The Grey Nato - Episode 04 - "No Sleep Till Basel"
Published on Sun, 13 Mar 2016 11:39:27 -0400
Synopsis
This is episode 4 of The Grey NATO podcast discussing Baselworld 2016, the biggest watch trade show of the year. Hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton share their thoughts on what to expect from brands like Rolex, Omega, Blancpain, Tudor and others at the show. They detail the massive scale of Baselworld and offer tips for navigating the event. In addition to new watch releases, they look forward to networking, meeting with brands, and enjoying the whole Baselworld experience in Basel, Switzerland.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Welcome to episode 4 of The Great NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. I'm James Stacy, based in Vancouver. I call myself a professional enthusiast and I write about watches, cars, and almost anything else that catches my eye for a blog to watch.com, nouveau magazine, and more. |
| Jason Heaton | And I'm Jason Heaton, a Minneapolis-based freelance writer for a number of gear, travel, and timepiece publications, including Gear Patrol, Hodinkee, Revolution, and Men's Journal. |
| James Stacey | Thanks so much for listening, commenting, emailing, and reviewing the show. We appreciate all of the feedback, whether it's via email or on Instagram, you can always hashtag TheGrenado. Before we get going in today's show, don't forget that we now have full show notes at TheGrenado.com. Just expand the show description and you can see all those sweet, sweet links. And with that housekeeping out of the way, Let's move on to the main topic. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, James, the elephant in the room is Baselworld. And actually, as this podcast goes live on Tuesday, you and I will be winging our way to Switzerland for a week or more of meetings and events with a lot of watch brands. I did a final tally just yesterday of all the appointments I've got, and I have exactly 50 appointments booked over the five days that I'm at the show. What does your schedule look like? I bet you've got even more than I do. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I try not to look at the schedule because it is it is an absolute assault. You know, I'm there for seven days, and it's just seven days of show coverage, obviously, including some travel. But yeah, I would imagine you know, we do 1010 or 12 meetings a day. Wow. until one of us kind of just falls flat or uh or you know sleeps through a meeting or something but yeah the you know i'm going with the blog to watch.com we have a big team of guys and we you know we hustle it's a real grind but uh you want to get to as many meetings as possible and see as much as possible because there's a certain section of watches that you want to talk about immediately that you know are very much in the core of what readers want to see and hear about and and see the news and then there's watches that take their time to kind of either actually be released. We'll see some things, of course, that are under embargo until a little later in the year. But this way we have the good photos and we have some hands-on impressions. And that's what Baselworld's about. It's about being able to see and touch some of these pieces that, I mean, some are sold out before they ever actually make it to a store. So I wouldn't even have a chance of seeing them in Vancouver. Right, right. |
| Jason Heaton | You know, I think before we kind of dive in more deeply into, you know, what we're looking forward to or any predictions we might have, I think it might be helpful to kind of get a little bit of an overview of of what Baselworld's all about in case some listeners aren't familiar with the show. And, um, you know, to kind of contrast it with what we experienced earlier that this year in January at SIHH, which is the other big watch trade show that happens in Geneva, uh, which we talked about in episode one, um, you know, Baselworld, whereas SIHH is, is I think between 16 and 25 brands. I can't remember what they're up to now, but, uh, it's a smaller show. Baselworld is huge. I mean, it's, um, You know, we're talking thousands of watch brands. There's jewelry involved, which you and I don't really touch. But it's just a massive show. I mean, I would say it's really hard to almost express exactly how big this show is to somebody that hasn't been there. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I always try and struggle with the idea of how do you paint this for somebody who hasn't had a chance to go. It spreads over, I believe, five halls. in kind of one large building. And then there's an annex called the palace, which you'll hear referred to. And the palace houses a bunch of the independent brands and then a bunch of brands that that want to be in the palace because it's a little bit more of a chill atmosphere. It's a little bit more luxurious. It's a little bit like a tiny S.I.H.H. Yeah. The palace on its own. But the main hall, I mean, it's bigger than an airplane hangar. I don't know how to describe its size. It's huge. It's a giant convention center. And then every imagine it like roads. built into each each floor of these halls, and certainly hall one and hall two, every block is is huge buildings that are built by the brand. So if you've ever been to say, like a big car show, like an industry car show, and at the back behind the cars, there's an actual area where you know, they have trinkets and and and where they actually sell cars and where they deal with big buyers and things like that. Imagine those two story kind of places where BMW entertains buyers and then turn that into a small hotel. And that's basically what you have. Like, you know, you come right in and they pay a huge amount of money, millions of dollars for each of these positions, especially the ones that are closest to the entrance. So when you walk in the last few years, right on your right hand side is TAG. And I would say the TAG building is five stories. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think you're right. |
| James Stacey | It's got to be 40 or 50 feet tall. It'll have a race car right out front. And then when you go in, it's just a main hospitality space that looks vaguely like a four or five star hotel. And there's people with food and drink and then every floor has different areas to deal with press. So different rooms for different parts of the world and things like that. But you go in these things and it's one, it's easy to get lost. That's how big they are. And you're often going up and down three or four flights of stairs depending on where they take your specific meeting. And they all have, you know, presentation spaces and photography rooms. Breitling's has a huge aquarium. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | They often have very elaborate displays out front, whether it's, you know, semi broken down segments of watch movements, but, you know, in 500 times their size or, you know, anything you can imagine. Sometimes they have a really, you know, special car. That was the only time I've seen an Alpha 33 in person. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, that was beautiful. Eberhard. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, Eberhard last year, one of my favorite cars in history, and not one you're going to see very often. |
| Jason Heaton | I think there was a Lamborghini Mira at another booth, I think, last year. |
| James Stacey | There definitely was a Mira, yeah, an S I believe, like a later 71, 72, something like that. But like if you have to go from Hall 1 to Hall 2, that's a hike. Yeah, yeah. To get to a meeting, you know, if you're going from a Zenith to Zen, you're going to have to move a bit. Zinn's a smaller brand. They're in an area of the show that's just simply cheaper to operate within. They still have a beautiful booth, but now in hall two and such, you get booths that are more like the size of a store. |
| Jason Heaton | And then there are spaces in, I'm not sure which hall it is. I've lost track, but it's also a show where there are sub suppliers as well. So you get movement suppliers, you get case makers from Hong Kong, you know, Taiwan, anywhere in Asia, Europe. And so the watch brands that subcontract out some work to gasket makers or crystal makers, I mean, they have their own booths. And the further along you get into these smaller halls, these smaller booths, it almost becomes like you're going to like a little street market or something. Yeah, exactly. The spaces get smaller and smaller and the types of products that they're, I don't want to say hawking, but the things that they're selling get more and more specific. |
| James Stacey | So yeah, the scale I think is something that's really hard to, hard to illustrate appropriately because it is very big. Certainly we've done some wrap ups on a blog to watch the last couple of years that have some proper, you know, wide photography of the main show floor. But even then it just looks like a lot of people in a really fancy mall. Yeah. And it's so much stranger than that. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And, and from the, you know, part of the experience too is, is when you arrive or when, when we arrive in the morning, and I think you, you get there a little later in the day, James, cause you're working late into the night. But yeah, if you get there right away in the morning at nine or nine 30, whenever the hall opens, everybody has to have an access badge, um, depending on if you're an exhibitor or you're public or you're a journalist and you wear it around your neck and you have to scan it at a turnstile before you can get in. And they don't let you through the, these turnstiles or these scanners until the hall is officially open. So you get this scrum of people, just thousands of people just packed shoulder to shoulder waiting to walk through those turnstiles and scan their badges. And, you know, everyone's pushing and shoving and jockeying for position and you get people, you know, toting, you know, giant bags of camera gear or pulling, uh, you know, rolling suitcases of camera gear. Yeah, that's me. Yeah, that's you. And then once you get through, it's, it's, you know, it's almost, you feel like you're going to get trampled. You go through the turnstiles and there are always some You know, very pretty models that have been hired, poor things, to stand on high heels all day and hand out the daily news from Baselworld. And everybody just sort of surges past and heads on their way. You know, you think SIHH is a little more genteel. You get an opportunity if I pass a fellow journalist from a blog or a publication in Europe that I haven't seen since the last show, I can stop and chat and maybe have a coffee. Baselworld's not like that. If you see somebody you know, it's usually you're running past each other, you know, sweating on the way to like the far end of the hall to make your next appointment. You might just shout hello and keep going. It's quite an experience. It's definitely worth it for what we see and especially for people in our line of work. It's an essential show to go to, but you really have to sort of brace for impact when you're heading to Basel. |
| James Stacey | And then you have to be prepared to drink a lot of coffee. Every meeting is coffee and Swiss chocolate. And by, like, I remember my first year, which was just a whirlwind. by the sixth or seventh meeting of the first day, I couldn't get any, any of my photos in like in focus. And I like set my camera down in my hand shaking. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I've had like 25 espressos in six hours. Yeah. And then finally now you just, nah, I'm good. I had coffee a couple hours ago. I don't need it just because I'm sitting down at another meeting. Yeah. But it's all about, it really is all about the product. You know, it's really fun because you get to see those watches. And unlike everyone else who pays, in my opinion, quite a lot of money to walk around the booths as public, they don't get really any access. It's like being, like for the public, it's pretty similar to being in a big retail store, but they're not even taking anything out of the case for you. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. It's almost like going to a mall that's been closed. And all the gates are down at the doors and all you can do is look in the windows at what they have in the windows. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, exactly. To actually get to see product, you need a, you know, you need a meeting and you need press credentials and you'll go up to a desk and somebody who barely speaks English will take a business card and come back a couple minutes later and get you into the meeting and then you start to see some stuff. And all that, that hassle and hustle and obviously traveling to this side of the world is worth it because you get to see some, some stuff that, like I said, I would never, I would never get a chance to see in Vancouver. Yeah. Uh, maybe if you were in New York, you could skip Basel and then have a pretty good chance of seeing this stuff throughout the year as it started to hit the retail environments. But there's no chance for me. This is, this is, you know, SIHH in Basel is my chance to expand my experience with all of these brands and make sure that I have pictures of the interesting stuff that I'd like to share throughout the year. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I think you and I go to Basel with different goals and responsibilities. I think we both, you know, not being, you know, in sort of the center of the watch universe in North America, in New York, you and I do need to go and see the product, but it's also a good opportunity for us to meet the reps from the brands, the PR people, the marketing people, the product people, you know, just to kind of get a little FaceTime, shake some hands, as well as just bumping into fellow journalists. In the evening, there are often dinners or events that, you know, we get invited to that You know, if you can shake off the jet lag and hold it off a little further with some more coffee, you know, you go and have a nice dinner and that's your opportunity to catch up with the fellow writers. I'm going with two other guys from Gear Patrol and we don't, our site, we just don't tend to do the sort of newsy, you know, first look, hands-on type coverage that a lot of the blogs do, including a blog to watch. And so for me, it really is more about seeing the new products and kind of planning for a year's worth of content across all the various publications that I write for, as well as just to kind of network with people. So for better or for worse, I don't tend to have to lug a lot of gear with me for photography. I'll probably take a camera and one lens, but just a ton of business cards and notebook and a decent sized shoulder bag to haul all of the USB drives and brochures and things that I get. But James, I know for you, this is go time and this is kind of, this and SIHH are your big your big coverage shows. You have a lot of, you know, work that you actually have to do at the show. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. As a team, we'll end up shooting like probably a hundred, 110 gigs of photos. Wow. And probably another 60 or so gigs of video. So yeah, we have, uh, this year we'll have up to five guys shooting, but, um, you know, definitely four dedicated photographers taking different meetings and just making sure that we get what we want to see so that obviously Nobody's gonna skip the Rolexes, the Omegas, the new releases from Blancpain, Tag, and Zaneth, and the big, you know, the big brands. But there's a key contingent within a blog to watch, and one that I feel like, you know, I'm very much a part of, that wants to see some of the stuff that there's no retailer in your town for, or even in your country. Like, I take a meeting with Squala while I'm there, and they don't have a booth, really. Oh, yeah. you know, they have people on site and you can see product if you know to ask. But, you know, otherwise you just don't get a chance. And then with some of the other brands, especially the really high end independents, this is a chance to see things that maybe they only made five of. Yeah. And they held on to one to show at Basel that is going to be delivered to its owner next week. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, sure. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So like you get a chance to go and sit down across from Kari Voutilainen or the Gronefeld Brothers or MB&F and you see some just amazing things. That's not the kind of thing that I think you and I would actually save up and buy or aspire to own. Right. But much like, you know, much like a one of three Lamborghini or some amazing Ferrari, ownership, in my opinion, isn't really what draws somebody, the masses to their level of interest. Right. This is about just experiencing a certain echelon of the hobby, of the love of watches. Right. I think the last few years have been really good years for product, like there's always been enough to talk about. And I agree that SIHH is better tuned where pretty much the center of any of those roads, you could sit down and have a chat with somebody, whereas there's nothing like that really. At Basel, it's just space to move from one meeting to another or one hall to another. Yeah. But certainly in the evenings, yeah, you get a chance to kick back and see some people. So, you know, there's lots of great people in this industry and people that I look up to and whose work I really respect. And this is my chance to, uh, you know, say hi and see what's new and, and, you know, see what they're, what they've got on risk, that sort of thing. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I, it, it's funny in past years, I've, I've actually, you know, bumped into people that I only know through social media, through Twitter or Instagram. |
| James Stacey | Uh, yeah. So on that note, before we move on to product, If you are at Basel and you see Jason or I, don't even think for a second that we wouldn't want to say hi. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Oh, definitely. |
| James Stacey | Anyone from Instagram, walk up, say hi. It'd be really nice to, uh, to meet. And, uh, and then, you know, Jason, what, what are you thinking as far as, uh, let's say some predictions or what you're hoping to see? What do you think? |
| Jason Heaton | Well, you know, I, I've gathered from some early Intel that, that there are three kind of biggies that, that excite me this year. And one is it's the 40th anniversary of the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Um, so I think we're going to see something special from Paddock, uh, with, with, uh, regard to the Nautilus, um, Omega, I think is, is going to be refreshing the planet ocean this year. If I'm, um, hearing, uh, rumors correctly. Um, and then, uh, Instagram has been kind of buzzing Blancpain's, uh, Instagram feed has been showing a lot of 50 fathoms, uh, images, historical images, uh, this past week. And I have a feeling we're going to see something pretty exciting from them. with regard to that iconic dive watch. And I think, um, you know, for me, that's enough to put up with, with sore feet and the overheated meeting rooms to, uh, to see that stuff. Um, I'm also curious to see, uh, how, uh, Tudor follows up, uh, its recent successful run. You know, they, they've had a couple of really, really strong years at Basel, especially ever since they reintroduced, um, their line to, uh, to this part of the world. And, They recently lost their chief designer, a guy named Davide, I think his last name is Ceruto. He left to go to Mont Blanc. And, you know, he was the guy, I think, who spearheaded the good run of heritage products. They had the Heritage Chronograph, the Black Bays, and the Ranger specifically, as well as the Pelagos and the North Flag last year. So it'll be interesting. I think, you know, whatever we see from Tudor this year will still be probably legacy stuff from his run there. But I'm curious to see even, you know, regardless of his position there, what Tudor does. I mean, they've had such good showings the past few years that, you know, I'll be curious to see how they follow up, you know, the in-house movement that they introduced last year, the North Flag, which was an all new platform for them, as well as obviously the real winning heritage products that they've got. So it'll be, it'll be interesting. I can't even predict what Tudor will do this year, unless it's something like new colors or or maybe in adding a GMT hand to something. But, you know, on Tuesday night, you and I will both be at the Tudor pre-Basel party and, you know, presumably we'll start to see some new stuff or at least catch some hints about it. So I'm pretty, I'm always excited to see what Tudor does. They're one of my favorite brands that make products that kind of are right in my wheelhouse. Yeah, agreed. And then, you know, Rolex, obviously annually, they do a great job of, of keeping good secrets and they're always a source of intrigue leading up to Basel. So, you know, they really don't even give the slightest hint, um, other than some, I think one year they, they put out some really shadowy photos that everybody sort of leaped on, on social media and on the forums. Uh, but you know, a couple of years ago it was the new Sea-Dweller, which everybody was just blown away by. I just love that watch. Who knows? It'll be maybe a steel Daytona with a black ceramic bezel. But I also, I also really get excited about, um, the smaller brands. Uh, I love seeing, meeting with Oris. I'm meeting with Zinn this year, which is the first time I've met with them. It's a great meeting. Yeah, I love their watches, as we both do. Speakmarin is another one I met with Peter Speakmarin last year. It was my first appointment of the show, and he's just a great, fun guy to meet. The watches aren't necessarily something I would wear, but I respect what he does, and I like the guy a lot. Braemont is always a fun one to meet with. Just a lot of the small stuff, meeting with Doxa, meeting with Thomas Mercer, that marine chronometer company that I wrote about on Hodinkee last week. Right on. So that'll be fun. And, you know, we'll see. What about you? What are you looking forward to? What do you have any predictions? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I mean, I'm my relationship with Patek Philippe is just pure fan. I'm not a, you know, an expert by any stretch. I love the Nautilus. There are a thousand better places online to learn about Patek Philippe than anything I will write about Patek Philippe. So I would stick mostly to like news. I've never owned one, but I love the Nautilus. So if they want to do something new with that, all for it, I mean, from a base Nautilus standpoint, I guess the white dial a few years ago was kind of the last from an entry level. I mean, it's entry level for Nautilus. It's not an entry level watch, but an entry level design. And then of course we saw the 5990 recently, the GMT chronograph. So, I mean, there's room there and it's such an amazing platform and it's such a beautiful watch. It's rare for a watch of that size, like the Nautilus family, to have the kind of wrist presence they do. You can see a Nautilus from across the room. Yeah. Despite it being a thin watch with a relatively small dial. If Omega decides to redo the Planet Ocean with some of the newer technology they have, as far as movements, I don't see how that could hurt in any way at all. Yeah. The Planet Ocean design for a modern watch I think is right on point and then what it might have lacked in kind of a vintage aesthetic. They obviously picked up with the SM300, the Master Coax 300. So I think they have a really fantastic line of dive watches right now with Omega. And I imagine they may move some of their Master Coaxial, you know, anti-magnetic properties and such into the Planet Oceans. But I would question how much they'll really change the aesthetics. Like, do you think they'll make a big swing suddenly the Planet Ocean's going to look more like the Seamaster 300. I think they'll probably relatively stay the course, wouldn't you expect? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I can't even envision what a different Planet Ocean would look like. They've evolved that watch just subtly, sort of glacially almost, since they first introduced it back in the mid-2000s. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, even the old ones don't look like you could stack them up together, and there's some very small changes, and certainly by the time you get to the GMT, they basically finished how that line looked. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and it's such a great looking watch that I don't, I almost hope they don't tweak it too much. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And I hope they stick with offering the two sizes because I think that's a strategy that other brands might be smart to try. Yeah. You know, with that 42 being that, in my opinion, roughly the perfect size for a sporty dive watch, but obviously they have a strong usage case for offering the 45.5 because it just allows people who prefer a larger watch to have the same outlet as far as that aesthetic. Right. And then with Blancpain, I mean, last year they showed the Ocean Commitment 50 Fathoms Chronograph, easily one of my favorite watches of the show. I love a blue watch. And then that ceramic case, which looks almost like titanium until you touch it. That's gotta be one of the most fantastic things I put my hands on at Basel last year because it does look like titanium. Yeah. And then you pick it up and it doesn't, you know, obviously your hands could tell the difference between ceramic, like your fingertips could tell the difference between ceramic and titanium. That watch is so, so cool. It's a little thick, it's a little big. I love the look and the case, obviously a fantastic movement. I would be, you know, this isn't a prediction as much as a wishlist. I would love to see, a slightly smaller 50 fathoms bathyscaphe, not necessarily the chronograph, just the three-hander. Yeah. I find that there's a negative space of the 43 millimeter model that's just, it seems very large, especially when you actually put it on wrist. |
| Jason Heaton | I agree. And it has those small dial markers too, which sort of make the dial seem broader. |
| James Stacey | Definitely. Yeah. And I think at 40 millimeters, that would be an unbelievable watch or thereabouts. Again, that's more of a wishlist item than something I'm predicting, but we can always wish. With Tudor, I feel like they might go back and readdress the Fast Rider, their ceramic chronograph, which I think is a really, really cool watch, but I think it just got overshadowed by the Heritage lines. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. |
| James Stacey | Who knows? They may want to do more with the Heritage. They may have an entirely new design. With Tudor and Rolex, any prediction is just a guess. Nobody's going to know what's going to come out and I think the North flag was a real turn for them because it was a new design that wasn't specifically referential to recognizably Tudor. Yeah, maybe we'll see a Pelagos GMT. Certainly we've seen some pretty cool photoshops. Watch designers took a stab at some stuff like that and I thought the results were really cool. That's no reason for Tudor to make one, but I think that platform would lend itself well for GMT. And then with Rolex, man, they've been Instagramming a few stuff about the Daytona and its movement, so I want to think it's a Daytona year. We've obviously had some years with the GMT Master and Explorer II was redone in 2011. And we got the platinum with the ice dial Daytona a couple years ago. But that's not a, that's not a Daytona sport watch. That's just a Daytona. Um, you know, in platinum it weighs 270 grams, probably one of the heaviest watches I've ever picked up. Yeah. It would be really exciting. And I don't think entirely unlikely to see something like a steel Daytona with the ceramic bezel, like the next generation Daytona. But that could be just all of us wanting to see the Daytona make a specific nod to its past. Yeah. and also to its current popularity. And while any other brand, it might even be almost too easy to predict that Rolex just does what they want. Right. So the fact that, that the Daytona is one of the hottest vintage watches, like certain references of the old Daytonas are one of the hottest vintage watches in the world. I don't know that that factors into their, their thinking all that much. It's, it's just very hard to predict with, uh, with a brand like Rolex. I'm really excited to see Oris. They blew us away last year with the 65. I wasn't expecting that at all. Such a cool piece. Zinn is always great. They know exactly what they're good at and that's what they'll keep doing. So I'm hoping to see a couple more mission timers. It'd be really cool to see a T1, T2, you know, the titanium diver with a GMT. Oh yeah. A T2 UTC would be pretty crazy. And, uh, and then, yeah, obviously we spoke last episode about Bremont and there's lots of, uh, lots of great stuff there. And obviously they have some partnerships that are going really well that should, should you know, much to their past, render some pretty interesting pieces. Yep, should be, should be good stuff. And yeah, so that's Baselworld. Please stay tuned. We'll have an episode just after the show ends, but the show starts on the 16th for press and 17th for general public. If you're on site and you see us, please say hi. We'd love to say hi back. |
| Jason Heaton | And on to new business, which is our section where James and I talk about watches we've got in, things we're reviewing, other new products that we're kind of keen on these days. James, what's new in your world? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, not much in the last couple of weeks. Just a lot of prep for Baselworld. I'm enjoying the Longines COSD, so I'm still working on that review, but that should be wrapped up pretty shortly. I do want to thank everyone for their strap suggestions for the EXP2. I received Man, dozens of notes and emails about it. I have a couple straps that I'm really happy with. Swing by Instagram to see this really great grey strap that a friend sent me. But I do plan to look into Everstraps because they make some neat rubber options that are obviously designed specifically for that small gap. And then also I'm looking into the possibility of some custom straps from Blankstraps who you can check out on Instagram. and Drew straps, both of which are kind of handmade, often kind of Kevlar canvas style straps that look really great. And a couple of them have photos on Rolexes, but I think it would work with a bunch of different watches that I have. So that'd be good. I'll update that as it goes. If I do end up going with one of those straps, I'll be sure to explain the process. You know, a custom strap sounds like kind of a fun undertaking. |
| Jason Heaton | I love Drew Straps. I don't have one, but I'm also in the same boat where I'm considering ordering one because I just love that sort of weathered canvas look that he does. So I'll be curious to see what you think of that. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, definitely. So I'll be sure to share with that as it moves on. What's new in your neck of the woods? |
| Jason Heaton | On my end, I just finished up a couple of days ago, my review of the Zodiac Super Seawolf 68, and that's going to be published any day now. So check it out on gearpatrol.com. You know, I look back, it was a really satisfying watch in every way to wear and just to look at, and I'm just so happy to see the Zodiac name back on a really great tool watch. They had some dark years there, and the watch just didn't disappoint. It was a really high quality piece. The finishing was great, the push-to-turn bezel, it had a sunburst dial, and it had enough of the vintage cues that it just, just a really fun, great, sort of, I wouldn't say entry-level, but affordable tool dive watch. And then I've recently taken in a Glycine Airman No. 1, which I'm going to be reviewing for Hodinkee. And it's a really interesting piece. For those who aren't familiar with the Airman No. 1, it's a modern watch, but it is a dead ringer, or a one-to-one reissue of the first generation Airman that Glycine produced back in the 1950s. And it's just a pure pilot's watch. It's got a locking, rotating 24-hour bezel. The one I have has a third hand, you know, a GMT hand that moves once per day on an inner 24-hour scale, as well as the second time zone on the outer scale. And then it has the standard 12-hour hands as well. But what I find really interesting about this watch is They kept the original size, it's actually 36mm, so it's very small by modern standards. And they kept it with a high-polish steel case. And it has an acrylic crystal, so when you wear this watch, you swear you're wearing a vintage watch. I mean, even the font that they used on the dial, the color lume they used, it has such a vintage-y feel to it. My one question is, as I'm continuing to wear this, is whether or not I can pull off 36 millimeters over an extended period. It's a tough sell. I admire Glycine for doing it, but 36 millimeters is still pretty small for a lot of people. Kind of on the same theme, I've got a bit of a fetish for flight jackets or bomber jackets, if you want to call it that. And I recently picked up, I've got an MA2, which is sort of the cold weather version, but I recently picked up a reissue. from Alpha Industries of the L2B, which is the warm weather version. And Alpha Industries is a company that was once an official supplier to the US Air Force. So the jackets are basically the same jackets that they were issuing to Air Force pilots back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. And it's just a really well-made light nylon piece. It's got the left shoulder, cigarette, and pen pockets. And it should be a fun jacket to wear in the springtime. But I will not be wearing it to Baselworld because I think it'll just be Too casual and too warm for walking the halls there. |
| James Stacey | Oh man, you'd fit right in at the Breitling booth. They might give you a job. Yeah, right. You never know. I've checked out those Alpha jackets. There's not a single retailer in Canada. But I've looked at a couple of those jackets because they come in a slimmer fit option as well. And they look great. They kind of have, yeah, they kind of have that kind of military slash navy look all kind of locked in. Yeah. And yeah, real top gun. |
| Jason Heaton | Sort of stuff but not overdone right sometimes you see those jackets, especially when the ones where you know, they're removed before flight Yes zipper pull hasn't been removed by the guy wearing it and you're like or they've got too many patches sewn on them Which they you can buy them that way, but you know, unless you're A legit, you know former air force pilot or you served in a certain unit. There's just no way i'd be wearing Uh issue patches, um or mission patches from something. I didn't actually do myself |
| James Stacey | I'd be interested to check one out, but like I said, there's nowhere to pick one up in Vancouver or even, you know, check one out online, short of buying one in the States and moving it up here. |
| Jason Heaton | Yep. It's, it's promising to be a pretty, pretty go-to piece for me this spring. So. Excellent. |
| James Stacey | All right. So it's time for question answer. So if you have a question for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com. We received a bunch of great questions. We're going to try and do, you know, two or three an episode. If we get too many, then maybe we'll do a full question answer episode, if that's what people want. But we're going to start with one from Casey and Casey writes in with two questions. First, he said, you know, with Rolex in the third podcast, episode three, we mentioned in quotations, all that Rolex baggage. And Casey says, I know people view that baggage as overpricing, over marketing and overly blingy watches. I know others view Rolex baggage as decades of history, decades of innovation and decades of reliability. It sounded like your baggage reference is more in line with the former and not the latter. So Casey's asking what we think when we're talking about Rolex baggage, what exactly do we mean? Jason, you had mentioned the Rolex baggage, so I'll pass this one to you. |
| Jason Heaton | Thanks for the question, Casey, and thanks for listening. I just want to be clear that I have a lot of love for Rolex. And certainly, you know, I own a few both vintage and modern So, you know, while my baggage comment did have more to do with the fact that the name and the crown and the dial are things that I think a lot of people just can't get past to see the sort of the true value of these watches, which in my opinion, and most people's opinion who are kind of watch enthusiasts, have some of the best history in all of horology. And on one hand, you get people who find Rolex to just be sort of a predictable part of a of a uniform of maybe like a, you know, middle manager or somebody who just got a promotion or something, a sort of moderately successful businessman or some sort of a symbol of someone who's making some money and wants to go out and sort of show it off. Um, and, and a lot of other people just sort of assume that, that the name Rolex and, and they have this vague notion that it's just overpriced and pretentious, uh, sort of bling, you know, in my years of, of writing about watches, I've kind of tried to make it a personal mission to, not only write about, but also show enthusiasm for the Rolex brand and try to inform people that Rolex really isn't bling. I mean, if you look at most of their watches, they're not blingy watches unless you look at that leopard print dial watch with a diamond crusted bezel. Beautiful. Yeah, beautiful. But it's a brand that it's been present at some, if not most of history's great exploration moments from, you know, the ascent of Everest to the first dive to the deepest point in the ocean. It's been on the wrists of countless military divers and adventurers since the 50s. While I like to say wear what you want without caring what others think and sort of just think about the Rolex history and all of this great history of adventure watches, the fact that you is that you often find yourself having to explain all of this great backstory. And that's kind of what I was referring to as baggage. And so if you're ready for that, Rolex is possibly, in my opinion, one of the most satisfying brands of watch to wear. Yes, I was referring to baggage as what other people feel about the brand, and you have to be sort of prepared when you're wearing a Rolex for that sort of feedback from a lot of people. But it's also a great opportunity to sort of explain what Rolex is all about and sort of go into a little bit of that history. So it's a bit of a double-edged sword, but by all means, I do love Rolex. There's no question about it. Casey also had a second question in which he was asking if there are any other podcasts that we would recommend. He's not specifically looking for an alternative to ours, but, um, just some additional choices. And, you know, James, I'm not as immersed in podcasts as I think you are, uh, possibly because I, I don't have a commute. I work from home. Um, so I don't have that, that commute time to listen. And also I just can't listen here at home while I'm writing. It's a little too distracting, but the two that I've enjoyed have been serial, which is one that we talked about way back in episode one, which is probably the most famous podcast of all. And if you haven't heard of that, um, you know, certainly go check that out. But then there's another watch podcast called on time, which I believe is done by a couple of guys out of Los Angeles. And they bring in some guests and talk about watches as well. And I think it's, it's a nice sort of, I don't want to say counterpoint, but a different perspective to the one that we have here on the gray NATO. Maybe they're slightly more irreverent. They, they tend to bring in a few more people and it's, it's, it's another nice watch related podcast that, that I've been listening to as well. James, what about you? You're kind of a podcast guy. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I've been pretty deep into podcasts for a while, so it depends on what kind of avenue you want to go into. The ones I would recommend if you're just getting into podcasts, On Time is a great choice, as they offer a fantastic perspective about watch collecting and kind of the social, cultural elements around it. And it almost always involves a guest. I've enjoyed their first four episodes. They've been really good. There might be a fifth one by the time this comes out. I also really like the Tomorrow cast. So Tomorrow is a podcast from a guy named Josh Topolsky. And Josh used to run a tech website called The Verge and before that was involved with running Engadget. So his, his background is tech. You might, if you watch Jimmy Fallon, he's the tech guy that comes on Jimmy Fallon with some frequency. I really like his perspective and he has an excellent podcast and always has a guest. Check that one out if you want something with a little bit more of like a tech slash cultural side. It's not so much product heavy, like it is about what he's interested in rather than say the tech cycle, new phones, things like that. But it's funny and well produced. I enjoy that one quite a bit. Another I recommend I think on the first or second episode is the Tim Ferriss Show. Go to Tim Ferriss Shows and look at the list of podcasts and pick a name that you know and give it a try. Everyone from Schwarzenegger to... He's just he's had so many people on and it's easily one of the most popular podcasts in the world right now. I enjoy some comedy podcasts as well. So this is going down a different rabbit hole, but there's a great one called Doug Loves Movies, which is a staged show where a comedian Doug Benson does movie trivia with a handful of guests. So as he travels around doing comedy shows, he'll typically do a taping of Doug Loves Movies before or after the show with some local comedians. But it's also includes all sorts of like bigger celebrities. Jon Hamm's been on many times. The show's fantastic once you get your head around the games they're playing. So the games are kind of complex and they're funny and obviously, you know, it's four comedians on stage. So there's a lot of laughs and they often the show derails entirely. But if you just want to relax your brain and kick back, and I'm a huge movie fan, so I enjoy the movie trivia side of it as the games play out, which is a lot of fun. And I would say finally, One last one is if you're into cars, check out the Smoking Tire podcast. So the Smoking Tire has kind of an interesting perspective on cars. They do relatively cheap to produce YouTube videos. Huge number of views. The main guy is Matt Farah out of L.A. Great perspective. Very, again, kind of irreverent and honest about the car industry and cars in general, but huge, huge, like deep nerds when it comes to cars. And I think what draws all of these suggestions together is whatever the topic is, the level of nerdery is as high as possible, which I think is the whole purpose for me with podcasts. And the reason I switched to podcasts when I was in university back when like this week in tech was new, not 10 years old at this point was it offered a level of nerdery that I couldn't find anywhere else. You can't turn the radio on and get this. What I would say is that I'm, I'm not listening to anything that's even remotely rare. These are all hugely popular shows. So if you're listening to this and you're going, nope, you're wrong. There's a deeper level of nerd. That's really good. Please send us a note. Um, I'll be happy to occasionally offer a list of user, you know, listener recommended, uh, podcasts. So if, if there's one that you really love and you're listing, send us an email at the grenade or gmail.com. I'm a huge podcast fan. I'm always looking for more. So please share if you've got one that you really believe in. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, thanks. Uh, thanks for the question and we'll move on to our second, uh, listener who wrote in. His name is Jeff and he's from Denver. And he wrote us with a fairly long email that can kind of be boiled down to the big eternal question, new or vintage? Jeff has some new watches that he's making his own, putting his own battle scars on. But he also has a pre-moon Omega Speedmaster that he got from our buddies over at Analog Shift. And Jeff is looking down the road at some watches he'd like to maybe pass on to his sons. and he's trying to decide which direction to go, new or vintage. James, any advice for Jeff? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, my first thing is, Jeff, I would totally avoid being that binary. You always should buy what you like, and if that's only vintage or that's only modern, then so be it. Obviously, every modern watch will eventually become vintage, but within the scope of every buying decision, whether that takes you weeks or months or years to pick your next piece, especially a piece that you may pass on to your sons, I would be worried if you simply went in one direction arbitrarily. Certainly Jason's collection has both, my collection has both. I love vintage watches. I think they're perhaps at times the purview of the enthusiast because there's a little bit more risk and a little bit more knowledge needed when you're buying them. But the internet has made that a whole different game than it was just even a few years ago. There's so much information now. Or you can take the guesswork out of it and buy something from a brand like analog shift or the now dozens of others that are out there offering selected carefully mulled over vintage pieces and you're still buying the seller at that point but you know don't don't necessarily go one way or another simply because you feel you have to and furthermore i would assume that your son's interest in a watch is going to be connected to your personal interest in a watch and less so the specific model certainly if my dad was going to pass a watch on to me i wouldn't be that worried about what the watch was But I would be concerned, you know, did he actually wear this? Was this his watch? And I think that's where a lot of that value is going to come from it. And if they're looking for something else in a watch, my guess is they'll be like you and they'll go out and buy watches for themselves over time. There's great new watches. There's fantastic vintage watches. And I think the pre-owned market, you know, where a watch has been out for a few years, not unlike with cars, offers you the highest value for your dollar. Always buy the seller and all the other caveats with this, uh, this sort of thing, but I think that you should always buy the watch that you're looking for and that you're interested in, and you shouldn't be too worried about cutting them up between vintage and new. Jason, what do you figure? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree on the case-by-case approach. I do like a mix of new and vintage, but I think for a watch to pass on to a child, and this is just my sense, is that a new watch that you maybe wear for significant moments in your life or in time that you spend with your sons, that they might remember. They might remember seeing you wearing that watch or or it might have specific memories attached to it. It might carry more weight than something that you bought. I also feel you have to remember that a new watch that you buy now, if you're kids or babies or toddlers, will be vintage watches by the time they're of the age when they'll probably start wearing them. Whereas if you buy something from my childhood years of the 70s or something, we're talking really old watches by that time. Just something to take into consideration is some of these really old watches are getting a little bit more difficult to service. You know, the older technology isn't quite what things are nowadays, so that's also something to kind of take into consideration. But, you know, like James said, I think it's not the watch your son will be enamored with, but it's going to be your enthusiasm for watches that you're passing on that I think is going to be the most valuable. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, no doubt. Thanks so much for the question, Jeff. And again, thegrenado at gmail.com, send us your questions. We'll get to as many as we can over time. And we're going to be back with Final Notes. All right, so it's time for Final Notes. This is where we leave you with a couple of things to chew on for the next couple of weeks until the new show comes out. And for mine, I'll start with a free one. This is the 2016 Underwater Photographer of the Year Award. It's just a collection of photographs. Anything we talk about, in this segment is entirely captured within our show notes. So anything that you want to find, go to the show notes, click the link. So this is a link to a webpage of the 2016 best underwater photographer, uh, you know, the examples of their work and some absolutely unbelievable photography in here. As soon as I found this link, I passed it over to Jason. So he's seen it and there's just some astounding work in there. It'll only take you a few minutes to go through it, so I highly recommend you check that out. It's a lot of fun. For another free one, I'm, you know, well into my 20, 25th year of full-on fascination with the SR-71. I think it's just one of the most fantastic things that somebody ever made. And from the original napkin drawing to the final product, the entire process of how it was made is something that I never really tire of as far as a story. The one element that I think people don't You know, because there's always the same five or six factoids traded back and forth. And I'm sure some of you will email these factoids to me. But the one thing that I think a lot of people miss out on is just the genius behind the actual engine design. So if you want to take a few minutes to nerd out on an unbelievable engine that allowed that plane to do what it could do and fly as fast and as efficiently as it did, check out the mighty J58, the SR-71's secret powerhouse. And it's a really nice kind of not too technical video that breaks down how the engine worked and how it was able to maintain you know the difference between a jet and a ramjet and and and the way that the the plane was able to maintain those speeds and and and how efficiently it could maintain the speed and the way that it treated the air coming over the plane which was just so so fast right so it's an excellent primer on the incredibly advanced engines that powered that plane and if you don't know what the SR-71 is then I'm almost jealous. It's like when I finish a really good TV show, I wish I could just kind of erase it from my brain and start over again. Because then you get to hit those points again. And if you don't know what the SR-71 is, also called the Blackbird, Google's your friend with this one. It's just one of the absolute coolest things that humans have ever made. So check that out. And finally, I'll leave you with one paid option. So this video is $3 on Vimeo. It's worth every penny if you're interested in Porsche 911s. So there's an absolutely fantastic YouTube channel called Everyday Driver and it's a really non-pretentious look at just cars in general. These two guys cover a wide range of cars for the YouTube channel and then I believe once a year they produce kind of a feature-length film about a car or a series of cars and last year I believe they did 50 years of the 911 so they cover every generation of the 911 from start to finish. So there's about seven or eight, depending on your position in the 911 world, seven or eight generations from where it started to now. I watched it and, uh, and then the next evening I watched about the last half of it again. I think it was really good, definitely worth the $3 rental on Vimeo. And I think that work like this, like what the guys at Everyday Drivers are putting together is entirely worth a few bucks and a really interesting breakdown because they drive all the cars back to back. Oh, wow. You get an idea of, of how they progress from. you know, very early cars. And any of you with experience with cars from the 60s, they're typically fairly loose and vague. And then, of course, that changes over time. And then as the culture in which Porsche existed, it actually affects the car. So there's an interesting kind of through line between the 911. And I think you start to see through lines with watch designs and watch brands that have lasted with kind of one product throughout that whole time. Because the 911 is a markedly different car from its start to now. But it's entirely the same thing in another way. Yeah. So not unlike the Submariner or some other watches that have existed for that long. It's fun to see that. And I think I'm just a general nerd for product. And this is a really nice way of looking at it. So again, that's 50 years of the 911 from Everyday Driver. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Well, I'll be checking that out. And I'm surely going to be checking out that SR-71 video. That sounds really great. Well, on my end, you know, this isn't, it wasn't really a listener question, but I did get a note on Instagram from a listener who was curious if I had any watch winder recommendations. And, you know, just quickly, I'm, I'm not a big user of winders. I actually only have one. Um, and it's a single watch winder, but it's from a brand called Swiss cubic K U B I K. And the name really says it all. It's, it's just a simple little cube with, uh, you know, a little carriage that holds the watch and you just sort of plug that in. Um, and it's a single switched on and off. But it comes with a USB cable so you can program it for specific rotation cycles, depending on the kind of watch you have. And you can find all that information on their website. But what I like about it is, you know, so many watch finders are sort of this thickly padded fake leather or real leather and wood and whatever. But Swiss cubic really lets you go as minimalist as you want. The one I have is just a black cube. It looks really cool, just on a, almost as like a bookend on a bookcase, but it's got a watch in it. And I keep my, my day, my day and date Bremont. Supermarine 2000 on it because there's just less to set when I pick up the watch to wear again rather than having to wind it up and set all that information. So Swiss cubic is my recommendation. I'm not certainly not a watch winder expert, but that's the one that I like. Moving on, you know, we talked about, James talked about the SR-71. I talked about flight jackets and the Glycine Airman. You'd start to think we're becoming more of an aerospace podcast than watches, but I have a movie recommendation. I watched it just a few days ago. It's called The Last Man on the Moon. And if that name sounds familiar, it's because it's loosely based and it has the same title as a book written by Eugene Cernan, who was, as the name suggests, the last man on the moon. He was the commander of the Apollo 17 mission, which was the last NASA mission to the moon in 1972. But the documentary just, it has this really wonderful, almost melancholy feel where you're looking at Cernan as an old man and And it's sort of told from his perspective. And he actually goes back to Cape Canaveral and walks among sort of the ruined launch pad there. You see him on his ranch. You see him talking about his failed marriage and his parenting skills with his daughter. And then you see this great old footage of him flying off of flight decks in a fighter jet in his Navy days. And of course, some great moon footage. Just really good. I saw it on iTunes. I think it was like a $5 or $6 movie rental there. It's a fairly recent movie. Check out The Last Man on the Moon. Keeping up with the space theme, a friend, Ken Nichols, recently turned me on to a new book by a photographer named Roland Miller. And the book is called Abandoned in Place. And that title is actually taken from three words, abandoned in place, that are stenciled on old buildings and structures on the grounds at Cape Canaveral at the rocket launch sites. And Miller went to these old structures and he just photographed them. I'm kind of a fan of, of sort of industrial decay photos. Um, and I just, they're just really great. It's sort of a great record of, of sort of this, what I consider sort of one of the last great eras of in American history is, is sort of that whole big push to get to the moon. And I thought it was really, really a poignant looking book. I haven't picked it up yet, but I planned to, to buy that. Um, so check that one out. Uh, and then with Baselworld starting this week, In addition to, you know, keeping up on what's new with all the new releases and the buzzes from Baselworld, stay tuned to a blog to watch where James will be checking in regularly with his colleagues there. But also stay tuned to James's and my Instagram feeds for our more candid, on-the-ground photos of what we're seeing at the show. I think it promises to be a really, really interesting year over there. So, other than that, James, I guess I'll see you on the other side over in Basel. |
| James Stacey | Oh, no doubt. Schnitzel on me. And yeah, by all means, Instagram is going to be just riff shots and behind the scenes and fun photos. Follow all of that. I also do a portion of the Instagramming for the at a blog to watch account while on site, along with my boy David and Ariel. And I think it's going to be great. We're going to attack the show and Jason and I attack it from kind of different angles. And we're going to regroup shortly after the show and get another episode out with our thoughts. So stay tuned for episode five. It promises to be a doozy. Thanks so, so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com or hashtag TheGraynado on Instagram. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts, or you can grab the feed from TheGraynado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzer via the Free Music Archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And until next time, we leave you with this quote from the author, Bill Bryson, who says, To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time. To be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted. |