The Grey NATO - Ep 53 - A Tale Of Two Dive Watches

Published on Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:05:09 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discuss Jason's recent experience driving AMG cars on a frozen lake in Winnipeg, as well as their upcoming travel plans to events like the Breitling launch, Bremont Townhouse, and Baselworld watch fair. They then review two affordable dive watches - the Farr Aqua Compressor Levin and the Mark II Paradive G3. The show wraps up with final notes including recommendations for the film "Treasures from the Unbelievable Wreck", an article about polar explorer Henry Worsley, and a must-watch video of skier Candide Thovex performing incredible stunts.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey 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 53, and we thank you for listening. So James, it's been a while since we talked. I think our last time we talked was kind of the post-SIHH episode, and then you had your interview show with Jason from Rolledorf, which was really cool. Yeah, it went well. Yeah. So what's been up with you since a few weeks back?
Jason Heaton So travel started to kind of spin back up for the Nuvo gig. So I was in Winnipeg for about two and a half days with Mercedes-Benz. They do like an Arctic winter driving course on the frozen Lake Winnipeg. So AMG is the performance division of Mercedes and they do something called the AMG Driving Academy, which is courses all over the world at racetracks, at all sorts of different scenarios where an AMG vehicle would be suitable. Yeah. So it could be like off-roading in a G or a racetrack in a GTR, or in this case, they have two locations in the world where they do winter, uh, ice driving. So studded tires. And we had CLA 45s, which is kind of the small sedan that AMG makes with Mercedes. And then the C63, the kind of classic, used to be their small sedan, but it's now a slightly bigger sedan. And then the big guy, the E63S. You got to drive all three? Yep. Yeah, many times. It was basically just It was all car time. I mean, for one of these courses, it's not cheap. I mean, I think if you want to do the full thing, which is, I got about one and a half days of the three-day program in this press sample. And I think if you want to do the full thing, it's a little over 5,000 Canadian. Holy cow. Wow. But if you're really into this, it seems expensive upfront. But if you're really into the idea of wanting to do this type of a course and not have to use your own car and have instructors that are just AMG instructors, That price includes everything basically once you've landed in Winnipeg.
Unknown Oh, okay.
Jason Heaton So they get you from the airport. They get you up to Gimli. That's your hotel, like the resort, the food, the instructors, the car time, and then a drive back to the airport. It's all, it's pretty much a flat rate. And, um, and, and you spend all, pretty much all the time driving. Huh? Nice. So it's multiple like 40 minute sessions and you just move from one of the cars to another. Wow. And they, you know, you each, car group kind of has its own assigned instructor class. And then they give you, it's some of its drills, some of it's open driving and it's 360 plus acres that they've used of the lake to cut in these like really beautifully groomed courses. So you start with simple stuff like big circles and peanut shapes and maybe like a slalom course. And then you, you, they kind of graduate you to road courses essentially. So there's no elevation change cause you're on a frozen lake. Right. But all sorts of left and right turns. And the idea is to slide and drift as much as you possibly can.
James Stacey Were all three cars all-wheel drive, or rear-wheel drive, or both?
Jason Heaton So the CLA is all-wheel drive with a front-wheel drive bias. So most of the time, it would be front-wheel drive. Then if you're in a slippery scenario, you get rear-wheel drive. So it's very predictive, very easy to control. And then you have the C63 is rear-wheel drive all the time. which makes it a handful, but it feels very natural when you start to slide. And then the E63, not only is it 600 horsepower, it's also all wheel drive with a rear bias. Oh, wow. Yeah, lots of fun and intimidating. They want you to move fairly quickly in the cars and it's hard to understand how well studded tires work if you've never done that before. And the answer is they work pretty well, even when you've got a ton of power to throw around. And then if you wipe out bad enough, throw yourself into a snowbank, you can try and dig yourself out and get a push. And if you can't, then they bring over the vulture, which is a big matte black G-Wagon and they tow you out. And then they take a hole punch and they punch your card. Oh, geez.
James Stacey I saw a photo. You put one into the snowbank.
Jason Heaton Oh, I sure did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was in the car getting an instruction from the lead instructor or the chief driving instructor for AMG, this guy named Reinald. And I was attempting to do what he was telling me to do. in his very stern German accent. And I just overcooked to the end of the slalom, and I was moving apparently too quickly. And when I got on the brakes, I swear I picked up speed. And yeah, right up into a snowbank, probably three quarters of the car.
James Stacey Does that damage the plastic fairings?
Jason Heaton They have special compression bumpers. The bumpers in the photos don't look like a normal AMG bumper. I see. So they didn't seem concerned about damage. really at all, the bigger concern is if you have people go off, then everyone has to stop. Oh, sure. While they pull you out. So if a couple of people go off, you could lose half of your driving time for that segment. Yeah. Yeah. You know, cause if, if the whole group has to assemble with the first car that goes off, dig them out, try and push doesn't work, tow them out. That's seven or eight minutes or whatever. Right. Progress all the way down the course. A couple of these courses were like multiple miles long. Yeah. get down there, do it again to the next person and you're through nearly 20 minutes. So that became the biggest impetus for not wiping out was you didn't want to be the guy that was making it so that other people couldn't, you know, be drifting and having fun. Right. Yeah. But that was really good. And it was probably the best thing to do is to crash early in the morning and then work my way back up in terms of confidence. Yeah. Yeah. And by the end, you know, you're in the big one, the E63S or I was due to my rotation and you're on kind of a big open course. And I had Reinald back in the car with me and, uh, and I was having a much better time, um, you know, finding the point where the car would slide and how much power you really needed. And it, it really felt like you could do it in any of the cars, but they all required kind of a different level of finesse. Oh, sure. Uh, so I could imagine if you, uh, you know, if you, like I said, we had roughly one full day and then an hour or so in the evening. But if you bump that up to three days on the ice, I really feel like you could come out of there with a new skill set, pretty much. It's a, it's, it's pretty cool. Definitely not a cheap sort of thing to go do, but you know, people go on other vacations that have adventure aspects and costs lots of money, big dive trips, things like that. And I could see this being very appealing to, you know, the enthusiast driver who doesn't get a chance to drive on a frozen lake, or is maybe a little bit tired of spending his money to drive on a track where you don't get a really sliding, you know, a low friction surface, things like that. So it's definitely not cheap, but it is definitely really cool. And if you're in a situation where that's an option, I think they put on a really good program.
James Stacey Well, it seems like there are a lot of brands doing this stuff now. I saw somebody else recently posted something with McLaren was doing it. I know Porsche.
Jason Heaton McLaren has one in Sweden. Porsche has a couple throughout Europe. Yeah. I mean, a lot of the brands use Sweden to do these ice driving or snow driving situations because they're already up north doing Arctic winter testing. Oh, right. Which is very common because in Sweden you have access to the Arctic Circle. Yeah. So, I mean, there's lots of stories of, you know, guys driving AMGs from Germany to the Arctic Circle, turning around and driving home just to prove that some new piece or something they did was effective. Yeah. The McLaren one I'm sure would be an absolute blast. Yeah. Yeah. And I know I saw, um, Amy Shore, who I think we both follow on Instagram, great photographer who I think she shot the stuff for fair, who we'll be talking about a little, little while later. Yeah. Um, she was doing one with a Land Rover. Oh, cool. Like in the last a couple of weeks. Yeah. So yeah, I think it's a, I think it's a pretty popular thing. And I think, you know, it's one thing to take, like, do you want to take a Land Rover to a track? Right. You know, and, and maybe McLaren just gets tired of running track events. Yeah. Yeah. And they feel, you know, I think this, it is about car control, but it's also giving people the ability to kind of go buck wild. Yeah. Because when the car starts to slide, like when you initiate the slide, you really need like in, even in the big AMG, like more than 4,000 RPM to do it correctly. Yeah. So you get this huge roar from the engine. It's, it's a, it's a lot of, it's a lot of fun.
James Stacey Oh, I can imagine. I'd love to do that. Yeah. Well, I have to settle for the city streets around here. I mean, you know, you're from, back east in Ontario. And I have often thought that a course like that, not quite that extreme, but a course like that, which would almost be required to get driver's licenses in this part of the world. You know, these Northern climates where you're driving on ice and snow several months out of the year.
Jason Heaton I always get a laugh in Vancouver when we get snow a couple of days a year or whatever. The level of driving that's clear when you, you know, people who go their whole lives and don't drive in a low friction environment. Right. and they're on tires that aren't appropriate for it, and they're trying to go up or down very steep hills. I mean, you can really get the jackpot of slippery driving accidents in and around Vancouver. And certainly growing up in Ontario, it became common stance to drive all manner of ill-equipped vehicles in bad weather. I laughed with friends that I don't think I ever owned a winter tire until I lived in Vancouver. Yeah. You know, growing up in Ontario, you just had all seasons. Sure. And you just changed the way you drive. Yeah. And I just didn't, you know, at the time I wasn't smart enough or, you know, had enough cash to be swapping, you know, different tires on my old wheel of Leros. Right. Right.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of that, I, um, I did a little wheel swap on, on the old Land Rover here, uh, a couple of weeks ago.
Jason Heaton I saw this on Instagram. Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. Um, You know, a guy we've talked about on a past show, Myron, who runs Rover Haven Straps, he's over in Michigan, and he's a Land Rover guy, and he had a spare set of kind of period correct, if you will, steel Land Rover rims with Nokian Hakkapelita winter tires mounted on them. And I'd been wanting to kind of swap the aftermarket wheels that came on my Land Rover from the last owner for something a little more fitting for the vehicle. And he had them. And so we made a deal and he actually was, was nice enough to drive over, you know, 10 hours from Michigan. And then we put them on one afternoon and, and it's great. I mean, you know, the, the wheels look great, but, but the tires are, are arguably some of the top winter tires. You know, people talk about blizzacks and continental contacts and stuff, but, but Haka Polita is, it's a Finnish tire and, and, uh, they know a little something about winter driving and, um, yeah, they're, They're pretty cool. I mean, I don't actually drive a lot in four-wheel drive. I haven't had to use it that much this winter. And these tires do make a difference, even on the ice, just in standard rear-wheel drive. So I'm pretty happy. Nothing certainly like what you had.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we were driving also finished tires, but hand-studded lappies. Oh, wow. So it's this really interesting story. I'll actually throw it in the show notes, but it's this couple, a man and his wife, that hand-stud lappies.
James Stacey That's amazing.
Jason Heaton 400 studs of tires, so you definitely couldn't drive them on pavement, and they're not street legal. But even like, you know, to leave the parking lot of the hotel, like you had to drive maybe 200 feet of roadway, but it was nice thick snow in Gimli, and then you would turn and start onto the little roadway that got you to the lake, and they were very careful about like, please put traction control on, please don't spin the tires, like it's not that difficult to tear the tear the studs out. You really want to be in a slippery scenario for the studs to work correctly. Wow. And, uh, and so you kind of have to baby them. And the one time we had like a longer drive because the cars were at like a holding area. Yeah. And so we kind of had to cruise around back streets to make sure we didn't go anywhere that was plowed. Sure. Yeah. And, uh, and then once you're on the water, it's, you know, uh, you know, put the suspension in its softest setting, the sport setting in its hardest, most hardcore setting, and then just ESC off and go nuts. Yeah, yeah. But a different experience than the Land Rover. But you know, I had, it's not too much of a diversion, but you know, back in the day, I had an 89 Blazer two-door.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And I mean, I'm sure it had more power than your Land Rover, but not by much. We're talking about, I mean, maybe it made 130 horsepower from its 4.6 liter. Sure. or sorry from its 4.3 liter uh v6 yeah really like insane amount of engine for how much power it made yeah but it had these little skinny tires and uh and yeah it was uh it was a handful in in and of course no it didn't have uh great good brakes or or anything anything to help you that way either and it was always a handful in some weather but if things got legitimately sketchy, you could just click it into four wheel and then you were just driving essentially a kind of fast tractor. Yeah. Yeah, right. So you weren't you were gonna get home. You just you know, yeah, I think the speedo went to 110 kph. Fun vehicle. I bought that for $1. It was good.
James Stacey Now you've got a very different sort of travel coming up here. Tomorrow, actually, right? You're headed somewhere.
Jason Heaton Yeah, tomorrow, tomorrow morning. So by the time everyone hears this, I will be Nearly home, but tomorrow morning as we're recording this, I'm headed to Los Angeles for a few days for kind of a family vacation. I have a new niece in Los Angeles that we're going to go visit and you know, just kind of a few things that we always like to do when we're down there. We're going to check out Catalina, which we've not done before. And we've also got a trip to the Peterson planned, which I'm really excited about. They have a brand new Porsche exhibit. That's the, it's a big automotive museum there, right? Correct. Yeah. And then I'm trying, I'm looking at whether or not I'll have the time because my little girls and my wife probably don't care to do the vault tour. Yeah. But in the vault they have, you know, McQueen's XKSS. Oh my gosh. They have, uh, they have some really special stuff there and they have McQueen's 356 Speedster, uh, at the new Porsche exhibit. Wow. And I'm going to cruise around town in the new Caddy CT6. Oh yeah. So that's their full size sedan. It has the autonomous driving platform. I'm currently considered to be one of the only like competitors to the Tesla one. It's GPS based. So certainly when I'm on the highway, I should be able to give that a spin, which should be fun. At least at least to freak out my wife a bit. Yeah. And yeah, that trip should be great. And I'm I'm actually picking up a watch while I'm down there. So I'm pretty excited. Oh, that's so cool. I finally bit the bullet on a Doxa. And a friend of the show and an online pal of ours was willing to part with his 50th anniversary Sub 300 Sea Rambler. So that's waiting for me at my location in LA. So that should be good.
James Stacey Oh man, I bet you can't wait to get that. It's been there a while, right? A couple of days?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I guess it's been there for a little while. And mostly I've just been looking at them for the better part of a year, I guess. I buy watches so slowly because you get spoiled being able to borrow them.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And, uh, and this is one that like, you know, it was on a list of two or three different watches and those watches, the other ones in the list are still definitely still on the list. But, uh, I thought that it was time. And then the opportunity to pick one up from someone I already knew and that sort of thing was a, was a plus. So it made it a lot easier.
James Stacey Yeah. You're, you're overdue for a Doxa. I think that's, that's super exciting. And I think the Sea Rambler is arguably the kind of the coolest of the three. I mean, it's, That's going to be awesome. And they go so well with so many different straps too. So you'll have so much fun.
Jason Heaton Expect to see that on the Instagram, but by the time this goes up, it'll already be on there. So yeah. Cool. And how about you? You've got some new watches as well, right?
James Stacey Yeah. I've got kind of several projects going, you know, for Hodinkee Reviews and one that already actually went up, a review that I did on the Pinion Adam, I'm about to package that, send it off to another reviewer for another blog. But I had fun with that. Pierce Barry from Pinion over in the UK sent over the Adam, which is Pinion's, I guess, entry-level watch to their collection. And then he also sent the Axis II just for comparison, which is kind of their best-known watch. Both, you know, three-hand watches. Automatics, the Atom uses the Miyota to kind of save money and, you know, it's a more accessible watch. But I was super impressed. I mean, it's, I've been wanting to check out Opinion for quite a while. And, you know, I'm not going to go into a full on review here because you can click on a link in our show notes and take a look at what I wrote about it. But that was fun. And then I've kind of got something in the works with, in the affordable chronograph area. And so far I have in two of the Baltic chronographs, the Bicompax chronograph that they have, and then a Mercer Lexington. And the interesting thing about those two is that both of those watches use the Seagull ST-1901 hand-wound movement, which is based on an old Venus Swiss movement, but the Seagull's made in China. And I'm super impressed. I mean, it's, You know, again, it's early days. I haven't spent a ton of time wearing them or playing with them. But, you know, the chronograph action's good, the movement looks good, winds really nicely, and they're both really sharp watches. So I'm kind of waiting for a third watch to get in to kind of complete this trio of chronographs that I want to review. And, you know, we'll certainly, I'm sure, chat in future episodes about this, especially when the review goes up.
Jason Heaton I think that's a great idea for the review because these watches, you know, they, they sit in that similar price point and they're not retail environment sort of pieces. So you either kind of buy one or a friend buys one or you've never really seen one. Yeah. And, uh, you know, I think it'll make for an interesting piece and not something that a lot of, uh, you know, the other blogs are hitting on as far as not so much the comparison, but just highlighting more of what's around under a grand.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. And then, um, You know, speaking of watches, I mean, we've got some trips coming up here. I mean, both of us, beyond your L.A. trip, we've got a trip to New York for Breitling at the end of this month. Yep. You know, I'm sure if anybody's been anywhere close to Instagram, you've seen a ton of the new Breitling stuff pop up all over the world. They've been kind of doing a world tour, debuting the new collections under new CEO George Kern. So that'll be kind of cool to check out. And we'll both be there. And then in early March, there's the Bremont townhouse thing, which last year was in London, but we're they've moved it to kind of to New York for the North American crowd. So that should be exciting to kind of check out what they've got this year. And then of course, Basel in a little over a month, I guess. So actually, yeah, I think it's about a month.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Just a hair. Yeah. So plenty to come up. I'm excited. I'm excited to see the Breitling stuff in person. Yeah. And, um, and you know, I think, I think they're going to show the same stuff in New York that we've seen online. So I don't think there's really any surprises. Right. Um, maybe there's more surprises for Basel proper, which would be fun, but it is, you know, these five watches under the new Navi eight, uh, designation, but I think we'll probably just pulled off on chatting a bunch about that until we've even seen the pieces. I think everyone else has seen the same pictures we've seen. Mm. So there's not a lot to be added until you get a chance to see them in the flesh. So that should be fun. It's a really quick trip. Uh, the Bremont trip, I don't know anything about yet, uh, aside from its location. And I'm, I'm obviously very excited to see their stuff. I think that they did a really great job with a wide range of watches to show last year. And it's exciting to think what they may show this year. And for all I know, you know, the, the London version of the townhouses before the U.S. one, so we may see all those pieces beforehand. Right. Whereas, you know, last year with the London one, we were essentially launching the pieces. Yeah. We were there for their kind of first, you know, time in any sort of a public light. So that's fun. And then there's no real way to encapsulate Basel. I think it's going to be a strange sort of year for Basel. It's a smaller show this year. It's a little shorter. But to be honest, I think there's just an opportunity to to do more work and to see more brands, uh, the ones that are still there. And, uh, and I, I don't think it's going to affect the product cycle because I mean, it's probably too early in a number of years for brands to start to adjust. They would have planned their Basel long ago. Uh, so I think we're still going to see some pretty cool stuff. And the nice thing about Basel is we'll see stuff from every price range.
James Stacey Yeah. And I'm not sure if the brands that are not at Basel, um, are brands that we would have visited anyway i can't think of any brands that you and i probably know yeah so it shouldn't probably affect our show that much there were a couple of brands i think that moved over to sihh i know hermes yeah whatever but yeah other than that it's the usual suspects for for our interests yeah and if it means that there's a few less people walking around the show floor yeah that's okay with me too right exactly that's true yeah so uh i'm really excited i i just sealed up uh all the details to go and help the hodinke crew
Jason Heaton With coverage. So that's a big deal for me. And I'm really proud to be able to number among that team and, uh, you know, bring a camera out there for, uh, for hodinkee.com. So obviously there'll be many, many ways to follow Basel for hodinkee's existence, but, uh, our Instagram is, is one level. And then there's almost always a post in the week leading up to Basel explaining how best to follow all of the, uh, the hodinkee crew. uh, as, as they ascend on Switzerland.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yep. Get your, get your comfortable shoes out. It should be a, should be a good ride. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Comfort jacket, comfortable shoes. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And then finally, I got a really fun opportunity, um, with the last two issues of the Hallyo Seaforth, Jason, who we've had on the show previously, he does like a local pickup option for buyers that are in or around Vancouver.
Unknown Oh, fun.
Jason Heaton And this time he did it at a, after hours at a coffee shop in downtown Vancouver. And it was one of the better watch events I've ever been to. Oh, wow. Just based on the people, like people, Hallios buyers are like real straight up watch nerds. Yeah. And I had so many like really fun conversations and I met people who listened to the show and everybody who's listening, who was at this event. Thank you so much for coming up and saying nice things and, and, and, you know, making me feel welcome. And I hope you felt the same at the event and that kind of thing. And obviously, it's always fun to see that kind of thing and to see people get new watches. And you know, you and I, Jason, obviously have an affinity for the C4. And, and I think that went really well. And I think it was a nice sort of positive spin on some of the negativity that's been floating around online about the C4 launch where, you know, there were a few attempts to sell the watch and it was either too popular and also crowded up by bots. So the, the crash, the, the carts weren't working. And then on the third attempt at work, but there wasn't enough watches for everyone who wanted to buy one.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And a lot of people felt entitled to get a watch. Yeah. And you know what, I'm, I'm of two minds, but I am clearly in the camp of like, if you didn't get a watch too bad, right. Like, don't get me wrong. I understand. And I've been in this situation where you want a product or an experience like a concert and you cannot get to it. Yeah. And even if you can, the price is insane. Right. But, you know, Jason has very publicly spoken about the way that he intends to run Hallios in terms of production levels and scope and that sort of thing. Yeah. And the fact that people are going to complain on the internet, I don't think is going to change those goals for how that company is going to operate. Yeah. And, you know, maybe he'll go into a different methodology for deciding how many to make in the future, maybe a pre-order, who knows. If I hear any news on that, I'm more than happy to share it on the show. But for the most part, the production run of the C4-2 would have essentially been established probably just after C4-1 was sold. And the first C4-1 didn't sell out immediately. It sat on the site for a few days back when we ordered ours. And then it was the kind of one and a half run that sold out in a few minutes. And then The number two run was this kind of insane kind of web drama circling around a kind of large crew of people who all wanted the same watch and there just weren't enough to go around. And I definitely understand being bummed about it. I don't necessarily understand like going online and blasting a small business owner who like meticulously maintains his price point and is very fair to everyone who does buy the watch and is sympathetic to those who can't get them. but he was getting some unbelievably like nasty feedback. And you have to wonder like, you know, these folks that are commenting, have they just never tried to buy something popular before? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think there was a ticket or sneakers or whatever.
James Stacey And this notion that, um, that this was some sort of nefarious conspiracy on his part to kind of drive demand and, um, you know, by falsely kind of keeping numbers low or denying access. I mean, it's a little crazy. I mean, I think, um, You know, obviously we've both met Jason and we have that advantage of having, you know, met the guy behind Helios. But, you know, he's truly one of the nicest guys in the watch business. And I just feel bad when anybody who's got a small business just kind of trying to do things honestly and maybe, you know... Or just the way he wants to do it. Yeah. And also, you know, he's been fully upfront about the fact that he's learned from these processes, these buying processes, and he's you know, maybe, you know, thinking about some changes for the future, but you know, you can't throw stones, especially about something like this. I just think it's, it's not fair.
Jason Heaton Like it's still just a watch. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And, and it's a good watch and, and, you know, I I've seen them now pop up on the used market and they're going for more than like approaching double. Oh, wow. Wow. With the people who are buying and flipping. So, I mean, that's the reality of this world is that typically with a product that sells out, that quickly. It's the secondary market that shows what the true price is. So if this true price of a C4 is like $1,500 or $1,600, then so be it. I don't know how that necessarily, again, is the fault of the guy who makes the watch, or produces the watch, or gets it into your hands. You can go back and look at a number of times that I've reviewed Halio's products, and pretty much since their first watch, he was selling out models. Right. And I've finished many, uh, Hallios reviews saying like, if you want one, learn how to order one and be ready. Yeah. Yeah. Because when they go on the site, they go on the site and it's not, you know, it's that simple. And maybe, maybe the growth, the growth spike for Hallios with the C4th didn't equal a growth in the ability to sell the watch differently or better or more effectively to a larger group of people. But, but regardless, if you did manage to get one, congrats. I think that you got a solid watch. There's definitely plans for Hallius to make more Seaforth that's on Instagram and on the website. So, uh, maybe there'll be a system in the future for reservations or something like that. And, uh, other than that, I mean, like I said, everyone who came out to the Vancouver event, it was a treat to meet you all. You're all good people. And, uh, and it was a really, really fun night of just. nerding out on watches and eating some good food and hanging out. So I would love more watch events to be kind of in that ilk.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Cool. So how are you feeling? You want to hit up this main topic? Yeah.
James Stacey I mean, it's kind of a good segue because today's episode, our main topic is a couple of kind of similarly small brands, maybe not quite as small as Helios, but certainly under the radar for a lot of the big brand devotees. really a couple of cool dive style watches and ones that we've had a fair amount of time to kind of kick around and try out and wear for a while. So I guess we should jump right in. We've got the the Farrer Aqua Compressor, specifically the Levin variation of it, which is one that Farrer was kind enough to send me to try out several weeks back. And then you've been wearing the I don't know if it's Mark 2 or MK2. I always say Mark 2, but the Mark 2 Paradive. Yeah, I always say Mark 2. Yeah, the Mark 2 Paradive. It's the third generation of the Paradive, so it's a watch I think we've probably both had some experience with older versions, but yeah, this is kind of the latest and greatest.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well, let's kick it off with the Fair, because I haven't seen that in person, but I covered it when they first announced for Hodinkee. Yeah. So I'd love to hear your kind of hands-on thoughts, and then when we're done with that, we can kind of share what we thought collectively about the Mark II. Sure.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, you know, just a quick recap of the fair, which, you know, as you said, you wrote up for Hodinkee, and then we talked about it. I think it was on the day it was released, actually. Yeah. A couple months ago. Called the Aqua Compressor, and the name comes from the kind of the tribute to the old case style, the super compressor cases that were made back in the 60s and 70s. That twin crown case with the with an internal bezel. The compressor name refers to the style of sealing that was used, whereas the water pressure actually causes the gasket in the watch to kind of compress as the deeper you go, sealing the watch tighter and tighter. And they made three variations. They made the Hecla, the Endeavor, and the Levin, all of which were fairly different from each other, mainly in, you know, sort of dial color and bezel color. The Levin is the one that they sent me and I was quite glad about that because I thought it was the coolest looking of the bunch. It's got like a silver sunray or sunburst style dial with applied markers and this burnt orange and black internal bezel. And then the tip of the seconds hand has this little hint of green on it. So if you followed Ferrer at all or looked at their other offerings over the past couple of years. It's a fairly young company. Um, you'll know that that kind of their calling card is the use of color and design. And, um, it's a really attractive watch. It's a really fun watch. I think it kind of grabbed both of us when it first came out and, and, uh, in person, it didn't disappoint. It's, it, it wears really well. Um, it, it has kind of a vintage feel because of the size. It's, uh, it's according to the specs, um, it's 41 and a half millimeters across with a 45 millimeter lug to lug and it's just over 12 millimeters thick. So it wears nice and compactly. Um, and then without the, the external bezel, it, it, and kind of the, the crystal goes almost right to the edges of the case. It, it has that sort of dichotomous feeling of feeling sort of like it's all dial, like it's a big enough watch, but yet it wears really compactly on the wrist. So, um, it's just about kind of the perfect size for, for this style watch. It's also not so, it doesn't scream kind of diver, like you get with, you know, like a Doxa or a Rolex or something with an external bezel. It just feels like kind of a nice, smooth, slightly sophisticated sports watch. And I think I'm a real fan of that type of watch anyway. The pinion was kind of like that, like the MB2 from Bremont's kind of like that. these watches that sort of defy a very strict sort of definition. And yeah, I mean, you know, other than kind of those preliminaries, I mean, it's a watch that costs about, they list it for $1,295 US. And to me, it really feels like it's worth that if there's even a way you can kind of, you know, put value on a watch. But it just feels like a really high value piece because Right from the outset, the packaging is really nice. It's the sort of molded case, padded case, and it comes with a really nice three link steel bracelet. And the rubber strap that's on it is just this beautiful supple. It's actually one of the nicest rubber straps I've worn. And then they fit it with this kind of beefy buckle that has the Ferrer stylized A logo on it. So it's all these little details. And I guess the impression I come away with with Ferrer is a brand of designers. You know, these guys are, even if you look at their website or their blog content or the photography, they really have an eye for detail and for design. And I like that, especially for a young brand that maybe doesn't have a long history or a backstory that they can kind of lean on. I think the design element is really their strength. Okay.
Jason Heaton I mean, I have a couple of questions with it being, with it being the, you know, internal bezel. Yeah. Diver, how's the crystal?
James Stacey The crystal, so it kind of sits slightly, slightly above the case. I'm looking at it right now and it's got a slight convex, you know, sort of dome to it. It's not super high dome. And super visible. I mean, I don't think it's domed enough. I haven't worn it underwater, but I don't think you'd get much distortion. Um, the, you know, the, the bezel itself is, so they're, to explain the two crowns, the top crown, which is their sort of trademark bronze crown, which is, you know, kind of cool, but it's sort of love or hate thing. That one controls the timekeeping and then the bottom crown obviously manipulates the internal bezel. And, and I guess the one thing I found that maybe is a slight, well, I don't know if flaw is the word, but you know, a little niggling issue with it is that, you know, when you unscrew the, The crown, they're both screw-in crowns. When you unscrew the bezel crown, the bezel starts to turn a little bit as you're unscrewing it, so that's kind of a bit of a... And will it turn when you start to screw it back in, or you just have to be kind of careful? No, it doesn't. So you definitely have to push it in. So, I mean, it's not a true sort of big issue, and the crown has good action. It doesn't index, so it's just sort of a friction crown, and it's only... Right, okay. ...unidirectional, so it only turns counterclockwise. All right. Yeah, it's fun.
Jason Heaton The other crown... And the case finishing seems pretty good. I mean, from the photos, it looks great.
James Stacey Yeah. No, the case finishing is great. It's funny because when you wear the watch, when I'm, you know, when I look at it straight on, because of the kind of the shape and the way that the crystal comes to right to the edge of the case, especially on the sides, it almost looks... I've had this weird sort of a visual trick. It almost looks like the watch is oblong. rather than symmetrical from kind of straight on. And I think it's the trick of the way that the light catches the sort of the brushwork on the top as it kind of slopes down in a way towards the lugs or where the strap fits in, as opposed to kind of off the edges from nine and three. So it's really fun. And then on the side, the slab sides of the case are high polish. but the curve of the case, the curve of the crown and kind of the way that the strap integrates and then the overall sort of fairly compact 45 millimeter lug to lug, it just makes it sort of, it just hugs the curve of your wrist really nicely. So it's a really nice wearing watch, especially with this beautiful rubber strap on it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, 41 and a half by 45 lug to lug is super wearable. Yeah, yeah. And typically the watches of this look, Like I know that there was some from Helsin that used kind of a super compressor with a big open dial and like a semi-hooded lug sort of design.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I think that one was 47. I can't remember what it was called now. It was like an offshoot of the Buccaneer, but it was like a 47 millimeter watch. It was like a flying saucer. I thought it was a really cool looking thing, but in person it was just kind of too big. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Whereas I think, you know, at least judging from the numbers, these proportions are pretty solid. Usually a lug to lug under 50 millimeters is pretty wearable. Yeah. At least on my wrist it is. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And then, you know, you're still getting the 300 meter water resistance, the, it's C3, you know, nice bright green loom. Right. And, uh, I think they look really good. I'm glad that you got a chance to check one out.
James Stacey Yeah. And what's cool about it too, is it uses, it's a fairly rare use of, of an ETA 2824. There's actually a variation of that movement that can be bought without a date function, which I guess I didn't even realize until I got this watch and that they specifically call it out on their website, that you can get a 2824 without a date function. So you don't get that phantom date click on the crown. And it's the same with the C4th, which uses a Miyota movement without the date function, the first generation C4th that we have. And it's a small detail, but it's kind of neat that they put the time into that. But that aside, I mean, it's all well and good in terms of the movement and the timekeeping and that sort of thing. But I just think that the if there's a takeaway from, you know, wearing this watch for a while and I've worn it, you know, cross country skiing and just bumming around and kind of every day I've worn it quite a bit in the past month. And it's just a real pleasure to look at. Um, you know, as you're going to see with your forthcoming sea rambler, I mean these, these sunburst silver dials are just so bewitching. And, and then with these nice applied markers that they're using on this and that little splash of green on some of the markers and on the tip of the seconds hand. It's overall, it's just a wonderful design. And then I didn't actually put the bracelet on the watch, but it's a nice looking bracelet. And then they package it with a little sort of pincer tool that has the Ferrer stylized A logo engraved in the top. And it's for taking off spring bars. So just nice little details like that.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, Swiss powered with a bracelet, 300 meter water resistant diver with a good crystal. That sounds like about 1200 bucks. Yeah. Seems definitely within range. Yeah, definitely. And anything else before we bounce on to the Mark II? No, let's switch gears. Yeah. Cool. So I have the Mark II. So if you want, I can go first and then you can kind of fill in some blanks because you had it before me and I've got it now. Sure. So it's the Paradive G3. And then specifically, this is the Type 1, non-date, 12-hour, with an acrylic bezel. So there's a ton of different versions. Mark II is always really good with versioning with these sorts of watches. And the basic idea, and Jason, you can fill in any blanks here if I miss it. But the basic idea is this is an homage to a late 60s, early 70s government issue watch made by a company called Benris. And they more or less famously made a Type 1 and a Type 2. And this would be closer to the Type 1 Um, it has some connection with Vietnam and the CIA and things like that. And I think that's pretty much hitting the, the pillars of the, uh, the type, uh, the Brent Benris type one.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Um, you know, and, and, you know, Mark two has always been known for kind of homage watches. I think that even the Genesis of the name is that this would, if a watch, if there were a second version or a Mark two version of any of these vintage watches were made, this is what, how Bill Yao, who's the founder of the company would would have seen it made. Hi Bill. Yeah. Hi Bill. And so, yeah, this is, this is kind of their homage to the Venris.
Jason Heaton It's a steel case. It's 41.25 millimeters wide. That's at the bezel, but the bezel is essentially most of the case until you realize the case is asymmetrical. So the right side of the case, the three o'clock side of the case extends further away from the bezel flank to accept a fully hidden crown. So the crown is very beautifully shrouded by the case. And the asymmetry is kind of a hallmark of the Benris style watches. And I think it looks amazing, especially if you wear your watch on the left wrist, because it kind of feels like it's leaning away from your hand. Yeah. And I think it's a very, like, really nicely made example. It's the better part of 15 and a half millimeters thick. 20 millimeter lugs and it's 49 and a half millimeters lug to lug. So on rubber or on a NATO, I found it to be really nicely sized and super easy to wear. It's not super heavy. It's a double dome sapphire crystal. It's got internal AR, which works really well. You can see in photos, you know, typically crystal over a matte black dial is a pretty good combo for reflections. Not perfect because the matte will pick up like the general color of things. But it does a really nice job and it's a 200 meter water resistant. And these are verified to be ISO 6425. It's one of the aspects of these Paradive watches. And then it uses a Japanese made SI2 NE15, which is a Seiko sourced white label movement with hacking and hand winding. And you get drilled lugs. It comes with a rubber strap. It comes in kind of a cool like I guess it kind of reminds me of like when I see pictures of like a handgun case. Yeah. It's like a black case with two clips on it and a handle. You get some cool paperwork telling you about how, how well the watch was regulated and uh, and then how to use the watch and that sort of thing. And then, uh, you know, some basic, uh, examples and then you get a nice kind of foam cutout again, kind of not unlike a military or weapons case where you can hold additional straps or it comes with more spring bars and things like that. But I think that's the basic kit. Uh, the watch itself, I've really, really enjoyed wearing. It's really nice on a NATO. And there's a few different options. This one has the loomed acrylic bezel, which you took diving, correct? I did.
James Stacey Yeah. Um, and, and at the time, you know, Mark II, um, had said that they couldn't guarantee that one for the 200 meter water resistance because of that acrylic bezel. And I'm not, I'm still not sure why that would be an issue, but it obviously didn't, didn't have any issues when I took it diving.
Jason Heaton So, yeah. And obviously, I'm definitely a huge sucker for a 12-hour bezel, so I'm happy to see another watch with a 12-hour bezel. My actual only usage, it's not even a complaint as much as it's not to my preferences. I don't really like the bezel action on the Paradive. It's very light. Oh, yeah. I'm just used to something that feels a little bit more firm and has a kind of a more pronounced click to the mechanism. Yeah. Being a 12-hour bezel, one, you don't change it that often, and two, you're not setting it with like 30 second accuracy or 10 second accuracy or something like that. So in a usage case, I actually didn't notice it that much, but as part of the life of a guy who reviews watches, you pick up a watch and you start turning the bezel. Yeah. And I found this bezel to feel more like a bezel on a well used Seiko than maybe what I would have expected for kind of a brand new watch. Sure. Yeah. It is nicely loomed, which I love. I love a loomed bezel and the whole watch uses a BGW9, the blue Luminova. My preference is always the green, but only because it's brighter. But if you go on my Instagram and I'm going to throw it in the show notes, I've got a photo of the watch that I took on my desk handheld. So you can see the blue gets quite bright if you give it a good shot of a flash or a flashlight. Sure. And yeah, that's, uh, that's basically, you know, what I think of it. I think it's a sharp little watch. I think at 920 bucks, it's also a little bit less than the normal price point that mark two operates within. Yeah. Um, so you're coming in under a thousand dollars and I think you can actually even go just under 900 bucks if you just stick with the NATO strap. Yeah. It's 895. If you just want a normal, uh, military kind of ministry of defense style strap. And at that point, I think, uh, if you're a fan of the Benris, maybe you even own a type one, but you don't want to wear it out because they're kind of rare, or maybe you can't wear it in the pool or something like that. I think this could be a really nice addition to somebody's collection. And, you know, I think we could have a longer conversation about homages. I think we've dealt with it a little bit in the past. We're not huge fans, but it doesn't bother me when somebody makes an homage of a watch that's not really available anymore. Right. doesn't seem to have the same, I don't know, like copycat feel to it when it's something that like this was made in history and now we got that. I mean, there's lots of examples of that with cars, Caterhams, the Lotus seven, stuff like that. And I think this could be seen in the same ilk and uh, yeah, it wears really well. I think it looks really cool. I love that there's like, I mean, you could almost say there's no dial text, but there is a logo. You just have to look really hard for it. Yeah. and there's a date, a version with a date and a version without. And then there's multiple different bezels you can choose from.
James Stacey Yeah, this was, I actually had one of the previous generation Paradives for a while and it always, it still sticks with me as one of kind of my favorite watches just to kind of throw on and wear wherever or whatever you're doing. When I say it's sort of an anonymous watch, I don't mean that in a negative sense. I mean, that lack of a logo, that sterility and that sort of, really stark appearance is so appealing to me. And I think it set off with that, the bead blast finish. It just, it feels, it feels, it feels just tough and it feels no nonsense in many senses of the word. And you're right. I think it, I think it works really well on NATO. I think it works best on NATO. I, you know, I put it right on NATO and it just, it wears so well that way.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I threw it on a green NATO and that kind of military aesthetic. Yeah. On the NATO and you're kind of like, it just works. I think it looks, it looks, the design is very cohesive and it's very obviously a diver.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton It has that sort of like, if you progressively just dilute, or not diluted, but if you progressively minimized what it was to have a Rolex or even a Seiko dial. Right. Yeah. Like the blend between a Rolex dial and an SKX dial, kind of put them on top of each other and then fight it through. a photocopier like 20,000 times to just get the fine, like the, what the bare bones is, that's what's left on that dial. It's like hyper legible. It has that sort of military gauge appeal. And then in this example, the kind of the glossy aspect of the acrylic bezel, I find kind of sets it off really nicely. And I love that the bezel's loomed.
James Stacey Yeah. And it's funny, you know, the two watches we're talking about today, kind of within, you know, 300 bucks of each other, they're about roughly the same size, at least diameter wise. Um, both dive watches, but they couldn't be more different, you know? I mean, the Ferrer is all about, you know, color and noticing little details and complexity and design and, and the Mark II just strips that all away. And it's just like the archetypal diver. Um, yet they're both very appealing watches. So it's, it's really interesting to kind of put them side by side.
Jason Heaton And do you remember, do you remember Mark II like many years ago when they were still doing customization of Seikos? Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, they had these kind of cool dials that you could select when you were customizing an SKX. Right. And a lot of them had these very basic, you know, they didn't say Seiko on them anymore. You'd go on Poor Man's Watch Forum and see some wild, colorful, but it didn't have any like text on it. Yeah. Right. And that's always kind of stuck with me. And I think a little bit of that charm is in the Paradive.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So it just feels like a Mark II. I dig it. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I think it's a cool watch. And I definitely think that if you're, if like it suits your overall aesthetic, I don't think it's going to let you down. I mean, definitely nicely made. You had it diving. I've been traveling with it and wearing it, you know, to the park on the weekends. I love the drilled lugs because if you do want to change a strap, you want to throw it on a rubber or leather or whatever, piece of cake. And again, the drilled lugs could just kind of suit the overall aesthetic. So yeah, I think a nicely cohesive, but still very much a minimalist kind of monochromatic dive watch. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Nicely done. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, I think on both counts, I mean, two, two, I think interesting watches that are outside of the, the usual stuff you're going to see on most, uh, most sites and Instagram. I mean, neither are a Rolex and neither are a Seaforth. And like, it's just a nice variety between the two. And I think fair, fair actually has like a handful of really interesting watches. Their GMTs look great too. and eventually you'll get to see those in person. But if you don't know Farrer at all, or you don't know Mark II at all, your homework is just to go to their website and click around. And I guess the easiest way to see the Mark II stuff would be at Windup. Right, yeah.
James Stacey And I think Farrer was, well, they did a New York stopover in their kind of tour for the Aqua Compressor.
Jason Heaton Oh, beautiful, I didn't know that.
James Stacey But I'm not sure if they'll be at Windup next year, but yeah. Yeah, cool. Two fresh brands. I mean, Mark II's been around a while, but- For sure. You know, it's so nice. I mean, you and I talk a lot about where the most exciting stuff is happening in the world of watches. And I do think that this price point, this sort of area around a thousand bucks, give or take, there's just such cool stuff going on. C4, Ferraro, Mark II.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I'm starting to think that like there's a real sweet spot between about 800 bucks and $2,500. Yeah. Call it premium enthusiast. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's not luxury and like, I would say the most well-known watch that I can think of in that area, and that's obviously because this watch is what's on my mind, is the Doxa. Right, yeah. At, you know, a list of 2,500 bucks. Right. Right on down to something like a Seaforth. This is definitely the most interesting window for, I think, definitely you or I, or the types of people who would listen to the Great NATO. If you're a Patek collector, probably not. Right. If you really love vintage Seikos, again, probably not. And all of those are fine options. But I think if you're kind of in the general TGN vibe, you see what we put on our Instagram, that sort of thing. These watches are really good examples of like, there's this really meaty section where 1500 bucks separates a bunch of really good watches.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I, you know, I wrote a little bit about this in my opinion review. Again, there's another watch that is like $895 for the Atom and um or 900 bucks and um i think in this price point around this 1000 to 2000 level i think the brands just have to work so much harder to differentiate themselves and to kind of you know fight for the spotlight it's it's like um i think the luxury brands the omegas the rolexes the tutors they're so established their pricing is kind of to that level of i don't know if you can even justify it so much anymore and and i think they're just different sort of more ethereal things that differentiate those brands. You know, you start talking about brand history and reputation and prestige and resale and these kinds of things that don't really mean much to somebody who just wants to put on a really good looking watch. And I think arguably a watch like the Ferrer or the Mark II, you know, you'll get as much if not more enjoyment, not because of how little you paid for it, but just because they're fresh, you know? There's just something new and kind of exciting about these smaller brands. I guess it's like any sort of a startup or anything like that.
Jason Heaton Yeah, no, I agree. I also don't have anything more to add.
James Stacey How about some final notes? Yeah, let's do that. So I've got a couple. I'll start with one. And it's actually a movie that I'm guessing a fair number of listeners have probably heard of, and maybe I'm a little late to the party on this one, but when I was at SIHH, I was in the Ulysse Nardin booth, and they had all of these strange, beautiful statues on pedestals around their booth that looked like busts or sculptures that had been under the sea for a while. They had sort of crusted with colorful dried coral and things like that, and they had this sort of sub aquatic theme going on in their booth. And I took a photo of one and I put it on Instagram and somebody commented, Oh, that's, that's from the treasures from the wreck of the unbelievable. And I hadn't heard of it. So when I got home, I kind of started googling around for it and found lo and behold, it was from a movie of the same name that's available on Netflix. And the concept of this, you know, and at risk of, you know, if you truly want to be surprised by the whole story maybe you mute mute the podcast or fast forward a little bit here but um i'm gonna i'm gonna spoil it a little bit but the whole concept is the british artist damien hirst who's kind of well known for you know these garish sort of art installations with you know full-sized great white sharks in formaldehyde and you know really crystal studded skull and this sort of stuff he decided to kind of reboot his career and do something completely different and he was always fascinated with sunken treasure. And so what he did is he he created hundreds of unique pieces of artwork that looked like it came from, you know, the time of the antiquities and actually sunk them to the bottom of the ocean off the east coast of Africa and then produced a mockumentary, you know, a faux documentary film about the discovery of these treasures by a dive expedition. And so this movie, Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable, kind of starts with the discovery of one of these treasures and then the kind of the years long expedition to dive and locate all of these treasures. And it's done in such a way that you fully believe it. I mean, you watch this and if you don't know the backstory, you think, wow, this is the most unbelievable treasure find I've ever seen. And then they intersperse it with little blips of Damien Hirst talking. who ostensibly, according to the film, was kind of a underwriter for the expedition based on his interest. But as the film moves on further, you start to get the sneaking suspicion that something's not quite what it seems. And then, of course, if you know the backstory, you already know what the kind of the I don't want to say it's the joke is on you, but it's right. It's interesting because and the artwork itself is beautiful. And then it was all sort of culminated in this Um, massive exhibit in Venice, I don't know, it was 2015 or something, where all of these works of art were put on display, you know, huge, you know, statues, Medusa's and statues with heads missing and this and that. But then there were certain ones that would have like, if you looked closely at the bottom, it would be stamped made in China. Or there was like one that suspiciously looked like Mickey Mouse crusted with coral, you know, so things that obviously were not brought up from the bottom of the sea. Um, So, you know, when we watched this, my wife was kind of miffed, you know, after I told her what the kind of the true story was, she thought, you know, what's the point in watching this if it's not true? But to me, it was kind of the movie itself was all kind of part of this entire art installation. And I thought it was just brilliant. And then just sort of watching the dive expedition was sort of a mix of a Cousteau documentary and sort of Steve Zissou. But yeah, I recommend it. It's a couple hours. It's on Netflix. It was really cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it sounds neat. I definitely added it to my queue when you told me about it, but I haven't watched it. So maybe during this little brief sojourn to LA, I'll check it out. Yeah. And my first is from Outside. It's part of their Semirad series. It's from a writer named Brendan Leonard, and he wrote a piece called Complaining is Useless. And this is something that kind of struck home for me because I I don't tend to complain during the time that things are happening, but the way that I tend to recall bad situations is kind of a commiserational complaint storytelling. Yeah. And, uh, some people, I think people who are wired similarly to me know what the, that I don't necessarily mean it as like a complaint. This is just how you kind of decompress from things. Uh, but I think for me, it's good. Like I need to be reminded that when I'm complaining, I'm achieving nothing. And, uh, and they have a little flow chart. I'm not going to give away too much of the article because I think anyone should read it unless you're just like an aggressively positive person, uh, all the time. And you never complain. Otherwise I think you hit the show notes and grab the link, but, uh, they have this really fun outdoor adventure complaint chart and it says it's snowing. And then that, that leads to, Hey, at least it's not raining. It's raining. At least it's not cold and windy. It's cold and windy. At least it's not raining too. It's cold, windy, raining, and snowing. At least you're not at work. And I think that's the best way to look at it. It's all about perspective, right? Yeah. And, uh, and so, you know, Brendan does a really good job with this piece. It's not a super long read. And, uh, and, and I think like, it's a nice little reminder, a nicely written little reminder about, uh, kind of adopting a perspective that puts some things in scenario. And then of course, if you're complaining because it's raining and you're out hiking, someone out there close to you is having a much worse day, most likely. Um, so that, that's always a nice one to keep in mind too, is that, you know, practice a little bit of gratitude. So when I see things like this, I always try and read them a couple of times so I can attempt to internalize some of it. And I enjoyed this. So it definitely makes final notes.
James Stacey Yeah, I saw that too. And I've always been struck by kind of the history of adventure literature, whether it's, you know, mountain climbing stories or cave diving or whatever else. It always seems to center around the misery aspect. It's always, you know, you watch Meru And it's all about the tent pole breaking and the blizzard and getting turned back from the weather.
Jason Heaton And eating couscous again.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And I'm always struck by that people really bond over this and people like to hear about how cold it was, whether you were diving and your dry suit leaked or whatever happened. And, um, you know, I'm as guilty of it as anybody, but yeah, this, this was a kind of a great sort of tongue in cheek look at that, that sort of philosophy. And my, my second final note is a good follow on to that because it's, uh, It's actually a very serious kind of true case of abject misery. And it was a very long article. I counted, it's about 22,000 words long. It was in the New Yorker just about, I don't know, about a week ago. And the story was called The White Darkness. And it was written by a guy named David Grahn, who wrote, if you saw the movie or read the book, The Lost City of Z. That was in theaters last year. Just a fantastic book. I recommend that as well, but he must have put a lot of time into this piece, The White Darkness. It's a story about this British polar explorer named Henry Worsley, who was a distant descendant of Frank Worsley, who was the skipper of Shackleton's ship, the Endurance, actually. And Worsley, Henry Worsley, was a real sort of disciple of Shackleton, a real follower, a real fan of Shackleton and his writings and his expeditions and Um, he was in the British army and was kind of known for his leadership qualities and his bravery. And, um, but he had this burning desire to kind of do something Shackletonian and decided to undertake, uh, an expedition of his own to, to Antarctica. And the first one that he did was with two other descendants of, of people that were on Shackleton's, uh, uh, first expedition, uh, earlier in, I think it was 1907. Um, that didn't reach the South pole on foot. And they, they wanted to retrace that, that long walk and actually continue it and make it to the South pole. They called it unfinished family business. And, um, they succeeded with great misery, of course. And, um, a few years later, he decided he was going to undertake a full crossing of the continent of Antarctica on his own unsupported. And he did that in, I think it was 2015. And he made it within, I want to say, 30 miles of his destination of making it across the continent. And he finally had to push the button and get evacuated. And he was flown to Chile and discovered that he had some horrible bacterial peritonitis that eventually claimed his life very quickly after he arrived there. So it's a very tragic story. But I think, you know, aside from the tragedy at the end, It's the strong sense of what an incredible man this was and kind of what drove him. He wasn't one of these sort of macho driven type A people. He struggled with the time away from his family and his commitment to his wife and his sense of honor and all of these things that were going through his mind. And yet he was sort of a throwback to an older generation, a different generation of explorers, the ones that we tend to read about. David Graham, I guess, having read Lost City of Z and then read this, I think he's just got an amazing way with words, great storyteller. And it was one of those articles that I sent you the link and said, you know, I just started this and I'm reading it. And it took me like three or four days of just over lunch and coffee and whatever, just sort of reading it every now and then and finally made it through the end. So it's a time commitment to read, but it's a good one to kind of add to you know, to pocket or to one of your, you know, reading lists, uh, to kind of just read on a plane or something like that. So good stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. That's my plan for it is to read it either over the LA trip or likely on the plane to Brightline. Uh, just because I've been totally over committed recently. I did not manage my time correctly for February and, uh, I'm just catching up with a flight, a very early flight tomorrow morning to LA. So. I don't think I'll get to it before then, but hopefully if I can kick back on this trip, I'll read it. It sounds really fascinating. And I know you had a really good time kind of chewing through it. So something good to look forward to. Yeah. And my last one is a must watch. It's a pure spectacle. I'm almost positive we've spoken about Candide Tovex before. I think so. On the show. I think so. And we've definitely brought up Danny McCaskill. Yeah. Which would be the only, in my opinion, the only comparative work. Except where McCaskill is, of course, on a bike, Thovex is on skis. He's a French skier. And there's not really any way verbally for me to explain accurately what happens in this video. You need to go to the link and watch it. Yeah. It's four minutes and 28 seconds long, so you don't really have any excuse to watch it. I think it's fine even to watch it on your phone because it's beautifully filmed. It's called Quattro 2, and it's the second video that Candide made in a partnership with Audi to kind of use skiing in non-skiing terrain as an analogy for the Quattro all-wheel drive system. And I'm actually fairly certain you don't even see a car in this quote unquote commercial. Yeah, I think you're right. They just tell you it's Quattro at the end, but it's a, it's a dude on skis skiing down rocky cliffs, um, skiing on waves like surfing. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Through the woods. Skiing down mountains, through the woods. He skis the Great Wall of China. Yeah. Yeah. It's really wild. Like, it's totally wild what they do. And I read an interview with him. And, you know, of course, your first question is like, how does that not destroy the skis? And it turns out they only wrecked one pair of skis. They used four. It took three years to make the film and it took them 14 sets of skis to do it. But all of all but one were just refinished. had the edges repaired and they went back into use. But like I'm not I know I'm not explaining this well enough. Imagine all of the spots you see on like planet Earth.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. He's skiing all of those spots. He's not on snow in this. Yeah. He's in fields. He's on cliffs. He's going down like sand dunes and canyons. It's incredibly crazy. It's super fun. It's filmed really well. And it has kind of a fun ending. And and and I applaud Audie for paying for this sort of thing, even in some aspect, I'm sure they paid for it. And I applaud Thovex for doing the work to go all over the world to try and figure out the cool spots and everything. You really, really need to watch this. So leave it at that. It's called Quattro 2 Candy Thovex. It'll be in the show notes. And it's definitely worth, uh, you know, half of your coffee break or whatever.
James Stacey Yeah, it sure is. I mean, I think I watched half of it through. through my fingers. I mean, it's just frightening the stuff he goes through, goes through on those skis. Oh, for sure.
Jason Heaton Crazy. As always, thanks so much for listening and hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and please follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write thegraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. The reviews, especially on iTunes, make a huge difference for the popularity of the show because the better And more recently, the show was reviewed, the more iTunes puts it into various algorithms that put it in front of new listeners. So if you're liking the show, we're not asking for any money. Obviously, we just asked for an hour and 10 minutes of your time. But please swing by wherever you listen to your podcast and just leave us a review. Let us know what you think of the show and let others know what you think of the show as well. We would very much appreciate it. And music throughout is, of course, Siesta by Jazzire via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote sent in by listener Mike from Tor Heyerdahl in Contiki who said,