The Grey Nato - Ep 34 - Q&A Awayisode

Published on Tue, 16 May 2017 09:28:27 -0400

Synopsis

This episode is a Q&A session where Jason and James answer various questions from listeners on topics such as affordable GMT watches, dive watches for small wrists, field watches, whether to wear a special edition watch during deployments, and more. They provide recommendations and insights based on their personal experiences and knowledge of the watch industry.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Hello and welcome to episode 34 of the Graynado. A little bit of a different episode today as we're just going to kind of run through a bunch of the backlog of our Q&A questions. We actually had these really great questions just kind of sitting around. And because as you're listening to this, I'll be just returning home from more than two weeks at sea with the Oris-Clipperton trip. We didn't really have the ability to do a normal episode, but instead of dropping a whole week, we figured we would tackle a bunch of these questions, help us get through some of the backlog. So thanks so much for everybody who sent in a question that ended up on this episode. We still have a few after this, so if you sent in a question and we said that we would hold on to it for your Q&A, we will get to them, and we're getting to questions certainly much more quickly than we did in our first year. So yeah, we appreciate all the questions, so let's get right to it. Jason, you want to kick it off with the first question?
James Yeah, our first question comes from Justin. Justin is interested in good grab-and-go quartz watches. He says, I only own automatics, but I would love to get a good grab-and-go quartz that is affordable, up to $200 or so, he's thinking. Interesting enough to hold its own with better watches, i.e. a good diver or a GMT that would work as a beater or a nice backup travel watch. Justin's taste in watches seems to be very similar to ours, and he'd love to hear our thoughts. James, what do you think on grab-and-go quartz watches?
Jason At $200, that pretty much crosses out my current favorite at the Aerospace, my far-too-often-talked-about Aerospace. But at $200, I would go with the G-Shock for grab-and-go quartz. I mean, it's possible he really didn't want a digital, but he didn't specifically say that it couldn't. And I actually think that a G-Shock sits really well on the same table with much more expensive watches. They have this sort of established enthusiast credibility. And at $200, I would buy a Protrek, the 3000 series. Sure. Or if you wanted something a little bit different with, I would say, kind of a more qualified sense of design, see if you could find something like a Suunto Core. Oh yeah. For under $200. That's a really good looking digital watch.
James Yeah.
Jason Very wearable. And then lastly, if you're a runner, do the two birds, one stone and grab one of the less colorful. This is to my taste of the four runners from Garmin.
James Oh yeah.
Jason So that's a nice digital watch. It also does your GPS tracking and will put all of your stats into a website that you can look at later on if you're really into running or other sports. A lot of them do multiple sports and such but I think for me at $200 it would either be something like an Atomic 5600 G-Shock or the I think it's a PRW 3000 Protrek or the Core. If you can get a Core for $200 that's a killer piece.
James Yeah those are great watches and they're good looking too. I mean they kind of hold their own.
Jason Well you have a cool Vector. Those are worth more than $200 but I think it's the same sort of aesthetic.
James Yeah, and it's a bright yellow. It might not be quite as versatile, but yeah, great watch. Very cheap. Yeah. I would say, you know, up to 200 bucks. The timing of this question comes at a good moment, actually. And I would recommend to Justin that he go back and listen or re-listen to episode 32, which was our sub $250 watch episode. I think we've got some great choices there. A little bit higher up. I, you know, from personal experience, I've had really good luck with Watches from Scurfa, the British brand. He made the watch called the Diver I, which I believe was, you know, it's like a sub $500 watch. And I'm sure you can pick them up used on Watch Recon for quite a bit less. Swiss Army, of course, makes some nice grab-and-go quartz. I think actually Swiss Army, Victorinox Swiss Army, really has, for a while there, I think they kind of had the corner of that market in terms of versatile grab-and-go quartz watches. I think, you know, when you look to like the Casios, the Citizens, and the Seikos, there are a lot of watches to choose from. But I think for a while there, Swiss Army was making, I think they made a watch called like the original Swiss Army watch, and it was just the most basic analog kind of military style dial with like a nylon strap, and you could swap it out for a NATO or something leather. And, you know, I just used to see so many of those. I don't know that they still sell them, but I'm sure you can pick them up on online all day long because they were just ubiquitous for years. But again, you know, Citizen, we mentioned a Citizen dive watch, like one of the BNE series dive watches. I think it was an Eco Drive back in our episode 32. Seiko, of course, makes a number of good quartz dive watches.
Jason Yeah, you could go Solar or Eco Drive at that price pretty easily.
James Solar, Kinetic maybe, I don't know, Eco Drive. There's some really good choices in that area and I think this is the real sweet spot for both Seiko and Citizen. You just get so much watch for that money. Thanks Justin for the question. He actually had a second part to the question which was a bit more of a personal one. He's curious on how you and I, James, got into the positions we're in now of freelance writing and photography slash exploration. Justin's had a passion for all of these things and he really wants to explore it as a profession and has already done a few bits of writing for some smaller watch blogs and he's looking for any wisdom or insight or precautions from us. So what have you got? Any tips from a pro?
Jason Yeah, well semi-pro in my case. I think find a site that you really like, like one that kind of fits your aesthetic and your taste and you already like the work that they produce and see if they will take submissions. Be prepared. I wouldn't say long term, but be prepared to maybe write a piece or two on spec or for free and have them maybe send back feedback. Be very open to feedback if you can. Take criticism and then repeat that phase kind of ad nauseum. A lot of these sites, if it seems like they have more than one person, running them. That means they have a budget for some level of freelance work. Somebody's getting paid if there's multiple people. I mean there's some exceptions to that but I would say generally if you're looking at a site and there's multiple writers publishing, at some point somebody owns it and the other people are getting paid to write for it. And then I would say the big thing to work on is spend the least amount of time possible doing the admin work for your freelance and the most amount of time working because That all those two, if you can balance those two things, the amount of time you spend talking about ideas and submitting invoices and all that stuff and maximize the amount of time you can work, what you're actually doing is maximizing the amount of time you have to do not work.
James Yeah.
Jason And I really love not working. I'm always doing something. Uh, I, I'm not, I'm not great at sitting still unless I'm very tired, but I really love not working. And I think that's the point of the freelance lifestyle is promoting a much more kind of balanced perspective as far as who can tell you what to do, how much time you spend doing things you hate doing, and how much time you have to do anything, work or otherwise. And I think if you want to learn from someone, and even just to kind of stay motivated, check out a guy who we've spoken about on the show previously, Chase Jarvis. He's got a good Instagram, a great website called Creative Live, and his YouTube channel has like, I'd say 50 plus, certainly 30 plus, because he did a month of interviews, one a day. These beautifully produced interviews with various types of content creators, you know, professionals and high performers. And I think that he has a really, you know, he has the the kind of trademark on the idea of like outwork everyone else. That's how you can be successful.
James Yeah.
Jason I wouldn't sweat the quality of your work right now. I would say your goal now is to write as much as possible or photograph as much as possible or explore as much as possible because the faster you can get through the first, you know, the first year or first X amount of time will be most of your mistakes. Right. And then you can move into developing you know, perspective and quality and speed and all the things that set a casual person who owns a blog that might be very capable of writing but only writes once a month against someone who can put out thousands of words a week and do so fairly safely in terms of quality and output in terms of the ability to repeat it again and again. do as much as you can on your own. Jason, I think you would agree with this to a certain extent. Maybe, I don't know, but in my mind, I think that like my experience in freelance has been so heavily work writing for somebody else. Yeah. Up until Grenado where we're building kind of our own thing. But previous to that, I would say, you know, there's so little money in it overall that I would think if you can, as early as possible, if you can start producing something that's yours, Not maybe the thing that makes you all of your living, but something that is yours, that gives you an outlet to do things at your own pace and your own taste and without a lot of input. I think that's a good creative position to keep your mind kind of on some stuff. And it may be a better investment than getting X number of dollars for each piece, but having no real investment in the life of that piece or what it contributes to the greater good of that blog.
James Yeah, I think you, um, I think that's a good point. I think now is, uh, the time is really ripe for, um, people to create their own stuff, whether it's a podcast or a vlog or your own blog, or, um, you know, just, just crank up on Instagram or Flickr, start selling, uh, stock photography. If you're, if you're really into photography, um, it's really an empowering time to kind of start your own thing. And I think if you have the. the aptitude and kind of the motivation to do that, by all means, it's a great place to start. Um, on the flip side of that, I think if you are not the kind of person that likes to maybe do much self promotion or, you know, you look ahead to, to making money from something like this and you don't want to, you know, have to worry about selling ad banners or, or figuring out ways to, to, uh, approach revenue. Um, you know, by all means, you know, become a freelancer and, and, and do right for other people and find a good base of, of clients. I think that's kind of the route that I've gone. Um, you know, rather than starting my own blog years ago, I, I always just kind of worked for a variety of outlets from, uh, you know, sort of outdoor adventure gear sites like your patrol to, you know, pure sort of watch focused, uh, websites like Hodinkee or magazines like revolution. And, um, I think for me to have that broad base of clients with some diversity of topics has always been giving me a sense of security and kept me fresh so that if I'm not going down one hole all the time, I don't get bored with it. And also if one of those publications chooses to fold up shop or get rid of me or something, I still have my foot in other areas. The other thing I would suggest is find your voice. and find your niche and just go really deep with it. I've talked to kind of liberal arts students here at the University of Minnesota, where I graduated from, and they always ask, you know, what, if there's kind of one tip you'd give, it's, it would be find that one area that makes you kind of, if not indispensable, at least truly unique so that you're doing something that, that really not many other people do, if anybody, whether that's, you know, diving with watches or, you know, taking photographs in the mountains or, um, you know, you're just a great driver or a great video editor or something, you know, find something that, that you do and just make that your focus rather than being a sort of a generalist. And lastly, you know, when I started out, um, writing, I did so much work for so many years for, for, you know, just for no pay or maybe it was the compensation was in a piece of gear that I reviewed like a backpack or something in the early days. And, and even before that I was writing, you know, articles for the local conservation, you know, the Sierra club newsletter. Um, it was just a way to kind of build a portfolio that I could then put on my own resume or on my own online resume, my own website as a piece of work that you can then present to perspective editors and show them just the quality of your writing. Um, you know, they don't, they don't care. No. Uh, if you did this for free or, or if you're moonlighting or writing it while you were on break between your shifts at McDonald's. Nobody has to know that. They want to read what you've written or see the photos you've taken. So just do it as much as you want and don't worry about the money up front. Just get good at what you do and find your niche and just go deep with it. Again, Justin, thanks for both questions. I think they were quite a bit different going from quartz watches to writing as a career. We appreciate both questions and good luck.
Jason Yeah, for sure. Good luck indeed. And yeah, the big thing is just do the work. Yeah. There's a ton of people who spend every day saying that they want to do the work. And there's lots of projects that I keep telling myself I'm just about to do. The difference between most people and the people who do it are the fact that they do it. That's about it. Yeah. And you can do it at any level. And if you don't see an outlet that you're happy with, then start your own. I think between YouTube and how cheap you can run a website these days, all it takes is a passion. Yeah. So best of luck and send us a link to whatever you put out. We'd love to take a look. Next up, we have a question from Ben Brown about affordable GMTs. He says, hey guys, after several discussions in which James's Explorer 2 has come up. Yep. And with all of your travels, I'm guessing you both have a soft spot for a good GMT. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the good value for money GMTs out there and he says he's been looking for one for a while at say five to seven hundred dollars but then all of a sudden when you add in a GMT functionality the price seems to jump way up and you know he has a he recently picked up a squalor GMT kind of a Rolex inspired squalor with a GMT He says himself, long story short, why is an honest mechanical sub $1,000 GMT so hard to come by? If Seiko can do the turtle for $350, why not a workhorse GMT, even if it ends up running, say, $700 or $800? So, Jason, what do you think for that?
James Yeah, I don't have a lot of insight into affordable GMTs, but it is a frustrating sort of category, why there are not more, just more GMTs in general, but more affordable ones. I'm no watchmaker, but it seems like really all you have to do is add another hand and gear it to half the speed of the main hour hand. I don't understand why more brands aren't doing this, but I'm sure you have more suggestions than I do, but one that kind of pops out was there's a small brand that doesn't get much mention, but I actually had one of their dive watches years ago. It's a brand called Bernhardt.
Jason Oh yeah, sure.
James Yeah, and they make a watch called the Binnacle. Um, which I think was kind of a name they applied to dive watches as well, but they make a watch called the binnacle GMT two, I think it is. And it's a, it's like a $600 watch. Um, pretty heavily styled on kind of a blend between like a, an Explorer two and, and you know, with some numerals kind of almost like a sin or a bell and Ross or something, you know, a good sturdy watch. I remember the dive watch being, being a really good quality piece. Um, And if you like that aesthetic, I think it isn't such a clone that you'd be ashamed to kind of wear it around kind of a real hardcore Rolex guy. It'll do the job for you. It's got a modified 2836 movement in it. It's waterproof for water resistant up to 200 meters. So that might be a good option. But James, I'm sure you've got some opinions on this area.
Jason Yeah, so I love GMTs and the main issue with the price of GMTs, and I'm going to make a bunch of generalizations. So there's exceptions that prove what I'm or disprove what I'm about to say but on whole the main issue with the price of GMTs was that for many years the only option was the ETA 2893 and that gave you an independent 24-hour hand kind of the most simple GMT functionality and that was used by everyone I mean you'll remember Ocean 7 had a handful of watches that were GMTs it was used by a lot of independent brands it was even the basis I mean technically the base of that movement was the base of the Omega 1120, which they later put a flyer GMT in. So I mean, the ETA has informed watch movements for so many years and in so many different ways. But when you look specifically at GMT, the 2893 used to be kind of readily available and not hugely expensive. So you used to see GMTs under $1,000, even under $800. Later, ETA would start to restrict the supply of their movements, making the sourcing of the movements, especially for in smaller quantities. So for brands like an Ocean 7, they suddenly became difficult to get and quite costly. So the price point went way up. Now, uh, Squala might be using old movements that they've had for some time, and that's why they can still offer a GMT watch at that price point. That's only my assumption. I don't know, but they're offering at a very fair price point. It was under a thousand dollars, uh, when I last checked and, Your other option really is quite expensive. Even now, if you want to go to $28.93, it's still one of the cheaper options because Seiko doesn't make a simple automatic GMT movement and neither does Miyota. And certainly, whatever Seiko has, they're not offering as their NH kind of white label movements. So the only option is the ETA or a more expensive option like the Eterna Caliber 39, which is what Oak and Oscar used. and there's some semi-proprietary movements that could give you the GMT functionality but the price goes up even again I believe. So where that leaves us is you'll have some brands that have the ability to source the movements either from old stock that they have on hand or they're able to buy up from another brand but typically speaking for the last few years the scene has been GMTs cost more money or don't exist at all and Ben thanks so much for your question. I hope that we get to see Miyota make a GMT movement or we get to see kind of the pricing and marketing surrounding the ETA stuff come back to where it was say five, six, seven years ago when the pricing just seemed a little bit more reasonable. It was just a small bump in price for a small brand to offer the GMT movement. Right now it's a little bit more rare.
James Well, let's not also forget just to chime in at the end here, the option that truly if you can't find a GMT at that sub-thousand dollar price, that you really like, um, you can always go the route of, of the, what did you call it? The, the cheap meantime, the, you know, adding a 12 hour bezel insert to a, like a Seiko SKX, or you can go with like a Mark II Paradive with a 12 hour bezel. So those are all options.
Jason Yeah. Yeah. That bezel's from Yaboki's, uh, and it's a really strange ordering process. He has like a, an image hosting site. and then you find the bezel you want and then email him with the link to that bezel. That's basically how I bought it. It's not exactly high tech, but yeah, that 12 hour or yeah, we joke the cheap meantime, the CMT instead of GMT that I have on my Seiko is a killer way of adding a second time zone for, I paid about $30 all said and done to get the bezel in. And I think that's a good option. So thanks again for your question, Ben.
James Next up, we've got a question from Daniel from Pittsburgh. who writes in, I love dive watches with a bold design and I've been watching the Seiko SKX for a while now. The only problem is that he cannot wear anything over 40 millimeters, which makes the SKX at 42 a bit big. Uh, so Daniel's asking, uh, if we can recommend a dive watch or other bold tough watch that is 40 millimeters or below for under a thousand bucks. Uh, he thanks us for any suggestions and uh, what do you got for him, James? Any, any good suggestions here?
Jason Yeah, I think this is one we can probably just like make a very quick list for. The AORUS 65 is 40 millimeters and a bold, I would think kind of a bold styling is how I would describe that. Yeah. You can get bolder color options for the HALIOS C4, which should come out in the next month or so. Certainly it might actually be roughly out by the time this episode comes out. But they have a kind of turquoise colored dial and a hand kind of, there's basically a variety of mixes between bezel and dial. for the Seaforth, so maybe that's bold enough. Certainly, it's going to be a tough and super wearable watch, and the sizing is really good. If you scroll down on my Instagram, there's at least one or two wrist shots of an earlier version of the Seaforth to give you an idea. And then the Marathon Medium Diver is a good option at 36 millimeter. That's a great one. I wouldn't call the styling bold, but that's an amazing watch. Great dive watch, really good tool watch. I love the tritium. and definitely comes in quartz. Is there an automatic version of that watch you know offhand?
James I don't think so. I think it's all quartz in that size.
Jason Okay. Lastly, if you're kind of willing to go into the used side of it, they make a Seamaster mid-size, which is a nice, you know, these would be the pre-coaxial Seamaster. So, like a smaller version of the 2254, which is a beautiful watch and, you know, sometimes they're called a boy's size or a mid-size. I want to say they're 36 or 37 millimeters. And that would be a great option. And because of the smaller size, or more because of the option to have the 41 millimeter, the smaller size is generally less expensive. So that would be a nice way to go if you wanted to have something like an Omega. Sure. And what do you think, Jason?
James Yeah, well, I'm going to bring up one that you've really liked in the past and talked about a few times, and that's the Raven Trekker 40, which is a great choice. A $600 or $700 watch, sort of dive style, sort of field watch straddling category busting watch. Yeah. Easily fits the price point and I think it's a nice bold looking dive style watch. And then one that that I've loved and talked about in the past is Unimatic. Now the Modelo Uno which was the one that that I had is is now sold out but I've gotten a sneak peek at the watches they're coming out with in 2017 and you're gonna see some some really cool styles similar to the stuff that that people have loved about Unimatic in the past and Those are also 40mm watches that are well under $1,000. So, equally bold, great designs, and definitely within your price point. Thanks a lot for the question, Daniel. Let us know what you get, and good luck in your hunt. Yeah, for sure. Our last question is from Lee, and Lee is currently lusting after Nomos' TangoMAT GMT model. He loves the push-button GMT complication, and a bonus that it's an automatic. He travels a lot, and this feature would come in very handy. But before Lee pulls the trigger, he wants to know, are we aware of any other similar complications from other manufacturers that he should also consider? This would be his third Nomos. He loves the brand, but he's trying to keep an open mind to others in case they've done so. James, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but what do you have? Anything in this push-button GMT? It's a very niche category.
Jason It is niche. I have a couple options. I don't think either are sold currently. So you have to be flexible with to get a push button GMT Lee. I feel for you, man. It's an awesome complication. The Nomos is super cool. It's, uh, it's really fun on the white site and it's great on the, I much prefer the tango mat. The GMT is such a cool model. It's great on wrist. And the push button is just really fun, super usable functionality, especially if you're traveling a lot. The other two options that spring to my mind, and I'm sure there's more, but if you want to say purely mechanical, the two that come to my mind are the Glashutte Original Sport Evo Diver GMT. Oh, wow. They didn't make it for very long and they didn't make very many. My friend Paul Hubbard had one, unbelievably cool watch, chunky, solid, exactly the type of quality you'd expect from Glashutte, top tier kind of sport watch quality. and a good bezel and then it had what looked like two chronograph pushers but were actually a GMT jump feature which is super fun those they come up occasionally but you will have to kind of watch the second hand options to find a seller or maybe even find owners via forums and just occasionally send them a note that you'd be interested depending on how long your time frame is before you actually have to have to have this watch I mean Lee emailed us in September so I'm hoping this wasn't crucial We did our best with that. And then the second one is one that I would very much like to own, and that's the Aorus Classic World Timer. So if you go to Google Images and look up Aorus Classic World Timer, there's a ton of them. They came in a number of different varieties, but they all use this same push-button, jump-set sort of second little clock face. And they still make one under the Atelier line. That's a little bit more of a dressier thing in a larger case. For a little while, they made one with a blue dial with red accents and kind of Arabic numerals and nice big hands. Yeah. And you're seeing that there in the image results?
James Yeah. Very cool watch. Wow.
Jason So that's one I've been looking for, I would say, conservatively for three years has been on my watch recon list. And then when they offered alerts, the alerts. Yeah. And just it's, I want to say it's 40 millimeters. It's hard to come by like exact. There's not a ton of them out there. I'm sure they sold a bunch of them, obviously not enough to keep making it, but there's not a lot of enthusiasts posting about them. So there's only one or two photos, but if you go, you will find them and I'll link the photo in the show notes. But this is a really, really cool watch. I think that aesthetically the proportions are right on and I love that it's basically operating. It has that kind of like higher end watch element of a sub dial showing you the second time rather than just another hand. I think it looks really cool. And the, the movement is available in the newer pieces, but I think was better used in some of the older pieces, like the smaller, uh, blue, I'm very partial to a blue dial. So Lee, those are the two that basically come to mind for me that, uh, the Geo Sport Evo Diver GMT and the Aorus Classic World Timer in one of its, uh, many iterations. And if you can track one down and then decide you don't want it, uh, you know, maybe just send me, send me a quick email to, uh, thegrenadoatgmail.com. I've had my eye open, I've missed at least one or two over the years and hopefully one day I cross paths with one of those because I think they're cool and obviously a big fan of ORUS and an even bigger fan of GMT complications.
James Thanks. Chris writes and asks, what is the most sort of high stakes or challenging or dangerous dive or other adventure that you've ever undertaken? Also, have either of you ever gotten to dive on a rebreather, especially one of the newer Type Rs? What do you think of them? I think if the tech becomes good enough that they will be the future of diving. Well, James, what, got any input on this one?
Jason Yeah, so I mean, my proclivity for risk has become so much less as I got even just a little bit older. So I used to drive way too fast, oftentimes in very iffy cars. I still drive too fast, but now it's just in typically faster cars. I'm not sure if that's more risky or less. Um, I've done some stuff hiking in the Alpine in the last few years that I probably wouldn't do again. Like, I think that's how you learn. Um, but I did things where in retrospect, I had kind of accepted more risk than maybe my level of understanding should have. And, um, some of my early dives in Vancouver were pretty iffy, I think, for a learner. Uh, you know, I had a lot on my very first dive within two or three minutes of going underwater, I lost my instructor and my buddy. It was about three feet of vis. Oh wow. And, uh, it was just kind of like pea soup. You couldn't see your own fins. And so, you know, we knew we had a plan for what to do at that point. And I think it's kind of a hardcore way to learn to dive. I don't think it was dangerous, like, you would die. I'd only been down for a minute or whatever, but when, when I decided to very slowly ascend and you're in 20 feet of water, so it's not a huge, uh, issue. But of course, if you did have a real issue at that time, then you have a problem. So that's how diving works typically. Yeah. And, uh, I would say really nothing all that remotely dangerous, but there were, I think plenty of times in my life where I skirted by in dangerous scenarios by just not fully understanding the risks. And as I get a little older, I take more time to understand the risks. And then I don't take those chances. So it's one of those things where like sometimes a certain level of ignorance combined with a certain level of bravado makes you capable of doing things that you wouldn't do if you had considered it beforehand. Oh, yeah. I don't recommend it. But yeah, especially now, you know, I have a family. I try and stick to very established, non-dangerous sorts of fun activities. Yeah. And you?
James Yeah. I mean, you know, my mom, I think, listens to the show, so I'm not going to get into too much detail. No, I mean, I've never been really an adrenaline junkie. I don't care to do any skydiving and I was never the type of kid that jumped off the roof of the garage or anything like that. But a few years back, probably one of the kind of diciest things I did was I took part in a swim from Alcatraz Island across San Francisco Bay back to Marina Park over in San Francisco, which, you know, at the time, Um, it was kind of a big goal of mine and I trained hard for it and it was, it was, it was definitely tough, you know, cramping up cold water, kind of this sense of fear that there are great white sharks underneath you. Um, in the end, I don't think there was anything, it wasn't, I wouldn't say it was necessarily like an adrenaline sport. There was no imminent danger. There was, you know, certainly a kayak nearby in case I got into any sort of difficulty. Um, but, but that's, that's kind of up there. The, the, the climb I did on Mount Rainier was probably similar to the one you did on Mount Baker and certainly there are some, some risks involved. If you, you know, if you slip and you don't self arrest properly with your ice ax, you know, you can take a pretty long fall or a heaven forbid go into a crevasse or something. But I think all of that was pretty well on well-established routes. You know, I, I guess most of my. if your situations have been underwater with, with diving. Um, although I've always been a very careful diver and someone who's only tended to dive with, with people I know and, and safe buddies. And, um, so, you know, I've done a couple of dives, a few days of diving under the, under the ice here in a lake in Minnesota and some deeper cold water stuff up in the great lakes that, you know, that, that I guess if it had gone a certain direction, you know, could have been, potentially life-threatening, but, you know, I, like you, James, I mean, I, I just kind of try to assess the risks and not take any really silly, silly, make any silly choices. So, and, and just to answer the second part of the question, I've never tried a rebreather diving and I actually don't intend to, I just, I find it a little bit spooky, given a lot of the stories I've read and, I just tend to stick to good old regular air or, or nitrox and just open circuit scuba. So. That's where I come down on that. Yeah.
Jason Yeah. Same here. Thanks very much for the question, Chris. Next up we have Brian who said, why is the watch industry so obsessed with military history? What other brands have such histories? You know, his example is did Kamikaze pilots attack Pearl Harbor while wearing watches from brands that are still around today? And do we know of any official statements, if such statements exist, made by watch companies regarding their past when it comes to supplying various war efforts? And for me, I actually don't have any real knowledge in this area. So it's an interesting question.
James Yeah. You know, I've heard this come up a couple of times, you know, with regard to certain brands like IWC who sold, you know, pilots watches to the Luftwaffe during World War II. You know, Panerai likes to kind of tout the watches that were worn by Italian divers in World War II when they were planting mines on British ships. And Seiko doesn't really talk much about the instruments that it built for Japanese planes during World War II either. But I think if you kind of head down that path and you start making those sorts of choices, you'd have to kind of make a lot of choices in relatively surprising areas. For instance, Henry Ford was a Nazi sympathizer. Hugo Boss made uniforms for the Nazis. Helmut Sinn flew in the Luftwaffe. you know, where do you kind of draw the line? I think, you know, there's a certain point at the past that you, you make certain decisions and either move on or take a stand on. And I guess I think that the kind of the quote unquote, I don't know if I'd call it an obsession, but the focus on military heritage with a lot of brands is, is that, you know, it's a kind of a good hook to sell watches, watches that are tested by whether it's a combat diver or a, a fighter pilot, sell well. They appeal to mainly men who like to know that the gear that they buy have also been worn in very trying situations. And as with other areas, like, you know, materials or clothing or camping gear, a lot of great products trickle down from military use and from testing. So I think that kind of the same applies to watches. So that's, I guess that's my, Relatively uninformed opinion about the matter. Hope that helps and you know, thanks a lot for the question Brian We move on to another one Jose writes and asks he'd like to know our thoughts on field watches because these are the original sports watch and You guys haven't talked much about it in the show. I Know that you guys are divers. I was too but military watches are so cool I look forward to hearing what you guys think about it and which are your favorites James, I guess we haven't talked much about field watches other than some specifics maybe that we saw at a show.
Jason I guess not as a category, we haven't. Yeah. Any favorites? Yeah, I'm a big fan of field watches. I think they're great watches. Typically, I like the functionality, the various functionalities that can be offered by a bezel, so that leans me into the dive watch space. I like an elapsed time bezel. I like a 12-hour bezel, but I guess a 12-hour bezel could easily be used on a field watch like that Marathon Navigator. that we've talked about before. And, and yeah, like I would put the Navigator in that, uh, you know, there's, I think the most modern field watchers would be something like a G-Shock. You see them in the field in military use, those sorts of things. And I really like, uh, you know, the older Benris stuff. If you can find the type ones, type twos, those are really cool. Obviously, uh, Hamilton with their khaki line. I think they, you know, Those kind of tread the line between aviation and field, but in my mind, that's very much a field watch look. Kind of a military World War II inspired look with some of the khaki stuff. And then, you know, at Basel, we saw the new Manta Triumph. Yeah, great watch. Which is very slim, a fantastic size, beautifully made, great looking dial, bunch of different colors. And I think that one, you know, is at a very attractive price point. and I think these are a lot of great examples. I think the field watch is a great thing to look for and certainly in our recent giveaway, for any of you who kind of entered for our Modelo Duo giveaway, that I think too also qualifies as a cool sort of field watch aesthetic. What do you figure for field watches, Jason?
James Yeah, I'm a fan of field watches too, but you know, like you, I just like the I like the visual aesthetic of a bezel, but I also like something that you can kind of interact with and make use of, and a field watch often doesn't have that other than, you know, like the Navigator that you mentioned. But, you know, that's not to say I don't like a good field watch. I mean, an Explorer I or even your Explorer II, I guess, could arguably qualify as a field watch given kind of what it was designed to do.
Jason Yeah, I guess so.
James Tudor Ranger, another beautiful watch. For sure. I guess maybe if I wasn't a diver, I tend to As a diver, an avid diver, I just tend to kind of lean almost exclusively, I guess, towards dive watches. And maybe if I wasn't diving so much, I would be expanding my collection a little more into the field watches.
Jason Yeah. Well, thanks very much for your question, Jose. I hope that helped. Next up, we've got Matt from the UK with a fairly long question. He says, I'm a doctor in the Royal Navy, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab myself a Bremont Military Edition Alt 1C made for the Royal Navy Medical Service. That's pretty cool. Very cool. I am still very early in my military career and the emphasis is currently more on my training as a doctor in a civilian hospital, but soon I will be deployed on ship, subs, or possibly with the Royal Marines. Also very cool. What an adventure. Yeah. Would you take the watch with you to build those memories, but risk possibly bashing it up? Or would you just take a Casio or the Victorinox Inox that I currently have for work? I realize this is a personal decision. Just thought it would make a half decent discussion. Won't be offended if you think differently. Perfect. As a side note, I've seen some strong rumors that the Seadweller is losing its matte dial in the favor of a gloss one like the Submariner has. I'm a bit put out by this as my 116600 was my next potential purchase for the watch. Now maybe I will get a 14060M or a 16660, which is the previous SD. He also really likes the Milgauss Z Blue. Any opinions on what U2 would add to my current collection of a Speedmaster, a Nomos Club, and a Braemont would be greatly received. I, like you, love to dive, so I'm feeling the need for a dive watch. Well, we all know that need. Jason, what do you figure for this?
James Well, great collection. First of all, the Speedmaster, the Club, and a Bremont. What a killer trio. But I agree, I think you need a dive watch, and I think the Sea-Dweller, I think the 16-660, the last version, the SD4000, I think it's the perfect one to get. I think it's kind of a now discontinued classic and I wouldn't hesitate if you've got if you've got the money and you like the look of that watch definitely want to snap up and In terms of your Braymont, you know, I think you probably know what James and I think or at least what I think wear that thing, you know wear it on all your adventures and You know keep the inox in your in your shaving kit and pull it out if you need to but I think you're gonna have so many great stories that It'll be great to have that Braymont 15 years and be able to look back and remember all the stuff he did with it How about you, James?
Jason Yeah, I would totally wear it. Unless the Inox or the Casio offers either crucial functionality or way more comfort, because the job that you may be doing may be like to have something that you don't find especially comfortable or that doesn't maybe provide a feature you need. At that point, it's not worth it. But I think a watch is better worn and the Bremont stuff is going to depreciate anyways, you're not looking at some collector class sort of a vintage purchase or something like that. So keeping it as a safe queen will almost certainly diminish its value as an object of sentimental value within your life, which is kind of why you would buy a special edition for the Royal Navy Medical Service. That said, I mean, if the Inox or the Casio is more comfortable or more functional, then I think the Bremont would make a fantastic off-duty watch. But if you're going to be on a boat for a really long time, there's no question I would bring the Bremont unless there's some mitigating circumstance. As far as your SD question, this is on me. Matt wrote us back in July, and we're just getting to the question now. Like I said, we're getting better with Q&A, but we're working through a backlog. Sorry. So obviously we have a new SD out and with a Speedia Club and a Bremont, I think a sub like a 14-060M or the SD, either way, it's pretty hard to go wrong between the two. If you have the means to go with either an SD 4K or the earlier 16660, then I think those are both two fantastic winners, great dive watches and pretty fitting for a guy on a sub or on a boat. I think that's a really cool combination. So I don't think you can go wrong with either of those. And if it suits your wrist, wear the Bremont. Killer. Thanks for your question.
James Well, I guess that about wraps it up. Thanks for everybody who wrote in and we apologize for our delay in responding, but we'll do our best to get to questions a little more quickly. And we hope you enjoyed this Q&A episode. If you do have a question for us, please do write us at thegrenadoatgmail.com, and I know James and I both try to answer as many questions as we can as quickly as we can, and we do save the good ones for future episodes, so do write us.
Jason And we'll chat to you again in two weeks' time with a normal full episode, but until then, be well, and thanks so much for listening.