a good value, you know, when you line it up next to some kind of similar competition, I guess, in the tool watch space. |
| James Sacy | Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think it's a give or take on this thing because you're into Tudor pricing there, but I don't think you're not getting Tudor quality. It's up to you if the SZ-02, which is based on a 7750, if that bothers you, that's up to you. 7750 is a great movement, and Xin's been using it for a long time as a basis for other explorations. And I think if you look at it, maybe aside from the way the UTC hand works, it doesn't really feel like other dive GMT chronographs, but I would also say how many other dive GMT chronographs are out there that you really want would be the other thing. I think that this sits in the market in a way that makes a lot of sense to me. So look, they're certainly not cheap watches, but you don't buy a Zinn because it's cheap, you know what I mean? Right, yeah. it's been a weird year for pricing and i don't mean 2025 i mean like from here go back 12 months watches are just getting fairly expensive and at least the starting price of all of these watches didn't feel that scary to me it didn't it didn't like tweak that thing that some of these prices are and i mean there's some watches on this list that have some pretty big pricing which we can get to if we want to jump to the omegas |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah. |
| James Sacy | Why don't you kick off the Omega? For sure. So this one's interesting more because of the storyline behind it to me. So Omega has officially launched the Seamaster Diver 300M in bronze gold with a burgundy bezel. I think this watch is gorgeous, step one. Very, in my mind, reminiscent of the Apollo I mean, the Apollo anniversary watches that were references to the Apollo watches given to the astronauts, that they redid in moonshine gold with black dial furniture and the burgundy bezel. Just a very cool Speedy in my world, one of my favorites. doing it on the dive watch, I think they look so good. I think this is a really, really handsome watch. Obviously, the brownish tone of the bronze isn't necessarily my home in the Seamaster space, but I think the way that it matches with the hands and the markers works really well. I was surprised by the price, just to be clear. Yeah. so these use bronze gold and you have the option of a mesh bronze gold bracelet which in the comments on Hodinkee people didn't like and it's probably my favorite part of the watch but maybe i'm just that much of a sucker for uh for mesh bracelets or you can get it on on the modern nice thin really nice uh Seamaster rubber strap in black bronze gold is i believe 50 copper and it's based in nine karat gold And then I believe, again, this is just going off Omega's website, it's silver, gallium, and palladium. So it is kind of a unique color that's somewhere between yellow gold, pink gold, and bronze. Which I definitely think is interesting and it makes sense, but let's be clear, this is a Seamaster 300 on the bronze gold bracelet is $27,900. Wow. And I'm not saying that they won't sell them for that. I'm just saying that that number kind of shocked me, especially when, you know, look at the price of like a Nekton or even go up to a No Time to Die, which is on a titanium mesh. So at least loosely comparable. So, I mean, I think that's a lot for the bronze, the bump of the bronze gold. The rubber strap is $13,900, also feels like a lot for a Seamaster 300. Granted, you are now into the realm of a precious metal. But at that point, I would want to be comparing it against like, you know, what Black Bay 58s in gold are still around, right? You know, this watch has competition, especially when you start to see those types of numbers. That said, I think a really good looking watch, nicely executed. I believe this is the watch that like was previously worn pre-release by Daniel Craig at one of the award shows and people couldn't figure out what it was. And the red bezel is such a nice flag for that sort of stunt. So I'm on board for it. Like I said, I think these look good. Definitely something I'm looking forward to seeing in person. Because I would love to see what that color really looks like. And I'd love to try that bracelet on my wrist. What do you think of these? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I like it. I'm not as much of a mesh fan as you, so just looking at the photos, I would personally opt for the rubber. That said, black rubber against anything kind of gold just is a bit too stark of a contrast to my eye. I almost want to see it on something softer. wouldn't exactly be you know very divey but like on some kind of a distressed leather would look kind of sharp on this or some sort of NATO. |
| James Sacy | Looks nice on these watches. |
| Jason Heaton | I think I do love that burgundy red contrasted with with that patina sort of that the tan markers and hands and then the case I mean it's a really handsome piece and the modern Seamasters I mean you know I had the the white dialed one a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it and it's such a great just such a great watch in general you know whatever you think about helium release valves and skeleton hands and whatever it is it is it's a superior watch it's great whether it's worth you know 13,000 or 28,000 um that's up to the up to the consumer up to your budget but uh yeah they're neat watches um but you know i i think as far as the evolution goes obviously the steel ones there's a bunch of great colors and options and straps and bracelets and that and then we get into some of those the weirder ones like i said the the nekton or the um |
| James Sacy | the then up into the no time to die. So I mean, as far as product extension goes, not that wild, but definitely definitely a cool thing. And like something I wanted to mention. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, should we move on to something a little more affordable? Yeah, let's do it. The Mark II came out with... Oh yeah, this looks good. Yeah, it's the Fulcrum 39. So, you know, Mark II, Bill Yao, you know, we go back a ways with him. I think you and I probably at the earliest days of our collecting and interest in watches have involved Mark II to a certain degree and the spinoff of Tornek Rayville in recent years. Just really good kind of watches in the quasi-homage space in some respects. Well, largely in that space, and they proudly say that. This is kind of the Mark II's interpretation of a mil-sub, but they put a twist on it. So previously, you know, the Fulcrum is not a new name for them, but previously it was a slightly over 42mm case, and now they've downsized it to 39.5, and that gives it the name Fulcrum 39. But, you know, what's cool about these watches is it's not a full-on knockoff of a mil-sub. It's an interpretation of that. So it's got a Japanese movement in it, it's got a Miyota movement in it. The watches are assembled in Japan. It has the sword hands and kind of the general format of a mil-sub, but you can get it with a 12-hour bezel if you prefer. And then the markers are different. So we don't get the dots and hashes of a Rolex Submariner. You get kind of more of the, what are we calling these? The bar rectangles. Bar rectangular hashes all the way around. It's got a double domed sapphire crystal. It's a little over 14 millimeters thick. And lug to lug it's 47 with a 20 millimeter lug width. I have no doubt, you know, I haven't seen one of these in person, but having owned and had and handled, you know, products from Mark II and Tornek over the years, it's been, you can pretty much be assured that it's going to be very high quality for the $995 that it is. And actually, I'm just looking at the bracelet version, looks like it's, uh, it's actually sold out. But, but as with Mark II, they tend to kind of do things in batches and we'll replenish and then probably re, you know, kind of relaunch or, or, um, You know make it available again when they have more ready to go. So yeah hats off to them for For making yet another cool thing and I just noticed on Instagram. We had some some buddies from the slack that are kind of part of this what they call themselves kind of the ship's crew these these shipwreck enthusiasts and divers from our Larger audience out there that that we're on a trip to to Florida to do some diving and I saw a submersible wrist Our buddy Ben Lowry had posted some photos of this watch in action underwater. So really nice see that. Yeah, that's great stuff |
| James Sacy | Yeah, it looks, at least from the page I'm seeing, at least everything on the bracelet, maybe there's other versions, but it looks like it's all sold out. So that is kind of not that uncommon with a Mark II. They don't do a ton of releases and when they do, there's usually a lot of like pent up demand for it. So usually it is kind of a scenario where you just have to kind of get in line and be ready for it. But $1,000 in today's market, anything with three figures from a brand that we like and trust and people we like and a good design, it's at least worth considering for sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, good looking watch and shout out to Bill for keeping it going with some great stuff from Mark too. Yeah, right. And then yeah, the other one that came out recently and kind of speaks to the same thread in some ways to the Tornik Revo with with Bill Yao would be Bolivar has launched sort of an update to some of their sort of inspired by the mill. mil-spec stuff with the 150th anniversary bronze mil-ships. What do you think of these, Jason? You need to take a look? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so I did this project with Bulova a couple of years ago as part of the film that they were making. It was Michael Kuliba who made the Keepers of Time movie documentary a few years ago that people might have seen. And I was out in California doing some diving and took part in the making of that movie, kind of the diving portion of it. And I got a chance to wear one of the regular mil-ships, which is their homage or reissue of the watch that they made for you know the US Navy back in the 1950s that never got adopted and so it's a very rare vintage piece and then they reissued the mil ships and it's a really neat watch it's got this Incredibly high domed crystal. It's got the kind of these quirky weird narrow like 16 millimeter lug width for a strap So it has a kind of an odd dimension, but when you wear it, it's it's a really cool watch and for the 150th anniversary They've come out with two dial color and bezel color versions in blue or green with this This bronze case and I think it I think it works. I think that's it's a neat watch and you know, I look if you're kind of after that 50 Fathoms, Tornek Rayville, etc. kind of vibe. I think at $1195, it's kind of a neat presentation. It's a neat piece. |
| James Sacy | Yeah. And I guess in my mind, I also liked including it because it's a nice sort of follow up to the Omega. Obviously, two entirely different concepts. Yeah, totally. Yeah. But it is their their sort of their enthusiast sort of dive watch military adjacent dive watch design. Remade in in you know the bronze, and this is just straightforward bronze So my guess is the blue and the green will take on some patina after some time and look really good Yeah, and in the photos from from new they look great. I do you know the proportions of the watch are unique You know this is I guess the fourth version that I'm aware of that they've made of this watch these are both limited edition or special editions and then they had a previous le and then they have the standard and Yeah. So that's a good one. And kudos to Bulva for that one. But yeah, we'll get to the British Watchmakers Day releases in just a moment. I wanted to talk about one that's actually a little bit closer to me than some of these other watches, which is the latest sort of LE from Notice out of California. It's called the Obscura. And so this is kind of a special creation that they made with Juan Martinez of a sort of online collective slash community slash Instagram presence called Beers and Cameras. And it's really cool because basically it patents a function that Juan developed allowing you to It's a complication that allows you to kind of measure or plan for what's called the Sunny 16 rule, which is a system of understanding exposure based on f-stop for film cameras, for analog cameras. And so I don't know that this is necessarily the very first time this has ever been done in a watch, but I believe this is the first time it's been done in this format. I believe Horage also made a watch that took into account ISO and exposure and daylight versus cloudy versus not. But yeah, I think this is a very cool thing. They're selling it for 650 bucks. It's on pre-order right now. They're planning to deliver sometime in June of 2025 is what it says. But I'm a huge fan of Juan and of beers and cameras. And I've met Juan and we've hung out several times at the Leica events and their celebration of photography that they do every fall. And he's just the sweetest guy. He's been talking about this. project to get this watch, this sort of complication or feature set put into a watch. And I'm so glad that he found someone to do it and that it's a brand like Notice. But yeah, with Notice and with Juan, I think they've made something kind of fun and quirky and definitely unique. And if you're shooting with film cameras and would like a watch that might match a great walk with your beers and cameras crew or otherwise, probably worth taking a peek. So big congrats to Juan for that one. Juan's a lovely dude and I'm glad to see the watch come to life. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I think it just the the markings on the bezel and then I love that kind of the blue and white striped Sweet pan the second hand I the beers and cameras logo is subtle enough that you know Even maybe not being connected to that that club or that that social group might You know, you can you can certainly overlook it and I just think that the bezel with those markings definitely has a you know, hearkens to the same type of markings and feel of an analog camera, you know, an old film camera or something. And I just think it's a neat complication. Hats off to them for doing that. And yeah, I like it. |
| James Sacy | Yeah, and I have to say, like, from a design standpoint, like you mentioned, the coloring's really nice. I think the sizing, you know, makes a lot of sense. The case is 38, so if you've been across some of the Notus in that Note Eye, I don't know, in that sort of size range, I think they're quite wearable. And then I love that they took something pretty esoteric, like an exposure scale and, you know, a consideration of shutter speed, and then you have the f-stops around part of the RIAT. And so you turn the bezel based on that scenario to figure out what sort of f-stop you're going to run the camera at. But I love that they managed to take all of that, which could have been, you know, I'm sure that there's a design here that looked more like a vintage Nikon or more like a vintage Leica. And instead, they kind of stuck to applying it to more of a vintage skin diver feel. Yeah. Like this reminds me, in some ways, if you zoom out or you squint a little bit, you almost think, oh, is that the Is that the city wheel on a weird world timing diver or city bezel on a weird world timing diver from the early 60s? And I just think they pulled it off. It's a cool little thing and the price makes sense. So I hope they pre-order and sell a bunch of them. It's not the easiest thing to explain, to be clear. I think it's one of those things where if you were out in the sun with a camera and one showed, you'd be like, oh yeah, I got it. And then you take it back to your buddies and go, no, I don't got it. I got to watch the YouTube video again. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. Like the Aquastar Deepstar, you know, it's like, how does this doesn't work? I can reread the directions. I was looking at the bezel itself, I was wondering about its mechanism, its action, and it's pretty cool that they did this too. So it's bidirectional, but it's limited rotation, so it only has 16 clicks between the 12 and 4 o'clock position, which... That in itself, like this wasn't just throwing on a new bezel inlay and calling it good. I mean, they put some thought into actually the action of the bezel and how it corresponds with the markings on the RIOT. So, yeah, nicely done. All right, let's move on to British Watchmakers Day stuff. |
| James Sacy | So British Watchmakers Day is March 8th this year. It's a Saturday. And there's something like 40 plus brands and about 25 of them. And there might be more by the time more happens. But a bunch of brands did kind of custom or super limited edition watches. And it's a big array, like a bunch of brands that we love. Fears has a very cool version of their Jump Hour, what they call the Edwardian edition. The other one that really, I mean, there's a handful of these that stand out to me. The one thing I'd make clear is, unless you're there, like unless you go to the show, I think these are gonna be largely difficult to buy, depending on the one. Like Studio Underdog has a really, really cool collab with Fears called The Gimlet. Which is like a dress watch with a loom dial and dude this thing looks so good. |
| Jason Heaton | It's beautiful Studio underdog is a brand I've met Richard spent time with him Last year in Geneva, and he's just a really fun guy and then I was at British watchmakers day last year in London happened to just be there at the correct time and bumped into him and the line and at his booth when he was doing the pizza watches was so long and he's just he's just fun and the stuff is so inventive but it had never resonated with me but this one in particular is one that i could see wearing it had as a very you know fears makes this watch um or that uses this case and some of their other watches it's it's it's reminiscent of you know a Panerai Radiomir case with a slightly different crown on it but then it has that that just wild studio underdog lume dial which is it's just so sharp but beyond that I think the one that We heard about a while back, is from our buddy Don at Vertex, who has released this version of the M60, the Aqualion, in only 50 pieces that will be available as of British Watchmakers Day. It's called the M60 Taormina, which is named after a coastal town in Italy. Must be a favorite dive spot of Don's. I know Don's a diver. We both are huge fans of the M60, and this one features a bright blue colorway for the bezel and the dial. Otherwise, it's largely the same M60 that we know and love, which is just a fantastic watch. Great format to begin with. But those are the ones that stand out for me. I would say the Studio Underdog and this one, and as well as the As well as the Clements, the Monroe, the concept edition. I like the Clements, yeah, that's a good looking watch. It's a really good looking watch, and Tom's a good guy, and I've admired his watches. He makes a nice dive watch as well. and being a dive watch guy usually I'm drawn to that but for some reason the Monroe in the various formats that he's done have always been one that I've hovered over a purchase button many times and in this case the concept edition is really neat with kind of a bronze gilt dial which is the first time he's done that really sharp really nice looking |
| James Sacy | And I mean, just like with this, so the Vertex is only 50 pieces, the Monroe is only 10. Christopher Ward has a really interesting kind of super UK version of the C1 moon phase, Mission to Maidenhead, it's being called. And that's a 25 piece with like, in the actual makeup of the dial, they've sort of buried or semi-hidden like a Union Jack in sort of the aventurine effect of the dial, which is very cool. I think they do a nice job, obviously, and I think they're, you know, huge supporters of the show, Christopher Ward. Fair has a special version of their Aurora in 36 millimeters, only 10 pieces with like a pink sort of salmon-y dial, which I think is quite beautiful, and at the same time, quite classic and quite modern. I can't fully put my finger on it, but the more I stare at the photos, the more I really love the Arabic markings on here. They just look really good. They're kind of sporty in a way that you don't necessarily expect and the dial just looks great. Can't really be surprised for fair to make a great dial. Mr. Jones has a crazy watch. I'll just, there's nothing more to say about it than that. I don't want to give you anything that would mean that you wouldn't click the link. So check the show notes. I mean, Mr. Jones does some wild stuff always. It's kind of what the brand's great at, but this one's extra weird. I don't actually know how you tell time on it, but I have fun looking at it. It's kind of cool. Yeah, there's a bunch of good stuff. We'll include a story or two in the show notes that break down the entire sort of run, but those were just a few of the ones that stood out to us, especially the Vertex, where, you know, like Jason said, we're huge M60 fans, and man, the blue looks good on it, doesn't it? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah, I think so too, yeah. I think that watch can be pretty stark and kind of military-derived in its original format, so the blue is just a more playful, like, you know, it's like... |
| James Sacy | retired special forces guys on vacation watch you know go off to italy and do some a little bit of uh skin diving or something so yeah i love it so shout out to everybody involved with uh british watchmakers day and i know if you get there you should be able to see our buddy ken at arkin along with a lot of our buddies that we just uh just kind of listed there between cw and clements and and fears and and this sort of thing so be sure to if you get a chance be sure to say hi for us and and represent the crew as best you can. And if you've got any wrist shots of any of these watches we just listed, especially I'd love to see that Gimlet in sunlight, and certainly the Taramino, but I think there's a good chance I'll get a chance to see that one a little closer up sometime soon. So yeah, big shout out to everybody who's going to make it out for that and looking forward to see how those all go. yeah some some cool that's kind of a neat idea to do the show and as many brands as can kind of do very very limited things yeah i think i think it's kind of a kind of a fun way of doing it obviously some there'll be people who get a little butthurt about not being able to get a watch where only 10 are made and maybe you have to go to the show to actually get it i'm not sure uh but you know from uh from an armchair you know enthusiast level i you know these are cool and they're fun to look at |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's great. And you know, it's a one day only show. It's sold out. I went last year, as I said, it was the first edition of it. And there was a line out the door down the street. It was a beautiful day last year. Let's hope they have good weather again this year. But it's a fun event. It's neat to see that growing as, you know, as a London based watch show. Similar in the way that the Toronto Timepiece Show had a buzz around it last year. And hopefully the British Watchmakers Day continues that. that rise. I noticed Braemont is there this year as well, which is the first time that they're going to take part in that. So that'll be interesting. |
| James Sacy | All right, you want to dip into some final notes? Yeah, let's do it. Why don't you go first? For sure. Yeah, I actually had no plans to really talk about this. It's not that interesting. But turns out when you when it actually does its job suddenly go, Oh, wait, these are kind of cool. And all this is is a while ago, I decided I'd gotten a new iPhone. And I didn't want to put a case on it. I just, I thought I'd try it without the case. I really find them to be quite a bit more pleasant to hold if you don't have a case on them. But that said, as much as I don't mind dents or scratches in the titanium frame, I am, I can't deal with phones that have broken screens. So I did only a tiny amount of Googling and just decided I would buy what seemed like the most expensive option for a screen protector. which was about 55 bucks from a company called Flowlab. And I want to be clear, I got this on Amazon, I've never been in contact with Flowlab, and I promise you this is not an ad. That said, it's like a really nicely made piece of glass, and it comes with this plastic rig that installs it on your phone perfectly. And so you're not dealing with bubbles or dust. There's like a multi-stage dust removal system. And then you like clip the phone into this platform and pull things out of the platform and it puts the layer in place. Was not that difficult to do. I did it in one shot when I got it. And then I just never thought about it again. The nice thing about the Flowlab one that I bought is not only are you protecting your screen, but it also has a privacy filter. So instead of whatever the normal degree of visibility of the screen, this narrows it so that a person sitting next to you can't read what's on your screen. Yeah. which is nice. The other plus of that, if you think optically, is if you're using the phone in a scenario where it might be bright for somebody else, whether you're in bed with a partner or next to somebody on a dark plane, it also narrows the beam of light coming out of the phone, which is quite nice. So I got that, and then while I was on my trip, I dropped my phone. I knocked it off my bedside table, it fell onto a tile floor, and I thought for sure I was screwed, right? Big heavy drop. And I didn't even notice, but the next day I was using the phone and the edge of my thumb kind of caught the lower edge of the screen protector and it had broken. And I was like, oh, that's too bad. I wonder if that's got to mean the screen underneath is also broken. So I peel this thing off. It comes off like a sticker with just a little bit of force. The screen's perfect. 50 bucks. Wow. So I already ordered another one and it's sitting it was delivered just before we started recording. So I'll put it put it on just after this. I highly like again, this is not in any way promoted paid or otherwise I paid the full price. I bought it twice at this point. And I'm perfectly happy with it. A nice solid product that does something useful and subtle. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Oh, wow. That's great. The Flowlab NanoArmor OneTime Pro. Good call, I like it. Yeah, well, we seem to have a theme going here in the final notes because my note is also kind of loosely, you know, not loosely, it's actually even more privacy-based than yours, which has other features as well. |
| James Sacy | Oh yeah, sure. |
| Jason Heaton | This is a company that's been around a while, but I recently learned about it and have started using a piece of what they offer. It's a company called DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-based freeware company. that offers web browsing as well as a search engine for your phone or for your laptop. And, you know, nowadays it just feels like, you know, can feel kind of creepy if you're, you know, browsing and then like you go to your Instagram and you see like an ad pop up related to something you were searching for a couple days earlier, et cetera. And DuckDuckGo is a search engine plugin that you can make your default browser in place of say Google. that offers robust browsing and searching, but it doesn't track you, it doesn't serve ads that you might not want to see. If you actually download their browser and use it in place of Chrome, for instance, It blocks tracking ads, it blocks cookie pop-ups, it plays YouTube videos without targeted ads. It's kind of a fun feature, but if you want to burn all the data or your browsing history, there's one button you click and it does this sort of dramatic little poof. animation that kind of deletes everything you were just looking at. Just when Interpol's just behind you. Exactly. Right. Yeah. So, you know, again, it's free and I've only been using it for a couple of days. But, you know, if you're concerned about privacy when you're browsing or in your searching, check it out. DuckDuckGo. And they've been around a while. So a lot of people might already know about this. |
| James Sacy | But yeah, for sure. I think this is like a well well beloved product in many ways. Definitely, definitely a good option if it if it applies to your use case. So that's a good one to to kind of weirdly helpful, but not necessarily that interesting. Yeah, right. picks this week. I think you know, we're not we're not leaving you with a book to read or a great YouTube video or whatever, but definitely some stuff. I'm so impressed by that screen protector. I expected it to be okay. I didn't expect it to actually do what those crazy animations on Amazon say it will do. Oh yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, fun episode. Back to kind of some watch content for us. We're pretty excited about next week's episode. So if you're If you want to talk about new watches or listen to us talk about new watches, we have a particular new watch that we will be discussing in great detail next week. So stay tuned for that. But for now, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to The Show Notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN-signed NATO, please visit TheGreyNATO.com. Music Throughout a Siesta by Jazz Art via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Sacy | And we leave you with this quote from Thomas Carlyle, who said, |