The Grey NATO – 334 – The Dive Watches of Summer 2025!

Published on Thu, 19 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In episode 334 of The Graynado, hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss a wide range of recently released dive watches spanning various price points. They begin by addressing James' imminent third child and Jason's dog Ruby's recovery. The bulk of the episode focuses on reviewing notable new dive watch releases, including the new 38mm Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Tudor Pelagos FXD 54 Lagoon Blue, Citizen Aqualand 40th Anniversary edition, and several others from brands like Zenith, Doxa, and Seiko. The hosts analyze design elements, pricing strategies, and market positioning while sharing their personal perspectives on each piece. The episode concludes with their "Final Notes" segment where they discuss birthday gifts and MagSafe wallets, before announcing a potential summer break due to James' upcoming paternity leave.

Transcript

Speaker
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 334 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 and soon to be father for the third time, James Stacy in suburban Toronto. James, you must be just have a bag packed and halfway out the door while you're recording this, huh?
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, it could come at any point. You know, I don't think it's going to be one of these scenarios where there's like a big rush. Yeah. But again, there's a chance that you all won't hear this episode on the 19th. This might come out weeks later. I don't know. I will. Whatever I do, please know that I promise to do my absolute best. But my priorities will shift for some time there. But yeah, everything's fine. It's an incredibly strange scenario to just be waiting for something that's going to derail work, that's going to derail TGN, that's going to derail in fine ways, ways I've planned for. But now I'm just waiting. yeah yeah but I guess we'll see it just you know it is what it is everyone's healthy everything's fine so I have nothing legitimate to complain about but mentally with someone with the way my brain works just waiting is tough yeah your life is kind of largely about keeping a schedule or scheduling stuff yeah you just can't do that this time yeah Yeah, and I mean, look, you're constantly dealing with emails that are playing out a couple of months and you go like, well, I have to make a call for this, but I'm not making the call for me. I'm making it for other people, like other people on the team, the group that I lead. Yeah. Yeah, I'm certainly hoping by, you know, by next week's episode, this is done and dusted and we'll, you know, pick up with 335 early or early mid-July, something like that, and go that route probably with some kind of host or guest episodes. Yeah. That might even lighten my need to be on microphone depending on how fried I am. That said, kid might like to sleep and it won't be a problem. There's so many unknowns and don't all of you who have listened to 330 plus of these know how much I love an unknown. I just have zero chill. But yeah, no, everything's fine.
Jason Heaton I think the new kid should be our guest on episode 330 something. Yeah.
James Stacey I'm sure, I'm sure said child will make a noise that will qualify them as, as a guest from another room at some point, uh, in the future. But, uh, yeah. And how have you been? How's that? How's Ruby feeling?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Thanks to everyone who sent advice about, uh, my dog's stomach upset last week that I talked about. I got more, more advice than I bargained for. And, um, most of it was, was well appreciated and good advice that I had also gotten from my vet, et cetera. And, uh, And thankfully, no parasites were found in her system. And she kind of worked it out with some bland food for a few days. And she's on the up and up. So all better now. So that's been great. Her energy level never dipped. So that was a good sign as well. But high spirited.
James Stacey Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't I have literally nothing to report from my week because we're not really going like we're not we didn't get up to the cottage last weekend. We did Father's Day here and hit the zoo for a day. Had a really, really nice time. Like perfect weather. Animals moving around, having a good time. Got a bunch of good photos, which I'll post probably before this episode comes out. But I haven't gotten to him yet. oh thanks but otherwise we're i'm trying to stay within like 30 minutes of the hospital so we're not doing the cottage we're not going out to see my folks and that sort of thing um yeah uh and it's you know it's always tough to not have a great day or a great weekend up at the cottage the weather was good and it's looking very good for this coming weekend so we'll have to see how how the timing plays out but uh
Jason Heaton You can always live the cottage life vicariously through your weather station.
James Stacey I've got the tab loaded up. I was looking at it this morning. It's currently almost 27 degrees. Wow, yeah. Yeah, it's going to be a hot one here. And a very high UV risk.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well, this is something I mentioned on Slack. And look, I don't need to make an official announcement, but I will anyway. I've made the decision not to attend Wind Up Chicago next month. So I know that's something we've done for the past three years. And we've done... live podcast recording and hosted events and things like that and um this year i just kind of made the decision not to you know to give it a give it a miss and for a number of factors number of reasons um and you know without you there to have sushi and and and to meet up and do our live recording and stuff it seemed like a an okay year to maybe take a break and and stick closer to home so i'm planning on doing that but it sounds like we've got a good good contingent of TGN folks that are going to be there and kind of keeping the, keeping the TGN vibe alive. So that's all good. But yeah.
James Stacey Yeah, no, that's great. And don't forget while we're talking on the, on the topic of shows, obviously I would love to be at wind up in a couple of weeks here, but the timing doesn't work out and I'm okay with that. but we are making concerted plans for the Toronto timepiece show. That will include quite, quite likely. I'm just in the final logistics for a live taping somewhere at the event, an event somewhere near the event. And that's a confusing sense, a party event with, for TGN and, you know, all, all of you listening who are going to attend and a great partner with marathon. We are planning to redo, you know, re up on last year's experience and, But where the new show is, is actually quite a bit further from where we did the party last year. So we might have to find a new location. So I'm working on that as well. But certainly if you're planning on attending the Toronto Time Peace Show, tickets are available Saturday, September 20th and Sunday, September 21st. Worth checking that out at timepeaceshow.com. I'll put that in the show notes as always. We have a great partnership with Jason and his team at the Timepiece shows. Vancouver was great. I'm really looking forward to being able to do Toronto and kind of largely repeat or attempt to repeat what we did last year. It was such a good time. It really was, yeah.
Jason Heaton And I'm sure with that show and then Vancouver under their belts, the organizers will... Um, have things even more dialed this year. Not that there were any, anything less than that last year, but I can't wait to see what they cook up this time around. Is it a different location this year or the same place?
James Stacey It is. Yeah. It's, it's a much more modern kind of upscale sort of a decision based versus what, where we were last year, which was in a hotel, which I thought last year worked fine. I really did. You know, we had room to record. We had this or that. But then you go to Vancouver and you see the kind of like the whole space was more of a vibe, if you allow the term. Yeah. More of an experience rather than like a conference. Sure. And I think that's what they're going for for this. And so it's in a different part of Toronto. Yeah. Which would make it quite a jump for people to get down to the party if we did it in the same place as last year. So. Working on those details, I will have them for you. But if you're planning to get to the show, last year the tickets did sell out. So it's probably worth being on top of that. And we'll keep mentioning it on future shows as we develop our plans for the event as well. It should be great.
Jason Heaton Nice. Well, we have a very summery episode this time around, just like we did last time. And lots of new great dive watches to talk about. But before we do that, time for some wrist check. I see on the notes here you've got something pretty interesting on your wrist this time.
James Stacey Yeah, so I've been wearing the CWN1 constantly. Again, I mentioned that I'm not really taking it off my wrist that often just in case we do go into, you know, going to the hospital mode. I have a watch that I know is accurate and that I like wearing and that I have a strong connection to. But I have been, you know, if I'm spending time sitting at my desk, I'll swap out to something else. And at the Vancouver Timepiece show, I met up with a guy named Huey who runs RZE Watches and got talking to him. I ended up buying a bunch of gear from him, a bag and some other watch stuff, a watch tool. And in that, he sent along a loaner of a new watch they launched called the UDT-8000. And so this is a titanium, like a super tough sort of titanium digital watch with sort of a nice oversized display. It's a 42 millimeter bead blasted titanium case. You can option a bracelet. It's very simple in terms of its functionality, its time, date, day. And then you have a stopwatch like a chronograph. and an alarm and then you're back to time so very straightforward similar functionality to something like my um autodromo uh group c and with this one the the fun thing is just you know meant to be uh as tough as possible and uh and that sort of thing so definitely uh a nice option 200 meters water resistance and sapphire with uh ar on the inside and then it runs on just a standard like 2032 it's a digital quartz watch so it's a standard sort of fuss free swap in a new battery and keep going uh and then i they sent along the bracelet which i just sized and put on my wrist today and i quite like it it's it's quite comfortable the watch is 360 bucks which i believe is actually canadian can you open that link jason and let me know $230. Okay, so yeah, 360 is Canadian, so $230 for the watch. And so the bracelet is a further $180. So really, you're coming in at what's still very much sort of a budget price point in watch enthusiasm. A little more than a Timex, a little more than some G-Shock. But definitely, I would say that in my mind, the competition for this is sort of you want the... the vibe, the toughness, the ease of a G-Shock, but you want something that doesn't look like a, you know, a rubber or plastic sort of watch. And this definitely gives you the vibe of that sort of tool-ish, bead-blasted titanium and that sort of thing. So I've been wearing this quite a bit and I really like it. The screen's nice and big and easy to read. It is a positive presentation of the screen, so it's black text over a sort of white background. But the lume, when you activate the backlight, is actually... negative. So it just backlights the text, which is kind of an interesting look at night, which I've been enjoying. Um, but yeah, really easy to wear watch, you know, Huey had a great booth at, uh, at the Vancouver time piece show where he was, you know, you could hit the watch with a mallet and that sort of thing. Uh, you know, I think he just sought to make a very tough, easy to wear sort of no nonsense, uh, digital tool watch. And I think he kind of nailed it. And I think the price points, uh, pretty solid. What's that one more time in us, Jason. $230 for the watch, $180 for the extra titanium bracelet, if you want. Not bad at all. And I ordered some of their other gear, including one of the larger expanding bags. It's called a Quest Voyage, the 30 liter Quest Voyage bag. I bought that as well. And so far, I'm quite impressed with it. But I'll have more of a review for that after I've used it for the summer. I've been using it to kind of ferry stuff back and forth to the cottage. And it's awesome because you can... roll it up and clip it shut and put it in like the box I have, the decked box I have in the back of the Jeep. Oh, yeah. And then if you need it for something, you can take it out, unroll it, and it's just this like really big, useful tote. So they make a smaller one too at 25 liters, but pretty handy stuff. Nice good dude from Edmonton, Huey. And yeah, I'm impressed by the brand. I'll keep watching their stuff for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's just cool to see, you know, I mean, micro brands are... There's a lot of them. And it's neat to see one come out with a really fresh, digital, tough sports watch. I mean, you just don't get that very much. So neat to see. And I love the look of that yellow elastic band. That's really sharp.
James Stacey Yeah, the yellow elastic is quite nice. And the watch itself, there's... several different versions of it i'm talking about and i linked the yellow version but there's also like a full negative display which is quite clean and really good looking there's a blue version and there's a red version and these are mostly either the strap they come on or sort of the bezel ring so the ring around not the actual bezel itself which is sort of this screwed on titanium element but the ring around the screen has some color so there's a black a yellow a blue and a red um and the red's kind of like a red tan uh mix uh which is uh yeah good looking stuff yeah they've got some other nice analog watches too i just haven't really seen much from this brand and uh yeah cool stuff i'll pay attention to them now
Jason Heaton Great.
James Stacey Yeah, I got to see the Endeavor at the show as well, briefly, and really quite nice. These are closer to a thousand Canadian, but, you know, have a nice look. And again, similar in terms of the case and the bracelet in titanium and that sort of thing. So worth checking out. How about you? What's on your wrist for this fine Tuesday?
Jason Heaton Yeah, broken record. Pelagos FXD. I'm in my last week of my month straight wearing it. I really don't have any need to take it off other than the fact that I've got a wedding to go to on Saturday. If there's one shortcoming this watch has, it's kind of tough to dress up. I might be able to dig out a leather pull-through strap that could gussy it up a little bit. But I think having gone through a full month, I think it'll be safe to switch and i might you know pull on my submariner on the bracelet or something else but uh anyway yeah it's been great um nothing new to add love this watch um and yeah i've just been just been swapping straps like crazy on it every day it's just been it's been fun so
James Stacey Yeah, great watch for sure. And that's also kind of the point of today's episode, unsurprisingly. I don't remember the last time we did like a dive watch episode, like a recap. But every now and then, a few times a year maybe, it's not always dive watches. Sometimes it's just new watches. We kind of realized that either the show timed nicely for a major release. Or that we missed a few releases and we can kind of sum them up. So this episode is kind of... I've made a list of maybe 10 or 12 recently released dive watches. I don't think we need to get to all of these. Some of these you know very well about and we've talked a ton about on the show. But I would say even since Watches and Wonders, it's been pretty good for dive watches. There's been a bunch of different versions, stuff happening at basically every price point. And then, of course, today, the hours before we started recording this... Blancpain launched a watch that I at least feel I've been asking for for a very long time. Yeah. Which is a smaller size 40 or even smaller. In this case, it's 38 millimeters of the 50 fathoms in both steel and titanium. It's now full line. They now do 38, 42 and 45. So for them, they see this as being the kind of the complete offering for the 50 fathoms. And for me, it represents something of an absolute grail, like a watch I've been looking for and thinking about for a really long time. And. While I might have predicted, and Jason, I think we probably even said this on the show in the past, that the move would be to do 40 or 40.7 like they have with some special versions of the 50. And go 40, you know, it's like 40.7, 42.3, and 45, like whatever the decimal is. I don't care that much. But I thought that's the direction. And going with 38, I think I actually like it even more. than if it had been the same size as, say, a mil spec or one of the anniversary models from two years ago. And I just, yeah, I'm super pumped with it. So we can start there or we can hang on to that and get to it in a few minutes, if you like. What are you feeling? Anything on this list you're really pumped about?
Jason Heaton Well, this one, I think this is probably the most exciting one on the list. I think it's weird. I was reading Rich's article on Hodinkee this morning about this watch. And I think he mentioned somewhere like without a reference, like if you see it on a wrist and just a wrist shot, it looks identical. Like they've really done a good job with scaling and kind of keeping proportions. really good on this smaller version because you really can't tell that it's the smaller version unless you kind of have a reference point. And just looking at the press photos that came with kind of the press pack, I was like, which one am I looking at here? You know? So yeah, that's kind of a credit to them. There was a certain angle of, of a photo, kind of a lifestyle photo of the watch that I didn't see the date at four 30. And I thought, did they do a no date version? Um, but no, this does indeed have the four 30 date. So I think. You know, people, if they want something to gripe about, that would be it. It doesn't offend me.
James Stacey At least it's black on black. It's as hidden as it's going to be. And I do think it would be useful. Date or no date would not talk me out of this watch. It wouldn't for some. But in this case, I would stomach it because I would want everything else that this watch offers. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I think the remarkable thing is, yeah, it's 38 millimeters steel or titanium or if you wanted 18 karat red gold. And then they did the sort of ladies focus version that came out last week. 300 meters water resistance, you know, fully loomed. But that classic 50 fathoms, you know, the classic in terms of the current generations, the last 20 years of this watch, that sort of thing in terms of that aesthetic. And then for me, the interesting thing is not just the 38 millimeters, but that they dropped the thickness significantly. like not inconsiderably, it's 12 millimeters versus 14.2 on the 42 millimeter. That's maybe even a bigger, it's not a bigger difference than going 42 to 38 because that's a huge jump. But I think it's worth considering that it's both of those. That would probably, this is a watch I've not tried on my wrist. I need to make that exceptionally clear as I am going to sound so excited about it. This is a dream watch for me. It is a dream watch priced. We'll get to that in just a moment. But I think the 38 and coming in at 12 really hits a size point that I can get behind.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And it's interesting too. I haven't really paid much attention to 50 Fathoms watches on... on bracelets um and because i just feel like it's a strap watch i mean like historically it's always felt like a strap watch but this is a nice looking bracelet and i'm just looking at some of the close-ups of the photos and the side profile of the links is very interesting like the way they kind of fit together it's very oh yeah like a almost like a jigsaw Yeah, it's really cool. I'd like to try one of these on a bracelet. I had a chance last year when I did that Channel Islands trip in the fall to try out the 42. And then, of course, I've got the 45. And I quite like the 42, but that didn't have a bracelet on it when I tried it. And this, like a 38 on a bracelet, it would... it would be a really compelling watch.
James Stacey It's really, really cool. Yeah, 38 bracelet, 38 rubber. I mean, like the lifestyle shots they've got of it on the rubber, on like the waffle style, or not waffle, but like, you know, tropic style rubber. Yeah. I think it just looks so good. They're such pretty things because of that bezel, I think. Yeah, yeah. And the fact that the dial is done like... not like a sport watch. It's done like an elegant Blancpain with fine finishing and applied markers and the rest of it. Yeah, I'm so deeply about these. And I'm not going to sit here and be an apologist for the price. The pricing is high. It's very 2025. And I think this will be the sensitivity point for a lot of people. So absolute base model would be 16-7 steel on a strap with a pin buckle. If you want steel on the bracelet, you're at $19,500, so $20,000. Titanium on the bracelet is $21,100. So at that point, if you're going for the bracelet, maybe it makes sense to go with titanium. For a watch at 38 millimeters, I'm not sure I care, to be honest. You know what I mean? I might actually decide based on what was available. Because if it's 16.7 for the base steel or 17.9 for the base titanium, in for a penny, in for a pound at a certain point. Right. If I was buying the 42, I would want titanium, I think. But at 38, it's just a much smaller thing to have on your wrist. Yeah. There's no other way to say it. These are very expensive. It's more than I expected. I was thinking somewhere in the 14s, 13s, something like that, I think, for the base spec. Bracelet, gold, titanium could change. But I would have thought they would have wanted to edge closer to the sort of north side of Submariner. Yeah. But maybe between Submariner supply and the fact that Blancpain sees himself obviously as not being Rolex, maybe that's part of the pricing. But I would say largely they probably were stuck to this pricing based on the pricing of the 45 and the 42. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right. We're not seeing prices go down.
Jason Heaton we talked about this a little offline, but the rollout strategy of last week's introduction of what they called the For Her, which is a bit clumsy. Let's admit, they had the Mother of Pearl dials, there was kind of a pink colorway, red gold, etc. It seemed odd, I suppose, to general readers and the general public that saw that release last week. to think, oh, they came out with a 38, but this isn't the one I want. I want the standard 50 fathoms in this size. And behind the scenes, members of the press, we knew this one was coming this week under embargo. And in my mind, I thought, okay, they're kind of putting this out there and I know there will be commenters that are kind of griping and saying, this isn't the one we wanted. What we really want is this. And I thought, is that their play that they want to release the kind of the, the, the big one, you know, I shouldn't say the big one, the full on kind of standard 50 fathoms in 38, the following week, like get people kind of tantalized and sort of, and then kind of hit them hard the next week. I don't know if that was the idea or if it was a, maybe a bad decision. I'm not sure.
James Stacey Yeah, I'm not sure what the plan was on that one. I mean, I think we know the plan. I don't know what the intent was, like what the thought process behind the plan was. I'm not saying they were wrong. It hit me as strange. Even if you want to make... I think in 2025, even if you want to make a watch appeal to women, I don't think you make it... I don't think you're able to do that by removing its appeal for men, if that makes sense. I would say the stuff that they released today is at least as appealing generally as the stuff from last week, regardless of gender. Whereas the stuff from last week was limited. It was probably less appealing to a guy. But look, I mean, taste is taste. There's a world in which somebody bought the pink one because that's the color they love and it has nothing to do with their gender, of course. And which is, which is fine. You do whatever, do whatever you enjoy, that sort of thing. But from a, from a branding thing for, for this, I would just, I would want to just do it all at once. Right. Yeah. I'm just, I'm not sure why that needed like its own, its own moment or whatever, but I'm, I'm glad that the, that the full line is out. And like I said, I, it's hard for me to think of a watch, like a brand new watch on the market that I would want more than this, that I would intend to buy and own and be like, Not speculative, but like this is my watch and I wear it for a really long time. I've talked for years about my interest in, you know, 40 millimeter Blancpans and especially 50 Fathoms and that sort of thing. So I think this is super exciting. Pricing is what pricing is. We'll have to see what it is in the secondary market because I think you'll get a best idea of... whether or not they threaded the needle on the pricing based on how much it depreciates in the second hand. And look, I think from what I've seen, the 42s, at least on a casual search, didn't depreciate that much. I mean, there aren't that many watches. It's not 2021. There aren't that many watches that are going for more. In the secondary market, there are some, but there's lots of ones even from the brands that you're thinking that are depreciating. Arguably, I think that's how things should be. A watch should depreciate some after you buy it. Otherwise, it can be very difficult for that watch to exist in a sort of retail environment in a normal way, in a way that hits the normal expectations. Yeah. But yeah, I think it's exciting. I'm pretty pumped to see it. But to be fair, there's about 12, 13 other pretty solid watches on this list and several for a lesser price point. What did you... And look, I'm sure I'll come back to the Blancpain because I'm kind of obsessed. But we've got lots of shows to talk about the same titanium watch as we've done for many years for some time here. But thinking of the titanium stuff, what do you think of the... The Defy Revival Shadow. I cannot do this name. What did you think of the Zenith Defy Revival Diver Shadow, this second version with the tennis ball coloring?
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's cool. I was a fan of these watches, this form factor when they came out two years ago. They're so different. They're just so unique. yeah, I'm just happy to see Zenith in the dive watch space again and kind of hitting, you know, swinging for the fences here. I think, I think it's really, really cool. You know, especially this one that's got this wild, this wild sort of fabric strap. And I mean, you know, it's just, these are just fun, like different from anything else out there. I mean, totally different. You just, it's not mimicking anything other than Zenith's own history. And I love that about it.
James Stacey Yeah, so now you can do the, and they're doing the Extreme as well. And if that's what you're into, cool. The one I was more focusing on was the Revival. Oh, sure. I like both quite a bit, to be sure. But of the two, like if you're going to launch the two at the same time in the same press pack, they're going to be compared. And if we're comparing them, I'd probably lean towards the Revival. You know, Chris Soule's got the orange one. Such a cool watch. There's no other way for me to describe it. It's like highlighter green or tennis ball is sort of in the zone. Then we're close at least. And I might prefer the orange. I almost certainly do. Maybe for obvious reasons, one of the TGN's core colors. But man, in titanium, this is very cool. And the Zenith Revival stuff, both the dive watch, like the Defy, and then into their chronographs, the smaller sizes of the chronographs, those are really, really good watches. Yeah. Yeah, they're expensive for sure.
Jason Heaton But like, they're really cool. I wish they would separate these two out instead of always doing releases with the two of them together, because I think they're they're so different. And you're right, I do prefer the the revival. I love the smaller size and it's it's it's quite it's quite funny because the, the water resistance is the same and you have one called extreme and then the revival, which is this, you know, pretty small kind of normal sized watch and they both are 600 meters, which is impressive on its own. Um, but yeah, I think that, I think this, this 37 millimeter titanium in this kind of gray. Gee, with that great movement.
James Stacey Oh yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton That's fantastic.
James Stacey I think these are super cool. We'll have to ask Chris what he thinks of it because he's got the steel orange and that sort of thing. Yeah, I think these are great. I would say that the Revival certainly has its own way of wearing on your wrist at 37 by 15 and a half. It has the proportions of a watch that wasn't made today. which I think is part of its real appeal. But because of the short lug-to-lug and the tight case width, it wears quite nicely. The steel one, I can only imagine that titanium feels great as well. Yeah, yeah. Cool watches for sure. Kudos to Zenith on both of those and especially the Revival. And certainly, I don't know, like again, everything comes down to comparisons, $8,200. I remember when the 37 mil steel came out, people were like, Oh, I love this watch. It was one of the highlights of that year of watches and wonders. But everybody was like, yeah, this would feel, this would make more sense at like a lesser price point. Yeah. And not because, um, not because Zenith is overcharging, but because it's a steel dive watch at 30, like it's competition exists from $400 to, you know, $40,000 or whatever. And, and I think it's an interesting thing to go like, Oh, you know, 8,200 bucks. It's half, half the price of the block. Yeah. It's so easy to lose perspective when these numbers kind of feel so high at times, right? And maybe it is, maybe it isn't high. Maybe they sold all the other ones and reality is a little different than we perceive it, which would be fine too. But the fact that it's four-figure, I appreciate that from Zenith. So what else on the list here kind of has you excited?
Jason Heaton Well, let's go a little more affordable here. Let's talk about the, I mean, big news. I mean, this is big news. The 40th anniversary Citizen Aqualand. Yeah, I'm really excited for this. This is just, I mean, they nailed it. I'm so glad this watch continues to exist in the world. I mean, you know, we both talk about our... loom dial 2000 JP 2007s but like the fact that they came out with this kind of gunmetal gray with the gold accent piece like straight up from you know 1985-86 like this is just I'm just so glad Citizen still makes this watch I mean arguably they could make an eco drive version kind of a solar thing and whatever and that might be a little more interesting with their strategy and might even be a little more user-friendly etc but like the fact that they they still keep the caliber 520 which they've been making since the late 90s when they kind of changed to that movement in this exact same form factor it's just it's it's just perfect it's just great um and it's a limited edition i'm not even sure if Well, they're saying it's going on sale in July, but I actually know somebody who ordered one already in the UK. So I'm not sure what the exact timing of that is. But 5,800 pieces, I guarantee those will be gone in short order. It's such a great watch.
James Stacey Yeah, I would say that's enough of a number that if you're listening and really want one, call around to where they sell Citizens Near You and ask. Yeah. But I agree. I immediately asked for a loaner to check this out. As anybody listening to most episodes would know, I don't like two-tone. So I'm going to attempt this. There's something about the orange and the overall coloring that does work in this case. I can't explain why. I might feel differently when it shows up. But from the images, when I saw it, I went, yeah, I don't love two-tone, but I might like this quite a lot. And it could just be that I'm a knucklehead for the Aqualand, which is absolutely true. I'm a huge fan. I don't know that you can have more fun in watches for $500. There's this one almost $600, I guess. Yeah, $595. I don't think you can have a lot more fun in watches for the money than this, especially if you already have a few conventional watches. You don't need another black dial dive watch that looks a bit like a Rolex, right? You just don't. None of us do. We're all having a good time. But... This, on the other hand, nothing looks like this. Nothing does what it offers. It's weirdly modern and anachronistic at the same time. And like you said, there were several ways that Citizen could have changed this that would have changed its sort of spirit. And instead they haven't. They've just protected it. Yeah. Which is a lesson that feels like it should be easy to learn in the watch world. Keep making the same watch, whether it's a Submariner or an Aqualander or whatever. Make it... Never stop making it if you don't have to. And just keep supporting it and trying to protect what makes it appealing to people. And I think that's in this zone as well. Yeah, I'm pumped for this. I'm looking forward to getting one in and trying it out.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah, really good. There's another watch that, if we want to move on, there's another watch that I was... Well, there's two others that I want to follow up with that I was excited about both. And they're both just kind of riffs on watches that have been around for a while, but... This Longines Legend Diver with the white dial. Yeah, it looks, doesn't it look so good? I mean, look, this isn't a new watch. I mean, it's just a new color. It's so crisp. It is just so, you know, black on white. I mean, it just makes a huge difference. I just, I love this thing. It's just beautiful.
James Stacey Yeah. I think they nailed all of the markings on the dial. They're perfect in terms of their weight. The weird font on the Riut, I love. I love the sort of chunky black applied 12369. And then the handset is, I think, where they really nailed it. Yeah. This is such a pretty watch. I think they did a great job. Tantan did a solid hands-on earlier this week for Hodinkee, so I can include that. But I just think this, especially on the bracelet with the white dial, it's a whole singular sort of feel and look that I think it really does pay out nicely.
Jason Heaton And then the other one I'm super keen on is the, and one I've loved for a long time, is the Breitling, the Super Ocean Heritage.
James Stacey Yeah, this is a huge release, I think.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it is. And, and it's, it's, you know, for years it's been my favorite iteration of the super ocean family. Um, the heritage. Yeah. The more modern stuff. Okay. Yeah. I remember the one that I still kind of. look at twice when they come up for sale and they don't often was they did like a limited edition of the two register chronograph version of this thing. It's just, it was so beautiful, but they were big, you know, that was where I think back in those days were 44 or 45 or even 46. I think there were 46. Anyway, I love this new release, this 40 millimeter version. They've, they've kind of done some subtle tweaks to the dial, gotten rid of that kind of the gold B just, it's still got the great kind of mid-century markings and, you know, 40 millimeters. I the only thing i don't care for about this watch is look i think we differ in this um i'm not a huge mesh strap guy and i also don't really care for like mesh style rubber which this has but easy enough to swap i mean i just put this on any other strap and be very happy with it
James Stacey I think these look incredible on a Tropic. Yeah, yeah. Like, they look crazy. I do love a mesh strap. I don't love a mesh texture rubber. It doesn't work for me. I just don't know why. This is one of those ones, not unlike, to be fair, the 50 Fathoms. I cannot wait to see what the 40 is like on my wrist because I've tried on a 46 and a 44 in the past. they're huge but they are kind of cool things they have such a mid-century specific style to them yeah and i think you hit the sizing the proportions of 40 i think could work really really well still give you enough dial still give you enough bezel and then there's still the 36 which has you know in some form been around for a little while on offer as well but i i think these will be huge for for brightly like i think these are watches you'll see on people's wrists yeah look at that handset look at that hour hand it's it's just so cool yeah Nothing quite looks like them. They have a lot of character, a lot of personality. They can do tons of different versions of these sorts of things. The chronograph option is already there. Yeah, I think the 40 was a really strong move. My guess is a lot of these brands are looking back at the last 20 years and going like, we should have just never stopped at 40. You're not hurting anything by doing the 42s, the 44s, the 46s, whatever. Panerai, Breitling, Omega making these... similar watches in five to five six different sizes at times yeah 40 just makes sense for this watch this is a watch that has mass market appeal will be available at stores and you want to have the size that's not going to walk somebody out while you still offer the big ones right for sure yeah yeah yeah cool stuff yeah Where do you want to go next? Let's see. So, I mean, look, I've got the Doxa 250 GMT and the 200 on here. So the 200 was recently refreshed, and then the 250 GMT came out at Watches & Wonders. Both, for me, represent great summer dive watches. I think the 200 with that steel-style bezel is... I like it more than the previous version, which makes them kind of appealing. For me, they still don't hit that, like... core Doxa sub 300 appeal, which the 250 and the 200T do. I've been wearing my 200T a ton. And a good buddy of mine and past multiple time guests of this show just ordered his 250T GMT Caribbean. So I'm very excited to see that and that sort of thing. So yeah, I mean, I think that these are great watches, but I feel like we've already talked a ton about those. So maybe just a kudos to Doxa. We'll move on.
Jason Heaton yeah yeah definitely i'm not i i will say i'm i've just never been a fan of the 200 i just think it's um it just lives in the shadow of the 300 and and even even so it's just it's a it's a bit pedestrian looking i just don't uh but i think that it lacks that charm i think for me great watch but i want i want something that's like a 300 it's dark so i want something like that in that zone for sure
James Stacey So let's get into other watches that have a splash of unexpected color and a steel bezel. We've got the new Tudor 54 Lagoon Blue. Yeah. I think this is a wild move from Tudor. Yeah. To offer the second only version of the 54. into essentially what I see, at least from my perspective, I'm more than happy to change my mind or be told differently, is a niche play. Like with the 58, we had the original black version, then we had a blue version, then we had the silver and the gold and these more like conventional... following a path of what and then now we're going with the very first 54 is uh you now get a great five link bracelet which i think looks incredible on the watch you get a polished like mirror finished bezel maybe not my choice and then this kind of grained light blue dial which i love i love a light blue dial nothing nothing against that i'm just mostly surprised that one this wasn't like part of a trio of new 54s. Oh yeah. Like maybe a black version, a monochrome. So a black version without guilt, which I might buy today if they launched it. A blue version, like the 50, 58 blue, they do that in a 54. That would also be a problem for my wallet. I love the idea of these, of a dive watch that size at that quality. I love the 54, but I don't love the guilt, you know? Where do you land on, on the Lagoon blue specifically?
Jason Heaton I love the dial. I've never been a fan of mirror finish bezels. You don't see a lot of them. I just, I don't know. There's something about it I just don't care for. I'm looking at this and I'm thinking about what we just talked about earlier with Blancpain and kind of last week's For Her collection. And I'm wondering if this is kind of their version. They don't specifically say, which is smart. I prefer kind of unisex launches. But, you know, this... Given the sizing and the colorway and the mirrored bezel, I do wonder if this is trying to present a little more appeal for women buyers. It's a great size. I've loved the 54. I adore it. I remember when it came out. I remember, I think it was the year I went to Scotland for the first time and wandering into the retailer there and trying on a 54 and just thought... For a small watch, my wallet was quivering. It's a great size. Not only is the dial color of this one great, I love that texture. It's very prominent. Some dials have a little bit of sandiness to them, but this one is really, really prominent, which I love.
James Stacey Yeah, no, I think it's quite successful. I think it will be very popular for them. Like I said, the only thing that surprises me is that it came out on its own a couple years after the 54. We haven't seen another version. There's not a maroon version. There's not a 925 54, which would be the absolute dream for me. I think that'd be such a cool watch. I love the 58 925 colorway, that taupe on the silver. And to do something like that, that would be like heirloom with quality with the silver pass it on to one of my daughters someday in the future would be would be great yeah yeah but i don't i can't really fault this watch in specific i don't love the bezel but would i would it bother me in person i don't know i'd have to wait and see it um it's very possible that the the vibe of that you know sort of dial and then the inclusion of that bracelet is enough to outweigh you know maybe a preference against a mirror polished bezel i'm trying to remember like the last watch even had that had a mirror polished bezel
Jason Heaton Yeah. Did Omega do a version of the Seamaster? I can't remember.
James Stacey I think the insert on my Sylvana skin diver is or was mirrored. I can picture that. And it's kind of like tarnished down a little bit. So at least it has that sort of like 60s feel to it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But yeah, the bezel is the only thing where I go like doesn't feel specifically Black Bay. You know what I mean?
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey It feels like a deviation, which I suppose is the point.
Jason Heaton The first scratch on that would be tough, but I think it would take scratch as well after that. You know, it's one of those watches that would look great with it all scratched up. Totally. Yeah.
James Stacey I think I'll chewed up a little bit would look really good for sure. Let's see what else we've got on the list here. Anything calling to you?
Jason Heaton Well, I mean, I think, you know, I was thinking about saving this till the end, but I think we can circle back. When I was in the Philippines back in February, I was with Roger Ruger, another dive watch writer. And he has the entire collection of the Blancpain Swatch, Bioceramic, the Scuba 50 Fathoms. He's got all of them. And I tried it. And, you know, I've been very neutral on like the Moon Swatch and these Scuba 50 Fathoms. Sort of, you know, fun, but not my thing. But it feels like a high quality watch. And they just came out with this green Abyss version, which we have on our list. And this might be the most compelling one of the bunch. I mean, this one, actually, I'd be very tempted to get. Yeah, it's really sharp. And, you know, we were talking about the pricing of the... of the new 38 millimeter and how eye watering it is and how it's it excludes a lot of people just based on the price this one this one's really compelling um and and it's very tempting to me and for 400 like it's uh it's a cool piece
James Stacey Yeah, it's another one for me where I heard, like someone told me the spec without showing me an image. They're like, oh, it's a 50 Fathom, like a Scuba 50. Yeah. But the case is green, the bezel's black, the coloring's mostly tan, then the dial is a different black and has green hands. And I said like, oh, that sounds like a complete mess. Good luck. Yeah, yeah. Who's going to thread that needle? Well, look at it because it's kind of gorgeous. Yeah. I have the all black one and I wear it very infrequently, but I have it and I enjoy it and I like that I have one. Yeah. I think that these are watches that both, you know, these two things that have kind of existed in the swatch. slash bioceramic collab space, the Speedmaster version and the 50 Fathoms version. Both are just things I recommend people experience. Buy? I don't care. Keep? Doesn't matter. Try? Absolutely. Go to the store and try one on. Try on a friend's. Check it out. They're something that's a little bit different in person. They're kind of charming and fun and they... It's like it reminds you of something that it isn't but in a way that doesn't feel like an homage or a fake or a dupe or something like that. And I... I don't know, the green, the black and the tan work really, really well. Really well. Yeah. Like imagine this if the photo is on a two piece fabric with a stripe. Imagine if you just put it on a tan NATO. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Looks so good, man. It looks so good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, might just have to do that. We're not going to quite do a live purchase here on air. I don't think they sell them on the internet, do they?
James Stacey Yeah, you're right. I think you've got to get to a store. You have to go to your giant mall. Right, exactly. But yeah, I thought this was successful. Look, I will... I can certainly understand the things that people complain about with these watches, whether they don't like them or they don't like that they're not necessarily serviceable or maybe you feel they undercut the brand prestige of the 50 Fathoms or the Speedmaster. That element, I'm not that worried about. That's the brand's problem. I think these are really fun, successful things that expand something of a niche, higher-end brand into a different audience base. And in my mind, these don't like... The fact that I have the Ocean of Storms or this new Green Abyss comes out doesn't make me feel differently about the new 38 millimeter. So I'm not, maybe from my perspective, I'm not seeing the brand issue. But I like these watches and I think the green's quite successful.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton cool looking thing yeah all right that's a fun one for sure uh what else have we got on the list here well speaking of fun i mean this is this one i didn't pay much attention to it's kind of the un weird no the the gerard perigot the bamford oh yeah yeah um what are they what are they calling it the deep diver the the collaboration between gerard perigot and bamford Look, I was a huge, when I was first getting into the forums and watches, I was such a big fan of Gerard Perregaux and the Seahawk. Like, they made such cool dive watches. Oh, yeah, I remember. Yeah, yeah. I remember trying one out. I wrote an article about it for Revolution years ago. Took it diving. I don't know. It was a watch I circled for a long time. And there was something about this high-end brand making this really serious dive watch. Anyway, I'm getting off topic here because this Bamford piece is very different from the Seahawk. But I'm just kind of happy to see Gerard Perregaux kind of in the dive watch space in some respect. Yeah. I'm not sure this is the one for me. It's very specific. It's a very specific aesthetic. And in typical Bamford fashion, it's very... Very colorful, you know, very vibrant and specific. But it's fun. It's a neat piece. Two crown internal dive bezel with a lot of blue and orange and a cool looking rubber strap.
James Stacey Yep, yeah, titanium, 40 millimeters by 38 millimeters, 13.9 millimeters thick, 200 meters water-resistant. Look, I mean, it's a $15,000 watch, which, again, not unlike what we talked about with Blancpain, comes down to the fact that it says Girard-Peregrin on the dial. You know, these ones are limited to 350 pieces. It's a Bamford collab, so it was never going to be the value buy. But I'm with Jason. I'm just pumped that GPs try and dive watches. So while this may not be the one that I'm going to jump on, bring back the Seahawk for sure. Bring back any number of other ones. There's lots of great stuff from the history books and that sort of thing. And I just think Gerard Perrigo could do more to kind of speak directly to enthusiasts when it comes to sport watches. I think the Laureato is a really lovely watch in person and that sort of thing. But I don't know that it necessarily speaks to the sorts of people who might in the same store walk over and look at a Grand Seiko diver and then a Tudor. And then, you know, and I think this gets us closer to that. Yeah. Yeah. Which, yeah, I'm here for it. I would say the pricing feels high, but I think we're going to say that with a lot of watches on this episode.
Jason Heaton And we already have.
James Stacey this is 2025 pricing to a certain extent. I think the watch is pretty cool looking, very colorful and a neat idea. So hopefully they iterate more in the future. Maybe, you know, whether that's more versions with Bamford or direct from GP themselves.
Jason Heaton Well, speaking of high-end brands and expensive watches, we've got two left, one of which is this crazy Ulysse Nardin Diver Air, which is almost like a concept car watch. What does this thing weigh? It's 52 grams on the wrist, 46 grams if you take it off the strap. This is just a little bit around the same weight as our CWN1. The CWN1, yeah.
James Stacey I think this watch is so cool. I think it's so cool. It's hyper modern. So in my mind, it's in the same aesthetic space as like maybe an Hublot or that sort of thing, like with a very skeletonized feel. But I just love that they're making a diver for their clients. And it still comes out to be something that I think kind of has a broader appeal. I believe what they were doing, because I saw it in a photo of an event that we covered on Hodinkee, they had it suspended in the showroom with balloons. Oh, right. So it was tied to a table and then a couple helium balloons were holding it up. That's great. I'm a sucker for all of that. Ship me the watch in a bag of water, like the old Clinton dive watches and that sort of thing. Put your Zinn in a fish tank. I'm here for it. I'm about this. Strap balloons to the watch. So this is a $38,000 watch. It's 44 millimeters wide. I think this is more, in my mind, just the kind of thing I love knowing is out there. UN making a carbon fiber and titanium dive watch with a fully skeletonized movement and really no dial to speak of is kind of fascinating to me. You know, it's not something that I'm pining after to own, but I would absolutely love to wear one for a bit and give it a try and understand it a little better.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. And they kind of fly under the radar when it comes to their dive watches. I've had some time with several of theirs in the past and kind of have always enjoyed them. I mean, their aesthetics aren't for everybody. But really well made. I do think, yeah, they're very well made. And I think it falls into the category of, as you said, hyper modern. And that kind of goes across their board. I'm glad they did that. That one year they did kind of a throwback piece, which I liked. But like in retrospect, it was cool. I like... I like their modern stuff. I like modern dive watches. If you're going to do modern, you know, like a Pelagos or even more modern, like something like this, I mean, lean into it and it's great. Nice to see something that's not a throwback piece like so many other brands are doing.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, this is one of those scenarios where they know their market and their buyers way better than you or I do, which is why it's 44 millimeters and not 39. There's pretty good data that the market that begs for the watches that we've been talking about, 38, 39 millimeter watches, is only a slice, whereas a lot of the buyers are at 42 to 44. So I can understand the market potential of something like this, but I just think in terms of it being kind of cool, it's almost like... you know, if you thought of it within the vibe of a Richard Mill, it's really cheap. Inexpensive, to be fair, right? Like, you know, if Richard Mill made a ultralight skeletonized dive watch, it wouldn't be $38,000. It'd be something else, right? I put a zero on the end and maybe we get a little bit closer. But yeah, I just like that these things are being made. For me, I would be more excited if it was a smaller sort of vibe, like something that would apply to sort of that 38, 39, 40 sizing. But that's a bit of a broken record move on my part. It doesn't make the watch less interesting, maybe just less viable to a wider audience. But again, they need to sell these to their clientele. I think I love the look of that bezel too. Yeah, yeah. And then, oh, so the last one, which I threw on there just because I don't, I feel like I don't get to talk about enough Seiko these days, but they launched what I think is one of the stronger aesthetic versions of a watch that I reviewed some time ago. which is the 1968, you know, the Diver's GMT. And the new one is the SPB519, which has sort of like a dark blue bezel and a white dial with red GMT. And I think that really kind of nails the vibe. I think it looks great. And if you didn't want the black version with the green hand or one of the other versions, I think this could be in the running. And, you know, I just want Seiko to do more and more and more. But if they want to do some more, you know, solid, not overly expensive, it's a $1,700 watch with a 6R54. So you get 72 hours of power reserve and then brace it with micro adjust, which is a great addition to that sort of line in a 42 millimeter case. I like these quite a bit. I enjoyed the one, the green that I reviewed in the past. and I think this one's just, for me, the coloring's much more down the middle for what I would like.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's sharp. I'll admit Seiko has completely fallen off my radar. There hasn't been a compelling Seiko to me for quite a while, and I actually haven't worn a Seiko in probably two years. sold a few of mine. There's just something about the brand. I just feel like Citizen's been kind of eating their lunch lately and I just feel like with their pricing going up and kind of a lot of really great interesting watches from other brands, I just haven't paid much attention to them. But this is, it is a sharp piece. I like the kind of color play between the red, white, and the blue, I guess. And then... um yeah this bracelet looks good like it i think seiko i've never been super keen on their their bracelets and their clasps but this this micro adjust with uh it just it looks like a more modern bracelet it kind of it's more fitting with kind of what's current these days
James Stacey Yeah. And look, about the pricing and maybe you're not feeling this renewed wave of interest in Seiko, I think I feel similarly. I want to feel differently. I want to be pumped. Seiko's the brand that got me into watches. I will always love the brand for sure. But I do think that we're just starting to experience the next generation of like watch enthusiasts hitting the market, right? Like if you think that maybe you and I got started 2007, 2008, something like that. Yeah. We're into another generation now and none of those people have $80 Seiko 5s to rely on. That's true, yeah, right. They don't have $200 007s. So the context that we have for Seiko doesn't exist anymore because the brand went upmarket. And I think they probably, in my opinion, they probably could have gone upmarket while still preserving things like the SKX and its value statement. And that's not to say that, you know... an SRP at $700 or $800 isn't worth the money. That's a different point, I suppose. Yeah. It's more just that default position that we all, and I'm super generalizing because I know that there's a broad variety of, you know, ages and age ranges listening, but that so many of us were introduced to the watch world by these sub $200 Seikos. Yeah. In some cases, sub $100 Seiko. So it just had huge value and taught you everything you needed to know about your first mechanical watch and changing straps and drilled lugs and dive resistance. And, you know, oh, do I want a Z22 or do I want a Jubilee or do I, you know, do I buy a modded strap? Do I buy, you know, all this kind of stuff, like all of that, that education isn't there anymore. Um, and, and I just think that it, that, that is kind of regrettable. And at the same time, I think that's what, what is the sort of foundation of what you were explaining, or at least from my perspective, that's what it is, is that this is a brand that we were excited about for a certain, for several reasons. And some of those reasons don't exist anymore.
Jason Heaton I guess when I think about, you know, being kind of this grouchy curmudgeon about, you know, the direction Land Rover has taken, or I suppose if you want to go stick with the Japanese metaphor, you know, Land Cruiser and think like, lamenting the old days of the classic defender you know like i do and looking at the new one like you're right there's a generation of people that for whom old land rovers old leaky noisy slow land rovers um are just like kind of an oddity like a archaic sort of throwback and and they want they like the new stuff and and with seiko you know they're they're coming out with all this new stuff for a new audience like you said and and i think it's time to embrace that i guess or or Maybe I don't have to, but you can see their strategy.
James Stacey And like, you know, if you've been listening to the show for a while, you'll remember we were, we were absolutely cheerleaders for the SRP 777. Oh man. Yeah. And that era, I love that watch at $400. I think I feel about that watch the way I feel about the SKX. But then I feel like they took that heat and moved it again up into $1,200. Then that's if you wanted an SPB, that's what you had to get for. And I think at $1,200, the competition's a lot harsher than it is at $400. There's some micro brands that will absolutely, to use your term, eat their lunch, especially when it comes to just the viability and accuracy of the movement. If you're dealing with a reasonably regulated ETA or Solita, in my experience, it will keep better time than a 4 or a 6R in most cases. Not always. My SPB was quite accurate. I have all my accuracy notes for it. So, I mean, it's not a given, but it is part of what's become the sort of rhetoric surrounding new Seikos is like, oh, I'm paying a lot more money than I did when I bought my first 007. And I don't necessarily feel like I'm getting a lot more. And I think that's something to consider for them. The SPBs, to be fair, their skin divers are really good. Those are great watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. All right, well, that's quite a roundup. And I feel like we maybe did a show like this about a year ago about summer dive watches. I don't know if brands actually sync dive watch releases with summer or if it's just because the shows are in the spring and that's when the releases happen. But it seems to be a really good fit for kind of the season we're moving into to kind of talk about these fun, water-resistant, rugged, casual watches. And it's quite the... Quite the list this time. I mean, I think this is a really strong release set this year. It's great. About $400 to about $40,000, somewhere in there.
James Stacey So there it is. And the other thing I'd bring up is we almost certainly forgot something. Yeah. I went back and tried to search over the last, you know, six months or so of releases. I'm sure we missed something. So let us know in the Slack what we missed. We'd love to continue the conversation about some of the great dive watches that have come out this year and ones that we're excited to see in person. Maybe we're not sure if they're great yet or just, you know, good on paper, that sort of thing. But yeah, I think it was a fun one. I like these recap episodes, a chance to kind of mentally work through the way you think about something, I think is fun, especially in scenarios where you haven't seen the watch yet. It gives you a chance to kind of build a perspective rather than just start by being handed a watch and have to kind of go in. Well, how about some final notes? Yeah, let's do it. I've got to go first. I didn't know what you would think of this, man. I wasn't sure what I wanted to get it for you so badly.
Jason Heaton Oh, man. This package arrives two weeks ago or something, and you told me the... sort of the saga of trying to get something across the border for my birthday back in April. And anyway, this came. You said, I'm not sure if you're going to like it. And I opened it up and it's a remote control Land Rover Defender Camel Trophy Edition from a company called FMS. And apparently this is actually licensed by, you know, officially licensed by Land Rover. I've not been an RC car person at all in all my days. I've never owned one. This thing is so cool. I didn't know what to think. It was just right out of the box. I could figure it out. I didn't even read the instructions on how to charge the battery and plug it in and make it run. And lo and behold, this thing is a monster. It's a 1-24 scale Land Rover Defender 110 in Camel Trophy livery. So if you're not familiar with Camel Trophy, Google it. You'll be astounded by the number of videos and great photos, etc. It's got these huge soft tires and a really intuitive kind of trigger style remote controller. And I immediately, once it was charged up, I like set it in the grass outside and it goes over anything. This thing, it just, it's a monster and it's so fun. And the only problem I'm having with it is that it scares the dog. It scares Ruby. She barks at it and she doesn't know what to think of this thing moving around in the grass. You got to fill its roof basket with treats. Yeah, I should do that. Yeah, right. It's just so fun. And I'm looking at their website and they have this whole kit you can get with it. Like it came with a set of stickers that I haven't done anything with yet. But like it has this beautiful big chunky roof rack. I mean, this thing's pretty authentic looking. But you can get like a surfboard, a kayak. There's a beer crate you can get for it. A lifting jack, traffic cones, fire extinguisher. I mean, it's just pure fun.
James Stacey Like this thing is a blast. The one thing I wasn't sure when I ordered it, yours has the headlights or you have to do those after?
Jason Heaton Those are aftermarket.
James Stacey Yeah. No. Oh, okay. Because on their website, all of them driving around have the headlights, which is the coolest thing ever.
Jason Heaton The trailer on the page that we'll link to in the show notes, it's so cool that you get like five of them because you can get like a... Let's see here. You can get the... discovery version the range rover disco the d90 or the land rover one yeah and it's um so the four range rover one the four versions that actually were in the camel trophy and uh over the years and uh yeah i mean of course the 110 is a personal favorite of mine but uh they're just, it's a blast. Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on it. For those of you that are into RC cars, um, this won't be, you know, might be rolling your eyes at my gushing enthusiasm as a newbie, but, um, it's just, it's, it's great fun and, uh, I'm just having a blast with it. So thanks to you, James, for it. And, uh, we'll definitely throw that in the final notes. It's, uh, it's good, affordable, just fun. Um, if you're into this sort of thing, or even if you're not, you might, you might find yourself getting into it. The head, the headlights, man, you've got to get the headlights. Yeah. Driving it in the rain.
James Stacey Yeah, no, I mean, you know me. I'm a big fan of the buy people gifts they would never buy for themselves. I didn't think you'd ever get this for yourself. No, yeah. And to be honest, if I waited even a couple days, I would have bought you a weather station. And I'm just glad that you like this. I thought there was a 50-50 chance that you would go like, this is cool. It looks good. I'll put it on the mantle.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then I was like, who knows? You might like put it in the back of the car. And if you're like bored some morning camping, you could drive it around the camp lot or whatever. That's a good idea. Crawl around the campfire the next morning. I just thought it looked so cool. And then when I didn't realize that it didn't have the headlight, otherwise I would have sent you the headlight kit as well. But you should make that happen at some point. You need the lights.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well, it's funny. I follow a couple guys on Instagram that are into RC cars, and they do these really high-quality close-up videos that you'd swear is a real vehicle. Oh, yeah. Admittedly, this does not look necessarily like there's enough cues to it that you can tell it's not a real vehicle, but some of these are so tricked out, and they're doing these close-up professional-quality videos where it's crawling up these rocks or over a stream, and you'd swear it's a real car. Yeah. But I can't wait to like, you know, put my phone on a little stand or something and have it, you know, do a close up drive by or something like that.
James Stacey Oh, yeah. Well, and then have you seen the guys on Instagram that have POV in their RC off-roaders?
Jason Heaton Oh, no, that's crazy.
James Stacey So they've taken those little DJI cameras that link with the headsets. Yeah, yeah. And they've wired up. So they drive along together on the trailer sitting on the back hatch of their Land Rover or whatever. Oh, sure. Yeah. each of them with the headset on. Yeah. And the little cameras can actually lean out the window so they can look at their front wheel. Oh, sure. Yeah. Wow. Like they can fully off-road in these little things together while having a conversation and like towing each other and they can do the, you know, like winches and all this kind of stuff. If I can find that, I don't remember what that account is called, but if it works out that I can find it, I'll include it. It's so cool because I guess it's that same system that you see people put in RC planes. where now you could be heads up or FOV if that's easier. But this is FOV off-roading. And I was like, man, you're getting a lot of the experience. You're out in the wilderness. You're out in wherever you go. You're with your buddy. You could drive around and have a chat. You can actually take on obstacles. And you do it for a fraction of what like... the tie rod on a decent, you know, when you snap a suspension piece on your Land Rover, whatever it would cost. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I thought it looked hilarious. I'm sure it's not something you just buy and go. I think there's some homemade stuff here. Yeah. As is a huge part of the RC community. But the FOV thing is really fascinating when it comes to driving. Like I've seen FOV... drift rc cars so you're you're really driving the car essentially but like you're from the driver's seat of this little car which is and that delights me that's like lume on a watch like that yeah that just makes me feel like i'm five again that's right oh yeah this is very cool anyway moving on yeah what do you have So mine this week is really nowhere near as exciting or as fun as Jason's, but it is something that I was interested in, did some research, and got something I like. I don't know about you, Jason, but the better the tap to pay with your phone it gets, the less I carry a wallet. It's not even that I intentionally leave it at home. I just don't even think about needing it because I have my credit cards on my phone. Yeah, totally. And I realized, you know, in an attempt to, the more I do that, the more I will end up wanting something, whether tap doesn't work or my phone dies or I need my ID or something like that. So I thought I would try one of these MagSafe wallets. So, you know, this is more for Apple stuff, but I know you can get MagSafe cases for Android phones. So maybe you're a MagSafe person and not an Apple person. That's fine too. And if you're none of these things, jump to the end. We've got a nice quote and you can shut it down. I'll just take a moment. But this one that I ended up getting, because the Apple one was like $70. I was like, I don't know about that. So I Googled around and read every review and went over a few Reddit threads about the best MagSafe wallet. And if you want to carry a few cards, there's a company called Spigen. They've made cases I've owned before. It's nice quality stuff. But they make a little MagSafe wallet for three cards that was like $28 Canadian. So it'd be about 20 bucks, maybe even a little less, depending on where and how you get it. It doesn't have any like find my or anything built in. It's just kind of like a, you know, vegan leather thing. thing that magnets onto the back of the phone and holds a few cards and it's seriously useful for 28 i'm pretty happy with i wasn't sure if i'd go like this is a gimmick i don't like the way it looks on my phone it does kind of make my phone sit differently on a table right because it's on the back but then i don't use a case so the phone already sat awkwardly because of the cameras So it's kind of a, you know, six and one half dozen of other as far as the phone balancing naturally. And you can get ones that have little stands and ones that look like little North Face jackets that ride on the back of your phone and all this kind of stuff. This is a much more conventional like you could tell it's a wallet. It holds two or three cards. But I wanted to throw it there in case you were like curious or like me, you find that you just carry way less stuff because you have fewer pockets during the summer. Yeah. And like I don't want my my swim trunks full of every item that I own, including a wallet. And so it's kind of helpful to just have this and have it around. And and then if you leave the house and you go, oh, I needed that, you still have it. Yeah. Yeah. If that sounds useful, if you're a MagSafe style person, you might enjoy it. If not, keep moving. Good summer episode full of some cool watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I might have to pick up one of these up because I'm in the same boat. I'm tired of carrying a wallet, especially when you have shorts on in the summer. It's just such a pain.
James Stacey Yeah. Almost annoying at times.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey And then you just half the time you end up with like your keys, your wallet, your phone. Yeah. AirPods all in your hand. Right. As you go from like the house to the car or whatever. And this is, you know, one less thing to worry about. Yeah. And look, I think there's a decent chance, at least as far as all of the medical community would tell us, that we're going on summer break after this episode. Yeah. We'll take a couple weeks. I'll do my best once we have timing to share on Slack what week we think we'll be back. My plan would be to take two if my life's totally out of control, three weeks. But I might just have Jason call a buddy and record an episode, and we'll do that. For sure. I'm sure I can find time to edit an episode. It just might be harder to host one and co-host one, so that'll be fine. But look. As always, thank you so much for listening and for your understanding when it comes to things like the Q&A episodes and the changes to the summer schedule. We will make everybody whole on those episodes and the rest of it, but I do appreciate the understanding at this time as it's a little bit on the busy side. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes and get into the comments for each episode or even consider supporting the show directly, grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO. Please visit thegraynato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Jacques Cousteau, dive watch fan himself, who said, the best way to observe a fish is to become a fish.