The Grey NATO - Ep 48 - Collection Inspection Vol 5

Published on Tue, 28 Nov 2017 09:44:45 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discuss an upcoming giveaway of NATO watch straps from Kill Hubris and Crown & Buckle. They share their experiences from recent trips, with Jason describing his dive trip to Bonaire and watches he wore like the Citizen Promaster EcoDrive 1000m, 1985 Aqualand, and Rado Captain Cook. James talks about driving the Maserati Ghibli in Monaco. They inspect a vintage 1969 Doxa Sub 200 T-Graph from Jason's collection and a Silvana skin diver from James' collection, discussing the appeal and value of vintage dive watches like these. For final notes, they recommend camera bags, backpacks, a product design email newsletter, and a project to create a new off-road vehicle brand inspired by classic Land Rovers.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 48 and we thank you for listening. James, why don't you kick things off by giving a quick rundown of our latest giveaway?
James Stacey Yeah, it's been a little while since we've done a giveaway. And I'm excited about this one because we're going to have several winners. We're going to give away 10 sets of these new kind of custom Kill Hubris crown and buckle straps. So they teamed up to do kind of collaboration on two NATO straps, one that's kind of a deep, really saturated, vivid red, and the other that is a camo NATO, but not really like one I've ever seen before. So you know, they've basically taken the World War II British brushstroke pattern and then applied some influence of like a lizard camo from Vietnam. And the colors I think are really cool. And if you pick the right watch, I think the NATO strap works really, really well. I think this, it's a very bold strap. Both are bold, even just the normal red. It's a, like I said, it's very much, it has like a maroon tone to it. And then of course it's a crown and buckle strap. So stitched and welded construction, color match thread. You can get them in 20 or 22 millimeter widths, and you can have brushed, polished, or black PVD hardware. And then you have, uh, Killhubris's logo is on the buckle, which is super cool. So Killhubris has offered up, uh, 10 sets. So you're able to pick either 20 or 22 millimeter, but you'll get both the camo and the red strap. And so basically to pick winners, we're going to post a photo on the Graynado account. of the straps, probably on a watch. You'll see it in the next few days after this episode airs. And all we need you to do is follow Kill Hubris and Crown & Buckle, and then comment on that photo with what watch you would match with either one of the straps. And like I said, we're going to give away 10 sets. We're going to pick just from people who comment, and then we'll get the straps sent out via Kill Hubris. So thank you very much to Kill Hubris and to Crown & Buckle for setting all this up. We think it's great. Obviously, we love to give away NATO straps. And assuming most people listening have a big gray NATO strap collection, this gives you a nice kind of pop of color. I've really been enjoying the camo one on my Explorer II, which with the white dial and the red accents, it really just kind of catches off just perfectly.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I haven't tried that one on a watch yet. I'm still trying to figure out just which watch to try it on, but the quality of the crown and buckle straps is just so good anyway. They're really good choices. I've had a couple of their straps in the past, I think it'll be a great giveaway. So, um, I look forward to seeing what people come back with and, uh, and who, who's going to walk away with 10 of these. So cool.
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. So, uh, just pay attention to the Greynado's Instagram account and we will post a photo to kick off the giveaway, uh, probably before the weekend after this comes out. So just, uh, stay tuned there and, uh, get in line for your chance at winning a couple of great straps. So Jason, you're quite freshly back from Bonaire, no?
Jason Heaton I am, yeah. I'm still itching bug bites. I just got back, uh, we're recording on a Monday. I got back late Saturday night and, uh, yeah, it was good. You know, it's, I think our sixth trip to, to Bonaire, we, we kind of make an annual trip there and, uh, just, it never fails to, uh, to, uh, satisfy, you know, it's just, it's a great place to basically just go to dive. It's a, it's a week of diving. It's about three or four dives a day. Um, after you're done, you've rinsed your gear, drink some beer, um, you know, sleep a little bit and get up and do it all over again. It's, uh, you know, I've talked about Bonaire in the past and, and we had a listener who kind of wrote in for some travel tips there and I sent, sent those onto him and he went and had a great honeymoon with his, with his wife and, and did some diving there as well. So, you know, I, I can't, I can't recommend it enough. And I managed to, to do, like I said, about three dives a day on average over six days of diving. Took a handful of watches. Both my wife and I were kind of trading watches back and forth. I brought a couple of Citizens. I was doing a kind of a review of the new Promaster EcoDrive 1000 meter that Citizen brought out at Basel this year and I've been wearing for probably a month. I picked it up from Citizen when I was out in New York and finally got to take it diving. And, uh, it's just such a fun watch. It's, it's like, I kind of, I took a photo of it, um, on the same wrist next to my wrist compass. And it's, it's like the same size, you know, it's, it's like another, it's another gauge. Um, it is the Kraken. Yeah. Um, and then I also brought my, uh, I've got a 1985 Aqualand, which I think I've talked about in the past. And it's, uh, uh, it was from the first month of production and I had it fully serviced recently, so it's good to go. Uh, that was just fun. You know, that watch has, has the, uh, the depth sensor with the little digital readout. And it's so accurate. I mean, it's in meters and my, um, my dive computer's in feet. I have it set in feet. So there's a little bit of getting used to, but, um, it's just great. Um, and, and just fun to wear. It's a cool function. Great, great watch. And then we actually took the Rado Captain Cook. We actually took that diving, which I think will surprise a lot of people. I still mean to post a photo up on. on Instagram of that. You know, it's a, it's a hundred meter watch without a screw down crown that, that Rado was pretty insistent on saying it isn't a dive watch. And I think it'll, you know, debunk some, some long held myths about water resistance and diving. And, and it, you know, did just fine for five or six dives with, uh, on both my wrist and my wife's. And then, um, and then Mark too sent over, um, for, for, uh, TGN review, actually, which we'll get to after I pass it on to you to wear for a bit. The new Paradive, I guess they're calling it the Ready-to-Wear Paradive. So it's very similar to ones they had in the past, but this one that I got in particular has what they call the Type 1 or the 12-hour bezel with an acrylic insert. And it was the one variant that, of the current batch, Bill Yao from Mark II was not comfortable saying was dive ready because he hadn't tested or wasn't sure how the acrylic insert would would do you know with some water pressure and uh did just fine you know wore it for i don't know i guess three or four dives and you know no ill effects i'm not sure what what would have happened if he was concerned about it cracking or some adhesive giving way or something but uh great watch just a really great watch i've had a paradive in the past and and it's just such a clean sterile, legible watch. So I'll be passing that one on to you in a couple of weeks when we see each other in Colorado.
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. I'm looking forward to seeing the Mark II. You know, I saw an early version at Basel. Yeah. Which is the last time I saw a Bill. And, you know, I don't think either of us are, I think we're quite openly not that big of fans of homages. Yeah. Certainly once they stray into the clone territory. Yeah. But, you know, you really Benris isn't operating today. That aesthetic is essentially dead without something like a Mark II. And your other option would be like a Marathon Navigator uses a similar sort of asymmetrical case and overall design and functionality. But I think that what they're doing there with the Paradive is really cool. I really enjoyed the 10 minutes or so that I spent with one at Basel. And I'm looking forward to checking this one out. We'll make a little trade of some sort in the next couple of weeks.
Jason Heaton Yeah, nice. What's your first kind of bit of new business this week?
James Stacey I'm just back from, I guess I've been back for a few days from Monaco. I was there for a press drive with Maserati for the, you know, refreshed Ghibli four-door. It's their kind of mid-sized four-door between the two-door GT and the larger Quattroporte. And, you know, it's for Nouveau magazine, so it'll be in the spring issue and I would recommend anybody check that out. And when it eventually makes it to the website, I'll be sure to link that as well. But in short, I really expected to not care so much for this car. I was excited to go to Monaco, obviously, and just to have the experience of driving some great roads and that sort of thing. But really, it's a middle tier luxury car. There is a fast version, and that's the one that I had, the SQ4. as a 430 horse V6. And I just didn't know really what to expect from it. So, and you know, with Maserati, they've gone through a lot of growing pains over the years and trying to figure out where they stand within the FCA auto group and all that kind of thing. And it turns out the car was an absolute blast. I mean, it's a missile, plenty fast, best sounding V6 I've driven in a long time, which is tough to do. And you know, nice interior. loads of grip, really, really strong balance and plenty of performance. It was a nice way to kind of see a little bit of France I haven't seen before between Monaco and then we went kind of into the hills inland and just some amazing roads that way and then back into Monaco. And driving in Monaco is not something that maybe my Canadian experience had prepared me for. It's a lot of tunnels. So we were lost all the time because the GPS would keep disconnecting. Oh, yeah. So you're just constantly in a tunnel and you're like, well, this is cool. It's a tunnel and the city's very vertical, right? Like it's very much stacked. Yeah. And you're in a tunnel and then suddenly you hit like a traffic circle, a roundabout that has like eight exits. Oh, no. And you don't know which one to take because the GPS hasn't hooked up again. Yeah. And there's scooters everywhere. It's very exciting. Yeah. You have to be very decisive, which I love. So that was a really fun trip and I was very much pleasantly surprised by all the aspects of the car. I expected it to be fast and it was just very accessible and the stereo was great. It was a really comfy seat, a nice place to sit, it's easy to drive. You know, a couple of times we ended up in these kind of, I would call it like a castle town, where as soon as you leave a main roadway, you're essentially on a road that wouldn't even qualify as an alleyway. In Vancouver, I mean, you could just barely get the car in the road and then there'd be other cars trying to come the other way. It's exciting. It was fun. I had a really good time and I met some nice other people from the automotive world, which is always a nice treat with these sorts of trips. And then it looks like I'm off to another one. So when this comes out, I'll actually already be home from it. Uh, such as the timing. So we're, we never record, uh, we often record one week ahead of delivery for these. And, uh, and I apologize if I'm a little fuzzy, this is probably the earliest we've ever recorded a Grenado. We normally do these at night when I'm quite a bit sharper. And, uh, and yeah, this is, you know, it's not even 10 AM now and, uh, I'm just on my second cup of coffee. So we're, we're working through that, but I'm off to Belgium with Portia to experience the company that produces their hi-fi audio systems for their cars, which is a Bohrmeister. Maybe door to door from my home in Vancouver is like, it might be 50 hours. Wow. You know, including, you know, a connecting flight to make it all the way to Brussels. And so that should be great. I'm It's not a car focused thing so much, but I am very much interested in how they design these stereos. And it's always a topic of conversation because some of these stereos, the Porsche one included, are hugely expensive. Yeah. You know, $7,000, $8,000, $9,000 more than the Bose or the bass system or whatever they're offering in the various cars. And Bohrmeister has made systems for Mercedes as well, which is undoubtedly a lovely stereo. But sometimes you get in these cars with a really fancy stereo and you're kind of like, well, it sounds good, but like eight grand good.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So I'm excited to see it. It's a very small company from what I understand, Bohrmeister. And I'm really excited to see how they tackle the fact that they can't actually change much in the way of the internal packaging of the car. Yeah. Right. To make that sound right. Yeah. Like it's not like they can change it. Let alone things like hard points, like a pillar is always going to be where a pillar is going to be. But there's not like a lot of leeway in where they could put a speaker in a door or a dash or something like that. I mean, they have, I would say, inches probably of wiggle room. Yeah. So I'm excited to see how they tackle those challenges. And I think it'll make for a pretty interesting story. So that's also for Nuvo Magazine, but that'll be nuvomagazine.com. So by the time you're hearing this, I would say the following Friday or maybe the Friday after that, the story will be up. But I'll put it on my Instagram if anybody wants to wants to check that out.
Unknown Huh.
Jason Heaton Nice. Well, you're a bit of an audiophile, right? I mean, you'll sort of marry some interests for you.
James Stacey Yeah, I try not. That's one of those things that I actively keep from going any deeper. Yeah. Because I've gotten to that point with audio equipment where it is kind of like that transition where suddenly you find out about Seiko and you want to own a bunch and then suddenly I'm going to have a desk full of headphone amps. Yeah, really. The things that they don't need and it's a cost thing and then you can't either, they don't travel that well, all these sorts of things. So it's something that I've tried to purposefully hold back from. So it'll be interesting to get a chance to experience and hopefully there's some demos of their home audio systems, I would assume. Yeah. That would be possible because from what I've read, they make some really fantastic home audio equipment. So it's all that component based stuff where you're buying preamp and an amp and then some sort of a receiver and then, uh, you know, some sort of an input, like a CD player or a network player. It's not these, you know, what we're used to is that maybe the cheaters route, uh, you know, kind of a one self-contained thing. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think I can claim to be an audio file. Listen to too much Spotify. Like I don't think any of that is your high bit rate stuff. So yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton It's too easy. Yeah. Right. Well, I'll, uh, I'll drag us back to earth here from, from Maserati and Porsche and high end audio by giving a brief update on, uh, on my Land Rover saga. You know, we talked a couple of episodes ago about my, my old Land Rover series three that I bought a couple of months ago. And, you know, so far so good. It's been, it's been fun. It's running well. Um, and I've gotten to get my, been able to get my hands dirty a couple of times with some minor fixes and that sort of thing. But the, the latest, uh, latest in the saga is the, um, the starter motor has packed up and isn't working anymore. So it's been kind of an interesting adventure. The fun thing about this car is that it was made to be, you know, kind of driven in all conditions, of course. And so they supply a hand crank handle that comes with it. And so I've learned the fine art of both hand cranking it as well as roll starting it, which, you know, anybody with a stick shift car or motorbike or something over the years is probably somewhat familiar with. But the hand cranking is really, it's really cool. Um, if it wasn't so kind of time consuming and slightly inconvenient, you know, I'd, I'd be quite content to just keep doing that because, you know, you put this sort of dogleg long steel rod through a hole in the front bumper and then it feeds into the, the front, like lower pulley of the, of the engine block itself. And, um, and then, you know, you turn the key on, pump the gas once and kind of go out front of the car and, and just give it a couple of good hard spins. And if all goes well, it, it, sputters into life, and it's something incredibly satisfying about it.
James Stacey I think probably less satisfying as winter hits your part of the country.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly, exactly. But I love the self-sufficiency of it. Oh, very cool. Even if you have a trickle of electricity left in a dead battery, if it's enough to give a spark to the spark plugs, you're still good to go, because the fuel pump is a mechanical fuel pump. It's not an electric fuel pump, so you don't need much in the way of current to start this thing. But, uh, yeah, it's not, it's not great. I mean, I, I don't want to like even shut the thing off. Like if I go to get gas or go to the bank or hardware store, you know, shutting it off requires some, some planning. And if I don't park facing downhill, um, you know, I'm, I'm out there in front of the car, cranking it to life. And, uh, for sure. But, uh, yeah, that's, so that's, that's kind of my latest in the, in the car saga.
James Stacey And you figure you've got a starter motor on route.
Jason Heaton Yes, indeed. It should. In fact, if the doorbell rings here, I'll have to pause and go answer it because the starter motor's on its way as we speak. Oh, lovely. Yeah. And then real quick, I've just, I was contacted by, you know, we've last time, last episode, we talked about Outlier and kind of how much you're, you're enjoying their clothes and they sent you kind of a care package. And I had a similar experience, the folks from Alps and Meters, which is a company that a few people might be aware of. They've got kind of a nice Instagram feed. Um, it's a clothing company that produces, um, fairly high end kind of retro style, uh, ski wear, uh, sort of mountains, lifestyle kind of clothing. And they contacted me and asked if, you know, they could send a few items over to kind of check out. And, and of course I wasn't going to say no, I've been a big fan of theirs for a while. I've, I've, I've got like their neck Gator and a cap, which is about all I could afford a couple of years ago. But, um, They sent over three items. They sent over their winter trouser, the classic waffle and the Alpine combined sweater. And I got them about a week ago. Actually, no, I got them, I got them like two days before we went to Bonaire. So it wasn't exactly, uh, the greatest timing. It's not something I could really pack along, but, uh, you know, we've got the ski trip coming up to Colorado where I'll be meeting you for the Oris trip. And, and I'm definitely going to bring this stuff along because, uh, it's really great that the, the winter trouser, um, It has such a kind of a cool retro or nostalgic appeal to it. And you might look at it, you know, we'll put a link in the show notes and you might look at it and think, you know, who would ever wear that? I would never wear those pants, you know, much less for skiing, but I've been wearing them around and they're like super comfy. For one thing, I'm a big fan of suspenders. I think they just kind of, in so many cases, they're so much more comfortable than like cinching a belt around your waist. And they're kind of this heavy herringbone tweed material on the outside and then they're lined with a kind of a wind and waterproof liner and then the lower cuff zips up to about the you know the back of your knee and you can wear them over ski boots. I mean they're legitimate ski pants. Oh wow. They've got a crotch zippers for ventilation and you know some nice detailing in the pockets and that sort of thing and so I'm kind of excited. I'm actually gonna wear them skiing. I think you know they're kind of cool just for upre ski you know around the lodge sort of vibe but those are cool and then the classic waffle is like a as the name suggests it's like a waffle textured fine wool pullover top that has kind of this buttoning diagonal placket kind of up at the top of the chest that adds a little bit of interest and then the alpine combined sweater is I think it's the warmest article of clothing I've ever seen in my life it's a shawl collar sweater and then the the trunk of the or the sorry the torso of the sweater is is like down insulated and like windproof so this thing is like you i don't think i could wear it indoors it's just so incredibly warm and i think it was meant to be worn i suppose as uh you know an outer layer you know and kind of warmer weather skiing so we'll see i mean it's it's just it's cool stuff it's uh it's a nice um you know i guess for somebody like me that likes old Land Rovers and vintage watches, um, you know, there's a certain appeal to it. It might not be for, you know, guys who kind of like the latest in technical clothing, which I can certainly get into myself, but, uh, there's a time and a place for this.
James Stacey It definitely has like a, a sort of vintage James Bond feel, especially like that waffle sweater looks like something Roger Moore might've had at a ski lodge or something like that. I dig it. I definitely get the aesthetic. It'll be interesting to see how well they actually ski. So why not, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, so. And yeah, I've got some quick mail call too, some stuff that showed up in the post. So the first one is actually a knife. We don't talk about knives a ton, but obviously a handy thing to have around. And this one's from a Canadian knife brand called Anton Knife, Antonknife.com. And it's actually a neck knife, which I don't have any experience with. It looks quite tactical, but I've been using it to open a few boxes. I've had it for a couple of days now. And pretty cool. It's got like a kydex sort of sheath, like a molded sheath that it clicks into. And yeah, I'm just checking that out. So you can swing by the website if you want to see it. Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience with neck knives. What is a neck knife? What is that? It's like the sheath actually hangs around your neck. Oh, so if you want and then you can, you know, you pull the knife out of the sheath kind of downward. And it's just a it's a small knife. I would say the actual cutting edge is I don't know. I'd have to check on the website. An inch, inch and a half.
Unknown Huh.
James Stacey Okay. And, and I think the idea is it's more of a, like a utility knife, but a bit stronger.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then I'm sure that these have, you know, a military background in close quarter combat or something like that. Sure. But I dig that it's Canadian made. Obviously these guys are based in Alberta, which is rad. Again, that's Anton Knife and they were kind enough to send a knife to take a look at. So I'm going to try and get a chance to actually use it for something more than boxes. Yeah. Uh, you know, maybe, maybe some, uh, some kicking around in Squamish or something in the woods and then, uh, report back. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. My first rabbit. And, uh, and yeah. Oh, and then the second one I've got is the Longines Avigation Big Eye. Oh, beautiful. Chronograph, which, uh, actually will already have gone back by the time this episode comes out, but there's a couple of photos on Instagram. People love this watch. Certainly, or at least love photographs of it. It looks like they're just starting to get delivered. I saw some people online get theirs from their local retailer. So for those of you that don't know, this is Longines latest kind of classic revival piece, and it actually won the best revival award at GPHG this year, which is pretty rad, especially given its price point and what it was up against. All good things for the watch, but it's a 41 millimeter kind of classic style steel chronograph. No bezel or, you know, no bezel functionality. It's just a clean bezel. It has a kind of a domed style crystal, solid steel case back. It's 15 millimeters thick and it's a 50 millimeters lug to lug. It's all brushed except for a polished facet right around the crystal that I rather like. And then it's a black dial with lots of loom. And then as its name would suggest, the minutes counter for the chronograph is rendered in kind of an oversized register, hence the big eye design. Pretty minimal as far as text, just says Longines and automatic. And then the rest is the design of the watch. And it has that type 20, nice military derived pilots, chronograph sort of look to it. And I think people are going to love it. I have it in for review on Hodenkey sometime soon. I'm still working on the photos and the write up and all that, but it's selling for $26, $25 USD. Great price. And that gives you a column wheel. That's the L688 column wheel movement that Longines has in a handful of chronographs. And so nice automatic chrono, a great style. It works really well on a NATO. It comes on a really nice brown leather strap. And there's not a lot to argue with when it comes to Longines when they hit an aesthetic just right, like they have with their, some of their previous dive watches and a very similar sort of aesthetic. They had that dive chronograph. Yeah. With the maroon bezel. that also had the oversized indicator. Uh, also really cool. And when they, when they nail it, I mean, I think they do a great job and they, uh, they can make much more expensive watches look like they missed the point. So yeah, check that one out and I'll be sure to link the review whenever it does go up. And then one thing to note, uh, given that I'm talking about a long jeans and writing it up for holding key. So probably some disclosure is required, although this doesn't affect me directly, Hodinkee now is an AD of some sort for some Longines models. I don't know if that includes the Big Eye and I don't get a kickback for writing about Longines or not writing about Longines or anything like that. But if at any point I'm not allowed to talk about what I want to with watches, then I'll find somewhere else to write about. That's no trouble either way. But I suppose it's worth at least mentioning now that Hodinkee has a whole shop where they're carrying various brands. Some of which are brands that we talk about quite frequently.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, I think, you know, there have been some overwhelmingly positive feedback about Hodinkee's latest move, but I think, you know, it's also brought up some discussion points and it's certainly worth mentioning that we're, as they've mentioned, you know, the writing staff is independent of any sort of commerce that they're working on at that end of things. So, yeah, good point.
James Stacey Yeah, and I wasn't approached by Hodinkee to review this watch or any other watch. All of that is based on pitching. You have to find a watch that you like, and I thought this was a gorgeous watch. And then you send them an email, and if they want a review, they agree to it. So yeah, I think that probably wraps up basically what's new. So you want to get to kind of the meat and potatoes of the show?
Jason Heaton Yeah, we haven't done one of these in a long time. It has been a bit. Yeah, our collection inspection. I can't believe this is only volume five, considering we've been doing the show for coming up on two years. But yeah, we're We're pretty excited. You know, we do this from time to time where we pull a watch out of our own collection and collections and discuss it, kind of, you know, how it came into our hands and what we like about it and just minutiae about it. So this week we've actually both chosen, and I think it was coincidence. I don't think it was even the power of suggestion. We both picked vintage watches, vintage dive watches actually. Yeah, for sure. You want to go first? Yes. The watch I chose is one that, you know, we've talked about before. I brought it to Vancouver when we did our TGN Summit. But, you know, I think it's one that I guess I haven't gone into too much depth about, but it's one of my favorites of the watches that I own. It's the Doxa Sub 200 T-Graph, the Sea Rambler with the silver dial. And, you know, you and I are both big fans of Doxa. I think they're just, they're kind of one of those love or hate sort of polarizing designs, kind of by and large, all of their dive watches are this way. But I warmed up to Doxa over a few years and you know in the early days when I was kind of just getting into watches I visited their forum and I tried a couple of their watches you know bought and sold and traded and just kind of had a bit of trouble warming up to the the weird shape the kind of bezel that's much smaller than the case diameter and kind of the weird colors and that sort of thing but I don't know there's something clicked at some point and I just really kind of started to get what what they're all about and kind of appreciate that real purpose-built sort of weirdness about DOXs. And then, you know, I was on a dive trip, and it was actually Bonaire, actually, two years ago maybe, and I get an email from this vintage dealer who's based in Chicago. He's Vintage Watch Classics, and he sent me this email and said, you know, here's a watch I think you might be interested in. And it was this Teegraph, and I was like, Yeah, I was very interested. It was a bit of money, but it was actually a very fair price. At the time, it was lower than I'd seen them, considering the rarity of this watch. Before I even thought about it too hard, I just pulled the trigger and asked him to hold it for me. It definitely was not a regretted decision. And you know, from what I've seen, they're going up in value for what that's worth. I don't really buy watches for that reason anyway, but, uh, it's, um, it's from 1969 and it's, so they only made 300 of each dial configuration. So 300 of the sea rambler, 300 of the black dial shark hunter, and 300 of the professional orange dial. And, uh, and this is of course is the silver dial version, but, uh, it's, it's a really cool watch, you know, dive chronographs are not something I usually gravitate towards. I don't find them terribly, uh, you know, useful from a kind of a functional perspective, but, but, you know, a hand wound chronograph, which this is, is, is just, um, I guess it's a bit of a unicorn from, from what I've read the, this particular movement, it's an Eberhard 310. Doxa was allied with, with Eberhard as part of the Synchron group back then. And, and a hand wound to register chrono with date at that time in the late sixties was There just weren't a lot of movement companies making that particular configuration. And it works really well on this watch. You know, it's a very balanced dial. It's got kind of this weird interplay of color, of kind of a funky color scheme. And somehow it works, you know? I mean, again, I think, you know, it's a watch, you might look at the photo of it particularly, and it's kind of ratty, vintage state with a bit of oxidation on the dial and kind of scratches on the case and think, you know, what's the appeal of that? Um, I I'm, I'm just smitten with it and it's kind of one of those handful of watches that I own that I'll, I just, you know, it would be one of the last that I would sell just because I enjoy wearing it so much.
James Stacey Yeah. It was a treat to see it when you brought it to Vancouver, like you said, for the TGN Summit, um, back to some, like the summer before this one. And, uh, it's bigger than I expected. Cause you do kind of get used to docks as not always being really big.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Especially if you're used to seeing the older ones, they were pretty reasonably sized.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And it's a big watch. It doesn't wear like 44. I would say it wears pretty similarly to the SRP, the 777s like that, where it kind of hides some of its bulk in its shape. Right. Yes. And it works on a bunch of different straps. I really like the bracelet with that clasp.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, if anyone out there is hunting for a vintage Doxa, whether it's a Teagraph or any of the other ones, try to find one with the vintage beads of rice bracelet that they came on back then because it truly is, or truly was a real engineering breakthrough back then in terms of a dive bracelet. And it kind of just goes to show how committed Doxa was to creating a real purpose-built dive watch at the time because the bracelet, you know, aside from the little crimped beads of rice, which make it a very comfortable bracelet, the clasp has this, it's not only spring-loaded, so that it expands and contracts to take up any difference in circumference when you're wearing a wetsuit sleeve, wearing it over a wetsuit sleeve. But even the clasp itself, when you close it, you choose one of five different little ratcheted teeth for kind of micro adjusting. So, you know, it's got this incredible adjustability to it, which the closest thing I can compare it to is a modern day, you know, Tudor Pelagos clasp, which has some of the same features.
James Stacey Yeah, really cool. The aerospace that I have has the spring in the clasp. Oh, right. Yeah. But it doesn't have any other functionality. And then when you see that, you know, this is the watch from the late 60s, I'm assuming they probably designed this buckle somewhere in the early to mid 60s. And you think how far ahead of the game they kind of were with that aesthetic or with that functionality. Yeah. And just really, really cool. And there's something about the, and I know I've said this before, but there's something about, you know, of the three kind of Doxa colorations, the Sea Rambler for me is really a winner. You know, I love the silver dial and it makes the most with the orange accents. It's a, it's just a, it's a really cool watch, but it's also a really cool watch that doesn't feel like any other really cool watches. Yeah. You know, it's awesome to see a really amazing old sub. Yeah. Or something like that. But then you're also like you already, there's not a lot of like surprises in that, you know, in the metal experience, because everybody knows what a Submariner looks like. And, and largely if you've seen one old one, you've seen the details may or may not be apparent to you. Right. Depending on your level of nerdery when it comes to those watches. But I mean, pretty much anyone could pick up this T-Graph and just be kind of blown away by what it is and how well it's aged and how the charm and the appeal
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. And apparently, I have never seen a loom shot from, you know, I don't know if people did that back in the day when these were new, but... It's a good question. Yeah. The right hand counter on this watch has sort of alternating orange and black outer ring to it. And apparently, I think the orange bits actually lit up. I mean, it must have had just a wild looking sort of loom presence when it was dark out. Unfortunately, that's all faded out these days. Actually, it makes me think that would be very interesting to know if loom shots were done back in the 60s and 70s. Some of the watches that we love, we love it for the patina that has formed on these tritium markers and hands, but I really do wonder what some of these looked like when they were just glowing like a torch back when they were new.
James Stacey Yeah, that's a great question. I don't recall. I mean, maybe I have, but I don't recall seeing like some vintage ad or anything that showed. And then even if they were doing that, would it have been more of an illustration? Yeah, right. Rather than some sort of very difficult... Long exposure. Hypersensitive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I suppose not super difficult. Yeah. Like you said, if you just did a long exposure and the movement wasn't running. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's not that challenging. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if I've seen that before. That's cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know, obvious trademark of this watch is that it has the engraved steel bezel that Doxo was kind of known for with all of their sub watches, sub 200, sub 300 watches from the late 60s and onward, which has the U.S. Navy no deco scale. And this one has it in meters, which a lot of them, I don't know what the percentage was, but a good number of them came with the Imperial, you know, the feet markings. This one has the metric marking. And the bezel, I mean, I think you probably remember this, it still ratchets so tight and so perfectly for a 48-year-old watch. I mean, it's remarkable.
James Stacey There's, I mean, a lot of new watches aren't this good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. It's, you know, if there's any sort of negatives, if you can even say that about this watch, it's on the bracelet as good as the bracelet is. It's at 44 millimeters across and it's a very tall watch. It's fairly top-heavy. It does kind of overwhelm the bracelet a little bit. And so, you know, even wearing it on like a NATO, I think it works well on, you know, maybe like a tropic rubber or even kind of a beefier leather strap works pretty well on this watch. The bracelet itself kind of gets a little bit overshadowed by this massive case. You know, but other than that, it's pretty darn perfect. It is hand wound. The crown does not screw down. I'm not sure. You know, I believe, given the name Sub-200, I suspect this was originally rated to 200 meters, which is really impressive for basically what feels and looks kind of like a Speedmaster, you know, screw-down case back and just a hand-winding crown. Right. You know, I'll never get it wet. The issues I have with it now are kind of typical of old watches. The non quick set date is a bit of a pain, you know, if you pick it up and you're kind of OCD about dates, like I am, you have to spin it through a bunch of days to kind of get it corrected. And it needs a movement service because the date doesn't always tick over when it should, but you know, stuff I can live with. It's just a fun watch.
James Stacey Yeah, that's great. I think it's a, and you don't, you flat out don't see them.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. I mean, occasionally you see a photograph of a shark hunter. Yeah. But I don't recall, I don't think I've ever seen a photograph outside of maybe like a book, like a book designed just to collect these watches. Yeah. Of the professional and certainly your Sea Rambler was the first. So the rarity certainly adds to kind of the appeal. Yeah, for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And if 300 of each colour were made, that's pretty darn rare. I mean, given it was a dive watch that Presumably it would have been used by at least a few of the original owners and kind of the beating it would have taken. I'm guessing there just can't be more than a few dozen left in the world. So it's definitely a privilege to own one and yeah, I'm not going to be getting rid of it anytime soon. Wow, really cool. Yeah. Now you've got another kind of watch from similar era, maybe a little earlier. You're Silvana, right?
James Stacey Yeah, I think it's possible it's a little bit earlier. So mine is a Silvana Skin Diver. And I don't actually know what the exact name of this watch is or really if it even matters. Skin Diver is a term applied to the case style of these watches. And I absolutely adore this watch. I love it for so many strange reasons. I bought this watch through Analog Shift through their 1025, which is where their lesser priced vintages are sold. And, uh, and I, I really love it. It's, uh, it's 36 millimeters. It's 48 millimeters lug to lug. It's got drilled lugs. It's amazing on a NATO. I, uh, I, I really have a soft spot for skin divers in general because it is, it's rare on a watch. It's quite small for there to be a lot of case. Yeah. So you can wear a small watch. Like I said, 36 millimeters is small. You know, my tastes are more like in the 40 range and You can wear this and it wears so well. It wears just as you imagine wanting a vintage sport watch to wear. Cause it's smaller than a Submariner, it's smaller than a Speedy and you kind of get that additional vintagey appeal of having the smaller piece. Yeah. But you still get this, you know, really distinctive kind of almost H shaped case with these big cutouts for the lugs. And a nice big tall bezel. It definitely looks like a dive watch from the sixties. It looks like dive equipment from the sixties.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey You know, it has that kind of submarine appeal, that sort of porthole aesthetic. It's a, it's really wearable. The case is actually in really nice shape, although it's definitely, you know, been polished and or brushed up over, over the years. Drilled lugs is great for changing straps, which of course I like to do. And then given the ample lug of the skin diver aesthetic, you can suit pretty much any type of strap you can imagine. I wear it and I have it in my hand now on like a shark mesh. Oh yeah, yeah. Which I think is actually a really fun way to wear it because it kind of flops around a little bit on your wrist. It has this really great plexi crystal that's domed but it's perfectly matched with the edge of the bezel. So the domed It just, the shape is really catches light nicely and it looks great and it feels good if you kind of rub your thumb across the edge. It doesn't have any of those kind of, you know, discrepancies in placement that you see on some vintage watches where there's a gap here or something like that. Right. And then you get this big crown, which takes up a, I'm not even sure if the crown's original, but a big crown that really sits quite noticeably on the side of the case. Is it a hand wound watch? Or is it automatic? No, it's an automatic.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's right.
James Stacey It's automatique, right? Yeah, exactly. It's a, so it's the, whatever that was the precursor to the 2824. Yeah. And, and then, yeah, it's a, it's a very simple watch. Otherwise I would say the style is basically the Sylvana Borod, we'll say kindly, the aesthetic of like a Blancpain of the time. So you have these nice small markers and these long, thin kind of pencil style hands. And it has a date, which is a pretty fun because the crystal has the Cyclops on the inside of the crystal. Cool. So it's on the underside, the top underside of the crystal above it. Uh, so you have no, um, no disruption to the external shape of the crystal. And for all I know, maybe it was difficult to get the Cyclops to attach to the curve. Oh, right. I don't know. I'm sure that there's a reason they would bother making a more complicated thing. I think this is like my ideal sort of vintage watch is a, is a, a skin diver.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And the nice thing is because these cases were all essentially made by the same few people. Yeah. And then they sold the cases out all over. So you can find them if you're not worried about, if you're not worried about the name brand, this is, you can find them with all sorts of dial designs. Yeah. Dial and hand almost endless. You can go to like retro watch guy.com. He has skin divers pretty much on the reg. And you'll see a wide variety. And unless you really want the Aquastar or the Jean Richard or something like that, then it's a lot easier to just kind of ignore the brand and buy for the aesthetic and the appeal. And you get a much better price going that way. So it obviously depends on what you're collecting for. Is my Sylvana going to go up in value? No, probably not. Does it matter? Not even a little bit to me. I love wearing it. Yeah. I'll link a pretty good story from Worn and Wound about the skin diver archetype that they did. So we'll throw that in the show notes, but you know, they were basically these EPSA, Squala and Mononin were all manufacturing this similar case shape and size. And then brands were putting their own hands and dials in there. Yeah. And what you ended up with was this kind of like really wild variety of a much more sort of casual dive watch. So like in the case of the Sylvana, it doesn't even have a dive bezel.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. It's a countdown, right?
James Stacey Yeah. It's a countdown bezel. I'm not really sure why.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I'm not really sure what the value of a countdown bezel is. Elapsed time seems like it would make more sense in day-to-day use, even if you weren't diving.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I think these are absolutely the place to start if you want to get into a vintage watch. Maybe that or a vintage Seiko is another great choice. But I think you might actually have better luck getting these serviced. I've had this one serviced by a Roldorf in Vancouver and because it's an old ETA base, there's no struggle. They had it up and running in no time and it wasn't that expensive. You know, I would liken it to kind of the MG of vintage watches is you're not really buying a watch like this for its value or even for its name brand, but rather for the look, the feel, the sort of charm that's otherwise very hard to find under a thousand dollars. Right. and you're just kind of getting into it, or maybe you're just not even at the point where you want to spend even a few thousand dollars on a vintage watch. I think these are a really great entry point that has an appeal that's so much broader than its price.
Jason Heaton Yeah, the feeling I always get with these, Silvana and all the skin divers, is that these were probably the watches that, you know, by the time these were coming out in the early to mid 60s, you know, dive watches have been around for about 10 years and more and more brands were introducing them. I just get the sense that these were the watches that guys who were diving were getting, you know, maybe not the military divers, the real hardcore guys, but like if you were diving and dive computers obviously weren't around then you, you needed a watch, you know, you'd probably buy something like this and actually, you know, the ones you see nowadays that are around, they're probably watches that, that got used at least occasionally for, for water sports because they were affordable and, and you know, sturdy and kind of no nonsense as opposed to a big name brand. And I think that's, that's kind of part of the appeal to it for me. It's kind of like the Tudor versus Rolex thing, although Tudors are now getting stratospherically expensive, but it's kind of that same vibe. Yeah, it's just that notion of, this was probably the watch that divers were buying and using back then.
James Stacey Yeah, that's a good point. I hadn't necessarily considered it. Whenever I wear this, you have that kind of vibe of like, it's a vacation, in the tropics on some boat or whatever, like it has very much like this sporty, you know, I think if you wanted to buy something new with a similar appeal, the, like the Auris 65. Right, right. Kind of wears the same way. It's a lot of crystal. It's, it's got a cool case shape, definitely inspired by the skin diver, but you know, uh, for the money, if you're okay getting into the vintage world, which means you will be let down by the watch at some point, it won't run that well, or it'll have a weird date advance or something. They're seldom perfect. And even if they are, they don't remain that way if you wear them. But if you understand vintage motorcycles or vintage cars, it's the same thing as you're not buying them because they work beautifully and because everything's just like a new thing. You're buying them because they're not a new thing. And I think these watches offer an unbelievable bang for your buck. I don't want to be speculative, but your sub 200 is probably worth in excess of 15 grand now?
Jason Heaton Yeah. I don't know. I mean, there was one that Hodinkee had up and still for sale for 17, which is, seems very optimistic, but yeah, I mean.
James Stacey So let's say safely over 10.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. And these, this one, I honestly think you could, you could find a skin diver with a little bit of patience. Yeah. Probably not a ton of patients, but just some for under $500 ready to wear. Yeah. Right. You might even find one in better shape than the Sylvana. I'm going to be honest, I would have spent more on the Sylvana because I love the dial so much.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey It's this inky metal sort of dial, and then you have these beautiful brown aged out loom. It's perfect for me and I absolutely adore wearing it, but I also know that if I'm If I'm on Retro Watch Guy at the right time, I missed out on a recent one. He had one that looked literally brand new. Huh. Wow. And it was only, he was under 500 bucks. Yeah. But eventually I'll be the first one to send him a message, not the hundredth. Yeah. And I'll start slowly building out a small collection of these skin divers. Cause I think they're really cool. And if you're looking for a watch to introduce maybe your son or your daughter to watch collecting, this is a smaller watch. It was designed as a sport watch. You know, it's not like you're buying them. uh, some old Omega dress watch, which is going to be great, but not after they whack it on a table or something like that. Yeah. Right. You're still getting the benefits of a sport watch, but, uh, but you know, they're a little bit smaller, a little bit easier to wear. Um, you know, this would be something that I'm sure if, uh, if I could convince my wife to wear a watch, this would be a size that she would at least be interested in. Yeah. And, uh, and I think, uh, I think these are, A little bit of a hidden gem. I just don't think they get a lot of recognition for what they offer in the market. Yeah. Especially because when it comes to vintage watches, of course, people are going for the brands that they know or brands that don't exist anymore at all. And there's a ton of skin diver brands that don't exist anymore. Like Sylvana, I think is still like a department store brand. Yeah. Like I think you get them at Macy's or JCPenney or something like that. I don't know. I assume that's more of a name purchase. than anything else, but I do think that they still have like a website and you can find tons that don't even have that. And there's, I think some nerd credibility to having a brand that's totally dead, was not revived in the 90s or the 2000s. Yeah. And yeah, if you're looking for kind of a new, something new for your collection or new for your wrist, but you don't want to get into, you know, the cost of a Submariner or you know, a vintage Seamaster or something like the Teagraph or really, you know, it's just like a lot of desirable vintage watches have also become crazy expensive. Yeah. And I don't think that you need to spend that money to get the experience. Yeah. I think you have to spend that money to get the brand and to get the specific watch that you want. And by all means go for it. I think that's awesome. But I think if what you want is the experience, the charm, you want to have that charm, you want to, you know, check the time at a restaurant and see something from the mid 60s that was a dive watch. Yeah. You don't have to spend upwards of say seven or eight grand on the way, all the way up.
Jason Heaton Yeah, no, that's a good point. And I think, you know, it's something you mentioned earlier about, you know, collecting skin divers. I mean, I used to think that if I had to kind of to do all over again, I might pick a specific kind of slightly obscure theme and just collect kind of in a deep and narrow, like only do super compressor cased dive watches from all these different brands or only collect skin divers or, you know, whatever. And I think skin divers, you could certainly do that with, there's just no end to the names you see on the dials of these things.
James Stacey So, yeah. Yeah. And some of them are a little bit more wild. This one's certainly a little bit more reserved. I think there's something there for everyone. And we don't typically, we being you and I, don't typically tell people to go out and buy vintage because it is a headache. Yeah. Almost always is what a lot of people won't tell you. I mean, buy from the right people and they'll make it as easy as possible. Right. But the truth is, it's just like buying an old car. You could buy that car and it could be perfect. And then the next day your starter motor doesn't work. It's like, there's just, it's just life. Like to be honest, there's like, you have to admit with your Landy, there's some appeal to that. Yes. Yeah. That it's not your Volvo. Yeah. It's not a Mazda. It's something else. And it requires your involvement in a way that isn't modern. Yeah. And just like sitting there having to try and quickly set your non-quick set date. Right. Which I've given up entirely. Any picture you see of the Sylvana on Instagram, the date's never right. I've just fully given up. It takes way too long.
Jason Heaton You get a cramp in your fingers. Yeah. Oh yeah.
James Stacey Where you just break the crown off spinning it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So good, good couple of choices. I mean, I think, you know, kind of similar vibe and era. I mean, I think both watches were probably at that time when they came out.
James Stacey Yeah, they could have been on a dive trip together for sure.
Jason Heaton Exactly. Yeah, right. Sort of working dive watches from the 60s.
James Stacey So good theme this week. I think that pretty much closes volume five of Collection Inspection. Good ones. Vintage. Too vintage. Not bad. Right. Yeah. You want to finish up the show with some final notes?
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's jump into it. I'll take the first one. A few weeks back I When I was up in New York, I met a friend of mine who, something of a watch collector. He's a sculptor and a painter and a photographer. He does some courses, teaches photography. Really talented guy. His name is Adam Morelli. And Adam's actually the guy that introduced me to the Explorers Club. And when I was out there, we met there for a couple of drinks. And he showed me a new collaboration that he has with Chapman Bags. Chapman is a British company that has kind of you know, is better known for its work making kind of outdoor style sort of shoulder bags for, you know, fishermen, fly fishermen and, and things like that. And, and he partnered with them to create what he considers, um, a pretty ideal camera bag. And I think he's a guy who, you know, brings some credibility to the task and he kind of knew what he wanted, um, both aesthetically and functionally. And, you know, we've certainly spent a good number of minutes and hours on this show talking about bags and camera bags. And I think this one is a bit of a departure from kind of the real sort of tech, tech, more, more technical bags that we've discussed. And, and I, I saw Adams when I was in New York and I went ahead and bought one from him and I'm really impressed. It has a real small form factor, but it really works well for, you know, like an SLR with a, with a spare lens. You can, there's a laptop sleeve in it for up to, I think a 13 inch laptop. Um, you know, I can put a sweater in it and then it's got kind of two bellows outside pockets. But when you look at it, when the flap is closed, it looks like kind of a, you know, this kind of has that Filson Bellingham kind of vibe to it. It's, it's made of like a duck cloth, you know, canvas with leather accents and, and a nice kind of beefy shoulder strap. And I think this might just be, You know, don't hold me to this early on, but this might end up being my SIHH Basel bag. The bag we've talked about, because it's kind of just the right size. I think it would look nice with, you know, a tweed jacket or a sport coat, not too backpacky or techie looking. And I think it would hold a good day's out worth of stuff, you know, whether, you know, certainly not a full camera kit, But I think a camera like your Sony 6500 would easily slip into one of the outside pockets. And, you know, I could do, you know, even our Sony A7 with a kind of a shorter lens, I think would even slip in the outside pocket or, you know, one of our Nikon SLRs fits nicely inside. He does provide a padded sort of insert that would slip into the bottom. But, you know, when I met him, he was sort of resisting that That aspect of the bag, he kind of bristles at the notion that photographers need to carry what he calls a diaper bag around. You just don't need a big fluffy padded bag more often than not. But he does provide that for when you plan on getting a little rough with your gear. It's just a really smart design that actually looks good.
James Stacey Yeah, it's a great looking bag.
Jason Heaton It's a beautiful bag. It's a little spendy. I think it's about $350, $375. Um, but, uh, you know, so far I'm real happy with it. It, uh, uh, I think it's going to serve me for a good long time. So yeah, check out, uh, check out Adam's bag. I think it's kind of a limited run. I think he said it's going to be carried in the Leica store in Soho in New York. And then of course you can order it online. So yeah, check it out. We'll put a link in the show notes and, uh, congratulations Adam on a good effort.
James Stacey Well, I can carry the theme very well. Same price, also limited edition, also a bag. Go for it. So this is the Topo Designs X Careology Clutter Sack. And so the Topo, obviously we've talked about Topo a lot. We don't have to explain them, but they're a backpack or a bag and apparel manufacturer. And they've teamed up with one of my favorite kind of bag review enthusiast sites called Careology. And they've teamed up with them to make a custom version of their Clutter Sack, which is, you know, I think it's about 22 liter kind of everyday backpack, but it's every day in like pretty much every day, as long as you don't have too much stuff to fill it, it could do just about anything.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So it looks like they're going to make a hundred of these, uh, which is fairly limited. They retail for $350 and they've basically taken the normal clutter sack design and then upped the materials and a couple of the buckles and then fine-tuned it for, I guess, their preferences from their you know, well-observed experience at Caryology as far as bags go. So it has this bright orange interior to make it easier to find things that might be rolling around in the bottom. Has these amazing Austrian Alpine Cobra buckles. These really cool looking buckles that they've optioned for the clips that hold the kind of brain to the central channel strap system on the back of the bag. Anyways, I haven't seen the bag, so I can't go into a lot more detail than that. But when I saw it, I instantly wanted it. So I figured it was probably at least good enough for a quick chat on the show. So be sure to check that out. We'll throw a link to the explanation from Carryology. They did this big write-up on what they've changed with the bag. I think aesthetically, the Clutter Sack was always a pretty good look. But by doing it in kind of a muted flat black with darker hardware, it just kind of minimizes its overall bulk. which I think is pretty cool. And I think the bag, I think the bag looks great. Uh, you know, I'm, I'm not in the market for another $350 bag, but if I was, I think this, this would be a pretty easy route to go. If you could, uh, if you can afford it and you, and you like the, like the overall aesthetic, it's not too technical. It's also not too casual. They've, they've kind of found a middle ground there. And I think it would make a good, uh, pretty solid travel bag, good, good bag to get around. And, uh, at 22 liters, it might be a little light for longer travel, but certainly sitting alongside a roller bag of some sort, I think it would do a good job.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I, you know, I can vouch for Topo's, uh, quality of kind of, you know, I've had them out in briefcase and then I actually have one of their older clutter sacks that they partnered with Howler Brothers. And, um, it's a nice size. I mean, my wife uses it all the time. In fact, she packed, uh, she put the Sony, uh, a seven with two lenses down in the bottom and, you know, brought headphones and a jacket and laptop and all that sort of stuff down to Bonaire when we went last week. So. It's a nice bag. Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. Not too small then at all.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's good stuff. And this one does look really, really good. Yeah. Look at those buckles.
James Stacey You got to click the link just to see the buckles. Yeah. They're bonkers. Yeah. These Austrian Alpine Cobra buckles are really neat.
Jason Heaton Well, I'll finish out my final notes with a link to a company's website. They're called Project Grenadier. And, you know, I stumbled upon this back when I first got the Land Rover. I was, you know, looking for all things Land Rover online and kind of came upon this. And it's really a neat effort. It's a company, kind of a startup in the UK that was founded by a guy who's kind of a manufacturing brand CEO, kind of a big shot businessman over in the UK who has an affinity for old Land Rovers, particularly the series Land Rovers and the Defender. And he was kind of lamenting the fact that the Defender, as it has been, has been discontinued We're waiting to see what Land Rover comes out with to replace it. But in the meantime, he just had this desire to kind of go back to the bare bones of what these vehicles were built for and what they're meant to do and kind of start an entirely new brand. And so he's partnered up with some pretty smart people and he's been in discussions with different governments in the UK and on the European continent trying to find a place where he could start up a company to actually manufacture a ground up brand new design utilitarian 4x4 along the lines of the Defender. And it's a really exciting effort. You know, I can't say too much more about it because they're just starting a lot of details. They're still in this preliminary phase, but they're dead serious about it. They're looking at, you know, they think they already know what it'll cost to kind of ramp up and design their asking for input from people on what they would like in a 4x4, what they think that what people think the name should be, et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, there's some kind of cool videos and links and, and that sort of thing on their website. And, and, uh, I'm just excited to kind of see where this goes. Um, you know, it's, uh, it's kind of a neat idea. I think even if you're not kind of into cars, I think it's kind of a, it's kind of rare to see in an industry as established as the car industry to kind of see A brand new platform, a brand new brand just come out of nothing and get created. And certainly I hope they do, you know, get support and kind of get this off the ground because I'd love to see where they go with it. I think it's just a really neat idea. So, um, yeah, check it out. It's Project Grenadier. Project is with a K instead of a C. That's really cool.
James Stacey Not many people have managed to do that. I mean, the only one that comes to my mind is Local Motors. Oh, okay. They make a really wild thing. I won't go into any depth on this. Only if you're interested, I'll throw it in the show notes at most, but it's called the Local Motors Rally Fighter. And it's like a custom, fully custom sort of designed off-road sports vehicle.
Unknown Huh.
James Stacey Wow. But not an SUV. It's like a sports car that's up off the ground. Oh, sure. Yeah. Like a rally car.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And if you've never heard of that and you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'll put that in the show notes. It's very cool to check out, but it's not worth going into any depth on, but I think that's, this project sounds really, really cool.
Jason Heaton Definitely. I'm not, can't say I'll be in the market. I'll still be buying, you know, starter motors and alternators and stuff for my old Land Rover for the next two decades. But, you know, be fun to see where this goes. You want to wrap it up? What do you have?
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. So my last one is actually. something that I only get once a month. So previously I've planned on mentioning it and then I always forget because it is only once a month and these days you're so used to some sort of input constantly.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey But what it is is it's an email newsletter from a guy named Kevin Rose. Those of you who are into either tech or even in some cases the watch world will know Kevin Rose. He was the long standing member of the screensavers way back in the day and then he had Founded a site called dig.com and he's been in the tech world for a long time. And then a little while ago, his company merged with Hodinkee Inc. And he was running Hodinkee for some time. I don't remember what the position was. I didn't follow it all that closely, but I've been a fan of Kevin's for a long time. He pops up on a handful of podcasts that are like, he has a very good podcast and he'll show up like on Tim Ferriss' podcast. I've been a fan of Kevin's for some time, and I watched Dignation, his very precursor, pre-podcast sort of web show. And one of the things that he does now is a monthly, as in only once a month, email newsletter of things that he is into. And it's free. You sign up at The Journal. It's called The Journal. You sign up at thejournal.email. And it's basically a collection of links with little explanations as to why they're interesting, and it could be anything from a TED talk to an explanation of Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency or an interesting video. A lot of his focus is on wellness and health and stuff. So there's that kind of thing in there, all at a very practical level. It's not a lot of like, you know, staring at bright lights and humming, you know, mantras and things like that. There's a lot in there that's interesting. And I think that he has a neat perspective, which is partly based in the watch world and partly based in the tech world. And then he's exploring all sorts of other avenues of his interests. And he puts that into this free email newsletter. So I highly suggest everyone sign up for it. It only comes in once a month. So, I mean, who doesn't have the time to even just scan it?
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey You'll find one or two things in everything, in every email that you're interested in. And I think Kevin Rose has been kind of on the forefront of interesting things for a very long time. And now that that's expanded, you know, beyond things like watches and tech sites into other stuff. I think it's cool to be able to follow it in, in a way that's very light as far as the impact.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I, uh, I, funny, you should bring this up today. I just signed up for this about a week or two ago. And, uh, you know, obviously we know of Kevin or I know of, knew of Kevin when he kind of came on the Hodinkee scene a couple of years ago. And, and, um, he, you know, he's the tech side of things isn't exactly my cup of tea, but I think he's one of those innovative thinkers, these kinds of original thinkers who, um, You know, no matter what the industry, whether it's a guy who's trying to design a new SUV from the ground up or someone in Kevin Rose's, you know, career path. Um, I think it's, it's just interesting to kind of hear what, what people like this are into and, and kind of see where they're at.
James Stacey So yeah, cool one. Yeah, no, that's it for me. So I think we can probably finish up the show.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. Uh, as always, thanks so much for listening, hit the show notes for more details and you can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton. James is at J.E. Stacey and do follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write to thegraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote from Charles Swindoll. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.