The Grey NATO – 342 – From The Hebrides To Brooklyn With The Paulin Mara Diver
Published on Thu, 28 Aug 2025 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
In this episode of The Graynado (#342), hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss their recent activities, with James at his cottage experiencing early fall weather and Jason returning from New York. The main topic focuses on Jason's involvement with the launch of Paulin's new Mara dive watch, including his trip to Scotland's Outer Hebrides for the photo and video shoot with photographer Brad Wakefield. They detail the watch's specifications, design elements, and the recent launch event at the Worn & Wound shop in Brooklyn.
The hosts also discuss James's growing interest in 3D printing after a fellow listener's project, and share their "final notes" which include James's memories of driving a Bugatti Veyron and Jason's recommendation of an interesting New York Times article about a support group for shark attack survivors called "Bite Club."
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 342, and it's proudly brought to you by the always-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton, and I'm joined, as ever, by my friend and co-host, James Stacy. James, you're at the cottage today. It's feeling rather autumnal, I hear. |
| James Stacey | I am, yeah. We actually only got up Sunday afternoon, so we've only been here for a bit. And then I moved the recording forward because I want to try and get two recordings in next week because obviously Labor Day and then the days right after that are going to be quite busy for, you know, certainly for myself, but I'm assuming for you too. And so, yeah, we've mixed up the schedule just a little bit. But yeah, I'm up at the cottage. I mean, it's an absolutely gorgeous day, but, you know, it's kind of up and down in terms of temperature. And right now it's much more of a fall temperature. than a summer one. We've definitely had Octobers that are warmer than today. So yeah, it's a little bit on the chilly side, but I'm not against it. It's fine. It's nice to be up here. I'm probably going to pump up the kayak for a little paddle this afternoon, maybe go for a little walk. take the camera out, that sort of thing. But yeah, it's been a nice little weekend. How about you? What have you been up to since we talked last? I mean, obviously you've had an adventure into the big city. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, back from New York Friday night and kind of just spent the weekend getting resettled here, you know, getting caught up on household stuff and went for a run. And, you know, just ever since we got back, like the temperature just changed completely and it really felt like fall this weekend. And... I love this weather. I find it, you know, really makes it easier to kind of just do stuff day to day without always kind of dripping in sweat and, you know, feeling kind of sluggish. But on the other hand, it does have that bit of melancholy foreboding that the season's going to change. And, you know, I don't want to get too negative here, but, you know, then that brings winter behind that and whatever. So I just want to hold on to summer a little longer. And I think we'll get back to it for another month or so. Yeah. But I'm not complaining. I built a fire outside last night, and that felt kind of nice. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, there's some wildfires around my cottage, so I don't believe I'm allowed to do a fire. I think it's a full ban currently. I think the fires are under control now, but it's been an issue for the last few weeks in this area, not too far from us. But yeah, I agree. I'm not against the fall, but I don't want it in August. |
| Unknown | Right. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | You know what I mean? Like, I still want the days where, like, I feel like I have to get in the water. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, hey, you take what you're going to get. It's sunny and nice here today, so I'm certainly not complaining. And I've still got, you know, like that sort of modified lightened schedule, just a few things to deal with each day. In honor of last week's guest... I realized that, you know, some time ago I had bought a copy of Terminal List and only read maybe the first few chapters. And then it was probably around the time that the first season of the TV show came out. Yeah. Jack was a delight to have on the show. And I thought you did a great job chatting with him. And I was like, let's go back and do this. I pulled it up on my Kindle. It was $3 for the first one. And I read it and I finished it at about 4 a.m. this morning. I was up. The young lad decided to wake up after sleeping for a very long time. And he was up with a shout. And I was like, you know what? I probably only have like two chapters left. Let me finish this. Wow. And I put it down. So it went down in just a couple of days. And I enjoyed it. It's super pulpy. I think it reads a lot like a James Bond. Yeah. A James Bond that's more violent and less suits. Yeah. |
| Unknown | You know what I mean? |
| James Stacey | Like it's exceptionally violent. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Right. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And that's coming from Chain Gang All-Stars and Heart of the West and some of this other stuff I've been reading lately, which is also exceptionally violent. But yeah, I enjoyed it. I immediately bought the next one. So I just finished the first chapter of book two. And then with Dark Wolf, which is the TV show, I believe, largely about Ben Edwards, which is, of course, a prequel to Terminal List, that comes out in just two days. So I'm going to make a concerted effort to watch all of that before I have to go back to work. and I'll just kind of buzz through it if I can. But like I said, I'm a Taylor Kitsch fan. I like seeing him in stuff. I enjoyed seeing him in Terminal Lists. I just finished American Primeval, which he is one of the lead roles in, and it was good. But yeah, so that's what I've been up to for the last little while. Beyond that and beyond recording from the cottage, so apologies if the sound is a little bit different than normal. I'm handheld and, you know, on more of a field setup. I don't know, Jason, if you saw that our buddy, Ed Jelly, who works with Tactile Turn, but he's a great member of the TGN Slack. He started 3D printing these, and I'll put it in the show notes if he's okay with me sharing it beyond the Slack, but he started 3D printing these little cages for your Apple Watch Ultra as like a weekend phone. Oh, cool. So it limits what you can do. You can't sit there and scroll Instagram and the rest of it. And I love this idea. very much so I just spoke to Ed and ordered one kind of as quickly as I could I believe he's either shipping it to you and you can bring it up for Toronto Timepiece or maybe he's decided to ship it to me either way I'll get one eventually and report back on that I would love the idea of having something where I can still do my podcast that's my main thing about like going to a dumb phone yeah is like I wouldn't have pocket casts. Right. Whereas if I did something with the Apple Watch with the cell connection, I could still do my podcast and not really miss out on much else that I care about, which is good. So I'm going to give that a try. But Ed's little chat or post about 3D printing, I spent the last several days going down like a 3D printing rabbit hole. Yeah. And honestly, by the time this episode comes out, I may have a machine en route. How much do they cost? I mean, where are they at now? So the Bamboo Labs A1, this is an aside, but a good friend of mine does 3D printing professionally. Yeah. He has, I think, well over 20 machines maybe for a very successful Etsy store that has become his full-time living. Yeah. And I wrote him because the A1 is like 400 Canadian bucks right now. Wow. And I said like, is this the one? And he goes, man, I've owned from the A1 to like the $1,500 X1 carbon. He's like, if I was doing this at your level or even at what I do for Etsy, I would just buy, I wish I had bought 40 A1s instead of these more expensive ones. So I'm looking into it. Ed bought an A1 for what he's working on, but he bought it with the multicolor thing. So it's a little bit more money, not quite double. but it can print, it can blend four different filaments, I guess. Yeah. I don't care about printing in color, at least not at this point in my 3D printing career, but I do really love the idea of being able to share that with my kids and work on fun little projects. And my daughters are very crafty type, so I think there's probably a lot of... craft applications. I made the mistake of going on the internet and finding all of these printing projects for the Ikea SCADIS pegboard, which I have a wall of in my office. And there's all these things that you can print that fit into the pegboard for like really clean... like layouts of stuff. And so, yeah, I I'm down the rabbit hole. That's, that's kind of the other thing is so big. Thanks to Ed. Ed, if you're listening to this, I look forward to getting your, your little, uh, Apple watch case, but also, you know, you may have cost me more than just, uh, just whatever you charged me for the product. |
| Jason Heaton | This is wild. I mean, it reminds me of, I haven't really looked into this until you mentioned this. Um, I assumed it was a lot more costly to. to get into this space, but it reminds me of what I've said before about, and I'm probably sounding like an old man now and I am, but like just the trickle down of, and how quickly everything from, you know, digital cameras went to, um, to drones. I mean, Oh, sure. This sort of technology would have seemed, you know, even 15, 20 years ago would have just seemed outrageous and, you know, just so futuristic. And now to get a 3d printer for $350 is what I'm seeing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And that's like, that's from the brand. like the most populous. I'm sure there's options from lesser known brands that require more setup, more fine tuning, more understanding of 3D printing. This is like a take it out of the box, screw a couple pieces together and start printing solution. Amazing. I don't want this to become some brand new hobby for me, but I do love the idea of like, oh, I want something for my desk. i can print it i want something my daughters want something for a project at school we can print it i want something to you know hold memory cards for my camera like i like i kind of like that yeah uh so yeah i might talk myself into it but i too was kind of surprised when uh you know ed said he jumped into it with with his kid and i was like oh i wonder what we're talking about in terms of price because i had looked at some of the stuff that shows up on youtube these you know, $2,000, $3,000 machines that can print in metal and really interesting things. But the basic stuff that prints kind of the standard, you know, plastic, not that expensive anymore. So pretty compelling as far as maybe a little something to get into over the cooler months. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. |
| Jason Heaton | I was down another rabbit hole. I was looking at both the, what is it called? You know, the new truck that Amazon came out with. Is it the Slate? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think that's the name of it. But yes, I know what you mean, that and the Scout. |
| Jason Heaton | That and the Scout, yeah, the Scout. I mean, the Scout is the one that really piques my interest. And those are part of this new generation of vehicle that kind of accepts various sort of 3D printed components. |
| James Stacey | Accessories, yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Accessories for attaching things inside. And yeah, it's just, it's really opened up a whole new space and a whole new sort of outlet for creativity. So that's really cool. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, absolutely. I think those trucks, providing they get off the ground and people enjoy driving them and there's a service network, all the things that require a car, that a car requires to become an active part of a population, I think that could be quite fascinating. But man, I can't imagine the challenge those brands are up against to deliver that at the price they've said with the dealer support network and things like that. You look at something like a product as cool and well-made as the Ineos, and even that had people saying, look, this thing's made like a full-ton truck. It's tough. It's really nice. It's got a bunch of great parts on it. But also, what happens when one breaks? How close do you live to an Ineos dealer or that sort of thing? So, I mean, yeah, it's something to consider. But I think the appeal of those, the Scout, and yeah, I think Slate sounds right. I didn't pay a ton of attention to But the appeal of them at that price point, it seems quite high. I think both of them are kind of sub 30 is the plan. Yeah, yeah. Which is, you know, I think compelling in today's market. Yeah, definitely. |
| Jason Heaton | All right. Well, before we get into risk check and our main topic, we've got a couple of kind of recurring announcements, a little housekeeping that we've been doing over the past few episodes. You want to catch people up on, well, how about the marathon party? |
| James Stacey | For sure. Yeah, I can actually get through both of these really quickly so we don't spend a ton of time on it. First of all, like we've mentioned for the last couple of episodes, The Marathon Party RSVP link is in the show notes for the last couple episodes. It's in the show notes for this one. We're at about something like 75% capacity, so it's going really well. We have just a little bit less than a month before we do it. It is the evening of September 21st, the Sunday of the Toronto Timepiece Show. It's a little hangout between us and Marathon, a direct repeat of last year. I'm actually just trying to decide if we go with creative arts beer again, or I'm... considering Saanen Hill, which I've become quite a fan of as well. So working through a few of the really kind of fun things you get to do when you do something like this, but the party is free. The beer is free. The wine's free. The charcuterie is free. It's just a great time. So if you'd like to hang out with us the evening, again, that's a Sunday evening of the Toronto Timepiece Show. All the details in the RSVP link are in the show notes. And then the second one is please continue to send in your Q&A questions. We're going to start kicking off Q&A episodes to catch up with our backlog starting in September. So there'll be lots of extra episodes for people over the next few months. And if you'd like to get a question in, there's a good chance you'll get it answered. We're getting a lot of questions in, which is amazing, but we've got a lot of questions we need to answer to fill these shows. So if you've got a question for us, could be funny, could be serious, could be about watches, could be about something else. Let us know if you'd like us to kind of, you know, ramble on for five or 10 minutes about your question. We'd be happy to put it into the queue and get it into a future episode. So with the housekeeping out of the way, yeah, let's dive into a little bit of risk check. You want to go first? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure, yeah. I pulled out a watch I haven't worn in a while. This is the Vertex M60 Aqualion. I've got it on the bracelet, which is quite excellent, actually. And I had pulled it out a few weeks ago when it was... It's remarkably more humid and warm here. And the bracelet was sized for, I suppose, my winter wrist, maybe. And it was a little snug, so I put it away. But today, with it being a little cooler, it's just a nice loose feel on my wrist. And, you know, it's just one of those watches that every time I pull it out and put it on, I just think, like, I need to wear this more. It's just such a great piece. They're so good, man. Yeah, yeah. How about you? What do you get on? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it's a bit of a broken record. I spent a bunch of the week wearing the Doxa Sub 200. Then knowing I was coming up to the cottage, I wanted to switch to something a little bit more multi-role, a little bit, you know, just something I've... I mean, what am I saying? It's the Aqualand. I can't take this thing off. But now I've got a problem where... So I've got the loom dial, which everybody's aware of. I've talked a ton. I've got the 40th anniversary. And now I feel like I need a black dial. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I'm looking at, there was a Japan LE. I'm looking at everything on eBay and just considering like, do I need a third? And if I buy a third modern one, why don't I own a CO23? So do I need four? What's going on here? I don't know. This watch really encapsulates a lot of what I love about watches. It doesn't cost a ton. It is a huge amount of fun. It's super quirky and full of personality and weird. And we talked about the watch of espionage story about these watches previously. And that actually leads me to the second part, which is... Since I got this watch, I've been wearing it on that two-piece T-strap canvas-style nylon strap. I think I sent you one. It's a very nice option for the watch. It suits the watch well and wears really nicely. And especially with the color of this case, you know, I didn't put it on one of the elastic or the, like, fabric pull-through style ones, the Wochies. Yeah. that I was commonly wearing the other one on. But then, like I mentioned last week, I read that Watches of Espionage story, and in a lot of the images they showed guys wearing it on the old, the previous generation style rubber strap from Citizen that has like the ND tables on it. Yeah. So like I've had that for watches that had like 20 millimeter straps. I've never had a 24 millimeter ND Citizen strap. So I thought I'd just see what was available online. And it turns out, of course, people make essentially knockoffs of these straps. So I grabbed one on Amazon for $25. Today, $27.42 Canadian, but it's coming from the States. So it's probably about 20 bucks, maybe 18 bucks in the States. Yeah. And it's from MCXGL. It's the 24-millimeter silicone watch band compatible with Citizen Hyper Aqualand Duplex ProMaster men's dive strap sport waterproof wristband. So unlike the Citizen ones, in my experience, which are like rubber, with this strap that I bought that I'm wearing today, it's that sort of velvety textured silicone. Yeah. So it's super comfortable, like immediately comfortable because it's so soft it holds no real shape. And it's nicely elastic. I would say on my wrist at seven inches, I'm on the second smallest hole. So it's quite a large strap. Yeah. And I also cut off a piece of the tail that was too long to kind of balance it out. And I find it quite comfortable. I would say that the ND table is under the buckle sometimes, depending on how tight I wear it. As long as you don't mind that sort of velvety one, and often these ones pick up a lot of lint, which I was texting with Ben Lowry about, and that will be a pain if that's how this goes. So far, I've been wearing it for three days, basically nonstop, and it hasn't picked up any lint. It's a little bulky on my wrist, so if you're sensitive to a strap... maybe not overpowering the watch, but maybe overpowering your wrist at times. This may not be the one for you, but I'm liking it and I'll probably keep wearing it. I find it super comfortable. I've slept with the watch on the last couple nights, so no complaints on that front. Nice little strap for $25. Nothing special, but certainly wearable. |
| Jason Heaton | yeah yeah i i think one of the things that i always loved about the the original um nd limits citizen straps was the the metal keepers i just think um that's such a failure point on so many straps especially softer you know silicone straps brittle rubber ones those keepers they just they'll just deteriorate crack or fall off and and the metal keepers even though they're they can pull hair a little bit they're it was just such a smart sort of thing to do. And it just, it just added to kind of the purpose built, you know, thoughtfulness of that whole watch package. And I think, I mean, I've seen Seiko do some, some metal keepers and I think Citizen still does a few, but yeah, just a great. |
| James Stacey | Well, I think the keeper on the stock strap for the Aqualand is like a wide metal. Yeah. If I remember correctly. Yeah. Yeah. And that's a very nice like quality strap, but it's quite rigid. And, you know, sometimes I find it quite comfortable to wear and other times I want something that feels less bulky. Right. Yeah. And yeah, this strap, this one, it's not as good as the T-strap at double the price. Yeah. But if you want something that really does look the part of the Aqualand, which is, you know, with the rippled... rubber the vented rubber and um and you know the the yeah the kind of compression for a wetsuit and that sort of thing and it would definitely fit over a wetsuit yeah yeah uh stock so i would say if you're you know seven inches or up on the wrist you probably probably could enjoy it and i think it wears quite well yeah well um as we were talking i i had just forwarded you a link on slack from the buy sell trade forum or channel because |
| Jason Heaton | A guy named Andrew is selling a JP2000 with the dark blue dial, which is very sharp. And I think I knew about these. |
| James Stacey | Oh, is it for sale? Because somebody was trying to trade one. |
| Jason Heaton | No, it is for sale at a good price. |
| James Stacey | Are you going to buy that? |
| Jason Heaton | Nope. It's pretty sweet. |
| Unknown | Interesting. It's pretty sweet. Interesting. Dark blue. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. |
| James Stacey | No gold accents, all blue. Yeah. Yeah, pretty compelling. And no bracelet. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah, a 2067L. All right, cool, cool. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Unknown | Looks good. |
| James Stacey | Anyway, you can keep that in if you want. Another live purchase. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've deviated, but yeah, that's wrist check for the week. And we've got kind of a fun, you know, light topic for today's episode, which kind of covers the backstory of your involvement with the launch of a very exciting new dive watch. I think quite exciting. From Paulin called the Mara. Yeah. And, you know, you've talked about it in bits and pieces. You've done a bit about the project in the Hebrides. But I don't know if we've kind of told maybe the whole story back to back. So I thought maybe that would make for a decent topic today because, you know, it's the end of summer. Most watch brands are keeping their cards close to their chest for Geneva watch days. which starts a little more than a week away. So I thought it might be fun to kind of kick off by maybe a quick summary of the experience. You talked a lot about the travel in Scotland because we did an episode about it, but less so about the actual project, like building the content and the video and that sort of thing. How did all that come about? Because I know that you're close with Lewis at Anordane. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so if you remember, a little over two years ago, I went to Scotland in May of, I believe it was 23. Lewis was kind enough to loan his Defender for a road trip for a couple of weeks. And then I recorded an episode with him at Honor Dane's headquarters with him. And you can find that in our back catalog. Put it in the show notes. But I remember sitting there with him at Ordain's offices and there were some discussion about the development of a dive watch. And on that trip, I was wearing my blog pan, my 50 fathoms. And I know Lewis is a fan of that watch. He likes the aesthetic of it. And he and one of their designers, we sat down in an office there and we just started kind of going through some of their early drawings and ideas. And I was giving some feedback about... what's important in a dive watch you know the strap the bezel the you know dial color or no dial color um contrast stuff like that and you know as we were talking i kind of joked with with him that you know come launch time i'm i'm game to do some kind of a help out with some kind of a launch campaign and i suggested that we take it up to scapa flow which is this sheltered bay area up in the orkney islands in scotland where they British Navy scuttled the German fleet after World War I and there's a lot of wrecks to dive. And I said, oh, we should go up there and do some photography and video and stuff underwater for this watch. And then it was this past winter when he got in touch and said, well, we're going to launch a dive watch under the Pollen name, not under the Unordained name. And he sent a few early photos and we got kind of going back and forth. And I said, you know, this watch, it has more of a playful, I don't want to say casual, I guess casual look to it than something you'd take on a dark, cold wreck dive on military wrecks in the far north. I said, to me, it feels more like a coastal adventuring... in and out of the water you know some swimming some hiking some kind of just general travel kind of a vibe to it and he agreed so he pretty quickly cooked up this idea of of going to the outer hebrides to do this photo and video shoot to support the launch of this watch and so that's what led to my trip back in early may in which christy and i flew over there and to glasgow and This time we rented a Defender, as I mentioned on that earlier episode. We drove across the sky and took a ferry over to the Isle of Harris and did that whole adventure. And I don't need to recap the whole adventure, but what was fun about it was we were able to involve a small team from not only from Paulin slash Honor Dane, because they're sort of sister companies. pull in a really talented photographer videographer Brad Wakefield who's a TGN listener and just a guy that you know I don't know how Brad might remember but how I met him or how I became acquainted but it was probably one of these Instagram trading DMs sort of scenario as well as his involvement or his listening to TGN and And he was literally the only diving photographer that did topside and diving stuff in the UK. And so I said to Lewis, I said, I think I know somebody that might be able to help us. And I got in touch with Brad. Brad was very game to take on the job. And then Brad just became this great resource for... putting together this trip. He'd been to the Outer Hebrides. He knew these islands. He knew some great spots to do some shooting, these long causeways that connect the islands where you sort of drive on these very narrow roads across bodies of water. He knew some good beaches and some good places to do some open water swimming and some freediving. And so Brad really put together a great itinerary for us. And, you know, as I discussed back in that episode back in May when I got back, it just turned out really well. And then from then it was just a matter of kind of waiting for some things to be finalized with both the watch and with the video and the photography. And we kind of had this WhatsApp group among us that were on the trip and they were kind of trading. snippets and photos and video edits that turned into what we all saw last week when the watch was launched. I think it was well received. I think it turned out really well. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So, I mean, we can dig into the Brooklyn side of it kind of coming halfway around the world or a third of the way around the world to launch the watch sometime later last week. Yeah. But let's get into the watch itself because some people might have missed it. Certainly, it showed up on the Slack and we covered it on Hodinkee. But it's a dive watch offered in two versions, a black or a blue. It's 39.7 millimeters with a steel case. 13.5, including the crystal, 10.8 thick without, and 48 millimeters lug-to-lug. It's 300 meters water resistance. The dial is lacquer with Superluminova markers, I think quite interesting markers, a mix of circles, triangles, squares, and then 12 and 6. The branding I really like, like as far as the naming on the watch, because it's kept to the minute track. surrounding the dial, so you have almost a very sterile feeling. It's weird. It's like the Cali dial, like the Panerai symbols on one side. This is almost like a Glasgow dial, I guess, because it feels a little bit like a Cali dial because it has a mix of symbols and... and numbers, but it has this geometric balance due to, I think, largely the triangles and the application of the circle markers at 11, 1, 5, and 7. It's an interesting design. It has kind of a large, chunkier style bezel in terms of its relation to the proportions of the the dial and then the markings on the dial the hands and the bezel are luminous and I think there's they come with a rubber strap and a fabric strap as well and then looking at the Canadian price on the website here in the twenty three hundred dollar range you know what are you seeing for a US price I think it's based on about a fifteen hundred dollar fifteen hundred euro price point |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so in the US it's 1,686. So a very specific number, no doubt derived from a conversion from euros. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So into that somewhat more premium space for a micro brand, but in the pollen pricing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it is. It sort of occupies that, that sub $2,000 space. That's a pretty crowded space. Um, but I think, you know, what, what you're getting with the kind of more slightly higher level movement from Le Jou Perret, um, and then the lacquer dial and just. |
| James Stacey | Oh yeah. Sorry. I left that out. It's a, it's a G one Oh one. Yeah. Uh, automatic. Yeah. Um, so yeah, an uprated movement. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, nice movement. From the reviews I read, both on Hodinkee and Fratello and Monochrome and some others, I think by and large it has been well-received. And I think the most common comment I've seen, even in just the comments on these articles, is it doesn't look like anything else, which I think is a really hard thing to achieve, especially in the dive watch space these days. And as you were describing its look, and I'm looking at the photo on the website, on Paulin's website, when you talk about the... kind of the oversized bezel with the small dial, it has that sort of Doxa-esque feel to it in terms of the case shape and the dial to bezel ratio, I would say. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, and I think that price point puts it, you know, pretty squarely against something like a sub 200 or even a sub, you know, it's less than a 250T, I believe, a little bit more than a 200. Yeah. Similar in size at about 40 millimeters, a little under. uh and then yeah you're getting a quirky design i think a pretty viable option from a brand that's downstream of an ordained so you're not buying a kickstarter brand this is you know that they know what they're doing they've been making watches uh you know roldorf in in vancouver uh supports the brand so i know that they've been you know seen and worked on by a watchmaker i trust in general as far as the quality and i like this a lot i would definitely consider one of these especially if they expand into Like I think this is a great platform for more interesting color way than black or blue. You know what I mean? Like an orange would be really exciting for a watch like this. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I've seen some renders of, you know, I don't know if it was kind of early design ideas or plans for the future, but of quite a palette of different colors. And pollen is no stranger to that. |
| Unknown | They do a lot with color. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, true. The two launch colors, there were, insider secret here, there were originally going to be three colors, but they were having some trouble with the third colorway, so they decided to hold that one back. The blue and the black are the two that are available now. I think our strategy on the... during the photo and video shoot over in the, in the islands there in Scotland was, you know, let's use the black one for kind of more of the top side adventure stuff, the driving and the hiking part of the photos and video and, and reserve the blue with the rubber strap for, for the diving and the water stuff. And I, you know, for obvious reasons, but. I love the blue. I would love to put the blue on the black fabric strap. That's the way I would wear that one. I'm not much for matching strap color to dial color. I just have never been that way. A lot of people like orange straps on an orange doxa, etc. I don't roll that way. The black one really speaks to me. I love the black with that gray bezel. The pale gray bezel is great. It has that ghost bezel. People like that. It's not a big secret. |
| James Stacey | And I like the font that they've used. It feels almost automotive for the bezel. Yeah, right. It feels like something you might see in an Autodromo. Right. Which I mean as an absolute compliment. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I love the intentionality of the color where the black one has the gray bezel with the yellow accent. The blue has a dark blue dial with a bright blue, almost like a Hallios Tropic. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | bright blue bezel insert, but a little bit of yellow at the end of the seconds hand, just to keep that, that kind of similarity across. I mean, Paul and one of their calling cards is kind of a fun and exciting use of color, especially primary colors. Yeah. And I think, I think that they filled this out here. I love the sort of tonneau cushiony sort of case and they're super chunky hands. I assume you, you know, you've, you've seen it in person. The loom must be pretty solid. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | yeah lume is good and i one thing i like about it too is that they've kind of mimicked um the hands at first glance kind of look sort of simplistic but it it harkens to those those old iwc hands where the minute hand is sort of squared off at the end and narrow um and i've always liked that look i think you know one thing i told them is you know that's important with the dive watch is to kind of distinguish the minute hand from the hour hand and i think they've done a good job here without going in a very conventional route which would be you know a sword hand or you know some of their plunger or that style thing i think they've kind of done their own thing here and and in terms of the the dial markings you know you talked about that and the font that's used on the bezel but one thing i read in i think it was a review on fratello was that now i cannot not see it is the the use of the triangles, the triangle markers, you know, at first glance, I always just saw them as pointing in towards the center of the dial. But when you look at it now, the top triangles point up and the bottom triangles point down. So it's almost like an up and down sort of feature that I can't unsee that now. It's all I see when I look at it. It looks a bit like the volume button on a remote control. Yeah. And then the same, you mentioned that the dots and the dots kind of have that same tweak to them too, where it creates this symmetry on the dial that you can look at either horizontally or vertically. And it's just, yeah, it's pretty wild. It's, it kind of does a trick with my eyes. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I, you know, I'm not going to go as far as to say like that. I haven't seen this. I can say I haven't seen this on a watch before, but that hasn't been done before. Nothing's new under the sun in watchmaking, of course. Yeah. But I don't, I can't immediately recall a dial with this sort of a layout with this use of, of, such a various array of markers without it somehow feeling messy. Yeah. It feels quite concise. It feels easy to read. I think they look quite good. Yeah. I like this. I think they've done a nice job. I think that the, at about 1500 euros, the price point makes sense. Right. For a watch with a G100 from a brand that people, you know, have a strong affinity for. Yeah. To their credit. it doesn't look like other dive watches, which I think is, is value. It doesn't look like a sub. It doesn't look like a planet ocean. You know, I think, I think they've done a nice job of making something that feels like a dive watch and, but has its own personality. So cool, cool, cool on them for that. And we'll certainly put all this in the show notes, of course. And to be clear. We're not getting paid to talk about this. I literally depict this episode topic late last night and told Jason it might be nice just to kind of hear the whole story of this. We like Paul and we like Lewis. Would love to have him on the show again in the future. Ann Ordain's very impressive in what they've done. But yeah, we're just covering this because we thought it would be a fun topic and something to talk about both watches and the adventure of... putting all together but look i think to to sort of close the story out if you will yeah why don't you walk us through because i know there were some of the crew at the brooklyn event why don't you give us a quick rundown of of the brooklyn event and how that went yeah that was a lot of fun it was um that was kind of came about a couple of months ago when when they picked the date for the actual launch and they did it in collaboration with the wind-up shop our buddies over at worn and wound and |
| Jason Heaton | I had never been to their shop, but we ended up staying at a hotel just literally around the corner from it, which was very convenient. And Katie from Pollen was the representative from the brand who came. And she's a really great person. And I kind of had some exchanges with her virtually, but never met in person. And so we kind of went back and forth to kind of come up with a plan for it. And our friend Kyle Snarr was there from Shadow Kyle, Worn and Wound. And he was the moderator of a little bit of a Q&A that... that we did that night at the event and they had you know catered food and and uh brooke lottack the scotch whiskey company was there pouring nice samples of two different whiskeys that's awesome yeah it was great very fitting and they had kind of a full range of pollen watches not just the the mara diver but but several of their other watches and it was a good turnout i would say i don't know i wasn't clicking the counter at the door but you know that's you know 100 folks 100 people or so showed i mean it's a pretty pretty packed place for a small space And I saw a couple of TGN orange caps. I saw some TGN t-shirts. I'm not going to remember all the names of the TGN folks I met, but there was a really good contingent of listeners there. And a lot of CWN1s. I mean, there were a lot of the crew watches there. I saw probably five different ones. amazing people people really turned out and came and said hello and it was a lot of fun and we after about an hour of kind of just mingling and chatting with people we we went in kind of a side room and kyle did a short q a where we talked about the the watch itself and kind of diving with it and and uh kind of testing it out and some of the design elements and and it was just an all-around great time i mean it's just uh really fun you know having not gone to um two watches and wonders or wind up chicago it was kind of my my first time this year kind of getting out there at a watch event and it felt good it felt really good to meet some people and have some food and some whiskey and just kind of chat about watches and and kind of feel the enthusiasm for this new watch it was really fun kind of came full circle to the whole project |
| James Stacey | I haven't had the ability or the opportunity, the pleasure, however you'd like to put it, to visit the worn and wound studio there, the space they have in Brooklyn. How is it? Yeah, it's really cool. It's... |
| Jason Heaton | I learned from them that it's actually their office. Their office is kind of in a little side or back space there. They just kind of pull a curtain across. But the main room itself is just long tables down the middle and then sort of kind of workbench style along each wall with pegboard. And then they have straps hanging and they have some EDC stuff. And then they just kind of have watches laid out there for viewing. And it's a pretty open space. I feel like industrial is an overused word, but it kind of has that feel to it. Sort of a workshop feel. It feels like you're going into some of the wood shop, except much cleaner. |
| James Stacey | They always kind of had that vibe with their booth at Windup, like with pegboards holding up some of the gear and that sort of thing, which I always kind of appreciated. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. It did have that same feel to it. They've really kind of translated that to their presence at the, at the windup shows as well. So it was good. And, and, you know, Blake and Zach and, um, Devin and Griffin and, you know, a bunch of other guys were, uh, were there and that, that was really nice to catch up with those guys as well. And, and Kat and, uh, and Myra from, from Worn and Wound. So it was, uh, It was a really good time and it was great. And then, you know, Christy came along for this trip and she was at the event, but then we also had a good time exploring Brooklyn. I had never been to Brooklyn. I kind of went back and forth with you a little bit ahead of the trip and I got some recommendations for food and things to do there from some listeners on Slack. And we made the most of what really amounted to about two and a half days there. We went to the Brooklyn Museum and the Botanical Gardens, which is... Really spectacular. Had some good food at a place called Runner and Stone. It was a really great breakfast spot and good baked goods. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We went to Governor's Island. And just, yeah, kind of made the most of a couple really pleasant days there. It was raining the first day, just sort of a drizzle. But the next two days were pretty sunny and warm and really nice. So, yeah, kind of had my New York fix for the first time in a couple of years. So it was great. |
| James Stacey | Well, that's great, man. Yeah, I'm glad that all worked out. And I think it was a pretty cool project to see it be part of, you know, launching a new dive watch and one that I think is pretty rad. And I'm looking forward to eventually seeing it in person. Maybe that'll be in Vancouver, maybe somewhere else. We'll have to see in the next little while. But yeah, why don't we jump into some final notes? Sure. Why don't I give my voice a rest a bit? You can go first. For sure. Yeah, mine's actually kind of a fun one, but it doesn't have to take a super long time. So this week, I think actually just today on Monday, Chris Harris posted a video driving a Veyron, a Bugatti Veyron that's going up for auction soon. And it got me thinking. about the veyron uh and i realized you know that car is now 20 years old it came out in 2005 because i drove one in 2014 and i've talked about it on the show before and it was so long ago it's it's not really that uh immense of a story it's an exceptionally fast car as you expect and i signed uh some exceptional paperwork to be able to go for a drive Where was that? That was at the Quail in 2014. So the car show. And they had Andy Wallace. You can Google him. He's an absolute king of a man. I believe he drove the Veyron and the Chiron to its world record speeds. You know, ex-factory driver. Just an all-around good guy. He was in the right seat. They weren't just handing the keys to... I believe they sold it later that day. But I mean, look, a few hours before somebody spent $3 million on that, they were on, I guess it was a Grand Sport. Grand Sport Vitesse, maybe. I'd have to go back and check. I wrote a story in 2014 for a blog to watch about it. But a few hours before someone paid, you know, a lifetime's worth of money for that car, I think I drove it and Ted Gashue drove it and Anish drove it and... I think it would have been put through its paces, at least as far as you can put a car like that through its paces on public roads. But yeah, we're just out by the quail, like in that area, kind of on the direction towards, say, Laguna Seca. So there's some roads there that some people listening will know. But as I was listening to Chris's video, and I'll include his video in the show notes, it led me back to a very fond memory of an episode of Top Gear where they race Jeremy in a Bugatti Veyron. And he's racing from Italy to London to deliver some truffles to a restaurant. and Richard Hammond and James May were going to do the whole same trip in a Cessna 182 because James May had just gotten his pilot's license. Oh, wow. And so that's what they were racing against between the plane and this car. And, you know, I look back very fondly on that, and I realize that episode was also from 2005. Wow. And I remember very fondly watching that night that it was brand new. At the time, you had to torrent episodes of Top Gear. And that's what you would do to catch up on these episodes. But I wanted to just recommend... One, I'll also include... There's a Top Gear races Wikipedia page where you can go back and watch all of these races where they race... of ferrari 612 to verbier against the train and like all they're great they're really fun um and they're they're not as popular maybe a sub genre of top gear episodes as like the big challenges where they have to buy a car and go drive across a desert or whatever yeah but as that sub thing you know these are 10 12 minutes long when they're edited into a single thing and the top gear youtube channel has put almost all of them on the website as far as i can i can tell So my suggestion is to go back and watch the 2005. It's from series seven, episode five, uh, the Bugatti Veyron race or Bugatti Veyron versus a Cessna, depending on, on the titling on YouTube. Uh, great, great video, great piece of like classic top gear. And it's weird for me to think that that's 20 years ago. That is crazy. Yeah. Because it just doesn't, it feels like five in, in my memory. Uh, but some, some great episodes in that list of the, of the races, but there's something. There's something so exceptional and so end of a certain generation about the Veyron that even if you look at it and you go, that's ridiculous. It's a hypercar. It's for incredibly rich people. It's barely a real thing. All of that is true. But at the same time, it's a marvel of engineering. And there's even some incredible videos that Henry's done visiting their factory, I think, or more around the era of the Chiron. |
| Unknown | Yeah. And talking about... |
| James Stacey | all the engineering that goes into these cars and that sort of thing. And sure, maybe the product is silly in the end, but there's something I think very human about such an insane thing, even if I'm never going to be able to afford one. And of course, was very fortunate to have had some seat time. And then later on, I drove a Chiron in Vancouver when I was writing for Nuvo. Wow. You know, they're totally inappropriate things on public roads. And they also don't make any sense on a racetrack. They really are kind of... Engineering for engineering's sake. They're very impressive things, and I think where, sure, like Chris says in his video, you could probably outrun one in a modern Turbo S today, at least to a certain speed, maybe not to the top, certainly. there's something so much more special about them than that. And that, you know, you see the inside and how well they've aged and all these things. So I'll include these videos and you guys can check it out. I have such a soft spot for these. For me, it's the same sort of thing that makes me love the SR-71. Yeah. And that sort of thing is just this... look at the stats on it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. And you're right, it has aged well. And it is crazy that that's 20 years old. I mean, there potentially are a few listeners that are listening right now that were, you know, either toddlers or born in that year. It's kind of crazy to think that a car that still seems very relevant and very... Kind of new and modern and just almost futuristic. |
| James Stacey | Well, it kind of established the broader concept of a hypercar, which, of course, is now like a whole category. Right, right. 2005 to 2015 was the era of the Bugatti Veyron. So check that out if you look back on that era with any interest or if you weren't aware of that episode of Top Gear because you're lucky enough to have been young enough to have not seen it in the first place because these are some delightful episodes of television if you like cars. And with it, what's your final note for the week? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I realize that I've been using final notes to talk about articles that I've read that often come behind a paywall, and I apologize for that. I'll try to amend that, but I would guess that... You can either get a gift link or some of you might subscribe to the New York Times online. And there's a great story. I believe it was published August 5th here. So about three weeks ago called Bite Club, the fraternity that awaits you after a shark attack. And it's really a fascinating story about a group that was kind of founded in Australia for obvious reasons for people that have been attacked by sharks. sharks, probably bull sharks, great whites, tiger sharks, things like that. And it's now kind of an international club, if you will, that I believe kind of exists mainly on Facebook, but it has over 500 members. And it's kind of become like almost a, I mean, it's one of those things, I suppose, like... You know, if you're attacked by a shark, bitten by a shark, whether, you know, you have to have a leg or an arm amputated or just have major scars. I mean, it must be, it's a very traumatic event that not many people can relate to. And so this club was sort of formed by people that could relate to each other, whether it was, you know, recovering from, you know, nerve damage or, you know, amputees or... Just trying to get over the trauma of, you know, do you want to get back in the water again? And it's quite a fascinating story about, you know, how these people... Some of them have met up in person, but it's largely online. But it's like one of these small groups of people that share a very unique traumatic experience and how they're kind of supporting each other. And it was really an interesting story about this group and its members. So yeah, I just thought I'd throw that in there. It's called Bite Club, the fraternity that awaits you after a shark attack. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I'll have to check that out. I clicked on the link and I got the prompt to pay 50 cents a week for the first however many weeks and it's however many thousands of dollars after that. I'm just kidding. But yeah, I'll have to check that out for sure. Very cool story. Great. And I guess it's surprising that that exists, but at the same time, it makes perfect sense that if you had been bit by a shark, you would want to talk to other people who had had that experience. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's the plot of horror films. Yeah, yeah, exactly. My guess is there's support groups for people who have other violent things happen to them and this makes sense in some way. But yeah, that's a fascinating kind of peg for a story for sure. Good recommendation. |
| Jason Heaton | It's kind of like the, it makes me think about the MB-1, you know, the Bremont that was only available to people that ejected from an airplane. You know, it's a pretty small club. Like maybe a watch company needs to come up with a dive watch that is only available to those who've been attacked by a shark, although I'm not sure. That's appropriate or whatever, but there's a hook for you if anybody wants that idea. |
| James Stacey | I can think of a few brands who would at least try that. Yeah, right. Send out the press release. All right. Well, hey, man, that was a fun episode. Thanks so much for that. And thank you to everyone who showed up in Brooklyn to represent TGN and support. Jason, for that dive watch launch. And look, I'm going to say it one more time. Please, if you're coming to the Toronto Timepiece Show and can stick around for Sunday night, we would love to see you at the party. And we're going to have a really good time like we did last year. So hit the RSVP link in the show notes if you're interested. And as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegraynato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from the Scotsman Thomas Carlyle, who said, A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one. |